《Surgery Godfather》 Chapter 1 - 0001 Rescue Chapter 1: Rescue ¡°Quick, the blood!¡± ¡°Why hasn¡¯t the blood arrived yet?¡± It was past midnight, as G City¡¯s People Hospital¡¯s operating room was brightly lit, filled with urgent, hoarse shouts. Several more bags of blood were hung on the IV stand, a bunch of empty bags piled on the side table next to it, the remains of the blood vaguely visible. The blood was flowing swiftly through several transparent tubes into the patient¡¯s body. Blood transfusion¨C It had become the only lifeline for the one on the operating table. ¡°It¡¯s no good, can¡¯t find the blood vessels, the gauze! Continue stuffing, talk to the family, the chances of rescue are slim, they must be prepared mentally.¡± Director Wu had been digging in the pelvic cavity for a long time, unable to find the damaged blood vessels, he could only stuff the cavity with gauze. Sweat soaked his forehead as he constantly moved away from the sterile area, letting the patrolling nurse wipe his sweat. Young doctor Yang Ping was helping to suture in the operating room, after several nights of continuous surgeries, he was exhausted and his vision was starting to blur. Suddenly, a warm current forcibly poured from the top of Yang Ping¡¯s head, this strange sensation radiating throughout his body. The world seemed to freeze, as all people and objects stood still, the image in his field of vision frozen. Yang Ping¡¯s body couldn¡¯t move, but his consciousness could. A window appeared in the upper right corner of his vision. A series of subtitles, accompanied by a mechanical female voice¨C ¡°Binding has begun!¡± ¡°Binding process, smooth!¡± ¡°Binding, successful!¡± ¡°Testing¨C¡± In an instant, everything around him vanished, and he found himself in a strange place. There was an operating table in front of him, the patient on it had already been laid out, and a few mechanical arms like octopus tentacles were moving around it. How did I get here? Who¡¯s suturing on that operating table? ¡°Hello! Is anyone there? Where am I?¡± Yang Ping called out. The space was eerily silent, with no one answering his questions. Yang Ping cleared his thoughts and slowly approached the operating table. From the exposed surgical field and the patient on the table, he determined that this patient was the same one he had just been trying to save? ¡°Would you like to start a simulated surgery?¡± a few words appeared on the screen. Could this be a simulation for rescuing the patient? Thinking that, Yang Ping moved the cursor using his consciousness and chose yes. The screen instantly started a countdown, five minutes to go. Yang Ping began the surgery, the mechanical arm served as his assistant. Indeed, this was the same patient from the stabbing incident. The pelvic cavity was stuffed with gauze, and blood was still pouring out incessantly. He began to attempt to find the blood vessels, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn¡¯t find them. When the five-minute timer ended, the patient¡¯s respiration and heartbeat stopped. Yang Ping felt disheartened and a bit lost. He got his bearings, extended the incision, and opened the abdominal cavity completely. Because the heart had already stopped beating, there was no more bleeding inside. He thoroughly cleared the accumulated blood with a suction device, which enabled him to look for the ruptured blood vessel more easily. He searched back and forth inside, found the common iliac artery, this common iliac artery didn¡¯t have an apparent internal-external iliac artery sprouting from it, instead, it had a single trunk extending downward, continuously branching off either from the main trunk or the branches but none of them were damaged. Yang Ping was puzzled, thinking from left to right, could it be a variation in vascular anatomy? Following this train of thought, he found the upstream abdominal aorta, and traced it downwards, he discovered a finger-thick branch of the abdominal aorta, hiding in the back, about ten centimeters above the branch he had found earlier. When he traced it back, he finally found the ruptured area. It turned out to be a variant external iliac artery, not branching from the common iliac artery, but directly originating from the aorta. The origin point was extremely high and hidden at the back. This type of variation is something that a doctor may never encounter in their entire career. Dealing with such a variant blood vessel, let alone in an emergency situation flooded with blood, making it hard to approach. Even given ample time, it would be very hard to find, no wonder Director Wu had spent so long searching and couldn¡¯t find it. Repeat the simulation? Yang Ping clicked yes. Indeed, the patient on the operating table was scattered like fragments of light and then reappeared, returning to the moment when he first entered the system. The countdown also started anew. Yang Ping immediately located the bleeding vessel. This time, knowing the exact location of the vessel, he directly searched for the iliac artery variant, clamping both ends with a vascular clamp, ligating the veins, and slowly suturing the artery. Because ligating the veins doesn¡¯t have a significant impact, but if the artery is ligated, it would cause necrosis of the corresponding lower limb, so the veins can be ligated, but the arteries can only be sutured. This time, the entire process took half an hour to complete. The patient did not survive, and the system deemed it unsatisfactory. Again! So it continued, he wasn¡¯t sure how many times he practiced, possibly several hundred times. Finally, he was able to complete the surgery within three minutes, and the system finally deemed it satisfactory. Immediately, the surroundings disappeared and Yang Ping found himself back in the real operating room. At this point, the freeze frame released, everything was back to normal. The External Iliac Artery is ruptured! Not only that, it was a variant unseen before. This type of bleeding was like a geyser, if not for the continuous blood transfusion, this patient would have checked out long ago. ¡°The blood pressure is dropping, I can¡¯t measure it. Increase the speed of the blood transfusion, fast! Dopamine¨C¡± The situation was changing at rapid speed, the anesthesiologist shouted, his hand never stopping as he pulled out drugs from the nearby drug box, uncapped the vial, loaded the syringe and pushed the medicine into the intravenous line. According to the previous simulation, the rescue time window was at most five minutes. A life was on the verge of disappearing. ¡°Director, it¡¯s a ruptured variant External Iliac Artery, this artery originates high in the back of the abdominal aorta, I¡¯ve seen this kind of variation before!¡± Yang Ping softly told Director Wu. How do you know? You¡¯ve seen it? You¡¯ve only been working for a few years. If only we had vascular imaging. But in this emergency situation, if we were to do an imaging scan, the patient wouldn¡¯t make it. Director Wu stuffed in a gauze, giving Yang Ping a glare. He had his own considerations. Given the current blood pressure, the only choice was to pad with gauze. It was a gamble. If he removed the gauze to make room for the blood vessels, it would be like re-opening a bleeding faucet. It was almost certain that the patient would die instantly. ¡°Director, trust me¡ª¡ª¡± Time was of the essence, Yang Ping was anxious, he asked again. He was reluctant to see a life fading before his eyes, he knew he had just five minutes, but nobody else knew. Director Wu said impatiently, ¡°Enough, hook it.¡± ¡°Proceed with the padding!¡± Director Wu commanded. ¡°The blood pressure is not going up, the dopamine is useless!¡± the anesthetist was very tense. Director Wu¡¯s throat was dry, his heart pounding like a drum. If something happened to this patient, there was no way to explain it. Perhaps in a critical moment, clutching at straws, Director Wu glanced at Yang Ping and nodded. Yang Ping immediately started. He had already spent two minutes, with only three minutes left. No time to waste. ¡°Scalpel! Hemostat! Vascular clamp! Open three suction devices!¡± The instrument nurse, the patrolling nurse, and the anesthetist all seemed stunned at first, but after a short moment, they immediately cooperated. Little Five and Yang Ping made a good team. Upon seeing Yang Ping¡¯s actions, after a moment¡¯s hesitation, he immediately started to assist Yang Ping. Yang Ping kept his cool, bending his head, the scalpel extended along the original incision. He has been trained countless times in this process, it has almost become muscle memory. ¡°Keep the pressure on, give blood! Get the suction tubes ready, remove all the tips, direct suction. ¡°Suction! Vascular clamp!¡± When the gauze that was stopping the bleeding was completely removed, the blood sprang forth, flowing swift and red along the three suction tubes. With utmost efficiency, Yang Ping immediately located the broken blood vessels in the sea of blood. Without even looking, he reached in with his left hand and grabbed the near end of the vessel between his thumb and index finger, and immediately clamped it with a vascular clamp using his right hand. Then using the same method, he clamped the other end of the vessel. ¡°Hemostat!¡± He temporarily clamped the accompanying vein of the external iliac artery. The blood was stopped, and under suction, the blood in the pelvis started to decrease slowly. It was as if the tide was receding, until the clamped vessel was exposed. ¡°6-0, vascular suture needle thread!¡± The instrument nurse efficiently handed it over. Yang Ping¡¯s scissors started to trim the ends of the blood vessels rapidly. After trimming, he put down the scissors, took the needle and thread, and started the vascular anastomosis. Each stitch was precise, the distance appropriate, akin to a precise machine operating, fast and without error. Extreme speed! The vessel was anastomosed in mere seconds. ¡°Thread, ligate!¡± The hemostat with the thread was placed into the palm of Yang Ping¡¯s overturned hand. He tied off the accompanying vein and the smaller blood vessels nearby. Rinsing, suctioning, the operative field was immediately clean. He placed a negative pressure drain, stratified sutures, closed the wound, all in one go. He finished the last stitch. ¡°The blood pressure is back up.¡± The anesthetist breathed a sigh of relief. All people looked at Yang Ping, a sense of respect arose spontaneously. ¡°Brother, awesome!¡± Little Five secretly gave a thumbs-up. At this moment, the captions and female voice appeared again: ¡°Dingdong! The system and the host match perfectly!¡± Yang Ping was certain that only he could hear this voice and only he could see these captions. Good heavens, what the hell was happening? At this moment, Yang Ping felt like a deflated ball, extremely tired. Everything felt like a dream! The anesthetist was sitting against the wall on the floor, drinking a bottle of glucose. In a corner, a nurse was making a call: ¡°Baby, are you still awake? Is dad home yet, or is he still working late?¡± The clock on the wall displayed: 00:49. ¡°Director, we are done here¡ª¡ª¡± said Yang Ping. Only then did he realize, he had somehow completed the surgery all by himself, leaving the director aside. There was no choice but to proceed this way with just three minutes left, otherwise, the patient¡¯s life would have been lost. Director Wu was still astonished, he hadn¡¯t snapped back to the reality yet, he said, ¡°Hmm, good, as long as the patient was saved.¡± In this kind of hemorrhagic shock caused by traumas, as long as the bleeding is stopped and the blood transfusion can keep up, the situation can usually be stabilized. They pushed the bed, and sent the patient to the Intensive Care Unit¨CICU. Yang Ping, Little Five, the anesthetist, and the nurse together pushed the stretcher to the ICU, reported the details to the doctor on duty. Once everything was finished, Little Five returned to the Orthopedics on-call room. Today was Little Five¡¯s turn for duty, Yang Ping was only called over to help with the emergency surgery. Not wanting to waste time, Yang Ping rode his little electric scooter back to his rented room in the urban village. It was already past two o¡¯clock in the morning, he quickly took a shower, and lay on the bed, intending to have a good sleep. But today¡¯s events were too bizarre, the thought of it made it impossible for Yang Ping to sleep. He pinched himself hard. It hurt. He was not dreaming. Chapter 2 - 0002 Winning the Big Prize Chapter 2: Winning the Big Prize ¡°Ding Dong! Reminder! A new user gift pack: Training Pack 1.¡± Clear subtitles appear in the upper right corner of the vision. It looks like he really got hit by the system! Yang Ping swallowed, normally he couldn¡¯t even win a five-dollar lottery, and now he encountered this magical thing. What on earth is this system, how to use it, and are there any side effects, a series of question marks appear in his mind. How to enter this system? It seems that when he first tested it, it was like entering a space. With a thought, Yang Ping makes everything around him disappear and enters an unfamiliar space. The space is strange, nothing but a tree. A screen opens in front of him, with many choices of projects: General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology, Dentistry, etc. With no hesitation, Yang Ping chose General Surgery through his thoughts. Immediately, there are many more subcategories. Orthopedics, Neurosurgery, Thoracic Surgery, General Abdominal Surgery, Urological Surgery, Plastic Surgery, etc. Yang Ping chose Orthopedics, and immediately, the screen flashed, a window appeared. There are some buttons on it: Home, Credits, Skills, Shop, Treasure box¨C. Yang Ping controls the cursor on the screen with his thoughts, opens the store, where there are all kinds of items¨Cbone traction, skin grafting, bone grafting, periosteum stripping, tendon fixation, plaster fixation, splint fixation, amputation surgery, local anesthesia, etc. They are all basic technologies, with prices ranging from one hundred to nine hundred points respectively. The images of these goods are displayed in gray, unable for purchase. Turning the page further, it prompts: need to unlock. How to unlock? It seems he needs to spend time studying it in depth. Opens the treasure box, there is a gift pack pattern inside, click on the gift pack¨CFirst Aid techniques, training time is thirty days. Opens ¡°First Aid Techniques¡±, the pattern immediately flashes. ¡°Do you confirm to use it?¡± ¡°Confirmed!¡± In an instant, light flows, and a person appears in front of him, lying on the ground. The screen displays: Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Training. Below the words is a 3D transparent image of a human body, very clear, with internal organs, nerves, and blood vessels clearly visible. Lines of subtitles appear: 1. The time in the system does not occupy your real-world time; 2. The psychological experience in the system is consistent with the outside world, such as the experience of the flow of time; 3. Any behaviors in the system do not consume your physical energy, you do not need to sleep or eat in the system, nor do you need to excrete. 4. Everything simulated in the system is indistinguishable from reality, exactly the same, you can think of it as ¡°real¡±. Yang Ping starts cardiopulmonary resuscitation training, and when he does chest compressions, the transparent human body on the screen will show the sternum sinking, and the red blood being squeezed to circulate throughout the body. At the same time, parameters such as compression strength, depth, frequency, etc., will also be displayed. Doing artificial respiration, green gas travels through the trachea, bronchi to the alveoli, then exchanges, and finally enters the body¡¯s circulation. While Yang Ping trains, he corrects according to the images and data on the screen, constantly improving. The system only evaluates as ¡°perfect¡± before moving on to the next training topic. The training content includes all first aid techniques, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Heimlich maneuver, cricothyroid membrane puncture, tracheal intubation, electric defibrillation, trauma first aid, etc. The system times thirty days upon completion of the training, during these thirty days he doesn¡¯t feel hungry or tired, and never thinks about going to the bathroom. With the end of the timer, the test subject disappears. ¡°You have acquired 720 points of skill!¡± The subtitle appears. The numbers jump out on the screen and, after a brief stay, explode into starlight. The system gives a detailed introduction to the surgery level: beginner, proficient, specialist, perfect, master, grandmaster, saint. The beginner level merely masters basic knowledge, basic theory, basic skills; proficiency can proficiently perform common surgeries; specialization reaches the expert level in this field; perfection reaches the textbook level in surgery, which can be a standard demonstration for peers; master can have unique insights into the technology and make innovative improvements; grandmaster has major original innovations; saint opens up a new era of medicine. Yang Ping speculates that the beginner level is probably equivalent to a resident doctor, proficiency corresponds to an attending physician, specialization is a common associate director and director, perfection is equivalent to an associate director and director of a top hospital; a master improves a certain theory or technique of surgical professors, such as some domestically and internationally renowned figures; a grandmaster is probably at Nobel Prize level; as for saint, he can¡¯t guess for now. There is also a tree-like upgrade chart, probably the skill tree, surgery is the main trunk, orthopedics is the extension of the main trunk upwards, other branches extending to all sides are neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, general surgery, urologic surgery, plastic surgery, etc. The branches of Orthopedics are relatively chunkier compared to others, not far upward from Orthopedics there are finer branches: Trauma Orthopedics, Sports Medicine, Joint Surgery, Spinal Surgery, Bone Tumors, and so on. Yang Ping exited the space, glanced at the time on his phone, and then calculated a bit, the system really doesn¡¯t consume time in reality. That is, in an instant, he completed thirty days of emergency rescue technique intensive training. Everything was just like what had just happened. However, because it doesn¡¯t consume real-time, the system¡¯s events seem sudden like experiences suddenly inserted into reality. Moreover, while training in the system just now, he clearly felt the acquisition and improvement of skills were much faster than in reality. For instance, practicing tracheal intubation for the same hour¡ªalthough he had practiced this in reality before¡ªhe didn¡¯t feel such quick progress. Yang Ping was not sure if it was an illusion. If it¡¯s really like this, even in reality, if he had the conditions and solid training time, it would still not be possible to have the efficiency of the system. He couldn¡¯t sleep that night, feeling very excited. This meant that he gained an advantage. This was only possible in his daydreams normally. ¡ª Being a doctor is like this, busy for a whole night, but still going to work the next day, no one cares whether you can bear it or not. Because¨Cyou must bear it! Early in the morning, after handing over his shift, Yang Ping was preparing to help out in the operating room. He ran into Director Wu at the elevator; Director Wu kindly said, ¡°Xiao Yang, you worked hard last night, so you can rest today, no need to be on surgery duty.¡± Possibly due to his outstanding performance on the operating table yesterday, Director Wu started looking at him differently. He definitely had to work hard in the future and not disappoint Director Wu¡¯s high expectations. Since Director Wu said it, he felt it was not good to rush into the operating room anymore and returned to the doctor¡¯s office instead. A nurse rushed into the doctor¡¯s office, glanced around, saw Yang Ping, and said: ¡°Doctor Yang, it¡¯s good that you haven¡¯t left yet. Just now, the Human Resources Department couldn¡¯t reach you on your phone, they called the nurse station looking for you, asking you to go to the Human Resources Department.¡± Yang Ping responded in agreement, anyway, he didn¡¯t need to be on surgical duty today, he could go to the Human Resources Department and see what the matter was. Would they be raising his salary? Yang Ping chuckled to himself. When he got to the Human Resources Department, a kind sister indicated for Yang Ping to sit down, took out a piece of paper, and said: ¡°Doctor Yang, your conduct yesterday severely violated the regulations, and regulations are a guarantee of medical safety. We have no choice but to terminate our contract with you in advance. We are very sorry, we will provide some compensation. If you have no objections, please sign here.¡± A white paper with black writing was passed across the table. Was he being fired? It was a bit sudden, he was completely unprepared. Didn¡¯t Director Wu agree to let him perform the surgery last night? Why are they saying that he violated the regulations, is there some misunderstanding? Yang Ping wanted to find Director Wu for an explanation, but this morning when they met at the elevator, Director Wu didn¡¯t mention this at all. The dismissal agreement now laid out before him, Director Wu must have already made the decision, he wasn¡¯t interested in listening to explanations. The situation was irreversible now, So be it! It was just, this dismissal seemed inexplicably abrupt to him. ¡°Thank you!¡± Yang Ping decisively signed his name. The big sister in Human Resources took back the agreement: ¡°If you need a new job, can I help with a recommendation?¡± ¡°I really appreciate it, but I want to take a break for a while,¡± Yang Ping tactfully declined. In a large top-tier hospital like G City People¡¯s Hospital, most of the doctors hold Ph.D.¡¯s and even the master¡¯s degree holders have a hard time surviving. For someone like Yang Ping without any degree from a prestigious university or other background, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to get in the door if he weren¡¯t a top scholar. Even so, after being recruited, he basically did heavy labor. The so-called contract system is nothing more than famous temporary workers, they have no prospects and can be dismissed at any time, as long as the Department Director says so, there would be no reasons needed, just a small amount of money as compensation according to the contract. Yang Ping walked out of the Human Resources Department office, feeling cold inside. After all, he worked there for many years. But because of the unexpected gain of the system, he didn¡¯t feel too much loss. Perhaps this was a case of God opening a window as he closed a door. He returned to the ward to pack his things¡ªthere wasn¡¯t much stuff, a big plastic bag was enough. His colleagues in the ward didn¡¯t know that he had been fired, and a nurse even called Yang Ping to change the dressing for a certain patient. Yang Ping didn¡¯t refuse, temporarily shelved his bag of belongings, went to the dressing room to push the cart, and meticulously changed the dressings for the patient. Looking at the familiar ward, he still felt a little disheartened. Back at his rented room, a single room in the urban village with a bathroom, costing one thousand a month. The house prices in G City were climbing year after year, and Yang Ping didn¡¯t bother to think about buying a house or a car. He had a vehicle¡ªan electric bike, a famous brand! As for a house? With his current income level, even if he only bought a bathroom, he couldn¡¯t even afford the down payment. Yang Ping called Little Five to tell him his own situation. He began to plan his next step¡ªconsidering how long the money in his account would last and where to look for a job. In big cities like G City, jobs are easy to find, just that good jobs are very difficult. Back in the day, he relied on his good grades to participate in the public hiring for contract positions at G City People¡¯s Hospital and barely managed to get a temporary job. Chapter 3 - 0003: Hemlick’s Emergency Aid Chapter 3: Hemlick¡¯s Emergency Aid In the afternoon, there was a knock on the door. Knock knock knock. Yang Ping opened the door to find Little Five, moving bag after bag into the house. ¡°Little Five, what are you doing?¡± Yang Ping looked at him blankly. Little Five usually lived in a hospital dormitory, sharing the room with several other people. ¡°I¡¯ve been fired too¨C¡± Little Five said dejectedly. Birds of a feather flock together! ¡°It¡¯s alright, there are plenty of jobs out there.¡± Yang Ping said. Yang Ping comforted Little Five, watching the armfuls of bags he was lugging around: ¡°Why do you have so much stuff?¡± ¡°There¡¯s just two boxes of instant noodles alone.¡± Little Five began to pull out instant noodles, a dumbbell, a laptop, and a bunch of other random items from his bags. Once they had settled in, the two of them started to discuss their next steps for work. ¡°Big Bro, honestly, that surgery last night, it was amazing, who knew you had it in you?¡± Little Five questioned. Yang Ping laughed, ¡°I just don¡¯t like to show off, when during normal times would we get a chance? We would get yelled at just for doing stitches, let alone surgeries. Now, if we do manage to do a surgery, it would be so exciting we wouldn¡¯t sleep.¡±. ¡°I wonder, you¡¯ve been at G City People¡¯s Hospital since you graduated, you never left for further education, did you?¡± Little Five asked. Yang Ping patted his shoulder: ¡°Talent, you either have it or you don¡¯t! Just like you with gaming.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Little Five seemed to have an epiphany. They chatted all afternoon and completely forgot about lunch. Yang Ping slapped Little Five¡¯s shoulder: ¡°Today, we are going to treat ourselves.¡± ¡°A feast?¡± ¡°Hah, little brat! Moon Playing down on the river bar street.¡± Moon Playing, the bar¡¯s name. This was a hot-spot for internet celebrities, Little Five disregarded the shock from the slap on his shoulder: ¡°let¡¯s go!¡± Truth be told, they hadn¡¯t relaxed like this for a long time. Back at the hospital, it was almost always 24/7, all year round. They found an outdoor table, had some beer, and chatted. Starting from when they first started working, they recalled each and every event, when things got exciting, they gave each other high-fives and cheered. One by one, empty beer bottles were placed to the side. Not far off, on one side was the peaceful river with a slowly cruising boat; the other side was the bustling road with lots of cars and people. Even though it was already 9 pm, it was still so lively. ¡°What do people spend their whole life working hard for?¡± Little Five hiccuped from the alcohol. ¡°That¡¯s too philosophical, it¡¯s hurting my head!¡± Yang Ping lifted his glass. ¡°Bottoms up!¡± ¡°Bottoms up!¡± Suddenly, it seemed like something was happening, a riot started. Everyone crowded around a nearby table. Yang Ping and Little Five also went over. A middle-aged man in his forties, overweight, was sitting on a chair, leaning on the backrest, his face as pale as a sheet. The man¡¯s companions were in a state of panic, running around yelling: ¡°He¡¯s not okay! He¡¯s not okay! Help!¡± Help! As a doctor, nothing else could be more eye-catching to Yang Ping. He pushed his way through the crowd. The crowd surrounding them was filled with people who thought they knew what they were doing, shouting instructions: ¡°Pinch his Renzhong acupoint, his Renzhong acupoint!¡± Where is the Renzhong acupoint? The man¡¯s companion had no idea, and reached towards the man¡¯s buttocks. ¡°That¡¯s not where, the Renzhong¡¯s up above!¡± Good grief, if you¡¯re so knowledgeable then why don¡¯t you do it yourself? Yang Ping glanced at him with an irritated look, stumbling from the alcohol. ¡°Call 120, quickly!¡± ¡°Slap his back, hard!¡± ¡°Open his mouth and give him some water.¡± There were quite a lot of self-proclaimed experts, no one really knew what they were basing their advice on. A tall woman, her shoulder-length hair in a ponytail, was busy unbuttoning the man¡¯s shirt. She revealed his chest, feeling his pulse, then listened to his breathing. Given her techniques, she must be a real doctor. ¡°Ding Dong, a beginner¡¯s first task: Save one person in a street rescue. You will receive a beginner¡¯s experience package.¡± A female voice appeared, captions also appeared in the top right corner of his field of vision. So this is what triggers the system task. Yang Ping finally managed to squeeze his way through. He stumbled a little, the evening breeze blew, rejuvenating his spirit. Isn¡¯t this an airway obstruction? It was a technique they had practiced so much in the system they could do it in their sleep. If they didn¡¯t perform a rescue soon, he would suffocate to death, so Yang Ping rushed in immediately, pulling that girl away forcefully, possibly hurting her in the process. A little petulant, the girl shakes her sore hand, ¡°What are you doing?¡± Rescuing someone was more important than arguing with her. Yang Ping drags the patient up ¡ª he¡¯s too heavy, so Little Five rushes over to help, together they prop up the patient. Yang Ping sits in a chair, lets Fatty sit on his lap, wraps his arms around Fatty from behind, Little Five assists from the side. Yang Ping¡¯s left hand makes a fist, his right hand tightly grips his left wrist, both arms form a ring around Fatty. The fist of his left hand is positioned at the middle of Fatty¡¯s upper abdomen. Both arms push with a force which is centered at the upper abdomen, pushing upward and backward. With a popping sound, Fatty spits something out onto the floor. Instantly, Fatty¡¯s airway opens up, enabling him to gasp for air. Yang Ping and Little Five slowly guide him back to the chair. After Fatty takes a few quick breaths, he regains his composure, his breathing slowly steadies and his face gradually becomes flush. The ponytailed girl watching from the side was stunned. ¡°Ding! Task successfully completed, Reward: One Experience Pack.¡± The surrounding crowd discussed amongst themselves. Some praised the young man for his medical skill; some sighed about the patient¡¯s condition; some people made the heart-felt comment: If the man hadn¡¯t been saved, this young man would be facing a lawsuit. Slowly, the crowd began to break up, each person returning to their tables. Yang Ping pointed to Fatty¡¯s flushed face: ¡°Tracheal obstruction. Heimlich manoeuvre, if you don¡¯t rescue him right away, he¡¯ll die. What were you doing checking his carotid? Were you practising to be a doctor?¡± ¡°Who are you calling a trainee doctor, you¨C¡± The ponytailed girl was obviously furious, but she noticed that Fatty seemed to be fine, she realized that Yang Ping must be right, and her tone softened. Blushing, she said: ¡°I thought it was acute coronary syndrome, how did you know?¡± ¡°Want to know? Buy us a drink?¡± Little Five leans in and says. ¡°Sure!¡± The girl agrees forthrightly. Little Five gives Yang Ping a look, leans into his ear and whispers: ¡°The beauty wants to treat us, let¡¯s go with it. Times are tough without a job, we should save some money.¡± Makes sense! This guy is thoughtful. The ponytailed girl goes over and does a simple check on Fatty, confirms that there are no problems, she tells his friends several instructions before she leaves. Fatty¡¯s friends hurriedly bow and shake hands, expressing their gratitude for the assistance. The ponytailed girl has a few girlfriends; along with Yang Ping and Little Five, they all sit around the table. The ponytailed girl doesn¡¯t drink alcohol, she has a cup of milk tea in front of her. Yang Ping takes an extra moment to look: She has beautiful features. No, they¡¯re more than beautiful, they are exquisite, she has a pair of clear, black eyes, long eyelashes, the skin on her face is white, with a flush, smooth as egg white, with dimples, that are very charming when she smiles. She is tall and slim, with clear curves, probably due to regular exercise. Her demeanor is extremely elegant, even her sitting posture seems like it has been deliberately trained. Beneath her coat, it seems like she¡¯s wearing a tennis shirt. There¡¯s a large bag next to her, likely contains a tennis racquet, they probably just finished playing tennis and are here for a drink. She clearly wants to get to the bottom of Yang Ping¡¯s trick: ¡°We have treated you guys to a drink, now it¡¯s your turn, how did you know it was a tracheal obstruction?¡± This question is a bit tricky. If the system hadn¡¯t trained him countless times, how could he have identified it so easily? So he hastily lied, ¡°Didn¡¯t you see the chicken bones on the plate on the table? That man was touching his throat, explicitly telling you that this ¡ª the chicken bone ¡ª was stuck here, preventing him from breathing. Seems like you didn¡¯t learn medical body language.¡± After considering, the girl agreed that she had been too mechanical, rigidly following the textbook, neglecting these details. Had another doctor not been present, she would probably have delayed the rescue. Medical body language? The girl murmured to herself, she had never heard of this subject before. Yang Ping shook his head, found it amusing, he had made this up on the spot, and she believed it. ¡°Which hospital are you guys from?¡± The ponytailed girl continued to ask. ¡°G City People¡¯s Hospital¨C¡± Yang Ping says. ¡°Temporary workers, just been laid off, currently both jobless and seeking employment¨C¡± Little Five adds, triggering laughter from the other girls. The girl says, ¡°My name is Su Yixuan, I work at Sanbo Hospital. Our hospital is hiring, you can try to send in your resumes.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± Little Five quickly responds, ¡°The Sanbo Hospital, also called the Overseas Chinese Hospital, right? The one with a helipad on the rooftop? My name is Lu Xiaowu, and this is Yang Ping.¡± Not long after chatting, Su Yixuan stood up, her expression uncomfortable, saying: ¡®It¡¯s getting late, sorry, but we must leave. You two continue drinking, I¡¯ll pay extra for the drinks, so drink without worry.¡± Su Yixuan went to the counter, probably to pay for the drinks, came back, packed her things and did not forget to wave at Yang Ping: ¡°Goodbye!¡± Then she left with her girlfriends, carrying her bag. ¡ª Yang Ping did not hold his liquor well, couldn¡¯t even be considered as a Bronze drinker, he drank a bit too much yesterday, his head hurts. Little Five, this guy, blabbered the whole night, about treasures and Xiao Qing or whatever, went to bed and slept. Yang Ping could only lean against the wall and sleep on the floor. He woke up to find Little Five was gone. This guy always disappears mysteriously. Yang Ping rubs his temples, looks at the time on his phone, it¡¯s past eleven in the morning. Crap! He rushes for the door without even brushing his teeth. When he reached the staircase, it hit him: Wasn¡¯t I fired yesterday? I don¡¯t have work today, why the rush? Returns to the room, freshens up, goes downstairs to buy a few mutton buns. Opens his laptop, surfs the web, after searching for a while, he finds a doctor¡¯s resume template. He fills it out diligently, checking it repeatedly. Then he reads all the recruitment guidelines for all the hospitals in G City. He bets on everything, casts a wide net, applying to all the major and minor hospitals, even community health stations, there has to be at least one hit right. If he can¡¯t find a job, he¡¯ll have to leave G City. Leave G City? It¡¯s impossible to leave G City! Chapter 4 - 0004 Examination Chapter 4: Examination Days passed after submitting his resume and nothing happened, it felt like throwing a stone into the ocean. Out of boredom, Yang Ping entered the System space, remembering he was given another experience package for completing an emergency aid task on the street. Once he opened the treasure chest, he found a gift inside¨Cbasic surgical skills training. Yang Ping opened the training package and started his intensive training. A surgical bed appeared out of nowhere, with a prepared subject laying on top. ¡°This training will last for three months,¡± the female voice explained. Three months without eating, drinking, sleeping, or using the toilet, training non-stop. Damn it, isn¡¯t it inhumane? >It¡¯s devilish training, real devilish training. ¡°Incision, suturing, dissection, knotting, hemostasis, these five basic surgical skills training will begin now!¡± Before Yang Ping could react, the training had already started. Yang Ping started to use his imagination, pulling out all his relevant knowledge. All sorts of body parts, various layers, diverse shapes of incisions; intermittent suturing, continuous suturing, purse-string suturing, vascular suturing, nerve suturing, tendon suturing, skin suturing, fascia suturing; finger dissection, vascular clamp dissection, scissor dissection, curved knife dissection, scalpel dissection; single-handed knotting, double-handed knotting, instrument knotting. Each item was trained countless times. Initially, it was single-item training. Every item trained was scored by the system. After it was completed, the next item was initiated. After the five items were finished, the comprehensive training started. This kind of intensive training was incredibly efficient! Yang Ping had sutured hundreds of blood vessels for the vascular anastomosis alone. It took over ten minutes for each at the start, subsequently reduced to a few minutes each. At first, the sutures were crooked but gradually, he could make his stitches evenly spaced and beautiful. If it were in reality, who would have so much time to practice basic surgical skills? Even if you took out an hour every day, it would take 2160 days, about 6 years. Very few people have this level of patience and perseverance! In other words, this training package is equivalent to letting Yang Ping practice his basic surgical skills for an hour every day continuously for 6 years. And then with the cessation of time came the disappearance of the operating table and the experimental body. More than ten days passed. During these agonizing days, Yang Ping had no idea how he got through, spending every day with a copy of ¡°Orthopedic Surgery,¡± which eventually fell apart. Finally, the call arrived ¨C Sanbo Hospital, the one with a helipad on its roof. He had some knowledge about this hospital, which was only established a little over a decade ago. It was rumored to have been founded by a wealthy overseas Chinese, hence it was also referred to as the Overseas Chinese Hospital. This hospital was newly built and located somewhat in the outskirts, so its reputation couldn¡¯t compete with the Affiliated Hospital of Nandu Medical University, G City People¡¯s Hospital, or the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. Yet, it was still a Provincial Level III Hospital. Undeniably, it had high demands for its staff. The job vacancy post explicitly mentioned a starting qualification of a master¡¯s degree and required 211 and 985 universities. Those who got in, all had special channels. As he received the call, he decided to go! There might be some urgent positions, lowering the standards. For instance, the obstetrics and gynecology department wanted to improve team cohesion by increasing the number of male doctors? For survival, Yang Ping didn¡¯t mind adjusting his professional direction somewhat. The name brand bag, purchased for thirty bucks, and the cheap but long-preserved suit were finally put to use. Yang Ping, dressed in a suit and carrying a black leather bag, stood at the entrance of Sanbo Hospital, full of confidence, looking up at the twin-star main building. On the top floor, a helicopter was landing. The interview took place in the teaching room of the orthopedic department, with a large wave of people coming in for the interview, causing Yang Ping to lose count as the room filled to the brim. After quietly snooping around, he discovered that people seated on his left were from Beijing Medical University, while those on his right were from Huaxi Hospital. He couldn¡¯t find a single timid person. He started doubting if the human resources department had made a mistake in making the call, or if he was just invited to make up the numbers, perhaps the admission quota was already predetermined. The person standing on the podium was the Department Director of Orthopaedics, Han Jiangong, who was not tall, but strong, with thick, short hair, and bright eyes. He waved the name list in his hand, saying: ¡°Usually, when you come for an interview at a hospital, it involves first a written test, then an operational test. Today, we¡¯re doing it in reverse order. Why? Because a surgeon needs to have hands-on capabilities first. Without it, everything else is mere idle talk! Those who fail the operational test will be eliminated immediately; those who pass the operational test will proceed to the next step, the written test. Now, let Dr. Song Zimo introduce the operational test -¡± ¡°This guy has a PhD from Fudan University, he¡¯s pretty impressive,¡± a doctor beside him whispered. ¡°Do you know him?¡± Yang Ping asked, surprised. The man replied proudly, ¡°A senior told me about him. This guy is a genius. When he was studying at Magic City Sixth Hospital, he trained in microsurgery. He was tasked to do procedures on a hundred rat tails. His success rate was 100%, and his time was the fastest among everyone.¡± Indeed, this was a bit impressive! Yang Ping looked past the crowd at Song Zimo. At his twenties, he stood over everyone physically and mentally. With a height of at least 185cm, a balanced physique, high nose, proper facial features, and clear contours. Two words came to mind ¨C handsome. Furthermore, he was a PhD holder and a recognized talent. He was truly charismatic. However, this had no connection to Yang Ping since he was there for the interview. ¡°Welcome everyone to choose Sanbo. Although our hospital, Sanbo, has only been established for just over a decade, our technical level is no less than any other hospital in G City. As long as you work hard, Sanbo will give you plenty of development opportunities ¨C training, further education, studying abroad ¨C ¡± ¡°Spouting nonsense without needing a draft,¡± thought Yang Ping. ¡°You don¡¯t know much about Sanbo, do you? Do you know who the director that spoke just now is? Han Jiangong, he came from Magic City Sixth Hospital. He is a leading figure in Trauma Orthopaedics in this country.¡± Chapter 5 - 0004 Examination_2 Chapter 5: Chapter 0004 Examination_2 Really? Really! Wow, the hospital must offer great compensation then, right? Yang Ping made a gesture signifying money! ¡°Vulgar!¡± the young man sneered in his mind. Meanwhile, a young doctor playing the role of an assistant handed out a piece of paper to each candidate¨Can interview sheet with the scoring items for the practical test. ¡°Position applied for: Emergency Department Resident Physician.¡± There must be a mistake, I am an orthopedic physician ¨C why has it suddenly changed to an emergency department resident? Yang Ping thought about raising his hand but decided to wait until after the test to address it. Song Zimo said, ¡°There¡¯s a practice knot-tying module in front of each of you, which has been prepared with a bundle of thread. First, pull out a single thread and place it on the peg. When I say start, everyone start tying knots by hand. When I say stop, stop.¡± Quite a nice voice, baritone, really. ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate knot tying, this is a fundamental skill in surgery. If you can¡¯t even tie a knot efficiently, how can you perform other operations? A passing mark is 60 square knots in 1 minute, which is equivalent to 120 positive and negative knots. Our Senior Brother Song can tie 143 square knots in a minute, or 286 positive and negative knots, which remains the record in our hospital,¡± the assistant added flatteringly by Song Zimo¡¯s side. Song Zimo paced up and down between the rows, looking cold yet confident. His white gown was unbuttoned, revealing both his sides. With hands in his trouser pockets, he definitely looked cool. The assistant just finished speaking. Wow¨C the place burst into amazement! 143 square knots in a minute! We have to train hard just to reach 60 square knots, 80 knots is already an expert level. It¡¯s probably impossible for those with underdeveloped motor skills, no matter how much they train. Over 100 square knots and you¡¯re reaching the realm of the unbeatable lone ranger, but 143 knots¨C ¡°Alright, everyone calm down, we¡¯re not expecting you to reach this high. It¡¯s impossible! If you can tie 60 knots within 1 minute, that¡¯s already considered passable. Remember, the module will do an automatic count, but we will also be watching. Any noticeably substandard knots will be discounted,¡± the assistant was knocking on the podium. ¡°Ding dong! Newbie task number 2: Challenge the surgery skill master. Achieving success will earn you the third experience pack.¡± This could trigger a task? But any chance to gain points is a good thing, I would still have to take the interview regardless of the task. ¡°Is everyone ready? If you¡¯re not ready, raise your hand!¡± the assistant said. No one raised their hand. ¡°Start!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s fingers moved rapidly. The knots appeared neatly one after another. Once a strip had been transformed into a line of beautiful knots, he switched to another strip and continued. Stop! Exactly one minute had passed. ¡°59! 61, 35, 47, 16, 81¨C not bad.¡± ¡°I previously claimed first prize in a knot-tying competition during surgical class.¡± ¡°That was close! I just made the cut!¡± The man next to Yang Ping turned to look at him. ¡°Damn, 241! Is this guy even human?¡± The loud exclamation drew glances from around the room. The assistant stopped by Yang Ping, the counter on the module displayed: 241 square knots, or 482 positive and negative single knots. A square knot required two single knots, one positive and one negative. Are my eyes playing tricks on me? The assistant picked up the module for a closer inspection, then put it back down. Waved over to Song Zimo, and even Director Han, having noticed that something was amiss, came over as well. 241 knots, impossible! Song Zimo picked up the module, checked it, and announced, ¡°The counter is faulty, let¡¯s switch a module.¡± Song Zimo set up a new module, pulled out a thread himself, hung it on the peg, then took out his phone and set up a timer, ¡°The module was faulty, go again.¡± Yang Ping pulled another thread himself, hung it on another peg. There were several pegs on the module. ¡°Start.¡± Those nimble hands moved in unison, so fast that one could barely see it. Stop! 240 square knots, almost exactly the same count ¨C superbly steady. Two threads, the knots densely packed, each one immaculately crafted ¨C like machine precision. ¡°Sorry, I was a bit nervous, which affected my performance. I fell short!¡± Yang Ping rubbed his hands together. This round, Song Zimo was hit with a pang of insult as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water in his face, shattering his proud ego. The assistant took a look at Yang Ping¡¯s form, ¡°Oh, you¡¯re applying for the position in the emergency department. My bad, no wonder I thought there was an extra one.¡± Song Zimo asked, ¡°Do you practice knot tying every day? For how long?¡± ¡°Who would waste their time practicing this every day? Just learned it when I was in school.¡± Yang Ping replied nonchalantly. This kid is almost twice as fast as me in knot-tying. Maybe this guy is just good at knot tying, that¡¯s all. Song Zimo consoled himself. Old Han looked at the form, then at Yang Ping. He did this so often that Yang Ping felt a bit embarrassed. Man to man, why are you staring so intently? ¡°Director, he¡¯s here for the position in the emergency department. The human resources department probably got the notification mixed up,¡± the assistant mentioned the problem again. ¡°It¡¯s ok, since he¡¯s already here, let him take the full test,¡± Director Han made the decision. The next item was stopping bleeding. Again, a module was utilized. It was a rough and uneven board covered with a layer of soft material. This material had several small points, some concealed while others exposed. There were a total of 100 points on the board. As soon as a red light came on at a point, the candidate had to immediately use a hemostat to clip it. Once it was clamped, the light would go out, and a point would be scored. 60 points was the passing mark. ¡°Start!¡± Some people were so flustered that they dropped their hemostats, only to pick them up and continue the task. While others started off well, they couldn¡¯t keep up the pace towards the end. Stop! As soon as all 100 points lit up, the examination was over. ¡°Dude! Are you messing around?¡± The person next to him gaped, mouth big enough to stuff an apple into. Full marks! Director Han was standing behind Yang Ping the whole time, observing the whole process without uttering a word. Full marks! He was getting more and more interested in this young man. ¡°Full marks!¡± Song Zimo took a glance at the scoreboard on the module. There was no longer room for doubt this time, and they couldn¡¯t make him redo it again either, as that would come off as petty. Despite this, he was quite upset inside. ¡°The third and final task, everyone pay attention. It is a training round consisting of incision, separation, and suturing.¡± Everyone received another module, which had a layer of simulation material on it, mimicking human skin, fascia, and muscle. This hospital was certainly well-equipped, considering it had helicopters. These modules must be quite expensive too. Yang Ping took a pair of forceps in his left hand and a pair of tissue scissors in his right. Both his hands moved together seamlessly, the scissors seemed to possess a soul of their own, moving between the layers, cutting and separating them one after another. ¡°Switch hands!¡± Director Han ordered. Yang Ping swapped the instruments between his hands. His actions were just as composed and smooth as before, as if his left hand was as skilled as his right hand, without a hint of awkwardness or clumsiness. This ability to swap instruments between hands must be the result of deliberate training and would have required a considerable amount of effort. Having done this in his youth, Director Han was well aware of this. Director Han took the paper from Yang Ping¡¯s hand, looked at it, then crossed out the applied position with his pen. He changed it to ¡°Orthopedics Resident Doctor.¡± I was a fully qualified doctor, and you¡¯ve reduced me down to a resident doctor. But Yang Ping accepted it. This was a lot better than before, so he decided to keep quiet. He was afraid that the director might change his mind if he said anything. Chapter 6 - 0005: Fractures That Can’t Be Seen on A CT Scan (Part 1) Chapter 6: Chapter 0005: Fractures That Can¡¯t Be Seen on A CT Scan (Part 1) ¡°Ding Dong! Task overcompleted, a third experience pack has been awarded.¡± After the interview came the written exam. As someone who once ranked within the top ten of his entire school, the exam was a breeze. At noon, Sanbo provided a free lunch. After the meal, Yang Ping took a tour around Sanbo Hospital. The hospital was indeed impressive. Its main building consisted of two towers¨C¨Cthe Surgery Building and the Internal Medicine Building¨C¨Ceach over thirty floors high, connected by sky bridges on each level. There were also, among others, an Administration Building, an Outpatient Building, an Emergency Building, Medical Technology Building, and the Overseas Chinese Building¨C¨Ceach one a six- to eight-story structure, reasonably distributed, with a layout that was pleasing to the eye. The rooftops of the Surgery Building and the Internal Medicine Building served as a helipad, with a helicopter parked on the roof of the Surgery Building. It added an air of grandeur, making it a symbol of the hospital. Yang Ping also visited the orthopedics department. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s orthopedics division had over a hundred beds, divided into four areas: trauma, spine, joint, and sports medicine. Director Han was the head of the whole orthopedics department, as well as the head of the trauma division. Orthopedics is a broad specialty. Many big hospitals sub-categorize orthopedics into trauma, spine, joint, sports medicine. Some even split off a pediatric orthopedics section. Some hospitals with a strong hand surgery program have a separate hand surgery department. Some larger regional medical centers also have orthopedic oncology. The more technologically advanced the hospital, the further down they divided. For example, trauma could be split into upper and lower limb, the spine into cervical, thoracic, and lumbar, and the joints into hip and knee, etc. In other words, some people specialized in fractures of the upper limb while some specialized in fractures of the lower limb¨C¨Csomething unimaginable in an ordinary hospital but a common practice in top-tier hospitals. There¡¯s a top orthopedic surgeon from a prestigious hospital in Beijing who specializes in upper cervical vertebrae surgery, including the base of the skull, the first and second vertebrae. Such surgeries are rare in regular hospitals, perhaps performed once a year, whereas this surgeon can perform them year-round, treating patients from all over the country. After spending the entire day touring Sanbo, Yang Ping went to a nearby restaurant for dinner before heading back to his rented room in the city via the subway. Little Five hadn¡¯t returned for many days, leaving Yang Ping with some peaceful quietude. Excited by the novelty, Yang Ping again entered the system, opened his gift box, and started using his gift¡ªthe training program for interpreting radiographic images of limb fractures, which lasted for fourteen days. Upon entering the training space, a variety of limb fracture images appeared on the electronic viewer, one after another. There were X-ray images, CT scans, MRI scans, and the system¡¯s mechanical female voice would also provide detailed explanations. After fourteen days of rigorous training, Yang Ping had seen over ten thousand images. A few days later, he received a call notifying him that he had passed the interview and could start working in the orthopedics department. Yang Ping was so thrilled that he almost jumped with joy. On his first day at work, Yang Ping arrived very early. ¡®The clumsy bird flies early.¡¯ Although he didn¡¯t consider himself clumsy, he was sure that starting early wouldn¡¯t be mistaken. The duty room, men¡¯s changing room, women¡¯s changing room, meeting room, dining room, teaching room, and therapy room¨C¨CYang had to familiarize himself with these places as soon as possible to be able to work efficiently. As everyone trickled in, their shift started promptly at eight o¡¯clock. Everyone lined up in a U-shaped formation; at the open end of the U stood a projector, at the base of the U sat the department head along with several team leaders, on the left sat the male doctors, and on the right sat the female nurses. The doctors were all dressed uniformly¡ªwhite shirts, dark trousers, dark shoes, neckties, and white gowns over them. The nurses, all taller than one point six meters, were dressed in slim-fit blue nurse uniforms. Their hair was tied up and secured with a black hairnet, making them look youthful and charming. Among the doctors, there was actually a female doctor named Tang Fei. She was dressed in blue jeans and a goose-yellow T-shirt. Her hair was tied up, and her female doctor¡¯s white coat was very neat. Standing amidst male doctors, she was a dazzling bit of color. After the handover, Director Han briefly introduced the new doctors including Yang Ping, and everyone applauded to welcome the newcomers. If there were no objections to the handover, the nurses would leave the office and start their busy workday. The doctors began a brief morning meeting, discussing the surgeries performed on the previous day, and the surgeries to be performed that day. They would put the radiographs on a viewer, and give a brief report. Each team took turns to report their respective cases. One of the patients, named He Jianmin, a seventy-six-year-old man, caught Yang Ping¡¯s attention. His X-ray showed a fracture of the left femoral shaft. Surgery to fix it with an interlocking nail was planned to be the first surgery of the day. In this patient¡¯s X-ray, Yang Ping noticed a femoral neck fracture which was not mentioned in the handover diagnosis. Based on the choice of surgical procedure, it was apparent that the operating surgeon was completely oblivious of the femoral neck fracture. Such fractures are concealed and almost impossible to detect on X-rays and CT scans. Yang Ping had undergone training to interpret over ten thousand images of limb fractures, which enabled him to detect even concealed fractures with great precision. If there indeed was a concealed femoral neck fracture, the surgeon would fall into a pitfall. Being unaware of the femoral neck fracture, he would proceed with the usual surgical procedure, creating an entry point in the upper femur, then twisting or hammering the nail into the marrow cavity of the femur. Such actions could potentially turn the concealed neck fracture into a visible fracture without the surgeon even realizing it. Upon post-operative re-examination of X-ray: Damn it! The neck of the femur is fractured! What to do then? Surely, you can¡¯t just ignore the fractured femoral neck? They would then need to explain to the patient: ¡°Sorry, you have an untreated femoral neck fracture and need a second surgery to address it.¡± The patient¡¯s reaction: ¡°Why did the previous x-ray not show a fracture but now it¡¯s visible? Did the surgery you performed cause the fracture? And now you¡¯re trying to trick me into a second operation?¡± At this point, the disputes arise. ¡°Ding dong, Novice Task Three: Help your coworkers avoid diagnostic pitfalls and present the final novice gift box.¡± So it¡¯s a chain of four gifts, how generous of the system. After the x-ray film was reviewed, Director Han scanned the room, speaking succinctly, ¡°Does anyone have any questions? If not, the meeting is over.¡± This patient definitely has a femoral neck fracture, it cannot be mistaken. I¡¯ve seen tens of thousands of these x-rays and developed a keen eye for detail. I won¡¯t misstep. I must remind the chief surgeon to avoid this unnecessary dispute. Immediately, Yang Ping raised his hand, and all doctors focused their attention on him. Director Han asked, ¡°Xiao Yang, what do you want to say?¡± Some people have already gone to the door, ready to leave, but then they retreated. Questioning someone else¡¯s diagnosis and treatment plan is a risky move, especially on the first day of work, and under the public eye. If I don¡¯t say something, will I just watch others fall into a trap? After pondering, Yang Ping said, ¡°Could you please pull out the x-rays of He Jianmin for review?¡± The X-ray and CT scans were brought up and projected onto the screen. ¡°Is there a problem?¡± Director Han asked. Yang Ping humbly replied: ¡°I¡¯m sorry for wasting everyone¡¯s time. I suspect that this patient has a concealed fracture of the femoral neck. We have had similar cases in our hospital in the past and suffered losses, so I¡¯m particularly sensitive about such cases.¡± Anyway, a few words won¡¯t waste too much time. Since there are doubts, just say it out. Director Han says: ¡°Xiao Yang, go ahead.¡± With the approval of the director, Yang Ping continued, ¡°I had a case where the preoperative X-ray and CT scan did not reveal a femoral neck fracture, but the postoperative X-ray showed a hip fracture. We were forced to suggest a second surgery to fix the femur neck to the patient, and the patient didn¡¯t understand why the preoperative films did not show a fracture, but the postoperative review did. They insisted it was the surgeon¡¯s mistake and they caused the fracture, causing disputes and even litigation. I thought about it and concluded that this case was a result of dashboard injury... ¡°Hmm, then you can discuss this case, where do you suspect?¡± Director Han encouraged Yang Ping. Yang Ping continued: ¡°When I just looked at the x-ray, I noticed swelling in the soft tissues in front of the knee, which indicates a bruise and is similar to a dashboard injury, which immediately reminded me of a hidden femoral neck fracture. On careful examination, the trabeculae of the femoral neck on the x-ray are slightly disordered, and there¡¯s a fold on the cortex on one of the CT slices, which made me even more suspicious. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s nothing to laugh about, but now, whenever I see a femoral fracture, all I can think of is a hidden femoral neck fracture, and it makes me break out into a cold sweat.¡± After all that was said, some people were amused by the last sentence. The group responsible for this patient is led by Tian Yuan, Director Tian, vice chief physician, doctoral graduate from Huaxi Medical University. When he looked at Yang Ping and stood up to sit at the computer connected to the projector, he flipped through the X-rays and CT scans repeatedly on the computer. Indeed, there was a slight disorder of trabeculae in the femoral neck on the X-ray and one cortical fold on the CT scan. But it¡¯s subtle, almost imperceptible. Without a foregone conclusion, you wouldn¡¯t notice it at all. ¡°The CT scan is the gold standard for diagnosing fractures, isn¡¯t it better than an MRI at detecting fractures? If a CT scan doesn¡¯t show a fracture, can an MRI detect it?¡± The resident doctor, Zhang Lin, asked, sounding a bit aggravated. ¡°Exactly!¡± Fang Yan, the attending doctor under Tian Yuan, agreed. Director Han reprimanded, ¡°He¡¯s not wrong, the MRI is the best diagnostic tool for detecting hidden fractures of the femoral neck. X-rays and CT scans may not show it. Xiao Zhang, you need to brush up on your knowledge.¡± Zhang Lin was publicly criticized and seemed a bit upset. After browsing the films, Tian Yuan turned his head and said to Director Han, ¡°Director, Xiao Yang really reminded me. Indeed, there are doubts.¡± The patient had already begun anesthesia in the operating room. Tian Yuan immediately picked up his phone: ¡°Xiaobo, can you please check the patient¡¯s left knee for any swelling or bruising?¡± ¡°Since there are doubts, let¡¯s pause the operation and clarify the situation?¡± Director Han made the final decision. The other doctors, including several department directors, all needed to stretch their necks to carefully review the films on the projection screen. Where can you see the fracture? Their eyes hurt from looking so hard, and they still couldn¡¯t see it! Chapter 7 - 0006: Fractures Not Seen in CT (Part 2) Chapter 7: Chapter 0006: Fractures Not Seen in CT (Part 2) A few minutes later, Chen Xiaobo, a resident doctor under Director Tian, called from the operating room: ¡°Director Tian, there are bruises and swelling on the left knee.¡± ¡°Xiaobo, pause the surgery and send the patient to radiology for a bilateral hip joint MRI. Yes, I¡¯ll explain to the family right now, immediately, right away.¡± It¡¯s really a dashboard injury! Director Tian hung up the phone and looked at Yang Ping with admiration: ¡°It really is a dashboard injury! You were right, I¡¯m putting the surgery on hold immediately. I am now sending the patient to get an emergency hip joint MRI. Thank you for the reminder!¡± Director Han said, ¡°Hmm, if there really is a hidden femoral neck fracture, we¡¯ll have to change our surgical approach. Any other thoughts?¡± No one spoke. Director Han said, ¡°Then let¡¯s get ready. Tian Yuan, go to radiology immediately. I will also go down shortly to look at the MRI.¡± Director Han dismissed everyone, then found a computer and carefully reviewed the patient¡¯s X-rays and CT scans. Song Zimo came over and quietly asked Yang Ping: ¡°Does this patient really have a hidden femoral neck fracture? Hidden fractures don¡¯t show up on X-rays and CT scans, do they? How did you see it?¡± ¡°I saw it with my eyes.¡± Yang Ping replied with a smile. Song Zimo glared at him, then said, ¡°I¡¯m going down to radiology to take a look. Do you want to come?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t have anything else to do. It was his first day on the job, and he hadn¡¯t been given any tasks. Besides, the doubt was raised by him. Naturally, he needed to go check it out. Director Han came over at that moment: ¡°Let¡¯s go. Let¡¯s go check it out together. I checked again just now. There indeed is a doubt.¡± The three of them headed straight for radiology. Many others have already followed Director Tian there. The patient was also sent to the MRI room to start preparing for the examination. Director Han had called Director Meng, the head of radiology, in advance. Director Meng was waiting in the reading room. Director Han, Director Tian, Song Zimo, Yang Ping, along with some curious graduate students and standardized training students, gathered in a large circle. When everyone saw Yang Ping arriving, they made space for him to stand inside the circle. Everyone was curious to see if there was indeed a fracture, as none of them had noticed it. ¡°Old Han, what¡¯s going on? Hurrying to have an MRI for this patient, I¡¯ve just looked at his CT and X-rays again, and there¡¯s no femoral neck fracture.¡± Director Meng said. Doctor Yang from our department just raised a doubt. He detected a hidden fracture from the X-rays and CT scans. To clarify, we¡¯re doing an MRI. I¡¯ve scrutinized the films myself as well, and there indeed is a doubt about this patient,¡± replied Director Han. ¡°I see!¡± Director Meng, consequently, stopped talking and quietly awaited the MRI images to appear on the screen. The MRI room nurse was checking whether the patient had any magnetic metals on him, asking about potential contraindications like claustrophobia, and then had a form signed for confirmation. MRIs use magnetism for examination. Magnetic metals are not allowed in, and if there are magnetic metals implanted in the body, some are also not allowed to be done, as strong magnets can move these metals. Non-magnetic metals are fine, and most medical implants nowadays are non-magnetic. Unlike X-rays and CT scans, MRIs don¡¯t emit ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is the dreaded nuclear radiation everyone talks about. Chen Xiaobo, the resident doctor under Tian Yuan, was currently assisting in moving the patient. Attending physician Fang Yan was also there. ¡°Brother Fang, why did Director Tian suddenly stop the surgery and have the patient taken down for an MRI?¡± Chen Xiaobo was confused. ¡°The new doctor Yang said that our patient has a femoral neck fracture. Director Tian didn¡¯t see it, but he did.¡± Fang Yan didn¡¯t sound too happy either. The patient was on the operating table and the anesthesiologist¡¯s needle was already in the spine. They were about to administer the drug when the surgery was abruptly halted. Now, they had to take the patient here for an MRI. Naturally, it was somewhat unsettling. ¡°The new guy, who is he? He¡¯s so amazing!¡± Chen Xiaobo asked. ¡°Whether he¡¯s amazing or not, let¡¯s wait until the MRI result comes out.¡± said Fang Yan. ¡°You guys, why would you listen to the new doctor? Just because he says so, you bring the patient down here for an MRI. Let¡¯s go, doctors, we can start the examination.¡± The technician complained as well. ¡°Upon hearing him say this, Director Tian had to take it seriously, dropping all the hard work on us,¡± Fang Yan said. Once everything was ready, the technician pressed the switch on the external control panel, and the moving flatbed, with the patient on it, slowly passed through the ring-shaped machine opening. On this side, the two directors stopped talking, and so did everyone else. Everyone silently waited for the examination to finish and the technician to upload the images. The MRI procedure is slightly longer than ordinary inspections, but the MRI machine introduced by Sanbo Hospital is the most advanced 3.0T high-speed MRI in the world, which is dozens of times faster than ordinary MRI scans. A few minutes later, images began to appear on the screen, filling the entire screen. Director Meng immediately grabbed the mouse and began reviewing the images, curious as to whether this patient had any fractures. Director Han leaned in. Under the premise of maintaining a certain distance from the two directors, everyone else also gathered around as much as possible. Images were flipped, enlarged, and reviewed one by one. Then one image was locked, enlarged, and Director Meng leaned forward, his mouse pointing to one area. He looked closely for a good five minutes. ¡°There is indeed a fracture in the neck of the femur. Look, Old Han, here, T1 and T2¡ª.¡± Director Meng confirmed. Director Han turned around and looked at Yang Ping, then leaned in: Indeed! It¡¯s fractured! This young man is impressive; he identified a concealed fracture in the neck of the femur during the morning shift review. This type of concealed fracture is extremely difficult to detect in x-rays and CT scans, like looking for stripes on a mosquito¡¯s wing. The first time they met, Han was impressed by Yang Ping¡¯s sublime basic surgical skills, and today, his film reading skills surprised Director Han once again. ¡°Fractured, it¡¯s fractured!¡± With the answer out, everyone looked at Yang Ping in unison. Fang Yan and Chen Xiaobo rushed from the MRI room to the viewing room. Did they hear correctly? Was there really a fracture? Had he really guessed correctly? Director Han immediately instructed Director Tian, ¡°We need to speak with the patient¡¯s family again, a new consent form for the surgery needs to be signed, and the surgical procedure needs to be reconfirmed. It¡¯s best to use an elongated PFNA to fix the femur and femoral neck at one time. In this case, the surgery will be postponed until tomorrow. We¡¯ll discuss it this afternoon. Fortunately, we prioritized the MRI, otherwise, we would have fallen into a trap.¡± ¡°Thank you, thank you very much!¡± Director Tian patted Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Come to my office later,¡± Director Han also patted Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder. Song Zimo found it a bit magical, how did he detect the fracture, how did he do it? ¡°How did you manage it?¡± Song Zimo asked. Yang Ping shrugged, ¡°Nothing special, just made a mistake once, and naturally became proficient.¡± ¡°The task of recommending a colleague to terminate the surgery and reconfirm the diagnosis has been successfully completed, bringing in the last beginner¡¯s gift package,¡± the system¡¯s female voice reminded. Now, Yang Ping had gotten used to the system and wasn¡¯t startled by its sudden voice and captions. In the director¡¯s office. Director Han and Yang Ping sat across the desk from each other. ¡°We should thank you for today. You¡¯ve saved the department from a dispute. Have you ever completed any specialist training in radiology?¡± Yang Ping shook his head. But immediately said, ¡°In the past, when I was at the People¡¯s Hospital, I¡¯d thoroughly studied almost all the orthopedic imaging materials in the computer system.¡± After thinking for a moment, Director Han understood. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t lying. He had indeed worked hard in medical school and had studied almost all the image information in the department at the People¡¯s Hospital. He also often went to the Radiology Department for consultations. With such a solid foundation, coupled with the system suddenly going haywire, providing more than ten thousand image studies, Yang Ping had thoroughly developed a keen eye for imaging studies. No matter how minute or difficult to detect the abnormalities on the X-ray images were, he could spot them at a glance. Chapter 8 - 0007: The Life of a Serf Chapter 8: Chapter 0007: The Life of a Serf As Director Han lifted the lid, a cloud of steam wafted up from his zisha clay tea cup. He took a thoughtful sip. Although Yang Ping was already an attending doctor, Director Han had planned to put him on a resident¡¯s rota. He was now having some second thoughts and decided to reassess the situation. Cupping the warm zisha clay cup, he said, ¡°You¡¯re new here and unfamiliar with everything, so why don¡¯t you start by shadowing someone during their rounds? You¡¯ll be paired with Dr. Zhang Lin from my group.¡± Yang Ping nodded. As an attending doctor, being scheduled as a resident and having to shadow a doctor with less experience was somewhat vexing for him, but it was necessary for now. Typically, large hospitals divide staff into groups, each with a mix of ranking officials. Each group usually has a senior ranking Chief or Associate Chief, a mid-ranking Attending, and a few junior Residents. Some groups also include interns, graduate students, and visiting students, if the hospital is a teaching one. Residents are generally tasked with directly managing patients, admitting them, writing their medical histories, arranging surgeries, changing medications, and so on. Attending physicians, on the other hand, rarely manage patients directly. Instead, they primarily assist their group leader with operations and guide residents in their patient care. Each group operates as an individual unit, with the group leader bearing full responsibility for the medical techniques used within the group. Apart from a few special instances when the Department Director needs to handle cases, surgeries are typically completed within the group. Each group operates separately and doesn¡¯t interfere with each other, but is capable of collaborating if necessary. Some hospitals don¡¯t have Department Directors working with groups, while others do. Director Han leads a group himself, composed of Attending Doctor Song Zimo and Resident Zhang Lin. ¡°I¡¯ll be taking Song Zimo with me to a conference in a few days. If anything comes up, you can lend Zhang Lin a hand. If you can¡¯t handle something, report it to Director Tian immediately. Director Tian is a decent person with a scholarly demeanor. You openly questioned his diagnosis at the meeting today, but he wasn¡¯t angry. Instead, he promptly corrected his mistake. What you did today was correct. If it hadn¡¯t been for your timely reminder and insistence, we would have been embroiled in a medical dispute, and the patient would have had to undergo another surgery. The guiding principles of science are to not be awestruck by authority or books, but to only be convinced by facts. Although, once a decision has been made, you can disagree, but you must never disobey ¨C let alone act on your own. Doctors operate within a ranking system, and this traditional hierarchy is a cornerstone of patient safety.¡± ¡°I understand, Director. I¡¯ll keep your words in mind,¡± Yang Ping promised sincerely. ¡°Alright, work hard. Sanbo is a good platform and our orthopedics team is excellent. You¡¯ll see that in due course.¡± Director Han had surgery shortly, so he needed to end their conversation. Yang Ping went to find Zhang Lin, who was behind his computer issuing medical orders. Zhang Lin was a recent Master¡¯s graduate with a skinny and tall figure. Acne peppered his face. He wore glasses and didn¡¯t socialize much. ¡°Dr. Zhang, hello. I¡¯m Yang Ping. Director Han¡ª¡± Yang Ping began, extending his hand. ¡°I know, Director Han called me. Writing medical histories? Changing medications? You know how to do all that, right?¡± Zhang Lin¡¯s tone was somewhat unfriendly; he didn¡¯t even bother shaking Yang Ping¡¯s hand. ¡°Damn it! I¡¯m already an attending doctor, and you¡¯re asking me if I can write medical histories and change medications. Are you treating me as an intern?¡± Yang Ping withdrew his hand, feeling disgruntled. ¡°Yes, yes, I can do everything!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s thick skin saved him from a lot of needless hassle, otherwise they would¡¯ve been arguing, or worse, squabbling. Zhang Lin adjusted his glasses; his eyes never once left his computer screen. ¡°Beds 1, 3, 8, 10, 11, and 12¡ªchange their medications and check for any missing progress reports, complete them all.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t there any surgeries today? Shouldn¡¯t we not change the medications pre-surgery?¡± It was only just past nine. Yang Ping wanted to check out a surgery, and gain some experience even if it was just while observing. ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t need to do surgery today. Just change the medications in the ward.¡± With that, Zhang Lin walked away with his head held high. ¡°Thinks he can do surgery after looking at a few x-rays, completely lost sight of himself,¡± grumbled Zhang Lin under his breath in the elevator. ¡°Damn, he¡¯s really treating me like an intern.¡± Well, you can¡¯t really fight it when you¡¯re in someone else¡¯s territory. Yang Ping found the medication room, prepared the necessary items, put on a mask and cap, and started pushing the cart through the ward, changing medications one by one. ¡°You there, don¡¯t just stand! Come over here and help carry these struts and weights to Bed 33.¡± A resident doctor waved him over. Although Yang Ping was clearly busy changing medications, he was repeatedly mistaken for being idle. ¡°Hey! You over there, come help push the bed.¡± After delivering the traction setup, a nurse called Yang Ping over to help push a patient down to get an X-ray. After much toiling for half an hour, he had to return and finish the progress reports. Not being familiar with these patients and not receiving an adequate briefing from a colleague made completing the medical histories a challenging task. He found some patients¡¯ progress reports hadn¡¯t been updated for a week, it was impossible to catch up on all that. ¡°Boss!¡± ¡°Boss my ass, I¡¯m being treated less than a lackey.¡± It was a call from Little Five. ¡°Did you eat gunpowder for breakfast or what? This is Little Five!¡± ¡°Mmm, if you have something to say, say it. If you need to fart, just let it out!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve found a house for you, right across the street from the hospital. It¡¯s just a quick walk over a footbridge. I¡¯ll bring you the keys after work this afternoon. I also got a call. I¡¯ll be going for a Residency in the Emergency Department, specializing in working with ambulances. In a few days I¡¯ll go for the interview. It physically demanding work, but I¡¯ve got the strength for it. And there¡¯s no disgrace in working hard,¡± Little Five babbled away. ¡°That¡¯s enough, call me at seven. We¡¯ll have dinner tonight, my treat.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s mind was in turmoil. How would he manage these case histories? Since his previous apartment was in the city¡¯s urban village and he had now moved to the outskirts. Yang Ping was short on time, so he asked Little Five to terminate the lease and find a new place near Sanbo Hospital. The hospital had its own dormitories, but these were shared suites, which wasn¡¯t convenient. The queues for the restroom were endless. Renting his own place offered more freedom. Over the next few days, Yang Ping found himself at the beck and call of Zhang Lin, reaching the hospital at seven am and leaving after eleven pm. His legs felt as heavy as lead, his hands were on the verge of developing tendonitis, his eyelids felt heavy, and he was forever yawning. His life mimicked those of serfs, but life had to go on. He decided to visit his own private world in the system. He opened the treasure chest, using the last newbie package¡ªfive thousand limb reattachment surgeries. Five thousand surgeries! Yang Ping was astounded. This was an unrivaled treasure trove of resources for a doctor¡ªcase histories. These five thousand surgeries represented a number that many doctors couldn¡¯t complete in their lifetime. Upon entering the training space, the system simulated various reattachment surgeries for him. There were simple knife wounds, crushing injuries, avulsion injuries, injuries split into several parts, skin-deficient wounds, fingers, toes, hands, wrists, ankles, forearms, upper arms, lower legs, thighs, elbows, knees, disjoined at the shoulder, or the hip. The system had simulated every possible injury he could encounter. However, the majority of the surgeries were finger reattachments, including infants newly born, premature babies, babies with congenital malformations. Every conceivable scenario was simulated. Surgery is a skill developed through practice, and practice requires a large number of surgeries. This volume transitions into quality; this was an ironclad rule. It was impossible to have the rigorous volume of training that the system provided in reality. Moreover, Yang Ping vaguely felt that the efficiency of training within the system was higher than that in reality. Nevertheless, this kind of practice was hard to bear. He wanted to give up several times, but he ground his teeth and persisted. Unconsciously, he spent his time in intensive training in the system, he had no idea how long it had been, presumably a few months. Chapter 9 - 0008: Brother, can you make it? Chapter 9: Chapter 0008: Brother, can you make it? It was Zhang Lin¡¯s turn for the night shift. ¡°We¡¯re on night duty tonight. Come early and make sure to eat! We get a lot of emergencies at night.¡± Zhang Lin instructed, like a grandpa. Fine! If you say it¡¯s early, then it¡¯s early. Right now, you¡¯re the boss, there¡¯s no choice but to follow you. The shift started at half-past five in the afternoon. Yang Ping arrived at four o¡¯clock, had a bowl of Lanzhou noodles with beef and a fried egg. He was full enough, and also brought a bucket of instant noodles just in case. ¡°Dr. Zhang, you have another new intern?¡± the nurse on duty greeted him. This guy was leaning on the marble counter of the nurse¡¯s station, casually joking around with the nurses. Yang Ping looked a bit young, he had been working for several years, but people always thought he had just graduated. ¡°He¡¯s not an intern, he¡¯s a new doctor. The director asked me to guide him for a while, give him a lesson or two.¡± Zhang Lin proudly stated, raising his voice a few degrees. ¡°Dr. Zhang, you are so impressive, now you are guiding other doctors.¡± The nurse praised. ¡°Treat time! We¡¯re on duty today!¡± ¡°Heytea? How many cups?¡± ¡°Four of us, two on duty, and two intern nurses.¡± The nurse said smiling. This was an old tradition. When on duty, the duty doctor would treat the nurses to something, so they wouldn¡¯t ring for you every time a patient sneezed. ¡°Hey! You there, Yang¨CDoctor Yang! Come here!¡± Zhang Lin called him over. Yang Ping walked over, thinking he was introducing him to the pretty nurses. Instead, Zhang Lin said, ¡°Five cups of Heytea, if you can¡¯t drink all of them, make it six.¡± I¡¯m not drinking, I¡¯ll just watch you guys enjoy. Yang Ping muttered to himself, hmm, treating is treating, I¡¯m not a stingy person. Yang Ping quickly took out his phone to order delivery. Glancing at it, the cheapest cup of Heytea was more than ten yuan. He thought it was just a few yuan a cup. No problem, it¡¯s pocket change, not like he was strapped for cash. Zhang Lin admired his readiness. He usually pushed him around, and Yang Ping never complained. Suddenly, Zhang Lin felt a bit guilty, saying, ¡°Take it easy, there¡¯s no rush with the medical records.¡± This was the most normal thing Yang Ping had heard him say. In the last few days, Zhang Lin¡¯s facial expression when he spoke was as if Yang Ping owed him millions, just like a sulky pig liver. Indeed, these resident doctors are under tremendous pressure, they don¡¯t earn much, and practically spin around the ward twenty-four hours a day, so it¡¯s understandable if they act like crazy people. That¡¯s why Yang Ping didn¡¯t say anything. ¡°It¡¯s going to be a peaceful night tonight!¡± An intern nurse sipped her Heytea, happily expressing her hope. ¡°Shh, shh, shh, don¡¯t jinx it!¡± Zhang Lin stomped his foot anxiously, pretending to spit on the ground. There¡¯s a rule among doctors, you can¡¯t be complacent. For instance, you can¡¯t say that none of the surgeries you performed got infected; or that you definitely won¡¯t admit a new patient on your shift; or that the patients you manage won¡¯t complain¨C Legend has it that the moment you say something like that, you¡¯ll get a case immediately to prove you wrong. ¡°How did your teacher train you? He didn¡¯t even teach you the basics?¡± Zhang Lin glanced indignantly at the experienced nurse. The senior nurse quickly answered, ¡°Alright, alright, how about we send you a few severed fingers to reattach, will that do?¡± Reattaching severed fingers was a tough operation. It was time-consuming, and some doctors dreaded it. If such a patient was admitted during the shift, they would spend the whole night on it. The few of them chatted idly for a bit. The telephone at the nursing station rang. Everyone looked at each other. It couldn¡¯t be, could it? The senior nurse picked up the phone, ¡°Hello, this is Orthopedics, an emergency consultation, what kind of patient, severed finger?¡± Oh my god! Fire seemed to shoot out of Zhang Lin¡¯s eyes. The nurse gently put down the phone, spread her hands, and shrugged, ¡°Nothing we can do about it. Did you hear that? Emergency Room, consultation, severed finger!¡± ¡°Is that kind of thing even possible?¡± Zhang Lin held back his rising anger, got up, gently patted the young nurse¡¯s shoulder and said, ¡°I give in to you guys.¡± Then he said to Yang Ping, ¡°You stay in the ward, I¡¯ll go down and check. Wait for my news, it could be an open fracture instead of a severed finger.¡± Zhang Lin straightened his hair and entered the emergency elevator. In less than fifteen minutes, Zhang Lin¡¯s call came through. ¡°It¡¯s a real severed finger, right thumb, cut off by a cutting machine, in two sections. Prepare for emergency surgery.¡± The chief was still in the middle of a major operation, for a fall from a height, multiple fractures all over the body, several of them open fractures. Such an operation wouldn¡¯t finish in a few hours. Plus, President Guo had mostly passed the severed finger case. In the department, three people performed the best in finger reattachment surgeries, Director Han, Director Tian, and Song Zimo. The others who could do it were not as skilled. Director Han and Song Zimo had both gone to a meeting, and only Director Tian was left. Director Tian was on second-line duty, but there was an emergency at home, he needed to go into the city. He reported to Director Han and notified the chief resident about Old Jin covering his shift. But Old Jin was in surgery. In the meantime, Zhang Lin started debridement, Director Tian would be back soon. Zhang Lin called Director Tian again. Tian said for this kind of two-segment cases, it would be better to wait for him to do it. He was on his way and the severed finger could be kept in the fridge for a while, it wouldn¡¯t be a big problem. The junior nurse was about to cry, her innocent eyes seemed to be saying: ¡°It¡¯s not my fault!¡± After hanging up the phone, a picture was sent to his WeChat. The thumb was cut into two segments, unspeakably ghastly. The two detached segments were laid out on a white cloth, incredibly jarring to the eye. ¡°I just called Director Tian, he said to arrange for surgery first. He is on his way.¡± Zhang Lin said, ¡°You go straight to the operating room, draw blood, conduct electrocardiograms, the preoperative examination has been done in the emergency room. I am doing the consultation and signing off, I will go to the operating room right after.¡± These emergency surgeries were usually expedited and didn¡¯t require prior hospitalization. To save time, preoperative preparations were done in the emergency room, consultation and consent were completed, then they were directly taken to the operating room for surgery, and admitted to the ward after the surgery. Yang Ping instructs the nurse to call for the on-call staff to watch over the ward. He then checks on the critically ill patients to ensure they aren¡¯t in immediate danger. Riding the emergency elevator, he rushes to the operating room, swaps his shoes, and puts on surgical scrubs, a mask, and a cap. The operating room is fully lit with President Guo and Old Jin hard at work. Caesarean sections in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Appendicitis in General Surgery, Traumatic Pneumothorax in Thoracic Surgery, Craniotomy in Neurosurgery ¡ª a frog-like cry, a baby is born from a Caesarean section. The automatic doors open and despite the patient not having arrived yet, Yang Ping waits in the operating room, where the circulating nurse is already preparing the materials. About ten or so minutes later, the patient is wheeled in by the nurse and Zhang Lin enters in his scrub suit. The small refrigerator containing the severed finger sits on a medical cart. Upon opening it, Yang Ping notices that the severed edge is uneven. ¡°Is Director Tian here yet? Has he not arrived?¡± The circulating nurse shows anxiety as he asks Zhang Lin, his voice a bit hostile. Zhang Lin feels slighted by the nurse¡¯s tone and responds curtly, ¡°Tend to it first!¡± Senior doctors aren¡¯t on the first line of duty but rather the second. In case of an emergency, the doctors below disinfect and lay sheets, slowly laying down the groundwork. This is standard procedure. Yang Ping assists in extending the hand, Zhang Lin wears gloves, and begins washing the hand¡¯s wound and the severed finger. Saline, hydrogen peroxide, saline, and antiseptic solution, all rinsed twice in this sequence. ¡°Hold the hand steady! I¡¯m going to go wash up,¡± commands Zhang Lin to Yang Ping. The scrub nurse has already washed her hands and put on her clothes, the sterile operating set all laid out, with every tool being arranged on the table by a pair of dexterous hands. Soon, the tools are split into different zones, with the most commonly used ones in the most easily accessible spots. After Zhang Lin has washed his hands, disinfected them, and covered the table with the scrub nurse, he anticipates Yang Ping helping on the operating table and instructs him to wash his hands and suit up. Despite both men being prepared and suited up inside the operating room, Director Tian has yet to arrive. Debridement, we can start with the debridement. Zhang Lin visibly loses confidence, the composure he feigned at the start now broken. Rinse ¨C debride ¨C rinse again! One-millimeter Kirschner wire, drill! With the quiet hum of the miniature drill, the two broken ends of the bone are fixed together with intersecting Kirschner wires. The microscope is wheeled over and adjusted, its eyepiece coming into view. After adjusting the focus and pupil distance, the vision field finally becomes clear. The patient¡¯s hand must be secured to avoid any disruptions during the surgery. With all the prep work done, the only things left are the critical steps ¨C identifying the blood vessels and performing vascular anastomosis. Zhang Lin can only perform simple procedures under a microscope, but when it comes to vascular anastomosis, he¡¯s not able. So he dares not continue. This isn¡¯t a joke; his limited microscopic skills would result in poorly connected blood vessels, which won¡¯t allow blood flow. Zhang Lin picks up the microscope forceps and scissors, attempting to locate the blood vessels, but his hands are shaking severely. ¡°Brother, can you do this?¡± Yang Ping asks gently. Zhang Lin, originally intent on proving himself in front of Yang Ping, abandons the forceps and scissors as soon as his hands disobey him, he replies, ¡°Wait for Director Tian.¡± ¡°It¡¯s been over an hour, why isn¡¯t he here yet!¡± The circulating nurse whispers to Zhang Lin. ¡°Hurry him up!¡± Zhang Lin lowers his voice in response. The patient was given brachial plexus anesthesia, not general anesthesia; only one arm is numb. They have to be discreet and avoid the patient overhearing their telephone conversations to prevent unnecessary worry. The circulating nurse darts out again to make a call. A few minutes later, she returns, her spirit deflated, nods her head, and whispers, ¡°He¡¯s in a traffic jam in the city area; even if the road clears right now, it will still take an hour.¡± The circulating nurse asks, ¡°What do we do now?¡± ¡°We wait. We wait right here on the platform. He should be arriving shortly!¡± Zhang Lin replies. ¡°Anesthesiologist, put the patient to sleep.¡± Zhang Lin instructs. ¡°Ding-dong, Task: save the team from the crisis, complete one finger reattachment, reward: 1600 points.¡± These words appear in the upper right corner of Yang Ping¡¯s vision, stay for a moment, and then disappear. Now that the novice¡¯s period is over, there¡¯s no newbie gift package and the reward points have started. Through several tasks, Yang Ping understands a little about the system¡¯s temperament. Real-world events can trigger system tasks. Completing tasks will earn rewards such as points, which can then be used in the system to swap for surgical training, thereby enhancing skill levels. Sounds about right, Yang Ping thinks. He had just obtained the system not too long ago and isn¡¯t very familiar with it. He needs to probe it more in the future to fully utilize it. While Zhang Lin is whispering to the nurse, Yang Ping suggests, ¡°If we go on waiting, it might delay the patient¡¯s situation. Can I do it?¡± ¡°Have you ever done a finger reattachment before?¡± Yang Ping answers casually: ¡°I have done it before!¡± ¡°A lot?¡± ¡°Not a lot, just a few hundred times!¡± Wow! I haven¡¯t even seen a few hundred of those surgeries, and you¡¯ve done it a few hundred times and you¡¯re saying it¡¯s not a lot? ¡°Give it a try!¡± shrugs Zhang Lin. Under the microscope, one blood vessel is already groomed clean and is undergoing anastomosis. The operation is carried out systematically... Chapter 10 - 0009: Airplane Speed Chapter 10: Chapter 0009: Airplane Speed Quickly, one blood vessel was anastomosed, and the process of attaching another one began. Zhang Lin attempted to pick up the microscope instruments and enter the field of vision to help, but his hand was shaking uncontrollably, nearly snipping the blood vessel that Yang Ping had just attached. ¡°Don¡¯t just start moving around!¡± Yang Ping warned. Zhang Lin didn¡¯t dare to make another move, his face feeling as if it was on fire. He simply put down the instruments, doing nothing, just staring intently at the field of vision through the eyepiece, watching Yang Ping work. Yang Ping had no intention of getting help from Zhang Lin. He calmly continued operating alone, using the forceps and scissors in tandem to gradually expose the ends of the severed vessels. He then located another blood vessel. He immediately pruned the ends of the severed blood vessel, clearing away part of the outer sheath. With one snip, the ends of the vessel became clean and neat. ¡°Can we record the surgery?¡± Yang Ping asked Zhang Lin. ¡°Yes, the microscope is directly connected to a video system,¡± Zhang Lin responded. ¡°Turn on the recording, I want the entire surgery recorded,¡± Yang Ping instructed Zhang Lin. Although his aim was to ensure the patient¡¯s well-being, keeping a record of the procedure would ensure accountability, whether towards Director Tian or other parties. If anything unexpected happened, there would be something to refer back to. ¡°Start recording, turn on the recording system!¡± Upon remembering that the process needed to be recorded, Zhang Lin called out to the circulating nurse. The microscope was equipped with a high-definition camera, capable of recording the entire procedure. ¡°Alright!¡± The circulating nurse responded promptly, immediately pushing over various video systems, connecting all the cables, and turning on the main machine. ¡°Rinse with heparin saline, use an 11-0 micro suturing needle,¡± he directed. An injector with a flat needlehead, filled with heparin saline, was handed over. The microsurgery suture with the needle attached was handed over. The scrub nurse today was excellent. Despite this being their first time assisting Yang Ping, they proved to be highly proficient. Yang Ping glanced at her ©¤ her long eyelashes framing clear and lively eyes. Su Yixuan? He had an instant feeling ©¤ her eyes looked familiar. But he didn¡¯t give it much thought and promptly returned his attention to the surgery. The thread, much thinner than a hair strand, under the microscope and in Yang Ping¡¯s hands, was stitched in and out with ease, as if he were sewing skin. He continued on to the next one. One vessel after another. In one go, he anastomosed six vessels ©¤ two arteries and four veins. As it was sliced into two pieces, there were two openings to deal with. He went on to anastomose another six blood vessels at another opening, managing it with practiced ease. Releasing the vessel clamp, the vessel began to undulate softly. The pale fingers on the distal end immediately turned ruddy. The vessels were excellently anastomosed, with no leakage and good blood circulation. Zhang Lin could only hand Yang Ping the instruments; he could hardly keep up with the pace of the surgery. Although he had seen the procedure performed, and had assisted Song Zimo and Director Tian in doing so, he was incapable of conducting this finger reattachment procedure on his own. In Yang Ping¡¯s hands, the finger reattachment procedure seemed to take on a different character. It didn¡¯t seem like a highly challenging surgery, but more like a simple debridement and suturing, or a straightforward tendon anastomosis. It seemed exceptionally easy. If previous finger reattachment procedures could be compared to the speed of a train, this one was like the speed of an airplane. The nerves and tendons were anastomosed, standard Kessler stitches were used for tendon repair, and the skin was also sutured under the microscope. The tiny drainage strip was carefully placed subcutaneously at both wounded sections of the finger. Yang Ping let out a sigh of relief. If nothing went wrong, with this quality of vascular anastomosis, the finger should survive without any problem. ¡°Bandage it, fix it with a plaster cast!¡± Yang Ping and Zhang Lin began bandaging the injured limb. The anesthetist was the first to react: ¡°What happened? Is the surgery over?¡± ¡°It¡¯s done!¡± Zhang Lin responded. ¡°Already done?¡± The anesthetist was a bit skeptical. They usually had a good understanding of a surgeon¡¯s skills since they frequently worked together. The actual surgery only took about two hours, less than three in total. It seemed too quick to be true. The anesthetist thought that the young men simply sutured the wound after realizing they couldn¡¯t complete the reattachment procedure. However, as the anesthetist, while they could think this way, they could not voice such accusations. Thus, they simply responded affirmatively and prepared to wrap up the procedure. The scrub nurse, with her bright eyes filled with skepticism and speculation, had been ready for a long fight but was surprised by the early conclusion of the battle. Zhang Lin unrolled the surgical cloth layer by layer, handed the final towel clamp to the nurse, and proclaimed, ¡°End of work.¡± ¡°Doctor, is it because you couldn¡¯t reattach it?¡± The patient, hearing that the procedure had ended so quickly, expressed his disappointment: ¡°You must help me. My child is still young, and I¡¯m the only breadwinner in the family. Without this hand...¡± The man began sobbing quietly. Yang Ping gently rested his hand on the man¡¯s shoulder, reassuring him, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, your finger has been reattached. You¡¯ll have to stay in bed for the next ten days, doing everything on the bed, and you absolutely can¡¯t smoke. Do you understand? If you don¡¯t follow these instructions, the finger will die.¡± The patient immediately broke into a wide grin. ¡°Really, doctor, thank you. Once I¡¯ve recovered, I¡¯ll treat you to a barbeque and beer. A young doctor told me the surgery would take five to six hours, so I didn¡¯t expect it to be completed so quickly.¡± Yang Ping left the operating table and stealthily checked the surgical records. Indeed, the scrub nurse was Su Yixuan. They had chatted in the bar before, but only about airway obstruction and hadn¡¯t inquired about each other¡¯s professions. So, Su Yixuan was actually an operating room nurse. Su Yixuan, who was packing up the instruments, waved to Yang Ping. ¡°Yang Ping?¡± ¡°Su Yixuan?¡± Yang Ping wanted to confirm. She nodded, ¡°You really sent in your resume and started working so fast. So you were an orthopedic doctor.¡± ¡°Did you two know each other before?¡± The circulating nurse pointed at them and asked. Su Yixuan nodded. They had a brief chat before going their separate ways. Zhang Lin and the anesthetist accompanied the patient back to the ward. The nurses in the ward were stunned: ¡°Is it a finger preservation or a reattachment procedure?¡± ¡°Reattachment!¡± Are you kidding me! It didn¡¯t take long. The young nurse couldn¡¯t quite believe it, but there was no time to ponder. She immediately prepared for the patient¡¯s return to the ward. Yang Ping sat in the changing room for a while, resting against the back of the chair. It felt good. This was the first time he had applied the surgical skills acquired in the system space to reality. He felt slightly nervous at the beginning but also a little excited, which made him take his time with the surgery for fear of making a mistake. Now reassured, he realized that the surgical skills acquired in the system space could be practically applied to reality without any issue. They were no different from the skills learned through conventional methods. ¡°Ding-dong! The task is complete, reward 1600 points.¡± The first page of the system¡¯s store now displayed blinking icons where there used to be white boxes, meaning he could now make purchases. He bought a few cheap skills and commenced training on them. Yang Ping rose a few times to check on the blood circulation of the reattached finger. He went to the ward to check the finger¡¯s blood flow, as even the most flawless surgery could fail because there were many factors that could affect the success of a surgical procedure. If any signs of vascular congestion or crisis were observed in the reattached finger, prompt action would be necessary to address them. Otherwise, even the legendary physician Hua Tuo would not be able to resuscitate a necrotic finger. Naturally, Hua Tuo wasn¡¯t even conducting finger reattachment procedures while he was alive. Chapter 11 - 0010: Doubt Chapter 11: Chapter 0010: Doubt Who knows what time it was in the middle of the night. The duty room was filled with persistent knocking. ¡°Who is it? Can¡¯t a man get some sleep?¡± Zhang Lin opened the door, bellowed, with sleep deprivation painting the urge to fight someone on his face. The nurse station has switches; once pressed, the duty room bell rings, enabling intercom communication. Zhang Lin assumed the intern nurse was clueless and had come knocking directly. ¡°Director Tian?¡± Oh, what a blunder this was. Director Tian was slipping on his white gown, his face not just livid, but murderous, ¡°Have you guys completed the surgery?¡± Zhang Lin, rubbing his sleepy eyes, responded, ¡®Yes!¡¯ ¡°You guys are gutsy, so irresponsible. Who behaves like this?¡± Had it not been for years of higher education, Director Tian was ready to curse aloud. Zhang Lin was dazed. After completing the surgery, he had planned to call Director Tian from the changing room. But his cell phone battery was low, and he feared it might shut down automatically. So, he decided to charge it once back in the ward and call later. But once in the ward, he fell asleep and forgot about Director Tian. Getting a hard reprimand, he realized that the surgery was actually supposed to be performed by Director Tian, who had been stuck in traffic. By now, several hours had passed since the surgery was completed. To come here, banging and clanging at the doors, Zhang Lin was annoyed internally but couldn¡¯t express it on his face. After all, being scolded by superiors was a common occurrence for junior doctors. After receiving a severe scolding from Director Tian, Zhang Lin was wide awake and quickly woke Yang Ping, who was still asleep. Hurriedly slipping on his white coat, Director Tian had his mind set on examining the patient¡¯s blood flow to the severed finger. Zhang Lin and Yang Ping followed behind him, as silent as the grave, not daring to break wind. In order to stay awake, Zhang Lin took out a box of essential balm, and began to apply it onto his temples. Like scolded school children, they followed behind their disciplinarian principal. As it turns out, the moment Director Tian reached his department, he went straight to the operating room, asking the nurses about the procedure. They told him the surgery was already done and the patient had been back for three hours. Returning to his department, he found that the nurses had told him that Zhang Lin and Yang Ping were deep asleep. Calculating quickly, six hours had passed since he received the phone call, the patient had been returned three hours prior, deducting the preparation time, the surgery lasted approximately two hours. Two hours, with the skill sets of these two blundering fools, couldn¡¯t they just do a minor debridement and suture? Or could it be that these two idiots, despite his tardiness, carried out the surgery without linking nerves, blood vessels, or anything, fixed the fractured finger with a Kirschner wire and directly sewed up the skin? Could something so preposterous happen? If so, this would be a medical malpractice! This would be a sham surgery. Tian Yuan¡¯s pace became faster, the more he thought, the angrier he got, he could feel the blood rushing to his head. No longer caring about disturbing the patient¡¯s rest, as there¡¯s still a few hours left, if they were to return to the operating table now, there is still hope. But if they wait till tomorrow morning, it will be too late and the finger would die. He could almost picture the sewed up severed finger: pale, shriveled, icy cold, with no blood flow! With a sudden flick, the sound of a light switch echoed in the ward, and the lights turned on. The pain relief was well done, the patients were all asleep. With the sudden turning on of lights and doctors storming towards their bedside, the patient and the person accompanying were jolted awake. They squinted, evading the harsh illumination, completely confused about what was happening. ¡°We¡¯re doing a ward round, checking the blood flow in the finger!¡± Trembling, Zhang Lin stood by the bedside and explained to the patient as he switched on his portable flashlight. Tian Yuan pushed Zhang Lin aside, grabbed the flashlight and shone it. The sewn-up finger was outside, looking plump and red. Tian Yuan carefully touched it; it felt warm! He then lightly squeezed it, the fingertip was full and had elasticity, the capillary refill test appearing normal on the fingernail. This was impossible and defied all logic. ¡°Syringe needle!¡± At this time, a nurse had pushed over a medical cart, on which were dressing packs, cotton swabs, iodine disinfectant, syringes and more. The nurse handed over two iodine-soaked cotton swabs, Tian Yuan disinfected twice, and delicately injected three shots at different positions on the fingertip, barely penetrating beneath the skin. Blood, a vivid red, slowly emerged. At first a drop, then slowly spreading, and finally trickling to one side. Tian Yuan turned to gaze at Yang Ping, then Zhang Lin. ¡°The blood circulation is very good! I am sorry for the disturbance, we need to check the blood flow every hour,¡± Tian Yuan explained to the patient. The patient and his family promptly replied: ¡®No problem, thank you, Doctor.¡¯ They seemed a bit taken aback. Everyone returned to the doctor¡¯s office and sat down, creating a somewhat tense atmosphere. Tian Yuan was stumped. What happened? Did they manage to do the vascular anastomosis? That couldn¡¯t be possible. It had only been two hours, and with two segments detached, it would usually take her three to four hours to finish in a good state. It couldn¡¯t have been possible for these two to do it in two hours. She wondered where the diagnostic inaccuracies had occurred. Perhaps there had been a time discrepancy. ¡°What time did the patient arrive at the emergency department? When did he enter the operating room? When did the surgery start? When did it end?¡± Tian Yuan bombarded them with questions. ¡°He arrived at the emergency department around eight. Got to the operating room at half-past eight, surgery officially started a little after ten and ended around twelve.¡± Zhang Lin remembered quite clearly. Although he couldn¡¯t recount the exact minutes, he recalled the approximate times. The nurse was also startled by Tian Yuan¡¯s expression, believing something severe had occurred. This astute nurse immediately grabbed the patient¡¯s file and handed it to Tian Yuan. ¡°It¡¯s okay, go about your work. We will stay here for a while,¡± Tian Yuan gently said to the nurse. She flipped through the files in detail, locating the anesthesia form and surgery nursing record sheet and compared the times listed with what Zhang Lin remembered. There wasn¡¯t much discrepancy. ¡°They really did the vascular anastomosis?¡± Tian Yuan asked. ¡°Two arteries, four veins! Each of the two lacerations was anastomosed this way,¡± Yang Ping soberly explained. Tian Yuan adjusted her glasses: ¡°Currently, the blood circulation looks good, but the surgery only ended two hours ago. How did it happen so fast? Was it a complete detachment?¡± Then it dawned on Tian Yuan; it might not have been a true finger detachment if there had been tissue connecting and one side of the blood vessels was left intact. Whether the vessels were sutured or not wouldn¡¯t affect their survival. This was known as an open fracture in diagnostic terms and was distinct from a detachment. But¡ª-but¡ª-She had seen the picture that Zhang Lin sent. The finger appeared to be clearly detached in two places. ¡°It was a complete detachment, at two separate planes!¡± Zhang Lin exhaled as the tension in his nerves slackened and he pulled out the pictures on his phone. He understood Tian Yuan¡¯s suspicions: that he and Yang Ping had simply done the suturing and hadn¡¯t performed the vascular anastomosis. Now that he got it, there was no reason to be worried. He had watched the entire surgical process, not only did they complete the anastomosis but also the quality was quite high. The revelation gave him quite a fright. ¡°Director Tian, we recorded the entire surgery. Would you like to watch the video?¡± Yang Ping suggested. Zhang Lin also remembered the recording, ¡°Yes, indeed there is a video. I have it copied onto our office computer.¡± Watching the video appeared to be a good solution. Tian Yuan nodded in agreement. They all gathered around the computer as Zhang Lin played the recorded footage. As the video played, Tian Yuan occasionally cast perplexed looks at Yang Ping¡ªcould it really be this kid performing the surgery in the video? The instruments under the microscope didn¡¯t wobble even slightly, his movements were highly skilled, as smooth as flowing water. His sutures were accurate, light, and nimble, devoid of any superfluous movement¡ªeach motion precise, achieving its desired effect in one try. The quality of the anastomosis¡ªwhether of blood vessels, nerves, or tendons¡ªwas exceptionally good. Even the final skin sutures were near perfect. Such expertise couldn¡¯t be achieved without several a hundred or even a thousand surgeries, even if one had talent. Operating under a microscope required specific training and a certain level of talent¡ªgood hand balance and no shaking. Even a slight tremor, when magnified under the microscope, could seriously affect the operation. The requirements for vascular anastomosis are very high. The tissue outside the vascular stub, including the outer membrane, must be cleaned thoroughly. If even a tiny bit gets inside the vessel during anastomosis, it could cause thrombosis and vascular blockage. The vascular alignment must be precise; any slight misplacement could lead to vascular narrowing or irregularities, causing abnormal blood flow, slowed flow rate or turbulent flow, thus increasing the risk of thrombosis and vascular blockage. Small blood vessel anastomosis has the highest requirements for suturing technique in surgical operations. A surgeon needs to practice anastomosis countless times on the tails of mice or rabbit ears under a microscope to achieve such advanced anastomosis skills. This is the pathway taken by Director Han, Director Tian, and Song Zimo. Tian Yuan reviewed the video once and then replayed it upside down and inside out, paying extra attention to the key steps, fearing she might miss a detail. Yang Ping understood what Tian Yuan was thinking. He had already thought of a countermeasure and said, ¡°I bought a set of microsurgical instruments online, and even got a second-hand microscope. I practiced on chicken meat every day at home for several years, so I¡¯ve gotten fairly good at vascular anastomosis.¡± Tian Yuan reflected for a moment; this explained a lot. If he dedicatedly learned and practiced microsurgery, it was normal for him to achieve this level with a bit of talent. This surgery was indeed perfect. ¡°You should rest, it¡¯s been a hard day. The quality of vascular anastomosis is quite high, but we need to be vigilant. Instruct the nurse to monitor the blood flow and address any issues promptly.¡± Tian Yuan instructed. Tian Yuan wanted to say something else but didn¡¯t know what to say. ¡°You guys go and rest. I¡¯m going by the operating room, Old Jin and team haven¡¯t finished yet.¡± Chapter 12 - 0011: Turning things around Chapter 12: Chapter 0011: Turning things around After all the hustling from last night, they didn¡¯t get many hours of sleep, but work must go on. ¡°Doctor Yang! Let¡¯s go to the operating room together later!¡± Zhang Lin scratched his head, stopping Yang Ping who was about to go change the medication. ¡°There are several changes of medication left, and a heap of medical records to supplement, you go on your own,¡± said Yang Ping. Director Han has been away for a meeting these few days, and just returned not long ago, so today the group doesn¡¯t have a single surgery scheduled. Going to the operation theatre now would just be to observe surgery from another group. Yang Ping didn¡¯t really want to go, he wanted to take the opportunity to complete the medical records. Zhang Lin was a tad embarrassed: ¡°It¡¯s okay, changing medication, writing medical records, we¡¯ll do it together later.¡± Over the past few days, he had been bossing Yang Ping around like a serf, sometimes deliberately making things difficult. But Yang Ping never objected, nor talked back, he always completed tasks on time without complaints. Zhang Lin found himself a bit ridiculous. The man was so proficient in reattaching severed fingers, yet remained so modest. Thinking about himself, he was looking down on him for not having graduated from a prestigious university. Superficial! Truly superficial! While thinking about it, Zhang Lin almost slapped himself. ¡°Alright, just let me know if you need anything,¡± Yang Ping pushed the medication cart back into the treatment room. Today there was no need to hustle around changing medication and writing medical records like a driven donkey, it was like turning the tables for the serf. When they went to the operating room and were waiting for the elevator, Zhang Lin said: ¡°Doctor Yang, are you free tonight? Let¡¯s have dinner together. I¡¯ll treat you, we can go somewhere near the hospital.¡± ¡°Sure, but I should be the one treating you. I¡¯ve been following you these past few days, I¡¯m unfamiliar with many things. You¡¯ve been teaching me, I should thank you for that, let me treat you; it¡¯s settled then,¡± said Yang Ping, wholeheartedly. ¡°Okay!¡± Zhang Lin agreed readily. No matter who treats who, in the end, it¡¯s just having a meal together, trying to build rapport, and clear misunderstandings. Having arranged dinner with Yang Ping, Zhang Lin felt much more relaxed, thinking, this person is definitely worth befriending, showing no malice and demonstrating broad-mindedness. Upon arriving at the operating room, most of the surgeries had already started. The operating room was bustling, everyone chatted while working. The two looked through the small glass window on the operating room door, one by one, until they saw Tian Yuan and Song Zimo, only then did they open the door to enter. Fang Yan was wearing sterile gloves, holding up a leg. The ankle had already been disinfected, and Song Zimo was disinfecting from the ankle up to the top of the thigh. Tian Yuan was standing in front of the light panel looking at the X-rays, with his arms crossed over his chest. Director Han was sitting on a stool in the corner. The surgical nurse had already put on her surgical gown and was fiddling with the equipment on the tray next to her. The circulating nurse was walking around, checking to see if anything needed to be replenished. The equipment vendor¡¯s technician, who had a keen sense of what was going on, walked over to Fang Yan: ¡°Mr. Fang, do you want me to hold it?¡± ¡°Not necessary, he¡¯s capable, you go count the equipment,¡± said Song Zimo. Only after hearing this did the technician dare to leave. Seeing Zhang Lin enter, Song Zimo happily said: ¡°Come over here! Hold up the leg! Dilly-dallying, so late only then you came up. Where are all the interns today?¡± ¡°They¡¯re at the medical education department for a meeting, they all went after the shift,¡± said Zhang Lin. ¡°No wonder, help Fang Yan hold up the leg so he can go rinse his hands and put on his gown,¡± said Song Zimo. Zhang Lin quickly disinfected his hands, put on sterile gloves, helped Fang Yan lift the leg so that Fang Yan could free his hands to wash them. Later, they need to wrap up from the ankle and above, so Zhang Lin doesn¡¯t need to wash his hands, he just needs to use a disinfectant gel to wipe his hands, put on sterile gloves, and then use small sterile wraps to lift the leg. ¡°Learning orthopedics starts by lifting legs and arms. Did you know, in our mentor¡¯s generation, during the planned economy era, when there was still a rationing system, an orthopedic doctor received a daily food ration three ¡®liang¡¯ (around 100g) more than other doctors,¡± spoke Director Han from the corner. ¡°Why is that?¡± Tian Yuan responded from the other end. ¡°Because orthopedic doctors have to lift legs, it¡¯s physical work, naturally they eat more than others.¡± As soon as he finished speaking, it set off a round of laughter. In actual fact, in the operating room, doctors and nurses often joke around, make a few dirty jokes, liven up the atmosphere, and relieve tension. There was one time, a patient complained about the main surgeon: that they were actually chatting during the operation. This was due to a lack of understanding of operating room culture, if everyone was very serious, straight-faced, and didn¡¯t chat, it probably would be under two conditions; either the main surgeon is a newcomer, being nervous; or the patient¡¯s condition is very serious, in a critical condition. ¡°No wonder, my teacher said, when they were recruiting orthopedic doctors in the past, during the interview, they would prepare a pair of iron balls, try lifting them a few times to test, if not able, they would immediately be eliminated, not even getting into the next round,¡± Tian Yuan said. ¡°Iron balls, wasn¡¯t it a bottle of Erguotou (strong spirit)? First test their alcohol tolerance. Those who don¡¯t pass are directly eliminated, those who pass are eligible for the next round of the interview,¡± Song Zimo said. ¡°Tian Yuan, let me tell you, you¡¯re born in a good time, with the level of alcohol tolerance you had when you first arrived, if you were born ten years earlier, you wouldn¡¯t be admitted into orthopedics,¡± said Director Han. Everyone was chatting along to the topic, one after another, but their hands never stopped. Soon, disinfection and bedding was done, the suction device, electric knife were all connected, and Tian Yuan also went to wash his hands and put on his outfit. Today Director Han didn¡¯t schedule any surgeries, so he was just looking around in the operating room, occasionally giving some guidance. The surgeries he performed were usually complicated operations. Yang Ping went to the other operating rooms for a tour, Director Bai was performing a rough interbone fracture; Director Ouyang was performing a pelvic fracture. In the spine disease area, they were performing a cervical spine operation. In the joint disease area, a knee joint replacement surgery was in progress. For the past week, they¡¯ve hardly been to the operating room, that jerk Zhang Lin, who was supposed to share the workload among a few people, pushed everything to Yang Ping alone, ordering medication, changing medication, writing medical records etc., A whole morning was wasted. Where was their time to get to the operating room? After doing one round, at the least, I had some impression of the several teams in the department. The trauma orthopedics ward had five teams in total: Director Han, Director Tian, Director Ouyang, Director Bai, and Director Ding. The trauma orthopedics ward had 80 assigned beds. Each team had 15 beds, and there were five public beds for the critically ill patients. There were 45 beds in both the spinal and joint wards, and the sports medicine ward had only 20 beds. All wards usually had extra beds. After wandering around for half a day, I had a surgical meal in the operating room for lunch, and then I laid on the long chairs in the resting room for a while. The operating room resting room had many long chairs, wide and long. You can either sit or lie on them. Little Five called me: ¡°Boss, I have passed the interview. I¡¯m now an emergency worker in the emergency department. Our brothers have another comrade in the hospital. I also just rented a house. It is right under your apartment on the 16th floor. Are you available tonight? Shall we have dinner together? Xiao Qing is also here. She will work in the emergency department.¡± ¡°Tonight... I have dinner plans with colleagues from the department.¡± Yang Ping remembered she had dinner plans with Zhang Lin. ¡°Well, never mind then. Talk to you later!¡± Who was this Xiao Qing? It was Little Five¡¯s girlfriend, a nurse from the People¡¯s Hospital. This boy had some tricks up his sleeve. Right after his graduation, he tricked her into being his girlfriend. This time when Little Five left People¡¯s Hospital and came to Sanbo Hospital, this girl insisted on following him. Even when her family disagreed, she threatened to slit her wrists. While I was lying there, Director Han came in and said to Yang Ping: ¡°Xiao Yang, how are you getting used to things here? Participate in more surgeries, especially emergencies. Young people should do more.¡± Yang Ping quickly sat up: ¡°Okay! I have already told Dr. Song that if there¡¯s any emergency surgery, call me at any time. I also greeted Director Tian. If they need help with surgeries, I¡¯m always available.¡± ¡°Very good!¡± Director Han came in to drink a cup of water and then left. Spent the whole afternoon in the operating room. At around 7 pm, after finishing a surgery, Yang Ping and Zhang Lin went to have dinner near the hospital together. This neighborhood was quite lively, mainly due to the large number of people in the hospital itself, coupled with the slow development of factories and office buildings nearby, the corresponding services naturally developed as well. They found a Sichuan restaurant and ordered several dishes: grilled fish, iron plate beef, Sichuan sausage, plus a vegetable dish and a vegetable soup. The two of them had a nice chat and drank some beer. Zhang Lin apologized for his behavior during the previous days. Yang Ping dismissed it lightly, saying he didn¡¯t mind. With that, Zhang Lin felt relieved and the knot in his heart was untied. After a drink, they became brothers. Zhang Lin was from the Northeast. After finishing his Master¡¯s degree, his father exhausted his connections and spent his entire efforts to get him into Sanbo Hospital through a Southern comrade. His girlfriend was a pediatrician in the same hospital. They had saved some money and planned to borrow from their parents to buy a house and get married. ¡°Did you know Tang Fei before?¡± Zhang Lin suddenly asked. ¡°No!¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°The other day, I saw you laughing and chatting with her.¡± What Zhang Lin was talking about was probably when Yang Ping and Tang Fei were discussing the fracture film reading of a femoral neck fracture. ¡°Oh! She was asking me how I diagnosed a latent femoral neck fracture that day?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t like chatting about such stuff. Zhang Lin seemed very interested: ¡°Oh, I thought you were familiar with her... Let me tell you, Tang Fei is one of the most attractive women in our hospital, and Song Zimo likes her.¡± Why do I care! Yang Ping thought to himself. Why is he telling me all this? But Zhang Lin was a master gossip. He was well-known for gossiping in the department. He was the first to receive any gossip in the hospital, who was dating who, who broke up with who, all sorts of things. ¡°Let me tell you, Song Zimo and Tang Fei are both from Fudan University. Song Zimo is two years older than her. I heard that...¡± Zhang Lin looked around the restaurant. There seemed to be no familiar faces. He continued: ¡°Song Zimo has been chasing after Tang Fei for many years and hasn¡¯t succeeded yet.¡± Although Yang Ping didn¡¯t enjoy gossip, he was not annoyed by Zhang Lin¡¯s words and simply listened. Zhang Lin thought he was interested and became more excited. And he continued: ¡°How come Song Zimo can¡¯t win over Tang Fei? Look at Song Zimo. He¡¯s the number one dreamboat of our hospital. He¡¯s handsome, tall, a Ph.D. from a prestigious university, who is both excellent and hard-working, and most importantly, he is rich! You know what car he drives to work?¡± Yang Ping gave him a glance. ¡°A BMW 7 series!¡± ¡°But Tang Fei¡¯s family seems to be pretty rich too. They say she has a Maserati sports car... sigh... They¡¯re all golden spoon babies. As ordinary people like us, we can only rely on electric donkeys for transportation and spend our youth worrying about food and clothing.¡± Still claiming to be in his youth, he¡¯s already in his twenties, still speaking of youth. ¡°Don¡¯t be so sentimental. People, everyone has their own lives. Living your own life well is the greatest happiness. In this world, most people are ordinary. Ordinary people have their own happiness.¡± Yang Ping comforted. Zhang Lin raised his glass: ¡°Well said! Did you see the house beyond the overpass? I¡¯ve gone to see it several times. I¡¯m planning to get a small place as a nest.¡± ¡°You¡¯re doing great! Just a few years after graduation, and you¡¯re already planning to buy a house?¡± Yang Ping complimented him. Zhang Lin squinted his eyes: ¡°Don¡¯t even mention it. It¡¯s a sad story.¡± ¡°How do you still have so much alcohol?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that once you finish your drink, I can do whatever I want?¡± ¡°Did I say that? OK OK OK, we Northeasterners, regardless of other things, can¡¯t be afraid of drinking!¡± Chapter 13 - 0012: Director’s Rounds Chapter 13: Chapter 0012: Director¡¯s Rounds Zhang Lin didn¡¯t let his northeastern roots down, he had several bottles of beer yet he still managed to stand up and ask for the bill. It was initially agreed that Yang Ping would pay, but Zhang Lin insisted on doing so. Unable to persuade him otherwise, Yang Ping had to go along with his wishes. The two men said goodbye at the entrance of the restaurant. Zhang Lin wobbled a bit as he started to walk away, prompting Yang Ping, who was worried about his condition, to consider accompanying him. However, Zhang Lin¡¯s pediatrician suddenly appeared as if she had been hiding under a tree for a long time. She immediately rushed over to support Zhang Lin with her petite body, stopping at each step. Yang Ping felt a little envious, the life of the common man seemed pretty good, too. At seven in the morning of the following day, Yang Ping arrived at his department, ready to begin another busy day of work. ¡°What day is it today?¡± Zhang Lin said, pulling out some menthol, pouring it onto his finger, then rubbing his temples. ¡°Tuesday!¡± Yang Ping replied. It¡¯s quite common for a doctor to forget the day of the week. As long as they remember which day they¡¯re on duty, that¡¯s more than enough because every day is a work day. ¡°I¡¯m doomed! Today is the chief¡¯s grand rounds and I¡¯m utterly unprepared. I¡¯m definitely going to ¡®die¡¯ today,¡± Zhang Lin exclaimed with a slap on his thigh. ¡°It¡¯s just rounds, what¡¯s there to be nervous about?¡± Yang Ping consoled him. Grand rounds with the chief are typically a young doctor¡¯s worst nightmare. This is when the chief assesses their studies and work once a week, just by asking questions, enough to make a young doctor feel drained. In this department, grand rounds are scheduled for Tuesday mornings. Therefore, aside from emergency surgeries, no other elective surgeries are scheduled for Tuesday mornings. All elective surgeries are postponed to the afternoon. Once the customary morning handover meeting was completed, the rounds began and the whole department staff assembled. The team comprised of Director Han in the lead, with Directors Tian, Ouyang, Bai, and Ding on the flanks, followed by attending physicians, resident physicians, graduate students and intern doctors, respectively. The hierarchy was well-defined, the formation was neat. The hierarchy amongst doctors was strict, almost similar to the military. Lower ranks obeyed the higher ranks, surgeries couldn¡¯t be prescribed out of rank and similarly, standing positions also followed rank. Director Han¡¯s white coat was buttoned up neatly. His typically thick, short, black hair was cut close to his scalp. He walked with his head held high and chest out, his movements as steady as if he had iron for bones in his body. Director Tian appeared the most refined, with his ever-present gold-rimmed glasses, slightly chubby frame and well-proportioned facial features, embodying the charm of a scholar. Director Ouyang was actually only in his early forties, but half of his hair was already grey. He was tall and slim, with a straight posture. His blue shirt under the white coat gave off an astute and calm impression. Director Bai was the most influential among the directors. With a height of almost 170 cm and a weight close to 180 pounds, his custom-made white coat was still stretched taut in the front, giving a sense of imminent ¡®explosion¡¯. Director Ding was always somewhat aloof and indifferent. The second echelon consisted of attending physicians. Song Zimo habitually left his white coat unbuttoned, his hands tucked into his pockets, letting the coat sway as he walked, creating a rustling sound, looking cool above all else. Tang Fei was like a radiant rose. She wore minimal makeup, a light purple hair clip adorned her symbolic ponytail, and her feminine physique accentuated by her white coat looked enchanting. The third echelon was made up of the resident physicians, who stood at the base of this pyramid. They were constantly rushing around, working from early morning to late at night, often reprimanded, and subsisting on near-subsistence wages. Yang Ping also belonged to this third echelon, standing side by side with Zhang Lin, calmly recalling all the patients¡¯ data he¡¯s responsible for in his mind, in case of any unexpected questions from the chief. The last group consisted of the interns, who were the only workforce the resident physicians had any control over. With everyone assembled, the entourage travelled along the hospital corridor whilst the people upfront cleared the way. The process of making rounds had strict procedures such as entering and exiting wards, standing positions, all of which were precisely regulated. The ward doctor would enter first, then the rest of their team would fall into place. When exiting, everyone moved aside for the chief to leave first, followed by the others leaving in single file. The resident physician would knock on the door, greet the patient upon entering the ward, then stand at the left of the patient¡¯s bed. The attending physician and team leader from the same group would follow and take their respective places. Everyone found their places without deliberate arrangement. With the room packed, some interns squeezed into corners near the doorway while others, unable to find a space inside, were forced to stand outside with their ears perked up, trying to catch what was being said. The prime location on the right side of the patient¡¯s bed, at position C, was reserved for the chief physician. An intern, unaware of this fact, tried to swoop into position C just to be gently discouraged by his preceptor: ¡°Young man, this is right under the air conditioning vent, you might catch a cold.¡± He then squeezed the intern in next to him. The intern felt touched by his mentor¡¯s thoughtfulness; having such a teacher was indeed a blessing in life. He was overjoyed. The chief took his position, his strong posture standing firm like a rooted tree. His penetrating gaze, sharp as an X-ray beam, was probably what they meant by the phrase ¡®eyes that burned brightly¡¯. Though everyone possessed two eyes with the same anatomical structure, why was there such great disparity in their perceptive powers? Yang Ping wondered if any research had ever probed this. If not, it could be a potentially valuable topic for a post-doctoral study. The patient whose severed finger was reattached the previous night was on the bed. The patient, leaning against the headboard, looked around at everyone. The formidable scene likely intimidated him. Standing across from the chief, Zhang Lin began to report the patient¡¯s medical history ¨C the patient¡¯s name, age, gender, diagnosis, reasons for hospitalization, course of illness, treatment process, previous illnesses, details of their physical examination, diagnostic tests performed, and any abnormalities noted. Zhang Lin recited everything without referring to the medical records, depending entirely on his memory. The first half went smoothly, he reported confidently causing a smile to curl on the face of the attending physician, Song Zimo. Unfortunately, it appeared that Zhang Lin had pushed himself too hard, as he began to stammer midway through his report. His voice lowered becoming indistinct and disjointed, he was sweating profusely, and a bead of sweat eventually rolled down his face. He stopped altogether, unable to say another word. It was quite a pity, as it would have been a perfect presentation of medical history. The other doctors felt regretful that Zhang Lin had overexerted himself. The chief¡¯s eyebrows furrowed. Song Zimo immediately stepped up and continued the medical history presentation. ¡°Let me see the medical records!¡± Director Han extended his hand. The medical records were handed over to the chief. As he read through them quickly, he said, ¡°Right thumb completely severed ¨C hmm, this medical record is exceptionally well-written, capturing details that others often overlook.¡± Suddenly, because of a mistake, he regained his lost confidence in front of everyone. To receive an open compliment from Director Han was something that he could boast about in the cafeteria. Zhang Lin perked up again. ¡°Exactly, let¡¯s keep up the good work,¡± added Song Zimo. ¡°This patient is male, yet you still managed to ask about his menstrual history, first period, and last menstruation time clearly. Truly a talent, a pillar of the nation!¡± said Director Han seriously. Someone couldn¡¯t hold back and burst out laughing, which then turned into an obvious sound of holding their breath. ¡°Ah¨C¡± Zhang Lin¡¯s face instantly turned beet red. It was all because of copy and paste! Although Zhang Lin wrote the medical record himself, Yang Ping who was standing by also felt super awkward. They were in the same team and under everybody¡¯s gaze, had to face the pressure of ten suns¡¯ worth of spotlight. The X-ray was passed over, and Director Han held up the film to look at it against the light from the window. They were about to be questioned; It was really happening. Everyone immediately shrank back like ostriches as if doing so would make them invisible to the director. Zhang Lin, who was just starting to relax, began to break out into sweat again. ¡°What is the core and the key to re-implantation of severed fingers?¡± Director Han put down the film and scanned the room with his eyes. Wherever his gaze landed, the young doctors lowered their heads even further. This was a bit of a tricky question, as it required a summary of knowledge to answer. Those who crammed in ¡°Hand Surgery¡± the night before because they were relatively composed, were now confused. The book didn¡¯t mention anything about this! The director¡¯s gaze continued to roam, like a searchlight. Just then, Song Zimo stepped forward. There was no question that Senior Brother Song couldn¡¯t answer, this was the consensus amongst his peers. ¡°The core is to anastomose the blood vessels, and the key is to anastomose the nerves.¡± ¡°Hmm, very good. The surgery took only two hours, and Director Tian is getting faster and faster.¡± Director Han flipped through the surgical record. Director Tian, who was next to him, flushed slightly: ¡°I didn¡¯t do it, it was the new Doctor Yang.¡± Wait, Doctor Yang? They got it wrong, didn¡¯t they? He could do the re-implantation of severed fingers all by himself? And to finish up one that was severed into two pieces within two hours? Everyone glanced over, wasn¡¯t he an intern lead by Zhang Lin? Some people didn¡¯t even know he was a new doctor and confused him with an intern. The department was just too busy and there were too many people. The crowd started chattering, filled with doubts, envy, and whispers. ¡°Yes, Doctor Yang did it. I was his assistant.¡± Zhang Lin managed to win back some face. After losing face twice already, this two-hour finger re-implantation surgery was something he assisted with. Anyone who had something to say about it, try assisting with a surgery yourself. ¡°Yang Ping did it?¡± Director Han looked up and down at Yang Ping, as if he couldn¡¯t quite believe it. ¡°Yes!¡± Zhang Lin confirmed once again. As the one involved, he had the most authority to speak, especially as the status of the assistant involved could not be questioned. ¡°I didn¡¯t think it was that complicated, so I did it myself.¡± Yang Ping scratched the back of his head. Director Tian added: ¡°The quality of the anastomosis of the blood vessels was very good.¡± The crowd buzzed again. Some people couldn¡¯t sit still, what? Finger re-implantation is not very complicated? Why talk so flippantly? How are we supposed to cope with this? Director Han nodded and asked: ¡°Can you explain why the core is to anastomose the blood vessels, and the key is to anastomose the nerves?¡± Yang Ping scratched his head: ¡°First you have to survive, then you can think about thriving.¡± Everyone laughed, not knowing whether they were laughing at Yang Ping¡¯s answer, or because they were relieved they didn¡¯t have to answer the question themselves. Director Han grunted in acknowledgement: ¡°That¡¯s the gist of it. Without high-quality anastomosis of blood vessels, the finger can¡¯t survive, and nothing further can be discussed; without high-quality anastomosis of nerves, sensory and motor function cannot be restored, and the finger becomes useless, a burden. So, the survival of the finger is only the foundation. What we pursue is functionality.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s selective breeding.¡± someone interjected. ¡°Hmm, you come¨C¡± Director Han found his next target. This brother wished he could smack his own mouth for speaking out of turn and giving away his position. ¡ª After more than three hours, the director¡¯s round of ward rounds had finally ended, and everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Those who were picked to answer questions were drenched in sweat, with some showing signs of dehydration. Someone was already leaning weakly into the nurses¡¯ station: ¡°Sis! Can you get me a bottle of 5% glucose to drink?¡± Those who weren¡¯t called out were thrilled at their narrow escape and breathed a sigh of relief, at least for this week they could stop living in fear. Oh, shit! Just now, when the director was doing his rounds, his eyes flicked over here and my heart was pounding like a diesel engine. That was close. Someone was recalling the nerve-wracking moment. When everyone else had left, Yang Ping went for another round of rounds alone, to check on the patient whose severed finger he had re-implanted. The blood circulation looked good. Chapter 14 - 0013: Replanting an Infant’s Severed Finger Chapter 14: Chapter 0013: Replanting an Infant¡¯s Severed Finger After completing the morning rounds, there was some free time in the afternoon. Zhang Lin had worked the night shift yesterday so according to the roster, he was off-duty today. Yang Ping, who also worked the same shift as Zhang Lin, was naturally on break. Despite rest days being stated in the schedule, for doctors, they are merely for show and have no real significance. Busy until after three in the afternoon, when he finally had lunch, he really wanted to take a break. But once back in his room, the phone rang before he could even settle down. A surgery was on the horizon, involving a severed finger. Director Han specifically requested Yang Ping¡¯s involvement. How could there be so many cases of severed fingers, it wasn¡¯t like it was Singles Day. Yang Ping quickly crossed the sky bridge. Just after descending, he crossed a small square and there was the emergency department. At the entrance, two security guards stood guard, helmets on heads, protective clothing on bodies, batons and shields in hand; they were like wardens at the gate. The spacious emergency room was bustling. Regardless of whether it was doctors, nurses, or patients, everyone was in a hurry. Even, some life hurriedly withered away. The disorder made Yang Ping¡¯s head buzz. From fights, car accidents, drunkenness, shouting, bickering, crying; all mixed up. Without a certain psychological quality, one really cannot endure this place. ¡°Do you believe I could kill you? There¡¯s blood oozing from my head. Just how long must I wait? Must I die here before you rescue me?¡± a man in his forties with a scarred face cursed at a pregnant nurse. A pregnant woman still working the night shift? Goddamn, until one hits a certain month of pregnancy, one still has to diligently pull night shifts. Otherwise, there wouldn¡¯t be enough people. What were you thinking, claiming your pregnancy to a head nurse, and following which, the head nurse patting you on the shoulder saying: ¡®Good girl, go home and take care of your baby, no need to do night shifts.¡¯ For a nurse, this scenario is fairy-tale level. Not only do pregnant women have to pull night shifts, but pregnancies need to be scheduled too, you can¡¯t simply conceive whenever you want. That¡¯s right, you have to line up. It¡¯s your turn this year and hers the next. If pregnancies are not planned, if everyone gets pregnant all at once, that particular department would indeed collapse. Recruit more nurses? Hmm, easy for you to say. Among the most in-demand professions, I reckon nursing would definitely crack the top ten. As for emergency and pediatrics department nurses, they could easily take the cake. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, you need to wait. The doctors are currently busy with a rescue, you need to wait a bit longer.¡± The pregnant nurse was practically pleading. With a slap, scarface hit the reception desk in the emergency room: ¡°Wait for nothing! Is this not your blood leaking out?¡± If not for the high and wide marble doctors¡¯ counter, this slap would¡¯ve landed on the nurse¡¯s head. Yang Ping was just considering going over to intervene. ¡°Hey, what are you doing? Hold your horses.¡± Two security guards drew their batons from their belts and walked over in their leather boots. Scarface was abashed and stopped his aggressive behavior. The hospital¡¯s security is pretty good, Yang Ping thought. This jerk, actually, the nurse had already done some basic bandaging to stop the bleeding. It¡¯s just that a bit of blood was seeping out of the gauze, probably was waiting for the doctor to clean the wound and stitch it up. Yang Ping shook his head, he was used to such incidents. Allegedly, in some hospitals¡¯ emergency departments, all the doctors¡¯ consultation rooms are uniformly next to windows that are left open. Why? Because right beneath the windows are thickly padded mats. They are meant for emergency department doctors to escape using when dealing with annoying people who assault doctors. They can immediately jump out the window and escape. The mats offer protection against injury. Passing through the emergency room, Yang Ping made a right turn into the emergency trauma room. Swipe the access card, the explosion-proof door swings open. The central island is where the doctors and nurses converge. Around it are evenly distributed computers and phones. There are dozens of emergency beds arranged in a circle around the room, separated by curtains. ¡°The heart has stopped, begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation, get the defibrillator!¡± One bed was involved in resuscitation, the doctor was drenched in sweat, pressing hard on the patient¡¯s chest. ¡°Closed-chest thoracic drainage; tension pneumothorax; urgent consultation with the thoracic surgery department.¡± Another bed was being disinfected, ready for closed thoracic drainage. ¡°20% mannitol, quick intravenous drip.¡± ¡°Perform a tracheotomy.¡± ¡°Put on the ventilator.¡± ¡ª¡ª The emergency department, particularly the trauma room, is a battlefield without gunpowder smoke, where doctors and nurses are warriors battling with death. Several phones were ringing non-stop. The on-duty nurse had a receiver pressed to her ear and was speaking loudly while grabbing another receiver with one hand. Her gaze was already on yet another receiver that had just begun ringing. A few receivers were swapping places in her hands and at her cheeks like a juggling act. ¡°Bed 3!¡± Although Yang Ping was new, the nurses had sharp eyes. Just a distant glance at Yang Ping¡¯s nameplate and they knew he was an orthopedic surgeon. She pointed to one side. The on-duty doctor was talking with Song Zimo: ¡°A little over a month old, female, all five fingers on her left hand severed¡ª¡±. A small baby lay on the bed, her left hand wrapped in bandages. Perhaps oblivious to the pain, she wasn¡¯t crying, her eyes darting around as if searching for something. ¡°Where¡¯s the severed finger?¡± Song Zimo asked. A nurse took out a transparent film bag from a small fridge, inside which the severed finger was kept. So small? Of course it was! How big can the hand of a two-month-old baby be? A woman in her thirties was sobbing next to the bed. A man was trying to comfort her. ¡°Can it be reattached? Doctor, I beg you,¡± she asked, her eyes swollen from crying. Upon inquiry, the emergency room doctor said that the child¡¯s mother was pushing the baby in a stroller at a supermarket when she got distracted by her mobile phone. On an escalator, she didn¡¯t pay attention and the stroller toppled over. The baby¡¯s hand became trapped between the escalator and the landing. All five fingers were crushed and retrieved only when maintenance staff dismantled the escalator. Director Han was having a conversation with Director Xiong from the emergency department. The emergency room doctor was holding a freshly printed informed consent form, his voice hoarse as he discussed the situation with the distraught mother. The conversation was broken up a few times by the mother¡¯s sobbing. ¡°Xiao Yang, have you checked on the patient? Song Zimo will be performing the surgery, are you alright with assisting?¡± Director Han waved over Yang Ping who had just arrived. Director Han was planning for Song Zimo to perform the reattachment of the baby¡¯s severed finger, which was considered extremely challenging due to the minute blood vessels involved. Song Zimo¡¯s skills in microsurgery were well known to Director Han. He was adept in handling blood vessels as thin as 0.1 mm. ¡°No problem at all, I¡¯ll cooperate fully,¡± Yang Ping answered without hesitation. ¡°Excellent!¡± Director Han made swift arrangements: ¡°Let¡¯s prepare for the surgery immediately, we can discuss more in the operating room. Grab a snack from the department ¨C there¡¯s high-calorie chocolate and biscuits. We have already eaten. Dereplantation of a baby¡¯s severed finger is rare and challenging. Keep up your spirits!¡± ¡°Understood, we will complete the task,¡± Yang Ping responded seriously. Director Han, much like a seasoned military general, was calm and efficient. After sharing some instructions with Director Xiong, he hurried off to the operating room. Song Zimo, who was a bit unhappy, followed behind Director Han, wanting to speak up. ¡°Director, Director, Director¨C¡± ¡°Perhaps Director Tian should assist instead? I¡¯m afraid this operation might be too demanding,¡± Song Zimo finally voiced his concerns. His concerns were valid. Known for his exceptional talent, Song Zimo had practiced countless times on man-made blood vessels of 0.1 mm diameter or even smaller, and had stitched the tails of newborn mice countless times before being confident enough to undertake such a baby finger reattachment operation. Director Han paused to think: ¡°Director Tian can assist with the finger prep while you join the blood vessels. He just finished an open pelvis fracture surgery and must be tired. Yang Ping managed a two-hour severed finger surgery the last time. Assisting you should not pose a problem. If indeed necessary, I¡¯ll step in.¡± With the Director¡¯s assurance and contingency plan in place, Song Zimo couldn¡¯t argue. But he remained a bit upset. Complete blood count, blood type, biochemical tests, liver and kidney functions, coagulation tests, four infectious disease tests, electrocardiogram¨C The emergency department staff worked like disciplined soldiers. Although it seemed chaotic, everyone knew their roles, and co-operated seamlessly and efficiently. The nurse drew blood for the tests. Once tube after tube of blood was filled, they were quickly sent off to the lab for automated analysis. The electrocardiogram was wheeled in. Leads were fastened onto the baby quickly and accurately. The machine spit out readings characterized by their distinct wave patterns. ¡°The ECG is normal,¡± the doctor announced, after looking at the results. ¡°The operating room is ready. Let¡¯s transfer the patient,¡± shouted a nurse from the central island. The doctor gave an OK sign with his hand. The baby was pushed on the gurney towards the operating room, via a dedicated route and elevator. The mother, tears streaming down her face, held onto the side of the gurney and asked, ¡°Can I go with her into the surgery?¡± ¡°No!¡± The emergency doctor mechanically pushed the gurney on without pausing. After several attempts to persuade his wife, the father finally managed to make her let go. ¡°Crying all the time ... what were you doing earlier? Couldn¡¯t even keep an eye on her on an escalator, always on your phone! Did your phone give birth to your child?¡± The child¡¯s grandparents, unable to hold it in any longer after watching the medical staff push the gurney away, yelled at their daughter. ¡°Mom and dad, please, stop criticizing her,¡± the child¡¯s father pleaded. The elderly couple couldn¡¯t resist rebuking further: ¡°She¡¯s our child, we can¡¯t scold her? And you too-¡° Chapter 15 - 0014: Genius Chapter 15: Chapter 0014: Genius Yang Ping ate a piece of chocolate and a compressed biscuit, then rushed to the operating room. Director Han, Song Zimo, Director Tian, Zhang Lin, Fang Yan and many others had arrived, including many young doctors and interns who had rushed to see the baby¡¯s severed finger reimplantation. After all, this was a rare and highly difficult surgery, sometimes a once in a lifetime opportunity. The circulating nurse scolded unruly interns: ¡°So many people? Who is the teacher? Everyone, stay back, keep in mind the concept of sterility!¡± Fortunately, the operating room for orthopedics was spacious, so it didn¡¯t seem very crowded even with many people. ¡°Split into two groups. Tian Yuan will lead Fang Yan and Chen Xiaobo to clean and search for blood vessels, nerves, and tendons in the severed finger; Song Zimo will lead Yang Ping and Zhang Lin in cleaning the proximal wound and looking for blood vessels, nerves, and tendons; The reimplantation will be handled by Song Zimo and Yang Ping, with the others on standby.¡± Director Han explained clearly. ¡°Who is the nurse on duty today?¡± ¡°Su Yixuan!¡± ¡°The specialist nurse for orthopedic surgery?¡± ¡°Yes, Director.¡± The circulating nurse responded as Su Yixuan had already gone to wash her hands. The anesthesiologist was Liang Jing, a bona fide hefty man, who just happened to have a woman¡¯s name. After the successful anesthesia induction, he gently pried open the baby¡¯s small mouth, then carefully inserted the tracheal intubation, pulled out the guidewire, placed the stethoscope on the chest, and confirmed it was inserted into the trachea. Then, he connected the anesthesia machine. ¡°Well, the anesthesia was successful. You may wash your hands now.¡± Liang Jing sat at the head of the child, recording information as he stared at the monitoring data on the display screen. ¡°This one is too hard to handle today. So small, even magnified fifty times under a microscope it¡¯s still difficult. A slight tremble of the hand will cause the blood vessels to rupture.¡± ¡°Yeah, I heard that the most difficult reattachment surgery is for babies, where blood vessels are probably as thin as a hair.¡± ¡°It must be Director Han doing it. He used to work at Magic City Sixth Hospital, which is where the reattachment of severed limbs originated at the national level. The world¡¯s first limb reattachment was performed in that hospital.¡± ¡°Really? No wonder Director Han is so amazing.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s Senior Brother Song doing the surgery.¡± ¡°Senior Brother Song, wow!¡± ¡°He is really amazing, I¡¯ve heard he¡¯s a genius. Haven¡¯t you noticed that Director Han is always with him?¡± ¡°He is so tall and handsome, highly educated, and so exceptional. I¡¯ve heard that many girls like him.¡± Some female interns started to gossip in whispers. ¡°Of course, I heard his family is really wealthy.¡± ¡°Really? Did he take all the good things in the world?¡± Once the gossip box was opened, it was endless. ¡°Quiet! All observers, remain quiet! Replanting a severed finger requires highly concentrated attention. Turn on the video system in the next room. When the operation starts, go next door¨C¡± The chief nurse patrolled the operating room and came in to take a look. This operating room was the main operating room, with additional rooms on both sides. One was a storeroom, the other was a teaching room, half of the wall dividing the teaching room was made of transparent glass. There was a high-definition screen on the wall, connecting to the high-definition camera on the microscope or shadowless lamp here. When needed, surgical video could be broadcast live throughout the entire process. Su Yixuan had finished washing her hands and raised them in front of her chest. She took a sterile gown and stood on an empty side, facing the sterile table. With a slight shake of her hands, they slipped neatly into the inner sleeves. The circulating nurse immediately stood behind her, helping her pull on the gown and tie the straps at her back. Then she put on gloves and started to count and sort the instruments. There were two operating tables. On one side, Song Zimo and Yang Ping were washing the wound. On the other side, Tian Yuan, with Fang Yan, was also washing the severed fingers, carefully, for fear of missing one. After washing the wounds, everyone went to wash their hands and put on their robes. Generally, the first assistant is responsible for sterilizing and spreading the sheets, but Song Zimo let Yang Ping get dressed and did the sterilization and sheet spreading himself. The microscope was rolled in and put aside. Both sides began to debride, which is to thoroughly clean the foreign bodies, necrotic tissues, and devitalized tissues from the wound, and then neatly trim the edge of the skin. The observing young doctors and interns were all driven to the next room. Starting from the thumb, Fang Yan handed over the cleaned thumb to Song Zimo, who drilled the steel pin into the phalanx with an electric drill to connect the bones first, thus establishing the main framework. The next step was to find the blood vessels, nerves, tendons and stitch them together. In simple terms, these were the steps. Blood vessels are the hardest to find, and also the most difficult to sew; nerves are the next; tendons are easy to find and easy to sew, any orthopedic resident can sew them skillfully. The microscope was pushed to the operation area, fixed in position, adjusted for focal length, pupil distance, and magnification. The blood vessels were too thin, they were magnified fifty times. Song Zimo held a microscopic tweezer in his left hand and a microscopic scissors in his right, starting to debride under the microscope and find the blood vessels. His operation under the microscope was indeed impressive. Under the viewing field magnified fifty times, his hand didn¡¯t shake and his operation was extremely skillful. This guy indeed had basis for his pride. Yang Ping had to admit it. ¡°The blood vessels are too thin. Hold your breath, steady your hands.¡± Director Han encouraged Song Zimo. Song Zimo hasn¡¯t spoken a word, operating on the microscopic instruments quietly, finding blood vessels, nerves and tendons under the microscope. In addition to the large screen on the wall in the next room, there was also a screen in the operating room, just not as large. Director Han was sitting in front of the screen, staring at it. The vessels of the thumb were found smoothly, followed by finding nerve and tendon. Next, debride the two ends of the vessels, making the vessels clean and standard, the tube cannot contain any impurities, let alone injury. Rinsed with physiological saline. Thread! The thinnest double-needle non-damaging vascular suture thread, its diameter was only a few tenths of a child¡¯s hair. Cut it in half, half was given to Song Zimo, the other half was preserved by Su Yixuan. Song Zimo started suturing the arterial vessel. However, the baby¡¯s vessels were even smaller than imagined, the diameter should be far less than 0.1 millimeters, estimated around 0.05 millimeters. Song Zimo took a deep breath, composed himself, tried to keep his hand movements slow and steady, at this point, he was challenging the pinnacle of microsurgery. Starting with the first stitch. ¡°Slow down, don¡¯t rush.¡± Director Han said to Song Zimo. Now he couldn¡¯t rush even if he wanted to. The vessels were not only small, but also the wall was relatively thin, totally different from an artery¡¯s wall. Song Zimo¡¯s first stitch was very slow, much slower than his usual training speed, he lifted the outer membrane of the vessel wall with a pair of tweezers, the appropriate touch was required as the wall was extremely delicate and could rip easily. The needle gently pierced the wall of the vessel, in the correct position, and then emerged from the wall of the other end, gently drawn together, and knotted, the first stitch was perfectly sutured. Director Han nodded slightly, indeed Song Zimo was a gifted individual, he had progressed very fast recently. Doing a suture on a 0.05mm vessel so adeptly already. Yang Ping was ready to cut the thread, but Song Zimo declined and took the microscopic scissors to cut the thread by himself. The second stitch, and the third stitch, ¡ª all the way to the sixth stitch, his rhythm was very stable, the distance and edge of the needle were very neat, he successfully rejoined the first pipe smoothly. If it wasn¡¯t for the need for silence in the operating room, the people observing the surgery next door would probably applause. Chapter 16 - 0015: Predicament Chapter 16: Chapter 0015: Predicament ¡°Senior Brother Song is amazing!¡± ¡°His reputation is well-deserved!¡± ¡°If Magic City Sixth Hospital acknowledges him as a genius, there¡¯s nothing more to say.¡± ¡°His operation is god-like.¡± His hands were incredibly steady; the surgical process for the second blood vessel had begun. Each stitch was inserted precisely on the first try, without any repetition. Just like the first one, the second blood vessel was also successfully sutured together. A smile appeared on Director Han¡¯s face. Then came the nerve and tendon suturing, and skin stitching. For Song Zimo, it proceeded like a performance, rapidly completed. The surgery on the thumb was finished, and the reattachment process for the index finger began. The index finger¡¯s blood vessels were in a worse condition than the thumb¡¯s. The vascular walls were not only thinner, but also very brittle. Song Zimo carefully inserted the needle, but the position was not ideal. He withdrew the needle, adjusted the needle¡¯s point, and reinserted it. The position was barely passable. As he planned to thread the needle through the other side of the vessel wall, an accident occurred. The thread that had been inserted ripped a small hole in the blood vessel¡¯s wall. Despite the utmost steadiness and delicacy in his maneuvers, the blood vessel was ripped apart. Director Han furrowed his brows. The situation was not looking good. The blood vessel was extremely thin, with a very delicate wall, and was brittle throughout. The baby must have been a premature birth, which was why the blood vessel development was immature, causing such complications. Song Zimo put down his microscopic tools, moved his eyes from the microscope¡¯s field of view, twisted his neck for a little adjustment, and then picked up the tools again for a new attempt. Since Song Zimo asked Yao Ping not to cut the thread, Yao Ping had not moved, instead he was watching and waiting to help at the right moment. The second attempt still failed. Song Zimo was not willing to give up and tried a third time, but still failed. Each attempt caused the blood vessel to tear. This was just the blood vessel of the index finger; the conditions of the other fingers were imagined to be similar. ¡°Even with such a delicate touch, it still tears.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no way to connect it.¡± ¡°Even if a god descended, it still wouldn¡¯t work.¡± The crowd started a cautious discussion as the operation hit a stalemate. Song Zimo felt a little despondent. He had practiced on similar blood vessels many times, and even manipulating the tail artery of a newborn mouse had become a matter of ease. His condition today was excellent, and he had already been extremely careful with his hands. Why, then, was he still tearing the vessel wall? ¡°This is a premature baby. The blood vessels are not well-developed; the vessel walls are very thin and fragile. They are not like the blood vessels you normally sew or practice on. Song Zimo, wait for a moment. Yao Ping, you can have a rest.¡± Old Han stood up. He let Yao Ping rest to make room for himself to take over the surgery with Song Zimo. Song Zimo could no longer continue, so he put down his tools, moved away from the field of view, tucked his hands into the protective bag on his chest, and waited for Director Han to take over the operation. ¡°Task: Clean up the remains, complete the reattachment surgery for the premature baby¡¯s severed fingers. Reward: 2400 points.¡± The subtitles along with a female voice appeared. Another task was triggered. It seemed that from now on, tasks would be the main line of his life. ¡°Director, can I try it?¡± Yao Ping asked Director Han confidently and sincerely. Director Han was about to get up to wash his hands, but upon hearing Yao Ping¡¯s words, he did not leave. ¡°Let him try? His microscopic surgical operation is amazing. I¡¯ve seen it before,¡± Zhang Lin chimed in to help persuade. After a moment¡¯s consideration, Director Han replied: ¡°Fine, give it a try. But, move slower.¡± Director Han sat down, and the paused actions on the screen started again. But this time, they were not from Song Zimo¡¯s station, but Yao Ping¡¯s. The forceps gripped the outer membrane, and the needle with the thread pierced through the outer wall and emerged from the inner wall. It held a vertical posture, completely devoid of lateral pulling force. Then it entered the inner wall from another end, finally emerging out of the outer wall. The entire thread smoothly passed through the blood vessel in an optimal position each time it entered and exited. Tie the knot! The sharp end of the needle holder was situated between the two threads, closer to one of them. It made a beautiful loop, grabbed the end of the thread. A pretty knot was made, and the two ends were gently brought together perfectly! Tie two more! Exactly three knots. Cut the thread! Song Zimo staring at the screen, he forgot to help cut the thread, Yao Ping cut it himself. The second stitch was being sutured, the movement was very gentle. There was absolutely no need to worry about tearing the blood vessel wall. How is he so skilled? Song Zimo could hardly believe it. Director Han watched attentively as the second stitch was sutured, then stroked his beard and turned to Yao Ping. ¡°Yao Ping, switch seats with Song Zimo and continue¨C¡± The microscope had two eyepieces: one for the chief surgeon and one for the assistant. As Yao Ping was sitting in the assistant¡¯s spot, Director Han suggested him to switch to the chief surgeon¡¯s seat for a more comfortable and convenient operation. The two men switched roles, and the operation continued. Just as Su Yixuan was about to rest, she quickly regained her focus to be ready to pass the instruments at any time. After suturing another stitch and making a knot, Yao Ping put down the microscopic forceps in his left hand. Without having to turn his head, a microscopic scissor had already been handed to him. He took the microscopic scissor, and cut the thread. And then, he continued. The microscopic scissor in his left hand was switched back to the microscopic forceps. Song Zimo was at a loss as to whether he should participate or not. The second stitch, the third stitch, the fourth stitch, the fifth stitch, the sixth stitch¨C Old Han restrained the breath he wanted to exhale, trying to do so as slowly as possible. The operating room was silent, save for the hissing sound of the anesthesia machine. Tian Yuan and Fang Yan, sitting on another operating table, had their hands tucked into the protective bag on their chests, and were also watching the screen attentively. A larger screen in the next room had attracted a crowd. Those young doctors and interns gathered in front of the screen. ¡°It seems that it¡¯s not Senior Brother Song operating anymore!¡± ¡°Must be Director Han!¡± Some looked through the glass windows. ¡°Director Han is not operating; it¡¯s that new guy, Doctor Yang.¡± ¡°He¡¯s that skilled? Even better than Senior Brother Song.¡± They were discussing quietly, careful not to make too much noise even though they were separated by a wall. The operation was flawless, each stitch was at an ideal distance from the edge. Every time a blood vessel was fully sutured, the vessel lumen was strictly mated. If not for the ring of blue thread and the slightly everted edges, no one would believe that it was a severed blood vessel. Not a single stitch tore the vessel wall, and not a single stitch had to be repeated. By this point, all of Song Zimo¡¯s disbelief had evaporated, replaced by awe. He realized that he could not perform like this. Is this what they call a genius? Are the real geniuses in this world like this? Song Zimo had always thought of himself as a genius, but now he understood that he was just a counterfeit genius, only slightly better than ordinary people. When Song Zimo was pursuing his master¡¯s degree, he started training in microscopic surgery and successfully performed a hundred mouse tail surgeries. His rate of success was 100%, and his speed was the fastest among the doctors who participated in the training at the time. He had singlehandedly completed the first successful finger reattachment surgery in record time, comparable to the average time of the orthopedic surgery department in Magic City Sixth Hospital, and the surgery was successful. At that moment, several other doctors had finished their surgeries and came to the teaching room; everyone was glued to the screen. Oh my God! Is that the current surgery happening right now? Finger reattachment can be done this way! Director Han must be operating. It¡¯s been a while since she last saw him perform a finger reattachment surgery. She turned her head to see, no, it¡¯s Song Zimo and Yao Ping, but Song Zimo appears to be holding his hands in his chest protection bag, not operating. It must be Yao Ping then. Director Han swallowed, feeling a lump in his throat. Chapter 17 - 0016: Perfection Chapter 17: Chapter 0016: Perfection The two arteries and four veins have already been anastomosed, smoothly done with no clumsy or duplicate motions, and each action was seamlessly connected without a hitch. Next finger! Hmm! Song Zimo barely had any of his pride left. The sterile, refrigerated small box was opened and Song Zimo personally went to claim the severed finger. He reached in, took the broken middle finger and placed it carefully on the operating table. ¡°Vital signs?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°Stable! Rest assured, you can go on.¡± Liang Jing confidently responded, proud to participate in such a challenging surgery. This kind of tension was restrained, quiet, and calm, unlike those noisy, chaotic resuscitations. It was like a person walking a tightrope without any protection, with the rope stretching across a chasm between cliffs, one misstep leading to a deadly fall. ¡°Do you want to take a break?¡± Director Han asked with concern. ¡°No need!¡± Old Han looked at the time display on the wall panel. The anastomosis of six blood vessels just now had taken about twenty minutes, meaning each vessel took only about three minutes. Next was the nerves. The anastomosis of nerves was much easier than that of blood vessels. The nerves, being solid structures instead of hollow, did not need to worry about patency. Plus, all the nerves in the fingers were sensory nerves, with a relatively high tolerance for error, and there was no risk of sensory nerves and motor nerves growing in a mix. Tian Yuan, Song Zimo, and the other doctors temporarily turned their eyes away from the screen, taking a short rest before watching the next vascular anastomosis. The most exciting and challenging part of the entire surgery was the vascular anastomosis. They would reserve their limited visual power for this most essential part. When the nerves are on edge, people get tired easily. After the two nerves were anastomosed, they moved on to anastomosing the flexor and extensor tendons, which was even simpler process that could be completed without a microscope. Lastly, they stitched up the skin, sealing the wound completely, and announced the successful reattachment of the index finger. Starting from the vascular anastomosis to the final suturing of the skin took only around thirty minutes. This remarkable speed was sure to leave everyone speechless. The index finger was done, and the rubber band tourniquet around the base of the finger was removed. The pale fingertip gradually turned rosy and there was no bleeding at the anastomosis sites. Next was the middle finger, and it was again Song Zimo who brought the severed piece. If he still had a shred of arrogance last time, it had now completely disappeared. He placed the severed finger on the operating table and silently returned to his seat. They repeated the previous steps ¨C stabilizing the fracture, anastomosing the vessels, nerves, and tendons, and finally suturing the wound. ¡°Want to take a break?¡± Director Han suggested again. ¡°Thank you, Director, I¡¯m still okay.¡± said Yang Ping. And the vessel anastomosis started again! The nerves that had just been relaxed instantly tightened again. For some who hadn¡¯t had enough rest, the sudden tension was quite uncomfortable. They all focused on the screen again, not daring to look away for even a second. The surgical movements maintained their previous consistency and speed. After the middle finger was completed, they moved on to the ring finger. Old Han relaxed, his back sinking in relief. After the ring finger, there was only one finger left. Even if it failed, it was only the pinky, which would not greatly affect the function of the hand. By now, Song Zimo had completely succumbed. Medicine, especially clinical medicine, and surgery, were all tangible things. There was no room for pretension or bragging ¨C everything was right there, clear and palpable. Finally, it was the pinky. ¡°Pinky!¡± Song Zimo placed the pinky on the operating table, now willingly doing this job. Yang Ping stretched his neck a bit and loosened his grip on the tools, adjusting his posture slightly to relax for a moment. ¡°This severed finger has a slight problem. The vessels seem a bit adhered to the surroundings.¡± Yang Ping said quietly. ¡°Premature infant, blood vessels are underdeveloped, the surrounding tissues didn¡¯t develop properly either, causing scar-like adhesions!¡± Old Han reminded Yang Ping while looking at the video. ¡°Hmm.¡± Yang Ping also agrees. Yang Ping tries to find the blood vessels, carefully separating the hard adhered tissues bit by bit, exposing the ends of the blood vessels. The forceps pinch the outer membrane while the scissors carefully separate them. The adherence is too tight, making it difficult to separate, and could easily rupture the blood vessel wall. Yang Ping¡¯s scissors stop. ¡°Don¡¯t rush, we have already connected four, there is no issue with its function, we have achieved adequate success already,¡± Director Han says. ¡°I will try again.¡± Yang Ping does not plan to give up. He is not a perfectionist, but he is not one to give up easily either. He likes challenges. When he was at university, he enjoyed running, from one thousand five hundred meters, to three thousand, to five thousand, to ten kilometers, to finally forty plus kilometers marathon. He likes the feeling of constantly challenging himself, he always believes that giving enough effort can achieve the goal. The scissors start to separate again, the speed obviously slows down. One bit at a time, each time he separates a little, he stops. The forceps hold up the blood vessels, and stay steady, while the scissors carefully open and close along the blood vessel wall. ¡°Have you done this kind of severing finger?¡± Song Zimo gently asks. ¡°Hmm.¡± Yang Ping just hums a single note. Song Zimo does not like the temperament of this young man. Possibly having found the feel to separate such tissue, Yang Ping mastered the strength of the surgical tools better, the speed of the scissors gradually increased. The first blood vessel is freed from the adhesion, and gained sufficient length. Then the second blood vessel started getting separated. At least four blood vessels are needed, two arteries and two veins so that the blood flow can be guaranteed The veins are harder to separate because the vein walls are thinner than the arteries. However, the operating surgeon apparently quickly learned from the previous separation experience. With each cut, the scissors can accurately separate between the blood vessel wall and the adhered tissues. Four blood vessels, two arteries, two veins, both proximal and distal ends were separated completely intact. The blood vessels separated from the adhesion, the vessel walls are more fragile. The little finger¡¯s vessels are even smaller. The difficulty of stitching it up is several fold. ¡°This is too hard to sew, feels like it will break at any slight mishandle.¡± Someone speaks in the room next door. Everyone follows the voice to locate the speaker, glaring at them, the person speaking immediately shuts up, and everyone again focuses on the video. Su Yixuan is a professional surgery nurse in orthopedics, her understanding of surgery is much deeper than the average nurse. As there was nothing for her to do on the stage for now, she also turns her body to watch the screen. With such high-level skill, no wonder everyone is silent, only left with the sound of the anesthesia machine¡¯s air delivery. From Su Yixuan¡¯s position, she can see Yang Ping¡¯s profile, even Yang Ping¡¯s eyes looking into the eyepiece. Those pair of eyes deeply move Su Yixuan, his determination, confidence, and focus. Uncontrollably, her face feels a little heated, what is wrong with me? Su Yixuan quickly shifts her gaze. The vascular anastomosis begins, the stitching of this finger¡¯s blood vessels is slower, the surgeon is finding the feeling. The second one is obviously much faster. The third, getting into the groove, he has completely found the technique for stitching this special kind of blood vessels. Yang Ping¡¯s sutures are still as smooth as they were, quality is not compromised at all. Once the last stitch of the vascular anastomosis is completed, Yang Ping puts down the needle holders and the needle thread. Su Yixuan catches them steadily, then carefully puts the tiny needle back on the needle panel. ¡°Shall I stitch the nerves and tendon?¡± Song Zimo suggests. Director Han declined: ¡°No, let him finish it.¡± Not for anything else, but to allow this surgery to end perfectly in the end, anyone replacing Yang Ping at this time, even for stitching a single thread, will be considered a flaw by him. Yang Ping continues, stitching all in one breath, nerves, tendons, and skin. Releasing the rubber tourniquet, after a few seconds, the distal part of the little finger turns red. Apply dressing, cast for fixation, the surgery ends perfectly. Chapter 18 - 0017 Eldest Apprentice Brother Chapter 18: Chapter 0017 Eldest Apprentice Brother ¡°Task completed, reward 2400 points.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t expect to accumulate a few thousand points so quickly. Full of confidence, he believed he could make a fortune from finger amputation and replantation. He had thought there would be no opportunity for such operations, but now it seemed otherwise. Therefore, his plan started to take shape. Yang Ping entered the System Space, went to the mall to buy several basic techniques, and completed the training while the iron was still hot. As such, his points dwindled to about a thousand or so. He was now hard up for points. Song Zimo, Zhang Lin, and the anesthesia nurse together sent the patient back to the ward. All the others had already left, each still relishing the experience. In the changing room, Director Han and Yang Ping sat on a bench in their surgical gowns, leaning against the backrest to rest. Director Han took out a cigarette and offered it to Yang Ping: ¡°Do you smoke?¡± Yang Ping shook his head with a smile and said, ¡°Thanks, Director, I don¡¯t smoke and I can¡¯t hold my liquor either. If it was a few decades ago, I wouldn¡¯t have passed the first cut in the interview. I would have tried to grit my teeth and lift the heavy weights, but with liquor, I¡¯m a complete mess.¡± Director Han laughed heartily: ¡°What a pity, the team of doctors is short of a drinker, and the hundreds of millions of drinking people in China have one less doctor to turn to, a double loss!¡± Director Han put the cigarette to his nose and took a sniff, then put it away. Perhaps he worried that Yang Ping would inhale his second-hand smoke, he leaned back against the chair even more and asked: ¡°There aren¡¯t many finger amputations and replantations in People¡¯s Hospital. I¡¯m curious, how did you develop your skill in microsurgery?¡± ¡°Director, I also don¡¯t know why. Under the microscope, I feel very fluent in operation, just like when I do surgery in direct view.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s face was slightly flushed. ¡°When you have the time, you need to train everyone else and help sharpen their skills. It¡¯s not spring when only one flower blooms, but rather when all the flowers blossom together.¡± Director Han said meaningfully. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Understood, Director. I¡¯ll actively communicate with everyone and make progress together.¡± Director Han excitedly gave him a thumbs up and said, ¡°Magnanimous!¡± ¡°Oh, feel free to bring up any difficulties or requirements you have at work, and you can always talk to me about any ideas you have, whether they¡¯re mature or not. You can call me Old Han in private, just like Tian Yuan and Song Zimo do. It¡¯s more casual that way. Sanbo provides a big platform where you can freely display your talents.¡± With his eyes closed, Director Han seemed a bit tired. The two had their post-operative meal, and Yang Ping quickly left to rest. On his way home, Yang Ping had to cross an overhead bridge. The bridge was wide and bustling. Both sides were lined with stalls, offering fortune-telling, cures for all ailments, and mobile phone screen protection services. Yang Ping stood on the bridge in the breeze, planning his next steps when his phone buzzed with a message from Song Zimo: ¡°Doctor Yang, have you had dinner yet?¡± ¡°Just had it.¡± Yang Ping had already had his post-surgery meal. ¡°Are you still at the hospital?¡± Song Zimo asked cautiously. ¡°Still here!¡± Yang Ping glanced around. ¡°Can you come to the lab?¡± Song Zimo asked, sounding a bit embarrassed. The lab of the Orthopedics Department was actually a large room for surgical training. It held training microscopes, arthroscopes, and other equipment for the younger doctors to use. These training materials are very expensive, and only top hospitals in the country could afford them. What could Song Zimo possibly want? Usually, they would just nod and greet each other when they saw each other. It was rare for Song Zimo to initiate a call. Yang Ping returned to the department where the lab was located at the end of the corridor. The door wasn¡¯t shut completely, just ajar, with a slit of light shining through. Yang Ping gently pushed the door open and entered. There was one person inside, sitting in front of a microscope, practicing. It was Song Zimo. A diligent rich second generation indeed. The saying was true ¡ª he had more money and worked harder than you. Hearing someone enter, Song Zimo turned around: ¡°Come, come, senior brother, I practice very quickly and steadily, but why was I always using too much force during today¡¯s surgery, and couldn¡¯t pick up the pace?¡± Senior brother? Below the Associate Chief Physician and Chief Physician, Song Zimo¡¯s position in the department was that of the senior brother. No one could shake it. Being called his senior now fills him with a strange flattery. ¡°Aren¡¯t you resting yet? Practicing with the microscope so late?¡± Yang Ping guessed that he might be seeking her to discuss today¡¯s surgery, but she didn¡¯t expect such earnestness. This version of Song Zimo was completely different from the one she usually saw. Song Zimo gave up his seat, and Yang Ping sat down, putting her eyes close to the eyepiece. In her field of view, on a fixation plate, a 0.05mm simulated blood vessel was flawlessly anastomosed, very standard. He truly is a genius. These simulated vessels are consumed in training for microscopic surgery. They are expensive and consumed in large quantities; only hospitals like Sanbo that are willing to invest could afford to establish such a laboratory. Famous hand surgery hospitals, like Jishuitan Hospital, Hospital 401, and Hospital 89, all have their own laboratories and host a large number of rabbits and rats. Using rabbit ears or rat tails for practice presents a more realistic scenario, but it is also more time-consuming. With these artificial blood vessels that come in a variety of diameters, one could use as many as they want, and practice for as long as they are willing to pay for. Currently, Song Zimo is practicing with a 0.05mm blood vessel, roughly the same thickness as the finger vessels of a newborn baby. The vessels he bridged in the infant surgery were even thinner than this. ¡°During the surgery today, I always felt I couldn¡¯t go any faster. I needed to go very slow. As soon as I sped up a little, my movements became too large, and I tore the blood vessels,¡± Song Zimo admitted, rubbing his neck in frustration. In fact, he was already quite impressive, managing to accurately anastomose a 0.05mm blood vessel. However, he met with a challenge ¨C Yang Ping. What could be done? They were on different levels. Yang Ping was quite willing to be friends with Song Zimo. Having just arrived at the new hospital, she needed to establish good relationships. If she could handle her relationship with Song Zimo well, the other young doctors would naturally align with her, or, at the very least, not be unfriendly towards her. Being too harsh isn¡¯t a good thing, but being too soft could lead to being overlooked and missing out on many opportunities. It was critical to strike a balance. ¡°Today¡¯s infant was premature, and the blood vessels were underdeveloped and brittle, differing from normal vessels. This is the paradox between training and actual scenarios. I suggest you use a newborn rat as a model, feed it corticosteroid dexamethasone for a while, to create a model for the type of finger vessels a premature baby would have, and then practice on that. This field is about talent and hard work, and practice makes perfect.¡± Yang Ping helped him analyze the situation and provided practical advice. ¡°Actually, your talent is really high, you just haven¡¯t encountered this kind of case before, and it just so happens that I have, so I have the experience,¡± Yang Ping added, encouraging him. Praise works for anyone ¨C this is a famous quote by Dale Carnegie, whose books have topped best-seller lists worldwide. From childhood to adulthood, Song Zimo had always been number one. He accomplished with ease what others struggled to achieve. Experiencing today¡¯s setback unsettled Song Zimo¡¯s mood, but with Yang Ping¡¯s words, he could find a face-saving exit. If he had the experience of dealing with such cases, he certainly wouldn¡¯t have been as passive as he was today. ¡°Try my approach, and practice for a while, you¡¯ll definitely be able to break through this bottleneck.¡± Yang Ping encouraged him. Song Zimo nodded. He felt that Yang Ping was right. She didn¡¯t get arrogant after successfully reattaching the finger of a premature baby today and wasn¡¯t protective of her techniques or perfunctory towards him. ¡°Teach me more when you have time, you¡¯re more experienced than me,¡± Song Zimo said somewhat awkwardly. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Let¡¯s learn from each other and improve together.¡± ¡°Senior, you should go rest now, you worked hard today during the surgery, I will practice a bit more.¡± Song Zimo¡¯s tone was a lot more natural. Yang Ping also wanted to go rest, ¡°Alright, if you have any insights from your practice, do share them with me.¡± Within just half an hour of conversation, Song Zimo granted his respect to Yang Ping. She was highly talented yet lacked even a trace of arrogance, which is quite rare. Having such a colleague was indeed fortune in disguise. Song Zimo held pride, but he didn¡¯t have narrow-mindedness; on the contrary, he disliked narrow-minded people. Chapter 19: 0018 Trauma Emergency Center Chapter 19: 0018 Trauma Emergency Center Yesterday¡¯s battle shot him to fame. ¡°Hello, Senior Brother!¡± In the corridor, whenever the young doctors see Yang Ping, they would respectfully greet him. If Yang Ping decides to change a patient¡¯s medication by himself, pushing the medical cart, and a resident doctor sees him, they immediately rush over: ¡°Senior Brother, I¡¯ll do it, I¡¯ll do it, you rest.¡± Director Han, who had apparently taken a round from the administrative building, returned and saw Yang Ping coming out of the ward. He gestured for Yang Ping to come to his office. He made a cup of tea and handed it to Yang Ping, who was astonished and immediately held it with both hands, ¡°Director, please don¡¯t bother.¡± Director Han sat down and said, ¡°There¡¯s some good news, do you want to know in advance?¡± ¡°What news?¡± Yang Ping wondered what Director Han was implying. He lightly and rhythmically tapped his fingers on the office desk, humming what sounded like Beijing opera. What kind of news would make this man in his fifties as excited as a child? After humming a piece from the opera ¡°Shajia Bang¡±, Director Han took a sip of his Longjing tea and said: ¡°Our hospital is preparing to establish a Trauma Emergency Center. Dean Xia just spoke with me. This center will be led by our Orthopedics department, and involve the neurosurgery, chest surgery, general surgery, urological surgery, ICU, and Rehabilitation departments.¡± ¡°Trauma Emergency Center?¡± ¡°Yes, it is a big system, interdisciplinary, specifically for large-scale, complex, serious, and critical trauma patients, such as traffic accidents, high falls, major safety accidents, like amputations, multiple complex fractures, severe open wounds, life-threatening pelvic fractures, and so on. In order to improve the efficiency and success rate of treatment, the patient will have a dedicated channel, process, team, and ward as soon as they arrive at the hospital. They will be quickly sent to the operating room for surgery and will get the best care and treatment post-surgery.¡± ¡°Our surgical team will be the heart of the Trauma Orthopedics department, especially my group and Tian Yuan¡¯s. The ICU will establish a Trauma ICU. The chest, general and urological surgeries will be responsible for setting up a chest and abdominal trauma surgical group. The neurosurgery will be responsible for establishing a cranio-cerebral trauma surgical group. The Trauma Emergency Center has not been established due to various reasons. I have repeatedly urged Dean Xia, and this time the hospital board has finally made up their minds.¡± ¡°The emergency department will admit patients, specialist departments will be responsible for the surgery, ICU will then take over post-surgery, when stable, the patients will be transferred back to the general ward, and finally, they will go to the Rehabilitation department for rehabilitation training. In addition to our regular work, we will also be in charge of these trauma surgeries. I¡¯ve already adjusted your position to attending physician. For now, you can perform finger amputation replant surgeries. As for other responsibilities, I¡¯ll figure it out slowly. For the time being, you¡¯ll only focus on finger replant surgeries. I want to break into this field through finger replantation surgeries. Speaking of which, Song Zimo brought Zhang Lin to his team, so we need to find someone to assist you. Who would be suitable?¡± Yang Ping quietly listened. He made up his mind to seize this opportunity. It was a rare one. Once he could show his advantage in limb replantation, he could possibly develop in the field of trauma orthopedic surgery, or else he¡¯d remain where he was. ¡°What do you think? Do you have any requests? Just name them.¡± Director Han was very forthright. Yang Ping thought of Little Five, and immediately said: ¡°Director, I have a request. I have a former colleague who is a resident doctor. He was my partner for many years. Now, he is in the emergency department. Can he be transferred to our department?¡± ¡°What¡¯s his name?¡± asked Director Han. ¡°Lu Xiaowu, his surgical skills are not bad, he used to assist me in surgeries. He¡¯s quick-witted, has strong communication skills, and is efficient.¡± Yang Ping replied. ¡°Hey, Old Xiong, it¡¯s Han Jiangong. We talked about establishing a Trauma Emergency Center together, right? Well, here¡¯s the thing, I want to pull one of your people to our side, Lu Xiaowu, from your Emergency department.¡± Director Han immediately made a call. Director Xiong, whose real name is Xiong Sihai, graduated from the military medical academy. With his robust body, he¡¯s one of the three ¡°tough guys¡± in Sanbo Hospital, standing 1.92 meters tall. After twenty years of weight-lifting, he¡¯s full of muscles and quite imposing in every aspect. Speaking of Sanbo¡¯s three tough guys, one of them is Dean Xia Changjiang, who stands at 1.88 meters and has a background in general surgery. He¡¯s an imposing figure who moves like a walking iron tower. Then there¡¯s Cai Junsheng from the Pediatrics department, also 1.88 meters tall, with sturdy limbs. Such a physique, and he¡¯s working in pediatrics. It¡¯s surprising that children don¡¯t burst into tears when they see him. It¡¯s rumored that Cai Junsheng has an extremely gentle personality, like a girl. Imagine, a 1.88 meter-tall man with a feminine air ¨C enough to make you wanna puke. As for Xiong Sihai, once a bunch of medical troublemakers rushed into the emergency department. Xiong Sihai stood in the middle of the hall like a giant, his voice as loud as a bell. He roared so hard, even Zhang Fei of the Battle of Changban would be scared. The group of troublemakers trembled and scattered like birds and beasts. Imagine a man standing 1.92 meters tall, not skinny but also tall, physically developed in every direction. Isn¡¯t this a real-life version of Dwayne Johnson? Xiong Sihai and Han Jiangong were very close friends, often drinking together, proclaiming their brotherhood. ¡°Lu Xiaowu, the new guy, Old Han, your eyes are poisonous, you poached my treasure. I¡¯m telling you, this kid not only does his job well and quickly, but he also has a clever mind. With his talkative mouth, he can talk his way out of any situation. Now, for any difficult patients in our emergency department, he takes the lead. Where did you hear about him?¡± Xiong Sihai¡¯s large hand made the Huawei Mate in his hand look like a small toy. ¡°Cut the crap, will you let him go or not!¡± Director Han cuts right to the chase. ¡°Bro, you poached my man and won¡¯t even let me speak. Only you, Han Jiangong, would dare bully me like this. When should he report to your department? You owe me a drink, just to let you know.¡± Xiong Sihai was absolutely clear about everything. ¡°Tomorrow, no, right now, right now. Have him pack up his things and come over. I¡¯ll go and talk to HR about the procedures. As for the drink, with your capacity, we better not even speak of the word ¡®drink.''¡± Director Han banged the table. ¡°Don¡¯t you get cocky, I¡¯m busy now, I won¡¯t talk with you any more. I¡¯m leaving him to you, and don¡¯t forget about the drink.¡± Xiong Sihai¡¯s face turned red as he hung up the phone, his voice booming like thunder. ¡°Did you hear that? I got him for you. You better do a good job. Be on call 24/7. Let me know if you need to go out. Where do you live?¡± ¡°Across the street, go over the overpass.¡± ¡°Very Good. A phone call and you could be here in minutes.¡± ¡°As for the salary, rest assured, the hospital has policies. There are special channels for special talents, and I will apply to increase your salary.¡± ¡°In addition, the nurses in the operating room also need to establish a specific team. The head nurse asked me to nominate, and I think Su Yixuan is good. The girl is an undergraduate and has undergone training at Magic City Sixth Hospital and Jishuitan in Beijing. What do you think?¡± Su Yixuan, perfect for the operating station, remembering her eyes, Yang Ping actually felt a bit blush. ¡°Yes, she was with me at the operating station last time, very proficient.¡± Yang Ping replied. Director Han immediately said, ¡°Well, let¡¯s settle for this young lady first, I¡¯ll think about the rest.¡± Knock, knock, knock, there was a knock at the door. Upon opening the door, a mischievous and smiling face of Lu Xiaowu stretched in, ¡°Director Han, hello, Director Xiong asked me to report to you.¡± ¡°Just him?¡± ¡°Just him!¡± Yang Ping nodded his head. Little Five surreptitiously gave Yang Ping a thumbs-up. Director Han said, ¡°Come on in, Lu Xiaowu. I¡¯ll tell you, Yang Ping personally recommended you. Work hard, don¡¯t tarnish his reputation. Specific tasks will be delegated by Yang Ping to you later.¡± Lu Xiaowu came in, ¡°Director, rest assured, I will definitely work hard.¡± These few days, Director Han was incredibly busy, running around with Dean Sun and Xiong Sihai. A few days later, the plaque of the ¡°Trauma Emergency Center¡± was put up at the entrance of the emergency department. Dedicated telephones and internet lines connecting the emergency department, the various departments, the ICU of Trauma and the operating room were also launched. Various rules and procedures were being implemented. Material was ready and staff were being mobilized and organized, everything was in place. Director Han looked at the three big characters ¡°Trauma Emergency Center¡± on the plaque, touching his forehead, looked left and right, and couldn¡¯t hide his smile. Yang Ping felt a sense of urgency, because the only thing he was very good at now was reattaching severed limbs. When the Trauma Emergency Center would open, there wouldn¡¯t only be severed limbs to reattach. There would be all kinds of injuries, all of them critical. Fortunately, the task that Director Han assigned him for now was concentrating on severed limb reattachment. He had to seize this time to enhance his skills in trauma orthopedics. After all, limb reattachment was just a surgery that belonged to the department of hand surgery, and hand surgery was just a branch of trauma orthopedics. Chapter 20 - 0019 Astonishing Everyone (Part 1) Chapter 20: Chapter 0019 Astonishing Everyone (Part 1) The Trauma Emergency Center carried out its inauguration ceremony. Dean Xia, with several deputy deans and the department directors of the surgical system, stood in a line on the steps outside the Emergency Department¡¯s main entrance. Below were doctors, nurses, postgraduates, interns from various departments, anyone who was free came to join in, and the more people there were, the livelier it looked. First, Dean Xia gave a stirring speech, then each department director pledged selfless dedication and teamwork to develop and strengthen the center. Finally, Dean Xia unveiled the silk red cloth with a grand gesture. The golden lettering ¡°Trauma Emergency Center¡± was revealed. There was a loud round of applause. A few short days later, at a little past seven in the morning, the dedicated line of the Trauma Emergency Center was put to use. A nearby factory caught fire, and the higher-ups demanded that Sanbo Hospital promptly dispatch helicopters and ambulances for the rescue operation. The ground and air teams set off simultaneously. A helicopter could carry five people: two crew members, a doctor, a nurse, and a seat reserved for the patient. It was equipped with advanced emergency equipment, including a ventilator. The helicopter arrived first, landing in a nearby football field. The doctor and nurse, carrying emergency kits, walked towards the accident scene. A pillar of heavy smoke climbed upwards like a giant dragon. The surroundings were in utter chaos; paramilitary police had marked off a large circle area with warning tapes. Announcements were being made over loudspeakers, but people were still crowding around, unwilling to leave, pushing and shoving each other. Red fire trucks were stationed all around, high-pressure water jets crisscrossing, aimed at the collapsed building. Ambulances were flashing red lights, lined up one after the other, parked nearby. This morning, there had been a fire at this factory. Though the fire was eventually put out, the building had collapsed, burying eleven people, eight of whom were firefighters. Then, another person was dug out. ¡°Make way! Make way!¡± Firefighters carried a person out of the heavy smoke on a stretcher. ¡°Hang in there, Qiangzi! Hang in there, you hold on!¡± The firefighter supporting the stretcher yelled, sobbing, his voice breaking. ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡± The deputy mayor, who was in charge of the rescue operations, wearing a helmet, immediately rushed over, followed by other staff. ¡°Our comrade. He¡¯s conscious, his right upper limb has been crushed, broken into several pieces, we¡¯re still looking for a thumb,¡± the firefighter said in a rushed tone. ¡°Be quick!¡± ¡°Which is the nearest hospital?¡± ¡°Sanbo!¡± ¡°Send to Sanbo Hospital, Sanbo hospital¡¯s ambulance!¡± ¡°Over here!¡± The ambulance also arrived, and the doctor immediately raised his hand, the paramedics ran over, grabbing the stretcher. The fridge was opened; the severed limbs were counted and recorded one by one, sterilized gauze wrapped around them, put into plastic bags, and placed inside the fridge, dry and cold refrigeration. A venous access pathway was opened on the other forearm, and saline was already being administered. The ambulance had automated testing equipment, so blood samples were immediately drawn for tests. The hospital was called to prepare red blood cells and plasma. ¡°Quick! Back to the hospital.¡± ¡°Report, traffic jam, it¡¯s the rush hour for work.¡± ¡°Traffic jam? Damn it! Traffic cops! Dispatch a patrol car, several motorcycles, go and clear the traffic, those who don¡¯t make way, flip their cars.¡± The deputy mayor started cursing. ¡°No need, we have a helicopter, it¡¯s parked at a nearby football field, we¡¯ll drive the patient to the helicopter, we can get there quickly.¡± ¡°Helicopter, right! The patient is in your hands now, we¡¯ll send somebody after you.¡± ¡°Qiangzi, hold on! Brothers, we¡¯re going back in¨C¡± Several firefighters, once again courageously rushed into the ruins. ¡°Report to the Mayor, six individuals have been rescued, four firefighters, two workers, one has been sent to Sanbo Hospital, the other five have been sent to People¡¯s Hospital and Medical University Affiliated Hospital.¡± After finishing the call, the deputy mayor, his head buzzing, leaned over with his hands on his waist, his clothes soaked with sweat, stared blankly at the smoking ruins. There were still five people buried inside, their fate unknown. A few days after the establishment of the Trauma Emergency Center, it welcomed patients in this manner. Ding-dong! Mission: A stunning feat, surgery for a hero¨C five-section limb replantation! Reward: 16000 points + random gift pack! Five sections severed, it gives goosebumps just thinking about it. It seems the building collapsed and was hit by a machine that happened to have several blades attached to it. Yang Ping and Old Han headed straight for the helipad, the dedicated elevator goes directly there, the helipad was already crowded with people. Next to the landing pad, Director Xiong and several doctors and nurses were waiting, next to them was a large box containing prepared emergency medicines and equipment. ¡°Yes, yes, yes! Our helicopter will be landing soon, the rescue team has already been assembled, all personnel are in place, rest assured, we will complete the mission.¡± Dean Xia was sweating profusely, his shirt back soaking wet. ¡°Director Han, Director Xiong has already informed you of the basic situation. The helicopter will be back soon, take a look at the patient as soon as it lands, immediately develop a plan, assemble the best team, and carry out the surgery quickly.¡± Dean Xia looked up at the sky. The helicopter approached from afar, the sound of the engine grew louder, it circled above the rooftop before landing steadily on the helipad. The wind stirred up by the rotors blew everyone¡¯s hair to one side. The patient was stretchered out and rushed towards the elevator on the rooftop. Emergency doctors and nurses immediately moved forward, even as they followed the stretcher from which they extracted blood from the placed intravenous cannula, and sent it to the blood transfusion department for cross-matching. This speeds up the blood transfusion process. ¡°Complete the preoperative examination, go directly to surgery!¡± Director Xiong waved his hand. ¡°Secretary Luo from the municipal government is on his way. The rescue team¨C Secretary Luo is the team leader, I¡¯m the deputy, and you are the chief expert. The command centre is stationed in our surgical building conference room. Secretary Luo requested that the entire rescue process be broadcast live in the conference room. Mayor Li is in Beijing for a meeting and is very concerned about this accident, and is rushing back.¡± Dean Xia tried to explain everything in a few sentences. ¡°Song Zimo, Lu Xiaowu, and Zhang Lin are already in the surgical room, we are going downstairs right now to prepare for surgery.¡± Old Han got excited. Soon, Dean Xia arrived at the conference room, followed by Secretary Luo and representatives from the armed police, health, and public security department. The attendant guided everyone to their seats in the front row. ¡°Secretary Luo, please have a seat! We have organised the hospital¡¯s elite to participate in the rescue. Our chief expert, Professor Han Jianguo, comes from the Magic City Sixth Hospital and has abundant experience in trauma orthopedics.¡± Dean Xia led Secretary Luo to his seat. Secretary Luo put his document bag on the table, with a solemn look on his face: ¡°Hmm, I just heard from the health bureau that Professor Han is a well-known professor in domestic trauma orthopedics. Mayor Li just spoke with me on the phone for half an hour, instructing us to spare no effort, to save patients, and prioritise people¡¯s health.¡± ¡°Yes, we will fulfil the trust placed in us by the people. Secretary Luo, you will be able to see the entire rescue process on this screen here, and command the entire process.¡± ¡°Great, I was just about to mention live video broadcasting. Mayor Li also wants to see the scene as soon as possible. Also, to strengthen the rescue force, the city has contacted Professor Hong Zhigang from Magic City Sixth Hospital, a top orthopedic expert in the country. He will connect with us via video at that time to instruct the surgery.¡± Secretary Luo adjusted his hair. ¡°Professor Hong Zhigang is the senior of our Director Han.¡± Professor Xia explained. ¡°Then that¡¯s a strong combination.¡± Secretary Luo settled into his seat. ¡°Xiao Yang, are you confident enough? If not, I¡¯ll do it myself.¡± In the changing room, Old Han asked while changing his clothes. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°No problem, I will give it my all.¡± ¡°Good! Remember, stay calm, ensure the quality of the anastomosis, this multi-segment limb injury is severe, and highly contaminated. The blockage of any anastomosis will cause our previous efforts to be wasted. Don¡¯t bear any psychological burden, I will bear all the consequences! Do it as you did with the baby finger replantation, go all out. I will say it again, if there is any problem, I will take all the consequences!¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Yang Ping had changed clothes and put on his mask and cap. Old Han took out a cigarette, sniffed it, put it back, and pressed his hand on Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder, saying: ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± The whole hospital displayed high professionalism. Everyone stayed calm, keeping to their roles, cooperating with each other, allowing work to proceed smoothly. The surgery required a long time, with tracheal intubation for general anaesthesia. ¡°Anesthesia successful, you can start the operation now!¡± Anesthetist Liang Jing, said calmly, then added: ¡°I will take care of the patient, you guys go ahead.¡± Old Han commanded the surgery room again like the previous time, the operation was divided into two groups, with two operating tables. Yang Ping and Song Zimo washed the injury site on the near end, Tian Yuan and Fang Yan washed the severed limbs, and the rest of the people helped accordingly¨Csetting the body position, lifting the hand, and passing things. ¡°Go for it!¡± Tian Yuan made a gesture, sending an encouraging look. Song Zimo also gave a thumbs-up: ¡°Go for it!¡± ¡°Go for it!¡± Yang Ping responded, his heart surging with emotions. After washing, everyone went to wash their hands. Song Zimo disinfected the spread, Yang Ping immediately put on the gown and gloves. The scrub nurse, Su Yixuan, her bright eyes, long eyelashes, flickering, she clenched her small fist and said to Yang Ping: ¡°Brother Ping, go for it! I believe in you.¡± The sound of the anesthesia machine puffing air, the circulating nurse bustling about: ¡°8 units of red blood cells, 1600 millilitres of plasma, are being infused.¡± ¡°Blood pressure stable, vital signs stable!¡± ¡°Micro instruments, ready!¡± ¡°Microscope, ready!¡± Pre-surgery check¡ª Start! Yang Ping held a pair of tweezers in his left hand and sharp tissue scissors in his right, and began to debride the wound. He carefully identified and thoroughly removed the foreign bodies, necrotic tissue and non-viable tissue; neatly trimmed the skin; found, trimmed, and marked every blood vessel, nerve, muscle, and tendon. After cleaning this side, rinse again. They then separately debride the severed limbs with Tian Yuan¡¯s group, finding and marking the blood vessels, nerves, and tendons. The severed limbs, after both groups have cleaned them, come together and are rinsed again. The radial and ulnar fractures are reset, and the steel plate is placed. The three steps of temporarily fixing the steel plate with reduction forceps, drilling holes, measuring depth and tapping, are completed in one go. Then the screws are screwed in one by one. And then the hand and finger fractures are fixed with 1.5 and 1.0 Kirschner wires. Successful connection of the severed limbs¡¯ skeleton, the basic shape restored, the rest is the connection of the severed blood vessels, nerves, and tendons. Tendon sutures¨C! Connecting the tendons first? Old Han was sitting a few meters away, staring at the screen on the wall of the surgical room: ¡°Xiao Yang, hurry up and connect the blood vessels! Reduce ischemic time.¡± ¡°No delay, connect them level by level, from deep to shallow, there¡¯s no need to rigidly connect the blood vessels first, it won¡¯t cause much delay!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s tone was confident. ¡°Within a certain time, connecting them level by level can reduce interference with the already connected blood vessels, ensuring the highest quality of connection.¡± Yang Ping added, this was his confidence in his speed. Old Han had complete confidence in Yang Ping¡¯s abilities, so he didn¡¯t say anything else, just focusing on the screen to provide necessary support at any time. After all, Yang Ping was still young and inevitably lacked experience. In fact, when Yang Ping was fixing the fracture, he deliberately slowed down. Because he knew that his fracture surgery level was far behind limb replantation. But this kind of radial and ulnar fracture is not a problem for any orthopedic specialist, and it had little impact on the overall surgery time. The large screen was divided into two halves, one half displaying the surgical video; one half connected to Professor Hong Zhigang in Magic City. At Magic City, Professor Hong was holding a conference, a national orthopedic trauma web meeting. Professor Hong requested for the surgery live broadcast to be connected to the conference platform. This way, he could remotely instruct the entire surgical process and let all the national participants see the live broadcast of the five-section replantation. After all, five-section replantation was very rare, whether it succeeded or failed, it was an excellent communication opportunity. Moreover, he wanted to see how his junior, Han Jianguo, created a miracle. The first fracture, the first blood vessel. Beginning the connection. Chapter 21 - 0020 – Stunning Everyone (Part 2) Chapter 21: Chapter 0020 ¨C Stunning Everyone (Part 2) The high-definition camera is mounted on the microscope, directly capturing the surgical field of view under the lens. The video¡¯s comment feature is activated. To avoid distracting the viewers, the comments are moved to a dedicated area under the video. Since no one can see each other in this virtual meeting, everyone is unrestrained, and the comments section quickly comes alive. ¡°What the hell, why did he start with the tendon rather than blood vessels first? Must be a rookie?¡± ¡°Yeah, probably a newbie.¡± ¡°Why would they let a newbie live stream at such a high-profile conference? Is this some kind of joke?¡± ¡°Must have sponsored the conference and trying to advertise.¡± ¡°They failed to mention from which hospital they are.¡± ¡°Silence!¡± ¡°Look at his speed.¡± ¡°Just a few seconds, and he finished suturing a tendon. A perfect junction. A rookie?¡± ¡°A rookie with such speed?¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t the usual order of suturing. It¡¯s organized by layers, not everyone dares to do it this way.¡± ¡°Fasten your seatbelts!¡± ¡°He¡¯s starting on the blood vessel now!¡± ¡°His skill level will be evident from the quality of the vascular anastomosis.¡± The last surgery was a baby¡¯s finger replantation where the surgeon¡¯s speed was hindered by the thin veins. But this time, they are suturing an adult¡¯s blood vessels, the blood vessels of the forearm no less. The speed can certainly be accelerated. ¡°You can judge someone¡¯s surgical skill from a forearm blood vessel surgery? Ridiculous.¡± ¡°Again, just a few seconds to suture each one, am I seeing this right?¡± ¡°He¡¯s suturing the nerves now. Looks like he¡¯s gearing up to suture the median nerve.¡± ¡°Damn! Is he planning to use an epineural suture?¡± ¡°In a five-part dissection, he dares to use epineural sutures? Is he trying to commit suicide?¡± ¡ª ¡°Are you crazy? Planning to use epineural sutures?¡± Song Zimo quietly asked. Old Han stroked his chin, tapping his fingers on his thigh, peplexed: ¡°For a five-part dissection, using an epineural suture is unwise. What¡¯s this kid trying to do?¡± Old Han knew that the live-streamed surgery was being viewed by surgeons nationwide. But Yang Ping didn¡¯t know. He couldn¡¯t tell him, fearing the pressure might get to him. Epineural suture? Hong Zhigang unscrewed his bottle of mineral water, took a long gulp, and leaned in. For such a surgery, everyone would choose perineural sutures, no one would use epineural sutures. The reason is simple: it takes too much time. For instance, an arm has three main nerves¨Cthe median, ulnar, radial¨Ceach with tens of bundles inside. It¡¯s like a thick electrical cable composed of tens of thinner cables. When you suture perineurally, you just suture the outer casing of the whole bundle. However, if you use epineural sutures, you have to suture each individual nerve bundle, the ¡®casing¡¯ on each ¡®thin cable¡¯. With perineural sutures, a problem can typically be solved in about 12 stitches. With an epineural suture, you¡¯re looking at more than ten times the number of stitches. Can you imagine the difference? If you needed one stitch for a perineural suture, you¡¯d need more than ten for an epineural one. Such a surgery is already time-consuming, spanning tens of hours. If one were to use epineural sutures, they might not even be finished by tomorrow. How could this friend of ours make such a basic mistake? Hong Zhigang started feeling confused, and so did everyone else. Everyone wanted to see what would happen to this irresponsible surgeon! Replanting five parts was already pushing the industry¡¯s limits, let alone using epineural sutures. Overconfidence would sink the ship. He¡¯s sure to fail, just doing it for the shock factor. Hong Zhigang thought, and most people probably thought the same. ¡°The higher you fly, the harder you fall!¡± ¡ª The live-stream continued! The tiny nerve sheaths were gripped by a microscopic tweezer. Like following a predetermined path on repeat, the needle thread never veered off course as it went in and out, pulling and knotting. The air seemed to solidify in the operating room. No one spoke; everyone treaded lightly, afraid to disturb Yang Ping. Yang Ping was breathing evenly. Inside the system, after 5000 simulated finger reattachments, he had learned to tune his body to an effortless state, not tense, but not relaxed either. His movements were neither stiff nor erratic. This was high-level coordination between the brain and muscles. Every command from the brain went through the nervous system to the muscles. The muscles controlled the fingers, which then controlled the surgical tools, transmitting the commands from the brain to the tip of the surgical tool almost without loss. His hand speed began to increase. Song Zimo couldn¡¯t keep up with the pace anymore. He put the microscopic scissors by Yang Ping¡¯s right hand. Every time Yang Ping finished a stitch, he would replace the forceps with the scissors to cut the thread, then replace those with the forceps to keep suturing. He never took his eyes off the surgical field during the entire process, and he never messed up switching the forceps and scissors. Su Yixuan was highly focused, trying to anticipate Yang Ping¡¯s next move. She was trying to understand what each of his movements and expressions meant. She held her breath, feeling both nervous and excited. Nervous because she had never put so much effort into assisting a surgery before, and excited because she was able to keep up with his rhythm. ¡°I¡¯ll be damned, the speed? Is this a joke, are they fast-forwarding the video?¡± ¡°I also noticed it, it¡¯s sped up! Mother F, they even fake this?¡± ¡°What happened to the live broadcast? Why is it fast-forwarding?¡± ¡°It¡¯s live!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t kid yourself. As an attendee from Beijing, my hospital ranks in the top three in suture skills and I can¡¯t even reach that speed. Are you still gonna say it¡¯s not fast-forwarding?¡± ¡°Stop bullshitting, brains are a good thing, some people just don¡¯t have one! Look carefully, in the same shot, another pair of hands is clearly moving at a human speed. They¡¯re struggling to keep up with the rhythm. So I ask you, the one saying it¡¯s sped up, how would you speed up one pair of hands but not the other in the same shot? If you can¡¯t do it, don¡¯t say others can¡¯t either.¡± ¡°Merlin¡¯s beard, I thought we had a rookie here, but this is clearly a master.¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t seen such a smooth surgery in many years.¡± ¡°Not a single unnecessary movement, every stitch is like a precise machine at work, perfect! Art! Please accept my meniscus-injured knee in respect. Oh, my God.¡± ¡ª The first break point had been perfectly sutured ¨C blood vessels, nerves, and tendons all secured ¨C and now they were starting on the second. Five sections had been severed: two breaks at the forearm, one in the palm, and two fingers. The thumb was missing, not found at the site. Each break at the forearm needed six blood vessels, three nerves, and seventeen tendons reconnected; the palm and the fingers required even more connections, and each one was a delicate blood vessel or nerve. Hong Zhigang held a bottle of mineral water, several times intending to unscrew the cap but hesitating each time. His heart was restless. In the video, that pair of hands continued the operation mostly by themselves. What had happened to his junior over these years? His microsurgical skills had become so breathtakingly adept. Ten years ago, when the mentor stepped down from the director¡¯s position, the successor should have been Han Jiangong. Hong Zhigang had used some methods to force Han Jiangong to leave the Magic City Sixth Hospital. Naturally, Hong Zhigang became the successor. Hong Zhigang¡¯s lips trembled. In reality, he hadn¡¯t wanted things to turn out that way. But as events spiraled out of control, his junior was forced to leave. He had always wanted to explain to Han Jiangong, to say sorry. But in ten years, the two men had not been in contact. Even at academic conferences, they merely smiled at each other like unfamiliar colleagues, a way of saying hello. This time, when he received an invitation from the G City government for remote guidance of a rescue operation, Hong Zhigang did not call Han Jiangong. Hong Zhigang took out his phone, flipping through his contacts. He saw Han Jiangong¡¯s number and gave a bitter smile. The man was in surgery, and besides, he might have changed his number already. ¡°Teacher Hong!¡± a student approached, quietly asking a question Today was Sunday. Except for the duty doctor, all other doctors were in the conference room participating in an online conference. Magic City Sixth Hospital was the host. ¡°What is it?¡± Hong Zhigang was pulled from his thoughts. ¡°The conference attendees strongly request that the live broadcast continue!¡± the student said. Hong Zhigang glanced at the screen and said, ¡°Isn¡¯t the video being live-streamed continuously?¡± The student replied, ¡°They worry that it will be cut off due to the duration.¡± ¡°All right! Continue then.¡± ¡°What about the other conference items?¡± ¡°Condense them! Explain this to everyone.¡± ¡°Ok.¡± ¡ª Comments: ¡°Exciting! Major event! I¡¯ve prepared cola and fries.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already found someone to cover my shift, and my phone is switched off.¡± ¡°Quick question, is this level of skill enough to contend for the Golden Knife Award?¡± ¡°Huh, I was thinking the same.¡± ¡°Which hospital is this?¡± ¡°No information so far.¡± ¡°What the hell, an emergency surgery, at this time.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going, let the director do it.¡± ¡°I am the director!¡± ¡°Let the dean do it.¡± ¡°The dean specializes in gynecology.¡± ¡ª The comments were afire, the atmosphere more intense than any previous online conference. Hong Zhigang looked back to see everyone riveted to the screen, no one leaving. Even if an individual had to use the washroom, they ran there and back. Old Han watched with a smile on his face, lightly humming a Peking Opera tune and rhythmically tapping his fingers on his thigh. He turned and glanced at Yang Ping¨Cthis kid, who had the audacity to do this, was something Old Han himself wouldn¡¯t dare to do even if he were twenty years younger. The anesthetist would occasionally glance at the screen but, duty-bound, soon turned back to focus on the patient¡¯s vital signs. Su Yixuan¡¯s eyes often stole glances at Yang Ping. She didn¡¯t know why she was so bold today, but since he was focused on the surgery and couldn¡¯t see her, she allowed her gaze to wander back to him. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s spacious conference room in the surgical building was now packed. Official media such as the city¡¯s newspaper and television station had been invited and were legally present. Other journalists, such as those from online media, had managed to infiltrate by becoming tea and water servers through various connections. For an event this big, everyone wanted the latest information first hand. One must know, for some websites, a heavyweight news piece that attracts attention could bring immeasurable traffic. Secretary Luo sat in the front row, in the middle of Dean Xia. Policemen, Public Security Bureau staff, Health Bureau staff, newspaper staff, and TV station staff lined up on both sides. Secretary Luo was nervous. He had been in politics for many years and had developed a composure that was difficult for ordinary people to match. He had handled countless public events, but he still felt tense. After the accident, the First Deputy Mayor went to the scene to command Rescue; the other leaders of the municipal government went to various hospitals to direct rescue operations. Secretary Luo was assigned to Sanbo Hospital. ¡°Want some water?¡± Dean Xia pointed at the mineral water. Secretary Luo realized that he hadn¡¯t drank any water from the bottle in front of him. He slowly unscrewed the cap, took a sip, and coughed a few times. The operation continues! The comments continue! ¡°They¡¯ve started on the palm.¡± ¡°The rhythm is so clear.¡± ¡°After the palm, there are five fingers left. Each has two joints, so it¡¯s like dealing with ten fingers. My scalp is tingling!¡± ¡°It¡¯s four fingers, which is like eight.¡± ¡°What about the thumb?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you read the case summary? They didn¡¯t find the thumb at the scene, they¡¯ll probably have to do a stump repair.¡± Stump repair is when the stump doesn¡¯t have a finger attached, and the wound is simply cleaned up and sutured closed. Chapter 22: 0021 A Stunning Success (Part 2) Chapter 22: 0021 A Stunning Success (Part 2) The surgeon pulled it off. The challenge was a success! Everyone was full of sighs, as if they¡¯d just gotten off a rollercoaster. Hong Zhigang sat there, unmoving. His curiosity piqued about this junior who he had lost contact with for over ten years. Stable hands, pushing the surgery forward at a speed of a bundle every ten or so seconds. In this way, just around four to five minutes were required to anastomose a nerve. In effect, all three nerves were reconnected in just over ten minutes. This was the speed of proficient hand surgeons performing neural anastomosis. Hong Zhigang marveled. It was no wonder he had the audacity to use the fascicular method. Honest to God, the outcome of the fascicular stitching technique was far superior when repairing peripheral nerves compared to the epineural stitching. Given a limb amputation, if you don¡¯t consider function and focus solely on survival, it¡¯s meaningless. Many patients after limb reattachment, because the reattached limb doesn¡¯t function, choose to have it amputated. It¡¯s a burden. The functionality of a reattached limb post-surgery hinges on the restoration of damaged nerves. If sensory nerves don¡¯t recover, patients are prone to burns, frostbites and, at times, ulcers due to breakdown of skin. If motor nerves are not repaired, limbs can¡¯t move and they¡¯re merely a burden. For the second amputation site on the forearm, they followed the same sequence and method as before. The blood vessels are getting tinier. The amputation site on the hand, anastomoses were done on the superficial and deep palmar arches, four veins, and thirteen tendons. This was no longer exciting enough to hold everyone¡¯s interest. Many chose to take a break and the barrage of comments declined sharply. It seemed like everyone was waiting. When they started on the fingers, everyone had to forcibly bring their attention back. While the fascicular method is impressive, it¡¯s limited to stitching nerves and it¡¯s hard to draw a conclusion. Now, the core technique of microsurgery¡ªthe anastomosis of finger blood vessels¡ªwas about to commence! The barrage of comments reduced considerably, as everyone tuned in intently, afraid of missing any detail. ¡ª ¡°We¡¯ve been waiting for this! Finger blood vessels, they¡¯re stitching the finger blood vessels now.¡± ¡ª ¡°Would you want to take a short break? Let Song Zimo take over for a bit, catch your breath? I can scrub in as well.¡± Old Han suggested. Yang Ping replied, ¡°I can still hold on. I¡¯ll let you know if I can¡¯t.¡± Old Han went back to observing the screen, he knew what was at stake. After all, even if it was reattachment of an infant¡¯s severed finger, it was a familiar knowledge, this adult¡¯s blood vessels were several times larger than an infant¡¯s and would be so much easier to operate on. What Old Han was concerned about was fatigue, as fatigue can diminish one¡¯s abilities. Whether due to fatigue or to best control power to avoid causing tearing force on the vessel wall, Yang Ping slowed down. This allowed Song Zimo to take the opportunity to enter under-microscope surgical field and assist. Song Zimo took a deep breath and adjusted to his optimal state. While Yang Ping was tired, he was recharged. He was prepared to catch up with the rhythm. The instruments and sutures, like spirited little elves under the microscope, weaved in and out. They maintained a certain speed without causing significant tension from the friction between the thread and the blood vessel wall. The best balance was achieved between the two. Yang Ping was like a machine operating under the command of his brain. His body was highly coordinated. Even his breaths were terrifyingly even. From Old Han¡¯s perspective, Yang Ping looked like a sculpture, calm and focused. Apart from his hands, every other section of his body remained still. There was no sweat on his forehead like there was supposed to be. At this moment, even if the earth shook and the mountains moved, he probably wouldn¡¯t be affected. He was completely immersed in another world, his own world. In this world, surgery was everything! ¡ª ¡°So perfect it leaves one breathless!¡± ¡°I doubt that the surgeon is a person. Could it be a state-of-the-art surgical machine? Each stitch is so perfect¡ªonly a machine can achieve that level of perfection.¡± ¡°The Chief Surgeon has been leading all along!¡± ¡°Is this an advertisement for Redbull?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s for Viagra!¡± ¡°Finally, the assistant has come into view.¡± ¡°Let me repeat, this is Beijing. Top three hospital. Our top microsurgeon admits to being no match. Yes, I¡¯m saying this on the record.¡± ¡°Look closely, not a single stitch needs adjusting.¡± ¡°This is as easy as sewing skin for me. Who plays like this? Do they want us to live?¡± ¡°Ah! How can the difference be so great?¡± ¡°The world is so vast; I want to go see it!¡± ¡ª Operating room. ¡°Director Han!¡± Dean Sun must have walked in at some point. Dean Xia was in command in the meeting room, while Dean Sun was in charge of coordination in the operating room. ¡°Everything is going smoothly!¡± Old Han replied as he turned around. Dean Sun whispered something into his ear. Old Han then got up to go out with him. They walked out of the operating room and the automatic door opened. In the family waiting area, an elderly woman, with the support of a young woman, was walking over. A few young men were following them. The elderly woman held a handkerchief, incessantly wiping away her tears. Dean Sun introduced her, ¡°This is the mother of our hero.¡± Old Han immediately stepped forward to shake her hand in salute. The elderly woman composed herself and said, ¡°Doctor, could you try to reattach Qiangzi¡¯s thumb as well?¡± The thumb? The thumb wasn¡¯t found, so it couldn¡¯t be reattached. The only option was reconstruction during the second phase. After this surgery is successful, at least a month later, another operation would take place. A toe would be taken and attached in place of a thumb. The old lady hesitated for a moment, then said, ¡°Could you take my thumb and attach it to him?¡± ¡°Take mine! Take mine!¡± The young men behind her chimed in simultaneously. This goes completely against medical principles! For someone else¡¯s finger to be attached, it requires intricate treatment, such as immunosuppressive therapy to prevent rejection, otherwise, the transplanted tissue won¡¯t survive because of rejection. The cost of such treatment is high, the price is too great. In cases of kidney or liver transplantation, the objective is to save lives, and there aren¡¯t any better alternatives, so no matter how high the cost or how big the price, it¡¯s worth it! But fingers are different, even if lost, they don¡¯t affect life, especially when there is a better option¨Cconstructing a new thumb from a free second toe. ¡°No! Definitely not!¡± Old Han patiently explained. ¡°Please! Doctor, can you take a toe as you just mentioned?¡± the old woman asked. ¡°Yes!¡± Old Han said. ¡°Then why wait, can it be done now?¡± the old woman hastily asked. ¡°That¡¯s also not possible, it¡¯s too dangerous! This operation should be left for the second phase. Wait until this operation is done, and the limb has survived, then consider taking the toe to replace the thumb. Doing this operation now would not only prolong the operation time, but if the limb reimplantation fails, a toe would be wasted for nothing.¡± Old Han maintained patients. ¡°I see!¡± The old woman was very disappointed. She then pleaded, ¡°Doctor, please try to find a way.¡± ¡°Doctor, it¡¯s fine, we are willing to take the risk. If Qiangzi were awake, he would definitely agree.¡± The young woman said. ¡°No!¡± Old Han decisively refused. The family members didn¡¯t want to push any further and turned to leave. Old Han felt that he was too harsh, so he lowered his voice and asked gently, ¡°Could you tell me why you insist on this?¡± Upon hearing Old Han¡¯s words, the family members felt they saw an opportunity and immediately returned. The old woman said, ¡°Doctor, Qiangzi¡¯s father is hospitalized and the doctors say he won¡¯t last much longer. He heard about Qiangzi¡¯s accident and is very worried. We told him that Qiangzi¡¯s hand was reattached and didn¡¯t lose a finger. He is very stubborn and insists on seeing it for himself. He is already on his way here. If he sees Qiangzi missing a thumb, especially on his right hand, he would worry a lot¨Che probably won¡¯t last until the next surgery, we want him to pass away peacefully.¡± Old Han was silent for a moment and said, ¡°We will try our best to find a solution, but we must prioritize saving lives.¡± ¡°Of course, thank you!¡± Old Han returned to the operating room and looked at the patient¡¯s vital signs on the monitor, ¡°How¡¯s it going, can the patient still tolerate it?¡± The anesthesiologist said, ¡°The young man¡¯s situation is fine, it¡¯s just that he¡¯s losing a lot of blood. There are no other injuries, as long as the blood transfusion and fluid replacement can keep up, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem, he should be able to withstand another ten or so hours.¡± Old Han looked at the timer on the wall panel, good God, it¡¯s been over three hours already. If they could finish the reconstruction of the thumb within an hour, extending the time should not be a problem. But, is it necessary to take this risk? The patient is under general anesthesia and cannot be consulted. Old Han paced back and forth in the spacious area of the operation room. Then he sat down and rhythmically tapped his fingers on his thigh. There¡¯s no question about Yang Ping¡¯s capabilities, but after several hours of work, fatigue is inevitable and energy will decrease. I don¡¯t know if he can keep going. If not, I will have to step in. ¡ª ¡°I¡¯ve guessed it, this is deliberately done by Mo Sixth. Is the surgery performed by Professor Hong Zhigang?¡± ¡°Professor Hong just spoke at the video conference, how could he be in two places at once?¡± ¡°Then it must be his rising star¨CProfessor Wen.¡± ¡°Stop talking, it¡¯s not Mo Sixth!¡± ¡°How can you be so sure.¡± ¡°Professor Wen is right in front of us.¡± ¡°Holy Moly! Big shot from Beijing, respond.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not me!¡± Professor Wen, Professor Hong Zhigang¡¯s most-admired student, Song Zimo¡¯s idol. In the industry, there¡¯s a story about this¨C Back in the day, Professor Hong recruited a graduate student who had a high talent for microsurgery, but after the interview, he disappeared and said he wouldn¡¯t pursue a Masters degree. When Professor Hong investigated, he found that the young man was working at a private orthopedic hospital. He then went to the hospital in haste. After a face-to-face discussion, it turned out that the man was in a financial bind. His father was hospitalized due to illness and he was going around trying to collect medical fees. He reluctantly gave up pursuing a Masters degree to keep working and earn money. On the spot, Professor Hong declared, ¡°In that case, you come and join the Masters program. Tell me, how much money do you need to solve your current difficulties? Give me your bank account number, I¡¯ll transfer it to you. Plus, I¡¯ll cover your tuition for the next few years.¡± The man was so touched that he was barely able to hold back his tears. He was so grateful he wanted to kneel and bow. This way, Professor Hong got a rare talent, the kind that comes once in a veritable blue moon. This graduate student was Professor Wen¨CWen Rentao. He studied for both a Master¡¯s degree and PhD under Professor Hong, and later studied abroad. He eventually stayed at Magic City Sixth Hospital and became Professor Hong¡¯s most outstanding deputy. Wen Rentao is a peak figure of the younger generation in orthopedics. He¡¯s made breakthroughs in multiple fields and published several papers in the international top-tier journal, The Lancet, garnering a high citation rate. This story spread in the industry, to the extent that those who could not afford to pursue Master¡¯s degrees were advised, ¡°Why not pursue your Master¡¯s under Professor Hong Zhigang at Mo Sixth?¡± ¡ª ¡°This isn¡¯t surgery, it¡¯s a car race!¡± ¡°A rollercoaster ride!¡± ¡°Finally it¡¯s over, restoring the thumb now and reconstruction in a second stage!¡± ¡°Meeting is over!¡± ¡°Bring in your clothes, it¡¯s raining!¡± There was a moment of silence. ¡°Holy Moly, what does that mean? This isn¡¯t a set up for reconstruction... They¡¯ve opened up the snuffbox? Blood vessels being examined? Are they going to do an emergency reconstruction?¡± ¡°They¡¯ve gone insane. Truly insane! You¡¯re already impressive enough. Are you really going to challenge the absolute limits?¡± ¡°I feel dizzy!¡± Chapter 23 - 0022 – Remarkable (Continued) Chapter 23: Chapter 0022 ¨C Remarkable (Continued) A gasp of surprise, and the barrage of comments immediately revived. ¡°Emergency reconstruction! Emergency reconstruction of the thumb is required!¡± Someone in the orthopedic conference room of Magic City Sixth Hospital shrieked. The live broadcast that was originally intended to be shut down was kept going. ¡°Professor, shouldn¡¯t it be time for lunch?¡± A student came over and whispered a reminder. Oh yes, lunchtime had long passed. They had spent the whole morning watching this live broadcast and had forgotten to eat. Hong Zhigang looked at his watch and realized it was already past two o¡¯clock. ¡°Didn¡¯t we order boxed meals?¡± Hong Zhigang remembered. What the student meant was ¨C could the boxed meals be distributed now? Hong Zhigang nodded: ¡°Go ahead, let¡¯s eat and watch. Everyone seems to be enjoying this.¡± Hong Zhigang himself was quite interested too. A few graduate students carried several baskets of boxed meals and started to distribute them one by one. The meal sets, which consisted of three dishes and a soup ¡ª beef, fried eggs, tofu skin, additional vegetables, a rib soup, a bottle of mineral water, and a pack of tissues. Some placed the boxed meal in front of them without opening it; others kept their eyes on the screen, mechanically feeding themselves with chopsticks, barely registering whether they were eating or not. In any case, they consumed this meal without tasting it. ¡°Any thoughts?¡± Hong Zhigang turned his head to ask. Wen Rentao did not reply but asked, ¡°Is this another masterpiece by Uncle Han?¡± He immediately realized he had said something he shouldn¡¯t have, but it was too late. Han Jiangong was a taboo subject when chatting with Hong Zhigang. None of his students dared to mention this name in front of him. However, Hong Zhigang did not get angry. He sighed and said, ¡°Who else could it be besides him?¡± ¡°Professor, you are a Golden Knife Award winner!¡± Hong Zhigang said nothing more. ¡ª ¡°I¡¯ve ordered takeaway, let¡¯s stay on this until the end today.¡± ¡°This lunatic is too confident.¡± ¡°Indeed impressive, but a bit too arrogant.¡± ¡°I hope the organizers track the survival and function of the severed limb.¡± ¡°Can it be defined as showing off?¡± ¡°A quick hello from Mo Sixth.¡± ¡°Of course, we will follow up later.¡± ¡ª ¡°Xiao Yang, can you still hold up? Or should I wash my hands and take over the stage? You can rest for a while.¡± Old Han was concerned, but at this point, it was crucial. Even if this five-segment limb replantation fails or necrosis occurs later, it would not tarnish their reputation. However, in a situation like this, to carry out an emergency toe-to-thumb transplantation, if the operation fails, they would be drowned in their colleagues¡¯ spit. Even top-tier hospitals in the industry dare not make such a decision. That¡¯s why people believe that this is an explicit challenge, a display of recklessness, a form of blind confidence, ignorant arrogance, and craziness that disregards consequences. ¡°It¡¯s okay, I will rest after completion. Half an hour more wouldn¡¯t make a difference,¡± Yang Ping casually said. Old Han gave him a quick glance and thought: this kid has some spunk. Song Zimo was across from him, quietly saying, ¡°Isn¡¯t it enough? Should we call it quits? The way we are wrapping up is entirely in line with medical principles. What if¨C¡± He did want to challenge Yang Ping on an emergency thumb reconstruction, but what if something goes wrong? All their efforts would be in vain, and they would face the blame from their colleagues. ¡°What about you? Tian Yuan, what¡¯s your opinion?¡± Old Han urged. This was a small-scale and straightforward discussion. Tian Yuan had been watching the screen too, she said, ¡°It isn¡¯t quite appropriate, the reconstruction can definitely be done in a second phase. But from what I just heard you saying, I think, if it were me, I would take the risk and continue.¡± Old Han tapped his fingers again, thought for a moment, and stood up, ¡°Tian Yuan, take Fang Yan, prepare to disinfect, and remove the second toe of the left foot.¡± As they had not planned for an emergency thumb reconstruction, the left foot hadn¡¯t been disinfected and was covered by a large sterile sheet. Tian Yuan and Fang Yan began to remove their surgical gowns and rewashed their hands to disinfect and prep the left foot. Being familiar with the routine, they quickly completed the preparation. ¡°Ready to start?¡± Tian Yuan asked. ¡°Begin!¡± Old Han decisively said. Tian Yuan held the scalpel right, made a neat V-shaped incision near the metatarsophalangeal joint of the second left toe, dorsal and plantar side, then skillfully began the dissection. While freeing the dorsal vein connected to the second toe, she gradually moved proximally to dissect out the dorsal venous arch and the great saphenous vein, extending to the front lower part of the medial malleolus, cutting and ligating branches, and transecting. The dorsalis pedis artery was completely freed to plantar perforating branch, continued to the first dorsal metatarsal artery, and along the first dorsal metatarsal artery, the dissection was extended to the bifurcation at the web, cutting and ligating unnecessary branches, roughly equivalent to transecting the dorsalis pedis artery at the level of the vein. Then she dissected out the nerve of the second toe and cut it at the required length. She chose a sufficient length, cutting both the long and short extensor tendons of the toe, and the long and short flexor tendons of the toe. Finally, the buzzing sound of the saw cut off the bone. The second toe was successfully removed. Why choose the second toe? Because its size is close to the thumb. Fang Yan began to trim and stitch the skin. Tian Yuan handed over the removed toe, which Song Zimo took. In fact, the removal of the second toe causes minimal visual impact. Whether it is four toes or five, it¡¯s often hard to tell at a glance, and if you put on shoes, it¡¯s even less of a problem. The hollow section where the thumb meets the wrist is where the toe is typically attached in thumb reconstruction surgeries, to connect the blood vessels. Yang Ping had already opened up this hollow section, and the cut off region of the palm had conveniently avoided this area, making the locating of the blood vessels very easy. However, even though this was ideal, the blood vessels for the reconstructed thumb would still need to pass through three cut-off points. Performing a simple thumb reconstruction using a toe is not difficult for a hand surgeon, and is in fact a standard operation that every hand surgeon must master. However, the situation today is different. Five severed parts, and it¡¯s an emergency reconstruction. It¡¯s like, for a motorcyclist daredevil, a single flip is not difficult, but to do it on a tightrope is a considerable challenge. Hong Zhigang stared at the screen. He had a faint feeling: was this his junior colleague¡¯s challenge to him? The fascia suturing just now could be done swiftly enough not to affect the surgery time. The emergency reconstruction now is not just a matter of technique anymore. One could completely opt not to do it this way, to do a secondary reconstruction later, and no one would have any objections to that. If the emergency reconstruction fails, then this operation, which could have been the pinnacle, would be branded as foolish, and criticisms would be legion. This could do great harm to a doctor¡¯s reputation. The blood vessel for the reconstructed thumb needs to flow through three cut-off points. Even a single poorly placed stitch could lead to failure. The viewers¡¯ focus was no longer on the technique but on whether he dared do it, and where his courage came from. ¡ª- ¡°He¡¯s really doing it?¡± ¡°Yes, he is!¡± ¡°If this is successful, it could go down in textbooks.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t even know what to say.¡± ¡°I support the surgeon, a surgeon needs to be bold and meticulous, always challenging difficulties. If everyone just rigidly follows the rules, how will surgery progress? Salute!¡± ¡°Salute!¡± ¡°The most incredible academic conference I¡¯ve ever attended, I will remember this forever.¡± ¡ª The surgery proceeded without a hitch and was completed within half an hour. ¡°Vital signs?¡± ¡°Normal.¡± ¡°Urine volume is normal.¡± ¡°Count the gauzes, instruments¡± ¡°Rinse, place a drainage strip, and suture!¡± Under the microscope, they performed the final round of hemostasis using the Bipolar Electrosurgical Pencil, placed in a drainage strip, and then sutured the skin. The gauze was loosely applied, followed by loosely fitting sterile bandages. The prepared arm support frame was handed over, and the injured limb was carefully secured in it. The blood circulation in all five fingers was excellent! ¡°The procedure is completed!¡± ¡°Begin anesthesia recovery!¡± ¡°Recovery of autonomous breathing, successful extubation!¡± ¡°Send the patient to the trauma ICU for monitoring!¡± The entire operation lasted 8 hours and 11 minutes. ¡ª ¡°Is it over?¡± ¡°It¡¯s over!¡± ¡°Will there be such live broadcasts in the next conference? ¡°Salute! The Hand of God!¡± ¡°The hospital, what¡¯s the name of the hospital?¡± ¡°Damn it! How is my Coke still here? What the hell did I just drink ¨C¡± The last bullet screen! ¡ª The video was closed. Chapter 24 - 0023 Press Conference Chapter 24: Chapter 0023 Press Conference Ding Dong! Task: Make a Big Splash Completion: Perfect Reward: 16000 points, plus 1 random gift The subtitles appear in the upper right corner of the vision, accompanied by a female voice. The surgery has finally ended! Yang Ping stretched his limbs, and Director Han personally helped him untie the strap behind his surgical gown, the inner gown was soaked as if it has just been pulled out of the water. Having completed the sterilization of the instruments, Su Yixuan¡¯s first act off the stage was to rush over and, heedless of the crowd in the operating room, jump up to hug Yang Ping. This man, who had never had a girlfriend before, felt his heart pounding at the young girl¡¯s actions. Happiness came so quickly that his heart was not prepared. Su Yixuan barely hugged him before letting go, leaving Yang Ping somewhat disappointed. He had thought she would nibble on his face, which is how it was always shown on TV. Even with a mask on, he wouldn¡¯t mind. Anesthetist Liang Jing, punched Yang lightly and then patted his shoulders: ¡°Today was too thrilling, next time, let brothers fly with you.¡± ¡°Flying is possible, but lose weight first,¡± someone piped up unexpectedly. Tian Yuan, Song Zimo, Fang Yan, Zhang Lin, and Little Five all took off their surgical gowns, came over, and shared a group hug, like brothers who had just stepped off a battlefield. Old Han chuckled, looking like a child, hummed ¡°The Drunken Concubine¡±, his head swaying rhythmically with the melody. His phone rang, beep after beep and Old Han pulled it out. Congratulations from General Surgery! Congratulations from Thoracic Surgery! Congratulations from Urological Surgery! Neurosurgery¡ª Dean Sun rushed to the operating room, shook hands with each team member, took photos, and extended his warm congratulations. Secretary Luo and Dean Xia conveyed their congratulations through a connected video, and immediately issued directives. Secretary Luo was very pleased, a strand of hair on his forehead gently shaken, and he coughed a few times. He said, ¡°Use the best medicine, the best equipment, the best technology, and the best whatever was it?¡± ¡°That¡¯s about it!¡± Dean Xia gently reminded from the side. ¡°Hmm, curb arrogance and impetuosity, ensure the success of subsequent treatments.¡± ¡°Let Song Zimo and Zhang Lin transport the patient, we will rest in the changing room for a while. The chef in the cafeteria is busy preparing a few hot dishes, which will be delivered soon. Let¡¯s go.¡± Old Han slung his arm around YangPing¡¯s shoulder. After the anesthesia wore off, Song Zimo and Fang Yan, along with the anesthetist and nurse, escorted the patient back to the ICU. Tian Yuan also followed them. Little Su Yixuan, wearing gloves and pushing the instrument cart to clean the instruments, didn¡¯t forget to make a cute goodbye gesture to Yang Ping. In the changing room. After changing clothes, Old Han sat down on the long bench to rest. He beckoned, ¡°Come here, sit down and rest for a while, we will eat soon.¡± Yang Ping, making himself at home, sat down beside him: ¡°For the next two weeks, I plan to stay in the department around the clock until the severed limb is out of danger.¡± Old Han nodded, ¡°Hmm, this patient is the cynosure of all eyes, not only among colleagues but also among the entire G City populace, we can¡¯t afford to make a mistake. After all, this was not just a five-segment amputation, but also an emergency thumb reconstruction. Besides ensuring survival, we need to take precaution against infections and acute renal failure, and try to restore functions as much as possible in the later stages.¡± ¡°Did you know? The entire surgery was live-streamed on the Orthopedic Trauma Network Conference!¡± ¡°Ah?¡± Yang Ping gasped in surprise. He had been so focused on the surgery that he had been completely unaware of the live broadcast. ¡°Didn¡¯t tell you because I feared it might put additional pressure on you.¡± ¡°You have no idea, today¡¯s live broadcast was incredibly exciting! Those bullet comments were really interesting, I sat there all morning without moving.¡± Old Han chuckled again. Looking at Yang Ping¡¯s surprised expression. Old Han laughed, ¡°Don¡¯t be so shocked, who doesn¡¯t have a few coarse words.¡± ¡°This year¡¯s Orthopedic Trauma Network Conference? It¡¯s hosted by Magic City Sixth Hospital, right? Director, you also came from there?¡± Yang Ping was aware of this conference. ¡°Yes! It¡¯s been ten years since I left there.¡± Old Han¡¯s eyes looked a bit vacant, as if he was reminiscing about something. Just then, Tian Yuan came in to call them for dinner. He had been looking everywhere for them before finally finding them in the changing room. ¡°No more talking, let¡¯s go eat!¡± Old Han instantly got up. The dining hall of the operating room, where the doctors ate during their rest breaks during surgery. ¡°Here, chicken leg, you eat it. It¡¯s clean, untouched. You need it for growth.¡± Old Han picked up a huge chicken leg with clean chopsticks and put it into Yang Ping¡¯s bowl, and then forcefully pushed it down. ¡°Man, I¡¯m in my twenties already, I¡¯m not growing any more.¡± However, he was really hungry, so Yang Ping picked up the chicken leg and started eating. In a flurry of activity, he quickly finished his meal, wiped his mouth, and left. The two of them headed to the trauma ICU to check on the patient. The patient was conscious, his vital signs stable, and his limb circulation was good. All five fingers were red and plump. After seeing the patient, they returned to the ordinary ward on the 7th floor. Exiting from the elevator, this particular elevator opens to the interior of the ward corridor, without needing to pass through the main entrance of the ward. They heard a bustling noise coming from the direction of the main door, curiosity piqued, they went to see what was causing the commotion. Many people were gathered at the entrance, pushing their way in, while security personnel formed a human wall to block them. Upon seeing the situation, Old Han lost his temper. A security guard ran over, his face sweaty: ¡°Director Han, these people are trying to force their way in, saying they want to interview the surgeon.¡± ¡°Where is the PR department? Didn¡¯t I tell them that nobody is allowed in the ward? If they wish to conduct interviews, they should go find the PR department!¡± Old Han shouted furiously. ¡°There are even more people at the PR department? It¡¯s bordering on a stampede.¡± ¡°One-eight-one-eight! This is One-nine!¡± ¡°What? Assist you guys? No way, we can¡¯t hold our position here any longer¨C¡± The security guards were shouting into the walkie-talkie, red-faced and neck bulging. ¡°Lock the door, only let patients or visitors enter with ID.¡± Upon saying this, Old Han waved his hand. The security immediately shouted, ¡°Close the door, close the door.¡± Several security guards at the entrance began to use all their strength to close the main door, while the crowd outside persisted in resisting, hoping to prevent the doors from closing. ¡°Old Han, quickly bring your team over, especially Yang Ping. Administrative Building No. 2¡¯s small meeting room, a press briefing, quickly, everyone is waiting.¡± It was Dean Xia¡¯s voice. Press briefing? Yang Ping felt a bit nervous, he did not like to be in the public eye. As for meet-and-greet sessions ¨C those always have a concrete goal, but a press briefing¨C Building No. 2¡¯s meeting room was already packed with people, with even military police maintaining order. Seeing Old Han appear, Dean Xia strode over: ¡°Old Han, you must be tired from the operation, originally I didn¡¯t want to trouble you. But these journalists nearly broke down the door of our PR department. Mayor Li specifically instructed Secretary Luo that we should showcase this positive event. Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s also an opportunity for us? Social influence!¡± With the assistance of the military police, they finally squeezed into the conference room, With the assistance of the military police, they finally squeezed into the conference room, which was already in progress. The stage in the small conference room was quite low, only about ten centimetres high. On it, there was a long table with a red carpet spread. In the middle sat Secretary Luo, to his left sat in order: military police, health, public security¨C , to his right Dean Xia, Dean Sun, the head of the PR department, and to the right of them were empty seats. A stewardess led Old Han and Yang Ping to their seats. The seats next to Dean Sun were for Old Han and Yang Ping, their names were already written on the electronic table card. The meeting room was swelling with people, the aisles in the middle and on both sides were lined with numerous cameras, journalists seated and standing, holding wireless microphones, all staring at the stage. Outside the door, people were still trying to squeeze in, blocked by the military police. One managed to sneak in while a military cop was distracted, darted under an arm and rolled in, then stood up. ¡°Don¡¯t be scared! We¡¯re just sitting around, if someone asks you a question later, our PR department will pass you a note.¡± Old Han tried to calm Yang Ping. From childhood, I¡¯d stutter and blush just speaking a few sentences on stage, and now I¡¯d have to answer questions, isn¡¯t that like pushing me into a firing line? Yang Ping grumbled in his mind. The entry of Old Han and Yang Ping caused a flurry of activity. ¡°Are these the surgeons?¡± ¡°One of them seems very young!¡± ¡ª ¡°Alright, everyone, if anyone has a question, one at a time please! Keep in mind, given the large number of people, everyone only gets one chance to ask a question, and please keep it shorter than three minutes.¡± The head of the PR department spoke into the microphone like a television host, calm and collected, his clear and magnetic voice echoing in the conference room. The conference room quieted down a bit. ¡°Here you go!¡± The stewardess handed the closest microphone. A woman in a long skirt and glasses took the microphone: ¡°Hello, I am from G City TV station, I¡¯d like to ask, who does this pair of hands belong to?¡± She took out a photograph, which was obviously a video screenshot, then printed as a photo: under the microscope, a pair of hands were performing vascular anastomosis. The photo was passed up to the stage for identification! ¡°Um, this is our lead surgeon!¡± ¡°Is he on stage right now?¡± Damn it, this isn¡¯t following the script, weren¡¯t the questions already sorted out? The experienced PR department head remained composed: ¡°Yes, he¡¯s sitting on the stage now.¡± ¡°Can we find out which doctor he is, the one known as ¡®God¡¯s Hands¡¯ by his colleagues?¡± The female journalist cut straight to the point. What now? The quick-witted PR manager immediately responded: ¡°Please, our lead surgeon, wave hello to everyone!¡± ¡°Old Han, Old Han, wave to everyone.¡± Dean Sun nudged Old Han in the side. Now was the time, of course, to push forward their figurehead, the shining star from Magic City Sixth Hospital, top-notch in the field of trauma orthopedics nationwide, Old Han. Pushing a young man forward wouldn¡¯t be appropriate, what if he couldn¡¯t handle the pressure from the journalists, that would make a mockery of the occasion. ¡°Yang Ping, stand up!¡± Old Han patted him on the waist. What did that mean? Weren¡¯t we just supposed to sit here? Why am I suddenly being thrown under the bus? Old Han, that¡¯s not fair! Yang Ping felt embarrassed, but had no other choice than to stand up. ¡°Old Han, what are you doing? This young man, he lacks experience.¡± Dean Sun was furious. Old Han whispered: ¡°I¡¯m over fifty, the young lad doesn¡¯t even have a girlfriend, some exposure might help him solve some personal problems.¡± ¡°Wow, he¡¯s so young!¡± Someone exclaimed. ¡°Hello! I would like to ask this doctor, at that very moment, with such a critical situation? Such a high-risk surgery? And all sorts of pressures arising, you must have had a lot of thoughts, could you share with us what your feelings were like at that moment?¡± The female journalist asked. The room was a bit out of control, the head of the PR department looked around, this was not going according to script. Everyone held their breath, waiting for the answer. Chapter 25 - 0024: This Kind of Interview is Killing Me! Chapter 25: Chapter 0024: This Kind of Interview is Killing Me! Dean Sun was breaking out into a cold sweat. Old Han, Old Han, you really made a mess. It¡¯s such a big event, with media outlets from all over the city and the province, it¡¯s a total log jam. You put this kid out for display. As things stood, they could only take it one step at a time. Dean Xia, along with Secretary Luo, left with their entourage since it was now the second half of the press conference. They were ready to wrap things up, but the journalists were fired up and insisted on interviewing the surgeon. Mayor Li made a phone call giving instructions: positively portray such a noble act. Secretary Luo figured they should comply, let the journalists have their field day, digging up content to uphold the selfless dedication of medical professionals. Yang Ping stood up and picked up the microphone. The journalists looked at him, so young? This greenhorn, they¡¯d have to dig deep for some substantial news. Secretary Luo and Dean Xia, being old hands at political maneuvering, spoke in such official tones, not leaving any openings for journalists to exploit. The guy from the PR department was a professional, he could fend off anything the journalists threw his way. Deriving anything unique from him was harder than cracking open a bank vault. So they set their sights on this greenhorn. None of the journalists were not rubbing their hands with anticipation. Yang Ping faced the roomful of journalists, with a composed demeanor that seemed incongruous with his age experience. Thinking about tricking me? Dream on! Yang Ping snickered inwardly and calmly stated, ¡°The sacred duty of doctors is to save lives. At the time, our only thought was how to save the patient. We had no time for anything else. When a plane is in danger, the pilot¡¯s duty is to do everything in their power to control the aircraft, not to be distracted by unrelated matters.¡± The room was in an uproar! Under such circumstances, he should at least depict the fierce and painful internal struggle, how the surgery was nerve-wracking, how dire the consequences of failure could be, how he was haunted by the Hippocratic Oath, and finally making the most difficult decision. He didn¡¯t think of anything at all? He just brushed off the question with a few words, this kid wasn¡¯t playing by the rules. ¡°From what I understand, this surgery is extremely difficult, especially the part where a toe is used to reconstruct a thumb. Most people in the field believe that it shouldn¡¯t have been done as an emergency procedure. What drove you to take such a risk? Was it just for fame?¡± The female journalist was clearly unsatisfied with the prior answer and proceeded to ask a follow-up question. Who asks a question like that? Was she deliberately trying to sabotage this? The director of public relations felt things were spiraling out of control and internally groaned. The question was sharp, Old Han was regretting it, he had a paper in his hand outlining which outlet would ask what kind of questions and the appropriate responses. Wasn¡¯t it supposed to go according to this? He looked for a while, couldn¡¯t find it! The question ¡ª clearly crossed the line. ¡°Let¡¯s use the analogy of flying a plane again, how do you get a plane in the sky? For you, it might be difficult, even impossible. But for a pilot, it¡¯s just their daily work, there¡¯s no difficulty involved.¡± ¡°You still haven¡¯t answered my question. What exactly were your considerations?¡± The woman reporter was pressing. ¡°There¡¯s no need for a reason. Let¡¯s say you take a flight, would you ask the pilot why they are flying the plane? Isn¡¯t that what they do every day? Saving lives is our job, when a patient comes, we have to treat, we have to save. As long as there¡¯s hope, we have to take action. Would you say a pilot is flying a plane to post on their moment?¡± This response left the journalists speechless and the female reporter a bit disheartened, extremely unsatisfied. This guy, can¡¯t get a word out of him, seems like a novice, but he¡¯s actually clever, always deflecting, never falling for their tricks. Things were in disarray! Next one, next one! The director of public relations hurried to wrap this up as soon as possible. ¡°Hello, I am a reporter from Doggy.Net.¡± A tall, thin, slightly hunched over gentleman, who adjusted his black-framed glasses, was clearly not an ordinary individual. The director of Public Relations quickly looked him over, which media outlet was this, Doggy.Net? Who gave him the microphone? Doggy.Net? Just by the name they could tell it was no small fry. Then look at their video camera, the longest one in the room. It was set up like an anti-aircraft gun, if you didn¡¯t have a bit of mental fortitude, you wouldn¡¯t dare look at it straight. Yang Ping glanced at the massive camera and calmly waited for the question. ¡°From what I understand, Dr. Yang used to work at the G City People¡¯s Hospital and only recently joined this hospital. A young talent like yourself, most hospitals would try their best to retain. What really happened that caused you to leave G City People¡¯s Hospital? For example, were you ostracized? Was there a love issue? Or something else ¨C¡± Forced out, clearly leading! Inducing! Old Han felt like slamming his hand on the table, a real paparazzi, this guy. Heck, it¡¯s actually prying into his private matters. What¡¯s it got to do with him anyway? But with all these media outlets around, even if he gritted his teeth, he had to be patient. There certainly was someone stirring things up. Dean Sun quickly started approach the front of the seating area so he could make arrangements, they couldn¡¯t let this continue, it was going to spiral out of control. Yang Ping kept his composure and said: ¡°Could you repeat the question? I didn¡¯t hear the question clearly just now, sorry.¡± The bespectacled elder gentleman crinkled his brows slightly with helplessness but had to repeat: ¡°Dr. Yang used to work at G City People¡¯s Hospital and only recently joined this hospital. A young talent like yourself, most hospitals would try their best to retain. What really happened that caused Dr. Yang to leave G City People¡¯s Hospital? Were you ostracized? Was there a love issue? Or something else¡ª¡± This time the question wasn¡¯t as underhanded, the instigation was faded, he merely restated his question verbatim. ¡°This is an excellent question asked by the gentleman. The professionalism is impressive and I find it great that this question hits right at my heart. Yes, there indeed was a reason and it was difficult for me to express. But seeing how inquisitive you are today, I¡¯ll make an exception and share.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s face was solemn, his expression seemed mournful as if it triggered some painful memory. This journalist was too wicked, Yang Ping played along and carried on with his narrative, pretending to be hurt. Old Han Frowned, Goodness spend, his eyes really changed! Could it be that it really touched his soft spot and he¡¯s about to reveal his heart? After Yang Ping praised him, the spectacled elder gentleman felt instantly swell with pride. Being commended publically with so many cameras around, this was a first in his forty some years. The entire venue was eerily silent. Crunch time had arrived and anyone who dare fart would attract instant mob justice. ¡°Ahh...¡± Yang Ping gave a long sigh. So, come on and spill the beans! Today¡¯s audience and netizens love this sort of thing. Are you feeling oppressed? Just the mere mention of it is tantalizing. Emotional issues? Or could there be more clandestine secrets? Good lord, a love triangle? A pentagonal love affair? The deeper I think, the more intriguing it gets. ¡°Ahh, ahh...¡± And two more long sighs. Old Han shivered, ¡°Stop sighing and speak up, damn it. You¡¯re driving me nuts with suspense!¡± Everyone else was echoing the sighs, not daring to make a fuss, fearful that any louder noise would startle him. It was like a fish on the verge of biting the bait on the hook, with you not wanting to scare it away. ¡°Maybe I shouldn¡¯t say it. It¡¯s too painfully heartbreaking, even despairing.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s eyes were filled with sorrow, stirring compassion in everyone present. The bespectacled man perked up and reassured, patting his chest: ¡°We empathize with you. It¡¯s okay, speak your truth. We can help you, we can seek justice for you.¡± ¡°You can help?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Then I won¡¯t be afraid. I will speak.¡± Afraid? Involving some forces? The deeper this gets, the more interesting it becomes. We must dig, dig to death. The website traffic for this year depends on it, and annual bonuses are at stake here. Be it the gossip sites or even the legitimate TV station and daily newspaper reporters, everyone, including the big-bearded cameraman, were all eyes and ears. Even if they didn¡¯t report themselves, the human nature to pry into others¡¯ secrets was evident. But after waiting for a long time, the young man just wouldn¡¯t speak. It was exasperating! People were anxious and sweating: the big fish was playing with the bait but would not bite, you would understand how frustrating it could be. The bespectacled man pulled out a tissue to wipe his sweat: ¡°Go on, speak up, speak up!¡± And this was the chorus of the crowd. ¡°Alright, since everyone¡¯s so eager to encourage me! So concerned about me, I¡¯ll speak.¡± Yang Ping gathered courage, appearing as if he made a very important decision. So, the big fish finally took the bait! Bloody hell, it was hard work, even my decades of experience with the gossip website wasn¡¯t able to deal with you. Yang Ping arranged the microphone in position and everyone held their breaths yet again. ¡°I¡¯ve worked for several years at the People¡¯s Hospital and still haven¡¯t managed to get a girlfriend. Don¡¯t you find that discouraging? Heartbreaking? Torturous? Do I have to remain single if I don¡¯t switch environments?¡± Damn, this guy! The bespectacled man almost spat out blood and collapsed. You beat around the bush just for this? I thought I¡¯d unearthed some explosive scoop. ¡°Thanks for offering help. As human beings, we must be honest.¡± Yang Ping remarked, looking towards the bespectacled man. ¡°Sure thing, definitely.¡± You bastard, you fooled me. I thought there was some real scoop. I almost planned out how to spend the year-end bonus, and you tell me this. Yang Ping chuckled inwardly. Are there more questions? I haven¡¯t even started messing with you yet, and you think I¡¯m a fool? The PR Director breathed a sigh of relief; that was horrifying. Among the crowd, an older reporter popped a heart pill into his mouth and pulled at his shirt in anxiety. It¡¯s better not to attend such press conferences in the future; they can literally kill. Next one, next one! Still want to ask? Everyone exchanged nervous glances. If they pressed on with the questions, they risked landing into a trap and making fools of themselves. This guy is even trickier to deal with than the oily officials. At least they only play around the bush avoiding the issues. But this boy here, if you¡¯re not careful, he turns the tables on you. Worse still, you risk public embarrassment and end up worse off. Not a single reporter dared ask another question. Next one, next one, next one! Yang Ping evoked a smirk and took a sip of water as he returned to his seat. ¡°No more questions?¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to thank all the journalist friends¨C¡± Grabbing the microphone, the PR Director quickly announced the end of the session. Chapter 26 - 0025 Rich People Chapter 26: Chapter 0025 Rich People The Public Relations Director ended the press conference on time, arranging for Director Han and Yang Ping to slip away from the small exit of the conference hall. The two rode the elevator down to the first floor, safely out of sight. Even if they ran into reporters, they wouldn¡¯t be recognized. A few people were in a hurry, their gear indicative of latecomers from the press. When they ran into Director Han and Yang Ping, a journalist asked: ¡°Where is the press conference?¡± Director Han pointed in one direction: ¡°Over there, it¡¯s ongoing!¡± Without questioning where exactly ¡®there¡¯ was, the journalists rushed off in the direction Han pointed. The two men then left the hospital. ¡°You should go home and rest today, and take off tomorrow as well. Turn off your phone.¡± Director Han dismissed with a wave of his hand. Yang Ping was indeed feeling worn out, his strides stiff and arduous as he walked. He knew if he had to perform another surgery, he wouldn¡¯t last. After bidding Director Han goodbye, he returned to his place, managed a shower, then collapsed face-up on his bed. Thinking of Su Yixuan¡¯s embrace in the operation room earlier that day, Yang Ping felt revitalized, he touched his face which was still warm. He shouldn¡¯t have washed it earlier. If it meant receiving more embraces like that, he would gladly take on ten more surgeries. Tsk, she was just happy. It¡¯s the same as shaking hands, he thought to himself. Yang Ping discarded these thoughts and excitedly accessed his training system. He had earned a whopping 16,000 points. Checking his total, he was up to 17,000 points. With so many points on hand, he felt like a millionaire! In contrast to his earlier empty-handedness, this feeling was truly wonderful. Although he couldn¡¯t afford to splurge on soy milk and get two bowls at a time, he could at least now afford an extra spoon. The first page still displayed the training packages: Bone Traction Technique, Skin Grafting, Bone Grafting, Periosteum Separation Technique, Tendon Fixation Technique, Cast Fixation, Splint Fixation, Bandaging Technique, Local Anaesthesia, Amputation, Surgical Handwashing, Surgical Disinfection, Surgical Dress Changing, Surgical Positioning, Patient Transfer and more. All of these were basic surgical techniques, many of which were specialized for Orthopedics. The cost wasn¡¯t high, only a few hundred points each. The training time for each was short, varying from three, seven to ten days. He had already purchased a portion of these before. Scrolling further down, the second page had been unlocked, but all sections were greyed out: Clavicle Fracture, Humerus Fracture, Ulna and Radius Fracture, Femur Fracture, Tibia and Fibula Fracture, Pelvic Fracture, Acetabulum Fracture, and more. All were trainings for fractures of the limbs and pelvis. He could read about these, but couldn¡¯t purchase them yet. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t sure when he would be able to purchase these or what the prerequisites were. The system had its quirks and he would need to spend more time to study it thoroughly. Yang Ping decided it was essential to purchase the basic techniques listed on the first page. As the saying goes, a towering structure starts from the ground up. With a solid foundation, the journey ahead would be smoother. After some calculations, he knew he would still have a decent amount of points left even after purchasing these pacakges, so he bought all of them. After undergoing all the training he¡¯d just purchased, nearly four months passed in the system. The experience wasn¡¯t as gruelling now. He had adapted to the system¡¯s time framework, and was especially engrossed when learning things of interest. The time seemed to pass quickly. Having completed the training, he checked the screen again, and to his surprise, found that all items on the second page had turned from grey to gold, indicating they were now available for purchase. It turned out that he needed to complete all the training on the first page before he could purchase those on the second. The system¡¯s progression seemed to have its own arrangement. Yang Ping calculated that he still had over 9,000 points left. He had no idea what surgeries he might encounter in the future, so he decided to hold onto these points for now. The only procedure he was really adept at now was a finger replantation. For a significant amount of time to come, he would have to rely on finger replantations to earn and accumulate points. He would then gradually use these points to purchase more system training and improve other techniques. But Sanbo was a general hospital, unlike a specialised hand surgery hospital. He couldn¡¯t realistically expect many finger replantation surgeries, so his situation was still quite difficult. However, there were always more solutions than problems. For now, Yang Ping decided to take things one step at a time. After exiting the system, Yang Ping fell into a deep, satisfying sleep. He woke up at ten the next morning, casually ate something, read for a few hours, then went back to bed. When he woke up again, it was already past six in the afternoon. He had missed a dozen calls, all from Little Five. Yang Ping called him back. ¡°Hello! Bro, are you awake? There¡¯s a department gathering tonight, with the Emergency Department and the Operation Room too. We¡¯re going to the ¡®Five Lakes and Four Seas¡¯ restaurant. Hurry up! I¡¯m downstairs at our rental apartment building, you can come down now.¡± As soon as the call connected, Little Five immediately spoke, fearing that he wouldn¡¯t get a hold of Yang Ping again. Little Five and Yang Ping lived in the same building. Little Five was on the 16th floor while Yang Ping was on the 20th. Little Five had rented the apartments initially, saying it was better for the two brothers to watch out for each other. Yang Ping quickly freshened up. He was covered in sweat, so he needed a shower and a change of clothes. All these departments having a gathering together, there might be some beauties, especially that surgical nurse Su Yixuan. She would definitely be going. After showering and changing, he combed his hair while calling and taking the elevator downstairs. ¡°I¡¯m under the tree across the street!¡± Little Five instructed over the call. Yang Ping exited the building and stood by the road. Looking across the street, there was a car parked under a tree, but no one was in sight. ¡°The black car, license plate number¨C?¡± Little Five guided over the call. Yang Ping looked and saw a black Audi A6 sedan parked by the roadside. Seeing no cars approaching from either direction, Yang Ping crossed the road, opened the passenger side door and got in. ¡°When did you get a car?¡± Yang Ping asked while fastening his seatbelt. ¡°It¡¯s Xiao Qing¡¯s,¡± Little Five replied. ¡°I slept the whole day away and nobody woke me up. Nothing happened at the department, right?¡± Yang Ping was worried about the post-op patients. Little Five answered, ¡°Director Han gave instructions not to call you unless it was absolutely necessary. I¡¯ve been waiting for you downstairs for more than an hour. If you didn¡¯t pick up, I was about to go upstairs and knock on your door. The patient with the severed limb, the blood flow is very good. Director Han and I went to see him when I got off work.¡± Yang Ping checked out the interior of the car. It was new, and he remarked, ¡°First, you swindled the girl, and now you¡¯ve swindled a car?¡± ¡°Bro, please reassess your worldview. This isn¡¯t swindling; she introduced me to her parents,¡± Little Five beamed proudly. ¡°Her parents approved?¡± Yang Ping inquired. Little Five nodded, ¡°They didn¡¯t just approve, they¡¯re pushing us to get married.¡± Yang Ping looked Little Five up and down. He had to admit, he was a bit envious. ¡°Director Han asked me to pick you up, they should all be there already.¡± Little Five started the car, moved a few meters, then stopped again, fumbling clumsily with the turn signal. ¡°Can you drive at all? I¡¯ve never seen you drive before. When did you get your license? Recently?¡± Yang Ping was getting nervous. ¡°Oh, I got it three years ago.¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t driven in three years?¡± Yang Ping rechecked his seatbelt was good and secure. ¡°It¡¯s been a while... The turn signal, up is for a right turn, right?¡± Little Five continued fiddling. ¡°Bro, let me out. I¡¯ll take a cab there. You take your time,¡± Yang Ping was sweating with fear. ¡°Don¡¯t panic! A true brother would dare to sit in the passenger seat at this moment.¡± He then stepped on the accelerator. The car shot off. Chapter 27 - 0026 Su Yixuan Chapter 27: Chapter 0026 Su Yixuan A spacious private room, large enough to host several tables. ¡°Come, come, come! Xiao Yang, sit here.¡± Old Han called out as he saw Yang Ping come in. He had left a chair next to him. It was supposed to be for Yang Ping, who had no choice but to sit there. This central table was entirely filled with directors such as Director Han, Director Tian, Director Ouyang, Director Bai, Director Xiong of the Emergency Department, Director Pan of the ICU, the Anesthesiology Director, and the head nurse of the Operating room. Neither Dean Xia nor Dean Sun had come. Probably this was just a casual gathering amongst doctors. It could get too formal with the leaders around. Director Han would probably meet them individually. Yang Ping felt uncomfortable in such an environment, but there was little he could do. He sat silent, listening to their conversation. ¡°Old Han, you¡¯ve got this Italian cannon under you. Why don¡¯t you let him blitz often? I¡¯ve never seen him in the operating room.¡± The Anesthesiology Director wondered. ¡°Xiao Yang is new here, right? The infant fingers replantation last time was his handiwork.¡± The head nurse of the Operating Room had some insights. ¡°Infant surgeries are the most difficult. How old? Maybe it¡¯s a world¡¯s first.¡± Director Pan of the Trauma ICU wondered. Director Han responded, ¡°A one-month-old infant, with a blood vessel diameter of just 0.05 millimeters. Suturing blood vessels of this diameter represents the pinnacle of microsurgical techniques. Infant finger replantations are rare, for an infant older than one month, maybe it is the first in the world.¡± Director Xiong of the Emergency Department, sitting like a giant on a chair that seemed too small for him, said, ¡°This five-section replantation is impressive, emergency reconstruction no less! It was live-streamed on the National Trauma Orthopedics Network. Old Han, you must be feeling proud. How¡¯s the blood flow now? Any issues?¡± ¡°Very good indeed! I just checked.¡± Director Pan said. ¡°Xiao Yang, you came from People¡¯s Hospital, right?¡± Director Xiong inquired. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°I joined People¡¯s Hospital right after graduation and just recently moved over.¡± ¡°People¡¯s Hospital is headed by Wu Siwen, isn¡¯t it?¡± Director Bai asked, his overweight body risked toppling the chair as he turned towards Yang Ping. ¡°Yes! Director Wu.¡±, Yang Ping confirmed. ¡°Wu Siwen and I are alumni. He¡¯s a year junior, so technically my junior. Is Director Wu easy to work with?¡± Director Bai asked with a smile. Yang Ping replied, ¡°Director Wu is quite nice.¡± ¡°Nice? That man is notorious for being stingy, and can be cunning too.¡± Director Bai stated bluntly. The medical circle in G city was not too big. Everyone regularly met in meetings and knew each other quite well. ¡°He¡¯s preparing to become the Vice-Dean now. He saved Jiang Baicheng¡¯s son once. This Jiang Baicheng¡¯s influence spans politics and business. His Vice-Dean position might have something to do with Jiang Baicheng¡¯s maneuvers.¡± Director Bai seemed to know it all. ¡°I¡¯m not sure about that. I was just a temporary worker over there, a junior doctor, and had very few interactions with him. Over the years of work, we hardly exchanged a few words.¡± Yang Ping explained. ¡°People¡¯s Hospital ignored such a gem. They trained a talent for us! Coming to our Sanbo is indeed right.¡± Director Ouyang interjected. ¡°What¡¯s going on here? Serve the dishes! We¡¯ve been busy chatting. Serve the dishes and pour the drinks!¡± Director Xiong exclaimed. Several bottles of Feitian Moutai were laid out on the table. The waitstaff began opening the bottles, pouring the liquor into miniature bottles, and then serving everyone¡¯s drinks. Other than this central table, there were several others around with doctors from Orthopedics, Operating Room, Emergency Department, and Trauma ICU ¨C everyone who had participated in the rescue operation. Yang Ping sneakily glanced around to see if Su Yixuan was present. The dishes were served quickly, and soon the table was full. Director raised his glass, ¡°This successful rescue of the five-segment amputation was the result of everyone¡¯s concerted efforts. Under everyone¡¯s hard work, our Trauma Emergency Center will definitely grow stronger!¡± Drink up! Drink up! Drink up! Orthopedic doctors certainly didn¡¯t beat around the bush when it came to drinking. None of them flinched, except for Yang Ping. ¡°Xiao Yang¨Ccome now¨C¡± Director Xiong lifted his glass with his left hand and his miniature bottle with the right. After toasting Director Han, he moved on to Yang Ping. Director Han stood up and stopped Director Xiong, ¡°Xiao Yang can¡¯t hold his liquor. Today he indulged a bit in the spirit of the day, but we can¡¯t let him drink anymore. Let him stay aside while we have a blast, ok?¡± ¡°If you say so, then it is. Come, let¡¯s drink up.¡± Director Xiong emptied his glass. Immersed in drinking and noise, the ambience of the room was chaotic and lively. Yang Ping slipped into a couch, away from the chaos, but with a view of the Operating Room table to see if Su Yixuan was there. The girl really looked charming. Her delicate features, black shoulder-length hair, pink t-shirt that accentuated her youthful vibrancy, and shapely figure. Her dimples appeared when she smiled, and her clear and black eyes sparkled under long eyelashes. Su Yixuan glanced over, and Yang Ping wanted to avoid her gaze, but it was too late, he got caught. He smiled awkwardly, as Su Yixuan got up from the table and walked over. She had a cup of fruit juice in hand and was bouncing around with joy, ¡°Brother Ping, come on, have a drink. You¡¯re the big hero today.¡± Little Five handed him a cup of fruit juice, deliberately pressing the cup heavily into his hand, signaling him to seize the opportunity. ¡°Thank you! You did a great job assisting in the operation. Otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t have gone so smoothly.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t know what to say, he was a bit uneasy. Get a grip, Yang Ping! He scolded himself ¨C not afraid of reporters, yet scared of this young woman, stuttering in her presence. Su Yixuan grinned, ¡°The head nurse arranged for me to assist your team in the future. Please take care of me.¡± She made a bowing gesture, looking extremely adorable. Yang Ping replied, ¡°Let¡¯s look out for each other.¡± ¡°Do you want more juice? I can pour it for you. I like coconut juice, do you like it too? You¡¯re not drinking with them?¡± Su Yixuan asked. Coconut juice, Yang Ping didn¡¯t usually like it. But at that moment, he immediately replied, ¡°I also like coconut juice.¡± There really was no bottom line. As for the alcohol, admitting poor tolerance would be embarrassing, so he said, ¡°I¡¯ve had enough, just need a break.¡± What does ¡®enough¡¯ mean? He barely even finished a glass, only wetting his lips. ¡°As microsurgeons, you should drink less alcohol, or better yet, none at all! Here, fruit juice.¡± Su Yixuan poured more juice for Yang Ping. ¡°Let me pour it.¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°You¡¯re the hero today, let me do it.¡± Su Yixuan insisted. The directors were busy toasting each other, it was very lively. A few bottles of Moutai had long been replaced. Song Zimo brought a cup of tea over, ¡°Big brother, let¡¯s have a drink. Yesterday was so thrilling!¡± Song Zimo, a man of high self-discipline who didn¡¯t touch alcohol, Yang Ping had long heard. Both men drinking tea or coconut juice, toasted each other, creating a drinking atmosphere. Song Zimo put his arm around Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder, ¡°You must teach me more when you¡¯re free. How did you master your microsurgery skills? You mustn¡¯t hold back.¡± ¡°We learn from each other, practice makes perfect!¡± Yang Ping responded. Little Five, Zhang Lin, and Fang Yan all came over to toast with Yang Ping. He had to use coconut juice as a substitute, and Su Yixuan sat next to him, constantly pouring juice for him. The scene was chaotic, and the atmosphere was very high. Su Yixuan asked, ¡°Don¡¯t you like crowds?¡± Yang Ping nodded honestly, the thing he feared the most was social occasions like this. They gave him headaches, made him dizzy and had trouble breathing. Su Yixuan shook her head, ¡°Me neither.¡± ¡°Should we go out for a walk to get some fresh air?¡± Su Yixuan suggested. That¡¯s exactly what Yang Ping wanted. In his heart, he kept encouraging himself, ¡°Don¡¯t be nervous, behave normally!¡± The private room was on the first floor. As they left the restaurant, they found themselves on a street lined with trees. ¡°Do you really like performing surgeries?¡± Su Yixuan asked. Yang Ping replied, ¡°I feel apart from performing surgeries, I can¡¯t do much else. Once I start operating, I¡¯m totally absorbed.¡± ¡°Me too! I love performing surgeries.¡± And so, the two of them chatted under the trees. The wind was gentle, and traffic bustled outside. Their conversation was incredibly illogical, intermittent and disjointed. Yang Ping thought, if only there was a ¡®pick-up chicks crash course¡¯ in the system, he would definitely spend all of his remaining points. Suddenly, he regretted not learning more from Little Five, who was even forced to get married. He was seriously lacking a learning attitude. Chapter 28 - 0027: One Hundred Cases of Finger Reattachment Chapter 28: Chapter 0027: One Hundred Cases of Finger Reattachment After the hustle and bustle, it¡¯s back to the ordinary daily life. Switching shifts, ward rounds, surgeries, these are the mainstay of Yang Ping¡¯s life, everything else is a minor episode. ¡°Ding dong, complete one hundred cases of finger replantation with a success rate of one hundred percent, within a deadline of three months. Reward: fifty thousand points.¡± The system unexpectedly issued a task, Yang Ping was already used to its eccentricity. But this task was absurd, one hundred cases could not be achieved even if he deliberately severed fingers. This is a general hospital, not a private hand surgery clinic. Finger replantation is generally monopolized by private hand surgery clinics. Is it trying to force him to quit and go to a hand surgery clinic? After a great effort to get a good hospital job, just getting on his feet, the system issued such a task, its intentions are condemnable. For a junior doctor, the platform is as crucial as it says it is. A large tertiary hospital like Sanbo, except for short-term economic income, is unparalleled in all aspects compared to a hand surgery clinic. Yang Ping temporarily ignored it, he had a lot of work to handle. Everyone had been conducting surgeries all day, it was six in the afternoon when they left the operating room. Director Han had to go to a meeting in the hospital. Yang Ping, with Little Five, went to do the afternoon ward rounds, followed by Song Zimo and Zhang Lin. Yang Ping stopped, they stopped; Yang Ping moved, they moved. Yang Ping was a bit puzzled: ¡°Why are you following us?¡± Song Zimo lazily said: ¡°When Director Han is busy, you take us all to see the patients together. It¡¯s part of your duty as a senior.¡± So this was the case, they wanted to do the ward rounds together. Yang Ping continued to move without responding, starting the ward rounds. The two of them followed behind. When it was their patient¡¯s turn, Zhang Lin reported the medical history and Song Zimo supplemented it like a junior doctor. The worker with the severed thumb could start moving around in a few days. He brought out a photo to show everyone, ¡°My daughter has just started university this year. Now that my finger is reattached, I feel relieved. Thank you, really.¡± The girl in the photo looked youthful and immature. Yang Ping cautioned him, ¡°Don¡¯t smoke.¡± The worker replied, ¡°I quit smoking many years ago.¡± The baby recovered quickly, its five fingers were red and it was moving around on the crib. The young couple cared for the baby by its side. Yang Ping noticed that the young mother¡¯s phone had been switched to a Nokia model for seniors. The four of them, and a few graduate students and standardized training students, finished the ward rounds and then went to the Trauma ICU to see the fireman hero, Qiangzi. Upon reaching ICU, Director Pan personally introduced Qiangzi¡¯s current condition, which surprised all the other doctors. Qiangzi was in good condition, his amputated limb had a good blood flow and the kidney function was also normal. Yang Ping had everyone change his dressings by the bedside, the wound was temporarily dry and clean, showing no signs of infection. Having heard that Yang Ping was doing ward rounds, the doctors and nurses in the ICU came over, curious to see who Dr. Yang was. A few young nurses dared to take more glances, but they couldn¡¯t see much with the masks on. Qiangzi¡¯s condition was good enough to be transferred to the general ward, but considering his special status, the hospital decided to keep him in the ICU for a few more days for intensive monitoring. Just out of the ICU, Zhang Lin received a call for a consultation in the emergency department, and everyone hurriedly rushed to the emergency department. It was a case of an open tibial and fibular bone fracture. The skin of the entire lower limb was completely torn off and the muscles were severely crushed. This case would follow the trauma emergency center¡¯s procedures. This can only be handed over to Director Tian. According to Director Han¡¯s current assignments, this type of trauma was under the responsibility of Tian Yuan¡¯s team. Song Zimo made a call to contact Director Tian. Upon leaving the emergency room, Yang Ping¡¯s peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a commercial vehicle abruptly braking at the entrance of the emergency department. A young man with yellow-dyed hair squeezed out of the car and rushed into the emergency department, followed by a man in a suit and a doctor in a white gown. ¡°Doctor, doctor, help, help!¡± The young man screamed as he ran. The yell caught the attention of those nearby, but soon everyone else returned to their own business. In the emergency department, life-saving was a commonplace affair. ¡°Don¡¯t scream! Here I am, why did you run so fast to save yourself?¡± Dr. Lv, the on-duty doctor, saw the right hand held up by Little Five, and the plastic bag in his left hand, and basically understood the situation. ¡°Here, help me with the surgery, wait, wait!¡± On seeing the doctor, Little Five immediately handed over the plastic bag. He then whipped out his phone and started tapping and swiping on it. ¡°Hurry up, it¡¯s not time to play with your phone. Haven¡¯t you quit the game ¡®King of Glory¡¯ yet?¡± The doctor following him was a company doctor, and he was getting anxious. ¡°This, I want this doctor to do it!¡± Dr. Lv took the phone. This was a news report photo of our hospital performing a five-section replantation, showing a pair of hands performing surgery under a microscope. ¡°Alright, alright!¡± The doctor said, ¡°Quick! Sign the consent forms, have your blood drawn, get an EKG, and prepare for the operating room.¡± ¡°You know who he is, right? Don¡¯t get it wrong. I¡¯ll be checking later.¡± Little Five was very astute. The doctor waved his hand, ignoring him, and told the nurse at the reception desk, ¡°Please call for an emergency consultation in orthopedics and alert the Trauma Emergency Center hotline.¡± Suddenly, he saw Doctor Yang and his team, and immediately waved them over, ¡°Doctor Yang, just in time, I was about to consult with you. This man just came in, his hand crushed by a machine, and specifically requested surgery from you.¡± Dr. Lv showed Doctor Yang the severed finger, which had yet to be placed in the fridge. It was the index finger on the right hand, severed at the middle joint. ¡°Schedule the surgery.¡± Doctor Yang said. Dr. Lv immediately began the procedural routine ¨C drawing blood, taking an EKG, taking X-rays, having conversations, signing papers ¨C nothing could be missed. ¡°It¡¯s this doctor, right? I specially sought him out to do it.¡± Before signing the consent forms, Little Five once again whipped out his phone, pulling up the stored photo. ¡°Yes, the doctor who showed you before is this one.¡± Dr. Lv urged. After receiving an affirmative response, Little Five signed decisively, feeling a weight off his chest. This hand is guaranteed to be safe. If they could reattach it when it had been severed into five sections, my one segment would be as easy as slicing through a melon. He even took out his phone and started playing ¡°King of Glory¡±. ¡°What are you standing here for? Pay up! I tell you, this is a workplace injury, I did not violate any operating procedures, there must be a problem with the machine. After this, I¡¯m going to report you to the labor bureau.¡± Little Five shouted at the man in the suit standing beside him. The man in the suit was the factory¡¯s occupational injury commissioner and already had a lot on his plate, ¡°Ah, the Yunjian Hand Surgery Hospital contracts with us on a monthly basis, there¡¯s no need to pay. I didn¡¯t bring any money, how could I? I was planning to take you to Yunjian Hospital, but you insisted on coming here.¡± ¡°Then go back and get the money. I¡¯m telling you, if anything goes wrong with this finger, I¡¯ll be leeching off you for food and drink.¡± Little Five threatened. ¡°Okay, okay! Doctor, proceed with the surgery. I¡¯ll call now to have someone bring the money over. Money is not the issue. Just make sure you reattach the finger properly.¡± The commissioner was having a hard time holding his temper, silently cursing internally: What a weirdo! The younger generation nowadays are not to be trifled with. Just the other day, a worker quit on the spot after getting called out by the team leader for using his phone during work hours. They refuse to work if the wages are low, if there¡¯s no air conditioning, if they have to work overtime, or even if the factory girls aren¡¯t pretty enough. Today¡¯s labor force truly are labor resources. The commissioner had just finished making a call asking the financial department to send money when his phone rang again. He went to a corner to answer the call. The person on the phone gave him an earful, ¡°Why did you send him to Sanbo Hospital? The salesman from Yunjian is sitting in my office right now. How am I going to explain this? Hurry up and transfer him to Yunjian.¡± Hongda Factory is the largest metal factory in G City. Incidents of severed fingers are commonplace, if not a daily occurrence. Ordinarily, they would collaborate with Yunjian Hand Surgery Hospital for such cases, patients would be sent there as it¡¯s the standard practice everyone is familiar with. Not only is the billing done on a monthly basis, making things simpler, but they also offer a referral fee, with perks during holiday seasons. The arrangement had been mutually beneficial for years now. The commissioner is indeed in line to get yelled at over today¡¯s incident, yet it really wasn¡¯t his fault. The commissioner sounded unjustified, ¡°There was no other way. We had the car heading towards Yunjian Hospital, but Little Five threatened to jump out halfway there. This kid is being obstinate, wouldn¡¯t listen to reason. He said if we took him to Yunjian Hospital, he¡¯d create a ruckus there. He was recording the whole thing with his phone, what could I do?¡± There was a moment of silence on the phone before the voice replied, ¡°I¡¯ll report this to the higher-ups. This sets a bad precedent. This is a big deal. Call back finance to send the money right now, handle the matter and come back ASAP. Keep this in mind, come straight to me when you¡¯re back, don¡¯t tell anyone else.¡± After hanging up the call, Little Five had already disappeared. The factory doctor asked, ¡°He¡¯s been taken to the operating room. How is everything?¡± Both the factory doctor and commissioner were nervous since they were both in the same boat. The commissioner replied, ¡°We¡¯ll talk about it when we get back. Head straight to Mr. Gong¡¯s office when we get to the factory. Don¡¯t say anything on the way.¡± Both of them contacted the driver and returned to the factory in the commercial vehicle. The operating room, the surgery had already begun. Anesthesia, positioning, hand washing, sterilization, laying of surgical drapes, and setting up the microscope. Chapter 29 - 0028 Mysterious Friend Chapter 29: Chapter 0028 Mysterious Friend To rinse, disinfect, clean the wound, fix the bone fractures, perform vascular and nerve anastomosis, complete the tendon anastomosis, and then suture the skin. For a single finger amputation, the entire process took less than half an hour. Su Yixuan passed over the bandages that had been laid out in advance, then bowed her head to tidy up the tools. Yang Ping took them and began dressing the wound. At the same time, Song Zimo raised his hand for Little Five to remove the towel clamp. ¡°Your dressing is so beautifully done, flawless,¡± commented Song Zimo. He began to wonder what Yang Ping¡¯s other surgeries looked like, beyond just finger reattachment. The more he thought about it, the more curious he became. Could they all be equally breath-takingly perfect? In fact, Yang Ping had also trained on bandage application technique in the system. ¡°Doctor, thank you so much. Is my finger going to be okay? It won¡¯t affect my game of King of Glory, will it?¡± the guy with dyed hair asked anxiously. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t!¡± Yang Ping replied. Hearing that, the guy heaved a sigh of relief, his gratitude deep and genuine. ¡°Thank you, Doctor. You guys are my saviors¨C¡± He suddenly caught onto something. These doctors looked too young. ¡°Actually, you guys are my brothers in arms! They wanted to send me to Yunjian Orthopaedics. Fat chance. I insisted on coming here.¡± ¡°How did you know our surgical team was impressive?¡± Song Zimo asked with a smile. The guy responded: ¡°The TV, the newspapers, they all said the hero¡¯s hand was severed into five pieces, and you guys reattached it. What happened to me is simply minor surgery for you guys.¡± The man was a good talker, his words eliciting hearty laughter from everyone in the operating room. ¡°Remember, you¡¯ll need to stay in bed for ten days. If you want to play King of Glory, use your other hand. You cannot use this finger right now. If you get off the bed before then, your rank in King of Glory will drop, I¡¯m not joking!¡± Song Zimo admonished him. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we will do as you say,¡± the man said determinedly. ¡°From your voices, none of you seem to be over 30. So young, yet so accomplished.¡± He really loved to chat. Yang Ping fixed his hand to his chest with a sling, gave him a pat: ¡°Alright, it¡¯s time to return to the ward and get some rest.¡± The loquacious patient wanted to say more, but decided to keep quiet. ¡°Hey, Doctor Yang, how about treating us to a meal for having Nurse Su around to assist you day and night in the past few days?¡± the patrolling nurse teased. ¡°Of course, why don¡¯t we do it right after we finish work? You guys can choose the place.¡± Yang Ping suggested with a smile. ¡°Great!¡± the patrolling nurse agreed. ¡°Why not one of the places near the hospital? Whichever one that is available?¡± ¡°Sure thing!¡± Little Five chimed in. ¡°Alright, then let¡¯s meet up after work?¡± Yang Ping proposed. Song Zimo declined: ¡°You guys go ahead. I¡¯ll have to pass this time.¡± ¡°You probably think the places around the hospital aren¡¯t up to your standards, right?¡± the patrolling nurse surmised. Song Zimo replied sheepishly, ¡°No, it¡¯s not that. I really do have plans for today.¡± ¡°The rest of you, no one else can bail. Xiao Su, you¡¯re the star, so you¡¯re expected to be there. Today¡¯s meal is on you,¡± the patrolling nurse declared. As Su Yixuan tidied the tools, she simply hummed in acknowledgment, a blush creeping up her cheeks. In the changing room, she glanced at her phone to find it was already past eight o¡¯ clock. After Su Yixuan went to clean the tools, Yang Ping changed his clothes and sat down on a chair in the changing room to rest. With eyes closed, he seized the opportunity to enter the system. An alert on the screen reported that the completion of the system task was at 1%, the progress bar had only moved a tiny fraction. The road is long and winding. Keep working, comrade. A message appeared in the WeChat group for the surgery team: ¡°Meet at the West Gate of the hospital.¡± Yang Ping immediately headed to the West Gate, standing near the entrance to wait. His eyes constantly scanned for his colleagues. One after another, people exited but none of them were his colleagues. Several interns that he knew walked out in pairs, waving at Yang Ping as they passed, which made him feel rather awkward. Soon after, Su Yixuan emerged with her hair in a bun, wearing a knee-length skirt, white sandals, and a cross-body bag. Seeing Yang Ping, she pouted. ¡°Where are the others?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t see anyone. Should we just head over and secure a spot?¡± It didn¡¯t make sense for the two to continue waiting there. ¡°Where to?¡± Yang Ping scratched the back of his head. Su Yixuan grinned: ¡°You haven¡¯t decided yet, eh? How about we try our luck at Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish? It¡¯s the weekend, which means they have fresh bass. The only downside is the large crowd. I didn¡¯t manage to get a meal there last weekend.¡± ¡°Alright, let¡¯s give it a try.¡± Su Yixuan and Yang Ping then crossed the road to the restaurant. Upon arriving at Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish, they found it was full, with a long line waiting for a table. Wondering how long it would take, Su Yixuan asked a waitress for an estimated waiting time. Without lifting her head, the busy waitress replied: ¡°Best to come tomorrow. We stopped giving out queue numbers for today.¡± ¡°This is harder to get than a consultation with a specialist,¡± thought Yang Ping. A disappointed Su Yixuan said: ¡°The last time I came with the nurses from my department, it was too late, so I didn¡¯t get any. We missed out again today. Let¡¯s just go eat something else. Eh, how come the others aren¡¯t here yet?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, they might not know we are here. I¡¯ll give them a call.¡± Yang Ping said, reaching for his phone. ¡°What¡¯s happening? No one is picking up. You give it a try.¡± Yang Ping was baffled. Su Yixuan also tried calling a few numbers, but no one answered. ¡°Gosh, nobody is answering,¡± she said. Then, several messages appeared in the group chat: My kid has a fever. I won¡¯t make it. I¡¯m at a car dealership for a checkup. Won¡¯t be coming. I sprained my ankle, currently icing it. ¡ª This was awkward. Hadn¡¯t they all agreed to have a meal together? Now, it was just the two of them. With a thick skin, Yang Ping said, ¡°Then, we two should just find a place to have dinner.¡± ¡°Hmm!¡± Su Yixuan lightly bit her lower lip. Just as they were about to leave to find a place, someone behind them shouted: ¡°Wait a minute!¡± ¡°Hello, you are Doctor Yang from the Orthopedics department, aren¡¯t you? I am the owner here.¡± A stocky uncle with a big belly, dressed in a white coat and shorts, ran out. ¡°You know me?¡± Yang Ping was a bit surprised, but it wasn¡¯t strange as all the nearby shops were near the hospital. The uncle said: ¡°They all call me Uncle Er. Someone has already reserved a table for you, come, come, it¡¯s quite a good spot.¡± Uncle Er led them to the second floor. The restaurant had two floors. Indeed, on the second floor, there was a table by the window. ¡°You both sit down and wait a bit, your fish is also reserved, just wait a little, and I will have someone bring it over.¡± Uncle Er was very enthusiastic. Yang Ping was a bit hesitant to sit, Su Yixuan also looked at him: ¡°Could they be playing a prank on us?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not right. We only decided to have grilled fish by the hospital¡¯s West Gate just now, didn¡¯t we?¡± Yang Ping wondered. ¡°No, Uncle Er, who did you say reserved for me, even the fish is pre-ordered?¡± Uncle Er just laughed, ¡®This person said they were your friend, but they said they can¡¯t tell you who they are. Don¡¯t worry, your friend is very polite and decent, not a bad person.¡¯ ¡°What do they look like? Man or woman?¡± Asked Yang Ping. ¡°This, I can¡¯t say.¡± Uncle Er replied. ¡°Uncle Er, if you don¡¯t tell me, I won¡¯t dare to sit down.¡± said Yang Ping. Uncle Er said, ¡°Your friend said that if you don¡¯t sit, you¡¯ll have to wait till next weekend. We only have bass in stock on weekends, and your friend also said that they only reserved this spot for you, you¡¯ll have to pay for it yourself, so don¡¯t worry, you can just enjoy your meal.¡± How interesting, he¡¯s got such a friend who only reserves the seat, if he¡¯s paying for it anyway, why beat around the bush. The two sat down. Su Yixuan was very happy: ¡°Brother Ping, you¡¯re really awesome, your friend already reserved a spot for you in advance.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like that¨Cah yes, you like this, don¡¯t you?¡± Yang Ping would¡¯ve been embarrassed if he continued speaking. But he couldn¡¯t think of who else it could be besides Xiao Five? It must have been Xiao Five, always giving him advice on how to court Su Yixuan. It was definitely him. Feeling assured, he decided to send a WeChat message to tell him and stop being so mysterious about it. A live bass was brought in, heated with ingredients sprinkled on top. The aroma gradually permeated the air as the flames flickered. ¡°Come on, eat more. You¡¯ve had a hard time lately, it¡¯s time to grow.¡± Yang Ping said, borrowing a phrase often said by Old Han. ¡°Can I still grow taller? This is the first time I¡¯ve heard you say this.¡± Su Yixuan, a little foodie, pinched a piece of fish and tasted it. ¡°Hmm, it¡¯s delicious. Here, you eat.¡± Su Yixuan handed him the fork. To his surprise, she gently placed it in his palm, much like passing surgical instruments. Realizing the peculiarity, the two looked at each other and laughed, Su Yixuan burst into giggles. ¡°Hey, are you dissecting or eating fish?¡± Su Yixuan saw Yang Ping using a small knife and chopsticks to cut the fish meat off the bones, his movements as practiced and skilled as if he was performing a surgery. As the knife passed through, the meat separated from the bone easily without leaving any residue. He moved the knife expertly in the crevices of the bones, carving the fish meat piece by piece. ¡°Here!¡± Yang Ping passed it to Su Yixuan. ¡°Surgeons have their own way of eating. Watch carefully, what we¡¯ll have left is an intact skeleton, to be posted by the boss on his moment.¡± ¡°You¡¯re really interesting.¡± Su Yixuan giggled. ¡°They¡¯re giving away free ice cream here. I¡¯m going to get it.¡± She hopped off like a child and returned with two ice creams. ¡°They¡¯re both plain flavor. Here.¡± ¡°Go ahead and eat, it¡¯s free. I¡¯m going to get a few more on the way out, and you help me to fetch a few.¡± The two chatted and laughed, and Yang Ping felt a relaxed atmosphere he had never experienced before. After finishing the fish, a shiny, complete skeleton remained. Su Yixuan took a picture of it and then looked closer. She clapped her hands and admitted, ¡°Brother Ping, you are amazing. You are a surgery maniac. You even take pride in your work when eating fish.¡± Su Yixuan lived in dorms. After escorting her back to her dorm, Yang Ping went home. Yang Ping picked up his phone and dialed Xiao Five: ¡°Hey, Xiao Five, thank you for today.¡± Xiao Five said proudly, ¡°We¡¯re brothers, no need for thanks. Had a good time today, right? You¡¯ve taken a big step forward in the revolution, haven¡¯t you?¡± ¡°How did you know we were going to eat at Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish and reserve a spot in advance?¡± Asked Yang Ping. Xiao Five was dumbfounded: ¡°Wait a minute, I didn¡¯t reserve a spot for you.¡± ¡°Stop acting mysterious. I know all about the tricks in your book.¡± Said Yang Ping. ¡°Me? Was it me? How come I don¡¯t know about it.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s really not you.¡± ¡°Bro, I, Lu Xiaowu, am an upright and straightforward person, I¡¯ve never done anything underhanded. If it was me, I¡¯d say it was. I have no idea where you guys were eating.¡± ¡°Really, it¡¯s not you?¡± Now Yang Ping was confused. Xiao Five was also helpless: ¡°It¡¯s really not me. After the surgery, I just ate a few buns, went to the 4S shop to look at cars, and just got back home.¡± Alright, Yang Ping hung up the phone. This is strange, who else would go to the trouble of reserving a spot for him? And how did they know we were going to Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish? Is it someone in the operating room? The head nurse? Song Zimo? That circulating nurse? No, no, no. Why would they do such a thing? They have no motive. Strange things happen every year, and this year seems to be particularly full of them. Who cares, anyway. It¡¯s my own money. With that thought, he felt relieved. Chapter 30 - 0029: Meeting Chapter 30: Chapter 0029: Meeting The next day, Yang Ping went to work and was doing surgery in the operating room. Thinking about the dinner he had with Su Yixuan last night, he felt an indescribable sense of happiness. The first thing he did in the operating room was to check on Su Yixuan. For some reason, looking at her eyes brought him comfort. He felt at ease, but if he didn¡¯t see her, he was a little anxious and full of anticipation. Everyone was teasing him and Su Yixuan, asking them where they had dinner last night and where they went after. Su Yixuan lowered her head and didn¡¯t say a word, her face flush with embarrassment. Yang Ping was also stammering, unsure of how to respond. Everybody was sidestepping the issue of reservation, and Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to ask either. After a busy day of surgery, he received a call from a courier company, insisting that he must sign for the package himself. Yang Ping was puzzled. He hadn¡¯t ordered anything lately. The delivered item ¡ª iceberry ice cream ¡ª was even more baffling. It was delivered in a mini fridge and Yang Ping was hesitant to accept it. The phone rang, a strange man¡¯s voice on the other end said, ¡°Dr. Yang, don¡¯t be shy. I¡¯m sorry for the inconvenience. This is your girlfriend¡¯s favorite ice cream. It¡¯s not available in G City at the moment, so it was delivered from Shanghai. The cost of the ice cream and the delivery have been taken care of, so you have nothing to worry about. Please accept it, it will come in handy.¡± Yang Ping was curious and asked, ¡°Who are you?¡± After all, there are a lot of scammers these days, and telecom fraud has gotten extreme. A single phone call could cost you hundreds of thousands. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not a scammer. Scammers don¡¯t reserve seats or deliver ice cream for you. I admire your superb medical skills and hope to meet you in person, that¡¯s all¨C¡± He wanted to say that Su Yixuan was not his girlfriend, but he found the way the man spoke to make him feel comfortable, so he let it slide. ¡°Thank you, but¨C¡± ¡°If you want to know why, let¡¯s arrange a time and place to meet. If you don¡¯t mind, I¡¯ll see you at three in the afternoon tomorrow, at the revolving restaurant on the top floor of the Queen¡¯s Hotel¡± The man hung up. Yang Ping had a day off tomorrow. This man seemed to know him well. There are all kinds of people in the world. He tried to recall if he had offended anyone or gone out of his way to help anyone. Could this be one of his patients showing gratitude in this unusual way? The Queen¡¯s Hotel is a high-end five-star hotel in G City. The revolving restaurant on the top floor is a well-known high-end restaurant. He should be safe there. He didn¡¯t have any concern about being kidnapped because there was no reason to kidnap him. It seems that he had to meet this mysterious man. Since the ice cream was delivered to his door, he decided to accept it. Who knows, Su Yixuan might really like it. The next day he was off from work, originally he intended to perform surgery, but Old Han stopped him, urging Yang Ping to rest, saying the battery needs to be recharged and people who know how to rest know how to work. He slept in the morning, hurriedly ate a little at noon, and took a cab to the Queen¡¯s Hotel. He arrived at the revolving restaurant on the top floor at three in the afternoon promptly. There was already someone waiting for him. A man in his thirties, dressed impeccably and delicate with a hint of faint fragrance on him, who had a black briefcase by his side. ¡°Hello, Dr. Yang! I¡¯ve heard so much about you! Please have a seat!¡± The man stood up, and his handshake was perfect. ¡°Hello!¡± Yang Ping sat down. He couldn¡¯t think of who this man might be. ¡°I am truly grateful for everything you¡¯ve done.¡± Yang Ping is a cultured and well-mannered man. Regardless of the motive, he should express his gratitude. ¡°Don¡¯t mention it, it was nothing. I hope to be able to do more for you.¡± The man called for the waiter to bring coffee. Yang Ping added a lot of sugar to his coffee because he found it bitter, but he had to drink some to show his taste in such a place. The seat was good. From the glass window next to him, he could overlook the entire G City. ¡°Although we¡¯ve only just met, you¡¯ve gone to so much trouble by reserving seats and delivering ice cream, I really can¡¯t express my appreciation enough. I apologize for any inconvenience I¡¯ve caused,¡± said Yang Ping while sipping coffee. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say we¡¯ve only just met. You may not know me, but I know you very well. Dr. Yang, your expertise in orthopedic surgery, especially in digit replantation, is unparalleled.¡± The man spoke with precision and appropriateness which was appreciated. ¡°I¡¯m curious, how did you know that I was going to Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish Restaurant that day, and how could you reserve a seat in advance?¡± asked Yang Ping. The man answered leisurely, ¡°Simple. I saw you waiting outside Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish Restaurant for more than ten minutes, so I bought the queue number for that spot, including the best fish.¡± ¡°Would they definitely sell it to you?¡± asked Yang Ping. ¡°Whether they sell it or not doesn¡¯t matter to me; the important thing is I need to buy it. Apart from health and life, there¡¯s hardly anything that can¡¯t be negotiated in terms of price. In a sense, health and life can also be bargained,¡± said the man calmly, without any boastfulness. ¡°Thank you! And how did you know about the iceberry ice cream?¡± Yang Ping brought up the matter of the ice cream. The man said, ¡°Everyone has their own way of surviving. Knowing others¡¯ preferences is my way of survival.¡± ¡°Yes, appeal to their interests! You must have put in a lot of effort; I admire you and thank you. If I had known you a few years earlier, I would already have a child,¡± joked Yang Ping. ¡°Don¡¯t mention it. I invited you for dinner, and I should have done something for you in advance,¡± said the man. Yang Ping said, ¡°I am rather embarrassed, you¡¯ve been put to a lot of trouble.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t extravagance. No matter how you look at it, it¡¯s the least I could do. Everyone in the city would love to be able to show gratitude towards the hero who performed surgery on them, like I am treating you to a meal today.¡± The man spoke with diplomacy. ¡°What can I get you? The salmon here is superb. It¡¯s imported from Norway.¡± The man picked up the menu. ¡°Feel free to order whatever you like. This meal is on me, as a token of my gratitude.¡± Yang Ping made a welcoming gesture. The man nodded, ¡°I accept. In this situation, neither of us owes anything to the other. We simply become friends.¡± To be honest, Yang Ping was quite fond of the way this man carried himself by helping others without making them feel guilty. After the man had placed his order and closed the menu, he asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you curious as to why I¡¯m doing all this?¡± Yang Ping chuckled, ¡°Aren¡¯t you going through all this trouble just to have me sit here and listen to you explain why?¡± The man laughed softly, ¡°Dr. Yang, you truly stand apart.¡± ¡°Really not curious?¡± The man asked again. ¡°I¡¯ve already asked about what I was curious about. The rest doesn¡¯t interest me much. Still, making a friend isn¡¯t a bad idea.¡± Yang Ping continued to drink his coffee. ¡°Allow me to introduce myself then,¡± The man respectfully handed over his business card. The card was finely made. It read: ¡®Bole Talent Network, Top Headhunter! Huang Jiacai.¡¯ ¡°Perfection in my profession is my aspiration, just like Doctor Yang has achieved excellence in surgical practice. In this regard, we are colleagues,¡± the man said. ¡°I mentioned earlier that those things were trifles and not worth mentioning. I want to do something significant for Doctor Yang and wonder if you would grant me the opportunity,¡± Huang Jiacai said. ¡°Of course, I¡¯m willing. Right now, my top priority is to find a girlfriend. Aren¡¯t you going to introduce me to someone?¡± Yang Ping said attentively. Huang Jiacai answered, ¡°A girlfriend? Doctor Yang, your girlfriend is already one in a million.¡± He liked hearing that ¡ª he liked hearing people refer to Su Yixuan as his girlfriend. The salmon, condiments, and silver tableware were served. ¡°Just spit it out. If you don¡¯t, I¡¯ll leave as soon as I¡¯ve finished eating, then your hard work will have been in vain. Surely, since you know me so well, you know I¡¯m erratic,¡± said Yang Ping, busy tucking into his meal. Huang Jiacai was genuinely flustered by his nonchalance, ¡°Let me get straight to the point, a hospital is willing to offer you a significant amount of money.¡± ¡°How much?¡± Yang Ping was direct. The amount? Huang Jiacai gestured with his fingers. ¡°A billion?¡± Huang Jiacai thought Yang Ping would go low with his guess, but instead he decided to shoot high; this put Huang in an awkward spot. Somewhat deflated, he replied, ¡°One million! That¡¯s annual salary.¡± Yang Ping wiped his mouth with a napkin and thought: Indeed, for a doctor his age, such money is very enticing, and any sane person would give it some thought. ¡°It¡¯s a personal invitation from the owner of Yunjian Hand Surgery Hospital. I don¡¯t need to tell you about Yunjian¡¯s standing in the industry; you probably know it better than I do. They¡¯re the largest specialized hand surgery hospital in G city, and they consistently rank amongst the top in the nation in terms of the number of surgeries performed. As a surgeon specializing in hand surgery, the platform they offer is second to none. If you join them, they¡¯re willing to give you an entire floor for you to preside over as chief. With all due respect, even if you were to become chief at a prestigious general hospital like Sanbo, it wouldn¡¯t be for at least another decade,¡± Huang Jiacai reasoned logically, skillfully pinpointing key problems. ¡°It is certainly tempting.¡± Yang Ping nodded. ¡°We live in a time of specialization, with every industry moving toward specialization. The same goes for doctors; you no longer need to diversify your skills, you just need to perfect your limb reattachment surgeries, and you¡¯ll be able to make a steady profit from this expertise alone. After all, whether it¡¯s here or anywhere else, we¡¯re all working to make money. With your age, Doctor Yang, you should be thinking about getting married, buying a house, a car. As far as I know, you¡¯re still renting. It¡¯s unfair for a doctor of your caliber to be living like this, your talent is being wasted. But if you go to Yunjian, things will be different. Soon enough, you¡¯ll be able to buy your own house and car, and live the life you want,¡± Huang Jiacai rationalized. ¡°By comparison, it seems like I have no choice but to go,¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°If you agree, I can call the owner of Yunjian immediately. Once a contract is signed, one million will be transferred to your account right away. Boss He of Yunjian is well-known for his magnanimity, especially when it comes to cherishing talent. He¡¯s a man of his word and fully supports a partnership system. A select few doctors in the hospital already own shares.¡± ¡°I might consider it,¡± Yang Ping said, not wanting to outright reject the proposal. Life is like a tree ¡ª it needs a strong, central trunk to grow tall and large. Yang Ping understood clearly that his true path would not confine him to merely being a hand surgeon. ¡°You are quite familiar with the medical circles?¡± Yang Ping deflected the conversation. ¡°Of course, you could consider me well connected. Not just in G city, but I also know all the heavyweights on the national level. I used to be a medical sales representative before I became a medical headhunter,¡± Huang Jiacai replied. ¡°I really appreciate everything you¡¯ve done for me,¡± Yang Ping expressed his gratitude once more before calling for the waiter to settle the bill. ¡°No need to thank me. When I was a medical representative, I did a lot more. From delivering rice and oil, carrying gas tanks, driving children around, helping with homework, washing cars, fixing cars to changing tires, it was all in a day¡¯s work. To thrive in this line of work, you need to be adaptable, which isn¡¯t easy.¡± ¡°Listening to your words of wisdom, I realize I¡¯ve learned more from this conversation than I could have by studying on my own for twenty years. I¡¯ll think about the offer, but I¡¯m glad to have made a friend,¡± Yang Ping said, shaking hands with him. ¡°Here is the contact number for the Iceberry ice cream store in Shanghai. It might come in handy.¡± In the end, Huang JiaCai gave Yang Ping another card. He just might find use for it in the future. Chapter 31 - 0030: Warm-Up Bout Chapter 31: Chapter 0030: Warm-Up Bout Yang Ping contemplated a lot after meeting with Huang Jiacai. The prospect of a million-dollar annual salary, which he did not doubt, was becoming more possible especially as his skill in fingertip replantation was about to reach perfection and advance to the master level in the system. With his skill set, a yearly salary of 500,000 or 600,000 was common in any orthopedic hospital, even if millions weren¡¯t guaranteed. However, leaving a large third-rate hospital like Sanbo Hospital and missing out on leaders like Director Han who focus on talent would perhaps leave him stuck as an orthopedic surgeon in a small hospital. This was not what Yang Ping wanted. He believed in achieving greater things, setting higher and further goals. As for financial gain, Yang Ping believed it would come naturally. After some analysis, Yang Ping was even more firm in his resolve. The five-section replantation put Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Orthopedics department on the map. Patients who needed finger replantation were flooding Sanbo Hospital almost every day. Yang Ping, Tian Yuan, and Song Zimo alternated performing replantation surgeries. Surgeons like Little Five were trained by Song Zimo in microsurgery in the department¡¯s laboratory. Director Han required all doctors above the attending level to train in microsurgery, with the end goal of independently completing replantation surgeries. Yang Ping checked the task completion progress on the system and it was at 30%. He felt more at ease, considering the trend. Finishing the task should not be an issue. Yang Ping only had over nine thousand points left from last time, so he didn¡¯t dare to spend them carelessly. He learned to be more frugal. He could spend freely when points were plentiful, but he would need to hoard them for emergencies when they were scarce. Although Yang Ping was a recent hire and an attending physician, his previous performance during surgeries had been spectacular, enough for Director Han to immediately promote him to attending physician. Director Han had his own plan. Orthopedics had completed its initial phase and was now planning to enter its rapid expansion phase. Building a team of talents was of the utmost importance. Although he had several outstanding directors under him, they were still prevention-oriented. Tian Yuan was very good, fully capable of independently handling tasks at the age of thirty-something. Song Zimo was extraordinarily gifted and shone with a bit of cultivation. However, he felt the lack of talent. Now there was Yang Ping, who completely surpassed Song Zimo judging from a few surgeries. This gave him a little more confidence. It was time to initiate a rapid expansion strategy. He decided to help Yang Ping apply for third level surgery permissions, to allow him to progress even faster. He took the application form and knocked on the office door of Professor Zhang Zongshun, the hospital¡¯s expert group. The old man took off his reading glasses, pointed at the words with his finger, read it once, and said, ¡°A master¡¯s degree, shows promise in limb replantation. It¡¯s not rare. Common surgery.¡± He was right, finger replantation was a very common surgery. Any orthopedic hospital could do it every day. All they needed to do was take on tasks, there was no need for perfection. The expert group was unique to Sanbo. A group of retired domestic experts and professors was hired. Due to their age, they no longer performed surgeries but mainly attended outpatient clinics. Besides seeing patients, they also had some duties, mostly supervisory. As for assessing surgical permissions, they held that power, and that was when they felt the most important. ¡°Let¡¯s follow the procedure. Go through all the surgeries on the list. Old Han, without your strong recommendation, we wouldn¡¯t start the procedure for a newcomer without a special educational background. This is a special talent channel. Therefore, his surgical score needs to be more than just passing, it needs to be over eighty on average,¡± said the old man after putting his glasses back on. ¡°He made a huge contribution to the hospital last time.¡± Old Han defended, hoping to speak a few more words to help Yang Ping, at least to reduce the surgical score to lower the difficulty. The old man looked up, his gaze showing above the rim of his glasses: ¡°That won¡¯t work, it¡¯s two different things. Haven¡¯t we already put him on the special channel?¡± These old stubborn men were once figures in their own right, each of them as stubborn as a bull. Old Han couldn¡¯t argue further and had to agree. ¡°All right, we¡¯ll follow the procedure. Send the surgery videos to us by every Friday. We old men will meet on Fridays and give a score. Director Han, you seem to have a little bias. There are so many attending physicians in the department. I haven¡¯t seen you apply for third-level permission for all of them. This one hasn¡¯t been here long, right?¡± The old man was sharp. ¡°The trauma emergency center was just officially opened, and the volume of orthopedic surgeries has surged. I¡¯m short of competent people.¡± Old Han said helplessly. So, after some haggling, this matter was more or less settled, at least they agreed to initiate the procedure. The next step was to perform the surgeries well. As for how well Yang Ping would do in other surgeries, Old Han hadn¡¯t seen before. Many doctors can only do finger replantation, even a simple fracture might give them trouble; it¡¯s a common occurrence. That¡¯s fine. This is a good opportunity to see how Yang Ping does in other surgeries. If it¡¯s as outstanding as the finger replantation, we can add more responsibilities on his shoulders; if it¡¯s not up to par, then I need to train him well. The scalpel was a butcher knife. It depended on whether it could be used directly or needed to be sharpened. Returning to the office from the administrative building, Song Zimo was waiting for Old Han. Song Zimo handed over the teaching surgeries for the next week for Old Han to review. ¡°I don¡¯t need to see the teaching surgeries for next week, just report them to me,¡± Old Han took a sip of his tea. Song Zimo flipped through the notebook: ¡°Clavicle fracture, performed by Director Tian.¡± There were a few teaching surgeries every week, to help young resident physicians and attending physicians learn and master the practical steps of surgery. They were usually done by Director Tian as the chief surgeon, and occasionally Song Zimo would also be the chief surgeon. In addition to adhering to the national physician training system, Sanbo Hospital also had its own system. Three years of standardized training and five years of specialized training were required to become a beginner specialist doctor. ¡°Tell Yang Ping that he¡¯s up next week. Are the cases ready?¡± Director Han asked with concern. ¡°They¡¯re ready, three cases, all clavicle fractures. Simple fractures, crushed fractures, those requiring vascular and nerve exploration, they¡¯re all typical cases. The patients are young and have no underlying diseases. Song Zimo, as the secretary of the orthopedics department, was responsible for selecting and confirming these teaching cases. Clavicle surgery is simple. That¡¯s good, it¡¯s a good opportunity to test the waters. After talking with Song Zimo, Director Han called Yang Ping over and closed the office door. ¡°Yang, I want to help you get permission for fractures of the limbs and pelvis. Do you think you can handle it? If you can, the hospital will start evaluating you. If you can¡¯t, no worries. You can follow me for a while and I¡¯ll get you up to speed.¡± Old Han was being straightforward, and Yang Ping understood that Old Han was helping him get greater surgical permissions from the hospital. He was moved and said, ¡°Rest assured, I will live up to your expectations.¡± ¡°With your confidence, I¡¯m assured. I have submitted the application form, and Old Zhang, the head of the expert group, has agreed. From next week onwards, you will perform the teaching surgeries. They are all scheduled for Thursdays. Next week, you¡¯ll be dealing with clavicle fractures. We have prepared three surgeries, one of which involves the exploration of blood vessels and nerves under the clavicle. It¡¯s somewhat tricky, but don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be by your side to assist you if necessary,¡± Old Han encouraged. In any profession, having a good teacher is extremely valuable and can save you from taking unnecessary detours. A good teacher not only guides you in the right direction but also supports you in crucial situations. ¡°There¡¯s a long road ahead, so keep going and remember that your goals are far beyond. Never give up too easily,¡± the torch-like gaze from Old Han lit up. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Yes, thank you Director!¡± ¡°Get yourself prepared and review the procedures of clavicle fracture surgery. Although it¡¯s the simplest in orthopedics, it¡¯s not that easy to do well. Every step needs to be accurate. Also remember, your surgery score should average at least 80 points to obtain the surgical rights.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Yang Ping responded confidently. Yang Ping felt relieved as he walked out of Director Han¡¯s office, grateful that he had accumulated some points earlier. In the system, Yang Ping steeled himself and spent 1,000 points to purchase 500 cases of clavicle fracture surgery. In one go, he performed all kinds of clavicle fracture surgeries within the system, from failing to crafting a perfect surgery each time. On Thursday, after the shift handover and ward rounds, the young resident doctors and attending physicians converged in the orthopedic operating room which doubled up for teaching predicaments. Everyone arrived early and sat in the adjacent teaching room waiting. Interns were not scheduled to attend, as they were yet to form a broad concept of specialized surgeries. Watching at this stage would be unproductive since they couldn¡¯t comprehend fully. However, some interns still managed to make time to be there. On the beach chair was Little Five, acting as the assistant. They washed their hands routinely, disinfected the area, and put on their surgical gowns. Su Yixuan was assigned as the instrument nurse for Yang Ping because her familiarity with the surgeries would enhance their coordination. After preoperative verification, the surgery began! As for how a surgeon, bestowed for his flawless finger replantation, performs other surgeries, many were curious. Some even hoped to see him falter, just for the sake of rebalancing their own mindset. Song Zimo had been eager to observe him for a long time. Of course, not for the joy of watching him falter, but out of curiosity about the quality of his surgeries other than the finger replantations. Scalpel! There was no need to utter that. All he had to do was reach out his hand. And it would delicately fall into his palm. He began with a vertical cut, then tilted it forty-five degrees, and finally straightened it to retract the blade. A neat incision was made, following the grain of the skin, a one-off cut known as the cleaver incision! The cut was deep enough to open the skin without overdoing it and reaching the deep fascia. The supraclavicular nerve was avoided! Using skin hooks to part the cut skin, Little Five used both hands to carefully hold the hooks, both above and below the incision. ¡°Be gentle!¡± Yang Ping reminded Little Five. Heeding the warning, Little Five instantly reduced the force in his hands. Electrosurgical pencil! As the electrosurgical pencil sliced through the deep fascia and the neck¡¯s broad muscle, there was smoke, but it was all sucked away by the aspirator in his left hand. Barely any smell of the burning flesh was allowed to disperse. Before pinpoint bleeding could form, the electrosurgical pencil eradicated them one by one, like in a game of ¡®whack-a-mole¡¯. They advanced layer by layer. The gauze was nearly bloodless, with only faint spots here and there. After cutting open the periosteum in one move with the electrosurgical pencil, there was a gentle peeling under the periosteum, and the limited bone surface showcased itself. Without uttering a word, the reduction clamp was already handed over. This was Su Yixuan¡¯s first time assisting Yang Ping in a surgery other than the finger replantation. But the two of them felt as if they had rehearsed countless times beforehand, acting in tacit understanding without uttering a word. Could it be that such harmony could be naturally fostered? With two point reduction clamps, the two fractured ends were secured. A gentle pull aligned the fracture, relying on the inherent stability of the fracture itself. Another reduction clamp swiftly clamped onto the fracture end. A 1.5 millimeter Kirshner wire was drilled in perpendicularly to the fracture line, stopping once it had pierced through. With robust temporary fixation, the reduction clamp was removed. The steel plate template was attached, pre-bent, and molded, then according to the template, the steel plate was shaped. Six holes in the steel plate perfectly attached to the clavicle, hole-drilling, depth-measuring, screw threading, each step was clear, no omissions, no rushes, steadily advancing. Six screws were inserted. Flush! Layer by layer suturing, with absorbable sutures inside. Finally, the skin was sutured with thin nylon thread, a ¡®continuous intradermal suture,¡¯ also known as ¡®cosmetic suture.¡¯ Just six minutes. Just six minutes from incision to suturing. Song Zimo¡¯s interest was piqued, but his curiosity had not lessened. Instead, it grew. He wondered how Yang Ping would perform in other types of surgeries. This curiosity had taken root deep within him, turning into an obsession. Although it was a simple surgery, it was executed to perfection, just like from a textbook. Old Han¡¯s face bore a smile; the lad hadn¡¯t let him down. This surgery was but a minor testing of the waters, and it seemed his performance was commendable! Chapter 32 - 0031: The Effort is Under the Stage Chapter 32: Chapter 0031: The Effort is Under the Stage ¡°Senior Brother Yang performs fracture surgery so well too.¡± ¡°Collarbone fracture, very simple, I can perform it as well.¡± ¡°Can you do it in 6 minutes?¡± ¡°¡ª¡± Song Zimo sits silently on the side. For this guy to perform so many collarbone surgeries, one would think he only knew how to handle amputated fingers. He avoids and protects even the cutaneous nerves on the collarbone. Many doctors don¡¯t pay attention to such details, especially when making a horizontal incision. With a swipe of the scalpel, the cutaneous nerves are severed, causing numbness around the site of the operation after surgery. Numbness is a small issue, not a big deal. The hemostasis is extremely well done; hardly any blood could be seen on the gauze. The dissection of the periosteum was minimized, maximally protecting the blood supply of the fracture. Secondly, comminuted fracture of the collarbone, should not look down on any fracture surgery. Because there will never be two identical fractures, trauma orthopedics challenge one¡¯s adaptability. The collarbone was not only broken into several segments, but each segment was also divided into several pieces, front and back. Doctors are often left embarrassed trying to fix these fractures. Some doctors are forced to rush and barely complete the operation. Completing a surgery and doing it well are two different stories. High-quality operations have fewer complications and have better post-surgery recovery. ¡°This is difficult!¡± Looking at the shattered fragments of bone, even some experienced attending physicians expressed concerns. Old Han looked at the X-rays on the view box. It was indeed difficult. The surgery has started the fracture reduction. Everyone sharpened their focus, with Song Zimo fully concentrating as well. Let¡¯s see how he deals with this type of fracture, or how he perfectly manages it. With Song Zimo¡¯s experience, he recognized that seeing Yang Ping handle the first collarbone surgery was not something one could achieve after a few or even dozens of operations. He believed that Yang Ping could handle it, but he was curious how he would perfectly handle it. 1.2 mm Kirschner wire, the steel wire used this time was even thinner. The forceps were carefully holding the bone fragments, very steady, as if it were holding an egg securely without putting too much pressure and crushing it. Even if there was a bit of soft tissue left, it was gently retained. First the big pieces, then the smaller ones. Horizontal, vertical, oblique, almost every piece of bone had a thin steel wire. Once the bone fragments were assembled, the shape was restored. ¡°How to put the steel plate, these will interfere with the placement.¡± Someone frowned. The steel plate was shaped, and then placed. This time it was placed on the front side. Most of the steel wires avoided the steel plate; two could not avoid but just passed out from the hole of the plate without affecting the placement of the plate. The location of each inserted wire was pre-planned, taking into account the placement of the steel plate, and everyone suddenly realized. The placement of the screws, the direction of the screws in each hole is different, each will hold a piece of bone. Each time a screw is implanted, at least one wire is removed. After the last screw is implanted, the wire was completely pulled out. The fracture was reduced nicely, and it was securely fixed. Old Han smiled slightly, handling it with seasoned skill. He had spent a lot of time and effort to figure out how to address the interference between temporary fixation and final fixation. It seemed this young man had also put in a lot of work. Song Zimo was satisfied. Behind the simplicity, a lot of effort was often required. Another way to put it: one minute on stage, ten years off stage. The entire process reflected the philosophy of protecting the blood flow at all times. Even some bone fragments with a little soft tissue, which could be pulled off with a slight movement, were still protected. Bone fragments attached to soft tissue have blood supply, and are therefore living bone, while those not connected to the soft tissue, completely separated, are effectively dead bone. Living bone has healing ability, dead bone doesn¡¯t, it can only rely on the growth of living bone to replace it. After fifteen minutes of cleaning and sterilizing the operating room, the third operation was about to begin. This operation involved exploring the blood vessels and nerves beneath the collarbone, which was already classified as a Level 4 surgery. This type of investigation is a high-risk operation. Old Han was a bit worried about the third operation. Once it involves exploring of blood vessels and nerves, it¡¯s no longer a simple collarbone fracture operation. The stubborn old heads in the expert group won¡¯t take it lightly in their evaluation, they would find fault even in the trivial things. ¡°The tip of the fracture has pierced the blood vessels and nerves under the collarbone, be careful with the exploration, especially the bone fragments, don¡¯t move them easily. After exploring clearly, prepare for hemostasis and then remove the bone fragments. The blood vessel end may retract as soon as the bone fragment is removed, and if bleeding has to be stopped by opening the chest, it¡¯s troublesome.¡± Old Han reminded Yang Ping. Old Han was experienced, he didn¡¯t need to sit here all the time. His purpose was to see how Yang Ping¡¯s orthopedic surgical skills actually were and provide timely guidance to Yang Ping while ensuring patient safety. The exposure was standard; a usual transverse incision was made to facilitate the exploration of blood vessels and nerves under the collarbone. Below the collarbone, on the outside are blood vessels and nerves, extending to the upper limb. On the inside is the apex of the pleura and lungs, which is the top of the thoracic cavity and lungs. If the pleura is punctured, it could lead to pneumothorax, requiring intervention from the Thoracic Surgery Department. The exposure in orthopedic surgery is crucial, with many operations passing through numerous blood vessels and nerves, and some even passing through the viscera. These blood vessels, nerves, and organs are like minefields. To reach the destination of the operation, you must either bypass or traverse these minefields. Hence, the ancestors have used a great deal of effort to design different approaches to either avoid or traverse these minefields. When the muscle is peeled off from under the clavicle and lifted, a blood vessel as thick as a little finger and yellow nerves can be seen pulsating rhythmically. Underneath these is a vivid life. If any of these are damaged, it could lead to disability or even death. Slow down, as Yang Ping supports Little Five¡¯s hook. Respect for life can produce excellent doctors. A sharp piece of bone has punctured between the blood vessels and nerves, surrounded entirely by blood clots. There are more clots than in a typical fracture, covering the area of vessels and nerves. This suggests the possibility of ruptured blood vessels, the veins in particular. ¡°Be careful, an injury to the subclavian vein can cause it to retract. If it does, the incision will need to be enlarged and the chest will have to be opened,¡± Old Han reminded again. Prepare ice saline and a vascular clamp. Yang Ping paused from his work, not anxious but also not careless. He had practiced countless types of clavicle fracture surgeries in the system, but no trauma could be replicated. Each individual has a different physical constitution, the direction and magnitude of force exerted varies, the posture of the body at the time is different, and other influencing factors differ as well. Hence, system training only provides an opportunity to acquire capabilities, the real surgery requires adaptability on the spot. Ice saline can constrict blood vessels, reducing the risk to the minimum. A metal basin filled with ice saline was brought over. Yang Ping soaked the gauze in it, took it out, and drizzled some on top. With so many blood clots, the process of removing them can easily disturb the blood vessels leading to their retraction, which could have disastrous consequences. Old Han regretted a bit, selecting such a case was not the right idea. If there happens to be a mishap during the operation, it will be unanimously rejected. Although taking the stage at this time is good to impress the old heads, patient safety is paramount. ¡°I¡¯m going to scrub in,¡± Old Han went to wash his hands. While waiting for the ice saline to take effect, Yang Ping had tissue scissors in his left hand and a vascular clamp in his right. He gently separated the blood clots from the periphery inwards. The vein emerging from below the clavicle into the axillary vein was clearly exposed, and the vascular clamp was quickly clamped onto it. The operation could not be complacent at this point; this only blocked possible bleeding, the proximal end was still at risk of retraction. If it retracts, it is like the breakage of a water pipe inside a wall. Only by removing the wall can the pipe be repaired; otherwise, one could only helplessly watch it leak. This exceeds the capabilities of an attending physician; even a genius like Song Zimo would lack the necessary experience. For doctors, especially surgeons, surgical experience is very important, which is why a platform is extremely important for surgeons. As an example, two classmates, one smart, good grades, skilled hands, went to a county hospital. The other often failed, clumsy, ended up in a top-tier, Level III teaching hospital. Ten years later, the one in the county hospital could not compare to the one in the top-tier hospital. Because the latter performs surgeries every day that the former may only encounter once a year. This is the difference. The number of cases is the reason why gaps arise among doctors, especially surgeons. Therefore, even for a genius, without attaining a certain level, you won¡¯t have the rights to perform certain surgeries, resulting in an inability to accumulate and improve. ¡°We encountered one last time where the blood vessel retracted and chest had to be opened to locate the vessel for hemostasis.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve seen arterial bleeding here that sprayed all the way to the ceiling.¡± Those who have experienced such sight recalled with trepidation and discussed cautiously. The blood clots were gently lifted, and then clamped with vascular forceps, lifted, and placed in the curved dish. Song Zimo leaned forward, clamping the blood clot with the vascular forceps. He practiced for a long time before he could firmly grasp them. Because blood clots are fragile and can easily break apart with a bit of force, normally clots are scraped off with a curette and then piled up and removed. At this moment, if a curette were used, it could easily lead to vessel pull and retraction because of excessive force. Whereas vascular forceps can clamp precisely, but it¡¯s a technical task and not everyone can imitate it. After the blood clots were removed, the ruptured vessel was exposed. It had already been blocked by the blood clot and only a little bit of the connected vessel wall was left. The proximal end was also clamped immediately with the vascular clamp. Ligation is the safest and simplest treatment, but Yang Ping selected suturing. After cutting off the ruptured end, he sutured easily. After checking the artery, there were no issues. The nerve¡¯s outer sheath was split, Yang Ping opened it, exposing the inner nerve bundle sheath, which was fine. Then, he irrigated and sutured. Old Han entered the room after washing his hands. The third surgery was completed. Chapter 33 - 0032: Being Targeted Chapter 33: Chapter 0032: Being Targeted ¡°Ding dong, Stage Task: Help Sanbo Hospital establish the strongest orthopedics department in G City. Reward: 500,000 points.¡± Clear text appeared in the upper right corner of his vision, lingering for a moment before disappearing. Stage task? So, the previous individual surgeries were individual tasks. If there are stage tasks, then there must be main tasks. What are the main tasks? The task of 100 reattachment surgeries after finger amputation should be a branch task, and this stage task seems more like a part of the main task. Yang Ping temporarily failed to fully understand the system¡¯s task structure. During his break in the dressing room, Yang Ping entered the system and checked his skills: his mastery of limb replantation had entered the master level, and his clavicle fracture treatment had reached a perfect level. But for other surgeries in trauma orthopedics, he was still at the beginner level. For some areas, he was not even a beginner yet. Many areas, such as sports medicine, spinal surgery, joint surgery, bone tumors and so on, were blank. It seemed unrealistic to help the hospital establish the strongest orthopedic department with such skills. He must seize the time and make up for his deficiencies in trauma orthopedics as soon as possible. Back to the doctor¡¯s office, Director Han summoned him immediately when he saw him return. Old Han served him tea and invited him to sit. Yang Ping was used to it and accepted Old Han¡¯s hospitality without any hesitation, taking tea from him and sitting on the sofa. ¡°Xiao Yang , I want to talk to you about two things: One, you should plan carefully, take time to read more, and prepare for the PhD exam next year. You can join my PhD program, my connections have already transferred from Shanghai Medical University to Nandu Medical University. You can get admission straight away when the application opens. You are young and your education is paramount. In our profession, it¡¯s a must. Without education, even if you are talented, you will be buried. Two, we are planning to establish a city-level trauma emergency center in the city¡¯s People¡¯s Hospital. Our hospital is selected along with several affiliated hospitals of Nandu Medical University for this. Our main competition is the City People¡¯s Hospital, your old place. They established trauma emergency center before us, they have strong foundation and the city gives them lots of attention. Our hospital is relatively new and our position is not very stable yet. We don¡¯t have a lot of confidence. But our Hospital Authority has clearly stated that orthopedics is a key department for development at this stage, and this city-level center must be won. The two affiliate hospitals of Nandu Medical University are also to be taken seriously, they have the strongest talent. If they concentrate on building this center, they will have an advantage. Tian Yuan, Song Zimo, and you are all our young talents. I have guaranteed your capabilities to the hospital. Case volume, surgical difficulty, rescue success rate, and so on are all review indicators. You cannot let us down when the crucial time comes.¡± This happened to coincide with the system¡¯s stage task. If he helped the hospital to win this city-level trauma emergency center, wouldn¡¯t that mean that the trauma orthopedics department had become the top one in G City? Moreover, he wouldn¡¯t even have this opportunity if it weren¡¯t for Old Han¡¯s promotion. If it weren¡¯t for him breaking rules and promoting him during the interview, he would probably still be spinning his wheels in the emergency department. Many talented people are excluded and suppressed, unable to come to the fore. If they don¡¯t give you opportunities to operate, it still amounts to zero, no matter how talented you are. He remembers at G City People¡¯s Hospital, there was a very talented doctor with outstanding surgical skills who could perform the surgery perfectly just by having seen it once. Wu Siwen suppressed him and didn¡¯t even give him the opportunity to assist. Old Han was his benefactor. Even without the system task, he would spare no effort to help him achieve his goal. Seeing Old Han looking ambitious, it seemed that his goal was not just to build the top trauma orthopedics department in G City. As he thought about it, he thought of the G City People¡¯s Hospital and Wu Siwen, which filled him with resentment. Although Yang Ping wasn¡¯t a vindictive person, he also wasn¡¯t a saint who could repay evil with good. ¡ª The old man returned to the administration building¡¯s office from the outpatient department and tossed his document bag on the table. A CD was placed on the table with the words: ¡°Orthopedics ¨C Surgical Video by Yang Ping.¡± ¡°It was sent over so quickly; let¡¯s take a look.¡± He inserted the CD into the computer and fumbled around the keyboard with one finger Zen technique. After a few minutes, he finally opened the CD. ¡°Clavicle fracture?¡± He no longer had the desire to continue watching. As the video played, the old man put on his reading glasses and leaned in to watch: ¡°Ya ya ya, these clavicle surgeries are done so well now, he is quite adept at removing the hematoma with the hemostat! That young man, no wonder Han Jiangong is so focused on him. Usually, his eyes are always looking up, but now he pays so much attention to this newcomer.¡± He picked up the telephone: ¡°Han Jiangong, this is Zhang Zongshun. What was the name of the attending physician who applied for the third level surgery authorization? I will personally come to see his surgery next week, let me know in advance.¡± Zhang Zongshun, Old Zhang! He was highly respected, the head of the hospital expert group, which was equivalent to an advisory group, all were a bunch of old men. He worked half a day in the outpatient department every week, wandered around when there was nothing else to do and did some guiding and supervisory work. He participated in consults for difficult cases. When Old Han received his call, he was dumbfounded. The pickiest old man, he could remember what was written on any page of any book, and if your surgery is even a little bit off, you¡¯d be severely criticized. Every orthopedics director, except Han Jiangong, had been scolded by him at meetings. Director Bai was once left speechless by his scolding, his chubby face flush with embarrassment. Seeing Old Han¡¯s complexion change, Yang Ping thought it was another major rescue, and asked, ¡°Director, what¡¯s wrong?¡± Old Han waved his hand: ¡°You¡¯re in trouble, the chief of the expert group, Elder Zhang, has his eyes on you. He will personally come to watch your surgery next week, and he will probably bring a few old folks with him.¡± Yang Ping had heard some rumors, mostly about Zhang insisting on double-checking even the prescriptions that cost a few dollars or a few dozen dollars. ¡°No one who has been stalked by the old man has had a good day. You¡¯d better prepare yourself for criticism. I can help you with anything else, but with this, let me say it upfront, I cannot help you.¡± Old Han shook his head: You will have to face it yourself. Song Zimo came in, heard that Yang Ping had been targeted by Elder Zhang, and burst into laughter. ¡°You! You had to provoke him of all people. Listen, even Dean Xia has been criticized by him. No head of the surgical system has escaped his criticism. Oh, except Director Han.¡± Song Zimo was rolling with laughter. ¡°I will try to select the simplest surgeries for next week.¡± Song Zimo felt sorry for Yang Ping. Old Han said: ¡°That¡¯s useless. Once he¡¯s got his eyes on you, you still think you have a choice?¡± The phone rang, Old Han pointed at the mobile, and everyone kept quiet. Old Han answered the call: ¡°Elder Zhang, Elder Zhang, hello, yes! Yes, yes, yes, you are welcome to choose. He is young, so he surely lacks experience. Elder, please show a little mercy. No, no, no, that¡¯s not what I mean¡ª¡± After the call, Old Han helplessly said: ¡°I told you, he¡¯s already chosen two surgeries for next week: terror triad of elbow joint and comminuted fracture of the distal humerus. Deal with it yourself.¡± Even Song Zimo was shocked: ¡°This is not an assessment, it¡¯s a test right from the start. Why don¡¯t I get on the operating table to assist Yang Ping next week? I¡¯m afraid Little Five may not coordinate well.¡± Old Han said: ¡°Alright! I¡¯ll be in the gallery. This old man has a keen eye, you need to be careful, even your scalpel-holding technique must be standard.¡± The three of them discussed how to deal with Elder Zhang, and then went together to the rehabilitation department to visit the firefighting hero Qiangzi. Qiangzi was now transferred to the rehabilitation ward. The Trauma Emergency Center is a large system. Postoperative rehabilitation is the responsibility of the rehabilitation department, which has established a dedicated trauma rehabilitation team. When the three of them arrived at the rehabilitation department, Qiangzi was in the rehabilitation room, doing rehabilitation exercises under the guidance of the therapist. The rehabilitation room was spacious and filled with all kinds of modern rehabilitation equipment. The oversea Chinese businessman who donated the money to build Sanbo Hospital, every year, his foundation allocates funds to Sanbo Hospital to purchase equipment. Hence, Sanbo Hospital can acquire more equipment more easily than other hospitals. A girl on the side was constantly wiping his sweat. When Qiangzi saw Director Han and others come in, he was very happy. Yang Ping carefully checked the nerve growth, conducted a tapping test, the nerve terminations were progressing towards the distal end, which was a reason for celebration. The more delightful thing was that Qiangzi introduced his girlfriend to everyone, a primary school teacher, a freshly graduated college student. She saw Qiangzi¡¯s news on TV, ran to send him flowers, fell in love with Qiangzi at first sight, and gradually they started dating. The girl shyly greeted everyone, then helped Qiangzi sit down: ¡°Look at you, I told you not to rush, and you are sweating so much.¡± Everyone burst into laughter. Old Han¡¯s phone rang again. ¡°Han Jiangong, remember, inform me in advance!¡± ¡°Absolutely, Old Zhang!¡± Chapter 34 - 0033 Pediatrics, Vegetable Market Chapter 34: Chapter 0033 Pediatrics, Vegetable Market After returning from the rehabilitation department, I just entered the elevator when I received a call from Su Yixuan. ¡°Brother Ping, where are you? I¡¯m in the Pediatrics outpatient clinic, outside Room 17. My cousin¡¯s child is having issues with his arm. Can you come over and help?¡± Su Yixuan asked anxiously. This was an emergency! Yang Ping immediately parted ways with Old Han and Song Zimo, rushing to the pediatric clinic. Old Han and Song Zimo were left confused by the urgency, not knowing what had happened. On the way, they ran into Zhang Lin who was carrying snacks and fruits. He was also heading to the pediatric clinic. His girlfriend had fainted in the examination room in the morning. After receiving an intravenous infusion, she had gone back to work. He was worried and wanted to check on her. Zhang Lin looked haggard and kept applying vapo rub throughout the journey. Both men were shocked when they arrived at the pediatric clinic. It was noisy and chaotic, resembling a meat market. There was a long queue for appointments, starting from the information desk, winding out the door and into the parking lot, where it continued in a large loop. Noise from the children echoed all around: wailing, adults coaxing kids, and families arguing ¡ª all intermingling with each other. You would see discarded diapers and fever patches everywhere, and a baby bottle with half-filled milk, rolling on the floor. Some entire families were stationed here, each doing their part. Some kept their places in the queue while others set up floor bedding in corners with their children, using fever patches on their foreheads. A parent even brought a camping tent and set it up in one corner of the clinic¡¯s hall. The woman sat inside the tent feeding her child formula while the man was negotiating with the security guard. This man looked quite unkempt and held a steamy bowl of instant braised beef noodles in his hand. He argued, ¡°I¡¯ve been queuing since midnight and it¡¯s been more than ten hours now. Can¡¯t you show some humanity?¡± While the security was having a heated debate with him, the crowd suddenly erupted in noise. People pushed their way to the front to see a specialist who couldn¡¯t bear the load anymore and was helped out of an examination room, pale and gasping for breath. The sign for ¡°Temporarily not seeing patients¡± was hung, anger ran high amongst the crowd. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°My child isn¡¯t seen yet.¡± ¡°Such an irresponsible doctor!¡± ¡°You can¡¯t leave!¡± The substitute specialist waved his hand: ¡°The old professor really couldn¡¯t stand it any longer, but I will finish seeing the rest of his patients.¡± ¡°What do you mean? I paid for an appointment with the specialist to see him, not just to be told that someone else will see us instead.¡± The crowd was outraged. Others sighed and said: ¡°Just change the doctor. The professor was dragged out. How can he be expected to see patients?¡± ¡°Change the doctor? There¡¯s no room in any of the clinics!¡± It was a hard truth. Yang Ping rarely visited Pediatrics and was surprised by the chaos; it was overwhelming. His ears buzzed from the noise and his head spun. The hallways of the patient wards and the elevator spaces are full of extra beds that you¡¯d have to squeeze your way through,¡± Zhang Lin remarked. ¡°You¡¯re familiar with this pediatric outpatient clinic, right?¡± Yang Ping wanted to ask where Consultation Room 17, the one that Su Yixuan mentioned, was located. To his surprise, Zhang Lin waves his hand off: ¡°Bro, not to be unhelpful, but my phone has been blowing up these days with requests for specialist appointments connections. I really can¡¯t manage to help anymore.¡± ¡°No, you see¡ª¡±Yang Ping tried to explain. Zhang Lin waved him off and took off: ¡°Bro, I¡¯m so sorry.¡± Yang Ping shook his head. This kid doesn¡¯t even let others finish their sentences. He decided to look for Consultation Room 17 among the crowd on his own. Pediatric doctors are always busy, paid less and are prone to getting scolded occasionally. Even in a major three-tiered hospital like Sanbo, they still struggle to retain staff. Other hospitals are facing the same situation. Many doctors have left over the years and it¡¯s difficult to hire more. As a result, when the flu season peaks, scenes like this occur with patients far outnumbering doctors. Some hospitals have no choice but to close down due to the lack of pediatricians. The higher-ups commanded: it must remain open! Must be open? If a cow can¡¯t produce milk and you don¡¯t feed it, shouting ¡°It must produce milk!¡± will not make it produce milk. Some hospitals had no choice but to have their internists fill in. Once a problem arose¡ªinternists treating pediatrics¡ªthat¡¯s illegal practice! It¡¯s so confusing, these poor doctors were just trying to support their colleagues and ended up being accused of breaking the law. At the railing on the second floor, Dean Xia was talking to the Director of Pediatrics: ¡°Divert it, don¡¯t let it all block here.¡± ¡°Divert?¡± The Director said, ¡°People have to rush to tertiary hospitals even for a sneeze now. You can¡¯t drive them away. Go and see the Children¡¯s Hospital in the city, it¡¯s even more crowded than here. I pulled out all the new residents to see patients. I can¡¯t hold on any longer if this continues. I have been seeing patients for a month straight. A few of our comrades have already collapsed, one yesterday and two today. Even with the diapers on, not eating or drinking, we still can¡¯t finish seeing all the patients. To be honest, I¡¯m also wearing a diaper now.¡± Dean Xia¡¯s tall figure stood out. He looked down and muttered to himself: this could be lethal. Not limiting the number of patients could be lethal. ¡°Limit the number of patients,¡± he suddenly said in a louder voice, ¡°fucking limit the number of patients.¡± The Department Director of Pediatrics was taken aback, ¡°You¡¯re not kidding, are you? It¡¯s a clear rule set by the higher department to meet demand. It doesn¡¯t allow number limits.¡± ¡°Tomorrow I will bring them to the outpatient clinic with me.¡± The rage Dean Xia felt was sky-high. Dean Xia had a unique personality. He had before been a national model worker, a representative in the National People¡¯s Congress, one of the country¡¯s excellent Deans, and had even received awards at the People¡¯s Hall. He dared to be domineering, others did not. The Department Director of Pediatrics gave a soft agreement, then quickly added, ¡°Dean, you said it. I¡¯m just following orders.¡± He then promptly called the reception desk: ¡°Limit the number. Damn it, limit it! Yes, I am the one who said it. No, it was Dean who said it.¡± The Department Director of Pediatrics had never been so domineering before. After hanging up the phone, he felt a wave of relief washing over him. His right hand reached up to touch his hair, like in his youth when his hair was thick and his spirit was high. Dean Xia glanced at the Department Director¡¯s bald head, ¡°Next week we will need to discuss the Pediatrics again at the weekly meeting. We will discuss the special subsidies policy.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t we discuss it last week? Many Department Directors disagreed.¡± The Department Director of Pediatrics felt upset at the recalling. ¡°If they disagree, they can come and help in Pediatrics and try the feel of ¡°padding diapers.¡± What Dean Xia said, he would do. ¡°Let¡¯s go and see where those colleagues of ours are staying.¡± Dean Xia strode off, leaving the Department Director trailing behind. ¡ª Yang Ping enquired around a bit before rushing to Room No. 17. Finally, he saw Su Yixuan¡¯s graceful figure standing by a small slide outside the consultation room. On seeing Yang Ping, Su Yixuan waved to him as if he was her savior. ¡°Sis, this is our Doctor Yang. He¡¯s really capable, he can help.¡± ¡°How old is the child? What happened?¡± Yang Ping asked, bending over. The little girl just cried, timidly dodging away. Her right arm was semi-bent and hanging loose, and she was guarding it with her left hand, not allowing anyone to touch it. ¡°She¡¯s four. She fell from the slide. When I pulled her up, she was like this.¡± Her pretty and noble cousin looked anxious and regretful. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, let me take a look.¡± Yang Ping soothed the little girl, gaining a bit of her trust, then gently rolled up the girl¡¯s sleeve. There was no swelling, the forearm was rotated forwards and the elbow joint was half bent. He had a clue of the problem. The child continued crying while Yang Ping comforted her, ¡°Uncle is just going to have a look, don¡¯t be afraid, it¡¯ll be over after a quick touch!¡± His expression was serious thereafter. ¡°Is it broken?¡± The cousin asked worriedly. With a snapping sound, the child¡¯s partially dislocated radial head was relocated. ¡°Can you move it?¡± Yang Ping encouraged the young girl. Initially, she dared not try. However, upon being encouraged, she slowly attempted to move and realized it didn¡¯t hurt anymore. Thus, she boldly moved, completely normal. She instantly stopped crying, joining the others in playing on the slide. ¡°Nothing to worry about, she is fine.¡± Yang Ping straightened up his back. The cousin joyfully said, ¡°Xiaoxuan, your colleague is really good. He made it better with just a touch, he¡¯s really magical.¡± ¡°I told you he is powerful,¡± Su Yixuan said proudly, holding her head high. ¡°Thank you so much.¡± Su Yixuan¡¯s smile revealed two charming dimples. Yang Ping casually replied, ¡°It¡¯s nothing!¡± ¡°You guys stay busy, I have some other stuff to handle.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to stay too long. Su Yixuan quietly showed her phone. Meaning: Contact on WeChat! Chapter 35 - 0034: Emergency Dispatch Chapter 35: Chapter 0034: Emergency Dispatch ¡°Thank you, tomorrow night at six, Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish!¡± Su Yixuan sent a WeChat message. Yang Ping checked her phone countless times and then put it on her chest, feeling sweet inside and excitedly unable to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a happy day. But time was passing too slowly for her enlivened state. Unable to sleep, Yang Ping opened WeChat and browsed through several groups until she felt sleepy. In her college group, few people were active, and the most active ones had all joined top tertiary hospitals via the fast track. Someone was showing off photos of attending an academic conference abroad with the head of the department, standing next to international big shots for group photos, and humorously making a complaint: ¡°Being a doctor is not easy, having to go overseas for training.¡± A few congratulatory messages followed. After that were various links for group-buy discounts sprinkled through the group chat. She didn¡¯t sleep well because she felt too excited last night. She got up early in the morning, still feeling a little sleep-deprived. After having breakfast in a restaurant near the hospital, she arrived at the hospital just a little after seven. Doctors like Zhang Lin and Little Five who lived in the hospital were already busy, and the keyboard sound of the computers never stopped. Little Five gave a simple report to Yang Ping about the patients¡¯ situations from the previous day, about those who owed fees, exceeded insurance coverage, didn¡¯t report hospital infections promptly, and so forth, all kinds of complicated issues. Director Han¡¯s group actually had two sub-groups: Yang Ping and Little Five¡¯s group, and Song Zimo and Zhang Lin¡¯s group, each group handled different patients. Zhang Lin managed ten beds and Little Five managed ten beds. While typing on the keyboard, Zhang Lin said mysteriously, ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear about the incident in the spinal department?¡± ¡°An accident?¡± Little Five asked curiously. Zhang Lin nodded, ¡°Remember the three-noes patient? His four sons and two daughters came. Yesterday, they caused a scene in the department, and were forced out by the security.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t he have no relatives? Their home was called before, and they said he had no family.¡± Not only did Yang Ping know, the whole department knew about this patient. He had a bursting fracture of the thoracic vertebrae and damage to the spinal cord at the same plane, and he was paralyzed from the navel down. Zhang Lin gave a sly smile, ¡°Right, but they denied being his family because they were afraid of being asked for money. An entire half year in the hospital and not a single person came to visit. Now that his family is suddenly here, they¡¯re demanding compensation.¡± ¡°Compensation? For a three-noes worker who fell from a height at a construction site, resulting in severe spinal fracture, spinal cord injury, and destruction of the spinal cord? He would be paralyzed anywhere he went. This is a problem worldwide. Free treatment, free caregiver service, free meals three times a day, stayed for more than half a year, and now suddenly relatives appeared, upon arrival demanding compensation?¡± Little Five was indignant. Zhang Lin said, ¡°Right, yesterday the medics went there, and the other party proposed a compensation amount of six million yuan. Threatened to give the hospital a blood bath if they didn¡¯t get the money.¡± ¡°Seems like there¡¯s going to be trouble! Be careful these days, everyone. And be especially cautious while commuting,¡± said Zhang Lin. ¡°I¡¯m thinking about buying a stab-resistant vest, do you want to group order? Oh, and remember, your desk should never face the doorway. Pay attention to suspicious people on your way to and from work, and try to wear running shoes.¡± ¡°Is it that serious?¡± Yang Ping said quietly. Zhang Lin said seriously, ¡°Trust me, not long ago, a doctor at Nandu Fuer was stabbed several times and admitted to the ICU. Haven¡¯t you seen someone measuring the door clearance of the outpatient and emergency departments recently?¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t they saying it was just some doorway renovation?¡± Yang Ping was interested in this. Zhang Lin was well-informed, ¡°Reliable sources say the outpatient and emergency departments will only keep one door open and install security screening channels at the entrance. This is a policy pushed directly by Dean Xia. You didn¡¯t know that they were also going to strengthen security and train doctors in self-defence? The new triple security policies of the hospital will be announced on the official website soon.¡± ¡°How do you know all this?¡± Yang Ping knew none of this. Zhang Lin said mysteriously, ¡°Don¡¯t ask about that, just know that I¡¯m right. And remember not to tell anyone about this.¡± Then he repeated the same words to Little Five, Fang Yan and several others. He announced it to everyone, but still asked for confidentiality. Shift exchanges, ward rounds, surgeries, all were done as per normal routine. She performed a finger reattachment surgery, and assisted Director Han in several surgeries. It was past five in the afternoon when she finally finished. Director Han was both fast and skilled in surgery, it¡¯s like he could control the pace as he desired, always had a well-thought-out plan. While they were changing, Old Han received a call. After hanging up, he said, ¡°Xiao Yang, the emergency department just asked for help. An accident happened at a construction site and a worker¡¯s leg is trapped under a piece of cement. He can¡¯t get out. They are currently attempting a rescue. It¡¯s estimated they¡¯ll have to amputate on site. You take Little Five and go. Meet at the entrance to the emergency department. The emergency transport is waiting.¡± This couldn¡¯t wait. Yang Ping and Little Five hurried to the emergency department. A Mercedes ambulance was waiting at the door. The doctor saw Yang Ping and immediately opened the door, ¡°Doctor Yang, you¡¯re doing a great job!¡± The emergency department had already sent an ambulance earlier. This one was just for transporting Yang Ping. The ambulance¡¯s sirens sounded as it headed straight to the construction site. ¡°Ding Dong! Task: Race against time to save the life of a critically ill patient. Successful completion will be rewarded with 6000 points.¡± Tasks had now become part of their life. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t surprised when the system released tasks at any time. People were waiting at the entrance and exit of the construction site to hand out hard hats. Yang Ping and his team put on the hard hats and followed the worker who was leading them to the accident site. It was a subway tunnel construction project, leading underground. They could see the early signs of tracks, escalators, pillars, etc. ¡°There was a corner that hadn¡¯t been reinforced yet which was off-limits. But a worker had hidden there because he needed to relieve himself urgently. As a result, it collapsed. His upper body has been dug out, but one of his legs is trapped under a chunk of cement,¡± explained the site leader who was responsible for safety. Dr. Lv from the emergency department was already waiting there with a nurse. An IV drip was set up and fluids were being administered. Dr. Lv reported, ¡°His right lower extremity is trapped under cement weighing hundreds of kilos. The rescue is difficult because the machinery can¡¯t be used and manual rescue is required. His internal organs have sustained damage. A surface ultrasound just revealed that his liver is ruptured and approximately 1000ml of fluid has accumulated in his abdominal cavity; there is bleeding beneath the casing of the spleen, and the bleeding is worsening. We should perform a laparotomy as soon as we get him back to the hospital.¡± The emergency department was well-equipped with portable surface ultrasound machines, X-ray machines, ECG machines, etc. The larger ambulances also had fully automatic biochemical analyzers for on-site blood drawing and results analysis. Ever since the Trauma Emergency Center was established, these doctors have undergone training every few days, so using a surface ultrasound machine was no major task now. A ruptured liver was already dangerous enough. In addition to that, the patient had steadily worsening hemorrhage beneath the spleen¡¯s casing ¨C an urgent indicator for a laparotomy. Otherwise, if the bleeding increased, especially if the spleen¡¯s casing is ruptured, it could prove fatal on the spot. The patient was barely conscious, thanks to his strong overall physical condition and timely fluid replenishment. They needed to quickly rescue the man and transport him to the hospital for the laparotomy. Timing was critical: it was a matter of life and death. The patient¡¯s face was pale, his expression agonized. His right pant leg had been cut open, and the entire part of the leg from below the thigh down was trapped inside. Rescue workers were using a tool to remove chunks of cement bit by bit. Yang Ping said, ¡°We can only amputate. Otherwise, he won¡¯t survive!¡± At urgent moments, it¡¯s best to put harsh realities into words as clearly as possible. Dr. Lv passed over an informed consent form attached to a clipboard, and an open box of ink, ¡°Please sign here. If you can¡¯t sign, pressing a hand print will also work.¡± It couldn¡¯t be helped. All conscious patients had to sign. It was procedure. The worker kept sweating and his face twisted with pain. Each word he spoke was a struggle, ¡°Doctor, can it be saved? Please try. I have old parents and young children to support. If I lose a leg, it would be a disaster.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t save it, nor should we try. Currently, you need to choose between your leg and your life. What will it be?¡± Yang Ping was stern. At a time like this, lengthy or flowery speech was useless. Only firm and resolute decisions were helpful. ¡°Nowadays, prosthetic lower limbs are highly functional. You¡¯ll be able to walk and work normally in the future,¡± Yang Ping added. The worker was still hesitating. After all, it¡¯s not easy to make a decision to amputate a live leg that was fine just a moment ago. ¡°Doctor, if the leg is amputated, can it be reconnected at the hospital once it¡¯s dug out?¡± The worker strived to negotiate. Yang Ping peeked through the gap between the cement chunk and the ground. The lower leg had been completely flattened and it had turned a pale gray. Regrettably, he said, ¡°There¡¯s very little hope. The severe crush injury makes it impossible to reattach.¡± ¡°Creatine levels have increased!¡± Dr. Lv interrupted. That meant a large amount of muscle tissue had been destroyed by being crushed, causing myoglobin to enter the bloodstream and clog the renal tubules, which damaged the tubular cells and led to acute renal failure. This could also be fatal. ¡°Trust me, we need to amputate immediately. We are all here to save your life. If you hesitate any longer, what you¡¯ll lose won¡¯t just be your leg, it will be your life.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s tone was calm, every word clear. The worker took a deep breath, closed his eyes, clenched his teeth, and said, ¡°I trust you, Doctor. Amputate.¡± Then, he dipped his right index finger into the ink and pressed it onto the informed consent form. At this moment, there was no choice. His liver had ruptured and he was already bleeding. If his spleen ruptured as well, he would surely die on the spot. The only option was to amputate to buy some time and save his life. ¡°Little Five, prepare!¡± Chapter 36 - 0035: Race Against Time Chapter 36: Chapter 0035: Race Against Time Even if amputation was performed on-site, Yang Ping did not want to make it a hasty affair. The miscellaneous items around them were cleared away, and a waterproof pad placed under the thigh. Little Five worked methodically and swiftly. As Yang Ping¡¯s assistant, he strived to meet the standards. A sterile package was opened, disinfected, and a sterile bottom sheet and hole towel were laid out. ¡°Syringe, 10% lidocaine, saline water, dilute one to one!¡± Little Five had already handed these items over. Without an anesthesiologist, only local anesthesia could be administered. Amputation under local anesthesia? What high level of local anesthetic technique was required! Dr. Lv from the emergency department broke out into a cold sweat. Local anesthesia is generally used for minor surgeries, like suturing small wounds or removing small tumors. Too small a dose might not achieve the desired effect; a dose too large might risk anesthetic poisoning. One hospital had a patient die from anesthesia poisoning in the outpatient operating room after overdosing on local anesthetic during the removal of a tendon sheath cyst on the hand¡¯s back. Hence, even slightly larger operations, such as larger wound sutures, wouldn¡¯t typically use local anesthesia due to the higher risks and subpar effects. Now Yang Ping was using local anesthesia for an amputation? This surprised everyone. Although local anesthesia seems simple, it too is a technical job. Ordinary local anesthesia involves injecting the drug around the surgical area; a more accurate method is to block the nerves that control the surgical area. The latter is called nerve block, which is a more advanced form of local anesthesia. If we were to use an analogy, the former would be compared to blindly firing a cannon at enemy lines, while the latter would be like using precision-guided missiles to obliterate enemy bases. To master nerve block anesthesia, one must be very familiar with anatomy, understand the nerve control in each region, and familiarize themselves with the nerve pathways. Now, Yang Ping was about to block the right femoral and sciatic nerves. Anesthesiologists usually use surface ultrasound for positioning for this kind of block, but Yang Ping now had to do it manually. Dr. Lv watched intently and with anticipatory admiration¨Camputation under local anesthesia. Following the pathway of the femoral and sciatic nerves, Yang Ping first blocked the femoral nerve¨Cstarting from the skin on the upper part of the thigh and anesthetizing layer by layer. As he carefully inserted the needle into the nerve sheath, the feeling of electric shock immediately emanated. ¡°Feeling like an electric shock?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± The patient said with gritted teeth. Then, the medication was injected into the sheath of the nerve. The same method was used to block the sciatic nerve, whose branches primarily control the skin¡¯s feeling in the lower limbs. Just as the transmission of current along a wire is interrupted, the nerve impulse was successfully blocked by the anesthetic. The effect was very good. After a short wait, the patient¡¯s right lower limb had no sensation, and Yang Ping began to make the incision. The knife formed a beautiful tongue flap¡ªskin, subcutaneous tissues, deep fascia, muscles, blood vessels ligation, high-level nerve incision, exposing the femur and sawing it off mid one-third with a wire saw. The fracture site of the femur was lightly rounded off. The same method was used to cut a tongue flap from the skin, deep fascia, and subcutaneous tissues on the opposite side. The bleeding site was ligated one by one, leaving the surgical area clean. The amputation was completed in less than five minutes, perhaps even shorter. The stump was wrapped in a sterile sheet, with the remaining treatment to be continued on the ambulance. The EMTs quickly lifted the patient onto the stretcher, put on a nasal cannula, continued with cardiac monitoring, and swiftly connected various tubes and wires before tidying up. The stretcher was placed in the middle, with Yang Ping and Little Five on one side, Dr. Lv and the nurse on the other. The vehicle started, heading for Sanbo Hospital. To save time, the driver chose the quickest route on the GPS. Lidocaine local anesthesia can last one to three hours. The anesthetic was still effective, and the patient felt no pain. Dr. Lv was thinking ¨C if he could master Yang Ping¡¯s superb nerve blocking technique, there would no longer be a need to use morphine for pain caused by injuries in future emergency situations. A direct high-selectiveness nerve block would make the journey to the hospital painless for patients. In the ambulance, within the limited space, Yang Ping and Little Five carefully washed the amputation stump. After disinfecting and laying sheets again, they stitched together the muscles, fascia, and skin. Only then was the amputation considered complete. This too took only a few minutes. ¡°Doctor, can I survive?¡± The patient¡¯s voice was already very weak, his face and lips were pale, his eyes were closed and he struggled to open them slightly. They had turned the IV to the fastest rate possible, simultaneously giving infusions through three channels, colloids, crystalloids, entering the body. Yang Ping was tightly holding his hand. It was ice-cold. ¡°You can! You definitely can!¡± The patient gasped, still wanting to talk, but was unable to gather the energy to speak several times. ¡°Don¡¯t talk anymore, you¡¯ll be alright, hang in there!¡± Yang Ping held the patient¡¯s hand, squeezing it a bit to offer encouragement. Still, the patient managed to squeeze out a few words: ¡°Save ¡ª me ¡ª my child ¡ª junior high school ¡ª pitiful ¨C¡± Words have become sparse and discontinuous. The ambulance is quite advanced, but it is still just an ambulance, only providing basic life support such as fluid resuscitation. In the short term, fluids can maintain volume, but ultimately it will require a blood transfusion to replenish red blood cells and maintain oxygen transport. And transfusions can only be done at the hospital. Heart rate has already risen to 120 per minute, blood pressure has dropped to 80/40mmHg, and oxygen levels are barely maintained at 90% with oxygen inhalation. No one knows whether the burgeoning spleen has ruptured. If it has, it¡¯s a sure death. Sometimes you have to admit it¡¯s all down to luck. Dr. Lv can¡¯t perform a surface ultrasound anymore, as applying pressure with the probe also carries a risk. Even if a rupture is identified, there¡¯s still nothing that can be done for now. ¡°Hurry!¡± Yang Ping said to the driver in front, his hand clutching the patient¡¯s, his fingers continuously pressing on the radial artery. The pulse was weak, seemingly about to disappear. ¡°We¡¯re already going as fast as we can!¡± shouted the driver, yet his foot pressed harder on the accelerator. The nurse switched out another bag of fluid. Dr. Lv was on edge, his face covered in sweat. The ambulance siren was urgent, and the driver danced through the traffic. Some cars moved aside to make way, but most others simply ignored it. The driver, a retired armored driver, was very skilled and calmly handled the steering wheel, constantly overtaking other cars. The biggest unpredictability of urban traffic is jams. Everyone in the car was praying, begging the traffic gods for no congestion, just not now! The patient was now delirious, and a shout would only cause a slight flutter of the eyelids. The ambulance got onto the overpass. Suddenly, the car in front braked, slowed down, and stopped gradually. The ambulance followed suit, slowing to a stop. Because the ambulance had maintained a good distance from the car ahead, the stop was smooth and didn¡¯t jar the patient too much. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Little Five asked. The driver shook his head: ¡°I¡¯ll go and check.¡± Immediately, a long line of cars formed behind them, and looking forward, a long snake of cars stretched out ahead as well. The driver pulled the brake, opened the door, and got out. He walked about ten meters forward to investigate the situation. He came back and said, ¡°A truck broke down up ahead. It¡¯s caused a traffic jam.¡± Damn! Everyone cursed. Stuck in traffic at a time like this, it was a hopeless situation. Cars were packed tight on all sides, there was no way to move forward or backward. Yang Ping¡¯s heart sank, and the pulse in his hand was nothing but a faint whisper, like a candle in the wind, about to go out. The flame of life can sometimes be very tough, but at other times it¡¯s extremely fragile, easily extinguished by the slightest disturbance. Dr. Lv opened the ambulance¡¯s back door. He shaded his eyes with his hand and looked ahead to the endless snake of traffic, looking back, the snake still continued in winding coils. He walked back and forth behind the ambulance, his right fist smashing into his left hand, nervousness etched on his face. Time was slipping away, second by second. The patient was completely out of it, no longer even stirring when called. His pulse rate was increasing rapidly, his pulse as faint as a gossamer thread, and on the verge of disappearing. After looking again and again, with the traffic completely stationary, Dr. Lv lifted his head and let out a heart-wrenching cry: ¡°Help! There¡¯s someone in the ambulance who needs urgent help!¡± Even if they called for a helicopter right now, it would be too late. And not everyone has the chance to be airlifted. Of the two helicopters that the hospital had, one was undergoing maintenance, and the other was hired by a high-end insurance company to transport another patient. The piercing siren of the ambulance, the flashing lights, and the desperate cries of the doctor attracted the attention of other drivers who had got out of their cars for air. A fellow wearing sunglasses squeezed through the narrow gaps between the cars and asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°The person in the ambulance is dying. They won¡¯t make it much longer,¡± Dr. Lv said helplessly, wiping sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. Inside the vehicle, Yang Ping and Little Five watched over the patient. Little Five stared at the heart monitor while Yang Ping continued to hold the patient¡¯s hand. The man in sunglasses scratched his head, took off his sunglasses, peered in, then looked at the traffic jam. Then he raised his voice: ¡°Quick, quick, quick! Come help, emergency! Someone¡¯s life is at stake!¡± Chapter 37 - 0036: Warm Relay Chapter 37: Chapter 0036: Warm Relay After shouting, the sunglasses-wearing guy returned to the back door of the ambulance. He peeked into the ambulance and said, ¡°The bridge is jam-packed and there¡¯s no room for even flipping a car, hurry up, lift the patient down. Let¡¯s all carry him together. Get past this section and find another vehicle for transport. Saving lives is the most important thing now!¡± Yes! This is the only choice, to lift the patient up and walk out of the congestion. This is a solution, the only solution. Yang Ping, Little Five, Dr. Lv, the nurse, and two paramedics immediately started to work. The patient was already on a stretcher, and they worked together to lift him up. Two paramedics, the sunglasses guy, Little Five carried the stretcher. Dr. Lv was holding the first aid kit, the nurse held a few bags of fluid, and Yang Ping kept holding the patient¡¯s hand tightly. Even in a coma, the patient held on tight. As he walked, the sunglasses guy shouted, ¡°Help, help please, emergency, extremely urgent!¡± More and more people got out of their cars. At first, they were observing, not sure what was going on, but as they understood, some rushed over to help. A few people, dozens of people, even more¡ªthey must have somehow figured out what was happening near the ambulance. The space between the lanes was cleared and became a designated path for the stretcher. People stayed away to both sides, and those who came over to help were also moving through the gaps on both sides. ¡°Switch, switch, the next group get ready!¡± The sunglasses guy picked out a few strong-looking individuals from the crowd who were running alongside. Those carrying the stretcher were completely switched out for fresh hands as they continued to rush forward. ¡°Hold it steady, no shaking!¡± The sunglasses guy rolled up his sleeves to wipe off the sweat, instructing the new people with their hands on the stretcher. Some were helping to clear the way, some were ready to take over carrying the stretcher. The gaps between the lanes were barely passable, but for any disregarding vehicles or ones not parked properly, it was hard for the stretcher to go through. ¡°Hurry up, you go ahead to clear the way, you go ahead to arrange a vehicle, we need a truck¡ªother cars won¡¯t do, we can¡¯t put the stretcher in them.¡± The sunglasses guy was commanding everyone with great experience. ¡°I¡¯ll carry! I¡¯m in sports, long distance running.¡± A young man in his twenties ran along with the team. The sunglasses guy pulled him over immediately: ¡°You, hurry up and run ahead to find a truck. We need a truck.¡± ¡°Yep!¡± The young man accepted the mission and immediately put his specialty to use, running as fast as he could forward to find a vehicle ahead of the congestion. An orange Bentley Bentayga might have tried to change lanes before the traffic was completely stopped, and was now diagonally across two lanes, pinned by other cars in the middle, causing the stretcher to be unable to pass. The only way to get across was to go over the front of the car. The car owner, wearing a T-shirt, shorts, and slippers, with a beer belly, was the first to climb onto the bonnet to receive the stretcher, not caring about his car anymore. He was desperately waving his hands and shouting, ¡°Over here! It¡¯s alright, hurry up, saving lives is what matters!¡± Speaking Mandarin with a Cantonese accent, the owner forcefully directed everyone. The stretcher was lifted onto the bonnet, slowly dragged across from there, caught by the people on the other side. Several long scratches were left on the bonnet. Carrying the stretcher, holding it steady, and running is an extremely strenuous task. So, they didn¡¯t run far before switching to another group of people. Each time, after the switch, the next group was ready to step in as a replacement. ¡°Hold it steady, hurry up!¡± Northeastern accents, Cantonese, Sichuanese, various dialects filled the air. Everyone was panting, taking turns carrying the stretcher, racing forwards as fast as they could. Yang Ping was always following the stretcher, trying to keep it steady and free of any vibrations. The people carrying it understood the doctor¡¯s instruction and held it extremely evenly. Some people tripped and fell, but others immediately took their places. When some ran out of stamina, replacements were immediately available. The stretcher was always steady, rushing forward at the fastest possible speed. No one cared about the traffic anymore; they were only focused on making this stretcher break free. The straying individual, waving a red shirt, continued to shout ahead: ¡°Move aside, move aside, we¡¯re saving a life.¡± With everyone¡¯s relay efforts, the stretcher broke free from the jammed bridge and began sprinting downhill. Astonishingly, they kept up a running pace, left the line of traffic behind and saw a clear road ahead. The long-distance running boy, seemingly out of nowhere, caught hold of the sunglasses guy, his face glowing red: ¡°The truck is over there, it¡¯s a cargo truck, we can put the stretcher in.¡± A small open truck was parked on the side of the road into which everyone carried the stretcher and put it onto the truck bed. ¡°Sanbo, go to Sanbo Hospital!¡± Dr. Lv shouted. Exhausted, the sunglasses guy leaned against a tree at the roadside, fell onto the ground and waved his hand: ¡°Hurry, you guys go to the hospital, I can¡¯t go on.¡± The crowd was waving back, some were doubled over and panting, some were vomiting by the roadside, some were sprawled out on the ground. The truck started, rushing to Sanbo Hospital. The weak pulse was faint, and a few times couldn¡¯t be felt at all. Finally, the patient was successfully transported to Sanbo Hospital. Having gone into shock, he was immediately sent to the operating room after a quick crossmatching for blood. The general surgeons were already waiting. When Yang Ping released the patient¡¯s hand, he had to use a lot of force to pry open the patient¡¯s hand and withdraw his own. Dozens of bags of blood were hung on the infusion stand, being pumped into the patient¡¯s body at the fastest possible speed. An endotracheal intubation was performed under general anaesthesia, the General Surgeon washed his hands and spread sheets for an emergency exploratory laparotomy. Yang Ping sat in the corner, Little Five handed him an opened glucose drink, Yang Ping gulped it down, unsure if they could still save the patient. The scalpel sliced through the skin, layer by layer, as soon as they entered the abdominal cavity, blood gushed out and the suction device couldn¡¯t keep up with it. ¡°There¡¯s a stomach full of blood, at least two thousand milliliters. The liver has ruptured, and there¡¯s a subcapsular rupture of the spleen.¡± The Associate Chief Surgeon holding the scalpel said. The procedure: Splenectomy, hepatic lobectomy. Having just ligated the splenic artery and vein, the spleen finally couldn¡¯t bear it and ruptured in the abdomen with a ¡°pop¡± sound, a bag of blood gushed out again. The frail spleen had actually already been squashed to pulp. ¡°Xiao Yang, that was close! A minute later, and this patient would have been done for. It¡¯s quite rare to see a severe splenic rupture like this, with the capsule remaining intact. This was caused by compressive injury. The ruptured liver has already caused severe bleeding, if the spleen¡¯s capsule breaks, it can lead directly to fatal shock.¡± the Chief Surgeon said. He tossed the removed spleen into a metal basin, pointing at it with vascular forceps, saying: ¡°Look, the spleen is completely ruptured, the capsule is like a balloon, continually expanding until it couldn¡¯t hold and burst spontaneously.¡± Next, they performed the hepatic lobectomy, and the bleeding finally stopped completely. They then checked the pancreas, the intestines, etc., without finding any further issues. ¡°How are the vital signs?¡± the Chief Surgeon asked. ¡°Blood pressure 90/50mmHg, oxygen saturation 98%, heart rate 100 beats/min¨C¡± ¡°The blood pressure is coming up, it should be fine now, transfer the patient to trauma ICU after the surgery.¡± The surgeon performed multiple washouts, placed a drainage tube, and performed layered suturing. ¡°Does Orthopedics have any other issues? If not, we¡¯ll be transferring the patient to the Trauma ICU soon,¡± the Chief Surgeon asked Yang Ping. Only then did Yang Ping regain his senses: ¡°How is he? Can he survive?¡± The Chief Surgeon said: ¡°There¡¯s a great chance.¡± Yang Ping finally could breathe a sigh of relief. He survived! ¡°Ding-dong, mission accomplished, awarded 6000 points.¡± As promised, the system rewarded him instantly without any deduction. The severed amputation stump was left clean and expertly managed, no second procedure was necessary. Dragging his exhausted body, he headed to the changing room. Su Yixuan sent a WeChat message: ¡°When you get back, remember¨C Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish Restaurant, I¡¯ll be waiting for you.¡± Oh no, he had arranged to dine with Su Yixuan today, scheduled for six o¡¯clock, but now it was already nine o¡¯clock. Yang Ping made a call: ¡°I¡¯m sorry! I¨CI¨CI¨C¡± From the other side, Su Yixuan spoke: ¡°It¡¯s okay, I knew you were out with the emergency department so I didn¡¯t call you. Hurry up and come over, I¡¯ve been waiting for you for three hours.¡± She was still there! After getting changed, Yang Ping and Little Five went to see the patient in the Trauma ICU, the intubation tube had not been removed yet, but his blood pressure had increased a little. After saying hi to Little Five, Yang Ping rushed over to Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish Restaurant. It was the same seat by the window, Su Yixuan was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt, her shoulder-length hair tied up, she was looking out of the window. Yang Ping felt an inexplicable sense of being touched! Chapter 38 - 0037: Take Your Time, Couple Chapter 38: Chapter 0037: Take Your Time, Couple ¡°Sorry.¡± Yang Ping sat down. Having just run over, he was still a bit out of breath. ¡°Sorry to keep you waiting.¡± Not giving a heads-up and making someone wait for two or three hours was really impolite. Another person would have been annoyed and left already. For doctors, endless surgeries often interrupt meals. An emergency phone call comes, and off they rush, leaving the girlfriend alone. So many people can¡¯t stand dating a doctor. Su Yixuan turned around, flipping her sleek black hair, and smiled, ¡°It¡¯s okay. Consider it as experiencing several surgeries with you. Have some water first; I knew you would come just about this time.¡± ¡°A worker had a ruptured liver and spleen, and his lower limb was crushed by a cement block, needing an amputation at the site. I was dispatched with the emergency department...¡± Yang Ping explained. Su Yixuan calmly said, ¡°I know, two or three thousand milliliters of blood spilled out of the abdominal cavity. If he had arrived at the hospital a few minutes later, he might not have survived. I heard you amputated his limb within minutes, saving precious time.¡± Luckily, they both worked in the operating room. If one of them was in a different profession, discussing things like blood and liver and spleen ruptures at the dinner table could make them run to the restroom to vomit. Since they are in the same field, they can chat and eat without losing their appetites. Yang Ping recalled anatomy labs in college. Sometimes, if someone overslept and rushed to the lab with their breakfast, they¡¯d eat while watching others dissect cadavers. When it was their turn, they would put down their breakfast, go wash their hands and put on gloves, dissect, and afterward remove their gloves, wash hands, and finish the rest of their breakfast. There was no incongruity, and no one thought anything was amiss. Su Yixuan poured a glass of water for Yang Ping, ¡°Have a drink. Rest a bit. Are you hungry? I¡¯ll have them bring up the fish.¡± She immediately signaled to have the waiter bring the food. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°I am hungry. There was traffic on the way back. You can¡¯t imagine how thrilling it was.¡± Then narrated the heartwarming story vividly, even adding his imaginative embellishments. Su Yixuan covered her small mouth, utterly engrossed. When it came to the part about the Bentley, he suddenly stopped, leaned back on his chair, looking slightly fatigued. He took a sip from his glass of water, ¡°I¡¯m tired, I¡¯ll continue tomorrow.¡± Su Yixuan almost got up, aiming a playful punch at him, ¡°You bad guy, continue, continue, what happened next? Did you scratch somebody¡¯s car?¡± That was the reaction he was going for. Yang Ping, with such high sales IQ and EQ, perplexedly wondered why he¡¯d been single all this time. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll grudgingly continue¨C sigh, you weren¡¯t there. If only you were there¨C¡± Yang Ping sighed deliberately. Su Yixuan earnestly said, ¡°Call me next time. The head nurse has me assigned to be on your team now. If you¡¯re not in surgery, it seems like I won¡¯t have much to do. If I¡¯m there, you¡¯d definitely be faster and more confident. Lu Xiaowu is so clumsy; he definitely can¡¯t keep up with your pace.¡± ¡°When I request a clamp and a thread, he either hands me a vascular clamp or gives me a thread,¡± said Yang Ping. Su Yixuan said regretfully, ¡°Hmm, I¡¯ll definitely be there next time.¡± ¡°Huh! How come it¡¯s this spot again?¡± Yang Ping just remembered to ask. ¡°I don¡¯t know. It was the boss¡¯s arrangement.¡± Su Yixuan refilled Yang Ping¡¯s glass, ¡°The boss said he took a photo of the fish bones you left last time and made it into a hanging picture, look.¡± Indeed, a picture was hanging on the wall ¨C an intact fish skeleton, perfectly clean without a single piece of meat left, like a simulation model set on a dish. A massage beside it read¨C ¡°It ended up like this because it was delicious!¡± ¡°I ought to ask him for copyright fees,¡± said Yang Ping. Su Yixuan laughed, ¡°This seat is probably your copyright fee.¡± The fish was served and the boss brought it himself, ¡°Come on, I personally prepared this for you. Consider it your copyright fee. Anytime you come to support us, this seat is reserved for you guys, and you even get a discount. Don¡¯t call me boss. Call me Uncle Liang.¡± While he was managing the fish and starting the fire, Uncle Liang said, ¡°I can tell you two are orthopedic surgeons from Sanbo Hospital. You¡¯re the famous Dr. Yang who reattaches severed hands, right? Everyone knows about you helping the firefighter last time. Orthopedic surgeons are the best because while people can avoid falling sick or having children, who could guarantee they won¡¯t slip and fall or have a sore back or leg? In theory, everyone needs your expertise. My old back hurts sometimes when I lift something heavy, and it¡¯s painful for days. One of my legs even feels numb and I have to limp. If you have time someday, give me a good check-up, okay?¡± Having finished his tasks, Uncle Liang took a brief look at them both and said, ¡°Hmm, handsome man and beautiful woman, perfect match. You two lovebirds, enjoy your meal. I have to get back to my work.¡± Who talks like that? Yang Ping thought. Uttering so much gibberish, he should have just gotten to the point. This last sentence was the important bit. Su Yixuan blushed at the compliment, lowering her head to eat the fish. Yang Ping laughed awkwardly, ¡°You¡¯re right, no, no, no, I mean, you are indeed beautiful, but I, I am not worthy of such a compliment.¡± ¡°Enough with the compliments, aren¡¯t you hungry? Let¡¯s eat.¡± Su Yixuan said blushing, as she picked up a piece of fish and put it into Yang Ping¡¯s bowl. This wasn¡¯t just a piece of fish, it was a delicacy to Yang Ping. He couldn¡¯t bear to eat it, instead staring at it with a sweetness in his heart. No wonder, he barely had any close interactions with girls, now even a piece of fish from her feels unbearably sweet. Su Yixuan looked up at Yang Ping, who seemed to be lost in thoughts, ¡°What¡¯s the matter? You don¡¯t want to eat? I¡¯ll take it back then.¡± Yang Ping immediately picked up the fish with his chopsticks, ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I? If only there were more pieces.¡± ¡°Dream on! Serve yourself! I noticed you¡¯ve been working all day. I wanted to reward you for being such a great assistant,¡± Su Yixuan scolded playfully. Yang Ping carefully reached into the pot with his chopsticks and tried to pick up some fish. He struggled at first but eventually managed to place some into his bowl. Then, he stretched his arm and put his chopsticks down. ¡°What happened? Your hand hurts?¡± Su Yixuan asked as she noticed his gesture. Yang Ping picked up the chopsticks again, ¡°It¡¯s nothing, probably a slight muscle strain from lifting the stretcher today. I didn¡¯t realize it at first, but it feels a bit off.¡± Su Yixuan looked at him suspiciously, ¡°Really?¡± She then quickly picked up a few big pieces of the fish and placed them into Yang Ping¡¯s bowl, ¡°Eat up and go home to rest early, you look pretty tired.¡± Humming in agreement, Yang Ping delightedly picked up his chopsticks and began eating the fish. Su Yixuan gave him a perplexed look. Didn¡¯t he say his arm was hurting? Why was he eating so quickly? ¡°You¡¯re very skilled in surgeries. I can tell that Director Han really appreciates you,¡± Su Yixuan said, chewing on her food without opening her mouth. ¡°Practice makes perfect, I suppose. I¡¯ve done a lot of surgeries,¡± Yang Ping replied. ¡°Did you perform a lot of surgeries at your previous hospital?¡± Su Yixuan was curious. Yang Ping thought for a moment and said, ¡°Maybe I have a natural talent in this field. After watching a surgery once, I can perform it, and few practices make me proficient.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you have a girlfriend?¡± Su Yixuan asked with a smile. Duh! Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°Look at me, I spend all my time in the operating room, who would like me.¡± Su Yixuan said, ¡°You¡¯re kidding, surgeons are pretty popular.¡± Yang Ping laughed, ¡°Maybe I¡¯m the exception.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, when I have time, I¡¯ll introduce you to someone. I have a lot of friends, they¡¯re quite attractive,¡± Su Yixuan comforted him. While eating, Yang Ping waved his hand, ¡°No! Forget about me, what about you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m still young, I don¡¯t want to be in a relationship for now,¡± Su Yixuan pouted. Their uncle unexpectedly made an appearance: ¡°Come, come, I brought you some ice cream.¡± ¡°Iceberry!¡± Su Yixuan almost jumped up in excitement. Chapter 39 - 0038: Elder Man Zhang’s Instructions Chapter 39: Chapter 0038: Elder Man Zhang¡¯s Instructions Iceberry ice cream! Uncle Two walked over, his belly protruding, to deliver it personally. ¡°Wow! How do you guys have this brand? It doesn¡¯t even exist in G City.¡± Su Yixuan clapped her hands in surprise. Uncle Two said, ¡°You¡¯ll have to ask him.¡± ¡°Me?¡± What could Yang Ping say? ¡°Thank you!¡± Su Yixuan took the ice cream from him. Yang Ping rubbed the back of his neck, stuttering, his old face flushing red: ¡°I¨C.¡± At the soft whisper of Su Yixuan¡¯s thanks, and the blush that bloomed on her face, Yang Ping was surprised that this man who only knew how to do surgery, knew of her love for Iceberry. Yang Ping¡¯s mind raced to Manager Huang, that headhunter from the website. It must have been him who orchestrated this. He was really quite unusual, special even. Knowing that there was no way Yang Ping would go to that Orthopedic Hospital, Manager Huang was still persistent, following him doggedly. But why? Seeing Su Yixuan sitting and eating her ice cream, Yang Ping followed Uncle Two, immediately seizing the opportunity to ask him, ¡°Uncle Two, what¡¯s really going on?¡± ¡°Lad, weren¡¯t you the one who asked someone to deliver the ice cream to me? You even instructed me to send up two whenever you dined with this young lady here. Ah, don¡¯t put on an act, I won¡¯t spill your secret. Go on, enjoy your meal. I have business to attend to.¡± Uncle Two waved his hand, his voice quiet as he explained, his final sentence intentionally louder. After dinner, it was already past ten, but the customers in the restaurant showed no signs of reducing as the late-night snack time had just begun. Yang Ping dropped Su Yixuan back at the hospital dormitory. He cooled off at the skybridge before returning to his own apartment. Recalling this week¡¯s teaching surgeries ¡ª ¡°horror triad¡± elbow injuries and distal humerus fractures ¡ª Yang Ping entered the system space, scrolling through the holographic screen to see if there were any such solo training packages available. In the dense list of surgical training, he found these two items. The minimum requirement was to buy 500 simulations and each one required 4,000 points. Calculating his points, he logged in an account containing 6,000 points, leaving him with 14,000 points. These two individual items would cost 8,000 points, which was indeed quite pricey. Looking at other fracture surgery training packages, each calculated for 500 cases, the humerus fracture was 2,000 points, the ulna and radius fracture was 2,000 points, the femur fracture was 3,000 points, and the tibia and fibula fracture was 3,000 points. The packages like the one for the humerus fracture also include distal humerus fractures. The one for the fracture of the ulna and radius contained the ¡°horror triad¡±. So it would be more cost-effective to buy these, but possibly fewer cases for the single conditions. After careful consideration, Yang Ping bought the humerus fracture and the ulna and radius fracture packages. This left him with 10,000 points, allowing more room for emergency situations. Since it didn¡¯t consume real-world time, Yang Ping completed all the surgical training packages he had just bought inside the system space. After finishing his shift in the morning, Yang Ping took Little Five on rounds and visited the Trauma ICU. The patient with the ruptured liver and spleen had been extubated and regained consciousness, though the patient¡¯s face was still somewhat pale. The ICU doctor saw Yang Ping come in, immediately joined him, and reported, ¡°In the morning blood draw, the patient¡¯s hemoglobin was 70g/L. After a massive blood transfusion, the heart rate was somewhat fast at 105 times per minute, and the blood pressure has returned to normal at 98/64mmHg¡±. This data was essentially normal. A bit more blood and the hemoglobin would gradually correct itself. ¡°The blood bank says that blood is currently tight¡ªnow that we¡¯re above 70, it¡¯s somewhat difficult to get more blood.¡± The ICU doctor explained. Yang Ping said, ¡°Even without a transfusion, it shouldn¡¯t be a big problem. Provide better nutrition in the future, prevent infections, and the hemoglobin should gradually recover, creating a virtuous cycle.¡± The patient recognized Yang Ping, and tried to sit up. The ICU doctor held him down: ¡°You can¡¯t get up yet.¡± ¡°Doctor, thank you for saving my life.¡± He extended his hand. Yang Ping shook it, saying, ¡°It¡¯s my duty.¡± Really, it was simple for doctors. The greatest fulfillment was saving the lives of patients. ¡°There shouldn¡¯t be a big problem now.¡± The ICU doctor also knew Yang Ping was now an integral member of Orthopedics, one of Director Han¡¯s several commanders. He was very polite to Yang Ping, clearly not treating him as an ordinary attending physician. There was a lot more respect in his speech compared to how he treated the regular attending physicians. After making rounds in the ICU, Yang Ping received a call from Director Han, telling him that Professor Zhang Zongshun wanted to see him in his clinic, as he had something to discuss. Professor Zhang Zongshun was someone that young doctors avoided. He was eccentric and his demands were strict. If he noticed that you hadn¡¯t buttoned your white gown properly, he would scold you for half an hour. Yang Ping shuddered at the thought, quickly checking his white gown. Noticing an unbuttoned button, he hastily corrected it before making his way to the outpatient clinic. Professor Zhang was a nationally renowned professor of orthopedics. His clinic consisted of an inner and outer suite. The outer suite was a sitting room equipped with a sofa, a coffee table, and a water dispenser ¨C a place for relatives of patients to rest. The inner suite was his proper consulting room, which was rather spacious. It had a diagnostic bed against one wall, curtained off for privacy. Two desks and two computers were pushed together, the screens connected for shared use, with a young graduate student assisting him. Yang Ping knocked gently and entered the room, greeting the graduate student before finding a corner to stand in where he wouldn¡¯t be in the way. Old Zhang was in the middle of seeing a patient, his reading glasses held together by tape. The patient lay on the diagnostic bed, wearing a crumpled blue work uniform. As Old Zhang examined the patient¡¯s elbow joint, he mused, ¡°Hmm, only four thousand yuan, huh? Budget¡¯s a bit tight, let me work something out.¡± The patient hurriedly explained, ¡°Professor Zhang, I work as a laborer at a construction site. My boss ran off without paying our wages. This money was collected by my coworkers. We¡¯ve been to several hospitals, but they all say that four thousand yuan isn¡¯t even enough to buy the screws, let alone pay for the plate and screws which would cost over twenty thousand.¡± ¡°Indeed, a steel plate and screws can amount to over twenty thousand yuan. Now, even the cheaper ones cost upwards of ten thousand yuan and they¡¯re hard to find. Let me see, don¡¯t worry.¡± After finishing his examination, Old Zhang returned to his desk and scrutinized the X-rays under his viewing light. After examining the X-rays for a few minutes, Old Zhang said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, comrade. You need money to eat too. I reckon we can only allocate three thousand yuan for the treatment. I will plan accordingly.¡± Assisted by his coworkers, the patient got up. The graduate student helped reapply his cast and secured it with bandages, then hung it over his chest. ¡°Thank you, Professor. I¡¯ve been to several hospitals. They all just glanced at my X-rays before telling me it¡¯s impossible with four thousand yuan, suggesting I go to a different hospital, then promptly ignored me,¡± the patient said, tears welling up in his eyes. Upon noticing Yang Ping had arrived, he beckoned him over. ¡°Come here, come here, take a look!¡± Yang Ping immediately walked over, putting on a friendly smile, while Old Zhang added, ¡°This one only has three thousand yuan. If we don¡¯t treat him, he¡¯ll be disabled. Here¡¯s what we¡¯ll do: admit him, and you¡¯ll perform the surgery. Don¡¯t use a steel plate; just proceed with a Kirschner wire. Preoperative examination should only include routine blood, biochemical and serological tests, as well as a kidney function test, and an EKG. He doesn¡¯t have a cough, does he?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t. I¡¯m in good health. If not for the fracture, I wouldn¡¯t have ever needed to go to the hospital,¡± the worker promptly replied with confidence. Old Zhang reflected briefly, ¡°Let¡¯s not take a chest X-ray to save some money. We¡¯ll perform the surgery and discharge him three days afterwards. The cost should be kept around three thousand yuan, we mustn¡¯t go over budget.¡± The consumables for fracture surgery, like steel plates, were expensive, costing tens of thousands of yuan, with imported ones being even more pricey. Kirschner wires, on the other hand, were essentially thin steel pins. Affordable and even at a few yuan apiece, this was virtually free. However, the Kirschner wire could only be used for simple fractures, like those of the hands and feet, and wouldn¡¯t work for more complicated fractures. Goodness, Old Zhang, using a Kirschner wire for this kind of surgery might have worked decades ago when function wasn¡¯t a major concern. But in today¡¯s era, function is key. This kind of fracture can¡¯t be properly fixed with Kirschner wires. If it¡¯s not fixed properly, the patient can¡¯t start exercising early. This kind of distal humerus comminuted fracture is particularly delicate and if it isn¡¯t exercised early, the joint will stiffen in three weeks¡¯ time. He¡¯s really giving me a hard problem to solve. Without leaving room for Yang Ping to discuss, Old Zhang adjusted his glasses and directed the graduate student to issue an admission notice: ¡°Arrange admission and get the surgery scheduled as soon as possible.¡± ¡°That¡¯s all. You may go back to your work,¡± Old Zhang stated. That¡¯s it? ¡°Wait, Old Zhang?¡± Yang Ping wanted to argue. Old Zhang waved his hand dismissing Yang Ping¡¯s concerns: ¡°Consider this an assessment for surgical cases.¡± He leaned in and whispered, ¡°You don¡¯t have to perform the two surgeries I assigned you last time. Just do this one, and do it properly. If not, I¡¯ll give you a score of thirty!¡± That conniving old man, always playing dirty. Everyone was playing him, this was ridiculous! How was he supposed to use a Kirschner wire for this kind of fracture? Professors from Beijing and Shanghai wouldn¡¯t even be able to perform this surgery. He was truly in trouble now. No wonder when Old Han and Song Zimo heard Zhang had chosen him, they adopted an ¡°it¡¯s your problem now¡± attitude. Yang Ping refused to leave the consulting room, hoping to catch Old Zhang during a moment of respite to discuss the issue further. However, Old Zhang was busy meticulously instructing the patients on the admission process, cheap food options, and how to protect their belongings from thieves. He then turned his attention to the next patient, paying no heed to Yang Ping. A young, stylish woman wheeled in a patient suffering from chronic osteomyelitis of the tibia. The patient had undergone treatment at several hospitals and had already had six surgeries. Chapter 40 - 0039 Hermes Chapter 40: Chapter 0039 Hermes The patient was a man in his forties, short and fat, with slightly crooked teeth. He was wearing a floral shirt, Hermes crocodile skin belt, and a ridiculously extravagant diamond ring on his hand. The young lady pushing his wheelchair had a beautiful face, a model¡¯s physique, and a pair of slender long legs that were distractingly long and curved. She had an LV bag hanging diagonally on her body. As the wheelchair entered, a wave of strong perfume scent hit them. ¡°Professor Zhang, hello. Finally, I was able to get an appointment with you,¡± the patient was visibly excited, shaking Professor Zhang¡¯s hand and trying to stand up from his wheelchair. Elder Zhang held patient¡¯s hand, and immediately patted his hand, ¡°Sit down, sit down and talk. Calm down.¡± Professor Zhang glanced at the computer screen from over his reading glasses, ¡°You¡¯re from Shanxi?¡± ¡°Yes, from Shanxi,¡± the patient replied while sitting down, ¡°I¡¯ve been waiting in line for three months just for this appointment.¡± The hospital does have VIP examination rooms. Professors of distinguished reputation like Elder Zhang could take advantage of a VIP appointment for 2000 RMB. If money is not a concern, you can get a VIP appointment and avoid the long wait. After all, not many people are willing to pay 2000 RMB for an appointment. However, Elder Zhang is stubborn. He does not take VIP appointments and only sees patients with general specialist appointments. Furthermore, he turns a deaf ear to all forms of line-jumping, whether it¡¯s through connections or backdoor channels. He insists on maintaining queue order, no matter who the patient is. They either see another doctor or wait in line. The graduate student and the young lady assisted the patient to lie down on the examination bed. Elder Zhang conducted a detailed physical examination, asked about the medical history, leaving no stone unturned. He put on a glove, poked the pus-filled sinus and asked, ¡°Three years ago? Six surgeries?¡± ¡°I had a car accident three years ago, my tibia here was fractured, and it was an open one. I had an intramedullary nailing surgery. Pus started to leak from the wound three months after the surgery. I had several surgeries afterwards, they scraped the bone, filled the bone, even grafted skin from my thigh here, but all was in vain. If one part healed, another part would break and pus would leak out. It has a foul smell,¡± Patient responded to Elder Zhang¡¯s question with an elaborative answer, even using several professional terminologies. Indeed, there was a strong smell of pus. ¡°Your condition is very serious and complex!¡± Elder Zhang said with gravity. Disaster! The patient¡¯s mouth half-opened and he asked shakily, ¡°Professor, is there hope for recovery? It¡¯s been years, I have been to every nook and corner of Beijing and Shanghai. I consulted with all the renowned professors in the country, and all of them suggested amputation. We heard that Professor Zhang you might have some solution, so we travelled all the way from Shanxi again. Tell me, is there hope?¡± Professor Zhang remained silent with a serious expression, took off his gloves and headed to wash his hands after completing the examination. The patient quickly got off the bed, sat in the wheelchair and started moving towards Elder Zhang, ¡°Is there hope? Professor, is there any hope?¡± Elder Zhang wore a solemn expression, ¡°This condition is really, really severe, but there might be hope, only that¨C¡± ¡°Only what, Professor?¡± The patient seemed agitated. After washing his hands and drying them using a piece of paper towel, Elder Zhang turned back, sat down in the chair and slowly said, ¡°Only that it will cost a lot of money, a lot of it.¡± A look of despair on the patient¡¯s face turned into a smile immediately, ¡°You scared me, professor. Money is not a problem. You don¡¯t need to worry about that. As long as I can be cured and my limb can be saved, no matter the cost.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a small sum of money. The expenses will be hefty as hospitalization will be a long process. And, there will be multiple surgeries involved. Plus, the success rate is not 100%,¡± Professor Zhang enunciated distinctly. ¡°Professor, I trust you. I want you to treat me. If even you can¡¯t cure me, then I¡¯ll accept my fate. I¡¯m just in my forties, if I lose this leg, I¡¯ll feel terrible just even by thinking about hopping around on one leg,¡± The patient started holding back his tears as he spoke. ¡°You can get a prosthetic leg, a high-tech one, even if it costs millions,¡± Professor Zhang suggested. ¡°But it won¡¯t be my own, right? You mentioned there¡¯s a chance if we can afford the expenses. I say, go ahead, let¡¯s give it a shot,¡± The patient had made up his mind. ¡°This is not a small sum, it ranges from hundreds of thousands to millions. In your case, it¡¯s complex. The entire infected bone needs to be sawed-off, only the healthy parts at both ends will be left. Then, we will need to install a frame to extend the healthy bones to reach to each other gradually. This entire process will take one to two years. During this period, we need to fill the void with antibiotic-containing calcium sulfate. You will also have to take intravenous antibiotics. I¡¯m not even talking about other things, just the cost of the extension frame alone. The lower-end ones will cost tens of thousands, and the high-end ones will cost hundreds of thousands,¡± Elder Zhang explained. ¡°What¡¯s the difference between the cheaper and more expensive ones?¡± The patient was curious. ¡°Let me put it this way. What¡¯s the difference between a BMW that costs two million and a Wuling Hongguang that costs fifty thousand? One can argue, ¡®no difference¡¯. They both are cars, and they both have four wheels and can go on the road. But still, there is a difference, isn¡¯t there? You can¡¯t say a BMW is the same as a Wuling Hongguang,¡± Elder Zhang said, trying to explain the difference. ¡°I get it! Let¡¯s finalize it, use the expensive frame. Start the procedure now. Get the card! You clumsy fool, quickly get the card. Swipe it!¡± The patient made up his mind on the spot. The woman who was accompanying the patient started rummaging through her LV bag to find the card. To her surprise, she pulled out a bunch of credit cards, unsure of which one to swipe. ¡°Calm down. It¡¯s not now. You need to be hospitalized. The expenses will be charged when you get admitted, not now,¡± Professor Zhang knocked on the desk. The lady then put the cards back into her bag. ¡°Oh, professor. Thank you so much. You¡¯re like our second parents. I feel our efforts were worthwhile in making this trip,¡± The patient was so excited that he was becoming emotional. ¡°There is hope, we¡¯ll do our best. You don¡¯t have to be so anxious,¡± Elder Zhang comforted him. The patient wiped his tears and said, ¡°Thank you, professor. I got a sense of the situation. I¡¯m a businessman and I¡¯ve met plenty of people from all over the place. I must say this is the first time meeting such an responsible professional like you, professor. You took your time to unwrap my bandages, examined my wounded leg. I feel reassured. Can I get your phone number, professor? If it¡¯s not too much trouble?¡± Professor Zhang patted his shoulder, ¡°No need to take my number. Don¡¯t mention it. After getting admitted to the ward, just listen to the doctors and focus on getting recovered. I will check up on you occasionally.¡± ¡°Ah, you have to come and see me. When the time comes for surgery, you have to do it yourself, professor,¡± The patient gripped Elder Zhang¡¯s hand. Meanwhile, the graduate student had prepared the hospitalization notice and handed it over to the patient, ¡°The beds are limited. You¡¯ll have to wait. You can go back to your accommodation for the time being. We will give you a call as soon as a bed becomes available.¡± ¡°Why wait for a bed? Get him a VIP ward!¡± Elder Zhang seemed dissatisfied with the way the graduate student had handled the situation. The patient was deeply moved once again, ¡°Yes, yes, yes. Book a VIP ward. I want to move in right now!¡± ¡°The patient has been waiting for so long. Why does he need to wait more?¡± Elder Zhang said. Elder Zhang was so considerate, it made the patient even more delighted. He should have chosen this hospital from the start, he had wasted several years going around aimlessly without finding a competent doctor. Today was his lucky day. After seeing this patient, Elder Zhang noticed that Yang Ping was still standing in the consulting room. He only realised his presence right now when he saw him. ¡°Why are you still standing here?¡± ¡°Me?¡± Yang Ping did not know how to respond. Elder Zhang asked, ¡°Do you have something to say?¡± He then totally ignored Yang Ping, and started speaking, ¡°I¡¯ve told you, young doctors, again and again, a physician should have benevolence and excellent medical skills. You should also be flexible. Look at that patient, he came here with only 4000 RMB. Is he supposed to stay crippled just because he could not afford more? We should try our best to find ways to treat him, for 4000 RMB there should also be a corresponding treatment plan. Could he not go to Beijing because he can¡¯t afford to buy a flight ticket? Now, look at this tycoon, millions for him is a night at the card table. If you¡¯re not going to earn his money, whose money will you earn? And you were going to admit him to an ordinary ward? You were not using your brain. The objective is always the same, to cure the disease. But the process is always different. It¡¯s just like diet pills. There are cheaper ones, which are just regular bitter pills. Then there are the expensive ones, consuming them will make you feel like you¡¯re experiencing your first love again. Both are just pills, the effect is essentially the same, but the experience is not.¡± Yang Ping was enlightened by this comment. It was almost like he was achieving enlightenment. Watching Elder Zhang, an image appeared in Yang Ping¡¯s mind ¨C the image was of the Chan Buddhist monk. Chapter 41 - 0040: The Cold Easy Water with the Desolate Wind Chapter 41: Chapter 0040: The Cold Easy Water with the Desolate Wind After returning from the clinic, Yang Ping hurried to the operating room where Little Five and the interns had already sterilized and laid out the sheets. One could end up spending half a day in the operating room. He finished work at a little past six in the evening and took a shower in the changing room of the operating room. There was also a bathroom in the ward¡¯s duty room, but with many young doctors present, they all gathered there to shower. Yang Ping, not one for the hustle and bustle, simply took his shower in the changing room of the operating room. After showering and while resting in the changing room, Yang Ping kept thinking about the surgery Elder Man Zhang had instructed him about. Simple fractures could be treated with Kirschner wire, but for complex fractures like this one, a metal plate was needed. Even ordinary metal plates would not suffice ¡ª a locked metal plate was required. Nevertheless, even with a locked plate, the difficulties would be abundant. Now, Elder Man Zhang was asking Yang Ping to use the Kirschner wire for the surgery, with a budget of three thousand yuan. Honestly, three thousand yuan, in a top three-tier hospital like this one, could sometimes amount to just a day¡¯s expense. If the cost was concentrated around the surgery period, a day¡¯s expense would fall far short. Yang Ping initially intended to perform CT three-dimensional reconstruction on the elbow joint. It could show a three-dimensional portrayal of the fractured bone, resulting in intuitive and concrete understanding of the fracture. A CT three-dimensional reconstruction could cost over six hundred yuan, and upon realizing how expensive the procedure was, he quickly abandoned the idea. For such fractures, many prestigious hospitals make use of virtual reality technology and 3D printing technology to create fracture models. By using this model for preoperative simulation training to understand how to fit the metal plate and where to insert the nails, the success rate of the surgery substantially increases. Speaking of expenses, the main cost was the anesthesia. The surgery fee was fixed, but the anesthesia was charged by the hour. It meant the surgery needed to be efficient; otherwise, the cost of anesthesia could quickly exceed the budget. Patients were indeed pitiable, and Yang Ping empathized with them. When he first started working, he only earned two thousand yuan a month. After deductions and paying for rent and utilities, the remaining spending money was tight. It was genuinely hard to make ends meet without cash. Elder Man Zhang was right, if no solutions were sought, the worker¡¯s elbow joint would be ruined. For a doctor, it might not matter much, but this could change the patient¡¯s life, and possibly even the life of the next generation. ¡°Ding dong! Mission: Perform a cost-effective surgery on a comminuted fracture at the distal humerus. Reward: 5,000 points.¡± A system task was triggered. What did it mean by cost-effective? It meant complete the surgery with three thousand yuan, ensuring good functionality so that the patient could get back to work as usual. Yang Ping accessed the system to see if there were any solutions. He scanned through the mall and noticed something that caught his attention¡ª ¡°Wire and pin osteosynthesis¡±. He hadn¡¯t paid attention to this before, probably because he felt it lacked relevance or the technique was too simple. Anything could be a treasure when it was needed, and be dismissed as a grass when it wasn¡¯t. It only cost him three thousand points, lucky that he still had ten thousand points left, so there were no worries about payment. He immediately bought the wire and pin osteosynthesis technique. Yang Ping remembered reading a book written by a German doctor ¡ª ¡°Steel Cable Bone Connection Surgery¡±. This German had a famous quote: ¡°Give me enough steel wire and pins, and I can solve all bone fractures.¡± Feeling as if he had seen a glimmer of light in the darkness, Yang Ping immediately found his direction. He started the wire and pin osteosynthesis technique and entered the training space. The system prepared numerous pins of different diameters and steel wires of varying thicknesses. It simulated fractures at various locations, some simple, some complex, and some were a mess. He began practicing puncturing steel pins along a designated path: specifying an entry and exit point, then making sure the pin entered at the designated entry point, and exited at the designated exit point. This seemingly simple task was highly challenging. It was similar to shooting at two targets set a certain distance apart, with the two targets staggered on parallel lines. You¡¯d have to ensure that the shot went through the heart of both targets. This was a challenging operation. At first, Yang Ping always failed to puncture correctly. Designating an entry point was easy; seeing the steel pin tip touching the designated point with your naked eye. But as for the exit point, it was impossible to ensure the pin could get out through thick bone tissue. He barely managed to get somewhat close a few times, but the system declared them as failed attempts. This required spatial imagination. One had to build a three-dimensional concept in mind of the pin¡¯s path in the bone tissue ¡ª although it was invisible, they had to use their mind to imagine it. Yang Ping tried to visualize it repeatedly, and after extensive training, finally managed to successfully puncture the pin through the designated entry and exit points, mastering the technique. Next, he practiced parallel puncturing, which required multiple pins to be inserted through the bone in perfect parallel. Two pins in parallel, three pins in parallel, four pins in parallel, five pins in parallel ¡ª all the way up to ten pins in parallel. The system requirements were stringent; even slightly off would be deemed as a failure, and the procedure had to be restarted. With this training, you could smoothly pass, but the system wouldn¡¯t offer any rewards. If you failed, the system would harshly deduct points. In other words, it was a situation where you only lose points but never gain. How many points were deducted? It was at least double the amount you had spent to purchase the training, and severe errors could result in all points being deducted. After mastering parallel puncturing, he learned intersecting puncturing ¡ª 15 degrees intersection, 30 degrees intersection, 45 degrees intersection, 60 degrees intersection and 90 degrees intersection. Lastly, he practiced puncturing fragile, tiny bone fragments ¡ª the type that could break upon a single puncture. At first, the bone fragments would break every time, but gradually he learned to control his strength and drilling machine. The pin could go through, leaving the bone fragments untouched. After mastering puncturing, he learned the technique of steel wire ligation ¡ª single-strand, double-strand, multiple-strand, tension band ligation, circular ligation, figure-eight ligation, rectangular ligation etc. Yang Ping practiced everything that existed in orthopedics. Upon completing the training, he noticed a new feature on the screen ¡ª a library. ¡°The system will release new features according to the upgrade of skills,¡± the robot¡¯s feminine voice said. So that¡¯s how it works. But he didn¡¯t know how to use this feature. When Yang Ping opened the library feature, bookshelves, a table and chair suddenly appeared beside him. ¡°What book would you like to borrow? All worldwide documents are available here, including medical ones. You can provide a book title or keyword for searching,¡± the system¡¯s female voice said. Then, a holographic screen appeared in front of him, displaying a catalog of books. ¡°Steel Cable Bone Connection Surgery,¡± Yang Ping recited the book¡¯s title. Immediately, the title of the book showed up on the screen, along with other recommended books of similar nature. ¡°Reading material consumes one point per minute,¡± the female voice explained. Yang Ping clicked on the book¡¯s title, and a physical copy of ¡°Steel Cable Bone Connection Surgery¡± instantly appeared on the bookshelf. This feature was beneficial. He no longer needed to buy books, as he could read anytime, anywhere. The deducted points for the service weren¡¯t expensive either. It was a handy learning tool. Yang Ping read several books on wire and steel pin bone grafting in one go. For good measure, Yang Ping spent 4,000 points to purchase 500 cases of distal humeral comminuted fracture surgery training. He was left with only 3000 points. When he came out of the space, he felt a lot older. Probably the graduate assistant let the cat out of the bag, the whole department knew that Yang Ping was assigned a challenging task by Elder Man Zhang. When Yang Ping returned to the department, everyone was busy switching to X-ray films on the electronic film reading screen, wanting to have a discussion. But the patient¡¯s films weren¡¯t in the computer because they were taken in another hospital. The patient was admitted to a bed managed by Little Five, who hung up the X-ray film. This was a spontaneous discussion by everyone, there was no official notification for it. Standing around the film viewing light, Song Zimo patted Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Brother, this is more than just challenging. Did you offend the old man somewhere?¡± ¡°This is beyond challenging, it¡¯s practically impossible,¡± Zhang Lin, with his face full of acne, chimed in. Director Tian just finished a surgery and was just in the doctor¡¯s office. ¡°Come and have a look, director Tian,¡± Song Zimo beckoned. Director Tian was usually steady, with cutting-edge comprehensive skills, and very much respected by everyone. ¡°An AO plate, huh? The radial side goes to the back, the ulnar side goes to the edge, and then you assist with a countersunk screw. What, are you testing me?¡± He chuckled. ¡°No, it¡¯s just that Elder Man Zhang has designated Yang Ping to do it with Kirshner wires.¡± Little Five explained. ¡°How can that be possible? What a joke, can he really make a demand like that? If he¡¯s so insisting, then he should do it himself.¡± Tian Yuan muttered, not daring to say that to his face. ¡°Tell it to Director Han, let him communicate with the elder man. How can this be done with a Kirschner wire?¡± Tian Yuan scrutinized the X-ray film. ¡°Yeah, boss. Director Tian is right, you can¡¯t just listen to him.¡± Little Five got anxious. ¡°Let me think about it¡±, Yang Ping leaned back against the nearest desk. Director Han came in just then. Seeing everyone gathered together, seemingly in no hurry to go off work, he found the scenario quite lively. Looking at the X-ray hanging on the viewing light, he glanced at everyone, ¡°Case discussion?¡± Everyone kept quiet, while Tian Yuan said, ¡°Director, how would you handle this fracture? Everyone here wants to hear your opinion.¡± The director looked closely one more time, ¡°Distal humeral comminuted fracture, intra-articular fracture, needs two plates. Why are we discussing this again?¡± ¡°The man Elder Man Zhang admitted could only afford 3,000 RMB and he insisted that Yang Ping has to complete the surgery with Kirschner wires within three days.¡± Tian Yuan explained in a clear and steady pace. Director Han was a little confused now, he took another close look at the film: ¡°Oh my, Kirschner wires, really, if it could really be done well, that would be high-level surgery. So Professor Zhang asked for it? When? I¡¯ll pop by and take a look, haha.¡± ¡°Yes! And there¡¯s a limit on the cost, it can¡¯t exceed 3000 yuan.¡± Tian Yuan added. ¡°That¡¯s indeed a tough one.¡± Director Han furrowed his brows and turned to leave. So Director Han made no defense for Yang Ping? His smile seemed rather gloating, strange. Tian Yuan originally thought Director Han would fight for Yang Ping, going to Elder Man Zhang to discuss a different surgical approach. She didn¡¯t expect this reaction from Director Han. Tian Yuan was at a loss for words, besides Director Han, who else would dare to confront the old man? Remembering how Director Bai was criticized during the meeting, Tian Yuan shivered at the thought. ¡°I¡¯ve done my best, you¡¯ll have to figure the rest out on your own. If I have time that day, I¡¯ll come support you, if you need any help, just say the word. I have all the orthopedics books you need.¡± Tian Yuan shook her head. ¡°There seems to be a book named ¡®Steel Cable Bone Grafting Surgery¡¯ by the Germans, it might be helpful for your reference. I¡¯ll cover your shifts for the next few days.¡± Song Zimo said. ¡°I¡¯ll look after the patient, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll call you if anything comes up.¡± Little Five said. Zhang Lin also moved closer to his side, sitting next to him, ¡°Keep going, the people thank you!¡± Everyone took turns to encourage him. It was as if there he stood, against the wind by the banks of the Yi River, about to set off on a daunting journey. ¡°The wind blows bitterly against the Yi river, brave warriors¨C¡± Zhang Lin was reciting a verse, shaking his head, as he swaggered out. ¡°Brave warriors my foot¨C¡± Little Five choked Zhang Lin by the back of his neck. ¡°Little Five, let me tell you, don¡¯t push me. Us Northeast people don¡¯t back down in fights.¡± Zhang Lin wailed. Chapter 42 - 0041: Rubik’s Cube Restoration Chapter 42: Chapter 0041: Rubik¡¯s Cube Restoration The news spread quickly, the entire Orthopedics Department knew that Yang Ping was going to perform a three-thousand-yuan distal humerus comminuted fracture surgery using only steel wire and steel needles. Many young doctors, graduate students, and interns from the Spinal, Joint, and Sports Medicine departments had already been asking in advance about the time of the operation. Little Five and Zhang Lin had been spreading the word: ¡°One seat, one meal! No bargaining.¡± They even had the registration textbooks ready from the head nurse. The stamp pad for signatures in the department was also taken away by them, saying that a written confirmation would be required at the time. ¡°Elder Man Zhang will definitely be there, he¡¯s sure to sit front and center, so I¡¯m going to spread glue over his chair,¡± shared Zhang Lin, full of mischievous ideas. ¡°The operating room has urged you three times, and you¡¯re still applying glue,¡± scolded Nurse Chief Yao Ling, lightly tapping him with a medical record book. The Nurse Chief had a lot of respect in the department; she was essentially the executive housekeeper of the ward. Everyone had already arranged substitute doctors for the surgeries they would miss and were rolling up their sleeves to observe the upcoming operation. There were plenty of people in the department, with a great number of standardized training students and graduate students, hence arranging manpower was a piece of cake. Song Zimo, Zhang Lin, Fang Yan, along with people from several other teams¨Cand even people from Director Ouyang and Director Bai¡¯s teams, had arrived, and over a dozen people from the Spinal, Joint, and Sports Medicine departments. Everyone wanted to see how this three-thousand-yuan surgery would be performed, especially since it is to be done with a Kirschner wire ¨C which seemed impossible. After everyone finished their shifts on Thursday, they were worried about not getting a seat, so from early morning they already seated in the Teaching Room next to the main operating room, just short of having popcorn in their hands. Wearing surgical gowns and communicating through surgical masks, everyone greeted each other. All are members of the Orthopedics Department, face to face daily, and may have even worked together during previous shifts. Doctors just after graduation typically rotate through different specialties, getting acquainted with surgical or internal medicine departments, three months at a time, to learn about surgical or internal medicine knowledge, also familiarizing themselves with colleagues from these specialties. Some interns, having no place to sit, stood at the back or, if they knew someone seated, squeezed onto their seat. The front row was automatically left vacant, a seat saved for Elder Man Zhang and the Directors, although it was uncertain if those directors would come. However, since Elder Man Zhang was said to be attending, his assistant had already spread the word. ¡°Hello, Professor Zhang!¡± Doctor Peng from the Spinal department greeted Zhang Lin, making everyone¡¯s heart skip a beat because they thought Professor Zhang Zongshun had arrived. Zhang Lin immediately shook hands with Doctor Peng, ¡°What an honour, Professor Peng, did you come in person?¡± These young doctors, in their private interactions, jokingly addressed each other as ¡®Professor¡¯ or ¡®Director¡¯. Next door, Song Zimo was sterilizing. Little Five was raising his hand, Director Tian was sitting on the side, mientras que la enfermera de instrumentos Su Yixuan was sorting out the instruments, and Yang Ping was already dressed in a surgical gown, waiting. Director Tian was very stable and technically proficient making him someone who doesn¡¯t stand out on a normal day, but always comes in handy. Seeing those old spectacles wrapped in tape, everyone fell silent and shrunk back; he had actually come. Professor Zhang Zongshun arrived, guided in by his assistant and settled into the middle seat. Zhang Lin quickly notified Director Han. Not long after, Director Han too made an appearance. It was just a surgery and wouldn¡¯t hinder anything. Other surgeries could be postponed, so Director Han had arranged his time accordingly. Director Han shook hands with Old Zhang: ¡°Professor Zhang, why have you come in person? We could have just sent a video for you to critique!¡± ¡°I wanted to see for myself. Wasn¡¯t it said that Kirschner wire is useless for this kind of fracture? I wanted to see for myself. If I don¡¯t have money for a plane ticket, how can I go to Beijing?¡± Old Zhang always had a humorous yet sharp way of speaking. Director Han accompanied him: ¡°Hurry up, find a cushion for Old Zhang to lean on.¡± A student brought over a silicon position cushion, and Old Zhang didn¡¯t hesitate to lean against it: ¡°Young people, dared to be on stage, give yourself one point.¡± ¡°Young people lack experience. Their skills are nothing compared to the doctors during your time, Old Zhang,¡± said Director Han. ¡°Don¡¯t you have backup? I tell you, Second Brother Han, these youngsters, you can¡¯t pamper them every day. Scold them if you have to, otherwise, they¡¯ll never grow up. Just look, each hat is tipped sideways.¡± All those sitting behind immediately checked their hats, whether or not they were tipped, everyone adjusted them. ¡°At the start of the operation, just pretend the old guy isn¡¯t here, just do your best¨C¡± Tian Yuan was cheering up Yang Ping. ¡°Lateral decubitus position, not a bad choice,¡± Old Zhang commented. Time to start, preoperative confirmation. The knife hitting the center of Yang Ping¡¯s palm ¨C a classic pencil grip, both incision and extraction were spot-on. The skin was split open in one motion, not too deep, not too shallow. They switched to the electric knife, and before any blood even came out, it was already applied; lightly tapped, the bleeding was completely cauterized. The deep fascia was subsequently cut open with the knife. The approach was through Eagle¡¯s beak osteotomy, the most convenient way to reveal the area. A miniature electric saw created a neat V-shape, opening the eagle¡¯s beak and flipping it up, revealing the entire articular surface of the distal humerus. The suction tip cleared away coagulated blood, revealing broken bones, some with cartilage, some without, horizontal, vertical, transverse sections; all kinds of shapes in a chaotic mess. ¡°How are they going to do this?¡± It looked even worse than the X-ray. Everyone watching the clear video on the screen was stupefied. The initial idea of seeing how they would operate was dismissed ¨C the surgery seemed impossible to even start. There¡¯s a specific term to describe this condition: a bag of bones! Bone fragments like stones, outside skin and soft tissue like a bag. Reassembling these bone fragments is extremely difficult, one could even say impossible. Chapter 43 - 0041: Rubik’s Cube Restoration_2 Chapter 43: Chapter 0041: Rubik¡¯s Cube Restoration_2 If it¡¯s an extrajoint fracture, it¡¯s relatively easy to handle because no assembly is needed. However, intraarticular fractures are different. Any irregularities could wear down the joint and once it is worn down, it can cause long-term pain and disability. Intra-articular fractures require surgical reduction, that is, the pieces should be rejoined exactly as they were before the fracture. If the bone can¡¯t be reassembled, even missing a tiny bit could result in arthritis; if a bigger piece is missing, it could lead to disability. From intensive training within the system, Yang Ping found that assembling bone fragments followed some rules. The order of the reductions and the distribution of the Kirschner wires mattered the most. The whole process was like solving a Rubik¡¯s cube; there must be a scientific order, it can¡¯t be approached haphazardly. What appears simple usually requires tremendous effort. An empty eggshell can be reassembled by hand ¨C believe it or not, Yang Ping did. The fracture was a mess, large bone fragments that could reflect the original appearance were no longer discernible. Even the largest fragments didn¡¯t give any indication of their original location. It¡¯s like a house that has completely collapsed, turning into a pile of rubble. Can you still identify which brick belonged where? Director Han furrowed his brow and Elder Man Zhang didn¡¯t say a word. A person with great observation skills could find the few leaves they had seen before from thousands of identical ones. With lots of training, Yang Ping also gained sharp eyes. He carefully held the bone fragments, identifying them one by one. If there were soft tissues adhering to the fragments, regardless of the amount, he carefully preserved them all. The forceps used to clamp the blood vessels was as delicate as if it was holding eggshells, demonstrating excellent control ¨C strong but not forceful enough to break them. When all fragments had been identified and their original locations determined, the order in which they would be assembled for reconstruction began to take shape in his mind. Without a scientific order, one piece could fall off as soon as another was fitted; a piece that fitted well in one position could block the reduction of another piece; just as one piece was fixed, another could be overlooked, and the reconstruction would not be achieved. ¡°Sharpen the other end of the Kirschner wires too, prepare five like this.¡± Little Five did as he was told. Normally, a Kirschner wire is sharp on one end and flat on the other. Now, they needed to cut the other end to be sharp as well. ¡°Does he really think he can achieve reduction? How could that even be possible?¡± ¡°Even with a steel plate, this would be hard to do.¡± ¡°Did not do a CT scan.¡± ¡°If a CT scan were needed, he wouldn¡¯t dare to perform the surgery.¡± ¡°He¡¯s in a tight spot now, how will he back down?¡± People started to whisper. They initially intended to watch the surgery. However, the situation now seemed impossible to salvage ¨C it was completely unmanageable. Ironically, as it was proclaimed to be the most severe, the procedure might turn out to be fairly straightforward. It¡¯s likely that they would just open it up and close it back down again. Some were very disappointed; they had come with great enthusiasm to observe and learn and now this. Elder Man Zhang, who was leaning on the silicone cushion, removed his glasses and wiped them. After rinsing the surgical field, the Kirschner wires were ready and fitted into the power drill. The first bone fragment was put in place, with a Kirschner wire securely fixed in the proximal end of the humerus, allowing the wire to go through the other side of the bone, through the skin, and the bone fragments were aligned perfectly. What a good eye for this, Director Han secretly praised. This piece was repositioned in one attempt without any prior trial positioning. The key was used to unlock the power drill¡¯s clamp head and pull it out. It was then reversed to clamp the other end sticking out and slowly retract it until only a little bit of the sharp end was exposed. The second piece was put in place, again using the original Kirschner wire but in reverse, by drilling it back in; the third piece was attached to the proximal end of the humerus. A Kirschner wire was drilled in diagonally from the opposite side, intersecting the first wire at 60 degrees. The fourth piece was placed in the middle and then drilled in with the rest. People couldn¡¯t understand why the fourth piece should be placed in the middle. They couldn¡¯t even tell it was in the middle, could they? Everyone was puzzled. Except for the first few pieces that were already pierced, they couldn¡¯t see where the other fragments were from. It still seemed like a mess. The fifth piece was attached to an empty gap by the Kirschner wire that was drilled in earlier. It was like solving a Rubik¡¯s cube where every step affects the other. It must be done according to a certain method, otherwise, it could never be solved. Similarly, before solving it, others might see it as mess ¨C wondering why one red piece was here and why another blue piece was there. After all the manoeuvres, it still looked messy and chaotic. Could it be that they would just disregard everything, tie it up with a steel wire and call it a day? Everyone was worried. Song Zimo was also worried. He thought Yang Ping had been acting a bit reckless recently to have accepted such a surgery. However, looking at how deliberate Yang Ping was, it seemed like he had everything under control. It didn¡¯t look like blind fumbling at all. Could it be possible that he actually reassembled all these bone fragments to their original positions? That would certainly be quite amazing. When the sixth piece was placed, two Kirschner wires were drilled through it in reverse. The seventh piece was attached to the recent gap, revealing a new gap after which the ninth piece fitted well right into the new gap. The third Kirschner wire was drilled in, not only fixing these two pieces but also drilling through other pieces. The steel wire pierced through the bone fragments ¨C each puncture perfect, even for minute and thin bone fragments that couldn¡¯t withstand a second puncture, it neatly went through. Song Zimo was beginning to see the pattern, feeling something indescribable inside. The lateral condyle had gradually taken shape, like the solution to the first layer of a Rubik¡¯s cube. The tenth, eleventh and twelfth pieces were slotted in diagonally, each piece precisely placed. The fourth Kirschner wire was drilled in just once, fixing the pieces exactly on the most solid cortical part. The medial condyle began to take shape too, just like the second layer of the Rubik¡¯s cube. The thirteenth piece was attached, the fourth wire was advanced further, piercing through it. A fifth Kirschner wire was inserted, piercing not only this piece but also several others. The intact form of the medial condyle was revealed and the articulating surface were also successfully assembled; it was smooth and free from any defects. A smooth joint surface was formed, without any cracks or steps. With that, the third layer of the Rubik¡¯s cube was successfully solved. A small gasp of surprise echoed through the room. Those previously bored were now paying attention; those who were thinking of leaving early changed their minds and all eyes were now glued to the screen. Some even regretted not paying attention to the details of the previous reductions ¨C they had missed a precious learning opportunity. A standard tension band was added on each side with a steel wire and another diagonal tension band was added, forming a rigid, three-dimensional triangular structure just like a steel frame in architecture. The steel wire was tightened and trimmed, the ends processed, Kirschner wires were trimmed and the end bent for placement. Just like solving a Rubik¡¯s cube, the process might be difficult to understand, but the result was clear. They had truly reassembled it. Kirschner wires and steel wires composed a marvelous three dimensional stable structure. The elbow joint was moved a little ¨C it was extremely stable. Such an impressive procedure! Only now did people understand that the order of the bone assembly and the drilling of the Kirschner wires had all been planned. Only then could maximization of coverage be achieved, each part locking onto another to finally form a whole. One wrong step, one step missed, and it couldn¡¯t have been done. An impressive feat indeed! Amazing! This was the first time Song Zimo had seen anyone use steel wires and Kirschner wires this way. This wasn¡¯t just surgery; it was like creating a micro self-stabilizing structure with bone fragments and steel wires. ¡°Second Brother Han, this young man under your tutelage is quite something,¡± Elder Man Zhang stood up. ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Old Zhang, won¡¯t you stay till the end?¡± asked Director Han. ¡°My prostate can¡¯t hold it in any longer. I need to use the restroom,¡±Old Zhang stood up to leave. Chapter 44 - 0042: Doctor’s On-Call Room Chapter 44: Chapter 0042: Doctor¡¯s On-Call Room Professor Zhang Zongshun had returned from a trip to the washroom. ¡°I should get a TURP done someday.¡± said Elder Man Zhang. Director Han laughed, ¡°You¡¯ve been talking about your prostate for years, and yet you still have not had it done.¡± Elder Man Zhang adjusted his cushion, leaned back, and said, ¡°After a lifetime of performing surgeries, I find it hard to trust the skills of the young doctors these days. They are lacking in comparison, and I can¡¯t bring myself to trust them.¡± ¡°You¡¯re far too demanding, truly. You¡¯re excessive,¡± Director Han replied. Elder Man Zhang shook his head, ¡°Our tools cut into the living flesh of people, with lives hanging in the balance. No demand is too great. Second Brother Han, if you were a urological surgeon, I would have already had my prostate surgery.¡± Amidst their laughter and chatter, the surgery was nearing completion. The fracture was entirely reset; the joint surface was extremely smooth, with each piece back in its right place. The fixation was also very firm, after several attempts to move the elbow joint, there were no signs of loosening. They flushed the surgical area, replaced the eagle beak of the bone cutter, then used steel Kirchner pins to secure it with tension bands, put a drain, and sutured the deep fascia and skin. Nobody wanted to leave yet; some were discussing and some were considering downloading the surgical video for a more detailed view. ¡°How did he manage to reset it?¡± someone asked, a bit puzzled, as the solution indeed seemed beyond comprehension. ¡°Didn¡¯t you see?¡± The person trying to answer him wasn¡¯t able to explain much. It felt like watching someone solve a Rubik¡¯s cube when you don¡¯t know how to ¨C you observe as they twist and turn it and suddenly it¡¯s solved, but you still don¡¯t understand the process. Last time, a simple collarbone fracture had given Song Zimo a new understanding of Yang Ping¡¯s surgical skills. This time, an almost impossible operation of repositioning was accomplished using steel Kirchner pins. This again refreshed his understanding. Song Zimo¡¯s comprehension was challenged repeatedly by Yang Ping, and he wondered how many more times this would happen. Song Zimo witnessed the entire process. Although others couldn¡¯t see the profound intricacies, he could perceive them. This level of surgical expertise requires not only brilliant surgical skills, but also exceptional visual acuity, spatial imagination, and comprehensive thinking about bone repositioning and Kirschner pin layout to create the most logical sequence. All this was done by Yang Ping without a CT scan, using just an X-ray image. If he were to do the operation himself, even with CT imaging, virtual reality, and 3D printing, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to achieve such perfection. Little Five could have done the suturing, but in a surgery where operational authority approval is involved, it is required that the surgeon perform the entire procedure from start to finish. ¡°Ding Dong, mission accomplished, you are rewarded 5000 points!¡± The reward arrived almost instantly, bringing his score up to 8000 points. With the fluctuations, things were still quite tight; he couldn¡¯t afford to waste a single point. Yang Ping placed the needle holder in the curved tray that Su Yixuan handed over. Being around orthopedic surgeries all the time, Su Yixuan of course knew the difficulty level of this operation, and how perfectly Yang Ping had accomplished it. Somehow, each time Yang Ping successfully performed a perfect surgery, she would be filled with joy. After completing this surgery, Yang Ping felt much more relaxed. He had to pass Professor Zhang Zongshun¡¯s test. If it were a level two operation, typically performed by a medical attendant, only Director Han¡¯s signature would have sufficed. However, a level three surgery is performed by a senior medical attendant or a physician associate. For a newly promoted medical attendant like Yang Ping to perform a level three operation was considered overstepping. It required expert team review since a surgery isn¡¯t something to be taken lightly. Surgical authority is directly linked to salary. If he gets access to all level three operations, he could receive full bonuses, surgical commissions, and equipment commissions, leading to a considerable income. If he could get some level four surgical privileges, he could start leading his group. Thinking about performing all the level three surgeries in the future and exploring level four surgeries excited Yang Ping. But this was just the beginning and he didn¡¯t know what challenges this eccentric old man would throw at him in the future. This old man had the power to make or break his career. If he couldn¡¯t pass, he would have to wait three years, or get promoted to a physician associate, to apply again. ¡°Xiao Mo, Xiao Mo, assist Professor Zhang.¡± Professor Zhang Zongshun, who had been moving around to stretch his muscles, was about to leave. Director Han called over his assistant, who was eagerly discussing the surgery with others. Hearing Director Han call, he promptly came over to assist Elder Man Zhang. ¡°This kid has really worked hard, Second Brother Han, you have an eye for talent.¡± Elder Man Zhang¡¯s back was a bit bent over; the assistant attempted to help him, but he declined. ¡°Hasn¡¯t Elder Man Zhang selected better talents?¡± Old Han thought, feeling anxious. Without full faith, he wouldn¡¯t put forward such a peculiar request. Walking a few staggering steps, Elder Man Zhang got his footing back, straightened his back and resumed his brisk pace. Everyone lined up to download the surgery video from the system. It was at this time Tang Fei came looking for Director Han to discuss something. She was originally in sports medicine and should be stationed there. However, wanting to broaden her skill set before getting promoted, she decided to stay in trauma orthopedics for a while. After this surgery, there were still many surgeries to be done. Everyone returned to their respective operating rooms. ¡°Yang Ping, safeguard these operation details. At the end of the year, we plan to hold an academic conference where we could share them.¡± Director Han instructed Yang Ping. Yang Ping asked Little Five to collect the data and keep it separately on file. Little Five is also a graduate student. He¡¯s smart and is very good at what he does. Thursday afternoons are for case discussions, so all surgeries are usually finished by the morning. There are two special days in a week. Tuesday mornings are for ward rounds, Thursday afternoons are for case discussions. Learning and training sessions are arranged for Saturdays and Sundays. Everyone gathers together, not only to revisit the basics but also to learn new things and keep up with the latest developments in the field. Doctors do not have public holidays, and they can only take breaks in rotation. Standardized training students, graduate students, resident doctors, basically work tirelessly all year round. It¡¯s hard work. Once the operations are completed in the morning, there are case discussions in the afternoon. No surgeries are scheduled for the afternoon, so everyone has some time after lunch and they gather in the on-duty room. These young doctors practically live in the department. There are several on-duty rooms: one for residents, one for attending physicians, and one for the director. The director doesn¡¯t do shift duties, so the on-duty room is usually just used for napping. Except for Thursdays, opportunities for napping are scarce, as they are in the operating room all day. The attending physician¡¯s duty room is in a bad condition. The head nurse reported it for repair. When the Engineering Department came to take a look, they said some parts needed to be replaced and it would take a few days to fix. Yang Ping squeezed into the resident doctors¡¯ on-duty room. This is the largest room with bunk beds lined up against the walls on both sides. There¡¯s a desk in the middle. The room is equipped with a TV, fridge, and computer. The desk is cluttered with charging cables, and revision materials for medical licensing exams and attending physician exams. The beds are messy, with a sock here and a slipper there. ¡°Why is this sock mine?¡± ¡°Oh, where is mine then?¡± When the others saw Yang Ping come in, they all called him ¡°Brother¡±, making way for him to rest. There were enough beds for sixteen people. Yang Ping greeted everyone and then lay down on a bed. Zhang Lin was in the bathroom using a hair clipper, trimming his hair expertly in front of the mirror. It only took him a few minutes to create a hairstyle. These young doctors do not have time for haircuts and use hair clippers to cut their own hair. All of these young doctors have simple haircuts, except for Song Zimo. ¡°Can I borrow this? Mine is broken,¡± Fang Yan asked from the doorway. Zhang Lin quickly put it away: ¡°Let me tell you, even though we are all medical students, this kind of thing should not be shared.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a razor. No skin gets broken, no blood is drawn,¡± Fang Yan reached out to take it. ¡°That¡¯s not the point. Who knows if you have acne on your scalp? If it bursts and then I have acne and it bursts, wouldn¡¯t that be infectious? The rate of HIV infection in our country is now nine in ten thousand, which is more than one million people. Who knows if you are one of those nine in ten thousand?¡± As he spoke, Zhang Lin put the hair clipper in a cabinet and locked it. Once Zhang Lin was out, Fang Yan walked in holding a tube of facial cleanser. There are two bathrooms in the on-duty room, but they still aren¡¯t enough for more than a dozen people. Seeing Fang Yan go in, Zhang Lin knocked on the door. ¡°Why are you knocking?¡± Fang Yan opened the door, peeked out with his face full of foam and held up his facial cleanser. ¡°Damn, SK2 Miracle Water, it¡¯s anti-acne and upscale. Squeeze me a little.¡± Zhang Lin tried to take it. Fang Yan grabbed it quickly, pulled it back from Zhang Lin, and said: ¡°Who knows if you¡¯re one of those nine in ten thousand.¡± Zhang Lin, however, had already squeezed out a bit into the palm of his hand. Zhang Lin said: ¡°You¡¯re such a pretty boy, do you need all this? Guys like me need it more.¡± Fang Yan replied: ¡°Your face is beyond help, using it would be a waste.¡± Zhang Lin responded: ¡°Fang Yan, don¡¯t be too arrogant. You squeezed my toothpaste last time. We have not settled the score yet.¡± Little Five interrupted: ¡°Hey Zhang Lin, tell me, why do you have pimples even though you have a girlfriend?¡± ¡°What? Is it a rule set by the Ministry of Health? If you have a girlfriend, you can¡¯t get pimples?¡± Zhang Lin retorted. ¡°Too much fire.¡± Chen Xiaobo came out of another bathroom, giving thumbs up. ¡°No matter how fiery you are, you can¡¯t match him. What are you doing in there for an hour, taking a bath?¡± another doctor said as he read his book while waiting for the bathroom. Seizing the chance to tease him, Zhang Lin said: ¡°Next time, the Hospital Infection Department will culture bacteria from your hand. Be careful not to grow some strange things.¡± Everyone burst into laughter. In the on-duty room, these young people having fun together was a relaxing scene. ¡°A patient sent a fruit basket, come and enjoy.¡± A nurse called out. Everyone rushed out as if in an onslaught. The head nurse said: ¡°Let me tell you, I¡¯ve recorded which group received fruit baskets. If you get a lot, it means you have a good relationship with your patients. If not, you need to work harder.¡± ¡°Whose fruit basket is it?¡± ¡°Just eat, no need to ask which tree it fell from.¡± Chapter 45 - 0043: Complex Diseases Chapter 45: Chapter 0043: Complex Diseases Yang Ping was resting in the on-call room. Regardless of how noisy it was, he could still fall asleep, a skill that allowed him to recharge anytime, anywhere. When he woke up, there were many fruits by his bed, left by his colleagues and washed clean. Yang Ping ate an apple and washed his face, recalling the case discussion scheduled for three o¡¯clock in the afternoon. At two forty, Yang Ping arrived at the teaching room, where many people were already waiting. Little Five, Zhang Lin, and Fang Yan all greeted him, pointing to an available seat and signaling him to sit quickly. The teaching room also served as the department¡¯s meeting room, where case discussions were conducted. Except for those involved in emergency surgeries, everyone was required to participate, discussing complex and fatal cases encountered during the week. For young doctors, this was a valuable learning process, while for senior doctors, it was an opportunity to showcase their talents. How the surgery went was clear on the table, and theoretical knowledge was tested during case discussions. During these discussions, everyone closed the doors, engaged in heated debates and banged tables, all of which were regarded as legal. Song Zimo came in and sat next to Yang Ping. He whispered, ¡°Regarding the preterm baby last time, its blood vessels were too fragile. I practiced on a newborn mouse, used drugs to make its blood vessels fragile, and practiced for many days. Now I can barely manage to do suturing. Can you advise when you have time?¡± Yang Ping said in surprise, ¡°You didn¡¯t take a nap at noon and practiced operations under the microscope?¡± Song Zimo said, ¡°Yes, you are not an elder brother for nothing, you must teach me when you have time. Let me do it for the next baby¡¯s operation, with you as backup?¡± ¡°Your ¡®elder brother¡¯ carries a great deal of weight,¡± said Yang Ping. But Song Zimo had enough talent and diligence, and a broad-minded. He had pride but he could face the gap. Having such a colleague was a blessing. Now, whenever he had spare time, Song Zimo would actively step up to assist during Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries. ¡°Alright, next time I¡¯ll arrange the operation for you,¡± Yang Ping said. Song Zimo put his arm around Yang¡¯s shoulder and asked, ¡°How is it going with the surgical nurse? Any progress?¡± Yang Ping shrugged his shoulder and took his hand off, ¡°Why are you so nosy? Can¡¯t you tell the occasion?¡± Song Zimo said, ¡°I am a human being too, as your elder brother, I should also pass on life experiences, don¡¯t hide your methods.¡± Yang Ping sneered, ¡°Forget it, who doesn¡¯t know about you, Song Zimo, a single smile from you when walking down the street can cause people to have heart palpitations.¡± People started coming in one after another. Once Director Han came in, Song Zimo stood up, stretched, and sat next to Director Han. He was the secretary of the department, responsible for record-keeping. People gathered in groups in the teaching room, packing it so tightly that there was almost no room to move. Several senior directors sat in the first row, a bottle of mineral water in front of each. The doctors¡¯ office had a projector, but here a high-definition screen was used. ¡°Everyone, be quiet, this week we didn¡¯t have any fatal cases, but there were a few difficult ones. Let¡¯s discuss them, starting with Director Ouyang¡¯s team ¨C¡± The resident physician in Director Ouyang¡¯s group started reporting the case. ¡°XXX, male, 14 years old, recurrent pain and swelling in the limbs for 3 years. Three years ago, without any trauma or obvious triggering factors, left wrist joint pain and swelling occurred, gradually progressed to bilateral shoulder joints, elbow joints, right wrist joint, bilateral hip joints, knee joints, ankle joints. Treated in several hospitals¨C Past history: 4 years ago, due to an old fracture of the left carpal scaphoid, he underwent open reduction, bone grafting, and internal fixation. After the fracture healed, no functional impairment remained. Physical examination: swelling and tenderness in the limbs¨C Auxiliary examination: MRI of bilateral shoulder joints, elbow joints, wrist joints, hip joints, knee joints, ankle joints showing synovial swelling and joint effusion¨C¡± After the resident doctor ended the case report, Dr. Jin, a senior doctor in Director Ouyang¡¯s team, added, ¡°This child comes from a relatively good family and has traveled to many places. Renowned hospitals and professors across the country have treated him, as well as traditional Chinese medicine, Western medicine, internal medicine, and surgery departments. However, the pain and swelling persisted, and even normal walking became difficult. He has consulted many hospitals, but the problem has not been resolved. Everyone, let¡¯s discuss and see how to make a clear diagnosis and treatment.¡± Dr. Jin had been a senior doctor for a long time. He was over forty and only a few years younger than Director Ouyang. According to his years of service, he should have been a chief physician. However, he was rigid and never indulged in falsehood. To this day, he hadn¡¯t published any papers or obtained any research topics, so he hadn¡¯t progressed to an associate chief physician. But in terms of actual skills, he was already at the level of a chief physician. After Dr. Jin supplemented, several young doctors began to scratch their heads. This kind of atypical case was the most troubling and tested a doctor¡¯s diagnostic abilities, which just happened to be a weak point of surgeons. Many orthopedic surgeons, once the X-ray film was hung on the viewing light: Surgery! Very straight forward. Why bother diagnosing? Isn¡¯t everything clear on the film? Diagnosis was the field of internal medicine doctors. ¡°It¡¯s very necessary to discuss this case. Usually, for those with joint pain and some atypical cases, if we can¡¯t find the cause, we just let it go. I always say that a surgeon not only needs to be good at surgery, but also needs to have good clinical thinking ability. Now, let¡¯s discuss how to make a diagnosis and treatment for this patient,¡± said Director Han. There are many diseases in medicine that can¡¯t be traced to a specific cause. Diagnosis is like solving a detective case, following certain logical thought processes based on medical history, physical examination, and auxiliary examination to pinpoint the illness. There are unsolvable cases and undiagnosable diseases. Usually, in case discussions, the doctors with less experience start off, gradually moving on to the seniors. In today¡¯s case, the less experienced doctors are at a loss for words. ¡°We have run a battery of tests including endocrine, metabolism, nutrition, blood, rheumatism, etc. We did all the imaginable tests¡ªX-rays, surface ultrasound, CT, and MRI scans. We have done dozens of MRIs.¡± ¡°A variety of diagnoses have been considered: synovitis, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune arthritis, reactive arthritis. Someone even bluntly made a diagnosis: a difficult and complicated disease?¡± Noticing the silence, Dr. Jin chimed in to avoid an awkward pause. His knowledge is more profound, like an old draft cow that endures hardship without complaint. Director Ouyang has relied on him for many years, and as a result, he hasn¡¯t performed an emergency operation in a long time. Each time, it¡¯s Dr. Jin who takes care of the major emergencies. ¡°Reactive arthritis is more like a catch-all phrase; when the disease can¡¯t be traced, it¡¯s called reactive arthritis. This disease, however, has no medical history related to urogenital or intestinal infections.¡± Director Ouyang said. ¡°Many transient synovitis cases found in clinical practice have no obvious causes. This diagnosis is indeed challenging. Otherwise, someone wouldn¡¯t have gotten frustrated and labeled it as a difficult and complicated disease.¡± Director Bai said. ¡°Was a synovial biopsy performed?¡± Director Tian asked. Dr. Jin responded: ¡°Yes, it was done in a Beijing hospital. The pathological examination indicated the inflammation of the synovial tissue.¡± Yang Ping half-closed his eyes, leaning on the chair while Song Zimo told him, ¡°Why don¡¯t you say something? Aren¡¯t you always full of surprising solutions?¡± Hearing this, Yang said, it doesn¡¯t take any time to access the system. In real life, it only takes an instant. Now he is emotionally ready to switch to the system at any time and any place. Upon opening the window, he found the newly added library function. After accessing the system, he began an exhaustive search of textbooks, journals, and papers about synovitis, especially rare cases, and even individual case reports. Synovitis is merely a symptomatic diagnosis, not an etiological one. Like fever, many diseases can cause it, but you have to find the cause of the fever to treat it effectively. Yang Ping thought to himself, ¡°The system is indeed a torture device. Providing such a large library, it would have been easier to just help with the diagnosis, and then I would be able to show off without any effort.¡± But it requires so much effort to find relevant information. Fortunately, the search function of the system¡¯s library is quite potent. He finally found many papers, one of which caught Yang Ping¡¯s attention. Five years ago, an Austrian doctor wrote a paper which was published on an inconspicuous medical school journal, written in German. The system, being very considerate, actually had a translation function. The paper mentioned¨Cmetal ion reactive synovitis, which usually happens internally with implants, such as steel plates, artificial joint replacement, and even metal dentures could cause it. This happens because the synovial joints are sensitive to metal ions, thereby causing an inflammatory reaction. This is a very rare disease. After searching, Yang Ping found that apart from this Austrian doctor, nobody else had reported it. That¡¯s interesting. Yang Ping studied the paper in detail. This kid had surgery on his left scaphoid four years ago as shown on the X-ray with residual metal screw. Could this metal screw be releasing metal ions into his bloodstream and then causing synovitis after being deposited in the synovial joints? The kid¡¯s symptoms seem similar to those mentioned in the paper, but it¡¯s just a hypothesis and there¡¯s no concrete evidence. After a lot of searching, this is the most plausible diagnosis he could find. After looking up more information but not finding anything more suitable, Yang Ping exited the system. ¡°Yang Ping, Song Zimo, what are you two doing hiding there, say something!¡± Seeing everyone remaining quiet, Director Han called out their names directly. Now that Director Han has called them out, it wouldn¡¯t be appropriate to remain silent. Song Zimo nudged Yang Ping, ¡°Big brother, it¡¯s your turn!¡± Yang Ping cursed him silently. At this time, he called him ¡®big brother¡¯ more sweetly than anyone else. Pushed into acting swift, Yang Ping sat upright. He couldn¡¯t lose face in front of his colleagues, so he maintained a thoughtful expression, ¡°Hmm, this, after listening carefully to the medical history, I think it may be metal ion reactive synovitis, a very rare disease with few reported cases.¡± Metal Ion Reactive Synovitis, what? They had never heard of this disease. Is it even a real illness? It¡¯s not mentioned in any textbooks. Chapter 46 - 0044: Troubles Caused by Two Screws Chapter 46: Chapter 0044: Troubles Caused by Two Screws None of them had heard of this disease, including Song Zimo and Dr. Jin. Dr. Jin looked at him in surprise, thinking, this kid reads more books than I, Old Jin, do. He had thought of him as a surgical craftsman, but he didn¡¯t expect his theory to be so solid. On a day without any social engagements, he basically reads books in his spare time, books in Chinese or English, he has read all the orthopedic specialized works, and his papers are updated daily. He tracks international trends and has never heard of this disease. He mulled over Yang Ping¡¯s words and found some sense in them. Those with metal implants will release metal ions to some extent. These ions are taken to various joints by the blood circulation. If the synovial membrane is allergic to them, it can easily cause an inflammatory response. Theoretically, it is entirely possible. Song Zimo gently nudged Yang Ping next to him with his elbow: ¡°Senior Brother really is Senior Brother, to think of such an extraordinary disease, how did you learn about this disease?¡± ¡°I forgot, I heard it from someone.¡± Yang Ping said dismissively. Director Han nodded, ¡°Hmm, being able to propose this diagnosis shows that you have a wide range of reading and learning in your daily life, talk more specifically about it.¡± Yang Ping said, ¡°The patient underwent a fracture surgery of the lunate bone 4 years ago, during which two micro metal screws were used. These two screws were never removed. The onset locations are consistent with the inference; first, it was the left wrist joint and then other joints. The inflammation of the synovial membrane in the left wrist joint is thought to be directly caused by the release of metal ions, so it occurred earlier. The other joints were affected by the spread of metal ions through the bloodstream, so naturally, it happened later. Additionally, the timing also aligns with the hypothesis. The swelling pain in multiple joints appeared after this surgery. For now, I am just speculating and there is not enough evidence. We can try to remove the two screws and see if the symptoms will gradually diminish.¡± ¡°As for Dr. Yang¡¯s opinion, I agree, let¡¯s remove the two screws. Even if that¡¯s not the cause, it won¡¯t bring any adverse effects on the patient.¡± Tian Yuan¡¯s opinion was moderate. ¡°How is it that none of you young men are speaking up?¡± Director Han said. Usually, the discussion starts from doctors with less seniority and gradually escalates, with Director Han summarizing in the end. But today, this case was so rare that someone had to diagnose it as ¡°difficult and complicated disease¡±. This diagnosis is reserved for cases where all doctors nationwide are stunned. Just now, everyone was silent and it was like their mouths were sealed shut. But after what Yang Ping said, everyone¡¯s mind was opened. Even though no one had heard of this disease, if Senior Brother Yang said it was the case, then it was. The rest is just about verifying the conjecture. ¡°Hmm, I agree with senior brother, no, Dr. Yang¡¯s point of view.¡± Fang Yan said. Little Five nodded too, ¡°I agree with this opinion, it seems nothing else comes to mind.¡± Zhang Lin raised his hand and spoke in a deliberately deep tone: ¡°I have an immature idea. It is too slow to let these metal ions metabolize on their own. Can we use a chelating agent for metal ions and hasten the clearance of these ions, that way the symptoms can be relieved quickly.¡± Director Han praised Zhang Lin: ¡°Very thoughtful, let¡¯s hear everyone¡¯s ideas. Make bold assumptions and verify carefully.¡± Zhang Lin perked up immediately after being praised, as if he¡¯d suddenly grown taller. Song Zimo said: ¡°We can perform a joint puncture and draw joint fluid to test for metal ions to see if they can be detected. If metal ions can be detected, we will see if they are consistent with the composition of the implanted screws.¡± Song Zimo is still Song Zimo. Although Yang Ping has boldly taken over the position of the eldest senior brother, it seems that no one can shake the position of second senior brother. ¡°Hmm, this is a good idea, drawing joint fluid for metal ion detection. This wouldn¡¯t be hard for the laboratory. If necessary, we could ask the medical school¡¯s laboratory to do it.¡± Dr. Jin agreed. He has always had a high opinion of Song Zimo. ¡°Even if metal ions are found, it doesn¡¯t necessarily prove they are the cause.¡± Tian Yuan said. The discussion started to escalate, Director Ouyang said, ¡°In clinical practice, we should first address practical issues. By removing the screw and monitoring subsequent symptoms, we might gradually find relief. Such diagnostic measures are permissible in clinical practice, and besides, they pose no harm but offer potential benefit to the patient. As for other factors, they can be studied slowly. This is indeed a rare case and can be researched as a new topic.¡± Director Ouyang, quite handsome, had an upright posture reminiscent of a soldier in stance. His salt-and-pepper hair added to his unique charm. Dr. Jin was of the same lean type. His group contrasted markedly with that of Director Bai. Director Bai, weighing 180 pounds, pressed heavily on his chair. If it were not for the good build quality of the chairs in the department, the chair might have collapsed under his weight. His attending physician too was of substantial size. The two of them sitting together looked rather odd. ¡°Currently, many people are studying the effect of metal ions that enter the bloodstream due to the friction of metal-on-metal artificial hip joints on the human body. But few study the ions released by metal implants, because the amount of ions released can almost be ignored.¡± Director Bai spoke with vigor. Director Ouyang chimed in: ¡°I have searched for many documents and haven¡¯t found any relevant papers. A few years ago, one of my classmates who was a visiting scholar in Europe mentioned that some European doctors were studying this, but I don¡¯t remember the specifics. I also haven¡¯t seen any related papers published about it.¡± Everyone was very engaged in the conversation. They weren¡¯t speaking carelessly but rather with certain thought. Rigorous clinical thinking is very important. In fact, it requires logical reasoning capabilities. A brilliant physician diagnoses diseases like peeling off layers of an onion, with clear logic and rigorous methodology. The group¡¯s combined views provided a clearer perspective to the case. Director Han said, ¡°Why did we discuss this case? I only want to say two words, seriously. We need to take any issue seriously. Don¡¯t think it¡¯s just about joint pain? There are many cases where the cause is elusive, they receive routine treatment and then are discharged. Why does Peking Union Medical College Hospital remain the top hospital in the medical field? It is because of its rigor, this tradition has been followed till today. The first AIDS case in our country was diagnosed by Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The process of it could be written as a fascinating book. At that time, nobody had seen such a disease and could only learn about it through literature reports. There were no mature biological reagents for diagnosis, it all depended on the doctors themselves to combine resources and break new grounds. There are countless such examples. A patient with hyperthyroidism caused a loss of bone calcium throughout the body and was diagnosed with advanced bone cancer in several hospitals. The patient was not willing to give up and went to the outpatient department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital with difficulties. The professor examined him for a long time and then said, ¡®I have insufficient experience in this area and cannot make a conclusion yet. I need to look up some references. You don¡¯t need to make an appointment in a week, just come directly to the outpatient department to find me.¡¯ The patient was furious at the time, waiting for several months just to hear him say he didn¡¯t know? He almost blew up on the spot. He angrily left saying Peking Union Medical College Hospital was merely so-so. However, a week later, the patient thought it over and still decided to go find the professor. At that time, the research on hyperthyroidism-induced bone mineral disease was just starting worldwide and many people were not familiar with the disease. The professor tried his best to find relevant literature and consulted with colleagues at home and abroad by telephone after getting off work. A week later, he made the diagnosis: it was hyperthyroidism, not bone cancer. From then on, whatever the disease, the patient always went to Peking Union Medical College Hospital for examination. Even if he had to wait for months, he would still opt to go to Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Previously, when the secretary of the World Health Organization Children¡¯s Fund visited our country, he mentioned he was born in Peking Union Medical College Hospital in the 1930s. As a result, Peking Union Medical College Hospital found his birth medical record. The footprint from his birth was perfectly preserved, and the record of his mother¡¯s several breastfeeding times a day was also clear. This type of rigor truly impresses mensen.¡± Director Han, speaking earnestly added somewhat more, ¡°I thought with this case, everyone would find it boring and feel it had no value for discussion. However, everyone spoke actively and enthusiastically today, showing that they are seriously considering it. Indeed, this is a rare case. An Austrian doctor researched it and published a paper on it, but it was in German and in an obscure medical college journal. Therefore, it might be challenging for everyone to access.¡± When he mentioned the German paper, everyone¡¯s eyes was directed towards him, wondering if this person could read German papers, surely not. ¡°Xiao Yang, where did you find this German paper?¡± Director Han asked. ¡°I heard a professor talk about it before, so I remembered it.¡± Yang Ping chuckled. ¡°No matter how you obtained it, if you can remember such obscure information and apply it when necessary, it is worth praising. You can proceed with this patient according to the procedure discussed just now. Conduct puncture of the joint fluid to find metal ions, and remove the screw surgically. Make sure to explain this clearly to the patient.¡± Director Han concluded in the end. Could two screws cause severe synovitis of the limbs over three years? Is that really the case? Everyone was impatient to know. Chapter 47 - 0045 Whose Phone Call Chapter 47: Chapter 0045 Whose Phone Call After the meeting, the directors all left. The young doctors were still full of thoughts and unwilling to leave. They wanted to discuss more. Zhang Lin, who was commended, was still excited. ¡°Tell me, when we do research, we can¡¯t simulate clinical phenomena. This is a special allergy, finding an animal and injecting the same metal ions into its joint cavity. The synovial membrane won¡¯t be allergic to these ions. We can¡¯t reproduce the synovitis,¡± Zhang Lin approached and spoke. Song Zimo said, ¡°With your scientific thinking today, I can directly hand my national natural topics to you for application.¡± Zhang Lin scratched his head with shame, slightly inflated, ¡°I can try.¡± As they were discussing, a nurse ran up and said that the infant who underwent finger reattachment had come back for a follow-up appointment. After X-rays in the outpatient department, they wanted to hold him in the ward. They wanted Doctor Yang to have a look before feeling at ease. Yang Ping agreed, and the nurse dared to reply to the others. When the child was brought up, Yang Ping went out to see him, followed by everyone else. The woman was holding the child in the chair, arranging his clothes, while the man clumsily helped. Seeing Yang Ping coming over, the woman got up and the man bowed to greet Yang Ping, ¡°Doctor Yang, thank you for your trouble. The outpatient doctor said the recovery was very good, but we are anxious and would like you to see. We have caused you trouble.¡± Little Five hung the X-ray on the illuminator. Yang Ping saw that the child¡¯s fracture was healed very well, much faster than an adult¡¯s. The steel pin for fixation of the fracture had already been removed in the outpatient department. Since the child was not cooperative during the examination, Yang Ping could only observe and try to judge the recovery of sensation and movement. After playing with the child for a while and confirming that the sensation and movement were all recovered very well, Yang Ping felt relieved. There stood Little Five, recording the child¡¯s hand with his mobile phone. He collected detailed and complete data for every operation Yang Ping performed. Yang Ping gave a few precautions, and the two thanked him again before leaving. After they left, Yang Ping remembered the worker with a severed thumb who hadn¡¯t come back for a follow-up after being discharged, causing him some worry. He was uncertain about the current situation. Before getting off work, Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Little Five, and Zhang Lin checked the ward again. The department required two rounds per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Although the four were divided into two groups, they spontaneously blended into one. During each round, Song Zimo always led Yang Ping to check together. Also, they discussed collaboratively when receiving patients for surgery. The worker with a comminuted fracture at the lower end of his humerus had completed the operation in the morning. The anesthesia had worn off, so Yang Ping guided him to begin active elbow movements. ¡°Doctor Yang, thank you very much, Professor Zhang, and you. Without you, this arm of mine would be wasted.¡± The patient expressed gratitude. ¡°You¡¯re welcome, the key point is to move now. If you don¡¯t move, the joints will become like rusty machines and become stiff. These few days, I will take some time to guide your exercise. You can practice by yourself after discharge once you learn,¡± Yang Ping said while guiding his movements. At this point, the canteen aunt came over, put a bag of big steamed buns on the makeshift table in front of the worker¡¯s bed, ¡°Your ordered meal, four buns, still hot.¡± Sanbo Hospital was well-managed, orderly. This was due to Dean Xia¡¯s efforts. Patients can order meals in the canteen. They can scan QR codes to order online, order by phone, or order from the ordering staff. An ordering staff member comes every morning to take orders for the next day. If admitted to the hospital the same day, patients can place orders at any time, but meals are provided by the canteen and cannot be chosen freely. Free-choice ordering is only possible a day in advance according to the menu. ¡°Will you eat this tonight?¡± Little Five asked. The patient said, ¡°This is very filling. The steamed buns in your hospital are big enough, one is equivalent to two outside, and it¡¯s cheaper.¡± The patient¡¯s workmate, standing on the side, laughed heartily and put away the buns. After guiding the worker¡¯s exercise and checking the other rooms, several of the reattached fingers had very good blood circulation. Finally done, they could get off work. They discussed going to a nearby restaurant for a meal. There was a good mutton hot pot shop nearby, and the four of them took off their white gowns and washed their hands. As they walked out of the surgery building, they found that the hospital¡¯s security checkpoint had been installed and was in use. Anyone entering had to go through the security checkpoint. If a person carried a knife or something similar, the machine would beep. Once the machine beeped, the security guard would immediately step forward and ask to see the item. Yang Ping and the others were curious, so they stood by to see how this security checkpoint worked. A tall, burly security officer walked over. This officer was the newly appointed head of the security department at Sanbo Hospital, personally interviewed and hired by Dean Xia. He was as burly as Xiong Sihai, the head of the emergency department. One glance at his walk, and it was obvious he had a military background. From then on, the three ¡°strongmen¡± of Sanbo increased to four. The officer inspected the security machine, opened his notebook, and asked, ¡°How¡¯s today¡¯s situation?¡± The security officer in charge of this checkpoint opened a box. Inside was a sharp knife with a sheath: ¡°We found a knife today.¡± The officer carefully picked up the knife, pulled it out from the sheath, took a glance, then reinserted it back into the sheath and threw it back into the box. After recording in earnest, he said: ¡°We have already found several knives in just one day of operation. What are patients doing with these knives? Remember, don¡¯t be careless, each time a knife or other offensive weapon is found, take down the name and ID of the individual, and ensure it¡¯s entered into the security system. Immediately report any suspected illegal activities. Those who are caught twice will be discreetly trailed by assigned security, and those caught three times will be blacklisted. Dean Xia has already banged the table at the meeting and told you men to be vigilant.¡± ¡°Yes, Captain, I understand,¡± the security officer replied. After the captain finished recording, he said, ¡°As for your wife¡¯s job, the Human Resources Office has already arranged for her to be a cashier at the outpatient clinic. The hospital will provide training. You can focus on your work here, and if there are any difficulties, just let me know.¡± The security officer grunted in reply, a look of joy lighting up his face as he tightened his belt. Little Five and Zhang Lin purposely walked around the security gate a few times, asking the security guard, ¡°Would nail clippers or scissors trigger it?¡± The security officer laughed and said, ¡°No.¡± Then they looked at the knife in the box, ¡°They really found a knife?¡± The security officer said, ¡°Only this one was found in the Surgical Building, a few more were found in the entire hospital today.¡± After inspecting the security checkpoint, everyone chatted and walked. On the way, they saw Dean Xia, Dean Sun, and the office director. The leaders were inspecting, with Dean Xia making gestures, Dean Sun nodding, and the office director recording. It must¡¯ve been related to the security system. At the mutton hot pot restaurant, the four of them found an empty table to sit down. ¡°I don¡¯t drink,¡± Song Zimo gave a heads-up in advance. ¡°Whoever doesn¡¯t drink pays the bill, that¡¯s the rule from now on,¡± Little Five said. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll pay,¡± Song Zimo didn¡¯t mind. ¡°Zhang Lin, do you drink?¡± Little Five asked.p> ¡°I don¡¯t drink, am I here to drink milk tea?¡± Zhang Lin answered. Little Five said, ¡°It seems lackluster for a bunch of guys to have hot pot together. Boss, call over your instrument nurse; Zhang Lin, call your pediatrician out, and Song Zimo, your Maserati.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the point of calling them? It¡¯s way more unrestricted when it¡¯s just us guys drinking. If we bring women along, can we still drink properly?¡± Zhang Lin objected, as a waiter brought over a few bottles of beer and prepared to open them. ¡°What if there¡¯s an emergency?¡± Yang Ping suddenly remembered, and the waiter¡¯s bottle opener stopped mid-air. ¡°It¡¯s Thursday today, there¡¯s an in-house doctor on duty in our department, and Old Tian is on standby at the Trauma Emergency Center. Our second team, I¡¯ve just sent a WeChat message asking them to hold fort,¡± Song Zimo assured. ¡°Let¡¯s drink, we haven¡¯t in a long time. We work and perform surgeries together daily, rarely do we all gather. If we¡¯re not on the operating table, then we¡¯re too exhausted and resting,¡± Zhang Lin urged the waiter to open the beer as the hot pot soup bubbled and all the ingredients were served. Zhang Lin dumped the ingredients into the pot with a splash, Little Five distributed the drinks, and Song Zimo¡¯s phone rang. Everyone¡¯s hearts clenched. No way, right? Doctors dread the sound of their phone ringing during their break. Once it rings, no matter who¡¯s calling, their hearts give a wrench. Whose call could it be? Song Zimo lit up his phone. Chapter 48 - 0046 Dangerous Surgery Chapter 48: Chapter 0046 Dangerous Surgery ¡°It¡¯s a call from Director Tian!¡± The name displayed on the mobile phone. After the call, Song Zimo shrugged, ¡°They couldn¡¯t hold off any longer. There was a brawl, injuring more than ten people. The minor injuries have been taken by the orthopedics department on duty, while the two severe cases are following the procedure of Trauma Emergency Center for immediate rescue surgery.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t they say they can handle it a moment ago? That was quick. Director Tian is not doing well. He needs to replenish his energy.¡± Zhang Lin remarked. It looked like they wouldn¡¯t enjoy the hot pot after all. In the awkward silence, Zhang Lin vigorously picked up a bunch of lamb from the pot with his chopsticks. Not bothering with the seasoning, he blew on it a few times before stuffing it into his mouth, making puffs of steam from his mouth. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Yang Ping said, as time was the most critical for emergency rescues. Little Five instructed the waiter, ¡°Hold onto it. Keep it for us until we return.¡± Song Zimo scanned the bill with WeChat. Even though they hadn¡¯t eaten, they had ordered. If they left just like that, the staff might think they were dining and dashing. Zhang Lin kept stuffing lamb into his mouth, even when Little Five was pulling his arm. With the hot pot still cooking, they gave a quick farewell and hastily left for the hospital. They arrived at the emergency department in minutes. There was a significant police presence in the emergency hall. Yang Ping and his team swiped their cards to enter the rescue room. The rescue room was enclosed, requiring card access. There were also several police officers inside. Doctors and nurses were busy, their rescue techniques skilled. Director Tian and Fang Yan were still inside the emergency room. Seeing their reinforcements arrive, they came forward and said, ¡°We need to operate on two severe cases. One received dozens of blows, severing the nerves and blood vessels in all limbs. The worst blow was in the back, affecting the spinal canal, likely causing spinal cord injury. Another person got stabbed in the left groin with a bottle, rupturing the femoral artery and leaving glass fragments, causing shock. We have conducted an EKG and taken blood samples, but the results are not out yet. We are preparing to send them to the operating room immediately. Fang Yan and I will handle the spinal surgery, and you can handle the ruptured femoral artery. How does that sound?¡± Director Tian was calm, exuding the demeanor of a leader. The arrangement was reasonable. Only an associate chief physician could perform spinal surgery, something Yang Ping wasn¡¯t allowed to do yet. Moreover, he hadn¡¯t dealt with spinal cases and didn¡¯t know how to handle them. Unlike injuries to the limbs, he had been systematically trained for those procedures. ¡°No problem, let¡¯s go with that.¡± Yang Ping responded decisively. It was not the time to dawdle. Yang Ping wanted to see the patients, but they had already been moved during the discussion. The process was indeed swift. They immediately rushed towards the operation room. Song Zimo opened a locker in the changing room, took out a bag, and tossed it to Little Five, ¡°Open it and distribute it.¡± Little Five peeked into the bag to find it full of chocolate bars. ¡°These are energy chocolates from Germany, high in calories. They are essential for emergency surgeries,¡± said Song Zimo. ¡°Thanks, Young Master Song!¡± Little Five distributed a few chocolate bars to everyone. Having quickly devoured the chocolates, Yang Ping changed his clothes. Upon entering the operating room, a patrolling nurse came over and said, ¡°The laboratory just called ¡ª the patient tested positive for HIV in the preliminary screening. The paper report is on the way. Everyone needs to take precautions. I¡¯m off to prep the protective suits.¡± A positive HIV screening meant that the patient could potentially have AIDS. This surgery had indeed become stressful. Little Five called up the patient¡¯s test report on the operating room¡¯s computer. It was indeed positive in the preliminary HIV screening. ¡°Ding-dong, task: Carry out a highly dangerous operation. If you complete the operation without occupational exposure, you will earn 6000 points.¡± This was truly a highly risky operation. Usually, this kind of surgery would be performed at the Seventh City Hospital, a specialized infectious disease hospital. Despite its excellent infectious disease department, its other departments, especially surgery, were weak. For emergency cases or major surgeries like these that the infectious disease hospital wasn¡¯t equipped to handle, integrated hospitals have to step in. The anesthesiologist wore a face shield, goggles, and two pairs of gloves early on. The face shield was anti-fog, but still fogged up. Making it hard to see clearly. Fortunately, the anesthesiologist had enough experience to successfully administer general anesthesia and intubated the patient, despite the poor visibility. The patrolling nurse prepared a disposable sterile sheet. Su Yixuan also arrived by then. Yang Ping pulled her aside and said, ¡°You don¡¯t need to scrub in for this surgery. We have four people, that¡¯s enough.¡± Confused, Su Yixuan asked, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? I¡¯m okay.¡± Yang Ping seemed a little absent-minded as he said, ¡°We have enough people, and Little Five and Zhang Lin want to try their hands at instrument passing.¡± ¡°The suits are ready!¡± the patrolling nurse called out. The protective suits, also known as ¡®space suits,¡¯ were special types of surgical gowns that included a hood, which could completely shield a person from blood splattering during surgery. Seeing them preparing to wear the suits, Su Yixuan immediately understood why Yang Ping didn¡¯t let her participate, and she was moved. ¡°I¡¯m more familiar with assisting in surgery for you than anyone else, which lowers the risk of injuries during surgery. Especially when it comes to sharp equipment, they might not understand as well as I do. Despite you operating with them on a daily basis, they are not as versed in the equipment as I am. I¡¯ve attended training in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Japan for high-risk infection surgeries like this. Believe me, it will be alright,¡± she said stubbornly. Yang Ping looked at her, wondering why the young girl was so defiant. In reality, it was not a big deal, he just didn¡¯t want her to take such risks. The man had no reservations about how he felt towards Su Yixuan ¨C he was already falling for her. ¡°Alright, be careful, got it? Go slow. And double glove,¡± Yang Ping advised her with a concerned look. Su Yixuan nodded, feeling a warmth surge within her. ¡°Just the two of us will be enough, too many people could lead to accidents! You two can stop scrubbing in,¡± Song Zimo started to put on gloves and disinfect. He addressed Zhang Lin and Little Five. When performing surgery on an HIV patient, protection must be adequate. This was not out of discrimination or distaste, but for safety based on scientific facts. Only by ensuring one¡¯s own safety can one save others effectively. After Yang Ping scrubbed in, he began to put on a surgical gown. A space suit provided good protection, but it was very inconvenient for surgery. Especially the field of vision, it was tough to see clearly through the protective shield. It was even more inconvenient for doctors who wore glasses. Luckily, Yang Ping did not need glasses. ¡°How do we proceed when the blood starts spouting out once we open the wound?¡± Song Zimo asked. Yang Ping donned his gloves: ¡°What do you think?¡± ¡°Open the abdomen, locate the external iliac artery, block the blood flow, then proceed to the next step?¡± Song Zimo suggested. Yang Ping gave him a thumbs up; he indeed was a genius. If he wasn¡¯t there with his out-of-the-ordinary abilities, Song Zimo would have been the star of the show. The method suggested by Song Zimo was the safest course of action, not only did it reduce blood loss but it gave ample time to locate the blood vessels. ¡°Should we go in, Senior?¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five were eager to get involved, but they were worried. Truth be told, they were somewhat apprehensive. However, as doctors, they had no choice. This was their job. Just like police officers facing criminals ¨C while others can run, police officers can¡¯t. It wasn¡¯t about being noble but about professionalism. ¡°You two are so eager, come on in. We¡¯re going back to our hotpot,¡± Song Zimo was annoyed. He had told them repeatedly not to come in, but they kept asking. After laying out the drapes and performing a brief preoperative check, they wasted no time. Yang Ping made an incision in the lower abdomen. Because he had performed hundreds of surgeries to locate the external iliac artery during previous system tests, he was very familiar with the anatomy of the pelvic blood vessels and nerves. Very quickly, from making the incision to locating it, it took less than two minutes to find the external iliac artery and clip it off. He purposely slowed the process down. ¡°How are you so skilled?¡± Song Zimo asked while he assisted. He did more than a dozen dissections in medical school to gain a comprehensive understanding of anatomy. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t possibly have the same opportunity to dissect as many bodies, but from the looks of it, it seemed like he was performing external iliac artery surgeries every day. ¡°Unlock the tourniquet below and disinfect again,¡± Yang Ping ignored him and commanded firmly, exuding a strong and decisive air as the lead surgeon. They untied the cloth towel and bandage from below. Somebody had shoved a towel into his wound before bandaging it up. The person must have been experienced. If it wasn¡¯t for this crude hemostatic method, this patient would¡¯ve probably been gone by now. Once they untied it, as expected, there was no bleeding. They disinfected the wound again. ¡°Watch out, there¡¯s a lot of glass inside. Be careful.¡± Yang Ping warned Song Zimo. The glass in the wound was the most dangerous. Under normal circumstances, they could put their hands into the surgical area for operation, but it was absolutely not permissible in this case. The sharp glass could easily prick the gloves and skin, causing HIV infection. ¡°Vascular forceps!¡± Yang Ping reached out for the instrument. ¡°Got it, let¡¯s get the big pieces out. Leaving the fragmented glass wouldn¡¯t cause too much trouble,¡± Song Zimo was being extra careful while assisting. As Su Yixuan passed the vascular forceps, she gently reminded, ¡°Take your time, don¡¯t rush.¡± Song Zimo glanced at Yang Ping and then at Su Yixuan. He could tell something was up. With the forceps, he reached into the wound and took it out. A piece of glass, at least three centimeters long, was carefully placed into a kidney dish. Chapter 49 - 0047 The Table is Still Left Chapter 49: Chapter 0047 The Table is Still Left ¡°The femoral artery is severed, with three large pieces of glass nearby.¡± Song Zimo turned to look at the CT scan on the light box. Yang Ping was looking for the second piece, saying, ¡°You¡¯re pretty smart, being able to see all three.¡± Song Zimo said, ¡°Don¡¯t be smug. I¡¯m getting much faster at vascular anastomosis on newborn mice with fragile blood vessels. I¡¯m catching up with you.¡± As Song Zimo spoke, he constantly adjusted the retractor in his hand. He was indeed smart, anticipating where Yang Ping would look next, making adjustments in advance so that Yang Ping always had the best field of vision. Actually, handling the retractor well is a skill. If done correctly, the surgeon can maintain the best surgical view without noticing the retractor. ¡°Should I shine the light in?¡± the circulating nurse asked. Song Zimo said, ¡°No need.¡± At this moment, what matters is one¡¯s ability to position accurately, spatial imagination, the feel of forceps in hand, preoperative precision spatial positioning based on imaging, and identifying different tactile sensations when the metal touches glass and soft tissue during surgery.> At this point, the surgical instruments act as extensions of the surgeon¡¯s fingers. ¡°You have acne all over your face, standing so close, when the blood sprays¨C¡± Little Five handed over a face shield. Scared, Zhang Lin immediately moved away from the operating table, involuntary remembering a story from his internship. During an internship, a classmate was sprayed with a trauma patient¡¯s blood in the emergency department. The classmate had a face full of acne and only discovered the patient had AIDS after saving his life. Immediately reporting occupational exposure, he then went for blood tests and took AIDS blocking medicine for four consecutive weeks. Blood tests were performed periodically for half a year. During those six months, his weight plummeted from over 80 kilograms to barely 80 pounds. A return to normal life only happened after confirmation he was fine. With such thoughts, Zhang Lin retreated a few more steps, putting on the face shield from Little Five. The second piece was detected but could not be removed, as it was adjacent to blood vessels and nerves. Any abrupt removal could damage these. ¡°Light!¡± Song Zimo, as an assistant, was absolutely perfect. Without Yang Ping¡¯s reminder, he held a retractor in one hand and the sterile handle of the surgical lamp in the other, precisely directing the light. The suction device extended in, drawing blood away. As Yang Ping moved to adjust the retractor, Song Zimo gently let go, allowing Yang Ping to reposition the retractor. Suddenly, a pair of scissors was already in his hand. He used them to sharply dissect the tissue surrounding the glass, fully exposing it. Indeed, an artery branch was right next to the glass. Yang Ping carefully removed the glass, a fragment of green beer bottle. ¡°How deep was their hatred? The groin was pierced badly, with shards of beer bottle left inside,¡± Zhang Lin exclaimed. Little Five said, ¡°Fighting over a woman in a nightclub, two groups of men got out of hand.¡± Zhang Lin corrected, ¡°Not two groups of men. I heard he fought ten men by himself.¡± What exactly happened was a matter for the police. Doctors only need to treat and save people. Su Yixuan stopped their chatter: ¡°Quiet.¡± The other nurses might argue sometimes, but they wouldn¡¯t dare with Su Yixuan. Little Five made a gesture to keep quiet and Zhang Lin didn¡¯t dare to speak again either. ¡°There¡¯s one piece left, and it¡¯s gone into the pelvic cavity.¡± Song Zimo adjusted the light again. With the local anatomy of this area etched in his mind, he could build a 3D image even with his eyes closed. After hundreds of attempts to save patients with ruptured external iliac arteries, he had a clear understanding of the anatomy and its variations. He dissected along the vessels and nerves upward, into the retro-peritoneal space of the pelvic cavity, and the third piece appeared. It was easily removed, and the surrounding area was examined. The peritoneum was not ruptured. Large quantities of saline flushed the surgical area. A detailed investigation again revealed both the femoral artery and vein were severed. The femoral nerve was thankfully intact, the outer layer only exposed through a small incision, with the nerve bundles inside unaffected. ¡°Needle and thread!¡± Su Yixuan placed the needle and thread on the dish, passing it over. This way, by transferring items via the dish, the chances of inadvertent injury were minimized. Yang Ping picked up the needle and thread, holding a needle holder in his right hand while his left hand held a long-toothed tweezer. This type of vascular anastomosis was incredibly simple for him. In just over a minute, he had trimmed the blood vessels, completed the anastomosis of the artery, and ligated the vein. After releasing the clamps on the external iliac artery and vein, there was no bleeding. Then, another rinse, layers of suturing, insertion of a drain. Last, applying a dressing neatly. In the right corner of Yang Ping¡¯s vision, a window and caption appeared: ¡°Task complete, gained 6000 points.¡± The entire process went incredibly smoothly, especially the extraction of the glass shards, which totally impressed Song Zimo. Speaking of foreign object retrieval, it¡¯s a minor task, but it¡¯s not easy to handle this minor task exceptionally well. Many doctors become frustrated as they use a C-arm X-ray machine for a tiny foreign object, they may find the object on the screen, but not able to retrieve it, and they can¡¯t help it. Dr. Jin in our department once locked himself away to study the X-rays, surface ultrasounds, CT scans, and MRIs of all foreign objects in the hospital because he failed to extract one. He drew hundreds of diagrams. Years later, whenever there was a foreign object that couldn¡¯t be removed, they turned to old Jin who always removed it with ease. No joke, a senior director may well perform a cervical spine surgery easily, but sometimes fails to take out a tiny foreign object. Many even make a long incision and rummage through it, only to close it in vain. Foreign objects can be quite tricky sometimes. Song Zimo spent a great deal of time asking old Jin and studying the space localization of medical imaging to remove foreign objects. He finally outperformed old Jin. Now these pieces of glass, Yang Ping took them out in a breeze. Song Zimo admired Yang Ping even more and couldn¡¯t figure out the limit of Yang Ping¡¯s capability. The patient was sent to the ICU, all the sterile sheets and clothes had to be disposed of through a special channel, and the surgical instruments went through a special sterilization process. ¡°How¡¯s everything going for Director Tian?¡± Yang Ping wanted to see if there were any ways he could help. Little Five and Zhang Lin didn¡¯t know, because this was an infectious surgery, they couldn¡¯t freely visit other operating rooms. They would be kicked out if discovered by the patrol nurse from another operating room. Since no one had been called over to ask for help, Director Tian probably didn¡¯t need any. Tian was a well-rounded surgeon who could easily handle any kind of surgery, and it was unnecessary for Yang Ping to check on him especially after just performing a surgery on an AIDS patient. Song Zimo led Little Five and Zhang Lin to send the patient to the trauma ICU, having already advised the ICU to prepare an isolation ward in accordance with the standards for isolating body fluids and blood. Yang Ping had a shower in the changing room and sat down to rest for a while. He was very familiar with the anatomy of the part he operated on today. His recent practice with wire and needle techniques had further improved his spatial localization skills, which made the surgery so easy. It might not be this smooth if the location of the procedure was different. He must take every opportunity to train his skills of removing foreign objects and spatial positioning in the system. He opened the window and checked he had accumulated 14,000 points, bringing him one step closer to purchasing the pelvis fracture training. Once he nailed the pelvis fracture, his trauma orthopedic techniques would be considered comprehensive. He closed the system window when Little Five called. ¡°Boss, the hot pot is still waiting for us. We¡¯ve just showered in the department, let¡¯s meet at the front gate of the Surgical Building.¡± His stomach was growling, he was starving. Yang Ping thought, if only reality was like the system, where he didn¡¯t need to eat, drink, or sleep, life would be so much easier. But that was impossible. They went back to the mutton hot pot shop which was still bustling with activity. The table had been saved for them. The fire had been put out, but the food was still there. Seeing them coming, the waiter quickly helped relight the fire. The waiter said, ¡°I told the boss that you guys are doctors from Sanbo Hospital. The boss said he¡¯d keep this table reserved for you until dawn.¡± Such a magnanimous boss, if this was ancient times, he would be a great hero like Chai Jin. Everyone sat down and started adding ingredients into the pot before the soup even started boiling. Zhang Lin directly stuffed raw cabbage into his mouth, chewing it with great enjoyment. This is what hunger truly means. ¡°Tell your boss, we all appreciate his hour. If he ever strains his waist, he doesn¡¯t need to book an appointment, just come look for me directly,¡± said Zhang Lin. At that moment, the boss came over. He was in his forties, skinny, and spoke with a Chaoshan accent. ¡°This meal is on the house, thank you for reattaching my son¡¯s hand.¡± ¡°Your son?¡± Yang Ping asked. He had reattached so many hands, he had no idea who the boss¡¯s son was. The boss pointed to his hair. ¡°That blonde kid, he got mad at me and went to work at Hongda Factory. He crushed his hand.¡± It was him, he should have said so earlier. Chapter 50 - 0048: Elder Man Zhang’s Fracture Chapter 50: Chapter 0048: Elder Man Zhang¡¯s Fracture Eating too much mutton can produce internal heat, causing a dry mouth and tongue. Yang Ping drank several cups of water, but could not suppress the fire in his heart. Strangely, after Zhang Lin consumed mutton, the pimples on his face seemed to have decreased. I don¡¯t study traditional Chinese Medicine, so I can¡¯t explain it. Song Zimo doesn¡¯t drink alcohol, but after a night of drinking Tiandi No.1, he claimed to have drunk too much in the morning. As for Little Five, that little amount of alcohol is nothing, nearly equivalent to gargling with mouthwash. Handover, ward rounds, and surgery. These three routines govern their daily life. Director Han led several people on ward rounds. The patient with a comminuted fracture of the distal humerus was training very hard on his rehabilitation exercises, showing significant improvement compared to yesterday afternoon. His hospital bill has only a few hundred Yuan left and he plans to be discharged in a couple of days, according to the plan. With Su Yixuan¡¯s help to negotiate with the billing nurse in the operating room, the bill managed to stay within three thousand Yuan. There are over a dozen in-patients who underwent finger reattachment surgery. Many of them started rehabilitation in the physical therapy department after the sutures were removed. The patient with chronic osteomyelitis of the right tibia has a somewhat controlled blood pressure and blood sugar level now. His surgery is to be scheduled soon. The patient who underwent an amputation on-site, mainly because of a ruptured liver and spleen, has been transferred from the ICU to the Department of General Surgery. Now, he can walk back and forth in the corridor with his prosthetic limb. The other patients are mostly various types of fractures. Director Han has been quite busy lately. He is currently applying to establish an in-hospital orthopedic research institute. In addition, he intends to apply for it to be recognized as a key provincial department. Overall, he¡¯s very ambitious and energetic. Despite being busy, he occasionally rounds the ward with Yang Ping when he has spare time, understanding every patient¡¯s specific condition. In the corridor, they ran into Director Ouyang¡¯s team. Dr. Jin happily said, ¡°I¡¯m preparing to remove those two screws tomorrow. Then we¡¯ll see if the postoperative joint pain and swelling decrease.¡± Little Five and Zhang Lin went to the operating room. Director Han summoned Yang Ping and Song Zimo to his office. Old Han, in his customary manner, took a sip of tea before speaking: ¡°Little Yang, Little Song, I want to add a new member to your team, and she¡¯s a girl.¡± A new recruit? A girl? Could it be that Tang Fei is going to join our four-person team? The combination of men and women makes work less tiring. Old Han truly understands the essence of management. ¡°Our department is developed rapidly and fresh blood will continuously be infused. Our new colleague has an excellent educational background. She is an eight-year program graduate from Beijing Medical School. I¡¯m telling you this so you can prepare in advance.¡± said Director Han. After all his talking, it wasn¡¯t Tang Fei, but a new person. She hadn¡¯t arrived yet, this was just a preventive briefing. After a brief talk and some important reminders concerning the patients, Director Han left for the administration building. Yang Ping and Song Zimo went to the ICU to check on the AIDS patient who had the surgery last night. Two police officers were guarding the main entrance of the ICU. Yang Ping had seen such situations often and didn¡¯t pay much attention. The patient stayed in the negative pressure isolation room in the ICU. This guy is tenacious; the endotracheal tube was removed the same night. Now, he was asking if he could be transferred to the general ward, he was out of money. The high cost of the ICU, around twenty-thousand Yuan a day, was something he could not afford. His vital signs were stable, it was just an issue of blood loss shock and it¡¯s almost corrected now. Besides, with the patient being able to communicate clearly, there was no reason not to move him to a general ward. ¡°Of course, move!¡±, Yang Ping, after confirming that there were no wounds on his hands, reached out to shake the patient¡¯s hand. He hesitated for a moment: ¡°I am HIV positive.¡± Yang Ping smiled, saying: ¡°I know. We can shake hands, you were really brave yesterday, passed through the ¡®Ghost Gate¡¯.¡± He carefully reached out and shook hands with Yang Ping. Handshaking would not spread the virus unless there were wounds on the hand. ¡°I had a note in my pocket, but I was unconscious and couldn¡¯t take it out. Are you okay? I am really worried.¡± He said. Yang Ping replied, ¡°We¡¯re fine, we took the right precautions.¡± ¡°Thank you for saving my life. Don¡¯t worry about the expenses, I will definitely manage to pay them.¡± He said. Yang Ping had seen many patients who owed bills, especially those involved in fights and brawls, but never had he met a patient who offered to pay the bills so proactively. Regardless of whether it was true or not, it was comforting to hear. Once a man involved in a fight had surgery done as an emergency procedure and didn¡¯t pay a single penny, escaping early one morning. Not only that, he stole the remote control from the ward, causing Yang Ping to eat instant noodles for two weeks! After seeing the patient, Yang Ping left the ICU. Outside the entrance, the police were still guarding. A girl was sitting on the bench, her head low as she cried softly. Dr. Meng from the ICU was discussing the condition with her: ¡°That¡¯s enough, his life was saved. The orthopedic doctor said he would be transferred to the general ward soon.¡± ¡°Really?¡± The girl stopped crying and smiled. ¡°Just right, Dr. Yang, this is the family of the patient who had a femoral artery rupture last night.¡± Dr. Meng noticed Yang Ping and Song Zimo coming out of ICU through the sliding door. The girl immediately got up, bowed, wiped her tears with a tissue, and said: ¡°Doctor, thank you. Is Wang Feng really okay?¡± Yang Ping nodded, ¡°He¡¯s out of danger now, go and wait in the trauma orthopedics ward, you can see him very soon.¡± ¡°I will pay the costs as soon as possible. Use the best medicine, you must make him better.¡± The girl¡¯s eyes were red. It should be Dr. Meng who discussed the cost with her. Yang Ping remembered the AIDS case, but immediately pretended not to. Because such a thing would be reported to the hospital infection department, they would follow the process, and the CDC would intervene. What a doctor needs to do is keep the patient¡¯s confidentiality, as well as to protect themselves. After returning from the ICU, he went to the general surgery to see the worker who had amputated his limb. He had already put on a prosthetic limb and had started walking back and forth in the ward corridor, training to adapt to the prosthesis. The wound at the end of the truncated limb healed well, but he had phantom limb pain at night. Yang Ping gave some medication instructions to his brother in the general surgery. The two hurried to the operating room, there were several surgeries waiting, one was an emergency finger replantation, which Song Zimo and Zhang Lin did. There were also several fractures, humeral shaft, ulnar and radius bones, femoral shaft, tibia and fibular bones, yang Ping did with Little Five. So far, apart from pelvic fractures, Director Han had totally trusted Yang Ping with limb fractures. Director Han now knew that Yang Ping could be relied on. The comminuted fracture at the lower end of the humerus last time was easily handled with Kirschner wire, so he was completely relieved with long bone fractures in the limbs. After a day of surgery, they were out by 4 p.m. The four of them checked at the end of work, and sat in the department for a while. Old Han hurriedly said, ¡°Old Sir Zhang fell down and fractured his hip, the situation is still unclear, let¡¯s go to the emergency room and check.¡± Old Han led everyone, rushing to the emergency department resuscitation room. Old sir was lying on the Pingche, surrounded by a large group of people, Xiong Sihai¡¯s tall figure was particularly noticeable. Seeing Director Han coming, Xiong Sihai was a bit anxious, ¡°The old man is very stubborn, he wouldn¡¯t let us touch him, he said he was waiting for you, I think he may have broken his hip.¡± ¡°Be careful, he¡¯s an elderly patient. He¡¯s been in pain in the left hip and has had a movement disorder in the left lower limb for half an hour after the fall. The physical examination revealed obvious tenderness and knock pain in the area of the greater trochanter, deformities of shortening and external rotation of the left lower limb. It¡¯s basically certain that there¡¯s a fracture in the left hip, and looking at the degree of external rotation of the left lower limb, it¡¯s reached 90 degrees, that¡¯s not a fracture of the femoral neck, it has to be an intertrochanteric fracture. Don¡¯t you guys do physical examinations, everything depends on the slides, can¡¯t diagnose without slides?¡± The old man was still giving a lecture to the people around him. Seeing Director Han coming, the old man said, ¡°Second Brother Han, what I shouldn¡¯t have said was prophetic, this time it really fell into your hands.¡± ¡°What happened, old man, did you break your hip as soon as you said you did?¡± Han wouldn¡¯t let go of his hand. Elder Man Zhang waved his hand, ¡°There was nothing to do in the afternoon, so I took a walk in the hospital park, met some people playing Tai Chi, got excited and practiced pushing hands with them, I threw the other guy down, and fell myself, he fractured his lumbar vertebrae, I fractured my hip, he was taken to the spinal surgery department, do you see, how quickly do people age?¡± He¡¯s eighty years old, why does he have to play Tai Chi push hands. ¡°We¡¯ll take a picture first, presumably a greater trochanter fracture, a small matter, think of it as a vacation.¡± Director Han comforted. ¡°Now that it has come to your hands, you¡¯re the boss, you can decide what to do with me.¡± The old man was open-minded. They pushed him to the radiology department for filming. Those who needed traction were given traction, those who needed bed transfer were given bed transfers, with so many people fussing about getting the old man up there. The technician brought a neck brace to protect the old man¡¯s thyroid gland, and then pushed the door of the lead door. As expected, there was a left intertrochanteric fracture and the displacement was quite obvious. The technician printed the film, opened the door, and respectfully handed it to him, The glasses, where are the glasses, he took out his reading glasses and put them on, ¡°Fractured and shattered, this sharp tip is embedded in the muscle, it¡¯s troublesome.¡± ¡°I have a flight tonight, tomorrow¡¯s field meeting for the orthopedic research institute. Traction for a few days first, I¡¯ll come back and do the operation for you, you just relax, no more talk, otherwise it¡¯s showing off one¡¯s skill in front of an expert. In ¡®Orthopedic Surgery¡¯, your name is still on the first page.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t delay the institute¡¯s affairs, Second Brother Han, you¡¯re busy with your own. There¡¯s no need for traction. Waiting longer increases the risk of deep venous thrombosis, I still want to work for a few more years, do it as an emergency, I want to walk tomorrow, once bedridden, the problem is serious.¡± The old man is impatient. ¡°Doing it as an emergency, there¡¯s not enough time.¡± Director Han was in a difficult position. ¡°No problem, you just find someone to do it for me.¡± The old man was quite calm. A bit surprising, he actually agreed to let just any random person operate on him, that wasn¡¯t like the temperament of this old man. ¡°How about this, I¡¯ll talk to Dean Xia and push back the institute¡¯s event.¡± Said Director Han. The old man glared at him, ¡°Why mention it to him? I¡¯m not that desperate yet, you should know what¡¯s important and what¡¯s not, the institute¡¯s work can be postponed, once postponed, it might be next year. That¡¯s it, find someone, the same kid from last time.¡± Then he looked up to find Yang Ping, ¡°You¡¯ll do it.¡± ¡°Me?¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong, don¡¯t want to? Let me tell you, if you can¡¯t walk tomorrow, it¡¯s a zero score for you. Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re too pretentious to only do upper limb fractures and not do lower limb ones.¡± As long as it¡¯s not the pelvis, Yang Ping is full of confidence. In the system, there are hundreds of such fractures. But this old man is so quirky, demanding to bear weight and walk tomorrow, shattered like this, how to walk. ¡°That¡¯s it, Second Brother Han, you can rest assured and do your thing, leave my business to him, whether it¡¯s a mule or a horse, let¡¯s run two laps and see.¡± Said the old man. Then, with no room for doubt, he reiterated, ¡°I want to walk tomorrow.¡± Chapter 51 - 0049: The Arrival of the Strongest Patient Chapter 51: Chapter 0049: The Arrival of the Strongest Patient After the examination, the old man was pushed to the trauma orthopedics ward, with Director Xiong personally assisting him at the window to handle the hospitalization procedures. Upon hearing that Professor Zhang had arrived, the ward was like a storm had come in, causing everyone from interns to lead professors who were still working in the ward to panic. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing. The first thing was to quickly make sure the buttons of their white gowns were properly buttoned; anyone missing a button had to rush to the head nurse. ¡°What have you been doing all this time? Only now realizing you need to sew buttons, like only thinking about fixing your tooth with a chicken leg in your mouth,¡± Yao Ling reprimanded the postgraduates and standardized trainees. But she was all bark and no bite. There¡¯s no time to go to the linen room to get this done, nor can they ask a nurse to sew it on. These young women were superb at injections and infusions, but as for sewing clothes and buttons, you better forget it. Yao Ling herself found a needle and thread box as well as buttons from the department¡¯s storeroom and sat down in the doctor¡¯s office: ¡°Come one by one.¡± A few young men lined up to have their buttons sewn, with someone standing guard at the door, ready to alert everyone to any unusual occurrences. ¡°Hurry, hurry, Elder Man Zhang has fractured his bone, he will be hospitalized soon.¡± Someone rushed into the duty room to give the news. A few guys who took advantage of their spare time to play games lost control of their phones when they heard the shouting. They immediately shut down the games, quickly grabbed a book to glance over, pretending to be serious. ¡°Where is the fracture?¡± someone asked. ¡°The greater trochanter of the femur!¡± responded the one who delivered the news. Oh ¨C everyone sighed, and they no longer needed to pretend. The books in their hands were put down, definitely not daring to play games anymore. The rumbling sound of wheels grinding against the ground and the beeping sound of the emergency elevator¡¯s opening door. Professor Zhang was pushed to the ward on a stretcher, Yao Ling and the top nurse, Cai Qiaojun, personally guarded the entrance, but Cai Qiaojun was noticeably nervous. Not just the nurses, but the entire hospital, except for Dean Xia and Director Han, who wouldn¡¯t be nervous in front of Professor Zhang? When Professor Zhang criticizes people, he never uses a swear word, never gets angry or raises his voice. His criticism is clear and logical. He can recall which page of a book, who published which paper, or the latest guidelines; every word and detail is accurate. You¡¯d have no choice but to concede to his point. Yang Ping was pulling on the injured leg to help everyone transfer him onto the bed. Little Five brought over the skin traction equipment. As emergency surgery was needed, bone traction would no longer be needed. Skin traction could provide some relief for now. After buckling a wristband onto his wrist and hanging a card indicating a pre-surgery patient on the head of the bed, we immediately began fasting him. We drew his blood, performed an electrocardiogram at the bedside, made sure that there were no recent coughs or other respiratory symptoms, and bypassed a chest x-ray as he had a CT scan during his annual check-up. Everyone helped Professor Zhang find the most comfortable position, straightened the skin traction ropes, lifted the head of the bed to 45 degrees so he could rest comfortably; he didn¡¯t want to lie flat. Cai Qiaojun efficiently tied a rubber tourniquet around his arm and began to insert an intravenous catheter into the back of Professor Zhang¡¯s hand. However, whether due to nerves or because Professor Zhang¡¯s veins were truly difficult to find, she surprisingly didn¡¯t get a blood return on her first attempt. Despite Cai Qiaojun being an exemplary nurse in orthopedics, and a past award recipient at the city-wide nursing skills competition, she turned pale and visibly faltered with Professor Zhang. Lying there was Professor Zhang. How could she not be nervous? One could see her sweating from her forehead. Professor Zhang had his right hand placed next to him for the insertion of the needle, slightly turned to his side. He extended his left hand and said, ¡°Give it to me!¡± His tone was very gentle, the gentler he was, the more nervous everyone became. He took the piercing needle for blood drawing, planning to perform the venous puncture himself. ¡°Look, first 45 degrees, to shorten the puncture path. The puncture needle should pass through layers clearly, skin, subcutaneous tissue, then the vein. Each layer you pass, you should be able to feel it. You just aren¡¯t practiced enough.¡± Professor Zhang said patiently while operating. He overturned the needle with his left hand, pushed it lightly, and there it went in, drawing blood in one go. ¡°After inserting the needle, press and lower the angle of the needle to keep it in line with the direction of the vein. As long as the vein is thicker than the needle, you can insert it. There is no such thing as being nervous. Nervousness comes from lack of proficiency, no matter how nervous you are, you can still answer that one plus one equals two.¡± Professor Zhang continued talking, while Yao Ling and Cai Qiaojun blushed. Professor Zhang releases his hand. Cai Qiaojun removed the needle and left the tube inside, then securing it in place, attaching the infusion liquid, and starting the infusion. In the past, the myth of the old man injecting himself was only hearsay, but now, up close and personal, which nurse would dare to refute his prowess? All they could do was meekly stand by and listen. Director Han came in carrying his document bag, ¡°Teacher Zhang, I have a plane to catch, please settle in. I¡¯ve also spoken to Tian Yuan. Little Yang, Xiao Song, and Tian Yuan will be present.¡± ¡°Alright, I understand. You go about your business. It¡¯s crucial to handle the matters at the institute and not to delay anything.¡± Professor Zhang was fiddling with the remote control, wanting to watch TV. Director Han left in a hurry after some small talk. The head nurse offered to adjust the TV for him, but he declined, ¡°Why are so many people surrounding me? You all carry on with your work. Standard procedures are just fine.¡± Upon turning on the TV and channel surfing, he stumbled upon an old movie about the Korean War called ¡®Surprise Attack on White Tiger Regiment¡¯. ¡°You guys go on, there are so many patients. You don¡¯t have to care for me. Get me a male companion nurse. No need for a pre-surgery catheter, it might even be difficult for the Urology department to insert a metal probe successfully. As for my meals post-surgery, there are no dietary restrictions, order anything. You guys can go now. You, stay behind,¡± he instructed, keeping Yang Ping back with him. Seeing there was nothing else to be done, the head nurse offered a few comforting words before leaving the ward with everyone else, leaving only Yang Ping behind. ¡°Sit down. Why are you standing? You haven¡¯t done anything wrong.¡± The elder man asked Yang Ping to sit. Yang Ping moved a visitor¡¯s chair over and sat by the bed. Professor Zhang paused the TV, ¡°These old films are interesting to watch. At that time, I was only a teenager. My father was one of the earliest Western-trained orthopedic surgeons. After studying in the United States, he worked at Xiehe Hospital. When the war broke out in 1950, he volunteered to go to the battlefield. In the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, he was injured by a fragment of a shell ¡ª even at ninety, the old man still insisted on going to the clinic, sleeping in the office chair there ¨C¡± Yang Ping listened quietly, a respect silently forming within. Suddenly Professor Zhang stopped and said, ¡°Bring me the X-rays and CT scans, let¡¯s discuss.¡± Yang Ping took out the X-rays and CT scans from the bag by the bed. Professor Zhang put on his reading glasses and under the natural light, he began to explain as he pointed at the scans, ¡°The biggest difference between the upper and lower limbs is that the lower limbs bear weight. Any lower limb fracture requires early weight-bearing activity, and there has to be osseous support, i.e., the more pressure there is, the tighter it becomes. The implants only serve as aids and cannot take over completely. For the most basic transverse fracture of the tibia, the Germans would operate in the morning and the patient would be walking by the afternoon. It was so startling that we dared not speak up. It would take us six to eight weeks to partially bear weight and only after three months would the patient manage completely. Initially, we thought it was a problem with the materials. But later we realized the main issue was not the materials, but the theory of osseous support. Their interlocking intramedullary nails utilized a longitudinal sliding hole, which locked laterally and slid longitudinally, which automatically compressed the fracture ends. Weight bearing actually became a beneficial factor, the more they walked, the faster the fracture healed.¡± Yang Ping listened attentively, and Professor Zhang continued. ¡°This bone fragment has to be pulled out, these few must be anatomically reduced, and this fragment needs steel wires and cables. Nowadays, once a surgery needs steel wires, it¡¯s considered backward. Without the use of steel wires, it¡¯s considered advanced. But surgery isn¡¯t about following trends, there needs to be your own thought process. Medicine needs to advance, but new things aren¡¯t necessarily the best, they need to be tested over time. The last distal humerus comminuted fracture you did used steel wire and a pin, and it was done very well. You must¡¯ve put a lot of thought into the process of anatomical reduction and fixation.¡± ¡°I think the sequence of anatomical reduction and fixation in a fracture is a profound process, it¡¯s not simple at all. Much like building a house, it¡¯s not just stacking bricks, there should be a complete theory behind it,¡± said Yang Ping, expressing his feelings. ¡°Hmm, to be able to realize this is very good. I too have been considering this issue. Many things seem simple on the surface, but upon further study, you¡¯ll discover they are incredibly profound and complex. Just like a Rubik¡¯s cube, on the surface, it seems to be all about twisting and turning, but the strategy of restoring it, how to arrange the order, is a big topic.¡± Professor Zhang put down the scan. Yang Ping kept the scans, and Professor Zhang said: ¡°A surgeon, especially an orthopedic surgeon, should possess an important ability¡ªspatial imagination. They should be able to construct a three-dimensional anatomy in their minds, and this construction must be precise and specific. Just like a chess player can play with their eyes closed, we surgeons should be able to perform surgery in our minds. Close your eyes and be able to recall the entire surgery process in your mind. Pass me the paper!¡± Yang Ping pushed the mobile table over, setting it on the bed and in front of Professor Zhang, locking it in place. He then retrieved paper and a pen from the bedside drawer. The old man began to draw on the paper with the pen, and in less than three minutes, an image of a hip joint appeared on the paper. He completely drew out his own fracture. Then, he drew another picture on a separate paper, showing what it would look like after anatomical reduction and fixation. The picture was so realistic and detailed, portraying a strong sense of three dimensions, that it left a strong visual impact. ¡°Back in our day, mastering the art of drawing was necessary. Nowadays, it¡¯s hard to find a doctor who can draw. If you need, I have some sketch manuscripts, you can take a look.¡± Professor Zhang put down his pen. Yang Ping was stunned. No wonder everyone in the hospital feared him. It wasn¡¯t because he liked to scold people, but because everyone indeed could not meet his expectations. The two pictures on the table were of such high quality that they could be compared with the works of Western realist painters. They were incredibly lifelike and breathtaking. Also, these weren¡¯t just 2D but 3D drawings. With just a black pen, he managed to perfectly depict the sense of three dimensions. This level of skill could easily earn him a spot as a street performer drawing 3D images. ¡°Surprised? If it was in color, you would think there were joint models and steel plates and screws on the paper. Simple line combinations can achieve such results, why can¡¯t medicine? After self-learning modern 3D painting and combining it with medical illustration, I acquired such 3D painting skills.¡± Professor Zhang laughed. Yang Ping was highly interested in Professor Zhang¡¯s drawing. He previously had no concept of it. He put away the two pieces of paper, ¡°Can I keep these two drawings?¡± ¡°They were drawn for you in the first place, take them and study the surgical process. I¡¯m a bit thirsty, and the mixture in this IV drip doesn¡¯t seem quite right.¡± Professor Zhang chimed in. Yang Ping quickly poured a glass of water. There were cotton swabs on the bedside table. He soaked a cotton swab and helped moisten Professor Zhang¡¯s lips. ¡°During the surgery later, get someone to arrange a tablet that¡¯s connected to the operating room¡¯s video system. I want to watch the entire process myself.¡± Professor Zhang reminded. Yang Ping responded, ¡°I¡¯ll have someone prepare it now.¡± ¡°You go prepare. I need to rest now. I¡¯ve performed surgeries on others all my life, now it¡¯s my turn.¡± ¡°Remember, I want to be walking by tomorrow.¡± As Yang Ping was about to leave the room, Professor Zhang reminded him once again. Chapter 52 - 0050: Can We Walk Normally Tomorrow? Chapter 52: Chapter 0050: Can We Walk Normally Tomorrow? Just after leaving Elder Man Zhang¡¯s private ward, a system task was triggered. ¡°Ding dong! Task: Complete Elder Man Zhang¡¯s surgery, allowing him to regain normal walking ability within 24 hours. Reward: 9000 points, one unknown gift.¡± It¡¯s been a long time since the system rewarded a random gift. The surgery isn¡¯t hard, but the tricky part is immediately walking with weight bearing on the second day after surgery. This is a harder challenge than before. Yang Ping is now discovering the endless wonders of the system ¡ª it doesn¡¯t take up real time. That is, no matter how long it takes in the system, it¡¯s just an instant in reality. This greatest feature can be made full use of. What is more precious than time? Yang Ping suddenly had an idea, wondering if all his future learning could be done in the system. This is a good idea, and he needs to make good use of the system resources. Yang Ping went to the office to find Little Five, but he wasn¡¯t there. Zhang Lin was writing a medical record and preparing to sign the informed consent form. Although Professor Zhang is in the same hospital, the process must not be skipped. Song Zimo was absorbed in viewing a CT reconstruction on an electronic reader and sketching something on a piece of paper, leaning back in his chair. Yang Ping did not disturb him, only glanced at the paper. Medical Illustrations! This guy can draw medical illustrations, and very good ones too. They¡¯re comparable, if not superior, to the illustrations found in some surgical books. Yang Ping went to the staff room, where Little Five was downloading some software onto a tablet. Yang Ping was surprised: ¡°How did you know that Professor Zhang wanted to watch his own surgery livestream?¡± Little Five said: ¡°Who doesn¡¯t know about Professor Zhang? I just prepared it in advance, in case he asked for it during the surgery and we didn¡¯t have time to prepare.¡± Yang Ping said: ¡°You¡¯re right, Professor Zhang did really ask me to prepare a tablet to connect to the operating room¡¯s video system. He wants to watch the live broadcast while undergoing surgery.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already downloaded the connection APP from the video system¡¯s website, and I¡¯ve just confirmed with the operating room. There is a long dedicated data cable that can be fixed to the headrest, and he can watch it lying down.¡± Little Five said. Yang Ping was slightly surprised. This kid¡¯s mind was incomparable. He really was a wasted talent not studying medicine. Yang Ping found a bed and lay down, ¡°I¡¯ll rest for a bit. Call me when Elder Man Zhang is ready for surgery.¡± ¡°You should eat something. I ordered takeout, it will be here soon.¡± Little Five said as he was working on his computer. Yang Ping laid down to rest and entered the library in the system space. Time here required points to use, with each point corresponding to one minute. Unable to bring images into the space, Yang Ping had to rely on memory to draw diagrams in the space and then study how each bone fragment would be repositioned, focusing on how to build a bone support. It¡¯s incredibly convenient to consult information in the system. Any publicly published information can be found, no matter the language it will be translated to Chinese. Yang Ping consulted a large number of relevant references, especially on the subject of procedures relating to femoral trochanteric fractures. He read every word of each paper, utilizing his accumulated points to complete the task more efficiently. After gaining a thorough theoretical understanding, Yang Ping went to the store in the system space. Among the thousands of training packages, he found one for hip fractures. He spent 4000 points to purchase 500 cases, which included a large number of closed reduction and PFNA internal fixation surgeries for femoral trochanteric fractures. PFNA is an acronym for proximal femoral nail antirotation, which is the best fixation device for this type of fracture in the elderly. ¡°Death Fracture¡± or ¡°Life¡¯s Final Fracture¡± is the nickname for hip fracture¡ªacetabular fracture, femoral neck fracture, femoral trochanteric fracture¡ªin the elderly, and has a mortality rate of 68%-70% within two months of conservative home treatment. The survival rate is 50% after one year, meaning that out of 100 patients, 50 will pass away, most of whom received conservative treatment. Therefore, if surgery is possible, it should be performed. It¡¯s not the fracture that¡¯s fatal, but the complications brought on by bed rest: deep vein thrombosis, lung infections, bedsores, urinary tract infections, etc. Having been an orthopedic surgeon for his entire life, Professor Zhang fully understands the intricacies of the situation, which is why he¡¯s impatient to undergo emergency surgery. Yang Ping performed 500 surgeries in the system, covering all varieties of comminuted fractures. After completing each procedure, he would evaluate the stability and consider improvements. He used 3000 points on books, leaving him with 7000 points. He then purchased training packages for femoral shaft and tibiofibular fractures, costing 6000 points. Now, he was left with just 1000 points. Without delay,Yang Ping completed all the training packages. The 4-hour water fasting and 8-hour food fasting periods for Professor Zhang were up, so he was pushed to the operating room for surgery. The head nurse from the operating room personally came down to get him. Yang Ping and a few others followed the gurney into the elevator. The elevator was too crowded with the gurney in there and they had to let Zhang Lin go with the others while they took a different elevator to the operating room. While dressing, Tian Yuan said, ¡°Doctor Yang, you are pretty influential. This old guy¡¯s prostate has been left unattended for years, and now he has a trochanteric fracture. He insisted that you perform the emergency surgery. This news will spread and from tomorrow, you won¡¯t have to line up in the cafeteria. No one will dare to stop you.¡± Yang Ping, while putting on his face mask, laughed and said, ¡°I have no choice but to do this. ¡®Life¡¯s Final Fracture¡¯ isn¡¯t just a name. The old guy understands it very well.¡± After changing their clothes, they stepped into the operating room. Perhaps because this operation had such high demands or perhaps it was the elderly gentleman¡¯s special status, everyone sat in the attached teaching room quite a while before the start of the operation. Even more people had come as compared with the last time and there were people from other departments as well. Dean Xia, along with several hospital leaders, all came. Even though he was very busy, he had to find the time to attend. In fact, Dean Xia had visited Professor Zhang in his ward while Yang Ping was resting, but Yang Ping didn¡¯t know about it. The anesthetic was epidural combined with general anesthesia, and the Director of the Anesthesiology department did the anesthesia himself. However, having been out of direct practice for a while and not wanting to take any chances, he instructed from the side while Liang Fatty actually performed it. ¡°Yang, I¡¯m passing Elder Zhang into your hands.¡± Dean Xia patted Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder. He had a good understanding of Yang Ping¡¯s abilities. After all, Elder Zhang had personally chosen Yang Ping, and that wouldn¡¯t be a mistake. At that time, when Dean Xia learned that Elder Zhang had fractured his bone, he wanted to keep Director Han, but Elder Zhang adamantly disagreed. He also wanted Elder Zhang to move into the Overseas Chinese Building, but again Elder Zhang wasn¡¯t having it. In the end, Dean Xia could only accommodate his wishes. Elder Zhang was very determined, and his decisions couldn¡¯t be changed, not even by 18 strong men. After the anesthesia took effect, they positioned the body. Zhang Lin and Song Zimo set up the traction frame while Little Five connected the tablet to the video system. After adjusting it and fixing it to the anesthesia frame, Elder Zhang could watch the live broadcast of the surgery while lying down. The cameras were also adjusted. One was aimed at the screen of the C-arm portable X-ray machine, one at the surgical area, and one at the surgeon. ¡°This surgery shouldn¡¯t be too hard, right? Using the PFNA should wrap things up in half an hour.¡± ¡°Elder Zhang needs to put weight on his leg and walk tomorrow.¡± ¡°Really? His bone is shattered into several pieces. How could he possibly walk right after surgery?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, I heard it from Zhang Lin.¡± ¡°This guy is really impressive. He was the one who did the amputation replant last time.¡± ¡°The orthopedics department has become an incredible place. Director Han is a top-class figure, Tian Yuan appears to be very competent, Song Zimo is a gifted individual, and this guy is even more impressive than Song Zimo. It seems like Director Han is planning to transform orthopedics into a nationally recognized brand, we need to buck up.¡± ¡°Yes, indeed. Director Han is now applying for a research institute in orthopedics, it seems like he¡¯s collaborating with Fudan University. Didn¡¯t you notice he didn¡¯t come tonight? He¡¯s gone to Shanghai.¡± ¡°Wow, then our orthopedic department will become very advanced.¡± The surgery didn¡¯t start yet, and everyone started chatting. Dr. Jin came in, a Bluetooth earphone dangling from his ear. He was conducting a surgery last time and missed Yang Ping¡¯s treatment of the comminuted humeral fracture. He had to come to watch this time. Dean Xia exchanged a few words with Professor Zhang but didn¡¯t stay long. He had a lot of things to do, and it¡¯s quite stressful for doctors to have a dean standing around. So he left promptly. ¡°Xiao Yang, we specially arranged a table setup for you by Nurse Su. Feel free to bring up any suggestions you may have.¡± The head nurse, in her forties, was decisive and energetic. Yang Ping sat in the corner while Su Yixuan had already washed her hands in preparation for the operation. Yang Ping said, ¡°Nurse Su is truly outstanding. We work together very well.¡± The head nurse said, ¡°That¡¯s good. From now on, Xiao Su is with you. You must not ill-treat her, she is a kind and smart girl. She has previously undergone orthopedic specialist equipment nursing training in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Japan.¡± As they were chatting, the traction frame was ready on the other side. The procedure calls for a traction reduction first for this kind of fracture, followed by disinfection and laying out the towels before starting the surgery. Traction reduction plays a very critical role and forms roughly half of the surgery. If the reduction is not done well, the subsequent surgery would be challenging or even impossible to complete. Song Zimo guided Little Five and Zhang Lin to adjust the traction angle and strength. Yang Ping saw it and made some personal adjustments. The originally set adduction was changed to an abduction position, and he also readjusted the tightness of the adjustment rod. After he was satisfied, he said, ¡°Okay! It¡¯s done. Let¡¯s do a fluoroscopy.¡± ¡°Senior, this is the abduction position!¡± Zhang Lin reminded, thinking Yang Ping made a mistake. During surgery, it¡¯s common for assistants to point out mistakes to the chief surgeon in real-time. Yang Ping clearly responded, ¡°Correct, it¡¯s in the abduction position.¡± But how would they insert the intramedullary nail in an abduction position? Little Five was puzzled. The neighboring group began their discussion as well. ¡°Isn¡¯t this kind of surgery usually done in the adduction position? Why is it in abduction? How would they insert the nail later on?¡± ¡°Yeah, did he forget?¡± ¡°Why isn¡¯t Song Zimo reminding him?¡± ¡°Why are you meddling unnecessarily? Just focus on watching.¡± A graduate student was responsible for controlling the C-arm X-ray machine. He skillfully maneuvered the machine into position, adjusted its position and angle, and everyone stepped out. He controlled the machine remotely from outside. The doors and walls of the orthopedic operating room are laced with lead to protect the room from excessive radiation. Once the picture was taken, everyone went back in. The lateral position was completely reduced, and everyone was satisfied. They did another anteroposterior fluoroscopy. There was still a decently large angulation on the anterior-posterior X-ray, indicating the fracture was not completely reduced. In such a surgery, any angulation renders the surgery unachievable as it would impede the intramedullary nail, and the surgery would be awkwardly stalled. ¡°It hasn¡¯t been reduced properly, It needs to be done again.¡± Zhang Lin looked at the screen and commented. As Little Five prepared to adjust, Yang Ping stopped him: ¡°Leave it as it is, no need to adjust.¡± Little Five returned confused. Song Zimo prepared to persuade Yang Ping, ¡°This isn¡¯t reduced properly, we have to¨C¡°. But after some thought and looking at the angulation on the screen, he suddenly realized something: ¡°Senior, you are indeed a senior. I am impressed.¡± ¡°What happened?¡± Both Little Five and Zhang Lin were totally confused. Song Zimo laughed, ¡°You guys stay below the stage. It¡¯s enough with just my senior and me. Watch it closely. Today, my senior is going to perform another of his unique skills for you.¡± Yang Ping had already gone out to wash his hands. Song Zimo hurriedly followed him: ¡°Hey! Wait up.¡± ¡°Any suggestions?¡± Yang Ping stood before the sink, the sensor faucet started flowing water, and he began to scrub his hands. ¡°You¡¯re becoming more and more difficult to understand. Are you really planning to attempt minimally invasive surgery to reposition those fragments, including the one lodged in the muscle? Can the patient really walk tomorrow?¡± Song Zimo caught up with him. ¡°What do you think? He said that if it¡¯s not possible, he¡¯ll give me a duck egg.¡± Yang Ping continued scrubbing his hands. ¡°I have to admit, Old Sir Zhang is indeed a divine person. How did he know that you would do it?¡± Song Zimo exclaimed. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say he¡¯s a divine person? Does a divine person need a reason to do something?¡± Yang Ping¡¯s retort left Song Zimo speechless. Chapter 53 - 0051: Really Didn’t Understand Chapter 53: Chapter 0051: Really Didn¡¯t Understand ¡°A traction abduction position, the fracture hasn¡¯t been properly realigned, and we¡¯re already ready to operate?¡± ¡°Wait till later when we¡¯re in trouble and the intramedullary nail can¡¯t be inserted.¡± ¡°Is it that this kind of fracture is seldom treated?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see, I¡¯m not sure either.¡± ¡°Heard it is supposed to be normal walking the day after surgery, whether the operation can be completed now is still uncertain.¡± ¡°Overblowing things, it will burst.¡± The next-door teaching room started to discuss, everyone was very disappointed with the opening scene. Like a movie, heavily promoted before release, everyone is eager to see it. On the day of release, the streets are empty as everyone rushes to the theatre, but after finally managing to buy a ticket and watching it¨C it¡¯s a lousy movie, no eye-catching scenes at all. The towering image of Yang Ping also lost some credit in the young people¡¯s hearts. As the saying goes, even a clever wife often overspends, talent depleted, everyone sighed in their heart. In older people with osteoporotic femur fractures, a minimally invasive approach is usually used. The PFNA intramedullary nail is the first choice for internal fixation of these fractures. This surgical technique, positioning is very important, internal position or neutral position are acceptable, definitely cannot proceed with an abduction position, the intramedullary nail simply can¡¯t be inserted. Realignment of the fracture is equally important, the fracture must be realigned first, otherwise, the next steps can¡¯t be carried out. Correct position and good realignment are necessary conditions for surgery. How can the operation be successful now when the two mandatory conditions are not met? In the neighboring teaching room, there are senior doctors like Dr. Jin, and directors such as Director Ouyang and Director Bai, all of them want to see Yang Ping perform surgery, after all, the legend of how miraculous Yang Ping is has been circulating among them. Among the young doctors, besides the ones rotating and students in standardized training, the majority specialise in orthopedics, possessing basic understanding of these routine operations. Seeing that the procedure has already started even before achieving necessary positioning and reduction, they couldn¡¯t help but voice their opinions. ¡°This young man probably doesn¡¯t have much experience with lower limb fractures, rushed to the battle?¡± asked Fatty, an attending physician under Dr. Bai, to Dr. Jin. Dr. Jin shook his head: ¡°I don¡¯t understand!¡± Fatty said: ¡°Why would Director Han feel reassured to let him go ahead, not even checking his basics. There are plenty of people who are good at hand surgery but all other surgeries are a mess.¡± ¡°Probably Director Han was in a hurry to catch his flight, he didn¡¯t explain clearly?¡± another doctor suggested. ¡°Impossible, it was said that Elder Man Zhang himself specifically requested him to do it.¡± someone who knew the situation explained. ¡°This is an awkward situation now, but it¡¯s fine, Tian Yuan will definitely come later, if it doesn¡¯t work out Tian Yuan can handle it, it¡¯s a matter of minutes.¡± someone from the spinal surgery department joined the discussion. ¡°This operation is simple actually, the bone fragment on the inside, I heard it¡¯s embedded in the muscle, it won¡¯t be able to be realigned if not cut open. In minimally invasive surgery, this kind of bone fragments can be ignored, as long as the main bone fragments are matched properly in the front and side view, just insert the nail and it will be done. Now, even the main bone fragments are not realigned well, how will this end later?¡± ¡°What realignment, even the body position is misaligned.¡± People became more and more daring to speak out. At this time, Tian Yuan also came in. Seeing that Song Zimo was there and there was no shortage of hands, he didn¡¯t want to stay in the operating room, fearful of Elder Man Zhang¡¯s dislike of a crowded room and the lax sterile concept, so he simply came to the next room to observe along with everyone else. Although Su Yixuan is a nurse, she is a specialist orthopedic instrument nurse and has a strong understanding of operations. She has attended countless surgeries of this kind and naturally understands these. The positioning and realignment really doesn¡¯t seem right, the operation will be very awkward later. She felt nervous in her heart, this wooden guy, usually, even for laying a piece of cloth on the operating table, he demands perfection, today he¡¯s doing surgery for Professor Zhang, why would he haphazardly start the surgery without placing the body in position and properly realigning the fracture, could he have been too nervous and made a mistake? Yang Ping and Song Zimo went to wash their hands. Through the glass, Song Zimo noticed everyone¡¯s expressions and understood what they were thinking. Next to the sink, Song Zimo said: ¡°Everyone is worried, won¡¯t you explain?¡± While washing his hands, Yang Ping said: ¡°What¡¯s to explain? They¡¯ll know once the patient can walk two steps after the surgery.¡± The saying may be coarse but it¡¯s to the point: a boxer who claims they will win a thousand times before a match is less effective than one who lands a knockout punch on the opponent on stage. After washing their hands, Song Zimo disinfected, Yang Ping began to put on surgical gowns and gloves, his face remained calm, not overly reacting to everyone¡¯s query. Su Yixuan glanced at him several times, her eyes seemed a little anxious. Yang Ping smiled at her, indicating not to worry, he had everything under control. As if linked by a kind of spiritual connection, Su Yixuan immediately dropped her nervousness and began to arrange the instruments, checking the PFNA intramedullary nail, spiral blade, locking screw, wire cable, and supporting instruments. The engineer from the instrumentation company was standing by, checking with Su Yixuan using a laser pointer. If any errors or omissions occurred, they risked facing a chief surgeon with a bad temper, so he was not at all negligent. After disinfecting and draping, and ceremoniously verifying all items before the surgical procedure, the operation commenced! Yang Ping made a three-centimeter incision on the top and bottom of the greater trochanter, took the bone hook from Su Yixuan and gently probed the bone hook into the incision below the greater trochanter. ¡°He isn¡¯t trying to realign the fracture fragment on the inside, is he? That should be embedded in the muscle, it¡¯s impossible to realign.¡± ¡°When I was training in Beijing, there was a big shot who wanted to show off a bit, trying to realign the muscle-embedded bone fragment in a minimally invasive procedure, but he failed and ended up giving up.¡± ¡°As soon as it is embedded into the muscle, either give up or open up.¡± ¡°Yeah, the bone fragment embedded in the muscle, even when cut open for realignment, it¡¯s sometimes strenuous, how could it possibly be sorted out in a closed reduction?¡± ¡°For this kind, doesn¡¯t need to realign all the fragments, right?¡± The bone hook was inserted, practically without any probing, it was pulled back. ¡°Four steel cables, one by one, hand them over!¡± Three steel wires, one attached to the other, run along the bone surface, guided by the introducer to each respective position on the opposite side. The fourth wire intertwines and mingles with the other three wires, for reasons unknown. ¡°Pull on the traction carrier, internal rotation!¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five immediately help adjust the traction carrier. ¡°Continue to adduct the muscle, yes, keep going, stop!¡± ¡°Retract the lever three rounds.¡± ¡°Okay! That¡¯s it.¡± Each sentence was like a command from a superior, clear and unquestionable. On the operating table, all actions adhere to the orders of the chief surgeon. The authority of the chief surgeon guarantees the discipline of the surgery. Zhang Lin and Little Five are now entirely clueless about the steps and can only mechanically follow them. ¡°I underestimated you. You have a deep understanding of the attachment of muscles to each part of the skeleton, the function of each muscle, and the relationship between different muscles,¡± Song Zimo said from the side. ¡°Since you call me your senior, wouldn¡¯t you acknowledge me if I didn¡¯t have some skills?¡± Yang Ping said while operating. The bone fragments lodged in the muscle were easily extracted. The tip of the bone hook latched onto the bone fragment, gently moved, repositioned. The first steel wire was placed in the center of the fracture, tightened around, and the tail of the wire was cut off. Fluoroscopy! Everyone retreated from the operating room again. After one exposure, they returned. The x-ray on the C-arm machine screen showed the fracture had been anatomically reduced. One could almost mistaken it for unfractured if they didn¡¯t look closely. The direction and force of the traction were just precisely right. ¡°Damn! Can it be done like this?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°The positioning and reduction just now seemed intentional. But I didn¡¯t understand it. Does it have something to do with the bone fragment inserted into the muscle on the inner side?¡± Dr. Jin asked Director Ouyang. No one knows what the others are thinking, but Zhang Lin and Little Five feel like they¡¯ve been tricked. They thought they were hastily called to action and were worried about failing. Turns out their worries were completely unnecessary¡ªthey even managed to remove the bone fragment lodged in the muscle. How they did it, they can¡¯t wrap their heads around. The second steel wire, the third steel wire looped around, tightened, and the tail end was cut off. The tip of the large rotator was directly opened, a guidewire was inserted, followed by an intramedullary nail, precisely placed within one attempt. The guidewire was removed, and the guide needle of the spiral blade was knocked in. Fluoroscopy¨C The guide needle of the spiral blade was in the perfect position, not a bit more, not a bit less. It was in the middle line in the lateral view of the femoral neck and the lower-third in the anterior view of the femoral neck. Its tip was just a bit away from the circular boundary of the femoral head. ¡°A 90 mm spiral blade.¡± After measurement, a hole was drilled with an electric drill, and the spiral blade was knocked in. The locking screw at the lower end was drilled, depth gauged, and a screw was smoothly inserted. Steel wire! The fourth steel wire was tightened and the tail end cut off. Looking now, it astonishingly interweaves with the previous three wires to form an integrated structure. It created a fascinating tension band structure on the outer side. No one could understand this maneuver, even Song Zimo seemed puzzled: ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± ¡°A person with an IQ approaching 250, still needs to ask me?¡± Yang Ping screwed in the cap on the intramedullary nail, trading places with Song Zimo. Song Zimo started rinsing and suturing, just a few small incisions, quickly sutured up, not even needing drainage. Finally, fluoroscopy was performed for confirmation. The whole process took just over ten minutes. For a regular intertrochanteric fracture, in top-drawer hospitals with substantial surgical volume and skilled surgeons, they can finish in just over ten minutes if someone is there to assist. However, with this type of fracture where the fragment is lodged in the muscle, minimally invasive surgery can¡¯t realign it, and most likely it would eventually require an open surgery, or the fragment would have to be abandoned. Everyone stared at the screen. The operation was over just like that? They didn¡¯t understand. They could somewhat comprehend the first three steel wires, but truly couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of the last one. Dr. Jin, sitting amongst the crowd, kept gazing at the screen and took pictures of the surgery. Also present, Director Ouyang asked, ¡°This surgery is a bit unconventional, did you understand the purpose of the last steel wire?¡± ¡°Not yet, but I should understand by tomorrow.¡± Dr. Jin shook his head. Song Zimo lifted the sterile drape, and suddenly Professor Zhang spoke, ¡°Ask the ophthalmology department to consult me tomorrow. My eyes aren¡¯t working well.¡± He actually lay there and watched the whole surgery. He didn¡¯t make a single comment, which was unlike his temperament. He would usually offer some guidance. Yang Ping gripped Professor Zhang¡¯s hand. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Tomorrow morning, I¡¯ll have the nurses give you a walker. You should be able to walk then. You won¡¯t blame me for nothing, will you?¡± Professor Zhang said, ¡°Let¡¯s talk about that after I take a few steps tomorrow.¡± The Head nurse of the operating room came over, ¡°Professor Zhang, you¡¯re feeling okay, right?¡± The phone of the Head nurse rang. It was Dean Xia. He directly called her cell phone and asked Yang Ping to take the call. Yang Ping went to the changing room to call Director Han and assure him everything went well. Song Zimo leaned against the bench, ¡°What an ingenious idea!¡± The others were buzzing with discussion. ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of that last steel wire? Really didn¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°You¡¯re asking me, then who should I ask?¡± Chapter 54 - 0052: Coming Down to Buy Cigarettes Chapter 54: Chapter 0052: Coming Down to Buy Cigarettes Coming out of the operating room, it¡¯s already past eleven at night. As the door of the operating room opens, Professor Zhang¡¯s wife immediately comes up to him, holding his hand, ¡°The surgery was so quick, it didn¡¯t hurt, did it?¡± ¡°They¡¯re afraid of my scolding, so they had to rush.¡± Professor Zhang joked. His wife holds his hand the whole time, walking along with the gurney. ¡°Our sons called to ask about you, be sure to call back when you¡¯re in the ward. They won¡¯t rest easy until they hear your voice.¡± The elderly lady was once a heavyweight in ultrasound technology in our country. At eighty years old, she keeps herself clean and tidy, even wearing light makeup. ¡°No calls, those two disobedient rascals.¡± Professor Zhang scolded. Both of Professor Zhang¡¯s sons didn¡¯t want to be doctors. The older son graduated from Renmin University, studied finance, started working in a bank after graduation, and then went into politics. The younger son studied pharmacy and went to the United Kingdom for further studies. He now works in AstraZeneca¡¯s research center. As per Professor Zhang¡¯s instructions, he was taken straight to radiology to have X-rays and a 3D CT reconstruction. After finishing, they returned to the ward. Dean Xia and his staff hadn¡¯t left work yet and were waiting at the elevator entrance of the ward. As the elevator doors opened, and Prof Zhang¡¯s gurney came out, Dean Xia immediately stepped forward to help push the gurney, with several other deputy deans also lending a hand. ¡°Oh, Professor Zhang, the surgery went smoothly. You should rest easy, get a good night¡¯s sleep, and I will call a meeting with the entire hospital tomorrow. I will call in traditional Chinese medicine and rehabilitation departments, they will take good care of your recovery.¡± The director of the office and Dean Sun were carrying a large fruit basket and followed the gurney toward Professor Zhang¡¯s private ward. ¡°You guys are busy, stop hovering around me, you never listen.¡± Professor Zhang was a bit annoyed. ¡°You usually devote yourself to the hospital, now that you have a fracture, isn¡¯t it only right that we hover around you?¡± Dean Xia is an eloquent speaker. He helped push the gurney all the way to the ward, and even helped transfer the patient to the bed. The head nurse Yao Ling¡¯s male nursing aide had already been waiting in the ward. ¡°When can he eat something?¡± Yao Ling pulled up the blanket, tucked Professor Zhang in, and asked the anesthetist, Liang Fatty. Liang Fatty said, ¡°He should lie flat for six hours, as for eating, he can tilt his head to take liquid food through a straw right now.¡± It was not a general anesthesia, so he didn¡¯t have to fast for that long. Despite having intravenous fluids protecting his stomach, he was still quite hungry. Walkers, crutches, and canes were ready in the ward, with their height adjusted according to Professor Zhang¡¯s stature. ¡°Professor Zhang, we won¡¯t disturb your rest anymore. We¡¯ll leave now. Teacher Li, you should also not tire yourself too much. Go back and rest early, there¡¯s a nursing aide here.¡± After doing their part to reassure Professor Zhang, Dean Xia and others excused themselves. Dean Xia was undoubtedly very busy, entangled in all sorts of problems like medical insurance cost control and zero markup on drugs. It was getting late, and after finishing the surgery, Professor Zhang needed to rest. Everyone else also dispersed, and the caregiver accompanied the elderly lady home. Before leaving, the elderly lady repeatedly expressed her gratitude to Yang Ping, making him feel somewhat embarrassed. Yang Ping returned to the doctor¡¯s on-call room, checked Professor Zhang¡¯s medical orders: gastric support, intravenous fluids, and prevention of deep vein thrombosis, ensuring nothing was missed. Song Zimo was looking at the postoperative X-rays and CT reconstruction on the electronic screen. The head nurse came over and said, ¡°Professor Zhang arranged for me to order late-night snacks for you all. I¡¯ve already ordered from Seaside People¡¯s Restaurant. It will be delivered soon, you can have it and then go home.¡± Seaside People¡¯s Restaurant was a high-end, well-known seafood restaurant nearby. Before she had finished speaking, a nurse said that the people delivering the late-night snacks were already arranging the dishes in the resting room and were asking them to come over immediately. Everyone immediately rushed over, Little Five and Zhang Lin got stuck at the door, pushing and pulling. Wow, big hairy crabs, such a big one. ¡°Why are you grabbing, there¡¯s freshly put out plates for everyone, there¡¯s so many. Where are your fellow students?¡± The head nurse slapped Zhang Lin¡¯s hand. The resting room that was usually used for meals had small square tables, each with four chairs. The tables were packed full of food, dozens of huge hairy crabs, large bowls of shrimp and crab roe porridge, and some other snacks. They started eating. nobody even bothered with gloves, just ready to grab the legs of the hairy crabs. Old man Zhang really knows how to spend money, usually, he still wears his shirt even when the collar is worn out.¡± ¡°That¡¯s called a state of mind, which we cannot learn.¡± ¡°Yes, our values are not the same.¡± Everyone was busy eating and talking, Zhang Lin had only eaten one, whereas Little Five had already gobbled down three. Zhang Lin looked at him and said, ¡°You gobble too fast.¡± Little Five didn¡¯t stop, ¡°If it weren¡¯t for my mom and dad¡¯s coercion and temptation, I would be a leading figure in the e-sports world by now. Back in the day, playing World of Warcraft and CS, I was dominating everyone, undefeated.¡± Having eaten and drunk their fill, Little Five and Zhang Lin decided not to go back, but to sleep in the department. Song Zimo said he wouldn¡¯t go back either. Only Yang Ping went back home. ¡ª- Early the next day, Yang Ping rushed to work, passing by the convenience store on the first floor of the surgical building. A familiar figure caught Yang Ping¡¯s attention, and he quietly walked over. Isn¡¯t this Professor Zhang? Professor Zhang was leaning on a crutch, receiving a packet of peony brand cigarettes from old aunty at the kiosk. The nurse aide didn¡¯t help him, but closely watched, ready to lend a hand at any moment. Turning his head, Professor Zhang saw Yang Ping and wasn¡¯t surprised in the slightest: ¡°Couldn¡¯t resist, I had to come down to buy a pack of cigarettes.¡± It was as if there was no bone fracture or surgery yesterday. ¡°Let¡¯s go, up together.¡± He said. Without any assistance, leaning on his crutch, one step at a time, Professor Zhang walked out of the kiosk smoothly and stably towards the elevator. Yang Ping and the nurse aide escorted him on both sides. The kiosk old aunty, being knowledgeable around, knew that Professor Zhang had a hip fracture yesterday: After all, she was the one who put together the fruit basket from the hospital¡¯s office. Did she get it wrong, he came down himself to buy cigarettes with a crutch? This scene is somewhat eerie, it would have been even more frightening at night. The aunty was confused, and for the sake of clarity, she followed them out, staring at Professor Zhang¡¯s leg for a while as if through a magnifying glass. After looking at other people, she asked,¡±Is this, Professor Zhang Zongshun?¡± Among those in the store, he is the one who buys the most Peony brand cigarettes. This has really left her befuddled. A standardized training student from the Orthopedics arriving for his shift saw this sight and was startled, covering his mouth with his hand. He saw the surgery with his own eyes last night: an intertrochanteric comminuted fracture with a subtrochanteric fracture. Damn, he¡¯s walking down on his own, it isn¡¯t an illusion right? He rubs his eyes. Suddenly having a eureka moment, he quickly takes out his mobile phone, records a video and posts it in the group. ¡°Professor Zhang, Professor Zhang!¡± Someone chased behind him shouting just as professor Zhang reached the elevator. Who is it? Professor Zhang glanced sidelong. ¡°Professor Zhang, I am your patient from Shanxi, the tibial osteomyelitis one.¡± The guy Hermes, with chronic tibial osteomyelitis, is currently hospitalized waiting for his surgery, staying in the VIP ward. He was taken out for a stroll by his fashionable wife this morning, and just happened to run into Professor Zhang. ¡°Professor Zhang, wasn¡¯t there a fracture here? After hearing, I wanted to come and see you, but was afraid to disturb you, so I didn¡¯t dare come. Aren¡¯t you okay? Who is spreading these rumours!¡± Hermes touched his hip. Professor Zhang said:¡±There was a fracture, and I underwent surgery last night. This morning, I got a craving for a cigarette and so came down to buy a pack.¡± With a dismissive sentence, he prepares to go back to his ward via the elevator. He smacks his head as he sits in the wheelchair, ¡°No way, the medical technology in this hospital is that good?¡± He is aware of such fractures, his dad also had one two years ago. After the surgery, he couldn¡¯t step on the ground for more than a month. And for several months later, he was still not walking stably. He came down to buy cigarettes just after the surgery. Has the technology advanced this much? It seems his knowledge is really lacking. Looking at his own leg, it¡¯s too late. If he had come here earlier, he might be running about now. The standardized training student has a knack for social media. With just one video, without adding a single word, the group exploded. ¡°Who posted this, looks so alike.¡± ¡°Must be Elder man Zhang¡¯s brother, who came to visit him.¡± ¡°It¡¯s Elder man Zhang, look at the tape on the glasses.¡± ¡°That tape, that¡¯s Elder Man Zhang.¡± ¡°Damn!¡± ¡°He had surgery yesterday, today he¡¯s walking on the ground, doesn¡¯t even need a walker, completely weight-bearing.¡± ¡°I just saw him on the first floor, came down to buy cigarettes.¡± Another video is thrown out from a different angle. Not exclusive, not exclusive, it¡¯s not me who first posted it, copycat. The standardized training student curses in his heart. This group is filled with standardized training students, who usually vent frustration about how the hospital exploits and crunches them in the group. ¡°Didn¡¯t understand the surgery yesterday, who can explain?¡± ¡°Asked in the wrong group.¡± ¡°Whoever can come and say a few words, I¡¯ll help him write one month¡¯s worth of medical records.¡± In the circle, such a reward is indeed substantial. Chapter 55 - 0053 Preparation for a Short Lesson Chapter 55: Chapter 0053 Preparation for a Short Lesson Yang Ping accompanied Professor Zhang in the elevator, escorting him back to his ward. Professor Zhang instructed: ¡°Don¡¯t you guys have lectures on Saturdays? You and Xiao Song can arrange it, you talk about my surgery to everyone, explain why I can get out of bed so quickly, I can also sit in and listen.¡± Yang Ping said: ¡°Professor Zhang, we¡¯ve been thinking about that, I¡¯ll prepare with them later.¡± On Saturdays, there is no need to hand over the shift, but the doctors in charge of patients need to do ward rounds. Not only in the standard training student group, Professor Zhang¡¯s video is also spread in other groups. The small group cannot bear the energy implied by the message, and the discussion is transferred to the orthopedic group. Some people had already rushed to the ward to see the truth of the matter with their own eyes. Neither photos nor videos are enough to convince people, seeing is believing. When they saw Professor Zhang walking from the corridor to the ward, everyone¡¯s doubts were dispelled. Really, he is really walking on the ground already. Song Zimo took out his mobile phone and showed the video to Yang Ping. ¡°Explain it to everyone, or should I say something? Won¡¯t you correct me if I¡¯m wrong?¡± Song Zimo knew Yang Ping¡¯s temperament, and he was willing to take over the task on certain things . ¡°Morning lecture should be postponed to the afternoon, the theme centers around Professor Zhang¡¯s surgery last night, specific details to be announced later.¡± Song Zimo sent a message to the group. Immediately there was a flurry of responses: ¡°Received, received, received¡ª¨C¡± Everyone has been waiting for a response. Now that it¡¯s finally here, the mystery will be revealed in the afternoon lecture. ¡°Little Five, didn¡¯t you boast about knowing animation? You¡¯re free this morning. After the ward rounds, let¡¯s work on it together, and create an animation demonstration to explain yesterday¡¯s surgery, will there be enough time?¡± Song Zimo asked Little Five. ¡°It¡¯s not boasting, I really know how to do it.¡± Little five corrected, this little guy knows a lot of things, especially some niche skills, no one knows where he learned it from. ¡°You can even create animations, create the Calabash Brothers to have a look.¡± Zhang Lin said. The graduate students and standard training students who were following them perked up their ears, ready to catch any information. Someone in the group has already offered to write medical records for a month, this temptation is huge, those who have never been residential doctors don¡¯t know the burden it carries. Although the writing of medical records has been digitalized and is all being typed on computers. But for residential doctors, medical records are still a huge burden, making it hard for them to catch their breath. Especially when the computer is not running fast enough the urge to smash the computer comes to mind. First illness record, admission record, Daily illness record, preoperative discussion, surgical consent, or even surgery records, each and every one of those are tediously typed out by residence doctors. The superiors periodically sign those. And these considerable amounts of writing, often after a times operation is done during the day, only then there¡¯s time available at night to do it. Before the lecture today, whoever cracks the surgery password, even if they say a few related words, they don¡¯t need to write medical records for a month, how comfortable! A few people round the ward, the other patients had nothing special. The AIDS patient had been transferred to the ordinary ward, the isolation room, and a sign of blood and body fluid isolation was hung at the door. The police who had been guarding here before also left. The girl who had been crying at the entrance of the ICU was taking care of him, very carefully, feeding him porridge spoonful by spoonful. When she saw the doctors come in for ward rounds, she felt embarrassed. The hospital infection control department and the district CDC have already intervened, and a blood sample has been taken for diagnosis, it still returned positive. There is a standard procedure for diagnosing this disease, the doctor cannot announce the diagnostic test results, only the CDC can announce it, and then the CDC will investigate the patient¡¯s close contacts. In short, it is no longer a matter for doctors. What doctors need to do is to keep secrets and protect themselves. ¡°Doctor, we have paid the fees, look, this is the receipt.¡± The girl showed everyone the receipt. The fees are displayed in real-time on the computer, everyone can see. Out of respect for their credit, Yang Ping still glanced at the receipt. ¡°You saved my life, how could I owe you this money and make it hard for you.¡± Patient Wang Feng said. Several comic books were placed beside the bed, and Zhang Lin picked one up to read. ¡°This is my latest work?¡± Wang Feng said shyly. ¡°You are a comic artist, can you teach me when you¡¯re free?¡± Little Five said. Song Zimo said: ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you know how to draw comics.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not exactly a comic artist, just that I have some works, that people seems quite like.¡± Wang Feng said. Little Five glanced at a few comic books: ¡°The famous Street Alley is actually you,¡± ¡°I¡¯m flattered, Street Alley is indeed my pseudonym.¡± Wang Feng bowed his hand. ¡°Let¡¯s be friends, come come come.¡± Little Five shook hands with Wang Feng. After coming out, everyone in turn squeezed a few drops from the hand sanitizer bottle at the door, rubbed their hands, and sanitized their hands to avoid cross-infection. Every time a patient is visited during ward rounds, they must sanitize their hands when they come out. Otherwise, the hospital infection office will want to have a talk with you in a few days. After the ward rounds, they are free. Surgeons are afraid of not having operations to perform. It¡¯s only life when there are operations. Rather collect dust on the medical books, wishing that everyone in the world is disease free. That¡¯s just a grand wish, a grand wish is kept in one¡¯s heart. In reality, people fall ill everyday, people get injured, they need doctors to help. The father of Chinese surgery, Qiu Fazu, once said: ¡°Those who are not nearly as talented as immortals cannot be doctors, those who do not have the virtues approaching that of Buddha cannot be doctors.¡± Yang Ping preferred this sentence. Hold on to the ideals with the left hand, hold the reality with the right hand, keep your feet on the ground to stay steady, look far ahead to go further. Zhang Lin wrote patient record, chatting and typing at the same time, not affecting the speed or accuracy at all. Little Five and Song Zimo were creating animation and courseware, preparing for a lecture. Little Five was not bragging, he really knew how to create animations. Following the requirements of Song Zimo, he created an animation depicting the movement of the hip joint on his laptop. These 3D anatomical structures can be obtained as finished products from a digital 3D anatomy company, and then they can be modified further. Soon, Little Five made a rough draft, and then started making modifications slowly. Ding dong! Task completed, reward 9000 points. This time, the system¡¯s reward was a little late, probably because it takes some time to evaluate the effect of the surgery. Yang Ping didn¡¯t have much to do, so he entered the system to check his points. He now has another ten thousand points. These frequent ups and downs kept him on his toes. Now that the training for limb fractures has been completed, the next step is to tackle pelvic acetabular fractures. Once the orthopedic trauma field is mastered, it will soon be time to venture into sports medicine. Sports medicine usually involves arthroscopic surgery. Back at the People¡¯s Hospital, he had only assisted by holding legs and supporting the arthroscope. Now, he was about to venture into sports medicine. Yang Ping felt a flutter of excitement. To learn about pelvic acetabular fractures, it would cost twenty thousand points, and even more expensive was multiple trauma, which cost as much as thirty thousand points. Compared to the limb fractures, which cost only a few thousand points, these prices were astronomical. The current aim was to take on pelvic acetabular fractures. Yang Ping spent some points to read books in the space. Reading in space was the most cost-effective. As long as you have enough points, you can read as long as you want. In an instant, he could spend days reading in there. As long as he had enough points, reading for months was not an issue. Yang Ping read books on mechanics and biomechanics, as well as books on architecture and woodworking. The knowledge was cross-referenced and integrated. Song Zimo and Little Five were making the final changes to their presentation. Yang Ping reviewed Zhang Lin¡¯s medical records. Zhang wrote fast and accurately, was logically clear, watertight, standardized in writing, and highly readable. Not just one, but all the medical records were very good, of excellent average quality. Song Zimo asked Yang Ping to review the presentation to see if any modifications were needed. Yang Ping went through it several times, and it looked like this guy had completely understood the principle of the surgery and was visually demonstrating it through the animation. Genius is genius. It needs no proof, every action is proof. Yang Ping wondered how great it would be to have such an assistant. But he quickly dismissed the idea. This proud guy wouldn¡¯t lower himself to be someone else¡¯s assistant. His current compliance was just a temporary measure to gain strength. At noon, they were too lazy to go out for food, so they ordered takeout again. Little Five specifically ordered from a place where they didn¡¯t even need to speak. Little Five made the call and said, ¡°Hello¡±. The other person answered, ¡°Hmm¡±. The call was then hung up, and the order was placed. There was no chance of any mistakes. ¡°A mini lecture this afternoon. Professor Zhang sponsored the refreshments. The stuff has been bought, notify everyone in the group.¡± The Head nurse, Yao Ling, usually didn¡¯t work on the weekends, but today was special, and she came to see Professor Zhang. ¡°Dean Xia has already gone to see Professor Zhang by himself, he didn¡¯t want to disturb everyone¡¯s work, so he went alone.¡± Yao Ling added. Every Saturday¡¯s mini lecture brought together young doctors. Normally, it was organized by Song Zimo. Sometimes, a director would participate, other times when the directors were busy, young doctors would participate while discussing among themselves. ¡°It¡¯s twelve o¡¯clock, and no announcement has been made yet!¡± Someone in the WeChat group was urging. There must be a secret behind why a patient could walk completely weight-bearing within 24 hours after surgery. This wasn¡¯t a reckless act of desperation. Could anyone else here have fooled a man like Professor Zhang, who was a chief editor-level figure in ¡°Orthopedic Surgery?¡± Waiting was an anxious affair, and it was extremely irresponsible to the health of others. ¡°When¡¯s the lecture?¡± The chat group was unusually lively today, even the usually silent Dr. Jin was urging. ¡°Who¡¯s presenting?¡± ¡°Time?¡± ¡°Send the notice quickly, waiting online.¡± ¡°Torturers!¡± ¡°Show mercy, say something, won¡¯t it? Sweat is literal dripping in anticipation. It could have repercussions.¡± ¡°Topic: Biomechanics Analysis of Hip Fracture, Presenter: Song Zimo, Guidance: Yang Ping. Time: Today at 3 PM, Venue: Orthopedic Trauma Teaching Room. Tea and snacks will be provided during the break.¡± The announcement was finally made by Song Zimo. The guide for the lecture was usually the mentor. Normally for a lecture given by a junior doctor, the mentor usually took the relevant director¡¯s name. This implied that he or she had reviewed the presentation and given his or her comments. Now that Yang Ping¡¯s name had been put in, wasn¡¯t that a bit arrogant? But who could argue? Professor Zhang had specifically chosen him to operate, and post-operation, the patient was completely weight bearing within twenty-four hours. This was not something any ordinary person could imagine. ¡°Today¡¯s course comes with refreshments, has it been upgraded?¡± ¡°Sponsored by Professor Zhang Zongshun.¡± ¡°Wow, if I¡¯d known earlier, I wouldn¡¯t have eaten lunch.¡± Yao Ling had arranged for a few nurses to buy fruit, cakes, and candy. The fruit had all been washed and cut and arranged on platters. The girls began to set up the snacks in the teaching room. This was a simulation of the orthopedics academic meeting. Usually, such meetings had breaks with something to eat and drink. ¡°Can we arrive early to eat?¡± ¡°Sure, just send a red envelope first, two hundred¡¯s worth.¡± Chapter 56 - 0054 Newton also studied medicine Chapter 56: Chapter 0054 Newton also studied medicine The agonizingly slow afternoon finally reached three o¡¯clock. Director Han didn¡¯t come back, Directors Ouyang and Bai went out for emergency surgeries, and Director Ding has always been elusive. Director Tian and Dr. Jin both arrived. Such small study sessions were usually dominated by young doctors. The high-resolution screen repeatedly played Professor Zhang¡¯s surgical video. Since quite a few people showed up, Yao Ling quickly arranged for two nurses to add some folding chairs to the room. Zhang Lin sat at the most exterior desk in the front row, spread out a notebook, and everyone signed it one by one. ¡°Don¡¯t forget to sign in, brothers,¡± he shouted. Anyone who had forgotten hurried over to make up for it. Professor Zhang didn¡¯t arrive just yet; he¡¯d asked Yang Ping to inform him when the session was nearing the end, as he wanted to say a few words. He said that if he were present, the youngsters wouldn¡¯t dare speak, so he didn¡¯t want to create chaos. ¡°Professor Zhang, you seem to be in high spirits today,¡± someone greeted Zhang Lin. Everyone was taken aback. Damn, isn¡¯t ¡®Professor Zhang¡¯ thrown around too casually? ¡°Hurry up, there are no seats left.¡± ¡°In the elevator.¡± They urged each other in the WeChat group. Almost everyone had arrived, Zhang Lin ¡®Little Five¡¯ maintained order, Director Tian checked the time, and told Song Zimo, ¡°Start at exactly three o¡¯clock.¡± The highest-ranking attendee was Director Tian, so naturally, he presided over the meeting. He was also curious about the lecture and particularly keen to discuss Professor Zhang¡¯s surgery. He was intrigued by the bold decision to commence weight-bearing walks so rapidly. The room was packed with supplemental folding chairs scattered around, but it was still not enough, and some people had to stand. Usually, for small lectures, some would find various reasons to slip away. Except for those who were assisting with emergency surgeries at the hospital, everyone showed up today. All the interns were present, and people from other departments also came over. There¡¯s no harm in flocking to a bustling event. The lecture began promptly at three. Song Zimo stepped onto the podium, characteristically sporting an open white lab coat. He was a natural-born star with an outstanding appearance and confident demeanor. His electrifying ¡®raytheon¡¯ eyes had once captivated countless young girls. But today, the vast majority of the attendees were males, and it seemed that, no matter how electrifying he was, it was a wasted effort. ¡°Biomechanics Analysis of Hip Fractures¡± Biomechanics were familiar to the orthopedic doctors as it is a compulsory course in postgraduate studies. Everyone saw these words. It felt familiar yet alien. When it came to biomechanics, barely any concepts sprung to mind besides these words. ¡°Everyone is very concerned about why Professor Zhang Zongshun¡¯s patient began walking so soon post-surgery, and why the patient was bearing full weight. Today, Doctor Yang and I will use this lecture time to study and discuss this with everyone,¡± said Song Zimo at a moderate pace, with clear pronunciation. ¡°Fractures in the femoral intertrochanteric region are familiar to everyone as we regularly encounter this surgery. What doubts everyone is how can a patient with such a fracture, even a comminuted one, walk just 24 hours after surgery? And bear full weight? Is this reckless or scientifically backed? I¡¯ll explain this now, please direct your attention to the animation displayed on the screen.¡± Animation of the hip joint appeared on the screen. Based on a 3D reconstruction from the CT scans, it fully simulated Professor Zhang¡¯s fracture at the time. ¡°See, Professor Zhang¡¯s intertrochanteric fracture was comminuted, and it was comminution on the medial side. The stability of this kind of fracture completely depends on the support of the medial cortical bone. This medial cortical bone is the bearing wall. Now that the medial side is comminuted, everyone thinks that the patient can¡¯t bear weight early post-operatively,¡± Song Zimo quickly delved into the focal point of the problem. The animation continued to demonstrate, now with a simulation of the post-surgery fracture. The transmission of gravity was marked out with red lines and arrows. A few students who were sitting close to a table laden with refreshments stealthily reached out to grab a few candies but retracted their hands promptly, lest they missed out on the key points of the lecture. Song Zimo leaned on the podium with both hands, ¡°This involves mechanical knowledge in orthopedics, that is, biomechanics. Most of us only have a fragmented understanding of biomechanics. If it were not for the profound impact of this surgery, I wouldn¡¯t have realized the importance of biomechanics for orthopedic surgery. But Doctor Yang realized it and made active use of it in the surgery.¡± Song Zimo came down from the podium and walked back and forth between the rows. Yang Ping was reminded of when he first arrived at the hospital; during the interview, this guy behaved in an extraordinarily arrogant manner, strutting around just like now. ¡°In order to achieve early weight-bearing walking with this type of fracture, two conditions must be met: anatomical reduction, to establish the condition for osseous support; and stress distribution, to relieve the load for osseous support. Look!¡± Song Zimo turned around to face the screen. ¡°I won¡¯t go into anatomical reduction, the bone fragments are completely reset, and you don¡¯t have any doubts. I¡¯ll only talk about the second one, stress distribution. This is the focus today, the application of biomechanics!¡± Song Zimo spoke so eloquently that he turned the lecture into an impressive presentation. Yang Ping murmured to himself: I¡¯m working hard on surgery, and this guy is having a good time on the stage. The teaching room was quiet, with everyone intently capturing the information presented. ¡°For this surgery to achieve stress distribution, the principles of tension band and barrel hoop were used.¡± Everyone is familiar with tension bands, often used in fractures of the radial styloid process and the patella, where tensile stress is converted into compressive stress. But the barrel hoop principle was something they were hearing for the first time. Some people began to scratch their heads and necks in confusion. ¡°The lateral steel cable here is the tension band, and the three steel cable hoops that fix the fracture are the barrel hoops.¡± Song Zimo returned to the stage, his mouse cursor moving on the screen. ¡°Pay attention to the animation. When a person walks upright, the normal gravity line goes from the spine to the second sacral vertebra, then to the hip joint, and from the head of the femur down along the lower limb gravity plumb line.¡± The animation was incredibly detailed and intuitive, with a red line of gravity flowing like water along the described path. ¡°In a simple intertrochanteric fracture, osseous support can bear the body weight, so after anatomical reduction of a simple intertrochanteric fracture, fixation with a PFNA is completely safe for weight-bearing walking within 24 hours. But what about comminuted intertrochanteric fractures, where osseous support can¡¯t bear the body weight? What do we do?¡± What to do? A cold salad? I¡¯m here to listen to a lecture, not to answer questions. Song Zimo got everyone thinking. ¡°Stress distribution is the best solution. Look at this animation.¡± It was previously an animation of normal human weight transfer, but now it is an animation of a postoperative fracture model by Professor Zhang. ¡°The gravity starts from the femoral head and is divided into four routes: a part is transmitted downwards through the osseous support, a part is transmitted downwards through the intra-medullary nail, a part is converted into tension by the lateral tension band steel cable, and another part becomes the expansive force of the three steel cable hoops. This way, the load reducing for the osseous support prevents fracture displacement, and the load reducing for the intra-medullary nail prevents fatigue fracture.¡± The animation was simple and easy to understand. There was the red line of weight distribution, one along the femoral shaft and one along the intra-medullary nail, both finally converging; two red arrows along the external steel cable showed an upward and downward pulling force; the three steel cable hoops were surrounded by arrows, as if they were about to expand and explode in all directions. Everyone understood, while some people still did not understand, there began whispering amongst the crowd. Dr. Jin and Director Tian sat together: ¡°This is really clever,¡± said Dr. Jin. ¡°I have used steel cables frequently in my work but never with this level of understanding. You need to be really familiar with the parameters of the bone fragment, the steel cable, and the intra-medullary nail to dare to combine them like this. And the positioning and sizing of the three steel cable hoops must be very important, especially when locking them in place, isn¡¯t the tightness of each hoop different?¡± Director Tian leaned in and said, ¡°You¡¯re right, the tightness and thickness of these three hoops are all different. This ensures that when weight is put on the bone, the sharp end of the main bone fragment on the inside always leans slightly toward the medullary cavity, reaching the gap. Otherwise, if it tilts outside of the medullary cavity, it wouldn¡¯t take long for it to slide out, and the barrel hoops would become ineffective. The mechanical knowledge involved in this surgery has exceeded the common knowledge of an orthopedist, Old Jin. I¡¯ve learnt something new today, steel cables can indeed be used in this way.¡± ¡°This guy is tricky,¡± said Dr. Jin. ¡°Director Han has a keen eye for talent; I heard he was picked up from a batch of new hires.¡± Director Tian laughed and said, ¡°Do you remember? On his first day at work, he called me out on my mistake. Thanks to him, I was able to avoid falling into a big pit.¡± Dr. Jin remembered, ¡°You¡¯re talking about that case of the concealed femoral neck fracture, right? That day I went out for a meeting and heard about it from my subordinates when I came back.¡± Privately, Director Tian and Dr. Jin got along well. Despite being much older than Director Tian, Dr. Jin was highly respectful of him and did not treat him like a subordinate. The crowd was buzzing with discussion. Everyone¡¯s ideas were shaken up quite a bit. Everyone here is a professional, with specialized education. These explanations, combined with animated demonstrations, helped clear almost all doubts. Given these many mechanical principles in orthopedic surgery, was Newton actually a medical student? They wondered if he came upon his theory of gravity not because of an apple, but because of bone fracture. Song Zimo rapped on the podium, and slowly the room quieted down: ¡°I want to emphasize one point, if you use the same method for the next similar surgery, you will fail!¡± This statement confused everyone again, they had just gained some understanding. Song Zimo explained, ¡°Why? Because if you don¡¯t master the principles of biomechanics, you won¡¯t achieve satisfactory results. The number, thickness, positioning, tension, and cross-linking structure of the steel cables are not chosen arbitrarily. Otherwise, you¡¯d just produce a regular fixation loop, incapable of changing the direction of the force, or maintaining stability of the fracture.¡± Who knew applying a loop could be so complicated? That tension band, everyone knew about that ¡ª it¡¯s often used in fractures of the radial styloid process and patella, but nobody thought it could be used in this ingenious way. And the steel cable hoop too. Isn¡¯t it usually just tied around to fix a fracture? What¡¯s this about converting stress? It really made their heads hurt! Song Zimo quieted everyone down again: ¡°Now, let¡¯s take a ten-minute break to have something to eat. We will then continue with the discussion.¡± Chapter 57 - 0055 Discussion Chapter 57: Chapter 0055 Discussion Everyone, grab some fruit and pastries, have a drink, and take a short break. Song Zimo clapped his hands on the podium, while Zhang Lin shouted, ¡°Brothers, quiet down! Quiet down!¡± The shout worked. Everyone stopped talking and returned to their original positions. It wasn¡¯t always like this, hardly anyone paid attention to Zhang Lin in the past. However, now he is deemed more important as he is associated with Yang Ping and Song Zimo. ¡°Shall we start the discussion?¡± Song Zimo softly asked Director Tian, mainly to show respect. Director Tian nodded, and Song Zimo announced, ¡°Now it¡¯s time for the discussion. Everyone can ask questions, and Doctor Yang will answer them. Don¡¯t be shy, ask freely. There¡¯s a prize for anyone who flusters him.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the prize?¡± someone asked loudly. ¡°You won¡¯t have your active case files checked for a month,¡± Song Zimo replied. That prize had enough weight, even though it didn¡¯t beat not having to write case reports for a month. After speaking, Song Zimo sat down next to Yang Ping in the front row: ¡°It¡¯s your turn now.¡± Yang Ping stepped onto the podium, and everyone applauded enthusiastically, wave after wave. When you have skill, your aura naturally radiates out. With a few directors absent, everyone was more relaxed and spoke more boldly. Director Tian was young and didn¡¯t intimidate anyone. These youngsters loved to seek advice from Director Tian if they had any problems. If they made a mistake, they would quietly ask him for help. Dr. Jin stood up first, ¡°Doctor Yang, I would like to ask, your method of stress diversion is indeed ingenious, but one question, how do you ensure that the bone fragments do not break under stress, and that the steel cables do not snap?¡± ¡°Yeah, why are you so confident in the steel cables? If they snap, everything collapses, and the patient will have to have a second surgery. The family will be irate,¡± another doctor whispered. Yang Ping responded, ¡°The tensile stress, compressive stress, rigidity, strength, and elastic modulus that the human bone tissue can withstand all have documented data. These data vary by age and body part. There are also data on the fatigue resistance of steel cables, the number of daily steps a person takes, and the weight of the patient. By combining all these data and doing some calculations, you can estimate how long the steel cable can last. As long as the steel cable holds up until the fracture heals, it¡¯s fine.¡± ¡°I understand, we medical people worship Hippocrates, and now we have to worship Newton and Gauss,¡± Dr. Jin joked. A graduate student raised his hand, saying, ¡°What if the fracture shifts because the patient started weight-bearing too soon? The patient might sue you. Even if the recovery is not as good because of delayed weight-bearing, it would still be better than being sued.¡± Yang Ping appreciated the student¡¯s honesty, saying, ¡°With hip fractures, early mobilization is unquestionable. If full weight-bearing is not achievable, partial weight-bearing is an option; if even partial weight-bearing is not achievable, supporting the patient to walk without weight-bearing is possible. If the patient continues to lie down after surgery, the advantages of surgery are lost, and the disadvantages of both surgery and conservative treatment are accumulated. Like neither being able to outrun a horse or a Benz. As for lawsuits, I haven¡¯t done any relevant data comparison to see whether there are more lawsuits from early weight-bearing or late weight-bearing.¡± ¡°Confidence comes from experience and data, not blind faith,¡± Yang Ping added. The graduate student was satisfied with the answer, indeed, there is no rule that delaying weight-bearing can avoid lawsuits. ¡°According to a multi-center retrospective study, there is no significant difference in average lifespan between people who ride airplanes and those who don¡¯t!¡± Some hotshot in the corner casually dropped this comment, talking with a candy in his mouth, his words weren¡¯t very clear. It turned out to be a PhD from spinal surgery, an elegant and high-class remark. Once he opened his mouth, everyone could tell, his educational background must have started from a master¡¯s degree. ¡°Teacher Yang!¡± a standardized training student asked shyly. ¡°How did you manage to remove that bone fragment embedded in the muscle so effortlessly? In my experience, we¡¯ve encountered such fragments many times. If they¡¯re not critical, we give up. If they must be anatomically repositioned, we can only do it by cutting open the area.¡± Song Zimo suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to explain the concept of stress diversion. ¡°You can just call me Doctor Yang or Senior Brother Yang. Performing minimally invasive repositioning on this bone fragment is challenging. Firstly, you need to understand which muscle the fragment has penetrated, and if there are any essential nerves or blood vessels nearby. Secondly, you need to understand the fragment¡¯s depth within the muscle, whether the fragment has formed a barb, and if it can slide out smoothly. Lastly, you need to understand if any muscles are attached to the fragment. If so, you must understand which muscles are attached and the different positions and motions each muscle group performs. This fragment has penetrated the psoas muscle and the iliopsoas muscle attached to it. During the limb¡¯s external rotation, the psoas muscle is extremely tense and pushes the fragment out. Meanwhile, the iliopsoas muscle relaxes, and with just a slight lever motion, the fragment is freed.¡± It turns out that extracting a bone fragment requires such sophisticated anatomical knowledge. ¡°This surgery is really mentally taxing,¡± a standardized training student sighed. Everyone turned to look at the speaker, who was a man with a mature appearance, showing signs of baldness, and many white hairs. Based on his hairstyle, he seemed to hold the rank of Associate Chief Physician, but in reality, he was just a standardized training student. ¡°Any other questions?¡± Song Zimo asked everyone. It seemed like everyone had understood, and there were no more questions. Seeing that there were no more questions, Director Tian commented, ¡°Doctor Yang, your last humerus distal comminuted fracture case, the repositioning and fixation you did was remarkable! I replicated your approach and used Kirschner wires and steel wires to build a model. The model has the ability to self-stabilize, and when I simulated elbow joint flexion and extension movements, the model demonstrated a certain self-tightening ability during movement. Generally, our structures are loose, but yours is a complete dynamic stable structure.¡± Thinking about the child who had his screws removed, Dr. Jin said, ¡°That child¡¯s two screws have been removed. If his symptoms really go away, I¡¯ll treat you to a meal and we can talk more.¡± ¡°If there¡¯s nothing else, let¡¯s end the meeting,¡± Song Zimo announced. Everyone saw that there were refreshments left, so they helped themselves and continued chatting. ¡°I need to go back and review anatomy, physiology, and pathology. Really, the last patient with an infection, we couldn¡¯t get it under control with antibiotics. We used medication based on antimicrobial susceptibility tests, but neither switching antibiotics nor increasing the dosage worked. We had a nephrology consult, who said that the use of drugs to accelerate kidney excretion had prevented the antibiotics from accumulating and maintaining effective concentrations in the blood. Following the consultant¡¯s advice, we discontinued the drugs promoting kidney excretion, retested antimicrobial susceptibility, and selected sensitive drugs. It worked, the infection was gradually controlled over a few days.¡± ¡°Exactly, the surgery can be performed like this¡ªI had no idea until today. It was truly an eye-opener.¡± While talking and eating, the conversation carried on among two graduate students and several standardized training students. Professor Zhang appeared at the door, with a nurse trailing behind him. Tian Yuan, Yang Ping, and Song Zimo all stood up. Originally, Professor Zhang planned to address everyone before the meeting ended. However, seeing the clear and simple animation demonstration on the screen, he changed his mind. The younger generation has their own language and methods. There wasn¡¯t any need for him to step in, so he just listened at the door for a while. ¡°You all should accumulate more cases and conduct mechanical analyses on these internal fixation structures. In the future, you might be able to publish a book¡ª¡¯The Study of Orthopedic Internal Fixation Structures¡¯. It would specifically discuss the design of these stable structures.¡± Professor Zhang suggested to Tian Yuan and Yang Ping before leaning on his cane and returning to the ward. And so, Saturday came to an end. Su Yixuan messaged Yang Ping via WeChat, notifying him that she had left a couple of slippers in his surgery room¡¯s shoe cabinet since his slippers were torn. Sunday was rather calm. The system didn¡¯t release any tasks; it was very quiet. Yang Ping calculated his points and found he was still short of 10,000 points to purchase pelvic fracture training. The gap was a little wide. Only after completing the pelvic fracture training could he relax a little. If he had to perform a pelvic fracture surgery right now, he might not be able to handle it. Although his surgical skills had reached the master level, practice is essential for improving surgical proficiency. Pelvic fracture surgery is something he must master as soon as possible. Chapter 58 - 0056: Enemies on a Narrow Road Chapter 58: Chapter 0056: Enemies on a Narrow Road Over the weekend, Yang Ping enjoyed his leisure time by entering the system space to read books. He collected all relevant books about pelvic acetabular fractures and had them all on his bookshelf. Now, Yang Ping could confirm that whether it¡¯s reading or practicing surgery in the system space, the efficiency is higher than in the real world. While reading in the system, Yang Ping almost never forgot what he read, and his understanding and insight into the knowledge were very fast. The only drawback was that he needed points to support reading time, but it was quite generous to trade one point for one minute. Yang Ping read book after book about pelvic acetabular fractures, preparing theoretical knowledge for future surgeries. He thus spent his rare free weekend. Director Han returned on Sunday night and attended the shift on Monday. He brought good news. The establishment of the Orthopedics Research Institute in collaboration with Fudan University Medical School had been finalized. Representatives from the other party would come to sign the agreement this week. Next, it would be the preparation. The location was not a problem; Sanbo had an eight-story building that was not in use, and it wouldn¡¯t be a problem to use one floor. This building used to house a day surgery center, but it failed and was abandoned, with operating rooms and wards kept idle. Money wasn¡¯t a problem either. Sanbo had a fund supported by overseas Chinese. The money for equipment and scientific research could come from this fund, simplifying operations. After the shift, Director Han called Yang Ping into the office and thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Be well prepared for next year¡¯s doctoral exam. You must pass.¡± Then his tone softened, ¡°If you¡¯re really too busy, you could also follow the exemption pathway, but it might be a bit more troublesome.¡± Director Han still hoped that Yang Ping could earn his doctorate by passing the exam and secure a spot in the doctoral program genuinely. Yang Ping used to perform well academically, but he didn¡¯t pursue further studies at the time to join the workforce earlier. Now he had the opportunity and naturally, he wouldn¡¯t let it pass. Moreover, studying under Director Han, he would likely have plenty of operational experience in the department. Yang Ping also didn¡¯t want Director Han to worry about him. Exemptions were not up to Director Han alone. It definitely involved a lot of favor-pulling and networking. Now that the system had a reading feature, he could spend more time on it. With his previous foundation, he should have confidence in making the grade. ¡°Director Han, I¡¯ll definitely pass,¡± Yang Ping said. After chatting with Director Han for a while and then reporting Professor Zhang¡¯s surgical situation to him in person, Director Han was very satisfied. Director Han led everyone to visit Professor Zhang, make rounds, and go to the operating room. Sure enough, in the shoe cabinet of the operating room, there were two pairs of brand new slippers with Yang Ping¡¯s name marked. The operating room originally had plenty of slippers, which were all cleaned and sterilized for use by the surgeons. However, some doctors prefer their own pairs. As long as it meets the cleaning and sterilization requirements, the operating room would allow doctors to bring their own slippers. Every day, the logistics staff would open the doctors¡¯ shoe cabinets, take out the worn slippers, and put in disinfected ones. The operating room bustled with excitement. The entire orthopedic department had eight operating rooms, the trauma orthopedic department had three, the sports medicine department had one, and the spine and joint departments each had two. The patient on whom Director Han was the chief surgeon had already been anesthetized, and Zhang Lin Xiaowu begun disinfection. The arrangement of the surgeries in the operating room followed not only the principle of urgency but also the status of the chief surgeon. Like Director Han, his surgeries were always arranged first. Although Tian Yuan was also an associate chief physician, she was young and often performed follow-up activities. Directors Ouyang and Bai had more seniority and had a higher priority than Tian Yuan. But for the surgeries of Yang Ping and Song Zimo, no matter how skilled you are, you have to wait in line. The qualifications and status of a doctor, like the gentry families of ancient times, cannot be achieved in a day. Therefore, the growth of a doctor, no matter how skilled you are, it¡¯s always one step at a time. The difference is that some people move fast while others move slow. Dreaming of a meteoric rise might be possible in other professions, but it¡¯s not for doctors. Just like Yang Ping, reattachment of the severed finger amazed the world and moved both heaven and earth, but still had little impact on promotion. He still needed to work on his topics, prepare his papers, whatever was needed as usual. Yang Ping was lucky enough to meet a valuable person like Director Han. If he were a little less lucky and met a mean and narrow-minded department director who could find any excuse to take away his surgical privileges, no matter how capable he was, he would be suppressed. Eventually, he could only leave in resentment to become a chief in a surgical hospital, surviving on his craft for a few years. The start of the surgery was lively, with the sounds of ping pong, and the hum of hammers and saws, and the stench of burnt flesh from the electric knife¡¯s cauterization. Orthopedic surgeries have distinct characteristics compared to other surgical disciplines. Some people joke that orthopedic surgeons are carpenters. The way they work with hammers, saws, nails, and screwdrivers does resemble that. While it might seem so, this is only a superficial impression. The field of orthopedics is extremely broad, with the most varied categories of surgery. There are over a hundred different procedures for the correction of Hallux Valgus alone. A common orthopedic textbook is heavy enough that you need to exert some strength to lift it. If we consider the full set of ¡°Campbell¡¯s Operative Orthopaedics¡±, a girl might not be able to lift it, and an out-of-shape guy would have to rest several times when carrying it upstairs. Today, Director Han¡¯s team performed six operations: an acetabular fracture, a proximal humerus fracture, a humerus diaphysis fracture, a radius and ulnar fracture, a femoral diaphysis fracture, and a tibia and fibular fracture. The first operation, an acetabular fracture, led by Director Han was completed in half an hour. None of the rest are complicated. Song Zimo performs three surgeries, and Yang Ping performs two. Since I¡¯m now their senior, I should give them as many opportunities as possible. They finished operating around seven in the evening and went back to the ward. Yang Ping checked the patient¡¯s most recent test results. Director Han said, ¡°The Overseas Chinese Building called, said they have a female patient with a double fracture of the radius and ulna, we¡¯ll go take a look.¡± The Overseas Chinese Building is the VIP ward at Sanbo. Only the wealthy and influential people live there. The eight-story Overseas Chinese Building houses patients from the third to the eighth floors. Some rooms can¡¯t be booked just by being rich, Dean Xia has to personally sign off for each patient to stay. Only department directors have access to the patient records in the Overseas Chinese Building, or doctors temporarily authorized by the medical affairs department. Ordinary doctors can¡¯t even look at the medical records. A few curious interns wanted to follow them over to the Overseas Chinese Building to take a look. Director Han said: ¡°Xiao Song, Xiao Yang, you two come with me to the Overseas Chinese Building, the rest should stay.¡± The Overseas Chinese Building is a stand-alone building with its own garden. When Sanbo was newly built, this area was not yet developed. The government was very generous and approved a large tract of land for it. If it were today, they would never give such a large piece of land. Dean Xia often says, ¡°With such a vast area, we ought to accomplish some things.¡± There are corridors connecting each building, marble railings give a feeling of grandeur and stability. To be honest, Yang Ping has not been to the Overseas Chinese Building after so long working here. The Overseas Chinese Building only has one entrance. The first floor has a reception desk with very pretty and eye-pleasing nurses. There are a few security guards patrolling the hall. There are elevators specific to each floor, they took the elevator to the seventh floor and swiped their card to enter. The nurse at the nurse station immediately guided Director Han to the doctors¡¯ office. The doctors¡¯ office is spacious and bright, even the computer monitors are a few inches bigger than the ones in the ordinary ward. The seventh floor houses surgery patients and is managed by Director Zhuang, who is from the general surgery background. For VIP patients, if surgery is needed, it is done by specialists from respective departments, while daily management is undertaken by their own doctors. ¡°Female patient, twenty-five years old, left radius and ulna comminuted fracture. This patient is a reporter from the city TV station.¡± Director Zhuang introduces. The doctor in charge calls up the X-ray images that are displayed on the digital reading screen. The left radius and ulna comminuted fracture, displacement is very obvious. Just as they were looking at the X-rays, Director Han received a call and talked for several minutes. It seemed to be Dean Xia. After hanging up, Director Han said, ¡°Let¡¯s go see the patient!¡± Director Zhuang, along with the nurse in charge, led Director Han to the patient¡¯s room, with Yang Ping and Song Zimo following behind. The nurse in charge knocked on the door. ¡°Come in!¡± A woman¡¯s voice. Pushing the door open, the female patient was wearing a hospital gown, her left upper limb was in a plaster cast and suspended in front of her chest, her right hand was holding a cell phone as she was on a call, ¡°The doctor is here, I won¡¯t talk to you any longer, I tell you I won¡¯t have surgery, I won¡¯t.¡± She hung up the phone, sounding like a little girl throwing a tantrum. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, please take a seat.¡± The patient still has good manners. This? Yang Ping recognized her, wasn¡¯t it the female reporter who was first to make trouble at the press conference? How come it¡¯s her. Even though he was wearing a mask, she recognized Yang Ping, like long-lost classmates meeting again. She clenched her dress sleeve in her right hand, wanting to point at Yang Ping but realized it¡¯s impolite. She retracted her hand, nodded, ¡°It¡¯s you, Doctor Yang.¡± It felt like Yang Ping had done something wrong and now he was caught by her, it had an ¡°enemies often cross each other¡¯s path¡± feel to it. This left Director Han and Director Zhuang wondering what had happened. ¡°You know each other?¡± ¡°Of course, we do.¡± The female patient said. Chapter 59 - 0057: Absolutely No Surgery Chapter 59: Chapter 0057: Absolutely No Surgery ¡°Of course I know her!¡± She was the first one to kick up a fuss at the last press conference. To be honest, Yang Ping didn¡¯t have much affection for journalists, keeping them at arm¡¯s length. Director Han didn¡¯t recognize her. There were so many journalists at the time, how would he remember? ¡°What a coincidence!¡± Director Zhuang said. Seeing the look of discomfort swiftly pass over Yang Ping¡¯s face, Director Han quickly changed the subject, ¡°The swelling in your hand is severe. We need to loosen the splint a little.¡± It was a splint tied around her left forearm. Yang Ping initially mistook it for a cast when she came in. ¡°This is Professor Han from the Orthopedics Department,¡± Director Zhuang introduced. With a constant turnover of patients in the hospital and an abundance of VIPs, she had seen all sorts of rich and powerful figures, and was now numb to it all. Yang Ping glanced at the little electronic screen on the wall above the bed. It displayed the patient¡¯s name: Li Jingshu. Upon hearing that the splint needed to be loosened, Li Jingshu¡¯s first reaction was to shrink back, turn her head to look at Yang Ping, and then weakly ask, ¡°Does adjusting the splint hurt?¡± What a joke, who do you think I am to you? How would I know? Yang Ping looked up at the ceiling, ignoring the question. ¡°It hurts just a bit,¡± Director Han said. ¡°How much is ¡®just a bit¡¯?¡± asked Li Jingshu. ¡°Like a mosquito bite!¡± Yang Ping replied. She thought back to the press conference where Li Jingshu was even more aggressive than some men. And now she was cowering, just like a little girl. After Yang Ping¡¯s comment, Li Jingshu was reassured and shifted her previously withdrawn left limb carefully back into place. The medical cart that the attending doctor had pushed in was now placed at the bedside, loaded with bandages, gloves, and a tray for medication change. Yang Ping and Song Zimo both put on gloves. One held the hand, while the other began to undo the binding. The injury was immobilized with four splints and three bands, a standard technique for small forearm fractures. The splints were even made of fir bark, a traditional material only found in Chinese medicine hospitals. ¡°I¡¯ve been to the Chinese medicine hospital and undergone anesthesia for repositioning three times, but with no success. So I decided to come here and see what you guys can do,¡± Li Jingshu said, gritting her teeth, prepared to endure the pain. ¡°Should we give her a shot of painkiller?¡± Director Zhuang asked, seeking Director Han¡¯s opinion. Before Director Han could respond, Li Jingshu shook her head, ¡°I can tolerate a mosquito bite.¡± Yang Ping began to unfasten the bind, well acquainted with the small splint technique from training in the system. Her movements were gentle and deft, careful not to cause any vibration to the forearm while adjusting the bandage. However, Li Jingshu was so nervous she shivered. Any slight movement is painful with a comminuted fracture. ¡°¡ª¡± Li Jingshu bit her lip. Song Zimo stabilized the forearm, and Yang Ping swiftly and gently adjusted each of the three bands in turn. After making the adjustments, she helped Li Jingshu to bed. ¡°You say it¡¯s like a mosquito bite, but this mosquito must be bigger than a pig,¡± Li Jingshu said, a bit angry, but her anger felt childlike. She took a few deep breaths: ¡°I¡¯m feeling much better now. The swelling was causing severe pain earlier.¡± Yang Ping thought to herself, this girl would be quite pretty if she weren¡¯t so bothersome, with clear eyes and brows, exuding a sense of intelligence yet hardly masking an impetuous and willful spirit. ¡°Surgery is necessary for this,¡± Director Han explained, multiple explanations seemed futile as many had tried explaining it to her before. Li Jingshu looked distraught. ¡°I don¡¯t want surgery. Can¡¯t you just reposition it manually? Professor Zhang Zongshun from your hospital is really good at manual repositioning, isn¡¯t he? Didn¡¯t he even write a book about it? The book is right here!¡± She bent down to pull a book out of the bedside table with her right hand¨C ¡°Traditional Bone Setting Research¡±. Director Han took the book, and sure enough, it was written by Professor Zhang Zongshun. The book must have been published decades ago and yet this girl had somehow managed to get her hands on it. He had never seen a patient bring in a book for reference before. ¡°Have you read this book?¡± Director Han asked, returning the book to her bedside table. ¡°I briefly flipped through it,¡± said Li Jingshu. ¡°There are a lot of cases similar to mine in it, so that¡¯s why I came to your hospital.¡± Such a stubborn person is impossible to convince at once. Deciding to step back for a moment, Director Han said, ¡°Your condition right now is too severe for a manual repositioning. We need to wait for the swelling to subside. This is a temporary treatment. Let the duty doctor know if you¡¯re in pain tonight.¡± ¡°Alright!¡±, as long as she wouldn¡¯t have to have surgery, she seemed to be okay with anything. ¡°I absolutely refuse to have surgery!¡± Li Jingshu emphasized. ¡°Then you should rest properly, don¡¯t worry, let the swelling go down first,¡± Director Zhuang comforted her. Back in the VIP¡¯s doctor¡¯s office, Dean Xia had already arrived and was waiting in the office. Seeing Director Han, he immediately called everyone to Director Zhuang¡¯s office and said, ¡°This patient is Mayor Li¡¯s daughter. Secretary Luo just called to say that she is throwing a tantrum with Mayor Li and refusing to have surgery. Other hospitals like the First and Second attached hospitals to Nandu Medical University have all consulted and agreed she needs surgery, but she doesn¡¯t want to. So left with no choice, Secretary Luo arranged for her to be transferred to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. Director Kang from the Orthopedics department there tried to set her bones three times without success. She then drove herself to our hospital, and Secretary Luo arranged for her to stay in the Overseas Chinese Building.¡± ¡°She heard that Professor Zhang Zongshun is very good at bone setting, so she came here herself,¡± said Director Han. ¡°Professor Zhang is currently hospitalized himself!¡± Dean Xia said with a troubled expression. ¡°Distal radius, supracondylar humerus ¨C these simple repositions were things I did many years ago. For these comminuted fractures of the ulna and radius, closed reduction, I tell you, I don¡¯t know how to do it,¡± said Director Han. ¡°This girl is very hard to handle. Secretary Luo is also struggling now. You can count on one hand the number of people in the country who can perform manual reduction. Director Kang from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, who inherited his family skills and has a well-known reputation, couldn¡¯t fix it. So, how are we supposed to?¡± said Dean Xia. ¡°What if we ask Professor Zhang Zongshun to help?¡± Director Zhuang suggested. ¡°We might have to. I¡¯ll talk to Old Zhang tomorrow morning,¡± said Director Han. The patients in the Overseas Chinese Building are the most difficult, not because of the complexity of the cases, but because of their special status. Everyone discussed but did not reach a conclusion. Dean Xia said, ¡°Do your best. If all else fails, we may have to operate. Secretary Luo has agreed to have the surgery in our hospital. Let Mrs. Li persuade her again tomorrow. After all, young girls can be a bit willful.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go take a look, I haven¡¯t checked yet.¡± Dean Xia said. This time, Yang Ping and Song Zimo did not go with him. There was an automatic shoe-polishing machine in the office. Yang Ping tried to polish his leather shoes. According to Zhang Lin, coming to the Overseas Chinese Building without polishing your shoes is a wasted trip. ¡°If it were someone else, I might try, but for the daughter of the Li family, forget it.¡± Song Zimo said. Yang Ping huffed, ¡°Can you do it?¡± ¡°I learned by sitting in on outpatient clinics with Professor Zhang. He really is brilliant at manual reduction. In the research of Western medicine, he should be the only one. I¡¯ve seen him fix even worse fractures than this. You can¡¯t?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t respond. ¡°Finally, I¡¯ve found something I can beat you at,¡± Song Zimo said triumphantly. This little guy, he can actually do manual reduction? After checking on Li Jingshu, Dean Xia came out and said, ¡°Should I talk to Old Zhang tomorrow?¡± Director Han said, ¡°No need, I can speak with him.¡± ¡°Thank you for your hard work, Han. I still need to go upstairs and visit Director Cao from the Department of Construction who is also hospitalized here,¡± Dean Xia said, pointing to the ceiling. ¡°You go ahead, leave this matter to me,¡± Director Han said. ¡°The principle of necessary surgery must still be adhered to,¡± Dean Xia reminded. Sitting in the Overseas Chinese Building for a while, several nurses came in and out. Song Zimo still attracted attention with his cool demeanor. Director Han instructed the on-duty doctor to watch for pain and changes in finger sensation, and to be alert for compartment syndrome. Everyone then withdrew. It was already evening, and it was not appropriate to bother Professor Zhang, Director Han decided to go the next morning. Song Zimo said that since he had eaten the surgical meal, he was not hungry. He decided to practice arthroscopy in the department. He trained for one or two hours in the laboratory almost every day. Microscopes, arthroscopes, foramen scopes, and many other equipment were worn down by his use. Those with high talent who are also diligent are the closest to success. On the way home, Yang Ping thought about the traditional bone-setting technique. This is the business of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, but only a few people still maintain this skill. Truth be told, the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and Western hospitals are not much different these days, the difference lies only in the signs they carry. In the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, there are few doctors who can truly use Chinese medicine and understand Chinese medical theory. It¡¯s not a matter of which is superior and which is inferior; it¡¯s like the competition between a horse-drawn carriage and a Benz. Chapter 60 - 0058: Peerless Skills Chapter 60: Chapter 0058: Peerless Skills Song Zimo stayed up practicing until midnight, yet he was still bright and energetic in the morning. Seeing Yang Ping in the office, he said in a low voice, ¡°Now I can proficiently peel and stitch grape skins, pinch crystal babies, and thread needles under an arthroscope even with my eyes closed.¡± These are all arthroscopy training methods: making an incision into the grape¡¯s skin under a microscope, peeling it off intact, and then stitching it back on; a crystal baby that has been soaked in water for too long is prone to cracking and can easily be crushed with a little force; threading a needle is a delicate operation, requiring the thread to be passed through a fine needle, and then using the needle to thread a string of tiny beads. These are all highly difficult microscopic techniques. Arthroscopy is a type of endoscopy, a minimally invasive technique that is specifically suitable for joint surgery; there is no need for an incision, just a few holes the size of chopsticks to complete the procedure. The microscope facilitates direct coordination between the hand and eye, whereas arthroscopy separates the hand and eye. The eye doesn¡¯t directly view the operating area, instead, it watches the video on the screen in front of the operator, and the hand performs the operation guided by the video. One hand holds the lens and the other hand holds the instrument; both the lens and the instrument enter the joint through a small hole, the lens records footage inside the joint in real time and sends it to the screen for the doctor to operate the instrument while watching. Because the hand and eye are separate, the learning process tends to be fairly long, many doctors can¡¯t master it even after many years of practice. On the surface, Song Zimo appears indifferent, as if he doesn¡¯t care about anything, but his passion for surgery burns like fire within him. He never backs down from a match with Yang Ping. Given the opportunity, he makes sure to declare his presence like a King of Lions. After making his rounds, Director Han specifically sought out Professor Zhang about Li Jingshu¡¯s manual reduction technique. ¡°Teacher Zhang, could you help me out with something?¡± Director Han asked, standing. Professor Zhang sat on the sofa in the only suite in the department, which had a ward inside and a living room outside, which was equipped with a sofa, coffee table, refrigerator, microwave, and the like. ¡°Just say it, since when did doing things become so tedious?¡± said Professor Zhang. Though it was difficult, Director Han still spoke up, ¡°There¡¯s a patient with a comminuted fracture of the left ulna and radius, with noticeable displacement, who has come specifically for manual reduction from you, but you¡ª¡ª¡± Professor Zhang waved his hand, ¡°Where is the patient now? Do we have the films? Let¡¯s see the films first, then bring the patient over.¡± Director Han knew Professor Zhang the best, he didn¡¯t even mention that the patient was the Mayor¡¯s daughter. Because for others, this information could be a key factor influencing their decision, but for him, it has no effect. The most useful thing to him is the phrase ¡°patient¡±. It doesn¡¯t matter whose daughter she is, emphasizing that she¡¯s a patient will do. ¡°The films are here.¡± Director Han gave a meaningful look. Song Zimo immediately took out the films from the bag, bent down to one side to hold them comfortably, and conveniently presented them to Professor Zhang to review. Professor Zhang carefully read the films, ¡°You can proceed with manual reduction, but you¡¯ll need to do it under anesthesia. It¡¯s very difficult, I¡¯ll need an assistant.¡± His gaze swept over them, first hitting Yang Ping, then bypassing Yang Ping to land on Song Zimo beside him: ¡°Xiao Song could assist, this kind of thing he should be capable of.¡± Song Zimo raised his proud head; Yang Ping thought, he looks just like a Gallic Rooster. After examining the films, Professor Zhang seemed particularly reflective, ¡°People¡¯s attitudes towards traditional Chinese medicine are either all for it or completely against it. Few people view it with a scientific mindset. Those who despise traditional Chinese medicine and want to see it eradicated, need not be so agitated or fretful. Look at the doctors in Chinese medicine hospitals, how many of them truly understand traditional Chinese medicine? No need to shout looks like this day is not too far off. As for those who are heartbroken about the impending extinction of traditional Chinese medicine, they could put their tears away, build up their spirits, and think about how to leverage modern technology to uncover the value of traditional Chinese medicine. If something must rely on sentiment to be preserved, then sentiment is all that thing has left. The traditional bone-setting treatment is greatly advantageous for long bones of the limbs, especially the humerus and ulna radius of the upper limbs. For fractures involving the joint surface, complex fractures, to be honest, it¡¯s not very effective. It¡¯s like comparing a bow and arrow to a gun. Is a bow and arrow useful? Yes, it is! In small-scale use! Special forces even carry crossbows with them because they¡¯re silent, flameless, and suitable for infiltration and assassination. But in modern warfare, would you rely on a crossbow to fight battles? If you do, you¡¯re either out of your mind, or you¡¯ve been hit on the head.¡± Professor Zhang spoke with conviction, calmly and moderately. Professor Zhang continued, ¡°I once wrote a book in which I systematically analyzed traditional bone-setting from the perspectives of anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics.¡± Director Han laughed and said, ¡°This patient came to us with your book.¡± Professor Zhang was surprised, ¡°Can that book still be found? I wrote it in the seventies. Nowadays, doctors are not interested in this anymore. In the past, this was a skill passed down through generations, from father to son, but not to daughter. Times have changed, and we can¡¯t blame doctors. To master bone-setting, it takes many years of practice, at least a decade or so, until you¡¯re skilled. Even then, it¡¯s laborious. Several people will be sweating profusely to complete one procedure, and the charges are only a few tens of dollars. At the high end, it may cost one to two hundred dollars, hardly a livable income. Who would be willing to practice this? Besides, its application is limited. In the past, fractures were often caused by wrestling or fights, simple fractures that could be treated with manipulation. Nowadays, high-energy injuries such as car accidents are common. Any complex fracture you get will be in vain no matter how skilled you are at manipulation. Thus, I don¡¯t encourage everyone to practice this. The medical environment is not suitable for this practice, but those in pediatrics orthopedics may want to try. How is the patient?¡± Realizing he had strayed from the point, Professor Zhang quickly brought the conversation back on track. Director Han said, ¡°She fell off a horse while horseback riding, and her left hand swelled up when she tried to brace herself. She¡¯ll undergo surgery after the swelling subsides. Will there be anesthesia?¡± ¡°Definitely. In the past, we didn¡¯t have the conditions, and the patients would wail during bone-setting procedures. Some even fainted if their health was not good.¡± Professor Zhang thought that such practices were inhumane in those days. ¡°Xiao Yang, if you have time, take a look. It¡¯s okay whether you¡¯re interested in learning or not.¡± Professor Zhang said to Yang Ping. In fact, the old man was not stubborn but rather open-minded. With Professor Zhang¡¯s agreement, Director Han felt relieved. He took Yang Ping and Song Zimo to the Overseas Chinese Building to see Li Jingshu. Possibly after loosening the splint, her venous return became smooth and the swelling lessened. There was a fluffy panda stuffed animal next to her bed, and her dark red round glasses were on the bedside table. Accompanying her was a meticulously dressed woman who must be her mother, the Mayor¡¯s wife. On seeing the doctor come in, Mrs. Li immediately stood up. Department Director Zhuang introduced, ¡°This is our orthopedics department director, Professor Han.¡± Mrs. Li slightly bowed, ¡°Thank you so much for your trouble. This child is too willful and insists on refusing surgery. We understand that how could such a fracture get better without a surgery. Please give her another chance. I just spoke with her and if she still insists, we¡¯ll proceed with the surgery.¡± ¡°Professor Zhang currently has a hip fracture and just finished his surgery. He is in our department for recovery. I just discussed with him, and he agreed to help with the bone resetting after the swelling subsides,¡± Director Han replied, maintaining his dignity. Mrs. Li said, ¡°That¡¯s great, but I¡¯m sorry for all the trouble we¡¯ve caused you and Professor Zhang. Look at how much trouble my daughter has put everyone in. Xiao Zheng, get ready. We are going to visit Professor Zhang and thank him in person soon. What are you looking at? You are coming too. Despite his own fracture and hospital stay, the old professor still has to deal with us.¡± Li Jingshu stuck her tongue out at her mother. Xiao Zheng must be the female assistant who came with Mrs. Li. She stood silently on the side, very polite and respectful. Around thirty years old, she appeared very respectful. After scolding Li Jingshu, Mrs. Li turned to Director Han, ¡°Professor Han, when would be a good time for us to visit Professor Zhang? I feel uneasy without thanking him in person.¡± Director Han said, ¡°Let¡¯s wait until after the bone resetting. Let Professor Zhang have a good rest first.¡± Mrs. Li said, ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right. Thank you. Li Jingshu, my daughter, is spoiled by her father and me. Please forgive her for any inconvenience caused.¡± Li Jingshu pouted, looking a little impatient. After leaving the ward, Director Zhuang said, ¡°Dean Xia already took a look this morning. Could you report the situation to him again? He¡¯s also pretty busy. He spoke with Director Cao for more than an hour last night.¡± Director Han nodded. He said to Song Zimo, ¡°Discuss with the doctor in charge of the patient and prepare for the surgery. If the bone resetting fails, immediately proceed with the surgery. Once the swelling has subsided sufficiently, arrange for the procedure immediately.¡± Suddenly, Director Han remembered something, ¡°Xiao Yang, come with me.¡± Chapter 61 - 0059: There is no fastest, only faster Chapter 61: Chapter 0059: There is no fastest, only faster Director Han pulled him to a secluded place, ¡°What¡¯s the deal with you knowing Li Jingshu?¡± Yang Ping thought it was something serious, ¡°She¡¯s just the female reporter from the press conference, the first one who asked questions, the one with glasses, instigating everyone else to ask strange questions. If it wasn¡¯t for her, other reporters wouldn¡¯t have been so bold!¡± ¡°Oh! I see. If it¡¯s like that, it¡¯s fine.¡± Director Han seemed thoughtful. He had some vague recollection, but couldn¡¯t quite pin it down. It was no big deal, as long as their relationship was straightforward. Director Han was overthinking it. He mistakenly thought that this guy had some complicated romantic history with Li Jingshu. He didn¡¯t know why he had come up with such an odd idea. Looking back on it now, he thought he was being absurd. Now was a critical time for the department¡¯s development. The unity of the team was most important. There should be no problems with his key staff, even if there were personal romantic issues, they must be taken care of and shouldn¡¯t interfere with work. Indeed, he was overthinking. How could the Mayor¡¯s daughter have a thing for this guy? It was an unlikely occurrence. ¡°There¡¯s no problem, right? Director?¡± Yang Ping thought Director Han was acting a bit strange, appearing frankly quite confused. Director Han said, ¡°No problem, I was just asking. Let¡¯s go to the operating room. It looks like the ER has admitted two severed finger cases that have already been sent to the operating room. How come there are severed finger cases at this time, aren¡¯t they usually at noon or in the evening?¡± Usually, the severed finger emergencies were brought in from the surrounding factories, especially from hardware factories. Such accidents usually happen during overtime shifts in the afternoon or evening when workers are fatigued and not focused. At around eight or nine in the morning, when people are energetic and clear-minded, accidents involving severed fingers rarely occur. Song Zimo had already gone to the operating room, and Director Han and Yang Ping hurriedly followed. Director Han took a graduate student and a standardized training student to perform the surgery, allowing Yang Ping and Song Zimo to do the finger reattachment surgeries. An emergency operating room had been freed up, so they could perform the two surgeries simultaneously. Simultaneous surgeries? Song Zimo was rubbing his hands with anticipation. After training for so long, it was time to showcase his results. The two patients, one with a severed index finger and the other a little finger, were theoretically on the same level. Yang Ping paired up with Little Five, and Song Zimo paired up with Zhang Lin, both starting the surgeries simultaneously. After washing, sterilizing, setting up, debriding, fixing the bone fractures, moving the microscope into position, and bringing out the micro-instruments, everything was simple. The vascular anastomosis of 0.05 millimeters was done as quickly as suturing the skin. In Song Zimo¡¯s eyes, reattaching an adult¡¯s single digit was no different from doing a minor debridement and suturing operation. If there weren¡¯t complications like vascular crisis, he felt like performing it directly in the emergency room would be more convenient, saving the trouble of occupying a hospital bed. The previous mishap was a case in a hundred years, a premature baby, with brittle blood vessels. If that case were presented to him now, he would breeze through it. Locate the blood vessels, nerves, and tendons, and then stitch them together, one by one. After about forty minutes, he was done. Finished? Finished! Song Zimo, light as a feather, took off his surgical gown, flicked his sleeve, and did not leave behind a trace of worry. Unlike a fingertip replantation where only one artery and one vein are connected, the formal connection of two arteries and four veins in less than forty minutes is a feat not many can achieve nationwide. Song Zimo didn¡¯t know where he ranked nationwide, but he felt that defeating Yang Ping today wouldn¡¯t be a problem. ¡°I don¡¯t understand what these orthopedic surgeons are doing, completing a severed finger surgery in forty minutes?¡± The patrolling nurse watched Song Zimo lazily walk out of the operating room¡¯s automatic door and murmured quietly. He wandered over to Yang Ping¡¯s operating room and peered through the small glass window. Sure enough, he was just starting to bandage, meaning that he was minutes ahead. Although there¡¯s a difference in the thickness of the blood vessels between the little finger and the index finger, among top surgeons, this difference doesn¡¯t impact the speed at all. The automatic door opened, and Song Zimo leaned against the doorway, the feeling of reclaiming his throne was excellent, Yang Ping could indeed be defeated. ¡°So, can¡¯t find the blood vessels?¡± Song Zimo asked lazily, the undertone being: You are behind. Yang Ping, after finishing the bandage: ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± Su Yixuan tidied up the instruments, while the patrolling nurse tidied up the drapes, ¡°Young Master Song has finished as well? Why are there so many severed fingers today? There have been three surgeries already.¡± Hearing this, Song Zimo asked, ¡°Three surgeries, is there another one? When is it coming up?¡± The patrolling nurse said, ¡°Well, Dr. Yang just did two, you did one, doesn¡¯t that make three?¡± Song Zimo was instantly bombarded by a force capable of obliterating a planet. Such terror! Yang Ping! Didn¡¯t he have a limit? Leaning against the wall to rest, Yang Ping closed his eyes to rejuvenate and entered the system space. The progress bar for his task had already crossed the halfway mark. It seemed that the completion of the side task was imminent. He opened the system¡¯s library and gathered all books related to manual bone setting, including Professor Zhang¡¯s, and put them all on the bookshelf. He wanted to find any gaps in his skillset and complete them; each weakness must be addressed. He read each book one by one. It was Professor Zhang¡¯s that was the most informative. It wasn¡¯t simply teaching how to reset a bone, but rather, it dissected the process from anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics, elevating the technique from a matter of experience to a scientific theory. The others merely taught straightforward resetting, many of them indistinguishable from each other, knowledge that was also available in textbooks. Using Professor Zhang¡¯s book as a foundation and supplementing it with the other books, Yang Ping formed a complete theoretical system in his mind. With the theory in place, it was time to practice. Browsing the system¡¯s store, a training package called ¡°Manual Bone Setting¡± was found. He looked at it; the smallest packages contained at least twelve thousand case studies. However, the price was only four thousand points. The serious inversion between the number of cases and the price made him increasingly uncertain about the system¡¯s whims. What does twelve thousand cases mean? If a doctor resets one case a day, it would take about thirty years. People with a fear of large numbers would get goosebumps at this figure. For four thousand points, Yang Ping decisively purchased it! There were twelve thousand cases, some involving upper limbs, some lower limbs. Lower limb resetting often employs bone traction, while upper limbs generally use human traction. There were three thousand cases involving the humerus, two thousand each for the femur and tibia and fibula, and five thousand for the forearm fractures. With five thousand cases of manual resetting and the system¡¯s efficiency, he was an existence looking down on the masses. Yang Ping began intensive training. At first, each case took a long time, and he always failed. There was a window in the upper right corner of the space that showed a clear stereoscopic image of the limb being tested. Yang Ping¡¯s operations, the movement of the fracture, the contraction of the muscles, the tension of the ligaments ¨C they could all be seen in the window. He pondered repeatedly on how to use muscle ligament traction for indirect resetting and how to control the bone fragments directly through skin and muscle with his hands. Failure! Again, failure, and still failure! But Yang Ping did not lose heart. Using knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics, he repeatedly thought and felt his hands, and then adjusted according to the image in the window. When practicing forearm fractures, the system judged him as qualified after a thousand cases; proficient after two thousand; specialized after three thousand; perfect after four thousand. After completing the fifth set of thousand cases, he moved directly into the master level, extremely proficient and exhilarating! There was never such a thing as a lost art in the world. If others had not mastered it, you could; if others were not proficient, you could be more proficient. That was a lost art! Coming out of the system space, several more months of experience were added to Yang Ping¡¯s count. He now had no sense of disorientation in switching between time and space and adapted very well. Sometimes he wondered, what would it feel like to stay there for ten years, would he age? ¡°No! The time of the system will not have any effect on your physical body.¡± The female voice hadn¡¯t answered his question in a long time. However, Yang Ping was still uneasy. He suddenly remembered Inception, the feeling of being locked in the dream world. How eerie would that be? The manual bone setting had some effect on skill upgrading, and the limb fracture procedures had risen slightly, about to break through to perfection. Only the surgery for pelvic and acetabular fractures were missing. ¡°Hey! How many records do you have at most? Just one, give me a number.¡± Song Zimo asked indignantly. ¡°There¡¯s no fastest, only faster!¡± Yang Ping did not open his eyes. ¡°Damn it! That¡¯s not how you demoralize someone.¡± Song Zimo flippantly walked away. Chapter 62 - 0060: Can Anesthesia Reduce IQ? Chapter 62: Chapter 0060: Can Anesthesia Reduce IQ? After three days in the hospital, Li Jingshu¡¯s swelling had significantly subsided, and she was ready for manual reduction. According to the original plan, if manual reduction was unsuccessful, they would proceed to surgery. Professor Zhang insisted on walking on his own, leaning on his crutch, with everyone guarding his sides. To be honest, not to mention a complex dual bone fracture reduction in the forearm, everyone had little experience with even the simple ones. Manual reduction was like an endangered animal teetering on the brink of extinction. Li Jingshu was wheeled in by her mother. It was only a case of an upper limb fracture, and she could walk, but Mrs. Li still used a wheelchair to push her along. She rubbed her eyes, she looked a little haggard. This sudden trauma was a double attack emotionally and physically. Her orderly life had been disrupted. The uncertainty of recovery kept haunting her, making her worried and scared. ¡°Mom, I don¡¯t want surgery?¡± Li Jingshu turned her head, looking pitiful. Mrs. Li¡¯s heart ached as she stroked her daughter¡¯s hair, ¡°Silly girl, not everything can go according to your wishes. I would rather it was me who had the fracture, not my precious baby.¡± Her phone vibrated, Mrs. Li answered, ¡°We¡¯re about to head to the operating room, don¡¯t worry, everything will be fine. Professor Zhang will personally attempt the reduction. If it doesn¡¯t work, then we have to do surgery. Everything has been arranged, don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°It¡¯s your father.¡± Mrs. Li handed the phone to Li Jingshu. ¡°Uh-huh, dad, I¡¯m afraid of scarring. Uh-huh, I understand, don¡¯t worry.¡± Just like a wronged child, tears flowed from Li Jingshu¡¯s eyes. After ending the call, Mrs. Li said, ¡°Just relax, when the time comes the doctor will do cosmetic stitches for you. You know Sanbo Hospital, they¡¯ve successfully done a five-section replantation that sensationalized the whole country, you¡¯ve got nothing to worry about.¡± Mrs. Li reassured her, clutching her daughter¡¯s hand which was stretched over her shoulder. She knew well that the chances of successful manual reduction were slim. It was just a case of not giving up hope until the very end. ¡°No matter how they stitch it, there will be scars. You are lying to me. I¡¯m scared of surgery.¡± Li Jingshu sounded like a little girl. ¡°I will let you get a tattoo on your arm afterwards, okay?¡± Mrs. Li kept comforting her. ¡°I¡¯m not getting a tattoo.¡± Li Jingshu said. The surgery naturally took priority, and the operating room had long been prepared. While lying on the operating table, staring at the ceiling and the surgical lights, Li Jingshu¡¯s body started to shake slightly. The anesthesiologist was positioning her arm under a surface ultrasound, preparing to administer an axillary block anesthesia. This was the first time she felt so helpless. Her arm was in someone else¡¯s hands, and whether it was a success or failure was no longer up to her. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid, it¡¯s going to be alright. Even if we have to do surgery, we won¡¯t let the scar be too obvious. If worse comes to worst, you can work in the Northeast where you¡¯ll be bundled up in thick clothing all the time. Who will notice?¡± Yang Ping tried to comfort her. Seeing her pitiful look, Yang Ping¡¯s heart softened, and she no longer found her annoying. ¡°You make it sound like eating candy.¡± Li Jingshu said, becoming more and more scared, terrified of failure and ultimately, of surgery. Professor Zhang only assigned Yang Ping as a spectator, the assistant position was given to Song Zimo, and there was also that assistant graduate student, Xiao Mo. So she had nothing to do, she could chat with Li Jingshu a bit, it was purely voluntary encouragement. This kind of reduction normally required three people to cooperate¡ªtwo to do the traction and one to reposition the bone. It was just like a surgery, with clear roles for the main doctor and the assistant. ¡°Help me pull up my cap, it¡¯s covering my eyes. I¡¯m scared that if it doesn¡¯t work, I¡¯ll need surgery.¡± Li Jingshu turned her head. Yang Ping noticed her disposable sterile cap had slipped down, covering her eyes. She reached out to pull it up. ¡°Will the anesthesia lower my IQ?¡± Li Jingshu asked. I¡¯m faint, are you a well-educated person, asking such a stupid question. But on second thought, she isn¡¯t a medical student, of course she wouldn¡¯t understand. It¡¯s all assumptions when people are uninformed. In the past when he rotated in the emergency department, there were parents who firmly refused anesthesia for their children, especially general anesthesia. When asked why, they said their child was so smart they didn¡¯t want to make them stupid. Can anesthesia make people stupid? Only after Yang Ping had looked through a great deal of anesthetics literature, did he dare to conclude that anesthesia would not make people stupid. ¡°Your IQ is so high, losing a little bit won¡¯t matter. It¡¯s like losing one note from a $10,000 bundle, it¡¯s not a big deal.¡± Yang Ping casually replied. ¡°So it will lower my IQ after all?¡± She was almost in tears again. Yang Ping had thought she was joking. But it turned out she was asking sincerely. Patients¡¯ IQs drop to zero in front of diseases. This is a statement Yang Ping believed in now. This is also the theoretical basis for the rise of miraculous healers, like Tian. ¡°No, it won¡¯t!¡± Yang Ping reassured her, ¡°Anesthetics just temporarily block nerve conduction. The liver and kidneys of the human body will clear these substances. After a period, the body will have cleared the drugs, and they won¡¯t have any effect anymore. How could that lower your IQ?¡± Educated people like to hear the theory. After this explanation, she understood, and her crying turned into laughter. The anesthesia puncture was successful, and the drugs were infused into the nerve sheath and the surrounding area. The equipment on the other side was also almost ready. Bandages, splints, bone separators, pressure pads were laid out. The C-arm X-ray machine was also brought over. The Patrolling Nurse used a lead apron to shield Li Jingshu¡¯s lower abdomen, and a bib to cover her neck. To protect against X-rays, the focus was on the glands, such as the thyroid and gonads, for females the gonads are the ovaries. The splints were made of cedarwood bark, Sanbo Hospital didn¡¯t have such equipment, they only had splints with aluminum cores, which were not very suitable. These cedarwood splints were meticulously selected from the storeroom of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. Professor Zhang didn¡¯t yet know that this patient was the Mayor¡¯s daughter, not because he was slow, but he simply didn¡¯t care about these things. ¡°Young lady, don¡¯t be nervous, we¡¯ll help you with another reduction. If it doesn¡¯t work, we¡¯ll have to resort to surgery. But there¡¯s no need to fear surgery, we¡¯ll try our best to sew it up in a way that the scars are not noticeable,¡± Professor Zhang reassured her kindly. The Head Nurse had already brought a chair, Professor Zhang sat on it, after all he had just finished an operation, even though he could walk, he couldn¡¯t be as relaxed as usual. The height of the operating bed was adjusted to match the height of Professor Zhang¡¯s chair. Director Han was also present, as for the reduction, it was something he had done in his youth, it was merely a youthful memory to him. Others who missed the surgery, those whose surgeries had not yet started, all gathered around to see. The Head Nurse drove many away because too many people would interfere with the operation. The office director, dressed in visitor¡¯s clothing, also came in, representing the hospital leadership, to show their concern. The hospital leaders and their families staying in the hospital, those who Dean Xia personally visited, the time of the visit, the duration, and the quantity of flower and fruit baskets, none of these were done at random, there were rules. ¡°Miss Li, hello! Dean Xia is in a meeting and asked me to come on his behalf. Don¡¯t be nervous, Professor Zhang is an expert in manual reduction, we will do all we can to assist.¡± The purpose of a visit is to make your status known, otherwise, the visit would be deemed as wasted. The Office Director¡¯s words were quite bureaucratic, but he was addressing Li Jingshu who was trembling and looking as feeble as a little girl, hence it felt a bit misplaced. Li Jingshu looked innocently at the Office Director, seeming to have not registered what he had said. The details didn¡¯t matter, what mattered was that the protocol had been completed. When he left, he wouldn¡¯t simply leave but would report the progress in the operating room to Mrs. Li. The idea was to make it clear to Mrs. Li that a representative of the hospital¡¯s leadership had visited, otherwise, it would have been a wasted visit. Although Yang Ping disliked these formalities, he understood its necessity in these professional settings. Xiao Mo was using the small splint to compare against Li Jingshu¡¯s upper right limb, trying to measure the splint¡¯s length and width. Generally, the limbs on both sides are similar, by comparing with the healthy limb, it can alleviate the patient¡¯s pain and fear. Li Jingshu¡¯s reaction was intense, she immediately tensed up and said, ¡°You¡¯ve got it wrong, it¡¯s the left side.¡± ¡°He¡¯s just comparing the size of the splint, to estimate the measurement.¡± Yang Ping explained. Nowadays there is pre-surgery check, the patient¡¯s surgery is checked once upon acceptance at the ward; checked again upon entering the operating room; and once more before surgery. There are very few cases of operated body parts being misidentified. Previously, without these strict regulations, mistakes did happen. The most serious case was at a big hospital, two children, same sex, same age, same name, one was to undergo surgery for a congenital heart defect, and the other to have his tonsils removed. The child with the tonsils problem was mistakenly sent to the thoracic surgery room, and the one with the congenital heart defect was sent to the ear, nose, and throat department operating room. In any case, the surgery was prepared by assistants, sterilizing and arranging sheets, everything was done, then the professor came onto the stage, and all he saw was the prepared surgical area. The professor was very efficient, his skills were top-notch. Opening the chest! Damn it, something was wrong, there was no heart malformation. The professor¡¯s hand was shaking so much that he could not hold the instrument steadily. As a result, the patient with the heart malformation had his tonsils removed, and the one with the tonsils problem had his chest opened. This incident was later reported nationally, hence hospitals had organized doctors for learning sessions. But this was a low-probability event, similar to a plane falling from the sky. The anesthesia took effect, the splint was cut to the correct size, Li Jingshu¡¯s left limb was placed on the C arm machine¡¯s detector. Professor Zhang had also finished studying the CT 3D reconstruction. Professor Zhang, Song Zimo, Xiao Mo put on their lead clothing, everything was ready, they began the reduction. ¡°Don¡¯t leave!¡± Li Jingshu saw Yang Ping preparing to leave and seemed a bit frightened. Possibly because he had just accompanied her in a chat, she got a brief sense of security. Professor Zhang said, ¡°Put on the lead coat, it¡¯s good to watch.¡± Yang Ping put on the lead coat that Little Five brought, and stood aside. All other personnel were cleared from the room. Chapter 63 - 0061: Fighting Technique of Left and Right Chapter 63: Chapter 0061: Fighting Technique of Left and Right Song Zimo and Xiao Mo continued their traction for several minutes. Professor Zhang laid his hand on the site and gently fiddled with it. Hands-on bone setting! This is the primary technique in orthopedics, requiring the practitioner to gain a sense of the bone fragments underneath the skin and muscle ¨C how many there are, what shape each one is, and where they are located. Traditional bone setting techniques include: touching, joining, lifting, pressing, rubbing, pushing, and grasping. New bone setting techniques: feeling with hand, stretching and traction, rotation and flexion, lifting and pressing, swaying and touching, splitting the bone, top twisting and rotation, massage pushing and pulling. Whether it¡¯s traditional or modern techniques that combine eastern and western methodologies, tactile sensation is put in the first place. This is the foundation for all subsequent techniques; without it, none of the later techniques can be implemented. The so-called hands-on technique, everything relies on the feeling and control of the hands. Our ancestors, who survived through experience, truly maximized their application of experience. In Wuqiao, hometown of acrobatics, teacher Wu Baohe with his masterful hands could perform the acrobatic trick ¡®Three Immortals Returning to the Cave¡¯, where no one could spot any flaw. Foreigners used several high-definition cameras to shoot from different angles, and then played the footage in slow motion, hoping to find a flaw, but they just couldn¡¯t. Hands-on technique! It can be played to such an unsurpassable extent. Professor Zhang sat on the chair, his chair was very stable, and his hands were even more so. He carefully sensed the shape and condition of each piece of the radius and ulna bones underneath the skin and muscles, and he knew precisely how each piece was. The number of people who could reach this stage in the whole country could probably be counted on one¡¯s fingers. Professor Zhang began to manipulate the bone pieces, returning them to their place one by one according to a pre-designed sequence. Pieces of bone with attached soft tissues are relatively easier to reposition, just like leading an ox. There is a rope to guide it and slowly lead the ox into the pen. Free pieces of bone with no soft tissues attached would be like a free ox without a guiding rope; to get it into the pen, you can only drive it. It goes without saying which one is easier, leading the ox or driving it. ¡°Bend it, yes! Now straighten, over-extend it, further extend it, stop! Then return to the straight position, rotate it, slowly rotate it, good!¡± Professor Zhang directed Song Zimo and Xiao Mo as they precisely followed his commands. During the movements, Professor Zhang¡¯s hands never halted and he seized each opportunity to drive the ¡°ox¡± into place. It was an even greater skill to reposition the pieces in motion compared to repositioning them in a still state. One needed to understand how to achieve the movement, when the opportunity to reposition the bone piece would arise during that movement, and how to control this bone piece to cooperate with the movement and fit into place. The people next door watched the screen. Although they did not fully understand what they saw, they knew they were witnessing a highly skilled technique. Cameras shot from different angles, presenting multiple angle views. Some of the students even tried to mimic Professor Zhang¡¯s actions in the air as if they too had a patient under their hands. ¡°That will do!¡± Professor Zhang lifted his hand off Li Jingshu¡¯s forearm: ¡°let¡¯s have a look!¡± Inside, only Yang Ping was free. He stepped on the footswitch of the C-arm X-ray machine. An X-ray image of the forearm bones immediately appeared on the screen. The radius had been completely reset, but the ulna had not met the requirements. For bone fracture resetting, there are anatomical resetting and functional resetting. Anatomical resetting is to completely restore it to its pre-injury state, without any deviation. Functional resetting is to restore it to approximately its original state with a certain deviation, but this deviation will not affect your use of it, that is, it will not leave any disability. The ulna, however, didn¡¯t even meet the requirements of functional resetting. Professor Zhang shook his head. He was clearly sure of it. Was it unstable? The people next door had never seen real bonesetting techniques before. Usually, it is a simple traction and flexion for fractures of the distal radius or upper humeral fracture. It¡¯s not a genuine example of bone setting technique. Today, seeing this case of a comminuted and clearly displaced fracture of both the ulna and radius, the radius could be reset so well, they truly got to see real bone setting. Professor Zhang pondered, a fracture of the ulna and the radius is not simply about resetting the ulna first and then the radius. It is necessary to take both into account as treating one could lead to compromising the other since they function as a finely coordinated whole. ¡°Xiao Song, your turn! Xiao Yang, help with the traction!¡± commanded Professor Zhang. He wanted to swap in another person. Maybe due to his age or not having operated for a long time, his hands may not offer the same sensitivity as before. Young people tend to have more sensitive nerve endings, and they may have a higher chance of success. Moreover, he had trained Song Zimo personally and was well aware of his resetting skills. Yang Ping took over Song Zimo¡¯s position and held onto Li JingShu¡¯s elbow along with Xiao Mo to maintain the traction. Song Zimo helped Professor Zhang stand up, moved the chair back and assisted the professor in sitting down once again. Now standing in the position previously occupied by Professor Zhang, Song Zimo started the resetting procedure. In truth, he was eager to show his abilities. He was competitive and wanted to outperform others. The stronger Yang Ping¡¯s inability was shown, the greater he wanted to demonstrate his proficiency. Since childhood, he had been academically dominant. In his dictionary, there was no term such as ¡®second place¡¯. A slight stir went up from the room next door. ¡°Does Song Zimo also know hands-on bone setting?¡± ¡°After learning with Professor Zhang for a few years, it¡¯s not just about knowing, he¡¯s brilliant!¡± ¡°It seems he knows how to do everything.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t help it, since he¡¯s so smart, he catches onto things as soon as he¡¯s taught.¡± ¡°It seems like he¡¯s good at basketball too.¡± ¡°Not just good, but a key player in the hospital team. We won the Medical System Basketball Championship several times, and he played a significant part in those victories.¡± ¡°Ah, how can someone be so skilled at everything? I¡¯d be satisfied if I was this good at just one thing.¡± ¡°Forget it, comparing ourselves to others will only make us unhappy.¡± Yang Ping maintained the traction force, admiring Song Zimo. This guy was truly talented, and he wasn¡¯t bluffing. Song Zimo placed his hand, for the ulna! Now he needed to reposition the ulna. He furrowed his brows slightly, getting himself mentally prepared and focused on what he was feeling in his hands, bit by bit. To those around, it was hard to see much, only the careful handling of his hands, instructing his assistant to rotate, flex, and extend. ¡°How are we doing, Xiao Song?¡± Professor Zhang asked. Upon hearing the ¡®click¡¯ sound, Song Zimo nodded, ¡°It should be done now.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s do a fluoroscopy,¡± Song Zimo said, realizing that he was the only one able to manipulate the C-arm machine, so he stepped on the switch himself. The image appeared on the screen. The ulna was repositioned completely, but the radius was not yet repositioned. Despite this, everyone couldn¡¯t help but marvel. They managed to manually reposition such a fragmented fracture. Professor Zhang shook his head, it still wasn¡¯t satisfactory. Further attempts at repositioning might not guarantee success. Professor Zhang analyzed that the previous attempts at repositioning might have damaged the soft tissue attachments of some bone fragments, leading to instability. They were stretching themselves too thin. Too many attempts at manual repositioning could lead to ossifying myositis, where certain areas of the muscle calcify and turn into bones. This complication may sometimes lead to severe functional disability and residual impairment. Professor Zhang once again examined the CT scans on the lights and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go for surgery. Call Director Han¨C¡± ¡°Stop!¡± The tears in Li Jingshu¡¯s eyes spilled over her cheeks. ¡°Please give it another try!¡± Li Jingshu pleaded. Professor Zhang shook his head, ¡°We can¡¯t try again. The fracture is unstable and it¡¯s hard to cater to both sides. Attempting again would only increase the damage.¡± Song Zimo looked a bit dazed, staring at the illuminated radiographs. Professor Zhang told him, ¡°To successfully reposition this type of fracture, a person needs to use both hands simultaneously. The left hand repositions the radius while the right repositions the ulna, or vice versa. I could have done it before, but it¡¯s been a long time since I performed this kind of manoeuvre.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t the two of us work together? Reposition simultaneously. You handle the radius and I handle the ulna?¡± Song Zimo asked tentatively, unwilling to give up. But Professor Zhang shook his head again, ¡°It¡¯s not possible. The hands need to simultaneously sense and guide the bones¡¯ movements based on that sensation. Two individuals can¡¯t unify these sensory perceptions, let alone command the movements. Furthermore, both hands need to work in perfect harmony. How can two persons possibly collaborate seamlessly? It¡¯s as difficult as trying to play the same unknown piece on a piano with four hands.¡± Seeing Song Zimo¡¯s determined expression, Professor Zhang explained, ¡°If this happened thirty years ago, I could have repositioned it with both hands simultaneously. But, it¡¯s not as simple as just getting both hands to operate at once. Each hand needs to perform completely differently according to a pre-planned strategy, just like writing different words with each hand simultaneously. It¡¯s easier said than done. It¡¯s a highly difficult procedure, and I can¡¯t do it anymore. We should move forward with surgery.¡± ¡°Simultaneous left and right?¡± Song Zimo thought of a term. Professor Zhang nodded, ¡°Correct!¡± Director Ouyang might have finished a surgery as he had time to come and check in on them. His graduate student immediately reported to him, ¡°We need to perform simultaneous left and right.¡± Upon hearing these words, Director Ouyang was reminded of a memory from over a decade ago. His senior had refused surgery for a comminuted fracture of the radius and ulna with significant displacement. When they sought help from a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, the attempt to reposition the fracture failed, forcing them to seek help from their mentor. The mentor managed to arrange for him to see a centenarian in Beijing immediately. Ouyang had accompanied his senior on that trip. The centenarian performed the simultaneous left and right operation, managing to anatomically reposition all those displaced bone fragments. This left Director Ouyang so astounded that he replayed the scene in his mind for several days. Director Ouyang often shared this story with his graduate students, which is why they were familiar with the term ¡®simultaneous left and right¡¯.¡¯ Hearing this interesting term, a doctor standing nearby couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°You mean Zhou Botong¡¯s simultaneous left and right technique?¡± The graduate student responded, ¡°It¡¯s almost the same. Each hand independently manipulates the bone fragments, following different paths. Plus, they need to coordinate with each other, managing both sides equally. The difficulty level is extremely high. Although it sounds simple to position the bone by hand, the real skill is in the hands.¡± ¡°Ah, I think Professor Zhang should be able to do it. He studied this technique extensively in the past and has even learned from numerous masters.¡± ¡°He might have been able to in the past. But as he hasn¡¯t used this technique in a long time, we can¡¯t be sure if he can still do it.¡± Chapter 64 - 0062: Devil’s Hand Chapter 64: Chapter 0062: Devil¡¯s Hand ¡°Performing manipulations with both hands is the ultimate skill in bone setting, an unspoken secret. Professor Zhang mentioned it in his book, but only in passing¡ªwith no detailed instructions for training. Song Zimo had tried to practise it, but it was too difficult, and he lacked a sufficient number of cases for hands-on practice. Eventually, he simply gave up. ¡°Don¡¯t try to reset it anymore, proceed with the surgery. We can¡¯t blindly continue. Operating with both hands is the most skill-intensive in bone setting. When I was studying under my mentor, he feared that this technique would be lost, so after much consideration, he finally passed it on to me, but under the condition that it remain confidential. To keep my promise, I didn¡¯t detail it in my book. This reticence is part of why traditional Chinese medicine has declined. If Western medicine were to be this secretive about their surgical techniques, I suspect even an appendectomy would become an unspoken secret.¡± Professor Zhang waved his hand dismissively. Li Jingshu¡¯s heart felt like it had plunged into icy water. Although she had prepared for surgery, the reality of confronting it was difficult to accept. She had no choice but to cry alone, quietly. ¡°Task: Eliminate the disease with a touch, perform a complex repositioning for a bilateral forearm fracture, fulfill the patient¡¯s desire not to undergo surgery. Success earns a reward of 8000 points and a loyal friend in the media industry.¡± Finally, the system issued another task, though the difficulty of completing it was high. Director Han entered, ¡°I¡¯ll go and speak with the patient¡¯s family to prepare for surgery.¡± They had already discussed and signed consent forms prior to the operation, but it was customary to still inform the family at this juncture. Just as Director Han reached the doorway, Yang Ping suddenly exclaimed, ¡°Wait!¡± Wait! Li Jingshu echoed. Like seeing a glimmer of hope in their desperation, Li Jingshu instantly tried to sit upright, but Yang Ping held her down. ¡°You have a solution?¡± In her desperation for treatment, her thinking was chaotic. If he could perform the five-section replantation, surely he must have a solution. However, the five-section replantation had nothing to do with bone-setting techniques. Li Jingshu understood this, but she insisted on connecting the two, forcibly using the former as a basis for the latter, just so she could cling to some hope. Self-deception. Song Zimo was taken off guard: ¡°You have a solution?¡± This referred to another solution, as performing manipulations with both hands was impossible. Director Han paused, ¡°Xiao Yang, what is the issue?¡± Professor Zhang also let out a sigh, ¡°Alright, don¡¯t waste time. Prepare for surgery. If swelling sets in, the surgery will have to be postponed.¡± Next door, everyone was about to depart, figuring there was nothing more to see of the surgery. They had all been excited by Professor Zhang¡¯s bone-setting technique; after all, in the medical field, Professor Zhang still retained some legendary status. But now, seeing Director Han pause and the discordant discussion within the room, it seemed the situation might be changing. Everyone settled back down. Director Ouyang said to Dr. Jin, who was urging for the surgery to begin, ¡°You go ahead, I¡¯ll sit here for a while.¡± Could it be that Professor Zhang was about to perform the technique of manipulating with both hands? Among the younger people, only Xiao Lei, Director Ouyang¡¯s graduate student, understood this technique. His interest piqued, he was prepared to explain it to others. ¡°Is operating with both hands really that difficult?¡± asked someone beside him, completely oblivious to the technique. Xiao Lei said, ¡°For one person, imagine beating two different drums with each hand, each with its own rhythm and melody, simultaneously. Would you find that difficult?¡± This did seem difficult, and the person beside him ceased talking. With everyone else clueless, Xiao Lei held the knowledge, naturally attracting everyone towards him for professional explanations. Xiao Lei fully enjoyed the feeling of being the center of attention¡ªwho wouldn¡¯t? ¡°I¡¯ll give it a go.¡± Yang Ping said with confidence. Li Jingshu voiced her support instantly, pleading, ¡°Let him give it a try!¡± A last straw was better than nothing, regardless of whether it worked. ¡°You?¡± A trace of surprise flashed across Song Zimoo¡¯s cool face. Right now, facing a challenging surgery, he wouldn¡¯t have any doubts. But bone setting? You would need a large number of case practices and a good mentor to guide you intensively. Without a mentor, which patient would willingly offer their fractures for you to manipulate? ¡°Let me try once more.¡± Yang Ping requested. ¡°Xiao Yang¡ª¡± Director Han didn¡¯t understand why Yang Ping was persisting. Professor Zhang sat on his chair, turned his head, and stared at the light box for a long time before saying: ¡°Let him try, but only once. He can¡¯t take up too much time or stubbornly persist.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± Yang Ping was elated to receive approval. Song Zimo took over from Yang Ping to maintain the traction. Yang Ping moved to the outer side of the left forearm. Li Jingshu¡¯s originally fair and smooth arm was now covered in bruises with patches of dry blisters. ¡°Bring him a chair.¡± Professor Zhang instructed, and Director Han immediately brought a simple chair from the operating room for Yang Ping. Yang Ping sat down. His hands, like those of a pianist about to play a note, hovered over Li Jingshu¡¯s forearm for a moment, without touching down. ¡°Doctor Yang?¡± ¡°Is he coming?¡± Xiao Lei in the next room noticed the change of people¡¯s positions in the room. Could it be that Professor Zhang was imparting his special wisdom and letting him experience it firsthand? Xiao Lei regretted not going in, he should have volunteered to wear a lead gown and stay inside. Yang Ping¡¯s hands gently landed on the surface of Li Jingshu¡¯s forearm, starting to feel around. The information about the bone fragments was transmitted to the tactile nerves of his fingers through skin and muscles. Quantity, shape, location, condition, all were gradually completed in his mind bit by bit. The feeling of bone pieces in his hand was intricate, like understanding, obedient elves. As long as he figured out their personalities, they would obediently move to their rightful position. The order of which one moves first and which one moves next is well-arranged, just as if a machine that could perform three-dimensional scanning was monitoring them at the moment. Those bone pieces must be truly adorable. They would kindly bypass each other, then return to their original positions and assemble back into their original forms. Operating with both hands separately, were it not for this kind of super cultivation technique, this would undoubtedly be an unreachable skill. ¡°Can he operate with both hands separately?¡± Director Ouyang immediately called out to Xiao Lei, ¡°A lead gown, grab a lead gown.¡± No matter how clear the screen is, even a close-up camera can¡¯t replace the real thing. Among those present, Director Ouyang might be the only one who had witnessed the technique of dual operation with his own eyes. People tend to have a sense of mystery toward these traditional techniques. The closed-off method of inheritance is likely to generate a sense of mystery. Director Ouyang put on a lead gown and took another one with him. Xiao Lei was following behind him, to which Director Ouyang said, ¡°Don¡¯t go in.¡± He was afraid that if everyone followed him inside, things would get out of hand. Director Ouyang gently opened the door separating the two rooms and silently went in. He stood aside and handed a lead gown to Director Han. Despite the preparation of a lead screen in the operating room, it was better to wear a lead gown. That¡¯s right, dual operation. This young man in his twenties could actually perform a dual operation. He had seen it over a decade ago and this was exactly how it was done. That scene had stayed in his memory for over a decade. From then on, he always treated traditional culture with deep reverence. ¡°Flexion, abduction, adduction, anteversion, slowly move to retroversion, stop, maintain at a traction!¡± Every order was like a command, no doubts, no reduction. This was the scene, this was the feeling. Director Ouyang was absolutely thrilled. The scene that had been imprinted in his memory for more than ten years being played out again, how could it not make him excited. Each change in position, Yang Ping seized the opportunity during the motion and controlled different bone pieces with both hands, allowing them to return to their optimum position at the right time. Professor Zhang was struggling to his feet with the help of the chair, Director Han saw him and immediately supported him. His facial muscles were trembling. Young as he was, this young man could actually carry out dual operation, the highest art of orthopedic manipulation. Where did he learn that? There must be someone who carefully guided him and through hard training, he mastered it. Moreover, without hundreds or even thousands of cases, he couldn¡¯t have practiced it. ¡°Maintain at an external rotation traction, the traction force is not enough, do not slack, keep your hand movements stable.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s tone was stern. Song Zimo immediately put a little more force into his hands. ¡°The splint!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s hands left Li Jingshu¡¯s forearm. ¡°Xiao Yang, shall we use the fluoroscopy machine first?¡± Professor Zhang suggested. ¡°Let¡¯s use the fluoroscopy machine after applying the splint!¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°Alright!¡± Professor Zhang agreed. Director Ouyang assisted in providing the splint, which was clamped on from four different sides, front, back, inside and outside. The back splint was bent, crossing the elbow joint, the fixation beyond the elbow. The bone splints and pressure pads were placed correctly, and the splints were skillfully applied. The bandage was skillfully wrapped around in his hand, tied, trimmed, and fastened. ¡°Fluoroscopy!¡± Director Ouyang helped by stepping on the pedal. The X-ray fluoroscopy image shown on the screen. Those present in the operating room, all leaned closer to look; those in the room next door, stared closely at the screen. The radius and ulna bones have completely returned to their original positions! A magic hand! Someone exclaimed in astonishment. Chapter 65 - 0063 What exactly can’t you do Chapter 65: Chapter 0063 What exactly can¡¯t you do ¡°Ding dong! Task accomplished, patient¡¯s wish fulfilled, and the traditional orthopedic technique is promoted, rewarded with 8000 points, and a Super Orthopedic Trauma Cultivation Gift Pack is given.¡± This really is a super training technique. It was only after treating 5000 cases of forearm fractures that this unique skill was developed. Yang Ping sighed. ¡°Was it successful?¡± Li Jingshu asked in a small voice. She was lying on the operating table. Although she could only see the ceiling, she could hear everything. Yang Ping stood by the surgical bed, his gaze fixed on the C-arm machine¡¯s screen, paying no attention to what Li Jingshu was saying. Li Jingshu wanted to tug at him, but her left hand was immobilized in a splint. Her right hand couldn¡¯t reach, and she was afraid to turn over in case she rolled off the operating table. ¡°Doctor Yang!¡± Li Jingshu¡¯s voice was much louder. Only then did Yang Ping hear her: ¡°Oh! Are you calling me?¡± ¡°Was it successful?¡± Li Jingshu asked. ¡°Yep, you won¡¯t have to go work in the Northeast now.¡± Yang Ping stated casually. Li Jingshu was delighted; it was like being given a second chance at life after surviving a dangerous situation. ¡°Do you have tissues?¡± Li Jingshu asked. Who carries tissues during surgery? Yang Ping took a pack of sterile gauze from the cabinet and handed it to her: ¡°Use this, it¡¯s clean.¡± As he handed her the gauze, he realized she must be having trouble wiping her tears, given her left arm was fractured and her right had an IV needle in it. Yang Ping casually wiped her tears with the gauze, causing Li Jingshu to laugh foolishly a few times. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s take her back to the ward now, making sure to adjust the tightness of the splint and pay attention to her circulation,¡± Professor Zhang declared firmly. The X-ray displayed on the monitor left no room for dispute; both the radius and ulna bones were perfectly realigned. ¡°All finished here, everybody can come in now,¡± Director Ouyang called out. The anesthesiologist and the patrolling nurse came in. ¡°Transfer her to the Overseas Chinese Building!¡± Song Zimo exclaimed. He had glanced towards Yang Ping several times. He had suffered two stunning blows in two days and was taking a hit to his confidence, temporarily unable to bounce back. ¡°Is there anything you can¡¯t do?¡± Song Zimo finally couldn¡¯t help but ask. Yang Ping responded: ¡°What do you think?¡± Song Zimo glared at him. ¡°I¡¯ll go and talk to the family,¡± Director Han said, clearly still in awe. Xiao Mo also stared at the screen, stroking his chin, and only joined the group transferring the patient after Song Zimo urged him several times. ¡°Thank you,¡± Li Jingshu said as she moved to the wheelchair, pulling a funny face. ¡°There¡¯s no need to thank me. Just avoid asking such tricky questions next time,¡± Yang Ping muttered under his breath. The patrolling nurse, anesthetist, and Song Zimo escorted the patient whilst Xiao Mo stayed with Professor Zhang. Yang Ping, naturally, was held back until Li Jingshu had left the operating room. Professor Zhang asked: ¡°Where did you learn the ambidextrous technique?¡± Yang Ping could hardly say: ¡®The system¡¯s super-cultivation technique, after treating 5000 cases of forearm fractures, finally cultivated this pair of magical hands.¡¯ ¡°Professor Zhang, you mentioned it in your book.¡± Yang Ping scratched his head. ¡°My book only briefly discusses the concept, without revealing any details,¡± Old Zhang replied earnestly. Yang Ping said, ¡°Those few sentences were enough. Ambidexterity is nothing more than doing two different things with each hand at the same time. When I had just graduated, I read your book and started practicing. When I didn¡¯t have patients, I practiced with long bags of rice, hiding broken sticks in them.¡± Professor Zhang nodded his head slowly, ¡°Just doing two things at once,¡± he said, ¡°You make it sound so easy.¡± If it¡¯s not practiced, will it fall from the sky? This is the only explanation. Thinking about it, this explanation is quite reasonable. But the fact that this could be practiced indicates a high level of talent and significant effort. Professor Zhang looked at Yang Ping with a gaze full of appreciation and affection. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s return to the ward together and chat while walking. Get a wheelchair and push me; my legs are numb,¡± Professor Zhang decided not to probe further. Director Han patted Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Kid, I didn¡¯t know you had so many tricks up your sleeve.¡± Then, after letting out a few hearty laughs, he said, ¡°Teacher Zhang, I have to pop over to the Overseas Chinese Building. This patient is the mayor¡¯s daughter, and I have to check on her frequently.¡± Professor Zhang responded with an ¡°oh¡±, showing no reaction to the mention of the mayor¡¯s status. After bidding farewell, Director Han left. Director Ouyang, remembering that he still had a surgery to perform with Dr. Jin, also excused himself and left. None of the people from the next room left; they probably didn¡¯t dare to come in because of Professor Zhang¡¯s presence. They were waiting for an opportunity to rush in, look at the X-ray film on the screen, and consult Yang Ping. Xiao Mo brought a wheelchair from the operating room and helped Professor Zhang sit on it. Yang Ping pushed the wheelchair while Xiao Mo walked along. They went to the changing room to change their clothes and then headed back to the ward. Mrs. Li, along with her assistant, was waiting outside Professor Zhang¡¯s ward, with Dean Sun and Head Nurse Yao Ling accompanying her. Seeing Professor Zhang returning in a wheelchair, Dean Sun and the Head Nurse immediately went forward. Dean Sun said, ¡°Old Zhang, this is Li Jingshu¡¯s mother, Mrs. Li, the Mayor¡¯s wife. She insists on thanking you in person!¡± Mrs. Li, radiant and slightly bowing, entered the ward with the wheelchair and said, ¡°Professor Zhang, I can¡¯t thank you enough. Our entire family is grateful to you.¡± As someone experienced in dealing with all sorts of situations, her manner and speech were graceful and appropriate, which made everyone feel at ease. ¡°Oh! Why are you here? The patient has already returned to her ward.¡± Prof. Zhang said unexpectedly. The situation was a bit awkward, but Mrs. Li, unfazed, continued to smile, ¡°Indeed, Jingshu has just returned to her ward. Despite yourself being a patient, you didn¡¯t hesitate to perform the repositioning surgery for Jingshu. We are extremely grateful. This is a small token of our gratitude, you mustn¡¯t refuse.¡± Mrs. Li took the gift box handed over by her assistant, placed it respectfully on the makeshift table next to the bed. There were two boxes of Korean ginseng. Professor Zhang said, ¡°The repositioning was quite challenging. Yang did a good job with it. The bone is fully repositioned now, but there¡¯s still a risk of displacement. We cannot afford to take it lightly.¡± Everyone didn¡¯t pay much attention to Professor Zhang¡¯s comment about Yang doing the repositioning. Mrs. Li assumed that Yang was his student, and it was perfectly standard for the student to perform the operation under the guidance of the senior professor. Yang Ping and Xiao Mo helped Professor Zhang rise slowly and sit by the bedside. Professor Zhang waved his hand and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I appreciate the sentiment, but take away these gifts. They¡¯re quite expensive but not particularly useful to me.¡± The situation was awkward, but Mrs. Li kept her smile and composed demeanor intact, not showing even a hint of displeasure. Dean Sun quickly smoothed things over, ¡°Mrs. Li, Professor Zhang has been practicing medicine for nearly sixty years and has never accepted gifts from patients. We should not break his rule.¡± Mrs. Li immediately responded with a laugh, ¡°I apologize for the imposition, I admire Professor Zhang¡¯s integrity and code of ethics, so we won¡¯t breach his rule.¡± ¡°Professor Zhang, you should rest now. We won¡¯t disturb you any further.¡± Dean Sun promptly ended the visit. They made some small talk and then left Professor Zhang¡¯s ward. Little Five came looking for Yang Ping to take some photographs. Professor Zhang said, ¡°You all go and do your work, I will rest for a while.¡± Xiao Mo helped Professor Zhang lie down, Yang Ping tucked him in, and then turned off the room lights. Head Nurse Yao Ling was holding a banner, ¡°Come on, Doctor Yang, it¡¯s a token of gratitude from your patient.¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five stood on either side holding the banner, Yao Ling took the photos with Yang Ping in the center. After taking the photo, they showed it to Yang Ping. Zhang Lin took a peek and said grumpily, ¡°No beauty filter, this won¡¯t do. It has to filter out the acne on my face. Let¡¯s retake the photo.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not the main character. Why do you want to look so handsome?¡± teased Head Nurse Yao Ling. But Zhang Lin was persistent, leaving her no choice but to retake the picture. ¡°Which patient sent this?¡± Yang Ping couldn¡¯t remember. ¡°It¡¯s the one who had an amputation at the construction site,¡± Little Five replied. Zhang Lin was looking at the photo on his phone with a grin. Little Five commented, ¡°Zhang Lin, you didn¡¯t really participate in the rescue of this patient, why are you so keen on taking photos?¡± Head Nurse Yao Ling responded, ¡°If he doesn¡¯t take the photo, how would he brag to his wife about patients giving him banners again?¡± Zhang Lin immediately turned his phone away, ¡°Are you peeking at my text messages? Do you have any sense of privacy!¡± Chapter 66 - 0064: The Ultimate Cultivation Method Chapter 66: Chapter 0064: The Ultimate Cultivation Method The original plan was to perform surgery for Li Jingshu this morning, but she no longer needs the surgery now. So they let the next patient move up in the schedule, but this patient sneakily ate some biscuits, the anesthesiologist did not dare to administer anesthesia, and the third case was scheduled earlier as a result. Zhang Lin went back to the ward to find the patient who ate biscuits and deliver preoperative education again. Little Five went back to the ward with him as well. A patient gave a banner of appreciation, and the senior nurse asked everyone to take a photo. After the photo, Yang Ping was ready to take them back to the operating room. A nurse ran over, anxiously asking: ¡°Where is the nurse manager?¡± She was just here, the nurse manager always walks like the wind. ¡°Doctor Yang, we have a problem.¡± Not seeing the nurse manager, the nurse turned to Yang Ping, perhaps believing that she could offer advice. ¡°Are you new here? Can you use the word ¡®problem¡¯ so casually? What¡¯s wrong?¡± Zhang Lin was not pleased. ¡°You all come over and take a look.¡± The nurse was very anxious, and she pulled Yang Ping along. Yang Ping followed her into the procedure room, Zhang Lin and Little Five followed also. In the yellow waste bin, there was a broken urinary catheter with blood on it. ¡°What¡¯s going on? You broke the urinary catheter. It can¡¯t be that violent, can it?¡± asked Zhang Lin in surprise. Breaking a urinary catheter is a low-level error. Even the interns can¡¯t make such a mistake. ¡°Oh my!¡± The nurse was stomping anxiously: ¡°It wasn¡¯t me, this was found in the restroom of bed 31. The patient in bed 31 is missing, his phone is off. The patient in the bed next to him said that when he woke up in the morning, the bed next to his was empty.¡± ¡°Bed 31? Isn¡¯t that Director Ouyang¡¯s bed? Who is in charge of that patient?¡± asked Yang Ping. ¡°Dr. Lei is in charge of this patient. He was admitted from the emergency room last night with a wrist cut by a knife, with severed blood vessels, nerves, and tendons. The surgery was performed by the Director,¡± answered the nurse. The position of Director sounds prestigious, but in reality, it¡¯s a strenuous job. The full title is Chief Resident. The Chief Resident of trauma orthopedics is President Guo, who is also a resident doctor under Director Ouyang. Generally, before a resident doctor is promoted to an attending physician, he have to serve as Chief Resident for a year. This is a period of training that involves greater workload and higher work intensity. If he can perform emergency surgery, it will generally be his responsibility. A Chief Resident works all year round, 24 hours a day in or near the ward, ready for any call. Looking at the broken urinary catheter, an intern whispering: ¡°Could he have jumped off the building?¡± Little Five said: ¡°A jump from the building would have caused a big stir by now. Why would he need to break the urinary catheter to jump? Most likely, he escaped to avoid payment, check the computer.¡± The intern ran to the computer, and came back a few minutes later, confirming: ¡°He owes over ten thousand.¡± He had just finished his surgery and had escaped after breaking his catheter. They had seen patients running away to avoid payment, but never in such a brutal and bloody manner. The urinary catheter has a balloon, which is generally filled with water or air, lodged at the mouth of the bladder, so the catheter wouldn¡¯t slip out. The patient probably thought it would be inconvenient to run with a urine bag hanging, so he didn¡¯t realize there was a balloon, and thought pulling it out would do the trick. He exerted too much force and broke the catheter into two parts, leaving one part in the bladder. The other part that he pulled out was discarded in the restroom. His violent pull likely damaged the urethra, which is why the catheter was covered in blood. ¡°Quickly report to the nurse manager and notify Director Ouyang¡¯s team,¡± Yang Ping made a swift decision. They came to him because they wanted help making a decision and share the risk. As for the procedure of handling these matters, they all knew. The nurse went to report immediately. Zhang Lin said: ¡°President Guo and Brother Lei will have to stock up on instant noodles again.¡± After this incident was handled, Yang Ping led everyone to the operating room. They ran into anesthesiologist Liang Fatty coming out of the restroom after a smoke: ¡°The patient just arrived.¡± ¡°Big Brother, you sit here and rest for a while, we¡¯ll go in first,¡± said Little Five. Yang Ping changed his clothes and sat in the dressing room. Director Han still had not returned from the Overseas Chinese Building, so he waited for a while to report the situation to Director Han in person. ¡°Yang, I¡¯m going in first too, alright?¡± Liang Fatty gave a shout. There weren¡¯t many people in the changing room at this time, Yang Ping closed his eyes to rest. Director Han should be arriving soon. Having just received a reward of eight thousand points, he thought it necessary to check the system. Currently, he had thirteen thousand in his account, which was still not enough to buy training for pelvic and acetabular fracture surgeries. Every time he nearly reached the points goal, he had to spend some points to complete tasks. Thus, he was always short and could only wait for the next task to make a big splash. What¡¯s the deal with the super training gift pack provided by the system? Whether it¡¯s 500 clavicles or 5,000 forearm fractures, both are enough to be called super. Is there anything more super than this? Out of curiosity, Yang Ping entered the system space and opened the box on the screen. Inside was a small box; it seemed this present was fairly valuable. It had different packaging, not the ordinary gift bag pattern, but a delicate silver box instead. Open the treasure box, six thousand cases of human anatomy! Yang Ping felt sweat trickling down his back. Six thousand cases! Dissect one each day, that would total to sixteen years in there. That concept was overwhelming. Now, imaginations had to be big enough to keep up with the system¡¯s way of thinking. After some consideration, Yang Ping decided to let it be for a while, to store them up. At least for now, he wasn¡¯t daring enough to use them, they were too advanced. ¡°The treasure box can be used intermittently; it doesn¡¯t all have to be used at once,¡± the mechanical female voice said. If only she had explained this earlier, then he wouldn¡¯t have to be in such a bind. Previously the system demanded all packages to be fully utilized at once, so Yang Ping assumed it was still the same. Now that he didn¡¯t need to use it all at once, he could plan properly and start off by trying a few dissections. ¡°Is there a requirement for the number of times it can be split?¡± ¡°No, it can be split any number of times,¡± the female voice answered. He had to understand these details clearly. It wouldn¡¯t be comfortable being trapped in there for years, not being able to come out. Even though it doesn¡¯t take up real time, for Yang Ping, the years spent in the system space were very real. The system was reliable, which put Yang Ping at ease. As he entered the space, the only tree there seemed more thriving. The light from the system was always so soft, and the air so clear. The mechanical hand hanging from the tree like an octopus¡¯s tentacle was motionless. The screen in front of him was very clear. Yang Ping started using the treasure box. The operating table appeared, a naked experimental body lay on it, and the mechanical hand handed over a scalpel. Yang Ping started his dissection. The window in the top right corner displayed a 3D digital human anatomy chart, detailed, and clear. This was convenient for Yang Ping to learn through comparison. The window flashed a choose button: dynamic dissection? static dissection? You had to choose one. What was the difference? The system did not respond. Whether it responded or not was all up to its mood. Yang Ping randomly selected one, dynamic dissection! It seemed far more advanced. With the sharp scalpel, he carefully made an incision, and blood sipped out. Yang Ping immediately stopped his motion. Was this supposed to be a body for dissection? It was a living human being! How could a body bleed? All the pores on Yang Ping¡¯s body stood at attention. He felt the person lying on the operating table, there was a heartbeat and breathing, the skin was rosy and warm, completely like a living person. ¡°This is just an experimental body, not a real human body, you don¡¯t need to have any ethical concerns,¡± the female voice said, as if it wasn¡¯t the first time she had said this. Experimental body! Yang Ping regained his senses. This was not a person, just an experimental body. But still, he couldn¡¯t bring himself to continue. The human body on the operating table, the wound he had just cut, healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, without leaving any trace. ¡°Look carefully, humans cannot heal this quickly, this is a simulated experimental body.¡± The system demonstrated and explained. Yang Ping calmed himself and affirmed that what she said was correct. But still, he chose to perform static dissection again, to see what was different about static dissection. He cut it open again, and not a drop of blood flowed out. It seemed that the experimental body was frozen at a certain moment. There was blood in the vessels, but it did not flow. In this case, even if it was cut open, no bleeding would be seen. Yang Ping deliberately severed a blood vessel. He could see the red blood inside, but it didn¡¯t flow. Was this the beginning of the super cultivation method? Static dissection seemed easier to accept. Yang Ping began with dissecting the upper limbs, then the lower limbs, pelvis, spine, skull, neck, chest, and abdomen. Finally, he finished dissecting an experimental body. The system did not care about the time of dissection, and there was no numerical timer. Yang Ping kept going like this, and by the time he had used one hundred experimental bodies, he had basically mastered human anatomy. As for the remaining five thousand nine hundred, take it slow. Dissection is something that leads to different levels of understanding at different times, requires reflection, and allows for settling. The operating table and the experimental body disappeared. Yang Ping sat under the tree. The tree had no withered branches and no yellow leaves, which showed that its vitality was extremely strong. In the distance, a waterfall fell from the sky, looking majestic and magnificent. Now, the space was no longer just a tree, it also had a waterfall. In the novels, aren¡¯t the system¡¯s skills always given directly? A flash of gold light, countless information pouring in, and the skills were obtained. It seemed that theory and reality always had a gap. Or, this system was rather primitive, like a version 1.0. Chapter 67 - 0065: The Third Strike Chapter 67: Chapter 0065: The Third Strike Director Han arrived in the changing room less than ten minutes into his rest. Yang Ping reported the catheter issue to Director Han. Director Han asked, ¡°Where is that piece of the catheter? Did you throw it away?¡± ¡°It¡¯s in the trash can of the disposal room,¡± Yang Ping honestly replied. Director Han said, ¡°You all lack caution. How could you throw away the catheter? In such situations, you should keep the catheter, protect the scene, and have someone from the medical department investigate and record. This matter could be insignificant or serious.¡± While saying this, he dialed a number, ¡°Yao Ling, yes, I was about to tell you about it. Don¡¯t throw away the catheter. Report it to the Nursing Department. I¡¯ll report it to the Medical Department. Have someone find the catheter and guard the restroom where it¡¯s located.¡± After giving clear instructions, Director Han asked Yang Ping, ¡°Does Director Ouyang know about this?¡± ¡°They¡¯re all in the operating room, so probably not,¡± Yang Ping responded uncertainly. Director Han pondered for a moment and said, ¡°Remind me to bring this up with Director Ouyang later.¡± Situations like this needed to be addressed separately, not like other matters which could easily be clarified with a few casual words during a stroll in his operating room. ¡°Where did you learn your incredible bone-setting skills?¡± Director Han suddenly changed the topic, swiftly taking advantage of the fact that they were the only two in the changing room, a perfect opportunity to ask his question. Yang Ping was taken aback. He thought Director Han wouldn¡¯t ask this question. He didn¡¯t expect him to bring it up so abruptly. ¡°I taught myself,¡± Yang Ping answered. ¡°Mastering the art of bone-setting single-handedly is as challenging as ascending to the heavens.¡± Director Han didn¡¯t question his credibility, and would believe anything Yang Ping said now. He just wanted confirmation from Yang Ping himself. ¡°Professor Zhang, it¡¯s important for you to learn from him often. He has a lot of knowledge to share with us.¡± Director Han emphasized ¡°us,¡± implying that to Director Han, Professor Zhang was also an excellent teacher. ¡°We are seeing more and more patients with severed fingers. The ward is under strain. I¡¯m thinking of expanding Trauma Orthopedics to two levels, and renaming it Micro Trauma Orthopedics. What do you think?¡± ¡°Creating a separate department for Hand Surgery isn¡¯t meaningful; it¡¯s just a branch of Trauma Orthopedics. If we could create Micro Trauma Orthopedics, it would leverage the advantages of our current microsurgery, without breaking down Trauma Orthopedics into smaller fragments.¡± Director Han¡¯s topic jumped wildly, changing without warning. ¡°I definitely agree with that,¡± Yang Ping agreed with Director Han¡¯s suggestion. Sometimes trauma cases encounter skin deficits. Having trauma orthopedics handle bone fractures while asking hand surgery to deal with flap surgery is redundant. Hand Surgery is already a small branch of Trauma Orthopedics. ¡°I¡¯ve considered this for a long time. The development of the department in the future, Trauma Orthopedics is the driving force, and the other departments are dependent on it. The signpost for Microsurgery must be erected properly. The current development meets my expectations. There are now dozens of finger reattachments at the hospital. But who should be the director if we create Micro Trauma Orthopedics?¡± Director Han rhythmically tapped his thigh. Why wouldn¡¯t Director Han continue as the director? Yang Ping was a little puzzled. ¡°This is a dilemma. Tian Yuan won¡¯t do. You¡¯d have to follow me...¡± Director Han mumbled to himself, leaving his sentence hanging. ¡°The surgery should almost be ready. Let¡¯s go!¡± Director Han got up. With experience, they knew roughly how long it would take to prepare a patient for surgery and administer anesthesia. The timing couldn¡¯t be off by more than a few minutes. As expected, Little Five called, ¡°The surgery is ready.¡± The two of them went through the semi-restricted area and into the restricted area. The doors were automatically triggered, very responsive, without needing to manually press a switch. The door opens at a proper distance when approached and timely closes when leaving. Compared to other hospitals, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s operating rooms were far more advanced, mainly because the hospital was newer, which made things easier as modern systems could be implemented. Some hospitals, constrained by limited grounds in the urban area, could only expand by relentlessly establishing branches, taking the group-based development path. G City¡¯s Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital was an example of this. There were several surgeries lined up. Director Han, Yang Ping, and Song Zimo were only operating on pelvic fractures and some particularly complex fractures. Everything else was done by Yang Ping and Song Zimo. They performed the surgeries, but Director Han¡¯s name was written on the surgical records. This practice was tacitly approved. Subordinate doctors could grow this way; otherwise, they would be stuck in a vicious cycle ¨C not being allowed to perform surgery would prevent technical maturity, resulting in them not qualifying to perform surgeries. Under the guidance and supervision of senior doctors, it was perfectly legal and reasonable to be the lead surgeon in an operation beyond one¡¯s authority. Director Han was fighting for Yang Ping to get independent surgical authority, perfectly legitimate authority, which would impact his position within the hospital, his treatment, and future learning opportunities. The scheduled surgeries included fractures of the proximal humerus, distal radius comminuted fracture, distal femur fracture, ankle joint fracture, and probably two finger reattachments by the late afternoon or early evening. Professor Zhang Zongshun¡¯s Hermes patient could have scheduled surgery already, but he adamantly refused. While most patients would eagerly schedule their surgery, he was the odd one out who disagreed. Upon questioning, it turned out that they were worried that Professor Zhang¡¯s leg injury had not healed, preventing him from supervising the surgery in person. He said that injuries to the muscles and bones take at least a hundred days to heal, hence he would have to wait three months before performing surgery. He also mentioned that they had waited three years already, so waiting another three months was not an issue. The hospital doesn¡¯t have accommodations for him to stay for three months, and the Overseas Chinese Building isn¡¯t an option either. This guy bought an apartment in a community near the hospital, exclusively to use while waiting for surgery. Having no understanding of the world of the rich, all Yang Ping wants is to be a good doctor. He truly loves his profession! The houses near Nandu Medical University¡¯s Tumor Hospital are priced at triple or even five times the normal rental price, and hotels are even worse, in demand but not available. Why? It¡¯s because the tumor patients are waiting for a bed in the hospital, generally not just for a few days, but for months. With no other option, they rent apartments as they wait, which has gradually led to the development of a rental industry around the hospital. Some unfortunate patients die before a bed becomes available. Given the current increase in the number of reattachment cases, he anticipates completing the indirect task of one hundred finger reattachment surgeries ahead of schedule. Recalling that his points are still insufficient to purchase a pelvic acetabular fracture surgery training, he feels a bit frustrated. He wonders if he will only be able to buy it once he completes this indirect task and gets the 50,000 points. Yang Ping is worried. His days are filled with frugality, spreading every minutia of income as far as possible. He yearns for the day he can have financial freedom. ¡°I¡¯ll operate on the proximal humerus, and you guide from below?¡± Song Zimo¡¯s tolerance to setbacks is impressive. Despite the consecutive calling-outs these past few days, he hasn¡¯t given up his ambition to excel. He seems a bit smug, albeit slightly dampened from his earlier arrogance. It¡¯s just a proximal humeral fracture. Little Five has already moved the round stool to the corner. Yang Ping sits down while Song Zimo leads both Zhang Lin and Little Five onto the stage. ¡°Not using a metal plate?¡± There is no metal plate on the surgical table, nor is there a technician from the surgical tool company underneath the table. ¡°Kirschner wire!¡± Song Zimo coldly responds. He is devoid of emotion, simply falling into habit. Apparently, at the annual G City medical sector basketball match, a group of die-hard fans will fervently cheer for him, but he remains indifferent to these fans. Although it¡¯s not the lower part of the humerus, splintered fractures like this on the upper end of the humerus presents high difficulty, even when fixed with Kirschner wires. Yang Ping is slightly interested, seeing Song Zimo as a Lion King. Indeed, it suits Song Zimo ¨C he is likely a Leo by the zodiac. Disinfecting sheets, attaching the suction tube to the electric knife, and meticulous pre-surgical checks that never become tiresome. The surgery begins. Song Zimo¡¯s surgical technique is excellent. For this right-shouldered patient, using a right hand to operate can be awkward, but Song Zimo can use his left hand. He is one of the few in the department who can use both hands equally well. There are others ¨C Director Han, Tian Yuan. As for Yang Ping, he is adept with both hands, using either hand as freely as the main hand is merely a distinction between primary and advanced lessons. Song Zimo¡¯s left-hand techniques are as proficient as his right-hand ones. Moreover, Song Zimo¡¯s surgeries have their own unique flair ¨C graceful movements, poses, chest-out head-down, movements confined mainly at the wrist. ¡°Raise your head!¡± Song Zimo¡¯s stern voice commands. Zhang Lin hastily straightens his hunched body. On the operating table, Song Zimo despises vulgar actions, a flaw which Zhang Lin unfortunately has. But Zhang Lin doesn¡¯t harbor any resentment. As Song Zimo¡¯s knife slices through the skin, a beautiful arc appears, a red line that gradually thickens from thinness. The skin parts, and then the subcutaneous deep fascia, the cephalic vein is pulled apart, smoothly entering through the muscular space, perfectly revealing the fracture. He has done many surgeries before ¨C during his studies, he was favored by his mentor. After he started working, he was deeply trusted by Director Han. Many surgeries that his peers wouldn¡¯t dare attempt, he could perform under the director¡¯s guidance. Indeed, a favored one of heaven, such is Song Zimo! This type of surgery is normally a breeze for him. But today, it bears a special significance. He plans to use the Kirschner wire and metal thread for this surgery, testing the Rubik¡¯s cube-like repositioning and fixation puzzle. He has poured quite a bit of effort into studying this, even mastering the recombination of a three-phase Rubik¡¯s cube, primarily to understand the significance of sequence in recombination. Yang Ping stands up and steps to the lightbox, carefully analyzing the X-ray films hung up. There isn¡¯t any CT 3D reconstruction ¨C was this deliberate? ¡°I¡¯ve drawn 120 diagrams!¡± Song Zimo announces. He is skilled in medical illustration. Yang Ping saw his illustrations once before, and they were stunning. As a surgeon, he is extraordinary, exceptional! Indeed, he has meticulously planned the repositioning sequence. It must have proceeded through meticulous brainstorming, constant trial and error, and optimization. Yang Ping believes the first person to solve the Rubik¡¯s cube must not have done it in one go but through multiple trial and errors, ultimately summing up the sequence of repositioning steps. Song Zimo has grasped the essence, understanding the core of this type of repositioning ¨C optimizing the sequence. If a single piece is out of place, the entire project is a failure. Chapter 68 - 0066: Surrealism Chapter 68: Chapter 0066: Surrealism One hundred and twenty drawings for a single surgery. Aside from himself, only Song Zimo has this patience. Yang Ping admired him, genuinely! The stool is in the corner, not hindering others¡¯ comings and goings. Yang Ping, leaning his head against the wall, takes a short rest, and enters the system space. Medical Illustration, this gap must be filled, a good surgeon needs to be proficient in image construction. But the system only has surgery training, there is no item for medical illustration. There¡¯s always a way, it can be achieved with the help of the system library. Yang Ping selects a few medical illustration books, as medical illustration is just the application of drawing techniques in medicine. It requires mastery of some basic drawing skills. There are many schools of drawing both in the east and west, which one to choose? The library has a vast amount of resources, grasping useful information in these resources is not a simple task. Yang Ping wants to ask the system, but it completely ignores him. I had to find useful information from memory then, surrealism! Yes, that¡¯s the school. The most important thing in medical illustration is realism, to realistically reflect the object, what could be more real than surrealistic painting. Yang Ping selected a few more basic surrealism painting tutorials. The books¡¯ introduction to the art movement and some classic paintings left Yang Ping dumbfounded. The verisimilitude of each painting exceeds that of high-definition cameras. One of them was even drawn with a ballpoint pen. And there was one painter who used their self-portrait as the photo for their United States visa application, and it was actually approved! A single painter¡¯s brush can be so expressive! Astonishing! From the tools of primitive humans to today¡¯s precision machinery, technological advances continue endlessly. And so does craftmanship, such as orthopedics, from the simple pull to the ultimate pursuit of left and right mutual combat techniques. Yang Ping began to learn to draw in space, starting with the most basic surrealistic painting, then applying it to medical illustration. I don¡¯t know how long the learning process took, but finally, I was able to draw a decent picture. Although it¡¯s not at a very high level, it¡¯s more than enough to illustrate a shoulder joint. Time passed quickly, and quietly managed to consume four thousand points, bringing the points down to nine thousand again. I can¡¯t consume any more points, I immediately exit the system space. Yang Ping pulls out a sheet of A4 paper from the printer next door, picks up the pencil next to it, and starts to draw. After finishing, he quietly hangs it on the viewing light. The fracture is fragmented, there are too many bone fragments, it¡¯s hard to know where to start. But Song Zimo is not daunted, he has Little Five and Zhang Lin on his side, he fixed the bone fragments with his right hand and held the electric drill with his left hand. The order of operation is clear in his mind, the Kirschner wires cross each other, it seems simple, but it is full of the mystery of mechanics. Science makes the impossible possible. With the stopping of the electric drill¡¯s buzzing sound, the surgery is successful. Song Zimo tries to move the shoulder joint, the bone fragment fixation is very stable. The ingenious layout of the Kirschner wires allows the bone fragments to form dynamic stability, tightening each other during movement. Rinse, suture, the operation is over. Song Zimo is like an eagle, landing from a storm, standing on a cliff rock. Yang Ping returned to sit in the corner, leaning against the wall, he enjoyed this relaxing feeling. Little Five Zhang Lin cleaned up the aftermath, Song Zimo took off his surgical gown. On the viewing light, next to the X-ray, a piece of A4 paper with a drawing was added, Song Zimo, after throwing his gloves into the yellow collection bin, approached it. This is not just a simple medical illustration, it¡¯s an art of surrealism, a masterpiece of a pencil. Compared to a professional painter, it¡¯s not even entry-level. But as a medical illustration, it absolutely has a killer ability. There were only three pictures, one of the fractured bone, one of the reduction, and one of the fixation. Each bone fragment and each Kirschner wire was marked with a numerical order. The sequence of reduction shown in this drawing, the placement of Kirschner wires is better than his own method. Song Zimo turned his head to look at Yang Ping. Yang Ping lazily threw him a sentence: ¡°There are many ways to restore a Rubik¡¯s Cube, yours is just one of them.¡± I used a hundred and twenty drawings just to infer today¡¯s proud result, while he thought of a better plan in less than a single surgery¡¯s time. Little Five Zhang Lin also gathered interest in that drawing, but he didn¡¯t understand. When immortal beings fight, in the world of mortals, there is only the rumble of thunder. The lion-like determination needs constant activating, Song Zimo¡¯s potential extends far beyond, he cannot be struck down. Director Han is in discussion with the head nurse, evaluating what additional surgical equipment and tools the orthopedic department might need. It appears that the orthopedics department is soon to become Micro Orthopedics. Only two words will go upon the plaque, yet they symbolize an evolutionary trend, the emergence of a comprehensive trauma orthopedics department is on the horizon. There have been some difficulties with the surgery that Director Tian is handling, so he requested Director Han¡¯s guidance. The patient had an acetabular fracture with accompanying sciatic nerve damage. Having been injured for over ten days, he was transferred from another hospital. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but wonder what exactly those difficulties might be. Passing by the sink, he saw Su Yixuan teaching a few intern nurses the seven steps of proper hand washing. With a brief eye-contact, they greeted each other. Su Yixuan quickly glanced at Yang Ping¡¯s flip-flops before returning her full attention to the intern nurses, continuing her teaching. Her voice is graceful, her Mandarin standard, and her pronunciation so clear. Turns out, the problem at Director Tian¡¯s end was the fact that during the surgical exploration, it was discovered that a fractured piece of the acetabulum was compressing the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve was crushed. Before the surgery, the patient¡¯s injured side had sensory-motor disorders in the lower limbs. After doing an electromyogram, it showed that there was a blockage in the transmission of the sciatic nerve, and the MRI showed that it was severed. A high peripheral nerve rupture, chances of recovery are slim to none. Likely to be chronically impaired. So, Tian Yuan requested Director Han came for a consultation. Technically, however, this isn¡¯t a big problem ¡ª it¡¯s just a matter of reattaching the nerve. How much function can be restored will be up to fate. Still, it is wise to let the director personally examine such matters, the more opinions, the better, doing so also helps to share the risks. ¡°Have we thoroughly communicated with the patient before surgery?¡± Director Han asked, concerned. Tian Yuan responded: ¡°Yes, we were clear about the situation. The electromyograms from both the outside hospital and ours indicated that the sciatic nerve was severed. They had made a clear diagnosis.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good, let¡¯s proceed with a nerve anastomosis, using the microscope.¡± Tian Yuan tilted his head, and the patrolling nurse helped him put on the magnifying glass headset. With his hands floating above the patient, he began to join the nerves Surgery in mid-air is quite challenging, but Director Tian is very skilled. It¡¯s just that he is so comprehensive in his work that it¡¯s easy to overlook. His gaining of Director Han¡¯s trust was not without reason. After finishing a surgery, Director Ouyang came looking for Director Han. Director Han had previously said hello to Director Ouyang in his operating room, promising to find some time to talk once he was free. Directors Han and Ouyang left the operating room, heading towards the changing room or the resting room. It was now noon, time to rest and have the surgical meal. Su Yixuan was still acquainting the intern nurses with the equipment in the operating room, she ran into Yang Ping again and said, ¡°Check your WeChat later, I sent a file to you.¡± A standard conversational tone between colleagues, nothing that draws attention. After saying this, she continued to explain the basics of the C-arm X-ray machine to the intern nurses, behaving like a gentle big sister to nursery students. A file, what file? Even punctuations are a big deal, let alone a file. Over here, Song Zimo had finished another surgery and was sitting in a corner studying a drawing done by Yang Ping. If their morning surgeries were done, they¡¯d rest; if not, they¡¯d continue working. The cleaning staff started cleaning the garbage in the operating rooms which had just finished surgeries, doing thorough cleaning and sterilization. Yang Ping opened his locker in the changing room and took out his cell phone. What file? A WeChat message from Su Yixuan: ¡°Top shelf, all the way to the left, in the surgical canteen cabinet. There¡¯s a bottle of chili sauce there with your name on it.¡± Everyday meals in the operating room are boxed meals provided by the cafeteria. Though the cafeteria food isn¡¯t too bad, the taste always lacked a bit. Sometimes, staff will bring their own hot sauce, spices to add some flavor. They usually keep these condiments in the canteen cabinet, marked with their names, to enhance their meals whenever necessary. Yang Ping had thought about this before but always forgets. A warm feeling sprouted within him. In the canteen cabinet, the top shelf, there was indeed a new bottle of hot sauce to the left, even with a little spoon aside. Little Five had already helped to get the boxed meal out of the food warmer and placed it on the table: ¡°Brother, here.¡± Yang Ping brought the hot sauce over and Little Five excitedly exclaimed: ¡°Wow, hot sauce!¡± Zhang Lin was eager to try it. Yang Ping felt something was wrong and stopped trying to open the bottle: ¡°This is expired, it can¡¯t be eaten.¡± Ignoring the hopeful gazes of Little Five and Zhang Lin, Yang Ping took the hot sauce back to the changing room, opened his locker, placed the hot sauce in the most inner part, made sure it was in a good spot, then locked the locker. Coming back, he naturally commented: ¡°I threw it out.¡± Song Zimo sat alone at the furthest table, he doesn¡¯t like to sit with others while eating. People who knew this wouldn¡¯t try to intrude, and for those who didn¡¯t know and sat together with him, they wouldn¡¯t talk either. It¡¯s no different than eating alone. The only difference is whether you occupy a whole table or half of it. While eating, he was also studying that drawing, occasionally using his fingers to measure or trace on it. Medical drawings too! Even with a touch of surrealism. Song Zimo looked up and turned his gaze towards Yang Ping. Chapter 69 - 0067: The Big Boss of the Overseas Chinese Building Chapter 69: Chapter 0067: The Big Boss of the Overseas Chinese Building After finishing his meal, Yang Ping collected his lunch box. Song Zimo passed by and picked up his lunch box, saying, ¡°I¡¯ll throw it away for you!¡± Without further words, he walked straight towards the big bin for collecting lunch boxes. Even throwing away a lunch box looked cool when he did it, Yang Ping thought. Wiping his mouth, he continued the surgery. Another whole day was spent in the operating room. In the afternoon, after finishing the rounds, Yang Ping took Little Five to the Overseas Chinese Building to see Li Jingshu. The small splint needed frequent monitoring of blood flow, and the tightness needed timely adjustment. Her mother was always with her, sitting by the bed, and she had placed a peeled apple on the bedstand¡¯s tray. Li Jingshu was wearing a coat, sitting on the bed. The moveable desk stretched across the bed, and she was typing one-handed on her laptop. On seeing the doctor come to check on her, Mrs. Li stood up: ¡°Everything is good, thank you all very much!¡± ¡°Sorry for the rush, I have to turn in my manuscript!¡± Li Jingshu stopped typing. She looked well and no longer had the gloominess she wore before. ¡°Let me check the blood flow in your fingers,¡± Yang Ping said. Li Jingshu carefully extended her arm. The blood flow in her fingers was good, and the tightness of the splint was just right. ¡°Thank you, Dr. Yang!¡± Mrs. Li was always polite. ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± Yang Ping finished examining Li Jingshu¡¯s arm. He advised them about what they should pay attention to, like observing the blood flow. Just as he left the ward, he ran into Dr. Yu, who was in charge of the bed. Coincidentally, he was on duty. He was buttoning his white gown while chewing something in his mouth, probably just having a meal. Dr. Yu was particularly enthusiastic towards Yang Ping this time, accompanying him to the doctor¡¯s office, moving chairs, and pouring water. News spreads fast in the hospital, Dr. Yu also found out about Yang Ping¡¯s exceptional bone-setting skill. Broken fingers were not common, but it was inevitable that relatives or friends would have fractures due to falls. For instance, fractures of the distal radius, they now knew who to turn to for bone-setting help. There are surgeons everywhere, but doctors with excellent bone-setting skills, such as Director Kang from the traditional Chinese medicine hospital, were rare. He was a local celebrity, an inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage, and it was not easy to establish connections with him. When his aunt broke a bone last time, they wanted to have it repositioned at the traditional Chinese medicine hospital. They had asked many friends to help find connections, and in the end, it was a student of Director Kang who did the repositioning. First, he wanted to get familiar with Yang Ping: ¡°Senior Brother Yang, what should we pay attention to? Could we add each other on WeChat? It would be easier to consult you if anything happens.¡± Yang Ping let him scan his WeChat QR code. Doctors in the Overseas Chinese Building are exceptionally good at networking, a tradition that has been handed down. ¡°Xiao Yang! Come to do the rounds, huh?¡± Yang Ping turned around to see Director Zhuang coming in, who hadn¡¯t gotten off work yet. Yang Ping immediately stood up to greet him. ¡°Sit, sit! We¡¯re all colleagues here, there¡¯s no need to be so formal!¡± Director Zhuang pulled a chair and sat down diagonally opposite to Yang Ping. His gaze naturally swept around and seeing a bottle of mineral water on the desk, he said, ¡°Xiao Yu, make some tea. Why are you letting Dr. Yang drink plain water? There¡¯s excellent Longjing tea on my desk, bring it over. The office door isn¡¯t locked.¡± This was certainly no coincidence. Director Zhuang was deliberately waiting in the office for Yang Ping to come to do the rounds, then he would take the opportunity to chat and get closer to him. Director Zhuang was a shrewd man who saw things more clearly than others. There would be many uses for someone like Yang Ping who had mastered the core bone-setting techniques in the future. Among the dignitaries he knew, if anyone fractured a bone, other places would require surgery. But here, one phone call: ¡°What surgery? Come here, let someone help you with bone-setting.¡± It was impressive, and his value would immediately rise several grades. Director Zhuang on the seventh floor of the Overseas Chinese Building, and Director Kong on the eighth floor, they were both cunning people from Sanbo. Those like them who had been lurking in the Overseas Chinese Building for years had cultivated their networks with precision and their influence was far beyond that of ordinary directors. There was a guy in the emergency department, Xiong Sihai, who owned an amusement company. Because of a license issue, they were suspended for rectification. Director Kong just made a phone call, and they resumed business the next day. It¡¯s said that Director Kong¡¯s brother owned a construction company with not many employees. Their tires had never even touched mud, yet they had villas and luxury cars. Many contractors were lining up to call Kong¡¯s brother their own, all because of his connections! ¡°Xiao Yang! Your bone-setting skill is hard to find. I have a relative who had a distal radius fracture, and the reduction was not very good. It still hurts now. Could I have your WeChat? I will send you the X-ray film later to get your advice.¡± It was hard for Yang Ping to decline, so he took out his mobile phone again, showed his QR code, and Director Zhuang added him immediately. Making friends with these crafty people is also a good thing. Friendship always brings many possibilities. In fact, the matter of the distal radius fracture had happened half a year ago. There was no point in looking at the films now. He was just finding an excuse to establish a connection and to have someone to rely on in the future. Although they were in the same hospital, if the person didn¡¯t want to help with bone-setting and refused to give you face, and they just suggested ¡°Surgery!¡±, you couldn¡¯t do anything. In one hospital, the relationships could still be closer or more distant. After a while, it was about time to head home. Director Zhuang knew, ¡°Doctor Yang, you need to get off work. I will not hold you up any longer. Whenever you can, keep in touch. Do look after Mayor Li¡¯s daughter, Dr. Yu.¡± With that, he leaves. The nurse on duty comes over to Dr. Yu and mentions, ¡°The patient in bed no. 3 complains of bloating again.¡± Yang Ping and Little Five make their exit. ¡°Could you please help me check on this patient?¡± Dr. Yu says, ¡°This patient underwent a joint replacement surgery a week ago and has been continuously complaining about abdominal distension since then. The D-dimer values keep increasing instead of decreasing, although the repeated ultrasound examination showed no thrombus in the lower extremity.¡± In Dr. Yu¡¯s eyes, Yang Ping is a high-level doctor, despite being in the field of traumatology, specifically major surgery. He could provide some insight. Yang Ping had to help check the patient when asked, even if it was merely for formality¡¯s sake. ¡°Let¡¯s check the patient.¡± Yang Ping says. Clinical examination, direct questioning, physical examination, interpretation of patient data, these are all necessary. ¡°Doctor Yang?¡± Li Jingshu wearing a coat and carrying her injured arm, knocks softly on the doctor¡¯s office door. ¡°What can I do for you?¡± Yang Ping asks. ¡°Nothing, just... Thank you.¡± Li Jingshu haltingly speaks. ¡°No problem, it¡¯s my duty.¡± Yang Ping says as he prepares to see the patient. Li Jingshu hasn¡¯t left yet; she stays at the doorway. ¡°Is there something else?¡± Yang Ping asks. Li Jingshu gives a small shake of the head, ¡°No, I just... I wanted to apologize for last time.¡± Then she leaves. Apologize? For what? Yang Ping is left confused. Yang Ping has no time to ponder. Dr. Yu leads the way into the ward, knocks thrice and enters; the old man was reading the paper while his caretaker watches muted television. ¡°Old Zhou, this is our surgeon from orthopedics, you¡¯ve been complaining about bloating, so I¡¯ve asked him to come and take a look.¡± Dr. Yu says. ¡°Oh that¡¯s fine, there¡¯s no need to worry. I¡¯m an old man, can¡¯t expect to be as fit as a fiddle. A car that¡¯s been driven for many years will have its squeaks.¡± Old Zhou says. Old Zhou lost a leg in the Korean War when it was bombed by the Americans, it¡¯s said that despite having only one leg, he still managed to kill several American soldiers. ¡°Dr. Yu, remember to take care of what we discussed earlier, help me transfer to a regular ward, I¡¯m not used to this one, it¡¯s too expensive.¡± In reality, his expenses are fully reimbursed, but he still insists on transferring to a regular ward. Old Zhou lies in the bed, curls up his legs and lifts his shirt to expose his belly. He¡¯s quite used to it; several individuals have felt his belly. Yang Ping listens to Old Zhou¡¯s bowel sounds, then conducts an abdominal examination. As a surgeon with strong basic clinical skills, this is not an issue for him. He begins palpating the abdomen with his finger. Maybe it¡¯s a benefit of practicing orthopedic manual therapy; he has a sensitive touch. He can clearly feel the liver, spleen, and intestines distinctly beneath his hand. But there¡¯s an unexpected hardness along the path of the inferior vena cava. Inferior vena cava thrombosis? Major orthopedic surgery, abdominal distension and persistent increase of D-dimer score. The history, physical examination, and laboratory findings all point to the same conclusion. He¡¯s almost certain of the diagnosis! ¡°Old Zhou, you need to stay in bed and avoid movement,¡± Yang Ping says as he pulls down Zhou¡¯s shirt. Heading back to the doctor¡¯s office after washing his hands, Yang Ping says: ¡°It seems to be a case of inferior vena cava thrombosis! You say he¡¯s been bloating for a few days. I estimate that it¡¯s already beyond 24 hours.¡± A venous thrombosis, once dislodged can cause a fatal pulmonary embolism, with a horrifying 44% mortality rate. Orthopedic surgeons dread two things: infection and pulmonary embolism. The former is annoying, while the latter is perilous. The mere mention of inferior vena cava thrombosis makes Dr. Yu turn pale. This is a significant medical event, he must immediately contact Director Zhuang and report! Director Zhuang, having not left his office yet, asks: ¡°Inferior vena cava thrombosis?¡± Yang Ping says: ¡°I highly suspect it.¡± Director Zhuang immediately calls the director of the Cardiovascular Department. ¡°Strict bed rest, emergency abdominal CT scan plus venography; if confirmed, emergency implantation of an inferior vena cava filter.¡± Director Zhuang says on the phone while simultaneously giving instructions to Dr. Yu. ¡°We¡¯ll be taking our leave, okay?¡± Yang Ping quietly bids farewell to Director Zhuang and Dr. Yu. They wave him a goodbye, whilst still engaged in their phone calls. Chapter 70 - 0068: Snatching Surgery Chapter 70: Chapter 0068: Snatching Surgery When I got up in the morning. Dr. Yu from the Overseas Chinese Building sent a WeChat message: ¡°Doctor Yang, you¡¯re amazing. Indeed, it was an inferior vena cava thrombus. A clot was about to break off, that was close! We asked the cardiology emergency team to intervene last night and they put a filter in.¡± It turned out to be an inferior vena cava thrombus. It seems that physical examinations are not only important, but also require skilful hands. If it weren¡¯t for the extraordinary palpation ability gained during orthopedic training, I wouldn¡¯t have made such an accurate diagnosis. It seems I should take the opportunity to improve my examination skills. Although there are many gaps in my knowledge, system points are always short. While washing my face and brushing my teeth, I casually entered the system space. To my surprise, my points had increased by 1,000 to a total of 10,000. I have not had any recent tasks, so how did I earn points? I checked the point tracking record and found a new entry under the last task: Successfully diagnosing an inferior vena cava thrombus by physical examination, avoiding a fatal pulmonary embolism, rewarded 1000 points. When did that task get assigned? I didn¡¯t accept this task, did I? Yang Ping was really confused. Could the system have made a mistake? Just as I was wondering, the mechanical female voice said, ¡°After a recent system evaluation, the host performed well and the daily reward mode has been activated to supplement the task reward system.¡± Daily reward? Yang Ping inquired. The system was more patient with this, the mechanical voice continued to explain, ¡°Yes, in daily medical treatment activities, if significant positive outcomes are produced for the patient, you will be rewarded certain system points. It mainly focuses on surgeries and rescues.¡± This is good, providing an additional way to earn points. Otherwise, I¡¯d only be able to rely on system-assigned tasks. It can be rather passive when there are no tasks and you¡¯re left empty-handed. Although this channel does not offer many points, it is very stable. Over time, small amounts add up to make a substantial difference. This is essentially like having a basic salary. At least I won¡¯t go hungry. After the morning handover, Director Han led everyone on ward rounds. All patients were stable. Wang Feng gifted everyone a caricature. It was a scene of several doctors operating under the shadowless lamp. Everyone chatted with him for a while. He was quite optimistic and did not look like a patient with AIDS. His girlfriend was taking good care of him. After the rounds, when we returned to the office, we saw Director Zhuang from the Overseas Chinese Building. He was standing by the office window enjoying the view and saw Director Han and his team. Director Zhuang greeted Director Han and then shook hands with Yang Ping, ¡°Xiao Yang, I¡¯m really grateful for what you did yesterday. If you hadn¡¯t made the diagnosis in time, we would have all overlooked it. The thought is terrifying.¡± Director Han said with joy, ¡°Director Zhuang called me this morning to thank you in person. I told him it wasn¡¯t necessary, but he insisted on coming.¡± Director Zhuang laughed and said, ¡°Definitely, I must express my gratitude in person. Director Han, arrange for us to get together some time. It¡¯s been a while since we all got together. You set the time. I know you all are busy and I wouldn¡¯t dare to decide on my own.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll check and call you back,¡± said Director Han. Knowing they were about to head into surgery, Director Zhuang didn¡¯t wish to impose: ¡°You¡¯re busy. I¡¯ll leave now. Let¡¯s get together sometime soon. When I have spare time, I need to talk to the Dean about this.¡± I felt as if Yang Ping were a relative of Director Zhuang, the respect he was showing was immense. Personal thanks, an invitation to dinner, and even going to talk to the dean about it. However, making friends with such an influential figure from the Overseas Chinese Building couldn¡¯t be too bad. It would make many things easier in the future. For instance, when I go home for New Year, I won¡¯t need to vie for high-speed train tickets. A phone call, and someone would deliver it to me. Do I get a holiday for New Year? No! After seeing off Director Zhuang, Director Han said: ¡°Xiao Wu Zhang Lin, go to the operating room to prepare for surgery. The two of you come to my office, where is Tian Yuan?¡± ¡°I just saw her doing the rounds.¡± ¡°Ask her to come as well.¡± Several of us sat down in his office. Director Han took a sip of hot tea and said: ¡°There¡¯s a patient with a severe pelvic fracture in Shipo County People¡¯s Hospital. It¡¯s quite a serious case, and rather complicated. For now, they are conducting a skeletal traction. Director Miao invited me to assist with the operation. The consultation form was faxed to the medical department yesterday. I really can¡¯t get away, so I told Director Miao I¡¯ll send someone else. They will probably traction for about ten days before they can operate. Tian Yuan, you lead Yang Ping and Song Zimo there next Sunday. The radiographs are with me. I¡¯ll email them to you guys later. Have a look in advance and make a plan.¡± Everyone took a look at the radiographs. Good heavens, the pelvic acetabulum was all fractured. It was a mess. Director Han is sending himself too, isn¡¯t he going to lend a hand to Director Tian? If I could complete the system¡¯s training for pelvic fractures, I could definitely help Director Tian. Unfortunately, I haven¡¯t been able to buy the training package. Now that there are daily point rewards, with ten days until we go to Shipo County, there might be a chance if I can keep doing surgeries crazily. Once the decision was made, it was immediately put into action. In the operating room¡¯s changing room, Yang Ping put on his cap and mask in front of the mirror, saying to Song Zimo, ¡°I¡¯ll handle all surgeries for the next ten days¡ªdon¡¯t interfere. Also, speak to President Guo about my taking over his emergency cases for that period too.¡± Shocked, Song Zimo asked, ¡°What do you mean? You¡¯re not even sparing the emergency operations?¡± Yang Ping nodded and said, ¡°Don¡¯t ask questions, just help me get it sorted,¡± before walking away. Touching his forehead, Song Zimo mumbled to himself, ¡°Okay! It¡¯s settled!¡± Zhang Lin asked Little Five, ¡°Is big brother okay?¡± Little Five couldn¡¯t figure it out either. Looking thoughtfully around and seeing no one else, he said mysteriously, ¡°Eighty percent chance he has won over Su Yixuan and is raising money for a diamond ring by doing some extra surgeries for a commission.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s the case, I should stock up on instant noodles.¡± Zhang Lin nodded. ¡°What¡¯s it got to do with you?¡± Little Five replied. Zhang Lin said, ¡°I¡¯m raising money for a red packet! I can¡¯t be stingy¡ªit can¡¯t disgrace our brothers.¡± ¡°Good point, also help me buy a box while you¡¯re there. I like the braised beef flavor.¡± Little Five said seriously. The word from Song Zimo elated the boss. He was indeed delighted that someone intended to relieve him from the surgical duties ¨C he wasn¡¯t hearing things wrongly, was he? ¡°Are you sure?¡± President Guo seemed a bit puzzled. Song Zimo assured, ¡°Definitely. Big Brother has been studying some operations recently and needs to collect cases. There will be a lot of cases, so...¡± ¡°Alright, what if we let Big Brother collect even more cases, so he could cover the entire month?¡± President Guo was generous. Song Zimo rolled his eyes at him and dropped a remark, ¡°Hmm, remember where the operating room door is?¡± ¡°Over there?¡± President Guo was a bit confused. Young Master Song¡¯s words were always so cryptic. Unable to do anything, Song Zimo had to serve as an assistant for ten days. Zhang Lin and Little Five pulled out all the stops to persuade Director Tian¡¯s team to schedule surgeries, all for the sake of research, hoping for their support. Before they could extend their reach to other groups, Song Zimo promptly curtailed all attempts. It was different with Director Tian, considering they were all brothers. Reaching out to other groups would not be well-received. President Guo¡¯s days were quite splendid, watching dramas in the duty room, with snacks provided by Zhang Lin and Little Five. Since taking over the hospital, he had not had such an easy time. Fate worked in mysterious ways ¡ª sometimes, when it wants you to have a good time, you don¡¯t even have a choice to not enjoy it. After ten days, Yang Ping lay in the duty room, exhausted. He began to do some tallying. 12,000 points... accumulated painstakingly from daily rewards of a few tens to a couple of hundred points, were added to the previous 9,000 points, making it a total of 21,000 points. Finally, he could afford the 20,000-point pelvic-acetabular surgery training. Accumulating more than 20,000 points was not easy, but it filled the last gap in trauma orthopedics. Yang Ping entered the system space. He still had 5,900 out of the 6,000 anatomy cases left from the super cultivation method. He started with a few dozen partial dissections of the pelvis. Not wanting to waste the specimens, after the partial dissections, he carried out full-body dissections. After completing the dissection of the specimens, Yang Ping went ahead with the training for pelvic-acetabular fractures. Pelvic-acetabular fractures are high-risk and difficult, so the system training package starts from 3,000 cases. He purchased 3,000 cases of pelvic-acetabular fracture surgery for 20,000 points. It started with few hours per surgery, then reduced to half an hour, and later, the fastest cases were completed in just ten minutes. It wasn¡¯t until the system assessed his proficiency at performing these surgeries as perfect that he left the system space, having spent several months there. Looking at his skill upgrade, trauma orthopedics had reached the master level, indicating that all the branches within trauma orthopedics had been mastered. The foundation was finally laid! Chapter 71 - 0069 The Trip to Shipo Chapter 71: Chapter 0069 The Trip to Shipo Sunday, heading to Shipo County. Song Zimo¡¯s BMW is very comfortable. Yang Ping sits in the passenger seat, with Director Tian behind the driver¡¯s seat. The car is stocked with a few snacks and bottles of water. Yang Ping has been too tired these past ten days, he reclines his seat and sleeps. Although he¡¯s physically exhausted, he feels reassured at heart, a sense of relief that makes him completely relaxed. It¡¯s his first time assisting in a surgery. He¡¯s working with Director Tian, who is technically all-rounded, reliable, and dependable. However, if he hasn¡¯t independently performed a pelvic acetabular surgery, some technical shortcomings may remain, which could make him feel uncertain. Just in case, he fears the off-chance he¡¯ll need to operate independently, even though the likelihood is almost zero. But having been a doctor for so many years, he¡¯s used to preparing thoroughly without leaving anything to chance. Had it not been for this surgery, he would not have felt this sense of urgency in Sanbo Hospital. The moment he heard about the surgery, remedying his shortcomings became a top priority. It¡¯s similar to making sure you fill up your gas tank before getting on the highway for peace of mind. Fortunately, he pushed himself these past ten days, earned the points, and completed the system¡¯s training on pelvic acetabular fracture surgery. Now he¡¯s finally reassured, there¡¯s no weakness in traumatology anymore. Shipo County is a remote area in Nandu Province, located at the junction of three provinces. Even though it¡¯s only a county hospital, the patient source is extraordinarily rich, making it a quasi-third-grade-A hospital. This reasoning is interesting: Because it¡¯s remote, patients rarely travel elsewhere for treatment. Unless they have a major illness, they will most likely seek treatment locally. In recent years, their hospital dean has made substantial reforms, attracted and retained talent, as well as upgraded the facilities. Hence, the hospital has been growing incrementally each year, attracting patients from neighboring counties and cities. The highway snakes through mountainous terrain with numerous tunnels, the longest of which takes about ten minutes to pass through. Song Zimo wears polarized sunglasses and a Bluetooth headset. His driving skills are impeccable, extremely smooth. ¡°Doctor Yang, I hear you¡¯ve been working on research and collecting surgery cases. What kind of research is this? Why hasn¡¯t there been much progress?¡± Tian Yuan asks Yang Ping. They need to find a topic to talk about during the several hour-long journey, or it will be too dull. Tian Yuan thinks: He¡¯s responsible for the research in his department, yet this guy has not given him any hint. What secret plan is he working on? ¡°Research? What research?¡± Yang Ping is confused. Song Zimo, worried that Yang Ping might spill the beans, quickly interjects: ¡°It¡¯s nothing special, actually. After our last seminar, Professor Zhang Zongshun suggested we collect cases and write a book ¨C ¡®Internal Fixation Structure¡¯. We just want to perform more fracture surgeries on the limbs, and follow up on the biomechanical performance of different internal fixations.¡± Yang Ping turns to look at Song Zimo, wondering what he¡¯s talking about. Song Zimo, who is driving, tries to signal him with his eyes. Damn it! The rearview mirror is reflective, it¡¯s not a good place to signal with his eyes. ¡°Your research cases... Little Five and Zhang Lin got some from Director Tian for you.¡± Song Zimo is smart and reacts quickly. Yang Ping finally realizes what he means and promptly replies, ¡°Right, I thought you were talking about some kind of research. It doesn¡¯t count as research. There¡¯s no official project yet, we are just preparing the preliminary data.¡± ¡°What do you mean ¡®digging for patients¡¯? Don¡¯t make it sound so serious. Really, if you need anything, just let me know. We¡¯re all brothers.¡± Director Tian chats happily with them, not acting superior because he¡¯s an associate attending physician. ¡°Thanks, Brother Tian!¡± Song Zimo says immediately. ¡°Little Five and Zhang Lin asked me for surgery patients, saying it¡¯s for your research. They bumbled around when asking about the specific topic. I thought you guys might have something confidential that I figured I wouldn¡¯t ask too much about, so that¡¯s what this is.¡± Tian Yuan takes out a pack of chewing gum, gives two to Yang Ping from behind. Yang Ping keeps one for himself and gives one to Song Zimo. ¡°The Orthopedics Director of Shipo County, Director Miao, is good friends with Director Han and has referred many patients to us. Therefore, Director Han takes this case very seriously. If our hospital can expand its influence in the Shipo area, there will be a significant increase in our patient source. Don¡¯t underestimate this area, it¡¯s all mountains. It lies at the border of three provinces, concentrates the patients from the border of three provinces. Though it¡¯s nominally a county hospital, it practically serves as a regional central hospital. Transportation here is inconvenient, it¡¯s far from the provincial capital, there are no high-speed rails or trains. Patients here generally don¡¯t travel elsewhere for treatment, especially now that they have medical insurance, they are even less willing to travel.¡± Director Tian has been working at Sanbo Hospital since completing his Ph.D. He has always been with Director Han and is very familiar with the situation. He used to frequently perform surgeries here with Director Han. ¡°This patient¡¯s pelvic fracture is quite serious, quite tricky,¡± Song Zimo said while driving. Director Tian reminded, ¡°Focus on driving. This is a winding mountain road, keep your spirits up.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve also checked the scans, it indeed looks tricky,¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°I¡¯ve studied it for several nights, made a lot of plans. Director Han asked me to bring you guys here to ensure the absolute safety of the surgery because he was worried that their team wouldn¡¯t be as skilled as ours,¡± Tian Yuan passed another bottle of water. Yang Ping opened it and took a sip. Director Tian¡¯s phone rang. It was Director Miao asking where they were. Everyone chatted casually along the way, enjoying the rare leisure. Their usual work didn¡¯t allow as much idle chatter as the conversation in the car right now. When the sedan entered Shipo County, the houses along the roadside reminded Yang Ping of his hometown, another small county. Yang Ping¡¯s father was a rural doctor, the kind used to be called a barefoot doctor, who carried a medicine box and walked everywhere. Nowadays, with the economic development in the countryside, living standards have improved, and health stations have been established. Adding to that, Yang Ping passed the university entrance exam and got a job after graduation. Life for Yang Ping¡¯s parents is quite comfortable now. ¡°After I graduated from Huaxi, I worked in a county hospital, doing general surgery,¡± Director Tian began reminiscing after seeing the familiar scenery. Yang Ping knew quite a lot about Director Tian from Zhang Lin. He¡¯s a practical and low-key person, who blends in well with the young doctors without any airs. When there were graduate students who struggled financially, he voluntarily lent them some pocket money. Therefore, many young doctors aimed to be in his team. After completing his undergraduate studies, he did general surgery in a county hospital for three years before getting into Huaxi for his postgraduate studies. With excellent grades, a knack for writing papers and doing surgeries, he was recommended by his advisor for a combined Master and Doctorate course. With the help of his supervisor, he was able to pass his attending physician exam during his study. After graduating, he started working at Sanbo Hospital. After two years, he smoothly rose to the position of associate attending physician, advancing steadily at every step of his career development. At the age of thirty-something, he led his own team, capable of working independently. Director Tian is from Shaanxi, where he had many siblings and grew up in a poor family. It¡¯s said he even wore patched pants when he was studying for his master¡¯s degree. Later, he made his way through his studies by earning money from helping others write papers. Now that he¡¯s leading a team, he obviously has no financial problems. He owns a house and a car, and leads a happy family life. He hasn¡¯t forgotten his roots and often provides financial aid to his siblings. Some of his siblings are even working in G City with his help. He often helps his fellow villagers when he returns home. I¡¯ve heard from Zhang Lin that a primary school teacher in his hometown fell off a ladder, fracturing his femur. Unable to afford the medical bills, he had to endure the pain at home. Director Tian contacted his former colleagues at the county hospital and had the teacher transferred there. He not only helped to pay the medical expenses but personally performed the operation as well. The teacher fully recovered afterward. ¡°We¡¯re almost there. Director Miao asked us to park at their hospital¡¯s parking lot. He¡¯ll be waiting for us at the exit,¡± Director Tian reminded Song Zimo. After leaving the freeway, Song Zimo slowed down, drove on a section of the cemented highway and the car entered Shipo County. Following the navigation, they parked at the Shipo County People¡¯s Hospital. Director Miao was personally waiting for them at the parking lot exit. He was of average build, a bit chubby, and wearing a white shirt. He recognized Director Tian and had seen him perform surgeries before, now that Director Tian was here, he felt reassured. Director Miao greeted everyone warmly with a handshake, ¡°Thank you for your hard work. Let¡¯s go have lunch first? We can also rest a bit. Everything is arranged.¡± Checking the time, Director Tian said, ¡°It¡¯s still early, no hurry. Let¡¯s go to the department and see the patient first.¡± Chapter 72 - 0070 The Charm of the Professor Chapter 72: Chapter 0070 The Charm of the Professor Director Miao was deeply moved by Director Tian¡¯s dedication and professionalism. Without saying much, he led everyone to the department. Shipo County People¡¯s Hospital might not be able to compete with big city hospitals, but it is definitely leading in this region. The new hospital building is notably impressive, and the old building has also been renovated and looked as good as new. There are many patients in the hospital area, people keep coming and going. We took the elevator to the orthopedics office, where many doctors were still on duty. Some were talking to patients, some were writing medical records, and others were gathered around a computer looking at X-rays. Upon hearsay that the professors had arrived, they all wanted to see for themselves, so they purposely postponed their lunch. ¡°Everyone¡¯s here, these three professors are from Sanbo Hospital in G City, Professor Tian, Dr. Song, and Dr. Yang.¡± Everyone stood up and applauded to welcome them. At first, Director Miao had intended to introduce them as Professor Song and Professor Yang, but considering they were very young, he referred to them as doctors instead. ¡°This is our doctors¡¯ office, it¡¯s a bit rudimentary.¡± Director Miao said with an inviting gesture. Director Tian casually glanced around the room and said, ¡°Director Miao, your hospital is changing for the better every year. Not only is the building environment beautiful, but each doctor also brings a powerful energy that can¡¯t help but make people feel trusted and secure. No wonder patients from all three provinces are flocking here.¡± Older doctors who had met Director Tian before came over to shake hands and exchange greetings. These doctors were secretly observing them. Generally, they occasionally invited professors to perform surgeries, but none of them have had such strong auras. Director Tian has a graceful demeanor, a refined speech, and an aura of a well-read man, giving a sense of maturity and stability. Song Zimo is tall and handsome, full of vigor, with a single shoulder bag slung across his body, is holding Director Tian¡¯s document bag in his hands, and has a somewhat wavy thick hair, giving him a unique blend of Eastern and Western charm. Although Yang Ping couldn¡¯t be described as handsome, he does have a comparatively pleasing look, and his eyes were full of confidence. The doctors marveled at how different they seemed to be from those from big hospitals. ¡°Would you like to come and sit in my office?¡± Director Miao suggested. ¡°No need, we¡¯ll stay here and look at the x-rays first,¡± said Director Tian. Although these films have been viewed countless times, they still had to go through the motions. This was done to reassure the host, otherwise, it would seem a bit flippish to start operating as soon as they arrived. ¡°Xiao Tao, hang up the films.¡± Director Tian called the ward doctor. Xiao Tao, who in fact wasn¡¯t young, and looked older than Director Tian, immediately responded, ¡°Director, they¡¯re already hung up.¡± A few films were already hung up on the light for viewing. Director Tian walked up to the light, Director Miao accompanied him, and Yang Ping and Song Zimo stood on either side. Everyone else gathered around. Director Tian adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and said, ¡°Hmm, the anterior and posterior pillars of the acetabulum are fractured, displacement is obvious, the sciatic nerve behind must be affected by compression or tension, are there any neurological symptoms?¡± ¡°Yes, the muscle strength on the injured side of the lower limb is at level 3.¡± Dr. Tao said. Dr. Tao, who was also in his thirties, had thin sparse hair, and could see his scalp clearly. He looked older than Director Tian, which made him feel somewhat ashamed. He was just a newly promoted attending doctor at such an age, working day and night shifts while Director Tian, a professor in his thirties, was performing surgeries all around at major hospitals. He was filled with mixed feelings about the contrast. ¡°The ala of the ilium and the sacrum are also fractured, and the sacroiliac joint is clearly separated. Let¡¯s go and see the patient.¡± Director Tian succinctly summed up the condition accurately. He didn¡¯t show off with English words or specialized vocabulary, but still demonstrated his high-level proficiency, without making people feel he was condescending. Dr. Tao led the way, Director Miao guided, and they all went to the ward to see the patient. The relatives became excited when they learned that the professor had arrived. The patient, a 35-year-old man, was injured in a car accident. He was lying on the bed, with his right lower limb in skeletal traction from the femoral epicondyle. One of the several relatives by the bed was holding a document bag, who seemed to be making the decisions. He looked a bit older than the patient. His black shirt was smooth and shiny like silk, and they looked similar, so he was probably the patient¡¯s brother. The man with the document bag immediately stood up. Director Miao introduced, ¡°This is Professor Tian that we invited. He just got here and wanted to see the patient right away. It took a lot of effort to get Professor Tian here as he is very busy.¡± The man shook hands with Director Tian, ¡°Thank you, Professor Tian, we are extremely grateful!¡± The patient himself didn¡¯t say much, just looked around. ¡°I¡¯m going to examine you now, please let me know if you feel any pain,¡± Director Tian said in a soft voice. After obtaining the patient¡¯s agreement, Director Tian pulled the patient¡¯s clothes up to the chest to expose the abdomen and chest, and began to examine him very seriously. They had only seen the x-rays before, and this was the first time they saw the patient. Often at this time, new information can be found, things that the x-ray might not have captured, or things that may not match the initial assessment. Following the strict orthopedic examination procedure of inspection, palpation, motion, and measurement, he examined from the healthy side to the affected side, from local to systemic. First, look for any deformities in the pelvis, shortening of lower limbs, muscle atrophy, and the color of the cornea and lips. Then check the sensitivity of the skin, the movement of the toes and perform palpations on the abdomen and chest, finally asking about the color of stool and urine. The examination is comprehensive, thorough, with highlighted key points, reflecting excellent professional competence. Director Tian picks up the patient¡¯s wrist and counts the pulse. ¡°Do you have a stethoscope?¡± Director Tian asks. Surgeons seldom carry stethoscopes, everyone glances at each other. Director Miao loudly asks: ¡°Who brought a stethoscope?¡± There is no answer, no one brought it! A versatile doctor, runs and returns huffing and puffing with a stethoscope in hand, gives it to Dr. Tao and then to Director Tian. Director Tian pulls up the patient¡¯s clothing a bit more and bends over to begin auscultating. First, he listens to the lungs, there are no problems. Next is the heart. After listening to the five standard auscultation areas, he focuses on certain special parts. ¡°Murmurs can be heard in the third and fourth intercostal spaces on the left edge of the sternum, from grades four to six with palpable thrills, indicating a small ventricular septal defect,¡± Director Tian stands up. ¡°Yes, he has congenital heart disease.¡± The patient¡¯s family immediately responds. The doctors observing are privately amazed, a professor is a professor, even the auscultation of the heart by a internist is this proficient, big hospitals are truly different. Director Tian continues to listen to the abdomen and says, ¡°The bowel movements are rather slow, you often have bloating, right?¡± ¡°Yes, Professor, my stomach has been uncomfortable, like it¡¯s filled with gas,¡± the patient answers himself. The professor hits the nail on the head each time. Director Tian says: ¡°The hematoma behind the peritoneum stimulates the abdominal nerve plexus, leading to slower intestinal motility and difficulties with bowel movement and gas discharge, let me check the medical record.¡± Dr. Tao passes the medical record, Director Tian carefully checks the course of the disease record and examines the inspection items one by one. ¡°The hemoglobin is a bit low, only 90.¡± ¡°Well, you¡¯re lucky. No injury to the rectum or urethra,¡± Director Tian says while looking. When he gets to the page with the electrocardiogram, he unfolds the EKG paper, reading as he goes along, ¡°There is an rSr wave in the V1 lead, indeed indicating a small ventricular septal defect.¡± The electrocardiogram report indicates: sinus rhythm, 80 beats/min, and generally normal EKG. When the patient hears this, he realizes he indeed has this condition. Because he didn¡¯t feel significantly uncomfortable, he didn¡¯t pay much attention. This time after getting injured, he didn¡¯t mention it to the doctor. The professor is incredible, he figured it out just like that. ¡°Yes, Professor Tian, I do have this condition. I had a heart ultrasound during every physical check-up, I visited several hospitals, the doctors said it was congenital and the defect is very small, no need for surgery,¡± The patient and family members are sincerely convinced. The doctors in the room are also completely won over, he can even read EKGs, more accurately than cardiologists and the EKG department. You can¡¯t help but respect him. ¡°Please ask the cardiology department to come for a consultation for the heart issue, and ask the surface ultrasound office to do a bedside surface ultrasound, and quickly!¡± Director Miao commands. This professionalism is different. Director Miao¡¯s face is filled with confidence, the person was invited by him, of course he looks good. Director Tian, holding the patient¡¯s hand says, ¡°The surgery is challenging and risky, but don¡¯t be too nervous. We will do our best, aiming for perfection.¡± The patient continuously nods his head. After seeing the patient, they return to the doctor¡¯s office. Director Miao says: ¡°The operation is scheduled for two o¡¯clock in the afternoon, we¡¯ll first go to the office for a cup of tea and take a short break, then go for lunch.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± Although Director Tian is young and not very famous, he¡¯s not doing a swift surgery for the first time, he knows the ropes. Director Miao leads them to the director¡¯s office and pours a few cups of tea. Director Miao says: ¡°Professor Tian, this patient¡¯s family is wealthy in Shipo County, a respected local family, I entrust them to you.¡± Director Tian laughs and replies: ¡°Director Han has briefed me in detail, I will do my best. See, Director Han is thoughtful. He asked me to bring two more people. We perform surgeries together often, so we work well together.¡± Director Miao refills the tea: ¡°Director Han is really considerate. Oh, the patient¡¯s family, the one present just now, his brother, wants to understand the operation situation in person again, is it convenient for him to come over?¡± Director Tian, who is looking at the calligraphy and painting on the wall, says, ¡°Fine, let him come, I¡¯ll talk to him again.¡± Director Miao immediately goes out and brings in the patient¡¯s brother who was there just now. The family member, holding a black document bag, has a smile on his face: ¡°We¡¯re troubling Professor Tian, we¡¯re troubling all of you!¡± ¡°You chat, I¡¯ll go and see the situation with the sterilization of surgery room equipment.¡± Director Miao closes the door behind him. Chapter 73 - 0071: Not confident about the surgery? Chapter 73: Chapter 0071: Not confident about the surgery? In fact, Director Miao had not left at all, he was standing right at the doorway. Soon, the door opened, and the family member emerged, holding a document bag with an awkward expression on his face. He spoke to Director Miao in a low voice, ¡°Old Miao, can we step aside to talk?¡± The family member was quite familiar with Director Miao, having sought his help multiple times for conditions like cervical spine disease and lumbar disc herniation. If not for this trust in Director Miao, they wouldn¡¯t have entrusted this matter to him. Director Miao glanced into the office. Director Tian was lounging comfortably, sipping tea, while two young doctors were engrossed in their phones. As to what exactly was happening, he couldn¡¯t quite figure it out yet. Taking the family member with him, Director Miao headed to the doctors¡¯ duty room. He closed the door behind them, found a bed to sit down on, and said, ¡°Don¡¯t panic, what happened just now? Sit down and tell me!¡± The family member too sat on the edge of the bed, his face flushing from anxiety. He wiped his sweat with a tissue, and said, ¡°Old Miao, they refused to accept the consultation fee, adamantly claiming it must be some misunderstanding and told me to find you.¡± Whether it was an outright refusal or just a token declination, the family member could tell the difference. If he, a businessman, couldn¡¯t see through such things, he would have wasted all his years of experience. His heart filled with unease, his initial confidence shattered. ¡°Old Miao, is it because the professor examined my brother and feels the surgery is too uncertain? That¡¯s why he doesn¡¯t dare to accept the consultation fee?¡± Remembering the professor¡¯s mention of congenital heart disease, he became even more anxious. Could it be that the heart disease would affect the surgery, adding to its risk? His mind was filled with chaotic thoughts. He had no doubts about Professor Tian¡¯s skills. Having been in the business world for over 20 years, he was adept at reading people. Even though he wasn¡¯t a medical professional, he could see from the expressions of the onlooking doctors in the ward that Professor Tian was not just ordinarily talented. He had also been friends with Director Miao for many years. The Professor invited by Director Miao under a ¡°money is not an issue¡± promise wouldn¡¯t be just any individual. The rationale behind this was quite obvious. The only plausible explanation: The disease was too severe, beyond treatment. Who dares to accept your consultation fee then? Consider it as volunteering. If the money had been accepted, the family member would surely be elated and relieved. But now, with the fee not accepted, who could be calm? His feelings were all over the place, like a drum being beaten. ¡°Old Miao! I¡¯m feeling a bit anxious. How should we proceed? Can you help me with this? I only have one brother. Is his disease in this severe stage now?¡± The tissue he had used for wiping his sweat was now crumpled in his hand. Knife-throwing, a term referring to performing surgeries at different hospitals for a certain remuneration, is a very lucrative income source for surgeons. There are two types of knife-throwing. One where doctors privately go to other hospitals to perform surgeries for a pre-agreed remuneration, commonly known as consultation fee. This practice is somewhat dubious but prevalent, and hospitals usually turn a blind eye to it. The other type, like the one Professor Tian was involved in, is when a formal consultation request form is sent to Sanbo Hospital¡¯s medical office from Shipo People¡¯s Hospital. The Sanbo Hospital¡¯s medical office then approves the record. This is completely legitimate and reasonable. As for the price, it¡¯s agreed upon by both parties; there¡¯s not much to comment on. The rates for surgeries performed by the professor are clearly marked. Director Miao stroked his chin, pondering for a while. Suddenly remembering something, he said to the family member, ¡°You might be overthinking this. If you trust me, you can give the money to me, and I¡¯ll handle it.¡± ¡°Old Miao, what are you talking about? There¡¯s nothing to doubt you. Last time when my father had rectal cancer surgery, wasn¡¯t it you who handled it perfectly? We can¡¯t thank you enough. Honestly, with my brother¡¯s condition, if we had to transfer him to a provincial hospital for surgery, not to mention the risks on the road, the costs would be several times higher in the city. Without any acquaintances, we wouldn¡¯t even be able to secure a bed. We¡¯d end up dragging the severely ill patient around aimlessly. Your decision to invite Professor Tian to perform the surgery has been a great help. My whole family is truly grateful.¡± The family member was sincere, he gave three packets to Director Miao while instructing, ¡°This one¡¯s for Professor Tian, these two are for his assistants.¡± Director Miao casually took a pen out of his white gown, circled the packet meant for Professor Tian, and wrote a few words as a distinction, so the packets wouldn¡¯t be switched later on. Only after this urgent discussion did the situation seem to have a handle. Hearing Director Miao¡¯s words comforted the family member as if a weight was lifted from his heart. As long as the professor was willing to accept the consultation fee, it meant the surgery had a very high chance of success. Being the eldest, the entire responsibility was on him. If everything went well, no one would acknowledge his efforts. But if something went wrong, everyone would blame him. Director Miao sent the family member out of the duty room, reassuring him to wait patiently in the ward for the patient¡¯s transportation to the operating room. Looking at the time, it was time for lunch, Song Zimo turned to Professor Tian in the director¡¯s office, ¡°Professor Tian, should we go for lunch?¡± Director Tian took another sip of tea and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go, let¡¯s have our meal early and take a break.¡± Yang Ping and Song Zimo put away their phones. The lunch was arranged in the hospital¡¯s cafeteria. Though it was just a few stir-fry dishes, they were still prepared with care. Director Miao said, ¡°Please make do with lunch. Tonight, we will have a good gathering. President Dong will also be joining us. He said he must thank you all. Director Han has given us enormous support in orthopedics over the years. See, these past years, our orthopedic department has evolved from being mixed in with general surgery, to becoming a separate department, and now we have expanded to ninety beds. This is all thanks to the help of Director Han.¡± Director Tian said, ¡°You guys are also putting in a lot of effort. Everyone knows that Director Miao¡¯s professional skills and management level are exceptional. If you weren¡¯t effective, even with Director Han¡¯s help, you wouldn¡¯t have been able to achieve anything. Other counties also invited support from hospitals in the provincial capital, but they haven¡¯t achieved any results.¡± Director Tian had a way with words that was always well-received. Doctors in higher and lower-ranking hospitals have a mutually beneficial cooperative relationship. Doctors from lower-ranking hospitals maintain good relationships with professors from higher-ranking hospitals, so they can consult the professors if they encounter any problems. If the situation gets complicated, they may request professors to fly over and assist with surgeries. When implementing new techniques, the professor can provide hands-on guidance. Having connections also makes job promotions smoother. In short, there are plenty of benefits. As for higher-ranking hospitals, they often receive lots of patients and many come for advanced studies. These doctors, once they have completed their training, are key members in their departments. If they encounter complex cases they can¡¯t handle, they send those patients to the hospitals where they trained since they are familiar with these hospitals and the people there are easy to cooperate with. Whether it was due to hunger or the unique taste of the dishes in a small county town, everyone had a hearty meal. After checking the time, Director Miao offered to drive them all to the hotel across from the hospital to rest for two hours. They would then return to prepare for the surgery scheduled for two o¡¯clock. They took a brief nap at the hotel to gather energy. Performing surgery is a task that drains both mental and physical resources, especially for major operations. Two hours later, Director Miao called to inform that the patient had been sent to the operating room and was being anesthetized. He was now coming to pick them up. They rode Director Miao¡¯s car to the hospital and followed him into the operating room. Director Miao was very enthusiastic, helping them with their surgery gowns, masks, and caps, and asking the head nurse for the locker key. In the changing room, Director Miao took out three envelopes from his bag and handed them to Professor Tian, ¡°This is a consultation fee from our hospital for your hard work.¡± Professor Tian hesitated slightly. Director Miao said, ¡°Why so formal? There are plenty of times in future we will need your help again. We can¡¯t let you work for free.¡± Professor Tian accepted the envelopes, handed them to Song Zimo, who put them back into the bag. Then, using Director Miao¡¯s key, he opened the locker and locked the bag inside. ¡°I sent over pictures of the instruments last time,¡± Director Miao said. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve seen them. No problem. We will use those,¡± Professor Tian had already changed his clothes. After changing into surgical gowns and putting on caps and masks, everyone followed Director Miao into the operating room. Chapter 74 - 0072: Sudden Shock Chapter 74: Chapter 0072: Sudden Shock The patient had already been anesthetized and intubated for general anesthesia. Dr. Tao was preparing the patient¡¯s position, waiting for Director Tian¡¯s instructions. The surgical position is crucial; one inaccurate positioning could render the operation impossible. The films were hanging on the operation room¡¯s lightbox. Director Tian read the films again. Although Dr. Tao had already marked the operation site, Director Tian decided to verify the left or right side of the operation site himself. ¡°Professor Tian, how many people do we need in the surgery?¡± asked Director Miao. Director Tian replied, ¡°Just the two of us, Director, and we need Dr. Yang onboard. Dr. Song can rest.¡± Song Zimo was responsible for driving. He needed to rest to avoid fatigue in case he had to drive back at night, so he stayed on as backup. Director Miao had to perform the surgery. He was the director, and the patient was an acquaintance of his. Even if he didn¡¯t do anything, his presence in the surgery was mandatory. It was the most logical arrangement. ¡°Begin the blood and fluid transfusion!¡± Director Tian gave the instructions to the anesthesiologist and circulating nurse, and then assisted in positioning the patient in the prone position. They would go from the back road and then the front road. This complex type of fracture could not be solved by either front or back approach alone; both approaches had to be combined. Director Tian had long been confident about the operation. Indeed, the surgery was complex. There aren¡¯t many hospitals capable of handling this kind of complex pelvic and acetabular fracture. It represents the pinnacle level of trauma orthopedics. For the doctors of the county hospital, going out for further study is a chance to learn. Also, having a professor from a higher-level hospital do the operation is another learning opportunity. Any available orthopedics¡¯ doctors were now in the operating room to watch the operation. Everyone had already been impressed by Director Tian¡¯s professionalism back in the ward, and now they all wanted to see his remarkable surgical skills. There were already three people on stage, and Dr. Tao didn¡¯t know whether he should join in. It¡¯s common to have four people for pelvic fracture surgery. He was torn. ¡°Xiao Tao, you can help out with the C-arm machine at the side.¡± Director Miao made the decision for him. The positioning was completed, Director Miao, Director Tian, and Yang Ping went to scrub up. Anyone who could do things was always energetic. Despite being fifty, Director Miao was still full of vitality, sturdy and forceful in action. ¡°How much blood is prepared?¡± Director Tian asked. ¡°Twelve units of suspended red cells and 1200 milliliters of plasma!¡± Dr. Tao replied. That was enough. They started to scrub up and dress. This kind of operation was beyond Dr. Tao¡¯s reach. He usually only performed simple surgeries, leaving complex fractures for Director Miao. Even Director Miao was not confident he could handle this patient¡¯s surgery. It was not because of the patient¡¯s special identity, but it was actually technically challenging. Surgery was not child¡¯s play. For an operation like this, if it cannot be handled, insisting would risk a patient¡¯s life. Doctors can brag in their day-to-day, but no one would be foolish enough to undertake a surgery they can¡¯t handle. That¡¯s purely self-destructive. One operation could ruin a lifetime. As a department director, aside from holding up the department with skills, you need to have some backup. Like Director Miao, when the operation was too difficult to handle, he could make a call, and Director Han would dispatch an A-team to provide strong support from the province. Someone else may not be able to do this. The sterilization and sheet set up were routine procedures and were the same in all hospitals. Yang Ping was the first assistant, and Director Miao was the second. They started with the back road, aiming to reduce and fix the posterior column and posterior wall fracture of the acetabulum. Director Tian was extremely proficient, making standard incisions, steadily advancing layer by layer. Director Tian made the operation look light and effortless. His movements were unhurried but without any superfluous or ineffective ones, and the transitions were tight, so the operation was swift. Usually, when Director Miao performed a pelvic surgery, gauze pads were used one after another. The clean gauze pads would be soaked with blood when they came out. Now only one gauze pad has been passed over, and there was only a faint red hue on it. This led to doubts about whether this was a pelvic surgery, or if the surgery had even started. A few doctors were moving around, trying to find the best observation spot, but they couldn¡¯t get a good view and did not dare to come closer. Unlike in Sanbo Hospital, where high-definition cameras provided a video feed, Shipo People¡¯s Hospital¡¯s operating room did not have this equipment. ¡°Prepare the plate, get ready for the electric drill!¡± It was only about ten minutes, and the posterior column and posterior wall of the acetabulum had already been reduced. It¡¯s time to apply the plate. How come he was so fast without hurried movements? When the several doctors were discussing in private, the plate had already been pre-bent and they had started to put in the screws. Director Miao was impressive for being able to invite such a skilled professor from the provincial city. Dr. Tao felt a bit discouraged. At the same age, the professor could handle such a major surgery with ease, while he was still struggling with secondary surgeries. In about half an hour, the posterior column and posterior wall fractures had already been reduced. After syringing, they placed the drainage and started suturing. X-ray! The screen shows the rear wall of the acetabular posterior column has been fully repositioned, and the position of the steel plate and screws is good. ¡°Flip them over and prepare for anterior surgery!¡± This seemingly casual remark has already attracted countless admiring gazes. To the observing doctors, the technological gap seems insurmountable at this moment. Disinfect again, lay out the drapes, wash hands, and put on gowns. The anterior surgery begins. ¡°There will a lot of blood loss in anterior surgery! Therefore, you must replenish fluids and blood in advance to dilute the blood,¡± explains Director Tian. The CT angiography has indicated many vascular injuries in the pelvis. The patient¡¯s blood pressure was stabilized through fluid and blood transfusion immediately after the injury. However, now that we are directly approaching the fracture point, the bleeding, which had previously ceased, will inevitably resume. ¡°The death artery has already ruptured and retracted. We need to move quickly. We should find the blood vessel within ten minutes,¡± Director Tian reminds Yang Ping that their cooperation is crucial in this key step. The ¡®death artery¡¯, which is an anastomotic branch between the obturator artery and the external iliac artery, is also known as the death wreath. Once ruptured and bleeding, it will recoil, much like a snake retreating into a hole in a bush¨Cit becomes very difficult to locate and stop the bleeding. Consequently, the patient will fall into a perilous situation, which is why it is given such a frightening name. This is a major hurdle that must be taken seriously in pelvic surgery. Regularly replenishing fluids and blood, Director Tian¡¯s techniques not only supplement and dilute the patient¡¯s blood, but also minimize the patient¡¯s own blood loss. This specific patient, being anemic, cannot endure significant blood loss, otherwise, their blood pressure is likely to plummet. Experience is gained and risks are assessed through numerous surgeries. Like a captain navigating the ocean, experienced surgeons can avoid hidden rocks and wind waves. The anterior operation needs to address the acetabulum and iliac wing, as well as the sacroiliac joint and sacrum. The difficulty is extremely high. Even within the entire province, only a few prominent figures who frequently appear in academic conferences can perform this surgery. To address multiple fractures, Director Tian uses an incision that he personally designed. Director Miao, standing off to the side, feels as though he¡¯s sitting beside a race car driver with sweat in the palm of his hand. There are many nerves and vessels here¨Cbe careful! But Director Tian skillfully avoids them. If an accidental vessel incision occurs there and the blood cannot be stopped in time, slow down! But again, Director Tian perfectly avoids this. As soon as Director Tian contemplates elevated exposure, the hook¡¯s position has already changed, assisting in the revelation. Blood has just begun to seep out, but the assistant has already clamped the vessel with a hemostat. A touch from Director Tian¡¯s electric knife brings a perfect stop to the bleeding. Just when you¡¯re about to caution about nerves and vessels, the assistant¡¯s hemostat has gently pushed it away, aiding in the separation of vessels and nerves. With Director Tian¡¯s high-level skills and Yang Ping¡¯s excellent coordination, the surgery is practically a perfect performance. Director Tian just realized that he didn¡¯t pay enough attention to the assistant during the initial posterior surgery. Now it seems that this assistant is so perfect. No wonder Director Han asked himself to bring him along. Director Tian looked up at Yang Ping. Director Miao has already been dazzled and cannot keep up with the pace. He can only stand to the side, idle. The surgery has entered a critical phase, and we are about to encounter the death artery! Before coming to Shipo, Director Han repeatedly reminded Director Tian to be careful here! ¡°Controlled hypotension!¡± Director Tian ordered the anesthesiologist. Intraoperative controlled hypotension, also known as low-pressure anesthesia, can control blood pressure within a lower yet safe range. Lower blood pressure naturally results in less bleeding, similar to how a pipe with lower pressure has a weaker water flow. ¡°The death artery is hemorrhaging and has recoiled already, we are unsure if it has occluded on its own,¡± Director Tian reminded Yang Ping. Although it¡¯s nerve-wracking, it is essential to face and resolve it. Otherwise, the surgery cannot proceed, let alone bone fixation. The left and right hands cooperate dexterously, and the scissors skillfully perform sharp dissection. Once the adhesions are separated, blood spurts out immediately, and the blood vessels are not visible. As expected, the death artery has recoiled and ruptured the fragile self-clotted blood clumps. However, Director Tian remains calm. Anyone else would have completely collapsed by now or lost the courage to continue. But he is Director Tian after all. He just needs to replenish blood to buy him ten minutes. Then he can find the death artery and stop the bleeding successfully. Using the speed of blood transfusion to buy ten minutes is not a problem. He had considered this well before the surgery. The suction device in Yang Ping¡¯s hand quickly sucked up the blood to keep the operation area clean and create the best surgical vision for Director Tian. ¡°The blood pressure is dropping, they¡¯re in shock!¡± The anesthesiologist cried out in a somewhat panicked voice. Shock? Need gauze quickly! Gauze! Director Tian immediately stops the surgery, temporarily packing with gauze. His hands move swiftly to pack the bleeding area with gauze. Yang Ping has taken over, pressing down firmly to free Director Tian to handle other matters. The monitor indicates that the blood pressure has dropped to 70/30. True shock has set in and it is still declining. There wasn¡¯t much blood loss just now, even with the bleeding from the death artery. It only just started bleeding. They had already started blood transfusions and fluid replacements just now, so why did the patient suddenly go into shock? Could it be that the earlier posterior repositioning affected the major arteries or veins, such as the abdominal aorta or the internal or external iliac artery, causing a rupture? No, the entire process just now was clear. There were no blind maneuvers, and he had completely understood the images before the surgery. None of the bone fragments were close to the major blood vessels. Several possibilities quickly flashed through his mind. Chapter 75 - 0073: Lightning Action Chapter 75: Chapter 0073: Lightning Action Practical experience and accumulated knowledge play a crucial role at this moment. ¡°Transfusion allergic shock!¡± After filtering through a series of potential diagnoses, Director Tian quickly makes a decision. Even before he utters these words, Yang Ping quietly says, ¡°Transfusion allergic shock.¡± Director Tian glances at Yang Ping and promptly orders the anesthesiologist, ¡°Check the skin complexion!¡± The anesthesiologist quickly complies, responding, ¡°Facial redness, swelling around the eyes!¡± ¡°Transfusion allergic shock! Stop blood transfusion, rehydrate quickly, even remove the blood transfusion tubing!¡± Director Tian¡¯s voice is loud and clear, yet calm and collected. He glances at the monitoring screen and the anesthesia machine. The patient¡¯s heart is still beating, there¡¯s no need for cardiopulmonary resuscitation; as for respiration, the patient is on an anesthesia breathing machine, so there won¡¯t be any breathing problems. The anesthesia doctor is doing fine, but the patrolling nurse is slightly overwhelmed. Having a transfusion allergic shock on one hand and significant bleeding on the other, either condition can be deadly, but now both are occurring simultaneously. The watching doctors¡¯ hearts are pounding in their chests. ¡°0.1% adrenaline, 0.5 milliliter, intramuscular injection!¡± Director Tian commands firmly. Normally adrenaline is injected subcutaneously, but now intramuscular? The patrolling nurse questions with slightly hesitant eyes. ¡°Intramuscular!¡± Director Tian repeats harshly. Under the authority of the professor, the anesthesiologist and the nurse no longer question how he diagnosed a transfusion allergic shock or why he ordered an intramuscular injection of adrenaline. Time is life; all that matters now is fast execution. Bleeding and adrenaline present a contradiction. Adrenaline can exacerbate hemorrhagic shock and bleeding can intensify the allergic shock. The two are intertwined dilemmas. While directing the rescue, Director Tian continues working without pausing; rescue operations must be swift as allergic shock is extremely dangerous. It only takes a few minutes to see who lives or dies. ¡°Scalpel, open the abdomen, prepare a rubber strip to temporarily block the abdominal aorta!¡± Temporarily blocking the abdominal aorta is a drastic procedure; generally, people wouldn¡¯t dare to do it. Director Miao now has no clue what to do, he can only fret on standby. ¡°Prepare a rubber strip!¡± The patrolling nurse struggles to keep up with Director Tian¡¯s pace. The gloves are taken and started cutting the rubber strip. Director Miao assists by cutting together. The incision is extended along the original cut. Yang Ping¡¯s retractor is already in place to help expose the tissue. After cutting through the skin, subcutaneous tissue, and deep fascia, then the three layers of abdominal muscles, they enter the abdominal cavity and successfully locate the abdominal aorta. The thick abdominal aorta pulsates in the abdominal cavity. The pulsations aren¡¯t as strong as they would be under normal conditions due to the shock, yet they still give a strong visual impact. This is the main artery supplying the whole lower half of the body. A clamp is passed behind the abdominal aorta, and Yang Ping feeds the rubber strip accurately. Once the rubber strip is stretched, Director Tian tightens it and Yang Ping instantly clamps the strip, forming an elastic ligation around the abdominal aorta. Without the need for verbal communication, Yang Ping can always anticipate Director Tian¡¯s actions, never making a mistake, never arriving late. The major source of bleeding has been successfully blocked. Temporarily blocking the abdominal aorta cannot endure for very long, but can hold for forty-five minutes, which gives Director Tian enough time to find the ruptured vessels. ¡°Continue the surgery!¡± Director Tian orders. Pausing the surgery now bears a greater risk; it¡¯s like a ship entering a whirlpool, either it gets swallowed or it breaks free. The suction device delicately inserts into the fracture gap, clears the accumulated blood, and attempts to find the deathly artery that¡¯s bleeding. It¡¯s a challenging task. ¡°Do we have the interventional department?¡± Song Zimo asks from below the operating table presenting an idea as an observer. Director Tian decisively replies, ¡°No need.¡± It would take at least half an hour to get the interventional department involved. The many bleeding points shown on CT angiograms are a mess, which the interventional department can¡¯t accurately embolize. The only option would be to riskily perform mainstem embolization, which can lead to serious ischemic consequences. They¡¯d only consider this if there were no other options left. The bone fragments are carefully turned over. An assistant¡¯s hemostatic forceps have already clamped a vessel. Gently pulling it out, Director Tian looks up and locks eyes with Yang Ping, whose gaze is steady and confident. ¡°Number 4 silk!¡± A hemostatic forceps carrying silk sutures is handed over. Director Tian wraps it around and ties a deft surgical knot. ¡°Suture!¡± He sutured another one, a suture, a ligation. With two sutures, it should be safer. Director Tian released the rubber band of the abdominal aorta, and blood gushed out from the surgical area. He hurriedly fastened the abdominal aorta again and Yang Ping¡¯s vascular clamp went up again to secure the rubber band. Could it be that the artery he ligated is not the lethal artery? Or are there two lethal arteries? He looked at Yang Ping, who seemed to have guessed his thoughts and nodded, ¡°There should be two lethal arteries, and both the proximal and distal ends need to be ligated. In essence, we have to find and ligate four blood vessels. They have formed a loop, ligating just one end is pointless.¡± What he said was right, more accurate than himself. He also found the first lethal artery faster than him. ¡°Hand me the suction! Your turn!¡± Director Tian took the suction from Yang Ping¡¯s hand and started to suck the blood. Even though he was confident, speed was of the essence at this moment! The faster, the better. He would not risk the patient¡¯s life just to save face. If he could be one minute faster now, there would be more chances of success. The second blood vessel was located. Ligation, suturing! Another two procedures. The third one, the fourth one! Two blood vessels, all four ends were found and sutured, as well as ligated. He released the rubber band of the abdominal aorta again, and no more blood gushed out from the surgical area. Director Tian thought, Yang Ping was faster in making decisions, and his movements were also quicker than him. No wonder Director Han asked him to bring Yang Ping along. He couldn¡¯t help casting an appreciative glance at Yang Ping, who took the suction back from him. These small movements on the operating table couldn¡¯t be seen by the people below. Director Miao was now focusing on the patient¡¯s vital signs and had no time to watch the surgery. Director Tian hesitated, wondering if he should let him continue to finish the surgery. Yang Ping¡¯s eyes were full of encouragement. Director Tian smiled, continuing. Having passed the risky point of the lethal arteries, they could take a breather now. It was important to control the pace of the surgery. They had risked continuing the surgery earlier to resolve the conflict between epinephrine and bleeding. But now, they could finally relax. The allergic shock came fiercely, but it also ended quickly. The patient¡¯s vital signs had stabilized and the blood pressure had come back up. In fact, during an allergic shock, there are only a few golden minutes left. If the rescue is successful, the patient lives. If not, the patient will never wake up. The blood bag and transfusion tube from earlier were preserved to find out the cause. Even though they had faced a critical situation, Director Tian went through the entire process without any panic. Once again, it confirmed that his judgment was correct as he confirmed the patient¡¯s stable vital signs. ¡°Continue!¡± The doctors below have just gone through a lifesaving roller coaster ride, and their emotions were still unsettled. But now the surgery continues. The professor really was a professor, with the demeanor of a general. The anterior column of the acetabulum was fixed, next came the iliac wing, then the sacral fracture, and finally the sacroiliac joint dislocation was treated. Any single one of these fractures would be a difficult surgical operation, let alone a mixture of several at the same time. Fixation of the fractured iliac wing, fixation of the sacral fracture, and finally, the sacroiliac joint was restored back into position and fixed! The remaining tasks were smoothly handled by Director Tian, even when facing the complex venous plexus near the sacrum. With the cooperation of the two, very little blood was lost. X-ray imaging, perfect fixation. Rinsing, placement of drainage tube. Director Tian began suturing, Yang Ping cut the thread. ¡°Allergic shock, earlier that was so dangerous! Director Han and I have encountered it during surgery before.¡± Director Tian had completely forgotten Director Miao¡¯s presence earlier, so he only remembered to explain now. Director Miao was still in shock, as if waking from a dream, thankfully it was Director Tian conducting the surgery. To think, if it had been himself, either the allergic shock or the bleeding from the lethal arteries, would have made him extremely nervous. Let alone the occurrence of both at the same time, he couldn¡¯t have handled it. Thankfully, they had invited the professor to do it who remained composed throughout, otherwise the fear might have soaked his surgical gown entirely. ¡°Send the patient to ICU for at least 24 hours after the surgery. There was not much blood loss from the fracture, the main concern is the follow-up care and treatment for the allergic shock.¡± Director Tian instructed. The doctors present were grateful for their experience of the rescue they had just witnessed. The professor¡¯s composure on the stage, his accurate judgment of the patient¡¯s condition, decisive rescue, daring continuation of the surgery, and finally getting through the danger, was certainly an experience to be remembered for a lifetime. If only they could be just as competent. Chapter 76 - 0074 The Professors Title Is Not In Vain Chapter 76: Chapter 0074 The Professor¡¯s Title Is Not In Vain The patient¡¯s vital signs are stable, and moving them to the ICU is just to ensure their safety. As long as the shock is corrected and blood pressure is maintained normally, there shouldn¡¯t be a major problem. Director Tian and Yang Ping take off their surgical gowns, and the doctors beside them immediately come over to help. ¡°There are many fractures, be wary of fat emboli and pulmonary emboli!¡± Director Tian instructs Dr. Tao. Director Miao removes his surgical gown, the scrub underneath is almost half soaked. ¡°It¡¯s all right.¡± Director Tian reassures Director Miao. He is a highly reputed director of a major department, known as the famous doctor of Shipo, but the situation just now was indeed intense. It was too much for him, and he is still a bit scared. Director Miao acknowledges, ¡°It was dangerous. I was lucky to have you guys.¡± Surgery is like this. Although accidents are low-probability events, when they occur to specific patients, it is a matter of life and death. ¡°Pay attention to laryngeal edema in ICU later. The tube can be removed only after the edema subsides. If it hasn¡¯t subsided, keep it. Even after removal, always keep the tracheal intubation and tracheotomy kit at the bedside, just in case.¡± Director Tian further instructs. As the Chief Surgeon, some things are worth emphasizing over and over again. Director Miao takes note of the professor¡¯s words and reminds Dr. Tao, ¡°Xiao Tao, remember this. Brief the ICU doctor clearly later. Stick to it closely.¡± Dr. Tao responds, and several doctors move over stools. Director Miao, Director Tian, and Yang Ping all sit down. The patient needs to be observed for a while and can be transported away only after confirming that there are no issues. ¡°In a situation like this, I remember Director Han and I once encountered it. It was so memorable, the patient¡¯s condition was even more serious than this. His heartbeat and respiration suddenly stopped, and we performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation on the operating table. Finally, we saved the patient. This is relatively better, with no cessation of heartbeat or respiration. The judgment of anaphylactic shock should be fast and accurate, the rescue time is only a few minutes. If the rescue is correct within these few minutes, the chances of successful treatment are very high.¡± Director Tian speaks confidently. All doctors listen attentively. They faced even dire cases and saved those patients. No wonder they could deal with the situation just now calmly and decisively. The professor is really a professor, for good reason. ¡°Professor Tian, how did you determine it was anaphylactic shock just now?¡± the anesthetist asked. He had just carried out the rescue exactly as Professor Tian directed, but still didn¡¯t understand it. ¡°Yes, Professor Tian, how did you make the diagnosis so quickly?¡± Director Miao was also very interested. ¡°Such a sudden drop in blood pressure, the first consideration is shock. There are only a few types of shock: cardiogenic, hemorrhagic, traumatic, allergic, infective, neurogenic, and burn-related shocks. After considering this patient¡¯s case, Burn-caused, neurogenic, and infective could be ruled out. Traumatic is also ruled out as the acute phase of the injury has passed. Hemorrhagic isn¡¯t the cause as there was very little blood loss during surgery. So the possibilities left are cardiogenic and allergic shocks. For cardiogenic, there would be reactions in the ECG waveform on the monitoring screen. I saw the ECG waveform and ruled that out. It left the allergic shock. Drugs or blood transfusion could cause this. The tube used for infusion was running with normal saline, and shock occurred immediately after changing the bag of blood for transfusion from this side. So, I thought of transfusion-related anaphylactic shock. No matter whether it is caused by transfusion or drugs, they both are types of anaphylactic shocks, and the treatment procedure is pretty similar.¡± Director Tian explained clearly as though peeling an onion, effectively giving an on-the-spot mini-lecture. If he doesn¡¯t say a few words at this time, others might think the professor is being conservative, not wanting to teach real knowledge. It was surprising that he observed so many details during the surgery such as the data on the monitoring screen and noticing when the nurse changed the blood bag. Director Miao smiles, ¡°You¡¯ve truly learned from Director Han who always demands a clear sight of the monitoring screen while performing surgery.¡± The doctors who came to observe felt they had learned a lot. There are so many details involved in surgery, none of which they were aware of before. ¡°Emergency resuscitation is not about hastily cutting through the tangle, but about quickly untangling it. You need to understand the thousands of different ways things can be tangled up in order to quickly unravel it; otherwise, you¡¯ll only end up creating a bigger mess,¡± summarized Director Tian. ¡°When faced with such situations, people tend to get flustered and can only think simplistically. We can¡¯t account for everything,¡± said a doctor, joining the discussion given the collegial and humble demeanor of the professor. Feeling less restrained, everyone unconsciously moved closer to Director Tian. ¡°This is where training comes in. Special forces can identify hostages from criminals in a room in just a fraction of a second based only on the profiles they¡¯ve seen, swiftly neutralizing the criminals and rescuing the hostages. That¡¯s the result of training. A layperson entering at that point would definitely be at a loss, taking a long time just to count the number of people in the room, let alone identifying the hostages.¡± Everyone laughed at the professor¡¯s humorous remarks, while finding his analogy easy to understand. After observing for ten minutes, the patient¡¯s vitals remained stable and they were ready to be moved out. ¡°Shall I take a few of you to rest? You¡¯ve all worked hard,¡± Director Miao suggested. ¡°That¡¯s fine. Let¡¯s go to the ICU together to check on the patient. I¡¯ll also brief the ICU doctors. Director Miao, could you please explain to the family that the patient will be moved to the ICU after surgery? This might scare them,¡± Director Tian reminded Director Miao. ¡°We¡¯ve already discussed it. It¡¯s safer for the patient to receive monitored care in the ICU after such a major surgery,¡± Director Miao said as he led everyone to the changing room. ¡°Great. Let¡¯s head to the ICU together.¡± The operating room doors opened, and the gurney bearing the patient was wheeled out, quickly surrounded by anxiously waiting relatives, and two elderly relatives were helped forward. ¡°How did it go, Director Miao?¡± the patient¡¯s brother asked. Given the complexity of the surgery, they were expecting it to last till the evening. Seeing the patient wheeled out just three hours into it, they were worried that it might have been cancelled due to difficulty. ¡°Director Miao, that was quick. Was something wrong?¡± the relatives asked anxiously. ¡°The surgery was very successful! Don¡¯t worry, the professor¡¯s surgical skills are both fast and precise, so there was minimal blood loss.¡± ¡°We encountered a very rare complication in the form of an allergic shock, which can be fatal within minutes. Fortunately, we had Professor Tian, who immediately diagnosed it and swiftly initiated treatment. The patient is currently safe and the operation was excellent¡ª¡± In short, the professor had not only perfectly performed the surgery but also pulled the patient back from the brink of death. Director Miao stated passionately, with expressive facial expressions, gesturing intermittently. The relatives¡¯ expressions fluctuated as he spoke. When they heard the final sentence, they firmly grasped Director Miao¡¯s hand, ¡°You are a lifesaver¡ª without you, this¡ª¡± They choked back the rest, considering it unlucky to voice. The relatives then remembered to thank Professor Tian who was the real hero. They immediately shook Professor Tian¡¯s hand, repeating, ¡°Thank you! Thank you!¡± in their gratitude. Their excitement caused them to grip his hand a bit too tight and shake it vigorously. ¡°This is Professor Tian from the provincial capital who performed the surgery. He¡¯s amazing. He noticed a small hole in the younger brother¡¯s heart that even he himself didn¡¯t tell the doctors about. The younger brother¡¯s injuries were very severe, and he even suffered from an allergic reaction just now. Professor Tian dragged him back from death¡¯s door.¡± The patient¡¯s brother narrated the events to the elders and other relatives with vivid detail and a touch of pride in his tone. The patient¡¯s brother was feeling quite good. Initially, some relatives suggested sending the patient to the provincial capital or Beijing for treatment, but they were not the ones to make the decision. It¡¯s as if they owned the hospitals in the provincial capital or Beijing and could admit anyone at leisure. Now, they could all shut up. Humph, let those who are in charge be in charge, their foresight is not something these relatives can understand, thought the patient¡¯s brother. The gurney rolled towards the ICU. Chapter 77 - 0075: Thank You Dinner Chapter 77: Chapter 0075: Thank You Dinner Everyone followed the patient to the ICU. In the ICU, Director Tian personally checked the patient¡¯s laryngeal edema and found it had already receded. Therefore, he personally removed the tracheal intubation. Seeing the patient¡¯s vital signs were stable, he again personally checked the bedside backup tracheal intubation and tracheotomy kit. The patient regained consciousness and complained of hunger, wanting to eat. The family, led by Director Miao, looked through the glass to visit, and seeing the patient¡¯s good spirits, they were also relieved. Sanbo Hospital had many surgeries, and fearing that Director Han would be too busy, they had originally planned to take Yang Ping and Song Zimo back overnight. But Director Miao firmly refused, saying that after helping with such a big surgery and not having a good meal, how could he face Director Han and have the audacity to ask the professor to perform surgery. This dinner had escalated to a moral level, and they could not decline. Caught in the middle, Director Han ordered over the phone: have dinner at Shipo and return tomorrow ¨C he would handle all tomorrow¡¯s surgeries. Since Director Han had spoken, they stayed, letting these two youngsters taste the local flavors of the mountain area. Song Zimo said: ¡°Old Han can only perform pelvis surgery with Little Five and Zhang Lin tomorrow.¡± Yang Ping chuckled: ¡°Zhang Lin will have more moments to post on WeChat.¡± It was already six in the afternoon, so Director Miao drove everyone to a hotel ¨C the Shipo Hotel. The hotel was old and shabby, but carried the word Shipo in its name, indicating its status within the county. Inside, there were shady trees. Everyone went along the winding path to a separate room. Inside was a large round table that could seat at least twenty people. The patient¡¯s brother, wearing a shiny black shirt, was already waiting there. He immediately stood up, bowed, and shook hands: ¡°Thank you, thank you. You have traveled a long way and endured many hardships to operate on my brother. I am deeply grateful. I have prepared a little wine, please sit down.¡± His words were very articulate, as if he was reading a drafted speech. The phrase ¡®operate on¡¯ stuck out to Yang Ping, although he couldn¡¯t tell why. At the head of the table, facing the entrance, was a seat for Director Miao. He ushered Tian Yuan to sit: ¡°This is the patient¡¯s brother, Mr. Du, a capable man of Shipo.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you, I have heard a lot about you!¡± Tian Yuan shook his hand again. ¡°Oh no, it¡¯s just the times are good, the policies are good, I am merely a pig caught in the tide, not worth mentioning.¡± Mr. Du waved his hands. Tian Yuan let Director Miao sit: ¡°Director Miao, it¡¯s a bit awkward. The guest should follow the host¡¯s lead, please!¡± After some back-and-forthing, Tian Yuan took a seat, Director Miao took the seat to his right, with Yang Ping and Song Zimo on his right. To Tian Yuan¡¯s left was an empty seat, then the deputy dean of medical affairs and the department head of Shipo People¡¯s Hospital, as well as Mr. Du¡¯s brother-in-law. A pot of wine was placed on the table, contained in an earthenware container ¨C an antique. The label was hand-written and affixed to the container. ¡°This wine is home-brewed by Mr. Du, made from select sorghum, a traditional formula, brewed in an antique way. The wine is a treat used by our county to welcome visiting investors and distinguished guests.¡± Director Miao introduced. The Du family started their business in Shipo with their inherited brewing skills, then diversified their developments, with industries covering surrounding counties and cities, including tourism, real estate, hotels, etc. At this moment, someone came in. Director Miao and others stood up: ¡°President Dong, President Dong is here!¡± President Dong, carrying a document bag, walked with a bit of a stoop, giving the impression of leaning forward. As soon as he entered, he shook hands with Tian Yuan: ¡°Professor Tian, you¡¯ve worked hard, please sit down,¡± then took a seat to the left of Director Tian. Director Han and Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Orthopedics was a solid backing to Shipo People¡¯s Hospital. To show his importance, President Dong specifically took the time to come over. Everyone was here, the dishes were served, and the wine was poured. Nine people sat at such a large table that it was inconvenient to reach for dishes, thought Yang Ping. ¡°Xiao Song and Xiao Yang drove here, so they can¡¯t drink!¡± Tian Yuan explained for them, then he took a drink for himself. Once the first round of wine was poured and several dishes served, President Dong raised his glass saying: ¡°To express gratitude on behalf of others, thank you to Professor Tian, Professor Yang, Professor Song for your hard work, coming down to the countryside to guide the surgery, along with Director Han, and Sanbo Hospital, cheers!¡± President Dong turned the first dish in front of Tian Yuan, picked a piece of chicken with public chopsticks, and placed it into Tian Yuan¡¯s bowl: ¡°There isn¡¯t anything special about Shipo. This is a free-range chicken from Shipo¡¯s Nan village, which even has some fame in the province. These chickens are all raised in the wild, not a single feed given, purely grain-fed, fried with vegetable oil, and very delicious. Do try it.¡± Tian Yuan picked up the chicken, took a small bite, and said: ¡°It truly lives up to its name. No wonder people say Shipo is full of treasures. Everyone please have some!¡± ¡°Come, come, these two young professors are too low-key.¡± President Dong picked a piece of chicken and placed it in each of their bowls. ¡°This is a Shipo river fish, wild river fish freshly caught by fishermen. Just an hour ago, I specially asked the fishermen to catch some, and then immediately sent to the kitchen to be steamed. We didn¡¯t dare delay them for even a moment.¡± Mr. Du began to introduce the second dish. ¡°Although our Shipo is a small town in the mountains, it has advantages that big cities don¡¯t have¡ªgreen and natural. In your words, these are wild forest mushrooms, freshly picked.¡± Mr. Du introduced each dish one by one. When the mushrooms were turned in front of Yang Ping and Song Zimo, Yang Ping looked at Song Zimo, and Song Zimo looked at Yang Ping. Both of them didn¡¯t dare to pick up their chopsticks. These wild mushrooms¡ªwho dares to eat them? They¡¯d seen too many cases of mushroom poisoning during their on-call shifts in the ER. Director Miao noticed this, laughed loudly: ¡°Professors, there¡¯s been a misunderstanding. These are not just any wild mushrooms. The mushrooms were sown in the forest on the mountain, but they are all edible and non-toxic. Look,¡± and then he picked up one and began to eat it with pleasure. So that¡¯s why nobody dared to touch their chopsticks before everything was clear. Song Zimo picked up a piece, followed by Yang Ping; the taste was indeed good. ¡°Regarding this wine, be sure to take some with you later to gift to Director Han. Don¡¯t refuse,¡± said Director Miao as he clinked glasses with Tian Yuan. Tian Yuan¡¯s demeanor was obviously more mature and composed than Yang Ping¡¯s and Song Zimo¡¯s. He was neither rough-around-the-edges nor pedantically scholarly, capable of fitting in at any occasion. A skilled scholar who navigated the world adeptly, he had been following Director Han for many years and could stay on top of any situation. Despite his refined demeanor, at Sanbo Hospital, when it came to drinking, he was a deadly contender, on par with Xiong Sihai from the emergency department. His drinking style was deliberate and careful, able to keep the pace. ¡°Here, let me propose a toast to President Dong. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us,¡± he said. ¡°Another toast to Director Miao. You¡¯ve been most hospitable. The next time you come to the provincial capital, allow me to reciprocate your hospitality.¡± ¡°Mr. Du, thank you for meticulously preparing these rare delicacies. Each one is a rare treat.¡± ¡°Wild vegetables, wild vegetables!¡± Another dish was served, and Mr. Du hurriedly introduced it. ¡°Times have changed, it has flipped around. In the past, rural people ate wild vegetables, but now city dwellers treasure them. At my farm, the annual sales of these wild vegetables are astounding,¡± Mr. Du added, further elaborating on the dish. ¡°Look at this. You¡¯re here today and will leave early tomorrow morning. You¡¯re all busy, I can¡¯t insist you stay longer. But if you have time, come to the countryside for a vacation. Let Director Miao know and I will arrange for you ¨C fishing, crab catching, rafting, hot springs... You¡¯re busy working all day, so come to the countryside for some relaxation,¡± Mr. Du said as he scooped some wild vegetables onto Tian Yuan and President Dong¡¯s plates. ¡°Mr. Du has a tourist area under him. It¡¯s well-known in Shipo County. The rafting and hot springs there are unbeatable!¡± Director Miao interjected. ¡°Old Miao, don¡¯t call me Mr. Du. Just call me brother Du. Else, you owe me a drink. Old Miao and I have been friends for many years. I must admit, Professor Tian, that I had a herniated lumbar disc. I was in so much pain that I could¡¯t walk. It was Old Miao who performed the surgery. It¡¯s been 10 years and it hasn¡¯t recurred. My father had colorectal cancer, and it was Old Miao who helped bring a professor from the provincial capital to operate; now Little Two at home is again troubling Old Miao. Old Miao has practically become my family¡¯s private physician,¡± Mr. Du, a businessman, was able to control the situation effortlessly in these circumstances. ¡°You ought to give him a salary for that,¡± President Dong joked. ¡°Salary? No need. Just drink three cups as a token!¡± Director Miao said. ¡°Was the surgery successful today?¡± President Dong asked. Director Miao replied, ¡°Extremely so. For such a difficult surgery, I would guess that there are only a few in the provincial capital capable of performing it. But Professor Tian acted as if it was as simple as an appendectomy. There was an incident of anaphylactic shock during the surgery, which was really scary. But Professor Tian was unshaken and resolved the issue in no time. The surgery proceeded without delay, and the patient has woken up from anesthesia and is complaining of hunger, wanting to eat.¡± ¡°Such talent at a young age, Professor Tian. Here¡¯s another toast to you,¡± President Dong stated. Yang Ping and Song Zimo took full advantage of this time to eat, not caring whether it was wild vegetables, freshwater crabs, or free-range chicken. Their priority was to fill their stomachs first. Yang Ping didn¡¯t delight in these types of occasions, but he was interested in the food. One should never neglect oneself, especially one¡¯s stomach. Thanks to his polished skill of using both hands at the same time to eat, he picked up the food with his chopsticks unerringly. The banquet lasted several hours with a variety of dishes ¨C truly a unique countryside flavor. Mr. Du, this local tycoon, did indeed know how to put on a good show. No wonders he was able to make a fortune. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door and came in. They whispered something into Mr. Du¡¯s ear. Mr. Du stood up, an apologetic expression on his face. He whispered something to President Dong and then said, ¡°Excuse me, everyone. I¡¯ll be back shortly. County Chief Wu is entertaining an investor at a meal, and I need to go greet them.¡± ¡°Go ahead!¡± President Dong gestured him off. Riding high after a few drinks, Director Miao put his arm around Tian Yuan and said, ¡°The friendship that Director Han and I share, we¡¯re like brothers. Ask President Dong, he knows best. When President Dong took office, he was full of enthusiasm and energy, looking to develop the hospital with orthopedics taking the lead. President Dong led us to the provincial capital to look for hospital collaborations. Collaborations? What a joke! We rural hospitals, with our few shabby resources, talk about collaborations? Begging would be more like it. Nobody paid attention to us; people were even unwilling to chat with us. Only Director Han listened to us patiently, even treating us to a meal. Do you remember that day, President Dong?¡± President Dong replied, ¡°How could I forget? We didn¡¯t have to eat our boxed meals for once and had a big feast in the city. We almost developed pancreatitis from overeating.¡± ¡°Yes, after the meal, Director Han agreed to collaborate with us on the spot, but it was more like poverty alleviation or border support. We knew it in our hearts. Collaboration should be mutually beneficial, but we had nothing to offer. When we first invited Director Han for surgeries, some of the equipment, he had to prepare himself, bring it over, sterilize it, clean it up after the operation, and bring it back. Not to mention, he guided me in performing surgeries, and even pulled strings for us to go for further training in Beijing and Shanghai. That¡¯s how our orthopedic department developed. Director Han must not have told you this,¡± Director Miao concluded, his voice filled with sincerity. Tian Yuan mentioned, ¡°Yes, he has shared this with us.¡± ¡°Back then, the hospital was drowning in debts. Doctors were thinking of leaving. They were desperate to leave. The talent drain was severe. Who knew we would be able to make it to today? Now, in these three provinces across dozens of counties, they¡¯re all under our feet,¡± Director Miao emptied his glass. ¡°Professor Tian, it¡¯s no secret that President Dong had an important dinner tonight, but he postponed everything. When he heard that someone from Director Han was coming, he had to accompany them to dinner no matter what.¡± As he spoke, Director Miao¡¯s eyes started to well up with tears. President Dong interrupted, ¡°What are you talking about? You¡¯re bringing up all these old stories. Let¡¯s not spoil the mood! Drink, drink, and for our two young professors, make yourselves at home. If you don¡¯t drink, eat freely as if you¡¯re in your own hospital¡¯s cafeteria.¡± His phone buzzed with a WeChat alert. Yang Ping stealthily checked his phone. Su Yixuan had sent him a WeChat message. The operating room needed Yang Ping¡¯s photo. As Yang was new, he hadn¡¯t handed in a photo yet so his picture was not on the introduction wall in the operating room. The head nurse was asking for it. Yang Ping sent a reply: Right now, I¡¯m in Shipo County. I¡¯ll be back early tomorrow morning. Will take a photo in a few days¡¯ time. Song Zimo was picking up some food when he casually glanced at it. Chapter 78 - 0076 Personnel Changes Chapter 78: Chapter 0076 Personnel Changes They set off at six in the morning and arrived at the hospital by ten. Director Miao had stuffed Song Zimo¡¯s trunk full of local specialities from Shipo, including several jars of liquor. Upon arriving at the hospital, everyone hurried to the operating room, where Director Han and Little Five were performing hip socket fracture surgery. Previously, in order to earn points by buying the pelvic surgery training from the system, they had taken on surgeries for ten days straight. According to the agreement with Song Zimo, the surgeries for the next ten days were all to be performed by Song Zimo, while Yang Ping would take some time off. Director Han had given his surgery to Song Zimo. Song Zimo was very skilled at pelvic and hip socket surgery. Of course, he was still not as good as Tian Yuan since experience matters. ¡°You can handle the rest of the surgeries. I have to leave, if you encounter any difficulties, call Tian Yuan,¡± Director Han took off his surgical gown and gloves and left. Song Zimo with Little Five and Zhang Lin were enough, Yang Ping, seeing that his help wasn¡¯t needed, went back to the changing room to rest. In the system space, there were more than 20,000 points. However, since most of them were used to purchase the pelvic surgery training, only a few hundred points were left. He scanned the mall, but could not find anything worth a few hundred points. The category for sports medicine had opened, but it was still gray. Judging from experience, Yang Ping guessed that there were unfinished trauma orthopedics training, and the barrel was not completely filled. This was strange. Hadn¡¯t all of trauma orthopedics been completed? Yang Ping checked his skill tree. Indeed, all of trauma orthopedics was completed. However, there was one branch linked on the main trunk, which was parallel to trauma orthopedics ¨C multiple traumas. Only by completing this training could he proceed to sports medicine. Usually, multiple trauma surgeries required a multidisciplinary team and were not entirely operated by orthopedic surgeons. The fact that the system included this as a part of trauma orthopedics showed that the system had high requirements. In the short term, it was difficult to gain points through daily work. He could only wait for the system to issue tasks, or complete the side task of reattaching a hundred severed fingers to earn a significant amount of points. The side task of reattaching a hundred severed fingers was already more than eighty percent completed. Once this task was completed, he would receive fifty thousand points, and his financial situation would be much better. He only needed to complete about ten more surgeries to close this side task. Yang Ping was planning to ask Song Zimo to hand over the finger reattachment surgeries, but he decided not to. It wasn¡¯t right to go back on one¡¯s word, he could wait a while longer. The stage mission was to help Sanbo Hospital establish the top trauma orthopedics department in G City. He wasn¡¯t sure about the evaluation criteria for ¡°the strongest¡±, but the progress of the mission had already reached sixty percent. At the moment, he couldn¡¯t buy anything useful in the system. He couldn¡¯t even spend a few hours studying, so he had to complete a few dozen more human anatomies before exiting the system space. Yang Ping went to the operating room again but did not find Xiao Su. He was seen by a nurse who laughed and said, ¡°Doctor Yang, are you looking for Xiao Su? She¡¯s in the ophthalmic operating room, leading an intern.¡± Then she giggled. Yang Ping pretended not to hear the laughter. After the nurse walked away, he went to the ophthalmic operating room. The two operating rooms were relatively secluded, and one of them was not scheduled for any surgeries today. Xiao Su was explaining the commonly used ophthalmic surgical instruments to the intern. Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to interrupt her. Instead, he peered through the small window on the door. Su Yixuan saw Yang Ping¡¯s head peeking through the door, greeted him with a hand gesture, and then continued her explanation. At the washbasin, he ran into Director Tian, who said: ¡°Drop by the office of the ward director before leaving work. The boss has something to say.¡± Sometimes, the department director or tutor is referred to as the boss. ¡°Okay!¡± Yang Ping responded, assuming it was to discuss the Shipo surgery. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you operating, giving everything to Song Zimo? Did you get sick of it in the previous period?¡± Tian Yuan noticed that he was so idle while Song Zimo was working diligently. ¡°We agreed to take turns. He gave me a break for the next ten days,¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°You guys are quite interesting. I can¡¯t figure you out. How¡¯s the data preparation for your project? If you need my help, just say so.¡± Tian Yuan was drying his hands. Tian Yuan was an expert in project applications in the department. He had successfully applied for a national-level project this year, obtained a post-graduate director title, and was planning to mentor postgraduates. ¡°I will definitely need your help,¡± said Yang Ping. Having disinfected his hands, Tian Yuan went to perform the surgery. Initially, Director Han was prepared to handle the surgeries of his group, but when Tian Yuan returned, he decided to do it himself. At noon, he had a surgical meal and took a short nap on the bench. In the afternoon, he came across Xiao Su leading an intern again. She told him, ¡°I sent you a file. Check your WeChat when you¡¯re free.¡± It was another file. Yang Ping was delighted. This file was different from the previous one. He had kept the bottle of chili sauce locked in the cabinet, reluctant to eat it. When Yang Ping checked his phone in the changing room, he saw that it was a real file this time. Su Yixuan was preparing to teach the interns about the recognition and use of basic orthopedic surgical instruments. She had made a PPT and asked Yang Ping to help her review and modify it. She would need it by tomorrow. He would pull an all-nighter that night if he had to, just to do a good job of this task, Yang Ping thought. When the surgery was over, Tian Yuan, Song Zimo, and Yang Ping went to Director Han¡¯s office. Tian Yuan closed the door, and Director Han poured tea for everyone, saying, ¡°I held this small meeting today because I have something to discuss with you.¡± Director Han sat down, lightly tapped his fingers on the table and paused before saying, ¡°We¡¯re going to move a professor to be the new head of trauma orthopedics.¡± A new department director? What about Director Han? Everyone was unanimously surprised. This news was rather sudden. ¡°What about you? Director.¡± Tian Yuan immediately asked. Director Han said, ¡°I just resigned as the director of the trauma orthopedics department, but I will still continue to serve as the director of the overall orthopedics department. Dean Xia has a long-term vision. He wants to develop the high-end medical market, using orthopedics as a pilot. We will open a new orthopedics department in the Overseas Chinese Building, which will perform all types of orthopedic surgeries, without subdividing sub-specialties. This will not conflict with the other departments here. The new department will only admit VIP patients and will have 30 ward beds. I want to take the three of you over there. Would you like to do this? Initially, there will definitely be fewer patients than there are here, and it would be a startup, so it may be tougher for everyone.¡± Everyone thought that Director Han was not continuing as the director of the overall orthopedics department and it gave everyone quite a shock. If that were the case, it would have caused quite a disturbance in the department. ¡°Director, I¡¯ll go with you, there¡¯s no need for discussion.¡± Tian Yuan asserted decisively. ¡°So will I!¡± ¡°So will I! Yang Ping and Song Zimo simultaneously agreed, their attitudes were firm. The three of them were sincere and genuine, and not just paying lip service. All three of them were the favored subordinates of Director Han. Yang Ping joined Director Han¡¯s team the latest, but he had long been valued. Director Han considered him as close as Tian Yuan and Song Zimo, otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have been summoned to this meeting. With the current expansion plan, the three of them definitely felt obligated to join, not minding the potential hardship. However, the trauma orthopedics department had just started to garner a reputation, and now they had to hand it over to others, which was somewhat regretful. Tian Yuan said, ¡°No matter the reason, we will follow you. But the trauma orthopedics department has just made a name for itself, so¨C¡± ¡°It is part of the hospital¡¯s larger strategy. The new orthopedics department being opened in the Overseas Chinese Building needs someone like me to take charge. ¡± Director Han explained. ¡°Who will be the new addition?¡± Tian Yuan asked. ¡°From Fuer at Nandu Medical University, his name is Tan Boyun!¡± ¡°He is arrogant and looks down on others, and he is not getting along with his director.¡± Director Tian is very familiar with him. ¡°His personality is indeed problematic, but he is indeed a talent. Perhaps the higher-ups factored in this point, that¡¯s why they transferred him to Sanbo. We do have a shortage of staff here, I¡¯ve been pondering who should serve as the director of trauma orthopedics, this event happened right at the time, thus I let Dean Xia agree.¡± Director Han said. If Director Han hadn¡¯t agreed, Dean Xia wouldn¡¯t have agreed with the higher-ups either, thus this matter would have passed. ¡°He has more drive than Ouyang, Old Bai, and Old Ding. This was also my consideration. Originally, I planned to let Tian Yuan serve as the director of trauma orthopedics, but after considering it thoroughly, when the new department opens in the Overseas Chinese Building, your presence will be indispensable.¡± Director Han said. ¡°Won¡¯t Ouyang, Old Bai, and Old Ding have thoughts about this?¡± Tian Yuan is Director Han¡¯s confidant and spoke whatever was on her mind. ¡°I¡¯ve spoken to each of them, there won¡¯t be issues, at least on the surface. Let them mesh gradually. All of them lack a spirit of drive, they¡¯re not suitable for aggressive pursuits, but this Tan Boyun can! His surgeries are very well-done, and he also has managerial talents. He¡¯s been harboring resentment at Fuer, as he¡¯s always been under his director¡¯s thumb. Now that he¡¯s here, he will certainly go all out, subtly and overtly contesting against Fuer. This is a good thing, we just have to fear that he can¡¯t control his enthusiasm. The foundation of the trauma orthopedics department has already been laid by me, and the Trauma Emergency Center is operating smoothly. If he arrives and makes full use of this platform, a good show can be performed.¡± Director Han took a sip of his tea. ¡°With his temperament, will he often cause conflicts with Ouyang and the others.¡± Tian Yuan still worried. Director Han said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, let him be the right-hand man, and there may indeed be disorder. But if he¡¯s in charge, there won¡¯t be any problems. He will be able to control Ouyang and the others. Honestly, once he joins us, the strength of our trauma orthopedics department will increase significantly.¡± ¡°At that time, he will also bring a student over, which is understandable. Everyone wants to have a capable assistant when they work. Am I not always thinking of having you guys by my side? When you were in Japan, you and he were visiting scholars at the same time, right?¡± Director Han remembered. ¡°That¡¯s not just in Japan. When we were at the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States, we were in the same group and even shared a dormitory. How could I not understand him so well?¡± Tian Yuan got up to refill Director Han¡¯s tea. ¡°What are your thoughts on this? Speak up.¡± Director Han asked Yang Ping and Song Zimo. Song Zimo said, ¡°I don¡¯t have any thoughts. As long as I¡¯m with you, boss.¡± Yang Ping said, ¡°Of course I¡¯m willing to follow you, Director.¡± Director Han laughed heartily, ¡°That¡¯s good. Also bring Zhang Lin and Xiaowu, for now, we will only have these many people. Later on, depending on the number of patients, we may need more people. Keep this news confidential for now and don¡¯t tell Zhang Lin and Xiaowu yet.¡± After leaving Director Han¡¯s office, Xiaowu called, ¡°Boss, do you have any plans after work? Come to the underground parking lot, quickly¨C¡± The underground parking lot? What was it that he was being so secretive about? Yang Ping took the elevator down to the underground parking lot, found Xiaowu¡¯s car according to the parking spot Xiaowu gave him. ¡°What¡¯s going on? You¡¯re being so secretive, as if we¡¯re engaging in illegal transactions.¡± Yang Ping got into the passenger seat and closed the car door. Xiaowu said, ¡°Nothing much, just on the way. I¡¯m giving you a ride home, aren¡¯t you going back?¡± Yang Ping was caught between laughter and tears, ¡°Heavens! It¡¯s just across the bridge. You drive to work and back? You¡¯re taking me home as well, but all these detours will make us later than if we had walked.¡± Xiaowu said, ¡°Xiao Qing is worried about me getting too tired, so she insisted that I drive to work. There¡¯s nothing I can do about it.¡± This public display of affection! Yang Ping felt like smacking him on the head. Chapter 79 - 0077 Brothers Chapter 79: Chapter 0077 Brothers It wasn¡¯t until past two in the morning that I finished revising Su Yixuan¡¯s PPT. I had to tweak it over and over to ensure its quality, which took quite a long time. Once it was done, I sent the PPT via WeChat and asked Xiao Su if she was satisfied with it. However, I realized it was nearly two o¡¯clock, she was probably already asleep. As a surgeon, Yang Ping¡¯s ability to stay up late was remarkable. The next day, he woke up refreshed and prepared some breakfast.. Little Five made a call, ¡°I will drive you to work!¡± ¡°Bro, spare me please. I can walk home in a dozen minutes, and yet you insisted on driving me yesterday which took half an hour.¡± Yang Ping answered, choking back his tears. ¡°Look outside, it¡¯s pouring!¡± Little Five responded. With heavy rain, it made sense. At least this way my shoes wouldn¡¯t get wet. Alright then, I¡¯ll take his ride. ¡°Alright, wait for me!¡± Yang Ping agreed. Someone has slid a magazine under the door gap. Yang picked it up and realized it was an advertising brochure for houses. Might as well browse through it. Had no money now, but I¡¯ll need to buy one in the future. Yang carried the ad to the parking garage, got into the car, and started scanning through the ads. Little Five commented, ¡°You¡¯re really into it, even reading on your way to work?¡± He glanced over and noticed it was an advertisement for houses. ¡°...Just flipping through!¡± Yang replied casually. Shift change, ward check-up, surgery; surgeons base their life on these three things. ¡°Hey! I can¡¯t keep up anymore! Feel free to pick whatever surgery you want, it won¡¯t count as a breach of our promise!¡± Song Zimo called out to Yang Ping, who was resting on a long bench in the resting room. Yang Ping lazily responded, ¡°Trying to make me break my word? No way!¡± ¡°Just so you know, it¡¯s a one-time offer. Do you want it or not?¡± Song Zimo asked lightly. Given how sincere he seemed, it didn¡¯t look like he was plotting anything. Likely, Young Master Song was genuinely struggling. Relenting, Yang Ping said: ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll do the finger amputation and reattachment?¡± ¡°Deal!¡± replied Song Zimo. Internally, he thought: This guy must really be strapped for cash, deliberately choosing the most complicated surgery. Of course, for them, finger amputation and reattachment is as simple as cleaning and stitching a wound. We really need to swiftly change our signboard to ¡°Micro Trauma Orthopedics¡±. With an average of two finger reattachment surgeries a day, if we push a little further, we might just catch up with specialized hand surgery hospitals. If it weren¡¯t for the rush to complete the side quest, I wouldn¡¯t have agreed to this temptation. Director Han was leading everyone to the Overseas Chinese Building to expand into new territories, and Yang was afraid that he wouldn¡¯t get to perform finger reattachment surgeries, thus making it impossible to complete the side quest. Two consecutive finger reattachments at noon. After finishing two surgeries, the progress of the side quest once again took a leap forward. If it kept going on like this, I could finish the battle within a week. ¡°Tonight! We¡¯re dining at Huang Mao¡¯s place, a private room is already booked for us four.¡± Little Five came into the resting room and told Yang Ping. ¡°Is Song Zimo coming?¡± Yang asked. This kid doesn¡¯t usually dine at these kinds of places. Has he started hanging out with the masses too? ¡°If you¡¯re going, then he¡¯ll definitely come. People change, remember about the dinner tonight.¡± Little Five said before leaving for another surgery. I continued to rest on the bench. Xiao Su sent a WeChat message: ¡°Thank you! The lecture was really successful today, everyone said the PPT was great. The head nurse even saved my PPT, saying she¡¯ll use it for training new trainee nurses.¡± Yang Ping yawned. Oh, little girl, your brother stayed up until two o¡¯clock to revise that. How could it not be a masterpiece? ¡°Did you stay up until two o¡¯clock last night?¡± Xiao Su sent a WeChat message, likely noticing the time he had sent the file. Yang Ping replied: ¡°No problem, I would have completed the task Leader Su gave me even if it had taken until dawn.¡± ¡°How could you stay up so late, you could¡¯ve just casually helped me revise it.¡± ¡°For a surgeon, staying up late is basic training.¡± ¡°Not going to chat anymore, the head nurse has given me a new task. I¡¯m mentoring some new interns recently.¡± ¡°Get to Huang Mao¡¯s hotpot restaurant, second floor private room, fast!¡± Little Five called to hurry him up. Didn¡¯t they say we were going together? These fellows had left Yang Ping on his own. He hurried to the hotpot restaurant. Upon entering, Song Zimo, Little Five, and Zhang Lin were already there. They were all looking at Yang Ping together. The vibe felt off, felt strange. Was this some trap? A thought crossed Yang Ping¡¯s mind. ¡°Is everything alright? You guys?¡± Yang Ping cautiously entered, worried about any unforeseen occurrences. ¡°Sit, sit! It¡¯s all fine.¡± Song Zimo pulled out a chair. Yang Ping checked the chair for thumbtacks or glue, ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s alright? The expressions on your faces are odd, why so serious, did something go wrong with the surgery today?¡± ¡°Sit down first!¡± Song Zimo said. Yang Ping felt uncomfortable. He sat down nonetheless. Zhang Lin poured him some tea, Little Five left to close the door. This was not good, Yang Ping was getting more and more tense, as prickly as a hedgehog. ¡°Senior! It¡¯s like this¨C Song Zimo, you explain.¡± Little Five hemmed and hawed. Song Zimo was equally hesitant: ¡°Well... well... Little Five, you explain? Wasn¡¯t it agreed that you would explain?¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on? Did the surgery really go wrong? Did you report to Director Han? What¡¯s happening? Hurry up and say it, don¡¯t beat around the bush. Let¡¯s figure this out together.¡± Yang Ping sensed the seriousness of the situation. Something was off. Zhang Lin got angry: ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you two today, stuttering like this, let me say it.¡± He filled Yang Ping¡¯s cup with more tea: ¡°Senior, you¡¯re really out of line, planning to marry Xiao Su and not even telling us. Do you look down on us, disregarding us as your friends?¡± ¡°You guys? Wait, let me explain¨C¡± Yang Ping was utterly confused. They had been brooding on it for so long just to talk about this? Zhang Lin put down his teapot and waved his hands: ¡°Don¡¯t say anything now. We already know everything. In a few days, you two are going for a pre-wedding photoshoot, you¡¯re planning to buy a house, currently short of cash, hence you¡¯ve been taking on surgeries like crazy. Even if you don¡¯t tell us, it doesn¡¯t mean your brothers aren¡¯t concerned. We¡¯ve all noticed and are worried. Brother, you know my situation. I just started the house buying process and paid the deposit, I¡¯m strapped for cash right now, but I must still support you. I can afford to lend you fifty thousand for now.¡± The conversation had been ignited by Zhang Lin. ¡°I can do a hundred thousand on my end. You know I live pay-check to pay-check, Senior. This hundred thousand is borrowed from Xiao Qing but if it¡¯s not enough, I¡¯ll figure something else out.¡± Little Five said seriously. Song Zimo continued: ¡°I have plenty saved up. Other than spending on myself, I just save up. I don¡¯t need to pay for the house or car, that¡¯s all from my family. Just see how much you¡¯re short on for the down payment, I¡¯ll figure out the rest.¡± Yang Ping was truly baffled by these guys. He and Xiao Su haven¡¯t even held hands, yet they were claiming they were getting ready for marriage, even talking about pre-wedding photoshoots. Where did these rumors originate from? Nothing like that was happening, but they were here helping him scrape together money for the house down payment. Yang Ping shook his head, momentarily at a loss for words. After taking a deep breath, he said: ¡°Firstly, let me tell you, Xiao Su and I currently have not confirmed any romantic relationship. Yes, there¡¯s a bit of mutual interest, but that¡¯s it. Where did you guys get the news, so certain that Xiao Su and I are getting married?¡± Now it was their turn to be utterly confused. ¡°Song Zimo! Say something, he¡¯s still in denial!¡± Zhang Lin shouted. Song Zimo calmly, with confidence said: ¡°You¡¯ve been taking surgeries like crazy lately, and I found it strange. It¡¯s not your style. Little Five guessed that you and Su Yixuan must be getting ready for marriage, and I didn¡¯t believe him. But two nights ago, while dining at Shipo, right beside me, you were texting Su Yixuan. Don¡¯t accuse me of invading your privacy, I saw it out of the corner of my eye, you and her were planning to take a bridal photo shoot in a few days. This confirms it.¡± ¡°Song Zimo, Young Master Song, you¡¯re usually quite intelligent. That night, Xiao Su asked me for a photo to hang on the introduction wall in the operating room. I told her we could take a photo in a few days.¡± Yang Ping was almost on the verge of tearing his hair out. ¡°Then how do you explain your sudden urge to perform surgeries?¡± Zhang Lin asked. ¡°I wanted to see how far I could push myself, how many surgeries I could handle in a day.¡± Yang Ping replied. ¡°And the house buying?¡± Little Five pursued. ¡°What house buying?¡± Yang Ping was completely clueless. ¡°If you¡¯re not buying a house, why were you studying real estate ads?¡± Little Five wasn¡¯t convinced. His headache worsened! ¡°The message on my WeChat wasn¡¯t deleted, wait, you can only see this one. Let me find it.¡± Yang Ping pulled up the chat with Su Yixuan and showed them. ¡°Damn! It¡¯s really not.¡± What a misunderstanding! Song Zimo leaned back against his chair. Chapter 80 - 0078: The Parachuted Director Chapter 80: Chapter 0078: The Parachuted Director Although it was a blunder, a dizzy one at that, Yang Ping was extremely touched. With the hot pot served, and everyone exhausted from the surgeries, no one drank alcohol. Yang Ping held up a glass of apple cider: ¡°Brothers, seriously, thank you.¡± A thousand words were contained within this glass of beverage, which Yang Ping drained in one gulp. Even if the drink wasn¡¯t alcohol, he drank it with the flair of one who was celebrating with spirits. Huddled around the hot pot, the brothers chatted, joked, laughed, and Zhang Lin hinted several times, ¡°How about some alcohol?¡± ¡°We have lots of surgeries, and emergencies can occur anytime. Want to drink? Ask Huang Mao to prepare a plate of peanuts for you, and drink slowly on your own,¡± Song Zimo discouraged him. Is it really okay not to drink at a gathering like this? Zhang Lin wondered to himself as he took a sip of the apple cider. ¡°Wang Feng was discharged from the hospital on Sunday when you guys were not around.¡± Little Five said, ¡°He left secretly without saying goodbye, just like how he left his girlfriend. That girl cried so hard in the ward, I guess he felt forced to leave for her sake.¡± ¡°After being diagnosed with AIDS, he completely despaired of life and spent every night at the nightclub drinking heavily. His girlfriend, Xiao Yao, who was a pole dancer at the nightclub, encouraged him time and time again, and eventually, he regained his will to live. One day, a group wanted to forcefully take Xiao Yao away, Wang Feng saw this and bravely fought against them, even though it was one against ten. Then the police came.¡± This world is composed of stories. Every person is a unique book of stories. Pure things are actually hidden in unexpected places; you just haven¡¯t discovered them with your heart. ¡°It takes courage to give up, this is true love. Wang Feng is a real man,¡± Song Zimo sighed. ¡°Drink!¡± Zhang Lin shouted. ¡°You are drunk now, stop drinking,¡± Song Zimo shook his head. The days went by, and two weeks passed again. One hundred severed fingers were successfully replanted, all came back to life, the side quest was successfully completed. ¡°Ping! 50,000 points rewarded.¡± 50,000 points, the first time he received such a large reward. He used 30,000 points to purchase a multi-trauma surgery training, kept 20,000 points for future use, finally not in dire straits anymore. Multi-trauma includes surgeries for head, neck, chest, and abdomen injuries, which are beyond the scope for an orthopedic surgeon. In the system space, Yang Ping performed dozens of dissections, paying particularly attention to local dissections of the head, neck, chest, and abdomen. Applying the knowledge acquired from dissections to surgeries, and using the experience gained from surgeries to guide dissections, Yang Ping becomes increasingly skilled in dissection. After completing dissection training, and finishing the training on 3,000 cases of multi-trauma surgery, he then exited the system space. He¡¯s now not surprised even when the system offers thousands of cases for surgery. If the system only gives a few or dozens of cases, it wouldn¡¯t really be a system anymore. He has gotten used to staying in the system space for a long time. It¡¯s gotten to the point where it¡¯s second nature. One day, after the morning shift handover, Director Han said, ¡°That pelvic fracture case that I just talked about during the handover, who transferred from the Trauma ICU, let¡¯s go check him out. For the other patients, you guys just take a look.¡± Director Han led everyone to see the patient, a male in his forties, lying on the bed with an emergency external fixation on his pelvis. He looked pale and had a worried look on his face. Next to him, a woman and a girl in school uniform, likely his wife and daughter, were keeping him company. The woman prepared a cup of protein powder or something similar, the girl took it and sat by the bed to feed her dad. ¡°Doctor, am I stable? Will I be disabled in the future?¡± the patient asked. ¡°The doctor said you are out of danger. See, you are now staying in a general ward. You wouldn¡¯t have been transferred here if you weren¡¯t stable. Don¡¯t panic. Medical science is very advanced now. I looked it up online, Professor Han is a top expert. What are you worried about?¡± The girl was not at all like a middle school student as she comforted her dad with a mature and sensible tone. ¡°Xiao Tong, don¡¯t come every day. You are in your senior year, study is intense. Dad¡¯s fine,¡± the patient comforted his daughter, who helped him wipe his mouth with a tissue. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. If you don¡¯t let her come, she will be even more anxious and it will affect her studies more. She has a mock exam tonight, so she came to visit you in the morning and won¡¯t be able to come in the evening. Xiao Tong ranked first in her grade on her last exam, rest assured, you don¡¯t need to worry about her. I¡¯m going to take her to school soon, we will come back later.¡± The mother and daughter packed up and left in a hurry. Director Han said, ¡°The injury was severe. We performed emergency intervention embolization to stop bleeding and temporarily fixed it with an external fixator. We will perform surgery in a few days, typically without any long-term disabilities, so don¡¯t worry too much. Your liver function is at risk, and both your blood pressure and blood sugar are high. The internal medicine department needs to get those under control before we proceed with surgery. That¡¯s the safest approach. You have insurance coverage for medical fees, don¡¯t you? You shouldn¡¯t worry.¡± Director Han assumed that his major concern was the potentially high medical bills. The patient sighed, ¡°I have both medical insurance and commercial insurance, so I am not concerned about my medical fees. But, honestly, I am in sales, where making one deal often leads to another. Now that I¡¯m bedridden, I¡¯m only making a small base salary. My child is in year twelve this year, and his mother is devoted to taking care of him full-time. The monthly mortgage and car loan payments can¡¯t be reduced, and my income and expenses have been barely balanced. I hardly have any surplus money. This hospitalisation due to my illness has resulted in financial hardship. I don¡¯t even know if I can hold onto my job. It¡¯s really troubling. Doctor, do you have a quicker solution so I can recover sooner?¡± The patient was in a hurry. With elderly parents and a young child dependent on him, and a mortgage to pay off, every expense was calculated down to the cent. The hardships endured by middle-aged men often go unspoken, swallowed down and hidden deep in their guts. They dare not change jobs, nor fall ill. At work, they would not even dare to vent their frustrations for fear of offending others and losing their jobs. ¡°No, this won¡¯t work. Your liver function is poor, and your transaminase is high along with your blood pressure and blood sugar. Going ahead with surgery under these conditions could cause issues. We will try to correct these as promptly as we can. Please don¡¯t worry. You can get back to work after you recover.¡± Director Han reassured him. ¡°I was diagnosed with these conditions a few years ago. The doctor told me not to drink alcohol, but I couldn¡¯t avoid it in sales. Professor Han, please, I really want to recover quicker. I wouldn¡¯t mind using a crutch if it means I can leave the hospital sooner.¡± The patient spoke helplessly. ¡°We will try our best, you also need to stay calm.¡± Director Han gently patted the patient¡¯s shoulder in comfort. After visiting this patient, Director Han returned to the doctor¡¯s office, ¡°Starting next Monday, the Director of Microtrauma Orthopedics, Director Tan will officially begin work, but he needs some time to get familiar. After one month, he will formally assume the position of Director of Microtrauma Orthopedics. He will perform surgery on this patient. Once the patient¡¯s various indications have been adjusted and if possible, schedule the surgery for next Monday. Director Tan is in the elevator, he will come soon to see the patient and the medical imaging.¡± As if on cue, Director Tan and his student, Dr. Zhong, arrived. Dressed casually without carrying anything, they seemed to have settled down already and were only here to get a head start on familiarizing themselves with the environment and the patients. Director Tan appeared to be in his mid-forties, slightly overweight with thinning hair. Dr. Zhong was in his thirties, fit, confident, and probably around the same age as Director Tian but still an attending physician. They had visited a few times before but only interacted with Director Han as Yang Ping and others were performing surgery and weren¡¯t available to meet them. ¡°Director Tan, this is the patient scheduled for surgery next Monday. If there is anything else you need to be prepared, feel free to discuss it with Xiao Song.¡± Director Han shook hands with Director Tan. ¡°Director Han, you¡¯ve successfully grown Sanbo¡¯s Orthopedics in a decade. I admire your work.¡± Director Tan spoke courteously. ¡°Not at all, in comparison to your Fuer, we still have a long way to go. In the future, Director Tan, I hope that you can help to develop Microtrauma Orthopedics into a top national department.¡± Director Han spoke graciously. ¡°Sanbo definitely has the potential for this, and we shall strengthen the talents in the future.¡± Director Tan replied while starting to review the medical imaging. After looking through the images, he furrowed his brows, stroked his chin, and said, ¡°This is a difficult case. Fractures in the front and back columns and walls of the left acetabulum, the left sacral bone, the left ala of the ilium, and the upper and lower branches of the pubic bone, severe dislocation of the left sacroiliac joint, and the pubic symphysis have also dislocated. Director Han, this operation is going to be tough.¡± A newly appointed director often needs a surgery to showcase his skills and convince others of his abilities. Doctors revere skills. If you lack the skills and rise to a position through connections, you would be secretly disrespected. Once you¡¯ve proven your skills, others will not only vocally praise you but also respect you internally, leading to more productive work. Typically, surgeries used to demonstrate one¡¯s skills aren¡¯t rushed. Tan Boyun is extraordinarily eager to show-off. He voluntarily chose this case. If he¡¯s doing it, he wants to tackle the most challenging one. Once, during a conference at Fuer, Tan Boyun¡¯s surgery was scheduled for a live demonstration. But during the conference, an emergency case arrived with severe pelvic fractures. He swiftly switched cases and streamed the emergency pelvic fracture operation live, which led to his quick rise to fame in G City. He is truly skilled at what he does, which Director Han spotted and admired. ¡°With this level of difficulty, do you usually perform the surgery, or do you ask for help?¡± Dr. Zhong asked. His words were somewhat impolite, given his youth. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s fine; Xiao Tian and others usually handle these.¡± Director Han handled it well and was very gracious. Dr. Zhong didn¡¯t utter a word but did not believe Director Han¡¯s words. At Fuer, only he and Director Tan could smoothly handle such surgeries. When Director Han mentioned that ¡°Xiao Tian¡± and others would do it, it seemed like an intentional exaggeration. ¡°Director Han was formerly at Magic City Sixth Hospital, a representative of the new generation of Orthopedics. Do you think he needs to ask for help?¡± Tan Boyun responded with an intentional reprimanding tone. While he was arrogant, surgery was a serious matter involving people¡¯s lives. Tan Boyun carefully reviewed the patient¡¯s medical records and examination results: ¡°The transaminase level has dropped. Today is Friday, and the surgery can probably take place next Monday.¡± He then went to see the patient in the ward, conducted a careful physical examination, and took the time to explain things to the junior doctor who accompanied him. He occasionally used English words to appear highly sophisticated. Academics have a tendency to become carried away, especially when they have people listening attentively with admiring eyes. One can easily get caught up in the moment and forget to stop. ¡°Professor Tan, shall we check the images in the office?¡± Dr. Zhong reminded him subtly in time to prevent the bedside teaching from becoming too broad. ¡°How does it look, Director Tan?¡± Back in the office, Director Han asked him. ¡°Proceed as planned, schedule the surgery.¡± Director Tan responded with easy confidence. Chapter 81 - 0079: Surgery Show Chapter 81: Chapter 0079: Surgery Show Prof. Tan¡¯s parachuted arrival to the Trauma Orthopedics department was akin to a stone being thrown into a placid lake; it was bound to cause ripples. Naturally, the most significant reactions came from Directors Ouyang, Bai, and Ding. On the surface, they remained calm, but they were certainly feeling all kinds of dissatisfaction and discontent inside. After over ten years of hard work developing the Trauma Orthopedics department into a strong entity, they were now expected to hand it over to an outsider. It was a hard pill to swallow. Fortunately, Director Han possessed a strong commanding presence. Given his position as the department head, no one dared to start any conflicts or create any significant disturbances. The tranquil weekend then passed. On Monday morning, Deans Xia and Sun, as well as Director Zhao of the medical department, made their appearance at the Trauma Orthopedics department. After the shift was handed over, Dean Xia whispered something to Director Han. Afterward, with a stern face, he made an announcement: the Trauma Orthopedics department was being renamed the Micro Trauma Orthopedics department, and Prof. Tan and Dr. Zhong were joining. Although no one was officially appointed as the new director, it was understood who it was. Normally, Director Zhao would make the announcement. But this time, Dean Xia did it as a show of strong support. Following the proclamation, there was a round of applause, and Dean Xia made a short speech, then shook hands with Prof. Tan. Everyone knew that the new director was going to showcase a surgery, so they all scheduled their surgeries for the afternoon, leaving the morning free to observe this exhibition. There was a tale of how Prof. Tan had previously showcased an emergency surgery of the pelvic acetabulum at an academic conference. The success of that surgery had catapulted his fame. The new director! Everyone was curious to see his skills firsthand. After all, rumours about how incredible he was were just that, rumors. There were numerous cases where such reputations proved hollow. There were a few directors who had never participated in clinical procedures and mainly conducted research overseas. Upon returning, they were directly appointed as heads of departments. This was less common in surgery and more so in internal medicine. After visiting the wards, Director Han led Prof. Tan and Dr. Zhong to the operating room, introducing them to the situation there. Once inside the operating room, Prof. Tan checked the operating table, the C-arm x-ray machine, then called for two assistants. Tian Yuan volunteered himself, saying, ¡°I¡¯ll go!¡± Prof. Tan refused: ¡°No, no need. We can watch from down here. For this surgery, let young people handle it. Let Dr. Zhong do it. You can arrange two other people to assist him. He¡¯s already very skilled at this surgery.¡± Everyone wondered what Director Han must be thinking. At least Tian Yuan was dissatisfied. What did he mean by such arrangements? Sending an inferior surgeon to the stage, was it to show that his subordinate could outdo them all? Director Han instructed Tian Yuan to assign two others to go up. Tian Yuan considered for a moment and then said, ¡°Let Song Zimo lead with Little Five as his assistant. Song Zimo will be the primary assistant, and Little Five will be the secondary assistant.¡± ¡°What about Yang Ping?¡± Director Han asked. Tian Yuan laughed, ¡°Yang Ping is the backup.¡± This arrangement seemed reasonable, and Director Han had no objections. ¡°Prof. Tan, what do you think if we have Dr. Song as the primary assistant and Doctor Lu as the secondary assistant?¡± Tian Yuan softly queried Prof. Tan. Prof. Tan casually dismissed the concern: ¡°That¡¯s fine, any two people should suffice. They just have to assist.¡± Everyone moved next door where the video was set up. Director Han and Director Tian sat in the front row with Prof. Tan. Tian Yuan waved to Yang Ping, ¡°You can sit behind me. Don¡¯t wander off.¡± Yang Ping understood Director Tian¡¯s intentions. He was ready to be called to the stage at any moment. Directors Ouyang, Bai and Ding sat in the second row. Director Ouyang kept his emotions hidden, Director Bai looked troubled, and Director Ding was as indifferent as usual. Director Ding rarely attended these surgical observations, so his presence today was unusual. In the operating room, several individuals were busily preparing. The anesthesia had been administered, and Dr. Zhong was directing Song Zimo and Little Five to position the patient. He seemed unsatisfied and adjusted them several times. The nursing manager personally prepared the instrument table below, and Su Yixuan was suddenly asked to step in as the surgical nurse. Finally satisfied with the patient¡¯s position, the three who were going up on stage washed their hands, got dressed, prepared the surgical drapes, and sterilized the equipment. Once the preparations were complete, the sacred ceremony of beginning the operation took place. After pre-operative checks, the surgery began! For the groin entry route, Dr. Zhong was indeed quite skilled. His credibility in the Nandu Affiliated Hospital was significant. His grip on the scalpel was standard, and he made a standard anterior incision. He planned to perform the anterior surgery first since it was more challenging, allowing everyone to relish his performance when their energy was at its peak. To be honest, in G City, hospitals like Nandu Affiliated Hospital One and Two looked down upon Sanbo, an institution that had only been established for over a decade. Even if Han Jiangong individually was incredibly talented, he couldn¡¯t make up for the hospital¡¯s lack of reputation. Dr. Zhong¡¯s surgical cuts were impressive, definitely deserving of a showcase. He made incisions through the skin, subcutaneous tissue, and deep into the fascia, systematically dissecting the muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and spermatic cord. The spaces between these structures formed three classical windows, which became safe paths for visualizing the surgery. Through these paths, they could successfully reach the fracture site. The muscles in the area were a bit hard, but it didn¡¯t hinder the surgical operation. The first window was easily created as the abdominal muscles and iliac muscles were peeled off the iliac bone and lifted upward. The electrosurgical unit was quickly used to stop bleeding, and the iliac fossa and the anterior part of the sacroiliac joint were easily exposed; the operator¡¯s technique was remarkably adept. The piece of gauze handed over only had a few small blood stains on it. Prof. Tan was quite pleased: ¡°Young people need to practice. Director Han will have to teach them more.¡± Director Han said, ¡°Dr. Zhong performs beautiful surgeries. Look at the basics of his dissections, they are excellent. Prof. Tan, you¡¯ve tutored him well.¡± When Dr. Zhong began to separate the spermatic cord, the surrounding tissue didn¡¯t appear to be normal. It was a bit hard, and Dr. Zhong had to palpate it a few times to define the cord. The blunt dissection with a hemostat seemed inefficient. There seemed to be some adhesions, and the tissue planes weren¡¯t very clear. At such times, sharp dissection was favored. ¡°Scissors!¡± A pair was handed over. ¡°Be quick about it!¡± Dr. Zhong sternly admonished in a low voice; the authority of the chief surgeon was apparent. Although Su Yixuan was quick, she was still regarded as slow. It appeared that the chief surgeon had quite the temperament. The sharp scissors opened and maneuvered, suddenly, blood gushed out; a small artery underneath had been cut. ¡°Hemostatic forceps! Quickly!¡± He was once again frustrated with the slow instruments. Dr. Zhong received the forceps, immediately clamped it shut, and used the electric knife to cauterize and stop the bleeding. Her movements were swift and well-practiced. They continued to advance, isolating the spermatic cord. The progress was not as quick as anticipated, and a few times small arteries were cut, but they quickly stopped the bleeding. A sizable region on the surgical sponge was already dyed red. ¡°Lift it up and maintain tension!¡± Dr. Zhong lightly tapped Song Zimo¡¯s back of the hand with the handle of the scissors. Song Zimo looked up. His cold gaze returned to adjusting the tension in his hand. ¡°That¡¯s too large, make it smaller.¡± Song Zimo lowered the hemostatic forceps in his hand, reducing the tension on the spermatic cord lifted by the forceps. ¡°Don¡¯t you perform many of these surgeries normally?¡± Dr. Zhong was not satisfied. Song Zimo remained silent. Upon the successful isolation of the spermatic cord, a rubber strip was placed inside to spread and protect it. Next, they began the isolation of the external iliac vein and lymphatic vessels. The surgical approach for pelvic surgery involves many blood vessels and nerves, most of which are vital. The surgical approach is a precondition for the success of the surgery. Dr. Zhong frowned, carefully feeling for the blood vessels underneath. The hard and brittle tissues were increasing, and the structural layers were becoming more and more blurred. Just a moment ago, he was barely able to discern the spermatic cord from experience. Now, the external iliac vessels were completely unrecognizable, and the sticky tissues were everywhere. He couldn¡¯t sense anything beneath. This patient had extensive scar adhesions. Had surgery been previously performed in this area? A CT scan couldn¡¯t reveal this type of soft tissue adhesion. Even an MRI needs an experienced person to make a judgment. Before the surgery, he had carefully questioned Professor Tan, and there was no previous surgical history. There were also no small scars in this region during the physical examination. So how could there be adhesions? However, exploring the cause was useless at this point. The only option was to keep pushing forward. ¡°Scalpel!¡± The scalpel was handed over. Using the scalpel to make a sharp dissection, he gently and progressively cut open the site. A stream of blood sprayed out, reaching over ten centimeters away. Dr. Zhong immediately pressed down with surgical sponges. ¡°Fasten the retractor properly!¡± Song Zimo didn¡¯t know where he¡¯d gone wrong, but he still adjusted the position of the retractor. ¡°You! Get your strength together!¡± The instrument hit Little Five¡¯s hand. ¡°Hemostatic forceps!¡± The hemostatic forceps were handed over. ¡°The smaller one!¡± Dr. Zhong¡¯s tone was a bit unfriendly. The smaller hemostatic forceps were handed over. Releasing the surgical sponge, Dr. Zhong clamped to stem the bleeding, and cauterized with the electrosurgical knife. Continue! Another stream of blood spurted out, this time it was promptly covered with a surgical sponge. ¡°Hemostatic forceps!¡± Dr. Zhong¡¯s voice shrank, sweat began to dampen his forehead. The adhesions were too severe. There was no way to continue pushing forward. The smile on Professor Tan¡¯s face gradually faded and he became serious. He looked at the screen and said, ¡°This patient could have experienced infection before, possibly pelvic tuberculosis. It self-healed but it caused extensive adhesions. The anatomical structure is not clear. Young people still lack experience, I will scrub in.¡± Adhesions. Extensive adhesions are a great threat to the surgical approach, especially for the pelvis. Numerous blood vessels and nerves need to be avoided. Even the slightest injury could be a great embarrassment. This patient was a bit unexpected. Professor Tan expected to let Dr. Zhong showcase his skills. However, this is okay too. For this kind of extensive adhesion surgery, probably in Sanbo hospital only Director Han could carry it out. This can be counted on one hand among other hospitals in G City. So it wouldn¡¯t be a loss of face for him to go on the stage this time. The safety of the patient is the most important, Professor Tan stands up, ¡°I will scrub in!¡± Tian Yuan said, ¡°Professor Tan, there¡¯s no rush. Let¡¯s sit down and let the younger ones do this kind of surgery. As long as we watch, there won¡¯t be any problems. Yang Ping! Scrub in, you will assist Dr. Zhong.¡± Director Han didn¡¯t know much about Yang Ping¡¯s pelvic surgeries. He only let him be the assistant and never let him carry out the surgery alone. Therefore, he can¡¯t make any judgment on him. However, seeing Tian Yuan¡¯s confidence, he felt assured. He knew very well of Tian Yuan¡¯s cautious and steady character. He would never allow anyone on stage if he didn¡¯t have confidence in them. At some point, Tian Yuan must have let him perform pelvic surgery, so he felt confident. ¡°Xiao Yang, go!¡± Director Han gave the order. Yang Ping stood up. Chapter 82 - 0080: Fire Chapter 82: Chapter 0080: Fire Yang Ping went out to scrub his hands. Everyone was a bit surprised to see that it wasn¡¯t Director Tan or Director Han or Tian Yuan who had gone out, but Yang Ping. This type of pelvic surgery, a solid level four surgery, if it weren¡¯t for the cap at level four, this could very well be a level five or six surgery. At this point, this surgery had taken on a certain special significance for both sides¨Cto defend their dignity! Of course, the safety of the patient was the number one priority, which was the bottom line of any medical activity. ¡°There¡¯s extensive serious adhesion in the pelvis, all scar tissue, the anatomical structure is a mess.¡± Dr. Jin was by Director Ouyang¡¯s side. ¡°They¡¯re letting a subordinate attending surgeon take over?¡± Director Bai grumbled inwardly. They¡¯re biting off more than they can chew! ¡°They seem a bit too impatient.¡± Ouyang was always steady, unfazed by the double entendre. They all sat in the second row, discussions were not easy to carry out. After a few comments, everyone quieted down and continued watching. The other doctors behind saw the widespread adhesions and felt a sense of fear. Every step the surgeon took in separating the adhesion, their hearts thumped, truly a case of being nervous and tense. This wasn¡¯t a limb, it was the pelvis, it was the pelvic cavity, if mishandled, it could result in death or disability. Just earlier, the surgeons had been praising the skilled and confident operation, and they were envious that the attending physicians of Fuer Hospital were so good. Now, they retracted their overflowing admiration and started focusing on how the surgery would proceed. The surgery was forced to proceed slowly. ¡°One careless moment could harm the blood vessels and nerves.¡± ¡°In the past, there was a hospital that had to execute this type of extensive pelvic adhesion surgery. The femoral nerve was misplaced, and the electric knife was too fast, cutting off the femoral nerve. The lawsuit lasted for several years.¡± ¡°Yes, there was also a case where a vessel was buried in scar tissue, was cut with one stroke, and retracted. The surgical team couldn¡¯t recover.¡± ¡°Yeah, this isn¡¯t something to mess around with.¡± ¡°He seems a little scared to continue.¡± ¡°If Director Tan took over this surgery, he would have to give his all, right?¡± ¡°Director Tan should be on the stage by now, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, if he doesn¡¯t go up now, the surgery will be stalled.¡± Gossiping is a spectator¡¯s nature! Everyone was whispering, occasionally looking at the front row, worried that the people in the first row would hear. Everyone knew that Director Tan would be the director of trauma orthopedics in the future. If he heard, it would be the end. Despite the high risk, everyone couldn¡¯t suppress their spectator nature. ¡°They sent such a young doctor to the stage?¡± Even though he was wearing a mask, from his eyes, Tan Boyun could roughly guess his age. Vaguely, Tan Boyun felt the sharpness of the opposing side, and the competition subtly began. He didn¡¯t know much about Director Han¡¯s character, but Tian Yuan, he knew him too well. Respectful on the surface, but capable of gathering a strong killing intent at any time. Tan Boyun looked sideways, Director Han was smiling pleasantly and rhythmically tapping his fingers on his leg; Tian Yuan also had a smile on his face, but it was a different kind of smile, a smile hiding a knife. The decision to send such a young attending surgeon to the stage might have been a lack of careful consideration, inadequate judgment. It appeared that Tian Yuan also had insufficient experience with this kind of special pelvic surgery and lacked a deep understanding. Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have been so impulsive. After all, he had over a decade less surgical experience than him. Director Han trusted Tian Yuan too much, to actually go along with him. Just watch, he would eventually have to take the stage himself. Just consider it a minor interlude, Tan Boyun thought. The surgery had, in fact, already stalled. Dr. Zhong began to make repetitive motions. The scalpel continued its motions, but there was no substantial progress. He put down the scalpel and began to explore with his fingertips again, his eyes looking upwards, carefully seeking feeling; After a bit of futile exploration, he tried a pair of scissors, but dared not continue, then switched back to the scalpel, gave a couple of superficial, symbolic cuts and began the exploration again, repeating the cycle. He was always marking time, and that was not a good thing. Summoning his courage, he carefully cut downwards with the scalpel, blood began to well up, the gauze pressed down, the electric knife cauterization, took a short break. Let¡¯s aim for a different target, let¡¯s try to separate the femoral nerve. His experience in combat was rich, but the enemy was too strong, the extensive adhesion in the pelvis. Even an expert would break a sweat. After all, most experience was based on normal anatomy. This kind of widespread adhesion, apart from the blurred levels of division, also had blood vessels and nerves displaced from their usual positions. The blurred anatomy combined with displacement made it possible for any cut to be a nerve or blood vessel. Even to experienced doctors, it was unfamiliar territory. He could only continue and wait for backup, he looked up, through the large glass window on the wall, he saw Professor Tan unmoved, still sitting in his original place. Dr. Zhong¡¯s mood began to fluctuate, feeling anxious and restless, taking deep breaths, reminding himself to stay calm, he lowered his head, and continued. ¡°Tissue scissors!¡± The tissue scissors were handed to him. ¡°The small ones! Is this your first time assisting at an orthopedic surgery?¡± Dr. Zhong angrily glared at Su Yixuan, tapping Su Yixuan¡¯s hand with the hemostatic clamp handle. Su Yixuan felt a little aggrieved, her delicate hand hurt from the tapping through the gloves, frightened, she retracted her hand and immediately swapped the scissors for smaller ones. Gave up on the separation of the external iliac vessels, switched targets, and began to separate the femoral nerve. It seemed a bit easier to separate the nerve. After a few attempts to stop the bleeding, the femoral nerve was finally isolated in a small section, which boosted Dr. Zhong¡¯s confidence. One who could locate a nerve amidst such a scar was truly a master, and not someone who attained his position by berating others. Starting from the exposed part of the nerve and working backwards, if a person could grasp the vine, then they should be able to find the fruit. However, Dr. Zhong felt puzzled. He had the vine in his hand but could not find the fruit. Where did this section of the nerve originate and where was it going? He was unsure whether to continue deeper or if it was still at this level. His normally useful knowledge of anatomy was failing him, so Dr. Zhong paused his activities again. ¡°You two! Can you be more professional? You¡¯re tearing the pelvis in half with your tugging. Use less force.¡± Both Song Zimo and Little Five felt like cursing out loud. ¡°I¡¯ve never performed such a frustrating surgery before,¡± thought Song Zimo, as he kept his head down in frustration. He tempered his anger with discipline, there was no way he was going to argue here on the operating table. Little Five looked up and gave a hard stare. If the operating table¡¯s discipline didn¡¯t require him to defer to the chief surgeon, he might have exploded. If this were a game of chess, he would have flipped the table by now. Indeed, when the chief surgeon is bad-tempered, the assistants and nurses can get quite miserable. This reflects the atmosphere on the operating table. A chief surgeon with a good attitude can lighten the mood through humour and casual conversation, which makes everyone feel at ease. Director Han and Tian Yuan were like this, but such chief surgeons were rare. A chief surgeon with a poor attitude can make it extremely difficult for everyone, cursing and complaining about the assistants when difficulties arise. Intimidating, unforgiving, making everyone feel anxious and uneasy. There¡¯s a rumor that Tan Boyun at Fuer has a notoriously bad temper. One time during a surgery, surgical instruments were thrown all over the floor, but nobody knows if it¡¯s true or not. Apparently, there are operating table manners, and even family manners. ¡°Take a short break!¡± ¡°Scalpel!¡± Dr. Zhong reached out his hand. Picking up the scalpel to make a few more incisions, he then lightly threw it onto the transfer tray for sharp instruments. ¡°Change the blade!¡± Su Yixuan immediately replaced the blade with a new one. She handed it to him again. ¡°Tissue scissors, ophthalmic scissors,¡± he said in a resigned tone. Su Yixuan took back the scalpel, quickly prepared the ophthalmic scissors. Normally, ophthalmic scissors aren¡¯t required in this type of surgery. But there were a pair prepared and individually wrapped on the instrument table below. ¡°Open the ophthalmic scissors!¡± Su Yixuan called for the patrolling nurse. Having seen the events unfold beforehand, the patrolling nurse did not dare delay. She quickly opened the individually wrapped, sterilized ophthalmic scissors. It took less than ten seconds for the ophthalmic scissors to be handed over. ¡°Could you be a bit quicker? This isn¡¯t a beauty salon, it¡¯s a surgery. Why do I have to request the ophthalmic scissors at the last minute?¡± The chief surgeon was not pleased. Damn! Which hospital prepares ophthalmic scissors for a pelvic surgery? Does Fuer only conduct pelvic surgeries on infants? Little Five had a bellyful of fire, but discipline did not permit challenges. All he could do was swallow his frustration. If they weren¡¯t on the operating table, he would challenge him to death. The operating table is a battlefield, and the chief surgeon is the leader. You must obey. No matter how angry you are, you have to wait until the surgery is over to vent your anger. Here, it¡¯s not acceptable. The patient¡¯s life is on the line, so as long as the chief surgeon isn¡¯t wildly slashing around and the surgery is proceeding safely, you have to submit. Song Zimo glanced at Little Five, who seemed to see the fire raging in his eyes, a flame that seemed palpable through their protective glasses. People watching through the glass didn¡¯t know what the discussion was about. They only knew that the patient¡¯s vital signs were stable, that there wasn¡¯t any bleeding in the surgical area at the moment, but that the surgery was at a standstill and difficult to proceed. He began to use the delicate ophthalmic scissors to separate the scars. The scars were tough and hard to cut through, even after several attempts to open and close the scissors, only a little could barely be cut. He abandoned the ophthalmic scissors and switched back to the scalpel. ¡°Should we let Senior Brother Yang take over?¡± someone asked in a soft voice, from the Spine Surgery section. ¡°We should! He¡¯s amazing!¡± answered someone from the Joint Surgery section. ¡°Is he that amazing?¡± someone from General Surgery managed to squeeze themselves into the crowd. They seemed to have just finished a procedure and wanted to catch some excitement. Finally, a voice from Trauma Orthopedics spoke up, ¡°Our eldest senior brother is definitely amazing!¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t your eldest senior brother Song Zimo?¡± a man from General Surgery was apparently the last to catch on. Someone sneered at the man¡¯s late realisation, ¡°The hierarchy has changed. He¡¯s our eldest senior brother now, and Song Zimo is the second senior brother.¡± Yang Ping had already finished washing his hands and the automatic door opened as he approached. Chapter 83 - 0081: The Real Show Chapter 83: Chapter 0081: The Real Show ¡°Ding Dong! Mission: Battle For Dignity, complete a ultra-difficult pelvis surgery. If the surgery is flawless, successfully maintaining the team¡¯s dignity, reward is ten thousand points, along with admiration to varying degrees.¡± The system¡¯s task was triggered during hand washing. The automated door slowly opened. Yang Ping stood at the entrance. His disinfected hands were raised to his chest, from shoulder to waist. His eyes were sharp. Seeing Yang Ping at the door, Song Zimo and Little Five, felt a sense of relief as their savior had arrived! They were aware that the ¡°high-level¡± doctors from the neighboring room had made a decision after observing their progress. When Su Yixuan saw Yang Ping come in, her lonely and helpless gaze instantly lit up brightly. In her eyes, at that moment, Yang Ping seemed to walk on a seven-color auspicious cloud. As soon as Yang Ping opened the door, he heard Dr. Zhong¡¯s rebuke. Seeing Su Yixuan¡¯s pitiful look, he felt a surge of anger in his chest, as if he could hear the sizzling sound of roaring flames. The contest unfolded among the younger generation. Dressing in surgical gowns, putting on gloves. He pulled up the fastening belt from the waist of the surgical gown, handed it to Su Yixuan, turned around, took back the belt from Su Yixuan and tied up a neat knot, exchanging brief eye contact. Go on stage! ¡°Dr. Zhong, please move aside. The difficulty level of the surgery is high, Director Han asked me to take over.¡± His tone was calm, resolute, and beyond doubt. Dr. Zhong hesitated for a moment before moving aside, but he had no intentions of leaving the stage. Zhang Lin, who had quietly entered at some point, was there ready to help move the C-arm X-ray machine. He brought a stool over and pointed to the screen: ¡°You can sit here to watch the screen, it¡¯s clearer than the view on stage.¡± Dr. Zhong, who was still reeling from the overpowering aura that Yang Ping had just demonstrated, responded, ¡°I¡¯ll watch from the stage.¡± Unwillingly, he decided to stay and see how the surgery would proceed. The screen didn¡¯t compare to the live scene. Little Five made room, Song Zimo remained motionless, and Dr. Zhong stood in the assistant¡¯s position. ¡°Senior Brother, the adhesions are too severe, the anatomy is totally unclear, the blood vessels and nerves have been displaced.¡±, Song Zimo warned, cleaning off the burnt tissues from the tip of the electric knife and placing it where Yang Ping can easily reach. The instruments on the stage were rearranged, the bipolar electrocoagulation machine was brought up, the cables of the electric knife, bipolar electrocoagulation machine, and aspirator were sorted out, the wrinkles on the green surgical drape were smoothed out. The gauze on the table was replaced, a clean white piece was brought over. They worked in flawless harmony. Scalpel! Non-toothed forceps! Yang Ping did not speak, but as soon as he stretched out his hand, the handle of the scalpel was already in his hand. Immediately after, the non-toothed forceps were passed to him. Even though Su Yixuan was assisting in Yang Ping¡¯s pelvis surgery for the first time, from her previous experience, she was familiar with his need for a scalpel and non-toothed forceps for a precision sharp dissection at this stage. The exposure was excellent, Song Zimo¡¯s assistance was impeccable. With his left hand holding the non-toothed forceps and scalpel in his right, the sharp dissection began. The experience of dissecting over a hundred times, training on three thousand pelvis surgeries, and hundreds of bizarre pelvis surgeries, was enough to create an overwhelming dominance in his technique. Yang Ping used his finger to lightly touch and began the dissection. Tough and brittle scars were everywhere in the view, it seemed like the entire surgical area was made up of scar tissues and no other structures. With the non-toothed forceps, the scar tissue was held steady, with no need to worry about slipping due to the lack of teeth. The tip of the scalpel, both agile and precise, was used to slowly open up the scars¡¯ adhesions. As the white scars¡¯ surfaces were revealed, the surgeon seemed to know the exact positioning and distribution of all the blood vessels. Even tiny vessels would be cauterized in advance with bipolar electrocoagulation. The scalpel perfectly sliced through scars without damaging the blood vessels. The bipolar electrocoagulation was switched to stop the bleeding, then continued. The scalpel and the bipolar went on in turns while the electric knife was left aside. The dead artery buried in the scar had no place to hide under the knife, it gradually emerged, was clamped by two vascular clamps, cut off, and sutured. The previously pristine gauze hadn¡¯t been used yet. The contours of the external iliac artery and vein slowly began to appear, enveloped in their intact adventitia. The femoral nerve and lateral femoral cutaneous nerve were up next. At this stage, most people use an electric knife for dissection, which can simultaneously stop bleeding by cauterization. However, the thermal injury caused by the electric knife is relatively large, which might cause some tissue damage. Yang Ping preferred the combination of a scalpel and bipolar electrocoagulation, a stark contrast akin to the difference in scale between a cannon and a precision-guided missile. Just like a dancer on the tip of a knife, the adhesions were meticulously picked out bit by bit. It was like an archaeologist¡¯s brush gently removing sand, slowly revealing a priceless antique. The nervy structures, appearing like strips, clearly surfaced. They were accompanied by intact adventitia and faintly visible blood vessels that run on the ventral side. The assistant¡¯s vascular clamp timely and skillfully passed under the nerves, gently lifting them. Yang Ping reached out his hand and the surgical nurse passed him a beautiful moist rubber band. Neither early nor late, both hands reaching out at the same moment, meeting each other, the rubber band in Yang Ping¡¯s hand. The vascular clamp on this side had its mouth open, the rubber band was fed in, clamping, pulling, aligning the end parts. The clamp held both ends of the rubber band, pulling it to one side. The lateral femoral cutaneous nerve, completely buried in scar tissues, was also separated, pulled open and protected. ¡°Senior Brother¡¯s pelvis surgery is so good?¡± A heartfelt compliment inevitably slipped out from under stage. ¡°This adhesion is severe, it¡¯s hard to perform, there will be a lot of bleeding.¡± ¡°Look, the operating table is very clean, there¡¯s no bleeding.¡± ¡°The legendary bloodless operation!¡± ¡°So amazing.¡± ¡°Much better than the doctor from Fuer.¡± Discussions were unavoidable. Dr. Zhong¡¯s throat was very dry; he swallowed his saliva. This method of separation surpassed his abilities, it was far beyond his reach. Sometimes coordinating left and right, sometimes crossing both hands, the left and right hands were equally proficient, with no difference in ability. There was no slipping when holding scar tissue with a toothless forceps, and the scalpel and bipolar electrocoagulation worked together seamlessly, rendering the entire surgery almost bloodless. Critical strike! A definite strike above thirty thousand! Dr. Zhong was somewhat dazed. Up to this point in the surgery, the surgeon had not said a single word. ¡°Focus! Pay attention to the exposure!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s voice was extremely stern, like a professor scolding his own student. Dr. Zhong came to his senses and realized he was being talked to. Since he was the second assistant, he quickly adjusted the retractor. As a professional, he should not give people any reason to doubt him. The separation of the spermatic cord was not very satisfactory, so Yang Ping went back to it and performed a better exposure on the spermatic cord already separated by Dr. Zhong. After all, scar tissue is not elastic, and if it is pulled a little too hard, it can easily damage the spermatic cord, causing complications after surgery. After completing the three windows, they continued to operate deeper in. Old clotted blood surged out, immediately neutralized by the suction tube placed by the assistant in advance. The dark red blood was quickly sucked into the sealed bottle below the table. Fresh blood surged out as the ruptured and retracted small artery was awakened by the operation and broke through the self-coagulated thrombus, ready to spray out. There was no opportunity to spray as Yang Ping¡¯s vascular clamp, two of them, one in each hand, had already clamped the two severed ends of the artery. Without a second delay, Song Zimo tied a knot to stop the bleeding. Repeat the process and another severed end was ligated. Then, they handled the blood vessels around the fracture, whether they were retracted or not, they were all easily located and dealt with. Even if they were retracted into the bone fragments, they were filled with bone wax, leaving the surgical area clean. That piece of gauze hadn¡¯t been used at all. They had kept the surgical area absolutely clean by using only the suction device and a bipolar electrocoagulation device. ¡°Ready to rinse! Pay attention, this is surgery!¡± With an unsatisfied tone, Yang Ping reprimanded, and banged Dr. Zhong¡¯s hand with the vascular clamp, causing him pain but his hand was holding a retractor. There was nothing he could do. He had been distracted again and the position of the retractor was incorrect, making the exposure poor. Shame was weighing heavily on him, and Dr. Zhong became dizzy and had trouble concentrating. Luckily, he was just the second assistant and his distraction wouldn¡¯t heavily impact the surgery. However, stepping off the platform now would seem petty, so he chose to grit his teeth and stay. From the beginning of the operation up to this point, Yang Ping had only spoken three sentences, and all three were directed at Dr. Zhong. Ice salt water was passed over and Yang Ping began to rinse. ¡°Seven holes, reconstruction, arc¨C¡± Yang Ping reported several plate models in one breath. Su Yixuan heard this and her hands moved almost simultaneously, picking out all the required plate types and their neighboring types and placing them in the appropriate position. Next, Su Yixuan made sure the drill bit was set properly and double-checked that there were no issues, even inspecting the drill bit rotation lock. She laid out the three-step tools used to drill holes, measure depth, and tap screw threads. Even though they were using a locking plate and there was no need to tap screw threads, Su Yixuan still prepared the tools just in case. ¡°Such an impressive young man. How old is he? An attending physician?¡± Tan Boyun had no previous impression of Yang Ping. The people he currently knew and could remember were Director Han, Director Tian, and a few team directors. He also remembered Song Zimo because of his standout appearance, but he had no memory of this young man. ¡°Ah, a twenty-something-year-old young man, just promoted to attending physician. Young people lack experience, they need to be given more opportunities.¡± Director Han said indifferently. No wonder Tian Yuan was so confident to let him perform the surgery, Director Han thought. He had been busy and perhaps his training progress had been slow. He didn¡¯t let Yang Ping do pelvis surgery, and at most made him the first assistant. It seemed that Yang Ping had had a lot of practice doing pelvis surgeries with Tian Yuan, and Tian Yuan was very familiar with his abilities. Director Han felt a bit guilty for paying so little attention to his young subordinates. Truth be told, he had been very busy recently, with the Orthopedics Institute and minimally invasive trauma orthopedics, there was too much to do. He was always short on time and often dreamed of making the orthopedic department top-notch nationally within a few days. During this period, he had mostly ignored Yang Ping, Song Zimo and the others. Fortunately, Tian Yuan was able to take his place and guide these young people. This kind of pelvic fracture was at the peak of a level four surgery, and widespread scar tissue adhesions further complicated it. Even seasoned experts would feel at a loss, yet this young man confidently performed the operation on stage. This level of proficiency could not be achieved without hundreds of surgeries under his belt. The swift and precise separation of the adhesions and dealing with retracted blood vessels left people speechless. This young man, Tian Yuan, hadn¡¯t even gone up on stage, yet an attending physician was already so skilled. He had always had a deep impression of Tian Yuan. When they went to Japan and the United States, they were in the same group. This young man was more than a decade younger than him, yet his skill level was not inferior in any way. Diligence, high ability, perseverance, no weaknesses in surgery, theory, or research, he remembered being intimidated by Tian Yuan before he was transferred. But when he heard that Tian Yuan had joined Director Han in the newly opened department, he was relieved. ¡°Sanbo is really full of hidden talents, eh? Brother Tian!¡± Tan Boyun didn¡¯t know how to continue the conversation. Director Tian replied nonchalantly, ¡°Oh, we don¡¯t have as many high-end, complex surgeries here as at Fuer. We just perform these routine surgeries more often. As long as these youngsters are willing to learn, Director Han is usually willing to teach.¡± Damn, he thought, they call this surgery routine? What then are your high-end surgeries? Head transplants? But he was helpless and could only listen. After all, the attending physician on stage now was performing the surgery so smoothly. If this was at Fuer, he would be someone who could strut around confidently. His self-esteem and pride were severely damaged. Similarly, a critical strike over thirty thousand! Chapter 84 - 0082 - Submission Chapter 84: Chapter 0082 ¨C Submission The approach is open, the surgery is only halfway complete, let¡¯s continue. For top experts, the difficulty of this surgery lies in gaining access. Doctor Zhong should also be able to complete the following reduction and fixation, the only differences being speed and quality. They started with the anterior acetabular fracture fixation. The surgeon¡¯s proficiency was not just versed but masterly¡ªmaking the highly difficult surgery appear extremely simple and effortless. Next were the iliac wing fracture, sacral fracture, sacroiliac joint dislocation, pubic bone fracture, and finally, the pubic symphysis. All the numerous reductions and fixations, one after another, were smooth and coordinated with a clear rhythm, and there were no stoppages even for a few minutes. Even when dealing with the tricky bleeding from the presacral venous plexus during sacral fracture and sacroiliac joint dislocation, the precision of the bipolar coagulation was very high, as accurate as a moving target shooter, hitting the mark every time. Horizontal, vertical, diagonal¡ªevery steel plate adhered well, forming a robust and solid fixation of the dislocated fracture. The whole process was pleasing to the eye and highly watchable. If a surgery has a certain viewer appeal, it¡¯s not just about successfully completing the surgery¡ªit¡¯s a comprehensive demonstration of superior surgical skills, a sense of speed, smoothness, rhythm, perfection in details, and more. Doctor Zhong¡¯s forehead was covered in sweat. To prevent the sweat from dropping and contaminating the surgical field, the circulating nurse had to remind him several times before he heard and turned his head to let the nurse wipe his sweat off. The fracture that needed to be dealt with through anterior approach is done. ¡°We need to turn the patient over and operate from the back,¡± Song Zimo reminded him about the remaining posterior acetabular fracture. He was afraid that Yang Ping, with the surgery going so smoothly, might have forgotten. ¡°We can do it all at once, no need to turn the patient over.¡± Yang Ping responded. ¡°Scalpel!¡± The incision was extended, and the direction changed. The iliac inguinal approach transformed into the para-rectus approach¡ª the surgeon¡¯s use of the incision was innovative. The para-rectus approach, a newly developed approach in recent years, can be used to treat both anterior and posterior acetabular fractures through a single approach without having to turn the patient over. However, for complicated and difficult-to-reduce posterior acetabular fractures, using this single approach to simultaneously tackle both anterior and posterior acetabular fractures can be quite challenging. It was precisely this consideration that Director Tian, when on Shipo, gave up the single approach and adopted the classic anterior-posterior combined approach. ¡°Para-rectus approach?¡± Tan Boyun recognized the surgeon¡¯s intent at first glance. Daring to use the para-rectus approach at this time, this person is too bold! Tan Boyun stood up straight. The pelvis was already severely adhered. Wrapping up the anterior approach swiftly, then changing the patient¡¯s position, disinfecting again, and covering the operating table, to carry out the posterior acetabular fracture from the posterior approach would be much safer and easier. It appeared that this adhesion was caused by tuberculous peritonitis and would not significantly affect the posterior structure. The kid sure is gutsy and talented! Director Tian also adjusted his posture. However, with Yang Ping¡¯s level of skill, which he had clearly understood while assisting to handle the retracted arterial hemorrhage in Shipo, he wasn¡¯t too worried. Using his familiar scalpel and bipolar coagulation, he advanced layer by layer, rapidly and rhythmically. Nerves and blood vessels were revealed and pulled aside, the peritoneum-wrapped intestines were pushed aside, the adhesion space was separated¡ªadhesions were no obstacle under the scalpel and bipolar coagulation, completing the bloodless procedure from start to finish. Before Tan Boyun even had a chance to comment, they had already reached the posterior acetabular fracture and began fixation. In a cramped space, the difficult posterior acetabular fracture was easily reduced. The steel plate mold went in and out, already formed; the steel plate and bending tools that Su Yixuan had prepared were handed over. Song Zimo immediately clamped the steel plate, and Yang Ping adjusted it with a few moves¡ªwhen compared to the mold, they were a perfect match. At the same speed, another steel plate was bent. The steel plate was put in place, holes drilled, screws twisted, and an x-ray was ordered! While Doctor Zhong was still in a daze, Zhang Lin had already moved the C-arm machine in and everyone left to avoid the radiation. After the x-ray was done, they returned to the OR. The x-ray image on the screen, presented several angles: the proper position, the exit and entrance. Fracture was beautifully reduced, the steel plate and screws were in very satisfactory positions. There was no snapping in the hip joint, and the screws hadn¡¯t accidentally ended up in the joint cavity. This skill was simply out of his league. Doctor Zhong had already forgotten his previous embarrassment and began focusing on the perfect surgery. The back of his hand that Yang Ping had hit was still a bit sore. The sense of superiority he had when he first arrived, that feeling of being on high, was utterly extinguished. At Fuer, he also had a small reputation in terms of his skills. Under Director Tan, walking a little arrogantly or strutting about wasn¡¯t a problem. To be Surgically Adding Internal Fixation to complex pelvic fractures in trauma orthopedics was an achievement that could enable you to set up your private practice in big hospitals. The bad luck! Having done so many pelvises, he hadn¡¯t ever come across such an odd one. This pelvic surgery, there was adhered scar tissue everywhere¡ªit was like cooked noodles left for a few days that had turned into dough. Where could you separate each noodle? And yet, he managed to separate each noodle. Sigh! Fate! It¡¯s all about fate! If not for bad luck, he would currently be the subject of admiration more intense than equatorial sunshine. Doctor Zhong sighed, ¡°Time is not on my side,¡± that¡¯s all he could think, his mind buzzing as if covered with a hood¡ªeverything was blurry. It wasn¡¯t until Zhang Lin had called his name twice during the x-ray that he heard him and followed everyone else out to avoid the radiation. ¡°Perfect!¡± ¡°That¡¯s a wrap!¡± With the surgery over, the circulating nurse began to count the gauze and instruments, calculating the amount of blood loss. Song Zimo said, ¡°Brother, you¡¯ve worked hard, please take a break. Dr. Zhong and I will close the incisions. Dr. Zhong, is it okay with you?¡± ¡°No problem, no problem at all.¡± Dr Zhong hurried back to the operating table, now fully committed like a spinning top, wherever he was needed, there he would be. Yang Ping began to remove his surgical gown and gloves, and Little Five also climbed onto the operating table to assist. ¡°You should take a break!¡± said Su Yixuan, her eyes a complex mix of admiration, respect, and gratitude. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Yang Ping pointed to her hands. Su Yixuan shook her head, a sweet smile on her face. Flushing, inserting drainage tube, suturing the layers. And like that, the surgery was over. ¡°Elder Brother is too incredible¡± ¡°Yeah, look, that doctor from Fuer isn¡¯t upset anymore.¡± ¡°Such a difficult surgery, and yet so beautifully done, truly admirable!¡± There was a small uproar next door, and anyone who wasn¡¯t oblivious could sense the significance of this surgery. Dignity! Not just the dignity of an individual, but the dignity of an entire team. Now, that dignity was being vigorously defended! ¡°Ding Dong! Perfect surgery completed, task accomplished, reward ten thousand points, reap countless admiring looks.¡± The system never reneges on its word, Yang Ping sits on a stool to rest. ¡°Such a pelvic surgery, from start to finish, virtually bloodless, too impressive.¡± Dr. Jin said. Director Ouyang said: ¡°The two people¡¯s surgical skills aren¡¯t even in the same league, Little Yang¡¯s surgery was truly meticulous!¡± Director Bai ¡®s face lit up in a smile: ¡°It¡¯s always the younger generation from Sanbo who are most steady.¡± ¡°Director Tan?¡± Director Han stopped patting his legs. Tan Boyun didn¡¯t respond. ¡°Director Tan?¡± Director Han raised his voice slightly. ¡°Oh!¡± Tan Boyun snapped back to reality. The surgery¡¯s over already? What incredible speed. This surgery, there wasn¡¯t absolutely anything to complain about. Tan Boyun awkwardly said: ¡°Director Han, your subordinates are unbeatable. Having Tian Yuan is already extraordinary, let alone such a young prodigy. The younger generation is indeed formidable. The doctors of our Fuer Hospital couldn¡¯t even compare.¡± ¡°Director Tan, you¡¯re flattering me too much, you¡¯ll be Director Han¡¯s top tiger in the future.¡± Tian Yuan joined in the conversation. ¡°Definitely not!¡± Director Tan felt his neck burning with embarrassment. ¡°In the future, the micro-injury orthopedics department will need Director Tan¡¯s guidance to reach new heights.¡± Director Han patted Tan Boyun¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Under the leadership of Director Han, we will do our utmost.¡± Tan Boyun suddenly found himself feeling inferior. Tan Boyun in Fuer, never use to getting along with his elder, always rebellious. Now, after this rotation to Sanbo, it was undeniable that he aspired to become the orthopedic director. This surgery had left him completely stunned, and he was wholeheartedly in agreement with the methods. His aspirations faded and all he wanted was to maintain his position as the director of micro-injury orthopedics, do his best during his prime years, and achieve some results. ¡°Tian Yuan, accompany Director Tan for a walk and familiarize him with the operating room. I have to leave now due to some work.¡± Director Han stood up, and Tan Boyun and Tian Yuan followed suit. Director Han gestured politely: ¡°After you, Director Tan!¡± Immediately, Tan Boyun bowed and motioned with his hands: ¡°After you, Director Han, after you.¡± Director Han held his hand: ¡°Alright then, you guys take a look around. We¡¯ll get together again later. Dean Xia is holding a banquet in person.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t we chat this evening! You¡¯re too kind!¡± Tan Boyun¡¯s sharpness completely receded in front of Director Han. Director Han walked out in large strides, and Tian Yuan said, ¡°Director Tan, let¡¯s take a walk together and familiarize ourselves with the operating room.¡± ¡°Sure! After you, Director Tian.¡± Tan Boyun felt a newfound modesty deep in his heart when facing Tian Yuan. Dr. Zhong also came out and saw Director Tan: ¡°Director!¡± His face showed signs of shame. Director Tan patted his shoulder: ¡°Come, let¡¯s walk along with Director Tian and familiarize ourselves with the operating room.¡± Meaning: Don¡¯t worry, there¡¯s no need to feel stressed out. Chapter 85 - 0083 Visit to the Operating Room Chapter 85: Chapter 0083 Visit to the Operating Room Director Tan and his disciples have been here several times and have toured the operating room, but they were just fleeting visits. This time, they need to look closer. The three men stood near the operating room they had just visited. Director Tian enthusiastically introduced the condition of the operating room: ¡°Our Orthopedics Department currently has eight operating rooms. There are three in the Trauma Orthopedics, two in the Spine and Joints each and one in Sports Medicine. Out of the eight operating rooms, four are primary operating rooms, each ward has one. Our trauma orthopedics¡¯ main operating room is this one, which includes a teaching room and a storage room. The general operating rooms only have storage rooms.¡± ¡°Hmmm, Sanbo Hospital has first-rate hardware!¡± Tan Boyun exclaimed, but quickly added, ¡°I mean, the technical hardware is top-notch!¡± Tian Yuan pointed to the other two operating rooms, continuing, ¡°These two operating rooms are also for our Trauma Orthopedics, they are general operating rooms.¡± The setup was similar to Fuer Hospital¡¯s, but Sanbo¡¯s main operating room also had a teaching room. ¡°How many C-arm machines do you have?¡± Tan Boyun was particularly interested in this. Last time, Director Han gave a general introduction, but this time he needed a more precise understanding in order to carry out future work efficiently. In some hospitals where surgeries are frequent but have fewer C-arm machines, embarrassing situations often arise where staff fight over the machines. ¡°We have three C-arm machines, two are new and one is old. We have one over here, there is one in the Spine and Joints, which is G-shaped, and one old one for the Joints and Sports Medicine since they use it less often,¡± Tian Yuan gave a detailed introduction. ¡°What about the microscopes?¡± Dr. Zhong asked. Tian Yuan replied, ¡°We have three microscopes from Carl Zeiss. Come over and take a look.¡± Tian Yuan led them through the main operating room to the storage room, where the patient from the prior surgery was already waking up from anesthesia, prepping to move to their bed. Dr. Zhong was passing by Yang Ping¡¯s side, so he bowed slightly in greeting, albeit rather awkwardly, ¡°We¡¯re getting familiar with the operating room equipment.¡± Director Tan also waved in greeting, ¡°Hard work pays off!¡± Tian Yuan introduced, ¡°This is Dr. Yang! I¡¯m showing Director Tian and Dr. Zhong the microscope.¡± Yang Ping immediately got up to shake their hands, ¡°No worries, it¡¯s not tough. Take your time to familiarize yourselves.¡± After the greetings, Tian Yuan took them to the storage room where a microscope was placed. ¡°This microscope was purchased not too long ago. It has completed a replantation of a one-month-old infant¡¯s five fingers, an adult¡¯s upper limb¡¯s five-section replantation, and has so far completed nearly 200 finger replantations. The microscope next door bought when our hospital was established has completed our hospital¡¯s first case of free toe-to-thumb reconstruction, fingertip construction, and five-digit three-section replantation using a single hand on a child,¡± Tian Yuan narrated enthusiastically. Each piece of equipment held its own story. ¡°Who usually does the microsurgery?¡± Dr. Zhong asked, adjusting the eyepiece. The microscope was similar to their hospital¡¯s, but surprisingly, it had performed a baby¡¯s finger replantation. ¡°Normally, I do it, along with Xiao Yang and Xiao Song, they do it more often. They¡¯re young; without surgeries to keep them busy, they can¡¯t grow. In cases we can¡¯t handle, that¡¯s when Director Han steps in,¡± Tian Yuan explained. ¡°This ultrasound bone knife is great!¡± Tan Boyun, with his sharp eye, saw an ultrasound bone knife inside. This device is very useful. When cutting bones, it won¡¯t harm the surrounding nerves and blood vessels. Its cutting has selectivity, only cutting the hard and leaving the soft untouched. ¡°The ultrasound bone knife is used more by the Spine and Joints team. We rarely use it. All this equipment is shared by the large Orthopedics team. Last time, when Director Han was reforming a malunion of an old pelvic fracture, the ultrasound bone knife was pulled over here, it was temporarily placed here and has not been moved yet,¡± Tian Yuan uncovered the dust cover protecting the ultrasound bone knife. ¡°Your equipment is very sophisticated.¡± Tan Boyun felt reassured seeing that everything that should be present was there. ¡°It¡¯s OUR equipment that¡¯s sophisticated!¡± Tian Yuan corrected with a laugh. ¡°Right, right, OUR equipment is sophisticated.¡± Tan Boyun immediately corrected himself, with a chuckling laugh. ¡°The approval procedures for our equipment have been vastly simplified. In Fuer, the large-scale equipment is entirely financed by the government. Over here in Sanbo, there¡¯s support from an Overseas Chinese Foundation. The Foundation not only supports the purchase of equipment but is also responsible for supporting doctors¡¯ overseas research and scientific research funds. The laboratory our Orthopedics Institute is currently applying for grants from the Foundation.¡± Although they all belong to hospitals directly under the provincial Health Department, none of the affiliated hospitals of Nandu Medical University can be compared with Sanbo, irrespective of their strength, lineage or history. Even though Han Jiangong was originally from Magic City Sixth Hospital and was a representative figure of the young faction in the orthopedics field at that time, the reputation of an individual cannot take the place of a hospital¡¯s brand. The brand value of a hospital requires time to build up. Fuer Hospital¡¯s comprehensive strength is dominant in the province. The third branch is a specialist cancer hospital nationally renowned, and the fourth is a specialist orthopedic hospital. Although it¡¯s a specialist orthopedics hospital, its reputation cannot be compared with the orthopedics department of the first and second branches. The potential for future development is promising. The other hospitals can only be the second choice. The Provincial People¡¯s Hospital and the City People¡¯s Hospital belong to the second tier. The Provincial People¡¯s Hospital is stronger than the City People¡¯s Hospital. All of the hospitals have a high patient inflow and perform numerous surgeries. There isn¡¯t a significant difference in size when compared with the first and second branches, the only difference is in academic status, which can¡¯t be compared with the Nandu system at all. The Nandu Traditional Chinese Medicine College Affiliated Hospitals, the Provincial Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, and the Municipal Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital form their own system, also belonging to the second tier. The Nandu system, the People¡¯s system, and the Traditional Chinese Medicine system, these three forces coexist peacefully with a balanced pattern, each with its traditional stronghold. Sanbo Hospital doesn¡¯t belong to any faction and is located in a remote area. When the hospital was established, people were hired from the Nandu and the People¡¯s system. Not many were willing to come; most of them were poached from other places. So, Sanbo has always been inconspicuous and unnoticed by these hospitals. However, in the past few years, these hospitals were startled to find that Sanbo had unexpectedly begun to develop. When Doctor Tan and Doctor Zhong shifted to Sanbo Hospital, the medical setup made them feel superior, as technology enthusiasts often have a wild and unruly spirit. After inspecting the main operating theater, they moved on to the others. ¡°Director Tan, over here, come see this,¡± Tian Yuan guided, leading them to the end of a hallway, to a closed door. Director Tian entered a code, the door opened automatically, revealing a complete contrast to the operating rooms they¡¯d just visited, they had seen the operation room before, but not this place. ¡°These are newly constructed multi-functional operating rooms, already inspected and ready for operation, take a look!¡± Through the small observation window in the door, this one looks several times larger than a regular operating room, filled with screens of various sizes, robotic arms, and other equipment. ¡°A surgical robot? Da Vinci!¡± Doctor Zhong exclaimed in surprise. Director Tan was also interested. The automatic door opened, and they all walked in. This large operating room was accompanied by several auxiliary rooms: an operation room, storage room, and teaching room. ¡°Is it the Da Vinci surgical robot?¡± Director Tan confirmed. ¡°Our hospital also bought a Da Vinci, but it¡¯s only used by the thoracic, general, and urological surgery departments. We in orthopedics can¡¯t use it,¡± Director Tan regretfully added. The Da Vinci surgical robot currently cannot perform orthopedic surgery. This robot is quite expensive, with a unit price ranging from tens of millions, and a startup fee of twenty thousand each time a surgery is performed. ¡°This one was directly donated by the Overseas Chinese Foundation. We actually prefer local products if we were to purchase ourselves,¡± Tian Yuan explained. Robotic surgery is a new technology in surgical fields in recent years, leading the trend in high-end technology. Currently, it is heavily utilized at affiliated hospitals of Zhengzhou University, Zhejiang University, and 301. Within the country, only a few dozen such robots have been installed, mostly used in thoracic, abdominal, and urological surgeries. ¡°It¡¯s truly a shame that Da Vinci can¡¯t be used for orthopedic surgeries,¡± Professor Tan expressed his disappointment. ¡°Director Tan, let¡¯s check the next operating room!¡± There were several multi-purpose operating rooms in the same row. They all went to another one. ¡°Tianji?¡± Tianji, a domestic surgical robot, can perform orthopedic procedures. Director Tan¡¯s eyes lit up. Director Tian explained, ¡°This one we bought ourselves, using money from the foundation. It¡¯s just as good as the imported ones, albeit we only have one for now.¡± ¡°What a wonderful piece of technology, truly wonderful!¡± Director Tan admired, caressing the robotic arm and looking around the operating table. While Da Vinci is an American product, it can¡¯t perform orthopedic surgeries. Tianji, on the other hand, is locally produced and can handle orthopedic procedures ¨C it¡¯s the only orthopedic robot in the world capable of conducting surgeries on the whole spine, pelvis, and limbs. But these high-end technologies are not perfect, machines can always make mistakes. In one country, a patient¡¯s major artery was punctured by a robot during heart surgery, leading to their death a week after the operation. Surgical robots are not actual robots, as the name might misleadingly suggest ¨C they don¡¯t perform surgeries by themselves. It¡¯s more precise to call them remote surgery systems, where the surgeon doesn¡¯t need to be at the operating table, instead commanding the robotic arm to perform the surgery by watching a video screen from some distance. At the end of the day, surgeons are still in control, it just so happens that robotic arms are more stable and precise than human hands. This entire process is similar to a remote-controlled toy excavator. ¡°All these surgery rooms are designed with lead walls for radiation protection, that side will be the operating room, and the operating desk will be set there.¡± Director Tian went into the operating room, touched the display screen, and sat on the operation desk chair to get a sense of it. What a great platform. Choosing to come to Sanbo was definitely the right decision. Back at Fuer, they felt stifled and were unsure when they might be able to make their mark. Now, they felt a surge of ambition and determination stirring within them. ¡°Will this robot be exclusively for our orthopedics department?¡± Director Tan asked excitedly. ¡°At present, it will be shared among the major orthopedics departments, and we plan to buy another one. So, the trauma orthopedics department will have one robot, and the other departments will share another one. Director Tan, you¡¯ll get your chance to shine.¡± Tian Yuan said. ¡°Our hospital started later and has a less solid foundation, so we need to catch up. We can¡¯t fall behind on equipment,¡± Tian Yuan modestly said. ¡°Yes, you need a good axe to chop wood,¡± Director Tan said. Next door, there was also a multi-functional surgery room for sports medicine. Director Tan was not particularly interested in that, as he was specialized in trauma orthopedics. In the future, they are going to make a significant contribution! Tan Boyun thought, feeling quite pleased. Chapter 86 - 0084: Heart-to-Heart Trust Chapter 86: Chapter 0084: Heart-to-Heart Trust In the evening, Dean Xia hosted a banquet in the hospital¡¯s private restaurant to welcome Tan Boyun. Before attending the banquet, Director Han called Tan Boyun to his office and poured him a cup of tea. ¡°Thank you, Director, you¡¯re too kind!¡± Tan Boyun took the tea with both hands. ¡°Sit, sit!¡± Director Han grabbed his own Yixing teacup and took a sip. ¡°This is decent tea!¡± Sitting down, Tan Boyun also took the time to taste it. ¡°Brother Tan, honestly, in Fuer, whether it¡¯s surgery or research, you¡¯re first-rate. What you lack is just a platform, a platform where you can showcase your talents. After you¡¯ve joined Sanbo, I¡¯ll completely hand the micro-injury orthopedics to you. You can do as you wish, and I¡¯ve got your back. As long as it¡¯s in line with the larger orthopedics strategic plan, I won¡¯t interfere. You have complete freedom and unless it¡¯s strategic issues, you don¡¯t need to report to me. Ouyang, Old Bai, and Old Ding, I¡¯ve spoken with them, they¡¯ll be offering you their complete support. Unity and progress are our cherished traditions at Sanbo. However, there¡¯s always an adjustment period. If they display any discontent in the short term, please be understanding.¡± Director Han spoke candidly. Hearing these words, Tan Boyun was filled with mixed feelings. He couldn¡¯t help thinking how over the years at Fuer, he had no place to vent. Why didn¡¯t he come here earlier? Han Jiangong is indeed talented and charismatic, no wonder all of his subordinates follow him devotedly. ¡°I definitely won¡¯t let you down!¡± Tan Boyun said emotionally, ¡°A scholar living in purity and contentment, being respected and having the freedom to showcase his abilities, that¡¯s enough!¡± ¡°Did Tian Yuan take you for a tour of the operating room?¡± Director Han asked. ¡°Yes, I have seen it. I also checked out the surgical robot, our equipment is top-notch,¡± Tan Boyun replied. ¡°That¡¯s nothing. Right now, your Micro-Injury Orthopedics Department is the main force. Without proper equipment, how can you fight a battle? The Tianji, prioritize it in your department, I plan to buy another one for the other Orthopedics Departments to share. If there¡¯s anything else you need, make a list and I will get Dean Xia to approve it.¡± Director Han said energetically. ¡°At the end of the year, we¡¯re planning to host an Orthopedics Academic Conference. Initially, I was going to be in charge, but now that you¡¯re here, you will take over. Tian Yuan will assist you. We will have Fuyi, Fuer, Provincial People¡¯s Hospital, and City People¡¯s Hospital in attendance, and we¡¯ve also invited a few foreign professors. You can work out the details with Tian Yuan,¡± Director Han continued. ¡°That¡¯s not right! It can¡¯t be. Director, you should take charge. Tian Yuan and I will assist you,¡± Tan Boyun refused. ¡°We¡¯re family here, no need for dilly-dallying. You¡¯ve just arrived, you need the conference to raise your profile. The academic conferences at Fuer, you¡¯ve always been a sidekick, this time you¡¯re the leading role,¡± Director Han insisted firmly. Tan Boyun was extremely touched. Director Han was indeed a visionary and open-hearted. He was nothing like someone who was always afraid of being overshadowed by his subordinates, always confining him. Any more refusals would appear unappreciative. ¡°Director, I¡¯m flattered that you think so highly of me. I will give it my all to achieve results and repay you,¡± he said. The two of them had a heart-to-heart in the office. They hit it off well, drinking cup after cup of tea and laughing heartily. It was only when they were urged over the phone to go to dinner that they ended their conversation and rushed off to the hospital¡¯s private restaurant. Yang Ping got off work and rode in Little Five¡¯s car. Half an hour was half an hour. He could take a nap in the car. ¡°Senior, that Zhong guy was much less arrogant today. You didn¡¯t see how cocky he was at the beginning,¡± Little Five said while driving. Yang Ping commented, ¡°Didn¡¯t he submit in the end? The law of the jungle applies everywhere, there¡¯s nothing to discuss!¡± ¡°Is Tan Boyun really that great? Director Han gave him the position of director of the Trauma Orthopedics Department?¡± Little Five also liked to ask these questions. Yang Ping replied, ¡°He definitely has strength, otherwise why would Director Han have chosen him? We just need to do our own jobs, Director Han knows what he¡¯s doing with these arrangements.¡± Little Five nodded, ¡°I was just chatting idly with you.¡± ¡°Ding-dong, because of the host¡¯s good performance, after system evaluation, the timing consumption of the library has been reduced. Each point can now purchase one hour of learning time,¡± the system announced. The system was pretty decent. It seemed that it pays to work hard, the system rewards those who make the effort. If you don¡¯t work hard, the system will probably leave you behind. Now, with thirty thousand points in hand, he felt at ease. One point can now buy one hour of study time in the system library; this price was practically a steal. Yang Ping decided to move all his studying into the system space. In preparation for his doctoral exams next year, there was a lot to learn, from medical theory to English. English wasn¡¯t about flattering foreign ideas. Modern medicine originated from the West, and many achievements are recorded in English. If you want to surpass others, you must first learn from them. Sticking to one¡¯s old ways and preserving the remains will only result in being left far behind. Yang Ping¡¯s foundation was good to begin with, so now that he can learn in the system space, his learning progress was naturally much faster than others. In the car, Yang Ping entered the system space and studied for a week, but it only cost him a hundred and sixty-eight points. When he exited the system space, his phone rang. It was a call from Huang Jiacai. Now, there¡¯s an odd one. ¡°Hello, Doctor Yang, this is Huang Jiacai, do you have time to meet up?¡± ¡°Bro, you don¡¯t have to bother, I¡¯ve told you, I won¡¯t go to that Orthopedics Hospital.¡± Yang Ping found this man a bit too persistent, almost stubborn. The other party was silent for a while: ¡°I didn¡¯t mean that, I have a personal matter and I need your help. If it¡¯s convenient, can we meet at a nearby cafe?¡± ¡°Now?¡± ¡°Is it convenient?¡± He might have been waiting already. Why not go meet him, for the sake of the ice cream. ¡°Alright!¡± Yang Ping agreed. ¡°Get me to that cafe near the hospital,¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°Are you inviting me for coffee?¡± Little Five was delighted. ¡°Some weird guy wants to chat with me, I¡¯m going to check it out,¡± Yang Ping said. Little Five didn¡¯t ask further, dropped him off at the cafe and said, ¡°Call me when you¡¯re done, I¡¯ll pick you up.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a few steps; you don¡¯t need to pick me up, you can go back,¡± Yang Ping closed the car door. As expected, Huang Jiacai was already there, with a young girl with short, pretty hair sitting next to him. Was he really taking my joke about introducing a girlfriend seriously? It was a booth for four people. Huang Jiacai and the girl sat side by side, while Yang Ping took a seat across them. ¡°Doctor Yang, sorry for bothering you after you¡¯ve finished work. But this is the only time you¡¯re free,¡± Huang Jiacai was always polite and humble at all times. ¡°No worries, what is it?¡± Yang Ping took the hot coffee from the waiter and took a sip. ¡°It¡¯s nothing much, I want to introduce someone to you,¡± Huang Jiacai said. He really was introducing a girlfriend. This guy is quite something. Yang Ping looked at the girl across him, who was slightly shy. He decided to let him finish his words. ¡°Huang Jiahui, my sister,¡± Huang Jiacai introduced. The girl stood up, extended her hand, ¡°Looking forward to working with you.¡± ¡°Looking forward to working with you.¡± Yang Ping shook hands with her, not quite understanding what he was supposed to be looking forward to. ¡°Who is she?¡± Yang Ping asked Huang Jiacai. ¡°Oh, Doctor Yang, Jiahui just started working at Tianji company as a technical specialist, you might be working together in the future,¡± Huang Jiacai said. ¡°Isn¡¯t Tianji the company that makes surgical robots? Our hospital just bought one, we haven¡¯t started performing surgeries with it yet. I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s not much I can do in terms of ¡®looking after¡¯ her,¡± Yang Ping was still unsure what he was supposed to look after. He was just a doctor after all. ¡°It¡¯s alright, just getting to know each other. You can look after each other in the future,¡± Huang Jiacai said. ¡°That¡¯s all?¡± As long as he wasn¡¯t introducing a girlfriend. There wasn¡¯t much to chat about, so the three of them just drank coffee. Huang Jiahui introduced some recent developments in surgical robots and took out a stack of documents from her bag for Yang Ping to look at. This was valuable information. Although he has access to a vast amount of data in the system space, they were all public publications, books, and published papers. This kind of internal information from medical equipment companies was not available, and Yang Ping was very interested in it. After all, surgical robots were considered the third generation of surgical technology, following traditional surgery and minimally invasive surgery. He was bound to come into contact with it and master it eventually. Chapter 87 - 0085 - A News Report Chapter 87: Chapter 0085 ¨C A News Report When he got home, he studied the data on the surgical robots once again. Director Zhuang of the Overseas Chinese Building sent a message on WeChat, saying that Li Jingshu wanted to come for a check-up the next day. Was he available? It had been six weeks since Li Jingshu had fractured her bone. It was time for the splint to be removed. Yang Ping arranged to meet Director Zhuang at eight-thirty. By then, the ward rounds would have ended and he could take ten minutes out. When they were done, he would head to the operating room. So he told Director Zhuang to bring her to the hospital at eight o¡¯clock. He asked the doctors from the Overseas Chinese Building to prepare her documents and take an X-ray for her check-up. She should bring the X-ray and come find him in the ward at eight-thirty. The next day, Li Jingshu was on time and appeared in the trauma orthopedics ward exactly at eight-thirty. Director Zhuang personally brought her in. During her previous check-ups, her mother had accompanied her. This time she came alone. She was dressed in a pink and white sports outfit and carried a bag with her X-ray films. Director Zhuang took out the X-ray films and Yang Ping hung them on the lightbox. ¡°How is it?¡± Li Jingshu asked anxiously. After examining it, Yang Ping said: ¡°The fractured bone is healing well; you can have your splint removed.¡± Li Jingshu made a fist with her right hand, indicating a successful gesture. While Director Zhuang waited in the doctors¡¯ office, Yang Ping took her into the treatment room to remove her splint. He cleaned her skin with 75% alcohol. There were many indentation marks on the skin where the splint and pressure pad had been. ¡°It won¡¯t remain like this forever, will it?¡± Li Jingshu asked worriedly. Yang Ping replied: ¡°No, in a few days, your skin will slowly bounce back and shed the outer layer. It will be normal then.¡± ¡°I thought I didn¡¯t have to have surgery. I was considering going back to work in the Northeast.¡± Li Jingshu said with a smile. Yang Ping guided her through a series of mobility exercises¨Crotating her forearm, flexing and extending her elbow and wrist joints. He demonstrated the movements for her. She was smart and understood right away. However, when it came to performing the movements, she was scared and didn¡¯t dare to move because she feared the pain. ¡°Be bold and make sure you exercise. Otherwise, your joints will become stiff. It¡¯s just like a machine rusting. It¡¯s okay now; the fracture has healed and you can move.¡± Yang Ping encouraged her but she still hesitated. So, Yang Ping gently helped her to move. ¡°Be gentle,¡± said Li Jingshu, biting her lip. This hurts? Yang Ping was surprised. Li Jingshu shook her head. ¡°A little bit. Like a mosquito bite. But mainly, I get scared whenever I move.¡± ¡°If it doesn¡¯t hurt, then boldly practice! You must practice! The treatment of a fracture, whether it is surgery or manual bone resetting, only accounts for half the treatment. The other half is functional exercise. Without this, it¡¯s the same as zero.¡± Yang Ping explained, but his tone was not very pleasant. ¡°Don¡¯t be so fierce! I know!¡± She exhaled softly and began to rotate her forearm and to flex and extend her elbow and wrist joints as she was shown earlier. She moved slowly, and it was much better than before. ¡°You don¡¯t have to achieve everything in one go. During functional exercise, make gradual progress. You¡¯ll get better every day. Soon, you¡¯ll be back to normal.¡± Yang Ping felt that his tone was a bit harsh earlier and softened his explanation this time. After disassembling the splint and the straps, a nurse helped to clean up and then left. ¡°The next check-up will be three months after the operation. Counting from today, it should be about one and a half months.¡± Yang Ping reminded her. ¡°Mm, I remember. It was written in the discharge record last time. I¡¯ve set a reminder in my phone¡¯s calendar. When are you free for a meal together?¡± Li Jingshu picked up her bag. ¡°From morning to night, I am performing surgeries. When would I have time to go out for a meal? You don¡¯t have to be polite.¡± Yang Ping tactfully declined. ¡°You misunderstood. I don¡¯t intend to treat you. You should treat me!¡± Li Jingshu looked at her arm and touched the uneven skin indentations. Yang Ping was confused. This young lady was willful and unreasonable. He was too busy to waste time with her. ¡°I¡¯m going to the operating room.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t bother responding. ¡°Wait, is there a place we can talk? Seriously, it¡¯s something important!¡± Li Jingshu was very serious. She didn¡¯t seem to be joking. ¡°Isn¡¯t here OK?¡± Yang Ping couldn¡¯t figure her out. She was so unpredictable. With a mysterious smile, Li Jingshu said, ¡°No, this place isn¡¯t suitable. We need to find a place where two people can talk in private.¡± Goodness, she was flirting with him. A twenty-something-year-old man being courted by her. But Yang Ping¡¯s face turned red. ¡°Look at you, you¡¯ve never been in love. Your face has changed color. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t eat you up. It¡¯s really something important. Does your ward have a meeting room or something?¡± Li Jingshu said. ¡°Yes!¡± The meeting room is available. Helpless, she claimed to have something important and she was being quite cryptic about it, leaving him no choice but to take her to the meeting room. They sat down, a table between them. The meeting room was usually used for family discussions and providing signatures. Li Jingshu locked the door behind her. What is she up to? Thought Yang Ping as he instinctively leaned back. ¡°What¡¯s on your mind?¡± Li Jingshu chuckled. She took a file out of her shoulder bag and slid it across the table to Yang Ping, ¡°This is about your department. My girlfriend happened to be the one reviewing it. If she hadn¡¯t suppressed it, it would¡¯ve been published by now.¡± What is it? Yang Ping took a look. The headline was shocking, ¡°Outrage! Patient couldn¡¯t afford hospital fees, nurse rips out catheter forcefully.¡± The headline was so sensational, immediately igniting anger and eliciting cries of condemnation. ¡°Once this report hits the news, your hospital, your department will become infamous, overshadowing your five-segment replantation surgery by hundreds of times over,¡± Li Jingshu coldly stated. Yang Ping suddenly remembered. There was a patient who had removed his own catheter to avoid paying his bills. He had a wrist injury caused by a knife attack, resulting in a rupture of nerves, blood vessels, and tendons. It was a case managed by Director Ouyang¡¯s team, with Dr. Lei providing care, and President Guo performing the surgery. ¡°The patient didn¡¯t pay a dime. He had emergency surgery and left the hospital secretly after removing his own catheter,¡± Yang Ping clearly remembered. Li Jingshu chuckled, ¡°Who knows? Who would believe that? Is your version even interesting?¡± Yang Ping was stumped. ¡°No need to worry, the draft is still here.¡± Li Jingshu reassured. This is serious, Yang Ping replied, ¡°I will report to Director Han immediately and let the hospital find a solution.¡± ¡°What kind of solution?¡± asked Li Jingshu. What kind of solution to come up with is the hospital¡¯s responsibility, not mine. ¡°Take a look at the author of this article.¡± Li Jingshu suggested. Yang Ping pointed out at the author¡¯s name: Wang Ge! Oh my god! Everyone knows this name, the famous reporter Wang Ge, well-known even among doctors. ¡°Your hospital is not his first victim. He has smeared many hospitals in G City. Remember the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital a few years ago? A patient who underwent a colostomy for intestinal perforation was reported as suffering from medical neglect with an exposed and perforated intestine, left suffering in pain with no results from their attempts to seek justice. It caused a huge commotion back then. If it were not for the high status of the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital, any other would¡¯ve faced a catastrophe. Regardless, the doctor involved was still disciplined and transferred to the logistics department.¡± ¡°Later investigations proved that it was fake news,¡± Yang Ping said indignantly. ¡°Even if it was proven to be fake later on, the damage was done. The poison was ingested and absorbed. Does proving it as poison after the fact help?¡± Li Jingshu¡¯s logic was clear. Was this the same Li Jingshu who looked like a teary-eyed little girl, the one who huddled in a wheelchair like a small child? ¡°Don¡¯t just stare at me. I have been following this incident for a month now. I know every single detail,¡± Li Jingshu said, pulling the draft away. ¡°You¡¯ve been investigating this incident, even in your condition?¡± Yang Ping pointed at her arm. ¡°Didn¡¯t Professor Zhang Zongshun set my bone while sitting in a chair with a broken bone himself?¡± Li Jingshu shrugged. ¡°To attract attention, are reporters just allowed to make up slanderous stories?¡± Yang Ping was outraged. Li Jingshu countered, ¡°Don¡¯t generalize. Not all of us are like that. Of course, there are reporters and media outlets who create fake news for personal gain, tarnishing this doctor, or that person, causing chaos wherever they can. However, there are also those reporters who have lost their lives trying to uncover the truth. Do you remember their names? Does anyone remember? We should understand both the positive and negative aspects. We can¡¯t change the negatives in a day, but if each of us does our part and makes an effort, that¡¯s when we can affect great change. History is a great torrent made up of individual efforts.¡± Li Jingshu sounded like a political science teacher, and Yang Ping was at a loss for words. ¡°This report won¡¯t be published in G City, but I can¡¯t make any promises for outside G City. However, rest assured, I have a plan. If he dares to publish it, I will nip it at the root. You don¡¯t need to report this either. I will contact your hospital and keep them informed. How about we grab a meal together as a token of gratitude? Here¡¯s my card. My WeChat and phone number are the same.¡± Li Jingshu pulled out a business card and placed it on the table, presentable and nothing like the stubborn, willful girl she was earlier. Yang Ping was taken back by this about-face. ¡°That¡¯s all I wanted to talk about. I need to go now. I¡¯ll see you again during my next check-up.¡± Li Jingshu opened the door and waved goodbye. Chapter 88 - 0086 Advanced Sports Medicine Chapter 88: Chapter 0086 Advanced Sports Medicine After Li Jingshu left, Yang Ping took the business card for a look before tucking it away. She truly had done them a huge favor. Although it wasn¡¯t directed at herself, she had certainly helped the department and the hospital. Yang Ping sat in the meeting room for a while until Little Five called to inform her that the anesthesia was ready for the patient, only then did she head to the operating room. Upon entering the operating room, she saw Director Ouyang, President Guo, and Xiao Lei all hurriedly exiting the place. Li Jingshu must have informed the hospital about the situation. Thus, the hospital administration had these individuals summoned for an explanation. The hospital would naturally handle these matters. All she needed to worry about was ensuring her surgery went smoothly; knowing her own limits, she must do her part well. Yang Ping found comfort in this realisation. When she arrived at the operating room, the patient was already under anesthesia. With Song Zimo and Little Five as well as Zhang Lin, there was no need for her to step into the operating theater. She decided to rest at the side. Director Tan and Dr. Zhong casually walked about the operating room, offering to lend a hand upon any request. Director Bai from another operating room was facing difficulties with a hip socket surgery and sent a standardised training student to invite Director Tan over for guidance. Without hesitation, Director Tan took the responsibility of going over to assist. This was part of being a Director, stepping in to save a surgery when others encountered difficulties. When Director Tan reached Director Bai¡¯s operation room, Director Bai said, ¡°Director Tan, this hip socket is trouble. He¡¯s only a sixteen-year-old boy, his fracture is melding too quickly. The area is filled with bone calluses which makes it difficult to do the anatomical repositioning.¡± Being unable to perform an anatomical repositioning means a traumatic arthritis could persist. This scenario was generally unacceptable for bone fractures. ¡°Let me take a look,¡± Director Tan was very proactive, ¡°Hang on, I¡¯ll wash my hands and come up on stage.¡± Although his official appointment only started next month, since he was officially on duty now, he had an obligation to act. After washing his hands and dressing up, Director Tan got on stage, ¡°Let me see.¡± Director Bai relinquished the spot of the chief surgeon, allowing Director Tan to take over. Indeed, extensive calluses were causing the original fracture surfaces to be indistinguishable, making putting the fragments back together difficult! ¡°Oh, for how long has this old fracture been?¡± ¡°Four weeks!¡± said Fatty, Director Bai¡¯s attending physician. If the fragments didn¡¯t mend well and traumatic arthritis occurred, the young patient would likely experience a lifetime of hip joint pain. Most doctors wish to perform their surgeries perfectly. However, the reality was that it was often difficult to do so. Bone cutter! said Tan Boyun. Once he had the bone cutter, he delicately started to chisel away bit by bit, softly touching the bone callus with a vascular clamp after chiseling a portion, gently pressing it. The bone callus was different from original bone shards and needed to be distinctly differentiated. For example, the hardness differs when touched with a vascular clamp. As the bits of bone fragments were removed one by one, they were attended to and all remaining calluses removed, so as to reveal the original shape of the bone shards. The fragments fit together perfectly like a freshly fractured bone. There were neither steps nor fissures. ¡°You can continue now, call me if there is an issue.¡± Without any intention to continue, Tan Boyun gave his directions. The crucial steps were complete and it was unnecessary to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. He didn¡¯t even ask for Director Bai¡¯s opinion; he simply took off his surgical gown and gloves, threw them into the collection bucket, and reminded,¡±You don¡¯t need to attend to the bone fragments anymore. Over-attendance will result in gaps. I¡¯ve repositioned them well, you can proceed with the fixation.¡± Having said that, he left for the operating rooms of Director Ouyang and Director Ding. ¡°Tan Boyun¡¯s reputation is well-earned!¡± Fatty commented. Director Bai gave him a cold glance. Fatty responded with a wide grin, ¡°Still, no one can beat you, Director.¡± Yang Ping said her goodbyes to Song Zimo, informing him she would be resting in the resting room and to call her if there were difficulties. Arriving at the rest area, he laid down on the long bench, entered the system, and found the page on sports medicine surgery training gleaming faintly with golden light, finally unlocked. Most sports medicine surgeries are conducted with an arthroscope, such as the suturing of the meniscus in the knee and the reconstruction of the cruciate ligament. The arthroscope is a type of endoscope, belonging to minimally invasive surgery. It doesn¡¯t require incisions, and with a few small holes, the size of chopsticks, the surgery is done. Compared with traditional surgery, learning endoscopic surgery is more difficult and the learning curve is longer. He was always an assistant before, holding the mirror and watching others perform arthroscopy surgery, eager to try but never got the chance, not even the chance to perform a simple arthroscopic examination. Now he can learn arthroscopic surgery in the system space, which is exceedingly exciting. Just like a child yearning for a beloved toy, dreaming about it day and night, one day finally being granted their wish. There are still thirty thousand points accumulated from tasks, and several thousand points gathered from daily activities. Altogether, they sum up to over thirty thousand points, which is currently quite a lot. Yang Ping reviewed the surgical training items one by one, selecting a three-month basic arthroscopy training package, costing six thousand points, neither expensive nor cheap. Entering the system space, Yang Ping began the arthroscopy training. The operation of the arthroscope involves separating the hand and the eye, technically referred to as triangulation. Normally, when we work, the hand and eye are in sync. The eye directly observes the target, acquiring information that is sent to the brain, and then the brain directs the hand to manipulate the target. This pathway is a physiological loop in humans: Target-Eye-Brain-Hand-Target, with the starting point and endpoint being the same, straightforward. However, with arthroscopy, this pathway is different. The eye sees the video; the video is transmitted to the brain; the brain issues instructions based on the information from the video, directing the hand to manipulate the target. Video-Eye-Brain-Hand-Target; the starting point and endpoint don¡¯t match; it contradicts the human physiological loop. The human body cannot adapt to this; it must be learned. This requires repeated and arduous training to become proficient. With two hands, one holds the camera lens, the other holds the instrument. Both are inserted into the joint through two small holes. The lens records what is happening inside the joint, transmitting it in real-time to the screen, while the instrument is responsible for manipulating the surgical target. The lens has a field of view, which it can see within; but outside this field, it can¡¯t see. The instrument must first enter this field. Only after entering the field, will it be captured by the camera, displayed on the screen and ready for subsequent actions. Though the process seems simple, it is very difficult to operate. Many beginners learning arthroscopy take a long time to guide the instrument into the field of view. Once it moves out of sight, they need another long period of time to adjust. Because the lens and the instrument are inside the joint cavity, the screen only displays what the lens captures, not the lens itself. Introducing the instrument into the lens¡¯s field of view is a blind operation, relying entirely on spatial perceptions. First, practice on the knee joint, then the shoulder joint. Once proficient with these two, the other joints will be easy. Although practicing in the system does not consume time or energy, the psychological experience of the passage of time remains consistent with reality. Undergoing three months of continuous training is something not everyone can tolerate. But Yang Ping has a natural endurance, able to perform surgery in the system space nonstop, repeatedly training until he becomes incredibly skilled. In the afternoon, everyone finished their surgeries. Zhang Lin and Liang Fatty were hiding in the bathroom to smoke and got caught by Song Zimo. ¡°You two, there¡¯s a smoking room for that. Why must you hide in the toilet to smoke?¡± Song Zimo chastised. ¡°Smoking room? Seeing the words ¡®smoking room¡¯ on the door, it dulls the feeling. Smoking should be done slyly, hiding in the bathroom, that brings a sense of thrill. This is part of cigarette culture, you guys wouldn¡¯t understand.¡± Liang Fatty defended himself confidently, even involving ¡®cigarette culture¡¯. ¡°Did you check WeChat?¡± Zhang Lin extinguished his cigarette. The group sent a message, a meeting in the teaching room for all of the trauma orthopedics, no one is allowed to be absent. ¡°Big news! Definitely big news! The phrase ¡®no one is allowed to be absent¡¯ is not typically used unless there¡¯s major announcement,¡± Zhang Lin said. Chapter 89 - 0087: Great Matter Chapter 89: Chapter 0087: Great Matter Everyone, hurry up and change. Head back to the demonstration room of your department. The demonstration room is full of people. Usually, doctors and nurses have separate meetings, but now everyone is gathered together, and the room is not big enough. Regardless if you are sitting or standing, as long as you are in the room, it doesn¡¯t matter. Everyone is in a noisy uproar, guessing why they were suddenly summoned together. But after guessing for a while, no one could figure out the reason. Some wanted to ask Zhang Lin, but he was busy maintaining order at the meeting. Seeing that most of the people had arrived, Director Han went up to the podium: ¡°Is everyone here?¡± ¡°Be quick, scan the QR code and sign in!¡± Zhang Lin shouted while standing. On the electronic screen in front, a large QR code changes every second, making it impossible to capture and send to those who are lazy and didn¡¯t come. The screen continuously refreshed the names of those clocking in. Everyone who should have come, had come, unless they had to be on duty in the ward or if they couldn¡¯t make it back from the night shift. ¡°Quiet, quiet. Sorry for taking up your time. Now please let Director Zhao from the medical affairs department say a few words.¡± Director Han was brief and got straight to the point. Immediately, everyone quieted down. Director Zhao walked onto the stage, waving his hand as a greeting to everyone. He stood firm, his hands on the podium, looked around the room, cleared his throat and said, ¡°Today, we suddenly gathered everyone here to discuss an important issue, a serious issue!¡± With a wave of his hand, Director Zhao directed a staff from the medical affairs office to project a medical record onto the electronic screen; it was the patient who had pulled out his catheter and fled without paying. ¡°Cui Erming, male, thirty-seven years old, suffered a chopping wound on the right wrist, causing right median nerve rupture¡ª¡± A long string of diagnoses. ¡°Are you all familiar with this patient? Doctor Guo and Dr. Lei should be. The patient fled after pulling out his catheter the morning after an emergency surgery, leaving behind his treatment fees. However, he¡¯s recently come back into the picture. Did he come back to pay? No. Did he bring a banner to show his appreciation? No! Look at this document I have!¡± Director Zhao shook the document in his hand: ¡°This is an unreported draft, a draft by a certain reporter. What does it say? It accuses our hospital of forcefully removing Cui Erming¡¯s catheter by a nurse and driving him away just because he couldn¡¯t pay his medical expenses. It¡¯s a good thing this hasn¡¯t been published, or we would all be infamous. This would be even worse than the scandal in the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital two years ago. Do you remember that incident?¡± Director Zhao paused, allowing everyone to recall the incident. Who can forget it? A patient, a colostomy patient, underwent regular treatment, but a news report claimed that the doctor had forgotten to transfer the intestines back into the abdomen after surgery, resulting in a hole. At the time, the scandal was huge, and the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital¡¯s reputation was severely tarnished. The reporter became famous overnight, and the doctor involved was nearly driven mad. We were all sickened by the anger. In the end, it was all false news! Director Ouyang, Dr. Jin, President Guo, and Dr. Lei were all sitting together, with Director Ouyang and Dr. Jin looking very grim. President Guo and Dr. Lei were a bit on edge. When it seemed that everyone had recalled the incident, Director Zhao continued: ¡°Look, just look at this headline: Horrible! Patient can¡¯t pay hospital fees, nurse forcibly removes urinary catheter! They are fabricating malicious rumors so shamelessly!¡± The audience erupted in anger, boiling mad by the false accusations. The way this article was written was infuriating! Almost everyone in the department knew the details of the incident. The patient had an emergency admission and didn¡¯t pay even a single cent. President Guo and Xiao Lei performed the surgery, and the next morning, the patient pulled out his catheter and ran away, forcing President Guo and Xiao Lei to eat instant noodles for a month. Now, the story has been distorted that a nurse pulled out his catheter and drove him out of the hospital. ¡°Quiet, quiet!¡± Director Han immediately quelled the crowd. Director Zhao continued: ¡°Let me ask everyone, have any reporters interviewed you? No! Can news be fabricated by imagination, turning into fantasy novels?¡± Director Zhao¡¯s impressive oratory skills showed as he abruptly shifted gears: ¡°Originally, the hospital wanted to keep this incident confidential and handle it down low. However, Dean Xia said that the more we keep it under wraps, the more likely problems will arise. We should inform everyone, establish a collective strategy, and fight against these unhealthy tendencies together. After saying so much, what is the implied meaning? First, don¡¯t be afraid. The medical service department and the nursing department have conducted investigations at the time, the records are on file, and we have both eyewitnesses and material evidences, especially the doctors and nurses involved in the incident. You shouldn¡¯t have any mental burdens. Xiao Lei, President Guo, please stand up.¡± The Director of the Medical Affairs Department addressed him as President Guo, causing the crowd to burst into laughter. President Guo and Xiao Lei stood up. Director Zhao said, ¡°Hold your heads high, you haven¡¯t done anything wrong, so there is nothing to fear.¡± President Guo and Xiao Lei seemed much more relaxed, their eyes even looked more lively. ¡°Secondly, everyone should be alert about this matter. Any information about this patient should not be gossip freely, nor should it be spread randomly. If anyone notices any negative news about our hospital, especially online, it must be reported to the PR department promptly. If friends and family ask about this event, it¡¯s everyone¡¯s responsibility to clarify and resist ill-intended rumors. Third, Dean Xia wanted me to pass on a message, that as long as he, Xia Changjiang, no, Dean Xia, as long as Dean Xia is still standing, he will not let any innocent medical staff get injured if anything like the incident at the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital two years ago happens. Fourth, our hospital will fight against things like these to the very end, without fear of the effort and consumption involved. That¡¯s what our legal affairs department is for!¡± Director Zhao always had plenty to say, once he started, he couldn¡¯t stop. The last few sentences brought applause from everyone. Dean Xia was truly a man of great courage. Truth be told, even though the draft wasn¡¯t sent out, there was no guarantee it wouldn¡¯t be published outside of G City, or on the internet. Such fake news can put enormous pressure on the physicians involved, not to mention being subjected to relentless scrutiny. Some hospitals, under pressure, might rush to penalize the physicians first, without a comprehensive investigation. The pressure President Guo and Dr. Lei were under can only be imagined, but hearing Director Zhao¡¯s reassuring words, they began to relax, and smiles finally appeared on their faces. There was a certain reporter, and everyone knew who it was. The room began to buzz with conversation. ¡°How could they make this public when the draft hasn¡¯t been published yet? Isn¡¯t that just creating trouble?¡± Director Bai whispered. Fatty echoed, ¡°Yeah, the draft wasn¡¯t sent, so this matter should have just been dropped. Going public with it will only make it worse.¡± It wasn¡¯t just Director Bai and Fatty who were confused, everyone was. Director Ouyang said, ¡°It¡¯s not that simple. When has Dean Xia ever been thoughtless?¡± Dr. Jin said, ¡°Yeah, it must have been ordered by Dean Xia, or else how would Old Zhao dare to go public with it?¡± This was a bit unconventional. If it was any other hospital, they would surely handle it quietly. Even though the situation was suppressed, it was still being brought up for discussion. Tan Boyun and Tian Yuan sat together. Tan Boyun said, ¡°Dean Xia really is Dean Xia. How did this draft get to the hospital before it was even published?¡± Tian Yuan said, ¡°Dean Xia has extensive connections. Even though it was suppressed here in G City, there¡¯s no guarantee it won¡¯t be posted on another platform or online. It¡¯s not the thief who steals that you should be afraid of, but the thief who keeps you in mind.¡± Tan Boyun said, ¡°Dean Xia is making it clear to the thief: Don¡¯t mess with me, or I¡¯ll resist to death, I knew you walked around the roof of my house long ago.¡± ¡°Bullies always pick on the weak. People like this are just trying to gain fame. They would definitely weigh the pros and cons before taking action, upon encountering a tough nut like Dean Xia, they might change targets,¡± Tian Yuan said. As expected, the hospital took an unconventional path, even holding a hospital-wide meeting the next day. The content was similar to the one in the Orthopedics Department; only the speaker was replaced by Dean Xia. Dean Xia was very impassioned, his voice loud and his gestures vivid. He concluded with a slam of his palm on the podium, ¡°To resist this kind of harmful tendency, I, Xia Changjiang, am willing to stake all my bones. Sanbo isn¡¯t afraid of a ghost!¡± He was possibly in his fifties, not old, he was even very energetic while playing basketball. He bumped into many others, still aiming for a basket. If not for giving face, he would have almost been penalized by the referee. The next day, many websites and media outlets posted the hospital¡¯s official statement. It began with a detailed introduction to the incident of Cui Erming, followed by a brief introduction to the rumors, a severe condemnation of those creating malicious rumors, and stated that the hospital had notified the police about this matter and wouldn¡¯t support harmful tendencies, while aiming to restore the society¡¯s tranquil atmosphere. Right after, G City TV Station also interviewed Cui Erming. Cui Erming seemed terrified and his speech was a little incoherent. He claimed he had absolutely no knowledge of any interview, and knew nothing about these rumors. As things became apparent, this high-level maneuver dazzled everyone. People finally understand that if this article had been published, regardless of where, it seemingly would¡¯ve lost its value, and could only serve to harm itself further. Dean Xia truly is Dean Xia. Everyone was grateful to have such a great dean. Chapter 90 - 0088: Rural Medical Team Chapter 90: Chapter 0088: Rural Medical Team The issue with the catheter removal was resolved, eliminating a potential problem. Yang Ping saw the business card still in his white gown, took it out, and pondered for a moment before tossing it into a drawer full of business cards. Tan Boyun adapted to his new environment quickly. Originally, Director Han planned for him to familiarize himself with the surroundings before officially taking up his position a month later. However, he couldn¡¯t wait and began implementing reforms within a few days of starting work, effectively already assuming his role. Firstly, he assembled all physicians, from the attending physician down, and dedicated at least five hours per week to training in microsurgery. If this wasn¡¯t met during the week, it would be made up on Saturday or Sunday, with weekly assessments of their training progress. He argued that every one of them in micro trauma orthopedics must master microsurgery and be capable of carrying out digit replantation. According to the Trauma Emergency Center process set by Director Han, he incorporated the entire micro trauma orthopedics into the Trauma Emergency Center system: whichever group was on duty would handle the surgeries from the Trauma Emergency Center. Reportedly, he checked on the critical patients every morning and evening, not just those in micro trauma orthopedics but also those in the Trauma ICU. He rushed over several times late at night to guide surgeries. This enthusiasm was exactly what Director Han wanted. Just as Tan Boyun emulated Director Han by leading a team himself, consisting of himself, Dr. Zhong, and several standardized training students, the team quickly took shape. Director Han¡¯s patients were all handed over to them, and he left micro trauma orthopedics ahead of time. The transition was incredibly smooth. The Orthopedics department in the Overseas Chinese Building was named the Comprehensive Orthopedics, and the ward was ready, just waiting to come into operation. The head nurse for Comprehensive Orthopedics was also chosen: Cai Qiaojun. She was a specialist orthopedic nurse who had been trained and selected in Nandu Province and had spent a year honing her top-notch skills at Hong Kong¡¯s Queen Mary Hospital. To bolster the new department, Yao Ling handpicked staff based on looks, height, professional level, and other stringent conditions. After numerous rounds of tests and selections, a nursing team was formed. The equipment for the Orthopedic Research Institute had also arrived and was being urgently fine-tuned. Director Han planned to hold the inauguration ceremony for the Orthopedic Research Institute and Comprehensive Orthopedics on the same day, to celebrate both things at once. Tian Yuan was planning an academic conference for Tan Boyun, while Song Zimo was training Zhang Lin Xiaowu in microsurgery and arthroscopy. Director Han led Yang Ping on a tour of the Orthopedic Research Institute before inspecting the Overseas Chinese Building, making sure nothing was missing. After a few rounds, they found no issues. The two sat down in the new Director¡¯s office of Comprehensive Orthopedics, which was filled with Director Han¡¯s things. The office was now reserved for Tan Boyun. As soon as they sat down, they didn¡¯t forget to have some hot tea. ¡°Sit!¡± Director Han called. ¡°Thank you!¡± Yang Ping received the teacup with both hands and sat down. The director¡¯s office here was much more grand, befitting the Overseas Chinese Building. It was spacious and light, with walls painted with diatom mud, reputedly eco-friendly. ¡°Nice tea!¡± This almost became a standard opening remark. After taking a sip of tea, Director Han gazed at the eight-horse painting on the opposite wall. His fingers tapped rhythmically on the table, revealing good spirits. He had been too busy recently, neglecting the younger staff. It wasn¡¯t until he saw Yang Ping performing pelvic surgery that he suddenly remembered to offer more support to the younger generation. ¡°In Comprehensive Orthopedics, you won¡¯t just perform trauma orthopedic surgeries anymore. You¡¯ll perform all kinds of orthopedic surgeries, which is better. Ideally, you shouldn¡¯t specialize too soon at this stage in your career. You should perform a full range of surgeries before specializing in a subfield as a senior assistant. I don¡¯t advocate specializing too early. Have you ever performed arthroscopic surgery before? The lab in Trauma Orthopedics is available for everyone in Orthopedics. Practice more when you have time.¡± ¡°I practice there quite often actually,¡± Yang Ping replied. ¡°You¡¯re young, you can learn anything quickly.¡± Director Han encouraged. ¡°How¡¯s your Doctoral admission test preparation going? Do you want to secure a spot without taking the test?¡± Director Han asked with concern, considering it a big deal. For Yang Ping, this was also a big thing. Although it wasn¡¯t all about the degree, in this day and age, education was crucial. A degree symbolized that you have received better professional education. Looking at the Nobel Prize winners, most of them hold doctoral degrees. Lacking opportunity is one thing, but now an opportunity is staring at him. He had to cherish it and strive for it. ¡°No need for reserving a spot, I should be able to clear the cut-off. I¡¯m confident.¡± Yang Ping expressed. As long as there was no big issue, meaning there was no issue at all, Director Han felt relieved. ¡°You¡¯ll have to register at the end of this year, exams start in March next year. It¡¯s a tight schedule. You can only succeed, failure is not an option.¡± Director Han stated. Yang Ping assured: ¡°Absolutely!¡± Director Han leaned back in his chair and enjoyed sharing: ¡°After the Spring Festival next year, we¡¯re sending a team to Tokyo University¡¯s affiliated Hospital for exchange learning. This is a rare opportunity. The list was determined before you came, but I communicated with the Japanese side to add one more spot. The team will be led by Tian Yuan. You, Song Zimo, Tang Fei, and Xiao Su from the operation room will go. Xiao Su is outstanding, we need to cultivate her so she can further train a bunch of specialized orthopedic nurses.¡± Going to Japan was a good opportunity. Even though the system provided a training space, the exposure and concepts were only attainable through interaction. A doctor isn¡¯t just a craftsman. ¡°Japanese people have a strong craftsmanship spirit, and their surgical skills are world-class, even better than the United States and Germany. Never be narrow-minded, acknowledging others¡¯ superiority is true confidence. Learn from others and then surpass them. Shutting yourself away and claiming to be the best won¡¯t do. I suggest you catch up on Japanese. You can exchange learning experiences with Song Zimo and Tian Yuan. I have many Japanese learning books, you can borrow some.¡± Director Han patiently guided. ¡°Director, do you speak Japanese?¡± Yang Ping had never heard him speak it before. Director Han replied: ¡°I spent a year each in Japan, the United States, and Germany when I was young. I naturally understand some Japanese, I just haven¡¯t used it for a long time.¡± His English was pretty solid, slightly intensifying his effort might do the trick. But Japanese was entirely new to him. Yet, it was not difficult if he diligently put in the work. When he didn¡¯t have the system, he was confident about learning anything. Let alone now he had the system to back him up. It certainly wasn¡¯t a problem as long as he put in sufficient effort, many things would become simple then. ¡°Also, in a few days, the hospital will organize a rural medical assistance event. Everyone was busy previously and I hadn¡¯t assigned anyone. Now that Tan Boyun has taken over orthopedic trauma, you guys don¡¯t need to be on duty, so I signed you up for it. Think of it as a vacation and take a rest. You have been working hard recently. It¡¯s in Nanqiao County, an ethnic minority county not far from Shipo County. You will be carrying out free clinics and guiding local hospital surgeries for two weeks. At that time, Director Miao will be your guide. Oh right, Xiao Su from the operating room will also go.¡± Director Han said. What does he mean? Did Director Han know about his slight fondness toward Xiao Su? Why did he mention Xiao Su? It must¡¯ve been loose-lipped Zhang Lin who spread the word. The two chatted for a long time. Director Zhuang and Director Kong learned Director Han was in the Comprehensive Orthopedics Department and immediately went down to converse with him. Yang Ping found an excuse to leave. After leaving Director Han¡¯s office, Yang Ping felt invigorated. Not because of the Japan trip, but because of the rural medical aid team. If there¡¯s nothing else, he could check out the Trauma Orthopedics Laboratory. But there were too many people and no extra equipment, so he might as well go home. Once home, he took out some vegetables from the fridge, cooked rice, and stir-fried a dish of farmer¡¯s small stir-fried meat. He ate to his heart¡¯s content. His phone hadn¡¯t rung all day, so quiet, making him feel empty inside. Yang Ping entered the system space again and read books for several months. Actually, residing in the system space for a prolonged time required formidable willpower. Chapter 91 - 0089: The Failed DIY Chapter 91: Chapter 0089: The Failed DIY No emergencies, a light burden. Nowadays, following Director Han¡¯s orders, he didn¡¯t need to join the hand-off meetings in the traumatic orthopedics department. He could rest and recuperate, waiting for instructions. Yang Ping stayed at home, researching online all day, listing books on sports medicine and arthroscopy. He focused on studying sports medicine and arthroscopy during this period. He could read in the system space, but reading required consuming points. By listing the required books in advance and finding them in the system space, he could save points. In the afternoon, as soon as he had arranged all the material, Zhang Lin called him. A child of a pediatric colleague¡¯s friend had a fracture at the femur condyles and wanted to see if he could help in setting the bone. Yang Ping asked Zhang Lin to bring the patient to the orthopedic outpatient clinic and find a free consultation room, he would get there immediately. The outpatient building was a separate structure, positioned to the front right of the Gemini Towers. Opposite it was the emergency building on the left. Between the two eight-story buildings was a small square, the hospital¡¯s evacuation assembly point. In the orthopedic outpatient clinic, most of the consultation rooms were fixed, but some backup rooms weren¡¯t assigned to anyone in particular and were likely vacant. Zhang Lin had a nurse open a consultation room, and he was already waiting there with the patient. Pediatrics, his girlfriend¡¯s department, naturally he had to treat them well, so he personally escorted the patient. The patient was a relation of Cai Junsheng, one of the infamous Sanbo studs, this was the first time Yang Ping had met him in person. He wasn¡¯t a sloppy man, but rather handsome and trendy. As soon as Yang Ping entered the consultation room, he shook hands with Cai Junsheng. Looking at the X-ray on the viewing screen, the fracture in the condyles of the right femur was misaligned and looked terrible. ¡°How did this happen?¡± Yang Ping asked the family. The child¡¯s father¡¯s face flushed red and stammered, ¡°This morning he fell off the horizontal bar, he landed on this side.¡± The father pointed to the elbow joint. That didn¡¯t sound right. Based on Yang Ping¡¯s experience in manually setting bones, he had a clear understanding of the mechanism of injury and its results. He asked the family, ¡°When the injury happened, did you apply any massage or pressure to the injured area?¡± This type of fracture displacement typically happened as a result of a secondary injury. When a child is injured, the biggest mistake parents make during initial treatment: first, they spray some topical medicine, then give it a vigorous massage, with the intention of dissipating the blood from the bruise. This kind of treatment would take a minor injury and make it severe. Patients often hide their medical history for various reasons, so it was crucial to ask clearly, only then would it be better for the treatment. ¡°No, we came straight here after getting an X-ray,¡± the child¡¯s father said. The child¡¯s mother seemed unhappy, as if she had something to say, but remained quiet. The child spoke up, ¡°But my mum and dad helped me pull it for a long time, it hurt so much.¡± Yang Ping, Zhang Lin, and Cai Junsheng were all shocked. Zhang Lin said, ¡°Quick, tell us what happened. Explain it clearly, otherwise Doctor Yang will have to operate soon, and there won¡¯t be time to set the bone.¡± The mother, unable to hold back, spilled the whole story. It turned out that the father was an avid DIY enthusiast. When the child fell, he took him to the hospital. After an X-ray, the doctor said there was a fracture and displacement. The doctor suggested setting it manually and stabilizing it with percutaneous pins, a minimally invasive surgery. This meant anesthetized adjustment in the operating theatre, the skin would be pierced by a few slim steel pins to stabilize the fracture, which would be removed four weeks later. Just from a little fall, and now needing surgery, and inserting pins, the father thought the doctor was exaggerating the situation. He immediately made a wise decision, they would go home first and see. After searching around online and watching videos, he felt the treatment was very simple, just pull a little, then flex the elbow joint. It was so simple, even easier than fixing a television. He decided to set the bone himself. He could use hard cardboard for fixation and buy a brace for the elbow joint online, waiting for it to be delivered. All this cost less than a hundred. But he couldn¡¯t pull it by himself. According to the video, at least two people were necessary. So he asked the mother for help but she was reluctant. The father reassured her, ¡°It¡¯s simple, I¡¯ve learned how to do it, don¡¯t worry, just pull a little,¡± then he threatened her a little, ¡°If we go to the hospital, it would definitely require surgery.¡± The mother, with her soft heart, agreed to help, and they pulled so hard the child cried. After pulling, they used cardboard for fixation, then confidently felt the spot and announced, ¡°It¡¯s done.¡± The mother was unsure and insisted on going to the hospital to get another X-ray. When they got to the hospital, they headed straight to Emergency. The father told the doctor, ¡°Doctor, I want an X-ray, the right elbow joint, just an X-ray, nothing else.¡± The doctor was puzzled, ¡°Are you also a doctor?¡± The child¡¯s father just grunted. When the X-ray came out, it was shocking¡ªthe fracture displacement had increased several times. Even a layman could tell that it was a joint before, but now it was completely disassembled, in a complete mess. The child¡¯s father¡¯s hands were shaking¡ªhe¡¯d messed up! At home, he managed all the repairs himself when the refrigerator or TV broke after the warranty period¨Cthere were even times when all the parts were scattered, and he could call the manufacturer to clean up the mess. There was no manufacturer to call this time. The mother looked at her husband¡¯s pale face, she knew something had gone wrong. She compared the two X-rays to two reports and said, ¡°The displacement is significantly worse than before.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve broken it. Were you playing around with our son?¡± After scolding him profusely and causing a scene with tears, punches, and kicks, the child¡¯s father took all the blame and continued to call his friends for help. After many turns and turns, he found Cai Junsheng. There were instances of people doing much more dangerous things than this at home, like watching surgical videos online and circumcising themselves, then rushing to the emergency room with blood-soaked pants because of the wounds. Ignorance is truly bliss! ¡°You think flying a plane is as simple as pressing a few buttons?¡± Zhang Lin said bluntly. The child¡¯s mother pleaded anxiously, ¡°Doctor, please find a solution.¡± ¡°We need to reposition it under anesthesia, use percutaneous pinning instead of surgery. This type of fracture cannot be fixed with a cast, we have to use pins. The ends of the pins will be left outside and removed in about four weeks.¡± Yang Ping explained. A standard procedure for common fractures, though the father had made the repositioning much more difficult, but this wasn¡¯t a problem for Yang Ping. ¡°Great! Doctor, I¡¯ll sign the paperwork. Please arrange the surgery as soon as possible.¡± The child¡¯s mother said decisively. ¡°Do you want to perform it in the outpatient operating room? But we don¡¯t have a C-arm X-ray machine there.¡± Zhang Lin said. Yang Ping assured him, ¡°We don¡¯t need a C-arm X-ray machine. A drill and Kirschner wires will do.¡± After so much practice in repositioning, he could tell what was needed by touch. They signed the form to prepare for surgery. The outpatient building had its own operating room, usually for minor surgeries like ganglion cysts for orthopedics, or abortions for gynecology. The surgery itself was simple. The anesthesiologist did nerve blocking, then disinfected and laid out the sheets. The standard procedure was followed to reposition the bones, using two wires on the radial side and one on the ulnar side, and the three Kirschner wires were crossed for fixation. All the while, the child¡¯s dad was being constantly scolded by his wife. His head hung low, unable to lift it up from the shame. His treasured image of a high IQ technical man, built up over the years of DIY, had crumbled to the ground. ¡°You big idiot¨C¡± The child¡¯s mom concluded with a vicious scolding. The child¡¯s father didn¡¯t dare to retort even a word. Sweat was dripping from his forehead as he let his head hang low. After around ten minutes, the surgery was completed. The kid was pushed out and sent to radiology for X-ray. The fracture was perfectly repositioned and the Kirschner wires were in good shape. The parents were instructed to let the child rest in the outpatient department for around fifteen minutes and could then go home. They were advised to return for a check-up after a week, and to not move it around at home excessively. If there were any issues, they should promptly return to the hospital. After they were given the instructions, the child¡¯s parents expressed their immense gratitude. Cai Junsheng also showed his gratitude and Zhang Lin was pleased. Cai Junsheng thanked Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin replied, ¡°No need to be polite. We¡¯re all on the same side.¡± Yang Ping used his free afternoon time to borrow a manual for the arthroscope from the equipment department and then went to the operating room to study the arthroscope. There was a spare one in the storage room. He studied the function of each button and each connection on the arthroscope carefully, using the manual as a reference. He could accurately recall any detail of the equipment even with his eyes closed. Chapter 92 - 0090: Encounters Chapter 92: Chapter 0090: Encounters In these few days of rest, Yang Ping dedicated all his time to studying arthroscopy and sports medicine. Just as he was about to go to bed and put his cellphone on the pillow, a message popped up in a WeChat group, the one for Nanqiao¡¯s village medical team. A group was set up a few days ago for this village medical team, and Yang Ping was added to it. ¡°Friendly reminder again: gather at the number one square of the hospital tomorrow at 8 o¡¯clock in the morning, we will not wait for latecomers!¡± The announcement was made by Zhang Lin, this medical team was led by Director Tian, who entrusted him and Little Five to be in charge of organization and communication. The number one square was the small plaza between the emergency building and the outpatient building. The hospital¡¯s village medical team operated in batches as a charity event, providing free medical treatments and surgeries for disadvantaged patients in mountainous areas and helping grassroots hospitals improve their medical skills. This time, staff from the orthopedics department, obstetrics and gynecology department, urological surgery department, along with Song Zimo, Tang Fei, Yang Ping, Su Yixuan, Little Five, Zhang Lin, the anesthesiologist Liang Fatty, and another nurse from the operating room were involved. Including the standardized training students and interns from the Obstetrics and Gynecology and Urology departments, there were dozens of people in total. The next day, at 7:45 a.m., a coach with fifty-five seats was waiting in the number one square. Now, it was past 8 o¡¯clock, and some people still hadn¡¯t arrived. Su Yixuan arrived early to wait. Seeing Yang Ping, she waved and greeted him. She was carrying a sports bag, dressed in white and light purple sportswear, and her hair was tied into a ponytail. Yang Ping was reminded of the first time he saw her¡ªit was the same look. Zhang Lin was standing at the bus door, counting the straggling people one by one. Little Five was holding a notebook in his hand, using it to call and urge each person one by one. Some people were carrying bags, some had steamed buns in their mouth, and others were running while fixing their hair. ¡°Take roll call!¡± Director Tian told Zhang Lin. ¡°Roll call now, those who are called, raise your hand and respond! Liang Jing, Ma Xiaohua, Su Yixuan ¨C Orthopedic, Operating Room, Urological Surgery are all here. Why are there so many missing from the obstetrics and gynecology department? Little Five, hurry them up.¡± Zhang Lin looked and saw that all those who were missing were from obstetrics and gynecology. ¡°A group of women getting ready to go out, there¡¯s no way they can be efficient.¡± Liang Fatty took out a cigarette, about to light it. ¡°Fatty, give me some face, don¡¯t smoke here. If you want to smoke, go over there.¡± Zhang Lin hastily stopped him. With no choice, Fatty had to walk a little further, to the downwind area, squat down, light up his cigarette, and begin smoking. Once he gets on the bus, smoking was not allowed, so he had to get in a few puffs to ease his craving for nicotine. One after another, a few more people from the obstetrics and gynecology department arrived. One of them was rummaging through her bag, claiming she had forgotten her lipstick and needed to go back and get it. Zhang Lin was so angry that smoke was practically coming out of his ears: ¡°Sister! Hurry up, we agreed that we¡¯d leave at eight o¡¯clock, now it¡¯s already half past eight, we need to get there in time for lunch.¡± Another late arrival, in high heels, hopped over with a large suitcase. ¡°It¡¯s mountainous terrain, Sister, we are going to the countryside, not shopping, didn¡¯t it say to wear sneakers, not high heels?¡± Zhang Lin was at a loss. ¡°There are sneakers in the suitcase!¡± This beauty dismissed the issue, took out her mirror, touched up her make-up, and began heading to the bus. ¡°Luggage here, with such a large suitcase, where will we find space to fit it on the bus later?¡± Liang Fatty had finished his cigarette and was standing by the luggage compartment of the bus, helping to arrange the luggage. The beauty handed her suitcase to Liang Fatty, and started heading toward the bus again. ¡°Don¡¯t get on yet, line up for roll call, get on when your name is called. There is a seating arrangement, it¡¯s not a free-for-all.¡± Zhang Lin stopped her. ¡°Isn¡¯t this first-come, first-served seating? There¡¯s an arrangement? It¡¯s not like we¡¯re on a plane. I get carsick, I need to be by the window.¡± The beauty refused to comply. ¡°You can switch with your acquaintances later, but for now, listen to the arrangement. We need to keep the center of gravity of the bus steady on the highway, for people with body types like Fatty, how could they all sit on one side? Don¡¯t you understand science! Everyone, remember, listen for your name, who gets which seat number, sit in that seat, don¡¯t sit randomly, everyone needs to show their quality.¡± Zhang Lin shouted with his hoarse voice. The last person finally showed up, holding a cup of soy milk, drinking while rushing over. Those watching were on edge, afraid she would choke. ¡°Everyone¡¯s here, everyone¡¯s here, listen for roll call. Chen Xiaoqiao, Zhou Can¨C3, 4, get on the bus!¨CSong Zimo, Tang Fei, 13, 14, get on the bus, ¨CYang Ping, Su Yixuan, 17, 18, get on the bus. Once again, I would like to emphasize discipline, do not sit randomly, safety comes first. If you sit in the wrong spot, I will find out, and I will make sure you get back to your original seat.¡± Zhang Lin began calling out names, arranging for everyone to board the bus. Finding it quite difficult to gather everyone, Little Five and Zhang Lin each counted the number of people on the bus one more time to make sure no one was missing before the bus could finally depart. Su Yixuan packed a lot of snacks in her bag. She took some out, put them in a small bag, and asked Yang Ping to put the bag on the luggage rack. He guessed that half of what was in her bag was snacks. After putting away the bag, Yang Ping sat down. It was his first time sitting so close to her, which made him a little excited. Xiao Su had a faint but heart-warming fragrance around her. From close up, he saw that her skin was fragile and beautiful, with a rosiness beneath the paleness. ¡°Help me hold these, I¡¯m going to rest a bit.¡± Xiao Su leaned back on the chair and closed her eyes. ¡°No cheating and eating, wait until I wake up to open them. I stayed up all night preparing lessons for the interns.¡± Xiao Su said with her eyes closed. Yang Ping felt sorry for her: ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me? I would have helped you with the PowerPoint.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been busy lately, Zhang Lin said you¡¯re studying for your doctoral examination.¡± Xiao Su said. ¡°You rest, I¡¯ll call you when we get to the service area.¡± Yang Ping saw that she was indeed a bit weary. Zhang Lin, this big blabbermouth, anything that comes to his mouth was known to the entire country. Yang Ping neatly stacked the snacks pack by pack, holding them in his hands. There were milk candies, ginger candies, chocolates and so on. Do all girls like snacks? He was also tired and wanted to rest, but he was afraid the snacks would fall, so he was half-asleep. Usually, in the hospital, where the lifestyle is routine, many people in the bus were chit-chatting due to the novelty of heading to the countryside. The journey, which was over four hours, required a halfway break to freshen up and use the restroom. The bus had covered about half the distance when it stopped at a service area. Yang Ping nudged Xiao Su: ¡°We¡¯re off. We¡¯re at the rest area.¡± Xiao Su rubbed her eyes: ¡°Let¡¯s go down. You carry the snacks and follow me, I won¡¯t let you down, I¡¯ll share half with you later.¡± Everyone alighted in order, with the colleagues from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology exhibiting a lively spirit, some touching up their makeup by the bus, others sharing laughs and chats. ¡°Director Zhu!¡± Tian Yuan spotted a familiar face as soon as she alighted, from the adjacent bus. Director Zhu, upon hearing his name, turned around and immediately shook hands with the caller, exchanging pleasantries. ¡°Are you on a tour?¡± Tian Yuan looked at his bus, which was surrounded by a group of people waving a flag that read ¡®life insurance¡¯. ¡°Director Zhu, what¡¯s this about?¡± Tian Yuan asked, somewhat puzzled. Director Zhu replied with a smile, ¡°I no longer work at the provincial hospital. I¡¯m working in an insurance company now, just got my actuarial certificate.¡± ¡°Impressive, Director Zhu. We¡¯re heading down to the countryside for medical assistance,¡± Tian Yuan explained. Someone was calling for Director Zhu to board his bus as it was about to leave. Director Tian said, ¡°Never mind. Carry on with your duties!¡± After Director Zhu¡¯s bus left, Director Tian said to Zhang Lin, who was next to her: ¡°That¡¯s Director Zhu from the provincial hospital, he¡¯s the one involved in the colon incident two years ago. Such a good person.¡± ¡°Is he the one that was slandered by the fake news?¡± Zhang Lin asked. ¡°Yes, he¡¯s not even forty, in the prime of his career, it¡¯s such a pity. He¡¯s deeply passionate about medical advances. He just said that he¡¯s left the provincial hospital and is now working at an insurance company, where he got his actuarial certificate,¡± Tian Yuan said as she looked in the direction where director Zhu¡¯s bus had gone. ¡°Being an actuary is impressive. It¡¯s said that they earn a million a year and it¡¯s hard to qualify. They¡¯re at the top of the pyramid in insurance companies,¡± Little Five said. ¡°Really? A talent like Director Zhu will always find a way to shine. As long as one does not give up on himself, he can still excel irrespective of the path chosen,¡± Tian Yuan opined. Some took turns to rest at the tables, with a few going to the restroom, a few getting a drink, some stretching their legs; others visiting the special product shops, while Liang Fatty pulled Zhang Lin aside for a smoke. Xiao Su had gone to the restroom. Yang Ping, holding the snacks, sat next to the leisure table and waited; it took several minutes before Xiao Su came out. After sitting down, she said, ¡°Help me unwrap the chocolate, we¡¯ll split it.¡± Yang Ping opened the chocolate wrapper to find individually wrapped small pieces of chocolate. Xiao Su started eating them with great relish, apparently unfazed by the prospect of gaining weight. Yang Ping was much more relaxed this time. She had a good chat with Xiao Su, who had diverse interests. Xiao Su had participated in the nationwide college sports meet and had won a silver medal in swimming. ¡°What sport do you like?¡± Xiao Su asked. ¡°Running!¡± This was a flawless answer; long-distance running, although he didn¡¯t participate in any college sports meet, he was deemed an unrivaled match at the campus sports meet. ¡°If there¡¯s a medical community sports meet in the city, you take the running events, I¡¯ll take the swimming ones, and together we can monopolize both the land and water events.¡± The two of them shared laughs and jokes, enjoyed a short break, and then continued on their journey. Perhaps due to fatigue, the chatting become sparse, and most people, in a drowsy state, nodded off in their chairs. Xiao Su was indeed very tired and dozed off again in her seat, with Yang Ping holding her snacks. After an unknown period of time, the bus gradually came to a halt with a long traffic jam up ahead. ¡°What happened!¡± Tian Yuan, who was sitting behind the driver, woke up as the bus stopped. ¡°There¡¯s a traffic jam. This road usually has no congestion, it¡¯s usually only during Spring Festival and National Day,¡± the driver answered. Her phone vibrated. Tian Yuan took it out. It was a call from Director Miao. This trip was to Nanqiao County, which was adjacent to Shipo. Director Han had mentioned to Director Miao about their trip, who was quite enthusiastic and insisted on making time to come to Nanqiao. He reasoned that their unfamiliarity with the place would necessitate his help to get settled. ¡°Professor Tian! Are you stuck in a traffic jam?¡± Director Miao¡¯s voice sounded anxious. ¡°How did you know? Our bus stopped just now.¡± Director Tian said. ¡°What a mess!¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Director Miao said: ¡°There has been an accident up ahead of you. A large truck loaded with wood rear-ended the car in front of it. One of the victims has been impaled by tree branches. He needs to be brought to our hospital. The ambulance is on its way, but it¡¯s too late to transfer him anywhere else. We lack experience in this and we need your assistance!¡± ¡°A chest and abdomen impalement injury? We can help, but we are stuck in traffic and can¡¯t get past,¡± Director Tian said, looking ahead. Clearing the traffic could take quite some time. An injury involving chest and abdomen impalement, especially by a tree branch, triggers a major rescue operation. Not only is the surgery complicated, but on-site rescue also requires very professional guidance. Otherwise, the patient will not even have a chance to make it to the hospital. We can manage supporting them, but how do we get there while stuck in traffic? Chapter 93 - 0091: A Storm is Brewing Chapter 93: Chapter 0091: A Storm is Brewing ¡°Send me your license plate number, along with a GPS location. Check if there is any road sign near you. If there is, take a picture of it and send it to me. We will contact the traffic police to find you.¡± Director Miao spoke urgently. ¡°Let me check!¡± Tian Yuan looked outside, there was a road sign ahead, ¡°500 meters ahead, Shipo exit.¡± Perfect. Tian Yuan quickly reported, ¡°We are 500 meters away from the Shipo exit!¡± ¡°Good, good, perfect. We will get the traffic police to dispatch a car to pick you up.¡± Director Miao¡¯s tone was excited. But the traffic police won¡¯t do, there were hardly any cars on the emergency lane, but some impatient drivers have begun using it, so now it is also blocked. However, it is possible to walk to the exit along the highway and find a car near the exit to go to Shipo People¡¯s Hospital. ¡°Director Miao, the emergency lane is blocked, traffic police¡¯s vehicle can¡¯t get through. We can walk to the Shipo highway exit and let the traffic police arrange a car near the exit to take us there, is that okay?¡± Tian Yuan made a suggestion to Director Miao based on the current situation, after all, Director Miao was not aware of the on-site conditions. ¡°Okay! Stay in touch.¡± After hanging up, Director Miao immediately reported to President Dong and sought help from the traffic police. Tian Yuan checked his phone¡¯s battery, it was quite full and he also had a power bank in his bag. It shouldn¡¯t be a problem. At critical moments, a phone was a strategic resource. He quickly stood up, held onto the seat, and announced loudly: ¡°There¡¯s been a traffic accident ahead. Shipo People¡¯s Hospital is asking for our help. They need us for an urgent rescue operation for a thoracoabdominal tree-penetrating injury. Anyone from orthopedics or the operating room should go. Director Wang of Urological Surgery, you pick two more individuals. We need three of you to assist, the rest will go to Nanqiao County after the traffic eases.¡± Upon hearing this, the people in the car immediately started stirring. Someone from Gynecology raised a hand: ¡°What about us? Director Tian, isn¡¯t this discrimination? In case the injured person was a pregnant woman, we can provide greater contributions and assess the surgery.¡± ¡°The patient right now has a thoracoabdominal penetrating injury. Look at this traffic jam, it¡¯s unbearably congested and we can¡¯t send too many people over with the present circumstances. We don¡¯t even know how to get these folks there yet. I¡¯d like you all to join too, but the people at Nanqiao County are waiting for us. All these beautiful ladies can represent the youthful and impressive image of our hospital by going to Nanqiao County.¡± Director Tian comforted them. The phone vibrated again. It was Director Miao: ¡°Professor Tian, we just received news that there are more than one casualties. The one with the thoracoabdominal penetrating injury is just the most severe one. There are a total of eight severely injured patients that need to be sent to our hospital.¡± ¡°Old Miao, currently we have fifty-four people in the car, all doctors and nurses. We can all go over to assist the emergency rescue.¡± Tian Yuan hurriedly replied. ¡°That¡¯s great, thanks for your hard work. Hurry over to the Shipo exit and wait, we have already called the traffic police to find you.¡± Director Miao sounded excited. ¡°We just got news, there are eight critically injured patients. Everyone will go!¡± Tian Yuan announced, causing the colleagues in Gynecology Department to immediately burst with excitement. Tian Yuan instructed the driver: ¡°We are all getting off to aid at Shipo People¡¯s Hospital. You can drive directly to Shipo People¡¯s Hospital after we get off. I will communicate with those at Nanqiao. Be careful.¡± ¡°Yes, you all take care too. I¡¯ll call you once I reach Shipo.¡± The driver replied. ¡°Everyone get off in an orderly fashion, don¡¯t crowd. Once you¡¯re off the bus, walk along the guardrail and be careful. Zhang Lin and Little Five, you two go first, lead the way.¡± Tian Yuan arranged. Zhang Lin and Little Five immediately got off the bus. From their observation, the cars behind also seemed to be stuck in traffic, so it should be safe. Although it was a traffic jam, they were still on the highway and safety came first. The fifty or so people all got off at once. The scale of the group attracted the attention of people nearby. Director Tian led everyone along the guardrail and moved forward. ¡°Give me your bag, I promise I won¡¯t steal your snacks. Be careful.¡± Yang Ping spoke to Xiao Su. Xiao Su took off her bag and handed it to Yang Ping: ¡°You be careful too.¡± The group arrived at the Shipo highway exit after a 500-meter walk. The exit ramp was already blocked. The cars near the ramp all wanted to exit to take a detour and ended up blocking the exit even more. The lines of cars in front and behind were so long that there was no end in sight, stretching into the unseen distance. Director Tian shielded his eyes from the sun as he surveyed the environment: ¡°Everyone, wait here. I¡¯m going to contact Director Miao. Be careful.¡± ¡°Fatty, your jacket is red on the inside, take it off and turn it inside out. We will use it to signal later.¡± Yang Ping reminded Fatty. Tian Yuan listened and thought it was a good idea: ¡°Fatty, hurry up. You¡¯re going to be our signal.¡± Fatty quickly took off his jacket, turned it inside out to present the red side, and held it up on a selfie stick passed to him by a colleague in Gynecology. ¡°Director Miao, we have gotten off the bus and are now at the exit of the Shipo highway ramp. Yes, that¡¯s right, we are here, with fifty-four people. Yes, we are holding up a red jacket. Good, we will wait here.¡± Tian Yuan called and told Director Miao about their location. ¡°The traffic police will come find us soon. Fatty, hold up the red jacket higher.¡± Director Tian said. He was very concerned about the injured, he didn¡¯t know what their condition was. Time was life, every second counted, more seconds meant more hope of survival. Finally, a traffic police officer wearing a fluorescent vest and holding a walkie-talkie appeared. He was also walking. He looked around as many people had gotten off their vehicles to get some air. Around the exit alone, there were several groups of people. Suddenly, he noticed the red jacket being waved around from a distance and quickly made his way through the gaps between cars. The traffic police officer¡¯s skin was deeply tanned, and his voice was hoarse. He waved over as he approached and said, ¡°Hello, are you Professor Tian from the provincial capital?¡± Tian Yuan quickly shook his hand: ¡°Yes, I¡¯m Tian Yuan. Shipo People¡¯s Hospital called for our urgent support.¡± ¡°Finally found you all. You¡¯ve had a tough journey, please come with me. After the ramp is the toll station; we have a car waiting for you beyond the toll station. Can I take your bags?¡± The traffic police officer was very genial, offering to carry his nearest female colleague¡¯s bag. Another traffic police officer also came over. He was younger. The first officer called to him: ¡°Quickly, help carry the bags.¡± The traffic jam made it hard to move, everyone had to squeeze through the gaps between cars. Having previously accompanied emergency vehicles to treat patients suffering from ruptured spleens and livers, Yang Ping was experienced in this. Luckily, the traffic was congested at the ramp junction. Everyone walked along the ramp and saw the Shipo Toll Station. All the cars on the ramp were blocked here, but it was noticeably more open after the toll station, at least all of them were moving slowly. Across the toll station¡¯s temporary parking area, a tour bus was waiting. ¡°That¡¯s the bus we¡¯ve arranged for you, to take you directly to Shipo People¡¯s Hospital. It¡¯ll be quick, you can get there in half an hour.¡± Director Tian led everyone to start running. Fatty, struggling a bit, followed behind. One of the female colleagues from the gynecology department, who wore high heels, forgot to take her sports shoes out of her suitcase. She chose to take off her heels and run in her socks. At this point, it was noticeably better than when they first set off. There was no need to maintain order, no one was dragging their pace, and everyone got on the bus according to their original seating arrangement, no one took the wrong seat. The colleague who ran in socks had a pained expression on her face, but didn¡¯t utter a sound and didn¡¯t fall behind. ¡°We are on the traffic police¡¯s car, we¡¯ll be there soon.¡± Tian Yuan kept in touch with Director Miao. At that moment, Director Miao was waiting at Shipo People¡¯s Hospital¡¯s Emergency Department, the ambulance had yet to arrive. ¡°Old Miao, there are a total of eight critically injured patients on the way. County Chief Wu will arrive shortly. How¡¯s it going, where is Professor Tian and his group?¡± President Dong was personally directing the operation in the Emergency Department, never putting down his phone. The Shipo People¡¯s Hospital was the most technically proficient in the area, thus it was impossible to send patients who were involved in such a large traffic accident nearby to or temporarily requisition staff from another place. Even the Regional Central Hospital was three hours away from here via highway, and its capability was not much different from Shipo¡¯s. Hence, all the pressure for emergency services was on Shipo People¡¯s Hospital. It had been a long time since Shipo handled such a large-scale incident. Director Miao and President Dong stood at the entrance of the Emergency Department, feeling the surge of energy they used to have when they were younger. The county government¡¯s Red Flag sedan skidded to a halt at the entrance of the Emergency Department. They didn¡¯t care about formalities or making an entrance anymore. County Chief Wu himself pushed the car door open and exited. It took at least two seconds before the secretary followed suit with his bag. ¡°County Chief Wu, all hospital medical staff is on standby!¡± President Dong greeted him. County Chief Wu firmly shook his hand: ¡°Dong Shuquan! Listen, this is a tough battle. We must focus all of our resources on winning it. Anyone who does not follow orders will be punished on the spot.¡± ¡°Emergency and outpatient services have all been suspended, patients have been redirected to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital.¡± President Dong led County Chief Wu inside. ¡°Good, focus the resources. How about the blood bank?¡± County Chief Wu asked. ¡°No problem.¡± ¡°Where is the medical team from the provincial capital now?¡± ¡°They¡¯re on the traffic police¡¯s vehicle, they¡¯ll arrive within half an hour. There are more than fifty people, including orthopedists, urologists, and gynecologists.¡± ¡°Excellent!¡± County Chief Wu¡¯s murky eyes sparkled radiantly. ¡°The minor injuries have been diverted to several friend counties that we have already contacted. The seriously injured will all be transferred here, you have the best skill and equipment. Stand your ground, you must hold on even if you can¡¯t.¡± County Chief Wu had climbed up from the grassroots level, he wasn¡¯t polished. The director¡¯s office of the Emergency Department became the temporary command centre. After that, black sedans one after another halted in front of the Emergency Department. Officials from the Health Bureau, the Road Transport Bureau, the Public Security Bureau, the Blood Bank all gathered, one department director after another. If a major traffic accident was mishandled, heads would roll. Rapid honking approached closer and closer. The first ambulance appeared at the entrance of the Emergency Department. Chapter 94 - 0092: Extremely Urgent Chapter 94: Chapter 0092: Extremely Urgent Director Miao, Director Wu from the Emergency Department and all the hand-picked doctors and nurses were lined up at the entrance of the emergency room waiting. The Emergency Department had also stopped receiving patients, with all patients being redirected to the Chinese medicine hospital. There were dedicated personnel and vehicles near the entrance to guide and transfer patients who came for emergency treatment. President Dong and County Chief Wu were waiting in the emergency hall, with various directors scattered around making phone calls, mobilizing resources they were in charge of, and fully cooperating with the rescue. County Chief Wu was very anxious and paced back and forth, asking several times: ¡°Where are the injured?¡± ¡°They¡¯re almost here. A police car was sent to clear the way and escort them to the hospital. They should be arriving soon,¡± explained the chief of public security. ¡°What about the medical team from the provincial city?¡± ¡°They¡¯re close too, probably about ten minutes away. A police car was sent to clear the way and escort them as well,¡± the public security director said. ¡°We have sufficient stock of all blood types and have already transported a lot to the hospital blood transfusion department. All our blood delivery vehicles are in place, and support from neighbouring counties is also on the way,¡± reported the blood bank. ¡°Emergency medication?¡± County Chief Wu asked with experience. ¡°All county hospitals are providing emergency rescue support. Each hospital has set up a hotline to receive personnel and medication allocation in real time. Neighbouring counties have also agreed to provide support at any time,¡± the director of health answered. ¡°Very good.¡± There seemed to be no further oversights, and County Chief Wu glanced at the emergency entrance from time to time. An ambulance followed by a police car with its siren blaring drove past the emergency entrance, the back door swung open and a stretcher was lifted out from the vehicle. The folding legs of the stretcher opened, converting it into a gurney. The gurney was covered in dark red blood, sticky and viscous. The person on it was also smeared with blood, lying on his side, curled up, his torn clothes soaked with blood. A wooden stake as thick as a large bowl pierced through the junction of his chest and abdomen, completely penetrating his body, entering from the front and exiting from the back. The stake was stained with a lot of blood, both ends of the stake were the result of being sawed off by rescuers. The scene was extremely bloody and terrifying. If it weren¡¯t for the doctors who were accustomed to seeing bloody scenes and life-or-death situations, anyone else would have been shocked and would never forget such a sight. Director Miao and Director Wu led doctors immediately to meet them, running alongside the gurney. The sound of the gurney grinding against the ground was urgent, as every second counted. County Chief Wu and President Dong also came over. When the directors saw the gurney carrying the patient being pushed in, they followed while making calls. President Dong, who came from a clinical background, had no issues; seeing this scene, County Chief Wu immediately placed his hand on his forehead, feeling a bout of dizziness. ¡°Help County Chief Wu to my office to rest,¡± President Dong told his secretary. County Chief Wu waved his hand: ¡°I¡¯m fine, I can hold on.¡± He then lowered his hand from his forehead. There was no time to waste. The gurney was pushed into the red zone of the Emergency Department. The management of the emergency department at Shipo People¡¯s Hospital was very standardized, with a clear division of red, yellow, and green zones. The red zone was responsible for first and second degree patients, that is, critically ill and seriously ill patients. The yellow zone was for patients with acute diseases, and the green zone was for non-acute patients. Such zoning was meant to prioritize and optimize the allocation of medical resources. Some doctors took over the patient condition from the ambulance medics, while other doctors and nurses changed the patient¡¯s fluids, checked his pulse, examined his urine output, drew blood for testing, attached a cuff for blood pressure testing, and connected the leads for heart monitoring. As the strongest hospital in the area, every doctor and nurse at Shipo People¡¯s Hospital was well-trained. They weren¡¯t flustered, surprised, or delayed, and cooperated proficiently with each other. ¡°Quick! Draw blood immediately and prepare for a transfusion, then send him directly to the operating room!¡± Director Miao ordered decisively. He had overseen many traffic accident cases and had more experience than the Director of the Emergency Department, but this shocking scene deeply affected him as well. ¡°I can¡¯t draw blood!¡± The nurse, after several attempts at venipuncture, had failed. The patient¡¯s blood pressure was too low, his veins were not full and had collapsed, so naturally, blood couldn¡¯t be drawn. Drawing blood directly from the intravenous infusion line could lead to some inaccurate test results due to the fluids that had just been administered. If venipuncture didn¡¯t work, then the vein had to be cut open! The nurse brought over a venous incision kit. The doctor put on sterile gloves and within two short minutes, a small incision was made in the skin over the patient¡¯s inner ankle where the great saphenous vein was located. The vein was exposed, pierced under direct vision, the needle secured, and the skin sutured. Blood was drawn for a cross-match transfusion. A middle-aged man, who had been following the gurney mixed among the crowd since leaving the ambulance and was not dressed in a white coat, suggested: ¡°Use pillows to fill the gap between the stakes and the gurney to reduce the downward pull of gravity.¡± Who was he? Everyone looked at him; he seemed to be a friend of the injured patient, but no one asked more questions. There was no time for that. They felt he was correct and everyone¡¯s experience with such a unique injury was inadequate, and some finer details were inevitably overlooked. Two pillows were immediately brought over. ¡°I¡¯ll do it!¡± The man was very skilled, gently stuffing the pillows in, lifting the stake slightly. This could reduce jostling during transit and also reduce the downward pull of gravity which could lead to pressure on the underlying tissues, causing the area above to bleed easily. ¡°Thank you!¡± The doctor from the ambulance who had been in charge of the scene shook hands with him. The rescue operation would not have been as professional without his guidance. ¡°It¡¯s nothing! I just know some first aid knowledge.¡± The man was very humble. Now that they had arrived at the hospital, what was left was surgery. The man took a seat on a plastic chair in the emergency department to rest instead of leaving, quietly observing if there was anything else he could help with. Everyone was busy and in a rush. There was a rescue happening, and no one cared who he was. The blood draw was complete! ¡°Take him to the operating room! Emergency surgery!¡± Director Miao ordered. The gurney stayed in the emergency red zone for only a few minutes, ¡°Quick! Quick! Quick!¡± The sound of the gurney clattering as it was hurriedly pushed to the operating room where the heads of General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery Department were already standing by. Watching the ambulance leave, Director Miao took out his phone, beads of sweat on his forehead, anxiously. ¡°Professor Tian, the patient with the penetrating injury has arrived and he is in a pretty severe condition. We have already sent him to the operating room for preoperative preparation!¡± ¡°Alright, we¡¯re almost there, just a few more minutes. We can see the hospital building!¡± Director Miao, President Dong, County Chief Wu, and several bureau chiefs all went to the entrance of the emergency department to wait. The wail of sirens announced the arrival of the ambulance. A large bus carrying the medical team pulled up and stopped in the parking lot under the stairs of the emergency entrance. The bus door opened, and Director Tian was the first one to step down. Director Miao, President Dong, and County Chief Wu immediately went forward to welcome them. ¡°Professor Tian, you¡¯ve arrived just in time!¡± Director Miao walked too fast, leaving President Dong and County Chief Wu behind. County Chief Wu nearly tripped on the stairs, but luckily was steadied by his secretary. ¡°The first victim, who suffered a penetrating injury from a tree, has been sent to the operating room. The other seven are on their way and will be here soon.¡± Director Miao briefly explained the situation. Everyone came down from the bus and orderly lined up in a nearby open field. The previous emergency response training at Sanbo Hospital was paying off now. The feminine colleagues, those with shawl-like hair, had already tied it up in the bus. All accessories, including rings, necklaces, and earrings, had been removed. Liang Fatty didn¡¯t go off to smoke after getting of the bus. Professor Tian swiftly arranged, ¡°Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Su Yixuan, Liang Jing, Zhang Lin, Little Five, follow me to the operating room to rescue the casualty with the penetrating injury. The rest of the team will remain on stand by in the emergency department, ready to cooperate with Shipo People¡¯s Hospital. The rest of your colleagues, who has the highest professional title? Whoever has a high senior title, raise your hand!¡± Chen Xiaoqiao from the obstetrics and gynecology department and Wang Hansheng from the urological surgery department raised their hands. ¡°Director Wang, I¡¯ll go to the operating room right away. I leave the remaining colleagues to your command. If you also go to the operating room later, Director Chen will take over the command. Everyone is familiar with the protocol; just elect the person with the highest title on site as the commander, and follow their command!¡± ¡°Understood!¡± The response was loud and clear. After clear instructions, Tian Yuan turned back to Director Miao and said, ¡°The team is in your hands now; we have to rush to the operating room.¡± Under such circumstances, there was no time for pleasantries. All redundant formalities were omitted and Director Miao immediately accompanied Tian Yuan to the operating room. Introducing County Chief Wu and several bureau chiefs was dismissed or rather, it was completely forgotten. Once they reached the operating room, they quickly changed into surgical attire and masks, and entered the surgery without hesitation. The patient was lying on his side on the operating table, and Dr. Tao was steadying the patient. It was difficult to position such a casualty; he could only lie on his side. This sideways position was hard to maintain, the surgery view was extremely poor, and it was also difficult for the anesthetist to intubate. One doctor was specifically in charge of positioning the head in a tilted back posture to open the airway and facilitate the anesthetist¡¯s intubation. But the anesthetist had tried several times and still failed. This kind of emergency was indeed rare. Judging from the position, a wooden stake had pierced through the diaphragm, and all the surrounding areas were vital organs such as the heart, lungs, as well as liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and spleen. Any of them could be fatal. It was also lucky to be able to survive unto the operating table. Both the Directors of the General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery Departments felt helpless about where to start the surgery. The more experienced they were, the more terrified they felt. Ignorance was a kind of courage in itself. If the wooden stake was pulled out, the patient could bleed out and die in a matter of seconds, and the rescue effort would be over. Proper decorum was immediately dismissed as Tian Yuan commanded, ¡°Fatty, you¡¯re up!¡± Fatty immediately put on his gloves. Director Miao declared, ¡°This is Professor Tian from the provincial city, who came to support us. Everyone should follow Professor Tian¡¯s command.¡± Professor Tian? He had performed a surgery here before, everyone knew, he was very skilled. With the strong reinforcement from the provincial city, the Heads of General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery Departments felt relieved. Liang Fatty¡¯s surgical competency was directly proportional to his smoking addiction. He gently inserted the laryngoscope, put the tracheal tube in, pulled out the guide wire successfully, inflated the cuff, secured the tracheal tube, and connected it to the anesthesia machine. ¡°Can we operate simultaneously to save time?¡± Yang Ping evaluated the casualty. He had performed countless surgeries on such multiple trauma patients in the system space. He had even treated more severe cases simulated by the system, so he had enough confidence. Tian Yuan looked at Yang Ping, ¡°Have you done this kind of surgery before?¡± Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Trust me, there are no problems. You manage the backside, and I handle the front. We perform the surgery simultaneously.¡± ¡°No, the front is too challenging. The heart, lungs, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and spleen are all around the impalement, squeezed and pulled by it. Some organs have definitely been damaged. It¡¯s just that as they¡¯re being compressed, there¡¯s no fatal blood loss.¡± ¡°Trust me!¡± Yang Ping requested again. Tian Yuan hesitated. Judging from the previous pelvic surgery, Yang Ping indeed outperformed himself but, this surgery? It was too risky and difficult. The slightest mishap could cause the patient to bleed out and die on the operating table. It could be said to be one of the most dangerous traumas. Recalling his pelvic surgery with adhesions, excellent and refined anatomical skills, transcendental separation, and sharpshooter-like precision in stopping bleeding. He can do it! After brief consideration, Tian Yuan made his decision. ¡°Scrub in!¡± Chapter 95 - 0093 Panda Blood Chapter 95: Chapter 0093 Panda Blood ¡°Ding Dong!¡± ¡°Task: The Sanctity of Medicine! Rescue a patient with a life-threatening chest and abdominal penetrating injury, reward twelve thousand points.¡± The system is always there, just silent. The sanctity of medicine! Not understanding why this task has such a serious name ¨C isn¡¯t every surgery upholding the sanctity of the art of medicine? Yang Ping is very familiar with this phrase, it¡¯s a part of the medical student¡¯s oath. ¡°¨CI am determined to do my utmost to eliminate human suffering, assist in achieving perfect health, uphold the sanctity and honour of the art of medicine, save lives, attend to injuries, not avoid hard work, persist in pursuit¨C¡± The art of medicine, by its inherent nature, requires a somewhat transcendental pursuit. After washing his hands, he returns to the operating room. ¡°Leave this to us, you go take care of other things!¡± Tian Yuan says to Director Miao, there were still seven seriously injured patients who need treatment, and Director Miao is absolutely essential. Director Miao instructs Director Zhang of General Surgery and Director Li of Thoracic Surgery to assist Director Tian in completing the surgery, then he hurries out. The temperature in the operating room is maintained at 28 degrees Celsius, and Zhang Lin and Little Five have already got the patient into position. This position is challenging to set, the pillows and fixed plates used for the lateral position are largely useless here. A small pair of fixed plates can only be used at the sacrococcygeal part and the pubic symphysis, to just barely stabilize the patient in the lateral position. They cut off all of his clothes, cleaned around the wound and the whole body with saline gauze. The wound couldn¡¯t be irrigated for the moment, it would have to be done in the middle of surgery. ¡°Zhang Lin and Little Five, go wash your hands. Song Zimo, cooperate with Yang Ping. Zhang Lin and Little Five, come help me. Director Zhang, Director Li, please help Doctor Yang.¡± Tian Yuan assigns the surgical staff. ¡°You be the chief surgeon!¡± Tian Yuan turns to Yang Ping and says firmly. This procedure will require simultaneous operations on the chest, abdomen, and back, but the chest and abdomen are relatively harder. There should be a chief surgeon on the operating table to orchestrate the entire surgery. ¡°Thank you!¡± To decline would be to waste time. Yang Ping appreciates Tian Yuan¡¯s trust. Su Yixuan and another surgical nurse, Zhou Can, have already put on their surgical gowns and are each organizing their instruments. There are two surgical instrument tables, Zhou Can will assist Director Tian¡¯s operation, and Su Yixuan will assist Yang Ping¡¯s. The cleaning of the body with saline has been completed, Song Zimo has also come in after washing his hands, Yang Ping and Director Tian begin to sterilize together. Around the wooden stake are all black blood clots, and some blood is still seeping out from inside. The wound isn¡¯t bleeding much anymore, because the pressure from the wooden stake has acted as a natural hemostatic, preventing rapid blood loss. The wooden stake is tilted, slanting downwards from the back, piercing through the chest and abdominal cavitities. There are still some broken pieces of leather on the stake, the truck probably made a sudden stop and inertia caused the wooden stake to fly forwards like an arrow, piercing through the car, the seat, and the victim¡¯s body. This kind of rescue is a great test of professional capabilities; without enough experience, the victim can easily bleed out on the spot. They are cautious not to disturb the blood clots around the wooden stake during disinfection, so as to not break the temporary balance and induce massive bleeding. This is an extremely difficult operation. One misstep, and the patient will die on the operating table. This kind of surgery is akin to breaking into the prison of the God of Death, having to bypass numerous visible and hidden traps to snatch a life back from the hands of death. The probability of success is extremely low, but as long as there is a glimmer of hope, doctors must give it their all. The preparation of the surgical field is complete, no need for preoperative verification, the name on the medical record isn¡¯t even filled out yet, just temporarily labelled as ¡®John Doe 1¡¯. Disinfect, prepare the surgical field! Every step is timed to the second, stepping to the beat of the second hand. ¡°Blood pressure is 80/35mmHg, oxygen saturation is 92%, heart rate is 120 beats/minute¨C¡± As long as blood pressure can still be measured, there are signs of life, but it has already dwindled to a small spark, and it¡¯s uncertain how much longer this spark can endure. Why isn¡¯t the blood up yet? Yang Ping asked, in his role as the chief surgeon. Blood drawing, blood type testing, blood cross-matching all require time. It¡¯s been no more than a few minutes since the patient entered the operating room from the emergency department. ¡°Can you hurry the blood bank?¡± Yang Ping orders. The circulating nurse was about to place a call just as the cordless phone in the operating room rang. The nurse picked it up; it was a call from the blood transfusion department. ¡°Type A, Rh negative blood type!¡± The news hit like a bolt of lightning! Panda blood, a rare and precious blood type. The entire Shipo blood bank only has 4 units of Rh negative erythrocytes in storage, a number that includes all nearby counties and cities. There¡¯s only one unit of type A Rh negative erythrocytes.¡± This blood type has a three in a thousand probability among the Han people, and then it has to match the same type of ABO blood group, making the chances of successful blood matching less than three in ten thousand. With only one unit of erythrocytes, how can this patient be saved? Without blood, in such a state, a cut would cause blood loss, leading to certain death. There¡¯s no other way around it; no conjure can turn corn-stalks into needles. The news was immediately reported. County Chief Wu, President Dong, the Director of Health Bureau, and the Director of Blood Bank were urgently planning countermeasures in the temporary command center. Already two victims of this traffic accident have lost their chances of reaching the hospital. Out of the eight who were rushed here, it is uncertain how many can be saved. The pressure is immense. ¡°Keep seeking help from neighboring cities and counties, and widen the search range to include counties outside the province!¡± County Chief Wu made a resolute decision. No one could have predicted that the patient would have Rh negative blood type. The odds were very low. Thankfully, the director of the blood center was meticulous and had wisely collected all available Rh negative erythrocytes from neighboring counties already. They were on their way. The Director of the Blood Bank immediately made calls, using several phones: the one in his hand, the one on charging, cycling their usage. Once the call ended, he said in a despondent tone, ¡°I¡¯ve checked with all our neighboring counties in other provinces. They only have two units of Type A Rh-negative, and it will take over an hour for the fastest unit to arrive here.¡± An hour... by then, it will have been too late. ¡°Have them send the blood, immediately. But this is too slow. We need to think of other ways.¡± County Chief Wu decreed, his eyes sharp, holding a cigarette burning down to his fingers, oblivious of the heat. ¡°The blood bank keeps records of Rh negative individuals in our county. We can go through the records, call them, and have them come in to donate blood on site,¡± the Director of the Blood Bank suggested, chastising himself for forgetting about the record in the heat of the moment. County Chief Wu immediately gave the order. ¡°Start calling, one by one. Get help from the police to locate them, convince them, then have the local police stations bring them in to donate blood. They¡¯ll each receive a ten-thousand-dollar reward. Remember, do not force them, we must follow the principle of voluntariness; good explanation work must be done!¡± The Blood Bank Director started making calls, notifying his subordinates to go through the records and call for potential donors. There were very few people on the list. Many had gone off to work elsewhere, and most of the phone numbers left couldn¡¯t be reached. Occasionally there¡¯d be a successful call, but the person would be miles away. Time was flowing away, second by second. A WeChat group! Of course, it¡¯s the best and fastest method. The director suddenly realized. There are self-established WeChat groups for this panda blood in various places. There¡¯s a big group for the entire Nandu Province. If the message is sent to the group, we can find out who is closest. We might be able to find a few. The Blood Bank specifically designated a person to join all the major groups in our province, but the person left the job recently and nobody took over his tasks. No one was appointed to join the group, they didn¡¯t even know the group existed. A tiny oversight in the day-to-day work has now magnified into an irreparable loophole, a fatal weakness. ¡°Who knows the group? Left the job? Don¡¯t you have his WeChat or phone number? Quickly, find him, ask him to add you to the group and post the call for help.¡± The Director was practically roaring into the phone. He couldn¡¯t afford any issue at this point. He had just become the Director; his position was still on shaky ground. The phone rang. They had found him. The internet is wonderful, allowing people to connect anytime, anywhere. ¡°Quickly, post the message to find anyone near Shipo with Rh negative Type A blood. Let me repeat, Rh-negative Type A blood. I¡¯ll send it on WeChat, check again.¡± The trembling, excited hand of the station chief sent out the WeChat message. This small group was the patient¡¯s lifeline. Without blood, saving someone with such trauma would be impossible. The WeChat message was sent. The rescue team in the blood bank gathered around the office table, all eyes glued to the phone, waiting for responses from the group. A few replies popped up in the group. The closest was a three-hour drive away. Desperate times, yet too far away to help. The Director was also glued to his phone, praying desperately for someone to come forward. Finally, another message came in. There was one right in Shipo. ¡°Shipo, there¡¯s one person right in Shipo.¡± The Director nearly jumped up! Chapter 96 - 0094: Ups and Downs Chapter 96: Chapter 0094: Ups and Downs The person with RH negative type A blood is at Shipo! The lifesaving straw finally appeared, everyone looked at each other, and County Chief Wu¡¯s ashen fingers stubbed the cigarette out fiercely in the ashtray. ¡°Find him quickly!¡± He finally exhaled a sigh of relief, Director of the Blood Station. Where in Shipo? Shipo is so big. The reply in the group chat didn¡¯t specify where in Shipo, and no phone number was left. Shipo county is so big, where could he be? Does finding a needle in a pond differ from finding one in an ocean? In order to communicate and get information more timely, Director of the Blood Station personally joined the WeChat group, he clicked on that group chat, anxiously waiting for the next message, but nothing showed up. ¡°How is it going?¡± the Health Bureau Director asked. ¡°Only mentioned in Shipo, no specific location.¡± The Blood Bank Director replied, his face anxious. County Chief Wu saw the sweat on the Director of the Blood Station¡¯s forehead, understanding another difficulty has come. When it rains, it pours. In the group chat, everyone had marked their blood type and contact number in their WeChat. The Director immediately clicked on the profile picture of the person who had just responded in the group, and dialed the phone number recorded. ¡°Sorry, the number you dialed is turned off¨C¡± Switched off! The message was sent but then he switched off the phone, does he not want to donate blood? If he didn¡¯t want to, he wouldn¡¯t have revealed his location. Could he already be on his way to Shipo¡¯s Hospital? Or perhaps his phone happened to run out of battery. The latter two possibilities are the most likely. If his phone ran out of battery, he would definitely charge it as soon as possible and send out his exact location; if he was on his way here, all they could do was wait. The Director of the Blood Bank regained a little confidence, but his heart was still in disarray, as if his heart was unsupported. County Chief Wu lit up another cigarette, asking the Director of Public Security, ¡°Do you have any other ideas?¡± The Public Security hesitated for a moment, ¡°It¡¯s hard to do anything in such short notice¨C¡± ¡°How far away is the backup blood?¡± County Chief Wu kept his clenched fists on the office table, his eyes slightly bloodshot. ¡°It¡¯ll be here in half an hour,¡± the Blood Bank Director softly replied. But even when it arrives, there¡¯s only one unit. The issue of blood supply was once again at a standstill. At the window, President Dong answered the phone, his face twitching slightly. ¡°County Chief Wu, the resuscitation in neurosurgery has failed, it has been declared¨C¡± President Dong hung up the phone, pronouncing heavily. County Chief Wu waved his hand, silent, he got up, walked towards the window, staring out. He calmly stated, ¡°Make sure to handle the aftermath well!¡± ¡°The aftermath handling team and the insurance company¡¯s personnel will soon intervene.¡± The head of the traffic police was next to the Director of Public Security. ¡ª ¡°Blood pressure 74/32mmHg, blood oxygen 90%, heart rate 128 Bpm, hemoglobin 47g/L¨C¡± The anesthesiologist reported the vital signs, the first unit of RH negative type A blood had been infused, but it was too little to satisfy the need. The patrolling nurse was collecting and sorting the patient¡¯s clothing that had just been cut off. Any objects in the clothes needed to be checked, placed in a plastic bag, and checked again in the presence of another person whilst signing, ideally witnessed by a third person to avoid disputes over lost valuables afterward. The nurse wore gloves, wiped the blood off the wallet, disinfected it with alcohol, and counted all the cash and various cards that tumbled out. Another nurse was responsible for taking pictures and registering; the amount of cash, the number of cards, all were to be clearly recorded. ¡°Is that an ID card? Register the ID card!¡± The observant nurse in charge of registering spotted the ID card. With an ID, you can find out the identity of the victims in order to notify their families or workplaces. The nurse carefully examined the ID card and began to read out the name and ID number: ¡°Wang Ge¨C¡± The nurse registering quickly wrote the name and the ID number in her notebook. Wang Ge? Dr. Tao was standing nearby, this name was so familiar. Dr. Tao glanced closer. The ID card clearly read¨C Wang Ge, there was also a press card next to the wallet. Dr. Tao opened the press card. Wang Ge, the familiar Wang Ge that everyone knew! ¡°He is Wang Ge!¡± For reasons unknown, Dr. Tao naturally blurted out aloud. The anesthesiologist was taken aback, ¡°Wang Ge? Which Wang Ge?¡± ¡°The Provincial Hospital Incident!¡± Holy shit! Fatty¡¯s eyes were about to pop out. Director Tian, Yang Ping, Director Zhang, Director Li, all the doctors present were stunned. Yang Ping looked up and locked eyes with Director Tian; the other doctors turned their heads to look at the operating table. The atmosphere in the operating room was somewhat strange. Was he Wang Ge? He was indeed Wang Ge, the one lying on the operating table, curled up, with a wooden stake piercing through him, was Wang Ge? How uncanny! It felt like a time-space anomaly! If it were usual, everyone would surely be buzzing with chatter, filled with indignant, readiness to mobilize. But now, only a brief moment of surprise existed, after which everyone immediately re-engaged in the surgery, no time to be distracted. Who was lying on the operating table no longer mattered; the changes in the patient¡¯s condition were what everyone cared about. At this moment, Wang Ge was just an anonymous patient number one. ¡°Blood pressure 72/32mmHg, blood oxygen level 89%, heart rate 129 beats per minute¨C¡± The anesthesiologist raised his head to look at the data on the monitor and reported again. ¡°Urine output is 300 milliliters, from the insertion of the catheter at the emergency scene till now!¡± The nurse checked the urine bag and catheter, reporting the urine output. ¡°The subsequent blood has not yet arrived, so we can only continue to supplement with crystalloid and colloid solutions.¡± said the anesthesiologist. ¡°I¡¯ll go urge them again!¡± Dr. Tao said, he was responsible for coordinating this patient¡¯s needs. ¡°Open the chest, sternum central entry route!¡± Yang Ping issued the order to the chief surgeon. We can¡¯t wait any longer. There must still be active bleeding in the thoracic and abdominal cavities, the blood pressure was continuously dropping; if we wait any longer, there won¡¯t be any blood left, like a lamp running out of oil! ¡°Open chest?¡± Tian Yuan hesitated in his heart, but he didn¡¯t speak. He had a good understanding of Yang Ping now. He was calm, decisive, had clear thinking, and wouldn¡¯t even consider stepping up to the plate without enough assurance for such a surgery. Orthopedics doctor performing general thoracic surgery, there were no legal issues, the license was registered under surgery, not orthopedics, the key is to have the technique. Now, some major trauma centers are beginning to cultivate integrated trauma surgeons. Tian Yuan believed in talent. What was talent? The direct manifestation of talent was the efficiency of learning; what others might take a hundred tries to learn, some people would only need one. Using the big round knife, they cut vertically along the center of the sternum, cutting through the skin; after that, they switched to an electric knife, slicing through the deep fascia and the periosteum of the sternum. Electric saw! Bone wax! Song Zimo kneaded the bone wax into evenly-sized balls, placing them in a curved tray for standby. ¡°He can actually do combined thoracoabdominal trauma surgery, as if he¡¯s very adept at opening the chest.¡± Song Zimo kept pace with the operation. Now, Yang Ping was a continuously growing mountain in front of Song Zimo, with no peak or elevation. Xiao Su accurately followed Yang Ping¡¯s rhythm, as soon as Yang Ping reached out, without a moment¡¯s hesitation, the handle of the electric saw touched his palm. Taking the electric saw, he sawed along the center of the sternum. The sound of sanding was heard, and Song Zimo¡¯s syringe, filled with saline solution, sprayed new liquid following the saw, to lower the local temperature increase caused by the high-speed movement of the saw blade against the bone tissue. The sternum was split open from the center line, and Song Zimo¡¯s bone wax was ready, evenly pressing balls of bone wax to the cut surfaces of the sternum, all at once, rendering it just right in thickness and evenness. Just as the bloody bone surface began to seep, the bone wax promptly sealed it off. The retractor was placed, and the chest cavity was opened. ¡ª Office, temporary command center, a moment¡¯s silence. ¡°Any news?¡± County Chief Wu had nearly smoked half a cigarette in just a few puffs. ¡°No news yet!¡± The Director of the Blood Bank hadn¡¯t blinked his eyes. He turned to ask the director of the Health Bureau, ¡°There¡¯s no signal problem in this room, right? The mobile card?¡± ¡°No problem.¡± The director of the Health Bureau assured. The director of the Blood Bank tried to open a webpage with another mobile phone, the internet speed was quite good. Finally, in the WeChat group, a new message popped up. ¡°I am now at Shipo People¡¯s Hospital!¡± What a coincidence! He was in the hospital. ¡°He¡¯s in the hospital, right in the hospital!¡± The Director of the Blood Bank shouted, like a child. County Chief Wu promptly stubbed out the cigarette butt once more. ¡°Quick, quick! Quickly invite the person!¡± ¡°Emergency hall, waiting area, plastic chair, the one closest to the inside in the first row.¡± Immediately after, the person replied with another message. Chapter 97 - 0095: Eight Hundred Milliliters of Blood Chapter 97: Chapter 0095: Eight Hundred Milliliters of Blood ¡°Aortic clamp!¡± The surgeon placed the aortic clamp in a handy place in advance. The chest cavity is opened from the middle! Blood gushed out, and the aortic clamp got there first, clamped lightly and accurately after the aorta bifurcates into the arm, blocking the heart¡¯s blood supply to the lower half of the body. Several suction tubes were working at the same time to remove the blood clot in the chest cavity. As the hematoma receded, the heart and lungs appeared in view, the warm heart beating rhythmically, and the lungs expanding and contracting under the drive of the respirator. The thick aorta emerges from the heart, turns a corner, and extends downward into the thoracic aorta and abdominal aorta. The human hood is open, and the engine is displayed in front of your eyes, still working, with life illustrated intuitively in its physical form. Using the original wooden stake as a dashboard, it is now at the 12 o¡¯clock position. There were no significant vascular injuries found other than a diaphragmatic rupture. The heart and lungs were undamaged, slightly displaced by the pressure of the stake, with some minor bleeding from small vessels quickly tied off and stopped. However, this amount of bleeding is definitely from a rupture of the aorta, the rupture just isn¡¯t at this location, so the examination continued. The operator was calm and composed, their hands moving fast, the operation carried out quickly and rhythmically, showing no signs of impatience or urgency. Director Li, a thoracic surgeon, was standing by, assisting. He had seen prominent surgeons work during his advanced studies. Isn¡¯t this emergency surgery supposed to be carried out in a tense and noisy environment? How could it be so quiet, so composed? The operating surgeon¡¯s control over the surgery was exceptional, and the team¡¯s cooperation was flawless. By blocking the heart¡¯s irrigation to the lower body, the pressure of bleeding in the surgical area is relieved; simultaneously, the finite blood is concentratedly directed to supply the brain tissues, which have a far lower tolerance for ischemia than the trunk and limbs. Under ischemic conditions, brain tissue can only hold out for three minutes safely; the abdominal organs that are currently cut off from the blood supply can tolerate this for twenty minutes. Blocking the aorta in this area can only be done for twenty minutes, because the patient is already in a state of low perfusion, the time of occlusion has to be even less than twenty minutes. Is he going to complete the operation and end the battle in twenty minutes? Tian Yuan looked at the aortic clamp that had already been placed, understanding the operator¡¯s intention. He must speed up, align well with Yang Ping. Although the tasks on the back road are not as dangerous and complex as those on the front, completing an operation in twenty minutes is a tough challenge. The back road is also a midline incision, the automatic retractor is in place, the spine has been exposed, the spine is transected, the spinal cord is destroyed on the same plane, it needs to be fixed with pedicle screws and steel plates in front and back, otherwise, the whole body will lose its support. A midline sternum incision was made at the 12 o¡¯clock position. Now, a midline abdominal incision is needed to be made at the 6 o¡¯clock position. The two entry points need to be opened on both sides to fully expose the surgical area. With the midline abdominal incision, the skin, subcutaneous tissue, deep fascia, and three layers of abdominal muscles were cut, right down to the abdominal cavity, blood clots burst out, and the intestines spilled out, being caught in a sterile single-folded cloth pocket. The hook was put in, pulled left and right, in cooperation with the chest retractor, the surgical area was well exposed. Similarly, the abdomen was full of clotted blood, several suction devices worked together, and it took a few minutes to suck it all up. The aorta and inferior vena cava were pushed to the right at the junction of the thorax and abdomen by the wooden stake, the entry of the stake was a bit oblique, just avoiding the aorta and the vena cava, otherwise, the patient wouldn¡¯t have made it to the ambulance. The 6 o¡¯clock position was examined, the duodenum was ruptured, the pancreas was ruptured, and the bleeding vessels were ligated. In fact, because the aorta was blocked, there was not much bleeding. However, due to the surgeon¡¯s proficiency with the anatomy, they could still easily locate the broken vessels and ligate them. ¡°Blood pressure 54/37mmHg-¡± Liang Fatty reported the blood pressure, which was dropping consistently. The human body¡¯s compensatory ability is steadily decreasing. The moment of collapse will be when the spark of life goes out. ¡°Blood! How come it¡¯s not here yet?¡± The chief surgeon¡¯s voice was loud, but he didn¡¯t yell. ¡°It will take a few more minutes! It¡¯s on the way!¡± Dr. Tao said. Even though there were volunteer blood donors, they still had to go through the procedure, test for blood type, test for infectious diseases, and cross-match blood, all this needed time. The examination turned to the 9 o¡¯clock position, there was a large amount of blood clot around the aorta and inferior vena cava, with fresh blood leaking out, there must have been an opening, the remaining blood in the vessels was coming out. Fingertips extended to examine, for sure, the aorta had a two-centimetre slit, an aortic tear, this was a fatal injury. Generally, you only have 6 hours for rescue, with the help of excellent and experienced great vessel surgeons, there¡¯s a chance for survival. This 6 hours is just an average time, many with larger tears, die instantly or within a few minutes. The patient was able to buy some time to get to the hospital because the wooden stake pressed and slowed down the speed of bleeding from the slit. Two clamps were placed on the opening of the aorta each from above and below, to prevent the loss of remaining blood, now every milliliter of blood is precious. The inferior vena cava was unscathed as was the liver, although it too had been crushed. The wooden stake, at its 9 o¡¯clock position, had a nail exposed about three centimeters out, forming a hook, it was so terrifying that it made one¡¯s scalp numb at the sight of it. The hook was perfectly hooked onto the aorta, tearing a slit, it was a dangerous move! The large scissors cut off the nail, and it was carefully removed. ¡°Blood pressure 50/32mmHg-¡± The doors of the operating room opened, finally, two bags of blood were seen, the patrolling nurse quickly hung them up, it seemed that the emergency command had thought of a solution. ¡°Blood transfusion from the upper limb vein!¡± Yang Ping reminded the nurse. Director Tian was also probing and trying to stop the bleeding. The 9 o¡¯clock position was investigated thoroughly, then the 6 o¡¯clock position was investigated, and another nail was found, similar in shape to the previous one, but with the tip pointing in the opposite direction. Surprisingly, the spleen was fine, and the stomach and duodenum were torn. They cut the nail and removed it. If the reckless people tried to pull out the stake, the nail would hook on the surrounding tissue, large blood vessels, or organs, no matter from which direction, the consequences would be unthinkable. Directors Li and Zhang had worked in grassroots hospitals for many years and had been to big hospitals for further study. They had seen a lot, but never had they seen someone so proficient in anatomy. They held immense respect for such a person. This patient was indeed fortunate, regardless of whether they could be saved or not. A unit of red cells, 400 milliliters of whole blood, was inputted by pressurizing it quickly, The blood pressure showed no signs of rising, but at least it was no longer falling. There had been too much blood loss before. ¡°How is it?¡± The Head of Medical Department walked in, Director Miao was already operating on the pelvis fracture. ¡°Ready the pedicle screws and anterior steel plates, we need to fix the spine. The spine is fractured in half, we need to stabilize it from both front and back!¡± Director Tian said while operating. The Head of Medical Department immediately made arrangements over the phone. They had both the pedicle screws and anterior steel plates, which were originally for a surgery scheduled tomorrow, now to be used in this emergency. ¡°The blood pressure is not rising, we don¡¯t have enough blood, we need to transfuse more.¡± Liang Fatty said. The Head of Medical Department said: ¡°We are trying to figure it out, we have already drawn 400ml, currently, there¡¯s only one blood donation volunteer.¡± An orthopedic doctor was astonishingly adept at performing abdominal surgery, it was a matter of shame and embarrassment for Director Zhang who specialized in general surgery. Now, All sides of the stake were completely separated, the anterior and posterior sides had met, making the anatomical structure clearly visible. ¡°We can remove the stake now.¡± Yang Ping looked up, his neck was sore, this position was too difficult to operate from, and the field of vision was very bad. ¡°Sterile tourniquets, four!¡± Yang Ping said. Sterile tourniquets are commonly used in orthopedic surgeries, finding a few was not a problem. Sterile tourniquets were laid on the table. ¡°Large straight pliers, the largest!¡± With the pliers, he took the tourniquet, carefully threaded it through the hole between the stake and the wound, which Director Tian caught. When all four sterile tourniquets were handed over, they were slowly unfolded and they stretched in the opposite direction, causing tissues near the stake to pull apart as they formed a small space, protecting the surrounding organs and blood vessels. Yang Ping and Director Tian carefully removed the wooden stake, trading off between pushing and pulling, and eventually, the stake was safely taken out. Flushed and explored again for injuries, then thoroughly flushed again. Using tissue scissors, the rupture of the aorta was repaired, four 0 non-damaging vascular sutures were prepared and the rupture was quickly fixed. Repaired the diaphragm, liver, pancreas, stomach, duodenum, and again thoroughly ligated to stop the bleeding. This kind of operation doesn¡¯t have a fixed procedure in textbooks, it entirely depends upon the surgeon¡¯s abundant experience and the ability to apply knowledge. The disassembly during the surgery was like an experienced butcher cutting meat. Every single blood vessel was undamaged, even the minor arteries. While probing, she tied off the small blood vessels that bled, layer by layer without the slightest pause or repetition. The whole process was like an intense prison escape, a prison escape from the prison of Death itself. Directors Li and Zhang thought, if they were to perform this surgery, the patient surely would not be saved. They simultaneously thought of studying at Sanbo Hospital when they reached the age of forty. ¡°Four hundred milliliters of whole blood!¡± It was brought again. This person has donated eight hundred milliliters. Equivalent to the blood loss from a serious femoral stem fracture. Usually, blood donation doesn¡¯t exceed 400 milliliters at a time, going beyond poses risks. This person had donated 800 milliliters. ¡°There is only one volunteer, the Blood Bank is not daring enough to draw more blood.¡± Dr. Tao said. With this added 400ml, at least, they could hang on, afterward, several units of red cells could keep them afloat. ¡°Blood pressure! 76/42mmHg¨C¡± It is raising! The anesthesiologist is updating the blood pressure dynamically. The time was nearing the limit, the obstructive clamp was released, directed the blood to circulate in the whole body. What¡¯s left is to fix the spine now. Chapter 98 - 0096: Who is the blood donor? Chapter 98: Chapter 0096: Who is the blood donor? Front to back fixation, posterior pedicle screws, anterior steel plates. Flush, insert drain, sternum steel wire fixation, layer by layer suturing for each incision. The wood likely had a sharp slanting surface, and after removal, the skin had no obvious defects but was merely pushed apart. Quick but not hurried, everything linked neatly together, the surgery naturally came to an end. ¡°Blood pressure, 90/55mmHg¡ª¡ª¡± The blood pressure is starting to rise! ¡°Hemoglobin 68g/L¡± About every 200 milliliters of blood can theoretically raise hemoglobin by 6g. Considering losses, an increase of 4-5g of hemoglobin is achievable. Despite the low hemoglobin level of 68g/L, as long as there is no more bleeding, the life of the patient can be saved. For acute blood loss, if the hemoglobin exceeds 70g/L, a blood transfusion may not be needed. Spinal cord transacted. This is a challenge in world medicine. From now on, the patient will spend the rest of their lives in a wheelchair. The surgery lasted about forty minutes. ¡°Ding Dong, task completed, reward twelve thousand points, plus a super cultivation series treasure box.¡± A robotic female voice, accompanied by subtitles in the top right corner of my field of vision. ¡°Son of a bitch!¡± The sterile sheet was lifted, and Zhang Lin swore. ¡°Director Zhang, the patient with the ruptured liver and spleen has arrived. President Dong has assigned you as the Chief Surgeon.¡± Someone rushed into the operating room to call for Director Zhang, their tone urgent. Once this surgery was over, Director Zhang and Director Li had nothing else to do. After removing their clothes and gloves, they found their backs soaked with sweat, cold and damp. Director Zhang rushed to operate on the patient with the ruptured liver and spleen while Director Li had to deal with a patient with multiple rib fractures and a lung contusion. A deputy chief physician from his department was currently operating, but he needed to get on stage. The entire operating room was operating at high speed, with all elective surgeries being halted. The capacity was being squeezed to the extreme. The subsequent seven patients arrived in the operating room, except for the patients with lung contusion in the Thoracic Surgery Department and the ruptured liver and spleen in the General Surgery Department. The Orthopedics Department had one case of severe leg crush injury requiring amputation. Another case involved a pelvic fracture with combined bladder and urethra injury and unstable blood pressure; Director Miao was operating on this patient with assistance from Director Wang Hansheng of Sanbo Hospital. Yet another case involved an exploded vertebral fracture resulting in paralysis, operated on by another Associate Chief in Orthopedics. There was also a case of severe perineal tearing; both intestines and uterus were exposed. Director Chen Xiaoqiao from Sanbo was operating on this patient. In the neurosurgery department, a patient with intracranial hemorrhage, brain contusion, and brain herniation could not be saved and was declared dead. The stretchers were rushing in and out. Blood, fluids, medications, gauze, instruments were all transported to the respective operating room. Nurses were running around. The Vice-Dean in charge of clinical affairs and the Director of Medical Affairs wearing observer gowns were shuttling between the operating rooms, coordinating resources. ¡°The patient in the Thoracic Surgery is suffering from cardiac arrest. They have performed open-chest heart compressions. Hurry!¡± ¡°General Surgery needs another one thousand cc of blood!¡± ¡°Obstetrics and Gynecology need assistance from General Surgery!¡± Fires extinguished here were re-igniting elsewhere. ¡°Should we assist Director Miao with the pelvic surgery?¡± Director Tian asked Yang Ping. Dr. Tao guided them into another operating room where Director Miao was waging an uphill battle. ¡°How¡¯s it going, Director Miao? Need a hand?¡± Director Tian asked. Director Miao was studying images on the C-arm machine. He was installing an external pelvic fixation device. The patient had a precarious blood pressure, and there was a risk of him not surviving the surgery. Yang Ping was reviewing radiographs on the viewing box. The primary fractures were around the front of the pelvic ring. External fixation should manage bleeding. ¡°I am putting the external fixation to stabilize the pelvic ring. Let¡¯s consult with Interventional Radiology for embolization if the blood pressure still cannot be maintained, do you think it is appropriate?¡± Director Miao sought Director Tian¡¯s opinion. It was comforting to discuss matters with someone during critical times. Director Miao¡¯s experience was invaluable; his treatment plan was extremely reasonable. ¡°Okay, how is the rectum and urethra?¡± Tian asked. ¡°The rectum is fine, but the bladder is ruptured and the urethra is severed. We will first create a urinary diversion stoma. The urethra can be repaired during a second procedure once the blood pressure is stable.¡± Wang Hansheng was on stage assisting Director Miao in managing the bladder and urethral injury. This patient could be stabilized. Nothing much to see in the amputation case, as long as it is amputated in time to avoid triggering acute renal failure. Director Tian wanted to examine Chen Xiaoqiao¡¯s patient. He called Yang Ping to come along, as Yang Ping was proficient in managing thoracic and abdominal trauma, which made Tian feel relieved. In the Obstetrics and Gynecology operating room, the O & G Department Director was assisting with the surgery. Due to an unknown injury mechanism, the entire pelvic floor was severely ripped apart, resulting in heavy bleeding, and both the intestines and uterus were extruding from the body. The patient was set in a lithotomy position. Dr. Chen Xiaoqiao was leading the surgery with assistance from the O & G Department Director from Shipo Hospital, who was wearing high-heeled shoes. ¡°How¡¯s it? Need any support?¡± Tian Yuan asked. Chen Xiaoqiao was intensely focused on the operation and requested while operating, ¡°Ask General Surgery to send someone over; the rectum and colon are also ruptured.¡± ¡°Call General Surgery!¡± Director Tian instructed Dr. Tao. Just as the Chief of Medical Affairs was patrolling nearby, ¡°I¡¯ve already called. They¡¯ll be here soon.¡± ¡°We need more blood, at least a thousand more,¡± Chen Xiaoqiao looked up at the monitor screen. ¡°It¡¯s here!¡± Just as she finished speaking, a nurse rushed in with bags of blood. A deputy chief physician from Orthopedics was operating on a patient with a burst fracture of the spine, performing a posterior decompression and pedicle screw fixation. They had no difficulty performing these surgeries, unlike the thoracoabdominal penetrating injury just now. Without sufficient experience, the smallest mistake could lead to severe bleeding. The patient from Thoracic Surgery had multiple rib fractures, a lung contusion, and flail chest. The patient was struggling to breathe, so a lung resection and rib fracture fixation were being performed when suddenly the patient¡¯s heart stopped. The vice president of the hospital rushed over and asked Director Tian and Yang Ping to take a look. Director Li, who had seen them perform an operation on an aortic rupture, knew their skill was on par with top hospitals outside of their own and Anzhen. Director Tian and Yang Ping quickly switched locations. Director Li was manually compressing the patient¡¯s heart. ¡°Sudden cardiac arrest, fibrillation, get on the stage!¡± Director Li saw Director Tian coming over and quickly informed him. There was no time to scrub in. The two of them quickly put on the sterilized gloves handed over by the nurse, changed into surgical gowns, and put on another pair of sterilized gloves. Director Li stepped aside. Director Tian took over, compressing the heart. After a while, the heart started to pulsate, but the contractions were weak: ¡°Inject 1 ml of 0.1% epinephrine directly into the heart.¡± The syringe was handed over, filled with 1 ml of 0.1% epinephrine. It was injected directly into the heart. They continued the massage, and finally, the heart began to pump forcefully. The blood pressure went from immeasurable to 90/60 mmHg. ¡°Use dopamine to maintain blood pressure, administer 5% sodium bicarbonate intravenously, that should do it¨C¡± Director Tian pulled his hand out of the chest cavity, turned around, and swapped positions with Director Li. ¡°The heart has contusions, use some drugs to protect the myocardium, check the injection site for bleeding, if it is, apply pressure, if not, continue with the surgery.¡± Director Tian and Yang Ping removed their gowns and gloves and went around to check on the other patients. When they confirmed that no other patients required immediate attention, they decided to rest a bit. They could assist whenever necessary. The group retreated to the resting room. ¡°The jerk is rather lucky, to have us operate on him, even had a volunteer donate him the Rh negative A-type blood.¡± Zhang Lin was not appeased. ¡°Can we smoke here?¡± Liang Fatty asked Zhang Lin. ¡°After we leave, it¡¯s not our problem,¡± said Little Five. ¡°Let¡¯s go ahead, give me one. I¡¯m irritated. We almost got sacked by him, and we¡¯re helping him through the surgery, sweating buckets,¡± Zhang Lin was still angry. Liang Fatty handed out a cigarette to each of Zhang Lin and Little Five. ¡°It¡¯s no problem to curse, but we¡¯ve got to save the person anyways. Give me one too,¡± said Director Tian, who did not usually smoke. ¡°I¡¯m just irritated. Haven¡¯t we saved the patient? Even during surgery, I didn¡¯t delay a second with the forceps,¡± Zhang Lin lit up his cigarette. Leaning back in his chair, Yang Ping said, ¡°Pass me one too.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t smoke, do you? Waste!¡± Zhang Lin rebuked. Liang Fatty flicked out a cigarette, Yang Ping took one, and Liang Fatty helped him light it up, ¡°Isn¡¯t Director Tian a non-smoker too?¡± The five men filled the resting room with smoke. A colleague, Shipo, an anesthesiologist from the same hospital, who had just done anesthesia with Liang Fatty, walked in for a sip of water, just in time to overhear their conversation. Sitting down, he said, ¡°Talk about luck, not only did he run into you guys, but he also encountered a diligent person with a lot of rescue experience at the site. Furthermore, the person who donated blood was the same person. Some things in the world are just this coincidental.¡± Zhang Lin asked, ¡°Are you saying someone saved him at the scene? And also donated blood for him?¡± ¡°Yes, the Emergency Command Centre couldn¡¯t find A-type Rh-negative blood, they even asked for help in the group, and damn, there was one person in the ER, the same person who brought him in. Were they twins in a past life or something?¡± As the man knew emergency procedures, he could be a doctor. When Director Tian thought of this, his heart tightened. For some reason, he suddenly thought of Director Zhu, whom he had coincidentally met on the road. Director Zhu¡¯s car was right in front of the bus he was on. Was it him? That couldn¡¯t be; how could things be so coincidental? It would be too cruel; such a passionate person about medicine was ruined. Although he¡¯s doing well in insurance now, it¡¯s not what he loves. He felt a sharp pain in his chest. He said to Yang Ping, ¡°You stay here; I¡¯ll go down to have a look.¡± He had performed several surgeries here before, and the security guard recognized him; he was familiar with the hospital environment. ¡°Do you know where the person who donated the blood is?¡± Director Tian asked the anesthesiologist. Being an anesthesiologist meant being a Mr. Know-It-All. He replied, ¡°Professor Tian, let me find out for you.¡± The anesthesiologist picked up the phone and dialed his brother in ER. After confirming the details, he said, ¡°He¡¯s in the ER observation room receiving a fluid transfusion. He gave 800ml of blood and is now replenishing his fluids.¡± ¡°Professor Tian? Is he a friend of yours? How coincidental? Should I give a heads-up to the ER?¡± Director Tian thanked him. He hurriedly changed his clothes and headed to the ER. Upon introducing himself to the nurse, she immediately enthusiastically escorted him to the observation room. For some reason, he felt heavy-hearted. He hoped that it wasn¡¯t what he was thinking. It would be too cruel if that were the case. He stopped, ¡°Which room is he in? I can go myself; you can go back to work.¡± The nurse pointed ahead, ¡°Room number 3!¡± Director Tian pondered for a bit, picked up his phone, and dialed Director Zhu¡¯s number. They had exchanged numbers when they were both sent to Japan by the province. However, they didn¡¯t contact each other regularly, and it was uncertain whether Director Zhu had changed his number. The phone rang several times, and then it got picked up. Chapter 99 - 0097: Setting Off Again Chapter 99: Chapter 0097: Setting Off Again ¡°Hello!¡± ¡°Hello!¡± ¡°Is this Director Zhu? This is Tian Yuan!¡± ¡°Yes, Director Tian, hello!¡± ¡°I happened to run into you on the road, but didn¡¯t have the chance to chat much. How are things going lately?¡± ¡°Thank you for asking. I¡¯m doing very well. You have already arrived at the designated hospital, haven¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Not yet, a major traffic accident occurred on Shipo Road. We are providing assistance in the rescue mission at Shipo People¡¯s Hospital. I hope you didn¡¯t get caught up in any traffic.¡± ¡°Oh, we¡¯ve already reached Daxiang Mountain. The traffic accident must have happened behind us. We didn¡¯t get stuck in traffic.¡± ¡°Good, that¡¯s a relief, perhaps we could get together when we return to the city?¡± ¡°Sure, let¡¯s keep in touch.¡± After hanging up the phone, Director Tian breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn¡¯t Director Zhu. Overthinking again. I¡¯ve been too sensitive. How could the world be so coincidental? How could Director Zhu possibly be an RH-negative type A blood, just like that? Tian Yuan felt a sense of guilt. Director Zhu had started a new life, but she was still connecting him with Wang Ge in her mind. Even though it was just speculation, she couldn¡¯t help but feel guilty. As for Director Zhu, the best thing she could do was not to disrupt his life and let him start his own new chapter. A faint twinge of pain arose in Tian Yuan¡¯s heart, as the image of the scholarly figure who discussed big ideas and wrote fervently with her during their study abroad period began to blur. Now that she¡¯s here, even if it¡¯s not Director Zhu, she should go greet the blood donors as the chief surgeon. While she was on the phone earlier, the nurse had stayed put. Tian Yuan continued walking towards ward No.3, with the nurse leading the way. When they reached the door, the nurse peered through the small window, ¡°Huh, where did he go? Maybe he¡¯s in the restroom. He was here just over ten minutes ago.¡± The nurse pushed door open, Director Tian followed her in, only to see the bed neatly made. The nurse knocked on the bathroom door a few times, ¡°Sir, are you in there?¡± After repeating herself a few times and receiving no response, the nurse opened the bathroom door to find it empty. ¡°He was just receiving an IV transfusion here about ten minutes ago, where did he go?¡± The nurse was perplexed and muttered to herself. She inspected the remaining IV bag hanging on the bedside stand. ¡°Do you know his name?¡± asked Director Tian. ¡°He said he didn¡¯t want to leave his name, nor did he want the reward money from the County. We didn¡¯t ask much more at the time, as it was an emergency. As long as the blood type was correct, and he didn¡¯t have any contagious diseases, there were no issues with trans-cross blood transfusion.¡± The nurse gathered the unfinished saline bag. Director Tian wanted to ask about his appearance, but decided not to. Such a coincidence couldn¡¯t be possible. Director Zhu had already stated that his car had left before the accident and had reached Daxiang Mountain. Tian Yuan¡¯s phone rang. ¡°Director Tian, Director Miao in the operating room is looking for you. She wants you to come to the operating room as soon as possible.¡± The call was from Song Zimo. Song Zimo hadn¡¯t gone to relax as expected, he had been watching the surgery the whole time. Tian Yuan hung up the phone, bid the nurse goodbye, and hurried out of the emergency observation room. Back in the operating room, Director Miao had already finished the pelvic surgery. However, even after applying the external fixation, the patient¡¯s blood pressure still wasn¡¯t stable. She called for Tian Yuan to consult on the next steps. ¡°Let the Intervention Department come to do an angiography. If the main trunk isn¡¯t ruptured, some unimportant branches can easily be embolized, and as long as the main trunk isn¡¯t severed, once the pelvic ring is stable and enough blood is transfused, the blood pressure can be stabilized. If the main trunk is severed, the angiography can still confirm the location. Then, we can perform an open abdominal procedure, block the abdominal aorta and anastomose the main blood vessel.¡± Director Tian gave her opinion. ¡°What do you think?¡± Director Tian asked Yang Ping. Yang Ping said, ¡°Yes, that¡¯s the best plan available.¡± The intervention department was summoned for an emergency angiography. The results showed that both the internal and external iliac arteries were intact. The department performed selective embolization on some blood vessels. After a few more bags of blood were transfused, the patient¡¯s blood pressure finally stabilized. The operation on Chen Xiaoqiao was nearing its end. After the intestines and uterus were repaired, they were put back into the abdominal cavity. The muscles at the base of the pelvis were being repaired, and the skin was being sutured. The thoracic surgery was still in progress. A lobe of the lung had been removed, sixteen ribs were broken and were fixed with memory alloy rib clamps. There was no recurrence of cardiac arrest. There were several fractures in the limbs for which the orthopedics department helped. The upper limb fracture was casted, and the lower limb fracture had undergone skeletal traction treatment. Out of eight victims, only one had died despite the rescue; the rest were successfully rescued, at least temporarily. All the patients who completed the surgery were sent to the ICU, and the hospital transferred elite surgical staff and ICU doctors to participate in shifts. After President Dong finished his report, County Chief Wu¡¯s tense face finally relaxed. The ashtray was full of cigarette buds, he was satisfied with these results, this crisis had been tentatively warded off for now. The directors present wiped their sweat, some unbuttoned their top shirt buttons, and some waited to take a sip of the tea they hadn¡¯t drunk yet. The tension was too high, exhausting! ¡°This rescue operation was a collective and proactive effort from everyone. It appears to have been a success, but there were also many problems. Everyone should reflect earnestly afterward. This rescue operation was a substantial and surprise test¨C¡± County Chief Wu concluded on the spot. ¡°For the deceased due to the accident, we need to handle the aftermath well. For the rescued ones, don¡¯t slacken in follow-up treatment. The comrade who donated blood should be rewarded with 10,000 yuan. Also, we should appreciate the medical team from the provincial capital for their great help. We should thank them in person later and send a letter of appreciation to the medical team¡¯s unit¨C¡± County Chief Wu also issued brief instructions for the next steps. He checked the watch, stood up, and said to President Dong: ¡°Let¡¯s go and wait at the entrance of the operating room to thank the provincial capital medical team and all frontline workers.¡± County Chief Wu waited with several directors at the entrance of the operating room. As every victim was wheeled out, they personally asked about their condition and thanked the medical staff. After the surgery, Director Miao, with all the doctors from Sanbo Hospital, went to the hospital meeting room to rest. County Chief Wu and President Dong gave simple words of thanks. Checking the time, it was already past three in the afternoon, they hadn¡¯t eaten yet. President Dong handled things very carefully and didn¡¯t arrange a feast to avoid any misunderstandings as this was a major traffic accident after all. He ordered the canteen to prepare boxed meals, which were delivered to the operating room, emergency department, and meeting room. Even County Chief Wu ate a boxed meal. After dinner, Director Tian, Yang Ping, and Director Chen Xiaoqiao went to the ICU with Director Miao to check on the postoperative patients. Yang Ping personally checked the urine output, which was already more than 800 ml; the shock was corrected. There wasn¡¯t much blood in the drainage bag, only a few milliliters. Yang Ping checked the patency of the drainage tube; it was very smooth. The monitor showed a blood pressure of 102/67mmHg, already within the normal range. Maintaining normalcy indicated that there was no internal bleeding, and the bleeding had been stopped very thoroughly. Various indicators from the blood drawn in the ICU also showed signs of improvement. The hemoglobin was maintained above 65g/L; the blood sugar was also within a normal range, without any signs of hyperglycemia after pancreatic injury. This indicated that the pancreatic function should still be normal. After the gastrointestinal repair, they needed to be on intravenous nutrition for a while, which is something ICU doctors were very proficient at. After seeing the patients, Director Tian said goodbye to President Dong and Director Miao, expressing that if needed, they could contact him anytime. President Dong and Director Miao thanked them repeatedly. Originally, Director Miao was supposed to accompany the Sanbo medical team to Nanqiao County, but something huge happened at home, so he didn¡¯t have time to go. The sun was about to set, signaling the time to leave Shipo. ¡°Get in the car!¡± The bus was parked in the parking lot of the emergency entrance. Zhang Lin shouted loudly while Little Five took the roll call. Almost everyone had participated in the rescue. Except for the doctors who were in the operating room, everyone had participated more or less in the emergency department handling victims and transferring them. The female colleagues from obstetrics and gynecology were still wearing high heels. Walking was difficult for them; they were limping, had foot injuries, and painful expressions on their faces. Liang Fatty opened the luggage compartment: ¡°Change your shoes. Which suitcase is yours? I¡¯ll help you get it out.¡± County Chief Wu, President Dong, and Director Miao saw everyone off, shaking hands over and over again. A red banner was quickly made and hung at the entrance of the emergency department: ¡°The people of Shipo thank you!¡± Counting heads. ¡°Everyone is here!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Chapter 100 - 0098: Finding a Foothold Chapter 100: Chapter 0098: Finding a Foothold Nanqiao County is a minority county, the dwelling place of the Yao Ethnic Group, being economically backward. It¡¯s the most remote county of Nandu Province, located deeply within the mountains. The medical support activity this time was organized by the Health Department of the province. The hospitals directly under the provincial hall sent dozens of people every time; they switched people every two weeks, taking turns to provide help. All the hospitals were busy, and they were short-handed; some with high professional titles, with a handful of middle and lower titles, in addition to some interns, formed the team. When the coach arrived, the sky was dim. Dean Pan of Nanqiao People¡¯s Hospital came in person to receive them. Everyone was very tired, sleeping on the bus. Yang Ping, on the bus, entered the system space and read for a long time. He was preparing for his doctorate, studying English, as well as the theory of Sports Medicine and arthroscopy. He also spent twenty thousand points to purchase an imaging training package, with hundreds of thousands of films, including spine, pelvis, extremities, X-rays, CTs, and MRIs, for intensive film reading training. Xiao Su was sleeping very soundly. When Yang Ping woke her up, she rubbed her eyes and asked in a daze, ¡°Is there another emergency surgery?¡± Yang Ping found it amusing; this person also had surgery on her mind all the time. The lights inside the bus were switched on. Yang Ping packed up his luggage and Xiao Su¡¯s, got off the bus, and helped Xiao Su find her suitcase from the luggage hold. The Nanqiao Hospital was far inferior compared to Shipo Hospital. The hospital was not big, being just a six-storey building. The area for parking was a dilapidated basketball court. Dean Pan, in his fifties, appeared honest and kind, missing a front tooth. Shaking hands with Director Tian, he said, ¡°Welcome, welcome, I heard you just came from Shipo, you must be tired. We have prepared dinner. After everyone has settled their luggage, hurry to eat. This is Director Jiang, who is in charge of your logistics. I¡¯ll go to the cafeteria to notify the chef. Director Jiang will lead you to the dormitory.¡± Director Jiang led everyone to the hospital dormitory, a two-story building behind the hospital; it was quite old, but it had been simply renovated on the inside and all the furniture was relatively new. As soon as the support plan was confirmed, the hospital urgently used their limited finances to renovate this building, to make the medical team¡¯s accommodations somewhat comfortable. Originally, this place also housed several young doctors and medical school interns. However, the hospital provided them with subsidies to rent outside accommodations instead. The women stayed on the second floor and the men on the first. Each floor had common toilets and bathrooms on the sides. The hospital specifically assigned an auntie to manage the dormitory. ¡°Forgive the slight discomfort everyone. The small rooms can accommodate two while the large rooms can accommodate six. You can assign yourselves. The keys are all labeled and placed on the desk.¡± Director Jiang said. He called the auntie over, ¡°The kettles are all filled with hot water? Disposable cups are all set? There¡¯s no shortage of new buckets, tubs, and hangers, right?¡± The auntie spoke in a stiff Mandarin: ¡°Everything¡¯s ready.¡± ¡°The tubs and buckets are all newly bought. You can use them with peace of mind. We didn¡¯t prepare for the rest since you all would bring your own.¡± Director Jiang was very meticulous. Director Tian made arrangements: for the first floor housing male doctors, he was the counselor, and for the second floor housing the female doctors, Chen Xiaoqiao was the counselor. Everyone sorted out the dormitory on the spot. Those who were usually close naturally grouped together. Zhou Can pulled Su Yixuan to room together. The female doctors quickly sorted out everything. ¡°Would it be okay if I go upstairs? I¡¯ll help bring your suitcase and luggage upstairs.¡± Yang Ping saw that the stairs were steep and the luggage and suitcases were heavy. Zhou Can laughed and said, ¡°Yang Doctor, don¡¯t just bring Xiao Su¡¯s things, help me carry my suitcase as well.¡± Zhang Lin said, ¡°With the amount you eat for breakfast, three steamed buns, you can¡¯t handle carrying this suitcase? Come, let me help you carry it, you have to wash my clothes tomorrow.¡± Saying this, Zhang Lin went to pull Zhou Can¡¯s suitcase. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll help you wash them tomorrow, prepare your durian in advance.¡± Zhou Can said without missing a beat. ¡°Did you pack lead suits in this suitcase?¡± Zhang Lin weighed the suitcase. Yang Ping and Zhang Lin brought the female doctors¡¯ luggage to the second floor. Song Zimo also helped Tang Fei with her luggage. The stairs were steep and one needed to carry the luggage up. It would indeed be a big task for the female doctors. After arranging Xiao Su¡¯s luggage, Xiao Su took out a few packages of beef jerky and handed them to Yang Ping, ¡°You can eat this when you¡¯re hungry at night.¡± Zhou Can wanted to say something, but Zhang Lin pulled her, ¡°Where do you want to put your suitcase, quickly make up your mind.¡± After Yang Ping and Zhang Lin Xiaowu came down from the second floor, Xiaowu said, ¡°Director Tian said we can stay in the six-person dormitory.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t there a two-person one?¡± Zhang Lin asked. Director Tian said, ¡°The two-person dorm doesn¡¯t sound fun. Let¡¯s stay in the six-person one. We can have a bed-time chat at night.¡± ¡°Director Tian, you fancy this kind of thing?¡± Yang Ping laughed. ¡°From now on, let¡¯s have a medical summit forum every night.¡± Looking at the grand mountains, Director Tian was excited. Everyone settled down and went to the cafeteria to eat. It seemed this meal had been prepared by the cafeteria chef for a while. The standard definitely exceeded the usual. There was shrimp congee, grilled meat skewers, fried rice, fried chicken legs, and a variety of other dishes. Dean Pan said, ¡°Everyone took a long ride on a bus, the cafeteria chef said that you might not have an appetite to eat rice and dishes, so he made these instead. Everyone¡¯s tired, don¡¯t be polite. If there are any opinions, tell the cafeteria chef. From now on, there will be some late-night snacks arranged every evening.¡± Everyone was hungry and ate like wolves. Yang Ping had a big bowl of fried rice, a chicken leg, a bowl of shrimp porridge, and he finished cleaning out his dish in a few bites. Xiao Su came over with a plate in hand. ¡°Little Five, let¡¯s see what else there is to eat,¡± Zhang Lin said to Zhang Lin Xiaowu. Catching Little Five¡¯s signal and Xiao Su in the corner of his eye, Zhang Lin said, ¡°Right, let¡¯s go check.¡± The two guys took off. Xiao Su brought a chicken leg over for Yang Ping, putting it in his bowl: ¡°Reward for you, clean, untouched.¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather it was touched!¡± Yang Ping grumbled under his breath. Xiao Su walked away with a few female colleagues, then Zhang Lin and Little Five huddled back in. Liang Fatty was eating alone in a corner with a pile of chicken bones on his plate, still relishing his meal. ¡°Isn¡¯t he on a diet?¡± said Zhang Lin. Little Five said, ¡°Starting tomorrow!¡± After dinner, everyone rested. At both ends of this floor, there were three bathrooms that were remodeled with water heaters. Some people took buckets and made a splash, took a bath, and then washed their own clothes, hanging their clothes on the rods in the corridor. After hanging the clothes, it seemed there was nothing to do. It was too early to sleep, and no one had the energy for a walk. In the big room, there were six people: Director Tian, Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Zhang Lin, Little Five, and Liang Jing. Just six people. Three sets of bunk beds, with Director Tian, Yang Ping, and Song Zimo sleeping on the bottom bunk, and Little Five, Zhang Lin, and Liang Jing sleeping on the top. Song Zimo set his feet on the bed edge and was doing push-ups: ¡°One hundred, one hundred and one, one hundred and two¨C¡± Song Zimo is a highly disciplined person, he exercises every day. Liang Fatty tried to climb onto the top bunk a few times, but failed. He wanted someone to switch with him, but didn¡¯t know how to ask. Not possible to have Director Tian climb up and down, Song Zimo was not the best communicator, and Yang Ping was a solid character. Seeing Liang Fatty struggling to climb up, Yang Ping had an idea: ¡°Fatty, I like the top bunk, how about we swap?¡± Fatty was overjoyed: ¡°Really, I don¡¯t know how to thank you.¡± ¡°When I was in school, I liked the top bunk, so I should be thanking you,¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°I¡¯ll change the sheets and quilts for you,¡± Fatty started immediately. ¡°No need,¡± Yang Ping said, he hadn¡¯t changed anything. ¡°You should change it, I saw him sneak a look at the dermatology department,¡± Zhang Lin said. Fatty was worried: ¡°That was a mango allergy, I¡¯m allergic to mangoes, you know that.¡± ¡°Who knows,¡± Zhang Lin deliberately teased him. Fatty hummed a few times: ¡°I¡¯m the one with the soft Zhonghua cigarettes, watch your mouth.¡± Zhang Lin immediately softened: ¡°Brother Fat, no, Brother Liang, I¡¯m sorry for the offense, please forgive me!¡± The next two weeks everyone would play a role, known as the temporary assignment. ¡°Director Tian, I heard you¡¯re appointed Deputy Dean? Are we going to call you Dean Tian from tomorrow morning?¡± Zhang Lin said. Tian Yuan said: ¡°That¡¯s the plan.¡± ¡°Big Brother seems to be the head of Orthopedics, and Young Master Song, the Deputy head?¡± Zhang Lin asked. Tian Yuan said: ¡°Yes, do you two want to try leading a group?¡± ¡°Sure, Little Five, we¡¯ll follow Dean Tian¡¯s arrangement, starting to lead the group tomorrow,¡± Zhang Lin said. Liang Fatty wanted to smoke: ¡°Xiao Zhang, let¡¯s go outside for a smoke.¡± ¡°Two hundred and one, two hundred and two, two hundred and three¨C¡± Song Zimo was still doing push-ups. ¡°You¡¯re wasting your shower, if you want to do it, could you stop counting out loud?¡± Zhang Lin said. ¡°I¡¯ll rinse off again in a bit.¡± Song Zimo didn¡¯t stop. ¡°Any smokers up for a soft pack of Zhonghua?¡± Liang Fatty showed off. Little Five immediately followed suit. Chapter 101 - 0099 Director Yang Chapter 101: Chapter 0099 Director Yang Everyone chatted until midnight, and got up early at five in the morning to freshen up. Director Jiang came by early in the morning and led everyone to the cafeteria for breakfast. Having over fifty people in the dining hall was quite a spectacle that attracted many gazes. After breakfast, the group of over fifty people headed to the hospital conference room to receive their work assignments. The urological surgery team was to be split in half between the People¡¯s Hospital and the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. For Obstetrics and Gynecology, two were assigned to the People¡¯s Hospital, and the rest were sent to the Women and Children¡¯s Health Hospital, and the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Those assigned to other hospitals would have a shuttle service to and from their residence, arranged by the County Health Bureau. The Orthopedics and Operating Room staff were all retained at the People¡¯s Hospital. The newly formed Orthopedics Department at the People¡¯s Hospital needed a lot of support. For those staying at the People¡¯s Hospital, Tang Yuan would be the acting deputy dean, Professor Yang Ping the acting director of orthopedics, Song Zimo the deputy director of orthopedics, Su Yixuan the head nurse in the operating room, and the others were doctors and nurses without administrative duties, tasked with guiding clinical work. After all tasks were assigned, Director Jiang personally escorted those who were delegated to other hospitals over for the turnover. For those remaining at the People¡¯s Hospital, Dean Pan and the Head of Medical Affairs led everyone to their respective departments to participate in the handover of duties. In order, Orthopedics, Urology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Operating Room were each paid a visit. The departments assigned to personnel must wait for Dean Pan before the turnover could take place. Hospitals at the grassroots level have broad categorizations for their divisions, including Orthopedics, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, and Otorhinolaryngology. Surgery comprises Neurosurgery, Thoracic Surgery, General Surgery, and Urological Surgery. Doctors didn¡¯t specialize in these departments. Orthopedics had just been branched out from Surgery. The director of Orthopedics, Director Zeng, was a seasoned doctor. Short and with a reddish face and neck, he had an acquaintance at the First Attached Hospital in the provincial capital and took advantage of this connection to attend further training in Orthopedics there for a year. He was very cooperative with the dispatch of technical support from higher level hospitals because it had no impact on him since the people above would only be in position for two weeks. Moreover, he had the chance to learn something new. By eight o¡¯clock, Director Zeng was waiting with all the doctors and nurses. The Orthopedics department, including the Director, comprised only five doctors and ten nurses. It wasn¡¯t until half-past eight that Dean Pan arrived. Seeing Dean Pan bringing in a group of doctors in their twenties, Director Zeng was very disappointed. He had hoped to learn some skills from professors. These youngsters wouldn¡¯t be able to bring much to the table. He was quite unhappy. He felt that the medical aid provided this time was somewhat sloppy. He felt that despite being a grassroots hospital, they were still a bona fide People¡¯s Hospital. It was inappropriate to give the impression of making up the numbers by just bringing in some fresh graduates. After everyone was situated, Dean Pan announced, ¡°Starting from today, the medical team from Sanbo Hospital will officially be stationed at our hospital for two weeks. There are four doctors assigned to our orthopedics department. Let me make the introductions: Professor Yang Ping, who will be serving as our director of orthopedics, Professor Song Zimo, acting as deputy director. We also have Dr. Zhang Lin, Dr. Lu Xiaowu, and Dr. Tang Fei. Let¡¯s all give a warm round of applause.¡± Everyone applauded, and Dean Pan turned to look at Director Zeng, ¡°Director Zeng, we expect wholehearted cooperation in assisting Director Yang. During these two weeks, everyone should take this opportunity to learn from the professors. Now, Director Yang will say a few words.¡± Dean Pan clapped his hands. In this kind of situation, he had to say something. Yang Ping calmly said, ¡°I¡¯m very grateful for the opportunity and am pleased to be able to work with you all. In these two weeks, we will be learning from each other and making progress together. Thank you all in advance for your help.¡± Yang Ping bowed slightly, and there was warm applause. ¡°Director Yang, I¡¯ll be going to the next department. You guys continue what you need to do and feel free to contact me if there¡¯s any problem.¡± Dean Pan shook hands with Yang Ping and then left. After Dean Pan left, Director Zeng said, ¡°Director Yang, would you like to bring everyone on rounds? Currently, there are thirty beds in the department, and twenty-one patients are admitted¨C¡± Director Zeng reported the current situation of the department, which dealt mostly with limb fractures, waist and leg pain, neck and shoulder pain that were treated conservatively. Patients with slightly serious conditions would usually go to the Shipo People¡¯s Hospital. The director was coming, and Director Zeng had originally been quite apprehensive, fearing that he wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up with the director¡¯s thought process. However, now that a few young doctors in their twenties had been dispatched, the humble attitude he had prepared had relaxed a lot, and he didn¡¯t sound nervous at all when speaking. Some of the nurses were secretly glancing at Song Zimo, thinking how handsome the doctors from big hospitals were. They thought it was so cool how young some of the professors were. Song Zimo was sitting at the desk, appearing nonchalant. Others were looking at Tang Fei. A woman doctor in Orthopedics? And she¡¯s so pretty. ¡°Do we have any emergency or difficult cases in the department? If so, let¡¯s take a look first.¡± Yang Ping asked for Director Zeng¡¯s opinion. Yang Ping was, at first, being modest and showing respect to the host, but Director Zeng thought that this young doctor didn¡¯t have much to offer and lacked confidence. Many young doctors from big hospitals didn¡¯t have much surgical experience. Director Zeng spoke with a noticeable laxness, fully abandoning his humility, saying, ¡°We don¡¯t have any emergencies. There is one tough case, but it¡¯s nothing to look at. They¡¯ve been to the provincial capital to see it, and after being hospitalized for over a month there, there was no improvement. Even the professors there at the provincial hospital didn¡¯t dare to perform surgery. The patient was discharged and has been pulling through here at our place for a few months now. Their financial condition is okay, so they¡¯ve been staying with us for some months now.¡± Yang Ping could perceive the change in Director Zeng¡¯s tone, but he didn¡¯t mind. He said, ¡°Let¡¯s take a look at this patient then. Bring over his X-rays and medical records.¡± ¡°Xiao Li, go get the medical records.¡± Xiao Li went to retrieve the medical records. ¡°Several big professors from the provincial capital have already seen this¨C¡± Director Zeng then listed a few prominent directors that Yang Ping recognized, all of whom were professors from the First and Second Attached Hospitals and the Provincial City People¡¯s Hospital. ¡°There¡¯s no rush, let¡¯s observe and learn from this difficult case.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t argue with him. Yang Ping carefully read through the case file, and then examined each imaging slide. There was a huge bag of images, including X-rays, CTs, and MRIs, all of which had been done, some multiple times. On the way here, Yang Ping had already purchased a training module for reading medical images in the system space. It covered imaging of the spine, pelvis, extremities, trauma, and bone diseases, amounting to hundreds of thousands of images. The diagnosis in the file was chronic osteomyelitis of the left femur. Locking intramedullary nail surgery had been performed a year ago, but there had been a post-operative infection. The entire femur, including the proximal and distal ends, was severely infected. The skin and muscles were deficient, exposing the nail. This patient indeed posed a challenge; Yang Ping stroked his chin thoughtfully. Director Zeng looked somewhat disdainful, but it didn¡¯t show in his expression. Putting on a show, are we? The city¡¯s senior director didn¡¯t manage to handle it, yet here you are pretending to be an expert, even appearing to be very serious about it. Yang Ping didn¡¯t think these images were consistent with chronic osteomyelitis. The devil-style training in the system space endowed him with extraordinary abilities to interpret images. ¡°Let¡¯s go see this patient first.¡± said Yang Ping. The other patients could wait. Director Zeng was slightly impatient, but he didn¡¯t show it. He had no choice but to take Yang Ping to visit the patient, with everyone else following behind. ¡°This patient has some influence. He has been seen by many hospitals and is experienced.¡± The subtext was to just go through the motions and not take it too seriously. Yang Ping picked up on his meaning and said, ¡°Understood.¡± When he got to the bedside, Director Zeng introduced briefly: ¡°This is Doctor Yang from the city, who is very concerned about your condition and has come to see you.¡± The patient was a young man, only twenty years old. He had seen so many hospitals and was tired of it, so his attitude was rather cold and aloof. From the main complaints, present illness, medical history and so on, Yang Ping re-asked everything. The patient was slightly impatient: ¡°It¡¯s all written on the medical record.¡± Yang Ping seriously said: ¡°Do you want your leg to get better or not? If you do, cooperate a little. If you don¡¯t really care about it, and want to stay this way for the rest of your life, I have nothing more to say.¡± The young man was naive, listening to the young doctor, it seemed like he could heal his leg. This was interesting, he thought, let¡¯s see what he has to say. Even though he was not enthusiastic, at least he was not resisting anymore. ¡°Do you often lose your temper like this?¡± Yang Ping was not annoyed and asked him. He said, ¡°I have a fiery temper, I can¡¯t hold it in over small matters.¡± ¡°How tall are you and how much do you weigh?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°One meter seventy-six, forty-eight kilograms.¡± The young man replied. He looked very thin. ¡°Do you often have loose stools, more frequent bowel movements?¡± Yang Ping asked. The young man said, ¡°Yes, how did you know? I have chronic stomach and colon inflammation. Sometimes I have bowel movements several times a day, always loose. I¡¯ve had colonoscopies, but nothing has been found.¡± ¡°Do you have no strength for running, do your limbs feel weak like you¡¯re going to fall after a long run?¡± Yang Ping pursued further. The young man immediately sat cross-legged on the bed, his mood improved a lot: ¡°Yes, yes, back in school during Physical Education, after running three laps, my whole body would go limp, I couldn¡¯t even stand.¡± ¡°Show me your hands.¡± Yang Ping counted his pulse and felt his palms. ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid of the cold wearing just a vest in the morning?¡± Yang Ping noticed his vest. ¡°It¡¯s so hot, what¡¯s there to be afraid of?¡± The young man answered succinctly. ¡°Take off your glasses, let me have a look.¡± Yang Ping pointed at his glasses. The young man cooperated and took off his glasses. Yang Ping carefully checked his eyes. Director Zeng couldn¡¯t stand it any longer, what were these questions about? Everyone was waiting to do rounds. ¡°Director Yang, why don¡¯t we do rounds first, and come back to him when we have time?¡± Director Zeng said, suppressing his dissatisfaction. Chapter 102 - 0100 Difficult Patient Chapter 102: Chapter 0100 Difficult Patient ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go on rounds!¡± said Yang Ping. He had asked enough questions for now. As for Director Zeng¡¯s subtle attitude, Yang Ping could perceive it acutely but decided not to dwell on it for the time being. With Director Zeng accompanying him, Yang Ping led everyone on their rounds. Twenty-one patients to check on, excluding the young man they had just seen, there were twenty others. Six were suffering from pain in their neck, shoulders, waist, or legs and were undergoing conservative treatment. Fourteen were surgical patients: two had clavicle fractures, one humerus fracture, two radius and ulna fractures, one femur fracture, three had fractures to both the tibia and fibula, three had ruptured tendons, one had a finger fracture, and one had a pelvic fracture, which had been treated with an external fixator. Although he was an acting head, Yang Ping wasn¡¯t at the hospital to relax. He was there to treat and save lives, and his rounds were carried out conscientiously. After seeing the last patient, there was one more ward. The door was shut, so it looked empty and unoccupied, which caught Yang Ping¡¯s attention. ¡°That¡¯s all,¡± said Director Zeng. Suddenly, the door swung open. An old man in his seventies, wearing round, black-rimmed glasses, emerged: ¡°Zeng Little Treasure, how can you say that I¡¯m not a patient? You tried to kick me out to the surgical department, but I refused. I¡¯ve moved back here.¡± Wasn¡¯t this room supposed to be locked up? How did he manage to move back in? At this point, Director Zeng was clearly uncomfortable. His face looked as though he had just smeared it with chili oil ¨C it was burning red. ¡°What¡¯s... the situation here?¡± asked Yang Ping quietly. Standing at the doorway, he couldn¡¯t avoid asking. ¡°This patient underwent surgery a year and a half ago and is here for rehabilitation. You should examine him as well¡±, Director Zeng responded reluctantly. He then turned to the patient with a forced smile on his face: ¡°Teacher Yan, because a single room became available in the surgical department, we arranged for you to move there. This room will soon be needed for another patient.¡± ¡°Hmph!¡± The patient grunted coldly. Yang Ping led the team into the room. ¡°Who cares for this patient? Report his case history!¡± Director Zeng ordered. Before any of the doctors could speak, the patient himself spoke out: ¡°I have a lumbar disc herniation. My main symptom is numbness and severe pain in my right leg. It¡¯s so painful that I¡¯m having trouble walking. I had surgery, but it still hurts. I¡¯ve spent a lot of money, and my suffering hasn¡¯t lessened a bit.¡± ¡°May I examine you?¡± asked Yang Ping, who had already discerned that this patient was a contentious case. ¡°This is Director Yang from the provincial hospital. He¡¯s here specifically to see you. Perhaps he has some ideas¡±, Director Zeng introduced. ¡°Director Yang? From the provincial hospital? Perfect. I was planning to present a petition and lodge a complaint at the provincial hospital. My surgery was performed by a professor from there, too. Even after medical insurance reimbursement, I paid over twenty thousand out of my own pocket. And my leg still hurts, and my back has worsened.¡± The patient¡¯s attitude was poor, his belly filled with bitterness. ¡°Zeng Little Treasure, let me tell you, once my leg gets better, I will certainly present a petition and lodge a complaint against you all. What is this? You¡¯re treating human life with utter disrespect. Do you think I don¡¯t know? You and that Professor Zeng from the provincial hospital must be related. You¡¯re in cahoots. There must be some unmentionable activity going on. I¡¯ve already written my letter of complaint.¡± The patient rambled on and on. Yang Ping took his hand and said: ¡°What should I call you? Please, calm down first. Tell me what the problem is, and I¡¯ll see how I can help.¡± ¡°Teacher Yan!¡± blurted out Director Zeng, clearly embarrassed. Yang Ping said: ¡°So, what seems to be the problem, Teacher Yan?¡± The patient took out a notebook and began: ¡°On June 17th last year, I had a CT scan here, in this very hospital. It revealed that I had lumbar disc herniation at L4/L5, L5/S1, spinal stenosis, and right-sided nerve root compression. After a month of conservative treatment, which proved ineffective, Zeng Little Treasure suggested that Professor Zeng from the first affiliated hospital in the provincial city perform surgery. The date of the surgery, let me check... It was July 28th last year. We gave Professor Zeng a red envelope with five thousand yuan. It¡¯s all recorded here. After surgery, my right leg pain didn¡¯t alleviate at all. After I was discharged following the removal of stitches, I was readmitted on September 20th. Since then, I¡¯ve been constantly admitted to and discharged from the hospital. This has been happening over and over for more than a year. Now the year is almost over, and there¡¯s been no relief. Tell me, how can this be resolved?¡± The man¡¯s thick notebook was poked and prodded with fingers wet with saliva, as he flipped through it, page by page. Then he picked up a pen and began to write: ¡°What¡¯s the date today? I should write it down. Zeng Little Treasure came with someone from the provincial hospital. What¡¯s his name?¡± The old man looked at Yang Ping¡¯s ID card: ¡°Yang Ping, Director Yang, came for rounds, noted.¡± Once the old man finished writing, he closed the notebook and placed it under his pillow. No need to introduce the patient¡¯s history¡ªit was even clearer than what was recorded in the medical chart. What was in the medical chart, he had; what was not, he also noted down. ¡°Teacher Yan, what did you teach before you retired? Can I have your permission to examine you?¡± asked Yang Ping. The man lay down: ¡°High school politics. Go ahead with the examination. I¡¯ll cooperate. Later, don¡¯t say that I didn¡¯t cooperate with the doctors, which led to poor results.¡± While the patient was sharing his medical history, Yang Ping was able to go through the medical chart. The patient had undergone L4/L5 and L5/S1 lumbar intervertebral disc removals, posterior decompression, intervertebral fusion, and pedicle screw internal fixation surgery. Yang Ping did not know Professor Zeng from Fuyi Hospital, but he did know that his surgical skills were beyond question, top-notch in the province. So what was causing the issue? He conducted a Straight Leg Raise Test on the patient¡¯s right lower limb. It showed a clear positive result ¨C the patient couldn¡¯t lift the leg beyond thirty degrees. Upon testing the strength and sensation, the muscles controlled by the sciatic nerve were somewhat weak and the sensation was somewhat impaired. The right calf muscle showed atrophy. Resistance Abduction and ¡®4¡¯ Figure Tests were also positive. ¡°I can¡¯t, I can¡¯t. It¡¯s numb and painful, unbearable.¡± The patient cried. Yang Ping had the patient lie prone. He pressed the position of the piriformis muscle which was firmer than normal. Upon pressing, the patient cried uncomfortable words and the right lower limb suffered from severe numbness and pain. Could Piriformis Syndrome be a possibility here? Professor Zeng was busy performing surgeries, perhaps he only looked at the radiograms. The lumbar disc prolapsed pressing severely against the right nerve and the symptoms coincided closely with the radiogram, so he rushed to operate without conducting a detailed examination. This scenario was not unheard of. ¡°What do you think? Do you understand now? You¡¯re not at fault in this, and I won¡¯t sue you. But, I will definitely sue Little Zeng.¡± The patient sat up. After visiting the ward, Yang Ping organized his thoughts. Among the patients in the department, besides the chronic osteomyelitis patient earlier, this one also had problems in diagnosis and treatment. Through his reading in the system space and his solid theoretical foundation, Yang Ping made rapid progress in terms of the breadth and depth of his knowledge. These two cases needed to be addressed separately. If he spoke about issues directly, of course, it would damage Director Zeng¡¯s ego. Even though Yang Ping had only been there two weeks, it was of no need to offend him. You shouldn¡¯t do two things to someone: disrupt their income or spoil their reputation. Yang Ping decided it would be better to take a roundabout approach. He would speak about the dispute patient first. As Director Zeng now seemed overwhelmed by this patient, he believed there would be no problem offering him advice. ¡°It¡¯s embarrassing, so embarrassing!¡± Director Zeng wiped his sweat. Yang Ping casually said, ¡°Every hospital has demanding patients. It¡¯s no big deal.¡± Director Zeng said, ¡°Director Yang, do you have any advice about these patients?¡± ¡°No specific advice. Director Zeng, you are very experienced and spent time studying at Fuyi Hospital, your case handling is appropriate. It¡¯s clear to see Dean Pan had full confidence to make Orthopedics an independent field.¡± Yang Ping made these comments in front of everyone. Although Director Zeng had been previously embarrassed, Yang Ping¡¯s comment restored a bit of his dignity. ¡°Director Zeng, shall we go sit in the office?¡± Yang Ping suggested. Director Zeng had something to say and immediately nodded his head. Once in the director¡¯s office, Director Zeng poured a tea. Yang Ping said, ¡°For this lumbar disc herniation patient, I suspect there may be Piriformis Syndrome. If we can get him to have an MRI and EMG of the piriformis muscle performed, it might differentiate the conditions. If it is truly Piriformis Syndrome, another surgery can be performed to release the sciatic nerve, that should solve the issue.¡± If the problem could be solved, he would be willing to kowtow in gratitude. This patient had been a major worry for him, extremely troublesome, and half of his gray hair was probably due to this man. The patient created a nuisance several times, showed up at his office, blocked him on the way home from work, and now refused to leave the hospital, even lodging a complaint to the mayor. ¡°The hospital doesn¡¯t have an MRI, we¡¯ll have to go to Shipo People¡¯s Hospital to have it done, which is outpatient and non-reimbursable. He will definitely reject it. He hasn¡¯t paid a cent for his current hospital stay.¡± Director Zeng spoke out his grievances. ¡°A CT and EMG can also be done; they should be enough to determine the condition. We have both a CT scan and EMG, right?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°Yes, we have both!¡± Director Zeng confirmed. ¡°Shall we go talk to the patient together?¡± suggested Director Zeng. Yang Ping said, ¡°Yes, it¡¯s a good idea. It would be best if we could call him over here.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go get him!¡± Director Zeng prepared to leave. Yang Ping stopped Director Zeng, asking him to clarify the patient¡¯s family situation before going to invite him. After a while, the patient came over, limping heavily, leaning on a crutch. Chapter 103 - 0101: Checking Circuits Chapter 103: Chapter 0101: Checking Circuits ¡°Ding dong, task: Turn conflict into harmony! Alleviate a patient¡¯s pain quickly, help colleagues resolve disputes, ¨C successful completion will receive a reward of six thousand points.¡± The system timely released the task, as it had just been contemplated, the task had been assigned. Resolving the problem was easy enough, but resolving it quickly was difficult. How could this kind of dispute with a patient be settled quickly? Communication would be incredibly difficult and delicate. If there were no difficulties, it wouldn¡¯t be a task. Time to work hard. Even before the people came in, you could hear the whining and complaining from outside the door. ¡°So much money was spent, and the pain didn¡¯t lessen at all. What are doctors even for?¡± The patient¡¯s words were harsh to hear. Yang Ping asked him to sit down: ¡°Teacher Yan, you were called here to get your problem solved and your pain taken care of. I came from the provincial city.¡± ¡°The surgery on my hand was done by professors from your city. I spent over twenty thousand on it and I¡¯m still in the same condition. Do you think it¡¯s not infuriating that my money¡¯s gone down the drain? I¡¯m definitely going to file a complaint.¡± Teacher Yan slammed his cane on the ground. ¡°Teacher Yan, don¡¯t be rush. Given your current status, it¡¯s inconvenient for you to file a complaint. How about we first solve the problem with your pain, and then when you can walk around easily, you can file your complaint. Doesn¡¯t that sound right to you?¡± Yang Ping comforted him. ¡°You have a way to solve the problem? You¡¯re probably just wanting to use me for practice¡±, Teacher Yan shot a sideways glance at Yang Ping. ¡°Not possible. Do you think I¡¯m stupid? I¡¯d use someone who¡¯s threatening to file a complaint against me for practice? The slightest mistake, and wouldn¡¯t you file a complaint against me to the Ministry of Health?¡± Yang Ping said with a smile, while Director Zeng made tea for Teacher Yan with a disposable cup. ¡°You¡¯re right!¡± Teacher Yan thought it over and agreed that his logic was sound. Normally, one would avoid such situations, not court them. ¡°So how are you going to solve it?¡± Teacher Yan somewhat compromised. He was indeed in a lot of pain. Seeing his willingness to listen, Yang Ping said, ¡°The problem you¡¯re having is that nerves are being pinched. Your nerves are like wires, and right now they¡¯re being squeezed at some point.¡± ¡°The doctors in the provincial city said the same thing, and even did surgery but how come it¡¯s still the same?¡± Teacher Yan¡¯s tone was somewhat softened. Speaking loudly required energy and he needed a buffer period. ¡°The surgery you had was to fix the main switch. The main switch is now fine, but there¡¯s a problem with the wiring. The wiring also needs to be fixed.¡± Yang Ping poured him a cup of tea. ¡°So you¡¯re saying I¡¯m just this unlucky, that both the main switch and wiring have failed?¡± Teacher Yan found it hard to believe. ¡°How about this: we do a little test on your wiring. It¡¯s simple, we¡¯ll just do a CT scan and an electromyogram. If the wiring really does have a problem, then there¡¯s hope for a solution. Surely, Teacher Yan, you don¡¯t want this pain to continue like this, right?¡± Yang Ping was slowly gaining control of the conversation. Teacher Yan hesitated and took a sip of his tea. Seizing the opportunity, Yang Ping said: ¡°Let¡¯s have the tests first and think about the rest once we have the results. You know, you¡¯ve had quite a fortunate life. Your children are successful, your grandson is adorable, and there¡¯s still a big world of our great country for you to enjoy with them. If your problem really gets solved, you can get rid of this cane and have a good night¡¯s sleep. How wonderful would that be!¡± ¡°You¡¯re quite pragmatic for such a young doctor. I¡¯ll trust you just this once. Look into this wiring problem for me.¡± There¡¯s no harm in running tests, Teacher Yan thought. ¡°From the look of you, I can tell that you must have made quite a contribution in your youth. There must be many grateful to you for your guidance. In the past, when you were dedicating your heart and soul to teaching and educating, now you¡¯re retired, you should be enjoying life. We apologize for our shortcomings in solving your problem.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t say my students are all over the world, but several have reached the level of bureau. I haven¡¯t even told them about the situation yet.¡± Teacher Yan was proud. ¡°Shall we arrange for the tests now?¡± Yang Ping asked tentatively. ¡°Arrange it, but remember, I¡¯m not paying.¡± Teacher Yan said. ¡°Let¡¯s focus on solving your problem first, and we¡¯ll talk about everything else later. If the problem remains unsolved, then no matter how long you stay here for free, it is of no use.¡± said Yang Ping. ¡°Director Yang, I trust you. Please arrange it for me.¡± Teacher Yan urged. Director Zeng assigned a bed-side doctor to process the order, and a nurse pushed him in a wheelchair to get a pelvic CT scan first before proceeding with the electromyogram. There is only one doctor in the electromyogram room. Director Zeng called and briefly communicated the main situation in advance, focusing on observing the conduction of the sciatic nerve at the exit of the pear-shaped muscle. After dealing with this patient, Yang Ping decided not to mention the patient with the left femoral osteomyelitis for the time being. During the free time, Yang Ping arranged the personnel. Zhang Lin and Little Five each led a doctor, Song Zimo led two doctors, and Tang Fei assisted Song Zimo. There wasn¡¯t much else to do for the time being. After all of this, Director Zeng¡¯s impression of Yang Ping changed. Watching him speak calmly and collectedly, he didn¡¯t seem like a young inexperienced boy at all. The two chatted about the condition of the hospital, the disposition of the staff in the department, and the difficulties of development. When the examination reports came back, the bedside doctor brought the CT scans and elective cardiogram reports over. Director Zeng hung the CT scan on the light box in his office and switched on the light. Yang Ping stroked his chin, carefully examining the scan. A magnetic resonance imaging would have been the best choice to examine the muscle and soft tissue, but the hospital did not have this equipment. So he had to make do with the CT scan. Orthopedic doctors often have shortcomings in analyzing bone diseases and soft tissues. They can easily diagnose fractures, but diagnosing bone diseases and soft tissue issues can be tricky. ¡°Director Zeng, look, the density of the piriformis muscle is different from normal muscles. Local muscle fibers have contracted and fibrosed. This is the sciatic nerve being pinched at the outlet of the piriformis muscle. There is also swelling, which aligns with our assumptions,¡± Yang Ping pointed at the scan and explained. Director Zeng leaned in to look at the CT scan. He was quite adept at reading fractures but not so much for muscles and nerves. He could only nod and mutter, ¡°Hmm, hmm.¡± ¡°What about the electromyogram?¡± Yang Ping inquired of the ward doctor. The ward doctor produced the electromyogram report, which was densely filled with English-specific terminologies and data. Instead of reading the report directly, Yang Ping looked at the data and analyzed it himself: ¡°The transduction of the sciatic nerve is notably reduced at the outlet of the piriformis muscle.¡± ¡°Hmm, hmm.¡± Director Zeng, who typically just read the report without looking at the data, echoed. ¡°The results are out now. It is as we expected. With the patient¡¯s history, physical examination, and auxiliary examination collectively, the diagnosis is clear. Call the patient over, let¡¯s talk to him again,¡± Yang Ping recommended. ¡°Go bring him over quickly.¡± Director Zeng ordered the ward doctor. This time the patient was wheeled in on a wheelchair. ¡°Teacher Yan, the examination results are out. There is a problem with the line at an area in your buttocks we refer to as the piriformis muscle outlet. The line is being pinched and not being fully functional,¡± Yang Ping gestured towards his own hip to explain. Teacher Yan responded, ¡°Just my luck. I used to stand a lot during my lessons, how could I have damaged my nerve sitting?¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t damage it from sitting. This muscle is often injured from injections, and also potentially from other physical traumas,¡± Yang Ping elucidated. Teacher Yan began to recall, ¡°You¡¯re right. When I was a teenager, I had a leg injury on this side, which became infected and turned into an abscess. I had penicillin injections for a month at a barefoot doctor¡¯s place. My buttocks swelled up from the injections.¡± ¡°Teacher Yan, if you believe in me, I will perform the surgery to relieve your pain,¡± Yang Ping stated sincerely and decisively. After a detailed analysis of the examination results, Yang Ping was fairly confident. ¡°Another surgery? I am scared. I fear it will all be the same after being cut open,¡± Teacher Yan seemed conflicted. ¡°Without the surgery, it will continue like this. Teacher Yan, even if you petition, the problem won¡¯t be solved. You will still be in pain. Petitioning won¡¯t alleviate your pain,¡± Yang Ping helped him analyze the situation. Teacher Yan sighed, ¡°This pain is unbearable. And it¡¯s invisible and intangible. Before, I could get relief from painkiller injections, and using corticosteroids and mannitol had some effect, but now they aren¡¯t working anymore. I can¡¯t even sleep at night.¡± ¡°It must be tough. How long have you had this illness?¡± Yang Ping had seen the medical history but still asked for reaffirmation. ¡°Over ten years. Initially, it hurt intermittently and was not this severe, so I could bear it. The numbness and pain got worse over the past two to three years, especially when I walk. I can only take a few steps before I have to stop. That¡¯s why I decided on surgery, but who knew¡ª¡± Teacher Yan sighed heavily. ¡°We have identified the problem. It can be resolved with surgery. The question is whether you trust me, Teacher Yan,¡± Yang Ping replied. ¡°I trust the doctor, or else I wouldn¡¯t have agreed to have the surgery. But¡ª¡± Teacher Yan expressed his helpless stance. ¡°Teacher Yan, some things in the world behave abnormally. For example, you teach, and a student who usually performs well messes up in the high-stakes college entrance exam. There are many influencing factors. When encountering abnormal situations, the methods to address problems become more complex, but that doesn¡¯t mean we should stop solving them,¡± Yang Ping offered him solace. ¡°You¡¯re right. I had a student in my class who consistently placed in the top ten during regular examinations, but somehow messed up the college entrance exam. He had to retake a year to get into college,¡± When it came to educating students, Teacher Yan perked up noticeably, his tone more energized. ¡°Exactly, Teacher Yan. Considering your situation, how about you ¡®retake¡¯ the process again?¡± Yang Ping immediately suggested. ¡°How sure are you about the results?¡± Teacher Yan seemed caught between choices. ¡°Ninety percent!¡± Yang Ping replied. ¡°Then what are the risks in the remaining ten percent?¡± Teacher Yan inquired cautiously. ¡°There are uncertainties in life. Like the risk of fish bones choking you while eating fish, and the risk of tripping while walking,¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°I understand what you¡¯re saying,¡± Teacher Yan was an educated man who wouldn¡¯t have trouble understanding the logic. ¡°You can think it over and discuss it with your family. Perpetual suffering is not the answer either. You should be enjoying your grandchild and going for walks,¡± Yang Ping encouraged him. ¡°I¡¯ll discuss it with my family,¡± Teacher Yan seemed to have some idea in mind. ¡°I¡¯ll wait for your decision. I¡¯ll be here for another two weeks, and then I¡¯ll return to the provincial city,¡± Yang Ping said, shaking hands with him. ¡°Thank you, Director Yang!¡± Teacher Yan¡¯s attitude seemed considerably improved. Chapter 104 - 0102: Tough Negotiations Chapter 104: Chapter 0102: Tough Negotiations Teacher Yan, leaning on his cane, returned to the ward, and Yang Ping had the ward¡¯s doctor help him get settled in. Director Zeng was now pouring tea for Yang Ping, ceasing to view him as a greenhand. On his first day at work, he helped resolve a difficult problem. Although the matter hasn¡¯t been resolved yet, watching the way young Director Yang handled it with maturity made him sincerely admire him. Yang Ping¡¯s decision to suggest another surgery for the patient was not impulsive, but was based on a thorough analysis of the medical condition. Not going into a battle without certainty; this was Yang Ping¡¯s motto. The medical industry is different from others; lives are at stake, making this motto even more apt. ¡°It¡¯s your first day at work and you had to deal with all this mess. I¡¯m sorry,¡± said Director Zeng with a guilty look. ¡°Director Zeng, these words are unnecessary. We are colleagues; it¡¯s not unheard of for even renowned professors to make a mistake, let alone this incident which is filled with misunderstanding. The surgery was completely flawless; it was just the concurrent pear-shaped muscle syndrome that was overlooked. Anyone looking at the X-rays at that time would assume it to be just a case of intervertebral disc protrusion; I too, am just a hindsight prophet,¡± Yang Ping said modestly. ¡°You handled the situation admirably; his tone became more tempered, at least he didn¡¯t quarrel with you and agreed to consider it,¡± said Director Zeng, who was stressed because of the incident. ¡°It¡¯s not so much my skill as it is his deep misunderstanding of you. In such a case, communication effortlessly flows when someone else steps in.¡± Yang Ping said while sipping his tea. The candidacy for surgery in this particular case was strong, the results should be good. The key to a successful surgery is to choose the right candidates correctly. If the candidacy isn¡¯t chosen correctly, even if the surgery is executed flawlessly, the results won¡¯t be good. It¡¯s like using the right medicine for an ailment¡ªmisdirected medication, even if it¡¯s the best in the world, won¡¯t work. Yang Ping began to plan- if the patient agreed to the surgery, how would they perform it, what the risks were, what they needed to be mindful of, and if there was any other differential diagnosis to consider. He mulled over it repeatedly until he couldn¡¯t find any flaws. One of his good habits was to meticulously plan and repeatedly study even minor surgeries and run the process in his mind beforehand to ensure nothing was overlooked. ¡°If the patient agrees to the surgery and there are no contraindications, plan it for tomorrow. Don¡¯t delay; postponing can complicate things,¡± Yang Ping instructed Director Zeng. ¡°Understood,¡± Director Zeng agreed. After finishing his talk with Teacher Yan, the two walked around the department. The morning was not very busy. The ER admitted a case of dorsal forearm tendon rupture that Zhang Lin took to surgery. A case of lumbar vertebral compression fracture was being treated conservatively by Little Five and her team, while a child with a humeral shaft fracture had their injury realigned and immobilized by Song Zimo. Once done, Director Zeng took Yang Ping to get familiar with the ER and the operating room. Yang Ping and Director Zeng had lunch together in the cafeteria and chatted for a long time. In the afternoon, just before the shift was about to end, a nurse from the director¡¯s office informed them that Teacher Yan¡¯s family had arrived. Director Zeng quickly invited them to his office. They were Teacher Yan¡¯s son and daughter-in-law, both teachers themselves. Director Zeng offered them tea, but with a glum look on their faces, they refused. ¡°What¡¯s the current situation? The old man said he might need another surgery, so we wanted to come and understand the situation,¡± the son addressed Director Zeng. Director Zeng replied, ¡°Please sit down first, let us explain in detail.¡± The couple sat down, but they didn¡¯t even glance at the tea Director Zeng had poured for them. The teacher¡¯s son asked, ¡°What did the hospital director from the provincial capital say? That another surgery will resolve the pain?¡± It was clear that he didn¡¯t recognize Yang Ping as that director. ¡°What do the people consider us? One incision on the left, one on the right. Are we still not satisfied?¡± the daughter-in-law said, her tone sharp. The old man¡¯s son immediately stopped his wife: ¡°What¡¯s the point of saying all this? First, let¡¯s understand the situation.¡± Director Zeng introduced, ¡°This is Director Yang, who has come from the provincial capital to our hospital to provide medical support. We have studied your father¡¯s medical condition this morning and even conducted a CT scan and electromyography.¡± The old man¡¯s son scrutinized Yang Ping; he was so young, doubt clouding his mind. He had initially thought the provincial capital professor would be coming, but it turned out to be a young doctor. ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Doctor Yang. I was dispatched to Nanqiao by the Provincial Health Department to provide medical support,¡± Yang Ping greeted politely, shaking hands. The old man¡¯s son shook his hand; being a teacher, he certainly had some decorum. He didn¡¯t speak as rudely as his wife did. ¡°Here¡¯s the situation. This morning, while doing rounds, I assessed your father¡¯s health. He has been in pain for over ten years, with the past two or three years being particularly severe. He underwent surgery last year, but his symptoms did not alleviate at all. We¡¯ve been wondering why the pain didn¡¯t subside after the surgery. We carefully studied his case, conducted a CT scan and electromyography, and figured out the problem. His right sciatic nerve has been pinched in two places: the lumbar spine and the buttocks. Last year¡¯s surgery only dealt with the lumbar spine section, while the pinch in the buttocks was left neglected, as a result, the pain did not subside. It¡¯s like having a broken switch and a damaged wire at home; fixing only one of the problems won¡¯t make your bulb work; only when both are fixed, will the bulb light up,¡± explained Yang Ping. ¡°We invited a professor from the provincial capital for the previous surgery, and all we got was mere theory,¡± the daughter-in-law retorted sharply. The old man¡¯s son interrupted her: ¡°The case has nothing to do with him.¡± The daughter-in-law swallowed the rest of her words. Yang Ping said, ¡°It¡¯s okay, I understand how you are feeling. I¡¯m only going to be here for two weeks and this matter has nothing to do with me. I could have ignored it entirely. Why trouble myself? Because I¡¯ve encountered such special cases before and I have experience. I can¡¯t bear to see an old man suffer like this. A toothache can cause one to toss and turn in pain, let alone this kind of sciatica. The old man is enduring the pain so as not to burden you. It¡¯s hard to imagine how he¡¯s been able to endure all these years.¡± The old man¡¯s son initially didn¡¯t believe in this young director. But after these words, he began to waver. Why else, he wondered, would he bother with this if it weren¡¯t his issue? Maybe this man truly does have a solution ¨C he did say he¡¯s encountered a case like this. This matter, after all the argument and commotion, had worn down the family. The couple had to work, the child needed attention, and the old man was suffering so much. After a year of fuss, the problem remained unsolved. Now this young doctor claims to have a solution, why not listen? Who wouldn¡¯t want to resolve this issue and live a happy life? This whole situation has reduced the quality of life for the entire family. ¡°Why didn¡¯t Professor Zeng notice the nerves being pinched at two places the last time?¡± the old man¡¯s son asked. Yang Ping replied, ¡°This situation is very rare, difficult for the first time operating surgeons to consider. The previous cases we encountered were the same, the pain didn¡¯t subside after spinal surgery, and only after further examination was it discovered.¡± The daughter-in-law asked, ¡°So did the first surgery, which cost so much, turn out to be a waste?¡± Her tone was softer this time. Yang Ping explained, ¡°Not at all. It¡¯s like when a light bulb in your house doesn¡¯t light up. There¡¯s nothing wrong with the bulb, but the switch and the wiring are broken. The first surgery fixed the switch, and now we need to repair the wiring. Repairing one without the other won¡¯t solve the issue. If we only performed the hip surgery and left out the spinal surgery, the pain wouldn¡¯t have subsided after the operation. Only by performing both surgeries can we achieve a positive outcome.¡± ¡°What if the next surgery doesn¡¯t work out? Can you guarantee 100%?¡± the daughter-in-law turned her face to one side. ¡°I can¡¯t give a 100% guarantee, but the chance of success is more than ninety percent,¡± Yang Ping replied calmly. ¡°I understand, you doctors always leave some leeway.¡± The old man¡¯s son accepted the estimate, realizing that no doctor would dare to claim a hundred percent certainty. Seeing them fall silent, Yang Ping said, ¡°Let¡¯s collectively solve the old man¡¯s pain. If the pain isn¡¯t resolved, no matter how you deal with this, it will remain a problem. The old man suffers, and you suffer too, don¡¯t you?¡± The old man¡¯s son noticed that although Yang Ping was young, his speech was mature and calm, far from the disposition of a typical young doctor. Perhaps he truly does have a solution, or else why would he voluntarily take up this hot potato? ¡°I need to discuss this with the old man. Can you wait a bit?¡± the old man¡¯s son picked up his tea, taking a sip... ¡°No problem, take your time to discuss. We¡¯ll wait for you.¡± Yang Ping maintained a calm and steady tone. ¡°Let me reiterate, if I didn¡¯t want to alleviate the old man¡¯s pain, I could completely ignore this matter,¡± added Yang Ping. After the couple stepped out, about ten minutes passed before the old man¡¯s son returned. ¡°We agree to the surgery, but we request that Director Yang performs it.¡± ¡°Of course, I¡¯ll be the chief surgeon,¡± Yang Ping replied. ¡°And about the expenses for this time¨C¡± the old man¡¯s son stumbled out, clearly troubled. ¡°Let¡¯s first solve the problem at hand and then we can talk about the rest, how does that sound?¡± Yang Ping suggested. The old man¡¯s son didn¡¯t say anything more. ¡°Our attitude before was poor, please forgive us. This matter has been causing a lot of stress in our family,¡± the old man¡¯s son said. Yang Ping waved his hand, ¡°It¡¯s okay.¡± Once the preliminary work with the patient¡¯s family was done, immediate arrangements were made for preoperative examination. Except for the thickened lung texture, there were no other abnormalities. Blood pressure and blood sugar levels were normal, and his overall health was alright. The surgery was scheduled for the following morning. Yang Ping instructed that two doses of methyprednisolone be prepared before surgery and be brought to the operating room. Subsequently, he sent a message to Su Yixuan via WeChat, asking her to help prepare the instruments. He was going to assist with a surgery the following day, and currently, Su Yixuan was acting as the head nurse in the operating room. Upon returning to the dormitory, Yang Ping wanted to report the day¡¯s work situation to Director Tian. Director Tian did not reply as he had gone to dinner with Dean Pan and the leaders of the Health Department. ¡°Fatty, do you have those soft Zhonghuas?¡± Zhang Lin asked Liang Fatty. Fatty was somewhat discontent, ¡°Don¡¯t call me ¡®Fatty¡¯. Call me ¡®Director Liang¡¯. I¡¯m acting as the director of the anesthesia department.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you getting too much into the role?¡± Little Five asked. ¡°What do you guys know? This is called professionalism. Two weeks as a director is still being a director.¡± ¡°Director Liang, Director Liang, could you spare one soft Zhonghua?¡± Zhang Lin extended his hand. Fatty pulled out a box of cigarettes. Chapter 105 - 0103: Immediate Results Chapter 105: Chapter 0103: Immediate Results Liang Fatty, Zhang Lin, and Little Five went out for a smoke. Yang Ping summarised the work of the first day into a WeChat message and reported it to Director Tian. He made a specific report about Teacher Yan¡¯s case, but purposely didn¡¯t mention local closure during the surgery in the surgery plan.] Director Tian replied: I agree with your opinion. Implement the surgery as initially planned. Be sure to use Methylprednisolone for local closure during the surgery, focusing on the nerve compression segment of the ischium. A good doctor is both brave and wise. Without bravery, one would be too cautious and unlikely to succeed. Without wisdom, courage alone invites disaster. To ensure the success of the surgery, Yang Ping entered the system space and dissected a few more specimens. Apart from routine full-body dissection, he paid special attention to the local dissection surrounding the pear-shaped muscle. He slowly began to appreciate the power of the super cultivation method. Each dissecting training greatly contributes to the surgery, with improvements spiralling upward. Just like basic science and applied technology, a strong foundation in basic science allows applied technology to thrive. Otherwise, applied technology would flounder and stagnate. With the accumulation of dissection knowledge from several specimens and an orthopedics specialty, decompression of the sciatic nerve is a minor procedure. The next day, after the morning shift and ward rounds, Yang Ping led everyone to examine the films and then proceeded to the operating room for surgery. Director Zeng was very enthusiastic and genuinely wanted to learn something: ¡°Let me assist you.¡± Yang Ping said, ¡°Director Zeng, I wouldn¡¯t dare trouble you. Dr. Song can assist me. You might need to communicate with the patient¡¯s family at any time.¡± Yang Ping was the chief surgeon, assisted by Song Zimo. Director Zeng was free to observe and move around as he pleased. Protecting the nerves during surgery is especially crucial. Carelessness can lead to nerve damage or excessive tension, which can have severe consequences after surgery. This was the first time working with Director Zeng on a surgery, and they were unfamiliar with each other¡¯s working styles. Yang Ping worried about accidental nerve damage, but it would be inappropriate to directly ask Director Zeng not to come up to the stage, so he arranged it this way. They administered general anesthesia through endotracheal intubation. Little Five and Zhang Lin had prepared and positioned the patient in a prone position. ¡°Good morning, Director Yang!¡± Su Yixuan, accompanied by a nurse from Nanqiao Hospital, was arranging the tools. She greeted Yang Ping as he entered. Yang Ping responded formally, ¡°Nurse Su, I appreciate your help in preparing the operating table.¡± ¡°It¡¯s only right to prepare for Director Yang¡¯s surgery,¡± Su Yixuan replied with a sterilized mask, lips curled in a smile. Once everything was prepared, they washed their hands, dressed, disinfected, spread the surgical drapes, and began. An incision was made at the lower edge of the gluteal maxima, avoiding scar formation at the ischial tuberosity to prevent lasting pain when sitting. Upon lifting the skin, they exposed the gluteal maxima, where local fibrosis had occured. They cut open the tendinous fascia of the lower edge of the gluteal muscle without damaging the muscle fiber, and lifted the gluteal maxima upward, protecting the subgluteal and femoropopliteal nerves. The pear-shaped muscle was revealed, and indeed, the bottom third of it had fibrosed, turning into fibrous scar tissue that had completely lost the qualities of muscle tissue. The sciatic nerve wasn¡¯t emerging from below the pear-shaped muscle. Rather, it was piercing through the fibrosed pear-shaped muscle in the form of a trunk, getting compressed by scar tissue at the exit. No wonder the symptoms of the sciatic nerve were so severe, and even worse during walking, because when walking, the pear-shaped muscle contracts and compresses the sciatic nerve, worsening the symptoms. They carefully separated the nerve from the scar tissue, removing surrounding scar tissue to fully expose the outer membrane of the nerve. The nerve formed a depression at the compression spot, swollen on both ends of the depression. Yang Ping gently pointed out the nerve, ¡°Director Zeng, look!¡± Indeed it was Piriformis syndrome. Director Zeng felt relieved, knowing that his preoperative judgment was correct. ¡°Little Five, take a photo!¡± Everyone moved aside as Little Five carefully aimed his phone camera to take a photo, taking precautions to avoid polluting the surgical field. A rubber strip gently held the nerve open. At this time, it was crucial not to interfere with the sciatic nerve. Excessive tension could cause nerve damage; although it usually recovers eventually, it could take anywhere from a few days to several months. Lower limb numbness or weakness could lead the patient to misunderstand the surgery as a failure and an exacerbation of symptoms. A doctor must always tread carefully. ¡°Dr. Song, make sure to protect the nerve!¡± Yang Ping reminded. He was not really worried about Song Zimo, but feared Director Zeng would not pay proper attention to protecting the nerve. Any unintentional movement such as slipping with the retractor could damage the sciatic nerve. In an operating environment, it¡¯s always better to be cautious and meticulous. Understanding the instruction, Song Zimo placed one hand between Director Zeng¡¯s hook and the nerve, providing stringent protection to the nerve. With the nerve held open, Yang Ping bluntly separated the pear-shaped muscle from the surrounding healthy muscle fibers. Entering through a gap, his fingers divided a seam, then cut the fibrosed part of the pear-shaped muscle at the attachment points of both ends of the muscle. With a bit of healthy muscle fiber left, the fibrosed tissue was completely resected. This way, the nerve was able to pass through the remaining normal pear-shaped muscle beneath the exit of the great ischial foramen without experiencing compression. As the separation was done along the natural gap among muscle fibers without damaging normal muscles, future formation of scar adhesion was unlikely, and future issues were prevented. It was crucial not to allow any scar formation around the decompressed nerve; otherwise the surgery would fail, and the nerve would be compressed again. Blunt dissection and sharp dissection: blunt dissection is used when there is a natural gap, while sharp dissection is used when there isn¡¯t. The former follows an existing path, while the latter makes a new one. They then thoroughly cleansed the surgical field and stopped bleeding again. ¡°80mg Methylprednisolone, mixed with 20ml of saline, get me a syringe!¡± Methylprednisolone is a glucocorticoid that has anti-inflammatory and edema-reducing effects. The injector quietly stabs into the nerve sheath diagonally, injecting the Methylprednisolone, and then sprinkles some on the outer membrane of the nerve to locally insulate the nerve. It waits for about five minutes. Then, use 20mg of Ropivacaine, diluted with saline on a one-to-one ratio, to infiltrate the area where the muscle scar was cut. Then, infiltrate the cut edges layer by layer. This can reduce postoperative pain. Upon re-inspection, the loosening was thorough, the blood clotting was perfect, and the entire surgery was pleasing with almost no bleeding. The gauze was even untouched. The few Orthopedics doctors who were observing the operation discussed among themselves that the operations in big hospitals are really different. The rubber band was pulled out, and the nerve was returned to its original place. Insert the drain, sew the layers together, and the surgery is over. As soon as the surgery was finished and the sterile single sheet was lifted, the patient woke up. Liang Fatty used a suction tube to clean the secretions in the patient¡¯s trachea and successfully extubated the tube. The cooperation was very good. The patient was recovering from anesthesia and was being taken out of the operating room. A nurse called a relative, and his son immediately came up. Yang Ping took out his cell phone and showed him the pictures he took during the surgery: ¡°Mr. Yan, look, this is your sciatic nerve, compressed like this, thinning in the middle and swollen at both ends. If you don¡¯t undergo surgery, you will become paralyzed. You would have lost the use of one leg.¡± Arriving in the ward, the patient had fully regained consciousness and could have normal conversations. Those who have undergone general anesthesia can move all their limbs once they regain consciousness. The patient moved his right lower limb a bit, and surprisingly, it didn¡¯t hurt. Maybe the anesthetic was still working, but regardless, the pain was gone for now. Pain greatly negatively impacts a patient and seriously affects their life, like a relentless nightmare. Some patients who are tortured by pain even become suicidal. Having had this burden lifted, even if only temporarily, made the patient feel extremely relieved, like they had been reborn. ¡°It doesn¡¯t hurt anymore!¡± This is the first thing Teacher Yan said upon returning to the ward. ¡°Go and say thank you to the doctor!¡± Teacher Yan instructed his son. The son said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I know.¡± In cases of nerve relaxation, some may experience a rebound where the symptoms become worse than before. To avoid this, Yang Ping used Methylprednisolone to locally insulate the nerve, eliminate inflammation, alleviate nerve edema, and prevent possible postoperative rebound. This would enhance the patient¡¯s postoperative experience, which is crucial. The patient wouldn¡¯t know whether the surgery was performed well. What they would know is whether the problem was resolved and to what extent. For Teacher Yan, relief from pain means success. A million words wouldn¡¯t be as persuasive as his own experience. After more than ten years, he finally had a day without pain. Teacher Yan was so excited that his hands were shaking. He gripped his son¡¯s hand: ¡°Remember, say thank you to Director Yang.¡± Even though the entire process went smoothly, Yang Ping didn¡¯t let down his guard for the time being. He couldn¡¯t jump to any conclusions yet. After all, he had used local insulation during the procedure. He still needed to see if any rebound symptoms would appear in the next few days, even though the probability was low. Yang Ping instructed the bedside doctor to pay attention to stomach protection and use some nerve nourishing medications. He stressed to Little Five that he should personally handle the dressing changes and to call him over while doing so. He wanted to see it for himself. After the surgery, Yang Ping and Director Zeng rested in the office. Teacher Yan¡¯s son came over. His facial expression was normal this time; he wasn¡¯t scowling anymore. ¡°Thank you, Director Yang!¡± He took the initiative to shake hands with Yang Ping. Yang Ping said, ¡°You¡¯re welcome. Doctors and patients are comrades, and our common enemy is sickness.¡± ¡°Director Zeng, thank you too.¡± Seeing Director Zeng beside him, the old man¡¯s son expressed his gratitude. Just after the surgery, it was clear that there was an immediate effect, but it was unknown whether it could be maintained. So, the old man¡¯s son didn¡¯t say much. He decided to observe a bit more for now. Dean Pan and Director Tian had just arrived at the department, and from a distance, they heard Dean Pan¡¯s voice. Because he was missing a tooth, his speech had a unique character. ¡°Director Yang, you¡¯ve worked hard! I heard you just finished a surgery.¡± Dean Pan shook hands with Yang Ping. Director Zeng said, ¡°The patient we just did surgery on was Teacher Yan, who has been pestering us for a year. The pain has eased after the surgery, and the patient¡¯s family just came to thank us.¡± Director Tian had already reported this matter to Dean Pan last night. Such a patient was a special case, and the surgery could not be done discreetly. Dean Pan said, ¡°Oh dear, as soon as I landed, you had me clean up the mess. This is so embarrassing, airing our dirty laundry like this.¡± Yang Ping said, ¡°Dean Pan, your words are too harsh. Director Zeng was the one who figured out the medical condition. I was only asked to mediate due to the deep misunderstanding between both parties. It¡¯s not a big deal.¡± Dean Pan turned to look at Director Zeng: ¡°Director Zeng, learn from the professors in the provincial city, and dig deeper.¡± Director Zeng felt extremely pleased though he knew Yang Ping was being polite. Therefore, he said, ¡°That¡¯s why I am always there to pestle Director Yang, trying to squeeze out some real knowledge. Director Yang was instrumental in helping me understand this medical condition.¡± After a bit of small talk, they inquired about any work difficulties, living conditions and habits, and also recommended a few interesting places in Nan Bridge. Dean Pan and Director Tian then left to go to other departments. ¡°What about that left femoral osteomyelitis?¡± Director Zeng took the initiative to bring it up. He had sensed that Yang Ping had something to say when they made their rounds yesterday. Chapter 106 - 0104: From War to Peace Chapter 106: Chapter 0104: From War to Peace ¡°Let¡¯s discuss this patient in detail.¡± Yang Ping felt the timing was right. Director Zeng sincerely said, ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll go get the patient¡¯s records.¡± The patient had a lot of medical images, bulging out of several bags. They came from Nanqiao People¡¯s Hospital, Shipo People¡¯s Hospital, and the provincial city hospital. Each hospital had done a complete set of tests. Yang Ping quickly sorted out these images, X-rays, CT scans, and magnetic resonance imaging, dividing them into three sections. Each section was arranged in chronological order, with those dated earlier at the top, and those at the bottom dated later. Otherwise, it would be unclear when and where each image was taken from the pile of pictures. The two men put up each film on the viewing light, one by one, changing out each image after viewing it. Pointing at the most recent MRI Yang Ping said, ¡°Look at the left femoral shaft. The local signal here is different from other areas. Now let¡¯s look at the CT scan.¡± He took out the CT scan from the same period, verified the date, and put it up: ¡°Likewise, the density at this spot is different from other areas. You can see a slight formation of dead bone and local proliferation here. Other areas do not have this phenomenon, they just have uneven bone density reduction and the surface is pitted.¡± He then put up the X-ray: ¡°The trabecular bone is unevenly reduced, and the cortical area does not show any voids yet.¡± After all this explanation, Director Zeng didn¡¯t understand what Yang Ping was trying to convey. Seeing his confusion, Yang Ping said, ¡°I suspect that this patient does not have an infection throughout the femur, only a localized infection here!¡± This novel viewpoint intrigued Director Zeng. The crux of why this case was tricky and why the provincial hospital did not want to perform surgery on this patient was precisely because they thought the entire femur was infected and was inoperable. ¡°This patient was once hospitalized at the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital, planning to undergo an infected bone segment resection and bone elongation surgery. But since both ends were also infected, it wouldn¡¯t be possible to cut off the entire femur. What would they elongate then? Hence, the doctors gave up on surgery and suggested going back to the local hospital for anti-infection treatment.¡± The so-called return to the local hospital for anti-infection treatment was just an excuse; they didn¡¯t want to take over the case. Yang Ping said, ¡°If our diagnosis is correct, that it¡¯s only a focal osteomyelitis, that would make things a lot easier. We can completely remove the infected bone tissue, use antibiotic-loaded calcium sulfate to fill the area, then perform a myocutaneous flap to cover the lost part. Problem solved. Bone elongation technology, also known as bone transportation technology, uses the bone extension technology developed by Dr Ilizarov from the Soviet Union to elongate the bone tissue.¡± For a while, this technology was quite popular; many hospitals used it to perform height-enhancing surgeries. That¡¯s right; the infamous method of increasing height through bone-breaking.¡± These height-increasing surgeries led to the misuse of the technology and resulted in many accidents. The Ministry of Health later explicitly forbade using this technology for height increase, allowing it only for disease treatment and deformity correction. ¡°Director Yang, if it¡¯s localized osteomyelitis, how do you explain the imaging changes in other parts, the pitted ones?¡± Director Zeng was interested in following Yang Ping¡¯s line of thought, not only to solve the problem but also for the pleasure and sense of accomplishment brought about by such logical reasoning. A doctor can be like this! He felt that discussing with Yang Ping like this had elevated his level of clinical thinking. Yang Ping went straight to the point, ¡°The changes in other areas are caused by hyperthyroid bone disease. The disease just coincided with osteomyelitis, making people think without hesitation that the entire femur was infected and beyond salvation.¡± Thyroid tests are not part of the routine hospital admittance protocol, and orthopedic patients do not usually get tested for thyroid hormones unless there are symptoms like thyroid enlargement. ¡°So what should we do next?¡± Director Zeng wanted to know straightforwardly. This knowledge was a bit too much; it was thought-provoking! Yang Ping said, ¡°These are merely my assumptions at the moment. We need further tests, like drawing blood to check the thyroid hormone level and taking bone tissue from multiple puncture points for bacterial culture.¡± Medicine is a rigorous science. Decisions can never be made based on mere assumptions, which not only cannot cure diseases but also can easily harm the patients. ¡°We will use multiple puncture points and conduct bacterial cultures. If bacteria are found at every puncture point, it would mean that the femur is extensively infected. If bacteria are only detected at this point, and not at the others, it would support my diagnosis. We can then perform surgery to remove this area of infected bone tissue and use a myocutaneous flap to cover the defect,¡± Yang Ping explained in detail. Director Zeng said, ¡°I¡¯ll arrange for it right away. Shall we draw blood tomorrow morning on an empty stomach?¡± ¡°Yes, draw blood tomorrow morning on an empty stomach, and do the bedside bone puncture now to collect bone tissue for bacterial culture,¡± Yang Ping agreed. No time to waste, once decided, better start early. Two weeks of dragging their feet will get nothing done. Director Zeng immediately went to the doctor¡¯s office, grabbed a random doctor, and placed an order for a blood draw on an empty stomach the next morning. He ordered a thyroid hormone test and a surface ultrasound to check if there were any nodules on the thyroid. In Director Zeng¡¯s eyes, Yang Ping was a miracle worker. He had to take advantage of the next two weeks while Yang Ping was still around to solve the two big issues in his department. Being a department director wasn¡¯t easy. Every day while he was in the office, before he had a sip of tea, he had to first check if Teacher Yan had arrived. He even had to take a detour to and from work for fear of being cornered. Although he was no threat to his physical safety, he was bothersome ¨C if someone¡¯s always pestering you, how can you have any peace? The patient with osteomyelitis of the femoral shaft, though his surgery wasn¡¯t performed here and his family was polite, keeps asking you every few days: ¡°How is it, can the infection be controlled, do you have other ideas?¡± You get overwhelmed by being asked so much and every time you can only gloss over it: ¡°Maybe we change the medicine a few more days and see.¡± But changing the medicine every day, it leaves you at a loss and feels frustrating! There was no time to lose, Director Zeng asked a doctor to prepare for a bone puncture kit, preparing for a bedside bone puncture. ¡°Shall we go see Teacher Yan again?¡± Yang Ping thought it¡¯s time to check on him again. Despite full confidence, he still wanted to keep a close eye on him. The human body is complex, and medicine isn¡¯t perfect and cannot account for all changes. This is the uncertainty of treatment. After undergoing general anesthesia, a six-hour fast is required. Teacher Yan¡¯s son sat at his bedside, dipping a cotton swab in water to keep Teacher Yan¡¯s lips moist. ¡°Dad, Director Yang and Director Zeng are visiting you,¡± the old man¡¯s son said. Teacher Yan was lying on his side, facing inwards to avoid putting pressure on his post-operative site. Upon hearing Yang Ping was here, he said: ¡°Director Yang, I feel no pain now, my body feels so relieved. Thank you so much.¡± He reached behind the pillow and grabbed a notebook: ¡°Hand me a pen. Wait a minute, let me jot this down. What¡¯s the time? Director Yang came to check on me. I want to write a letter to thank you. If I had met you earlier, I wouldn¡¯t have suffered this long. You¡¯ve rooted out a disease that has plagued me for more than a decade, and the relief I feel is indescribable.¡± ¡°Director Yang, which hospital are you from? Can you tell me?¡± asked Teacher Yan. ¡°Provincial Sanbo Hospital,¡± Yang Ping told him. ¡°I¡¯ll take note of this. I want to write a letter of praise to your hospital. You are young and promising, a pillar of the country.¡± Teacher Yan closed his notebook and handed it to his son to place under the pillow, After they visited Teacher Yan and the bone puncture kit was prepared, the bone puncture ideally should be performed under CT guidance for precise targeting of the lesion. But as the femoral bone disease was diffusive with widespread presence, a successful procedure merely required the puncture to reach the femoral bone. The suspected infected bone tissue was exposed, a direct vision puncture. Thus, there was no need for CT-guided, it could be done directly at the bedside under local anesthesia. The in-charge doctor communicated with the patient and obtained an informed consent form. Yang Ping performed the operation himself, the whole process was strictly aseptic to prevent pollution that could affect the accuracy of the result. The bacterial culture would need several days, once the bone puncture was done, they could only wait for the results. Zhang Lin was checking the doctors¡¯ medical records, guiding them on how to write an excellent medical record. One of his fingers was wrapped with a bandage, he broke his skin while washing clothes. The hospital had bought a washing machine for everyone to use, but as doctors, many of them were a bit hygiene-obsessed. With over a dozen groups rotating in the rural area, the idea of sharing a washing machine daunted most of them. They preferred to wash their clothes by hand especially when it was just for two weeks. ¡°Writing a medical record is the biggest test of a doctor¡¯s skill!¡± said Zhang Lin, emphasising every word, very much in the style of a teacher. Doctors surrounding him all raptly listened. ¡°You see, brother, your medical record, it¡¯s written very well. It pointed out the anomalies that others might have missed. A truly worthy talent!¡± Zhang Lin pointed at the medical record. Everyone crowded in to look at the medical record; the praised brother swelled with pride. ¡°Male patient, menstrual history written down in such detail, well, that¡¯s quite the effort,¡± Zhang Lin pointed his finger at the table. Everyone wanted to laugh but didn¡¯t dare to. Song Zimo took Little Five into surgery, a case of finger replantation. It was originally planned to just sew the finger up without attempting to replant it. However, after calling the operating room and learning that they had microsurgical instruments and sutures, plus a second-hand microscope, they decided to proceed with the replantation. They ran into Director Tian at the cafeteria at noon. Director Tian said that the weather had been nice these past few days and suggested everyone go up to the mountain to provide free medical care to the villagers. Before going off duty, Yang Ping went to see Teacher Yan again who was still pain-free. He was most concerned about a rebound, which sometimes lasts for several days. While it could be simply explained to regular patients, if this patient had a rebound, it risked causing misunderstandings. The system didn¡¯t immediately announce the result as it usually did after surgery. It seemed to be waiting for the result too. The system was so cunning- extracting points from it was not an easy job. ¡°Director Yang!¡± Teacher Yan¡¯s voice rang out. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± Yang Ping responded. Teacher Yan said, ¡°I¡¯ve been considering writing a thank you poem!¡± Chapter 107 - 0105: Charity Surgery Chapter 107: Chapter 0105: Charity Surgery After visiting Teacher Yan¡¯s ward, I went to visit a young man with osteomyelitis. Yang Ping asked the duty doctor to bring the dressing kit, and she personally changed the dressing, measuring the area of skin defect. ¡°I was fine after the surgery, but three months later a lump formed here, then it broke, becoming an open wound, and ever since it has been continuously discharging pus.¡± the young man explained. ¡°You¡¯ve undergone several surgeries, haven¡¯t you?¡± Yang Ping conversed with him while changing the dressing. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve had several debridement surgeries, some skin was cut off, some flesh too, a piece of bone removed, since the metal nail had surfaced, the doctor didn¡¯t dare to meddle with the bone anymore, they said it¡¯s all infected now, more cuts wouldn¡¯t do any good. I originally wanted to join the army, but now this has happened...¡± The young man appeared very dispirited, his dream had been obliterated. Being in the army, even if his osteomyelitis was cured, his hyperthyroidism would prevent him from enlisting. The path to being a military man was no longer possible. After dressing the wound, Yang Ping said, ¡°We¡¯re trying to figure out the best treatment, though it will be a tough process. We took a bone sample for testing today, and we will need to get some blood samples tomorrow morning. Once we have the results, we will examine your condition further.¡± ¡°If I get cured, can I still be a soldier? They say that for the rest of my life my leg will remain like this, unless it gets amputated...¡± the young man seemed pessimistic. ¡°Rest well these few days, don¡¯t worry too much, there are more solutions than problems.¡± Yang Ping comforted him. ¡°Yes, I have to become a soldier.¡± The young man¡¯s dream of joining the army was very strong. ¡°There are many other professions you can choose from, doesn¡¯t have to be the army,¡± Yang Ping tried to console him. ¡°Doctor, as long as I can get cured to the point where I can join the army, I wouldn¡¯t mind how many surgeries it takes. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find a way.¡± He looked up to the doctor with hopeful eyes. ¡°I¡¯ll try my best!¡± Reassured Yang Ping. At this moment, an elderly couple entered the premises, bringing food in a thermal lunch box. Klthough nearly eighty, they seemed to be in good health and had no need to walk with a cane. After changing the dressing, Yang Ping noticed Director Zeng had been waiting by the door the whole time, and wondered if there was something he wanted. It turned out he wanted to treat Yang Ping and the others in the ward to dinner, including all the doctors except those who were on duty. Initially, he had intended to invite everyone a day later, but learned that Yang Ping and others had to go on a rural outreach mission in two days. He was worried that any further delay would make the invitation seem insincere. So, he decided to take them out for dinner that same day at a restaurant near the hospital. The attending doctor helped clean up the trash. Everyone went to dinner together, a short walk away. During the feast, everyone was in high spirits. Director Zeng expressed his usual grievances about the various difficulties of running a rural hospital. Talking about the young man with osteomyelitis, his face grew troubled. The young man¡¯s surname was Xu, he was actually quite pitiable. Both his parents died when he was young and he was raised by his grandparents who are now in their eighties. Because the treatment for chronic osteomyelitis takes a long time and is very costly, even with health insurance, the out-of-pocket expenses are unbearable. To afford his treatment, the elderly couple sold their only house and now live in an old bungalow belonging to a relative. What Director Zeng said on his ward round that morning contradicted what he just said. Zhang Lin seemed about to say something, Yang Ping immediately said, ¡°Zhang Lin, can you pour me a drink?¡± Zhang Lin understood and refrained from making anyone uncomfortable. Yang Ping knew, that when Director Zeng spoke the way he did on the first day, it was only to caution them against making rash decisions. Director Zeng had misunderstood. ¡°Given the situation, cost is an issue, we need to think of a solution.¡± Yang Ping brought attention to the very real problem. Expecting the hospital to foot the bill? If every case like this had to be paid for by the hospital, it would go bankrupt. This Sanbo¡¯s medical outreach is a charity activity, but it merely entails volunteer work by Sanbo¡¯s doctors. Yang Ping and Director Zeng started doing the math on the cost, assuming the test results confirm the prognosis, surgery is possible. The intramedullary nails need to be removed, replaced with an external frame. The bone defect needs to be filled with antibiotic-containing calcium sulfate, which is even more expensive than gold and if calculated by the gram, is estimated to cost thirty to forty thousand yuan, just for this consumable alone. Even if health insurance covers a part of the cost, he would still have to bear at least over ten thousand yuan. Asking the equipment dealer to sponsor some materials could be an option, but since the rural county hospital would have lesser usage, they may not be willing, especially with regards to the calcium sulfate, as Director Zeng surely wouldn¡¯t use much of it all year round. Doing business, essentially, means making money. Asking someone for sponsorship means the cost is absorbed by the sponsor¡¯s customer base; since Zeng himself rarely used the product, why would anyone agree to sponsor it? Director Zeng was distressed about this issue; this was more formidable than Teacher Yan¡¯s problem. Yang Ping took a sip of his drink and proposed, ¡°The bulk of the cost for this surgery stems from the external frame and calcium sulfate, I¡¯ll figure something out.¡± Once Yang Ping said this, Director Zeng felt at ease; the issue of cost was resolved. No one drank any alcohol for fear of an emergency. With a staff shortage in the small hospital, there were even fewer people who could perform surgeries. Unlike at Sanbo Hospital, where the surgery doesn¡¯t get delayed even if all directors are not operating, because there are experienced attending doctors like Dr. Jin, who can handle surgeries without any fuss. After dinner, they returned to their quarters. Director Tian came back relatively early today, having no socializing to do. He gave a list to Zhang Lin, ¡°The weather has been quite nice these days, there¡¯s an outreach activity in the rural areas. You and Little Five take care of assigning personnel, the ones in circles don¡¯t need to go. Notify everyone to meet in the hospital meeting room tomorrow noon. We will leave the day after for the activity, which will take a whole day. We will set off early in the morning and return in the evening.¡± Zhang Lin took the list and asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t we already in the countryside? More rural outreach? How much further can we go?¡± ¡°Go into the mountains and villages, deliver medical services and medicines, conduct physical examinations and treat diseases,¡± Director Tian said. ¡°For how long?¡± ¡°One day, a total of ten villages, all of which are minority ethnic settlements. Village doctors and village officials will guide the entire way,¡± Director Tian said. ¡°That¡¯s not bad, we should do it for several more days, for a week,¡± Zhang Lin said with delight. Director Tian glanced at him and said, ¡°Are you here for rural assistance or for a vacation?¡± ¡°Both poetry and mundane life are important, Director Tian! This is called the spirit of revolutionary optimism.¡± Zhang Lin began to sketch on paper with a pen. Liang Fatty asked, ¡°Am I going too? Am I delivering anesthesia?¡± ¡°No need for you to risk your neck, your job is to measure blood pressure. Aren¡¯t you trying to lose weight? Walking up and down the mountain roads, I guarantee you¡¯ll lose five kilos. If you carry all your luggage, it¡¯s not impossible to lose ten kilos,¡± Director Tian said leisurely. Whenever Director Tian was free, Yang Ping would speak up: ¡°Director Tian, there is something I need to report to you.¡± Yang Ping had briefly reported on the patient with chronic osteomyelitis earlier. Now he needed a detailed report. Speaking of calcium sulfate and an external fixator, Yang Ping said Director Zeng wanted to find a supplier to solve the problem, but there would definitely be difficulties. After thinking for a moment, Director Tian said: ¡°They don¡¯t use it much, how could anyone sponsor them? Losing now is for earning more in the future. I¡¯ll take care of this. How much calcium sulfate would we roughly need?¡± ¡°At least thirty grams,¡± Yang Ping estimated. Director Tian immediately picked up the phone: ¡°Xiao Lin, this is Tian Yuan, I have a charitable surgery at Nanqiao County People¡¯s Hospital, I need thirty grams of calcium sulfate, I will send you the address, please send it over as soon as possible, urgently needed. Can it be express shipped tonight? That would be best.¡± After hanging up the phone, he dialed another number and solved the issue of the external fixator. ¡°They will ship it tonight, and it should arrive tomorrow or the day after. It won¡¯t affect the surgery, right? If necessary, I can have them send a special car,¡± Director Tian was very enthusiastic. ¡°No need for that, the surgery will certainly be several days from now,¡± said Yang Ping. Originally, he was just reporting first, there was no rush for the materials, there was still uncertainty if the surgery would proceed or not. But Director Tian solved everything with just a few minutes and two phone calls. With the issue of materials solved, the next step was diagnosis. Is the patient¡¯s condition the same as his conjecture? No one can be absolutely sure until the results come out. With the problem solved, Yang Ping had a good night¡¯s sleep. Another day passed, the third day of work. Just when the shift had ended, but before rounds had started, Director Zeng received a call from the Director of the Laboratory Department. ¡°Thyroid hormone, T3, T4, FT3, FT4, are all elevated, especially T3 and FT3 increased significantly! The thyroid function is truly hyperactive!¡± After hanging up the phone, Director Zeng sounded excited, as if he was hoping for the patient¡¯s hyperthyroidism. If one were to say that an imaging examination was the first piece of evidence. Then the second piece of evidence already supports his diagnosis. Now they are just waiting for the third piece of evidence ¡ª the bacterial culture! This is the most important piece of evidence, if all the specimens yield cultured bacteria, the previous two pieces of evidence will be overshadowed. The results of bacterial culture only come out after three to five days, so patience is necessary. This patient was not like Teacher Yan who could be diagnosed quickly and show immediate changes after surgery. Diagnosis alone for this patient was a troublesome matter. Now, Teacher Yan was doing well. Except for some slight pain at the surgical site, the previous numb pain in the lower right limb had completely disappeared, and the anticipated aftermath had not occurred. During rounds, he was on the phone: ¡°Too small, a little bigger, even bigger¨C¡± His son had gone to buy breakfast. A pair of crutches was placed beside the bed. He had wounds on his butt, so it was inconvenient to sit, walking was easier. Seeing Yang Ping came, he immediately smiled: ¡°I had a good sleep last night, so relaxed. Before, even several tablets of An Ding had no effect on me, just like eating beans. Last night, I intentionally didn¡¯t take An Ding, then unknowingly fell asleep, and when I woke up, it was almost eight o¡¯clock. This is what life should be like.¡± After lunch, in the conference room of the hospital, Director Tian and Dean Pan called a small meeting, about carrying out the health services to the rural areas tomorrow. They selected ten villages, all relatively remote, populated with ethnic minorities. Two to three people were assigned to a village, along with a medical box, to carry out physical examinations and treat the villagers. Doctors from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and Maternal and Child Health Hospital assigned by Sanbo were not required to participate. The Health Bureau would send cars to drop people off at the entrance of the village, each team would be accompanied by local village or township officials. In the afternoon, everyone was to return to their dormitories to prepare. Yang Ping packed his backpack and checked the weather forecast on his phone. The weather was clear for the next few days, which was quite suitable for going to the countryside. The rural areas here were the real countryside, with concrete roads only reaching the entrance of the village. The so-called ¡°village entrance¡± was just a concept, not a geographic location. The residences here were very dispersed, some mountain roads were completely suspended over cliffs, it¡¯s impossible to build a road there. ¡°On such a sunny day, why are you packing a raincoat?¡± Zhang Lin asked, seeing Yang Ping packing a raincoat. Yang Ping thought that the weather forecast wasn¡¯t always 100% accurate, it¡¯s more comforting to take a raincoat along. ¡°Preparation beforehand!¡± Yang Ping folded up two raincoats. Chapter 108 - 0106: Eighteen Bends in the Mountain Road Chapter 108: Chapter 0106: Eighteen Bends in the Mountain Road In the early morning, the sky was shrouded in a thin layer of fog. After Yang Ping had breakfast, he went over the plan for the village outreach activity in his mind, even though he had prepared thoroughly the night before, he still wanted to check if there was anything he missed. He then called Director Zeng, reminding him to contact him at any time with any issues in the department and not to be afraid of being a bother. Everyone¡¯s spirits were high for this deep village outreach activity, and they gathered at the hospital entrance earlier than necessary. The Bureau of Health sent six vehicles, all of which were minivans, parked at the side of the road in front of the hospital, with a loudspeaker installed on the roof of the first vehicle. Dean Pan, representatives from the Bureau of Health, and Director Tian each gave a brief speech. Everyone got into the vehicles according to their numbers. The group and vehicle arrangements had been posted in the group the day before, it was clear and straightforward. The Bureau of Health had assigned a liaison officer to each group, and they were standing by the door of the vehicles, waiting. Director Tian rode in the first vehicle with Dean Pan, everyone else was to find their own vehicles as assigned, and if they couldn¡¯t figure out where to go, they would ask Zhang Lin. As for the minivans, the interior was not that spacious. When Fat Liang tried to squeeze into the back, he seemed stuck. Zhang Lin, worried, shouted: ¡°those on the side, stop watching and give him a push.¡± Yang Ping was grouped with Xiao Su again, he had a bag on his back and carried another in his hand, and he helped Xiao Su onto the bus. Once everyone had boarded, Zhang Lin and Little Five began to roll-call and when they finished, Zhang Lin swung his hand and shouted ¡°Depart!¡± People who didn¡¯t know him might think he was a bureau leader. ¡°Get on the bus!¡± Little Five waved at him. Zhang Lin poked his head in, there was only one seat left, beside Fatty. ¡°Stop searching, there¡¯s only one seat left.¡± Little Five had boarded the car earlier. ¡°Fatty, move in a bit.¡± Zhang Lin couldn¡¯t really fit in. ¡°I am already leaning to the side, half of my butt is hanging off the seat, and you can¡¯t sit down, it¡¯s time for you to lose weight.¡± Fatty squeezed as much as he could to the side. Zhang Lin glared at him, took the seat by force. He wanted to curse, how could such a person exist, he thought to himself. The convoy set off, winding its way along the village¡¯s cement road, with occasional cars passing by. If the oncoming vehicle was big, it would be inconvenient to pass them. The oncoming car would have to reverse until they reached a fork in the road or a specifically widened passing area. Gradually, the vehicles branched off, and soon only the vehicle Yang Ping was riding in remained. Xiao Su was very curious about the scenery seen from the window and frequently asked questions. Yang Ping patiently answered her, occasionally including amusing countryside stories that were new to Xiao Su. The two of them chatted with interest and enjoyment. After finishing their conversation, they suddenly fell silent, glanced at each other, immediately shifted their gazes, and blushed simultaneously. The minivan started climbing the slope, with the driver constantly shifting gears and maneuvering the steering wheel dextrously. At the sharp corners, it felt as if one would be flung out of the vehicle by the centrifugal force. Those not accustomed to it would become anxious, but the driver did not seem to mind, perhaps he had gotten used to such roads. Slowly, the minivan came to a stop. The other group on the minivan had reached their village and it was time for them to disembark. Yang Ping looked out, the entrance to the village was a staircase paved with stones leading up the mountain. Four people disembarked, one liaison officer, three doctors, and nurses. There were some people waiting at the junction, they were likely there to receive them. The minivan continued onward, winding and twisting, going deeper and deeper, an abundance of gigantic trees that were seldom seen were visible everywhere. When the cement road finally led to a dead end, the liaison officer announced, ¡°Doctors, we have arrived!¡± ¡°We¡¯ve arrived!¡± Yang Ping reminded Xiao Su. ¡°Hmm,¡± Xiao Su softly agreed. She felt confused. She had been thrown off balance by the mountain road earlier and had been on edge the whole time. Yang Ping carried the luggage while Xiao Su offered, ¡°I¡¯ll carry some.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, I had three eggs for breakfast.¡± Yang Ping laughed. Some medical supplies had been moved to the health outpost in the village earlier, so all they were carrying now was their personal luggage. The liaison officer had a big camera hanging around his neck, the kind that seemed very professional. There were a few people waiting at the entrance of the village, and they came towards us as we got off. ¡°This is Village Chief Fang, this is Mago from the health station. We couldn¡¯t pull out more manpower from the township hospital, so only Mago can assist us,¡± the liaison officer introduced. An older man and a middle-aged woman came forward to shake hands with everyone. There were also several young men, each carrying a pole. They looked at everyone with friendly smiles. ¡°Give all the luggage to them. These young lads came specially to help carry the luggage, the road ahead is not easy.¡± The liaison officer advised. Yang Ping handed the backpack over to them. They hung it at the ends of their poles, and one man section handled the luggage. The rest, with nothing to do, wanted to help the liaison officer carry his camera, but the liaison officer instinctively turned aside, ¡°I can manage it myself.¡± The group climbed up the steps. The young man carrying the luggage was lively, carrying the load rhythmically, and leading the way. They were all dressed in the traditional cloth garments of the Yao Ethnic Group. Mago spoke Fluent Mandarin, while the village chief¡¯s Mandarin was rather poor. He spoke a few sentences, but no one understood him. The Village Chief laughed, and so did Yang Ping. Mago translated for him: ¡°He says, thank you all, thank you to the government.¡± After climbing the steps, they entered a mountain path almost clinging to the rock cliff, about wide enough for two people side by side. There was a deep valley on one side, with a guardrail similar to those on highways running along the edge of the road. The valley was filled with water, but it was unclear what to call it, a lake? A motorcycle came from the opposite direction, and everyone made way for it. People dared to ride motorcycles on such a road? Weren¡¯t they afraid of falling off? To read ten thousand books, and travel ten thousand miles. The village chief said a few more words, seemingly about the guardrail. Mago explained, ¡°He said the railings were built by the government. They weren¡¯t here before.¡± Mago was very lively and introduced as they walked, ¡°The reservoir is down below, it¡¯s full of fish. Our whole village depends on this reservoir. There are fish buyers every day. They would park at the entrance of the village and come to the dam ahead.¡± Seeing this reservoir, Yang Ping felt a natural fear. But he still took Xiao Su to the inside and guarded her from the outside. ¡°The government had planned to build houses along the cement road and let everyone move out, but everyone disagreed. They were used to living here, generation after generation.¡± Mago said. Mago graduated from a health school and had worked in coastal areas before, working in both pharmacies and clinics. Later, when the village planned to build a health clinic, she, being a medical professional, returned to become the village doctor. The cliff gradually became less steep, no longer perpendicular but slanting, and the rocks turned into earthen hills. The road widened, the reservoir got bigger, and a boat moved across the water. The sound of its diesel engine was loud. There was a bare hillside along the road, scattered with large and small stones, completely out of place with the lush surroundings. A flat area was dug out halfway up the mountain, seemingly ready for construction. There was a huge rock on the flat area, which looked to be several tons in weight. ¡°The former township chief cut down all the trees in this area without the villagers¡¯ consent. The trees have already been cut down and there¡¯s nothing we can do. The village chief plans to build a fish station on top of the hill to sell fish. That huge rock was originally at the top of the mountain, but it fell to the hillside during a landslide last year.¡± With Mago¡¯s commentary, the mountain walk was not boring. The young man carrying the luggage strode quickly. Mago told him to slow down. He gave a simple and honest smile over his shoulder and slowed down. The Village Chief said a few more words, and Mago helped translate, ¡°He said that rock is very dangerous. It was planned to be blasted, but the blasting needs to be applied for through the township government. He has applied, but the township government hasn¡¯t sent anyone to blast it. If they don¡¯t come soon, he will get someone to roll the rock down into the reservoir.¡± After nearly forty minutes, they finally saw the village. The houses were old-fashioned, made of green bricks and tiles, three-storied, with overhanging eaves, very distinctive. At the entrance of the village sat an old lady under a big tree by the front door of a similar house, puffing on a long pipe. The clouds in the sky didn¡¯t disperse, it seemed as if the sun was trapped, it showed a little face and then got covered by the clouds again. ¡°This is the village health clinic and also my home. Don¡¯t stand on ceremony, please come in. This is my grandmother, she¡¯s ninety-nine.¡± Mago quickly invited everyone in. The sign for the health clinic was hanging on the side of the house. A middle-aged man walked out of the house, chuckling, ¡°Everyone, please come in and sit.¡± ¡°Why not sit outside and enjoy the scenery?¡± the liaison officer suggested, seeking Yang Ping¡¯s opinion. ¡°This is my husband. He works on the reservoir.¡± said Mago. Mago¡¯s husband brought out long benches, while Mago brought out a bamboo chair for Xiao Su to sit on. ¡°Our medical outreach will be held here soon. Everyone heard the doctors from the city were coming, so they decided to stay and wait for the outreach.¡± Old lady asked Mago something in dialect. Mago responded to her, then turned to them and said, ¡°She asked if the city officials have arrived. She told me to make tea and pour water for you all. She said not to just stand there.¡± Everyone laughed, the old lady was ninety-nine but still so sturdy. Yang Ping looked at the old lady. Although her facial wrinkles were as deep as orange peel, her body was sturdy, her eyes were bright, and her hearing was sharp. Mago had spoken to her in a regular tone. ¡°Doctor Yang, people say that smoking is bad for health, but granny smokes and she¡¯s ninety-nine but still so healthy?¡± The liaison officer said while fiddling with his camera. ¡°Granny has longevity genes, ordinary people shouldn¡¯t compare with her.¡± Yang Ping laughed. Those young men had already started to get busy. They were setting up sun umbrellas at the entrance and arranging tables and chairs. Chapter 109 - 0107: Free Clinic Chapter 109: Chapter 0107: Free Clinic There are only a few dozen families in the village, and news spread fast when the doctor from the provincial city arrived. They gathered one by one at the entrance of the health clinic, someone asked Mago when the free clinic would start. Having rested enough, Yang Ping asked Mago what medicines were prepared for this free clinic. Mago pulls out a list for Yang Ping to examine. The list of medicines was very well prepared; it included treatments for a range of common diseases. Director Tian must have been involved in the preparation of the medicines. Yang Ping said, ¡°Everyone is getting impatient. Let¡¯s start the free clinic.¡± Mago told everyone to line up, each person was given a number. Patients were seen in order of their numbers. Those who had not been called could wander around but would have to wait their turn again if they missed their number. Yang Ping sat behind the consultation desk, while Xiao Su sat beside him to help with blood pressure checks. Each patient received a blood pressure check before their consultation. With the doctor from the city here, everyone came to take a look whether they were sick or not, just to ease their mind. Most of the younger people spoke decent Mandarin, but the older ones didn¡¯t. Mago acted as a translator for them. When translation wasn¡¯t needed, she helped Xiao Su with the blood pressure checks. The customs of the village were a bit different; the younger ones were examined first, and the older ones last. The reason was that the young and strong needed to hurry back to work, and the elderly were not in a hurry, so they could take their time. The liaison officer picked up his camera and started taking photos from different angles ¨C this was one of his main duties during the trip. ¡°Doctor, my neck always feels sore and swollen. It¡¯s exhausting and uncomfortable. I don¡¯t know how to sleep at night. What¡¯s going on?¡± The first villager, a middle-aged man in his forties, came to see Yang Ping with a number one card. He rubbed his neck, looking quite distressed as if he was severely tormented. He made a neck turning gesture and said, ¡°Look, it makes cracking sounds!¡± Yang Ping rose from his chair, walked around to the front of the table and to the man¡¯s back, ¡°Let me check,¡± he said. He palpated the man¡¯s neck and shoulder area, ¡°The physiological curvature of your cervical spine is straightening. The muscles on both sides of your neck and back are tense. Do you experience numbness in your hands? Do you have dizziness?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes, sometimes my hands will go numb, and as for dizziness...let me think...only occasionally, I suddenly feel faint, for no apparent reason,¡± the man replied. The villager with the number one card had great confidence in the doctor from the city. ¡°You have cervical spondylosis. Do you spend a lot of time looking down at your phone?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°Yes...how should I treat it? It¡¯s not a big problem, right?¡± Number one was very worried. Yang Ping returned to his seat, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Your symptoms are still relatively mild, and treatment is very effective. I will give you some medicine, which is free. You will feel better after you finish it.¡± He then wrote a prescription, mainly non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and skeletal muscle relaxants, and handed the prescription to Mago to distribute the medication. ¡°Buy a wave-shaped pillow which will support the back of your neck when you sleep. This will keep your head slightly raised and help restore the natural curve of your cervical spine. You¡¯ll sleep much better,¡± Yang Ping added. ¡°Support the back of my neck?¡± Number one was a little confused. Yang Ping patiently explained, ¡°Yes, usually we put the pillow only below our head while sleeping. But now you need to prop up the back of your neck as well so your head can lean back slightly. Also, try to reduce your screen time on the phone. It¡¯s the number one killer of cervical health.¡± ¡°Are we done? There are others waiting to be seen,¡± someone from the back of the line urged. Number one thought for a while, wondering if he had any other questions. Realizing he didn¡¯t, he finally vacated his seat for the next person. ¡°I have back pain while his is neck pain. Doctor, it hurts here. If I sit for a long time and then stand up, it hurts. A few days ago, I twisted my back when I bent down to pick up an egg. It¡¯s been hurting for several days.¡± Number two, a man in his thirties came next. Yang Ping asked him to turn around and pressed on the lumbar and sacral area. He then pressed along the sciatic nerve path and asked, ¡°Does your leg hurt? Does it go numb?¡± ¡°Once, from here all the way down to my calf, it hurt and felt numb,¡± Number two gestured with his hand. ¡°This isn¡¯t a twisted waist. It¡¯s a lumbar disc herniation,¡± Yang Ping made a preliminary diagnosis. ¡°It¡¯s over. Lumbar disc herniation?¡± Number two reacted as if he had been diagnosed with a severe disease. ¡°How is it over?¡± Yang Ping was confused. ¡°Everyone says this disease is incurable, it can only be managed, and it will lead to paralysis in the future!¡± Number two blurted out. ¡°Who said that?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°Them,¡± replied Number two. ¡°Who are they?¡± Yang Ping asked again. Number two was at a loss for words. Who were they? ¡°Lumbar disc herniation can be treated; the vast majority will not lead to paralysis. Only very few cases do. In my years as a doctor, I haven¡¯t come across any patient who has been paralyzed because of a lumbar disc herniation,¡± Yang Ping said confidently. ¡°Really? Doctor, then I¡¯m relieved,¡± Number two expressed both his sorrow and joy very quickly. ¡°For your condition, take some painkillers if it hurts quite severely. The medicines I prescribe are the same as those for the previous patient. The underlying mechanism of your condition is similar to his, only the location differs,¡± Yang Ping tore off the prescription he had written. Number two shook his head, ¡°I won¡¯t take painkillers! They have severe side effects!¡± Yang Ping explained, ¡°Every medicine indeed has side effects, but compared to their curative effects, most of these side effects seem trivial. The negative effects of pain on the human body might even be worse than those of painkillers. Besides, the medicine I prescribe not only relieves pain but more importantly, it reduces inflammation and alleviates your body¡¯s inflammatory response.¡± ¡°In this case, I¡¯ll give it a try,¡± Number two appeared to understand. Yang Ping advised him, ¡°This disease, after the pain has eased, you still need to exercise regularly to prevent recurrence. I¡¯ll teach you a set of exercises for strengthening your back muscles. Once these muscles are conditioned, the stability of the spine will improve, the load on the discs will decrease, and naturally, your back will get better. When your back¡¯s good, everything¡¯s good.¡± Hearing Yang Ping¡¯s words, not only Number two but all the other men also leaned forward. They were intrigued by this magical exercise method; it seemed there was some secret code in it that only men would understand. The liaison officer with the camera came up close. ¡°Do you have any padding?¡± Yang Ping asked Mago. Mago instructed her husband, ¡°Go bring out the mattress.¡± Mago¡¯s husband brought out a mattress from the house, the sort of makeshift one that soldiers use. ¡°Lie down, it¡¯s simple, one arch bridge, one flying swallow, both are exercises for the back muscles. Lie down, bend your legs, yes, lift your waist and buttocks, slowly, slowly raise them, hold, persist a while, then slowly lower them, persist in doing these exercises every day, starting with a few dozen to a few hundred. Now lie down on your front, yes, place your hands by your sides and lift your head, chest, and feet, supported by your abdomen, lift both ends, tight, persist, then slowly lower down.¡± ¡°It¡¯s that simple?¡± Number Two seemed a bit skeptical. Yang Ping said, ¡°Simple, cost-free things are often overlooked by people, they think they¡¯re useless, and that getting injections and taking medicine are the only solutions.¡± ¡°Understood, I¡¯ll start practicing today.¡± Number Two was quite confident. Words spoken earnestly by a city doctor can¡¯t be false. Number Three, a young man in his twenties, hobbles over. ¡°What¡¯s making you uncomfortable?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°Doctor, I want to see if there¡¯s any way to cure this leg of mine, so that I can walk without limping?¡± Number Three put forward a leg, bending down to roll up his trouser leg. Everyone bursts into laughter. ¡°What happened to your leg?¡± ¡°I fell from a tree when I was a child and broke it, didn¡¯t get it treated, and have been limping ever since, you see, this leg is a bit crooked, and it¡¯s also a bit shorter.¡± Yang Ping stood up, helped him with his physical examination, and measured the force lines and lengths of his lower limbs. Number Three worriedly asked, ¡°Can it be cured? Nowadays, men can even be surgically transformed into women, my case must be simpler than that, right?¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you stop wasting time, let the people behind see if you don¡¯t have other problems, the doctor is busy, and you¡¯re messing around.¡± Someone was unsatisfied, thinking this youngster was purposely making things difficult for the doctor. ¡°Yes, don¡¯t cause trouble if there¡¯s nothing wrong, everyone is waiting.¡± Some people were agitated, urging him incessantly. ¡°It can be cured, and the possibility of a full recovery is very high.¡± Yang Ping leaned on his chair, took a sip of water. The crowd gasped in astonishment, that can be cured? ¡°Really?¡± The young man just asked on a whim, not really harboring any hope, but who would have thought the doctor said it could be treated, this was beyond his wildest dreams. ¡°Don¡¯t play me for a fool, doctor.¡± The young man smiled bitterly. Yang Ping said: ¡°You probably had a fracture in your lower leg bone before, which healed deformly, causing this side to be too short. You can undergo surgery to rectify it and regain a normal walking pattern.¡± The young man felt a bit dizzy: ¡°How¡ªHow¡ª can it be rectified?¡± ¡°Lengthen the short leg, lengthen it to the same length as the normal one,¡± Yang Ping naturally said. It can be done like that, medical techniques are really advancing. The young man was excited: ¡°Can you leave a phone number? I¡¯ll come to find you in the provincial city. Truly, I want to treat this leg properly.¡± Yang Ping took a piece of paper and wrote down a phone number for him. He stood up, took the phone number that Yang Ping had written for him, and muttered to himself: ¡°It can really be cured, it can really be cured.¡± Next. A young woman, in her early twenties, sat down: ¡°Doctor, I¡ª¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you?¡± Yang Ping asked. She didn¡¯t speak, her face flushed red, she said, ¡°I¡¯ll write it down for you.¡± Yang Ping handed her paper and pen. She wrote down: ¡°I have regular menstrual pains!¡± It was awkward, how to say this, he quickly drafted mentally in his heart, explaining the illness clearly without making the girl feel embarrassed. He knew a little bit about diseases in other disciplines, just not as precise as the specialists, so he also picked up a pen to write. Xiao Su on the side, peeked an eye, almost bursting into laughter. ¡°It¡¯s raining!¡± ¡°It¡¯s raining!¡± Someone in the crowd shouted. The weather was decent just now, with a bit of a reluctant sun. Suddenly, it started raining. Chapter 110 - 0108: Dont be afraid, Im here! Chapter 110: Chapter 0108: Don¡¯t be afraid, I¡¯m here! The rain came suddenly, and it was heavy, covering the sky and the earth. Everyone hurried to bring the outdoor items into the house. Inside the house, under the eaves, even the room where Mago held the health station, were crowded with villagers seeking shelter from the rain. Some seized the opportunity to consult with the doctor, even if they just asked a couple of questions, they¡¯d feel reassured. Yang Ping patiently answered them all. The free consultation continued in this manner. Mago brought out disposable cups, poured tea from the pot for everyone, and served melon seeds and peanuts in the hall on a tray. People were standing, sitting, or squatting. ¡°This rain is too heavy.¡± Someone lit a cigarette. ¡°Didn¡¯t the weather forecast say it would be clear? How did it suddenly start raining, and so heavily?¡± Someone was looking on a cell phone. The liaison was wiping his camera. It had gotten wet in the rain. He felt bad about it, and gingerly wiped it, breathing heavily. The rain was getting heavier¡ªit wasn¡¯t rain, it was a flood ¨C everything outside was blurred. After wiping the camera, the liaison started making calls, reporting the situation here. Several people wearing raincoats and straw hats came in from the rain, their feet covered with mud. ¡°How¡¯s the dock?¡± Village Chief Fang removed his hat and started gathering the information everyone had gathered. ¡°It¡¯s broken.¡± The dock was made of wood and used for selling fish. The village planned to build a stone and concrete dock, but it had not yet been started. ¡°What about the fishing site?¡± ¡°Just checked, it¡¯s okay. The water¡¯s too high, the drainage ditch at the construction site is too small, we need to dig a bigger one next time.¡± They stuck out their feet and let the rain wash away the mud. Village Chief Fang wasn¡¯t worried about other places; he was only concerned about these two spots. It rained heavily for a full two hours before it gradually stopped. Yang Ping had seen a dozen patients in the hall during that period. For those who needed medication, Mago had provided it. The liaison made another call and said after hanging up, ¡°The sudden weather change may cause heavy rain in the afternoon. The office asks us to return earlier.¡± Then they called the driver to wait at the entrance of the village. The driver hadn¡¯t left and had been sleeping in the car, just thinking about coming over for a meal. This weather was strange, the rain had stopped, the clouds had cleared, and the sun was out again. ¡°Doctor Yang, because of the sudden weather change, the office has asked us to leave earlier and eat lunch when we get back. Sorry to inconvenience you both.¡± ¡°No problem! Let¡¯s go back while it¡¯s not raining.¡± Yang Ping and Xiao Su started packing their things. The liaison told Mago, ¡°I¡¯ll come back to collect the items in a few days. The office has requested we send everyone back first.¡± Mago said, ¡°You¡¯re so far from home, treating everyone¡¯s ailments. Eat a meal before you go back, I¡¯ll make it right now, it won¡¯t take long. I caught some fish from the reservoir this morning.¡± ¡°No, Mago. I¡¯m really sorry, the weather is changing, the office is probably worried about safety issues.¡± The liaison was in a dilemma. Given the government¡¯s request, there was no need to put these guys in a difficult position. Mago brought out a few bags of local specialties: ¡°Take these back for the doctors.¡± ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be so polite.¡± Xiao Su declined. Mago was annoyed, ¡°These are all dry goods, take them back to the city. Don¡¯t dismiss them, I¡¯ll help you carry them and put them in the car later.¡± The old lady sat under the eaves, smiling all the time, not knowing what she was saying. Mago explained to everyone, ¡°Grandma is telling me not to dawdle, and let you all go back early. There might be more rain later.¡± Everyone hurried to pack their things. In fact, there weren¡¯t many items ¨C just two backpacks. ¡°Where¡¯s the Village Chief?¡± Mago asked. ¡°He went to check the reservoir dock. They all went.¡± One of the women who hadn¡¯t left yet said. The dock was a few hundred meters away. ¡°We don¡¯t have much luggage, we¡¯ll walk. We¡¯ll just head back the way we came.¡± The liaison said. Mago insisted on escorting them, asking the woman to inform the village chief, and picking up the local specialties herself, ¡°I¡¯ll walk you out.¡± They all headed back the way they had come. The two hours of heavy rain had significantly raised the water level in the reservoir. The sound of the drainage ditches on the slope was roaring, guiding the water from the mountain into the reservoir. Many fish were swimming in the reservoir, surfacing to breathe. The liaison walked in front, holding his camera and occasionally taking pictures. Yang Ping walked in the middle, and Mago held Xiao Su¡¯s hand and walked behind, chatting as they walked. About twenty minutes later, they arrived at the construction site for the fishing station. The water in the drainage ditch was rushing, all yellow mud water, creating a large yellow stain in the reservoir which kept expanding. Because the drainage ditch was too small, it had overflowed, and yellow mud water flowed down from all over the hillside. The road was also covered with it. There was some mud accumulated on the road, probably slid down from above. Yang Ping was considering whether to carry Xiao Su when Mago offered, ¡°I¡¯ll carry you over, there¡¯s too much mud.¡± ¡°No need, I¡¯m fine.¡± Xiao Su modestly declined. Mago seeming to sense something was wrong, walked back for about ten meters to look up at the mountain. Xiao Su stopped to wait for her. In front of them blocked by a pile of mud. The liaison attempted to find a clean gap to cross, but there was no gap to step through. He stopped and took photos with his camera. A sound of mud loosening was heard followed by a landslide. Danger! Yang Ping had a keen sense of this, he urged the liaison in front to move quickly, but the liaison hesitated. Suddenly, there was a strong vibration, a loud noise, rumbling! Continuing sounds of landslide! Yang Ping¡¯s heart pounded with fear. Looking up, he saw the entire slope collapsing. There was no time to react as he was toppled over by a vast, violent force. In that instant, there wasn¡¯t even time to comprehend what was happening. Yang Ping was down on the ground, covered by earth. Struggling, he freed himself from the comparatively small amount of dirt that had piled on him. After a brief moment of mental blankness, it dawned on him ¨C a landslide. The liaison officer who had been standing in front of him was gone, replaced by a mound of earth that was at least a person¡¯s height. Xiao Su, Yang Ping thought, forcing himself to turn around. She was lying on the ground, half of her body buried in the soil near the guardrail of the reservoir. She tried to crawl out but couldn¡¯t move. The thick layers of the soil entrapped her legs. Mago was nowhere to be found, which terrified Xiao Su to tears. Without any hesitation, Yang Ping rushed towards Xiao Su and grabbed her shoulders, attempting to pull her out. It was impossible. The piled-up soil had to be cleared away first. There was just too much of it and it was too thick. ¡°Help!¡± he cried out. Simultaneously, he started to scoop away the soil with his hands. Xiao Su was shaking all over, not knowing how to react, and she kept crying. She was staring upwards with a look of utter terror in her eyes. While frantically digging, Yang Ping followed her gaze up. A shiver ran down his spine, every pore on his body contracted. A huge boulder was looming just over them, less than thirty meters away, looking dangerously likely to crash down any second. The flat surface of the hillside had completely collapsed. The enormous piece of rock sat precariously on the newly formed slope, ready to tumble down and crush them at any moment. This wasn¡¯t just a rock weighing several tons. It must have been dozens of tons. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid! I¡¯m here!¡± Yang Ping tried to reassure her, keeping his voice as calm as he could. Xiao Su nodded, biting her lip. Her sobs grew quieter, but her body continued to tremble. The landslide was still in progress, even the areas that had already collapsed were unstable. There was a rumbling sound as more soil and rocks cascaded down the hillside. A stone of considerable size, weighing at least a hundred pounds, rolled past Yang Ping. Yang Ping swallowed, forcing himself to stay calm. He had no time to think. He just needed to get Xiao Su out and fast! His hands didn¡¯t cease in their frantic digging, as though they were not flesh and blood, but tools for survival. More rocks came tumbling down. The soil supporting the boulder loosened and the boulder moved a bit further forward, looking dangerously close to rolling downhill. ¡°Get out of here, go now!¡± Noticing the change in the boulder¡¯s position, Xiao Su realized the imminent danger. She cried out and pushed Yang Ping forcefully. Better to have one life spared than both perishing, she reasoned. The boulder was right above them, and there was nothing to stop or divert it once it rolled down. If it did, neither of them would escape alive, they would be crushed to death. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we have time,¡± Yang Ping tried to sound confident and calm. He had to remain composed and confident. ¡°Speak softly, don¡¯t provoke it,¡± Yang Ping said jokingly, masking his fear with humor. At first, he was digging and shouting simultaneously. Now, he dared not shout anymore for fear that the sound waves would cause vibrations, upsetting the fragile balance and making the rock roll down. The soil was hard to clear. Each time he cleared a portion, more would collapse around it. Yang Ping¡¯s hands were coated in blood. In that moment, he had forgotten all about the pain, forgotten that those were his hands. All he knew was that they were his only tools for survival. He managed to clear most of the soil above Xiao Su¡¯s thighs. Yang Ping tried pulling her out again, and Xiao Su tried to crawl out too. But she still couldn¡¯t move. There was a cracking sound. The boulder tipped a little more, teetering on the edge of rolling downhill. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it will wait for us,¡± Yang Ping reassured Xiao Su while feeling his heart rise to his throat. Her knee was now visible. Finally, part of her lower body was exposed. He tried to pull her out once more, but it was still impossible. Although an atheist, Yang Ping found himself praying for divine intervention, pleading for more time, even just a bit more. With no other options, he continued scooping the soil perseveringly with his hands. He thought about going up to the boulder and trying to wedge something under it to stop it from rolling, but quickly abandoned the idea. The slightest misstep could cause it to lose balance, making the situation worse. At this point, any wrong decision could prove lethal. He absolutely couldn¡¯t afford any mistakes. Xiao Su watched Yang Ping while tearfully sobbing, allowing him to continue his frantic excavation. Her lower legs were finally exposed. Yang Ping attempted to pull her out again, but it was still impossible. Yang Ping looked up at the boulder. With his vision blurred by sweat, he continued to dig. At last, he managed to fully unearth her. Yang Ping quickly pulled Xiao Su out, dragging her as far away as possible from the unstable slope. There was a crack and the final point of support gave way. Unable to hold on any longer, the boulder began to barrel down the slope with a force that could flatten mountains. Damn! He had barely pulled Xiao Su out, when in the blink of an eye, Yang Ping threw himself over her to shield her from the impending disaster. The rock rolled down, crashing into the water, sending up a spray of water in all directions. ¡°Yang Ping!¡± Xiao Su screamed. There was no answer. ¡°Yang Ping¡ª¡± Xiao Su¡¯s cry echoed in the silence, followed by the sound of her sobbing hysterically. She carefully held Yang Ping, turning him over gently, laying him down, crying as she inspected his injuries. ¡°I¡¯m alive...¡± He mustered a weak voice. Chapter 111 - 0109: Returning to Nanqiao Hospital Chapter 111: Chapter 0109: Returning to Nanqiao Hospital Yang Ping struggled to prop herself up and crawl. Her hand ached fiercely, bloody, mixed with dirt, it hurt even more. She¡¯s alive! Xiao Su lunged at her, tightly embracing Yang Ping, crying on her shoulder. Yang Ping used her wrist to stroke her hair: ¡°It¡¯s okay now, don¡¯t be afraid.¡± ¡°Mago and the liaison officer!¡± Yang Ping immediately remembered that there were two more people. Xiao Su immediately let her go: ¡°Rescue them quickly!¡± ¡°Help, there¡¯s been a collapse!¡± Yang Ping and Xiao Su took turns yelling. ¡°Mago!¡± Xiao Su cried out. Yang Ping wanted to call out to the liaison officer, but discovered she didn¡¯t know his name. ¡°Liaison Officer!¡± Yang Ping called out. There was no response, he must be buried inside. She could only rescue one at a time, Yang Ping remembered their positions. First, rescue Mago, then the liaison officer. The dirt on Mago¡¯s side was very firm. On the liaison officer¡¯s side, it was much looser. The looser it was, the more residual air trapped inside, and the longer the victims could hold on. Despite the pain, Yang Ping started digging again based on the position she remembered, rescuing Mago. In the distance, a group of people arrived, several dozens of them. When the village chief and everyone heard the shouts, they rushed over. The distance was too far, so they only arrived now. Everyone brought their farming tools, hoes, and rakes, but none of them were useful as they could hurt the people buried inside. Village Chief Fang led everyone to dig with their hands. The people were divided into two groups, one group digging to save Mago and the other the liaison officer. Yang Ping saw someone with a small metal spade. An idea struck her. She asked someone wearing a thick coat to take off their coat, wrap the spade, tie it tightly, and then continue digging. Although it wasn¡¯t as useful as the bare metal spade, it was much faster than hands and wouldn¡¯t injure the people buried inside. Another group of people rushed over, with gaps of a few minutes, it was the old, women and children. Mago¡¯s grandmother was also following them. Everyone started working together, and there was strength in numbers. Mago was soon dug out, the spade then moved on to where the liaison officer was buried. Yang Ping checked Mago¡¯s nose and carotid artery. She was still breathing and had a pulse. Pressed for just a short while, Yang Ping cleared the dirt from her nose and mouth, opened the airway, let fresh air in, and Mago gradually woke up and opened her eyes. ¡°Where are the two doctors?¡± The first thing she said when she woke up. ¡°We¡¯re here, we¡¯re okay!¡± Village Chief Fang said. Soon, the liaison officer was also dug out, Yang Ping immediately went over to check him. Thank God, he was still breathing and his heartbeat was normal. Yang Ping also helped clear the dirt from his mouth and nose. His face gradually turned rosy. He coughed a few times and muttered something weakly. Yang Ping leaned in to hear: ¡°Camera, camera!¡± ¡°His camera!¡± Yang Ping understood. Village Chief Fang removed the garment from the spade, continued to dig at where the liaison officer was buried, and dug out his camera, which was completely covered in dirt. He handed the camera back to him, who held onto his camera tightly with both hands. ¡°Send them to the hospital!¡± Yang Ping said to Village Chief Fang. The village chief had the same idea, he quickly called to report to the township government and asked for a vehicle. While they were digging out Mago, Village Chief Fang had sent people to find wooden planks. Two young men, each carrying a wooden plank, ran from a distance. Those were door panels taken from the door. Xiao Su picked up the two bags scattered on the ground, carried one and held another, she also supported Yang Ping. She insisted Yang Ping not carry any more bags. People carried Mago and the liaison officer on the door panels and sprinted along the mountain road. Yang Ping and Xiao Su were a little behind. After passing the cliff road, going through the dense forest, down the stone steps, they arrived at the concrete road. The driver was leaning on the front of the van smoking a cigarette. Seeing this scene, he rushed up and asked: ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°There was a collapse near the reservoir. They were buried, we dug them out, they¡¯re conscious, they can speak.¡± Village Chief Fang said, ¡°The township government¡¯s vehicle is on its way, it should be here soon.¡± Yang Ping surprisingly understood what the Village Chief Fang said, ¡°Go to Nanqiao People¡¯s Hospital!¡± This small van obviously wouldn¡¯t be able to complete the transportation task. They could only wait for the vehicle from the township government. Yang Ping wanted to take out her phone to make a call, but her hand hurt so much. It was inconvenient. Xiao Su immediately said, ¡°I¡¯ll do it, where¡¯s your phone?¡± ¡°Right trouser pocket.¡± Xiao Su helped to take out her phone: ¡°Dialing Director Tian?¡± ¡°Hmm!¡± ¡°Password?¡± ¡°No password.¡± Xiao Su helped dial Director Tian¡¯s number, put it on speaker, and put it in near Yang Ping¡¯s mouth. Yang Ping reported the situation just now to Director Tian and asked him to contact Nanqiao Hospital to prepare to receive the patients. While giving the report, she actually forgot to mention herself and Xiao Su, only mentioned that Mago and the liaison officer were buried. ¡°Leave the phone with me. Receive and make calls. I¡¯ll hold it for you.¡± Xiao Su put the phone on herself. Xiao Su put down the bag, remembered there was a box of mineral water in the van, took out three bottles, ¡°Bear with it! I¡¯ll help rinse your wound.¡± It was only then that Yang Ping thought of it. Both her hands were bloody, covered in dirt, she needed to rinse them. Yang Ping extended her hand. The pain was there anyway, she decided to just grit her teeth. Xiao Su poured the mineral water, Yang Ping washed her hands under the stream. Tears welled up in Xiao Su¡¯s eyes as she watched in pain, ¡°Gentle, be gentle!¡± Gentle or heavy, it was still painful. She might as well just have a deep cleanse. It was a piercing pain, but it was unavoidable. After three bottles of mineral water, her hands were washed clean. After she finished washing, Yang Ping shivered. ¡°There¡¯s no gauze, ordinary bandages will stick, let¡¯s expose it first and bandage it when we get back.¡± Xiao Su lightly dabbed Yang Ping¡¯s hands dry with a tissue. Yang Ping instructed Xiao Su to check the injuries of the two victims. Thankfully, they didn¡¯t seem too serious. There was only dirt at the time of the collapse, no stones. Village Chief Fang was as restless as an ant on a hot pot, unsure what to do, he kept looking towards the road. The vehicle sent by the township government arrived, they sent a small four-wheeled truck. Everyone together lifted the people onto the truck¡¯s cargo deck. The township chief got out of the car anxiously and asked, ¡°Where did the collapse happen? Are the people okay?¡± ¡°At the fish station worksite, two people were injured, but they¡¯re awake.¡± Village Chief Fang reported. They¡¯re awake, that¡¯s good. The township chief felt slightly relieved. The van driver said, ¡°You all ride in this van.¡± ¡°I should go up there too, it¡¯ll put me at ease,¡± Yang Ping said. Xiao Su supported Yang Ping as they both climbed onto the truck, with the villagers loading their luggage onto the vehicle. ¡°Drive slowly!¡± The village chief instructed the driver. The truck headed towards South Bridge People¡¯s Hospital. Director Tian received the call, immediately reported it to Dean Pan and prepared for the injured. Yang Ping was trembling slightly, probably due to exhaustion, pain, or excessive sweating. Xiao Su took off her coat and draped it over him. Yang Ping refused: ¡°No, the wind is strong in the car, don¡¯t catch a cold, put it back on!¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay! I won¡¯t catch a cold that easily; I exercise regularly.¡± Xiao Su wrapped the coat around him and hugged him. Yang Ping¡¯s hand could not touch anything, so he constantly held it in front of his chest, like how surgeons did after washing their hands in an operating room. Xiao Su carefully rested his forearm on her lap, allowing his hand to hang freely. This provided support, otherwise it would have been tiring to constantly hold it up. ¡°Bear with it a bit longer, when we get back, I¡¯ll disinfect and bandage your wound,¡± Xiao Su said, visibly distressed. Mago wanted to speak, Xiao Su leaned in to listen. ¡°Are Doctor Yang and Nurse Su alright?¡± This was the second time she asked. ¡°We¡¯re fine, we¡¯re good,¡± Xiao Su said. Mago appeared relieved. The liaison officer clung tightly to the camera. Several people offered to keep it safe for him, but he did not let go. When they arrived at South Bridge People¡¯s Hospital, Director Tian and a few others were already there, waiting at the emergency room entrance. The two injured were immediately handed over to the emergency room doctors as soon as they were taken off the truck. Seeing Yang Ping and Xiao Su covered in mud, and Yang Ping¡¯s hand heavily injured. Director Tian asked with concern: ¡°What happened to you two?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing! The injury on my hand is from digging in the dirt,¡± Yang Ping said. Uninterested in discussing the accident, Xiao Su saw Yang Ping¡¯s reluctance to talk, and kept quiet too. He was okay, after all, and probably didn¡¯t want to trouble everyone. Song Zimo, Zhang Lin, and Little Five surrounded them: ¡°Are you okay? Quick, go to the Orthopedics ward to clean your wound and change the dressing.¡± A representative of the health bureau apologized, and Zhang Lin said: ¡°How are you doing your job? He¡¯s this badly injured! I¡¯m telling you, if there¡¯s any problem with these hands, I won¡¯t let it go!¡± Director Tian quickly pulled Zhang Lin away. The representative of the health bureau was beet red from being scolded and kept apologizing. Several people accompanied Yang Ping and Xiao Su to the Orthopedics ward. Zhang Lin took the luggage, Little Five ran to prepare the stuff. Song Zimo and Director Tian stayed with them. Upon reaching the Orthopedics ward, Director Zeng also got news and came to see them: ¡°Why are you so injured? Quick, clean the wounds!¡± In the dressing room, they prepared to clean and disinfect the wounds, Xiao Su assisted with the handling. ¡°Do you want anesthesia? A wrist nerve block?¡± Song Zimo prepared to start cleaning. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°No need, my hand is completely numb.¡± ¡°Well, bear with it a bit, Little Five, saline water.¡± Song Zimo started to work. Little Five opened the bottle, saline water for rinsing, Song Zimo used a hemostat to hold a wet cotton ball for cleaning, his movements were fast and light. After few rinses, the flipped skin was then trimmed with ophthalmic scissors. It was all epidermal damage, shouldn¡¯t be a big issue. After trimming, more rinses were done, vaseline gauze used to cover the wound, and then bandaged. Liang Fatty, bumbling and oblivious, entered the room: ¡°Brother Yang, what happened? Such a big incident happened and nobody informed me!¡± Zhou Can also came in: ¡°Xiao Su! Are you okay?¡± ¡°Go to the office for awhile, do a tetanus skin test, and get a tetanus shot,¡± Song Zimo stood up. Everybody crowded around, with Xiao Su assisting, they entered the Director¡¯s office. ¡°Quick! Help him in, hang a few bottles of anti-inflammatory solution,¡± Director Zeng had cleared the office. ¡°There¡¯s no need for antibiotics,¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°How is Xiao Xu¡¯s bacterial culture going?¡± Yang Ping, remembering, asked. Director Zeng adjusted the chair: ¡°Why are you still worrying about this? Coagulase-negative staphylococci was cultured from the exposed part of the bone, other parts haven¡¯t cultured any bacteria for now.¡± According to his judgement, there shouldn¡¯t be any problems at the moment, but he definitely can¡¯t perform the surgery; Song Zimo would have to sub in. ¡°I¡¯ll do the surgery when the time comes,¡± Song Zimo said. After a negative tetanus skin test, a tetanus antiserum shot was given. Both Yang Ping and Xiao Su were covered in mud. ¡°Go back to the dormitory, change into clean clothes,¡± Zhang Lin said. Zhou Can accompanied Xiao Su, and Song Zimo and the others went with Yang Ping back to the dormitory. With the help of Zhang Lin and Little Five, Yang Ping was able to take a clean shower, making sure his hands didn¡¯t get wet. After changing into clean clothes, his brothers escorted him back to the dormitory. ¡°Leave the clothes here for now. I¡¯ll help you to wash them tonight,¡± Little Five put the bucket of clothes in a corner of the dormitory. Director Tian also rushed to the dormitory: ¡°The two injured are fine, the liaison officer has three broken ribs, Mago has a bruised scalp, and a soft-tissue contusion on her calf, but it¡¯s nothing serious.¡± Yang Ping finally relaxed. Zhang Lin mixed a cup of cereal porridge for Yang Ping to drink. His hands couldn¡¯t use a spoon, so Zhang Lin tried to feed him, but he insisted on drinking directly from the cup, lifting it using his wrist. A few of them were discussing how Yang Ping would eat over the next few days. Song Zimo, Little Five, and Zhang Lin would take turns to assist. ¡°Can I come in?¡± Xiao Su asked from outside. ¡°Xiao Su is here!¡± Song Zimo announced at the door. ¡°Yes! Of course!¡± Zhang Lin shouted. Xiao Su, having changed clothes, walked in with a foldable reusable bag. Seeing Yang Ping drinking cereal porridge, she set down the bag and immediately asked, ¡°Do you have a spoon?¡± ¡°Yeah!¡± Zhang Lin, startled, quickly passed her the spoon. Xiao Su held the cereal porridge, scooped a small spoonful, tested the temperature herself, and then spoon-fed Yang Ping bite by bite. ¡°Where are your clothes? Pack everything, I¡¯ll take it with me, wash, air-dry, and bring them back,¡± Xiao Su said while feeding him. Everyone was dumbstruck. Who spreads love this blatantly and arrogantly? It seemed, no need to worry anymore about meals or clothes washing; Xiao Su had it covered. ¡°Your clothes are here!¡± Little Five picked up the reusable bag. They stuffed the bucket containing Yang Ping¡¯s clothes into it. Chapter 112 - 0110: End the Battle Early Chapter 112: Chapter 0110: End the Battle Early After Xiao Su left. Dean Pan, the health bureau officials, the township government, and Village Chief Fang all came to visit Yang Ping, expressing their thanks, condolences, and apologies. Tian Yuan reported Yang Ping¡¯s injury to Director Han. Upon hearing this, Director Han expressed great concern and ordered Tian Yuan to shorten the outpost assignment and retreat early, specifying that he would inform her of the specific withdrawal time. He then immediately called Yang Ping, expressing his concern and urging him to rest well. Soon after, Director Tian and Song Zimo both received phone calls from Director Han, who stressed the importance of taking good care of Yang Ping and cautioned them to prevent any potential infections. About ten minutes later, Director Han made another phone call, this time to Tian Yuan¡¯s cell phone. After the call ended, Director Tian said, ¡°We¡¯ll head back early the day after tomorrow. The hospital will arrange a car to pick us up. The car will arrive tomorrow, and we, the orthopedics team, will all leave ahead of schedule.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve told Director Han that Xiao Su will also be going back with us,¡± Director Tian added. Tian Yuan was kept busy, and her phone rang again. It was Dean Pan who had received notice from his superiors. He informed her that due to an emergency at Sanbo Hospital, a few members of the medical team needed to return earlier than planned. ¡°Return earlier? What about the patient with chronic osteomyelitis of the femur, Xiao Xu? His surgery hasn¡¯t been performed yet.¡± Yang Ping was still worried about this patient. Xiao Xu¡¯s bacterial culture results showed that he had coagulase-negative Staphylococcus on the exposed bone, but no other bacteria was detected, which was in line with the preliminary judgment. The surgery could be scheduled now. Director Tian said, ¡°The surgery can be entrusted to Director Zeng. Just make sure he understands the key points of the surgery.¡± Yang Ping was not reassured: ¡°No, that won¡¯t work. In this surgery, the removal of infected bone tissue needs to be very thorough. If even a tiny bit is not completely removed, the surgery will fail.¡± ¡°In that case, we can suggest that he come to Sanbo for the surgery in the future.¡± Director Tian was in a dilemma as the return time had already been set, and knowing Director Han¡¯s temperament, it would be quite difficult to make a change. ¡°His financial condition is not good. He cannot afford to go to the city at this point.¡± Yang Ping had deep sympathy for Xiao Xu. ¡°Let¡¯s schedule the surgery for tomorrow then, and have Song Zimo as the chief surgeon,¡± Yang Ping suggested. He asked Little Five to call Director Zeng. He instructed him to sterilize the external fixation frame and its supporting equipment in advance, informed the patient to start fasting, and arranged for him to undergo a full-length femoral CT scan tomorrow morning. He also called for a bedside vascular ultrasound to locate the recipient artery of the skin defect area and the donor artery of the latissimus dorsi area; furthermore, he sought consultation from the Department of Internal Medicine for perioperative thyroid function management. ¡°For this patient, each imaging examination showed an increased range of bone tissue infection. I¡¯m afraid if we don¡¯t operate now, the whole femur might get infected and then there will be no chance.¡± Yang Ping explained. ¡°I have seen this patient¡¯s films. I heard you surmised that the local bone tissue infection of the femur is due to hyperthyroid bone mineral disease?¡± Director Tian asked. ¡°Yes, so it¡¯s best to remove the infected bone tissue as soon as possible,¡± Yang Ping replied. ¡°I¡¯ll be in the operating room tomorrow to assist Song Zimo,¡± Director Tian said enthusiastically. After arranging the surgery, Yang Ping finally felt relieved. That night, Yang Ping rested early. Upon entering the system, he dissected a few more subjects, and a preliminary anatomical image of the human body was established in his mind. For doctors, especially surgeons, the ability to visualize is very important. Yang Ping originally had strong visualization skills, and through intensive training in the system, the human anatomical diagram in his brain gradually became clearer. When he closed his eyes, the major organs, nerves, and blood vessels appeared incredibly clear, but some details still needed further refinement. Although there¡¯s no physiological energy consumption in the system, mental fatigue still existed, so he didn¡¯t stay for long and exited the space to get some sleep. The next morning, Xiao Su sent him a WeChat message. She was waiting outside the dormitory, inviting him to have breakfast with her. Watching from a corner, Xiao Su was gently feeding Yang Ping breakfast bit by bit. Liang Fatty said, ¡°From the very first time I saw them, I sensed that there¡¯s a story between them.¡± ¡°What story?¡± Zhang Lin was curious. Was there a story he didn¡¯t know about? With confidence, Fatty said, ¡°That night of the emergency finger amputation, it was Yang¡¯s first surgery, and Xiao Su was the scrub nurse. There was something off about the way they looked at each other.¡± ¡°Really? No wonder they knew each other before. Could it be that our senior brother transferred from the People¡¯s Hospital to Sanbo just for Xiao Su?¡± Zhang Lin stroked his chin, speculating boldly. He had a talent for unearthing stories. Fatty nodded affirmatively: ¡°That¡¯s eighty percent accurate. Before this, both of them were quite secretive. If not for Yang¡¯s hand injury this time, their secret would still be hidden; they¡¯ve kept this concealed quite well.¡± Zhang Lin said, ¡°Yes, for a while, we suspected that they were going to get married. Even though our senior brother denied it, it seems our guess was right.¡± Little Five remained silent off to the side. ¡°Why are you so quiet today?¡± Zhang Lin asked him. Now, Little Five was also confused and couldn¡¯t sort things out. After handover, Yang Ping was unable to do rounds due to his condition, so Song Zimo led the team on ward rounds. After making the rounds, everyone in the doctor¡¯s office was preparing to discuss Xiao Xu¡¯s condition. There was a ruckus outside that seemed like a patient causing trouble, so Director Zeng stood up: ¡°I¡¯ll go have a look.¡± ¡°Over here, over here!¡± Teacher Yan hobbled in on his crutch. His son and daughter-in-law were carrying a large banner, on it were these golden characters: Cure at hand! ¡°Director Yang, what happened to your hand?¡± Teacher Yan gasped as he saw Yang Ping¡¯s hand. Yang Ping smiled: ¡°I accidentally grazed it, it¡¯s no bother.¡± Teacher Yan nodded: ¡°That¡¯s good, your hands can¡¯t get into trouble.¡± The old man instructed his son and daughter-in-law to carry in the banner. This banner was big, at least three times larger than usual. ¡°Director Yang, there¡¯s not much we can do to thank you, so we brought over this banner, just a token of our gratitude. I wanted to write a poem originally but after wracking my brain for two days, I couldn¡¯t come up with one. So, these several characters will do.¡± After the excitement died down, they continued to discuss Xiao Xu¡¯s condition. Director Tian also came to the orthopedics department. After Xiao Xu had his CT scan he returned to the ward. The attending physician brought up his CT images and Director Zeng put them up on the light box. ¡°This patient, the surgical procedure mainly consists of three steps. First, the removal of the intramedullary nails, replaced by external fixation. Second, the complete removal of the diseased bone tissue, and filling the bone defects with vancomycin-loaded calcium sulfate. Third, repair the defect using a free latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap. The hardest part is the removal of the infected bone tissue. It must be precise and thorough. Each of his radiographic examinations shows that the range of bone tissue infected is expanding. Therefore, we need to redo the CT scan before the operation to determine the extent of the infection.¡± Yang Ping briefly outlined the procedure, looked closely at the images on the light box, and said, ¡°The rectangle bone flap should be made 10 centimeters above the edge of the patella in the extended position. It should be 8 centimeters long and 3 centimeters wide. The centerline of the rectangle is the centerline of this section of the femur. This way, we can completely remove the infected bone tissue. Hand me a piece of paper.¡± Someone pulled out a piece of A4 paper from the printer. Through his bandaged hand, Yang Ping barely grasped the pen with the webs of his fingers and started to draw on the paper: ¡°This is the shape of the infected bone tissue, and this is the shape of the rectangular prism.¡± A 3D shape was drawn on the paper, the irregular shape was surrounded by a regular rectangle. ¡°How did you work that out?¡± Song Zimo was looking at the drawing. Yang Ping replied, ¡°It¡¯s based on the CT scan image, with an added safety margin of twenty percent of normal bone tissue.¡± Song Zimo thought, this requires strong spatial visualization ability. If he were to draw it, he probably would need to measure and redraw multiple times. Yang Ping looked at the image and drew it just by estimation, demonstrating his impressive spatial visualization ability. Director Tian adjusted his glasses: ¡°What are your chances of success?¡± ¡°Theoretically, it shouldn¡¯t fail,¡± Yang Ping was very certain, after all, the extent was calculated from the CT scan. ¡°Trim the skin and muscle defect into an oval shape, 12 centimeters long and 5 centimeters wide. The size of the latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap will be twenty percent larger than this. It can perfectly repair the defect in the lateral thigh muscle.¡± An ultrasound technician arrived, the attending physician informed them. Together with the ultrasound technician, Yang Ping searched for the arteries in the defect area and the latissimus dorsi area, marking all usable arteries one by one. A skin flap is a piece of skin taken from one location to replace skin missing in another location. If it¡¯s close, the skin can be transferred with the blood vessels still attached. If it¡¯s further away, the blood vessels are cut and reconnected to the blood vessels at the defect site. The musculocutaneous flap includes stealing along with the muscles and skin. It can be used to replace both skin and muscles. It¡¯s all just robbing Peter to pay Paul. Yang Ping instructed Song Zimo to draw the shape of the defect to be repaired, as well as the shape of the latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap, all with a surgical marking pen. ¡°Doctor, once this is done, I can finally enlist,¡± Xiao Xu hadn¡¯t forgotten his dream of becoming a soldier. Yang Ping glanced at his glasses: ¡°You¡¯re nearsighted and still want to enlist?¡± Xiao Xu took off his glasses: ¡°These are just for show.¡± Enlisting is out of the question, this young man will soon realize that sometimes dreams clash with reality, some conflicts are simply irreconcilable. After the internal medicine doctor viewed the thyroid function data, he concluded that it wouldn¡¯t interfere with the surgery. He suggested another thyroid function test after the surgery, control it with medication, and for him to personally assist the operation, on alert for thyroid crisis. Song Zimo would take lead, assisted by Director Tian as the first assistant and Director Zeng as the second. This surgery wasn¡¯t difficult for Song Zimo. In the middle of the procedure, Yang Ping patiently guided Song Zimo on accurately locating the infected bone tissue. Song Zimo, with his reasonably strong spatial visualization ability, found it easy to understand. Once the bone tissue was removed, Yang Ping confirmed repeatedly that the infected bone tissue had been completely excised, with a ring of normal bone tissue around it; this was the ideal situation. Chronic osteomyelitis is most troublesome to orthopedics specialists; it¡¯s what they dread most. Because bacteria hide inside bone tissue, where antibiotics can¡¯t reach, they can¡¯t effectually combat the bacteria. So once you get chronic osteomyelitis, it relapses time and again and often requires many years to heal. If there are no unexpected complications, Xiao Xu should be able to recover this time. Chapter 113 - 0111: New Base Chapter 113: Chapter 0111: New Base After performing surgery on Xiao Xu, Yang Ping reminded Director Zeng to keep up with the treatment for both hyperthyroidism and hyperthyroidism-induced osteopathy. He also asked Director Zeng to maintain contact via WeChat, as Yang Ping wanted to monitor Xiao Xu¡¯s condition until he was fully recovered. Even though it was just a short period of five days, Director Zeng was deeply impressed by this young acting director, and found it hard to say goodbye. Yang Ping wanted to talk to Xiao Xu, to comfort and counsel him about his inability to serve as a soldier, but he changed his mind. That would be overstepping the boundaries, everyone has limited capabilities and can¡¯t manage everything. It¡¯s best to focus on doing well in one¡¯s own field. ¡°Ding dong, mission ¡®Turn the tide¡¯ completed, reward 6000 points.¡± The banner of thanks had already been delivered, and only now was the mission announced as completed. It seemed like the system was very cautious about confirming the result of the mission. Having completed the two difficult surgeries, he could now peacefully return to Sanbo. The business car sent by Director Han had arrived at Nanqiao, the driver stayed overnight at a hotel, and came to pick up people at past eight the next day. Director Tian transferred the team-leading job to Chen Xiaoqiao, as they would have to continue their duty for another week. Dean Pan, Director Jiang, and Director Zeng all came to see him off. They were still waving even when the car had gone far. Throughout the journey, Yang Ping was sleeping. Xiao Su was carefully protecting his hand, afraid it would get hit. In the system space, Yang Ping carried out more than one hundred sessions of human anatomy training. The three-dimensional anatomical maps constructed in his mind were becoming clearer and clearer, more stable, the details being gradually filled in, and the function demonstrations were starting to be combined with the anatomical images. Yang Ping suddenly remembered that when he completed the ¡®Sacred Medical Skills¡¯ mission, the system gave him a treasure box. Yang Ping opened the box, inside there was a glittering, gorgeous jewel box. He opened the jewel box¨Cit was the System¡¯s Super Cultivation Plan 2, Physical Examination Training. Yang Ping had realized the importance of physical examination when he discovered a thrombus in the inferior vena cava through abdominal palpation last time; it was the only diagnostic method in absence of auxiliary instruments. ¡°This time, there is no limit to the number of test subjects for the plan.¡± Words appeared on the screen. No limit? What does that mean? Does it mean that this training is long-term? Yang Ping then started the physical examination training, which includes visual inspection, palpation, percussion, auscultation, as well as movement, measurement, and special tests. The screen would provide the patients¡¯ diagnosis, symptoms, signs, various auxiliary examination results, and the internal connections between these data. If the first step of the Super Cultivation Plan was to train the ability to construct a map. Then the second step was to develop logical thinking, observation, perception, association, analysis and reasoning abilities, so as to use the brain to analyze and judge diseases. Yang Ping didn¡¯t know how long he had been in the space, completely immersed in the wonderful world of medicine. It felt as if he had suddenly gained enlightenment and entered a brand new world. After a brief rest stop on the way, the business car continued its journey and arrived at the hospital before lunch. Hearing that the car had arrived at the hospital, Director Han personally came to fetch. The business car was parked at the small square between the emergency building and the outpatient building, and before the car could even stop, Director Han had already come up to greet them. ¡°Only a few days out, and look at what you¡¯ve done to yourself!¡± Director Han reprimanded Yang Ping upon seeing his hand. ¡°Let¡¯s go, let¡¯s change your bandages first.¡± Director Han led everyone towards building number eight. Everyone carried their luggage and followed him. Building number eight was where the Orthopedics Institute was located. They seemed to have gone the wrong way. They should¡¯ve been going to the orthopedics department or if they were going to the new ward, it should have been the Overseas Chinese Building. Everyone was worried for Director Han¡¯s health, thinking that he must be confused from all the work. ¡°Director, you¡¯re going the wrong way, that¡¯s building number eight.¡± Tian Yuan reminded. For changing bandages, they should have gone back to the Orthopedics department. The day surgery center in building number eight had been abandoned since it failed. It was only recently that the Orthopedics Institute moved in, and the building was put into use again. Director Han, looking very pleased, kept quiet and continued walking, while everyone followed. Was he bringing them for a tour of the Orthopedics Institute? It was inconvenient since everyone was carrying luggage. Director Han led everyone to the second floor of building number eight, which used to be the ward for the day surgery center. After the center folded, the ward was closed and abandoned. But now it was spotlessly clean, evidently it had undergone sanitization and disinfection. Comprehensive Orthopedics! These words were prominently displayed on the background wall of the nurse¡¯s station as soon as one entered the main entrance. What was going on? Director Han purposefully opened a ward door. Inside, the beds were neat with crisp white sheets, even the remote controls for the television and air conditioner were already in place. Cai Qiaojun was leading a few nurses doing rounds. On her hat were two additional stripes. ¡°Let¡¯s go, let¡¯s change the bandages first, we can chat later.¡± Director Han was taking his time revealing whatever secret he was hiding. Everyone put down their luggage in the doctors¡¯ office, then followed Director Han to the dressing room. Director Han wanted to change the dressing for Yang Ping himself, to check the injury. ¡°Let me do it!¡± Director Tian suggested. ¡°No, I¡¯ll do it.¡± Director Han insisted on doing it himself. Xiao Su helped Yang Ping by rolling up his sleeve and holding his arm. Director Han prepared everything himself, put on gloves, and carefully opened the bandage on Yang Ping¡¯s both hands. He moistened the petroleum jelly dressing with saline, waited for a bit, and then gently lifted the dressing. ¡°That¡¯s good, the damage is only to the epidermis. You should rest for these few days, don¡¯t worry about anything until you¡¯re healed. Little Five, you¡¯re in charge of taking care of him for these few days.¡± Director Han finally breathed a sigh of relief. Little Five hesitated before saying, ¡°Director Han, there¡¯s already someone taking care of him, and she¡¯s a hundred times more careful than me¡ª¡± Director Han looked up, ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± When everyone remained silent, Director Han looked at Tian Yuan, whose gaze fell on Xiao Su. Chapter 114 - 0111: New Base_2 Chapter 114: Chapter 0111: New Base_2 Xiao Su had always stayed by Yang Ping¡¯s side, helping him roll up his sleeves, assisting him with his limbs, making it look as if she was the one unpeeling the vaseline gauze from her own hands. Director Han was a bit older, but he had been young once, so he understood immediately and chuckled softly. After changing the bandages, Director Han felt reassured. They were all superficial scratches. ¡°Let¡¯s talk in the office.¡± Director Han gently placed his tweezers in the dressing tray as Zhang Lin cleaned up the rubbish. Everyone went to the doctors¡¯ office and settled down while Cai Qiaojun arranged the cups and poured the tea. Director Han was all smiles. ¡°I guess you didn¡¯t understand?¡± Indeed, they didn¡¯t understand. Wasn¡¯t the General Orthopedics ward supposed to be in the Overseas Chinese Building? Why was it here? Director Han¡¯s fingers rhythmically tapped against the table, playing an unknown tune. He paused for a moment before saying: ¡°From now on, General Orthopedics will be based here. This will be our new headquarters. The fifth floor, formerly the day surgery centre, will now be our exclusive operating room. Everything from the anesthesiologists to the operating room nurses, and even the rehab therapists, will all be specially assigned. Even the parking lot of this building will be reserved for General Orthopedics. Xiao Liang, Xiao Su, I invite you to join General Orthopedics. Any objections?¡± Why would there be any objections? No need to mention Xiao Su, Liang Fatty had always been hanging around with Zhang Lin¡¯s clique. ¡°Director, are you saying that we¡¯ll have our own operating room, anesthesiologist, surgical nurses and rehab therapists?¡± Tian Yuan was a bit excited. This was the model he had always admired. In Europe and America, day surgery centers adopt this model, an independent one. In such a combined cooperative model, efficiency is extremely high: eighty percent of surgeries can be conducted and discharged within 24 hours. This model is equivalent to having an integrated team, strong and formidable. But due to limitations of medical policies, medical environment, and a lack of family doctors, most orthopedic surgeries couldn¡¯t be performed under this model. However, this efficient model can still be utilized to shorten hospital stays and achieve speedy recovery, which is now the direction General Orthopedics is heading towards. Director Han confidently said, ¡°That¡¯s the idea.¡± Song Zimo was a bit confused, ¡°The wards we saw earlier didn¡¯t seem up to VIP standards?¡± Director Han waved his hand dismissively, ¡°We¡¯re doing away with the VIP designation. We¡¯re going back to the previous method where any ward can accept patients. Right now, patients from Orthopedics are concentrated on one floor, which was the original plan for our new ward. We¡¯ll continue managing wards as usual, still under the supervision of the Surgical Department in the Overseas Chinese Building.¡± ¡°So how will we admit patients? Won¡¯t this cause conflicts with the other wards?¡± Zhang Lin asked. In the past, only VIP patients were admitted, which clearly set the boundaries with other wards. Now, admitting all patients would blur the lines with other wards.¡± ¡°There won¡¯t be any conflicts. Both the emergency department and the orthopedic outpatient department won¡¯t be sending patients to us. We¡¯ll open a separate outpatient clinic right here on the first floor,¡± Director Han said confidently. This essentially meant setting up an independent orthopedic department using the new day-surgery model. After the explanation, Director Han instructed everyone to get their keys from the head nurse and to put their luggage away. Everyone was present, so they decided to have dinner together at the hospital¡¯s internal restaurant, which was already reserved by him. After everyone put away their luggage, they all went to have dinner together at the restaurant. Director Han ordered all of the restaurant¡¯s signature dishes. After the meal, Xiao Su and Liang Fatty wanted to return to the operating room to deal with the procedures for their position changes. Meanwhile, Zhang Lin Xiaowu and the others needed to shift things to the Trauma Orthopedics ward. Director Han had already discussed the transfer of these two personnel with the Department Director of Anesthesia, and the Head Nurse of the Operating Room. Director Han called Tian Yuan, Yang Ping, and Song Zimo into his office, poured tea for them, and said: ¡°When we applied to establish the General Orthopedics department, I had mentioned this model. But it was just a casual mention, we didn¡¯t formally apply to the hospital because I was afraid everyone would misunderstand, thinking that we were trying to split up the Orthopedics department. That¡¯s not the case at all, I¡¯m still the Head of the Orthopedics department. Why would I need to set up another separate Orthopedics department? The introduction of the combined cooperative model would be a win-win for all the departments. This General Orthopedics department will become a new driving force. Together with the Microtrauma Orthopedics department, they would be like two engines driving forward. General Orthopedics would focus on bone diseases while the Microtrauma Orthopedics would concentrate on trauma cases. Both will contribute to the advancement of Orthopedics. I¡¯ve already moved all this to the ward in the Overseas Chinese Building. I never thought about activating this place. But last week, Dean Xia approached me for a discussion which lasted two hours. He wanted to give the original day surgery center to me. It was already in place, just needing to be cleaned and maintained before it could be operational. I declined as I was afraid it would cause misunderstandings. Dean Xia told me that during his recent trip overseas, he was inspired and after thinking about it for a few nights, he had a sudden realization. He really wanted me to develop this combined cooperative model, setting the foundation for future departments to establish day surgery centers. I called a meeting with the heads of several departments to discuss this matter. I aimed to foster a high-end market and needed a platform that could perform a full range of Orthopedic surgeries. This was the intention when I initially planned to establish General Orthopedics in the Overseas Chinese Building. Now that the hospital has given me the day surgery center as a platform, I could do without the former. All I needed was an independent comprehensive platform. With this, there would be no need for the other, and the VIPs could be shared amongst all. Tam Boyd was the first to express his support, and the other department heads also agreed. Thus, this change came forth.¡± So that was what happened. Director Han had put in a lot of thought. ¡°Director, you always consider the big picture, without any ulterior motives. I wouldn¡¯t be able to do it, handing over the large Trauma Orthopedics department to somebody else. With the other departments besides strategic planning, you don¡¯t intervene, implementing a sort of federal system. Honestly speaking, I truly admire this broad mindset of yours.¡± Tian Yuan earnestly said. ¡°Only through sharing can we expand. If each of us was to calculate their own small gains, it would be impossible to expand. Only by combined efforts to enlarge the pie can everyone benefit,¡± Director Han said. ¡°For General Orthopedics, Tian Yuan, I nominate you as the Deputy Director. Dean Xia agreed and it should pass the Hospital Committee without issue. I¡¯ll concurrently act as Director, and the detailed responsibilities will be transferred to you later on. Yang Ping will act as the Chief Diagnostic Physician. He, along with the team, will be responsible for diagnosing and performing surgeries on regular patients. For VIP patients, per the hospital regulations, only Deputy Chief Physicians and above can perform the surgeries. Tian Yuan and I will take care of those. Are there any objections to this allocation of duties?¡± Song Zimo agreed, ¡°No objections.¡± With Tian Yuan opting not to be the Chief Diagnostic Physician, Yang Ping was the only one left to fill the role. ¡°The term ¡®Chief Diagnostic Physician¡¯ is the new term under this model, which is equivalent to the responsibility of the group leader. From the outpatient clinic to surgery and discharge, you¡¯ll be responsible for leading your team. This way, I can focus on admitting and treating patients in the General Orthopedics outpatient clinic with Tian Yuan. Xiao Yang, are you confident about this? Xiao Song, be sure to help Xiao Yang out,¡± Director Han said, shaking his head and humming a tune The current layout of the Orthopedics department was closer to his true intention than the initial plan. ¡°We will give it our all!¡± Yang Ping replied. If he declined at this point, it would seem hypocritical. He didn¡¯t want to disappoint Director Han¡¯s earnest effort and the trust of his colleagues. ¡°For now, I can only get one anesthesiologist to come over. Regarding the surgical nurses, besides Xiao Su, I¡¯ll see if I can bring another one, but it¡¯ll be difficult,¡± Director Han said excitedly, forgetting that the tea was hot. He drank too quickly and burned his mouth. ¡°Let¡¯s all go and check out the operating room!¡± Tian Yuan brought a cup of cold water over, and Director Han rinsed his mouth. Chapter 115 - 0112: Patients with Neck Pain Chapter 115: Chapter 0112: Patients with Neck Pain Just a few days, and Dean Xia and Director Han¡¯s efficiency was sky high. If they weren¡¯t efficient, I guess Sanbo Hospital with its vast premise would now be nurturing sparrows. It¡¯s not that it hasn¡¯t happened before. When it first opened, you could hardly see any patients around. When you mentioned Sanbo, there were more doctors than patients, and more sparrows than doctors. I followed Director Han to the fifth floor to see the operating rooms. A considerable amount was invested in these operating rooms. There were three multifunctional operating rooms, all laminar flow, one of which was a hundred-level laminar flow. They had planned to develop a same-day surgery center before, but the environment wasn¡¯t mature enough. This ambitious plan was aborted after only a few months. This time, Dean Xia might have visited somewhere that opened his mind. I heard he deliberated on this for several days and nights. Finally, he discussed it with a few deputy deans and Director Han. They decided to adopt the same-day surgery model to set up a comprehensive orthopedic department. Although the environment was not mature, they could be flexible. They wouldn¡¯t strive for discharge within 24 hours, but would aim to speed up recovery and shorten hospital stays. Instead of the two weeks others take, we aim for one week. The operating rooms were fully equipped, with arthroscopes, foraminoscopes, microscopes, etc., all properly prepared. These were picked from old ones in the existing operating rooms. According to Director Han, when opening a new department, we should not affect the existing departments. The old ones could still be used. Everyone borrowed a cart from logistics and moved everything at once. Zhang Lin brought a bag of facial cleanser. Little Five had many miscellaneous items. Yang Ping didn¡¯t have much, so Little Five helped him. Song Zimo also used a cart to transport his and Tang Fei¡¯s belongings, which included dozens of books, each fairly heavy. The department was not officially opened yet, so no one had much to do. Every day at work involved reading some books, chatting in the doctor¡¯s office when bored. Zhang Lin brought a Go set. On a whim, Yang Ping and Song Zimo decided to have some matches. But Yang Ping¡¯s hand was not convenient to use, how could he play? Blind Go! They played back to back, depending on memory to move pieces, with Little Five and Zhang Lin helping to maneuver the pieces. There was no other way, two geniuses clashing. The ordinary people could only stare. They could astonishingly finish a game of blind Go from start to end. This memory, can only be described with a vulgar phrase, bloody awesome! Song Zimo had met blind chess masters in his time, but blind Go masters were a new breed. Many would forget halfway through the game, but Yang Ping could play through an entire game with him. He was officially defeated! He absolutely had to admit it! He got steamrolled in surgery, and then got steamrolled in chess. After playing chess for more than ten days, Song Zimo got steamrolled for more than ten days. During these days, Xiao Su brought meals to the department every day, feeding Yang Ping during mealtime; she took his clothes home to wash every day, bringing them back after drying them. About ten days later, his hand healed. The superficial injury recovered quickly and didn¡¯t leave any traces. After yearning and waiting for what seemed an eternity, the comprehensive orthopedics finally opened. After the simple ceremony on the first day, they started seeing patients. Director Han and Director Tian saw patients in the specialist outpatient clinic, while Yang Ping and Song Zimo saw patients in the general outpatient clinic. Not too bad, they saw several patients within the first hour. Director Han took a patient with persistent wobbly knees. He had an MRI done and a surgery at another hospital, but it was ineffective. He came to Sanbo this time because the introduction on the wall of the clinic hall mentioned that complex orthopedic cases are treated in the comprehensive orthopedics department. Well, he decided to register with this department. Another patient arrived: a man in his 30s, carrying a briefcase, pulling a suitcase, looking rushed. With the small number of patients, he didn¡¯t even have to queue. He put down his suitcase, went to the registration desk to register, and had his blood pressure measured. He said he felt somewhat feverish and had his temperature taken. ¡°Doctor, my neck and back hurt. I have cervical spondylosis and have had X-rays, CT, and MRI scans done. I visited a local doctor two days ago and took some medicine and received therapy, but it didn¡¯t work. My condition worsened this morning, and it¡¯s unbearable!¡± The patient rubbed his neck and pointed at the painful part. Yang Ping read his patient slip: Blood pressure: 152/102mmHg; Temperature: 38.0¡ãC,. ¡°Your blood pressure is a bit high. Has that been the case normally?¡± Yang Ping asked. The patient replied, ¡°Sometimes it is. I haven¡¯t paid much attention to it since I don¡¯t feel unwell, so I¡¯ve never taken medication for it. My neck is making me feel worse. My cervical spondylosis is more severe this time. Please give me some painkillers. I¡¯ve to catch a flight to Beijing for a meeting.¡± ¡°Your temperature is slightly raised, too!¡± said Yang Ping. The patient touched his forehead: ¡°It was normal yesterday, only rose today.¡± ¡°Do you feel discomfort in your chest or abdomen?¡± ¡°No issues with my chest. I felt a little nauseous this morning and there¡¯s a slight bloating pain in the abdomen, very slight. I have chronic gastritis.¡± Yang Ping inquired about the history of his disease. The neck and shoulder pain had persisted for three days. During the physical examination, he felt the neck and shoulder muscles, which showed no clear spasms, and the several special tests for cervical spondylosis were all negative. So he took the stethoscope to listen to his lungs and heart: ¡°There seems to be a problem with your heart. Let me do an electrocardiogram for you.¡± He noticed weakened heart sounds in the apex area, galloping rhythm of the fourth heart sound, friction sound in the pericardium, and arrhythmia. Highly suspected of myocardial infarction, the pain radiated to the neck. The procedure for handling this type of patient is: Complete an electrocardiogram within ten minutes, call the Chest Pain Center, and send the patient there. Yang Ping immediately asked the nurse for help and brought in the electrocardiogram machine. The patient was quite cooperative, he laid down, and Yang Ping undid his clothing to perform an electrocardiogram. ¡°The ST segment is elevated, acute myocardial infarction, needs immediate treatment!¡± The EKG supported his examination, Yang Ping realized that this patient was extremely dangerous, and could drop dead at any moment. ¡°You suspect I have heart problems? I have medical checks every year, my heart has never had any issues, doctor, aren¡¯t you diagnosing too recklessly?¡± The patient buttoned his clothes while taking a call. ¡°Don¡¯t get upset, listen to me¨C¡± Yang Ping tried his best not to antagonize him. ¡°I don¡¯t have time to debate with you, I have to catch a flight, my ride is here.¡± The nurse¡¯s wheelchair was brought, but the patient hurriedly ran off. Yang Ping ran after him but the man ran too fast and disappeared from sight. ¡°What happened?¡± Song Zimo came out the consulting room, thinking that Yang Ping and the patient had a physical conflict. Yang Ping stood at the entrance and said lightly: ¡°This patient is highly suspected of having acute myocardial infarction, the pain is radiating to the neck, the infarction area is expanding, he could drop dead at any time, I just carried out an electrocardiogram on him, and he ran away.¡± It wasn¡¯t highly suspected, but confirmed. The examination training that Yang Ping went through in the system space gave him a recognition ability that was sharper than ordinary people¡¯s. High blood pressure, and there being atherosclerosis in the coronary artery as the foundation. Body temperature at 38 degrees, indicating that the infarction has appeared for 24-48 hours, and the heat from the necrotic material being absorbed. Nausea, upper abdominal distension, although mild, is caused by necrotic myocardial or tissue perfusion insufficiency stimulation to the vagus nerve. ¡°Quickly tell Director Han, find a way.¡± Yang Ping hurried to Director Han¡¯s consultation room. Director Han was seeing a patient. ¡°Director, can I interrupt for a bit? It¡¯s quite urgent.¡± Yang Ping said. Director Han immediately stopped his examination of the patient, when a doctor said it was urgent, it meant a life was at stake. ¡°Just now there was a patient with cervical pain, came to me for consultation under the impression of cervical spondylosis. When I examined him, I highly suspected that it was acute myocardial infarction ¨C no, it was confirmed, definitely confirmed, the infarction area is expanding, he could be in danger at any time, he didn¡¯t believe me and ran off on his own.¡± Yang Ping showed the electrocardiogram to Director Han. ¡°He ran off? Excuse me, we have an emergency rescue, could you please wait a moment.¡± Director Han explained to the patient he was seeing. ¡°No problem, doctor, go ahead, I am not in a hurry.¡± The patient was understanding. ¡°Are you sure this patient is suffering from acute myocardial infarction?¡± Orthopedics¡¯ internal medicine diagnosis ability has always been a weak point, but for Yang Ping, he completely believed in him, he confirmed again just to be certain. ¡°I am sure, one hundred percent, this is his electrocardiogram, the ST segment is elevated, he needs immediate treatment to restore myocardial blood supply, otherwise he could die at any time!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s tone was calm and clear. Director Han immediately shouted: ¡°Everybody come in!¡± Director Tian and Song Zimo among others came in. ¡°We will call the contact number left by the patient, at the same time ask the security department to pull up the surveillance video and find out where the patient went to, fast!¡± ¡°We will go to the security center, Song Zimo will call the patient¡¯s phone.¡± Director Han arranged. Director Han and Yang Ping rushed towards the security department, the security department had a surveillance room, every surveillance footage of the entire hospital was there. Seeing Director Han in such hurry, the head of the security team asked: ¡°What happened, Director Han?¡± ¡°There is a patient, who could drop dead at any time, and he ran away. Quickly, pull up the video surveillance of the entrance of the comprehensive orthopedics department, our building, building number eight.¡± ¡°Quick! Building number eight entrance!¡± The security guard in charge of the surveillance started pulling up the video. About ten minutes earlier, the video was rewound to about ten minutes ago. ¡°That¡¯s him!¡± ¡°Freeze that, track him!¡± ¡°Surveillance shows the man crossed the garden, took the shortcut, went out from the east gate, got on a vehicle that was waiting for him. The license plate, can you see the license plate?¡± the head of the security team pointed at the surveillance and said. Thankfully, the position where he got on the vehicle, at the hospital¡¯s east gate, was still in the range of the hospital¡¯s surveillance. ¡°Zoom in, note down the license plate number!¡± Director Han¡¯s phone rang, it was Song Zimo. ¡°The call went through but he didn¡¯t answer, I called several times, he didn¡¯t answer.¡± Chapter 116 - 0113 - Intercept, Intercept! Chapter 116: Chapter 0113 ¨C Intercept, Intercept! ¡°Should we call the police for help?¡± The security team leader wasn¡¯t sure if this was necessary. ¡°We have no choice. They are more capable than us. We have to find him. Otherwise, he could die out there at any moment!¡± The word ¡°death¡± was harsh and chilling, but it was necessary to emphasize the seriousness of the situation. Yang Ping was absolutely confident in his judgment. The spacious surveillance room was quiet and tense. Everyone had realized that their actions right now could save a life. ¡°Call in the police for help!¡± Director Han made the decisive call after a moment of thought. Director Han trusted Yang Ping¡¯s judgment, given that Yang Ping¡¯s unconventional actions had always yielded success in the past. Seeing the doctor¡¯s determination, the Security team leader promised to give his all: ¡°I¡¯ll go to the police station.¡± Located in Sanbo Hospital, the police station is manned by a police officer every day. The huge screen in the surveillance center was divided into many sections, each correlating to a camera feed. Dean Xia¡¯s surveillance system, set in place by him, had become key in saving a life at this moment. ¡°I¡¯ll call Director Guan over!¡± Director Han immediately made a phone call. Director Guan was the head of the cardiology department and also the director of the chest pain center. The chest pain center dedicated to the first aid of non-traumatic chest pain patients. Acute myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection, pneumothorax, etc., with acute myocardial infarction bearing the highest incidence rate. Patients with acute myocardial infarction need to have their coronary arteries unblocked as soon as possible to be saved. If too much time is wasted, even divine intervention won¡¯t make a difference. Since the patient¡¯s blood vessels were not completely obstructed at the moment, he felt fine. But his vessels were continuing to close up. Once completely blocked and he doesn¡¯t get immediate medical attention, then the regrettable outcome is unavoidable. If he is far from the hospital, on an airplane, for example, the chances of saving him are slim. Song Zimo, Zhang Lin, and Little Five all rushed over to help. Song Zimo explained, ¡°Director Tian is managing over there. There aren¡¯t many patients, and Tang Fei is also helping. Director Tian asked us to come and assist.¡± Director Guan rushed over hurriedly, dressed in a green scrub suit with sweat on his back as he had just completed his operation and left the operating table. Director Han quickly briefed him on the situation: ¡°We just attended to a patient with neck pain at the clinic. We suspect it¡¯s an acute myocardial infarction, but the patient did not believe it and ran away.¡± ¡°Is this his ECG?¡± Yang Ping still had a piece of the ECG printout in his hand. The initial ECG test was interrupted because the patient received a phone call and hastily got up from the examination bed and left. Therefore, the ECG record was incomplete. Director Guan took the ECG paper and carefully examined it. ¡°ST-segment elevation! What are the symptoms?¡± Years of professional accumulation enabled him to quickly realize the issue. ¡°Neck and shoulder pain for three days, probably referred pain; blood pressure: 152/102mmHg, body temperature: 38.0¡ãC, developed a fever this morning; heard a weakened first heart sound and a galloping rhythm of the fourth heart sound in the heart apex area during auscultation, also a friction rub was heard over the pericardium; heart rate is 92 bpm, with irregular rhythm.¡± ¡°Acute myocardial infarction! The occluded coronary artery needs to be unblocked immediately, or he could drop dead at any moment. Currently, he¡¯s in the compensatory stage. Once his blood vessels become completely blocked, his heart will become disorganized, which will lead to ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrest.¡± Director Guan made an immediate and resolute diagnosis. ¡°He ran away, we¡¯re currently looking for him.¡± Director Han frowned. A bone doctor understanding so much about the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases was something Director Guan had heard about Yang Ping. He had heard from Dean Zhuang that Yang Ping was the one who diagnosed the case of inferior vena cava thrombosis that required a filter implantation during an emergency case. This type of acute myocardial infarction where the presenting symptom is not chest pain but neck pain, and other symptoms are atypical, is extremely rare and 90% of the time, it is misdiagnosed. This young man¡¯s fundamental skills were really exceptional, Director Guan couldn¡¯t help but admire Yang Ping a little more. Officer Wang from the police station came soon after. After understanding the situation, he solemnly stated: ¡°I¡¯ll immediately report back to the station and ask for support to track the vehicle he boarded and intercept it.¡± Officer Wang was very responsible. He reported to the police station, which in turn had to report to the higher-level Public Security Bureau. After several rounds of phone calls, Officer Wang said: ¡°The car he got on is a Didi private hire car. It should still be on the airport highway according to our estimates. We have contacted Didi, asking the driver to inform the passenger; toll booth workers have also been notified to intercept him when he leaves the highway. If the car uses the ETC for automatic toll payment, it will be much harder to intercept as manual toll booth operators won¡¯t be able to do so. We¡¯ve also informed the traffic police to intercept at exits but as this operation involves quite a large area and given the limited police force, there are too many things to handle. I¡¯m not sure if it will be executed in time.¡± Although Yang Ping still felt uneasy, he knew this was the best they could do at the moment. Everyone was on tenterhooks, although they were strangers, now a living life was at stake. ¡ª¡ª Xie Dongsheng was sitting in the car. He was a bit angry today, annoyed that his cervical spondylosis was nearly sent to a chest pain center by the doctors. His chest didn¡¯t hurt at all, only his neck. What a mess. This isn¡¯t how you look after patients. His neck wasn¡¯t properly treated, everything was in shambles, it was blatant overtreatment. His WeChat on his phone beeped. ¡°Dad, where are you?¡± It was his precious daughter with a cooling patch on her forehead. Xie Dongsheng felt distressed: ¡°Baby, didn¡¯t you go to daycare today?¡± ¡°She has a bit of a fever. I just gave her some medicine. I took a leave and let her rest at home. Did you eat breakfast? Make sure you don¡¯t starve yourself.¡± A soft voice from the side. ¡°Yes, I have eaten. Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m on my way to the airport. There¡¯s a light in the kitchen that¡¯s out. Don¡¯t try to fix it yourself, it¡¯s dangerous! I¡¯ll fix it when I get back. When you¡¯re cooking tonight, open the kitchen door and let the light from the living room shine in.¡± Xie Dongsheng advised. He noticed the light was out this morning as he was leaving, but he didn¡¯t have time to fix it since he was in a rush. ¡°My toy bear also stopped working, dad, you have to help me fix it.¡± The little girl was very well-behaved, pouting her cute mouth. ¡°Yes, good girl, listen to your mom. Dad will help you fix your bear when I get back.¡± Xie Dongsheng made a kissing gesture at his phone screen. ¡°Call us when you get there. The weather is cold in the north. I¡¯ve packed cotton clothes for you in your suitcase. Don¡¯t overwork yourself and don¡¯t stay up late. Say bye to daddy.¡± His wife also moved into view. After ending the video chat, Xie Dongsheng rubbed his neck. The kind of pain he couldn¡¯t touch or press down on was uncomfortable. But it would gradually ease by itself, he had experience with it. It wasn¡¯t the first time. The last cervical spondylosis outbreak was also after a late night. He had reviewed the project plan dozens of times last night. There were no issues. His phone rang again. It was his company¡¯s boss: ¡°Xie, do your best! The company has high expectations of you. I look forward to hearing good news from you.¡± Xie Dongsheng secretly clenched his fists, boosting his own morale. ¡°I definitely will! Thank you, President Wu!¡± Xie Dongsheng guaranteed. This trip to Beijing was to attend a customer company¡¯s project briefing. The customer was very optimistic about this project. As long as he doesn¡¯t mess up his performance, he should be able to secure the contract, which would allow him to be promoted to mid-level management next year. The driver¡¯s phone rang. A standard Mandarin-speaking customer service representative said: ¡°¡ª¡ªPlease confirm whether the passenger in the car is Mr. Xie Dongsheng, Sanbo Hospital requests to notify: Mr. Xie is diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction, he may be in life-threatening danger at any time, please go to Sanbo Hospital¡¯s chest pain center immediately for treatment, if you need help, please call¡ª¡ª¡± The driver got anxious: ¡°Are you Mr. Xie Dongsheng?¡± ¡°Yes, keep driving, take me to the airport. Do I look like I need be rescued to you? This is clearly some young doctor¡¯s misdiagnosis. The phone call even got routed here, truly astonishing.¡± Xie Dongsheng paused slightly, regaining his composure. Last time during a medical check-up, a lump was discovered in his chest x-ray. They said it couldn¡¯t be ruled out as a tumor and suggested he get a CT scan. Then they said it still wasn¡¯t clear, so he had to have an enhanced CT scan done. He was tossed around for a long time. For those few days, he was so stressed that he lost his appetite. He was a distraught man, sneaking into the bathroom to cry at night. In the end, it turned out to be lymph node calcification! What a false alarm. Xie Dongsheng was already familiar with this routine. This is how doctors were ¡ª sensing ghosts at the slightest gust of wind. Over-treatment had reached such a level now. Every single person is a potential enemy. ¡°Or, let¡¯s just get off the expressway and turn back to the hospital.¡± The driver didn¡¯t want to take any risks. ¡°Keep going. It¡¯ll be quicker to get to the airport now.¡± Xie Dongsheng encouraged the driver. Well, the sooner he can get to the airport and drop off his passenger, the sooner it would no longer be his problem, the driver thought. He hadn¡¯t eaten breakfast this morning, and his old stomach ailment was acting up; he was feeling a bit nauseous. Xie Dongsheng rubbed his stomach, winding the car window down a bit to let in some fresh air. The car reached the highway exit. The barrier automatically lifted, and the sedan left the highway. ¡ª ¡°He¡¯s off the highway. There¡¯s not much we can do in this kind of situation. We can only notify, we can¡¯t enforce.¡± Officer Wang said, feeling helpless as he put down the phone. Chapter 117 - 0114 In the Name of Family Chapter 117: Chapter 0114 In the Name of Family Indeed, it was a helpless situation. Everyone had tried their best. It was not common for police to forcibly handcuff a person, bring them to the hospital, and have them pinned down on a bed to undergo surgery for a stent placement. They had made every effort to intercept and notify him along the way. It was not as if they were pursuing a criminal. ¡°Did Didi company notify him?¡± Yang Ping sought confirmation. Officer Wang replied, ¡°The driver reported that the patient in his car was Xie Dongsheng. He had repeatedly informed Xie himself, but Xie believed he was fine with no issues. He thought you had misdiagnosed him and instructed the driver to continue towards the airport.¡± Everything that could have been done was done. Stubborn people would always believe they were right. The atmosphere became slightly awkward. It felt like the meeting was about to end, but no one wanted to be the first to mention it. Director Guan broke the silence by saying, ¡°There¡¯s another surgery waiting for me. May I leave first?¡± Indeed, another surgery was waiting for him in the Chest Pain Centre. These surgeries were all life-saving operations. Others were also waiting to be saved. To him, all lives mattered. He couldn¡¯t let someone else¡¯s life hang in the balance because of this man. Director Han shook his hand appreciatively, ¡°Thank you for your hard work!¡± ¡°Reach out to me anytime if you need anything,¡± Director Guan replied. At some point, Director Zhao of Medical Affairs had also arrived. He had received a call from Director Han, but as he arrived, the meeting was about to end. There was little he could do to help in such a situation. ¡°Would it be possible to contact the airport and have a broadcast announcement made as a last-ditch effort?¡± Yang Ping unexpectedly suggested. Officer Wang considered for a moment, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll report back to the station and ask them to help contact the airport for a broadcast announcement. We¡¯ve done all we could. It¡¯s incredible how this man could ignore warnings to this extent.¡± Yang Ping continued unfazed, ¡°Why not, as another measure, try notifying his family members? If he¡¯s married, we can inform his wife and hope she can persuade him.¡± Those with families would usually have something to fear. This method could potentially work better. If the man boards a plane and suddenly dies, there would be no way to save him with the limited medical equipment on board. Yang Ping was unwilling to watch this vitality slip through his hands. It was too much of a waste. His stubbornness was not a valid reason to give up. ¡°Are you sure about this?¡± Officer Wang asked. Yang Ping nodded affirmatively, ¡°Please!¡± He didn¡¯t care if he was seen as a nuisance. In front of him, Officer Wang saw a determined, relentless young doctor. But this placed him in a difficult position. The hospital claimed the patient was in danger while the patient said the hospital misdiagnosed him. In such a conflicting situation, relying too much on police forces could lead to a massive mishap, and he would bear the full responsibility. If there was no dispute, he could go all out with full force and whether it was successful or not, at least he would have tried his best. However in this case, there was a dispute, and according to the driver, the patient seemed to be in good condition. Caught between the two, Officer Wang hesitated to make a decision. Director Han took his phone and walked away to make a call, ¡°Hmm, Director Zheng, I need a favor ¨C¡± After ending the call, Director Han gently patted Yang Ping on the shoulder, ¡°Director Zheng from the city police department will get in touch with the airport for a broadcast announcement and contact the patient¡¯s family to communicate with him. However, they can only inform, and no coercion is allowed.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Yang Ping replied. As long as the patient had not boarded the plane, there was still hope. The blood would gradually form more and more blood clots around the blockage part, resulting in complete obstruction. Subsequently, there would be a disorder in the myocardial electrophysiology and ventricular fibrillation would occur. The heartbeat would eventually stop. Yang Ping simulated the whole process in his mind. If this were the case, the patient wouldn¡¯t last more than an hour. Perhaps, he was already feeling nauseous and weak with reduced pain around the neck and shoulder but the area of discomfort was likely expanding. These were mere deductions based on anatomy and physiology. If things were as speculated, he could only stand a maximum of an hour, and once he boarded the plane, his chances of survival were almost nil. Director Han then turned to Officer Wang and said, ¡°Thank you very much, Officer Wang. I understand your difficulties. I just called Director Zheng from city public security. He will handle it.¡± Officer Wang felt relieved upon hearing this, ¡°Thank you for your understanding.¡± Officer Wang had a police station at Sanbo and was well-acquainted with Sanbo¡¯s matters. He was aware that Director Han was a capable man at Sanbo and even surpassed two bosses at the Overseas Chinese Building. It was notable that Director Han was ¡°sworn brothers¡± with Director Zheng from the city¡¯s public security bureau, a police officer and a doctor, respectively. It was not known how they became sworn brothers. ¡°My dear boy, we have done our best!¡± Director Han draped his arm over Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder. ¡ª In just another one and a half hours, hurry up, it¡¯s a good thing he didn¡¯t waste any time in the hospital, otherwise, all these years of hard work would be in vain. Xie Dongsheng took his ID card to the automatic ticket machine, hurriedly pulling his suitcase, passed the preliminary security check, found the check-in counter, exchanged his boarding pass, and checked in his luggage. He took the backpack out of the suitcase and stuffed his wife¡¯s prepared cotton coat into it. Once he arrives in Beijing, he will put it on as soon as he gets off the plane. His wife was very thoughtful, packing the cotton jacket in a small vacuum bag, so it won¡¯t take much space in the backpack. With the check-in procedures completed, it was time to move through security and locate his departure gate. The timing couldn¡¯t be better, there was still a little time left. Xie Dongsheng sat down to rest, reminiscing about the hard years. There had been several opportunities to move up, but he had failed every time. This time, there was no room for failure. At his age, if he didn¡¯t move up to a middle management position, it would be extremely dangerous. He¡¯s hitting the significant age of 35. His stomach felt uncomfortable, still nauseous. Xie Dongsheng felt like vomiting, he quickly walked to the restroom, and threw up several times, nothing but a few mouthfuls of yellow bile. In the past few years he frequently stayed up late, his body wasn¡¯t what it used to be. During his school days, he could play a full soccer game, then still have the energy to stay up all night gaming. After vomiting, he felt slightly better. The pain in his neck and shoulders had lessened somewhat, but it seemed as if the pain had spread, covering a wider range than before. Xie Dongsheng returned to his seat to rest, revising every detail of the project proposal in his mind, rehearsing his presentation once again, zero room for errors. He rubbed his hands together, feeling a bit anxious and nervous, for reasons he did not understand, as if there were unresolved matters on his mind. A young mother leading her little girl passed by him, he thought about his own daughter, his wife. He wondered if his little girl¡¯s fever had subsided, and worried about the broken light in the kitchen making cooking difficult for his wife. The announcement rang out, ¡°Attention passengers.¡± He was ready to board. Xie Dongsheng got up, tightened the straps of his backpack. Each time he reaches this point of his journey, a bitter-sweet wave of emotion, accompanied by many years of tears and heartache, would rush over him. From being a rookie in the corporate world to now being able to negotiate such a major project, every step he took was filled with hardship and pain, of which only he truly understood. The line at the boarding gate began to move forward. Xie Dongsheng was in the middle of it, frequently looking behind. ¡°Calling all passengers of east airlines flight MU5182, Mr. Xie Dongsheng!¡± The call was repeated three times. The voice of the announcement was loud, but it wasn¡¯t until the third repetition that Xie Dongsheng heard his name. As he moved slowly with the crowd, he kept his ears pricked up. ¡°Please stop boarding immediately. You have been diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction. You are in danger at all times. Please ask for emergency medical assistance immediately!¡± Xie Dongsheng stopped walking. The news had already reached the airport. Could it really be so serious? He stood still, undecided. Success was right in front of him, within his reach. Was he really going to give it all up? The persistence of Sanbo Hospital far exceeded his expectations. If the Didi driver had informed him, he would have only hesitated slightly without deviating from his decision. Now he¡¯s starting to waver, but... But? The people behind him saw he wasn¡¯t moving and reminded him. He didn¡¯t hear them and they all moved around him. His pocket vibrated. Xie Dongsheng pulled out his phone. It was his wife¡¯s voice, ¡°Honey, where are you? You haven¡¯t boarded the plane yet, have you?¡± Her voice was urgent, filled with tears. ¡°Daddy! Daddy!¡± His daughter¡¯s voice came from the phone as well. ¡°Honey! Please, believe the doctor! You are having an acute myocardial infarction, and you¡¯re in danger at any moment. Go find the nearest emergency medical station fast, have them send you to the nearest chest pain center in an ambulance. Listen! I don¡¯t need anything else, just you, safely and healthily returned. Keep your phone on, our baby and I will be waiting for you. I implore you, in the name of me and our child, in the name of our family¨C.¡± ¡°Daddy¨C¡± His daughter¡¯s cry! Xie Dongsheng stood still, unable to move a muscle. He was suddenly overwhelmed, tears instantly began to stream down his face. The boarding gate was empty, the line had moved through completely. Everyone was hurrying forward, and the airport staff seemed to be urging him. He suddenly came to his senses, ran to the nearest emergency medical station, gasping for breath, ¡°Help me! I¡¯m having an acute myocardial infarction, I could die at any moment. Please send an ambulance to take me to the nearest chest pain center!¡± He clutched at his chest, gasping for breath! The doctor looked shocked at first, then immediately grabbed the phone to call the airport¡¯s emergency center for an ambulance. A nurse pushed in a stretcher bed, and together with the doctor, they helped him onto the bed. He was then rushed out of the waiting area through the emergency exit. Chapter 118 - 0115 Wild Growth Chapter 118: Chapter 0115 Wild Growth ¡°The ambulance has already been dispatched from the airport!¡± Officer Wang wore a smile on his face. Director Han gently nudged Yang Ping: ¡°You can rest assured now!¡± What¡¯s left is up to the chest pain center nearest to him, at least the patient now has hope. We have done all that we could to our utmost capability. Once everyone had dispersed, Director Han expressed his gratitude to Officer Wang and they returned to the general orthopedics department. Yang Ping and Song Zimo no longer needed to attend the outpatient clinic. Initially, both of them were not supposed to run the clinic. It was just that on the first day the department was established, everyone was quite enthusiastic and thus multiple clinics opened at once, creating an even more impressive scene. For their first patient, Yang Ping led everyone on ward rounds. The patient was a 62-year-old female suffering from right knee joint instability for three years. She had undergone arthroscopy twice; once to treat a free body, and once for a highly active lateral meniscus. However, her symptoms displayed no relief after both surgeries. Instability, or a sensation of giving way, occurs when the leg suddenly loses supporting power during walking, causing the person to kneel or fall. The most common cause is impingement within the knee joint. When the knee joint suddenly experiences impingement, the joint movement function is instantly lost, naturally disabling the walking function. This is directly manifested as the need to kneel or fall down. The patient has lost hope in treatment, but in the past three months, the instability in her leg has been happening more and more frequently, almost daily, leading her to fear leaving her home. This has resulted in her being confined within her home. This has caused many troubles as she used to be the pivotal part of her family. As her daughter and son-in-law were busy with work, cooking three meals a day, housekeeping, and picking up and dropping off their child would usually be handled by her. But now, the infuriating knee instability has made it difficult for her to move. Even simple activities, such as going to the toilet, have to be done with utmost caution as she fears falling. If she fractures anything as a result, that would require her daughter and son-in-law to take care of her, which would be the worst potential scenario. A small issue like this is affecting the normal function of the entire family. ¡°Doctor, I saw the introduction in the outpatient hall that the general orthopedics department treats difficult and complicated diseases. Does my condition count as a difficult and complicated disease? I¡¯ve had two surgeries, and the elderly lady in the same ward as me had a very good outcome from her surgery, but mine is just like before, with no improvement at all.¡± The old lady seemed rather dejected. Yang Ping carefully examined her knee joint, then proceeded to conduct focused checks on key organs like the heart and lungs. The physical examination concluded: Does the source of impingement originate from the lateral aspect of her right knee joint? What exactly is causing the impingement? The new office is spacious and bright. X-ray images and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the knee joint are up on the viewing lightbox. MRIs of the patient¡¯s head and the entire length of her spine were also conducted by another hospital, as they suspected she might have pseudarthalgia. Pseudarthalgia is due to other causes, such as imbalance of the cerebellum, incoordination of motor function of the cerebrum, spinal cord pathology, and muscle weakness of the affected limb, etc. All these potential causes were ruled out. All evidence pointed back to a problem localized in her right knee joint, but the MRI showed no free body or torn meniscus. She¡¯d undergone arthroscopy twice; any inflammatory synovium should have been cleared. ¡°Is it difficult to diagnose our first patient?¡± Song Zimo frowned. ¡°Otherwise, there would be no need for the general orthopedics department!¡± Director Han walked in; Director Tian was still running his clinic downstairs. He seemed uninterested in the patient¡¯s condition: ¡°Xiao Yang, you are the team leader now. Unless it¡¯s a special case, solve it independently. VIP patients are Director Tian¡¯s responsibility, and you are fully responsible for the patients in the regular ward.¡± He quickly said a few words and left, no longer concerned with the diagnosis of this patient. He¡¯s only responsible for admitting the patients, any further treatment would be handled by the team led by Yang Ping. Free rein! That would be the working method from now on. Under Director Han¡¯s trust and limited supervision ¨C free rein. ¡°Senior Brother, does this mean we run our own clinic?¡± Song Zimo was thrilled. ¡°Wild growth!¡± Yang Ping continued to examine the images. He visualized the anatomy of the knee joint in his mind, then started to simulate motion, looking for any possible reasons that may lead to these symptoms. Only wild growth¡ªcontrolled wild growth¡ªis the fastest, most solid, and most successful way. It is an epiphany well-understood by Director Han that talents shouldn¡¯t be constrained by the common route. Sitting in his new office, he sipped his tea. He was quite satisfied with his new office; as the window faced the south, there was an abundant amount of sunlight. He squinted his eyes, leaned back in his chair, and quietly hummed along to the Beijing Opera playing softly. He savored every detail of what had happened today. He was deeply moved by Yang Ping¡¯s confidence and diligence. Coupled with Director Tian¡¯s report on Yang Ping¡¯s performance at Nanqiao Hospital, he had more faith in his judgment and decision: let them grow wildly; they are capable! Just as he was reminiscing, his cellphone rang. It was a call from Director Xiong from the emergency department. The patient with acute myocardial infarction from earlier was currently being transferred to Sanbo Hospital and would be there soon. The chest pain center closest to the airport was at a district people¡¯s hospital, but they only had one dedicated operating room for interventional procedures and there would be a two-hour wait. So, instead, the ambulance made the decision to send the patient directly to Sanbo Hospital, where the chest pain center was large enough to handle several operations simultaneously. Let¡¯s go check it out! Director Han called for Yang Ping, who was still in the office reading images. It had been quite some time since he¡¯d visited the emergency department, ever since he left the trauma orthopedics department. The ambulance pulled up to the entrance of the emergency department, with the words ¡®Airport Emergency Center¡¯ prominently displayed. The stretcher was swiftly removed from the vehicle and rapidly pushed inside. Someone was performing chest compressions on the patient during transit. The emergency department doctors sprinted over. One doctor even knelt on the stretcher and took over the chest compressions. ¡°Defibrillation!¡± The gurney was pushed into the emergency department¡¯s resuscitation room. The two electrodes of the defibrillator were attached. One under the right collarbone, and the other on the apex of the heart. ¡°Stand back!¡± With a bang, electrical defibrillation was initiated once, twice, and then a third time. The flat ECG line started to show waves. As the patient¡¯s condition had already been communicated over the phone on the way to the hospital, now only a simple handover was needed. ¡°Please connect to the Chest Pain Center!¡± a nurse has already dialed the dedicated line for the Chest Pain Center. A few minutes later, an attending physician arrived at the emergency room, running. Director Guan was still in the operating room, the attending physician in charge of the emergency consultation had arrived. The ECG paper was spat out, the doctor took a look and said: ¡°Acute myocardial infarction, primarily in the anterior wall, quickly, get him to the Cath Lab!¡± The doctors in the emergency department always walked swiftly, doctors and nurses pushed the gurney along the trauma center¡¯s dedicated transport route. The heavy lead door opened, the gurney was pushed in, and the patient was moved onto the intervention table. The heart stopped again! Compressions, defibrillation! The EKG returned to normal. The doctor had already washed his hands and gotten dressed, draped in a heavy lead apron, he performed the puncture, inserted the catheter and guide wire, withdrew the guide wire, and injected the contrast agent. ¡°The left anterior descending artery is completely blocked!¡± The contrast agent visible on the screen was stuck at one spot and couldn¡¯t go any further. Director Han and Yang Ping rushed to the emergency department, where the nurse told them that the patient had already been sent to the Cath Lab at the Chest Pain Center. Both of them hurried to the Cath Lab, a few minutes later, a distraught young woman, accompanied by family, followed in. The heavy lead door closed, separating the family from the patient. A doctor came out through a side door designated exclusively for medical staff. ¡°Xie Dongsheng, Xie Dongsheng¡¯s family!¡± The young woman could barely control her tears, and the family member accompanying her responded. ¡°Come over here!¡± The doctor led them to a side meeting room, holding an informed consent form in his hand. ¡°Doctor! How is my husband?¡± ¡°What is your relationship with him?¡± ¡°She¡¯s Xie Dongsheng¡¯s wife, and I¡¯m his uncle!¡± The doctor hesitated, then said: ¡°Xie Dongsheng has suffered an acute myocardial infarction, and he arrived too late. He is currently undergoing an intervention. His heart stopped on the operating table and we¡¯re trying to revive him. This is the third time his heart has stopped since he was brought into the emergency department, you need to prepare yourselves.¡± Xie Dongsheng¡¯s wife¡¯s vision went black, and she fainted. ¡°We need help in the meeting room, a family member has fainted.¡± A nurse from across the hallway heard the call and immediately came over. The doctor checked her carotid pulse and breathing, there were no issues. ¡°Take her to the observation room to rest for a bit.¡± The nurse helped Xie Dongsheng¡¯s wife to the observation room. The doctor had seen it all before, he was used to it. ¡°Doctor, please, you have to try something. He¡¯s the breadwinner of our household. Our child is only four years old, and he himself is just over thirty.¡± The uncle¡¯s eyes were red. ¡°We are doing our best, but it was too late, too much time was wasted. Here¡¯s the surgical consent form, sign it, and once his wife regains consciousness, she can sign it too.¡± After collecting the signed form, the doctor put his mask back on and went back in. Yang Ping and Director Han sat on plastic chairs waiting, they had been involved in the entire process and wanted to know the final outcome. Yang Ping remained remarkably calm, Director Han put his hand on his shoulder: ¡°You¡¯ll get used to it, we can¡¯t save everyone.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about me, I have done my part, as for the outcome, only heaven knows!¡± The family members walked up to the lead door, feeling that being closer to the door would bring them closer to hope. This door! It separated the family members from the patient, and sometimes, they would be separated¨Cforever! Chapter 119 - 0116: Golden Knife Award Chapter 119: Chapter 0116: Golden Knife Award Xie Dongsheng¡¯s wife had regained consciousness and was helped by a nurse to sit on the bench by the door. Her eyes were vacant, she had stopped crying but was steadily wiping away her tears, and her sister-in-law held her tightly. Her uncle kept going to the family waiting area to get water to drink, his hand trembling slightly as he held the cup. Finally, the lead-lined door was opened, and the patient was wheeled out. ¡°Family of Xie Dongsheng!¡± The family immediately stood up and crowded around the gurney. The chief surgeon stood at the door: ¡°We managed to save him. His coronary artery has been reopened, a stent has been inserted. He will need anticoagulant treatment later and will stay in the CCU for a few days. This was really a close call given how late he arrived!¡± Being alive is more important than anything else! The family members followed the gurney all the way to the CCU, with his wife constantly holding Xie Dongsheng¡¯s hand. Director Kong came out, and when he saw Director Han, he said, ¡°Old Han, that patient was saved. I just finished my surgery and went over there, and they were already done.¡± ¡ª It was time for dinner. Today was the first day of the department opening, Director Han had ordered takeout, it would be delivered to the department¡¯s dining room, and it should have arrived by now. Yang Ping and Director Han returned to the department. The dining room was already full, everyone was busy putting tables together, it was lively. The order was from a seaside restaurant, the same place where Professor Zhang Zongshun had treated everyone last time, a very famous high-end seafood restaurant. All the tables in the dining room were put together to form a rectangle, chairs were arranged around it, and a huge king crab was placed in the middle on a large plate, surrounded by other seafood dishes, and snacks. ¡°The Director and senior brother have come back, can we start eating now?¡± Zhang Lin¡¯s pair of claws were itching to start, but he was held back by Little Five. ¡°Is everyone present? Where¡¯s Director Tian?¡± Director Han looked around, only Director Tian was missing. As Cai Qiaojun adjusted the plates, she said, ¡°He went to wash his hands.¡± At this point, Director Tian came in. Zhang Lin said, ¡°Everyone is here, everyone is here!¡± The huge king crab was placed on the table, the large plate almost occupied the entire width of the rectangle. Zhang Lin swallowed, ¡°King crab, Director, you go first, shall we start?¡± Tang Fei laughed and said, ¡°This is a king crab, right!¡± Zhang Lin didn¡¯t get it: ¡°Is there a difference? King? Emperor? Is there a difference?¡± Song Zimo coldly said, ¡°No difference, both can make you drool!¡± ¡°Hold on, hold on, let¡¯s take a photo!¡± Little Five took out her phone to take pictures, Zhang Lin also followed, and several standardized training students and nurses took pictures with their phones. Director Han beckoned, ¡°Everyone come and eat! Put on gloves, get your tools!¡± Liang Fatty reached out, but was slapped away by Zhang Lin, ¡°Fatty, aren¡¯t you on a diet? One must have willpower! This is not for you, go drink some porridge. I¡¯ll take care of your portion, we are brothers after all, I¡¯ll take the loss.¡± ¡°Your hands are perfect for this, let me help you.¡± Xiao Su said to Yang Ping. Song Zimo had already opened a crab leg, extracted a piece of crab meat, and put it on Tang Fei¡¯s plate. ¡°Don¡¯t feel shy, you guys, feel free to eat. These are a bunch of wolves. If you¡¯re too slow, there will be none left.¡± Director Han called out to several somewhat restrained nurses. Cai Qiaojun anxiously said, ¡°Slow down, be a gentleman, ladies first!¡± With his mouth full, Zhang Lin spoke muffledly, ¡°You guys dare to eat too? Such slender figures, would it be worth it if they are ruined by a crab that has crossed the ocean?¡± ¡°Even poison talks about dosage!¡± Liang Fatty had already started eating, who cares, dieting starts tomorrow. ¡°I¡¯m fine, I can do it myself,¡± Yang Ping started. Now was the time to showcase their basic surgical skills. Yang Ping was quick, his dissection skills top notch. With the coordinated use of pliers and fork, he easily cracked open the crab shell. The white and tender crab meat was cleanly separated, picked out, and placed on Xiao Su¡¯s plate. Next was Song Zimo, also very fast and precise. They ate so fast! It was like they were performing a surgery. Director Han laughed heartily, ¡°Look, this is the time when we see the better and worse of surgical basic skills!¡± Director Tian helped Cai Qiaojun and several nurses separate the crab meat, putting pieces into their plates one after the other. One crab was enough for everyone to eat. ¡°Director Han, are you treating us to this king crab because you have something to say?¡± Director Tian only started eating himself at this point. After taking off his gloves, Director Han took a paper napkin and wiped his mouth and said, ¡°Everyone keeps eating, I¡¯ll talk after you¡¯re done.¡± ¡°Xiao Su, are there enough instruments in the operating room?¡± Director Han asked. Xiao Su was receiving crab meat forked over by Yang Ping: ¡°We have pretty much all the basic equipment, though we¡¯re missing a few special pieces that aren¡¯t used very often. I¡¯ve compiled a list and sent it to the Head Nurse. Once she has everything ready, I¡¯ll go pick it up.¡± ¡°Everything¡¯s okay with the anesthesia equipment and medicines, right?¡± Director Han asked. Fatty, fiercely gobbling his food, said nothing. Zhang Lin nudged him with his foot: ¡°Fatty, the director is asking you a question. Are you choking?¡± Only then did Fatty raise his head ¨C he really was choking. After taking a sip of water and clearing his throat, he finally spoke: ¡°We¡¯re not missing anything. All the equipment is fine, almost brand new. I tested them all.¡± ¡°Everything is normal in the wards. We¡¯re not lacking anything,¡± Cai Qiaojun said while Director Tian continued to pile crab meat onto her plate. The standardized training students were all burping, some having already filled their bellies and were off sipping shrimp congee on the side. ¡°Fatty, you¡¯re enjoying yourself. Did you prepare the colchicine and diclofenac sodium?¡± Zhang Lin asked him as he noticed Fatty was still engrossed in eating. ¡°It¡¯s in my pocket,¡± Fatty responded. ¡°Fatty, is your uric acid level high? Maybe you should eat less,¡± advised Director Tian, out of genuine concern. Fatty shook his head. ¡°I won¡¯t eat this kind of stuff next time.¡± To the few standardized training students, Director Han said, ¡°You guys need to hone your combat skills. There¡¯s still so much unclaimed seafood.¡± The king crab was so huge that even though the group was stuffed, there were still plenty of other seafood dishes and side dishes left, and they could not eat any more. The original plan was to go out for dinner together, but Director Han suggested that they should not neglect those on duty. So, he decided to call for a feast in the department¡¯s dining hall instead. Everyone would eat together, enjoy themselves and spread goodwill. After all, they needed to eat. The nurses came to eat in shifts. When one batch finished, they swapped with another one. After they finished eating, Director Han gathered everyone in the doctor¡¯s office. He wanted them to have some tea and chat. ¡°The king crab you all enjoyed today wasn¡¯t free of obligations, I have a task for all of you!¡± Director Han asked Zhang Lin and Little Five to pour tea for everyone while they chatted. At the moment, there weren¡¯t many patients in the ward¨Cjust one, and there were no emergencies. Thus, the emergency department wasn¡¯t forwarding any patients their way. Director Han paused before saying, ¡°Taking advantage of the good day of our department¡¯s opening, I have an important announcement for all of you!¡± What announcement? Director Han paused for a beat, taking a sip of his tea. ¡°The hospital is planning to participate in next year¡¯s Golden Knife Award competition and Orthopedics will be the main force!¡± This remark immediately caused a stir. The Golden Knife Award is a grand event in the world of surgery nationwide. It happens every four years, and winning would mean that one had distinguished oneself nationally. Each Golden Knife Award competition showcases innovative ideas, new surgical procedures, and results. It¡¯s not only a competition for surgical skills, but also a major event for surgeons nationwide to exchange ideas. This competition lasts for half a year and involves standard procedures in every discipline. The upcoming competition will start next April and end in October. The cases for surgery are selected by the participating teams and are submitted for committee review in advance. Once the case is admitted for the competition, the judging panel will score the entire treatment process, with the surgery being the most important part. The selection of surgical indications, preoperative preparations, surgical operations, and postoperative handling all need to be scored. For the surgery, the judges score it live. For the other steps, the judges will review the medical records and physician orders and score accordingly. In previous Golden Knife Awards competitions, only Fuer and affiliated hospitals of G City had the potential to compete nationally. Select individual departments of the provincial people¡¯s hospital could get into the national competition while the municipal people¡¯s hospitals could barely make it out of the southern competition zone. Every year, the Golden Knife Award champions are all from top-tier hospitals like Xiehe, Huaxi, Tongji, affiliated hospitals of Beijing Medical University, Shanghai Medical University, Fudan University, Nandu Medical University, etc. The final championship is always a contest among these hospitals with the first few often gaining the upper hand and the others slightly falling behind. ¡°Director, are we going to participate in the Golden Knife Award?¡± Although Song Zimo had this dream, he thought he was too young. Even if they participated, it should be the group of folks like Director Tian and Director Tan who bear the brunt, right? The Golden Knife Award stipulates that the Chief Surgeon can¡¯t be older than 45, making it a platform for young and middle-aged doctors to compete for their dreams. A doctor gets only two chances in their lifetime. This is not only a platform for a doctor to show their abilities but also a time for the hospital to demonstrate its capabilities. The new surgical procedures and results couldn¡¯t be fabricated haphazardly but had to apply previously researched scientific achievements. Showcasing them at this time allowed for recognition nationwide and an opportunity for national promotion. That would be a doctor¡¯s greatest achievement. So the award wasn¡¯t just about a simple competition ¨C it was also a showcase of achievements with judges made up of highly respected authorities within the profession. The scoring was completely fair, impartial, and transparent. Forget about Song Zimo, who wouldn¡¯t be excited? ¡°The Golden Knife Award! How come you¡¯re not reacting?¡± Song Zimo elbowed Yang Ping a bit. Yang Ping replied, ¡°It¡¯s just an award, right? Even the Nobel Prize has been refused before.¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five said, ¡°The Golden Knife has awards for the best first assistant and the best second assistant. We have a good chance.¡± ¡°The Golden Knife Award has started to accept registrations now. Our Orthopedics Department will send two teams to compete. One team consists of Tian Yuan, Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Zhang Lin, and Little Five, with instrument nurse Su Yixuan and anesthetist Liang Jing. The other team will be arranged by Bo Yun Tan. Orthopedics covers a wide range of surgeries. The Golden Knife Award requires a team to have the ability to perform all kinds of surgeries within the specialty. In the next few days, submit your ID cards, doctor¡¯s qualifications, practicing certificates, professional title certificates, graduation certificates, and degree certificates (both originals and copies), to the Medical Affairs Office. Director Tian will collect them all and submit them to the Medical Affairs Office for online registration and verification. The official competition will begin next April, by which time it¡¯ll be clear who the strong competitors are.¡± Director Han was very happy. So far, the Orthopedics Department has been developing entirely according to his plan, step by step. Looking at these impassioned young people, Director Han thought: Ah, to be young! He took a sip of his tea, and several old memories came rushing to his mind. Chapter 120 - 0117: Dont Give Up Easily Chapter 120: Chapter 0117: Don¡¯t Give Up Easily Under the operating light, the human figures blurred. ¡°What¡¯s the panic? Calm down!¡± a stern reprimand rang out. Then came a kind voice, ¡°Xiao Hong, Xiao Han, look. The tumor has invaded the front of the aorta, the aorta is about to rupture. If we delay any longer¡ª¡± ¡°Remember, don¡¯t easily give up on any patient!¡± The voice was firm and deep. Had it not been for the teacher¡¯s call through the train station broadcast, that patient might have died on the train. Director Han tucked away his memories. Today¡¯s scene bore a striking resemblance. ¡°Don¡¯t easily give up!¡± These words were deeply engraved in his heart. Director Han took a sip of tea, even a few tea leaves found their way into his mouth and he chewed on them. ¡°It¡¯s not a bad thing for a doctor to become well-known. Only when you are known can more patients get to know you, trust you, come to you for treatment. In this way, your medical skills can save more people.¡± When Director Han said this, his eyes fell on Yang Ping, who had been silent. Actually, Yang Ping was contemplating. To compete for the Golden Knife Award, he needed to fully develop his orthopedic skills, which required a large number of points. With only five months to go, he wondered whether he could achieve this. He entered into the system to check his stage mission¡ªhelping Sanbo Hospital to establish the strongest Orthopedics Department in G City. Sixty percent of the task was already complete, but progress had stalled, with a gap of forty percent left. Yang Ping didn¡¯t understand why, having achieved sixty percent, the remaining forty percent seemed so elusive? If he completed this stage mission and gained five hundred thousand points, lighting up the orthopedic skill tree seemed achievable. But how exactly to complete the remaining forty percent? ¡°Does everyone have confidence?¡± Director Han asked. ¡°Yes!¡± Everyone answered loudly. ¡°Xiao Yang, any problems?¡± Director Han called out specifically. Yang Ping answered seriously, ¡°Should be no big problem.¡± ¡®Should be no big problem¡¯, which means there¡¯s no problem. Director Han felt relieved. Although his words were casual, everyone could feel his confidence. Yang Ping had always been deeply invested in medicine, and was very serious and focused in his work. Through the recent system training, this character and disposition seemed to have intensified. This serious focus made him seem extremely confident, a quiet confidence. Having eaten their fill of the king crab and finished their meeting, everyone dispersed to attend to their own tasks. Director Han returned to his office, and the others stayed back in the doctors¡¯ office to chat. The excitement of registering for the Golden Knife Award hadn¡¯t worn off yet. Dr. Jin peeked his head in, saw that everyone was having a meeting, gestured a greeting, but didn¡¯t come in, for fear of disturbing everyone. ¡°No problem, you continue. I have never been here, in the Orthopedics Department. Since it¡¯s opening today, I came to have a look.¡± said Dr. Jin. Director Tian stood up: ¡°Old Jin, there¡¯s nothing much going on. We¡¯re just chatting. Come on in.¡± Dr. Jin struggled to lift something from the floor and entered. It seemed quite heavy. ¡°You don¡¯t have to bring gifts for the department¡¯s opening. This set of Campbell¡¯s Operative Orthopaedics is our gift to you, Xiao Lei and I. Both the Chinese and English versions.¡± The four volumes of each set, eight in total, were quite heavy; so much so that Dr. Jin found it difficult to carry them even with both hands. He carried them into the office and then took them out one by one, placing them on the table. ¡°Didn¡¯t you guys already gift a set of human skeleton to our department?¡± Director Tian pointed to a human skeleton in the office that was identical to a real one. ¡°That was from the department, this is from us personally, just a token.¡± Dr. Jin looked around: ¡°This place is not bad, it doesn¡¯t need any renovations. It¡¯s move-in ready.¡± Director Tian instructed Zhang Lin to put the books on the shelf and took Dr. Jin on a tour of the office. The two were on good terms. Xiao Lei also arrived, complaining: ¡°Why is Old Jin so fast? I told him that I was changing clothes and asked him to wait for me, but he didn¡¯t.¡± It wasn¡¯t long before Fang Yan and Chen Xiaobo arrived, also carrying gifts. Zhang Lin received them: ¡°It¡¯s enough that you¡¯re here, no need to bring anything.¡± The two said: ¡°These are some stethoscopes, percussion hammers, measuring tapes, and twenty pens. All are high-end stuff. They¡¯re our gift to you.¡± Zhang Lin quickly poured tea for everyone. Fatty also arrived, accompanied by a chubby young doctor, with both of them carrying a box each. They put the boxes down in the office. ¡°Who is this?¡± Little Five asked while helping to unload the boxes, as he hadn¡¯t seen the young doctor before. ¡°This is Director Bai¡¯s graduate student. He has just finished his theoretical courses and is about to start his clinical training. He just came from Nandu Medical University this month. Everyone here is his senior.¡± Fatty introduced. The young man shyly greeted everyone as his seniors. ¡°A box of dry rations and snacks, a box of Luochuan apples for emergencies when you¡¯re on duty. Shall I help move them to the duty room?¡± Fatty pointed at the boxes. ¡°Just leave them here, we¡¯ll carry them later.¡± Little Five invited them to sit down. ¡°My fellow brothers, feel free to drop by more often, don¡¯t hesitate! We are still one big orthopedic family.¡± Yang Ping came over to chat with everyone. ¡°Old Ding and his crew will be here later. When I finished my surgery, they were still operating. They asked me to deliver a message.¡± Fatty¡¯s eyes narrowed into a line as he spoke. ¡°Considering Brother Yang is leading the group, don¡¯t forget us when you have any lectures or learning opportunities.¡± Fang Yan raised his tea. ¡°We learn from each other,¡± Yang Ping said to Fang Yan. Director Tian took a stroll with Dr. Jin and returned to the office. ¡°Young Fang!¡± Director Tian greeted. Fang Yan and Chen Xiaobo used to be in his group, but now they belong to Dr. Tan Boyun¡¯s group. ¡°Boss Tian, you¡¯ve abandoned us now.¡± Fang Yan joked. Director Tian patted his shoulder: ¡°We just started here, and there aren¡¯t many patients. When we have more patients, you can come back and help.¡± Fang Yan happily said, ¡°I¡¯m ready to be summoned anytime.¡± Dr. Jin looked around and observed, ¡°Director Han is visionary and decisive. With the opening of the Orthopedic research institute and the Asian Orthopedic Summit Academic Conference, our Orthopedics Department will rise. I heard there¡¯s a lot of real equipment in the Orthopedic research institute, including a 3D printer from Germany?¡± ¡°Yes, why don¡¯t I show you now? The software has been installed and debugged,¡± Director Tian said. Dr. Jin said, ¡°No, I¡¯ll take a look when it¡¯s officially launched. I have a surgery this afternoon, I need to leave early.¡± After seeing off Dr. Jin, Director Tian and the others stayed for tea and then left. Yang Ping asked Little Five to hang up the film again and began to study the MRI of the newly admitted patient. He noticed a synovial signal in the lateral popliteal tendon fissure. Even if there was, there would only be a small amount of synovial signal, but this patient had a large synovial signal. He simulated the motion of the knee joint in his mind using the images constructed from anatomy training. When the joint was active, the excess synovium was pulled out of the popliteal tendon fissure and moved to the lateral tibio-femoral joint space, causing impingement. During arthroscopy, two small holes were made connecting the joint with the outside, eliminating the negative pressure and creating the water pressure to expand the joint. This caused the synovium to enter the popliteal tendon fissure, making it difficult to detect and treat with arthroscopy. This isn¡¯t a classic cause of knee joint impingement and isn¡¯t described in textbooks. ¡°Let¡¯s go check on the patient again!¡± Yang Ping took everyone back to the ward, examined the patient carefully, and confirmed that the impingement was caused by the popliteal tendon near the lateral side. The medical history, examination, and imaging all support a definite diagnosis of a rare case of synovial impingement in the right knee joint. The sneaky synovium hidden in the popliteal tendon fissure was the reason the two previous surgeries were ineffective. ¡°Madam, now we understand your condition. Your diagnosis is clear, the synovium is hiding in the popliteal tendon fissure on the outside. The synovium is cunning. When you walk, it comes out and jams the joint, but during surgery, it hides, which is why it evaded our interventions in the two previous surgeries. We will conduct another surgery to remove it, and your symptoms will be relieved,¡± Yang Ping said calmly and clearly. ¡°Doctor, I trust you. You make the decision for me.¡± The patient was very convinced by Yang Ping¡¯s confident and focused attitude. She believed that she was here to solve her problem. ¡°We will arrange your surgery for tomorrow. It will be arthroscopic, minimally invasive. If all goes well, you can be discharged the day after tomorrow. Have your daughter come today, I¡¯ll speak to her.¡± Yang Ping instructed her. As per the practice, the children of elderly patients needed to come in for a discussion and to sign before the surgery. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll call her now. Both of the surgeries I¡¯ve had were minimally invasive. The first one was at Fuer and was performed by Professor Gu, and the second one was at Fuyi and was performed by Dr. Su. This time, I feel that Dr. Yang has hit the nail on the head. You are not married yet, are you, Dr. Yang? You are so young.¡± The patient was a talker and began to reach for her phone as she spoke. After explaining the situation to the patient, Yang Ping returned to his office to study the film. Song Zimo pointed at the MRI and asked, ¡°Are you saying this abnormal signal is the hidden synovial tissue?¡± Yang Ping nodded, ¡°In the popliteal tendon fissure, there¡¯s hidden synovial fold. Cut it off, and the problem will be resolved.¡± ¡°Have you performed many arthroscopies?¡± Song Zimo had never seen him performing an arthroscopy. Yang Ping said, ¡°Quite a few.¡± Song Zimo muttered to himself, if he says he¡¯s done quite a few, then it means he¡¯s done a lot. ¡°Director Han said he would let us practice arthroscopies this afternoon. You can show us then?¡± Song Zimo suggested. Yang Ping laughed, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid I¡¯ll crush your confidence?¡± ¡°Cut it out!¡± Song Zimo held his head up high. Xiao Su sent a WeChat message asking them to go to the cafeteria for lunch. Both of them preferred quiet places, and found a secluded spot. ¡°Look, that¡¯s Su Yixuan from the operating room! Is she dating Yang Ping from orthopedics?¡± ¡°Yes, they must have confirmed their relationship, otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t be so intimate.¡± ¡°They are quite a good match. Su Yixuan is pretty, and Yang Ping is talented. A perfect match.¡± ¡°Look at Yang Ping. He really has an extraordinary aura.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not falling for him, are you?¡± ¡°Even if I was, I wouldn¡¯t stand a chance against Su Yixuan.¡± A few young nurses were whispering in the corner, the cafeteria was indeed a place where gossip abound. Xiao Su put a few pieces of beef in Yang Ping¡¯s bowl: ¡°Are you free this weekend?¡± ¡°If you say so, then I am,¡± said Yang Ping nonchalantly. Xiao Su smiled softly: ¡°Well then, we¡¯re going shopping this weekend!¡± Chapter 121 - 0118: Caught on the Scene Chapter 121: Chapter 0118: Caught on the Scene At noon, Yang Ping was resting in the duty room. With the points he had accumulated from individual assignments and daily tasks within the system, amounting to an existing total of 21,000, he had spent 6,000 to purchase 600 cases of knee arthroscopy, leaving him with a balance of 15,000 points. The procedures included arthroscopic examination, joint cleansing, synovial resection, partial meniscectomy, suturing of the meniscus, anterior and posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, cartilage transplantation, and more, covering almost every type of knee arthroscopic surgery. Such intense training might seem tedious and challenging to most people, but for Yang Ping, it was quite the opposite. He had a voracious appetite for learning medicine, so far from finding the training arduous, he reaped significant benefits from it. He often wished he had more points to purchase more surgical cases. After completing the system¡¯s training, he found it strange that since returning from Nanqiao, the system had ceased to assign tasks, staying silent like a suddenly silenced bell. He logged into the system to find out the reason and opened the mission log, where a simple and clear task list was displayed. It precisely recorded all his surgeries, including the one for the patient with knee osmotic periarthritis which was still pending, but it was already partially completed. Has the system gone into silent mode, emitting no more ¡°dings?¡± Or does it no longer assign single tasks, only issuing progressive tasks now? Progressive tasks, such as helping G city establish the strongest Orthopedics department, which includes many daily tasks? Yang Ping analyzed it this way, even though he wasn¡¯t sure if he was right. If he was, then would each surgery he performed be considered a task? When he opened the treasure chest, there was an additional antique-looking golden box. However, it didn¡¯t sparkle. Yang Ping wanted to open it but couldn¡¯t figure out how. Checking the system log, he found that this box was a random gift pack given for accomplishing the five-section replantation task. He hadn¡¯t noticed it before, but now he couldn¡¯t open it. Had it expired? In the afternoon, with not many patients around, Director Han asked everyone to practice arthroscopy. It was rare for Director Han to have such leisure time, so he deliberately put aside his work on the first day of the department¡¯s operation. Song Zimo organized these training activities for young doctors. Not only was he exceptionally skilled at microscope surgery, but his arthroscopy skills were also exemplary. A long time ago, he was able to suture under the arthroscope, an incredibly difficult operation. As for surgery, under the guidance of Director Han, he had become very proficient. Song Zimo wasn¡¯t sure about the level of Yang Ping¡¯s arthroscopy skills. Facing something previously unseen but highly anticipated, expectations naturally run high. He knew Yang Ping was like a rapidly growing mountain, its peak veiled in clouds. One could never tell just how high it was. A natural desire to challenge lingered in his heart. Director Han picked up his purple clay cup and moved a chair into the laboratory. This laboratory was similar to the Trauma Orthopedics department; it was also a training room with several pieces of training equipment borrowed from the Orthopedics department. ¡°Song Zimo, demonstrate the training under the arthroscope for everyone. Yang Ping will supplement you later.¡± As he took the lid off the cup, steam rose from the hot tea. There was only one simulator for practicing arthroscopy. He walked over to it and placed a fresh grape in the black box. Holding the lens in one hand and equipment in the other, they were like a pair of chopsticks extending into the dark box through a 0.5cm hole. The inside of the black box was transmitted in real-time onto the screen. A grape appeared in the center of the screen¡¯s field of vision. The arthroscopic scissors cut a small hole in the grape skin. Without another tool to help, peeling the grape with one hand was extremely difficult because there wasn¡¯t another instrument to keep the grape steady. A slight movement could lead the grape to shift in place. Not to mention that this was happening under an arthroscope, even presented with a pair of small scissors, peeling off the entire skin of a grape with one hand is a feat not many people could accomplish, even with training. The scissors did not push the grape away. When the grape swayed slightly, the scissors cut into the skin and began to separate. Bit by bit, every time they cut a little, they separated a little, alternating repeatedly. The cut in the grape skin revealed a slight serrated shape. The grape swirled around with the touch of the scissors, the cut side and the attached bottom switched places; they continued until the whole grape skin was open. The scissors kept moving until the entire grape skin was neatly peeled off. The room erupted in applause. However, Song Zimo wasn¡¯t as proud as he usually was; he was very sober. He was only the first to throw a brick, another piece of jade was waiting. ¡°Yang Ping, show some skills!¡± Director Han took a light sip of tea. Yang Ping approached the simulator. He had never practiced this kind of exercise within the system; he had only done actual experimental body surgeries, but the same principle applied. Like a sniper who returns to the shooting range after enduring the brutal baptism of the battlefield, his skills wouldn¡¯t regress. He extended the tool into the black box; his eyes fixed on the screen, and his movements were extraordinarily flexible and steady. His field of vision fixed, and the arthroscopic scissors gently cut open the grape skin. The grape shook only slightly, much less than when Song Zimo was handling it. Bit by bit, the grape was sliced open. As it was being cut open, the grape turned around a fixed axis until the entire circle was cut apart. The scissors split apart, and the peeled grape flesh tumbled out. The edges of the cut skin were neat, even more, beautiful than Song Zimo¡¯s serrated cuts. A blow? Not at all! Song Zimo had already opened up a thought process. If one has a challenging goal, they could reach a higher realm. Just like in chess, the stronger your sparring partners are, the quicker you progress. Having Yang Ping as a peer was the greatest fortune for him. Steam was still rising from Director Han¡¯s purple clay cup, and two rounds of demonstrations had already ended. He chuckled. Microscopic surgery and endoscopic surgery have the longest growth curve. If they are already so skilled, what is there to worry about? Director Han left the laboratory and went to the institute upstairs, the real driving force for the orthopedic department¡¯s growth. Once the scale has expanded to a certain level, the contest came down to research and academic performance. He sat alone in his office drinking tea quietly. Yang Ping handed the task of training junior doctors to Song Zimo and returned to his office. He began scrolling through the examination reports of the patients scheduled for surgery the next day, carefully examining each one. ¡°I¡¯ve assessed it, and there should be no problem with anesthesia tomorrow. The patient should start fasting tonight,¡± Liang Fatty announced as he came out of the ward. Now with their dedicated operating room, the efficiency was greatly improved. Moreover, having anesthesiologists assess patients in advance made the process safer and more efficient. Worried about potential hitches in the newly established procedure, Xiao Su checked the readiness of the instruments. The patient¡¯s daughter arrived. Noting that her mother was the only patient across the entire floor of the department, she felt a sense of panic. As if, when going out to eat, seeing the front of the restaurant without many cars and the inside empty with unoccupied tables, one would feel reluctant to step in. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that Sanbo Hospital is a provincial-level hospital, she would have immediately taken her mother elsewhere. To be cautious, before meeting the doctor, she made a phone call to a friend who studied medicine. Her friend said that Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Orthopedics department was divided into four wards, all located in the surgical building and didn¡¯t have a standalone comprehensive orthopedics department. Now her worry wasn¡¯t really faltering, but it was fluctuating awkwardly. Since she came here, she decided to at least meet them before deciding anything further. Little Five led the patient¡¯s daughter to the meeting room. Doctor Yang suggested politely, ¡°Please have a seat. I¡¯m Doctor Yang. Doctor Lu has already discussed your mother¡¯s condition with you. Are there any other issues you¡¯re concerned about?¡± This young is the head of the department? Considering multiple factors, she came to a conclusion: Is this place a leased department within a hospital? The more she thought about it, the more concerned she became! ¡°This department belongs to Sanbo hospital, right?¡± the patient¡¯s daughter asked uncertainly. Startled for a moment, Yang Ping quickly realized her concern, ¡°Our department branched from the Orthopedics department, it¡¯s a newly opened wing. We just started today, and your mother is our first patient. Don¡¯t worry, our director is the head of the main Orthopedics department, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve seen his introduction on the wall.¡± ¡°I heard that after tomorrow¡¯s surgery, she will be discharged the day after?¡± the patient¡¯s daughter had never heard of such speed, she thought the doctor must be bragging. ¡°From now on, patients like her will be discharged within 24 hours. This is a safe and efficient model, and 80% of surgeries in developed countries in Europe and America operate in this way,¡± Yang Ping explained. ¡°Doctors in those Western countries are very skilled!¡± the patient¡¯s daughter responded quite directly. ¡°The clinical practice skills of our country¡¯s doctors are not inferior to theirs at all. We have a lot of patients, and hence, a lot of experience. What we lack are research abilities and contributions to medical science,¡± Yang Ping thought it was necessary to clarify this misconception. Courtesy is important, but dignity must be maintained. As long as this was not a leased department, it wasn¡¯t much of an issue. However, she decided to be cautious since surgery is a serious matter. The patient¡¯s daughter said, ¡°I¡¯ll discuss it further with my grandmother, and I¡¯ll come back later to sign the consent.¡± ¡°You can find Doctor Lu afterward to sign the consent,¡± Yang Ping knew she was hesitant. It¡¯s normal to have this lack of trust on the first day of establishment. Back in the ward, the patient¡¯s daughter sent a WeChat message to her friend who studied medicine: Do you have any friends at Sanbo? Can you help me check how good Doctor Yang Ping is at performing surgeries? It didn¡¯t matter if she had friends working at Sanbo, as someone could be found after a few transfers. After about ten minutes, a message replied: ¡°Dr. Yang Ping of Sanbo¡¯s Orthopedics department, the pioneer of five-segment replantation, his surgeries are ¡ª thumbs up!¡± Relieved, the patient¡¯s daughter immediately went back to the doctor¡¯s office, ¡°Doctor Lu, my grandmother agrees. Can I sign the consent now?¡± Everyone was quite happy on the first day. Preparing for this patient¡¯s surgery, they could relax a little. With a few standardized training students on duty, Zhang Lin and Xiaowu could also take a breather. ¡°Little Five, Fatty, let¡¯s have a meeting,¡± Zhang Lin called them over. A few of them went to the on-call room, closed the door, and it was unclear what they were up to inside. Suddenly, inside the office, all the standardized training students straightened up. Yang Ping looked to see Professor Zhang Zongshun standing at the entrance. ¡°Professor Zhang!¡± Yang Ping immediately went over to help him. He didn¡¯t even bring his crutch. He deliberately walked a few steps, ¡°I¡¯m recovering quite well. It¡¯s almost been three months, time for a check-up, right?¡± ¡°There¡¯s one week left. I¡¯ll call you at that time. Please sit down, Professor Zhang,¡± Yang Ping arranged a chair for him. ¡°No need, I want to walk. Otherwise, my muscles will atrophy, and I will be prone to disuse osteoporosis. It¡¯s better to walk more,¡± Professor Zhang insisted on wandering around himself. ¡°I reviewed your follow-up x-ray taken one and a half months later, your bone fracture is healing quite well,¡± Yang Ping accompanied him out of the office. ¡°Hmm, I just want to see how your new department is doing. You continue with your work, I¡¯ll just wander by myself,¡± Professor Zhang said. Professor Zhang walked around with his hands behind his back, sometimes peeking inside empty wards, occasionally looking up at the posters on the wall, and sometimes rubbing the floor with his foot, inspecting the place just like a project manager checks the status of a construction project. Hmm, the male doctor¡¯s on-duty room, I¡¯ll take a look. Professor Zhang pushed the door open. Little Five glanced at a person from the corner of his eye, took a closer look, and was stunned, it was Professor Zhang! Standing behind Zhang Lin and peering in without saying a word, Little Five didn¡¯t know when Professor Zhang had entered. Noticing Little Five paused, staring at him, Zhang Lin became annoyed: ¡°Are you stupid? Why are you staring at me? Shoot, let¡¯s rush out together!¡± Fatty was also sitting opposite Zhang Lin. They were sitting in a triangle on the bed, with Zhang Lin¡¯s back facing the door, and Little Five and Fatty facing the door. It¡¯s Professor Zhang! Fatty also saw him, so shocked he was dumbfounded, nearly shouting out loud. They were in such deep shit, it¡¯s as if they had sunk into the bottom of the Pacific. Both men were secretly cursing their bad luck. Chapter 122 - 0119: Difficult Task Chapter 122: Chapter 0119: Difficult Task ¡°Charge at them, use a sniper rifle, take out the sniper in the opposing forest!¡± Professor Zhang shouted in desperation. Zhang Lin turned his head, froze, dared not move a muscle, held his mobile phone tightly, stuck in a particular motion. ¡°Professor Zhang¡ªProfessor Zhang!¡± Sweat seeped from his forehead. If he got caught by Elder man Zhang, the ending would be miserable. Even a poorly buttoned button could get him Scolded, he didn¡¯t know what the outcome of playing a game would be. ¡°Professor Zhang, you see, we¡¯re just relaxing a bit this afternoon since there¡¯s nothing to do.¡± Zhang Lin wanted to cry. Begging pitifully, stuttering, it took all of his courage to squeeze out this sentence. ¡°Professor Zhang¡ª¡± ¡°We¡¯ll never dare to do it again!¡± Little Five and Liang Fatty pleaded together, sitting cross-legged on the bed. Their posture was quite awkward, but they dared not move. ¡°Go on, play it. Why are you looking at me?¡± Professor Zhang pointed at Zhang Lin¡¯s phone. Play? Play what? Zhang Lin¡¯s thoughts were completely offline. ¡°It¡¯s already off-duty hours. Come on, let¡¯s play together.¡± Professor Zhang pulled out his mobile phone and sat down on the chair by the desk. Was this real or fake? Everyone was completely bewildered, feeling their intelligence was clearly not enough to handle the situation. ¡°Lock the door, make sure it¡¯s bolted!¡± Professor Zhang shrewdly pointed his chin towards the door. Zhang Lin slid down stiffly from the bed, walked a few steps, looked back, waiting for Little Five and Fatty¡¯s thoughts. Little Five and Fatty were clearly out of ideas at this point, they wondered what Old Zhang was up to. He locked the door and twisted the handle to confirm. ¡°Hurry up, let¡¯s team up, before the old lady calls us back for dinner.¡± Professor Zhang beckoned them. ¡ª¡ª After a busy round, Director Han returned to the office and found Yang Ping still hadn¡¯t left: ¡°You can go off duty and rest, we have someone on duty.¡± Yang Ping said: ¡°Professor Zhang just came here.¡± ¡°Where is he?¡± Director Han asked. Yang Ping went to the door, peered into the corridor, ¡°He was just here a moment ago, but he disappeared when I turned away.¡± Director Han also looked out and said: ¡°It¡¯s fine, let him wander around. His leg is completely normal now. I saw him doing Tai Chi in the park this afternoon. He will join us in a few days, help us, and run the clinic. I requested another nurse from the operating room side, Zhou Can! We only have one anesthesiologist for the time being.¡± Zhou Can is not bad, diligent and intelligent, quirky. Director Han was good at choosing people. ¡°That¡¯s enough for now. If we have more surgeries, we can discuss it.¡± Yang Ping knew it was hard to get people, the operating room was also short staffed. Director Han had significant pull, hence getting people in smoothly. ¡°There¡¯s a late-stage liver cancer patient at the Overseas Chinese Building. He has metastases all over his body, which have reached the thoracic 1 to thoracic 4 spine. He¡¯s now experiencing severe chest pain, morphine is not working, likely due to a metastatic tumor invading the tension nerve root. Director Kong asked me to go there for a consultation. Do you want to come with me?¡± Director Han was preparing to go to the consultation. ¡°Okay, shall we go now?¡± Yang Ping was very interested. ¡°Oh, and the Academic Conference is being prepared, you are responsible for the surgeries here. Director Tan hasn¡¯t arranged a specific role for you, but you have their help, you just need to focus on the surgeries here.¡± They chatted while walking. When they arrived at the Oncology Department doctor¡¯s office in the Overseas Chinese Building, Director Kong was waiting. He was glowing with excitement and looked very pleased. ¡°Thank you for your efforts. It¡¯s late-stage liver cancer, metastases all over his body. He has metastatic tumors on his spine, and he¡¯s in severe pain in the chest now. Morphine only relieves the pain in the liver area, but it can¡¯t relieve the pain in his chest. The department of pain management has installed an intravenous pain pump, but it¡¯s not working either. Let¡¯s go see him together.¡± In the late stages of liver cancer with metastases all over the body, there is not much that can be done, only pain relief and supportive treatment can be given to improve the patient¡¯s final quality of life. The patient¡¯s face was yellowish, inhaling oxygen, lying semi-reclined on the bed, the muscles on his face were twitching intermittently, and beads of sweat rolled down his forehead non-stop. It was heartbreaking to watch. The patient¡¯s family member, his daughter, a tall young woman, appeared mature and capable, sat beside the bed, looking distraught and helpless. Director Han examined the patient and briefly inquired about his pain. ¡°I¡¯m begging you all!¡± His daughter bowed deeply. ¡°We will discuss this matter.¡± Director Kong comforted the patient. After seeing the patient, the group left the ward, washed hands, and returned to the doctor¡¯s office. ¡°Why isn¡¯t he in the ICU in this situation?¡± Director Han questioned. ¡°The patient refuses to stay in the ICU, and refuses intubation and resuscitation once his life is in danger. He already signed an informed consent form, his only request is pain relief.¡± Director Kong explained. ¡°We may need to request a consultation with specialists from within the hospital and from elsewhere. His family will probably invite experts from Fuer Hospital and Professor Su Qingyun for the consultation.¡± Director Kong added. Professor Su Qingyun, the dean of Fuer Hospital, is a prominent figure in orthopedics in Nandu Province and a popular candidate for academician. At this time, the patient¡¯s daughter came over and knocked lightly on the office door. ¡°Come in!¡± Director Kong motioned for her to sit down. ¡°This is Miss Ning, Mr. Ning¡¯s daughter,¡± Director Kong introduced. Mr. Ning was the patient they had just met. According to Director Kong, Mr. Ning was a well-known tycoon in G City with enterprises that spanned banking, finance, stocks, and insurance. Miss Ning¡¯s eyes were red and slightly swollen, and she spoke sorrowfully, ¡°My father does not have much time left. I just want him to suffer less and leave this world with dignity.¡± As Miss Ning spoke, she wiped away her tears with a tissue, ¡°If it weren¡¯t for my brother, he probably wouldn¡¯t have held on this long. I¡¯m sorry to trouble everyone, please help!¡± Miss Ning brought her hands together as if in prayer. ¡°We will do our best to find a solution,¡± Director Kong comforted her. Back at the orthopedic center, Director Han pulled up the patient¡¯s imaging data, ¡°Xiao Yang, take a look. Any good plans?¡± ¡°Based on the site of the pain, it is concentrated in his sternal angle. It seems that his thoracic 2 nerve root, has been infringed and strained. Look, both the CT and MRI indicate that the thoracic 2 nerve root is being invaded and strained by a tumor. There¡¯s no way to do intraspinal catheterization in this area. If the plane was below thoracic 4, we could catheterize and anesthetize the area below the plane, but not this one. Once anesthetized, it would seriously affect his breathing and we would need to intubate.¡± Director Han pointed at the images on the screen of the electronic viewer. ¡°What about a high selective root nerve block?¡± Yang Ping suggested. Director Han shook his head, ¡°Very difficult! Look, the tumor is blocking, puncture is limited; even if there¡¯s no tumor blocking, it¡¯s impossible to be precise and puncture into the sheath of the nerve root. If the anesthesia leaks out, it would have the same effect as intraspinal anesthesia and affect his breathing.¡± ¡°We can locate the blood vessels by doing a CT angiography for three-dimensional reconstruction, but we can¡¯t pinpoint the nerves using angiography. If we can determine the spatial orientation of the nerve and its relationship with the tumor, things might be easier.¡± Yang Ping exclaimed. ¡°That won¡¯t work either. Even if we know the spatial relationship, how can you ensure that you will be able to puncture into the sheath of the nerve?¡± Han said. ¡°Dingdong, mission: End-of-life care! Complete a high-difficulty pain management case, reward sixteen thousand points.¡± The long-silent system dingdonged again. Yang Ping thought it stopped issuing single tasks, it turns out the difficulty of the tasks has increased, and the less difficult ones are now counted as daily tasks. ¡°This patient¡¯s situation cannot be handled by our department alone. There will be a hospital-wide consultation and consultation with external experts soon. Let¡¯s wait for the major consultation. You can go off duty and rest now,¡± Director Han said as he was about to leave. Yang Ping didn¡¯t have anything else to do after work anyway, so he opened the patient¡¯s information on the computer using his VIP access that Director Han had helped him secure before becoming a chief doctor. He reviewed the data several times, thinking hard about the situation. The key issue of this patient was that intraspinal anesthesia for pain relief could not be performed, and if a nerve root block was to be performed, the puncture into the thoracic 2 nerve root sheath must be precise. This degree of difficulty was nearly impossible to achieve¡ªit was theoretically possible, but practically unfeasible. So what now? After thinking for a long time, Yang Ping kept coming back to the nerve root block. Without that, there¡¯s no solution to this problem. ¡ª ¡°How can you be so poor at this?¡± Elder Man Zhang scolded Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin scratched his head and chuckled sheepishly. Elder Man Zhang¡¯s phone rang, ¡°I¡¯m not playing anymore, the old lady is nagging me to have dinner.¡± He stood up to leave and turned back, ¡°You can¡¯t play during work hours, but you can play after work!¡± He walked a few steps, opened the door and turned back, ¡°Remember! Not during work hours!¡± Chapter 123 - 0120 Three-dimensional Reconstruction Chapter 123: Chapter 0120 Three-dimensional Reconstruction The next day, at half past eight, the surgery commenced on time as the first operation conducted in the Department of Orthopedics. Director Han also took the time to be present, to have a localized oversight of the workflow and address any loopholes. The utilization of the multi-functional surgical suite proved to be quite an experience. High-definition LCD screens were fixed on adjustable overhead arms attached to the ceiling, allowing versatile angle adjustments. Several screens were available for the primary surgeon, the assistant, and there was one connected to the operating room computer host, which allowed the patient¡¯s clinical records and imaging data to be displayed anytime the doctors needed to reference them during the surgery. Moreover, the screen connected to the host was covered with a transparent sterile isolation film. If the chief surgeon was dissatisfied with the lower-level controls, they could manipulate the screen to retrieve the desired data. Positioning was achieved using surface ultrasound, and anesthesia was administered in the form of sciatic and femoral nerve blockade. Liang Fatty was quite adept at these procedures. ¡°How long will it last?¡± Liang Fatty asked. This type of blockade used one-time medication, which couldn¡¯t be replenished halfway through. If too much anesthesia was given, a patient may not be able to move their lower limbs even after the surgery; if too little was given, the patient would start feeling pain before the operation was complete. Therefore, the anesthesia dosage had to be calculated extremely accurately, accounting for body weight, age, and liver and kidney function. Additionally, familiarity with the chief surgeon¡¯s operation speed was crucial. ¡°Half an hour!¡± Yang Ping answered. ¡°Is that enough?¡± Liang Fatty questioned. A half-hour, less the time spent washing hands, sterilizing, clothes, and postoperative bandaging, only left slightly more than ten minutes for operating. ¡°It¡¯s enough!¡± Yang Ping assured confidently. Wash hands! Sterilize, redo hand sterilization, get dressed, cover with a disposable arthroscope sheet, connect various lines and tubes, drive out the blood, balloon the tourniquet, and Song Zimo¡¯s assistant. The scalpel penetrated the skin and the joint capsule, creating two 0.5 centimeter incisions on either side of the patellar eye. An exploration sheath was placed through the left incision to enter the knee joint and extend through the suprapatellar pouch. After the puncture spike was withdrawn, a lens was inserted and the surgery began. A bright, circular view of the joint appeared on the overhead screen. After a thorough examination using the hook probe, it appeared as if the popliteal tendon foramen was normal. The hook probe was inserted and a strip of synovial membrane was gently pulled out. The basket forceps entered, severing the synovial strip, and the plasma knife was used to prevent bleeding and eliminate the less-than two-millimeter remnant. The whole process took just over ten minutes, followed by suction and withdrawal of instruments. Long-acting local anesthesia was used to completely seal the two small incisions. The two 0.5-centimeter incisions were stitched up, stuffed with cotton pads, and compression bandage applied. Once the tourniquet was released, the patient¡¯s right lower limb was able to move and sensation had returned. The first surgery marked a striking collaboration amongst the entire team and the rhythm was very well controlled. The damage and stimulation caused to the human body by this surgery would not be more than skin abrasion caused by a fall. The nerve blockade anesthesia was a type of local anesthesia. After surgery, the patient could immediately eat and even walk out of the operating room. The patient moved her knee joint a little and it didn¡¯t hurt or lock up anymore, she could feel the immediate effect. ¡°You can be discharged tomorrow. Do not let the incision get wet before the stitches are removed. You will have to visit a nearby hospital or our hospital for regular dressings. The stitches will be removed in ten days.¡± Song Zimo was responsible for after-surgery education. ¡°Try it! Walk back by yourself?¡± Little Five supported her while Zhang Lin fetched her shoes. ¡°So soon? Let me try!¡± The patient put on her shoes and tried to step on the ground, but was unsure at first. Yang Ping encouraged her: ¡°It¡¯s fine, take a few steps!¡± She mustered her courage to take the first step, feeling good and steady. The second step and the third step were fine. She could really walk back home. There was no problem moving her knee joint, except for the slight restriction from the bandage, no pain or seize up. Director Han got up, beyond the surgical proficiency of Yang Ping, his imagination. The patient¡¯s daughter waiting at the door of the operating room saw her mom walking out, chatting and laughing with the doctor, and thought the surgery was called off. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°It¡¯s done!¡± Done? So fast. The patient moved her knee joint and deliberately walked a few steps, turning to show her daughter. It was indeed normal movement. ¡°Finally, it¡¯s resolved. Where¡¯s Yangyang? I need to pick him up.¡± The patient was delighted. ¡°Can she really be discharged tomorrow?¡± The patient¡¯s daughter supported her, watching her legs closely. Having undergone two surgeries, it was the third time that her problem was finally resolved. It was a good thing she didn¡¯t rush the discharge. The elder lady praised them all the way. ¡°Are you still single?¡± The elder lady asked ¡ª when she¡¯s happy, she wants to play matchmaker. ¡°Getting married soon.¡± Zhang Lin interjected with the answer. The elderly lady seemed a little disappointed. ¡°I have a friend whose knee joint is severely swollen. He can¡¯t walk now. Can I ask him to come and see you?¡± The elderly lady was very pleased. Her daughter was not pleased, complaining about her mother for poking into others¡¯ business. Introducing doctors was a thankless task. The elderly lady obviously didn¡¯t care; she just wanted to lend a hand to her friend. The first operation ended perfectly; everyone was delighted. It signified the official start of the comprehensive orthopedics Department. Song Zimo began writing the surgical records. Zhang Lin recorded the course of the disease. The comprehensive Orthopedics Department had thirty beds in total. Zhang Lin and Little Five were in charge of 15 each, each of them guided two standardized training students, so the team had enough manpower to manage thirty beds. Yang Ping began studying Mr. Ning¡¯s condition again. The CT transverse sections had images of nerves, and the magnetic resonance images had images of nerves in three sections. Three-dimensional reconstruction uses these sectional images to reconstruct a 3D image. This job was performed by the built-in software of the CT or magnetic resonance machine. Yang Ping found his brain¡¯s imaging ability had improved quickly and notably ¡ª in particular, his memory of details was extremely powerful, nearly reaching the point of photographic memory. This was the result of the system¡¯s super training program. He attempted to reconstruct a three-dimensional image of the patient using his brain. Images appear, overlap, and combine in his mind. Both the details he focused on and those he did not were retained faithfully in their original appearance. The three-dimensional spine, tumor, blood vessels, and nerves gradually took shape. This was not the work of a system but of his own brain processing, without reliance on any system. To highlight, the nerves were marked in red, and their direction gradually became clear. Creating this three-dimensional image was not easy and was quite strenuous. Some key details had to be repeatedly reinforced to achieve stable clarity. When one area was filled in, another was lacking. When one area became clear, another became blurry. The image only barely took shape after several augmentations. Song Zimo was standing not far away, watching Yang Ping glare at the screen with focused eyes, like a thinker¡¯s sculpture. He did not want to disturb Yang Ping, but wanted to see what he was so engrossed in. Yang Ping pulled out a piece of paper and began to sketch on it. First were outlines, then lines, then a dimensionality rendering, and finally details. The perfect application of surrealistic painting technique in medicine resulted in an image leaping out from the paper. Song Zimo approached, but Yang Ping was so engrossed that he did not notice. ¡°What is this? He actually made a reconstruction based on the CT and MRI images? Made a reconstruction using his brain? And then expressed the reconstruction through drawing?¡± Is this even a human? Am I working with an ordinary person? Director Han also came in, he saw the strange expression on Song Zimo¡¯s face and the sculptural focus of Yang Ping, not knowing what had happened. Upon closer inspection of the drawing and the images on the screen, he understood. Was this a reconstruction using the brain? And the reconstruction image was drawn out with a pencil? How strong a brain¡¯s visual construction capability would this require? No wonder it¡¯s said that the content of a genius¡¯s thoughts are images, while the content of an ordinary person¡¯s thinking is simulated language vocalization. Both of them were unwilling to disturb him. Putting down his pen, Yang Ping touched his forehead and found sweat. It seems that creating such an image is still very strenuous, and he needs to keep improving his drawing ability in the future. ¡°Oh, Director Han! ¡°Yang Ping felt a presence behind him and turned around to see Director Han and Song Zimo. ¡°Song Zimo, how¡¯s the patient after the operation?¡± ¡°No problem, very good!¡± ¡°Director Han, this is the picture I drew based on CT and MRI. This is the spine, this is the spinal cord and dura, this is the nerve root, this is the intervertebral foramen. The Th2 nerve root is invaded by the tumor and pushed aside by the tumor. And this tumor has a very rich vascular supply,¡± said Yang Ping, pointing to the picture he had drawn. ¡°The Oncology Department has performed embolization treatment for liver cancer. Now there are few blood vessels, even fewer than before the embolization,¡± Director Han said, Song Zimo pulled a chair for Director Han to sit on, and he himself also sat down. ¡°Are you still thinking about nerve root blocks?¡± Director Han knew his thoughts. ¡°Yes, it seems that apart from that, there is no other way?¡± Yang Ping seemed distressed. ¡°Is this the reconstruction image you drew?¡± Director Han asked. ¡°A sketch!¡± Yang Ping nodded slightly, answering succinctly. This sketch can already compete with a real CT or MRI three-dimensional reconstruction, and the details are clearer. It¡¯s right not to train him as a normal person. ¡°Do you have any good methods?¡± Director Han couldn¡¯t help but ask curiously. ¡°Not yet!¡± The answer was very confident and precise. Finding a method is not easy. It must be feasible in theory and practice. It must be safe and not cause side damage. This is why medicine progresses slower than other sciences. Looking at his mobile phone, Director Han received a notification: a grand meeting consultation for the patient in the Overseas Chinese Building at five in the afternoon. In addition to the heads of each department of the hospital, orthopedic, tumor, and pain experts from Fuer will also participate. The consultation was originally scheduled for three in the afternoon, but Professor Su Qingyun was not available. He could only arrive at five in the afternoon, so it had to be arranged for five in the afternoon. The family used many connections to invite Professor Su over. Professor Su, Meng Heng in Beijing, Hong Zhigang in Shanghai, Fu Shancheng in the western regions, are all hot candidates for academicians. ¡°In the afternoon, you participate as well?¡± Director Han not only appreciated his talent but also his attitude towards medicine. Yang Ping also wanted to join. He heard that Professor Su Qingyun was very distinguished, rigorous in his study, and advanced in his thinking. Whether in surgery or academic achievements, he was a top performer domestically and held a place internationally, a spiritual flag in the orthopedic academic field. To be able to invite him was not a question of money, but of relationships. Perhaps Mr. Ning had a deep relationship with Professor Su. To have the opportunity to discuss cases with him at close range, what a rare opportunity! Yang Ping thought. The voice outside was familiar, the aunt who had undergone surgery today was talking. She brought another aunt, and the family pushed her directly to the doctors¡¯ office in a wheelchair. ¡°Doctor Yang, this is the friend I spoke of. Look, her knee is so swollen, she can¡¯t move it at all, how long has it been?¡± The aunt was very enthusiastic. The patient said, ¡°It¡¯s been swollen for several years, often suddenly getting stuck, then it can move after a while. But this time it¡¯s been stuck for a month, completely immobile.¡± ¡°Have you seen a doctor?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°No!¡± The patient touched her left knee. ¡°You guys are busy, I have something else to do.¡± Director Han got up and left, while Yang Ping continued to see the patient. He inquired about her medical history in detail and performed a physical examination. ¡°This is likely synovial chondromatosis. There are lots of little objects like peanuts growing inside the joint. To confirm, we need to do some tests, get an X-ray, and do an MRI. Little Five, can you arrange this?¡± Yang Ping said after the examination. Little Five explained to the patient¡¯s family how to apply for a patient card, once the patient card was ready, they could come back up to get a check-up form. Once the patient¡¯s family understood, they pushed the patient to apply for the card. They had no questions and trusted Yang Ping completely. This is the power of reputation. Nothing is more persuasive than reputation. Chapter 124 - 0121: Five Hundred and Four Chapter 124: Chapter 0121: Five Hundred and Four Soon, the patient came back after getting their medical examination card. Little Five accessed the computer outpatient system and filled out the examination sheet for the patient: lateral and frontal X-rays (in standing position) of the left knee joint, and an MRI scan of the left knee joint. The computer showed that the queue for an MRI scan was backed up for a week. Seeing the patient¡¯s anxiety, Little Five cancelled the form and recommended them to go to a private imaging center called ¡°Quantum Imaging¡±, where they could expedite the examination and get the results on the same day. Quantum Imaging¡¯s owner is a radiography Ph.D. who spent years studying in the United States. A bright entrepreneur with a solid family background, he chose to run a business rather than practice medicine after returning home. He invested in setting up an imaging examination center in G City called ¡°Quantum Medical Imaging Center¡±. All the CT and MRI machines, including PET-CT machines, are top-of-the-line and the business has been booming since it opened. In big hospitals, it takes a week to get an examination done, and another week to get the report. At Quantum Imaging, it can take as little or as much time as the patient wants. For expedited services, one needs to pay extra, but the report will be available in two hours. For regular services, results will be available within 24 hours. As for delayed services, Quantum offers discounted rates and results within 24 hours, which is still faster than large public hospitals. As long as you¡¯re willing to pay, results can be produced immediately upon completion of the examination, for a quite high fee, with a dedicated person accompanying the whole process. Yang Ping had visited this imaging center and had been impressed. The waiting experience was also pleasant, with a network television, a wide range of newspapers and magazines, and free coffee and beverages. They even had toy rewards to encourage children¡¯s cooperation during examinations. Hearing that they could be discharged a day or two after the examination, the patient was eager to get everything done right away, including moving into the hospital for surgery. Without further ado, the family members pushed the patient to Quantum for examination. Meanwhile, Song Zimo, Zhang Lin, and Little Five went to the lab to practice arthroscopic operations along with a few standardized training students and interns, as there were no new patients at the moment. Once again, Yang Ping began studying the case of Mr. Ning. All the potential puncture angles he imagined were not feasible. Neither could he complete the route of the intervertebral foramen surgery, as it was either blocked by the tumor or by the bone tissue. The target was like an enemy hiding in a dead spot from a sniper¡¯s bullet path, leaving him completely at a loss. If none of the routes were feasible when he tried to puncture through soft tissues, what about puncturing through the bone tissue? Yang Ping allowed his imagination to run wild. If the enemy was hiding in a thick corner of the wall and couldn¡¯t be shot, then the solution would be to open a hole in the wall first, allowing the bullet to pass through the hole and hit the enemy. This was an interesting idea that Yang Ping believed could work. It would also be the safest as the puncture needle would stay within the bone until it reached its target, which means there was no need to worry about damaging the tumor¡¯s blood vessels. Yang Ping mentally tried to simulate the puncture process. The nerve root comes out of the intervertebral foramen formed by the first and second thoracic vertebrae. Puncturing through the pedicle of the first thoracic vertebra would be ideal since it points downwards and inwards. After piercing through the bone tissue of the pedicle, breaking through the endpoint bone tissue, and entering the nerve sheath, the rest of the operation would be significantly easier. Once Yang Ping had refined this plan, he went to Director Han¡¯s office and shared his thoughts. Upon hearing this, Director Han was amazed and highly commended Yang Ping¡¯s plan. It was in line with his own thoughts. Although the puncture was extremely difficult, it was considered safe, and even if a failure occurred, there wouldn¡¯t be much collateral damage. Just as Director Han had conceived this idea, Yang Ping had already pieced together a mature plan including the angle, location, and depth of the needle insertion, precautions, and puncture techniques. Impressed by Yang Ping¡¯s imagination, a delighted Director Han said: ¡°You will come with me to the grand rounds this afternoon. But Director Kong just called. The patient¡¯s family has requested Professor Su Qingyun to attend. They estimate that he will bring his team. If the plan for selective nerve block is confirmed, his team may be performing the operations. Your idea is very good and mature, and although the puncture is difficult, it is much safer as the entire puncture pathway is inside the bone. Even a failure will not have a significant impact, unlike having to perform puncture through soft tissues. A mishap in that could damage blood vessels resulting in bleeding, which would complicate matters. You should also give your opinion at the grand rounds to get some practice and experience.¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather not give an opinion, I¡¯ll just go and observe,¡± Yang Ping felt that at such meetings which were usually attended by high-ranking officials, it wasn¡¯t proper for him to speak. Director Han shut him down: ¡°When I tell you to give an opinion, you must give one. Don¡¯t keep on mumbling and hesitating. Just present the idea you shared earlier. Don¡¯t be afraid, you¡¯ll be sitting next to me and you are representing me.¡± Yang Ping spent the entire morning contemplating the treatment plan for that patient. By the time lunch arrived, Su Yixuan had to call him, otherwise, he would have forgotten to eat. She had already got his meal ready and was waiting for him in the cafeteria. Yang Ping quickly finished his work and went to the cafeteria. In the quiet corner, Xiao Su passed the chopsticks to Yang Ping, ¡°I heard that there¡¯s a grand rounds for a patient from Overseas Chinese Building this afternoon?¡± ¡°Yes, a patient in the late stages of liver cancer has metastases throughout their body. The tumor has infiltrated the second thoracic nerve root causing severe chest pain. They need a multidisciplinary consultation to find a solution for pain management. I¡¯ve been contemplating the patient¡¯s case all morning and forgot to check your WeChat message.¡± Yang Ping spoke as he ate his lunch. Xiao Su didn¡¯t seem to mind Yang Ping¡¯s indifference, ¡°That¡¯s okay. I knew you would be busy. I came first to get us some food and waited for you.¡± ¡°A few outside experts have been invited as well. I will also be attending the consultation this afternoon.¡± Yang Ping reported his day¡¯s plan. Xiao Su laughed, ¡°Are they all directors? Are you the only young doctor?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. Director Han has called me over. There¡¯s a professor from a top hospital, he¡¯s the chairman of our province¡¯s Orthopedics Department. I¡¯ll go to experience the demeanor of a big shot professor.¡± Yang Ping devoured his food. ¡°Slow down, don¡¯t choke. Do you have enough? Shall I get you more?¡± Xiao Su said, with concern. Yang Ping accepted Xiao Su¡¯s napkin, wiped his mouth and said, ¡°I¡¯ve had enough. I¡¯ll eat quickly and go back to study the patient¡¯s surgical plan. It is indeed quite a challenge.¡± ¡°If it was not challenging, they wouldn¡¯t be asking for experts from external hospitals. Director Han is nationally renowned. If he needs to ask for external experts, it means that not only is it difficult, but the risk level must be high,¡± Xiao Su offered his analysis. ¡°Haven¡¯t forgotten about our weekend plans, have you?¡± Xiao Su¡¯s dimples looked quite charming when she smiled. Yang Ping blushed, realizing he had actually forgotten about it. ¡°What are you nervous for? It¡¯s not a big deal if you forget, as long as I remember it.¡± Xiao Su¡¯s observations of his expressions suggested to her that he might have completely forgotten. Xiao Su packed up the two metal meal trays, tidied up the trash on the table, giving it a few wipes with a napkin, making it seem as though no one had ever eaten there. ¡°Let me do it!¡± Yang Ping picked up the meal tray, with Xiao Su following him. ¡°I need to take a call.¡± Xiao Su¡¯s phone vibrated. ¡°Hmm, I¡¯m busy this afternoon and won¡¯t have any free time. Hmm, hmm, hmm, understood¨C¡± After a few words, Xiao Su hung up the phone. While returning the meal trays, they bumped into Dr. Jin, who excitedly asked, ¡°Do you remember our last case of metallic ion-reactive synovitis?¡± Yang Ping said, ¡°I remember.¡± ¡°The patient returned for a follow-up and has recovered. Now, his limbs are no longer swollen or painful, and he can play soccer. The patients¡¯ family was so happy that they brought a banner to express their gratitude. This banner should be given to you.¡± said Dr. Jin. ¡°It¡¯s not meant for me. It¡¯s meant for our department, for everyone!¡± Yang Ping corrected. After chatting with Dr. Jin for a bit, Yang Ping and Xiao Su returned to their department. Unable to fall asleep during his lunch break, Yang Ping entered system space to conduct dozens of dissections, reinforcing his anatomical knowledge training. His current ability to construct mental images was still basic. He capable of forming images, but forming complex ones was quite challenging. Yang Ping tried to recreate the images he constructed in the morning, if he could reproduce them, it meant his memory was improving rapidly, especially his memory for images. In the afternoon, the patient came back from the full body scan. This patient was followed up by Little Five. Little Five put up the X-ray, and everyone became anxious upon seeing it. The X-ray film was filled with varying sizes of particles, round and oval-shaped, with at least hundreds of them visible. There were even some invisible ones on the X-ray film, because cartilage is invisible on X-rays. Little Five put up the MRI images and everyone felt their entire bodies tense up. The patient¡¯s son nearly threw up, he rushed to the side of the trash can, gagging several times. Not every doctor can intuitively understand MRI images. The film was filled with hundreds of particles spread across the entire knee joint cavity. Synovial Chondromatosis! Extremely severe Synovial Chondromatosis! Those with a fear of clusters should stand aside. Little Five took out his mobile phone to photograph and collect data. He took photos of the patient and the imaging pictures. ¡°Schedule the surgery for tomorrow, Synovial Chondromatosis, big and small, a total of 504 nodules!¡± said Yang Ping. The patient himself ended up covering his eyes. Chapter 125 - 0122: Grand Consultation Chapter 125: Chapter 0122: Grand Consultation I¡¯ve seen quite a few cases of synovial chondromatosis of the knee, and this one is rather rare. Little Five removed the film to spare the claustrophobic patient any discomfort. He admitted the patient to the hospital and arranged for pre-operative examinations and surgery. Yang Ping continued his research on the patient from the Overseas Chinese Building, repeatedly simulating the punctures in his mind and adjusting the puncture angles to ensure a hit with every attempt. Song Zimo didn¡¯t rest at noon, staying in the laboratory to practice arthroscopy. His lunch was brought over from the canteen by Tang Fei. He finished eating during the department¡¯s mealtime then continued practicing in the afternoon. Apparently, when he was in trauma orthopedics, he would practice until ten every night as long as there were no exceptional circumstances, sometimes even practicing until midnight. The CT and MRI 3D reconstruction for the patient in the Overseas Chinese Building has been completed. It is a thin-layer scan, and the reconstruction is incredibly clear. Director Han compares Yang Ping¡¯s drawing with the reconstructed image on the electronic reader. The spatial structures hardly differ, and Yang Ping¡¯s drawing is even more expressive. Checking the time, Director Han noticed it is already half past four. He set aside his work at hand, taking Yang Ping to the Overseas Chinese Building to participate in the grand consultation. Several directors had already arrived at the meeting room for the Internal Medicine Department in the Overseas Chinese Building, including Director Zhao of the Medical Department. Everyone gathered around the oval table, discussing the patient¡¯s condition privately before the meeting. Director Kong welcomed Director Han and Yang Ping, inviting them to sit. High-definition tablet computers were placed at each seating position . These were the terminals for the mobile medical record system, where patients¡¯ medical records and auxiliary examination results were accessible. The resolution of the tablets was much higher than average, so that the details of image photos could be seen clearly. Director Kong hardly had a moment away from his phone, with people continuously walking in. All the major directors of the hospital, several professors from outside the hospital, and Director Zhuang of the Internal Medicine Department had hurried over to help entertain the guest experts. ¡°This is from the Second Affiliated Hospital...¡± ¡°This is from the First Affiliated Hospital...¡± ¡°This is from the Tumor Hospital...¡± Several directors came over one by one, taking their seats. Director Kong and Director Zhuang handled the arrangements with vigor and were well-prepared without any neglect or omission. These two from the Overseas Chinese Building, they both commanded the room. Naturally, the consultation had to involve seeing the patient. Someone had already suggested taking a look at the patient. Director Kong led a group to the ward to see the patient while Director Zhuang helped entertain the guests. Everyone took advantage of this time to catch up. These experts were usually familiar with the heads of relevant disciplines in Sanbo Hospital. They often gathered together at meetings, and some were even in the same circle. Busy as they usually were, meetings were a rare chance to get together. Aside from academic conferences, large consultations like this were a chance to chat for a while and update each other on recent happenings. Only Professor Su Qingyun from the First Affiliated Hospital hadn¡¯t arrived yet. He was the primary expert for this meeting. Although the patient had liver cancer, the problem they needed to solve now was caused by spinal metastasis. Su Qingyun was the chairman of orthopedics in Nandu Province and a hot candidate for academician. Naturally, he was the most significant expert for this consultation. The meeting had been deferred from three o¡¯clock to five, specifically to wait for him. Since Professor Su was also the president of the First Affiliated Hospital and had much important work on his plate, his finding time to come was a token of respect. Everyone privately discussed just how significant the patient must be to warrant Professor Su¡¯s personal involvement. For some consultations at other hospitals, even if they could get Professor Su, he would only send a student to attend. There were only a few minutes left, and Professor Su had not yet arrived. Yang Ping had seen Professor Su before, at an academic conference held by the People¡¯s Hospital. That was from a distance, not as close as this. Professor Su had published over a dozen papers in top international orthopedic journals such as AJAM and JBJS. He had an extremely high impact factor and was at the pinnacle of his field domestically, as well as being internationally recognized. Some people were glancing at their watch, some were looking towards the doorway, others were whispering to each other, but everyone was patiently waiting. ¡°Speak up during the meeting, don¡¯t be shy. In academic matters, call a spade a spade. There¡¯s no need to be modest,¡± Director Han quietly instructed Yang Ping. Exactly at five o¡¯clock, Professor Su, guided by Director Kong, walked in, followed by a young doctor who looked much like him. As soon as Professor Su entered the room, he smiled and greeted everyone, ¡°Sorry! Thank you all for waiting!¡± Actually, he wasn¡¯t late. He arrived precisely on time; it¡¯s just that everyone else had come early. Professor Su, in his fifties, didn¡¯t look old at all. He wore glasses and a Zhongshan suit with a white shirt underneath. His demeanor was refined, his scholarly bearing evident, and his powerful aura came from his long-standing academic expertise. Everyone came forward to shake hands with him. When he shook hands with Director Han, he took a little longer. ¡°Brother Han, long time no see,¡± he said. Seeing Yang Ping next to Director Han, Professor Su asked, ¡°Who is this?¡± ¡°This is Doctor Yang, my student!¡± Director Han introduced. Yang Ping shook hands with Professor Su. ¡°A young man of unique charm. Professor Han¡¯s vision is famously astute. He has not enrolled any doctoral students in many years, adhering to a policy of preferring scarcity to mediocrity. It seems that he has chosen a promising talent,¡± Professor Su said with a laugh. ¡°This is Dr. Su!¡± Director Han introduced the young man beside Professor Su. ¡°Su Nanchen!¡± The young man standing next to Professor Su shook hands with Yang Ping. ¡°Yang Ping!¡± Yang Ping could feel his confidence and composure. When Director Han was in Shanghai, both he and Professor Su were outstanding figures among the younger generation in the field of orthopedics. However, when Director Han moved from Shanghai to Sanbo Hospital in Nandu, he had to start all over again, naturally falling behind Professor Su in terms of academic achievements, but his foundations were still solid. They both recognized each other¡¯s talents, exchanged pleasantries briefly and then took their seats. ¡°That¡¯s Professor Su¡¯s son, a graduate of the eight-year program at Xiehe, a promising young orthopedist at Fuer, who studied at the Twin Cities Spine Center in Minnesota and the Special Surgery Hospital in New York after graduation. He will be a strong competitor for you in the southern division of the Golden Knife Award; on a national level, he is one of your few exceedingly strong competitors. He is also a well-rounded contender,¡± Director Han whispered into Yang Ping¡¯s ear. A case of ¡°like father, like son¡±, this Dr. Su is not only impressive in appearance but also a graduate of the eight-year program at Xiehe. The difficulty of being admitted to the eight-year program at Xiehe is no less than that of Tsinghua. Those who are able to get in are typically the cream of the crop, ranking among the top in the province¡¯s college entrance examination. Professor Su undoubtedly had high hopes for his son, otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t bring him along to such conferences. Having him by his side was to let him see the world, encourage interaction, and even help build his reputation and network. Everyone took their seats, and the consultation started, with Director Zhao presiding and the attending physician presenting the patient¡¯s medical history. Once the medical history was presented, Director Kong added, ¡°Respected experts and Professor Su, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to consult on this case today. The issue that this patient currently needs to resolve is the severe pain in the chest area. Thank you all very much!¡± ¡°Shall we first see the patient? Would that be possible?¡± Professor Su suggested. Director Kong led everyone to the ward to see the patient. Professor Su personally asked about the patient¡¯s medical history and performed a physical examination, as did the other professors, based on their own requirements, selectively questioning the patient¡¯s medical history and performing a physical examination. After seeing the patient, everyone washed their hands and returned to the meeting room. Director Xu of the Pain Department at Sanbo Hospital was the first to speak: ¡°This patient was admitted the day before yesterday. From the moment of admission until now, the treatment for pain has been under our supervision. According to the principles of pain management for tumors, this patient has been using morphine for three months. For this hospitalization, morphine was used to its maximum dosage, 30 mg per dose, twice a day, but it could only relieve the pain in the liver area. The pain in the chest area remains severe. After a comprehensive examination was conducted after admission, chest pain caused by heart, lung, and aorta were ruled out. Based on neural localization, the range of pain in the thoracic area is within the distribution area of the Thoracic 2 nerve branch. According to the CT and MRI images, the Thoracic 2 nerve root is just being invaded and oppressed. Therefore, we believe it is caused by the Thoracic 2 nerve root. Unfortunately, it is not possible to perform intra-spinal anesthesia for pain relief here. Once respiratory depression occurs, the consequences would be serious, so we encountered difficulties and need everyone¡¯s help.¡± ¡°Have you considered using an implanted pain pump, inserted into the spinal canal, with morphine as the main drug in the pump formula, released regularly? This would simultaneously relieve pain without causing anesthesia in that plane, hence not affecting breathing.¡± The director of the Pain Department at Fuer suggested. Once the director from Fuer had finished speaking, the director of the Pain Department at Fuyi said: ¡°An implanted intraspinal pain pump is also not feasible. Morphine has already been used to its maximum dosage to suppress the pain in the liver area. This kind of nerve root pain, based on our experience, is almost immune to morphine. In the past when the nerve root was healthy, without any tumor invasion, it worked. But when the nerve root is being invaded and strained by tumor tissues, morphine is ineffective; anesthetics must be used for nerve blockade.¡± The director of the Pain Department at Fuer had a different view: ¡°Nerve blockade is too difficult, almost unfeasible. Normally we perform nerve blockade around the sheath, and even if we puncture the sheath, anesthesia will leak. With this kind of blockade, we must guarantee that all anesthetics are in the neural sheath and cannot leak. Otherwise, it would cause anesthesia in that plane and suppress breathing. Mechanical ventilation would be the only option.¡± After a brief silence, a professor from the Tumor Hospital spoke: ¡°Has surgical intervention been considered? Without affecting other areas, we can go in from the rear, only removing the tumor tissues that are pressing and invading the nerve root, relieving the pressure and liberating the nerve root, and the pain would naturally disappear.¡± ¡°The family refuses surgery, even if it¡¯s targeted!¡± Director Kong explained. ¡°They refuse surgery yet want a solution to the problem; this is indeed a challenging issue they have presented us with.¡± The director of Orthopedics at Fuer commented. The orthopedics department at Fuer ranks second in Nandu province. A long time ago, Fuer and Fuyi orthopedics were on par with each other, but once Professor Su Qingyun took over as head of orthopedics at Fuyi, they began leaping ahead, from competitive to dominant. Symbolizing high-risk orthopedic procedures, scoliosis correction surgery is performed more than three hundred times a year at Fuyi, ranking them in the top tier in the country, while Fuer only performs close to a hundred, placing them in the second tier. For bone tumors, Fuyi has its separate, larger-scale bone tumor ward, whereas Fuer doesn¡¯t yet have a separate bone tumor ward with scale. Hence, naturally, orthopedics at Fuer accepted its position as second best, considering Fuyi as its older brother. Neither intra-spinal analgesia nor nerve blockade is applicable, and the family refused surgery. How can this discussion continue? The room fell silent once more. Chapter 126 - 0123: Sniping through the Wall Chapter 126: Chapter 0123: Sniping through the Wall The silence was brief, the discussion continued, tense and heated. In academic discussions, there¡¯s no room for diplomatic twists and turns. Sometimes arguments can escalate, with table pounding and faces turning red. No one would concede to another. The presence of Professor Su prevented such explosive situations from occurring, but debates were inescapable. ¡°Director Han, do you have any thoughts?¡± Director Zhao asked. Director Han stood upright, akin to a general initiating a war meeting, ¡°The best method is still to carry out a nerve root block. However, in order to avoid anesthesia leakage, it¡¯s essential to insert a cannula into the nerve root sheath, which is incredibly challenging. Yet, it is feasible.¡± The subject was steered towards the nerve root block. The director of the oncology hospital scanned his tablet with one hand and rested his chin in the other. After a moment of contemplation, he said, ¡°The difficulty of a nerve root block is indeed immense. From what I see, the tumor has a rich vascular supply, and the patient¡¯s coagulation function is also not ideal. If a mispuncture occurs penetrating into the tumor tissue, it could lead to uncontrollable hemorrhage, formation of epidural hematoma, spinal cord compression, and in turn, respiratory depression. Eventually, we would have to resort to a respirator. As you can see, the surrounding soft tissue is entirely tumor, leaving limited space for puncturing, a mispuncture, and subsequent bleeding can happen quite easily.¡± ¡°Indeed, that¡¯s the case. This type of puncture is like sniping¡ªit must be accurate and not miss, as a single error could result in serious consequences.¡± Director Yu of Fuer¡¯s orthopedics department agreed with the oncology hospital¡¯s view. There was an outline to the plan ¨C nerve root block. It seemed like no one else could think of other alternatives, but considerable challenges lay forth. Everyone¡¯s gaze rested on Professor Su, handing the difficult problem over to him. Professor Su steadied his tablet with his left hand, rested his right elbow on the table, took off his glasses, and said, ¡°Everyone has explained their views in detail. It seems that nerve root block is the only choice and no one seems to objective. The difficulty lies in the puncture. It¡¯s indeed challenging, but not impossible. We need to leverage CT and MRI for 3D reconstruction and find a way to choose the correct puncture path. With the help of computer-assisted navigation technology during surgery, punctures can be achieved.¡± The puncture is challenging, but feasible. That was Professor Su¡¯s conclusion. ¡°What if it fails? What are the rescue measures?¡± Director Yu of Fuer expressed a different opinion. Professor Su took a cloth to clean his glasses and said, ¡°This is an excellent question. Every medical procedure carries inherent risks. Faced with these risks, we must strive to prevent, but also prepare rescue measures. If the puncture fails and penetrates the tumor causing bleeding, we abandon the puncture and install a drainage tube along the puncture path. We can use negative pressure to discharge the blood and avoid spinal cord compression due to hematoma.¡± Professor Su demonstrated quick thinking and meticulous planning. In a short time, he organized the plan selection, risk control, and remedies for the worst-case scenario. Director Yu admired him. This kind of puncture is far from simple to achieve and reflects a person¡¯s cognitive ability and accumulation of knowledge and experience. Just like firing a sniper rifle, it¡¯s never as simple as pulling the trigger. Each trigger pull is the result of painstaking efforts. ¡°Are there any other opinions?¡± Director Zhao, as the moderator, asked. Director Han smiled and said, ¡°What about the two young fellows? Do you have any thoughts? Don¡¯t keep silent.¡± Ordinarily, Professor Su wouldn¡¯t ask Su Nanchen to speak at such an occasion. It was enough for him to listen. But as Director Han suggested, it would be a harmless chance for the youngsters to gain experience. Professor Su turned to Su Nanchen who was sitting next to him and asked, ¡°Your seniors are affording you such a precious opportunity. Do you have any brilliant ideas?¡± Confident yet humble, Su Nanchen said calmly, ¡°Thank you, Professor Han, for granting me the opportunity to speak. The puncture indeed resembles sniping, and the target is hiding in a bunker. The puncture needs to avoid both the tumor and bone tissue, leading to very limited options for puncture paths. If possible, we can use 3D printing technology to recreate the spine, tumor, nerves and vessels. We could use a precise one-to-one model for puncture path planning and simulate the puncture. We might even temporarily design a locator tool. In combination with navigational equipment during surgery, the success rate of punctures would greatly increase.¡± This young man¡¯s cognitive ability is impressive. Being able to integrate advanced 3D printing technology with puncture operation and according to him, the success rate could potentially multiply. The directors looked at Su Nanchen with newfound respect. Even without the help of Su Qingyun, he could make significant contributions to the field of medical science. Professor Su put on his glasses again, ¡°Xiao Yang, do you have any thoughts?¡± Professor Su had a good memory. Director Han introduced him only once, and he had already remembered the name. Whether it was for nurturing the younger generation or for giving a token of appreciation, it was appropriate to invite him to express his views. Director Han encouraged, ¡°Professor Su called on you, please say a few words.¡± ¡°Xiao Yang, what do you think?¡± Director Zhao also encouraged. Yang Ping calmly said, ¡°Thank you, Professor Su and everyone else! I think that the puncturing needle does not need to avoid bone tissue, instead directly passing through the bone tissue and pedicle. Bone tissue is actually the safest area. There would not be any risk to blood vessels as long as the puncturing needle is in the bone tissue, we don¡¯t need to know where the hidden danger lies, just where there aren¡¯t any.¡± The pedicle is a bony tunnel connecting the front and back of the vertebra, with hard cortical bone on the outside, and loose spongy bone on the inside. This point of view is very novel and breaks conventions. ¡°Since the enemy has hidden in a bunker, a dead angle for our trajectory, we will accurately calculate the enemy¡¯s position in the bunker, fire at the bunker wall, pierce through the wall, and then let the bullet pass through the hole on the wall to snipe the enemy. Thank you everyone.¡± Yang Ping finished speaking. Professor Su looked once again at the three-dimensional reconstruction image on the tablet. This idea is indeed imaginative. The entire puncture path is within the bone tissue, only piercing through the bone tissue in the last step. This not only reduces the chance of mistake but completely eliminates it. The chance of injury is almost non-existent, the rest is just a matter of how to hit the enemy. Puncturing through the pedicle is a basic procedure for any spinal surgery. It is highly unlikely to fail. However, the routine pedicle approach cannot be used and needs to be tilted. The target is inside the spinal canal, not inside the vertebra itself. Professor Su is interested, ¡°Xiao Yang, your idea is imaginative and very feasible.¡± ¡°If we combine penetrative bone puncturing and pedicle puncturing with Dr. Su¡¯s 3D printing to simulate puncturing, the success rate would be very high and the feasibility would be beyond question.¡± Director Han combined the ideas of both. The director of the tumor hospital laughed, ¡°Indeed, young people have a good imagination. One of them brought up 3D printing and another proposed sniping through walls, interesting. It seems we are getting old.¡± Director Yu joked, ¡°I see you¡¯re still sitting here after drinking two bottles of water and you don¡¯t seem to need the bathroom, where have you grown old, I can¡¯t see it.¡± Everyone laughed, relaxing the tense discussion. ¡°Now that we are clear about the puncture path and methods to increase the success rate of puncture, it¡¯s time for action. Does anyone have other suggestions?¡± Professor Su asked everyone. After discussing this issue to such an extent, everything has become very clear. ¡°Bone puncturing avoids the risk of tumor injury and significantly reduces the likelihood of bleeding, but it does not completely avoid bleeding. The puncture path includes all the cancellous bone, which may bleed and the puncture needle will not enter the vertebra but tilt and break through the bone tissue into the spinal canal. The blood may flow into the spinal canal from the puncture tube, causing a hematoma compression. Although this is unlikely, there is still a possibility, so there needs to be a contingency plan.¡± Director Yu pointed out the flaws in our plan. ¡°This kind of bleeding is different from blood vessel rupture. It is a small amount of blood infiltrating from the bone surface. The catheter with a balloon at the end can be used. Calculate the distance, coat the balloon with bone wax and place it into the bone canal, then inflate the balloon to compress the bleeding area.¡± Professor Su immediately suggested. Clearly, with little thought, he had come up with this on-the-spot solution, showing his vast knowledge in the field. ¡°Brilliant!¡± exclaimed Director Yu. Now there was a contingency plan for unexpected situations and the proposal was very comprehensive. ¡°Any questions, professors?¡± Director Zhao asked. Everyone just shook their heads and drank water. Finally, Director Zhao concluded, ¡°So the plan is set: perform a Thoracic 2 nerve root block, place a tube using the bone penetrating method, preoperatively simulate the puncturing using 3D printing, and use computer navigation assistance during the operation!¡± ¡°Professor Su, what do you think about this?¡± Director Zhao sought Professor Su¡¯s opinion. Though he presided over the meeting administratively, it was ultimately Professor Su who made the professional decision. ¡°Yes, the ¡®Sniping through Wall¡¯ plan will be utilized!¡± Professor Su decisively concluded. Chapter 127 - 0124: The Growing Sanbo Chapter 127: Chapter 0124: The Growing Sanbo After repeated discussions, the plan had been polished to perfection. Professor Su was entrusted by others to come for consultation, but time was limited, so the problem had to be resolved as soon as possible. ¡°If no one has any objections, let¡¯s arrange the surgery as soon as possible. It will be performed under local anesthesia with a post-approach pedicle needle puncture of the Thoracic 2 nerve root sheath and microcatheter pain pump implantation,¡± Professor Su spoke, putting down his tablet. Director Zhao looked around and everyone seemed to agree, so the consultation could be concluded, ¡°Thank you all, let us arrange the surgery immediately.¡± ¡°Nanchen, contact the Digital Medical Research Institute of Medical University to send the patient¡¯s imaging data there for immediate 3D printing.¡± Professor Su gave the order, his tone decisive. Director Han immediately countered: ¡°Professor Su, there¡¯s no need to trouble the university, we have a 3D printer here that can be used at any time.¡± He then called Director Tian, asking him to start the 3D printer and informed him that he and Professor Su¡¯s team would be arriving at the Orthopedic Research Institute shortly. Knowing that Sanbo had established an Orthopedic Research Institute and having received an invitation to attend an academic conference and the institute¡¯s inauguration, Professor Su took this opportunity to gauge the strength of Sanbo¡¯s Orthopedic Research Institute. Everyone dispersed, with Director Han leading the group to the Orthopedic Research Institute for a tour. The two directors of the Pain Department and the director of the Tumor Hospital didn¡¯t have much interest in the Orthopedic Research Institute, but they tagged along to take a look anyway. Director Han and Professor Su led the way, with the rest following behind. There was a connecting garden between the Overseas Chinese Building and the Department of Orthopedics. Passing through the garden, Su Nanchen noticed an auntie in patient clothing taking a walk. She looked familiar and, upon closer inspection, he recognized her as one of his patients. He wondered why she was admitted here. The auntie recognized Dr. Su and waved, approaching him, ¡°Dr. Su, what a coincidence meeting you here! Have you been transferred to this hospital?¡± ¡°Not at all, I came for a meeting. Are you still experiencing weakness in your right knee? Why haven¡¯t you come for a follow-up?¡± Dr. Su asked, puzzled. This patient had been diagnosed with a loose body in her right knee at Fuer Hospital and underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove it but showed no signs of relief. The patient sought treatment at Fu Hospital where she happened to be treated by Dr. Su. Reviewing her postoperative MRI, no loose body was found, her meniscus was normal and there were no tears. They checked her head and spine MRIs and didn¡¯t find any issues, ruling out pseudoparesis. After a lot of analysis, they considered it as a hypermobile lateral meniscus. Dr. Su performed a second arthroscopic surgery on her and indeed found a hypermobile lateral meniscus, so he treated it. However, she showed no signs of relief post-surgery. This confused Dr. Su, so he sent the patient¡¯s information via email to his mentor in America, an expert in sports medicine at the New York Special Surgery Hospital. His mentor said he needed to study the case and did not reply immediately. The auntie demonstrated to Dr. Su, bending and stretching her knee, walking a few brisk steps, and then squatting and standing up. Smiling happily, she said, ¡°You see, it¡¯s all good now, completely normal. I had the surgery this morning and can be discharged tomorrow.¡± Dr. Su was surprised, ¡°Which doctor performed your surgery, Director Han?¡± ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± the auntie replied. Dr. Yang turned out to be a student of Director Han, which made Dr. Su take a new look at him. ¡°Dr. Su, you guys should study my case to gain experience,¡± the auntie advised. Though she spoke casually, she unintentionally bruised Dr. Su¡¯s ego, making him feel slightly embarrassed. After saying goodbye to the auntie, Dr. Su quickly caught up with the tour group. Intentionally, he walked closer to Yang Ping, looking for an opportunity to learn about the patient¡¯s diagnosis and how the surgery was performed. He was very curious about the case. Along the way, Director Han was enlightening everyone about the recent developments at Sanbo Orthopedics. While they had not taken Sanbo seriously before, seeing its rapid and steady progress now, they suddenly realized that Sanbo was not the same as before, and its orthopedics department had quietly grown stronger. Upon receiving the call, Director Tian also called Song Zimo to the Orthopedic Research Institute. They had worked together on a project involving 3D printing and were very familiar with the printer¡¯s operating procedure. This top-of-the-line German 3D printer, not a mold level but a machine tool level printer, worth tens of millions, was the core equipment of the Orthopedic Research Institute. Even Nandu Medical University¡¯s Institute of Digital Medicine didn¡¯t have a 3D printer of such caliber; they only had mold level printers and had to collaborate with professional factories for machine tool level ones. Just as a warrior adores his exceptional weapon, academic researchers were naturally infatuated with excellent research equipment. Professor Su circled the large 3D printer, adjusting his glasses to examine every detail, admiring, ¡°This is incredible, truly remarkable.¡± Professor Yu from Fuer also followed suit, but he seemed somewhat displeased. The research institute¡¯s hardware equipment was so formidable, including talents who almost all held doctorates from prestigious universities, which left Professor Su astonished. Whether in terms of talent or hardware facilities, Sanbo had already reached the forefront of G City and surpassed the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital and the City People¡¯s Hospital. The data had already been downloaded from the imaging center and transferred to the 3D printer¡¯s host. All parameters were set by Director Tian and Song Zimo, and the printing began. Bit by bit, the printed base material was sprayed out in the transparent mold printing chamber. Slowly, the patient¡¯s complete torso model was printed. The chamber cover automatically opened, and the model was sent out. Yang Ping and Song Zimo moved the model to the display table. The one-to-one model was incredibly detailed and clear, showing the structure of the spine, spinal cord, nerve root, tumor, and blood vessels. Director Xu from the Pain Department had already sent a set of intraspinal pain pump puncture tools, and Song Zimo had also prepared a set of vertebroplasty puncture tools. Both tools would be combined to complete the puncture for this patient. ¡°Big brother, what¡¯s the situation?¡± Song Zimo asked, who was also paying attention to this patient. ¡°Thoracic 2 nerve root block, per-arachnoid puncture, and 3D printed puncture simulation,¡± Yang Ping told him. ¡°Don¡¯t we have 3D reconstruction? We can use navigation, why simulate a puncture?¡± Song Zimo felt it was complicated, unaware of the heated discussions during the consultation meeting. Su Nanchen gave Song Zimo a glance. Although not familiar, they recognized each other. He knew that Director Han brought a genius doctor from Fudan University. This proud individual, who called Yang Ping his senior and showed no arrogance nor usual aloofness in front of him, made Su Nanchen feel strange. Was Yang Ping that amazing to tame Song Zimo? Because time was limited, Su Nanchen didn¡¯t think further and started the simulated puncture. He was looking for the optimal angle, measuring the length of the catheter, and preparing for precise puncturing during surgery. ¡°You guys carry on with the simulated puncture here, I¡¯ll take Professor Su for a tour of the operating room,¡± Director Han commanded Yang Ping and Song Zimo to accompany Su Nanchen. Director Han brought Professor Su and his team to look at the operating room. The operating theaters of the operation center were not separate ones for the Orthopedics Department. Professor Su seemed very interested in the operating rooms, especially the few for orthopedics. He tried to go in and take a look in each room and asked very detailed questions. Professor Su was particularly concerned about emergency surgeries: ¡°Are there many orthopedic emergency surgeries at night here?¡± Director Han replied, ¡°There are quite a lot now. The Trauma Emergency Center performs a serious trauma emergency surgery every day.¡± Professor Su murmured, ¡°That¡¯s quite hard work.¡± ¡°I heard that you bought the Tianji Orthopedic Surgery Robot?¡± Director Yu said. Fuer bought Da Vinci for the Thoracic Surgery Department and General Surgery, but the Orthopedics Department¡¯s request to buy a Tianji had been delayed. Director Han led everyone to see the Tianji surgical robot. ¡°Let¡¯s go and have a look. It¡¯s in the multi-function operating room here. It has already been put into use. I think a surgery is being performed right now.¡± Director Han led everyone to the multi-functional operating room. One of the multi-functional operating rooms for orthopedics was already in use and was performing a surgery. The radiation warning light at the door was on, indicating that the navigation device inside was running. From the corridor, through the small window, they could see a surgery was in progress. Everyone was very interested. ¡°Director Tan is performing a robot surgery.¡± Director Han suggested everyone wait before entering. There was radiation inside, so they could only enter after the navigation operation was suspended. Tan Boyun was operating the robot arm in the operating room, performing percutaneous sacroiliac screw fixation surgery for the pelvis. Tan Boyun had always had a falling out with Director Yu. Hearing that Tan had already begun robot surgery, had moved ahead, it upset Director Yu. Director Yu thought, Tan Boyun had been oppressed by him at Fuer since always. This time, after moving to Sanbo, he did not break down the relationship with Han Jiangong, as Director Yu had thought. Instead, he rose rapidly. He heard that Tan would be the main character at the upcoming Asia Trauma Orthopedics Summit, a role given by Han Jiangong. The more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt. Under normal thinking, no one wants their opponents to do too well. The screw had been accurately implanted into the sacroiliac joint, the navigation function was stopped, and the radiation warning light was turned off. Director Han led everyone in. Tan Boyun came out of the operating room and saw that Director Han had brought so many people. He recognized Professor Su, Director Yu, and the Pain Department Director from Fuer. ¡°Director Tan, you must be tired. Is the robot handy? Professor Su, Director Yu, they came for consultation today, and everyone wanted to see our robot,¡± Director Han introduced. Tan Boyun shook hands with everyone, ¡°It is tiring, but the Tianji Surgery Robot is great for orthopedics. I have completed over a dozen cases, which were very smooth.¡± Seeing Tan Boyun¡¯s excited look, Director Yu felt increasingly upset. Chapter 128 - 0125: High Precision Puncture Chapter 128: Chapter 0125: High Precision Puncture When Tan Boyun shook hands with Professor Yu, Professor Yu said, ¡°Director Tan is really skyrocketing now!¡± Tan Boyun laughed heartily: ¡°I must thank Director Yu for his hard training!¡± Both were smiling on the surface. To those unaware of the circumstances, it would seem like they were good friends, greeting each other warmly. But to those in the know, it was clear that there was more to their words, each subtly taunting the other. Their relation has become so bad that despite not being in the same hospital and having no direct business with each other, they cannot help but compete when they meet. In terms of robotic orthopedic surgery, Fuyi is at the forefront, with over five hundred procedures performed. If we consider only the volume of robotic orthopedic surgery, it is undoubtedly in the top three nationwide. Yet Fuer has not yet started orthopedic robotic surgery, offering only robotic surgeries in thoracic surgery, general surgery, urological surgery, and obstetrics and gynaecology. In just over a month, thanks to strong support from Director Han, Tan Boyun has already launched more than ten robotic surgeries in Sanbo Hospital. With this aggressive momentum, Sanbo is indeed catching up with Fuyi. If Sanbo acquires a second robot, the hospital could start carrying out surgeries in spine, joint and sports medicine. It would then be in a fierce catch-up mode. Full of energy and ambition, Tan Boyun dares to embark on the cutting edge of the industry, aiming to challenge Fuyi¡¯s trauma orthopedics and carve out a niche nationwide. Now under Director Han, he can get whatever he wants, without any restrictions, and freely display his abilities. ¡°Director Tan launched it later, but has done more than a dozen surgeries in a month,¡± Professor Su praised. Although Tan Boyun is often arrogant, he doesn¡¯t dare to show any pride in front of Professor Su. Not only because of Professor Su¡¯s outstanding academic and moral qualities, but also because Professor Su has once helped him. ¡°This robot is exclusive to our micro-trauma orthopedics department, so it is used very frequently. We have surgeries scheduled for tomorrow, and five for this week. We need to learn more from Fuyi ¡ª compared to Fuyi, we¡¯re merely infants,¡± Tan Boyun briefed them on the progress of robotic surgery at Sanbo Hospital, with a look of respect towards Director Han before starting. ¡°We have performed about a dozen surgeries, involving the pelvis and four limbs. Our goal is to carry out all types of trauma orthopedic surgeries using robots,¡± Tan Boyun introduced his blueprint. The dozen or so surgeries so far were just a warm-up. The real show was yet to come. Professor Su was deeply impressed in his heart. Han Jiangong knew how to use his talents. Tan Boyun, who found it hard to make progress in Fuer, was able to advance rapidly in Sanbo. This man was sure to make extraordinary contributions in the future. The patient, Mr. Ning from the Overseas Chinese Building, has already been sent to the operating room, just next to where Director Tan had just performed surgery, because this room contains the navigation equipment ¡ª computer-assisted surgical navigation system. Su Nanchen considered using the robot to complete the puncture, but he gave up. The puncture operation not only requires high precision but also needs excellent touch when inserting the guide wire. The successful placement of the catheter can only be adjusted according to the touch. The precision of robot-assisted surgery is extremely high, but it lacks feedback from physical contact with the tools, which means it lacks the sense of touch. This is its biggest drawback. Su Nanchen completed the mock puncture and mastered the best puncture point, angle, and depth from it, becoming thoroughly familiar with the relations of various anatomy. Yang Ping took Su Nanchen to the operating room, with Song Zimo following behind. Su Nanchen and Wen Rentao are both Song Zimo¡¯s targets. He has always been making secret efforts to surpass these people who are hailed as the stars of tomorrow. Song Zimo followed silently. He¡¯s not unsociable, just indifferent to socialize, always appearing nonchalant. ¡°The aunt that we just met in the garden, the one with the limp right knee, did you perform surgery on her?¡± Su Nanchen took the opportunity to ask. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°The surgery was just done this morning. She¡¯s due to be discharged tomorrow. Why, do you know her?¡± Su Nanchen said, ¡°My old patient, her second surgery was done here. The treatment result wasn¡¯t good. I just met her, and this time, her symptoms were completely resolved.¡± Yang Ping hadn¡¯t expected that this patient was his. The patient had mentioned that the second surgery had been performed by Dr. Su from Fuyi, but Yang Ping didn¡¯t pay much mind to it: ¡°This patient had popliteal tendon hiatus synovial band impingement syndrome. I found the synovial of the popliteal tendon hiatus and removed it, and naturally, the patient¡¯s symptoms were relieved.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve never heard of this disease?¡± Su Nanchen asked, surprised by the unfamiliarity of a disease, even with his extensive knowledge. Yang Ping laughed: ¡°I hadn¡¯t heard of this disease either; I found the anomaly on her Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan.¡± ¡°Can we take a look at the MRI scans together when we are free?¡± Su Nanchen, always eager to learn, asked. They had arrived at the operating room. They change shoes, put on clothes, and donned masks and caps. The patient was already in position, prone. Zhang Lin and Little Five had already helped with disinfection and draping, and instruments were also prepared. Professors Su and Yu, and Director Han had already put on lead gowns and were chatting inside. ¡°Nanchen, hurry up and scrub!¡± Professor Su urged. ¡°Xiao Yang, scrub. You¡¯ll assist Dr. Su in the operation.¡± Director Han instructed. The two of them donned lead garments and began to scrub their hands. Yang Ping and Su Nanchen hit it off well, unlike Song Zimo, who always emitted an aura of arrogance that kept people at bay with his aloof demeanor. Yang Ping differed in that he exuded a powerful self-confidence, yet he was not haughty nor overly aggressive. It¡¯s often said that experts are lonely, being able to find a competent opponent is a fortunate thing. The mutual admiration between these two talented young men made Su Nanchen regret not having met Yang Ping earlier. While they were scrubbing their hands, they chatted non-stop about the patient with a pinched gastrocnemius tendon and the puncture for this surgery, as if there wasn¡¯t enough time for them to chat in doing so. With everything prepared, the chief surgeon once again verified everything, started the operation, applied local anesthesia, inserted an intramedullary reference pin into the pedicle for navigational coordinates. Dr. Su had great operating posture; the way he sat, stood, walked, and ate all had their unique styles. His posture during surgery was no different, with some people having standard postures that made them look quite elegant, others hunched over and squinting closely at the surgical area; some twisted their bodies, which was not only unsightly but also potentially contaminated the surgical area; and some, for a simple fracture, awkwardly knelt, regardless of whether this was a special requirement or their first time in surgery. Dr. Su¡¯s surgical style revealed Professor Su¡¯s strict demands on him. The large folds of the surgical gown were smoothed out, and the surgical instruments were neatly arranged in order of usage frequency. He hunched over with his chest out, his hands a proper distance from the operating table, and his movements were within a definite range. Everything that could be done with his fingers was, and if the wrist joint needed to assist, it stayed within the wrist area. Even if the elbow joint needed to assist, that too was a minimal movement. Every step followed standard protocols, it was all visually appealing, with a clear rhythm and steady progress. The navigational screen displayed 3D anatomical structures, with reference points showing accurate coordinate relationships between the instruments and anatomical structures. The navigational cursor indicated that the puncture needle with its sheath accurately approached the target. With Simultaneous puncturing and precise navigation, combined with Dr. Su¡¯s talent and experience, the puncture was successful in one go. The needle passed through the pedicle root, penetrating the cortex at the best location, completed its journey through the bony passage. Ahead lay the target ¡ª the nerve root sheath. Each step was flawless. Su Qingyun¡¯s son was indeed as talented as reputed. Professor Yu watched the entire puncturing process, and had to admire the impressive training Su¡¯s son. Even without Su Qingyun¡¯s help, Su Nanchen would have qualified to enter Fuer on his own merits. Eight years at Xiehe gave him the highest academic achievement in the medical field in the country. Moreover, Su Nanchen was the top science scholar in Nandu province in his year, he entered Xiehe as the top scholar. Regardless of the academic status of his department or his personal achievements, Professor Yu was humbled by Su Qingyun. The puncture needle was withdrawn, leaving the sheath inside. The fine hollow puncture needle came out through the puncture sleeve. The needle tip touched the nerve root sheath. Despite having navigation assistance, this was an extremely difficult operation. He¡¯s a formidable young man! Everyone agreed unanimously. The needle tip was ready to puncture the nerve sheath and enter the sheath. This step couldn¡¯t be assisted by navigation, it had to rely on tactile sense. Song Zimo sat nearby. Su Nanchen indeed lived up to his reputation as a rising star alongside Wen Rentao, and this had nothing to do with his father. The needle tip punctured the T2 nerve root sheath, a catheter with a guidewire traveled through the hollow needle into the sheath, with a bit of it exposed, but it struggled to continue advancing. The puncture was obstructed in the final step of tubing. Su Nanchen frowned. The tumor tissue had invaded, causing adhesions between the sheath and the nerve bundle membrane. The guidewire designed to enter the sheath was flexible, ideally suited for the natural gap between the sheath and nerves. However, this gap no longer existed due to the adhesions. On attempting to advance again, the guidewire curved on the image and couldn¡¯t break through the adhesion. Professor Su stood up to look at the navigation image on the screen. The puncturing process had been perfect, but it met resistance in the last step. He believed Su Nanchen could handle it, and Su Nanchen remained calm, he stopped operating and started thinking about a solution. He had already considered adhesion before the operation. To solve this problem, he needed to adjust the angle of the puncture needle. The puncture needle currently entered almost perpendicular to the nerve. He had to adjust the needle tip¡¯s angle to create a certain degree of angle with the direction of travel of the nerve. This way, the guidewire could penetrate the adhesion better. It was like splitting wood, it was difficult to split horizontally but easy to split vertically. Hitting a cup with a missile was already impressive, but hitting it from a specific direction was even harder. The range for adjustment was very small, the diameter of the bony tunnel was already thin. The finer puncture needle does have room for adjustment, but it was minimal. He withdrew the guidewire and catheter and started puncturing the nerve root sheath afresh. Su Nanchen was very familiar with spinal anatomy. He was still young, just 30 years old, but he had already accumulated experience from operating on hundreds of patients with scoliosis, which was very rare. He had excellent tactile sensations; a slight adjustment to the needle tip changed the angle. However, as soon as the needle tip just touched the nerve root and he tried to push it forward, it slipped off. ¡°The angle is off; it needs to be adjusted by fifteen degrees.¡± Yang Ping reminded him. Chapter 129 - 0126 Fifteen Degrees Chapter 129: Chapter 0126 Fifteen Degrees Adjust it by fifteen degrees, to form a seventy-five-degree angle with the nerve root. If it¡¯s too small, it will slide; if it¡¯s too large, the tube can¡¯t be placed. The angle calculated by Yang Ping is not a random estimate, but a precise angle derived from observing Su Nanchen¡¯s simulation of the puncture. The advanced training program of the system has improved Yang Ping¡¯s ability to visualize, enhancing the precision of both his brain and hands. This isn¡¯t just mechanical measurement, but also involves delicate, nuanced sensations. A puncture made at a seventy-five-degree angle with a nerve root, which meant adjusting it fifteen degrees from vertical, how could it be so precise? Su Nanchen wondered. The accuracy of the navigation system could be as precise as a few tenths of a millimeter, but this was theoretical accuracy. The reconstructed 3D image itself would have a certain distortion, and the reference points weren¡¯t 100% accurate either. Just like the effective range of a sniper rifle being two thousand meters, it doesn¡¯t mean that one can always hit the enemy within two thousand meters. There are too many factors affecting this. ¡°As long as it forms a seventy-five-degree angle with the nerve root, it will definitely succeed.¡± Yang Ping once again reminded in a low voice, his tone certain. Su Nanchen didn¡¯t have much confidence in attaining such precision. He attempted several times, but either the needle tip would slide off, or the tube could not be placed. Professor Su also saw the problem. The percutaneous needle was rigid, and the guidewire was elastic. If the direction was not optimal, it would be impossible to break through the adhesions, requiring a level of manual precision beyond human capabilities. ¡°No need to aim for perfection. Once the puncture is successful, then place the tube directly. Twenty-four hours later inject the drug. The micro-catheter and the surrounding nerve sheath would form a biological seal, and the chances of leakage are extremely low!¡± Professor Su urged Su Nanchen to end the surgery soon. No need to stick to a hundred percent. Eighty percent is also a success. If the puncture is successful, and the tube is placed directly, the micro-catheter is also left in the nerve root sheath, but the distance left is very short, which may cause drug leakage, as well as the potential for the micro-catheter to come out when the patient moves. Although the probability is extremely low, the possibility still exists. Su Nanchen didn¡¯t want to give up, he wanted to fight for another twenty points, to reach a hundred percent. Not for himself, but for the patients. If one hundred percent can be achieved, anything less is unacceptable. That was his belief. ¡°Are you confident?¡± Su Nanchen asked Yang Ping. Yang Ping nodded. After a brief conversation and exchange of glances, they turned and switched places back-to-back. Su Nanchen let go, and Yang Ping took over the handle of the puncture needle protruding from the body. The percutaneous needle has two parts, a thick one that is responsible for creating the tunnel in the bone tissue, and a thin one that enters through the sheath of the thick needle, responsible for puncturing the nerve root sheath. The micro-catheter, encased by the guidewire, finally passes through the hollow thin needle and enters the nerve root sheath. Yang Ping held the handle, the thin needle in his hand spun around, trying to feel the sensation. The dynamic three-dimensional anatomical image in his mind appeared, perfecting the details bit by bit. The needle in his hand was also present in his mind, the relationship between it and the nerve root was even more realistic than with the navigation system. He adjusted the direction of the thin needle, puncturing the nerve root sheath at a seventy-five-degree angle. Su Nanchen passed the micro-catheter, which was threaded with a guidewire, into the hollow needle, five millimeters, one centimeter, three centimeters, smoothly entered without any bending. This meant that the guidewire and micro-catheter had successfully passed through the adhesion and entered the nerve sheath, penetrating up to three centimeters. An air-filled balloon inside the bony tunnel of the pedicle secured the catheter. The task that Su Nanchen failed to complete after several attempts was accomplished by him in one attempt. Professor Su nodded slightly, his appreciative gaze fell on Yang Ping, appreciating his talent. The two switched positions again. Yang Ping handed the remaining actions back to Su Nanchen. Su Nanchen slowly withdrew the puncture needle, both thin and thick, and finally removed the guidewire. The puncture was accomplished. ¡°Thank you!¡± ¡°I just helped you make the fifteen-degree adjustment.¡± Both looked at each other and laughed. He had made a friend, Su Nanchen thought. The catheter was fixed outside the skin and connected to the pain pump. Anesthetic was injected through the micro-catheter, entering the Thoracic 2 nerve sheath. ¡°How do you feel, Ning Tianxiong?¡± Dr. Su asked the patient. The patient was under local anesthesia, so he could communicate clearly. ¡°No pain!¡± The patient, in the prone position, answered with difficulty. ¡°How¡¯s your breathing, any difficulties?¡± Dr. Su asked again. ¡°Lying like this is a little strenuous.¡± Ning Tianxiong was very cooperative. ¡°Blood oxygen saturation, one hundred percent!¡± said the anesthetist who was helping monitor the situation. There was no respiratory suppression, which indicated that the medicine didn¡¯t leak. The catheter had penetrated three centimeters, so leakage would not occur. ¡°Lie on your back, observe for fifteen minutes, if there¡¯s no respiratory suppression, then send the patient back to the ward.¡± Professor Su said to Su Nanchen. Yang Ping and Su Nanchen helped the patient turn around to lie on his back. They observed for fifteen minutes and there was no respiratory suppression. A highly difficult puncture was successfully and perfectly completed by two young people. The technique involved in this puncture is equivalent to a special forces decapitation operation in wartime, all of which required high skills. It was already past seven o¡¯clock, Director Han checked the time. Director Zhao of the Medical Department ordered the internal restaurant to prepare meals. Because Professor Su was short on time, he had no plans to stay for dinner. Now he had changed his mind and decided to stay for dinner. ¡°You have worked hard, stay and have dinner before leaving.¡± Director Han insisted. ¡°Okay!¡± Professor Su agreed cheerfully. ¡°Call Xiao Yang too!¡± Professor Su specifically requested. Talented people respect and cherish other talents even more. The other directors also decided to stay to accompany Professor Su. After all, as the dean of the affiliated hospital, the chairman of orthopedics, and a future academician, whichever of his identities held significant weight in the medical circle. They couldn¡¯t snub him, especially when they might need his help in the future. The dinner was set in the restaurant within the cafeteria. Professor Su did not drink alcohol, and everyone else also refrained, some had to drive, and some still had surgeries to perform at night. In addition to Director Han, there were also Director Tian, Director Tan, Director Qin of the Spine Surgery Department of Sanbo Hospital, Director Gao of the Sports Medicine Department, and Director Chang of the Joint Surgery Department coming to accompany him. Both Dean Xia and Dean Sun came. As the dean of the affiliated hospital, he was a big shot in the medical world and could not be neglected. Moreover, Dean Xia and Professor Su were alumni and had once worked together, so they had a certain rapport. Dean Xia and Director Han accompanied Professor Su on either side, Su Nanchen asked Yang Ping to sit with him. The two of them had endless conversations about how the patient could be precisely punctured at a vertical adjustment of fifteen degrees and how this angle was calculated. The dinner table was divided into two circles, Su Nanchen and Yang Ping in one, and everyone else in the other. Su Nanchen and Yang Ping were chatting in low voices, discussing entirely professional topics, and even added each other on WeChat. The others did not bother these two young individuals. ¡°Nanchen, your uncle is asking you something!¡± Professor Su reminded, and then Su Nanchen remembered that there were still Dean Xia and Director Han and others present. ¡°Nanchen, come to our house when you have time.¡± Dean Xia said. Dean Xia and Professor Su were both graduates of Nandu Medical University and belong to the same class. Dean Xia also was transferred from the affiliated hospital. When they were young, they lived in the old dormitory of Nandu Medical University. At that time, Su Nanchen was still in primary school. Dean Xia¡¯s daughter was about the same age as Su Nanchen, and they were classmates in primary school. But Dean Xia¡¯s daughter did not study medicine, she studied law and works at the provincial judicial bureau. ¡°Okay, thank you, Uncle Xia.¡± Su Nanchen responded generously and then picked up the teapot, pouring tea for the seniors, and then raised his cup to toast everyone. Dean Xia and Professor Su talked about the farm of the affiliated hospital. The two decided to find time to visit it. In the past, funds were tight, the affiliated hospital was given a piece of land in the suburbs to farm. Everyone took turns working the land during their free time, growing grains, fruits, and vegetables to supplement basic necessities. Later, this piece of land was not sold. When it was passed to Professor Su, he built a modern farm on it. Every year, he would send some fruits and vegetables to the employees of the affiliated hospital as welfare. Yang Ping felt that the dinner was quite relaxed, and he gained a lot from it, especially by befriending Su Nanchen. Su Nanchen was knowledgeable but not arrogant, asking Yang Ping humbly about every detail of the case as if he wouldn¡¯t rest until everything was clear. He showed none of the haughty habits often seen in privileged second-generation kids. ¡°Stay in touch when you have time!¡± Even after leaving, Su Nanchen sent a message over WeChat. ¡°Professor Su really appreciates you, Xiao Yang!¡± Director Han hummed a tune, looking very pleased. After the dinner was over, the two went to the Overseas Chinese Building to see Mr. Ning. He was smiling and comforting his daughter, ¡°Relax, don¡¯t be so upset, everyone¡¯s life has to come to an end eventually, it¡¯s just a matter of time. No one can escape it.¡± Seeing Director Han and Yang Ping come in, he was very happy, ¡°Thank you both, I¡¯m not in pain anymore, and I have no problem breathing. I¡¯m truly grateful.¡± Pain can be a significant nuisance to people and is the most intolerable symptom for patients. The World Health Organization has listed pain as the fifth vital sign, following heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, and body temperature. Eliminating pain has become a basic right for patients and an obligation and responsibility for medical staff. ¡°I feel comfortable!¡± Mr. Ning leaned against the head of the bed, holding a ¡°Visual Analogue Scale for Pain¡± in his hand. The muscles on his face were relaxed, without any previous distortion. ¡°Thanks to you all! Thank you, Director Han, thank you, Dr. Yang! I¡¯m really grateful!¡± Miss Ning stood up and bowed. ¡°Thank you, Professor Han! You¡¯ve worked hard!¡± Mr. Ning shook hands with Director Han. When shaking hands with Yang Ping, he said, ¡°Dr. Yang and Dr. Su helped me with the puncture, and in the end, it seemed like there was a need for an angle correction, fifteen degrees. It was done by Dr. Yang.¡± ¡°I was conscious all along and kept listening,¡± Mr. Ning explained with a smile. Because it was local anesthesia, he was lying on the operating table and heard the doctors¡¯ conversation, so he was very clear about the surgical process. ¡°Thank you truly, for allowing me to sit here and talk with a smile,¡± Mr. Ning was in good spirits. ¡°Hmm, go back to rest early after eating, and don¡¯t drink alcohol.¡± Before dinner, Yang Ping had sent a WeChat message to Xiao Su. Xiao Su had replied via WeChat, but he hadn¡¯t checked it until now. Chapter 130 - 0126: Sly Fearer Makes a Detour Chapter 130: Chapter 0126: Sly Fearer Makes a Detour ¡°Ding dong, task completed. Successful nerve root sheath puncture performed. Patient¡¯s pain relieved, no side effects observed. Reward: 16,000 points.¡± The points rose from 15,000 to 31,000, leaving him with a bit of a savings. After seeing his patient, Yang Ping, on his way back to the department, heard the system announce the completion of the task. Now the tasks were getting harder. Unlike before, when completing a street-side rescue would reward him with a gift package. The lab lights were still on, with Song Zimo alone practicing arthroscopy. Yang Ping went in and found a chair to sit on. Song Zimo turned around, ¡°What¡¯s up? Aren¡¯t you going back to rest? Zhang Lin and Little Five have also trained for an hour and have already gone back.¡± ¡°Arthroscopy scissors should not only be trained for separation but should also be trained for rhythm. It¡¯s like tossing balls. One ball, two balls, three balls, tossed and caught in a loop. Master the rhythm!¡± Yang Ping said, watching Zimo keep spinning a grape until it rolled away. Song Zimo stopped, listening attentively. ¡°Get good at spinning the grape first, then alternate spinning and cutting. Break down the movements, train for each one. After perfecting each part, string them together for practice,¡± Yang Ping directed Song Zimo. Song Zimo, as if enlightened, immediately altered his training methods, breaking down and practicing each movement separately. ¡°Do you think Director Han will let us be the chief surgeon in the Golden Knife Award?¡± Song Zimo asked, worried. After all, they were below the deputy chief physician, Tian Yuan, and the chief physician, Tan Boyun. Both Tian Yuan and Tan Boyun were in their thirties and less than forty-five years old respectively, both meeting the age requirement for the Golden Knife Award. ¡°Chief physicians can also serve as chief surgeons in the Golden Knife Award. Director Han should give us a chance,¡± Yang Ping analyzed. Song Zimo was very familiar with the Golden Knife Award: ¡°Generally attending physicians participate as assistants. Those who compete as chief surgeons are very rare. To compete as a chief surgeon, performing third-level or fourth-level surgeries, signatures from two chief physicians within the same specialty are required, one inside the hospital and one outside. Su Nanchen has already been promoted to deputy chief physician and Wen Rentao is also a deputy chief physician.¡± Yang Ping yawned, ¡°So you want to defeat them?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you?¡± Song Zimo retorted, stopping his arthroscopic training. Yang Ping lazily shook his head, ¡°Nope, doesn¡¯t interest me. But Director Han did say that winning an award isn¡¯t a bad thing.¡± Song Zimo looked at Yang Ping, who spoke casually as if the award was easily attainable. ¡°Is the surgery for the synovial chondromatosis scheduled?¡± Yang Ping remembered the procedure set for tomorrow. Song Zimo resumed his training, ¡°It¡¯s set. Now it¡¯s easy for us to schedule surgeries. Schedule it here, call up to the operating room, and Xiao Su will have it arranged. Zhou Can is also here, he starts work tomorrow. Having two people makes it a lot easier. One handles the instruments and the other circulates.¡± ¡°Keep practicing. Can you handle all categories?¡± Yang Ping asked. Song Zimo nodded, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be able to, too?¡± Yang Ping snapped his fingers, ¡°Your time to prove your talent is here.¡± ¡°No attending physician has ever received the award before? But I want to try.¡± Song Zimo¡¯s ambition remained undiminished. ¡°Then let¡¯s start. Make them break the rule!¡± Yang Ping stood up, yawned, and left. Song Zimo was left alone in the lab, lost in thought. Yes, start from this batch, and break the norm. He clenched his fist. Entering the system space before bed had become a daily requirement, more punctual than his daily grooming. It was the best time for focused training. Last time he trained with knee arthroscopy. This time, Yang Ping decided to practice shoulder arthroscopy. He spent 12,000 points in the system¡¯s store to purchase 600 shoulder arthroscopy cases, including ones for rotator cuff repair, acromioplasty, Bankart lesion, SLAP lesion, labrum lesion surgeries. He was left with just over 19,000 points. Every time he accumulated some points, after purchasing a training package he was left on edge. He checked the stage task; its completion rate had increased by several percentages and the progress bar had moved a small step forward. Did today¡¯s puncture earn points for this task? It must have. Today¡¯s puncture, acknowledged by Professor Su, naturally boosted the team¡¯s reputation score. Yang Ping understood that now every piece of work, as long as done well, would earn him points, increase his experience, and directly or indirectly contribute to the stage task¡¯s score. This was the logic of aligning personal goals with team goals, combining personal growth with the development of the platform. No one was an island, no one could succeed on their own. The following day, the aunt with the soft-kneed syndrome was ready to be discharged. By the time he checked on her, she had already packed her stuff. She was overjoyed. She had gone from barely being able to move to being as spry as a hummingbird in just forty-eight hours. ¡°I¡¯m going to give you guys some good publicity. And please take good care of my friend I referred,¡± the aunt made a mental note of her friend¡¯s appointment. ¡°Doctor Yang, if you didn¡¯t already have a girlfriend, I¡¯d introduce you to one. Great girl, works at...¡± The aunt was enthusiastic. ¡°Mom!¡± Her daughter cut her off. ¡°Introduce me, auntie!¡± Zhang Lin joked. ¡°You¡¯ve got a girlfriend already, nephew ¨C trying to trick your auntie.¡± The aunt was sharp. ¡°How are you so sure?¡± Zhang Lin laughed as he asked. The aunt pointed to his shirt collar, ¡°Your collar is too clean to be single¡¯s. You¡¯re probably about to get married.¡± Holmes, they all laughed heartily. The patient with synovial chondromatosis was prepped for surgery after rounds. ¡°Anyone here suffer from trypophobia? If so, step back!¡± Yang Ping announced before the procedure began. Patients like this, once the chondroma is removed, make those with trypophobia feel incredibly uncomfortable. Some may even vomit. While adjusting the height of the three-liter bag of saline, Zhou Can said: ¡°Even if we did, we¡¯d probably be immune by now. I have a classmate who¡¯s also an OR nurse, used to faint at the sight of blood and needles. Not anymore. We see organs and intestines all day long, even if we wanted to faint we couldn¡¯t. That time in the tumor surgery department, a tumor weighing tens of kilograms was removed from the abdomen. When cut open, it was all raw, red meat.¡± Yang Ping came back after scrubbing his hands in. Song Zimo and Little Five had already prepared everything. Xiao Su had arranged the various tubes neatly, using a tie to bind them together and then fastening it above the knee. Water tube, suction tube, fiber optic, camera transmission line, electric planer wire, the line of the plasma knife, four lines and two tubes, all without any entanglement, and the pre-set length was just right. Before the surgery, he checked anew, elevated the surgical limb, used a sterile tourniquet to evacuate the blood, inflated the computer airbag tourniquet, and the surgery began. ¡°Those with mysophobia, stay back!¡± Yang Ping reminded again. The scalpel made a 0.5cm incision on the outside of the knee. With a blunt puncture cone, the sheath tube penetrated into the fossa intercondylaris, straightended the knee joint, and when the puncture cone entered the suprapatellar bursa, there was noticeable rustling friction sound, like a pair of chopsticks stirring a pot of peanuts. The puncture cone was withdrawn, and the arthroscope was inserted into the sheath tube, connecting the water tube. The view was all white, nothing could be seen. Under the impact of flowing water, the white objects were rolling and squirming, lined with round chondromas, white, slick and glistening from the crowd pressure. ¡°Wow!¡± Zhang Lin, Liang Fatty, and Zhou Can exclaimed simultaneously, finding the sight too dazzling, their skin instantly covered in goosebumps. It was no longer feasible to use needle punctures to locate the medial entry route as per the norm. The scalpel made another small incision on the inside of the knee, similarly, the puncture cone went in, carrying the sheath tube. ¡°Metal bowl!¡± The metal bowl was already handed over and placed underneath the inner sheath tube, just as the puncture cone was being withdrawn. Splash! Some small cartilage tumors flowed down the sheath tube and were caught by the metal bowl. Some even bounced around. After a while, the bottom of the metal bowl was quickly covered in white cartilage tumors, all relatively small, about the size of sago, densely packed. Slowly, nothing more flowed out because the large sheath tube was blocked. The sheath tube was withdrawn and Xiao Su handed over the marrow forceps ¨C the best tool for removing floating bodies under an arthroscope. To remove the floating entities through an arthroscopy, each one had to be removed individually. Song Zimo¡¯s frequent training of taking crystal babies proved useful at this moment. ¡°Do you want to give it a try?¡± Yang Ping passed the marrow forceps to Song Zimo. Song Zimo had mastered these kinds of procedures. Now, he wanted to follow Yang Ping and upgrade his surgical skills, so he had agreed to assist, observing how Yang Ping operated. ¡°You go ahead, I¡¯ll support the legs and learn from you.¡± Song Zimo said. Each time Yang Ping¡¯s marrow forceps went in and out, it was holding a white chondroma, which he dropped in the metal bowl. He didn¡¯t miss a step with each repetition. He went in, clamped a chondroma, then pulled out and dropped it into the metal bowl. One by one, then a couple, then dozens, the numbers kept climbing¨C In Yang Ping¡¯s forceps, not a single chondroma was missed, nor was any repetition required. A single metal bowl could no longer hold them all, Xiao Su had to swap it for another one. Slowly on the screen, the circular field of view was becoming more clear. One could see the chondromas accumulated in different joint spaces, some even moving around under the flow of water. That a human knee joint could hide such clustered peanuts was beyond comprehension. Zhou Can felt goosebumps all over his body, as if millions of ants were crawling inside his internal organs. The entire knee joint was occupied by chondromas resembling peanuts packed together. Over three hundred had been removed, with more than two hundred still present. ¡°Zhou Can, are you okay?¡± Concerned, Liang Fatty looked at Zhou Can whose face had turned pale. Xiao Su also asked with concern, ¡°Zhou Can, why don¡¯t you take a break?¡± Zhou Can shook his head and took a deep breath, ¡°I¡¯ve got goosebumps all over now, but I¡¯m fine. I just need a moment to relax.¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t you immune?¡± Zhang Lin challenged her, recalling her confidence from moments ago. ¡°I was immune to tumors weighing several dozens of pounds, but have never seen hundreds of these things. It¡¯s making me feel suffocated,¡± Zhou Can admitted. Indeed, this was extremely rare. The removal of the chondromas continued. The procedure was quick; once one area was cleared, the next was targeted. In the end, the posterior compartment was swept once more. From head to foot, the entire knee joint was inspected for any residuum ¨C under the meniscus, inside the synovial folds, everything was checked with the probe, including squeezing the lateral recesses. Confirmed there were none left, a normal knee joint was revealed. Yang Ping had cleaned up the knee joint, removing the proliferating synovial tissue and repairing the degenerated, torn meniscus. The two metal bowls were filled to the brim, the height of the contents exceeding the edges. It was astonishing that all of this came from one single knee joint. Five hundred and twenty-seven pieces! More than what was shown on the MRI. The smallest was the size of sago, and the largest was bigger than an adult¡¯s thumb. ¡°Shall we show this to the patient and their family later?¡± Zhang Lin took a photo. ¡°Communicate with them in advance and seek their opinion. If they don¡¯t want to see it, let it be. It might make them uncomfortable,¡± instructed Yang Ping. Last time, the patient was too scared to see it, and the sight almost made his son vomit. Zhou Can stared at the two metal bowls filled to the brim with white, smooth, egg-shaped tumors that had piled up like mountains. ¡°Are you sure you want to keep looking? Are you trying to desensitize yourself?¡± Zhang Lin blocked Zhou Can¡¯s view. ¡°Let me look a little longer. I won¡¯t feel this way next time. It¡¯s quite stimulating,¡± Zhou Can admitted. ¡°You¡¯re a freak!¡± Zhang Lin moved aside. Chapter 131 - 0128 The First Strategic Position Chapter 131: Chapter 0128 The First Strategic Position The surgery ended, and we discussed with the patient and his family whether they wanted to see the removed object from the surgery. They firmly declined, unwilling even to look at pictures. It¡¯s a common practice; sometimes when the particular object that was removed during surgery is unique, it is shown to the patient and family to inform them. The anesthesia control for Liang Fatty was excellent, allowing the patient to be able to walk out on their own. Being wheeled in on a wheelchair but walking out by yourself presents an impressive contrast; this can significantly boost the patient¡¯s confidence. However, this patient hadn¡¯t walked normally for several months. Due to insufficient lower limb strength and his inability to support his weight immediately after surgery, coupled with the psychological fear induced by joint lock, his fears couldn¡¯t be alleviated instantly. Little Five and Zhou Can helped the patient sit up while Yang Ping encouraged the patient to move their knee joint. The patient was afraid to move; Yang Ping helped the patient move as the patient was too frightened, leading to severe muscle resistance. Song Zimo called a ward nurse to bring a walker to the entrance of the operating room to help the patient walk back afterward. Everyone changed clothes and exited the operating room, where Zhou Can and Liang Fatty were already waiting with the patient in a wheelchair. Upon seeing the significant decrease in the swelling around the knee joint, the patient¡¯s son felt relieved. Recalling the dense items he saw in the X-ray yesterday, he felt goosebumps; he dared not look at his mother¡¯s operated knee again. ¡°Come on, try to walk with this walker. The more you walk, the faster you¡¯ll recover. The less you walk, the harder it will be to recover. Be bold and walk!¡± Yang Ping encouraged the patient. Song Zimo properly adjusted the walker, and Xiao Yang and Zhang Lin helped the patient stand up. The patient had good upper limb strength and could support her body with the walker. After trying to take a few steps, she immediately gained confidence. The family members watching felt very happy as well. After escorting the patient back to the ward, another patient was waiting for Yang Ping in the doctor¡¯s office. Professor Zhang¡¯s patient ¨C Hermes, was being pushed in by his fashionable wife. ¡°Hello, Doctor Yang!¡± Hermes greeted, shaking hands with Yang Ping. ¡°Hello, are you looking for Professor Zhang? He¡¯s in the Department of Orthopedics.¡± Yang Ping knew he had been seeking Professor Zhang. Hermes responded, ¡°I went to see Professor Zhang in the outpatient department. He kept telling me to see you and have you admit me to the hospital. He said that he will visit here in a few days.¡± In a few days, Professor Zhang would move to the Comprehensive Orthopedic Clinic to specifically handle complicated cases. He had applied to the hospital to move here, so Han and Director Tian would be released by having Professor Zhang¡¯s help. ¡°Do you want to stay in the Overseas Chinese Building or here?¡± Yang Ping asked him; he had stayed in the Overseas Chinese Building last time. Hermes chose to stay here. ¡°With Professor Zhang here, I feel safe. Did you not see what happened last time in the Overseas Chinese Building? An old man next to my room suffered a sudden heart attack after surgery. He was rushed into emergency treatment and installing a stent; it was only after a night of turmoil that they managed to save him. I was frightened by it. I feel secure seeing Professor Zhang, so I will stay here. What about we charge according to the rates of the Overseas Chinese Building?¡± While he was talking, he wiped away the sweat with a tissue. He was genuinely terrified. Yang Ping asked Xiao Yang to admit him to the hospital. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter; you can choose where to stay. We have our charging standard here. We can¡¯t charge randomly. We also have separate suites, with a daily fee of 1200, and other charges are the same as ordinary patients. This single suite is better than the general ward but much worse than the Overseas Chinese Building.¡± Every time Yang Ping talked to Hermes, he didn¡¯t dare to look straight at him, as his wife¡¯s clothes were too bold. She unbuttoned her coat, revealing a tight, low-cut dress that boldly showed off her curves. On the first day of the establishment of the Comprehensive Department of Orthopedics, a doctor group was created on WeChat, as well as a larger group for Comprehensive Bone doctors and nurses. Professor Zhang had been added to the group. This octogenarian had an impressive mastery of his smartphone. Looking at his phone, Yang Ping saw that Professor Zhang had sent a message in the big group chat. He wanted Yang Ping to admit Hermes to the hospital, complete the preoperative examination, and prepare for surgery next week. Xiao Yang took Hermes aside to help him complete the hospital admission procedure on the computer and issue a certificate of hospitalization A nurse came over and reported that a patient was waiting in the meeting room. Yang Ping went over and saw that it was Mr. Ning¡¯s daughter. She politely smiled, ¡°Sorry to disturb you, Doctor Yang, do you have a moment to speak?¡± Yang Ping welcomed her to sit down, ¡°How is Mr. Ning feeling? Is his chest not hurting anymore?¡± He was planning to go and check on Mr. Ning after finishing up. ¡°There¡¯s no pain in his chest area at all, he slept well last night, and this morning he even ate a steak, two pieces of bread, and a bowl of porridge. Our father is very grateful to you,¡± Miss Ning expressed with gratitude. ¡°Please, it¡¯s what we are here for,¡± replied Yang Ping. Miss Ning looked somewhat gloomy as she said, ¡°The pain in my father¡¯s chest has been completely relieved, but the pain in his liver can only just barely be relieved with morphine right now. I worry that the morphine will soon become ineffective. Could I bother you to use the pain-relieving method that you used yesterday when that happens?¡± ¡°If there is really a need, we will do our best. However, the pain in the liver area is much more complex than the pain in the chest,¡± Yang Ping honestly responded. Miss Ning said sadly, ¡°Thank you very much, I really appreciate your help. My father trusts you completely.¡± ¡°Thank you for your trust. When I get a chance, I will come to see him.¡± Yang Ping knew that this successful pain management had given Mr. Ning confidence, allowing him to walk the last stretch of his life with dignity. ¡°I will not bother you anymore, Doctor Yang,¡± Miss Ning said her farewells, shaking hands with Doctor Yang. After sending Miss Ning away, Hermes was pushed into the doctor¡¯s office by his wife: ¡°Doctor Yang, sorry for the disturbance. Please make arrangements for my surgery next week. Professor Zhang will only be here next week.¡± ¡°Okay, don¡¯t worry, I will arrange the surgery according to Professor Zhang¡¯s schedule.¡± Yang Ping gave him reassurances, and only then did Hermes leave with peace of mind. Su Nanchen sent a WeChat message, about a fifteen-year-old football player who had a serious complex tear in the meniscus of his left knee. Surgery was needed for endoscopic meniscus repair. There was a shortage of beds at their place, and they could not arrange for it temporarily. The patient¡¯s family was very anxious, so he let the patient come to Sanbo to find Yang Ping. Yang Ping immediately agreed, grateful for Su Nanchen¡¯s recommendation. Recommendations between doctors are usually not made unless there is a high level of trust. Even if they do recommend, it¡¯s usually from lower-level hospitals to higher-level hospitals, not among same-level ones, or from higher-level ones to lower-level ones. That is somewhat uncommon. Yang Ping did not expect that he would be dealing with endoscopy these days. The first surgery in the department was an endoscopy, followed by another one. It seemed that just like the five-section replantation for trauma orthopedics, endoscopy for comprehensive orthopedics might be a breakthrough point. Director Han called Yang Ping to his office. Without delay, Yang Ping immediately rushed over and found Director Han staring at a picture on the wall. It was a blueprint for the development of orthopedics. Micro-trauma orthopedics had been marked with a blue tick. Director Han held a red and blue marker in his hand: ¡°In trauma orthopedics, the five-section replantation has made a name for itself, and the trauma emergency center is serving as a platform. Now the patient numbers have skyrocketed. Dr. Tan Boyun¡¯s abilities are also outstanding, so the development of trauma orthopedics is completely on track and there is no need to worry anymore. The other departments, the spine and the joint are neither too hot nor too cold, and Sports Medicine only has twenty beds, which is seriously holding us back. Currently, very few hospitals in the country have developed well in the field of Sports Medicine, other than the third hospital in Beijing, Jishuitan, Huashan in Shanghai, and the sixth hospital. There is no big scale in the others. Our comprehensive orthopedics department has been open for three days now, and I keep thinking, should we find a breakthrough point, like trauma orthopedics, to make a name for ourselves?¡± Using the marker to draw circles in his hand, Director Han turned around and sat down: ¡°Xiao Yang, have a seat!¡± ¡°What do you think?¡± Director Han asked. The Comprehensive Orthopedics department plays the role of the vanguard in the major orthopedic units, which is responsible for capturing territories. After capturing a territory, it is handed over to other wards for operation. For example, the trauma orthopedics territory has been captured and handed over to Tan Boyun for operation. This is Director Han¡¯s strategy for the positioning of the Comprehensive Orthopedics department. Yang Ping looked at the blueprint on the wall: ¡°Director, the advantage of our comprehensive orthopedics department at the moment is the inherited system of the day surgery. We need to capitalize on the advantage of the system, for speedy surgery and rapid recovery. The most suitable surgeries in orthopedics for this system are sports medicine and arthroscopic surgery, which would be the perfect breakthrough point!¡± Yang Ping suggested, reflecting the results of his consideration over the past few days. ¡°Hmm, the first day I saw you guys carry out surgery, I was thinking about this issue. In G City, besides the No.1 attached hospital which focuses a lot on Sports Medicine, the other hospitals do not differ much from us. They do not place much emphasis on it either. This is indeed an ideal breakthrough point. The first strategic position that our comprehensive orthopedics department should attack is this one.¡± Director Han stood up and marked Sports Medicine with a red tick. ¡°Director Gao graduated from Beijing North Hospital with a PhD. His educational background and technical skills can definitely support this department. As long as we occupy this territory, it can then be handed over to him to establish a Sports Medicine Center without any problems in the future.¡± Director Han lifted his teacup and took a sip of tea. ¡°Xiao Yang, I¡¯ve seen your work with arthroscopy. Your skills are top-notch, just like when you perform finger replantation. Do you feel confident in capturing this territory?¡± Director Han was full of confidence. ¡°There should be no problems!¡± Yang Ping answered habitually. ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I wanted to hear!¡± Director Han began humming a tune. The mutual understanding between a Bole and a talented horse led to a strong rapport between the old and the young. ¡°The academic conference is coming up soon, and Director Tan has already started preparing. There are still slots for more lectures in the conference. You should come up with a theme and present it at the conference as a way of training yourself. Choose a topic on your own, prepare well, and hand it over to Director Tan. We will have a progress report meeting for the academic conference this afternoon, which both you and Song Zimo should attend.¡± Director Han instructed. This academic conference was not for a small range in G City, but international. Director Han used his own connections to organize this academic conference together with hospitals in Japan, South Korea, Israel, and Singapore ¨C it was the Asian Trauma Orthopedics Summit. The content of the conference revolved around cutting-edge techniques. Zhang Lin was responsible for the paperwork of the academic conference, like crafting the opening speech, designing the schedule, and so forth. Yang Ping looked at Zhang Lin¡¯s lecture schedule. Director Tan¡¯s topic was ¡°The Establishment of the Database for Robotic Surgery Cloud,¡± and Director Tian¡¯s topic was ¡°The Application of 3D Printing in Trauma Orthopedics.¡± If he were to give a lecture, what theme should he come up with? He had yet to tackle any specific topic. He had not been at Sanbo for a long time, and what he had accumulated was more about surgical operations. He hadn¡¯t really dabbled in any of these cutting-edge technology topics. To come up with a theme and present it at this conference would be quite challenging indeed. Chapter 132 - 0129 Xiao Sus Cooking Skills Chapter 132: Chapter 0129 Xiao Su¡¯s Cooking Skills This was a rare opportunity for a meeting, and Yang Ping wanted to cherish it, not letting Director Han¡¯s high hopes down. He pondered hard over the topic for his speech, but could not find an appropriate one for the moment. After all, unlike Director Tan and Director Tian, who had their own research topics, studying cutting-edge things. Yang Ping felt he should give up and share his thoughts with Director Han. Director Han was very open-minded: ¡°Well then, there will be a surgical demonstration. If there is a rescue surgery at the Trauma Emergency Center during the conference, Tan Boyun will do a live surgery demonstration, showcasing our process and surgery. That guy has courage and creativity. You can also use a surgical demonstration to showcase yourself.¡± This was more in line with his current situation; Yang Ping could manage it. Yang Ping told Director Han about Su Nanchen introducing him to a patient. Director Han was delighted: ¡°This is good news, it means they trust you. Handle every patient with care, turn every surgery into a masterpiece, and your fame will spread naturally.¡± The old and the young sat drinking tea while chatting, having a whale of a time. Su Nanchen sent a WeChat message, saying that the patient would come to Sanbo Integrated Orthopedics in the afternoon to look for Yang Ping, arriving around four o¡¯clock. Little Su, Zhou Can, and Tang Fei headed to the dormitory to cook some dishes, which they planned to pack up and bring over. The group would have lunch together at noon. With no emergencies at the moment and surgery times being controllable, everyone was relatively relaxed. The hospital dormitory was a suite. Little Su and Zhou Can, who were roommates in a two-bedroom living room, were equipped with a kitchen, which made it very convenient for them to cook. They had gone to the market early in the morning to buy ingredients, stating that they needed to celebrate the successful discharge of the first surgery patient that day. Around 11 o¡¯clock, the three girls brought the food to the dining room and asked Zhang Lin and Little Five to fetch rice from the canteen. The food was packed in disposable containers, steaming hot and fragrant. One by one, they were placed on the table. The leek fried eggs looked very unappetizing, being burnt. The carved decoration next to the cold dish was a bit awkward. The rest of the dishes looked beautiful and were of good quality. ¡°How could this dish look so unappealing, Zhou Can, did you make it?¡± Zhang Lin thought the leek and fried eggs looked very unappetising. With his head lowered, Zhou Can looked wronged: ¡°I¡¯ve never cooked before. It¡¯s already good that I¡¯ve made something for you to eat, so don¡¯t be picky.¡± As Little Su adjusted the placement of the dishes, she said, ¡°Zhou Can spent half an hour making this dish, stirring the eggs for over ten minutes. This is a labor of love from Zhou Can.¡± ¡°Yes! Little Su understands me.¡± Zhou Can grabbed Little Su¡¯s hand. ¡°This dish, don¡¯t comment on it. I made it.¡± Tang Fei voluntarily admitted, saving the awkwardly carved chilled dish from Zhang Lin¡¯s critique. ¡°Where¡¯s Xiao Qing? Invite her to eat with us. Zhang Lin, your pediatrician also needs to eat lunch, right?¡± Yang Ping suggested to Little Five and Zhang Lin. ¡°Emergency Department, don¡¯t even think about getting away for lunch. It takes enough time to walk from the Emergency Building to the Integrated Orthopedics department to save several people.¡± Xiao Qing worked in the emergency department, which was tough, but the girl actually loved her hard work. Zhang Lin, looking at the dishes: ¡°Pediatrics is also quite busy. Why don¡¯t I take some food to go and deliver it to her?¡± ¡°Look at Zhang Lin, Little Five, you need to learn from him. How considerate!¡± Liang Fatty exaggeratedly gestured. ¡°You¡¯re just all talk.¡± Little Five poured cold water on Fatty, and Fatty shut up. Little Su then took out two more meal boxes: ¡°These are for your homes. They¡¯re all set. It¡¯s still early, and they definitely haven¡¯t had lunch yet. Take them over. I packed a little of each dish.¡± ¡°My sister-in-law is so thoughtful.¡± The words slipped out of Zhang Lin¡¯s mouth. ¡°Look at my mouth, always spouting out more than it should!¡± Zhang Lin slapped himself in the mouth. Little Su¡¯s face instantly turned as red as a red apple. ¡°I¡¯ll go ahead and make the delivery, you guys wait for me, wait for me!¡± Zhang Lin shouted as he walked. ¡°Hurry up, I¡¯m starving.¡± Fatty was getting impatient. Zhang Lin turned back and took a photo: ¡°Everything starts with a photo!¡± ¡°Zhang Lin, be honest when you get there. These were made by Little Su, don¡¯t claim you made them to your wife.¡± Liang Fatty knew this guy was thick-skinned. Little Five also rushed towards the Emergency Department with his lunchbox. Liang Fatty¡¯s chopsticks were in his hand and about to reach out several times: ¡°Let¡¯s not wait for them, let¡¯s start eating.¡± ¡°Fatty, you¡¯re so disloyal,¡± Zhou Can angrily said. Little Five and Zhang Lin returned, panting heavily. The two boys had clearly run a round trip. ¡°Time¨Ctime¨Cto eat!¡± Zhang Lin gasped. ¡°Come, brother, you come, taste it first!¡± Little Five grabbed Liang Fatty¡¯s hand. After trying a bite, Yang Ping acknowledged the impressive culinary skills of Xiao Su. The dishes were not only well-picked but also delicious, especially the sweet and sour pork ribs, which had an excellent taste. Such cooking skill couldn¡¯t have come from mere self-learning, there must have been expert guidance. ¡°Call the standardized training students.¡± Yang Ping noticed they were missing. ¡°Already did, they all went to the hospital teaching room for procedure practice. The practical exam is in a few days, they are cramming.¡± Song Zimo replied. Xiao Su¡¯s cooking was excellent ¡ª it was savored by everyone. Even Zhou Can¡¯s fried egg and Tang Fei¡¯s mixed vegetables were all gone. ¡°Who is on duty today?¡± asked Yang Ping. Zhang Lin raised his hand: ¡°It¡¯s my shift.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a patient coming in with a torn meniscus around four, I¡¯ll be in a meeting this afternoon. Let the on-duty doctor know, if the patient arrives, to have them wait in the meeting room. Patient is being referred by Su Nanchen from the affiliated hospital, we must handle this properly.¡± Yang Ping told Zhang Lin. Everyone pitched in to clean up the trash and tidied up the dining area, leaving Yang Ping and Xiao Su in the dining room. Xiao Su wiped the table twice, until it was squeaky clean. Resting her chin on her hand, she looked at Yang Ping: ¡°So, Su Nanchen from the affiliate hospital is referring patients to you? You guys are close?¡± ¡°Yes! Due to their bed crunch and long surgery waiting time, the patient was rather anxious, so he referred them here.¡± explained Yang Ping. Xiao Su¡¯s long eyelashes sparkled: ¡°Doctor Yang is really something.¡± ¡°Little girl, why are you looking at me like that?¡± Yang Ping felt his face heat up under her gaze. Still resting her chin in her hand, Xiao Su asked: ¡°Had a close encounter with Professor Su yesterday, right?¡± ¡°Yes, I did. I messaged you about the meal on WeChat, and had it with them. Su Nanchen and I hit it off, he¡¯s a very nice guy. Highly talented and modest, and lacks any arrogance. Professor Su is also very gentlemanly, which is why he¡¯s so respected in the medical field.¡± Yang Ping praised. Xiao Su stopped speaking and continued to gaze intently at Yang Ping. ¡°Why do I feel like all those with ¡®Su¡¯ as their surname are like this? They look good and have high IQs, like the one in front of me.¡± Yang Ping said with a laugh. ¡°Hmm, you¡¯ve improved, you¡¯re quite the flatterer.¡± Xiao Su withdrew her gaze. ¡°I¡¯ve got to go back to preparing the meniscus suture instrument, and I have to get more meniscus suturing tools. Which one does it need? Made in our country?¡± Xiao Su gets busy too. ¡°Use the domestic-produced one! Xiao Su, you know me well!¡± Yang Ping preferred domestically manufactured medical equipment. Even though they might have been somewhat inferior to imported ones, if they were not supported, the domestic ones would never have the chance to improve. The hospital¡¯s sports medicine supplier had several vendors, including Shi Lehui, Arthrex, and a domestically manufactured one ¨C Ruixing. To do a good job, one must first sharpen one¡¯s tools. Yang Ping had studied all the sports medicine products on the market, thoroughly understanding their design principles, materials, pros and cons. ¡°Prepare more consumables for shoulder and knee arthroscopies. We¡¯re going to be performing more in this area.¡± Yang Ping instructed Xiao Su. Xiao Su returned to the operating room to prepare the tools. Yang Ping picked up his mobile phone, pulled out the text, images, and video data on these products he¡¯d been collecting all this time and studied them all over again, not missing a single detail. Heading to the department computer, he pulled up their open patent information and gave it another thorough study. Yang Ping had a deep understanding of the entirety of the equipment; even deeper than the engineers who had designed them. Director Tan sent a WeChat message informing everyone of a 4 p.m. meeting, an academic conference preparation report meeting. Yang Ping didn¡¯t have specific tasks for the academic conference preparations because he was in charge of general orthopedic surgeries. Song Zimo, Little Five, Zhang Lin, and others had specific tasks. The patient with synovial chondromatosis was very active, hobbling back and forth in the hallway with the aid of a walker. Hermes finished the hospital admission paperwork for the operation, had lunch, returned to his room and was on the phone once more, speaking about increasing capital, funds and contracts and such. ¡°4 p.m. this afternoon, in the integrated orthopedics teaching room, academic conference preparation reporting meeting.¡± The message was repeated in the academic conference preparation WeChat group, sent by Dr. Zhong. Because Director Han¡¯s office was in the Integrated Orthopedics Department, Tan Boyun felt that it was better to hold meetings closer to the head of the department. Chapter 133 - 0130 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Chapter 133: Chapter 0130 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon At four o¡¯clock, the meeting commenced punctually in the teaching room of the Integrated Orthopedics Department. The participants were all members of the Academic Conference Preparation Group, including Director Tian, Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Tang Fei, Zhang Lin, Little Five from the Integrated Orthopedics Department. Additionally, it included group leaders and attending physicians from the Micro-trauma Orthopedics Department. Although others did not participate in the preparation group, most graduate students, standardized training students along with some nurses were given specific tasks, such as receptionists, venue attendants, and usherettes, etc. As the theme of the conference was Trauma Orthopedics, the departments of Spine Surgery, Joint Surgery, and Sports Medicine were temporarily not required to send participants for preparations. However, they expressed full support and declared that they could provide personnel anytime if needed. This was a big event of the Orthopedics Department, in which each person actively participated. Everyone was going to benefit from it, and the team spirit of Orthopedics was fully demonstrated. Once everyone had gathered, Tan Boyun took the podium and reported the work progress to Director Han. The preparations had been completed for the moment; the remaining tasks were improving the details. The guests of this conference included Professors from the First and Second Affiliated Hospitals of Nandu Medical University, Provincial People¡¯s Hospital, City People¡¯s Hospital, along with Professors from Beijing, Shanghai, and Western China. Some professors also came from abroad, such as from Japan and South Korea, predominantly representing several Asian countries. There were over a thousand doctors attending the conference. This number was quite large, indicating the compelling nature of the issues discussed at the Academic Conference. An international academic conference of this nature would have been difficult for Tan Boyun to operate solely, mainly due to the lack of a network foundation. However, with Director Han¡¯s assistance in inviting people and establishing the conference framework, he found the operation much easier. Therefore, Tan Boyun was very grateful that Director Han entrusted him with this glorious task and himself took the backstage, reflecting his remarkable magnanimity. Once Tan Boyun had finished his report, each preparation group then reported their work progress, and raised any issues that needed resolution, for everyone to collaboratively come up with solutions. Tan Boyun was the leader of the preparation group, with Director Tian as the deputy leader. He, along with Song Zimo were tasked with reviewing the conference papers. Zhang Lin was in charge of text publicity tasks, such as drafting the content for the promotional posters and Tan Boyun¡¯s opening speech; Little Five was responsible for arranging guest hospitality such as transportation, accommodation, breakfast, lunch, dinner; Tang Fei was in charge of arranging translation tasks; other projects also had dedicated personnel responsible for them. There were foreign guests attending, but most of the audience was composed of Chinese doctors; hence, a translation was essential to interpret guests¡¯ speeches, and facilitate a question-answer session between the audience and guests. Tang Fei took the podium to report: ¡°The conference speeches will all be delivered in English; the venue translation group is composed of myself, Director Tian, Dr. Yang, Song Zimo, and Dr. Jin. All doctors in the group have English proficiency assessed as highly competent.¡± Medical conferences involve many professional terms, so it might be embarrassing to translate without a certain medical background, despite the interpreting ability. Many doctors from large hospitals have overseas studies experiences. Some have even participated in translating medical monographs, making them better than translation companies. Director Tan, Director Tian, Song Zimo, and Tang Fei had studied in the United States, Dr. Jin had studied in the United Kingdom, while Yang Ping, despite not having studied abroad, had excellent academic scores and a strong English foundation. With increased study over this period, his translation skills have rapidly improved without any issues. Director Han needs no introduction. He has always communicated directly in English at overseas academic conferences, and he participated in formulating the English version of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s medical certificate and other documents. Professor Zhang Zongshun, being 80, still reads original English medical literature. Since most of the achievements in Western medicine are documented in English, learning English is to keep up with the international advanced standard and progress through education and communication. Next, Zhang Lin gave a report on the progress of his text publicity tasks. He displayed on the screen his designed posters, expert introductions, conference agendas, attendance guides, and the draft of Director Tan¡¯s opening speech. Everything looked very professional and beautiful.¡¯ Despite appearing lax, this guy surprisingly possesses profound writing skills. He does things systematically and properly when it comes to official matters. Director Tan said while looking at the screen, ¡°I have read the opening speech draft, and it¡¯s very good. I made only minor amendments. This is the final version. Would everyone please check to see if there are any issues? If not, could Director Tian please help translate it into English?¡± ¡°No problem, send me the manuscript, Zhang Lin, and I will translate it tonight.¡± Director Tian had just read through the manuscript and was quite satisfied. Director Tan had less time recently compared to Director Tian, so he entrusted the translation of the speech to Director Tian. Little Five was in charge of guest logistics, including airport pick-ups, accommodation, and the arrangement of breakfast, lunch and dinner. He opened a notebook: ¡°I have already made arrangements with the hospital¡¯s logistics department to send three business cars to the airport for pick-ups. The accommodations are arranged at the Tri-Bo Hotel. I reserved an entire floor for the guests to stay, and hotel rooms for other staffs based on the registration form. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will all be provided at Tri-Bo Hotel, with a buffet for breakfast and lunch. The dinner will be arranged in the hotel hall, and tables have been booked according to the number of people. This is the list of refreshments and fruit for the conference¡¯s two-day tea break, arrangement, standards for breakfast and lunch buffet, dinner menu, and the list of guests for each table. Take a look and see if anything needs to be adjusted.¡± Little Five also made these into charts and displayed them on the screen, making it crystal clear. The Tri-Bo Hotel was a hotel located inside the Sanbo Hospital. The majority of its guests were family members of patients. Whenever there was a conference at the hospital, it would also serve as the conference¡¯s exclusive hotel. ¡°Little Five, I suspect you used to work in a convention company during the summer when you were studying. Your arrangements are impeccable.¡± Upon seeing such mature arrangement from Little Five, Director Tian was impressed. Both the buffet and banquet had taken into account the tastes of experts from different countries. ¡°The menu is finalised after several discussions with the hotel.¡± Little Five zoomed in on the menu. Dr. Zhong was in charge of collecting courseware: ¡°I have collected all the courseware. Apart from a few professors who chose not to submit their slides, stating that they would bring them with them, there are no other issues.¡± ¡°All sponsorship funds for the conference have been secured. There are a total of thirty-two sponsors, and all their booth areas are well planned.¡± Dr. Jin and Fatty were in charge of sponsor management. Dr. Jin managed the money, Fatty managed the accounts, and the hospital dispatched financial supervisors to monitor them. Medical academic conferences were usually sponsored by equipment or pharmaceutical manufacturers. By sponsoring, the manufacturers would get a booth to display their products to all the experts attending the conference. Everyone¡¯s preparations over this period of time were very thorough, Director Tan concluded after going through it without finding any problems, he said: ¡°If a major emergency surgery happens to take place during the conference, we will demonstrate the entire surgical process. There will be three surgical demonstration teams, I, Director Tian, and Doctor Yang will be the chief surgeons, each with our own familiar assistant. This program is a bit risky, we have trauma emergency center patients almost every day now, so the likelihood of needing to perform a demonstration during the conference is pretty high. If we succeed, it would demonstrate our capabilities; if not, we¡¯ll become the laughing stock. Director, do you think this program is appropriate? Should we cancel it?¡± Director Han is now working behind the scenes, not directly involved in organizing this academic conference, but he is helping make decisions. He shook his head and said: ¡°No need to cancel it. It¡¯s indeed very risky, but it also presents the best opportunity to test our capabilities. Let¡¯s show what level we are at and compare ourselves to others. We should be bold and careful, our ideas should be bold, and our work should be meticulous.¡± ¡°Thank you for your support, Director! Based on our usual performance, there should be no problem. Dr. Yang, you don¡¯t need to be involved in preparing for the academic conference during this time. Rest and rejuvenate, and show the best of you on that day.¡± Director Tan entrusted Yang Ping with an important task. Director Han paused and said: ¡°Let me say a few more words. Just now we mentioned the demonstration of emergency trauma surgery, this is something that no traumatic orthopedic academic conference dares to undertake. Even if there are surgical demonstrations, they are often elective surgeries, as such they can be fully prepared with foolproof strategies. Director Tan, for your courage, I applaud you first!¡± Everyone followed and applauded. ¡°For this surgery demonstration, everyone needs to stay calm and perform the surgery as usual. A doctor needs not only superb skills but also strong psychological quality. I want to tell you that this time, we are demonstrating Sanbo¡¯s standards to Fuer and Fuer, Nandu¡¯s standards to Beijing and Shanghai, and China¡¯s standards to foreigners. You need to show the best of your skills, that day there will be no bosses, no authority, you yourselves are the bosses, the authorities!¡± The applause at the scene rang out again, these words were just as effective as a shot of adrenaline, everyone couldn¡¯t hide their excitement, wishing the conference would start tomorrow. Generally, everyone is busy with clinical work and rarely has the opportunity to showcase talents beyond medicine. During the preparations for this conference, they suddenly realized that their team was full of hidden talents. ¡°Any other issues?¡± Director Tan wrapped up the meeting. Everyone shook their heads. Director Tan sought Director Han¡¯s opinion: ¡°Director, shall we conclude the meeting then?¡± Director Han waved his hand: ¡°Let¡¯s conclude the meeting!¡± Director Tan announced the conclusion of the meeting and everyone was extremely excited. The patient that Su Nanchen introduced was already waiting in the meeting room. Chapter 134 - 0131: Surgery of Professional Athletes Chapter 134: Chapter 0131: Surgery of Professional Athletes Zhang Lin led the patient to the doctor¡¯s office. The patient¡¯s name is Luo Xiaohu, a male, fourteen years old, a key player in the provincial youth soccer team, he plays very well and is expected to join the national youth team. The worried faces of his parents, who pushed him in a wheelchair, were hard to miss. Since the opening of the Orthopedics Department, all three patients they had seen were brought in wheelchairs. Luo Xiaohu had loved playing football since he was a child. He was very talented, and his family was financially well-off to support his passion. He even had a year of intensive training in Brazil. His parents had pinned great hopes on him, eagerly anticipating that he would become a football star and bring honor to the family. When professional athletes get injured, their demands for restoration of function are much higher than ordinary people¡¯s. They are also familiar with doctors in the industry. They are very careful about their choice of treatment once injured. Injuries are inevitable in football. Every time Luo Xiaohu got hurt, even if it was a minor ankle sprain, he would go to Fuer Hospital to see Dr. Su. Especially after Dr. Su returned from studying abroad, Luo Xiaohu consulted only him, and had great trust in him. This time, he got injured during a game. The team doctor performed immediate first aid, and then promptly sent him to Fuer Hospital to see Dr. Su. Dr. Su examined him, performed an MRI scan which revealed a Grade III tear on the medial meniscus, requiring surgery. A Grade III injury signifies a tear. Luo Xiaohu¡¯s meniscal tear was quite serious. It wasn¡¯t a general tear, but a compound tear. The tear was longitudinal, diagonal, radiated, and flap-shaped, with several tearing points. This type of tear is very difficult to suture. Dr. Su is very skilled at arthroscopy, having trained under a well-known international sports medicine master at the Special Surgery Hospital in New York. Unfortunately, Dr. Su had so many surgeries lined up that it would take two weeks to get to this one. The earlier the meniscal suture surgery, the better the healing. Much like a wound, the earlier you suture it, the better the healing. After two to three weeks, the tear becomes chronic, the success rate of healing decreases, and the quality of healing also deteriorates. If you want to increase the probability of healing, you need freshening treatment such as filling the wound edges with blood clots to promote healing. Waiting two weeks might not be a big deal, but it was unacceptable for Luo Xiaohu¡¯s parents. He needed the surgery at the optimal time. Luo Xiaohu¡¯s parents planned to fly to Sanbo Hospital in Beijing, but since they didn¡¯t have any acquaintances there, it could possibly take longer. Even if they were admitted into the hospital, it didn¡¯t necessarily mean that the best doctor would perform the surgery. Therefore, they sought help from Su Nanchen, asking how they could arrange the surgery as soon as possible. Su Nanchen recommended that they come to Sanbo to find Doctor Yang, claiming that his surgical skills were even better than his own. Luo Xiaohu¡¯s parents knew this was modesty. In G City, there was no one who could outperform Su Nanchen in arthroscopy. But as someone recommended by Su Nanchen, they knew this doctor must be a formidable figure in the field, perhaps even someone recently returned from the United States. Not wanting to waste any more time, Luo Xiaohu¡¯s parents immediately came to Sanbo Hospital to find Doctor Yang. While Doctor Yang was in a meeting, Father Luo read Doctor Yang¡¯s personal profile on the corridor wall. He discovered that Yang was still young, an attending physician, but his profile had nothing particularly noteworthy, including no experience studying abroad. The ward was empty, and Father Luo felt uneasy. Su Nanchen was also young, but it was different; their son was a professor, and an expert who studied in the United States. Could it be possible that Dr. Su recommended a random doctor just to appease them? It wasn¡¯t possible! Father Luo hesitated; his son had a promising future and he couldn¡¯t afford to jeopardize his career because of this meniscal injury. ¡°Doctor Yang, Dr. Su recommended us to come see you. He said you¡¯re very experienced in this field. You¡¯ve definitely performed surgeries on many professional athletes, haven¡¯t you?¡± Father Luo asked tentatively. ¡°Each patient¡¯s condition is unique!¡± Doctor Yang didn¡¯t directly answer his question. He hung the MRI film: ¡°The medial meniscus is severely torn. It¡¯s a compound tear, with vertical cuts, radiated cuts, inclined cuts, and a flap-shaped piece. Luckily, the 2 to 4 millimeter part of the meniscus which is attached to the joint capsule is unharmed. This is like the hoop of a barrel. As long as the hoop is still there, we can restore the normal function by fitting the pieces back together one by one. We¡¯ll arrange surgery for tomorrow. Perfect suture of this kind of tear under arthroscopy is very difficult, but we can do it.¡± Despite his youth, he spoke with the confident calm of a seasoned professor. Doctor Yang¡¯s strong presence increased Father Luo¡¯s trust and at least he didn¡¯t plan to leave. ¡°Thank you, we¡¯ll get admitted to the hospital right away.¡± Father Luo said. It seemed they didn¡¯t have a better option. Zhang Lin gave them the hospital admission notice and instructed a nurse to arrange a bed for them while they went through the admission procedure. Father Luo then wheeled Luo Xiaohu into the ward, followed by Mother Luo. In the corridor, they ran into the old lady who had synovial chondromatosis. The old lady was practising walking with a walker. Sometimes she lifted the walker and tried to walk on her own. Seeing Luo Xiaohu on the wheelchair, she commented, ¡°Here comes another one who couldn¡¯t be treated properly outside.¡± Hearing the lady say ¡®treated properly outside¡¯, Father Luo wondered what she meant. ¡°Auntie, are you also a patient here?¡± Father Luo asked. The lady shot him a look: ¡°If I¡¯m not a patient, why would I wear a patient¡¯s gown and exercise in the hospital?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Auntie, I mean what kind of illness do you have? Did you also have surgery here?¡± Father Luo was trying to gather some information from her. ¡°My disease might scare you if I told you. It¡¯s best not to ask. Seeing you with a bag full of films, I assume the case is too severe to be treated outside, so you came to see Doctor Yang?¡± The auntie stopped exercising. ¡°How do you know?¡± Father Luo asked. ¡°A friend of mine had a knee problem and always had weak legs. She had surgeries at Fuer and Fuer Hospitals but they had no effect. So she came here to find Doctor Yang. As soon as she finished her surgery here, she recovered immediately. She was wheeled into the operating room for her surgery and walked out of it on her own after the surgery.¡± The auntie spoke clearly. ¡°Is it true? Is he that good?¡± Mother Luo was skeptical and wanted to inquire further. ¡°I myself couldn¡¯t walk for several months. I had the surgery this morning. As soon as I left the operating room, I could walk with the aid of a walker,¡± The old lady resumed practising walking with her walker. Hermes was coming out of the suite ward at the end of the corridor and overheard their conversation. He interjected, ¡°Oh my, you¡¯ve come to the right place. I waited three months just for registration, and then stayed near the hospital for another three months, in order to wait for the professor¡¯s surgery. Professor Zhang of this hospital is nationally renowned. When he broke a bone himself, he specifically asked for Doctor Yang to do his surgery. The next day after surgery, he could walk normally.¡± Hermes touched his hip, explaining with gestures. Father Luo was pleased this time, this big brother obviously looked wealthy, with a leggy model pushing his wheelchair; not just anyone could afford such a lifestyle. Surely this man wouldn¡¯t make carelessly decision when it came to medical treatments. ¡°This department has just been established, specializing in difficult surgeries. The doctors here are top-notch and can handle what others can¡¯t.¡± Hermes left this remark and was pushed away by his wife, leaving a trail of perfume in the hallway. The couple felt reassured. If the patients had such confidence, and Dr. Su strongly recommended it, then Dr. Su would not blindly recommend something that might tarnish his reputation. Father Luo felt that his initial distrust when they first met was quite impolite, even though it was discreetly shown. He thought it was necessary to build rapport. After settling Luo Xiaohu down in the ward, Father Luo returned to the doctor¡¯s office. Yang Ping was discussing surgery instruments with Song Zimo. ¡°Hello, Doctor Yang!¡± Father Luo was extremely polite, his courtesy laced with guilt. ¡°Hello, is there anything else?¡± Yang Ping could tell he had something to say. ¡°I came over for the surgery consent.¡± Father Luo found an excuse, anyway, he needed to sign the consent form. ¡°Oh, Dr. Zhang will get your signature later.¡± Yang Ping was busy and had no time for small talk. ¡°Then I¡¯ll go back to the ward and wait, thank you, Dr. Yang, I¡¯m counting on you tomorrow.¡± Father Luo shook hands with him. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we will do our best. Make sure your child has a good rest tonight.¡± Yang Ping reassured him. Parents can worry so much. Ever since his child started playing football, he worried about the child getting injured every day. This time the child was injured and they found Dr. Su, but his surgery schedule was put off. Actually, Dr. Su said that the delay wouldn¡¯t have much impact. Although insignificant, an impact is still an impact, and they wouldn¡¯t tolerate even a tiny bit. He considered going to Sanbo Hospital in Beijing, but he didn¡¯t know who performed the best surgery. Even if they got in quickly, it didn¡¯t guarantee that the best doctor would perform the surgery, which would affect the child¡¯s future sports career. The one and a half meniscus operation was worrying the whole family, but now they could finally let relief wash over them. ¡°Ding dong! Task: Complete a professional athlete¡¯s meniscus surgery. If the level reaches perfect, you can receive 16,000 points while also gaining a lot of trust value in reality.¡± The threshold for triggering system tasks by current events is much higher now, which means the tasks are more challenging. Trust value is what Yang Ping needs the most. Yang Ping recalled Luo Xiaohu¡¯s MRI images he had just viewed. This is a professional athlete¡¯s surgery, any flaw can affect the subsequent function. If the operation is not done well, it will affect the trust of subsequent patients; if it is done well, they can accumulate some trust points. Based on the MRI images, Yang Ping constructed a mental image of Luo Xiaohu¡¯s knee joint, the shape of the meniscus, and the image of the torn meniscus. He simulated the process of meniscus suture in his mind to find the optimal suturing method. In the past, the importance of the meniscus was not fully realized, so it was simply removed. The entire meniscus was cut off. Then gradually people began to realize the importance of the meniscus. After the meniscus was removed, the degeneration and wear of the knee joint accelerated. A person in their 30s or 40s had a joint comparable to a 60s or 70-year-old¡¯s. With the deepening of research on the meniscus, the idea of preserving the meniscus and repairing it as much as possible was proposed. The methods and instruments for repair have also been continuously improved, moving from the initial anchor sutures to the meniscus arrows, to the various disposable full-internal suture instruments we have now. The so-called full-internal suture, the entire suturing process does not require any extra skin incisions. It can be completed through two 0.5 cm small holes in the arthroscope. The level and quality of the sutures are getting higher and higher, and the postoperative effects are also getting better and better. After picturing the surgery in his mind, Yang Ping entered the system space and spent 10,000 points to purchase training in 500 cases of meniscus suturing surgery. After finishing, he came out of the system space, went to the operating room to check the instruments, and personally checked all the instruments for the first meniscus suture. ¡°This is a domestically-made instrument, stocked in the surgery center. We in Sports Medicine use it sparingly, so I brought over extra. I have checked all the seals and expiration dates, there are no issues. We have thirty needles prepared here, which should be enough.¡± Xiao Su showed Yang Ping the gadgets in the sterile material warehouse, the place was neatly organized, with each sterile package being placed on the shelf, centered and just at the edge of the front. It¡¯s really reassuring to have Xiao Su prepare the instruments! After checking the instruments, Yang Ping returned to the ward. Song Zimo informed him: ¡°The manager from Ruixing Company, who is in charge of our hospital, is waiting in the meeting room.¡± Yang Ping left all these surgical preparations to Song Zimo. Arriving at the meeting room, a girl dressed in professional attire sat inside. Her face still had a fresh-out-of-college look. Yang Ping thought she looked very familiar, he seemed to have seen her somewhere before. Chapter 135 - 0132: Sincerity Chapter 135: Chapter 0132: Sincerity ¡°Doctor Yang! Hello, I¡¯m Huang Jiahui, we had coffee together once, at the Starbucks near the hospital.¡± She smiled warmly. ¡°Hello! Huang Jiacai¡¯s younger sister?¡± Yang Ping remembered her now, no wonder she looked familiar. ¡°Aren¡¯t you working at Tianji company?¡± Yang Ping recalled that she had given him some pamphlets on surgical robots. ¡°After graduation, I¡¯ve worked in trauma, spine, joint, sports medicine appliances and surgical robot manufacturers. My brother suggested I familiarize myself with every aspect of orthopedic appliances, and then focus on a specific area. I¡¯ve recently joined this sports medicine manufacturer¨CRuixing. Even though I¡¯ve only just started, this is what I¡¯ve decided to dedicate my career to. I¡¯m now in charge of business with Sanbo Hospital. Earlier, Professor Song informed us that tomorrow¡¯s meniscus suture surgery will require our equipment. I brought you some information about Ruixing¡¯s meniscus suture gun. We are a wholly domestic manufacturer, specialized in the field of sports medicine, and can supply a full range of sports medicine products, including consumables and instruments for knee and shoulder operations, among other things.¡± She¡¯d rehearsed this speech so many times that she blushed as the words came out. Having finished speaking, Jiahui looked a little lost as she held out the product information with both hands. ¡°Hmm, I¡¯ll take a look at the information. Say hi to your brother for me, have a seat!¡± Yang Ping said as he took the materials, sat down and began to flip through them. ¡°This suture gun is designed entirely based on principles of human engineering, making it very easy to operate. A single gun can suture a stitch, and it¡¯s disposable, eliminating the need for repeated sterilization and reducing the risk of infection. Just pulling the trigger twice can complete one stitch, which is very fast and convenient. I brought a sample for you, Doctor Yang, have a look!¡± Huang Jiahui took out a sample from her bag to show to Yang Ping. Yang Ping had done thorough research on their products, but seeing her enthusiasm, he didn¡¯t want to disappoint her, so he sat down and listened carefully to her explanation. ¡°These built-in sutures were developed independently by us. Their strength is twice that of similar products on the market.¡± Huang Jiahui took out a woven suture from her bag and demonstrated by pulling it forcefully. ¡°Hmm, thank you for your explanation. The surgery will start at 8:30 tomorrow.¡± Yang Ping closed the materials. Huang Jiahui was ecstatic, she felt that she had been acknowledged by Yang Ping, her face glowing with a blush: ¡°If I may, can I scrub in tomorrow?¡± ¡°Alright! Come over tomorrow then.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t have the heart to disappoint a girl who had just started out in the field. ¡°I¡¯ll definitely be on time for the operation. Thank you, Doctor Yang, for this opportunity.¡± Jiahui said gratefully. Agreeing to let her scrub in meant that he would use her products, which would give her a chance to get more affirmation in the future. ¡°You¡¯ve received training on surgical room sterility, haven¡¯t you?¡± ¡°The company provided specialized training!¡± Yang Ping picked up his cell phone and dialed Su Yixuan, who was still on duty. After the call, he said: ¡°Go to the fifth-floor operating room and find Nurse Su. You¡¯ll need to take a test on surgical room sterility. If you pass, you can register. Only then will you be allowed in the operating room tomorrow.¡± ¡°Okay, thank you!¡± Jiahui was excited. Although Ruixing¡¯s products were also chosen as potential suppliers along with a few others, among dozens of stockpiled items in the operating room, no one had used them yet. Truth be told, there is still a gap in product quality compared to international brands. ¡°Doctor Yang, what do you like for breakfast? I can bring it for you tomorrow.¡± Jiahui took advantage of the momentum. Yang Ping found her a bit naive and cute, so he joked: ¡°No need, thanks, I was quite satisfied with your product introduction just now. You should head home early, I¡¯m about to finish work as well.¡± ¡°Doctor Yang, take care!¡± Jiahui bowed slightly as she saw him out. After Yang Ping left, she clenched her fists and silently cheered, ¡°Yes!¡± Her performance was not bad, though a bit stiff due to nervousness. It would get better with time. ¨C Before knocking off, Yang Ping went to the Overseas Chinese Building to see Mr. Ning. His open-mindedness surpassed his expectations, it might be an act to avoid worrying his daughter, or perhaps he really had an understanding of life and death. Miss Ning had her head resting on the edge of the bed, her father¡¯s hand in hers: ¡°We¡¯ve gotten news. Uncle Nong is rushing over to confirm.¡± ¡°This is his picture!¡± Miss Ning took out her phone and showed the photo. Mr. Ning¡¯s trembling hands took the phone, staring at the photo for a long time as tears fell unconsciously. ¡°He¡¯s lost weight ¨C¡± he said after a while. ¡°Where did they find him?¡± Mr. Ning asked, regaining his composure. Miss Ning tenderly wiped away her father¡¯s tears with a tissue: ¡°In Vancouver, Canada. He was performing at a bar there.¡± ¡°Hmm, good that they found him. I need to go. You must take good care of your younger brother. Your dad knows you¡¯re sensible. You¡¯ve had a tough time these past years.¡± Mr. Ning patted his daughter¡¯s head. When they heard Yang Ping knock on the door, they immediately ended their conversation. ¡°Please come in!¡± Miss Ning greeted him with a smile as she stood up: ¡°Doctor Yang, hello!¡± ¡°Mr. Ning, are you feeling okay?¡± Yang Ping asked, standing at the bedside, noting that he looked fine. Mr. Ning smiled: ¡°I don¡¯t feel any pain in my chest at all, I¡¯m very grateful. There is a little pain in the liver area, but it¡¯s bearable. Doctor Yang, haven¡¯t you finished work yet?¡± ¡°I¡¯m about to finish. Before leaving, I thought I¡¯d come over and have a look. Please turn on your side, I need to check the catheter.¡± Yang Ping approached the bedside. Miss Ning helped her father turn onto his side, while Yang Ping took a pair of gloves from the bedside cabinet and put them on. After a careful check, he found the catheter was in the correct position and had not come out. After finishing the check, Yang Ping removed his gloves and threw them into the yellow wastebasket. Chapter 136 - 0132: Sincerity_2 Chapter 136: Chapter 0132: Sincerity_2 Mr. Ning adjusts to a semi-reclining position, ¡°Qiqi, I need to speak with Dr. Yang.¡± Miss Ning leaves the ward considerately, ¡°Dad, you chat with Dr. Yang, I¡¯m going to make a phone call.¡± After Miss Ning left, Mr. Ning attempts to sit up and invites Yang Ping to sit down. Yang Ping rushes to support him, ¡°Don¡¯t get up. I¡¯ll sit down.¡± Yang Ping sits down on the chair beside the bed. Mr. Ning smiles and says, ¡°Sorry for taking your time. These past few days, I¡¯ve been feeling as if my energy were dissipating. Could it be that my time is near?¡± ¡°You look much better today!¡± Yang Ping comforts him. Mr. Ning shakes his head, ¡°I¡¯m afraid -¡± He hesitates then says, ¡°I know my own situation. Dr. Yang, I want to ask for your help. Are there any medical interventions that could let me hang on for a few more days? Just a few days would do. I won¡¯t hide it from you, there¡¯s still an unfulfilled wish which needs a few more days. It might be strange to you, asking for your help, but it¡¯s my intuition. That day, when you performed the puncture, I heard your conversation and started to trust you more. It¡¯s troublesome for you, but intubation and other life-saving measures are meaningless. I want to stay conscious for a few more days.¡± ¡°The most common cause of death from tumors is the failure of the invaded organs, leading to multiple organ failure. There are other causes too, such as massive bleeding, serious infections, pulmonary embolism, and so on. I¡¯ve seen your test results these past few days. Your lungs can still hold on, but your liver function is already at the brink of collapsing. It would be better if you start using artificial liver ahead of time.¡± Yang Ping speaks frankly to Mr. Ning, a man who appreciates transparency. ¡°Thank you for your frankness!¡± Mr. Ning is very grateful. ¡°And thank you for your trust. If you have any needs, please contact me anytime.¡± Yang Ping shakes his hand. ¡ª¡ª The house Huang Jiahui rents is in a community near the hospital, located on either side of the hospital where Yang Ping lives. She returns home, takes out a notebook from her bag, and adds a few notes to it. The notebook records many things, like the time it takes to get to the operating room of the orthopedics department in Sanbo Hospital, the time waiting for the elevator, the time in the elevator, and so forth. After organizing her notes, she sits on the sofa, recalling every detail of her meeting with Yang Ping today, scrutinizing every word she said, checking for any indiscretions or anything that may have annoyed him. The product introduction was a bit stiff, like reciting a script; the offer to buy breakfast was ill-timed and unnatural; and his suggestion that she head home early ¨C was that a sign of annoyance with her? ¡°Jiahui, you¡¯re back. How did it go?¡± Huang Jiacai emerges from the kitchen where he had prepared dinner. Jiahui pours her brother a cup of tea and shares with him the happenings of the day. Huang Jiacai sits down on the sofa, takes a sip of tea, moistens his throat and says, ¡°Hmm, not bad. But you didn¡¯t leave him with a very good impression. He sat and listened to your explanation, but his patience was an act, completely out of consideration for your rookie sensitivities.¡± ¡°How do you know?¡± Jiahui feels a little disappointed. She had thought she had been successful. Huang Jiacai smiles and says, ¡°This is the result of over ten years of studying people.¡± ¡°Also, you forgot the most important point today!¡± Huang Jiacai reminds his sister. Jiahui anxiously asks, ¡°What was it?¡± ¡°You only mentioned the pros of the product, not the cons. You should candidly disclose the disadvantages and gaps of the product. That¡¯s the only way to show sincerity, to think from the customer¡¯s perspective. The biggest drawback of this product is its certain jamming rate. The probability is very low, but once a jam occurs, it becomes troublesome and difficult to deal with, prolonging the operation time.¡± Huang Jiacai counsels patiently. ¡°Jiahui, remember, in our line of work, when we don¡¯t have sufficient other capital, there¡¯s one thing that can truly touch people, and that is sincerity.¡± Huang Jiacai says solemnly. He stumbled through this journey himself, enduring all sorts of hardships. Now it¡¯s different for his sister. She has his experience and shouldn¡¯t take the scenic route. ¡°What should I do? I¡¯ll tell him about it tomorrow morning.¡± Jiahui is at a loss. Huang Jiacai shakes his head, ¡°Waiting till tomorrow won¡¯t do. You need to tell him now. That way, he can think of countermeasures in advance.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go to the hospital now!¡± Jiahui stands up from the sofa. Huang Jiacai stops her, ¡°He¡¯s already off work.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll... I¡¯ll call him now!¡± Jiahui is very agitated. A young girl asking to meet him now, he would surely refuse to avoid any improprieties.¡± Huang Jiacai eliminates his sister¡¯s idea. ¡°Should I call him then?¡± Jiahui suggested. ¡°No, it must be explained in person with the sample.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll make the appointment then!¡± Huang Jiacai hesitates for a moment and says. ¡ª¡ª Yang Ping is confused. He had just met Huang Jiahui two hours ago and now Huang Jiacai is asking to meet him at a cafe for an important matter, but he doesn¡¯t mind as the siblings are not unpleasant people. He was just escorting Su Yixuan to her dormitory but hasn¡¯t reached it yet. He ends the call and says to Xiao Su, ¡°Could you come with me to a nearby Starbucks to meet someone?¡± ¡°Sure, why do you need me to accompany you?¡± Xiao Su always has such a charming smile. ¡°Because the other person has a sister who is the sales manager of a meniscus suture device. Remember the one who took your exam notes today?¡± Yang Ping explains. ¡°I¡¯ll go with you. For such matters in the future, even if someone asks you out alone, you¡¯ll be fine going alone. You don¡¯t have to worry. I¡¯ll always trust you.¡± Xiao Su straightens Yang Ping¡¯s collar and holds his hand. In the coffee shop, Huang Jiahui anxiously watches the entrance. Huang Jiacai consoles her, ¡°It was the same when I started. The first time I met a client, I arrived an hour early and kept rehearsing how I would introduce myself. When the time came, the client called and asked why they hadn¡¯t seen me. Do you know why?¡± ¡°Why?¡± Jiahui asks. ¡°Because I was so nervous, I got the meeting place wrong.¡± Huang Jiacai says leisurely. Jokingly, he was able to make Jiahui relax a bit. When Yang Ping and Xiao Su finally arrive, Jiahui breathes a sigh of relief. As Yang Ping and Xiao Su sit down, Huang Jiacai gets up to usher in the hot coffee, ¡°Dr. Yang, Nurse Su, sorry to disturb you. We¡¯ll only take up a few minutes of your time.¡± Jiahui anxiously pulls out the suture gun, ¡°Dr. Yang, I apologize. I forgot to mention its drawbacks during the product introduction today. Due to manufacturing and quality control reasons, it has a certain jamming rate. You see, to suture a stitch requires two punctures; if the first stitch doesn¡¯t retract in time upon completion, the second will enter the track. This would create a jam with the first stitch obstructing the second.¡± After speaking, Jiahui feels relieved, her breath much smoother. ¡°I told Dr. Yang it must¡¯ve been researched and expected, but Jiahui insisted that I invite you here to explain clearly.¡± Huang Jiacai looks embarrassed. ¡°Just for this?¡± Yang Ping had thought it was something urgent. ¡°Just this!¡± Jiahui nods. Chapter 137 - 0133: Perfect Suture Chapter 137: Chapter 0133: Perfect Suture There were few patients, so rounds were quick. Once complete, Zhang Lin and Little Five escorted the patient to the operating room. Meniscal repair and cruciate ligament reconstruction are signature surgeries of arthroscopy. Although Director Han had full confidence in Yang Ping, he still went to observe these signature surgeries to assess Yang Ping¡¯s skill level in arthroscopy. Huang Jiahui arrived early in the operating room, standing by a cart of instruments. She neatly stacked twenty individually sterilized meniscus suturing guns on the cart and parked it in an out-of-the-way corner. After careful thought, she had chosen this corner as the ideal location. It allowed her to observe the progress of the surgery without hindering any of the operating room staff. She originally had enviable long hair but she decided to cut it short upon joining this profession. Short enough to tie up. Today, she had her hair tied up, tucked under a cap, and put on a sterile hat without a single hair sticking out. She had practiced putting on the sterile cap countless times at home, in front of a mirror, until not a single hair was exposed. The anesthesia was administered, Song Zimo hung the patient¡¯s X-rays and MRI images on the viewing light, guiding Little Five and Zhang Lin to position themselves properly. He then went to scrub his hands, sterilize the sheets, and do the preparatory work. He was meticulous about every detail. By the time Yang Ping came in to wash his hands, all preparations had been made and they were ready for surgery. As Yang Ping was getting into his surgical gown, Director Han walked in. ¡°Hello, Director!¡± Everyone greeted. ¡°Hello, Professor Han!¡± Jiahui greeted Professor Han and bowed. ¡°Hello!¡± Seeing that she had a laser pen in her hand and was standing next to a sterile box of instruments, Director Han knew that she was from a supplier company. ¡°Which company do you work for? Are you new here?¡± Director Han had never seen this young woman before. ¡°Professor Han, I¡¯m new. I¡¯m from Sharp Medical, specializing in sports medicine products.¡± Jiahui introduced herself. Director Han picked up a packaged meniscus suture gun and said, ¡°Sharp Medical! A domestic brand, we should really give more support to our own country. This suture gun sometimes jams, be careful!¡± ¡°There¡¯s sometimes a 0.5mm discrepancy between the first and second shots, which might jam the gun. The key is not to release the trigger after the first shot. You need to keep pulling back until the first shot is confirmed to be removed. Then you can loosen the trigger and take the second shot. Thus, there won¡¯t be any jamming. The design needs some improvement.¡± Yang Ping has conducted extensive research on Sharp Medical¡¯s instruments. He was aware of this flaw long before Huang Jiahui could remind him, and he already had a solution in place. He was not concerned. ¡°It¡¯s good that you have deep knowledge about the instruments. As a doctor, you must master the instruments, and you can¡¯t rely on the explanation from the company representative.¡± Director Han admired Yang Ping¡¯s attitude. ¡°What¡¯s the patient¡¯s situation?¡± Director Han asked while viewing the films. ¡°Male, 14 years old, a professional football player, with complex tear of the medial meniscus in the left knee. The tear is located at the posterior horn and the body.¡± Yang Ping introduced the patient¡¯s condition to Director Han. ¡°Hmm, looking at the MRI, the meniscal tear is severe, the suturing technique will be challenging. Take your time, don¡¯t rush.¡± Director Han instructed Yang Ping. Huang Jiahui brought a stool over for Director Han to sit on. Pre-operation checks were completed, blood was driven out, and the tourniquet was inflated. Yang Ping started with the scalpel, skillfully making the lateral incision, inserting the trocar with the sheath, straightening the knee joint, entering the suprapatellar pouch, withdrawing the trocar, and inserting the arthroscope. In the blink of an eye, the examination under arthroscopy was completed. The medial meniscus was torn, no other obvious abnormalities were detected. It was time for the medial meniscus to be sutured. Director Han moved to the side of the monitor to view the video image, ¡°The tear is severe. A portion of the meniscus has flipped over. Is this a recent tear?¡± ¡°The injury occurred just two days ago. This patient was referred by Su Nanchen, he¡¯s an athlete in the provincial youth soccer team.¡± Yang Ping started inserting the needle from the inside to create an opening. Once the opening was created, he inserted the probe. The probe was an extension of the doctor¡¯s fingers in arthroscopy, providing further insights into the pathological changes and damage. Yang Ping closed the irrigation tube to reduce the water disturbance to the torn meniscus. Using the probe, he repositioned and smoothed out the torn edges of the meniscus. Since it was a fresh tear, it could be directly sutured without the need of freshening the tear edges. ¡°Suture gun!¡± Xiao Su had also researched the manufacturer¡¯s instruments. Before Huang Jiahui could quiz her about sterile knowledge, Xiao Su had sought advice from Huang Jiahui about the details of these instruments. Yang Ping took the suture gun, entered through the medial portal, and started suturing the posterior horn of the meniscus. The gun was aimed at the chosen puncture point, the trigger was pressed, and the needle tipped with a suture anchor pierced the meniscus until it breached the capsular attachment of the meniscus. The suture anchor was left outside the joint capsule. Clasping the trigger tightly and not loosening his grip, he gently pulled back. The first needle successfully exited. With the gun against another chosen point 0.5 cm away from the first needle, he squeezed the trigger. The second needle smoothly went in and he withdrew the gun. By pulling tightly on the suture, the two suture anchors which initially entered longitudinally were now positioned transversely, serving as an anchor point for the suture outside the joint capsule. The knots on the suture were pre-made, irreversible, and could only be tightened, not loosened. Using a knot pusher, he pushed the knot to the appropriate position and cut the thread with a thread cutter. The first stitch was beautifully completed. It was the perfect tension and accurately placed. The tear was complex and irregular, so the suture gun had to be inserted from different directions. Sometimes it was easier to enter from the inner side, and sometimes from the outer side. Doctor Yang had already planned how many stitches and their distribution; he first stitched up a few spots on the inner side. Then he moved the scope to the inner side and inserted the suture gun from the outer side to sew the outer portion. Each stitch was skilfully and effortlessly placed with just one swift movement. In total, six stitches were made, with horizontal, diagonal, radiating, and flap-like tears all stitched up nicely. The meniscus was perfectly pieced back to its original state; a glance at the video after sutures looked like a few stitches had been made on a healthy meniscus. With the water pipe inserted, the joint cavity was flushed. After closing the water pipe, the water in the joint cavity was sucked out and the scope was pulled out. Doctor Yang stepped back, leaving Song Zimo to complete the finishing touches. The exterior of the knee joint was dried with sterile gauze. The skin was disinfected with 75% alcohol, and the two small incisions were sutured, one stitch each. They used cotton padding and elastic bandage for pressure dressing, released the tourniquet, and thus, the surgery was over. Director Han was staring at the screen; the surgery ended in just a little over ten minutes, even before their conversation fully began. The suturing was perfect. The torn meniscus was gradually restored to its original state, slick and tidy. The edges matched perfectly, with no wrinkles after suture, it was a visually appealing work of art. This kind of result can¡¯t be achieved without extensive surgical experience. To achieve smoothness without wrinkles, every stitch¡¯s tension needs to be perfectly controlled. It¡¯s not about controlling the tension of each stitch independently, but coordinating several stitches to achieve balanced tension. ¡°Perfect!¡± Director Han gave him a thumbs up. Huang Jiahui had been standing by his side, constantly praying silently that the suture gun wouldn¡¯t jam. Having watched the whole surgery process, she could tell that Doctor Yang¡¯s proficiency with the suture gun was as if he had designed it himself ¨C it seemed even more perfect than the company¡¯s surgical demonstration video. Earlier, he had casually mentioned how to handle a jammed suture gun, indicating that he had a strategy prepared. While knowing about this flaw, he still opted to use their product. This naturally invoked some gratitude in her. ¡°Dr Yang, was our equipment handy to use?¡± Jiahui asked nervously, rushing over to help Doctor Yang untie the straps of his surgical gown. ¡°Not bad, very good!¡± ¡°Thank you, Dr Yang!¡± ¡°Get the reconstructive equipment for anterior and posterior crossed ligament ready.¡± Doctor Yang instructed her. Remembering that last night, this young lady had urgently asked her brother to arrange a meeting just to report the deficiency of the meniscus suture gun, Doctor Yang was touched, whether it was due to her sincerity or other reasons ¨C at least she put heart into it. Such earnestness deserved acknowledgment. ¡°Okay, I will have it delivered to you in a moment, along with the documentation.¡± Jiahui responded enthusiastically. Although the surgery center already had some of the equipment ready, Jiahui, having heard Doctor Yang¡¯s request, assuredly wouldn¡¯t mention it. Why would she ask them to fetch the equipment when she could deliver it herself? She would deliver it as promised! She adhered to her brother¡¯s instructions: Always keep the hassle on our side, never to burden the clients. ¡°How is our domestically produced equipment?¡± Director Han asked. Doctor Yang replied, ¡°Very smooth! It¡¯s no way inferior to imported ones.¡± ¡°If you need equipment or supplies, let me know anytime. Just focus on the surgery.¡± Director Han was always ready to provide support if needed. The surgery was over, and as the effects of the anesthesia wore off, Liang Fatty¡¯s true character started to shine through. Zhang Lin helped the patient put on a knee brace, and Song Zimo handed a pair of crutches to him, instructing, ¡°Make sure to avoid putting weight on this leg for the next six weeks. Begin your recovery exercises in the afternoon. The doctor will explain the postoperative precautions in detail.¡± The instructions in the operating room were always concise, focusing on key points, so the patient could remember them. Little Five, who was monitoring the video system, captured a few key images and sent them to Doctor Yang and Song Zimo, who would later discuss them with the patient¡¯s family. Outside the operating room, the family was waiting. Upon seeing Luo Xiaohu come out himself, leaning on crutches, his parents immediately rushed forward to support him. ¡°Was the surgery that quick? He just went in a while ago.¡± Father Luo asked worriedly. A lengthy surgery would warrant worry, as it could mean that problems had arisen. But an unexpectedly short one also raised concerns ¨C was the procedure hastily done? Song Zimo showed the images on his phone. ¡°Doctor Yang is very skilled at this type of surgery, that¡¯s why it was so quick. Look, this is the meniscus before the surgery, and this is it after it. Doesn¡¯t the suturing look wonderful?¡± After careful inspection, Father Luo was very satisfied. The chaotic tears seen in the pre-surgery images, when compared to the flawless meniscus post-surgery, made it nearly impossible to see that it had been torn at all. He was by no means a doctor, but he had a visual understanding. The same way a patient could judge the quality of a wound suture. A nicely done suture was neat and orderly with skin edges aligned beautifully, whereas a poorly done suture would be uneven with misaligned skin edges, rather unappealing. Having cleared this hurdle, Father Luo felt as though a weight had been lifted off his chest. Doctor Yang sent the images to Su Nanchen, along with a brief description of the findings during the surgery. It was important to provide feedback for a referral. Chapter 138 - 0134: He Has a Way Chapter 138: Chapter 0134: He Has a Way As soon as he returned to the ward, the system announced the task had been completed. ¡°Ding dong! Perfect surgery, mission accomplished, awarded 16,000 points! A large number of trust values in reality has also been added.¡± The points now total to 26,000; not much, but way better than before. If before he was constantly struggling to make ends meet, he can now be considered as out of poverty, his basic needs have been met, and he is trying to achieve a better standard of living. The system has been much more generous; most of the task rewards are now more than ten thousand points. As the water level rises, the boat floats higher. The price of surgical training in the store has also increased significantly. Right now, Yang Ping is like a poor middle-class person. The rewards for each task are high, but the high costs of various surgical training classes always leave him unable to save more points. After Song Zimo finished writing the surgical record, he began to study Yang Ping¡¯s surgical pictures and recalled the surgical process of today. Usually, he didn¡¯t see Yang Ping practice at all, and as soon as the surgery started, the results were incredible. ¡°To achieve high-quality sutures in this kind of surgery, it¡¯s necessary to plan the distribution of each stitch beforehand. You should be able to draw a diagram of the torn meniscus before surgery and simulate the distribution of sutures on the diagram.¡± Yang Ping felt the need to give him some guidance to help him progress faster, which would in turn make the whole team progress faster. ¡°How do you control the tension of each knot?¡± Song Zimo thought this was the most crucial question. ¡°Controlling the tension is difficult. If you aren¡¯t sure when tying a knot, don¡¯t cut the thread, manage the tail thread first, and tie the knots once all sutures are finished. Each knot is locked step by step, locking it bit by bit each time, and after several rounds, the tension of several knots will be more balanced.¡± Song Zimo listened attentively, and Yang Ping¡¯s simple guidance cleared up a lot of things in his mind. He doesn¡¯t know that this is the conclusion of thousands of arthroscopic surgeries performed by Yang Ping, which has been easily taught to him. ¡°When suturing, should the inflow tube be turned off to eliminate the turbulence caused by the inflow on the meniscus? If water is flowing from the entrance, should it be blocked?¡± Song Zimo asked all he could. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Yes, to get the most perfect suture, interference must be reduced to a minimum. The flow of water is the greatest interference, which may affect judgment on coaptation and tension during suturing.¡± Admiringly, Song Zimo replied, ¡°I understand.¡± ¡°For any surgical and medical activities, you must first do it right, then do it well!¡± Yang Ping summed up succinctly. ¡°Allocating the distribution of suturing thread well means doing things right. Without proper distribution, no matter how the tension is controlled, such a perfect effect can¡¯t be achieved. If the distribution of suturing thread is rational, what¡¯s left is to get the coaptation and tension control right, which is part of doing things well.¡± Song Zimo proved to be intelligent and had an extraordinary comprehension ability. ¡°Just like that liver cancer patient at Overseas Chinese Building, one must first determine the correct method ¡ª training for nerve root block, before striving to implement it. A correct method is needed before making effort, otherwise, the effort could be counterproductive.¡± Yang Ping continued to explain with examples. Song Zimo was pleased. He learned a lot today, it seemed that he satisfied his assistant, who finally started communicating with him. Before, he didn¡¯t say a word after finishing a surgery. Meanwhile, Zhang Lin was busy creating posters for the academic conference on his computer, improving the introduction of guest participants. Little Five peered over, ¡°Are you looking for beauties during work hours?¡± Zhang Lin retorted, ¡°Brother Five, look carefully, she is a guest participant, a Japanese doctor!¡± Little Five widened his eyes, ¡°A doctor? Really? She¡¯s so beautiful.¡± The Japanese lady was indeed beautiful, not sure if the photo on her introduction was just gorgeous, or she was naturally so beautiful. Zhang Lin gave Little Five a disgusted look, ¡°Brother Five, do you really need to look so closely? Don¡¯t tell me she looks familiar. She¡¯s a real doctor, has nothing to do with those Japanese ladies you¡¯re familiar with. Look, a talented graduate from the Medical department of Tokyo University.¡± ¡°This lady surnamed Park (pu), she¡¯s Korean, right?¡± Little Five sat and watched Zhang Lin working on the post while he already changed another one. ¡°Can you have some manners, that character is read as ¡®piao¡¯!¡± Zhang Lin said, clearly disdainful. ¡°Israel is also Asia? Isn¡¯t it Europe?¡± Zhang Lin changed another poster, Little Five saw it was an Israeli doctor. Little Five was even more annoyed, ¡°Brother, it would be better if you keep quiet and don¡¯t embarrass yourself. Israel is authentically an Asian country. Are you going to move it to Europe?¡± ¡°Hey Fatty, what delicious food did you bring? Get some over here.¡± Little Five stopped talking to Zhang Lin and saw Liang Fatty bringing a bag of things. Fatty quickly hid the bag behind him, ¡°You can¡¯t touch this. It¡¯s for my diet. I¡¯ve decided to eat only two meals a day, breakfast and lunch, and for dinner, I¡¯m eating this.¡± ¡°Seriously Fatty, let me see.¡± Little Five quickly grabbed his hand and opened the bag. ¡°Chocolate balls!¡± Little Five laughed until his stomach hurt. He had never seen someone who doesn¡¯t eat dinner to lose weight but eats chocolate instead. ¡ª Jiahui finished assisting the surgery and didn¡¯t delay for a second. She immediately delivered the anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction instruments to the operating room and handed them over to Su Yixuan. The instruments were kept at her home, a three-bedroom apartment where one room had been emptied out to operate as a storage room for all kinds of instruments. Whenever Yang Ping needed them they could be sent over right away. On her way home, she felt exceptionally hungry, realizing she hadn¡¯t had breakfast yet. However, she was overjoyed inside knowing that her product would finally see use today and could still be used in the future. Ruixing¡¯s products have never made a significant mark in frontline cities, despite considerable efforts. After much difficulty, they did manage to make inroads into several large hospitals, becoming standby suppliers. However, the instruments that were delivered and kept in storage were close to expiry, without even being used. Many reasons account for this, the most important being the undeniable gap in product quality. It was said that a hospital director used them once, experienced a jam, and was so annoyed that smoke almost came out of his nostrils. Eventually, after much effort, he managed to cut off the sutures and re-suture the wound. The furious director threw the suturing gun to the ground in front of the Ruixing representative, saying, ¡°Don¡¯t you ever come back!¡± In crude terms, he was told to ¡°Get lost!¡± During training, the instructor said that some hospital directors might have terrible temperaments and could curse at others. If faced with such a situation, it was important to remain calm and keep a smile on their faces. Jiahui had always been nervous, fearing she would be scolded. However, Doctor Yang didn¡¯t say a single foul word. Although he wasn¡¯t overly enthusiastic, he did not cast blame or berate others. He completed the surgery in just over ten minutes. Her brother said about Yang Ping, ¡°A man who is not greedy for money always plans far ahead!¡± He also emphasized repeatedly to focus on helping with Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries and on nothing else. Before she knew it, she was already home. Jiahui began to record everything again. The position of the equipment trolley could be tweaked today; whenever anyone is reading films beside the lightbox or observing surgeries on the screen, don¡¯t offer them stools. Only when they move back to the corner to rest, should a stool be brought over; the moment Yang Ping steps down from the operating table, immediately help untie his surgical gown. Don¡¯t wait for him to start doing it himself. There are twenty-four meniscal suturing guns left in reserve at Sanbo. The next time she goes, she should bring a few more to ensure they have at least thirty in reserve. Was there anything else she overlooked? Oh, breakfast. Remember to eat breakfast next time. It looked like everything was covered. Before going to bed tonight, she would have to check everything again. Jiahui closed her notebook, she encouraged herself to stabilize and expand this business line. ¡ª At noon, Su Nanchen finished performing surgery and was about to eat when he saw Yang Ping¡¯s message on WeChat. He then enlarged the photo. A single photo said it all. The quality of the meniscal suture was perfect, with a neat and wrinkle-free alignment. Predicting the tension on a few sutures required immense precision, achievable only with the experience of conducting thousands of such surgeries. Upon calculating the time, the surgery, which probably started at half past eight, was concluded before nine o¡¯clock, meaning it didn¡¯t last more than half an hour. Adjusting tension on a few sutures at such a pace would require getting it right on the first try. If it were him, he might have managed to achieve this by adjusting the tension bit by bit. However, getting it right in one try would be very difficult. This man was indeed better than him, Su Nanchen had to admit. He was mulling over a complicated case he had on hand. He wondered whether to discuss the treatment plan with Yang Ping? The patient was a national-team female 5000-meter runner. She had previously sustained injuries at the junction of the calcaneal tendon and the triceps surae, which led to a loosening of the calcaneal tendon, severely affecting her performance. Although her diagnosis was clear, and the treatment protocol was determined to involve shortening of the tendon, the process posed a problem. The tendon needed to be cut in a Z shape, then a part of the muscle tendon had to be removed and reattached. Once the tendon was severed, even if it was sutured, no matter how high the suturing standard, or how well the wound healed, the original composition of the fiber tissue wouldn¡¯t be a perfect assess to provide the requisite strength to the wound, with a certain degree of scar tissue inevitably forming during healing. Scar tissues, which are connective tissues, do not have the same tenacity and elasticity as fibrous tissues. The result of such a surgical intervention was akin to diluting the composition of the tendon. While this wouldn¡¯t affect an ordinary person significantly, it would gravely impact a long-distance runner. Why did some athletes suffer a poor prognosis despite receiving treatments for chronic damage causing tendinitis? These athletes, despite having access to the best medical resources, the world¡¯s top surgeons, and the best rehabilitation teams, were unable to note substantial improvements. The issue was not with the treatment, but with the fact that the tendon had degenerated like a rope that had been soaked in water for too long and had snapped, needing to be knotted together. No matter how skillful the knot, it didn¡¯t matter. The problem wasn¡¯t with the knot, but with the rope itself. Once pulled, it would snap again. Because of these considerations, this particular patient had been hesitant to undergo a tendon-shortening surgery and was unable to find satisfactory solutions after several trips abroad for medical consultation. Since the patient was registered in G City, they came to the First Affiliated Hospital admiring Professor Su¡¯s reputation, hoping to find a better solution. ¡°Nanchen, eat up quickly. We still have a few surgeries this afternoon.¡± Professor Su noticed Su Nanchen staring blankly at his phone. ¡°Look at this patient¡¯s meniscal suture.¡± Su Nanchen handed his phone over. After examining the photo, Professor Su exclaimed appreciatively, ¡°What a quick progress. The quality of this suture is perfect, completely free of wrinkles; The alignment is very flat, and the distribution of the six sutures is reasonable.¡± Blushing, Su Nanchen confessed, ¡°It wasn¡¯t me who did this, it was Doctor Yang from Sanbo Hospital.¡± ¡°Yang Ping? The one who proposed the sniping from behind the wall to Chief Han during the consultation?¡± Professor Su appeared surprised. With a serious look on his face, Su Nanchen said, ¡°Yes! I have been thinking about our long-distance runner who is preparing to undergo tendon shortening. I want to hear his thoughts. I feel he might have a solution!¡± ¡°Sure, contact him!¡± Professor Su agreed with Su Nanchen¡¯s idea. Chapter 139 - 0135 Ilizarov Chapter 139: Chapter 0135 Ilizarov Hermes¡¯ surgery is scheduled for next week, and a discussion is needed this afternoon. This surgery is a major one, in which a large portion of the tibia will be discarded, leaving only the healthy parts at both ends and removing all the infected bone tissue in the middle. Then, using Ilizarov¡¯s technique, an external fixation frame will be used to lengthen the healthy bone tissue at both ends, extending from both ends towards the middle until they converge. To accomplish bone elongation, an external fixation frame has to be fitted to the calf. With a screw on it, the frame will move along with the bone tissue as the screw is turned. The elongation process will begin two weeks after the surgery, and extend by one millimeter each day. Hermes will need an extension of over thirty centimeters, which would take approximately a year. This is just the ideal situation. If any abnormalities occur in the bone formation process midway, the elongation will have to be halted. Having completed Luo Xiaohu¡¯s surgery in the morning, Yang Ping didn¡¯t have much to do in the afternoon. So, he decided to sleep in the on-call room, enter the system space, read for a long time, dissect several experimental subjects, and train his ability to construct images. He also spent five thousand points to purchase training on five hundred cases of specialized surgery involving external fixation frames. Upon returning to the ward from the first floor, Director Tian had already translated Tan Boyun¡¯s opening speech into English and handed it over to Zhang Lin. His posters were almost ready as well. Zhang Lin sat in front of the computer, reviewing them one at a time and going over them several times. ¡°Is this really a Japanese doctor? Are we sure there¡¯s no plagiarism?¡± Little Five, sitting next to Zhang Lin, was still wrestling with this issue. Zhang Lin ignored him, but Little Five remembered that Director Tian was familiar with the guest speakers and had been to Japan, so his knowledge was broad. He pointed to the photo on the computer and asked, ¡°Is this really a Japanese doctor?¡± Director Tian smiled and said, ¡°Yes, she is the guest of the conference, a doctor from Tokyo University Hospital. FUJIWARA is her name, very proficient in sports medicine.¡± ¡°Have you seen her in person?¡± Liang Fatty showed great interest. ¡°When I was a visiting scholar there, I saw her in person,¡± confirmed Director Tian. ¡°Is she as beautiful in reality as she is in the photo?¡± Little Five was still skeptical about the photo. Director Tian smiled, ¡°She is even more beautiful in person. Do you know her height?¡± ¡°How tall?¡± Zhang Lin asked as the provided data didn¡¯t mention her height. ¡°One meter seventy-eight!¡± Director Tian announced the number. ¡°She¡¯s that tall? As tall as me! Only Song Zimo can handle her; even Elder Brother would just barely manage!¡± Zhang Lin exclaimed in surprise. Having said so much, Director Tian was getting impatient, ¡°You lot, pour me a glass of water; stop talking and let me speak.¡± Immediately, Little Five gave him a glass of water with a smile. Only then did Director Tian continue, ¡°And if you thought that was surprising, wait until you hear what she does part-time. Would you like to know?¡± What does she do? Everyone showed great interest; this sounded juicy. It is Japan, after all! The possibilities were endless ¡ª some had already thought up certain acronyms... Director Tian took a sip of water, ¡°Fatty, get out your weight-loss supplement snacks. I need some energy to talk as I¡¯m running out of ATP.¡± Reluctantly, Fatty pulled out a few chocolate balls from his bag and handed them over. Director Tian unwrapped one and popped it into his mouth. Everyone watched him eat, waiting for him to reveal what she did part-time. Teasingly, Director Tian took a sip of water and said, ¡°She is a part-time model, a famous one in Japan who ranked in the top ten at the World Elite Model Competition. She has even participated in Paris¡¯s Victoria¡¯s Secret Show.¡± ¡°Might as well not hold the conference anymore and just watch her walk on the runway,¡± Liang Fatty suggested. Zhang Lin scoffed, ¡°Fatty, do you think everyone is as vulgar as you are? You should be a bit more refined.¡± Director Tian continued, ¡°She¡¯s a rising star in Japanese sports medicine. Her brother is a specialist in traumatic orthopedics, and I guess she¡¯s accompanying him this time. Although not common, there are other cases like her. Take Japan¡¯s Sony Corporation Chairman, Norio Ohga, who is also a conductor for the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra; or Hedy Lamarr, the American inventor of CDMA telecommunications technology who also happened to be a Hollywood star and was the first woman to appear fully nude in a film. You¡¯ve heard of Bohr, right? The creator of Bohr¡¯s Law which we studied in high school. Not only was he a physicist and a Nobel Prize winner, but he also played as the goalkeeper for Denmark¡¯s national football team. I¡¯ll tell you this: several Olympic gold medalists happen to be full-time doctors! If you invite me to dinner sometime, I can tell you more.¡± Director Tian was brimming with knowledge as he spoke eloquently. ¡°Wow, what a legend!¡± Liang Fatty helplessly shook his head. ¡°Fatty, you¡¯re one too, an anesthesiologist by day and the Chairman of the Sanbo Food Association by night.¡± Zhang Lin said seriously. Liang Fatty didn¡¯t get angry; instead, he proudly reminisced, ¡°A true hero never brags about his past glories. But I tell you, I really did start the Food Association in college, and I served as the first chairman. There are always costs associated with doing things; look at my body shape now, that is the price I paid.¡± Fatty gestured towards his waistline. ¡°What a guy!¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five gave Fatty a thumbs up. ¡°Look, this is her photo from the Victoria¡¯s Secret Show in Paris!¡± Zhang Lin found a picture of the Japanese female doctor on the internet. ¡°Wow!¡± Little Five and Fatty stretched to take a closer look. ¡°Keep your distance, don¡¯t get your nosebleed on me.¡± Zhang Lin sidestepped to avoid them. ¡°This is not photoshopped, she¡¯s really beautiful. Those legs alone could bring nearly ninety percent of men worldwide to their knees!¡± Fatty swallowed a mouthful of saliva. In the photo, Fujiwara was on the runway, sparkling in her trench coat, super-short shorts, and sunglasses. Suddenly, Director Tian stopped speaking and coughed a few times. Without knowing who, a hand lands on Zhang Lin¡¯s shoulder, and without a thought, Zhang Lin immediately switches the screen: ¡°Hmm, this patient is indeed troublesome.¡± ¡°Yes, very troublesome!¡± Little Five stroked his chin. ¡°Extremely troublesome!¡± Liang Fatty nodded as well, his brows furrowed. A bunch of drama queens, actors whose professional calling had been delayed by medical school. ¡°You guys did well today. Are you reviewing Wang Changxin¡¯s case?¡± Professor Zhang Zongshun walked in through the door. Wang Changxin is the patient¡¯s name, such a wealthy name at that. ¡°Hmm, just getting familiar with it in advance!¡± Zhang Lin stood up, seemingly enlightened. Some damned hand accidentally hit the computer keyboard and brought up Fujiwara¡¯s picture. Professor Zhang glanced through the gap between their bodies, ¡°What is this?¡± Zhang Lin looked back, the picture had popped up, calmly he said: ¡°Screen saver, screen saver image.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Professor Zhang didn¡¯t probe further. ¡°Where is Yang Ping?¡± ¡°Studying in the duty room!¡± Actually, he¡¯s sleeping in the duty room. ¡°What about Song Zimo?¡± ¡°Practicing arthroscopy in the lab!¡± He¡¯s indeed practicing arthroscopy. ¡°Are all the people here? Let¡¯s discuss Wang Changxin¡¯s case later.¡± Professor Zhang briefly took a head count. ¡°Director Han is in the administrative building, he hasn¡¯t returned yet.¡± Director Tian moved a chair for Professor Zhang to sit. ¡°That¡¯s fine, you guys prepare first, we¡¯ll wait for Director Han. The suggestion for this case discussion was made a few days ago, you all have read the book, right?¡± ¡°Yes, we did! We did!¡± Little Five and Zhang Lin responded in unison. Everyone went to the teaching room to wait for Director Han, Director Tian made a phone call, Director Han was on his way back, and before long, Director Han was back. The discussion began. It was Little Five¡¯s patient, and Little Five completed the case report. ¡°Little Five, all of you have studied the case and read up in advance, tell us about your opinions on this case.¡± Director Tian moderated. Little Five looked at the screen: ¡°The diagnosis for this patient is not problematic. He has chronic osteomyelitis of the right tibia, supported by imaging examination and bacterial culture. The best approach would be to thoroughly excise the infected tibial tissues. Then, bone elongation would be performed using an external fixator, and the defect would be temporarily filled with calcium sulfate containing vancomycin.¡± Yang Ping had already talked to them, and he got the main points down. ¡°This tibial elongation needs at least thirty centimeters, this length is very rare, would there be any complications from nerve and blood vessels? Zhang Lin, what do you think?¡± Director Tian followed up. ¡°Well, this is, um -¡± Zhang Lin scratched his head. Song Zimo took over: ¡°This is different from elongating a shortened deformed limb, there¡¯s no need to consider the extension limit of nerves and blood vessels. This is because only the bone tissue is being lengthened, there¡¯s no need to lengthen the blood vessels and nerves. In theory, however long the original was, it can elongate that much, there¡¯s no limit.¡± Song Zimo¡¯s knowledge is solid, and he has been known as the terminator of Director¡¯s round questions. ¡°There are two types of elongation devices to choose from: external fixators and intramedullary nails. Among these two, the external fixator is more suitable for this patient. The retained proximal and distal tibia can each accommodate two sets of fixation pins, so there¡¯s no problem installing the external fixator.¡± Director Tian added. Generally, people only know that external fixators can be used for elongation. They don¡¯t know that there¡¯s another type of specialized intramedullary nail that can also be used for elongation. ¡°What are Yang Ping¡¯s thoughts?¡± Professor Zhang called upon Yang Ping whose comments tend not to be very proactive. Yang Ping collected his thoughts and said: ¡°Every detail has been thoroughly discussed by everyone, there¡¯s really not much left to say. When inserting the needle, pay attention to going through the intermuscular space. That way, during elongation, the interference with muscle strength training is miniman.¡± Song Zimo looked over. It¡¯s easy to say to insert the needle through the intermuscular space, but it¡¯s really hard to do it completely in practice. He seemed to make everything look simple. Collecting everyone¡¯s input, Director Han summarised their teaching points, adding a finishing touch: ¡°Ilizarov Tissue Distraction Regeneration Theory states that slow traction of biological tissues produces a certain tension that can stimulate tissue regeneration and active growth. The manner in which this growth occurs is similar to fetal tissue development, where the same cells divide. In simple terms, it¡¯s using slow and continous traction to get the tissue back to its fetal period growth stage. This technology has revolutionised traditional pressure bone healing theory.¡± Yang Ping deeply respects the pioneers of these medical theories. These people have big imaginations and rich imaginations. Professor Zhang added on to the origin of the theory: ¡°Ilizarov was a rural doctor in Siberia in the Soviet Union during the 1950s and 60s. This technique was the result of an accident. The initial purpose of his external fixator design was to treat a fracture patient. Every day, by turning the screw on the external fixator, the fractured ends could be tightly compressed, which would promote fracture healing. Once, when he was on leave, he instructed a nurse to adjust the screw on the external fixator daily. The nurse was very serious and acted strictly according to his medical advice; the only mistake she made was turning the screw in the wrong direction. By the time Ilizarov came back, the patient¡¯s fractured ends had been separated, but surprisingly, new bone callus had formed. Inspired by this phenomenon, he invested a lot of time and effort into research, eventually proposing the Tension Stress Rule, or the Theory of Traction Tissue Regeneration. The Soviet Union then invested a lot of manpower and resources into research, perfecting this theory, resulting in the mature theory we have now. This theory is fully deserving of the Nobel Prize, but at the time of the US-Soviet Cold War, naturally it did not win. China began implementing this technique in the 1980s. There was a time when this technique was abused to lengthen normal people to increase their height; it caused many complications such as skin necrosis, muscle weakness, non-union of bone, nerve injury, and so on. In October, 2006, the Ministry of Health ordered a ban on osteotomy to increase height for ¡®medical cosmetic treatment¡¯, that is, it could not be used to increase the height of normal people. It can only be used for congenital deformities, trauma, infection, tumors, and other reasons for bone defects and unequal limb length, as well as limb deformities caused by disease.¡± The discussion not only made the patient¡¯s diagnosis and treatment plan clearer and more comprehensive, but it was also a great opportunity for young doctors to learn. Through clinical cases, experience is accumulated, the knowledge of a category of diseases is acquired with each typical case. After such a discussion, everyone had a basic understanding of Ilizarov¡¯s magical technique. After the meeting, Yang Ping received a WeChat message from Su Nanchen, asking Yang Ping to go to the First Affiliated Hospital for consultation. Going for a consultation? It¡¯s to The First Affiliated Hospital! Is there a mistake?! Chapter 140 - 0136: Attached Consultation Chapter 140: Chapter 0136: Attached Consultation Director Zhao, head of the Medical Affairs Department, had just returned from a weekly meeting when an aide reported that he had received a phone call. Nandu Affiliated Hospital One was requesting a consultation from Sanbo¡¯s Orthopedics specialist, Doctor Yang Ping. The scanned copy of the consultation invitation had been sent over. The aide printed it out and handed it to Director Zhao for review. ¡°Must be some kind of mistake?¡± Director Zhao reacted instantly. In the medical field of Nandu Province, Nandu Affiliated Hospital One holds a dominant position. Nationwide, it also ranks among the best. High-profile individuals like Director Han from the Orthopedics department, with his strong individual capabilities and reputation within the circle, are occasionally invited to join consultations and case discussions at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. This is seen as a personal honor. Normally, it¡¯s not Nandu Affiliated Hospital One inviting Sanbo for consultations, but the other way around: Sanbo regularly invites experts from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One for consultations. The orthopedics department of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One is top-tier nationally. Now they are inviting Doctor Yang Ping for a consultation, could there be a misunderstanding? Director Zhao, since his promotion to Chief Physician and working in the Medical Affairs Department, was well-versed in these matters. Even though Yang Ping did impress everyone with his replantation of amputated fingers, it was unlikely that a young doctor excelling at this procedure would be invited to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One for consultations. Looking at the brief case description on the consultation invite, the patient was indeed a professional athlete with left Achilles tendon laxity. The consultation invitation clearly indicates that the inviting party is Nandu Medical University Affiliated Hospital One. The invited party is Sanbo Hospital of Nandu Province, and the doctor being invited is Yang Ping, an Orthopedics Specialist. There seemed to be nothing amiss. ¡°Please confirm if there has been a mix-up. Doctor Yang is just a Specialist, yet he has been invited to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One for a consultation.¡± Director Zhao was cautious. A misunderstanding could lead to an embarrassing situation. ¡°I called the Medical Affairs Department at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One to confirm. There¡¯s no mistake. They¡¯re inviting Doctor Yang Ping from our Orthopedics Department.¡± The aide too, was a seasoned professional. Director Zhao took a closer look at the consultation invitation and saw Nandu Affiliated Hospital One Dean Su Qingyun¡¯s signature. Did he notice Yang Ping¡¯s potential during his last consultation at Sanbo and now wants to recruit him? Yang Ping indeed had potential and had made several remarkable contributions. Not to mention his stunning five-section replantation surgery that even gave Director Zhao goosebumps, shouting ¡°good lad¡±. Recently, at the major consultation held at the Overseas Chinese Building, he proposed an innovative idea that even Professor Su greatly admired. This matter required careful consideration. If Yang Ping was poached, not just Han Jiangong, but even Dean Xia would skin him alive. If things looked amiss, then there was usually a trick involved. Zhao felt something was suspicious and decided to take the consultation invitation to discuss it with Han Jiangong. Sanbo was currently in need of personnel, they couldn¡¯t afford to have someone undermine their team. Despite being a simple and honest person, Director Zhao was tactful. Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to hold his current position. He called Director Han. The moment he returned to his office after the meeting, Zhao, with the consultation invitation in hand, hurried over without skipping a beat. Upon entering, Zhao locked the door and without even taking a sip of Director Han¡¯s Longjing Tea, he took out the invitation and placed it on his desk. ¡°Old Han, take a look!¡± Director Han was confused by Zhao¡¯s urgency. They had just met at the hospital-wide morning meeting earlier and Zhao didn¡¯t mention a word about it. Now, in such a rush, Director Han was left wondering what was going on. Taking a look at the consultation invitation from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, it invited Yang Ping to participate in an Orthopedics consultation the following Tuesday. ¡°What¡¯s the problem?¡± Director Han was completely confused. Zhao was now even more anxious: ¡°Old Han, why aren¡¯t you worried? Look, Nandu Affiliated Hospital One is inviting one of our junior attendants for a consultation! With Su Qingyun about to be promoted to academician, and a large number of professors in their orthopedics department receiving special government subsidies, why would they invite a Specialist from us for a consultation? This is a blatant attempt to poach our staff.¡± He was so infuriated that he took a sip of tea to calm himself down. ¡°This is outrageous! Su Qingyun has had a good reputation in the circle all along, with principled actions. How could he land himself in a situation like this?¡± The more Zhao thought about it, the more furious he became. If they had secretly asked their Human Resources Department to start a dialogue, it would be understandable. But in this style, isn¡¯t it a blatant act of aggression? ¡°Don¡¯t panic. They¡¯re just invited for a consultation. Isn¡¯t this a good thing, inviting our people for consultations?¡± Director Han was not worried at all. ¡°Do you really think so?¡± Zhao couldn¡¯t comprehend Director Han¡¯s intentions. Director Han reassured him, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Even if they try to poach him, Yang Ping won¡¯t be easily swayed if he doesn¡¯t want to leave; if Yang Ping himself wants to leave, we can¡¯t keep him either. In my opinion, this might not be as complicated as it seems. My guess is that Su Nanchen is interested in becoming friends with Yang Ping. Didn¡¯t you notice at the dinner table the other day that the two wouldn¡¯t stop chatting, like they were old friends meeting after a long time?¡± ¡°Making friends? It¡¯s only a case, the two of them could have discussed it privately, over the phone, or via WeChat. Why do they need to formally issue a consultation order?¡± Old Zhao still felt that there was something wrong. Director Han looked at the consultation invitation again and flicked it with his finger: ¡°This is purposely giving Yang Ping an opportunity to make himself known, promoting him! Praising him! Didn¡¯t you notice? Only Su Nanchen would know about Yang Ping¡¯s capabilities from private discussions, but a consultation like this is different, with one consultation order issued, Yang Ping¡¯s skills would be showcased at both Sanbo and Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Look, the invitation is personally signed by Su Qingyun, is it necessary for him to sign a consultation for orthopedics himself? Without his signature, this type of consultation invitation would not be able to be issued, it is probably the first time in the history of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One to invite a chief physician from another hospital! Su Qingyun really has an eye for talent, he¡¯s broad-minded, no wonder Nandu Affiliated Hospital One developed so rapidly in his hands!¡± ¡°If it¡¯s really as you say, then I can rest easy. Our hospital is currently in a crucial period of development, we must guard against other people¡¯s intentions,¡± Old Zhao thought carefully and felt that what Han Jiangong said made sense. ¡°I¡¯ll call Yang Ping in for a briefing and let him prepare,¡± Director Han picked up the phone and Director Zhao opened the door. As soon as Yang Ping entered the director¡¯s office, he saw a paper in Director Han¡¯s hand and Director Zhao staring at him, he started wondering if he had done something wrong. ¡°Director Han, Director Zhao!¡± Yang Ping greeted them, maintaining a calm demeanor on the surface, but his mind was already analyzing countless possibilities. ¡°Sit! Xiao Yang!¡± Director Han said kindly, with a smile on his face. Eighty percent chance it¡¯s good news, Yang Ping made a judgment. He had figured out Director Han¡¯s moods from his facial expressions before. ¡°What do you think this is?¡± Director Han didn¡¯t give an outright explanation, but showed the consultation order to Yang Ping. Yang Ping took it, it was an inter-hospital consultation invitation from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, signed by Su Nanchen and Su Qingyun, and stamped with the seal of the Medical Affairs Department of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Oh, so it was this matter. Su Nanchen had mentioned the consultation via WeChat yesterday, and even sent the patient¡¯s information over the platform. Yang Ping was initially taken aback, him being invited to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One for a consultation? Impossible. After Su Nanchen sent over the information, he didn¡¯t explain much. Yang Ping therefore interpreted this ¡°consultation¡± as a case discussion on WeChat. He didn¡¯t expect the hospital to send an official inter-hospital consultation invitation today. This procedure is typically for inviting professors, Su Nanchen, you¡¯re giving me too much face. Before Yang Ping could say anything, Director Han spoke: ¡°Prepare yourself, I¡¯ll give you leave next Tuesday afternoon, go for the consultation, speak as you normally would, and show them your capabilities.¡± ¡°Director¨C¡± Yang Ping wanted to explain, as this consultation request bypassed Director Han in favor of him, seemed somewhat inappropriate. However, on second thought, there was no need to explain. What kind of person was Director Han? He was the type who was laid-back and open-minded, not someone who was narrow-minded. ¡°Yes! Director, I will certainly do you and the hospital proud!¡± Yang Ping confidently declared. Director Han laughed: ¡°I love hearing that.¡± ¡°Should I arrange for the hospital to dispatch a car for his transportation?¡± Director Zhao felt that this would also raise his stature. Nandu Affiliated Hospital One inviting a chief physician from Sanbo for a consultation was an unprecedented event. Yang Ping quickly declined: ¡°Please don¡¯t fuss over it, I can go by myself, it¡¯s just a consultation.¡± Yang Ping disliked causing trouble. Going to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One for a consultation and having the hospital arrange a car was too ostentatious. Being low-key was more suited to his personality. ¡°Let¡¯s go with what Xiao Yang says, if he doesn¡¯t want a car then don¡¯t send one, let him do it however he wishes, perhaps Su Nanchen will come to fetch him,¡± Director Han understood Yang Ping¡¯s temperament. With this matter set, Old Zhao also felt relieved. As long as it¡¯s a normal consultation, it¡¯s a good thing, and Sanbo has hope. He and his old colleagues had been with Dean Xia through thick and thin for more than ten years, laying this foundation. If these youngsters could make a name for themselves, he would feel proud upon retirement. Even when meeting classmates and peers, he could brag a little while playing mahjong. Yang Ping replied to Su Nanchen on WeChat: Received the consultation invitation, deeply grateful, I will be there next Tuesday afternoon at three o¡¯clock to attend the consultation. Since they¡¯ve invited me and given me such great face, I should go confidently. This week, he¡¯s only performed three surgeries because Director Tian was on an outpatient shift alone. Director Han only worked half-day outpatient shifts a week, and that was located on the first floor of the Orthopedics Department. They couldn¡¯t compete for patients with other departments, so the patient volume was quite low. Tomorrow is Saturday, and Yang Ping remembered about accompanying Xiao Su for shopping. He checked the balance in his bank account. Since coming to Sanbo, his income had become much higher than before. Apart from rent and utilities, he didn¡¯t have many expenses, and had a balance of tens of thousands in his account. Although Xiao Su was very good, she didn¡¯t overspend. But it was better for him to be prepared. Chapter 141 - 0137: The First Time Shopping Chapter 141: Chapter 0137: The First Time Shopping There wasn¡¯t much going on Friday, and the patient with synovial chondromatosis was joyfully discharged from the hospital, leaving only Hermes and Luo Xiaohu in the ward. Yang Ping had been sleeping in the on-call room when Huang Jiahui called, saying she had brought some materials and was waiting in the meeting room. Yang Ping donned his white gown and went to the meeting room, where he found Huang Jiahui rubbing her hands, panting, her fingers and palms red from strain. A bag full of heavy equipment information from Ruixing Corporation, including complete data on shoulder arthroscopes and knee arthroscopes. Upon seeing Yang Ping, she immediately stood up: ¡°Professor Yang, sorry to bother!¡± Yang Ping asked her to leave the materials and to stock up on consumables for the shoulder arthroscope when she had a chance. The young girl was so excited she could barely contain her urge to jump up, she bowed several times in gratitude: ¡°Thank you, Professor Yang!¡± The orthopedic department doesn¡¯t accept emergency cases, and there are no surgeries on Saturdays and Sundays. This allowed Yang Ping and Xiao Su to have a relaxed weekend and to go shopping! The weather in the south began to turn cold, requiring thicker outerwear. At 8 o¡¯clock in the morning on Saturday, Yang Ping arrived on time at the agreed meeting point. Xiao Su showed up wearing a light red ladies¡¯ trench coat, with a scarf wrapped around her neck. Her shoulder-length hair was dark and shiny due to regular workouts, her body curves were beautiful and full of vitality. She didn¡¯t wear any makeup, her lips were reddish, naturally so. Even in this dry winter season, her skin was still delicate and glossy, giving a youthful and healthy impression. Standing in the wind on the plaza between the emergency building and the outpatient building, Xiao Su waved at Yang Ping. Her hair fluttered in the north wind, she was beautiful! This was their first time going shopping together, and apart from the excitement, there was also some unease. Performing surgeries was routine, but accompanying a girl shopping was unfamiliar territory. ¡°Sir, may I trouble you?¡± Xiao Su handed over her backpack. ¡°At your service!¡± Yang Ping took the backpack. ¡°Where are we going?¡± ¡°18th Street!¡± 18th Street is a well-known traditional commercial area in G City, a bustling pedestrian street. Xiao Su had mentioned this in advance. ¡°The subway will be packed on the weekend, shall I call a ride?¡± Yang Ping pulled out his phone. Yang Ping had meticulously planned for the shopping trip; he had prepared everything from bank cards, his WeChat wallet, to cash. Regrettably, despite working in G City for several years, Yang Ping had never visited 18th Street. In the past, apart from going to work, he would stay home and read books. Being a single homebody, he didn¡¯t need to go shopping, all his shopping needs were met by online shops like Taobao and . This time, he¡¯d thoroughly researched 18th Street in advance, collecting information on everything from routes, transportation, shops, culture, and characteristics. He knew it so well he could probably write a guide on 18th Street. Had it not been for work, he would have gone and scouted ahead. Xiao Su smiled sweetly, ¡°No need.¡± She pointed at a car parked at the temporary parking lot on the plaza, a red Tesla Model S, an electric car. ¡°Let¡¯s go, I¡¯ll be the driver.¡± Xiao Su tidied up her hair, which had been ruffled by the wind. The hidden door handle automatically popped out. Xiao Su opened the passenger seat door: ¡°Sir, after you.¡± She sure kept a low profile, as Yang Ping had never seen her drive before. Yang Ping got into the passenger seat, and Xiao Su walked around the front of the car to get into the driver¡¯s seat. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen you drive before?¡± Yang Ping began to adjust his seat. ¡°I live in the city area, I only go home during my days off. I usually stay at the dormitory and don¡¯t need a car, it¡¯s parked in the hospital¡¯s underground parking lot.¡± Xiao Su unbuckled her scarf and fastened her seatbelt. ¡°There are snacks and water in the compartment in front of you, help yourself.¡± Xiao Su put on her sunglasses and started the car. ¡°Sir, I¡¯m honored to be at your service. Please buckle your seatbelt, and let me know if the temperature in the car is alright for you.¡± Xiao Su solemnly said. ¡°Hmm, thank you. Take the most convenient route, we have a date to catch!¡± Yang Ping replied earnestly. The electric car was very quiet, Yang Ping opened the compartment, inside were a few packets of snacks and two bottles of water. It was about an hour¡¯s drive to the city from here, Xiao Su drove steadily and proficiently, reassuring her passenger. ¡°On Tuesday, I¡¯m going to the First Affiliated Hospital for a consultation. Their orthopedics department invited me. Su Nanchen sent the invitation.¡± Yang Ping told Xiao Su. ¡°You¡¯re going to consult at the First Affiliated Hospital? Should we call you Professor Yang now?¡± Xiao Su was surprised. ¡°I was surprised too, Su Nanchen is probably showing some respect.¡± Yang Ping explained. ¡°Will the hospital send a car, or will they come to pick you up?¡± Xiao Su asked. ¡°Director Zhao said they would send a car, but I declined. I¡¯ll go myself.¡± Yang Ping was munching on some beef jerky. ¡°Tuesday afternoon? I¡¯ll take you there.¡± Xiao Su said. ¡°No need, I¡¯ll go myself.¡± Yang Ping knew Xiao Su was busy. Although they didn¡¯t perform many surgeries, it was just her and Zhou Can in the operating room, and they had other responsibilities. ¡°How about this, I give you the car keys, and you can drive there yourself?¡± Xiao Su was still worried. ¡°I got my driver¡¯s license when I was in grad school, but I haven¡¯t driven since.¡± Yang Ping was honest. ¡°I can accompany you for some practice in the afternoon, it¡¯s quick. A few practice sessions and you¡¯ll be ready for the road.¡± Xiao Su smiled. ¡°Alright!¡± Yang Ping agreed. However, thinking about it, shouldn¡¯t it be inappropriate to practice driving in such a high-end car? It even looks like a high-spec Model S. ¡°When you get to Affiliated Hospital No.1, don¡¯t be afraid, show them what you¡¯re capable of! Cheer up, you¡¯re the best!¡± Little Su was so cute, encouraging Yang Ping. Truth to be told, why would I be scared? Whether it¡¯s studying or practicing surgery within the system space, I usually spend months on it. This unique experience made Yang Ping feel like someone who has weathered the rough storms, steadier, cooler and more confident than most people. At this point, Yang Ping had almost finished reading many books about sports medicine. Each one of them was studied in-depth, not skimmed through. He studied diligently, digesting and absorbing knowledge. These prolonged experiences were manifested externally as confidence, steadiness, and cool headedness, as if having a complete grasp of any situation. Yang Ping also slowly figured out some quirks about the system. For instance, if you enter the system space in a quiet environment like before sleep, it¡¯s much more efficient than normal times. Before sleeping, the training effect can be ten times, or even higher. Entering at normal times could only get two to three times the effect. That¡¯s why Yang Ping often enters the system space in his sleep, during his breaks, in the car, etc., thus improving the training effect and saving points. Those who didn¡¯t know would think he was a heavy sleeper, always ducking into the duty room to sleep. Yang Ping pretended to be quite encouraged: ¡°No fear, they are all humans, on the same plane as us.¡± ¡°I¡¯d still like to drive you there on Tuesday. While you¡¯re in your meeting, I¡¯ll wait for you outside. We can head back together after your consultation.¡± Little Su still seemed worried. The two chatted merrily on the way, full of endless jokes, with Little Su laughing heartily from time to time. Unbeknownst to them, they had already reached Eighteenth Street in the city centre. Xiao Su found a parking lot, parked the car, took Yang Ping¡¯s hand, and happily roamed the streets like a child on holiday. ¡°Let¡¯s eat something first!¡± Xiao Su was well-prepared. Without saying much, she led Yang Ping away. ¡°Slow down, slow down!¡± ¡°Hurry, it will get crowded soon!¡± Yang Ping had no idea where she was planning to go, taking no notice of the shops beside them. They walked a long way and turned into a small alley. Old Chen Fish Skin! One of the three major delicacies of Eighteenth Street. Truly embarrassing. Despite its fame, I¡¯ve never had it. Xiao Su was very familiar with the place. While Yang Ping was still looking at the sign pondering what to order, She had already ordered: two servings of fish skin and two servings of boat congee. ¡°Pay, pay!¡± Xiao Su held onto Yang Ping¡¯s arm, prompting him to quickly scan the WeChat QR code. A bowl of fish skin cost twenty-four yuan, a bowl of boat congee eight yuan. Double servings cost sixty-four yuan. They came early and there were still seats. The shop was very simple, no different from a street-side food stall, with wooden tables and benches both inside and outside. A canopy was set up outside. The two found a spot inside. Gradually, many other people started to arrive and queue up. ¡°Eat!¡± Xiao Su passed Yang Ping a set of disposable chopsticks. The fish skin was indeed excellent ¨C tender, smooth and chewy. The peanuts inside were also crispy. Its fame was indeed well deserved. ¡°Later it¡¯ll be even busier, and the queue for take-aways will be so long.¡± Xiao Su was very familiar with this. The couple finished their food, Xiao Su cleared the trash, tidied the table, wiped it clean, and then took Yang Ping to start their official shopping spree. The pedestrian street was bustling with old, established shops, and the buildings on both sides were of traditional design. They strolled along, enjoying the view. They noticed a branded clothing store having a clearance sale. Xiao Su immediately pulled Yang Ping over. It was a pile of high neck sweaters with a sign that read: sixty yuan each. Xiao Su wanted to pick one, but after searching for a while, she couldn¡¯t find one she liked. She was looking for a pink one, but the sizes of the few she picked did not fit. Most of the clothes were of discontinued sizes. Yang Ping randomly picked through the pile and pulled out a pink one for her: ¡°This fits you.¡± Xiao Su had a look and indeed, the size was the most fitting. She had shopped this brand before and was familiar with her size. ¡°How did you know?¡± Xiao Su was puzzled. He picked it at random without even looking at the size. How could he be so accurate? Interestingly, the ability Yang Ping gained from practicing brain imaging in the system space, to observe color, size, and even matching, was beyond what an average person could achieve. At just one glance, he could reconstruct the clothes in his vision in his brain, then simulate putting them on the Xiao Su in his mind. Whether it fits or not, he would know after one simulation. That¡¯s the magic of the super cultivation plan. Yang Ping paid, had the clothes packed, and the two continued shopping. Xiao Su kept asking while holding Yang Ping¡¯s hand: ¡°You didn¡¯t even look at the size. How could you guess it so accurately?¡± Yang Ping kept quiet, but Xiao Su persisted. Yang Ping replied calmly: ¡°Talent! I can tell just from one hug. You hugged me so tightly that day, I naturally took your measurements.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Really!¡± ¡°So, in the future, if you want to buy clothes and choose the most fitting one, let me hold you first!¡± Yang Ping said earnestly. Xiao Su looked at him, her eyelashes fluttering. Chapter 142 - 0138: The Dimension Brought Out Chapter 142: Chapter 0138: The Dimension Brought Out ¡°I also want to buy a Li Ning sports outfit.¡± Xiao Su, holding Yang Ping¡¯s hand, nestled close to him. Yang Ping, indifferent, responded, ¡°In that case, stay close. Sports outfits should be the right size. Too big and they look ugly, too small and they get in the way of movement.¡± Xiao Su leaned closer, snuggling tightly against Yang Ping. At the Li Ning specialty store, in the ladies¡¯ section, Xiao Su merely eyed the dazzling array of clothes, not reaching out to select any. ¡°You pick for me!¡± she said. She wanted to see if Yang Ping was bluffing. The clothes were neatly hung up. Yang Ping asked, ¡°Which style do you want?¡± ¡°You pick anything!¡± Xiao Su waited for him to slip up. Yang Ping just casually glanced around and picked out a jacket and a pair of pants. He didn¡¯t even look closely at the clothes, let alone check the size on the labels. ¡°This set suits you best, whether we¡¯re talking about style, color, or size.¡± Yang Ping handed the clothes to Xiao Su. Xiao Su took them and immediately checked the size inside. Just as she thought, he was guessing. This wasn¡¯t her usual size. What a trickster he was. After seeing through Yang Ping¡¯s trick, Xiao Su laughed and said, ¡°This isn¡¯t the size I usually wear! Mine is smaller than this.¡± ¡°Take both this set and the one in the size you think suits you and try them on. You¡¯ll know once you do.¡± Yang Ping seemed very confident. What a sly fox, acting so calmly. Xiao Su thought, giggling to herself. Laughing while picking out clothes, Xiao Su chose another set of the same style but a different size. Still somewhat skeptical but also curious, she found an open dressing room and brought both sets in to try them on. Yang Ping sat on the stool to rest as a sales associate tried to make conversation, ¡°Sir, your girlfriend is really pretty!¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Yang Ping answered curtly. ¡°See, sir, this section houses this month¡¯s new arrivals. They¡¯d look even better on her. For winter sports, she should stock up on more sets.¡± The sales assistant suggested. ¡°Okay, she¡¯ll pick them out later.¡± Yang Ping wasn¡¯t talkative and didn¡¯t quite like talking to strangers. About ten minutes later, Xiao Su came out. She returned one set to the sales associate and asked her to bag the other. ¡°How did it go?¡± Yang Ping was confident, but still wanted to know the answer. ¡°You were wrong this time, it¡¯s not the right size!¡± Xiao Su said triumphantly, intentionally trying to knock down his confidence. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°Impossible!¡± ¡°Are you so sure?¡± asked Xiao Su. ¡°I¡¯ve never been wrong before!¡± Yang Ping murmured. Xiao Su glared at him. Her gaze seemed a bit unusual, with a hint of anger. Xiao Su didn¡¯t say anything else, only coldly admitting, ¡°You win, this set that you picked truly fits the best.¡± Then she turned to the sales assistant and asked, ¡°I buy all my sports outfits here. Why do I need a larger size today?¡± She was confident that she had maintained her figure very well, she hadn¡¯t gained weight. If she chose to work part-time, she could definitely qualify as a women¡¯s fitness trainer. ¡°Oh! I¡¯m sorry. The dimensions of this line are all slightly smaller than usual!¡± The sales assistant explained. Xiao Su finally believed him. He could determine her size just by hugging her, it was like the high IQ weirdos on TV. Remembering how he could determine sizes just by hugging, she found it laughably absurd. On remembering Yang Ping¡¯s words just now, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a little jealous. Fortunately, he was right. Thanks to the system¡¯s intensive training program, Yang Ping¡¯s observation and thinking ability had significantly improved. Not only could he accurately grasp the 15-degree angle during puncture, but he could also apply this ability in daily life. After buying the sports outfit, they left the Li Ning Flagship Store. Xiao Su then dragged Yang Ping around for a stroll, without buying anything else. It seemed like women never got tired of shopping. A few times they passed by high-end women¡¯s fashion brand stores, but Xiao Su ignored them. Yang Ping tried to pull her in to buy something pricier. She turned her nose up, ¡°This stuff doesn¡¯t look good; it lacks vitality!¡± By noon, the two went to a noodle shop for shrimp dumpling soup, then ran to an old-style diner for tri-color ice cream. These were time-honored eateries known for delicious food, a great reputation, and reasonable prices. ¡°You must be tired. Let¡¯s take a break and have a cup of coffee.¡± Xiao Su led Yang Ping. The two of them found a coffee shop to sit down and rest, had some coffee, and chatted. The sun outside the window was perfect, and the architecture had a lot of character. Being with Xiao Su was indeed very relaxing and cheerful for Yang Ping. He didn¡¯t feel awkward or uneasy, and he didn¡¯t have to consciously take care of her feelings or worry about making her angry. ¡°Is that all you¡¯re buying? I came prepared, so you can shop freely!¡± Yang Ping weighed the bag of clothes in his hand. Everything fit into one bag. Isn¡¯t a woman¡¯s shopping trip supposed to involve many bags, large and small? ¡°Today, Miss Su is feeling merciful. You can keep your money for now, let it earn some interest.¡± Xiao Su ripped open a sugar packet and added it to Yang Ping¡¯s coffee. Yang Ping felt his neck, ¡°I¡¯ve stuck my neck out, and you¡¯re not making a move?¡± Xiao Su made a chopping motion on Yang Ping¡¯s neck with her delicate hand, ¡°Let¡¯s fatten you up first, then we¡¯ll deal with you!¡± ¡°No need to deal with me!¡± Yang Ping shook his head helplessly. ¡°You think Miss Su is too merciful? Fine, next time we¡¯ll go to DaTang!¡± Xiao Su huffed. DaTang! That¡¯s a luxury shopping center in G City. A piece of clothing there easily costs tens of thousands, and a bag can range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. The Hermes flagship store is located there. This little girl, she didn¡¯t often shop, but when she did, she left no stone unturned. ¡°No, Miss Su, take it easy, let¡¯s fatten me up first. I don¡¯t think my card can handle a swipe at DaTang.¡± Yang Ping hurriedly stirred his coffee. Chapter 143 - 0138: The Dimension Brought Out_2 Chapter 143: Chapter 0138: The Dimension Brought Out_2 ¡°Nope. I¡¯ve made myself clear. Next time at the Datang meeting, I¡¯ll show you how fierce this little missy can be!¡± Xiao Su pouted, her face filled with bluster. ¡°I beg you, milady, to spare me!¡± Yang Ping made a mock kowtow gesture. Xiao Su gleamed with satisfaction. ¡°Fine. Since you¡¯re pleading so sincerely, I¡¯ll wait for now.¡± ¡°I have a question. You said you¡¯ve never made a mistake before. What does that mean?¡± Xiao Su¡¯s face fell. Having just been overflowing with laughter, she was now suddenly serious. ¡°What? What do you mean?¡± Yang Ping was completely confused. Xiao Su cooed like a shrew, ¡°Tell the truth, your quirky measurement technique never messed up; how many have you measured?¡± So this was what she meant. Yang Ping was relieved but somewhat embarrassed. He¡¯d never been in a relationship before. In university, he was too shy to even chat with girls close by. At times, he had doubted whether the university he attended was even authentic compared to others. ¡°If you don¡¯t confess right now, you¡¯ll have to do so at the Datang meeting later,¡± Xiao Su retorted. ¡°I¡¯m confident about this. As for the method, I¡¯ve only ever applied it once, and that was in my presence,¡± Yang Ping replied jovially. ¡°Really?¡± Xiao Su¡¯s face burst into a smile. ¡°Truly! Look into my eyes, complete sincerity here!¡± Yang Ping stared intently at her. On the verge of laughter, Xiao Su exclaimed, ¡°You¡¯re really scared, aren¡¯t you? It¡¯s okay, even if you have measured a few. Just don¡¯t abuse this unique skill in the future.¡± Yang Ping felt relieved, thankful that he¡¯d never been intimate with a woman before. With Xiao Su¡¯s threats and entrapments, he felt lucky to have survived her questioning unscathed. After a short break, Xiao Su mysteriously informed him, ¡°Stay here and wait for me; I have to buy a few things.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go with you.¡± Yang Ping began to collect his things. ¡°No, just rest here and wait for me. No need to accompany.¡± Xiao Su was insistent, and not wanting to push her, he agreed, though he remained curious about what she might be up to. ¡°Don¡¯t wander off; hurry back.¡± Yang Ping told her. Xiao Su raised her hand in an OK gesture and left the cafe?. Compared to coffee, Yang Ping preferred tea. Yang Ping signaled a waiter, ¡°Do you serve tea here?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sir. We only serve coffee!¡± replied the waiter. ¡°Oh! Makes sense, a cafe? wouldn¡¯t sell tea.¡± He muttered to himself. Half an hour later, Xiao Su returned carrying a bag, which upon his quick glance, appeared to contain clothes. Xiao Su blocked his view with her hand, ¡°That¡¯s for my family, no peeking!¡± Intrigued by the apparent mystery involved in buying clothes, Yang Ping offered to hold the bag for her, but Xiao Su refused, ¡°I can carry it; I¡¯ll put it in the car shortly.¡± Checking the time, Xiao Su proposed, ¡°We still have plenty of time. I¡¯m going to take you driving! The University City area is less busy and the roads are new and wide ¨C perfect for learning to drive. After driving, we can find a place to eat and then head home.¡± Overall, the day was quite enjoyable. Despite his strong aversion to shopping, doing it with Xiao Su made it one of the most exciting experiences for him. At the parking lot, Xiao Su neatly placed the few bags of clothes she had bought on the back seat before taking Yang Ping to drive around University City. Due to its wide and new roads along with scanty traffic, University City of G City was indeed a good place to practice driving. Few cars were on the road, with some clearly marked as instructor vehicles, while the tortoise-like speed of others gave away learners practicing their skills. They parked by the roadside and Xiao Su switched places with Yang Ping. An SUV was parked in front, and suddenly a revving sound startled them. Yang Ping poked his head to see a girl in the driver¡¯s seat. She must have floored the accelerator while the car was in neutral. He was relieved that the car was not in reverse, or else she would have bolted straight for them. With his training in the System Space and accumulated talent points, Yang Ping quickly realized that his learning ability had surpassed that of the average person. Coupled with the fact that he already had a driving license and had undergone formal training, he felt at ease. ¡°Don¡¯t be scared, start slow and get a feel for the car. Whenever you feel comfortable, you can increase speed. As long as you don¡¯t accelerate, keep your foot on the brake. If press vertically down, you¡¯ll brake, and if you press it at an angle, you¡¯ll accelerate. In case of any emergencies, your first instinct should be to use your right foot to brake. Remember this, and relax. I¡¯m here.¡±ver the car with a practiced look. As if he were an old hand at driving, Yang Ping adjusted his seat and fastened his seatbelt. He recalled his driving lessons when he was earning his license. Steps for starting the car instantly popped into his head, unfolding in the form of sequential images brake pedal, ignition, selection of D mode, left turn signal, release hand-brake, release foot brake, and lightly press the accelerator if required. Yang Ping grew puzzled. This car was quite different from the clunky Volkswagen he had trained on. He had examined it earlier and couldn¡¯t find the ignition or a gear stick in the central control area, not even a switch for the electronic handbrake. ¡°This car differs from others. It doesn¡¯t have a gear stick in the central control area. Instead, gears are shifted using a lever on the steering wheel: up for reverse, down for drive, and in the middle for neutral. See, the chrome button on the right side of the lever is the parking brake. You just need to press it to the left. The ignition works differently too; there¡¯s no ignition button. As long as the car key is within the car¡¯s sensing range and you¡¯ve depressed the brake pedal, the car will power on. Then, switch to D mode, step on the accelerator ¨C actually, it¡¯s an electric pedal ¨C and the car will start moving. You can switch to neutral when waiting at red lights,¡± Xiao Su explained patiently. ¡°Until now, the only car I have driven was a manual Volkswagen Jetta.¡± Yang Ping listened attentively to Xiao Su and repeated the instructions to ensure he had understood correctly. He had it under control. He pressed the brake pedal to power up the car, switched to D mode, turned on the left indicator, released the brake, lightly pressed the electric pedal, and off he went! ¡°Not bad at all! You sure you haven¡¯t driven for a few years since you got your license?¡± Xiao Su found it hard to believe. ¡°Honestly, I haven¡¯t!¡± Yang Ping confirmed. Xiao Su remarked, ¡°Driving is really about the coordination of your hands and mind. As a skilled surgeon, you must have good hand-eye coordination, so naturally, you¡¯d handle the car well. Feel free to speed up if you feel comfortable.¡± Yang Ping gradually increased his speed, and upon reaching a traffic light, he smoothly applied the brakes, switched to neutral gear, and stopped. His movements were impressively smooth. After a round trip around the University City, he felt very familiar with driving. ¡°You have a good feel for the car. Go for a few more turns!¡± Xiao Su quenched her thirst with some water. After a few more rounds, Xiao Su suggested, ¡°Let¡¯s park by the side and take a breather!¡± Yang Ping parked the car accurately thirty centimeters from the kerb, braked, and shifted to P mode. They both got out of the car to get some fresh air. The car parked nearby, which had been doing a few rounds as well, also pulled over to rest. It was the same car that had revved its engine earlier. The man and the woman also got out to take a breather. The man had noticed Xiao Su instructing Yang Ping in the car earlier. When he saw Yang Ping step out of the car, he looked at him disdainfully, finding it pathetic to see a grown man being taught how to drive by a woman. However, when Xiao Su got out of the car, his eyes were fixed on her. Taking note of the Tesla they were driving, his gaze returned to Yang Ping. The earlier disdain had now turned into admiration! Chapter 144 - 0139: Perforation of Parietal Peritoneum Chapter 144: Chapter 0139: Perforation of Parietal Peritoneum The two of them rested under a tree by the road. ¡°When we go back later, you can drive. Take it slow, and the key is not to panic. Especially when there are many cars and people, you need to anticipate the traffic conditions in advance. In case of an emergency, just make sure not to mix up the gas and the brake. When you were driving earlier, you switched between the gas and the brake quite freely. After driving enough, it becomes second nature.¡± Xiao Su summarized Yang Ping¡¯s driving from earlier, drawing from her own years of driving experience to instruct Yang Ping. A couple nearby seemed to have rested enough. They got into their Honda SUV. Before getting in the car, the man didn¡¯t forget to glance in this direction. Yang Ping and Xiao Su took a break for a bit. Xiao Su checked the car¡¯s battery. The charge was sufficient, it was fully charged when they left. The two of them drove around the university town a few more times. When Xiao Su thought they had practiced enough, she took Yang Ping to practice parking in reverse. Parallel parking, angle parking, perpendicular parking, Xiao Su found parking spots for all of these and let Yang Ping practice each one. She passed every item. Yang Ping learned quickly. She mastered each item with just one try. After practicing a few times, she even had her own insights. Once they had practiced enough, they found a buffet hot pot restaurant according to the GPS. The restaurant was quite popular and not expensive ¨C a hundred yuan per person. The two of them found a booth by the window. A yin yang hot pot was brought to them by a waiter. Yang Ping and Xiao Su picked many ingredients. They were hungry and ready to feast. ¡°You learn so quickly. You practiced until you were so skilled in just one afternoon.¡± Xiao Su put ingredients into the hot pot. Yang Ping felt a bit embarrassed: ¡°I was supposed to accompany you shopping. But after shopping a bit, it turned into you accompanying me driving.¡± Xiao Su cleverly said: ¡°We have been shopping for several hours, and I think that¡¯s enough. Look, we¡¯ve done shopping, and now we are having a meal. Today is indeed a happy day!¡± After Xiao Su filled up the hot pot with ingredients, Yang Ping covered the pot. They waited for the soup to boil. Xiao Su thoughtfully said: ¡°You have a consult coming up on Tuesday. You should take my car. After we get back to the hospital, I¡¯ll fully charge the car. Our Hospital parking lot has an area full of charging stations. When you go to the Adjunct First Hospital, their underground parking area on the third floor in Zone E has charging stations.¡± ¡°You are very familiar with the Adjunct First?¡± Yang Ping realized she had a clear understanding, down to where the charging stations are. Xiao Su nodded her head: ¡°For those who own an electric car, they pretty much know where all the charging stations in G City are. After all, charging stations are not as common as gas stations, it¡¯s quite unavoidable to feel some ¡®range anxiety¡¯.¡± ¡°This all-electric car feels like a mobile phone, which is quite interesting. When it gets back home, it¡¯s not refueling, but charging. After all, I am going to get a purely electric one, environmentally friendly, healthy, and quiet.¡± Yang Ping became interested in electric cars. ¡°You should also opt for this model. It comes in black, and has several other colors available.¡± Xiao Su recommended. Yang Ping shook her head like a wobble doll: ¡°No way, no way. This is too expensive. I would rather buy a BYD. Those are domestic.¡± ¡°I heard that the battery safety of BYD cars is better, and it could pass the needle-prick test.¡± Xiao Su kept up with the topic. The two of them chatted and ate, from daily life, bringing the conversation to surgical operations. Xiao Su asked about some professional knowledge of her own that she didn¡¯t understand, like the use of certain instruments, or why certain steps were required. Yang Ping patiently answered, thinking that she really likes to learn, and is truly considering the surgical steps in order to better assist the Chief Surgeon. After they finished all the ingredients, Yang Ping asked Xiao Su what else she wanted. He was about to get up to pick more ingredients. Suddenly, there was some commotion in the restaurant. Yang Ping turned his head to look. Following his gaze, Xiao Su also looked over. Someone was in trouble. Inside the hall, a woman in her twenties had collapsed. Yang Ping and Xiao Su immediately rushed over to see what happened. ¡°She was just fine, then suddenly her face went pale and fell down.¡± The woman¡¯s boyfriend was at a loss, frantically seeking help from everyone, then he took out his phone to dial 120, stuttering as he spoke. ¡°Excuse me, let me through. I am a doctor.¡± A middle-aged man separated the crowd and rushed in. He quickly assessed the situation, started chest compressions below the breastbone. His technique was extremely skilled, a kind of skill that could only come from many years of long-term training, not just basic training. The CPR process followed the newest guidelines exactly. After a few seconds examining consciousness, breathing, and carotid pulse, he started compressions, then opened the airway. The ¡°head tilt-chin lift¡± technique was used to open the airway. He checked the mouth to see if there was anything that needed clearing, then he performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation twice, followed by another chest compression sequence- a 30-2 ratio of compressions to rescue breaths. This person must be a doctor, and probably an emergency physician or an ICU doctor. His resuscitation was decisive and smooth, clearly derived from excellent professional training. Yang Ping also squeezed in, kneeled on one knee on the ground, checking her carotid artery and nostrils, checking the skin on her neck and limbs. There was a weak pulse in her carotid artery, her heart was still beating. Under these circumstances, chest compressions were completely fine. Compressions would help the weakened heart pump blood, not just laying a hand when the heart had completely stopped beating. There were some hives on the skin, an allergic reaction! This was an allergic reaction, not sudden cardiac death. The allergic reaction caused acute laryngeal edema, leading to suffocation. When Yang Ping first obtained the system, he underwent emergency training. Then later, he received more systemic and intensive examination training. He was confident in his judgment. ¡°Allergic reaction! Acute laryngeal edema! The airway needs to be opened immediately!¡± Yang Ping calmly reminded the middle-aged doctor. Chapter 145 - 0139: Perforation of Parietal Peritoneum_2 Chapter 145: Chapter 0139: Perforation of Parietal Peritoneum_2 ¡°I¡¯ve already done that.¡± The middle-aged doctor was confident. ¡°We need to perform a cricothyroid membrane puncture or a tracheotomy immediately!¡± Yang Ping looked him in the eye. The middle-aged doctor did not stop compressing, his gaze showed hesitation. In such a critical situation, both cricothyroid puncture and tracheotomy are invasive. If the assessment is wrong, it could lead to complications or even cause trouble if the patient does not survive. Although the law exempts medical professionals from legal responsibility in such emergency situations, things are often more complicated than they seem. Serving as a doctor for so many years, he had seen it all. The doctor exchanged glances with Yang Ping, stepping aside to give Yang Ping space. Yang Ping immediately stopped him: ¡°You continue with compressions, I¡¯ll perform the cricothyroid puncture!¡± Compressions can help the heart pump blood, delivering the residual oxygen in the bloodstream to vital organs, especially the brain as it can withstand oxygen deprivation for only four minutes. If breathing isn¡¯t restored within ten minutes, irreversible brain damage happens. ¡°Quick, I need a small knife and a clean straw! A sharp knife or small scissors would work; for the straw, an ordinary size should suffice.¡± Yang Ping shouted to the crowd. He had initially thought of applying alcohol or high-proof liquor to sterilize the knife for throat disinfection. But locating these items would require precious time. In an emergency case like acute laryngeal edema which leads to completely blocked airways, the patient could die within a few minutes. To save time, the sterilization step was omitted. A small knife and straw were easily found in the crowd. A Swiss Army knife was handed to Yang Ping, and the waiter brought a handful of straws of varying sizes from the counter. Xiao Su took the knife and selected the appropriate straw, ready to assist Yang Ping. A small pair of scissors was also handed over to Xiao Su. The Hotpot restaurant¡¯s manager was sweating profusely, fearing the ensuing trouble this incident might bring. Yang Ping quickly constructed an anatomical image of the throat in his mind. With tentative touch of fingers, Yang Ping located the spot between the thyroid and the epiglottis where the cricothyroid membrane lies. Xiao Su handed the knife to him, and with precision, Yang Ping inserted it into the identified spot. After an initial feeling of emptiness, once the scalpel reached the trachea, he swiftly withdrew it and gently inserted the straw. The straw had been trimmed by Xiao Su, the sharp ends removed, and one end bent at an angle to make insertion easier. With these precautions, the tube was easily slipped into the trachea without causing any injury. The blockage caused by laryngeal edema was bypassed by puncturing the trachea below the obstruction and creating an artificial pathway for airflow. Successful ventilation! The sound of air flowing mimicked a quiet whistle. Yang Ping palpated the carotid artery, gazing at the patient whose pallor slowly returned to a healthier hue. Seeing this, the middle-aged doctor halted chest compressions. ¡°An acute laryngeal edema caused by an allergic reaction. Keep her flat and still, wait for the ambulance.¡± After doing all he could, Yang Ping stayed on the scene. The pulse at the carotid artery was now palpable, indicating that the initial signs of shock were not very severe despite the swollen throat. ¡°Any further assistance needed?¡± asked the middle-aged doctor, filled with admiration for his peer¡¯s competence. Yang Ping answered, ¡°No, we wait for the ambulance now.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already dialed 120!¡± said the girl¡¯s boyfriend, crying. Being youthful and naive, he wept like a child. Flushed with embarrassment, the middle-aged doctor admired the younger doctor¡¯s bravery. His quick judgment and decisive action saved the situation. However, he himself had been excessively cautious. Oh! How the passion faded over the years, and the courage diminished! Watching Yang Ping handle the situation with such calm and without showing any panic, brought forth feelings of reverence and pride in his profession. The middle-aged doctor hadn¡¯t felt this deep sense of professional pride and honor for a long time, which now seemed to be finding their way back to him. Such a sense of mission had only been experienced when he first entered medical school and took the Hippocratic Oath. ¡°Thank you, I¡¯m familiar with the cricothyroid membrane puncture procedure, but my judgment was not accurate; even if it had been, I wouldn¡¯t have dared to use the procedure; even if I did, I wouldn¡¯t have had your expertise, to finish it off with just a knife and a straw. I¡¯d be searching frantically for a needle, or at least for a ball-point pen or a fountain pen.¡± The doctor confessed, filled with regret. ¡°You¡¯re right, a decision to use such invasive procedures can sometimes be hard to make.¡± Yang Ping understood him, realizing that not everyone had his level of confidence. ¡°This doctor is really amazing!¡± ¡°I admire doctors the most.¡± ¡°If it hadn¡¯t been for the doctor eating here, the girl would have been in big trouble. She is really lucky.¡± ¡°Yes, how could this suddenly happen.¡± ¡°Life is full of uncertainties.¡± Among the quiet chattering of the crowd, some returned to their tables to continue eating. Yang Ping checked the patient again. Her skin was covered in quite a few hives. How could she have had an allergic reaction? There were cases of people allergic to penicillin who developed allergies after eating residual penicillin in chicken, fish, or other food products, but these circumstances were very rare. The cause of the allergy had to be left for the hospital to judge. As it could affect the reputation of the restaurant, Yang Ping could not jump to conclusions. Although Yang Ping analyzed this in his mind, nothing was said out loud. Finally, the paramedics arrived. The physician, nurse and the emergency personnel rushed to the scene with a stretcher. ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡± The physician immediately inquired. ¡°Acute laryngeal edema. As you can see, there are hives all over her body. Possible contact with an allergen caused a Type 1 hypersensitivity reaction. I have performed a cricothyroid membrane puncture with a straw, bypassing the airway. No disinfection process was carried out during the operation.¡± Yang Ping briefly explained the situation, the physician checked the patient, and confirmed, ¡°Alright, leave her to us! It must be an allergic reaction! Adrenaline¨C¡± The physician immediately ordered a nurse to administer the drug. The nurse had already established an IV line, with a bag of saline attached. After the adrenaline was injected, the patient was moved onto a stretcher. The paramedics lifted the stretcher. The physician said to Yang Ping and the middle-aged doctor, ¡°Thank you for your help, you did an amazing job!¡± The patient was taken away in an ambulance. Someone else had also called 110 and the police arrived. The manager of the hotpot restaurant, several eyewitnesses, as well as Yang Ping and the middle-aged doctor, were questioned by the police. Phone numbers were taken down to aid further inquiry. The police preserved the hotpot that the patient had eaten, taking it away for lab tests to rule out food poisoning. Seeing this, most of the crowd dared not continue eating, initially thinking it was just a sudden illness. Now that the remainder of the patient¡¯s hotpot had been taken away by the police, no one dared to eat. Some even felt dizzy, while others contemplated visiting a hospital. As everyone dispersed, Yang Ping and Xiao Su decided to head back. Yang Ping drove, with Xiao Su next to him on the passenger seat, heading back to the hospital. Once back at the hospital and out of the underground parking, Xiao Su handed a bag to Yang Ping as they parted. It contained what Xiao Su had claimed to be clothes for her family. ¡°You did great today, this is a reward for you. Wear it for the consultation meeting on Tuesday,¡± Xiao Su said, her face flushing, exuding shyness. Yang Ping took the bag, slightly taken aback. Wasn¡¯t this meant for her family? ¡°How do you know my size?¡± Yang Ping naively asked. ¡°Taking a page from your book!¡± Xiao Su turned around. Waving goodbye to Yang Ping, she said, ¡°Rest early!¡± Chapter 146 - 0140: Affection Chapter 146: Chapter 0140: Affection This Saturday was extremely pleasant, and Xiao Su went home on Sunday. Yang Ping stayed at home, not wanting to go out, and he chatted nonstop with Xiao Su on WeChat from the moment he got up. It¡¯s hard to say exactly what they talked about, but they detailed everything, even getting engrossed in their breakfast choices. ¡°You continue reading, my mom is asking me to go out with her, I¡¯ll text you later!¡± Xiao Su sent him a message on WeChat, including a dejected expression sticker. Yang Ping replied, ¡°Okay! You go ahead, I will read!¡± As soon as he put down the phone, he couldn¡¯t help but pick it up again to check if Xiao Su had sent him any messages. He didn¡¯t even keep track of how many times he charged his phone. ¡°Why did you pick up your phone again!¡± The other party would see the typing indicator. ¡°Aren¡¯t you also sending a WeChat message?¡± If she didn¡¯t pick up her phone to check WeChat, how would she know he was typing? ¡°Good boy! Continue reading!¡± ¡°Hmm¡ª¡± Within the system space, Yang Ping had twenty-one hundred points left. He checked to see what skills he needed to enhance. He had already trained for surgeries of the knee joint and shoulder joint. What was left was to reinforce his training based on the surgeries he would encounter. Recalling his Tuesday consultation at the city¡¯s first affiliated hospital, Yang Ping entered the library within the system space. He re-read the classic sports medicine textbooks, especially focusing on research about injuries to the Achilles tendon. After finishing the book, he chose one thousand cases of routine sports medicine surgery training in the store. All were open surgeries, not arthroscopic. The surgeries covered repairs and reconstructions of muscles, tendons, ligaments, joint capsules, and more. After completing these surgical trainings, he purchased a few hundred more cases of surgical training related to Achilles tendon injuries. The system simulated various types of Achilles tendon injuries, including damage at the interface of the tendon and muscle, body part injuries, damage at the attachment point on the heel bone, and avulsion fractures of the heel bone. The injuries were caused by a variety of mechanisms, including sharp instrument cuts, blunt instrument contusions, and avulsion injuries caused by violent muscle contractions. Initially, Yang Ping performed surgeries as per the go-to textbook approach. Once he became very proficient, he selected some suitable cases to perform popular minimally invasive repairs. After doing many, he discovered that minimally invasive repairs were only suitable for simple transverse fractures, and completely unsuitable for complex fractures. After completing the Achilles tendon surgery, he purchased a hundred more cases of Achilles tendon relaxation surgery training. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t training purely for surgical experience now; his approach was now more research-oriented as he hoped to make innovative breakthroughs. Currently, his competency in sports medicine was at a perfect level. However, he knew from advancing in trauma orthopedics, that perfection was merely performing textbook surgical procedures flawlessly, and this was far from enough. His advancement to the master level in orthopedic trauma was not due to flawless operations, but rather, breakthroughs in the classical surgical approaches and improvements in the surgeries. For instance, with the worker¡¯s crushing distal humerus fracture, Yang Ping had innovatively applied dynamic stable structures to fracture fixation after researching fixation structures. And with Professor Zhang¡¯s intertrochanteric femoral fracture, Yang Ping had even performed deep research on biomechanics and creatively applied stress diversion to the surgery. These were all breakthroughs beyond the textbook surgery level, demonstrating his own innovation. Therefore, without innovation in surgery, his talents in sports medicine would remain at a perfect level and he wouldn¡¯t make further progress. Given this logic, the grandmaster level probably isn¡¯t about such minor improvements but rather major original theories, and establishing entirely new surgical methods based on these theories. And a higher-level, godfather-level, would probably need to bring about earth-shaking changes in medicine! Such a revolution in medicine should be on par with mankind¡¯s several technological revolutions, like the machine era symbolized by the steam engine, the electrical era dominated by electricity, the information age led by computers, and the intelligence era led by artificial intelligence. With his each advancement, the tree in the system space would grow more robust. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but get excited about the possibility of scaling the godfather-level; he was exhilarated. After all these trainings, he was left with just six thousand points. He couldn¡¯t afford to spend these points frivolously anymore. Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have any savings and in case he encountered other types of surgeries, he wouldn¡¯t be able to purchase emergency training. Currently, due to surgery permissions, I barely have a chance to be the Chief Surgeon for artificial joint replacement, spinal surgery, and bone tumor surgery. Nevertheless, I don¡¯t rule out some aberrant surgeries that require targeted training in the System Space. Upon exiting the System Space, the battery level of my phone that had been charging remained the same, not increasing by even 1%, which again indicates that time spent in this space does not affect the real world. The phone rang. My mother and father were calling again. Usually, they know I am busy and refrain from calling, but the weekend seems to be their favored time for inquiries. My father is straightforward, always inquiring about my work, and urging me to study hard, put theory into practice, and maintain good relationships with colleagues. However, my mother¡¯s conversations are full of twists and turns, leading to the focus of her concern every time: ¡°Do you have a girlfriend yet? You must find a girlfriend! This is vital! This is absolutely vital!¡± ¡°Mom! Can you stop bringing up this topic? I want to focus on my career and don¡¯t want to consider this issue right now!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s ears had grown calluses from hearing the same thing every time his mother called and it always left him with a ringing headache. His mother did not hesitate: ¡°Don¡¯t hang up, you need to listen! What do you mean you don¡¯t want to talk about this? This is so important! There are many women in the hospital, both doctors and nurses. If you find someone suitable, be brave and act on it. If you don¡¯t, others will, and before you know it, they¡¯ll have picked the best ones. We haven¡¯t arranged any matchmaking meetings for you, that¡¯s democratic enough. If we don¡¯t hear any updates, we¡¯ll have to come in person. I heard that the daughter of Aunt Wang¡¯s relative is a primary school teacher in G City. Just remember this, next Chinese New Year, we¡¯ll come to your place. If we don¡¯t see your wife, you¡¯ll have to get ready for arranged meetings¨C¡± She rattled on like a machine gun, then hung up the phone, not giving me the slightest chance to clarify. Then, my father called, speaking softly: ¡°Son, just bear with your mother. Don¡¯t let her drive you crazy. Focus on your work. It¡¯s fine to get married later. Once your career takes off, finding a spouse will be¨C¡± His voice was cut off. ¡°What are you telling him? That¡¯s why he is like this¡ª¡± His mother¡¯s scolding echoed through the phone. Fine, I¡¯ll hang up. These dear old folks, always worrying about me. However, the mention of them spending the New Year here brought to mind his own plans. He was considering inviting them over at the end of this year. Since he had gone through college and graduate school, and has been working for several years, he hasn¡¯t brought them to G City yet. He wanted to seize this opportunity while they were still in good health. When the day comes that they can¡¯t move around anymore, it might be too late. The thought of this left him with a sour feeling in his nose. Not only had he not brought them over, but he also had not sent a penny home since he started working. A couple of years ago, his parents borrowed a lot of money from relatives to build a house. He didn¡¯t know if the debt had been paid off. The earnings from their small health clinic couldn¡¯t be much. With the current policies, managing to save two or three ten thousand yuan a year would already be considered impressive. Yang Ping dialed his father¡¯s number again: ¡°Dad, give me your bank card number. I have saved some money. I¡¯ll transfer a few tens of thousands of yuan to you.¡± There was a pause on the other side: ¡°Son, don¡¯t worry about things at home. The money we borrowed to build the house has been paid back. We are healthy, have a skill, and can cover our living expenses. Save your money, you¡¯ll need it for a down payment on a house. Big city houses are expensive. I heard that even if you get a loan, you still have to pay over a million in down payment. Some even require several millions! If you really want to get married, where will you live without a nest? Which girl these days would want to be with you? Your mother is busy with your marriage, you don¡¯t have to worry about it. You just have to remember, take it slow. You know the situation at home. We can¡¯t give you much money. If you want to buy a house, let us know. We will scrape together some money, add a few tens of thousands, perhaps even a hundred thousand, to help you out. Don¡¯t rush, life has to be lived step by step, there¡¯s no such thing as an instantaneous leap to the top.¡± But Yang knew his parents hadn¡¯t paid off all their debts yet. He also knew that they wouldn¡¯t let him send any money home. Yang Ping suppressed his emotions, spoke in an adjusted voice: ¡°Mom, Dad, why don¡¯t you come at the end of this year? I work at a very good hospital now, it¡¯s quite beautiful and the leaders and colleagues are very nice to me. I¡¯m also doing well in my department, I will strive harder.¡± ¡°Yes, son, that¡¯s the spirit. Set a lower standard for life and a higher one for work, understand? We do want to visit, your mother especially can¡¯t stop worrying. We don¡¯t want to interfere with your work. If we¡¯d disrupt your work, we¡¯d rather not come. It¡¯s just a casual thought, but if it wouldn¡¯t affect your work and you don¡¯t mind, we¡¯d like to stay for a couple of days,¡± his father uttered. His mother grabbed the phone and interjected: ¡°Your father has been wanting to go forever. He mentioned that when he was in the army, he was in G City¡ª¡± ¡°What are you talking about? Don¡¯t listen to her, she¡¯s talking nonsense.¡± It was his father¡¯s voice. This time, the call with his parents lasted for a considerably long time. The phone showed that Director Kong from the Overseas Chinese Building was calling. Yang could no longer chat with his parents: ¡°Mom, Dad, it¡¯s settled then, you will come at the end of the year to celebrate Chinese New Year here. Let me know when you have sorted out your schedule, and I will book the flight tickets for you online. I have another call from the hospital, I¡¯ll talk to you later.¡± He switched to the incoming call, from Director Kong. ¡°Hello, Doctor Yang, this is Director Kong. I¡¯m sorry to bother you, but Mr. Ning¡¯s condition has worsened. He specifically asked for you. He really trusts you.¡± It must be very urgent, he wouldn¡¯t bother me on a Sunday otherwise. Yang Ping could not afford to delay and headed towards to the hospital immediately. Chapter 147 - 0141: Magic Lung Chapter 147: Chapter 0141: Magic Lung Director Kong anxiously watched the elevator door. As soon as Yang Ping came out, he immediately greeted him. ¡°Doctor Yang, I¡¯m sorry to call you over on the weekend!¡± Director Kong looked troubled. Yang Ping modestly said: ¡°Director Kong, you¡¯re overestimating me. I¡¯m at your service anytime, anywhere. How can I assist?¡± In the urgent situation, Director Kong did not beat around the bush: ¡°Mr. Ning suddenly suffered respiratory failure this morning. His blood oxygen level has been hovering around 70 and is not rising. Director Jiang from ICU came over and decided to use ECMO. After the tube was inserted into the patient¡¯s vein in the emergency ward and connected to the ECMO, the blood oxygen level did rise slightly, but it was still low, only 78. They believe this might be due to the tumor compressing and invading the right external iliac veins, resulting in the constriction of the veins and therefore an insufficient blood flow. The amount of blood oxygenated per unit time is too low to meet the demand. Miss Ning took the initiative to ask you to come over.¡± ECMO, known as the ¡®miracle lung¡¯, is an upgraded artificial heart-lung machine, its official name being Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation. It can replace a person¡¯s lung or heart function to a certain degree and for a certain period of time. It draws blood from veins, oxygenates it through the machine, turns it into oxygen-rich blood, and then returns it to the human body via veins or arteries. If it is returned via veins, it can replace lung function; if it is returned via arteries, it can replace both heart and lung functions. Doctors call ECMO the last life-saving straw! However, this machine is very expensive, so the use cost is also high, and it is not covered by medical insurance. The start-up cost is sixty thousand, and the subsequent daily cost is between ten to twenty thousand. This is astronomical for ordinary people, but for Mr. Ning, it is not even a matter of consideration. As the two walked towards the ward, Director Kong explained the situation to Yang Ping. By the time they reached the emergency ward, he had given a full account of the situation. The emergency ward of the Overseas Chinese Building is equivalent to a mini ICU, fully equipped with all kinds of emergency equipment, including the expensive ¡®miracle lung¡¯. Moreover, these equipment were not purchased by the hospital itself. Many were donated by patients who lived or have lived here. Inside, Director Jiang from ICU was inserting the tube with his assistant, but they had already stopped, probably waiting for Yang Ping. Nearby, there were also chief physicians or deputy chief physicians from vascular surgery, general surgery, oncology surgery, and the ultrasound room. ¡°Don¡¯t go any further, quickly retreat a bit, or the vein will rupture!¡± The deputy chief physician of vascular surgery warned Director Jiang. ¡°Lower the pressure a bit! Look clearly!¡± Director Jiang commanded the doctor from the ultrasound room. The ultrasound doctor¡¯s probe pressed slightly lower, making the image of the blood vessel clearer on the ultrasound. Mr. Ning lay on the bed, his face sallow, and somewhat delirious. He was covered with a blue sterile sheet. Director Jiang had just completed the catheterization of bilateral femoral veins. The catheterization on the left femoral vein was smooth, but there was a narrowing on the right side, so the catheter could not be inserted deeply. The tube on the right was used to draw blood and the tube on the left to input blood. Because of the narrowing of the right external iliac vein, the blood drawn did not reach the expected flow rate. If they swapped and used the right side as the input tube and the left side as the output tube, the result would be no different. Even if enough blood is oxygenated on the left side, if the blood flow back is too slow, it still cannot achieve the expected purpose. ¡°Doctor Yang, I have to trouble you again!¡± said Miss Ning. She had been accompanying him by the side, squatting beside the bed, holding her father¡¯s hand and smiling: ¡°Dad, don¡¯t be afraid, Doctor Yang is here, he has a solution.¡± Mr. Ning heard his daughter¡¯s words, seemed to understand, but he couldn¡¯t speak. He nodded with difficulty. In fact, for a patient with advanced liver cancer and systemic failure, what can be done? Yang Ping was also helpless. A doctor to a patient is, as stated on the tombstone of Dr. Trudeau from New York, America: Sometimes to cure, often to help, always to comfort. Mr. Ning strenuously and tremulously extended a hand. Yang Ping tightly held his cold, skinny hand. He trembled his lips, trying to say something. Yang Ping bent his ear to his mouth and heard the vague words. ¡°Help¡ªme¡ªhang on for a few more¡ªdays¡± After uttering these words, Mr. Ning seemed to have exhausted all his strength. Yang Ping nodded gravely and tightly held his hand, indicating that he had heard his words. Trust, how precious this trust was, with just a few words exchanged on the operating table, a life could be entrusted to him. ¡°I will do my utmost to fight for you!¡± Yang Ping let go of his hand. Mr. Ning had once been hospitalized in the attached first hospital. For his condition, the attached first hospital had invited all the top tumor experts in the industry, even overseas experts were invited for consultation. However, it was already late-stage, with systemic exhaustion, multiple tumor metastases, and the loss of the opportunity for surgery. Tumor resection, liver transplantation, and lung transplantation were all impossible. So he underwent interventional treatment for liver cancer, then targeted treatment with Lefatinib. When it became drug-resistant, they switched to Regorafenib, and invited famous old traditional Chinese medicine practitioners from the provincial Chinese Medicine Hospital to carry out traditional Chinese medicine treatment. Because the inpatient conditions of Sanbo¡¯s Overseas Chinese Building can be said to be the best VIP wards in G City, he transferred to Sanbo, planning to walk through the last journey of life in the Overseas Chinese Building of Sanbo. ¡°The bilateral subclavicular and internal and external jugular venous region is severely invaded by the tumor, and we dare not puncture for catheter placement, so we want to place two tubes in the bilateral femoral veins. The left side is no problem, but the tube on the right side cannot be placed correctly. Looking at the X-rays, the tumor had pushed open the external iliac vein, causing compression, and the tube cannot go in. Forced insertion may rupture the blood vessel, resulting in heavy bleeding. If left here, the outflow from the exchange is too low, not up to standard, and the blood oxygen still cannot go up, as you can see, it¡¯s only 80, which is not good¨C¡± Director Jiang didn¡¯t care about face at this time, he was a pragmatic person, at the brink of life and death, he would listen to whoever had a solution, regardless of whether he was a young doctor or a great professor. As for Yang Ping, he was familiar with him. He had heard about the previous nerve root block, not to mention the five-section replantation, Director Han¡¯s precious gem, if his skills were not up to par, he had no right to stand here at this time. ¡°You have worked hard, let me take a look!¡± The emergency ward had a film viewing light, and the film was already hanging properly. Yang Ping went to the viewing light to view the film. Indeed, as Director Jiang said, the bilateral subclavicular and internal and external jugular veins were no longer available for puncturing. Only the bilateral femoral veins could be punctured. The right femoral artery and vein had already been invaded and compressed by the tumor, and the lumen was flattened. If puncture was forced, a rupture of the blood vessel would cause heavy bleeding. If Mr. Ning had such a massive abdominal hemorrhage, his whole body would immediately collapse, multiple organ functions would fail, and cannot be saved by artificial lung. But now, if only to leave the catheter of the artificial lung in its current position, it is a narrow mouth above, the amount of blood drawn out is too small, the amount of blood oxygenated per unit time is too small, and it does not meet the needs of the vital organs. If a stent was used to prop it open, it would need to be able to pass through before it can be propped open. No wonder, the last time he examined him, the temperature of his right lower limb was lower than his left, and the circulation at the extremities was especially poor. Yang Ping stood in front of the viewing light using the knowledge of systematic anatomy training combined with Mr. Ning¡¯s CT scan, started forming images in the brain, stacking section upon section, slowly, a three-dimensional anatomical image was presented in the brain. This time it was still strenuous, several assembly attempts were unsuccessful, but it was easier than the last time, which showed there was improvement. Based on the speed of the body¡¯s blood flow, Yang Ping simulated the blood flow in his mind and added the dynamic image of the blood flow, presenting a clear dynamic three-dimensional anatomical image in his mind. It appeared that the brain¡¯s image construction was very significant in improving medical skills. The system was training his ability using the anatomy tirelessly to lay a strong foundation for future medical skills enhancement. Yang Ping understood the intention of the system. To successfully puncture and place the catheter, it was also necessary to construct the catheter of the artificial lung. Yang Ping preserved the image in his brain and turned to ask Director Jiang, ¡°Director Jiang, do you have the catheter of the artificial lung? May I see it?¡± ¡°Xiao Li, open a tube for Doctor Yang to see.¡± Director Jiang directed a nearby ICU doctor. A tube was very expensive, costing thousands or tens of thousands, but now was not the time for calculation, nor was it necessary. Xiao Li opened the sterile packaging of the tube. Yang Ping inspected the complete catheter, replicated a similar catheter in his mind, then combined it with the image constructed in his brain to simulate the puncture and catheter placement. Now, Yang Ping had a plan. ¡°That¡¯s enough!¡± Yang Ping let Xiao Li pack up the catheter. ¡°Let me try!¡± Yang Ping put on sterile gloves, put on a disposable sterile gown, and stood by the bed. Chapter 148 - 0142: Only One Chance Chapter 148: Chapter 0142: Only One Chance Director Jiang made room: ¡°Come over, Xiao Yang, look at the ultrasound images, the catheter is already close to the narrow part. I was planning to perform the procedure in the interventional operating room, where the surveillance is better, but I don¡¯t dare to move the patient anymore. Any slight movement causes the blood oxygen level to drop immediately.¡± Although there is no X-ray monitoring from the interventional room, having ultrasound monitoring now is better than going past the narrow part blindly. Yang Ping told the ultrasound doctor, ¡°Keep this position, don¡¯t move it, I am going to insert the tube.¡± The hand of the ultrasound doctor was very steady, freezing at the position Yang Ping thought was good. He was sitting at the edge of the bed, with his hand suspended in the air because he couldn¡¯t press against the abdomen, which was very taxing. To maintain stability, he propped up the hand holding the probe with his other hand. ¡°Miss Ning, could you please step out for a moment?¡± Yang Ping said. Family members are generally not allowed in the room while the doctor is performing the procedure, because sometimes they may interfere with the operation. Especially at critical junctures, if the family members do not understand the principles of the operation, they may easily misinterpret the situation. And once they interfere, things could go wrong. Miss Ning hesitated and then reluctantly left the ward. As she left, she said to Yang Ping, ¡°Please take care of him!¡± Yang Ping nodded at her definitively. ¡°Be careful, Xiao Yang! The blood vessel wall is very thin right now, a slight prick could rupture it.¡± The associate chief physician of the vascular surgery department reminded him, purely out of concern for his colleague. Director Jiang suggested, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we withdraw the catheter and use interventional tools to send in a vascular stent, use it to prop open the narrow part, and then re-catheterize?¡± This method seemed good, but it was infeasible at the moment. The catheter could not be withdrawn. Once it was withdrawn, the entire human circulation would be interrupted. Mr. Ning¡¯s lungs hardly functioned on their own, so the direct consequence would be a domino effect, leading to the failure of multiple organ functions, which would be beyond saving. ¡°The catheter can just pass through the narrow part. As long as the direction is adjusted correctly, it should be able to go through. The catheter cannot be withdrawn. If it is, the blood oxygen level will drop straight down!¡± Yang Ping stared at the ultrasound screen and said. Director Jiang stopped talking. Yang Ping was right. Once the catheter was withdrawn and the new catheter had not been inserted, the patient¡¯s blood oxygen level would drop drastically, causing cerebral tissue hypoxia and triggering multiple organ failures. Ultrasound cannot replace touch, especially as the ultrasound image shown is two-dimensional and distorted. Yang Ping judged the depth and state of the catheter based on the length and state of the exposed part. He held the catheter with the thumb, index finger, and middle finger of one hand and gently rotated it. He withdrew about one centimeter first, the image in his mind was blurry. Yang Ping enhanced it in his brain, causing it to be clearer, but due to the mental strain, sweat appeared on his forehead. He had to try several times before the image was clear. Just like when ordinary people try to remember an object, its image stays clear in their minds at first, but after a while it gets blurry. Especially the details, they can¡¯t recall them at all. ¡°Xiao Yang! If you can¡¯t, don¡¯t force it¨C¡± Director Jiang was on tenterhooks, fearing that rookie bravado might lead to extreme bleeding and immediate death. Even if the family didn¡¯t pursue the matter, it wouldn¡¯t be a good thing. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve got this.¡± Yang Ping responded. He gently moved the catheter upward until it hit the narrow part. The slight contact between the catheter and the narrowed area sent a delicate sensation through the catheter to his hand. His hand made fine adjustments depending on this indirect tactile feedback, as if threading a needle. Bit by bit, they all stared at the ultrasound screen as he managed to adjust and move past the narrowing. ¡°I can¡¯t hold it steady anymore.¡± The ultrasound doctor¡¯s suspended hand started to shake. Yang Ping immediately, gently pulled the tube back: ¡°You can relax your hand, rest for a bit, I¡¯ll wait for you!¡± After a short break, the ultrasound doctor¡¯s probe was pressed down again. Yang Ping¡¯s hand that was guiding the catheter didn¡¯t move at all, he waited till the ultrasound image of the blood vessel and catheter reappeared, his hand began to adjust the catheter again, and began to slowly pass it through the narrow area. The blood oxygen level fluctuated severely and suddenly dropped, Mr. Ning became agitated, Yang Ping¡¯s hand withdrew the catheter once again, with precision ensuring it didn¡¯t hit the blood vessel wall. ¡°Give him more sedatives!¡± An anesthetist, who had been silent all along, only spoke up when necessary. The narrow part was just big enough for the catheter to pass. If the direction deviated slightly, it would be impossible to pass. If the patient became agitated while passing, there was a high probability that the catheter would puncture the blood vessel. The risk was too high passing it slowly, Yang Ping decided to seize the opportunity to pass it quickly. At this time, Director Han, who had been notified by Director Kong, came in. After all, it wouldn¡¯t be right not to inform him when it involves high risk operations being performed by a member of his team. Upon hearing the news, Director Han immediately rushed over from home. No matter how capable Yang Ping was, he was still human. Having Han around could help provide additional advice. ¡°Director!¡± Yang Ping greeted Director Han. Director Han nodded slightly, indicating for him to continue his work without distraction. After greeting Yang Ping, Director Han went over to the viewing lamp to examine the films. After studying for a while, he spoke: ¡°Xiao Yang, in this situation, it¡¯s best to proceed quickly, although the risk is extremely high, but it¡¯s still better than proceeding slowly.¡± The idea coincided with Yang Ping¡¯s. ¡°Call Miss Ning in!¡± Yang Ping wanted to discuss the risks with her; this was a gamble. If successful, Mr. Ning could hold on for a few more days, even several tens of days; but if not, his heartbeat and respiration could stop at this very moment. Director Kong understood Yang Ping¡¯s intentions and said, ¡°We¡¯ve already had a careful discussion before the surgery; the risk is extremely high, he might stop breathing and his heartbeat may stop immediately¡±. But Yang Ping still insisted on the necessity of discussion: ¡°Let me talk to her again¡±. Director Kong summoned Miss Ning. Just earlier, Miss Ning had been pacing anxiously in the hallway. Although she had mentally prepared herself for this, at this critical moment, she still found it hard to accept. ¡°Miss Ning, this catheter must pass through the narrow portions now; otherwise, Mr. Ning will not survive today. However, passing through these narrow parts carries a very high risk. I have to seize this opportunity to quickly insert the catheter; success or failure would be a split-second difference. We only have this one chance for success. If we succeed, Mr. Ning could hold on for a few days, even tens of days. If not, his heartbeat and respiration could stop immediately. I¡¯d like to hear your opinion and whether you¡¯re willing to take this risk¨C¡± Now, the anesthesiologist had administered a sedative, leaving Mr. Ning unable to express himself, even a simple nod was out of the question. Miss Ning was caught between a rock and a hard place. Her facial muscles trembling, her lips attempting to speak but only resulted in small movements without any sound coming out. ¡°We don¡¯t have much time. The current oxygen pressure is extremely high, we can¡¯t maintain this pressure for too long!¡± Yang Ping said calmly. If they didn¡¯t take this risk, Mr. Ning wasn¡¯t likely to survive the day. This would be no different from his heart stopping on the spot. Miss Ning analyzed that her father was stalling because he wanted to see his younger brother one more time. Although she was young, her years of experience in the business world had made her calmer and more rational than most people. ¡°What are the chances of success?¡± Miss Ning asked. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°It¡¯s hard to say!¡±. Biting her lip, Miss Ning said decisively: ¡°Doctor Yang, I trust you. You do everything you can, I¡¯m willing to take this risk, whatever the consequences, I¡¯m ready to accept them.¡± ¡°Alright, I understand, you wait outside!¡± Since the family member was willing to take the risk, he might as well gamble. Yang Ping had some level of confidence, however, he knew that it was crucial to clarify the situation with family members specifically and not to make things appear more certain than they actually were. Miss Ning went out, and the door to the intensive-care ward was closed by a doctor. ¡°Can you still continue with the ultrasound? If no, take your hands off for a rest.¡± Yang Ping said to his colleague operating the surface ultrasound machine. ¡°I can keep going!¡± The technician replied. ¡°Just hold the position steady for 30 seconds and I can finish inserting the catheter. Make sure to hold completely still, it¡¯s best if you rest a bit.¡± Yang Ping noticed the ultrasound technician had been holding the position for quite some time. ¡°Alright!¡± The technician retreated the probe, started to stretch a bit, weak and numb. After some rest, he picked up the probe again and pressed it firmly onto the right side of the abdomen. When the image captured was at its best, he froze in position. ¡°Alright, don¡¯t move!¡± Yang Ping and the ultrasound technician exchanged confirmative looks. ¡°Hold steady, look for the right opportunity and pass through in one go!¡± Director Han encouraged. Everyone held their breath, falling silent, eyes glued to the ultrasound screen. The ultrasound technician gritted his teeth, his hand held perfectly still, like a statue. The screen was extremely stable with no tremors, the red and blue colors representing blood flow flickered. Yang Ping adjusted his breathing, holding on to the catheter, releasing and tightening his grip to adjust it to just the right direction, before he made his move! In an instant, it was as if a sniper who had been aiming for a long time finally pulled the trigger. Perfect! The catheter successfully passed through the narrow segment without touching the vessel walls, moving on a further twenty centimeters before Yang finally loosened his grip. Everyone let the breath they¡¯d held in their throats out, relieved. On the monitor, the oxygen saturation, which had been dangerously low, gradually rose....90, 92, 95, 99¨C ¡°It¡¯s a success!¡± Director Han said, barely managing to suppress the excitement in his voice. With the support of this ECMO machine, Mr. Ning could survive for a few days. If they were lucky, even a few tens of days. Chapter 149 - 0143: The Story Behind Chapter 149: Chapter 0143: The Story Behind Watching the saturation of the blood oxygen rise, rise continuously to 100%, everyone is relieved. His life has been temporarily saved. If the oxygen saturation dropped below 80 as earlier, he really wouldn¡¯t have made it through the day. The time taken from the discovery of respiratory failure to the use of the artificial lung, and then to placing the tubes, was very short. The rescue was timely. Therefore, after some of the sedatives had metabolized, Mr. Ning slowly woke up. ¡°Dad, it¡¯s okay now, you¡¯re stable!¡± Miss Ning stroked her father¡¯s forehead. Mr. Ning nodding weakly: ¡°Thank you to all the doctors, thank you Dr. Yang.¡± Miss Ning gently said: ¡°You¡¯ve already thanked us, rest assured and get some rest.¡± Mr. Ning looked at the machines beside his bed, the artificial lung, the artificial liver, with all sorts of tubes connected his body. His blood was being drawn out, run through the machines, then reinfused back into his body. He gave a bitter smile. The doctors and nurses were sitting at a workstation not far away, monitoring the readings on the screen. The Emergency Ward at the Overseas Chinese Building is guarded by doctors and nurses round the clock. People are needed to watch over the artificial lung and liver, especially the artificial lung. A medical team must stay on duty day and night, ready to solve any problems immediately. Otherwise, it might endanger life. ¡°How is the matter with your little brother?¡± The matter on Mr. Ning¡¯s mind most was this. Miss Ning¡¯s expression was a bit unnatural: ¡°It¡¯s confirmed. Yes, it¡¯s my little brother.¡± ¡°Then have Uncle Nong bring him back as soon as possible!¡± Mr. Ning knew that he wouldn¡¯t be able to hold on much longer. ¡°Uncle Nong is booking flights now, they should be back in a couple of days.¡± Miss Ning said smilingly. Mr. Ning attempted to sit up. Miss Ning quickly stopped him: ¡°Lie down, I will help adjust your bed.¡± Miss Ning slightly raised the bed, which is allowed by the doctor, to help reduce the load on his heart. Currently, the artificial lung is using the venous-to-venous mode, only taking over a portion of his lung functions. His heart is still good, it does not need to be replaced by the artificial lung. ¡°Has the hygiene of the bar been handled properly?¡± Mr. Ning asked anxiously. Miss Ning nodded, ¡°It was done days ago, you forgot again.¡± Mr. Ning was a little breathless, ¡°Qiqi, think about it, this is how he envisions the bar to be, right?¡± ¡°Exactly. I remember clearly what he said.¡± Miss Ning talked with her father. Mr. Ning gave a bitter smile, then said resignedly: ¡°You said, these were his words from high school. Does he still like this style now? Bring the photos over.¡± Miss Ning brought over the photo album of the bar. Mr. Ning flipped through it, pointed to a photo and said: ¡°Look, they used red here, will he like it?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what he said at the time, he liked the use of red bricks here.¡± Miss Ning confirmed. ¡°Did the money for the assaulted kid get sent this month?¡± ¡°It was sent. The bank transfers it on time every month.¡± ¡ª¡ª ¡°Director, I feel bad that you rushed over from home on a weekend.¡± Yang Ping was feeling apologetic. Director Han said: ¡°No problem, I worry, so I came over to check.¡± Actually, Director Han was not worried about Yang Ping¡¯s medical skills. He was more concerned about risks outside the medical field, afraid that his youthful fervor would lead to impulsive action. After all, he is young and lacks experience. Seeing the steady performance of him when he explained the patient¡¯s condition to the family after the procedure, Director Han felt more reassured. This young man is not only technically excellent, but also has a stable disposition. ¡°You¡¯re not in hurry to go back, right? Shall we go to our department and sit a while?¡± Director Han suggested. ¡°Sure!¡± Yang Ping had nothing else on hand, it was good to accompany Director Han for tea. In Yang Ping¡¯s eyes, Director Han is both a mentor and a godfather. Yang Ping is a grateful person, let alone his current green years, even when he is matured in the future, he will still maintain reverence and loyalty towards Director Han. On the way, the two chatted about Mr. Ning¡¯s condition. With the support of the artificial lung, as long as there is no serious infections, blood clots or tumor clots causing key organ obstruction, he can hold on for a while. Money can sometimes prolong life. Sadly we have to admit, if it were an ordinary wage-earner, they wouldn¡¯t even be able to afford this life-saving equipment. Even targeted medicines for liver cancer can drain the family¡¯s savings. Director Han has abundant social experience, his depth and breadth in considering issues far surpass those of the young. Like just now, when the Overseas Chinese Building called Yang Ping to do a tube placement, while Yang Ping was solely focused on the illness, Director Han was able to consider all aspects. Although doctors are usually very straightforward and cooperate well with each other, some people do have human weaknesses. Doctors are people, and people have common weaknesses, such as selfishness, jealousy, and so on. Mr. Ning is formidable, his family business involves banking, securities, insurance, and so on. You should know, those who can get licenses in these three fields are the top players among the rich. Once something happens, and someone needs to take the blame, it becomes complicated. People like him, even if his family doesn¡¯t cause trouble, it doesn¡¯t exclude the possibility of other relatives or outsiders stirring up trouble. Harboring ill intentions towards others is not acceptable, but one must always guard against others. The two first went to Director Han¡¯s office, Director Han replaced the water and added tea leaves to the Zisha teapot. ¡°Just started the division, are you used to it?¡± Director Han asked. Yang Ping also helped with the work: ¡°Very much.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about income, just do your surgeries well, but you also have to make money. Everyone needs to eat and provide for their families. This is a very realistic problem. Without reality, there can be no ideals. Now you are in charge of comprehensive orthopedics surgery. The surgeries you do, and the orthopedic consumables are all yours. This is a time of need of money, in the future, buying a house, getting married, having children, which one doesn¡¯t require money. If you have any difficulties in work and life, just tell me at any time, you can call, send WeChat messages, or talk in person.¡± ¡°Thank you, Director, but how can I take all the consumables?¡± Yang Ping disagreed. Without Director Han, he wouldn¡¯t be where he is today. The orthopedic consumables are shared proportionally according to the rules. ¡°That¡¯s settled then, you just need to comply with the arrangement. Follow me, improve your skills and also economically. You can¡¯t just work hard all day and end up with nothing. Don¡¯t worry about the consumables. You may not know this, but our hospital¡¯s Dean Xia has his ways with this. This area is clean, just take it and rest assured. I¡¯ll explain to you more later.¡± Director Han was very firm with his arrangement. Since Director Han had made the arrangement, he must have his reasons. Yang Ping no longer had any objections: ¡°Thank you, Director!¡± The tea was slowly boiling, Director Han took out a Zisha cup from the sterilizer: ¡°From now on, you¡¯ll use this for tea in my office. It has a mark on it.¡± Indeed there was a mark of the character ¡°Ping¡±, Director Han was really thoughtful. ¡°To achieve great things, one must have team awareness. Song Zimo is also very talented, although he is not as good as you, he is indeed a rare talent. You need to guide him well, in the future, he will become your capable assistant.¡± ¡°Yes, I understand, Director, I will manage the team well.¡± The two chatted until lunch. They went to a nearby beef restaurant called Cow Demon King. After eating, Yang Ping went back to the division to take a seat. Zhang Lin was on duty, he had just finished eating, the pediatrician cleaned up the lunch box and went home. ¡°The love meal is good, isn¡¯t it?¡± Yang Ping sat down in the dining room and joked with him. ¡°Stop teasing me. With Xiao Su¡¯s cooking skills, you¡¯ll be eating full-course meals all the time.¡± Zhang Lin said with his mouth, but was very happy in his heart. ¡°Did you get the house settled?¡± Yang Ping asked. Zhang Lin was a bit hesitant: ¡°Not yet, I have to make the down payment soon, but I haven¡¯t raised enough money for it.¡± ¡°How big is the house?¡± ¡°Eighty square meters¡± ¡°How much is the down payment?¡± ¡°Over nine hundred thousand. Both of our families are wage earners, our parents could only put together six hundred thousand, we¡¯ve only been working for a short time, and even with frugality, we could only come up with around two hundred thousand in savings. There is still a gap of over a hundred thousand for the down payment.¡± Zhang Lin frowned. Yang Ping looked around. There was no one else: ¡°I have a few tens of thousands on hand, if you need it, just let me know.¡± Zhang Lin clasped his hands: ¡°Thanks. Let¡¯s not talk about it for now, I appreciate the sentiment. I¡¯ll see if I can raise enough, and if not, we¡¯ll talk.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll hold on to it for you, just let me know when you need it.¡± Yang Ping figured this money wouldn¡¯t be enough to buy a house anyway, it¡¯s better to let Zhang Lin use it. That kid, Little Five, probably doesn¡¯t care about money for buying a house at all. Despite his idling looks, it¡¯s said that Xiao Qing¡¯s family owns building in G City CBD. They are engaged now and an Audi was sent for commuting. It was said to be a Porsche Cayenne but they didn¡¯t dare to drive it for it could be too high-profile. Xiao Qing won¡¯t marry anyone but him. However, Xiao Qing¡¯s parents are also quite satisfied with Little Five ¨C a graduate student, a doctor, handsome, and sweet-talking. ¡°Why did you come back with Director Han on the weekend? Heard that Mr. Ning from the Overseas Chinese Building isn¡¯t doing well?¡± Zhang Lin was quite knowledgeable. ¡°Yes, he suddenly developed respiratory failure and is on ECMO.¡± Yang Ping said. Zhang Lin seemed to know everything: ¡°This old man is just holding on, waiting for his son. I don¡¯t know if he could wait that long?¡± ¡°How do you know? This is their family matter?¡± Yang Ping was surprised. ¡°For someone of his status, is there such a thing as family matters? His son paralyzed someone ten years ago and served five years in prison. It is said his son blamed him for not helping him get out of it. After his son was put in prison, he cut off father-son ties. After he was released, he disappeared, a rebel!¡± Zhang Lin knew a lot about it. ¡°Where did you get this information?¡± Yang Ping felt this guy seemed to know everything. ¡°Don¡¯t ask, it¡¯s just my talent, like how you do surgeries.¡± Zhang Lin said, proud of himself. This guy, where does he dig out these backstories? Zhang Lin laughed: ¡°The incident with his son was reported in the newspapers back then.¡± Chapter 150 - 0144 Family Channel Chapter 150: Chapter 0144 Family Channel ¡°It made the papers?¡± Yang Ping asked with some curiosity. Zhang Lin nodded, ¡°Back then, it was big news that shook G City.¡± ¡°You were still in high school in the Northeast at the time, or had just started college at the most, right? I¡¯m surprised,¡± Yang Ping said, ¡°You make it sound like you were in G City when it all happened.¡± ¡°Exactly, I only found out about it when I came to work here,¡± Zhang Lin shrugged. While they were chatting, Zhang Lin was about to reveal more details of the story, but a nurse came over needing his attention. ¡°Hermes¡¯s surgery has been scheduled for 8:30 a.m. tomorrow, the external fixator and calcium sulfate have arrived. I asked Professor Zhang on Friday, he said to find you. He would just come to the operating room to have a look,¡± Zhang Lin told Yang Ping as he left. ¡°Ok, I got it. Professor Zhang has already mentioned it to me.¡± Yang Ping knew about it. Unless there were special circumstances, Yang Ping would be the one to perform the surgeries here. Unless he was the one who initiated the request, expressing his inability to handle the case, he wouldn¡¯t need any extra help. After Zhang Lin left, Yang Ping was in the dining room alone. He opened WeChat on his phone. Xiao Su had sent him many messages, with a scroll of sledgehammer emoji, she had returned from shopping with her mother. Yang Ping quickly replied to her WeChat, telling her in detail about the patient from the Overseas Chinese Building. Xiao Su responded with several astonished emoji. After chatting with Xiao Su for a bit, Yang Ping went to the duty room to put on his white gown and did rounds, checking on the only two patients in the ward. Luo Xiaohu was hard at work doing leg raise exercises, strengthening his quadriceps, with Father Luo helping count his reps on the side. ¡°Thank you, Dr. Yang!¡± Father Luo paused his counting, stood up, and thanked him jovially. After the surgery, Father Luo, wanting to be cautious, sent the surgery photos to Su Nanchen, and Su Nanchen replied that the surgery went perfectly. With that, he was reassured. If the son of Professor Su said it was perfect, then it was perfect. Yang Ping replied with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re welcome, it¡¯s my duty.¡± He checked the firmness of Luo Xiaohu¡¯s brace; it was alright. He then corrected Luo Xiaohu¡¯s incorrect exercise movements. Not only sports medicine surgeries but for all orthopedic surgeries, rehabilitation is crucial. If the rehabilitation isn¡¯t done well, the surgery may be in vain. Father Luo took out a business card from his pocket and handed it to Yang Ping, ¡°Dr. Yang, this is my card. I work at G City High-Speed Rail Group.¡± Father Luo understood his strengths and how to leverage them in making friends. His son plays football and injuries are inevitable. Even though they already knew Su Nanchen, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to know another skilled doctor. ¡°If you ever have difficulty buying tickets, feel free to give me a call,¡± Father Luo put forward his advantage promptly. As a courtesy, Yang Ping carefully looked at the business card, then put it in the pocket of his white gown, ¡°Thank you. As for Xiaohu, the focus now is rehabilitation. Stick to the plan and he should be back on the field soon.¡± ¡°Thanks, Dr. Yang,¡± Father Luo stood tall, slightly leaning forward. ¡°Would it be okay to add each other on WeChat?¡± Father Luo thought of it, he had added Dr. Zhang before, but not Yang Ping. Nowadays, WeChat seemed to be more efficient than phone calls. Yang Ping was very amiable. He took out his phone and showed him his WeChat ID, which was specifically used for patient communication. He stayed in Luo Xiaohu¡¯s ward for a few minutes, guiding him on rehabilitation. Hermes was scheduled for surgery tomorrow. Yang Ping wanted to check on him again, but the door to his ward was closed and even locked from the inside. According to the ward management regulations, all ward doors should not be locked from the inside in case of emergencies where they would need to break the door and waste precious time. As there was no pressing matter, he decided not to enter. Since the door was locked, Yang Ping left and told a nurse to remind Hermes not to lock his door. Speak of the devil. Just as Yang Ping was about to leave to rest, Little Five called. His father-in-law had tumbled, resulting in a severe dislocation and fragmentation of his distal radius fracture. Little Five¡¯s father-in-law had connections at the Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and at the Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He decided to go to the nearer Provincial Hospital to get an X-ray. Both places suggested surgery due to the severity of the fracture. He was reluctant to have surgery. Considering both his daughter and son-in-law work at a hospital and the son-in-law was an orthopedist, he informed Little Five and Xiao Qing, who were out at the time. ¡°Older brother, where are you? I really need your help, is it okay for me to bring him to the hospital now?¡± Little Five anxiously asked. Yang Ping laughed, ¡°It¡¯s the weekend, so I am off, but since he¡¯s your father-in-law, I have to rush back. Get him here soon and send me the scans first.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already sent them to you on WeChat.¡± Little Five felt relieved, how embarrassing it would be if things didn¡¯t go well with his father-in-law¡¯s situation. Yang Ping studied the X-rays. The severe dislocation and fragmentation of the distal radius fracture was indeed severe, and worse, was an intra-articular fracture. Luckily, there weren¡¯t any loose fragments in the center of the joint, the repositioning seemed manageable. Distal radius fractures can usually be managed with a cast or splint after manual reduction, but considering the severity of Little Five¡¯s father-in-law¡¯s fracture, surgery would be the only option if he hadn¡¯t come across Yang Ping. Yang Ping waited in the department for almost an hour until Little Five, pushing his father-in-law in a wheelchair, arrived. Xiao Qing and the mother-in-law came along as well. ¡°Dad, this is Dr. Yang, my senior and good brother. When Mayor Li¡¯s daughter fractured her bone, she went to him for treatment and managed to avoid surgery,¡± Little Five introduced succinctly. Nothing more needed to be said. The city¡¯s mayor¡¯s daughter wouldn¡¯t let just anyone set her broken bones. ¡°Thank you, Dr. Yang!¡± Little Five¡¯s in-laws seemed relatively young, only in their forties, and weren¡¯t good at Mandarin. They were local people from G City with local accents. ¡°Let¡¯s move to the treatment room for reduction and casting!¡± Yang Ping suggested after briefly looking at the X-rays. ¡°Xiao Qing, you come over here and push. Little Five is busy enough, you should help out a bit,¡± the father-in-law said, getting slightly annoyed with his daughter. Xiao Qing quickly moved over to assist Little Five with pushing the wheelchair. ¡°It¡¯s fine, you stay with mom, I can manage. Don¡¯t worry.¡± Little Five was an adaptable guy, no wonder this family liked him. ¡°I¡¯ll go with dad, you stay here with mom and rest. There¡¯s water for you to drink.¡± Little Five didn¡¯t want them to worry so he made sure they couldn¡¯t follow. ¡°You two just rest in the office!¡± Yang Ping also suggested the same. Zhang Lin pushed over chairs and offered them water, ¡°Auntie, please sit. They are capable so no worries.¡± ¡°This is Little Five¡¯s colleague, Dr. Zhang!¡± Xiao Qing introduced. ¡°Dr. Zhang, hello!¡± Little Five¡¯s mother-in-law greeted. ¡°Just call me Xiao Zhang, I am very close to Doctor Lu, who is a real talent in the department. I usually learn from him,¡± Zhang Lin said seriously. Little Five wheeled his father-in-law into the treatment room and Yang Ping hung the X-ray film on the viewing light in the room. With the ability to map the brain now, combined with expert technique, this kind of fracture was simple. ¡°Do you need anesthesia, elder brother?¡± Little Five was worried that his father-in-law would feel pain. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°A local anesthesia will do.¡± ¡°Dad, after the anesthesia is administered, it won¡¯t hurt. The actual setting of the bone will just take a few seconds. You just need to hang in there,¡± Little Five patiently explained. His father-in-law nodded, ¡°It¡¯s all right!¡± ¡°Do you have an alcohol allergy?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°No issue, he¡¯s a drinker,¡± Little Five helpfully answered. Yang Ping called a standardized training student over to help, prepared the polymer cast, and then cleaned the sweat off the skin with alcohol. Little Five brought saline water and lidocaine, diluted them one to one, drew them into a ten-milliliter syringe, and handed it to Yang Ping. Yang Ping used cotton swabs soaked in iodine to disinfect, from the surface of the skin to the subcutaneous layer, all the way to the fracture hematoma, performing the anesthesia. They waited for a moment, then began to reset the bone. Little Five and Yang Ping had done this on many fractures, their cooperation was smooth. He held the proximal forearm, while Yang Ping held the distal wrist. Yang Ping gently felt the fracture site, roughly understanding the situation of the fracture, and a complete image of the fracture presented itself in his mind. The processes of how to reset and how to stabilize it were already visualized. ¡°How did you get injured?¡± Yang Ping chatted with Little Five¡¯s father-in-law to distract him. ¡°Playing golf, I don¡¯t know how I fell, I braced my right hand on the ground,¡± Little Five¡¯s father-in-law described the scene at that time. ¡°Hmm, not bad, you exercise regularly.¡± Yang Ping tightened his grip on the wrist, and with Little Five, they began to traction. The traction lasted for two to three minutes, and the anesthesia was very effective, so Little Five¡¯s father-in-law didn¡¯t feel any pain at all. Judging that the traction was in place, with a click! Yang Ping made a quick move with his hand. The ulna was flexed and the fracture was reset. Because the anesthesia was effective, the patient did not feel any pain throughout the process. ¡°Is it done?¡± Little Five¡¯s father-in-law asked in surprise. ¡°Done!¡± Yang Ping said. The standardized training student took Little Five¡¯s place, freeing Little Five¡¯s hand so he could assist Yang Ping. While Little Five and the training student maintained the traction, Yang Ping started applying the cast and bandaging it, doing it both quickly and beautifully. Finally, he gave him a sling to suspend the right upper limb in front of the chest at an eighty-five-degree angle. ¡°Take him down for an X-ray check,¡± Yang Ping instructed. Little Five helped his father-in-law adjust the sling, ¡°Elder brother, later on, I will apply for a medical card and pay for the bone setting and material costs.¡± Yang Ping tidied up the garbage with the training student, ¡°One of us, don¡¯t talk like a stranger. What fees are you talking about?¡± ¡°Imaging department, do you want me to make a call?¡± Yang Ping meant, don¡¯t take the normal route, use the special channel, find a familiar person to directly take the X-ray. It wasn¡¯t a matter of money, Little Five¡¯s father-in-law wasn¡¯t short of money. Taking this special treatment route for family members felt great and gave a sense of privilege. It demonstrated the superiority of having a doctor as a son-in-law. No need to register, no need to queue, no need to pay, the best doctor, the best service attitude, and straight through, how cool! ¡°I¡¯ll handle it!¡± Little Five, who had strong communication skills, got friendly with the young doctors in all departments whenever he came to Sanbo. Whoever he found, he managed to take care of it within a few words. He turned on the speaker phone, and they constantly called him Brother Five on the other end. ¡°Brother Five, your business is my business, your father-in-law is ¡ª¡ª¡± Realizing that he misspoke, he immediately stopped, ¡°Brother Five, hurry up and bring him over, I am waiting for you.¡± Yang Ping was clear about whether the fracture was properly set, the X-ray was just for the patient¡¯s own reference. Within half an hour, the X-ray film was brought up, the anatomical bone reduction, that is, the complete recovery, was confirmed. ¡°Many thanks to Little Five today, otherwise your dad would have had to endure a cut again,¡± his mother-in-law said contentedly. ¡°We have to go to work tomorrow, so we won¡¯t go back to the city. We will have to rush back here,¡± Xiao Qing asked her mom to drive her dad back home. Mother-in-law got annoyed, ¡°What about dinner? Eating out is not hygienic. How long does an hour¡¯s drive take? Come back and have dinner before going, Little Five, don¡¯t just listen to her. Mom will make you boiled shrimps later.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll go back. Dad just had the cast applied, and I want to observe the blood circulation in a while.¡± Little Five gave Xiao Qing a significant look. Xiao Qing pouted, and the mother-in-law said, ¡°Look at how dutiful Little Five is, compared to you.¡± Little Five used his own medical card to prescribe some pain relieving and swelling reduction medications for his father-in-law. His in-laws noticed all these small acts of thoughtfulness. They saw in Little Five a reliable support for their old age. They only had one daughter. If they chose a good son-in-law, of course they would be happy in their hearts. Chapter 151 - 0145: A Glimmer of Hope Chapter 151: Chapter 0145: A Glimmer of Hope On Monday, Luo Xiaohu was discharged from the hospital. His family was delighted, and Father Luo even hummed a song. At 8:30 in the morning, the surgery that Hermes had been waiting for months was finally performed. This surgery had no highlights. It was a routine procedure. For Yang Ping, with his strong foundation in trauma orthopedics, this surgery posed no difficulty, but the treatment period was long, requiring a systematic engineering concept. Yang Ping was the chief surgeon, before the anesthesia, Professor Zhang entered the operating room to greet Hermes and reassure him, making him feel at ease. Before this, he had not seen Professor Zhang, he had refused to be anesthetized, leaving Fatty at a loss. Only upon seeing Professor Zhang did he feel at ease to accept the anesthesia. The operation went very smoothly, nonstop in less than half an hour. About five centimeters of healthy bone tissue at both the proximal and distal end of the right tibia were preserved. The infected bone tissue in the middle was excised, along with a portion of the healthy bone tissue at both ends, a full thirty centimeters, all cut off and discarded. The defect was temporarily filled with calcium sulfate containing vancomycin. The five centimeters at the proximal and distal ends are then cut from the middle. From the cut, traction starts two weeks later, one millimeter per day, with both ends pulled towards the center, slowly lengthening the bone until it eventually fused in the middle, restoring the full length of the tibia. The newly grown bone tissue is healthy, without bacterial infection. It¡¯s like a tree infested by termites. It¡¯s hard to completely eradicate the termites, but if you saw off the infested part along with the surrounding healthy wood, you completely resolve the termite issue. Chronic osteomyelitis, the infection of bone tissue, is more tricky than termites infesting a tree. Bacteria scatter and hide inside the bone tissue making antibiotics hardly reach, so it cannot be wholly eradicated. Once part of it is eliminated, the symptoms slightly improve, but the remaining bacteria multiply to a certain extent, bringing the symptons back, hence the difficulty in complete healing. Thanks to Ilizarov, his miraculous technique has not only saved countless people¡¯s limbs but also made the previously insurmountable correction of deformities easy. The edifice of medicine is built by pioneers like Ilizarov, brick by brick. How much bitterness, tears, and grievances they have represented, we cannot know. Because of the Cold War¡¯s political reasons, he did not win a Nobel Prize, yet, the radiance of this country doctor does not require any awards for affirmation. Geniuses and pioneers are always misunderstood; they are lonely. Semmelweis, who revealed puerperal infection, was ridiculed and opposed by the world. He died alone and desolately in a mental hospital, One of the four cornerstones of modern surgery, disinfection, owes its great merit to Semmelweis. It can be said that he single-handedly bore the expulsion and suppression of the entire medical community, heroically ushering in an era. After the surgery, Hermes¡¯ right calf became like a mechanical limb, filled with inserted pins and fitted with circular frames. The pins and frames form a scaffold responsible for lengthening the bone. Back in the ward, Hermes was very excited, as if a long-standing worry had been resolved. He held Yang Ping¡¯s hand tightly, and repeated, ¡°Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!¡± When he asked about Professor Zhang, Yang Ping told him Professor Zhang was in the outpatient clinic on the first floor and was very busy. He had managed to spare some time to guide the surgery. Hermes made a grateful gesture, ¡°I¡¯m deeply grateful, beyond words!¡± Starting this week, Professor Zhang was seeing patients in the outpatient clinic on the first floor, working in comprehensive orthopedics. In just half a day, he saw six patients, three of whom were collected into comprehensive orthopedics, with the rest into the Overseas Chinese Building. Among the patients transferred to comprehensive orthopedics was an overseas Chinese person from Southeast Asia, suffering from avascular necrosis. In the late stage and unwilling to have an artificial joint replacement, they chose to seek out Professor Zhang. Another patient was a retired athlete with an old anterior cruciate ligament rupture. Finally, there was a nine-year-old girl with osteosarcoma. Professor Zhang originally only had clinic hours one morning a week. Now, he has applied to the hospital to have clinic hours five mornings a week, from Monday to Friday. In this way, Director Han and Director Tian are freed up completely. Especially Director Tian, who can now concentrate solely on dealing with VIP patients received by Professor Zhang. Yang Ping led the team on patient rounds to see the newly admitted patients. The child with osteosarcoma was a nine-year-old girl. She had already seen many hospitals and had been hospitalized in Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Nandu Affiliated Cancer Hospital for treatment. She had undergone two surgeries, both pathologically diagnosed as osteosarcoma at the advanced stage. PET-CT scans showed multiple organ metastasis throughout her body. The girl was very sensible and excelled academically, having won a first prize in the National New Concept Composition Contest. Before making rounds, Little Five informed Yang Ping in his office, ¡°The girl does not know that she has a malignant tumor. The family requested her condition be kept secret from her. Her parents told her that she had few fibromas on her body and it would take a long time to cure, so she needed to be patient. Besides, they are out of money. Their house has been sold, and so have all valuable things. They had also done fundraising online and borrowed from all friends and relatives. Now, nobody lends them money as friends and relatives avoid their calls. Despite this, her parents don¡¯t want to give up. Even knowing there¡¯s no hope, they still refuse to abandon the idea. They came to seek Professor Zhang¡¯s help after hearing his reputation. They stated explicitly that they are at the end of the rope and are looking for a low-cost solution for their child to live longer. Professor Zhang said let¡¯s admit her first, owe the costs for now, and figure out a solution later.¡± ¡°Old Zhang always does this kind of stuff. Last time, that worker asked you to solve it with 3000 yuan. 3000 yuan, how could it be enough? In the end, he had to negotiate with the operating room to waive some fees to settle it. He always forces people to do the impossible. He might be a saint, but I¡¯m not. I am a commoner; I need food and drinks. In order to save up for a house, I couldn¡¯t even afford takeout, occasional orders cost just ten yuan. Damn it, there¡¯s even less meat in it than in instant noodles.¡± Zhang Lin was very dissatisfied. ¡°Zhang Lin, don¡¯t be so unrefined. What¡¯s the meaning of what you just said?¡± Little Five immediately quieted him down after seeing how angry he was. Zhang Lin retorted without hesitation, ¡°He doesn¡¯t know, eh? This isn¡¯t a matter of emergency rescue. For owed fees, it¡¯s the doctor¡¯s money that gets withheld. Once this patient is admitted, there will be a pile of bills. So what if I¡¯m just a commoner? If you go to the supermarket, would they let you take anything without paying every cent? That patient in the spinal surgery, stayed for half a year for free, no family members showed up. The moment a family member does, all they do is make trouble and extort money. They¡¯re causing trouble right now. So you want charity? Let people like Ma Yun do it, I¡¯m not up to it.¡± ¡°Zhang Lin!¡± Little Five admonished him. Yang Ping waved his hand: ¡°Let him vent, it¡¯s okay!¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Senior Brother, I was just airing my sentiments.¡± Zhang Lin blushed, now that he vented, he also felt better. Yang Ping comforted him: ¡°Everyone don¡¯t worry, if in the end there¡¯s really a debt, I will find a way. I won¡¯t let anyone get disheartened.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not getting angry just because they¡¯re withholding my money. It¡¯s wrong to deduct anyone¡¯s wages. Whose money isn¡¯t earned from hard labor. Why does the hospital make this rule? If it¡¯s not for emergency rescue, doctors¡¯ wages are withheld for patients skipping fees. Even Dean Xia who¡¯s so enlightened doesn¡¯t cancel this rule. If there¡¯s no such regulation, anyone can default on payment, and the hospital will surely close down. Then we¡¯d all go bare.¡± Little Five patted his back to help soothe his anger. Yang Ping drew a deep cold breath in his heart, nodded, ¡°Understood, during rounds, let¡¯s not mention the cost or use the word tumor. Let¡¯s keep a consistent line, let¡¯s do the rounds.¡± When they went to see the little girl in the ward, she had two little braids. Her innocent face showed no trace of worry, she maintained an innocent smile all the time. She was typing on a computer. ¡°Little sister, are you studying?¡± Yang Ping teased her. She looked up, swinging her braids, ¡°I¡¯m learning to write essays in English.¡± ¡°Wow, you¡¯re awesome!¡± Yang Ping purposely leaned over to take a look, but the little girl blocked it with her hand. He couldn¡¯t tell what she was typing on the computer. It was neither English nor Pinyin, perhaps she was punching in random keys. ¡°Wow, you can write in English.¡± Little Five feigned surprise. The girl¡¯s dad intervened, ¡°Her English is good. We don¡¯t understand English. It¡¯s all what she learned in school.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t ask for her medical history or examine her, he just sat with her and chatted. As they were leaving the ward, her father followed. Yang Ping gestured at him, pointing to the office, ¡°Wait for me in the office.¡± Yang Ping continued his rounds. The patient from Southeast Asia is a Chinese from Singapore. He had osteonecrosis of the left femoral head, which had progressed to late stage three. He needed artificial hip joint replacement. Since his relatives in Malaysia visited China and were very satisfied with their consultation with Professor Zhang, they recommended him to seek treatment from Professor Zhang in China. His Chinese was very fluent. He said he had been bilingual since childhood, knowing both English and Chinese. His Chinese involved simplified characters like in China, so there was no problem with either Chinese conversation or reading. The retired athlete was a basketball player. After retirement, he made a living by training middle and primary school students in basketball. He had no idea when his anterior cruciate ligament broke. In the past year, his left knee had become markedly unstable when walking. After having an MRI in a hospital, it was suggested that his anterior cruciate ligament had ruptured. He had heard that Professor Zhang of Sanbo Hospital was highly responsible, and had thus specially sought him out. ¡°This patient¡¯s anterior cruciate ligament has been ruptured for a long time. From the MRI, severe deformation of the intercondylar fossa can be seen. I estimate that at the time, there was also a fracture, which might have healed in a deformed manner. We need to complete a CT scan and three-dimensional reconstruction of both knee joints before the surgery.¡± Yang Ping instructed Little Five, who noted it down. After finishing the rounds and returning to the office, the father of the little girl was sitting and waiting. Upon seeing Yang Ping return, he stood up and said, ¡°Thank you all. We¡¯ve had no choice either, and we are indeed causing you trouble. We¡¯ve already told Professor Zhang and Doctor Lu about our situation. We truly just can¡¯t accept it as it is... As for the money, I¡¯m figuring out a solution...¡± The child¡¯s father had a melancholic look with moist eyes. Yang Ping comforted him: ¡°You have given it your all, and many things can be resolved with effort. It¡¯s not like every goal can be achieved. Everyone has goals that cannot be achieved, and regrets that pain the heart. That¡¯s life!¡± Although his words sounded as if he saw through life, it wasn¡¯t quite in line with his age. Perhaps it was because he had been in the system for too long. When it was time to get off work, Professor Zhang came over, found Yang Ping and said seriously: ¡°This patient¡¯s family has already been hollowed out financially, they truly have no money left. The child is very sensible, I want to give her a little hope. As for the costs, I¡¯ll handle it. It won¡¯t affect you all.¡± After simply saying these few things, Professor Zhang walked away, his back slightly stooped due to age. His figure gradually disappeared down the corridor, one step at a time. Chapter 152 - 0146: The Enthusiasm of Su Nanchen Chapter 152: Chapter 0146: The Enthusiasm of Su Nanchen ¡°Dad, he did that five-section replantation at Sanbo,¡± said Xiao Su. ¡°The one streamed live at the Traumatology Orthopedics online conference held by Shanghai Sixth Hospital?¡± ¡°Yes, it was a live broadcast, a real sensation. I asked around, he was the chief surgeon.¡± ¡°I always thought it was Professor Han. If that¡¯s the case, he¡¯s highly gifted!¡± ¡°That¡¯s the only explanation. He had been working at the city hospital since graduation. As far as I know, not many finger replantations were performed there. But he was overlooked there, he was just an ordinary resident doctor. He was just promoted to attending physician when he was dismissed.¡± ¡°Why would such a promising young talent be dismissed?¡± ¡°They said he made a mistake, acted inappropriately during a surgery. I don¡¯t know the exact details.¡± ¡°Geniuses always have unique traits, they should be guided more.¡± ¡°I suspect there is more to this story. I bet the situation was urgent, and his judgment differed from his superior doctor. He couldn¡¯t convince the senior doctor, so he had to act on his own. Even though I only met him once, I don¡¯t feel Yang Ping is the kind who would casually defy a superior.¡± In Su Qingyun¡¯s office, father and son were chatting and the conversation had turned to Yang Ping. Though Su Qingyun is now the dean of Fuer, he still retains his office in the Orthopedic Center. As the center¡¯s director he continues to perform surgeries if they are too difficult or risky for others. ¡°If he did perform that five-section replantation, Nanchen, you¡¯ll likely meet fierce competition in the Southern Division of the Golden Knife Award. Look at his microsurgical operations, they¡¯re smooth and fast, almost attaining perfection. His arthroscopic surgeries are also perfect. This means he is likely an all-round orthopedic surgeon, not biased towards one area.¡± Su Qingyun sat in a spacious leather executive chair. ¡°I will try my best. I¡¯m not afraid of any rivals, I also admire real competition.¡± Su Nanchen confidently said. ¡°He¡¯s attending the consultation tomorrow, right?¡± Su Qingyun asked. Su Nanchen said: ¡°Yes, he will arrive early. I had offered to pick him up, but he said he would come by himself.¡± With a touch of regret, Su Qingyun said: ¡°He is Han Jiangong¡¯s student, if he was from another hospital, I might have tried to poach him.¡± ¡°You admire him too?¡± Su Nanchen was happy to hear this. Su Qingyun smiled: ¡°Of course, any competition in any field ultimately boils down to talent. Why is the orthopedics department of Fuer considered top-tier nationwide? Just look at our talent pool compared to other hospitals. We have talents of all ages and stages, well-resourced and ready.¡± The surgery was about to start, and there was no time for further chat. Su Qingyun looked at his watch: ¡°Nanchen, time to go to the operating room. When Xiao Yang comes for the consultation and since he¡¯s unfamiliar with the place, you should accompany him all the way.¡± Happily, Su Nanchen said: ¡°I have already told him to come early, I will accompany him the whole time.¡± ¡ª After discussing the new hospital admissions in the morning, including a meeting with Professor Zhang, Yang Ping had to attend a consultation at Fuer in the afternoon. Over the past few days, he had reviewed the case studies several times, preparing fully. Su Nanchen called to offer to pick him up; Yang Ping declined, wanting to go by himself. At one o¡¯clock, Yang Ping prepared to leave. Xiao Su handed him the car keys: ¡°Drive slowly, okay? Do you want me to come along?¡± Yang Ping touched her hair: ¡°Silly girl, treating me like a child. I¡¯ll drive slowly, don¡¯t worry. Don¡¯t you have confidence in the student you taught?¡± After practicing driving all Sunday afternoon, Xiao Su was very confident in Yang Ping¡¯s driving skills. Otherwise, she wouldn¡¯t let him go alone, she¡¯d surely go with him. ¡°Park the car in the underground car park, in the same area we parked last time. It¡¯s fully charged. Call me when you get there. Good luck!¡± Xiao Su clenched her little fist. Yang Ping fist-bumped her: ¡°Okay! Don¡¯t worry.¡± The drive from Sanbo to Fuer took about an hour. With GPS navigation, knowing the route wasn¡¯t a big deal. Upon reaching Fuer¡¯s underground parking lot, he immediately headed for the third-floor E area. Xiao Su had mentioned it has a charging station, but he didn¡¯t need to charge the car. After parking, Yang Ping called Xiao Su, who once again encouraged him to go for it. He had agreed to meet Su Nanchen at the front entrance of Fuer¡¯s outpatient building at two o¡¯clock. Checking the time, it was just right. Su Nanchen had said that Tuesday afternoon was Fuer¡¯s case discussion time. This patient was the focus of the discussion. Fuer was a top-rated hospital nationwide, and the scale of its case discussions was beyond what Sanbo could match. Yang Ping found the entrance to the outpatient building; Su Nanchen was already waiting there. Wearing a Fuer white gown, he looked young and dashing, truly living up to the title of Fuer¡¯s rising star. ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± Seeing Yang Ping in the crowd, Su Nanchen immediately waved. ¡°Dr. Su!¡± Yang Ping approached him and shook his hand. Su Nanchen put his arm around his shoulders, like a close friend of many years: ¡°It¡¯s still early, come on. I¡¯ll take you to see the patient, then we can tour the Orthopedic Center.¡± The orthopedics department of Fuer Hospital is huge; just the Trauma Orthopaedic Center alone has four wards with over two hundred beds. The Spine Center has two wards with more than eighty beds, and the number of surgeries for scoliosis per year exceeds three hundred cases. There are also the Artificial Joint Replacement Center, the Sports Medicine Center, the Pediatric Orthopedics Center, and the Bone Tumor Center. Even though Sanbo Hospital¡¯s spinal surgery department also has forty-five beds, it simply can¡¯t compare. Fuer Hospital has a faster patient turnover rate and the complexity of their surgeries far surpasses those of Sanbo. Sanbo Hospital only has about forty cases of scoliosis correction surgery per year, and Fuer¶þ doesn¡¯t even exceed eighty. This shows the strength of Fuer¡¯s Orthopedics department¡ªit is utterly dominant compared to other hospitals in G City. From the Outpatient Building to the Orthopedic Center, it seems like every doctor and nurse that Su Nanchen runs into knows him, and they all shoot glances of admiration at him and greet him: ¡°Dr. Su!¡± Yang Ping could see that this was not just for show¡ªit was sincere admiration and respect from the heart. At the Orthopedic Center, it was even more so. Every young doctor who saw Su Nanchen would step aside, make way and bow slightly, saying, ¡°Hello, Dr. Su!¡± Indeed, all the doctors here have doctorate degrees, but those who can be addressed as ¡®Doctor¡¯ are certainly the best among them. Those who are a bit older would nod with a smile when they see Su Nanchen, saying, ¡°Dr. Su!¡± Even if Su Nanchen were not the son of the Dean, he would still receive such respect: an eight-year program at Xiehe, being the Nandu Province¡¯s top science scorer in the national college entrance examination, and having his doctoral dissertation published in The Lancet ¨C any one of these achievements is enough to gain respect amongst his peers. The Orthopedic Center is located in a separate twenty-story building. The bronze lettering of ¡®Orthopedic Center¡¯ hangs on the wall in the lobby, lending a sense of prestige¡ªa golden label created by generations of doctors at Fuer Hospital who have devoted their hearts and soul to their work. The Sports Medicine Center is on the tenth floor. People noticed Su Nanchen bringing a young doctor, talking to him warmly, and found themselves involuntarily looking their way. Su Nanchen took Yang Ping to the duty room and gave him a clean white coat that he had just washed. Their body sizes were similar, so the coat fit Yang Ping very well. ¡°Let¡¯s take a look at the imaging data first,¡± Yang Ping suggested. ¡°Dr. He, I want to take Dr. Yang to see bed 22. He¡¯s here for a consultation that I invited him to. He¡¯d like to see this patient¡¯s imaging data!¡± Su Nanchen spoke seriously, with the authority of a senior doctor. The attending doctor in charge of the ward, Dr. He immediately hung up the prepared films on the viewing light. Yang Ping leaned over to look, touching his chin, and then after viewing a batch, said, ¡°Next!¡± Dr. He quickly changed the films until all of them have been viewed. ¡°Now let¡¯s see the patient,¡± Yang Ping said. Dr. He and the senior attending doctor led the way immediately, and the research students and doctoral students from the same team all followed. Given that Dr. Yang was invited by Su Nanchen for consultation, one didn¡¯t need to think much to know that they must be of the same caliber. ¡°Please, Dr. Yang!¡± Su Nanchen said courteously. Yang Ping felt a little embarrassed inside, as he hadn¡¯t really taken the doctoral exam yet, but thinking about it, this was in his future, being called ¡®Doctor¡¯ a bit earlier didn¡¯t matter much. He composed himself and, guided by Su Nanchen, confidently proceeded towards the patient on bed 22. When they reached the ward, they knocked a few times before pushing the door and entering. In teaching hospitals like Fuer, even such casual ward rounds are very standardized. Dr. He is a master¡¯s student, and the senior attending doctor above him is a doctoral student. The two stood on the left side of the bed, followed by a bunch of other postgraduates, standardized training students, and refresher students lined neatly around the head of the bed. The right side was reserved for Yang Ping and Su Nanchen. ¡°Please Dr. Yang!¡± Su Nanchen was very polite. Yang Ping and Su Nanchen took their places. Su Nanchen formally introduced the consultation to the patient. Dr. He gave a report on the case history fluently, without mechanical recitation, and was able to clearly present the case. This is a performance that required strict regular training. ¡°We analysed the MRI, referred to her photocopied case history at the time, and previous imaging tests, and according to her memory, we reconstructed the mechanism of injury. At that time, it should be the injury to the region where the left Achilles tendon and the triceps surae were connected. The tendon fibers contained in the muscle slid relative to the distal end of the muscle, and after healing, this slight slide caused the loosening of the Achilles tendon,¡± explained Su Nanchen. Yang Ping asked about the medical history and performed a physical examination. His technique was extremely professional and experienced. After the examination, Yang Ping composedly expounded in-depth on the mechanism of injury, the consequences brought about by the loosening of the Achilles tendon, and the related effects each millimeter of looseness in the Achilles tendon could cause, such as the loss of muscle strength, increased load on the healthy limb, changes in the foot arch¡¯s stress, etc. The depth and breadth of his analysis not only amazed all the masters and doctoral students there, but even Su Nanchen was impressed. All these masters and doctorate students are top students with strong comprehension abilities. They are the group that has the deepest research in this profession. As soon as they open their mouths, it¡¯s clear whether they really know their stuff. Yang Ping surely is an expert Su Nanchen has invited, he must have returned from studying abroad. Everyone speculated that Yang Ping must be a good friend Su Nanchen made in America, who recently returned to the country and was invited to consult on this case. Yang Ping¡¯s lecture just now, literally a book could be written about a single tendon. Every sentence he said was solid knowledge. To have these insights, how many books must he have read, how many cases must he have researched, no wonder Su Nanchen invited him. Compared to this guy, I¡¯m like a primary school student, thought the senior attending doctor after hearing, standing even more upright. Chapter 153 - 0147: Big Scene Chapter 153: Chapter 0147: Big Scene Actually, the case discussion started at two o¡¯clock, and around three o¡¯clock they began discussing the cases from the Sports Medicine Center. This patient with a relaxed tendon is an Olympic gold medalist in the women¡¯s 5,000 meters and is still in her prime sports years, so the hospital is paying special attention. If they successfully perform surgery on this patient, the Sports Medicine specialty at the hospital may have the potential to reach the pinnacle of the industry just like Spinal Surgery. After seeing the patient, Su Nanchen brought Yang Ping to the meeting room on the twentieth floor, where weekly orthopedics case discussions are held. In the second row of the meeting room, there were two empty seats reserved, where Su Nanchen and Yang Ping sat down. It was indeed a grand event. The first row was seated with heads of all specialties in the Orthopedic Center, all doctoral supervisors, government special allowance experts, and a few were nationally renowned figures. Such as the director of the Spine Center, Professor Zou ¨C a nationally renowned master in spinal curvature correction. He used to follow Professor Su. After Professor Su became dean, he focused less on clinical work and more on research and administrative work, allowing the majority of spinal surgeries to be performed by Professor Zou. He was the second editor of ¡°Spinal Curvature Surgery¡± after Professor Su. Professor Huang, the director of the Trauma Orthopedic Center, is also a nationally known professor and one of the main translators of ¡°AO Principles of Fracture Fixation¡±. Professor Guan Sheng, head of the Sports Medicine Center, is a prized student of the big names in Sports Medicine in Beijing¡¯s top three hospitals. Recruited by Su Qingyun, he has made great progress in Sports Medicine in just a few years. Most doctors would feel awed and intimidated in this meeting room. However, Yang Ping was calm. He had been trained hard in system space. He sat there calmly, observed secretly by Su Nanchen, his composure was rarely found in people, and Su Nanchen couldn¡¯t help but admire more. The hierarchy among doctors was embodied to the fullest here. Even if there were empty seats in the first row, no one of inappropriate status would sit in them. The second row was occupied by group-leading professors who were all heads of departments or associate heads; the third row was taken by other associate heads; the fourth row was reserved for outstanding individuals among the younger generation. From the fifth row onward, seating was free, but camps were spontaneously divided. For instance, doctoral and attending doctors sat near the front, master¡¯s degree holders and resident doctors sat further back, and those receiving further education or undergoing regular training sat even further back. No one rudely forced their way forward. In the second row was also the leading professor of Sports Medicine, Chen Ge. He was quite a character, always liking to compete with Su Nanchen. As a doctoral student of Guan Sheng, he stayed at the hospital after graduation. Chen Ge was proud and competitive but always seemed to be overshadowed by Su Nanchen. He noticed Su Nanchen leading a stranger into the room and sneakily glanced over. Chen Ge knew Su Nanchen had invited a doctor from another hospital for a consultation and had been wondering who this impressive individual was that Su Nanchen had invited. Now, seeing the person, he thought it would be some professor, but this person looked in his twenties, a young doctor. Coming to this hospital for consultation made things interesting. Chen Ge rubbed his chin, a sneer appearing in his mind. When Su Qingyun turned his head and saw Yang Ping already seated with Su Nanchen, seemingly steady as a rock, he silently admired him. The case discussion was very heated, people debating fiercely. Despite the loud voices, the debaters were not unruly or personal. They reasoned based on facts in pure academic debates and solved academic problems in academic manners. Everyone had the right to speak, regardless of their rank. This was a rule set by Su Qingyun. The free academic atmosphere was one of the key elements in the rapid development of the orthopedics department of this hospital. Generally, normal case discussions are conducted within the department. Cases discussed at this Orthopedics Center level are usually high difficulty, high risk or new surgical methods, or the high-ranking figures who have significant social influence. Yang Ping also listened to one of them. It was about a spine curvature case where the patient was almost folded in half and his nose almost touched his toes. They planned to perform corrective surgery to straighten the spine. Finally, it was the turn of the Sports Medicine Center cases. They had two cases for discussion: one about an unstable knee joint and one about a relaxed tendon. The case of the unstable knee joint was from a professional football player and a famous star. The knee joint dislocation caused the anterior cruciate ligament, posterior cruciate ligament, and both lateral and medial structures to all rupture. They all needed to be rebuilt, and there were multiple structures in the lateral and medial ones that needed rebuilding. The complexity level was quite high, just like a matryoshka doll. The surgery was extremely complex; this case¡¯s reconstruction was the top-level surgery for knee joint movement injuries. Nationwide, there are only six hospitals able to perform such surgery well, and the number of doctors capable of doing it can be counted on one hand. Most surgeries in Sports Medicine aren¡¯t a matter of life or death. The goal points directly to function and focuses on surgery quality, not a matter of whether it can be done, but rather a question of quality. Just like plastic surgeries that point directly at appearance, the results are clear. ¡°What are your thoughts on this case?¡± Su Nanchen asked softly. ¡°Too many structures needed to be rebuilt. The static balance, dynamic balance, short-term balance, and long-term balance all need to be taken into consideration.¡± Yang Ping lowered his voice too. ¡°If you were to perform it, would you have it done in multiple operations or one singular operation?¡± Su Nanchen tried to gauge his thoughts. ¡°Once! That¡¯s the only way to truly achieve balance,¡± Yang Ping readily responded. Once? To achieve balance, the difficulty is huge, Su Nanchen felt embarrassed. The second case is a female long-distance runner with loose tendons. Dr. He stepped onto the stage to report the case, with the chief doctor assisting and adding details as needed; the imaging data, marked clearly with dates, were shown on a large high-definition screen. ¡°The patient is a professional athlete, and the state of her tendons affects her athletic performance and future career. We plan to perform a tendon shortening surgery, using the classic method of cutting the tendon in a Z-shape or horizontally and then shortening and suturing it. This solves the problem of looseness, but introduces a new issue ¨C the rejoining of the cut tendon involves a certain amount of scar tissue. Though only a small amount, it¡¯s nonetheless there, and a small amount of scar tissue affects the strength and endurance of the tendon. The patient sought medical treatment in the United Kingdom before, and they followed the same treatment plan. Hence, I¡¯d like everyone to discuss if there are any better treatments.¡± Once the case report was finished, Su Nanchen outlined the discussion¡¯s purpose as a leading professor. ¡°As for suturing the tendon, any orthopedic resident doctor can do it skillfully. The crux of the matter is determining how much to shorten. Too much would result in tight tendons; too little, and the tendons would still be too slack. As for scar tissue formation, it¡¯s unavoidable. Surgery can be performed under a microscope, and sharp knives can be used for swift tendon incisions to minimize tissue damage, thus reducing scar tissue formation,¡± Chen Ge contributed eagerly. ¡°So, how do you decide how much to shorten the tendon?¡± asked Guan Sheng, the director of the Sports Medicine Center. ¡°Each millimeter we shorten the tendon, the tension increases by a corresponding amount. I¡¯m conducting an animal experiment about this and am currently gathering data,¡± Chen Ge replied with pride. ¡°Apes are quadrupeds, and humans are bipeds. The structure of ape tendons differs from humans, so data from animal experiments can¡¯t be directly applied to humans,¡± an opposing professor from the Sports Medicine department retorted. ¡°Why must we rely on animal experiments? Can¡¯t we get reliable data from the patient¡¯s healthy side?¡± a postdoctoral fellow who was standing offered his opinion. ¡°During the surgery, incise the skin on the healthy side, expose the tendon, measure the tension under the same posture, and then apply this data to the afflicted side, shortening step by step until the tension matches the data from the healthy side!¡± The postdoc continued to explain. He was sitting in the fourth row, looking somewhat sloppy. The buttons on his white coat were off by one, and he held a bottle of milk in his hand, the straw chewed to a pulp. Eating and drinking were permitted as long as it wasn¡¯t too noisy. Afternoon case discussions often involved many doctors who had just stepped out of surgeries and probably had not had lunch. ¡°The tension adjustments you¡¯re all talking about are static, but the patient¡¯s running motion is dynamic. We must analyze the patient¡¯s state of motion. After all, the patient¡¯s tendon and triceps experienced a relative shift. Do we still determine the tension according to the previous standards? These data must be obtained dynamically,¡± Su Nanchen offered his opinion. The debate waged on fiercely. Opinions rose and fell from different corners of the room, each with its unique perspective showcased. Those speaking were animated while those listening were engrossed. No one was checking their phones and not a single phone rang. ¡°Everyone¡¯s very active in this discussion, with opinions that are more or less unified. Our surgical approach involves shortening the tendon, with the difficult part lying in exactly how much to shorten. We need exact numbers, otherwise, the surgery will fail and the patient¡¯s athletic performance could even downslide pre-surgery. We¡¯ve just mentioned several methods including animal experiments, referencing the healthy side, and analyzing the state of motion. So, our next step is to find out the precise length to shorten the tendon. Professor Su, how does that sound to you?¡± Professor Su stood up and said, ¡°All your suggestions are good. The uniqueness of everyone¡¯s perspective shows that everyone is thinking meticulously. This is how academic discussions should be¡ªa dialogue based on equality and freedom! We have the privilege today to invite Dr. Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital for a consultation. Dr. Yang has a distinctive experience in sports medicine, shall we see what he thinks?¡± Following Professor Su¡¯s clapping, everyone else joined in applauding. Everyone knew about Sanbo Hospital¡ªan institution at the city level that. But, who was Dr. Yang Ping? They didn¡¯t know him! Never even heard of him! He was actually invited over to Beijing First Hospital for a consultation? Su Nanchen stood up, ¡°Dr. Yang, please!¡± A flinch in this environment would cool down Su Nanchen¡¯s enthusiasm and disappoint everyone¡¯s expectations. Yang Ping, as usual, maintained his composure. He stood up and greeted everyone. ¡°Xiao Yang, go up to the podium and share your thoughts,¡± encouraged Professor Su. ¡°Who is he? Where did this amazing person come from!¡± Everyone looked around, hoping someone recognized him and had some information. Those who had just made the rounds with him said, ¡°He¡¯s Dr. Su¡¯s classmate, and he truly is amazing!¡± One of them who seemed very sincere had already taken out a notebook, ready to take notes, ¡°Brother, take good notes. Earlier, we were seeing patients with him, and he said something. After listening, I doubted whether my doctorate degree was genuine.¡± The one who asked the question also took out his notebook and found a pen. ¡°Is he a classmate of Young Master Su from his studies in the United States?¡± ¡°Most likely so!¡± Calm as ever, Yang Ping approached the podium and slightly bowed to the audience. Chapter 154 - 0148 What Relationship Chapter 154: Chapter 0148 What Relationship Su Nanchen led the way for Yang Ping, guiding him to his standing spot. He took the microphone from Dr. He, tested it a few times, and then said, ¡°Here¡¯s a little secret for you all. Dr. Yang is the creator of five-section replantation at Sanbo Hospital!¡± At such a gathering, introductions don¡¯t need to be long. A single weighty statement is enough. No one knows who Dr. Yang is, yet everyone is aware of the five-section replantation. Immediately, the meeting room was filled with whispers and conversations, asserting, ¡°I knew it! The person Su Nanchen invited must have a significant background. So, he was behind the five-section replantation.¡± A few months ago at the National Orthopedic Trauma Network Conference, everyone had learned about the famous five-section replantation. Most doctors from the affiliated hospital were attending this live-streamed conference right here in this meeting room. Everyone speculated about who could be the Chief Surgeon? Could it be Hong Zhigang from Mo Sixth, or Wen Rentao? All guesses were eventually debunked. The organizer, Magic City Sixth Hospital, didn¡¯t disclose either the hospital involved or the surgeon responsible for the operation. The video only showed the surgical field under the microscope, lacking any clues. Since all their guesses turned out false, the matter was dropped altogether. It was only later, through the news, that they discovered that it was a case from Sanbo Hospital. They then recalled the little-known Sanbo Hospital in G City. In G City, no other hospital was of significant importance to the doctors of the Affiliated Number One Hospital. Those who could remember Sanbo were either older doctors familiar with Han Jiangong, or the younger generation impressed by the five-section replantation. Han Jiangong had gained most of his reputation during his tenure at Magic City Sixth Hospital. Every orthopedic doctor of his generation knew his name. After moving to Sanbo, however, he gradually faded from the public view. Compared to Magic City Sixth Hospital, Sanbo¡¯s platform was too small to support a nationally renowned expert. Traditions of the Chinese medical community rarely change, and seeing anyone outside top-tier hospitals hold the chairmanship of any professional field is rare. Never! Truly never! A doctor from a non-first-tier hospital, however gifted they might be, would face much difficulty achieving extraordinary success. To achieve anything noteworthy, one can only aspire upward. Why? Clinical work requires cases, and research requires funding; both need broad platforms for support. Without cases or funds, how can anyone proceed? The five-section replantation was a brilliant surgical masterpiece and a pinnacle achievement in the field of finger replantation. Especially for the young graduate students who were re-experiencing the exciting moment when the replantation was completed, and emergency reconstruction was performed after it. Their idol was now standing on the podium. As if under a spotlight, all eyes were on him, and the atmosphere in the conference hall was heated by the intense scrutiny. Yang Ping stood quietly on the podium, confident and calm, facing the vigorous examination! ¡°Dr. Yang¡¯s expertise in sports medicine is just as profound as his work in finger replantation. We are fortunate to have him consult on the challenging case of tendon laxity in our orthopedics department. Now let¡¯s hear if Dr. Yang has any unique insights?¡± Su Nanchen¡¯s voice was loud and clear as he handed the microphone to Yang Ping before taking a step back. What is the big boss up to, pushing this young man forward in this situation? Is this a prelude to headhunting him? A few of the department heads were promoted by Su Qingyun, and the more astute among them had already started pondering the reasons behind this move. Professor Zou was one of the most astute. He contemplated the implications of Professor Su¡¯s actions. Anyone who holds a high position is a crafty individual, able to understand the situation and discern other¡¯s intentions. While others saw a seed, he saw what kind of fruit it could bear. What¡¯s this guy¡¯s relationship with the big boss? No matter what, there¡¯s more to this than meets the eye. He¡¯s from Sanbo Hospital? Could it be¡ª? If that¡¯s the case, the big boss¡¯s intentions are clear. He probably wants to bring this young man to Number One Affiliated, but considering his position as the dean, he¡¯s concerned about rumors of favoritism. Is this a way to subtly hint at his plans to everyone? If so, he should seriously assess the situation. If things turn out as he guesses, he should take the lead in this matter. If the big boss can¡¯t come forward, then it¡¯s up to him to make things happen and fulfill the boss¡¯s wishes. Yang Ping took the microphone: ¡°Thank you all for giving me this opportunity to learn from the teachers and colleagues of Number One Affiliated Hospital. The reason this patient¡¯s case has been brought for discussion is due to the technical requirement to shorten the Achilles tendon involves severing it. This will result in side effects, lowering the strength and endurance of the tendon, which is not desirable for a long-distance runner. I believe this issue is one of the reasons we are discussing this case.¡± The graduate students who had followed him on rounds were especially attentive. They kept making notes, cross-referencing their notes with each other for fear that a misunderstanding might arise from a possible error. Students, indeed the most hardworking yet most hopeful among us. These folks had arrived late because they had been waiting to watch Dr. Yang with the patients. One of them was standing while making notes. His white gown¡¯s collar was worn out from his dedicated work. Everyone was waiting for Dr. Yang to share his opinion. After a brief pause, he went on: ¡°Actually, we can shorten the Achilles tendon without severing it.¡± ¡°Not sever the tendon? How to shorten it?¡± As soon as he spoke, everyone was left with a mental question mark. The whole room erupted in whispers, with some professors starting to feel that he was boastful and innovative for the sake of being different; a few others, very careful and rigorous, made no conclusions before they finished listening to him. ¡°We don¡¯t need to cut the Achilles tendon, but to reposition the Achilles anchor point and the surrounding bone tissue to shorten the tendon. We can call this method the Achilles tendon anchor point depression or sinking procedure. In this procedure, the tendon fibers are not damaged, and ultimately it¡¯s a bone-to-bone healing, like a fracture, which is much simpler,¡± Yang Ping said confidently. He had performed this operation, designed by himself in the system space, more than a hundred times and was very skilled at it. His comparison of the postoperative tendon tension with the healthy side could be perfectly matched. Su Qingyun smiled slightly. Except for the consultation at Sanbo, this was the second time he had seen Yang Ping. There had been no preliminary contact between them for this consultation. He had observed Yang Ping¡¯s calm demeanor just now and guessed that he must have some unique insights. It turned out to be another highly imaginative suggestion. Imagination is the most precious thing, the source of innovation. Without it, we can only parrot others and follow suit. A lot of our doctors perform surgery better than doctors in Europe and America, thanks to our population advantage. However, our gap in innovation capabilities is too wide. We can only follow, and at best, imitate and improve. Yang Ping¡¯s proposal stirred up quite a fuss. These professors, doctors, and masters were all people with active minds. The education and training they received did not even mention this kind of procedure, let alone discuss it. It was unheard of to shorten the Achilles tendon without cutting it and using the depression procedure. However, when Yang Ping mentioned this procedure, everyone began to ponder its related knowledge, like a new machine. Although not invented by themselves, they could understand the principle while looking at the existing machine. The main advantage of this surgery over cutting and shortening the Achilles tendon is that it does not damage the tendon. It¡¯s a genius idea that sidesteps everyone¡¯s main concern. But the difficulty of the surgery increases a lot. Chen Ge raised his hand, stood up, took the microphone handed over by Dr. He, and asked, ¡°Dr. Yang, which sports medicine center in a foreign country uses this procedure? It seems that I haven¡¯t seen any reports.¡± A bold and innovative procedure like this couldn¡¯t possibly have been his own idea. It must have been something he had seen at a sports medicine center abroad, which had not yet been reported. He was merely showing off. There had been such instances. One professor had studied abroad and found an excellent monograph that had not been introduced into our country. He secretly translated it, published the translation as if it were his own book, and it sold quite well. Everything was fine until someone found out that the two books looked the same, down to the diagrams, text, and even the layout. It was disgustingly unethical. However, the plagiarists got away with it and the book even became famous. The chaos in academia was caused by such people. Yang Ping said somewhat shamefacedly, ¡°It¡¯s just a little thought of mine.¡± This operation is so impressive, you came up with it yourself? Who would believe that? ¡°Then, Dr. Yang, how many cases have you done it? Have you done any statistical comparisons? Have you published any papers?¡± Chen Ge continued to question. Director Zou looked visibly annoyed at the young and impetuous Chen Ge, shaking his head internally. This kind of person was just as good as a fool, with no future prospects. Guan Sheng should have guided him a bit. ¡°Not yet, because I have not encountered any gold medal athletes. With ordinary patients, the demand is not so high. There¡¯s no need to complicate it.¡± Yang Ping was calm and relaxed, but inside he felt some disdain for this man. If they hadn¡¯t done a procedure before, they didn¡¯t dare to, and only dared to do what Europeans and Americans had done. So they were treading water, always following behind others. ¡°Dr. Yang, since there are no similar operations abroad for reference, and you haven¡¯t done it yourself, I¡¯m afraid this operation is a bit of an armchair strategy.¡± Chen Ge was a little aggressive, desperate to win. He wanted to compete over everything, no matter whether it made sense or not or what the consequences were. He was exactly the kind of stickler for technicalities. Yang Ping felt disgusted with this type of person but remained composed: ¡°It¡¯s not necessary to wait for a foreign report of a similar surgery before we do it. This operation has a sound theoretical foundation. First of all, the healing of the tendon is best with bone-to-bone healing. Secondly, this method avoids iatrogenic damage to the tendon. Both methods achieve shortening, so why not choose the better one?¡± ¡°I completely agree with Dr. Yang. Why should we wait for the Americans, Europeans, and Japanese to do it before we can? We learn from them because they are advanced, not because we lack confidence.¡± Professor Zou seized the opportunity. This flattery left no traces; he hadn¡¯t praised Yang Ping, he was just talking about scientific research confidence, so there was nothing wrong. He awaited Su Qingyun¡¯s reaction. Chapter 155 - 0149: Doctors Gathering Together Chapter 155: Chapter 0149: Doctors Gathering Together Professor Su took up Professor Zou¡¯s words: ¡°Yes, we must believe in our academic work!¡± He always emphasized the independence and confidence of academics and didn¡¯t blindly follow foreign practices. He had his own judgment. As Professor Zou just mentioned, he just felt it necessary to emphasize it again. Seeing Su Qingyun picking up his argument so quickly, Professor Zou had a fairly clear idea. It wasn¡¯t a sure thing, but it was very close. A small smile appeared on his face. Dean Su, you are still too principled, worrying about reputation in everything you do. When Su Nanchen joined the hospital, you followed all the standard procedures without cutting corners. Close but not quite there, Professor Zou thought, this matter requires caution. It won¡¯t be too late to take action once the situation is clearer. ¡°I think this surgical method has excellent advantages. It breaks away from the conventional methods. Although the heel bone is quite special, with cortical bone on the outside and spongy bone on the inside, extracting the Achilles tendon anchorage point is tricky. We originally wanted to extract an intact bone plug, but in the end, it might crumble. Drilling a tunnel in the calcaneus is also difficult, and if not done correctly, it could cause heel bone collapse. This increases the complexity of the operation, but the outcome is clearly better than the conventional methods.¡± Professor Guan Sheng¡¯s analysis was comprehensive, he spoke with objectivity and balance. Professor Huang resonated heavily: ¡°I oppose using an unproven surgical method without statistical evidence on professional athletes. If there are harmful results, it will not only harm the patients but also damage the reputation of the hospital. When dealing with such patients, we should be conservative and not reckless!¡± Professor Huang was direct by nature and sometimes publicly contradicted Su Qingyun. However, Professor Huang was honest and diligent in his work, and his surgical academics were top-notch. He spoke out without ulterior motives, and Su Qingyun didn¡¯t take it personally, but instead respected his views. Once, Professor Huang offended someone due to his temperament, almost ruining his career. Su Qingyun lent him a helping hand, and he managed to survive. This man was like Wei Zheng: loyal but did not hesitate to speak the truth. ¡°Oh, Old Huang, we are here today because of the strong promotion by the big headlines. How can you always stick out like a sore thumb, and publicly contradict the main storyline? You should consider the occasion.¡± Professor Zou, sitting beside Professor Huang, gave him a nudge with his foot. Professor Huang glared back, unable to voice his curse, but inwardly he was scolding, ¡°You brown-noser!¡± Professor Zou involuntarily flinched. Who is the brown-noser? He knew what Professor Huang meant, despite not speaking aloud. They¡¯ve been colleagues for over 20 years, and he knew him inside and out. Professor Zou shook his head. This guy never changes. If not for me, the real brown-noser, trying to balance the situation with the main headlines everywhere, this stubborn ox wouldn¡¯t have his position of influence today. The doctoral student standing by the back wall raised his hand and asked for the microphone: ¡°This surgical method does not actually carry much risk. It is a variation of the traditional method, with a solid theoretical basis. It only uses a slightly different approach to shorten the Achilles tendon, even if the methods used are different, the goals are the same. I support this method. Patients come to us looking for better approaches. The traditional method! It is also suggested by the British. Why don¡¯t we bravely try a new surgical method? Even if it fails, at most, we have tension regulation inaccuracy, nothing too serious, and it won¡¯t be worse than it is now.¡± The director of the joint orthopedics department said quietly: ¡°This places a great test on the surgeon¡¯s precision. Controlling the shortening length of this method is more difficult than traditional methods. Traditional methods control the length in a straight line, while this method controls the length on a curve, increasing the complexity significantly. Without absolute certainty, do not attempt this lightly. With traditional methods, at least controlling tension isn¡¯t problematic.¡± A master¡¯s student raised his hand, noticeably lacking confidence, but Professor Su encouraged him: ¡°Speak boldly. It¡¯s okay to be wrong! There¡¯s always a chance you will be correct.¡± Everyone was amused by Professor Su¡¯s words. ¡°I¡¯d like to ask how the Achilles tendon anchor sinking works? Does it involve removing the bone plug, drilling a deeper tunnel where the bone plug was extracted, and then reinserting the bone plug with the Achilles tendon?¡± The master¡¯s student turned slightly red, and his voice shook slightly. This was all brought on by nervousness. ¡°Correct, you¡¯ve got it completely right!¡± Yang Ping affirmed the student¡¯s idea. The master¡¯s student was exhilarated. Engaging in a professional dialogue on equal terms and being correct was a significant boost to his confidence. ¡°Thank you!¡± The master¡¯s student sounded slightly emotional. ¡°How about fixation? How do we fix it?¡± Another postdoc asked directly, without asking for the microphone. Yang Ping answered: ¡°We can do cross fixation or use compression screws for fixation, referring to the fixation used in ACL reconstruction.¡± ¡°I understand now, Dr. Yang, stop being modest. You must have performed this before and it was not just one. Otherwise, you wouldn¡¯t have such profound insights. Perhaps for reasons related to research secrecy, Dr. Yang denies having done it before.¡± It¡¯s easy to distinguish whether someone has experience in clinical matters. Dr. Yang must have done many cases already. A clinician¡¯s self-confidence is based on experience. If you don¡¯t have experience, you can¡¯t be confident. The discussion continued for a long time until someone reminded everyone about the time limit, and they reluctantly moved on to the next case. ¡°Thank you, Dr. Yang, for your innovative opinion!¡± Su Qingyun did not come to a conclusion just yet. Yang Ping and Su Nanchen returned to their seats, and Dr. He brought two bottles of mineral water. Su Nanchen was delighted and had forgotten to get water for everyone. ¡°That knee instability case is also my patient. If you¡¯re interested, do you want to come and together perform the surgery?¡± Su Nanchen was eager to see him reconstruct four structures and balance them all at once. Yang Ping would definitely not turn down such a great opportunity: ¡°Sure, is it appropriate?¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t it be appropriate? It¡¯s not someone else¡¯s patient.¡± It seemed as if their friendship ran deep. ¡°Do you have a free afternoon? If not, let¡¯s have a meal together after the meeting. As brothers, you can¡¯t say no.¡± Su Nanchen was very enthusiastic. ¡°Sure! I came over specifically for this consultation this afternoon and I didn¡¯t schedule any surgeries.¡± Yang Ping was also willing to befriend Su Nanchen. The discussion of the next case began. ¡°Old Huang, Old Huang?¡± Professor Zou called quietly to Professor Huang. Professor Huang pretended not to hear. ¡°After work, shall we sit down somewhere together?¡± Professor Huang continued to pretend not to hear, leaning on his chair and watching the slides on display. You stubborn old mule, fine, have it your way! Professor Zou crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair, focusing on the screen. Yang Ping was invited for consultation, hence it¡¯d be improper for him to stay on and waste other¡¯s time. Su Nanchen leaned in to whisper a few words to Su Qingyun, and then led Yang Ping out a back exit early. The younger doctors watched as the two left the scene, feeling a bit regretful. Some had hoped to chat a bit and take a few pictures after the meeting. Upon leaving the conference, Su Nanchen took Yang Ping to sit for a while in the orthopedics ward, then called him into the duty room, offering him a consultation fee. Yang Ping hesitated for a moment before accepting the money. This was the first consultation fee he had ever received. Afterward, Su Nanchen took Yang Ping to tour the hospital. He then asked, ¡°Would your girlfriend mind if you stay for dinner?¡± Yang Ping answered with a smile, ¡°I am all alone.¡± What he actually meant was that he lived alone, not that he didn¡¯t have a girlfriend. At this, Su Nanchen laughed: ¡°Yes, prioritizing work is always a good idea.¡± Yang Ping thought Su Nanchen had misunderstood him, but then decided that there was no need to explain further. Was he supposed to say that he had a girlfriend? That would just be a joke. After strolling around and chatting for a while, it was already past five in the afternoon. Su Nanchen led Yang Ping to a pavilion in the hospital and began calling people to accompany them for dinner ¡ª all young talents from the hospital. ¡°Get off work and come to the restaurant next to the hospital, Shisan Chong. We have the same private room as last time!¡± Su Nanchen made several phone calls. ¡°Should I ask some people to accompany you? Do you drink?¡± Su Nanchen asked after finishing his calls. Feeling somewhat ashamed, Yang Ping replied: ¡°I don¡¯t drink!¡± In reality, he barely drank enough to count as a drinker. ¡°No worries, just have some soft drinks later.¡± Su Nanchen replied cheerfully. One of his buddies who had arrived early came out: ¡°Young Master Su, has your good friend arrived?¡± ¡°This is my good friend, Yang Ping from Sanbo, Doctor Yang!¡± ¡°This is Doctor Shao from neurosurgery, Shao Wei, Doctor Shao!¡± ¡°Nice to meet you!¡± The two shook hands. ¡°Sanbo, I know. A few months ago, your hospital made the turn. Professor Han from your orthopedics department performed a five-section replantation, impressive! It was all I could do to keep breathing.¡± Doctor Shao gave a thumbs-up. Laughing, Su Nanchen said: ¡°Only five-section replantation and Professor Han had to step in? It was my brother here who was the lead surgeon.¡± ¡°No way! I had no idea I was in the presence of such greatness! Come on, shake hands again.¡± Doctor Shao looked surprised as he vigorously shook Yang Ping¡¯s hand once more. ¡°You guys also attend the orthopedic trauma conference?¡± Su Nanchen asked while waiting for others to arrive. ¡°We neurosurgeons, we focus on microscopic procedures as well, just like you orthopedics. It¡¯s an essential skill for us. Our director showed us a video of Brother Yang¡¯s procedures, saying ¡ª look at their level of proficiency under the microscope. Compared to them, you guys are just fooling around!¡± Doctor Shao himself laughed as he finished his sentence. Wrapping his arm around him, Su Nanchen said: ¡°Old Shao, if you want some real skills, you¡¯re gonna have to drink a few more tonight.¡± ¡°Absolutely, Young Master Su¡¯s friends are my friends too. Brother Yang, if you ever need anything, just let me know. Although I don¡¯t have much else, I am top-notched at writing papers.¡± ¡°He has published over thirty SCI articles?¡± Su Nanchen added. Yang Ping praised him: ¡°You are the real genius here! Over thirty, are you wholesaling SCI articles?¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s just a humble skill. Not worth mentioning.¡± Doctor Shao pretended to sigh helplessly. ¡°Old Zhou, old Zhou, why haven¡¯t you arrived yet?¡± Su Nanchen asked. Old Zhou, a doctoral student from the Thoracic Surgery department. Doctor Shao said: ¡°Old Zhou plans to go to Germany to raise rabbits for a year. He said he wants to marry into the German gene pool.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s badmouthing me? Oh, it¡¯s you again, Shao Wei. I heard you this time.¡± Doctor Zhou was somewhat shorter than the rest. Dean Su, who had a knack for picking out talent, had recruited this man who was not just skilled but also good-looking. However, Doctor Zhou had been chosen in spite of his lesser height, due to his unique abilities. This guy was brilliant at research and procuring projects for his department ¡ª he was as prolific as popcorn. ¡°That¡¯s what you said yourself, unprocessed raw data.¡± Doctor Shao rebutted Old Zhou. ¡°Let¡¯s go, some of our gang are still on their way. We¡¯ll start eating and save them a seat.¡± Su Nanchen rallied the group to leave. In a setting like this hospital, doctoral degrees were common amongst staff. Those without one often felt intimidated to step forward. Chapter 156 - 0150: Easy Socializing Chapter 156: Chapter 0150: Easy Socializing Yang Ping sent a WeChat message to Xiao Su to report the situation. Xiao Su told him not to drink and to drive slowly at night. Shisan Chong, the seafood restaurant, is just nearby a local university. As soon as they entered, a pretty waitress warmly guided them to the private room upstairs. The boss was familiar with Su Nanchen. In just a few minutes, he arrived. He was a Chaoshan man, quite young, in his thirties, slender and nimble, and slick in social interactions. ¡°Professor Su, I was a bit late due to some just came up, please forgive me! What would you like to order today? The usual?¡± The boss greeted everyone to sit down, took the teapot from the waitress, and poured tea himself. ¡°Any dietary restrictions?¡± Su Nanchen asked Yang Ping. ¡°No food restrictions, and no history of allergies.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± ¡°President Wu, as usual, we have ten people in total. You decide. Whether you¡¯re drinking alcohol or a beverage, report to President Wu. Yang Ping, what would you like to drink?¡± Su Nanchen pulled out a chair for Yang Ping to sit down. ¡°Apple vinegar, please!¡± Yang Ping sat down. ¡°Let¡¯s have a bottle of Dream Blue!¡± Dr. Shao volunteered to order the wine. ¡°I¡¯ll have the apple vinegar, too!¡± Dr. Zhou followed Yang Ping. The boss personally took note of their wine and drink orders, arranged a menu, and handed it to Su Nanchen. Su Nanchen nodded, ¡°Okay! I¡¯m fine with your recommendation.¡± ¡°Dream Blue, M9!¡± Su Nanchen told the boss. The boss instructed the waitstaff to prepare quickly, then chatted briefly before excusing himself tactfully, ¡°Professor Su, I won¡¯t disturb you anymore. Call me if you need anything!¡± ¡°Alright, you can go ahead with your work. We¡¯ll take care of ourselves.¡± Su Nanchen waved his hand. The boss left two pretty waitresses in charge and grinned as he left the private room. Everyone was very conscious. Those who didn¡¯t have tasks tonight and wanted to drink did not need to be forced; they ordered drinks voluntarily. Those who had tasks or did not wish to drink alcohol ordered their own beverages. Gradually, everyone arrived. Dr. Yao, who was in Su Nanchen¡¯s group and resident physician Dr. He, came in. Dr. Shen from trauma orthopedics called: His surgery was done, and he was changing his clothes. The three others were still in surgery, and it was probably going to be moved to 9 pm, so they probably wouldn¡¯t make it. About ten minutes later, Dr. Shen came in and greeted everyone, ¡°Young Master Su, what¡¯s the occasion today? Is it because the temperature has dropped that brothers have to warm up?¡± ¡°Today we have a new brother. Let me introduce you. This is Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital, and this is Shen Liang from Trauma Orthopedics!¡± Su Nanchen introduced. ¡°Shen Liang, don¡¯t you want to pay your respects? Your master is here!¡± Dr. Shao incited. During the five-section replantation, Shen Liang once joked about recognizing the chief surgeon as his master to learn some ingenious microsurgical techniques. Shen Liang was puzzled, not understanding what Shao Wei was trying to stir, scratching the back of his head, waiting for an explanation. Shao Wei leisurely said, ¡°The chief surgeon from the five-section replantation is sitting in front of you. You¡¯re still mystified and not acknowledging him?¡± What¡¯s happening? Shen Liang looked at Su Nanchen, and Su Nanchen slightly nodded, ¡°Yang Ping was Professor Han¡¯s student, and he was the chief surgeon for the five-section replantation!¡± Shen Liang immediately bowed his head, his movements looking quite comic, ¡°Brother, I pay my respects to you!¡± Yang Ping immediately stood up, ¡°We¡¯re all brothers, don¡¯t be so formal! Don¡¯t be so formal!¡± Having bowed, Shen Liang straightened up and said, ¡°I was wondering why Young Master Su is making such a fuss today, even calling the operating room. So this is why.¡± ¡°Calling him brother? You got the seniority wrong. Didn¡¯t you say you wanted to acknowledge a master?¡± Shao Wei disagreed. Settling into his seat, Shen Liang said, ¡°I¡¯d like to acknowledge a master too, but Brother Yang doesn¡¯t just accept apprentices so casually. They¡¯ll just let you acknowledge him if you say you want to?¡± He sat down, and immediately reached out to shake hands with Yang Ping, ¡°I admire you! Brother, no, Big Brother!¡± ¡°I always thought that Professor Han did it, I didn¡¯t expect it was Brother Yang¡¯s work, it¡¯s really extraordinary!¡± Shen Liang picked up his tea and took a sip, perhaps he was thirsty just after surgery. ¡°The others probably won¡¯t be able to make it, they ran into some problems in surgery.¡± Shen Liang had just come from the operating room and knew the situation inside. There were three others, from Sports Medicine, Spine Surgery, and Joint Surgery, respectively, a few brothers. ¡°You don¡¯t have anything tonight, right? How about a drink?¡± Su Nanchen poured tea for Shen Liang. ¡°No problem. We must have more wine. How could one bottle be enough? Let¡¯s get another one!¡± This guy sure is a hero. ¡°Let the feast begin. Yong Bo still has to hurry back.¡± Su Nanchen beckoned to the waitress. The waitress was efficient, and the dishes were served quickly, filling up the entire table. When a group of young people are together, it¡¯s casual. Those who want to drink alcohol drink, those who want to drink soft drinks do so. No one is forced. Drinks and alcohol mixed, there¡¯s no disharmony. There¡¯s no need to observe who eats first or eat in a specific order. There¡¯s no rules, no procedures, just a lively gathering. At usual banquets, Yang Ping always gets a headache, but this gathering is actually relaxed. A few people take turns toasting Yang Ping, some with real liquor, some with apple vinegar, but it doesn¡¯t matter. Yang Ping just takes a sip of apple vinegar to respond, and no one says he is insincere or anything like that. Shen Liang came over, ¡°Brother Yang, or should I call you Doctor Yang? I see you¡¯re younger than us, so I don¡¯t want to age you with titles, but your five-section replantation scared the heck out of me.¡± ¡°I invited Yang Bo to come here for a consultation. He had to do an emergency operation, so you didn¡¯t listen to his presentation. His sports medicine and arthroscopic surgery skills are as top-notch as his five-section replantation.¡± Su Nanchen said calmly. ¡°I¡¯d love to see it for myself one day. Su, you¡¯re not thoughtful, keeping such a good friend hidden. Come, let¡¯s toast to Yang Bo.¡± Shen Liang finished his glass first, and Yang Ping took a sip of apple vinegar in response. ¡°Brother Su!¡± Dr. Yao said while peeling a shrimp. In public, they usually call him Professor Su, but in private they call him Su Brother. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± Su Nanchen knew he had something to say. Dr. Yao knew it wasn¡¯t appropriate to talk about work at the dinner table, but since they¡¯re all good friends, he thought it wouldn¡¯t hurt to share. ¡°That four-way reconstruction for Chen Ge, Professor Ye from Beijing has been asked to do it!¡± Dr. Yao said. ¡°The one from the provincial basketball team?¡± Su Nanchen was familiar with this patient. ¡°Yeah!¡± Dr. Yao put a peeled shrimp with some sauce into his mouth. Professor Ye is the academic elder brother of Professor Guan, and one of the top professors in sports medicine and arthroscopic surgery in the country. To be honest, there are only a few people who can conduct such a surgery with simultaneous reconstruction and good function, and Professor Ye is the best among them. Fuyi¡¯s spinal surgery is the best in the country, but its sports medicine is inferior to the Third Hospital of Beijing, which is the top in sports medicine in the country. ¡°He asked how we are doing with this, and whether we should do it all in one go.¡± Dr. Yao said. It wasn¡¯t a problem for Su Nanchen to perform this surgery, but to reach the level of Professor Ye was definitely challenging. He doesn¡¯t do as many surgeries as Ye, so naturally, he doesn¡¯t have as much experience. After a moment of contemplation, Su Nanchen said, ¡°Let¡¯s not rush. We¡¯ll see what the patient wants.¡± Inviting a professor from Beijing for a surgery is going to cost money. Even though the patient is wealthy, it¡¯d be better to discuss this in advance to avoid making decisions for him. Dr. He came over a bit shyly, holding a soft drink, ¡°Brother, let me toast you.¡± ¡°Sure, don¡¯t be shy.¡± Yang Ping responded. Dr. He didn¡¯t say much. He just kept eating, listening to everyone chatting, joining in the laughter and occasionally chiming in, to remind everyone of his presence. Everyone had fun chatting. Old Zhou from neurosurgery, who was on call today, had to leave early for a rescue. The rest of them continued to eat and chat, for more than three hours. By the time dinner was over, it was already past ten. Saying goodbye was hard, with handshakes and shoulder hugs, promising to keep in touch. After bidding farewell to Su Nanchen, Yang Ping returned to Sanbo Hospital. It was already past eleven. When Yang Ping got home, he sent a WeChat message to Xiao Su. Xiao Su was still up, waiting for his message. ¡°Didn¡¯t drink alcohol right?¡± ¡°No, I drove here. I wouldn¡¯t dare.¡± ¡°Even if you didn¡¯t drive, you¡¯re not allowed to drink.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll listen to you.¡± ¡°Get some rest early. Don¡¯t stay up late.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± After chatting a bit with Xiao Su, Yang Ping showered, went to bed, and logged into his system to read for a while before sleep. It was a fulfilling day. And he made many new friends. Chapter 157 - 0151: Pure Person Chapter 157: Chapter 0151: Pure Person In the morning, Song Zimo stepped out of the laboratory and stretched. He happened to run into Yang Ping. ¡°Senior brother, how was the consultation at the hospital yesterday?¡± Song Zimo inquired, showing concern. Yang Ping answered nonchalantly, ¡°A patient with a loose Achilles tendon. A 5000m Olympic gold medalist preparing for Achilles shortening surgery.¡± Song Zimo shook his head: ¡°This is quite tricky. For a long-distance runner, a relaxed Achilles tendon is unacceptable. Once shortened, the strength of the tendon decreases, possibly causing surgical side effects. The chances of it are quite significant. Overseas, some use a Plasma Scalpel for shrinkage, but the effective range of the Plasma Scalpel is minimal. Your case might not work then; otherwise, a consultation wouldn¡¯t even be necessary.¡± ¡°Yes, the patient requires surgery to shorten the Achilles tendon.¡± Yang Ping took a seat in the office. Song Zimo followed suit and took the seat next to him. ¡°So, what are your thoughts, from the consultation?¡± Checking the time and seeing it was still early, Yang Ping said: ¡°We won¡¯t cut the Achilles tendon. Instead, we¡¯ll use the method of lowering the Achilles stop point. This method involves resecting the Achilles stop point together with the bone tissue, drilling a little deeper into the bone tunnel, and then replanting the bone plug with the Achilles attached.¡± Song Zimo pondered for a moment, eyebrows raised with newfound understanding: ¡°Senior brother, did you come up with this?¡± ¡°No, perhaps you did?¡± Yang Ping said, taking a breather while waiting for the shift change. Song Zimo slapped his forehead: ¡°Senior brother, your surgical method is brilliant, but how will you adjust the tension? It seems quite challenging.¡± ¡°The shift change is soon, I¡¯ll explain it to you in detail when I get the chance.¡± Yang Ping stood up. They still had the same three patients, with no new admissions. Professor Zhang was good at controlling the pace and did not want to take in too many patients at once. The goal of Comprehensive Orthopedics is not quantity, but the quality of surgeries. Otherwise, there would be no value in its existence. Put simply, Comprehensive Orthopedics exists to build a reputation, as it is a trump card in tackling tough projects. Director Han is now very reassured and no longer participates in shift changes. Director Tian simply went over to the Overseas Chinese Building to participate in the shift change. The hospital there already had over a dozen patients. He is currently applying to Director Han to have Fang Yan and Chen Xiaobo transferred over to the Overseas Chinese Building. Yang Ping led everyone on their ward rounds. The patient from Singapore, who is Chinese, was engrossed in reading a pile of newspapers. It seems like he bought all the available newspapers from the stand at the hospital entrance. This patient was preparing to undergo a core decompression and ceramic rod implantation procedure. This procedure is quite new and should be one of the more advanced procedures for the treatment of avascular necrosis of the femoral head. It is designed to guide blood vessels from other areas into the necrotic region, similar to the South-to-North Water Diversion. The patient with the ruptured anterior cruciate ligament is scheduled for surgery tomorrow. The patient, a professional athlete, is diligently practicing quadriceps strength exercises. Compliance is indeed beneficial. The little girl is quietly doing her morning reading. Apart from looking a bit pale, and her hair a bit thin due to chemotherapy, her spirits are high, and she always has a smile on her face. Yang Ping checked on her last, so he could chat with her a bit more. He was quite taken with this little one. Her eyes were clear and translucent¡ª so pure they seemed untouched by the dust and grime of the human world. ¡°Where¡¯s your mom?¡± Yang Ping asked, seeing that she was quietly reading by herself. The little girl answered with a smile, ¡°My mom went to make breakfast, and she¡¯ll bring it over for me to eat later.¡± ¡°So your home is not far from here?¡± Yang Ping asked her. The little girl replied seriously, ¡°We can¡¯t casually ask people for their addresses!¡± Yang Ping found her adorable, and he purposely apologized: ¡°Sorry about that!¡± The little girl giggled, ¡°I was only joking with you. My house isn¡¯t here. My parents rented a place, it¡¯s our new home. My dad found a new job, and my mom takes care of me.¡± ¡°You are really lucky!¡± Yang Ping decided to chat with her a little more. ¡°You all go ahead. I¡¯ll chat with her for a bit.¡± Yang Ping told Song Zimo, Little Five, and Zhang Lin they could leave. ¡°Can we chat? Become friends?¡± Yang Ping took a seat on the chair beside the bed. The curtains of the ward were open, and the sunlight streaming in was warm. ¡°Of course, I really like you. Can I call you Doctor Brother?¡± The little girl closed her book. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Sure.¡± ¡°Why do you like me?¡± Yang Ping asked, looking curious. ¡°Because your eyes are very clear, not muddy at all.¡± The little girl replied. Clear, not muddy. What does that mean? He didn¡¯t quite understand children¡¯s language. ¡°Can you explain it more clearly?¡± Yang Ping found her fascinating. The little girl frowned, looking quite troubled. After a moment of thought, she said, ¡°I don¡¯t really know how to put it. It¡¯s just¨C your eyes have high purity, and you¡¯re a very pure person. That¡¯s what I think.¡± ¡°So, you mean I¡¯m a very genuine person?¡± Yang Ping rephrased her words, seeking understanding. The little girl thoughtfully nodded her head, ¡°Yes, that¡¯s what I mean, you¡¯re a very pure person.¡± It was the first time someone had described her as such. High purity, that¡¯s interesting. Yang Ping looked at the book on the table: ¡°What are you reading?¡± The little girl handed the book to Yang Ping herself¨C Oliver Twist! ¡°Can you understand this book?¡± Yang Ping was astonished. The little girl was a bit unhappy, ¡°You adults always underestimate children. I was already reading Andersen¡¯s Fairy Tales when I was in kindergarten.¡± ¡°That¡¯s amazing!¡± Yang Ping flipped through the book and gave her a thumbs up. The little girl blinked, her eyes twinkling like little stars in the night sky, ¡°I have read a lot of books, but certainly not as many as you.¡± ¡°How do you know I¡¯ve read a lot of books?¡± Yang Ping became more and more interested in the little girl. The child blinked again, ¡°My intuition. Your eyes told me!¡± ¡°Eyes are the window to the soul, it seems the window has given my secret away.¡± Yang Ping returned the book to her. After chatting with the little girl for a while, Yang Ping had to get going. He said goodbye to the girl. Her calmness and composure was beyond Yang Ping¡¯s expectations, after all, she was just a child who knew nothing. Yang Ping returned to his office and carefully reviewed the little girl¡¯s case again. Regardless of the treatment method, the cost was a problem. This problem had to be solved first. She had already had two surgeries. The operative sites were all at the original lesion. A part of the left femur had already been replaced by a prosthesis, and now another tumor had grown at the original site. There were metastatic tumors at several other places. Even amputation wouldn¡¯t help. ¡°Does our hospital have a Gamma Knife?¡± Yang Ping suddenly asked. ¡°Yes, we do!¡± Song Zimo replied, unsure of what Yang Ping meant. ¡°Are you planning to treat her with the Gamma Knife?¡± Song Zimo sat beside him, waiting for him to explain about the sinking of the tendon. Yang Ping didn¡¯t confirm or deny, ¡°I need to figure out how to fund it. If nothing else works, I¡¯ll ask Director Han to apply for a waiver from the hospital, or pursue it as a research case.¡± Song Zimo paused for a moment, then said, ¡°Let me handle the cost. You don¡¯t need to worry about it, just focus on treating her illness.¡± ¡°I know you have money, but you¡¯re not obligated to do this.¡± Yang Ping knew that Song Zimo was considering paying out of his own pocket and was capable of doing so. Song Zimo lightly said, ¡°Think of it as charity, my grandfather would be willing.¡± ¡°Count me in!¡± Tang Fei chimed in when she heard they were discussing the cost. Yang Ping knew that they didn¡¯t lack money. One had a BMW series 7, the other a Maserati. What a perfect pair, matched in both wealth and status. If they were willing, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t stop them. This was voluntary, but wealth couldn¡¯t morally bind people. After all, they were also doctors here, not a charity organization. Someone knocked on the door. Huang Jiahui stood at the entrance. Seeing Yang Ping and the others discussing something, she realized she had interrupted. She bowed slightly, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for the interruption. I¡¯ll come back later.¡± Yang Ping beckoned her in, ¡°It¡¯s okay, we¡¯re just chatting casually. What¡¯s the matter?¡± She entered and respectfully said, ¡°Teacher Yang, we need a set of consumables for tomorrow¡¯s anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction patient. I came to resupply in advance.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Yang Ping remembered. These preoperative preparations, including calling for the equipment, were all handled by Song Zimo, Little Five, and Zhang Lin. Yang Ping now only handled the surgeries. ¡°The operation is at 8:30 tomorrow!¡± Song Zimo reminded her. Huang Jiahui nodded, but her glance lingered on the radiographic images on the computer. ¡°Teacher Yang, may I ask about this patient?¡± Huang Jiahui asked nervously. Song Zimo pointed at the screen, ¡°No problem, it¡¯s not a sports injury. It¡¯s a little friend with bone cancer. The family is already destitute from her treatment. We just discussed waiving the fees.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry to have interrupted.¡± Jiahui left the office almost running, took the elevator to the first floor, and immediately made a call to her brother. Chapter 158 - 0152: Short-sighted Chapter 158: Chapter 0152: Short-sighted Huang Jiacai hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair, his mind whirling with thoughts. He turned thirty and had retained his passions in spite of life¡¯s trials. In other words, he had ambition! Since the age of eighteen, he always thought he was capable of accomplishing great things. Now, with accumulated experiences, it was time to make his move. He pondered for an entire month before making a bold decision. He quit his previous job and returned to his original line of work, this time focusing on medical equipment. Moreover, he chose to work with the smallest company ¨C Sharp Medical, a start-up company that survived on venture capital. It was a company that might disappear overnight! The office was located under the rented apartment. He rented a shop space of a few dozen square meters as the new starting point for his career. As the regional manager of Sharp Medical, he had only one subordinate ¨C his sister. Huang Jiacai squinted for a while, then got up and looked out the window, lost in thought. He sat back down at his office desk, took out his mobile phone, and dialed the business leader¡¯s number: ¡°President Jia, this is Huang Jiacai. I would like to report something very important to you. Yes, it is crucial to our company¡¯s expansion into the G City market -.¡± He then detailed the situation of the little girl with the bone tumor, proposing that the company should fund the girl¡¯s treatment. By organizing a charitable event, they could solidify the company¡¯s business relationship with Sanbo¡¯s comprehensive orthopedics department. However, the person on the other end of the phone did not share his opinion and didn¡¯t even bother listening to his entire report. ¡°Jiacai, our company is currently short of funds. Sanbo Hospital only uses a limited number of our products. Investing in charity work for them seems unrealistic. Your idea is good but-¡± After hanging up the phone, Huang Jiacai felt a bit helpless. He loosened his tie, untwisted the cap of the mineral water bottle on his desk, took a big gulp, and muttered a few words, ¡°Short-sighted!¡± Jiahui rushed into the office and noticed her brother, sitting in his office chair, smoking with furrowed brows. ¡°Brother, how did it go?¡± Jiahui asked cautiously. Seeing his sister had returned, Huang Jiacai immediately put out his cigarette in the ashtray. He didn¡¯t want her to inhale secondhand smoke. ¡°Useless! Narrow-minded! He mentioned that Sanbo didn¡¯t use many of our products and refused to fund the charity event.¡± Huang Jiacai¡¯s tone was steady even though he was furious inside. He always spoke gently to his sister. Their parents had passed away early. They relied on each other for survival. In Huang Jiacai¡¯s senior high school year, their parents died in a car accident. To allow his sister to complete her education, he tore up his college admission letter and determinedly went south to find a job. Regardless of difficulties he faced in life, he never raised his voice to his sister. Jiahui seemed disappointed: ¡°What can we do then? I think this is an excellent opportunity. Remember what you said, brother? To maintain a good relationship with someone, you need to consciously and continuously strengthen the relationship to make it more secure.¡± Huang Jiacai nodded. ¡°Correct!¡± He got up and scanned the room before saying, ¡°We will cover the cost ourselves. Go tell him tomorrow. No, do it now. We will fund the little girl¡¯s treatment. Also, do not let him know that I am in charge of the company¡¯s business in G City for now.¡± ¡°Brother, are you saying we should pay for it? It¡¯s not a small amount. We would need at least tens of thousands, even up to hundreds of thousands. What if-¡± ¡°No, there are no ifs. If you don¡¯t believe in yourself, how can you reach your goal? Trust my judgement, I wouldn¡¯t misread people. Let¡¯s settle this, and don¡¯t discuss this with anyone else in the company. Tell him that our company has annual charitable funding and we are willing to sponsor this child! We don¡¯t necessarily have to cover all of it, but we need to show enough sincerity.¡± Huang Jiacai resolved. ¡°Brother, I will go right away.¡± Jiahui was still catching her breath. ¡°Wait, don¡¯t tell him directly. Speak with the ward¡¯s doctor instead. Just mention that our company has an annual charitable allowance and that we have a spot open this year. If there are suitable patients, we can help apply.¡± Huang Jiacai instructed. Jiahui spun around, ready to leave immediately. ¡°Go slow, don¡¯t run. Watch your step,¡± Huang Jiacai warned his sister. ¡°Why should I not tell him directly?¡± Jiahui was puzzled and asked again on her way out. Huang Jiacai explained, ¡°You want to give a natural impression, not one that seems forced or deliberate, understand? Speak clearly, but pay attention to your tone and attitude. It should feel casual when you say it, got it?¡± ¡°I got it, brother!¡± Jiahui had just returned, did not even drink a sip of water, and was rushing out again. ¡°That girl! Such a mess!¡± Huang Jiacai shook his head, wearing a wry smile. Huang Jiacai opened the window even wider, lit a BaiSha cigarette, leaning on the sofa, closing his eyes to rest. When you meet at the lowest point, you can grasp each other at the peak! In a person¡¯s life, opportunities only come once or twice, winning if you seize them, losing everything if you don¡¯t. He has to seize the opportunity strongly. Jiahui was holding an eco-friendly bag in her hand, running a bit towards the Orthopedics department. She felt a slight pain in her lower abdomen, gritted her teeth, pretending as if nothing happened. Arriving at the office door, she didn¡¯t see Little Five, so she called him, saying she wanted to check the patient data for tomorrow¡¯s surgery again to confirm the size of the surgical supplies. Not long after, Little Five came to the office. He had just been in the ward, doing perioperative education for tomorrow¡¯s surgery patients. With a calm demeanor, Jiahui said, ¡°Teacher Lu, can you help me measure the X-rays of a patient undergoing surgery tomorrow? I need the dimensions of the distal femur and tibial plateau, can you?¡± It was a standard procedure for medical device salespeople to collect patients¡¯ relevant image data to better prepare the devices. Little Five was very satisfied with her seriousness. He started the computer, took the measurements carefully, and then gave the data to Jiahui, who noted it down in her notebook. ¡°Mm, please measure the lateral images as well. I apologize for the trouble.¡± Jiahui was very serious. Little Five didn¡¯t find her bothersome. Both her beauty and sincerity served as excellent passports. After recording the data for the lateral images, Jiahui closed her notebook, put it in her bag, and took out two bottles of Wong Lo Kat. ¡°Teacher Lu, you¡¯ve been working hard. I brought these for you.¡± Jiahui placed the Wong Lo Kat and the straws next to Little Five¡¯s computer. ¡°You¡¯re too polite.¡± Little Five didn¡¯t refuse. It was just a bottle of drink, after all. ¡°Oh, Teacher Lu, there¡¯s this arrangement we have where our company sponsors a few economically challenged patients every year. Since the year¡¯s almost over, we still have one slot. If you have any such patients, you can let me know anytime. I can apply for it.¡± ¡°Really, that¡¯s great. To what extent can you usually provide support?¡± Little Five asked interestedly. ¡°It depends on the patient¡¯s condition¡ªtens of thousands, hundreds of thousands¡ªit varies,¡± Jiahui gritted her teeth, trying to sound as casual as possible. ¡°Alright, this is a good thing. I¡¯ll contact you if there¡¯s a need.¡± Little Five bid her farewell. ¡°Thank you, Teacher Lu. I¡¯ll head off first. Bye.¡± Jiahui left the office. After leaving the Orthopedics department, Jiahui let out a sigh of relief, but was also a little worried. Did she give herself away? Would people think that she had deliberately come here on a whim? She should have timed it right, right? She wasn¡¯t too ahead of herself, was she? Jiahui felt like she was still too naive ¨C without her brother¡¯s guidance, she would have been like a naive child, ignorant about everything. The word was out, and she had no idea whether Little Five would mention it to Yang Ping or not. All she could do now was to wait for the call. She checked her phone to ensure the ringtone and vibration were turned on. When she thought about it, she felt pain in her heart. It was really her brother who would foot the bill. She was used to being frugal, even buying her lipsticks from Taobao at cheap prices and carrying fake bags. She would usually pinch a penny till it squeaked. Now, at least tens of thousands would be spent in one go. The thought made her wince as though her flesh was being cut. She felt a bit nauseous. But her brother said it was doable, so it must be. Having walked so fast earlier, Jiahui¡¯s stomachache worsened. Every girl had a couple of tough days each month. She had to hold on. Her head began to grow heavy too. She touched her forehead; it was a little warm. Had she caught a cold because the weather had recently become colder? Jiahui crossed her arms against her chest and hurried to the office. The winter in the south was chilly, but it was much better compared to their old home in Guizhou. But Jiahui preferred summer and hated winters. Her pretty face turned slightly pale. Jiahui took out a bottle of antifreeze cream, squeezed a bit of it, rubbed it between her hands, and the chapped areas stung a little. Chapter 159 - 0153: Dont Come Anymore Chapter 159: Chapter 0153: Don¡¯t Come Anymore Every surgery began on the dot, as accurate as a clock. The anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery began promptly at half past eight. To perfect this surgery, Yang Ping used his extra 6,000 points, and spent 2,000 of them in the system space to buy another hundred of the anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction procedures for specialized training, progressing this operation from skilled to perfection level. Director Han was extremely confident in Yang Ping. With every operation, he managed to achieve both speed and quality, flawless. However, curiosity always gets the better of humans. The previous meniscus suturing surgery was not enough for him, for this anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, Director Han decided to go up and observe again. Huang Jiahui didn¡¯t show up. Zhou Can made several calls, but she didn¡¯t pick up. Zhou Can placed the sterile packaged surgical materials on the instrument trolley. Not seeing Huang Jiahui, Song Zimo furrowed his brows, but as Yang Ping didn¡¯t say anything, Song Zimo didn¡¯t plan to voice out his opinion immediately. He decided to talk to the young woman later. She should¡¯ve notified them if she couldn¡¯t make it. ¡°The duration of the surgery?¡± Fatty, out of habit, would always ask this when dealing with a new category of operation. ¡°Half an hour!¡± Yang Ping looked at the MRI of the left knee and the dual knee CT plain scan + 3D reconstruction on the viewing light. The left knee patellofemoral groove was seriously deformed, and reconstruction would have to be performed during the operation. The patellofemoral groove is like an arch-shaped cave, but this cave had now collapsed and needed to be reconstructed. What to reference if the original shape was gone? They had to rely on the right side; the right and left sides mirror each other. ¡°This patellofemoral groove has a high difficulty in reconstruction!¡± Song Zimo pointed out the patellofemoral groove on the image. ¡°The patient went to another hospital and they refused surgery, fearing problems arising from a bad reconstruction. If the reconstruction is not in place, it will cause an impingement after the reconstruction, leading to a complete surgical failure; if the reconstruction is excessive, the patellofemoral joint will lose stability, and new troubles will arise.¡± Yang Ping explained to Song Zimo. Song Zimo took out a folded piece of paper: ¡°Look, this is the left patellofemoral groove that I drew based on the right knee patellofemoral groove CT 3D reconstruction, at 1:1 ratio.¡± Song Zimo unrolled the paper, and Yang Ping took it over. Indeed, it was well-drawn. If it were a simple rough reconstruction, many doctors could do that. But to draw specific and accurate illustrations based on the right side, this spatial imagination ability was absolutely rare, very rare. This kind of spatial imagination ability is not something everyone possesses. It requires talent, one in a million. With the ability to play a blind game of Go, for an entire morning, without missing a single piece or making a mistake, what kind of capacity would that command? A memory and spatial imagination ability that is beyond the reach of ordinary people. Ordinary people think in language, but geniuses think in a large number of images. Song Zimo was a genuine genius, proven! ¡°Get a pen!¡± Yang Ping immediately guided Song Zimo. Song Zimo asked Zhou Can for a blue-black gel pen. Yang Ping brought out the 3D model that had been constructed in his brain in advance. This time, it was much easier compared to the last time, the model stayed in his brain for a longer time, although there were still some slightly blurred parts. Yang Ping instantly filled in the blurred parts with reference to the CT image in front of him. It was not as effortful, although it was still difficult, at least he didn¡¯t break a sweat. Yang Ping drew a new pattern under his own: ¡°When CT performs 3D reconstruction, there may be some image distortions due to pseudo shadows, and we need to correct them. Look, this part shouldn¡¯t bulge out, it should be smooth; here, it should be a bit deeper; and this arc needs a little correction.¡± Song Zimo could only force a smile. He could only draw mirror images based on CT 3D reconstruction images and could not use the original section images to do a reconstruction on the paper. But Yang Ping could. Mr. Ning from the Overseas Chinese Building didn¡¯t have a 3D reconstruction done at that time, only a CT plain scan was done. Yang Ping was able to hand-draw a 3D reconstruction on paper based just on the plain scan images. What terrifying mental power was required? It was beyond human ability. But Yang Ping had done just that, and Song Zimo had seen it with his own eyes. If Song Zimo knew that Yang Ping in front of him actually didn¡¯t need a paper at all, as he could create designs in his mind, he would probably take Yang Ping to do a head CT and MRI scan to see if there were any chips or similar things inside his brain. ¡°Are you discussing the reconstruction of the patellofemoral groove?¡± Director Han put his phone aside on the shelf and came over. Although Director Han had completely let go, he was still very aware of the conditions of the patients in his department. This was a sense of responsibility. He leaned over to look at the papers. These two young men had managed to draw the correct image of the affected side¡¯s patellofemoral groove based on the healthy side¡¯s one. One of them even corrected the pseudo shadows in the reconstruction image. ¡ª Huang Jiahui was not feeling well all night. She had a high fever and was drowsy. She reached out for her mobile phone on the bedside table, squinting her eyes open: ¡°It¡¯s forty past eight! Forty past eight!¡± The surgery started at half past eight, and she should have arrived at the operating room earlier. She was supposed to be at the operating room, standing next to the instrument trolley. She regained her senses instantly, as if a bucket of cold water was poured over her head. Her muscles all over her body were sore and she had a severe stomachache. Her brother didn¡¯t come back last night due to some obligations, otherwise he would have woken her up. Jiahui was on the verge of tears. She immediately got up, dragging her heavy body, rushed to wash up, but first, she had to make a phone call. The operation had already begun, who should she call? Call Song Zimo, Yang Ping seemed to delegate these matters to him. ¡ª The phone on the table vibrated with a call from Huang Jiahui. Zhou Can picks up the phone: ¡°Song Zimo, it¡¯s a call from Huang Jiahui?¡± ¡°You answer it!¡± Song Zimo was busy. Zhou Can answered the call, and after listening, he relayed to Song Zimo: ¡°Huang Jiahui says she¡¯s sorry. She had a high fever from a cold last night, she still has a fever, and is late. She is on her way.¡± ¡°Tell her not to come!¡± Yang Ping had finished examining the knee joint, confirmed an anterior cruciate ligament rupture, and began to prepare to extract the tendon, the semitendinosus and gracilis from the same side. ¡°Little missy, you¡¯re pushing yourself too hard, coming over despite having a high fever. You won¡¯t need to be here for future surgeries,¡± Yang Ping was saying while working. Zhou Can understood Yang Ping¡¯s intention and relayed the message over the phone, ¡°Doctor Yang said you won¡¯t need to come anymore.¡± The level of miscommunication was astounding. Was there a distinction between ¡°you don¡¯t need to come in the future¡± and ¡°don¡¯t come¡±? ¡ª What does not having to come anymore translate to? To put it bluntly, it means scram! You are no longer needed in this sector! Without any prior notice, being absent from surgery is a severe mistake. One of her colleagues had made a professor irate by doing just that, and the professor responded by saying¨Cyou will not have to come in the future. In order to pacify the professor, the company simply fired that colleague. Jiahui was so shocked that she had no desire to brush her teeth or wash her face anymore. Tears streamed down her face as she realized the trouble she was in. She quickly dialed her brother¡¯s number in search of help, but there was only a busy tone. With no other options, she braced herself, quickly freshened up and changed clothes. Ignoring the aching pain in her entire body and lower abdomen, Jiahui picked up her bag and rushed out of the house. A gust of wind made her shiver involuntarily as she crossed her arms to hug herself tightly. ¡ª The movements were so smooth they seemed exaggerated. Making a mere centimeter-long incision in the inner side of the knee, Song Zimo didn¡¯t even have time to see clearly. All he saw were forceps, a scalpel, and a tendon stripper operating in quick succession beneath the small incision. Yang Ping took out two tendons skillfully, extracting to their maximum lengths. Both the semi-tendon and gracilis tendons exceeded thirty centimeters. ¡°Prepare the braided tendon!¡± Yang Ping handed over the two tendons to Song Zimo, and Song Zimo moved to the sterile instrument table to process the tendons. Meanwhile, Little Five held the leg as Yang Ping continued working on the knee joint. The camera was reinserted to trim the meniscus and started forming the intercondylar notch. The quickly spinning drill resembled a carving knife. The severely deformed intercondylar notch of the patient served as a blank canvas, slowly taking on the shape of a perfectly normal intercondylar notch, meticulously carved out by the spinning drill. Next, they used a plasma knife to cauterize the newly formed inner wall of the intercondylar notch to stop bleeding and to deactivate it. This prevented the intercondylar notch from regenerating bone spurs and causing re-narrowing in the future. ¡°Tibial locator!¡± Before Yang Ping could finish speaking, the instrument was already in his hand. He shared a knowing glance with Su Yixuan and continued with the surgery. The pre-adjusted tibial locator was positioned, and the electric drill, guided by a pin, penetrated the tibial plateau to drill a tunnel. Releasing the electric drill and handing it over to Su Yixuan, a second pin was lodged to drill a second tunnel. ¡°Is the tendon ready? Report the size!¡± Yang Ping was waiting. ¡°Professor Yang! It¡¯s an 8-strand, double-bundle reconstruction! Can we slow down?¡± Song Zimo complained, but his hands moved deftly to keep pace with Yang Ping. Being Yang Ping¡¯s assistant required speed and precision. ¡°Length 8 centimeters, diameter of the tibial end 7 millimeters, femoral end 8 millimeters. Both bundles are the same!¡± Song Zimo managed to keep pace effortlessly. ¡°7-millimeter tibial tunnel drill bit!¡± Varoom! The electric drill perfectly drilled two tibial tunnels. ¡°8-millimeter femoral tunnel drill bit!¡± Yang Ping dropped the electric drill; Su Yixuan took it immediately and switched to an 8-millimeter femoral drill bit. Without hesitation, she drilled two femoral tunnels. The thickness of the tunnel was pre-set to 25 millimeters. ¡°Measure the femoral tunnel¡¯s length!¡± The ruler was handed over, with the numbers already set up in reverse. ¡°Two tendons. Anterolateral bundle: 25 millimeters at the femoral end both in thick and thin tunnels. Posteromedial bundle: 25 millimeters in the thick tunnel and 20 millimeters in the thin tunnel at the femoral end. Prepare the tendons quickly!¡± Song Zimo turned up his speed to the max, holding his breath. Just a few seconds after Yang Ping finished speaking, he had already adjusted the length of the suspensory steel plate. The crucial part of this surgery was the shaping of the intercondylar notch and precise double-bundle tendon tunnels. Any mistakes or inaccuracies in positioning could spell surgical failure, and in some cases, result in mobility issues. But Yang Ping finished all of these steps in just a few minutes. The rest of the procedure proceeded even faster. He inserted the tendon into the femoral tunnel, pulled out the cortical bone with a suspensory button, and then pulled back to flip the button. Then, he guided the tendon into the tibial tunnel and secured the tibial end with bioabsorbable interference screws. This was done for both tendons. In this way, both ends of the two tendons were implanted into the bone tissue, allowing them to come back to life later and fulfill the role of the original ligament. The entire surgery essentially replaced the ruptured ligament with a new one, mimicking the work of the original ligament. ¡°Is it finished?¡± It was better not to look at all, each glance made his eyes flicker. Director Han had just left to examine a CT scan for a bit. When he returned to his seat to watch Yang Ping¡¯s surgery in detail, he was surprised to find out that the surgery was already over. At this moment, Huang Jiahui rushed in to see everyone putting away the tools and preparing to remove the sterile drape. It was over, completely over! Jiahui felt a chill in her heart. Chapter 160 - 0154 Medicine, Iron, and Fire Chapter 160: Chapter 0154 Medicine, Iron, and Fire Yang Ping didn¡¯t notice Huang Jiahui, shedding his surgical gown, he went straight out of the operating room, with Jiahui quickly following behind him. ¡°Doctor Yang, I¡¯m sorry!¡± Yang Ping turned around, saw Huang Jiahui following him, and noticed her pale face: ¡°Why are you here?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, today, I¨C¡± Huang Jiahui didn¡¯t know what to say. Seeing her so nervous, Yang Ping knew that she was concerned about being late, so he reassured her: ¡°It¡¯s fine, I heard that you¡¯re running a fever. You¡¯d better go to the outpatient clinic to see a doctor right away and don¡¯t force yourself!¡± Wasn¡¯t she supposed asked to leave? Jiahui was surprised. She cautiously asked: ¡°Doctor Yang, can I still come back? Will our company¡¯s product be taken off the shelf?¡± Now it was Yang Ping¡¯s turn to be surprised. Why would she say such a thing? Remembering that week when Zhou Can called her, he smiled inwardly. She must have misunderstood, such an innocent person. ¡°They¡¯re still on the shelf. Please prepare some linked anchoring screws when you¡¯re free. They will be needed for knee joint quadruple reconstruction in the future.¡± Yang Ping washed his hands in the sink. Jiahui cheered up, nodding vigorously: ¡°Okay, I got it, I¡¯ll prepare them right away. Thank you, Professor Yang.¡± She helped tear off a strip of paper, folded it in half, and handed it to Yang Ping. ¡°No rush, go see a doctor first. Your face is very red, it looks like you¡¯re still running a fever. Do you want me to call a doctor from the Respiratory Clinic for you?¡± Yang Ping took the paper from her and dried his hands. Jiahui shook her head: ¡°No need, thank you, I¡¯ll go myself.¡± Watching Yang Ping¡¯s figure in the operating room corridor, Jiahui felt touched. Her nose tingled, and tears welled up in her eyes, seemingly against her will. Isn¡¯t it said that high-level doctors are difficult to serve? She had heard all kinds of bizarre stories from her seniors in the industry. ¡°Is there anyone you know in the Gamma Knife treatment room?¡± Yang Ping asked Song Zimo in the changing room. ¡°Are you planning to use the Gamma Knife to treat that little girl?¡± Song Zimo guessed. Yang Ping laughed: ¡°Hippocrates once said, what can¡¯t be cured by medicine, should be treated with iron; what can¡¯t be cured by iron, should be treated with fire.¡± By ¡®iron¡¯, he meant surgery; and by ¡®fire¡¯, he meant energy. Radiotherapy is the application of various types of radiant energy. As for the Gamma Knife, it makes use of ultrasonic energy, also known as the High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) system. Compared to various types of radiotherapy, Gamma Knife uses ultrasound waves, which don¡¯t have the side-effects of ionizing radiation. The focused ultrasound waves are capable of targeting tumor tissues in mid-air, killing cancer cells with thermal energy. Tumor cells have a weakness, they are much less heat-resistant than normal cells. High-intensity focused ultrasound is beneficial if precisely targeting, but if not accurately targeted, thermal energy can cause burns to normal tissues. ¡°I know someone there, I¡¯ll give them a call.¡± Song Zimo picked up the phone. Even though Young Master Song appears cold on the outside, his heart is fiery. ¡°Can you take me there now, is it convenient? I want to study the Gamma Knife.¡± Yang Ping had already changed his clothes. Song Zimo fixed his hair: ¡°Sure, it¡¯s very convenient, I will do whatever you ask. If conditions permit, we must do it, if not, we¡¯ll create the conditions to do it.¡± Most of the side effects of the Gamma Knife come from inaccurate positioning, whereby it targets normal tissues instead of tumor tissues, causing burns. If we are able to precisely locate the tumor area, the advantages of the Gamma Knife would be huge. Yang Ping made a gesture: ¡°Medicine, surgery and energy, we need to master all of these. Doctors may specialize in different fields, but medical skills know no boundaries. I plan to use interventional techniques to embolize the tumor¡¯s blood vessels and administer local chemotherapy treatment. After the tumor shrinks, I¡¯ll carry out a precision missile attack with the Gamma Knife.¡± ¡°Based on what you have just said, you can definitely establish a comprehensive tumor treatment system and publish numerous papers on it. If it¡¯s possible, I can write up the papers for you.¡± ¡°You know how to write academic papers?¡± Yang Ping feigned surprise. ¡°That¡¯s an offensive question. My doctoral paper is also published in The Lancet. How many Chinese doctoral candidates are published in The Lancet? Don¡¯t just focus on Su Nanchen!¡± Song Zimo replied with a nonchalant air. Yang Ping suddenly remembered that the Song Zimo in front of him was another Su Nanchen. He had been ordering him around all this time, not paying any heed to him, greatly overlooking him. ¡°Whether it¡¯s pharmaceuticals, surgery, or energy, they are all tools, weapons to cure diseases. Combining their strengths and covering their weaknesses as a cohesive unit can maximize their advantages. In warfare, the coordination of firepower is even important.¡± Yang Ping sat down to rest for a bit. Song Zimo finished his phone call and said: ¡°We¡¯re good to go. Shall we head there now? There aren¡¯t many patients there, most of them are gynecology cases ¡ª uterine fibroids and such.¡± ¡°Lead the way!¡± ¡°Speak up!¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five were pushing and shoving each other, looking really suspicious. Seeing them act like this, Song Zimo¡¯s face darkens: ¡°Did you guys get caught playing games by the medical inspector? Do you need your senior brother to help you argue your case?¡± These two little ones always whisper when they¡¯re up to no good. ¡°No, it¡¯s not that, senior brother.¡± Little Five sat next to Yang Ping, and Zhang Lin also sat down, both of them helping to massage Yang Ping¡¯s shoulders. Zhang Lin hinted at Little Five with winks and grimaces, Little Five saying impatiently: ¡°I know!¡± ¡°Senior brother, you¡¯re trying to find a way to pay for the little girl¡¯s bone tumor treatment, aren¡¯t you? Now there¡¯s a good opportunity, a charitable organization is willing to fund her.¡± ¡°Charitable organization? What charitable organization? You two are not the charitable organization, are you? Thinking of sponsoring her?¡± Yang Ping asked. Little Five immediately said: ¡°Not us, it¡¯s Huang Jiahui¡¯s company. They have quota for charity funding every year. They still have a slot left this year. If we have suitable patients, she can help apply?¡± Yang Ping mulled over this for a while with a smile on his face. This Huang Jiahui, she¡¯s thoughtful. She wants to do charity, so they¡¯ll give her the chance. ¡°Senior brother, what about this?¡± Song Zimo believes this needed more consideration. Yang Ping waved his hand: ¡°Little Five, you go and discuss with her, see if the little girl¡¯s situation fits the company¡¯s standards?¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Little Five said happily. Little Five and Zhang Lin thought that Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t agree, so they didn¡¯t dare to ask. Now that Yang Ping has agreed, they can arrange this without any worries. With a spring in their step, Little Five and Zhang Lin left whilst Yang Ping and Song Zimo were chatting. When they arrived at the Gamma Knife treatment room, there really were not many patients. They had just finished treating a young woman. ¡°Brother Ming?¡± Song Zimo greeted the middle-aged doctor in the operating room. The man was bald and his head shone. Brother Ming got up: ¡°Young Master Song, what brings you here today? Don¡¯t tell me you want to use our Gamma Knife to perform ablation for some special parts?¡± ¡°If I use your tool for ablation, are you treating it as roasting eggs?¡± Song Zimo laughed. ¡°This is Doctor Yang Ping!¡± Song Zimo introduced. ¡°Doctor Yang, a famous figure in the medical world. We haven¡¯t had the pleasure of meeting in person. Our department doesn¡¯t interact much with orthopedics.¡± Brother Ming invited everyone to sit. ¡°Brother Ming, I need your help today.¡± ¡°Young Master Song, don¡¯t be a stranger. Since we do not have many patients, feel free to explore as you like. Consider it as adding to our fun.¡± Originally, Brother Ming was a deputy chief physician in the ultrasound department. A few years ago, when the hospital introduced the Gamma Knife, they sent him abroad to study, so he switched to operating this Gamma Knife machine. Looking at him, his quality of life wasn¡¯t bad, he had an assistant, two nurses, and only a few patients. ¡°Look, the basic data is all here. There are more in the cabinet next door if necessary.¡± Brother Ming and his assistant each brought a stack of thick materials. ¡°The machine is right here. If you want to operate it, wait until we have a patient here. I¡¯ll guide you through it. If you have a foundational understanding of ultrasound technology, it would be simple. But if you don¡¯t, it might be difficult. There¡¯s another patient coming later, she booked an appointment for a uterine myoma.¡± Brother Ming was very enthusiastic. ¡°Now, in the world, most tumor treatment knives, such as the TomoKnife, Beam knife, Gamma Knife, Proton Knife, heavy ion and the relatively new EDGE non-invasive surgical system, are based on the use of radiation. Among them, EDGE is the most advanced, only available at the Henry Ford Hospital Tumor Center in the United States. These are all radiation therapy tools, the only exception is our country¡¯s own HIFU Knife which treats tumors using ultrasound. But since it¡¯s domestically produced, it¡¯s been relatively unknown. I treat mostly gynecology diseases, mainly uterine myoma, I¡¯m becoming a gynecologist. Maybe I should go and talk to Director Mei in the obstetrics and gynecology department and ask if they can take me in.¡± Brother Ming shook his head helplessly. He still has some confidence in the Gamma Knife, but due to the lack of patients, he¡¯s somewhat dissatisfied with this idle life. Doctors are accustomed to the tiring work; they can¡¯t stand to be idle. Yang Ping was reading the materials carefully. A lot of these were internal files of the equipment company, which aren¡¯t available in the library in system space. As for the machine itself, system space doesn¡¯t have that either. ¡°Thank you for helping with my son¡¯s school enrollment.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing, just a phone call.¡± Song Zimo and Brother Ming were chatting, the two seemed to know each other well. It wasn¡¯t until a patient arrived that Yang Ping finished his work and left with Song Zimo. Director Han¡¯s call came in: Mr. Ning has had another turn of health; this time there¡¯s been a massive upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage. He¡¯s been taking anticoagulant drugs, so the massive hemorrhage has now become an issue. It¡¯s not known whether he can pull through this time. Chapter 161 - 0155: The Last Time Chapter 161: Chapter 0155: The Last Time Yang Ping didn¡¯t even have time to eat, he immediately rushed to the Overseas Chinese Building. Director Kong led Yang Ping to the emergency ward, which was already crowded with people. There has been upper gastrointestinal bleeding, and his hemoglobin level is only 45g/l. Since he is on an artificial liver and magic lung, and continues anticoagulation, it is now massive bleeding. Relying solely on the human body¡¯s own coagulation function, stopping the bleeding is simply impossible. So conservative treatment probably won¡¯t work, he must stop the bleeding through gastroscopy. Mr. Ning is already being transfused with blood. Director Gan of the gastroenterology department, along with the doctors, nurses, and anesthesiologists, has pushed the endoscopy equipment to the bedside, preparing to perform bedside endoscopy for hemostasis. Life is fragile, yet it is so persistent. The matter of life, sometimes, is kind of unpredictable. With such low hemoglobin levels, Mr. Ning is surprisingly conscious, but his face extremely pale, his forehead sweating, all shiny. He lies on one side, his body slightly writhing. One of his hands is held tightly by Miss Ning, and the other hand is gripping the bedsheets hard. He is doing his last resistance himself. The anesthesiologist wanted to use propofol for general anesthesia, but he refused. ¡°What time is the flight? Qiqi!¡± Mr. Ning is very weak and seems to pass out at any moment. ¡°The flight was at 15:55 yesterday afternoon, Canada time. It should arrive at Nandu Airport at 21:30 tonight, and here around 11 o¡¯clock.¡± Miss Ning helped her father wipe the sweat off his forehead, which was very greasy. ¡°I don¡¯t think I can hold on much longer. I know I won¡¯t make it this time! Please help me! Can you help me hold on until tonight? I¡¯m really scared that I won¡¯t wake up after the anesthesia. It will be a great help, Doctor Yang, could you stay aside?¡± Seeing Yang Ping, Mr. Ning grabbed Yang Ping¡¯s hand. Every time, Yang Ping was able to pull him back from the brink of death. In his heart, Yang Ping is a god who can guard the flame of life, allowing it to burn a little longer. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll stay here!¡± Yang Ping slapped Mr. Ning¡¯s back of hand with his other hand. ¡°We can¡¯t skip anesthesia, it¡¯s too painful.¡± Director Gan, with his assistant, has put on a disposable sterile suit, a sterile hat, mask, and sterile gloves, quickly preparing the instruments by smearing lubricating oil on the lens. ¡°I can do it!¡± Mr. Ning was stubborn. Tears welled up in Miss Ning¡¯s eyes, seeming this time it was really a goodbye. She suddenly grabbed Yang Ping¡¯s hand: ¡°Doctor Yang, could you please figure out a way.¡± She wanted to let her father see his son one last time, to untie her father¡¯s knot of ten years, to fulfill his last wish, so he could leave this world without any regret. She realized that she was too excited, lost her composure, and immediately let go. Yang Ping nodded his head: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll figure out a way! Director Gan, don¡¯t use anesthesia. Let¡¯s get started. He can do it.¡± What kind of solutions could he find? It¡¯s all about giving him a glimmer of hope, a little comfort in his final moments. Mr. Ning nodded his head. He lay on his side. His colleagues in the endoscopy room moved swiftly and skillfully. The nurse has laid down a disposable sterile sheet and sat next to him, supporting Mr. Ning¡¯s head. ¡°Open your mouth!¡± Once Mr. Ning opened his mouth, Director Gan skillfully put in the endoscope. The endoscope, like a snake, instantly went deep into his throat, sucked away some phlegm, then went into the esophagus. Probably because of the air stimulus, peristalsis occurred in the esophagus. Director Gan didn¡¯t even wait for the wave of peristalsis to pass, he directly and skillfully pushed the endoscope in, all the way into the stomach. ¡°This kind of emergency gastroscope, carries a huge risk, especially under no anesthesia, the irritations of gastroscope can cause vomiting, vomiting can cause aspiration!¡± Director Gan said as he was performing the procedure. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, his lungs are virtually inactive now, it is being replaced by the magic lung, carry on.¡± Yang Ping was on the side watching the screen. He, too, had put on a sterile suit, a hat, a mask, and gloves. Miss Ning also encouraged Director Gan: ¡°We have signed the informed consent form, we are willing to bear any consequences.¡± ¡°Can the family member please step outside?¡± Director Gan heard Miss Ning¡¯s voice and realized there was still a family member in there. Miss Ning was reluctant to let go, but Yang Ping said, ¡°Let her stay!¡± Director Kong had already greeted Director Gan. For this patient, what mattered most was that Yang Ping was present. Any treatment would be much more effective whenever Yang Ping was around. Director Gan didn¡¯t say anything and continued the endoscope procedure. ¡°You see the source of the bleeding. It should be a rupture of esophageal varices at the stomach base caused by portal hypertension. Look, there is blood everywhere, still flowing. Very fierce. If we can¡¯t stop it, transfusion is useless. The coagulation factors are consumed quickly, causing disseminated intravascular coagulation which is even more dangerous.¡± Director Gan showed Yang Ping the screen. The stomach shown on the screen is full of surging blood. They can¡¯t keep up with suction. It sucks the blood away, more flares up. ¡°Such a fierce bleeding from esophageal varices at the stomach base, it¡¯s quite rare.¡± Director Gan was calm and collected. His experience told. ¡°Ice saline water, wash it with adrenaline!¡± The assistant had already prepared. The ice saline water went into the stomach through the forceps channel, which is the instrument channel, normally it could contract the blood vessels. But now it doesn¡¯t seem too effective, same as before. ¡°Still blind to the bleeding spot. I can¡¯t find the source of the blood.¡± Director Gan¡¯s operation was very skillful, but under these circumstances, indeed it is hard to find. ¡°Electrocoagulate for hemostasis. The only thing we can do now is to electrocoagulated at the rough position of anatomy.¡± The special cautery for gastroscopy went into the stomach through the instrument channel smoothly, arrived at the base of the stomach. Relying on his rich experience, Director Gan electrocoagulated a few spots at the possible bleeding locations. Emergency medicine has its own way of thinking. Director Gan had encountered situations like this before. He knew what to do. After a few electrocoagulations, it seemed a bit better. But instantly, it went back to its original state. Still no use. ¡°Titanium clip hemostasis!¡± This was the last resort, also the most effective. Directly send the titanium clips into the stomach, clamp it to the bleeding spot. ¡°If that doesn¡¯t work, I¡¯ll send a few more clips into it. Hopefully, it can clamp it and stop the bleeding. Saving his life first is the priority. What¡¯s his blood pressure now?¡± Having his left hand placed on the operating end of the scope and his right hand holding the applicator¡¯s handle, Director Gan sent the titanium clip into the stomach through the instrument channel. ¡°82/40mmHg!¡± Although not under anesthesia, but the anesthesiologist was responsible for the monitoring. In the room, only the sound of the machine was heard, beep beep. Estimating the approximate location of the bleeding, one titanium clip clamped it, one squeeze, the titanium clip was in place, the applicator was pulled out. ¡°Continue, give me another one.¡± Director Gan was very stable and composed in the face of danger. The bleeding persisted, even after Director Gan had placed three titanium clips consecutively. It was not working. ¡°What¡¯s going on today?¡± Director Gan¡¯s confidence wavered. That¡¯s how it is with doctors. When their last resort fails to produce the anticipated outcome, their confidence naturally suffers. Yang Ping was not a specialist in gastroscopy and thus hesitated to interfere. Yet he noted commonalities in the procedure he observed. Every time the blood was suctioned away, he could discern the spot of hemorrhage, demonstrating the keenness honed through his systemic examination training. ¡°Look, that¡¯s the bleeding point!¡± Yang Ping pointed it out. ¡°Where? I can¡¯t see clearly!¡± Director Gan followed where Yang Ping was pointing. ¡°May I try?¡± Yang Ping proposed. The proposal was somewhat unconventional but unavoidable. He believed he could stem the bleeding. Where the others couldn¡¯t discern clearly, he could. Director Gan turned to give Yang Ping a look. Being a reasonable man himself, he figured it wouldn¡¯t hurt to let Yang Ping have a go, especially since they had run out of options. His motto was to treat a dying horse like a living horse-doctor. If they weren¡¯t getting anywhere, why not let someone else try? Yang Ping was a respected and trusted doctor ¨C a surgeon. He clearly had experience and confidence in performing gastroscopies. Having him involved would help distribute the risk at hand. ¡°Come on, Doctor Yang. Give it a try.¡± Director Gan made room for him. Yang Ping took the gastroscopy equipment from him. After fiddling with the instruments to familiarize himself with them, he quickly got the hang of it. There were similarities between arthroscopy and gastroscopy; both required disconnected hand-eye operations. The systematic long-term training not only enhanced Yang Ping¡¯s skills but also helped elevate his innate abilities. His confidence wasn¡¯t blind; he really picked it up quickly. ¡°Remove the blood. Keep removing the blood!¡± Director Gan directed from the sidelines. He wanted to make a graceful exit ¨C if Yang Ping succeeded where he failed, these instructions would show that he could still share the credit. For him, it was a matter of saving face. In the short period when the blood had been suctioned out, Yang Ping immediately clamped the bleeding point. Just one attempt, and he swiftly nailed it. Once the accumulated blood was suctioned out, the bleeding ceased. He fixed a titanium clip in place, removed the holding device, and solved the problem with a single clip. ¡°No more bleeding! Doctor Yang, your skills are truly miraculous. Undoubtedly, you are the one who performed the five-segment replantation.¡± Director Gan was forthright in his praise. ¡°Where, where. I¡¯m just having some good luck these days. That¡¯s why I wanted to give it a try. Without Director Gan¡¯s guidance, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to do this.¡± Yang Ping modestly replied, giving Director Gan a face-saving exit. ¡°Well, there¡¯s that!¡± Said Director Gan, readily seizing upon the offered respect. ¡°Take a blood sample, quickly test for complete blood count and DIC panel, and monitor dynamically, every hour.¡± Director Gan issued the verbal order, which the nurses immediately executed. Miss Ning wiped away her tears, ¡°Has the bleeding stopped?¡± ¡°Yes, it has.¡± Yang Ping handed over the equipment to Director Gan. After washing with an ice salt solution, Director Gan performed a thorough check, no other spots of hemorrhage to be found. He suctioned out the gas from the stomach, put in a gastric tube, then withdrew the scope. Mr. Ning had been grappling with nausea throughout, once the scope was removed, he promptly vomited. Mixed with the blood was saline solution; this mess covered the bed and floor. The nurses were already accustomed to this and promptly cleaned up the mess. The deft orderly nearby hastened to help. After Director Gan¡¯s assistant tidied up the equipment and machine, and retreated, the nurses busied themselves cleaning up the waste. The janitorial staff mopped the floor first with a wet mop, then with a dry mop. With the exception of the attending physician and the critical illness management team, everyone else exited the room. Mr. Ning seemed to want to say something, but due to the taxing ordeal of vomiting and the uncomfortable gastroscopy, he was too overwhelmed to articulate anything momentarily. He just pointed at Yang Ping. Miss Ning quickly fell in step with Yang Ping, ¡°Doctor Yang, could you please wait a moment?¡± Yang Ping paused, ¡°Director Kong, I¡¯ll stay for a while.¡± Miss Ning felt a pang of guilt for always imposing on him, ¡°Sorry, Doctor Yang. It seems that my father wants to speak with you.¡± This time again, Doctor Yang had helped him through a critical juncture. Both Mr. Ning and Miss Ning had noticed this, and it had touched their hearts. Yang Ping went to the bedside. At a time like this, he would halt for any patient. In his eyes, there were no billionaires¨C only patients. Mr. Ning pointed downward. ¡°Please sit!¡± Miss Ning moved a chair over. Yang Ping sat down. What Mr. Ning needed right now was comfort. At the brink of life, people often desire something for solace. Some turn to God, while Mr. Ning turned to Yang Ping. ¡°Can you stay with me?¡± Mr. Ning finally managed to utter this sentence. The next one seemed a long time coming. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°I will stay right here. Don¡¯t worry.¡± Mr. Ning slightly nodded, a smile eerily present on his face. Miss Ning felt awkward at imposing on a doctor to keep watch. However, seeing her father¡¯s satisfied smile, she said, ¡°Doctor Yang, I apologize for troubling you.¡± ¡°No problem! I¡¯ll just stay here.¡± Yang Ping knew that the massive blood loss and subsequent blood transfusion would soon likely result in disseminated intravascular coagulation. He wouldn¡¯t survive the night. Indeed, he wouldn¡¯t make it through this time. What reason could there be to deny a dying man¡¯s simple request? ¡°What time is it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a little past noon.¡± ¡°That¡¯s still quite a long time.¡± Mr. Ning squinted his eyes and lay down. Chapter 162 - 0156: Endless Waiting Chapter 162: Chapter 0156: Endless Waiting ¡°Doctor Yang, I will keep an eye on things here; you should go and eat. If anything happens, we will call you immediately!¡± Dr. Cheng, who had been watching over the patient¡¯s bed, returned from his lunch break. Miss Ning¡¯s eyes were still swollen red. Indeed, they had not yet eaten lunch because of the earlier rescue effort. ¡°Doctor Yang, we truly appreciate everything you¡¯re doing. Please go, we will call you if anything happens.¡± ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll step out for a bit, only for about ten minutes.¡± Yang Ping prepared to leave for his meal. It was necessary to eat when time allowed to stay energized for future emergency rescues. Yang Ping carefully checked all the device parameters again, scrutinized the urine bag and took note of the recorded urine output by the bedside. The urine output was relatively low, only 150 ml/hour, even though he had administered 40mg of Furosemide for diuresis. Renal failure was likely imminent, followed by multiple organ failure, pushing all bodily functions toward the brink of collapse. As he exited the emergency room and walked down the corridor, he noticed Xiao Su standing not far off. Had she come to deliver food? He felt a rush of emotion. ¡°I tried calling and sending you messages on WeChat but you didn¡¯t respond. I ran into Song Zimo and Tang Fei in the cafeteria, and they told me you joined the rescue operation. I was denied entry at the door, so I called Director Han, who asked Director Kong to come out and collect me,¡± Xiao Su explained with a smile. ¡°The food is still warm. Please eat quickly!¡± Xiao Su guided Yang Ping to the dining room. As they sat across from each other, Yang Ping ate in a hurry without uttering a word. Xiao Su comforted him, ¡°I heard about the patient¡¯s condition. Some situations are beyond our control. Just do your best.¡± After finishing his meal, Yang Ping looked up, ¡°I¡¯ve been a doctor for many years and it¡¯s still hard to watch a patient¡¯s life slip away in front of my eyes.¡± ¡°I understand you!¡± Xiao Su handed him a tissue. ¡°I might have to stay here today; the patient requested that I remain on standby.¡± Yang Ping said softly. Xiao Su cleared away the dishes and chopsticks, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll bring you dinner later and even make a late-night snack if need be.¡± Director Han exited Director Kong¡¯s office and called for Yang Ping. As Yang Ping stepped out from the dining room to answer the call, he saw Director Han waiting by the nurse¡¯s station. ¡°Yang, you¡¯ve been working hard today. Mr. Ning specifically asked you to lead the rescue efforts. Don¡¯t worry, the department is being managed by me and Song Zimo. You don¡¯t need to stay in the emergency room constantly, take a rest in the duty room if needed. They will call you if anything happens. If you have any questions, contact me anytime. Remember, your health is the most important. Got that?¡± After Director Han finished advising Yang Ping, he turned and instructed Director Kong to ensure Yang Ping got some rest, hinting that he wouldn¡¯t lend his staff for overworking if it were to happen again. Over in the Overseas Chinese Building¡¯s office, the atmosphere was bustling. Department directors gathered for interdisciplinary consultations on the rescue operation. Director Zhao from the Medical Department had stopped by several times, as did Dean Xia to keep apprised of the patient¡¯s condition. To prevent disrupting the rescue efforts, anyone not directly involved in the clinical emergency effort were staying in the office. Mr. Ning, a major entrepreneur in G City, had assets nearing one trillion in his conglomerate, a genuinely behemoth enterprise. News of his hospitalisation was kept a secret, especially the news of his worsening condition. Any negative news could cause fluctuations in his companies¡¯ share prices and trigger a steep personnel upheaval. The hospital strengthened security measures in the Overseas Chinese Building. The entrance to the floor was secured, with additional security personnel stationed upstairs and downstairs to keep reporters and strangers out. Private bodyguards from the Ning Family were also allowed to station inside the hospital in cooperation with hospital security. Any hospital staff that wanted to enter had to get approval from Director Kong, while any of Ning¡¯s family members had to receive approval from Miss Ning¡¯s secretary. ¡°The hemoglobin level has started to improve, reaching 60. However, his coagulation function is not looking optimistic. The D-dimer level is unusually high as well. We¡¯ve increased the anticoagulant dosage, but there¡¯s a risk of disseminated intravascular coagulation at any moment. If microthrombi develop in the brain, it could cause extensive brain infarction.¡± Director Wei, who had rich ICU experience and was responsible for the emergency ward in the Overseas Chinese Building, was showing Yang Ping the latest test results. Multiple organ failure, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and extensive cerebral infarction were all immediate problems they were facing. In such a desperate situation, all they could do was hold on, for as long as possible. Director Wei¡¯s team, along with Yang Ping and Dr. Cheng, constituted a total of nine people guarding the emergency ward. ¡°Doctor Yang, please have a seat.¡± said Director Wei. Everyone, whether doctors or nurses, showed great respect to Yang Ping. The fact that he had been the chief surgeon on a five-section replantation procedure might not be known to outsiders, but it was well known amongst the hospital staff. From the first nerve root block analgesia, the second placing of the extracorporeal lung device to the recent endoscopy for hemostasis, Yang Ping seemingly could do everything. His exceptional performance with the endoscope earned him the respect of everyone calling him the epitome of a skilled doctor. ¡°Qiqi, check the time.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a little past three.¡± ¡°Is time moving this slowly?¡± As Mr. Ning spoke, one could see through his skin to the outline of the muscles in his neck. His forehead, face, and neck were all sweating. Miss Ning had wiped his sweat several times; it was thick and greasy. Yet, his spirit seemed to be improving, in stark contradiction to his worsening condition. ¡°When you were young, I was busy with business. I didn¡¯t spend enough time with you. Now, if I try to recall your brother¡¯s face back then, I wouldn¡¯t be able to get a clear image without any photos. I am sorry, my children. If only I¡¯d spent more time with you, more time with your brother, perhaps things wouldn¡¯t have turned out this way.¡± Mr. Ning spoke the words clearly and effortlessly. ¡°Dad, don¡¯t say anymore. I know everything ¨C that everything you did was for us¨C¡± Miss Ning tried to suppress her emotions. ¡°Raise the bed a bit higher; give me the picture to look at again.¡± Mr. Ning tried sitting up. Miss Ning gave Mr. Ning a small framed picture from the head of the bed. It was a photo of his son, likely from high school. The boy, still in his teens, was playing a violin. Miss Ning raised the bed, padded the pillows behind Mr. Ning for him to lean against, semi-reclining. As he looked at the photo, with moist eyes and touching the image tenderly, he said, ¡°This child¨C¡± ¡°D-dimer continues to rise, going beyond ten thousand! His hourly urine output is decreasing, now only amounting to 90 milliliters ¨C anuria. Blood potassium reached 6.2mmmol/l!¡± Director Wei discussed with Yang Ping. ¡°Acute renal failure!¡± Yang Ping exclaimed. ¡°Dialysis?¡± Director Wei suggested before quickly rejecting his own proposition, ¡°It¡¯s pointless to do dialysis at this point. The DIC panel results have come in; disseminated intravascular coagulation has already begun.¡± Still, Director Wei went ahead and connected the bedside hemofiltration machine, in order to prevent hyperkalemia from causing cardiac arrest. ¡°We can¡¯t increase the dosage of anticoagulants anymore. Increase it further and any part of the body, the cranial cavity? The chest cavity? Or the abdominal cavity? You name it. It could start hemorrhaging.¡± Yang Ping said, looking at the lab results on the computer screen. ¡°Shall we switch the ECMO to V-A mode?¡± Director Wei suggested. After a moment of consideration, Yang Ping responded, ¡°In V-A mode, blood in the heart could stagnate, which makes it more likely to form clots. Let¡¯s keep it in V-V mode!¡± Miss Ning kept looking at the clock, anxious and flustered, without any resolution at hand. All she could do was to wait. The state of Mr. Ning, however, continued to improve, his dim eyes unusually sparkled with intent. ¡°Everyone has been troubled during these times, especially you, Doctor Yang. When there¡¯s something on a person¡¯s mind, it affects everything else they do.¡± Mr. Ning spoke to Yang Ping, who was at his side monitoring the heart monitor. Yang Ping smiled at him, ¡°Don¡¯t mention it!¡± ¡°Qiqi, bring out the list!¡± Mr. Ning instructed his daughter. Miss Ning pulled out the list from her document bag, ¡°Dad, we¡¯ve gone over this several times already.¡± Mr. Ning said seriously, ¡°I will go over it one last time, you must listen carefully. The people crossed out on this list are those whom I have permanently removed for you; never rehire them. The ones circled are loyal, but because your qualifications didn¡¯t hold up, I¡¯ve had to sideline them. Eventually, you should restore them to their original positions gradually. In this way, they will be forever grateful to you and aid you wholeheartedly. Uncle Nong is the most trustworthy, but do not overly trust anyone; people change. In our position, we cannot afford to let emotions cloud our judgement. My dear, you are too kind-hearted; that¡¯s what I¡¯m most worried about.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, father; I know what I¡¯m doing.¡± Miss Ning put the list away. Mr. Ning stroke his daughter¡¯s hair gently, ¡°From now on, the Ning family depends on you¨C¡± The whole afternoon was calm. Though his condition continued to worsen, his spirits remained inexplicably high ¨C like the last gleam of sunshine before an avalanche. In the evening, Xiao Su brought over dinner. She had made it herself. She ate with Yang Ping, and after they finished, she wanted to stay with him. But worried about the implications it might have, she decided against it. Mr. Ning lay back against the pillows at the head of the bed, eyes shut, mumbling and muttering about past experiences, memories spilling out of him in bits and pieces. Time slipped away with the hum and whir of the machines. ¡°Qiqi, what time is it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s eleven o¡¯clock.¡± Chapter 163 - 0157: Missed Chapter 163: Chapter 0157: Missed The plane arrived at Nandu airport at 9:30 pm, but now it¡¯s 11 o¡¯clock and the person still hasn¡¯t arrived. ¡°Has the plane landed?¡± Mr. Ning sounded a little tired, his voice raspy. ¡°Arrived a while ago, Xiao Feng has picked up Uncle Nong and your brother, they are on their way to the hospital.¡± Miss Ning sent one more message on WeChat urging them. ¡°Why haven¡¯t they arrived? This child...¡± Mr. Ning¡¯s eyelids were heavy, he finished his sentence, closed his eyes, and rested. The room was quiet, only the sound of machines. Blood was flowing in and out through various tubes. The doctor constantly checked the machines, analyzed the returned test data, issued various medical advice. The nurses were busy carrying out the doctor¡¯s orders, making timely nursing records. ¡°The blood oxygen has started to drop!¡± The doctor in charge of the ventilator reported. ¡°There is a thrombus forming, the efficiency of blood exchange has decreased!¡± Director Wei analyzed. After a while, Mr. Ning said with his eyes closed: ¡°Qiqi, why is it so dark, don¡¯t turn off the light!¡± Miss Ning looked at the lights in the room; they were on. Her heart lurched, and she tightly held her father¡¯s hand. ¡°Dad, all the lights are on, don¡¯t be scared!¡± The sound of several machines was a bit noisy, and the monitor occasionally emitted beeping alarm sounds. ¡°Look!¡± The latest blood test results came out. Director Wei quietly called Yang Ping to take a look. All the checked tests are shown. Normal results are in gray, high indicators are in red, low ones are in blue. Now, all of Mr. Ning¡¯s lab tests are either red or blue. And critical values, the critical point when a patient¡¯s life is endangered, the lab will report a critical value. There would be a special plum blossom mark next to a critical value. Now, there are not one or two critical values on the lab test report but clusters of them. One phone call after another rang on the nurse¡¯s desk in the emergency ward. A nurse answered the phone, jotting down critical values while listening, without stopping. Considering all the reported lab tests, Yang Ping and Director Wei sighed helplessly in their hearts: multi-organ failure, disseminated intravascular coagulation, acute pulmonary embolism, acute myocardial infarction, acute cerebral infarction have all started. Mr. Ning¡¯s physiological functions as a living being have already begun to avalanche. Time was slipping away, the candle was almost burned out, the flame was flickering in the wind of the dark night, the tiny weak flame was about to extinguish. Life always has an end, only some people leave quietly, while others keep looking back and waiting. ¡ª ¡°Xiao Feng, hurry up!¡± Uncle Nong kept checking his watch, clutching his pants with both hands, his palms full of sweat. ¡°It¡¯s been ten years, he must have forgotten he has a son. I grew up under his scolding. In his eyes, I¡¯m just a loser, everything I did, he hated it, looked down on it. I loved music, but he didn¡¯t understand. Dismissive when I won a school violin award by hurling my prize ¨C a bronze violin model ¨C into the trash calling it a waste of time, child¡¯s play. I can never forget that moment, never! Really, never! Since then, it became clear to me that he didn¡¯t recognize me as his son, he gave up on me. I don¡¯t care, I have my own life and I don¡¯t need to live according to his will.¡± Xiao Ning scoffed, shook his head, his gaze fixed outside the window. He looked exhausted, holding a bag in his arms, his curly long hair embodying his artistic temperament. ¡°You¡¯re wrong! He loves you profoundly, although in a way you don¡¯t like, he has never given up on you. When you were jailed and didn¡¯t want to see him, on each of your birthdays, he would squat outside the prison smoking alone, regardless of whether it was raining, snowing, from dawn to dusk. You left without saying goodbye after being released from prison, he went to great lengths to search for you, even though he knew some leads were deceitful, he still rushed there without hesitation; do you remember the essay you wrote in middle school ¡ª My Dream? In it, you wrote about your most desired life, singing in a bar and playing the violin, you described that beautiful bar in your dream. Inspired by your essay, he built a bar, every brick and tile was installed by him personally. For this, he even fell and fractured his lumbar spine, and was bedridden for a whole month and a half; in these ten years, he¡¯s been calling your name in his dreams, longing to sit down with you, face to face, and chat properly.¡± Uncle Nong appeared exhausted, his voice hoarse. Xiao Ning remained silent, staring out the window, clutching the bag tightly in his arms. ¡°Do you remember this place? The old factory area, which has now been demolished. You and Qiqi lived here when you were children. When the factory closed, everyone was laid off. I started venturing into business with your father, do you know the hardships we went through then? Of course you wouldn¡¯t know, because your father never told you. Let¡¯s not talk about that anymore. After your mother passed away, he never remarried, why? For fear of you being aggrieved! Given his status, would it be difficult for him to remarry? He not only didn¡¯t remarry, he didn¡¯t even have any scandals, why? All to take your sister¡¯s and your feelings into consideration! If he didn¡¯t care about you or you two, he could have 10 or 8 sons, why would he need to wait so eagerly for you to return now? For the child you injured, he sends money over every month, beyond compensation, every Spring Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and the child¡¯s birthday, he personally visits. What is he doing? He¡¯s atoning for you, atoning for you!¡± Uncle Nong started to cough from getting too emotional. Xiao Ning took a deep breath, feeling a tightness in his chest, a dull pain. The old factory area was now lined with tall buildings, the buildings of his childhood no longer existed, but some childhood memories were still vivid. ¡°Daddy, my stomach hurts a lot!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid, daddy is here, we¡¯ll be at the hospital soon.¡± When Xiao Ning was five, he had acute appendicitis. He had abdominal pain and a high fever in the middle of the night. Coincidentally that night a typhoon hit, it was stormy and the buses stopped running, there was not a single car on the road. The ambulance might have been obstructed on the road and was still not there. His father wrapped him in a raincoat, held him, and ran to the hospital in the storm. ¡°Son! There are some things, if you miss them, you will regret it for a lifetime; some things, once lost, will never have a chance to be made up for!¡± Uncle Nong handed Xiao Ning a tissue. Wiping away his tears, Xiao Ning continued to stand in silence, gazing out the window. Uncle Nong¡¯s phone rang, a lump formed in his throat, a wave of dread washed over him. ¡°Uncle Nong, father¡¯s condition is deteriorating rapidly!¡± Miss Ning¡¯s voice trembled over the phone. ¡°Hurry up, Xiao Feng!¡± Urged Uncle Nong, tears streaming down his face, the Rolls-Royce hurrying through the darkness of the night. ¡°Your father is deteriorating¨C¡± Uncle Nong spoke gravely, incessantly gripping his thigh, gazing out the window. Xiao Ning sniffled, ¡°Faster¨C¡± ¡ª Suddenly, Mr. Ning started fumbling for something under his pillow. Miss Ning reached in to help him and retrieved a small, exquisitely crafted, copper violin model. ¡°When you see him, give this to him and tell him that I love him and that he is the best!¡± The frail, trembling hand placed the small violin in Miss Ning¡¯s palm. He then maneuvered himself to a semi-supine position, lay still, and turned his head to one side, towards the door. Mr. Ning closed his eyes. His voice was barely audible, he muttered: ¡°Qiqi, leave the door open. You stay, send the doctors out. Thank you, thank you, Doctor Yang, for all your hard work!¡± Time silently slipped away, such is life! After a long while, Mr. Ning let out a sigh. His voice was even softer. ¡°The boat has arrived, it¡¯s time for me to go, this child¨C¡± ¡°Qiqi, it¡¯s dark outside, go call your brother home¨C¡± His head remained turned towards the door. He fell silent; two streams of tears cascaded down his face. ¡°Father!¡± Miss Ning knelt beside the bed, clenching her father¡¯s hand, which was chillingly cold. The wave pattern on the cardiac monitor fluctuated wildly, then straightened to a flat line. ¡ª As the elevator doors opened, Miss Ning¡¯s secretary stepped forward to greet them. Without waiting for her to speak, Uncle Nong dashed in with Xiao Ning. The secretary immediately alerted the security to let them through. ¡°Hurry! The last room!¡± Their footsteps echoed hurriedly. Xiao Ning, burdened with his bag and struggling to catch his breath, followed behind Uncle Nong¡¯s hefty figure who kept urging them forward, pointing towards the last ward. Reaching the entrance, they found the door open and the room empty save for the cleaning staff inside. He recognized his sister sitting calmly at the bedside. Xiao Ning walked steadily towards his father¡¯s empty bed and asked blankly: ¡°Sis! Where¡¯s dad?¡± ¡°He¡¯s gone. He asked me to wait for you here!¡± She handed over a small copper violin model. ¡°He has kept this under his pillow for ten years, he asked me to give this back to you!¡± ¡°Before he left, he said he loves you, and you are the best!¡± Chapter 164 - 0158: Love, Must Be Voiced Out Chapter 164: Chapter 0158: Love, Must Be Voiced Out Life, ah¨C The patient persevered for so long, but in the end, he couldn¡¯t wait for his son and left with regrets. As a doctor for these years, I have seen countless partings of life and death, but this one pierced Yang Ping¡¯s heart the most. At the last moments of life, that look back, waiting, helplessness, sigh! It breaks one¡¯s heart! It was almost two in the morning, the streetlights dim, the overpass empty, the stalls had long been deserted. The winter in the south was also cold, Yang Ping, wearing only a shirt, stood alone on the overpass, allowing the cold wind to blow in his face, entirely forgetting to shiver. ¡°I love you!¡± He gathered the courage to send a WeChat message to Xiao Su. ¡°I love you!¡± Xiao Su immediately replied. ¡°Where are you?¡± ¡°On the overpass!¡± ¡°Wait for me!¡± ¡°Mhmm¡± Yang Ping leaned on the railing, his field of view dimly lit. At this moment, he really wanted a cigarette. Now he understood why, sometimes, in dimly lit places, you would see people smoking alone. Xiao Su had already stood by his side without him noticing. She was wearing a long down coat and holding another one in her arm. She quietly approached and draped the down coat over Yang Ping. ¡°The patient is gone?¡± ¡°Yes, he didn¡¯t get to see his son one last time. I couldn¡¯t help him.¡± ¡°You did everything you could.¡± ¡°Increasing anticoagulation, switching the lung machine to V-A mode might have bought a few more hours.¡± ¡°That¡¯s unpredictable, it could have been worse!¡± ¡°He left without seeing the person he wanted to see, without saying the words he wanted to say!¡± ¡°Life is always full of regrets!¡± Yang Ping turned and took Xiao Su¡¯s hand and placed it in his own, warming it: ¡°I love you!¡± Then he tightly pulled Xiao Su into his arms, Xiao Su pressed against his chest, holding tightly to Yang Ping, her heart pounding. ¡°I love you too!¡± Life, ah¨C Love, it needs to be spoken out loud. In the cold wind, under the streetlight, on the overpass, the two of them held each other tightly. It took a long time for Yang Ping to gradually separate from Xiao Su, holding her beautiful face, staring at her. Xiao Su was trembling all over and slowly closed her eyes. Yang Ping gently, slowly, pressed his lips against hers, their two frantic, fiery hearts collided in the cold wind. The greatest distance in the world is not between life and death, but when I stand in front of you and you don¡¯t know I love you! ¡ª The sun rose as usual, but the weather was getting colder. Considering that Yang Ping had been up all night saving Mr. Ning, Director Han allowed Yang Ping to rest for the day. The surgery for the Chinese patient from Singapore was handed over to Song Zimo. It was a procedure to treat ischemic necrosis of the left femoral head by core decompression and ceramic stick implantation, a hip preservation procedure. Song Zimo¡¯s surgery was excellent, but his brilliance was only overshadowed by Yang Ping. Whether it was open surgery, surgery under the microscope, or arthroscopy, he performed all with beautiful proficiency. During lunchtime, Yang Ping freshened up. Since he had nothing else to do, he decided to take a round in the ward, then go to the cafeteria to have lunch with Xiao Su. Song Zimo had completed his surgery and was engrossed in examining the X-rays and MRIs of his newly admitted patients. When he saw Yang Ping enter, he was surprised: ¡°Why are you here, aren¡¯t you supposed to be resting? I¡¯m on the wards, don¡¯t worry!¡± Yang Ping sat next to him: ¡°It¡¯s fine, I had enough sleep. I came over to see if we have a new patient.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a case of an unstable right knee joint. A month ago, the patient had a history of dislocating the right knee joint, a PCL-A[L-M], ACL-P[L-M] injury, along with instability at the patellofemoral joint. Professor Zhang admitted the case. He said that you¡¯d be able to handle the surgery without any issues. He has absolute confidence in your skills.¡± Song Zimo explained the condition of the newly admitted patient. ¡°It¡¯s truly a PCL-A[L-M], ACL-P[L-M] injury!¡± After checking the scans, Yang Ping concluded that this case was even more severe than Su Nanchen¡¯s patient. ¡°How should we proceed? Step-by-step surgery or a single-phase procedure?¡± Song Zimo asked. Yang Ping responded: ¡°Complete it in one go!¡± ¡°Can we proceed with the surgery in one go? Is it feasible?¡± Song Zimo was still unsure. This surgery was quite complex. Without experience with at least a hundred such operations, it would be challenging to master the balance control required for successful reconstructive procedures aiming to restore knee joint stability. Stability hinged on balance. Where would Yang Ping go to get experience with a hundred such surgeries? He was well aware of the standard of sports medicine at the City People¡¯s Hospital. It was a mere trickle. Even the few cases they encountered each year were handled by First Attached Hospital. ¡°Why divide a procedure that can be done at once? Are you complaining about a lack of surgical opportunities?¡± Yang Ping scoffed at him. Song Zimo had hit a dead-end, but he didn¡¯t care. He was already beaten black and blue; a few taunts couldn¡¯t hurt him anymore. Yet Song Zimo cautioned, ¡°It¡¯s challenging to master this balance.¡± As young people, it¡¯s easy to get carried away. He knew he too sometimes needed someone to keep him grounded. ¡°If the balance isn¡¯t correctly established and revisions are needed, it would be troublesome. The options for the selection of tendons are not good,¡± Song Zimo pointed out. ¡°Relax, completing the surgery in one go is actually better as it offers better control over balance. Division of the procedure is the helpless choice of those whose skills are not up to the mark. We certainly don¡¯t need to resort to that,¡± said Yang Ping, nonchalantly. ¡°What about that little girl?¡± Yang Ping recalled. Song Zimo answered, ¡°I checked up on her during rounds. She¡¯s doing quite well.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go and check on her. You continue analyzing this patient¡¯s scans.¡± Ping went alone to see the little girl, who was playing with a Rubik¡¯s cube. She was surprisingly fast with the 3¡Á3 cube. ¡°You are so good at this! You can solve the Rubik¡¯s cube so quickly!¡± Yang Ping complimented her. ¡°I¡¯m not good. I lost to that big brother,¡± the little girl said, looking upset. ¡°Which big brother?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°The really tall one, taller than you,¡± the little girl described. She must be talking about Song Zimo. Song Zimo can solve Rubik¡¯s cubes? But then again, is there anything Song Zimo can¡¯t do? ¡°I¡¯m practicing now so that I can beat him. One day, I will defeat him,¡± the little girl said confidently. ¡°Are you going to be the one to perform my surgery?¡± The little girl suddenly asked. ¡°I¡¯m researching a plan to use an ¡®invisible knife¡¯ for your surgery. It won¡¯t make you bleed nor cause any pain, but it will get rid of the fibroma in your body,¡± Yang Ping said, demonstrating with his gestures. The corners of the little girl¡¯s mouth twitched, as though she wanted to say something but refrained. ¡°Hmm! I believe you can do it. Because that tall brother said you¡¯re the best doctor he has ever seen,¡± the little girl gave a thumbs-up. ¡°He was boasting!¡± Yang Ping replied in a disdainful tone. ¡°No, he wasn¡¯t boasting. He said he could beat me with one hand on the Rubik¡¯s cube. I thought he was bragging, but he really did beat me using only one hand. So, I believe him. You are the best doctor,¡± the little girl asserted. ¡°I was thinking, no matter how good a doctor¡¯s skills are, people can¡¯t live forever,¡± the little girl said thoughtfully, her chin in hand. ¡°Why not? If scientists crack the aging code, humans might well become immortal,¡± Yang Ping teased. ¡°Impossible! The Earth, the Sun, the entire Milky Way galaxy will eventually be destroyed. The universe itself has an expiration date. How could humans possibly live forever? At best, we can extend our lives a bit. If people could live forever, the Earth would become overcrowded and eventually collapse under the weight. If these people choose not to have children, then they would be too selfish. Why not give new life a chance?¡± Yang Ping looked at her in surprise. Was this the thought the process of a nine-year-old? ¡°Ding dong! Reward of thirty-eight thousand points. Extra points for palliative care task!¡± The system sounded unexpectedly. It seemed that this task was not limited to nerve root blockage. The bronchial intubation for the pneumothorax case and the endoscopic hemostasis were also included as task contents, although the latter two were under stealth mode. Thirty-eight thousand points, Yang Ping laughed. Truth be told, he was more concerned with gaining points in the system than earning money in reality, almost dozens of times more. Since participating in the rescue of the tumor patient, Yang Ping now wanted to unlock thoracoscopy, laparoscopy, gastroscopy, even interventional procedures, at least to a perfect level. However, since the challenge for sports medicine was not yet conquered, advancement to the next level was locked. He had to take one step at a time. Before the Golden Knife Award, he had to unlock the entire orthopedics skill tree. The task was hefty, but it was a must. Chapter 165 - 0159 Gausss Story Chapter 165: Chapter 0159 Gauss¡¯s Story At noon, after having lunch with Xiao Su at the cafeteria, he spent the afternoon sleeping in the office of the department. With the usual daily rewards, his score is now 51,000 points, enabling him to proceed with the surgical training. Yang Ping spent 10,000 points to purchase 500 cases of ACL reconstruction surgery, and another 20,000 points for 500 cases of knee multi-structure reconstruction surgery, leaving 21,000 points. He finished training for these 1,000 surgeries after spending about ten days in system space. The mall has a vast variety of surgical training packages. All you could want is available for purchase, as long as you have enough points. The only drawback is the progression in training. You must take it step by step, completing one advanced training session before progressing to the next. After completing surgical training, Yang Ping carried out anatomy training in the system space, using his knowledge of anatomy for human brain mapping exercises. When he woke up, it was already after four in the afternoon. Song Zimo was sketching in the office, images of knee joint pentad injury. He drew the reconstructed structures on the images. Once he finished a sketch, he would cross it out and begin anew. ¡°I¡¯ve operated on the four-incidence reconstruction for ordinary people, but the pentad reconstruction for professional athletes is really hard to balance. How can we accurately determine the start and end points of these ligaments? And how do we adjust the tension among so many ligaments?¡± Song Zimo was very troubled. This type of surgery involves many structures to reconstruct: dual beams of the anterior cruciate, dual beams of the posterior cruciate, three structures of the posterior external side, three structures of the posterior internal side, a joint capsule that needs repair, patellar external supporting belts that need to be released, internal supporting belts that need tightening. After all these structures are reconstructed, it¡¯s still not over. The tension for all these structures must be adjusted until they are satisfactory and balanced. Let alone performing such a surgery, even a sports medicine specialist may feel dizzy at the sight of it. Most of them would rather not go through the trouble, as in front of such surgery, the confidence that most doctors accumulated over time would be shattered. Not to mention that Song Zimo rarely came across such situations, even Su Nanchen from the First Affiliated Hospital seemed to feel powerless. After all, the number of cases were too few¨Chard to accumulate. Only a national sports medicine center like the third hospital in Beijing could accumulate a large number of cases. For Song Zimo to be able to manage ordinary people¡¯s four-incidence reconstruction and for Su Nanchen to be at the doorstep of the veteran surgeons in Beijing¡¯s third hospital with his expertise in four-incidence reconstruction in professional athletes ¨C these achievements alone makes them exceptionally gifted. ¡°When the time comes, you will comprehend after observing one surgery. Tell Jiahui to prepare the surgical instruments. As this is a large operation, prepare at least 10 allograft tendons for reconstruction,¡± Yang Ping instructed Song Zimo. ¡°As soon as the patient came in, I notified Huang Jiahui. She has already prepared all the surgical instruments. As for the allograft tendons, I have readied twenty, from Shanxi Medical Tissue Bank, one of the suppliers listed by our hospital. They¡¯re available for immediate use. Sports Medicine Centers use theirs too. Huang Jiahui has a flu and is getting intravenously rehydrated in the emergency department. I told her not to attend the procedure but she is insistent and will be there no matter what,¡± said Song Zimo, having made thorough preparations for the operation, leaving Yang Ping with nothing to worry about. ¡°Was the Singaporean patient¡¯s surgery successful?¡± Yang Ping asked caringly. Song Zimo confidently replied, ¡°Yes, it went very smoothly. I have the follow-up scan results. Whenever you¡¯re free, you can take a look at them. I sketched a three-dimensional model before the operation, simulated the scraping off of the necrotic bone. During the surgery, we should have scraped off all the necrotic bone.¡± ¡°Well done!¡± Yang Ping gave a thumbs up. Song Zimo was a little embarrassed, ¡°Well, I ought to learn something from you. Compared to you, my spatial localization ability is vastly inferior.¡± This indeed was a complex surgery. Watching Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries can become addictive. They often led to unexpected discoveries, just like a sudden enlightenment. For this reason, Director Han had become addicted. His general orthopedics department had just started recently, and yet they have already begun performing pentad injury reconstructions. On Saturday, Xiao Su didn¡¯t go home. Yang Ping accompanied her to play tennis in the hospital¡¯s court. Xiao Su was professional, while Yang Ping only had some experience with the sport during college. Naturally, he was completely beaten by Xiao Su, and she became his coach. On Sunday, Xiao Su went home, while Yang Ping stayed inside without going out. He studied and brought back some reference materials on the Gamma Knife to read. On Monday, Director Han was in the operating room early. Normally he would not come in until the surgery had begun. ¡°Little Five, adjust the video system a bit. We need to take snaps later. I want to make a poster out of this surgery and hang it on the ward wall. This surgery, along with the multi-directional instability of the shoulder joint reconstruction surgery, rank among the most difficult surgeries in sports medicine,¡± Director Han directed Little Five as he sat. Last time, during the anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, the sculpture of the femoral intercondylar notch was like carving made by a sculptor. Relentlessly chiseling and chiseling until a perfect femoral intercondylar notch had formed. Director Han had replayed the surgery video several times, and he firmly believed that Yang Ping must have studied sculpture and practiced sculpting the femoral intercondylar notch with a burr. Otherwise, how could he have done it so perfectly? Director Han was right to assume that Yang Ping had practiced, but only in the system space. In the system space one could perform countless surgeries because there were no repercussions if you messed up ¡ª you just tried again. As long as points were accumulated, it continued to provide new cases. Regardless of whether it was pentamerous, hexamerous, septamerous, or even octamerous injury, they were all available to practice on. Even cases that one might never come across in real life could be simulated in the system space. Yang Ping had previously used drills to practice in the system space, honing the art of intercondylar fossa shaping. He studied numerous books on carving, understood the theory behind the art form, used the patient¡¯s intercondylar fossa as the raw material for practice, and the drill as the carving knife in this body sculpting exercise. If Yang Ping was ever required to perform some plastic surgery involving bone carving, he could entirely rely on this trick and open up a clinic specializing in it. Little Five was deeply interested in these medical devices. He was so adept at using this video system, he had become more familiar with it than the engineers who designed it. When the video system previously had a software bug, the manufacturers could not solve the issue despite their many apologies. Finally, it was Little Five who fixed the problem. Huang Jiahui had stopped running a fever, but she still looked very pale. As Yang Ping passed her instrument trolley, she bowed to him, ¡°Hello, Teacher Yang!¡± ¡°I hope you are feeling better. If you are not, you can take a rest. You don¡¯t have to be here,¡± Yang Ping said with a smile. To herself, Huang Jiahui thought how lucky she was to have met such a good-natured doctor. He had not shown too much discontent even the last time she was late. The reconstruction of the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments wasn¡¯t very different from the previous surgery. The anterior cruciate ligament was anatomically rebuilt with an octuple-bundle technique to maximize its functionality, while the posterior ligament was also reconstructed with a double-bundle anatomical reconstruction method. The surgical principles were similar; only the positions of the bone tunnels were different. The surgery seemed effortless as if a major procedure had been conducted with the same ease as a minor one. If one didn¡¯t know better, they would think they are just making a minor surgery. After finishing the reconstruction of anterior and posterior cruciate ligament, the posterior lateral and medial structures were rebuilt. There were three necessary structures for the posterolateral corner needed reconstruction: the lateral collateral ligament, the biceps femoris tendon, and the popliteo-fibular ligament. For the posteromedial corner, there were also three structures: the medial collateral ligament, the posterior oblique ligament, and the oblique popliteal ligament. After reconstructing these eight structures, the joint capsule needed to be repaired. The lateral support band of the patella had to be loosened, and the internal support band had to be tightened, correcting the patella¡¯s track. The ligaments stretched alternately from the femur bone down to the tibia or the fibula. Each one was to be inserted into the bone canal with precision and appropriate tension. They should all be considered equally without any bias. If anyone ligament was poorly reconstructed, even if it was a bit loose or tight, the surgery would be compromised, which meant failure. In the whirlwind of devices, the drill whirred on and off. One after another, the foreign tendons were handed over, and they became the patient¡¯s ligaments stretching anterior, posterior, medial, and lateral¨C the entire joint was densely packed with inserted tendons. The operators seemed to be very light-hearted and the viewers felt just as easy. After completion, they tested the knee joint for stability. It was incredibly stable¨Cthey had managed to perfectly balance stability and tension in one go. Song Zimo was left puzzled. The patient was wheeled out by Little Five and Zhang Lin. Fatty was very cautious this time. He was afraid that the surgery had been too long so he used a lot of anesthetic. The patient¡¯s operated leg was still numb when they left. Song Zimo quietly approached Yang Ping and asked, ¡°Where have you practiced such complex surgeries? Can you give me a convincing answer that is not too mystical?¡± Yang Ping was copying the video. ¡°Do you know Gauss?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes, I do. But what does this surgery have to do with Gauss?¡± Though Song Zimo was intelligent, he couldn¡¯t decipher the hidden meaning behind Yang Ping¡¯s words. Yang Ping stopped operating his mouse and said, ¡°When Gauss was 19 years old and studying at the University of Go?ttingen, his teacher would assign him three problems every day. One day, his teacher only assigned two problems. But by mistake, a slip of paper with a problem on it, was stuck inside Gauss¡¯s textbook. Gauss quickly solved the first two problems, but he struggled with the problem on the slip of paper. He spent the whole night working on it. The next morning, he handed in his homework and said guiltily to his teacher, ¡®I¡¯m sorry, but I spent the entire night on the third problem you assigned me. I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ve let you down.¡¯ This problem had been a two-thousand-year-old mathematical mystery that neither Archimedes nor Newton could solve.¡± After copying the videos and the pictures, Yang Ping stood up. Song Zimo seemed to be in a state of shock, for the answer was apparent in the story itself. Yang Ping patted his shoulder and said, ¡°Some people can learn the surgery by just watching it once, like you. Others can do the same by reading a book once and render the surgery perfect, like me. Believe it or not, it¡¯s up to you.¡± ¡°There¡¯s only one key to these kinds of surgeries; for single structural reconstructions, the position of the tunnel is crucial. For multi-structure reconstructions, you need both the right tunnel position and the right balance. Both are indispensable. To adjust the balance, you will need to rely on your instincts. The few centimeters listed in your textbook are useless. Finding your balance is something you need to figure out on your own. I think after doing a few operations, you¡¯ll understand what I¡¯m saying today.¡± Yang Ping asked Su Nanchen for an email address through WeChat. He then sent the video of the surgical procedure for Su¡¯s reference as his patient would soon require similar surgery. Chapter 166 - 0160: Tops Video Chapter 166: Chapter 0160: Top¡¯s Video Yang Ping merely suggested sending a video for reference without mentioning the source of the video. After the surgery, Su Nanchen changed his clothes in the changing room, sat down for a break and downloaded the video from his email to his phone. He was preparing to perform a quadruple reconstruction on his patient, and now he had a quintuple reconstruction video, which seemed perfect for reference. As he watched the video, Su Nanchen became fascinated. Where did Yang Ping¡¯s surgical video come from? Why couldn¡¯t he find a video like that on his own? The quintuple reconstruction video was even better than the surgeries he had observed in the United States. Could it be a top orthopedic surgeon¡¯s video from Germany or Japan? The Germans and the Japanese, who hold firmly to the concept of craftsmanship, are equally as adept in surgical operations as the Americans. If we go by this logic, it almost certainly belongs to a German or Japanese professional. He is very familiar with top surgeon¡¯s videos from around the world but for this one, based on the style of the surgery, he found it difficult to pinpoint an owner.The operation was delicate when necessary, and bold and efficient when required. Whose video of top surgery could this be? Su Nanchen brought out his collection of similar surgery videos from the New York Special Surgery Hospital, to review it once more, especially those by Professor Robert, a master of sports medicine, which he watched multiple times. But,the video was not theirs. Objectively speaking, it was somewhat better than theirs. Out of gratitude, Su Nanchen replied to Yang Ping on WeChat: ¡°Doctor Yang, thank you for your video, it¡¯s of great learning value to me.¡± ¡°The surgery was a bit rough, hardly worthy of learning. I hope you could take it as a reference,¡± Yang Ping said with humility. This guy has a big mouth. Even if it¡¯s a video of surgery from a world-class expert, he said that the surgery was rough. Su Nanchen didn¡¯t know how to respond. Seems like Yang Ping usually appears humble but has a prideful personality deep down. This pride seems a bit over the top. Out of curiosity, Su Nanchen still wanted to know the source of the video so that he could pay homage to this expert in the future: ¡°Could you kindly tell me the source of the video?¡± Yang Ping seemed busy and didn¡¯t reply to his WeChat. Su Nanchen didn¡¯t want to keep on asking either. Su Nanchen buried his head back in the video which unfortunately had no sound or text annotations. ¡°Nanchen, what are you watching?¡± Professor Guan came into the changing room to change his clothes after his surgery. Su Nanchen replied, ¡°I¡¯m watching a quintuple reconstruction video.¡± Professor Guan seemed interested and came over for a look: ¡°Whose work is this? Someone from the New York Special Surgery Hospital?¡± ¡°No, a friend sent it over,¡± Su Nanchen said truthfully. The more he watched, the more interested Professor Guan became. These kinds of top-level surgery videos are very precious, often snuck out of the hospitals by doctors who are furthering their studies, and are then shared and studied. ¡°Could it be from the Tokyo University¡¯s affiliated hospital? This style is quite delicate. It doesn¡¯t look like it¡¯s from a European or American.¡± Indeed, the style of the surgery was finer than that of the Americans, but grander than the Japanese, a perfect combination of soft and hard. Guan Sheng, who has seen a lot and exchanged knowledge with many others, identified it: ¡°It looks like it¡¯s from the Tokyo University¡¯s affiliated hospital. Look at how delicate the movement of the lens is, the technique is flexible, the pursuit of perfection is everywhere, the attention to detail is spot on.¡± Guan Sheng had been around and seen many top surgeons at their work and was familiar with their surgical styles. ¡°Nanchen, this is some good stuff. Is your friend furthering his studies in Japan? Share this in our department study group. This multi-ligament reconstruction surgery video is world-class. It would be a good learning tool for everyone.¡±Professor Guan changed his clothes and sat down to rest. ¡°For Chen Ge¡¯s patient, I¡¯m considering asking Professor Ye to do it. How about your patient? Agreeable to that? We are quite experienced in performing quadruple reconstruction and multi-directional shoulder instability, but we¡¯re still trailing behind Professor Ye. We still need to learn from him and strive to reach his level.¡± Su Nanchen uploaded the video into the group and titled it: A top surgeon¡¯s quintuple knee reconstruction. As they were all keen learners, there was no immediate response. After ten minutes, the group started to be active. ¡°Who¡¯s the top surgeon in this video? From the New York Special Surgery Hospital?¡± ¡°Watch closely!¡± ¡°Can¡¯t tell?¡± ¡°It looks like both the patient and the surgeon are Asian!¡± ¡°Detecting ethnicity by looking at the color of bone tissue? Aren¡¯t they all white?¡± ¡°There¡¯s a difference in the size of the medial and lateral femoral condyles between Westerners and Asians, this definitely looks like an Asian style.¡± ¡°Did you measure it?¡± ¡°I actually paused the video and used the size of the probe in it to measure.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why you are a postdoc, what about the surgeon?¡± ¡°What about the non-microscopic view?¡± ¡°All I can see are the patient¡¯s knee joint and the doctor¡¯s hands. Nothing else.¡± ¡°All the anatomy lessons are wasted. See that knee joint? The part outside, isn¡¯t it skin colored? Clearly, an Asian.¡± ¡°You noticed that too? Don¡¯t Western countries have Asian patients?¡± ¡°Look at the gloves, the surgeon clearly has a seven and a half.¡± ¡°But the assistant¡¯s hand has an eight-sized glove.¡± ¡°You guys are all freaks, even your speculations sound like noble truths.¡± ¡°Enough with guessing, one¡¯s knee joint or another¡¯s glove. You¡¯re missing the point focusing on the trivial, just look at the surgery. Fellows, be objective. Don¡¯t get ahead of yourselves, there are only a few hospitals that can perform this type of multi-ligament reconstruction, if you screen those, you will know who did it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s from the Tokyo University Hospital in Japan. No need for more guessing. I saw their expert¡¯s operation while I was there to study, it¡¯s similar to this one, I vouch for it with my integrity.¡± ¡°That of the Japanese, I¡¯ve seen too, but it wasn¡¯t this fast, right? All the tunneling here is done in one go, right? The Japanese measure several times.¡± ¡°Even the experts improve and have their own states, aren¡¯t you comparing different stages of their career? This is the pinnacle of an expert¡¯s skill.¡± ¡°This kind of multi-ligament reconstruction is a world-class operation. Based on the meticulousness of the technique, it rules out Special Surgery Hospital, Munich Orthopedics and others. Only the Tokyo University Hospital fits the bill!¡± Su Nanchen checks his WeChat, he hasn¡¯t replied yet. When he got home from work, mom was already off work, cooking in the kitchen. Dad was reading a book in the study. Su Nanchen also went in and sat across from his dad, checking his phone. ¡°Nanchen, what are you so absorbed in?¡± ¡°A knee multi-ligament reconstruction, supposedly from Tokyo University Hospital.¡± Su Qingyun paused his reading, took off his glasses: ¡°Let me have a look.¡± ¡°Wait a minute, I¡¯ll put it on the computer.¡± Su Nanchen transferred the video onto the computer and played it. Su Qingyun put on his glasses again, and halfway through he said: ¡°This surgery is well done. Truly master class. Those ligament tunnels, amazingly, they didn¡¯t even attempt to locate, directly got it in one go, very precise. The adjustment of the tension and balance, every single detail is optimized.¡± ¡°If this video hasn¡¯t been doctored, it¡¯s realistic. Even Doctor Robert won¡¯t be able to achieve this level. This is purely unattainable. The position of those bone tunnels, all in one go, requires a lot of practice, right? Even Doctor Robert has to measure under the microscope, use special tools for repeated location, only then he could find the best start and end points. To adjust the tension and balance, it requires even more step-by-step testing to be satisfactory. But the video doesn¡¯t seem to need such complications, the doctor seems to have reached the peak in adjusting the tension and balance. The final knee joint stability test, forward and backward, internal and external rotation stability, all very good.¡± Su Nanchen stood next to his dad, watching the video together. ¡°Where did this video come from?¡± ¡°Doctor Yang from Sanbo sent it to me.¡± ¡°He is really keen on learning.¡± ¡°Dinner is ready, father and son, what are you discussing so enthusiastically?¡± Mrs. Su brought the dishes to the dining table. ¡°A surgery video!¡± Su Nanchen explained. ¡°You¡¯re doing operations even after work. Now you guys are discussing cases in the study after work. Where¡¯s your sister, she¡¯s even too lazy to call now. She used to come home for the weekend on Friday after work, but now she only comes back on Sunday mornings. Nanchen, what¡¯s the girl busy with these days?¡± ¡°She¡¯s all grown up now, we should give her enough personal space.¡± Su Qingyun said. ¡°This girl, something seems off about her lately. Nanchen, you need to probe into it.¡± Mrs. Su served the rice as well, and set the table. There¡¯s a new message on WeChat. Su Nanchen had a look, it¡¯s from Yang Ping: ¡°Oh, this is a surgery I performed today. I recorded it for you because I heard about a four-ligament reconstruction case last time. It¡¯s for you to refer to.¡± He performed this? A violent shock ran through Su Nanchen¡¯s heart. Chapter 167 - 0161: Mothers Worry Chapter 167: Chapter 0161: Mother¡¯s Worry He actually performed this surgery. Su Nanchen knew of Yang Ping¡¯s skills, but still found it hard to believe. This was not a simple meniscus suture, rebuilding of four or more points is the most difficult operation in arthroscopy, even the top three imperial hospitals would find it challenging upon encountering such a case. There are only a few doctors nationwide who can manage it, yet he managed to handle it effortlessly. Objectively speaking, at this level of surgical expertise, he is more than qualified to be my mentor. While Su Nanchen was not a narrow-minded person, he felt a sense of disappointment. As the saying goes, there are always higher skies and superior individuals. Now, he had encountered one of those superior individuals. He took a deep breath. Since the individual was superior to him, if he wanted to reach that ¡®higher sky¡¯, he would have to learn from him. Yes, learn from him. To become a formidable person, he had to learn from those stronger than him; this had always been his principle since he was young. ¡°Nanchen? What¡¯s wrong?¡± Professor Su and Mrs. Su saw their son¡¯s expression change as he glanced at his phone while eating. He seemed deep in thought. ¡°A friend sent me a case. I¡¯m thinking about it,¡± Su Nanchen continued to eat his meal. ¡°You clearly inherited this trait from your father, even considering cases during meals,¡± Mrs.Su complained to Professor Su. Mrs.Su was an excellent cook, even simple dishes were exquisitely prepared. Her sweet and sour ribs, with a crystalline appearance, were sour, sweet, fresh and crispy upon consumption ¨C a professional chef¡¯s standard. Despite her busy schedule, she still managed to keep the house immaculately clean. Their family had the means to afford a housemaid, but both Professor Su and Mrs.Su preferred hands on care, believing that their family was happiest when everyone helped with the chores. The Su family was an esteemed family. Their ancestors had been scholars who achieved top examination scores, and began practicing medicine in the Republican era, spanning until today with Su Nanchen, the fourth generation still practicing medicine. Su Nanchen¡¯s great grandfather, a Western doctor from the early Republican era, studied medicine in Germany and once worked in the Nanjing Central Hospital. He was a flamboyant character with many children who were spread across mainland China, overseas, Hong Kong and Taiwan. After the mainland was-liberated, instead of migrating to Taiwan, he stayed and devoted himself to fostering new Western medical talent for New China. His unreserved contributions to medicine saved countless lives and cultivated the love of many students. He earned government recognition and was later stationed at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One in southern China, where he settled down. His grandfather also studied in the Soviet Union and became the founder of the Neurosurgery department at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, and was one of the few renowned professors in domestic neurosurgery. Up to Su Qingyun¡¯s generation, the family has never fallen behind. Not to mention the success of his cousins, even Su Qingyun and his siblings had all graduated as doctors and were the leading figures in their respective fields. Su Qingyun¡¯s appointment as an academician was nearly certain. He had authored several high-profile papers published in journals like The New England Journal of Medicine, AGAM, JBJS etc. His research achievement on bone cement won the national first prize for progress in science and technology, and the National Key Laboratory he had established for the study of biomaterials in Nandu Medical University was revered among the nation¡¯s medical circles. Up until Su Nanchen, the Su family had never given birth to a prodigal son. They had all been diligent and studious people. Su Nanchen, who was admitted into Xiehe Hospital as the top science student in Nandu Province, was deemed a normal representation of the Su family¡¯s offspring. After dinner, while Mrs. Su was cleaning up the dishes with Professor Su¡¯s help, Su Nanchen wiped down the table. ¡®I am serious, Old Su! Our precious daughter has been behaving strangely recently. She rarely chats on her phone, but these recent weekends, she holds her phone all night, continuously chatting and secretly laughing.¡± ¡°The chatting seems rather normal, you should relax. She is quite decisive.¡± Professor Su was evidently more open-minded than his wife. ¡°Our darling daughter is indeed too decisive, that¡¯s why I am worried. She makes her own decisions in everything she does. You, as her father, simply go along with whatever she wants. When it was time for the college entrance examinations, there were so many schools and so many majors to choose from. If she had listened to me and studied dentistry at Nandu Medical University, she could have furthered her studies and become a Master or a Doctor, which is definitely better than being a nurse. But she wasn¡¯t willing, she was determined to study for a nursing major and you simply agreed with her.¡± ¡°You shouldn¡¯t say that, being a nurse is quite good as long as she enjoys it! Aren¡¯t you a nurse too? I think it¡¯s quite good,¡± Professor Su said without getting angry, and smiled. Mrs. Su was momentarily speechless. She was the director of the nursing department at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, had started her career as an operation room nurse, and was once heralded as ¡°one of the gems¡± of the hospital. ¡°She doesn¡¯t like being a doctor, you can¡¯t force her. As long as she is happy, that¡¯s what matters. Our home can¡¯t just have doctors, it needs nurses too. It¡¯s a medical family, after all.¡± Professor Su smiled at Mrs. Su and wanted to help wash the dishes in the kitchen, but she stopped him and started cleaning herself. Professor Su stayed by the kitchen door to keep her company. Mrs. Su then uttered in defeat: ¡°Being a nurse can indeed be good, and it would have been nice if she had stayed in Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. But she was insistent on leaving and eventually got a job at Sanbo Hospital. I initially wanted to call and ask someone to look after her, but she threatened me that if I did, she would no longer go to Sanbo and instead, go to a remote province. That frightened me and I dared not call after that. As her mother, I really don¡¯t understand her.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t she currently doing well? She is happy, and I can tell that she is quite satisfied with her job. People should do what they enjoy in life. There¡¯s no need to force her. Look at the college sports competition; she brought home two silver medals for us. Our Su family has produced many doctors, but those national sports competition medals are the first of their kind for us. Our daughter has brought honor to our family.¡± Professor Su proudly exclaimed. ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about the past. As long as she is happy, that¡¯s all that matters. But about her personal love life, you cannot let your guard down. Marrying the wrong man can cause lifelong regret. She is so naive, and the young men nowadays, they sweet-talk girls with honeyed words. At the very least, we cannot let her be deceived by some guy.¡± While speaking, Mrs. Su quickly tidied up the kitchen. Su Nanchen spoke up in defense of his sister: ¡°Mom, what are you saying? Don¡¯t you know her? She won¡¯t be easily deceived. Lin Hao chased after her so aggressively, but she never gave him the time of day. You can feel uncertain about other things, but about this, you can rest assured.¡± ¡°Hmm, I agree with my son. Regarding our daughter, the last thing I worry about is her personal relationships. I¡¯ve seen her scrutinizing people as if under a microscope,¡± backed Professor Su. ¡°You all, especially you, get so disoriented by a word of praise. Let¡¯s get this straight: I have a veto in this matter,¡± Mrs.Su hummed as she untied her apron. Busy time was over. People were still chatting in the group. Su Nanchen didn¡¯t want to bother explaining the surgical video anymore. It didn¡¯t matter who performed the surgery, what mattered was that it was truly world-class. ¡°Dad!¡± Su Nanchen sat down on the sofa while Professor Su was reading a newspaper. Professor Su could tell he wanted something: ¡°Speak up, what is it?¡± ¡°The video just now wasn¡¯t from the Tokyo University Hospital, was it Yang Ping¡¯s surgery?¡± ¡°Yang Ping?¡± Professor Su also paused, his gaze shifting from the paper. A young doctor performed such excellent surgery? Professor Su shook his head, ¡°As for surgery, unlike other things, no matter how high one¡¯s talent is, experience through numerous cases is necessary. What differs is that some people accumulate experience quickly while others slowly. Regarding the quintuple reconstruction portrayed in the video, even our Nandu Affiliated Hospital One or the top three hospitals in the Empire do not get many cases in a year, how could Sanbo possibly have such a high number of cases for him to operate on?¡± ¡°I have a patient who needs a quadruple reconstruction. Could I invite Yang Ping to perform with me? I want to learn from him¡±, Su Nanchen expressed his true feelings. Professor Su put down his newspaper, ¡°This matter must be given careful consideration. Consultation is theoretical, surgery is practical. One cannot rush to invite someone to perform surgery based on a short video. Thorough investigation is necessary.¡± Su Nanchen agreed. However, he trusted Yang Ping. Su Nanchen said, ¡°How about I go to Sanbo to see if his surgical skills are really as good as in the video? Could we invite him then? I want to learn from him.¡± Professor Su asked, ¡°Is this your true desire?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Su Nanchen nodded. Professor Su slightly nodded, ¡°I¡¯m very pleased to see you think this way. It¡¯s commendable that you want to learn from someone who is better than you, rather than being jealous. Regardless of the field, to achieve greatness one must have a generous heart.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s the case, when he has similar surgeries, ask him to notify you in advance. You can observe and evaluate. If his skills truly match the level of the video, of course, he can be invited to perform surgery. That would be of a world-class standard!¡± Professor Su shared his opinion. Su Qingyun had met countless gifted individuals. The idea of a recently promoted young doctor performing surgery at the level of a world-renowned master seemed unbelievable no matter how he looked at it. But, he wasn¡¯t rushing to draw conclusions. Asking for consultation was already an exception made by Professor Su due to his love for talent. Asking someone to perform surgery was a much more serious matter. To invite a guest surgeon, Nandu Affiliated Hospital One would usually call in big shots from the industry. There¡¯s a degree to everything; overstepping the mark could ruin even a good thing. To conclude someone¡¯s surgical skills based on a video clip was rather crude. Even if everything was true, Professor Su would not readily use it as the basis of his judgment. If he saw Yang Ping perform the surgery with his own eyes and confirmed that it was as impressive, Professor Su might be impelled by his love for talent to invite him over to perform the surgery. ¡°How¡¯s your patient doing?¡± Professor Su referred to the patient with a quadruple knee injury. ¡°They¡¯re currently in rehabilitation training for muscle strength¡±, Su Nanchen replied. ¡°What about Chen Ge¡¯s patient?¡± ¡°Also in rehabilitation. Professor Ye is abroad. They can only have the surgery once he¡¯s back.¡± ¡°Director Guan¡¯s thinking is correct. You and Professor Ye should raise the standard of multi-structure reconstruction for shoulder and knee joints to the top national level, and then perform surgery for professional athletes. The requirements for ordinary people and professional athletes are completely different. Ordinary people only need to pass the standard, but professional athletes strive for high scores, even full marks. For this patient, I suggest that it¡¯s best to let Professor Ye operate,¡± Professor Su kindly advised. He never talked to his son in a commanding tone. ¡°I understand!¡± Su Nanchen knew that his father wanted him to improve further and approach these top-notch surgeries with reverence. ¡°I know you young people have a sympathy for your peers, but surgery is a serious matter and must be handled with utmost caution. Do you understand me?¡± Professor Su said earnestly. Su Nanchen nodded, ¡°I understand. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t act rashly.¡± Chapter 168 - 0162: Beast Trainer Chapter 168: Chapter 0162: Beast Trainer The Quintuple Reconstruction raised the bar for arthroscopic surgeries in comprehensive orthopedics. When Professor Zhang heard about the success of the quintuple reconstruction from Director Han, he intensively admitted more patients, especially those needing arthroscopy, all went into comprehensive orthopedics. They had admitted several more patients, including cases of rotator cuff tears, glenoid labrum injuries, multi-directional shoulder instability, meniscus injuries of the knee, anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, osteoarthritis of the knee joint. He fully cooperated with Director Han¡¯s strategy, took small steps to achieve big gains, and concentrated on conquering the field of sports medicine and arthroscopy. Still active at the age of 80, Old Zhang stood his guard at the outpatient clinic of Comprehensive Orthopedics. Song Zimo sent an assistant to accompany Professor Zhang on his daily rounds. After doing rounds, Little Five and Zhang Lin started to manage their surgeries. Yang Ping started studying the condition of the young girl with osteosarcoma. The little girl¡¯s name was Tian Sisi, everyone called her Sisi. Sisi had already completed the angiography of her primary femur tumor. The countless blood vessels were tangled and twisted, but none of them was a thick trunk. In this case, if we tried to do vascular embolization, it wouldn¡¯t work very well. It¡¯s like trying to block a few of the countless roads leading to the enemy castle, it would be impossible to strategically cut off the supply lines. ¡°The tumor hardly has main blood vessels. How are you going to embolize?¡± Song Zimo didn¡¯t understand. Yang Ping slightly lifted his head and leaned back in his chair, thinking, ¡°If there are no main blood vessels, we will create one.¡± He had been pondering over this. Without a main blood vessel, it means all roads lead to Rome, it would be difficult to block the tumor, and impossible to cut off the blood supply to the tumor. ¡°Create? How to create?¡± Song Zimo was completely confused. He had never heard that main blood vessels could be created. With wide-open eyes, Yang Ping asked, ¡°Do you remember a quote from Mr. Lu Xun?¡± ¡°A path was created naturally when more people walked on it¡± Song Zimo blurted. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°You have grown well in height and intellect. The same principle applies here. Just like the delay process in the skin flap and clamp training. The human body has the ability to compensate. Let¡¯s make use of this compensation ability and train the tumor, just like an animal trainer.¡± Train a tumor? Treated a tumor like an animal? And can be trained like an animal trainer? Several standardized training students and interns heard Yang Ping¡¯s words and quickly gathered around, wanting to hear some exclusive insights. Everyone was familiar with what was in the textbooks, but there were always things you couldn¡¯t learn from textbooks when at Doctor Yang¡¯s side. ¡°Train the tumor?¡± Even with his high IQ, Song Zimo couldn¡¯t catch up with Yang Ping¡¯s way of thinking. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Think a bit more. Broaden your mind.¡± Song Zimo went back and forth over the angiography of Sisi¡¯s primary tumor, not knowing how to train the tumor. ¡°Tumors rely on the human body for their existence and they have intelligence too. Otherwise, why would there be such a phenomenon as targeted drug resistance? The resistance just shows its ability to evade the attacks of targeted drugs, which is an expression of its enhanced defense capability.¡± Yang Ping reminded Song Zimo. Song Zimo suddenly realized, ¡°We embolize the peripheral blood vessels in stages. As we continue, naturally, the main blood vessels would form?¡± ¡°Yes, we should take advantage of its intelligence, slowly block its blood vessels. Although it¡¯s impossible to block all of them, in the process of embolization, the tumor, in order to survive, will enlarge its remaining blood vessels, increasing the blood supply. As embolization continues, some blood vessels will gradually grow thicker. We leave these large blood vessels unembolized to let them continue to enlarge without worry, until one of them becomes the thickest blood vessel. We protect it and maintain embolization of the others, then¨C¡± Yang Ping stopped. ¡°Then, unexpectedly, we inject chemotherapy drugs through this thickest blood vessel and block it. The tumor will suddenly lose its supply. Without enough oxygen and nutrition, it will slowly shrink. Before the other blood vessels compensate and enlarge, we use Gamma Knife to kill the tumor?¡± Song Zimo continued. ¡°The intelligence of a genius is really different.¡± Yang Ping complimented Song Zimo. Song Zimo raised his head proudly, then quickly corrected, ¡°I only have 249, only aliens like you have 250.¡± ¡°This method is a bit sneaky!¡± a standardized training student exclaimed. Yang Ping turned his head; this brother was quite articulate, ¡°Well said, when fighting diseases, we have to be ruthless, bottomless, and use every means possible.¡± This treatment plan must be planned for the long run, rushed action could easily fail. Every step must be carefully planned, waiting until conditions are ripe. Initially, a lot of embolization should be done to block all the small paths. Once embolization reaches a certain degree, blood will automatically flow into a major path¡ªthat¡¯s when the trunk blood vessel appears. When the main blood vessel accounts for an absolute proportion of the blood supply, then stage a sudden attack, block the main blood vessel and simultaneously perform intra-tumor perfusion chemotherapy. This will cause the tumor to shrink, and then it is bombarded with a therapeutic ultrasound knife to kill the cancer cells with thermal energy. The greatest advantage of this plan is that it can be used repeatedly without causing side effects to the patient. Unlike radiotherapy and systemic chemotherapy, which have severe side effects and can destroy a person¡¯s immune capacity if used excessively. Yang Ping was anxious now. Sisi¡¯s cancer cells were spreading day by day, and his advancement in sports medicine had not been completed yet. According to the system¡¯s route, only after completing sports medicine could he enter the stage of bone diseases, and only then was bone tumor surgery training possible. To carry out this plan, it is necessary to have a foundation in interventions like surgery and gamma knife therapy. Those are the ones I¡¯m lacking in. I need to go through training in System Space After listening to him, Song Zimo was thrilled. What a challenging plan! Only someone with an outlandish mind like Yang Ping would dare to think such a thing. ¡°The biggest weakness of the gamma knife is that the positioning is not very accurate and lacks precise navigation. Combining it with infrared navigation could visualize blood vessels and lymph nodes with indocyanine green, but the value to visualize the tumor itself is not significant,¡± Song Zimo elaborated following Yang Ping¡¯s train of thought. ¡°I haven¡¯t found a good solution to this problem yet, but I will eventually,¡± Yang Ping, resting his chin in his hand, pondered. Song Zimo had no doubt about Yang Gauss¡¯s capability. Countless times had proved that he is a miracle worker! After discussing the case with Song Zimo, he went to check on Sisi alone. Her parents were sitting by her bed. Her father brought a hot chicken leg, and her mother was feeding it to her. As she nibbled at the chicken leg, she held a Rubik¡¯s cube in the other hand, manipulating it with one hand. Sisi¡¯s father was wearing a yellow Meituan delivery uniform. He had taken on many jobs, not just delivering food, but also packages. ¡°Sisi!¡± Yang Ping knocked on the door and went in. ¡°Big brother!¡± Sisi wiped her mouth with a napkin. ¡°When you do rounds, I call you Doctor Yang. Otherwise, I call you big brother. They said you are big brother and the tall one is second brother.¡± ¡°You can manipulate the Rubik¡¯s cube with one hand?¡± ¡°Yes, a few more days of practice, and I¡¯ll officially challenge second brother.¡± ¡°Good, show him no mercy, and don¡¯t be considerate.¡± ¡°Doctor Yang, please have a seat!¡± Sisi¡¯s father brought over a chair. ¡°Doctor Yang, thank you.¡± Sisi¡¯s parents expressed their gratitude. Yang Ping smiled, ¡°It¡¯s nothing!¡± They were referring to Huang Jiahui¡¯s support for Sisi. Huang Jiahui had talked to them about helping Sisi to apply for the company¡¯s charity quota. The chances of success were high, but it couldn¡¯t be guaranteed 100% because it depended on the company¡¯s approval. They should prepare some documents. After checking on Sisi, her father came along and, in the office, Yang Ping explained Sisi¡¯s condition and the next steps in her treatment plan. ¡°Doctor Yang, I am deeply grateful. This is a huge favor; I¡¯ll keep it in mind! I¡¯m such a useless father¨C¡± the muscular man was unexpectedly teary-eyed. Sisi¡¯s father was a former soldier. After retiring, he became a taxi driver and then a Didi driver. Moving to G City from a mountainous county in Nandu, he provided for his family and bought a second-hand sixty-square-meter flat through hard work. After his daughter got sick, he sold his house and car. He couldn¡¯t be a Didi driver anymore. To make ends meet, he delivered food for Meituan during the day and parcels at night, earning money with his stamina, keeping his family going. He chose his job not only because of the flexible schedule but also because he made a little more money than with other jobs if he worked hard enough. Since he¡¯d sold his house and was now renting one, hours away from the hospital, he quit the first apartment and rented a room closer to the hospital in an urban village, which made it easier for him to care for his daughter. ¡°Thank you all. Anyway, we will fully cooperate with your plan. Some people have advised me to give up, saying it¡¯s meaningless to continue like this. However, I think it¡¯s meaningful to let her stay in this world a little longer, to love her a little more. I¡¯ll do everything I can to figure out the money issue. I owe you a favor¨C¡± said Sisi¡¯s father, his spirit unbowed. ¡°No need to mention it. Sisi is very sensible. Everyone likes her and is willing to help her!¡± Yang Ping wasn¡¯t sure how to comfort such a man. As he left, Sisi¡¯s father said, ¡°I¡¯ve put in another three thousand. I¡¯ll continue to do so.¡± ¡°He¡¯s a good man. He put another thirty-five hundred in last night. He made several payments before, hundreds at a time. So far, he¡¯s paid over six thousand,¡± Little Five said. Life depends on one¡¯s spirit. With Sisi¡¯s father, Yang Ping saw that spirit. Life may be tough, but he had enough faith! ¡°Dr. Yang, hello!¡± At the door there was Director Gao from sports medicine, accompanied by several people. Chapter 169 - 0163: Longjing is Good Chapter 169: Chapter 0163: Longjing is Good This display made Yang Ping think that Director Gao had brought people to accuse him, hadn¡¯t he? Turns out it was not to accuse him. Director Gao had actually brought people to learn. The hospital is a place led by technology, and doctors with excellent skills naturally are respected. No matter how unwilling they may appear on the surface, they can¡¯t deny it. Usually, everyone acknowledges that Dr. Yang is proficient at orthopedic trauma surgeries. It was unexpected that he would perform so well in arthroscopy as well. Director Gao is a practical man who knows how to read the times well. When the Department of Comprehensive Orthopedics was first established and endless arthroscopy surgeries were being performed, someone under his command reminded him to take note, and be wary! He pondered this advice. Wary? Wary of what? Given Director Han¡¯s schemes, as long as he keeps up with the team, without fallouts or errors, not only is the director¡¯s position stable, but he can also reap the benefits of battle. He knows that, however skilled Yang Ping may be, there is a gap in their years of experience, so there¡¯s no conflict. In fact, if he leads the charge, when the domain of sports medicine is conquered, the first to benefit would be Old Gao, with Tan Boyun as an example. If he lags behind and can¡¯t keep up with the pace of the campaign, given Director Han¡¯s style, sorry, but the position will be given to someone capable ¨C again, Tan Boyun is yet another example. So, no matter where you are, you need to understand the situation. If you can¡¯t even read the situation, what are you even doing? It¡¯s almost like groping in the dark. What needs to be done now is to figure out which way the wind is blowing. Once you¡¯ve figured that out, you can fly with it! Therefore, on the first day after the surgery, Director Gao brought people over to visit. As soon as they entered the door and before Yang Ping even had a chance to get up, he warmly shook Yang Ping¡¯s hand. He didn¡¯t care about the difference in their statuses at all¨C one being a department director, the other a young attending doctor. ¡°Xiao Yang, congratulations! Five Ligament Reconstruction!¡± Director Gao was overly enthusiastic, shaking hands, and slapping shoulders, treating him just like a peer. Yang Ping quickly offered a seat, ¡°Director Gao, you are too polite. It was just a surgery.¡± ¡°Five Ligament Reconstruction, this type of surgery, for those who are not in the know, wouldn¡¯t understand our sports medicine. This is the Everest of arthroscopic surgeries. Next time there¡¯s such a surgery, let me know in advance, I¡¯d like to learn from you.¡± Director Gao lowered his stance. He graduated from diyi medical university, what kind of major surgeries hasn¡¯t he seen before? He¡¯s clearer than most about the significance of this procedure, to be honest, he did have this idea. Next time there¡¯s such a surgery, he will ask Yang Ping to do it with him, to learn, and make it well. Then, he could hold his head high among his peers. Even if not in the entire country, at least in G City, he would not be lesser than Guan Sheng. ¡°Have a seat, Director Gao!¡± Just Yang Ping requesting Director Gao to sit and talk. His hand had been oscillated until it was uncomfortable, and his shoulder joints were about to dislocate. Director Gao let go and sat down. Zhang Lin helped pour some tea and beckoned the other doctors to sit. ¡°Xiao Yang, if our sports medicine department receives patients for this, we¡¯ll have to trouble you next time. To be honest, I haven¡¯t performed this operation much. When compared to you, there¡¯s a gap.¡± Director Gao was objective in his speech. With a clear disparity, hiding wouldn¡¯t have done any good. By admitting it himself, he even earned a reputation for honesty. Yang Ping said, ¡°No trouble at all! If I can have the chance to perform surgery alongside Director Gao, it would be an honor. Director Gao has a lot of surgical experience that I don¡¯t have, I¡¯ve always wanted to learn from you.¡± ¡°Hmm, young man, what you¡¯re missing is experience. That kind of thing takes time. We¡¯ll figure it out, no problem.¡± Director Gao coughed. This young man knows how to talk and gave him face, in situations like this, it¡¯s awkward if you¡¯re warmly welcome but get the cold shoulder in response. Director Gao chatted warmly for a few moments, then he went to the ward to check the patient ¨C to measure the force lines and mobility of the limbs, and test the knee joint¡¯s stability. Afterwards, he couldn¡¯t help but feel a little disappointed inside because the surgery was executed so well that he couldn¡¯t find any flaws. He had originally wanted to find a small flaw, no matter how tiny, to discuss with Yang Ping, to critique and showcase his own extensive experience. But now he didn¡¯t even have that opportunity ¨C the doctor had thought of everything and executed flawlessly. ¡°Did you record a video of the surgery? Can we learn from it or even share it in the group?¡± Director Gao didn¡¯t care about his pride. What is pride compared to honing skills? As a doctor, actual skills speak truth. What are true skills? They are the diamond cutters, those that represent excellent technical ability. When a surgeon possesses superior technical ability, they don¡¯t have to gain favor anywhere. If the chief surgeon is shorter, no problem ¨C just lower the operating table. All others can bend over and work, or give me a special footrest. Wherever I stand, the footrest will be placed to accommodate me. When performing surgeries outside, others are begging, wishing they could glue their faces to yours. Why? Because only you are the best for this type of surgery. If they don¡¯t seek you, who else should they seek? There was a story about a certain urological surgery specialist who created a unique lengthening procedure. He stopped performing all other surgeries and focused solely on this one, perfecting it. Even the flight attendants recognized him. This well-known doctor reportedly became dissatisfied with the surgical blades during an operation in Japan. He blurted out a sharp rebuke, frightening the Japanese into immediately standing at attention and apologizing profusely, fearing he wouldn¡¯t come back next time. If a doctor¡¯s diamond cutter is sharp enough, even the dean will have to speak to them respectfully. Hospital deans come and go, but a doctor¡¯s skills last a lifetime. For some exceptional doctors, those flamboyant professors and the dean don¡¯t matter. Who are they? ¡°Xiao Yang! As Director Gao, I assure you, we will need you more in the future, don¡¯t complain when the time comes!¡± Director Gao cast aside his pride. Not like some brainless fools who can¡¯t see the bigger picture and buzz around like headless flies. Someday, someone might suddenly squash them, and they would curse the world for being evil without realizing they are the ones at fault. ¡°Call on me anytime you need, Director Gao.¡± Yang Ping responded enthusiastically. ¡°Where is Director Han?¡± Director Gao purposely asked, knowing that Director Han was in his office. If Director Han didn¡¯t know he was here, he would have to make another trip next time. He had to show Director Han that Old Gao was full of sincerity and following his lead closely. ¡°I think he is in the office?¡± Yang Ping wasn¡¯t certain as Director Han was always busy. ¡°Oh, I¡¯ll go sit with Director Han for a while. Keep going about your business,¡± said Director Gao. Yang Ping rose to send him off, but Director Gao stopped him, ¡°We¡¯re all colleagues here, no need for formalities.¡± After a long conversation in Director Han¡¯s office, Director Gao came out and commented, ¡°The Longjing tea was good!¡± This indicated that Director Han was pleased with him. Usually, those who received praise from Director Han were offered a cup of Longjing tea to slowly savor while chatting. Whereas those who got scolded certainly didn¡¯t receive this treatment. So, you could tell whether someone had been scolded or praised by whether they said, ¡°The Longjing tea was good!¡± upon leaving. This was something Zhang Lin had noted. Director Gao was in high spirits. As he was leaving, he shook hands with Yang Ping, ¡°Xiao Yang, let¡¯s make a deal, I need to learn surgery from you in the future.¡± ¡°Xiao Yang, step into my office for a moment.¡± After Director Gao left, Director Han waved him over. ¡°Director!¡± Yang Ping responded obediently. ¡°Sit!¡± Director Han was casual. Having tea was inevitable, and he poured himself a cup of hot tea into his personalized purple clay cup with his name inscribed on it. ¡°Li Jingshu is coming for follow-up next Monday. Director Zhuang just called me.¡± Director Han took a seat. Her bone fracture had now surpassed three months, and it was time for her follow-up. Yang Ping had been so busy that he forgot about it. ¡°A couple of days ago, Director Miao called. The several patients you all saved are doing well. The one with a tree trunk penetrating his body is particularly stable, though paralyzed from the waist down due to a spinal cord injury. Shipo County government sent a thank-you letter to our hospital. Dean Xia is very pleased when she found out. The hospital will announce an official commendation for you all later,¡± said Director Han with a smile on his face. That incident had already passed a whole month. If it wasn¡¯t brought up again, it indeed might have been forgotten. ¡°Prepare a PPT presentation about the surgery of the patient with the penetrating injury to share with everyone when you have time. Your surgical approach and technique are excellent. Write it into a paper and publish it if you find additional time. Also¨C¡± ¡°Also?¡± Director Han abruptly forgot what he was going to say, and he started tapping his temples. ¡°Oh! Of course, Qiangzi. Let¡¯s pay him a visit when we¡¯re free.¡± Qiangzi had been attending regular rehabilitation sessions at the rehabilitation outpatient clinic. His nerve recovery showed progress with every follow-up, indicating a satisfactory recovery. ¡°You have several surgeries tomorrow, rest up when you can, health is essential!¡± Director Han reminded him. ¡°The academic conference is about to open. I wandered around the emergency department recently. It seems like the Trauma Emergency Center is doing several major surgeries every day. So, during the conference, a surgery demonstration appears to be unavoidable. These surgeries take place without any preparation, all based on our fundamental skills. You¡¯ll have to carry an important responsibility. The Japanese heard about our surgery demonstration and they are also interested in this project. They¡¯ve decided to live stream a trauma surgery from Tokyo University Hospital, which will also be shown at the conference. It would be very stressful. The Trauma Emergency Center at Tokyo University Hospital is world-class and the best in Asia,¡± Director Han squeezed the cup, furrowing his eyebrows. ¡°Now there¡¯s no turning back. Even if we are forced, we must rise to the challenge. Withdrawing the project at the last minute would make us a laughing stock. Tan Boyun is a bit worried too, but also eager to compete. Their overall standard is far above ours. Tan Boyun has studied there and knows it. It¡¯s impossible to reach their level in such a short time. Some things require accumulation and can¡¯t be solved with mere passion. Hopefully, the gap won¡¯t be too big. It could be a good thing to have something to compare with, for comparison is the mother of progress. We still have time to improve our procedures and work better as a team. It¡¯s just a demonstration, after all. Comparing ourselves with the world-class and Asia¡¯s strongest on the same stage could actually be a good thing.¡± Director Han¡¯s eyebrows relaxed, showing his open-mindedness. ¡°Right, Director! I also think there¡¯s nothing to worry about. We will do our best, face the gap, and strive to catch up!¡± Yang Ping comforted Director Han. ¡°Yes! Well said! Come accompany me on another round in the Emergency Department later!¡± ¡°Certainly.¡± Chapter 170 - 0164: Didnt See This One Chapter 170: Chapter 0164: Didn¡¯t See This One Six surgeries were scheduled in one day, marking the end of restful days as the integrated orthopedics department officially entered busy mode. Yang Ping had already done some training on arthroscopic shoulder surgery in the system, but he wanted further training on some of the more difficult procedures. With 11,000 points left from the task rewards and 10,000 points accumulated from daily rewards, Yang Ping used a total of 21,000 points to purchase special training for 500 multi-directional shoulder instability reconstructions and 100 shoulder cuff repairs. He planned to strengthen training on these two surgeries. All six surgeries were arthroscopic. Without enough arthroscopic equipment, this load would be impossible. Thankfully, Sanbo Hospital had plenty of arthroscopic equipment, which could handle a few more surgeries. Some hospitals only have a few sets of equipment. After use, they have to be sterilized for several hours before they can be used again. At Sanbo, this is not a problem. In the integrated orthopedics department¡¯s independent operating room, the digital screen of the surgery schedule displayed six surgeries for the first time. All surgeries were labeled as ¡°Under Arthroscope,¡± which was very comforting to see. The first patient, Zhang Lin¡¯s, was sent to the operating room on time at 8:30. Fatty was already administering anesthesia to him. It was a meniscal suturing surgery, and the anesthesia was a routine nerve block. Director Han called on his colleagues from the marketing department to shoot promotional videos. Dressed in visitor¡¯s coats and carrying video cameras, they captured various shots under Director Han¡¯s guidance. Director Han planned to play a loop of cutting-edge surgeries such as multi-ligament reconstructions of the knee joint and multi-directional instability reconstructions of the shoulder joint on the large television in the family waiting area outside the operating room. The promotional video needed to be impressive, with a blockbuster feel to leave a strong impression on viewers. It needed to make it clear that our team, our equipment, and our surgeries were all top-tier. Director Han would occasionally stop to communicate with his colleagues from the marketing department. He taught them how to capture certain details to demonstrate to the viewers and what effects to achieve. Huang Jiahui was very excited. The success of Sanbo¡¯s arthroscopic surgeries meant more use of her consumables. It indicated her job performance would take a major leap forward. As a newcomer, nothing was more delightful than seeing a daily increase in business volume. If this pace continued, her monthly business volume might be in the top ranks of the company¡¯s business hero board, attracting attention from others. She had already prepared the consumables¡ªneatly stacked¡ªby the side. She was so pleased she forgot she was just recovering from a cold and would easily break out in sweat with a little move. Upon receiving the news, Director Gao decided to let his subordinates perform the surgeries. Instead, he came to the operating room early on. When it came to learning, one had to take action and not merely talk about it. One must treasure the learning opportunities provided by such an outstanding medical expert in one¡¯s own hospital. Such pragmatism freed people from many worries and provided them with many opportunities. Director Gao was such a person. He didn¡¯t care too much about keeping face; learning was the paramount objective. Before Yang Ping arrived, he was already wandering around the operating room, sometimes observing the case files on the lightbox, sometimes examining the patient¡¯s joint, and sometimes sitting in the corner. Not being able to withstand the loneliness, he would occasionally ask Zhang Lin about the patient¡¯s medical history. Huang Jiahui was relatively new in the field, and she was only familiar with the doctors from the integrated orthopedics department at Sanbo. As her company¡¯s products had never been used by the sports medicine department, naturally, she did not recognize Director Gao. Feeling bored, Director Gao picked up one of her instrument boxes and checked it: ¡°Ruixing? Is it domestically made?¡± ¡°Yes, sir, it is a domestic brand. We¡ª¡±Jiahui eagerly began to introduce it. She believed addressing everyone as a teacher was the right thing to do. Director Gao waved his hand, showing no interest in listening to her introduction. He was aware of the quality of domestic products. Not only were they imitations, but they were also crudely made without much attention. Just as Jiahui was about to delve into her introduction, she was rudely interrupted by Director Gao. The embarrassment was hardly noticeable, thanks to the face mask she was wearing. ¡°I¡¯m familiar with your products. Your meniscus guns are infamous for getting jammed, and your locators don¡¯t work well. They are often inaccurate. Is Dr. Yang using all of your products for surgery today?¡± Director Gao glanced around the operating room and noticed no other manufacturer¡¯s representatives present except this young lady. Jiahui politely replied: ¡°Dr. Yang has always used our products.¡± ¡°Did he use your products for the previous anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction surgery as well?¡± Director Gao asked, unable to believe it. Jiahui nodded: ¡°Yes, and for the previous meniscus suturing surgery as well. All our products.¡± Director Gao typically used products from Shi Lehui and Arthrex, and sometimes those from Johnson & Johnson. But Dr. Yang was using domestic products? What was the rationale behind it? Could it be that domestic products were more suited for these difficult surgeries? There must be some inside information. Could it be that this young lady had a special relationship with Yang Ping? These days, nothing seemed impossible. This girl was quite a beauty and had an appealing appearance. Director Gao¡¯s gaze on Huang Jiahui left her feeling a little awkward. Director Gao thought again. Yang Ping didn¡¯t seem like the type to do such things, besides, he seemed to be dating nurse Xiao Su from the operating room. Was he sneaking around under her nose? Before dealing with Yang Ping, Director Gao had already asked the younger doctors about him. It was better to understand the situation before dealing with him, like not casually criticizing nurse Xiao Su from the operating room. No, Yang Ping was not that kind of person. There must be some hidden advantages to these domestic instruments that most people were unaware of. This young man had probably discovered them, and they might be more suited for complex surgeries. ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± Yang Ping walked in, followed by Song Zimo. Director Gao immediately greeted him. ¡°Director Gao!¡± The two shook hands. In order to link things tightly, two operating rooms were used alternately. When Zhang Lin¡¯s patient was nearly done, Little Five¡¯s patient would start the anesthesia, positioning, sterilization and draping process. This way, as soon as the first surgery was completed, one could get changed, scrub their hands again and continue. This approach saved time. ¡°Doctor Yang? Do you prefer domestically produced?¡± Director Gao tentatively asked. Yang Ping casually replied, ¡°Domestically produced models are more suitable for the anatomical data of our population.¡± Indeed, there was a secret trick to this; a suitable model would allow for more precision in operation. Director Gao said to Huang Jiahui, ¡°Prepare some of your instruments at our hospital¡¯s surgical center too, for shoulder joints, knee joints, all of them. I will use them when the time comes.¡± ¡°Alright, thank you, teacher!¡± Jiahui couldn¡¯t believe her ears. Her company¡¯s instruments were rarely used in that hospital and most of them were left to nearly expire in the warehouse after a long time. ¡°Spare some time to deliver the goods to Director Gao when you¡¯re free.¡± Yang Ping instructed as he checked the preparation of the medical supplies. ¡°Right! Prepare a variety of them!¡± Director Gao laughed and joined them in checking the supplies. Song Zimo was washing his hands, and Yang Ping was examining the medical images. Yang Ping only began to wash his hands after Song Zimo helped Zhang Lin with the sterilization and draping process. Director Gao sat in the corner, observing coldly. It was amusing to see the usually proud Song Zimo acting like such a cheerful follower around Yang Ping. The first surgery procedure begun as usual; it was a basic meniscus suture surgery. Director Gao stood up as he was interested to see if the domestic instruments would fail at some point. The surgery proceeded swiftly. In less than fifteen minutes, it was completed. The suture gun did not jam; a few shots of it and the meniscus was seamlessly stitched up, it was all very smooth. The meniscus was stitched up beautifully. Zhang Lin was left to wrap things up and transfer the patient, while Yang Ping and Song Zimo took off their surgical gloves, washed their hands and got ready for the next surgery in the adjacent room, where anesthesia had already been administered and Little Five had prepared the position of the patient. The anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery took roughly thirty minutes to complete, and then it was off to the next operating room. Director Gao was moved around these operating rooms until he almost got dizzy. Afterward, surgeries like knee cleanup and shoulder joint labral injuries were even easier. When it came to the shoulder cuff repair, Director Gao thought it would take at least an hour to complete. To his surprise, the surgery was over before he knew it. The anchor was in place, the shoulder cuff all stitched up and it was done. This procedure was done so skillfully it was as if it was second nature. Wherever did this young surgeon get such good skills from, wondered Director Gao, it startled him indeed. These domestically produced medical instruments worked surprisingly well. They were so handy that Director Gao asked Huang Jiahui, ¡°Please prepare more of these, just like what Doctor Yang used today.¡± After watching the shoulder cuff repair procedure, he realized that Little Five was still stitching up the skin. Director Gao¡¯s stomach started to grumble, and he felt a bit uncomfortable. Realizing that there would be enough time since the multi-directional unstable shoulder joint surgery was up next and regardless of how fast they were, he went to the restroom in the changing room to relieve himself. Having squatted there for about ten minutes, he felt relieved. He then went to the break room to have a glass of warm water to soothe his stomach. Counting the time, it had been around a half hour, the surgery should be in its early stages, so he went back into the operating room to observe. To his surprise, when he entered, Zhang Lin was helping the patient put on slippers and was preparing to send the patient back to the ward. Caught off guard, Director Gao tentatively asked Zhang Lin, ¡°Zhang, the multi-directional unstable shoulder joint reconstruction, isn¡¯t that the next surgery?¡± Zhang Lin glanced at him and if it weren¡¯t for the fact that it was the director, any other young doctor would have retorted on the spot questioning whether he didn¡¯t see himself or didn¡¯t understand. The surgery was already done and he was asking if it was next. Was this a proper way to queue for surgical observation? ¡°That was it. It¡¯s done,¡± Zhang Lin replied. ¡°Done?¡± said Director Gao between tears and laughter. He had taken time out of his schedule specifically to learn about this surgery. He had seen several surgeries in succession, and the only one he missed was this one. Wasn¡¯t this a pretty big pitfall? Seeing the look of frustration on his face, Zhang Lin thought to himself, ¡°If it¡¯s not done, we would still be waiting for you, wouldn¡¯t we?¡± He didn¡¯t see Yang Ping or Song Zimo anywhere. ¡°Where is Dr. Yang?¡± asked Director Gao. ¡°He left, went back to the ward!¡± Zhang Lin replied courteously, out of respect for his director. ¡°What about the video, can I get a copy to take back with me?¡± Director Gao suddenly remembered that there was video of the surgery. ¡°It¡¯s from our own department, there¡¯s no need for formalities. Feel free to take one!¡± Zhang Lin helped the patient up and prepared to take him back to the ward. Director Gao walked over to the computer beside the video system. He didn¡¯t know how to operate it; usually, the lower-ranked doctors did this work. Today, he had come here alone without bringing anyone along with him. In the blink of an eye, he was the only one left in the operating room. Those who were heading back to the ward had already left, and those washing the instruments went to do so. ¡°Xiao Chen, it¡¯s Director Gao. Come to the Comprehensive Orthopedics operating room quickly. Yes, right now, hurry up!¡± After hanging up the phone, Director Gao sat and waited. Chapter 171 - 0165: Recommending a Talented Person Chapter 171: Chapter 0165: Recommending a Talented Person ¡°Young Master Su, do you have time to hang out?¡± ¡°Old Cheng, I¡¯m tied up today. Can¡¯t we talk over the phone?¡± ¡°It¡¯s complicated to discuss over the phone. How about this, I¡¯ll come over to you. Won¡¯t take more than a few minutes.¡± ¡°I¡¯m driving right now. I¡¯ll be passing by your hospital soon. I can drop by.¡± ¡°Great! I¡¯ll wait for you.¡± This Cheng Liquan is a good friend of Sun Nanchen. He¡¯s from Chaoshan, runs a private hospital. He¡¯s considerably older than Su Nanchen, pushing forty. He used to work in the orthopedics department of the provincial people¡¯s hospital. His family owned some mines. After his promotion to a deputy senior position, he resigned and invested in a private specialty hospital, called Liquan Sports Medicine Center, specialized in arthroscopic surgery. Upon reaching Li Quan Hospital, Su Nanchen turned the steering wheel and drove in. Luckily, there was a parking space at the entrance. As Su Nanchen got out of the car, Boss Cheng was already waiting at the entrance. The urgency was evident. They leased these several floors and converted them into a hospital. A lot of thought was put into the decoration to make it look high-end. Boss Cheng also invested heavily in training his doctors. The chief surgeons were all personally trained by him. They were also sent to South Korea¡¯s Samsung Medical Center for a year of training in rotation. Samsung Medical Center¡¯s sports medicine is considered a global leader. The reception nurse at the entrance was tall and beautiful, quite pleasing to the eye. She led Boss Cheng and Su Nanchen upstairs with a smile. The beautiful nurses at the reception desk in the foyer were whispering and giggling. They recognized Young Master Su, who frequently visited. He was their dream man ¨C highly educated, from a good family, a handsome surgeon who drove a BMW X5. Which girl wouldn¡¯t be moved? Every time he passed through the lobby, he attracted admiring gazes. ¡°Young Master Su, please come in!¡± Boss Cheng said. ¡°Old Cheng, what¡¯s the rush?¡± Su Nanchen seemed a bit discontent. Su Nanchen was still on the road when Boss Cheng started chattering. The noise was too much, and he was driving, so he didn¡¯t quite catch what was said. ¡°Let¡¯s talk after we go in!¡± Once they entered Boss Cheng¡¯s spacious and well-lit office, Su Nanchen, being an old friend, made himself at home. He plopped into the boss¡¯s chair, spun around a few times while Boss Cheng quickly prepared some tea and sat across him. People in the south like to drink tea while discussing matters, often sealing multimillion-dollar deals over a few cups of tea. ¡°Have some tea first!¡± After being in such a rush earlier, Boss Cheng was now keeping silent. Su Nanchen lifted his eyelids: ¡°Old Cheng, I¡¯m only passing by. I only have a few minutes. Just cut to the chase, don¡¯t beat around the bush. I don¡¯t have time to dawdle!¡± ¡°Young Master Su, I¡¯ll just say it then, don¡¯t be angry.¡± Old Cheng was trying to preempt any adverse reaction. ¡°You have not even said anything yet. Why would I get mad at you?¡± Su Nanchen looked at him with disdain. Boss Cheng knotted his brows, as though gathering courage to speak: ¡°Brother, I¡¯ve taken in a patient with a four-part knee joint injury. He was referred by someone else.¡± Before Su Nanchen could respond, Boss Cheng quickly continued, ¡°Yunjian has already done more than ten knee and shoulder multi-ligament reconstruction surgeries. If I don¡¯t start doing it, I¡¯ll be left far behind. Didn¡¯t you tell me to wait for the technology to mature before trying it? If I keep waiting, I won¡¯t be able to hold my head high. They¡¯ve got Professor Ye backing them, and they¡¯re trying to oust me. Do you know how this patient came to us? Damn it, he was referred by Yunjian. They said their schedule was tight and asked the patient to come to us. Isn¡¯t this a slap in my face? They know we can¡¯t do it now. If I can¡¯t do it, it will spread like wildfire, saying that surgeries Yunjian can handle, Liquan can¡¯t. They¡¯re hitting me real hard.¡± Having said that, he thought Su Nanchen would reprimand him, but Su Nanchen wasn¡¯t angry at all. Instead, he picked up the teacup, blew a few breaths on it, and took a sip: ¡°This Tie Guan Yin tea is really good. Is it fresh?¡± ¡°Hmm! Just got it not long ago. If you like it, I¡¯ll pack all of it for you later.¡± Boss Cheng was waiting for him to talk about the important matter. Su Nanchen put down the teacup: ¡°Brother Cheng, I can indeed do this surgery, but I haven¡¯t done many. That¡¯s why I kept asking you to wait. This kind of surgery is extremely difficult! If done well, it brings prestige, but if it fails, it ruins the reputation. A slight mishap could lead to a disaster. If we can¡¯t do it perfectly, we shouldn¡¯t be doing it at all. But I can¡¯t do perfect right now! That¡¯s why I¡¯ve been so cautious.¡± ¡°Professor Ye is the best at this surgery. How about this, I¡¯ll ask him for you. He isn¡¯t going to reject making money, is he?¡± Su Nanchen suggested. ¡°You know how it is at Yunjian. They¡¯ve had long-term cooperation with Professor Ye. I¡¯ve tried to invite him through my mentor¡¯s connection, but he refused straight away. The volume of surgeries at their end is much larger. They look down on our lower volume. They won¡¯t risk offending Yunjian¡¯s boss and cut off their source of income for my sake.¡± Boss Cheng seemed quite distressed. Yunjian is a well-known private hospital group in G City. Yunjian¡¯s orthopedics hospital is the top-ranking brand, despite currently being overshadowed by Sanbo. Yunjian has other ventures, including Yunjian Sports Medicine Hospital, Yunjian Spinal Minimally Invasive Hospital, Yunjian Cosmetic Surgery Hospital, and Yunjian Dental Hospital. The owner is a Fujianese, and with the collaboration of his brothers, they hold quite a few hospitals under their control. In the private hospital sector of G City, they are undoubtedly significant figures who wield considerable influence. Su Nanchen raised his head and said, ¡°Brother Cheng, if it were before, I would advise you not to compete against them, as you wouldn¡¯t be able to win. But now, I support you to go ahead with this surgery.¡± Previously, when Su Nanchen was invited several times to perform this surgery, he firmly declined. So why does he seem so willing today? Could he be speaking sarcastically to mock himself? Boss Cheng¡¯s eyes darted around, ¡°Young Master Su, you¡¯re not joking with me, are you?¡± ¡°When have I, Su Nanchen, ever joked about surgical matters?¡± Su Nanchen sounded very serious. ¡°Thanks, brother!¡± Boss Cheng bowed his hand, so long as Su Nanchen agreed, the matter could be easily resolved. Su Nanchen laughed and said, ¡°Don¡¯t thank me just yet. I¡¯m not doing the surgery, but I can recommend a great person for you. This person¡¯s surgical skills are not only superior to mine but also surpass Professor Ye¡¯s. He¡¯s just young and not renowned yet.¡± For Old Cheng, reputation isn¡¯t important, what matters is that the surgery is done well. But isn¡¯t this another joke? How could someone be better than Su Nanchen, or better than Professor Ye? Even though he¡¯s now the chief physician of orthopedics, wouldn¡¯t he know such character? Boss Cheng was once again bemused by Su Nanchen, ¡°Young Master Su, why do you keep joking today? Who are you referring to? Professor Ren from Huashan in Shanghai?¡± The only one who could be compared to Professor Ye was indeed Professor Ren from Huashan in Shanghai. ¡°Not him either! I said a young person, anyway, you don¡¯t need to bother about it. When I have arranged the person, I¡¯ll let you know, and you¡¯ll find out then.¡± Su Nanchen finished off his tea in one gulp. Boss Cheng also followed suit and finished his tea, before refilling both teacups with the scalding hot brew. ¡°Brother Su, don¡¯t joke with me, I¡¯m anxious to the point of getting ulcers in my mouth. It¡¯s been difficult to eat these past few days.¡± Indeed, Boss Cheng was talking with some difficulty. ¡°We¡¯ll settle the matter this way then, keep the patient for now. I have to rush off for something now. When I have some free time, I¡¯ll come over to look at the patient. The surgery schedule is yet to be confirmed.¡± Su Nanchen stood up, not bothering to drink the freshly poured tea. Since Su Nanchen was so confident, with the person he recommended unlikely to be incompetent, Boss Cheng, being a smart man, promptly responded, ¡°Since you said so, I¡¯ll follow your arrangement. Just let me know who I should contact, and I¡¯ll ensure that the compensation isn¡¯t lower than what others would offer.¡± Boss Cheng, in his joy, picked up a cup of tea and took a sip. It was scalding hot, as it had just been poured! He yelped in pain and started fanning his mouth with his hand. ¡ª They had planned six surgeries that were to be performed until the afternoon, but they managed to finish them off in the morning itself. Shedding his gown and gloves, Yang Ping picked up his phone. Su Nanchen had sent him a WeChat message: ¡± Whenever you¡¯re free, there¡¯s a reconstructive surgery for a four-ligament injury in a knee joint at a private hospital owned by a friend of mine, Li Quan! If you have time, would appreciate your help. Also, I¡¯d love to learn from you! I benefitted greatly from watching your video last time.¡± Yang Ping pondered for a while, Saturday wouldn¡¯t work since he needs to either accompany Xiao Su for shopping or play ball with her. Even though playing meant being dominated by her, he still had to let her do it. Sunday then, Li Quan Sports Medicine Center, Yang Ping knew about the place. It was a high-end private specialty hospital. When he returned to the ward, Yang Ping informed Director Han that he was going elsewhere to perform surgery. This was a sensitive matter, so he needed to report it. It might lead to speculations of his loyalty if he didn¡¯t. Having listened, Director Han laughed heartily. He was deeply moved by Yang Ping¡¯s loyalty and was very happy that Yang Ping¡¯s name was gradually spreading in the circle. ¡°Go! Of course, you should go. Not only should you go, if they are willing to cooperate with you, you can have a long-term collaboration. It can serve as an external base for you. It would only bring benefits and no harm. It will aid our department in gaining more prominence, and for you, it would be a good way to supplement income. After a point, doctors need to monetize their skills, else it¡¯s hard to develop a positive cycle.¡± Seeing Director Han¡¯s supportive attitude, Yang Ping felt relieved. He could now ease up and go. ¡°Little Yang, be cautious while performing surgery outside. You might want to consider practicing more in the future, but you should refrain from doing so during your early days. No matter what type of surgery it is, allow the doctors from the other hospital to participate as well. This can help avoid certain legal issues. Call me if you have any questions.¡± Director Han instructed Yang Ping. This boy is gaining some reputation and has been invited to perform a surgery outside. Director Han was filled with joy inwardly. Chapter 172 - 0166: I came for Advanced Study Chapter 172: Chapter 0166: I came for Advanced Study After Yang Ping left, Old Han sat alone in his office, pondering silently. The advancement of the position plan was very smooth. Trauma orthopedics, the first position, had already been taken and entrusted to Tan Boyun, who was doing an excellent job. The second position, sports medicine, was currently under concentrated attack. By the current development trend, although it wouldn¡¯t take off as quickly as trauma orthopedics did, conquering this position is just a matter of time. Old Han¡¯s fingers tapped the desk habitually, rhythmically. The blueprint for the development of orthopedics on the wall was clearly visible. It seemed that the plan was progressing faster than expected. Surprisingly, the one helping him achieve this was Yang Ping, who had entered the hospital only half a year ago. This kid! He would definitely foster him well in the future. No, he didn¡¯t need fostering. He needed guidance, opportunities, and a platform. All Old Han needed to do was devote himself wholeheartedly to guiding him correctly, creating enough opportunities for him, and setting up a vast platform. His prospects would then have no limit, Sanbo¡¯s prospects have no limit, he would create miracles together with a group of young individuals such as Song Zimo. Building a top-notch orthopedics department at a national level, comparable to that of Magic City Sixth Hospital, was Old Han¡¯s lifelong wish. Old Han leaned back in his seat, the steam of the teacup wafting the sweet aroma around the room. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, drawing the fragrance into his nostrils, into his heart. Images of the past surged in his mind. The passion, struggle, and enthusiasm of his youth stirred in his chest. Time had passed so quickly that more than a decade had simply flashed by. ¡ª¡ª The number of surgeries was gradually increasing. Yang Ping had several surgeries to perform on Thursday, and the number of inpatients in the ward had exceeded ten. However, no one felt it was strenuous. One reason was that Yang Ping performed surgeries very swiftly. The second was that the team worked together excellently. This mixed model was highly efficient. It shortened the communication path as all information was resolved within one team. The anesthesiologist¡¯s pre-surgical evaluation, the ward manager¡¯s surgical management, the preparation of the operating room instruments were all addressed face to face immediately. Director Gao directly told his doctors not to disturb him with all the surgeries this month unless they were extremely difficult. He wanted to help at the integrated orthopedics department. Having watched the surgeries all morning yesterday, he was enormously stimulated, and it kept him awake. The gap was not slight; Yang Ping¡¯s skill was above that of others in the Third Hospital. He decided to follow the surgeries in the integrated orthopedics department for a month. It was a great opportunity to learn new things and build a relationship with Yang Ping. Making friends was an iterative process. With increased interaction, friendship naturally developed. Old Gao had a clear conscience. He decided to stick with Yang Ping firmly now and learn from him. On his way, he encountered Director Bai of trauma orthopedics. Director Bai stopped and squinted, saying, ¡°Old Gao, you have been frequenting the integrated orthopedics department quite often recently, haven¡¯t you?¡± ¡°They have conducted a few impressive surgeries there. I am going there to learn.¡± Director Gao did not try to hide anything. Director Bai spoke sarcastically, ¡°Surprisingly, Director Gao is quite studious. You are so active in learning from a young doctor.¡± ¡°Skilled ones should be teachers. Skilled ones should be teachers!¡± Director Gao did not want to argue with him and brushed past him, walking away briskly. Director Bai looked back at him, thinking in his heart, a distinguished department director like him, lowering his dignity to flatter a young doctor in his twenties, and talking about learning from him ¡ª it gave him goosebumps. Only someone as thick-skinned as Gao Yuan could pull it off. Director Gao knew that Director Bai looked down on him a bit just now, but he didn¡¯t care. He snorted lightly in his heart thinking the more one cared about face, the more one lost face. As long as Yang Ping was willing to teach, as long as he could achieve Yang Ping¡¯s level in doing four linkage reconstructions, he would not mind calling him a master or a teacher. Old Gao wouldn¡¯t lose a thing. This time Director Gao came prepared. Although his diarrhea was better, just in case, he used the washroom in advance. He kept berberine and montmorillonite powder with him so that the last time¡¯s incident would not recur. He also found out from young doctor Xiao Chen how to copy a video. He even had his USB drive with him. He greeted everyone when he entered the operating room. After all, he was asking them for their help, so there was no point in showing off. They might call him Director Gao to his face, but in their hearts, they knew who he really was. The Integrated Orthopedics was Old Han¡¯s direct forces and had nothing to do with Gao Yuan. As for Huang Jiahui, he looked at her a few more times. Regardless of their relationship, if she could use her instruments, she must have a special relationship with Yang Ping. As for Su Yixuan, when he saw her, he would smile and greet, ¡°Xiao Su, you¡¯re working so hard!¡± When he saw her pushing a cart full of sterile packages, he immediately came over to help: ¡°Let me do it, let me do it!¡± The enthusiasm of a department director like him somehow made people uneasy. ¡°Director Gao?¡± Yang Ping came in and greeted him. He had just come yesterday, and he was here again today. It seemed like he was going to watch the whole process again. ¡°Doctor Yang, I said not to get annoyed with me. I am here to study for a month.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a joke, Director Gao. We hope you can guide us more.¡± Yang Ping smiled. Director Gao saw that Zhang Lin Xiaowu was helping the patient get into position. He immediately joined in, ¡°Let¡¯s do it together!¡± He also got his hands on the job, took the lateral shield handed by Zhou Can, and began to fix it with all his might. Song Zimo saw that he, a 40-year-old man, was not only flattery but also helping to position the patient, not at all like a department director, genuinely like a refresher. He admired him in his heart. Not everyone can do this. ¡°You go wash your hands, I¡¯ll lift the leg.¡± Director Gao was decisive and insistent, not like a courtesy at all. Zhang Lin thought he was joking, but he really did try to lift his leg. He initially found him somewhat annoying, but now he thought Director Gao was quite amusing. ¡°How can I allow that. I¡¯ll do it myself. Director Gao, you sit down and take a rest.¡± Zhang Lin felt embarrassed. Having rotated under his supervision before, he could not bear to make him do it being a department head and all. ¡°Zhang, hurry up and wash your hands. Don¡¯t waste time, we¡¯re all colleagues here. Why be so formal!¡± Director Gao asserted, leaving no room for discussion. Brothers? Since when did Director Gao become his brother? Zhang Lin knew better than to argue with him. He followed his instructions and went to wash his hands. The surgeries that took place were all routine, without any complex multi-ligament reconstructions. But even so, Director Gao was brimming with enthusiasm. There was a difficult part in the anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: the anatomical localization of the reconstruction of the eight-facet double-bundle. Many methods were used to locate it, but none was truly reliable. Some used the clock dial localization method, some used the osteophyte localization method, and others used the measurement localization method. There were many different methods. Doctor Yang did not use measurement or trial and error, nor did he look for osteophytes, but his localization was extremely accurate, and he achieved it in one try. Zhang Lin wasn¡¯t sure what method he used. ¡°Doctor Yang, how did you manage to locate the entrance tunnels of the ACL, especially the femoral end, so accurately?¡± Director Gao asked. He crossed his arms and looked at the screen. Seeing his earnest enthusiasm, Doctor Yang couldn¡¯t help but teach him- after all, he was also teaching Zimo. He said, ¡°Director Gao, you see, don¡¯t worry about all those other things. The key to anatomical reconstruction is finding the center, and where is that? It¡¯s at the geometric center of the original ligament footprint. This is the ACL femoral footprint, this is its geometric center, use this point. Even if it¡¯s a little off, it¡¯s still much more accurate than other methods.¡± Dr. Yang guided the needle and pierced through in one go. As soon as Director Gao saw this, he promptly took out his notebook and started making notes. Zhang Lin was taken aback. Was he really here to learn, not just for show? ¡°But how can we know if it¡¯s a footprint? I hope my questions don¡¯t disrupt your surgery?¡± Director Gao asked considerately. Doctor Yang continued his operation as he answered: ¡°No problem, it won¡¯t disturb me. You just need to carefully observe a few cases, and you¡¯ll get it. Even if it¡¯s hard to become as familiar as I am, it¡¯s still better than other procedures. Look, in case of a fresh injury, retain some of the remnants, don¡¯t scrape them all off. Use the remnants to locate the old injuries. Some remnants might have been absorbed, but the ligament attachment area still differs from the surrounding area. It is obviously rougher. This one is an old injury, and the rough surface here is the footprint area.¡± Secrets! These were all secret techniques. Director Gao couldn¡¯t afford to miss a word and immediately recorded everything down. Director Gao observed several surgeries, and his harvest was quite satisfactory. He even helped with positioning the patient, removing the surgical gowns, and taking care of the patients ¨C more diligent than an intern. After observing the morning surgeries with them, Director Gao had a lot of impressions. It was a good decision to visit. This Doctor Yang has a lot of skills. As Director Gao flipped through his notebook in the changing rooms, he realized that he learned far more here than in any previous training he had outside. A month wouldn¡¯t be enough, so he decided to follow the comprehensive orthopedics tables for three months. He had to arrange his department¡¯s work for tomorrow. Didn¡¯t several doctors under him always want to do major surgeries? He¡¯d let them have their fill these three months. Dr. Yang was unpredictable, he didn¡¯t know how long he¡¯d stay in Sanbo. Maybe when he would be gone, it would be too late to follow his guidance. ¡°Doctor Yang!¡± When Dr. Yang entered the dressing room, Director Gao promptly got up. ¡°Well, any advice on the surgeries today? Director Gao, you are experienced, so please don¡¯t be shy.¡± Dr. Yang replied as he changed clothes. ¡°Not at all, the surgery was perfect, and if it¡¯s convenient, may I continue to come over for a while for learning?¡± Director Gao asked. ¡°Of course, we would love to have you here. Performing surgeries with Director Gao present would make us feel more reassured.¡± Dr. Yang replied diplomatically. Director Gao was delighted: ¡°That¡¯s settled then, I¡¯ll tell Director Han.¡± Director Gao was indeed hardworking, he came again on Friday presumably after he switched shifts. Focused on the entire morning surgery, he did not even leave to go to the washroom once. He scribbled plenty of notes in his notebook, and kept cross-checking with Dr. Yang to see if he had jotted down anything incorrectly. ¡ª- Because they did not admit emergency patients, they could rest over the weekend without having to perform surgeries. This was a great schedule, much better than before when they had to work day and night. The entertainment facilities in the hospital office building were exceptional. They had an indoor badminton court, tennis court, and table tennis tables. On Saturday, he played tennis with Xiao Su all morning. Xiao Su¡¯s tennis skills were on a professional level. Yang Ping was surprised he wasn¡¯t completely crushed by her. However, getting thrashed was a path to improvement. The more one got annihilated, the stronger one became. Xiao Su was not only good at tennis. In university, she won a silver medal in swimming at a major sports meeting and performed exceptionally well in the fitness exercise routine. No wonder her physique was excellent. After tiring each other out, they both sat down for a break and to wipe off sweat. Yang Ping opened a bottle of mineral water and handed it to Xiao Su. Xiao Su had a few sips and handed it back to him. ¡°Tomorrow I¡¯m going to a private hospital for a surgery. Su Nanchen invited me to join him.¡± Yang Ping took the water from Xiao Su and took a sip. Xiao Su saw that Yang Ping still had sweat on his forehead and helped him wipe it with a towel: ¡°I¡¯ll leave the car for you, I¡¯ll take the subway back.¡± ¡°No need, Su Nanchen is picking me up tomorrow.¡± Yang Ping began gathering his things. In the afternoon, they strolled around the hospital, having a relaxing and pleasant chat. Chapter 173 - 0167: First Step Out of the Hut Chapter 173: Chapter 0167: First Step Out of the Hut In Cheng Liquan¡¯s office, Su Nanchen and Cheng Liquan stood in front of the light box to review the medical images. ¡°Young Master Su, what do we do? I didn¡¯t look carefully at the time, and now we¡¯re in this mess,¡± Boss Cheng¡¯s face was flushed with embarrassment. Su Nanchen responded calmly: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ve merely approached the pit, we haven¡¯t fallen in. You can¡¯t blame yourself for not being careful. Few people have experience with such extraordinary cases. It¡¯s extraordinarily rare.¡± Cheng slapped himself lightly, ¡°It¡¯s all my fault for being too hasty. If I had listened to you and temporarily refused such patients, none of this would have happened.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no point in second-guessing now! When he comes tomorrow, we can discuss it together. We haven¡¯t performed the surgery yet, we needn¡¯t be afraid. If it¡¯s really unfeasible, we simply won¡¯t do it,¡± Su Nanchen tried to reassure him. It was pointless to blame people retrospectively. Surgery can¡¯t be performed halfway. If it¡¯s not promising, one should admit defeat. If one doesn¡¯t admit defeat before the surgery, one has to face the bitter consequences after the surgery without any opportunity to back out. Last time Su Nanchen came, he was in a hurry and didn¡¯t examine the patient or study the patient¡¯s imaging data. This time, he found that the patient¡¯s condition was extremely unusual. The knee joint was badly deformed, bone overgrowth had filled up the intercondylar notch, and the posterior part of the tibial plateau was defective. The defect was precisely at the original point where the posterior cruciate ligament attached. The patellofemoral joint was also underdeveloped. Consequently, he urgently took a 3D reconstructive CT scan of the knee joint. Su Nanchen and Boss Cheng were looking at the CT 3D reconstruction with their brows furrowed. The basic quadruplicate reconstruction surgery was challenging enough, and the only addition of this unusual case had multiplied the surgical difficulty. This surgery requires, on top of a demanding quadruplicate reconstruction, forming a new intercondylar notch, which was highly precarious. Merely restoring it was not enough. The surgeon needed to design a specific intercondylar notch shape to meet the various needs of the surgery. Otherwise, the surgery would fail and trigger dire consequences. If it weren¡¯t for doctors with experience in performing multiple ligament reconstructions of the knee joint, they wouldn¡¯t even be aware of the severity of the ensuing consequences. Fortunately, Su Nanchen had such experience; otherwise, they would have stepped on a landmine. ¡°I looked it up afterwards. This patient was previously under Yunjian¡¯s care. They claimed that they were fully booked, but in reality, that wasn¡¯t the case. They had sought advice from Professor Ye. After Professor Ye reviewed the patient¡¯s imaging data, he deemed the surgery too challenging, especially the intercondylar notch reconstruction which he thought was unfeasible. As such, he declined. This is why they shoved this patient my way ¨C they deliberately put me in a tight spot. How unethical of them,¡± Cheng Liquan regretted not being more cautious. He was dripping in sweat, fully aware of the severity of the situation, and grateful to Su Nanchen for the help. Had it not been for Su Nanchen, he wouldn¡¯t even be aware of the perilous consequences. ¡°Those guys are devious! They dug a pit and nearly made me jump in it. One misstep with this surgery would have damaged my reputation,¡± Cheng Liquan still felt a chill run down his spine. ¡°The surgery is definitely a no-go. Even the most skilled surgeon I have recommended to you wouldn¡¯t be able to perform this particular surgery. Nevertheless, let¡¯s still have him come over tomorrow and study the case together. I have already made the arrangements,¡± Su Nanchen believed this case was too unique, which was why he had insisted on bringing Yang Ping. Even if they didn¡¯t end up performing the surgery, it was crucial for them to examine the patient and discuss the case. ¡°I¡¯ll listen to you, Young Master Su. I¡¯ll still pay your friend according to the surgical fee despite the cancellation. I won¡¯t let you be placed in a difficult situation,¡± Boss Cheng mopped his sweat. Su Nanchen stayed silent, still scrutinizing the images on the light box, confirming that no matter how skilled Yang Ping was, it was impossible to perform this kind of surgery. Forming an intercondylar notch was impossible. If the surgery proceeded as usual, it was bound to cause patellofemoral joint instability and render the posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction useless. This was the reason why Professor Ye didn¡¯t dare to take up the case. If they still insisted on performing the surgery, they would have to design a specialized software, set up a model, reprint this intercondylar notch in 3D simulation technology on the computer. Through trial and error algorithms, they could then design an intercondylar notch. However, even after using 3D printing or virtual reality technology to create the surgical model would still require the surgeon to have strong spatial imagination to make a barely passable intercondylar notch. ¡ª Su Nanchen sent the patient¡¯s information to Yang Ping¡¯s email. Yang Ping was playing ball and didn¡¯t see Su Nanchen¡¯s message. ¡°Ding Dong! Task: Starting from scratch, perform one multiple ligament reconstruction in the knee joint as a chief surgeon at a foreign hospital. Attain perfection in the surgery and get rewarded forty thousand points. Task deadline: Within twenty-four hours!¡± In the middle of the game, the system assigned a task. It was strange. His quintuplicate reconstruction didn¡¯t trigger a single task, but this quadruplicate reconstruction did, and the reward was two thousand points. Could this quadruplicate reconstruction be even more complicated? Now the system was adept at picking challenging tasks with high reward points. It wouldn¡¯t even bother with a surgery that wasn¡¯t extremely demanding. High difficulty for high reward seemed to be the principle of the system currently. After the game, during the break, Yang Ping roughly read through the patient¡¯s information on his phone. As expected, this quadruplicate reconstruction posed a higher challenge than the quintuplicate reconstruction he had performed last time. When he found the time later in the evening, Yang Ping began to study the case in depth. In reality, it was a hidden quintuplicate reconstruction, even more complicated than the quintuplicate reconstruction he performed a few days ago. Why? Because, on top of the quadruplicate reconstruction, they had to form an intercondylar notch. The quintuplicate reconstruction he performed involved a quadruplicate reconstruction plus a habitual patellar dislocation. This case involved a quadruplicate reconstruction plus forming an intercondylar notch. He had previously performed an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction that involved forming an intercondylar notch. But forming an intercondylar notch for this case was more challenging. For the previous patient, they simply needed to reproduce the intercondylar notch based on the shape on the opposite healthy knee. This case required more insight. The entire intercondylar notch was severely deformed, a part of the posterior tibial plateau was missing and the patellofemoral joint had an underdevelopment issue. These three factors on top of a quadruplicate injury felt like adding frost to the existing snow. Chapter 174 - 0167: First Step Out of the Hut_2 Chapter 174: Chapter 0167: First Step Out of the Hut_2 The patient¡¯s patellofemoral joint is underdeveloped, implying that the patient¡¯s femoral intercondylar fossa was already abnormal. To what extent, who knows; the damaged posterior tibial plateau means that when reconstituting the posterior cruciate ligament, the femoral stop point on the posterior cruciate ligament of the reshaped femoral intercondylar fossa won¡¯t be in a regular position. This factor should be taken into account in the reshaping. Therefore, a very unusual femoral intercondylar fossa needs to be reshaped. If the previous method is adopted, it would involve mirroring a normal femoral intercondylar fossa from the opposite side for reshaping. The surgery would surely fail, which would lead to the loss of the function of the rebuilt posterior cruciate ligament and instability of the patellofemoral joint. The patient can still walk reluctantly now, but after the surgery, frequent lateral dislocations might occur due to the instability of the patellofemoral joint, making walking difficult. If the patient can walk without a surgery and can¡¯t walk after the surgery, would the patient accept it? This surgery requires one to imagine a specific form for the femoral intercondylar fossa. There is no template for this form that needs to satisfy various conditions simultaneously. It has to provide the best tunnel entry point for the ligament, avoid causing patellofemoral joint disorder, and prevent ligament impingement. The difficulty lies not in restoring but in recreating. It is equivalent to designing a femoral intercondylar fossa with strict requirements. Any error could lead to the collapse of the surgery. One can only rely on their brain¡¯s imaging abilities. The core of the super cultivation plan is to develop this brain imaging ability. And this goes beyond straightforward static imaging. It needs to be dynamic, connected, and logical. Yang Ping¡¯s brain imaging abilities have been improving steadily. He found building this time¡¯s static images quite easy, finalizing them in just one attempt without any supplementary work. However, creating dynamic images remained challenging. He had to revise, supplement, and reinforce it repeatedly before it took shape. Images in his mind kept changing. Sometimes he needed to move, sometimes to shift. One after another, femoral intercondylar fossae appeared. Then, the ligament would be implanted at the ideal position. If it wasn¡¯t working, the femoral intercondylar fossa would be further modified before implanting the ligament again. This process was repeated many times. Finally, after a few groups of ligament implants, the best function and balance were obtained. But the impingement occurred again during flexion and extension. The modifications continued until the impingement was completely eliminated. Patellar instability recurred, so Yang Ping grimly continued to revise, repeatedly trying and eradicating errors. By the time he finally solved the problem, his forehead was drenched in sweat, his clothes nearly soaked. The mental exhaustion was immense, but he was relieved to have found the most appropriate shape for the femoral intercondylar fossa through visualization. Yang Ping went over the final shape of the femoral intercondylar fossa several times, confirming that there were no issues. Thus, he committed it to memory for use in the surgery tomorrow. ¡°This patient¡¯s femoral intercondylar fossa needs reshaping and it¡¯s extremely difficult. Come over and take a look tomorrow!¡± was a message from Su Nanchen. ¡°I¡¯ve reviewed the information. Indeed, it¡¯s tough, but it shouldn¡¯t be a problem,¡± responded Yang Ping. ¡ª This guy, he claims that a surgery like this would not pose a problem. Either he has truly mastered surgeries, or he hasn¡¯t reviewed the imaging materials thoroughly. Su Nanchen arrived promptly at Sanbo Hospital at 8:30 on Sunday morning. Around 9 o¡¯clock, Yang Ping had also arrived at Li Quan Hospital. To show his appreciation, Boss Cheng was waiting at the hospital entrance. When he saw Su Nanchen and Yang Ping approaching, he was taken aback. How could someone even more skilled than Professor Ye possibly look so young? Even at a glance, it was impossible not to notice that this man was barely in his twenties. In essence, at this age, he would at best be a junior doctor. What was Su Nanchen up to this time? Boss Cheng quickly reassured himself, reminding himself that Su Nanchen was a man of his word. He didn¡¯t have to worry about the expertise of a person Su Nanchen had personally invited. It¡¯s just a pity that if the patient were undergoing a regular quadruple reconstruction, the surgery could have been done today. This would have filled the void at Li Quan Hospital and represented that there was no technological difference between Li Quan Hospital and Yunjian Hospital. But this patient ¡ª the surgery couldn¡¯t be performed. What a pity! Boss Cheng sighed, feeling somewhat unwilling. As a savvy businessman, Boss Cheng swiftly rearranged his features, revealing none of his thoughts. From a distance, he extended his hand to welcome them. ¡°From Sanbo Hospital, Yang Ping, Dr. Yang!¡± Su Nanchen introduced. ¡°Hello, Dr. Yang, nice to meet you, Cheng Liquan-¡± Boss Cheng was gorgeous and affable, giving everyone a sense of familiarity at first sight. He quickly extended his business card in both hands, nodding slightly in respect. Yang Ping took the card: ¡°Boss Cheng, your reputation precedes you. Who in the medical circle doesn¡¯t know Boss Cheng¡¯s name?¡± Despite his fame, this was indeed the first time that Yang Ping had heard Cheng Liquan¡¯s name. The three of them chatted as they walked. This Sports Medicine Center was genuinely impressive. A professional designer was hired to plan the interior, taking meticulous care of details, such as the slope of the stairs, the width of the steps, the height of the handrails, and the color matching. Luxury isn¡¯t just about the technical aspect; it¡¯s also about the experience. This man may be in his twenties, but his demeanor is far from irresponsible or unstable. Instead, he radiates an extremely strong sense of calm and confidence. Chaoshan people are good at doing business, and businessmen are adept at observing people and situations. Boss Cheng observed furtively and realized that seeing from his temperament, Su Nanchen¡¯s friend was indeed a master. A beautiful nurse led the way, the tailored nurse uniform highlighting her charming figure. Her professional smile made everyone feel very comfortable. The hospital was indeed running with great dedication. Yang Ping had heard a little about these specialist hospitals and had some preconceived notions about them. But since it was opened by a friend of Su Nanchen, it likely wasn¡¯t too bizarre. From a visceral feeling, the hospital seemed very regular, and Boss Cheng introduced his hospital all the way. ¡°Let¡¯s rest in my office for a while!¡± Cheng offered. Yang waved his hand: ¡°No need, let¡¯s take a look at the images first, then check on the patient.¡± Everyone went to the doctor¡¯s office, where the light box was already filled with medical imaging films. Yang Ping walked up to the light box and closely studied the patient¡¯s images. Everyone gathered around; two doctors and several master¡¯s degree students. They were all trained by Boss Cheng and represented the pivotal support of the hospital. For doctors and master¡¯s degree holders, job prospects are not very optimistic, especially in G City. It¡¯s challenging to find a foothold in the better public hospitals. Some had to settle for private hospitals, either the large, comprehensive ones, which were few and far between, or these smaller, specialized hospitals. Yang Ping¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly as his sharp gaze scanned the images. Boss Cheng held his breath. Although his hopes were slim, he still wished for the surgery to be feasible. After all, this was a surgery that even Professor Ye had given up on. If Professor Ye didn¡¯t dare to perform it, who else in the country could? When it came to surgeries of this nature, others could at most be considered on par with Professor Ye. Seeing that Yang Ping remained silent, merely staring at the images on the light box, Su Nanchen and Boss Cheng didn¡¯t want to interrupt him and waited quietly. In hindsight, calling someone over for this kind of surgery was indeed somewhat inappropriate. After examining the images, Yang Ping said, ¡°Let¡¯s go and see the patient.¡± Boss Cheng instructed the attending doctor to lead Yang Ping to the ward to examine the patient. The wards here were all suites, luxuriously decorated. Yang Ping inquired about the patient¡¯s medical history in detail, performed a thorough examination of the patient, and obtained sufficient information. He now felt quite confident. They returned to the doctor¡¯s office. ¡°How is it?¡± Su Nanchen asked. Boss Cheng eagerly awaited the verdict. ¡°Admit the patient!¡± Yang Ping answered casually. Admit the patient? Does that mean the surgery can be performed? Su Nanchen was also unsure. Was Yang Ping being serious, or was he kidding? If he could perform this surgery, then this guy must be insane. Chapter 175 - 0168: Pervert Chapter 175: Chapter 0168: Pervert Boss Cheng yearned for the surgery to be conducted, yet when Doctor Yang confirmed it could be done, he felt a twinge of hesitation. Can it truly be done? Or is it merely a vain display, mounting the operating table for appearance¡¯s sake? If it¡¯s the latter, he is doomed. He hoped for Su Nanchen¡¯s guidance in making a decision. ¡°Prepare the patient for surgery!¡± Su Nanchen repeated what Doctor Yang had said. Now that he had Su Nanchen¡¯s affirmation, Boss Cheng felt relieved, ¡°Prepare the patient!¡± The ward doctor immediately contacted the operating room. The surgery, as planned, was ready to proceed and the patient was to be prepared immediately. Boss Cheng had little understanding of Doctor Yang and could not fully trust him. Naturally, he was cautious, but once Su Nanchen threw his weight behind it, Boss Cheng felt at ease. Su Nanchen¡¯s confirmation was as good as a guarantee. ¡°The equipment is as you requested, from the domestically produced range of Ruixing. Everything is ready and waiting for you in the operating room.¡± Doctor Yang didn¡¯t foresee any significant problems. Su Nanchen had beforehand advised Boss Cheng to prepare for both scenarios: if Doctor Yang found the patient suitable after examination, the surgery would proceed immediately; if not, the surgery would be cancelled. The patient had already been explained the probable situations, so the preoperative preparations were well in hand and they could enter the operating theater at any moment. Once the patient was transferred to the operating room, Boss Cheng accompanied the two to his office for a brief rest. Doctor Yang refrained from discussing the upcoming surgery and just sat back, relaxed. Boss Cheng wanted to ask, ¡°Doctor Yang, how many such surgeries have you conducted?¡± But he figured such a question would imply mistrust. To distrust Doctor Yang would mean to distrust Su Nanchen. Therefore, he swallowed the words that were at the tip of his tongue. Seeing Boss Cheng¡¯s apprehension, Su Nanchen sensed what was troubling him. ¡°Isn¡¯t the reconstruction of the femoral condylar fossa a bit tricky?¡± Su Nanchen broached the subject. Doctor Yang responded nonchalantly, ¡°Ah, it¡¯s not a big issue, just do some shaping with a burr.¡± It was easier said than done. Everyone knew shaping with a burr was necessary; the challenge was how to do a personalized shaping, while also fulfilling all the surgical requirements. Upon seeing that Doctor Yang wasn¡¯t at all worried, to the point where he didn¡¯t even see a need to discuss it, Su Nanchen didn¡¯t ask any further. The recurrent image of the video that showed the five-structure reconstruction surgery became his source of confidence in Doctor Yang. After they had rested enough, Boss Cheng led them to the operating room. Excited to see Doctor Yang and his party, Jiahui enthusiastically greeted them: ¡°Hello, Professor Yang! Hi, Professor Su! Hello, Boss Cheng!¡± Doctor Yang gave a slight nod acknowledging her greeting. Jiahui felt delighted. Doctor Yang was so prestigious, even being invited here to perform surgery. It was evident that both Professor Su and Boss Cheng held him in high regard. The patient had already been anesthetized. Two doctors were busy attending to him: positioning the patient¡¯s body, applying the drape, disinfecting their hands, covering the area with sterile sheets. Two doctors from this hospital were assisting on the stage, with others observing from below. Intrigued, everyone wanted to see how he would execute the surgery, especially the shaping of the femoral condylar fossa, which seemed virtually impossible. When they were studying in South Korea, such a condition generally led to advisory against surgery, with the patient left to maintain their current state. The operating room was arranged in accordance with the standards of the Samsung Medical Center in South Korea. It was excellent, the full set of arthroscopy instruments and equipment were high-end products from Shi Lehui. The hospital must have invested quite a lot of money. The surgery began ¡ª incision by the scalpel, trocar inserted, then the arthroscope slipped into the trocar. Every step was executed accurately under the arthroscope, with not a single detail missed. With each pause at a point before moving on, the rhythm was amazing, with each step smoothly flowing into the next. ¡°Molding of the femoral condylar fossa, burr!¡± Having completed the examination, Yang Ping immediately started the shaping. Although he wasn¡¯t accustomed to waiting for the equipment, Doctor Yang had to wait a solid ten or so seconds before he had the electric drill in his hand. As the sound of burr echoed, the proliferating bone was removed. Under the powerful rotation of the spherical drill head, the severely deformed femoral condylar fossa started to remodel as if it were being manipulated by a numerical control machine. The target seemed to have been preprogrammed, and as the drill ground, a perfect femoral condylar fossa emerged, meeting all the surgical requirements, like a finely sculpted artwork. If one didn¡¯t know it was a surgery, only seeing a snippet of the video in view would lead them to believe that this was a numerical control machine shaping an industrial product. ¡°Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, tibial locator, pilot-hole drill!¡± The nurse was still not able to keep up with the pace and was not used to this rapid speed. To keep the surgery compact, Doctor Yang had to notify the nurse in advance to prepare for the next step. ¡°Next, prepare the tibial tunnel drill!¡± The moment the locator was released, the positioning was accurately done in a single attempt, and two tunnel paths were quickly established by the pilot-hole drill. ¡°Dr. Su, what is the length and diameter of the anterior cruciate ligament allograft tendon?¡± Remained busy in processing the tendon, Sun Nanchen promptly reported the measurements. ¡°Tibial tunnel drill!¡± Leaving two pilot-hole drills, Doctor Yang took off the electric drill and handed it to the nurse. There was a slight disconnect in the coordination. He had to wait again. If it was Xiao Su assisting him, he wouldn¡¯t have needed to instruct. Each step, every piece of equipment, would be handed over at the right moment, ensuring a smooth flow of the procedure. After a while, he received the tibial tunnel drill, and two tibial tunnels were established at the precise locations. ¡°Femoral locator, prepare the pilot-hole drill!¡± Doctor Yang removed the two pilot-hole drills from the tibial tunnels. The nurse handed over the femoral-end locator. Before her hand could even retreat, Doctor Yang had already positioned it correctly, pointing directly at the geometric center of the ligament femoral footprint. After waiting for a while, he received the electric drill. The needle securely held the center of the ligament footprint. Surprisingly, even without any estimation or measurement, the needle tip was accurately positioned. Sandy sounds were emitted as the needle drilled through, and the exit point was ideally positioned. ¡°Femoral tunnel drill!¡± The nurse again fell a few beats behind. Holes in femurs, both small and large, were drilled. This wasn¡¯t Doctor Yang showing off his skill, but rather purely his proficiency from countless hours of training in the system space, making him accustomed to this fast pace. The nurse increasingly couldn¡¯t keep up with the speed, always lagging one step behind, struggling terribly, almost tripping over herself in a frenzy. ¡°Insert the ligament!¡± Despite Su Nanchen¡¯s fast hands, he failed to catch up. The opening of four tunnels on both ends in mere seconds; who could keep up with this speed? Dr. Yang stood there, waiting. With Su Nanchen¡¯s needlework whizzing about, using baseball glove stitching, the tendon was beautifully assembled with high-strength yarn, and handed to Yang. ¡°Pass the guidewire needle!¡± The nurse had become extremely agitated and was now entirely flustered. ¡°It¡¯s okay! Take your time, prepare the tools for the posterior cruciate (PCL) reconstruction!¡± Doctor Yang reached to the instrument table to grab the guide needle himself. Boss Cheng immediately ordered, for another surgical nurse to be brought in, as it was clear one wasn¡¯t enough. They were all tensed, judging from their furrowed brows. The tendon¡¯s thread was pulled through, given a tug, and then pulled back. Before anyone could get a clear sight, the tendon was already implanted, caught by the toggle plate at the femur end. ¡°The compression screw!¡± Another nurse hurriedly went to scrub up. The surgical nurse on the table took a deep breath, as she couldn¡¯t catch up. Boss Cheng couldn¡¯t keep his calm. Although troublesome, he had to admit that it wasn¡¯t because the nurses were incompetent, the surgery was just too fast. He ridiculed himself thinking that his past surgeries seemed like chasing bugs in comparison. The compression screw was passed over, rotated in, and the excess allograft tendon was cut off. The moment its tools were pulled back, Yang was already waiting for the guidewire for the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL). Yang didn¡¯t express any annoyance or speak. He quietly waited. When another nurse ascended to the stage, he personally adjusted the patient¡¯s position on the operating table to suit the next phase of the surgery. As he initiated the double bundle reconstruction of the PCL, the assistants who were holding the leg were left dizzy by the swift exchange of various instruments and adjusting of angles. They couldn¡¯t keep up with the pace neither mentally nor physically. Another nurse stepped up to the platform with their surgical gown on. One prepared the instruments currently in use, and the other prepared the instruments for the next step. The guiding needle, swiftly, one for the tibia, one for the femur. Both tunnels were opened again. The drill bit for the femur and tibia was needed again. Finally, when the drill bit was assembled properly, the rhythm improved with two surgical tables now, despite being a bit chaotic. Su Nanchen was engrossed and dedicated himself to help with the organization of the PCL¡¯s tendons, while occasionally glancing at the monitor displaying the surgery. The tunnels made were perfect again. Su Nanchen finally managed to keep up this time. The tendon was barely handed over and it was immediately time to optimize the tendon for the reconstruction of the posterolateral and posteromedial structures. He couldn¡¯t even afford to take a breather, let alone make casual comments during the surgery. Boss Cheng coordinated from the side, commanding nurses and doctors to keep up the pace. The reconstruction of the PCL was done in a flash, the posterolateral, posteromedial, each three structures, were done with swift, precise incisions. Small cuts were made, tunnels were created, and tendons were implanted! One step done, then a pause. All eight structures, both the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments with double bundles, ten tendons were all implanted. ¡°Repair the joint capsule!¡± The doctor holding the leg was shaking. Seeing the needle and thread passed over, he only observed the needle going in and out¡ª in a daze, the joint capsule was fixed. ¡°Alcohol gauze!¡± It was time for the disinfection of the skin with 75% alcohol before suturing the skin. Okay, they could finally take a breather. Due to their nerves, both nurses had sore and aching shoulders. The suturing of the skin was also done. Dressing? Dressing? Dressing? It took Yang asking three times for the nurse to realize that the surgery had ended and it was time to cover the surgical site with dressing. After checking the stability and mobility of the knee joint, elastic bandages were finally wrapped around, and the knee was fixed with a knee hinge brace. Complete. Boss Cheng felt mentally exhausted. It was as if he was out of stamina, yet he had to keep running till the finish line. Standing in front of the monitor, his back drenched in sweat, there were no words to describe the taste in his heart. He was also from a background in arthroscopy and was still conducting surgeries, he couldn¡¯t compete with Nanchen¡¯s skills but he had confidence in his abilities. However, today¡¯s surgery was done so efficiently that he felt he would embarrass himself if he were to step up to the plate. One hour had barely passed, and already the four-in-one reconstruction was complete. Su Nanchen also breathed a sigh of relief. It was only by performing at full speed that he barely managed to keep up. The few observing doctors had their eyes opened to a new spectacle. They had initially wondered why Su Nanchen had invited him, but now they saw how formidable this guy¡¯s surgical skills were. As Doctor Yang stepped away from the operating table, preparing to take off his surgical gown, Jiahui, who was already standing at his back, promptly helped him untie the strap. ¡°I¡¯m going to wash my hands!¡± Dr. Yang, despite having already removed his gloves, said out of habit. Jiahui promptly led the way to the handwashing area. Su Nanchen hadn¡¯t managed to change out of his surgery gown yet, and Boss Cheng was standing there, unable to react for a moment. Su Nanchen stripped down to check the stability of the knee joint again. He checked it several times, forward and backward, internal and external rotation, it was very stable. There wasn¡¯t much difference compared to a normal knee, and the wobbly preoperative knee was nowhere to be seen. ¡°Your brother is a bit of a freak!¡± Boss Cheng squeezed out a sentence. Su Nanchen put his brace back on and raised his head to look at Boss Cheng, who immediately clarified, ¡°I mean his surgery, it¡¯s freakishly great!¡± Boss Cheng couldn¡¯t find the right words to describe the surgery and ended up using the word ¡®freak¡¯, which seemed rather exaggerated and crude. ¡°Yeah, a little!¡± Su Nanchen also thought so. This was his first time watching Doctor Yang¡¯s live surgery and it was even more shocking than watching a video. Chapter 176 - 0169: Powerful Matchmaking Chapter 176: Chapter 0169: Powerful Matchmaking ¡°Ding dong! The surgery was a success, and the beginner¡¯s task has been accomplished, with a reward of forty thousand points.¡± Having washed his hands, Yang Ping returned to the operating room. ¡°Post-surgery routine is as usual.¡± Yang Ping instructed. The patient was wheeled out of the operating room in a wheelchair, and Jiahui cleaned up the unused consumables, preparing to take them back. Boss Cheng had just felt a bit dizzy, not noticing Yang Ping had already left to wash his hands, or else he would¡¯ve accompanied him out. Upon hearing Yang Ping¡¯s voice, he immediately turned around, steadied his shaking mind, and grabbed Yang Ping¡¯s hand: ¡°Dr. Yang, thank you so much for today, I truly appreciate it!¡± Due to the technical gap, Boss Cheng felt himself to be a level below Yang Ping, his admiration was compelling. Once one starts to admire another, a sense of equality within them naturally disappears. Yang Ping said nonchalantly: ¡°We¡¯re practically family, no need for formalities. You¡¯re a friend of Young Master Su, so you¡¯re a friend of mine. It was nothing, not some huge task. Don¡¯t be so formal; if you need anything in the future, just ask Young Master Su to contact me.¡± The few doctors remaining in the operating room were gathered around the video watching it in slow motion. Upon hearing Yang Ping¡¯s words, they quickly adjusted their postures. Those who were sitting down watching the computer immediately stood up, those who were just standing around also straightened up. ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± They shouted in unison, like students seeing their teacher. The two nurses removed their surgical gowns, their scrub clothes half-soaked. They were holding back just now to maintain the rhythm, fearful of being scolded. The professor that had been invited over was not in a good mood, and even threw equipment. No need to mention the scolding. After being scolded by the professor and the surgery concluded, they would still have to face their boss¡¯s wrath. The boss, feeling a loss of face, would naturally lash out at the ones involved. The two nurses were extremely anxious ¨C even though the professor hadn¡¯t said anything, they didn¡¯t know if the boss would scold them later. The two nurses, upon seeing Yang Ping, were immediately filled with a sense of shame. They had not performed well just now, not keeping up with the rhythm. During their turn, they had been slow. ¡°It¡¯s okay, you¡¯ll get better with more practice. You guys are already very skilled. The clumsiness was just because it was your first time working with me. Every doctor has their habits,¡± Yang Ping comforted them. The two nurses hummed in reply, their eyes full of gratitude. ¡°Boss Cheng, your staff are well-trained. Really, it¡¯s our first cooperation, but they¡¯ve already done a very good job,¡± Yang Ping complimented. Yang Ping was afraid that Boss Cheng, after the operation, would be dissatisfied with these two nurses, criticize them, or even take more severe measures. Speaking up for them would be slightly helpful. Being a nurse is hard work. ¡°This patellofemoral joint is very difficult to shape. How do you do it so well, forming it in one go, and completely meeting the surgical conditions?¡± Su Nanchen had been busy on stage just now and had not had time to ask. Now everyone was free and could chat. Yang Ping said, ¡°This shaping is indeed very difficult. Quite simply, practice makes perfect. But there are also techniques. You need to find all the key points, lines, and planes. For example, in order to have an appropriate ligament attachment point and to provide sufficient tension to the implanted tendon, you must find the optimal point. While shaping, these points must either be preserved or created. To prevent the ligament from colliding with the patellofemoral joint, you need to find the collision line and the shaping must exceed this line. In order not to disrupt the patellofemoral joint¡¯s trajectory, you need to identify the protective area, and this area must not be disrupted while you¡¯re shaping. If these conditions are met, you can then craft an appropriate patellofemoral joint.¡± Su Nanchen immediately understood, but to implement it, he didn¡¯t know how much surgical experience he would need in order to achieve Yang Ping¡¯s level of precision. ¡°Professor Yang, may I go now?¡± Jiahui asked respectfully. ¡°Why don¡¯t you stay and have dinner with us?¡± Yang Ping suggested, seeing she must be worn out as well. How could Jiahui possibly stay for dinner? She replied, ¡°Thank you, you guys continue chatting, I¡¯m going to go ahead.¡± ¡°Off you go!¡± Yang Ping laughed, observing that the girl was not bad ¨C diligent and hardworking. Jiahui put the packed instruments in a large bag, picked it up, and left the operating room. ¡°That¡ªequipment saleswoman!¡± Boss Cheng caught up with her, not knowing Huang Jiahui¡¯s name, he gestured to her. ¡°Boss Cheng, is there anything I can help you with?¡± Jiahui immediately came over. Boss Cheng thought for a moment: ¡°Ruixing, right?¡± Jiahui nodded: ¡°Yes, Ruixing, my name is Huang Jiahui.¡± She promptly handed over her business card. ¡°Manager Huang, does Dr. Yang often use your equipment?¡± Boss Cheng asked in a low voice. Jiahui nodded: ¡°He always uses ours.¡± Boss Cheng paused before saying: ¡°In that case, leave the unused ones here. Whatever products you have, send them all over for stock. For the formalities, contact Manager Yuan from the medical equipment department. I will call him in advance.¡± This level of surgical skill, Su Nanchen said, is even superior to that of Professor Ye. There¡¯s no exaggeration at all. Boss Cheng is so excited in his heart, with his heart beating uncontrollably. He must firmly grasp this relationship. ¡°Excellent, excellent!¡± The young lass almost bounces up, even her walk has a spring in her step. She had just delivered goods not long ago to the sports medicine department at Sanbo, and now this Li Quan Hospital requires their products again. There wasn¡¯t even the need for much effort as they were the ones requesting them. This was all thanks to Doctor Yang. ¡°Thank you boss Cheng!¡± Jiahui bowed respectfully again. ¡°Brother Yang! Your surgical precision is unspeakably good. The way you¡¯ve sculpted the intercondylar notch and managed ligament balance are perfect at once, unbelievable. I hope to have the opportunity to learn more from you in the future,¡± Su Nanchen said as he watched the slow motion video. He focused particularly on the formation of the intercondylar notch, and how the ligament balance was perfectly managed at once. Su Nanchen calls him Brother Yang despite Yang Ping being several years younger. In his heart, age no longer determines seniority. Ability warrants brotherhood, hence him naturally addressing Yang Ping as ¡°Brother Yang.¡± This was easy to the tongue and sit well in his heart. Boss Cheng was still in his excitement and became a bit flustered. After arranging for Huang Jiahui to prepare the tools, he called the manager of the marketing department to ensure proper promotion of this surgery. He also called the hospital¡¯s Dean, Dr. Cai, who was at the city¡¯s health bureau on a morning errand. Boss Cheng wanted him to hurry back for a meal together to discuss the matters of their cooperation. Dr. Cai was Boss Cheng¡¯s trusted assistant and a partner in the hospital. Boss Cheng usually worked behind the scenes while Dr. Cai was responsible for the daily management of the frontlines. It¡¯s truly a case of every cloud has a silver lining. What once used to be a cause of headache had suddenly transformed into a blessing in disguise. The change was so fast that it was hard to adjust. This surgery deserves some good publicity. They were under pressure by Yunjian to the point of almost suffocation, but today they were finally able to breathe. All future complex surgeries will be going to Doctor Yang. With this surgical ability, how can anyone achieve this without thousands of surgeries? There¡¯s still such a talent in G City. I, Old Cheng, have been muddling around in the medical circle for nothing. Su Nanchen is still Su Nanchen. This kind of person will be his brother. I believe that without Su Nanchen¡¯s introduction today, no one would have taken me seriously. During the surgery, the doctors and nurses couldn¡¯t keep up with the rhythm, but he didn¡¯t say a word and quietly waited, all out of respect for Su Nanchen. Boss Cheng was rubbing his hands, letting out the pent-up frustration and instantly felt refreshed. Several doctors took the opportunity to ask Yang Ping various questions about the difficult parts of this surgery. Yang Ping answered all them while maintaining a friendly demeanor which made doctors feel much appreciated. Eventually, they started addressing him as Teacher Yang instead of Doctor Yang, which felt a bit unusual to Yang Ping. Looking at the time, Boss Cheng saw it was not yet eleven o¡¯clock. ¡°Brother Yang! Let¡¯s go sit in the office for a bit and have some tea. Then we¡¯ll have a light meal together.¡± Su Nanchen had introduced him, so he naturally wanted to show his appreciation. He had arranged for a lunch in advance at a famous private dining restaurant ¡ª Delicious Cuisine. Hearing Su Nanchen calling him Brother Yang, Boss Cheng also started addressing him as Brother Yang. Su Nanchen also said, ¡°Let¡¯s have a meal together later, and have a good chat.¡± Boss Cheng understood that for a talent like this, there were plenty of people seeking to collaborate with him. If he could be on brotherly terms with Su Nanchen, then naturally his social relations would not be bad either. Cooperation not only required satisfaction with the hospital¡¯s conditions, but also depended on the hospital¡¯s boss. It wasn¡¯t just about random partnerships. If the hospital facilities were lacking and there was an infection during the surgery, it would damage reputation. If the boss was stingy and indecisive, the cooperation would not be smooth, and that would be pointless. In this day and age, with skills like these, money can be earned anywhere. There¡¯s no need for their tiny sum. So, he wanted to take the opportunity of a meal to showcase his strengths. He hoped to finalize terms of their collaboration with the help of Su Nanchen. This was an opportunity to strike while the iron is hot. He surreptitiously sent a WeChat message to Su Nanchen: ¡°Young Master Su, I want to collaborate with your brother and have him perform surgeries regularly. Help me, please! Strong matchmaking!!! ¡± Su Nanchen read the message and smiled. There was still some time left, so Boss Cheng arranged for both of them to rest in the office for a few minutes. Then he showed Yang Ping around the hospital, introducing its hardware facilities, personnel arrangements, management systems, and his vision for the hospital. Yang Ping was impressed. It was very professional, unlike the private specialty hospitals he had imagined. The entire hospital seemed to be modeled after the sports medicine department of the Samsung Medical Center in South Korea. The hardware facilities were undoubtedly first-class, and the doctors and nurses all seemed well-trained. Specifically, several key doctors were all postgraduates and had all been trained at the Samsung Medical Center in South Korea. In summary, this was a legitimate army, and this boss, was a legitimate boss! ¡°I want to establish a chain in the future,¡± Boss Cheng ambitiously stated. When it was almost time, Boss Cheng personally drove them in a Mercedes to the private dining restaurant. Dr. Cai, the Dean of Li Quan Hospital, also accompanied them. Chapter 177 - 0170: Establishing Cooperation Chapter 177: Chapter 0170: Establishing Cooperation Private dining, with fine wines and great food, a bit of a tacky name, but it is a famous high-end private dining establishment in G City. Located on the fifth floor of a luxury office building, it¡¯s in a busy area, but its privacy is excellent. The owner is a Chaoshan person, surnamed Fan, hailing from the same hometown as Cheng Liquan. They are very close and Old Cheng often arranges important business dinners here. Mr. Fan was formerly the head chef of a well-known hotel in Hong Kong. He had won many awards and had a high reputation in the food industry. Later, he came to G City to start his own business, opening this gourmet studio. The place is small, with only six private rooms, but the business is quite good. It is said that many famous artists from Hong Kong have dined here, such as Tony Leung and Carina Lau. The restaurant is decorated in an elegantly simple style, luxurious but not ostentatious, low-key yet highly tasteful. With redwood furniture, high-quality linen tablecloths, and ebony chopsticks, each detail pursues perfection, revealing the owner¡¯s meticulous care. The ingredients are also genuinely top-notch. Those who come here to eat are not short of money and are particularly choosy. If any fake goods are used to fool them, it would ruin the restaurant¡¯s reputation and bring about greater loss than gain. Guided by the enthusiastic waiters, the several guests were seated. ¡°What wine would you like? Remy Martin?¡± Old Cheng asked warmly and considerately. The wine cabinet was filled with high-end wines, available for anyone to pick. In such a situation, there was no need to consider the cost. The focus was on how to appear generous, how to show sincerity to the others, and how to make them feel honored and respected. ¡°Brother Yang doesn¡¯t drink alcohol,¡± Su Nanchen explained for Yang Ping. ¡°Apple cider vinegar, perhaps?¡± suggested Yang Ping. Apple cider vinegar was not available here, so Mr. Fan immediately ordered the waiter to go out and buy some. Private dining is not typically ordered a? la carte or chosen freely by diners. Instead, the chef arranges the dishes a day in advance according to the guests¡¯ tastes. Out of courtesy, Boss Cheng handed the pre-prepared menu to Yang Ping to review, to avoid causing offence with any dietary restrictions or other taboos. Yang Ping glanced briefly over it, each dish should be quite expensive, needing at least three to two thousand per head. Having reviewed it, Yang found no objections. The waiter had already bought the apple cider vinegar, Tiandi No.1, and was arranging it on the table whilst the food was being prepared in the kitchen. ¡°Shall we all drink the same?¡± Su Nanchen suggested. Boss Cheng agreed, following Yang¡¯s preferences entirely. ¡°Young Master Su, if it wasn¡¯t for Dr. Yang today, I, Old Cheng, would¡¯ve embarrassed myself.¡± Boss Cheng shook his head in shame, still shaken. He was a businessman who was caught off guard by the underhanded schemes of his adversaries ¨C he nearly got stabbed in the back. Laughing, Su Nanchen said, ¡°Then you¡¯ll have to thank Brother Yang thoroughly later on!¡± If not drinking alcohol, then, by all means, have several more glasses of apple cider vinegar. One by one, the dishes were brought up ¨C caviar with wheat fragrance in egg jelly, a taste of freshness, crispy-skinned ginseng, avocado with bird¡¯s nest, consomme? snail slices, cheese-flavored black sausages, peony shrimp sashimi, and Wagyu beef¨C It seems that the restaurant mainly serves Chaoshan cuisine. The chef, who is also the owner, Mr. Fan, personally came out to greet Boss Cheng and other guests, introducing the ingredients and selling points of each dish. He then raised a glass of apple cider vinegar to toast Yang Ping and Su Nanchen, expressing gratitude for their patronage. It is said that before Mr. Fan became a chef, he had worked in the chemical industry. Later, he applied his knowledge of chemistry to cooking and developed his own unique culinary methods through practice and research. The famous footballer, Beckham, once invited Mr. Fan to cook at his home. ¡°Brother Yang!¡± Su Nanchen invited Yang Ping to start eating. Yang Ping picked up a piece of Wagyu beef with the public chopsticks to taste. The reputation was well deserved. The chef had brought out the best in the dish¡¯s color, aroma, and taste, capturing the taste buds relentlessly. ¡°Indeed worthy of its reputation!¡± Yang Ping praised. Everyone started eating and took turns giving compliments, making Mr. Fan, who was standing on the side, feel very proud. ¡°Dr. Yang, Young Master Su is here. If you don¡¯t find my place too basic, let¡¯s cooperate in the future. You can come over frequently to give instructions on surgeries and help guide my team,¡± Boss Cheng hastily suggested, testing the waters. Holding matchmaker, Su Nanchen chimed in, ¡°Brother Yang, aside from everything else, Boss Cheng is definitely an upright person. He does business by the rules and doesn¡¯t engage in underhanded tactics.¡± Yang Ping also saw through their intention, he picked up the apple cider vinegar and said, ¡°Considering what Brother Su said and honoring the admiration of Boss Cheng, if there is a need in the future, just give a shout. I will be at your disposal.¡± ¡°Perfect, Dr. Yang is straightforward. Regarding the cost, you are free to charge as you wish. Your surgery, no matter the cost, is all worth it.¡± Boss Cheng strike while the iron was hot, he believed that Yang Ping would not set his own price, and even if he did, he wouldn¡¯t aim too high. As the intermediary, Su Nanchen naturally thought it was best for him to broach cost, ¡°What about charging the same as Professor Ye?¡± Although he didn¡¯t have the fame of Professor Ye, his surgical skills were superior, plus he was young and had plenty of energy to help train talents. Proposing such a price wouldn¡¯t be excessive. ¡°Done deal, we¡¯ll go with Professor Ye¡¯s price.¡± The price that Boss Cheng had in mind. He thinks a lower offer lacks sincerity. Yang Ping waved his hand: ¡°Professor Ye is a well-known professor nationwide, a bigshot in the industry. How can I possibly be on a par with him? How about I take a 50% discount.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t do!¡± Boss Cheng didn¡¯t expect Yang Ping to cut his own price. He feared he was being simply polite. Yang Ping picked up his cup: ¡°Boss Cheng, with Young Master Su as our intermediary, this partnership will be easy. Let¡¯s not beat around the bush and there¡¯s no need for further talk. We¡¯re all friends here. Young Master Su told me you¡¯re committed to running your hospital, which I value most. So let¡¯s go with Professor Ye¡¯s price at a 50% discount. Let that be settled.¡± Seeing the determination in Yang¡¯s statement, which didn¡¯t sound like mere politeness, Su Nanchen immediately set the deal in stone: ¡°50% discount it is. Old Cheng, there¡¯s no need for more refusals.¡± Yang Ping had his own considerations. While it¡¯s true his skills are excellent, he¡¯s just starting out and is not famous enough. Boss Cheng is willing to pay such a high price, and he can afford it, but this can impede Yang¡¯s reputation buildup, and it¡¯s not conducive to his career development. Money is not the aim here, and high prices will definitely decrease Boss Cheng¡¯s profits, in turn downgrading his competitiveness in other areas. ¡°I will prepare the contract later. We will find a suitable time to meet and sign it. I am earnestly committed to making this hospital better, larger, and more successful. As for unorthodox methods, I always stay away from them. Young Master Su knows me well,¡± said Boss Cheng coming clean. ¡°Old Cheng, do you know? Before you, Yunjian had invited me several times to collaborate with him. I never agreed, do you know why?¡± Su Nanchen said. Indeed, at that time when Su Nanchen was invited, he didn¡¯t accept. Somehow later, Guan Sheng and Chen Ge joined in the cooperation, and with this connection, Professor Ye was also brought in. ¡°Their tactics are way too unorthodox, purely money-centric, we have different values,¡± Boss Cheng precisely identified the issue. Some unpleasant things were left unsaid, but everyone understood. ¡°There¡¯s a saying ¡®a gentleman loves money, and gets it righteously¡¯. I, Su Nanchen, am a pragmatist, not a stickler to the old ways. But I have my principles. The thing I appreciate most about you, Old Cheng, is your commitment to running the hospital properly and avoiding all these haphazard actions.¡± Su Nanchen was speaking from his heart. ¡°Doctor Yang, since you¡¯re a friend of Su Nanchen, I hope you won¡¯t mind making another friend. I¡¯m Cheng Liquan, a merchant, indeed a bit mercenary, but I am first and foremost a doctor by training, honest, clear-headed, and I act on good faith while adhering to our agreements,¡± said Boss Cheng, finishing his cup of apple vinegar in one gulp. Yang Ping also finished his cup in one gulp. Su Nanchen on the side helped out with the atmosphere. Though it was apple vinegar, they managed to make it feel like they were drinking liquor together. Dean Cai on the side helped pour the apple vinegar. Boss Cheng said: ¡°Dean Cai, get the contract ready in these few days. Also, keep up with the supporting services. Anesthesiologists, surgical nurses, pick out the best ones dedicated to Doctor Yang. The two surgical nurses today were no good, pick two new ones.¡± Yang Ping immediately said: ¡°The ones today were fine; there¡¯s no need to change them.¡± He always thought that nurses have it tough, with a not so easy job. Seeing Boss Cheng¡¯s attitude, there was evident dissatisfaction with today¡¯s two nurses. If Yang Ping didn¡¯t step out and affirm them, he worried Cheng might truly harm these two nurses¡¯ careers. ¡°Alright! Stick with these two then. Dean Cai, also, everything else you know¨C¡± Boss Cheng was happy, the so-called ¡®everything else¡¯, simply meaning some operations and terms to help Yang Ping circumvent legal risks. Without these, no one would be willing to cooperate with you. Only without worries about the future can someone go all in. Being continually concerned about this and that, a forced cooperation would not last long. ¡°Today, you truly scared Old Cheng out of his wits. I tell you, your drilling technique, it¡¯s marvelous, just like a carving knife, sculpting out the intercondylar notch, drilling a few tunnels, implanting the tendon, building eight structures, balancing ten ligaments, everything adjusted perfectly in one go. I¡¯m really impressed, I nearly fainted on the spot,¡± Boss Cheng exaggerated, describing the situation at that time. Dean Cai did not see the surgery at that time, and was left clueless, completely baffled by Cheng¡¯s description. ¡°You don¡¯t understand, you didn¡¯t see it. Once you watch one of Doctor Yang¡¯s surgeries, you¡¯ll understand. After doing surgeries for over a decade, I must say I¡¯m truly humbled. We ought to call him Master Yang! Come on, let¡¯s drink!¡± Boss Cheng, despite having vinegar instead of alcohol, was more excited than ever. ¡°We¡¯re all brothers here; there¡¯s no need to call me Master Yang,¡± Yang Ping corrected him. They all chatted over lunch, drinking several cups of apple vinegar. The partnership was swiftly set up to everyone¡¯s satisfaction. With technical support from Yang Ping, Boss Cheng is now confident in facing competitors. The lingering issue has been resolved. Su Nanchen now has an additional platform and opportunity to learn. In the future, he can frequently visit here and learn surgery techniques from Yang Ping. At the affiliated hospital, it¡¯s fine to invite Yang Ping to perform surgery once in a while, but it wouldn¡¯t be possible to invite him frequently, due to way too many ill-considered factors. As for Yang Ping, it¡¯s a win-win situation. He can increase his earnings, expand his network, and spread advanced surgical methods. For his department, it¡¯s a reputation boost, expanding the network of relationships, and raising its prestige in the industry. That¡¯s just how a department¡¯s brand is built. When industry professionals and a large number of patients recognize you, the brand naturally establishes itself. At the end of the meal, Dean Cai secretly asked Boss Cheng if he should arrange for a high-end place for them to relax and unwind. Boss Cheng was a sharp person, and knew how to handle different types of people. His eyes slightly narrowed. Though he was unfamiliar with Yang Ping¡¯s likes and dislikes, he could reference Su Nanchen. Birds of a feather flock together. Boss Cheng waved his hand: ¡°No!¡± He suddenly felt sober. It was daytime, not evening yet. What was he thinking? Boss Cheng staring at Dean Cai, has he drunk stupid from the vinegar? ¡°Shall we find another place to continue drinking tea?¡± Boss Cheng suggested. ¡°I won¡¯t, I still have some things to take care of and need to head back,¡± Yang Ping declined. ¡°Yang has other commitments, we¡¯ll get together another time! Thank you, Boss Cheng, for today¡¯s hospitality.¡± Su Nanchen helped Yang Ping make an exit. Boss Cheng did not insist: ¡°You are much too polite, it¡¯s just a simple meal. Alright, let¡¯s get together next time!¡± Chapter 178 - 0171: A Tie Chapter 178: Chapter 0171: A Tie A new week began and after finishing his rounds, Yang Ping reported to Director Han about the surgeries performed in the outside hospital on Sunday. Director Han had some knowledge about Li Quan Hospital, ¡°This is a nice hospital. The owner was once a provincial physician and is quite renowned for performing arthroscopy. Initially, he led a group of doctors to form a medical group, and then invested in specialized hospitals.¡± ¡°We had dinner together yesterday, with him and Su Nanchen. We discussed the possibility of cooperation. After the initial contact, I found that this hospital and the owner are quite formal.¡± Yang Ping asked for Director Han¡¯s advice. ¡°In that case, show me the contract before signing. I will help you review it.¡± Yang Ping is young and in critical moments, Old Han needed to act as his counselor. Last of all, Director Han cautioned, ¡°Young man, go for it!¡± Director Zhuang called. Li Jingshu was taking an X-ray and would be brought over soon. Several surgeries were assigned to Song Zimo. They had to give him more opportunities to catch up with his own pace. A single flower does not make a spring, but a hundred flowers blooming together do. Yang Ping waited for Li Jingshu in the office and used the spare time to review the medical records of department patients. The doctor¡¯s office, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, was bathed in warm and brilliant morning sunlight. A human skeleton stood in one corner, beside the bookshelf. Upon entering the room and seeing the human skeleton, one would instantly know this was the orthopedics department. This human skeleton wasn¡¯t a facsimile, but a real, full skeleton. Apart from computers, printers, stacks of books, and files on the office desks, there were also various anatomical models of various body parts ¨C of shoulder joints, knee joints, and spines. ¡°These represent all the ¡®hardware¡¯ in our bodies, 206 in total. 80 axial bones, 64 upper limb bones, 62 lower limb bones. When used properly, they can last several decades, and in some cases, even more than a hundred years. There are no spare parts for these ¡®hardware¡¯ components. They last until the body gives up.¡± Zhang Lin pointed to the skeleton as he gave his first orthopedic lesson to a few new interns. The interns were serious and interested. Some even touched the human skeleton, full of curiosity. ¡°Of course, there are times when we do have to replace the ¡®hardware¡¯, such as during hip or knee joint replacements. However, most ¡®hardware¡¯ cannot be replaced and must persist until the end. This is why we should respect life and cherish health.¡± As he said this, Zhang Lin¡¯s expression turned serious and his tone grew heavy. ¡°Our profession as doctors is sacred, as we deal with human bodies and lives! Therefore, no matter how stringent our requirements for ourselves are, it is never too much!¡± These were the words of Professor Zhang Zongshun. What he had originally said was, ¡°The knife in our hands cuts into living people. With life and death hanging in the balance, no demand is too stringent.¡± ¡°Teacher Zhang, is this skeleton a fake or real?¡± a student asked. Zhang Lin replied, ¡°It¡¯s not a model, it¡¯s real. He or she once walked this world, had their own life, their own love, hopes, and attachments.¡± Zhang Lin straightened his white coat, ¡°Let¡¯s bow to him or her in gratitude for their contribution to medical science.¡± Zhang Lin bowed, and the interns followed suit, their expressions solemn. ¡°You all learned to wash hands and dress in school, right? If not, raise your hands!¡± After bowing, Zhang Lin asked. No one raised their hand. Zhang Lin said, ¡°When we go to the operating room later, I will train you again. Remember, if you don¡¯t know something, don¡¯t pretend to know. We are working on the most serious job in the world and cannot afford to take it lightly. If your sterile area gets contaminated or you contaminate the sterile area, speak up immediately. Do not hide it. You will not be criticized or penalized for your mistakes, but if you conceal them, your dishonesty could bring disastrous results to the surgery. Infection! For orthopedics surgery, it¡¯s disastrous. It¡¯s unacceptable for any surgery.¡± This was not a scare tactic. The concept of sterility is fundamental in surgery and must not be taken lightly. Zhang Lin teaches well. The male students interestedly studied the human skeleton, while the female students, a bit timid, just watched from the side. Zhang Lin taught them the basic rules of surgical internships, assessed their seven-step hand-washing technique, and then took them to the operating room. Li Jingshu arrived, accompanied by Director Zhuang. The head nurse, Cai Qiaojun, received her and led her to the doctor¡¯s office. Wearing a winter skirt, she carried an X-ray bag in her left hand. As she entered the doctor¡¯s office, she smiled and extended her right hand, ¡°Doctor Yang, hello!¡± Yang Ping stood up and gently shook her hand. Director Zhuang helped put up the X-ray film for viewing. After Yang Ping finished looking at it, he said, ¡°The fracture has healed very well and reshaped. Show me how you can move it. It should have returned to normal, hasn¡¯t it?¡± Li Jingshu extended her left upper limb and demonstrated various movements to Yang Ping. ¡°As you can see, the movement is completely normal, but it still hurts. These three points hurt a lot when pressed.¡± Li Jingshu pointed out the pain points. These were the areas of the lower ulnar radial joint, and the radial styloid and ulnar triangular fibrocartilage complex. After the fracture heals, some pain often remains. Some of it slowly dissipates on its own, while some require treatment. ¡°Does it hurt a lot? Shall we go to the treatment room and check it out?¡± Yang Ping wanted to help her find the cause. Li Jingshu said,¡±Thank you, you are bothering you for nothing. Really, it¡¯s very painful and seriously affects my ability to use the computer.¡± ¡°Would you follow me?¡± the head nurse led Li Jingshu to the treatment room with Director Zhuang trailing behind them. Rolling up her sleeve, Li Jingshu stretched her arm out in front of Yang Ping. ¡°Let me check it out for you!¡± Yang Ping took her extended hand. The previous indentations and wrinkled skin had all gone. This was the tender hand a girl should have. ¡°You guys go ahead with your work? Thank you.¡± Li Jingshu looked at the head nurse and Director Zhuang standing nearby. Director Zhuang said to the head nurse, ¡°Let¡¯s go out!¡± ¡°Does it hurt here?¡± Yang Ping gently pressed the ulnar radial joint, the ulnar triangular fibrocartilage complex, and then the radial styloid process, checking one by one the places that are easy to cause pain. ¡°It hurts! Everything hurts!¡± Li Jingshu responded without thinking. ¡°Really?¡± Yang Ping observed that her expression didn¡¯t match the timing of his pressure. Li Jingshu nodded, ¡°Aren¡¯t doctors supposed to not doubt the patient¡¯s complaints?¡± Indeed, as a doctor, one should not doubt a patient¡¯s complaints. ¡°Have you seen that chart?¡± Yang Ping asked, showing her how to rate her pain. A visual analogue pain scoring chart hung on the wall of the treatment room, allowing patients to rate their pain based on their subjective feeling. Li Jingshu looked at the chart: ¡°4 points!¡± ¡°4 points means you need pain treatment. Are you sure it¡¯s a 4?¡± Yang Ping noticed her relaxed demeanor. Li Jingshu looked at the chart again, sure of her answer, ¡°Yes, definitely a 4; so please prescribe some painkillers for me, otherwise I won¡¯t be able to work.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s do an MRI to see what might be the cause. Common ones include radial styloid tenosynovitis, damage to the ulnar triangular fibrocartilage complex and the inferior ulnar radial ligament,¡± Yang Ping suggested. She shook her head: ¡°No, I don¡¯t want to do that. The MRI makes a lot of noise and is very enclosed, it¡¯s hard for me to tolerate.¡± ¡°Do you have claustrophobia?¡± Yang Ping wanted to understand more clearly. ¡°I don¡¯t know, maybe?¡± Li Jingshu rolled down her sleeves. ¡°In that case, let¡¯s just observe for now. It should be fine. It¡¯s probably soft tissue spasms causing the pain. Keep physiotherapy, once the spasmed tissue recovers its elasticity, the pain will slowly disappear,¡± Yang Ping explained to her. ¡°I have something to tell you,¡± Li Jingshu spoke softly. Could it be another piece of hospital news? As a journalist, she has sharp instincts. He still owes her a thanks for last time. Li Jingshu paused and then said, ¡°Can we go to that meeting room from last time and discuss? Just for two minutes, it won¡¯t take up much of your time.¡± He overthought last time; she wanted to discuss serious matters. Yang Ping agreed to her suggestion. Once they were in the meeting room, as always, she closed and locked the door. Yang Ping was accustomed to her actions. Li Jingshu took a fancy gift box out of her bag and handed it to Yang Ping with both hands: ¡°This is a tie. I bought it when I was on a business trip. It¡¯s just a token of my gratitude for you saving me the burden of surgery. Thank you!¡± This? Not good? If he flatly refuses, he might hurt her self-esteem. He hesitated. ¡°Don¡¯t overthink it, I just want to thank you. I guess the pain won¡¯t be gone soon, I will still need your help,¡± Li Jingshu mentioned. ¡°You¡¯re too kind, I can¡¯t accept gifts from patients,¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t take the gift box. ¡°You won¡¯t add me on WeChat, you won¡¯t dine with me when I invite you, I guess you¡¯re going to reject this small gift too.¡± Li Jingshu didn¡¯t seem upset, her cheeks slightly blushing, she laid the gift box on the table. ¡°My mother¡¯s shoulder always hurts. She has seen a doctor and was diagnosed with periarthritis. Can I take her to see you sometime?¡± Li Jingshu changed the subject. ¡°Monday afternoons are usually good,¡± Yang Ping thoughtfully replied. ¡°I¡¯ll bring her over next Monday then. I¡¯ll book an appointment with you in advance,¡± Li Jingshu replied. ¡°Can I add you on WeChat?¡± Li Jingshu proposed this again. Yang Ping was a little troubled. She had repeatedly requested to add him on WeChat but he had not accepted. ¡°Just adding on WeChat won¡¯t make me pregnant,¡± Li Jingshu giggled behind her hand. Okay, it is just WeChat, don¡¯t be so stingy and self-conscious. She meant nothing else. Yang Ping let her scan the QR code of his work WeChat account. After scanning, she queried: ¡°This is your work account, right?¡± Without answering, Li Jingshu went on, ¡°I plan to create a medical program that focuses on the current doctor-patient relationship. However, I don¡¯t know how to start. Can you help me?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a big and heavy theme. It¡¯s not easy to handle, I¡¯d advise against doing it,¡± Yang Ping poured cold water on her idea. Indeed, the doctor-patient relationship is a sensitive topic and very difficult to tackle. ¡°What about a show on the history of medicine? I¡¯m sure it will be interesting. It will show people the arduous path of medical progress. For example, once in Europe, bloodletting was actually hailed as a cure-all and was prevalent for a thousand years.¡± ¡°For the history of medicine, you should find Professor Zhang. He has written a book on this subject, which is quite interesting,¡± Yang Ping suggested. ¡°That would be too difficult. What kind of program should I produce? Maybe one about orthopedics? I could cover the history of traditional bone-setting techniques, discuss its past challenges, and future prospects,¡± she brainstormed. Yang Ping had nothing to say, she meant no harm. ¡°I will think about the program. For my mother¡¯s case, I¡¯ll have to trouble you,¡± Li Jingshu batted her eyes and opened the door. ¡°When should I come back for my next follow up?¡± ¡°You¡¯re fine, no need for a follow-up.¡± ¡°But I still feel pain! I can¡¯t go without a follow-up appointment. I¡¯ll contact you about it. Bye!¡± she replied. Li Jingshu walked out with a smile. Chapter 179 - 172: Pediatrician Gets Beaten Chapter 179: Chapter 172: Pediatrician Gets Beaten Yang Ping put his tie in the drawer of his office desk, where the business card still lay. He glanced at it, closed the drawer, and took a moment to visit the little friend with osteosarcoma, Sisi. ¡°Sisi!¡± Yang Ping knocked on the door. Her mother seemed to have gone back to make breakfast and hadn¡¯t returned yet. Sisi was doing her homework, some maths Olympiad problems. She put away her work. Yang Ping said, ¡°You¡¯re so diligent in your studies.¡± Sisi was somewhat embarrassed, ¡°I haven¡¯t been to school for a long time, and I¡¯m behind on a lot of homework. Sister Tang Fei tutors me every afternoon, this is the homework she assigned yesterday. I have to finish it before five-thirty in the afternoon, and she will check it after her shift.¡± ¡°Keep fighting!¡± Yang Ping encouraged her. She clenched her fist, gesturing a fighting spirit, ¡°Hmm!¡± ¡°Can you discuss my condition with me?¡± Sisi asked, her eyes hopeful. Yang Ping calmly said, ¡°Just a few fibroids, no need to be nervous.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the most powerful doctor, but you seem to be quite cautious about these fibroids. Have you encountered a difficult problem?¡± Sisi stared at Yang Ping, probing for an answer behind his words. ¡°Even small problems must be handled with seriousness. This is called ¡®treating light matters as if they are heavy¡¯, a doctor must never underestimate the situation.¡± Yang Ping explained to her. Children can¡¯t understand these truths. They can only be told kindly half-truths to hide the harsh realities, to make their remaining days happier. She was a pitiful child, a flower that was destined to wilt too soon. ¡°Your eyes are betraying you, you are lying!¡± Sisi relaxed her scrutinizing gaze. Yang Ping dared not look at her, ¡°This time you are mistaken. A doctor would never lie to their patients, they always face objective realities every day.¡± Sisi averted her gaze, ¡°Thank you! I think I must have been wrong. You wouldn¡¯t lie to me.¡± ¡°Do you have any siblings?¡± Yang Ping changed the subject and talked to her about life. No! My grandparents want my parents to have another child, a younger brother, but my parents refused, they even had a quarrel over it.¡± Sisi¡¯s eyes glittered with clarity. ¡°What about you?¡± Sisi asked Yang Ping. ¡°Like you, I am the only child. It¡¯s a good thing in its own way. Your parents¡¯ love for you is solely yours,¡± Yang Ping noticed the loneliness in her eyes. Sisi shook her head, ¡°No, I don¡¯t see it that way, you wouldn¡¯t understand¨C¡± What an interesting child. With just a phrase, ¡®you don¡¯t understand¡¯, Yang Ping was left bemused as to how to continue their congenial conversation. Alright, time to head to the operating room. Yang Ping bid her goodbye, ¡°I have to get to work now, and you need to continue studying. Let¡¯s end our pleasant talk here.¡± Yang Ping and Sisi high-fived. As he stepped out the door, Yang Ping clenched his fist, ¡°Keep up the good work!¡± In the operating room, Song Zimo, Tang Fei, and Little Five were performing a surgery, with Zhou Can as the instrument nurse and Xiao Su as the circulating nurse. ¡°Doctor Yang, good morning!¡± ¡°Nurse Su, good morning!¡± ¡°Prepare the seat!¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Xiao Su adjusted a simple operating room chair to the right height and placed it aside. Yang Ping sat down. ¡°How¡¯s surgery going?¡± Yang Ping asked. Song Zimo was performing an ACL reconstruction. He had a profound understanding of the anatomical center of the ligament footprint. Although it wasn¡¯t always accomplished with the first attempt, several measurements and careful search would inevitably lead to the exact center of the footprint. Finding the anatomical center of the ligament footprint is no easy task, but it is the foundation for maximizing the function of the reconstructed ligament. The plasma knife was cleaning the synovial membrane and remnants of the ligament in the intercondylar notch. There was a pleasing dripping sound, vaporized bubbles, and the yellow traces left by high energy ablation. The plasma knife, also known as radiofrequency ablation technology, is a revolutionary tool for arthroscopy. This device doesn¡¯t use heat to cut, but a low-temperature decomposition technology. It uses a strong radio frequency electric field in an electrolyte solution to break the molecular bonds of the target material, causing it to disintegrate and vaporize into simple molecules or atoms. The working temperature is 40-70 degrees Celsius, which is much superior to the high temperatures of lasers. Because of its low working temperature, it is also called a low-temperature plasma knife. ¡°I¡¯ve distinguished the specificity of the footprint area using your method. Look, this is the tunnel entrance marked with the high-energy plasma knife. Isn¡¯t the location correct?¡± Song Zimo was getting adept at operating the arthroscope after persisting with a two-hour daily regimen of practice. Yang Ping stood up, came closer to the screen, and carefully observed the yellow dot, ¡°This is perfect, it¡¯s the anatomical center of the footprint.¡± ¡°I just visited Sisi again. Is Tang Fei tutoring her homework? That sounds tough!¡± Yang Ping mentioned casually. Tang Fei was stitching the tendon: ¡°Because of her illness, she¡¯s unable to go to school and has been self-learning. I just take an hour out of my afternoon every day to tutor her. The child is very intelligent, with a high IQ.¡± ¡°She solves a three-layer Rubik¡¯s Cube in thirteen seconds, really a genius.¡± Song Zimo said. The Rubik¡¯s Cube recovery, especially the three-layer one, is not easy to break the fifteen-second mark without talent, no matter how much practice one has. Yet this child managed to do it in thirteen seconds, a professional 8-dan level. That meant Song Zimo was even faster, over thirteen seconds, already at the professional 9-dan level. With just a little more practice, he would be ready to participate in the international competition. Song Zimo was creating the tunnel swiftly. Yang Ping led the way, while he followed. That allowed the operation level to improve quickly. The group of them chatted and operated. The surgery was progressing smoothly, and soon the grafting of the tendon was completed. Song Zimo extended and flexed the knee joint, examining under the scope whether the newly reconstructed ACL was impinging on the intercondylar notch or the posterior cruciate ligament. Chapter 180 - 172: Pediatrician Gets Beaten_2 Chapter 180: Chapter 172: Pediatrician Gets Beaten_2 ¡°Door-type nail!¡± Song Zimo preserved the exposed shin tendon and fixed it on the front surface of the proximal tibia with a door-type nail. As they chatted, the surgery was completed, Song Zimo withdrew the instruments, preparing to suture the skin. ¡°Use a number four thread?¡± Zhou Can asked. Song Zimo said: ¡°Use a number one thread! It¡¯s a girl, use a finer thread.¡± He took the needle holder with threaded needle, and began to suture the two small surgical incisions, as well as the incisions from the semitendinosus and gracilis muscle removal. Once he was done, he bandaged the wound, applied a splint, and Little Five took the patient back. The cleaning lady came in to handle the surgical waste and clean up. Usually after cleaning, there would be a sterilization process which took about fifteen minutes before the next surgery could be done. Zhou Can stayed behind to tidy up the instruments while the rest went to the operating room next door to rest. The next surgery was an arthroscopic cleaning procedure on a knee joint with osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis of the knee is a common disease in the elderly. In the early stages when the cartilage wear is not too severe, arthroscopic cleaning can be used. It¡¯s minimally invasive and the results are generally good. Song Zimo asked: ¡°Now, many scholars believe that arthroscopic cleaning is ineffective. What are your thoughts?¡± Yang Ping disagreed: ¡°An article in the New England Journal of Medicine said that percutaneous vertebroplasty doesn¡¯t have a significant statistical difference from a placebo. Do you believe that? Now, evidence-based medicine is promoted, it¡¯s correct, medicine is evidence-based science, but it¡¯s definitely not purely evidence-based science, or just because it¡¯s evidence-based science, it denies that medicine is empirical science. This procedure is effective, even if statistics claim it¡¯s ineffective, it is still effective.¡± ¡°That makes sense. Many patients with osteoarthritis have poor long-term results after arthroscopic cleaning, but they have good short-term effects because the painful inflammatory mediators have been washed away, loose bodies have been removed, and partially resected shaped torn meniscus. For small areas, microfractures can be done. Although what regenerates after a microfracture is fibrocartilage and not hyaline cartilage, it¡¯s better than nothing.¡± Song Zimo also agreed with Yang Ping¡¯s view. ¡°After wearing the gowns and gloves, keep your hands between your chest and waist, never go beyond this safe area, your hands can only touch the sterile area with the same level, and cannot touch areas outside. If you touch or even suspect contact with an other area, it¡¯s defined as contamination!¡± Zhang Lin brought the interns in, they had already washed their hands, their hands were shaped like arches as they waited for Xiao Su to open the sterile package on the instrument cart for them to practice gowned and gloved. Xiao Su opened the outer layer of the sterile package and then used the sterile forceps to open the inner sterile cover sheet, revealing the neatly folded surgical gown inside. ¡°Don¡¯t push, pay attention to the concept of asepsis, don¡¯t contaminate it.¡± Zhang Lin saw them being a bit chaotic and shouted. ¡°You¡¯re holding it too high, it¡¯s above your shoulder, and you, keep a distance between the two of you¨C.¡± Zhang Lin corrected their positions and began to demonstrate how to pick up and wear the gown: ¡°When you reach out for it, make sure you can¡¯t touch other parts, you can only directly touch the gown you want. Pick it up, open it, give it a gentle shake so that the inside faces you and the collar is up. Give it another gentle toss, insert both hands into the sleeve¡¯s openings, and at this point, call a circulating nurse for help!¡± Song Zimo was the closest to him, so he went over to help tighten the gown and tie the belt. The students followed suit. As one student shook the gown, it dropped to the floor, and he bent down to pick it up. ¡°Hey, young man, I¡¯ve shouted till my throat is hoarse for nothing, can you pick up a gown that¡¯s fallen on the floor?¡± Zhang Lin looked at him sternly. The student immediately realized his mistake and stopped bending down. Zhang Lin said, ¡°Bending down to pick it up instinctively shows that your sense of asepsis is lacking. Things that fall on the floor are contaminated, how could you pick it up? Go wash your hands again and start over.¡± The student went out dejectedly to wash his hands again. ¡°Never make these beginner¡¯s mistakes, remember everyone, asepsis, asepsis, asepsis, repeat the important things three times. Whoever doesn¡¯t remember, after work return to the ward and practice gowning a hundred times.¡± Zhang Lin spoke loudly. The operating room next door was also ready, the patient had been brought up, and the surgery continued. Song Zimo was quite fast, the surgery was always steady, and several surgeries were completed quickly with this continuous operation. After the surgeries, everyone returned to the ward office, and Little Five was writing medical orders. The HIS system was a bit unstable, and Little Five was banging the table. Zhang Lin was explaining to the interns how to use the HIS system and write orthopedic medical records. However, as the system was unstable, he couldn¡¯t proceed and asked everyone to go to lunch. A few of the interns were murmuring something. It seemed they were saying that a pediatrician had been beaten up, that a patient had been admitted, the doctor didn¡¯t reduce the fever, didn¡¯t use anti-inflammatory medicine, and was slapped twice and kicked once. Pediatrics? Zhang Lin¡¯s girlfriend was in pediatrics, so he was naturally more concerned than others. Zhang Lin asked the intern who got the news: ¡°A pediatrician was beaten up, what¡¯s her name?¡± The intern shook his head: ¡°I don¡¯t know, it¡¯s a female doctor.¡± A female doctor, Zhang Lin was even more concerned, feeling a sudden jerk in his heart: ¡°Is the news reliable?¡± ¡°It¡¯s reliable, our classmate is interning in pediatrics, and just posted it in the group. The family member who hit the doctor has been restrained by the security, and the hospital has called the police. The police are questioning them, I heard she was slapped twice and kicked once, and she rolled on the floor. It¡¯s horrible, that relative is said to have connections and is very arrogant.¡± Zhang Lin grabbed the phone and dialed the phone number of the pediatricians¡¯ office. Perhaps they were busy, no one answered. He then called his girlfriend¡¯s number, but she didn¡¯t answer either. He said to the intern: ¡°Can you find out the name of the doctor who was beaten?¡± ¡°There¡¯s a video, take a look.¡± The intern passed over his phone. There were several videos in their intern group, taken by different people. The intern opened the video right in front of Zhang Lin. Damn it, wasn¡¯t that his girlfriend? She was kicked and flew a bit, and she was also slapped twice. The force of the slaps made her face swell. A surge of hot blood shot up to his forehead, Zhang Lin stood up in a flash, took off his white gown and threw it on the office table. He didn¡¯t say a word as he charged out the door. Little Five tried to stop him but couldn¡¯t. Little Five followed and ran out as well, stopping at the door, he too took off his white gown and threw it onto a chair. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Yang Ping asked the interns. The interns shook their heads: ¡°We don¡¯t know, Teacher Zhang watched this video and then stormed out, he looked really terrifying.¡± ¡°What video?¡± The intern showed the video to Yang Ping and told him about the pediatrician being beaten up. Yang Ping watched it and understood instantly why he charged out, the one who got beaten up was his girlfriend. Watching the video, it was appalling, the doctor was explaining something to the patient, probably saying: below 38.5 degrees, it can be temporarily unmanaged, observed, blood drawn for testing, considering viral infection, no need for antibiotics. The patient didn¡¯t say a second word, and slapped her twice across the face immediately, and then kicked her in the lower abdomen. The doctor was kicked directly to the ground, and almost hit her head on the floor. ¡°Let¡¯s go, follow him!¡± Yang Ping immediately took Song Zimo towards pediatrics while calling Director Han to urgently report the situation. Director Han was at the administration building, and immediately rushed over too. Zhang Lin ran over, with Little Five running behind him. When they reached the elevator of the internal medicine building, Little Five caught up with him. Zhang Lin remained silent, taking big breaths, his chest visibly heaving. ¡°Zhang Lin? Zhang Lin? Calm down!¡± Zhang Lin still didn¡¯t say a word, he quickly fixed his hair with both hands, his eyes were red, he looked like an enraged bull, and it was genuinely terrifying. ¡°Zhang Lin! Zhang Lin!¨C¡± No matter how Little Five called him, there was no response. Little Five answered his phone: ¡°We are waiting for the elevator now and are going to pediatrics.¡± The elevator opened, Zhang Lin rushed in, followed by Little Five. The people inside saw Zhang Lin¡¯s state and instinctively moved towards the corner, one of them even directly got out early. ¡°Zhang Lin!¡± Little Five stood beside him. Chapter 181 - 0173: Zhang Lin Goes Berserk Chapter 181: Chapter 0173: Zhang Lin Goes Berserk The elevator stopped midway and everyone got off earlier. The buttons of several floors were still lit, but only Zhang Lin and Little Five were left inside. ¡°Zhang Lin, what are you going to do? Calm down, the hospital and police will handle this!¡± Little Five, who had been following him, seemed anxious. Seeing Zhang Lin¡¯s wrath, he tried to soothe his emotions continuously. Zhang Lin kept silent, as if Little Five was not beside him. His eyes were filled with killing intent. There seemed to be the sound of roaring flames echoing in his eyes. ¡°Take care of my patients. One of them needs to change his dressing this afternoon. Let the standardized training student change it and call you to check the wound. Nothing else special to hand over.¡± Zhang Lin suddenly spoke, then he went silent again. ¡°Okay!¡± Little Five agreed. Yang Ping missed the same elevator as Zhang Lin. He called again, ¡°Where are you now? Little Five, watch him closely and do not let him do anything foolish or get himself into trouble!¡± ¡°Got it, Brother! We are about to arrive at the pediatric ward!¡± Little Five hung up the phone and kept his gaze fixed on Zhang Lin, never daring to slacken. He knew he could not restrain him. The elevator arrived, several security guards were patrolling the pediatric ward, communicating through the walkie-talkie. The scene was obviously after a crisis. In the nurse¡¯s station, a sharp-eyed nurse saw Zhang Lin entering and immediately greeted him. ¡°Sister Li Shan is in the on-duty room, with colleagues accompanying her.¡± The nurse led the way. ¡°Where is the family member who assaulted her?¡± Zhang Lin asked calmly. ¡°In the teaching room, Dean Sun, Director Zhao, and the police are present.¡± The nurse hesitated before answering. ¡°Alright, you can go on with your work. I am going to see her in the on-duty room.¡± Zhang Lin was very polite, indicating that he was not losing control of his emotions. The nurse escorted him to the on-duty room. In it, his girlfriend, who was sitting by the bed, had moist eyes and a tissue in hand. She had obviously just cried. She was ordinarily a gentle and timid girl, who would always silently endure hardships. After experiencing such an incident, she was shaking all over, her eyes looked somewhat vacant. A group of female colleagues surrounded her, including doctors, nurses, and interns. Some held her hand and tried to comfort her, others sat closely and hugged her, some prepared hot water to soothe her shock, and yet others cursed the family member who had attacked her, filled with righteous indignation. When she saw Zhang Lin, tears welled up in her eyes. If not for the crowd, she would probably have thrown herself into Zhang Lin¡¯s arms. In a low voice, she said, ¡°Why are you here? I¡¯m okay, shouldn¡¯t you get back to work?¡± Zhang Lin concernedly asked, ¡°Are you still in pain?¡± His girlfriend nodded, immediately shook her head, tried to speak, but choked and could not utter a word. The left side of her face was swollen with several bruises that looked like finger marks. There was an ice pack in the hand of a colleague nearby, who had apparently just applied it to her. ¡°She has had a cranial CT scan and a surface ultrasound of her abdomen. She has soft tissue contusions on her face and abdomen, but no intracranial bleeding or internal organ injuries. A forensic doctor has examined the injuries, and the police have taken her statement. They are currently handling her hospital admission procedures. Dean Sun and Director Zhao suggested that she be hospitalized for observation,¡± a pediatric colleague introduced the situation. ¡°Its outrageous! Her body temperature was 38.2 degrees, and we were already employing physical methods to cool her down. Her blood test showed elevated lymphocyte levels, but not high granulocytes, thus suggesting an acute upper respiratory viral infection. There¡¯s no indication for applying antibiotics, but that man insisted on using them. He wouldn¡¯t listen to explanations and accused us of neglecting his child by not even using anti-inflammatory drips,¡± another colleague angrily described the situation at that time. Zhang Lin knew about his girlfriend¡¯s temperament. Usually, she was as timid as a rabbit. She was less than 1.6 meters tall. How could she withstand such violent punches and kicks? He could easily imagine the scene even with his eyes closed. One of the videos captured the situation relatively completely, which basically restored what had happened. This video seemed to be shot by an intern. The first half did not capture the images, only the sound. At that time, the patient¡¯s voice had already turned nasty, and the voice of Zhang Lin¡¯s girlfriend sounded pleading, ¡°Sir, please trust us. Antibiotics have side effects and should not be overused. Misuse can lead to drug resistance. The kid doesn¡¯t need them right now. Also, we¡¯ve done physical cooling and antiviral treatments, please rest assured.¡± ¡°Rest assured? He was admitted yesterday and still has a fever today, even running at 38 degrees. If you can¡¯t cure him, get lost! He isn¡¯t cured within a day. What kind of doctor are you? You are told to use the best antibiotics, but you won¡¯t use them, deliberately dragging it out. You¡¯re dragging it to make him stay in the hospital longer, right?¡± The voice of the angry man was rude and loud. ¡°No, it¡¯s not like that. Sir, we are doctors and we totally base our treatment plans on the objective condition of the patients. Please mind your attitude. If you have any issues, we can communicate properly. If you¡¯re not satisfied with me, you can ask the director to change your bedside doctor. But please, do not insult my personality!¡± The timid and weak voice of the woman carefully defended her dignity. ¡°So just because I scold you a bit, you¡¯re going to return in kind? What the fu¨C¡± The man¡¯s voice grew even more angry. Slaps rang out in the video, followed by images of him kicking her in the lower abdomen. It happened so suddenly. His girlfriend was shoved more than a meter away and fell to the ground while still covering her face. The man wanted to kick her again, who was now lying on the ground, but another female doctor blocked him. A few interns rushed to restrain him, but he was still cursing and took out his cellphone to make a call. Zhang Lin¡¯s tone was very calm: ¡°You rest well, I will go out for a while and come back later.¡± ¡°Zhang Lin, what are you going to do?¡± His girlfriend seemed worried, knowing her boyfriend well, she could tell what he was up to from one glance. Chapter 182 - 0173: Zhang Lin Goes Berserk_2 Chapter 182: Chapter 0173: Zhang Lin Goes Berserk_2 ¡°Little Five, stop him.¡± Li Shan instructed Little Five. Little Five quickly followed after him. As Zhang Lin walked briskly ahead, he kept in pursuit. ¡°Zhang Lin, what are you trying to do? Calm down, the hospital and police will handle this matter!¡± Little Five grabbed Zhang Lin¡¯s hand. Zhang Lin shook him off with great force. Little Five couldn¡¯t control him at all and could only follow him. He tried several times to rush forward and hold him back, but Zhang Lin was walking too fast. At the Pediatrics Teaching Room, two security guards were posted at the entrance. Inside the meeting room, Officer Wang, Dean Sun, Director Zhao of the medical department, and Director Ma of Pediatrics were all present. Two people were seated opposite each other at the table, with two auxiliary police officers standing behind. From their expressions, it was clear that the infuriated man sitting inside was the family member who had assaulted someone ¨C the father of the child. He was in his thirties, large and imposing, at least 1.8 meters tall. A family member accompanied him, but it wasn¡¯t clear if he was a friend, colleague, or relative. The man¡¯s voice was loud. When Officer Wang questioned him, he was somewhat uncooperative and constantly on the phone, seemingly calling on others for help, even shouting for a lawyer. ¡°Sorry, I¡¯ll be answering your questions once my lawyer is here.¡± The man was very arrogant. Officer Wang attempted to question him several times, only to be interrupted by this reason. The man seemed to be waiting for something without any urgency, appearing unperturbed by the assault. Zhang Lin peered inside, showing no intention of entering. Instead, he pointed at the family member and asked, ¡°So that¡¯s the guy who assaulted someone, right?¡± One of the older security guards recognized Zhang Lin and, thinking that he was only inquiring, nodded confirmation; ¡°The man sitting opposite Officer Wang, on the inside... Yes, that¡¯s him.¡± Zhang Lin snorted and suddenly charged in. The security guards tried to stop him, but his rage combined with his height of 1.78 meters and his belly full of energy made it impossible for anyone to hold him back. All the security guards were pushed aside as he barged in. The room briefly fell silent as everyone was caught off guard. Officer Wang and the auxiliary police officers sensed something was amiss and attempted to stop him, but it was too late. ¡°Son of a bitch!¡± Zhang Lin lunged at the man, holding onto his hair and slapping him sharply across the face several times. He showed no mercy, and blood began to flow from the man¡¯s nose and the corner of his mouth. The attending family member finally reacted, rushing forward to help, only to be stopped by Little Five. Little Five shouted, ¡°Calm down! Talk things out calmly!¡± Several hard slaps had left the man dazed. Almost simultaneously with the slaps, Zhang Lin raised a foot and kicked Fiercely. One of the auxiliary police officers caught hold of him, only to be shrugged off. The kick landed at the intersection of the chest and abdomen, hurling the man off his chair and onto the ground. The room was spacious, and Zhang Lin was about to charge forward again, eager to stomp on him a few more times. He only managed to get in one kick, which landed on the patient¡¯s thigh, before the two auxiliary police officers restrained Zhang Lin. Officer Wang had been delayed by the need to maneuver around the table. He positioned himself in between the two men, trying to prevent any further contact, ¡°What are you doing? Don¡¯t you have any respect for the law?¡± ¡°In broad daylight, assaulting a female doctor, isn¡¯t that disrespect for the law?¡± Zhang Lin roared back, his voice loud enough to shake the dust off the walls. The man pressed his stomach, grimacing in pain as he spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva. He tried to get up from the ground but failed. Despite his struggle, he was still defiant, ¡°Do you have any idea who I am, don¡¯t you want to live?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care who the fuck you are, I hit you!¡± Zhang Lin charged again, but was firmly held back by the auxiliary police officers. After several attempts, the man on the ground finally managed to stand up. He was in obvious pain. After catching his breath, he tried to charge at Zhang Lin but was stopped by Officer Wang and the security guards. He glared at Zhang Lin, pointing at him. ¡°Think you¡¯re tough? Even tough guys have to die, believe it or not?¡± Zhang Lin growled through clenched teeth, his eyes terrifying like a raging bull. The man winced involuntarily and took a step back, his hand lowering immediately. ¡°Cuff them all and bring them to the police station!¡± Officer Wang commanded. ¡°This is chaos, absolute chaos!¡± Dean Sun sighed. ¡°Who is this person? Who is he?¡± Director Zhao of the medical department pointed at Zhang Lin, angrily. Little Five answered, ¡°The victim¡¯s family member.¡± The family member who had tried to help earlier had attempted to charge several times but was stopped by Little Five each time. Frustrated, he squared off with Little Five, and just as the two were about to engage in a physical confrontation, the security guards promptly intervened to separate them. Despite this, both continued to exchange heated words, showing no signs of backing down. After the fight, Zhang Lin stretched out his hands, ¡°Detain me! If I get detained, he should be detained too. If I get sentenced, he should also be sentenced. Otherwise, this matter isn¡¯t over¡ªassaulting someone and thinking you can get away with it that easily? No matter who you are, even if you¡¯re the son of God, I¡¯ll teach you a lesson, got it?¡± ¡®Tis true, the brave fears the brash, the brash fears the reckless. The patient¡¯s family member, who had just been acting arrogantly with the police, shrunk back in fear when Zhang Lin glared at him, especially after he said, ¡°In exchange for your life!¡± He trembled involuntarily and shrank back, not daring to approach. He could only hide from a distance. Officer Wang was taken aback, ¡°Cuff them, cuff them all! Take them to the police station, administrative detention!¡± Little Five and the other family member were still glaring and cursing at each other, but they hadn¡¯t started fighting yet as they were constantly separated by the security guards. Director Han, Yang Ping, and Song Zimo had all rushed over. The Pediatrics Teaching Room was in uproar, it was complete chaos. The noise was so loud that the doctors, nurses, and patients all came over, only to be turned away by the security guards. Yet, many people were not satisfied and continued trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on inside. A woman hugging a child and her husband carrying an IV pole made up a group of them that seemed unphased. They occasionally edged towards the room¡¯s entrance to try and peek inside, undeterred despite being chased away several times by the security guards. Zhang Lin and the patient¡¯s family member were then taken out of the Teaching Room by the police. ¡°What happened?¡± Director Han asked Director Zhao. Old Zhao gave him a meaningful look: ¡°I¡¯ll tell you later.¡± ¡°Chaos, absolute chaos. The two family members just started a brawl in there.¡± Director Zhao said, shaking his head. ¡°What do you mean brawl, he clearly...¡± the assaulted family member mumbled bitterly, but stopped when he received a stern look from Zhang Lin. He didn¡¯t dare to curse anymore and instinctively ducked his head. ¡°Old Han, you guys should go back first. I¡¯ll explain everything to you later, it¡¯s a whole mess now.¡± Dean Sun followed the police. He and Director Zhao still needed to go to the police station for further handling of the matter. Yang Ping and Song Zimo watched as Zhang Lin was escorted away by the police. Given the situation, it wasn¡¯t appropriate to greet him. But Zhang Lin seemed determined, appearing carefree as if he had no regrets at all. After everyone had left, Director Ma of Pediatrics rubbed his bald spot, still in a state of shock, ¡°Things have gotten out of hand, big trouble.¡± ¡°When a patient¡¯s family assaults a doctor, no one cares. But when a doctor fights back, it stirs up a lot of interest.¡± Director Ma felt helpless, things had spiraled out of control. ¡°It wasn¡¯t a doctor, it was the victim¡¯s family member!¡± Director Han corrected. Director Ma realized his mistake and quickly corrected himself, ¡°Right, right, the victim¡¯s family member!¡± ¡°That damn rabbit!¡± Director Han cursed. Then, looking at Yang Ping and the others, he said, ¡°Let¡¯s go back to Orthopedics.¡± Chapter 183 - 0174: Nine Bulls Couldnt Drag it Back Chapter 183: Chapter 0174: Nine Bulls Couldn¡¯t Drag it Back Back in the Orthopedic department, in the director¡¯s office. Director Han remains silent, occasionally sipping his tea, his fingers gently tapping on the table. Yang Ping and Song Zimo sit on the couch, Director Tian, who had heard the news, also rushed over. Seeing Director Han¡¯s expression, he didn¡¯t dare to ask, and sat down on the couch. The atmosphere was somewhat heavy. ¡°The patient¡¯s family members physically assaulted his girlfriend, and there¡¯s a video. It was very cruel. He was so big and strong, but didn¡¯t hesitate to lay a hand on a delicate woman. His excuse was even more ridiculous, saying that they shouldn¡¯t have withheld anti-inflammatory medication. If it were me, I would have stormed out today as well. Who could bear this?¡± Yang Ping broke the silence. Song Zimo continued: ¡°I¡¯ll be frank, if Zhang Lin hadn¡¯t stepped forward today, would the hospital have sought justice for Dr. Li? In the end, wouldn¡¯t it still be the family¡¯s apology and compensation for medical expenses that would settle the matter? This is already the limit, our hospital can still be considered resolute. In other hospitals, they would trivialize the major and ignore the minor. Even an apology from the family would be elusive, let alone the hospital daring to make a fuss. Some might even punish the doctor who was beaten, saying the doctor had poor communication skills or didn¡¯t provide good service.¡± ¡°I just saw a message in the group chat. Now there¡¯s a notice on the hospital¡¯s intranet prohibiting the spread of this matter.¡± Director Tian also felt uncomfortable. As soon as he saw the message in the group chat and found out that something had happened to Zhang Lin, he had rushed over. He hadn¡¯t expected both Zhang Lin and Little Five to be taken away by the police. Dean Xia went to a meeting and hasn¡¯t returned. Dean Sun, as the First Deputy Dean, naturally has to be the decision-maker. Unlike Dean Xia who dares to act and make decisions, Dean Sun is worldly-wise and slick, and his handling of this case is bound to be equivocal, trying to defuse it as much as he can. Director Han¡¯s eyebrows drew together: ¡°I¡¯ve seen the video. For now, let¡¯s all go to lunch. Zhang Lin and Little Five are at the police station and the situation is unclear. Let¡¯s wait for Dean Sun and Director Zhao to reply before we discuss further. Do not let it affect normal medical work. For their patients, Song Zimo, you need to follow up. After all, the standardized training students on rotation are not specialists and may not be familiar with their duties. Be careful to avoid any medical errors.¡± ¡°Rest assured, Song Zimo and I will keep a close eye to make sure there¡¯s no disruption to our department¡¯s medical work,¡± Yang Ping reassured Director Han. Director Han was right. The current situation was unclear and it was inappropriate for him, as a department director, to intervene. Director Han had just sorted out the timeline of events and had a rough idea of how things stood. ¡°This damned fool!¡± Director Han cursed softly. Everyone temporarily dispersed to get some food, but who could eat under such circumstances? Everyone ended up sitting in the office, not knowing what to do, sitting idly. Xiao Su, seeing this, quietly worked with Tang Fei and Zhou Can to bring back food from the cafeteria for everyone. But no one had much appetite. They ate desultorily, finding the food tasteless. They felt wronged on behalf of Dr. Li, and worried about Zhang Lin. For a doctor, being assaulted by a patient¡¯s family can cause great psychological damage, even lifelong scars. As for Zhang Lin¡¯s hitting someone, severe punishments would surely follow, and it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if he got fired. Most hospitals handle these two types of incidents with diametrically opposed attitudes. For the former, they usually try to quiet things down and let it slide; for the latter, they usually make a show of imposing harsh punishments or even firing the doctor involved. It would be hard for anyone to accept suddenly losing their job after studying for so many years and being a doctor for so long, like Zhang Lin. But seeing Zhang Lin¡¯s resolute expression, one could tell how outraged and determined he was inside. Everyone felt terrible, but they felt helpless. Yes, he hit someone, but the premise was that his girlfriend was brutally beaten. Who, in his place, could have tolerated it? In the afternoon, no one had returned and there was no news. Director Han remained in his office, and nobody dared to disturb him. The standardized training students and interns in the department were all in low spirits, especially the few new interns. One of the female interns started to cry quietly. Tang Fei consoled her, bringing her to the female duty room and patiently counseling her. Song Zimo gathered the remaining standardized training students and interns to chat, ostensibly providing psychological counseling and calming emotions. The hospital had also issued a notice requiring each department to arrange for someone to provide psychological counseling to doctors and nurses. If necessary, the department of psychology could be asked to intervene, especially for those found to be emotionally unstable. ¡°This is an isolated event, a low-probability event. Every profession will have incidents that cause sorrow and grief. Don¡¯t lose faith. The road to becoming a doctor is filled with difficulties, but everyone needs to have faith!¡± Yang Ping said gravely. Song Zimo added: ¡°Dr. Yang and I have been doctors for many years, and most patients are good, understanding, and respectful. Don¡¯t worry too much. It¡¯s not easy to study medicine and even harder to practice medicine. As doctors, we must have a strong heart to deal with various intense psychological stimuli, such as various departures of life and death, numerous bloody scenes, and misunderstandings from patients and their families¨C¡± These standardized training students and interns have not yet formed their professional viewpoints, let alone strengthened them. Facing this sudden blow, their confidence in their profession could easily be shattered. The two tried their best to guide everyone towards the correct and positive direction, to avoid them falling into the shadow and being unable to extricate themselves. Although the afternoon sun shone brightly outside the window, the standardized training students and interns always felt a steady drizzle in their hearts, as if a layer of wet fog that couldn¡¯t be brushed away or torn off was hanging over their heads. Yang Ping and Song Zimo took turns telling jokes about their experiences when they just graduated, trying to make everyone laugh, relax, and divert their attention. At five o¡¯clock in the afternoon, Little Five came back, looking dejected. As soon as he arrived in the department, Yang Ping brought him to report the situation to Director Han. ¡°Little Five, go and rest for a while. Just now Dean Sun and Director Zhao both called me, and I¡¯ve been updated on the situation. I¡¯ll head to the police station while you stay here in the department.¡± Director Han, chewing on a tea leaf, picked up the jacket hanging on the back of the chair and put it on. Yang Ping brought Little Five to the men¡¯s duty room, and everyone else followed. After Little Five sat down, Yang Ping poured him a cup of water to drink. ¡°Little Five, how¡¯s the situation?¡± Everyone was very concerned about Zhang Lin¡¯s current situation, but they couldn¡¯t go to the police station, so they could only inquire with Little Five. At the time, everyone was unclear about the situation, only knowing that Zhang Lin had started attacking. Little Five took a sip of water and said: ¡°Zhang Lin and the family members came to blows. I couldn¡¯t hold him back. You wouldn¡¯t believe how strong the guy is, several of us couldn¡¯t hold him back. He slapped the family member a few times and kicked him a couple of times, once in the upper abdomen and once in the thigh. The coroner examined the injuries; they are all soft tissue contusions. You didn¡¯t see the scene or his look, he looked like he wanted to kill.¡± ¡°What¡¯s happening now? Why is he still at the police station and not back?¡± Yang Ping asked. Little Five organized his thoughts: ¡°From what I know, a family member assaulted his girlfriend, then he assaulted the family member. The police tried their best to mediate, urging them to reconcile, to cancel out each other¡¯s actions, or to apologize to the victims and compensate for medical expenses. If they can reconcile, both parties will not have to be detained. But Zhang Lin rejected reconciliation. He assaulted someone and he was willing to accept detention and pay compensation; similarly, he insisted that the family member who assaulted should face detention and compensation too. Now the police are in a tough position, they haven¡¯t detained them but also haven¡¯t let them go.¡± ¡°This fellow, his stubbornness truly is something. He¡¯s determined, even if it means he has to go down too, he wants the other party to accept due punishment. He¡¯s aiming for mutual destruction now, this is so unexpected, that he would be so tough in this situation.¡± Song Zimo commented. ¡°This incident, it¡¯s all over WeChat now, all kinds of rumours are flying around. Some say that the patient¡¯s family member is a wealthy second-generation, someone even claimed he¡¯s a department head, or the son of a village leader, all sorts of things; it¡¯s also publicly known that Zhang Lin is a doctor in our hospital and is the boyfriend of a pediatric doctor¨C¡± Song Zimo had many screenshot of these WeChat chats. ¡°Both parties do not dispute the fact that they both committed an assault, there is video evidence of the family member assaulting someone, and Zhang Lin assaulted in front of the police, the key now is Zhang Lin¡¯s unwillingness to reconcile.¡± Little Five looked tired, constantly sipping water. ¡°Director Han has already gone to the police station, he should have some idea of what is going on. Little Five, you rest well. Dr. Li is emotionally unstable, although there are people taking care of her in her department, we should also send someone over.¡± Yang Ping worried about Zhang Lin¡¯s girlfriend. Zhang Lin and his girlfriend were both from the northeast and didn¡¯t have any relatives here. ¡°I¡¯ll go!¡± said Tang Fei, this girl is understanding and seems suitable for this. ¡°Also, bring Xiao Su and Zhou Can along, they should be in the operating room!¡± Yang Ping suggested, having more people around to talk to can be comforting. ¡°Alright, you should visit Sisi after you finish work, I promised to check her homework this afternoon.¡± Tang Fei reminded Song Zimo. ¡°Hmm, you can go.¡± Song Zimo reassured Tang Fei. Everyone got their assignments and carried out their own tasks. The earth still rotates, work still continues, surgeries that should be done, still have to be done. ¡°Is that intern okay?¡± Yang Ping was concerned about the female intern. Tang Fei replied: ¡°This intern just graduated and encountered such an incident, she¡¯s so frightened she doesn¡¯t want to be a doctor anymore. I assigned two female interns to accompany her, and I called Teacher Yu from the psychology department to come and provide some counseling.¡± ¡°Do we need to put her on leave?¡± Song Zimo suggested. ¡°No! If we give her leave and she stays in the dorm, she might overthink things. Let her work, but don¡¯t give her any assignments.¡± Tang Fei had obviously more experience in this area. Perhaps they have all received the news, people from the orthopedics department came over intermittently to inquire about the situation, they were all very concerned. Dr. Jin, Fang Yan, Fatty, Spine Department, Joint Department, Sports Medicine Department, and several other departments, all came in groups. Yang Ping reassured everyone, gave a brief outline of the situation, not saying what should not be said, and not hiding what should be said. Some even proactively asked if the department was short staffed, offering to come and help with shift duty, to write medical records, and change bandages. Some people had already started helping, bringing their interns to change bandages, and some people brought the interns to help Zhang Lin fill out his medical records. Everyone stayed in the doctor¡¯s office, not willing to leave, waiting for news. Little five¡¯s girlfriend Xiaoqing also came, wanting to go with Tang Fei and the others to take care of Zhang Lin¡¯s girlfriend. At this moment, everyone¡¯s concern made Yang Ping feel very warm. Seeing this scene, the standardized training students and interns felt a lot more comfortable, the bond between colleagues is more effective in healing psychological trauma than words. With so many people persevering, there¡¯s no reason not to believe! Chapter 184 - 0175 Punishment Chapter 184: Chapter 0175 Punishment Director Han arrived at the police station and was greeted by Officer Wang and Director Zhao. ¡°You¡¯ll really have to persuade him. He¡¯s as stubborn as a bull. He also wounded the other party seriously. They have already submitted and are willing to resolve the matter without detention. However, this deadlock can only result in both parties being held in custody.¡± The case isn¡¯t big ¨C I would summarize it as a violation of public security regulations. However, the two cases are interrelated and involve many intricate details. Chief Feng of the police station has received several phone calls from both parties and naturally he does not dare to be ambiguous about the matter. Now there are no alternative solutions ¨C either they reach a compromise right here and all of them are let off, or we comply with the law and both are detained. Detaining only one party is impossible; unequal punishment for the same crime simply won¡¯t fly. If it gets out, there will be serious consequences to pay. Even if we try to smooth this over, whether they are willing to reconcile or not, let¡¯s educate both of them and then let them go. The assaulting party would certainly be glad, but this kid won¡¯t allow it. Under such circumstances, if we release them without properly handling the matter, the kid, not having achieved his goal, might cause even more trouble later. ¡°I¡¯ll go take a look!¡± Director Han headed into the police station, with Officer Wang leading the way. Director Han and Director Zheng from the municipal bureau are close friends which Chief Feng and Officer Wang are aware of. Therefore, they do not dare to neglect him. When Director Zheng was injured while crackdown on drug trafficking, it was Director Han, the chief surgeon, who saved his life. Since then, the two have become like brothers. Upon entering the police station¡¯s office, Chief Feng and Dean Sun were discussing the situation. Seeing Director Han enter, they both stood up. ¡°Professor Han, sorry to trouble you. We¡¯re stuck between a rock and a hard place ¨C releasing him isn¡¯t the answer, but neither is detaining him. Can you please persuade him? If he could just resolve the issue through a settlement, wouldn¡¯t it be better for everyone?¡± Chief Feng, who was on familiar terms with Director Han, said. ¡°Old Han, this kid¡¯s defiant and impervious to reason, refusing to compromise. We absolutely cannot let this blow up; it would create a very bad impression and have a bad impact on the hospital¡¯s reputation,¡± Dean Sun said in dismay. Chief Feng and Officer Wang took Director Han into a room. Zhang Lin was sitting in a chair with a police officer by his side. He was surprisingly calm, his face showing no signs of anxiety or worry. The kid seemed resolved and ready for the worst. ¡°Zhang Lin!¡± Director Han called. Hearing Director Han¡¯s voice, Zhang Lin immediately turned around, stood up, his face turning red, he lowered his head: ¡°Director, why are you here?¡± After a pause, he continued in a shameful tone: ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Director. I¡¯ve let you down.¡± ¡°You impulsive kid¡ª¡± Director Han stretched out his hand to pat his head. ¡°You¡¯ve vented your anger and the person you beat up was hurt. Make him sincerely apologize to Li Shan and let it end there, okay?¡± Director Han softly suggested. ¡°If you really do get detained, you¡¯ll have a criminal record for your entire life. Don¡¯t act foolish.¡± Dean Sun chimed in. ¡°Administrative detention is a form of punishment, it won¡¯t result in a criminal record, only a record of violation, it doesn¡¯t count as a criminal record!¡± Zhang Lin defended his actions. Director Han was stunned, this had indeed been a calculated move. He admires his stubbornness, especially seeing that the kid appeared to have thought through things very carefully. ¡°Professor Han, please have a seat,¡± Officer Wang offered a cup of water. ¡°Zhang Lin, if you get detained, it¡¯s detrimental for both parties. If this matter can be settled, then we can protect you. If you get detained, the hospital will definitely have to take disciplinary action and firing you wouldn¡¯t be excessive,¡± Dean Sun said sternly, trying a different approach. ¡°Let¡¯s sit down and discuss this,¡± Director Han motioned. Officer Wang filled a disposable cup with water and handed it to Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin sat down, pondered for a moment, and said: ¡°Director, I am prepared to be fired. A doctor, till this point, it doesn¡¯t matter anymore. There are many things I could do in the world. I¡¯ve come to terms, really. Each day, I earn a vegetable seller¡¯s wage while my heart aches like a drug dealer¡¯s. My wife was beaten up and I¡¯m not allowed to retaliate. I can only watch from afar while he struts around. Others may swallow their pride, but I cannot do the same. I really can¡¯t! Director, I¡¯m sorry for disappointing you after so many years of guidance. I will repay that in the future! Regarding this matter, I won¡¯t make the hospital feel uncomfortable. If the hospital wants to punish me, I will accept it! But I am steadfast in this matter, I won¡¯t take a step back. Equal punishment for the same crime¡ªif only I get detained and he goes free, I¡¯ll take this matter up again once I¡¯m out. If they just absentmindedly let us go, I will still continue to pursue it until the end!¡± In the middle of his speech Zhang Lin¡¯s eyes welled up with tears, and after a few sobs, Director Han handed him a tissue. ¡°Such a defiant brute, impervious to reason!¡± Dean Sun muttered under his breath, extending his hand as if to hit his head a few times, but he retracted it. ¡°What benefits do you gain from being so stubborn, just to vent your anger? Are you stupid? Sometimes, by taking a step back, the whole world opens up to you. Why would you push yourself into a dead-end? Don¡¯t you believe we might just detain you?¡± Director Zhao stuttered, noticeably annoyed. ¡°Try detaining Me, see what happens! I refuse to believe that he can manipulate the system. If the law doesn¡¯t work here, we can take it to the city. And if the city doesn¡¯t work, we still have the province, and if the province doesn¡¯t work, we still have the capital, right?¡± Zhang Lin retorted defiantly. ¡°Zhang Lin!¡± Officer Wang scolded, ¡°What kind of talk is that? Are you suggesting that you don¡¯t trust the law, do you not trust us?¡± Zhang Lin¡¯s tone softened a bit: ¡°Officer Wang, I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean it that way. I do trust all of you and I trust the law. Otherwise, I wouldn¡¯t be so persistent. Anyone who commits assault must be punished. This applies to him and it applies to me too!¡± ¡°Zhang, you¡¯re still young, and your thinking can get stuck in a rut. Look at the bigger picture. A compromise is the best way out to avoid mutual destruction. He hurt your girlfriend, and you hurt him. As young people, haven¡¯t you both already vented your anger?¡± Chief Feng patiently advised. He needed to resolve this matter clearly; any ambiguity could lead to future troubles. ¡°Chief Feng, thank you all for patiently trying to convince me. You are all doing this to protect me, I know and I understand, but I¡¯m already stuck in this dead-end and can¡¯t get out. I only stick to one principle ¨C anyone who commits assault must be punished by law, definitely!¡± After listening to Zhang Lin¡¯s words, Director Han understood that any further persuasion would be futile. He gave up on persuading and said, ¡°Zhang Lin, I¡¯ll have Little Five bring you some clothes. Take care of yourself while you¡¯re in there for a few days. We¡¯ll pick you up when the time comes, your colleagues are waiting for you.¡± Zhang Lin stood up and deeply bowed to Director Han, ¡°Thank you, Director, for your understanding!¡± He bowed again to Chief Feng, Officer Wang, Dean Sun and Director Zhao, ¡°Thank you all, really, I deeply appreciate it!¡± ¡°Chief Feng, let¡¯s stick to procedure. Detention, no need to persuade him any further. Detain both of them, there¡¯s no room for reconciliation,¡± Director Han concluded, patting Zhang Lin on the shoulder. ¡°What?¡± Dean Sun was puzzled. He had called Director Han over to talk him down, but now they were on the same side after a few words. If Director Han wasn¡¯t persuading anymore, there was no need for anyone else to persuade. Everyone followed Officer Wang and Chief Feng out. ¡°My goodness! This situation will be troublesome if it escalates. Let¡¯s try to mediate again, consider the bigger picture here,¡± Dean Sun was getting desperate. Director Han chuckled, ¡°Do you think you can persuade him? I couldn¡¯t, you heard him, he doesn¡¯t care about anything now.¡± Chief Feng had no other options for now. He helplessly shook his head. Given the current situation, they needed to enforce the ¡°Public Security Administration Punishments Act¡± and detain both individuals for five days. He understood Director Han¡¯s implication, proceed with the detentions! ¡°Enforce the ¡®Public Security Administration Punishments Act¡¯, detain both of them for five days, send them to the district detention center tonight and complete the paperwork with the division bureau tomorrow.¡± Chief Feng made the punishment decision, it was clear-cut and able to stand any scrutiny. Officer Wang acted upon the order and drafted administrative punishment decisions for the two individuals. The assailant¡¯s family member saw the decision paper, his hands trembling slightly, unable to believe this was real. ¡°Right now, the other party is refusing to reconcile. If there¡¯s no reconciliation, both of you will be detained. Should I inform the family members based on the number you¡¯ve left?¡± Officer Wang said. The assailant¡¯s family member, still in a daze, took repeated looks at the decision without responding. Five days of detention? ¡°Why does he also need to be detained? I¡¯m willing to pay. He should name his price! Didn¡¯t you receive any phone calls?¡± The assailant¡¯s family member was surprised. Officer Wang shook his head, ¡°We didn¡¯t receive any calls. Everyone is equals before the law. Our decision is not influenced by anyone. We act in accordance with legal provisions.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you just detain him alone?¡± The assailant¡¯s family member cautiously proposed. Officer Wang sneered, ¡°You¡¯re oversimplifying it, and the statement is naive. If there was a reconciliation, there wouldn¡¯t be a need for detention. If there was no reconciliation, why would the punishments be different? Detain him alone? What an idea. What do you take the law for? How could you even say that? Sign it!¡± ¡°So, there¡¯s no room for maneuver?¡± The hand of the assailant¡¯s family member was trembling as he held the decision paper. ¡°No, there isn¡¯t. Sign it, it¡¯s pointless to delay. Let it be a lesson!¡± Officer Wang said, opening the ink pad and sliding it over. ¡°You¡¯ll also need to imprint your fingerprint!¡± Officer Wang added. The assailant¡¯s family member, with trembling hands, picked up the pen. He, however, hesitated a few times before signing. ¡°Are you sure there¡¯s no room for maneuver?¡± he insisted. ¡°Absolutely none!¡± Officer Wang decisively replied. Gritting his teeth, he finally signed and imprinted his shaky fingerprint. The necessary calls were made, and there was no use in regretting now. Arrogance and impulsiveness are always punished, if not today, someday. After this, Officer Wang went over to Zhang Lin. ¡°Would you also like to sign?¡± Officer Wang held out Zhang Lin¡¯s administrative punishment decision. Zhang Lin took a glance at it, picked up the pen, then stopped, as if wanting to say something. ¡°He has already signed. Everyone is equal before the law.¡± Officer Wang knew what he wanted to say. Zhang Lin didn¡¯t say anything more, swiftly signing his name, ¡°Thank you! There should be a copy of his punishment decision, right? Will it be sent to the victim, Li Shan?¡± ¡°Yes, similarly, a copy of yours will be given to him, and his copy will be handed to Li Shan.¡± Officer Wang said. ¡°There will be a car to bring you to the district detention center later. Who should we notify about the situation? Director Han said we should notify him, do you agree?¡± Officer Wang asked. Zhang Lin nodded, falling silent again. Overnight, a few policemen took the two of them to the district detention center in a police car. Chapter 185 - 0176: The Worst Thing Chapter 185: Chapter 0176: The Worst Thing When Director Han returned, the group gathered at the General Orthopedics doctor¡¯s office had yet not dispersed. Both parties detained for five days ¨C when the news reached, this outcome surprised everyone. No one thought it would be resolved this way, with Zhang Lin being so firm and uncompromising. No conciliation, being detained ¨C this meant the next step could be a severe punishment from the hospital for Zhang Lin. If public opinion turned against the hospital, he might even be fired. ¡°Everyone should go back home. I believe the hospital will handle this situation well.¡± Director Han reassured everyone. Gathering here wouldn¡¯t help, and everyone had to work the next day. The colleagues from other departments reluctantly left, their unexpected departure stirring restlessness instead of comfort. While they admired Zhang Lin¡¯s perseverance, they couldn¡¯t help but worry for him. Some colleagues had just applauded Zhang Lin: ¡°Well-fought! Never compromise!¡± Now they felt cold inside. Reality was cruel. Some began sighing: ¡°That guy should have agreed to compromise. Stepping back might have resolved things, or at least decreased the severity. Ah ¨C¡± ¡°I¡¯ll cover for you all at work. You should go visit him. He¡¯s been taken to the district detention center. I¡¯ll make a call to arrange a visit. He seems stable, preparing for the worst. I also have to visit Dr. Li. Zhang Lin sent her a message to stop worrying.¡± Director Han spoke, exhaustion seeping into his words. This ordeal, starting from noon and lasting until evening, was draining. Everyone had surgeries the next day. Zhang Lin¡¯s hardest evening was tonight. Witnessing such an incident, he seemed strong on the surface, but he must feel lonely inside. Director Han suggested they go and see him tonight, to share a few words with him. Everyone shared the same sentiment. When Zhang Lin was at the police station, everyone wanted to visit, but Director Han stopped them, fearing they would cause more trouble. Little Five prepared a mobile phone charger, daily necessities, and some clothes. Liang Fatty brought a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes and a lighter. Song Zimo drove everyone to the detention center, which was located in an outlying area, surrounded by scattered factories. It was a cold, starless night. The tall walls and barbed wire of the center were dimly lit. Their colleague Zhang Lin, who had been teaching interns that morning, was now locked inside. The thought filled everyone¡¯s hearts with a bitter taste. Director Han had called in advance. Yang Ping explained their purpose to the duty soldier at the gate. After verifying their identities, he made a call inside. A policeman came out, quite polite, ¡°From Sanbo Hospital, right?¡± Yang Ping handed his ID for inspection. The policeman glanced at it, ¡°I see. Follow me.¡± Noticing the things they brought, he said, ¡°You can send in the clothes but no food. You can buy food from the kiosk though, we¡¯ll help you send it in. We just worry about food safety issues.¡± The policeman explained. ¡°Give me the clothes, I¡¯ll deliver them to him. If you want to buy food, buy it now.¡± The policeman pointed to a small kiosk near the gate. Everyone selected a few items, filled out a form with their names, and the policeman helped by adding the cell number. Fatty bought a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes. It seemed all sorts of tastes were catered for in there. After making the purchase and signing the register, the policeman called a duty soldier at the gate. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t sure how many people could enter, so he asked, ¡°Can all of us go in?¡± The policeman glanced at the group and said, ¡°Sure, follow me. But don¡¯t take too long, I can only give you fifteen minutes, alright?¡± Yang Ping agreed. Director Han had arranged the visit, but he didn¡¯t want to inconvenience them too much. The policeman led them to a room, presumably for visitors. A call was made to bring out Zhang Lin from his cell. About fifteen minutes later, another policeman brought out Zhang Lin. He was wearing his own clothes, with no shaved head, unlike what everyone had imagined. ¡°Chat away. I¡¯ll come to get you after fifteen minutes!¡± The assisting policeman said. The other policeman seemed a little worried, but the assisting policeman reassured him, ¡°It¡¯s alright, don¡¯t worry!¡± This was only a detention, not a criminal case involving a prison sentence, so they can estimate the severity. Zhang Lin was quite calm, happy to see everyone, and even cracked jokes. ¡°Why isn¡¯t your hair different?¡± Fatty pointed at Zhang Lin¡¯s head. Zhang Lin retorted, ¡°Stop eating all the time and learn some law. This is a detention center, not a prison. I¡¯m under administrative detention, not for any crime¡ªit¡¯s an administrative penalty!¡± Fatty touched his chin, ¡°Isn¡¯t that complicated?¡± ¡°We bought some snacks. Fatty got you Zhonghua cigarettes. The kiosk will send them over later,¡± Little Five said. ¡°Why did you bring stuff while visiting?¡± Zhang Lin teased. ¡°You, I admire you. The cigarette is Zhonghua, enough for five days, right?¡± Fatty gave him a thumbs-up. ¡°I get this kind of treatment? If I had known, I would have told the police to let me stay longer!¡± Zhang Lin laughed. ¡°Pah, pah, pah!¡± Little Five pretended to spit on the ground. ¡°Zhang Lin, Li Shan is being looked after by her colleagues, Tang Fei and Xiao Su are also taking turns staying with her. Don¡¯t worry!¡± Song Zimo consoled him. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the matters that follow, we will all support you. Rest well and treat this like a vacation. The five days will pass quickly. If you need anything else, just let us know,¡± Yang Ping, too, reassured him. ¡°Senior, thank you and thank all of my brothers. Please don¡¯t force anything on my behalf and let it affect you. You can rest assured, I can bear any of the consequences. Even if I¡¯m dismissed, what else could happen? I won¡¯t take it too hard. You all have surgeries tomorrow. You should go back early!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about anything, you have your brothers. Even if you¡¯re dismissed, we¡¯ll help you find a new job,¡± Song Zimo, usually a man of few words, spoke up quite fervently. ¡°Everyone, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m fine.¡± Zhang Lin¡¯s smile was somewhat damp from tears, and his voice was a bit unusual: ¡°Thank you, everyone, truly!¡± The visiting time was not very long, but after the police came to remind them, they all gave some final reminders, and then started to leave. After all, it was only five days, and the sky hadn¡¯t fallen. By the time they returned to the hospital, it was already late, but surprisingly, Director Han had not yet gone home. The lights in his office were still on, and Yang Ping gently knocked on the door a few times. ¡°Come in!¡± Yang Ping went in to find Director Han enjoying a cup of tea. ¡°Xiao Yang, sit!¡± Director Han leaned back in his chair to rest. Yang Ping knew that five days later, when Zhang Lin was released, he¡¯d have to face the hospital¡¯s disciplinary action, which could even result in dismissal. How he would be disciplined depended on the progress of the issue, but it definitely wouldn¡¯t be light. Right now, only Director Han could help him. Despite only being a department director, Director Han was one of the people Dean Xia respected the most. Originally, Director Han was going to be the dean, but he declined, believing that Dean Xia was more suitable. He nominated Dean Xia for the dean position and continued to serve as a department director. ¡°About Zhang Lin¨C¡± Yang Ping started to say. Director Han cut him off, saying, ¡°Xiao Yang, I know what you want to say. Don¡¯t worry, Zhang Lin¡¯s issue is a bit complicated, but I¡¯ll do my best. He is part of our department, and I will not abandon him.¡± With these words, Yang Ping felt relieved. However, the hospital cannot be controlled by Director Han alone; there were still several deputy deans and major department directors on the hospital committee. He has made the worst-case scenario for Zhang Lin. If he really gets dismissed, perhaps Cheng Liquan¡¯s place would be a good option. He thought that, with his current connections, that would be the only place he could arrange. Perhaps Su Nanchen would help too. As Yang Ping exited Director Han¡¯s office, Song Zimo was waiting for him: ¡°How did it go?¡± Song Zimo was also worried about Director Han¡¯s attitude. ¡°The director said he¡¯d try his best,¡± Yang Ping reassured him. Song Zimo felt reassured: Given the integrity of Dean Xia and Director Han, they probably won¡¯t dismiss him and will try to protect him. But there were still several deputy deans and the authorities to consider. It all depends on how the wind blows. ¡°There¡¯s surgery tomorrow, so everyone should go back to rest,¡± Yang Ping instructed everyone. ¡°We¡¯re not going back; we¡¯ll sleep in the department,¡± Song Zimo said, as everyone was feeling uneasy. ¡°Then I won¡¯t go back either.¡± Yang Ping also decided to sleep in the department, in the on-call room. They all had a set of daily necessities there; they would just wear surgical scrubs as clothes. Xiao Su called; she and Tang Fei were staying over at Li Shan¡¯s rented house and would return to the department to work the next morning. The house that Zhang Lin and Li Shan bought they hadn¡¯t moved into yet, and were still living in a rented one. All night long, everyone tossed and turned restlessly, and they all got up very early the next morning. The worst thing happened as the news spread overnight on the internet. Screenshots had been posted in the group chat, and some online media, including social media, started broadcasting the same news. The headlines were all pretty much the same: Doctor Assaults Patient¡¯s Family. But the articles only provided half of the story, completely omitting the first part. Yang Ping glanced at the content ¨C it roughly said that the patient¡¯s child had a persistent high fever, but the doctor ignored the situation. The patient¡¯s family complained, and the doctor flew into a rage, assaulting them. In the article, Zhang Lin was even misidentified as a pediatrician. The story had been tweaked here and there to make it extremely exciting and dramatic. Some articles even had the wrong pictures, and it was unclear where they¡¯d been sourced. None of them were from Sanbo Hospital. Early in the morning, Director Han was called to a meeting. The meeting lasted a full two hours, after which Director Han finally returned. Chapter 186 - 0177: Reversal Chapter 186: Chapter 0177: Reversal After returning from the meeting, Director Han asked Song Zimo to perform surgery without delay and instructed Yang Ping to visit him in his office. Song Zimo asked a hospital clerk about the meeting. She told Song Zimo that Director Han had slammed the table. Dean Sun presented the news on the internet, suggesting that Zhang Lin should be fired, but Director Han objected. The meeting ended in disagreement, with people divided into two camps. One camp argued that though punishment was called for, dismissal was too severe ¨C who would work with dedication if dismissals were easily made? Another group contended that under the current public pressure, higher authorities would soon pay attention. To maintain the hospital¡¯s reputation and order, they insisted Zhang Lin needed to be fired. Otherwise, it would set a precedent for dealing with similar situations in the future. The discussion led to a heated argument among the participants. Two camps emerged ¨C Clinical Directors on one side and administrative officials, mainly Deputy Deans, on the other. Director Zhao tried to mediate, but it was ineffective. Director Han slapped the table furiously and cursed. Dean Sun, with a suppressed red face, announced the adjournment of the meeting until everyone calmed down. When Dean Xia called, saying he would handle the issue upon his return, the matter was temporarily set aside. Upon reaching the director¡¯s office, Director Han took several gulps of tea, his face and neck appearing a bit red. He took a breath and said, ¡°Xiao Yang, you have seen the news being circulated in the group, right? The current public opinion is very unfavorable to the hospital. If the higher authorities pay attention to it, even Dean Xia might not withstand the pressure, and Zhang Lin¡¯s dismissal would be inevitable. While the public sentiment is just emerging, think of a solution. Do you have any contact with Mayor Li¡¯s daughter, Li Jingshu?¡± Yang Ping nodded. He understood Director Han¡¯s intention to ask Li Jingshu for help. Despite her young age, Li Jingshu was a reporter for the city¡¯s television station and also the Mayor¡¯s daughter. She undoubtedly had numerous resources in G City¡¯s media circles, which made her an influential figure. ¡°I am trying to defer the issue until Dean Xia returns. Xiao Yang, see if you can talk to Xiao Li and ask her to help us. The last issue with Cui Ermin in our department was smoothly resolved with her help. Her intervention now could potentially save Zhang Lin despite the fact that the current situation is more complicated than before. If she can influence the media narrative, there is hope for Zhang Lin,¡± Director Han said gently. Yang Ping had reservations about interacting with Li Jingshu, but for Zhang Lin¡¯s sake, he had no other choice but to ask for her help. Upon reflection, there was no need to be overly concerned, it was his own overinterpretation, and she might just want to be his friend. Feeling embarrassed to make a call, Yang Ping drafted a WeChat message. After rewriting and revising it several times, he sent her a brief account of the actual situation and requested her assistance. Suddenly, a message arrived from her, ¡°I saw the news online. This is a troublesome issue that requires swift and decisive action. You focus on your work, and leave this matter to me.¡± ¡°What did she say? Did she agree?¡± Director Han asked anxiously. Such matters were sensitive, and not everyone was willing to help. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°She agreed!¡± Director Han said happily, ¡°As long as she agrees, there¡¯s hope for this issue. Despite being young, Mayor Li¡¯s daughter is smart and capable. In the case of Cui Ermin, she demonstrated courage and insights, set a thorough plan, and effortlessly resolved the issue. As the Mayor¡¯s daughter, she¡¯s the only one bold enough to take a strong stand around this sensitive topic, battling with other irresponsible media outlets.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± Yang Ping texted back. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me earlier? I only just heard about it from someone else this morning. It¡¯s okay, though. I have a solution. Concentrate on your surgery, I¡¯ll come to your hospital to understand the specifics better, and will contact your hospital¡¯s PR department. Don¡¯t forget to help see my mom next Monday.¡± She texted him. Li Jinghu¡¯s tone was like that of a good friend that Yang Ping had known for a long time. Yang Ping laughed to himself. Clearly, it was his over-interpretation after all. She only intended to be an ordinary friend, and compared to her generosity, he was overly sensitive. ¡ª At the News Department of G City Television Station, Li Jingshu stood and walked from her office to the resting room. As she made a cup of coffee and sipped it, she made a phone call, ¡°Xiao Yu, come to the resting room.¡± A female reporter about the same age as Li Jingshu entered. ¡°Sister, what is it?¡± Xiao Yu asked, sitting down before Li Jingshu. ¡°Tonight¡¯s news program needs a last-minute adjustment. We are adding a report about Sanbo Hospital. Let¡¯s go to Sanbo for an interview now,¡± Li Jingshu bluntly declared. ¡°Is it about the news of a doctor hitting a patient¡¯s family member?¡± Xiao Yu guessed. She had just told Li Jingshu about this news. ¡°Yes, the reality is not as it seems. Many online media outlets, in a bid to attract attention, are presenting out-of-context snippets to sensationalize this episode. What should we do?¡± Li Jingshu asked as she sipped her coffee. ¡°Speak for the truth?¡± Xiao Yu seemed excited, clenching her fists. ¡°Good job!¡± Li Jingshu complimented. Li Jingshu was a talented graduate from Beijing University¡¯s Journalism Department. Since returning to G City after graduation to work as a reporter at the TV station, due to her great academic background, strong work capability, and the support of her father, she naturally held a distinctive position. ¡°Is it because of that doctor?¡± Xiao Yu quietly asked, covering her mouth to laugh. A tinge of red colored Li Jingshu¡¯s face, ¡°What are you talking about? He¡¯s never taken me seriously. He didn¡¯t even bother when I invited him for dinner, and he reluctantly added me on WeChat.¡± ¡°See, your face turns red as soon as he¡¯s mentioned?¡± Xiao Yu teased. Li Jingshu touched her face, pointing out of the window, ¡°I was just sitting by the window, isn¡¯t it from the sun¡¯s rays?¡± ¡°Enough, you won¡¯t admit it anyway. Last time when you had a fractured arm, you were running around for Sanbo Hospital. Why didn¡¯t you care about the hospital¡¯s affairs before?¡± Xiao Yu appeared slightly upset. ¡°Because of that fracture, I believe that being a doctor is a sacred profession and patients also have it hard. We should understand each other. As media professionals, we should report the truth and not ignore or even deliberately distort the facts in doctor-patient conflicts for the so-called news benefits. We should make efforts to improve doctor-patient relations.¡± Li Jingshu said gently. ¡°No more talking, honestly, who did you give that tie you bought on our last business trip? Don¡¯t tell me you gave it to your father, he doesn¡¯t suit that color.¡± Xiao Yu kept insisting. Li Jingshu was a little overwhelmed, ¡°Go, go, getting ready for Sanbo, notify the others in the group.¡± ¡°When are you going?¡± Seeing her surrender, Xiao Yu let her off the hook. ¡°Right now, start packing.¡± Li Jingshu spoke without delay. ¡°You haven¡¯t had breakfast yet and you¡¯re going out again, can you rest for a bit?¡± The breakfast that Xiao Yu had bought for her was still on the table, untouched. ¡°You can¡¯t be a lazy reporter! Especially in the internet era, if you¡¯re a minute late, you¡¯ll be drowned by the tide. I¡¯ll take the breakfast with me.¡± Li Jingshu finished her coffee and got ready to leave. ¡°Relying solely on television media is not enough, it¡¯s too slow. I¡¯ll contact several major online media outlets. Yes, I should contact several portal websites, we need to counterattack comprehensively and uphold the truth.¡± Li Jingshu was quick-minded and decisive. She picked up her bag, and everyone quickly got into the Toyota Alphard. In the car, she took out a small mirror and touched-up her makeup lightly. ¡ª At noon, after Yang Ping and Song Zimo finished their surgery, they were still in the changing room. They hastily took out their phones to check on the development of the situation. The news spread so fast that there were loads of messages, links, and screenshots in the group chat, and those messages practically flooded the group chat. ¡°Doctor beat patient¡¯s relatives? ¨C The hidden reality, the extinguished news conscience!¡± ¡°If your family is violated, would you choose silence? Or would you stand up?¡± ¡°Who is the beater exactly? Who gave him the power?¡± ¡ª In just a few short hours, all major websites published the same news, describing the cause and effect of Li Shan being beaten and Zhang Lin¡¯s actions clearly and logically, emphasizing the main points. The video of the family member beating was also posted online, followed by descriptions of Dr. Li¡¯s height, weight, and usual character, as well as the height, weight, and vile attitude of the beating relative. Especially that video, which was ignored by many other media outlets, was posted now and everyone¡¯s comments poured in like a flood. All condemned the ugly, tall man for beating the defenseless and gentle Dr. Li Shan, especially that kick that landed harshly in her lower abdomen and sent her flying a considerable distance. ¡°If your wife, your lover, your family member was violently slapped twice and kicked several meters away, all because she didn¡¯t meet his unreasonable demands! Would you choose to stay silent or stand up? We don¡¯t advocate violence but-¡± People started calling Sanbo Hospital to ask about Dr. Li Shan¡¯s health and also about Zhang Lin¡¯s situation, whether he was fired or not. They expressed their support for Zhang Lin and strongly opposed his dismissal. Revealing the truth and upholding justice also requires skills. The power of the internet is huge. Li Jingshu¡¯s thunderous counterattack was disproportionate to her slender figure. If G city¡¯s media granted her face because of her father, then those portal websites outside G city didn¡¯t need to be concerned about her father. These were her own connections, many of her classmates, and mentors held important positions in the major media houses. ¡ª ¡°Sis, we did it!¡± Xiao Yu excitedly ran into the break room. Li Jingshu was quietly looking out the window, her chin rested in her hand. We are only the voice for truth!¡± Her tone was light. ¡°What¡¯s up? Aren¡¯t you happy? You can ask him out for dinner now, right?¡± Xiao Yu stirred. Li Jingshu: ¡°No, it¡¯s enough to see him regularly.¡± Li Jingshu turned her head, didn¡¯t look directly at Xiao Yu, and directly walked out of the break room to the restroom. Her eyes seemed a bit red and a little wet. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Did I say something wrong?¡± Xiao Yu really didn¡¯t understand what was going on, what happened, wasn¡¯t everything great? ¡°Thank you!¡± A WeChat message from Yang Ping. ¡°I am just the voice for the truth!¡± Li Jingshu responded. Chapter 187 - 0178: Inspiring Young Man Chapter 187: Chapter 0178: Inspiring Young Man The sudden change in public opinion threw the hospital¡¯s leadership off balance, leading them to rethink the decision to fire Zhang Lin. When Dean Xia returned, he visited Dr. Li Shan, offering her a basket of flowers, some comfort money, and encouraging her to take care of her health and not to feel burdened. He reassured her that the incident was an accident and shouldn¡¯t affect her confidence in performing her duties. He stated that the hospital would support her at all times. Also, he comforted Li Shan by assuring her that the hospital would handle Zhang Lin¡¯s case appropriately, act fairly, and not act hastily. Dean Xia called for a special meeting, where he lamentously said, ¡°Everyone views the problem from different angles, and there is no right or wrong. If Zhang Lin were me, I might have acted impulsively too. His assault on the patient¡¯s relative was both unlawful and against the hospital¡¯s rules, and must come with a punishment. But, we must handle such cases individually, analyze the specific circumstances, and not act hastily. If we were to fire him, it would be too severe. It was not a criminal act, nor a malignant malpractice incident. Hasty dismissal might ruin his life and would have a negative influence on other young doctors¡¯ professional perspectives. Public opinion is like the wind; yesterday it blew from the west, today it¡¯s from the east. Yesterday, it was all condemnation of doctors hitting people, today it switched to condemning the patient¡¯s relatives. So, public opinion is like a fan, it blows in whichever direction you place it. Although it¡¯s inevitable, we have no choice but to bow to public opinion, and the same goes for the upper management. Let¡¯s do this ¨C In order to prevent similar occurrences, and rooted in the principle of curing and saving people, let¡¯s punish Dr. Zhang Lin, he made a mistake. But at the same time, we should also protect our young comrades. His error does not warrant his expulsion from our team. Now that there is no pressure from public opinion, we can decide from our hearts ¨C a fine! A fine equivalent to three months of his basic salary, and a public criticism across the hospital, how does that sound?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the most reasonable, I agree!¡± Director Han expressed his opinion, and the other department directors also agreed. Dean Sun still wanted to insist, ¡°Dean Xia, if the punishment is this light, it might represent a kind of implicit encouragement. If everyone reacts violently to a little grievance, then won¡¯t we have to deal with fights every day?¡± ¡°Yeah! If we don¡¯t punish one to caution the others, it might be hard to manage in the future!¡± Another deputy dean was also unsatisfied with the decision. Dean Xia waved his hand: ¡°They are medical personnel, not chickens or monkeys. And this isn¡¯t a trivial grievance; it¡¯s a significant one. Zhang Lin¡¯s incident is an individual case, an extremely special individual case. Others wouldn¡¯t be able to imitate it even if they wanted to, because those who dare to take action are, after all, a minority. Old Sun, didn¡¯t you mention public opinion? Now the hospital office receives calls every day asking about Zhang Lin¡¯s punishment. If it¡¯s too light, it¡¯s hard to convince the crowd. If it¡¯s too heavy, we can¡¯t withstand the pressure from public opinion.¡± Even though Dean Sun wanted to object, he couldn¡¯t find a reason to do so. What kind of situation was this? Sigh, just let it be, at the moment, it seemed like he, old Sun, was caught in an awkward position. ¡°Fine! I agree.¡± Dean Sun responded somewhat deflatedly. Looking at Dean Xia¡¯s unyielding stance, the other deputy deans found it hard to object. Dean Xia spoke solemnly, ¡°We¡¯ve been discussing how to punish Zhang Lin, but we¡¯ve forgotten about Li Shan. She is the actual victim of this entire incident. How can we uphold Dr. Li¡¯s dignity and rights is something we need to discuss seriously. In this instance, Zhang Lin used extreme means to uphold Dr. Li¡¯s dignity and rights. If such a thing happens in the future, do we need the doctor themselves or their relatives to defend their rights in an extreme way? What should we do? Should we protect our doctors, firmly resisting negative influence? Or should we attempt to calm the situation, completely ignoring the doctor¡¯s personal dignity and interests? The victim in this incident is not only Dr. Li, but every doctor and nurse in the hospital! In regard to this issue, we should reflect deeply, myself included.¡± In this way, the decision regarding the punishment for Zhang Lin was settled. A fine equivalent to three months of his basic wages, and a public criticism across the hospital. Meanwhile, as for Dr. Li, there was no fault in her treatment process, and she was assaulted by the patient¡¯s relative. Aside from the apology and compensation due from the person who assaulted her, the hospital granted her a month¡¯s paid leave, as well as compensation equivalent to three months¡¯ basic wages and the average bonus of the hospital. Saturday afternoon was only five days away, Yang Ping and the others ushered Zhang Lin back to work, and this incident was finally passing in a stable manner. ¡ª After a hectic morning, Professor Su just sat down in his office, preparing to take a rest. Su Nanchen brought him a consultation request form for his signature. After having a glance at it, Professor Su said, ¡°It¡¯s hard to admit when someone else is superior, sometimes that¡¯s even harder than acknowledging one¡¯s own shortcomings, but you have done it.¡± ¡°His surgery was indeed done beautifully. It can be said that, he surpasses Professor Ye and even Professor Robert. This patient should have him as the chief surgeon. The patient is only twenty years old, and has a long career ahead, and the patient fully agreed with my suggestion to have Dr. Yang perform the surgery,¡± said Su Nanchen, standing beside Professor Su. Professor Su picked up the pen and signed his name without hesitation, ¡°Congratulations for finding such a good friend. He can act as a lifelong mentor and friend. Let me know when the surgery is. I would like to see it.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve scheduled it for Thursday morning,¡± said Su Nanchen. ¡°Come here, Nanchen!¡± Su Nanchen walked over to Professor Su. Professor Su opened up the MRI images of the patient on the computer, ¡°See, for this four-way injury, stability is the core of the surgery. Not only static stability but also dynamic stability are needed as he is a football player, moreover, a striker. Therefore, we need to ensure the strength of the rebuilt ligament after the surgery. The difficulty of the operation is very high. Even at the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States, the failure rate of such surgeries for professional athletes is very high.¡± ¡°I believe he won¡¯t have a problem!¡± Su Nanchen was very confident, his confidence stemmed from what he had seen with his own eyes. ¡°Hmm!¡± Professor Su never doubted his son¡¯s judgement. Whoever could impress him must be exceptional. ¡°It¡¯s just that Professor Guan is a bit discontent. Initially, for both patients, she wanted to invite Professor Ye. But for this patient, I invited Dr. Yang.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine, I¡¯ve already told her that this was my idea. We need to learn from different people¡¯s experiences,¡± Professor Su reassured Su Nanchen. ¡°If this surgery turns out to be very successful, let him be the chief surgeon for the Achilles tendon shrinkage surgery as well. Both surgeries require a lot of experience and extremely advanced surgical skills. The surgery for Achilles tendon shrinkage may seem simple but is actually very difficult. They are both top-level surgeries in the world.¡± Professor Su suggested. Someone knocked on the door, ¡°Uncle Su!¡± Su Nanchen turned his head, ¡°Lin Hao! You¡¯re already back to work? Didn¡¯t you take a few more days off?¡± Lin Hao was Su Nanchen¡¯s classmate at Xiehe Hospital. They both went to the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States for further study. Su Nanchen stayed there for only one year while Lin Hao stayed for three years. ¡°Lin Hao, can you take a look at this patient too? Are there any new developments on this kind of surgery at the New York Special Surgery Hospital?¡± Professor Su turned his computer screen around. ¡°Is this the soccer player with the quadruple injury of the knee joint?¡± ¡°Yes, indeed!¡± ¡°Wasn¡¯t this supposed to be handled by Professor Ye? As of now, there aren¡¯t any new developments in the States either. These kinds of reconstructive surgeries never quite achieve good stability, the balance is too hard to handle. Doctor Robert does quite a bit of research in this area, Nanchen is familiar with it. Right now there¡¯s an NBA player with a quadruple injury combined with an unstable kneecap joint. He is being treated by Doctor Robert who has assessed that the failure rate is too high and he isn¡¯t confident about it. Therefore, he has yet to come up with a surgical plan. This is the crown jewel of sports medicine surgeries. When will it be done? I should learn from Professor Ye.¡± Lin Hao was very interested, these kinds of surgeries always caught everybody¡¯s interest. ¡°For this patient, I¡¯m inviting Dr. Yang from Sanbo to perform the surgery!¡± said Su Nanchen. ¡°Sanbo? Dr. Yang?¡± The hospital wasn¡¯t very well-known, and neither was this doctor. Were there surgeons capable of this operation that he didn¡¯t know about? Lin Hao was a little surprised. ¡°The surgery will be performed this Thursday morning!¡± Su Nanchen said. ¡°Professor Ye¡¯s operation is also on Thursday morning, why didn¡¯t you ask him to join? Is he too busy? There¡¯s no break between the two surgeries?¡± Lin Hao was very confused. Su Nanchen couldn¡¯t quite explain either, ¡°Yes, Professor Ye is too busy.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Lin Hao was puzzled. ¡°Nanchen, you go home first, I¡¯ll be back later, I still have some things to do.¡± Professor Su got busy again. Su Nanchen went to the ward to check on the patient with the quadruple injury of the knee joint, a twenty-year-old soccer player, a rare competent player, a main player of the Nandu team. He was leaning against the bed with his legs dangling, doing push-ups. ¡°Dr. Su!¡± The young man quickly stopped doing push-ups. ¡°Professor Su has agreed to ask Dr. Yang to perform the surgery.¡± Su Nanchen told him. The young man made a victory sign, ¡°That¡¯s fantastic!¡± Professional athletes like him usually prefer renowned experts like Professor Ye. It¡¯s rare that they agree to have young doctors like Yang Ping perform their surgeries. Before making this decision, Su Nanchen revised his persuasion speech several times in his mind. Surprisingly, the young man agreed after only a few sentences. ¡°I am curious, why were you so readily agreeable and relaxed about my recommendation of having an unknown young doctor perform your surgery, instead of being persistent about Professor Ye?¡± Su Nanchen also wanted to know the answer. The young man held up a finger and waved it, ¡°You¡¯re wrong. If he¡¯s recommended by you, how could he possibly be unknown? It¡¯s just that he isn¡¯t popular outside of his field yet. When choosing between him and Professor Ye, you chose him, and he¡¯s so young. You know what that means? He¡¯s a young genius. No one would recommend a young person who isn¡¯t well-known for an important task, unless that young person has exceptional talent and distinguished abilities.¡± ¡°This is currently the crowning surgery in sports medicine! The failure rate of the surgery is very high, regardless of who does it,¡± Su Nanchen felt he was being overly optimistic. ¡°I fell in love with soccer when I was six. But when I was fourteen, I was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. I thought it was the end of the world, but it wasn¡¯t. Then I underwent radiation therapy and chemotherapy at the hospital and so far there has been no relapse. My body was extremely weak after the treatment, but I changed it and returned to the field; when I was eighteen, I had a car accident, with multiple fractures all over my body, more than ten fractured ribs, fractures in both upper and lower limbs, and even in the pelvis which still has steel plates in it. After the surgery, I was barely able to walk, but I firmly believed that I could return to the field, and I did it again. This time all the ligaments in my knee were torn, many doctors told me to give up. I know there are some things you have to give up on, but it¡¯s not time to give up yet, I believe that hard work can change everything,¡± he said with a smile. ¡°You have to understand, some things can¡¯t be achieved by just working hard!¡± Su Nanchen had to temper his expectations. The young man replied, ¡°I understand, if there is one percent of hope, I will make two hundred percent effort.¡± Chapter 188 - 0179: Invitation of the Flying Knife Chapter 188: Chapter 0179: Invitation of the Flying Knife On Monday afternoon, Li Jingshu arrived punctually, bringing her mother to see Yang Ping. Mrs. Li¡¯s right shoulder had been in intense pain for over a month. She couldn¡¯t raise her arm, especially not above her head. Each lift produced an excruciating tear-like agony that grew worse at night, leading to sleepless nights mitigated only by sleeping pills and analgesics. The rehabilitation department at the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital had diagnosed her with Periarthritis of the shoulder. Despite undergoing physical therapy and receiving personal treatments and acupuncture from the department head, the pain persisted, and she felt relief only when taking analgesics. Function limitation in over-the-top positions and nighttime pain in the neck and shoulder¡ªbased on these distinct symptoms, Yang Ping was about 70-80% confident that Mrs. Li was dealing with a rotator cuff injury rather than periarthritis of the shoulder. In fact, the latter diagnosis was becoming increasingly obsolete. Most cases of shoulder pain arise from a rotator cuff injury. After taking Mrs. Li¡¯s medical history and performing a physical examination of her shoulder, Yang Ping conducted a series of special tests, especially those for diagnosing rotator cuff injuries. These included the painful arc test, the impingement test, and the arm drop test. The results all pointed towards a rotator cuff injury. To be cured, she would have to undergo an arthroscopic shoulder surgery. To save time, Li Jingshu asked Director Zhuang to assist, so her mother already had an MRI scan of her right shoulder. Conveniently, the results were out, and Director Zhuang joined them with the films, slightly out of breath. Director Zhuang put the film onto the view box. Looking at the MRI scan, Yang Ping saw that the rotator cuff area indeed showed a long strip of high signal, aligning with his diagnosis. Not only was the rotator cuff torn but also Mrs. Li had type III acromion according to Bigliani classification, a hooked type. This shape is most prone to impinge with the rotator cuff. The normal degeneration in the rotator cuff of middle-aged and elderly people combined with repetitive impingement and wear leads to a tear, which in turn, causes pain. In the past, due to a lack of understanding and effective diagnostic methods for this condition, it was mostly misdiagnosed as periarthritis of the shoulder, resulting in less-than-desirable treatment outcomes. Over the past twenty-plus years, with the advancement in MRI and arthroscopy technology, many ailments originally considered periarthritis of the shoulder have been reevaluated, leading to accurate diagnosis and thus, markedly improved treatment outcomes. ¡°These are the medicines that the doctor prescribed,¡± Li Jingshu took out the drug packaging. Yang Ping took a look, recognizing a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that had a significant impact on the stomach, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t take this medicine for a prolonged period as it can lead to bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract. If needed, take it concurrently with a gastric protection medicine.¡± ¡°Auntie, you have a right rotator cuff injury and require arthroscopic shoulder surgery for a complete recovery,¡± Yang Ping told her matter-of-factly. Mrs. Li was a bit alarmed to hear about the surgery, ¡°Dear me, it¡¯s that serious, I need surgery? But also, I¡¯ve undergone so much physical therapy, and it hasn¡¯t worked.¡± Mrs. Li had been seeking treatment from a wider range of medical professionals and did not yet fully trust Yang Ping, considering his young age. It was only due to her precious daughter¡¯s insistence that she agreed to consult with Dr. Yang. ¡°Dr. Yang is very competent. If she says it¡¯s a rotator cuff injury, then it is. If surgery is required for recovery, then we should go for it, right?¡± Li Jingshu encouraged her mother. Mrs. Li had mixed feelings. Her daughter had made such a significant decision about her surgery so breezily. Mrs. Li felt caught between a rock and a hard place. ¡°Get admitted to the hospital, you¡¯ve been undergoing physical therapy for over a month, and the pain is worsening. Don¡¯t wait anymore, get admitted and undergo the arthroscopy. It¡¯s a simple procedure involving just a few small incisions, right, Dr. Yang?¡± Li Jingshu made the decision for her mother. Standing on the side, Director Zhuang didn¡¯t offer to admit her to the hospital since Mrs. Li hadn¡¯t agreed yet. He decided to wait until they had discussed it further. ¡°I need to discuss the surgery with your father. It won¡¯t hurt to wait a little longer, right?¡± Mrs. Li asked Yang Ping. Yang Ping replied, ¡°No, it¡¯s not an emergency surgery, but it¡¯s better not to delay too much, as that would increase the scope of the tear.¡± ¡°Is the surgery complicated?¡± Mrs. Li wanted to understand the procedure better. ¡°We make a few holes and, with the help of an arthroscope, suture the torn rotator cuff. Once it heals, the pain will stop,¡± Yang Ping explained simply. ¡°Dad¡¯s really busy, I¡¯ll give him a call, we can¡¯t delay this anymore.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t rush, mom. Take your time to consider, and when you¡¯re ready, you can return to be admitted to the hospital. Don¡¯t worry,¡± Jingshu consoled her. Pouting, Li Jingshu watched as Director Zhuang helped pack away the MRI films. Mrs. Li stood up, ¡°Thank you, Dr. Yang, I¡¯ll give it some thought, and I¡¯ll let Jingshu contact you when we¡¯re ready.¡± ¡°No problem at all. You can reach out to me anytime,¡± Yang Ping assured her, turning off the viewing light box. Despite her initial reservation towards the young doctor, Mrs. Li ended up very satisfied, owing mainly to Yang Ping¡¯s accurate diagnosis of her condition. Yang Ping walked them to the elevator. Just before they departed, Yang Ping said to Li Jingshu, ¡°Thank you!¡± She smiled, ¡°It was nothing!¡± ¡ª ¡°That Yang Ping, he¡¯s really something!¡± Director Zhao waved the external consultation application in his hand back and forth, having read it several times already, leaning back in his chair in the light from the window. ¡°The last time Fuer One invited him for a consultation, this time they directly asked him to perform the surgery. The Flying Blade has flown to Fuer One, it seems, this young man is really something.¡± Director Zhao was very happy, having been the head of the medical office for so many years, never having seen a request for surgery from Fuer One and Fuer Two. The requests he sent to Fuer One and Fuer Two went out like snowflakes. He picked up his phone and dialed Director Han¡¯s number: ¡°Old Han, where are you? When will you be back in the office, good, prepare the Longjing, I am coming over, good news, of course, it¡¯s good news.¡± After Director Zhao finished his call, his assistant said, ¡°Director, Doctor Yang is really amazing, even Fuer One invites him for surgery? Is he related to Fuer One?¡± ¡°Relatives? They might invite you for a meal, but for a consultation or surgery, even if the relationship is like that between father and son, no invitation would be sent. Fuer One isn¡¯t going to invite just anyone for surgery. They would invite top-notch big names from Beijing and Shanghai or world-class masters, foreigners.¡± Director Zhao rubbed his hands: ¡°Han Jiangong has a sharp eye, this young man initially submitted his resume to the human resources department, the emergency department was short-staffed, so they moved him to apply in the emergency department, apparently Han Jiangong intercepted him halfway, I was puzzled, how does he recognize people so precisely? Look, the few people he brought in, each one is more remarkable than the last. Tian Yuan, recruited from Huaxi Hospital, is proficient in scientific research and surgery. He was made associate senior at just over thirty, steady as a bull, and what is the name of that other one?¡± ¡°Song Zimo, Director!¡± the assistant reminded. ¡°Right, Xiao Song, recruited from Shanghai, this young man is weird. He can perform surgery after just seeing it once. In his twenties, trained by Han Jiangong, he can handle spinal scoliosis, spinal tumors, all very steadly. The first two are graduates from prestigious schools, understandable that they were perceived promising. But this Yang Ping, I see, just a Master¡¯s degree, graduated from a very ordinary medical college, how did he catch the eye of Han Jiangong? Do you think, can Old Han read people¡¯s fortun?¡± Director Zhao scratched his head. The assistant mysteriously said: ¡°There¡¯s a book called ¡®Maffia¡¯s Method of Divination¡¯, I¡¯m sure Director Han must be proficient in it! Otherwise, how can he be so accurate in judging people, never making a mistake, look, initially everyone disagreed with the decision to move Director Tan to our hospital.¡± Initially the one who disagreed the most was Old Zhao, Director Zhao was quite embarrassed, the assistant realized he misspoke. This is the pot calling the kettle black, at that meeting, Old Zhao was the first to object. Tan Boyun is arrogant, can¡¯t get along with anyone, at Fuer Two he was at daggers drawn with Director Yu, they¡¯ve come to the point where they don¡¯t speak to each other. For such a person to come to Sanbo Hospital would mean creating a big mess, or bringing in a time bomb, if he didn¡¯t make the orthopedics department at Sanbo a mess it would be strange. However, as soon as Tan Boyun arrived at Sanbo, he was extremely respectful to Han Jiangong, making the department of microtrauma orthopedics now thrive. The number of patients is growing day by day, now, trauma orthopedics in G City is second to none. ¡°In terms of understanding people, not only am I not as good as Han Jiangong, I dare say, no one at Sanbo is as good as him, even Dean Xia is half a step behind.¡± Old Zhao made a sweeping gesture, not feeling ashamed at all. ¡°I¡¯m going to have tea with Han Jiangong, and by the way, get some Longjing from him, haha.¡± Old Zhao was very happy. Zhang Lin was in the doctor¡¯s office telling the story of his time in detention, passionate, surrounded by Fatty, Little Five and several trainees, interns. Their eyes were as wide as dinner plates, just like when they used to listen to scary stories as children, their expressions constantly changing along with Zhang Lin¡¯s speech. Zhang Lin was a great speaker. Yang Ping and Song Zimo were also sitting far away, watching his gesticulating. He said there were all sorts of people in there, just in that room, those who stole electric bikes, sold lottery tickets, gambled, fought, drunk drove, and there was even a boss, driving a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, who got on well with Zhang Lin. This brother was caught in a raid when he went out to fool around with his mistress, when asked what her name was, he actually had a short circuit in his brain and couldn¡¯t say it, so he was arrested for solicitation instead. Zhang Lin scolded him: ¡°Are you a fucking idiot, you don¡¯t even know the name of your own mistress?¡± The brother was stunned and said: ¡°I have so many mistresses, different ones for Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and have to change again on Sunday, so many, how can I remember all the names? If it was you, could you remember?¡± So Zhang Lin said, ¡°You must be a Viagra salesman, right?¡± Which made everyone else laugh out loud again. ¡°Then there was this black brother, an international friend, who was brought in at night. Everyone was trying to talk to him in Chinese, and he was like a fool. I tried talking to him in English, and he was still like a fool. What language does this guy actually speak? One brother got anxious and said, ¡®Are you a fucking moron, coming to China and not learning Chinese?¡¯ As a result, this brother spoke fluent Mandarin: ¡®We¡¯re all hard-luck brothers, let¡¯s just chat, why the need for name-calling?''¡± Everyone laughed again. Director Han saw off Director Zhao, who was carrying a can of tea leaves, top-grade Longjing, he glanced at it from time to time, walking lightly, he had eyed this can of tea leaves for a long time, today he caught a good opportunity and asked for it to be given to him. ¡°Xiao Yang, come in!¡± Director Han called. Yang Ping came in, a consultation invitation from Fuer One was on the desk, Director Han flaunted it, smiling: ¡°You¡¯ve made progress, last time it was Liquan, this time you jumped straight to Fuer One!¡± Su Nanchen invited him to perform surgery at Fuer One, Yang Ping slapped his own forehead. He had just been planning to report this to Director Han, but he forgot about it because of Zhang Lin¡¯s antics. Chapter 189 - 0180 Two Instrument Nurses Chapter 189: Chapter 0180 Two Instrument Nurses Dr. Yang Ping is quite busy now, with surgeries scheduled from Monday through Friday, only having time off on weekends. However, elective surgeries are not performed on weekends at the affiliated hospital. After Su Nanchen pondered over this, he eventually scheduled the surgery for Thursday morning, as this was the only time when Yang Ping could spare an hour, and the operating room of the affiliated hospital could barely manage to arrange some extra hands. Su Nanchen¡¯s requests were too high, for this surgery, he demanded the operating room to allocate two efficient instrument nurses. The annual surgical volume of the affiliated hospital¡¯s orthopedics surpassed ten thousand, performing surgeries almost daily from dawn to dusk, they were always short-staffed, how could two instrument nurses be assigned, not to mention efficient ones. For such a request, if it had been made by someone else, the head nurse would directly refuse, and not scolding would be considered politeness; However, Su Nanchen¡¯s status was special, being the son of the hospital director, everyone had to respect him. The head nurse of the operating room was an old subordinate of Su Nanchen¡¯s mother, from all aspects, she had no choice but to try her best to fulfill these peculiar demands. The head nurse looked over the surgeries scheduled on her computer for this week over and over again, making adjustments left and right. Her head was throbbing, she felt dizzy until she confirmed that she could arrange for two senior orthopedic instrument nurses on Thursday morning. These two nurses were top professionals, the backbone of the affiliated hospital¡¯s operating room, and the outstanding soldiers under the head nurse¡¯s command. As for doctors, Su Nanchen assigned Doctor Yao and Dr. He to the platform, specifically to deal with the tendon; also, he assigned a graduate student to hold the leg. As for himself, he would come up to coordinate at the time, to coordinate these people well. He was genuinely afraid of a repeat occurrence from Liquan Hospital, where he was embarrassed because the others couldn¡¯t keep up the pace as he was operating in the away games. Su Nanchen sent such a luxurious line-up because there was no other choice, last time he witnessed Yang Ping performing a surgery, the assistant could not keep up, causing frequent stops, this should not happen in the affiliated hospital. Dr. Yang Ping was to set off early in the morning, around seven, it was too late for ward rounds. He assigned his work to Song Zimo, fortunately, Song Zimo was capable, otherwise, he would not have had the time to perform surgeries externally. Song Zimo reminded him: ¡°Senior brother, I have scheduled the reconstruction of the multidirectional unstable shoulder joint, accepting the patient around ten, you must be present for this surgery. Can you make it back on time? If not, shall I push it further?¡± ¡°No need to postpone it. They start at half past eight over there, finishing before half past nine, I will be back around half past ten when you are about to formally start the surgery.¡± Yang Ping was very confident, hastily grabbing his bag. Su Nanchen set off early in the morning, arriving at Sanbo Hospital at seven to pick up Yang Ping, he parked his car in the parking lot and waited for him, Yang Ping got into the car in a hurry: ¡°I must be back at the hospital before half past ten, can we start on time at half past eight?¡± ¡°We can start on time, everything is ready.¡± Su Nanchen confirmed. Starting the surgery at half past eight, finishing within an hour, getting off the platform at half past nine, and rushing back to Sanbo by half past ten, the schedule was tight. For a four-tendon reconstruction, finishing within an hour, no one would believe it. If Su Nanchen hadn¡¯t witnessed Yang Ping¡¯s monstrous surgical skills, he wouldn¡¯t have believed it either. All of a sudden, he remembered a term used by Chen Liquan: ¡°Perverted!¡± At this moment, only this term could do justice to the situation. Both four-tendon reconstruction surgeries were to start at half past eight. For the other surgery, Professor Ye was invited. Professor Ye usually performs surgeries on the weekends. However, he had another gig for the weekend, a local big shot had offered a high price to have Professor Ye there. As it happened, this Thursday he could make time, so he decided to come over this Thursday and consequently, both surgeries were scheduled together. The operating room of the affiliated hospital was similar to Sanbo Hospital¡¯s, just that there were more operating rooms and a larger operation volume. The giant electronic screen on the wall was filled with surgeries. When Su Nanchen took Yang Ping into the operating room, Doctor Yao and Dr. He were already sterilizing and prepping. Shao Wei and Old Zhou, one from neurosurgery, and the other from thoracic surgery, were also very interested. Upon hearing that Yang Ping was coming to perform a surgery, they quickly found substitutes and had been waiting in the operating room for a while. Lin Hao had just started his shift, he had not been assigned to a specific group yet, temporarily playing the role of a guerrilla, so he had lots of free time. He was quite interested in these two surgeries, having studied them for a long time and had in-depth discussions with Su Nanchen. ¡°Good morning, Doctor Yang!¡± Huang Jiahui came over early. Yang Ping nodded as a greeting. For Yang Ping, Su Nanchen called Huang Jiahui for the instruments in advance. If someone asked for surgery, they had to call for instruments in their hand, this was a rule. ¡°Doctor Yang!¡± As soon as Yang Ping entered the operating room, Shao Wei and Old Zhou came up to shake hands and greet like old friends. The two had dined together, thus they were familiar with each other, Su Nanchen didn¡¯t have to introduce them. Lin Hao didn¡¯t know Yang Ping, so Su Nanchen introduced: ¡°This is Dr. Yang Ping from Sanbo. To be honest, given his skills, I should be calling him teacher.¡± ¡°You¡¯re joking, Su!¡± Yang Ping laughed. ¡°This is Lin Hao from our department, Dr. Lin, just returned from the United States. He¡¯s a top disciple of the master of international sports medicine, Dr. Robert.¡± Everyone was a doctor, so no need to keep using the title doctor, it was tiring for every ear; it was more refreshing to simply address someone as Doctor So-and-So. ¡°Amazing, Dr. Robert is the current chair of the North American Arthroscopy Association!¡± Yang Ping complimented him. ¡°Not at all!¡± Even though Lin Hao was humble by words, his heart was already elated, and he could not help but show a hint of arrogance on his face. ¡°This surgery has quite a difficult balance to maintain, over in the U.S.¨C¡± Lin Hao had just returned from the United States, he spoke a mix of Chinese and English, exuding a sense of sophistication. After making some polite compliments, Yang Ping hurried away to examine the patient¡¯s scans in front of the light box, totally uninterested in listening to Lin Hao¡¯s lengthy theorizing. Lin Hao¡¯s speech abruptly ceased since there was no audience; Su Nanchen, Shao Wei, and Old Zhou all followed Yang Ping to look at the scans. Lin Hao was the complete opposite of Su Nanchen. He was extremely arrogant, but also had the qualifications to back it up. Graduating from Xiehe¡¯s eight-year program and being a student of a famed master, it would be difficult for him to keep a low profile. Usually, he was the center of attention, which made the recent snubbing he received feel rather unpleasant. ¡°The quad rebuild process is much more intricate than just adjusting tension and balance. He¡¯s a soccer forward, unlike ordinary people. Static balance is only the basis, but dynamic balance is the key. Dynamic balance and static balance are two completely different concepts. If any tendon slackens or becomes tense during motion, it could cause other tendons to overload or fail, resulting in surgery failure. An overloaded tendon could even rupture.¡± This is just like a set of precision gears; if one gear goes wrong, the entire gear system fails. Adjusting dynamic balance is a worldwide problem. Some doctors try to use photography and sensor technology to capture situations of humans in motion, digitizing it and then adjusting it accordingly based on the data. But it is still far from ideal. The structural ability Yang Ping obtained from the system space ¨C especially from dynamic construction ¨C was particularly helpful when conducting such surgery. A few days prior, he started to build models in his mind, then used these models for dynamic simulation in order to find the optimal adjustments for the tendons. For Yang Ping, constructing static models was relatively easy, but dynamic construction was still challenging. It took days to construct a complete dynamic model for the knee joint, and only then could he simulate action scenarios to find the best methods for adjusting the dynamic tension and balance of the structures. Yang Ping patiently explained everything while Su Nanchen nodded along like a diligent student, asking questions about anything he didn¡¯t understand. Lin Hao felt Su Nanchen was being overly humble. Was it really necessary? His excess humility was also tarnishing the reputation of their hospital. Furthermore, Lin Hao developed a sense of disdain for Yang Ping. He looked pompous acting wise beyond his years. The fact he brought his own equipment dealer and requested for two instrument nurses made it seem even worse. Even their casual conversations were short and cold, showing lack of consideration. ¡°Hurry up, Doctor Yang needs to leave by half past nine.¡± Su Nanchen instructed. Dr. Yao and Dr. He started connecting various tubes and wires, while the patrolling nurse was busy connecting various instruments, flipping switches, and adjusting settings. ¡°Let¡¯s go scrub in!¡± Su Nanchen announced when the preparation was nearly done. ¡°Sorry for the inconvenience, Brother Su! I¡¯m really pressed for time today, we have to get things moving along.¡± Yang Ping felt guilty seeing how many resources he was monopolizing. He didn¡¯t demand this. He wanted to finish up the operation within an hour? Even Doctor Robert typically takes at least three hours, and that¡¯s when everything goes smoothly and adjusting the tension and balance of the tendons takes less time. If one wasn¡¯t pursuing surgery quality and just mindlessly implanted the tendon, then it would be a different story. Building a model airplane and constructing a real airplane are two completely different concepts. What¡¯s the level of skill this guy actually possesses? Lin Hao wondered. In a hundred meter sprint, the world record is 9.8 seconds. If someone told you they ran it in 6 seconds, would you believe it? No one would. That was pretty much Lin Hao¡¯s mindset at the moment. This Yang Ping guides a procedure, which even Dr. Robert usually completes in three hours, in such a heedless manner, saying that he would be done by half past nine as he has another surgery after, Yang Ping is indeed quite the character. ¡°Everyone, keep up and stay focused!¡± Su Nanchen reminded them again. While the doctors were well-prepared, having watched Yang Ping on rounds, the two instrument nurses were already giggling at this point. Su Nanchen seemed rather strange today. Why was he assigning so many people for the task, and yet still worried they wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up? ¡°Nanchen, what is all this about?¡± Lin Hao couldn¡¯t hold back his confusion. It¡¯s the first time he¡¯s performing a surgery here,¡± Su Nanchen explained. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be good if our instruments staff was dragging him down.¡± The Head Nurse came in again, ¡°Is the professor here yet, Nanchen?¡± Immediately, Su Nanchen introduced her, ¡°Head Nurse, this is Doctor Yang from Sanbo, who I invited. This is our Head Nurse.¡± Yang Ping promptly greeted her, leaving the Head Nurse a little embarrassed. This young doctor was the invited professor? She had seen plenty of people in her time, but no matter how she looked at it, this youngster didn¡¯t appear to be a professor. What on earth was Su Nanchen up to? The young master of the Su family usually had a sharper mind than anyone else. What was going on now? His actions were downright absurd. But the Head Nurse didn¡¯t want to say any more and walked away. Su Nanchen didn¡¯t bother explaining either. Some things just couldn¡¯t be reasoned out. ¡°Doctor Yang!¡± The patient, not under general anesthesia yet, heard Yang Ping¡¯s voice and called out to him. The patient¡¯s head was covered by sterile cloth and a headrest, making his voice rather weak. Yang Ping had made time to come and visit the patient that Tuesday afternoon, even spending a full hour chatting with him. After that, the patient developed a strong trust in Yang Ping. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you don¡¯t need to be nervous!¡± Yang Ping raised his voice so the patient could hear him. ¡°Thank you, Doctor Yang. I¡¯m okay, don¡¯t worry about me.¡± The patient¡¯s voice echoed like he was talking inside a box. Yang Ping requested a sciatic nerve and femoral nerve block, but the anesthesiologist hesitated. As an anesthesiologist frequently involved in orthopedic surgeries, he was well aware that such operations could last for several hours. If complications occurred, it would take even longer. To play it safe, he chose combined spinal-epidural anesthesia. This type of anesthesia allows a small tube to be left in the epidural space of the spine. If the procedure took longer than expected, it would be no problem. More anesthetics could be administered through the tube to prolong the effects of the anesthesia. Quickly, Su Nanchen led Yang Ping away to scrub in, conscious of the fact he had another surgery waiting for him back home. Chapter 190 - 0181: Switching People Halfway Chapter 190: Chapter 0181: Switching People Halfway Dr. Yao and Dr. He had already prepared for the surgery. Not only had they connected all the tubes, but they had also adjusted the focal length of the camera. Yang Ping stepped up, tested the camera, and found the adjustment very suitable. He himself was indeed in a rush. Since Su Nanchen had already assigned two instrument nurses and two doctors, he shouldn¡¯t be polite and would proceed as swiftly as possible without undermining the quality of the surgery. He cut an incision with the scalpel, making the anterior medial and anterior lateral portals in one go. So skilled was he, he pierced the skin, joint capsule, and synovial membrane in one action, stopping the scalpel just as it broke through the synovial layer to avoid any injury to the structures within the joint cavity. Normally, people make one incision with a scalpel, insert the camera, and then guide another incision with a syringe needle for more precision. But Yang Ping didn¡¯t need that, he cut two portals directly because he didn¡¯t need the guidance of a syringe needle. He could perfectly place the portals in their best positions. Lin Hao frowned. This was against the standard protocol¡ªa wild approach. As the arthroscopy probe with the sheath went in, Dr. Yao had already connected the inflow and outflow tubes in advance. The probe encountered no resistance, indicating not only were the portals well cut, but also the operator was very familiar with the passage of these portals. There would be no obstacles due to the relative movement of the layers, particularly the synovial layer which can slightly hinder the entry of the arthroscope or instrument, requiring a little exploration to find the direction of the passage. But Yang Ping didn¡¯t need to explore. He entered in one go without any obstruction and easily accessed the joint cavity. He started arthroscopic examination and thoroughly irrigated the joint cavity before closing the outflow tube. The size of the portals had to be very precise. If too narrow, the instrument couldn¡¯t get in; if too wide, the water in the joint cavity would flow out from the gap around the instrument. Accumulated leakage could fill up the bag used for collecting the dripping water. Yang Ping cut the portals perfectly. Not a drop of water leaked out from the gap which indicated that the instrument just passed through and the surrounding gaps were perfectly sealed by the synovial membrane. Hence, the surgery was so clean that not a single drop of water spilled out onto the operating table, under the table, or into the collection bag. Some people left a mess of water all over the operating table after an arthroscopy surgery. These details were not mastered by everyone and were a higher pursuit beyond the surgery itself. Starting with the supra-patellar pouch, he inspected every region within the joint, strictly in order, one by one. Each movement of the arthroscope was spot-on within the gap, causing no abrasion to the cartilage, and reached the best position in the target area in one move, providing the best field of view. Yang Ping himself held the arthroscope in one hand, while holding the patient¡¯s calf with the other, constantly adjusting the positions with impeccable coordination. Different positions required different limb postures. For instance, the supra-patellar pouch required a straight position while the medial joint space required a flexed knee at 20-40 degrees, with abduction and external rotation. The lateral joint space needed to be in a figure-four position. Movements of the arthroscope and changes in limb postures were almost simultaneous. Absolutely not any limb change would cause compression, obstruction, or friction on the moving arthroscope. Everything was very smooth as if a fish darting around deftly through aquatic plants without touching a single one. ¡°Dr. Yao, Dr. He, start processing the tendon!¡± Su Nanchen commanded. Without his command, even more staff could not have been useful. Out of all, particularly the two nurses seemed not to have realized that the pace was getting faster and faster. ¡°You prepare the guide needle and drill for the next step: tibial tunnel! You guys should measure the size of the tendon soon!¡± Su Nanchen instructed the nurses and the doctor. If it weren¡¯t for Su Nanchen¡¯s reminder, they really couldn¡¯t have reacted in time. ¡°Tibial tunnel, drilling guide needle!¡± They were still alternating between the electric planer and plasma knife to clean the intercondylar fossa when Yang Ping notified them in advance to avoid wasting time. As soon as his words fell, the intercondylar fossa was cleaned up, but the drilling guide needle was not yet in hand because Yang Ping had not accommodated their pace with several people setting up the table. Yang Ping was looking at the screen, not the instrument table. His outstretched hand didn¡¯t find what he wanted, and then he gestured up and down a few times with his palm, signaling to hurry up and not to dawdle. The drilling guide needle arrived and Yang Ping immediately said: ¡°For anatomical reconstruction with eight-strand double-bundle, report the size of the two tendons to be implanted in the anterior cruciate, then drill the tibial tunnels.¡± Although Su Nanchen had commanded just now, the two nurses hadn¡¯t paid much attention and hadn¡¯t fully adapted to the pace yet. Now, with the pace racing, they tried to catch up but it was hard. This kind of coordination, if one step was not well bridged, it would affect the next one, unless the surgeon intentionally paused and waited. Goodness! He was just talking about needing things, and the moment his words fell, he really needed the things. He didn¡¯t even need a tibial locator, the guide needle directly pierced the portals of two tibial tunnels for the anterior cruciate, one for the anterolateral bundle and one for the anteromedial bundle. There were many methodologies for an anterior cruciate reconstruction, such as the single-bundle, double-bundle, isometric reconstruction, anatomical reconstruction, with the most advanced being the eight-strand double-bundle anatomical reconstruction. This is because studies showed that both functionally and anatomically, the anterior cruciate is divided into two bundles¨Cthe anterolateral and anteromedial. Only the double-bundle, reconstructed at the anatomical location, could recover to the maximum functionality. For a double-bundle anatomical reconstruction, to ensure the strength of the ligament, one bundle requires four strands of the tendon. The task of drilling two tibial tunnels and two femoral tunnels well was very challenging. Not only did they need to be drilled at the anatomical site, but they should also not interfere with each other. Dr. Yao and Dr. He had started to sweat. They had anticipated this, so it was slightly better for them. However, neither of them had ever worked on Yang Ping¡¯s team. Su Nanchen had repeatedly told them to keep pace and that Yang Ping performed surgeries very quickly. How fast was it exactly? They had no mental experience of it, but seeing such a terrifying speed now, they naturally felt pressured. After all, with so many people watching, it would be embarrassing for the two of them to be unable to keep up with the pace. Measure, quickly measure! Two bundles of tendons, two people were processing and suturing at the same time. They barely finished on time. This was because they had prepared in advance and started as soon as the operation began. The tendon processing for the next step wouldn¡¯t be so quick. Dr. Yao and Dr. He each reported the dimensions, they dared not rest, or say an extra word. Su Nanchen had already laid the required tendon in front of them, and they immediately went back to work. A row of drills of different sizes lay out on the instrument table, and the nurses began to look for the correctly sized drill, finally understanding the pain of falling behind in pace. Having warned them a few times before, Su Nanchen was slightly angry that they still did not take it seriously. He was patient and would not lose his temper at a nurse, but he already felt discontentment deep within. ¡°Prepare the femoral drill guide!¡± Su Nanchen ordered another nurse. More surgical instruments were prepared for today¡¯s surgery than usual, including several drills. They had even laid out two instrument tables. Finding it tough, the nurse finally set up the drill and handed it to Yang Ping. Yang Ping directly drilled two tunnels in the tibia and was now about to drill two in the femur. Thanks to Su Nanchen¡¯s prior instructions, the femoral guide pin was prepared in good time. Yang Ping positioned the drill against the femur entry point, drilled in and out repeatedly. This process was repeated twice and within seconds, two tunnel paths were made. No devices were needed for positioning. Not anymore. ¡°Measure depth!¡± After Yang Ping measured the depth of the femoral tunnel, based on the reported size of the tendon, he determined the width and length of the two femoral tunnels. ¡°Broad drill! Narrow drill! ¨C¡± They were out of sync again. Two nurses were preparing at the same time, one arranged a broad drill, and the other a narrow one. The femur and tibia were different; each tunnel was broad at the beginning to accommodate the tendon, and narrow towards the end for threading through the suspension plate and wires. ¡°Both sets of drills, please?¡± Yang Ping had extended his hand for too long without receiving anything. He lowered his hand to take a break. Having not observed this end of the proceedings, it turned out things were not ready yet. It would be bad to keep urging when things were not done. It would embarrass Su Nanchen. He reassured them, ¡°It¡¯s okay. Go slow. No rush.¡± For two tunnels, two sets of drills were required, both broad and narrow. That meant preparing four drills at once. Su Nanchen¡¯s concern was realized. It seemed that they were already controlling the speed of the surgery back at Li Quan Hospital, but now they were still unable to catch up with the pace. It was a bit humiliating. At this moment, the head nurse entered, like a gust of wind. ¡°Nanchen, can we switch out one of the instrument nurses? Can we get the one from Professor Ye¡¯s side and send one of ours there?¡± What did she mean? Su Nanchen was polite and had a good temper, but he was still human. The surgery was not going smoothly, and he was slightly unhappy. But now they wanted to replace his nurse. With a stern face, Su Nanchen said, ¡°We¡¯re already short-staffed here. You want to take one of our nurses? Look for yourself!¡± The head nurse could see what was happening. The chief surgeon was waiting, everyone on the operating table was busy, but they were not keeping up with the pace. What was going on? If it were anyone else, she would have asserted her authority as the head nurse. With the power to schedule surgeries in the operating room, even senior doctors would show her some deference. But towards Su Nanchen, could she afford to lose her temper? No, she wouldn¡¯t dare. After all, his parents were respectively the Hospital Dean and Head of the Nursing Department. On seeing her boss¡¯s three stripes insignia on the cap, no one would dare to offend him. The head nurse said in a low voice, ¡°Professor Ye is angry and says the nurses aren¡¯t cooperating well. He wants a replacement. Nanchen?¡± There were professors with good temper and those with bad temper. When encountering those with a bad temper, if the surgery went well, everything was fine; if the surgery went wrong, all the doctors and nurses were blamed for everything from poorly placed hooks, incorrectly positioned legs to ill-prepared instruments. ¡°We¡¯re at a critical stage here!¡± Su Nanchen retorted unhappily. ¡°There¡¯s no need to switch, let¡¯s just send one over directly. We only need one nurse, this is still early.¡± Yang Ping noticing the tension, intervened to mediate. He had felt awkward that two nurses were being used on this side. If it were not necessary, the head nurse wouldn¡¯t have asked this of Su Nanchen, her face flushing red, speaking in a low voice with a tone of seeking advice. These nurses were the most experienced in arthroscopic surgery, switching them with others would only generate more criticism on the operation table. In fact, the one who was assisting Professor Ye was already the best among them, better than these two. ¡°Alright, you arrange it.¡± Su Nanchen nodded. In a dilemma about whom to offend, hearing Su Nanchen¡¯s consent, the head nurse heaved a sigh of relief. Chapter 191 - 0182: The Surgery is a Bit Slow Chapter 191: Chapter 0182: The Surgery is a Bit Slow Lin Hao had been observing from the side. He thought that Yang Ping¡¯s surgical procedures were rough. He didn¡¯t use a needle for guidance when making the medial incision, and he didn¡¯t use a guide for the tibial or femoral tunnels. What nonsense! Lin Hao was growing increasingly frustrated, however, Su Nanchen treated Yang Ping with the respect of a teacher. Surely Yang Ping wasn¡¯t of such low caliber. Lin Hao had considered going to watch Professor Ye¡¯s operation out of curiosity several times, but out of patience, he decided to stay and watch without leaving. The more he watched, the more puzzled he became. Yang Ping made the tibial and femoral tunnels without a guide, and yet their positions were excellent, even more accurate than those made using a guide repeatedly positioned. The center of the ligament footprint seemed easy to find with him, just by using a guide needle, the position was just right, right in the center of the footprint. Lin Hao was no amateur but a professional amongst professionals. Having studied under Doctor Robert at a special orthopedic hospital in New York for three years, he could gauge someone¡¯s skill level by watching a few key steps. This femoral tunnel was fine, just insert it at the preset point and the outlet just needed to be in the general correct area. However, this tibial tunnel was drilled in from the outside and had to come out from a preset point in the tibial plateau inside the joint. He actually made it manually, the more Lin Hao watched, the more he sweated. Damn! How can an operation be conducted like this? Even though he was a doctorate holder, he couldn¡¯t help but swear to himself internally. What did it mean? For instance, imagine a one-meter-thick wall. You draw a point on the front side of the wall and expect a shooter to hit this point from a kilometer away. An expert could do it. It¡¯s at least achievable by a human. But if you draw a point behind this thick wall, and you want to shoot from the front so the bullet, on exiting the wall, would hit the point at the back, that would be beyond human capability unless you had incredibly good luck. Others might not have noticed this step, but Lin Hao and Su Nanchen, they would break into a cold sweat seeing this. This was not a human, but a monster specifically birthed for surgeries. No wonder Su Nanchen was so tense throughout this surgery, constantly reminding everyone to keep up with the speed, actively preparing with two instrument nurses and three doctors, amongst which two were in charge of the tendon operation. Lin Hao watched the whole process. He started with contempt, gradually became serious, and now stood motionlessly in front of the screen. He felt clogged in his throat, a general sense of discomfort, sometimes having goosebumps and sometimes feeling chilly at the back. Lucky for him that he didn¡¯t flaunt his views back then, or he would become a laughingstock. He wasn¡¯t as magnanimous as Su Nanchen. He felt fear towards this level of surgical skill and yet, at the same time, a strong sense of jealousy was brewing within him. Lin Hao glanced at Su Nanchen. Su Nanchen just smiled back as if laughing at Lin Hao: Seems like you¡¯ve finally realized your own ignorance and narrow-mindedness. Last time, in Li Quan Hospital, he didn¡¯t use a guide to operate the femoral tunnel, but he used a guide for the tibial tunnel. However, this time, he didn¡¯t use a guide for the tibial tunnel either. Shao Wei and Old Zhou aren¡¯t specialized surgeons, but they¡¯re smart enough to notice something amiss, especially Yang Ping¡¯s flamboyant maneuver with the Kirschner wire to make the tibial tunnel ¡ª striking out from preset points. They originally had plans to visit both rooms, but after witnessing such an operation, they were deeply drawn in, forgetting even about visiting Professor Ye¡¯s surgery. One instrument nurse was replaced, and another sent in by the head nurse. The young girl had red eyes, probably from being scolded. Both Professor Guan and Chen Ge, have bad tempers. Yang Ping is sympathetic to nurses because his wife, Xiao Su, is one herself. He can¡¯t stand seeing nurses be mistreated. He immediately said to the head nurse, ¡°Let her come here, we¡¯ll wait for her!¡± According to the current situation with the instrument nurse, if she wasn¡¯t given the chance to perform, it would worsen her feelings. However, if she was given the chance to showcase her abilities, she would feel much better. ¡°Why don¡¯t we continue operating as we wait?¡± Su Nanchen proposed. ¡°No problem, we still have time, it won¡¯t delay anything, let¡¯s wait for her!¡± Yang Ping insisted to Su Nanchen. The nurse didn¡¯t say anything and lowered her head to go scrub her hands. The head nurse said, ¡°Well, if this is the case, we¡¯ll stick with this plan, thank you, Nanchen?¡± Su Nanchen was angry just now, so his tone was not very friendly. Now that he had calmed down, he said, ¡°Not at all, you¡¯re the owner here. To kill or not, it¡¯s all at your discretion, isn¡¯t it?¡± The head nurse saw Su Nanchen start joking, she let her anger go, and left with a big smile. That nurse walked in after washing her hands, looking quite upset, sniffing from time to time. Poor girl, she was scolded but had nowhere to vent her grievances, all she could do was hide her red eyes. ¡°Xiao Fang, that¡¯s okay. They don¡¯t know how to treat a beauty well, so don¡¯t serve them!¡± joked Su Nanchen. ¡°Exactly, you should just serve Young Master Su, who is always gentle and respects women!¡± Doctor Yao joked. The nurse, cheered up by the jokes, smiling and joyfully put on the surgical gown and gloves. Seeing everyone waiting for her, she felt respected and appreciated. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I kept you all waiting!¡± The nurse puts on the gloves and starts to work. ¡°If you hadn¡¯t come, we wouldn¡¯t dare to start, huh?¡± Su Nanchen joked. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s get started!¡± Yang Ping stood up with a smile and continue with the surgery. Yang Ping deliberately slowed down his pace. After completing the reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament, he began the reconstruction of the posterior cruciate ligament. He occasionally told some jokes to Su Nanchen, creating a joyful atmosphere. Just then, Yang Ping¡¯s mobile phone rang. The patrolling nurse asked, ¡°It¡¯s Little Five, do we answer it?¡± They were quite busy with the surgery. Answer the phone? ¡°No!¡± The phone rang a few more times. Apparently, Song Zimo was operating, and Little Five was waiting, so he called to ask how long the surgery would take so that he could schedule the patient intake time. Finally, without thinking too much, Yang Ping said, ¡°Tell him, we¡¯re doing it now, and we¡¯ll call him back when we¡¯re finished.¡± The patrolling nurse picked up the phone and answered fiercely, ¡°We¡¯re in the middle of it now, he¡¯ll call you back when we¡¯re done!¡± Suddenly, Yang Ping realized something wasn¡¯t right. The conversation, separated from the context, could easily be misunderstood. ¡°Whose phone call was that just now?¡± Yang Ping asked. The patrolling nurse shook her head, ¡°I didn¡¯t look it closely!¡± ¡°Whose call was that again?¡± Yang Ping noticed that the ringtone was different earlier, but he had been focused on the surgery and didn¡¯t pay much attention. ¡°SUBABY!¡± The circulating nurse spelled out the letters one by one. It was Xiao Su¡¯s, troublesome, but she would understand. The phones of surgeons were mostly answered by women if their wives were calling, and nine times out of ten, these women were stern. They all shared a common name: circulating nurse. Yang Ping steadied his mind and continued the surgery. The posterior horn was the same, not requiring a guide. In about ten minutes, the posterior horn was rebuilt. The posterolateral and posterior medial structures followed. There were no special methods to balance the tension and balance of the ligaments. Instead, the structure was simply rebuilt, and the tension was instantly adjusted. There were no steps to balance each part. Lin Hao was a little confused about how Yang Ping made the adjustments. Before he knew it, the surgery was over, and even the small incisions were sutured. Yang Ping checked the knee¡¯s stability ¨C very good. Su Nanchen asked, ¡°Any special instructions?¡± ¡°None, normal postoperative care.¡± Yang Ping put down the knee. The clock on the wall indicated it was past nine. Yang Ping began undressing from his surgical gown while a circulating nurse immediately stepped up to help. He then picked up his phone from the table. Su Nanchen checked the stability of the knee again and found it flawless. Lin Hao was still confused about how the tension and balance were adjusted, but the surgical outcome was excellent. Whether it was the anterior or posterior direction, or internal or external rotation, everything was very stable¡ªthe full mark indeed. Yang Ping placed a call, covering his mouth to muffle his voice, ¡°I was in surgery, the circulating nurse answered¨C¡°. Then he placed another call, ¡°Song Zimo, I¡¯ve just completed the surgery here. It was slightly difficult and took a little longer than usual, but thankfully, it was completed on time. For the patient with multidirectional instability of the shoulder joint, please receive him promptly at ten.¡± This kind of surgery was considered difficult? Taking a little more than half an hour to complete and he said it was slow? The one who performed this operation managed to squeeze in another at home, truly making use of every minute. Lin Hao was speechless and suddenly felt a distant feeling from Yang Ping, like the gap between a human and an alien. A few doctors kept visiting, but were caught and severely scolded by the head nurse. Too many people were not allowed to observe the surgery. Besides, allowing people would increase the chances of infection. ¡°Is it finished already?¡± ¡°They haven¡¯t even finished the anterior horn over there!¡± ¡°So fast?¡± ¡°Yeah, how did he finish so quickly!¡± ¡°Brother Yang! Wait for me; I¡¯ll drive you home.¡± Su Nanchen briefed the post-surgery instructions while hurrying to remove his surgical gown. ¡°Nanchen, save the video of the surgery for teaching!¡± Professor Su walked in unnoticed. When did he come in? Everyone only noticed when he spoke. They had been completely immersed in the surgery and didn¡¯t pay attention to others entering or leaving the room. ¡°Xiao Yang, your positioning of the femoral and tibial tunnels, both in terms of method and technique, is unique; your adjustment of ligament tension and balance is also effortless.¡± Professor Su pondered a bit and said, ¡°How about this, Xiao Yang. Can you give a lecture to us about the reconstruction of multiple knee ligaments when you¡¯re free?¡± Yang Ping said, ¡°Professor Su, I¡¯m not able to give lectures, but we can hold discussions and learn from each other when we¡¯re free.¡± ¡°Doctor Yang, you don¡¯t have to be modest. We¡¯ll definitely need your help with this lecture.¡± Su Nanchen removed his surgical gown, ready to escort Yang Ping back. A doctor hurried in, his gaze scanning the room. Upon seeing Professor Su, he immediately approached and whispered a few words to him, ¡°Professor Ye asked for you?¡± The doctor¡¯s face didn¡¯t look good, and upon hearing the news, Professor Su¡¯s relaxed expression also turned serious. ¡°I¡¯ll go take a look. Nanchen, escort Xiao Yang back.¡± Professor Su instructed as he left. Yang Ping and Su Nanchen walked into the changing room, ready to change their clothes. Su Nanchen received another call from Professor Su: ¡°Is Xiao Yang gone?¡± ¡°Not yet, he¡¯s in the changing room!¡± ¡°Good, could you bring him to Operating Room 9?¡± ¡°Alright!¡± ¡°Sorry for the inconvenience. Professor Su asked me to bring you to Operating Room 9?¡± Su Nanchen sounded apologetic. It was almost half past nine, and Yang Ping still had another operation to perform. ¡°It¡¯s okay, we won¡¯t be late.¡± Yang Ping said. Chapter 192 - 0183: The Calm Professor Ye Chapter 192: Chapter 0183: The Calm Professor Ye During the 9th surgery, Professor Ye was performing the procedure with Director Guan and Chen Ge. The procedure was a four-part reconstruction. The shape of the inter-condylar fossa had changed, and when creating the femoral tunnel, the interior condyle of the femur had been split. Now, things were complicated. If Professor Ye was doing it, such an issue would not have occurred. The surgery had been underway for half an hour, though, and the reconstruction had failed. Chen Ge wanted to try. After all, Chen Ge, who was Director Guan¡¯s PhD student and therefore a sort of academic nephew to Professor Ye, had worked with him for a year at the Third Hospital. Everyone agreed that it wouldn¡¯t hurt to let him try. Because the two bundles were formed during the reconstruction of the posterior cruciate ligament, there were two tunnels on the interior condyle of the femur, thus making the area crowded. Chen Ge was inexperienced, and Professor Ye, was somewhat negligent. As soon as the tunnel was established, it collapsed. The interior condyle split into three pieces, and the drill got stuck within. Now, the drill needed to be retrieved from the bone. As Doctor Yang and Su Nanchen entered the room, Professor Ye had just completed the X-ray, determining the position and direction of the drill. Without saying a word, Professor Ye, Chen Ge and Director Guan all frowned. The operating room was crowded with observers. Pointing at the patient, Su Nanchen informed the anesthesiologist, ¡°General Anesthesia!¡± Making it much easier for him to express himself. Professor Ye studied the images on the C-arm X-ray screen, pondering how to retrieve the drill. He wanted to do it minimally invasively, that is, retrieve it without making an incision, under arthroscopy. It would be incredibly challenging. ¡°How on earth did he implement this drill?¡± Professor Ye cursed inwardly. He felt like hemorrhaging out of frustration. Had it been in the Third Hospital, he might have berated Chen Ge until he was blue in the face. Retrieving the drill was only the first step. After that, they needed to stabilize the fracture, and then reopen a tunnel. Usually, if only the posterior portion of the condyle split, it wouldn¡¯t affect the hanging stabilization. However, since this time the entire condyle had been shattered, it complicated the things a great deal. Looking at the screen, Su Nanchen had nothing to say. The patient neither had osteoporosis nor any tumors or pathological factors, yet the interior condyle was shattered into three pieces. Each step under these circumstances could be considered a challenging standalone procedure. Combined, they were extremely daunting. Had it not been for Professor Ye, who was amongst the best in the country, they might have abandoned the surgery by now. Instead, they¡¯d have made an incision to retrieve the drill, stabilize the fracture, and wait a few months¡ªat least three¡ªfor the fracture to heal, then proceed with the surgery again. Living up to his reputation, Professor Ye was calm and collected. He inserted a marrow clip into the joint cavity, retrieved a small piece from the bone, and handed it to the nurse in a swab soaked in saline. He instructed, ¡°Send it for pathology.¡± This kind of unexpected fracture shouldn¡¯t have happened. Once it did, as a conscientious professor, he had to consider pathological factors, particularly tumors. Although it didn¡¯t appear to be the case, many things can¡¯t just be determined by visual inspection. To be safe, Professor Ye took some bone tissue for a pathological test to rule out tumors. Retrieving the drill under arthroscopy is a complex procedure that normally a general practitioner could not perform. They¡¯d have to make an incision to remove the drill. However, it appeared that Professor Ye intended to use the arthroscope for extraction. Adjusting the lens for the best view, he saw the drill stuck in the bone tissue. Only a little of it was visible. It was like it was buried inside the inter-condylar fossa. It wasn¡¯t something you could extract whenever desired. You couldn¡¯t reach it with instruments, and it was tightly lodged in the bone. The drill was hollow, so Professor Ye used a guide needle under arthroscopic surveillance, passing it through the hole in the middle of the broken drill. The needle exited through the lower inner side of the thigh after piercing the skin. ¡°Use the thinnest drill!¡± Professor Ye inserted the thinnest drill via the guide needle protruding from the inner side of the thigh, making contact with the broken drill. He aligned its tip with the broken drill, detached the electric drill, and slid the guide needle to be flush with the end of the thin drill. ¡°The hammer!¡± After gently tapping with the hammer, the broken drill was gradually extracted. It was indeed a master¡¯s work. In any other hospital, such a drill would either be left as is, or an incision would be made to retrieve it¡ªa process that would be quite protracted. This method was ingenious but required abundant experience and a certain level of sensitivity. Otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t just fail; it would also result in new fractures. In just a few minutes, Professor Ye effortlessly retrieved the drill and handed it to the nurse, ¡°Match it against the other half to see if it aligns. Prepare for a C-arm fluoroscopy.¡± If the two halves aligned, it meant that there was no residue left. If not, there could be something left inside. As expected, he was thorough in his operations. After retrieval, he had matched the ends and conducted a fluoroscopy to ensure that there was no room for error. With the drill extracted, it seemed like Doctor Yang had nothing to do now. Su Nanchen assumed that Professor Su had called upon Doctor Yang for a consultation. Looking now, though, it seemed that there was nothing to be done and he was free to go. ¡°Professor Su, if there is nothing else, I can escort Doctor Yang back,¡± Su Nanchen carefully queried. Professor Su said, ¡°Hold on.¡± He then turned to Doctor Yang and said, ¡°Xiao Yang, could you wait a bit longer? Is the surgery at your place urgent? What kind of a procedure is it? Can Nanchen help instead?¡± Seeing as Professor Su was adamant about keeping him here, it seemed likely he was needed for something else. Doctor Yang found himself unable to leave, ¡°It¡¯s alright, the team can handle the surgery. I just need to oversee it. Being a bit late won¡¯t matter.¡± ¡°Professor Su?¡± Su Nanchen implied that if there was nothing to do, Doctor Yang should be allowed to leave. Professor Su waved him off, not offering further explanation or acknowledging Su Nanchen. ¡°Pay attention! Watch how Professor Ye improvises and handles such situations!¡± Chapter 193 - 0183 Calm Professor Ye_2 Chapter 193: Chapter 0183 Calm Professor Ye_2 Could Yang Ping¡¯s presence be to learn from Professor Ye on how to handle unusual intracondylar or extracondylar bone fractures that occur during four-link reconstructions? ¡°Xiao Yang, I need your help to arrange some things at home,¡± Professor Su instructed. Yang Ping complied. If Professor Su was giving orders, what else could be said? They would have to be carried out. ¡°What do we do? Continue with the operation? Or wait and reassess in three months?¡± Director Guan took the opportunity to ask. Generally, in such situations, the course of action would be to proceed with a fracture operation. Fix the fracture and in three months, when the bone has healed, proceed with ligament reconstruction. Continuing with the operation now doesn¡¯t merely increase its complexity. There¡¯s hardly any bone left to drill a tunnel into, and even if there was space, much of it would be dead ends where a good tunnel cannot be drilled. Surgery like this would fail to achieve the desired effect. Such an operation doesn¡¯t merely consist of ligament reconstruction. The results need to be ensured too. It¡¯s like filling out an exam paper. It¡¯s easy if you¡¯re not striving for marks, and simply filling out the paper. But if you¡¯re seeking high scores, just completing the paper won¡¯t suffice. ¡°Proceed! The patient is under general anesthesia, right?¡± Professor Ye sought confirmation once again. ¡°They¡¯re under general anesthesia!¡± the anesthesiologist responded. Professor Ye rested briefly as the doctors below the platform moved the C-arm machine for imaging. Everyone made way, leaving room. ¡°Like I always say, every surgical step is crucial. We, as surgeons, tread on thin ice. Look, even a moment of negligence can result in a complication. If the operation had to be stopped at this point, how would we face a patient who is left with a bone fracture? How would we explain our actions? Not only the recovery time is delayed, impacting the patient¡¯s schedule, but a new problem is also introduced.¡± Professor Ye¡¯s tone was reasonable, it was a reprimand rather than a scolding. ¡°C-arm machine, push it properly, lift it higher, come in from this side!¡± Chen Ge, in a bad mood and stifling his anger, vented it on the young doctor pushing the C-arm machine. Although Professor Ye had a temper, he was not prone to lashing out. Distinctly stern, he would scold people if they didn¡¯t meet his standards. ¡°Chen Ge, what are you doing?¡± Director Guan attempted to stop Chen Ge as he saw that Professor Ye¡¯s expression wasn¡¯t promising. Sure enough, Professor Ye lost his temper. He glared at Chen Ge. As it was Chen Ge who had caused the problem, everyone else was left to clean up his mess while he was berating the junior doctors. If it wasn¡¯t for Professor Su¡¯s presence, Professor Ye would have scolded the younger doctors outright. But since Professor Su, Chen Ge¡¯s senior and a guest, was present, it would be inappropriate to reprimand his junior doctors in front of him. Everyone left the operating room after imaging was completed and re-entered to inspect that the drill bit had been entirely removed without residuals. ¡°Prepare a cannulated screw. We usually use it for femoral intracondylar or extracondylar fractures. Let¡¯s use it to fix the fracture for now.¡± As the C-arm machine was rolled out, Professor Ye returned to his chief surgeon¡¯s position and everyone else assumed their proper roles. In the case of an intra-articular fracture, some pieces even retain cartilage. It requires much skill to set these pieces: the fracture needs setting, the screw¡¯s location cannot interfere with the next ligament reconstruction tunnel, and neither the head nor the tip of the screw can protrude. This step of fixing the fracture using arthroscopy is no easy task. Professor Ye used a grasper to grab a bone fragment; the grasper is small and unless one is highly skilled, it¡¯s impossible to grab such a large fragment. He caught it firmly in one go, put it back to its original position, loosened the grasper before the fragment could fall, and at once used the closed grasper¡¯s end to secure the fracture. The procedure resembled acrobatics. ¡°K-wire!¡± To fix this fragment, it couldn¡¯t be drilled from the inside. Because the intercondylar notch is a curved notch, a kind of hole, some positions are dead ends. So this fragment, located at a dead end, could only be drilled from the outside. Drilling from the outside encountered the same issue that Yang Ping faced while drilling a tibial tunnel: a thick wall had to be penetrated to hit a target on the other side. The only difference was that Yang Ping¡¯s target was a point, while Professor Ye¡¯s was a circle. Whether a point or a circle, both were extremely challenging! From the outside, he punctured the skin and muscles with the K-wire and positioned it against the bone cortex. After contemplating for a moment, he then repeatedly adjusted the K-wire¡¯s access point and angles, intermittently observing his hand¡¯s drill and K-wire from outside, and then the screen displaying the fragment being held by the grasper. After many adjustments, the drilling started. The K-wire passed through and struck the bone fragment from a perfect spot. How impressive! Everyone couldn¡¯t help being stunned, almost applauded. As this fragment was relatively small, one screw was enough to secure it. The screw could only be driven from the outside in. After measuring, a partially threaded cannulated screw was selected and driven in; the fracture was fixed just right, secured with compression. The screw tip entered the subchondral bone and didn¡¯t protrude. His first-rate skills in the nation were unquestionable. Most experts would consider this situation a major disaster, promptly surrendering and being forced to abandon the operation. But he effortlessly continued, and from the look of his skills, he had reached a pinnacle. This task of hitting a circle behind a wall, such a level of technic to drive a K-wire, is rarely accomplished by even a few in the nation, fewer could achieve it in one trial. His skills as a senior brother were indeed remarkable. Director Guan observed his procedure with great admiration. Chen Ge was left with his head hanging low, receiving occasional glares from Professor Ye and Director Guan, didn¡¯t dare to lose his temper. There were three fragments in all. A similarly sized second piece was fixed with the same technique, using a single cannulated screw by Professor Ye. The third and biggest piece was secured with two screws, all driven from the outside in, the K-wire accurately penetrated in one attempt, correctly located each time. Chapter 194 - 0183 Calm Professor Ye_3 Chapter 194: Chapter 0183 Calm Professor Ye_3 ¡°Alright! Reopen the femoral tunnel!¡± Professor Ye puts down the screwdriver, flexing his wrist. ¡°Still double-strand?¡± Director Guan asked. Continuing with the double-strand would be very difficult, three problems lay in front of them. One issue was that the four screws occupied the space within the distal femoral condyle tissue, they would likely obstruct the opening of the tunnel. Another issue was that all three bone fragments had been repositioned, but there were several fracture lines, opening the tunnel to these lines wasn¡¯t ideal. A third issue was that the hanging metal plate required a particular cortical thickness to support it, and suitable areas for this were now scarce. ¡°Of course¨C¡± Professor Ye confirmed without hesitation. If they changed to single-strand reconstruction, the surgery results would be compromised. This was a professional athlete. They were seeking high-quality surgery from him, he could not give in on the quality of the operation. His professional ethos would not allow it, and for the sake of his reputation, he could not either. Exposure! Another exposure with a C-arm X-Ray machine, to view the positioning of the screws, preparing to avoid them when opening the tunnel. ¡°Guide pin! Open the femoral tunnel!¡± Professor Ye extended the guide pin from the lateral opening, estimating the positioning. He tried several times, shaking his head, it wouldn¡¯t do. The point was not within the safe zone. The commencement point had to be within the safe zone. Otherwise, there wouldn¡¯t be enough cortical thickness to suspend the ligament, which will easily tear the cortex. He tried other angles, from straight to extremely flexed, all to no avail. Not from the lateral opening, he punctured the skin from other positions and tried to insert the pin. Professor Ye tried almost all the plausible spots, but it still didn¡¯t work. The optimal position for this tunnel presently only has one direction, no room for adjustment. This direction explicitly is a blind spot, excessively complex. It seemed they could only penetrate from the outside to the inside using the wall sniping technique. Last time the sniping target was a circle. Now the goal was a point, the difficulty level escalated. What a day it was today, witnessing one of the top professionals in the country performing surgery like a magic trick, wall sniping, moreover, sniping at a point. This was a divine operation. All observers of the surgery were experts, nobody dared breathe as they awaited Professor Ye¡¯s stellar performance, making the operating room profoundly quiet, even the patrolling nurses were treading lightly. Professor Ye inserted a ruler in, and measured the distal femoral condyle several times under a magnifying glass, planning out several lines, and using the intersecting lines to find the anatomical center of the ligament footprints. He then uses an electric plasma knife to burn a dot at that point. Song Zimo didn¡¯t hurry anything. Yang Ping didn¡¯t make a return call either. They watched as Professor Ye proceeded with his entire operation. It was a top-tier performance in the country. Professor Ye steadily held an electric drill, without the slightest shaking. This was a drilling technique trained strictly. The guide pin leaning against the cortex of the femoral condyle, appropriately placed, with absolutely no shaking or movement in his hands, extremely stable. After adjusting the guide pin¡¯s position and direction many times and repeatedly observing, Professor Ye finally pulled the trigger. ¡°Swish!¡± The guide pin was driven in. The position where it came out was around 5 mm away from the point, meaning it deviated by about 5mm. If it were someone else, they would probably think they were already successful and could proceed with opening the tunnel. But he was of national first-class level. How could he accept a score of 80 points? He was aiming for a full 100 points. The guide pin was pulled out and tried again. This time it was closer, the error reduced to about 3mm. Once more! Further away this time, approximately a 7mm deviation. Chapter 195 - 0184: Take a Look at It Chapter 195: Chapter 0184: Take a Look at It Professor Ye was still drilling, hoping to hit the center. Yang Ping was stopped by Professor Su and couldn¡¯t get away, so he had to hide and make a call back to inform Song Zimo to postpone the surgery as appropriate. Professor Ye had drilled many times, but he had not pierced through the center, with an error fluctuating around 5 mm. Actually, this was already very good, but Professor Ye didn¡¯t want to give up, he wanted to pursue perfection. ¡°Do we have a reverse drilling locator?¡± Professor Ye asked. Director Guan immediately asked the surgical instrument supplier: ¡°Do we have a reverse drilling locator, the reverse drilling set from Arthrex?¡± The supplier was Shi Lehui¡¯s, and what Professor Ye wanted was from Arthrex. The professor¡¯s request had to be met unconditionally, if available, deliver quickly; if not, borrow quickly. The medical instrument supplier immediately said: ¡°Shall I get the company to deliver it right away?¡± Delivery, arrival, and then sterilization and disinfection, this whole process could take several hours. ¡°Deliver it!¡± Professor Ye planned to cancel his afternoon schedule and wait on the operating table for a few hours. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but admire him, a top professor in the country, was considering the patient¡¯s surgical outcomes at this point, rather than his reputation. If the chief surgeon wasn¡¯t so serious, it wouldn¡¯t matter if it was a bit off, people wouldn¡¯t have anything to say. Now, after failing to hit the center several times, adjusting the locator at the last minute, and waiting several hours on the operating table, it seemed humiliating to perform surgeries at an external hospital. If the surgeon compromised and finished the operation quickly, everyone would surely cheer, see how quickly they solved such a big problem. However, professor Ye did not think so, thus, becoming a master was not accidental. ¡°Professor Su, shall we wait?¡± Professor Ye suggested. Professor Su agreed: ¡°Sorry for the trouble¡± Professor Ye laughed: ¡°It¡¯s no trouble. Doing the surgery well is the first principle. I¡¯m embarrassed for today.¡± In reality it wasn¡¯t his fault, he didn¡¯t need to say this. Missing the target a few times was no laughing matter, with an error rate fluctuating within 5 millimeters, only two or three individuals in the country could achieve that. Professor Su consoled him: ¡°Old Ye, don¡¯t say that, I admire your unwillingness to compromise.¡± ¡°I feel ashamed.¡± Professor Ye put his hands into the protective pouch on his chest and sat down to rest for a while. ¡°Add antibiotics once.¡± Director Guan instructed the doctors. If surgery is estimated to exceed three hours, preventive antibiotics can be added once in the middle, which is not against the rules. Now, the use of antibiotics is very strict, especially the preventive use of class one incisions. The hospital intensively supervises them. One carelessness can lead to a fine. Rest a few minutes. Professor Ye got up: ¡°Let¡¯s rebuild the posterior lateral structure and posterior medial structure first, and leave the posterior fork for the end, complete and wait.¡± This was a good suggestion. The femoral tunnel direction of this posterior horn was very tricky. The locator might not be very useful either, but it¡¯s better than nothing. Professor Ye was weighing in his mind. Why not let professor Su try on the operating table? Although Professor Su mainly focuses on the spine now, his arthroscopic skills were also exceptionally good in the past; his spatial localization ability was strong. Professor Ye had seen his surgery, these sophisticated techniques were his basic skills. ¡°Old Su? Would you like to try on the operating table?¡± Professor Ye invited him. ¡°Isn¡¯t the tibial tunnel the same when Dr. Yang just did the four-ligament reconstruction? The surgeon drilled from the outside to the inside freely by hand, and succeeded in one attempt.¡± Someone who was watching and didn¡¯t know the situation murmured quietly. This person had just watched Yang Ping¡¯s four-ligament reconstruction, now he switched battlefields and came to observe here. His mouth was itchy and he couldn¡¯t help but speak. The operating room was very quiet. Everyone was silent. Suddenly, when someone talked, the sound was particularly clear. Everyone looked at him. When he realized he had misspoken, he immediately hid. Professor Ye raised his head and looked around. Who¡¯s Dr. Yang? Was he also doing four-ligament reconstruction? Can he do the across-the-wall sniping? And he was successful at the first attempt? He was keen to see it. He really wanted to see it. The higher the person stands, the more he wants to meet someone who can compete with him. At this time, professor Su took the opportunity to say, ¡°Old Ye, I haven¡¯t done arthroscopy for a long time, I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t do it. I can recommend someone for you, Yang Ping, come here.¡± ¡°Hello, Professor Ye!¡± Yang Ping was suddenly called out by Professor Su and was not prepared. ¡°This is Dr. Yang Ping, he¡¯s young, but his spatial location-awareness is excellent, much better than mine. He is an expert in free-hand reverse drilling. Shall we let him try? If it works, it will save time; if not, we will wait, it won¡¯t delay anything. Young people have better vision and hand feeling than us, don¡¯t they?¡± The person recommended by Professor Su, who claimed that he was even better than himself to help him step down, had no reason not to try. Was this the Dr. Yang mentioned by that doctor just now? Professor Ye was curious, and after giving him an initial scan said: ¡°Come on, scrub and give it a try, don¡¯t stand there.¡± Yang Ping got a pat on the back from Su Nanchen: ¡°Go scrub your hands.¡± This was a rare opportunity. If Yang Ping could show his skills and gain the approval of several professors, he would become famous at Fuyi Hospital. In the future, when asking him to perform surgery, he wouldn¡¯t have to rely on his father¡¯s signature to stand on the platform. ¡°Hmm!¡± Yang Ping was a little shy. If you don¡¯t get on stage when being pushed, Su Nanchen dragged Yang Ping to go scrub his hands. Before long, Yang Ping came in after scrubbing his hands, dressed and gloved. ¡°Old Su, is this your PhD student?¡± Professor Ye asked. Professor Su shook his head and said: ¡°Sanbo Hospital¡¯s, Han Jiangong¡¯s PhD student.¡± ¡°Oh, Han Jiangong¡¯s student! If only Han Jiangong had not left Mo Sixth, he probably would be an academician now, there are some things...¡± Professor Ye unexpectedly started to chat about these old stories, but he immediately realized that it was impolite to speak about someone in front of their students. Therefore, he stopped talking and didn¡¯t continue. ¡°Old Han has a keen eye for talent,¡± said Professor Su. ¡°He hasn¡¯t enrolled any Ph.D. students in a few years, right?¡± Professor Ye was informed too. Yang Ping had already put on his surgical gown, and Professor Ye made room for him: ¡°Xiao Yang, come over here.¡± Chen Ge reluctantly handed the mirror to Yang Ping, then diligently assisted with holding the leg. Professor Ye sat on the side and watched while Chief Guan stood. ¡°See the dot I burned? That¡¯s the anatomical center of the ligament footprint. All you need to do is hit the center.¡± Yang Ping adjusted the lens for the best view, started building the image of the knee joint in his brain, and then drew a straight line from the dot. He oscillated the line until he found the best starting point on the inner side of the femur, fixed the line in his mind. Indeed, the direction was tricky, which was why it couldn¡¯t be done from the inside out. ¡°Electric drill, guide needle!¡± Yang Ping took them, pressed directly against the inner cortex at the distal end of the femur, guided by the line in his brain, without needing to make any adjustments. With its high-speed rotation, the guide needle instantly broke through the cortex, then through the cancellous bone, and finally exited from the dot on the lateral side of the inner condyle of the femur. It passed right through the center of the dot, a perfect score! Damn it! Onlookers regretted not having opened their eyes wide enough. How did he do it? Could it be pure luck? Professor Ye got up, looked at the screen, and then at Yang Ping. It was impressive enough to pass through the dot, let alone the dead center. He was incredulous; he had spent years practicing this technique and then another two decades accumulating experience in actual surgeries before mastering this tricky operation. Here, this young man in his twenties had mastered this difficult procedure and even scored a direct hit. ¡°Young people are to be feared!¡± Professor Ye genuinely praised. Professor Su laughed, ¡°We are getting old; the young ones have better brains and hand skills.¡± ¡°Yes, Xiao Yang. Complete the surgery.¡± Professor Ye said, eager to evaluate his overall skills. The anterior tunnel was built, and the posterior tunnel was opened. More than a quarter of the surgery was completed. Professor Su encouraged, ¡°Xiao Yang, give Professor Ye a break and finish the rest.¡± Only then did Yang Ping dare to continue his operation. Professor Ye shot a glance at Chen Ge, and ordered, ¡°Hold the leg steady.¡± Chen Ge wouldn¡¯t dare to be moody again. Lowering his head, he looked like a beaten eggplant. Even though Shi Lehui¡¯s equipment wasn¡¯t what he commonly used, tools were tools, they were mostly identical. The ways to drive an Audi and a BYD are essentially the same. Professor Ye sat aside with a grin, pleased with this young man, for he performed the surgery even more proficiently than him. The optimum positions for each reconstructed ligament¡¯s start and end points were familiar to him, requiring no measurements at all, and he opened the incisions directly. ¡°Nanchen, would you step out for a moment?¡± His mother, the head of nursing, who had come in without anyone noticing, gently tapped Su Nanchen¡¯s shoulder and called him outside. ¡°Is this young man the professor you invited?¡± asked Mrs. Su. Su Nanchen nodded, ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Such a young professor?¡± ¡°In his twenties.¡± Being able to perform surgery invited by Su Nanchen and only in his twenties, he is impressive. Mrs. Su, during her rounds earlier, heard some nurses discussing a handsome, skilled, and articulate young professor Su Nanchen invited, and how he had resolved the problem that Professor Ye encountered during the surgery and left him in a dilemma. They couldn¡¯t see his face because of the mask, so she didn¡¯t understand how the nurses had deemed him handsome. The nurses also mentioned how he solved the problem, caused by Chen Ge, during Professor Ye¡¯s surgery with his quick and efficient work. It just so happened that Mrs. Su ran into Shao Wei, who was stepping out to make a phone call. She grabbed him for a thorough questioning. Shao Wei reported truthfully. Yang Ping was Su Nanchen¡¯s friend, a rare talent. Last time Su Nanchen invited him for a consultation, and this time to perform a surgery. They both performed the same reconstruction, but Yang Ping finished before Professor Ye even got started. Shao Wei exaggerated a bit, mostly because he was afraid Mrs. Su would think Su Nanchen was being capricious and troubling Professor Su by inviting an unknown outsider to perform surgery. Mrs. Su was very curious, so she came to take a look at this amazing person the father and son invited. As soon as she walked in, she saw the young man performing surgery. Professor Ye sat aside, Chen Ge held the leg, and everyone else watched. The young man¡¯s eyes were focused, his movements efficient, standing at the operating table, his pose, his presence, were simply commendable. Back then, Mrs. Su chose Professor Su with only a glance, relying on women¡¯s sharp six sense, from the look in his eyes and his presence. At that time, Professor Su was still an unknown, but she had already decided that he would become an extraordinary person someday. This young man¡¯s self-confidence and presence even surpassed that of Nanchen. It¡¯s no wonder why father and son invited him to perform surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital. A truly extraordinary person indeed. Old Su and Professor Ye engaged in a back-and-forth, continuously praising Yang Ping. Old Su rarely ever complimented people this much. Mrs. Su called Su Nanchen out to investigate. ¡°Which hospital is he from?¡± ¡°From Sanbo.¡± ¡°Sanbo?¡± Mother Su thought for a moment. ¡°Nanchen, investigate him!¡± said Mother Su. ¡°Investigate what?¡± Su Nanchen was puzzled. ¡°Do you need me to tell you what to investigate?¡± Mrs. Su checked there was no one around. Then whispered, ¡°Your sister, aren¡¯t you worried about her? Don¡¯t let her choose blindly. All of your friends are good, help her if any is suitable. This young man, I think he is not bad.¡± Mrs. Su walked away after speaking. What does she mean? Su Nanchen stood there organzing his thoughts before returning to the operating room. Soon, the surgery was completed. Professor Ye personally confirmed its stability. After several stability tests, Professor Ye¡¯s brows raised, it was perfect! Chapter 196 - 0185 Good Seedling Chapter 196: Chapter 0185 Good Seedling In his twenties and doing such exceptional surgeries, his future is limitless. ¡°I am now a bit jealous of Old Han.¡± ¡°Haha, Old Ye, you¡¯re always so straightforward! When you have time, I¡¯ll bring Old Han over, and we can hang out together.¡± Professor Ye took off his surgical gown and gloves, and walked out of the operating room with Professor Su, chatting as they walked, with Yang Ping and Su Nanchen following behind. ¡°Back in the day, we all shared a dorm room.¡± ¡°Sanbo¡¯s Orthopedics Department is doing great work nowadays, especially trauma orthopedics.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°Since you¡¯re now specializing in sports medicine, you might not be up to speed with this. They now have two wards in trauma orthopedics, with over a hundred beds, and a trauma emergency center. They perform several major complex surgeries every day. They¡¯re about to host an international academic conference, the Asian Orthopedics Forum. They¡¯re even planning to live-stream a major trauma surgery, simultaneously with Tokyo University¡¯s affiliated hospital.¡± ¡°That impressive? I don¡¯t have time today, I have to fly to the west for a surgery scheduled in the evening.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve become so busy.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t help it, it was a student¡¯s request.¡± ¡°Next time you visit, let¡¯s get together with Old Han?¡± ¡°Definitely!¡± ¡°Xiao Yang, come on, let¡¯s add each other on WeChat.¡± When they got to the changing room and sat down to rest, Professor Ye took the initiative to ask for Yang Ping¡¯s contact information. Professor Su said: ¡°Xiao Yang, don¡¯t hesitate, you should reach out to Professor Ye more often.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll scan your QR code, Professor Ye. Looking forward to your guidance,¡± Yang Ping said, leaning forward slightly. ¡°Xiao Yang, if you¡¯re interested, how about visiting our Third Hospital?¡± Professor Ye invited. ¡°Thank you, Professor Ye. I will definitely visit when I have time. The books you have written about arthroscopy, I¡¯ve practically worn them out from reading them over and over. I learn something new each time.¡± ¡°Really? A young person who is so keen to learn is a rarity. Old Han has no idea how envious I am, it¡¯s not just a little bit.¡± ¡°Old Ye, shall I send my driver to take you to the airport?¡± ¡°No need to, Guan Sheng and Chen Ge will take me.¡± ¡°Xiao Yang, since you¡¯re busy, you can leave first. Professor Ye needs to catch his flight as well. Nanchen, can you drive Doctor Yang home?¡± ¡°Professors Su and Ye, I¡¯ll take my leave now since you¡¯re busy.¡± Yang Ping shook hands with each of them and bowed, appearing very humble. ¡°This kid! He hasn¡¯t gotten arrogant, quite rare!¡± ¡°Yes, he is indeed a promising young man.¡± Not just Professor Ye, but even as Professor Su watched Yang Ping leave, he thought highly of him: he¡¯s a good seed, such a pity he¡¯s not his student. Through the few interactions with Yang Ping, his imagination, logical thinking, and practical skills were almost flawless, such a rare talent. As he thought about it, he remembered something and called out to the two men who were walking towards the dressing room door: ¡°Nanchen, Xiao Yang, wait a moment!¡± Su Nanchen and Yang Ping stopped, and Professor Su kindly said, ¡°Xiao Yang, come over to our First Affiliated Hospital once in a while. Attend some academic conferences, small lectures, case discussions. You and Nanchen are friends, so no need to feel constrained.¡± ¡°Oh, thank you, Professor Su!¡± Yang Ping felt a bit overwhelmed. Professor Su was like a celebrity to him, and he never imagined that he would be treated so kindly. Finding Yang Ping¡¯s bashful demeanor amusing, Professor Su thought to himself: ¡°What a naive kid.¡± ¡°Off you go, Nanchen, drive slowly!¡± Professor Su advised. Just after saying that, Professor Su recalled something and called to Su Nanchen, ¡°Don¡¯t you have an inter-hospital consultation in a few days? Why not take Xiao Yang with you?¡± Su Nanchen nodded; yes, the city¡¯s People¡¯s Hospital had asked him for a consultation. The patient, a real estate businessman who played golf, had an unexplained weakness in his right shoulder that often dislocated. He wondered why this patient had gone to the city¡¯s People¡¯s Hospital when these types of patients always opted for the First Affiliated Hospital. Its sports medicine department was not the strongest in the country, but it was considered second-tier, undoubtedly the best in Nandu Province. ¡°Doctor Yang, I have a consultation at an outside hospital for a complex case of multidirectional shoulder instability. if you¡¯re free, would you like to join me?¡± Su Nanchen asked on the road, speaking to Yang Ping. Yang Ping was also interested. Su Nanchen was well-connected, and accompanying him might allow him to expand his own network. Agreeing readily, he said, ¡°That¡¯s brilliant. But is it appropriate? They have invited you for the consultation, and you¡¯re bringing me along?¡± ¡°No problem, I will notify them in advance,¡± assured Su Nanchen promptly. This was in line with standard protocol. When a hospital invited an expert within the discipline for a consultation, if the expert found the case particularly challenging, they would use their network to solicit help from a more skilled expert, and then recommend this expert for the case. For example, if a nationally renowned cardiac surgery expert was asked for a consultation about a case of congenital heart disease in a child¡ªa very rare and complicated case¡ªafter their consultation, they might contact a cardiac surgery professor from the American Cleveland Medical Center for a discussion. Eventually, they would invite the professor from America to the hospital to perform the surgery together, successfully resolving the problem. The top experts were always meticulous and would not rush things. They treated each case, especially rare ones, as subjects for research. ¡°Where is the consultation? Within the city?¡± Yang Ping wondered. Su Nanchen replied, ¡°Oh, yes, within the city, at the People¡¯s Hospital.¡± The People¡¯s Hospital? Wasn¡¯t that where he had worked just after graduating¡ªand then been let go? The thought stirred a pang in his heart. It was a place where he had left many youthful memories from his early years in medicine. He still remembered his last day there, how he had bandaged a few patients who had then asked, ¡°Doctor Yang, it doesn¡¯t hurt when you change our bandages¡ªcould you do it again next time?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Yang Ping had smiled, but his smile was bitter. That day, standing in the corridor with his bag, he had felt a twang of reluctance to leave. Going back for a consultation wouldn¡¯t be so bad¡ªhe still had many memories there. Back at the hospital, Song Zimo¡¯s surgery was already halfway done. He was performing well, each step carefully and meticulously executed. Yang Ping quietly entered the operating room and quietly took a seat in the corner, trying not to disturb them. They were so focused on the surgery they didn¡¯t even notice Yang Ping¡¯s return. Xiao Su was aware that Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to disturb them, so he just smiled and greeted him. ¡°Did you say our senior brother is now performing surgeries at the First Affiliated Hospital? Is his magical operation scaring the hell out of those guys?¡± ¡°If nothing else, just his skill of perfectly drilling the tibial tunnel without a guide. I bet those professors are racking their brains trying to understand how he does it.¡± ¡°How is he so skilled? Even the First Affiliated Hospital invites him to perform surgeries. They usually invite big shots from the industry or international masters, right?¡± ¡°The First Affiliated Hospital has a young professor, Su Nanchen, who¡¯s good friends with him. Without Su Nanchen¡¯s persistent invitations, he might not have gone to the First Affiliated Hospital.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going a bit slower, waiting for our senior brother to come back and guide me. With this surgery, I can reach a score of 70 to 80, but getting above 90 is challenging. Temporarily, I am not able to score 100. I need our senior brother¡¯s guidance. I¡¯m not very proficient in balancing these several ligaments. It¡¯s strange how our senior brother can get it right in one shot.¡± ¡°Huh! How did you manage to come back?¡± Song Zimo suddenly noticed Yang Ping sitting quietly in the corner. ¡°Is the surgery done? Quadruple reconstruction?¡± Song Zimo asked. For him, penta-reconstruction was no big deal, let alone quadruple reconstruction. Song Zimo, this fellow, was quite talented. For a multi-ligament reconstruction of the shoulder joint, he was doing a decent job. The quality of this surgery, while not top tier, was definitely an 80 percent, which was enough to get him to the national second-tier expert level. With a little more training, he might even reach the first class. Indeed, you¡¯re doing quite well, Junior Brother Song. ¡°I was just about to ask you, these several ligaments, how do you adjust their balance, especially dynamic balance? The shoulder joint is a flexing joint, and its dynamic balance requirements are very high, even for ordinary people.¡± Song Zimo asked while continuing with the operation. ¡°Have you ever seen a juggler juggling?¡± ¡°You mean throwing up three, four, or even more balls simultaneously, while always keeping one ball in hand, and the other balls remain in the air?¡± ¡°Yes, once you have mastered this practice and understood its essence, come and ask me this question again. I will tell you the secret and help you take your performance to the next level.¡± ¡°Making it sound so mysterious. Fine, whatever you say.¡± But what does juggling have to do with surgery? Song Zimo was perplexed. Chapter 197 - 0186: A Veteran of the Jianghu Chapter 197: Chapter 0186: A Veteran of the Jianghu Song Zimo just finished the surgery, and Yang Ping took over. After checking the patient¡¯s shoulder joint stability, it was good, scoring over eighty, for an ordinary person, not a professional athlete, this surgical result was good enough. ¡°Approved, let¡¯s call it a day!¡± Yang Ping took off his surgery robe. Song Zimo waited for Yang Ping for so long, just for this one minute, to have him manipulate the shoulder joint to check its stability. Now that it had been approved, also the surgery was over, Song Zimo could rest easy. As the assisting nurse, Xiao Su had nothing much to do once the surgery was over. She beckoned to Yang Ping to follow her out. ¡°How was it, today at Affiliate One Hospital?¡± ¡°How could it be, just a surgery.¡± ¡°Pretty impressive, huh? So young and already performing surgeries at Affiliate One?¡± ¡°Impressive why, I needed something, and it took them forever to react.¡± ¡°What about, next time you take me with you?¡± Xiao Su batted her eyelashes. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t resist the charms of a beautiful woman: ¡°Sure! I¡¯ll take you with me, we¡¯ll make a formidable duo, then we¡¯ll really be impressive!¡± ¡°I¡¯m serious. I want to experience what it¡¯s like to ¡®fly a knife¡¯ at Affiliate One or such big hospitals.¡± ¡°Seriously! If there¡¯s another big surgery and they ask for me again, I¡¯ll take you with me. They can¡¯t keep up with the rhythm, and I don¡¯t want to rush them.¡± Xiao Su wanted to make a pinkie promise with Yang Ping, but just as they were about to do so, Huang Jiahui came by, she was delivering equipment again, quickly, both let go of their hands. ¡°I¡¯m going to count the equipment with Jiahui.¡± Xiao Su lowered her head and walked away. Yang Ping coughed once: ¡°Go ahead, I¡¯m going back to the ward.¡± When he returned to the ward, Director Han was unlocking the door to the director¡¯s office. Yang Ping greeted him: ¡°Director!¡± ¡°I¡¯m on my way to the Tri-Bo Hotel to check the venue, with Director Tan. We¡¯re going to run through the conference agenda again. You put on a good performance today. Professor Su called me and couldn¡¯t stop praising you.¡± Director Han unlocked the door and entered his office. ¡°Come in and have a seat?¡± Director Han invited Yang Ping. Yang Ping saw that Director Han seemed busy: ¡°You¡¯re busy, Director, I¡¯ll go check on the wards.¡± ¡°Professor Su invited me to join him at the City People¡¯s Hospital for consultation, Director!¡± Yang Ping remembered this. Whether it was for external surgeries or consultations, Yang Ping would always report to director Han. Even though Director Han was very supportive, it was a matter of courtesy. ¡°Your old workplace, huh? You haven¡¯t visited since you moved here, have you?¡± Director Han tidied up the things on his desk. Yang Ping followed director Han into his office as they chatted: ¡°Yeah, I haven¡¯t been back.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you go for a visit? Make sure you schedule your work in advance.¡± Director Han instructed. ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t have a car, right? I usually stay at the hospital, and when I go out for official business, there are hospital cars for pick up and drop off. You can take my car if you need one. It¡¯s very inconvenient without a car.¡± Director Han remembered that it would be much more convenient for Yang Ping to have a car for consultation and other matters. ¡°No problem, Director, I don¡¯t need it. Thank you. They both pick me up and drop me off at home.¡± Yang Ping knew that Director Han would be inconvenienced without a car. Director Han had just finished tidying up when he received another call. After a brief chat, he had to leave again: ¡°If you need a car, just let me know anytime.¡± ¡°Alright, then, Director, you get back to work. I¡¯m going to check the wards.¡± Yang Ping did not check the wards in the morning, and was feeling uneasy. He went to check the wards himself. ¡ª G City People¡¯s Hospital, Office of the Head of Orthopedics. Director Wu sat behind his desk, looking very pleased and triumphant, occasionally breaking into a big, blooming smile. He was thinking about the events of the past while summing them up in four words: ¡°Help from the powerful!¡± With Mr. Jiang¡¯s help, the position of Deputy Dean was within his reach. He had been preparing for so long, and as long as there were no problems during the appraisal period, he could basically count on it. Deputy Dean, he dared not even dream of it until now. But now, it was right in front of him. How strange life was, some things seemed to be destined. Jiang Baicheng could be regarded as a top tycoon in G City, ranking in the top three in the real estate industry nationwide. He had been rooted in G City for more than 20 years. His political and business connections were not something ordinary people could compete with. If it wasn¡¯t for 120 pulling his son into People¡¯s Hospital, how would he have the chance to meet such a powerful figure? Otherwise, he would still be revolving in the position of Department Head. Now it was different, Deputy Dean was just a transition, his ultimate goal was to be the Dean. He was originally worried about Jiang Baicheng¡¯s matter, but then Su Nanchen from Affiliate One Hospital agreed to come for a consultation and assist the surgery. As the son of Professor Su, Su Nanchen was highly accomplished in sports medicine. In Nandu Province, he was the only one capable of handling such a highly difficult surgery. ¡°Xiao Fu, you will personally pick Dr. Su when the time comes.¡± This was the third time Director Wu had reminded him. ¡°Understood, Director!¡± Director Fu stood on the opposite side, quite excited. As Director Wu¡¯s right-hand man, he knew the saying ¡°One man prospers, everyone around him benefits.¡± Once the issue was resolved, Jiang Baicheng would be even more pleased. If Director Wu became the Deputy Dean, then who else could be the Head of Orthopedics besides himself? And the day Director Wu became the Dean, he would follow suit and become the Deputy Dean. Therefore, he was doing this not only for Director Wu, but also for himself. ¡°Director Chen from Hepatobiliary Surgery just called about Bed 7 being a close contact of his, asking if they could be bumped up the surgery schedule?¡± ¡°No way! Are we still at his mercy? He is nothing, didn¡¯t he see how he treated us when he was powerful? Tell him we have too many surgeries lined up, no possibility for any advance.¡± Director Wu was fuming, even mentioning Director Chen could rile him up. Supposedly, Director Chen was in the running for Vice President of the hospital. He had not yet assumed the position when he started criticizing openly in meetings, hinting at how some directors were unlearned opportunists, harming the progress of younger doctors while discouraging their development. Everyone knew he was referring to me, Wu Siwen. Director Wu stroked the top of his balding head, snorting at the thought. The wheel of fortune spins, bringing different people to power over time. ¡°Xiao Fu, tell Director Chen that we treat everyone equally. We can¡¯t breed corruption by pushing friends up and sending everyone else to the back. It¡¯s not fair.¡± Director Wu drummed his fingers on the desk. ¡°Yes, yes, Director, you¡¯re right. We won¡¯t make any special arrangements. If he doesn¡¯t bring it up again, we¡¯ll drop it. If not, I¡¯ll reply to him just like you said.¡± Director Fu replied obsequiously. Director Wu angrily stated, ¡°No, you tell him right now. And tell him you are quoting me.¡± ¡°How long can he last in his directorship? Let him jump up and down while he can.¡± Director Wu muttered. ¡°Xiao Fu, carry on with your work. I need to check on Mr. Jiang.¡± Director Fu, understanding his duties, left. Director Wu smoothed out his white gown and adjusted his scant hair in front of the large mirror in his office. Director Wu walked out of the office, practically skipping, feeling as though springs had been attached to his feet. Reaching the Department of Geriatrics, he knocked on the door of the Special Ward. The person who opened the door was none other than the son of Jiang Baicheng. ¡°Uncle Wu, hello!¡± said the polite young man. ¡°I¡¯ve come to see your father.¡± Director Wu coughed lightly. ¡°Please come in!¡± The young man was very respectful. To him, Director Wu was his saviour, practically a second parent. After the surgery, the young man recovered and returned to normal. Concerned about potential post-operation complications, his family showed his surgical records and vascular angiogram to many experts in the country, hoping to get further advice. Many professors said that the ruptured blood vessel was a variation of the external iliac artery. Being able to salvage such damage during surgery was a miracle and testament to the superior skills of the chief surgeon. Upon hearing this, father and son finally realised that, although saving lives was a doctor¡¯s duty, not everyone was capable of doing what Director Wu had done. They expressed deep gratitude to him. Mr. Jiang even planned to have his son become Director Wu¡¯s godson as a token of thanks. ¡°Old Wu! Please have a seat!¡± Upon hearing this, Mr. Jiang immediately came out to greet him. ¡°Brother Jiang, don¡¯t be too kind. Given your condition, the most specialized doctor in G City now is Dr. Su from the First Affiliated Hospital. I¡¯ve already asked him to come over for a consultation and set the surgery plan.¡± Director Wu came to say just that. ¡°This is too much trouble! Old Wu, to be honest, a lot of people, and a lot of opinions, suggest that I go to Beijing or Shanghai. But I fully trust you, and leave it to you for the arrangements.¡± said Mr. Jiang. People at his echelon often face emergency surgeries. His patient was brought to the Municipal People¡¯s Hospital by the 120 ambulance, and he could pick any hospital in the world for his follow-up elective surgery. However, the surgery was performed on his son and hence, Mr. Jiang had developed a close bond of trust with Director Wu. He fully trusted Director Wu with his shoulder-related problem and allowed him to arrange everything accordingly. Director Wu was a smart man and had spent quite some time contemplating. It was uncertain whether inviting someone from Beijing or Shanghai would be a sure shot. Even first-class professors specializing in arthroscopy may not necessarily perform this high-difficulty surgery well. Among these first-class professors, the one who had thorough research on this disease would be chosen. Who had researched in depth about this was not clear to Director Wu. But there was no doubt in his mind about Professor Su Nanchen. Professor Su, the chairman of Orthopaedics in Nandu Province, was somewhat acquainted with Director Wu. They always met at conferences and were somewhat familiar with each other. Through Professor Su, he requested Su Nanchen. If Su Nanchen was confident, he would perform the surgery, or else he would invite someone more competent. Director Wu was a veteran at this and he could easily navigate through these circles. As long as he could connect with Su Nanchen, even the professors from the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States could be invited. Hence, there was no need to worry now. ¡°Brother Jiang, you¡¯ve given me your trust, and I will make sure everything is arranged perfectly.¡± ¡°Old Wu, take a look. This is the latest real estate development by my company. It¡¯s next to a key middle school which offers enrolment slots, are you interested in investing? If yes, I can offer you an in-house discount. How about buying a place?¡± Mr. Jiang handed over a brochure to Director Wu. This in-house discount was practically half the original price, essentially giving Director Wu the property. Director Wu declined. ¡°No way, no way, Brother Jiang. I appreciate your offer, but I have caused you enough trouble with my work-related matters.¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t say that. I¡¯m just giving advice where needed. Those who are capable should lead, and you, dear brother, are very capable and should not be put in a subordinate position. This is as it should be,¡± Mr. Jiang replied sincerely. At this point, Director Wu sighed, nearly squeezing a few tears from his eyes. ¡°Brother, hearing you say that truly touches my heart. In the past, I had so much passion but I was always being suffocated by someone else.¡± At this sensitive time, accepting the house was out of the question. Ascending to the position of president of the hospital was the objective. The house was only a fish, whereas the presidential position was the fishing ground. If he didn¡¯t take anything, Mr. Jiang would be encouraged to promote him single-heartedly for the presidential position. ¡°Brother Jiang, I won¡¯t accept this. I know you mean well, and I¡¯m truly grateful,¡± said Director Wu sincerely. Mr. Jiang couldn¡¯t insist too much and said, ¡°Dear brother Wu, your matter is currently in the inspection stage. As long as there are no special circumstances, it should not be a big problem.¡± The so-called ¡°special circumstances¡± referred to avoiding accusations, leading to investigations into matters like financial irregularities. If that occurred, it would spell trouble. If no such messy things were found, his ascension to vice president would be a sure thing. ¡°Thank you for your help, Brother Jiang. You have a lot on your plate and my small matter should not require too much of your energy,¡± Director Wu said nonchalantly. At this moment, Mr. Jiang¡¯s phone rang, which he quickly silenced. ¡°Brother Jiang, go ahead with your work. I will leave first, I don¡¯t wish to waste your time,¡± Director Wu left, knowing it was time to give some space to the man who had many important tasks to handle. ¡°No problem, please stay a while longer,¡± Mr. Jiang urged him. ¡°No, I have another consultation in the hospital soon!¡± Director Wu looked at his watch. ¡°In that case, I won¡¯t delay you any further. Come by when you have time to chat. Send Uncle Wu off,¡± Mr. Jiang said to his son nearby. Leaving the ward, Director Wu felt very light-hearted. Sitting in his office, the more he thought about it, the more excited he became, wishing he could move to the president¡¯s office right now. It was much larger than his whose quality was also much better! Chapter 198 - 0187: Sensible Sisi Chapter 198: Chapter 0187: Sensible Sisi Director Fu knocked and came in, Director Wu pointed to the door, and Director Fu understood and locked the door from the inside. ¡°Director, I just called Director Chen back. I said what you told me to say, his face must be as purple as a pig¡¯s liver now.¡± Director Fu couldn¡¯t help but laugh. Director Wu was satisfied: ¡°Good job, this grudge needed to be aired, or there would be no chance in the future!¡± ¡°I just contacted Su Nanchen, he mentioned he would bring a specialist to consult for Mr. Jiang.¡± Director Fu promptly reported. Director Wu was grinning: ¡°I knew it, as long as he is willing to help, it¡¯s a done deal. He might invite Professor Ye or even a professor from the United States, he didn¡¯t specify a specialist?¡± ¡°He didn¡¯t say, want me to ask?¡± Director Fu was always proactive. Wu Siwen waved his hand: ¡°Don¡¯t ask, it¡¯ll look like you don¡¯t trust him. Anyone Su Nanchen brings, I have no doubt about their level of expertise. Let Mr. Jiang prepare double the consulting fee. He¡¯s too good, few people in the entire country compare. Besides, we should give Dr. Su an extra special reception.¡± ¡°Understood, everyone knows the Su family¡¯s status in the medical field. Look at Mr. Jiang, he gets Su Qingyun for consultation, but Su Nanchen is arranged instead. I feel this man is a bit aloof, others are eager to please, but he¡¯s indifferent.¡± Director Fu was somewhat dissatisfied. ¡°You don¡¯t understand the relationship here, it¡¯s not just him being aloof. Do you know how many brothers are in the Su family?¡± Director Wu mysteriously asked. ¡°I know, he has a younger brother, a businessman, one of the well-known entrepreneurs in the domestic pharmaceutical industry who controls several heavyweight pharmaceutical companies.¡± Director Fu also knew some about it. ¡°You only know he has two brothers, actually there are four in total. Out of these four Su brothers, none are weaklings, besides the two you know, there are two more¨C?¡± Director Wu beckoned. Director Fu leaned in, Director Wu whispered in his ear: ¡°As long as you know that. Don¡¯t gossip. What¡¯s the surname of the vice-governor overseeing culture, education, and health?¡± ¡°Does he also have the surname Su?¡± Director Fu thought for a while before saying it. ¡°You¡¯re saying?¡± Director Fu suddenly realized. Director Wu chuckled: ¡°As long as you understand. He is the oldest brother in the Su family, Su Qingyun is only the second. The third one you know, who makes pharmaceuticals, there¡¯s also a fourth one whose situation I¡¯m not very clear about. These are the four true brothers. Add in all the relatives, the whole family tree is lush. If we were in ancient times, this would be a recognized noble clan. A single tycoon to Su Qingyun¡¯s eyes really doesn¡¯t count as much, last time Ning Tianxiong got his consultation only through old connections. Don¡¯t be naive about these things, without some backup, how could he dare to offend people? But he¡¯s not afraid to, he has native guts.¡± ¡°Now that you mention it, I¡¯ve just realized I always thought they looked alike!¡± Director Fu stroked his chin. ¡°Exactly, Xiao Fu, you¡¯ve been with me for so many years, there¡¯s some truths you have to understand. Underneath a big tree, there¡¯s lots of shade! Whenever there¡¯s a chance, you should always try to squeeze under a big tree. This time when Su Nanchen comes, arrange a good reception, take this opportunity to make a friend, improve our relation with the Su family, at least to be on a first name basis.¡± ¡°Got it, there¡¯s so much hidden depth? Director, you¡¯re impressive.¡± Director Fu exclaimed. Director Wu chuckled: ¡°You¡¯re swimming in the sea of life and you are not even clear about the depth of the water. What the hell are you swimming for? You¡¯ll get drowned and have no idea what happened.¡± ¡°Also, Xiao Fu, you have to be astute. In one¡¯s life there¡¯re only one or two good opportunities. Once they appear, you must grasp them tightly.¡± Director Fu looked enlightened: ¡°Director, your words are as precious as gold.¡± Mr. Jiang was Director Wu¡¯s opportunity in life. Director Wu indeed seized this opportunity and made a quantum leap in life when he was nearly fifty. After that surgery was completed, Director Fu could not have expected that Director Wu would make such a decisive move. Having confirmed that the patient was not in any danger, he kicked out the two juniors the next morning. Even now, they probably still have no idea why they got fired after so successfully treating a patient. Were they under the impression that the unauthorized surgery was the reason? This matter would die in his stomach, he couldn¡¯t breathe a word of it. He and Director Wu were in the same boat; they would rise and fall together. ¡°Your words may not be as precious as gold, but they truly come from the heart, Xiao Fu. Be prepared for when I take the promotion, Orthopedics will be your responsibility.¡± Director Wu was full of confidence. Director Fu was delighted: ¡°Director, you can relax. You have known me for some time, I am always loyal to you.¡± ¡ª Sisi had broken a bone. When she got up in the morning to go to the bathroom, she sped up a bit and immediately experienced severe pain in her right thigh. An X-ray revealed a fractured bone, a pathological fracture. It seems that the long-planned method for dealing with the primary tumor would not work. Surgery was the only option. Bone fracture surgery would also involve tumor removal. Every morning, her mother would return home to cook breakfast, then bring it to Sisi in the hospital. Her father, who was juggling food delivery and courier work, would visit once at noon every day. The family tried their utmost to maintain hope through this expression of love. Sisi, biting her teeth in pain, watched as Yang Ping led the others to carefully apply a long-leg cast. This provided some stability to the fracture, easing her excruciating pain slightly. ¡°All of you can go ahead with your work, I will stay here for a while.¡± Yang Ping pulled up a chair and sat down next to her bed. It was a busy morning. After the morning shift, once the patient orders had been handled, everyone was rushing off to surgery. The cast was already on, and everyone else had their own tasks to attend to. ¡°My condition isn¡¯t great, right?¡± Sisi was still sucking air through her teeth. ¡°Not at all. A fibroid has damaged the bone, causing a fracture. A surgery is needed.¡± Yang Ping tried to keep her voice calm. Sisi stared at Yang Ping; the child had a strange look in her eyes. Every time she looked at him like this, Yang Ping didn¡¯t dare to meet her gaze, because he had been lying to her all along. After a while, Sisi spoke: ¡°Now it¡¯s just us two, you can be straight with me! You see, I know it¡¯s not a simple fibroma, but a malignant tumor called osteosarcoma, and the fracture is a pathological fracture.¡± Yang Ping felt a sudden piercing pain in his chest, as if he was being stabbed in the heart. His throat felt clogged, and he was uncomfortably dry¨C this little girl, she already knew about her actual condition, and she was only nine years old. ¡°Adults always underestimate children. Like every time I ask my mom and dad where I came from, they always brush me off and say I was found or that I crawled out from under my mom¡¯s armpit. For a mere fibroma, would they need to sell the house? My aunt also had a fibroma, she only spent a few thousand, and she was in the hospital for a few days.¡± Sisi spoke calmly. ¡°You¨C knew about your condition all along?¡± Yang Ping forced a smile. This was such a painful thing to hear. Sisi nodded: ¡°I have a computer. I¡¯ve sneaked on at night to look it up, everything from diagnosis, treatment, to prognosis. I¡¯ve searched countless times.¡± ¡°Are you scared?¡± Yang Ping paused before speaking. He didn¡¯t know what to say anymore. This was so sudden and cruel for a nine-year-old girl to know that her days were numbered. Sisi laughed: ¡°Scared, of course I¡¯m scared! Just like I¡¯m scared of the night. However, it¡¯s useless because night will eventually come. For things that can¡¯t be changed, I can only accept them with composure.¡± It turned out the truth of life was hidden in these casual sentences Sisi spoke, filled with philosophies. These were not words that a nine-year-old girl should be using. ¡°Did you know that your parents sold the house?¡± As far as Yang Ping knew, her parents had hidden this from her, merely saying they rented a house to make it more convenient for her treatment. ¡°Of course, how could such a big thing be hidden from me? For selling the house, my dad and grandparents fought over it, and my dad cried in the bathroom in the middle of the night. I knew, but I pretended not to know anything.¡± Sisi¡¯s eyes were a bit moist as she spoke. ¡°Because he loves you, he had to do this. Everyone has responsibilities, and they have the responsibility of being parents.¡± Yang Ping couldn¡¯t treat her as just an ordinary child anymore; he had to communicate with her as equals, as friends. ¡°I thought about stopping them from selling the house, but after some thinking, I gave up. If they didn¡¯t sell the house, they would feel guilty for a lifetime. I don¡¯t want them to suffer like that, so I decided to pretend to be oblivious.¡± Sisi glanced at the door from time to time. Yang Ping stood up and stroked her already noticeably sparse and withered hair: ¡°From now on, we are good friends. You can talk with me about anything, and I will definitely keep it a secret for you.¡± ¡°Um! You must keep it a secret for me. Apart from you, I haven¡¯t told anyone.¡± ¡°Um, Definitely!¡± The two high-fived. Sisi looked at her phone watch and said, ¡°My mom is coming soon.¡± ¡°Okay, you rest now, I should get going.¡± ¡°Every flower has its blooming period, some long, some short¨C¡± Yang Ping comforted her with this sentence. She took over the conversation: ¡°I understand, so I want to be the most brilliant one.¡± ¡°You already are!¡± Yang Ping gave a thumbs-up. Sisi asked, ¡°Do you know why I only told you?¡± Yang Ping shook his head. Sisi said, ¡°Because you are the best doctor. You can consider me as your research subject. Even if it fails and I become a question in your workbook, it is also a kind of luck.¡± ¡°So this is what you understand as brilliance?¡± Yang Ping finally grasped the meaning of her words. Sisi nodded. ¡°My mom is waiting for the elevator downstairs now. It¡¯s not too painful now, don¡¯t worry.¡± Sisi made a funny face to show that she was pretty relaxed and doing okay. Such a smart and sensible child, was it her misfortune that made her so worldly-wise? Yang Ping went to the restroom of the duty room, splashed cold water on his face, and his mood couldn¡¯t be soothed for a long time. He entered the system space. The operation training for bone disease hadn¡¯t been opened yet, and the advanced course in sports medicine hadn¡¯t been completed. He had completed the multi-ligament reconstruction of the shoulder joint and knee joint, so why hadn¡¯t the advanced course in sports medicine been completed? Yang Ping entered the task list of the system. It clearly recorded almost every operation he had performed. The surgery to the affiliated hospital earned him twenty-thousand points. Even the surgery at the affiliate hospital entered the hidden mode. Would the individual tasks released in the future become more and more difficult? Without the training in the system space, relying on his solid foundation in traumatology and orthopedics, and the brain mapping ability, he could well perform this operation. But it wouldn¡¯t be better than the devilish training. Yang Ping decided to wait until he completed the advanced course in sports medicine and could enter the operation training for bone diseases before he started this operation. He should be able to complete the advanced course in sports medicine soon. What tasks were he missing? Chapter 199 - 0188 Birthday Party Chapter 199: Chapter 0188 Birthday Party Sisi¡¯s X-ray, CT, MRI, PET-CT scans are all displayed on a spacious electronic reading screen. The previous operation at a different hospital had removed about twenty cm from the middle of the femur and, in order to regain lower limb function as soon as possible, a customized titanium alloy prosthesis was used to bridge the femur and compensate for this twenty cm gap; the prosthesis was inserted into the medullary cavity at both ends, and fixed with bone cement. This was a palliative approach intended solely to ensure that she could have a functional lower limb within a limited time, thereby aiding in her care. Her osteosarcoma had already metastasized to several locations in her body, and other treatments, such as fibula grafts, allografts, or bone lengthening techniques from Ilizarov, were not suitable due to the lengthy recovery period, unsuitable for a late-stage tumor patient. ¡°Could we replace it with a full femur prosthesis using 3D printing technology?¡± Song Zimo suggested, the Orthopedics laboratory¡¯s 3D printer was already operational; this machine was of industrial grade, equivalent to a 3D printing lathe. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°The femur, as an organ, is not so easily replaced. It has many muscles attached to it, and also has joint capsules and ligaments attached at both ends. These tendinous soft tissues are firmly attached via the tendon-bone healing mechanism; the joint capsules and ligaments maintain the static stability of the hip and knee joints, and the muscles not only maintain dynamic joint stability but also provide the power for movement. In order to replace the entire femur, we need to address the problem of soft tissue attachment; otherwise, this femur will only function as a support, lacking the ability for movement, and can only provide minimal support. Soft tissue in the human body can heal with bone but not with artificial materials. If we can solve this problem, it would likely be a breakthrough in orthopedic technology. We can¡¯t employ this method yet, but we can research it for a future project.¡± ¡°Amputation?¡± Little Five¡¯s opinion was that if a replacement was not possible, then amputation was the only option. This was a feasible plan; the tumor and invaded femur could be surgically removed, but after the removal, only a tiny bit of the femur would be left at both ends. The right lower limb would lose its function due to the absence of the femur, and it would be impossible to make effective use of a customized prosthesis. ¡°The cancer has already spread throughout the body, so amputation wouldn¡¯t be meaningful. By preserving the limb, at least psychologically, she¡¯ll feel much better.¡± Zhang Lin also gave her opinion, everyone was very proactive and knew that even if they made a mistake, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t criticize them. ¡°What do you think, senior brother?¡± Song Zimo asked Yang Ping¡¯s opinion as Yang Ping kept flipping the scans without expressing his ideas. ¡°We remove the prosthesis originally bridging the femur, cut off the tumor along with the affected femur, then use Ilizarov¡¯s technique to extend the bone, giving her a normal femur,¡± Yang Ping said after pondering for quite a while. Song Zimo thought this method was too idealistic and impractical: ¡°She¡¯s in the terminal stages of osteosarcoma, do you plan to cure her completely? That¡¯s impossible.¡± Song Zimo did not articulate the brutal subtext: her life expectancy might be shorter than the time this procedure would take to complete. With a millimeter of progress per day, even for twenty centimeters, it would still take over two hundred days. Could she hang on that long? ¡°I know a cure is impossible, but I want to try and give her the best life possible, take it day by day.¡± Yang Ping was very insistent, he wanted to try and fight for her, even if it seemed impossible, like Don Quixote. Everyone was silent; Yang Ping continued to flip through the scans: ¡°I know that her situation should have been abandoned according to medical practice, but I want to strive for the best. Even if we only make one step of progress, it¡¯s worth it!¡± Song Zimo placed his hand on his shoulder: ¡°I disagree with your point of view, but I support you.¡± ¡°I support you too!¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five also cast encouraging glances his way. Yang Ping took his hand away from the mouse, ¡°Using the operating room¡¯s infrared navigation device, we can create a three-dimensional reconstruction of the tumor using infrared scanning, use indocyanine green for imaging, and then combine the three-dimensional reconstruction of the CT and MRI images to obtain a complete tumor image. We¡¯ll upload it into the operating system¡¯s main computer, and then we can perform the surgery using infrared navigation.¡± ¡°The reconstructions are all completed by the software of their respective machines, and can¡¯t be combined into one image.¡± Little Five was more familiar with the medical equipment. Yang Ping told Little Five, ¡°We design our own software to do the integrated reconstruction. Little Five, don¡¯t you have a special talent in this area? You can find a few students from Nandu University of Technology to collaborate on this.¡± ¡°This is a huge project!¡± Little Five had assisted a professor with projects like this while at school. ¡°If it wasn¡¯t big it wouldn¡¯t be considered a ¡®project¡¯. The moon landing was difficult, too, but it was accomplished. Song Zimo, you lead them to start a project, instead of applying for other projects, apply for the Overseas Chinese funds from the hospital. That way it¡¯s faster,¡± Yang Ping encouraged everyone. Hearing Yang Ping make his decision, everyone felt very encouraged, eager to give it a try. It was clear that the major operation their senior brother planned was going to result in some significant research results and high-quality papers, which would benefit everyone when they apply for professional titles in the future. The soul of a team is very important; it must have the correct direction and firm determination, like a flag standing tall. Only then can everyone gather under the banner and persist towards their target. Yang Ping had achieved this for the team. ¡ª ¡°This Saturday is my birthday and I¡¯m hosting a party at my house in the evening. Please come if you have time. Our circle will all be there, including Shao Wei and Old Zhou will all be there. I can also introduce you to some friends.¡± Immediately following the discussion of Sisi¡¯s condition, Su Nanchen didn¡¯t send a WeChat message, but called to invite him. As friends, he had to attend, but he couldn¡¯t possibly go empty-handed. He needed to bring a gift. Yang Ping was stuck; he was absolutely not adept when it came to gifts. He called over Song Zimo, Little Five, and Zhang Lin to discuss this. As the exchange of ideas went by, no solid conclusion was drawn. The gentlemen hadn¡¯t a clue about gift-giving; they suggested premium pens, surgical goggles, the latest English orthopedics books ¨C in short, all sorts of ideas. In the end, they decided to go ask Xiao Su. Surely as a girl, she¡¯d be more in the know about this stuff. Yang Ping went to find Xiao Su to consult her: ¡°What kind of gift do you think I should bring? I can¡¯t just give a red packet, that would be too vulgar.¡± Xiao Su, always full of ideas, thought for a moment and said, ¡°I have an idea. You are all surgery enthusiasts. You could take the multi-ligament reconstruction surgery for the knee and shoulder joints, have Little Five and the others make animated demonstrations of it, explaining all the key steps and surgical secrets, and combine it with videos from your usual surgeries, then burn it into a set of CDs as a gift for him. He would be very happy, there¡¯s nothing more important to a surgery enthusiast than gaining valuable surgical experience. I can help you find someone to make a nice external package for your CDs. This will surely please your friend.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great! This is a good idea, it seems that I am only good at thinking while conducting surgeries, I¡¯m clueless about mundane affairs. Xiao Su¡¯s idea is good, this gift is unique and also very valuable. It¡¯s decided then.¡± Yang Ping made his decision on the spot. He then got Song Zimo, Little Five and Zhang Lin on board, asking them to help make the animation and burn it onto a disc. Song Zimo, who had operated on him so many times, was well versed in the mysteries of such surgeries. Little Five was proficient at making animations, and Zhang Lin was in charge of the textual commentary. The matter was finalized just like that. ¡°A meal, you guys choose the place. But it must be done before Friday night.¡± Yang Ping put forward his conditions. ¡°We can choose anywhere? Really?¡± Little Five gave a mischievous smile. Yang Ping hesitated for a moment: ¡°We¡¯re all brothers, we will meet frequently, don¡¯t go too heavy-handed.¡± ¡°We only have a few days, I¡¯m afraid we won¡¯t make it in time, right?¡± Song Zimo shook his head, looking rather troubled. ¡°Right, time is tight, let¡¯s just do a PPT. Making animation takes too much time.¡± ¡°It takes some time to think of textual explanation that conveys the message.¡± Yang Ping looked at these guys, who were all in cahoots, each shaking their heads, with an ¡°Oh man, this is tough!¡± look on their faces. ¡°Alright, choose the place and decide how extravagant the meal is, I don¡¯t mind.¡± Yang Ping understood their game. ¡°Hmm, although time is a little tight, if we all work extra hours, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡± Song Zimo immediately changed his tune. Zhang Lin and Little Five also chimed in: ¡°We¡¯re all brothers, let¡¯s work some overtime to ensure we get it done before Friday night.¡± A bunch of foodies! Yang Ping instructed: ¡°Call Brother Fat, too.¡± Zhang Lin was freaked out: ¡°Why should we call him? Are you really going all out? He can¡¯t contribute to the work, but when it comes to eating he can eat for several! He¡¯ll double your bill!¡± ¡°I¡¯m going all out. Let him help choose the place and order the dishes. None of you are as professional as him in this.¡± Yang Ping explained. Everyone fell silent, it was the truth. When it comes to eating, Brother Fat definitely outdoes everyone else, after all, he was once the president of the food association. ¡°Bring your girlfriend too!¡± Su Nanchen sent a message via WeChat. What should he do about this? Take Xiao Su with him? He had to go find Xiao Su again. Yang Ping went upstairs, rang the doorbell of the operating room, and Xiao Su came out. The door to the operation room opened, Yang Ping didn¡¯t enter. He stood at the door and showed Su Nanchen¡¯s message to her: ¡°He asked me to bring my girlfriend along? How should I reply to him? Do you have time to go with me?¡± Yang Ping¡¯s face turned a little red. Xiao Su chuckled, then looked rather troubled: ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I have to go home on Saturday night, and coincidentally, a family member has a birthday. I can¡¯t accompany you.¡± ¡°What a coincidence!¡± Yang Ping was a little disappointed. ¡°Or would you like me to tell my family and go with you?¡± Xiao Su lowered her head and pursed her lips. ¡°No, it¡¯s okay. I¡¯ll go alone. You should be with your family, it¡¯s important. There¡¯s no need for you to accompany me to this, I¡¯ll explain to him.¡± Yang Ping explained. ¡°There¡¯s no need to explain. The more you explain, the more confusing it will become. ¡± The phone was in Xiao Su¡¯s hand, she was fingering it: ¡°Hmph! I will reply for you, just tell him you don¡¯t have a girlfriend. Let¡¯s see what he means, is he testing you to introduce a girlfriend to you?¡± ¡°No way, are you upset?¡± Yang Ping heard Xiao Su humph. Xiao Su pouted: ¡°I¡¯m not upset. Someone is helping you find a girlfriend so actively, I should be happy. It shows that I have good taste. Maybe he has a sister or something to introduce to you. You¡¯re destined to be with the ¡®Su¡¯ family.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t overthink it, he just casually mentioned it.¡± Yang Ping replied. ¡°What if he introduces a girlfriend to you, you won¡¯t develop feelings for her, right?¡± Xiao Su¡¯s long eyelashes fluttered. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°I want to have feelings for her, but I can¡¯t.¡± ¡°You¨C¡± ¡°Because my heart is already filled with someone else.¡± Xiao Su turned her anger into laughter and stretched out a finger to lightly tap Yang Ping¡¯s forehead: ¡°That¡¯s more like it.¡± Chapter 200 - 0189: Fairy Descends to Earth Chapter 200: Chapter 0189: Fairy Descends to Earth Under the incentive of a meal, Little Five and the others worked quickly and turned in their work by Friday morning. Yang Ping put the disc into his computer and tested it. The surgical video, animation, and commentary were quite professional, the editing was sensible, and the picture was clear. The meal was worth it. Xiao Su had also prepared a beautiful gift box, which she wiped clean and carefully wrapped in thin film before placing it in the box. A small CD now looked like a luxurious gift. ¡°Your party will probably last a long time. How about I have dinner with my family first and then come to the party? Can you give me the address?¡± Yang Ping sent Xiao Su the location of Su Nanchen: ¡°Isn¡¯t that a bit inappropriate? It¡¯s not safe at night, forget it, I¡¯ll go alone!¡± ¡°Shuangsha Island? My home is also there, very close, and we share the same route. I can drop you off at Su Nanchen¡¯s house first, then go home a bit, and come to find you later. It¡¯s settled then, I want to go with you.¡± Xiao Su, surprised, said while looking at the location on her phone. Yang Ping was really willing to go with her. Hearing that her house was also on Shuangsha Island made it convenient: ¡°So it¡¯s settled. Are you worried that he will introduce a girlfriend to me, that¡¯s why you came along?¡± ¡°Ha! You think I don¡¯t stand a chance?¡± Xiao Su scoffed indignantly. ¡°Just kidding, I¡¯ll wait for you, you must come.¡± Yang Ping really wanted to go with Xiao Su. So they agreed. Going to the banquet with Xiao Su was such a joyful thing. To tell the truth, going alone was rather tedious. On Saturday night, they left from Sanbo Hospital. Xiao Su gave Yang Ping a ride to Shuangsha Island. When they were nearly at their destination, she dropped him off halfway: ¡°Go straight along this road. Starting from this villa, it¡¯s the sixth one. There will be someone waiting at the entrance. There should be many cars coming and going in front of their house at this time, so I won¡¯t join the crowd. See you later!¡± ¡°How did you know to go to the sixth one?¡± Yang Ping felt curious. Xiao Su was taken aback: ¡°It¡¯s written on the navigation, look!¡± The navigation even marks which villa? What kind of navigation system? Yang Ping really wanted to lean over to take a look, when Xiao Su suddenly kissed him on the face: ¡°Go quickly, there are many beauties there. Don¡¯t be dazzled and fail to recognize me later.¡± Yang Ping said goodbye to Xiao Su and got off the car to walk. Counting the large villas one by one, all with large, spacious gardens, the sixth villa was still quite a distance away. She should have driven him a bit further. Shuangsha island is indeed a high-end villa area. Any villa costs a fortune. To be honest, this was Yang Ping¡¯s first time entering such a villa area. It is said that not just any rich person could live here, but those with some background. The Su family seems awfully rich. It¡¯s not this extravagant just because they¡¯re a family of doctors, is it? He can¡¯t understand, and didn¡¯t need to. He finally counted to the sixth villa. This villa is so large, probably two to three thousand square meters. It¡¯s the first time he¡¯s seen such a luxurious house. Young Master Su, Young Master Su, this title isn¡¯t just a joke. The arched gate, several large pillars, looked magnificent. The wide lawn in front was adorned with a large tree in the center, and there was a tennis court on the side. There was probably a swimming pool behind the house, and the architectural style was European. The iron gate of the wall was fully opened, and a stone path led to the front door. There were already many cars parked in the open-air parking lot, and someone was guarding the door. Because it was winter, it was quite cold at night. There were some people scattered around the lawn, tennis court, and stone path, chatting and taking a walk, but most of the people were inside the room. There was a corridor on the first floor of the villa. There were many large and small glass windows, and the interior was brightly lit. Through the windows, he could vaguely see many people inside. The party had already started. Yang Ping made a call to Su Nanchen, informing him that he¡¯d arrived. He had never attended such a party and didn¡¯t want to barge in and make a fool of himself. Besides, Su Nanchen also said to call him once he arrived. About ten minutes later, Su Nanchen came out from inside. Shao Wei followed behind him. Su Nanchen was wearing a stand-up collar Zhongshan suit. It was the same style of clothing that Professor Su wore when attending Mr. Ning¡¯s consultation last time. Looking at himself, Yang Ping was wearing a winter T-shirt bought by Xiao Su, which should be formal enough. This was the outfit Xiao Su personally confirmed for him. It shouldn¡¯t be discordant, right? Seeing Shao Wei behind, who was also not wearing a suit or Zhongshan suit, he felt relieved. ¡°Brother Yang, welcome!¡± Su Nanchen reached out his hand from afar. ¡°Brother Su! Congratulations!¡± Yang Ping handed over the gift. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Su Nanchen accepted the gift. ¡°Nothing much, just a token of appreciation. It¡¯s a CD of multiple ligament reconstruction surgeries of the knee and shoulder joints that I performed, complete with detailed commentary.¡± Yang Ping introduced the gift. Su Nanchen immediately put it away: ¡°This is valuable, Brother Yang, you¡¯re too thoughtful. Please, come in.¡± A few people walked along the wide stone path and entered the villa lobby. Once inside, it was absolutely bustling. Rectangular tables laid with red carpets were evenly distributed, loaded with various types of food. The hall also had a bar, filled with various wines and drinks. Waiters in formal attire were shuttling among the crowd with trays. It seemed that a professional hotel had been hired to set up the party. Su Nanchen was constantly greeting guests and handling everything with ease. ¡°Shao Wei, accompany Doctor Yang on a tour. Doctor Yang, I must excuse myself for a while, but let¡¯s gather later.¡± Su Nanchen was busy, with Professor Su waving his hand in one direction, cheerfully chatting with an elderly fellow with white hair. ¡°Doctor Yang, let me introduce you to some people!¡± Shao Wei led Yang Ping around, selectively introducing him to various people. ¡°This is Little Five, Su Nanchen¡¯s good friend. Here we have Tong Zhenyu, who works at Singapore Central Hospital, and Guo Shuren, who studied at the renowned MIT in Massachusetts¨C¡± ¡°And over there is the future Mrs. Su! Su Nanchen¡¯s fiance?e, Lin Lan. They are already engaged and planning to get married next year. A rising star, Lin Lan is the youngest professor at Nandu Medical University, proving herself capable and brilliant. She is incredibly impressive,¡± Shao Wei whispered into Yang Ping¡¯s ear. A young woman in a long dress, graceful and beautiful, was interacting with several wealthy ladies in the distance. Slowly, more and more people arrived. This was not a small gathering at all. At the center of the hall, there was a concert grand piano. ¡°Su family is quite large. His uncle is a businessman in the medical industry. His father and his brothers, along with all the cousins, make up a family of over two hundred members. This gathering only consists of close relatives, classmates, and friends,¡± Shao Wei introduced, being a long-time friend of Su Nanchen. Noticing Yang Ping¡¯s attention on the piano, he said, ¡°The princess of the Su family will be performing a few piano pieces later. She is a true beauty, you¡¯ll see.¡± A middle-aged woman in a black long dress approached them, dignified and elegant. ¡°Good evening, Auntie!¡± Shao Wei promptly greeted her. ¡°Good evening, Auntie!¡± Yang Ping followed suit. ¡°This is¨C¡± Mrs. Su took a look, recognizing him instantly as Doctor Yang who helped Su Nanchen with a surgery at the Affiliated Hospital. Shao Wei introduced right away, ¡°This is Mrs. Su, Nanchen¡¯s mother. And this is Nanchen¡¯s good friend, Doctor Yang from Sanbo Hospital!¡± The young man indeed had a strong aura, demonstrating a calmness and confidence without being arrogant or humble. Even without uttering a word, the powerful presence was palpable. Mrs. Su praised him inwardly, realizing she was somewhat carried away. She immediately said, ¡°Make yourself at home, Doctor Yang!¡± Getting called by someone, Mrs Su rushed over, occasionally looking back at Yang Ping, thinking: ¡°My instincts were correct, this young man indeed possesses an extraordinary bearing. No wonder Old Su and Nanchen speak so highly of him.¡± Yang Ping accepted the red wine offered by a waiter. After selecting some dishes he liked from the buffet, he sat down. There were all sorts of seafood, pastries, snacks, and fruits available. ¡°That¡¯s Lin Hao, you have met him before during your surgery,¡± Shao Wei sat next to Yang Ping. He was given a mission by Su Nanchen to take care of Yang Ping. Lin Hao, looking handsome in his outfit, was walking through the crowd with a bouquet of flowers. Shao Wei ate some food and said: ¡°He¡¯s planning to give those flowers to Nanchen¡¯s little sister after her performance. He¡¯s been pursuing her since she started college, but she has been ignoring him.¡± Given her impressive background and good looks ¨C as pointed out by Shao Wei earlier-, it was clear that she had high standards. If someone like Yang Ping were to approach her, she wouldn¡¯t even bat an eye. However, that didn¡¯t matter to him; after all, nobody could hold a candle to Xiao Su. As he continued to eat and drink, an hour had passed quickly. Checking his phone, Yang Ping decided to message Xiao Su, asking about her arrival and whether he should meet her at the entrance. Xiao Su already replied: ¡°I have arrived. Let me know where you are. Stay put and I will come to find you.¡± It was indeed better this way. If they both wandered around, it would be even harder to find each other. The place was quite spacious and crowded. Yang Ping surveyed the surrounding environment: ¡°I am near a pillar in the main hall. There¡¯s a grand piano over here.¡± ¡°Okay, don¡¯t fail to recognize me!¡± Xiao Su sent a playful emoji. Impossible! How could he not recognize his own girlfriend? Yang Ping thought to himself while occasionally looking at the entrance. No one had entered yet. At this moment, a round of resounding applause arose. Everyone raised their heads, looking in the direction of the sound. Yang Ping, unaware of what¡¯s happening, also turned his gaze like the others. On the wide staircase leading to the second floor, a dazzling beauty clad in a white long dress descended step by step, blossoming like a lotus with each move. ¡°The Su family¡¯s princess is about to perform on the piano!¡±, Shao Wei alerted him. Sure enough, Su Nanchen¡¯s younger sister was stunningly beautiful, simply resembling a fairy descending from heaven. Unsurprisingly, Yang Ping was left in awe by this spectacular sight. Strangely, this all felt quite familiar to him, but he couldn¡¯t identify why. Chapter 201 - 0190: Love at First Sight Chapter 201: Chapter 0190: Love at First Sight A feeling of familiarity? Why was there such a strong feeling? It was just an illusion, Yang Ping felt embarrassed and immediately turned to look at the door ¨C Xiao Su had not arrived yet. In his heart, there was only Xiao Su and no room for anyone else. Yet, he couldn¡¯t suppress this peculiar feeling¡ªit was taking root in his heart. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but glance back at the stage, not because of stunning beauty, but because of this indescribable feeling, as if he was searching¡ªHe searched her among the crowd, then suddenly turned back, and she was there under the dim light. Little Miss Su approached halfway up the steps, waved to everyone with a smile, her eyes taking in the surroundings, were they looking at him? Yang Ping immediately shook his head. The person standing on the stage, looking down, it¡¯s common for everyone to think they are being greeted. There was a moment of silence, followed by hushed whispers, all praising the beauty of Princess Su. In the other part of the hall, the Su family was gathered together, the elders nodding in agreement. The guests, whether they were busy selecting food, drinking and making merry, or just sitting and resting, all had their eyes focused on the steps, awaiting the celestial beauty to perform. Those in the know were aware of Little Miss Su¡¯s astonishing piano skills, not just average, but at a high professional level, similar to her swimming and tennis. She approached, her dress fluttering, she could have directly walked towards the piano, but she chose to arc around the hall, passing by the round column and right beside Yang Ping. The charming smile and delicate hands waving, getting closer and closer to Yang Ping, her radiant eyes enchanting him. Xiao Su! It was Xiao Su all along! It was too far before, and with the lighting and attire, Yang Ping had not recognized her. But now she was closer, and he recognized her immediately. It was Xiao Su! What was going on? Suddenly, Yang Ping felt as if time and space were in chaos. Xiao Su, Su Nanchen, Professor Su, these people were all connected in a way he found hard to comprehend. So Xiao Su was Su Nanchen¡¯s sister, and Professor Su¡¯s daughter. He had been in the dark about this all along. How surreal! His brain, which had been out of touch before, immediately made the connection. That explained the familiarity, the feeling of seeking. Of course! This was Xiao Su, how could it not be familiar? A gust of fragrant wind passed, her long skirt almost swished past him, Xiao Su walked past Yang Ping, pulling back her captivating smile. She gracefully walked to the piano, a female companion guiding her to her seat. She sat, poised and elegant, her delicate fingers beautiful as jade lightly hovering over the piano keys, before pressing down gently. Music notes, like elves, emanated from the piano. One summer¡¯s day! Spirited away, Joe Hisaishi, that summer of the past year. That was why he had the feeling of seeking. Xiao Su, she was the one he had been searching for all along! Yang Ping glanced towards the door, then at the agile Xiao Su again, finding it difficult to adjust to the chaotic time and space. The entire hall fell silent, only the intoxicating sound of the piano reverberated around. Everyone either stared intently in this direction or closed their eyes to immerse themselves in the music. Everyone had a memory of that summer. Xiao Su brought out a different feel with this song. Yang Ping, lacking musical talent, could even appreciate the meaning behind the music. Was it because Xiao Su played it too well, or had he suddenly become more perceptive? The music was like countless thin threads, gently touching the depths of his heart, stirring up those careful memories. Playful, cute, fascinating, hesitant, doubtful, anxious, sentimental, affectionate ¨C each emotional touch released fragments of memories. The summer bar, Xiao Su carrying a tennis racket; going to Nanqiao Yao Village, the life and death experience they had together; his injury, Xiao Su¡¯s meticulous care; that night, standing alone on an overpass in sorrow, Xiao Su draped her down jacket over him, they embraced tightly under the streetlight¨Ctheir first confession to each other: ¡°I love you!¡± Su Nanchen maneuvered around the crowd and found Yang Ping, settling next to him. ¡°Brother Yang?¡± ¡°Dr. Yang?¡± ¡°Doctor Yang?¡± Yang Ping heard someone calling him but didn¡¯t turn back, only murmuring an ¡°mm-hmm¡± in response, allowing his thoughts to drift with the music. ¡°Doctor Yang!¡± It was only on the fourth call from Su Nanchen that Yang Ping snapped back to reality, realizing he must have lost his poise completely. He blushed, his face turning red all the way to his neck. ¡°Sorry!¡± Yang Ping said, feeling awkward, and pulled his gaze back from Xiao Su. Just as he was about to chat with Su Nanchen, the piece had already come to an end. The music had ceased, his thoughts were hard to gather, after a brief moment of silence, someone began to applaud. Only then did everyone else come back to reality and realize it was time to applaud. The applause came softly at first, then gradually picked up momentum, echoing in waves for quite a while. Xiao Su rose to her feet, delivering her thanks to the guests all around. Lin Hao was the first one to spring forward, a bouquet of flowers prepared in his hands, ready to present to Xiao Su. Xiao Su¡¯s eyes swept towards Yang Ping, a playful smile swept past, and then she politely accepted the flowers, handing them to the woman who followed her. The crowd again broke into enthusiastic applause. Lin Hao, with a gentlemanly open arms, wanted to embrace Xiao Su in a Western style, but Xiao Su extended her right hand, indicating she was ready to shake hands, effectively blocking Lin Hao¡¯s approach and clearly signaling she would only accept a handshake. To avoid embarrassment, Lin Hao reluctantly withdrew his outstretched arms, reached out, and Xiao Su just lightly, politely shook his hand. Then she turned and glanced at Yang Ping again. Several more people came up to present flowers, Xiao Su accepted them and handed them over to the woman beside her, then shook hands with each of them. The Su family princess, pursued by many, but none deemed worthy in her eyes. This Lin Hao had all the favorable conditions. In G City, his family ranked just after the Su family. His cousin Lin Lan was Su Nanchen¡¯s girlfriend. He had started pursuing Xiao Su many years ago, but to no avail. Xiao Su never gave him a second glance. Many were wondering ¨C who would be fortunate enough to have Xiao Su¡¯s favor, who would be her future partner? Su Nanchen, being the astute person he was, noticed his sister had glanced their way a couple of times and made eye contact with Yang Ping, albeit briefly each time. He caught onto it. There was no doubt they had feelings for each other. Could it be love at first sight? Old Zhou approached at that point, hastily handing a bouquet of flowers to Su Nanchen, Su Nanchen immediately passed it to Yang Ping: ¡°Hurry up!¡± Yang Ping awkwardly accepted the flowers, feeling flustered. Su Nanchen patted his shoulder, ¡°Use the confidence you have during surgeries; everything will work out fine!¡± Yes, at this point, he should be giving Xiao Su a bouquet. Yang Ping quickly cleared his mind. It didn¡¯t matter whose daughter or sister she was. She was his Xiao Su! Yang Ping composed himself, picked up the flowers in his hand, stood up, exuding confidence and composure. He strode towards Xiao Su. Xiao Su had already been waiting there with that charming smile on her face still. Yang Ping presented the flowers with both hands, and Xiao Su burst into a small, restrained smile. Taking the flowers from him, and rather than passing them to her companion, Xiao Su held them herself. She was beaming like a blooming flower as she opened her arms wide. Wow! There was a thunderous applause from below the stage, the atmosphere in that moment heated to a boiling point. Yang Ping immediately stepped forward to embrace Xiao Su and they held each other tight. ¡°This song was for you.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s pretend it¡¯s love at first sight!¡± ¡°Your wish is my command!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t hold too tight for too long, it will give us away.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± After a few whispers in each other¡¯s ear, Yang Ping immediately let go. The applause from the stage was like a tidal wave. Who is this guy? What kind of treatment is this? Embraced by the princess of the Su family, he must have saved the universe in his past life. The boys who just presented their flowers were asking one another. The youngest daughter of the Su family, blessed with both beauty and intelligence, was a goddess. Lin Hao¡¯s heart soured, feeling the bitterness seep through his heart. Despite chasing her for so long, he was not even given a proper glance while this guy getting to embrace Xiao Su with just a single flower. ¡°What is going on here? Love at first sight? It can¡¯t be happening that quickly, right?¡± Mrs. Su was dumbfounded. She had just instructed Su Nanchen to create an opportunity for them to get acquainted and now, they were embracing in front of so many people, albeit just a courtesy hug. Professor Su chuckled: ¡°Why are you fretting about the children? Didn¡¯t you notice that Xiao Su showed no interest in Lin Hao, but seems to have a liking for this Yang? I told you she picks her partners with great care, but you wouldn¡¯t believe me.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it my place to worry? Out of all the sons in our family she¡¯s the only girl.¡± Mrs. Su feigned annoyance. ¡°Second sister-in-law is right, Xiao Su is the only girl in our family, how can we not worry?¡± The wife of the third brother supported her sister-in-law¡¯s view. ¡°I just want to make it clear now, when Xiao Su chooses a boyfriend, he must first pass my approval.¡± The wife of Big Brother Su stated. Big Brother Su had yet to arrive, but his wife had already showed up. The Su family tradition promotes harmony and solidarity among siblings, making the family prosperous and united. ¡°Who is this young man?¡± asked the patriarch of the Su family. Although the old man and his wife had silver hair, their eyesight was still keen. ¡°Dad, that¡¯s Nanchen¡¯s friend, a very excellent surgeon!¡± Professor Su immediately introduced him. ¡°Good, she needs to marry a surgeon.¡± the old patriarch asserted stubbornly. ¡°Look, he¡¯s being old-fashionedly adamant again, even trying to control who our granddaughter dates.¡± complained his wife displeased. ¡°If he¡¯s not a surgeon, he¡¯s not entering our home.¡± the old man stubbornly retorted. The grandmother gave a gentle smile: ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter who my granddaughter chooses, as long as she¡¯s happy. Qingyun, even though it¡¯s Xiao Su¡¯s freedom to love, you should still keep an eye on her, she¡¯s young and impressionable.¡± ¡°Mom, don¡¯t worry, we have everything under control.¡± Professor Su assured while pouring tea for his parents. ¡°What specialty does this young man work in?¡± The old man insisted. ¡°Dad, he¡¯s an orthopedic surgeon from Sanbo hospital, he works at the same hospital as Xiao Su. He was even the Chief Surgeon in that Five-section Replantation that happened last time.¡± Professor Su stressed. The old patriarch slightly nodded his head: ¡°Oh, really? That¡¯s good, he¡¯s a rare talent indeed. Cultivate him well, Sanbo is too small for his skills, shift him to our affiliate hospital.¡± Professor Su and Mrs. Su exchanged looks, they just met today and the old patriarch was more anxious than anyone else. The patriarch, now in his nineties, was still in excellent health. He insisted on reading journals and articles, took interest in the medical field. He even knew about the Five-section Replantation operation. He watched it several times, and asked Su Qingyun who performed the surgery. ¡°Dad, don¡¯t worry,¡± Su Qingyun said, not wanting to explain too much. The old couple had seen the two hugging and assumed they were already dating. The old couple lowered their heads again to continue their discussion, others not daring to intervene. ¡°Second Brother! Come on!¡± ¡°Come on!¡± The two clinked their glasses. Third brother, Su Qinghe, was slightly fat. He lacked the charm of his older brother but looked sharp and competent. He sighed, ¡°Second brother, time really does fly. Nanchen is already thirty, and we¡¯re all getting old.¡± ¡°Indeed, seeing them grow up genuinely brings joy.¡± Su Qingyun said contentedly. ¡°Where¡¯s our older brother? Hasn¡¯t he arrived yet?¡± Su Qinghe asked. Su Qingyun lowered his head, saying, ¡°He¡¯s too busy, he¡¯s going to squeeze in just one hour.¡± ¡°It would be nice if our youngest brother could come back. Having all brothers together, it would be so delightful.¡± Su Qinghe wished. The phone of Professor Su rang. Upon checking, he said, ¡°Our oldest brother is here!¡± The eldest of the Su siblings, Su Qingshan, had arrived. Chapter 202 - 0191: Four Generations Under One Roof Chapter 202: Chapter 0191: Four Generations Under One Roof The two got up and immediately went around the crowd to the entrance to meet them. Su Qingshan was already walking on the stone path at the entrance, with three black Hongqi cars parked in the open-air parking lot of the yard. Several guards, their heads shaven and dressed in suits, were scattered around the yard, looking spirited and alert. Accompanied by his oldest son and followed by a guard holding a black document bag, Su Qingshan turned around and kindly said, ¡°Xiao Tang, tell everyone to go inside, rest, and have something to eat.¡± Xiao Tang politely declined. He escorted Su Qingshan to the entrance but did not enter himself. Instead, he remained in the yard, quietly instructing the others through the microphone in his collar. Su Qingyun and Su Qinghe stepped forward to shake hands with their older brother. It was a particularly affectionate reunion with handshakes and shoulder embraces. ¡°Big Brother!¡± ¡°Big Brother!¡± ¡°If you¡¯re busy, you shouldn¡¯t have come. You¡¯ve delayed your time.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? It¡¯s my nephew¡¯s thirtieth birthday today. I had to come no matter how busy I was. Is that Xiao Su playing the piano?¡± In the Su family, Xiao Su is a unique nickname for Su Yixuan. It means she is the youngest, the only girl, and is cherished by everyone. ¡°Yes!¡± Su Qingyun said. As soon as Su Qingshan entered, he immediately made a hushing gesture, signalling not to disturb: ¡°Let¡¯s sneak in!¡± The elderly couple sat, their eyes transfixed on their granddaughter playing the piano, their faces filled with smiles. Su Qingshan walked up to them, standing at attention, bowing deeply, and greeted, ¡°Dad! Mom!¡± ¡°Oh, the eldest is back. You haven¡¯t skipped work, have you?¡± the old man inquired. ¡°No!¡± ¡°Did you take leave?¡± The old man had always been strict with his sons since they were young. ¡°I took leave.¡± Su Qingshan leaned forward, his hands pressed against the seams of his trousers. ¡°Children work hard, can¡¯t we let him sit down and talk?¡± the old lady sympathized. ¡°Big brother! Sit!¡± The several ladies also got up to greet and say hello. ¡°I let him sit down? I haven¡¯t finished asking yet.¡± The old man was stern. ¡°Hmm, Dad, I¡¯m waiting for your questions.¡± Su Qingshan did not dare to sit down. No matter how high his position, in front of the old man, he was extremely respectful, receiving scoldings without daring to reply loudly. ¡°I¡¯ve finished asking, sit down, have a hot cup of tea, it will warm you up.¡± The old man thought for a moment, and didn¡¯t have any more questions. ¡°Everyone, sit!¡± Su Qingshan beckoned, also taking his seat. Su Qingshan was already a grandfather. His oldest son, Su Dongcheng, was slightly older than Su Nanchen, and had already married and had a child. His daughter-in-law had come earlier with the ladies. The grandson, not yet a year old, was passed from the hands of his daughter-in-law to Mrs. Su, then to Su Qingshan. Su Qingshan teased his grandson and said to his son, ¡°Dongcheng, call Nanchen over, I want to congratulate him in person, and also, pack some hot food, choose the best, and send it over to Xiao Tang and his team.¡± The guests of the banquet were originally only the family¡¯s relatives, Su Nanchen¡¯s classmates, and some colleagues from the hospital. However, when some people heard the news, they all rushed over, and naturally, the crowd grew larger. Among these uninvited guests, someone sharp-eyed spotted Su Qingshan¡¯s arrival at the entrance, immediately getting restless, looking for an opportunity to greet him. Gradually, more people received the news that Su Qingshan had arrived and they all wanted to greet him. But in this quiet gathering where the family was happily chatting, it was not convenient to disturb them. They had to look for opportunities, casting glances towards Su Qingshan from time to time, trying to find an opportunity. There were even some people who came presumptuously to the party today, just to greet Su Qingshan. Of the three brothers from the Su family who were present, Su Qingshan held the largest aura. Being in a high position for a long time, he had amassed a strong aura, with an imposing demeanor even without showing anger. Su Qingyun had an air of a proud scholar, like the clear wind in the bright moon. Su Qinghe was different, he was obviously a businessman, fat and cunning. Su Qingshan handed his grandson to his wife. The brothers chatted and laughed, at this moment, everyone only had one identity ¨C siblings. Su Qingshan accepted the tea handed over by Su Qingyun, sipped it while saying, ¡°Haha, look, our family¡¯s little princess is getting better and better at playing the piano. I need to listen carefully, it¡¯s been a while.¡± ¡°We just said that if Xiao Su wants to find a boyfriend, he must pass my test.¡± Su Qingshan¡¯s wife laughed. ¡°Definitely, he also has to pass my test.¡± Su Qingshan said. ¡°Have you been very busy recently?¡± ¡°Very busy!¡± ¡°Big brother, no matter how busy you are, you have to take care of your health. I just told the third brother that we are getting old, and the children are all grown up.¡± ¡°Oh, yes, we¡¯ve watched them crawling from the ground and now they¡¯ve all grown so big.¡± ¡°Uncle!¡± Su Nanchen had come over. ¡°Come over, sit, sit next to your uncle.¡± Dongcheng immediately pulled a chair over and placed it next to his father. ¡°You little rascal, you¡¯re already thirty. Here, this is from your uncle!¡± Su Qingshan shook Su Nanchen¡¯s hand, taking out a red envelope from his bosom. This was a ceremony, a ritual. It didn¡¯t matter how much money was given, it was a form of affection from the elders to the younger generation. ¡°Thank you, uncle. You¡¯re so busy with work and still made the effort to come!¡± Su Nanchen was sweet-tongued. ¡°Nanchen, no matter how busy I am, I had to come. This is a big event. Usually, your uncle doesn¡¯t have time, but no matter what, I had to make time to come.¡± Su Qingshan chatted with Su Nanchen for a while about recent work, marriage, and if there was anything uncle could help with. ¡°You guys go play, don¡¯t worry about us.¡± After chatting, Su Qingshan let go of Su Nanchen¡¯s hand. ¡°Uncle, then we¡¯ll head over first.¡± Su Nanchen excused himself, Dongcheng followed him, as did Dongcheng¡¯s younger brother and the third son. The cousins also had to get together. Xiao Su had finished playing the third piece. After the thunderous applause, Mrs. Su immediately beckoned to Xiao Su. Xiao Su looked at Yang Ping, then at her mother, and walked towards her mother. ¡°Come quickly, Uncle is here!¡± Mrs. Su waved. ¡°Uncle!¡± Xiao Su greeted sweetly. ¡°Quick, quick, come to Uncle.¡± Su Qingshan handed out another red envelope. ¡°Today is Brother¡¯s birthday, and Xiao Su also gets a red packet?¡± Professor Su joked. ¡°Of course! What is our Xiao Su?¡± Su Qingshan laughed. ¡°Thank you, Uncle. Didn¡¯t Grandfather say that I am the moon?¡± Xiao Su took the red packet. ¡°Stars surrounding the moon, ha ha!¡± Su Qingshan was happy. ¡°I¡¯m going to go play, Uncle.¡± Xiao Su didn¡¯t even sit down and was about to leave. ¡°Stay with your uncle for a while, he took time off especially to¡ª¡± Mrs. Su stopped Xiao Su. ¡°Let the child go play. Seeing these children makes me happy.¡± Su Qingshan took a sip of tea. He glanced at the younger son¡¯s cup of coffee: ¡°I¡¯m not used to these foreign things, this is much better.¡± ¡°The youngest has liked these foreign things since he was a child!¡± Professor Su said. ¡°Yeah, we two are very straightforward, he and the youngest are mischievous, always getting scolded by father, their bottoms got beaten quite a bit.¡± Su Qingshan said. The old man immediately waved his hand: ¡°Come here, come here!¡± Xiao Su immediately went over, standing behind her grandfather, with her hands on his shoulders, whispering in his ear. ¡°Here!¡± Grandpa took out a red packet from his pocket. ¡°Dad, wasn¡¯t that already given?¡± Mrs. Su reminded. The old man laughed: ¡°Given already? Then give another one.¡± Grandma took out another one: ¡°Here you go, go play, have fun.¡± Mrs. Su shook her head: ¡°Xiao Su, today is your brother¡¯s birthday, yet you received more red packets than your brother.¡± Xiao Su happily fanned out the red packets, like a child, hopping away. ¡°You eat these things all day, no wonder you look like Piggy.¡± The old man looked at the few chocolates in his hand. Midway through eating, Su Qinghe was stunned by his grandfather¡¯s words, whether to eat or not to eat, the chocolate stopped at his mouth: ¡°Dad, I can¡¯t quit, I¡¯ve liked this since I was little.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with having a candy, eat it!¡± Grandma laughed kindly. Yang Ping, Su Nanchen, Shao Wei, Old Zhou, and others gathered again. Su Nanchen waved and called his sister over. Xiao Su and Yang Ping truly acted as if they were meeting for the first time. ¡°Come, let me introduce you. My sister, Su Yixuan, is a surgery room nurse at your hospital. This is Yang Ping, an orthopedic doctor at your hospital. You guys should have met before, right?¡± Su Nanchen hesitated. Xiao Su shook her head: ¡°I have heard the name, but never met the person. The chief surgeon of the five-section replantation, a famous person in Sanbo Hospital.¡± Yang Ping also said, ¡°You must be in the surgical center, right? I¡¯m in general orthopedics. Our operating rooms are separate, so we barely see each other.¡± ¡°No wonder, I thought being in the same hospital, you would have met at least once. Brother Yang, he¡¯s my good friend. Very talented. Not long ago, I invited him to do the leading surgery for a four-link knee reconstruction at Hospital No.1.¡± Su Nanchen introduced, revealing Yang Ping¡¯s strengths quickly. Honestly, he really hopes that his future brother-in-law is Yang Ping. Through this period of contact, whether it¡¯s talent or character, both are excellent. But feelings can¡¯t be forced. It¡¯s up to fate. He just provides an opportunity for them to interact. Afterward, let nature take its course. Xiao Su looked at Yang Ping and said to her brother, ¡°What did you just call him, Brother Yang?¡± ¡°Yes, he is very good at performing surgeries, better than I am. ¡®The capable one should be treated like a brother.''¡± Su Nanchen explained. ¡°No, no, we can¡¯t call him Brother Yang. We should call him ¡®Yang-di¡¯. He¡¯s younger than you, after all. We certainly can¡¯t call him Brother Yang.¡± Xiao Su was firm. It¡¯s just a title. What¡¯s the obsession? Su Nanchen was confused. This little sister is so amusing. Yang Ping immediately said, ¡°Su-bro, your little sister is right. In the future, you can just call me ¡®Yang-di¡¯.¡± Su Nanchen looks at Yang Ping, then at Xiao Su, it¡¯s weird. They¡¯re taking a simple form of address so seriously. Yang Ping also follows suit and takes it seriously. ¡°You two are from the same hospital. Why don¡¯t you chat for a bit? I still have other things to do. Xiao Su, this is my very good friend, can you show him around for me?¡± Su Nanchen quietly gave instructions to his sister. Xiao Su nodded: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I promise he won¡¯t get lost.¡± Su Nanchen gave a signal, Shao Wei and Old Zhou understood and walked away. Mrs. Su noticed the situation and called Su Nanchen over: ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°The two of them seem to like each other!¡± Su Nanchen shrugged. Mrs. Su smiled brightly: ¡°That¡¯s good. I was worried they wouldn¡¯t hit it off. This youngster has been tested by your father and you already. I can rest assured.¡± ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s really a nice guy. Can¡¯t speak highly enough about his talent and character.¡± Su Nanchen watched Yang Ping and Xiao Su chatting warmly. ¡°They seem to be having a good time chatting. You see!¡± Su Nanchen said secretly. Mrs. Su noticed too and lowered her voice, ¡°Yes, I¡¯m relieved. Trust in a mother¡¯s judgment, it¡¯s never wrong. This young man is more than a bit better than Lin Hao and the others. It really seems to be fate. Your father was also spotted at first glance by your mother. It seems my daughter has inherited my advantages.¡± ¡°Grandfather wants to meet this young man. Bring him over later. Make use of a natural opportunity to introduce him to your grandfather as a friend.¡± Mrs. Su said. Su Nanchen felt embarrassed: ¡°Isn¡¯t that inappropriate? The two of them have just known each other¡ª¡± ¡°What¡¯s inappropriate? Didn¡¯t you hear clearly? As a friend of yours. Don¡¯t you know your grandfather¡¯s temperament? He just watched them hug each other, he won¡¯t give up without getting clarification.¡± Mrs. Su reminded. ¡°Alright then!¡± Su Nanchen was confused. Is today my birthday, or my sister¡¯s matchmaking event? Chapter 203 - 0192: Examination Chapter 203: Chapter 0192: Examination Mrs. Su took her place next to Professor Su again. ¡°This child, don¡¯t you think it¡¯s strange? Among all those people, she hasn¡¯t given anyone a second look, but this Xiao Yang has won her favor,¡± she pondered. ¡°What did I say, there¡¯s no need to worry. This young man is not bad,¡± Professor Su praised incessantly. ¡°Call him over, I want to ask him a few questions,¡± the old master¡¯s ears perked up as he brought it up again. ¡°Dad, they just got to know each other today. Are you really going to call him over and question him?¡± asked Mrs. Su. The old lady was understanding, ¡°Yes, that¡¯s just a social norm among young people. A hug doesn¡¯t mean anything.¡± The old master would not let it go, ¡°She hasn¡¯t hugged any other guys, but she hugged him. Isn¡¯t there something more to it? Call him over. I want to size him up. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t make things awkward. I know my limits.¡± ¡°This?¡± Mrs. Su looked towards Professor Su. They just got to know each other today, and they didn¡¯t even know what the young man¡¯s intentions were. Suddenly calling him over seemed a little inappropriate. Professor Su didn¡¯t care at all, ¡°Call him over, it¡¯s no big deal, relax.¡± ¡°You¡¯re always at ease. I¡¯ve already asked Nanchen to call him over,¡± Mrs. Su could not help but follow the old master¡¯s command. Xiao Su took Yang Ping around. When they got to the pool and realized that they were the only ones around, Xiao Su stretched out her arms, ¡°I¡¯m so happy today!¡± ¡°You ¡ª¡ª are ruthless. You fooled me. You¡¯re the daughter of Professor Su, Nanchen¡¯s sister. How did I not think of it?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t want you to like me because I¡¯m Professor Su¡¯s daughter. I want you to like me because I¡¯m Xiao Su!¡± ¡°Fool, why would you think like that?¡± Xiao Su, noticing they were alone, draped her arms around Yang Ping¡¯s neck in a cutesy manner, ¡°Please forgive me!¡± Could he really not forgive her? She certainly knew how to play her hand! Xiao Su¡¯s slender arms wrapping around him, her cutesy voice ringing in his ears, all of it made Yang Ping melt. But he still stood his ground: ¡°That won¡¯t do. You think it¡¯s that easy to get off the hook? There has to be some penalty.¡± Xiao Su leaned forward and pecked him on the face: ¡°Will this do?¡± ¡°That¡¯s more like it. Consider this a truce,¡± Yang Ping said. The two let go of each other and continued strolling around. As they did, Xiao Su introduced her family members to him, ¡°That¡¯s my oldest uncle, that¡¯s my third uncle. My fourth uncle is in the U.S. and didn¡¯t make it back. That¡¯s my aunt, that¡¯s my third aunt. No need to introduce you to mom and dad. Be prepared, these are all the hurdles you will have to pass. Do you feel confident?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a matter of confidence. For you, I would dare to venture through not just hurdles, but mountains of daggers and seas of flames!¡± Yang Ping thumped his chest. ¡°I certainly would not let you venture through mountains of daggers and seas of flames. Rest assured, with me here, we¡¯ll definitely pass,¡± Xiao Su cupped his mouth. The outside was a bit cold, so after a round trip, they returned indoors. Nanchen was looking for them everywhere. Seeing the two coming in, he pulled Yang Ping aside, ¡°My grandfather wants to ask you a few questions.¡± Xiao Su was also surprised, ¡°Really? Grandpa is going to ask him questions? What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, mom just called me to bring him over,¡± Nanchen shook his head. Did they find out? Is it time to face the trial now? Xiao Su didn¡¯t have a good plan at the moment. She originally wanted Yang Ping to enjoy a gradual process, but now he was being abruptly called for questioning. Xiao Su followed behind, ready to defend him. This was a bit sudden, and Yang Ping was unprepared. Nanchen reassured him, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, everything will be alright. I¡¯ll be by your side. There¡¯s nothing more to it. My grandfather is just an old doctor, probably just wants to ask you about the five-section replantation, and some other professional matters. He heard that you performed the five-section replantation operation and has taken a keen interest in you.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Xiao Su was a bit skeptical. ¡°You stay here,¡± Nanchen told Xiao Su not to follow, as it might complicate the situation. Upon reflection, Xiao Su felt that he was right, following him might just give away the game. With Nanchen there, Yang Ping should be able to handle himself. Nanchen hurriedly accompanied Yang Ping over. In his capacity as a good friend, they arrived before the old master. As they passed by Professor Su, Yang Ping respectfully greeted him. Professor Su seemed quite pleased. ¡°Grandpa, this is my good friend, Yang Ping, Doctor Yang!¡± Upon arriving before the old master, Nanchen introduced Yang Ping. ¡°Grandpa!¡± Yang Ping greeted following Nanchen. The old master sat upright in his chair, scrutinizing Yang Ping up and down. Neither Professor Su nor Mrs. Su could figure out what the old man was up to. They had a sinking feeling, worrying that he was going to make things uncomfortable for the young man. ¡°Hmm, sit down. Don¡¯t be nervous. I just want to ask, I heard you were the chief surgeon for the five-section replantation at Sanbo?¡± The old master¡¯s tone was very kind but stern. ¡°Yes, grandpa, it is a routine surgery,¡± Yang Ping replied. ¡°Which journals do you usually read?¡± ¡°New England Journal of Medicine, AGAM, JBJS¡ª¡± Yang Ping listed the medical journals he often read in his system space as if he were listing his family¡¯s treasures. The old master, a neurosurgeon, was also familiar with orthopedics. He casually picked out a few recent articles from these journals and asked Yang Ping about them. Nanchen was anxious, thinking, who could answer such questions. Yang Ping was also embarrassed, but luckily he often read these journals in his system space and could answer comfortably. Yang Ping immediately answered these questions with profound insight, showing his familiarity. The old master seemed very satisfied. The old master then picked up an article from the latest issue of NATURE REVIEWS NEUROSCIENCE. This was a neurosurgery journal, rarely read by orthopedic surgeons. Nanchen, who was well read, also felt unfamiliar. Anxiety began to set in for Professor Su at the side, ¡°Dad, Yang Ping is an orthopedics major, the article you¡¯re referring to seems to be from a neurosurgery journal?¡± Chapter 204 - 0192: Examination_2 Chapter 204: Chapter 0192: Examination_2 The senior didn¡¯t care, surgeons for the spine abroad are often neurosurgeons, unlike in our country where the majority are orthopedic surgeons. Therefore, Yang Ping is familiar with neurosurgical journals, let alone neurosurgery, he often reads journals of other specialties. As for the senior¡¯s paper, he had read it himself, and he was very familiar with it, so he gave a serious answer and put forth his own unique insights. The severity on the elder¡¯s face eased slightly, his eyebrows relaxed. He picked another completely unrelated article that he had recently read. Su Nanchen was upset inside, he had never heard of this journal, it was completely unrelated to orthopedics, who would read these? Luckily, Yang Ping had also read it, even if he hadn¡¯t, he could still temporarily go to the system library to look up, so no matter how he asked, it wouldn¡¯t faze him, Yang Ping was supremely confident. After his response, the senior man revealed a smile; this was a top-notch journal that he had read in its entirety. Being diligent and studious, that was very valuable. ¡°Is Zhang Zongshun still at your hospital?¡± the old man asked. Yang Ping replied, ¡°Old Zhang is our specially-appointed orthopedic expert.¡± ¡°Last time he fractured his bone, who performed the surgery? I heard the surgery was handled excellently.¡± The elder knew Professor Zhang from their time studying abroad in Soviet Union. They specialized in different fields, but were friends. Old Zhang had been boasting about this operation back then. ¡°Grandpa, I was the one who performed that surgery!¡± Yang Ping had to admit. Old man¡¯s eyebrows shot upward, and he moved his mouth but didn¡¯t ask anymore, dismissing them with a wave, ¡°You guys go play!¡± Zhang Zongshun is known to be extremely particular, his very life was given to him. This young man must have performed the surgery exceptionally well, otherwise, how could the cunning Zhang Zongshun give him the operation? Moreover, he knew about that operation, he started walking immediately the day it was finished, Zhang Zongshun had praised him. Seeing the old man¡¯s expression, the Su family, including Professor Su, Mrs. Su, and Su Nanchen, all breathed a sigh of relief. At least they didn¡¯t embarrass the guest, but this young man, Yang Ping, really does have a broad reading base, even the neurosurgery journals are thoroughly read. As Yang Ping walked away, the old man turned to the side and said, ¡°Qingyun, this boy is a prodigy! Nurture him well, he will accomplish great things in the future!¡± ¡°Brother, is everything okay? What did grandpa want with him?¡± Xiao Su was a bit nervous. Sun Nanchen couldn¡¯t help but laugh, ¡°You have just known him for how long, look at how nervous you are. They were just asking some professional questions, to test him!¡± To test him? Professional knowledge, then there is no need to worry, Xiao Su was no longer nervous. ¡°He answered all of them, and answered very well, he passed the test.¡± Su Nanchen replied. ¡°Where is he?¡± Xiao Su asked. ¡°He went to the restroom.¡± Su Nanchen said. ¡°Did you have a good chat?¡± Su Nanchen asked his little sister. ¡°Didn¡¯t you instruct me to show him around?¡± Xiao Su said matter-of-factly. ¡°Now I¡¯m free, why don¡¯t you go play? I¡¯ll show him around!¡± Su Nanchen intentionally said. Xiao Su did not agree: ¡°No need, you¡¯re busy, I will take care of your friend!¡± Xiao Su pushed her brother far away and then waved her hand, ¡°Go, you have so many guests to entertain.¡± On one side of the hall, the dance floor had been set up and people had already started dancing. Lin Hao saw Xiao Su standing alone and ran over to invite her, ¡°Can we dance?¡± ¡°Dance? Sorry, Lin Hao, I sprained my ankle playing basketball a few days ago!¡± Xiao Su was quite embarrassed. Xiao Su¡¯s close friend saw the scene and immediately came over to help, ¡°Lin Hao, Xiao Su sprained her ankle. Let¡¯s dance together.¡± She pulled Lin Hao away, but not before giving a sign that only they understood. Yang Ping came out of the restroom. Xiao Su pointed to the dance floor, ¡°Sir, may I have this dance?¡± ¡°Dancing? I¨C¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t know how to dance. Xiao Su pulled him, ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯ll teach you!¡± The two went to the dance floor and started dancing. Yang Ping had never danced before, Xiao Su taught him hands-on. Yang Ping proved to be a quick learner, he began to dance rather appropriately after being taught briefly. ¡°Didn¡¯t she sprain her ankle?¡± Lin Hao asked. ¡°Oh, perhaps Dr. Yang treated it for her, maybe it¡¯s better.¡± Xiao Su¡¯s BFF replied. After the dance, the two went to eat. Xiao Su picked up a plate, forked a piece of fruit, and fed it to Yang Ping. Mrs. Su had been watching their situation closely, ¡°See, old Su! Isn¡¯t their progress a bit fast¨C¡± Professor Su looked over and saw Xiao Su feeding fruit to Yang Ping, he only chuckled: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s better faster. Weren¡¯t you always concerned about her personal issues? Now you are satisfied, isn¡¯t it nice that it¡¯s happening quickly?¡± Mrs. Su stared at the scene, ¡°But, it¡¯s too fast, she¡¯s even more decisive than her mother!¡± ¡°Come, come, let¡¯s dance, stop worrying about them. Rest assured, our girl is not ordinary, she¡¯s our daughter after all!¡± Professor Su pulled his wife towards the dance floor. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go dancing!¡± Su Qingshan and Su Qinghe both went with their wives. ¡°Should we go too?¡± The old grandfather suggested. The old grandmother, always smiling kindly, asked, ¡°Is your waist up for it?¡± The old man patted his waist: ¡°I¡¯m still up for a dance.¡± The old grandfather stood straight, took the old grandmother by the hand, and followed his sons to the dance floor. Everyone applauded as the children and their wives quickly cleared a path. Everyone else stepped aside as well, leaving the dance floor for the silver-haired old couple. Professor Su quickly asked Nanchen to change the music. Not long after, an old Soviet Union dance tune came on. The old man hesitated for a moment, gracefully extended an invitation, the old woman reached out her hand, and the two of them spun onto the dance floor. Two ninety-year-olds, moving a bit slowly but as gracefully as possible to the music. Every move, every glance, was on beat, occasionally throwing in some special moves. Everybody stared in astonishment, clapping nonstop. After all, this was a pair of ninety-year-olds. Some people took out their phones to take pictures and record videos. ¡°My grandpa is amazing. He once studied in the Soviet Union and can play the accordion. He plays ¡®Birch Forest¡¯ exceptionally well. My grandma met him in the Soviet Union.¡± ¡°Amazing! Keep going!¡± When the dance ended, everyone cheered for more. ¡®One more, one more!¡¯ ¡°One more time, the old man is in the mood!¡± ¡°Alright, he¡¯s ninety but still a young man.¡± The old woman always smiled kindly. ¡°Let¡¯s dance another one, no problem!¡± The dance style changed from tango to rumba, cha-cha, effortless, and seamless. What a wonderful family! Yang Ping, chin resting on her hand, watched the silver-haired couple. ¡°I can drive you home later?¡± ¡°No need, it¡¯s getting late. You¡¯ll have to come back shortly. I¡¯ll take a taxi home by myself.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, I¡¯ll take you home, and then I¡¯ll go to the dormitory. I¡¯ll come back tomorrow morning.¡± Yang Ping shook her head: ¡°No way! Your parents will think I¡¯ve kidnapped you.¡± ¡°Then you drive my car home.¡± ¡°Even worse, your car is here now. If it¡¯s gone tomorrow, your parents will be even more suspicious.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll just take a taxi back. It¡¯s no problem. You just enjoy the time with your parents.¡± Yang Ping said earnestly. ¡°You¡¯re not mad at me anymore?¡± Xiao Su asked seriously. ¡°Why would I be?¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Really!¡± The party ended around nine, and guests started to leave one after another. Yang Ping said goodbye to Su Nanchen¡¯s family, making sure she followed all the necessary formalities. ¡°Brother Yang¨C¡± ¡°Better call me Younger Brother Yang!¡± ¡°Younger Brother Yang, let me see you off.¡± ¡°You¡¯re busy, don¡¯t worry about me. You go on with what you were doing.¡± Yang Ping declined. Su Nanchen was indeed busy, as a lot of relatives needed his attention and he couldn¡¯t keep up: ¡°Younger Brother Yang, I must insist, please forgive any shortcomings in hospitality.¡± ¡°We¡¯re all brothers here, you don¡¯t need to say such things. Go ahead, I¡¯m fine.¡± Yang Ping pointed over there where someone else was calling for Su Nanchen. Xiao Su escorted Yang Ping to the door and kept walking with her. She said reluctantly, ¡°Take care of yourself on the way back and call me when you get home.¡± ¡°Sure! See you at work the day after tomorrow.¡± ¡°You¡¯re leaving now!¡± ¡°Yes, remember to call when you get there.¡± Chapter 205 - 0193: Unboxing Surgery Chapter 205: Chapter 0193: Unboxing Surgery All day Sunday, Yang Ping was in a bit of a haze. Xiao Su! The daughter of Professor Su, the sister of Su Nanchen, this question lingered in Yang Ping¡¯s mind. Her stunning image of descending the steps in a long dress remained imprinted in his mind. Linking all of her identities together was overwhelming for a moment. No matter whose daughter she was, no matter whose sister she was, Xiao Su was right. She was just Xiao Su, and with that, Yang Ping didn¡¯t think too much about it anymore. On Monday, the 3D reconstruction of Sisi¡¯s condition was completed. The infrared scan reconstruction, which would be directly used for the surgery, stood out. The CT and MRI reconstructions were merely supplementary. Based on the images, the primary tumor had spread excessively in all directions, already pervading the entire hip joint. The treatment protocol would have to be adjusted. The spread of malignant tumors follows several patterns, with tumor cells, like seeds, dispersing through several pathways: hematogenous spread, where the seeds are transported to another location by bloodstream, take root and colonize; lymphatic spread, similar to hematogenous spread, but via lymphatic rather than bloodstream; implantation spread, where the seeds drop to another location and grow, taking territory; and direct spread, where the tumor constantly enlarges, directly expanding and invading other parts. A local resection might involve a too wide area and cause too much damage. Thus, surgery and the ultrasound knife could be combined: first removing the bony tissue tumor, extracting the prosthesis, performing femoral lengthening, and then using the ultrasound knife to treat other peripheral tumors and distant metastases. By seven in the morning, Yang Ping had looked through Sisi¡¯s films and roughly planned the surgical approach. Upon entering the system space, he saw that he only had one task left in sports medicine. Upon completion of this task, he could advance to bone disease training. However, he was not sure what this task would be and when it would be released. After handing over his shift and leading the team for ward rounds, he performed surgeries all morning. Most of the patients in the ward now were undergoing arthroscopic surgery, and the turnover was quick, usually being discharged the day after the surgery. Word-of-mouth spread fast. Many patients were referred by those who had undergone surgery. Gradually, the ward filled to almost capacity. At two in the afternoon, Yang Ping gave a short lecture in the teaching room. Several orthopedic surgeons attended, including a number of medical directors such as Director Han, Director Tan, Director Tian, Director Bai, Director Ouyang, and Director Ding. They also had to discuss the academic conference after the lecture. The lecture¡¯s content mostly centered on the case of rescuing the tree-impaling injury at Shipo and performing laparotomy under the intervention of major vascular occlusion. This surgery is extremely difficult to perform as it often involves major blood vessels and viscera. Anyone who has watched ¡°Grey¡¯s Anatomy¡± would remember a scene where two people were impaled by a steel bar, facing each other. The doctors found themselves in a predicament: if they pulled out the steel bar, one person could survive while the other would die. How cruel! The woman in the show had damaged her aorta and was beyond rescue, so the doctors had to sacrifice her to save the other man, whose injuries were less severe. The damage to the aorta truly signified impending death. Once injured, a significant amount of blood would be lost in a short time, resulting in an instant death in the worst-case scenario. On the screen, the difficult scene from ¡°Grey¡¯s Anatomy¡± played repeatedly until it froze on a frame of the two characters face-to-face, sitting in the ambulance, impaled by a steel bar. Pointing to the screen, Yang Ping said, ¡°Please don¡¯t be misled by television dramas. In the show, the two patients are both lucid, chatting and laughing, indicating a stable vital sign, at least temporary stable blood pressure. Why do they insist on sacrificing one person under these stable conditions? Why can¡¯t they save both?¡± ¡°No way, it was the director¡¯s arrangement!¡± Someone quipped, triggering laughter in the room. Yang Ping also laughed and then continued, ¡°In our nation¡¯s Anzhen and Fuwai hospitals, we have a high success rate for emergency treatment in cases of aortic dissection rupture, which is far more critical than this situation. Can they really afford to chat and laugh after suffering an aortic injury? We should not belittle others, but think scientifically! The surgical method shown in the TV series is extremely primitive. They even considered removing the steel bar ¡ª it is as though they are gambling with a life. You absolutely cannot remove the steel bar under these circumstances. Once removed, everything will be out of control. The method of removing the steel bar is as reckless as pulling random wires during bomb disposal. Can this be done? Of course not! So how should we proceed?¡± Everyone attentively listened, knowing well that Yang Ping¡¯s lectures were always full of insightful points, especially when he talked about surgeries. His words were not rote, but reflections of his own experiences. As for his surgical skills, there was no need to say more; he had created several miracles already. Among the young doctors, some were taking notes, some were recording on their tablets, and some were even recording straight from their phones, a hassle-free method for later review. ¡°Imagine yourselves in a scenario where you have to save these two patients, how would you go about the surgery? Would you pull out the rebar too? We¡¯re not here today to critique the show, but to use this case to provoke our thinking!¡± Yang Ping asked, revealing his goal of utilizing the TV show as an educational tool. Some of the audience were eager to share their thoughts. One young doctor from the trauma orthopedics department stood up, ¡°I have always felt that this is not the best approach. Why not saw the rebar in half from the middle, separating the two people, and then perform the surgery separately in two groups? When cutting the rebar, continuous cooling and some vibration reduction measures can be used!¡± Yang Ping gestured for him to sit down, saying, ¡°Very good! This doctor is absolutely right. The way to handle this case is not by pulling out the rebar, but by cutting it, separating the two patients, and having two teams of doctors perform the surgeries. This is entirely doable. To be precise, this is already step three. Before that, we have two initial steps. What could they be?¡± The audience fell silent, momentarily unable to come up with any suggestions. A doctor from the trauma ICU somewhat uncertainly suggested, ¡°Blood transfusion and fluid replacement?¡± ¡°Correct! It¡¯s as simple as transfusing blood and replacing fluids, this is the first step. It¡¯s the most common, the most effective, and an indispensable step. Trauma, if only threatening to life due to blood loss without causing fatal damage to vital organs, like severe brain injury for example, is theoretically salvageable. The key is speed, whether you can stop bleeding quickly enough and keep up with blood transfusion and fluid replacement. The first step is blood transfusion to maintain blood pressure; the second step is to assess the condition and make an initial judgment about the injury. If possible, do a quick CT scan, if not, explore via surgery immediately. The third step is to separate the rebar. What would the fourth step be?¡± Yang Ping then steered the group¡¯s thought. ¡°The fourth step would be our preoperative occlusion of major blood vessels. We would directly occlude the large blood vessels, like in this patient¡¯s case, clear aortic damage. According to the location, we can occlude the upper part of the aorta, thereby shutting it off completely ¡ª controlling all bleeding from the wound. However, this kind of occlusion has a time limit, for abdominal aorta occlusion, 30 minutes is safe. If we can finish within 30 minutes, the patient can be saved. On one hand, we occlude the blood vessels and stop the bleeding completely; on the other, we transfuse blood and replace fluids to restore the lost blood, thus temporarily achieving a balance in volume and buy some time for a safe surgery.¡± Song Zimo, who participated in this operation, replied. ¡°But isn¡¯t this a high-risk procedure?¡± someone raised their concerns. Yang Ping told the crowd, ¡°All our procedures are high risk. Surgery is like flying a fighter jet, there is no absolute safety. Completing all procedures under risk is a fundamental characteristic of surgical operations, so you all need to have extensive knowledge, skilled operation techniques, and a cool head. Once major blood vessels are occluded, we move to the fifth step: the open-box surgery.¡± The audience gasped. Theyd had never heard about the term ¡®open-box surgery¡¯. Standing in the center of the demonstration room, Yang Ping waited for everyone to quiet down, explaining, ¡°This is the highlight of today¡¯s discourse. ¡®Open-box surgery¡¯ is a term I have chosen after much thought. It simply means opening the box to identify and resolve the problem. How we ¡®open the box¡¯ depends on the location of the damage ¨C as established by a CT Scan or a simple estimation ¨C whether it¡¯s in the abdominal cavity or the chest cavity. Follow the path of the rebar, fully expose its trajectory, then consistently stop the bleeding and conduct repairs along this route before finally extracting, not pulling out, the rebar!¡± ¡°The process is like dismantling a bomb. It¡¯s about opening the bomb casing, exposing all the components and wires inside, and then carefully disassembling it step by step.¡± ¡°For the patient shown, even the most critical one could have the aorta repaired within half an hour. If not as quickly as that, we can use a technique called large-vessel bridging, bypassing the damaged area from the proximal to distal end, temporarily diverting the blood around the injured site. This method can both ensure blood supply to the lower half of the body and allow you to slowly repair the damaged aorta. Another approach we often use in thoracic surgery for dealing with aortic dissection is the implantation of artificial blood vessels. This can even be done minimally invasively. There are numerous options. Why should we give up? Watch a few sessions of interventional surgery for aortic dissection and you¡¯ll understand. This is not difficult. Once you get familiar with anything, it¡¯s no longer difficult. That¡¯s why we need to thoroughly understand. The surgery for treating aortic dissection can be applied to trauma surgery. Why can¡¯t we carry out the same routines for abdominal or chest exploration we do on a daily basis on steel-rebar penetrating injuries? Why do we pull the rebar out, adopting such a foolish approach?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine in theory, but difficult in practice!¡± someone murmured, as not everyone had come across such a case. The screen swiftly switched to rescue photos from Shipo Hospital, ¡°Look, this is a real-world success story ¡ª the application of theory. Theory guides practice, and practice refines theory. Don¡¯t separate theory from practice!¡± This case was far more severe than the ones shown on TV, and yet it was successful. Yang Ping said, ¡°It¡¯s not just me who has successfully treated such patients. Mo Sixth, Jishuitan, and many other hospitals across the country have successfully rescued cases of severe trauma. Even thoracoabdominal penetrating injuries, I can say responsibly that if the two patients shown on TV were treated at Mo Sixth or Jishuitan, neither would have to be sacrificed; both could be saved. The same is true if they were admitted to Sanbo.¡± Director Han stood up and addressed everyone, ¡°Soon, we are going to have an academic conference. During the conference, we will livestream a major trauma emergency surgery. Tokyo University Hospital will live broadcast simultaneously. Director Tan has received some full-clip videos of their major trauma rescue surgeries. You will see how the world¡¯s top rescue processes work, how surgeries are performed, how teams cooperate. Executing each procedure well and to the utmost is a completely different domain. Those engaged in general surgery know this, the cure rate for stomach cancer in Japan is over 80%. Do you know what that means? Our rate is 30%, and the United States¡¯ is 60%!¡± Next, Yang Ping went into the surgery details of the case where Shipo had a tree penetrating injury: how to occlude the blood vessels, how to ¡®open the box¡¯, how to explore, and how to repair. Chapter 206 - 0194: The Rescue That Silences Everyone Chapter 206: Chapter 0194: The Rescue That Silences Everyone The mini-lecture on open-chest surgery was over, but everyone still couldn¡¯t get enough. They asked to replay the surgical images more slowly. The chest cavity, split open from the sternum in the middle, opened to both sides, the exploration went from the front to the back, all the way to the spine on the rear side, leaving no blind spots, no omissions; Likewise, the abdomen, also with a vertical incision, fully opened to both sides, fully revealing the injured areas. In this case, there were two short nails on the wooden stake, which had punctured the abdominal aorta. Looking at the images, when the injured aorta was revealed, the nails were still hooked in the abdominal aorta. When the images of the injured abdominal aorta were magnified, everyone was terrified, sighing deeply. If the wooden stake had been pulled out directly, the nails would have torn the aorta further, and the patient still breathing would have died instantly from massive blood loss, without any chance of undergoing surgery. ¡°Time is life! In such surgeries, one second can decide life and death!¡± Yang Ping added from the podium. Speed up, speed more, and even more! This is the rhythm of such rescue surgeries. There are countless places bleeding, like numerous broken faucets that are all gushing water, it is impossible to shut them all off at the same time. This requires a judgment to be made about which one to shut off first. First turn off the faucet that is gushing out the fastest, then shut off the others one after the other in sequence. That¡¯s the thought process ¨C this is a matter of surgical priority. With the order of things now resolved, the next step is hemostasis. For instance, in the event of a ruptured spleen, perform splenectomy. But before it is removed, it will still bleed. In order to reduce bleeding and minimize the risk, a vascular occlusion procedure is employed to resolve this contradiction. It¡¯s like all these faucets are spewing water, and I know which one to turn off first and which one to turn off later. But I can¡¯t, because there¡¯s water everywhere, I can¡¯t even see clearly where these faucets are. Even if I manage to notice them, I¡¯m too busy trying to stop the water to attend to them all. In such a situation, turn off the main switch first, stopping all the faucets under its jurisdiction. This way, it¡¯s clear which ones are the biggest and which ones are the smallest. Then, calmly close these faucets in sequence, fix what needs fixing, and directly shut off what needs shutting off. The main switch can¡¯t be off for too long, because other people still need water. Therefore, try to complete the operation within the allowed time, and then turn the main switch back on. The faucets won¡¯t spew water anymore. Tan Boyun was watching the screen intently. His area of expertise is trauma orthopedics, and he has lots of accomplishments in this field. These types of surgeries indeed involve high difficulty and high risks. Surgeons must not only operate very quickly but also have a thorough understanding of anatomy. For this case, the aorta is blocked quite high up, after the division into the head/trunk branches, and the blockage can only last about twenty minutes. According to the introduction, this surgery was completed within twenty minutes. These short twenty minutes involved complex explorations, repairs to the aorta, liver, pancreas, duodenum, and diaphragm, as well as ligation and hemostasis at multiple locations. This level of familiarity with anatomy is unimaginable. I can¡¯t fathom the level of skill required to complete such a series of procedures within twenty minutes. If I were the lead surgeon, I definitely couldn¡¯t finish within twenty minutes. Temporary vascular bridging techniques or artificial vascular implantation must be used to stop the bleeding from the abdominal aorta. Only then is there time to slowly carry out the subsequent steps. If it weren¡¯t for this meeting discussing this case, Director Tan wouldn¡¯t have known that Yang Ping was this capable. To be able to perform such surgery with such apparent ease is impressive. Fatty raised his hand and scratched his head, saying ¡°Dr. Yang, you¡¯re incredibly skilled, but not everyone is as skilled as you. Even after you explain this surgery, if I encountered the same case, I still wouldn¡¯t be able to do it in the same way. Is there a simplified method for such trauma surgery? For example, photography¡ªprofessional cameras have focal length, light settings, and are so complicated. By comparison, point-and-shoot cameras, although they don¡¯t capture photos as well as professional cameras, do produce satisfactory photos with a simple press of the shutter.¡± True, Fatty hit the nail on the head, bringing up the issue everyone was pondering. Everyone was waiting for Yang Ping to answer. Fatty narrowed his eyes into a thin line, awaiting the answer as well. Director Bai, sitting next to him, said: ¡°That¡¯s right, Xiao Yang, for a surgical procedure to be suitable for mass replication, it has to be replicable. If it can¡¯t be replicated, it can¡¯t be promoted, and you need to figure out how to make this operation more accessible. Only in this way can we save more lives.¡± Director Han said with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s the subject of Xiao Yang¡¯s upcoming talk, and part of our ongoing effort to improve the entire trauma emergency response protocol. Xiao Yang has put a lot of effort into creating a modular surgical process, which we¡¯ll discuss shortly. Everyone, please be patient, and let¡¯s watch a video on large-scale trauma rescue at Tokyo University Hospital first.¡± Yang Ping returned to his seat to rest, and Dr. Zhong went up to the stage and retrieved a video from his computer. ¡°This is a large-scale rescue operation following a serious traffic accident. The whole video, starting from the emergency department to the end of the surgery, is a live recording of the full process. Please watch it carefully, and don¡¯t film it or disseminate it, as this was privately provided by a friend who was training there. They filmed it to assess areas for improvement in the process and strive for excellence.¡± The doctors who had been using their phones to take pictures and record videos put them away. Everyone started to pay close attention to the video, because it represented the international pinnacle of trauma rescue standards. ¡°Let¡¯s play the video at normal speed first. Then replay it in slow motion. When we slow it down, Director Tan can explain it to everyone.¡± Director Han instructed Director Tan. Director Tan replied, ¡°Okay, Director! Everyone should watch it carefully. That way, my explanation will be more accurate and meaningful.¡± The video started playing. The emergency transport beds, one after another, brought the casualties to the emergency center hall. The patients¡¯ clothes were all cut off, with only specialized blankets left covering them. The doctors and nurses of the emergency department, already divided into teams, are waiting in the hall. As soon as the injured appear, they immediately take charge of their patients. The doctors make preliminary judgments on the injuries and arrange the next treatment steps; nurses measure vital signs and administer blood transfusions. Nearly without pause, everything seems well-prepared in advance, all done during the transport of patients on the stretcher. The stretchers start to branch off in the hall, being pushed towards different areas. Those needing emergency surgery are sent to the surgical area; those not requiring emergency surgery are taken to another area. The camera follows one patient needing emergency surgery, entering the surgical area. The doors have been opened in advance. The first stop seems to be the CT room for an emergency CT scan. The height of the stretcher matches the CT platform, having been adjusted in advance. The stretcher docks with the CT platform, and the patient is swiftly and smoothly pulled onto the platform. The patient¡¯s stretcher doesn¡¯t need to be dismantled as it¡¯s X-ray transparent and can pass through the CT. The patient undergoes a high-speed CT scan. Once the scan is done, they are immediately transferred to the connecting stretcher on the other side of the CT platform. Pulled onto the stretcher, they are taken to the next station ¨C the operating room. The hallway connecting the operating room and CT room is a straight line. The patient enters from the CT room side, and once the check is completed, they exit from the other side, are taken down the hall, and directly pushed into the operating room where doctors and nurses are ready to receive them. Once the stretcher is pushed to the entrance, they take over. The connection between both stations is fully open and straight-line, with no obstacles, no unnecessary turns or detours, offering straight and clear access. Upon entering the operation room, the stretcher aligns perfectly with the bed, and the patient is pulled onto the operation bed. Only then is the detachable stretcher dismantled from both sides. The doctors participating in the surgery have already prepared themselves in surgical gowns and are waiting. Assistants start disinfecting and laying out the sterile sheets, while the chief surgeon reviews the patient¡¯s CT scan report and images. The efficiency is very high. As soon as the disinfection is done, the CT room has already transmitted images and reports. The patient¡¯s CT images and reports appear on the LCD screen, the control panel of which is covered with a sterile membrane. The chief surgeon directly controls and reviews the emergency case files and CT data, first reading the report to quickly gather information, then studying the 3D reconstructed images. Simultaneously, a reference opinion on the surgical method is given, providing guidance on what injuries there are, which should be treated first, which later, including specific surgical methods. The patient has an aortic rupture, splenic rupture, and multiple duodenal ruptures. The chief surgeon first stops the aortic blood flow, then repairs the aorta, then carries out a splenectomy, releases the aortic obstruction, and finally treats the liver rupture, duodenal rupture, and other injuries. The surgical procedure is highly scientific, and the surgery is successfully completed in the end. From the moment the emergency stretcher appears in the emergency department, the entire process, with the doctors and nurses working together like precise gears, seems like a well-rehearsed routine. No matter how you look at it, you can¡¯t find any flaws, connection errors, or wasted time. The whole process takes just over an hour, with most of the time spent on the operation table, primarily following the completion of the aortic obstruction. Thus, for the majority of time, the patient is in a controllable state. That is, after being handed over to the doctor, the patient¡¯s condition is stabilized. From the emergency hall to the operating table, including the intermediate CT scan, it takes less than ten minutes ¨C merely a few minutes to get onto the operation table, undergoing an examination and having a clear understanding of the injuries and a mature surgical plan. This is just a rescue surgery for one patient. The rescue procedures for other patients are also shown one by one. The speed at which each patient is rescued is practically the fastest, with no delays, as if it were intentionally filmed. The entire process and the scene are smooth and tidy, with not a single hint of chaos. Even after completing a surgery, all waste in the operating rooms is thrown into bins, leaving no mess. One patient, upon arrival at the emergency department, immediately underwent aortic balloon occlusion surgery for temporary hemostasis; another patient with multiple rib fractures, tension pneumothorax, and cardiac arrest had thoracotomy directly in the ambulance and was subjected to intrathoracic compression. When the video finished playing, everyone drew a breath. The entire venue was silent. The doctor who had been joking earlier and impatiently whispered, ¡°Why watch a video of the Japanese...¡± also fell silent. Some doubted, guessing it was fake, intentionally filmed to show off to everyone, right? How could it be so fast and perfectly coordinated? Rescues would at least create a bit of chaos and waste some time, wouldn¡¯t they? ¡°This is a video of their regular trauma emergency surgery!¡± Director Tan¡¯s words broke the silence and dispelled everyone¡¯s doubts. ¡°The participating doctors are ordinary doctors. There¡¯s a scene where a lecturer, equivalent to our attending physician, operates on a liver and spleen rupture in twelve minutes. The one who operated earlier had an aortic rupture, liver and spleen rupture, and duodenum rupture. The surgery took an hour, and the surgeon was also a lecturer.¡± ¡°Each physician at this level possesses such skills. For a top-level professor like Fujiwara Masao, he hasn¡¯t even performed such surgeries. He simply repairs the aorta and never takes more than two minutes!¡± ¡°Without comparison, there¡¯s no recognition of the gap. It¡¯s not scary to have a gap. What¡¯s scary is to turn a blind eye, to not admit the gap. I just heard someone say, ¡®I¡¯m busy with surgeries, why watch a Japanese surgical video, where are they better than us?¡¯ Now you see? Do you know where their superiority lies?¡± Director Han stood up, stating each word solemnly. ¡°To surpass others and to become stronger, you have to do it with your hands, not your mouth. Do you understand?¡± Chapter 207 - 0195: The Ultimate Hand Speed Chapter 207: Chapter 0195: The Ultimate Hand Speed ¡°Should I show you another video? Xiao Song, please play it for everyone!¡± Director Han said calmly. Song Zimo went on stage, inserted a USB drive into the computer, and opened a video. The video wasn¡¯t as clear as the previous one, but it was still watchable. A doctor with gloves on, not wearing a surgical gown but only scrub clothes, appeared to be outdoors because the patient was lying on the ground and the doctor was kneeling beside an open emergency medical kit. The doctor quickly disinfected the patient¡¯s chest and laid down a layer of perforated cloth typically used for minor surgeries like wound cleanings or suturing. Afterward, he made a cut between the patient¡¯s left ribs, used a chest opener to expose the chest cavity, and blood gushed out. He used his left hand to stop the bleeding, while his right hand cut open the pericardium and switched to a needle holder with a thread to suture inside. The whole operation was carried out amidst a fountain of blood. In a short time, the surgery was completed, the bleeding had stopped, and the incision was finally closed. This video seemed unremarkable from start to finish. With just over three minutes in duration, it didn¡¯t show much. Director Han stood up and walked to the podium: ¡°Did many of you fail to understand what just happened? This was a surgery performed by Fujiwara Masao when he was a lecturer, which is equivalent to a chief physician.¡± ¡°This surgery was performed on the scene of an accident, the entire operation took three minutes and twenty-four seconds. The patient had a ruptured heart. The disinfection, laying of the sterile drapes, the opening of the chest, pericardium, suturing the rupture in the heart, and closing the incision were all completed by one person in three minutes and twenty-four seconds.¡± ¡°Think about it, is three minutes and twenty-four seconds enough for disinfection? For opening the chest? Amidst the blood, can you locate the rupture in the heart? How to suture the rupture in the heart when blood is gushing out like a fountain?¡± ¡°That was an accident scene with no auxiliary equipment, a completely manual surgery which relied solely on Fujiwara Masao¡¯s perfected surgical skills. Now, consider if three minutes and twenty-four seconds are sufficient to suture a finger wound?¡± ¡°This operation has become a classic example of trauma emergency surgery, unsurpassed to this day. This video is repeatedly broadcasted in advanced trauma surgical training courses in the United States and Europe.¡± A ruptured heart! Surprisingly, it was managed in just over three minutes. This required extraordinary speed, courage, and mental endurance. Typically, trauma of this nature results in on-site death, as waiting for rescue on the accident scene and then transport to the hospital are time-consuming. This time-frame often causes such patients to lose their chance of rescue. Only someone like Fujiwara Masao, a freak, would dare and be able to perform this type of surgery on the scene. ¡°This video showcases trauma emergency surgery to its extreme. Fujiwara Masao is presently a professor at the Tokyo University Hospital, the chief professor of Orthopedics and the Trauma Emergency Center.¡± ¡°He has trained many doctors, including a few genius surgeons, such as the younger generation Takahashi. You will meet Takahashi at the academic conference. Whether it¡¯s the anterior or posterior approach for the spine, he generally takes half an hour and hardly loses any blood. The time he takes to repair the aorta in critical conditions is no more than two minutes, reaching the level of his teacher.¡± ¡°There¡¯s little over a month left until the conference. Doctor Yang will lead you through rounds of training, from surgical operations, emergency procedures, to team collaboration. We hope that through this training, everyone will level up. Director Tan, would you explain this video to everyone again?¡± Director Han returned to his seat to rest. At this point, anesthesiologists, operating room nurse managers, nurses, and ER doctors and nurses gradually came in. The next step was to discuss the topics for the academic conference. Dean Xia also came in. He beckoned, and Old Han stepped outside. The two of them went to Old Han¡¯s office to sit for a while. Dean Xia happily said, ¡°Xiao Yang¡¯s staffing issue has been resolved. The Human Resources Department will assign someone to guide him through the paperwork for his appointment. We specifically requested a staffing position for him.¡± In G City, getting a staffing position in big hospitals is extremely difficult. The files of Doctors would generally have to be circulated in the talent market for one to three years before possibly getting the position. For those with a Master¡¯s degree, there¡¯s basically no hope, as some hospitals have an indefinite waiting period for positions. Currently, a staffing position is extremely valuable. This is an unreasonable issue left over from the old system, but there¡¯s no solution. Holding a staffing position involves aspects of salary, status, and retirement pension. In short, the difference between having and not having a staffing position is huge. Some hospitals claim to have abolished the staffing system, but it¡¯s not thorough. Most people can¡¯t get a staffing position, yet a small number of people can. These few people hold great power. Someone like Yang Ping, who has a Master¡¯s degree, wouldn¡¯t normally have a chance to obtain a staffing position at Sanbo. Dean Xia and Director Han, in an effort to retain talent, had gone to great lengths to secure a staffing position especially for him. ¡°Yeah, if we don¡¯t offer competitive benefits, how could we retain talent?¡± ¡°You need to secure this young man, Old Han. We can¡¯t let others headhunt him. I¡¯ve heard there¡¯s some movement on that front from the First Affiliated Hospital.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, they can¡¯t steal him away.¡± ¡°We must not be careless, keep in mind that Old Su is famous for his love of talent.¡± Dean Xia reminded him: ¡°Others may not know, but you and I know that Xiao Su is affiliated with the operating room. It¡¯s just that Old Su gave us an alert, and we pretended not to know. I¡¯m just afraid of this relationship¨C¡± Old Han tapped gently on the table, seeming lost in thought: ¡°I understand this kid, don¡¯t worry! Besides, if the day comes when he must leave, he will, and neither you nor I can stop him. We can only be happy for him.¡± Dean Xia said: ¡°Old Su and I share a deep bond, so I believe he won¡¯t make too much fuss either. The conditions we offer Xiao Yang are quite good now, Xiao Yang should be content, and Old Su should be pleased.¡± ¡°Old Xia, don¡¯t worry too much about this. Looking at this missy from the Su Family, I reckon she¡¯s an independent kid. She didn¡¯t go to First Affiliated Hospital but chose our Sanbo instead. Old Su wasn¡¯t bold enough to make it public and he secretly asked us to take care of her without letting her know. Under these circumstances, he wouldn¡¯t dare to make a move, right?¡± Old Han reasoned. Dean Xia nodded: ¡°In any case, let¡¯s stay vigilant and try our best to keep the talented ones here. We¡¯re getting old and the future of Sanbo depends on them. Seeing these young people really excites me. These kids are going to surpass us.¡± The two chatted for a while and then returned to the lecture hall, where Director Tan was explaining a video. Everyone was captivated. The video seemed to create a huge impact, revealing the real gap. ¡°This video, without any editing, is their regular rescue record, that is, their actual level of competence, and all the rescuers involved are mid-to-lower-level doctors.¡± ¡°Let me elaborate, the job titles of Japanese doctors are complicated. In university affiliated hospitals, they are generally divided into assistant professors, lecturers, associate professors, and professors, corresponding to our resident doctors, attending physicians, deputy chief physicians, and chief physicians. In our terms, all the rescuers involved in this video are attending physicians and resident doctors. None of the higher-ranking doctors were on stage.¡± ¡°This shows that their overall strength is very high. You¡¯ve just seen part of the rescue. There was also a patient with serious spleen rupture, who was given surgery right on the ambulance at the scene. Except for one death on the spot due to brainstem damage, all the others were saved. Of course, this has to do with the severity of the injuries. But it also proves a point. Once these patients were in their hands, as long as they were salvageable, they were stabilized quickly, everything became controllable, and the success rate of the rescue was maximized.¡± ¡°Look, from the moment they admitted into the emergency room to being in the operating room, they completed all pre-operation preparations and full-body CT scans. The surgery started only eight minutes after admission. That¡¯s an incredible pace, isn¡¯t it? From the ER directly to the operating room without any inspection, I¡¯m afraid we couldn¡¯t even make it to the operating room in eight minutes?¡± ¡°Upon entering, the blood transfusion had began. On the operating table, everything was made clear with a very detailed surgical plan. The entire surgery only lasted an hour.¡± ¡°Every step, every coordination has been optimized to the max. The information communication in pre-hospital emergency, emergency center, CT room, operation room is very smooth. After admission to the hospital, everything is completed in the emergency center, within the same floor, the same area. In less than two minutes, the CT report and images are out. This really tests doctor¡¯s ability to read and interpret films. The surgical plan also came out, very detailed and accurate, which also severely tests a doctor¡¯s decision-making level.¡± ¡°We should not only learn from them, but also from the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom in the future. We should learn from anyone who is more advanced than us. If we work hard and take it seriously, we can definitely surpass them. But as Director Han just said, empty words won¡¯t help. To paraphrase a popular saying nowadays, don¡¯t dream of defeating the enemy with just a keyboard¨C¡± ¡°With their methods as a reference, as well as other hospitals¡¯, and considering our own situation, we¡¯ve improved the process of our trauma emergency center. Take a look¨C¡± ¡°Ah, another point, why can they transfuse blood so quickly? Their emergency medical services on the scene are equipped with blood supplies. On-site blood drawing, on-site results, on-site blood type determination, on-site blood transfusion. When the patient reached the hospital, they took another blood sample, determined blood type again, and implemented subsequent transfusion. If the helicopter is dispatched, not only will it transport the most severely injured, it will also bring back blood samples from all the wounded for blood cross-matching in the hospital in advance to prepare for subsequent transfusion. Their means of bleeding control on the scene are also very extensive. In short, when it comes to bleeding control and transfusion, they really save every possible second!¡± After Director Tan finished his speech: ¡°Does anyone have any comments, or questions about the video?¡± Usually in meetings, someone would break the tension with a joke or two during these pauses. But today¡¯s meeting was gloomy, even the usual jesters kept quiet. No one spoke, no one asked questions, not even a chance to take a sip of water. Under the tremendous pressure, it felt like the air was suffocating. Damn it! Fujiwara Masao, this freak of nature, hosting a meeting for you guys and concurrently live broadcasting it to us at Sanbo. You are so capable, so many people can¡¯t surpass you, why don¡¯t you with the Yanks or the Germans instead of live broadcasting to us? Publicly, it¡¯s called exchange, but in reality, it¡¯s just showing-off and bullying! Some have already started swearing in their hearts, feeling terrible! Chapter 209 - 0197 Extra Homework Chapter 209: Chapter 0197 Extra Homework An academic conference became a matter of paramount importance at Sanbo Hospital. After careful review and discussion within the hospital, and strongly advocated by Professor Zhang Zongshun, the hospital has granted full surgical privileges for trauma surgery to Yang Ping and Song Zimo. That is, Yang Ping can now perform trauma surgeries on the spine, pelvic region, limbs, chest, abdomen, and cranium besides her usual operations. Normally, chest injury surgery is performed by thoracic surgeons, abdominal injury surgery is performed by the departments of general surgery, urological surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology, and cranial trauma surgery is performed by neurosurgeons. This division of labor is due to the specialization of different doctors and it¡¯s a global practice. However, some of the world¡¯s top trauma centers have begun to train comprehensive surgeons. These comprehensive surgeons are capable of dealing with trauma from any part of the body. Previously, poly-trauma surgeries that required cooperation across multiple departments can now be performed by a single comprehensive trauma surgeon. This allows doctors to have a holistic understanding and handle trauma, thus avoiding the inefficient segmentation of poly-trauma treatments. The trauma center of Tokyo University¡¯s affiliated hospital has already trained such top comprehensive trauma surgeons, such as Takahashi Fumiya¡¯s team. Yang Ping¡¯s ability to perform poly-trauma surgeries was fully demonstrated during the major rescue at Shipo, and Song Zimo had undergone multiple training in poly-trauma surgery from his postgraduate studies to his career. Thus, both of them have this capability. To avoid the inefficiencies from the segmented treatment of poly-trauma, the hospital granted them full surgical privileges for entire body trauma. In emergencies, they can operate without needing interdepartmental cooperation. After the meeting, training commenced the next day, and the integrated orthopedic outpatient clinic also stopped accepting patients, allowing Yang Ping to focus on the departmental physician¡¯s training. According to the training process, Yang Ping will first develop four training instructors, who will begin training others after passing the exam. Song Zimo is a diligent person who almost persisted in taking two-hour trainings in the orthopedics training room every day. Yang Ping often guides him in his daily routines and believes that Song Zimo doesn¡¯t need training and can proceed directly to the exam. In the morning, Yang Ping personally carried out theory and operation tests on Song Zimo. Whether it was theory or practice, Song Zimo achieved full marks in the exams. For the theoretical exam, the department purchased a computer question bank from a medical examination training institution. There are a large number of questions in it. These questions are of very high quality and are sourced from professional exams conducted domestically and internationally over the years. The questions essentially cover anatomy, physiology, pathology, pathophysiology, basic orthopedic theory, and basic surgery. Each exam can randomly generate a test paper from the question bank, with two hundred questions, all with multiple choices. Incorrect or multiple answers will deduct marks, making the exam quite challenging. Yang Ping randomly generated three test papers for Song Zimo to do, with all of them scored 100 and quickly completed. Yang Ping also attempted to test Director Tian, Dr. Jin, and Dr. Zhong. If they pass, there will be no need for further training, thus saving time. Director Tian scored 95 in theory and about 96 in operation; Dr. Jin scored 92.5 in theory and just over 91 in operation; Dr. Zhong scored 90 in theory and just over 90 in operation. Even without any preparation, the fact that they barely passed is quite impressive. As there were many different items in the operation, each item is scored out of one hundred. The final score is an average of all items, thus the decimals. These few were already the cream of the crop. If other experts were to sit for the exam without any training, almost all of them would undoubtedly fail. After the internal testing from the training team was completed, the examination for Director Han and Director Tan began in the afternoon. The directors of several departments were present, as were all other doctors who were free, supervised by Dean Xia. Everyone initially thought it was a mere formality, but the examination method made it clear this was not the case. Theoretical exams were taken on a computer, the test paper was randomly generated from a question bank on the spot, and the results were announced immediately after submission. For the operating tests, candidates were evaluated in front of everyone, and the scores were given right on the spot, leaving no room for subterfuge. To prove that the two directors were not favored by Yang Ping, a Q&A session was added. Each person in the audience received a piece of paper, wrote down a question anonymously, collected, and read out by Yang Ping for the directors to answer on the spot. Everyone, including Director Bai, no longer thought the directors were simply going through the motions. Who would dare to accept such a test? Yet, under such circumstances, without any prior preparation and relying on their everyday skills, Old Han scored full marks in both theory and practice. He answered 8 questions on the spot, none of them answered incorrectly or incompletely. Tan Boyun scored 95 in theory and 95 in operation, and correctly and fully answered all 14 questions asked on the spot. This left everyone speechless. The abilities of the two directors were beyond doubt. This was under circumstances where no preparation was made. Several directors of training groups and some curious doctors all took part in the mock exam and they all failed miserably. None of them scored above eighty, but of course, following Director Han¡¯s suggestion, the scores were not made public. Once the test was completed on the computer, everyone handed in their test papers. The scores were immediately released and only they themselves knew the results. One by one, they felt a chill in their hearts. Especially the directors of the groups, they discovered a great gap after experiencing this. The others were either achieving full scores or close to full marks, while their own results were abysmal. Despite being a deputy medical director or medical director and even obtained a master¡¯s degree in guidance, they were still short of eighty. If they argued that the questions were too basic, well, others had solved them. Fatty joked, why not have Doctor Yang give it a try? Dr. Zhong was particularly curious about what score Yang Ping could get, so he joined in the clamor. Dr. Zhong came with Director Tan from Fuer. he¡¯d been tormented by Yang Ping as soon as he arrived and felt somewhat disgruntled. If everyone insists, I¡¯ll give it a try. Yang Ping saw everyone¡¯s enthusiasm and decided to satisfy their curiosity. In the theoretical test, three consecutive test papers, six hundred questions, scanning ten lines at a glance, constantly clicking the mouse. Almost every one or two seconds a question was answered, scoring one hundred percent three times in a row. In the practical exam, it was a joke. He was admitted to this hospital by passing the practical test. Knotting, hemostasis, making incisions, dissection, suturing, his eyes were almost blurred. Instrument manipulation felt like juggling in his hands. The way Song Zimo hid scissors while suturing made Dr. Zhong unable to watch directly. Yang Ping was juggling instruments in his hands like a magician now. Suturing was completed neatly, almost indistinguishable from that done by precision machinery. He made 250 square knots and 500 positive and negative knots in one minute. Dr. Zhong counted again and again, could he achieve half of those results? Impossible! ¡°You¡¯d better stop testing him. Let¡¯s maintain some self-confidence, that¡¯s enough. You see, even I dare not to bring it up!¡± Song Zimo said to Dr. Zhong. It was getting late and it was pointless to continue. No wonder he is the training group leader. No wonder he was exempt from exams. No wonder he was chosen to train directors, with this level of skill¨C Not to mention him, even Song Zimo underneath him probably couldn¡¯t surpass him, Dr. Zhong had to admit he was impressed. ¡°Xiao Yang, you¡¯ve worked hard these days!¡± Dean Xia, Director Han and Director Tan withdrew. People began to disperse slowly. As people left, Song Zimo finally found an opportunity: ¡°I¡¯ve been practicing the tossing you talked about last time. When I¡¯ve mastered it, can you teach me the balancing adjustment of the four-link reconstruction?¡± ¡°Once you¡¯ve mastered it, not only the balancing of four-link reconstruction, but also many other things I can teach you. Put this matter aside for now.¡± ¡°I have an assignment for you. Draw a human anatomy diagram without referring to any books, just based on your memory. Systemic and local anatomical parts of the whole body should be drawn.¡± ¡°If you can¡¯t draw, don¡¯t go on stage with me at the academic conference, be prepared to sit on the cold bench by then.¡± Having said that, Yang Ping ignored him. ¡°Hey, Senior Brother? This wasn¡¯t in the exam, was it?¡± ¡°I added it, I¡¯m the team leader!¡± ¡°Senior Brother?¡± ¡°This is just the first assignment, there¡¯ll be a second one after this, even harder! Don¡¯t you want to be the best surgeon?¡± It was time to get off work. Xiao Su was still waiting for him to have dinner together. He left the training room lights to Song Zimo to turn off, he still had two hours of training to do. Song Zimo stood there in a daze. It wasn¡¯t until Yang Ping was several meters away that he called out, ¡°Thank you! I¡¯ll do my best¨C¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t look back, he just gave him a thumbs-up in response. Chapter 210 - 0198: Rubbing Hands in Glee Chapter 210: Chapter 0198: Rubbing Hands in Glee Xiao Su is also quite busy as she needs to train the operating room instrument nurses. The two hastily ate dinner in the cafeteria. Tang Fei greeted them with a boxed meal in hand, and even during dinner, Song Zimo didn¡¯t let up. After dinner, Xiao Su returned to the dormitory and Yang Ping went home from work. He repeatedly watched the videos Director Han had given him. These videos were obtained by Director Han through personal connections and included cases from affiliated hospitals of Tokyo University, and several major trauma centers in Germany, United Kingdom, and the United States. Japanese people are good at learning. They always absorb the most advanced things in the world and optimize the details to the extreme. Americans quickly innovate some concepts and are good at learning from others, so they always lead medical thinking. Europeans have a profound background in Western medicine, especially Germany, the birthplace of Western medicine. Whether it¡¯s medical skills, medicines, or instruments, they are all strong, and there are no shortcomings. Yang Ping watched the videos over and over again. When he was tired, he would take a shower and rest. Probably because he had consumed both physical and mental energy, he felt a bit hungry. He cooked and ate a few steaks that Xiao Su had prepared for him at home and brought to his place. Yang Ping kept them in the fridge and would occasionally have them as a late-night snack. After filling his stomach, brushing his teeth, and going to bed, he entered the system space before sleep. The system¡¯s super training program, which was on anatomical training, and there were thousands of experiment bodies. Yang Ping performed a hundred dissections in one go. Upon exiting the space and closing his eyes, an image of a transparent human body appeared in his mind, incredibly clear. It was a 3D digital human body, as if it had been deeply implanted into his brain. The image in his brain was the result of his hard work on anatomical training. Now the static image is very stable, and he can access it at any time. However, the dynamic image is still in the initial construction phase. When conducting dynamic simulations, he needs to concentrate, and it¡¯s quite strenuous, unlike the easy use of static images. For Yang Ping, this digital human body that he has built with great difficulty is extremely precious. It¡¯s an image that exists in the brain solely based on memory, independent of the system. The official training of the department¡¯s doctors began on the third day, from 6 pm to 10 pm, four hours a day, two hours of theory, two hours of operation, four classes, with a ten-minute break in between each class. Because both trauma orthopedics and general orthopedics¡¯ training rooms were too small to meet training needs, the hospital opened a whole floor in the administrative building to serve as a training venue. All the equipment from the orthopedics training rooms was moved to the new site for centralized use. In the first few days, everyone felt a great deal of pressure. Some people were filled with negative emotions, but over time, everyone started to enjoy the atmosphere, feeling that they were making rapid progress every day. Considering that they were benchmarking themselves against the top level in the world, everyone was full of enthusiasm, ready to contribute their strength at the academic conference, especially the young doctors, each of whom took it very seriously. They were all in. Yang Ping¡¯s training also emphasizes on the foundation, focusing on basic theories, knowledge and operations, such as anatomical knowledge, surgical approaches, classic surgery methods, expecting each person to recite them without any mistakes. Then he also includes some advanced trauma surgery knowledge and systematically explains it to everyone, making it thorough and easy to understand. For this training, Yang Ping put in a lot of work during his spare time. With the help of Song Zimo, Little Five, and Zhang Lin, he created a lot of coursework. As long as the doctors can master the knowledge in his course material, they should be able to pass the exams. Director Ouyang made great efforts. Although he was old, he attended the classes diligently. He also asked questions during breaks. After working in the clinic for so many years, he had forgotten most of the basic knowledge. Director Bai followed Director Ouyang and he attended every class as well. However, he always had a mental block. At his age, having already risen to the position of a mentor, he felt lost being trained with these young doctors. Despite his discontent, Director Bai did not dare to complain. Every time he thought about venting, he was stopped by Director Ouyang: ¡°Talk less, learn more!¡±. Director Ding had already missed class three times intermittently. If he continues missing classes, accumulating six absences, he would be automatically deemed as unqualified. Director Ouyang was quite worried about him. If he kept up like this, he feared that he would be taken as an example and punished. However, Director Ding acted this way due to his habitual thinking. He was used to being relaxed, thinking that training was something for young people. He was very busy and always had to dash about the lower-level hospitals performing surgeries. He didn¡¯t have time for these things. Saying that he would be downgraded was just a threat to the young people, a means of management. As a veteran of Sanbo and having accumulated a bit of connection in the Health Department, he didn¡¯t believe that Old Xia or Old Han would do anything to him. Even after Director Ouyang tried to persuade him several times, he didn¡¯t take it seriously. Director Han was walking back and forth in the training room with his hands behind his back. He stopped next to Director Ouyang and glanced at the classroom: ¡°Ouyang, have you seen Old Ding?¡± Director Ouyang also looked around the training room, pretending not to know: ¡°I didn¡¯t pay much attention, he should be here. Maybe he went out to use the restroom or to smoke.¡± With a solemn look on his face, Director Han said, ¡°Oh, when you have the time, give him a call. He¡¯s already accumulated three absences. If he does it three more times¡ª¡± Director Han didn¡¯t finish his sentence, but it was clear what he was implying. Six absences means being unqualified, being downgraded, losing the identity of a group leader, and being demoted from a deputy chief physician to an attending physician. Director Ouyang was clear about one thing, Director Han wasn¡¯t joking this time. If Old Ding didn¡¯t take it seriously, he might actually be used as an example for disciplinary action. Once Director Han was out of sight, Director Ouyang sneakily went to the restroom and called Old Ding immediately: ¡°Old Ding!¡± ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Director Han¨C.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s talk later, I am driving at the moment!¡± Before he could finish speaking, the other side was busy and hung up the phone. ¡°That Old Ding!¡± Director Ouyang was a bit angry, Director Bai also came out and asked about the situation. Director Ouyang angrily said: ¡°Director Han is reminding him, Old Han has already taken care of us old comrades sufficiently. Look, among us old comrades, Director Han has arranged for Xiao Tian to coach us specially, and he¡¯s been very polite. Old Ding has already been given enough face, if he continues to behave in this way, I won¡¯t interfere anymore.¡± ¡°Ouyang, that won¡¯t work, you can¡¯t ignore him, let¡¯s not let the old guys really kick up a fuss.¡± Director Bai likes to grumble, he¡¯s stubborn, but he¡¯s a bit of a coward. Director Ouyang had no choice: ¡°Let¡¯s go back to class first, we will persuade him together when we see him tomorrow.¡± In the training room, on the screen, Zhang Lin played videos from Tokyo University Hospital and videos of Fujiwara Masao over and over again. Zhang Lin also brought up a photo of Takahashi Fumiya for everyone to see. This guy looks quite lewd, very much like the main character in a romance film from Japan, and it¡¯s a bit annoying to look at. Zhang Lin has a knack for public relations, it¡¯s really a waste not to be a doctor, he was full of passion and emotion: ¡°This guy, just this guy, who is hailed as a surgical genius, once famously said: ¡®The death rate from trauma can be infinitely reduced!¡¯. It¡¯s also this guy who has expressed his disappointment with our country¡¯s doctors, accusing us of wasting a huge amount of case resources, lacking in initiative, and repetitively doing rough, low-quality work every day¡ª¡± Damn it, everyone couldn¡¯t wait to rush forward, smash the screen, and give it a few kicks, it was infuriating! Zhang Lin saw everyone¡¯s attitude, changed his tone: ¡°Angry? Want to smash the screen? Then pay more attention in class, master the knowledge firmly, practice operations proficiently, and at the academic conference, communicate with them using your abilities; what¡¯s the use of smashing the screen!¡± This lewd man is one of Fujiwara¡¯s most proud students. Many surgeons from many countries in the world have gone to him for further study. He has made a great contribution in the field of trauma surgery. Whether it¡¯s Europe or North America, major trauma surgery conferences will invite him to be a guest lecturer. After Zhang Lin¡¯s brief promotion this time, everyone was as if injected with chicken blood, no longer tired, full of spirit, and brought the vigor of wanting to smash the screen to their studies. The break was over and it was time for operation training. The operation training was also the most basic, such as washing hands and dressing, disinfecting and draping, positioning the body, and cooperating during surgery. Everyone was familiar with these things but had never taken them as seriously as they do now. Washing hands, dressing, and disinfecting were counted by seconds, under every single step. Similarly, how many people are needed for patient positioning, how to coordinate, it used to be very casual, but now it¡¯s become standardized. In developed countries, there are specialized positionists in the operating room. What do these positionists do? They are a profession like instrument nurses, not temporary positions. Their daily work is to position surgeries for patients and study this every day. The number of people needed for positioning, where to stand, the posture of the hands, how to coordinate, are all strictly defined operating procedures. It¡¯s not handled randomly, where the patient is moved to the operating bed, and then several people coordinate casually to place the body. The requirements for positioning are also very strict, meeting the requirements for surgical operations while ensuring patient safety. If the patient is awake, a certain degree of comfort for the patient must also be ensured. The completion of the entire process, including the time required, must be accurate to the second. A head nurse of an operating room in Peking Union Medical College Hospital actually invited a positionist from Germany to come and train everyone in body positioning. In the end, they even published a book¡ª ¡°Safe Surgical Positioning Atlas¡±. This might be the only specialized book on surgical positioning in the country. If a certain degree of precision is achieved, every link becomes a learning point. What we usually overlook and think nothing of, someone has already elevated it into a field of knowledge, and that¡¯s where the gap appears. Unconsciously, it was already ten o¡¯clock at night, and the intense four-hour training was over. The infectiousness of the atmosphere was useful, many young doctors were reluctant to leave and wanted to continue to practice. Yang Ping patiently explained to everyone: ¡°Only those who know how to rest can work, we can¡¯t just exert brute force, everything has to follow scientific laws.¡± With that, everyone gradually dispersed. After everyone left, Song Zimo took out a roll of drawings from his backpack, spread it on the square table in the middle of the training room, and used a few joint models to press on the four corners of the drawing. This was a hand-drawn anatomical atlas. Chapter 211 - 0199: The Persistent Person Chapter 211: Chapter 0199: The Persistent Person ¡°Senior, here¡¯s the anatomical drawing you requested!¡± Song Zimo spread the drawing with a bit of swagger. Before drawing, he had reviewed many anatomy books and charts; while drawing, he referred to nothing, relying solely on his memory. He had checked several times¡ªthere were no mistakes. The drawing is quite good, even more beautiful and detailed than anatomical wall charts, but Yang Ping only glanced at it casually and collected the picture. He crumbled it up in his hands, squeezing it tighter and smaller, then with a casual flick of his wrist, he threw the tiny ball several meters towards a trash can. It drew a beautiful parabola and landed precisely inside the bin. ¡°You may have misunderstood, or I didn¡¯t make myself clear¡ª I didn¡¯t ask you to draw it well and then bring it.¡± Yang Ping clapped his hands, walked to the whiteboard, and drew a whiteboard marker from the penholder, tossing it to Song Zimo. ¡°Draw it right here, right now, on the whiteboard. I¡¯ll need it for tomorrow¡¯s lesson.¡± Song Zimo took the pen, standing there dumbfounded. He was sure Yang Ping would praise him, but he hadn¡¯t even looked at the drawing before consigning it to the trash can. Well, he was used to it¡ªthis wasn¡¯t the first or second time he¡¯d been shot down. Then he would just draw it right here, create an anatomical drawing on the whiteboard. Yang Ping seemed to disregard Song Zimo¡¯s reaction, converging a few chairs into a makeshift bed, lying down on them, and covering himself with a sheet. ¡°Wake me up when you¡¯re done.¡± ¡°Make good use of your time and don¡¯t forget your original intention.¡± With his eyes closed, Yang Ping threw out these two comments and then ignored Song Zimo, settling down to sleep. Song Zimo twirled the pen in his hand, contemplating a moment. Without attempting to defend himself, he walked to the board, uncapped the pen, and began to draw on the whiteboard. He started to outline the shapes slowly and the skeleton gradually formed. When Yang Ping entered the system space, he was surprised to see that he had accumulated over a hundred thousand points. He purchased training for five hundred cases of multiple traumas, and a hundred cases each of head, chest, abdominal, spinal column, pelvis, and limb injuries, adding up to nearly two thousand surgeries. After completing this round of surgery training, Yang Ping didn¡¯t exit the space. He utilized the test bodies for dissection, accumulating some anatomy and pathology data from trauma patients. From the system¡¯s space, a waterfall falling from the sky in the distance looked majestic and magnificent. This tree, compared to before, looked more robust, thriving and dense. When he came out from the system¡¯s space, Song Zimo was still drawing. Next to the whiteboard was a set of colored pens¡ªsome thick, some thin. He used them all to combine various colors. He used red to draw arteries, blue for veins, orange for nerves, and black for the skeleton and muscles. The complete human anatomy drawing gradually appeared on the whiteboard. Yang Ping had taken a short nap. By the time he was woken up, it was already past eleven at night, and Song Zimo had been drawing for more than an hour. Yang Ping rubbed his eyes and looked at the anatomical drawing created with the whiteboard marker. It was still detailed, without any errors¡ªSong Zimo¡¯s anatomical knowledge was up to par. ¡°Now that the system anatomy has passed, starting tomorrow, after each day¡¯s training, draw a localized anatomy on the whiteboard in this order: head, chest, abdomen, pelvis, the upper limbs, and the lower limbs¡ª¡± ¡°Senior, I will work hard.¡± Song Zimo¡¯s hand was aching. He put down the pen and began to shake out his wrist. ¡°Go back now, get some rest early.¡± It was late. Yang Ping packed up his things, picked up his backpack, and prepared to leave as well. ¡°Senior, why can Fujiwara Masao finish repairing a ruptured heart on his own in three minutes and twenty-four seconds?¡± It was almost midnight, and he was still so persistent. What was scary was not that someone was smart. What was scary was when a smart person can put in several times the effort of others. ¡°Are you sure I know the answer?¡± Yang Ping put down his bag. Song Zimo nodded, ¡°If you don¡¯t, I reckon we¡¯d have to ask Fujiwara Masao himself.¡± ¡°He used his left hand to manually stop the bleeding, and sutured with his right hand alone, finally knotting it.¡± Yang Ping told him. ¡°What suture method is this? I haven¡¯t seen it.¡± Song Zimo didn¡¯t know how to suture with one hand. From what he knew, to repair a ruptured heart required an assistant, using a non-invasive suture with a 3-0 cushion attached. To perform manual compression on the rupture with the left hand¡ªif the rupture was small, the index finger could be used to press down; if the rupture was big, several fingers needed to work together to pinch the rupture closed. Afterward, a cushioned 3-0 non-invasive suture would run through the full thickness of the myocardium of the rupture for a mattress suture. Each time a stitch was made, the assistant would help tie it off immediately, forming a step-by-step interrupted suture until the rupture was completely closed. But Fujiwara Masao didn¡¯t have an assistant, and still managed to complete the operation single-handedly. Song Zimo had been perplexed about how he had done it. ¡°He used a continuous cross back-and-forth suture! It¡¯s a superior single-hand suturing technique, especially suitable for emergency situations when only one operator is available.¡± A continuous cross back-and-forth suture? Song Zimo had never heard of this suturing method: ¡°Where did this suturing method originate from? I¡¯ve never seen it.¡± Yang Ping picked up a marker: ¡°It should be Fujiwara Masao¡¯s own creation. I simulated it based on the movement trajectory of his hand. Look¡ª¡± ¡°Wait!¡± Song Zimo seemed to have understood something, he walked over and took the pen from Yang Ping¡¯s hand. ¡°I¡¯m going to draw it so you can see if it¡¯s right.¡± After a hint from Yang Ping, Song Zimo immediately understood. He drew a figure of continuous cross stitches on a blank space far from the human anatomy diagram and gave an explanation by the figure. The first stitch is made from the starting point, the direction of the needle is perpendicular to the wound, and at this time the little finger and ring finger of the left hand hold tightly onto the thread end. The right hand continues the stitching, from the second stitch, the direction of the thread is diagonal to the wound at 60 degrees, and after that, all stitches follow this pattern, creating a zigzag pattern. The last stitch is the same as the first one, perpendicular to the wound, at this point, do not stop, the thread stitches back, mirroring the original path. The second stitch on the way back resumes the angle of 60 degrees to the wound, continue the stitching, the last stitch falls in the symmetrical position to the starting point, by this time, the wound is completely brought together, then tie a knot. During the whole process, every time a stitch is sewn, the index finger and the middle finger of the left hand are responsible for tightening the thread, pulling it tight against the thread clamped by the little finger and ring finger. In this way, although the well-sewn thread has not been knotted, it is always able to tighten the wound, just like intermittent suture, only knotting at the end, with each stitch crossing back and forth. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s it.¡± Yang Ping praised sincerely. ¡°But if the index and middle fingers of the left hand are responsible for tightening and the ring finger and little finger are responsible for holding the end of the thread, leaving only the thumb, how to stop the bleeding with bare hands?¡± Song Zimo still didn¡¯t understand. Stopping the bleeding with bare hands, whether with one hand or two hands, is not difficult for trauma surgeons, it¡¯s basic skills, but with one finger, if the wound is small it can be done, but it¡¯s almost impossible if the wound is large. ¡°Small wounds can be pressed with the thumb, large wounds can be stopped with the palm, including the Thenar and Hypothenar muscles.¡± Yang Ping dispelled his doubts. Song Zimo finally understood, but if that¡¯s the case, the difficulty was overwhelming. Both hands have to be extremely flexible, the five fingers of the left hand must do three different things, and the right hand must sew with one hand, operating purely by feel in a pool of blood. The end result has to achieve the effect of intermittent suture with gauze, how high does this suture skill have to be! ¡°Fujiwara is really amazing! I heard that he has several very talented students, such as Takahashi Fumiya and Sasaki Jiro, who are known as the two heroes of trauma surgery in Japan.¡± Song Zimo said, from this stitching, you can have a glimpse of Fujiwara¡¯s level. ¡°In the affiliated hospital of Tokyo University, Fujiwara is like a god, he has many outstanding achievements that amaze people.¡± Director Han told Yang Ping about these. ¡°You can start practicing one-handed suturing tomorrow, holding the needle with one hand without the aid of the other hand, completing the suture.¡± It was late, and Yang Ping wanted to end this topic quickly. ¡°Grab that chest model, cut a five-centimeter hole in the heart, completely cut through the myocardium.¡± Yang Ping was going to demonstrate a one-handed continuous cross stitch. Yang Ping took off his coat and covered his eyes. Is he going to demonstrate a blind operation? Song Zimo¡¯s heart races. Song Zimo knows that to perform a blind operation, you have to have an extremely good touch, even a slight deviation can not only lead to failure of the operation but can also hurt oneself. ¡°Senior brother?¡± ¡°Quickly finish the model!¡± Song Zimo took the model and cut a five-centimeter hole in the heart and placed the needle holder with a threaded needle in Yang Ping¡¯s hand. ¡°Pay close attention, I will only demonstrate once, only you can learn this kind of blind operation.¡± Yang Ping cautioned. Only the lights in the training room on this floor of the administrative building were still on, making this floor seem particularly silent and empty. Yang Ping calmed himself, held the needle in his right hand, extended his left hand, and grasped the heart model with his palm, closed the wound with his Thenar and Hypothenar muscles and thumb, and brought the wound together neatly. The right hand began to fly the needle and thread, judging the shape and position of the suture object and the length and direction of the wound based on the touch of his left hand just now, under the condition of blindfolded eyes. The suturing was accurate and error-free, just like suturing with his eyes open. During continuous cross-stitching, the little finger and ring finger held the thread end, and the index and middle fingers tightened the thread, and both hands worked like magic. Soon, it was finished, Song Zimo had forgotten to time it. After tying the knot, the wound was neatly squeezed together, tightly stitched. If it were a real heart, this quality of suture would absolutely not leak blood. ¡°You ¡ª can do this too?¡± Song Zimo managed to squeeze out a few words. ¡°It¡¯s a trivial skill, you can learn it too. Just start slowly, otherwise, the needle will prick your left hand. Start practicing tomorrow.¡± Yang Ping put down the needle holder. ¡°I really want to know why you are so obsessed with becoming a surgeon, you should have a lot of choices, at least more leisurely than now, at least not having to draw anatomy diagrams late at night. As far as I know, you were fainting from blood when you were studying, it was obstinate fainting, people with obstinate fainting cannot become surgeons, but you became a surgeon.¡± Song Zimo was silent for a while: ¡°That¡¯s right! The old me did faint at the sight of blood! I would fall down as soon as I saw blood, but nothing could stop me. I was going to the Mo Sixth¡¯s Trauma Emergency Center every day, facing streams of fresh blood. There was a period of time when I had to lean against a wall to walk and vomited upheavingly every day. This continued for a whole year before I was able to face blood squarely, nothing can stop me from becoming a surgeon.¡± Song Zimo bowed his head, hung silent, cradling his face in his hands. ¡°You overcame even obstinate fainting, there isn¡¯t a difficulty that you cannot overcome.¡± Yang Ping extended his hand, and Song Zimo grasped it tightly. Chapter 212 - 0200: Memories in the Heart Chapter 212: Chapter 0200: Memories in the Heart ¡°Do you know why I faint at the sight of blood?¡± Song Zimo sat down. Yang Ping was very willing to listen to his story. Because usually, he was always cold and proud, there must be an unknown story in his heart. No matter how you looked at Song Zimo, he didn¡¯t seem to have the constitution of someone who was naturally prone to fainting at the sight of blood. With such a high talent, he had the stubborn symptom of fainting at the sight of blood. Fortunately, he overcame it with his tenacious will. Otherwise, the world would have lost an excellent surgeon. Song Zimo thought for a long time, seeming to need to muster up the courage to say, ¡°When I was young, my mother had a car accident right beside me. A runaway car hit head-on, and in that instant, my mother instinctively pushed me away, but fell herself into a pool of blood.¡± ¡°At that time, I was scared stupid, didn¡¯t know what to do, just cried loudly. No one helped me. I cradled my mother in my arms, blood was everywhere, her whole body was covered in blood, her clothes had been soaked through by the blood, my hands were also covered in blood, I didn¡¯t know where the blood came from, I just held her tightly.¡± ¡°I remember that time, she was still alive, looking at me, unable to speak, I could feel her heartbeat and her respirations, but slowly, she closed her eyes in my arms, her heartbeat and respirations also stopped, her hand was frigid.¡± Song Zimo¡¯s eyes moistened up, and his voice turned hoarse, as he began to sob. ¡°How old were you then?¡± ¡°Five!¡± ¡°A long time later, the ambulance arrived, but she never woke up again!¡± Song Zimo hung his head, held his face in his hands, buried it in his knees, and sobbed softly. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t know¨C¡± Yang Ping had no idea his story was so sad and had unintentionally touched on his most painful memory. Song Zimo sobbed for a long while before he could speak normally, ¡°It¡¯s okay. After that, every time I see blood, I would feel dizzy, my head spinning, and in severe cases, I would lose consciousness.¡± ¡°The first day of my clinical internship, I fainted on the spot while watching a patient with a severe hand injury change bandages. The bandages were all bloody, and everyone was busy rescuing me.¡± ¡°The news soon spread, and my mentor advised me to give up surgery, but I refused. Later, I saw a psychiatrist who said that for such a stubborn fear of blood, desensitization therapy was the only way. But the doctor also said that desensitization therapy was extremely painful, with only a very slim chance of success.¡± ¡°But you still succeeded, you¡¯re okay now, right?¡± Yang Ping admired his determination. Song Zimo shook his head: ¡°It took me a year to face the sight of fresh blood. Since then, I have been completely normal and have completely adapted to blood.¡± ¡°How did your mentor agree to keep you then?¡± Yang Ping was curious. How could an Orthopedics mentor want a student who faints at the sight of blood? ¡°How could my mentor want me? Who would want a student who faints at the sight of blood and faints every now and then. Every time they have to go and rescue you, how can they perform surgery.¡± ¡°I was on an eight-year program at Fudan University. My specialty could be adjusted at the end. My mentor seriously proposed to the school to move me to internal medicine.¡± ¡°By chance, I met Director Han. At that time, his master and PhD supervisor were still at Fudan, he was coming to Fudan to teach graduate students. He heard about my situation, found me and talked for a full three hours.¡± ¡°In the end, he accepted me. Orthopedics at Sanbo Hospital wasn¡¯t as good as it is now, he secretly sent me to Mo Sixth for internship. I completed my clinical course at Mo Sixth, when I entered Mo Sixth, I received special care, for the first year, I didn¡¯t have to do anything, practiced desensitization therapy in the Trauma Emergency Center, facing bloody scenes every day¨C¡± Song Zimo spoke quickly, all of it at once. ¡°I wondered why you, a Fudan student, were at Mo Sixth. So you are also Director Han¡¯s student?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°Yes! Just like that, by chance, I became Director Han¡¯s student.¡± Song Zimo said. ¡°Because of this, you didn¡¯t stay at Huashan, nor did you stay at Mo Sixth? You came to Sanbo.¡± Yang Ping knew that everything that followed was logical. ¡°Yes! I graduated, had lots of choices, but didn¡¯t go anywhere, I came to Sanbo. Many people couldn¡¯t understand.¡± Song Zimo took a deep breath. ¡°Tell me about you, didn¡¯t you get fired from the City People¡¯s Hospital? I was surprised, with your skill level, the hospital should¡¯ve tried to keep you, why¡¯d they fire you?¡± Song Zimo changed the subject. ¡°I overstepped my authority and performed a surgery, violating the hospital¡¯s rules, naturally, I was fired. Just like your fainting condition, not every mentor has patience; my overstepping, not every senior doctor can tolerate.¡± Yang Ping was also very frank. ¡°Oh! Was the patient saved?¡± ¡°He was saved, so, even if I was dismissed, it was worth it.¡± ¡°When you were interviewed, if Director Han hadn¡¯t intervened, you wouldn¡¯t have had a chance to join Orthopedics. I remember very clearly, the Human Resources Department made a mistake and included your interview form. Orthopedics wasn¡¯t hiring masters degree holders at that time. You were shuffled to interview for the Emergency Department, it was Director Han who retained you. In this sense, you were also taken in by him!¡± Song Zimo laughed. ¡°Yes, we were all found and taken in by him.¡± Yang Ping also joined in the laughter. ¡°Back then, if I was like I am now, a surgeon, Mom could surely have survived.¡± Song Zimo turned to look out the window. The two fell silent for a long time before Yang Ping comforted him, ¡°She would be relieved! Believe in yourself, you can definitely become the best surgeon. You have more talent and work harder than others!¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± Song Zimo pulled his gaze back from the window. ¡°Recently, you¡¯ve mastered one-handed suturing. In trauma surgery, the speed of operation is especially important because the two main causes of early death in trauma patients are massive blood loss and loss of vital organ function. If bleeding can be stopped and blood supply replenished in a short time, a life can be saved.¡± ¡°The second cause is the loss of vital organ function, such as serious brain damage. Similarly, if the organ is not completely destroyed and it¡¯s just threatened by compression or displacement, the threat can be eliminated in a short time and the patient can be saved.¡± ¡°Takahashi is right, the mortality rate of trauma can be reduced infinitely. As rescue techniques and surgical techniques advance, the mortality rate will continue to decline. In the future, except for instant deaths, maybe all can be saved. Looking further ahead, perhaps deaths caused by trauma within a certain time can also be reversed, life can be rebooted like a computer.¡± The two got along well, Yang Ping said a lot more as he continued. ¡°You must be extremely proficient in anatomy, especially vascular anatomy. This will equip you to deal with massive blood loss, knowing which part is injured and which blood vessels are bleeding, the speed of bleeding, whether there is recoil, where the broken end is currently.¡± ¡°Once you get to work, you need to be able to locate and treat it instantaneously. This is a skill that a brilliant trauma surgeon must master.¡± ¡°Apart from this continuous cross-back-and-forth suture with one hand, there is also a special intermittent suture, which can be done by one person, stitching one stitch and tying one knot, but not cutting the thread, and can continue to suture afterwards. This suture method is more difficult to master than the previous one, but the effect is better, and the suture is more secure.¡± ¡°Can you teach me? Where did you learn it?¡± Song Zimo was very interested. ¡°I learned from shoulder arthroscopy surgery!¡± Yang Ping told him. ¡°Did you invent it?¡± ¡°Just a small skill!¡± Yang Ping showed Song Zimo this suture method. It involves leaving a long tail thread, and after each suture, using the left hand to wrap the tail thread with the main thread in a specific way, so that the tail thread and the main thread form a knot that can slide. The main thread pulls the knot to an appropriate position, then locks it. The main thread continues to suture. Anyone who has done a shoulder arthroscopy knows that grappling with dozens of knots i.e. hanging threads, gathering sail knots, Weston knots, SMC knots, Roeder knots, Duncan loops, are first-learned skills. Perhaps only shoulder arthroscopists elevate knot tying to a discipline in itself. Yang Ping was inspired by these knots and invented this method for emergency single-person suturing. Without the need for an assistant or cutting the thread, one can stitch a knot and achieve the effect of intermittent suturing at the speed of continuous suturing. This suturing method is somewhat more difficult than Fujiwara¡¯s, but each knot is independent, and the advantages are very obvious. If a knot breaks in Fujiwara¡¯s stitch, the whole wound will burst open; whereas if a knot breaks in Yang Ping¡¯s stitch, it does not affect the other knots. Each knot is independent. Operating alone is very important in trauma surgery because sometimes in a sea of blood, the Chief Surgeon can rely on his/her skilled anatomical knowledge and surgical skills to know what is beneath their hands, or to grasp a moment of clarity in the surgical field to complete the operation. But the assistant can¡¯t. When the assistant can¡¯t keep up, solo operation becomes very important. It was already past midnight, but the two of them were still in the training room discussing the issues of suturing and knotting. They had planned to wrap up and go home, but when Yang Ping started talking about this peculiar suturing method, Song Zimo got excited again. ¡°Let¡¯s research this suturing method tomorrow, an outstanding surgeon should be good at resting, good at protecting their own health, otherwise, what can you use to save the patient?¡± Yang Ping put a stop to Song Zimo¡¯s plan to stay up late. The two of them picked up their bags: Yang Ping went home, whilst Song Zimo returned to his Department for rest. Chapter 213 - 0201: Powerful Opponent Chapter 213: Chapter 0201: Powerful Opponent The training is proceeding in an orderly fashion. However, many things cannot be improved in a short period of time. Do the best and hope not to fall too far behind. The orthopedics department is barely accepting any patients now, as the training team members are all working full-time on the training. Due to different duties such as rounds and surgeries, other doctors will have different free times, so in addition to the regular training every evening, the training team also needs to provide irregular daytime training for colleagues who are available. Director Han has been looking worried. Facing powerful opponents, even if he leads the elite of Mo Sixth, it is uncertain if they could win against Tokyo University Hospital, not to mention the vulnerable Sanbo. Director Tan is somewhat regretful now. It was he who stirred up trouble. He initially wanted to show off the strength of Sanbo¡¯s Orthopedics at the Academic Conference. But he didn¡¯t expect Fujiwara Masao to participate. Now, both Director Han and the entire department are stuck in a predicament. It¡¯s difficult to quit halfway. If it was just a comparison of individual doctors¡¯ skills, Director Tan, with his competitive spirit, would never regret it, regardless of the outcome, he would have given it his all. However, now, it is a competition of a team¡¯s strength, including the professionalism of doctors, team collaboration, medical equipment, system process, medical concepts, etc. In the afternoon, when no one came for training, Director Han called Yang Ping and members of the training team into his office. Director Tan was also there, looking a bit haggard. Director Han turned his computer screen around to face everyone and played another video for them to watch. It was a surgery performed by Takahashi Fumiya. ¡°This was sent by one of Director Tan¡¯s friends from Tokyo. It¡¯s a recent recording of a surgery they performed. The previous videos you¡¯ve seen are already several years old. The one with Fujiwara Masao is over 20 years old.¡± Director Han¡¯s finger hovered over the desk as if he wanted to tap on it, but he didn¡¯t. He said, ¡°Everyone, take a close look and learn from it. This time, we are here to learn. In the future, five years later, ten years later, or twenty years later, we hope to surpass them.¡± In other words, they stand no chance this time! This was not to boost others¡¯ morale and wipe out their own ambition, but the stark truth. Screaming slogans is useless when dealing with scientific matters. Everything must be dealt with seriously. Takahashi Fumiya, one of the outstanding students of Fujiwara Masao. In the video, he was in surgery, his hands, whether operating alone or with an assistant, were like a magician¡¯s: steady, accurate, light, and swift. His familiarity with anatomy was as if he was a master butcher disassembling a cow. Instruments stuck in his hand, not slipping no matter how he manipulated them. Watching the screen, Yang Ping noticed that Director Han had switched the video to slow motion. In this surgery, Takahashi only had one assistant who was mainly responsible for exposing structures, so essentially, Takahashi was performing the surgery alone. Suturing! Single-handed suturing, including continuous suturing with a final knot; interrupted suturing where each stitch is tied; and double-handed suturing with two threads. Different tissues required different suture techniques. In one surgery, he had demonstrated at least three advanced suturing skills. Last night, deep into the night, Yang Ping and Song Zimo were discussing suturing techniques. Now, the three suturing techniques exhibited by Takahashi were all more advanced than the ones they were discussing. Looking at each other, Song Zimo and Yang Ping, both were speechless. After much research, they had only come up with one method. Yet now, Takahashi had demonstrated three, all of which were clearly simpler and more effective than the one they had created. The dazzling needlework, the surgical area blurred by blood and flesh, almost impossible to discern from the hand movements while suturing, yet suturing can be done this way? Suturing is just one aspect of the surgery, and it had already revealed the gap in abilities, let¡¯s continue watching. Surrounding the operating table were several devices similar to transmitters and receivers, seemingly capturing information from different angles. ¡°This is the latest infrared surveillance equipment, a generation ahead of the latest products on the market. It was developed in collaboration with Toshiba Corporation and Tokyo University Hospital and is still in the experimental phase. There are no products like this on the market yet,¡± Director Han explained. A high-definition screen hung in front of Takahashi, similar to the screens that Yang Ping uses during arthroscopy. On this screen, a three-dimensional digital human figure could be rotated to any angle. The direction of the blood vessels was vividly represented on the screen image. The damaged areas were also clearly visible, including the location of bleeding, the speed of bleeding, and the amount of blood already lost. Moreover, Takahashi¡¯s surgical instruments were also displayed on the screen. This allowed him to find and prioritize the treatment of blood vessels without even looking at the patient; he was able to stop the hemorrhage simply by observing the image on the screen. ¡°This infrared surveillance equipment is practically the magic wand for trauma and emergency rescue. They have mastered various infrared imaging agents. Look at the screen image showing vascular visualization, they employed a unique imaging agent that adheres to hemoglobin. After injecting the patient with this agent, the flow of blood can be clearly displayed on the infrared surveillance screen. The resulting image is real-time, dynamic, and functional. It reveals not only anatomical features, but also reflects function. They can monitor blood flow velocity, loss of blood, levels of ischemia and hypoxia in the patient¡¯s organs. There is a computational model, that utilizes the observed data to calculate and determine the time that the human body can sustain its life. The model assists the doctors in the rescue operation,¡± noted Director Han. Takahashi was very familiar with this equipment, and almost seemed to merge with it. Under the surveillance of this device, he was able to handle a blood vessel within seconds. In trauma surgery, if the issues related to bleeding can be handled, it¡¯s almost possible to rescue half the patients. The remaining half die due to damage to vital organs such as lungs, hearts, and brains. From the video, this patient had multiple hemorrhages all over the body, one of them was a broken subclavian artery . The artery retracted, and under surveillance, Takahashi inserted the forceps directly into the wound, clamped the blood vessel, and stopped the hemorrhage. Like this, dealing with a bleeding spot within a few seconds, firstly controlling the hemorrhage, then handling the vessels ¨C those to be anastomosed were anastomosed, and those to be ligated were ligated. With a clear strategy and rhythm, a second seemingly hopeless trauma case became simple in his hands. It seemed that the rival was more formidable than imagined. The gap seemed impossible to close, with a high caliber doctor combined with advanced equipment. ¡°Everyone shouldn¡¯t feel too much pressure. We must do what we must do. Undoubtedly, there will be a gap in this live broadcast. It is impossible to catch up in a short time. They are of world-class level. We must have the right attitude, hold a learning mindset, and showcase our own strength,¡± said Director Han. None disagreed with Director Han¡¯s viewpoint ¨C a resigned sentiment. Like when viewing a house worth millions, but you only have tens of thousands in hand, you can only say, ¡°Strive for it, buy it in the future!¡± Beyond this, there was no other way. Could one proclaim, ¡°I can definitely buy it!¡± and hope the property dealer has a sudden change of heart to sell it to you for a mere ten thousand? The reality was, well-trained doctors, advanced equipment, and pioneering ideology cannot be surpassed just by organizing training sessions. But training was essential, even when faced with a tough gap in quality, maintaining dignity was of utmost importance. Takahashi found a significant bleeding point within seconds. Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t even dare to claim he could do it that fast. After all, there was a certain discrepancy between radiographic imaging and reality. Radiographic imaging is static, while the patient¡¯s injury is dynamic. Yang Ping could create a mental image based on diagnostic imaging to guide him during surgery, but there were still deviations and it wasn¡¯t possible to conduct real-time monitoring like they were. The infrared navigation of Sanbo is complicated in terms of operation, and it cannot clearly image the blood vessels, let alone produce a three-dimensional digital human figure like theirs. The image detailed every injury in the body, showing clearly both anatomy and function. Surgeons like Takahashi, who performed surgery under infrared surveillance, had a smooth collaboration between their hands, brain, and equipment. This level of control was comparable to Yang Ping performing arthroscopy, it was simply a matter of following his intuition. Takahashi located the subclavian artery by simply looking at the screen, then extended a large curved clamp, clamped the broken blood vessel ends, pulled them out, and performed vascular anastomosis in just one or two minutes. After controlling the hemorrhages all over the body, they immediately began repairing the damaged tissues and organs. The surgery seemed both steady and meticulous, with the chest and abdomen handled using endoscopy. Although thoracoscopy and laparoscopy are both types of endoscopy, there are significant differences between them. Without having done a few thousand surgeries, it would not be possible for Takahashi to be so proficient. Yang Ping had not yet been exposed to thoracoscopy and laparoscopy, a fact Director Han was well aware of. In addition to Takahashi Fumiya, there was also a Sasaki Jiro who, reportedly, is even more gifted than Takahashi. Chapter 214 - 0202: Closed-door Cultivation Chapter 214: Chapter 0202: Closed-door Cultivation After watching Director Han¡¯s latest video, Yang Ping and everyone else felt an immense pressure. To narrow the gap, every step is tough, demanding great effort, with no guarantee of success. Rome wasn¡¯t built in a day, the efficient rescues at Tokyo University Hospital weren¡¯t achieved overnight, but developed through decades of continuous improvements. Such high-quality doctors didn¡¯t appear out of thin air, they are the product of generation after generation of careful selection and training, shaping rarities like Fujiwara, Takahashi, and Sasaki into true masters in their fields. Efficacy is of utmost importance in trauma surgery, the correct methods lacking efficiency are meaningless. Efficiency starts from the moment one comes into contact with the patient, there¡¯s always room for improvement in every aspect. As surgeons, they can only control the time after the patient enters the operating room. To reduce this time, changes cannot be made with equipment, changes have to be made with the people instead. After the video ended, everyone fell silent. Director Han encouraged them, ¡°Like I said, there will always be a gap, and it may be quite large! But no matter the size of the gap, I hope everyone develops a sense of professionalism to maintain our dignity. It¡¯s like playing football against Brazil, you may not be able to outplay them, but you should still strive to win, fight for the ball, breaking through their defenses and shooting goals. If you act like you¡¯ve already lost while still in the field, then you¡¯ve already lost your professional spirit and your dignity. But, if you demonstrate your resolute fighting spirit, even if you lose, your opponent will respect your professionalism.¡± Afterwards, everyone agreed with Director Han¡¯s words, acknowledging that catching up to their standard was impossible this time, but they could at least avoid being underestimated, cheering themselves on silently. At noon, Yang Ping went to the on-duty room to rest. While resting, he entered the system space. This time, he decided to stay in the space a bit longer, challenge his psychological limit, and train in solitude. The passage of time within the system space did not affect the real world, so no matter how long he spent in it, only an instant would have passed outside. The system space didn¡¯t consume physical energy, as long as he could mentally endure it, his physical strength could withstand any duration. Right, it was time to sequester himself, to further improve his mastery of anatomy in the system space. In the distance, a waterfall silently plummeted from the sky, its mist rising up; it was a magnificent sight. A lone tree stood solemnly in the open space, solitary and desolate, perhaps reflecting Yang Ping¡¯s mindset, a traveler destined to embark the journey in solitude. This sensation was fascinating, he wondered if the space contained the same air as the real world. Every breath he took felt delightfully satisfying, filling him with vitality and motivation. In front of the screen, Yang Ping browsed back and forth, looking for pathological anatomical specimens. That way, he could perform pathological dissections to accumulate anatomical and physiological data on various traumas and diseases. Unfortunately, all 6000 specimens were for normal dissections. Yang Ping decided that after the whole body dissection, he would try creating some pathological dissections of trauma conditions himself. Any ruptured blood vessels would either stay on site or retract, which is back into the vascular sheath. Yang Ping tried to create various vascular rupture scenarios, such as cuts, tears, and contusions, then searched for the ruptured end. With a sound knowledge of normal dissection, finding them was not hard, but the challenge lay in locating them in mere seconds, or even faster. If relying solely on proficient anatomical knowledge, he would need to dissect numerous specimens, though he couldn¡¯t say exactly how many. Another specimen appeared on the operating table, Yang Ping immediately dissected its blood vessels, starting from the heart and going through the main arteries throughout the body, and then went back to the heart. The system space still had thousands of dissection specimens, some for static and others for dynamic training. Yang Ping had previously refused dynamic dissection training due to ethical concerns, sticking to static dissection training instead. However, these were only specimens, simulated ones at that, and there was no need for ethical concerns. In order to acquire more realistic knowledge of dynamic dissections, Yang Ping decided to use dynamic dissection training, and focus particularly on vascular dissections during the whole-body dissection training. Proficiency has no limitations! This was Yang Ping¡¯s biggest realization during his time in the training space. Each time he felt he had reached his limit, he ended up surpassing what he thought was his limit anyway. The further he went, the slower his progress would be, similar to charging a battery. One after another, the specimens were used, Yang Ping silently reminded himself, he must be able to instantly locate the bleeding point, find the bleeding vessels, and immediately stop the bleeding. Using manpower to challenge the high-tech machine and the cyborg combining Takahashi and Sasaki. While human power inevitably has limits, Yang Ping wanted to try and see to what extent one could master anatomy before any better options were available. He decided to take a wild shot and exhaust all the remaining 5,000 specimens to improve his dissection proficiency. With every reformation of light fragments, another experimental body appeared on the operating table, the mechanical hand handing him the scalpel. Without hesitation, Yang Ping began at the heart, continuously dissecting the blood vessels. Finally, a complete set of main trunk blood vessels was successfully dissected, separated from the experimental body with all the small branches ligated. Once one overcomes a certain peak and sees more wonderful scenery, there is a desire to scale higher mountains. Yang Ping felt the same. When he reached a goal he previously thought was unattainable, he was eager to surpass himself and challenge even higher and more difficult objectives. He successfully separated the main trunk blood vessels of the entire circulation system and pulmonary circulation system, with their sheaths included. Unsatisfied, Yang Ping continued dissecting, this time aiming to separate the blood vessels in their entirety without their sheaths. Even after accomplishing this, he was still not satisfied. During the separation, he aimed to include the branches of the main blood vessels, with the branches getting finer and finer. He separated the complete deep and superficial arches of the hand, extended the blood vessels of the fingers to the distal arteries, and attempted to separate as many of the vascular networks in the joint areas as possible. Proceeding towards smaller blood vessels had little clinical significance, but it was very useful for mastering anatomy. When you are familiar with the small unnamed branches, you naturally master the named ones. After completing more than two thousand experimental bodies, Yang Ping tried to close his eyes and relied solely on touch for the dissection. This blindsight dissection relying only on the sense of touch was extremely difficult, almost impossible to achieve. Yet, Yang Ping did not get discouraged as he had a certain indescribable feeling. The more seemingly unattainable it was, the more he was excited, eager to breakthrough. He greatly enjoyed these small, gradual breakthroughs, and it had nearly become a strange obsession. However, it was really difficult. Doing the dissection by touch while eyes closed, was not only slow but also prone to mistakes. But Yang Ping knew that without training for tactile dissection, he could not match Takahashi¡¯s speed. Takahashi had superb surgical skills and with the enhancement of black technology surveillance by infrared, the patient was as transparent as glass to him when he operated as a cyborg. What he saw was exactly what he got. He did not need to think, the real-time information on the screen was conveyed to his brain, and the brain directed his hands straight to the target. The entire process was linear. On the contrary, ordinary people relying on image mapping for surgery had to explore layer by layer to reach their target. No matter how proficient, they could never match Takahashi¡¯s direct approach. Yang Ping was able to make mental maps, but these maps always deviated from reality. To correct the deviation, he must explore. Thus the whole process: image¡ª¡ªbrain¡ª¡ªtarget¡ª¡ªcorrection¡ª¡ªoperation involved many corrections and was non-linear. For example, the initial image showed the blood vessel stump at a certain location. Upon reaching, if the vessel was not found, a correction based on experience was required. Had it retracted? Or was there some deviation due to different positions? Only after dissecting would he know the exact location. This was similar to the zero to one hundred acceleration test between fuel cars and electric cars. What a fuel car struggles to achieve, an electric car might do very easily. That¡¯s the essential difference between the linear and the non-linear. After using up to four thousand experimental bodies, only slight progress was made with dissection based on touch. No matter how slow, how careful, he couldn¡¯t separate a complete set of main blood vessels. Yang Ping dared not continue this way. If the experimental bodies were exhausted before achieving the target, it would put him in a dilemma. Experimental bodies are very precious, and there will be many times when they are needed in the future. He could only stop the dissection training. Yang Ping looked at the light screen, trying to figure out exactly how long his so-called ¡°seclusion¡± had been. But there was no timing display on the light screen. A year? Two years? Three years? It was uncertain, after all, the experience of time is relative. For instance, even an hour can be unbearably long while eagerly waiting for someone. On the other hand, staying up all night with friends playing a favorite computer game, it feels like only a few games were played. Coming out of the system space, he felt a sense of bewilderment. Chapter 215 - 0203: The Art of Tea Chapter 215: Chapter 0203: The Art of Tea Huang Jiacai sat in his office, keeping a close watch on every move of Sanbo Hospital. Of course, this academic conference was naturally one of his main areas of focus as he was one of the sponsors, and the booth position was decent. A map hung on the wall, Huang Jiacai held a pencil in his hand, staring at the map, muttering something to himself, occasionally making marks on it. Jiahui was sorting out documents for her brother while asking: ¡°Brother, did you draw this map these past few days? What exactly is it you¡¯ve drawn?¡± Over the past few days, her brother had been engrossed in his sketching in the office, and a thick stack of drafts had piled up on his desk. Jiahui picked them up for a closer look but couldn¡¯t make heads or tails out of them. ¡°This is a statistical graph of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s sport injury cases. I¡¯ve created a computation model, treating sunshine, seasons, sporting seasons, holidays, and Doctor Yang¡¯s operation progress as the main influencing factors, to extrapolate the annual fluctuation in the number of cases.¡± ¡°Look, the cases increase in the summer, especially sports injuries among teenagers. Summer is a better season for sports than winter, and the increase in students¡¯ sporting activities during the summer vacation is a contributing factor. In contrast, elderly people suffer more sports injuries in winter than in summer because they dress heavily, move sluggishly, and are likely to get injured with a little exercise. Although these findings are simple, we are trying to scientificize them. With this computation model to guide us, we can manage our inventory with great ease.¡± ¡°Now that Sanbo is going to host an academic conference ¨C although it¡¯s organized by the department of Traumatology and Orthopedics, we should also be prepared to provide support in terms of medical instruments and supplies at any time. Here is a distribution map of warehouses of medical equipment suppliers across the city. The contact person and phone number for each warehouse are specified, as well as the routes from these warehouses to Sanbo. In case of emergencies, we can use this for mutual replenishment of goods. If you have time these days, please dial through each of these numbers to test the line.¡± Huang Jiacai took out a folded map from his desk and handed it to his sister. ¡°Brother, you¡¯re really amazing! No wonder President Wang wanted you on his team.¡± Jiahui said, taking the map. ¡°In the past when I was in the pharmaceutical industry, President Wang was my boss. He was the one who got me in the business. Later he switched to the medical equipment field and bought a share in Ruixing. He persuaded me to join Ruixing to take charge of the market in G City, considering that previously Ruixing¡¯s market was primarily north of the Yangtze River, and mainly in third and fourth-tier cities, out of the mainstream market.¡± Huang Jiacai put down his pencil and rearranged the documents that his sister had just tidied up. ¡°Sanbo is using our products, Liquan has started stocking our products, and even Subsidiary Hospital One plans to use our products. Su Nanchen has asked us to prepare documents to participate in the next round of bidding at Subsidiary Hospital One. We lead the company¡¯s performance chart this month. The head office has invited you to a meeting in Shanghai, and they¡¯re bound to commend you.¡± ¡°Hmm, how about the customer feedback information you¡¯ve been collecting for me? These data will come in handy when I go to Shanghai.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve gathered them all. They¡¯re all here.¡± Jiahui pulled a notebook off the bookshelf, densely packed with feedback on products and services, both good and bad. Huang Jiacai flipped through it casually: ¡°This isn¡¯t good enough. The way you¡¯ve recorded information is haphazard, just like writing in a diary. How am I supposed to make sense of it? You should organize these data and present them with a text description and illustrative diagrams. In short, the documents you present to me must not be raw, unfinished work ¨C they must be perfectly polished. What you present to your superiors should not require them to do any reprocessing ¨C not even simple reprocessing in their heads. It must be immediately clear and quickly provide them with the key information they need.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll redo it. Thanks for reminding me, Brother!¡± Jiahui¡¯s face reddened with shame. Huang Jiacai sat back down in his chair and pushed his own tea cup to one corner of the desk: ¡°Come here, give me this cup of tea. Pretend I¡¯m your boss!¡± In fact, Huang Jiacai was her boss. Not understanding her brother¡¯s meaning, Jiahui picked up the tea, looked at it, then passed it to him. Her brother sternly said: ¡°No! Think again, why wasn¡¯t it acceptable?¡± Jiahui thought for a while. She had delivered it with one hand. If it were her boss, superior, or guest, it would be really impolite to use one hand. She supposed she should use both hands instead. The second time, she respectfully handed the teacup over with both hands, but her brother still wasn¡¯t satisfied: ¡°Still not right. But it¡¯s better than before.¡± Still not right? Unable to figure out where she went wrong, she tried again for the third time. Her brother shook his head: ¡°You¡¯ve made some improvement, but it¡¯s still not right. Try again.¡± Try again? She really couldn¡¯t understand what could be wrong. After all, it was just a cup of tea. Could it be that complicated? Jiahui looked at her brother with a puzzled face. With a gentle expression, her brother said: ¡°Even a cup of tea carries a lot of meaning. It shows how careful you are in your work. The first time, you used one hand. The second time, you used both hands, yet the handle of the cup was facing towards you. The third time, you must have dropped your guard, because you didn¡¯t have the handle facing you anymore; that was an improvement. But unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t deliberate on your part, so the direction of the handle was rather arbitrary. You should¡¯ve had the handle facing me, which would make it easier for me to take the cup. What¡¯s more, you should¡¯ve scrutinized my posture and gently passed the cup to the appropriate height and distance.¡± Jiahui had no idea there was so much to learn from serving a cup of tea. As per her brother¡¯s instructions, she tried again. Her brother took the cup and took a sip: ¡°This set of data is like this cup of tea. You should consider how I can get the information inside the data in the most effortless way. Understand? Be mindful and put effort into your work, regardless of what it is. There¡¯s a saying that planning is up to man but the outcome is up to heaven. Only meticulous planning will lead to possible success.¡± ¡°I understand, Brother. I¡¯ll surely try my best.¡± Jiahui said seriously. Huang Jiacai asked his sister to sit down: ¡°You should always ask yourself why the customer would use your product, why your boss would value you. With so many products and so many people out there, why you? Ask yourself these questions every day. In fact, once you put your heart into it, you¡¯ll find the joy in this effort. Look, with this computation model, I can ensure the goods in the warehouse are just the right amount ¨C neither too many nor too few. Other areas either have an excessive inventory or shortage of goods, and they¡¯re always busy transferring goods here and there, wasting time. In contrast, the goods in our warehouse neither accumulate nor are they ever in short supply. We never need to transfer goods. Why, you ask? Because we¡¯re more mindful than they are. We can compute the entire year¡¯s distribution plan.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because you¡¯re exceptional, who else can do it?¡± Jiahui admired her brother greatly. ¡°It¡¯s not that I¡¯m exceptional, I just put in the effort. Alright then, I¡¯ll be going to a meeting in Shanghai next week. Take care of the company and stay safe on your own.¡± ¡°I¡¯m all grown-up now, you don¡¯t need to worry.¡± Huang Jiacai playfully swiped his sister¡¯s nose: ¡°Hmm!¡± ¡°As long as we stabilize Sanbo¡¯s business, we will have secured the market in G City. From here on, we can consolidate, spread our influence, take control of the entire G City, and then extend to the South China market.¡± Huang Jiacai was full of ambition. ¡°Yang Ping is just a regular doctor at Sanbo, why value him so much?¡± ¡°He¡¯s not just a regular doctor, he is the future¡¯s brightest star in orthopedics. We don¡¯t have much capital to wager, so if we don¡¯t bet on anything, we¡¯ll bet on the stock with the highest potential.¡± Huang Jiacai opened his laptop and checked a PPT inside again. Jiahui peeked: ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± ¡°This is the gift I¡¯m bringing to President Wang, a blueprint for the future of our company. We are struggling against the massive international giants controlling not just the market for sports medicine, but the entire medical device market. The path for us is tough, but not impossible. My heart and soul are in this PPT. I don¡¯t know if President Wang will accept my suggestion. Even if he does, he is not the largest shareholder. Will the big boss take his suggestion? Regardless, I¡¯ve tried my best. This is the least I can do to repay him for his kindness.¡± Huang Jiacai has backed up this document not only on his computer but also on a USB drive and an external hard drive. ¡°Bro, you¡¯ve read so many books?¡± There were many books on the bookshelf. Jiahui pulled out a few. These books weren¡¯t just for show, they were all well-worn. Tao Te Ching, The Art of War, Guiguzi, Comprehensive Reflections to Aid in Governance, Twenty-Four Histories¡ª ¡°Bro, do you regret not going to college?¡± Jiahui flipped through a book and put it back on the bookshelf. Huang Jiacai shook his head: ¡°No regrets. See, I¡¯m doing pretty well now, aren¡¯t I? When I first started working, I would carry a book with me when I went out hustling. I would even read on the bus.¡± ¡°But¡ªit¡¯s all my fault. I was so naive back then, thinking you really did fail the college entrance exam. But then, I recalled how good your grades were, there¡¯s no way you could have failed. That¡¯s when I realized you had torn up your admission letter and didn¡¯t go?¡± Jiahui rubbed her eyes, which were red and moist, and bowing her head, unwilling to look up at her brother. ¡°Never mind, life is all about choices. Just like driving, when one road is blocked, you need to find another. Otherwise, it¡¯ll delay your journey.¡± ¡°But you always wanted to be a teacher, right?¡± Jiahui looked up. ¡°Silly girl! Most people can¡¯t live exactly the way they want. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m doing just fine now and I¡¯m satisfied with my current state. You haven¡¯t disappointed me either.¡± Jiacai didn¡¯t want his sister to carry this burden. ¡°Have you read all these books?¡± Jiahui changed the subject. Huang Jiacai chuckled, ¡°All of them, some even a few times.¡± ¡°They¡¯re so thick, yet you read them all?¡± Jiahui took out a set of Comprehensive Reflections to Aid in Governance. ¡°A few times even!¡± said Huang Jiacai. ¡°Just seeing the thickness makes me dizzy. I don¡¯t even have the desire to flip through it.¡± ¡°You should try reading them when you have the time, slowly. Consider it a pastime.¡± ¡°Even these materials regarding machinery, you¡¯ve read them? Your reading is quite mixed!¡± Jiahui was curious, there was a wide variety of books on the shelf. ¡°It¡¯s not that it¡¯s mixed, it¡¯s that learning has no end. Without a foundation in mechanical science, we couldn¡¯t understand the blueprints or the principles of these medical devices. We wouldn¡¯t understand the product fully which is bad for business. In our line of work, you must not only understand people but also understand the product. If you don¡¯t understand it yourself, how can you sell it?¡± ¡°These are the product diagrams of our company that I¡¯ve drawn for practice, mainly to understand the engineers¡¯ blueprints.¡± Huang Jiacai pulled out a few blueprints. ¡°The weather¡¯s cold over there. In the suitcase, I¡¯ve prepared cotton clothes for you, lip balm, frostbite ointment¡ª¡± Jiahui mentioned, her brother was going to travel to the headquarters in Shanghai in a few days for a meeting. Chapter 216 - 0204 The Problem with Hermes Chapter 216: Chapter 0204 The Problem with Hermes These days, there are several surgeries waiting at Li Quan Hospital and a consultation at the City People¡¯s Hospital. It¡¯s been really busy. If Su Nanchen hadn¡¯t reminded him on WeChat, Yang Ping would have almost forgotten about the consultation. Ever since they did the quadruple reconstructive surgery at Li Quan Hospital, it¡¯s like opening a floodgate. After that patient was discharged, he brought a whole bunch of people who wanted the same surgery. Boss Cheng recounted how the security guards were initially frightened by the surge of people, thinking they were here to make a scene. They immediately rallied their forces to put a lid on it, only to find out they were all here for surgery. The security guards quickly reported to Dean Cai, who then informed Boss Cheng. He almost dropped his jaw from the unimaginable news. It was the first time something like this happened since Li Quan Hospital opened. Boss Cheng greeted them personally to find out more. It turns out, after the patient was discharged, he went around with his crutches in Shanghai to negotiate business. On a whim, he made an appointment with a veteran professor at Huashan Hospital. It¡¯s difficult to book a surgery at these hospitals, but getting an outpatient appointment was still possible. He was lucky and got one. After finishing his business in Shanghai, he brought along his preoperative and postoperative MRI scans, to meet with the professor as scheduled. After the professor asked about his medical history and personally checked the stability of the patient¡¯s knee joint, he was impressed by the results of the surgery. He could think of only a few who could pull off such a feat. ¡°Where did you have the surgery?¡± the professor asked. Seeing the change in the professor¡¯s expression, the patient felt a chill down his spine and nervously answered, ¡°At a private hospital in G City.¡± A private hospital in G City that could pull off this kind of surgery? Is that even possible? It must have been performed by a skilled surgeon from elsewhere. ¡°Who was the Chief Surgeon?¡± the professor continued. The patient became even more frightened, ¡°It was a young professor named Yang Ping. Did something go wrong with the surgery, Professor?¡± The professor gave a slight smile and quickly explained, seeing how panicked the patient was, ¡°The surgery was not messed up, it was very well done. Honestly, it¡¯s rare to see a multiple ligament reconstruction of this quality in my forty years of practice. Do you know which hospital this Chief Surgeon is from?¡± As the saying goes, ¡®In Shanghai, anyone from the countryside is considered rural.¡¯ Maybe living in the city for too long makes one narrow in view. The world outside is developing so fast. ¡°Sanbo!¡± The patient responded cautiously. Even though the professor had explained, he still felt uneasy, fearing that the professor was not telling the whole truth. Sanbo, the professor had never heard of this hospital! Still not reassured, he examined the MRI scans and the knee joint again, nodding frequently, and told his graduate student, ¡°Take pictures, take pictures.¡± The student took pictures of the MRI scans and then a video of the professor examining the patient. The professor pointed at the MRI scans and said, ¡°When you guys have time, study these scans carefully. Look at the origin and end points of these ligaments, the direction they take. It¡¯s impeccable, textbook-level surgery!¡± So, the surgery was indeed well done. The patient was relieved. He was so scared just now that his blood pressure almost shot up. Without a proper explanation, he might have fainted right in the examination room. After all the fright, the patient felt elated by the time he finished his consultation. He immediately shared his brief medical journey on WeChat. He was part of a patient group, though he didn¡¯t remember when he joined. People in the group were from all over the place. They chatted about their conditions, shared medical experiences, rehabilitation progress, and recommended doctors and hospitals. Everyone was impressed by this doctor¡¯s skills and asked the patient to organize a trip to G City. Once they arrived in G City, some smart ones were well aware that this surgery is not easy. Not daring to rush into it, they felt the patient¡¯s knee joint themselves and were satisfied. There was nothing more convincing than this. The medical travel group decided to visit the hospital then and there. The sight of this large crowd in the lobby of Li Quan Hospital understandably made the security guards nervous. Once everything was explained, Boss Cheng was overjoyed. His jaw ached from all the laughing. He quickly asked someone to take charge of the medical travel group, called Yang Ping to schedule surgeries, only to find out that Yang Ping was too busy, and it would have to be a month later. Boss Cheng explained to the patients that the surgeries could only be done a month later, but they had no complaints and decided to come back next month. They were unhurried and even made advanced bookings for their beds. While the surgeries at Li Quan Hospital were being postponed, the consultation that Su Nanchen invited could not be delayed. After all, it¡¯s for Su¡¯s older brother. Yang Ping felt more troubled the more he thought about it. He had to talk to Director Han about it. He must make time for this consultation. He could not afford to slight his brother in any way. The trauma emergency center training was going full steam ahead with no signs of slowing. Not to mention the other emergency techniques, just take the gurney. They say the speed at which they push the gurney has improved several times. Pushing the gurney to a great height, every doctor and nurse was given training and tests, stricter than getting a driver¡¯s license. Where the doctor and nurse should stand while pushing the gurney, how those at the front should pull and those at the back should push, how to control the direction, where the hand should be placed, when and how much force to exert. How to cooperate when there¡¯s one, two, three, or four people. They even developed an internal manual for pushing the gurney. It¡¯s said that a guy in the ER didn¡¯t pass the single-person gurney-pushing test. He got it as night shift duty, pushing the gurney from the ER to the operating room then back to the ER, all drenched in sweat, with a patient even lying on it. Xiong Sihai was commanding the ER training every day till his throat became hoarse. The Orthopedics team worked day and night for their training, the ER couldn¡¯t lag behind. In order to give nurses practice in drawing blood while in motion, the doctors in the department had their arms and legs pricked all over. They really put themselves on the line. In the afternoon, after training a few rounds of people, Yang Ping finally found a chance to take a break. He went back to Integrated Orthopedics to talk to Director Han about the consultation in the City People¡¯s Hospital. Just as he was about to take a sip of water in his office, Hermes¡¯ wife knocked on the doctor¡¯s office door, ¡°Doctor Yang, can you come to see my husband? He¡¯d like to discuss his condition with you.¡± This Hermes, he either wheels around in his wheelchair or limps with his crutches all over the place. He even ventured to the morgue in the hospital basement but was stopped by the old doorman. The security guard came over to the department to greet the patient, asking him not to run around. It¡¯s odd that Hermes even had his wife make a request as he inquires about his condition today. Hermes¡¯ surgery was very successful. The X-ray follow-up showed that his right tibia had been lengthened by 2 centimeters, and the bone callus growth was very good. Furthermore, there was no sign of infection, and the infection indicators in his blood tests, such as procalcitonin, had fallen within the normal range. This indicated that all the bacteria had been completely eradicated. Yang Ping followed his wife to Hermes¡¯ suite. Hermes was sitting on the sofa. As Yang Ping walked in, Hermes¡¯ wife didn¡¯t enter but merely closed the door behind them. An interesting couple, indeed. Hermes immediately stood up, ¡°Doctor Yang, please have a seat. I¡¯d like to discuss my condition.¡± Yang Ping sat down, and so did Hermes. He pulled out a card from his pocket, ¡°It seems there¡¯s an issue with my medical card. Can you help me understand what¡¯s going on?¡± Is this what he calls an understanding of the disease? Yang Ping reached out his hand to take it, but wait! It was not a medical card, but a bank card. This guy was offering a bribe, and it might be a huge sum. Yang Ping pulled his hand back with a smile, ¡°I appreciate the gesture, but this isn¡¯t necessary.¡± Money is a good thing. Yang Ping didn¡¯t think money was useless. But a gentleman knows the right way to love and acquire wealth. Hermes insisted, ¡°Doctor Yang, I don¡¯t know what you like, so I thought I¡¯d just use this. I apologize if it seems crude.¡± Yang Ping had a polite gesture: Really, I appreciate the sentiment, but if there¡¯s nothing else, I¡¯m quite busy. Looking at the firmness in Yang Ping¡¯s eyes, Hermes, a businessman, is adept at reading people¡¯s expressions. He could tell which was a coy reluctance and which was a genuine refusal. He was a smart man too. He took back the card without insisting further. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean anything by it. I just wanted to express my gratitude. I¡¯m a straightforward man and can come off as blunt. I apologize if I have offended you, Doctor Yang.¡± Hermes was very embarrassed. ¡°It¡¯s okay, don¡¯t worry. Thank you, I appreciate your gesture.¡± Yang Ping stood up. Hermes got anxious and said, ¡°Doctor Yang, wait, I have another favor to ask.¡± His face was red, and he stuttered and stumbled over his words, as if he had a hard time finding the right words. ¡°Don¡¯t be shy, just say it. If it¡¯s medically related, I¡¯ll do my best.¡± Yang Ping sat back down. ¡°Medically related, medically related.¡± Hermes wiped the sweat off his forehead. Finally, he plucked up the courage and asked, ¡°Doctor Yang, you¡¯re so skilled, you can even elongate bones. I was wondering, can those... other things... also be elongated?¡± ¡°What things?¡± Yang Ping was a bit confused at what he was referring to. This was a really obscure question, Yang Ping didn¡¯t immediately make the connection. ... Ah, he was referring to that! ¡°Oh, yes, surgery can be performed to extend that!¡± Yang Ping confirmed. ¡°How much can it be altered? Can it be elongated by over 20 centimeters?¡± Hermes was thrilled. Wow, this guy has big ambitions. Yang Ping almost spat out the lunch he¡¯d had, shocked at Hermes¡¯ audacity. ¡°Not 20 centimeters, but 3-5 centimeters. There¡¯s a type of minimally invasive surgery that uses an endoscope. We only make a small two-centimeter cut above the pubic bone. It leaves no scar and looks aesthetically pleasing. The results are quite good.¡± Hermes got a little excited. Earlier it was hard for him to speak up, but thinking about it now, he was talking to a doctor, there was no need to feel shy. He should speak his mind. He rubbed his trouser legs with enthusiasm, ¡°That¡¯s enough, seeing as I have nothing to do while I¡¯m in the hospital, I¡¯d like to have this surgery too. Doctor Yang, could you arrange it for me? Let them start from the highest point and extend it to the longest it can.¡± ¡°This is a urological surgery. I¡¯ll have Doctor Lu arrange a consultation with a urological surgeon. But, no matter how minor it is, surgery does come with risks. If what you currently have is sufficient, I¡¯d recommend not going through with it.¡± Yang Ping gave his medical advice. However, since this guy had money and wanted to enhance his quality of life, there was little more he could say to dissuade him. He¡¯d call for a consultation and let a urological surgeon discuss it with him. Chapter 217 - 0205: Ninety Thousand Yuan Chapter 217: Chapter 0205: Ninety Thousand Yuan Yang Ping instructed Little Five to ask Hermes for a urological consultation. Little Five was on duty at the time and immediately made the consultation request. The one responsible for the consultation from the department of urology, President Liao, had no emergencies that afternoon, so he decided to visit Orthopedics to witness the bustling preparations for a major event. It took him half an hour to reach integrated orthopedics. At Sanbo, a paper consultation request was unnecessary. They simply sent a digital request and dialed the receptionist. If a general director came for the routine consultation, specific experts would be arranged appropriately. Half an hour might not compare to an immediate 15-minute emergency consultation, but regular consultations required the receiving end to respond within 24 hours of the notice. This accelerated standard consultation only happened due to mutual friendship or if the consulting director had a girlfriend in the department. So, by that standard, it usually wouldn¡¯t be this quick, be glad if your request wasn¡¯t procrascinated at all. Once President Liao reached Integrated Orthopedics, he took a round but found it relatively deserted. A nurse informed him that training was taking place at the administrative building and not here. He decided to pass by the administrative building after completing the consultation. His role during consultations allowed him some freedom. It only made sense to squeeze out some time to visit. After all, a few deputy chief physicians from Urological Surgery were attending the training. It was also on his way, making it appropriate for a visit. President Liao peeked into the doctor¡¯s office. Yang Ping was sitting at his desk working, while Little Five and some other doctors were writing up medical records. He greeted, ¡°Teacher Yang! Doctor Lu!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s celebrity status at the hospital had been continually on the rise. His five-section replantation operation had taken everyone by surprise. While most people focused on the surgery itself, they didn¡¯t pay much attention to the surgeon. However, things changed after he launched Integrated Orthopedics alongside Director Han. His move caused a stir, so much so that even Director Gao from Sports Medicine started learning surgery techniques from him. The affiliated hospital even invited him for a demonstration. Moreover, with the major preparation battle going on for Orthopedics, he was assigned the group leader role in the training team. The position granted him immense benefits that many doctors could only dream of achieving. President Liao, a postgraduate and a stalwart in the field, was working full time, 24 hours a day. This workload caused his girlfriend to leave, and he still hadn¡¯t secured a position. Addressing Yang as ¡°Teacher¡±, seemed appropriate. It was common among interns and standardized trainees. Younger doctors all used this term, and he decided to follow the masses. ¡°I¡¯m President Liao from Urological Surgery. Just received a call from Doctor Lu, so I came for the consultation,¡± announced President Liao in a respectful tone. The title ¡®Liao, the President¡¯ wasn¡¯t a boast. Its social interpretation was entirely different. In the hospital setup, the term ¡°President¡± was the most distressing indicator for someone who worked around the clock, the entire year. It represented the commitment of being on call all the time. Younger and tired-looking doctors with heavy eye bags were always the medical presidents ¨C he was effortless to spot. On seeing President Liao, the standardized trainees rushed to fetch a chair for him. Some were familiar with him from past rotations in the Urological Surgery department, as these presidents were their top bosses during their tenure. Yang greeted him with a smile and a nod since he could not recall his name or the formal way to address him. Little Five identified President Liao, ¡°Bed 22, Wang Changxin, in the suite at the end of the corridor. The patient desires a penis extension surgery. He wished for you to evaluate and consult.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go and have a look!¡± President Liao adjusted his glasses. He was particularly interested in these types of surgeries. His seniors had once told him that they attracted a lot of attention in the field. And they were nothing compared to other procedures, such as urinary stone flushing. This surgery, when done by an experienced surgeon, takes only about a dozen minutes to complete. With a small incision and one or two stitches ¨C no medication required, one could quickly operate over a dozen procedures in a day. He was apprenticing under the chief and had been practicing for a while. Being more than familiar with the procedure now, he seemed quite interested in this consultation. Little Five accompanied him, and so did a few trainees. Yang Ping had to meet with Director Han in his office. After knocking, he found the office empty and went ahead to send a WeChat message to Director Han, suggesting they set a time for discussing the consultation at the City People¡¯s Hospital. It was better to have face-to-face communication on the matter. Earlier as mentioned, he had asked the Director for some time off to get the consultation handled, given the special circumstances. But now, after deliberation, he decided to consult Director Han again, considering whether he could get half a day to get the job done. It seemed like Director Han was in a meeting. The hospital was always bustling with various meetings like medical insurance cost control, patient complaints, medical disputes, and whatnot ¨C all these issues were brain-draining. For many front-line doctors, half their time was devoted to these issues, and the rest half was dedicated to saving patients¡¯ lives. There was a rumor that some trouble had erupted recently in the Trauma Orthopedics Department. A granny with a comminuted fracture of her right forearm had arrived with personnel from an elderly care home at the ER. Trauma Orthopedics was consulted, and its resident ¨C President Guo ¨C visited the ER with a trainee to see her. The elderly patient had severe swelling in her forearm, so much so that a jade bangle on her forearm was stuck in her swollen skin. Her hand had turned pale due to ischemia. On seeing this, Guo instantly realized the severity ¨C the bangle had to be promptly removed. Upon a closer look, it was evidently impossible to take it off. The only way out was to break it. Just then, a man was brought to the ER with multiple stab wounds from a drunken brawl. Guo was urgently led to him, with the doctors and nurses who were looking after the elderly patient also following him. Just before he left, he instructed the trainee to cater to the granny before he rushed off to treat the man. This young trainee, full of enthusiasm and dexterity, understood his mentor¡¯s intentions. As an eager one, he took the initiative to get things done ¨C for it was just a bangle. So he opened the contents of the ER¡¯s drawer and found a hammer. With a swift mind, he cushioned a side of the bangle on a desk, ¡°Missis, I¡¯m afraid I have to break this bangle. Otherwise, your hand might need amputation.¡± The granny was understanding, ¡°This is an old bangle I bought for fifty cents during a visit to the Great Wall with my husband back in the ¡¯80s. It doesn¡¯t bear any monetary value. Go ahead and smash it.¡± Even a pricey one wouldn¡¯t be of much help; it was simply not possible to remove it! Upon hearing this, the trainee doctor felt relieved. The hammer struck, not too light, not too heavy, the bracelet shattered and freedom returned to her arm. It seemed more relaxed now that the swelling had significantly decreased, and slowly her hand regained its color. Well, what a sharp little chap! After breaking apart the bracelet, he waited for his teacher to come and correct the position of the fracture and apply a plaster cast. Yet, the old lady¡¯s family, responding to the call from the nursing home, had all arrived. Two sons and a daughter, they were all present. They came with wrath and fire, scolding the staff of the nursing home. Then seeing the broken bracelet on the table, their faces became even darker. What a predicament, the family members claimed it to be a family treasure worth at least hundreds of thousands. ¡°You just f**king smashed it!¡± They pointed and jabbed indignant fingers almost hitting the training doctor The honest old lady wanted to explain that the bracelet was worthless, a cheap market stall find. But before she could finish, her daughter dragged her away, stating that she was becoming senile. They decided to abandon the treatment and the cast, dragging the old lady home, pain showing on her face, her tears nearly falling out. Both sons stayed back demanding an explanation from the hospital for destroying their family jewel. They threatened to call the police, taking pictures to document the accident. ¡°This family heirloom was ruined by your doctor¡¯s hammer and there should be compensation.We won¡¯t leave it at that.¡± President Guo arrived, breaking into a cold sweat. He had seen so much blood today from numerous patients without ever sweating, but now the sight of the broken bracelet made him perspire. He had overlooked something, failed to explain clearly, and now here was the trouble. As of now, in the emergency department, every fully conscious patient or patients with family present would have to sign a consent form just to cut their clothes. How dare he break a bracelet that might cost fifty cents? This thing now could be worth whatever they claimed. A real mess, what a mess indeed! No sooner when Director Tan was hectically busy with his work, he was called to a meeting in the afternoon. Concerned, Director Han decided to take a look at the situation as well. The relatives insisted that the bracelet was a family heirloom. While they hadn¡¯t signed any agreement, the old lady had agreed. But their claims were unreliable as they stated that the old woman was muddled and had no recollection or understanding of what transpired during the ordeal. The nursing home staff was asked to testify, but they claimed not to have heard anything at the time as it was rather noisy, and they did not know what had happened. What to do, it was a difficult situation? What to do was still not clear. In less than 15 minutes, President Liao had returned. Yang Ping poured him a cup of water and asked, ¡°How is it? Is surgery necessary?¡± Liao took the cup of water given by Yang Ping, looking surprised: ¡°Teacher Yang, I will do it myself! The patient wants to increase both the length and the girth of his ¡®thing.¡¯ The more, the better. He wants to improve the overall measurements. This is a plastic surgery procedure. The patient¡¯s wish is an indication for surgery. I¡¯ve informed him about the risks, and he has agreed. We will conduct a pre-operative examination and, if there are no contraindications, the surgery can be performed. We will take over the case and hand it back after the operation.¡± President Liao opened his laptop and pulled up the consultation form: ¡°I will write my opinions on the consultation form. Teacher Yang, I heard you are preparing for an Academic Conference. Do you plan to compete with Tokyo University¡¯s affiliated hospital?¡± President Liao gave a thumbs up: ¡°Being able to compete with them is something we all admire. The orthopedics department deserves to be the leading department in our hospital. If it were us, not to mention competing, they may not even agree to attend our conference.¡± After clattering away on the keyboard, the consultation form was complete. President Liao got out his phone: ¡°Teacher Yang, may I add you on WeChat?¡± ¡°Sure, but don¡¯t call me ¡®Teacher.¡¯ Just call me Doctor Yang.¡± Yang Ping was not accustomed to being called ¡®Teacher.¡¯ They added each other on WeChat. This fellow¡¯s WeChat nickname was ¡°Bound by the Lower Half.¡± There were articles online saying that doctor¡¯s names on WeChat are very interesting. There isn¡¯t a name they couldn¡¯t think of, only those you couldn¡¯t imagine. What names do urologists use? For example, ¡°Urine & Sex¡±, ¡°Gunsmith¡±, ¡°Retain the Root,¡± ¡°Drainage Worker¡±; proctologists are even cooler, with names like ¡°Chrysanthemum & Knife,¡± ¡°Baby Daisy,¡± ¡°Super Mario,¡± ¡°Eyes without Pearls¡±. Cardiothoracic surgeons had ¡°Open Heart Knife,¡± while neurosurgeons had ¡°Water-cutting Head¡± and radiologists had poetic names like ¡°Seeing Through You.¡± President Liao, the urologist, left, and Yang Ping waited in the doctor¡¯s office for Director Han. Little Five and his group were probably still discussing the surgery with Hermes. Sisi¡¯s mum came in. She had a bill in her hand, looking flustered, searching for Little Five, who wasn¡¯t there. Seeing Yang Ping, she said, ¡°Doctor Yang, I just paid Sisi¡¯s hospital fee, and there is an extra ninety thousand yuan.¡± ¡°It must be Jiang Jiahui who paid it?¡± Yang Ping told her to calm down. ¡°I called Jiahui, and it wasn¡¯t her who paid.¡± Sisi¡¯s mother showed the receipt to Yang Ping. Indeed, it had been paid today. During this period, Sisi¡¯s hospital fees were mostly paid by Jiahui, with Sisi¡¯s parents also paying several thousand from time to time. Nobody else was known to have contributed. If either Song Zimo or Tang Fei had contributed, they would have informed Yang Ping ahead of time. Who could just drop ninety thousand in? An anonymous well-wisher? A mistaken transfer? The possibility of a mistaken transfer was slim. Typically, you¡¯d take the bill to the hospital to pay, which includes the patient¡¯s name, department, and hospitalisation number. But an anonymous well-wisher wasn¡¯t impossible. ¡°Don¡¯t worry for now, let me look into it,¡± Yang Ping comforted her and asked her to go back and take care of Sisi. With Yang Ping¡¯s assurance, Sisi¡¯s mom felt more at ease. An unexpected ninety thousand yuan in the hospital account for no reason wasn¡¯t a small sum. Chapter 218 - 0206: Gold Hook, Silver Hook Chapter 218: Chapter 0206: Gold Hook, Silver Hook The matter of the additional money in Sisi¡¯s account had to be put on hold by Yang Ping, who could only investigate by looking at surveillance footage from the security department whenever she had time. Technically, knowing who made the deposit was meaningless, but it was meant to provide an explanation for Sisi¡¯s parents. If someone had made an error and deposited the money incorrectly, they would naturally come forward to rectify it. If the depositor was a good Samaritan who wished to remain anonymous, their reasons were their own, and it was just as well that they continued to do good unobtrusively. Director Han eventually returned to his office. The negotiations about the jade bracelet were over¡ªthey had fallen through. Director Zhao from the Medical Affairs Department had also lost his patience. For such a minor issue, it was frankly inappropriate to constantly call on Director Han and Director Tan, who were both extremely busy with surgeries and organising training sessions, to deal with these annoying matters. The hospital had initially offered to pay out 2,000 yuan to settle the issue. Officer Wang thought that was reasonable¡ªit would resolve the situation. However, the family involved was unyielding, insisting that the bracelet was worth tens of thousands of yuan and demanding a whopping 300,000 yuan as compensation. Director Zhao proposed the idea of having a third-party professional organization appraise the bracelet¡¯s worth if they didn¡¯t agree with the 2,000 yuan offer, yet the family adamantly refused. They were convinced that the appraisers would collude with the hospital and, being powerless, they would end up being misled. No solutions were acceptable to them¡ªother than a payout of 300,000 yuan! 300,000 yuan¡ªthey must be dreaming! Director Zhao, with his years of experience in the Medical Affairs Department, had encountered many rogue individuals, but none as outrageous as this one. It was pointless to continue negotiating. ¡°No more negotiating. If you want compensation, sue us. Go to court, and whatever the court orders us to pay, we won¡¯t hold back a single yuan. If the issue hasn¡¯t gone through court, we won¡¯t pay you a dime right now. Let me make this clear: our doctors didn¡¯t do anything wrong. The patient¡¯s limb was severely swollen, and the bracelet was restricting blood flow. The limb could have quickly died due to a lack of blood. Under such dire circumstances, and in order to save the limb, the bracelet was smashed¡ªit¡¯s a standard medical emergency procedure. As to whether you signed anything or not, in dire situations like these, we don¡¯t need your signature¡ª¡± ¡°We won¡¯t quibble over details anymore. Sue us? Everyone knows who has the upper hand here! Can we possibly win against you? We¡¯ll lower our demand to 180,000 yuan¡ªnot a single yuan less. If you don¡¯t pay, don¡¯t even think about treating patients anymore. I¡¯ll come to your hospital every day. You, specifically, you can expect me to follow you every day to and from work.¡± Losing patience as Director Zhao quit negotiating, the family not only insisted but also started to threaten. Director Zhao waved his hand dismissively, ¡°If it hasn¡¯t gone through court, not a single penny will be paid out, not even 1.8 yuan, let alone 180,000 yuan. Dream on! Security, call security¡ªescort these people out!¡± And so, the meeting was brought to an abrupt halt. They had hoped to offer 2,000 yuan to appease the situation, but the other party clung tenaciously to their claim, making it seem as if the doctors were in the wrong if they continued to negotiate. Yang Ping reported the consultative meeting arranged at the People¡¯s Hospital. Director Han nonchalantly said, ¡°It¡¯s just a morning. It shouldn¡¯t cause any problems. Go ahead with your plans!¡± Yang Ping was not surprised by Director Han¡¯s breezy attitude. Director Han sat still, seemingly lost in thought, with his fingers interlocked and thumbs fiddling in circular motions. Seeing that Director Han wanted to say something, Yang Ping asked, ¡°Director?¡± Director Han snapped back to reality: ¡°Nothing, go ahead with your work.¡± After President Liao finished the consultation, he visited the training room in the administration building for the first time. The scene inside was indeed astonishing, given it was during daylight. He imagined that it would be even more impressive come nighttime. There were orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, thoracic surgeons, and urologists. The majority were from orthopedics, with the entire trauma orthopedics team participating in the training. Other wards from orthopedics and other surgical departments had also assigned their best performers here for training. From hand washing, dressing, glove applying, disinfecting, draping, incising, suturing, stopping bleeding, tying knots, retracting, to handling a suction device, all procedures were included in the training. Each item had to be practiced until the movement became second nature. President Liao surely expanded his horizons. He watched several doctors practicing retraction techniques. Every surgical procedure, stand position, handling hand, one hand or both hands, degree of force used, and levels and depth of retraction¡ªall had strict standards. How many suction devices were needed, the direction from which to approach, how to coordinate absorbing blood and smoke¡ªall these facts piqued Liao¡¯s interest as he leaned in to observe a device handling training in greater detail. He found the suction training was impeccable. As a senior resident doctor about to be promoted to an attending physician, he had no idea that a suction device could be operated with such proficiency. In the simulated surgical area, red dye ejected from a tube simulated blood. The suction device cleared away the ¡®blood¡¯ quickly and precisely. This excellent visual field control in the operating area would aid the chief surgeon greatly to carry out the operation successfully. ¡°No, your position is wrong. You are disturbing the chief surgeon¡¯s movements.¡± ¡°Stand straight, your head is too low. It will contaminate the surgical field and limit the chief surgeon¡¯s area of operation.¡± ¡°You¡¯re applying too much force on the retractors. There¡¯s no need to strain yourself too much. You¡¯ll only tire yourself out.¡± ¡°Remember my demonstration. Please ask me if you have any questions. You have to be perfect and skilful and form muscle memory. Your movements should not change at any time!¡± Song Zimo walked among the crowd, supervising the training members, timely spotting and rectifying any mistakes. Zhang Lin and Little Five were also participating in the training. Although they were members of the training group, they were not training instructors and had to receive training like everyone else. Over there, Director Tian was taking part in the training alongside Director Ouyang and Director Bai. Despite these directors performing surgeries well as a daily routine, conforming to the movement standards was particularly challenging for them compared to young doctors¡ªthey were simply used to their ways. The anesthetists were training in another room. Liang Fatty¡¯s training was different from that of clinical doctors. His main training involved tracheal intubation, lumbar puncture, various nerve block punctures, and especially intubations and punctures under various abnormal conditions. Chapter 219 - 0206 Gold Hook and Silver Hook_2 Chapter 219: Chapter 0206 Gold Hook and Silver Hook_2 Knowledge of anesthesia machines was previously sufficient with just know-how on their usage, but now, Yang Ping required understanding of their structure, mechanism, troubleshooting of certain faults, various operations, and parameters, all of which had to be thoroughly understood and implemented confidently. Yang Ping invited the engineer from the manufacturer of the anesthesia machine to specifically explain the structural principles, and the judgment and elimination of some faults. This knowledge, although infrequently utilized, was necessary because it could save time and aid anesthesiologists in understanding their machines more profoundly. Nurse training took place in a separate room. Head Nurse Jiang, along with Xiao Su, were training other instrument nurses. They had to familiarize themselves with the process of each trauma orthopedic surgery, even being required to simulate it once. Only then could they deeply understand the surgical steps and know how to cooperate. There were hundreds of orthopedic surgical instruments placed on a rectangular table. In the past, nurses only needed to know the name, shape, and usage of each instrument. Now, they were required to understand the invention history of these tools, the improvements that led to their current forms, why they were designed in their particular shapes, and why they were used in such a way. Other departments were following the training plan set by the Orthopedics Department, including the pre-surgery ER, the surgery department, post-surgery trauma ICU, and supportive Anesthesia, Operating room, and Transfusion departments. Everyone was training earnestly and meticulously. The whole floor was bustling with activity. Everyone was focused and dedicated. There are no difficult matters in the world, only for those uninterested. This quote suited the current situation perfectly. Colleagues in the Imaging Department were training on rapid film reading. However, it was not up to standard, and the time required was still far behind the goal. If they tried to speed up forcibly, it was likely to lead to mistakes and missed diagnoses. Film reading required a long-term accumulation of practice and was not something that could be improved in the short term. They also put in a lot of effort, took out all trauma patients¡¯ images since the establishment of Sanbo, and studied them all over again, but they still couldn¡¯t achieve the required film reading speed. When surgeons were waiting on the platform, they couldn¡¯t present an accurate report in real-time. This link took too much time and delayed the advancement of the entire process. The Imaging Department couldn¡¯t lag behind in this exercise. Director Meng came up with an idea ¡ª if one person couldn¡¯t do it, they could have more people work together. Originally, they planned to send two doctors for support. Now, they pulled seven doctors from the department. Each doctor was assigned a specific area such as head, chest, abdomen, spine, upper limbs, lower limbs, and pelvis to read the image, and then they would collectively generate one report. They were able to accomplish tasks quickly and precisely in this manner. These doctors, with each responsible for a specific area, reviewed the images of their focused parts daily, which led to training and speed improvement that exceeded previous performance many times over. After taking a round, President Liao was increasingly excited. His passion was uncontrollable. How regrettable it was that he wasn¡¯t part of such a historic event and hadn¡¯t endeavored with everyone. He arrived at the training spot of his department, where several young associate chief physicians were busy. They were studying anatomy in such a serious manner they hadn¡¯t noticed him at all. ¡°Director Bao?¡± After calling a few times, Director Bao finally turned around and glanced at him: ¡°Oh, Xiao Liao¨C¡± And then he returned to his work. President Liao initially wanted to say a few words of encouragement, but they were all so busy they didn¡¯t have any time. He left in regret. He wished he was still an in-patient physician and had the opportunity to participate in such activities. If he could, he would be willing to even help carry the stretcher. Observing the enthusiasm of everyone, the rumors he had previously heard that people were on the verge of collapse under high pressure naturally debunked themselves. Did this look anything like a state of collapse? With his earnest demeanor, Director Bao looked like an intern who had just started clinical practice. Professor Zhang Zongshun was walking from one room to another in the corridor with his hands clasped behind him. The hospital¡¯s comprehensive orthopedics clinic had been suspended for some time now, so he had nothing much to do. Serving as the consulting-advisor for the hospital¡¯s training team, he had no specific duties. It was the younger generation that was running the show, so he was merely there to lend a lively presence. The vibe brought back a sense of nostalgia. In my youth, during the fifties and sixties, our times were tumultuous and impoverished! Yet everyone¡¯s spirits were high; we were filled with energy and a determination that we could revolutionize the world. Now, seeing the vigor and vitality of these young people is truly refreshing. From time to time, I would give some suggestions to Yang Ping, but I never interfere. After all, I am getting on in years, and even though I keep up my habit of learning, my thought processes and concepts can¡¯t keep up with the younger generation. Pointing them in the right direction is enough. Too much involvement would not only be pointless but might actually lead to misunderstandings. Little Five and Zhang Lin, who are in the same group as Yang Ping, would take on secondary roles if Yang Ping was the Chief Surgeon. Song Zimo will definitely be the first assistant, and Little Five and Zhang Lin would be the second and third assistants, their main tasks might be to handle the retractors. So in addition to the basic training, their specialized focus is on handling the retractors and suction devices because their group will be the focus. Little Five and Zhang Lin have even been given nicknames by their Orthopedics colleagues: Gold Hook and Silver Hook! Bearing these titles on the operating table is an ultimate honor that not just anyone can handle. Apparently, in some big hospitals, there are doctors in their forties and fifties who still can¡¯t advance in their career and can only handle the retractors on the operating table. Those in their forties are called Silver Hooks, while those in their fifties are called Gold Hooks. These two guys have received such prestigious titles at such a young age. What an honor! As for who is the Gold Hook and who is the Silver Hook, the two of them have been arguing about it. We¡¯ll put that aside for now and see how it pans out in the future. A detailed anatomy of the pelvis was drawn on the whiteboard. Yang Ping regularly explained the anatomy in circles. All these anatomical diagrams were drawn by Song Zimo. Professor Zhang stood in front of the whiteboard. When Yang Ping returned, he promptly came over to chat with the old man. ¡°Old Zhang!¡± Yang Ping called respectfully. ¡°Xiao Yang, you¡¯ve been working hard.¡± Professor Zhang turned around. ¡°Everyone has been working hard.¡± Yang Ping invited Professor Zhang to sit. Witnessing this scene, Professor Zhang was deeply moved: ¡°Our country started from scratch and was late in getting started; it¡¯s natural for us to have a gap in various fields. You guys didn¡¯t experience the most difficult times. Despite that, we managed to build atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, missiles, satellites, and nuclear submarines through our own efforts.¡± ¡°Developed countries in Europe and America are indeed stronger than us, but as long as we work hard, we can narrow the gap and catch up.¡± ¡°We Chinese are no worse than anyone else. It¡¯s just a temporary decline in modern times.¡± ¡°If you have studied history, not to mention other things, just speaking about porcelain and silk. In ancient times, these were exported to the whole world. In Europe, only the wealthy nobility could afford them. After studying for hundreds of years, Europeans only managed to make inferior copies. Porcelain is nothing more than playing with clay. Our ancestors turned clay into commodities that could make money worldwide. Isn¡¯t that remarkable?¡± ¡°As descendants of such a smart and diligent race, how can we not succeed? Xiao Yang, you are doing it right. Don¡¯t fear strong enemies, stay grounded, despise enemies strategically, and pay attention to them tactically.¡± Yang Ping listened attentively and helped Professor Zhang sit down: ¡°Thank you for your guidance, Old Zhang. Have a seat and rest. Would you like a glass of water?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll sit for a while. You guys continue. Don¡¯t worry about me. As long as we keep working hard, overtaking them is just a matter of time. If not in five years, then ten years, if not in ten years, then twenty years¡ªI¡¯m afraid this old chap might not live to see that day!¡± Old Zhang sat down and took the water handed over by Yang Ping. ¡°Child, you¡¯re doing well. In the future, you must remain steadfast and not be swayed by various temptations. You must dedicate yourself to serving the country. Those who say science knows no borders are all talking nonsense. If science knows no borders, why do they blockade technology against us? Why do those European and American technology groups lock their technology in safes? They are all liars.¡± Old Zhang waved his hand and took a sip of water. Chapter 220 - 0207: Winning Without a Sword Against a Sword Chapter 220: Chapter 0207: Winning Without a Sword Against a Sword Professor Zhang took a break and continued to wander around. Su Nanchen sent another WeChat message to arrange a consultation time with the city hospital. Since Director Han agreed, Yang Ping wanted to finish the consultation as soon as possible. Otherwise, this matter would always be hanging. The city hospital will follow Su Nanchen¡¯s time, and Su Nanchen will follow Yang Ping¡¯s time, which would be convenient. Let¡¯s do it tomorrow, for a quick decision, Yang Ping and Su Nanchen agreed. After a tense day of training, Yang Ping returned to his house, exhausted to the bone. He leaned on the sofa to rest and brewed a cup of tea. The tea leaves were brought from Old Han¡¯s place. He pondered how to increase the speed of surgery while maintaining quality. How to perform surgery quickly and accurately without such advanced infrared monitoring. Takahashi and Sasaki relied on infrared monitoring, what they saw was what they got. This is how they achieved speed and accuracy. He currently doesn¡¯t have such equipment. If he used CT navigation for image guidance. The speed was slow and not real-time. Moreover, metal instruments would create artifacts under CT, which would severely affect the operation and cannot meet the criteria of super-vision operation. This problem is no longer solvable with manpower, just like human eyes no matter how powerful, they can¡¯t compare with a radar. Even if your vision is 20/20, it still can¡¯t beat the detection of a radar. Moreover, the more manpower is pushed to its limits, the more difficult it is to improve. Like running, the world record for a hundred-meter sprint can only be improved by fractions of a second, with many years of advancement just for a slight improvement. After thinking for a long time, the only solution was to further improve his anatomical proficiency. Any improvement gained was a little narrowing of the gap. The diagram in his brain, formed by the accumulation of five thousand test subjects, both dynamic and static images, were incredibly clear and stable. Every time they were called from memory, it was an effortless process. However, this kind of retrieval required time. After the image was retrieved, it needed to be corrected according to the actual situation, which also took time. This was why he could not increase his speed. ¡°Are you already asleep?¡± ¡°Not yet!¡± Xiao Su sent a WeChat message. She knew that Yang Ping was facing a problem. He was thinking even during meals. Yang Ping shared his dilemma with Xiao Su ¨C the problem of not being able to surpass Takahashi and his infrared assistance. Both of them liked sharing their joys and sorrows together. ¡°Without the benefit of infrared surveillance, though you may not currently match him, you definitely will in a few years, even surpass him. I am not sure about anything else but when I was learning the piano as a child, I always had to look at the sheet music at first. Once I became proficient, the music was memorized in my heart. When I reached the peak of proficiency, I no longer needed the sheet music in my heart. I didn¡¯t even need to think about it. The music naturally flowed. I wasn¡¯t even sure how I played it ¨C ¡± Don¡¯t need to think! Don¡¯t need to think! Don¡¯t need to think! Yang Ping carefully considered these words, and suddenly it dawned on him. Wasn¡¯t this the essence of martial arts novels where you¡¯re unbeatable without a sword? The ultimate realm of swordsmanship is having no sword in your mind or hand. Only by transitioning from having to not having, can you reach the highest realm. ¡°I understand!¡± ¡°What do you understand?¡± ¡°I understand how good Xiao Su is.¡± ¡°Then go to bed early, be good, don¡¯t stay up too late.¡± ¡°Yeah, you too, get some sleep. See you tomorrow.¡± Yang Ping went back into the system space. There were still a thousand test subjects left for anatomical training. Due to slow progress, he dared not use up all one thousand, fearing that his goal couldn¡¯t be achieved even after they were used up. Now that he had found a way to solve the problem, the thousand test bodies could be used. Because the anatomical diagram in the brain was constructed through the anatomy of the test subjects, it was just like a real human body. Now, he wanted the human body in his brain to become his instinct, functioning without needing memory. If he could achieve this ¨C to think and to get, it would be even more accurate and faster than Takahashi¡¯s to see and to get. Because he had to rely on his eyes for guidance, while Yang Ping relied on the guidance of his heart. Just like drivers ¨C one using a navigation system for guidance, while the other already traversed the same route for decades and knew exactly where to go. Higher peaks lay ahead, and he must climb them. That strong interest in his heart, the fierce desire to conquer those peaks, surged inside him like ocean waves. Once his strategy shifted, so did his approach to utilizing the test subjects. He had always been using dissection to solidify the image in his brain. Now it¡¯s the other way round, he used the image in his brain to guide his dissections. With constant repeated practice, the image eventually dissolved, becoming part of his consciousness, just like walking without thinking about which foot to step first. The space remained the same, the test subjects appeared again, and the mechanical hand passed the scalpel. Yang Ping began the dissection according to the anatomical diagram in his brain, making constant corrections based on the actual situation. He did it slowly and without rushing. These corrections were made consciously. It was just like typing. In the beginning, you had to search for the keyboard. Once you got the hang of it, your hands would naturally find their way to the keyboard. After dissecting dozens of test subjects, it felt very stiff, and each dissection required conscious reference to the anatomical image in his brain. By the time he completed the dissection of two hundred test subjects, the anatomical image in his brain flickered, strongly guiding his hands. Just like typing, a quick glance and you would find the keyboard, no need to search around. The space was no longer silent. For the first time, the sound of water emerged. That was the sound of a distant waterfall. The sound was very pleasant to the ears. It gave Yang Ping a strange feeling, one he couldn¡¯t really describe. It was like a strong desire to explore. He had felt this before, but now it was growing stronger. Every ascent to a higher peak sparked a strong desire to help Yang Ping overcome all obstacles. Perhaps this was a side effect of the system or a latent impact. Yang Ping speculated that the training in the space would gradually increase his interest in medicine and his desire to explore uncharted territories in the field of medicine. It was a medical system after all. It naturally has its internal logic. He continued to train, not asking for the time, just focusing on climbing, not asking how high the mountain was. Once the approach was correct, the result was entirely different. When he finished five hundred test subjects, the anatomical image in his brain became vague. Occasionally, he needed to think, but most of the time he didn¡¯t. Anatomy was everywhere. Where the mind went, where the hand reached, was where the anatomy lied. Any structure was at the mercy of the scalpel. With one sweep, all one thousand test subjects were dissected. There was no anatomical image left in his brain. As soon as he made a cut, he naturally achieved his goal. Just like a finely practiced piece of music, there¡¯s no sheet music in your heart. As soon as you sit down and place your hands on the keyboard, without needing to think, the notes would naturally flow out. For Yang Ping, the human body was this piece of music. The human body had become a part of his consciousness. He stood in the space, the sound of the waterfall faintly audible. Unprecedented! Unparalleled! Where did humans come from? Where are they going? Why are humans, humans? Why are there two kidneys? Both lungs are divided into left and right, yet there¡¯s only one heart and liver. Why do humans need oxygen? Why did the origin of life begin with protein? Who designed the double-helix structure of genetic material? Why is the base pair code designed that way? A pair of fertilized eggs, without human intervention, could become the complex human body in the womb in just ten months. When did mitochondria enter the cells in the human body? Why do bacteria and viruses coexist with humans on this Earth? He seemed to hear the sound of a bell, vague and unsteady. Coupled with questions flashing in his brain, each one evoked a wonderful feeling from the depths of his heart. However, this feeling was fleeting and immediately faded back to calmness. Exiting the space, Yang Ping pulled open the curtains and looked up. The weather was clear, the starry sky was dazzling. Chapter 221 - 0208: Encounter Chapter 221: Chapter 0208: Encounter Jiang Baicheng has been admitted to G City People¡¯s Hospital, a matter of great importance to the hospital administration. The time for a hospital-wide consultation has finally been locked down for 10 a.m. At 9:30 a.m., in the small meeting room in the administration building, all the directors are gathered around an oval table. Even the head the gynecology department, who has seemingly no connection to the case, is present. It¡¯s unclear why she¡¯s there, considering this is likely a busy time for surgeries. The main character hasn¡¯t appeared yet, so they begin with an internal pre-op discussion. For example, they talk about Jiang Baicheng¡¯s high blood pressure and diabetes, and how to control these factors during the surgery. The director of cardiac internal medicine, tapping his finger on the nursing record, checks the blood pressure levels three times from admission until the present day, thoroughly satisfied with the control achieved. ¡°Before the surgery begins, give the patient a small amount of water and have him take an anti-hypertensive pill ¨C one Beixin Tong, 30mg ¨C to prevent any rise in blood pressure during the operation,¡± the director of cardiac internal medicine itemized each word. The person responsible for meeting minutes recorded it word for word. The endocrinology department director personally affixed an insulin pump to Jiang BaiCheng¡¯s abdominal skin. Normally, this is an act carried out by junior physicians, but he¡¯s doing it himself. Even though his hands have become somewhat clumsy due to lack of practice, it was fairly easy task and he was able to complete it smoothly. His blood sugar control is also good, slightly higher than normal, which is optimal for the perioperative period. If an additional glucose and insulin setup is administered during the operation to maintain mildly elevated blood sugar levels, then his task will be considered finished. If this were a normal patient, such control of blood pressure and blood sugar would warrant a glance or two, but certainly not the involvement of two department directors. Now that the blood pressure and blood sugar have been accounted for, they have to address his minor fatty liver. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn¡¯t be an issue, but any abnormalities now are examined by the department directors who give their opinions in the form of long notes. The director of general surgery is unsure after looking at the liver ultrasound, but finally comes to a conclusion: it will not affect the surgery. In relation to the fatty liver, the Department of Nutrition provides a detailed diet plan. At least 10 pages long, it includes meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner, afternoon tea, and snacks after a round of golf. The rehabilitation department director also taught Jiang BaiCheng a set of Eight Pieces of Brocade exercises to help him burn fat. Beriberi, a fungal infection in the feet, has also appeared. The dermatology department provides a detailed plan which includes Western medicine for oral and topical antifungal treatment, as well as Chinese medicine foot baths, nothing is left out. There is a nodule in the lung, and after a series of tests including X-ray, CT scan, and a whole-body PET-CT, a professor from another hospital is asked to come over to make a conclusion. It¡¯s determined to be old tuberculosis, and doesn¡¯t require any treatment. Actually, everyone already knows it¡¯s old TB, but someone has to officially make that conclusion. After all, what if it isn¡¯t? Dean Xie of G City People¡¯s Hospital, sitting slightly to one side of the head of the table, has reserved the seat at the head and the one close to it for Su Nanchen and the professor. Looking at the patient¡¯s medical records displayed on the projector, Dean Xie nods in satisfaction. Everything is ready, all they need now is the right wind, the ¡°wind¡± in this case being Su Nanchen. Dean Xie is due to retire in a year, and his successor will be Director Wu of Orthopedics, currently the acting vice-president. Everything has been arranged accordingly. Even though some of the hospital staff have expressed discontent, Dean Xie has managed to placate them all. As for what kind of person Director Wu really is, that¡¯s not something Dean Xie is concerned about. All he cares about is that Jiang BaiCheng can ensure a peaceful and happy retirement for him. As for who will take his position, it has absolutely nothing to do with him. It¡¯s not like he¡¯s picking a son-in-law. His safe landing is the top priority. Dean Xie has sat in the position of dean for over a decade, a feat not everyone is capable of. He is a capable leader, a strong figure who poured blood, sweat, and tears into G City People¡¯s Hospital. Right after he took up his position, he initiated a series of decisive actions, starting by burning the first fire and launching the ¡°Smile Service¡±. Starting from this Smile Service, he led a series of brilliant initiatives that were recognized and appreciated, and he held his position as dean firmly for over a decade. What exactly does Smile Service mean? All doctors and nurses within the hospital must display a smile when facing patients. Regardless of the reason, anyone caught not smiling would be penalized by a pay cut. To push this service-oriented initiative forward, he often made surprise inspections himself. When he found any doctor or nurse not smiling at a patient, they were fined five hundred on the spot. There was a doctor who just left the outpatient clinic when he received a call that his father had a myocardial infarction. The doctor was in the middle of consultation with a patient when he received the call, and his face drained of color. Unfortunately for him, Dean Xie happened upon him at that moment. Such service attitude was not to be tolerated, and he was instantly fined five hundred. Unconditional meant there was absolutely no chance for any explanation ¨C the penalty came first. It would be too exhausting for only one person to carry out these surprise inspections, but Dean Xie was very capable manager. He organized a Service Surveillance Committee, consisting of administrative staff, and scattered these committee members throughout the hospital corners to keep an eye out for any unsmiling faces. It was exactly the right move! These people sitting in the office, doing nothing else, hardly came to work some of them ¨C too many people in the same office, but now they are all here. A five hundred penalty, one hundred of which went to the monitoring officer, with a hundred per case. Even picking money up from the street couldn¡¯t be as easy as this, no wind, no rain. During that time, several doctors suffered from facial paralysis due to maintaining a smile for extended periods. Some other doctors couldn¡¯t keep up with the service quality and had no choice but to seek other jobs. They quit, or more accurately, they were eliminated! Let them go. Who would worry about finding a replacement at such a good hospital? Dean Xie, a man of great achievements, didn¡¯t care if a few doctors or nurses decided to jump ship. As for those who left, he promptly signed the release, not holding back anyone. Dean Xie¡¯s strategy was a stroke of genius, and it shot the service quality of G City People¡¯s Hospital straight to the top in the entire city. He brought back a huge Service Model plaque, and it is still hanging on the wall in the outpatient department. A smile won¡¯t be enough, Dean Xie has plenty of tricks up his sleeve. The second sweeping reform was competitive employment! That is, all department heads had to reshuffle and reapply for their posts. Director Wu was promoted at that time. The Director before him, a doctoral degree holder, was good at academics and surgery but couldn¡¯t wrap his head around the intense competition and thus, was ousted. That¡¯s how Director Wu got his position. Upon assuming the Director¡¯s position, Director Wu immediately suspended the surgical privileges of the former Director, constantly asking him to assist in surgeries and berating him during the process. The doctor, a chief physician in his forties, couldn¡¯t put up with the humiliation in front of so many people. One day, he ripped off his surgical gown and gloves, swearing he didn¡¯t want to handle it anymore. He left on the same day, later joining another hospital and achieving great success, proving that his intelligence wasn¡¯t the problem ¨C rather, his talents were buried amongst the excessive medical talents at the city hospital. ¡°See, this kind of person leaves on receiving a bit of criticism. Everyone saw it, right? I was only educating him normally, but he chose to leave,¡± Director Wu remarked, feeling misunderstood. In the following years, Director Wu successfully reduced the number of beds in the Orthopedics Department from 120 to 60 ¨C living up to everyone¡¯s expectations. Three doctoral degree holders in the department were also successfully eliminated. Dean Xie, determined to improve the hospital¡¯s image and work ethics, began renovating the old buildings while constructing new ones. He also had the trees around the hospital replaced with more high-end varieties for a more uniform look. Although the old building wasn¡¯t really old (just a few years since it was last renovated), Dean Xie demanded excellence. He insisted that the renovations weren¡¯t warm enough for the patients and called for another round of refurbishing. After the series of reforms, G City¡¯s People¡¯s Hospital climbed a new step forward. Most of the doctoral degree holders, who were cooped up in their books, were pushed out, leaving that stage for capable people like Director Wu. After ten or more years of dedication to the hospital, it was retirement time. All that was expected was some peace ¨C a wish that seemed difficult to come true. Unfortunately, some people who couldn¡¯t appreciate Dean Xie¡¯s painstaking efforts were acting up with incessant complaints. You people, how annoying! Dean Xie complained, mentally. Now that Jiang Baicheng was here, these minor things wouldn¡¯t matter anymore, the Dean thought. Sitting upright, Dean Xie awaited the arrival of Su Nanchen, whose impressive lineage made him an unmissable star in G City¡¯s medical fraternity. ¡°Dean, Dr. Su¡¯s about to arrive. He¡¯s also brought a professor along,¡± Director Wu said, sitting next to Dean Xie. Dean Xie, a bit displeased, asked, ¡°What happened? Didn¡¯t you send someone to pick them up?¡± A somewhat upset Director Wu replied, ¡°I did, but Dr. Su insisted on coming by himself, and had set off before our car could get there.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Dean Xie didn¡¯t add anything further. ¡°I¡¯ll go receive him at the entrance!¡± Director Wu, getting a bit restless, took this as an opportunity to slip out for a while. ¡°Sure, make it quick!¡± Dean Xie maintained his composure. After parking the car, Su Nanchen headed over to the Meeting Room of the People¡¯s Hospital, along with Yang Ping. Just as they exited the elevator, Yang Ping noticed he still had some time: ¡°I will head over to the restroom.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll wait for you over there,¡± Su Nanchen said, pointing to a corner. He felt uncomfortable waiting in a conspicuous location. Being familiar with the People¡¯s Hospital, Yang Ping quickly found the restroom. He had just entered when... It¡¯s a small world. In the restroom, he unexpectedly came across Director Wu, who had just finished urinating. Director Wu was zipping up his trousers when he saw Yang Ping and was taken aback. After a brief moment of recognition, stuttering, Director Wu asked, ¡°Ya¨CYang, what are you doing here?¡± Unsure if he was hallucinating, Director Wu blinked a couple of times and rubbed his eyes. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m just visiting. How are you, Director Wu?¡± Yang Ping asked. He knew he would meet Director Wu sooner or later. However, meeting in the restroom was a little awkward. ¡°Good¡ª! Quite¡ªgood!¡± Director Wu managed to respond. He hastily zipped up his trousers without washing his hands and quickly walked out, frequently looking back. Director Wu rushed to another restroom, took out his phone, and said, ¡°Xiao Fu, contact the security department. Ask Chief Bao to bring several security guards to the restroom near the Meeting Room, the one on the west side. Hurry up; don¡¯t let this affect things.¡± Unbelievable, this kid¡¯s here, Director Wu thought, his mind spinning rapidly. Chapter 222 - 0209: The Expert Lost His Way Chapter 222: Chapter 0209: The Expert Lost His Way Director Wu paced nervously back and forth, cellphone in hand. This was definitely not a coincidence. This guy showing up right now was clearly here to cause trouble¡ªhe¡¯d seen the look in his eyes, full of confidence, completely devoid of any nai?vete?. This kid was a rural boy with no support or influential relatives in G City. Where was he getting the audacity to stir up trouble? It had to be that Chen character. Desperate because he had no hope of becoming the deputy dean, he probably brought in this Yang kid to create a scene and go down swinging. After pondering for a while, Director Wu concluded that the only people who knew the details of the surgery were him, Yang Ping, Lu Xiaowu, and Xiao Fu. Xiao Fu was his trusted aide, who understood the severity of the situation and could be ruled out. Lu Xiaowu and Yang Ping had been promptly booted before they could cause any damage. So who else knew about this? The anesthesiologist and the nurse from that night were too busy to care about these affairs. How did Chen find out? Could it be that Yang Ping, this brat, went to find Chen? Were they colluding to bring him down? How could a young man in his twenties mastermind such a plot? How would he benefit from bringing him down? It was like hitting an egg against a rock¡ªthis made no sense. Things were getting complicated! Director Wu wiped his face which was covered in sweat. He sensed trouble in the air. Regardless, they could not let him into the conference room before understanding his motives because otherwise, even a few words mumbled in chaos could create a huge commotion. Chief Bao of Security was the kind who changed alliances based on the wind direction. Seeing that Wu Siwen was a man of the future, he¡¯d been eager to sidle up to him. He had made quite a bit through his close relationship with Dean Xie, especially from the hospital¡¯s parking lot, and wished to continue feasting on this fat piece of meat. Director Fu and Chief Bao arrived in a rush with a few strong security guards. ¡°What¡¯s going on, Director Wu?¡± Chief Bao anxiously asked. Although he addressed him as Director Wu, in his mind, he already considered him the dean. His voice had already taken on a tone of subservience. Director Wu turned to Director Fu and said, ¡°Xiao Fu, I saw Yang Ping just now in the restroom on the west side. Chief Bao, take some men and find a reason to contain him until the meeting is over.¡± Chief Bao didn¡¯t know who Yang Ping was or why Director Wu wanted to detain him, but he was sure to obey without question. He was skilled at playing this game: ¡°Where is he? I¡¯ll go immediately.¡± Director Fu whispered to Chief Bao, ¡°Yang Ping is a former doctor of our department. He made some mistakes and was fired by Director Wu. He might be here to cause trouble.¡± Upon hearing this, Chief Bao got the picture: ¡°Got it. Let¡¯s go. Is he still in the restroom?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve been keeping an eye on him. He hasn¡¯t come out yet,¡± Director Wu confirmed, pointing at the restroom not far away. ¡°Watch the restroom door. As soon as someone comes out, apprehend him, saying someone reported him for carrying a knife. Understand?¡± Chief Bao instructed the guards. Director Fu also tagged along because the security men didn¡¯t recognize Yang Ping, and he didn¡¯t want them to apprehend the wrong person. If the target were a stranger, these men would be a little hesitant to act for fear they might tangle with someone tough. But in the case of Yang Ping, whose background was well known¡ªa young man adrift in the city¡ªit would be easy to detain and subsequently drive him out on some pretext without appearing too harsh. Surely they could come up with a way later to deal with him. Handling a young doctor would be more than manageable. After giving a few instructions, Director Wu left. He was busy. Dr. Su and the other experts would be arriving any minute. Just as Yang Ping exited the restroom, two security guards rushed forward and grabbed his arms. ¡°Sorry, you¡¯ll have to come with us to the security office,¡± Chief Bao commanded in a hushed voice. ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this?¡± Yang Ping remained calm, not raising his voice. Su Nanchen was in the hallway east of the conference room. Though he couldn¡¯t see the other side, if Yang Ping were to shout, he should be able to hear him. Yang Ping didn¡¯t call out. ¡°Someone reported that you¡¯re carrying a knife. We need to check it out in the security office.¡± Chief Bao quickly scanned around before ordering the security guards to take Yang Ping away. Strong men escorted Yang Ping, took away his phone, and used the less frequented routes and the service elevator to secretly go to the security office. Director Wu smiled satisfyingly. ¡°Laughable. Kid, you¡¯re not ready to tangle with me. You could have shown up earlier or later, but you chose the time of Mr. Jiang¡¯s grand rounds. Who knows what you¡¯re up to.¡± Su Nanchen waited in the east corridor, playing on his phone. After waiting for more than ten minutes with no sign of Yang Ping, he went to the restroom to look for him. It was empty. When he tried calling Yang Ping, he found his phone was off. He found it strange¡ªhow could Yang Ping disappear just by going to the restroom and why would he turn off his phone? Had he gone to meet someone? But if he had to meet someone, he would not choose this time, Su Nanchen couldn¡¯t figure it out. Glancing at the time, he noticed it was nearly ten o¡¯clock. He decided to head to the conference room first. Yang Ping was familiar with this place and would not get lost. ¡°Hello, Dr. Su, shall I come and receive you?¡± ¡°No need, I¡¯m already upstairs, about to reach the conference room.¡± ¡°Oh, okay, okay.¡± Director Wu quickly returned to the conference room and encountered Su Nanchen at the door. He greeted Su Nanchen warmly and guided him into the meeting room. The attendees were in the midst of their discussions when they heard Dr. Su had arrived. One after another, they looked up and stood up to welcome him. It was their first encounter with the legendary Su Family¡¯s young master, who lived up to his extraordinary reputation. ¡°Sit! Sit! Dr. Su, you¡¯ve had a hard journey!¡± Dean Xie personally got up from his seat to greet him at the door. Extending his hand from afar, he greeted Su Nanchen warmly and guided him to the top seat. Many people stood up along the way to shake hands. There was inevitably a stir, whispers, and ears together. Those who didn¡¯t know him asked the people next to them, while those who knew him took pride in this, and couldn¡¯t help but talk more. Dean Xie pulled out a chair for Su Nanchen to sit down, and took the tea that the secretary handed over and presented it with both hands. ¡°Everyone, please sit. You are all too polite¡ª¡± Su Nanchen was used to such scenes. ¡°Where is the expert?¡± Dean Xie saw that Su Nanchen was alone. Su Nanchen glanced at the door and said: ¡°The expert went to take a look around the hospital; let¡¯s wait for him a little bit. He should be here in a few minutes. I¡¯ll take a look at the case first.¡± Oh, an expert with good taste! Dean Xie sat down, over the years, he had made the hospital quite presentable, with more than a hundred valuable tree species alone. The renovation alone had cost over 10 million, including the cost of introducing talents from the An family, which was filled in. Later, although minor defects appeared, such as a pavilion collapsing in a typhoon, a stone path turning into a mud road after constant stepping, and the stone railing on the bridge snapping on a hard push. But, those were minor issues. They didn¡¯t want to mar the overall effect by focusing on those small things. ¡°The patient¡¯s blood pressure and blood sugar are controlled very well. When should we arrange the surgery?¡± Director Wu asked from the side. After Su Nanchen looked at the case, he said: ¡°There¡¯s no rush. Let¡¯s wait for the expert to come and take a look at the patient together. This surgery is very difficult, the patient has all unstable factors in the shoulder joint.¡± Director Wu knew how difficult this surgery was. He would take on even bone fracture surgeries himself, but with this one, it¡¯s easy to go on stage, but it might be difficult to come down. ¡°In Nandu Province, everyone knows that Dr. Su is the best in sports medicine, and even in the whole country, he¡¯s top notch.¡± Director Wu complimented. After closing the case file, Su Nanchen said: ¡°Thank you for your trust, saying that I¡¯m top-notch in the country is an exaggeration! But, the expert I invited here today is truly the best when it comes to this type of surgery. There are probably not many in the country who can perform it with such proficiency and perfection.¡± ¡°Very good, Dr. Su, we¡¯ll follow your arrangements.¡± Director Wu said ¡°good¡± three times, he knew that with the help of Su Nanchen, this whole thing was on solid ground. While chatting, Su Nanchen looked at the door again and said: ¡°Why hasn¡¯t the expert arrived yet? Maybe he got lost, I¡¯ll give him a call.¡± Su Nanchen slightly turned and made a call, which was off. Something was wrong. Even if he was meeting his lover, he wouldn¡¯t just casually leave like that in front of him, right? Fall into a toilet? Impossible, a grown man couldn¡¯t possibly fit! So, why did he suddenly disappear? He just went to the restroom. ¡°Did the expert get lost? We¡¯ll have to send someone to find him. There shouldn¡¯t be a problem inside the hospital.¡± Dean Xie thought, did they invite a foreigner? Otherwise, how could he get lost? ¡°Director Wu, can you take someone to look for him? Get help from Chief Bao.¡± Dean Xie commanded. ¡°No need, I¡¯ll go and check. I¡¯m sorry for keeping you waiting.¡± Su Nanchen stood up. After Su Nanchen left the meeting room, both Dean Xie and Director Wu came out. Su Nanchen held up his hand to stop them and said, ¡°Please wait a moment, I¡¯ll go and find him.¡± Everyone else didn¡¯t feel right to follow, so they had to wait in the meeting room. After leaving the meeting room, Su Nanchen made another call to Yang Ping¡¯s cell phone, but it was still off. He went to check the restroom where he had been earlier, there was nothing unusual. Given Yang Ping¡¯s steady temperament, it was impossible for him to do something abnormal. There must be a problem somewhere, but he couldn¡¯t think about it for a moment. He walked around the corridor of the meeting room and ran into a security guard. He asked, ¡°Have you seen a young man about my height coming out of that restroom?¡± ¡°Oh, there seems to be one. He is said to have carried a knife and was taken away by security.¡± The security guard casually replied. Taken away by security? No wonder! ¡°Where is your security department?¡± Su Nanchen asked. The security guard told him the location, Su Nanchen hurried over, wanting to verify the situation and then contact Dean Xie. When he arrived at the security department, sure enough, Yang Ping was sitting there casually surrounded by a few security guards. A security guard was debating with him, and Yang Ping¡¯s keychain lay on the table. There was a nail clipper on it. Was this a knife? It was normal for surgeons to carry nail clippers because they often needed to trim their nails. As soon as they grew a little, it needed to be trimmed. ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± Su Nanchen called from the doorway, trying to enter, but was stopped by a security guard. Hearing his name, Yang Ping turned, ¡°Dr. Su, I¡¯m fine, don¡¯t worry.¡± Seeing that Yang Ping was safe and sound and his expression was calm, he did not conflict with the security guard who was blocking him. He just picked up his cell phone and called Director Wu: ¡°Director Wu, what¡¯s going on here? The expert I invited was detained in the security office. Come over now!¡± Without giving Director Wu a chance to respond, Su Nanchen hung up. Standing at the door, Su Nanchen asked: ¡°They didn¡¯t do anything to you, did they?¡± ¡°No, they said I was carrying a knife and needed to check. They searched me for a long time and only found a pair of nail clippers.¡± Yang Ping replied from inside. About ten minutes later, a hurried group of people arrived, with Dean Xie walking at the front. Director Wu quickened his pace to catch up with Dean Xie. He was in such a hurry that his white shirt, tied up inside his pants, fell out on one side, giving him a very disheveled look. Chapter 223 - 0210: A False Alarm Chapter 223: Chapter 0210: A False Alarm Director Wu was infuriated. He was cursing in his heart and was wishing he could give Chief Bao a good kick. This Bao Chunlai, instead of controlling Yang Ping as he was told to, had actually restrained the expert. Xiao Fu, having eaten the same food as everyone else, couldn¡¯t even distinguish simple characters. He couldn¡¯t handle such a simple task. Upon arriving at the Security division and hearing the full story, Dean Xie was furious. He began berating Chief Bao, and nearly slapped him in the face, but was held back by Yang Ping. Dean Xie roared, ¡°Are you blind? How could you detain the expert like this?¡± Then he shook hands with Yang Ping and profusely apologized: ¡°It¡¯s a total misunderstanding!¡± Dean Xie hadn¡¯t recognized Yang Ping. Yang had been a temporary worker at the time, so it was not surprising that the lofty Dean Xie didn¡¯t recognize him. Being in charge of a hospital with thousands of employees, he couldn¡¯t know everyone personally. At first glance, Yang Ping did look quite young, that might have led to the misunderstanding. But Dean Xie, upon closer inspection, realized Yang carried himself with the demeanor of no ordinary person. Having seen a lot as Dean, he knew how to make such judgments. Director Wu stood aside, utterly confused, his facial muscles twitching as he stared. Wasn¡¯t that Yang Ping? How had he become an expert? Yang Ping, an expert? What on earth was happening? This was a reality he wouldn¡¯t even dare to dream of. But could there be any mistake if this was arranged by Su Nanchen? He could accept Yang Ping becoming an expert in ten or so years, but just over half a year after leaving the G City People¡¯s Hospital and he had suddenly transformed into the expert that Su Nanchen had mentioned. What exactly was going on? ¡°Director Wu? This is...¡± Chief Bao felt the most wronged. Director Wu, however, was quick to react, he immediately shut Chief Bao up, ¡°What¡¯s going on? You¡¯ve detained an expert in such a muddle-headed way, aren¡¯t you going to apologize?¡± Chief Bao swallowed his words and almost knelt down, ¡°It¡¯s a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!¡± Su Nanchen stepped forward to ask Yang Ping: ¡°Professor Yang, are you alright?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine, sorry for causing everyone trouble.¡± When Yang Ping heard Su Nanchen calling him ¡°Professor Yang,¡± he knew his intent and just smiled. Chief Bao explained, ¡°It¡¯s a misunderstanding, someone reported that Professor Yang was carrying a knife, but it turned out to be just a pair of nail clippers. It was a malicious report.¡± He then handed the key ring back to Yang Ping. Yang Ping took the key ring: ¡°Since it¡¯s a misunderstanding, then it¡¯s all fine.¡± This farce had scared the daylights out of everyone. If it was just a common expert who was detained, it would only result in some laughters. But this expert was linked to the futures of two people, and moreover, he was invited by Su Nanchen. If they offended this Young Master Su, they would be in big trouble. Dean Xie led a crowd to escort Yang Ping from the Security Division to the Meeting Room, with everyone apologizing along the way. Yang Ping appeared very gracious, ¡°Dean Xie, you¡¯ve done a great job managing. I never thought you would pay such attention to security, even a nail clipper is not allowed!¡± ¡°Professor Yang, you¡¯re too kind!¡± Dean Xie responded with a wry smile, unsure whether Yang was being sarcastic or genuinely praising him. But he spoke sincerely regardless. Director Wu followed behind, his mind buzzing. He just couldn¡¯t wrap his head around how Yang Ping had become an expert. Plus, the way Su Nanchen respected him, calling him ¡°Professor Yang¡± every time. Had he really become an expert? The world was changing too quickly. Everyone had arrived at the venue, and the misunderstanding cleared, the grand consultation began. Su Nanchen gave up the head seat to Yang Ping and introduced him, ¡°This is Dr. Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital, the renowned disciple of Professor Han Jianguo, he¡¯s the trailblazer of the sensational Five-Section Replantation. We¡¯re fortunate to have him here for the consultation today, let¡¯s welcome him!¡± Everyone applauded. After the applause died down, Su Nanchen continued, ¡°Dr. Yang is the actual leader of the Integrated Orthopedics in Sanbo Hospital, and he was once invited by me to be the chief surgeon for a Quadruple Knee Reconstruction at our affiliate hospital! Professor Yang, shall we begin?¡± Most people did not know Yang Ping, but Five-Section Replantation and Professor Han Jianguo were familiar names to all surgeons in G City. Sanbo Hospital had two renowned figures; One was Han Jianguo, and the other was Xia Changjiang. They were both well-known within the industry. As Professor Han¡¯s student, Yang Ping was naturally not far behind. Some people found him vaguely familiar, perhaps having seen him in the cafeteria, but they couldn¡¯t quite place him. The only real acquaintances were Director Wu and Director Fu from Orthopedics. Right now, Director Fu felt worse than Director Wu. When the security detained Yang Ping, he had hidden in the corner to identify people. He wondered if Yang Ping had seen him. Director Wu personally presented the case, his head buzzing continually. Despite his nervousness, he managed to read through the case summary on the paper in his hand. His back was soaked, his shirt sticking to his skin. ¡°Professor Yang, this case, I¡¯m afraid we have to trouble you?¡± Su Nanchen asked in a very respectful tone. Yang Ping looked at the projected slides, ¡°This case is serious. There are multiple injuries causing shoulder instability. If we want to restore normal function, the surgical difficulty is extremely high!¡± Director Wu also looked at the projection, but his thoughts were not on the case. His heart was pounding fiercely, and he felt a severe palpitation. In retrospect, Yang Ping¡¯s surgery on Jiang Baicheng¡¯s son that night did show some skill. Now, even this kind of surgery was within his grasp. Had he been playing the fool under Director Wu for all these years? Had he been hiding his true ability? Or was he truly a prodigy who had been transformed into an expert by Professor Han Jianguo in just half a year after arriving at Sanbo? Wu felt like he needed to recharge his intelligence, it clearly wasn¡¯t enough. ¡°As you can see, the patient has simultaneous Bankart lesion, SLAP lesion, rupture of the glenohumeral ligament, anterior inferior joint capsule rupture, labral tear, rotator cuff tear, joint capsule relaxation, shoulder impingement syndrome, and most troublesome of all, a superiorly migrated large hill-sachs lesion. Please scroll through the MRI images slowly, please!¡± Chapter 224 - 0210: A False Alarm_2 Chapter 224: Chapter 0210: A False Alarm_2 ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, this large nodule has moved upwards, causing the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, and teres minor muscles to relax. Look at these images. The motion trajectory of the entire glenohumeral joint is no longer concentric. This type of reconstructive surgery is very difficult.¡± Yang Ping demonstrated the demeanor of a distinguished professor, while Su Nanchen seriously sat by his side listening and taking notes from time to time. He looked more like a student. Seeing this, Director Wu also took out a piece of paper and started taking notes. This young man is truly talented. Director Wu could not perform this surgery, but he understood it. Frankly, he had asked professors in Beijing to review the images through his connections. They completely lacked confidence in it and declined, recommending that he consult Su Nanchen, who has been studying more on this and could possibly find a way. ¡°Let¡¯s go see the patient!¡± Yang Ping suggested. Su Nanchen turned to Dean Xie and said, ¡°Dean Xie, arrange it. Let¡¯s see the patient.¡± ¡°Director Wu, lead the way¨C¡± Dean Xie ordered. Director Wu led the way and everyone went to the elderly ward to see Jiang Baicheng. Director Wu was anxious and confused, scared that Yang Ping would expose him in front of everyone. They had come so far, and if something went wrong, he would have no chances left for the rest of his life. However, what could be done about it now? He decided to take it one step at a time. Director Wu followed closely beside Yang Ping, keeping a stiff smile on his face. At this point, even if he had any idea, he wouldn¡¯t be able to put it into action. When they arrived at the ward, Jiang Baicheng¡¯s son opened the door. Yang Ping didn¡¯t even look at him. Was he really forgotten? Director Wu pondered. Jiang Baicheng knew that the hospital had arranged a grand consultation for him today and invited professors, so he had been waiting for the professors in the ward. ¡°Mr. Jiang, this is Dr. Su and Dr. Yang who we called in. They want to examine you.¡± Director Wu introduced. ¡°Thank you! I appreciate the trouble professors have taken.¡± Jiang Baicheng shook hands and thanked them. ¡°I am Dr. Su from Affiliated Hospital No.1 and this is Dr. Yang from Sanbo Hospital. Dr. Yang is a top expert in this field and will be the chief surgeon for you.¡± Su Nanchen introduced. Jiang Baicheng, having seen numerous people, could tell from the aura of these two men that they were top professionals in their field. Like identifying the size of a boss, he could tell at a glance. These two doctors were not comparable to Director Wu in either temperament or aura. Everyone gathered around, Yang Ping inquired about the medical history in detail and then conducted a thorough physical examination. His physical examination skills were extraordinary, reaching a profound level of expertise afforded by the super training plan of the system space. After completing the general physical examination, he conducted a specialized examination of the shoulder joint. Through about ten minutes of examination, the information Yang Ping obtained from the physical examination alone allowed him to fully understand the condition of the shoulder joint. He could even reconstruct the situation of the injury basing his reasoning only on the examination. Jiang Baicheng was very reassured seeing that Director Wu had invited two highly competent doctors to perform his surgery. After they left the ward and arrived at the doctor¡¯s office in the Geriatrics Department, everyone took a seat. Yang Ping said, ¡°Let¡¯s schedule the surgery for tomorrow. I¡¯m quite busy recently, afraid that I might not have time later! This surgery is very challenging, I need to bring a team over.¡± ¡°Alright! Director Wu, schedule the surgery for today, fully cooperate with Dr. Yang.¡± Dean Xie was also anxious, fearing that delays might lead to issues. Yang Ping looked at Director Wu and said, ¡°Director Wu, is there a restroom nearby?¡± ¡°Yes! Yes! Yes!¡± Director Wu immediately led Yang Ping there. Director Wu took this chance to have a private chat with him. Upon arrival at the restroom, Yang Ping only washed his hands by the sink. Director Wu stood by and said, ¡°Xiao Yang, when you were in Orthopedics, Old Wu took good care of you. The incident of your dismissal was so sudden, I had no idea! It was only later that I learned that it was Chen Wansheng who did it. You know that he and I are at odds, he always tries to put me down. He was the director of the medical department then, I couldn¡¯t beat him. I was helpless knowing it, watching him force out people who were working under me, sigh¡ª¡± Director Wu sighed, looking full of regret. ¡°Director Wu, no offense, but you¡¯ve been a bit narrow-minded. Look at my current position, would I quarrel with you over trivial matters? So, you don¡¯t need to be nervous at all, let alone resorting to security to stage this farce. I could have refused this consultation, but when I heard I could come back to see Director Wu, I agreed. I¡¯ve been grateful for your care over the years, so consider this a way to show my gratitude. For someone who¡¯s about to be a dean, shouldn¡¯t you have a bigger mindset?¡± ¡°Xiao Yang¡ªno, no, no, slip of the tongue, I meant, Dr. Yang, you¡¯re broad-minded!¡± Director Wu gave him a thumbs-up. ¡°You know Old Wu well enough. Once you¡¯re in charge of the City People¡¯s Hospital, it will be your base. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be invited over often.¡± Director Wu burst into smiles. Is what the young man saying true? However, just now when he asked to use the restroom, he used it solely to wash his hands, clearly giving him an opportunity to clear things up privately and put his mind at ease. He could have exposed him when he saw Jiang Baicheng and his son, but he didn¡¯t. Although Director Wu was still confused about how Yang Ping managed his rise to the top in half a year, all of this was the real deal. The young man made a lot of sense. Given his current standing, there¡¯s nothing to doubt. Su Nanchen treats him like a teacher, he has been invited to Affiliated Hospital No.1 for surgeries, he¡¯s a student of Han Jiangong, a pillar of the Orthopedics Department at Sanbo Hospital, and the de facto leader of the General Orthopedics Department. Knocking him down wouldn¡¯t benefit him in the slightest. If he becomes the dean, he would only be a colleague, and his old director. Wouldn¡¯t it mean he gained more territory in the future? ¡°Old Wu, don¡¯t be petty. We¡¯re grown-ups doing important things, not little kids fighting over a piece of candy. Just focus on this surgery and arrange everything well. I¡¯ll come for it tomorrow.¡± Yang Ping finished washing his hands. Director Wu immediately handed him a towel. ¡°Dr. Yang is right, absolutely right!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve always had faith in you. The dean¡¯s position at the City Hospital is rightly yours. You have the knack for seizing opportunities and make resolute decisions without hesitation. You¡¯re a real talent.¡± Yang Ping patted his shoulder after drying his hands. Director Wu felt a little towards the top of his head, Yang¡¯s words resonated deeply with him. He¡¯s really something, generous and magnanimous! After thinking it through, there really was no need to worry, it was a false alarm. Chapter 225 - 0211 - You, Come Over and Lift Your Arm! Chapter 225: Chapter 0211 ¨C You, Come Over and Lift Your Arm! Back in the senior doctor¡¯s office, Director Wu let out a sigh of relief. It seems that his luck has finally arrived, and there¡¯s no stopping it. Whatever he wishes for comes to fruition, and everything he encounters is good news! Recently, he had his fortune told by a blind man named Wang on Old Street who said he was at a crucial turning point in his luck. Major changes were on the verge of happening in his life, and it seemed to be true. Blind Wang also warned him to hold his tongue more often and make concessions. That way, he would surely rise high in his career and have a limitless future. Otherwise, he would sink into the sand, and all his efforts would be in vain. Having security detain someone earlier might have been a bit impulsive and reckless. He promised himself not to act this way next time, and be more patient. He couldn¡¯t afford any mishaps at critical moments. Yang Ping is an expert! The reality could be a bit harsh and hard to accept, but he had to accept it. He needed to think bigger, if they were not holding grudges against him, then why should he? Director Wu comforted himself. Yang Ping sat down and said, ¡°Director Wu, let¡¯s schedule the operation for nine o¡¯clock tomorrow. I¡¯d like to use the equipment I¡¯m familiar with. Manager Huang from Ruixing will contact you. I will bring the anesthesiologist, the surgical nurse, and the assistant tomorrow, but Director Wu, you should also be on the operating table. This is a special patient who trusts you completely. Your presence will reassure him.¡± Director Wu was worried about not being allowed on the surgery scene, but now that Yang Ping had said so, he felt relieved. Even if he just stood and watched, as long as he participated, it would show that he did his utmost for Jiang Baicheng. ¡°Patient positioning should be on a beach chair! And for anesthesia, a brachial plexus nerve block should suffice!¡± Yang Ping instructed Director Wu. ¡°Alright, I will surely arrange that. I am counting on Teacher Yang for tomorrow¡¯s surgery!¡± Since no one else knew Yang Ping, Director Wu decided not to mention him at all. If he naively revealed that Yang Ping used to work in his department, wouldn¡¯t it be like digging a hole for himself? If the doctors in the department found out later and they talked about it behind his back, he wouldn¡¯t care as long as it did not hinder the operation. ¡°Get ready today and cooperate fully with Teacher Yang tomorrow,¡± Dean Xie ordered. This grand display was taking place in Sanbo Hospital, which only had a decade-long history and wasn¡¯t even as prestigious as our City People¡¯s Hospital. The whole team was here to perform a surgery, clearly looking down on our hospital. Some of the directors from other departments were a bit disgruntled, but they could do nothing about it. After all, they were formidable. In the face of power, everything else paled into insignificance. ¡ª Director Han had granted special permission, making Comprehensive Orthopedics go all out this time. It was a chance for everyone to see the world, as well as for other hospitals to witness the quality of his aggressive team. It was time to put up their best hand. At half-past seven, three cars set off in unison, in a grand convoy. Yang Ping rode with Song Zimo, Fatty Zhang Lin rode with Little Five, Xiao Su and Zhou Can with Tang Fei. ¡°Welcome Dr. Yang Ping and Dr. Su Nanchen to our hospital to instruct the operation!¡± A banner was already hung up at the entrance of the inpatient building. Dean Xie and Director Wu had arrived early and were waiting at the entrance. Su Nanchen arrived before Yang Ping and his team and was waiting at the entrance. Temporary parking spaces were already reserved. Yang Ping was very familiar with the City People¡¯s Hospital. As soon as Su Nanchen mentioned the waiting location, he knew where it was. Director Wu looked especially energetic today, shimmering in his shirt. He looked around from time to time and eagerly awaited the team¡¯s arrival. Jiang Baicheng was already on the operating table. He couldn¡¯t afford any slip-ups. Finally, a convoy led by a BMW 750 slowly arrived at the temporary parking space at the entrance of the inpatient building. The security staff directed them to park. The experts are here! What kind of experts are these, making such a grand entrance? They even brought their own team to perform the surgery. Not even the renowned professors from Beijing or Shanghai would be as ostentatious! The news of Jiang Baicheng¡¯s surgery quickly spread throughout the hospital and became the hottest topic of the City People¡¯s Hospital. Especially in the orthopedics department, they even halted their operations. A few young doctors secretly gathered at the entrance of the inpatient building, eager to catch a glimpse of this impressive expert. This is too blatant! Everyone looked on, eyes wide open. The last Audi to arrive opened its doors first, and Little Five, Zhang Lin, and Fatty got out of the car. ¡°Is that Little Five? Isn¡¯t that Little Five?¡± Doctors from the Orthopedics Department recognized him. Why was Lu Xiaowu here? Next, the door to the Maserati President opened, and three beauties got off! Xiao Su was 170cm tall, Tang Fei was 172cm, and even Zhou Can stood 168cm tall. As soon as the girls got out of the car, especially Xiao Su and Tang Fei, the entire crowd watched on, their eyes shining brightly. These are models! They even brought models to the surgery. Xiao Su? When Su Nanchen saw his younger sister get off the car, he wondered, was she here? Was she the surgical nurse for today¡¯s operation? Had she transferred to the Comprehensive Orthopedics department? Surely she hadn¡¯t progressed this quickly? A series of questions came to mind, but this was a work setting, so Su Nanchen didn¡¯t have the chance to ask. He decided to ask when he had a chance. Seeing her brother, his sister just gave a faint smile. Finally, the door to the driver¡¯s seat of the leading BMW opened. The tall and handsome Song Zimo got out of the car and opened the rear door, shielding the top of the door frame with his hand. That¡¯s Yang Ping! Isn¡¯t that our former colleague Yang Ping? No, it really was him. Some of the young doctors in orthopedics initially thought when they saw the banner that it might have been someone with the same name, as it was a common one. But no, it turned out to be the Yang Ping they knew, their former colleague. ¡°Teacher Yang, you¡¯ve worked hard!¡± Dean Xie and Director Wu stepped forward to shake hands and welcome him. Yang Ping is an expert? This young man had grown this successful? He was able to go out and perform surgeries, even leading a team now?! The team quickly formed, with Xiao Su walking on Yang Ping¡¯s left side. Huang Jiahui had also been waiting for a long time. She had agreed in advance to join them and had also joined the team, walking on Yang Ping¡¯s right side, pulling a large suitcase. Chapter 226 - 0211 - You, Come Over and Lift Your Arm!_2 Chapter 226: Chapter 0211 ¨C You, Come Over and Lift Your Arm!_2 Song Zimo and Tang Fei walked in the second row, following Yang Ping. Song Zimo was carrying a black document bag, becoming a dutiful assistant to Yang Ping. Standing at a whopping height of 1.86 meters, he was quite imposing. Little Five, Zhang Lin, and Zhou Can followed closely. The chubby one didn¡¯t exaggerate his importance. Weighing over 200 pounds, his step seemed to make the floor shake. ¡°Please, please!¡± Dean Xie guided them in. ¡°The patient is already in the operating room. Thanks for the hard work!¡± Director Wu sighed a sigh of relief. He was genuinely worried that Yang Ping might stand him up. Such a commanding team! Xiao Su wore a lady¡¯s trench coat, her beauty was beyond description. She strolled next to Yang Ping. Huang Jiahui, in a professional suit, chest pushed out, stomach pulled in, she oozed confidence as she dragged her suitcase, and followed at Yang Ping¡¯s right side. Their presence made everyone envious. At such a young age, they were already performing surgery, and even the beauties accompanying them were amazing. It was the first time anyone had seen such an impressive surgical display. Huang Jiahui¡¯s suitcase was full of surgical consumables, but it was only a small part of it. A Wuling Hongguang was parked nearby, Huang Jiacai was sleeping in it. The car was filled with surgical instruments and supplies, all individually sterilized and packaged. The car was prepared in such a way that it equipped Yang Ping to deal with any unexpected situation. For instance, the varied drill bits and steel plates, and dozens of allochondria tendons, from various companies. If Yang Ping suddenly wanted to use the equipment from Shi Lehui, all Jiahui had to do was make a phone call, and deliver immediately. The same could be said for Johnson & Johnson. No need to panic. When people saw Yang Ping hop out of the car, flanked by a stunningly tall beauty on the left and a beauty on the right as well. Everyone was taken aback as Yang Ping entered with a beauty on each arm. People whispered, wasn¡¯t that Yang Ping? They had only heard about a renowned expert referred by Professor Su from Fuyi. Turns out, it was Yang Ping? Yang Ping came over just to perform some minor task? Was he a student? Assistant? It didn¡¯t seem like it. Dean Xie and Director Wu addressed him as Teacher Yang! The banner also said as much, they were there to welcome him. Seeing him accompanied by two gorgeous women, especially the one on the left, who was allegedly a surgical nurse. People remarked that to have such a pretty surgical nurse was a blessing; they would not mind even if they had to stay on duty all night. The woman on the trailing end was also a beauty, dressed in a professional suit, exuding an incomparably alluring femininity. Another handsome man with a beautiful woman trailing behind holding bags. Wasn¡¯t that Song Zimo? Someone recognised him. He was a bit of a celebrity in the orthopedics field in G City, having published a doctoral thesis in The Lancet. My God, turns out he was just carrying Yang Ping¡¯s bag. What on earth is going on? They needed answers. Five, Five! People began to wave at Little Five. Little Five was like a star, waving and greeting everyone with a smile. Yes, it was Little Five! When it turned out that the expert they had invited was Yang Ping, a commotion ensued. Even Director Wu was shocked by the scene, so much so that his shirt stopped glistening with sweat. This young man¡¯s progress was astonishing. This kind of flamboyance, Wu didn¡¯t think he could pull off even as hospital director. ¡ª ¡°I heard Yang Ping has gone to Sanbo, working under Han Jiangong, now he is really formidable.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding me, he only left half a year ago?¡± ¡°Look at him now, making it so big. We are still stuck here. The night shift allowance has been delayed for three months, I might as well quit and go to Sanbo.¡± ¡°Going to Sanbo? Haven¡¯t you seen that their orthopedics department is so prestigious? Their trauma department alone is bigger than our entire orthopedics department. Tan Boyun from Fuer is the head of trauma over there, they are absolutely crushing us. They are even choosy about doctorates nowadays.¡± ¡°How did Little Five get in?¡± ¡°Yang Ping took Little Five with him. They were already close. didn¡¯t you see how Little Five calls him brother?¡± ¡°Little Five is a damn genius, snuggling up to such an influential figure.¡± ¡°They just had the foresight, if we had built a good relationship with Yang Ping back then, we might also be in Sanbo now. Life choices really matter.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go, check out the surgery. Yang Ping is doing well in Sanbo, just heard he performed a five-section replantation surgery, and suddenly gained fame. Now he¡¯s Han Jiangong¡¯s right hand man, leading the team. He¡¯s given free rein to do anything, what an extraordinary man!¡± ¡°Have you finished writing your medical records?¡± ¡°Finished them all yesterday, aren¡¯t we here to observe the surgery today? Have you finished changing the bandages?¡± ¡°Yes, look, supposedly he brought his own surgical nurse, anesthesiologist, and assistant.¡± ¡°Awesome, that¡¯s the strut of a big professor!¡± ¡°Comparing people can really kill you. He¡¯s out here operating at such a young age surrounded by beauties, while we¡¯re still pulling all-nighters, risking sudden death for a few hundred bucks a month in night shift fees.¡± ¡°And to think Yang Ping was barely noticed here, but once he went over there...¡± ¡°Even a horse of a thousand miles needs a capable rider, right? With Old Wu¡¯s character, Yang Ping could only achieve limited success here. Didn¡¯t you see the competent ones in the department have been all squeezed out?¡± ¡°Keep it down.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t go in this elevator!¡± A woman guarding the elevator pointed at a sign posted in the elevator. Elevator for Experts Only! ¡ª The operating room can¡¯t have too many people, to avoid increasing the likelihood of infection. Clearing the room, anyone who¡¯s not from the orthopedic department, please leave; and for those who are, please stay at least one meter away from the operating table and the sterile instrument table. Yang Ping is sitting and resting, Su Nanchen is accompanying him and chatting, and Dean Xie is also there. Director Wu greets Jiang Baicheng, shakes hands, soothing him and telling him to relax, don¡¯t be nervous, then stands aside, watching them arrange the positions to offer help at any moment. Song Zimo and his team, Little Five and Zhang Lin, are arranging the patient in a standard beach chair position. ¡°We won¡¯t need traction?¡± Director Wu asked from the side. Song Zimo adjusted the angle of the operating table, ¡°No need, the surgery requires frequent mobilization of the shoulder joint, manual traction will suffice.¡± Their actions were swift, and the teamwork was practiced. Once the patient was positioned, Fatty commenced the anesthesia. This time Fatty wanted to show off a bit, brachial plexus block, normally they would use an ultrasound for positioning, but not this time. Our anesthesiologist in the hospital was assisting, pushing the ultrasound machine in place. The ultrasound wasn¡¯t positioned yet. Fatty succeeded in just one attempt and accurately performed the puncture. Jiang Baicheng immediately felt a weird sensation, like an electric shock. Fatty then administered the anesthesia. Song Zimo, with Little Five and Zhang Lin, started to scrub their hands. Director Wu saw that Yang Ping was still chatting and felt it was inappropriate to start scrubbing hands now. He decided to wait and scrub hands with Yang Ping. For disinfection, Little Five and Zhang Lin used tissue forceps to hold on to sterilized gauze, preparing for the disinfection. A young doctor hung the patient¡¯s hand with an infusion stand. Song Zimo saw it, ¡°This won¡¯t work. Someone, lift the arm!¡± During the surgery, the entire upper limb, shoulder, armpit, neck, chest all need to be disinfected, when disinfecting and placing the sheet, the limbs need to be in a satisfactory position, so it¡¯s convenient to have a person specifically raising it. The young doctor¡¯s job was to take care of miscellaneous tasks, so he immediately came over, loosen the infusion stand and lifted the hand. ¡°A little higher, abduction! No good! Someone else!¡± Zhang Lin was slightly impatient, he looked at the people around him, then his gaze landed on Director Wu, ¡°You, come over and lift it.¡± Me? Are you calling me? Director Wu was startled, he was still dazed by the grand scene he saw just now. Asking me to lift the hand? Are you kidding? ¡°Yes, you. What are you staring at? Here to enjoy the show?¡± Zhang Lin said impatiently. Song Zimo had already put on his surgical gown and was putting on his gloves. He said to Director Wu, ¡°Hurry up, don¡¯t waste time.¡± ¡°Oh¨C¡± Director Wu was a little reluctant, but there was nothing he could do, he had been called. So, he braced himself and went over to lift the hand. Chapter 227 - 0212: Assistant Chapter 227: Chapter 0212: Assistant ¡°Raise it higher, increase the abduction angle, haven¡¯t you had breakfast? Stand further away from the surgical table!¡± As Zhang Lin was disinfecting, he instructed Director Wu to lift his hand, speaking in the same tone as if he was training an intern. The surgical area was prepared ahead of time, all the underarm hair was completely shaved off with an electric razor. Zhang Lin disinfected the underarm area multiple times as its wrinkled skin is a hotspot for bacteria. The yellow iodine disinfectant was quickly applied to the surgical area and its surrounding prescribed regions, leaving no spots untouched. ¡°Brother! Keep your body further away, what¡¯s the need to be so close? Can¡¯t you lift your hand? Which school did you graduate from? Who¡¯s your tutor? Let your director send you back to school to relearn!¡± Song Zimo, dressed and gloved, with his hands placed in the protective pouch on his chest, fussed unceremoniously. If it¡¯s any farther, I can¡¯t reach, it¡¯s so exhausting! Director Wu was already short in stature. Now, in order to maintain a distance while raising his hand, he was standing in a particularly awkward posture, almost on tiptoes. This posture was very tiring, the arm was so sore that it could hardly stand, but he couldn¡¯t let go. If he did, the arm would fall, contaminating the sterilized area, thereby wasting all the disinfection effort. He only hoped these guys would hurry up so he could be relieved. ¡°Hold on a bit more, Little Five, put on sterile gloves, lift it from the elbow with a small drape, Zhang Lin, disinfect his hand again.¡± Song Zimo directed Zhang Lin Xiaowu. Several young doctors observing around seemed willing to take Director Wu¡¯s place for a while. But they didn¡¯t dare to step forward. The patient who was about to be operated was too important. The people that Yang Ping brought didn¡¯t seem easy to communicate with, especially this guy wearing glasses¡ªhe looked very fierce. If anything went wrong, they would not only be scolded by the ¡°guy with glasses¡± but also by Director Wu. So they all chose to watch quietly. Director Fu was running late for some reason. He only arrived now to see Director Wu with his hand raised, looking miserable. ¡°Director!¡± Director Fu was anxious and wanted to substitute for him. ¡°Be conscious of sterilization, step aside!¡± Before Director Fu even got close, he was scolded by Song Zimo. Then looking at Yang Ping, Su Nanchen, and Dean Xie who were engrossed in conversation, he wondered what had happened just now. Why was Director Wu raising his hand? A junior doctor should be doing such tasks. Dean Xie, while engaged in conversation, got a call and stepped out to answer it. Yang Ping looked at the few young doctors in the operating room, all were familiar faces, and he took the initiative to greet everyone. With his greeting, the young doctors daringly approached him to exchange a few words. Before this, they all thought that Yang Ping was ignoring them¡ªa misunderstanding! Right after he got off the car, he was surrounded by Dean Xie and Director Wu and didn¡¯t have time to acknowledge them. He probably didn¡¯t even see them. Everyone was inquiring with special warmth. ¡°When you have time, come visit me at Sanbo. Little Five is there too.¡± ¡°Sure, we will definitely come to visit you.¡± Everyone knew Yang Ping was busy, so they didn¡¯t stick around for too long. Yang Ping stood up to check on the progress of the surgical preparation. Seeing Director Wu raising his hand he spoke, ¡°What are you guys up to? Why is Director Wu holding up his hand? He¡¯s Director Wu, my former director.¡± ¡°Director Wu? My apologies; you look too young, I didn¡¯t realize.¡± Zhang Lin laughed and, using a sterile drape, took control of the patient¡¯s upper limb from Director Wu¡¯s hand. That¡¯s more like it. There¡¯s no need for you to show off; your boss used to be just a junior doctor under me. Unruly and disrespectful! At this point, Director Wu carefully let go of his hand. This arm was truly damn hard to lift. From his neck down his entire upper limb to his fingers, everything was sore and almost numb. He couldn¡¯t hold on any longer if Yang Ping didn¡¯t step in to help. ¡°It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s all about team collaboration, all for the patient!¡± Director Wu pretended to be magnanimous, while secretly thinking about throttling Zhang Lin. Director Fu handed him a piece of tissue. He wiped the sweat off his forehead. There was also a large wet spot on his surgical gown. Yang Ping, through the sterile drape, reassured Jiang Baicheng, ¡°Mr. Jiang, don¡¯t be nervous. Look, our Director Wu is here to assist with your surgery personally.¡± Saying it in such a way was mainly to put the patient at ease, implying that the Chief Surgeon was about to step in, not just to stand by and give instructions. ¡°Director Wu, let¡¯s go scrub our hands and get to the table!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go, time to scrub.¡± Yang Ping was nice; he wasn¡¯t showing off at all. After all, he was one of their own. Instantly, Director Wu felt a sense of affinity for Yang Ping. ¡°These guys are usually spoiled by me, arrogant and disrespectful. Please don¡¯t take it personally, Director Wu. I will scold them good after this.¡± Yang Ping said regretfully. ¡°That¡¯s okay. They are still young and hot-headed.¡± Having been scolded a couple of times, Director Wu found Yang Ping¡¯s words comforting. After the hand was disinfected, Zhang Lin hung the holding forceps on the sterile drape of the table. He draped a small cloth over the hand and started to pull it. Little five let go, and together with Song Zimo, they laid out the draped cloth, a one-time set of shoulder arthroscopy specific drape. The base drape, the middle drape were aligned perfectly. In the end, Zhang Lin Xiaowu also wore the surgical gown and laid out the large drape together with them. All types of intricate tubes were quickly expanded and connected. Zhou Can helped the patrolling nurse from the hospital to connect the lines and turn on the device under the table. Connected optic fiber, one by one: the host, light source, screen, scraper, plasma cutter¡ªall were turned on and had their parameters set. With Song Zimo focusing the camera on the white field, the pre-surgery check was done. Time to get to work. By the time Yang Ping stepped onto the stage, Song Zimo had already established the path, completing the groundwork which a junior doctor would do. Upon Yang Ping¡¯s arrival, Song Zimo respectfully vacated the Chief Surgeon¡¯s position, handed over the control of the lens to Yang Ping. Yang Ping took over the lens, examined the displayed image on the screen, and began the surgery¡ªfirst performing a shoulder arthroscopy. ¡°Zhang Lin Xiaowu, let¡¯s go prepare the tendon.¡± Song Zimo led them away to the instrument table to prepare the tendon. For such a surgery, there would be too many people if they didn¡¯t move away; the table was enough with just two people. Just one more person needed for the preparation of the tendon would suffice, usually their surgeries only required two or three people. There were so many of them today, especially Zhang Lin Xiaowu, purely for the sense of participation, there¡¯s a surplus of people even without him. They stepped away, leaving only Yang Ping and Director Wu on the stage. ¡°Could you help with the tension on the limb!¡± Yang Ping said, looking at the screen. Director Wu looked around, he was the only one left beside Yang Ping, the only assistant. Tension? He was the only one who could help with that. ¡°Oh!¡± Director Wu watched Yang Ping who was solely focused on the screen and didn¡¯t pay him any more attention, leaving Director Wu with no choice but to help with the tension on the limb. The benefit of operating on shoulder joint from the beach chair position is the mobility of the limb, making it particularly suitable for complex reconstructive surgery. The drawback is that you cannot use the traction frame for tension, and an assistant has to provide manual tension to help open up the joint space. This type of work is taxing and laborious. ¡°Director Wu, since you¡¯re here, please give your full cooperation to Professor Yang, I¡¯ll be stepping out for a while.¡± Dean Xie returned after a call, greeted them, and temporarily left the room. The camera moved around in between the joints like a spiraling dragon, while the probe was like an extension of the fingers, meticulously inspecting the entire internal structure of the shoulder joint. Surgery has a certain beauty to it, this guy is truly skilled. Director Wu helped with tension while watching Yang Ping¡¯s surgery unfold. Back at the People¡¯s Hospital, Yang Ping simply held the mirror a few times and did not let him perform even a simple arthroscopic inspection, he wondered how his surgery could be this proficient. It wasn¡¯t just Su Nanchen praising him, his was truly nationally ranked first-class skill. Although Director Wu was a chief physician with two to three decades of work experience and had undergone several refresher courses, he still had clinical experience. It¡¯s just that compared to Yang Ping, he was woefully inadequate, yet compared to other doctors, he was still capable. This kid, in just half a year, his skill level has risen to such an extent, Han Jiangong of Sanbo is really remarkable. Huang Jiahui was focused on the progress of the surgery, ready to supply the consumables at any time. She was very familiar with the products now, like this line, what material it was made of, what was its molecular formula, how many strands are twisted into it, its diameter, length, how much Newton force it can withstand, she knew it even better than the product manual. With this kind of operation, if too many materials are opened at once it would occupy the space of the instrument table, yet if too few materials are prepared, it would disrupt the rhythm of the surgery. Thus, she had to cater the materials to the rhythm of Yang Ping, one by one at the table. The wrapping and other waste would be placed into her recycled bags, which she¡¯d take with her after the surgery, without leaving any of her own generated waste behind in the operating room. She had also received strict training on how to open sterile packed consumables, such as from which part the membrane should be torn, how to open the box, how to maintain absolute safety after opening to ensure it¡¯s not contaminated and also how to quickly place it on the instrument table. Upon inspection, she started with the subacromial decompression to solve the problem of acromial impingement. Without saying a word, she reached out her hand and the drill was passed to her. Meanwhile, Su Nanchen watched from the side. No wonder during a surgery in the first affiliated hospital, even with help from two other nurses, they were still off rhythm. The mutual understanding and coordination between his little sister and Yang Ping were simply seamless. From the moment Yang Ping stepped on the stage, he hadn¡¯t spoken a word or even glanced at the instruments table. Every time he stretched his hand out, he didn¡¯t need to say the name of an instrument or what he was going to do, as soon as his hand began to move, the instrument would be passed to him, never too early or too late. Both the chief surgeon and surgical nurse moved synchronously, at the same height from the surgical table, and instruments would meet hands, each time with pinpoint precision, as if they had rehearsed this surgery countless times. Feeling puzzled, Su Nanchen wondered, wasn¡¯t Xiao Su working in an operating room? Didn¡¯t they have their own separate operating room in Sanbo¡¯s integrated orthopedics? How did she come here today? How could these two have such a practiced surgical coordination? How would Yang Ping end up taking her with him when performing these impromptu surgeries? With many unanswered questions, he didn¡¯t voice it out as it was still time for work after all. If these two were to be placed in the first affiliated hospital, the sight would make their mother and father gawk in surprise. They didn¡¯t even need to ask about the size of the drill bit, they just kept operatic smoothly, without ever handing over the wrong instruments or sizes, even during particularly complex steps, the instruments were never misjudged. Having a hard time seeing through his little sister, Su Nanchen puzzled, were they a natural pair¡ª ¡°Pull stronger, don¡¯t flop around!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s tone was serious and not to be challenged. Having the strong aura and authority of a chief surgeon, he would be mistaken for a great professor. Director Wu applied more strength, and his breakfast was almost all used up. This work was particularly exhausting as it needed consistent application of force, as lifting your arm or leg for just a few minutes, with this tension, you can¡¯t let go until the chief surgeon said stop. ¡°Lower your elbow a bit, don¡¯t interfere with my movements.¡± Director Wu didn¡¯t understand and loosened his grip, and the position of the member immediately changed, shifting the view on the screen slightly. Pop! There was a crisp sound, and the probe hit his hand. The pain receptors in the periosteum of the metacarpal bones immediately reacted, it was a hot, stabbing pain, wave after wave, continuously. ¡°Professor Yang takes his surgery seriously, we often get hit by him, I have callouses on the back of my hand.¡± Song Zimo came to console Director Wu. ¡°Is that so!¡± Director Wu twitched a corner of his mouth, forcing out a stiff smile. ¡°Old Wu, you see, it¡¯s important to get the degree of acromioplasty right, too much can lead to acromial fractures, too little won¡¯t be complete and symptoms won¡¯t be relieved,¡± Yang Ping said kindly, as if he was a completely different person from the one who had smacked his hand earlier. This kid was really into his surgeries, hitting his hand without hesitation, was he even aware of the fact that he just hit himself? No matter what, he needed to grit his teeth and see this surgery through, Mr. Jiang was awake after all. But this smacking of hands, apart from being painful, was also quite humiliating. The surgery continued, the high difficulty operation just beginning. Director Wu¡¯s physical strength was faltering. Chapter 228 - 0213: Probe Phobia Chapter 228: Chapter 0213: Probe Phobia ¡°Focus! What are you looking at?¡± Yang Ping scolded. Director Wu immediately pulled himself together. He hadn¡¯t been observing anything, just staring at the probe, trying not to get caught off guard by it again. The surgery was progressing at a fast pace, and Director Wu struggled to keep up. He was reprimanded now and then. He truly regretted stepping up on the stage and thought about making some excuse to leave, like a stomachache. But if he did that, Jiang Baicheng would think he was not taking the surgery seriously. So, he held it all in, swallowed down his shattered pride, and continued helping with the surgery. He wanted to suggest a break, but Yang Ping was too engrossed in the surgery, and the other guys were all focused on weaving the tendon. No one was paying him any attention. He decided to just hope for the surgery to finish quickly. ¡°Old Wu, need to take a break? Traction is pretty tiring.¡± Yang Ping turned around and saw the pained expression on Director Wu¡¯s face. Director Wu hastily loosened his grip and took the chance to suggest, ¡°Yes, it is quite challenging, a bit too much for me. Can we swap roles?¡± He wanted to help with the tendons or just sit to one side and rest, as long as he was on the stage. Yang Ping looked serious and said, ¡°Old Wu, this surgery is very challenging, and traction requires an experienced assistant to follow the surgeon¡¯s instructions precisely. Only then can we provide the surgeon with the best possible view. They don¡¯t have enough experience otherwise I wouldn¡¯t impose on you. Do you want us to take a break and then continue?¡± In the operating room, everyone was engrossed in the surgery. Some about-to-be senior orthopedics stepped in one after the other. No one was shooing them away, so as long as they were careful about sterility, it was fine. Yang Ping¡¯s voice was quite loud, and Jiang Baicheng heard him. As the person on the operating table, he was most concerned about whether his surgery was going smoothly. ¡°Director Wu, thank you for your hard work.¡± Jiang Baicheng called out from beneath the cloth. Fatty leaned in, ¡°What did you say?¡± Jiang Baicheng repeated himself. Fatty looked up and relayed it to Director Wu, ¡°Director Wu, Mr. Jiang says thank you for your hard work.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Director Wu is right here. He personally assists Doctor Yang.¡± ¡°Thank you! Thank you!¡± Director Wu was initially trying to find an opportunity to sneak away and find a free spot on stage. After this conversation though, Jiang Baicheng was worried that if Wu stepped down as the assistant, it might affect the surgery. It was inappropriate for him to leave now! He decided to put up with it since it would only be for a few hours, after all. Can great things be achieved without a thick skin? Director Wu dropped the idea of finding a replacement. ¡°Old Wu, you look a little pale. If you¡¯re really not feeling well, you can go and rest. We can manage here. Don¡¯t worry!¡± Yang Ping said concernedly, a stark contrast to his stern demeanor on the stage. Director Wu had no way out. He said, ¡°It¡¯s okay, let¡¯s continue!¡± The surgery proceeded. Director Wu flexed his arm and resumed the traction. Endoscopic surgery is a groundbreaking technique, where complex surgeries can be done through just a few small holes. Over two hundred years ago, Austrian doctor Botzini did something unusual. He came up with two tubes, and inserted them into a patient¡¯s bladder through the urethra. One tube lead the light of a candle into the bladder, while he observed the structures inside the bladder through the other tube. The great man himself probably hadn¡¯t realized, yet his two tubes paved the way for minimally invasive endoscopic surgery in the future. The man who first introduced arthroscopy to orthopedics, was Professor Kenji Takagi of Tokyo University. That is to say, Japan is the birthplace of arthroscopic technology. Professor Kenji Takagi used a cystoscope to examine a patient with knee joint tuberculosis. Since then, he and his students created the first truly clinically useful arthroscope. Most of the time, arthroscopic surgery is even more convenient than open surgery. Many locations and operations that can¡¯t be managed with open surgery, can be easily done with arthroscopy. They completed just the right amount of reshaping of the acromion, allowing the shoulder joint to move without bumps. The subsequent surgeries performed included repair of the Bankart and SLAP lesions, reconstruction of the broken coracohumeral ligament, handling the labral tear, as well as a capsular plication and humeral head osteotomy. Su Nanchen was equally thrilled. He admired Yang Ping¡¯s superior skills. Every complex problem seemed simple in his hands. Such ability to simplify complexity requires strong theoretical and surgical capabilities. He was also in awe of his sister¡¯s ability to be an instrument nurse. The little sister, who was usually pampered in his eyes, was now the best scrub nurse he had ever seen. Until now, there hadn¡¯t been a single mistake in handing out the instruments, not even slightly early or slightly late. They hadn¡¯t spoken a single word or exchanged a single glance, yet their cooperation was impeccable. Su Nanchen was extremely confused. What did they use to communicate? How could they cooperate so perfectly? Were they communicating telepathically? The challenge of this surgery is to ensure that each individual surgery is in harmony with the surgeries that have been completed and those yet to be done, finally forming a unified whole. To make the repaired or reconstructed parts fit perfectly requires experience. Even the most precise machine cannot help a doctor master this complex coordination. The secret to multi-ligament reconstruction in the knee lies in balance because the most significant feature of the lower limb joint is stability. The most significant feature of the shoulder joint, on the other hand, is flexibility. It requires a higher level of coordination, not just balance. This type of surgery requires a mastery of rich experiential knowledge, like a sophisticated chef needing to grasp the intensity of the fire, the amount of oil and salt, the proportion of various ingredients, the timing of putting them into and taking them out of the pot. All of this relies on rich and delicate experience, and cannot be achieved by measuring cylinders and scales. Surgeons also need to master a wealth of perceptual knowledge, which indeed requires accumulation of experience and there are no shortcuts to it. Even top professors will repeatedly contemplate the synergy of these structures, hesitating over tension balance and struggling to grasp coordinated movement, because it¡¯s too difficult. The number of people in the operating room is increasing, everyone is conscious enough to keep their distance from the operating table, showcasing professional etiquette. They watch this surgery as if they were watching acrobatics, things that seemed impossible to many, were made effortless by the Chief Surgeon. Arthroscopic surgery is better than artificial joint replacement because the continuous saline rinse keeps the operating area extremely clean. ¡°Don¡¯t move around! Can¡¯t you withstand one single surgery?¡± With a ¡®bam¡¯ sound, something, perhaps a probe, flashed past and hit the fifth metacarpal. The first to fourth metacarpals had already been hit, causing the involuntary trembling of the hand. This guy was polite and gentle when resting, but became ruthless during surgery, practicing a simple and brutal style. The most difficult part, capsular plication surgery, began. It appears simple, but it¡¯s very difficult to achieve the end goal. ¡°Don¡¯t let your hand shake! This is a critical step in the surgery, any small mistake can affect the outcome.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s voice was slightly loud, but clear. Capsular laxity could no longer be addressed by plasma knife shrinkage, so capsular plication surgery was the only option. Yang Ping cleared away an old scar at the torn area of the anterior capsule, a place frequented by habitual dislocations. This tear needed to be repaired, but Yang Ping didn¡¯t seem to have any intention of repairing it. A deputy chief physician who was proficient in arthroscopy watched, but he couldn¡¯t understand the process. When he was being trained, he saw that these kinds of operations required the tear to be repaired, sometimes using other fascial tissues to patch up the area. For capsular plication, it was often handled rough-handedly, and how effective it was remained a question. The coracohumeral ligament had been reconstructed, and Yang Ping used the PDS line to sew it in a twist-fold pattern. The positions needed to be folded were extremely tricky, but they did not trouble him. The conventional folding technique in Yang Ping¡¯s hands yielded amazing results. The folds were precisely like works of art. After a few folds, the laxity of the capsule was eliminated, and the original tear naturally disappeared. Everyone was baffled about how he managed to do it. There was no need to repair the opening of the joint capsule, just stitch it together. Next step was the downward relocation of the large tubercle, back to its original, correct position. The patient previously had a severe anterior shoulder dislocation and large tubercle fracture, which healed on its own, but the large tubercle¡¯s position moved upward, causing not only impingement but also muscle relaxation. Under the guidance of the periosteal elevator, cautiously carving out a potential cavity on the surface of the large tubercle, creating a workspace for the arthroscope, fixated with two hollow screws. Finally, the double-row bridging repair for cuff tear was performed. The steps of the surgery were scientifically and cleverly arranged, everything fell into place in an organized fashion. In the end, all structures were coordinated, all the reconstruction and repair constituted an organic whole. ¡°The surgery is not over yet, can¡¯t you show some professionalism?¡± After hitting all the metacarpals, the probe struck the radial and ulnar styloid, and the superficial bones of both sides of the hand and wrists had been thumped all over. Each time it struck, Director Wu dared not withdraw his hand, fearing that any withdrawal might critically interfere with the surgery. The onlookers couldn¡¯t help but cringe each time it struck. All the arrogance of Director Wu usually seemed to have disappeared today! Well deserved! He not only monopolized the benefits but also withheld overtime pay, claiming that doctors were volunteering, and had the spirit of selfless dedication to not need overtime pay. No one was voluntarily doing this, no one had signed anything, no one knew about this matter at all. That little bit of money earned while risking hypertension was funding his climb up the ladder. So inhumane, hit him a few more times! A few young doctors thought to themselves. Usually, they dared not express their anger, but now someone was venting for them. They didn¡¯t say anything, but inside, they felt satisfied. A few associate professors found the situation amusing. Every time the probe appeared, Director Wu would involuntarily tremble, he had developed a phobia to the probe. Director Fu stood to the side, not daring to say a word; since the man himself Didn¡¯t say anything, what place did he, a subordinate, have to speak up? The surgery ended in less than an hour, including the mid-operation break. ¡°You¡¯ve worked hard, old Wu!¡± Yang Ping saw him massaging his own hand. Yang Ping pulled out the mirror, collected the surgical instruments and handed them to the nurse. Seeing one of the probes again, Director Wu instinctively dodged. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Yang Ping asked, manipulating the probe in his hand. Director Wu tilted his body, fearing the probe would strike again and said with a forced smile, ¡°Young...Professor Yang, this thing, it really hurts when used to hit someone!¡± ¡°You mean this?¡± Yang Ping held up the probe for him to see. Director Wu nodded, his eyes full of fear. ¡°Why would such a good instrument be used to hit people?¡± Yang Ping handed the probe to Xiao Su. Chapter 229 - 0214: Smog Everywhere Chapter 229: Chapter 0214: Smog Everywhere A highly complex surgery had everyone prepared to be patient, watching Yang Ping traverse mountains and valleys. However, as they observed, it didn¡¯t look like a major surgery at all. Amidst the poking and prodding with the probe, the surgery was suddenly over. The only drawback to the surgery was Director Wu. He always seemed to lose pace and frequently loosened his grip, unable to maintain traction. Each time this occurred, a probe would magically appear, delivering a strong stimulating jolt to the peripheral nerves in his hand. This would jolt Director Wu back into focus, aiding him in cooperating with the surgery. Everyone else performed well, except Director Wu. Watching this surgery was an indescribeable pleasure. Even those doctors who were previously downtrodden by the botched surgeries immediately regained their confidence after observing this one. A doctor can definitely do better. As the surgery ended, Director Wu noticed that all around him were colleagues from his department, staring at him. Some were even whispering about something. His intense feeling of shame hadn¡¯t really hit him until this moment, as he was previously immersed in the surgery. Now, the surge of embarrassment hit him like a tidal wave. Every time any of the observing doctors so much as moved their mouths, he assumed they were secretly laughing at him. He wished he could just crawl into a hole and hide. The delicate probe, being much lighter than hemostatic forceps and other tools, didn¡¯t weigh much when hitting the back of his hand which was sheathed in a surgical glove. However, in Yang Ping¡¯s hand, its power was tremendous. The determination of its speed was crucial. The half-centimeter tip of the probe bent at a right angle. Yang Ping used the very tip to strike with the speed of lighting, accurately and unerringly, perpendicular to the target, focusing energy on a single point. The faster the speed, the greater the energy. As the rounded tip was small and slim, the pressure per unit area was higher. Thus, the explosive power was immense. Director Wu was certain that right now his hands were covered in dot-like bruises that would spread in the next few days. After he removed his gloves, sure enough, both of his hands were covered with round bruise spots. The force of the strike was no wonder it hurt like hell. With his hands in this condition, Director Wu sighed inwardly, knowing he wouldn¡¯t be able to perform surgery for a few days. Yet he kept a smile on his face, pretended as if nothing had happened. There was no choice. Right now, Yang Ping was the one in charge. With Yang Ping stepping away from the lead surgeon position, Song Zimo came forward, stitching up several 0.5 cm incisions, covering with sterile dressings, checking the shoulder joint mobility. Very stable, with all structures organically synergized, restoring the path of the humeral head to normal. There were no issues with the surgical result. If Yang Ping could not achieve this result, Song Zimo could not imagine who else could. At first, there was scepticism and disbelief amongst the orthopedic surgeons, especially those with higher-ranking titles, towards Yang Ping taking on the surgery. However, their doubts were completely dissipated with less than an hour¡¯s performance. The nurses weren¡¯t just for show either. Their proficiency was beyond anything they would likely see at the City People¡¯s Hospital, even in a few years¡¯ time. The surgical instrument vendors who attended the surgery also left an impression. Before, they might have had doubts about their own vendors, but not anymore after seeing this. As Yang Ping was taking off his surgical gown, a few doctors rushed to help him. However, they were beaten to it by Jiahui who with quick and skillful hands, undid a few strings on the back, unravelling the gown. A stool was already prepared. ¡°Teacher Yang, you must be tired! Take a seat, rest for a while.¡± All surgery consumables had been folded up, layer by layer, put into eco-friendly bags, and finally loaded onto a Wuling Hongguang car in the hospital parking lot, ready to be taken back to the company. Jiahui had all the key details such as the layout of the operating room, the condition of orthopedic instruments, etc., stored in her mind, even the operating-room gatekeeping aunty had received a little token of appreciation from her. ¡°Little girl, I will remember you.¡± ¡°Ruixing¡¯s Little Yellow may come here often. Please take care of her.¡± The aunty was very pleased with the small but respectful gift. Jiahui had already added the head nurse on WeChat, regardless of whether Yang Ping would come back for surgeries, it was always good to be prepared. ¡°Let¡¯s go have some rest. We will have a simple meal together soon.¡± Dean Xie led everyone out of the dressing room. Mr. Jiang¡¯s son had made arrangements beforehand, booking the best hotel in G City and preparing several luxury cars to transport them. With their high status, how could they send such a huge team back informally after performing the surgery? Escorted by everyone, Yang Ping left the operating room. It was still early, just ten o¡¯clock. After resting for a while before heading to the hotel for some tea, it would be just about right. ¡°Let¡¯s visit the orthopedic ward!¡± Yang Ping suggested as that was where his career began. Accompanied by Director Wu, he pressed the elevator button. ¡°Good, good!¡± ¡°Go with Teacher Yang to visit the orthopedics ward. I have some work to attend to and will join you later.¡± Indeed, Dean Xie was busy, in quite a pickle recently. These few years, he had been commuting by bike to work, wearing cheap clothes bought from street stalls, wearing those shirts for years. If it wasn¡¯t for the scandal involving the old leader, he would have taken early retirement and been tending gardens in Australia by now. Now with Mr. Jiang¡¯s help, things might take a turn for the better. Director Wu led Yang Ping to the orthopedic ward, and Song Zimo and others followed close behind. Little Five intentionally walked at the back, chatting with some old colleagues. Several high-ranking doctors tried to keep up with Yang Ping¡¯s pace. Everyone used to boss him around. Some of them felt embarassed and didn¡¯t want to suck up to him. Others didn¡¯t think like that. Yang Ping used to be a junior doctor and it was normal to order him around. On the other hand, Yang Ping¡¯s former supervisor, Director Fu, always kept a distance from him. Coming back to the old ward, everything was just the same. Several nurses recognized Yang Ping. ¡°Yang Ping! Yang Ping! You¡¯re back?¡± The nurses exclaimed, rushing to greet him. ¡°Which hospital did you go to?¡± They all cared deeply. He left without notification, no one had seen him since until he suddenly reappeared. Everyone was pleasantly surprised. While at the People¡¯s Hospital, Yang Ping was not a big socializer, but he was solid as a rock, dedicated, and he never lost his temper with the nurses. The nurses all liked him very much, especially the ones on his shift, they all felt at ease with him. ¡°He is now Professor Yang, he¡¯s here for Jiang Baicheng¡¯s surgery.¡± Someone told the nurses and they were immediately dumbstruck. Just look at this scene, surrounded by a horde, accompanied by Director Wu, and Director Wu is constantly bending over. Usually, Director Wu in front of everyone, strutted around with a straight chest like a dragon and tiger, only when he met Dean Xie would he humble himself to please. The nurses wanted to take Yang Ping to the nurse¡¯s station to chat about recent events, but they didn¡¯t dare do so with Director Wu around, so their mood dampened. The nurses would always avoid Director Wu if they could, those with connections have all requested transfers to other departments. Working in orthopedics was tormenting, one morning briefing could make you question your existence. Everyone¡¯s everyday work mentality was always looking forward to the end of their shift. ¡°Director Wu, I¡¯ll wander around on my own.¡± Yang Ping gave Director Wu a pass. How could Director Wu let Yang Ping out of his sight? Although Yang Ping said he wouldn¡¯t expose him, he was always uneasy, and only felt at ease when Yang Ping was in his view. The crowd was walking around like visitors, moving through the corridor. Everything was the same as before, the familiar duty room had not changed. When the door was pushed open, the guy on duty was eating breakfast, it was already close to ten, and he was still eating breakfast. This guy had dark circles under his eyes like a panda, two cold pieces of bread, a bottle of possibly expired yoghurt, eating ravenously while letting out belches. He looked up, stunned: ¡°Yang Ping¨C¡± This was Dr. Dai, who was in the same group as Yang Ping at the time. Dr. Dai was a specialist at the time, and although Yang Ping had also just become a specialist, he wasn¡¯t appointed and was just an assigned resident. They had a good relationship at the time. Dr. Dai put down his half-eaten bread and came over to greet him, Yang Ping hugged his shoulders. Seeing the large group behind him and the flattering smile on Director Wu¡¯s face. Dr. Dai was a bit bewildered. ¡°Dr. Yang, it¡¯s time to eat, the car arranged by Mr. Jiang is waiting downstairs.¡± Director Wu said awkwardly, he didn¡¯t want Yang Ping to stay in the department longer, he was worried, in front of so many people, calling him Professor Yang would be hard on his tongue, so in a moment of quick thinking, he referred to him as Dr. Yang. ¡°We¡¯ll catch up next time!¡± Yang Ping said farewell to Dr. Dai. At the back of the crowd, a young doctor, who was close to Little Five, Dr. Zhou, was explaining the current situation in the department to Little Five: ¡°Old Dai is now a senior resident.¡± He¡¯s a specialist, why is he still a senior resident? Dr. Zhou said, ¡°Once during a case discussion, he questioned Director Wu¡¯s surgical plan in the meeting, Director Wu ordered him to go back and be a senior resident for another six months to gain more experience.¡± ¡°What about President Wan?¡± President Wan was a senior resident, according to the timeframe, his one-year residency hasn¡¯t expired yet. ¡°Fired!¡± ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s a long story!¡± Dr. Zhou motioned for Little Five to stop and waited until they were a distance away from the crowd before whispering in Little Five¡¯s ear. ¡°That kid didn¡¯t knock before bursting into the director¡¯s office, Director Wu was on the sofa with a woman¨C¡± Smoke and mirrors! ¡°Those who are not on night shift, come for dinner, it¡¯s Yang¡¯s treat, I¡¯ll send you the address later, let¡¯s catch up properly...¡± Little Five instructed Dr. Zhou to inform the others. Yang Ping took everyone to the general department to see Jiang Baicheng after the surgery. The minimally invasive surgery caused minimal disturbance and almost no bleeding; his recovery was very fast, incomparable to open surgeries. Fatty¡¯s nerve block was a genuine nerve block, almost the same as local infiltrative anesthesia, no food prohibition was required after surgery, and Jiang Baicheng was already drinking chicken soup with his wife¡¯s company. ¡°Dr. Yang, thank you!¡± Jiang Baicheng knew everything, he was conscious and could hear the conversation in the operating room. He could tell from the doctor¡¯s chatter that his surgery was highly difficult, and only a handful of people in the country could handle it, but Dr. Yang did a very successful job, quick and good. A hero emerges in his youth! Of course, the young Dr. Yang seems to have a temper and showered Director Wu with insults. He even knew a bit about the reprimanding handclaps used to discipline Director Wu¡¯s lack of focus. ¡°The operation was very successful, rest and recover well, and follow Director Wu¡¯s guidance for postoperative recovery!¡± Yang Ping shook his hand. ¡°Thank you for your hard work, I¡¯ll join you for a casual meal later, but I won¡¯t be able to stay long; please don¡¯t mind my family taking my place!¡± Jiang Baicheng apologized. After visiting Jiang Baicheng, the surgical team went to eat. Jiang Baicheng¡¯s son had arranged several cars, he personally opened the car door for Yang Ping. Chapter 230 - 0125: They All Pretend to be Drunk Chapter 230: Chapter 0125: They All Pretend to be Drunk Jiang Baicheng was very sincere about this meal, arranging it in his own hotel, in the restaurant on the top floor, the most luxurious private room. His son was the representative to accompany the drinking during the meal. In addition to Yang Ping¡¯s surgery team, there were also Dean Xie, Director Wu, Director Fu, the director of the established department, and a few people brought by the Jiang family to drink. There was also one person that Director Fu brought along, the best drinker in the Orthopedic department, Dr. Xiong. It seems that those with the surname Xiong could generally drink quite well. Xiong Sihai from Sanbo could also drink quite a lot. The atmosphere of the dinner was very harmonious, and Director Wu was very pleased. The surgery was performed beautifully and Yang Ping didn¡¯t even find fault with anything, everything was going smoothly. Although the young man was high-spirited and arrogant, with a bit of a temper, he still took good care of him without exposing him. Yang Ping and Song Zimo didn¡¯t drink alcohol, the few girls didn¡¯t drink either, and everyone else did. Director Fu came prepared, just in case they didn¡¯t drink. Hearing that Xiaowu Zhang Lin drank, he was overjoyed, ready to outdrink him. That glasses-wearing brother Zhang Lin was arrogant, mercilessly criticizing others. Director Fu vowed to be the first to outdrink him, to vent some anger for Director Wu. Yang Ping didn¡¯t drink, so Little Five also became their target. They wouldn¡¯t stop until these two were on the ground, especially since they had nothing to do in the afternoon anyway. With their skills, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem to drink these two youngsters under the table, especially with Dr. Xiong present, there was hardly any suspense. Everyone came out for a ¡®fly knife¡¯ surgery, Director Han had laid down a rule that no one could drink alcohol. But for today¡¯s banquet, it was the first time everyone was flying knives, and Zhang Lin Xiaowu was drinking, so it was unclear if this was breaking Director Han¡¯s rule. The wine was vintage Maotai, a very high-end kind. Director Wu, Director Fu, and Dr. Xiong, back and forth with Zhang Lin and Little Five, toasting and drinking, it was unknown how many rounds they had played. Zhang Lin Xiaowu ¨C These two brothers, it really was a fateful meeting to come face to face, they had the same sort of character when it came to drinking-addled boxing. Drinking-addled boxing looked like it was all over the place, as if a poke with a finger would cause a fall, but they still didn¡¯t fall. These two brothers were the same when they drank, they seemed a little tipsy and looked like they would fall with just another drink, but they still didn¡¯t fall after a few more drinks, and even after a few more drinks, they didn¡¯t fall. After drinking who knows how many glasses, they were about to get the two of them drunk, pushed a little harder, and still they didn¡¯t fall. ¡°Can¡¯t do it anymore, can¡¯t do it anymore!¡± Zhang Lin¡¯s face was red and his neck was red, he waved his hand, with a dazed look in his eyes. He was just one more drink away from falling. Dry! Director Fu was determined, he poured another glass, and Zhang Lin simply drank it in one gulp, with the bottom of his glass upturned. Little Five on the other side, was laughing and joking, not refusing any drinks, when you toasted, naturally he had to toast too. First, Director Wu couldn¡¯t hold on any longer, then Director Fu fell, Dr. Xiong held on until the end, before finally waving his hand in surrender. Zhang Lin in a befuddled state said: ¡°Can¡¯t do it anymore, can¡¯t do it anymore, one last glass!¡± Little Five leaned against the chair, squinting his eyes: ¡°Really can¡¯t do it anymore.¡± In fact, Director Wu wasn¡¯t too drunk. He just felt a bit dizzy and unsteady on his feet, he was still quite conscious. Being crafty and cunning, he realized that he would certainly fall if he continued to drink, so he pretended to be drunk. He deliberately stumbled while walking, almost falling down. The Jiang family¡¯s people immediately went over to support him, swaying off to the restroom. Little Five couldn¡¯t hold on anymore either. He had a drink with young master Jiang, almost falling onto the floor. Placing a hand on his shoulder, he said: ¡°Brother, help me to the restroom.¡± Young master Jiang wanted to ask someone to help him over, but Little Five, drunk and dazed, said:¡± Not cool!¡± With no choice, I had to support him. Director Wu had taken up the restroom in the room, so I had to take him outside. Upon reaching the restroom and helping him inside, Little Five murmured, ¡°Mr. Jiang, you and your family must indeed be fated with Doctor Yang but you are all lacking in consciousness, your consciousness is severely lacking!¡± What did this statement mean? Even if he was drunk, this kind of talk wasn¡¯t called for. Jiang Shao was dissatisfied. It was the best restaurant in G City for today¡¯s meal, the best wine was served, and I even personally drank with them. I opened the car door myself for Doctor Yang. What did they want more? ¡°Severely lacking in consciousness!¡± Little Five splashed some water on his face, not sounding drunk at all. Jiang Shao couldn¡¯t accept this: ¡°Doctor Lu, how are we lacking in consciousness? If we didn¡¯t serve well, please point it out.¡± ¡°You got stabbed and were nearly out of life. It was Doctor Yang who pulled you out from the hands of death, and you didn¡¯t even thank him upon meeting him, pretending as if you didn¡¯t know anything about it. Do you still have a conscience? The grace of saving a life, although life-saving is the duty of a doctor, but saving your life wasn¡¯t something anyone could have done. Moreover, to save you, Doctor Yang offended Director Wu and got expelled from the hospital the next day, did you know that? We both were doctors at the People¡¯s Hospital, and I was there during your surgery. The Burberry shirt you were wearing when you got injured, was the one that I helped you cut open at the emergency department,¡± Little Five seemed sober. His words were clear and made sense, they weren¡¯t drunken babble, it was more like the truth after getting drunk. Jiang Shao was a little confused, ¡°Wasn¡¯t it Director Wu who performed the emergency surgery on me and saved my life?¡± ¡°Director Wu saved you? Can his skills save you?¡± sneered Little Five. ¡°For your sake, we nearly destroyed our futures. After we got kicked out, we went to Sanbo, but it was too dramatic, your Dad asked Doctor Yang to come back and perform the surgery,¡± Little Five wet his hair a little. ¡°Are you serious about this? I didn¡¯t know!¡± Jiang Shao got the gist of it. ¡°Doctor Yang doesn¡¯t care about these things. As long as the patients were safe, he was happy. Saving a life, even if it meant getting fired, was worth it. But this Wu Siwen, he has zero knowledge, he always suppresses us doctors. Several doctors who are educated and capable were all driven away by him. Even a new, good-looking nurse was scared away by him. Dean Xie is also not a great guy, he made a mess over the past few years. The department directors are literally for sale. Enough said, let¡¯s go, help me up!¡± Little Five leaned on Jiang Shao¡¯s shoulder again, stumbling back. Director Wu, on the other hand, rested on his chair like a dead dog, continuing to pretend to be drunk. Both Director Fu and Dr. Xiong were genuinely drunk, Director Fu was calling for more drinks while Dr. Xiong remained silent. The original plan was to drain Yang Ping¡¯s team, but unfortunately, Zhang Lin was not an easy one to beat and Little Five was the kind to stay happy no matter how much he drunk. They ended up getting their men drunk instead. Zhang Lin¡¯s phone rang. As he took it out, he sobered up immediately and lost all signs of drunkenness. With a gentle voice, he answered, ¡°I¡¯m with Senior Brother Yang, we¡¯re eating. Don¡¯t worry, I didn¡¯t drink any alcohol. I don¡¯t look like I had alcohol, do I? I just did a symbolic drink, a little bit to rinse my mouth.¡± After the call, he breathed a sigh of relief. Damn, this bunch of people, Director Wu gave them a slanted glance. This was no condition to return home for Director Wu¡¯s three people; Jiang Shao arranged for a room to let them rest and sober up. It was quite late, and Yang Ping¡¯s group were about to leave. They wanted to say goodbye to Director Wu, but he was already taken away to sober up. Jiang Shao personally escorted everyone back to the People¡¯s Hospital, expressing his gratitude many times. After Little Five had some alcohol, everyone adjusted, Fatty rode in Song Zimo¡¯s car. Yang Ping came to drive Little Five¡¯s car back to Sanbo. In the evening, everyone returned to the city again. Yang Ping and Little Five invited some young doctors from the original orthopedics department of the People¡¯s Hospital. Normally, everyone had grudges that they dared not express, but seeing Yang Ping and Little Five, gave everyone an abundance of words of dissatisfaction and grievances, and they all began to recount their grudges. Little Five was candid and recounted the circumstances of Jiang Baicheng¡¯s son¡¯s surgery to them in detail. His vivid explanation filled the listeners with righteous indignation. No wonder they were fired out of nowhere, while doing good work. The situation inside was already so deep. If it were before, people might not believe it, but now seeing Yang Ping doing such a good surgery, they naturally believed when they thought back to it. Chapter 231 - 0126 The Eyes Can Betray A Person Chapter 231: Chapter 0126 The Eyes Can Betray A Person After everyone had their fill of food and drink and had vented their frustrations, it came to light during their conversation. Doctor Wan, the former resident director, was in a tough spot after being fired. Dr. Dai, who knew President Wan quite well, said that he was indeed having a hard time. Just a few days ago, he borrowed money from Dr. Dai, planning to pursue a doctorate. Dr. Dai called President Wan on the spot and found out that he was still on the hunt for a suitable job. He had worked at several private hospitals but was unsatisfied with them. He hopped around from job to job and now was left unemployed. Going back to his hometown was not satisfactory to him. Plus, without any connections there, it¡¯s not easy to enter a decent hospital just because you want to. Yang Ping asked him if he would go to Liquan Hospital, to which President Wan replied, Liquan? He¡¯d be delighted! But they declined his resume. Though Liquan is a private hospital, it is very formal. They invest greatly in their doctors¡¯ development and provide extremely good benefits. Entering Liquan was something President Wan dreamed of. In G City job market for students of medicine, having a master¡¯s degree is just the starting line, not even a high level of education. Since President Wan was so eager to go, and he usually works diligently and is not a troublemaker. Yang Ping called Boss Cheng on the spot. He briefly introduced Doctor Wan¡¯s situation. Boss Cheng agreed without hesitation. He was wondering not too long ago if he hadn¡¯t been considerate enough, perhaps angering Yang Ping into postponing his surgery. So when Yang Ping¡¯s call came in, Boss Cheng was delighted. Without even mentioning a resume, he asked Yang Ping directly to have Doctor Wan report to him the next day. ¡°It¡¯s settled!¡± Yang Ping hung up the phone. Everyone looked at each other in surprise. This guy had such a great influence, he could directly call the boss of Liquan Hospital, which is a high-end private specialized hospital. And he managed to secure a job for President Wan just like that. Yang Ping called President Wan back, telling him to bring his resume and report directly to Boss Cheng of Liquan the next day. President Wan thought Yang Ping was messing with him. Only after Yang Ping repeated his instruction did he reluctantly agree. Liquan Hospital was the place he had been dreaming of! These brothers are all having a hard time. Yang Ping knew their struggles. Old Wan, who came from a rural area in the mainland with no connections, had managed to establish himself in G City. Now that he had been fired, he was adrift and life was undoubtedly hard. Old Wan had worked for three years after his undergraduate study before going to graduate school. He started working in the People¡¯s Hospital after graduating with his master¡¯s. He was a contract worker, 30 years old, still unmarried and commuting to and from work by electric car. His life was tough. If he could lend a hand, he should. Everyone thought highly of Yang Ping and envied Little Five for having such a good friend. After a long while, everyone reluctantly parted ways. ¡ª- The winter in G City was peculiar. For a period of time, it was cold, and some people were already wearing their long Johns. But suddenly, the sun was shining brightly once again, and temperatures rose. People quickly shed their coats and long Johns. Those in good health were even seen wearing short sleeves outside. So, in the winter streets of G City, don¡¯t be surprised to see people in flip-flops and shorts. They are perfectly normal and sane. Helicopters were taking off and landing on the roof of the surgical building in Sanbo. Every helicopter flight cost ten to twenty thousand yuan in fuel, making it a costly endeavor. But Sanbo was willing to foot the bill. Dean Xia was a man of conviction. This was nothing compared to the money he had invested. Back in the day, to attract a group of doctoral talents, Old Xia had splurged on expenses, promising each person a free apartment to live and offering funds for housing and placements for children¡¯s education and spouse¡¯s employment. The introduction was so vigorous that the hospital¡¯s apartments could not accommodate everyone. Old Xia moved out and gave his apartment to one of the doctors, who is now Director Gao of Sports Medicine. Everyone in the hospital knew that the dean had given his apartment in the hospital¡¯s residential area to Director Gao. Director Gao¡¯s wife, who studied accounting and previously worked in a bank, was moved to a branch of the Construction Bank next to the hospital after Old Xia exhausted all his resources. After so much operation, Director Gao, who came from the north, finally felt settled in Sanbo. Later, Old Xia promoted the policy of having younger department directors with PhDs. Several old directors disagreed and held a grudge against Old Xia. He used his trump card ¨C children of those who were willing to retire would get priority access to jobs in the hospital. This strategy was effective, and those old directors retired immediately. It was a great opportunity to secure a post for their children, which was challenging to obtain. The training was nearing its end, and it was now a joint training operation between the operating room, trauma orthopedics, and the emergency department. Cooperation between different types of forces was a profound science that could produce tremendous power far beyond simple addition. Only when they entered the joint training did they realize that the so-called cooperation between various departments was not cooperation at all, but merely primitive and rough combination. The academic conference was imminent, and Sisi¡¯s surgery was also urgently scheduled. Although her leg was fixed with plaster, it did still hurt a little while being moved. Yang Ping gently lifted her onto the gurney, and despite the pain, the little one gritted her teeth and maintained a smile. ¡°Can I keep the thing that was inside my thigh after it is taken out?¡± she asked. Sisi was referring to the titanium prosthesis. Yang Ping playfully tapped her nose, ¡°I¡¯m afraid we can¡¯t agree to this request. It¡¯s medical waste and has to be disposed of.¡± ¡°Fine, it¡¯s just that this thing has been in me for so long, I¡¯m a bit reluctant to part with it,¡± Sisi said regretfully. ¡°Alright, I promise that after the surgery, I¡¯ll let you take a picture with it,¡± Yang Ping said as he pushed the cart alongside Sisi. Everyone accompanied her to the operating room for the surgery. ¡°Are you scared?¡± ¡°Not at all! I¡¯ve already had several surgeries. I even know how to cooperate when they administer anesthesia. Is it femoral nerve block this time? It¡¯s supposed to be located using an ultrasound. Last time, an anesthetist spent ages trying to find the nerve, and I had to tell her to relax and take her time...¡± ¡°You even know about ultrasounds.¡± ¡°Of course, I know quite a lot. For example, I know that this beautiful lady here is your girlfriend.¡± Sisi pointed to Xiao Su. Xiao Su¡¯s face turned beet red. ¡°You little one, I didn¡¯t tell you that. How did you find out?¡± Yang Ping found this astonishing. Sisi grinned mischievously, ¡°Just look at the way you two look at each other, that¡¯s not normal, it¡¯s love! I told you, eyes are the windows to the soul.¡± ¡°What do you know about love, you little rascal!¡± Yang Ping teased her by pretending to tap her nose. Sisi dodged him, ¡°I hit the nail on the head, didn¡¯t I? Embarrassed, aren¡¯t you?¡± With all the chit-chatting and laughter, they arrived at the operating room. ¡ª The surgery performed at the time was palliative. The custom-made titanium prosthesis was fixed in the femoral medullary cavity with bone cement on both ends. The bone cement was not planned to be removed. Bone cement, a type of bone adhesive, otherwise known as polymethylmethacrylate, is often used in orthopedics. Particularly, in artificial joint replacement, before the advancement of biological fixation technology, bone cement was the only effective way to fix the artificial joint. This self-hardening cement was required to bond with the body¡¯s bone during artificial joint assembly. Because its function is similar to that of cement in construction, it¡¯s colloquially called bone cement. It¡¯s easy to apply, but extremely difficult to remove. Bone cement is in powder form before use. When it is needed, a special liquid is used to dissolve and mix it. The process can take several minutes or more, and it transitions from liquid, to viscous and stringy glue, to dough-like, and finally becomes solid like a rock. When mixed, it emits a unique fragrance, which smells quite lovely. Of course, by now, the bone cement in Sisi¡¯s femoral medullary cavity had long solidified and had no fragrance left. Yang Ping used a small bone chisel to gradually chisel away the cement along the prosthesis, scooping it out bit by bit. This was a strenuous task, but in the hands of Yang Ping, even difficult tasks became simpler. In the end, all the bone cement was removed, and the titanium prosthesis was taken out. The prosthesis, with remnants of bone cement and stained with blood, was placed in a metal basin. The middle part of the prosthesis was cylindrical, with a diameter similar to Sisi¡¯s femur, and the ends were slender, inserted into the femoral medullary cavity to serve as a fixation with the femur. This customized tumor prosthesis was expensive, conservatively estimated to cost more than thirty thousand dollars. Now, hospital regulations are strict. Any internal implants removed from patients cannot be taken home and need to go through a specialized medical waste disposal process. It was less strict in the past. If a patient didn¡¯t have any infectious diseases, they could take their own internal implant home as a keepsake. Some patients even joked about making their implants into a ring, bracelet, or pendant. After removing the remaining bone cement, an external fixation frame for bone elongation was fitted; similar to Hermes¡¯, with the exception that Hermes¡¯s tibia was elongated while Sisi¡¯s femur was elongated. With the surgery completed, Sisi was taken to the ward. Her mother came to Yang Ping once again, revealing that sixty thousand more Chinese yuan had been added to the hospital account. This was strange indeed. Who was secretly helping Sisi? Chapter 232 - 0217: You are not Han Xin Chapter 232: Chapter 0217: You are not Han Xin Last time, nine thousand was paid, this time six thousand was paid. This person has already paid one hundred and fifty thousand. Together with the money Huang Jiahui paid, Sisi¡¯s medical expenses are sufficient for the time being. However, the cost of tumor treatment can sometimes feel endless, and even Yang Ping can¡¯t be sure how long this one hundred and fifty thousand can last. With someone assisting them in the background, this poor child, this poor family, at least has a chance to catch their breath. Yang Ping doesn¡¯t have time to find out who this kind person is. He is more concerned about Sisi¡¯s illness and how to treat it next. In Sisi¡¯s surgery this time, the prosthesis was removed after which an external fixator was used to stabilize the fracture while also lengthening the femur in order to compensate for the bone defect. The objective is for her to ultimately have her own femur rather than relying on a prosthetic bridge. According to the principle of treatment, this is improper and pointless, but Yang Ping wants to do everything possible. Even if there is no hope, he wants to create a glimmer of hope, because the road is always forged by those who walk it. There is no specific targeted drug for the treatment of osteosarcoma. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy can no longer be used. They greatly disrupt the immune system, and their therapeutic effect on osteosarcoma is not particularly outstanding. Unlike certain tumors, like nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which are extremely sensitive to radiotherapy. Early-stage use of radiotherapy supplemented with some chemotherapy can lead to cure. The treatment approach of radiotherapy and chemotherapy is to minimize the enemy by a thousand but self-defeat by one hundred and eight. When the body can tolerate it, and when there are troops to self-defeat, this method can subdue the enemy. If the war with the tumor persists to some point, when one¡¯s own troops are almost exhausted, while the enemy is multiplying, continuing this method is akin to suicide. In a case like Sisi¡¯s, where the illness has already crossed the critical line, chemotherapy and radiotherapy can¡¯t bring the desired benefits but instead accelerate the collapse of the human body¡¯s physiological functioning. Since the tumor cannot be completely removed, let her live for a while with the tumor and let the femur grow with the tumor. Subsequently, devise ways to gradually eliminate these spreading tumors. As long as a certain balance can be maintained between the power of the body and the tumor, life can be prolonged. The Gamma Knife, a focused ultrasound treatment system, is suitable, can be used repeatedly, and does not have the side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, the biggest shortcoming of the current Gamma Knife machine is its imprecise positioning, which makes it impossible to hit the tumor and easily causes harm to normal tissues. The precise differentiation of tumors from normal tissues after metastasis is a challenge in itself. If the therapeutic weapon can¡¯t target accurately, the double error diminishes the effectiveness of the treatment or even completely diminishes its advantages. Just as if your cannon shoots rapidly, has a long range, and has no blind spots for shooting, it looks great. But if you can¡¯t aim accurately and often hit your own people, then all your advantages are useless. Yang Ping thinks that to use this therapeutic instrument, one must definitely improve the image identification and tumor positioning. First, you need to identify the tumor, and then carry out precise bombardment, this would be better. ¡°Are you still planning to use the Gamma Knife?¡± ¡°This is the best choice!¡± Song Zimo sat next to Yang Ping. Yang Ping kept staring at the light box. ¡°The Gamma Knife uses ultrasound for positioning and treatment, we can improve it. Using infrared positioning to guide ultrasound waves, precision attacking, just like a missile, it would be great if it could automatically and accurately lock onto the target.¡± ¡°So you want the ultrasonic focus of the Gamma Knife to become a missile to fight tumors?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s hard, but we can try. Isn¡¯t the Orthopedics Research Institute about to be established? Let¡¯s research and work on a topic¡ªPrecision treatment of osteosarcoma under extracorporeal infrared navigation and focused ultrasound!¡± ¡°Very imaginative, I originally thought you were just a surgical craftsman.¡± ¡°Even if surgical skills reach their limit, the treatment results will eventually be limited. At this point, theoretical innovation is needed to break through the limitations, to go further.¡± ¡°Deep thinking! I¡¯ll write the project application form, let Director Han lead, we can apply at the national level.¡± Song Zimo is finding it increasingly difficult to comprehend Yang Ping, who is profound and incomprehensible. No one knows exactly how much he has stored in his head. ¡ª¡ª The meeting room of the Tri-Bo Hotel has been almost fully set up. Microphones, speakers, videos etc., Tan Boyun personally checks each part. He is very excited, somewhat nervous. This is his first time hosting such an international academic conference. Opportunities like this in life are rare. Giving it one¡¯s all irrespective of success or failure, there will be no regrets. Besides, it¡¯s just an academic conference. Talking about success or failure is not relevant, at most it will highlight gaps. This time, in addition to live broadcasting a trauma emergency surgery, he will also showcase his scientific research achievements, and the establishment of an orthopedics cloud-based database. The purpose of this cloud-based database is to collect skeletal anatomical data of people in our country, and design implants such as steel plates and artificial joints using big data modeling, making these implants more rational and personalized. Director Tian¡¯s research is on 3D printing of implants, which also focuses on the personalization of orthopedic implants. This research allows factories to establish a flexible production line that can fully personalize orthopedic implants. If this cloud-based database is combined with 3D printing, using the database for 3D printing can completely individualize orthopedic implants. Sanbo Orthopedics will be far ahead of other hospitals in personalized implant research. The much-anticipated orthopedic academic conference will be held as scheduled as the last month of the year arrives. Sanbo Hotel, has been busy for days. The front desk phone is ringing incessantly. The number of attendees was larger than expected. Some people directly asked over the phone: Will the live surgery broadcast be canceled? In other words, they came for this. At the academic conference, it¡¯s not uncommon for big shots to live broadcast their surgeries, and collaborations with foreign countries for live broadcasts are also frequent. But all live broadcasts are elective surgeries. The cases are selected, the surgeries are fully prepared in terms of technology, equipment, and psychologically. The live broadcast of this kind of trauma emergency surgery, starting from the emergency department, with full-course live broadcast, is the first of its kind. In the past, the emergency department of Magic City Sixth Hospital had done this, but it wasn¡¯t at a conference. They worked with a TV station to do a live broadcast program of the emergency department. Live broadcasting of trauma emergency surgery requires tremendous courage. At the academic conference, the audience is all peers, any deficiencies will be amplified countless times. ¡ª Huang Jiacai¡¯s last day at Ruixing¡¯s headquarters meeting had arrived. He has to return to G City tomorrow; he wants to rush back before the academic conference, as he is one of the sponsors and has a booth at the venue. The company is very satisfied with his contribution to the development of the southern market and has recognized it. However, the proposal he submitted to President Wang sank like a stone in the sea, with no response at all. President Wang regretfully said, ¡°Jiacai, I¡¯ve read your proposal, and so has President Wei. Both of us think it¡¯s good, but it¡¯s not suitable for the current state of our company. Talking about R&D, President Wei said, we are a sales-driven company, replicating is the cheapest and quickly captures the market. Investing in R&D is too costly and completely unprofitable. I think President Wei makes a strong point.¡± ¡°President Wang, replication is just a temporary means, not our end goal. If we keep replicating and not actively starting to research and develop, we will eventually just create for others. Once the international giants wield the big knife of patents, we can only bow to them.¡± Huang Jiacai still wanted to fight for it. ¡°Aren¡¯t they turning a blind eye right now? We should take advantage of their negligence, quickly seize the market with low prices, and make it large-scale.¡± President Wang was trying to persuade Huang Jiacai. It¡¯s good that young people have ideas, but they need to be grounded. ¡°It¡¯s not negligence, it¡¯s intentional. Just like a frog being boiled in warm water, they let us lie in the warm bed of replication, and when the day comes, they will come to us for acquisitions or collaborations, letting us become their tools. We work hard at the bottom of the food chain, earning a small profit. They sit high above us, reaping huge profits. We can only let them slaughter us without resistance.¡± Huang Jiacai was still fighting, he will not give up easily since he came here. ¡°Isn¡¯t that perfect? What are we doing companies for? Isn¡¯t it for going public or being acquired by giants? By then, we will have achieved great success and made a fortune. Isn¡¯t that great! Enough, Jiacai, be realistic. R&D is easier said than done, don¡¯t talk about company strategy anymore. President Wei will be angry. Do your own work well. I won¡¯t treat you badly.¡± President Wang stood up and closed the office door: ¡°The market responsible, President Jia, is President Wei¡¯s classmate. So, be more considerate about certain things. Once you have solidified the southern market, I promise, I will give you an appropriate position. These high talks, you can discuss it with me, but never bring it up with President Wei. He will think you are talking big. Neither you are Han Xin, nor are we Liu Bang. Just concentrate on your current work.¡± ¡°I understand, President Wang, I won¡¯t bring it up anymore.¡± Huang Jiacai was very disappointed. The last day was a tour of the company¡¯s headquarters, showcasing the huge achievements of the company. Ruixing¡¯s financing has entered the D round. The medical concept is very popular with investors at the moment. If Ruixing¡¯s sales performance continues to develop in this way, the future goal of going public can be fully achieved. The headquarters R&D department is also one of the stops of the tour. Huang Jiacai was very interested. There were all kinds of equipment samples inside, but they were all replicated. He instantly lost interest. Huang Jiacai slipped out to get fresh air in the fire stairwell and have a smoke. An older man in engineer¡¯s clothing was yelling at a young man. ¡°Haven¡¯t you finished your resignation procedure? What is in your bag? Did you steal something?¡± The old engineer rummaged through a sack on the ground: ¡°It¡¯s this junk, take them all, take them all. Save me from disposing of garbage, lazy all day.¡± The young man with stubble was squatting on the ground, letting him scold. ¡°Have you paid back your money? Don¡¯t let the collection calls come to the company after you leave. You may not feel embarrassed, but I do.¡± After swearing, the old engineer shook his head regretfully and left. Huang Jiacai was very curious. This guy was resigning and bagged so many things in a snake skin bag. He had caught a glimpse just now, which seemed to be instruments. ¡°Can you spare a cigarette?¡± The young man stood up, straightened his disheveled hair with both hands, saw Huang Jiacai at the corner and asked. ¡°Hmm, here you go!¡± Huang Jiacai tossed him a cigarette. Chapter 233 - 0218: A Fleeting Encounter Chapter 233: Chapter 0218: A Fleeting Encounter ¡°Quit? Resigned?¡± Huang Jiacai asked, joining him for a smoke. ¡°Couldn¡¯t do it anymore, got fired.¡± The engineer said while smoking, looking somewhat helpless and a little sad. ¡°What¡¯s in your bag? Can I check it out?¡± Huang Jiacai was curious. He was leaving his job with some scrap metal in his bag. Was he really selling scrap because he was short on cash? ¡°Sure, they all say it¡¯s trash.¡± The engineer opened his duffel bag himself. Huang Jiacai peeked inside; it was full of crude tools. He picked one out. It seemed like a meniscus suture gun. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± ¡°A meniscus suture gun!¡± ¡°A copy?¡± ¡°My design.¡± ¡°You designed this?¡± ¡°Yes, it can do continuous suturing as long as the thread is long enough. As many stitches as you want in one go¨C¡± Huang Jiacai found this interesting. He tried to pull the trigger, but it jammed after one stroke; it was completely unusable, and the design of this suture gun was quite ugly. When the engineer saw Huang Jiacai¡¯s interest, his eyes immediately sparkled. ¡°This is just a rough sample. I made it manually, and its components were manually polished, hence, lacks accuracy. If the precision were right, this would be really useful.¡± He demonstrated how to suture, but it again jammed after two strokes, taking much effort to unjam. He awkwardly said, ¡°If I used slightly more precision parts, it would not jam. The gun could suture as many stitches as you want in a single go. No matter the length of the meniscal tear, it could be sutured in a matter of seconds. Even newbie doctors could operate it easily.¡± Huang Jiacai carefully studied the device, which indeed worked as he described. If assembled with precision parts, it could surely achieve continuous suturing as depicted. It was incredible that this unkempt man with stubble could design such an effective tool. However, the manufacturing of this device required a significant investment, including mold-making, testing, trial-use, improvement, prototyping, process design, and setting up assembly lines. ¡°Did you design this all by yourself?¡± Huang Jiacai couldn¡¯t believe it. Such a fantastic device packed in a duffel bag as trash should be in a research and development lab. ¡°I have lots more blueprints that aren¡¯t assembled. This is just one I brought to life.¡± The engineer proudly said. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you report your achievements to your superiors?¡± Huang Jiacai found it unbelievable. The engineer shook his head helplessly: ¡°I¡¯ve talked to the boss. They didn¡¯t even take me seriously, thinking I was crazy. The boss didn¡¯t even finish watching my demonstration before dismissing me.¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t your department manager understand the value of these things?¡± Huang Jiacai was puzzled, finding it strange that no one cared about these devices. The engineer bitterly smiled, ¡°He mocked me, saying that I was playing with toys. Each item was useless and could never achieve the effects I was boasting. He suggested that I should aim for millions in salary rather than waste my talent here.¡± ¡°Why were you fired?¡± ¡°I borrowed money online, overdue, and the debt collectors hounded everyone on my contacts list, including all the departments in the company. That¡¯s why the company decided to fire me.¡± The young man looked somewhat drained. ¡°I can still pay the money, but I just can¡¯t do it right now.¡± The young man seemed determined. Huang Jiacai took out a few more tools from the bag; they were all rough samples, some even pieced together from various parts. ¡°Gambling? Got stuck in online loans?¡± Huang Jiacai speculated. He figured this guy must be a compulsive gambler. Otherwise, why would he be mired in online loans? From what Huang Jiacai had learned from the news, online loans were akin to loan sharking, with interests compounding quickly. A few thousand could quickly become tens or even hundreds of thousands. Debt collectors would relentlessly harass the debtor¡¯s contacts and bombard them with insulting text messages and obscene photoshopped images. He had even seen news reports about people committing suicide because they couldn¡¯t take the shame. ¡°No, my father was critically ill and in the hospital. We ran out of money and were about to be discharged. I have only saved a few tens of thousands over the past few years since graduating. It wasn¡¯t enough, and I couldn¡¯t borrow any more. I had no choice but to make an urgent loan, and online was the quickest.¡± The man clarified, stating that he wasn¡¯t a compulsive gambler. ¡°Once you¡¯re in the cycle of online loans, it¡¯s hard to get out. What¡¯s your plan?¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯ll definitely pay back the principal and some interest! Anything more, I won¡¯t pay. They¡¯ve already busted my contact list, but I don¡¯t care anymore. Everyone¡¯s too busy, no one cares about my problems, I¡¯ve lost face long ago, I¡¯ll speak when I have some money in the future.¡± ¡°How much do you owe?¡± ¡°Sixty thousand would settle it.¡± Huang Jiacai took out each of the instruments inside one by one: ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a guided instrument used for cross-ligament reconstruction, this one is for the anterior ligament, there¡¯s also one for the posterior ligament. It¡¯s very practical, even better than those from Shi Lehui or Arthrex. It has a very high tolerance margin and is very easy to operate.¡± The young man then taught Huang Jiacai how to use it. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Chen Zhi!¡± ¡°Huang Jiacai, G City regional sales manager of the company!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard of you, you¡¯re top of the company¡¯s sales hero list.¡± ¡°Wait a moment, let me see if I can talk to the higher-ups for you. Stay here. I¡¯ll see if I can help you talk to them about getting an advance salary to repay the money. These things you have are very valuable. Can you wait a moment?¡± ¡°Thank you, but it¡¯s no use. I am here to clean up. I will leave after I finish this cigarette.¡± ¡°Stay, I will help you find a way, you must wait, can we connect on WeChat?¡± The young man was surprised. Huang Jiacai, even though they had just met once, took the initiative to fight for the chance for him to stay. Even though the young man knew it was no use, he couldn¡¯t bear to put out Huang Jiacai¡¯s enthusiasm. ¡°Thank you!¡± he said gratefully. Huang Jiacai picked up a meniscus suturing gun and returned to the R&D department¡¯s lab. Everyone was still hanging around the samples. An engineer was explaining these samples to help the sales team learn more about the company¡¯s products. ¡°President Wang, may I have a word?¡± Huang Jiacai quietly called President Wang who was leading the team over. ¡°President Wang, do you know an engineer from the R&D department named Chen Zhi?¡± Huang Jiacai asked directly. President Wang was very familiar with him, his tone disdainful: ¡°He? He was fired. That jerk has a lot of bad records. In the R&D department, he was doing nothing all day, I don¡¯t know what he was up to, even ruining a machine that cost more than 100,000; his character is bad, always owing money, people who pressure him for payment even came to our company. Many employees of the company have received text messages, which are unbearable to read. He¡¯s been fired. Why? You know him?¡± ¡°Yes, could you do me a favor, protect him, keep him here, and also, could you help by advancing his salary so he can repay his debt? This guy is a talent, the reason why he owes money is-¡± Huang Jiacai was trying hard to persuade President Wang, hoping he would help. If he helped, keeping Chen Zhi should be possible. ¡°Is that so? He¡¯s really a friend of yours? I¡¯ve never heard you mention him, you have connections in R&D headquarters?¡± President Wang looked incredulous. Huang Jiacai laughed: ¡°It¡¯s true, If I didn¡¯t know him, why would I bother with this?¡± President Wang seemed to be in a predicament, took out his mobile phone, hesitated for a moment, ¡°Jiacai, this is a bit difficult, it¡¯s hard to keep him, not to mention advance his salary. He was personally dismissed by President Wei. But since he¡¯s your friend, I¡¯ll try my best no matter what.¡± ¡°Alright, thank you, President Wang.¡± Huang Jiacai was pleased. As long as President Wang stepped forward, there should be a glimmer of hope. President Wang was a simple and straightforward man, who was very kind to Huang Jiacai. When Huang Jiacai first came to G City, President Wang was working in a pharmaceutical company. It was him who introduced Huang Jiacai to the industry, taught him how to do business, and guided him all the way, even helping him rent a house. Later, President Wang started his own business and founded a pharmaceutical company. He invited Huang Jiacai as well. Huang Jiacai did a lot for him and helped establish half of his business, securing a place in G City. Then, due to various factors, President Wang¡¯s pharmaceutical company was facing trouble. After selling the pharmaceutical company and taking a break, President Wang, on a friend¡¯s advice, joined Ruixing as a shareholder along with others. President Wang also brought in Huang Jiacai to help him. ¡°Could you please help me talk about it now? It¡¯s rather urgent, he has resigned and is about to leave.¡± Huang Jiacai feared that if he waited too long, Chen Zhi would leave. ¡°So urgent?¡± President Wang looked at the team that was still viewing, thinking he might be able to spare the time. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m going now, just wait. I can¡¯t guarantee that it¡¯ll work, you don¡¯t know President Wei¡¯s temper, once he makes a decision, it¡¯s very hard to change it. Especially this guy, he¡¯s notorious in the company, he¡¯s caused messes in the company. Those debt collectors kept harassing the employees, it was so bad that some had to change their phones. Dead cats and mice were even sent to the company.¡± President Wang asked his secretary to take charge of the team while he hurriedly left. Chapter 234 - 0219 - You need to return what you borrowed! Chapter 234: Chapter 0219 ¨C You need to return what you borrowed! After a while, President Wang returned. Huang Jiacai eagerly asked, ¡°How did it go?¡± Although he only knew Chen Zhi for a short ten minutes, Huang Jiacai was utterly certain that Chen Zhi was a rare talent. Chen Zhi¡¯s things were not junk, but advanced sports medicine instruments. The design concept was very innovative, successfully bypassing the patents of all major international factories. If a certain amount of capital could be invested, formally produced samples and then improved upon, they could definitely compete on the same stage as the products of international giants. How could such a talent be allowed to slip away? President Wang¡¯s face was filled with regret and apology, ¡°Jiacai, I¡¯m sorry, it won¡¯t do. President Wei said this person could have some mental issues, and many other employees have pointed this out too. Didn¡¯t you notice something off about him when you spoke to him? We should ask him to leave as soon as possible to prevent any incidents in the company. Jiacai, were you put up to this, speaking up for him? If he is a respected friend, why didn¡¯t you notify me in advance? You better not get involved in this mess, keeping such person around might lead to troubles we cannot afford.¡± Huang Jiacai only communicated with Chen Zhi for about ten minutes. Indeed, Chen was a little different, but it wasn¡¯t neuroticism. Instead, he was skilled at thinking but poor at expressing and had his imperfections like everyone else. What a pity to let such a talent slip away. ¡°President Wang, let me be honest with you. He is not any acquaintance of mine, I just met him. When I went out for a smoke just now, I saw him leaving with a bag full of equipment. I stopped him and looked at a few items, which were all original devices, highly advanced in design, and had managed to bypass several patents of major international factories. Look, this is his meniscus suture gun design. I have just studied it, and it is very creative. It can implement continuous suturing, which is a breakthrough innovation! Letting such a talent go would be a huge loss for the company. President Wang, please consider this seriously!¡± Huang Jiacai showed Chen Zhi¡¯s meniscus suture gun to President Wang. Wang glanced over it, ¡°Are these items what you¡¯re referring to? He had sought out President Wei, boasting that this item is a generation ahead of market products. President Wei had the R&D department evaluate it. The senior engineers there claimed any engineer could design this, that it has no technical depth and absolutely cannot achieve the functionality he boasted about.¡± Huang Jiacai became a little anxious, ¡°This piece could not even be called a semi-finished product because it lacks components. After hearing his detailed explanation, I am convinced that if the company is willing to invest in mass production, it can certainly achieve the functionalities he mentioned. The R&D department¡¯s claim that anyone can design this has thoroughly underestimated the technical depth of this device.¡± Huang Jiacai noticed some rumblings and pulled President Wang to the window, ¡°Those senior engineers, if we didn¡¯t let them see this semi-finished product and asked them to innovate from scratch, I bet my life they could not. The semi-finished product is just a primitive starting point. If the final model is made according to his thought process, it truly will be a generation ahead of current market products. When Ma Huateng¡¯s QQ sought investment from Lei Jun¡¯s Kingsoft, Kingsoft¡¯s programmers said this thing is worthless, lacks technical depth, and you could hire some fresh graduates to do it for a few tens of thousands of yuan.¡± ¡°Jiacai, it¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to help you but I can¡¯t. Nudging Wei again may cause misunderstandings, making him think I¡¯m opposing him. It¡¯s already difficult enough for him to fire an engineer,¡± President Wang had his own difficulties due to the complexities of the relationships within the company. President Wang was telling the truth. President Wei was the majority shareholder, and being persistent on this matter might lead him to overthink. The relationship between him and President Wei was very delicate. He brought Huang Jiacai in originally to help the company expand into the South China market, but President Wei was not reassured. He remained suspicious and tasked President Jia, who was in charge of sales, to keep an eye on Huang Jiacai. President Wei was worried that President Wang was expanding his own influence. ¡°You¡¯ve been working in sales, and might not be aware of what happens at headquarters; it¡¯s a bit complicated. I hope you can understand my position,¡± President Wang said sincerely. ¡°President Wang, thank you,¡± Huang Jiacai knew it was pointless to continue the discussion. The tour group had not left yet, and President Wang wanted to join them, ¡°You should go listen too. They¡¯re introducing the company¡¯s new products that will soon be distributed to your end.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll head over in a moment,¡± Huang Jiacai was feeling somewhat downhearted. He left the lab again and went around to the fire stairs. Chen Zhi was still there. ¡°Chen Zhi!¡± ¡°Oh, Manager Huang, thank you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I spoke to someone on your behalf and it didn¡¯t work out. What do you plan to do now?¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. Every cloud has a silver lining. I¡¯m really grateful for your help.¡± Chen Zhi stubbed out his already extinguished cigarette butt against his palm for several times, checked for an ash bin and finding none, checked again to make sure there were no lingering sparks, and tucked it into his pocket. He picked up his sack and was ready to leave. ¡°Wait!¡± Huang Jiacai called him back. ¡°Can you pay back your debt with 60 thousand yuan?¡± Huang Jiacai asked. Even a single penny could topple a hero, let alone 60 thousand yuan. Only those who never lacked money cannot comprehend the pain of being penniless. For someone in Chen Zhi¡¯s situation, he probably couldn¡¯t even borrow a hundred yuan. Without a unique opportunity to obtain some money and repay his debt, the debt collectors would haunt him like demons, burdening him heavily and making his life a living hell. ¡°I can lend you 60 thousand yuan to clear your debts, how about that?¡± Huang Jiacai suggested. Despite knowing Chen Zhi for only a brief half hour, Huang Jiacai had confidence in his judgement. The few devices in Chen Zhi¡¯s hand had already proven his potential. Chen Zhi stayed put, not putting down the sack in his hand,¡±Thank you, but we¡¯ve only known each other for half an hour.¡± Chen Zhi was now at the end of his rope, without a chance of even borrowing a hundred yuan. Having just met Huang Jiacai for half an hour, and suddenly he was offering to lend him sixty thousand yuan. Whether it was true or false, the words cheered and warmed him. ¡°Really, the company is going to reward me with eighty thousand. I¡¯m going to lend you sixty thousand, so that you can clear your debts. Debt is heavy, making people breathless. When you¡¯re free from debts, you can relax and find work at your own pace, make the most of your strengths. True gold will always shine. I think you¡¯re a very rare piece of gold. I trust you. This stuff you have isn¡¯t rubbish, but a priceless treasure,¡± Huang Jiacai said sincerely. Chen Zhi dropped the snakeskin bag he was holding, somewhat stunned. It turned out that Huang Jiacai was serious, not just paying lip service on parting, or casually mocking someone down on their luck. ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid I¡¯ll disappear without a trace after I leave, and then not return your sixty thousand?¡± Chen Zhi asked self-deprecatingly. Huang Jiacai answered calmly: ¡°Your worth in the future will certainly be more than sixty thousand. Believe in yourself, and in me. If you¡¯re willing to be my friend, I can transfer you the money now. Remember it¡¯s a loan, so it needs to be repaid! And interest will be added according to the bank¡¯s rate.¡± Chen Zhi was deeply touched and extended his hand: ¡°Thank you, I don¡¯t know what to say. It must be a dream. Last night I dialed every contact on my phone trying to borrow money, but didn¡¯t get a penny. And now you say you¡¯re going to lend me sixty thousand? If you really can, I will definitely repay you, and I¡¯ll remember this favour.¡± Grasping his hand firmly, Huang Jiacai replied, ¡°Believe in yourself! And trust my judgement! We are friends now. I¡¯ll transfer it to you now. There¡¯s a daily limit on WeChat, so I¡¯ll transfer forty thousand to you on WeChat, and do you have Alipay? I¡¯ll transfer the other twenty thousand via Alipay. Or give me your bank account number, I can transfer the entire sixty thousand to you directly from my mobile banking app. I will always be in G City. My WeChat and phone number won¡¯t change. If you need anything, including money, you can contact me at any time. I suggest you do not leave this industry, your product designs are very impressive. You should apply for patents to protect them.¡± ¡°Thank you! My WeChat and mobile number won¡¯t change either, I¡¯ll definitely repay you!¡± By chance, he had encountered someone who rescued him from dire straits. Everything happened so suddenly that Chen Zhi was left a little at a loss. The weight of this favor was crushing. But right now, he needed the money. His debts were haunting him like demons, and it was only because of his strong nerves that he had not succumbed to the pressure. Chen Zhi sent a bank account number via WeChat, and Huang Jiacai didn¡¯t break his promise, he immediately transferred sixty thousand yuan to him. Just right for a person who¡¯s in dire need, to oneself it¡¯s only sixty thousand yuan, to him, it might be a whole new life. He didn¡¯t want to see this talented engineer being swept away by misfortune, he sincerely didn¡¯t want to see it. ¡°If you ever need anything, feel free to contact me!¡± Huang Jiacai said earnestly. Chen Zhi¡¯s eyes were slightly misty: ¡°I should get going now, I will definitely repay you.¡± He picked up his snakeskin bag, step by step down the staircase, occasionally looking back at Huang Jiacai. ¡°Go on, I¡¯ll be fine!¡± Huang Jiacai waved him off. Years ago when he first came to G City, he too carried a snakeskin bag. Just off the train, he found that all his money had been stolen. At the time, Huang Jiacai didn¡¯t know his wallet was gone. He had gone to a nearby restaurant and had a bowl of noodles, only to find out afterwards that his wallet was missing. He had nobody to turn to, and the ensuing panic was unbearable. The restaurant owner thought he had been trying to dine and dash. No matter how Huang Jiacai explained, he was ignored. The man cursed him, kicked him and threatened to beat him to death. Even six thousand yuan was out of reach, a bowl of noodles could be enough to cause despair. Many bystanders pointed fingers, laughed at him. Then a customer, unable to bear the sight, stood up for him and paid the bill for him. That man was President Wang. He asked Huang Jiacai about his situation, helped him rent a cheap apartment and introduced him to a company where he started a career in pharmaceutical sales. Life isn¡¯t easy for anyone. Everyone has their own story, whether they are successful or down on their luck, it¡¯s just that others don¡¯t know about it. After Chen Zhi¡¯s figure disappeared, Huang Jiacai returned to the lab in the R&D department. The visit was coming to an end, and salespeople from various regions were free to move around, some asking engineers questions, some fiddling with devices, others just chatting casually on the side. The medical equipment industry is highly competitive, and everyone wanted to find out about the market conditions in other regions. ¡°Jiacai, what¡¯s wrong? Feeling unwell?¡± President Wang asked. ¡°Just a bit of stomach discomfort, nothing serious, an old ailment,¡± Huang Jiacai said evasively. In fact, he was heartbroken about Chen Zhi¡¯s departure, seeing such potential wasted. Based on his judgement, this engineer was undoubtedly a rare talent. He hoped that there would be another chance to bring him back, and also hoped that the sixty thousand yuan he lent him could lend him a hand. ¡°Do you need to see a doctor? Would you like me to arrange a ride?¡± President Wang was very concerned about him. ¡°No need, I¡¯m fine. Don¡¯t worry about me. Go back to your work, leave me be.¡± Huang Jiacai rejoined the group of visitors. Chapter 235 - 0220: The Bossy Female Manager Chapter 235: Chapter 0220: The Bossy Female Manager Friday, the day before the conference. The entrance of the Tri-Bo Hotel has brandished a banner and a huge poster ¨C the Asian Orthopedic Trauma Summit. The background picture of the poster is from the five-section replantation surgery performed by Yang Ping: under a microscope, a pair of hands are performing a vascular anastomosis. The electronic version of the invitation also uses this surgery picture as the background; on the enormous electronic screen in the hotel lobby, this surgery is also being played. Other surgeries being introduced include the rescue of a patient with tree immersion injuries in Shipo, Tan Boyun¡¯s robot surgery, and Tian Yuan¡¯s application of 3D printing surgery. The receptionists at the gate area of the hotel are carefully selected. They are not hotel employees, but graduate students, standardized training students, and interns selected from hospitals. Not only do they possess good physical conditions, but they are also fluent in English conversation. Before the conference, an etiquette teacher was specially invited to train them. ¡°Welcome!¡± The pair of doormen at the hotel entrance are also replaced by hospital employees. When they see Chinese doctors, they use Chinese; when they see foreign doctors, they use English, switching seamlessly. Beginning at nine o¡¯clock in the morning, doctors are checking into the hotel with their luggage. From the Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions, the Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Kiang Wu Hospital in Macao, and National Taiwan University Hospital are all on the invitation list. For the foreign delegates from Japan, South Korea, Israel, and India, their representatives will be arriving in the afternoon and evening. The first foreign guest to check into the hotel is Dr. Lin Mingyuan from the National Central Hospital of Singapore, who has been picked up by the first business car to the hotel. Dr. Lin has a good personal relationship with Director Han. Director Tian picked him up from the airport, and Director Han was waiting for him at the hotel entrance. They shook hands warmly. ¡°Professor Han, it¡¯s been many years, but you still look so young!¡± Dr. Lin¡¯s Chinese is very fluent. ¡°Not at all, not at all! Professor Lin, you haven¡¯t changed a bit from years ago. Go rest first, and we can catch up tonight.¡± Director Han saw him off to the elevator. In recent years, international medical academic exchanges have been frequent. Our country¡¯s large hospitals have already organized international academic conferences with ease. In the past, in G City, the only hospitals that could organize such lively conferences were probably Fuer One and Fuer Two. Other hospitals did not have enough influence to even invite some international friends, let alone having them all show up. But now, Tri-Bo was able to do this, which indicates that Director Han does maintain some personal relationships with his colleagues overseas. Tri-Bo¡¯s conference was also able to present some valuable offerings. A rectangular long table was placed in the hotel lobby with all the tablecloth touching the ground. The registration staff were lined up, and most were graduate students. It¡¯s always like this in large hospitals. The front-line staff for academic conferences are mostly graduate students. Of course, a few representatives are sent from the Medical Association, but their main task is to do some of the high-end work, like collecting conference fees. When hosting an academic conference, the hospital is just a host, while the main organizers are the various medical associations. Once you understand that the host does the work and the organizer oversees it, it becomes crystal clear. The crowd was growing. Apart from the foreign delegates attending the conference, the rest were all from our country. These doctors are regular attendees of academic conferences and are very familiar with the process: sign in, pay the fee, get room cards, gifts, and materials. The materials usually include a delegate badge, meal coupons, conference schedule, paper collection, pen, textbook, etc. Breakfast and lunch are buffet-style, and dinner is a banquet with a program performance. Starting from the lobby, almost every visible place has turned into an advertising space for medical instrument merchants. Not to mention the hotel lobby, even the elevator entrance, the restaurant, and the corridor have become advertising spaces. Some poorer exhibitors would be quite happy to buy an advertising space in the restroom, but Tri-Bo seems to have not made restroom advertising space available. There was no other way. Hospitals do not have the money to do these things, and the higher authorities did not allocate funds. So, what should they do? Running a conference costs real money. It could only rely on attracting sponsors to invest by providing advertising space for the conference to be held. Tri-Bo was doing pretty well in this regard. Some conferences have fully exploited advertising spaces. Some ¡°warm tips¡± are also fully utilized. Naming right of the conference tea break is also an advertising space, as are the name tags, notebooks, pens, document bags, mineral water, reception buses, and even advertising spaces in the conference room restrooms. In order to promote Tri-Bo, Dean Xia and Director Han reserved these spaces for their own hospital, printing introductions of their hospital and orthopedics department on them. It¡¯s a win-win situation. Hospital doctors get the opportunity for exchange, and sponsors can timely promote their new products and new technologies to doctors. The corridors around the conference room are full of booths, and even the space around the elevator is utilized. They all have company labels. You can see Johnson & Johnson, Jiemai Bond Beauty, Stryker, Weigao ¡ª Next to the main conference room, there was a satellite conference room with exhibition stands. The corridor connecting these rooms was also lined with stands. The corridors bent and wound between them, filled with exhibition stands. In a corner of the corridor, a female manager in her thirties was standing. Her lady¡¯s suit accentuated her figure especially her chest, which made men involuntarily take second glances. With her authoritative aura, it was clear she came from a renowned international company. She was on the phone: ¡°Could you please check if there are any spots available for additional stands? We need to add one more.¡± The response was quite straightforward: ¡°You¡¯re asking for a stand now? They¡¯ve all been taken, not even the spots near the elevator are available.¡± The efficient female manager ended the call and scolded her subordinates: ¡°What is this about? Didn¡¯t I ask you to secure all the spots facing the main entrance of the conference room? How did we miss one? Which company took the spot next to us?¡± ¡°Ruixing!¡± One of her subordinates replied reluctantly. The manager thought for a moment: ¡°Ruixing? That¡¯s impossible! They don¡¯t have the funds for such a prime location. We are the platinum partners. What are they? There must be some mistake. You go and claim the spot, remove their tag, don¡¯t let them set up a stand. I¡¯ll go and secure the location.¡± She was determined, there was no room for discussion. ¡°Is this appropriate, ma¡¯am?¡± A subordinate asked cautiously. The manager was domineering: ¡°What¡¯s inappropriate about it? They think Ruixing can keep this spot? You go and claim it, I¡¯ll handle this.¡± This prime location was right opposite the exit of the conference room. They had intended to secure all four spots, but only got three. With the conference starting tomorrow and one spot still not secured, where would they place all their equipment? This assertive woman was the celebrated Vice President of Sales for Johnson & Johnson in the South China region. J&J is the world leader in orthopedic implants, and its product line spans the whole spectrum of spinal, joint, trauma, and sports medicine categories. After acquiring the formidable AO Synthes for $21.3 billion, J&J took control of a major share of the world orthopedic trauma device market. Their spinal device market also doubled, crowning them as the undisputed market leader. ¡°You guard that spot, I¡¯ll go and find someone, we must secure this stand.¡± What a joke! All these spots were supposed to be theirs. How could one be taken away, especially by a small company like Ruixing with its limited share in the sports medicine market? She, a representative of the world¡¯s number one, had to sit next to an unknown newcomer like Ruixing? What a joke! Walking briskly in high heels, the female manager moved with the grace of the wind, her phone never leaving her hand. She spoke at a moderate pace, her words clear, her logic sound and her voice extremely alluring, reminiscent of a female radio host. ¡°Director Yan, it¡¯s Xiao Gan here. I¡¯m sorry to bother you again! There¡¯s a new stand from Ruixing next to mine, and I don¡¯t have enough space. Could you give me their spot as well? Thank you, I appreciate it.¡± ¡°President Gan, what¡¯s going on?¡± her assistant was nervously trailing behind her. The assistant¡¯s ability to walk in high heels was clearly lacking, and nearly twisted her ankle. ¡°Director Yan says there¡¯s no Ruixing next to us, he¡¯s going to look into it. On our left is Jiemai, on our right is Stryker, so it¡¯s weird. Out of those four stands we wanted, we are only missing one, and it¡¯s Ruixing¡¯s spot.¡± The manager¡¯s phone rang again: ¡°There¡¯s no Ruixing next to you, okay?¡± ¡°Alright, I see. Thank you, Director Yan.¡± ¡°What happened?¡± Gan contemplated the situation, was Ruixing a connection of the hospital? That couldn¡¯t be right. Or did Ruixing take advantage of the chaos and squeeze themselves in the corner? That seemed plausible. A subordinate ran over, panting: ¡°President Gan, that ¡®Ruixing¡¯ has started setting up their stand.¡± ¡°So early? The conference starts tomorrow, why are they setting up today?¡± the manager muttered. ¡°A young woman is setting it up!¡± the subordinate reported. ¡°How did you let her set up? Didn¡¯t I ask you to keep that spot?¡± Gan was displeased. Chapter 236 - 0221: Warm-up Chapter 236: Chapter 0221: Warm-up Initially, Johnson & Johnson didn¡¯t pay much attention to this conference. Their focus was on the major academic conference at Fuer. Sanbo Hospital is in G City, classified as a third-tier hospital. The scale and level of the hospital dictated that it would be difficult to expand this conference. Manager Gan knew that Sanbo had sent out many invitations. Invitations are sent off according to the contact list, and can be sent as far as Antarctica if desired. It¡¯s like sending out birthday party invitations to Alibaba¡¯s Ma Yun. There¡¯s no problem issuing the invitation, but whether or not he¡¯ll come is a different matter. At that time, Manager Gan predicted that it would be good if a few foreigners came to bolster the appearance of the conference. That¡¯s why she didn¡¯t take it to heart and left the operation of the company¡¯s exhibition at the conference to her subordinates. Now, the day before the conference, Manager Gan has received internal information. It is certain that almost more than twenty foreigners are coming. This information was provided to the conference organizers along with flight information for pickup, so there should be no error. More than twenty foreigners, this really is a genuinely international academic conference, not just fluffing one up with a prestigious-sounding name. Manager Gan was a graduate from the Biomedical Engineering Department of Beijing University. Within a few years after graduation, she had become a sales manager for a large region. Her sharp professional instinct let her immediately realize that she had underestimated the scale of this conference. So she decided to take matters into her own hands and hurriedly visited the frontline to investigate. The best four booths somehow got snatched away by others, which naturally upset her. She acted decisively and efficiently. When her subordinates were hesitant, she quickly figured out the situation with a few phone calls. Someone must have snapped up the booth behind their backs. She and several subordinates almost jogged all the way to their own exhibition booth. ¡ª By this time, nearing noon, the venue was already bustling. Other than the busy conference staff, more than half of the sponsor representatives had arrived to familiarize themselves with the venue and plan their work for the next day. Many doctors had also arrived, most of whom were from other provinces and cities. Local ones usually only come on the day of the conference. Many of them came to take a breather, familiarize themselves with the venue, and see if they could run into anyone they knew. If they encountered teachers or old classmates or acquaintances, they would greet each other and chat. Those with good relationships would make plans for a meal together. Doctors are busy from morning to night, from the beginning of the year to the end. This is probably the most relaxing time for them. Everyone was away from their own hospitals with a common topic to chat about, and they could have fun and enjoy food and drinks in the evening. People at the venue were getting more and more numerous, gathering in groups of three or five to chat. ¡°Hello, did you come to the conference yourself?¡± ¡°Yes, the five-section replantation was their work. I heard that the recovery was not bad.¡± ¡°The one who had a tree break through his body, and the aorta was ripped open. So thrilling!¡± ¡°Their trauma emergency center is really at a high level, that¡¯s why I came to learn.¡± ¡°The leading figure of the department, Han Jiangong. He came out of Mo Sixth, he¡¯s Hong Zhigang¡¯s student.¡± ¡°No wonder, they have past disputes, right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s all about fighting for the position of department director, fighting to be the teacher¡¯s successor, things got to the point that they went their separate ways.¡± Whatever is going on in the circle was brought up for discussion, with all sorts of detailed nuggets of information, grudges, relationship tales, and gossip news. Which tycoon took a twenty-something wife, which tycoon paired up with a medical device merchant, which tycoon got into a mishap... These are all gossips about tycoons. Normally, who cares as a junior doctor? These tycoons are like the stars in their circle, naturally attracting everyone¡¯s attention. At this time, they could chat freely since everyone was in the same circle. There¡¯s nothing taboo about it, the conversation is very relaxed, light-hearted, and comfortable. ¡°Takahashi Fumiya will be here!¡± ¡°The trauma expert from Tokyo University in Japan, if he¡¯s coming, then this conference will be interesting.¡± ¡°Last time at the North American Trauma Surgery Conference, he blasted the Americans.¡± A crowd of people gathered together, laughing heartily. They were familiar with Takahashi Fumiya, probably having had experience training overseas. Even though the conference hadn¡¯t started, it was already quite heated. ¡°Professor Su! Professor Su is here.¡± Someone recognized Professor Su. Professor Su will soon become an academician and is also the hot candidate for the next national orthopedics chairman. There¡¯s no one in orthopedics who doesn¡¯t know him. Rarely here for a visit, they finally saw the tycoon. Some people immediately stepped forward to greet and shake hands, asking for a photo together. Professor Su satisfied every request, shook hands with them politely after taking photos, and sometimes kindly asked: Are you satisfied with the accommodation? Do you have any suggestions for the conference? Professor Su had a very good image in everyone¡¯s hearts, always polite and approachable at all times. Director Han and Dean Xia accompanied Professor Su on a tour of the venue. Since he is the chairman of orthopedics and cares about the conference, it was only natural for him to pop by to have a look. Su Nanchen accompanied him too. ¡°I came to see if there is anything we can help with?¡± asked Professor Su concerned. For this conference, it was hosted by Sanbo Hospital and co-hosted by Fuer. The hospitals in the same city all play along like this. Whichever hospital hosts an academic conference, the other brother units will co-host so that everyone can join in the fun. ¡°Is Fujiwara Masao not coming?¡± asked Professor Su. Director Han was a little dissatisfied: ¡°We invited him, but he¡¯s not coming. He sent two students, Takahashi Fumiya and Fujiwara Miyuki.¡± Professor Su knew Fujiwara Masao, but wasn¡¯t too familiar with the younger generation. So he turned his head and asked Su Nanchen, ¡°Are you familiar with these two?¡± ¡°Takahashi Fumiya and Sasaki Jiro are the two leading figures in trauma surgery in Japan. Takahashi was an honored guest at the last North America trauma surgery conference. Fujiwara Miyuki is Fujiwara Masao¡¯s younger sister and specializes in sports medicine. Takahashi is very arrogant and not easy to get along with.¡± ¡°Doctors Takahashi and Fujiwara are arriving this afternoon. They texted that they got on a plane at Narita Airport. Doctor Lin Mingyuan from Singapore¡¯s National Hospital has already arrived and is resting at the hotel.¡± Director Tan also came over to accompany Professor Su, introducing the arrival situation of the main guests. In this era, information and transportation are convenient, and international exchanges are smooth, including academic conferences, so Professor Su is very familiar with these foreign doctors. Dr. Lin is about the same age as them and they have had good conversations at several conferences, so they have some personal connections. ¡°Is the surgical demonstration all arranged?¡± ¡°Yes, we arranged three groups of people. Director Tan personally leads one group, Tian Yuan leads another, and our young Doctor Yang Ping leads the third. Doctor Yang¡¯s group is group A, key users; Director Tian¡¯s group is group B, and Director Tan is group C, the backup group; Japan has already specified that only mid-level and junior titles will do, we¡¯ve aligned with that on our end. Of course, under the premise of ensuring patient safety, we can fully trust Doctor Yang¡¯s team. His assistant, Song Zimo, is a promising and well-trained young doctor. And the surgical nurse, Su Yixuan¨C¡± Director Han was introducing when he stopped. Was it necessary to introduce Su Yixuan¡¯s circumstances? No need. Professor Su nodded, this arrangement was very good, he was most worried that Yang Ping might not have been selected because after all, he is an associate doctor, and it wouldn¡¯t be impossible for him to be put in the second tier because of his level. Now that it¡¯s confirmed he¡¯s in the first tier, he feels relieved. Professor Su asked again, ¡°Will Su Yixuan be competent as a surgical nurse? If not, we can replace her.¡± Old Han chuckled, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, if she isn¡¯t competent, not just Sanbo Hospital, but the entire G City would not be able to find a second person. For our hospital, Su Yixuan is the only surgical nurse capable of keeping up with Yang Ping¡¯s pace.¡± No need to say more about Yang Ping¡¯s level. After observing his surgery at Fuer, Professor Su praised Yang Ping so much on a call to Old Han. ¡°Oh, in that case!¡± Professor Su smiled contentedly. He really wanted to see this Xiao Yang, as well as his precious daughter, but he felt it wasn¡¯t appropriate to say it. Seeing what was on his father¡¯s mind, Su Nanchen secretly sent out a WeChat message. ¡ª Manager Gan and his team rushed to the exhibition booth. Right next to their booth, Huang Jiahui was setting up her booth, she wanted to do it in advance. Seeing several people standing aggressively in front of her booth, Jiahui felt a bit scared: ¡°You guys? What do you want?¡± ¡°This booth is ours, what are you doing here?¡± With Manager Gan backing them up, the subordinate who was there earlier now had the courage to speak. ¡°Yours? Can you see?¡± Jiahui picked up the sign of the booth, which was uniformly made by the conference organizers. It clearly wrote Sharp Medical. ¡°We just checked, on the booth distribution map from the medical conference, there¡¯s no spot for you guys. Don¡¯t try to take advantage, you better move away and go back to your own place now,¡± Manager Gan took it upon himself to speak as he felt his subordinate wasn¡¯t assertive enough to scare off a young girl. Huang Jiacai was just bringing up a box of equipment, he saw a crowd of people surrounding his sister, being disrespectful. He gently puts down the box and dusts off his hands. ¡°Stand back, don¡¯t damage my equipment!¡± Huang Jiacai stood in front of his sister. ¡°Who are you?¡± Manager Gan looked disdainful. ¡°Huang Jiacai, regional manager for Sharp. And who might this beautiful lady be?¡± Huang Jiacai extended his hand. Manager Gan didn¡¯t even acknowledge him: ¡°Good, you should now get back to your place. All the booths here are ours, the sooner you move the better. We¡¯ve checked it clearly, there¡¯s no spot for you guys in the booth distribution map. You¡¯re trying to pretend right?¡± Huang Jiacai retracted his hand: ¡°Oh really, you checked? I also checked, all the booths here are ours, you better move.¡± The other party had no intention of reasoning things out, trying to forcefully intimidate them, so there was no need for Huang Jiacai to be polite. ¡°I am going to call the organizers now?¡± ¡°Who knows who you are going to call. Any random call is the organizer? Then I¡¯m calling the organizers now too!¡± ¡°Why are you so unreasonable?¡± ¡°You¡¯re standing in front of me with such a fierce attitude, and I¡¯m the one being unreasonable?¡± ¡°Please show me your sponsorship bill. I am Gan Fengyi, Johnson & Johnson¡¯s South China regional manager. We are the platinum partners of this conference. Only platinum level exhibitors are qualified to use this area. I believe this isn¡¯t your first time attending such a conference is it?¡± Manager Gan desperately suppressed his rage. ¡°Ask the police, do they act as arrogantly as you during law enforcement? Showing you the receipt? You go and get a certificate that proves your authorization to view the receipts of the exhibitors here, then you can ask me for the receipt.¡± Huang Jiacai made a shooing motion. ¡°Clear the way for me, don¡¯t hinder my work, I have a bad temper, don¡¯t overestimate yourself, thinking that you¡¯re a platinum sponsor. I¡¯m a diamond sponsor.¡± ¡°You¡¯re being unreasonable, I will complain to the organizer about you!¡± Manager Gan had never met anyone like this, neither tough nor soft. ¡°Complain? Hurry up and go. You clearly have only three booths, yet you want to take over ours, go ahead and complain, but don¡¯t stand in front of me, my male hormones are strong and I might get a nosebleed easily. If I really get a nosebleed, you¡¯ll have to pay my medical bills.¡± Manager Gan didn¡¯t understand the implication of his words for a moment, hesitated, and looked down at her chest, ¡°You, you scoundrel¨C¡± ¡°A scoundrel is one who lays hands on others, I¡¯m not there yet, just one level away, but if you provoke me, I might just get promoted on the spot.¡± Huang Jiacai continued to set up his equipment while talking. ¡°You...¡± Gan Fengyi was so angry that smoke was coming out of her seven orifices. At this moment, Doctor Yang Ping and the people from his department came over to check out the venue. Chapter 237 - 0222: Give a Peach in Return of a Plum Chapter 237: Chapter 0222: Give a Peach in Return of a Plum ¡°That¡¯s the Ruixing booth.¡± Song Zimo introduced. Yang Ping came to the Ruixing booth, Jiahui had just finished arranging the instruments and saw Yang Ping coming over: ¡°Hello, Teacher Yang!¡± ¡°Just call me Doctor Yang, Manager Huang, is this volunteer work, or¨C¡± Huang Jiacai, who was bending over busy packing empty cartons, immediately stood straight: ¡°Dr. Yang, nice to meet you! I am Huang Jiacai, the sales manager of Ruixing in G City, please take care of me a lot.¡± ¡°Is the location of your booth okay?¡± Yang Ping asked. Huang Jiacai was very satisfied: ¡°Thank you.¡± With a prime location, and flanked by the three orthopedic giants, what could there be to complain about? Upon seeing this scene, Manager Gan, who was standing by, fully understood. His analysis and judgment were correct. Huang Jiacai knows these young doctors; they did him a favor by keeping this location, not reporting it, and privately pocketing the money given by Huang Jiacai. Small maneuvers in booth arrangements of medical academic conferences often happen. If you go through the regular sponsorship process, this booth would cost at least 200,000 sponsorship fees to even get a spot. Some small companies lack the strength to afford sponsorship fees, so they resort to backdoor deals and chicanery. One or two booths being sold like this wouldn¡¯t really be noticeable and no one would care. The younger doctors are not too familiar with Gan Fengyi, who usually runs the operations and has a good relationships with several Sanbo directors. Seeing the leading figure, Yang Ping, who is young but being called ¡°Teacher Yang¡±, made Gan Fengyi¡¯s teeth sour. Not far away, Professor Su and his group were coming over. Dean Xia and Director Han had to leave temporarily because of some issues, and the director of the blood bank came over to discuss matters of support with them. As Johnson & Johnson¡¯s sales manager, Gan Fengyi was very familiar with Professor Su. After all, Johnson & Johnson¡¯s largest client in G City is First Attached Hospital. Gan Fengyi immediately adjusted her expression, showing a professional smile, like the warm sun of spring, and prepared to greet them. From a distance, Su Nanchen ran to the front, stretched out his hand, and shook hands with Yang Ping: ¡°Dr. Yang¨C¡± He then whispered, ¡°My dad wanted to come over and check it out.¡± ¡°Hello, Professor Su!¡± Yang Ping let go of Su Nanchen¡¯s hand, and Professor Su had already come over. Everyone greeted Professor Su. Su Yixuan also said: ¡°Hello, Professor Su!¡± Looking at Yang Ping, and then at his beloved daughter, Professor Su was filled with joy: ¡°Xiao Yang, don¡¯t feel any pressure, at the crucial moment, show all your strength and let others see the power of China.¡± ¡°I will, thank you Professor Su!¡± ¡°Nurse Su, you will be assisting Dr. Yang, you must do your best. The preparation should be good, don¡¯t drag the team down.¡± Professor Su said seriously. Su Yixuan pouted: ¡°Thank you for your concern, Professor Su!¡± Gan Fengyi initially thought Professor Su and his group were coming over to greet her, and she almost reached out her hand. Fortunately, she reacted quickly when she realized they weren¡¯t paying attention to her. If she really reached out, it would have been embarrassing. This young doctor clearly has a very good relationship with Professor Su and Su Nanchen. No wonder he can casually set aside such a good booth for his own use. She originally planned to use her connections to dispute over the booth, but now she has completely given up on the idea. Gan Fengyi is someone who knows where to draw the line. She had to swallow this unpleasant experience. Offending Professor Su would mean ruining her company¡¯s business. Not just Gan Fengyi, but all the orthopedic equipment vendors. Upon seeing Professor Su, they always show total respect. Every utterance has to be drafted three times. He is the chairman of the orthopedic committee in Nandu Province after all! Gan Fengyi shot Huang Jiacai a glance. Huang Jiacai responded with an OK gesture, which was clear provocation, making her grind her teeth in anger. ¡°Hello, Professor Su!¡± Manager Gan finally found an appropriate opportunity. ¡°Xiao Gan, you¡¯re here too? You came so early?¡± Professor Su just noticed Gan Fengyi. He had only been paying attention to Yang Ping and Su Yixuan and didn¡¯t see Gan Fengyi. ¡°We came over early to check things out and get familiar with the venue.¡± Manager Gan responded respectfully. Professor Su only spoke one sentence to Gan Fengyi before turning back to chat with Yang Ping again. Gan Fengyi, feeling neglected, was caught in a dilemma of whether to stay or leave, but she kept smiling throughout. After a while, Professor Su admonished: ¡°Teamwork is very important, especially the collaboration between medical staff, the operating nurse has to consult the chief surgeon about the details of the surgery, understand each step, that¡¯s the only way to work well together.¡± ¡°Mmmm!¡± Su Yixuan nodded, her hand sneakily motioned to Su Nanchen: Get Dad out of here. ¡°It¡¯s getting late, shall we check out other places?¡± Su Nanchen suggested. Director Han came over again to accompany Professor Su to tour the emergency department and the operating room. ¡ª¨C ¡°Brother, you¡¯re amazing. Just now I was too scared to speak, who were they? The woman, she¡¯s so pretty but so fierce.¡± ¡°Johnson & Johnson¡¯s South China Sales Manager, Gan Fengyi, is a celebrity in our circle. Not only is she extraordinarily beautiful, but her professional skills are also top-notch. At just 30 years old, she became a regional manager. She was able to knock Jiemai, which used to be the big boss in G City, off the top. She is a formidable woman who strikes fear into others the moment they meet her. She has an impressive knack for running in high-heels.¡± Huang Jiacai had a certain understanding of her. ¡°She¡¯s that impressive, huh? But it doesn¡¯t seem like you¡¯re afraid of her. When she saw you, she didn¡¯t seem so fierce anymore.¡± Jiahui gave a thumbs up. ¡°Just managing the South China region is too minor for her, Johnson & Johnson should give her the position of Asia Pacific Sales Director, that would be more fitting for her.¡± Huang Jiacai watched Gan Fengyi enter the elevator. Jiahui looked at her brother¡¯s gaze, ¡°It seems like you really admire her?¡± Huang Jiacai sat down to rest, ¡°Let me tell you, this woman is really something. Rumor has it that she owns a red gemstone book, which contains detailed information about every hospital director, department director, and director of Orthopedics in the South China region, as well as their spouses, children¡¯s, birthdays, hobbies, etc. There¡¯s a story about a hospital director¡¯s wife who loves sticky rice and lychee dumplings. She personally carpet-bombed the search for sticky rice lychee trees, picked several good trees, and paid to reserve them. Come lychee season, she sends boxes of them right on time.¡± ¡°That¡¯s really impressive.¡± Jiahui said enviously. ¡°That¡¯s not all. What¡¯s more impressive is that every year, she writes a book by herself¡ªan annual market development summary and forecast for Orthopedic equipment. Her market analysis is incredibly precise. Ever since she took over Johnson & Johnson¡¯s South China market, Jiemai and Stryker have been steadily retreating in the South China market without any ability to fight back.¡± Huang Jiacai was still staring at the elevator door. ¡°This woman is really that incredible? Big brother, how do you know her so well?¡± Jiahui was puzzled. ¡°As long as they are significant figures in this industry, there¡¯s no one I don¡¯t know. Knowing your enemy and yourself will bring success in every battle.¡± Huang Jiacai withdrew his gaze. ¡°Doctor Yang is really wonderful. He helped us get such a good exhibition space, we used to be just by the elevator.¡± ¡°This is a case of repaying kindness with kindness. If you put out some effort, others will see it and they won¡¯t treat you unfairly. After the conference, we¡¯ll have to hire a few more people, we¡¯re becoming too busy.¡± ¡ª¡ª Everyone has their own work to do. They took some photos on the conference site, played around for a bit, and then got busy again. Little Five received a call. Dr. Park Chun-ui from South Korea is about to arrive. As the person in charge of receiving guests, he immediately set off with the hotel driver. With Tang Fei responsible for translation, she picked a few students who were good at English, and started to give the final instructions to these translators, such as the translations for some special and rare vocabulary. Director Gao came over in high spirits and saw Yang Ping, ¡°Dr. Yang! Dr. Yang!¡± He had been following Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries for a full month and learned a lot, upgrading his technical skills to a new level. He decided to continue following after the conference. Director Ouyang and Director Bai were chatting with a few familiar faces. Their hospital was able to host such an academic conference, which naturally brought them pride. While chatting with old acquaintances, some students came over to report the latest news about the arrival of the guests. Guests from Singapore have arrived, South Koreans are almost there, and the Japanese will arrive in the afternoon. The feeling was even better than having half a bottle of Maotai liquor. Director Ding was a bit downcast because he had been late several times during the training and ignored Director Han¡¯s several warnings. When he was one step away from being demoted, Director Han summoned him to his office and scolded him bloody, threatening to demote him to a resident physician and make him work the overnight shift if he was late again. He was so frightened that he didn¡¯t dare to be late afterwards. ¡°Fatty! Fatty!¡± Someone called Fatty, who narrowed his eyes into a line and looked everywhere. ¡°Over here, what kind of eyesight do you have!¡± Someone came over and clapped his shoulder. It was a classmate from the provincial hospital, a classmate from his undergraduate years. ¡°Your Sanbo really did an impressive job this time. Our provincial hospital never had this scale of conference when we hosted.¡± His classmate originally came just to have fun, but seeing this scene, even before the conference had started, things had already heated up. Fatty¡¯s eyes were filled with laughter, creating the appearance of having no eyes at all: ¡°Oh please, it¡¯s not that big. We¡¯re all just stirring up some excitement. This time at least twenty foreigners are coming. We¡¯ll be holding a live broadcast with Tokyo University Hospital. You should check out the level of our Trauma Orthopedics.¡± ¡°Fatty, you should get a new suit, your buttons are about to pop off.¡± Dr. Jin passed by and immediately noticed that his suit was too small. It was stretched taut and the buttons seemed ready to burst off at any moment. ¡°I just bought it in the first half of the year, but now it doesn¡¯t fit me anymore.¡± Fatty touched his belly. Director Bai, who looked like a plump Hong Jinbao while walking, came over and said, ¡°Ah Fatty, you have to be on stage in the next two days. Tell everyone to get a good night¡¯s sleep tonight and rest well.¡± ¡°Really, there are still opportunities to get on stage.¡± His classmate jabbed Fatty in the chest with a punch, full of envy. Fatty clutched his stomach, ¡°I¡¯m just an alternate.¡± Being an alternate is still an honor. Not just anyone can sit on the bench of the NBA. ¡°Old Bai, you have to go on stage tomorrow?¡± familiar faces were surprised as this will be a live broadcast on the same stage with Tokyo University Hospital. Good on Old Bai. Director Bai laughed heartily, ¡°The young ones will be up, we¡¯re just here to make sure things go smoothly and step in when needed.¡± ¡°Old Ding, what are you doing over there, come over, how¡¯s your team¡¯s preparation?¡± Director Bai was exceptionally enthusiastic now, his sense of participation was strong. He had always complained about the training before, but now he took pride in it. He told his old acquaintances, ¡°Our training is incredibly strict. You guys never experienced it, but it can make you shed a layer of skin and lose a few pounds.¡± Director Ding came over, squeezing a smile onto his face, ¡°Where¡¯s Old Han?¡± ¡°He was just with Professor Su. What, Director Tan hasn¡¯t assigned any tasks to your group yet?¡± Director Ouyang asked. ¡°Not yet, our group hasn¡¯t received any tasks. I wanted to talk to Old Han about it, but I didn¡¯t dare mention it just now.¡± Director Ding didn¡¯t usually care about collective things. This time, everyone was involved in the academic conference while his group still didn¡¯t have a task. It made him feel left out. Feeling lost was quite prevalent. Seeing others busy while feeling hollow inside oneself, it was like being an abandoned orphan. ¡°Professor Zhang!¡± Professor Zhang Zongshun came in with his hands behind his back, immediately drawing a crowd. Chapter 238 - 0223: The Land of Dreams Chapter 238: Chapter 0223: The Land of Dreams Professor Zhang, who had nothing to do, decided to stir the pot. ¡°Your suit is too small, get a bigger one, or at least tuck in your belly, people might think we lack fabric.¡± Professor Zhang yanked at Fatty¡¯s suit hem. Director Bai chastised, ¡°Go change it, right now. If there is no larger size, you¡¯re out of time, I have a few suits, go fetch one for yourself. ¡± For the sake of a suit, he can¡¯t lose his group¡¯s dignity. Director Bai is serious. Professor Zhang strolled around and saw his name in the front row of the guest nameplates. He waved his hand, ¡°Little Zhang, come here!¡± Zhang Lin, who was busy, ran over, ¡°Old Zhang!¡± ¡°Remove this and replace it with something else.¡± Professor Zhang picked up the nameplate and handed it to him. Zhang Lin scratched his head, ¡°We can¡¯t remove it. These were arranged by Director Tan and approved by Director Han.¡± Professor Zhang wasn¡¯t happy, ¡°Why are you always timid in doing things, even like a chicken when eating a chicken, dragging your feet just to remove a nameplate.¡± ¡°So many foreigners are watching. I¡¯m an old man in my eighties. If they don¡¯t know me, they¡¯ll think that Sanbo couldn¡¯t get talent and rounded me up. I insist on removing it. Let Han Jiangong find me if he has any issues.¡± Professor Zhang was adamant. Zhang Lin had no choice but to temporarily remove it and report it to Director Tan later. Director Tan is currently hanging a plaque in the Institute of Orthopedics. It has to be hanged today and unveiled tomorrow. Song Zimo, who was on the phone, walked over. Zhang Lin asked, ¡°Weren¡¯t you picking up Takahashi Fumiya? Director Tian just couldn¡¯t find you?¡± ¡°No, he declined our arrangement and figured it out himself.¡± Song Zimo speaks Japanese, so he was arranged to pick up Takahashi Fumiya. ¡°What the hell, he¡¯s even picky about us.¡± Zhang Lin cursed. Takahashi Fumiya has arrived, and the news spread, many doctors are extremely excited. The conference¡¯s international reputation is affirmed, the big shot from Tokyo University Affiliated Hospital, Takahashi Fumiya, really showed up. ¡ª The weather is nice at Nandu Airport. This is Takahashi¡¯s second time in China. He was somewhat reluctant, but he couldn¡¯t refuse Mr. Fujiwara¡¯s assignment and could only obey. As soon as he got off the plane, he put on a Kowa mask and frowned, ¡°Ms.Miyuki, you should also wear a mask.¡± Fujiwara Miyuki was somewhat unhappy, ¡°Is that really necessary?¡± ¡°Of course it¡¯s necessary! You are coming to China for the first time and don¡¯t know anything about it. Here, smog often envelops the entire city, causing the incidence of lung cancer to increase exponentially. I always have obvious symptoms of respiratory irritation whenever I come.¡± Takahashi coughed a few times, showing that his symptoms were not fabricated, but were genuinely rapid. ¡°Isn¡¯t this just your second time in China?¡± Fujiwara Miyuki felt that Takahashi¡¯s use of the term ¡°every time¡± was a bit exaggerated. Takahashi sensed Fujiwara Miyuki¡¯s dissatisfaction and wisely shut his mouth to avoid annoying her. With assistants in tow, the four of them boarded Japan Airlines JL087 at Narita International Airport and flew for five hours and twenty-five minutes before landing at Nandu Airport. The tall and beautiful Fujiwara Miyuki, with a coat draped over her arm, walked through the airport lobby like a star, attracting countless glances, men¡¯s desire, and women¡¯s envy. In fact, she is a star. Standing at one meter seventy-eight tall, with stunningly beautiful features, she once shone on the catwalk, was a Victoria¡¯s Secret champion, and holds a high degree of education. She is a goddess in the hearts of many Japanese men. Both Takahashi Fumiya and Sasaki Jiro are her ardent admirers. Countless men in Japan¡¯s high society, both old and young, drool over her. Unfortunately, the Fujiwara family is a prestigious family in Japan, powerful and strong. As such, for these men, Fujiwara Miyuki remains an unreachable star, not even daring to stretch out their hands. Moreover, the sleazy-looking Takahashi Fumiya and the beautiful Fujiwara Miyuki walking together could easily incite a violent reaction from observers. Having exited from Terminal 1, the woman waiting for them was Miss Yangzi who has been waiting for them at the exit, holding a Japanese sign. ¡°Welcome, Miss Miyuki, Mr. Takahashi!¡± Fujiwara Miyuki and Takahashi spotted the Japanese welcome sign immediately. ¡°Are you Manager Inoue Yoko?¡± Takahashi asked. ¡°Welcome, Miss Miyuki, Mr. Takahashi!¡± Yangzi bowed, her greeting was in Japanese style. Fujiwara and Takahashi returned the bow and followed Yangzi. After walking a few minutes, they arrived at the P1 parking lot. A Toyota Alphard had been waiting for a while. The driver, wearing white gloves, gently opened the car door. Yangzi said apologetically, ¡°Miss Miyuki, Mr. Takahashi, you must be tired. Please get in the car!¡± Fujiwara Miyuki elegantly boarded the Alphard. She and her assistant sat in the front row, while Takahashi and his assistant sat in the second row. Whether it¡¯s the principle of women first, or the status as a member of the Fujiwara family, such arrangement is necessary. The driver drove smoothly, the brake did not jerk, and the startup did not push back. Their destination is a luxury Japanese hotel in G City¨CThe Prince Akatoki. The Prince Akatoki, a high-end chain hotel under the Japanese Prince Hotel, and the shareholder behind the Prince Hotel is the Fujiwara family. In the grand sphere of a large financial conglomerate, a hotel is essentially a speck. But in G City, China, the only hotel they could use as accommodation is this one. Inoue Yoko, the hotel¡¯s executive director, decided to pick them up from the airport personally when she received the notice from the Japan headquarters. ¡°Miss Miyuki, you¡¯re visiting China for the first time. There are significant changes happening here, with an extensive high-speed rail system, expansive highways, bustling commercial districts, and densely packed factories-¡± Yangzi felt that calling her ¡®Miss Miyuki,¡¯ rather than ¡®Fujiwara,¡¯ demonstrated greater respect. ¡°You didn¡¯t see the so-called urban villages they also have here, hidden behind high-rise buildings, with sewage flowing freely, overcrowded, fat rats roaming in the day, they even build what they call ¡®scenery walls¡¯ along the highways, covering the dilapidated places behind, so as not to let the damaging places enter the tourists¡¯ view.¡± After a long silence, Takahashi couldn¡¯t help talking again. ¡°I believe that undoubtedly, every country has its own pros and cons. Even the United States, where people around the world yearn to go, is riddled with rampant drug abuse, the proliferation of firearms, grubby slums, and unpreventable robberies in the subway. The same goes for Japan, even in a golden world like Ginza, there are unseen filth and despair behind it.¡± Fujiwara Miyuki voiced her impatience with Takahashi¡¯s prejudice. Miyuki has loved Chinese culture since she was young. She speaks Mandarin, could recite Tang poems, and read the Four Great Classical Novels. Her favorite city in Japan is Kyoto because it retains the style of ancient architecture during the Tang Dynasty. It was Miyuki¡¯s first trip to China and she excitedly gazed out of the car window, continually marvelling at her surroundings. The magnificent airport, the brand new highways, and the multitude of factories. This great nation is in revival, and nothing can halt her steadfast steps. Takahashi is overly biased! ¡°Every country has its own flaws, especially those that are rapidly developing. I don¡¯t believe this represents anything. They are changing, and they are changing every day. It is just amazing.¡± Miyuki, like a child, could hardly contain her excitement. Bubbling with life and vibrancy, steeped in cultural depth, this is the China of her dreams. She often dreamed of herself in the classical period of the Tang Dynasty, walking across a bridge to the sounds of zithers while wearing beautiful Tang attire, her head shyly bowed. ¡°Look, that¡¯s an all-electric bus!¡± Miyuki had seen China¡¯s electric buses in Japan, which emit no exhaust fumes. The high-speed rail whizzed across the elevated bridges. ¡°The Shinkansen? ¡°Miyuki almost screamed. China¡¯s high-speed rail is even better than the Shinkansen. Miyuki closed her eyes and tried to imagine what it would mean to have high-speed rails crisscrossing over a 9.6 million square kilometer land area. ¡°I want to stay here longer, I want to try the high-speed trains and look around.¡± ¡°Manager Yangzi would be honored to be Miss Miyuki¡¯s guide.¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing to fuss about, it¡¯s just a copy of Japan after all.¡± Takahashi found Miyuki¡¯s fascinated reactions to China highly distasteful. He wouldn¡¯t have minded if it was someone else, but it was not becoming of the young lady of the Fujiwara Family to be so enamored with China. ¡°Copycat? Which pursuer didn¡¯t start with imitation? Did Japan not start by copying from Europe? Did the United States not start by copying from Europe? Are cars original inventions of Japan or the United States?¡± Miyuki disagreed with Takahashi¡¯s opinion and disliked his arrogance. She hated how he always looked at her dreamland with such disdain. ¡°Look around, it¡¯s all industrial zones. Various products are continuously coming off the assembly line, ready to be shipped to all corners of the world.¡± Manager Yangzi introduced the scene to Miss Miyuki. She has been living in China for five years and is very familiar with the area. ¡°Most of these factories are low-tech processing plants, where workers exhaust themselves working overtime for meager wages. Do you know why China¡¯s finger reattachment operations are so advanced? It¡¯s because due to overwork and excessive fatigue, combined with reckless production methods, there are countless cases of fingers being crushed by machines every day. This multitude of accidents has produced a group of medically skilled doctors.¡¯ Takahashi fumed internally. He felt it his responsibility to guide Miss Miyuki off the wrong path. Although Miyuki was the young lady of the Fujiwara Family, and the younger sister of his teacher, Fujiwara Masao, she was also Takahashi¡¯s co-worker. Thus, Takahashi was bolder in his speech and did not mull over his words like Yangzi did. ¡®They sent the Jade Rabbit rover to the moon, constructed the Beidou satellite navigation system, ambitiously planned to build a space station, and will become the second country to land on the moon. With just a few decades, they have achieved an incredible transformation. In your eyes, however, you see them as pathetic. Mr. Takahashi, please dissolve your narrow-mindedness. A lion will not become a cat just because you call it one.¡¯ Although Miss Fujiwara was discontent, she still maintained her composure and tried to settle the disagreement through debate.¡± ¡°Alright!¡± Takahashi indicated his surrender, he sat back and dared not speak again, but kept on shrugging his shoulders. The Toyota car arrived at the hotel, parking at the entrance. ¡°Miss Miyuki, please.¡± ¡°Mr. Takahashi, please.¡± ¡°Is there a high-speed train station here?¡± asked Miyuki. ¡°Nandu station, the largest in Asia.¡± Yangzi got out of the car and personally opened the car door for her. ¡°After the meeting, I want to take the high-speed train, tour around. That will be great!¡± ¡°You can travel in any direction, with the high-speed rail spanning across the entire China, you can go wherever you like. Miss Miyuki, if you do so, you will need many days. China is not like Japan.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine, I have plenty of time on my visa.¡± On reaching the hotel lobby, the entire hotel was decorated in a Japanese style while the service was also Japanese. ¡°Please follow me, you can rest for a little while and then have your meal. Miss Miyuki, I have arranged a Chinese meal for you.¡± Yangzi bowed, and Miyuki and Takahashi stepped into the VIP elevator. ¡°Why isn¡¯t it a Japanese meal?¡± Takahashi was clearly dissatisfied. Yangzi apologized, ¡°Tokyo insisted on arranging Chinese meals for Miss Miyuki. Mr. Takahashi, your Japanese meal has also been prepared, please rest assured.¡± Miss Yangzi was very capable. Among the small number of Japanese women who focused on their careers, she stood out, meticulously arranging every detail of her work with a uniqueness that Japanese women were known for. ¡°Miss Miyuki, Sanbo Hospital, where you will be attending the conference, is about an hour¡¯s drive from here. Tomorrow, we will make sure to get you to the venue on time.¡± Yangzi brought Miyuki and her assistant into the most luxurious suite in the hotel, while she had arranged for someone to guide Takahashi to another suite on a different floor. ¡°Do you speak Chinese?¡± Miyuki asked in Mandarin. ¡°Of course! I have been living in China for five years.¡± Yangzi responded in Mandarin. ¡°Then let¡¯s communicate in Chinese!¡± Fujiwara Miyuki was in high spirits. The land of her dreams did not disappoint her. Chapter 239 - 0224: The Bustling Eve Chapter 239: Chapter 0224: The Bustling Eve By the afternoon, those in charge of reception started to get busy. Hotel business cars were dispatched one after another to both the airport and the high-speed rail station. Delegates from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan; including Hong Kong Mary Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, Macau Mirror Lake Hospital, Taiwan National Taiwan University Hospital, arrived one after another. Foreign medical delegates from Israel¡¯s Sheba Hospital and India¡¯s Apollo Hospital were also expected to arrive that afternoon, with some anticipated later in the evening. The doctors from Israel and India rarely attend academic conferences in China. However, to our surprise, four doctors from each country also attended this time. Director Han is not familiar with these two countries, instead his primary contacts are from countries such as Japan, South Korea and Singapore. When sending out invitations, some hospitals that were included in the mailing list weren¡¯t really expected to send representatives at all. Local hospitals from Beijing, Shanghai, and western regions also sent delegates. Director Han and Director Tan were kept busy all afternoon, they sat stationary in the hotel lobby welcoming guests almost the entire time. Meng Heng from Beijing¡¯s Sanbo Hospital and Fu Shancheng from Huaxi Hospital in the west, also attended. Both are individuals of significant influence. Rumor has it that these two were personally invited by Professor Su Qingyun to join the conference. It seemed that Professor Su also contributed a lot behind the scenes to this academic meeting. Hong Zhigang from Shanghai¡¯s Mo Sixth Hospital couldn¡¯t make it but they originally planned to send Wen Rentao, one of their students, to attend in their stead. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, Wen couldn¡¯t make it, and Zeng Ran, an associate professor at the same hospital, was sent instead. The evening was marked by a buffet dinner at the hotel. Everyone, from top-ranking professionals to ordinary doctors, was able to find acquaintances, group up, sit together and engage in joyful and informal conversations. Hospitals like the Sanbo and Huaxi Hospital discussed recent advancements in their research, the introduction of new technology, publishing papers, and the like. As for the doctors from ordinary hospitals, their discussion mainly centered around how much they earn, promotion prospects, their impression about training experience, and they also took the opportunity to vent their frustrations and find common ground. The buffet at the Tri-Bo Hotel was excellent, showcasing southern specialities with a notable variety of seafood offerings. The chefs behind the scenes were extremely enthusiastic. It was their first time catering to so many renowned professors and experts, including some from overseas. Those kitchen staff who were working overtime proudly relayed to their families: ¡°I¡¯m working overtime today. There¡¯s an academic conference with many famous professors attending.¡± They didn¡¯t really know who was attending the conference or what exactly the conference was about. As long as they knew that the conference was of a high caliber and they were providing catering services for it, that was enough. Everyone from the Tri-Bo Orthopedics Department, from young doctors to department directors, played the host perfectly, taking good care of their friends and acquaintances. Yang Ping and Xiao Su, both holding a plate, squeezed in the crowd while enjoying the buffet, which offered a dazzling array of gastronomical delights. ¡°Yang Ping?¡± Someone called out to Yang Ping. Yang Ping turned his head, and upon seeing the caller, realized it was his former classmate from graduate school, Ou Lichun. ¡°Ou Lichun?¡± Yang Ping exclaimed in surprise. ¡°Yes. Yang Ping, is it really you?¡± Ou Lichun was surprised to see Yang Ping in the company of an incredibly beautiful woman and was hesitant to recognize him. Back when they were in school, Yang Ping was always single. Seeing him now with such a beautiful girl, it was hard to believe it was the same Yang Ping. Stumbling upon an old friend, the two immediately shook hands. Ou Lichun was so excited he nearly knocked over his plate. ¡°Did you also come here with the director for the conference? I came with our director to take a look around.¡± Ou Lichun said excitedly. The two quickly found the nearest table to sit down and placed their plates, which had a few items from the buffet, down. ¡°I¡¯ll help fetch your food. You catch up with your classmate.¡± Xiao Su gently said to Yang Ping. She then gave Ou Lichun a grin, a way of greeting him. Ou Lichun noticed that, while Yang Ping was shy and didn¡¯t even have a girlfriend during their time in school, he now had a beautiful partner. ¡°Your girlfriend?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°You dog, you¡¯ve done well for yourself!¡± ¡°Old Ou, you¡¯ve put on some weight.¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t changed. Are you still at G City People¡¯s Hospital?¡± ¡°No, now I¡¯m here at Tri-Bo, in the Comprehensive Orthopedics Department, under Director Han!¡± Ou Lichun showed a little sympathy for Yang Ping¡¯s situation, ¡°You¡¯ve jumped over to the Tri-Bo? However, with the contract system, there¡¯s no security. It¡¯s the same everywhere. You¡¯d better return to the mainland. Some regional hospitals might still have opportunities, The contract system offers no guarantees, it¡¯s better to have a staff position.¡± Ou Lichun was in a regional hospital in the mainland, a city that lies in the seventh or eighth tier. ¡°It¡¯s fine. We¡¯re all just trying to get by. I¡¯m used to being here, I don¡¯t want to go somewhere else. Tell me about you.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t explain much. ¡°I¡¯m still in the same place, likely until retirement. My hospital is planning to send me to the provincial hospital for further training. However, I really want to go to a bigger hospital. One may only get the chance to receive further training once or twice in a lifetime. I want to go to the Spine Center of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, but I can¡¯t secure a spot. There¡¯s no way.¡± Ou Lichun looked helpless. When it comes to further training, who wouldn¡¯t desire to visit big hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai, or Nandu? Nandu Affiliated Hospital One is one of the top renowned hospitals for spine surgery. However, the number of training spots in these top-tier hospitals¡¯ key departments are highly sought-after, to say nothing of the requirement for a candidate hospital¡¯s rating. ¡°Are the training spots at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One really so scarce?¡± Yang Ping really didn¡¯t expect that. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s Nandu Affiliated Hospital One¡¯s spine surgery department. It¡¯s considered top-tier nationwide. When my director was undergoing further training, he had to wait in line for a year. This time, although my director is ready to send me there, despite knowing someone on the inside, they said there are too many people trying to receive further training. They have even stopped taking waiting list reservations for now. There¡¯s no choice but to head to our provincial hospital.¡± Ou Lichun had an expression of regret. A provincial hospital in the mainland couldn¡¯t possibly compare to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. They were not in the same league. ¡°Do you really want to do further training in Affiliated One?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°Yes, I understand but I¡¯m out of options now and I don¡¯t have any connections left.¡± Ou Lichun was also helpless. The dream of going to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One would have to be set aside. Obtaining a placement spot in the hospital was a lot of work, having dealt with all sorts of red tape involving deans and medical sectors. ¡°How about this, let me see who I can get in touch with to help you out.¡± Yang Ping decided to lend a helping hand to Ou Lichun. Indeed, for a doctor, there may be one or two enhancement opportunities in a lifetime, and the ranking of the enhancement hospital directly determines his future professional level, reputation, and status. ¡°You?¡± Ou Lichun didn¡¯t speak out, but he wanted to scold Yang Ping in his heart. What kind of hospital is Nandu Affiliated Hospital One? He made it sound so easy, like a young doctor could just make a call and everything would be sorted out. When had Yang Ping also learned to exaggerate and talk big? Ah, society is a big melting pot, an honest young man had been transformed into a vain man who loves boasting. ¡°Are you sure you want to go to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Then let me ask around for you.¡± Yang Ping was about to make a call, when Su Nanchen came over. He had taken Professor Su home and had come over to join in the fun in the evening. It was like the New Year, the atmosphere of preparation before the New Year was even busier than the New Year itself. With Su Nanchen came Boss Cheng, they seemed to be looking for Yang Ping. Seeing Yang Ping here, they came over immediately. ¡°You¡¯re here! Boss Cheng and I have been looking for you everywhere.¡± ¡°You guys chat, what would you like to eat? I¡¯ll help you grab some.¡± Boss Cheng greeted Yang Ping and prepared to go get some food. ¡°Whatever!¡± Su Nanchen and Boss Cheng were acquainted, so he didn¡¯t stand on ceremony. ¡°No need for me, someone¡¯s already helping me grab something.¡± Yang Ping declined. ¡°Perfect, Brother Su, I needed to ask a favor, can you help?¡± Yang Ping was just about to call him. ¡°Spit it out!¡± Su Nanchen and Yang Ping had no need to beat about the bush. ¡°This is my classmate, Ou Lichun. He wants to do an enhancement course in your hospital¡¯s spinal surgery department, but couldn¡¯t get a place.¡± Yang Ping succinctly explained the situation. Su Nanchen shook hands with Ou Lichun: ¡°Hello, when would you like to come and enhance?¡± ¡°Anytime is fine, as long as I can get the spot.¡± Ou Lichun wasn¡¯t sure if this man was for real or not. He acted as if Nandu Affiliated Hospital One was his family¡¯s business. He didn¡¯t ask any details or mention any difficulties, he just directly asked when Ou Lichun would go, as if everything was sorted. In such a setting, everyone was happy. Once they gathered together, regardless of their capabilities, everyone made big promises and then wouldn¡¯t remember anything afterwards. You couldn¡¯t take it seriously. Ou Lichun had seen this kind of thing happen often, and he had some social experience. In the past, his father had asked someone to help him find a job. His father¡¯s old classmate said that he knew someone in the Ministry of Health and had relations with them. His father took it seriously. Afterward, when his father presented the man with cigarettes and alcohol, even preparing money to find the old classmate to help him out, the man accepted the cigarettes and alcohol but didn¡¯t take the money. His father was happy, thinking the job was practically in the bag. But as it turned out¡ªthere was nothing else. Su Nanchen picked up his phone in front of Ou Lichun, ¡°Hello, Teacher Zhang, this is Su Nanchen. I have a small request. A friend of my brother wants to do an enhancement course in our spinal surgery department. Can you help arrange it?¡± ¡°No problem, send me his information and I¡¯ll arrange it for him when I work on Monday. I¡¯ll send you the format via WeChat.¡± The reply on the phone was also straightforward. After hanging up the phone, a WeChat message arrived with the format. Su Nanchen dictated, ¡°You text your name, specialty, title, current hospital, phone number and so on to Yang Ping. He¡¯ll arrange it for you on Monday. They will contact you and you can go enhance anytime.¡± Ou Lichun sent the information uncertainly. He had Yang Ping¡¯s WeChat but they seldom kept in touch. He had to search for a while before he could find him in his contact list. Could it really be taken care of in just a few minutes? ¡°Once Brother Su says it¡¯s okay, it¡¯ll be okay. Just relax.¡± Yang Ping saw that Ou Lichun was still confused. Just like that? It seemed too easy. Anyway, Ou Lichun was not quite sure. Boss Cheng walked over with a full plate and handed it to Su Nanchen before going to get his own. ¡°Little brother, after the conference, you¡¯ll need to find some time to help Boss Cheng with the surgeries. He¡¯s quite anxious. There are over a dozen backlogs. Take a day to help him out.¡± Su Nanchen didn¡¯t mention Ou Lichun¡¯s matter anymore. ¡°How about the next weekend?¡± Yang Ping thought to himself. Ou Lichun¡¯s matter was thus closed, and Ou Lichun was uneasy in his heart. Could such an important matter be sorted with just one phone call? He truly couldn¡¯t believe it and thought it was just an empty promise. Boss Cheng brought over another plate and sat down next to Ou Lichun. Su Nanchen draped an arm around Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder: ¡°Boss Cheng, my little brother has said he will clear over a dozen surgeries for you next weekend.¡± Su Nanchen felt that calling Yang Ping ¡°little brother¡± was more appropriate, sooner or later that¡¯s what he¡¯d call him. ¡°Thank you! Thank you!¡± Boss Cheng put down the plate and bowed his hands in thanks. ¡°I should thank you for Doctor Wan¡¯s matter.¡± Yang Ping smiled. ¡°It¡¯s not a big deal. He has already started working. He¡¯s very good, very hardworking. If he genuinely wants to work for me, I plan on sending him to South Korea for enhancement.¡± Boss Cheng sat down next to Ou Lichun. Ou Lichun was growing more and more confused. What about doing surgeries, over a dozen of them, and who was working and going to South Korea for enhancement? ¡°My great friends Su Nanchen, Cheng Liquan, and my classmate Ou Lichun!¡± Yang Ping had forgotten to introduce the two to Ou Lichun. Ou Lichun shook hands one by one: ¡°Yang Ping¡¯s classmate, Ou Lichun.¡± Director Han came over then, waving at Yang Ping, he had to take him to meet some domestic and foreign big shots. The medical field was the same, it required expanding one¡¯s contacts. Which industry wasn¡¯t like that? Without connections, it was hard to get by. Even when electing academicians, it couldn¡¯t proceed without connections. If people didn¡¯t vote for you, what could you do? Throw rocks at their windows? Chapter 240 - 0225 Boring Meeting Chapter 240: Chapter 0225 Boring Meeting On Saturday, at nine in the morning, the conference began promptly. Sanbo Hotel¡¯s large conference room was packed, with the front row filled with guests. By nine o¡¯clock, there were over two thousand participants. For a surgical conference organized by a single hospital, attracting a thousand participants is considered highly successful. But the number of registered doctors had already exceeded two thousand. Sanbo Hotel¡¯s main conference room can accommodate up to a thousand people and even required the addition of temporary benches to manage the crowd. As planned, there were six additional session rooms apart from the main venue. The additional session rooms utilized large screens to watch guest lectures and facilitate Q&A sessions via video chat. A telecom company collaborated with Sanbo Hospital to build a video system for the entire venue using 5G technology, seizing the opportunity to promote 5G as well. Following the opening statement, Director Tan introduced the participating guests. He began to demonstrate the current situation of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s microtrauma orthopedics, especially using the five-section replantation case as a banner for promotion. The surgery had complete video data, was extremely persuasive, and Xiao Guoqiang, the surgery patient, voluntarily came on stage to demonstrate limb functionality. Director Tan¡¯s presentation was in English, and all other guests would also use English. Since the event was positioned as an international conference, not using English wouldn¡¯t make sense. Tang Fei¡¯s team was responsible for on-site translation. Tang Fei, having attended a bilingual English-Chinese middle and elementary school, had excellent English listening and speaking abilities. Being a doctor herself, she could translate as professionally as professional translators, and would be more accurate in the translation of medical terminologies. Translation was necessary to enable the attending doctors to understand, as the majority of doctors¡¯ English proficiency was not up to par for comprehension and spoken conversation. Even if they passed the English proficiency levels during their studies, they may only comprehend in terms of written tests, and honest conversation would be difficult. Qiangzi was slightly nervous backstage, and his girlfriend was there to comfort him, ¡°You¡¯ll be fine, relax. Just show them what you¡¯ve been directed to, like you¡¯re displaying it to Director Han and Dr. Yang.¡± Dr. Che, the person in charge of Qiangzi¡¯s rehabilitation, was there instructing Qiangzi again on the actions to be demonstrated, which Qiangzi faithfully followed. The five-section replantation surgery was a sensation at that time. Almost all trauma orthopedic doctors nationwide had heard of it. While they were amazed by Sanbo Hospital¡¯s high-tech operation, most of them were skeptical about the functionality of the replanted limb. Most of them felt that Sanbo Hospital only performed this surgery for publicity. They suspected that after some time, due to the lack of limb function, the limb would become a burden and need to be amputated. Everyone was curious to know the final result, whether the limb had any function, and if it ended up being amputated. Many doctors attended the conference specifically to find out. Director Tan originally planned to show a video demonstrating postoperative function. Still, after learning about it, Qiangzi actively requested to do the demonstration in person on site. There was no issue with the blood flow of the replanted limb and the muscle tendons had healed, but the primary challenge was nerve repair. According to electromyography tests, the nerves have currently grown to the wrist, which is in line with an average growth rate of one millimeter per day. Nerve rupture isn¡¯t like other tissue ruptures. Other tissues can heal, but nerves are different. Once nerve fiber ruptures, the far-end of the nerve becomes utterly useless. The nerve fibers dissolve, leaving only an empty tube. Nerve repair depends on the nerve near the rupture growing in from the distal end left by the tube, and it needs to grow to the end of the limb to have good function. The higher the position of the nerve break, that is, the further it is from the periphery, the less likely it is to make it through. The tubes are large tubes enclosing small ones, and many nerve fibers can¡¯t find tubes. Without the tubes, they stop growing, like a train without rails that can¡¯t go anywhere. Limb nerves are divided into motor nerves and sensory nerves, which have different functions. Many nerves grow into the wrong tubes at the nerve end, with motor nerves may enter sensory nerve tubes and sensory nerves entering motor nerve tubes. Incorrect entry into tubes results in the nerves losing their function after growth. With these factors, the recovery of peripheral nerves, especially the recovery of high-position nerve damage, has a poor effect and is a global challenge. Qiangzi¡¯s nerves had reached the wrist, and the muscles in his forearm were under control. Both dorsiflexion and flexion of the wrist joint were very good, and the flexion and extension of the five fingers were also good. But the opposition of the thumb and adduction and abduction of each finger weren¡¯t possible because these actions are driven by the muscles of the hand. Currently, the nerves have not reached there, and have not connected with the muscles of the hand. Based on the current growth trend, the last five centimeters should also grow in place. Qiangzi demonstrated the resistance activities of the elbow and wrist joints and the ball-gripping exercise of the five fingers with a dumbbell in hand. If they waited another two months, he should probably be able to write and use chopsticks easily. At present, the intrinsic muscles of the hand have not yet received neural control, and without the thumb¡¯s opposition movement, it is challenging to hold a pen and chopsticks. For the five-section replantation, achieving such results in half a year¡¯s time is already considered a significant success. ¡ª Yangzi¡¯s estimation of G City¡¯s traffic situation was spot-on. At around half-past eight, she managed to deliver Fujiwara Miyuki and Takahashi Fumiya to Sanbo Hospital on time. Of course, Fujiwara Miyuki and Takahashi Fumiya naturally became the focus of the conference. Fujiwara Miyuki is the champion of the Victoria¡¯s Secret Fashion Show, and the only doctor in the world to bear that title. As a doctor of the Tokyo University affiliated hospital, Takahashi Fumiya gained fame early and was often active in various large international conferences, a top figure in traumatology. For instance, at the North American Trauma Conference, he was invited as a guest, seated in the first row. The only others of this standing in Asia was probably his teacher, Fujiwara Masao, and him. After hearing Director Tan¡¯s introduction, Takahashi stroked his chin. The five-section replantation of the upper limb, hoping for a good function was impossible. Takahashi Fumiya had a clear judgement about this. This was merely a gimmick for the conference. There was nothing substantial to offer, only the expertise in limb replantation was available. As for its function, wait and see. From beginning to end, Takahashi was reluctant to participate in such a minor conference. He had strong resistance. Behind every polite act, he hid arrogance and prejudice. He didn¡¯t even initiate conversation with the South Korean doctor next to him. When asked a couple of questions, he also answered rigidly, hoping for the conference to end quickly. He was there to complete the task on behalf of his teacher. The surgical video of limb replantation was very shocking. The speed and rhythm of the surgery was simply unbelievable. But Takahashi believed the video was likely edited and should be taken with a pinch of salt. As a top figure in trauma surgery, he was very clear about the challenges of the five-segment replantation. If the nerves were to grow successfully, they would have to bridge five gaps. This required extremely sophisticated nerve suturing techniques. It was theoretically possible but impractical. Nobody could accomplish this. If he couldn¡¯t do it, who could? Takahashi decided that if there was an opportunity, he would personally examine the patient¡¯s functions. It was yet uncertain if he would get that chance. Though initially uninterested in the conference, this thought suddenly sparked his interest, much like a spectator insisting on exposing a magician¡¯s trick. The theme of the presentation Takahashi brought today was ¨C the application of infrared monitoring equipment in trauma surgery, especially the usage of hemoglobin fluorescence imaging technology. Combined with excellent computer algorithms, it could render trauma patients transparent on the operating table. Their team currently led the world in this technology, making it almost impossible for bleeding to go wrong on the operating table. Fujiwara Sensei¡¯s next goal was to conquer the reparative aspect of peripheral nerve damage. He would also be using infrared technology. They would use a drug to clean the nerve fiber, allowing it to appear red under the infrared light while sensory nerves appeared blue. Then we would integrate these images with the camera system. All nerve fiber images captured on the screen were segregated into clear blue and red segments. Blue to blue, red to red, there would be no mismatching of nerves. The result of nerve restoration would multiply exponentially. The two factors of a poor nerve recovery were incorrect nerve regeneration resulting in nerve fiber damage and slow nerve growth causing degeneration in target organs. The Tokyo University affiliated hospital had solved the first problem and were currently testing the latter. Though it wasn¡¯t fully mature yet, a breakthrough could be made very soon. If both were resolved, they would overcome a global challenge. The second problem was that nerve growth was too slow. Motor nerves control muscles, which sometimes undergo degeneration due to a lengthy lack of nerve control. By the time the nerves have luckily grown in, the muscles are no longer muscles. They have turned into fibrous tissues, unable to perform their usual function of contraction, even with nerve control. To counter this second problem, one could either speed up nerve growth or maintain normal muscle conditions for a prolonged period of time, preventing fibrosis. Takahashi was currently researching this topic, aiming to speed up nerve growth and expedite their combination with target organs. Attending such conferences was boring. It felt like a university student listening to a primary school lesson. Takahashi really felt like yawning. He secretly glanced at Fujiwara Miyuki, who was listening attentively to the speech. Takahashi found this lady quite amusing. The killer point was, there was the same on-stage trauma surgery demonstration, later today or maybe tomorrow. This was just too boring. It was like watching a football match. A match between Brazil and China was going to be a completely one-sided encounter, leaving the spectators extremely bored. ¡°Takahashi-kun, please be serious. Sensei sent you here for a meeting, not for vacation.¡± Miyuki reminded the Takahashi beside her. For he was actually falling asleep, his hands crossed over his chest, with eyes half-closed. At this point, Director Tan was about to invite the patient, Qiangzi, to demonstrate his limb function. The magic show was about to begin and Takahashi was getting excited. He unscrewed the cap of his water bottle and took a sip. Because his concentration was elsewhere, he almost choked on the water. Chapter 241 - 0226: The Indestructible Magic Chapter 241: Chapter 0226: The Indestructible Magic The main venue was packed to the brim, with a multitude of extra chairs set up towards the back. Those sitting in the rear couldn¡¯t clearly see the person on stage and had to rely on the hanging screens to watch. Qiangzi had made an effort to look clean and tidy; he¡¯d shaved his beard that morning and was wearing new clothes he¡¯d bought a few days prior. He was deeply grateful to the doctors whose superb surgical skills had saved his arm. Therefore, he insisted on personally demonstrating the active functions of his reattached limb to over two thousand doctors as a means of expressing his gratitude. He could rush into raging flames without even blinking an eye, but now on such a large stage, he was somewhat daunted. His girlfriend stood by the steps behind the stage, gesturing to him to ¡°keep going¡±. In the meeting room, large screens were hung every dozen rows. At this moment, the video was focused on Qiangzi and zoomed in for a close-up. Qiangzi rolled up his sleeves above the elbow, revealing a few scars, then started demonstrating the functions of his limb. The rotations of the forearm, the flexion and extension of the wrist and elbow joints, the flexion and extension of the fingers¡ªhe demonstrated everything at both fast and slow speeds, using dumbbells for the elbow and wrist joint demonstrations, and a small ball for the finger demonstrations. Half a year ago, many doctors attended the national online orthopedic trauma conference, the details of the five-section replantation still fresh in their memory. Watching that operation had felt like watching a blockbuster movie, stirring their emotions and making their blood boil. The five-part replantation surgery had made use of highly difficult fascicular suturing in nerve anastomosis, and a quick reconstructive surgery for thumb loss. Many had assumed that this was a show project, pursuing the survival of the limb without considering its functionality, with the ultimately useless limb needing to be amputated afterwards. Such thoughts were logical; how could a limb severed into five parts be functional? Even the probability of survival was minimal. But now, the patient¡¯s personal demonstration spoke volumes. Live demonstrations were more convincing than texts, images, or videos. The conclusion was evident; not only did the limb survive, but it was functional and very effective too! This wasn¡¯t an attention-seeking surgery; it was an ideal example of a highly complex reattachment. Currently, the nerve has grown to the wrist and will soon cross over to the hand. Once the nerve reaches the hand and restores the intrinsic muscles and the thumb¡¯s opposing function, the basic hand function will be restored. If the nerve could reach the fingertips, then 80-90% of the entire limb functionality could be restored. This was a miracle, an absolute miracle! The conference had just begun, but the entire venue was alive with excitement. Some individuals, finding the screens too unrealistic, brazenly left their seats to get a closer look at the front, only to be promptly stopped by the venue¡¯s attendants. The distinguished guests in the front row were also buzzing with conversation. Meng Heng, Fu Shancheng, Professor Su, and Director Han were seated together. Meng Heng sincerely admired, ¡°Old Han, you¡¯ve created a miracle and brought limb reattachment to a new peak.¡± ¡°To be honest, I never had any hope for this surgery¡¯s functionality, but its recovery is incredibly astounding. Considering the progress rate of nerve growth, there shouldn¡¯t be any problems with it reaching the hand,¡± Fu Shancheng candidly admitted. Director Han was overjoyed. This surgery was presented by him and Director Tan to incite enthusiasm at the conference, and it seemed they had achieved their goal. ¡°My eyesight is not so good nowadays. This surgery was performed by the younger generation, led by Xiao Yang,¡± Director Han said, tapping the table rhythmically and smiling. Xiao Yang? Wasn¡¯t that the student Old Han introduced last night? How remarkable these young people are! Last night, Director Han had introduced these bigwigs to Yang Ping, one by one. These bigwigs didn¡¯t pay much attention then and just made a symbolic handshake, but now they all seemed interested in knowing more about Yang Ping. ¡°This young man is quite a talent. If he wasn¡¯t Old Han¡¯s student, I would¡¯ve made a move to recruit him a while ago,¡± Professor Su remarked. Everyone knows that Professor Su is a talent scout. His interest in recruiting a person indicates a remarkable talent. The foreign guests were gaping. Such a surgery was beyond their imagination. In their hospitals, such a terrible case would only undergo stump remodelling, and they wouldn¡¯t even try to attempt replantation. ¡°Oh! My God, it¡¯s incredible!¡± exclaimed Dr. Fleming from Israel, standing up, both hands on the table. The dexterity of the Chinese was astonishing! As a trauma surgeon, this was Fleming¡¯s first time in China. The concept of a five-part replantation, as mentioned in the invitation, had piqued his interest enough to see what kind of magical surgery it was. Dr. Sheldra from India adjusted his glasses, stood up, and leaned forward: his white face flushed perhaps due to excitement-induced blood vessel dilation. This shattered his conventional wisdom. He knew about China¡¯s prowess in limb replantation but had never imagined it could be this extraordinary. The guests from Singapore, South Korea, and the Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions were all discussing amongst themselves. They were all colleagues, and the complexity and effectiveness of the operation were evident. Fujiwara Miyuki watched the video on her tablet as it offered a clearer view. She had called up the surgery video provided by the hospital. The operation was simply breathtaking. Suturing the nerve fascicle was easier than suturing the skin. The surgeon¡¯s confidence and audacity made the procedure look effortless. Takahashi finally began to take interest. Seeing the nerve bypassing the two anastomoses in the forearm without any loss was impressive. He pulled up patient data on his tablet. Based on regularly checked electromyographic values, Takahashi drew a trend line on a sticky note. Having deeply researched nerve growth prognosis, he could determine the remaining recovery space based on this trend line. Chapter 242 - 0226: The Indestructible Magic_2 Chapter 242: Chapter 0226: The Indestructible Magic_2 A complete statistical line is drawn, Takahashi¡¯s pen tip traces along the statistical line incredulously. According to the statistical line, nerve growth did not plateau, it could reach the fingertips directly. If the electromyogram is real, this patient could achieve excellent results. How could this be possible? Takahashi raised his hand to speak, and upon Director Tan¡¯s invitation, he stood up and picked up the wireless microphone in front of him. In order to keep up with Fujiwara Miyuki¡¯s fashion style, he wore a beige and white checkered suit and a dark red printed tie, looking very fashionable. The name ¡°Takahashi¡±, could be heard echoing throughout the conference hall! Immediately, countless adoring glances were directed towards him, and the screen shifted to a close-up shot. Usually, attendees could only read his papers and translated books, but now that he was here in person, it was quite exciting. It was similar to anime enthusiasts meeting Hayao Miyazaki, the excitement was tangible. People wondered what unique insights ¡°The Expert¡±, Takahashi, was about to offer. Everyone was waiting with bated breath. ¡°Is that really Takahashi Fumiya from Tokyo University¡¯s affiliated hospital?¡± ¡°Did he really come?¡± ¡°He is a world-class trauma surgery expert.¡± ¡°We should ask him for a photo during the tea break later.¡± ¡°Coming here really was worth it.¡± ¡ª Takahashi was the most well-known and academically recognized person in the entire conference. ¡°Professor Tan, could you allow me to come onstage and examine the patient¡¯s limb function?¡± Takahashi asked, in Japanese. Director Tan was a little familiar with Japanese, but was more proficient in English. After all, it was agreed before the conference that everyone would communicate in English. Takahashi¡¯s proficiency in English was also quite high, as he used English in all his conferences in Europe and America. Now he was dropping Japanese phrases here and there. Director Tan was a little upset with his arrogance. From the moment they shook hands at their first meeting, Takahashi always gave off a condescending aura. Even his handshake was only a brush of hands. ¡°Mr. Takahashi, I¡¯m sorry, but I didn¡¯t understand what you said. Could you speak in English or Chinese, please?¡± Director Tan had no intention of indulging him. Although Director Tan wasn¡¯t world-famous, he had a strong, unperturbed personality. He won¡¯t tolerate arbitrary behavior from a guest. Today, he was the host, and he must have the final say. Takahashi shrugged, and had no choice but to repeat his request in English. ¡°Mr. Takahashi, he wants to personally come up and examine the function of this patient¡¯s limbs,¡± Tang Fei translated for the audience. ¡°Of course!¡± Director Tan replied directly in English. Director Tan knew from Takahashi¡¯s attitude and look that he didn¡¯t believe in the result of the surgery. Takahashi put down the microphone, straightened his suit, nodded to everyone in the conference hall, and walked towards the podium. He bowed slightly to Qiangzi, ¡°Excuse me, I am Dr. Takahashi, and I would like to conduct a detailed examination of your limb. May I?¡± Tang Fei also walked over to help translate. Qiangzi nodded and extended his reimplanted right upper limb. Takahashi smiled, unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt, rolled up his sleeves slightly, rubbed his hands together to warm them up, and showed great professionalism. He started the Tinel¡¯s test, to determine the location of the nerve, performing it with great skill and delicacy. It seemed that the median, ulnar, and radial nerves had all reached the wrist at the same time, indicating that the nerves had grown at a steady rate and reached their expected destination, which was consistent with the tendon map analysis. Takahashi frowned, then began examining the flexion and extension of the wrist joint, comparing it with the healthy side. There was no significant loss of range of movement, and the muscle strength reached the standard of grade five, which indicated a very high quality of muscle-tendon healing. There were plentiful muscle fibers and healed tendon fibers, with minimal amounts of scar tissue. He then tested the ulnar and radial deviation of the wrist joint. Most people only pay attention to flexion and extension, and ignore the ulnar and radial deviation. The ulnar and radial deviation of the wrist joint could test the tension adjustment after the tendon repair. Adjusting the tension for several broken sections is quite challenging. It¡¯s the same as adjusting the chassis of a car. Even experts would be helpless to adjust the racetrack chassis using a low-grade, inexpensive suspension. Surprisingly, the performance of the tendons; the ulnar deviation and radial deviation were very good. The tension of all the tendons had been excellently adjusted from Front to back, inside and outside, showing a good balancing effect. There were five fracture points with four tendon-like connections. It seemed unlikely to have avoided adhesion. Takahashi tested the movement of the fingers. Whether it was flexion or extension, the range of motion reached the limit. There was no tendon adhesion, and the sliding was incredibly smooth. The temperature on the surface of the limb indicated the patency of the blood vessels, the supply of the arteries, and the return of the veins. Any poor performance in any part of the process would change the surface temperature. If the patency is slightly worse, the skin temperature of the limb could be lowered. This wouldn¡¯t affect the viability of the limb, but it might cause frostbite in the cold winter. Takahashi extended both hands and touched Qiangzi¡¯s arms from the fingertips to the palms, then to the wrists, and finally to the elbow joints. He was meticulously feeling for temperature differences. ¡°Do you have a skin temperature meter?¡± Takahashi asked. There was no denying his thoroughness. Upon Director Tan¡¯s signal, Dr. Che from the Rehabilitation Department, who was standing by the steps behind the podium, immediately ran over. He had already prepared everything- a reflex hammer, a tape measure, and a skin temperature meter. ¡°Mr. Takahashi needs the skin temperature meter!¡± Director Tan said to Dr. Che. Dr. Che promptly handed the skin temperature meter to Takahashi. He used the meter to compare the temperatures on both sides, measuring the skin temperature point by point. The difference between the two sides was within an acceptable range. ¡°Lower your hand and relax!¡± Takahashi said in English, with Tang Fei translating. He wanted to observe if the resting position of the hand was normal. The resting position indicated the balance of the muscles and tendons during rest. Compared with the left side, both hands were surprisingly consistent in the resting position. It was nearly impossible to adjust the resting position posture to completely resemble a healthy person. When Takahashi performed this kind of surgery, he prioritized adjusting the dynamic balance and directly gave up adjusting the tension in the resting position. He had to choose just one out of the two sides, the dynamic balance being the most critical in this case. But this surgery had managed to strike a balance on both sides. Based on the current situation, this patient¡¯s limb could recover more than 90% of its function. This was unbelievable! Could it be that they forged this case and had someone who was not an amputee pretend they were? Takahashi continued the examination. The patient¡¯s hand muscles, including the interosseous and lumbrical muscles, showed signs of atrophy. The skin of the hand appeared smooth and dry, characteristic of lost nerve supply. It didn¡¯t seem like the patient was pretending because it was hard to simulate the appearance of peripheral nerve loss on the skin. The entire examination process was magnified and shown on the screen for all the doctors in the room to learn from this world-class expert. Professional, meticulous, and fluent, each examination met its anticipated goal, it was no wonder he was a world-class expert. He executed even the simplest examinations with great depth. The magic trick showed no flaws, it was an impeccable performance. Takahashi felt a bit disappointed, he gave Director Tan a thumbs up and returned to his seat. ¡°Takahashi, you don¡¯t seem very happy?¡± ¡°No, I am feeling very good.¡± Takahashi rolled down his cuffed sleeves. Chapter 243 - 0227: Sleeping on Spears, Awaiting the Dawn Chapter 243: Chapter 0227: Sleeping on Spears, Awaiting the Dawn ABC Team Three, all on standby in the operating room. The surgery demonstration, no one knows when it will start. The more indefinite the time, the more agitated and anxious everyone becomes. ¡°Why hasn¡¯t the emergency department called?¡± Zhang Lin is getting a bit frantic from waiting. Little Five is also pacing back and forth: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the meeting just started over there.¡± ¡°Everyone, stay sharp. When the surgery demonstration starts, it¡¯s going to depend on when the emergency department admits the patients. As soon as there¡¯s a patient, it can start at any time.¡± Song Zimo was more able to keep his calm. Everyone is resting in the changing room, while Yang Ping lies on the long bench sleeping, entering the System Space. His advancement in Sports Medicine has been completed and the surgical training for bone diseases has been unlocked. He already has 140,000 points. Bone disease surgeries are of various types, including tumors, infections, degenerative diseases and so forth, with tumor surgeries being the majority. Tumor surgeries are different from trauma surgeries. Trauma surgeries primarily focus on repairs, while tumor surgeries aiming for removal, with the goal of causing the minimum damage and blood loss, and removing the tumor as cleanly as possible. Yang Ping enters the training space, spends 60,000 points, and buys a thousand cases of tumor surgeries. The system, with its consistent devil-like characteristics, simulates some unimaginable peculiar cases. Perhaps this is the system¡¯s intention, using the most challenging cases for its devil-like training, to cultivate a surgeon that it deems qualified. Trauma occurs in the normal anatomical structure of the human body, and everyone¡¯s anatomy is fairly similar. However, tumors, they are not normal anatomy at all, every tumor has its own anatomy, each one is bizarre and unique, never repeating. To perfectly remove a tumor, one needs to know its growth and invasion range, as well as the distribution of its feeding blood vessels and the relationship with surrounding important organs. Protecting important organs and successfully removing the tumor is a challenging task. There are no easy tumors in the system space, all kinds of odd growth patterns, for example, the tumor invades from the liver around the aorta, forming an enclosure, then breaking through the anterior longitudinal ligament of the spine, growing into the vertebral canal, and in the canal it extends in various directions, invading the spinal cord. The system requires complete removal to be considered qualified. After performing two hundred surgeries, Yang Ping still can¡¯t meet the standards. Even if he fails to meet the standards, as the number of surgeries increases, the system space will continue to increase the difficulty. Three hundred surgeries, four hundred surgeries¡ª¡ª After each surgery is completed, the display screen shows the range of the tumor in red and the range Yang Ping has removed in blue for comparison to determine the effect of the surgery. By the time he reached five hundred surgeries, he was still a little short of meeting the standard. With the training efficiency of the system space, he couldn¡¯t meet the standards even after five hundred surgeries? In the system, five hundred surgeries have an efficiency ten times higher than in reality, sometime even higher. Are these tumors too difficult to remove, or are the standards too high? When he got to the six hundredth surgery, it looked like he was going to make it, but the last important feeding blood vessel was not handled properly, causing bleeding, and was judged not qualified. This tumor had thirty-nine feeding blood vessels, Yang Ping had ligated thirty-eight of them but missed one, yet he was still judged to unqualified. The number, distribution, and course of each tumor¡¯s feeding blood vessels are completely different. Even with angiography, it¡¯s not always possible to find and ligate each one. Moreover, the system only provides ordinary CT and MRI for reference. Yang Ping was already doing pretty well by being able to ligate thirty-eight of them. Let¡¯s continue. If he still fails to meet the standard after one thousand surgeries, the remaining one hundred thousand points will be cleared, then he will be the passive one. He regrets a bit that he chose this time to enter the system space for training. Once a decision is made, there is no going back, only going forward. Seven hundred surgeries, eight hundred surgeries, finally achieved the passing standard. Any task can be done by following a particular pattern, Yang Ping finally managed to figure out the characteristics of the tumors. Nine hundred surgeries achieved specialization, and after the thousandth surgery, he achieved perfection. Perfection, just means being able to perform the surgery according to the textbook, flawlessly. At the master level, one needs to make significant improvements to the surgery; while at the grandmaster level, one must have significant original theoretical contributions. The higher the level, the more difficult it is to advance between levels. After the last surgery is done, Yang Ping removed a huge tumor, the surface of which is covered with ligated blood vessels in a dense manner. After exiting the system space, Yang Ping continues to rest, storing up energy. ¡°Does what we are doing now count as being on tenterhooks?¡± Fatty is quite cultured. ¡°Bro, can you not use words you¡¯re not sure about? It¡¯s not ¡®being on tenterhooks,¡¯ but ¡®sleeping on one¡¯s weapons and waking at dawn.¡¯ ¡± Zhang Lin is a bit exasperated. ¡°The meaning is pretty much the same, isn¡¯t it? Don¡¯t be pedantic.¡± Fatty retorts. ¡°Let¡¯s go and watch the conference, we can see it on the screen in the operating room.¡± Song Zimo suggests. ¡°Let¡¯s go and watch the guest lecture.¡± Yang Ping gets up from the long bench. He didn¡¯t dare to use the remaining points in the system, saving them for emergencies. ¡ª¡ª Outside the meeting room, wherever there was available space, it was congested with stalls set up by medical equipment vendors. Each company¡¯s booth had at least three staff members. Various orthopedic devices were displayed on the booths for the representatives to know about. Several major companies, including Johnson & Johnson, even set up a simulated surgery training room next to their booth. They used plaster models as patients, prepared a complete set of equipment and tools, and allowed doctors to perform simulation surgeries to experience the use of new equipment. Apart from the booths, outside the conference room, there were also many refreshment stands with candies, biscuits, pastries, fruits, coffee, and drinks. Some doctors came out for a breath of fresh air, snacked on some refreshments, took some photos, and fiddled with the devices at vendors¡¯ booths, asking a few questions. Huang Jiacai reclined leisurely behind the booth, with Jiahui standing beside him. There were three booths for Johnson & Johnson, presided over by Fengyi Gan personally. This conference was extraordinary. In the past, in the eyes of Gan Fengyi, Sanbo Hospital was a third-tier customer, not a key market. Hence, Jiemai was the one with the highest usage amongst the few medical equipment vendors in Sanbo¡¯s Orthopedics department. Gan Fengyi decided to reassess and elevate Sanbo from the third-tier to the first-tier, to compete head-on with Jiemai again. Manager Yu of Jiemai, upon seeing Fengyi Gan personally take action, realized the gravity of the situation. This woman was planning to snatch their market again. It was Fengyi Gan who had previously thrown Jiemai off the leading position in both Fuer One and Fuer Two sites. There was nothing he could do. This woman was too strong. There was no fortress she could not conquer. ¡°Manager Gan, you¡¯re personally present? Any subordinate could have attended this kind of conference,¡± Manager Yu went over to curry favor and probe a little. ¡°Manager Yu? Didn¡¯t you also come personally?¡± Fengyi Gan chuckled. Even though he was her competitor, Manager Yu admired Fengyi Gan profoundly. This woman was truly competent, not relying on her looks for success. Others might attribute such excellent performance to their looks if it were another woman. But for her, nobody who knew her well would think this way. There were rumors about Gan Fengyi within the circle. Several years ago, for conquering a hospital¡¯s market, Gan Fengyi personally went out to dine with the hospital director and discuss business. Unfortunately, that director was an old lecher who drooled over Gan Fengyi. After dinner, the director promised to give her the entire hospital¡¯s market, but insisted on discussing some details privately with Gan Fengyi. A private discussion? Surely! Gan Fengyi readily agreed. The director was overjoyed, got rid of everyone else, and began to make advances as soon as he saw the opportunity. Well damn, he had messed with the wrong person. This Gan Fengyi was a black belt in Karate. She grabbed the director¡¯s offending hand and with a crisp noise, his wrist bone was broken. That wasn¡¯t all. She kicked him hard below the belt, seemingly hitting the director¡¯s sensitive spot with her high heel, making him roll around the floor in pain. After this incident spread, no one in the industry dared to mess with Gan Fengyi. The unfortunate director eventually meekly handed over the business. It was said that Gan Fengyi had some embarrassing information that he didn¡¯t want anyone to know. Usually, Manager Yu would take a detour when he saw Gan Fengyi, due to the rumor that a kick from her could easily incapacitate a man. Gan Fengyi paid him little attention. Not having gained any satisfaction, Manager Yu exchanged a few words and left. Gan Fengyi¡¯s approach was ruthless; while maintaining her calm on the outside, she had already discreetly laid the groundwork to defeat Jiemai. To facilitate the demonstration of surgeries, she urgently rented a house. It was fully equipped with various devices, especially those of an unconventional nature. She picked a few top-notch technicians on standby in the rented house, ready to take action at any time. This house would later serve as a dedicated medical equipment warehouse for Sanbo, with three personnel on duty, ensuring any equipment could arrive in Sanbo¡¯s operating room within fifteen minutes. She also assigned people to stay at the district 120 center and Sanbo¡¯s emergency department, so they could obtain information about patients in surgery demonstrations as soon as possible to prepare the necessary equipment, guaranteeing a lethal strike when she makes a move. Gan Fengyi had also clearly investigated that the young Doctor Yang was the first lieutenant under Director Han, a formidable figure in Sanbo¡¯s orthopedics department. No wonder Huang Jiacai was so cocky; he had managed to ingratiate himself with someone of this calibre. Indeed, it was her negligence; she was oblivious of such a person in Sanbo, allowing a small company like Ruixing to seize the opportunity and make large shipments of sports medicine equipment. This lecherous man couldn¡¯t be underestimated. Gan Fengyi glanced at Huang Jiacai, and remembering her conversation with him from yesterday, where he had the audacity to flirt with her. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She had never been humiliated like this. Today she had learned her lesson and changed her outfit. There was no further exposure of her chest, otherwise, it would be giving this bastard a treat. Huang Jiacai was sitting close to the Johnson & Johnson booth, so close that Gan Fengyi wished she could gouge out his eyes. Chapter 244 - 0228: A Tense Moment Chapter 244: Chapter 0228: A Tense Moment The Affiliated Hospital of Tokyo University in Japan, boasts a history of 160 years. This hospital, originating from the Edo era, has always occupied the top of the pyramid of Japanese medicine. Even in the world of medicine, Tokyo University¡¯s Affiliated Hospital holds an important place. Many new technologies originate from here, but it¡¯s just that people don¡¯t know about it. The technology of arthroscopy for example, originated here. The USA and Europe once sent doctors for training here before taking the technology of arthroscopy back to America and Europe, where it slowly developed. Tumor infrared fluorescent imaging technology also originated here. The world¡¯s first case of liver cancer surgery using ICG fluorescence labelling was born in this hospital. Then, they developed the infrared 3D navigation system for liver cancer, pushing surgical operations of tumors towards precise digitization. On Saturdays and Sundays, associate professors and professors usually rest, but today is an exception. Fujiwara Masao, director of the Orthopedics department, leads the university attendees into the teaching room. Inside the teaching room, doctors from three generations sit neatly arranged in a row according to their titles and seniority, from the front to the back, precise and formal, sitting straight up. The hierarchy system of Japanese universities is also fully embodied in the affiliated hospital. A dean professor has absolute authority in his field without any interference. Usually, case discussions take place every Tuesday and Thursday from 7:30am to 9:00am. However, today is Saturday and everyone has gathered together, without wasting any time. They have conducted supplementary case discussions for the entire week from 7:30am to 9:30am, for a full two hours. In addition to preparing slides to assist with case explanations, the presenter also has to draw sketches on a whiteboard. The hand-drawn sketches are very exquisite because every doctor from his university days is required to spend one to two hours practicing drawing every night, which is an essential skill for doctors. First, they draw according to anatomy books, then draw while referring to CT scans, and finally, during anatomy classes, they have to draw sketches referring to actual corpses. No margin of error is allowed when drawing any organ, blood vessel, or nerve. This is because, theoretically, doctors are not supposed to make mistakes. With the help of these images, the presenter has to thoroughly explain the injured part, the injury mechanism, the degree of injury, the changes in pathological physiology and anatomical structure after injury, the impact on the surrounding organs, and the local and overall prognosis of the patient. If there is even a slight loophole, the professors present would question it sternly. They use a tracking-style questioning technique, exposing all the knowledge related to the issue by asking a series of questions based on a single loophole. For example, in the case of a pelvic fracture, the amount of bleeding, the total blood volume of the human body for children of different ages, adult men, women, and elderly people will all be queried. The pathophysiological changes that occur when the human blood volume decreases by a certain percentage, the component configuration for blood transfusions, the combinations of crystalloid and colloid fluids for intravenous therapy will be discussed. Under ischemic and hypoxic conditions, the pathophysiological responses of various organs of the human body and the medical principles hidden behind each test indicator is examined. From clinical to anatomy, physiology, pathology, pathophysiology, tissue embryology, biomechanics and so on, knowledge loopholes are dug out with no place to hide. After two solemn and intense hours of case discussion, they took a half an hour break. At ten o¡¯clock, Tokyo time, or nine o¡¯clock Chinese time, they began to watch the academic conference. ¡°Everyone, please concentrate. There is always something to learn from others. We must be good at learning from the strengths of others in order to become the strongest. I am relying on you all.¡± Fujiwara Masao, in his fifties, has a thick and black short beard, bright eyes. He is also a sportsman. Sports help him maintain a robust body and abundant energy. He loves the ¡°Book of Five Rings¡± and always places a copy under his pillow. He also requires every student to become familiar with this book. He believes that sincerity is the key to solving all difficulties in the world. All morning, the teaching room was silent. Everyone concentrated and watched the academic conference. ¡°Sasaki, are you ready?¡± Fujiwara asked the Sasaki sitting next to him. Sasaki is a bit younger than Takahashi. Although he doesn¡¯t have the same amount of experience or academic standing as Takahashi, he is more talented than Takahashi and he has an abundant amount of energy. He is always in a state of excitement as if he is always in a state of hormone secretion. He doesn¡¯t feel tired even after many surgeries. Therefore, he is like an intelligent surgical machine. He never tires and never makes mistakes. Any complicated operation becomes accurate in his hands. Fujiwara appreciates him a lot. ¡°Sir, I¡¯m ready! Ogawa team and Niiroi team are in place.¡± Sasaki slightly bowed with great respect. ¡°Very good. We must go all out for every surgery!¡± This is Fujiwara¡¯s famous saying. Ogawa Kumaide and Niiroi Hiro are both lecturers, equivalent to attending doctors, and subordinates of Sasaki. They are the first team responsible for this surgery demonstration. Then, the second and third teams are all in place. ¡°Good, unless necessary, you don¡¯t have to go on stage. This is a demonstration of friendship, so don¡¯t make it too embarrassing. Face is the most fragile thing in the world.¡± Fujiwara reminded again. ¡°Sir, I understand, I won¡¯t go on stage unless necessary!¡± Sasaki couldn¡¯t possibly go against Fujiwara¡¯s wishes. ¡°What do you think of their five-section replantation?¡± asked Fujiwara Masao. Sasaki had been watching the conference¡¯s live broadcast just now: ¡°Sir, this should just be a show. The origin of limb replantation is China, they have unique case resources, which can cultivate excellent microsurgeons. But for the five-section replantation to achieve such good results, it¡¯s impossible. Even using our lab¡¯s peripheral nerve recognition and growth-promoting technology, it¡¯s hard to restore such an effect.¡± ¡°But, the facts are before us, they demonstrated the patient on stage, I can¡¯t see any flaws.¡± Fujiwara respected the objective facts. ¡°Sir, pardon my frankness, your impression of China¡¯s medical community might be stuck twenty years ago. Now, academic fraud is rampant there. Many so-called cutting-edge achievements eventually fall apart because they cannot be replicated, and some papers published in top international journals are found to be fraudulent and retracted. In their medical community, paper fraud is the norm.¡± Sasaki explained. Fujiwara nodded, ¡°Is that so? Confidence is a good quality, but conceit can block the whole view. We should still be cautious, Sasaki. You¡¯d better pay attention to this case and use scientific means to verify the potential success of this case. Don¡¯t rush to a conclusion.¡± ¡°Understood, I will keep an eye on it.¡± Sasaki promised. It was already afternoon, everyone had just had lunch and rested briefly, and then began to watch the conference again. The speaker was a doctor from South Korea, Park Choon-ui. At this time, a young doctor came in, walked quietly to Sasaki and whispered something in his ear. After hearing the message, Sasaki made a gesture and the messenger doctor left the lecture hall. ¡°Sir, there was a car accident on the Palace Bridge Expressway, a multiple collision, one of the vehicles involved was an ambulance from a nearby hospital, our ambulance has already left.¡± Sasaki reported to Fujiwara. ¡°That¡¯s terrible! Another accident has occurred in this area, just like a few years ago.¡± Fujiwara was very familiar with the area around Tokyo. ¡ª Takahashi received information from the Tokyo headquarters. The ambulance there had already left, and the demonstration could begin. He spoke a few words with Fujiwara Miyuki, and then raised his hand to Tang Fei, who was not far away. Tang Fei immediately came over, and Takahashi said, ¡°Our ambulance has already left. Can we switch to the surgical demonstration?¡± Because the surgical demonstration was spontaneous, the two sides would not be synchronized, which was considered normal. Tang Fei immediately reported to Director Tan, who then ordered, ¡°After the lecture by our guest speaker, Doctor Park Chun-ui from South Korea, please pause for a while. Connect to Tokyo University Hospital on the screen and proceed to the surgical demonstration.¡± The screen displayed a prominent caption: Upcoming surgical demonstration, Demonstration Hospital: Tokyo University Hospital. The venue immediately became noisy. The most thrilling part of the conference finally arrived. The trauma emergency surgery demonstration by Tokyo University Hospital was about to begin. Many people had lost interest in listening to the lecture. Some were drinking water, some stretching, some immediately went to the restroom, and some took off their glasses and started cleaning them. When Doctor Park Chun-ui¡¯s lecture ended, the repression in the venue instantly exploded with noise. ¡°Has the surgical demonstration started?¡± ¡°Yes, at Tokyo University Hospital.¡± ¡°I heard their ambulance has already left.¡± ¡°Quick, hurry, it¡¯s starting!¡± The screen flickered a few times and successfully switched to Tokyo. The internet has connected the world. The slightest movements in the distant Tokyo were showing on the screen right in front of them. Tokyo University Hospital, Trauma Emergency Center, shadows flickering, telephone ringing relentlessly. The moment of tension has arrived! Chapter 245 - 0229: Joining the Palace Bridge Chapter 245: Chapter 0229: Joining the Palace Bridge Tokyo winters almost always include snow. However, the snow in Tokyo is exquisite and delicate, unlike Hokkaido, where each snowfall is lavish and extravagant. A few days ago, a light snow fall left a thin layer on the rooftops, and the snow accumulated on the roads was promptly cleared away by people. Yet, mini snow plows could still be seen patrolling the streets, ready to remove newly fallen snow and ensure smooth traffic. The snow wasn¡¯t heavy; the plows seemed to be of little use. The streets were slightly moistened, with no snow visible; heaps of piled-up snow could be seen at intervals along the roadside, and there was the occasional snowman. People were not slowing down because of the snow; men were wearing trench coats, women wearing hats, and occasionally there were girls in short skirts, hustling down the street. On the highway, there was no trace of snow to be seen at all. Yoshino Kohama was sitting in an ambulance, followed by several more behind him. They had received news of a pile-up involving seven cars on the Sengoku bridge, which had resulted in numerous casualties. Yoshino was no stranger to this stretch of road, known for its high accident rate in Tokyo. The almost right-angled turn had caught many distracted drivers off guard. A few years ago, when he was still an assistant, he had participated in the emergency rescue of a car accident on this same stretch. Unexpectedly, a few years later, he was back; this time he was a lecturer. Due to the accident, a traffic jam had ensued for several tens of kilometers. There were no illegally parked vehicles in the emergency lane, not even a tire out of place. This facilitated the rescue operation. The fleet of ambulances, with flashing red lights, rushed forward at full speed and quickly reached the scene of the accident. Scattered car parts were everywhere at the scene. The traffic police had sealed off the area, and a rescue team was already in place, conducting rescue operations. The hospital¡¯s helicopter had already arrived, parked on the highway in front of the accident scene, with two doctors and a nurse having completed preliminary checks on the victims. Each victim¡¯s wrist was adorned with an identification band. Green represented stable vital signs, not required for immediate medical attention; Yellow indicated the need for immediate medical treatment, but was not life-threatening; red represented unsteady vital signs, indicating the individual¡¯s life was seriously threatened. ¡°Yoshino Kohama of Tokyo University Hospital!¡± Yoshino jumped out of the ambulance and took in a breath of air. A police officer wearing a reflective vest saluted him slightly. ¡°Mr. Yoshino, we really need your help. There are many casualties,¡± the officer explained. Watanabe, the command leader from the helicopter advance team and a senior lecturer-level doctor, rushed over to brief Yoshino on the preliminary check results. There were fifteen casualties in total: one was unfortunately already tagged with a black label indicating decease; out of the remaining fourteen, four had red labels, eight had yellow ones, and two were green. All the ambulances had their doors open. Without Yoshino¡¯s command, each had already divided into teams: those with green bands could wait, each with red ones would be tended by a separate team, and those with yellow ones would receive timely grouped treatment. The members of each group often cooperated with each other, whether during regular training or on emergency calls, their pairing was fixed and the teamwork was seamless. The head and tail of a Toyota hatchback were completely crushed. Only after the rescue team cut it open with tools, was the casualty moved onto flat ground. ¡°He¡¯s unconscious, multiple fractured ribs, serious pulmonary contusion, hemothorax, tension pneumothorax, and fractures all over the body,¡± reported the doctor who was carefully assessing the patient. ¡°Perform a thoracic needle aspiration!¡± The doctor adjusted his gloves and ordered. Before the order had time to echo, the nurse had already retrieved the thoracic needle aspiration kit from the ambulance. The scalpel stabbed between the ribs and with a hiss, a high-pressure airflow rushed out, making a short and forceful noise. The drain tube was quickly inserted, and a series of bubbles immediately popped from the water-sealed bottle. The patient¡¯s breathing gradually eased, and his complexion improved slightly. The doctor¡¯s hands didn¡¯t stop; he was examining the throat area. ¡°Perform a tracheotomy!¡± He issued a clear and concise order. The nurse handed over the tracheotomy kit. The doctor worked skillfully and in less than a minute, had completed the tracheotomy and inserted the tube. At the same time, taking advantage of the interval of the doctor¡¯s operation, the nurse had already carried out blood sampling, attaching a label ¨C this was Sengoku Bridge casualty number two. ¡°Time to load him up, we can head back now.¡± The doctor changed his gloves, and the garbage from the operation was put into a yellow bag. After opening the stretcher, two stretcher-bearers moved the casualty onto it, then loaded him onto the ambulance. They had to stay with the red-coded patient in a one-on-one arrangement. The damage to another Honda SUV was hardly any better. It was seriously deformed. ¡°Femoral artery rupture, needs on-the-spot surgery. Open the suture kit,¡± commanded the doctor, using his bare hand to apply pressure to stop the bleeding. The nurse opened the suture kit, and the two of them started suturing the femoral artery on the spot, with the doctor clamping the femoral artery. He asked the nurse to observe the blood supply to the lower limbs, to which the nurse responded, ¡°Blood circulation is satisfactory!¡± ¡°We can apply a temporary tourniquet¡±, the doctor judiciously suggested and applied a simple tourniquet treatment. The situation with the third car was extremely grim. There was blood all over the ground, still spreading. Yoshino went from red to yellow, then to green, questioning every casualty himself. ¡°Comminuted pelvic fracture, internal pelvic organ damage, serious perineum rectal tear, extreme bleeding. I used an intra-aortic balloon to stop the bleeding, but it¡¯s not effective,¡± the doctor, seeing Yoshino approaching, promptly reported. Yoshino briefly gauged the patient¡¯s height and said, ¡°Push the balloon up another five centimeters. Next time remember, judging the bleeding position requires experience. People of different heights have anatomical landmarks with variations.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± The doctor cautiously deflated the balloon, then pushed it up another five centimeters and re-inflated it. Just as Doctor Yoshino advised, the blood did not spurt from the severely mutilated lower limbs and perineum once the balloon was moved up another five centimeters. A compact car had suffered the worst fate. The driver had already been labelled black, denoting decease, while a woman in the backseat was unconscious. She was Sengoku Bridge casualty number one. The injured with the black tag were still moved aside, a group of medical staff performed standard cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, checked repeatedly only to finally give up. ¡°She¡¯s pregnant, things went awry, something has pierced her abdomen, the fetus has been injured?¡± The patient had already been moved to a flat stretcher, and the doctor had completed a tracheotomy, connecting to a simple ventilator. Hemorrhagic shock, blood type identified, cross-matching blood, transfusion! ¡°Yoshino, she¡¯s in bad condition, her pupil has dilated on one side!¡± The doctor needed Yoshino¡¯s assistance. Intracranial hemorrhage, increased intracranial pressure, brain hernia forming. Yoshino used two fingers to pry open the patient¡¯s eyelids, observed the pupils, and quickly made a judgment. Before becoming a trauma surgeon, he had received rotations in internal and general surgery; he could independently perform emergency trauma surgeries on any part of the body. ¡°A quick drip infusion of 20% Mannitol! Open the surgery first aid kit, no time to get to the hospital, perform a bone flap decompression!¡± Yoshino decided without hesitation. If cranial pressure is not relieved on the spot for this patient, she won¡¯t make it to the hospital. Years of experience led him to make this precise judgment. The injured was taken to an ambulance that could perform surgeries, and the surgery first-aid kit was opened. An electric razor was used to shave the head, sterilized sheets were laid out, hands were sprayed with disinfectant. He wore double gloves, the scalp was cut open, a nurse handed over an electric cranial drill, Yoshino drilled a few holes, then used a saw to cut around the circumference, a large piece of skull was lifted off, and brain tissue instantly swelled out. A specially designed sterile protective cover was placed over the skull defect, the removed piece of bone was carefully wrapped by a nurse then set aside. ¡°Call a helicopter, get her on it?¡± Yoshino instructed. Stretcher bearers lifted the patient along with the ventilator onto the helicopter, which also carried blood samples from each casualty for cross-matching back at the hospital. ¡°Take off!¡± The doctor responsible for the pregnant woman ordered. The helicopter slowly ascended, the strong airflow flattened the grass on the roadside of the highway. The pregnant woman was transferred via helicopter while all other red and yellow-tagged casualties were dispatched via ambulance back to the main hospital. Yoshino looked up at the sky, re-entered the vehicle, pulled out his laptop, and wrote a report on the patients¡¯ conditions to send back to the hospital, where someone was ready to receive it. ¡°Help me!¡± someone waved and shouted. A passenger was trapped in the driver¡¯s seat of a Volvo XC90 and needed the vehicle to be cut open to be extricated. He was a green tag, the remaining group of doctors went to see him only now. ¡°The Volvo saved him, the extremely strong A-pillar amazingly did not deform, the maintained space saved his life. This is the life space.¡± A rescue worker said. ¡°Boron steel, regular cutters will take a long time!¡± The rescuer was very familiar with these vehicles¡¯ construction, the most difficult to cut during rescue was Volvo. ¡°Use the laser cutter!¡± another team member suggested. A laser cutting machine was brought down from the vehicle and placed nearby. ¡°Clear out!¡± The rescuer put on protective goggles, the doctors and nurses stepped back. Laser cutting, the water jet helped to cool and quickly evaporated into gas. Upon completion of the cutting, the driver was carefully taken out, doctors checked him again, vital signs were stable, he still had a green tag. ¡°Help me, I can¡¯t do it, get me to the hospital with a helicopter!¡± The man was very nervous. Yoshino patted him: ¡°You¡¯re rather lucky, you¡¯re the last one to get in the vehicle.¡± ¡°Oh my god, where¡¯s my wife, she¡¯s still in the car!¡± The driver suddenly remembered. ¡°No worries, she got in long ago and is waiting for you, if there¡¯s no complications, you guys can go watch a movie tonight.¡± Yoshino reassured him. His wife was also a green tag, with minor soft tissue contusions. His wife sat in the back seat of the car, the car door could be easily opened, so she was rescued earlier. The last one was put in the ambulance, Yoshino was soaked in sweat. Luckily, no one honked their horns among the stuck vehicles behind, everyone silently waited. Some people stepped out of their cars, constantly rubbing their hands, or making phone calls, explaining to their companies or homes for being late. A man in a windbreaker came over, ¡°Do you need help?¡± The policeman stopped him: ¡°Thank you! Not needed, professionals are here, we¡¯ll be done soon, return to your spot, wait quietly.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve worked hard, Dr. Yoshino!¡± The policeman still remembered Yoshino¡¯s name. Yoshino waved: ¡°To be honest, I hate to see you, hope to never meet again!¡± The policeman laughed: ¡°Hopefully.¡± The last ambulance started, speeding towards the hospital. Yoshino leaned back in his seat to rest, feeling a bit regretful, yet another person was tagged black. Each time, he hopes for as many black tags to come back as the ones he took out. But this time, he was short by one. If only they could have arrived a bit earlier, but, they were already fast. Chapter 246 - 0230: They All Must Live Chapter 246: Chapter 0230: They All Must Live Fourteen casualties were smoothly transported back to the hospital, the pregnant woman that was brought back by helicopter, is already on the operating table. Yoshino did not fail his mission, for now, they were all alive. As a doctor in charge of pre-hospital emergency care, his duty ended the moment the casualties were handed over to the hospital. Although sometimes, the surgeons needed a detailed understanding of the situation at the scene and would discuss it with Yoshino, his primary responsibilities were over nevertheless. Wanting to light up a cigarette, Yoshino went alone to the smoking room. He was aware of the health risks of smoking, and he advised others against it, but he needed some way to relieve the pressure. ¡°Good job Yoshino!¡± Sasaki called. Yoshino, in the ambulance, decisively removed the skull cap of one casualty, adequately decompressed it, and even cleared some of the hematoma under very basic conditions. His judgment based on the symptoms and signs was very accurate. Most of the hematoma was cleared, and the brain herniation was promptly handled, winning valuable time for the rescue. Otherwise, the person brought back by the helicopter now would not be a living being, but a cold corpse. ¡°A few years ago, in a similar situation, I hesitated and eventually gave up. The patient ended up dying, and I have been living with regret, constantly questioning why. Today, I didn¡¯t hesitate. Whether the mother can survive or not, I did my best, now it¡¯s your turn.¡± Yoshino was just a cog in the system. The system works well only when every cog is functioning properly. Yoshino and Sasaki were about the same age. While Sasaki was already an associate professor, Yoshino was still a lecturer, but it didn¡¯t bother him. The greatest joy for him lies in saving lives. ¡°The fetus is already five months old and there¡¯s still a fetal heartbeat. We pulled up her past medical documents, and she had spent five years and visited numerous hospitals to become pregnant. It¡¯s obvious how desperate she is to become a mother. I have decided to save the baby as well. Mr. Fujiwara agreed.¡± Sasaki shared the details of their surgery with Yoshino. ¡°That¡¯s amazing! Keep it up!¡ª¡± Yoshino felt a strong sense of accomplishment. He was hopeful that if they succeeded, he would have his share of the credit. However, saving both the mother and the fetus was highly risky and difficult. It was not surprising that Sasaki made such a decision; he was always creating miracles. He was Death¡¯s rival, who knows how many lives he had snatched from the jaws of Death. From the emergency center to a detailed examination, and then onto the operating table, it had taken less than ten minutes. Because it was a pregnant woman, the best examination would be an MRI, but a metal piece had been inserted into the abdomen. After contacting the car manufacturer to confirm that the piece of metal was magnetized, they had to forego the MRI. The powerful magnetic field of the MRI would move the metal, potentially causing it to be dislodged. Hence, a CT scan was performed on the pregnant woman instead. Although X-rays could harm the fetus, at five months gestation, it would not cause any deformities. Compared to saving his small, young life, the potential harm was insignificant. Niiroi Hiro was performing the surgery. With real-time infrared monitoring and the images obtained from the CT scan, they drafted a 3D image of a ¡°Digital Human¡± that was displayed on a clear Sharp plasma screen. The transparent 3D image could be rotated 360 degrees. The injured parts were marked in yellow, the blood vessels in red. The imaging contrast agent that was bound to hemoglobin reached all over the body, capturing images of the bleeding points accurately and clearly. The system also indicated which part and which blood vessel the chief surgeon should prioritize. The intracranial hemorrhage was precisely displayed, as was the damaged brain tissue. The thermal parameters of the brain tissue and the changes in blood flow were calculated by the infrared monitoring device, determining the degree of contusion in the brain tissue, down to every functional area. Niiroi was highly skilled. Using the opening made by Yoshino in the skull as the entry point, he carefully removed the remaining blood clots, and staunchly stopped the bleeding until all the red disappeared from the screen. The brain edema due to the trauma would persist for some time. During this period, the brain tissue needed more volume and should not be compressed in any way. The original volume of the cranial cavity would not be adequate. Niiroi then placed an artificial protective cover onto the patient, fixing it onto the surrounding skull bones. This could protect the brain tissue and also increase the volume. When the edema subsides, the artificial protective cover would be removed and the patient¡¯s cranial cap replaced. Regarding the brain tissue contusions, there was no method to treat them. The only thing that could be done was to create the best conditions for self-recovery. This method of cranial decompression by removing the cranial cap had more beneficial effects than the common method of decompression by removing a bone flap. This technique originated from the Ilizarov Hospital in Siberian Russia. Tokyo University Hospital sent two doctors to study there for a year, and after their return, they improved and perfected the technique. ¡°The student has surpassed the master.¡± Their application of this technique, in terms of effectiveness and safety, had far surpassed that of Russia. Life signs are stable! The anesthesiologist said. Doctors loved to hear this. All kinds of invasive and non-invasive monitoring data were fed into the giant computer. The computer processed at high speed, simulating the dynamic changes of the ¡°Digital Human.¡± Such amounts of data could almost be computed instantaneously by the hospital¡¯s trauma emergency system host. After completing the cranial surgery, it was time to start the thoracic surgery. Niiroi decided to use thoracoscopy. The scope would enter the thoracic cavity through the intercostal space, washing away the blood inside with a saline solution. Due to the severe compression, multiple rib fractures occurred. The fractured bone ends had punctured and caused severe lung damage due to this pressure. Stopping the bleeding and repairing the fractures were constant themes in trauma orthopedics. They performed single lung ventilation. The injured lung stopped receiving air and collapsed, as per the anesthesiologist¡¯s control. Niiroi was very well-versed with the endoscopic technique. He calmly cauterized the ruptured blood vessels one by one to stop the bleeding. For larger blood vessels, cauterization would not work. He then sent in a silver clamp to firmly secure the end of the blood vessel. While stopping the bleeding and inspecting the area, they found that the heart and aorta were fine. All bleeding points were eliminated. The cleaned thoracic cavity was displayed on the screen thanks to the flushing with the saline solution. It was time to repair the lung. The lung tissue was soft and fragile, making the repair rather challenging. Nonetheless, Niiroi tried his best to repair it. Varying shapes of tears were stitched up one by one, restoring their normal shape. The diaphragm was also torn, with the pressure difference pushing the abdominal organs into the thoracic cavity. Niiroi made another laparoscopic entrance in the abdominal cavity, inserting another set of lenses and instruments. The laparoscopic system¡¯s screen began to split, the left side showing the thoracic cavity, the right the abdominal cavity. The left hand used a blunt rod to enter the thoracic cavity; the right hand used a no-damage clamp to enter the abdominal cavity. With both hands working together, pushing and pulling gently, parts of the pancreas and small intestine that had herniated into the thoracic cavity were returned to the abdomen and then repositioned. He repaired the diaphragm under the scope, washed the thoracic cavity with saline once again, and there was no bleeding. He reestablished ventilation to the damaged lung, with no noticeable leaks, confirming the repair was satisfactory. Similarly, under the microscope, he repositioned the ribs using a simple wire for minimally invasive fixation. Ten ribs, all repositioned and fixed, then the scope was removed from the thoracic cavity. He began the laparoscopic procedure to stop bleeding from the ruptured mesenteric artery, then repaired the ruptured intestine and damaged pancreas. The liver and spleen were fine, having dodged the pressure from the car seat. Even if the liver and spleen were ruptured, it would not be a problem for Niiroi, only requiring a minor adjustment to the surgical order. Firstly, he¡¯d deal with the liver and spleen injuries under the microscope, then he¡¯d fix the pancreas and small intestine. His adept laparoscopic skill made the operation seem no different from an open surgery, but with better results and less trauma. Such complex chest and abdominal combined injuries were handled by Niiroi through only a few small incisions the diameter of a little finger. The fetus¡¯s heartbeat was still present, but the amniotic fluid had leaked due to a rupture in the uterine membrane. Without amniotic fluid, the fetus cannot survive, so the assistant kept injecting artificial amniotic fluid. A steel plate, likely part of the car seat, had punctured the pregnant woman¡¯s abdomen, going from front to back, piercing the fetus¡¯s body. Open surgery was necessary; laparoscopy could not handle this type of operation. There were very few cases of fetal trauma surgery. Niiroi lacked experience in this area, having only performed fetal orthopedic surgeries before. The five-month-old fetus was only twenty centimeters long, slightly longer than two fingers. To successfully perform the surgery, a microscope was needed. This might be the most difficult trauma operation in the world. A warming lamp was adjusted to shine into the pelvic cavity from different angles to keep the fetus warm. Niiroi cut open the abdominal cavity, opened the uterus, stopping the bleeding as he exposed the area, preparing to remove the metal shard. Normally, during fetal surgery, the fetus needs to be partially removed from the uterus for visibility. However, it cannot be entirely removed, or the fetus would lose warmth; therefore, only part of the fetus can be moved out to expose the surgical site, and it has to be put back into the uterus after the surgery. Extreme caution was needed for the procedure. Any incidence of placental abruption would put the fetus¡¯s life in jeopardy. The uterus was opened, revealing the fetus, the poor little thing. ¡°Sir, it¡¯s my turn now.¡± Sasaki and Fujiwara were sitting in the operating room. ¡°Be careful, both need to survive the surgery,¡± Fujiwara had strong faith in Sasaki. ¡ª¡ª At Sanbo Hospital, the surgery was being broadcasted live on screens in both the main venue and sub-venue. ¡°Niiroi Hiro, Orthopedic Lecturer¡ª¡ª¡± Details of the Chief Surgeon were displayed in both Chinese and English on the screen. Everybody watched intently, nobody moved or made any noise, even the act of drinking water was minimized. From head, to thoracic cavity, to abdominal cavity, a young intermediate-level doctor performed a surgery so deftly. His laparoscopic skills, in particular, the thorough inspection and meticulous repair in trauma surgery, and carpet-style hemostasis, was as fine as a teaching demonstration. The computer-aided trauma surgery system, mainly monitoring with infrared, combined with CT scanning, could even reconstruct a digital human. This was eye-opening indeed! All of these real technologies and techniques could hardly be replaced by a keyboard. Someone had a dry throat, swallowed several times, but still felt dry and uncomfortable. Although it was originally planned for a young intermediate-level doctor, now that it was fetal surgery, it was reasonable to have a higher-ranking doctor take over. The junior doctor had already performed splendidly; they had displayed world-class standards. ¡°It¡¯s Sasaki¡¯s turn now!¡± Takahashi mumbled to himself, he believed in his junior. Such a surgery required a microscope, and a full-time operation with both hands hanging in the air; compared to replanting amputated limbs with elbows resting on the table, the difficulty increased significantly. This was indeed the pinnacle of microsurgery. What would a five-section replantation count for? Takahashi derided the idea in his mind. The screen showed a clear and detailed view, the uterus opened, the fetus exposed. Sasaki was already scrubbing his hands and putting on the surgical gown; he was about to perform a surgery that would astonish the world. Chapter 247 - 0231: Truly Arrogant Chapter 247: Chapter 0231: Truly Arrogant Song Zimo yawned and stretched, having just finished watching Niiroi Hiro¡¯s laparoscopic surgery. For an ordinary intermediate-level doctor to have such laparoscopic surgical capabilities is rare. Not many doctors dare to perform trauma surgery with a laparoscope since it requires quick execution while the surgical area is flooded with blood. Unless one is extremely proficient with the use of a laparoscope, they would not even dare to consider it. Those capable of performing life-saving operations using a laparoscope usually have the ability to perform such surgeries even more smoothly than open ones. Niiroi Hiro was just like this ¨C and he was just a student of Sasaki¡¯s. Song Zimo initially thought Niiroi was deliberately chosen, but the operations demonstrated on several other small screens showed each chief surgeon to be highly skilled, barely any different from Niiroi. Ogawa Kumaide was also performing thoracoabdominal trauma surgery using a laparoscope. His laparoscopic skills were just as proficient; it¡¯s just that Niiroi¡¯s case was more severe and was hence of more interest to everyone. If all these doctors were so capable, what kind of surgeon must Sasaki be? The more Song Zimo watched, the more excited he became, feeling a surge of eagerness in his heart to conquer these unseen heights and traverse these uncharted territories. He glanced at Yang Ping who, incredibly, was nodding off. His eyes were half closed and he seemed to be staring at the screen without actually watching it. ¡°Senior Brother!¡± Song Zimo probed cautiously, trying to figure out if he was actually asleep. Without opening his eyes, Yang Ping responded lazily, ¡°I¡¯m watching. What¡¯s up? Got any thoughts?¡± ¡°Has Young Master Song set his sights on Niiroi Hiro?¡± quipped Little Five, jokingly. ¡°That kid¡¯s a freak. He performs laparoscopic surgery as if it¡¯s child¡¯s play. We should forget about trying to surpass him and just focus on not falling too far behind,¡± Zhang Lin said in a somewhat deflated tone. Remaining slouched against the wall, Yang Ping replied, ¡°You¡¯re all underestimating Young Master Song. The man he¡¯s set his sights on hasn¡¯t even taken the stage yet!¡± ¡°Sasaki? Surely not! Is he out of his mind?¡± chimed in Fatty. Although he was an anesthesiologist, he still had some understanding of matters. Song Zimo¡¯s face flushed slightly. ¡°Let¡¯s just see. He¡¯s about to take the stage. He¡¯s going to wash his hands.¡± Would Sasaki really take the stage at this point? It seemed there was no more surgery to be done. The only things left should be the removal of the uterus and the fetus. This would allow for rapid completion of the hemorrhage control and stabilization of the blood pressure. After Niiroi elegantly completed such a severe and life-threatening combined thoracoabdominal injury using a laparoscope, would there be a need for Sasaki to get involved in a mere uterus and fetus removal? ¡°What kind of operation is this?¡± Little Five exclaimed. On the screen, Niiroi carefully opened the abdominal cavity and incised the uterus. The five-month-old fetus wouldn¡¯t have survived even if it were brought out, let alone with ¡°a knife¡± embedded in it. ¡°A trauma surgeon performing a cesarean section?¡± Fatty seemed surprised. After the uterus was incised, Sasaki, having washed his hands, entered the scene. A camera was attached to the robotic arm on the ceiling. A nurse was adjusting the camera on a monitor. This was no ordinary camera¡ªit was a microscope camera. ¡°Wait, is he planning to perform a fetal surgery under a microscope?¡± Song Zimo craned his neck to see the procedure. He could almost assert that it was neither a uterus and fetus removal, nor a cesarean section. This was pushing the boundaries of trauma surgery¡ªperforming surgery on a five-month-old fetus! Completing an emergency surgery for a fetal trauma? Saving both mother and child in front of so many doctors, challenging such a high difficulty, this reflected his supreme confidence in his surgical skills. No wonder he is considered one of the top two trauma surgeons in Japan. In other hospitals, under such conditions, there might only be one choice¡ªremove both the uterus and the fetus. At most, they could take a risk to retain the uterus. To save the mother¡¯s life, they would have to sacrifice the fetus. This kind of fetal surgery requires delicate and careful work. Even the most professional fetal surgeons would need to spend a long time performing the surgery under a microscope. Moreover, the fetal surgeons who are adept at fetal abnormality surgery, mostly lack experience in this kind of trauma surgery. Fetal injury ¨C what a low probability event! Sasaki certainly hasn¡¯t performed many fetal trauma surgeries. His choice reflects immense confidence in his fundamental surgical abilities. All surgeries have unique and common characteristics. A highly skilled surgeon should be able to apply surgical skills to deal with unprecedented cases, including unusual ones. This operation needed to not only be completed, but also completed in a short amount of time. Within an hour, even half an hour, the surgery must end; otherwise, it would be difficult for the pregnant woman to endure. It required incredibly powerful microsurgical skills to perform a delicate and high-risk operation with both hands suspended in the air under a microscope for an hour. Song Zimo took a deep breath ¨C this mountain seemed a bit too high. ¡ª In the front row of the audience, other than the foreign guests, all were influential figures in the domestic field. The rows right behind the first one were representatives of major teaching tertiary hospitals. Upon witnessing the surgical demonstration, all these high-level professionals were awestruck. Although many had studied abroad, they were still inevitably shocked. As the saying goes, a fish always in a pond will only ever see fish weighing a dozen pounds at most. When brought to a lake, it may see fish that are tens or even a hundred pounds. When brought to the sea, however, it will see sharks that weigh tons. In the pond, one can never see a shark, let alone imagine a shark¡¯s existence. This is the necessity of openness. One must step onto the world stage, venture into the vast expanse of the universe, bravely compete, in order to become a shark; otherwise, one will forever remain a small fish. Such surgery demonstrations, from any perspective, reflect the physicians¡¯ qualifications, management systems, medical equipment ¡ª all around are top-notch. Emergency on-site craniotomy, endoscopic surgery for trauma care, and even that trauma care system which has actually entered the AI era. Based on large amounts of computer calculations, infrared surveillance, CT scans, MRI scans capture images, while various tracer agents track the overall blood flow and cell metabolism status. Their integrated data can remarkably rebuild a digital human. This digital human is not simply a 3D anatomical diagram, but a real-time, three-dimensional image that reflects precise anatomical and functional details. Both the prominent figures and foreign guests cast their eyes on Takahashi Fumiya and Fujiwara Miyuki. This is an involuntary respect in the face of strength. Many years ago, we heard rumors about this Japanese system. We guessed that it¡¯s an infrared navigation or CT navigation system, at most an advanced surgical robot system. Who would have expected it to be such a complex and advanced system? This technology must have gone through several iterations to perform as maturely as today. Just this kind of perseverance is worthy of respect. Acknowledging and learning from the opponent requires extreme courage! To surpass and defeat the opponent requires extreme wisdom! Professor Su, Director Han, Meng Heng, and Fu Shancheng sat in the front row, all engrossed, not even taking a sip of water. Meng Heng and Fu Shancheng think that Professor Su invited them to the conference for a reason. Professor Su probably knew in advance that the Japanese would display this technology at the conference, so they were asked to come and get some stimulation, then strive to catch up together. ¡°Can Old Han and his team still manage their demonstration?¡± Meng Heng asked Professor Su, who was uncertain: ¡°Let¡¯s see!¡± Now they¡¯re in a tough spot: they must proceed with the demonstration, but it¡¯s impossible to outshine the others. It¡¯s likely to be a bit embarrassing later on. Although Yang Ping is remarkable in performing surgeries, surpassing these people, especially Sasaki, is almost impossible. For limb reimplantation and arthroscopic surgery, young people have a chance to practice. If their talent is high, they can achieve an exceptionally high level. But this kind of complex trauma treatment is not just about talent, but requires a large number of cases. Sanbo¡¯s microscopic trauma orthopedics have not been prominent for a long time; it¡¯s impossible for Yang Ping to be better than Sasaki. If he can keep up with these lecturer-level doctors, he is already very remarkable. It¡¯s easier to advance in one field, but to progress in all fields is challenging. This is not just a question of individual talent and quality, but involves the entire training system. Professor Su thought, it¡¯s okay to face the gap. Young people should take some blows to further strengthen their faith. Let them roam freely in the sea. If they want to grow into sharks, they must compete for food with sharks. ¡°Should we find a reason to cancel the demonstration?¡± Fu Shancheng leaned over and suggested to Professor Su through Professor Meng Heng. After all, it wouldn¡¯t look good to be too embarrassed later. Professor Su disagreed with this approach: ¡°If we cancel it, will the gap disappear? It¡¯s better to truly demonstrate on the same stage and expose the real gap.¡± The subtext is that your proposal is like burying your head in the sand. Professor Su¡¯s words were a bit stern. Fu Shancheng, who was well-intentioned, felt snubbed. Was this older brother taking things too seriously? No longer speaking, Fu Shancheng, Meng Heng tried to smooth things over: ¡°How about we provide some support together?¡± Combining everyone¡¯s abilities should prevent things from looking too bad. After all, with the combined strengths of Huaxi, Beijing¡¯s three hospitals, as well as Mo Sixth, having the young delegates of these hospitals who came to the conference perform should not seem inferior, right? Even though trauma surgery indeed raises huge challenges! Even if we can¡¯t keep up with the management systems and medical equipment, our surgeons¡¯ skills shouldn¡¯t be much worse than those young kids from Tokyo, right? The idea is good, everyone is eager to excel, but Meng Heng is unsure. ¡°I appreciate your sentiment, but Old Han won¡¯t agree to this. Don¡¯t you understand him?¡± Professor Su¡¯s tone softened, feeling that he had been a bit too harsh on Fu Shancheng earlier. The three of them looked to their right. Old Han beside Professor Su didn¡¯t seem worried at all. It was like people on the shore worrying more than the person actually in the boat. Old Han¡¯s fingers were habitually drumming on the table, and he was humming something in his throat. An opera tune! What the hell! At a time like this, they¡¯re about to crush us, and you¡¯re still in the mood to hum a tune? They wanted to say something to him, but they didn¡¯t know how to initiate the conversation. This was akin to fiddling while Rome burned. Ah well, it¡¯s just Sanbo Hospital. Even if it gets crushed, it doesn¡¯t represent much. Meng Heng and Fu Shancheng settled back to continue watching. The microscope was brought over. Sasaki had already washed his hands and returned. He wasn¡¯t intending to remove the uterus and fetus? At least, we should remove the fetus, right? He seemed to be planning fetal surgery. At this life-saving moment, he dared to perform fetal surgery? How arrogant! All the doctors present were surprised. Everyone had thought that the next step would be to remove the fetus and the uterus. No one expected this. The microscope was even brought in. It looked like they were preparing to perform fetal surgery. Chapter 248 - 0232: Channel of Life Chapter 248: Chapter 0232: Channel of Life A surgical procedure on a five-month-old fetus unfolds! Niiroi relinquished the role of Chief Surgeon to become the assistant instead. A robotic arm extended from the ceiling, connecting to the camera, which was then moved to the optimal position. This camera is no ordinary one; it¡¯s a long-focus high-definition micro camera, equivalent to a microscope. This kind of microscope is much better than ordinary surgical microscopes; it¡¯s a smart long-focus microscope. Such a small camera can film from a distance away from the surgery area. The images are transmitted to the screen and can be magnified according to the Chief Surgeon¡¯s wishes five, ten, fifty, a hundred times¡ª During surgery, if the patient moves, the lens will automatically adjust according to the changes to maintain rapid autofocus and always ensure a clear image on the screen. Conventional surgical microscopes are short-focus, aimed at close distance to the surgical field. The operator observes directly through an eyepiece to perform surgery, which is very tiring for the eyes, and the operational space is limited. If the patient moves, the field of vision may blur again and require manual readjustment of focus. However, with this microscopic imaging technology, surgeons can work without direct observation, similar to when performing arthroscopy, with their hands and eyes working separately, focusing on the screen during surgery. Sasaki¡¯s hands, holding the tools, entered the field of vision. His arms hung in the air as he worked under a tenfold magnification. His operation was incredibly steady and fluent, without a hint of trembling. The attachment of the placenta to the uterine wall, now very unstable due to injury, could not allow the fetus to move any longer. Not only was movement impossible, but the fetus also needs to be gently stabilized within the uterus by an assistant, maintaining an appropriate position; otherwise, it could potentially lead to amniotic membrane detachment. For premature placental abruption, if more than half of the placenta detaches, the fetus will suffocate; if it is less than that, it could cause massive bleeding for the mother, ultimately forcing the decision to abort the fetus. A delicate scalpel gently opened the fetus¡¯s abdomen. Sasaki carefully separated the bent intestines. The little one is so small, but even a sparrow, though tiny, is fully equipped. Despite his small size, his anatomical structure has no differences from an adult, every organ is developed. Any mishandling of even the smallest organ could be fatal. Step by step, Sasaki reveals that the liver has been cut open, the spleen is barely in a better condition, the stomach and intestines are torn, the worst part is that the pancreas is injured too, which is the hardest to deal with. The size of these organs is roughly equivalent to that of a peanut. The internal and surrounding structures are even smaller. To manage complex injuries on such tiny organs is far from easy. The entire procedure has to be completed in amniotic fluid. This surgery is extremely challenging! ¡ª Takahashi seemed very relaxed, glancing at Tan Boyun sitting in the first row. The seriousness displayed by Director Tan was palpable. Both the difficulty of this surgery and the capabilities required of the surgeons were top-tier; that had to be respected. Takahashi felt a sense of triumph. He was a little dissatisfied with Director Tan and enjoyed seeing him frustrated. Now, regardless of Tan Boyun¡¯s attitude, Sanbo Hospital had to act like respectful students. Takahashi then glanced at Han Jiangong, who seemed quite comfortable. ¡®Where does his confidence come from?¡¯ he thought, ¡®Is this a form of self-mocking?¡¯ Takahashi opened the conference program in his hands. The surgery demonstration by Sanbo Hospital also involved intermediate professionals. ¡®Is this some pathetic show of spirit?¡¯ Science is objective; it is not something that can simply be achieved with a moment of ambition. The Chief Surgeons for the operation: Yang Ping, Song Zimo¡ª¡ª¨C Such obscure names, who had never heard of them before? If a Chinese word were to describe this, it would be: ¡®a motley crowd.¡¯ Fujiwara Miyuki was rather annoyed by Takahashi¡¯s smugness. Even if you are ahead, such arrogance is unbecoming. It¡¯s merely an academic exchange; regardless of the level, we are here to learn from each other. ¡°Mr. Takahashi, please watch your expression!¡± Fujiwara Miyuki reminded him. Takahashi shook his head: ¡°I¡¯ve always been this way, Miss Fujiwara. You should focus on the surgery. Sasaki is teaching a class to over 2,000 Chinese doctors right now. A perfect surgical demo, you should be proud.¡± ¡°Mr. Takahashi ¡ª¡ª ¡°Fujiwara Miyuki suppressed her anger. ¡°Do you think they will find an excuse to cancel the demo? It hasn¡¯t started yet,¡± Takahashi noticed Fujiwara seemed irritated, and was now apprehensive about further conversation. He changed the topic after yawning. Not only was Takahashi thinking this way, but most of the representatives at the conference also made the same assumption: Sanbo Hospital would certainly cancel their surgery demonstration. Given the high level of the Japanese demonstration, it would be quite embarrassing for Sanbo Hospital to persist with their demonstration and invite comparisons. However, no notice of cancellation appeared on the screen. ¡°The Japanese are almost done, Sanbo hasn¡¯t started yet?¡± ¡°They must cancel it, what¡¯s the point of demonstrating now!¡± Ou Lichun stretched his muscles and asked his director. The director responded without a second thought. ¡°My friend, Yang Ping, is the Chief Surgeon for the surgery demonstration.¡± Regardless of whether the demonstration was canceled, the fact that his friend¡¯s name was listed on the conference program schedule would at least bring Ou Lichun some sense of pride. ¡°Your friend is performing the surgery? With such an arrangement of demonstrating on the same stage as them, isn¡¯t there a huge gap in experience?¡± The director¡¯s words were simple but truthful. Ou Lichun¡¯s friend¡¯s competence could easily be guessed, and even if he were much more skilled than Ou Lichun, at most he would be at the director¡¯s level. ¡°The surgery demonstration is bound to be canceled.¡± ¡°They probably quietly canceled it, we just weren¡¯t notified.¡± This was the discussion of the two doctors sitting next to Ou Lichun. At this moment, the large screen is split in two, with one half showing Sasaki performing surgery. The other half is blank, with subtitles appearing: Surgery demonstration at Sanbo Hospital about to begin. They really have grit! Under this circumstance, they still have the guts to go to battle. Everyone was sighing, thinking it would be canceled, but then the notice came that the surgery demonstration was about to begin! ¡ª¡ª The emergency hotline at Sanbo Hospital finally rings. Within all trauma emergency centers worldwide, the top cases are always traffic accidents. A helicopter lifts off from the rooftop of the general surgery building, with Dr. Lv and a nurse carrying emergency equipment onboard. At the same time, several ambulances emerged from the emergency department parking lot, racing to the incident scene. Air and ground forces advance simultaneously; everyone has been training for an entire month, now it¡¯s time for real action. Once everyone in the hospital saw the helicopter taking off, they knew that the trauma emergency surgery demonstration at Sanbo had begun. Dr. Lv looked a bit anxious as the hospital building grew smaller in his field of vision, with his hands gripping onto the medical kit. Approximately ten minutes later, the helicopter arrived at the scene, landing smoothly on open ground next to the highway. Dr. Lv and the nurse, each carrying a box, ran towards the highway. For this moment, they have been running and training physically every morning. Looking afar, a traffic jam stretching dozens of kilometers with no end in sight. Damn it! The emergency lane was completely blocked, there was hardly any emergency lane to speak of, would the ambulance even be able to get here? Dr. Lv was merely the vanguard, the ambulance was the main force. Dr. Lv climbed over the barrier, sweat dripping from his forehead. This was the situation he feared the most. Once, when rescuing a patient with a ruptured liver and spleen, they encountered a traffic jam halfway through. Ultimately, with everyone¡¯s warm-hearted assistance, they relayed the stretcher, carrying the patient by running over the traffic jammed road. The patient was finally rescued, and the memory still jolted Dr. Lv. Now, facing a traffic jam spanning dozens of kilometers, how could a doctor possibly run in for rescue? It¡¯s like his worst fears realized. At this moment, those occupying the emergency lane should have their driver¡¯s licence revoked, forbidding them from ever getting a new one; No, that¡¯s not enough, they should be hauled out and beheaded without being wronged. Dr. Lv cursed. The emergency lane, the life-saving channel, was actually blocked. ¡°There are eight casualties! Someone was sandwiched between two trucks, the car was crushed into a pancake.¡± A traffic cop came running over to inform. ¡°Let¡¯s take a look!¡± Dr. Lv gathered his nerves. A cement truck lost control in the opposite direction, smashed through the barrier, and ended up on this side. Several cars didn¡¯t have time to avoid it and crashed into each other. The scene was horrific. Admittedly accustomed to bloodshed, Dr. Lv still felt a chill run down his spine. A car was squashed into a thin pancake alive by a couple of large trucks weighing tens of tons. Vehicles with wheels facing the sky, vehicles broken into two pieces, scattered fragments of glass, tires, and parts everywhere. Dr. Lv began to check each one. The fire rescue vehicle hadn¡¯t arrived yet, some were trapped inside the wreckage, unable to be removed. The first to arrive on the scene was a police car while Dr. Lv was the second. Dr. Lv along with the nurse began to triage the casualties. The first casualty was unconscious, in hypovolemic shock, with multiple fractures all over his body, his thoracoabdominal organs were injured, but his pupils still responded to light. a red tag was attached. He was given fluid to prevent shock, but without the ambulance, there were a lot of things they couldn¡¯t do, so they could only wait. The second casualty was unconscious, in hypovolemic shock. His abdomen was crushed, his intestines spilling out. The casualty was trapped in the car and they could only establish a venous channel in one of his arms for rehydration. The third casualty was unconscious, one of end of his pupils was dilated indicating head trauma. Most likely there was intracranial bleeding and brain herniation had formed. He was given a rapid drip of 20% mannitol. Bilateral thigh fractures were temporarily fixed with the help of a splint. The fourth casualty was bent out of shape, but still conscious. The fifth casualty was missing half of his face including the jaw, and one arm was torn off. The sixth and seventh casualties were unharmed, vital signs stable, labeled green. The two were in the same car, and were standing on the highway making phone calls. The last one, the eighth casualty wasn¡¯t a casualty anymore, the tag couldn¡¯t even be attached, and they could only stick it on a pile of metal. Dr. Lv¡¯s heart skipped a beat, he felt very uncomfortable, and his scalp seemed to prickle. Where is the ambulance? Why isn¡¯t it here yet? The two head trauma cases need surgery immediately, or they won¡¯t last more than an hour. After triaging, several with red tags were given emergency tracheostomies at the scene to maintain airway patency, IV fluid rehydration was initiated ¡ª¡ª ¡°We need to find a way to get the ambulance here, right?¡± Dr. Lv was extremely anxious. Just as he was about to call and inquire about the situation, police cars and ambulances appeared in the distance, driving in the wrong direction. Dr. Lv looked at both ends of the highway, one end was in a traffic jam, the emergency lane was also blocked, the highway was completely closed by the police, and not even one car could squeeze through. In this case, there were no cars on the other end, police cars led the ambulance, up from the other end of the highway, driving in the wrong direction. Smart! Help finally arrived! The rescue vehicles got closer and closer, reinforcements had arrived. Dr. Lv heaved a sigh of relief. Chapter 249 - 0233 Blocked Again Chapter 249: Chapter 0233 Blocked Again ¡°Their surgical demonstration has begun!¡± Fujiwara Miyuki reminded Takahashi that Sanbo Hospital hadn¡¯t canceled the surgical demonstration. Takahashi glanced at the screen, which displayed the background image for Sanbo Hospital, ¡°Wait patiently. The ambulance won¡¯t be back before dinner. You haven¡¯t experienced their traffic jams. The emergency lanes are blocked up tight. Sometimes even the ambulance may not be able to reach the accident scene.¡± Blocking emergency lanes is indeed detestable. But people¡¯s civilized behavior needs cultivation, and it can¡¯t happen overnight. China¡¯s development time has been short, and these things take time. ¡°Decades ago in Tokyo, it was common to see people urinating in public,¡± Fujiwara Miyuki casually said. Is she Chinese or Japanese, always defending China? Takahashi had a reason to question, who on earth this Miss from the Fujiwara family was. ¡°Their helicopter has taken off. With a helicopter, they can reach anywhere.¡± Fujiwara Miyuki was keeping track of the progress of the emergency rescue. On the screen, captions provided information on when the helicopter and the ambulance had set off. ¡°This kind of rescue isn¡¯t something that can be solved with a single helicopter. A complete rescue team, professional rescue tools, necessary medical equipment ¨C how many people and equipment can a helicopter accommodate? Don¡¯t harbor high hopes. You¡¯ll see, systemic differences can¡¯t be solved locally.¡± Takahashi believed that he had hit the nail on the head, Fujiwara was always naive. ¡ª Although the emergency lane was congested, the congestion was on the road section behind the accident site. There was no traffic jam in front of the accident site, and ahead of the accident site to the nearest highway entrance, the road was clear of vehicles. With eight casualties, including one already dead, this was considered a serious traffic accident. The district government had intervened in the rescue operation, and handed over medical aid to the most capable in the jurisdiction, Sanbo Hospital, and dispatched traffic police and firefighters to the scene for rescue. The one who arrived at the scene first was an old traffic officer. His police car was stuck on the emergency lane and couldn¡¯t move at all. He was very experienced. After carefully analyzing the traffic conditions on the accident segment, he asked his colleague to stay in the car and walked down the highway on foot. He commandeered a Great Wall pickup truck from a farmer and took a detour on the rural road to get to the highway entrance ahead of the accident section. Then, with hazard lights on, he drove against traffic to the scene. There was not a single car on this stretch of road, and he realized that the accident was serious. There must have been several cars involved, including heavy goods vehicles, which had caused the roadblock. Upon arriving at the scene, the old traffic police officer immediately cordoned off the area, blocking all cars behind the accident. He then reported to his superiors the general details of the accident and suggested a route for police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks to smoothly reach the scene. As such, under the direction of the district government¡¯s accident management task group, a police car took the lead, guiding the ambulance and fire truck from the nearest highway entrance, against traffic, up to the accident site. To ensure that the ambulance could smoothly return to Sanbo Hospital, the task group planned a return route, dispatching traffic police along the way to facilitate the traffic, preparing to escort the ambulance through each checkpoint. Once the main force arrived, all doctors and nurses got off and divided into groups to carry out emergency rescue on the patients, maintaining vital signs before tranferring them to the ambulance vehicles. Training was very effective. The doctors and nurses cooperated seamlessly, wasting no time, orderly and properly prioritized. The traffic police was led by Captain Qin of the squadron. He was having an IV drip at the hospital when he received a call from his superiors. He removed the drip himself and returned to duty. ¡°Captain Qin, there are a total of eight casualties. Dr. Lv has examined them. One has died and out of the remaining seven, five are in serious condition and two are less so. Among the five serious cases, three of them are stuck in the car and can¡¯t be removed.¡± Old He, the veteran traffic police officer, reported. Captain Qin said appreciatively, ¡°Old He, without your timely suggestion, we wouldn¡¯t have arrived so quickly.¡± He then saluted Dr. Lv, ¡°Thank you everyone for your hard work.¡± A fire truck arrived, bringing many people and quite a few equipment. They were very skilled, behaving instinctively the moment they got off the car, cutting, prying, and lifting whatever necessary. They managed to rescue people even from difficult cuts by flipping the car to its side and cutting from the chassis. The three trapped red tag patients were rescued and moved onto the stretchers. As the leader of the pre-hospital emergency care team, Dr. Lv once again quickly assessed the injuries and provided necessary life support. Patient one had severe traumatic intracranial hemorrhaging, half of the facial tissues had been torn and detached from the body. One side of the upper body was also torn and detached, and abdominal puncture indicated blood in the abdominal cavity, suggesting internal organ damage too. Both thighs were seriously deformed indicating probable comminuted fractures of the femur. Blood transfusion and fluid resuscitation were administered for shock treatment, emergency tracheotomy was performed to maintain a clear airway, and a simple ventilator was used to maintain patient¡¯s breathing. The detached tissues and body parts were preserved in a refrigerator. Dr. Lv quickly made this decision. With a blood transfusion bus present, it was quick to determine the blood type, cross-match, and transfuse blood on the spot. It was impossible to perform a surgery for intracranial bleeding on the spot, whether it was due to lack of technology or medical environment. After personally handling the first patient, Dr. Lv directed, ¡°Patient one must be sent via helicopter. Rush them back to the hospital for surgery.¡± Dr. Lv called Director Xiong Sihai and relayed the patient¡¯s conditions. After that, he gave instructions to the medical care team responsible for the patient. A few firefighters helped to lift the stretcher, and patient one was promptly moved to the helicopter. Patient two was also unconscious and sustained serious injuries. Their skull was likely fractured due to the panda-like discoloration around their eyes, indicating brain injury. Their intestines were squeezed out, spilling all over the place, some already necrotic. The doctors performed protective bandaging and gave blood transfusion and fluid resuscitation for shock treatment before sending them to the ambulance. Patient three, the one twisted like a pocket knife ¨C judging by the position of the injury, it seemed that they had been sleeping with their legs propped up at the time of the accident. With the violent impact, they had slipped under the seat and was squashed back and forth, causing their spine to fold forcibly into a pocket knife shape at the waist. The preliminary judgment is a spinal fracture and dislocation, both lower limbs have lost sensation and can¡¯t move. It¡¯s unknown whether the spinal cord or the horse tail nerves are damaged, but luckily, the patient is conscious, with stable vital signs. They¡¯ve been tagged as green, no immediate action needed, ready for surgery upon return. ¡ª¡ª Of the eight injured, only seven could be transported. One boarded the helicopter, six in the vehicles, all of them receiving blood transfusion. After finishing the rescue, Captain Sha came over to greet Dr. Lv, even offering a salute, ¡°I heard from Qiangzi, you guys are racing the Japanese in emergency rescue?¡± ¡°It¡¯s an academic conference, live broadcast, not a competition!¡± Dr. Lv raised his hand in salute, ready to get into the vehicle. ¡°Keep it up,¡± Captain Sha said, ¡°returning with only seven, unfortunately, one was beyond saving.¡± A traffic police officer¡¯s motorcycle screeched to a stop. The officer quickly dismounted, removed his helmet, and rushed over to report to Captain Qin, ¡°Captain, we have a problem! The highway exits we just passed are totally jammed.¡± ¡°What happened? It was perfectly fine just now, another accident?¡± Captain Qin scratched his head. ¡°Exactly, no casualties, but the roads are blocked. The traffic jam is getting worse.¡± Officer He, who has been riding the motorcycle out of concern, was helpless. After swallowing nervously, Captain Qin realized how dire the situation was. The closest highway exits were blocked, indicating something happened up ahead, and the ambulance was now stuck in the middle. With no exits, what could they do? Today was really an unlucky day. Upon hearing the news, Dr. Lv felt like he¡¯d fallen into an icehouse. How could this happen? The helicopter could only take one patient at a time, half an hour to get back and forth, plus the time to land at both ends. More than forty minutes, so at most two could be saved this way, the rest would be doomed. Just like last time, carry the patient on foot to find the car. But last time there was only one patient, now there were several, and they were stuck on the highway, no way out in the wilderness. Officer He¡¯s face is dark and grooved, the traces left by years of duty. ¡°You wait here, don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll think of something, Captain, you come with me.¡± Suddenly, Officer He seemed to have an idea. Captain Qin mopped the sweat off his brow and bellowed, ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± There¡¯s a traffic jam, the ambulance can¡¯t get back for now. As soon as the news reached them, the conference room exploded with chattering. Now they¡¯ve embarrassed themselves. What a mess it would have been avoided had the live surgery demo been cancelled. Upon receiving the news, Director Tan was as fretful as an ant on a hot pan, trying to maintain composure so as not to reveal his anxiety. The first step of pre-hospital emergency treatment was already flawed. The ambulance had barely managed to go in and was now unable to return, and they were in a real embarrassing position. ¡°Director Han?¡± Director Tan asked. Director Han seemed very calm, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we, the Chinese, can overcome any obstacle. The traffic police are working on it.¡± With eight injured, it was already a major traffic accident. The district government had already been involved. ¡ª ¡°Didn¡¯t I say, the ambulance won¡¯t be back by dinnertime?¡± Takahashi¡¯s words came true, making him even more triumphant. Fujiwara Miyuki was very anxious, ¡°They¡¯ll figure it out.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear? It¡¯s jammed up at both ends, the vehicles can¡¯t get off the highway. What will they do? Oh, what a crowd of riffraff,¡± Takahashi whispered, still caught by Fujiwara Miyuki. ¡°Takahashi¨C¡± Fujiwara was extremely disgusted with his arrogance. ¡°Miss Miyuki, please, don¡¯t be upset. I am merely stating a fact, without any ill intentions.¡± Takahashi defended himself. He lifted a bottle of mineral water, took a sip, wishing he could just avoid drinking the water here, if he could choose. ¡ªDr. Sasaki finished the exposure, cautiously removed the steel plate, and placed it in the curved dish. He sighed with relief. Finally, their chances seemed a bit better for the poor little guy. He began hemostasis and repair on the peanut-sized liver, sutured the torn common bile duct, and meticulously repaired the spleen and intestines. All that¡¯s left was the pancreas, too fragile, the little guy twitched from time to time, making every stitch a challenge for Dr. Sasaki. Suspended his hands in midair, stitching the pancreas smaller than a peanut, a mistake in a couple of stitches could tear the pancreas, the consequences were unthinkable. Pancreatic surgery was always high-risk and difficult, even for adults. For such a little guy, injuries involving the pancreas and liver, the organs and ducts all require meticulous repair, difficulty upon difficulty. Finally, there was a tear from one of Dr. Sasaki¡¯s stitches. Chapter 250 - 0234: If There Is No Path, Carve One out! Chapter 250: Chapter 0234: If There Is No Path, Carve One out! Aside from leaving two traffic officers at the scene, Captain Qin and Old He set off with traffic and fire police in several vehicles. Old He claimed to have a solution, though he was unsure if it would work. Under the current circumstances, what could be done? Dr. Lv and his team had no choice but to wait. The helicopter had yet to return and even if it did, it could only transport one more person back. If the traffic could not be cleared, the remaining injured had no hope. ¡°We need at least six units of type A blood!¡± an injured person¡¯s attending doctor yelled from a car. ¡°We only have two units of type A left,¡± replied a colleague from the blood transfusion vehicle. The refrigerator for the blood in the transfusion vehicle had limited capacity. A certain amount of every blood type is kept, thus the amount that can be carried is extremely limited. ¡°Pupils are larger, light reflex is extremely weak,¡± reported another doctor for a different injured person. ¡°Continue with 20% Mannitol IV drip, diuretic for intracranial pressure reduction,¡± Dr. Lv instructed the doctor. Why haven¡¯t they come yet? Almost half an hour has passed. Dr. Lv tugged at his chest anxiously. ¡°What¡¯s the situation? Where are you now?¡± Director Xiong shouted into the phone. Dr. Lv responded in his hoarse voice, ¡°We¡¯re stuck here, haven¡¯t even set off yet.¡± Although the weather was not hot, Dr. Lv was sweating profusely from anxiety. His entire body was covered in sweat. Several critically injured patients were barely hanging on, their heartbeats and breathing could stop at any time, every second was extremely precious. Everyone was on edge, anxiety gnawing at them. Some got out of their vehicles to take a look, only to jump back in and wait. The piercing sound of car horns, one after the other, added to their discomfort. Looking ahead, the highway was empty, void of anything. ¡°What¡¯s the situation? Is there still a heartbeat?¡± Dr. Lv asked, one foot in the car. ¡°Yes, there is. But the blood oxygen and blood pressure keep dropping,¡± replied a nurse inside the car who was watching the monitor closely. ¡°Increase the speed of the fluid!¡± Dr. Lv ordered. ¡°It¡¯s already at its fastest,¡± the nurse replied. Time flowed second by second, and lives faded like melting ice, disappearing without a trace as time passed. No one knew when the traffic congestion would be cleared. Finally, a police car approached from afar, driving against the direction of traffic. Old He and Captain Qin had returned. They¡¯re back. Everyone¡¯s spirits lifted, finally seeing a glimmer of hope amidst the despair. The police car pulled up beside Dr. Lv¡¯s ambulance. Captain Qin and Old He got out; Captain Qin waved his arm excitedly, ¡°Get in the cars, let¡¯s go! I¡¯ll lead the way in the police car, you all follow!¡± Old He glanced into the ambulance, ¡°The patient in your car is the most critical, right? I¡¯ll drive this one, the others just need to follow closely.¡± ¡°There is another patient who is also in critical condition!¡± Dr. Lv didn¡¯t understand what Old He meant. Captain Qin gestured for a young traffic policeman to come over, ¡°Which car? Have him drive. Hurry up, get moving, keep up!¡± Everyone got in the cars; Old He drove Dr. Lv¡¯s ambulance, following behind the police car, with the other vehicles following one after the other. The convoy set off, driving approximately three to four kilometers along the highway before taking a right turn to exit the highway. The right guardrail on the highway had been removed, creating an opening just wide enough for a car to pass through. Below the opening was a dirt road slope. This road was freshly dug out by an excavator, though not sturdy enough for long-term use, it was sufficient for one-time use. Two excavators were working in the distance, and several people, with various tools in hand, were digging and filling. The highway was adjacent to a field, surprisingly, this road had been dug up in the open field and connected to a rural cement road. An excavator had just arrived and immediately began working in the field, excavating and filling. Thus, a total of three excavators were now at work. The ditches were filled and ridges were removed, then repeatedly compacted to form a temporary dirt road. Dr. Lv finally understood, the method Old He and Captain Qin spoke of was this. ¡°Captain Qin and I reported this plan to our superiors. They immediately notified the party secretary of the nearby village to assist us fully. Upon receiving the notification, the secretary and several village cadres went to call for help and excavators. There happened to be two excavators in the village. They acted swiftly to dig a road. Some fields still had crops, but nobody cared, saving lives was more important. I will take you around the blockage and enter the highway from another entrance, it won¡¯t cause much delay.¡± Old He carefully maneuvered the ambulance, fearing that any jolting would affect the patients. The convoy slowly crossed the field. Along the roadside, many people stood by, holding various tools, watching the ambulance pass by. There were not only able-bodied young people, but also the elderly, women, children, some had just received the notification and were rushing to the site carrying tools. This road was excavated by the excavators and the villagers. ¡°Nothing can stop us. If there is no road, we will build one. We have people ahead clearing the route. Once we pass the blocked section, everything will be fine. Today is just an unfortunate day, blocked at both ends.¡± As Old He said this while driving, Dr. Lv felt a deep sense of gratitude, his eyes growing moist. No road? Then create one. Such a heroic phrase, he would never forget it for the rest of his life. Among the crowd by the roadside, was an elderly man, about seventy or eighty years old. He wore a tattered white coat and held a hoe in his hand. The red imprint on the coat signified the 80th anniversary of the party¡¯s founding. ¡°Will this delay your work? I¡¯ll accompany you and drive back, I¡¯m familiar with the road. Don¡¯t worry, I was a motorized soldier.¡± Old He proudly mentioned. ¡°That won¡¯t delay anything!¡± Dr. Lv responded excitedly, as long as they didn¡¯t have to wait any longer, it wouldn¡¯t delay their time. There were police clearing the planned route ahead. Once they entered the city, they didn¡¯t even have to wait for traffic lights. When the convoy got onto the cement road, another set of reinforcement excavators just arrived. ¡°Here, it¡¯s quite easy to call for a few excavators. Some villagers rely on this to support their families.¡± Old He revealed a broad smile. His approach was quite effective. Upon getting on the cement road, it was indeed smooth sailing. Not a single vehicle blocked their path. The convoy sped up significantly and every few kilometres, traffic police motorcycles could be seen parked on the roadside. The officers were standing by the roadside, saluting the convoy. ¡°We can go a bit faster. There¡¯s no car ahead.¡± Old He depresses the accelerator pedal even further. After navigating through the village¡¯s cement roads and avoiding congested areas, the convoy entered the highway from another entrance. ¡ª¡ª In the main conference hall of the Tri-Bo Hotel, a massive high-definition electronic screen was split in half. On the left, Sasaki was still performing surgery; on the right was the backdrop of Sanbo Hospital. Baby¡¯s pancreatic rupture, pancreatic duct rupture. This kind of pancreatic surgery in adults is known as the crown jewel of general abdominal surgery, so it is easy to imagine its high level of difficulty. Now, Sasaki was repairing and anastomosing the pancreatic duct of a fetus just 20 centimeters long with the help of a microscope. This was a very rare peak surgery. This operation alone is enough for Sasaki to prove his capabilities to the world. A tear appeared in a stitch, but Sasaki quickly controlled the medical instruments in his hand, preventing any serious consequences. He slightly adjusted his breathing and continued. Sticking closely to his teacher¡¯s teachings, he kept the Book of Five Rings under his pillow and often referred to it. Sincerely carrying out his work, abstaining from unrelated activities, his pursuit of medical skills is unending. The pancreas repair was completed. During the entire repair of the pancreas, there was only a minor error in one stitch. Next, he started the process of anastomosing the pancreatic duct. His skill level was already world-class. Next, he will challenge a higher difficulty level ¨C anastomosing the pancreatic duct and rebuilding the liver and pancreatic ductal system. His hands were floating in the air, operating under the microscope, maintaining stability after several surgeries. If it weren¡¯t for Miss Miyuki¡¯s feelings, Takahashi would have started commenting again. However, he held back. There was no need to say more. The facts were evident. Regardless of what Miss Miyuki thought, this surgical demonstration was a pure waste of time. The demonstration should have been held with a hospital like Mayo, not with Sanbo Hospital. He was unsure of Fujihara¡¯s decision-making process. Director Han and Director Tan exchanged a few whispered words and left their seats. Seeing Takahashi beckoning him over, Director Tan felt somewhat disgruntled. As the host, however, he had to uphold standard hospitality for their guest. Approaching Takahashi, Director Tan said in English: ¡°Professor Tan, you can completely cancel the surgical demonstration, it¡¯s okay. This is just a friendship exchange and has no other implications.¡± Director Tan suppressed his anger. He was annoyed by Takahashi, who seemed to be constantly pointing and gesturing around despite the many representatives present. ¡°Mr. Takahashi, please retain your composure. It¡¯s better to be patient. The surgery demonstration will start immediately.¡± After saying this, Director Tan disregarded him and steered clear. Start immediately? The ambulance hasn¡¯t returned yet, and they¡¯re about to start the demonstration? The Chinese people really over-value their face. However, the right half of the screen did switch to the operating room. The first patient, transported by a helicopter, was the first to be placed on the operating table. The helicopter landed on the rooftop, and the patient was swiftly taken to the operating room directly via a specialized elevator. A CT scan was performed on the operating table on the injured patient. Brain hemorrhage, mediastinal hematoma, bilateral lung contusion, multiple rib fractures, liver and spleen injuries, crushed pelvic fracture, bladder rupture, crushed fractures of both femoral shafts, left upper limb amputation, and left facial fracture. What¡¯s the situation with the abdomen? As the CT scan appeared on the screen, everyone was stunned. The abdomen was a huge mess. What appeared to be a large vascular aneurysm was shown only as a huge irregular spherical structure on the screen. Two radiologists were hesitant to come to a conclusion. They needed to perform arteriography to confirm if this was a huge vascular aneurysm, and if it was injured? Director Meng from the Radiology Department viewed the image in his office. On the professional x-ray screen, he examined it closely. It was indeed a huge vascular aneurysm that originated from a branch of the abdominal aorta and extended back into the spinal canal. What should be done now? If the aneurysm was injured, it would be the most significant source of bleeding, as it is an intertwined and intricate system of vessels from different directions that form the tumorous body. ¡°Perform arteriography-3D-reconstruction!¡± Chief Surgeon: Song Zimo, Attending Physician. This was the first bilingual introduction to appear. What¡¯s that? Something weird in the abdomen, Takahashi hesitates to conclude. Setting aside the strange thing in the abdomen, the facial partial avulsion was not a case for a mid-level professional to handle. Half of his face, including the zygomatic bone, part of the lower jaw, and the hearing organs had been torn and separated from the body. Such complicated surgery is not suitable for mid-level professionals. This was downright negligent. Takahashi was somewhat furious. Do they really see themselves on par with Tokyo University Hospital? Takahashi proposed a protest. Under the instruction of Director Han, Director Tan came over to watch the operation with Takahashi. To that end, Director Tan exchanged seats with Doctor Park from South Korea. Doctor Park was long fed up with Takahashi¡¯s arrogance and was happy to change seats. ¡°Professor Tan, your actions are extremely irresponsible. You can¡¯t use the so-called ¡®face¡¯ as an excuse to let young doctors perform the operation. I strongly urge you to work within your capabilities and replace with a more senior doctor.¡± Takahashi reprimanded, and although Miss Fujiwara disliked Takahashi for his arrogance, she acknowledged what he said to be correct. Such a surgery was beyond the capability range of a mid-level professional even in Tokyo University Hospital. Because handling this facial avulsion required highly skilled reconstructive and orthopedic surgery skills. One would also need to be extremely familiar with the anatomy of the craniofacial, head and neck, ENT, and ophthalmic area. This is a devil of a surgery! Chapter 251 - 0235: The Real Devils Surgery Chapter 251: Chapter 0235: The Real Devil¡¯s Surgery ¡°Mr. Takahashi, relax, there¡¯s no need to be nervous!¡± Director Tan ignored his so-called protest. ¡°Professor Tan, fools fear nothing because they know nothing. To my understanding, given your capabilities, not even young intermediate surgeons, let alone yourself, can handle this type of surgery. Please put aside your false pride. If possible, I can assist you!¡± Takahashi spoke to Director Han without even lifting an eyelid. He regarded Director Tan with extreme disdain, feeling that he was not of the same caliber as him in any aspect¡ªwhether it was medical skills, educational background, workplace, or academic standing. The gap was too great, like the difference between a phoenix and a farmyard chicken. Attending such a low-level academic conference, was to him, an act of charity. But Director Tan wasn¡¯t someone Takahashi could step on at will. If Takahashi chose to ignore him, would Director Tan have to still pander to him? They were both trying to hold their heads high. How could Takahashi possibly be superior? ¡°Mr. Takahashi, try not to stress too much, take it easy. It¡¯s possibly been a while since you¡¯ve left your small island, and quite a long time since you¡¯ve been to China. You could use this opportunity to take a look around. China is vast, and so is the world. Staying on an island for long periods of time could lead to myopia. In Chinese, there is an idiom that describes this ¨C ¡®frog in a well¡¯.¡± Director Tan retorted sharply. When two proud individuals sat together, clashes were hardly avoidable. They might even spark an explosion. Only someone like Director Tan would not pander to him. Had it been anyone else, they would probably not have the guts to confront him and would¡¯ve been simply nodding in agreement already. Upon hearing Director Tan¡¯s words, Takahashi was incredibly angry. When he attended conferences elsewhere, everyone treated him like a deity. Even in the States, he was treated like a VIP, surrounded by a crowd wherever he went. Who would¡¯ve expected that in a small hospital, someone would dare to contradict him? He swallowed his anger and said, ¡°You had this patient airlifted, right?¡± ¡°Correct!¡± ¡°Is the ambulance still stuck on the highway? Can it get back before dark?¡± ¡°No need to worry about that, you should focus on the surgery.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you guys have the famous ¡®Chinese speed¡¯? Just build another highway to get back,¡± Takahashi mocked. Director Tan shot back without hesitation, ¡°It seems like you do understand China. If necessary, building a new road is not a big deal.¡± ¡ª For the first patient, after injecting contrast medium into the blood vessels, they needed some time for it to spread before beginning the surgery. The cranial CT scan appeared on the screen as the main observation plane, with dozens of cross-section images. Song Zimo¡¯s eyes scanned through those images, his spatial imagination skills coming into play. As someone who can play chess blindfolded or solve a Rubik¡¯s cube without looking, this was not a challenging task. One look at a Rubik¡¯s cube, and Song Zimo could memorize it, then solve it in his mind without making a single mistake. Even when it came to Rubik¡¯s cube, he only ever lost to Yang Ping. Apart from Yang Ping, he dared to confront any challenge. Today, he decided to surpass Sasaki in front of more than two thousand doctors to prove that he too was one of the best surgeons. Just as everyone thought he was aiming to outshine Niiroi, only Yang Ping knew him well enough to know he thought otherwise. Niiroi was too minor of a challenge. If he were to overcome anyone, it would be Sasaki. Song Zimo precisely determined the site of the cerebral hemorrhage. One hole was drilled for drainage. Since the location was pinpointed accurately, they opted for minimally invasive solution, foregoing the need for a craniotomy. Using a limited cranial drill to make a small hole in the skull, a drainage tube slowly penetrated till it reached the center of the subdural hematoma. The dark red blood was successfully drained using vacuum pressure. Medication to dissolve the blood clot was then introduced through the tube, allowing the coagulated blood to dissolve and drain. One single tube resolved the brain hemorrhage. Once a method obtained a miraculous accuracy, its effectiveness was amplified. It was like decapitation warfare. The problem of brain injury was solved, next was the heart and lung in the chest cavity. The multiple fractures on the left rib and punctured left lung were not significant issues. Tools like thoracoscope, laparoscope, arthroscope, and foraminoscope had become very familiar to him through his two hours of daily endoscopy training. Benefiting from Director Han¡¯s major trauma theory, Song Zimo accumulated rich experience in major trauma surgery. A hematoma was spotted in the mediastinum. The CT scan suggested a tiny tear in the ascending aorta. This was the challenging part. It is almost impossible to handle if using a thoracoscope. If anything goes wrong, the consequences could be unthinkable. But this was only for ordinary people. Song Zimo was not ordinary, and today, he was determined to complete this ¡°impossible¡± operation. Using an electric knife under thoracoscopy, he gently incised the mediastinum. As soon as the blood was liberated from the mediastinum, it immediately sprayed out. If a high-pressure hemorrhage occurs, the tear in the aorta could enlarge from the tear, blinding the surgical field with a sea of red. The patient would quickly die from the massive blood loss. Song Zimo acted swiftly at the very moment the blood began to gush out uncontrollably. The tip of the automatic suturing device with thread had already reached the laceration on the ascending aorta, completing one stitch. The small laceration only needed one stitch. The suction device removed the spurted blood, leaving no blood in the mediastinum. The audience exhaled the bated breath they¡¯d been holding. Dealing with such a situation under thoracoscopy was extremely risky. If the suturing was even a bit slower, or if it was not accurate enough, or if the position was slightly off, the high-pressure spurt would rupture the aortic wall, creating a much larger wound. The aorta would be quickly emptied of blood, leaving no time for further procedures like cracking open the chest. By then, it would be too late, and the patient would die on the operating table. This procedure was like a mid-air acrobatic performance during a rock-climbing challenge, thrilling and dangerous ¨C an extreme demonstration of a surgeon¡¯s skill. ¡°Wow!¡± Everyone exclaimed in astonishment, exhaling deeply, Fujiwara Miyuki crossed her hands over her chest. Takahashi straightened up, turning to look at Director Tan. This operation, he and Sasaki had practiced for several years before daring to use it in surgery. This young doctor used it so proficiently, he thought he was seeing things. The suturing off the aortic tear, the removal of the mediastinal hematoma, and the relief of pressure on the heart, all made the heartbeats stronger. Left lung contusion, multiple rib fractures, all were nothing to Song Zimo, he solved them all within a few minutes, it was not a challenge to him. With the help of Yang Ping, Song Zimo¡¯s skills improved quickly. This operation was one he mastered after being forced to practice juggling by Yang Ping. Juggling, simultaneously throwing two, three, four, five balls..., training to seize the opportunity, accurately capturing the opportunity in a split second, completing high-risk operations. The dangers of the cranium, heart, and lungs have all been eliminated. He looks relaxed and effortless. ¡°Old Han actually has such a young doctor under his wing?¡± Fu Shancheng watched in astonishment. His heart had jumped at that operation just now. An orthopedic surgeon handled thoracic injuries so deftly, even more efficiently than a thoracic surgeon. ¡°No wonder Old Han is so calm, as stable as Mount Tai. He has a trump card. It looks like we were worrying for nothing.¡± Meng Heng never took his eyes off the screen. Professor Su also had an idea now, this doctor was Yang Ping¡¯s assistant. It seems that Yang Ping has mastered the surgery for full body trauma. The contrast medium has almost spread in the blood vessels. It¡¯s time to start the angiography. Everyone retreated behind the lead screen to avoid radiation. The spiral CT scanner was continuously capturing images of the abdomen. Hundreds to thousands of images, the sagittal position, the coronal position, and the cross-sections were displayed on the screen, one after another. The computer mainframe began reconstructing based on these sections. Slowly, the three-dimensional reconstructed image of the blood vessels appeared on the screen! ¡°What is this?¡± Someone covered their mouth, someone rubbed their eyes, someone stood up. A huge vascular tumor appeared on the screen, surrounded by blood vessels from all directions intertwined together, forming this vascular tumor. The contrast agent in the blood vessels soon overflows, one vessel strays, two vessels stray, three vessels stray ¡ª countless vessels stray, the entire vascular tumor in a state of smog. The reconstructed image rotates on the screen, Song Zimo quickly judges the number of blood vessels, those with a diameter greater than five millimeters, at least there are more than one hundred, no, even more! This abdominal vascular tumor has been damaged, ruptured, and is bleeding heavily. Even with autologous blood transfusion equipment, and the effusion of countless blood products, it would be of no avail. More than a hundred blood vessels, or even more vessels, all need to be ligated and then the whole vascular tumor needs to be removed completely. Otherwise, the bleeding can¡¯t be stopped, and the patient will desperately bleed everywhere in the abdominal cavity on the operating table, powerless to do anything. ¡°Oh, my God!¡± People had just recovered from Song Zimo¡¯s surgery when they saw this bizarre vascular tumor. One of Japan¡¯s top trauma surgeons, Takahashi, was actually scared. Even with their infrared trauma surgery assisting system, it was to no avail. The anatomy of this freak vascular tumor is unique. Nobody has ever encountered hundreds of blood vessels coming from all directions, intertwining. The surgeon needs to find these blood vessels in a short amount of time. All vessels need to be located, then ligated. How is this possible? Takahashi remembered vividly that once, under Teacher Fujihara¡¯s guidance, he encountered such a trauma case with a huge vascular tumor in the abdominal cavity. Because of unfamiliarity with the anatomy, relying on imaging pictures, for each and every one vessel to find, only about a dozen were found before the patient bled to death on the operating table. A devil¡¯s surgery, a real devil¡¯s surgery! Everyone watching the live stream was astonished, a never-before-seen vascular tumor, you simply do not know its anatomy, do not know how many vessels it has. Now, in order to save the patient, amidst handling countless traumas simultaneously, the great vascular tumor must also be excised. Even if only this tumor is to be removed, undergoing an elective surgery and being fully prepared, it is still a perilous marathon, every vessel has to be ligated. A preoperative CT and MRI angiography should be performed, as well as a vascular reconstruction, and repeated analysis and scrutiny, then dare to proceed with the surgery. Director Tan¡¯s face was ashen, too surprising, it was unfortunate luck. Although everyone knows this is a devil¡¯s surgery, an impossible success. But in front of so many doctors from so many countries, live-broadcasting a patient dying on the operating table is something any hospital cannot accept. What to do? Director Tan looked at Director Han. Chapter 252 - 0236: Let Takahashi Go on Stage Chapter 252: Chapter 0236: Let Takahashi Go on Stage The shattered half of the face and arm are still in the fridge, and now they¡¯re dealing with this gigantic vascular tumor in the abdomen. Imagine a patient with severe splenic rupture, the spleen must be removed to stop bleeding and save the life, because there are many ¡°venous sinuses¡± in the spleen. A severely ruptured spleen would bleed everywhere, making haemostasis impossible. The only solution is to tie off the blood vessels at the base of the spleen, and cut off the organ, thus ending the bleeding from the spleen. Now, this vascular tumor has over a hundred stems, and the tumor body itself is twisted strands of blood vessels. If seriously damaged, it could bleed even more viciously than ordinary organs. If there were no on-site blood transfusions, the patient wouldn¡¯t have made it to the hospital alive; even at the hospital, it¡¯s only the constant blood transfusions and the use of autologous blood recovery equipment that¡¯ve kept him viable for the operating table. Autologous blood recovery machines can collect the patient¡¯s bleeding, process it, and transfuse it back to the patient, but this process incurs some loss. So, relying solely on autologous transfusion is not sufficient, and traditional heterologous blood transfusion needs to supplement it. This patient¡¯s blood has been replaced several times already. Blood transfusions can only sustain life for a limited period of time; they are a makeshift measure. If the abdominal cavity is not opened and the tumor removed, this patient will not survive. But once the abdominal cavity is opened, to minimize bleeding, the aorta must be blocked, and the blockage time can¡¯t be too long. The chief surgeon only has a strict 45-minute window within which to resolve the situation. Otherwise, ischemia will cause necrosis of the abdominal organs. Once necrosis sets in, it¡¯s immediately followed by multi-organ failure and the entire body collapses like falling dominoes, sending life along with it. However, these cases are too rare. Any doctor would be clueless when confronted with them. Severe splenic rupture can be treated by removing the spleen to solve the bleeding problem because the spleen¡¯s main blood vessels, the splenic artery and vein, are known and constant in location ¨C surgeons are familiar with their anatomy and can easily ligate them. Ligate the blood vessels, separate the spleen, remove it, and haemostasis is achieved. The difficulty in removing this huge vascular tumor lies in the fact that it has countless blood supply vessels, which are not covered in a surgeon¡¯s anatomical knowledge. It is a special, personalized, unprecedented tumor. Even if a doctor encounters such a rare case, the anatomical structure and source of the vessels of two tumors would not be the same. Removing this vascular tumor is like a brutal urban guerrilla warfare, where a special forces team enters a ruined city without having any map, intelligence, knowledge of the city¡¯s geography or military deployments, while the city is full of hidden bunkers and ambushes. In this situation, the special forces simply cannot win; they can only be eliminated during the street fight. In contrast, normal surgeries are like the special forces already being familiar with the city, having been in and out hundreds of times. They know the city¡¯s geography and military deployments like the backs of their hands, which significantly increases the probability of victory. Years ago, after suffering defeat, Fujiwara Masao turned this rare surgical case into a research subject. He led Takahashi and Sasaki in conducting numerous animal experiments to tackle this devilish surgery. They used various methods to create experimental specimens with huge sprawled vascular tumors in the abdomen of monkey embryos using drugs, then used imaging technology to locate and identify the vessels. They designed detailed surgical plans to ligate the vessels one by one and completely remove the tumor. They had even tried using interventional methods to embolize the vascular tumor, but due to the lack of any significant main vessels in such tumors, intervention was in vain. Through extensive research and mastering the rules of the vessels¡¯ origins and distribution, Fujiwara¡¯s team was able to handle surgeries on the experimental animals with ease. It can be said that they are the only ones in the world with this kind of technical accumulation. This kind of case is too niche; no one has the time to research it. But Fujiwara Masao is different; he wouldn¡¯t give up on any failed case. He aimed to be the best in the world, to enhance the surgical level of his entire team through researching this devilish surgery. It was through this that Takahashi and Sasaki were trained. ¡ª Is there no way to complete the surgery? Should we just give up? The image on the screen remained on the huge vascular tumor. At this point, the injected contrast agent had flowed everywhere, filling the whole abdomen. Nobody amongst the two thousand plus doctors in attendance had probably encountered such a rare case. But with professional common sense, they understood that the difficulty of this surgery was like climbing Mount Everest, this patient seemed almost beyond saving. Medical skills aren¡¯t omnipotent. Many diseases can¡¯t be treated, and many injuries can¡¯t be rescued. This is the helplessness of medicine, the doctor¡¯s helplessness. The life-saving capability of medicine is limited. ¡°Shut down the screen. This patient can¡¯t be saved.¡± This wasn¡¯t just one person¡¯s idea, but the consensus of all the doctors. ¡ª At Tokyo University Hospital, in the Orthopedics Teaching Room. Fujiwara Masao¡¯s lips trembled slightly; this surgery was too hard. Even with infrared monitoring equipment allowing all the blood vessels to be seen clearly, the chances of success were still slim because of the time constraint. This peculiar sprawling vascular tumor, irregularly shaped and growing in every direction into the interstices and inside of the organs ¨C liver, spleen, pancreas, kidney, spinal column, it¡¯s everywhere. Many years ago, he¡¯d encountered a similar case and had to watch helplessly as the patient passed away on the operating table. It was too cruel. Even now if he were the one operating, if there was no time limit for first aid and the surgery could be scheduled, allowing the operation time to be extended indefinitely, he would have an eighty percent chance of removing this vascular tumor. But, considering the emergency time limit and stipulating the surgery be completed within two hours, he thought his success rate would drop to a bare sixty percent, and that was with the use of his trauma surgery assistance system. If Takahashi and Sasaki were performing the surgery, their success rate would drop to less than fifty percent. Watching from the sidelines is a disregard for life! Fujiwara Masao picked up his phone and dialed Takahashi: ¡°Dr. Takahashi, in this situation, you may be the only doctor in attendance who has experience dealing with such rare cases. Even if the success rate is less than fifty percent, I ask you bravely go on the operating table. Even if you fail, you will still be my best student. Please pass the phone to Professor Han Jianguo.¡± ¡°Understood, Sensei!¡± Hearing the somewhat hoarse voice of Fujiwara Masao over the phone, Takahashi straightened his back, as if Teacher Fujiwara was standing right in front of him. Takahashi kept the phone call going, rose from his seat, and walked over to Director Han. Tang Fei immediately followed to help with translation. Takahashi wore a serious expression: ¡°Professor Han, this is a call from Teacher Fujiwara Masao, he wishes to speak directly with you.¡± Takahashi handed over the phone with both hands. Director Han took the phone and heard Fujiwara Masao speaking in English: ¡°Respected Professor Han, greetings, it¡¯s an honor to converse with you. I am currently watching the surgery display at the venue in Tokyo, and it¡¯s quite distressing. This is an extremely rare case, with zero success rate under inexperienced hands. I request you seriously allow Takahashi Fumiya to perform the surgery because he has ample experience, and the success rate could reach fifty percent. I¡¯m making this request in the name of a medical practitioner¨C.¡± That young surgeon from Sanbo Hospital who had just handled the cranial and thoracic trauma had performed beyond Fujiwara Masao¡¯s expectations. Especially Song Zimo¡¯s thoracoscopic surgery to handle the tear in the ascending aorta¡ªperforming an acrobatic act on a wire, his surgical skills were far superior to those of Niiroi and Ogawa. Fujiwara Masao felt a sense of respect rising in his heart. ¡°I am deeply grateful, Mr. Fujiwara. Please allow me two minutes to consider this, as the case is very special and I must make a careful decision.¡± Director Han returned the phone to Takahashi who didn¡¯t sit back down immediately, but stood beside Director Han, waiting for a reply. Professor Su, Meng Heng, and Fu Shancheng all noted that Director Han had received a call from Fujiwara. Although they couldn¡¯t hear what was being said, they could guess most of it based on the current situation. At this point, only Director Han could make the decision, no one else was in a position to advise him. Professor Su remained silent, waiting for Director Han to decide. The difficulty of the surgery was unprecedented; an objective fact laid bare. There wasn¡¯t many in the world who had experience with such a rare surgical procedure. If the hospital¡¯s top surgeon tackled this, even if the patient didn¡¯t survive, no one would object because not surviving was expected. Even he himself would lack sufficient research and experience tackling such a case. If someone could successfully save the patient, even if it were the arrogant Takahashi, he should be allowed to perform the surgery. Everyone would likely feel the same. Respect for life! After all, this was but an academic conference. Professor Su had initially wanted to suggest having Yang Ping perform the surgery. Indeed, Yang Ping was a rare surgical talent, but surgery is a field of experience. Without enough experience, all talent falls short. With the rare and complex massive abdominal vascular tumor trauma and life-threatening bleeding, even Yang Ping would likely be at a loss because he didn¡¯t have the experience. Director Han placed his hands across each other, his thumbs circling each other a few times, and inquired from Tan Boyun: ¡°What is the patient¡¯s vital status?¡± Tan Boyun accepted the tablet from the assistant and opened the latest readings, blood routine, biochemistry, liver and kidney function, blood gas analysis, and so on for Director Han. ¡°Ah!¡± Director Han took a deep breath and made a decision: ¡°Mr. Takahashi, would you please, I implore you to handle the surgery!¡± Takahashi was thrilled by the answer. He and Sasaki were both people with a strong desire for challenges. Teacher Fujiwara had given him the opportunity, and Director Han had agreed, so why not perform an unparalleled surgery before everyone, to make up for Fujiwara¡¯s regret? ¡°Thank you! I need two experienced assistants. If you don¡¯t mind, I¡¯d request Professor Han and Professor Tan to be my assistants!¡± Takahashi bowed, and Director Han didn¡¯t respond immediately, causing him to stay bowed. ¡°Alright, Professor Tan and I will be your assistants!¡± Director Han stated without hesitation. Takahashi straightened up: ¡°Let¡¯s not waste time, let¡¯s go to the operating room immediately. Miss Miyuki, please come with me.¡± By asking Director Han and Director Tan to assist, Takahashi was acting from self-interest. It was clear to him that for the safety of the patient, Fujiwara Miyuki would¡¯ve been his best assistant. By inviting the two directors to assist, he wanted to show the more than two thousand Chinese doctors that the gap wasn¡¯t easy to narrow, to satisfy his arrogant heart, and to shatter Fujiwara Miyuki¡¯s mystification about China, to prove that he was not wrong. Upon knowing Takahashi¡¯s goal, Director Tan also didn¡¯t raise any objections. ¡°This is a bit too much!¡± Meng Heng commented, observing the scene. Fu Shancheng also felt a little uncomfortable: ¡°This is deliberate, but saving lives is more important. If I were in his position, I wouldn¡¯t bother arguing about it either.¡± Professor Su remained silent. The chasers will catch up eventually. The pursuit of those lagging behind would definitely be painful. ¡°Tell Song Zimo to pause the surgery! Don¡¯t open the abdomen!¡± Director Tan immediately notified the operating room. ¡°Is Takahashi going on stage?¡± Seeing the slight movement in front just now, and then Director Han, Director Tan, Takahashi and Fujiwara Miyuki leaving from the side door of the conference room, everyone speculated. There was some commotion in the conference room. The surgery was too difficult for Sanbo Hospital to handle; luckily the top-notch Takahashi was present, and they were now inviting him onto the stage. ¡°Yes, Takahashi is going to perform the surgery.¡± ¡°He¡¯s a trailblazer in world trauma surgery, and he¡¯s going on stage.¡± Who would¡¯ve thought that this conference would be so exciting? A surgical demonstration encountered a rare case that happens once in a hundred years, and they¡¯d be able to watch Takahashi¡¯s surgery. The atmosphere in the conference room became excited. Most of the doctors were filled with admiration for the world-class trailblazer. Chapter 253: 0237 Twin Heroes Chapter 253: 0237 Twin Heroes ¡°Professor Tan, you should have realized the complexity of this case long ago, you should not be hastily changing personnel at this point, it¡¯s irresponsible to the patient. You trained at the affiliated hospital of Tokyo University, you should possess some basic professionalism.¡± On the way to the operating room, Takahashi was dissatisfied, the arrogance and contempt ingrained in him would surface at any point. Director Tan let him say whatever he wanted, offering no rebuttals, only leading the way. It couldn¡¯t be helped, they had research on these types of cases, accumulated experience, competition comes down to ability, everything else is irrelevant. Song Zimo paused in his movements, operating nurse Zhou Can was reorganizing the tools on the operating table, the patrolling nurse hung a few more bags of blood, Liang Fatty was staring intensely at the data on the monitoring screen, Little Five and Zhang Lin were feeling frustrated on the operating table. Yang Ping was already in surgical attire, gloves on, ready to replace Song Zimo at any moment, Xiao Su was also in surgical attire, sitting next to the instrument table, ready to replace Zhou Can whenever necessary. The autologous blood transfusion equipment was collecting blood from the thoracic cavity, after filtration treatment, blood transfusion back into the patient¡¯s body had started, the red blood mixed with saline solution, flowing via transparent tubes into the patient¡¯s body. The abdominal cavity had not yet been opened, the closed abdomen could temporarily stop the bleeding, the capacity of the abdominal cavity is limited, when the blood fills to a certain level, a balance is formed between the hydrostatic pressure of the blood in the abdomen and the pressure from the bleeding vessels, thus stopping the bleeding from the vessels temporarily. Song Zimo glanced over at Yang Ping who was sitting, considering who to replace as Chief Surgeon; if not Yang Ping, could it be that Director Han was planning to go up himself? He knew this surgery was difficult, over a hundred blood vessels scattered like spider webs, many even dangerously located. But he had confidence, he wanted to push forward. Besides, with Yang Ping as his backup, he had even more confidence. Unfortunately, it seemed like Director Han was planning to take part himself. ¡°Elder brother, is Director Han planning to go up himself?¡± The orders of the superiors are absolute, medical rules can¡¯t be broken. ¡°Are the vital signs still stable?¡± Yang Ping asked, turning his head to look at the screen. Liang Fatty, who sat by the patient¡¯s head, replied, ¡°Temporarily stable, but we can¡¯t rely on blood transfusion to maintain this condition indefinitely.¡± The automatic door to the operating room opened, and Director Han¡¯s team filed in. ¡°Director Han!¡± Yang Ping got up. Director Han waved his hand, ¡°Yang Ping, Xiao Song, you guys take a break, let Mr. Takahashi be the Chief Surgeon, Director Tan and I will assist. Oh, and don¡¯t take off your surgical gowns, and don¡¯t contaminate yourselves, stand by.¡± ¡°Yang Ping!¡± Director Han called Yang Ping back. ¡°Director?¡± Yang Ping understood Director Han¡¯s decision. ¡°Nothing, just pay attention to Takahashi¡¯s surgery and learn.¡± Director Han hesitated before saying. ¡°I will, sir.¡± Yang Ping reassured Director Han. After hastily giving instructions, the group immediately left to scrub in. It turns out that Takahashi would be the Chief Surgeon instead of Director Han, Song Zimo didn¡¯t even have a chance to ask before Director Han hurriedly took Takahashi to wash their hands. Fujiwara Miyuki stayed in the operating room, Takahashi hadn¡¯t invited her to the platform, and she looked around at the doctors and nurses in the operating room. The surgeons in the room were surprisingly young, Fujiwara Miyuki hadn¡¯t paid much attention when she watched the video, but now that she saw Song Zimo and Yang Ping up close, their spirited eyes, upright posture, and overall confidence left her impressed. When she watched the video earlier, their exceptional thoracoscope skills were far from the ¡°rag-tag band¡± that Takahashi had described. If it hadn¡¯t been for this rare case, they would have performed even better. ¡°Hi, everyone, I¡¯m Miyuki Fujiwara, pleased to meet you!¡± Even wearing a large surgical gown, Fujiwara Miyuki couldn¡¯t conceal her figure. She graciously greeted everyone. At this moment, who had the mood to be looking at a supermodel? Fatty didn¡¯t even lift his head, Song Zimo merely nodded as a token of acknowledgement, Yang Ping didn¡¯t hear her, he was entirely focused on the 3D reconstruction image of the blood vessels on the screen. Right now, Yang Ping¡¯s strong mental visualization had already constructed a complete 3D image. According to the CT scans, the image constructed in the brain showed all 124 malformed vessels, each one posing a potentially fatal risk if not properly handled. Yang Ping even simulated the surgery in his mind, using the constructed imagery, deciding which vessel to handle first, and which next, how to expose each vessel, where the risks were, and how to avoid dangerous structures. The many vessels coming from multiple three-dimensional directions were a headache just to expose, let alone the pseudomorph distortions in the CT images, which couldn¡¯t reproduce the true and meticulous anatomy relationships, increasing the difficulty of the surgery. Takahashi finished washing his hands, held them up in front of him, chest out, walking into the OR with an air of confidence, wishing to exude the qualities and stride of a world-class surgeon. If he wasn¡¯t arrogant and ostentatious, he wouldn¡¯t be Takahashi. When he entered, Zhou Can offered him his surgical gown. He didn¡¯t reach out to it immediately: ¡°Can you hold it with both hands, please?¡± Tang Fei translated, after a moment¡¯s hesitation. Zhou Can¡¯s face turned a bit red, she held up the gown with both hands. Takahashi accepted it, ¡°You¡¯re standing in front of a world-class surgeon, you should show some respect.¡± Takahashi flicked his hands, put his hand into the sleeve of the gown, put on his gloves, and walked towards the position of the Chief Surgeon. Song Zimo reluctantly gave up his position as Chief Surgeon. Takahashi stood in the Chief Surgeon¡¯s spot, ¡°You can go down¨C¡± Director Han gave a signal to Yang Ping and Song Zimo, ¡°You guys take a break for now, don¡¯t remove your surgical gowns and don¡¯t contaminate yourselves, be ready to go on the platform to help anytime.¡± Director Han had planned for this, even a world-renowned trauma surgery expert can¡¯t be fully trusted. After all, the patient is their responsibility, if he can¡¯t handle it and just leaves, they¡¯ll have to clean up the mess. ¡°Assistants, take your positions!¡± Takahashi spoke authoritatively. ¡°Han, first assistant; Tan, second assistant; you, instrument nurse, are there any objections? If not, prepare to start. Anesthetist, report the vital signs, raise the operating table!¡± Takahashi began speaking in Japanese, and Tang Fei had to help translate. ¡°Blood pressure is at 84/45mmHg, heart rate is 116 beats/minute, blood oxygen saturation under low flow oxygen is at 90%.¡± Fatty reported the vital signs. ¡°Speak up, the vital signs are already unstable, and yet you guys are so listless, scalpel!¡± Fatty had no choice but to repeat his question loudly: he wasn¡¯t paying much attention before, so how did this Japanese man suddenly take the stage? What happened? ¡°Should we pause the video?¡± Director Han suggested. ¡°No need!¡± Takahashi confidently replied. ¡°Let¡¯s open the abdomen now, scalpel!¡± Living up to his reputation as a top-notch Japanese surgeon, Takahashi took the scalpel and made a neat vertical incision in the center of the abdomen, cutting just deep enough to reach the subcutaneous tissue, not a bit more or less. Subcutaneous fat the size of corn kernels rolled out. Electric knife stopped the bleeding, and layer by layer he cut. The anatomical layers were clearly defined and the surgical field was almost bloodless. ¡°This scalpel isn¡¯t sharp enough. Do you all typically perform surgeries with this kind of blade? Change to a new one! Next time, I¡¯ll bring you a set of surgical blades made in Japan.¡± Takahashi threw the surgical scalpel into the instrument tray, and Xiao Su swiftly swapped it for a new one. After cutting through the skin and superficial fascia, the deep fascia was revealed. Takahashi¡¯s scalpel began to slice through several layers of muscles. ¡°Monitor the blood pressure, apply full pressure, and start transfusing blood. I¡¯m about to open up the peritoneal cavity. I need the damage-free aortic clamp!¡± The scalpel sliced through the last layer of muscles and opened the peritoneum. Blood instantly surged out from the abdominal cavity and was sucked away by Director Han¡¯s suction device. Takahashi used his fingers to gently and rapidly push aside the intestines floating in the blood. He placed a clamp on the upper section of the abdominal aorta, blocking it off. Based on the CT angiogram, he identified the highest origin of the tumour¡¯s blood vessels and clamped the aorta just above it. ¡°Time check!¡± He needed to complete the operation within forty-five minutes, which meant he had less than half a minute on average to deal with each blood vessel. The massive sprawling vascular tumour was a web of thick arteries and veins entwining and twisting around each other. Takahashi¡¯s fingers were exceedingly nimble. He gently palpated for a moment with his fingers, used a vascular clamp to isolate a vessel, and handed the clamp to Director Han to expose the vessel. Takahashi used his right hand to clamp the isolated vessel and his left hand was already seeking the next one. Each hand was doing something different, a difficult skill to master in surgical operations. It took him more than ten years of training to acquire such sophisticated surgical skills. Two vascular clamps grasped the distal and proximal ends of a blood vessel, and his right hand used a pair of scissors to sever the vessel in the middle. His left hand then identified another vessel and handed it to Director Han. Then, freeing both hands, he began suturing the vessel. Usually, this task was performed by an assistant. But Takahashi preferred doing it himself to ensure its done right. He proceeded to neatly suture the vessel, successfully dealing with the first blood vessel. This procedure took approximately one minute, which was a satisfactory pace. ¡°Keep up with my rhythm. I¡¯m the Chief Surgeon. Keep up with my rhythm, understand?¡± Takahashi was quite dissatisfied with the coordination between the assistant and the scrub nurse. ¡°Miss Miyuki, could you please transmit all the CT scan images to Teacher Fujihara in Tokyo?¡± Takahashi looked at the three-dimensional reconstruction image of the vessels on the screen. The precision was not adequate, some complex areas were too blurry. ¡°Little Five, please escort Dr. Fujihara to the operating room¡¯s teaching room to assist her with transmitting the images.¡± Director Han asked Little Five to temporarily leave the stage to perform this task. ¡ª ¡°The operation is really being led by Takahashi; he¡¯s indeed a top surgeon!¡± Exclamations of surprise filled the room. People tend to judge based on expectations. Now that Takahashi was operating, each of his movements was regarded as a masterstroke. Everyone watched the master¡¯s surgery in awe-stricken admiration. The complex, blurred anatomy would have left an ordinary person at a loss, but Takahashi, a world-class surgeon, was calm and composed. A surgeon¡¯s hand and his instruments are like a special forces team. They have now entered the ruins of a city, advancing cautiously, relying on their training, making keen judgments, attacking decisively in an unknown world. This is the complexity of surgery ¨C a hundred blood vessels were like a hundred ambushed enemies, not one could be overlooked. Now, each display in both the main conference room and the sub-conference rooms was split into two halves. On the left side were the surgeries conducted by Sasaki, and on the right side were Takahashi¡¯s procedures. A feast of surgical demonstrations was unfolding ¨C performed by the two titans of Japanese trauma surgery simultaneously. Sasaki was struggling to reconstruct the hepato-biliary-pancreatic duct system. The duct system was just beginning to show. This was a very dangerous area. If a general surgeon could perform a pancreaticoduodenectomy, it would signify reaching the peak in this field. But Sasaki¡¯s surgery was a total reconstruction of the hepato-biliary-pancreatic duct system, which was several times more difficult. In addition, it was being performed on a five-month-old infant under a microscope ¨C the crown jewel of operations. While over at Takahashi¡¯s end, he had to successfully remove a huge tangled vascular tumour within forty-five minutes. This tumour was comprised of more than a hundred robust blood vessels. In fact, Takahashi¡¯s surgery was more challenging. Sasaki¡¯s operation tested his micro-surgery and abdominal surgery skills, while Takahashi¡¯s operation was a test of every single skill a surgeon could possess. One was facing a formidable enemy but with ample intelligence; the other was facing a strong enemy with very limited information ¨C an entirely new foe. The live broadcasts, which were originally from two different hospitals, had now turned into a showcase of Tokyo University Hospital¡¯s surgical prowess. It was a surgical showcase by the two titans of Japanese trauma surgery! ¡°Operating independently with both hands?¡± Someone had noticed Takahashi¡¯s technique. He was actually capable of operating independently with both hands! Chapter 254 - 0238: Turn on once, Sixty Thousand US Dollars Chapter 254: Chapter 0238: Turn on once, Sixty Thousand US Dollars Exactly, this was independent operation with both hands, which many people have realized by now. Separating the left and right hand to perform different tasks could save time. Indeed, he was a world-class surgeon, living up to his reputation. This technique of operating independently with both hands astounded all the doctors present. Being able to witness a world-class master¡¯s surgery, the gains from this conference exceeded expectations. Ou Lichun had been waiting for his classmate to take the stage, but to his disappointment, he never saw him appear. However, the surgery performed by Song Zimo just now impressed him greatly. Sanbo Hospital is really advanced, and he envied that his friend has found such a good hospital. Even working as a temporary worker would be good, considering it as several years of advanced study. Staying in such a hospital for a few years could rapidly improve one¡¯s skills. Professor Han Jianguo really built up the orthopedic department of Sanbo Hospital to be very powerful. The trauma surgery system in Sanbo had already aligned with the international advanced trauma system. The doctors have all undergone whole body trauma surgery training. As long as there was trauma, they could perform the operation. Just now, Song Zimo dealt with the tear on the ascending aorta under thoracoscopy, which was truly the level of a top professor from a top domestic hospital. In Ou Lichun¡¯s province, even the provincial hospitals wouldn¡¯t dare to open the mediastinum under thoracoscopy and deal with the tears in the ascending aorta. They just don¡¯t have that ability. ¡°What is this surgery demonstration about? It¡¯s overreaching, now they have to invite someone else to come up to the stage, isn¡¯t that embarrassing?¡± When there are many people, there are many opinions. Some understood that saving lives was important; some emotional ones started making a fuss. Diretor Zhang, Ou Lichun¡¯s superior, was such a person. He probably didn¡¯t understand the surgery, yet already started to criticize it. ¡°This surgery is so rare and the difficulty is high, for the patient¡¯s sake, it was decided to proceed like this!¡± Ou Lichun explained. After all, his classmate works at this hospital. If Director Zhang criticized it to the point of no return, it would be embarrassing for him as well. ¡°What¡¯s so tough about this surgery? Just find someone experienced, open the abdomen, ligate to stop the bleeding, or if really needed, remove the aneurysm. It¡¯s not that complicated.¡± In addition to being disgruntled, Director Zhang began to discuss the surgical plan with confidence. In reality, he only had experience with spinal, limb, and pelvic trauma. He had no experience at all with abdominal trauma, which was performed by general surgeons at their hospital. Ou Lichun knew very well that no one present could handle this surgery, mainly because they had never encountered it and they hadn¡¯t conducted targeted research on it. Some top professors in top domestic hospitals sometimes encounter rare and complex cases and would refer patients to or ask for help from doctors who specialize in these procedures. This is a responsible attitude! Why? Because different hospitals, even each professor focuses on different fields of study. For instance, when it comes to complex cases related to the upper cervical spine, many have to ask for help from professors from the Sanbo Hospital in Beijing and the Southern Military Region Hospital. Why? These two hospitals, one in the north and one in the south, have the deepest research and most surgical experience in the field of upper cervical disease and injury. Even the famous Xiehe Hospital must admit defeat in this field. Experience! It needs to be accumulated! Rome wasn¡¯t built in a day! Ou Lichun understood this very well. Therefore, he totally understood Sanbo Hospital¡¯s decision. After all, Takahashi from Tokyo University Hospital, who had the most extensive research and experience with this rare case, was sitting right here. It wouldn¡¯t make sense not to ask for his help and insist on doing it oneself. ¡°Look, the young chief surgeon just now, he clearly got in through connections, he¡¯s just a vase¡ªuseless. If he can¡¯t do it, then he shouldn¡¯t go on stage. He embarrassed himself and now he¡¯s been pushed aside. He doesn¡¯t even have the position of assistant anymore.¡± Once Director Zhang started talking, there was no stopping him. It was refreshing to criticize others, especially when one can do it irresponsibly. Anyway, if Sanbo Hospital invited Director Zhang to be a department head, he would be able to overturn Tokyo University Hospital in three days, look down upon the whole world in five days, and unlock the mystery of eternal life in ten days. Outside the conference hall, few people were coming out. During the noon break, all the exhibition stands were bustling for a while. Now for the entire afternoon, only a few people came out. Occasionally, a few people came out because they were hungry. They grabbed something to eat from the snack table to fill their stomachs. These exhibition stands were just there to maintain a presence. It¡¯s almost impossible to sell products just by showcasing them. Medical device marketing follows the most traditional route. The medical device sellers sitting idly by would also inquire about the progress inside whenever they could. They heard that the Sanbo Hospital ambulance was blocked, that they had encountered a challenging operation, and that a Japanese person had been called up. They all knew that Manager Yu from Jiemai, who had studied medicine, was actively teaching his subordinates. He was excitedly explaining: ¡°This tumor is a spider angioma. Such a huge angioma is very challenging. It¡¯s full of blood vessels that grow in a disordered way¡ª¡± Huang Jiacai, holding a paper fan in the middle of winter and fanning himself, looked like a madman, which was something Gan Fengyi couldn¡¯t stand. Su Nanchen and Cheng Liquan came out for a breath of fresh air. After watching the surgery for so long, they were a bit tense and needed to relax. They also made some coffee to refresh themselves. ¡°Why isn¡¯t Doctor Yang performing the surgery?¡± To Yang Ping, Cheng Liquan regarded him as a god-like being. Cheng Liquan knew that Yang Ping¡¯s career was built upon trauma orthopedics, this also fell within the scope of trauma surgery. Since Song Zimo was performing thoracoabdominal trauma surgery, and was given full-privilege access, there was no reason that Yang Ping should not proceed as well, considering Song Zimo was only Yang Ping¡¯s assistant. Such a surgery, was being needlessly dragged out, it was frustrating. It would be much better to let Yang Ping do it immediately and resolve it quickly. In Cheng Liquan¡¯s eyes, no matter what kind of surgery it was, Yang Ping would solve it quickly, much like performing an arthroscopy. Su Nanchen saw through things more clearly than Cheng Liquan: ¡°This vascular tumor is too tricky to handle. This is not a matter of skill level anymore, it requires specific experience and advanced equipment. The Japanese have been studying this kind of surgery for years, I have been to their hospital to learn. They utilize a host machine from a trauma surgery auxiliary system and have specially built various tumor structure models, among which there is an image construction computational model for vascular tumors. It has undergone several improvements and is very advanced. They don¡¯t need their own machine to collect images, any CT, MRI or infrared imaging collected anywhere in the world can be sent to them for computerized modeling. It can display every single blood vessel of the vascular tumor clearly, there is no room for error. Our usual CT angiography reconstruction, if you look at that image, there are artifacts, distortions, mixed together, and you can¡¯t clearly see, even the number and direction of the main vascular sources can¡¯t be thoroughly understood, let alone be of much help in guiding the surgery. Their imaging can guide out the blood vessels one by one, this way, the surgery can achieve a very high success rate. This system was cooperatively built by Toshiba Corporation and Tokyo University Affiliated Hospital. Even when their hospital uses it, approval from Fujiwara Masao is required. At present, it is at the experimental stage. It uses a giant computer as the host and the startup cost for one usage is over 60,000 U.S. dollars.¡± ¡°Ah, I see what you¡¯re saying. Without sufficient support, even skill falls flat.¡± Cheng Liquan understood. ¡°When Director Han made this decision, he took many things into consideration. If he was careless and let Yang Ping take over without thinking, what if it didn¡¯t work out and the patient died? There¡¯s no turning back in a surgery, you see. That¡¯s why Yang Ping did not operate first on this patient, instead Song Zimo went first, giving him enough time to plan the surgical approach. Even when the CT reconstruction image hadn¡¯t come out yet, based on the cross-sectional images, Director Han probably had already estimated the abdominal situation and realized the difficulty of the surgery. He had contacted the Digital Orthopedics Institute of Nandu Medical University, but they responded that they couldn¡¯t construct a clear and accurate blood vessel structure¡ª¡± Su Nanchen knew even more about the details than Cheng Liquan. So much thought for just one surgery! As the industry rumor goes, everyone says Han Jianguo is very sharp. It seems that he really is. ¡°The Japanese do have some impressive technology!¡± exclaimed Cheng Liquan. Su Nanchen drank a cup of coffee, ¡°More than that, many of their technologies are leading the world¡ª¡± ¡°Boss Cheng, hello!¡± Doctor Wan just came out and bumped into Cheng Liquan, Cheng Liquan asked, ¡°Doctor Wan, how are things inside?¡± ¡°Sasaki seems to have run into trouble, it¡¯s difficult to operate within the amniotic fluid. He moved part of the fetus out of the amniotic fluid which caused some agitation in the fetus, and the reconstruction of the hepatobiliary pancreatic duct system is a bit obstructed. Takahashi found the eighth blood vessel, but that also posed some difficulty. The more vessels they look for, the more time-consuming it becomes. The vascular reconstruction image from Tokyo has been sent over, but Takahashi still hasn¡¯t found the ninth one.¡± Doctor Wan reported the latest progress to his boss. ¡°Let¡¯s go back inside again, it seems that all the surgeries showcased in this conference are once-in-a-century cases.¡± ¡°Some things just coincide!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go, let¡¯s go in!¡± ¡°I want to see what this image from a machine that costs $60,000 to start up once looks like.¡± ¡ª The patrol car drove past the emergency department door of Sanbo Hospital, and the ambulance team finally returned to Sanbo. The six patients brought back by the ambulance have arrived at the emergency department and will be immediately sent to the operating room. There are only two operating tables with CT scanners, one of which is currently in use, leaving only one left. Director Xiong sent the patient with craniocerebral injury to the operating room equipped with a scanner, and the other five were sent to the Imaging Department for CT scans. After briefly stopping in the emergency department, the resuscitation trolley continued transfusion and fluid replacement, the nurses checked the blood bags and replaced them at an impressive speed. Head shaving, preoperative blood tests, electrocardiograms were all completed on the ambulance. All test results were neatly included in the case and on return to the emergency department, the data was also transferred to the hospital¡¯s electronic system. All the resuscitation trolleys made a brief stop, within two minutes they set off again ¨C some to the operating room, others to the Imaging Department. Four staff members per patient ¨C two pulling, two pushing ¨C with doctors and nurses on either side, they moved like race cars. Xiong Sihai stood like a giant in the center of the hall, directing and dispatching the operations. There were dedicated staff holding the emergency elevator, with one elevator transporting two resuscitation carts at a time. Director Meng of the Imaging Department was personally overseeing operations, all of the professional image viewing screens in the doctor¡¯s office were turned on, with dozens of doctors busily reading the scans. They divided the scans by sections, then consolidated the findings. Once an image was interpreted, Director Meng and several senior chief physicians reviewed it, and then released the report. Operating Groups A, B, C and the reserve team were all on deck. Director Tian, Dr. Zhong, Dr. Jin, Director Bai, Director Ouyang, Director Ding, all had to be on the stage, six operating rooms were opened at the same time. Elite personnel from neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, general surgery and urological surgery were also put into action. Teams worked together skilfully, with one team responsible for each patient. Rescues were carried out in an orderly manner, and Dean Xia, along with his office staff, went from the emergency department to the imaging department, then to the operating room, co-ordinating the cooperation of departments to provide strong logistical support at any time. ¡ª Su Nanchen and Cheng Liquan had already returned to the meeting room. The image worth $60,000 had been transmitted from Tokyo and was displayed on the big screen. Chapter 255 - 0239: Stop at the Foot of the Mountain Chapter 255: Chapter 0239: Stop at the Foot of the Mountain The image of the vascular reconstruction transmitted from Tokyo appears on the big screen. It¡¯s crystal clear, showing every detail ¨C the source, trajectory, coordination, and interaction of each blood vessel with surrounding organs. The image, displayed in green, covers everything from the origin of each vessel down to its bifurcation. Using this image as a reference for surgery, real direction can be given during the surgical procedure. Takahashi, who was still in a gloomy state, immediately looked fresh when Fujiwara Miyuki notified him that the image could now be seen on the screen. The reconstructed image has outlined the order in which the steps of the surgery should take place. This highly optimized sequence is calculated by the computer. Takahashi knows the power of this system. Immediately changing his approach, he began to look for the eighth blood vessel according to the image guide. As expected, it was easier to separate this one than the one he had tried to find on his own. However, as these vessels were malformed and extremely delicate, often stuck together, and connected to important organs in multiple complex ways, attempts to separate them bluntly risked damaging the adjacent organs. The current vessel originates from the aorta and is still stuck to it. It was selected by the system to handle first, which indicates the complexity of the vessels that come later. The surgery was somewhat desperate and suffocating, Takahashi had completely lost his desire to show off, he was carefully separating the blood vessels, hoping to finish the process quickly. His hands moved proficiently, but slowly, this limited the ability for his hands to operate independently. Under these challenging conditions, using both left and right hands for independent operations could easily lead to accidents. After all, operations performed with both hands were more safe and steady. Blunt separation was impossible, only sharp separation could be employed by using a scalpel or tissue scissors. ¡°Tissue Scissors!¡± Takahashi began to separate the vessels carefully with the tissue scissors, one bit at a time, the intestines were being separated, getting closer and closer to the abdominal aorta, as the vessels were intertwined around it. Like dancing on the edge of a knife, Takahashi¡¯s technique was skilled, but the complex course of these malformed vessels could not be underestimated. If they were not ligated from the dry parts, even a tiny drop of leaking blood left untouched could lead to the patient¡¯s death from hemorrhagic shock. Although these blood vessels were malformed, they were quite thick, many with diameters reaching or exceeding 0.5 cm, their rarity and complexity were stunning. Finally, the main source was reached and sorted with sutures, but the process took five minutes. Even with the help of a clear image, it took five minutes. At this rate, he could only manage to locate a dozen or so vessels. The ninth vessel was even more challenging. As anticipated, the computer¡¯s sequence would not be misleading. Takahashi began to sweat, and there were only thirty minutes left. The patient wouldn¡¯t be able to hold on like this, let alone the risk of aortic occlusion failure. These blood vessels, extending upwards to the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen, and downwards to the kidneys and back to the spine, made it impossible to proceed with the surgery, no matter how clear the images were. No matter how precise the information is, victory can¡¯t be guaranteed if the enemy is too powerful! Takahashi turned around, moving out of the operational area, as the patrolling nurse helped wipe the sweat off his forehead. ¨C Fujiwara Masao sighed, this patient¡¯s condition was even more complex than the one he had faced years ago. It took Takahashi fifteen minutes to deal with only eight vessels, and now, another five minutes had passed yet the ninth vessel still remained isolated. The surgery could not proceed. Although the monitor screen only showed the surgical area of the patient, covered by a thick sterilized blanket, it would still be heartbreaking for any doctor to witness the failure of resuscitating a patient helplessly. Fujiwara Masao picked up his phone, oh, Takahashi was still on the operating table, it would be better to call Miyuki. ¡°Tell Professor Han to cut the live stream! Let Takahashi take the call!¡± It¡¯s too brutal, watching the patient suffer on the operating table while the doctor¡¯s hands are tied. Watching this patient die helplessly is just too brutal. Takahashi retracted his hands into the protective bag on his chest and headed for the clear space. Fujiwara Miyuki then held the phone to his ear: ¡°Takahashi, even if we were in Tokyo, you would not be able to complete this surgery. Please face the reality and give up. You are my best student, you have done your best.¡± ¡°Okay, sir,¡± Takahashi respectfully replied. Fujiwara Miyuki then activated speakerphone: ¡°Respected Professor Han, we all did our best. No doctor would like to see this outcome, but we still have to make a decision. Turn off the video, let¡¯s end this friendly demonstration here. If Takahashi can¡¯t handle it, no one can complete this surgery¡ª¡± There was no doubt about the judgment from the phone, if Takahashi could not handle this surgery, no one in the room would be able to. Takahashi already stood at the top of the world¡¯s trauma surgery pyramid. But he was, after all, just one man, one doctor. Human capabilities and medical skills are both limited and there are places that they cannot reach. When he finished the call, Takahashi was overwhelmed with a sense of defeat, his head buzzing. He had never done such sloppy surgery before. He came up to the stage full of confidence, especially when his mentor Fujiwara, from distant Japan, used the latest image reconstruction engine to recreate the vascular image, his confidence was boosted even further. But after getting on the operating table, the first, second, and third vessels were easy, the fourth started to take more time, the fifth was already a struggle, the sixth was very difficult, the seventh was only completed by luck, the eighth took five minutes and was dealt with roughly, and the ninth, there was no end in sight. It was a twisted and tangled mess with the hepatic artery, there was no way to locate it and it was impossible to separate it. Clumsy sutures could easily cause impediment to the blood supply of the liver. He was soaked in sweat, his hands were slightly shaking. He had not fulfilled his teacher¡¯s regret, nor performed this Mount Everest-like surgery in front of everyone. He moved his neck slightly, looked up at the ceiling, feeling as if he was at the foot of a high mountain, made several steps up, but was unable to proceed further. Facts are facts. The objective fact is as hard as steel! ¡°I am sorry, Professor Han¨C, please cut the live stream.¡± Without much time for hesitation, Takahashi was forced to say regretfully. Director Tan stood there, looking at Director Han, who was looking at the clear reconstruction image displayed on the screen from Tokyo. ¡°Xiao Yang, have you got a clear view of this picture?¡± Yang Ping nodded his head, indeed this image was much clearer than the previous CT reconstruction image. The initial scan appeared like a clump of overcooked noodles mixed together, making it impossible to discern anything. With the current imagery, each vessel was clearly defined, the relationships between them were completely nuanced, both in terms of accuracy and discrete level, it exceeded the previous images by a vast margin. If the surgery was performed based on the previous image, it would involve a great degree of difficulty, but with the help of the current image, the surgery would basically be no longer difficult. Yang had just reconstructed the image in his brain, after all, his brain image construction ability could only use the original CT image. ¡°Any problem?¡± ¡°No major issues!¡± So, it means there are no problems! ¡°It¡¯s still premature to give up now, let us take some rest. Xiao Yang, you take the stage, as Chief Surgeon! Xiao Song assists, cooperate with Xiao Zhang and Little Five. Little Five, what are you waiting for, wash your hands and get on stage!¡± Little Five had just left the operating room to help Fujiwara Miyuki transmit the images and removed his surgical gown and gloves. He would need to wash his hands and dress up again. Takahashi was staring at Director Han, has he gone mad? I, Takahashi Fumiya, couldn¡¯t handle it and yet he¡¯s asking others to take over. Does he want everyone to see the patient passing away on the operating table? Ridiculous! A hint of anger rose in Takahashi. He undressed his surgical gown and gloves and threw them into a large yellow trash bin. ¡°The patient¡¯s vital signs are temporarily stable¨C¡± Fatty was getting excited. Finally, Yang Ping took the stage, Song Zimo immediately refreshed his spirits. Director Han and Director Tan also prepared to leave the stage. Director Han asked: ¡°Do you need us on standby to assist you?¡± ¡°Thank you, Director, having Song Zimo and the others is enough. ¡± Yang Ping positioned himself in the Chief Surgeon¡¯s spot. Director Han pondered and said: ¡°Focus and brace yourself. This operation is like the Mount Everest in trauma surgery. Over a hundred blood vessels, none of them can be missed. A single miss equates to the bleeding speed of a femoral artery. Show your best skills. Do you remember my saying? There are no authorities today, you are the authorities! I will be sitting here, give it your all!¡± Director Han didn¡¯t undress, nor did he remove his gloves. Seeing Director Han still dressed, Director Tan also stayed dressed. The circulating nurse brought several stools, and Director Han sat down. Takahashi and Fujiwara Miyuki didn¡¯t plan to leave, they also sat in the operating room. To avoid contaminating Directors Han and Tan, they sat at a distance, at different corners watching the operating theatre¡¯s screen. ¡ª This operation is too difficult, Takahashi can¡¯t save the situation, the live video feed should be turned off soon. The surgery area appears on the video. For a brief moment, it was left vacant as the surgeons¡¯ hands and instruments have moved out of the area. Then, several sets of hands entered the frame. With two S-shaped retractor hooks, the abdominal cavity is opened up. The operation begins with two pairs of hands. These belong to the Chief Surgeon and his assistant. Captions popped up on the video, as if they were typed out one by one. Chief Surgeon: Yang Ping, orthopedic specialist. Assistant: Song Zimo, orthopedic specialist. As soon as Yang Ping got on stage, Professor Su straightened up immediately. Old Han really got him on the stage. But can he handle it? ¡°Doctor Yang is on stage?¡± Cheng Liquan alerted Su Nanchen. Su Nanchen focuses on the screen: ¡± Finally, he¡¯s on stage¨C¡± Can he really handle this operation? Yang Ping, seeing this name, Ou Lichun realized it was his classmate. ¡°My classmate is on stage!¡± Ou Lichun tugged at Director Zhang to show him. Director Zhang seemed unwilling to watch and casually glanced at the screen: ¡°He just went on stage to close the abdomen, and then the clean-up and suturing of the facial and upper left limb wounds will commence, and the video will be switched off soon¡ª¡± Indeed, Ou Lichun felt as if Director Zhang had splashed cold water on his anticipation. At this stage, what can a single specialist do? He¡¯s just cleaning up the mess. They¡¯ve given up on this surgery. ¡ªFujiwara Masao felt a mixture of emotions in his heart. It¡¯s highly regrettable that they have to watch as another patient is abandoned. He felt extremely uncomfortable. Shut off the video feed. He couldn¡¯t bear to watch, but his eyes held their gaze on the screen, as if hoping for a miracle to occur. Takahashi only managed to suture eight vessels and then could progress no further, unable to continue the ascent. Even if he were on site, he wasn¡¯t sure if he could handle it. With the new algorithm to rebuild the image, maybe an 80% chance? Or 60%? He really didn¡¯t know. Why hasn¡¯t the video feed been turned off? Have they gone mad? In the video, several pairs of hands, two retractors, and the two pairs of hands had begun to move. They were not closing up the abdomen, but were continuing on with the search and suturing of the blood vessels. Don¡¯t they have any basic ethical principles at all? Under such circumstances, in order to maintain the patient¡¯s final dignity, they shouldn¡¯t appear in the video. The ninth vessel, which Takahashi failed to locate was found, successfully isolated, right-handed hemostat applied, and severed; the left hand located the tenth one. No, the eleventh and twelfth vessels have also been discovered, the two surgeons moved simultaneously, from above and below, operating separately. Besides, both of them were using their left and right hands independently, as if four people were performing the operation concurrently. Fujihara Masao instantly recognized the peculiar operations by those pairs of hands. One pair of hands was extremely quick, while the other pair was noticeably slower, but still exceeded the level of Takahashi¡¯s independent movements. He was just about to turn off the electronic screen, when he suddenly exclaimed: Wait! Chapter 256 - 0240: China’s Twin Titans Chapter 256: Chapter 0240: China¡¯s Twin Titans ¡°Everyone, do not leave, those without surgery, those not on call, all come back!¡± People in the teaching room were beginning to leave. Fujiwara Masao shouted excitedly, like a roar. Everyone was scared and went back to the teaching room. They did not give up on the surgery, but continued with it. They had decided to climb this Mount Everest by themselves. Yang Ping, Song Zimo¨C Two young doctors with no fame, the skill of the chief surgeons far surpassed Takahashi and Sasaki, the assistants were also extraordinary, not inferior to Takahashi and Sasaki. Four hands, as if by magic, operating in different areas above and below. Over thirty blood vessels had been handled above, and several below. This was a situation where Takahashi could not proceed. The speed of the chief surgeon was getting faster and faster, while the speed of the helper gradually slowed down, because the following blood vessels were becoming more difficult and increasingly dangerous to handle. The Chief Surgeon was getting into a groove, the tissue scissors were extremely nimble, wandering between the blood vessels and surrounding tissue adhesions, the tips constantly opening and closing like a spirited snake, bit by bit severing the adhesions, successfully separating the blood vessels. Handling such adhesion deformity of blood vessels in dangerous areas, so boldly, how confident the surgeon must be in his own skill, a slight mishandling could lead to irreversible consequences. The hands were sometimes cooperating and sometimes operating independently, switching seamlessly. Blood vessels were continuously being separated, clamped, severed, and sutured. Only the dangerous area of the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas was left in the upper end. ¡°Mr.Fujiwara ¡ª¡± Fujiwara waved his hand, indicating the person speaking not to disturb him. It was so magical. It was unbelievable that such surgeons existed in the world. How did he manage to do it? Finally, they reached the dangerous area of the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. The speed of the scissors was still undiminished. Each cut was like cutting Fujiwara¡¯s heart, scaring him out of his wits. Soon, the blood vessels in this extremely dangerous area were successfully separated and sutured. Fujiwara Masao originally wanted to see how he overcame the difficulties and completed the separation and suturing of the blood vessels, but the Chief Surgeon finished it so easily that it seemed as if there were no difficulties in front of the Chief Surgeon. ¡°Mr.Fujiwara ¡ª¡ª¡± The people around him called out again. Fujiwara came back to his senses: ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Let¡¯s talk about it later.¡± ¡°Senior Sasaki is in trouble, we need you to step in.¡± A doctor reported. ¡°Oh!¡± Fujiwara gently responded, his gaze still locked onto the screen, reluctant to leave, but there¡¯s no help about it, Sasaki needed him. ¡ª ¡°Who is this doctor?¡± Meng Heng asked Professor Su. Even though there was an introduction on the screen: Sanbo Hospital, Yang Ping, Orthopedic Attending Physician, Meng Heng still asked. Professor Su was grinning from ear to ear: ¡°Professor Han¡¯s student, Yang Ping¡ª¡ª¡± mentioning Professor Han¡¯s student made him feel sour inside. What are you so proud of? He¡¯s not your student. This was what Meng Heng thought while looking at Professor Su¡¯s expression. ¡°His student? Impossible, right? That young man from last night.¡± Fu Shancheng was somewhat skeptical. ¡°Yes!¡± Professor Su was a little excited. The rhythm of instruments entering the surgical field in the video was excellent, the coordination was seamless. This young girl, she¡¯s got some skills! Professor Su muttered to himself, meaning both literal and metaphorical. The processing at the bottom end seemed to be much less complex, but Song Zimo was finding it increasingly difficult. After handling ten blood vessels, he had to pause, and said in embarrassment: ¡°Brother, the rest of the blood vessels are wrapped around the adrenal gland. I dare not move them anymore, I can¡¯t assist you anymore.¡± He had done very well. This was where Takahashi had been unable to make any headway. In the areas where Takahashi had encountered difficulties, Song Zimo had completed surgery on ten blood vessels. Yang Ping gave him a thumbs-up: ¡°You go and do the upper left limb re-implantation. Leave this part to me.¡± In just ten more minutes, Yang Ping completely handled the upper part and both sides, taking over the bilateral adrenal periphery that Song Zimo had been unable to finish. Once the adrenal gland is damaged, it can cause abnormal hormone secretion, severely affecting people¡¯s physiological functions and endangering life. He still stuck with sharp dissection. Blunt dissection relies on tearing, whereas sharp dissection relies on cutting. There¡¯s an obvious difference between tearing grass and cutting grass; one is clearly more refined than the other. The sharp ophthalmic scissors, in the hand of the Chief Surgeon, seemed to have a spirit of their own. Each opening and closing never too much or too little, just enough to exert its maximum potential, without causing any collateral damage. Under the sharp dissection of the ophthalmic scissors, the adrenal gland was exposed, the malformed blood vessels enveloping it were excised, clamped, severed, and sutured, one by one. After separating the top, bottom, and sides, the blood vessel mass was finally lifted and the surgeons began to address the blood vessels connected to the front side of the spine. Old Han¡¯s fingers were tapping merrily on his thigh, This kid, with the help of a 3D reconstruction of blood vessels, he¡¯s nailed this surgery. After today, the sign of Sanbo Orthopedics will officially be established. They have taken a solid step towards a dream that started ten years ago. Yang Ping! Fujiwara Miyuki will remember this name. Those unwavering eyes seemed capable of conquering everything. She once thought that after her brother, among the younger generation of orthopedic doctors, no one could surpass Takahashi and Sasaki. No matter how difficult the surgery was, they would always complete it with composure. But today, this young doctor made the brilliant Takahashi lose his luster. Takahashi¡¯s body was rigid. His surgical skills were a bit inferior to that of the assistant, not to mention the formidable lead surgeon. If the gap was small, he might still remain proud and arrogant. But now, the gap was so large that it was insurmountable, no matter how hard he tried. Such a gap was suffocating, filled with despair, and utterly fatal. There was no ray of hope in sight. Takahashi felt the need for oxygen now, his chest was suffocating. Because of his emotional turbulence, his coronary arteries contracted and his brain was starved of oxygen, leaving him in severe confusion. Takahashi graduated from the Tokyo University Medical Department with the top score. Tokyo University is the hardest university to get into in Japan, and its medical department is the hardest to enter. Since the first day of his medical career, he has shone like a star. Top-notch talent, university, hospital, and teachers cultivated him into the doctor that he is today. He is the brightest star in Japan¡¯s orthopedics field. He was invited all over the world to lecture. Every time, including at the North American Trauma Surgery Annual Meeting, he was invited as a major speaker, always sitting in the first row. When he came to China this time, from the moment he got off the plane, he didn¡¯t even take a proper look at this city or anyone here. He thought he was on a different level from them, superior, looking down on them. Now, his surgical skills were inferior to that of an assistant¡¯s. While the surgery continued, he gave it his all but could only take ten steps while the others effortlessly ran a hundred. At this point, the entire vessel tumor had been removed. Yang Ping took it out from the abdominal cavity, dripping with blood. Every single blood vessel had been treated. The large vessels were sutured, even the smaller vessels were either ligated or coagulated. The vessels he treated were far more than just the hundreds. Twenty minutes in, and the assistant had only helped deal with ten, but he dealt with over a hundred major vessels, almost one per second. What kind of speed was this? On the left screen, Sasaki encountered difficulties with the final pancreatic duct reconstruction. Due to the fetus¡¯s restlessness, he didn¡¯t dare to proceed. Fujiwara Masao took over, and as expected from a teacher! Even with the restless fetus, he finished the final reconstruction of the pancreatic duct in just over ten minutes. Artificial amniotic fluid was injected, the fetus was returned to the correct position, and the uterus was closed up, bringing the surgery to an end. The left video was closed, the right one continued, the screen switched from half to full. The blood vessel tumor was like a large, bloody sponge, being placed into a large metal basin. It needed to be sent for pathological examination after the surgery. With the issues in the abdominal cavity resolved, they released the clamp on the undamaged aorta. There were still a few minutes left. They repositioned the intestines, inserted a drain, and closed up the abdomen. Yang Ping took a brief rest while waiting for Song Zimo to complete the limb re-implantation. Re-implantation of the limb wasn¡¯t a daunting task for them. This amputated limb, which was now ready to be re-attached, was only used to preserve the appendage. There would be a second surgery later on to fully restore its functionality. They finished reattaching the left arm, and finally, they had to reattach the facial parts. This was quite a complex surgery. ¡°Professor Han, are these two the stars of traumatology in your China?¡± Fujiwara Miyuki asked. Old Han smiled and said, ¡°China is so big, there are people beyond people, and skies beyond skies. I can¡¯t confirm if they are the two stars, but they are indeed excellent surgeons.¡± Takahashi remained silent, unsure of what to say. Accustomed to arrogance, he didn¡¯t even know how to respond anymore. His phone vibrated a couple of times before he noticed it. He turned his head and spoke softly, ¡°Teacher Fujiwara, yes, alright.¡± Fujiwara Masao wanted him to stay in China, at Sanbo, and learn from Sanbo Hospital¡¯s trauma orthopedics for a week. ¡°You spoke with Teacher Fujiwara?¡± Even though he was her older brother, Fujiwara Miyuki still addressed him as ¡®teacher¡¯. ¡°Yes!¡± Takahashi¡¯s face turned red. He didn¡¯t mention Fujiwara¡¯s instructions and figured he¡¯d talk about it later when it was more convenient, he needed to adjust his mindset first. They began reconstructing the maxillofacial area. Little Five came over to help, and Song Zimo let Yang Ping rest. He began to clean the wounds, on the patient¡¯s face and on the severed half of his face, taken from the refrigerator. After switching gloves, he used a steel plate to fix the mandible and the cheekbone. Then he separated the blood vessels and nerves. The severed half of the face, which included half an ear, needed to be replanted. Yang Ping stepped up to the plate. He worked with his hands suspended in mid-air. Unlike Japan, they didn¡¯t have micro cameras, only a traditional Carl Zeiss surgical microscope. The patient was still moving a bit, but it didn¡¯t affect the surgery. In a matter of minutes, Yang Ping had connected the most important vessels. The remaining work was handed over to Song Zimo. The two brothers made their name from limb re-implantation, so, what challenges could this surgery pose? Like completing a minor wound stitching, Song Zimo finished the subsequent steps, and they easily wrapped up the complex maxillofacial reimplantation surgery. A truly thrilling maxillofacial reimplantation surgery ended without a sound. The word ¡°Thank you¡± appeared on the screen, and the video was turned off. Everyone wanted more! That was the feeling on everyone¡¯s mind. Ou Lichun, who had attended the network conference of Trauma Orthopedics and watched the five-section replantation last time, tipped over a can of cola. When the surgery ended, the can of cola hadn¡¯t been touched at all, but the glass used as an ashtray, filled halfway with water, was now empty with only a few cigarette butts left at the bottom. This time, when the surgery concluded, he felt a fierce urgency in his bladder. He needed to rush to the bathroom, that was his first reaction. Chapter 257 - 0241 International Trainee Chapter 257: Chapter 0241 International Trainee The demonstration surgery had ended, but everyone was still engaged in lively discussion. If the guest lecture session were to continue, no one would be in the mood to listen. After the excitement, fatigue follows, and everyone needed to relax. Director Tan decided to postpone all remaining guests¡¯ lectures to Sunday. There was still some time left in the afternoon today, so everyone could rest and then sit down to have a good Huashan Sword Conference on Sunday to discuss new technologies in trauma orthopedics. Some guests came in a hurry. For example, Meng Heng and Fu Shancheng were invited by Professor Su. Their original plan was to show face on stage on Saturday and leave in the afternoon, which was a friendly guest appearance. However, after watching the surgery demonstration, they decided to stay to finish the conference and have a good chat with Old Han and Professor Su at the dinner. The second patient, although also in critical condition, was much simpler compared to the first patient. With the steady Director Tian as the Chief Surgeon, the operation went very smoothly. The other few weren¡¯t special patients, just routine trauma emergency surgeries. Director Bai and Director Ouyang were the main surgeons, and they were very happy to have the chance to perform this demonstration surgery. This could be boasted about for a lifetime, and their names could be left in the history of Sanbo Orthopaedics development. Director Ding¡¯s team dealt with two less critical cases. Essentially, they sat on the bench and regretted not being more proactive during training because Director Tan¡¯s assignment wasn¡¯t arbitrary. After the surgeries, the patients¡¯ vital signs were stable, and they were ready to be transported to the Trauma ICU. Xiao Su was cleaning the instruments, gazing at Yang Ping non-stop, her heart filled with love and admiration. Yang Ping took off his surgical gown and gloves. Immediately, Takahashi stood up, leaning slightly forward: ¡°Professor Yang!¡± He was unsure about how to address him and was unclear about the Chinese doctors¡¯ professional titles, but he assumed that calling an impressive doctor ¡°professor¡± wouldn¡¯t be a huge issue. ¡°Hm!¡± Yang Ping greeted, symbolically, as he didn¡¯t pay much attention to this Japanese man. Yang Ping removed his gloves and operated the control panel himself to freeze the 3D reconstruction of the blood vessels displayed on the LCD screen. Song Zimo followed him. Yang Ping explained to Song Zimo how to deal with these blood vessels, their order, precautions, etc. Over a hundred blood vessels tangled like a mess, and it was unthinkable to untangle them, let alone perform surgery on them. Song Zimo listened very carefully because every explanation by Yang Ping greatly helped him, clarified many doubts, and elevated his understanding of diseases and surgeries to a new level. He used to wonder why Yang Ping¡¯s knowledge was so vast and deep, as many things could not be expressed without extensive practical experience. Later, he stopped pondering this question and focused on listening and learning carefully. There¡¯s no point in wondering who cooked a delicious meal, how they learned their craft, or where they bought their ingredients. The main course is to enjoy it thoroughly. Takahashi couldn¡¯t understand Chinese, so Fujiwara Miyuki kept translating for him in a low voice. After hearing it, Takahashi also had many sudden realizations. The assistant was personally trained by Professor Yang, no wonder he was so impressive. In the system, Yang Ping had completed all kinds of bizarre tumors, benign or malignant, over a thousand cases. In terms of efficiency, it was equivalent to over ten thousand real-life cases, which were likely more than Takahashi would ever encounter in his lifetime. What does a vast amount of case resources mean? The case resources in the system space are truly vast. Only with such a wealth of cases could a doctor like Yang Ping be nurtured. For example, this massive spreading hemangioma. Yang Ping had dealt with more difficult ones in the system space, and some even required tracking blood vessels into the spinal canal. Thus, as Takahashi listened on the side, he was completely in awe and respects. Japenese people naturally respect the strong and despise the weak. In front of an absolute powerhouse, they would curb all so-called arrogance, bow their heads in respect, and adapt so quickly as to make one feel unaccustomed. The gold hook and the silver hook, who is gold and who is silver, are no longer important. What¡¯s essential is that the names of Zhang Lin and Little Five also appear on the screen, one as the second assistant and the other as the third assistant. Zhang Lin had long called the training brothers in the department who weren¡¯t in the operation room to take pictures for him. The picture with his name on it was instantly sent to his wife, meaning dinner would have a few more eggs. As for Little Five, needless to say, the picture was sent to Xiao Qing, Xiao Qing sent to his parents, and his parents sent to the family group. This was an international academic conference, a top-level surgical operation. His son-in-law was a part of it. Although his name was at the bottom, it was still there, visible for all to see. Director Han walked around with Director Tan. Of the six patients they took back, four were seriously ill and two were mildly ill. The four seriously ill ones were in surgery. There were no major difficulties and everything was moving smoothly for now. They should all be able to be rescued. Takahashi tried to open his mouth to speak to Director Han several times, but didn¡¯t know how to say it because he couldn¡¯t speak Chinese. So he said to Fujiwara Miyuki: ¡°Teacher¡ªlet me¡ªwe stay here a week¡ªlearn on the job!¡± The sentence was broken down into several parts to get out, which made Fujiwara Miyuki so happy that she almost jumped up. This was exactly what she wanted, thinking about staying and playing for a few days. But staying around to learn was not the same as playing. The plan to go out and play on the high-speed rail would have to be put on hold. ¡°But how to stay for learning? Who should we talk to about this? How does the process go?¡± Fujiwara Miyuki also didn¡¯t know. Director Han came back again. Takahashi blushed: ¡°Professor Han¡ª¡± Seeing him stuttering, Director Han asked, ¡°Mr. Takahashi, is there something you want?¡± ¡°Well, Teacher Fujihara wants your private number, if that¡¯s okay? Thank you!¡± Takahashi gritted his teeth and said it. He thought that it¡¯s better to let Fujihara handle the issue and see how the procedure goes. Every hospital, even for a few days of visits, has a procedure. It can¡¯t be done on a whim. ¡°Give my phone number to Mr. Takahashi!¡± ordered Director Han. Director Tan immediately wrote it down for him. Takahashi received the note with both hands and sent the phone number to Fujiwara Masao. Fujiwara Masao personally contacted Director Han, hoping to have Takahashi stay for a week of study, preferably with Professor Yang Ping. Fujiwara Masao was very sincere, and so was Director Han, who agreed to help make it happen. But whether Doctor Yang would agree, he couldn¡¯t be sure. His team had a certain level of autonomy, and he couldn¡¯t interfere with these matters. Fujiwara Masao, who had grown up under the scholastic system, understood that a powerful professor had absolute authority in his own domain, and no one else could interfere. He hadn¡¯t expected it to be similar in China. Did academic leaders hold such high status here too? Director Tan reported Takahashi¡¯s request to study to the Academic Affairs Office. Director Zhou of the Medical Affairs Office thought he had heard wrong. At Sanbo Hospital, there weren¡¯t many who came for further study, let alone foreigners. Since the establishment of the hospital, they had never encountered such a situation. What should they do? They should consult higher-ups. But who? It seemed unthinkable to consult directly with Dean Xia. They should seek guidance from Dean Sun, the first vice dean in charge of operations. Upon hearing this, Dean Sun immediately took it seriously. A foreigner coming for further study was an unprecedented case, and this was a well-known international professor. He had to take this seriously. He thought for a moment and outlined a few principles: 1. Assign a personnel to assist in handling this matter; 2. Select a qualified translator for Takahashi, responsible for translation work during his stay at Sanbo; 3. Have the canteen urgently find a chef who can prepare Japanese cuisine, or order from a Japanese restaurant, to be responsible for Takahashi¡¯s meals for a week; 4. He had yet to think of the fourth principle. With these instructions from Dean Sun, Director Zhou realized the importance of this matter. He immediately instructed the clerk, Xiao Xu, to handle this matter diligently, quickly, and efficiently. The process should be unhindered. Xiao Xu thought about it carefully. There was also the matter of accommodations. This was an international friend. Safety during his stay was of utmost importance. What if something was lost? It would be very troublesome. Takahashi¡¯s further study became a big deal. As an international student, this was a big deal. Dean Sun thought for a moment and gave Director Zhou several additional directives. Truth be told, there were occasional enthusiasts coming to China to study traditional Chinese medicine. As for western medicine, there were friends from third world countries who came to China for further study. But this was the first time they had encountered someone from a developed country. Director Zhou felt that he must call Director Han next. After all, as department director, it was necessary to inform him about this further study opportunity. Without wasting any time, he made a phone call. Director Han said he couldn¡¯t interfere too much. Although he served as the head of the integrated orthopedics department, the specific clinical work was managed by Yang Ping. The Academic Affairs Office had to talk to Yang Ping about it. Yes, call Yang Ping. But he didn¡¯t answer! His cell phone was locked in the locker in the dressing room. Director Zhou immediately instructed clerk Xu: ¡°Drop whatever else you¡¯re doing and prioritize this matter. Get in touch with Doctor Yang and get this matter of further study settled. Handle the paperwork as soon as possible and wait for Yang Ping to be free. Once he signs the form, everything is good to go.¡± Further study followed a procedure. Even if it was fast-tracked, certain steps had to be followed. For Takahashi, a foreigner, they had to keep copies of documents such as his passport on file. They also needed a fax of his medical practice certificate and proof of employment from Japan. They couldn¡¯t just let any random person claiming to be Takahashi into the operating room or on patient rounds, could they? He also needed ID to take part in further study, a pass to enter and leave the operating room, along with a white coat, and an ID badge. This wasn¡¯t a matter of just stomping your foot and declaring he can carry on with his further study. In the afternoon, everyone was chatting and resting. When it was tea time, they drank and ate pastries to relax and get ready for the evening banquet. Yang Ping took Song Zimo and others to visit patients in the Trauma ICU, while Takahashi and Fujiwara Miyuki were found by the folks at the Academic Affairs Office. Xiao Xu accompanied them, helped them fill out forms, and managed their materials. All that was missing was a further study application form signed by Yang Ping. This procedure had to be followed. The department for further study was integrated orthopedics, and the guide was Yang Ping. It wouldn¡¯t be right if they didn¡¯t let him sign and nod in agreement. Finally, they found Yang Ping in the doctor¡¯s office of the Trauma ICU. Xiao Xu, accompanied by Takahashi and Fujiwara, found Yang Ping sitting at his desk, watching the latest test data of surgical patients on the computer. Song Zimo opened each test report on the computer for Yang Ping to read. ¡°Doctor Yang¨C¡± ¡°Doctor Yang¨C¡± ¡°Doctor Yang¨C¡± ¡°What is it? I¡¯m busy!¡± Little Five, hearing Xiao Xu¡¯s call, responded impatiently. Clerk Xu immediately replied: ¡°I have important matters for Doctor Yang. This is a document approved by Director Zhou and Dean Sun. Take a look¨C¡± Yang Ping stopped reading the reports and turned to see Clerk Xu leading Takahashi and Fujiwara Miyuki: ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°This is the application form for Professor Takahashi and Doctor Fujiwara to visit and exchange ideas at our hospital. Could you please sign it? Dean Sun and Director Zhou have already signed.¡± Clerk Xu said. To expedite the signature, he didn¡¯t offer an explanation. Since the dean had signed, all he needed was Yang¡¯s signature to fulfill the procedure. Yang Ping picked up the document, glanced at it, and said: ¡°Visit and exchange ideas? Why do I need to sign? You¡¯ve got the wrong idea. If the dean has already signed, just arrange for them to visit and exchange ideas.¡± ¡°Continue¨C¡°! Yang Ping told Song Zimo to continue reporting the test results. Chapter 258 - 0242: What About the HSK Score? Chapter 258: Chapter 0242: What About the HSK Score? ¡°Are you fucking kidding me?¡± Manager Xu was slightly annoyed, coughed a few times, and reluctantly said: ¡°Is it the case that Professor Takahashi is arranged to exchange and learn in your department?¡± Without turning his head, Yang Ping replied: ¡°For exchange and learning, no matter which department, I don¡¯t need to sign off on it. You guys arrange it, they can freely exchange and visit in our Orthopedics Department.¡± With no other choice, Xu had to spell it out: ¡°Professor Takahashi intends to further his studies in your department?¡± ¡°Further study?¡± Upon reading the form, Yang Ping remarked: ¡°Oh, further study, in our Department of Orthopedics, that does need my signature. You were not being clear about this ¡®exchange and learning¡¯, who¡¯s in charge of teaching in our department?¡± Song Zimo replied: ¡°Dr. Zhang Lin is the teaching secretary!¡± The teaching secretary is the one who manages interns, standardized training students, graduate students, and postgraduate trainees. ¡°Just go to Dr. Zhang. Follow the process.¡± Yang Ping said casually, he simply had no time to quibble over this. He had to attend to the critically ill patient; a patient¡¯s condition could change in an instant. It wasn¡¯t all over just because the surgery was successful; post-operative treatment was also extremely important. ¡°No, Dr. Yang, this is Professor Takahashi from the affiliate hospital of Tokyo University, Dean Sun personally signed for him. He is to be given priority and fast-tracked¨C¡± Since it was signed by the dean and to be given priority, it couldn¡¯t be treated negligently. Yang Ping paused in his work: ¡°Show me his file. If he qualifies, he can complete the process and report to Dr. Zhang in the department. It¡¯s a minor issue!¡± As he spoke, Yang Ping looked over the documents handed over by Xu. There was nothing else, just a filled training application form, filled out by someone else: ¡°There¡¯s nothing here. Where is the rest of the file? Why are you asking me to sign with no documents? Brother, this is not how you conduct business.¡± ¡°Documents? What kind of documents do you need?¡± Manager Xu was about to explode. When a big-shot Japanese professor wants to further his studies under you, you should be overjoyed. What¡¯s with all these formalities? Just sign and it¡¯s done. ¡°What kind of documents? Which country does he come from?¡± Yang Ping retorted Manager Xu. ¡°Japan!¡± Manager Xu replied. ¡°Yes, he¡¯s a foreigner. What¡¯s his HSK level? How many points? Where¡¯s the certificate?¡± Yang Ping casually flipped through it, returning the documents to Xu. ¡°What¡¯s HSK? Do I need this?¡± Xu was totally baffled. ¡°It¡¯s the Chinese Proficiency Test!¡± Song Zimo explained. ¡°We need that too?¡± Xu had never heard of this before. ¡°Of course we need it. For a foreigner to further his study in our country, they must pass the language requirement. No negotiation,¡± Yang Ping said without a hint of compromise. ¡°I am fluent in Chinese, but I have not taken any ranking test. Professor Takahashi doesn¡¯t understand Chinese,¡± Fujiwara Miyuki hurriedly said in Chinese. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°No good. He must pass the Chinese language requirement. It¡¯s fundamental. If you¡¯re furthering your study in China and you don¡¯t understand Chinese, how can you learn?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve provided a translator for him,¡± Xu claimed. ¡°A translator? Song Zimo, when you went abroad for further studies, did they provide you with a translator?¡± Yang Ping laughed. ¡°No, I learned English and Japanese by myself, there¡¯s no such thing as providing a translator,¡± Song Zimo responded. If he truly intends to further his study, he should act like it. Now they even provide him with a translator. Is he here for study or to give a lecture? ¡°Okay, we¡¯re busy. Let him prepare his documents and hand them to Zhang Lin for approval. We¡¯re indeed very busy.¡± Yang Ping truly was. ¡°But¡ª¡± Xu was at a loss for words. What Yang Ping said was indeed reasonable. We are providing further study; why do we have to provide a translator? However, since even Dean Sun has signed it, and yet he¡¯s still not giving us any face, he is really fucking arrogant. ¡°Zhang Lin, you¡¯re in charge of teaching for our department. From now on we must have rules. For foreigners, their Chinese language level must reach level four, otherwise it would be pointless even if they come¡ªthey wouldn¡¯t understand. It would be like playing the lute for a cow. As for professional knowledge, Song Zimo, you need to develop a comprehensive set of test papers and everybody who comes for further study must take this qualifying test, no matter where they are from.¡± Yang Ping briefly instructed Song Zimo and Zhang Lin. Although Manager Xu listening on the side was a little frustrated, he felt that what Yang Ping said was very true. What¡¯s happening? From the conversation and their expressions, Takahashi realized that something was amiss. Fujiwara Miyuki reluctantly told Takahashi: ¡°We can¡¯t complete the task given by our teacher this time. You are ineligible for further study because your Chinese proficiency is not up to standard. Professor Yang¡¯s language requirement for trainees is very strict, he insists on level four.¡± Not eligible? He was not eligible to come for further study. That was indeed a huge blow. Takahashi stood behind Fujiwara Miyuki, looking uncomfortable. Manager Xu held the training document in his hand, without signatures, he didn¡¯t know how to report back: ¡°Dr. Yang, Dean Sun, and Director Zhou had signed it, and the food had been arranged in the canteen. If you disagree and won¡¯t sign, I don¡¯t know how to explain when I go back.¡± ¡°Well, I will report to Director Han later, and Director Han will communicate with Dean Sun and Director Zhou.¡± Yang Ping knew that Xiao Xu was in charge and would be criticized if the task was not completed. Manager Xu had no choice but to take Takahashi and Fujiwara to the Medical Teaching Department. On the way, Xiao Xu wondered, is there such a test? He was familiar with IELTS and TOEFL exams, but he had never heard of the HSK. Xiao Xu looked it up on Baidu and indeed such a test exists. This test has been set up in many cities around the world, including Tokyo. It seemed that Yang Ping was correct. Isn¡¯t it a prerequisite to have a IELTS or TOEFL score for studying in Europe and America? As for medical doctors going abroad for further study, they also cram in English. Those who are serious about further studies will make an effort with language skills, otherwise they can only learn from other people¡¯s gesture. Of course, there are exceptions for those who purely go abroad to enhance their personal image. Whether they learn anything is irrelevant, as long as they take a few photos with their mentor, it can be considered as having studied abroad. Why didn¡¯t I think of that before? Xiao Xu felt something¡¯s off ¡ª in this situation, it seems like we are providing a lot of services for him, is he actually coming to further his studies or to lecture? Back in the office, he reported to Director Zhou that Yang Ping refused to sign the document on the grounds that Takahashi did not meet the training requirements due to inadequate language skills. ¡°What?¡± Director Zhou pounded on the table in anger. This younger generation is being so arrogant. As soon as they are given a little ability and regarded as talents by the hospital, they become overbearing. Can this matter be rejected by him alone? This matter is spearheaded by Dean Sun and the Medical Education Department, and perhaps Takahashi¡¯s training would be made into a model case and promoted on important media platforms. ¡°Director, but Takahashi wants to train with Dr. Yang. Isn¡¯t it within Dr. Yang¡¯s rights to refuse or accept? Can we force him?¡± Xiao Xu seemed to understand a bit more. ¡°Yang Ping is also a doctor at Sanbo Hospital, and he must abide by the hospital¡¯s overall arrangements.¡± Director Zhou was very angry. Xiao Xu had just seen Yang Ping¡¯s attitude, and he seemed to have almost no enthusiasm for Takahashi, treating him in the same way he would treat an ordinary person. Truth be told, Xiao Xu was quite supportive of Yang Ping. A foreigner! Normal training is enough, why should we offer him so many extra privileges? ¡°Director, Takahashi intends to study at our hospital, why should we give him such special treatment?¡± Xiao Xu also felt it wasn¡¯t right. Director Zhou responded without hesitation: ¡°He is a foreigner, and a well-known professor, of course he has to be treated differently. Xiao Xu, I was just thinking, whether we should arrange a life assistant for Takahashi?¡± For just one week of training, a life assistant was to be provided. Yang Ping hadn¡¯t even accepted Takahashi¡¯s training request, this felt like a self-directed and self-performed drama. Xiao Xu thought this was a bit too much. ¡°Dr. Yang has already refused Takahashi¡¯s application?¡± Xiao Xu reminded Director Zhou. ¡°Just because he said no, does it mean it¡¯s a no?¡± Director Zhou was very interested in this matter, and if handled properly, it could indeed become a model case. But Yang Ping was a little strange, and Zhou couldn¡¯t figure him out. Logically speaking, let¡¯s not talk about an internationally renowned professor, even an ordinary foreigner would be sought after for training, but Yang Ping was indifferent about it. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t be forced. Director Han values him so much, and Dean Xia treats him like a treasure. They really couldn¡¯t force him. If he was upset and decided to leave the hospital, it could cause trouble, as there must be many organizations that wanted to poach him. The banquet was lively, with Professor Su, Old Han, Meng Heng, and Fu Shancheng at one table. Dr. Park, Dr. Lin, Takahashi, Fujiwara and other international friends sat at another table, accompanied by Director Tan. Guests from other hospitals, for example, from The Provincial People¡¯s Hospital, were grouped together, accompanied by Director Tian. Wu Siwen from The City¡¯s People¡¯s Hospital couldn¡¯t make it. He was busy with some troubles, reportedly related to Dean Xie¡¯s incident, and he didn¡¯t have the mood for the academic conference. Takahashi had been upset all the time. He hadn¡¯t even qualified to be a training student, something that he hadn¡¯t expected at all. He began to plan on learning Chinese. Dr. Lin from Singapore Central Hospital discussed the cooperation between the two hospitals with Director Tan, and Park Choon-ui also wanted to talk about cooperation. There were many things that could be done in international collaboration within the medical academic field, learning from each other¡¯s strengths and common development. ¡°Old Han, I didn¡¯t expect this at all. You¡¯ve trained such an excellent group of young people.¡± Meng Heng patted Old Han on the back. The banquet took a green approach, no alcohol or alcoholic beverages were served, and everyone was merry chatting over non-alcoholic drinks. ¡°Old Su, looking at your expression, it seems like you¡¯re even happier than Old Han?¡± Fu Shancheng saw that Professor Su was always smiling, which seemed a bit unusual. ¡°I¡¯m happy for our orthopedics field. It¡¯s like the saying, the new generation surpasses the old one.¡± Professor Su said cheerfully. At the banquet, many people wanted to take a photo with Yang Ping, including Ou Lichun, but they couldn¡¯t find him. Yang Ping was busy in the Trauma ICU. He had decided to stay in the Trauma ICU that night to ensure the post-surgery patients could get through the first 24 hours safely. Chapter 259 - 0243 Chapter 259: Chapter 0243 ¡°Xiao Yang, how¡¯s the patient, stable?¡± ¡°Very stable!¡± ¡°Hurry over, a few old pals want to see you.¡± ¡°Right away!¡± But haven¡¯t they all seen me already? Yang Ping thought. But Director Han¡¯s words were orders, the patient was very stable at the moment, so Yang Ping planned to make a quick round at the banquet and then come back. The patient¡¯s damaged abdominal blood aneurysm had been completely removed, the bleeding had been thoroughly stopped, and the post-operative drainage was now only a few millilitres, bloody. There was the possibility of vascular crisis after the face and limbs had been reattached, and it was also easy to develop acute kidney failure after the muscle-rich limbs had been reattached. After the intracranial hematoma had been cleared, whether consciousness could be recovered and whether there would continue to be bleeding in the cranium required close observation. Therefore, one cannot take the post-operative period lightly. Treating patients as a surgeon doesn¡¯t mean all is well after the operation, there are many things to deal with. Each step of a surgery, from decision-making beforehand, operation during the surgery, to post-operative management, is extremely important, and no step can go wrong. Treating and saving patients, each step is like walking on thin ice. ¡°Go ahead, if anything happens, have the on-call doctor call you.¡± Director Pan of the trauma ICU knew that Old Han was rushing him. ¡°Thank you all for your hard work!¡± Yang Ping looked at the monitor data, carefully analysed the latest blood test results, and even checked the urine in the patient¡¯s bag. There had been five hundred millilitres since the operation, clear. If the urine was less, it indicated kidney failure or insufficient volume; if the colour was incorrect, such as tea colour, it indicated the presence of myoglobin urine, which was a problem, indicating acute kidney failure, serious cases need dialysis. The blood pressure, heart rate, and blood oxygen saturation were all stable, the tracheal intubation had not been removed yet, Fatty said to leave it for now and remove it the next day. ¡°We¡¯re all from the trauma emergency center, part of the same system, no need to be polite. We¡¯re here as your backup, specially safeguarding your post-operative patients. With you sending patients here, we will have content for the trauma ICU academic conference.¡± Director Pan highly appreciated Yang Ping¡¯s dedication. As an ICU expert, Director Pan understood very well that a patient¡¯s condition can change in an instant; it might be fine one minute, and suddenly become critical the next. Something like a pulmonary embolism, respiratory distress syndrome or systemic inflammatory response syndrome, each one is fatal. Sometimes, if a piece of phlegm is not handled in time and blocks the airway, it can cause suffocation death. ¡°Let¡¯s go to the banquet hall and take a look.¡± After Yang Ping finished his duties, he took Song Zimo and others together to the banquet hall. The banquet has already begun, and it¡¯s very lively, with the waitstaff busy serving dishes non-stop. On the stage of the banquet hall, Sichuan Opera face-changers were performing, adding to the festive atmosphere. Between the entertainment programmes, some talks from instrument merchants were interspersed, everyone would listen while eating, learning about the new developments in instruments. Orthopedic surgery can¡¯t do without instruments, so orthopedic doctors have the closest relationship with instrument merchants and are the most intimate partners. Orthopedic instruments are constantly emerging, ranging from ordinary steel plates to power pressure steel plates, to locking steel plates, with various shapes and functions. Intramedullary instruments are also constantly being updated, starting from lower limb application to upper limb application, and even precise clavicle intramedullary nails have been updated several generations. Absorbable materials and internal fixation suitable for osteoporosis are also constantly improving. ¡°Come on, Xiao Yang, have a few drinks with these seniors.¡± Old Han pulled Yang Ping over. Today¡¯s banquet is taking the green route, only serving beverages, no alcohol. So Old Han was full of confidence when he said ¡°have a few drinks¡±. Yang Ping toasts each one, Professor Su, Meng Heng, Fu Shancheng. Park Choon-ui from South Korea, Lin Mingyuan from Singapore, doctors from Israel, India, and even doctors from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, when they saw Yang Ping coming, and heard he was the chief surgeon of today¡¯s No. 1 patient, they all took the initiative to greet and toast Yang Ping. Takahashi and Fujiwara Miyuki also came over to join in the fun, Old Han said: ¡°Mr. Takahashi wants to come and study with you for a week, how about it?¡± ¡°Well, Mr. Takahashi doesn¡¯t quite meet the team¡¯s advancement program requirements at the moment.¡± Yang Ping appeared somewhat embarrassed. ¡°Oh, didn¡¯t score well enough in overall assessment? Well, nothing can be done then, there will be lots of opportunities in the future.¡± Old Han consoled Takahashi. Takahashi nodded, he was upset, really upset. Normally, he went out to give lectures, and others came to him for study. Now he wants to come and study for a week with this young doctor, but his Chinese isn¡¯t up to par. From what Director Han said, even if his Chinese was up to par, he needed to have enough comprehensive points in order to engage in advanced studies. It¡¯s troublesome, the bar is so high, he must find a good Chinese teacher when he returns to Japan, and overcome the language barrier. The higher the difficulty of the challenge, the more Takahashi wanted to take it on. He had to strive hard for advancement. After toasting with Old Han¡¯s few old pals, Yang Ping returned to his own table. Yang Ping¡¯s table was also arranged in the VIP seats in the hall, with red tablecloths distinguishing it from other tables. After finishing her presentation on Johnson & Johnson, Gan Fengyi, holding a cup of cola, visited each table to greet the bigwigs. The chief orthopedists of several G City hospitals were all very familiar to her. She walked briskly in high heels, like a beautiful butterfly flitting about. ¡°Director Tan, you¡¯re glowing today.¡± Gan Fengyi was in her element. ¡°Not at all, it¡¯s all thanks to everyone.¡± Director Tan replied modestly. Director Tan¡¯s son was about to start junior high school and planned to attend Nandu Normal University Middle School, but his chances of getting in through hard exams were slim, and Mrs. Tan was very worried about this. Gan Fengyi had already decided to solve this problem for Director Tan¡¯s family, and in the process, secure the market for 3B orthopedics at Johnson & Johnson. International corporations, when opening up markets in China, not only do they adapt well but they can also play the interpersonal game just as well, if not better than Chinese companies. Medical device giants have high market shares, this is due not only to their superior products, but also their top-notch marketing skills. ¡°Doctor Yang, congratulations!¡± Gan Fengyi wouldn¡¯t miss out on Yang Ping. After witnessing Yang Ping¡¯s performance today, she finally understood that he was the most capable doctor hidden in Sanbo. That Huang Jiacai, seemingly having a better eye for talent than her, managed to connect with Yang Ping early and had successfully secured the key to the Sanbo market. ¡°Doctor Yang, congratulations!¡± Huang Jiacai, his rival in love, along with Huang Jiahui, just so happened to arrive at this time. Yang Ping completely ignored Gan Fengyi, raised his glass to Huang Jiacai and Huang Jiahui: ¡°Which table are you two sitting at? Come eat with us.¡± The table consisted of only Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Zhang Lin, Little Five, Fatty, Xiao Su, Zhou Can, a total of seven people, with three seats still empty. Just what they needed, Huang Jiacai didn¡¯t hesitate: ¡°Great, we won¡¯t be nosey. Jiahui, let¡¯s join Doctor Yang.¡± Gan Fengyi had completely lost the chance to converse with Yang Ping, again it was Huang Jiacai interfering. She hadn¡¯t realised Huang Jiacai and Yang Ping were on such good terms, to the extent they could dine at the same table. ¡°Doctor Yang, congratulations!¡± Gan Fengyi finally found a chance to speak with Yang Ping. ¡°Oh, thank you, may I ask who you are?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t recognize her. ¡°Gan Fengyi, the manager of Johnson & Johnson¡¯s South China region, nice to meet you.¡± Gan Fengyi introduced herself. ¡°Oh!¡± After clinking glasses with Gan Fengyi, Yang Ping took a small sip of his drink, sat down, and ignored her for the rest of the dinner. ¡°Jiahui, come, drink some beverage.¡± Xiao Su, who was sitting next to Yang Ping, told Jiahui to sit down. ¡°Thank you, Sister Xiao Su!¡± Jiahui has a sweet mouth. Calling her Sister Xiao Su, they¡¯re all bootlickers. Gan Fengyi walked away awkwardly. ¡°Fatty, why aren¡¯t you eating anything today? That¡¯s not like you.¡± Zhang Lin said while serving food to Fatty. Fatty immediately covered his bowl with his hand, shaking his head: ¡°Some vegetables will do, no meat for me today, definitely.¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± The others were surprised. Normally, Fatty was the first one to eat seafood and meat. ¡°I¡¯m staying in the ICU with Brother Yang tonight, better to eat light, just in case it causes gout and I miss out on work.¡± Fatty chuckled. This kid is actually abstaining? Little Five pointed at a dish of boiled shrimp: ¡°Really not eating?¡± Fatty couldn¡¯t help but swallow: ¡°Really not eating, I swear I won¡¯t eat. I, Liang Fatty, am a principled man.¡± Damn it, I can¡¯t stop my saliva, the more I want it to stop, the more it flows.¡± Fatty swallowed another mouthful of saliva, ¡°I am going to washroom.¡± Takahashi and Fujiwara Miyuki were also sitting not far away. Takahashi really wanted to stay and study with Yang Ping. Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t meet the requirements. Fujiwara Miyuki saw Yang Ping nearby and immediately came over: ¡°Professor Yang, Mr. Takahashi and I really want to come to Sanbo for study. After returning this time, we will try hard to pass the Chinese test.¡± During the conference, everyone focused on professional knowledge without paying much attention to Fujiwara Miyuki. At the banquet, the tall and beautiful Fujiwara Miyuki naturally became another focus of everyone. Some people deliberately sought opportunities to take several more glances at this supermodel-like doctor. ¡°As long as you meet our requirements, we welcome everyone for exchanges to complement each other for common progress.¡± Ou Lichun was trying to find Yang Ping and saw Fujiwara Miyuki speaking fluent Chinese with Yang Ping. Did he hear it correctly? Takahashi went to Sanbo to study with Yang Ping but was rejected by Yang Ping? This guy is now doing so well? No wonder he was able to arrange for a short-term training program with just a single phone call. Now, Ou Lichun believes Yang Ping wasn¡¯t just bluffing, he does have the ability. Such a gap! Ou Lichun sighed. However, he immediately thought, he must stick to Yang Ping like his life depends on it, only then his future will be smoother. Other people can¡¯t even find such great connections, this connection is right by his side now. Yang Ping is his classmate! This connection is like an iron-clad bond. ¡°Brother Yang!¡± Ou Lichun thought about it for a long time and felt it was endearing to call him this way. ¡°Ou Lichun? How¡¯s it going? Have you contacted other classmates? Don¡¯t leave after the meeting tomorrow; I¡¯ll treat you all to dinner.¡± ¡°Not leaving after the meeting tomorrow, let¡¯s get together.¡± Ou Lichun was happy to respond. A few doctors who wanted to take pictures with Yang Ping were envious of Ou Lichun after watching this scene, Yang Ping was even treating him to dinner. The guys from the city¡¯s People¡¯s Hospital also came over, especially Doctor Wan, who was extremely grateful to Yang Ping. He was very satisfied working in Li Quan Hospital, Boss Cheng was even planning to send him to South Korea. ¡°Brother Yang!¡± Doctor Wan was jubilant. There were a few other guys from the city¡¯s People¡¯s Hospital following him. Chapter 260 - 0244 Chapter 260: Chapter 0244 The brothers at the city hospital crowded around Yang Ping, all taking pride in having such a good brother, while also feeling a bit guilty. When Yang Ping was fired, everyone didn¡¯t pay much attention to him, let alone helping him. But he remembered everyone, helped them, and even helped Doctor Wan find a job. At the dinner party, everyone was happy, especially Old Han, who managed to make a big name for Sanbo¡¯s Orthopedics at the academic conference. At first, when he saw the abdominal CT scan of the first patient, his heart immediately skipped a beat. The huge aneurysm in the abdomen with injury in more than one location ¨C the complexity of the surgery was something he was well aware of. In all of Sanbo, only Yang Ping could handle such an emergency operation. But even though Yang Ping is talented, this rare case would lack surgical experience. Old Han immediately told Director Tan to let Song Zimo go first and treat the head and chest injuries first. This would buy time for Yang Ping to analyse the origin, distribution, and direction of the large blood vessels supplying the aneurysm. Only when these details are fully understood, can the surgery be successful, otherwise it would only lead to regret. As the blood vessels of the aneurysm were being reconstructed, Old Han was a little jittery. Devil¡¯s surgery! The surgery was as hard as climbing to the sky. There¡¯s no surgery that Yang Ping can¡¯t handle! That¡¯s Old Han¡¯s experience, no need to explain, can¡¯t explain. Old Han kept telling himself this. He began to scheme and plan to help Yang Ping, to create the conditions for his surgery, in order to increase the chances of success. Experience did not fail. Yang Ping did not disappoint Old Han. He completed the surgery, snatching the patient back from the hand of the reaper. Old Han and a bunch of guests chatted until late, with Professor Su also in high spirits. A surgery that Takahashi couldn¡¯t handle, Yang Ping managed to do it. Young people are indeed incredible, with unlimited potential. He took a furtive glance, Yang Ping and his daughter were sitting together, Yang Ping was picking food for her. They seemed to get along well, haha, Old Su chuckled secretly. Of course, Takahashi was very disappointed, as Director Tan said, the world is large, and so is China. For the first time, he saw a surgical level that he could not reach. He once thought he was a towering peak, and now he realized that he was just a hill. A frog in a well. Takahashi despised himself, truly a frog in a well. Sunday, the whole day was occupied by guest lectures, with everyone presenting their new achievements in the field of trauma surgery. Originally, Takahashi should have been elated. He was going to give a shocking class to more than 2,000 Chinese doctors as a top international trauma surgical expert. But now, he was obviously listless. Lecture? What lecture? He doesn¡¯t even qualify for further study, let alone lecture? He even questioned his own soul: Who am I? Am I Takahashi? Am I a renowned professor of international trauma surgery? In the past, he would stand on the podium with pride and eloquence. Now, he actually felt a bit unfit, fearful of saying something wrong or having something incorrect, so as to be caught by Professor Yang. The meeting lasted until four in the afternoon. After the meeting, there was the unveiling ceremony of the Orthopedic Research Institute of Sanbo. After the guests attended the unveiling ceremony and visited the Orthopedic Research Institute. After the visit, some guests expressed their intention to cooperate on projects on the spot. Takahashi and Fujiwara also followed the visiting group, with Takahashi having a devout attitude of worship all the way. When leaving, Fujiwara Miyuki took Takahashi to find Yang Ping again, expressing her sincerity again, promising that she would work hard to meet the requirements for further learning. On the way back to the hotel, Takahashi crumpled his mask into a ball in secret and threw it into the trash bag in the car. He also stopped coughing. China¡¯s air cured his allergic bronchitis. It seemed that this conference brought great benefits to Takahashi. ¡°Takahashi, you seem not very good? Very tired?¡± Fujiwara Miyuki saw him silent in the car, a stark contrast to the spirited individual when they came. ¡°Where¡¯s your mask?¡± Fujiwara noticed that Takahashi hadn¡¯t been wearing his mask since the meeting ended. ¡°Oh, I forgot.¡± Takahashi was a bit lost. The conversation between Takahashi and Fujiwara didn¡¯t seem to connect, with Takahashi always answering mechanically. ¡°Could you recommend a Mandarin teacher?¡± Finally, Takahashi cheered up and said something. ¡°Do you still want to come back for further study?¡± Fujiwara asked knowingly. ¡°Mm!¡± Takahashi affirmed very confidently. There are not many places that can make him think of learning, and Sanbo Hospital is definitely one of them. In the evening, Yang Ping hosted a dinner for Ou Lichun, as well as a few classmates from his graduate student days. Ou Lichun was glad he came to the conference. Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have known how talented Yang Ping has become. They have a group chat, and Yang Ping is usually silent in there, rarely saying anything. He¡¯s so humble! Even though Yang Ping is now an attending physician, his status is on par with the leader of orthopedics in the hospital. In a hierarchical hospital, only someone with great talents can attain such a status. To have reached such a status, Yang Ping doesn¡¯t act superior to these classmates. Despite being extremely busy, he managed to find time to have dinner with them. And even before the conference, he didn¡¯t show off at all. ¡°Once your study leave is set, let me know when you come. I¡¯ll give you a heads up and help you out. They know me pretty well there.¡± ¡°Mm, I didn¡¯t know you were here, you see, I didn¡¯t bring anything.¡± Ou Lichun felt quite embarrassed. ¡°What are you talking about, we¡¯re classmates. Just give me a call when you come to G City in the future.¡± Yang Ping knows everyone¡¯s struggles. Back in school, they were all poor students studying hard, and they encouraged each other. ¡°Last time, our supervisor mentioned you, saying you were the most persistent.¡± Ou Lichun recalled. ¡°How¡¯s his health?¡± Yang Ping asked out of concern. ¡°Very good. We should go back to the school¡¯s hospital to see him when we have time.¡± Ou Lichun suggested. ¡°Mm!¡± Yang Ping agreed, thinking it¡¯s necessary to find some time to visit his old teacher. The two of them chatted non-stop, and it was only with much reluctance that they parted ways late at night. Back at the trauma ICU, the patient had been successfully extubated and went from coma to somnolent state, with his consciousness significantly improved. Song Zimo¡¯s minimally invasive craniotomy for intracranial hemorrhage drainage was very effective. His vital signs remained stable. As for the acute respiratory distress syndrome that they were worried about due to severe lung injury, it did not appear for the time being. Creatinine was normal, urine output was normal, and the color of the urine was always clear. The abdominal drainage was unobstructed 24 hours a day, with a drainage volume of only about 20 ml, which was a very normal drainage amount. On the first day after the operation, the patient¡¯s condition was stable. It seemed that the patient¡¯s prognosis was pretty good. ¡°Doctor Yang, you are really responsible. You watched over the patient all night yesterday, and you are here again today.¡± The on-duty doctor greatly admired Yang Ping. ¡°Well, as a doctor, what else can you do? A life is in your hands, how can you not take it seriously?¡± Yang Ping decided to stay for another two nights. If the patient remained stable for three days, there would be no need for him to stay overnight. Hearing that Yang Ping would again be on night duty, the on-duty doctor in the Trauma ICU was particularly pleased. With him around, the patient would definitely be stable. The bustling academic conference has ended, and the busy daily clinical work is about to start again. Chapter 261 - 0245 New Task Chapter 261: Chapter 0245 New Task The last guest was sent to the airport, marking the official end of the academic conference. Over two thousand doctors who attended the conference finished the two-day meeting and hurriedly returned to their hospitals to begin their busy work. Yang Ping returned home, his body weary, and sprawled onto the sofa, not wanting to get up at all. ¡°Ding dong, stage task: help Sanbo Hospital establish the strongest trauma orthopedics department in G City, task completed! Reward 500,000 points!¡± ¡°Accompanying gift, Silver Box¡ª¡ªThe third of the system¡¯s super cultivation methods, auxiliary examination training!¡± ¡°The operating room function of the system space has been expanded, and a new function¡ª¡ªsurgery simulation, has been added.¡± ¡°Ding dong! New stage task: Win the national Golden Knife Award.¡± A series of mechanical female voices and captions appeared, leaving Yang Ping scrambling to cope. The first stage task was finally completed. It had been a step-by-step journey, not easy, and even somewhat difficult. It seemed that if one wanted to reap the rewards, they must give something in return. The difference lay in what was to be given. Without any chance to catch his breath, the system issued the second stage task: to win the national Golden Knife Award. This task was much harder than the first. To win the Golden Knife Award, you must be able to skillfully perform all orthopedic surgeries, including scoliosis correction. However, such surgeries were rare in the average medical university-affiliated hospitals, resulting in a pitiful annual case count ranging from a few to a dozen, with most cases concentrated in top hospitals in Shanghai, Beijing, and a few in the west. Thus, the winner of the Golden Knife Award was always among these hospitals, and never went to any other. Yang Ping was curious, what exactly was the Silver Box¡ªauxiliary examination training? He entered the system space and looked up the introduction to auxiliary examination training on the light screen. Auxiliary examinations referred to things like routine blood tests, biochemistry, liver and kidney function, electrocardiograms, X-rays, CT, MRI, surface ultrasounds, and all other tests that require laboratory and instrument equipment. This training included the theory and operation of these tests, as well as data analysis and interpretation. The system linked anatomy, physiology, pathology, etiological pathology, symptoms and signs, auxiliary examinations together, establishing a complete logical model with basic theories such as anatomy and physiology as its core, and symptoms, signs and auxiliary examinations as external manifestations. Through this model, the strong logical thinking ability of doctors could be trained to analyze the deep causes behind each symptom, sign and test index. This training was long-term and progressive. Not wanting to rush things, Yang Ping decided to postpone it and slowly train in the future. What kind of black technology was the newly launched surgery simulation feature? Yang Ping wanted to try it out, so he used his thoughts to click the ¡°Surgery Simulation¡± button on the light screen. In an instant, he entered the surgical space. It was empty and there was nothing inside. What was happening? ¡°The surgery simulation feature needs to be activated by thought and is divided into scenario simulation and free simulation. Scenario simulation replicates a real surgery scenario, whereas, in free simulation, you can freely choose specimens, instruments, and devices for the surgery simulation,¡± the mechanical female voice explained. ¡°In scenario simulation, when the host obtained the system binding during the rescue of the case of ruptured external iliac artery, that surgery was scenario simulation. It replicates that surgery completely and is suitable for repeated simulation training for patients currently undergoing surgery.¡± ¡°Free simulation is suitable for patients who haven¡¯t undergone surgery yet. It allows you to select the optimal surgical plan or perfect the surgical plan by simulating the surgery. You can freely choose various combinations of instruments and equipment for the simulation, unrestricted by real-life scenarios.¡± ¡°Activate by thought?¡± asked Yang Ping. The mechanical female voice answered, ¡°You just need to think of the patient and the surgery in your brain, and the system will provide the specimen and surgical tools based on your thoughts.¡± Following the system¡¯s instructions, Yang Ping wanted to simulate Sisi¡¯s surgery¡ªkilling tumor cells with a focused ultrasound knife. This idea clearly appeared in his mind. Immediately, a specimen appeared in front of Yang Ping, lying on a piece of medical equipment, but they were covered by a thick fog and were blurry. Moreover, Yang Ping was unable to get close, as if there was an invisible wall blocking him. ¡°This surgery simulation requires 50 thousand points. Do you confirm to continue the simulation?¡± the mechanical female voice reminded. So expensive? 50 thousand points! However, if he didn¡¯t simulate, he was afraid he wouldn¡¯t be able to perform Sisi¡¯s surgery because some deficiencies of the focused ultrasound knife could not be compensated by the doctor¡¯s skills alone. ¡°Confirm!¡± said Yang Ping, grinding his teeth. The fog in front of him immediately dissipated, the invisible wall disappeared, and as Yang Ping approached, he realized that the piece of medical equipment was indeed a focused ultrasound knife, identical to the one in Sanbo Hospital. The patient lying on it was Sisi, with an external fixator on her right thigh. ¡°This is her replica, not the real patient. The technical data of the equipment and the patient¡¯s medical records can be checked on the light screen,¡± said the mechanical female voice, and then fell silent. Yang Ping calmly called up the manual and other data of the focused ultrasound knife from the light screen and read it carefully several times, mastering the principles, structure, usage, and precautions of this equipment. Having previously researched the focused ultrasound knife department, I had a solid foundation which made this time much easier. Apparently, this system only creates conditions for me. As for acquiring knowledge and abilities, it still depends on my own efforts. Without sufficient willpower, it¡¯s impossible to make full use of this system. Because the system space is a closed, solitary, and isolated one. There are not many people who can consciously learn in such a space. After thoroughly researching the focused ultrasound knife, Yang Ping started examining Sisi¡¯s clone. The screen can display the clone¡¯s medical records, which are more detailed than her real ones and include all records from her birth until now. In the case of imaging data, whether the tests have been conducted in reality or not, they can be found here. For example, if you want an X-ray of a certain part of the clone, you just need to select the X-ray option. If it exists in reality, the existing X-ray is pulled up; if it doesn¡¯t, the system will take another and display it. This function is powerful, but it¡¯s greatly expensive. It¡¯s a luxury feature with a luxury price! Unless forced to do so, a few simulated surgeries can deplete the points accumulated from a phase mission. When he had almost finished studying the clone and the equipment, Yang Ping began performing surgery, using focused ultrasound waves to eradicate the tumor. Initially, this seemed to be a simple task: just aim at the tumor and strike. But in practice, it¡¯s an extremely complex operation. Firstly, positioning is challenging. This type of positioning is in 3D, requiring both XY and Z coordinates. It¡¯s like having a huge gem hidden underground. After detecting it, you point out a spot on the surface and drill a hole straight down to the gem, neither too deep nor too shallow, and extract it. The difficulty of striking a tumor with a focused ultrasound knife is even greater. It employs the technique of shooting a cow through a hill: you have to hit the cow on the other side of a hill without deviation. When ultrasound waves are focused, they penetrate the skin, fascia, and muscles to strike the tumor. If they miss, they will not only fail to kill the tumor but also burn normal tissues. Some uses of the ultrasound knife to perform myomectomy have resulted in abdominal skin burns, while the fibroids were not completely removed. Therefore, it also has side effects. To prevent side effects, the premise is to have zero errors. Any errors can potentially harm normal tissues. The instrument¡¯s two biggest weaknesses are poor positioning ability and inability to detect internal organ temperatures. With color ultrasonic positioning, it¡¯s challenging to execute precise 3D positioning. This shortcoming reduces its effectiveness. Additionally, there¡¯s no way to detect the temperature the target organ has reached after being hit. Hence, it¡¯s unknown how high the temperature becomes and whether it¡¯s sufficient to kill the target. This issue is very troublesome. It¡¯s as if you¡¯re firing a cannon at an enemy target with low striking rate and unknown destructive power. Even if you hit the enemy, they might not be affected at all. This cannon¡¯s usefulness on the battlefield is quite low. However, this equipment is designed very well. But to become a mature medical device recognized worldwide, it still has a long way to go. At this stage, it¡¯s unlikely to have much impact. But considering Sisi¡¯s current condition, Yang Ping decided to attempt this treatment since there were no other alternatives in mind. Yang Ping began focusing ultrasound knife treatment on Sisi¡¯s clone. Thanks to the simulated surgery function, it¡¯s possible to learn a lot from repeated trial and error. Yang Ping used the computer mouse to control the high-frequency ultrasound transmitter, focusing high-frequency ultrasound waves, aiming, and striking. The transparent human body on the screen immediately displays the strike area, temperature, and error. Based on these data prompts, Yang Ping kept adjusting until he could accurately hit the tumor. Once he could hit the tumor accurately but the temperature wasn¡¯t high enough, Yang Ping boldly adjusted the ultrasound parameters according to the screen prompt, so as to generate the best temperature when striking the tumor, achieving good results. Each strike not only displays the temperature of the target organ but also the surrounding temperature. This prevents accidental harm to surrounding normal tissues. Yang Ping was experimenting bit by bit, then recorded the data of each successful experiment. He conducted thousands of trials for the tumor on the right thigh. He meticulously trialed everything from the center to the edge and then adjusted the number and parameters of strikes. Next, he experimented with liver metastases. It took another few thousand trials before he obtained satisfactory parameters. For lung metastases, as they were obstructed by the ribs, ultrasound was hard to utilize. Yang Ping attempted to penetrate the intercostal space to achieve the treatment effect. After hard work, he individually experimented with the primary tumor on the right thigh, the liver, the lungs, and the spine metastases, collected data and noted it down. Each tumor required dozens of strikes, with totally different parameters each time. There were over two hundred strike data in total for the various tumors. Yang Ping recorded all of them in his mind. Without the surgical simulation function of the system space, using a focused ultrasound knife to treat Sisi¡¯s tumors would have probably remained just an idea, unachievable. Now, through surgical simulation, Yang Ping obtained a large amount of precise data that can only be obtained through trial and error. In reality, it¡¯s impossible to acquire these data. After exiting the space, Yang Ping was confident about treating Sisi¡¯s tumors. A complete cure is impossible. But through ultrasound treatment, the spread of tumor cells can be reduced, maintaining a temporary balance between the tumor and Sisi¡¯s body. In this way, extending survival time even while living with a tumor is still a substantial success. Chapter 262 - 0246 Check Bone Density Quickly Chapter 262: Chapter 0246 Check Bone Density Quickly On Monday, Director Han didn¡¯t go to Orthopedics as usual. Instead, he paid a visit to the Orthopedics Research Institute. After it became operational, Director Han assumed the position of director, whereas Director Tan and Director Tian assumed the roles of deputy directors. Every orthopedics doctor became a researcher within the Institute. In a clinical setting, it¡¯s undeniable that to improve one¡¯s technical proficiency and industry standing, embarking on research is a must. Only through research can one innovate and only through innovation can one secure a firm spot at the top of the academic field. The orthopedics department at the New York Special Surgery Hospital is world-class because many pioneering technologies, such as modern artificial hip joint replacement surgery, originated there. Director Han also had an office established within the Orthopedics Research Institute. He decided to make this place his primary office and focus most of his energy on the Institute. His work priority was quite clear¡ª to create favorable conditions for the younger generation. This way, with a solid foundation and an excellent platform, young people can soar high. Old Han thought, Yang Ping must earn his doctorate. This matter needs to be pursued with urgency, and the kid shouldn¡¯t have any say in it. Only with a doctorate degree can there be room for good development. In the medical field, nobody questions the importance of a doctorate degree. Currently, Yang Ping only holds a Master¡¯s degree, and is a chief physician. It seems too weak. Only when he completes his doctorate and gets promoted, can he truly take flight. Old Han has a particular fondness for The Eight Horses. He hung a copy of it in his office at the Orthopedics Research Institute. Of course, he also enjoys Longjing and Beijing opera. Sitting in his office, with The Eight Horses hanging high behind him, the Longjing on his desk steaming, and humming a pure traditional Beijing opera song¡ª that¡¯s life. Fujiwara Masao personally made a phone call and sent a formal email, requesting to help Takahashi get an opportunity for advanced studies. He promised to strive and make Chinese language his proficiency. Old Han found it amusing, ¡°This lad is interesting. Takahashi wanted to study with him but he disdainfully rejected him outright because he couldn¡¯t speak Chinese.¡± Every genius has a bit of personality! Upon careful thought, there¡¯s nothing wrong with it. When we study abroad, do we not also have to cross the language barrier? Why should foreigners be treated specially? That mindset is baffling! Speaking of the devil, Director Zhou came calling, asking for Director Han. Upon hearing that Director Han was at the Orthopedics Research Institute, he hurried over. Noticing Director Zhou¡¯s urgency, Director Han greeted him, ¡°Old Zhou, who upset you? Why are you so riled up? Have some tea first, calm yourself.¡± Director Han served a cup of tea. ¡°Who else but the people under your command?¡± Director Zhou said exasperatedly, not even bothering about the tea. Director Han chuckled, ¡°Whom, under my command, managed to upset the medical education department? Do they no longer want to conduct research?¡± Director Zhou gave a wry smile, ¡°Your subordinate, Yang Ping, Old Han! We can¡¯t spoil the younger generation like this. He¡¯s talented, but we can¡¯t give in to him on everything. What about the situation with Takahashi? Are you really going to side with Yang Ping on this?¡± ¡°Takashi? What¡¯s wrong with how Yang Ping handled the situation? If Takahashi does not meet the requirements, that¡¯s just how it is.¡± Director Han was surprised. Why were they still discussing Takahashi¡¯s matter? Director Zhou¡¯s anger flared up, ¡°What do you mean by requirements? He¡¯s a foreigner, a well-known international professor. What more requirements do you want? Takahashi travelled thousands of miles to our country. We are a nation of etiquette. We¡¯re hospitable, it¡¯s our tradition. Yesterday, I reported this to Dean Sun and he agreed with me. He¡¯s taking personal charge of this matter and has arranged everything. Yet Yang Ping outright rejected Takahashi and didn¡¯t want to guide him. This is blind conceit. You have to take control, Old Han. Once this kind of behavior is tolerated, it¡¯s going to be a problem managing young people in the future.¡± Director Han kept silent. Director Zhou didn¡¯t dare to confront Yang Ping directly. Dean Sun, being more tactful, didn¡¯t dare to approach Director Han either. He had nudged Director Zhou to reason and discuss the matter with Old Han. Director Zhou, Director Han, and Dean Xia were all part of the first batch of doctors at the hospital. At the time, after the provincial government had decided to establish a hospital for the overseas Chinese, took Xia Changjiang from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, formed the hospital preparation committee and then brought in both Directors Zhou and Han. The three doctors were founding veteran figures of the hospital and the only fully qualified doctors. Director Zhou was into thoracic surgery and quite dominant in research. He filed for national research topics as if he were popping popcorn, but his surgical skills were questionable. Regardless of what surgery it was, he was always slow and the results were often mishandled. After several incidents, Dean Xia had no choice but to transfer him to the Medical Education Department to take exclusive charge of research and medical education, an area which he excelled in. ¡°Old Zhou, regarding this matter, it¡¯s not that I¡¯m biased, but Yang Ping is really blameless. If Takahashi doesn¡¯t meet the requirements, then he just doesn¡¯t. I¡¯ve never understood why foreigners need to be treated specially. Can you explain to me why, when they come for advanced study here, we must provide them with a suite at the Tri-Bo Hotel for accommodation, hire a Japanese chef, assign a dedicated translator, and even life assistance? Now that you¡¯re here, explain it to me.¡± Director Han was not angry, but rather leisurely. Director Zhou was lost for words. Reason? Why should foreigners be treated specially? ¡°Well, Old Han, the fact that they¡¯re foreigners is reason enough,¡± was all he could come up with. ¡°Alright, Takahashi has already left. He might come back in the future. I hope that through his dedication, he can meet our advanced study requirements. I welcome him to become our department¡¯s first foreign speciality student. Just treat him like a normal speciality student and there is no need for concern,¡± Old Han was done reasoning with him. If their relationship weren¡¯t so deep, Old Han would have chased him out. The meeting had concluded, yet he was still fussing over this issue, treating Takahashi like his godfather. What kind of mentality is this? It¡¯s a disease. It needs to be cured! ¡°Old Han, you¡¯re being protective of your prote?ge?!¡± Director Zhou was anxious about the way he was being reasoned with. Director Han saw he still wanted to argue, ¡°Old Zhou, I think you¡¯re not well. Perhaps you should get your bone density checked when you have the time?¡± ¡°A bone density check? I¡¯m perfectly healthy. Don¡¯t frighten me. How did you figure out that there¡¯s something wrong with my bone density?¡± Director Zhou did not quite understand at once. ¡°There¡¯s a significant problem. You must get it checked immediately. An early treatment might still be possible, but it will be too late if we wait.¡± Director Han said seriously. Director Zhou was taken aback, ¡°Bone density issues, can it be visually detected?¡± ¡°Yes, I noticed it at first glance. Hurry up and get it checked!¡± Director Han waved his hand, showing impatience. ¡ª Yang Ping led everyone on their ward rounds. A month before the academic conference, the operations at the general orthopedics outpatient clinic were halted. All the patients, except Sisi and Hermes, were discharged from the hospital. The lengthening of Hermes¡¯ right tibia was going very smoothly. After another check-up, it was found to have already lengthened by five centimeters. With the help of the urological surgeons, his equipment upgrade has also been completed smoothly. The surgery was very successful, with the stitches being removed after ten days. During the ward round in the morning, his fashionable wife was feeding him porridge. Her face adorned a sweet smile. She immediately put down the bowl in her hand and kindly stepped outside when she saw the doctors entering the room. ¡°How are you feeling, does your right calf have any discomfort?¡± Yang Ping asked with concern, closely examining the tibia elongation registered on his bedside form. The form contains the records of the nurses turning the screws. Each day, they lengthening it by one millimeter, evenly split into four operations. They rotated the screw a quarter turn each time, which equals one millimeter. Once the nurses had performed the operation, they signed, noted the time, the direction in which the screw was rotated, and who performed the operation. This way, nothing would be missed. ¡°I don¡¯t feel any discomfort. There¡¯s no pain at all, look at this.¡± Hermes exposed his leg fitted with the external fixation frame. It was almost like a mechanical leg. He demonstrated raising his straight leg and bending his knee and ankle joints. ¡°Are you satisfied with the urological surgery? Did you experience any adverse effects?¡± Yang Ping also casually asked. Although the surgery was performed by the urological department, it was necessary to understand the situation during ward rounds to promptly discover any underlying issues. You need to pay attention to not just your specialty, but also the problems of other departments; and not just the local problems, but also the overall condition of the body. ¡°I am satisfied, very much so.¡± Hermes was preparing to unbuckle his belt, wanting to show the doctors. Yang Ping waved his hand, ¡°No need to look. Little Five, how long has it been since the stitches were removed? Were there any issues with the surgical incision healing?¡± ¡°The stitches were removed ten days ago. The surgical cut healed well. No sign of redness or exudation, A-grade healing.¡± Little Five was his attending physician. After Hermes¡¯s surgery, he transferred back to the general orthopedic ward three days later, and Little Five had helped him change his medicine multiple times. The surgery was a minimally invasive procedure; it only required one stitch for the incision. ¡°Are there any issues with the function?¡± Yang Ping continued to ask. Since he had undergone this operation, during ward rounds, it was obligatory to understand the postoperative functional status to prevent any complications from occurring and lookout for an immediate intervention. ¡°It¡¯s brilliant!¡± Hermes was confident and pleased. ¡°President Liao said that the result of his surgery is very good. It extended by six centimeters beyond the original length.¡± Little Five introduced Hermes¡¯s surgical effect to Yang Ping. ¡°What¡¯s this in your congee?¡± Zhang Lin noticed things mixed in with the congee. Hermes laughed, ¡°Oh, this is ginseng and deer antler congee. I have it every morning to nourish my health and help my leg bones to grow faster. The ginseng and deer antler, thinly sliced into the congee, work wonders. Would you like some? Come on, I have plenty more. A friend of mine who deals in medicinal herbs supplied me with these prime products.¡± ¡°What are you standing outside for? Help with something!¡± Hermes yelled at his wife. Zhang Lin immediately stopped him, ¡°No, no, no. You can keep it for your own use. Listen to me, Old Wang, you should reduce physical activities during the bone elongation period. High frequency activities are not conducive to the ossification process, understand?¡± ¡°Hmm, this¡ª¡± Hermes nodded. Yang Ping agreed with Zhang Lin, ¡°He¡¯s right, control the frequency.¡± Hermes nodded. He held Yang Ping¡¯s words in high regard, ¡°I will religiously follow the doctor¡¯s advice!¡± Patients who have been sick for a while begin to understand medical terminology. Hermes softly asked, ¡°I heard that the little girl is about to have surgery?¡± ¡°Mind your own business and stop prying into others¡¯,¡± Zhang Lin reproached him. Hermes sighed, ¡°I used to sigh at the state of this leg. Now, I¡¯ve come to accept it. Compared to others, mine is nothing. People don¡¯t understand the importance of their health until they end up in a hospital bed. Now, I¡¯ve quit smoking and drinking¡ª.¡± Chapter 263 - 0247: Misfortunes Never Come Singularly Chapter 263: Chapter 0247: Misfortunes Never Come Singularly ¡°After visiting Hermes, I headed for Sisi¡¯s room. She was alone, lying stomach-down on the bed without a word, her abdomen cushioned by a pillow. Upon hearing the doctor enter, she twisted her head to look up, beads of sweat covering her forehead like tiny soybeans. ¡°Sisi?¡± Dr. Yang noted her anguished state, likely a result of the pain caused by a metastatic liver tumor. The tumor was located beneath the capsule of the liver, expanding as it grew and stimulating the pain receptors on the surface of the liver capsule, leading to extreme discomfort. ¡°Is the pain unbearable? Half a dose of Diclofenac!¡± directed Doctor Yang, delivering an oral medical instruction. Cancer pain relief is managed systematically, the analgesics slowly escalating in potency. This wasn¡¯t Sisi¡¯s first experience with pain; it had been a long time coming. Still lying down, Sisi raised her hand in a dismissive manner: ¡°It¡¯s okay, I can bear it.¡± This kind of recurrent, severe pain could drive someone to despair, even contemplate suicide; it was not simply something one could ¡®bear¡¯. ¡°No! An analgesic injection, quickly!¡± Dr. Yang couldn¡¯t bear to see the child in such agony. The nurse had already wheeled in a cart and was about to give Sisi an injection, having prepared the syringe with medicine. ¡°No need, I¡¯m alright. It comes and goes.¡± Sisi slowly sat up, leaning against the headboard, her face pale and wet with sweat. The pillow she had been using to press against her liver area was now curled into a ball. After a while, she managed a smile, as if the storm had passed: ¡°I¡¯m serious, big brother Doctor, I¡¯m fine, see, I¡¯m at ease, right?¡± This child¡¯s endurance was incredibly strong. Most adults would be incapable of tolerating this level of pain, but she had managed to endure it silently, likely for a long time. Dr. Yang originally planned to treat the primary tumor on the left femur first, but he now decided to prioritize the liver tumor. He instructed Little Five: ¡°Recheck blood routine, biochemistry, liver renal functions, coagulation function, and D-dimer. No need for any further checks. Prepare for surgery tomorrow. Song Zimo, contact the Gamma Knife operating room. You¡¯re familiar with them and communication will be smoother.¡± ¡°Did you find a solution to combat the fibroid?¡± Sisi asked with a smile. Dr. Yang responded confidently: ¡°Yes, I have. I¡¯ll perform the surgery for you tomorrow. It¡¯s a non-invasive procedure.¡± ¡°Without any incisions, what¡¯s going to be used?¡± Sisi was intrigued. ¡°Qi Gong, remote healing. Piercing through your belly, it will eradicate the fibroids.¡± Zhang Lin joked with her. ¡°So it¡¯s like that. Are you trying to trick a three-year-old? Brother is going to use ultrasound, right?¡± Sisi didn¡¯t buy into Zhang Lin¡¯s joke. ¡°You know about ultrasounds?¡± Zhang Lin was taken aback. ¡°Of course, my second brother told me. I¡¯ve also researched it. Ultrasound is invisible and intangible. When focused together, it targets the fibroids where it produces heat and burn away the fibroids. It¡¯s like a convex lens: when sunlight is concentrated into a singular focal point, it can ignite a piece of paper.¡± Sisi replied with an analogy. Everyone began to laugh: this little girl was indeed industrious. Dr. Yang stroked her hair, saying sympathetically, ¡°Next time you feel this kind of pain, don¡¯t try to endure it alone. Ring for the nurse and get an injection for pain relief, alright? There¡¯s a prepared syringe for you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, I can handle it. Don¡¯t worry, if I can¡¯t bear it anymore, I¡¯ll say it.¡± Sisi bravely assured. At this point, any normal child would be crying their eyes out. Meanwhile, Sisi was quiet, calm as if nothing had happened after her bout of pain. ¡°Are you doing your assignment?¡± Doctor Yang spotted a test paper on the bedside table. ¡°The teacher sent it over.¡± Sisi carefully folded it. That¡¯s when Sisi¡¯s mother entered: ¡°Baby, why are your clothes drenched?¡± The intense pain earlier had made her break out into a cold sweat, her forehead still displaying traces of it now. Sisi¡¯s mother hurriedly retrieved a fresh set of clothes for her daughter: ¡°Let Mommy help you change, alright?¡± ¡°No need, I¡¯ll change after the doctor finishes his round.¡± Sisi placed clothes on her pillow. ¡°Where¡¯s her father? I haven¡¯t seen him for a few days.¡± Dr. Yang asked, after not having seen Sisi¡¯s father for a while; he typically visited the department daily. Sisi¡¯s mother responded: ¡°He¡¯s been busy for the past few days, has had no time to come over.¡± ¡°Tomorrow, we plan to operate on Sisi. The surgery plan has already been extensively discussed with you. No incisions are required; focused ultrasound surgery will annihilate the fibroid cells. We¡¯ll do it in multiple stages, starting with the liver tomorrow. Doctor Lu will discuss the specifics with you and have you sign the documents later. Bring her father too.¡± Dr Yang informed Sisi¡¯s mother. Sisi¡¯s mother was already highly aware of this operation; Dr. Yang had discussed it with them multiple times. The biggest advantage of ultrasound over various kinds of radio-particle tumor treatment was that it uses non-ionizing radiation and can thus be used repeatedly. The previous concern surrounding the cost of treatment had been somewhat alleviated. Huang Jiahui had contributed several tens of thousands, and a good Samaritan ¨C who wanted to remain anonymous ¨C had contributed over a hundred thousand. With that, there were no immediate financial concerns. Despite the concerted efforts of Sisi¡¯s parents and security trying to locate this anonymous benefactor, they hadn¡¯t had any luck so far. ¡°Sisi, rest well. Big brother Doctor will perform the surgery tomorrow; are you scared?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not scared! They said you saved a patient who had no hope the day before yesterday, all the doctors and nurses admire you so much, and so do I. When I grow up, I also want to be a doctor!¡± Upon finishing, a fleeting look of helplessness washed over Sisi¡¯s face. ¡°Yes, Sisi can definitely do it!¡± said Yang Ping, gripping her hand. After doing the rounds, at the doctor¡¯s office, Sisi¡¯s mother followed, her brows furrowed: ¡°Doctor Yang, her father was knocked down by a car while delivering takeaways¡ª¡± ¡°When was this, how badly was he hurt? Why didn¡¯t he come here for check-up and treatment?¡± It¡¯s no wonder he hadn¡¯t seen her father in a few days. Sisi¡¯s mother spoke reluctantly: ¡°It not that serious, he just twisted his ankle, but it¡¯s swollen quite a lot, and he can¡¯t walk right now. He bought a pair of crutches and still continues to deliver takeaways with crutches support.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not right, you must call him over immediately, I¡¯ll have a look and if it¡¯s a fracture, he should get treatment immediately, otherwise it can lead to complications.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t expect it to be a case of misfortune upon misfortune with Sisi¡¯s father having been hit by a car. ¡°You call him over right now, tell him that I instructed him to come!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s tone was firm. Sisi¡¯s mother was very grateful, picked up her phone and dialed her husband¡¯s number: ¡°¡ªYou need to come at once. Doctor Yang says you must!¡± ¡°He¡¯s on his way here, he just didn¡¯t want to trouble you.¡± Sisi¡¯s mother hung up the phone. Huang Jiahui, along with some anonymous kind person, have slowly contributed almost two hundred thousand to her medical bills, sufficient for Sisi¡¯s hospitalization for this period of time. Because there are no specific targeted medicines for osteosarcoma that can be administered and chemotherapy and radiation have not yet been performed, nor is the cost of focused ultrasound surgery too high, the expenditure during this period is very low. But this stubborn man has been continuously making payments towards the hospital expenses, sometimes a few thousand, sometimes a few hundred, chipping in bit by bit. It was said that his time was very tightly scheduled, from six in the evening to nine at night was reserved for delivering parcels, as during this period customers would be back home from work. He spent the rest of the time delivering food, especially late into night delivering late-night snacks; sometimes would take a short nap by the roadside before continuing his delivery. ¡°He will be here in about ten minutes. I will go back to the ward first. Once he arrives, I¡¯ll bring him over. Sorry for the inconvenience, Doctor Yang.¡± Sisi¡¯s mother hated to occupy the office and interrupt the doctor¡¯s work. ¡°Alright, you make sure to bring him here. We don¡¯t have any surgeries today, so we have some spare time.¡± Yang Ping reminded her. About twenty minutes later, Sisi¡¯s father showed up, supported by her mother, he was walking quite smoothly holding a pair of crutches substituting for the weight on his injured leg. ¡°Doctor Yang, I¡¯m sorry for bothering you. There¡¯s probably no big problem, it¡¯s that my right ankle got twisted. I was hit by a car on my e-bike and I fell to the right. To catch myself, I stomped my right foot on the ground and I felt a sharp pain; ended up spraining my right ankle.¡± Sisi¡¯s father explained his injury. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, have a seat!¡± Yang Ping comforted him as a trainee brought a chair. ¡°Bring me a pair of rubber gloves.¡± Yang Ping was accustomed to wearing gloves when examining patients. The trainee immediately brought a pair of gloves. Yang Ping put them on and did a simple examination. His right ankle was grossly swelling, and already formed a blister due to tension. Yang Ping palpated the entire ankle joint systematically, and his tactile skill gained from manipulative therapy practice quickly determined the problem: ¡°It¡¯s a fracture of the right ankle joint and quite serious. Zhang Lin, arrange for a front and side radiograph of his right ankle joint including a CT scan that includes a three-dimensional reconstruction.¡± ¡°A fracture?¡± Sisi¡¯s father was shocked. He was afraid this would happen. He was usually very robust and strong; and now he had a fracture, what was he supposed to do? He was quite anxious as the entire family was relying on his earnings. ¡°Is it really a fracture?¡± Sisi¡¯s mother was shocked too. Once this happens, everything will fall apart. But things were already a mess. The woman composed herself quickly: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s nothing. We will get it treated however it needs to be treated.¡± She would take over her husband¡¯s job of delivering parcels and takeaway at worst, they would find a way to make ends meet. If Doctor Yang said it¡¯s a fracture, then it must be one. It was just that, it was a little hard for the couple to accept. Fractures might not be a big deal for ordinary people, but for a family like Sisi¡¯s, her father, the mainstay of the family suffering a fracture is an utter disaster. Sisi¡¯s father started to get a little restless. Yang Ping reassured him, ¡°It¡¯s alright, we will help you with the treatment. You will still be able to work afterwards, it won¡¯t be a hindrance.¡± ¡°A fracture of the right ankle joint?¡± Song Zimo, who had just been coordinating to secure the surgical suite for Sisi¡¯s gamma knife surgery, came over to see Sisi¡¯s father after he was done. Yang Ping took off his gloves: ¡°Yes, it looks like a grade four posterior external rotational injury. Seems like it will require surgery.¡± His daughter was about to have surgery, and now he has sustained a fracture. This man thought for a while and said to his wife: ¡°Don¡¯t tell Sisi, she¡¯ll worry.¡± ¡°We haven¡¯t told her yet.¡± His wife gently held his hand. ¡°It¡¯s better if we tell her, otherwise she will be anxious not seeing her father.¡± Yang Ping encouraged them. ¡°Alright!¡± Sisi¡¯s father seemed to think it made sense. ¡°We need to admit you to the hospital and delay surgery till the swelling goes down. Right now, the swelling is too severe to operate.¡± Yang Ping was also helpless, but the fact of the situation couldn¡¯t be changed; this kind of fracture needed to be treated. ¡°Admit him to the hospital then.¡± Sisi¡¯s mother promptly decided. ¡°It¡¯s alright, besides, I¡¯m here. I can handle it, don¡¯t worry.¡± Sisi¡¯s mother¡¯s eyes were filled with determination. Chapter 264 - 0248: The Indecisive Patient Chapter 264: Chapter 0248: The Indecisive Patient The results of Sisi¡¯s dad¡¯s examination were out. He had a right ankle joint fracture with rotation and four degrees of external rotation, with damage at all four frontal and internal points. It also involved an internal ankle fracture, external ankle fracture, and posterior ankle fracture, with a torn tibiofibular ligament, widened ankle joint, dislocated talus, and semi-dislocated ankle joint. Surgery was essential for such fractures, as even if manipulative reduction was satisfactory, it still would not provide good stability. Every treatment method has its indications. It is against scientific principles to mythologize any treatment method diverging from its indications. ¡°The Lange-Hanson classification ¨C rotation and four degrees of external rotation, AO classification ¨C C!¡± Song Zimo opened the digital image viewer; Sisi¡¯s dad¡¯s X-rays and CT scans appeared on the screen. Several standardized training students and interns gathered around as Song Zimo explained the knowledge regarding ankle joint fractures. Among the classifications for limb fractures, ankle joint fracture is the most complex, especially the Lange-Hanson classification, which often leaves many experienced orthopedics confused. In the classification system, what does it mean when rotation is mentioned, what states they refer to, what is external and internal rotation, and why are they combined in this way, these are the things that Song Zimo explained to everybody in detail. ... He even took out a piece of A4 paper to illustrate his explanation with diagrams. He drew a hinge, mimicking the mechanism of an ankle joint injury, to provide a better understanding for everyone. Most of the students were very enthusiastic in their learning, especially after seeing Dr. Yang Ping and Song Zimo demonstrate their superior surgical skills in the academic conference. This resulted in a fervor amongst these young people who were looking up to their seniors in admiration. It further cemented the students¡¯ determination to be good doctors. The power of a role model is not to be underestimated. It serves as a guiding light, showing us hope and giving us direction, and encouraging forward progression. Being able to learn in the Department of Orthopedics for a period of time is seen as a great honor. To be strictly disciplined by the teachers of this department is also a great honor, at least that¡¯s how they saw it. In terms of teaching, Dr. Yang Ping advocates learning centered around clinical cases, requiring thorough understanding of all relevant knowledge for any given case. Even interns leaving from the Department of Orthopedics should have a deep understanding and strong grasp of the knowledge they should acquire. Usually, Zhang Lin is in charge of interns and standardized training students. The basic knowledge is taught by Zhang Lin and when it comes to complex professional knowledge, Song Zimo takes over. Dr. Yang Ping normally gives lectures to Song Zimo, Zhang Lin, and Little Five, and during ward rounds he explains cases to the standardized training students and interns, raising some questions and evaluating the practical effects of the clinical teaching in the department. ¡°First we should reduce the swelling, once it reduces we will arrange the surgery,¡± Dr. Yang told Song Zimo. This type of fracture cannot be operated on during the swelling period, otherwise it can easily lead to complications in the incision, such as inability to suture, necrosis, infection, etc. Surgery can only be performed when the swelling has subsided. Song Zimo¡¯s phone vibrated. It was from Duan Xiaoming, the director of gamma knife surgery. ¡°Young Master Song, are you performing a surgery on a hepatic tumor tomorrow?¡± ¡°Yes¡± ¡°The hospital administration just called saying you¡¯ve overstepped. Only the general surgery department, oncology department, and our department have authorization for this surgery. Your department of orthopedics doesn¡¯t have the authority.¡± ¡°The surgery for Sisi tomorrow is for hepatic metastasis. This isn¡¯t within our orthopedics department¡¯s jurisdiction but lies with general surgery and oncological surgery. Brother Ming just called and said that we¡¯re being monitored by the hospital administration and they want to cancel the surgery,¡± Song Zimo said after hanging up the phone. Dr. Yang Ping and Song Zimo had been so focused on treating Sisi¡¯s disease that they hadn¡¯t considered they¡¯d overstepped the authority of their department in arranging the hepatic surgery. ¡°Should we first handle the primary tumor in left femur?¡± Song Zimo suggested. Dr. Yang shook his head. ¡°The current treatment is only palliative. We should prioritize resolving the most painful part first. During the ward round, you also noticed Sisi¡¯s painful expression while lying in bed.¡± ¡°Could we have the surgery under Brother Ming¡¯s name, while you operate?¡± Song Zimo pondered. Issues of surgical authority are critical¡ªit¡¯s like needing a driver¡¯s license in order to drive. Brother Ming, whose real name is Duan Xiaoming, is the head of the gamma knife department. He can perform any surgery involving any type of tumor, as long as it is suitable for gamma knife treatment. This is a good solution, but he may not agree to lend his name since it involves risk. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to him. I¡¯m confident he will agree,¡± Song Zimo declared confidently. It was Song Zimo who had helped Duan Xiaoming with his child¡¯s school admission problem. Given this favor, Song Zimo believed Duan would be willing to help him. Given Dr. Yang¡¯s credibility at Sanbo, if he¡¯s willing to perform the surgery, he must be fully confident, and Duan Xiaoming would not have much to worry about. ¡°There¡¯s no need to rush. I¡¯ll discuss it with Director Han first!¡± Dr. Yang called Director Han to explain the situation. Not long after, Director Han called back. ¡°Dr. Yang, go ahead with the surgery. I just finalized the communications with the medical department. We will grant you one-time temporary authorization for the procedure. Dean Xia and I have signed as guarantors. I¡¯ve already talked to General Surgery and Oncology departments and explained that this is a special case, and the patient is a charity-funded case of our department and it is related to research. They won¡¯t have any objections.¡± Within a few sentences and without asking Dr. Yang too many questions, Old Han had resolved the issue. Old Han¡¯s thinking was simple: if you want to do it, just do it. He was willing to move anything standing in the way and bear any risk. ¡°Director Han sorted out everything,¡± Dr. Yang put down the phone, relieving Song Zimo of the need to negotiate further. In the hospital, doctors are specialized and only do things within their field. It¡¯s not permissible to overstep one¡¯s authority. Overstepping the boundary this time was acceptable for a one-off case, but it definitely couldn¡¯t become the norm. The idea of performing any and all surgeries is nonsense. Cheng Liquan sent a message saying that his medical tourism group had already arrived at the hospital. He asked when the surgeries could be scheduled. There were eighteen patients to undergo surgery. Eighteen? Initially, it was mentioned that there were eleven, which later increased to sixteen. Now the exact number is eighteen; two patients from Southeast Asia have joined the group last minute. Are surgeries being performed in groups now? Do group surgeries come with group discounts? Yang Ping was curious, but it was inappropriate for him to ask Cheng Liquan. At this rate, the number would only continue to grow. He must find a time to get through all of them. Considering currently there were not many patients in his department, he should set aside Sunday to clear these eighteen patients off his list. If Professor Zhang were at full steam in the clinic, he could fill the ward in just two weeks. By that time, finding a slot to schedule these surgeries would be quite challenging. Professor Zhang has a well-established reputation and is very responsible. Many patients come from other provinces to seek his consultation. Some of his patients have been under his care for twenty to thirty years post-surgery. One patient had undergone congenital hip dysplasia surgery at the age of two. Now that patient¡¯s child is in middle school, Professor Zhang still conducts follow-ups with him. During that time, there was no WeChat, and telephones were not widely used. Follow-ups relied entirely on written correspondence and home visits. The perseverance demonstrated a fantastic level of commitment and responsibility. The serious and diligent attitude of the older generation of doctors outshines the majority of today¡¯s doctors. That¡¯s perhaps the main reason why many patients place their trust in him and travel long distances for his consultation. The nurse station called the on-duty doctor. Professor Zhang had admitted a patient ¨C a young girl in her twenties. He suspected a case of thoracic spine tuberculosis. Tuberculosis has become less common recently, but it has shown a rebound in recent years due to the mutation of the tubercle bacillus. Zhang Lin was the doctor on duty. He went to see the patient. As Yang Ping had nothing else to do, he decided to join him. The patient, Fang Xiaoyun, a twenty-four-year-old woman, had a slender figure. She had been experiencing back pain for three years and numbness and weakness in both lower limbs for three days. Physical examinations revealed a posterior convex deformity on the ninth thoracic spine. She had reduced skin sensation below the inguinal regions in both lower limbs and a muscle strength of grade four. Considering that the patient had medical insurance, which would cover the cost of an MRI if the patient were admitted to the hospital, Professor Zhang only performed an X-ray of the patient¡¯s chest and lumbar spine in the clinic. The X-ray showed bone destruction on the upper and lower edges of the ninth thoracic vertebra. The intervertebral space between them had narrowed, and there were signs of enlarged soft tissue extending from the vertebrae. Based on the patient¡¯s medical history, physical examination findings, and X-ray, Professor Zhang, with his wealth of experience, made a diagnosis. He called Zhang Lin, who was on duty, instructing him to further investigate the case with an MRI. This was a case of thoracic tuberculosis resulting in paralysis. The patient needed emergency surgery to relieve the pressure on the spinal cord caused by the pus, granulation tissue, caseous necrotic tissue, and necrotic bone. This would help restore the nerves¡¯ function. As long as these compressive materials could be removed in time, the paralysis could be completely reversed. However, the problem lay in the fact that the images taken from the X-ray indicated that the compressive materials had already entered the anterior part of the spinal canal. If this were to cause embolism in the anterior spinal artery, it could result in permanent spinal cord damage. Then, no matter how perfect the surgery was, paralysis would persist afterwards. Zhang Lin arranged an emergency MRI scan for Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s thoracic and lumbar spine. When the test results came out, they confirmed the initial conjectures based on the X-ray. The compressive materials had entered the anterior part of the spinal canal at the thoracic 9 level. Yang Ping immediately took Zhang Lin to discuss the disease with Fang Xiaoyun. They recommended that she undergo emergency surgery as soon as possible. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s eyes were slightly red, as if she had been crying and feeling aggrieved. ¡°Doctor, do I have to have surgery for this disease?¡± Fang Xiaoyun asked. Yang Ping asserted, ¡°You must have the surgery. Otherwise, you may risk paralysis in the lower half of your body.¡± ¡°Based on the MRI findings, the compressive material has already entered the anterior half of the spinal canal. If it causes embolism in the anterior spinal artery, it could result in permanent spinal cord damage. Then, no matter how perfect the surgery was, paralysis would persist afterwards. You¡¯re still so young. Don¡¯t delay things. We¡¯ll arrange an emergency surgery for you.¡± Yang Ping was not scaring her but honestly informing her about the risks. Fang Xiaoyun seemed uncertain and found it tough to reach a decision, ¡°Can I think about it and give you an answer tomorrow morning? Will it matter if I wait for one night?¡± ¡°If we wait for one night, there will definitely be some impact. The level of risk cannot be determined right now. If you can¡¯t make a decision at the moment, please don¡¯t procrastinate too long and give us an answer as soon as possible. Let us know if you have any key questions.¡± ¡°Okay, thank you, Doctor Yang. I¡¯ll give you a definite answer by tomorrow morning at eight o¡¯clock.¡± ¡°Please tell me as soon as you make up your mind. Absolutely don¡¯t delay. If there are any difficulties, please tell us.¡± Zhang Lin noticed that her demeanor seemed a bit off. Her eyes were red as if she had been arguing with someone and had cried. She had come specifically for the surgery, but now that she was offered emergency surgery, she seemed undecided. Perhaps there was something more to her situation. As doctors, they could not pry further. All they could do was leave her with some words of advice. After they left the ward, Yang Ping instructed Zhang Lin, ¡°You need to keep an eye on this patient. Do not delay further.¡± Chapter 265 - 0249: Family Matters Chapter 265: Chapter 0249: Family Matters At 8 o¡¯clock the next morning, Fang Xiaoyun decisively gave her answer: she refused surgery and wanted to be discharged from the hospital. Discharge from the hospital? Refusing the surgery? Was she joking about something that concerned the rest of her life? If she wanted to switch hospitals, that wasn¡¯t a problem! Having surgery in any hospital is still surgery. As long as the hospital has the required technical conditions, the illness can be cured. However, if she was influenced to give up surgery, it would be a mistake, ensuring she would need a wheelchair for the rest of her life. ... Some patients live in distrust of the legitimacy of hospitals and doctors, often swayed by some ¡°miracle doctor,¡± and end up suffering both physically and financially. Many TV stations nowadays have no bottom line. They broadcast many pharmaceutical commercials which are obviously scams, making many people, especially the elderly, their victims. Yang Ping had seen an elderly person like this. Minor back pain due to exertion led him to take an X-ray at the hospital, which revealed lumbar spondylosis. The doctor patiently explained: This was the manifestation of the geriatric degeneration of the lumbar spine, essentially the aging of the lumbar vertebrae. This spinal condition was not harmful unless it lead to nerve compression or symptoms and required no treatment. The vast majority of spinal conditions did not need treatment. However, the elder man was anxious. He saw a TV advertisement and bought over twenty thousand yuan worth of medicine. He turned around and cursed at the doctor, labeling him a quack who couldn¡¯t see the problem or even recognize spinal conditions. The doctor had merely brushed him off; the TV man had clearly stated the problem while the doctor had lied to him. The doctor said, he had been scammed. The man was outraged. He touted his worldly wisdom, saying he had traversed more bridges and eaten more salt than the doctor had rice. Could he be scammed so easily? The TV healer was nationally acclaimed, a hereditary imperial physician teaching on television, how could he be a scam? No words could explain it! The only option left was for the doctor to apologize: indeed, he was a quack. The doctor begged him not to consult him anymore and not to curse him. Now he had found a miracle doctor, he hoped he could quickly cure his disease. After the shift, Yang Ping personally went to Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s ward: ¡°Are you considering switching to another hospital? If that¡¯s the case, that¡¯s all right as long as it¡¯s a legitimate hospital with the requisite technical capabilities to cure your illness. But if you give up treatment or decide on conservative treatment, it¡¯s absolutely wrong. You could potentially delay your treatment, likely resulting in spending the rest of your life in a wheelchair.¡± ¡°Doctor Yang, I...¡± Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s eyes became even more swollen than before. It seemed that she had cried again last night. She seemed to have an unspeakable problem. ¡°If you trust me, you can tell me the real reason for why you want to be discharged from the hospital. Before you entered this hospital, none of us knew each other. However, since you have stepped into our hospital and sought our treatment, I have a responsibility for your illness. We should be comrades, with your illness being our common enemy. Would it be possible to explain?¡± Yang Ping looked at her, fearing that her youth would be wasted. Fang Xiaoyun sighed: ¡°Doctor Yang, I wish to have the surgery in another hospital. Thank you.¡± Her eyes did not dare meet Yang Ping¡¯s as she spoke, her voice somewhat wavering. ¡°If you¡¯re looking at switching hospitals, also make sure to have the surgery promptly. If delayed, it could lead to permanent paralysis.¡± Yang Ping counselled to no avail. She was a normal adult, capable of making decisions and taking responsibility for them. He had said all there was to be said and his conscience was clear. There are so many things in the world to manage; one cannot manage them all. It was enough to manage one¡¯s own affairs and to do them well. Sisi had already been sent to the Gamma Knife Operating Room; Yang Ping had a surgery to perform and so, couldn¡¯t afford to spend too much time on this matter. ¡°You should think it over again¨C¡± Zhang Lin still wanted to try and persuade her. Fang Xiaoyun shook her head, seemingly helpless and bitter. She took her cell phone and called a colleague to come and help her with the discharge procedures. Since she didn¡¯t have strength in her legs, using crutches was too difficult. By the time Yang Ping made it to the Gamma Knife Operating Room, Sisi was already lying on the operating table. Her upper clothes had been removed, covered only with a thin blanket. Because they were using the High-intensity Focused Ultrasound knife, no clothing could obstruct the procedure. Since Yang Ping had mentioned that the process wouldn¡¯t take long and would be over in half an hour, Liang Fatty administered Sisi with an intravenous general anesthetic and an oropharyngeal airway tube. ¡°Brother Ming, we are imposing on you again.¡± Song Zimo spoke to Brother Ming. Brother Ming helped to position the patient: ¡°Don¡¯t mention it, I just wish you would come here every day and bring us some lively energy.¡± His place was ordinarily so quiet, with only one or two patients with uterine myomas every few days. Moreover, patients with uterine myomas often had a lot of issues after the operation. Brother Ming used to have some hair, but now he was completely bald. The patients were few, but the worries were many. After one patient with uterine myomas received treatment, her abdominal skin was burned. Initially, they let her apply some burn ointment, thinking it wouldn¡¯t be a serious issue. But soon, the area began to necrotize and break down, forming an ulcer. They changed the dressing several times over a long period, but it didn¡¯t improve. It finally healed after a skin graft. Some patients had residual uterine myomas after treatment, unlike surgical extraction that could cleanly cut them out. Moreover, some postoperative patients often had vaginal bleeding; these patients frequently came to argue with him. Brother Ming¡¯s head was full of gray hairs over these issues. He had now applied to go back to the ultrasound department as he didn¡¯t want to continue with the Gamma Knife. He didn¡¯t know whether it was due to his lack of technical skills or other reasons, but it seemed that he¡¯d had very few smooth operations. ¡°Doctor Yang, I didn¡¯t expect that you had studied the Gamma Knife.¡± Brother Ming made desultory conversation. Yang Ping remained noncommittal. If he said he had studied it, it would be a blatant lie; if he said he hadn¡¯t, well, if he hadn¡¯t studied it, how could he operate on a patient? That would be irresponsible. So, he just smiled and got on with his work. He sat in front of the computer. The simulation function of the system space was incredibly powerful, accurately replicating the operation he wanted to simulate. Not just the computer, mouse, and desk were identical, even the mousepad was the same. The copying ability was extremely powerful. Therefore, he didn¡¯t need to familiarize himself with anything and could start the operation directly. Sisi¡¯s anesthetic took effect and her position was adjusted properly. Brother Ming took off the covering blanket and helped position the ultrasound transducer against the location of the liver, adjusting the distance as well. ¡°This computer can be operated just with the mouse, see¨C¡± Brother Ming wanted to teach Yang Ping. After all, he had only come once before, and that time he had only looked at some files and hadn¡¯t actually operated the device. He later mentioned that he would bring a patient for him to practice on, but he had never come. Before Brother Ming¡¯s hand could touch the mouse, Yang Ping had already started to operate. He moved the mouse and controlled the movement of the ultrasound emitter based on the ultrasound image on the screen. He had simulated this thousands of times in the system space, achieving the optimal data. Now, he just needed to repeatedly carry out the optimum operations he¡¯d performed in the system space, setting everything up according to those parameters. The process was incredibly simple for him. Moving the transmitter, adjusting the parameters, gathering the ultrasound, emitting it, watching the timing, then stopping. He repeated this process dozens of times until the surgery was complete. That quick? He seemed very experienced, as if he had performed many similar cases. He didn¡¯t seem to need to think at all while setting the parameters. Brother Ming didn¡¯t understand. Brother Ming checked Sisi¡¯s abdominal skin, and after a touch, confirmed there were no burns. Processed so quickly, was it effective? Was the ultrasound emitted? Brother Ming had some doubts. No one usually performs it this way. ¡°Immediately perform a liver MRI on Sisi, and then follow up exams on the 3rd, 7th, 14th, and 30th days after the surgery.¡± It remained unclear whether the tumor had been hit properly or if there were any damages to the surrounding normal tissues. Only a follow-up MRI, compared with the pre-surgery MRI, would clarify this. ¡°Checkup now?¡± ¡°Now!¡± Turns out, he was really skilled with the Gamma Knife. He wasn¡¯t just bluffing. Song Zimo was there, originally thinking that it would take a long time ¨C at least adjusting the direction, distance, and other parameters. But Yang Ping got it right in one go, making direct attacks, dozens of times. Does Yang Ping really have that much confidence? A nurse from outside the Gamma Knife operating room entered and said, ¡°There¡¯s a patient¡¯s family member waiting for Doctor Yang outside.¡± ¡°A patient¡¯s family member is looking for me. You guys take Sisi to do the MRI, and I¡¯ll look at the MRI results when I get back to the department.¡± Yang Ping followed the nurse to the door and indeed, a patient¡¯s family member was waiting. A woman in her twenties saw Yang Ping and said, ¡°Doctor Yang, I¡¯m Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s colleague. She is not going to be discharged anymore. Could you please arrange her surgery as soon as possible?¡± ¡°What exactly is going on?¡± Yang Ping asked The girl said, ¡°That silly girl, she came to the hospital yesterday specifically for surgery. But last night, her parents called and asked her not to spend the money, but to send it back home for her brother¡¯s house purchase.¡± What a mess? What kind of parents are these? Even if their daughter might become paralyzed, they still wanted to keep the money for their son¡¯s house purchase. Wasn¡¯t their daughter human? ¡°Doctor Yang, please help her. I¡¯ve persuaded her to stay in hospital for surgery. Can you arrange it urgently? She¡¯s really pitiful.¡± The girl was very upset. ¡°Has she eaten breakfast?¡± ¡°Not yet.¡± ¡°Tell her not to eat or drink anything. We¡¯ll perform the surgery as an emergency.¡± Yang Ping immediately called Zhang Lin and asked him to arrange Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s surgery. ¡°Let¡¯s go back and see her!¡± Yang Ping knew there was something more going on with this situation, but he didn¡¯t know it was this dire. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s colleague also followed Yang Ping back to the Orthopedics ward where a huge commotion was taking place. Even the security guards had been called. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Yang Ping asked the incoming nurse. Now that Director Han had handed over Orthopedics to him, he had to take up the responsibility. ¡°The family member of the patient in bed number 6 just came by, causing a commotion in the ward! The patient¡¯s family member is arguing with the patient.¡± Upon hearing the commotion inside, Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s colleague asked, ¡°Her mother is here. How did she get here so fast?¡± ¡°You white-eyed wolf, I raised you for over twenty years, and this is how you repay me. Your brother has already paid the deposit for his house, and now it¡¯s time to pay the rest. I asked you to send money home, but you refused. Good thing I followed you here. What are you lying in the hospital pretending to be sick for? Is there any need? Explain it to me.¡± ¡°Mom, I¡¯m seriously ill. I need surgery, otherwise, I¡¯ll be paralyzed.¡± Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s colleague ran into the ward, followed by Yang Ping. A middle-aged woman was scolding Fang Xiaoyun, her spit flying all over as she jabbed her finger towards her daughter. Two security guards were standing between them to prevent any physical conflict. ¡°If there are issues, discuss them outside. You can¡¯t make a scene in the ward. If you continue, I¡¯ll call the police.¡± the security guard warned. This woman should be Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mother. She was in her forties, was wearing makeup, and dressed stylishly. Around her neck, a thick gold necklace was visible. ¡°Call the police, go ahead. None of your goddamn business!¡± Yang Ping frowned at her outburst. Even for a woman, she was foul-mouthed, like a shrew. She was swearing and jumping around, her finger almost jabbing the guard in his face. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s colleague stood in front of Fang Xiaoyun, ¡°What are you doing? What kind of mother are you? She is sick and needs to have surgery, otherwise, she¡¯ll become paralyzed.¡± ¡°She¡¯s pretending to be sick. You think I don¡¯t know? It¡¯s been a week since the payday this month and she hasn¡¯t sent home a penny. I knew something was wrong. Yesterday when I called you, I was already downstairs at the hospital.¡± The shrew spoke through gritted teeth, jumping with every word. ¡°Call the police, call the police, she¡¯s disrupting the ward order. Get her out and don¡¯t let her come in again.¡± Yang Ping ordered the security guards. The security guards at Sanbo Hospital were efficient. Two guards immediately grabbed one of her arms each and forcibly dragged her out. Fang Xiaoyun was sobbing at the head of her bed. Chapter 266 - 0250: Exclusive Surgery Chapter 266: Chapter 0250: Exclusive Surgery ¡°Sorry, Doctor Yang!¡± Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s colleague kept apologizing, acknowledging that such a situation was disrupting the hospital¡¯s normal order. ¡°Stop crying! You should cut ties with such parents, instances where you have to make undeserved concessions. You¡¯re not a daughter to them, but an ATM. Look at you, scrimping and saving, giving all your money to your family. Now that you¡¯re sick and need surgery, they don¡¯t even ask about your condition, all they care about is squeezing more money out of you!¡± Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s colleague hugged her, ranting as her own eyes welled up with tears. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me about the surgery earlier? Aren¡¯t we like sisters?¡± the colleague angrily asked. Fang Xiaoyun stayed silent. Her colleague sighed before saying, ¡°You must have the surgery. The doctor said it was urgent. Do you plan on being paralyzed for the rest of your life? I have some money. Don¡¯t worry. I will give your mother two thousand yuan. Tell her it¡¯s the last time, and from now on, don¡¯t mention money anymore¡ªyou won¡¯t even give her a single penny. Your brother is already over twenty, spending his days playing video games without working. They can¡¯t afford to buy a house. And your mother, who plays mahjong all day. Are you planning to be tied to them for the rest of your life?¡± ... ¡°Doctor Yang, please arrange the surgery for her. She will be fine.¡± The colleague made the decision on Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s behalf. Sigh, her father, brother and sister couldn¡¯t even compare to a simple colleague. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mother was escorted out of the hospital building by security. She was not allowed to reenter and furiously began cursing on the street just outside. She accused the doctors of being mercenary, deceiving her daughter into having surgery for money. She lambasted her daughter for being undutiful, being wasteful with money and disregarding the well-being of her parents. She launched into a tirade of abusive words while crying and sniveling, attracting a crowd. The onlookers who were ignorant about the whole situation even started believing her words. Officer Wang from the hospital¡¯s security office came to understand the situation. What a headache! Under such circumstances, there wasn¡¯t much he could do. He couldn¡¯t forbid her from scolding her daughter. At most, he could only persuade her to leave so she didn¡¯t disrupt the hospital¡¯s order. But she was obstinate, even stretching out her hands saying, ¡°Just arrest me then. I don¡¯t want to live anymore.¡± Such people are like stones in a cesspit¡ªboth foul-smelling and hard. A young security guard couldn¡¯t stand the situation anymore and went forward to say,¡±You are disrupting our medical order. Leave immediately or we will take compulsory measures.¡± Easy for him to say. Once they actually resorted to compulsory measures and she threw herself on the ground, crying and screaming that the hospital¡¯s security was beating people, things would become even more troublesome. There was no way to deal with this! The security tried to pull her away, but she refused to leave and just fell onto the ground like a tantrum-throwing child, flailing her arms and legs, and crying loudly, ¡°The hospital¡¯s security is beating people, they¡¯re killing people ¡ª¡± Oh dear! Another guard came to help and grabbed her other arm. The two of them pulled her out together. By this time, the crowd of onlookers was growing and whispers of accusations against the high-handedness of the security, who beat the woman to such a state, grew louder. Some even started filming the scene with their phones. The security immediately tried to explain, but their voices were drowned out by the woman¡¯s loud crying. The spectators only believed what they saw and didn¡¯t listen to the explanations. Left with no choice, the two security guards hesitated and one of them let go of her arm. There was a smack, and something wet and red hit the security¡¯s face. ¡°There you go for trying to drive me out!¡± the woman shrieked maliciously. Damn it! The security glanced at the thing on his face, feeling a wave of nausea and rage. Ignoring everything else, he grabbed her arm again and started dragging her out forcefully. The other security guard let go and immediately reported to their team leader. You couldn¡¯t deal with the wicked by being kind! The security team leader of Sanbo Hospital, Wang Shengli, one of the newly crowned ¡°tough guys¡± of Sanbo, a direct and forthright man from Hebei¡¯s Baoding, and reputedly a former scout, rushed over. He loudly ordered, ¡°First, restrain her and prevent her from harming others. Call the mental hospital to see if she was the one who escaped this morning ¡ª¡± Upon hearing this, the onlookers deemed their safety to be of utmost importance. If she had escaped from a mental hospital, they immediately retreated a great distance. The hospital¡¯s emergency response team was immediately dispatched. Holding shields and truncheons, they advanced in a uniform formation, moving swiftly towards the woman. ¡°We think she¡¯s a patient who escaped from the city¡¯s mental hospital this morning. Her age, figure, and facial features all match. Restrain her and send her back. Hurry, she has a history of injuring others, so everyone be careful.¡± It turned out she was actually mentally ill. The mentally ill could even kill without being held accountable, so the onlookers immediately dispersed. Upon hearing this, the woman attempted to deny the accusations, but by this point, no one cared about her explanations. The onlookers¡¯ accusations quickly turned to the security for being unable to manage a mentally ill patient causing a disturbance and for failing to take compulsory measures immediately. ¡°Anesthetic needle, bring the anesthetic needle quickly¡ª¡± Wang Shengli yelled, as if he was really going to use the anesthetic needle. The woman noticed the situation was turning unfavorable, she was frightened, got up immediately, and ran like the wind, sprinting as though fearing the security guards would send her to a psychiatric hospital. Wang Shengli yelled from behind, ¡°Chase! Don¡¯t let her escape.¡± The unlucky guard was about to chase after her, but Wang Shengli stopped him, ¡°Enough!¡± Soon, the woman disappeared like smoke in the wind, and thus, this farce ended. ¡°If you deal with such people in a serious manner, you¡¯re bound to lose. She¡¯s just a shrew. Go wash your face, and later come to me for a red envelope, to dispel the bad luck.¡± Wang Shengli patted the guard who had suffered the brunt of the attack earlier. ¡ª The liver MRI scan for Sisi was completed, and the images were already out. Song Zimo opened the screen, pulled out the images, comparing the old ones and the ones from now placed on two sides of the screen. As he was looking, he was astonished. The Focused Ultrasound could perform surgeries abnormally precise on tumors, akin to surgical operations. Even if it were open surgery, manually cut with a scalpel, it wouldn¡¯t reach this level of precision. The entire tumor nodule, including the edges, showed an increase in signal post-op, indicating that the whole tumor was hit by the ultrasound. The surrounding healthy liver tissue showed normal signals, indicating no collateral damage. In theory, this should be impossible. If Focused Ultrasound were this effective, machines like the Gamma Knife wouldn¡¯t be in such an awkward position, only having a minor effect and providing auxiliary support for uterine fibroids. Based on the MRI, most cells of the liver metastatic tumor have been killed by thermal energy. Gradually, the cancer cells will crumble and ultimately be absorbed by the body. Although it cannot completely eliminate it, it at least can maintain a temporary balance, slowing down the growth rate of the tumor, and achieving the purpose of prolonging life. Cells are the basic units of life¡¯s structure and function. As long as there¡¯s life, cells keep dividing. Normal cells divide sixty times and then die, but some cells are uncontrollable and constantly divide. This is how cancer is produced. Cancer cells are essentially out of control, unable to undergo normal apoptosis, and lose their normal structure and function. When the cancer cell¡¯s space can no longer accommodate it, the tumor cells on the edge will use blood, lymphatic fluid, or other means to migrate, invading other parts of the body and causing the tumor to metastasize. Metastasis is the biggest characteristic of malignant tumors. Due to their ability to metastasize, doctors cannot obliterate them because they might be omnipresent. Every cubic centimeter of tumor contains over a billion tumor cells. The existence of a tumor of three or four centimeters in the liver implies tens of billions, even hundreds of billions or trillions of cancer cells in the body. Even if we wrack our brains to eliminate ninety-nine percent of them, the remaining one percent of cancer cells still exist in massive quantities. They will rise again, staging a comeback. Eradicating them completely! For thousands of years, since the discovery of this disease, doctors have strived to achieve this goal, but regrettably, until now, the vast majority of cancers still cannot be completely eradicated. Now, ninety percent of the tumor on Sisi¡¯s liver has been killed by focused ultrasound at least from a macroscopic image perspective; it has been obliterated. However, the cancer cells that survived this attack will regroup, slowly revive, and continue to divide, going from one to two, two to four, four to eight¡ªand eventually come back. Present treatments can only maintain a balance between the human body and the tumor, making the war fall into a stalemate. Yang Ping returned to his department. He didn¡¯t need to look at MRI images to know the effect of the surgery because he had run countless simulations in the system space. ¡°Brother, I didn¡¯t expect the Gamma Knife to be so powerful. Can it be used on many tumors in the future?¡± Song Zimo sees a new world opening up. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°This surgery cannot be replicated, and there is no value in promoting it. If we want the Gamma Knife to demonstrate its power, we must continue to improve it, making it more precise and controllable.¡± Song Zimo didn¡¯t know that such a surgical outcome was achieved by Yang Ping after running thousands of trial surgeries in the system space with cloned organisms, and obtaining the optimal data. In reality, there is no opportunity for this. Even if you can experiment thousands of times, without the magical screen reference in the system space, you wouldn¡¯t know what is optimal. ¡°Only I can do this surgery because others don¡¯t have such spatial imagination and can¡¯t perform precise positioning,¡± Yang Ping calmly stated. With just one sentence, the conversation stalled. Song Zimo initially wanted to discuss the future possibilities of Gamma Knife. Indeed, ultrasound waves are intangible and cannot be monitored for how deep they go into the body or how high their temperature is. But how can Yang Ping control the focus point and temperature with such precision? Some things should not be investigated too deeply, such as Nikola Tesla, who is like a god. Chapter 267 - 0251 Cheese Chapter 267: Chapter 0251 Cheese Zhang Lin was arranging Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s emergency surgery, entering medical orders into the computer¡¯s HIS system, getting the surgery approved, notifying the operating room, and contacting Huang Jiahui to prepare the equipment. Huang Jiahui¡¯s company mainly produces products in the field of sports medicine, but to support Yang Ping¡¯s surgery, Huang Jiacai applied to represent several companies that produce supplies for trauma, spine, and joint procedures, to complete their product line. Yang Ping told Zhang Lin to have Su Yixuan prepare general surgery¡¯s cholangioscope and flexible endoscope, which were needed during the surgery. Zhang Lin didn¡¯t know why he needed the general surgery equipment, and dared not ask further. Fang Xiaoyunneeded to undergo an anterior thoracic spine surgery, in which an incision was made in the chest area to gain access to the 9th thoracic vertebra, then the tuErculosis-infected body of the 9th thoracic vertebra was removed, as well as the material compressing the spinal canal. The area from the 4th to the 9th thoracic vertebra is dangerous, as the blood supply to the spinal cord is weak and easily disrupted. If the blood supply were disrupted, it could cause ischemic degeneration of the spinal cord, which could not only prevent recovery from paralysis, but could also exacerbate the condition, and the harm could be permanent. In the system space, Yang Ping had undergone extensive anatomical training and spine trauma surgery training, but he hadn¡¯t performed surgery on spinal tuberculosis before. ... He could easily perform the surgery using his experience from the trauma operations. However, to be safe, Yang Ping went to the system space and got training on 300 cases of spinal tuberculosis surgery, especially those involving the 4th to 9th thoracic vertebrae. During the procedure to remove the compressing material, he tried to disturb the spinal cord¡¯s blood supply as little as possible. Now that he had hundreds of thousands of points on hand, as long as he didn¡¯t use them to simulate surgeries all the time, these points would last for a long time. In treating spinal tuberculosis, some hospitals use minimally invasive techniques. For instance, a professor from 301 Hospital has accumulated extensive experience in minimally invasive procedures. He believed that spinal tuberculosis treatment could use an internal medicine approach, specifically using CT-guided puncture to inject anti-tuberculosis drugs directly into the infected area for localized treatment. This treatment will be combined with systemic anti-tuberculosis therapy, until it is cured. This method was sharply debated at academic conferences, but it cannot be denied that the professor has opened up a new perspective. In fact, it has been very effective for a certain number of not very serious cases. Fang Xiaoyun couldn¡¯t use this minimally invasive method and needed to undergo surgery because she had already developed paraplegia. The cause of her paraplegia was compression of the spinal cord by a mix of pus, granulation tissue, caseous necrosis tissue, and dead bone. She had to undergo an open surgery, directly removing the compressing material in the spinal canal, thoroughly relieving the compression on the spinal cord, and allowing the spinal nerves to recover as quickly as possible. This satisfies the three main principles of spinal surgery¨Cdecompression, stability, and correction! The Department of Orthopedics has its own independent operating room, which makes surgery scheduling very convenient. As long as the patient¡¯s condition allows, the surgery can be performed at any time. Less than half an hour later, everything was ready. Su Yixuan and Zhou Can prepared the surgical instruments, Huang Jiahui¡¯s anterior spinal plate was already in place, sterilized, and ready to use at any time. Yang Ping¡¯s team was progressing quickly. Song Zimo, the first assistant, had extremely high talent and was full of passion for surgery. He was determined to be the best surgeon. By now, he was able to assist Yang Ping in challenging Takahashi Sasaki, taking care of ten blood vessels when Takahashi fell into a predicament during the surgery at the academic conference. In microsurgery, although his skills were still a significant distance from Yang Ping¡¯s, he was already a high peak that others found difficult to overcome. With his current skills, he could cut off and anastomose the tail of a newborn mouse, ensuring smooth blood flow, even with his hands floating in the air. He was extremely skilled in arthroscopy, thoracoscopy, laparoscopy, and foraminoscopy. Open surgery required no further explanation. Under Yang Ping¡¯s guidance, he was far more proficient in dissection than the average person. If someone wanted to challenge Yang Ping, they had to overcome the obstacle that was Song Zimo first. But it was extremely difficult to do so. It was not clear who was the gold or silver hook between Xiaowu Zhang Lin, and the two were evenly matched. It was hard to say who was superior, but there was no denying that they were the best second and third assistants. Anesthesiologist Liang Fatty was as passionate about anesthesia as he was about food. He thoroughly enjoyed his role. Nurse Su Yixuan needs no introduction. She was Yang Ping¡¯s perfect companion. Their naturally seamless coordination enabled each surgery to be flawlessly conducted. Zhou Can was the best circulating nurse, and if he went on stage, he would also be an excellent scrub nurse. The most important thing was that they had been through one battle after another. Taking down the surgery that Takahashi failed to accomplish boosted the team¡¯s confidence greatly. They firmly believed that they were the best team in the world. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s important x-ray films were hung on the light board for easy consultation by the surgeon. There were also digital images available on the electronic screen which could be seen just by slightly raising one¡¯s head. She was given general anesthesia through endotracheal intubation, and positioned 90 degrees toward the left side with her right arm raised and placed on a support. Her scapula was externally rotated against the chest wall to expose the 5th and 6th intercostal spaces. Positioning was very important to the surgery. Good positioning can provide ample exposure, while improper or incorrect positioning can make exposure difficult or even impossible. Fang Xiaoyun had an endotracheal tube inserted in her mouth, which was connected to the anesthetic machine. A head holder was placed above her head, and the eyes were covered with protective tape to keep them shut. Silicone protective pads were used to protect all protruding parts of her bones, such as the sacrococcygeal area, to prevent ischemic necrosis due to pressure. The right upper chest and armpit had also been padded with thin pillows, to provide ample protection for the axillary artery, axillary vein, and the brachial plexus nerves. Zhou Can checked Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s upper limbs for pallor or cyanosis, venous congestion, and whether the radial artery pulse was normal. After confirming that there were no problems, Song Zimo started the disinfection and draping procedures. Everything was ready. Yang Ping wore his surgical gown and gloves, and stepped onto the surgical stage. The sacred preoperative check. This was not only to prevent errors in the surgical site and approach but more importantly, it was a ritual that demonstrated the surgical team¡¯s seriousness and dedication. ¡°Name, Sex, Age, Hospitalization Number, Position, Surgical Site, Surgical Method, Anesthetic Technique, Surgery Attention Points, Anesthesia Attention Points¡ª¡± Stop all work at hand, each task must be checked, and every member of the surgical team must participate. If anyone disagrees, they must voice their objection on the spot. If there are no objections, then it is officially announced: Surgery begins! Only then can the scalpel be wielded. Entering the thoracic cavity, following the upper edge of the eighth rib, from the outer edge of the paraspinal muscle to the anterior axillary line, cut open the skin, subcutaneous tissue, and deep fascia. Continue to cut through the muscles: The first layer is the latissimus dorsi, the second layer includes the anterior serratus, the external oblique abdominis, and parts of the paraspinal muscle, the third layer involves the external intercostal muscle and the internal intercostal muscle, with protection of the intercostal nerve and the intercostal blood vessels beneath the lower edge of the rib. The parietal pleura is exposed. Yang Ping makes a small incision on the parietal pleura with a knife, and air enters the thoracic cavity, instantly eliminating negative pressure. One of the lungs gradually collapses. Adhesions exist between the lung and pleura. The tissue scissors are handed over and Yang Ping cuts off the band-like and membranous adhesion bands. The lung completely collapses and the thoracic wall is protected by saline gauze. The thoracic retractor gradually opens the thoracic cage, presenting the throbbing heart and the pair of contracted lungs vividly before the eyes. Especially the vibrant, powerfully throbbing heart: its rhythmic pulsating sound signifies the driving force of life. From the moment of birth, until death, it beats ceaselessly in its rhythm. Sometimes during cardiac massage within the chest, it is necessary to hold the heart in your hand. At this moment, you feel the miracle of life, as it rests in your palm. Yang Ping stops his operation: ¡°Everyone, come take a look!¡± Standardized training students and interns observing the procedure climb onto stools, peeping into the thoracic cavity from a meter away from the operating table. The heart and the lungs are presented alive before them. Such a sight easily elicits a spontaneous sense of sacredness, nobility, and responsibility within people. Revere and respect life! The impact on the heart is more significant than reciting the medical student pledge a thousand times. Life is presented to you in the form of a pulsating image. If it stops, life as we know it ceases and doesn¡¯t bear any relation to this world. If it keeps beating, one can laugh, cry, love, hate, and experience all the joys and sorrows of the world. The dissection has already progressed to an intuitive and proficient level, with saline gauze covering the lung tissues. Gently shifting them towards the midline, the anterolateral border of the thoracic vertebra and the posterior mediastinum come to view. The whole procedure goes on in silence, with each move known to the assistant, including the positioning of the retractor, the direction, and strength without needing a reminder. The scrub nurse has a very thorough grasp of the procedure. Even without exchanging glances, the scrub nurse passes the knife at the right time. Doing surgery with this synergy feels wonderful, it¡¯s a heart-to-heart interaction. The mediastinal pleura is longitudinally incised, exposing the left thoracic aorta, the azygous vein, hemiazygos vein, and the intercostal blood vessels on the right side. These blood vessels need to be partially cut and ligated to get a full view, but the intercostal artery is one of the main arteries supplying the spinal cord. The number of sections cannot exceed three, otherwise, it could cause disruption to the blood supply of the spinal cord. A true master surgeon adheres to the concept of minimally invasive procedures throughout, protecting blood circulation and tissues as much as possible. Yang Ping does not intend to cut and ligate these blood vessels, indeed he plans to protect each blood vessel that supplies the spinal cord. Entering between the blood vessels, the space formed by the blood vessels will create several operation windows. This will make the operation seem very difficult. However, for Yang Ping, this is not a problem. Entering between the vessels, a pleural separator is used to gently push open the aorta at the front of the vertebral body from the outside of the pleura, protected by saline gauze, a retractor is gently inserted. Saline gauze protects the surroundings, revealing the operation space. The front side of the thoracic vertebra, the intervertebral disc, and the anterior longitudinal ligament are about to appear in view, but what is revealed is a fluctuating cystic object. This is an abscess. Xiao Su hands Yang Ping a 50ml syringe. Yang Ping punctures the abscess with a small incision using a scalpel, and tenacious whitish-yellow ¡°cheese¡± seeps from the tip of the syringe, rushing into the syringe tube. The syringe quickly fills up, another syringe replaces it, and the suction continues. The collected specimens are preserved for bacterial culture and pathologic examination. Five consecutive aspirations are made for aerobic, anaerobic, tuberculin cultures, smears for acid-fast bacilli, and pathologic testing. The assistant¡¯s aspirator then is introduced, gently placed through the small incision, removing the remaining ¡°cheese¡±. This aspiration device is specifically used to aspirate ¡°cheese¡±. The patrolling nurse begins to calculate the volume of the ¡°cheese¡±, which totals 1000 milliliters. Yang Ping completely opens the abscess wall, repeatedly rinses the area with saline, and continues with the operation once the surgical site is clean. ¡°Nice!¡± praises Zhang Lin. Little Five looks up at him and replies: ¡°Indeed, just a pity we can¡¯t smell it.¡± ¡°Could it be a sweet scent?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard it¡¯s sour.¡± Unexpectedly, the cheesy material from a cold abscess could elicit such a vivid image, both Zhang and Little Five exclaim in unison. However, the retractor in their hands remain motionless and are used with appropriate strength for optimal exposure. Being labelled as a golden or silver hook operator is not overrated, it¡¯s earned by displaying excellent retracting skills through countless operations. ¡°Congratulations, you¡¯re one step closer to being an exceptional surgeon,¡± Yang Ping exposes the front of the ninth thoracic vertebra and begins to ligate the surrounding blood vessels. Chapter 268 - 0252: Details Determine Success or Failure Chapter 268: Chapter 0252: Details Determine Success or Failure Human anatomy is very complex; the complete extent of an abscess is far beyond what the naked eye can see. MRI can show several locations, but it is difficult to achieve a comprehensive observation during surgery with the naked eye alone. Indeed, the use of a laparoscope, a flexible endoscope, is crucial! It is generally used in general surgery to remove gallstones. Now, Yang Ping is using it to view the actual extent of the abscess. With the guidance of MRI imaging, the extent of the abscess is very clear. As the endoscope is inserted in various directions, thoroughly exploring the limits of the abscess before directing the suction device. Such a device is rarely used in previous surgeries. Unsurprisingly, Xiao Su knew that this step would require it, and he also knew Yang Ping would use it. As Yang Ping habitually reached out his hand, the endoscope was timely passed into his hand, already connected with various tubes. Xiao Su had Zhou Can turn the display on as well. Yang Ping held the endoscope in his left hand, operating the suction device with his right and thoroughly washing and suctioning from various directions, a total of approximately 3000 ml was suctioned out, of which 2000 ml was saline, leaving 1000 ml of pus. ¡°The laparoscope can be used in this way?¡± Song Zimo is interested in trying it next time. ... As he operates, Yang Ping explains: ¡°The flexible endoscope can change the view angle, making it suitable for a complete examination. We could use a very fine flexible endoscope later. It is used for removing stones from the intrahepatic bile ducts and can explore the extent of pus inside the vertebral canal thoroughly. The rigid endoscope won¡¯t work as it cannot enter angled areas and can easily damage the spinal cord.¡± The whole vertebra of the ninth thoracic has collapsed due to the abscess, the bone fragments moved backward into the vertebral canal. The ninth thoracic vertebra had to be removed. After dealing with the blood vessels surrounding the vertebra, Yang Ping cautioned the anesthesiologist: ¡°Prepare for the removal of the vertebra, watch the blood pressure.¡± The vertebra is a cortical bone enclosing a spongy bone, which has a rich blood supply. Therefore, during the removal of the vertebrae, there would be more bleeding than in the other steps of the surgery. At this point in the surgery, the suction device for blood was still relatively clean as there isn¡¯t much blood to suck. The suction device used for removing the pus had its head replaced several times, and the removed pus already measured more than two thousand milliliters. The osteotome severed the pedicles on both sides, the intervertebral discs above and below were removed, and then the whole vertebra was taken out completely. Incredibly, this operation was so precise that Song Zimo was impressed again. Under regular circumstances, a bird beak rongeur would be used to gnaw away the vertebral body bit by bit¨C an operation that inevitably results in a lot of bleeding. But now, Yang Ping pulled out the entire vertebra without any loss of blood. The osteotomy area was sealed off with bone wax exposing the spinal canal. The exposed spinal cord was intertwined with a substance resembling bean curd and dead bones which had been causing the pressure on the spinal cord. No wonder the patient was experiencing nerve symptoms, manifested as weakened muscle strength and sensory disturbance in the lower limbs. Without surgery, the muscle strength would continue to deteriorate and eventually reach level zero, resulting in complete paralysis of the lower limbs. Using a curette and neurological dissector simultaneously to clean up the bean curd-like substance, some must be kept for bacterial culture and pathological examination, which is a mandatory step. Following the spinal canal and cleaning upwards and downwards until completely free from compressing substances. Yet, Yang Ping still wasn¡¯t reassured. After all, the spinal canal is as narrow as a tunnel, and it is incredibly challenging to discern the true extent of these pathological substances. The laparoscope was called into use once again. Gently inserted into the spinal canal and almost scraped along the wall of the canal, moving up and down to inspect. According to the MRI guidance, there were some unpickable areas filled with abscesses. Although they didn¡¯t cause compression, these areas could hinder recovery. Introducing the dissector under the guidance of the endoscope, it was easy to clean these residual substances. They were suctioned and cleaned over and over until finally clean. ¡°Microsurgical instruments!¡± Xiao Su had already prepared them in advance, knowing that Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t skip this step and would inspect the anterior spinal artery. When Yang Ping performs a surgery, he doesn¡¯t miss any chance to be thorough. Let¡¯s explore the anterior spinal artery then. Yang Ping carefully revealed it, cautiously clasping it with the microforceps to feel the tension of the blood vessel wall. No, it didn¡¯t feel right. The sensation underneath the forceps was too hard, not the feeling of typical vasculature, it must be an obstruction. ¡°What? Is it obstructed?¡± Song Zimo registered Yang Ping¡¯s actions with his microforceps. ¡°It¡¯s obstructed!¡± Yang Ping confirmed with certainty. The obstruction was almost two centimeters long, exactly the part under compression previously. If the obstruction was not removed, the spinal cord would degenerate due to ischemic necrosis, the post-operative paraplegia would not recover and would continue to worsen. All the hard work until then would be in vain. ¡°What should we do?¡± Song Zimo anxiously asked. Fortunately Yang Ping had done the exploration; otherwise, if the patient¡¯s sensation and muscle strength in the lower limbs didn¡¯t recover or even worsened postoperatively, it would be too late for an exploration then. ¡°The embolism shouldn¡¯t have been there for long, it¡¯s still possible to reopen the blood vessel now,¡± Yang Ping judged from the hardness of the blood vessel under the forceps. A surgery, with perfect results, is assembled from countless perfect details. ¡°Cut off the blood vessel, remove the thrombus, and then perform vascular anastomosis?¡± Song Zimo guessed. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Prepare the microsurgical instruments for vascular anastomosis!¡± A careful investigation changes the fate of this patient, or else, she could likely spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. In spine tuberculosis surgery, the step to investigate the anterior spinal artery does not exist, because most spine surgeons lack microsurgical mindset and experience. Yang Ping decisively cut the anterior spinal artery, gently drove out the blood clot, which was like a tiny earthworm, laying on saline gauze in Xiao Su¡¯s palm. ¡°Take a photo!¡± Yang Ping instructed. Zhou Can was momentarily free under the table and helped to take a picture. Taking pictures was to document the surgery fully, accumulating original data for future research. Following the procedure of microsurgical anastomosis of small blood vessels, heparin saline was used to wash the blood vessel, trim the external membrane of the blood vessel, suture the blood vessel without any damage, check if the blood vessel is leaking blood, and if the pulsation is good. After observing for a full two minutes, Yang Ping finally felt at ease, ¡°Alright, let¡¯s proceed with interspinous bone grafting.¡± Song Zimo began to harvest the iliac bone. Harvesting iliac bone requires skill, as it is necessary to achieve satisfactory volume without affecting the donor area¡¯s appearance and function. ¡°I¡¯m getting married before the Spring Festival, you guys must come and have fun, I¡¯ve sent an invite to Director Han, I¡¯ve asked the head nurse to send out the other invites, I¡¯ll deliver yours personally later,¡± Little Five said all of a sudden. ¡°So soon?¡± Fatty was surprised. He was the fastest among the group. ¡°If I don¡¯t host the banquet soon, I¡¯ll have to host it while holding a baby,¡± Zhang Lin said lightly. ¡°What? You¡¯re going to be a dad, you¡¯re more than just a step ahead,¡± Fatty hadn¡¯t expected this at all. He didn¡¯t even have a girlfriend and this guy was about to become a dad. ¡°My future in-laws are insisting, I can¡¯t disobey them,¡± Little Five said helplessly. ¡°After getting married, are you going to quit being a doctor and become a landlord?¡± Zhang Lin teased him. Little Five¡¯s in-laws are locals of G City. They made a fortune selling electrical appliances between the Mainland and Hong Kong in the eighties. Then they invested in real estate and made even further profits. It¡¯s said that they own several buildings in the CBD of G City. The couple only has this one daughter, and they¡¯re very cautious about her marriage. They were very pleased with Little Five when they met him; a handsome young man with a good education, a doctor, an all-round good catch. Now that Xiao Qing is pregnant, the couple is overjoyed about becoming grandparents, urging the two to get married as soon as possible. They told them not to worry and that they would organize everything. ¡°Little Five, do you have a younger sister? An older sister will do too!¡± Fatty felt he was lagging far behind. ¡°You should have said so earlier!¡± Little Five said while suturing. Fatty got excited: ¡°So, you do have a sister?¡± ¡°If you had said it earlier, I could have persuaded them to have another child, but I guess it¡¯s too late now,¡± Little Five laughed. Amid their banter, the sutures by Little Five and Zhang Lin remained stationary, keeping the surgical field well exposed. Song Zimo extracted a perfectly square iliac bone, it looked excellent. Yang Ping used a retractor to separate the vertebral bodies and inserted the iliac bone graft, a perfect fit. Chapter 269 - 0253: Gripped by Fear Upon Reflection Chapter 269: Chapter 0253: Gripped by Fear Upon Reflection The iliac bone graft is implanted, occupying the position of the 9th thoracic vertebra, restoring the sequence of the spine and correcting the kyphosis. In the future, the 8th and 10th thoracic vertebrae, together with this piece of iliac bone graft, will heal together and become a fixed entity. This completes the second and third missions of the spine surgery, orthoplasty and stabilization. We fix the lateral steel plate anteriorly, irrigate the surgical area, place drainage tubes, layer the surgical incision, and close the thoracic cavity. ¡°You stitched the skin last time, you want to do it again?¡± ¡°This is my patient!¡± ... ¡°Playing fair?¡± ¡°We stitch together, I share half with you, how about that?¡± ¡°Stop fighting. Whoever¡¯s patient does the stitching. Both of you stitching at the same time is prone to accidental injuries.¡± Yang Ping lectured them. Zhang Lin began to proudly stitch the skin, holding the needle holder; with a gentle flick of his wrist, the curved needle entered and exited vertically through the skin. ¡°Tie the knot!¡± Zhang Lin urged. Little Five felt reluctant, put the needle holder back into the sharp turn disc, and began to tie the knot. Yang Ping¡¯s surgery does not like to use stitching devices to stitch the skin, he prefers manual suturing. Song Zimo reflected on the surgery just now, a cold realization washing over him. If not for Yang Ping¡¯s careful examination earlier on, the patient would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, just a small operation like this can change a person¡¯s fate. Being a doctor is really like treading on thin ice, how important a serious attitude is. Being serious stems from a high sense of responsibility, and awe of one¡¯s profession. Even so, this kind of disease, once the surgery is complete and if the neural function does not recover, it is seen as normal. Decompression only creates conditions for nerve recovery; it can¡¯t guarantee it will definitely recover, for instance, if there is a blockage in the anterior spinal artery, neural function would be impossible to recover, resulting in permanent damage. But exploring the anterior spinal artery is very challenging and requires extensive experience in spinal surgery and reattachment of severed fingers. In fact, very few doctors have such experience. Professor Zhang Zongshun appeared in the operating room. He personally inquired about the serious or complicated cases he saw in his clinic. ¡°Professor Zhang!¡± Everyone greeted him respectfully. Professor Zhang nodded, walked to the light box to examine the radiographs, and asked Yang Ping, ¡°Xiao Yang, how was the intraoperative condition?¡± ¡°Approximately 2000 milliliters of pus was aspirated, the spinal cord was severely compressed, the intraspinal material that was causing the compression was removed, a complete decompression was performed, the 9th thoracic vertebra was removed, an iliac bone graft was implanted, and an anterior steel plate was fixed.¡± Yang Ping respectfully reported the operation situation. Professor Zhang adjusted his glasses: ¡°There was no sign of embolism on the MRI, it should have occluded after the MRI was done, did you check the anterior spinal artery?¡± ¡°I checked it.¡± Yang Ping accompanied Professor Zhang. Professor Zhang pondered for a moment: ¡°Very good, remember, the greater your ability, the greater your responsibility, you must do your best for each surgery, for you it is just a surgery, but for patients, it is their whole life¡ª¡ª¡± ¡°Old Zhang, I remember.¡± Yang Ping respectfully said. ¡°Tuberculosis, once thought to be far from us, is not really the case, it is showing signs of resurgence.¡± ¡°The battle between bacteria and other pathogens and human beings never stops, humans develop various drugs to eliminate them, and they try their best to resist these drugs and escape our extermination, this confrontation is endless, superbugs are born in this fight.¡± Professor Zhang always managed to view problems from a non-medical perspective, such as from a philosophical height. In 1882, German biologist Robert Koch discovered Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and mankind began its journey to conquer tuberculosis. Later, inspired by cowpox, during World War I, French bacteriologists Albert Calmette and his assistant Jean Gerin developed a vaccine (BCG) for the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis, and humans were then able to prevent this disease. In 1943, American scientist Waksman of Ukrainian descent developed the anti-tuberculosis drug streptomycin, and tuberculosis could finally be treated. It should be noted that before this, tuberculosis was an incurable disease, considered ¡°humanity¡¯s number one killer¡±. Now that it can be prevented and treated, mankind has truly conquered the monster of tuberculosis. The emergence of tuberculosis is largely due to the appearance of drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria. Superbugs are the desperate fighters amongst drug-resistant bacteria. Many people are contributing to the birth of superbugs. When you have a cold and unhesitatingly take anti-inflammatory drugs, you have contributed a part. Now, the management of antibiotics is strict these days, you need a doctor¡¯s prescription to buy drugs at a pharmacy. Previously, any pharmacy could easily sell antibiotics, and it was common sense to take a few anti-inflammatory pills for a cold, which, in scientific terms, is named acute upper respiratory infection, the majority of which are caused by viral infections and do not require antibiotics. ¡°There are patients waiting for me in outpatient services, I¡¯ll go first. This patient¡¯s neurological symptoms will recover slowly, the recovery process will be parabolic, it will worsen first, then slowly ease off, make sure to explain it to the patient clearly. ¡± After saying that, Professor Zhang looked at Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s monitoring data, asked Fatty a few questions, and exited the operating room with his hands behind his back. Yang Ping also considered this. After the pressure was relieved, the spinal cord would become edematous, the neurological symptoms would worsen, and only after the edema had subsided would the neurological symptoms gradually recover. When the skin stitching was complete, Zhang Lin used an alcohol swab to disinfect the surgical incision once again. ¡°Little Five, how about it? Pretty good skills, right?¡± Zhang Lin was quite satisfied with his work. ¡°You still lack practice, next time I¡¯ll sew it for you to see.¡± Little Five was unimpressed. The dressing covered the incision, the operation was successfully completed. Recovery from anesthesia was quick, Fatty¡¯s estimation of the operation time, and control over the dosage of anesthetic was very accurate. ¡°Fang Xiaoyun, wake up, the surgery is over.¡± Fatty called loudly to Fang Xiaoyun, a suction device cleared the secretions in her airway, and the tracheal tube was smoothly removed. ¡°Doctor, will I become paralyzed?¡± Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s first words after waking up. It wasn¡¯t just her, anyone would be scared, just having to lie in this bed, everyone would be fearful, and some would even worry whether they would be able to wake up after lying down. ¡°The surgery went smoothly, take time to recover after the surgery.¡± Yang Ping comforted Fang Xiaoyun. ¡°Make sure to give her standard anti-tuberculosis treatment after the surgery.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already consulted with an infectious disease specialist and they gave a plan.¡± Fang Xiaoyun was wheeled out of the operating room, her good colleagues were waiting for her. ¡°Doctor, how did the surgery go?¡± ¡°Very smoothly! ¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± The colleague had a backpack with her, she followed the push cart and said, ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about anything, just focus on recovery, I¡¯ve taken a few days off to take care of you.¡± This sister was genuinely kind, the number of friends didn¡¯t matter, only true feelings did. ¡°Your sisterhood is quite good, where do you girls work?¡± Zhang Lin wanted the gossip and asked Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s colleague. The girl blushed immediately, as if shy to say. After hesitating for a moment, she finally said, ¡°We work at a foot massage center, it¡¯s very legit, it¡¯s not that kind of¡ª¡± She could have easily made up a story to avoid others¡¯ curiosity, but she chose not to. They wash customers¡¯ feet, give foot massages, they are people living on the edge, they also have their own dignity, their own life, their own friendship. ¡°That¡¯s pretty good, foot massage actually requires a lot of knowledge, like knowing all about reflexology, right?¡± Yang Ping helped to ease her embarrassment. ¡°Yes, regular foot massage can be very beneficial, especially for people with sub-health conditions.¡± The girl confidently said. Fang Xiaoyun didn¡¯t join the conversation because of her post operation fatigue. ¡°After surgery, symptoms like numbness and weakness in lower limbs can worsen in a few days, then slowly ease off, so don¡¯t worry too much.¡± Yang Ping told Fang Xiaoyun and her colleague. The briefing was given before surgery, but better to emphasize it now, to avoid panic. Two successful surgeries today, very good. After making rounds, everyone returned to the doctor¡¯s office. ¡°Should we get together this weekend? We haven¡¯t gathered for a long time. ¡± Song Zimo suggested. Yes, the brothers haven¡¯t sat together for a drink in a long time, even if they don¡¯t drink alcohol, soft drinks would be fine. ¡°You pick the place.¡± Yang Ping was unfamiliar with these things. Song Zimo suggested, ¡°There¡¯s a bar in the city recently, called Nianfeng, I heard it¡¯s quite popular, I¡¯ve never been there, we can go check it out.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never been there, sounds exciting, I¡¯ve heard about it too.¡± Little Five had also heard of this bar. ¡°Let¡¯s go, I¡¯ll be the host, everyone has been working hard recently.¡± Yang Ping decided on the spot. Chapter 270 - 0254 Nianfeng Bar Chapter 270: Chapter 0254 Nianfeng Bar Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s post-surgery symptoms of nerve damage in both lower limbs, due to spinal cord edema, began to worsen. Originally at a muscle strength level of four, she was now at level three and could only lift her leg; she could not resist any force, not even slightly. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mother had been lingering around the hospital for the past few days, always trying to find an opportunity to probe into the situation. She wasn¡¯t concerned about her daughter¡¯s illness, but she couldn¡¯t leave until she got her hands on the money, could she? In the past, every payday, Fang Xiaoyun would keep a small portion of her salary and send most of it to her mother¡¯s account. This time, however, because she needed to undergo surgery, she had no money to send back. She explained to her family that she was hospitalized at Sanbo Hospital and was about to have surgery. Despite this, her family was incessantly pestering her over the phone, telling Fang Xiaoyun not to waste money. They suggested that she instead find a local doctor to treat her illness as it would save a lot of money. But Fang Xiaoyun knew that seeking treatment from a local doctor for this illness could potentially ruin her life. Since Fang Xiaoyun had not sent any money, her mother came all the way from their hometown to Sanbo Hospital. She found out which department Fang Xiaoyun was hospitalized in, stormed into her ward, and scolded her, demanding that Fang Xiaoyun give her the money. The shrew had been lingering around the hospital for several days. The deposit on her son¡¯s house was paid, and the down payment was due soon. Without the money in hand, how could she possibly leave? ... The down payment required 120,000, and almost 180,000 was needed for the interior decoration and appliances. Altogether, it would take about 300,000 to get everything in order. What good is 20,000? When it comes to money, it¡¯s like squeezing toothpaste¡ªyou have to squeeze it to get it out. She suspected that her daughter had been keeping a stash of money every month and did not give it all to the family. After being out for so many years, a couple of tens of thousands a year, she should have saved one to two hundred thousand, right? This time, it must be squeezed out. However, this mother, since coming to the hospital, has never once taken the time to understand her daughter¡¯s condition. Every conversation solely revolves around money. Fang Xiaoyun was nearly being driven crazy. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s close friend gave her mother 20,000 and told her to get lost, never to return. If she dared to return in the future, she wouldn¡¯t give her a cent. Get lost¡ªwould it be that easy? The daughter she raised was like a hen that lays eggs. Now that the hen was grown, it was time to collect the eggs. It was said that she earns several thousand a month, even over ten thousand at best. This was a hen that lays golden eggs. She had no choice, since she couldn¡¯t enter the hospital. The last time the security guards had threatened to apprehend her as a lunatic, which left her terrified. She was afraid of being detained if she entered the hospital and being sent to a mental hospital. She would be helpless and unheard. The shrew stared at the hospital inpatient building, thinking about how to get in. If she didn¡¯t get the money, she definitely could not go back. ¡ª In one week, half the wards in the Orthopedics Department were packed¡ªwith forty-five beds, now twenty-three patients were admitted. Unless it was very special, Yang Ping would be the Chief Surgeon himself. For ordinary surgeries, Song Zimo was the Chief Surgeon, as he watched from below the stage. No matter how high the talent, cases still needed to be fed. Surgeons were raised from apprenticeship. Song Zimo caught on quickly, had a solid foundation, was naturally fast on the uptake, and, whether it was any operation, he would perfect it after performing it once, becoming extremely proficient and seasoned after performing a few more. With such a competent assistant under his wing, Yang Ping¡¯s future was going to be a lot easier. Even Yang Ping had to admit that Director Han had an excellent discerning eye. This guy was hard to believe that he used to be faint-hearted. Other tutors didn¡¯t even want him and persuaded Song Zimo to adjust to internal medicine. Fainting at the sight of blood and still wanting to do surgery was the same as a target shooter with weak vision, or a colorblind person desperately wanting to be a traffic policeman, right? But Director Han trained him well, overcoming even stubborn fainting spells. Song Zimo felt that there was no obstacle he couldn¡¯t overcome, and the path to becoming a surgeon was extremely broad and clear. Yang Ping, on the other hand, had come a long way, primarily on his own merit, through inhuman training in the system space. But, without Director Han¡¯s recognition and protection, without the opportunities and guidance provided by him, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t have had such a smooth journey. Many talents ended up buried. After a busy week, everyone in the comprehensive orthopedic department was out¡ªa rare occasion, no emergency surgeries, nothing to worry about at night. What¡¯s more, Director Han was on duty. Everyone was originally discussing who should stay and guard the hospital. Zhang Lin and Little Five even made a draw for it. Director Han came in and said: ¡°You all go out and play, I¡¯ll be on duty.¡± Director Han was on duty with an intern; everyone else went out to play. Yang Ping felt uncomfortable: ¡°Director, we should leave someone on duty. How can we let you be on duty alone? ¡± ¡°It¡¯s just one night, no big deal. What? You think I can¡¯t handle it? Don¡¯t dilly-dally. There¡¯s no emergency. What could happen at night? A patient is in pain, prescribe some painkillers; someone can¡¯t sleep, give them a sleep aid. These are minor issues. Go ahead, it¡¯s a rare opportunity for you all to go and enjoy yourselves.¡± Director Han waved his hand, urging everyone not to waste time. On Saturday night, the comprehensive orthopedics team from Sanbo Hospital set off for a bar in the city¡ª Nianfeng. Interesting name, Nianfeng. Is it referring to a specific mountain peak? Mount Everest? Maybe the owner is a mountain climbing enthusiast. This bar is a newly established part of the Asia TOP 50 bars this year. It is quite well-known, but everyone¡¯s usually too busy with surgeries to have visited. An Asia TOP 50 bar located in G City. Everyone has heard of the Ice Room in front of the temple, but hasn¡¯t heard of Nianfeng. Maybe we are out of trend. We spend all our time in the ward and operating room. Stepping out feels like being exposed to the sunlight again. The sun is a little dazzling, especially for the standardized training students, who look a little better after some exposure to the sun. Parking is difficult in the city on weekends. At last, we found a parking space in the basement of a nearby hotel. Little Five made a reservation in advance. If we had come without one, we wouldn¡¯t have gotten a seat. The bar is a roadside old villa with three floors. Simple as it looks from the outside, it¡¯s always crowded with customers. Many people are still wandering around outside. The reserved table wasn¡¯t in a great spot, but just having a seat was already good. Everyone sat down together. Jazz music ¡®BRAZIL,¡¯ a soothing version, was playing in the bar, making it a compelling atmosphere. A handsome waiter came over, bowed slightly: ¡°What would you like to order?¡± ¡°Fatty, order some food!¡± Zhang Lin handed the menu to Fatty. The food connoisseur among us stepped up to the plate at this moment. ¡°Since we¡¯re off work today, shall we order something with low alcohol?¡± suggested Fatty. Zhang Lin was eager to try. As northeastern men, it¡¯s normal to drink. Coming to a bar and not drinking, but having a glass of fruit juice? That¡¯s just not right. It would disrupt social harmony. ¡°Senior Brother, what do you think? Can we break our alcohol abstinence today?¡± Zhang Lin trod on Little Five¡¯s foot hopefully. Little Five realized immediately: ¡°Yeah, we haven¡¯t drunk for a long time, how about a little taste¡ª¡± Yang Ping, seeing their eagerness to relax, considered that an occasional indulgence might not be a bad thing, to ease the pressure of constantly being on edge. ¡°Let¡¯s be casual today. Those who want to drink can drink, and those who want beverages can have beverages. No forcing, no restricting, do as you wish¡ª¡± Yang Ping set the tone. Everyone cheered. Fatty perked up and started ordering: ¡°I heard your bartender is from Italy? What¡¯s the best cocktail here?¡± ¡°Our signature cocktail is Love of the Peak!¡± said the waiter. ¡°Wait, that doesn¡¯t sound Italian,¡± Fatty showed off his expertise. The waiter quickly clarified: ¡°Love of the Peak is a creation of our boss. You might want to choose something else, as only our boss can make it, and she does not do that routinely. Early Spring in Milan is a masterpiece by our Italian bartender you mentioned.¡± ¡°Fine, bring some of it!¡± Fatty pointed here and there, ordering for Zhang Lin, Little Five, and himself. ¡°Who else? Raise your hand. You can keep your false courtesy to yourself.¡± Fatty spared no words. Who hesitates when ordering alcohol? A standardized training student raised his hand: ¡°Me!¡± ¡°Four Early Spring in Milans! Others who want juice drinks, order by your name¡ª, let me see the snacks!¡± Fatty, quick-eyed and nimble-handed, ordered a great deal all at once. Chapter 271 - 0255: Xiao Yao Chapter 271: Chapter 0255: Xiao Yao After ordering, everyone sat waiting to the soothing and relaxing jazz music. The outside seemed busier than inside, but it was equally relaxed. Perhaps that¡¯s why the bar is a successful business. It offers urban dwellers a reprieve for their souls. The pressures of life are everywhere. There has to be a place to let off steam. At this moment, all the patrons in the bar seemed to have forgotten their daily hassles and worries. It looked like the guy at the next table had lost his job, and his colleague was treating him to dinner. Under this ambiance, he had let go of his burdens and was engrossed in a conversation with his colleague. The bartenders were ceaselessly occupied at the back. They mixed different drinks, giving them a new life, instantly creating unique cocktails. The color, aroma, and taste were stimulating the guests¡¯ senses of sight, smell, and taste. ¡°Do you remember the first time we met? You mistook me for an intern. It made me so mad.¡± Xiao Su whispered in Yang Ping¡¯s ear. Indeed, their first meeting was at a bar by the riverside ¨C Moon Playing. Little did they know that their chance meeting would start a whole new chapter in life. ... ¡°You look like a fresh graduate, isn¡¯t that your fault!¡± Yang Ping joked as he poured lemon water for Xiao Su. As he poured for the others, Zhang Lin promptly took over the job. ¡°Zhang Lin, where¡¯s your wife? Why didn¡¯t you invite her?¡± Fatty asked. As Zhang Lin was pouring lemon water for everyone, he retorted, ¡°You are trying to ruin the mood, aren¡¯t you? If she¡¯s here, would I still be able to drink with you?¡± ¡°Where¡¯s Xiao Qing?¡± Fatty asked Little Five. Little Five said: ¡°Since she found out she¡¯s pregnant, let alone going out at night, even what to eat for three meals a day is strictly supervised by her mother. Her phone usage is limited to reduce radiation exposure and she has even started wearing radiation-proof maternity clothes now.¡± After a round of lemon water, the waiter came over and respectfully said, ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, our boss invites you to the terrace on the third floor.¡± Yang Ping looked up. The three-story old mansion had an outside wall made of red bricks. Half of the third floor was an open terrace. That¡¯s not for just anyone to go up, right? ¡°Our boss says that you are her esteemed friends. She¡¯s preparing the drinks. Tonight, all of your drinks and juices are personally prepared by her,¡± the waiter said with a smile, then led the way. Who¡¯s friend? Somebody must have a lot of face. The owner of a top 50 bar in Asia was personally preparing drinks. Everyone exchanged bewildered looks, shaking their heads. She wasn¡¯t any of their friends. Finding a familiar face in a hospital is understandable, but a bar owner, no one knew her. ¡°Fatty, someone from your college food association? Gave up medicine and opened a bar?¡± Zhang Lin questioned Fatty. Fatty shook his head: ¡°I don¡¯t know. Yeah, there is a buddy who quit being a doctor. But he opened a restaurant, no one mentioned a bar. Who cares, let¡¯s go upstairs. If it¡¯s a mistake, we¡¯ll find out.¡± ¡°Young Master Song, Sister Fei?¡± Zhang Lin was very keen on getting to the bottom of this. ¡°This is our first time here too, we don¡¯t know the owner,¡± Song Zimo denied. All eyes shifted to Yang Ping and Su Yixuan. Yang Ping shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t have that many friends, let alone ones who own a bar.¡± ¡°You talk too much, let¡¯s go upstairs!¡± Little Five was annoyed by Zhang Lin¡¯s incessant questioning. The waiter might have been waiting for a while. Seeing that no one was following him, he came back down: ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, shall we go upstairs, please?¡± Everyone followed the waiter upstairs. On the third floor terrace, it was quite spacious. There was only a large table and separate sound system. It was evidently an exclusive area. ¡°This is where our boss entertains her friends!¡± the waiter explained. It¡¯s not open to the public normally. ¡°This is ¡®Love of the Peak,¡¯ four glasses. Our boss personally prepared it, please wait. She¡¯s preparing your juice,¡± another waiter stated as he brought the drinks. Soon after, the juice was served one by one. All kinds of snacks were also served, which were more plentiful than other bars, including chicken wings, sausages, steaks, you name it. As a food connoisseur, visibly impressed, Fatty picked up a glass of the drink, took a small sip, and squinted his eyes in bliss. ¡°What¡¯s it like?¡± Zhang Lin asked eagerly. ¡°It tastes like being in love!¡± ¡°You don¡¯t even have a girlfriend, and you¡¯re telling me it tastes like love?¡± Little Five was skeptical of this expert. At this moment, a trendy young woman, led by the waiter, walked over. She gave a slight bow: ¡°Hello everyone, hello Doctor Yang. Welcome to Nianfeng Bar.¡± She looked quite familiar, Zhang Lin wanted to say something but he couldn¡¯t place her. Who was this woman? Yang Ping had a good memory: ¡°Xiao Yao!¡± Xiao Yao, he remembered now. It was that girl who single handedly paralyzed ten people, who all ended up in the emergency room, including herself, who also knew how to draw comics under the pen name Street Corner and real name Wang Feng. This was his girlfriend Xiao Yao. Nianfeng Bar, I see, the longing is for Wang Feng! When Wang Feng was hospitalized with injuries, Xiao Yao took great care of him. Once his condition stabilized, Wang Feng left without saying goodbye. That day, Xiao Yao cried in the hospital room for a long time, holding a piece of paper in her hand, a comic drawn by Wang Feng. He signed it with a quote from Alexandre Dumas¡ªperhaps, the best place for me to live is in your heart. ¡°You remember me, don¡¯t you? When I first came back, I walked past your table and recognized you at a glance,¡± Xiao Yao said with a smile. Her beautiful face was tinged with a touch of sorrow. It turns out that not only does every person have a story, but this bar, too, has its own. ¡°You remember, hasn¡¯t he come back yet?¡± Yang Ping pitied their love story. Wang Feng had no choice but to leave her for the sake of Xiao Yao¡¯s future. ¡°Thank you for saving his life. Since he left, he has not come back, but I will wait for him here for the rest of my life,¡± Xiao Yao said stubbornly. The Love of the Peak, the most famous cocktail in this bar, handmade by the owner himself, also has its own story. What a beautiful story it is! Taking pictures, checking in, sharing on social moments seemed to have become a ritual of life. Then everyone began to eat heartily. This meal put everyone in a good mood, venting all the hardships and frustrations from the previous days. Being on duty every day, doing rounds, performing surgeries, it was non-stop. As one set of patients left, another arrived. People¡¯s nerves were constantly stretched tight, without any chance to relax. Now, everyone completely relaxed and drank happily while chatting away merrily. One standardized training student even started crying, completely drained by having to work every single day of the year, relentlessly circling the wards, always jolting with a start at the sound of his phone ringing. ¡°No matter what you do, it¡¯s not easy. If you truly devote yourself to any job, it will always be demanding. No task is light-duty,¡± Yang Ping told him, encouraging him. Those successful business tycoons worth billions, do you know the struggles they have been through, their near-deaths, their many failures? Is it easy? They turn white-haired overnight worrying about paying salaries, clutching their chests in pain. Yet, you don¡¯t see that; when they consider jumping from the rooftop, you don¡¯t see that; when they endure abandonment and betrayal, you don¡¯t see that. Is it easy? Nothing in the world comes cheap. If you want something, you must pay for it. If there¡¯s no longer a need for you to pay your dues, that¡¯s because someone else has paid them for you¡ªlike your parents. It wasn¡¯t until midnight that they started to wind down. Looking at the mess of dishes and drinks, everyone felt incredibly relaxed. Zhang Lin, Fatty, and Little Five, all three stuck it out without bowing out. Zhang Lin could barely go on, but he kept struggling; Little Five remained unflappable; As for Fatty, his size spoke for itself. ¡°Drink it down!¡± ¡°What¡¯s not to drink down?¡± Zhang always liked to be a bit lyrical at times like these, ¡°Life is nothing but a series of experiences. We live for a hundred years, a hundred years of experiences. Have you seen ¡®The Matrix¡¯? Perhaps we¡¯re just like those characters.¡± ¡°Why make it so complex? I¡¯ll tell you guys, the highest ideal in life is just one word!¡± Fatty cut Zhang¡¯s speech short. ¡°What word?¡± Everyone was eager to hear his profound thoughts. ¡°To enjoy!¡± Fatty blurted out. Damn, such a philistine! Zhang cursed, why couldn¡¯t he have said the pursuit of happiness? As they were leaving, Yang Ping looked up at the bar. Would the man this woman was waiting for ever return? Maybe he would return tomorrow, or perhaps never. ¡°Tomorrow at nine, at the entrance of Sanbo Hospital!¡± Cheng Liquan was thrilled. This time there were eighteen patients, including two from Southeast Asia. His dream was to establish a high-end sports medicine hospital. He had yet to break into the market, but now, with the arrival of the medical tourism group, he realized this rare opportunity had knocked on his door. Cheng¡¯s keen business sense told him his judgment was correct. The high-end health care market was void at present. Some hospitals boasted luxurious decor and advanced equipment, but lacked real technical strength and a trustworthy brand. Even if they did invite famous professors for surgeries, it was just temporary and not sustainable. Li Quan Hospital was the same, it couldn¡¯t escape this curse. However, now, it seemed the curse was being lifted, all thanks to Yang Ping. If they could establish a long-term cooperative relationship with Yang Ping, Li Quan Hospital would pioneer a completely new frontier. Charging five thousand for each surgery was not bad, but it was hard to form a reliable long-term relationship just with money. Boss Cheng had already planned it. He would personally pick up Yang Ping the next morning, in his Mercedes-Benz S-Class no less. Chapter 272 - 0256: Medical Tourism Group Chapter 272: Chapter 0256: Medical Tourism Group On Sunday, Yang Ping was scheduled to perform surgeries at Li Quan Hospital. In the future, unless there were special circumstances, his surgical operations would take place at Li Quan Hospital on Sundays. On this day, Yang Ping would be free and Xiao Su could also return home, making it possible for Yang Ping to clear some time for surgeries, both for public and private reasons. His multi-site practice permit was also issued. Thus, it was legal and rational for him to perform surgeries at Li Quan Hospital, as it was part of his regular medical practice. There was no need for a consultation process. As for making money, it was entirely honorable. Li Quan Hospital was a private hospital, aiming at the high-end market, therefore there was a great margin for pricing. Currently, what Boss Cheng offered Yang Ping for each surgery was five thousand yuan. This price was not as high as that of Professor Ye from Beijing, but it was already comparable to the cost of the operations performed by general professionals in top-tier hospitals in G City. The patients who came to Li Quan Hospital for operations did not care about the expense but were interested in the quality of medical care and service. At present, both could be satisfied at Li Quan Hospital. ... Although there were many surgeries, Boss Cheng dared not disturb Yang Ping¡¯s sleep by fetching him too early. Picking him up at nine o¡¯clock seemed appropriate. They would arrive at Li Quan Hospital a little after ten o¡¯clock. With Yang Ping¡¯s efficiency, one operation per hour, he could perform surgeries until late evening and complete nine surgeries without a problem. Boss Cheng arrived at Sanbo Hospital an hour early. He found a temporary parking spot next to the main entrance of the comprehensive building, set his mobile phone alarm, reclined his seat, and rested in the car. Running a private hospital was truly demanding. Unlike public hospitals, especially those at county, city, and provincial levels, and traditional medicine hospitals, the patients they served were almost always the same. No matter who the dean was, the operations wouldn¡¯t differ much, with few exceptions. Private hospitals were different; they didn¡¯t have a fixed market and had to establish their own. In the current social environment, people generally distrust private hospitals, especially due to some instances of grabbing for short-term profit, which further exacerbated the predicament of private hospitals. At eight fifty, Yang Ping emerged from the entrance of the comprehensive building, carrying out his Sunday routine of ward rounds, especially keeping a close eye on Fang Xiaoyun, whose postoperative neurological symptoms had worsened. From his car, Boss Cheng could see the entrance. Once Yang Ping came out, he promptly got in tune with Yang Ping: ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± After giving it much thought, Boss Cheng believed this title was the most suitable. It reflected Yang Ping¡¯s proficiency and didn¡¯t appear to be casual. ¡°Oh, Boss Cheng, you¡¯ve been waiting for a long time, haven¡¯t you? Why didn¡¯t you come up and sit for a while?¡± Yang Ping replied upon noticing Boss Cheng. ¡°No, no, I just arrived. I was about to call you, and here you are. This way¡ª¡± Boss Cheng led the way with a slight bow. He opened the car door, using his hand to block the top frame of the door as Yang Ping got in ¨C ¡°Old Cheng, you don¡¯t need to be so polite, it¡¯s unnecessarily formal.¡± ¡°I must, despite being so busy, you still found time to help me. I am very grateful. According to you, there are nine surgeries scheduled for today and another nine for next week.¡± Boss Cheng gently closed the car door. The car had been pre-started, and the air conditioning was set to a comfortable temperature. If Yang Ping was to step into the cold car, he might feel stuffy and uncomfortable, even if it was just for a minute or two, it would not be acceptable. ¡°The remaining nine patients will have to wait a week, won¡¯t they? So next time we can let them schedule ahead of time for better planning,¡± Yang Ping suggested. Boss Cheng immediately responded, ¡°Understood. They came suddenly this time, so we didn¡¯t make an appointment. They mentioned that they¡¯re a medical tourism group. The person leading the group was your previous surgery patient who has made a good recovery and is now coming to you for a follow-up. I¡¯ve set up a department specifically to handle medical tourism services. The group included two patients from Southeast Asia.¡± ¡°Patients from Southeast Asia?¡± Yang Ping was intrigued. In recent years, with the development of the country, the medical level also improved. The proficiency of major surgeries was particularly superior to that in Southeast Asia. In terms of medical standards, only Japan was more advanced than us in Asia. Other countries were far behind. ¡°At year-end, the department needs to relax a bit. I¡¯ll arrange it. How about a good vacation for a few days?¡± Boss Cheng proactively suggested. Doing business requires a continuous investment mindset. Investing in people and things, Yang Ping was an investment worth making, and it was best to make the investment early for maximum benefit. ¡°Boss Cheng, you¡¯re too kind. The department already has plans for a year-end vacation,¡± Yang Ping declined tactfully. The Huang siblings had already arranged this. Boss Cheng felt somewhat anxious, already arranged? Did somebody outmaneuver him? He needed to ascertain the situation to make sure he wasn¡¯t outsmarted by the competition behind the scenes. Yang Ping is the strongest reinforcement for Li Quan Hospital. This was a known fact among the staff. The beautiful nurse at the front desk gave him a warm welcome. ¡°Professor Cheng! Dr. Yang!¡± Everyone greeted them sweetly. Some even stole glances at Yang Ping from time to time. In the hospital, Cheng Liquan preferred to be called Professor rather than Boss by his employees. ¡°First, let¡¯s go see the patients!¡± Yang Ping had a habit of visiting the patients before any surgery. ¡°They¡¯re all waiting in the wards, and they want to see you in person before they¡¯ll agree to go into the operating room.¡± Boss Cheng was delighted. With the current trend of development, he feared that there would soon not be enough wards, but he had wisely reserved a whole floor in advance. ¡°Heard he¡¯s still single?¡± ¡°With all his skills, he must have a girlfriend!¡± ¡°So what if he has a girlfriend? As long as he¡¯s not married, there¡¯s still a chance.¡± ¡°What are you all gossiping about during business hours!¡± Several attractive nurses started chattering when they saw Yang Ping and Boss Cheng get into the elevator. The moment the head of service supervision appeared in the lounge, the nurses quickly straightened their backs, stopped talking, and pretended to work. Yang Ping personally interviewed each patient, inquired about their medical history, examined them, and re-read their medical imagery, even though Boss Cheng had already forwarded all these documents to him. Better safe than sorry. After seeing the patients, Yang Ping felt reassured: ¡°Send in the patients, make sure to keep up the pace.¡± Huang Jiahui had already prepared the surgical instruments, and Doctor Wan had been waiting in the operation room since early morning. ¡°Hey, Brother Yang!¡± Doctor Wan greeted him. Doctor Wan heard that Yang Ping had successfully completed a complex quadruple reconstruction here and also served as the chief surgeon for Jiang Baicheng¡¯s challenging shoulder surgery at the People¡¯s Hospital. With such excellent skills, he wanted to learn as much as possible from Yang Ping so that he could make money to buy a house and a car, get married, have kids, and settle down in G City. That was the taste of life. Doctor Wan was introduced by Yang Ping; Boss Cheng was happy to nurture him, and it was just a favor for Yang Ping. Conducting nine operations, each taking an hour, he worked until nine in the evening. Working for a full day, he ate a surgery meal at noon, and in the evening Boss Cheng invited him to a meal at a nearby hotel. Boss Cheng was efficient. While Yang Ping was changing in the changing room, a surgery fee of 45,000 yuan had already been transferred into his account, and Yang Ping received a message about it on his phone. Old Cheng was well-aware; any unsatisfactory aspect could affect their cooperation. A surgeon of Yang Ping¡¯s caliber would undoubtedly attract many hospitals seeking collaboration. ¡°Received the surgery fee, thank you.¡± Seeing the message on his phone, Yang Ping told Boss Cheng. Boss Cheng cheerfully said, ¡°You¡¯re welcome. Let¡¯s have a casual meal together. You¡¯ve worked hard today, and we¡¯ll need to trouble you more often in the future.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be polite, we¡¯re all colleagues here. Feel free to order anything,¡± Yang Ping responded casually as he saw the respectful demeanor of Boss Cheng. After changing, the two went out for dinner. Dean Cai was already waiting at the hotel. Dean Cai was Cheng Liquan¡¯s subordinate and the head of Liquan Hospital, who usually helped Boss Cheng with daily management. Boss Cheng casually mentioned: ¡°Dr. Yang, we have a plan to provide a car for each specialist we cooperate with, and we intend to provide one for you as well. Do you have any preferred brands or models?¡± A car? That¡¯s a legitimate perk. Yang Ping saw no reason to be shy about it. Performing surgeries was a mutually beneficial cooperation, and Old Cheng just wanted to provide good service for the specialists. ¡°You arrange it!¡± Yang Ping replied. He didn¡¯t specify the model because Boss Cheng didn¡¯t mention a specific budget. The comment was just a heads-up that a car was on its way. Just let it come! He could handle it. After all, you have to shear from the sheep¡¯s back. However, Old Cheng was indeed a good man and truly devoted to the hospital, and this was something Yang Ping valued the most. Chapter 273 - 0257: Did the Surgery Fail? Chapter 273: Chapter 0257: Did the Surgery Fail? The magnetic resonance imaging results of Sisi¡¯s post-operative check-up one week later showed that the liver metastases had slightly shrunk. The edema was more noticeable than before, evenly distributed, its edges perfectly tracing the original outline of the tumor. This type of MRI manifestation shows that at the time, the focused ultrasonic waves provided a full-dimensional bombardment of the tumor, without any omission or exceeding the tumor¡¯s range, achieving the goal of precision targeting. However, even so, there would still be residual tumor cells. These cells slowly divide and eventually return, a fate shared by all advanced malignant tumors. Once distant metastasis occurs, it is almost impossible to eradicate them completely. That is why the principle of ¡°early detection, early diagnosis, and early treatment¡± is advocated for tumors. When the cancer cells have not yet spread and are confined to a local space, they can be completely removed with a single surgery. Duan Xiaoming from the Gamma Knife department had been closely following this patient as well. Since the patient had undergone surgery in their department, he also had the authority to access the case. He was curious about the surgery performed by Yang Ping that day. He casually fired several dozen ultrasonic waves and made meticulous adjustments to the parameters, pushing the precision of the machine to its limits. Was he just putting on a show, or was he actually skilled? ... Duan Xiaoming wanted to know the answer. Sisi also had an MRI scan that day, but it was right after the surgery and the imaging was not very clear, so it was still too early to reach a conclusion. Now, Duan Xiaoming is convinced. Comparing the pre-operative, intra-operative, and one week post-operative MRI images, the effect is very clear. No one understood the effectiveness of the surgery better than Duan Xiaoming ¨C it was very good, too good to believe. From the MRI images, the liver tumor had been completely targeted by the focused ultrasound, and the high temperature had killed most of the tumor cells, which were now collapsing and being absorbed. As a specialist in the Gamma Knife, he himself had never really believed in its potential. He had applied several times to transfer it back to the ultrasound department, but the hospital had refused. After all, the hospital had spent so much money on this equipment, they couldn¡¯t just let it sit idle. At least for now, it could be used on patients with uterine fibroids. Thus, with the department barely surviving, Duan Xiaoming was passing his days idly, spending most of his time watching stock market fluctuations on his phone. ¡°Isn¡¯t it strange that Dr. Yang, an orthopedic specialist, can also perform Gamma Knife surgeries?¡± Since there were no patients at the moment, his assistant, a resident, asked during their casual conversation. Duan Xiaoming pointed it out to him, ¡°See, look at the MRI of that little girl from their orthopedics department. The liver tumor was cleaned up so well by the Gamma Knife.¡± If the Gamma Knife could have this kind of effect, then there is great opportunity for his future. He wouldn¡¯t have to just drift along aimlessly as he¡¯s been doing. Duan Xiaoming thought that if he could learn this remarkable technique from Dr. Yang, he could make both fame and fortune simply by treating uterine fibroids, never mind other diseases. Given his situation, if he wants to make a name for himself, he would need to focus on a niche field and excel in it. Tackling liver or lung cancers would be too challenging. Instead, he planned to make a name for himself by specializing in uterine fibroids, securing his place amongst the medical professionals in G City. Duan Xiaoming considered how to network in the field, knowing he¡¯d probably need Song Zimo¡¯s help again. Since the machine was just sitting idle, he thought that if there were any future patients, he could invite Dr. Yang for the operation and learn from him, instead of obsessing over his stocks at the cost of swollen eyes and a lighter wallet. He needed to pull himself together and focus on serious matters, Duan Xiaoming thought as he rubbed his bald head. ¡ª ¡°Does it still hurt here?¡± Yang Ping asked, pointing to the location of the right hepatic region. ¡°It hurt a bit on the day of the surgery, but it¡¯s not painful now. I feel much better. Thank you, big brother.¡± Freed from the agonizing hepatic pain, Sisi was looking much better. On her desk was a ¡°Human Anatomy Atlas,¡± People¡¯s Health Publishing House edition. Beside the book were drafts of anatomical sketches. ¡°I borrowed this from Sister Feifei. I want to become a doctor too, so I¡¯ve started preparing now. This is the liver that I drew. Sister Feifei said to learn anatomy well, you have to be able to sketch.¡± Seeing Yang Ping¡¯s attention drawn to the book on her desk, Sisi explained proactively and proudly showed him her sketches. The drawings, though a bit crude, were well done. Upon closer inspection, Yang Ping found them quite detailed: two halves, five lobes, eight subdivisions, the gallbladder, the hepatic duct, the common hepatic duct, the common bile duct, the proper hepatic artery, and the portal vein were all portrayed. This little girl might truly have the makings of a good doctor, Yang Ping thought, feeling a sudden pang of emotion. ¡°You¡¯ve done very well!¡± Yang Ping praised her. Pleased with herself, the young girl said: ¡°I want to draw every part of the human body and then create a complete human anatomy illustration.¡± The disappearance of postoperative hepatic pain also confirmed the effects of the operation. The heat energy from the surgery had largely killed off the tumor, which was now beginning to be absorbed and shrink, and the tension on the liver¡¯s capsule sensory nerves gradually eased, naturally reducing the pain. This was the first time Yang Ping had used the simulation operation function of the system space, and the result was very good. Complete simulations of Sisi¡¯s tumors had already been carried out and so far, only the liver operation had been performed. Surgery to treat tumors in other parts of the body will be done in stages in the future. This simulation function is very beneficial for complex surgeries. It allows for extensive research and experimental procedures to be carried out on replicated patients, supplying data that can then be applied to actual cases. This ability to create replicas of patients can be used flexibly, such as for dissection, which can reveal diseases that medical equipment cannot detect. ¡ª Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s muscle strength was still deteriorating; it had now reduced to level two. She could only move around in bed and was even unable to lift her leg. The parabolic span of this spinal cord edema is a bit large and doesn¡¯t quite correspond with the patient¡¯s condition. Yang Ping asked Zhang Lin to perform another magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan on Fang Xiaoyun, including vascular imaging. Could it be that the spinal artery is blocked again? Or is there a hematoma causing pressure? Did the surgery interfere with the blood circulation of the spinal cord? Interfere with the circulation of the spinal cord? Impossible! Yang Ping was very confident in his operation. Not a single intercostal artery had been severed, so how could it have damaged the blood circulation? Hematoma can also be ruled out because if there was a hematoma, it would definitely have shown up in the MRI. However, another arterial blockage is entirely possible. The MRI¡¯s diagnostic accuracy for these minute changes is 95%, meaning there is still a 5% chance of missed or misdiagnosed cases. To others, there might be a 5% chance for error, but Yang Ping doesn¡¯t have such a high margin for mistake. He had recently undergone training in system space auxiliary examination. His ability to read MRI scans had improved substantially. He could recognize artefacts, interference, imaging deviation, etc. If there were any doubts, he could always further examinations or opt for other methods of examination to diagnose accurately. ¡°The peak of the swelling should have passed. Why does it persist for so long and why is her muscle strength getting worse?¡± Song Zimo was perplexed. ¡°MRI wouldn¡¯t make a mistake in recognizing the edema. This patient is intriguing. Why is there no sign of the swelling subsiding even after entering the plateau phase?¡± Yang Ping was also somewhat puzzled. ¡°If it¡¯s just due to the spinal cord edema, it¡¯s not a big deal. We can wait a bit more; the worry is if there are other reasons,¡± Professor Zhang also chimed in. ¡°Doctor Yang, Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mother is here. She was brought up by the security guards. She wants to see her daughter. The guards asked if she can?¡± Head Nurse Cai Qiaojun came over and reported. Two security guards brought Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mother. This time she was not making a fuss. She was calm and seemed like an honest person. She kept apologizing, ¡°I was too emotional last time. I understand now. I just want to see my daughter. She is in the hospital for surgery, isn¡¯t she? I¡¯m her mother; I want to take care of her.¡± If she wasn¡¯t causing any trouble, there was no reason not to let her take care of her daughter. Yang Ping told Head Nurse Cai, ¡°Ask the patient herself. If she agrees, let her in.¡± They don¡¯t have time to deal with her, as everyone was busy analyzing the patient¡¯s condition. In these kinds of cases, one small oversight could potentially lead to permanent paralysis. Thus, once there were signs of abnormalities, they had to be analyzed and dealt with in a timely manner. ¡°We¡¯ve already used Methylprednisolone and 20% mannitol, but the edema did not diminish. It makes no sense, right?¡± Zhang Lin, the attending doctor, also joined in the discussion. ¡°There could be two reasons for the situation. One, it could be related to thoracic tuberculosis, or two, it could be unrelated and due to other factors. Normally, we simplify diagnosis to explain symptoms with one disease. But when that doesn¡¯t work, we consider multiple factors. Could this patient have other issues?¡± Yang Ping proposed. Diagnosing a patient is a process of logical reasoning, utilizing one¡¯s knowledge and experience, combining a patient¡¯s history, examination results, and auxiliary examination to peel back layers until the truth is revealed. However, for many cases, the actual cause can¡¯t be determined. They can only provide symptomatic treatment. For some diseases, they even get cured before the cause is revealed. This is a very common occurrence. It¡¯s like when the television images are blurry, you give it a knock, and it becomes clear. You don¡¯t know the actual reason. ¡°There¡¯s no indication of spinal cord ischemia, no need to worry excessively. We can wait a little longer. If she really can¡¯t recover, we may need to look from other angles. It might be too early to start rolling out examinations now; the patient can¡¯t afford them financially,¡± Professor Zhang suggested waiting for a while longer. Yang Ping thought for a moment, going over all potential causes in his mind. Currently, Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s MRI does not show signs of spinal cord ischemia, and the main arteries supplying the spinal cord do not appear to be blocked either. At least, the major arteries visible in the MRI aren¡¯t blocked; the arteries without contrast do not have a significant impact on blood circulation and wouldn¡¯t pose a threat, even if they were blocked. Multiple reviews of the D-dimer test show a downward trend. This doesn¡¯t support the possibility of the spinal arteries being blocked and suggests that the blood clot is confined to a small area caused by the surgery. At the moment, starting extensive tests might be a tad early because these tests can have certain side effects. ¡°Professor Zhang is right. We can wait a bit longer, observe closely. I agree too,¡± Yang Ping made the decision. ¡°Let me go and check on her!¡± Professor Zhang leads the team to make ward rounds. Fang Xiaoyun was sitting on her bed, very calm. She trusted her doctors wholeheartedly. Her colleague was helping to massage her lower limbs. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mother, Teng Guihua, was sitting on the visitor¡¯s chair, attempting to smile at everyone, her smile a bit forced. Everyone was still trying to adapt to her changed attitude. Did she suddenly develop a conscience? Did she feel guilty about neglecting her daughter and now wanted to make up for it? Perhaps it was the daily objective analyses of patient conditions that have influenced them. When analyzing a condition, they wouldn¡¯t let emotions interfere. If it¡¯s one, it¡¯s one; if it¡¯s two, it¡¯s two. Distrust in ¡®one¡¯ wouldn¡¯t make ¡®one¡¯ change into ¡®two¡¯. Or perhaps, the extended time spent in the system space also altered their disposition. In any case, Yang Ping didn¡¯t quite believe that a shrew could change her ways so quickly. But he did not have to deal with her personally. All he needed to do was focus on treating Fang Xiaoyun earnestly. Professor Zhang conducted the physical examination himself. The current muscular strength was at level two but worse compared to yesterday¡¯s level two. She was able to move faster on her bed yesterday, but today her movements were particularly slow and weak. The strength was decreasing progressively. Professor Zhang furrowed his brows. His decades of experience told him the situation wasn¡¯t very promising. ¡°Professor, my daughter was able to walk before her surgery. But why can¡¯t she walk now? Is she paralyzed?¡± Teng Guihua asked cautiously. Professor Zhang looked at her: ¡°We are observing closely, and we may need further examination if necessary.¡± ¡°Did the surgery fail?¡± Teng Guihua blurted out. Chapter 274 - 0258: Less Than Three Hundred Cases Worldwide Chapter 274: Chapter 0258: Less Than Three Hundred Cases Worldwide After speaking, Teng Guihua realized her error and quickly covered up by saying, ¡°I¡¯m just asking, just asking.¡± A fleeting look of joy on her face caught by Yang Ping, perhaps his observational skills were more enhanced than average thanks to his training with System Space. Did he see it wrong? His patient¡¯s condition was worsening, yet instead of worrying, even crying, why was her mother a bit happy? ¡°I¡¯ll help!¡± Teng Guihua squeezed to the bedside to massage Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s legs. Chang Juan, a colleague of Fang Xiaoyun, moved aside a little, revealing a look of disgust. She thought, a weasel paying a visit to a chicken surely had no good intentions. But after all, it was Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mother, and this time she had not asked for money, but merely came to visit her daughter. As a colleague, there was not much she could say. ... The mother, dressed quite fashionably, wearing heavy lipstick, perfume so strong you could smell it through the mask. Her hands adorned with rings and bracelets, and the necklace on her neck was not missing either. After visiting Fang Xiaoyun, Professor Zhang cautioned Yang Ping to observe closely. He still had to go to the outpatient clinic and explain the diagnosis to another patient who was waiting for his test results. It was past his duty hours and the old man was still explaining the disease to the patients. Truly a tireless worker. The 80-year-old wouldn¡¯t rest; the hospital arranged for him to conduct consultations one day a week, but he insisted on working five days a week. After Professor Zhang left, Yang Ping pulled out all Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s case files for study. Any anomaly needed an explanation; otherwise, it created an unease in his heart. While others might ignore such anomalies, Yang Ping did not want to give up easily. ¡°Aren¡¯t you leaving yet?¡± Xiao Su placed her bag near the computer, sat down to accompany Yang Ping, and helped him massage his shoulders. The two had agreed to have dinner together, take a walk after dinner, and then play some tennis. ¡°The patient¡¯s spinal cord swelling isn¡¯t subsiding, the duration of the peak period is too long, it¡¯s unusual¡ª¡± Yang Ping began explaining to Xiao Su. ¡°You take your time, I¡¯ll stay with you.¡± Xiao Su sat next to him, close to him, massaging his shoulders with both hands. As a doctor, having a supportive partner is absolutely crucial. Otherwise, a few days of continuous emergency surgery could easily cause chaos at home. ¡°Pay attention to the patient, don¡¯t mind me. My dad¡¯s a doctor, my mom¡¯s a nurse. I am used to situations like this.¡± Xiao Su said with a faint smile. Yang Ping viewed the images intently, not overlooking any signs, inspecting each part carefully. Sacrificing a bit of his rest time didn¡¯t matter, had he not found the issue, it would be fine, and if he had identified the problem, it could be dealt with promptly. Any delay could impact the patient¡¯s life. ¡°The pressure on the spinal cord has been completely relieved, no signs of an embolus in the supplying artery, and the spinal canal vein is slightly thicker than normal.¡± Yang Ping mentioned his observation to Xiao Su as he kept looking. Xiao Su was quite interested; she loved to hear Yang Ping discuss the patient¡¯s condition. The slightly thicker spinal canal vein was an intuitive feeling that Yang Ping had due to seeing numerous imaging pictures in System Space. It is impossible to find anything by the thickness or thinness of the blood vessels alone. Even a minor difference can¡¯t prove anything. Yang Ping examined and compared the MRI and CT images taken before the operation, on the first day after the operation, and one week after the operation. The spinal canal vein at the same place seemed to be getting slightly thicker each time¡ªan extremely subtle change, but still, it was captured by Yang Ping. Furthermore, the change in the spinal canal vein positively correlated with spinal cord swelling; the thicker the vein, the worse the swelling. If not for his monstrous training in System Space, how could he possibly notice such an insignificant change? A spinal dural arteriovenous fistula? No way, there were fewer than 300 cases reported worldwide. How can such a rare disease, along with tuberculosis of the spine resulting in paralysis, occur simultaneously? The probability was as low as a severe thunderstorm. However, the more Yang Ping looked at it, the more he directed towards this diagnosis. He was almost certain. If so, a spinal angiogram must be done soon. The angiography procedure is extensive and takes hours. The spinal area has many blood vessels with complicated distribution: bilateral vertebral artery, common carotid artery, thyrocervical trunk, costocervical trunk, 12 pairs of 24 intercostal arteries, any of which could potentially form a fistula. During angiography, the lengthy exposure to x-rays poses a major challenge for the patient and the surgeon. The most troublesome part was that due to the complex structure of the blood vessels around the spine, if the technique was not accurate, even after conducting an angiograph for all the blood vessels, the problem might not be found. The contrast agent also increases the risk of spinal artery occlusion, particularly the good anastomosis of the anterior spinal artery from the last operation. With a complicated situation, multiple mutually contradictory risks coexist. If there was no full understanding and cooperation from the patient, no further examination and treatment could be done under these circumstances. ¡°A spinal dural arteriovenous fistula? Arrange for a DSA angiography immediately for the emergency.¡± Yang Ping told Xiao Su. Dinner was off the table, and the plans for a walk and tennis fell apart. ¡°What do you want to eat? We can order takeout!¡± Xiao Su was not displeased. Seeing Yang Ping¡¯s determination, if the DSA confirmed the diagnosis, then an emergency surgery would need to be performed¡ªdoing the surgery together was a good idea! Without needing any explanation, the two had a great tacit understanding, and Xiao Su immediately went to arrange for takeaway dinner. Everyone was about to finish their work and leave the office, Song Zimo and Tang Fei said goodbye to Yang Ping, they were about to end their shift. ¡°Fang Xiaoyun, Dural arteriovenous fistula!¡± Yang Ping responded to Song Zimo. Song Zimo immediately paused: ¡°Emergency DSA?¡± ¡°Yes, diagnose immediately, and then go straight into surgery. Contact the interventional operating room, we need a room capable of hybrid surgeries.¡± Yang Ping took the water brought to him by Xiao Su. Xiao Su said with a smile: ¡°Looks like nobody is going home tonight, I¡¯ve already ordered the takeaway.¡± Song Zimo and Tang Fei immediately gave up on the idea of going home. Song Zimo handed his backpack to Tang Fei: ¡°Hold my bag for me, I¡¯m going to call Zhang Lin, Little Five, Fatty and the rest over. We have a job tonight. A disease for which less than 300 instances have been reported worldwide...we¡¯ve stumbled upon it, is this real?¡± ¡°It¡¯s likely to be real, prepare for DSA and surgery.¡± Yang Ping got up. The overlap of two diseases, both are capable of causing myelitis, which can lead to paralysis. One disease masks the other, what are the chances? Zhang Lin, Little Five, and Fatty saw that Yang Ping was still in the office, and didn¡¯t dare leave right on time, worried that there might be something requiring their attention. Several people were ¡°having a meeting¡± in the duty room when they received a call from Song Zimo. No one dared to delay and everyone came out. They had no concept of Dural arteriovenous fistula, they had never heard of it before. At this point, Professor Zhang called. He sounded urgent: ¡°Xiao Yang, where are you? Please conduct a DSA of the spinal artery for Fang Xioyun in the emergency room. It might be a Dural arteriovenous fistula!¡± ¡°I¡¯m arranging it now!¡± ¡°I¡¯m arriving at the department right away!¡± The phone wasn¡¯t hung up in time, and the voice of an old lady could be heard from inside: ¡°Ah ¨C just got home, the meal is ready, why don¡¯t you eat something before going, it¡¯s better to fill your stomach with a few mouthfuls ¨C¡± Professor Zhang, with his wealth of experience, also thought of this rare possibility. Song Zimo was in contact with the interventional operating room. There are a few operating rooms capable of performing hybrid surgery. But at night, they didn¡¯t know if there were enough personnel available to assist with the DSA. A highly skilled interventional doctor was needed to help with this. Everyone was working separately. Xiao Su and Zhou Can needed to prepare accurate instruments, as well as a microscope, and confirm the interventional operating room so these could be sent over. After the DSA was completed and the diagnosis was confirmed, they would go directly into surgery in the interventional operating room. Sometimes angiography was needed during surgery to find blood vessel fistulas, and after surgery, angiography was also needed to confirm whether the arteriovenous fistula had been properly managed. Yang Ping reported to Director Han. Director Han also expressed that he would come immediately. He wasn¡¯t worried about Yang Ping¡¯s skills, but rather he wanted to back Yang Ping, undertaking the risk. After all, Yang Ping was the attending doctor. After checking Zhang Lin¡¯s informed consent forms, making minor modifications, and then printing them out, Yang Ping and Zhang Lin went to talk to Fang Xiaoyun to get her understanding and cooperation. Teng Guihua was in the ward. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s colleague, Chang Juan was also there. She probably didn¡¯t trust Teng Guihua and feared that she might do something that would harm Fang Xiaoyun. Yang Ping felt that Fang Xiaoyun was not a problem, but her mother might be the obstacle in communication. Fang Xiaoyun was an adult and in order to save trouble, Yang Ping decided to bypass Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s eccentric mother. ¡°I¡¯m going to have a talk with the patient now. You two exit the room. Zhang Lin, call for a nurse to come in. Have her escort them out.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s words were decisive. ¡°I¡¯m her mother, what can¡¯t you say in front of me?¡± Teng Guihua sensed something unusual. Yang Ping dismissed her: ¡°Leave, didn¡¯t you hear clearly? I don¡¯t want to delay time. Fang Xiaoyun is an adult and can make decisions for herself. We don¡¯t need you present.¡± Although these words were harsh and direct, at this time, arguing with her was simply a waste of time. Chang Juan was more forthright: ¡°If a doctor tells you to leave, then you leave. Why so much useless talk. Xiaoyun, we¡¯ll leave. Listen to the doctor, don¡¯t think too much.¡± The colleague pushed her mother out. After the nurse came in, Zhang Lin closed the door. When examining a female patient, or having a private conversation, it was necessary to have other female nurses or doctors present to avoid unnecessary disputes. ¡°Doctor Yang, what¡¯s going on?¡± Fang Xiaoyun asked a little scared. Yang Ping said calmly: ¡°Fang Xiaoyun, it¡¯s been one week since your surgery, and the strength of your legs is weakening, which is unusual. We suspect that in addition to spinal tuberculosis, you also have a Dural arteriovenous fistula. This is a rare disease, with less than 300 cases reported worldwide. It may have happened to manifest right after your surgery, leading to the worsening of your lower extremity paralysis. I¡¯m not 100% sure, but I¡¯m 90% sure. Now, we need to conduct a spinal artery angiography. We will have to search for it blood vessel by blood vessel, we may or may not find it. But if we do, we will immediately operate to treat it. This time the surgery will be done from the back. Are you willing to trust us and cooperate with us? If it is this disease and it is not detected and treated on time, it will cause permanent paralysis.¡± This disease progresses rapidly and the prognosis is poor. Venous congestion can cause irreversible spinal cord edema, followed by extensive arterial embolism. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid, you can make your own decision. Your body is your own, and you don¡¯t need to consider other factors.¡± Yang Ping added, his tone was firm but gentle, and his words were clear. Fang Xiaoyun was an ordinary rural girl. She hadn¡¯t finished junior high school when she was reproached by her mother and sent to work. She had worked as a general laborer in the factory and later, via an introduction, she worked in a foot bath shop doing foot massage. All the money she earned over the years went to support her family. She only bought herself cheap clothes and held onto her Redmi phone for several years, not willing to replace it. But at the crucial moment, this girl had clear ideas. She thought about it and nodded: ¡°Doctor Yang, I¡¯ll do whatever you say. I¡¯ll undergo whatever examination or surgery is necessary. Thank you for your hard work.¡± ¡°As long as you are okay with it, we can start planning immediately. Let me tell you about the details of the surgery-¡± After explaining everything and having her sign the consent form, Yang Ping stood up and the nurse opened the door. He thought it would be a great effort to persuade Fang Xiaoyun, but it turned out to be very easy. This girl was very sensible. Maybe, her decisiveness could save herself. Chapter 275 - 0259: Hybrid Surgery Chapter 275: Chapter 0259: Hybrid Surgery Teng Guihua had wanted to ask a few more questions, but was stopped by Chang Juan. Chang Juan did not want this woman to disturb the doctor¡¯s treatment. Although she was Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mother, this mother had no regard for her daughter in her heart. The daughter was just a tool to be exploited for money. If she could sell her, this mother wouldn¡¯t blink an eye. She¡¯d sell her daughter to get money for the down payment and renovations for her son¡¯s house. ¡°The on-duty doctor in the interventional operating room is busy with a case of spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage that requires interventional embolization and needs to spring clips. I reported to the chief on duty, who is coordinating and calling the standby staff to come over.¡± Song Zimo was contacting the intervention operating room. Spinal vascular angiography required a highly skilled interventionalist to go super-selective for each and every spinal artery, pushing contrast agent and distinguishing them individually. In addition, there was an anterior spinal artery that was originally embolized where a cut was made during the operation to remove the embolization, and then anastomosed again. Once angiographed, the risk of re-embolization increased greatly. ... ¡°What about Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s condition?¡± Professor Zhang rushed to the comprehensive orthopedics office. Yang Ping immediately reported his analysis and arrangements to Professor Zhang who sat down for a break: ¡°I¡¯ve also been pondering it. It looks so much like dural arteriovenous fistula. I¡¯ve encountered a case like this before, but the symptoms didn¡¯t manifest so quickly. That patient had lower back pain, numbness and weakness in the lower limbs, was diagnosed in another hospital as a herniated lumbar disc, and underwent surgery, but the symptoms did not alleviate after the operation, leading to complete paralysis. Later, I considered this disease. After a spinal angiography that took 6 hours, we found the fistula and performed the surgery to treat it, which made the patient regain sensation and muscle strength in lower limbs. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s condition is even more complex; spinal tuberculosis and dural arteriovenous fistula appearing together, causing paralysis at the same time. If true, it¡¯s extremely rare. We need to arrange emergency DSA. If confirmed, immediate surgery is required. The patient will be placed in Intervention¡¯s hybrid operating room.¡± The hybrid operating room is a kind of compound operating room. It is generally a hundred-level laminar flow operating room that integrates DSA equipment with surgical equipment, allowing some complex surgeries to be completed in one operating room, reducing surgical risk, patient movement, and surgery time. ¡°We¡¯ve already arranged it. The doctors on duty in the Intervention department are busy and short-staffed. The chief on duty is coordinating and has called in the backup team,¡± Yang Ping explained. Director Han also rushed over in a hurry: ¡°Yang, I have contacted Director Shi of Intervention. They have arranged for Director Ji to come over. Director Ji has the best skills in Intervention and has performed the most spinal vascular angiographies.¡± Great, at the critical moment, Director Han could coordinate in the middle, create conditions for Yang Ping, and take the risk for him. Although the chief on duty could also coordinate, he wouldn¡¯t be as attentive as Director Han. When Director Han had a chat with Director Shi, they got the idea of what kind of doctor you need, so they immediately called Director Ji over, and didn¡¯t just randomly call a doctor over to deal with it. ¡°Have you communicated with the patient?¡± Director Han asked. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°I just finished communicating and got the signature. The patient herself was easy to communicate with, but her mother seems to be up to no good. She evaded and dodged our questions, she is suspicious of this and suspicious of that.¡± Director Han grunted in approval: ¡°She¡¯s an adult. As long as she agrees, it doesn¡¯t matter about the family members for now. Xiao Zhang, bring me the patient¡¯s case history.¡± Zhang Lin immediately handed over the case history. Director Han flipped through it and signed his name in front of Yang Ping¡¯s on the surgical consent form. ¡°Just follow your plan. I¡¯ll take the responsibility if anything comes up. As doctors, there are always risks. As long as we work for the best interests of the patient and are fully prepared to control the risks, that¡¯s enough. Later, I need to make a phone call to Old Zhao at the Medical Affairs Office for a case backup, as this is one with potential disputes with the family.¡± Director Han handed the case history back to Zhang Lin, and Professor Zhang gestured to also take the case history and add his own name: ¡°Go ahead. This case is quite rare, remember to collect the data.¡± ¡°Little Five, you are responsible for collecting data. Song Zimo, Zhang Lin and I are going to the platform, Fatty will administer the anesthesia.¡± Yang Ping made arrangements on the spot. ¡°The Intervention Department just called to inform us to send the patient. They have sent two doctors and a nurse and have opened a hybrid operating room for our use.¡± Song Zimo informed after taking a phone call. Su Yixuan and Zhou Can rushed to push the surgical instruments and microscope to the interventional operating room. Orthopedic surgeries required a lot of specialized instruments. For spinal surgeries, there was a complete set of spinal surgery instruments. The Intervention Department¡¯s hybrid operating room only had some general instruments and did not have specialized orthopedic instruments. ¡°Let¡¯s go and send the patient!¡± Director Han brooded. Zhang Lin and Little Five quickly transferred Fang Xiaoyun to the interventional operating room using a transfer stretcher. The interventional operating room was located on the second floor of the emergency building where the Chest Pain Center was also located. The stretcher from the Comprehensive Orthopedics Department was newly purchased with inflatable wheels and shock absorbers, which made no large noise or vibration while pushing it. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mother followed behind: ¡°Hey! Hey! Hey! What are you doing¡ª¡± ¡°Would you stop the nonsense!¡± Chang Juan blocked her in fear that she would create trouble and affect the doctors¡¯ work. The transfer route between each building was barrier-free. The stretcher was hastily pushed to the interventional surgery room, and Director Ji, with his assistant and nurse, were already waiting in the operating room. ¡°Professor Zhang! Director Han!¡± Respectfully, Director Ji said his greetings. ¡°Doctor Yang!¡± Director Ji also courteously greeted, ignoring the others. At this point, Yang Ping was also a celebrity in the hospital. Everyone knew about his abilities. Technical skills are highly esteemed in a hospital. If the skills are good, everyone respects them; if the skills aren¡¯t up to par, even if there is a strong support, it¡¯s useless. While no one may say it, people definitely look down upon such individuals. ¡°This patient is suspected of having a dural arteriovenous fistula? The surgery will take a long time as we have to super select each vessel, test it, and there¡¯s also the possibility of failure. I will try my best.¡± Director Ji spoke realistically, but he was very willing to try. Having not encountered such a rare case before, he was naturally excited since he had only heard of it during his advanced studies at Fuwai. Now that he had encountered it clinically, he was naturally thrilled. Professor Zhang encouraged him: ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ve performed DSA on patients with this condition before. You can do it, and I will be here to help you.¡± That¡¯s great. The elder generation of doctors weren¡¯t like now. Back then, it was normal for them to explore some cross skills. Many older doctors could even take X-rays themselves. ¡°A week ago, this patient¡¯s anterior spinal artery at T9 had been embolized. During surgery, a cut was made to remove the embolism and then it was anastomosed again.¡± Yang Ping began explaining, followed by Zhang Lin providing a detailed introduction of the patient. Director Ji said, ¡°You have to strictly control the amount of contrast agent used during surgery, or it may easily result in re-embolism.¡± Once the patient¡¯s condition had been handed over and the bedside talk completed, the young doctors under Director Ji began to get the patients to sign the DSA informed consent and the iodine contrast agent informed consent. Fatty was doing the anesthesia, endotracheal intubation for general anesthesia. Fatty¡¯s anesthesia was quick and effective. He was so efficient that people were still talking on this side when anesthesia was already done on the other side, and they could start the surgical preparation. Director Ji greatly admired this young team, with their excellent professional qualities. This anesthesiologist, Fatty, was much better than his own anesthesiologist, who was always worrying about this and that. ¡°We¡¯ll go first, carrying out the DSA of the spinal arteries. We¡¯ll be using a femoral artery puncture and investigating one by one by one. This will probably take a good five to six hours. Why don¡¯t you guys go and rest a bit in the meantime?¡± Director Ji, his assistant, and the nurse all put on their lead coats. Every person started looking for their own lead coat to put on. Professor Zhang also needed a lead coat. The lead coat was not breathable and very heavy, weighing several tens of kilograms. Wearing it for several hours on an eighty-year-old person can be quite uncomfortable. ¡°We are now using the supine position to do the DSA, when we find the fistula, we then switch to the prone position for you to perform surgery, is that okay?¡± Director Ji came back after scrubbing his hands, disinfected the operating area, and put on his gown and gloves. ¡°You have worked hard, Director Ji!¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, we are all doctors. This kind of thing happens all the time. Today is my wife¡¯s birthday, I promised her I would have dinner with her, but just as we sat down, I got a phone call. There¡¯s no way around it, after all, we are doctors.¡± Could they replace him? Well, not really. With this type of case, you need a skilled doctor to have a high success rate. Director Ji is in his forties, his hair is grizzled, and he is lean. He is one of the leading directors of his department. The Interventional department is divided into several areas: the Neurointervention group, the Cardiovascular Intervention group, and the Tumor Intervention group. Old Ji belongs to the Cardiovascular Intervention group, which is an important part of the Chest Pain Center. Old Ji came from the cardiovascular department. After getting married and having a child, he began to deal with interventions. Generally, those who work in interventions are frequently exposed to X-rays. Those without a spouse or child are unwilling to pursue this field, and hospitals typically do not select unmarried hopefulls. With skillful movements, Old Ji punctured the femoral artery and inserted the guide wire and catheter. The first spinal intervertebral artery was successfully catheterized. You can only investigate one by one. If you use too much contrast medium, it doesn¡¯t work. If you use too little, it also doesn¡¯t work. The dosage must be accurately controlled and the catheterization technique must be gentle and precise. ¡°Push the contrast agent, Omnipaque!¡± Omnipaque is a non-ionic iodine contrast agent. It is a safe intrathecal contrast agent. For the angiography of spinal arteries, you must select contrast agents that can enter the spinal canal. ¡°Fine, that¡¯s enough. You want less, right? Old Zhang?¡± Old Ji asked Professor Zhang. ¡°Yes, if there¡¯s too much it could cause embolism.¡± Professor Zhang was knowledgeable and experienced in all aspects. ¡°Yes! When I was being trained at Fuwai, a fellow trainee said that their hospital had a case of spinal artery angiography, which led to spinal artery embolism and caused spinal cord supply obstruction. The spinal cord was ischemically necrosed and the person was paralyzed. They have had a lawsuit going for many years, so it¡¯s better to use less for high-risk factors.¡± But if you use too little it won¡¯t fulfill its function as a contrast agent. So mastering the right quantity requires a lot of experience. ¡°No, let¡¯s move on to the next one!¡± There are twenty-four intercostal arteries alone. This was only the beginning, one artery would not be conclusive within ten minutes or so. ¡°Professor Zhang, why don¡¯t you go rest for a bit? I can handle it here.¡± Director Han was worried he couldn¡¯t handle this, all-nighter, and on top of that such a heavy lead coat. Professor Zhang waved his hand: ¡°It¡¯s okay, I have experience with this type of case, and I have also done this kind of DSA, I can provide them with some suggestions. You guys go ahead and take a break outside, these young guys will need to be ready for surgery later.¡± Professor Zhang¡¯s tone was stern, like a command. He was doing this to protect the young people. After all, they hadn¡¯t gotten married or had children yet, he wanted to limit their X-ray exposure as much as possible. ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯ll stay inside, I want to see the angiography situation.¡± Yang Ping had also put on a lead coat, everyone was wearing a lead coat. Professor Zhang lost his temper: ¡°Why aren¡¯t you listening? When I say go, you go. Why are so many people crowding around watching?¡± Director Han immediately ordered Yang Ping: ¡°Only the professor and I need to stay here, everyone else out! Did you hear that?¡± Even wearing a lead coat couldn¡¯t entirely protect them during five-six hours of X-ray exposure. They also had surgery later on, and orthopedics doctors are often dealing with X-rays. Unnecessary exposure should be avoided as much as possible. Alright then, Yang Ping led everyone out to the changing room to rest. They could lean against something and nap for a while. If Director Ji found the fistula, he would call everyone back in. Chapter 276 - 0260: Found it Chapter 276: Chapter 0260: Found it The heavy radiation door was firmly shut, with Director Ji strenuously at work inside, the expected duration being around six hours. Despite such intense struggle, there was still the possibility of futile effort without any findings at all. The human body is complex and mysterious. Modern medicine, be it basic or clinical medicine, is still far from advanced. You can even say that it¡¯s just getting started. Many diseases are listed in textbooks as ¡®mechanism unknown¡¯, ¡®symptomatic treatment¡¯ or ¡®no specific drugs available¡¯, etc. Yang Ping decided to check the system space for any available interventional surgery training while he had downtime. There was none at the moment, only orthopedic training focused primarily on bone tumors, with correctional training up next. Only by completing the advanced training of trauma, orthopedics, and corrective surgeries would other types of surgical training be available, such as interventional or robotic surgeries, and so on. ... Yang Ping picked some thoracoscope, laparoscope, and foraminal endoscope training inside the system. Many orthopedic surgeries involve the spine, for which these endoscopic techniques are required. Technique is similar to the hoops of a barrel; it requires a steady hand, built up piece by piece. ¡°What if we find nothing after putting up such a struggle?¡± Zhang Lin asked worriedly. Little Five was also worried: ¡°I think Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mother is likely to cause trouble. Being a doctor isn¡¯t easy, not only dealing with these complex diseases but also coping with the wicked hearts of people.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because our senior brother is so daring and skillful. If it were anyone else, who would dare to take risks in such a situation?¡± ¡°Zhang Lin, are you planning to have a child? I could cover for you during the surgery later, and you can simply take pictures.¡± ¡°No worries, I don¡¯t dare to have a child in the next two or three years. At least not until I¡¯m promoted to Attending Physician.¡± Yang Ping was resting his eyes, while Song Zimo pondered over the disease ¨C dural arteriovenous fistula, such a rare condition. Just being able to diagnose it in a patient is impressive, and now, it was discovered by Yang Ping despite being camouflaged by spinal tuberculosis. Such diagnostic capabilities are incredible. Time drags on so painfully, especially not knowing the outcome and how long the wait could be. The wait is agonizing. ¡°Brother Five, shall we go out for a smoke?¡± Zhang Lin suggested. Zhang Lin didn¡¯t actually smoke when he first started working. But working late-night shifts, sometimes performing emergency surgeries all night long, the pull to smoke was too strong ¨C just as a way to stay alert and relieve fatigue. ¡°Just one smoke, just one.¡± Little Five intended to quit smoking as he was about to become a father. He was afraid the little one would be repulsed by the smell of smoke. There was no smoking area in the Interventional Surgery Room, and it wasn¡¯t appropriate for them to go searching for one in their scrub suits either. So they sneaked into the washroom and turned on the exhaust fan. The digital clock on the wall displayed that it was past 22:00. There was still no good news from inside. Even if they found the fistula within six hours, they would still need to perform surgery afterward, under a microscope. Staying up all night was rather tough on one¡¯s health. Yet, this was something they simply had to endure. It was said that the training for Resident Physicians in the United States is extremely brutal, going on nonstop, day and night. Many residents were weeded out simply because of physical exhaustion, which some speculated was on purpose. To weed out those with weak constitutions. A good doctor must possess a strong physique and be able to endure sleep deprivation, resist the urge to urinate, and tolerate hunger. Little Five and Zhang Lin felt much better after a cigarette. They occasionally went to check on the surgical room¡¯s door, but it remained closed. ¡°Why don¡¯t you go in and see if they¡¯ve found anything?¡± Song Zimo suggested to Zhang Lin. ¡°Hold on, everyone should rest for a while. We still need to perform surgery later. With Director Ji¡¯s skills, he should be able to locate the fistula. Professor Zhang with his vast experience is there too.¡± Yang Ping squinted his eyes. Coming out from the system space, he felt a lot more energized. He suspected that the air inside the system space had some special effect that enhanced one¡¯s energy level. It was past midnight, yet there was still no development. Zhang Lin and Little Five, like two restless monkeys, couldn¡¯t stay still. They weren¡¯t able to sit and rest. They were always pacing around. ¡°I can¡¯t stand it anymore; I need to see what¡¯s happening inside there.¡± Zhang Lin was getting restless. Little Five pulled him back: ¡°I¡¯ll go in instead. You wait here.¡± Little Five picked up a lead apron from the rack and put it on. He went in and returned roughly ten minutes later: ¡°They still haven¡¯t found it!¡± They still haven¡¯t found it even after six hours? Was their effort akin to carrying water in a bamboo basket, yielding nothing in the end? If they truly couldn¡¯t find it, it would be alright if the patient understood the situation. But if they didn¡¯t, it could lead to impatience, anxiety over a night spent in vain, and additional expenses with no results at the end. Thus, for some cases, whether the patient understands and cooperates could lead to very different outcomes. If they understand and cooperate, the doctors would dare to take risks and strive for the best. If they don¡¯t, the doctors essentially wouldn¡¯t have the nerve to put in their best effort. How could there be the best outcome without striving and fighting for it? ¡°This is nerve-wracking!¡± Zhang Lin slapped his forehead in exasperation. Little Five consoled him: ¡°Stay calm. How about we go for another smoke?¡± Around one o¡¯clock near dawn, the heavy lead door finally opened. ¡°They¡¯ve found it!¡± The nurse who opened the door excitedly shouted. It was like a midwife in a maternity ward opening the door and shouting to the anxious father-to-be waiting outside, ¡°It¡¯s a boy (or girl)!¡± Everyone stood up like springs ¨C they found it! ¡°Interconnecting venous fistulas have been found in the 8-9 left intercostal area. Here, it¡¯s clear that there¡¯s an abnormal coiling and thickening of the perimedullary veins. Can we go for surgery?¡± Director Ji asked with a voice choking with excitement. Indeed, it was a Dural Arteriovenous Fistulas ¨C the probability of finding it was like being struck by lightning, and it happened to Fang Xiaoyun. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s case consisted of two overlapping conditions, the chance of this happening was equal to being struck by lightning twice! ¡°She will be placed in a prone position; don¡¯t remove the catheter. Just in case we can¡¯t locate the fistula during surgery, we may need Director Ji to help with injecting Merlan into the catheter.¡± Yang Ping suggested Director Ji take a breather. Looking at the time, they had been at this for over six hours, exploring twenty-four blood vessels. Director Ji was drenched in sweat under his lead vestment but dared not remove it. Yang Ping was still to perform surgery, during which he would likely need help injecting Merlan into the catheter to locate the fistula. Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Zhang Lin, and Su Yixuan scrubbed up and took their positions on the stage. ¡°Director Ji, why don¡¯t you take a little rest?¡± Yang Ping politely suggested. ¡°No need, I¡¯ll just sit right here.¡± A nurse brought a stool, and Director Ji sat down to rest. Yang Ping was famously quick and skilled in his surgeries at the hospital. If Director Ji removed his surgical gown now, he¡¯d only need to put it on again very soon ¨C not worth the hassle. ¡°Xiao Zeng, please make a call to my wife. The mobile is on the table over there.¡± Director Ji felt a slight pang of guilt for blowing his dinner date with his wife and leaving her alone while he was in the operating room. He wanted to call and share the good news ¨C he had encountered a rare case, with only three hundred similar ones worldwide. He successfully located the fistula. This was the thrill of being a doctor. This would make for a great story to boast about in his old age. What else would he brag about? Of course, he would boast about these cases, about how rare and unique they were, with only three hundred found worldwide. And he had a hand in one of these cases ¨C this was one three-hundredth of the world¡¯s cases ¨C what a concept! Given that it was one in the morning, Nurse Xiao Zeng hesitated, ¡°Should I call your wife at this hour?¡± ¡°Yes! She¡¯s still awake. Tell her to go to bed early and not wait up for me. I won¡¯t be back anytime soon. Come here, I¡¯ll tell you the passcode for my phone.¡± The nurse reluctantly helped to make the call: ¡°Hello, sister-in-law, Director Ji can¡¯t make it home just yet. Yes, he¡¯s with me tonight. No, what I mean is, he¡¯s in my company tonight. No, sister-in-law, what I mean is...¡± Staying up all night had muddled everyone¡¯s brain, making it difficult to articulate clearly. She had to correct herself several times before she could get her point across. Telling her sister-in-law at this hour that ¡®he¡¯s with me,¡¯ almost spilled the beans. Luckily, Director Ji¡¯s wife was accustomed to his schedule, otherwise the situation could have spiraled out of control. After ending the call, the surprised nurse told Director Ji, ¡°Your wife is outside the operating room?¡± ¡°Director Ji, is this a surprise inspection?¡± ¡°What inspection? I haven¡¯t had dinner yet. She¡¯s here to deliver my meal. Ask her to wait a while. We¡¯ll talk after the surgery.¡± Who bothers to show off their affection now? Indeed, everyone had forgotten about their meals. Xiao Su had ordered a pile of takeaway food and everyone was hungry. ¡°I was fine until you mentioned food. Now my stomach won¡¯t stop rumbling!¡± Zhang Lin swallowed hard. ¡°Hang in there, brother, you¡¯re not the only one starving!¡± Little Five heard the loud rumbling. Using a dorsal entry, Yang Ping performed a similar procedure to a cervical ¡°open door¡± technique to avoid damaging the vertebral stability. He cut three edges of the lamina to form a rectangle, leaving one edge intact to protect the periosteum. Then, just like opening a door, he lifted it up. After the surgery, the lamina could be closed to prevent instability due to destruction of the posterior pillar. This technique required very delicate execution and could easily fail if not done correctly. When he opened the lamina, the vein did seem thick and coiled; however, patients with spinal tuberculosis would not usually undergo DSA angiography, so detecting this kind of vascular malformation on MRI was almost improbable. This was not an issue of competence, but a limitation of the imaging technique itself, much like how a black-and-white photo can¡¯t show colors. The entrance to the fistula was located within this cluster of veins; it was like trying to find a point in a plane within a length of vessels. You could go vein-by-vein and possibly find it, but this would consume time and still wouldn¡¯t confirm if there was actually a fistula. Yang Ping paused, ¡°Director Ji, could you help us by injecting Merlan into that arteriovenous fistula?¡± The catheter inserted from the femoral artery had not been removed. Director Ji stepped onto the platform to help with the injection, ¡°I will start the injection now!¡± Merlan proceeded down the catheter and soon a spot in the venous plexus turned blue. The spot slowly enlarged, and Yang Ping located the point. There was only one fistula and its diameter was about three millimeters. A microscope was required to separate the artery and vein, followed by suturing the puncture. ¡°Good, that¡¯s it, Director Ji. We¡¯ve found it. The catheter will remain in place for post-operative confirmation with an angiogram.¡± ¡°The microscope!¡± Zhou Can pushed the microscope, already covered in a sterile cover, to the operating area. Yang Ping adjusted the focus and interpupillary distance himself and began to separate the blood vessels under the microscope and repair the fistula. ¡°A tiny fistula can have such a great impact on the human body? To cause paralysis, it seems that human evolution has some way to go yet. The margin of error in our ¡®parts¡¯ is too high.¡± Zhang Lin was amazed at the small fistula, a mere 3mm hole in a blood vessel. Normally, the artery is distinct from the vein like bridges and roads being separate entities, each with their own circulation system. The proximal ends connect at the heart, and the distal ends merge at the capillaries; otherwise, the two systems are isolated from each other. Now a path ¨C a fistula ¨C has formed between them. It¡¯s like a highway, where the lanes for incoming and outgoing traffic are separated by a divider. If there¡¯s a gap in the divider, incoming and outgoing traffic merge, causing chaos. The same holds for humans. The appearance of a fistula allows arterial blood to flow into the veins and vice versa. Consequently, the oxygenated arterial blood is mixed with the deoxygenated venous blood, reducing the oxygen content, and the veins¡¯ return pressure increases due to connection to the arteries, leading to congestion. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s spinal edema could not be relieved and even worsened due to venous congestion. Unlike the usual postoperative trajectory for spinal edema, which follows a parabolic trajectory, this one kept climbing and plateaued. An abscess from spinal tuberculosis that pressurizes the spinal cord can lead to spinal edema and paralysis. A dural arteriovenous fistula that causes venous congestion can also lead to spinal edema and paralysis. With both diseases intertwining and one hiding the other, the diagnosis naturally became more complicated. After the surgery was completed, the surgical site was thoroughly irrigated and a drainage tube was put in place. Chapter 277 - 0261: Medical Disturbance Chapter 277: Chapter 0261: Medical Disturbance ¡°Director Ji, could you trouble yourself, once again, to perform another angiography for us? It¡¯s embarrassing to keep Ms. Han waiting outside on your behalf.¡± Doctor Yang was eternally polite, which adequately reflected the respect a young doctor should have for his superiors. Director Ji felt very comfortable. Interpersonal interactions hinge on comfort. This young man was admirable. He was humble and polite, and did not display any arrogance despite his talent. Director Ji was barely seated before he was asked to perform another angiography. His back was aching a bit because of a disc herniation diagnosed years ago. ¡°No problem, this is not the first time I have had to wait.¡± Old Ji twisted his waist. In his haste, he had forgotten his waist support. He usually kept it in the locker room and would wear it during surgery to protect his lumbar spine. ... ¡°We need another Omnipaque!¡± Nurse Xiao Zeng was skillful and quickly prepared everything. Just as the surgical assistant was about to administer the medicine, Old Ji stopped him. I will do it! He carefully injected the iodinated contrast agent into the catheter. Gradually, the faded ink vasculature on the screen began to darken again. The intercostal artery between thoracic vertebrae 8 and 9 turned the color of ink. As the ink flowed, it went smoothly through all vessels at the fistula site without leaking out. ¡°The fistula is gone, Doctor Yang!¡± Director Ji stopped administering the drug as soon as the desired result was achieved. Doctor Yang, with his hands in his protective pouch, stared at the screen: ¡°Job¡¯s done!¡± ¡°When can I have you look at my back? It used to only be back pain, but now the left side of my buttock often feels numb.¡± After accomplishing the final angiography, Director Ji was finally allowed to take off his lead gown. Anyone not up on the stage also began to undress. Everyone¡¯s surgical gowns were drenched in sweat, especially Professor Zhang¡¯s, which looked as if it had just been pulled out of water. An 80-year-old man, wearing a tens-of-pounds heavy lead gown, stood for six to seven hours overnight. Anyone would feel sympathetic. Several times during the procedure, Director Han worried that the old man couldn¡¯t bear it and advised him to go rest, promising to report back after the operation. However, he firmly declined, insisting on staying until the surgery was over for peace of mind. The surgery ended at two o¡¯clock in the morning. This truly was a case of intradural arteriovenous fistula. The case had hidden itself quite well. Professor Zhang understood that even prior to his reminder, Doctor Yang had already taken action. This suggested that he had long considered this rare disease, making his diligence and meticulousness invaluable. ¡°Xiao Yang, great job! Everyone did great!¡± said Professor Zhang, emanating a fatherly warmth. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. You were up all night; our efforts cannot compare to that.¡± Doctor Yang helped Professor Zhang sit down against the wall, but the old man¡¯s legs were stiff, and he couldn¡¯t take a step forward. After a few minutes, he finally managed to take a step. ¡°I¡¯m going out for a while. You guys handle the patient return, and we¡¯ll clean up here.¡± Director Ji¡¯s wife was waiting outside. After bidding farewell to Director Han, he rushed out, looking as if he had been drenched in rain. ¡°Xiao Li, you stay and help clean up the operating room. Everyone else can go back.¡± Director Han left a standardized training student, Xiao Li, behind. After anesthesia revived, they all escorted the patient back to Orthopedics. The nurses had already prepared the bed. ¡°Put her in the emergency ward. I will assign three nurses on three shifts to watch over Fang Xiaoyun until her leg strength recovers.¡± Cai Qiaojun had rushed over from home after hearing that Director Han and Professor Zhang were both performing an overnight operation. She personally arranged the nursing work. In the ward, a few rooms nearest to the nurse station were called emergency wards. They generally housed critical patients to ensure that nurses could respond immediately in case of emergencies. Suspicions were necessary to prevent any harm. Cai Qiaojun was an experienced nurse and gave a private order to the nurses on duty to pay particular attention to Fang Xiaoyuan¡¯s mom. Human hearts are deep and unfathomable. Being cautious is prudent, and Cai Qiaojun had encountered such incidents before. Some family members would, in the nurse¡¯s momentary inattention, secretly pull out the oxygen tube. If the nurse hadn¡¯t noticed in time, the patient would have been long gone. Doctor Yang observed the heart rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen displayed on the cardiac monitor for a while, then checked the urine output. Confident there was no problem, he left the ward and asked Zhang Lin to rush a set of blood tests. Everyone had been starved to the point where their stomachs were literally tied in knots. The three ladies, Xiao Su, Zhou Can, and Tang Fei, heated up the food in the microwave and brought it to the dining room. Everyone wolfed down their portion, not caring about the taste, stuffing everything into their mouths. After eating, everyone was exhausted. Their eyelids were dropping, their legs were heavy. They managed, with one foot dragging after the other, to get to the duty room. Yang Ping and Song Zimo took a quick shower, while Zhang Lin, Little Five and a few standardized training students went to bed and fell into deep sleep right away. After four hours of sleep, everyone woke up rubbing their eyes. A new day had begun, filled with shift change, ward rounds and surgeries. During the morning round, Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mother was missing. Strange. Her daughter just had surgery and needed care. Why would she sneak off? Was she afraid of being asked for money? Fang Xiaoyun was being taken care of by her co-worker Chang Juan. She asked the doctor if she could feed her some hot porridge. Fatty confidently replied: ¡°Yes, try feeding her a little first. If she doesn¡¯t vomit, you can feed her more.¡± Generally, patients should fast for six hours after general anesthesia, but Fatty had become adept at controlling the dose of anesthesia. Using the smallest dose to achieve the aim, most of his patients didn¡¯t need to fast for that long after surgery. Once the root cause of the problem was identified and solved, the effect was immediately visible. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s lower limbs found it much easier to move on the bed, and she could even try to lift them, but she still couldn¡¯t lift them up yet. This rare and complicated case was finally resolved through everyone¡¯s efforts, but they shouldn¡¯t let their guard down. Some patients¡¯ muscle strength only recovers to level three or four and then stops, which isn¡¯t uncommon. For example, level four muscle strength is only one level below normal. Although it¡¯s not complete paralysis, it¡¯s not enough to walk normally. Recovery to level five is the goal. There were several surgeries in the morning, including quite a few arthroscopic ones. The reputation of arthroscopic surgery was spreading, bringing in many patients. Sisi¡¯s dad¡¯s ankle fracture had also subsided, so surgery was scheduled. The surgeries were easy. After they were done, everyone continued to sleep after lunch, waking up groggily in the afternoon, not even knowing whether it was daytime or nighttime. Su Nanchen sent a WeChat message, saying he had sent some material to Yang Ping¡¯s QQ mailbox for him to check out when he had time. It was on a multi-ligament knee injury on a basketball player in the United States, a patient of Professor Robert. The Professor used joint dynamic analysis to obtain a lot of data on the patient¡¯s knee joint, even using this data to build a virtual knee joint. Even so, he did not dare to rush into surgery, as the surgery was too complex. Once failed, there would be no chance for rework and the patient would lose their last hope. Yang Ping has done many similar cases, one of which was done at attached Hospital One. Su Nanchen sent the details of this patient to Professor Robert. The professor couldn¡¯t believe it was true and wanted to see in person the patient¡¯s postoperative recovery, as well as the recovery of other knee multi-ligament injury patients treated by Yang Ping. Professor Robert, or more accurately, Little Robert, is the head of the Sports Medicine Department at the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States. He is a master of international sports medicine. Both his father and grandfather were professors at the same hospital. His grandfather once participated in the development of modern artificial hip joints in the United States, while his father was a major promoter of arthroscopic surgery in the United States. Professor Robert was eager to visit Sanbo Hospital, meet Yang Ping, and see his patients firsthand to observe the effects of the surgeries. Without thinking too much about it, Yang Ping agreed. Exchange is a good thing. Science requires exchange. Openness promotes progress, while closure leads to lagging behind. On the second day after surgery, Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s muscle strength saw improvement to level three. On the third day, it improved to level four; her recovery was surprisingly fast. The spinal tuberculosis was no longer affecting her spinal cord after decompression. Subsequently, the dural arteriovenous fistula became the main issue. Once resolved, the venous congestion disappeared and the oedema of her spinal cord subsided rapidly. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mother had yet to show up and she hadn¡¯t asked about her daughter for three days. ¡°Trouble¡¯s brewing!¡± The standardized training student, Xiao Li, ran into the doctor¡¯s office in a panic. ¡°Stay calm, what are you shouting about? What¡¯s going on?¡± Zhang Lin reprimanded. ¡°Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mom has brought people to create a scene at the administration building. They¡¯re holding up banners, crying and shouting!¡± Xiao Li hurriedly closed the door to the doctor¡¯s office as he said this. ¡°Damn it, I knew she was going to cause trouble. I could tell by the look on her face.¡± Zhang Lin cursed. ¡°Does Fang Xiaoyun know about this?¡± Little Five asked worriedly. ¡°There¡¯s no way she knows. She was thanking us during the ward round this morning,¡± said Song Zimo. Everyone could tell that Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s mother was going to cause trouble sooner or later. But they thought, since Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s recovery was going so well, there wouldn¡¯t be a reason for her to cause trouble. Some incidents, however, simply defy logic. Chapter 278 - 0262: The King of Comedy Chapter 278: Chapter 0262: The King of Comedy ¡°Cry louder, bang your head on the ground, make your forehead bleed, create the effect!¡± ¡°Remember, I¡¯m the patient¡¯s uncle, we¡¯re all relatives.¡± ¡°Why haven¡¯t you taken off your rings, bracelets, and necklaces, as I told you?¡± The middle-aged man, nicknamed Hippo, is directing everyone. He has been doing this job for many years, and has accumulated a lot of experience. The overall environment hasn¡¯t been good in recent years. Hippo won¡¯t take on just any case. For cases like Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s, after Teng Guihua¡¯s introduction, he knows well that any uproar about a spinal surgery, which was fine before but cause paralysis afterwards, will surely succeed. Moreover, such paralysis is eighty percent incurable. Even if she could recover by good luck, it would be several months later. Hippo has been doing this for a long time, and has come to understand his trade. After asking several villages, Teng Guihua finally found him. ... He thought back to the old days, when he never fought empty-handedly, but unfortunately he didn¡¯t work for himself back then, just tagging along, reaping some benefits. Later, Hippo came to his senses and pulled together a team thinking to do big things. The times had changed, the overall environment was getting worse. But no matter how hard it got, they could always make a living. ¡°The reporters, have the reporters arrived yet?¡± Hippo glanced at the crowd and saw that several reporters had arrived. The operation of this business also has a set routine. It¡¯s not enough for individuals to fight alone. They need the cooperation of multiple industry teams, such as the essential media. How to make a fuss, how to negotiate, how much compensation to demand, followed by how to bargain, there are approaches for all these. Everyone does their part, and in the end, everyone is happy when the money is divided. ¡°Make some noise, create a momentum, and don¡¯t panic when the security guards come out, they dare not hit anyone.¡± Hippo¡¯s assistant Monkey instructs everyone in a low voice. ¡°Did you bring joss paper? Burn it!¡± Hippo asked Teng Guihua¡¯s husband. Several members of Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s family came, including her parents, younger brother, and even her cousin and cousin¡¯s wife. ¡°The patient is still alive, right?¡± Monkey gently reminded. ¡°Oh, forget it, then cry miserably and roll on the ground. This isn¡¯t tragic enough!¡± Hippo felt that the atmosphere was not intense enough. ¡°Ah¨C my poor daughter¨C¡± Teng Guihua, quite gifted, suddenly understood and began to wail. Her sorrowful cries were filled with rich expressiveness, steadily escalating. This voice, not singing folk songs or showing off on TV talent shows, is a waste. It was all right. Hippo was very satisfied. The effect had been achieved. ¡°Brother, we¡¯re not familiar with this area, will it work?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the same everywhere, what¡¯s there to be afraid of!¡± Monkey was a little timid, but Hippo encouraged him. The watching crowd was growing, and Teng Guihua was crying and shouting with a singing tone. It was very infectious. Every single person empathized with her, and some could not hold back their tears. Oh, this poor family! ¡°Boss, tell her to hit harder on the ground!¡± Hippo felt that the force was not enough. Monkey was still timid, ¡°Bro, it¡¯s enough. If she hits harder and causes cerebral hemorrhage, who will we ask for money?¡± Well, Teng Guihua is their client. If something happened to her, the whole thing would be ruined. ¡°When their leaders show up, don¡¯t mess around. I will represent us in the negotiation. No one else should speak out. The more you talk, the more likely you¡¯ll make a mistake. Be careful about that.¡± ¡°Rest assured!¡± Hippo instructed Monkey. As a partnership over many years, they had good coordination. The crowd of spectators was growing, and security was also mobilized. ¡ª- Nonsense! Complete nonsense! As soon as Director Zhao arrived at work and heard the security department¡¯s report, he immediately came down from his office to understand the situation. The doctors had performed a life-saving surgery overnight. This was a banner-bearing case. He didn¡¯t expect the family to make trouble. However, Director Zhao was not in a hurry. The patient was recovering very well, so he was confident. In such cases, the surgery was successful, and the patient was satisfied. If the relatives made a fuss, it wouldn¡¯t help. Even wars need a reason to start. Director Zhao urgently reported the situation to Dean Xia. Slapping his hand on the table, Dean Xia said: ¡°It¡¯s nonsense. Let the security guards disperse the troublemakers, tear up the banners, and call the police!¡± Dean Xia hated this kind of thing the most. He was famous for dealing harshly with such misconduct. He wouldn¡¯t pay a penny without going through court! That was his principle. He almost lost his position as dean over this issue once before. But thanks to the protection of the old leaders, he was safe in the end. As the dean, he had done nothing wrong over the years. Once a person has a clear conscience, he acts with righteousness and without hesitation. All kinds of evil forces had to step aside. The security department¡¯s emergency team set out, holding shields to separate the troublemakers. One security guard explained the situation with a loudspeaker, while other security guards started to take down the banners and asked people to disperse. ¡°My daughter was fine. She walked in here just with a backache. After the surgery, she has become paralyzed. She¡¯s in her twenties and she¡¯ll have to sit in wheelchair for the rest of her life. You judge...¡± Teng Guihua¡¯s acting was very good. She had removed her jewellery and didn¡¯t have any makeup. She played the part of a miserable rural woman perfectly. Everyone present was moved and spoke up for her. Although tough measures were needed, dialogue was essential. After the crowd was dispersed and the banners were torn up, the next step was to communicate with the patient¡¯s family and understand their demands. Director Zhao represented the hospital, and Hippo represented Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s family. They went to the reserved negotiation room in the administration building and started the negotiation. Director Zhao had been the head of the medical department for many years. There¡¯s nothing he hadn¡¯t seen. He didn¡¯t take this little fuss seriously. Although Hippo¡¯s main market was his hometown, he had also been in the industry for over a decade and was a senior operator in the medical dispute industry. They were both cunning foxes with a thousand years of experience. No one could play tricks on each other. No more nonsense, let the negotiation begin! Teng Guihua was moved and about to lose her temper, but was stopped by the Monkey pulling her sleeve, signaling her to be at ease and not to ruin the bigger picture. Six hundred thousand? Compensation! It¡¯s calculated, Teng Guihua¡¯s family demanded three hundred thousand, not a penny less. Anything more in the negotiation would all go to Hippo. Hippo knows, if the asking price is too high, the other party will not agree, but several hundred thousand seems hopeful. Six hundred thousand, with a space to negotiate down to ten thousand, if finally closed at five hundred thousand, he would earn two hundred thousand, distribute one hundred thousand to everyone, keeping one hundred thousand for himself. Asking for more is unrealistic, so this is how they planned the negotiation. Such a big hospital, affording five hundred thousand should not be a problem; Hippo full of enthusiasm, had to assess the hospital strength as well. ¡°The person was made paralyzed. It¡¯s not easy for them to raise a daughter. Give some compensation, and everyone can move on peacefully. No compensation? We will keep coming every day, and you might as well kiss your official hats goodbye!¡± Hippo was quick with his words, grinding his teeth. ¡°Just this? You must be the patient¡¯s uncle, right? Do you have any other demands?¡± Director Zhao asked calmly. Hippo was surprised. It¡¯s too straightforward. It¡¯s indeed G City: rich and caring nothing for few hundred thousand. ¡°Nothing more. We are all straightforward folks here, we¡¯re not asking for an excessive amount, just reasonable compensation for a few hundred thousand. As a big hospital, I believe you wouldn¡¯t let this small amount of money damage your reputation.¡± Hippo was cunning. ¡°Father Fang, Mother Fang, you both have been quiet, what about you?¡± Director Zhao asked Teng Guihua and her husband. Teng Guihua wanted to speak but didn¡¯t dare to. Hippo gave her a reassuring look, agreeing with her, Teng Guihua paused and rubbed her tear-swollen eyes: ¡°Raising a daughter is indeed not easy for us, she is the pillar of our family, she could earn thousands, sometimes even up to ten thousand a month. Now she is paralyzed because of the surgery you performed on her, isn¡¯t asking for a few hundred thousand not that expensive?¡± ¡°It sounds fair! This amount is not high, should I do a cash payment or bank transfer?¡± Old Zhao replied in all seriousness. The more Hippo heard, the more confused he became. Is this true or fake? He¡¯d never met someone so forthcoming, for some reason he couldn¡¯t find his words. ¡°Let¡¯s do this. Since you¡¯re all here, let¡¯s go and meet the patient Fang Xiaoyun, you guys are making all this commotion without even seeing the patient, isn¡¯t this unprofessional? It¡¯s easy to mistake if you are exploiting the patient¡¯s situation to blackmail the hospital for money, isn¡¯t it?¡± Old Zhao was speaking as casually as if he was chatting with an old friend, in a friendly manner. ¡°Especially, Father and Mother Fang, you¡¯ve come from your hometown, about a thousand kilometers away. Wouldn¡¯t it be better if you first see your daughter? We can negotiate the money later, ok?¡± Director Zhao proposed. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s parents didn¡¯t have a plan, they turned to Hippo for his opinion, Hippo cleared his throat: ¡°That sounds like a good idea, let¡¯s go see Fang Xiaoyun together!¡± Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s younger brother had been sitting next to them, playing with his phone all this time. The aunts and uncles wanted to interject a few times but were stopped by the Monkey. ¡ª- When Fang Xiaoyun heard her family was causing trouble, she became extremely anxious. She hasn¡¯t had a chance to show her gratitude to the doctors, why would she stir things up? The muscle strength in her lower limbs had recovered to grade four. She could barely stand and walk but was still weak. In addition, having not walked for more than ten days, naturally, her movement was limited. Chang Juan was about to take her downstairs in a wheelchair to stop her family¡¯s disturbance, when suddenly, the door opened and a throng of people poured in, filming and taking pictures. ¡°Dad, Mom! Lil¡¯ brother!¡± Fang Xiaoyun was surprised, her whole family was there. She hadn¡¯t seen her loved ones for so long and felt a familiar warmth, especially her little brother who she used to carry on her back as a child while farming. ¡°Xiaoyun, don¡¯t be scared, we came here to fight for justice for you.¡± Teng Guihua exclaimed loudly. Justice, what justice, Fang Xiaoyun was utterly perplexed. She was doing just fine, why were they creating a commotion? ¡°Look everyone, this is my daughter Fang Xiaoyun, whose child isn¡¯t cherished by their parents? She came in with a simple backache, everyone experiences a backache, right? The hospital deceived her into doing a surgery, left her paralyzed afterward, even dragged her into an abrupt surgery a few nights ago, look at her now, she has to sit in a wheelchair. Can everyone weigh in on this? Where¡¯s the justice?¡± Teng Guihua was emotional, her voice breaking. Seeing the young girl sitting in a wheelchair, in her twenties, skinny, like bean sprouts, she looked malnourished and pitiful. This is a real story. It¡¯s not about being unreasonable. The person is indeed sitting in a wheelchair. This fact was irrefutable. Those who followed her were people from Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s hometown, reporters called by Hippo and curious patients. Fang Xiaoyun was disoriented, but hearing her mom speak so passionately, even if it was a misunderstanding, it provided warmth and comfort. Father, mother, and little brother traveled a long way to create a commotion due to a misunderstanding. They thought she was paralyzed. Even if her family had been harsh on her normally, they seemed to genuinely care, she meant something to them. Everyone is human after all, drifting alone in this world can be lonely. The sudden appearance of relatives brought her an unexpected warmth. Seeing them making such a fuss on her behalf, she was unexpectedly touched. Not to worry her family, or to clear up the misunderstanding, Fang Xiaoyun got up from the wheelchair and took a few steps. Now her muscle strength had reached level four, she could stand and walk just slowly. ¡°I¡¯m okay, I¡¯ve healed. We need to thank the doctors who performed the surgery on me overnight!¡± Fang Xiaoyun clarified. ¡°You ¡ª?¡± Teng Guihua was suddenly stunned, looking extremely disappointed: ¡°You¡¯re not paralyzed? Why aren¡¯t you paralyzed?¡± ¡°Yeah, didn¡¯t you say you were paralyzed?¡± Dad felt deceived, blaming Mom. It seemed that only if she was paralyzed would it be better, it was as if... the whole family was counting on her paralysis. All of a sudden, Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s heart felt like it was stabbed by a needle. It was very painful, incredibly painful! She¡¯d never felt this way, even when she was pressed for money. It was a false alarm, she wasn¡¯t paralyzed, she¡¯s perfectly fine! But she was paralyzed, was paralysis curable? Teng Guihua wanted to jump up and scream, but her usual habit stopped her from lashing out, she wasn¡¯t sure what she would accuse her of, this situation had gone well off-script. She looked at Hippo. Hippo was also out of ideas, wasn¡¯t she paralyzed? Wasn¡¯t she perfectly fine? Causing further ruckus would be of no use. Hippo began to think that he was tricked and left angrily yelling: ¡°Retreat!¡± All ten-plus people left, leaving only a few of Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s family members behind. The cooked duck has flown away, Teng Guihua glared at Fang Xiaoyun, her eyes filled with malice, and without saying a word, she left with the rest of the family. They¡¯re gone, they just up and left. They hadn¡¯t met for so long, traveled from so far away, to just end up leaving like this? The words, ¡°You¡¯re not paralyzed? Why aren¡¯t you paralyzed?,¡± caused Fang Xiaoyun to collapse in an instant, she fell back into the wheelchair, almost toppling over. Chapter 279 - 0263: Make Up For Each Others Deficiencies Chapter 279: Chapter 0263: Make Up For Each Other¡¯s Deficiencies After about ten minutes, Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s father returned with her brother. Perhaps he felt guilty for his excessive past behavior, a shred of his conscience not completely extinguished. Or perhaps he realized that having come all this way, he should say a few words to his daughter. The scene was quite awkward; Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s father stood at the door, ¡°Xiaoyun, we¡¯re leaving!¡± Her brother suddenly felt the need to say something too, ¡°Sis, we¡¯re heading back.¡± Fang Xiaoyun felt lifeless and woodenly replied, ¡°Alright!¡± ... Just as her father was about to leave, he reminded her, ¡°Xiaoyun, you have to think about your brother¡¯s future!¡± Neither the father nor the brother had entered her ward, they had spoken from the door, and then left. ¡°Just get lost, all of you!¡± Chang Juan muttered to herself quietly. Fang Xiaoyun felt dazed, her eyes vacant, as Chang Juan held her hand, ¡°You used to live for your family; from now on, you should live for yourself, understand?¡± The petite girl wiped her tears and managed to muster some courage, ¡°Yes, live for myself.¡± ¡°Everyone¡¯s been wanting to visit you, but with your condition being severe a few days back, I didn¡¯t let them. Now that you¡¯re feeling better, should I ask them to come? Everyone has also donated money ¨C here¡¯s the list,¡± Chang Juan pulled out the list of donors. The donations were in the hundreds, thousands, two thousands¨C¨Cadding up to over twenty thousand yuan. ¡°It¡¯s enough for them to visit, I don¡¯t want them to spend money. I¡¯ll find a time to return the money, though I appreciate their kindness.¡± Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s eyes were misty. ¡°Are you looking down on your friends? Returning it would hurt everyone,¡± Chang Juan chided her. ¡°How about this, when we settle the bill after you¡¯re discharged, we¡¯ll see how much your self-pay portion is. If it¡¯s any less, I¡¯ll help you refund it?¡± Chang Juan softened her voice. ¡°Fang Xiaoyun, here¡¯s your walker, your muscle strength is just recovering, you will need to do some gait training, use this for assistance.¡± A nurse entered, teaching her how to use the walker. ¡ª- Yang Ping and his colleagues stayed in the office, Director Han, worried that they would be hurt in the conflict, ordered them to stand down and leave everything to him and the medical affairs office. For safety, Director Han even posted four security guards at the doctor¡¯s office door. The guards confirmed that the conflict had ended before they left at ease. Sanbo Hospital, as one of the few hospitals nationwide that has implemented a security check system, offers good protection for doctors¡¯ personal safety. Dean Xia not only established the security check system, but also set up a security department, formed an emergency team, and implemented a blacklist system. In most other hospitals, security is merely symbolic and has no actual protective capabilities. But, all the security staff in Sanbo Hospital are muscular, young ex-servicemen, who receive good benefits from the hospital. These unique measures brought a lot of trouble to Dean Xia. Public criticism was intense at the time, many violently accused him of exaggerating doctor-patient conflicts, exacerbating them instead. However, he stood firm against the pressure and forcefully implemented these measures. An old leader in the Provincial Hall admired Dean Xia¡¯s fortitude, braving the storm of criticism and managing to safeguard him. The farce was over, Yang Ping took everyone to see the patient in the trauma ICU with a giant abdominal vascular aneurysm. The patient was conscious, hemoglobin level at 85g/l, heart rate at 90 bpm, blood pressure 124/80mmHg, respiratory rate 20 bpm, no fever, normal liver and kidney function, minimal pleural effusion, and blood circulation was good in the grafted left face and left upper limb. Luckily, this patient was not prone to scarring and Song Zimo had used cosmetic suturing on his face, leaving no visible scars. The second phase of the left upper limb would require functional reconstruction surgery. The high-level nerve damage meant the ultimate effect might not be favourable, functional reconstruction was needed to recover some limb function. Now that this patient had passed the critical stage, Yang Ping felt relieved. The greatest sense of accomplishment for a doctor came from seeing a patient¡¯s recovery. Song Zimo performed the surgery on Sisi¡¯s father. The open reduction and internal fixation of his ankle fracture were done beautifully. ¡°Why does this distal tibiofibular syndesmotic screw need to be removed after three months? Can¡¯t we leave it there?¡± Yang Ping looked at the x-ray as he asked brothers Zhang Lin and Little Five. Although they were not as gifted as Song Zimo, they were clever people. ¡°After three months, the patient will have to bear weight on their feet, there will be micromotion in the distal tibiofibular joint which could cause the screw to either loosen or break,¡± Zhang Lin answered. ¡°Yes, if the screws go through three layers of the cortex, they will loosen. If they go through four layers, they may break. If we¡¯re not going to remove them, we need to explain this to the patient in advance to avoid misunderstandings,¡± Little Five added. ¡°Mm, I see you have been reading. You explained that well. You must read more, read repeatedly, and then link what you learn with clinical practice,¡± Doctor Yang reminded the pair. ¡°Recently, we have all been reading orthopaedic classics such as Campbell¡¯s Operative Orthopaedics, AO Fracture Fixation Manual, and Adult Fractures,¡± Little Five stated with a sense of pride. Zhang Lin also chimed in: ¡°Of course, elder brother, we will definitely read all the books you told us to.¡± ¡°First, finish reading these few books. Treat them like textbooks, re-read while referring to patient cases, don¡¯t just skim through,¡± Doctor Yang demanded of them. As his own abilities improved, Doctor Yang intended to raise everyone¡¯s skill level collectively. Strict demands were necessary. Not everyone was as self-disciplined and diligent as Song Zimo. The potential of a single individual is limited, but an outstanding team can support future departmental development. Doctor Yang wanted to check on the nine patients at Li Quan Hospital who were recovering from surgery, as well as another nine awaiting surgery. He asked Boss Cheng to arrange it. The Mercedes Benz S500L was parked downstairs, and Boss Cheng was thrilled. Nothing is more important than a good reputation. Once established, patients would come to them in droves. Now, every surgery conducted by Doctor Yang increased the hospital¡¯s reputation. Over time, this accumulates and before long, a gold-plated reputation would naturally be established. After soliciting multiple advisories, Boss Cheng purchased a Volvo XC90 to gift Doctor Yang. It is said that highly educated professionals favour Volvo and show little interest in Mercedes Benz, BMW or Audi. ¡°Doctor Yang, our hospital has placed an order for a car for you, a top-spec Volvo XC90. Once the car arrives, we would appreciate your assistance in getting it registered and licensed. The car will be registered under your name. Oh, also, you will need to bid for a license plate number in advance online. The cost of the bidding will be reimbursed by the hospital,¡± Boss Cheng seized the opportunity to say. Doctor Yang was a bit surprised. A top-spec Volvo XC90, on the road would cost almost nine hundred thousand, wouldn¡¯t it? Boss Cheng was quite generous. His collaboration with Li Quan Hospital was still in the early stages. If business had already picked up, such a lavish gift might be justified. However, it was still very much in the early stages. Such an extravagant gift seemed inappropriate. As the saying goes, ¡°one should not accept rewards for works not yet accomplished¡±. Doctor Yang understood that Boss Cheng was making an upfront investment, fearing that he might change his mind about cooperating with him in the future once his business expanded. Boss Cheng was overly concerned. As long as he operated the hospital properly, Doctor Yang would be very willing to cooperate with him. Doctor Yang had a very healthy view of money ¨C gentleness in love of wealth with a rightful cause. Right now, Li Quan Hospital was very satisfying to Doctor Yang. They operated legitimately and earned their money honestly. ¡°The ongoing costs like fuel for your car will be covered by the hospital,¡± Boss Cheng added. Boss Cheng was willing to go all out. If he did not put forth effort to retain Doctor Yang now, it would be difficult to do so in the future. Chaoshan people have a business mindset that values foresight and strategy. Doctor Yang also admired Boss Cheng¡¯s strategic thinking. Working with such a boss eliminated a lot of guesswork and internal consumption. Doctor Yang declined: ¡°A reward should be earned. As for the car, let¡¯s discuss it later, Boss Cheng.¡± ¡°Doctor Yang, you¡¯re putting me in a difficult position. The deposit has been paid. This is a collective action by the hospital, not my personal decision. It¡¯s just a small benefit for the expert. You are now our specially appointed chief expert. If we don¡¯t provide benefits, how am I Capital Cheng supposed to maintain my status in society!¡± Old Cheng insisted firmly. The hospital was his, so the actions of the hospital were essentially his actions. Since Boss Cheng was being so courteous, further refusal would seem disrespectful. So, Doctor Yang compromised: ¡°Since Boss Cheng thinks so highly of me, I¡¯ll say thank you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re overstating it. It¡¯s just a small benefit that the hospital is providing to our experts, which you well deserve. In the future, we will continue to need your hard work.¡± Boss Cheng said as he drove. With the matter settled, Old Cheng was relieved. He began to focus on how to channel patients to Doctor Yang¡¯s comprehensive orthopaedic department. Most bosses would resent experts bringing their patients along, but Old Cheng thought differently. Old Cheng believed that if Doctor Yang¡¯s department did well, Cheng Liquan would naturally share in the success. He viewed their success as interconnected. ¡°Doctor Yang, I¡¯ve been thinking, our hospital¡¯s market strategy here is high-end private healthcare. In the future, for patients who are somewhat financial or have reservations about private hospitals, we could refer them to Sanbo Hospital, specifically to your department. We could establish a long-term partnership. What do you think?¡± Indeed, his vision was commendable. Doctor Yang immediately agreed: ¡°That sounds great. To be honest, our public hospital¡¯s services can¡¯t keep up. There is a gap compared to yours. So, in the future, if we encounter patients with high service expectations, we can also refer them to your hospital. Let¡¯s help each other out and make up for each other¡¯s shortfalls.¡± ¡°That¡¯s precisely what I¡¯ve been thinking!¡± Old Cheng replied with enthusiasm. Whilst Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Overseas Chinese Building was considered a VIP ward, it still fell short of the service quality provided by private hospitals like Li Quan Hospital. As they chatted, several significant decisions were made during the car journey. Chapter 280 - 0264 Waiter Chapter 280: Chapter 0264 Waiter Doctor Yang Ping went to Li Quan Hospital to visit the patients, and they were quite touched. They felt that Yang Ping was conscientious and responsible. Brother Zhan, the group leader, had already removed his support and walked in front of Yang Ping. His various preoperative symptoms had completely disappeared, and he had obtained a painless and well-functioning knee joint. Brother Zhan was in a great mood, feeling as if he had been reborn. In the past, at least for five or six years, he dared not run or jump. Even when he walked normally, he would wobble around, afraid of falling. He might kneel down due to weak legs. As a man in his forties, he had to hold onto the railings to climb stairs; otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t be able to force himself. He had had enough of such days and decided to have surgery. However, after visiting several hospitals, they all told him that the operation was too difficult and couldn¡¯t be performed. So, after making multiple inquiries, he found out that Professor Ye, a leading expert in the field, had a regular surgical practice at Yunjian Hospital. So he went to Yunjian. They told him that Professor Ye¡¯s schedule was too tight and recommended that he came to Li Quan Hospital. ... In fact, at that time Professor Ye had reviewed his information and told the doctors at Yunjian that the patient¡¯s surgical difficulties were too great and the prognosis was poor, so they should not operate. The cunning people at Yunjian recommended him to Li Quan Hospital, saying that Yunjian Hospital¡¯s surgery schedule was too tight. Cheng Liquan didn¡¯t think too much at the time. He rarely received such patients, and now they came to him voluntarily. He eagerly hoped to successfully perform a few more knee multiligament reconstructions, so he agreed to it. Brother Zhan checked out Li Quan Hospital and found that the boss was once a professor at the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital. Many doctors there had further studied in South Korea. With Yunjian¡¯s strong recommendation, there shouldn¡¯t be any problems. He was also anxious and always wanted to speed up the operation. He was involved in sports when he was young and then started a seafood wholesale business. He was usually busy. It wasn¡¯t a solution to keep putting off the operation. This time he made up his mind to get cured. He had visited many hospitals that didn¡¯t dare to undertake the surgery, but now he found one that did, so they must have some skills. After comprehensive consideration, he decided to undergo surgery here. The whole process felt like a fluke. After the surgery, he was still a bit scared and regretful for rashly having the operation. He always felt uneasy. Therefore, when he went to Shanghai and Beijing, he would always make an appointment with a specialist. The professionals carefully examined his knee joint and praised it. They asked the graduate students to take pictures of his case, saying that the operation was beautifully done with an excellent effect. They kept the details for future study. Only then did Brother Zhan feel at ease. On an impulse, Brother Zhan shared his medical experience in the group. They have a group, all with similar cases. Because such cases are rare, and the operation is challenging, they usually share their medical experiences in the group. Brother Zhan shared his experience, and the group¡¯s reaction was significant. They all wanted to come here for surgery. As a result, more than ten people formed a group to come to G City for a visit. These ten-plus people came from all over the country. Brother Zhan is from G City, and naturally, he became the group leader, leading everyone to inspect Li Quan Hospital. After the inspection, they found a time to undergo group surgery. A few joined the group halfway, making it a total of eighteen people. If a hospital can carry out eighteen knee multiligament reconstructions with good results, it will be a golden signboard. ¡°Doctor Yang, it doesn¡¯t hurt at all after the surgery!¡± ¡°Look, I can walk with supports now!¡± ¡°I feel so much more stable after the operation.¡± ¡°Look at me, I¡¯m practically normal after the surgery!¡± Brother Zhan is a living billboard that brought these eighteen patients. These eighteen patients are also eighteen living billboards. Once the word-of-mouth spreads out, it will attract many patients. Most of them are sports enthusiasts, or even professional athletes. Boss Cheng saw this point, so he had some concerns, fearing that other hospitals might offer higher prices and better conditions to lure Yang Ping away. At that time, if Yang Ping gets busy, he might not regard Li Quan Hospital as importantly. So Boss Cheng racked his brains, planning to strengthen his relationship with Yang Ping in advance. Seeing that Yang Ping did not have a car for the time being, he came up with an idea and immediately ordered a car. Yang Ping agreed to accept the car. Old Cheng felt relieved, indicating that he was still willing to work with him for the long term. Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have accepted the car at this time. On the weekend of the second week, Yang Ping finished the remaining nine surgeries in Li Quan Hospital. He received a surgery fee of ninety thousand from Li Quan Hospital in two weeks, which was a decent income. If this continues, he will become more and more economically stable. After saving some money and buying a house, he will consider settling down in G City. After the academic conference, the orthopedics department of Sanbo Hospital, especially the trauma orthopedics, gained widespread reputation. Many hospitals within the province, especially those dealing with complex traumas or high-risk cases, started transferring their patients to Sanbo. ¡°Make it to Sanbo, last time they managed such a case, they can definitely do this one!¡± ¡°I suggest you find a vehicle and transport it to Sanbo Hospital in the provincial capital. Last time I attended a meeting there, they were able to perform surgeries that even the Japanese couldn¡¯t. Only at Sanbo Hospital can we hope to save this leg.¡± ¡°If not, let¡¯s transfer to Sanbo, keeping him here will only lead to trouble sooner or later!¡± In this manner, extra beds filled the hallway and lift area of the trauma orthopedics department. After visiting the hospital with Dean Xia a few times, Director Han decided to quickly add a floor to expand capacity. The general orthopedics department was also busy with arthroscopy surgeries, but not as explosively popular as the trauma orthopedics, largely because it lacked exciting cases. The five-section replantation procedure of the trauma orthopedics and the surgery that eclipsed the Japanese at the academic conference left deep impressions on over 2,000 doctors. The quiet arrival of January marked the approach of the spring festival, and the month was filled with activities. Sisi completed her second, focused ultrasound knife surgery, targeting a tumor in her left femur. Members of the department enjoyed a three-day vacation at a mountain resort, attended Little Five¡¯s wedding, and indulged in the festivities. Zhang Lin, acting as the leader of the bridegroom party, along with Fatty and other standardized training students from the department, organized a bustling and lively event. Doctor Yang decided to apply for a doctoral program under Director Han in January. To prepare for the doctoral exam, he studied extensively in the system-space library. Hoping to score high and please Director Han, he felt as if this was his chance to fully become a ¡°doctor.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s parents plan to come to G City before the New Year to spend time with their son. Their major concern, however, is Yang¡¯s nonexistent relationship status, a topic that often comes up in every phone call. As parents, they worry about whether he is dating anyone. To them, this is a serious matter. Should Yang still be single, they would have to personally arrange a blind date for him. Parents always worry. As a child, they worry about education and university entrance; once in university, they worry about career; once working, they worry about marriage; once married, they worry about grandchildren. As for Cheng Liquan, after treating eighteen patients, his name got out and patients with joint injuries from all over the body kept pouring in. His practice is on a prosperous track. Having a solid technical competency pretty much guarantees income. With the assistance of Li Quan Hospital, Yang Ping saved an impressive amount of money. He was confident about this New Year ¡ª a clear sign of prosperity! The new car Cheng Liquan gifted was registered, loaded with gas, and personally delivered by Old Cheng. ¡°Doctor Yang, I heard your parents are coming. May I host a meal for them and then perhaps show them around the area?¡± Old Cheng seemed to know everything. ¡°Why should we bother you, Old Cheng?¡± The two were now quite familiar with one another and had dropped formalities. Old Cheng was upset: ¡°Aren¡¯t we brothers? It¡¯s a rare chance that your parents are visiting. If you don¡¯t allow this, aren¡¯t you being unfair to me?¡± ¡°You¡¯re busy with surgeries all day. Frankly, you don¡¯t know much about what G City has to offer, especially for the elderly. However, I, Old Cheng, am different. I know every good place in every alley in the city. If you consider me a brother, leave it to me for a few days!¡± Saying this, Old Cheng tossed a bag to Yang Ping. ¡°Two keys, vehicle registration certificate, driving license, invoice, all are in there. The gasoline is already filled. Apart from surgery fees, our hospital provides a monthly special allowance for items such as gasoline. The car insurance is with People¡¯s Insurance. Follow their WeChat official account for the electronic insurance policy.¡± Old Cheng thought everything through, not wanting Yang Ping to waste time over these trivial matters. To him, good service to his experts was paramount. ¡°If it¡¯s like that, Old Cheng, I¡¯ll take you up on your offer.¡± Yang Ping found Old Cheng to be open and above board, and a potential friend. They became quite casual with each other. ¡°If you say ¡®thank you,¡¯ that would be taking me for a stranger!¡± Old Cheng said. ¡°I¡¯m leaving now!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll drop you off!¡± ¡°No need, you¡¯re busy, I know. I¡¯ll just take a Didi back!¡± Chapter 281 - 0265: Suicide in the Palace Chapter 281: Chapter 0265: Suicide in the Palace After seeing off Old Cheng, Yang Ping hastened to apply for the free staff parking. In Sanbo Hospital¡¯s car park, both above and below ground, one could register for free parking at the security department with their ID, work card, and driving license. Having completed the procedures for free parking, Yang Ping went to look for Director Han from the Orthopedics Research Institute. Director Han had asked Yang Ping to discuss his PhD studies with him. The Orthopedics Research Institute planned to utilize three floors, but currently, only one was in use. This floor was responsible for the study of orthopedic implants, involving research in orthopedic materials, biomechanics, and 3D printing. The other floor was mainly for tissue repair research, especially for various tissue defect restoration studies. This involves biochemistry, tissue engineering, repair mechanism, and so on, but some of the equipment has not yet arrived. The last floor was devoted to stem cell research. The laboratory was already set up and awaiting approval from the higher-ups. After the inspection, a certificate would be issued to start the related work. This floor was where Director Han had set the focus of his research on spinal cord injuries. ... Each of the three floors had different research priorities. ¡°Xiao Yang, the PhD entrance exam is in March this year, how¡¯s your preparation going?¡± Director Han attached great importance to Yang Ping¡¯s upcoming exam, repeatedly urging him to study well and make sure he succeeds. With his intervention, he might be able to secure a spot without examination, but Director Han wanted Yang Ping to earn his position fair and square. ¡°Director, rest assured, I will certainly not let you down.¡± Yang Ping was confident. After reviewing the material so many times in the system space, Yang Ping was confident. If he couldn¡¯t pass the exam after all this, then he really wouldn¡¯t be suitable for medicine. Hearing Yang Ping¡¯s confidence, Old Han was even more assured. It would only be when Yang Ping had his PhD that he could soar high and far, like an eagle. For a doctor, academic qualifications were extremely important. It was a pass to many opportunities. Without the qualifications, one could not even touch the doors of many big hospitals, not to mention entering them. There were also some research topics that one couldn¡¯t apply for without the necessary qualifications. People who claimed that qualifications aren¡¯t important and only capabilities mattered, they simply didn¡¯t understand the ecosystem of the medical profession. Only those who had undergone regular training at the master¡¯s and doctorate levels had the highest probability of producing valuable research results. The majority of Nobel Prize winners were PhDs who had undergone formal research training. There were exceptions, but they were few. Yang Ping told Director Han that the car Boss Cheng had sent had arrived. Yang Ping had previously discussed the matter of Boss Cheng¡¯s gift with Director Han and sought his advice. While pouring tea for Yang Ping, Director Han said, ¡°Your cooperation with him is open, honest, and completely legal. It¡¯s just a car, a trifle. Considering the profits you¡¯ll bring to their hospital in the future, it wouldn¡¯t be too much even if they gave you shares. Xiao Yang, money, legally and reasonably earned, should be taken; don¡¯t hesitate. If it¡¯s not legally earned and goes against your conscience, we won¡¯t take a cent; we won¡¯t extend our hands. Be clear and feel at ease.¡± ¡°Gentlemen love money, in a proper way!¡± Yang Ping took the cup from Director Han. Director Han laughed heartily, this child is teachable: ¡°Correct!¡± They didn¡¯t often have the chance to sit down and chat due to their busy work schedule, so the two talked for a long time. Old Han gave Yang Ping some career advice, encouraging him to set higher and more distant goals. After finishing their talk, Director Han received a call from Director Mei of the Obstetrics and Gynecology department: ¡°Old Han, we have a pregnant woman having a sonogram; we need your help.¡± Director Han hung up the phone: ¡°Xiao Yang, are you free?¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing much, Song Zimo is leading the team in doing routine surgeries!¡± said Yang Ping. Director Han said: ¡°Come with me to the ultrasound department. There¡¯s a patient in Obstetrics and Gynecology with a peculiar condition. Director Mei wants me to take a look.¡± It was probably a case of fetal abnormality related to orthopedics. Possibly a friend of Director Mei, so she directly called Director Han for help with a voluntary consultation. The two men finished their tea and headed for the ultrasound department. A pregnant woman was undergoing a sonogram, performed by Director Yan of the ultrasound department himself. Several directors were gathered around, the pregnant woman was undergoing IVF treatment at Sanbo Hospital, she had gone through a lot to conceive. ¡°Old Han, Doctor Yang!¡± Director Mei was intently standing by the examination bed. ¡°At 26 weeks of pregnancy, the fetus has several limb deformities, the amniotic fluid is slightly reduced, and there¡¯s a band-like echo at the deformation sites.¡± Director Yan explained while moving the ultrasound probe on the woman¡¯s abdomen. Yang Ping understood, they suspected that the fetus had Amniotic Band Syndrome, a relatively rare disease. Most malformations involved orthopedics, hence Director Han was called over for a consultation. The directors were quite experienced. Upon hearing Director Yan¡¯s description, Director Han asked, ¡°Are we considering Amniotic Band Syndrome?¡± Director Ke of Pediatric Surgery nodded, ¡°Right! Look at these limbs. It seems they have all been constricted by the amniotic bands. We plan on performing an MRI for further examination. If diagnosed, we will need your assistance to carry out the surgery.¡± Pediatric Surgery specifically handles surgeries for children, particularly congenital deformities. In recent years, they have started performing fetal surgeries. Director Ke planned to perform surgery on this fetus to prevent further deformities, some of which could be serious enough to lead to in utero amputation. Due to the constriction from the amniotic bands, the limbs become ischemic and necrotic at the far end. This, in essence, equates to an amputation. Without the distal part, a child would be born with a congenital disability. Current fetal surgery procedures enable the fetus to be removed from the uterus for the operation and then replaced. This method of timely surgery to correct deformities can prevent disabilities after birth. Although pediatric surgery can perform a variety of operations and is quite proficient in organ deformities, it is not very adept at orthopedics. Therefore, they wanted to invite an orthopedic specialist to assist, especially for operations under a microscope where orthopedic surgeons excel. The fetus is at 26 weeks and only measures about 20 to 30 centimeters long. Much of the surgery would require the use of a microscope. Orthopedic surgeons are proficient in reading X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs, but do not usually interpret surface ultrasounds. However, Yang Ping had undergone diagnostic assistance training in the system space. Thus, not only could he interpret surface ultrasounds, but he could also interpret all other types of tests and perform them as well. ¡°Director, the fetus¡¯s neck is also constricted. Look, the slightly underdeveloped head suggests that the blood vessels in the neck have been compressed, leading to insufficient blood supply to the head. We must perform surgery immediately; otherwise, it could lead to death,¡± warned Yang Ping. If the neck was constricted, Director Yan noticed the abnormal posture of the neck, but he had overlooked that the head size was within normal limits, although data suggested it was slightly smaller than expected. There were no signs of abnormal deformity or echogenic bands here. An orthopedic surgeon knowledgeable about surface ultrasounds, that¡¯s odd! Director Yan revisited the fetus¡¯s neck using the ultrasound multiple times. Indeed, the neck appeared to be unusual with abnormal echoes. He had previously dismissed these as skin wrinkles. ¡°Based on the proportions of this fetus¡¯s head and body, the head is slightly smaller!¡± Yang Ping added. When it comes to professional knowledge, there is no room for vagueness; otherwise, it would harm the patient. The directors wouldn¡¯t feel offended by his comments; they aren¡¯t petty. They didn¡¯t even consider Yang Ping as an ordinary doctor. ¡°Yang, now that you mention it, it does seem so! Should we perform an MRI for further clarity?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s do an MRI. If it¡¯s as Doctor Yang mentioned and the neck is constricted, there¡¯s a risk of in utero strangulation. We must act promptly and perform surgery.¡± Director Ke was also of the view that Yang Ping¡¯s words should be given due consideration. The expecting mother was a bit anxious upon hearing this. ¡°Doctor, is it very dangerous?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we are currently evaluating. We noticed that the neck is also constricted. We will conduct an emergency MRI to ascertain this. If the neck is indeed constricted, we need to schedule a surgery soon.¡± Director Mei reassured her. ¡°Then let¡¯s perform the MRI immediately. I will follow your advice. I will do whatever it takes to save this child.¡± The pregnant woman seemed on the verge of tears. Indeed, it was not easy for her. She had spent a lot of money, visited many hospitals, and only then, after using in vitro fertilization technology at Sanbo, did she finally conceive this child. ¡°Let¡¯s arrange an MRI!¡±, Director Mei instructed the Doctor in charge of prenatal care for the woman. ¡°Should we admit her to Pediatric Surgery after the test?¡± Director Mei asked. Director Ke nodded, ¡°Yes, let¡¯s admit her. The Obstetrics Department will provide cover for us while we perform the surgery in collaboration with our orthopedic colleagues. Many steps will require the support of our orthopedic colleagues.¡± ¡°Keep in touch with Doctor Yang during that time!¡± Director Han instructed Director Ke. The woman¡¯s surface ultrasound was completed, and she was sent to have an MRI. In our country, MRIs for pregnant women are rarely performed. Some hospitals, fearing trouble from patients, simply do not offer this service. In actuality, an MRI is as safe as a surface ultrasound. It is more commonly performed in foreign countries, especially for diagnosing fetal deformities, where an MRI has distinct advantages over a surface ultrasound. ¡°Pingping! Your dad and I will be arriving by high-speed train tomorrow; we will be there by noon!¡± She had just left the ultrasound room when her parents called. Chapter 282 - 0266: Difficult Choices Chapter 282: Chapter 0266: Difficult Choices Yang Ping was a little troubled. His parents would arrive tomorrow, and coincidentally there was surgery scheduled at this time. The surgical time for the pregnant woman remained uncertain. If it happened to clash with the time of his parents¡¯ arrival, it would be very inconvenient. His parents hadn¡¯t visited him once in all the years he had been working in G City. It would be unforgivable if he could not fetch them this time around. For two elderly people unfamiliar with the city to wait eagerly at the train station after their journey by high-speed rail would be quite inappropriate. However, as a doctor he had little choice. His patients took priority. If indeed the surgery was scheduled for tomorrow morning or mid-day, he¡¯d have to perform it no matter what. During lunch, Yang Ping chatted with Xiao Su. He discussed the situation of the obstetric patient and also mentioned his worry about not being able to meet his parents in time. ... Xiao Su gave a small laugh, ¡°That¡¯s the problem? You go perform your surgery. I¡¯ll pick up your parents.¡± ¡°You will?¡± Yang Ping shook his head. Xiao Su didn¡¯t know his parents, so how would she pick them up? And besides, he hadn¡¯t brought up his relationship with Xiao Su to his parents yet. Suddenly making her pick up his parents was inappropriate. ¡°We¡¯ll have to meet sometime anyway, better sooner than later! Give me their number and give them mine. Arrange the gate they will come out from. I¡¯ll hold a welcome sign. Don¡¯t worry about it. If you have surgery tomorrow, you concentrate on the surgery. Leave the greeting to me, you will be satisfied.¡± Xiao Su was very relaxed. Yang Ping thought about it, she was right, there was no other option. But it wasn¡¯t fair to Xiao Su to make her go pick them up. ¡°Do you want me to tidy up your place a bit? Uncle and Auntie will be arriving, make it a bit neater.¡± Xiao Su offered. ¡°¡ª¡ª¡± Yang Ping gazed at Xiao Su. ¡°After work, take me there. Give me a key. Tomorrow I¡¯ll take Uncle and Auntie straight to your apartment. I¡¯ll also need to buy some groceries, you have gas right? And tableware? We¡¯ll eat at home for lunch and then go out for dinner.¡± Girls really are different; Xiao Su was thoughtful and efficient, sorting everything out in a few sentences. Indeed, the elderlies would be tired from their journey tomorrow. They would not have much appetite, better to eat something at home first and rest; we can all go out and eat together in the evening. ¡°We have piped gas; a whole set of kitchen and dining ware. There¡¯s just no food and I think we have some oils and spices, you¡¯ll have to check.¡± Yang Ping wasn¡¯t sure. After all, he hardly ever cooked at home. He always ate at the cafeteria. Xiao Su hadn¡¯t been to his apartment once all the time they¡¯d been dating. Now that she was asking to go, Yang Ping¡¯s mind was filled with endless imaginings. ¡°What are you daydreaming about?¡± Xiao Su looked at Yang Ping¡¯s lost expression. Yang Ping shook his head and said, ¡°Nothing, I¡¯m just thinking about what else we need with the oils and spices.¡± After eating, Yang Ping circled around the department a few times. Fang Xiaoyun was about to be discharged, Chang Juan bought two big fruit baskets, one for the nurse¡¯s station and another for Professor Zhang in the outpatient department. She even brought a banner of gratitude. Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s complexion was quite good, she¡¯d come in on two crutches, she was now able to walk out normally. Zhang Lin was urging her; after being discharged, she still had to continue her anti-tuberculosis treatment. She could get her medication for free from a designated hospital in the city. ¡°Doctor Yang, thank you.¡± Fang Xiaoyun bowed. ¡°Do remember a proper course of anti-tuberculosis treatment. Please heal yourself completely.¡± Yang Ping advised. The obstetrics doctor called. The patient¡¯s MRI was done, they asked Yang Ping to come over and have a look. Little Five washed an apple. Yang Ping was halfway through eating it when he had to rush off to the MRI room. As expected, there was a mark around the neck which dug deep into the flesh. Looking at the 3D reconstruction, the fetus¡¯s hands were clearly trying to reach for it as if wanting to remove this deadly noose. It appeared that the human survival instinct was already present in the womb. Looking at the tiny creature, it was truly pitiful! Yang Ping¡¯s earlier assumption was confirmed. The neck was tightly choked by the amniotic band, digging deeply into the skin and flesh. ¡°No wonder the fetal heart rate was a bit slow.¡± Director Mei exclaimed. The pregnant woman sat by the side, watching the image of her baby on the screen. She broke into tears. The poor child was strangled by amniotic bands while in its mother¡¯s womb. These amniotic bands were as thin as hair. If they choked a certain part of the body they would tighten further, causing a potentially fatal attack. If they choked the limbs, the distal end of the limb would disappear due to lengthy periods of ischemia. The baby would be born missing an arm or a leg. If the band wrapped around the neck, almost always, the fetus would die in the womb. And even if it survived and was born, the baby would be mentally retarded due to defective brain development or severe cervical deformity. ¡°Director Mei, please arrange the surgery for me right away!¡± ¡°Tell your husband to come quickly, we need to communicate seriously with him.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no need to wait for him, I make my decisions.¡± The pregnant woman is very stubborn. ¡°There¡¯s no need to rush, it won¡¯t happen so quickly, we still need to complete the pre-surgery check. The risks of the surgery are high, we must wait for your husband to come and sign, you are an older first-time mother, the surgery requires opening the womb, exposing the veins which might result in a high risk of amniotic fluid embolism.¡± Director Mei is very cautious. The risk of this surgery is very high, once amniotic fluid embolism occurs, the pregnant woman is in danger of death. At that point, let alone saving the child, even the adult can¡¯t be saved, her husband must be present to sign, under some conditions, signatures from all family members are required. The patient is transferred to pediatric surgery, because the fetal surgery is handled by pediatric surgery. Director Ke of pediatric surgery has performed hundreds of fetal surgeries and is very experienced. This surgery needs cooperation from three departments, with the obstetrician in charge of maintaining the pregnancy, and pediatric surgery in charge of the fetal surgery. However, this surgery requires several Z-shaped changes and several points that need to be separated. A microscope is needed for the surgery. All of these are what orthopedics excel in that¡¯s why they are called for help. Plus, many steps of the surgery require the presence of an orthopedics as the chief surgeon. Speaking of operating under a microscope, no one in the hospital does it better than orthopedics, let alone someone like Yang Ping who has monstrous skills. The plaque of microscopic traumatic orthopedics is not hung for no reason. Director Mei sends one obstetrician to accompany them while Yang Ping returns to his department to rest. He spends 30,000 points in the system space and buys training for 300 fetal surgeries. In the afternoon, before getting off work, Yang Ping goes to the pediatric surgery again to check on the patient and understand the preparations for the surgery. The relatives of the pregnant woman have all arrived, her husband, father-in-law, mother-in-law, father, and mother are there. The whole family, in a chaotic mess, gathered in the meeting room, Director Mei and Director Ke talk with them together. ¡°The risk of the surgery is huge, isn¡¯t it?¡± The mother of the pregnant woman is very nervous, shivering. ¡°The risk is extremely high, amniotic fluid embolism can be fatal!¡± Director Ke is stern. Medicine is a serious matter, with regards to risks, neither exaggeration nor concealment is allowed. It may sound ruthless, but facts can¡¯t be changed. ¡°Forget about it, don¡¯t keep the child. The risk is too high and it¡¯s not worth the risk. Being mother and son also depends on fate, it seems that they don¡¯t have such a fate.¡± The mother of the pregnant woman sighs, wiping away tears from the corner of her eyes with a handkerchief. ¡°You said it lightly, they¡¯re forty years old and only just having a child, not keep it? Doctor, will the child be disabled if the surgery is successful?¡± ¡°Based on the current situation if the surgery is successful and no other growth or development deformities occur, the child shouldn¡¯t be disabled. But no one can guarantee it.¡± Director Ke explains. It¡¯s not a lack of confidence, nor is it being ambiguous; no doctor dares to guarantee that the surgery will be 100% successful ¡ª except for god-like doctors who can defy their own decisions. ¡°In-law, I know you want to hold your grandchild. We understand, but the doctor has said, the risk is too high, what if¨C¡± ¡°We must keep it even if it¡¯s risky! What is without risk? It was not easy to conceive this time, there won¡¯t be another chance if we give up now, do you want the Zhong family to have no descendants?¡± ¡°What do you mean by that? You want a grandchild, but my daughter is not a human being? Is my daughter¡¯s life not worth anything? I will oppose it.¡± The old men on both sides are holding their wives¡¯ clothes, signaling to calm down and have a good talk. The father of the pregnant woman says, ¡°Doctor, can you help us make a decision?¡± Director Ke is also in a difficult position: ¡°We can¡¯t help you make a decision. We can only tell you the risks and benefits of surgery and not having surgery. Whether to undergo the surgery is ultimately up to you, especially the patient herself and her husband.¡± The family argues without resolution in the meeting room, the doctors had no choice but to temporarily exit and suggest they go back to discuss further. A single child is involving two generations and three families. The doctors are also in a bind, legally they don¡¯t need the parents¡¯ signatures, but since their family¡¯s opinion is not unified, no one dares to perform the surgery. If anything goes wrong, they won¡¯t be able to face the consequences. After the parents of the two sides leave, the husband returns to the ward, sits by the bed, and holds his wife¡¯s hand. ¡°You dummy, why didn¡¯t you tell me about the check-up? The risk is too high, let¡¯s not keep the baby, we can still live without a child. All I want is for you to be okay, understand?¡± The husband says emotionally. The wife shakes her head: ¡°My greatest wish in this life is to have a child for you, I¡¯m willing to take any risk!¡± ¡°I know your feelings, but why¨C¡± ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about it, I¡¯ve made up my mind, I just hope that you support me, support me and our baby.¡± ¡°Husband, our baby is so pitiful, the doctor said that the amniotic band strangles the neck and limbs. Did you see the 3D image of the MRI? He wants to stretch out his hand to unravel the band around his neck¨C¡± The pregnant woman touches her stomach affectionately. ¡ª Some results of the pregnant woman¡¯s blood test have come out, Yang Ping looks through it once. There¡¯s nothing abnormal in the routine blood, biochemical, liver, and kidney functions. The coagulation function and the four items for blood transfusion have not yet been tested. However, even if all the tests are normal because her family can¡¯t come to an agreement, the earliest possible surgery can only be scheduled for tomorrow. Xiao Su calls, wanting to go to the rented house with Yang Ping to help him clean up. Chapter 283 - 0267: Home Chapter 283: Chapter 0267: Home Yang Ping¡¯s rented house is close by, just in the community across the hospital, reachable by crossing a pedestrian footbridge. It¡¯s a lot cheaper to rent a house here than in downtown. Yang Ping had thought about having his parents over for a visit when he rented the place, so he rented a 3-bedroom, 2-livingroom apartment with over a hundred square meters, costing just over two grand. Yang Ping leads the way as they step out of the elevator, with Xiao Su following behind him. He unlocks the door. ¡°So you live here, quite tidy!¡± Xiao Su comments, in a soft tone. Yang Ping gently closes the door: ¡°Hmm! Make yourself at home.¡± Yang Ping gets a pair of new female slippers from the shoe cabinet by the door and hands them to Xiao Su. They are in her size. ... ¡°Do you often have girls coming over?¡± Xiao Su pretends to be angry, indicating the ready-made female slippers. ¡°No, except for the occasional visit from Little Five, I don¡¯t have many guests. You¡¯re the first female guest, and these are new slippers bought specifically for you.¡± Yang Ping hurriedly explains. ¡°Humph! Am I just a guest?¡± Xiao Su retorts. Yang Ping immediately realizes his mistake: ¡°Oops, my bad. Totally a slip of the tongue. You¡¯re the female host, after all. Please!¡± ¡°That¡¯s more like it!¡± Xiao Su smiles with satisfaction. Xiao Su glances around the room while Yang Ping continues to show her around. Only the two of them are in the room, and although they are usually intimately close and unrestricted, they both feel a bit tensed at this moment. Xiao Su turns around, her rosy cheeks blooming like flowers. ¡°Sit, you see¡ª It¡¯s quite messy!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s voice stutters a bit. ¡°Hmm! Let me check it out, I¡¯ll help you clean up soon.¡± ¡°Feel free to.¡± Even for a guy, the room is quite tidy, as Yang Ping values cleanliness and orderliness. Perhaps it¡¯s his nature as a doctor. He always strives for perfection. Some people might say that this is a form of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, but he disagrees. He considers it as a sign of quality consciousness. ¡°This is my bedroom. This can be considered a study, and this is the guest room!¡± Yang Ping opens each bedroom one by one. The bookshelf in the study is neatly filled with books. It¡¯s almost like a mini library. Yang Ping spent over ten thousand Yuan on the bookshelf, probably the most expensive item in his room. He could skimp on other things, but the bookshelf had to be grand. ¡°So many books? No wonder you¡¯re so learned. Do you read daily?¡± Xiao Su tries to make conversation. Usually, they talk about everything under the sun. But now, they oddly don¡¯t know where to start. In reality, Yang Ping would typically read in his system space. Even though it consumes points, it doesn¡¯t waste real-time. With his current points tally, he could read for as long as he wanted. However, habit is a hard thing to break. If his house isn¡¯t besieged by books, he wouldn¡¯t fell settled. Thus, he keeps buying books, similar to a woman¡¯s penchant for online shopping. Not having a book within arm¡¯s reach at his bedside would also unsettle him. Several classic Orthopedics books, like Chinese and English versions of Campbell¡¯s Operative Orthopaedics, are stacked on his bedside table. The study room¡¯s curtain is drawn. After viewing the room, Xiao Su stops in that space. Just as she is about to open the curtains, Yang Ping embraces her from behind. Inside the dimly lit study, with the young lovers and the raging hormones, the boy¡¯s mind heats up as the passionate fire rages on. Yang Ping holds her tightly, his nose buried in her black hair, stroking it, and soaking in the intoxicating scent. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Xiao Su¡¯s heart pounds away like a startled deer, but she doesn¡¯t resist or attempt to grab Yang Ping¡¯s restless hand. ¡°I¡ª-Just¡ª-came to help you clean up.¡± Xiao Su mutters, her voice barely more than a whisper, almost inaudible. Once the level of hormones in the blood surpasses a threshold, a person¡¯s thoughts are controlled by primal instincts. A beastly desire and force burst forth like a tidal wave. With male hormones continuously being released, the specific functional areas in the cerebral cortex, diencephalon, and mesencephalon¡¯s cortical areas become highly excited. This excitement, manifested as electrical and chemical signals, speeds down the neural pathways. Reaching the lower centers in the spinal cord, particularly the functional areas in the sacral cord, the signals undergo a transformation and continue to the target organ at tens of meters per second. The target organ responds instantly, receiving the command, and decisively takes action. The speed of arterial and venous blood flow instantaneously changes ¨C the arterial blood flow accelerates while the venous blood flow slows down. The amount of arterial blood flow quickly surpasses the rate of venous blood inflow. The nervous system, endocrine system, psychological and physiological aspects, complex and exquisite, seamlessly coordinating multiple systems. Accelerated heart rate and breathing, a surge in blood pressure, the heart increasing its power, target organs transforming, a drawn bow ready to shoot its arrow. ¡°Good boy, bear with it. We have to wait until we¡¯re married!¡± Xiao Su¡¯s breathing hastened, tightly gripping Yang Ping¡¯s hand. ¡°I¡¯m sorry!¡± Yang Ping abruptly sobered up, admitting his desires were too strong. ¡°It¡¯s okay!¡± Xiao Su whispered gently. But Yang Ping held her even tighter. Xiao Su turned around, her head tilted upward cradling Yang Ping¡¯s face: ¡°Listen, be patient, alright? Until we¡¯re married?¡± She was like a gentle doe, pleading with a soft tone. Yang Ping hugged her against his chest: ¡°Okay!¡± They held each other for a long while before parting. Xiao Su casually brushed her hair, adjusting her clothes, then gently drew back the curtains: ¡°Let¡¯s see what the kitchen needs. We can go shopping together soon. We should find out what your aunt and uncle like to eat. I¡¯ll cook tomorrow at noon and we can go to a nearby restaurant for dinner. You need to rest for your surgery tomorrow, I¡¯ll handle these arrangements.¡± Her tone portrayed her as the lady of the house, the future daughter-in-law. ¡°Can I...call you my girlfriend tomorrow?¡± Xiao Su asked, her cheeks flushed. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Silly girl, I¡¯ll call them now and let them know their future daughter-in-law is coming to pick them up.¡± Xiao Su held up a finger, the universal sign for staying quiet: ¡°Don¡¯t, let¡¯s give them a surprise!¡± This girl, always enjoying such antics, but that¡¯s okay. The constant pressure to find a girlfriend over the phone would finally be over now, as his girlfriend herself would greet them. He wondered how his mother would react. Xiao Su checked the kitchenware, tableware, oils, condiments and cooking ingredients in the kitchen. The vegetables would be fresher if bought tomorrow morning, but the rest needed to be bought tonight. Quickly, Xiao Su made a detailed list: ¡°We¡¯ll go shopping soon. I¡¯ll buy, you¡¯ll carry. I¡¯ll cook dinner for you.¡± ¡°Can you come over often in the future?¡± Yang Ping asked, looking deeply into Xiao Su¡¯s eyes. Xiao Su nodded: ¡°It depends on your perseverance. I want to wait until we¡¯re married ¨C¨C you¡¯re not mad at me, are you?¡± Yang Ping hugged her tightly: ¡°Of course not, I can wait!¡± Xiao Su was well-educated; if she loved, then she would cherish and protect that love! The two went to the Community supermarket to shop according to the list and ran into Little Five and Xiao Qing. Xiao Qing¡¯s parents bought them a house in this community for their convenience, Xiao Qing¡¯s mother helped with the laundry and cooking, and her father helped clean the house and buy groceries. ¡°Senior brother?¡± Little Five was surprised to see Yang Ping and Xiao Su together at the supermarket in the evening. Were they living together? This was the pace of people about to get married. Xiao Su was concerned about Xiao Qing¡¯s prenatal reactions, the two girls chatted merrily. Little Five pulled Yang Ping to one side: ¡°Bro, are you already on board the relationship boat? When are you going to pay the fare? Give us a heads-up.¡± ¡°You think everyone is like you, getting on the boat before paying the fare,¡± Yang Ping retorted, giving him a punch. ¡°My parents are coming tomorrow. Xiao Su is helping me tidy the room. I¡¯ll be having surgery tomorrow, the one for Amniotic Band Syndrome in pediatric surgery. Xiao Su will pick up my parents for me,¡± Yang Ping clarified. Little Five chuckled: ¡°No wonder you didn¡¯t want me to go. I¡¯ve been wondering, why wasn¡¯t I given the job of picking up the parents for such a big event? So, the future daughter-in-law is picking them up, huh. I bet your parents won¡¯t be able to close their grinning mouths, especially your mum, she¡¯s always so eager.¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to be a father soon. Stop wandering around aimlessly. If there are more things to do at home and you need a break, just let me know,¡± said Yang Ping, changing the subject. ¡°It¡¯s alright, her mother is taking care of things. I just need to go to work as usual,¡± responded Little Five, relaxed. After chatting for a while, Yang Ping carried the shopping, Xiao Su holding his hand, and they went home together. They washed the vegetables together, giggling and frolicking in the process. Xiao Su then tied her apron and went to prepare the food in the kitchen. Yang Ping wanted to help, but Xiao Su shooed him away: ¡°Just sit on the sofa and watch TV, Professor Yang.¡± It couldn¡¯t be helped, he could assist with washing the vegetables, but his cooking skills were not only inadequate, but might also cause a disruption. Looks like it¡¯s just watching TV then. The tea on the table was hot, the fruit was freshly washed, and a box of tissues was also nearby. Wonderful! Having a woman around truly made a house feel like a home. Without a woman, it was just a house. A pleasant aroma wafted from the kitchen, and the first dish was served at the table soon. Chapter 284 - 0268: Crisis Chapter 284: Chapter 0268: Crisis With Xiao Su taking care of his parents, Yang Ping felt at ease. The time of the surgery was still undecided. The pregnant woman¡¯s entire examination results were now available. Her blood clotting function still posed a serious problem, and surgery could trigger massive bleeding. Amniotic fluid embolism remained a probability, but it was certain that the surgery would cause bleeding. The typical techniques for blocking large blood vessels were completely ineffective in this case. With two major risks in front of her, the pregnant woman showed no fear and insisted on having the surgery. The amniotic bands around the fetus¡¯s limbs and neck were already in stage three, severely impacting the blood supply to the distal parts. Both hands and feet, along with a few fingers and toes, had fused together. If the condition continued to progress, it would reach stage four, the most serious, which could cause limb disappearance due to the constriction bands, a sort of ¡®amputation¡¯ inside the womb. ... If it occurred around the neck, the head would suffer from lack of blood and oxygen, ultimately leading to the death of the fetus. The woman hadn¡¯t eaten breakfast or drunk water, preparing herself to go into surgery at any moment. Obstetricians had been constantly monitoring her ¨C the baby which used to be active, was now noticeably quieter, a sign of oxygen deprivation in its head. If they didn¡¯t operate soon, it might be too late. The obstetricians immediately reported the situation to Director Mei and Director Ke, who felt that the condition had deteriorated. ¡°Less fetal movement?¡± Director Mei was sensitive to this. ¡°Only eight times in twelve hours!¡± If the fetal movements were less than ten in twelve hours, it was dangerous, extremely dangerous. Postponing any longer could result in a stillbirth. They had originally planned to wait, resolve the coagulation dysfunction issue, and then proceed with the surgery. There was no time to wait now ¨C either they perform the surgery immediately, or not at all. For the fetus, it was now a matter of life and death. Director Mei and Director Ke informed the pregnant woman about the latest condition. She responded calmly, ¡°Doctor, please perform the surgery quickly. I want to save this child!¡± She clutched her husband¡¯s hand, ¡°Honey, I beg you, can you give me a chance? Let me have the surgery to save our baby.¡± Turning to the doctors, she said, ¡°Directors Mei and Ke, I know the surgery carries a huge risk, but it¡¯s not an absolute contraindication in medicine. I can record a video before the surgery, agreeing to bear all the risks of the operation.¡± ¡°Mingfang, promise me, support me, okay? If we don¡¯t try now, I will never feel at peace!¡± The pregnant woman held her husband¡¯s hand tightly and pleaded anxiously. Determined and fearless, the pregnant woman made up her mind. Her husband paced back and forth by the bedside, finding it difficult to make a decision. He clenched his teeth, stopped pacing, sat down beside the bed, wiped his wife¡¯s forehead sweat and said, ¡°Doctor, I agree. Please, is the risk really that high?¡± ¡°This operation is like trying to take off during bad weather. However, we¡¯ll give our all. If there is an unexpected event during surgery, like sudden major bleeding or an amniotic fluid embolism, we¡¯ll abandon saving the baby and focus on rescuing the mother,¡± Director Ke said with frankness, without any bias. The husband exchanged a look with his wife and nodded, ¡°In case of emergencies, concentrate on rescuing the adult, forsake the child.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s record a video now in front of the doctors!¡± The pregnant woman and her husband recorded a video reading out the informed consent for the surgery using their phone, then sent it to Director Mei and Director Ke. The idea was to ensure that the doctors put their all into the surgery without worrying about any internal family conflicts. Yang Ping had been waiting in the department for the surgery to start. Director Ke had instructed him to be on standby at all times since the condition of the fetus could deteriorate at any moment. If the family agreed, they would swiftly arrange an emergency surgery, for which they had already completed the preparations. He entered System Space, where the waterfall was growing stronger and the tree grander, the sky looked clear and majestic. He spent thirty thousand points to buy three hundred fetal surgeries. The more surgeries he performed, the easier it got to master the technique. The early operations were accumulating the foundation for the later ones. Fetal surgeries were exceedingly challenging because most of the fetus had to be immersed in the amniotic fluid to maintain its body temperature during the procedure, with only the local part of the surgery exposed. Moreover, the fetus was small, its structures delicate ¨C even a slight shake of the hand could potentially slice off an organ. For this pregnant woman, her clotting function was still impaired, making it hard to stop the bleeding, and the risk of major bleeding was high. Therefore, the hemostasis had to be meticulous during the surgery, the operating fast enough to minimize bleeding time. Another risk was an amniotic fluid embolism, which required the uterine incision to not be soaked in amniotic fluid, to prevent the fluid from entering the venous sinuses. All these details needed to be in check without any slip-ups to avoid dangers. In terms of relieving the amniotic band ¨C the Z-shaped remodeling method, commonly used in orthopedics, would be the solution. It could alter the path of the band. For instance, with a scar contracted in the web of the hand, remodeling could relocate the scar outside the web, converting the linear scar into a Z-shape, and alleviating the contraction entirely. Amniotic band syndrome also required a Z-shaped remodeling to loosen the constrictive band, change its course, and move it aside at an oblique angle, making the surgical incision zigzag. In this way, the constrictive band would be alleviated. Similar to cycling on a steep slope, going straight up is hard, but following a zigzag path to ascend would be much easier. After performing the surgery, Yang Ping rested in System Space. He was increasingly finding solace in the tranquility of performing surgeries alone in the space, where time vanished. No matter how long he stayed, it took just an instant in reality, using up none of its time. This gave him ample time to think and prepare for any complicated unheard-of diseases. Now, the system only assigned stage tasks, not single tasks. Each surgery was a single task that earned points, while stage tasks awarded substantial points. In this way, the points accumulated at each stage could be used to participate in surgery training, access the library, and prepare to complete the task of the next stage. Director Ke from Pediatric Surgery asked Yang Ping to come to his department to prepare for the surgery. As Song Zimo was present in the department, Yang Ping, free of worries, rushed to Pediatric Surgery to hear any special instructions Director Ke might have before the surgery. The doctors performing the surgery had to hold another discussion to ensure the safety of the procedure. ¡°Yang, there has been a change in the situation, and it¡¯s quite urgent,¡± Director Ke said gravely. ¡°The fetal activity has decreased considerably, posing a high risk. If it remains like this for long, the baby will die, and even if it survives, it will have severe cognitive disabilities due to abnormal brain development,¡± Director Mei said anxiously. ¡°We need to complete the surgery within an hour. It¡¯s difficult, but we can only try our best,¡± Director Ke remarked, feeling inadequate. This type of surgery required high precision. Preparing the anesthesia alone would take half an hour, leaving them only half an hour to address the constriction around the neck and improve the blood supply to the head. Director Ke knew Yang Ping was exceptional in microsurgery, but reattaching a severed finger and performing a fetal surgery were entirely different. However much they wanted to rush, they couldn¡¯t. They could only do their best. Director Ke led everyone hurriedly towards the operating room. Chapter 285 - 0269: Daughter-in-law meets Mother-in-law :i>Dsipgex (>>&8Chapter 0269: Daughter-in-law meets Mother-in-law The pregnant woman is already anesthetized, and the autologous blood transfusion machine is activated and ready. An associate chief physician from the pediatrics department is sterilizing with his attending physician. ¡°Scrub in!¡± Director Ke checks the patient¡¯s position and consults the monitoring data, rolling up his short-sleeved scrub gown. Surgeons, no fuss, all clean and efficient. Besides Yang Ping, Director Mei is also stepping onto the stage. They are most familiar with the anatomy of a pregnant woman¡¯s uterus and can help in the process. They perform so many Caesarean sections every day, they know how to operate their way into the uterus even with their eyes closed. ¡°Doctor Yang, you will be busy. You need to play the leading role in this surgery!¡± Director Ke said while scrubbing his hands. ... ¡°We are responsible for the exposure. The key steps in surgery are up to you.¡± Director Mei added. Indeed, both directors are in charge of entering the uterus, exposing the fetus. The remaining step, forming the Z shape, is to be completed by Yang Ping. ¡°What, are you getting ready for the operation?¡± Director Han also enters the operating room. ¡°Old Han, how come you¡¯re here too?¡± Director Ke knew that Director Han was busy and didn¡¯t dare disturb him. ¡°Just taking a look!¡± Director Han exclaimed with a smile. He came to support Yang Ping, or in other words, to share the risk. Normally he wouldn¡¯t ask about Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries, but he would be sure to be there at his side at the operating table at key moments. ¡°How many operating rooms? I¡¯ll go in first to check.¡± ¡ª¡ª ¡°Old Yang, what do you think of this girl?¡± The mother is always worried about Yang Ping finding a partner. A friend¡¯s daughter teaches in G City; if Yang Ping doesn¡¯t make a move, she plans to arrange a blind date. Dad is impatient: ¡°Why do you worry about nothing? We have our own grandchildren, all we need to do is not interfere, not hold him back. He has his own plans. I was able to find a wife even though I didn¡¯t go to university, so why couldn¡¯t he find a wife with his graduate degree? Now he needs to focus on his career; the competition in the big city is fierce. There are plenty of people marrying in their thirties, he¡¯s not even thirty yet, what¡¯s the rush?¡± ¡°What¡¯s the rush? You¡¯re not worried about anything. If we wait too long, all the good ones will be taken.¡± Mother loses interest and puts away her phone in a sulky mood. ¡°Is it like grocery shopping?¡± Father can¡¯t resist joking. ¡°Speaking of it, today he¡¯s performing surgery and asked a colleague to pick us up. What¡¯s going on?¡± Mother looks out the train window. ¡°Doctors are always busy, timings are highly uncertain, especially in big cities. Our child had an emergency surgery today. He must be unable to get away, which is why he asked his colleague to pick us up. He said that his colleague will be at the east gate exit holding a sign with our names on it. Follow me and don¡¯t go astray. There are scammers everywhere in the big city, and if you¡¯re not careful, you can lose money.¡± Father flips through the magazines he brought. ¡°You talk as if you¡¯re rich, saying we¡¯ll lose money at any inattentive moment.¡± Mother scoffs. Father was about to retort when the announcement rang out, they¡¯ve arrived at the station. ¡°Dear passengers, the final stop of this train, Nandu station, is now reached. Please take all your belongings¡ª¡ª¡± Father carries two large bags, and Mother follows him amidst the crowd towards the exit. ¡°Stay close to me, there are so many people, pull my clothes.¡± ¡°How can I pull your clothes when you¡¯re carrying stuff? I¡¯ll just follow you.¡± ¡°Why are you pulling on my bag?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you ask me to pull on it?¡± It was difficult to pass through the turnstile with all the stuff. They went through the side manual channel. ¡°East Gate! Head towards the East Gate.¡± Father¡¯s eyesight is good, he knows how to read guide signs, followed those pointed out. ¡°Old Yang, take a break, don¡¯t strain your back.¡± Mother, feeling a bit of sympathy. ¡°Over there, the East Gate exit.¡± Mother looks in the direction of the crowd, accurately spotting the exit. The two stop near the door, looking around for someone holding a sign. Finally, they see the welcoming sign with their names on it, held by a tall and beautiful girl. ¡°Is it her?¡± Father asks Mother. Mother takes a glance at the tall and pretty girl. ¡°A colleague? Female?¡± ¡°Female, let¡¯s go ask.¡± Father had trouble carrying the luggage. Mother, who is exceptionally gifted in language, was able to speak fluent Mandarin by watching TV. ¡°Hello, young lady, are you Yang Ping¡¯s colleague?¡± ¡°Uncle, auntie, hello!¡± Xiao Su immediately puts down the welcome sign. ¡°Just call me Xiao Su. Yang Ping is currently in surgery, so I came to pick you up. Let me take your things.¡± Xiao Su is very enthusiastic. ¡°Young lady, these things are heavy, I¡¯d better carry them.¡± Father doesn¡¯t put down his luggage. ¡°Auntie, let me help you with your things.¡± Xiao Su helps Mother with the luggage. ¡°Uncle, auntie, please follow me, the car is parked at the parking lot over there.¡± Xiao Su immediately leads the way. What a lovely girl she is. Sweet-mouthed, beautiful, well-educated, and her body shape is great too, Mrs. Yang thought as they walked. At the parking lot, Xiao Su opened the trunk, ¡°Uncle, you can put your stuff here.¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid it might dirty your car.¡± Mr. Yang hesitated. ¡°No worries, Uncle!¡± Xiao Su helped Mr. Yang move his luggage. Mr. Yang was very careful, as if afraid to scratch someone else¡¯s car. ¡°Miss, you are Pingping¡¯s colleague, right?¡± Mrs. Yang seized the opportunity to ask. Xiao Su replied shyly, ¡°Uncle, Auntie, I am Yang Ping¡¯s girlfriend. Auntie, you can simply call me Xiao Su, Su from Suzhou.¡± The hall was too noisy earlier, making their conversation unclear, so Xiao Su forgot to introduce herself. A girlfriend? This kid, he did not even bother telling his mother about his fantastic girlfriend. ¡°So, Xiao Su, is that right?¡± Mrs. Yang was a little nervous. ¡°Yes, Auntie, my name is Su Yixuan!¡± Xiao Su remarked, feeling a bit nervous under Mrs. Yang¡¯s scrutinizing gaze. Usually, wives get nervous meeting their mothers-in-law, but right now even the mother-in-law was feeling a bit nervous, and somewhat excited. After placing the luggage in the car, Xiao Su immediately opened the car door, ¡°Uncle, Auntie, shall we get in the car now?¡± When the couple had seated themselves in the car, Xiao Su also got in and handed a bottle of water to each, ¡°Uncle, Auntie, I know you must be tired from the journey. You must be thirsty, please have some water.¡± ¡°Thank you, thank you!¡± Mr. Yang accepted the water. ¡°Where is your home? And do you also work in the hospital?¡± ¡°Auntie, I am a local, and I work in the same hospital as Yang Ping as an operating room nurse.¡± ¡°Nurses are great!¡± Mrs. Yang was quite pleased. She had passed her test on occupation, as Mrs. Yang was also a nurse, albeit an unlicensed one. Mr. Yang was sitting upright, tugging at his wife¡¯s clothes, trying not to distract Xiao Su who was driving. ¡°Yang Ping had to attend an emergency surgery today, so he really couldn¡¯t make it...¡± Xiao Su was explaining for Yang Ping, and also introducing the developments along the way as well as details about the hospital. As they reached near the hospital, ¡°Uncle, Auntie, look, that¡¯s our hospital! Yang Ping and I both work in Orthopedics.¡± This is huge? Even larger than the provincial hospital back home, the situation is indeed different in developed places. The kid has done well for himself, working in such a place. The car entered the community parking lot. When Xiao Su offered to help with the luggage, Mr. Yang immediately stopped her, ¡°Dear, let Uncle do it. The things are heavy.¡± Xiao Su had to help Mrs. Yang with the lighter items. When they reached the apartment that Yang Ping had rented, the elderly couple took the initiative to change their shoes and put away their things. Actually, to carry their things, Mr. Yang had bought two brand new large canvas bags that were extremely clean. Xiao Su took out some fruits and poured tea, showing the hospitality of a woman of the house. ¡°Uncle, Auntie, you can wash your faces and take a rest. We will have lunch at home, and then we can go out for dinner in the evening. We are currently renting this house, but we do plan on buying one soon.¡± This rabbit, without uttering a word, he found such an excellent wife for his mother. Let her worry for nothing, wait and see how she will deal with him. It isn¡¯t rented, right? She¡¯d heard that some young people rent girlfriends to deal with parental pressure to get married. Mrs.Yang, who had an active imagination, came up with this idea. ¡°Yang Ping is now a key technical person in our department. Our director has a high opinion of him.¡± Xiao Su introduced Yang Ping¡¯s situation. ¡°Uncle, Auntie, I have prepared the water.¡± Xiao Su adjusted the water temperature in the bathroom, filled up a new basin, and even had a towel ready. ¡°Such a sensible child!¡± The elderly couple was overjoyed. ¡°Yang Ping¡¯s surgery should be almost over. I will go to the kitchen and make some food. Uncle, Auntie, you both can take rest and watch some TV¡± Xiao Su then turned on the TV. The elderly couple washed their faces and sat on the sofa to rest. ¡°We can manage on our own, you can go ahead.¡± ¡°Auntie, I¡¯ll help you.¡± ¡°Auntie, you can rest for a while.¡± ¡°No problem, Auntie cannot sit idle.¡± She doesn¡¯t just look pretty, she can cook too. We are assured now, really assured. Wasn¡¯t it said that the girls from the big city don¡¯t cook? They only know how to make scrambled eggs with tomatoes. As it appears, rumors can¡¯t be trusted. Chapter 286 - 0270: Old Driver :i>Dsipgex (>=&8Chapter 0270: Old Driver ¡°Can I?¡± Director Mei doesn¡¯t hesitate when it comes to performing a hysterotomy, no one in the hospital is more adept than him. Director Ke has only performed a few hundred while Director Mei performs several every day resulting in more than ten thousand in total, with no intent to brag. As the knife cut through the skin of the abdomen, blood pouring out rapidly due to coagulation dysfunction making it appear rather daunting. Bipolar coagulation is their only option. Despite having an autologous blood recycling machine and plenty of allogeneic blood prepared, heavy blood loss and massive consumption of clotting factors may lead to disseminated intravascular coagulation. Both directors are highly experienced surgeons. They handle bipolar coagulation skillfully, accompanied by buzzing sounds and occasional tiny sparks, effectively stopping the bleeding from the skin. ... The two of them haven¡¯t collaborated in a while. When Director Ke first performed fetal surgery, he was not familiar with entering the uterus and always called Director Mei for assistance. As he got more proficient, they collaborated less. But this patient is unique and high-risk which brought the two back together to operate. Director Mei is one of the few male obstetricians, handsome just like the current popular attractive actors. If he was a bit younger, he could easily fit into the entertainment industry. His fingers are slender, instrumental in playing the piano quite well. Each year at the New Year¡¯s hospital gala, Director Mei¡¯s piano performance has become a traditional program. ¡°Don¡¯t rush, let¡¯s stop the bleeding first.¡± After halting any superficial bleeding, Director Mei started an incision in the deep fascia. His hands have delivered over ten thousand babies, constantly entering the uterus from the abdomen, a process he knows like the back of his hand. Director Mei always handles each procedure carefully, each movement as light as possible. Whenever he performs a cesarean section he always personally removes the baby, conscious not to cause any harm to the little ones. His assistants often question why his removal of babies always feels like a sacred ritual. Director Mei replied, ¡°You young people wouldn¡¯t understand. Every baby I deliver is not ordinary, they might grow up to be a Nobel laureate, a national leader, or historical figures that change the world. We must carry a responsibility to history!¡± The bleeding is well controlled. Even with coagulation dysfunction and the self-clotting ability of human blood weakened, the bipolar coagulation in the hands of the surgeons makes up for this flaw. It carbonizes and shrinks the ends of the blood vessels with heat, thereby achieving physical hemostasis. Abdominal skin, subcutaneous tissue, deep fascia, muscles, peritoneum, up to the uterus, Director Mei paused, ¡°Check the blood loss. How much is it now?¡± ¡°600 milliliters!¡± The patrolling nurse counted the blood pads, checked the suction bottle, did a quick calculation, and came up with the number. The bleeding was concerning as the fetus hadn¡¯t shown up yet. Director Mei frowned, ¡°We need to be careful when opening the uterus, don¡¯t let the amniotic fluid soak the wound!¡± ¡°This is not a delivery, the pressure won¡¯t be high.¡± Director Ke assists Director Mei the whole way. ¡°We still don¡¯t completely understand the mechanism of amniotic fluid embolism, it¡¯s better to be cautious.¡± ¡°Yes, indeed, there is definitely a high risk.¡± ¡°Shall I start?¡± Director Mei spoke loudly, alerting the anesthesiologist to keep an eye on the expectant mother¡¯s vital signs. Director Mei delicately cut into the uterus and then performed hemostasis. The little one had curled up inside, with his hands touching his neck, exactly where the tight coil was located, seemingly trying to rescue itself. ¡°Without our assistance, you won¡¯t get anywhere. Don¡¯t worry, darling. We¡¯re here,¡± Director Mei said with an empathetic tone. He touched the fetal¡¯s heart with a finger, ¡°The heartbeat is still there but it¡¯s slowing down, we need to speed up.¡± ¡°Old Ke, I¡¯ll leave the rest to you. All I know is how to enter and then take it out,¡± Director Mei finished his task. Director Ke grabbed Director Mei¡¯s hand, not for any other reason, but he was afraid that Director Mei, used to performing C-sections and extracting babies, might reflexively take out the baby. ¡°Stay still, I¡¯ll take care of this!¡± Director Ke said carefully. The microscope was wheeled over. Director Ke adjusted it to suit his needs, he angled it just right and started the procedure under the microscope. Although he manipulated for a while, he was unable to speed up for fear of errors. ¡°Xiao Yang, you give it a try!¡± As an honest man, Director Ke wanted to see who between him and Yang Ping would be quicker, so higher safety could be ensured by letting the fastest one finish the operation. Director Han on the sidelines said, ¡°Xiao Su, where¡¯s Xiao Su? Let Xiao Su assist on the table!¡± ¡°Xiao Su had something to deal with today, he went to pick up his uncle and aunt,¡± Yang Ping swiftly replied. Director Han uttered a sound of acknowledgment and began personally directing the scrub nurse to pass instruments, ensuring the rhythm of surgery. Yang Ping had already drafted the plan in his mind. A tiny scalpel lightly cut through the neck area, following a circular route, making intersecting incisions at a slanting sixty-degree angle, equidistant and parallel, encircling the entire area. Director Mei steadied the baby¡¯s position with both hands, allowing changes to the head position as Yang Ping worked. This allowed the scalpel to complete the pattern of circular incisions. The ¡®Z-shape transformation¡¯ was simple, yet it embodied human geometric wisdom. It didn¡¯t remove anything, nor did it add anything, it just formed a circle of triangular flaps from a ring of incisions. These triangular flaps interlocked, were rearranged, and magically, the tight bandage disappeared. The surgical scalpel, like the paintbrush in an artist¡¯s hand, sliced through each skin flap down to the deep fascia, examining whether the nerves and blood vessels underneath had ruptured or were blocked. They were confirmed to be intact. He proceeded to juxtapose the triangular flaps in a continuous misalignment, then stitched them together using tiny absorbable sutures. Director Ke was about to offer the young surgeon some tips, but the latter was too nimble for him. ¡°Slow- careful- slower- oh my- don¡¯t be so quick!¡± Director Ke¡¯s heart pounded as he squinted into the eyepiece of the microscope. The scalpel in his visual field moved too fast. Young man, take it easy, you¡¯re scaring me. ¡°Xiao Yang, take it easy. My heart is on edge. This is a bit scary, it¡¯s making my blood pressure go up. Don¡¯t perform surgery like this next time, t¡¯s prone to complications!¡± Director Ke gasped for air. Director Mei didn¡¯t understand Director Ke¡¯s words since he hadn¡¯t watched the surgical procedure unfold. Old Han stood aside, laughing, ¡°Old Ke, your bravery only reaches as big as a sesame seed.¡± ¡°I was wondering why Orthopedics progressed so swiftly lately. Old Han, you have so many talented subordinates. Now the Trauma Orthopedics department also wants to compete with the affiliated hospital for dominance. Sports Medicine is also catching up fast. Once you get Spinal Joint surgery up and running, you can establish a hospital within a hospital.¡± Director Mei, having nothing to do, kept the fetal position steady. ¡°Can I hold it for a while?¡± Director Ke offered to help hold the baby in position. ¡°No, you can¡¯t handle it, I better do it.¡± Director Mei refused to let go. The ¡®Z-shape¡¯ transformation on the baby¡¯s neck was completed, the bandage was untied and the fetus was out of danger. Director Ke checked the time. The surgery had only been half an hour so far. The subsequent operations on the limbs could be performed more leisurely. The process of loosening the bandages on the limbs was very similar to the neck, with even lower risks. After resolving the bandages on the limbs, it was time for the fingers and toes. These needed to be reshaped and separated. The entire fetus was less than thirty centimeters long, and the fingers and toes were as tiny as rice grains. Cutting them was no different from carving rice. If there was the slightest carelessness, a shaking hand, a finger would disappear. Imagine having to search for a missing finger in the amniotic fluid. How exasperating could that be? He swapped the scalpel blade for a finer one. ¡°Slowly, slowly!¡± Director Ke got anxious again. A person who has never driven fast and suddenly gets to sit in the passenger¡¯s seat of a race car driver. The driver stomps on the gas pedal and speeds frantically, it would make anyone go pale with fear. ¡°Stop shouting, let him work, he won¡¯t make a mistake.¡± Old Han saw that Director Ke¡¯s constant reactions were not only unhelpful but interfered with Yang Ping¡¯s surgery. After the finger separation was completed, the lymphedema at the distal end of the toe band was much larger than normal. Yang Ping drew out the lymphatic fluid from inside, then performed a reshaping operation on this enlarged toe, reducing it to its normal size. ¡°Xiao Yang, is this your first time performing fetal surgery? You¡¯re so skillful?¡± Director Ke truly could not believe this was Yang Ping¡¯s first time performing this operation. No matter how you look at it, it didn¡¯t seem like it was his first time. His movements were incredibly seasoned and experienced. That kind of skill could only be attained with decades of experience, yet he was so young. ¡°Orthopedic doesn¡¯t have any fetal surgeries for him to do. He can drive right away once he gets in the car!¡± Director Mei¡¯s words were interesting. ¡°A natural-born old driver!¡± Director Ke agreed. ¡°There are people that are natural-born drivers? I took my driver¡¯s license test, and for the second subject, I had to retake it once and I am still stuck on the right-angle turn. Now I dare not take the test anymore.¡± A young circulating nurse who had stepped out to fetch something just came back in. Hearing the conversation about driving, she was very interested. Director Ke said seriously, ¡°Then you should invite Doctor Yang to take you for a drive, then you would be proficient.¡± ¡°Really, Doctor Yang? Old driver, can you make time to bring me out for a drive one day?¡± The circulating nurse found a pro. Everyone in the operating room burst into laughter, leaving the circulating nurse puzzled. What was everyone laughing at? ¡°You can ask him to give you a ride, but you must ask Nurse Su whether she agrees or not.¡± said the scrub nurse. ¡°It¡¯s just a drive, she wouldn¡¯t be that petty, right?¡± The circulating nurse still didn¡¯t understand. With a tone of criticism, Director Mei said, ¡°The orientation of young people has not been well handled, whoever is the senior teacher should be held accountable.¡± Chapter 287 - 0271: Supernatural Event :i>Dsipgex (><&8Chapter 0271: Supernatural Event Yang Ping put away the microscope and was done with the surgery for amniotic band syndrome. ¡°Let me check you out, little fella. Don¡¯t be afraid, the surgery is over.¡± Director Mei reaches out to feel the fetal heartbeat, but after a few minutes, expresses disappointment: ¡°Still too slow.¡± ¡°The blood flow in the neck should have been freed up, it should be getting better.¡± Director Mei frowns.¡± Such a surgery should show immediate improvement, especially since the decrease in fetal heart rate and movement had not been happening for long and the surgery was timely. Could there still be an issue, or was the surgery unsuccessful? ... ¡°Let¡¯s wait and watch a bit. Anesthesiologist, monitor the vital signs; patrolling nurse, track the blood loss and urine output. ¡± Director Ke advises patience. It¡¯s like reattaching a severed finger. After the surgery, the finger is still white and hasn¡¯t regained color. We need to determine the reason and can¡¯t leave the operating table hastily. ¡°Let me examine again.¡± Director Mei carefully examines with one hand supporting the fetus and the other hand. She thoroughly examines the head, neck, chest, abdomen, back, lumbosacral spine, and limbs. Director Mei plans to also check the umbilical cord, sometimes it¡¯s restricted by the amniotic band, further causing blood and oxygen supply problems. The little guy is naive. He folds his umbilical cord in his hand. Perhaps he¡¯s afraid of someone taking it. There¡¯s no problem with the umbilical cord after examining it.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no problem?¡± Director Mei trusts her careful examination. Still worried, Director Ke examines again, but finds no problem: ¡°Is it neck vessel spasm? Wait some more!¡± After waiting another ten minutes without improvement, they knew they couldn¡¯t continue like this. Although they stopped the bleeding with bipolar electrocoagulation, some bleeding was still seeping through the wound. It¡¯s not good to leave the fetus this exposed for a long time. Director Ke decides to communicate with the pregnant woman¡¯s husband about closing the uterus, it carries certain risks, but now there¡¯s no apparent reason for the complications. In the family waiting area, Zhong Mingfang, the husband of the pregnant woman, waits anxiously. Even though it¡¯s just a little over an hour, it feels like a year. Director Ke removes her surgical gown, steps out of the operating room, opens the door, and shouts to the family waiting area: ¡°Mr. He Liru!¡± Zhong Mingfang jumped up like a spring, rushing over, ¡°Doctor, what¡¯s happened, save the mother, forget about the child!¡± Director Ke has a bittersweet reaction to his radical response: ¡°The surgery is over, the condition of the patient is stable.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± Sweat pours off Zhong Mingfang¡¯s forehead. ¡°Here¡¯s the situation: we¡¯ve finished your child¡¯s surgery and it went well, but after the operation the fetal heart rate remains slow. We¡¯ve checked everything and found no other problems. We¡¯re prepared to close the abdominal cavity. If there is no improvement after a long time following the operation, I¡¯m afraid we won¡¯t be able to save the fetus.¡± ¡°No worries, doctor, please proceed with the closure, prioritize the mother!¡± Zhong Mingfang finally feels relieved. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s proceed.¡± Director Ke returns to the operating room, re-scrubs and heads back to the surgical table: ¡°Close up!¡± Director Mei adjusts the position of the fetus to make it comfortable in the womb. After adjusting, she takes the needle and thread from the nurse and begins to close the uterus. The fetus suddenly moves the moment the needle pierces the uterine wall. Director Mei immediately stops suturing. ¡°Anesthesiologist, what¡¯s going on? The fetus is moving!¡± The anesthesiologist is also confused: ¡°The anesthesia dosage is normal. We can¡¯t give more. The pregnant woman¡¯s anesthesia depth is just right, and her vital signs are normal.¡± Director Mei stops, and the fetus doesn¡¯t move. After observing a bit, Director Mei thinks it¡¯s fine and begins to suture the uterus again. Well, holy moly, the fetus starts moving again, showing no respect at all. Director Mei is confounded, it¡¯s as if the baby doesn¡¯t want her to sew the uterus closed; it¡¯s not supposed to be that magical, right? She stops the suturing, and the fetus stops moving again. Directors Mei and Ke exchange confused glances: ¡°What¡¯s going on? Does this baby not want to stay inside any longer?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not ideal, it¡¯s too early. Be patient, hold on a bit longer. When it¡¯s the right time, I¡¯ll personally help deliver you, okay? Can you cooperate a bit?¡± Director Mei speaks to the fetus as if it can understand her. ¡°Close it up, Director Mei!¡± Director Ke urges. But as soon as the needle pierces the uterine wall, the fetus starts moving again. When Director Mei stops, he stops. Could the needle piercing the uterus cause him pain or trigger some sort of nerve reflex? But he didn¡¯t react when the uterus was first incised. This is so weird, it¡¯s like something supernatural. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Old Han, noticing the peculiarity on this side, comes over to ask. Director Mei smiles bitterly: ¡°This little fella isn¡¯t letting me close the uterus. As soon as I begin with the needle and thread, he starts moving. Is this some sort of protest?¡± Everyone here is a disciple of science who interprets phenomena through scientific knowledge. For unexplainable phenomena, though, they will simply conclude: mechanism unknown. Forced to wait for a while, Director Mei lowered his head: ¡°I don¡¯t believe it!¡± He began to suture again. Every time he did, the fetus would become restless, sometimes even kicking. Once the suturing stopped, the fetus would settle down. This pattern repeated each time Director Mei attempted to suture. ¡°Strange!¡± Having practiced medicine for over twenty years, he¡¯d never seen such a phenomenon. He asked Director Ke, ¡°How do you explain that?¡± ¡°You¡¯re asking me? Don¡¯t you work with these little ones every day?¡± Even Director Ke was clueless. Although there was no apparent logical connection, a clear chronological order was evident. Suturing and fetal movement were somehow linked, even if it wasn¡¯t a cause-and-effect relationship. ¡°Suture it!¡± Director Mei decided to forcefully continue suturing. He refused to be thwarted by such peculiarity. Handling a needle holder and toothed forceps, he began to suture. The fetus immediately became restless. Ignoring this, he continued, managing to apply three sutures. The restlessness of the child increased, as if it was about to lose control. Possibly due to increased oxygen consumption and insufficient blood oxygen supply, the color of the fetus¡¯s face also changed. Director Mei didn¡¯t dare to continue suturing anymore and immediately stopped. He placed the needle holder back on the kidney dish. ¡°Let¡¯s wait a bit, no more suturing for now.¡± However, merely observing wasn¡¯t a solution either. The cause needed to be found. Director Mei said, ¡°Get Director Deng.¡± While Director Deng was not the Department Director, she was the oldest in the department having retired and then returned to outpatient care. This made her very experienced. Maybe she could find out the reason. The patrolling nurse helped to call the outpatient department and locate Director Deng. Director Deng, a skinny old lady in her sixties, arrived shortly. After washing her hands and donning her surgical gown, she removed the sutures that Director Mei had inserted and examined the fetus in the womb. Finding no abnormalities, she shook her head, clueless. What now? There was no solution? While waiting in the operating room for a solution, Old Han, who had been standing aside all this while, suggested, ¡°Let¡¯s call Professor Zhang Zongshun.¡± Professor Zhang specialized in Orthopedics. Consulting him for issues related to obstetrics, gynaecology and pediatric surgery seemed odd. However, since it was a suggestion from Director Han, it couldn¡¯t be dismissed. ¡°Okay, then I¡¯ll bother Director Han to please ask Professor Zhang to come.¡± It wasn¡¯t that Professor Zhang was adept at obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatric surgery. Rather, he had a reputation for delving deeply into problems with a broad knowledge base. He often elevated his research to philosophical dimensions. Like in Orthopedics, for correcting deformities, he had written a book starting from human evolution and had clearly elaborated the theoretical foundation. He had a solid grasp of some basic sciences ¨C not just anatomy, but even inflammation ¨C he could explain it even better than pathology textbooks. As everyone awaited in the operating room, Professor Zhang was still attending to his patients in the outpatient department. He had to settle his patient affairs first. Meanwhile, the blood pressure of the pregnant woman was okay. Director Han briefly explained the situation to Professor Zhang, who arrived in the operating room within ten-fifteen minutes. ¡°Professor Zhang¡ª¡± Wherever he went, anyone present would respectfully greet him as Professor Zhang. Responding with a simple gesture, he entered the operating room and asked, ¡®What surgery is this?¡¯ ¡°Amniotic band syndrome. The neck and all four limbs have constriction bands. The surgery was over but can¡¯t close the uterus. As soon as it was sutured, the fetus became restless. Previously, the movement of the fetus had actually decreased and showed signs of hypoxia,¡± Director Mei briefed him about the condition. ¡°As soon as we suture, it moves. If we do not suture, it stops. We had just sutured three times, and it became extremely restless, as if it was about to kick and punch. Its face even turned bluish.¡± Director Ke added. ¡°Can you suture a stitch for me to see?¡± Professor Zhang asked, stepping onto a stepping stool brought over by the patrolling nurse. Because he couldn¡¯t get too close to the operating table, he stood on the stepping stool for better visibility. Director Mei demonstrated. Indeed, as soon as he began suturing, the fetus would move. If he stopped, so would the fetus. However, the movements now were not as intense as before. It was probably tired. ¡°Have the blood vessels in the neck been thoroughly examined ¨C no obstruction?¡± Professor Zhang asked. The surgery was performed by Yang Ping, who replied, ¡°Once the constriction rings were released, the blood flow was restored. I performed a detailed examination; there were no issues.¡± ¡°Before the surgery, was there a slowing of the fetal heart rate?¡± ¡°Yes, it had slowed down!¡± ¡°Did the fetal heart rate improve after surgery?¡± ¡°No!¡± Without answering, he walked around the operating table, checking the mother¡¯s monitoring data, asked the anesthesiologist a few questions. Director Han brought over a stool for him to sit. He declined, ¡°I want to take a look up close.¡± Professor Zhang scrubbed his hands and ascended to the operating table. He asked everyone to stay steady while Director Mei and Director Ke helped expose the hooks. After a thorough examination, Professor Zhang¡¯s initially stern expression seemed to relax. Had he discovered the problem? Chapter 288: 0272: Survival Instinct Chapter 288: Chapter 0272: Survival Instinct ¡°Check the umbilical cord, it might be entangled by the amniotic band.¡± Professor Zhang gently lifted the baby¡¯s hand, his hand holding the umbilical cord, just like how he started to touch the neck before. ¡°You, Xiao Yang, investigate the umbilical cord.¡± Upon receiving the order from Professor Zhang, Yang Ping began to inspect the umbilical cord, looking carefully, bit by bit. There seemed to be no problem on the surface. Yang Ping lightly touched the cord with his hand. ¡°Micro scissors!¡± Yang Ping was about to gently cut open one part of the cord with micro scissors, but Director Mei stopped him: ¡°Don¡¯t move, the umbilical cord must not be disturbed!¡± ... The cord was the source of oxygen and nutrients for the fetus, how could it be casually disturbed? Besides, an Orthopedic doctor had no business messing with the cord. Director Mei¡¯s action was light as he stopped Yang Ping¡¯s hand. Yang Ping was quite embarrassed and looked towards Professor Zhang. Professor Zhang looked down at the cord and also touched it with his hand: ¡°There¡¯s a hidden constriction ring here, let him open it so you can see.¡± How could Director Mei distrust Professor Zhang¡¯s judgement? He withdrew his hand. Yang Ping delicately opened the surface of the cord to reveal the constriction ring inside. ¡°The problem lies here!¡± Professor Zhang pointed it out for the directors to see. Both directors took turns to look under the assistant¡¯s eyepiece and were stunned. There wasn¡¯t just a constriction ring, there was also partial necrosis of the cord. Perhaps it hadn¡¯t necrotized the blood vessels yet, so their blood flow had been uninterrupted. Once this constriction ring tightened, the gap became very small and the tissues at both ends fused together, making it look completely normal from the outside. ¡°You have to remove this section and re-anastomose the umbilical cord. Let¡¯s first loosen the constriction ring and see.¡± Professor Zhang told Yang Ping. Yang Ping loosened the constriction ring. The blood vessels inside had necrotized a bit as well. Professor Zhang took a look under the microscope. ¡°Feel the fetal heartbeat!¡± Director Mei felt it and the signs were immediately clear. The fetal heartbeat had indeed sped up. This old man¡¯s skills were truly extraordinary. He wasn¡¯t even a gynecologist, yet he knew that the problem lay in the umbilical cord. ¡°I have patients waiting in the clinic, perform the procedure yourselves. Cut off all of the necrotized parts and leave them behind. Then re-anastomose. If you keep them, the blood vessels in the cord could become clogged due to necrosis.¡± Professor Zhang began to take off his clothes and gloves. Director Mei, taking advantage of him not having left yet, hurriedly asked: ¡°Professor Zhang, how did you know that the problem was with the umbilical cord?¡± ¡°The miracles of mankind are far more complicated than you imagine. This act is a self-protection instinct of the human body. Didn¡¯t you see how his hand was always around the cord as if he wanted to grasp it? Whether it¡¯s after birth or inside the mother¡¯s belly, when in desperate circumstances or left without any support, the latent instincts become aroused, leading to certain behaviors that are hard to understand. He is trying to save himself, he wants to live. The critical problem was not addressed by you all, and you were about to close the uterus. How could he consent?¡± After finishing, Professor Zhang hurriedly left, leaving behind the half-understanding Director Mei. Director Ke wanted to ask more, but he was too late. The room full of people was left in a daze. Could a tiny fetus really try to save itself? What kind of theory was that? Was he telling a bedtime story? ¡°I don¡¯t understand, it¡¯s like a supernatural event.¡± said the anesthesiologist. Director Mei came to: ¡°It is indeed so, there are fetuses who have heard that their parents don¡¯t want them, want to abort them, and they are so desperate that they wrap themselves with the umbilical cord. The secrets of human beings, there are many that medicine currently can¡¯t unravel.¡± ¡°Is the old man a god?¡± Director Ke exclaimed. ¡°Otherwise, how could he be the leader of the expert group?¡± Director Mei was also impressed. Sometimes you have to admit the value of experience. With age comes wisdom. Problems you ponder over for half a day can be solved by others in minutes. Yang Ping exposed the whole necrotic part of the umbilical cord ¨C it was not very long, about one centimeter. But the fetus was just thirty centimeters long, so this one centimeter was quite significant. He carefully touched the other parts again, they should be fine now. ¡°We need to cut and re-anastomose the umbilical cord. That will complicate things. Let¡¯s communicate with the family.¡± This time it was Director Mei¡¯s turn to go out and talk. The surgery today was complicated. Zhong Mingfang was waiting outside, anxious. Every so often he¡¯d look towards the operating room door, hoping his wife would be wheeled out. Each time someone was wheeled out, he¡¯d rush over ¨C but it wasn¡¯t her! Some relatives even thought he had malicious intentions. When their family¡¯s patient was wheeled out, he rushed over. Especially when it was a woman who had just gone through a c-section, he rushed over faster than the husband, nearly getting beaten up. Both Zhong Mingfang and his wife were graduates of Southwest Political and Law. Upon graduation, he wanted to continue his studies, but his financial situation didn¡¯t allow it. His wife gave up postgraduate studies to work and financially supported Zhong Mingfang while he got his master¡¯s degree. Afterwards, they opened a law office together, and were quite well-known in G city. Their biggest regret in life was their inability to have children. After much effort, they had managed to conceive a baby through artificial insemination using their own sperm and eggs. But now they were facing such a situation. Alas, fate lacked this one thing and it couldn¡¯t be helped. The door finally opened: ¡°The family of He Liru!¡± Zhong Mingfang rushed over quickly: ¡°Here, Director Mei!¡± ¡°There¡¯s a new situation. Your child¡¯s umbilical cord also has a hidden constriction ring, and it¡¯s necrotic. We have to cut it and re-anastomose it.¡± ¡°Is the adult okay?¡± Zhong Mingfang was very nervous. ¡°The adult is temporarily stable and can tolerate more surgery. If we don¡¯t take this step, it¡¯s like giving up on the fetus. This step will take another hour. Are you willing to continue? The patient is still stable, there¡¯s risk, but we can try.¡± Now he had to decide by himself. As long as the adult was fine, they should go ahead. His wife was determined to have this child, and he also wanted it. Things had come to this point. ¡°Alright! You all have worked hard.¡± ¡°It¡¯s our duty. The bedside doctor will come over to you to sign a new informed consent form. Our surgery will keep going, and we won¡¯t delay.¡± Things really had their ups and downs. Zhong Mingfang now realized how helpless one could feel when they get sick, and this strong sense of dependency on doctors. He felt conflicted, he didn¡¯t want anything to happen to his wife, but he also wanted the child. If he had to choose one between the two, he¡¯d choose his wife; if he could choose both, of course that would be great. However, he didn¡¯t know if fate would grant him that chance. Now he heard that his wife was still stable, but their child was in trouble. The doctor was trying to cut the umbilical cord and join it together again, just the thought of it gave him a headache. A young female doctor came out with an informed consent form for surgery and asked Zhong Mingfang to sign it, because they hadn¡¯t considered the operation to cut and join the umbilical cord again. These doctors, they seemed to be always revolving around his wife¡¯s situation. They hadn¡¯t even had lunch yet. He asked cautiously, ¡°You guys haven¡¯t had lunch yet, right?¡± ¡°Oh, no, your wife¡¯s situation is urgent. The director said we¡¯d eat after the operation is finished,¡± the young doctor said casually. They were really working hard. Zhong Mingfang felt a bit guilty. He didn¡¯t know if they would accept his invitation to go for a meal, but he also didn¡¯t have time. He was going to be with his wife soon; anyhow, he was all muddled up. Usually he was quick-thinking and logical, but now his mind was a mess, a boiling mess. Director Mei returned to the operating room: ¡°Let¡¯s cut it and re-anastomose.¡± This umbilical cord was just like a little rat¡¯s tail. But to Yang Ping, this was an easy task. Director Ke was glad that he asked his colleagues from orthopedics for help. Otherwise, in this situation, they could only do the surgery, close her up, and go home. The fetus would die in the womb in a few days and perhaps there could be an intrauterine infection. It was horrifying just thinking about it. ¡°Cut?¡± Yang Ping confirmed again. We can¡¯t just cut. It¡¯s your patient, you need to give the go-ahead. Director Mei permitted him: ¡°Cut.¡± They cut the necrotic part and under the microscope they re-anastomosed the umbilical arteries and veins. The fetus had strong healing abilities, far beyond what an adult could accomplish. Essentially, they didn¡¯t have to do anything after anastomosing the blood vessels; there was hardly a chance of vascular crisis. Otherwise, if a vascular crisis occurred, and the fetus was in the womb, they would have to open the womb and operate again. Anastomosing the blood vessels was straightforward, and there were just two blood vessels. It only took a few moments. ¡°Re-anastomosis done?¡± ¡°Done!¡± Dr. Yang from orthopedics was indeed skilled, just like an experienced driver once he was behind the wheel. Director Mei checked the fetal heartbeat. It was good, and the blood flow was also good. He observed for several minutes before he finally felt relieved: ¡°Close up the uterus.¡± ¡°Artificial amniotic fluid!¡± Since opening the uterus would cause a loss of some amniotic fluid, they needed to add artificial amniotic fluid to maintain the volume. Otherwise, the fetus would be at risk again due to a lack of amniotic fluid after surgery. Director Mei watched closely while suturing, he felt a bit paranoid. Really, the little one had finally quieted down. Was Professor Zhang Zongshun right about the fetus¡¯s instinct to survive? Director Mei felt it would be worthwhile to seriously look up some information, ask his friends and former classmates, and conduct proper research on this issue. Chapter 289: 0273: The Mistress Chapter 289: Chapter 0273: The Mistress The surgery was finally over, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Such twists and turns with just one surgery. Yang Ping almost forgot that his parents had come today, and Xiao Su had picked them up. They should be having lunch by now, and he wondered how things were going. ¡°Thank you for your hard work, Doctor Yang! Thank you Director Han!¡± Director Mei and Director Ke were quite grateful to the orthopedics team. The critical steps of today¡¯s surgery were all handled by them, and they even helped resolve the strange incident that occurred afterwards. ¡°Let¡¯s go out for lunch together at noon. I¡¯ll cover the bill!¡± Director Ke kindly offered. After putting so much effort and time, it was only natural to offer a meal. ... But Yang Ping had to rush back: ¡°You¡¯re all comrades, no need to be so polite. If you need something, just give a shout!¡± ¡°Director, I have something to take care of, and I need to leave for the day.¡± Yang Ping bid his farewell to Director Han, not wanting to waste any more time. His parents were waiting at home, and with Xiao Su accompanying them, the atmosphere must be quite awkward. ¡°Off you go!¡± Director Han waved him off, casual as always. After changing out of his scrubs, Yang Ping headed out of the operating room and rushed home. At the entrance, he reached for his keys, but then remembered he gave them to Xiao Su. So, he rang the doorbell. The door opened, and there stood Xiao Su, with a sweet and tender smile: ¡°You¡¯re home, Uncle and Auntie are already here.¡± ¡°You¡¯re home,¡± these words felt incredibly warm. This door opened twice a day. It had been more than half a year, and only today did he realize how heartwarming it felt to return home. Before it wasn¡¯t called a home, but a den, a house, just a place to stay. His parents were on the sofa watching TV. When they saw Yang Ping, they immediately stood up with joy: ¡°Pingping, you¡¯re home.¡± ¡°Dad, Mom!¡± Yang Ping responded with great excitement. ¡°Slippers, change into your slippers!¡± Xiao Su brought the slippers and squatted down to help Yang Ping take off his shoes and put on the slippers. ¡°We haven¡¯t eaten yet, Uncle and Auntie insisted on waiting for you. We just had some fruits.¡± said Xiao Su as she placed his shoes neatly. ¡°Dad, Mom, sit down!¡± Yang Ping chatted with his parents. It¡¯s been two years since they last saw each other, and he felt extremely excited. He had gone home last time during the Spring Festival two years ago. ¡°You¡¯ve gotten taller!¡± said his mother. ¡°What, he can still grow? I think he¡¯s just gotten stronger.¡± countered his father. Xiao Su started serving the hot dishes one by one on the table, and placed chopsticks and bowls properly. ¡°You should help out, son. How can you let Xiao Su do all the serving by herself?¡± his mother said with slight anger, complaining about Yang Ping. ¡°Auntie, it¡¯s okay. He had a tough surgery. Let him rest for a bit.¡± Xiao Su always responded with a smile. ¡°That won¡¯t do! In our family, it¡¯s tradition for the men to share in the housework. Xiao Su, if he doesn¡¯t help out in the future and starts acting like a lord, you can tell me. I¡¯ll teach him a lesson,¡± his mother hurried off to help Xiao Su serve the dishes. His father asked Yang Ping about work. Xiao Su had already given them a brief introduction, so they had a general idea. Their son was doing well in his career and was very promising. What else could older parents ask for in their twilight years but to see their children doing well, giving them one less thing to worry about? Everyone sat around the table for dinner, and his mother beckoned: ¡°Xiao Su, come sit next to me. Let them chat, and we can sit together.¡± What was happening? How could their relationship with Xiao Su improve this fast? In just half a day, she has gotten this close with his mother. It was a good thing though. He didn¡¯t have to worry about mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts in the future. ¡°Xiao Su, you don¡¯t need to go out tonight and end up spending unnecessary money. How good it is for family to stay together! Auntie will cook, and you can taste the rural dishes. I¡¯ll make a few of our hometown¡¯s special dishes.¡± His mother seemed pleased. ¡°Show off your culinary skills some other day. Let¡¯s eat out tonight. It¡¯s your first time here, so just relax.¡± Yang Ping told his mother. ¡°Auntie, let me help you with the rice!¡± ¡°Ah, a little less, that¡¯s just right!¡± His mother¡¯s appetite seemed especially good today. Happiness brings good spirit, and she even ate a few more bowls of rice than usual. Mom kept looking at Xiao Su during the meal, she really liked Xiao Su. What a nice girl! ¡°Seize the time to buy a house. Your father and I are supporting you. Buy a house, make it a home, and work hard.¡± Mom had already made up her mind to borrow from relatives and friends. Even if she had to abandon her pride, she would raise money for her son. If her son could make a good living, she couldn¡¯t hold him back. ¡°Eat, eat!¡± Dad thought Mom talked too much, especially during meals. ¡°Auntie, we don¡¯t need your help. The fact that you¡¯ve brought up Yang Ping is already hard enough. We plan to earn money to buy our own house. Even if we don¡¯t have a house for now, renting is also fine. As long as we both work hard, we will eventually get a house. Moreover, our income is good, so please don¡¯t worry.¡± Xiao Su was incredibly understanding. Such a good girl! What she said was so pleasing to the ears. Mom and Dad felt very comfortable after hearing it, like honey had been smeared onto their hearts. The Yang family was blessed with such a wonderful daughter-in-law. However, who in the city doesn¡¯t expect their husband to have a house? There were a few who had studied and gone out to the city from the village to buy houses, asking their parents to pool money from relatives. It¡¯s just standard procedure. Without a house and car, no woman would marry them. Xiao Su is smart and pretty. It is not possible for her to marry into our family like this, we cannot let her suffer; if others can do it, so can our Yang family. Are they discussing marriage? Yang Ping glanced at Xiao Su, wondering what they were talking with his parents about. They¡¯re even discussing buying a house and getting married. Xiao Su deliberately avoided Yang Ping¡¯s gaze and warmly invited the old couple to eat. ¡°Mom, don¡¯t worry about it. We have our own plans.¡± Yang Ping asked his mother to stop talking. Dad also coughed. He talked too much when he visited his son¡¯s house. They should really just eat their meal. It was inappropriate to discuss all these things in front of the girl. This was a very joyful meal. Despite their tiring journey, mom and dad had a good appetite, eating several bowls. Their daughter-in-law¡¯s cooking was really good. After the meal, there was sugar water for dessert, and fruits after the sugar water. Xiao Su skillfully cleared the dishes. Yang¡¯s mom rushed to help: ¡°Pingping, help, don¡¯t let Xiao Su do all the work.¡± ¡°Auntie, let him rest. He just had a very tough surgery.¡± Xiao Su said sweetly. Mom didn¡¯t know what else to say. Xiao Su also told her to go rest, but she couldn¡¯t just stand by and do nothing. She helped Xiao Su clean the table, the kitchen, wash the dishes, and tidy up. ¡°What surgery did you just perform?¡± Dad, also a doctor, loved to discuss medical matters with Yang Ping. Yang Ping gave a detailed account of the fetal surgery to his father, who listened to it like a story. It was amazing that we can even perform surgeries on a fetus nowadays, medical science has really advanced. Xiao Su and Mom came out of the kitchen, both of them laughing and talking. Xiao Su asked Yang Ping: ¡°You don¡¯t have to go to work this afternoon, do you?¡± ¡°No, Song Zimo¡¯s there, there should be no issues.¡± Yang Ping was very confident in Song Zimo. Having such an assistant put his mind at ease. ¡°Just like a fence needs three stakes for support, a man needs three assistants. You should collaborate with your colleagues, not act solo. Solo actions cannot lead to success. Xiang Yu was powerful, wasn¡¯t he? But why was he defeated by Liu Bang? Liu Bang was good at attracting and utilizing talent and building a good team.¡± Dad gave his words of wisdom. Dad usually loved reading. When Yang Ping was young, he loved to tell these stories and the lessons behind them to him. Some of these teachings were deeply rooted in Yang Ping¡¯s heart now. ¡°A person should be magnanimous. If you¡¯re a prime minister, you should be able to navigate a ship in your belly; if you¡¯re a general, you should be able to ride a horse on your arm. Don¡¯t waste your time on trivial matters. Always volunteer to do what needs to be done. Even if it seems you may lose out initially, it will be much better for you in the long run. Carry out any tasks assigned by your superior. Report on time about the progress, so the superior can be relieved. Learn from your colleagues, especially their expertise. Don¡¯t be shy. Ask, observe, and practice more¡ª¡± Once Dad starts giving advice, he¡¯s never-ending. Mom said to Xiao Su: ¡°Once your uncle starts advising, he can level with a prime minister.¡± ¡°If my dad hadn¡¯t become a doctor, he might have been the prime minister now.¡± Yang Ping joked. Dad was not embarrassed by mom¡¯s banter and nonchalantly said, ¡°I am sure I could be a village branch secretary.¡± ¡°Auntie and Uncle, why don¡¯t we take a walk around our hospital?¡± Xiao Su suggested it, and mom and dad were very happy, and readily agreed. Dad was concerned and asked, ¡°It won¡¯t bother you guys, will it?¡± ¡°How could it bother us? Let¡¯s just walk around, as if we are taking a leisurely stroll.¡± Xiao Su walked with Mom, holding onto her hand. ¡°Let¡¯s go then, let¡¯s go see the big hospital. I just had a glimpse of it on our way here. It¡¯s even larger than the hospitals in our provincial capital!¡± Dad stood up. Mom gestured, ¡°I heard there was even an airplane on the rooftop. How large of a rooftop is required to accommodate an airplane!¡± Dad corrected, ¡°It¡¯s a helicopter. It doesn¡¯t take up much space. I flew in one during my military days.¡± Chapter 290: 0274: Perfect Daughter-in-law Chapter 290: Chapter 0274: Perfect Daughter-in-law Old Yang and his wife were visiting their son¡¯s hospital for the first time. They had only seen pictures of it before, but now they were seeing it in person. Looking at the wall of experts in the outpatient hall, everyone was a deputy chief physician or above, the majority with Masters and Doctorates. Such a line-up truly gave an impression of luxury. Old Yang tried to count them all but there were too many, so he simply gave up: ¡°So many experts? So many doctors, Pingping, you should get a doctorate too when you have the chance.¡± ¡°Yang Ping is about to take the doctoral exam under our director, he has already signed up.¡± Xiao Su proved to be a qualified explainer. ¡°Where¡¯s Pingping, where¡¯s Pingping?¡± Mom was looking everywhere for him. Xiao Su held her mother-in-law¡¯s hand: ¡°Auntie, these doctors you see here are usually attending to outpatients. Yang Ping does not need to do that anymore. If you want to see Yang Ping, you can go to our department.¡± ... Mom wanted to go have a look, but Dad waved his hand: ¡°No need, just have a look here. Going to their workplace would only cause trouble. Everyone is busy and it¡¯s impolite if they don¡¯t pay attention to you; but if they do, it wastes their time.¡± Mom wisely shut her mouth, offering no further mention of this: ¡°We¡¯ll just walk around downstairs, we won¡¯t go to the wards.¡± Yang Ping and Xiao Su accompanied the two elderly people, touring every nook and cranny of the hospital. Whenever they met a colleague, no matter what department they were in, the younger ones would respectfully greet with a ¡°Teacher Yang!¡±. The older ones would also seriously greet them, calling him ¡°Xiao Yang¡± or ¡°Doctor Yang,¡± even the security guards would respectfully greet him as Doctor Yang and then enthusiastically show them the way. The old couple felt proud; in such a big hospital, there were thousands of employees at least, and to be recognized by that many people was quite an achievement. Their son was well-respected in the hospital, that was obvious from the way people greeted him. After touring the hospital and its surroundings, the old couple felt no fatigue, as though they had been infused with a stimulant. For dinner, they went out to eat. Xiao Su had already booked a private room in a nearby restaurant, ¡°Seaside Folks,¡± a famous seafood restaurant, so the old folks could have a taste of southern seafood. Xiao Su really was attentive and considerate, she had arranged everything to be comfortable and appropriate. From the moment they got off the train, the elderly couple felt neither bored nor tired. There was rest, activities, and the pacing was just right. Yang Ping gave her a surreptitious thumbs-up behind the old folks¡¯ backs. She pretended not to see and continued holding mom¡¯s hand, chatting with her, and from time to time, making her burst out laughing. They drove to the seafood restaurant in Yang Ping¡¯s Volvo XC90. Dad didn¡¯t know much about cars, but he could sense that this one was expensive. Mom was surprised: ¡°This car must have cost hundreds of thousands, right?¡± ¡°Humph! Hundreds of thousands, bring me a dozen more if you can!¡± Dad grunted. The son could actually afford such a nice car, it seems like his work was paying quite well, and it wasn¡¯t just to comfort them, but they really had the ability to buy their own house. The elderly couple were truly happy from the bottom of their hearts, they were proud of their little brat, who had been spanked a lot in his childhood. Seaside Folks, this seafood restaurant, the owner used to be a seafood dealer. This restaurant was one of his clients, but when the former owner of the restaurant was not managing well and was on the verge of bankruptcy, he took over the restaurant and made it a hit. Xiao Su taught Yang¡¯s mom how to eat seafood, explained how each dish was made and the characteristics of southern cuisine. She described everything so well, as though she had taken a course at New Oriental. Dad was more familiar with seafood, he had tasted it when he was a soldier. He had been in the navy and during his time off, he would stroll around nearby, of course, he would also visit the fishing village. Returning from the seafood meal, Mom and Dad didn¡¯t feel tired at all, they were genuinely happy with their day. Yang Ping wanted to go to the hospital to check on a pregnant woman who had surgery during the day, so he asked Xiao Su to accompany his parents. Dad affirmed Yang Ping¡¯s sense of responsibility: ¡°Go ahead, we¡¯ll watch TV. People often say that we should treat patients like they¡¯re our own, referring to this sense of responsibility.¡± Who would have thought that Miss Su from the Su family would be so down-to-earth. She was an excellent hostess, and she handled Yang Ping¡¯s parents masterfully. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but chuckle when he thought about it, especially how Mom and Xiao Su hung together as though they had known each other for years. It seems that for this future daughter-in-law, Mom and Dad had given very high scores, probably full marks. The Children¡¯s Surgical Department was decorated very warmly, it looked like a place out of a fairy tale with various cartoon characters. If you looked up, you¡¯d see Spider-Man looking at you on the ceiling. Even the means of transport for children going to the operating room was not a Pingche, but electric toy cars. They could let the child drive into the operating room by themselves. It¡¯s said that a child, after his surgery, who had been discharged from the hospital, told his father that he wanted to have another surgery. The confused father asked why, and it turned out that the child wanted to have another ride in the little car of the Pediatric Surgery Department. The pediatrician on duty led the way. With his baby face and the name ¡°kid,¡± it seemed like he was born to work in pediatrics. He took Yang Ping to visit the pregnant woman He Liru, whose husband was feeding her chicken soup by the bed. Although touching her belly, He was not an obstetrician or gynecologist. However, Yang Ping had trained in physical examination of pregnant women. He listened to the fetal heart and found it normal. He checked the pregnant woman¡¯s monitoring data at the head of the bed and found the fetal movement also normal. The little guy was quite interesting, he knew instinctively to survive, replacing cries for help with restless movements. Coming out of Pediatric Surgery, there was a man waiting with a young boy in the doctor¡¯s office for the pediatrician. The pediatrician told them he would look at the latest test data on his computer once they had taken their seats. The man sat down, but the boy didn¡¯t. Watching him walk, he must have just had a circumcision. He was walking with his legs spread like a frog, his pants bulging, which almost made Yang Ping laugh. It was clear that there was a disposable cup in his pants, covering the littler bird that just had the surgery, for fear that the wound would be hurt by the pants. The director of urological surgery, nicknamed ¡°Forever Below the Waist¡± in WeChat, coined a term for this situation ¨C ¡°bird doesn¡¯t fly¡±. The bird couldn¡¯t fly because it was covered by a cup. ¡°It¡¯s my cousin¡¯s kid, he just had a circumcision and came here for a dressing change,¡± the pediatrician explained to Yang Ping. Yang Ping looked at the computer, ¡°You go ahead with your work. I¡¯ll read it myself.¡± Coming out of Pediatric Surgery, Yang Ping went to check on his department. Graduate student Xiao Li was on duty. Xiao Li was Director Gao¡¯s graduate student and had finished his rotation in the surgical system. Now he was going to circulate through the Orthopedics Department. Xiao Li was reading in the office. When he saw Yang Ping come in, he stood up immediately, ¡°Teacher Yang!¡± ¡°Sit down! It¡¯s hard work being on duty. You can read in the duty room, it¡¯s a bit cooler now.¡± Yang Ping said with concern. Dr. Li closed the book, ¡°No problem, there are many patients who can¡¯t sleep, and they feel better if someone is in the office.¡± ¡°You guys take a look at which books are missing from the department¡¯s bookshelf and write them down. Dr. Zhang will arrange to buy them. And if you have any suggestions for the training, you can put them forward.¡± After chatting with Xiao Li for a while, he took Xiao Li on rounds. They visited a number of patients and Xiao Li did well. He listened carefully to Yang Ping¡¯s words. Yang Ping would ask him a question or two after each patient¡¯s visit. He was clear in his thinking and had a good grasp on the patient¡¯s condition in the department. He kept a notebook in his pocket to record things at all times. He also kept a special notebook to note down Sisi¡¯s disease management. When he got home, Xiao Su was still chatting with his parents. His parents had already taken a shower and changed into nightgowns, all prepared by Xiao Su. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re back. How¡¯s the patient after surgery?¡± Xiao Su asked with concern. Yang Ping took off his shoes, ¡°He¡¯s fine, I just checked on him. The department is also doing well.¡± ¡°Let your Uncle and Aunt rest early and we can go out together tomorrow,¡± Xiao Su had already sorted out their beds. ¡°We are saying, kids, you two should go to work and not worry about us. Don¡¯t let us delay your work.¡± The dad was always worried about troubling the children. The mom chimed in, ¡°Tomorrow, we will go shopping and cook. You two should come back for lunch, the food in the hospital cafeteria lacks flavor.¡± Xiao Su told the two elders to rest assured, ¡°We have taken a week off to accompany you, don¡¯t worry. All of Yang Ping¡¯s work has been arranged.¡± ¡°Such a long break? No, no, it seriously affects the work.¡± The dad shook his head. Yang Ping tried to reassure him, ¡°It¡¯s okay. As you always said, those who know how to rest are the ones who can work. I just want to take a break, it won¡¯t delay work.¡± It was late, and the parents retired to their room to rest. As for Xiao Su, should she go back to the dormitory tonight? Chapter 291: 0275: Start the War Chapter 291: Chapter 0275: Start the War ¡°You¡¯ve worked hard today. Let me walk you back to your dorm!¡± Yang Ping said lovingly. Indeed, she had been busy all day, pleasing her parents so much that they would probably be smiling even in their dreams tonight. ¡°If I leave now, will you miss me?¡± Bullshit, such a statement is a straight-up stimulant for the male hormones. Could lead to trouble. ¡°How could I not miss you?¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll stay!¡± ... ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Really ¨C I¡¯ll stay and you can sleep in the lab!¡± No flirting before bedtime, or else suffer the consequences! Yang Ping walked Xiao Su back to the dormitory and they lingered downstairs, saying reluctant goodbyes. Xiao Su held Yang Ping¡¯s hand, ¡°Did I do well today?¡± ¡°Full marks!¡± Yang Ping gave a thumbs up. ¡°You don¡¯t know, when I first met your mother, and told her I¡¯m your girlfriend, I was so nervous. My heart was pounding. Luckily, your mom is very gentle and even a little humorous.¡± ¡°Get some rest early. You¡¯ve worked hard today!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll come early tomorrow and cook breakfast for you.¡± ¡°We could buy breakfast or eat out.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s not the same. This is a gesture of our affection. I cook nicely. Don¡¯t you believe in my culinary skills?¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll come pick you up early tomorrow.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll come by myself! I¡¯ve prepared toothbrushes, toothpaste, face basins, and towels for your parents. I even put them in the bathroom. Blue for your dad, red for your mom. They won¡¯t confuse them.¡± Xiao Su let it slip. She realized it as soon as she finished speaking and her face turned red. ¡°You¡¯ll have to call them that sooner or later. Might as well get used to it.¡± Yang Ping playfully nudged her nose. Xiao Su kept looking back as she returned to her dorm. ¡ª Boss Cheng indeed was a seasoned player in the business world, he knew that Yang Ping¡¯s parents had arrived. Three days later, he finally called Yang Ping to inquire about his parents¡¯ visit. ¡°Doctor Yang, have your uncle and aunt come? Remember, I said I would arrange for a few days, don¡¯t renege.¡± ¡°You¡¯re being too polite. Our hospital is busy towards the end of the year. I appreciate your kindness.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already arranged everything ¨C a seven-day tour of Nandu, complete with a car, driver, and guide. All you have to do is accompany your uncle and aunt.¡± ¡°Alright, but I feel bad for causing you any trouble.¡± ¡°Saying that makes it seem like an outsider.¡± Old Cheng put down the phone feeling refreshed. Doing business is all about networking. Sometimes, having one powerful contact can lead to smooth sailing in life. He was already considering the arrangement for the Spring Festival. With Yang Ping always engrossed in work, Old Cheng felt he should take care of these trivial matters of life for him. He was considering what type of food the elderly liked, what could be the arrangement for the Spring Festival, and other such plans. To book the high-speed rail tickets back for the elderly couple was difficult at this time. However, Old Cheng decided to leverage his contacts to ensure that he could secure two tickets for them. There was a knock on the door. Old Cheng was in a good mood and said loudly, ¡°Come in!¡± Dean Cai hurried in, ¡°Boss Cheng, here is the report from the Southeast Asia inspection tour.¡± ¡°Leave it here, I¡¯ll look at it in a while!¡± Old Cheng didn¡¯t want to look at it yet. Last time when Old Cheng discovered two patients from Southeast Asia infiltrating a medical tourism group, he immediately sniffed a grand business opportunity. He swiftly assembled a team to investigate the medical market in Southeast Asia. The first expedition had concluded, and he planned to personally attend the second one after the New Year. The United States, Germany and Japan are the medical powerhouses of the world, receiving a constant influx of patients from all corners of the globe. Especially, the world¡¯s wealthy pour into these countries in search of medical treatment. In recent years, China has made remarkable progress, gaining international recognition. It¡¯s plausible to expand into overseas markets in the medical field. There are many ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia, many of whom are in good economic conditions. It is most fitting to penetrate the market via Southeast Asia. Daring to broach ideas others wouldn¡¯t, Old Cheng even imagined a grand vision of building a hospital that would serve the entire world. Of course, he doesn¡¯t have that much money for now, but imagining is not a crime. ¡°A case arrived at the outpatient department, botched by Yunjian during surgery. The patient wants to come to us for a redo. The physician in out-patient department reported to me over the phone, and I¡¯ve turned it down. Isn¡¯t it a joke? A case botched by Yunjian, sent to us for a redo. Are we supposed to wipe up after him? If an air conditioner of Midea breaks down, are we at Gree supposed to repair it?¡± Dean Cai expressed his resentment, recounting his unpleasant experience of the day to Boss Cheng. ¡°You¡¯re talking about a case that Yunjian botched during surgery?¡± Old Cheng asked. ¡°Yes!¡± Dean Cai looked at the boss as he seemed very interested. ¡°Be quick. Get in contact and ask the doctor from the outpatient service to admit him!¡± ¡°Boss Cheng, this patient has stirred up quite a fuss in town, should we really step into this muddy water?¡± Old Cheng raised an eyebrow: ¡°What¡¯s there to fear? Recently, audits over fire safety and taxation have been conducted in our hospital. Can you say it has nothing to do with He Chunsheng and He Qiusheng from Yunjian stirring up trouble? Business competition is like a battlefield, you can¡¯t dodge just because you want to. If you dodge, they will chase and attack you. I, Cheng Liquan, don¡¯t provoke troubles, yet I don¡¯t fear them either. If they want to stir up troubles, let¡¯s play along. Not only will we admit this patient, but we will make a grand move. I heard that the patient is trying to seek media attention, yet no one has taken up his story. I would like to play the philanthropist this time and give this patient a helping hand for free. Dean Cai, please secure the patient¡¯s records. I will have Doctor Yang look at it. If we can take this, not only will we ask TV stations to come over and make a documentary, but we will also invite various other media.¡± ¡°Boss Cheng, are you sure about this? This move will completely sever our relationship with Yunjian and start a head-on conflict.¡± Dean Cai hesitated a bit. ¡°Yes, let¡¯s go to war. I, Cheng Liquan, just want to run a good hospital. There is such a huge market out there for all to compete healthily. But they always resort to underhand methods. Does it make sense? If a tiger doesn¡¯t roar, they will really take me as a sick cat.¡± Boss Cheng spoke with full conviction. It¡¯s underlying truth. If your opponent resorts to dirty tricks and you play by the rules, you¡¯re likely to be knocked down instantly with a vicious move. If it¡¯s going to be a dirty game where all is fair, well then, let¡¯s return the favor. ¡°If we call so many media outlets, will they come?¡± Dean Cai worried. ¡°It¡¯s just a matter of money. What¡¯s the difficulty?¡± Boss Cheng responded dismissively. After a little chat, Dean Cai had to leave for some errands. Boss Cheng ordered him to expedite this task while the incident was still the talk of the town. This is an opportunity to strike both at his opponent and for his own publicity. It must be well executed. With technical support from Doctor Yang, Old Cheng became much bolder in decision-making. A few years ago, while touring an out-of-town, Old Cheng visited a temple and donated money for incense. He also asked an elderly Taoist priest for fortune-telling. The Taoist stroked his beard and nodded: ¡°You¡¯ll meet a benefactor in your middle age¡±. Old Cheng asked where this benefactor was, hoping for some guidance. Even a clue indicating North, South, East, West would suffice. The Taoist remained silent, he pointed towards the outside. Old Cheng looked out, but saw nothing. Was he pointing at a specific direction? On a closer look, he realized it was a forest of trees outside. Old Cheng wanted to get a clear answer, but the Taoist adopted an enigmatic expression and said no more. Not until the arrival of Yang Ping did Old Cheng finally understand what he meant back then. What the Taoist pointed to was ¡®Yang¡¯, as in cottonwood. An epiphany struck Old Cheng as if a golden path was laid out in front of him. Whether the Taoist was indeed pointing to a grove of cottonwoods at that time, Old Cheng couldn¡¯t remember. But it didn¡¯t matter, Boss Cheng firmly believed it must be so. Dean Cai was very efficient, and quickly secured the patient¡¯s records. The doctor at the outpatient department was quite astute. He had the foresight to take photos of all the patient¡¯s images and noted down the contact details. Old Cheng¡¯s office was equipped with a film viewer too. He decided to take a look first and get a preliminary understanding. The previous surgery was a wreck, causing comminuted fractures to the distal end of the femur. If a redo is to be performed, how could it be done? The fracture has to be fixed. But crisscrossingly arrayed nails would interfere with the passage drilling procedure. If less nails were used, the fractured segments would be hard to fix. And for joint intra-fractures, anatomical reduction is necessary. This case was quite troublesome and would have to be dealt with in two stages. ¡°Let¡¯s have Doctor Yang take a look.¡± Old Cheng picked up his cellphone. Chapter 292: 0276: TikTok Doctor Chapter 292: Chapter 0276: TikTok Doctor Picking up his cellphone, Old Cheng hesitated for a moment, then put it down, deciding to wait a little longer. ¡°The bone quality isn¡¯t quite right, how did the surgery end up botched? Do you know the details?¡± Old Cheng identified the problem. ¡°They were performing anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, when during the drilling of the femoral tunnel, snap, the distal femur splintered. The chief surgeon communicated with the patient, unfortunately there was a fracture, the surgery would need additional steps, including the reduction and fixation of the fracture, but during the reduction and fixation process, snap again, it was a complete shatter.¡± Using a few sound effects, it vividly described the scene at the time, those unfamiliar with the situation might think that Dean Cai was actually present. ¡°There¡¯s brittle bone presentation in the lower part of the femur, what¡¯s going on, imperfect bone formation?¡± Although Old Cheng¡¯s focus was now on hospital administration and he had no interest in technical advancements, he was still a former associate professor from Nandu Province People¡¯s Hospital with a solid foundation. ... Dean Cai, a PhD in Orthopedics and a certified expert, leaned in to take a closer look after hearing what Old Cheng said: ¡°It¡¯s not very noticeable, but indeed, the trabecular bone does appear to be somewhat sparse and disarrayed.¡± ¡°They dared to operate on such a patient? Professor Ye didn¡¯t perform the surgery?¡± Old Cheng was confused. It¡¯s speechless that they dared to perform such an operation without inviting Professor Ye over. Dean Cai, aware of the details, clarified: ¡°Professor Ye wouldn¡¯t walk into this minefield. He¡¯s been busy recently and hasn¡¯t been around much, it was Dr. Tang!¡± ¡°You mean that hotshot who¡¯s always trending on TikTok, whose posts move internet users to tears? Director Tang?¡± Old Cheng is very familiar with him. Dean Cai laughed: ¡°Yes, him, the TikTok Doctor, the king of traffic on Yunjian, many patients flock to him. We specialize in medical skills, he specializes in garnering views. However, many people are impressed by such showmanship, they seem to hold him in high regard.¡± Unable to refrain, Old Cheng started to chuckle: ¡°So, it was him. He can¡¯t be out of his depth, trying to show off with this case, right?¡± ¡°Exactly, fame has made him conceited, he now fancies himself a renowned expert, and look what happened ¨C snap,¡± Dean Cai used another sound effect. This Director Tang is quite a character, a celebrity on the internet, especially famous on TikTok. Many struggle for twenty years and still can¡¯t claim the title of expert, but Director Tang¡¯s claim came from a hit short video. The short video was of Director Tang kneeling to perform knee arthroscopy on a patient. The surgery was a partial meniscectomy, and Director Tang spent five whole hours on his knees to complete it, sacrificing himself, overcoming difficulties, and eventually completing the surgery. There was an outpouring of praise and admiration online. People wanted to know which hospital this great doctor came from, he is a real good doctor indeed. But Boss Cheng couldn¡¯t understand why a partial meniscectomy required the doctor to kneel for five hours. Was the meniscus made of iron that regular arthroscopic tools could not cut? Such a surgery could be completed in half an hour by a fairly skilled doctor, or even by an inexperienced one in one hour at most, yet this man took five whole hours. What was more astounding was why he knelt during the surgery. The official response from the hospital was that the torn meniscus was located on the inner rear side, a tricky angle that can only be achieved by kneeling. Director Tang, who was over fifty years old, assumed such a position for the sake of the patient¡¯s operation. Boss Cheng was an associate chief physician in Orthopedics, skilled in arthroscopic operations, but he found this theory incomprehensible. Most orthopedic doctors across the country would be left dumbfounded by this, unable to understand, it was too profound. And¡ªand¡ªin the short video, the leg of the patient undergoing the operation was touching the ground. What the hell, was the concept of sterility completely abandoned? ¡°Hold on, don¡¯t contact the patient or the media for now, let me think.¡± Boss Cheng changed his mind. Letting Dr. Yang handle this case would be setting a trap for him. However, this case was unusual, and giving it to Dr. Yang for research could prove useful. Old Cheng compiled the data and sent it to Yang Ping, intending it for his teaching or research material. Unexpectedly, Yang Ping replied: ¡°There is imperfect bone formation in the femur, the surgery will be difficult, please arrange it for after my vacation!¡± Did this mean that it was feasible? If Dr. Yang says it can be done, then it certainly can be done. Old Cheng immediately called out to Dean Cai, ¡°Wait! Bring the patient over, we¡¯ll perform the surgery for free. When the patient arrives, let me know, I want to meet him. No need to go to the media for now.¡± Old Cheng had regained his confidence, but as for this surgery, he needed to find an opportunity to discuss this with Yang Ping and express his real thoughts. Being a friend is all about honesty and openness. That¡¯s how lasting relationships are built. ¡ª Under Old Cheng¡¯s arrangement, Yang Ping¡¯s parents completed a seven-day tour of Nandu Province, including several major attractions and the place where Yang Ping¡¯s father had served in the military. Old Cheng did not make it public. He entrusted a high-end travel agency to arrange private custom tours specifically for Yang Ping¡¯s parents. A dedicated guide, a dedicated driver, a dedicated vehicle, and a team to serve Yang Ping¡¯s family. The team was very professional. They maintained a respectful distance and did not make the family feel awkward or inconvenienced. The port where Yang Ping¡¯s father¡¯s fleet was stationed when he was a soldier was also visited. Although they only looked at it from a distance, it was enough. Decades had passed, and returning to these familiar places, Old Yang was moved deeply. He saluted the military harbor with a standard military salute from afar. He wonders what happened to his comrades from his time in the army and if they are doing well. Everything had changed. The fleet was imposing, the country was stronger, and the nearby fishing village had disappeared and turned into a seafood market. Having a friend who could do things was not bad, Yang Ping had a good impression of Old Cheng. Despite his shrewd businessman aura, Old Cheng revealed a sense of sincerity when it came to friendship. After returning from the week-long trip, although Mr. and Mrs. Yang were quite tired, they were very happy. Especially Old Yang, who had finally seen the place where he had served in the army during his youth. During this vacation, whenever appropriate, Yang Ping would sometimes enter the system space to undergo training for orthopedic surgeries, summarize recent cases, and analyze his practice surgeries in the system space. Summary leads to improvement. After the last stage task, he had earned five hundred thousand points. Although he had spent tens of thousands, the daily tasks as well as various surgeries had also accumulated almost a hundred thousand points. Hence, his current balance was still more than five hundred thousand points. He was quite comfortable with his current situation. The more he understood the system, the more he realized the various features and functions it had. Although they seemed ordinary, they were very powerful. The library feature, for example, was formidable. It was a learning haven. Time in reality did not pass when reading in the library, and he could find any book, magazine, or journal in the world there. It made acquiring knowledge very easy. Yang Ping had a wicked thought: During an exam, if there was a question he couldn¡¯t answer, could he quickly enter the space to look for the answer? Ha ha. However, Yang Ping wasn¡¯t the type to look for shortcuts. As a doctor, he was used to working diligently and honestly. He did not take advantage of situations but using this once or twice wouldn¡¯t affect his integrity, would it? The surgical training function didn¡¯t need explaining. This was the most basic function, present even before the system was upgraded. The massive amount of surgical training available allowed him to perform surgeries with great precision and skill. The simulated surgery function that emerged after the upgrade was pricey, but for some highly challenging and risky surgeries, the simulation could greatly increase the success rate. He wondered what other functions the system would develop. It looked like it would continue to upgrade. Every time he entered the system space for training, it was like a self-imposed imprisonment. Would the system suddenly go insane and imprison him in the space forever? This was a world where he was the only inhabitant¡ªa world of one. These thoughts only flitted through his mind, like when someone suddenly looks up at the sky and asks, who am I? Yang Ping received the case information from Old Cheng. This surgery was a bit challenging, yet interesting. Chapter 293: 0277: Bankruptcy Chapter 293: Chapter 0277: Bankruptcy Having received the information from Old Cheng, Yang Ping was on his way back to G City. Upon seeing the information, Yang Ping thought it was a patient admitted by Old Cheng and wondered when they could arrange the surgery, so he casually replied: arrange after the holiday. This case is rather unique. Any operation could worsen the fracture, let alone perform ligament reconstruction. In the end, the fracture might not even be able to be reset and fixed. Such a case would be daunted to others, but for Yang Ping, it was quite a regular case. During his training in system space, Yang Ping had dealt with many such cases. The surgeries simulated in the system space were first normal surgeries. Once mastered, it¡¯d simulate some bizarre cases. Once you become proficient in these bizarre cases, you¡¯d find the regular ones far too simple. On the return journey, Yang Ping completed the writing of several papers in the library of the system space. ... ¡°Balance Adjustment of Multi-ligament Reconstruction in the Knee Joint,¡± this paper pushes the surgical effect of multi-ligament reconstruction of the knee joint onto a new level. For this type of operation, Yang Ping proposed a complete solution, with the positioning data of the ligament origin and termination being the core. Regardless of height or skeletal form, for each ligament in the knee joint, Yang Ping provided corresponding origin and termination parameters. Surgeons need neither too much experience nor any instrument assistance. Just accurately measure the lower limb force line, the length and diameter of the femur, a few parameters of the distal femur on the X-ray before the operation, then determine the origin and termination of the ligament following Yang Ping¡¯s methods and data. Pull the ligament as tight as possible during ligament reconstruction. In the end, the balance of the knee joint, either static or dynamic, would all be qualified. In the past, the surgical effects of such cases were extremely poor, even top-tier hospitals struggled to achieve good outcomes. With the implementation of Yang Ping¡¯s solution, the surgical outcomes were not only improved, but the difficulty was also reduced. It was as if the operation had become a fool-proof process, and it¡¯s only a matter of following each step. The cases in Yang Ping¡¯s paper are mostly followed up after one month and three months post-surgery, very few are over three months. He plans to keep following up to obtain long-term data, which is more convincing and can also accumulate data for future papers. Aside from this paper, Yang Ping also wrote ¡°Balance Adjustment of Multidirectional Instability Reconstruction of the Shoulder Joint¡±, ¡°Application of Trauma Surgery System Engineering¡±, ¡°Application of Precise Selective Vessel Occlusion in Trauma Surgery¡±, and ¡°Analysis of Causes of Trauma Death and Treatment¡±. Each paper is technically rich. The surge of cases in this period provided good material for paper writing, so paper production exploded. Yang Ping temporarily stored the papers in the library of the system space. Because physical items in the system space cannot be taken out, he could only recreate the papers in reality from memory when he had the time. Since he¡¯s writing, he might as well write more. Yang Ping even wrote a research proposal: ¡°Research on High-frequency Ultrasound Focus Combined with Infrared Three-dimensional Precision Navigation for Treating Bone Tumors¡±. As for activities like correcting typos, organizing indexes, formatting text, contacting journals for publication, etc, he would leave them to Song Zimo. Song Zimo would also be tasked with writing papers in the future to build his skills. After spending a week traveling with his parents, Yang Ping rested for a few more days upon returning home before starting work again. After the morning handover, Song Zimo presented a detailed report to Yang Ping on the patients admitted and the surgeries performed in the past two weeks, implemented through a slideshow. In these two weeks, Song Zimo managed the department well. There were no overlooked new patients, the surgeries were beautifully executed, and the perioperative management was also very effective. A senior patient suddenly suffered a myocardial infarction after surgery. Fortunately, Song Zimo detected the precursor while doing his rounds, immediately sent the patient to the chest pain center to have a stent inserted, and avoided a tragedy. After the case report, Yang Ping led everyone on ward rounds with Song Zimo accompanying him, and others followed. Every time they arrived at a patient, the clinician would report the case, then pull up the patient¡¯s medical history on the tablet. Yang Ping would thoroughly review the history and perform physical examinations, then analyze the auxiliary tests. They would do this for every patient. When they got to Hermes, he didn¡¯t look very happy, with a melancholic glance. His wife¡¯s eyes were also red and swollen. Right after Yang Ping and the others finished examining him, a commotion erupted from his ward. Little Five quickly went back to comfort them and requested them to shut the door. Zhang Lin sighed and said, ¡°Old Wang has gone bankrupt. He has been trying to push his wife away these past few days.¡± Yang Ping sighed deeply, lamenting the impermanence of life. A once prosperous billionaire now declared bankrupt just like that. Sitting on the couch, Wang Changxin sighed, ¡°Sasha, we¡¯ve been married for so many years. Thank you for standing by me. I mean it sincerely. I, Wang Changxin, have enjoyed my life enough. It¡¯s worth it. Let¡¯s find a lawyer and get a divorce. Now that I¡¯m penniless, I can¡¯t afford to keep you happy, let alone keep you from being implicated. Things came suddenly, and I wasn¡¯t ready, all my assets, including bank cards and real estate, have been frozen. The house next to the hospital and the houses in Pengcheng, they¡¯re under your brother¡¯s name and can¡¯t be seized. They are all gifts to you. Find someone suitable in the future and start a new life again.¡± Old Wang waved his hand, his eyes tearing up. A few days ago, he received a summons from the court, and all his properties were frozen. Overnight, he became penniless. ¡°There¡¯s some cash in the drawer, take it all,¡± Old Wang pointed to the safe in the ward. ¡°What will you do?¡± His wife sobbed. Old Wang took a deep breath, ¡°I can¡¯t save this leg. I plan to ask the doctor to amputate it and discharge from the hospital as soon as possible. We can¡¯t afford this private ward anymore. Let¡¯s ask a nurse to arrange a move to a three-bed ward.¡± His wife was silent while wiping her tears with a tissue, ¡°What do you take me for? I¡¯m your wife. I¡¯m not some mistress that you can discard at will. If I leave, what will happen to you? Will you beg on the streets?¡± Old Wang waved his hand vigorously, ¡°Enough, there¡¯s no other option. I might face the prospect of prison next, and I might be out in a few years, if at all. I, for one, can pick up and let go. Let¡¯s go, let¡¯s go. It¡¯s the end of our relationship.¡± ¡°Am I some kind of object to you, to be picked up and put down at will? I¡¯m not leaving, Wang Changxin. If you try to drive me away again, I will jump out of this window. I mean it!¡± His wife was defiant. ¡°What¡¯s the big deal? Can¡¯t we live without money? You¡¯re being such a coward. You must get treatment. We have already come this far. Sell the house next to the hospital, cure your illness, then we can figure out some way to start a business and make ends meet. Tomorrow, I¡¯ll sell all of my handbags and jewelry for emergency funds. Stop being such a wimp, blabbering about divorce.¡± His wife stopped crying and scolded Old Wang. In adversity, one sees true colors. Wang Changxin was dumbfounded. Throughout his life, he had countless lovers that he couldn¡¯t keep track of. At a time like this, his wife still cared for him so much. As he pondered, the grown man began to cry. ¡°That¡¯s enough, stop making a spectacle of ourselves. The harder the times, the more we need to live with dignity. What¡¯s so unbearable about life? Once your leg heals, you can either drive for Didi or deliver food, couldn¡¯t that support the family? There are lots of factories, I can work there, can¡¯t I earn money? In a hotel, waiters can earn several thousand a month. Besides, we still have houses. Sell the house, and then make a fresh start! Old Wang, show some spirit, will you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not about these things, what if¡ª¡± ¡°If you go to prison, I will wait for you. Five years, ten years, I¡¯ll wait.¡± Hermes took a deep breath, his lips trembling, unable to speak: ¡°Fool! Wang Changxin might really be down and out this time. If you stick with me, you will only have tough days ahead. If you divorce me, you can keep yourself out of it and still have some money, allowing you to live carefree in the future.¡± ¡°Wang Changxin, say one more word, and I¡¯ll jump! Is that what you¡¯re trying to do?¡± The woman pointed at the window. Hermes immediately softened, ¡°Alright, alright, no more talk of divorce. But, Sasha, if you want to leave at any time in the future, you are free to do so. I won¡¯t blame you at all.¡± ¡°Stop mentioning it. I¡¯ll take you out for some fresh air.¡± The woman helped him onto the wheelchair. ¡°Push me to the first floor, I need to talk to Professor Zhang.¡± Hermes said. His trendy wife pushed him onto the elevator to the first floor. Chapter 294: 0278: Meeting Director Zhu Again Chapter 294: Chapter 0278: Meeting Director Zhu Again Professor Zhang was busy in the clinic, but when he heard about Hermes¡¯s situation, he still managed to squeeze out half an hour, closed the door to the consulting room, and had a heart-to-heart talk with Hermes. ¡°Life is full of twists and turns, especially for those doing business, but there¡¯s no hurdle in life that can¡¯t be crossed. As for now, your leg must be treated, and the money issue can be dealt with slowly. To save on costs, one possibility is to get discharged and receive treatment in the outpatient clinic. You can learn to adjust the screws on your own and regularly return to the clinic for a follow-up.¡± Professor Zhang took Hermes¡¯s hand: ¡°Xiao Wang, it¡¯s easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury to frugality. There are many people in this world living through hardship, so why can¡¯t you? I recommend you to visit the oncology department and see how others are grinding on. I will inform them in advance. There are many people in the world who are worse off than you but they are all gritting their teeth and persevering.¡± ¡°Xiao Liao, take him to tour around the oncology department.¡± Professor Zhang instructed Xiao Liao. Xiao Liao is a standardized training student in the orthopedics department. Now, Yang Ping sends a training student every day to accompany Professor Zhang on his clinic rounds and to assist him with his computer work. The changes in Old Wang¡¯s life were too sudden. During his hospital stay, his company back home collapsed and everything was gone. ... He used to run a coal mine in his hometown. Back then, when coal mining was lucrative, it was like printing money. Recalling the peak of his prosperity, he casually dated models and actresses. When he gambled in Macao, he could easily lose hundreds and thousands without batting an eye. He would use bottles of red wine, worth tens of thousands of yuan each, as mouthwash and still complain about it being too harsh. Then, gradually, the coal mines stopped being so profitable. Old Wang and a few friends ventured to a small African country to invest in a gold mine. Last year, they were supposed to receive a handsome dividend of two billion at the end of the year, but then a war broke out and the mine was lost, along with the money. At the same time, one of his major clients had fallen into bankruptcy due to reckless overseas investment, and was defaulted on the huge sum he owed to Old Wang. Sometimes, the late or absent funds can make a business crumble. To make it worse, Old Wang¡¯s two major sums were unable to be paid. The company¡¯s funds were abruptly severed, like dominoes toppling over. His hard work of more than a decade vanished overnight. Professor Zhang contacted the oncology department, instructing Doctor Liao to take Old Wang for a tour, and then arranged to have another chat in the outpatient clinic in the afternoon. ¡ª After making his rounds, Yang Ping received a call from Director Tian, saying that a friend wanted to meet him and asking if he could join them for dinner that evening. With invitations to dinner, there always needed to be clarity about the circumstances, he couldn¡¯t just go in blindly. Yang Ping asked for details, and found out that the host was Director Zhu. Director Zhu had asked Director Tian for help in evaluating some client¡¯s radiographic images. As Director Tian was unable to make out the details, he recommended Yang Ping. However, Director Zhu insisted on discussing the case over dinner. Director Zhu, Yang Ping remembered, was the doctor at Nandu Provincial People¡¯s Hospital who had been wronged by false news. According to Director Tian, he had later switched careers and become an insurance actuary. He informed Xiao Su that he would be dining out with Director Tian that evening. Xiao Su advised him not to drink too much and to come home early, assuring him not to worry about his parents as she would accompany them. Yang Ping had only heard of Director Zhu and had a brief encounter with him once before. Before the end of the shift, Yang Ping went to see Hermes. Although Hermes¡¯s bankruptcy was a personal matter, that didn¡¯t mean the doctors should turn a blind eye to it. His wife was peeling an orange for him. Yang Ping comforted him, ¡°Big brother Wang, I¡¯m only here to say one thing: aside from life and death, all other matters are trivial. There¡¯s no hurdle in life we can¡¯t overcome.¡± ¡°Yes, Doctor Yang, thank you all. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t think of suicide. I just came back from Professor Zhang¡¯s place and I¡¯ve realized how blessed I really am. This morning, he took me to visit the oncology department. After seeing the conditions there, I understand how much better off I am.¡± Hermes seemed relieved and more relaxed. A nurse came and told Hermes that a bed in the hallway had been arranged for him until a patient was discharged and a bed in the triple room was available. Yang Ping told the nurse, ¡°There¡¯s no need to move him to the hallway. Let Old Wang stay in the suite for now. Once a bed in the triple room is available, move him directly there. From today onwards, bill this room as per the rate of a triple room bed. I¡¯ll discuss this with Head Nurse Cai.¡± Although Yang Ping was not the department head, his standings were equivalent to that of a department head, and the nurse did not dare to say more. ¡°No, that¡¯s not right. I don¡¯t want to cause trouble for you guys. I¡¯m fine with staying in the hallway.¡± Hermes appeared quite embarrassed. Yang Ping feigned annoyance, ¡°Old Wang, you¡¯re showing poor compliance here. Remember, I¡¯m your doctor. You can¡¯t go wrong listening to me.¡± Now that he had experienced such a sudden change and was unable to adjust immediately, and as the suite was temporarily vacant, letting him stay for a few more days wouldn¡¯t hurt. ¡°Thank you!¡± Hermes was truly grateful. He had seen his share of fair-weather friends and felt the sting of their abandonment in his time of need. Yang Ping¡¯s action warmed his heart. ¡°Focus on getting better. With the current progress, there¡¯s a high chance of full recovery. As for the medical fees, let them be outstanding for now and we¡¯ll figure something out slowly. Only when you¡¯re well can you start making money again. And considering your business acumen, I have no doubt that you will weather the storm.¡± With Director Tian hurrying for departure, Yang Ping did not linger. Seeing that Hermes¡¯s mood was stable, he figured there shouldn¡¯t be any major issues. At a time like this, the care from family members is paramount. His wife¡¯s constant support had greatly boosted his morale. Yang Ping went downstairs, and Director Tian was already waiting at the main entrance of the integrated orthopedics department. ¡°Little brother, neither of us needs to drive. We¡¯ll go in Director Zhu¡¯s car. It¡¯s not too far, just nearby.¡± A black Mercedes was slowly pulling out of a temporary parking spot, gently heading towards them, and then it pulled over to a stop. A middle-aged man got out of the car. Director Tian casually chatted with him for a while and he departed hastily, Yang Ping didn¡¯t get a detailed look at the man, he only vaguely remembered his appearance. ¡°This is Director Zhu. From now on, we will call him President Zhu.¡± Director Tian introduced. ¡°Nice to meet you. I¡¯ve heard a great deal about you! ¡®Young hero¡¯, please just call me Old Zhu.¡± Director Zhu cordially held out his hand to Yang Ping. Director Zhu was of average body size, not bearing the rotundity of middle age, wore gold-rimmed glasses, elegant and personable, very much a scholar. His demeanor slightly resembled that of Director Tian. ¡°Hello, President Zhu, I¡¯m Xiao Yang from the Department of Orthopedics.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t expect him to be so vibrant and radiant, a far cry from the listless and distressed appearance he imagined. The contrast was quite striking. Director Zhu opened the car door and invited both of them in, ¡°The province had sent both Director Tian and me twice as visiting scholars abroad. We even shared a dormitory.¡± Director Zhu talked about his relationship with Director Tian himself. During this gathering that Director Zhu hosted, he had only invited Tian and Yang Ping, excluding outsiders. At a decent restaurant nearby, as they took their seats, Director Tian got straight to the point: ¡°Anning Insurance has currently established a subsidiary that deals specifically with high-end medical insurance. The president of the subsidiary is Old Zhu¡¯s former boss. That¡¯s why Old Zhu has also moved to this new company as a vice president. Their company has a client, a Chinese person from Malaysia, who has recently developed lower limb paralysis. Despite consulting many renowned doctors, the cause has not been identified. He recently sought my consultation for his case but I wasn¡¯t able to figure out the cause either. I recommended you, and he insistently asked for you to join us for dinner, so that possibly you could help determine the problem.¡± The food hadn¡¯t arrived yet, so everyone was drinking tea. Old Zhu took out his laptop from his bag, put it on the table, opened it and displayed the imaging pictures. ¡°The patient seemed to exhibit paraplegia in both lower limbs. At the time, an MRI detected a cyst in the thoracic spinal canal, which was believed to have caused spinal cord compression, resulting in the paralysis. An emergent surgery that involved cyst excision was performed, but post-surgery, the patient¡¯s paraplegia did not improve, it actually worsened ¨C ¡± Director Zhu gave a brief introduction about the state of the disease. ¡°The spinal cord seems a bit edematous. There was edema prior to surgery as well; shouldn¡¯t it have been caused by cyst compression?¡± Director Tian added. Director Zhu continued: ¡°He had a few experts from the United States and Germany review his MRI, all of whom concluded that the spinal cord edema was due to compression from the cyst.¡± Yang Ping examined the images one by one. Wasn¡¯t it the same case as that of Fang Xiaoyun? A spinal dural arteriovenous fistula! The system had recently upgraded the auxiliary diagnostic training it provided to Yang Ping. After he had been deemed competent in diagnosing common cases, it began pushing a large number of rare cases to him. Yang Ping had been able to diagnose this type of case even before he had any training with rare cases. After cosiderable training with rare cases, diagnosing them felt no different from diagnosing a common fracture. He was able to diagnose it at a glance. ¡°It¡¯s a spinal dural arteriovenous fistula. Let¡¯s perform a DSA, and after confirming the diagnosis, operate on it.¡± Yang Ping sounded very confident. The reason why such cases are called ¡®rare¡¯ is because of their low occurrence. Ever since he cured Fang Xiaoyun, the system began to push a lot of rarer cases to him for auxiliary diagnostic training, as if acknowledging that he could be taught these cases. Since Yang Ping had seen a great number of ¡°rare cases¡±, he no longer considered any case to be rare. Once he grew proficient with them, he felt very sure about his diagnosis. It felt like taking a test; his confidence in solving the simplest of problems exceeded even seeing the correct answer. ¡°Find a good doctor, otherwise the DSA might not be performed accurately,¡± Yang Ping added. Director Tian had complete faith in Yang Ping¡¯s ability to interpret images; he had noticed on the first day when Yang Ping diagnosed a hidden femoral neck fracture, thereby helping him avoid a misstep. Director Zhu also had a clinical background, and was recognized as a promising young talent by Nandu Province. Seeing the confidence Yang Ping radiated, he too did not harbour any doubts. Medicine does not tolerate false pretense. It¡¯s either a yes, or a no. Director Tian would not recommend someone hastily either. ¡°And what if that¡¯s the case?¡± Director Zhu asked. ¡°Perform a surgery, separate the artery and vein, close the shunt, problem solved; the effect would be immediate.¡± Yang Ping responded very casually. Initially, this client had purchased multiple high-end medical insurance policies. His current medical help was being arranged by another multinational insurance company, and Director Zhu¡¯s company hadn¡¯t come into the picture yet. Director Zhu had just tried his luck, wanting to see if Director Tian could provide a suggestion. Little did he expect that Yang Ping would be so confident; it seemed that, from his standpoint, this wasn¡¯t even a problem. Director Zhu had recently taken office and his company was in the midst of expanding into the international market. If he could resolve this patient¡¯s problem, it would demonstrate his insurance company¡¯s strong capacity to integrate resources, which would naturally evoke trust from high-end clients. Yang Ping was also keen to assist Director Zhu, hoping that he could achieve something in his new field. This could be due to the empathy felt among colleagues, or perhaps out of sympathy for what he had been through. The dishes were served, and everyone chatted while eating. After Director Zhu¡¯s incident, he was forced to switch careers, applied to Anning Insurance Company; initially he evaluated treatment plans for clients in the medical department, then later self-studied and passed the actuarial examination. His hard work, coupled with his high educational background and medical experiences, resulted in rapid promotions within the company. Now he had followed his old boss to a subsidiary to assume a position, becoming the vice president of the company. It was certainly a case of one door closing and another opening. ¡°Old Zhu ¨C ¡± Director Tian thought about the incident of blood donation in Shipo; he had felt uneasy as he did not see the person then. Upon careful consideration, though, he decided against bringing it up, old matters shouldn¡¯t be dug up. He had made a call to confirm at the time, and they said it wasn¡¯t him. Chapter 295: 0279: The true high-end Chapter 295: Chapter 0279: The true high-end During the meal, Director Zhu introduced their new company¡¯s business situation. The new company focuses on high-end medical insurance. It¡¯s part of Anning Insurance¡¯s strategic layout to pursue high-end insurers such as Bao Bo, Ansheng, Antai, Allianz, MSH, and China Merchants Bank Cigna. Meanwhile, Anning Insurance is attempting to expand overseas through the new company. The case shown to Yang Ping earlier was from one of the first clients of the new company in Malaysia ¨C a wealthy Chinese businessman living in Malaysia. Currently, the patient is hospitalized in Yingge Hospital in Kuala Lumpur, and has requested several professors from Europe and America for transnational consultations, but there are no results yet. As the patient is of Chinese descent and has also bought Anning¡¯s insurance, Director Zhu naturally obtained the patient¡¯s information to inquire on his behalf. The diagnosis of dural arteriovenous fistula requires DSA, and the current film reading technology cannot diagnose based on MRI. This is because there are not enough cases to summarize the experience. Yet, there are fewer than 300 reported cases of this disease worldwide so no one can summarize any experience. However, Yang Ping has enough experience. The massive amount of cases pushed by the system space allowed Yang Ping to accumulate enough experience to identify the subtle features of these types of cases on MRI. ¡°Doctor Yang, based on the MRI and CT just now, what¡¯s the probability of dural arteriovenous fistula?¡± Director Zhu wanted to understand clearly to plan his next move. ... ¡°Over ninety percent!¡± Yang Ping answered without hesitation. Even if the probability is 100%, he only says exceeding 90%. Director Zhu understood clearly. Saying something like he was ninety percent certain was quite confident. He knows Tian Yuan¡¯s standard; he would not recommend others and to recommend a young doctor, this person must be exceptional. ¡°This patient is a wealthy businessman from Malaysia. What do you say if I convince him to come to Sanbo Hospital for treatment, or invite Doctor Yang over for consultation?¡± With confidence in his heart, Director Zhu knew that they were all professionals dedicated to their fields. Their communication was straightforward and efficient. ¡°If needed, contact me or Director Tian anytime, Xiao Yang will give it his all.¡± Yang Ping was very willing to help Director Zhu, as if his success would make Yang Ping very comfortable. If he didn¡¯t succeed, he would feel quite upset. Tian Yuan¡¯s thought was the same as Yang Ping¡¯s. The reason why he recommended Yang Ping was that he knew Yang Ping could be of help. ¡°Our company is currently looking for a designated cooperative hospital, Old Tian. I just visited your Overseas Chinese Building. Compared with the VIP wards of other hospitals, your management and the environment are much better. We could cooperate in the future. We also want to find a private hospital for cooperation. I don¡¯t think there is any private hospital specializing in orthopedics on the high-end market, right? Please keep an eye out for me. If there is one, we can cooperate in the future.¡± Director Zhu had just visited the Overseas Chinese Building and they were currently surveying cooperative hospitals. Yang Ping thought of Old Cheng¡¯s hospital. The first time they sat down for a meal, the timing was not right to put it forward. After eating, Director Zhu and Yang Ping exchanged phone numbers and added each other on WeChat, then sent Yang Ping and Tian Yuan back to the hospital. ¡°Old Ju is doing pretty well now. I feel really relieved. His situation has always been a thorn in my side. Every time I think about studying abroad together, his serious and persistent attitude towards medicine, it saddens me.¡± Tian Yuan looked at the black Mercedes disappearing into the night and felt deeply affected. Yang Ping understood his feelings. Not to mention the camaraderie between him and Tian Yuan from studying abroad; even as an unrelated peer, he felt great sympathy for his experiences. At that time, a deluge of vitriolic abuse poured in. Even though the investigation team had already announced the results of the investigation saying that his surgery and treatment were conventional, public opinion still did not believe it. They thought there was some foul play. People even went after his personal information, and some people even went to obstruct him after work. In the end, he had no choice but to resign and leave the profession and industry he¡¯d loved and strived for for twenty years. The first time Yang Ping met Director Zhu, he felt that this man was diligent and hardworking, very good at thinking, and had tight logical thinking. Now he is the deputy general manager of Anning Insurance¡¯s subsidiary, certainly not inferior to being a doctor at the Provincial Hospital, he will surely have a bright future ahead. ¡°Younger brother, if you¡¯re confident about this case, do your best to help Director Zhu!¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Yang Ping and Director Tian chat at the hospital¡¯s entrance. ¡°Xiao Liang, what are you doing?¡± Director Tian saw Liang Fatty sweating, panting and leaning against a tree next to the gate. ¡°Running!¡± Fatty was short of breath. ¡°Fatty, you¡¯re running?¡± Yang Ping found it unbelievable. ¡®Running¡¯, this word does not exist in Fatty¡¯s dictionary. ¡°Brother, I¡¯ve just run five kilometers and I really can¡¯t do anymore,¡± Fatty panted heavily, waved his hand, signaling not to talk to him. ¡ª ¡°Dean Cai, if you invest a lot of money into renovations, purchase equipment, and provide further training, and there¡¯s no profit, we can¡¯t handle it.¡± Dean Cai was very worried. He felt a chill going down his spine. This investment was too big, too sudden. Old Cheng waved her hand dismissively: ¡°Dean Cai, you¡¯re a bit timid and you¡¯re not seeing the direction in which the situation is developing. So, let me tell you the truth. You¡¯re not cut out for business. If you respect Old Cheng, follow me wholeheartedly in the future. As long as I have a bite of meat, you won¡¯t be left drinking soup. Let¡¯s sit down and talk.¡± The two had just finished inspecting the renovation site and returned to the office. They took off their safety helmets and Old Cheng wanted to have a serious talk with Dean Cai. ¡°Let me put it this way? Let¡¯s first look at the country¡¯s macro environment. The national economy is currently developing, the GDP ranks second in the world, and we have entered an age of relative affluence. There is now a wealthy population, but the services for the wealthy, especially medical services, are lagging behind.¡± ¡°But aren¡¯t there many hospitals providing services? A lot of public hospitals are opening VIP wards, aren¡¯t they?¡± Dean Cai didn¡¯t quite understand. Old Cheng shook his head: ¡°What kind of VIP service are you talking about? It¡¯s far from satisfactory! In the future, high-end medical services can only be provided by private hospitals. Public hospitals should allocate resources to the public, with private hospitals providing medical services to the rich. Additionally, we now have the opportunity of having Dr. Yang helping us, so we should seize the opportunity. As for Yunjian¡¯s way of doing things, it¡¯s not that I, Old Cheng, don¡¯t know how to play that game, but rather, I don¡¯t want to. I can make money, but my ambition lies elsewhere. Just you wait and see, it won¡¯t be long before Yunjian and us are no longer on the same level. After the New Year, join me on a trip to Singapore. I have arranged a visit to the Elizabeth Novena Hospital to see how they manage things. Once the renovations are done, the next step is to establish a management system and send doctors and nurses out for further training. This time, they will all go to Singapore. I¡¯ve been thinking for a long time, I still think that the Singapore model is more suitable for us.¡± ¡°Dean Cai, you just follow my lead.¡± Hearing Old Cheng¡¯s analysis, Dean Cai thought it made a lot of sense. ¡°Did we admit that patient? Once I have talked things through with Dr. Yang, let Dr. Yang come to see the patient. Then start looking for media, has Dr. Yang¡¯s family¡¯s New Year¡¯s goods been prepared? Once they¡¯re ready, I want to check them personally and send them over as soon as possible.¡± ¡°Everything is prepared. His father likes to drink alcohol, so Moutai was prepared. The apples are from Luochuan, the dates are from Xinjiang. Everything is the best we could find, even the chili is the top quality from the Zhangshu Bay. Everything is prepared, we will load them into the truck and send them after you have checked.¡± ¡°When the goods are being sent, let me know. I want to go with them and help move them.¡± ¡°Dean Cai, you going to move goods, that¡¯s not right, isn¡¯t it? We have sufficient manpower, we could just send some security guards.¡± ¡°Dean Cai, it¡¯s not because we¡¯re short on manpower that I have to go and move the goods. It¡¯s the thought that counts. Even if I just lend a hand, it¡¯s the thought that counts. Do you understand? Does Dr. Yang really need these New Year¡¯s goods? Why do we prepare so meticulously? It¡¯s to show that we value this relationship and that we are willing to worry for them. Do you understand?¡± ¡°Dean Cai, you¡¯re still thinking carefully about these things. I really can¡¯t think of these things.¡± ¡°Dean Cai, I raised this money from within my family. It¡¯s all for the sake of return on investment. Although I¡¯m not worried about the price for the sake of quality, we should still tighten the belt a bit so that people don¡¯t skimp on materials. This time I¡¯ve made a big investment, betting my whole second half of life. And I¡¯ve told the contractor directly. I¡¯ve already given plenty of room for profit. If there¡¯s still negligence or shortcuts, I will not pay a penny at that time and will take matters seriously with him.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve also said my piece. If anyone messes around with the project, I¡¯ll cut off his hand, I¡¯ve assigned someone to follow.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the way it should be, show your strength when it¡¯s necessary.¡± ¡°Dean Cai, Can I add something else? Going public against Yunjian, won¡¯t that cause a problem?¡± Old Cheng¡¯s brow furrowed: ¡°To compete, you have to fight. Whether it¡¯s earlier or later, you are afraid of nothing. It¡¯s better to give him a tough blow, let him remember, and stop having eyes for us.¡± ¡°However, while we should despise our enemies strategically, we should take them seriously tactically. This time we should plan carefully. Once we make a move, we should strike their weak point. That Director Tang, their traffic king, investigate him carefully. This time, we should expose all his dirty secrets.¡± ¡°What about everyone¡¯s meals? There have been complaints recently.¡± ¡°They are being a bit unreasonable.¡± ¡°If it¡¯s not working out, change it. We¡¯ll do it ourselves. I went there the other day to try it. It lacked flavor, the pre-surgery meals were in that bird-like shape, you can imagine what it is like usually. How can my doctors work with that kind of meals?¡± ¡°We can¡¯t change, the outside company is the uncle of Meng Ke from the city health bureau¡¯s company¡ª¡± ¡°Change! I¡¯ve given them a few warnings, and they are still playing games. Dean Cai, we¡¯re doctors ourselves, make the salary and benefits better, people will have a sense of belonging, and they will do their work wholeheartedly, then the money will be earned back. Don¡¯t be like Huang Shiren.¡± ¡°Understood, if you say change, I will change it. No one can blame us, they are just too extreme.¡± Old Cheng was full of confidence. This time, the huge investment was not impulsive but was made after careful consideration of the situation. Over sixty million, all invested. Old Cheng firmly believed that he had grasped the opportunity, so he was very excited. He firmly believed that establishing a long-term stable relationship with Yang Ping was essential, but in order to achieve that, he must quickly upgrade the platform. He must provide him with a truly high-end platform for him to showcase his talent. This is the cornerstone of their collaboration. He was also planning to introduce advanced international management models and attain accreditation from the Joint Commission International on Health Care Institutions. They would establish a small, modern, internationalized high-end orthopedic specialty hospital. With a capacity of 120 beds, the medical staff would all be sent out for training. This time it would be to Singapore, primarily to learn how to provide services to the high-end population. In fact, Old Cheng had been wanting to do this for a while, but he always felt the timing wasn¡¯t right. After meeting Yang Ping, he began to have ideas. After the Sanbo Academic Conference, he immediately felt that the time was completely right, so he rolled up his sleeves and got to work! Chapter 296: 0280 AJSM Chapter 296: Chapter 0280 AJSM After a busy day of surgeries, Yang Ping took a shower in the operating room¡¯s changing room. There were shampoos, shower gels, and towels in the locker too. Taking a shower before getting off work made the walk home a lot more comfortable, instead of being sweaty and sticky all over. Song Zimo was resting on a chair, while Little Five, Zhang Lin and Fatty were smoking. Fatty had bought some imported cigarettes from the duty-free store and they were all sharing. ¡°Isn¡¯t it strange that even though it¡¯s written on the packet that smoking is harmful to health, it¡¯s not banned like drugs are?¡± Fatty squashed a cigarette pack and fell into a contemplative silence. ¡°This question of yours might make a good PhD thesis in economics. You¡¯re asking in the wrong place,¡± Zhang Lin replied, exhaling a puff of smoke. Little Five also donned a serious look, ¡°A lot of human behavior is backed by economic motives. Have you ever heard of the Shelby light bulb story? Nearly a hundred years ago, they made a bulb that could last a hundred years. It should have been widely celebrated, but due to the super durability of this bulb, they ended up going bankrupt. Current light bulbs only last a few thousand hours, not because we can¡¯t make more durable ones, but because whoever manages to create a more durable bulb will go bankrupt!¡± ... When Yang Ping emerged from his shower, the group halted their discussion and quickly extinguished their cigarettes. Song Zimo did a sit-up: ¡°Senior, could you reveal your secret? How did you manage to write so many papers during your two-week leave? I want to know how it¡¯s possible. I¡¯ve already organized all your papers; I think two of the arthroscopy papers can be published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine. If we¡¯re going to publish them, we should aim for top-tier journals.¡± The impact factor of the American Journal of Sports Medicine has reached 5.4; it¡¯s the top-ranked journal in orthopedics. Why do doctors publish papers? It¡¯s the summary of their clinical research. Why aim for top-tier journals? It¡¯s the path to establishing their reputation in the field. It¡¯s akin to athletes proving their prowess by participating in world championships. ¡°Director Han has asked me to visit his office!¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t answer his question. It wasn¡¯t something that could be simply answered. Yang Ping had sent a copy of his papers to Director Han for revision. The invitation to his office was likely about the papers. Yang Ping left the operating room to meet Director Han at the orthopedics research institute, and ran into Director Gao coming out of his office. ¡°Doctor Yang, just finished a surgery?¡± ¡°Yes, I did.¡± ¡°I just took on a case requiring a four-ligament reconstruction of the knee. Could you guide me through the procedure when you have some time?¡± ¡°Director Gao, you¡¯re too polite. You¡¯re welcome anytime from Monday to Friday. We can make arrangements.¡± ¡°Thank you. I¡¯ll disturb you then.¡± ¡°Not at all.¡± Director Gao left cheerfully. Other department directors wouldn¡¯t let a young doctor guide them through a surgery, but Director Gao was different. All he wanted was to learn, regardless of whether the teacher was young or old. Yang Ping knocked on the door and entered. Old Han spread out the papers on the table, ¡°I¡¯ve read your papers and they¡¯re of very high quality. You should aim to publish them in top international journals. As for the specific journals, let me plan for you.¡± To be promoted to associate senior, Yang Ping would need to have papers and research topics. Normally, it would take three to five years after becoming a chief physician to be promoted, but the new regulations in Nandu Province stipulate three years. Under special contributions, the promotion could be expedited. What qualifies as special contributions? It¡¯s not necessarily about how well one carries out surgeries, but rather about papers and research topics. For instance, publishing an article in ¡°Nature¡± or ¡°Science¡±, or winning a national second-prize award for scientific and technological advancement. ¡°Xiao Yang, leave your papers with me. I will take a closer look. What do you think of Gao Yuan? With the rapid increase in arthroscopy patients, I think it¡¯s time to establish a sports medicine center. We would need to draw some people from the rehabilitation department to form a surgery rehabilitation center. The idea has not been welcomed by the rehab department because it would mean splitting their unit. However, Dean Xia is very supportive of establishing a sports medicine center. So, in reality, the rehab department is being a bit petty.¡± ¡°Director Gao is very practical and loves learning. Recently, he¡¯s been attending surgeries, and not for show. He¡¯s been genuinely dedicated to learning. I think he can be trusted to take on the role of the center director.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been observing him recently as well. I¡¯ve been considering whether to install a new department director like we did for the trauma orthopedics. But on closer examination, sports medicine and trauma orthopedics are not quite the same. At the time, the trauma orthopedics didn¡¯t have a suitable candidate for the position. With sports medicine, I feel Gao Yuan is quite capable. He has a good educational background, is proactive and very pioneering. I¡¯d like to give him more responsibilities after the sports medicine center is set up.¡± ¡°Personally, I think Director Gao is very suitable for the position of the sports medicine center director!¡± This casual chat between Old Han and Yang Ping sometimes solidified major decisions. ¡°Xiao Yang, the hospital¡¯s marketing department has invited a TV crew to shoot a documentary series about your team. Dean Xia personally proposed this, emphasizing on publicizing your young team. The marketing team has also compiled some footage, such as the five-section replantation, five-ligament reconstruction, and the academic conference surgery. But it¡¯s not enough. The TV crew will step in to film some of your daily work. They won¡¯t interfere with your normal operations, but they may conduct some special interviews with you. Please cooperate as best you can.¡± Old Han was worried about Yang Ping¡¯s reluctance to be in the spotlight and hence had this special chat with him. Good wine needs no bush, but if the alley is too deep, it¡¯s not good for even the finest wine. Actually, publicity is necessary. Although Yang Ping prefers to keep a low profile and doesn¡¯t like pulling the spotlight, if he wants to expand the department, some publicity is needed. ¡°I¡¯ll cooperate fully!¡± Yang Ping reassured Old Han. With Yang Ping¡¯s pledge, Old Han was relieved, afraid that this lad wouldn¡¯t cooperate with the interview. ¡ª ¡°Doctor Yang, this is Old Cheng. The New Year gifts are at the gate of the community, but the security guard needs to call you for confirmation before they can be let in.¡± Old Cheng and Yang Ping had agreed that the New Year¡¯s goods would be delivered at six o¡¯clock in the afternoon, and as soon as it was six, the call arrived on time. Yang Ping confirmed Old Cheng¡¯s identity with the security guard, who then let Old Cheng¡¯s car in. Leaving the Orthopedics Institute, Yang Ping rushed back as the goods were about to be moved upstairs. His collaboration with Old Cheng was above board, and Old Cheng had said that this was a benefit for experts provided by the hospital, so Yang Ping had no good reason to refuse for fear that Old Cheng would misunderstand, and thus accepted everything. Old Cheng personally rolled up his sleeves and carried the boxes upstairs into Yang Ping¡¯s house. Fortunately, the house was large enough to accommodate all the stuff, including wine, fruits, nuts, and all kinds of specialties. ¡°The fresh meat will be delivered on the 29th, including lamb, beef, and pork, which are all pre-ordered and will be freshly butchered; the fish are also pre-ordered from the reservoir; the chickens are free-range from Shipo, all to be slaughtered on the day of delivery.¡± Old Cheng, carrying in the goods, was perspiring heavily: ¡°I¡¯m afraid they will handle the stuff carelessly and damage it, it¡¯s more reassuring to do it myself.¡± Dean Cai also pitched in with Old Cheng in carrying the goods. After everything was brought upstairs, Yang Ping invited them for dinner, but Old Cheng refused no matter what: ¡°To tell you the truth, I have a dinner appointment waiting for me. I just dropped by to deliver these goods.¡± After everything was arranged, Old Cheng hurriedly left with his people. ¡°Pingping, are these things okay? Are they all above board?¡± Old Yang was worried about his son being involved in corruption, and Xiao Su laughed, ¡°Uncle, you can rest assured. This is the boss of a private hospital. Yang Ping is cooperating with them in the surgeries, helping them earn a lot of money. These are the benefits given to Yang Ping by their hospital, just like our unit distributing rice and oil.¡± ¡°Then I can rest easy!¡± Seeing so many valuable goods, Old Yang was worried that his son might be tempted into corruption. His mother was checking the New Year¡¯s goods: ¡°There are so many. We¡¯ve got everything. Do we need to prepare anything else for ourselves?¡± ¡ª Su Nanchen, a call from Brother Su. The guy who had the four-ligament reconstruction last time at Affiliate Hospital One, recovered very well after surgery. The patient wanted to go to Sanbo Hospital for a follow-up check with Yang Ping and to add Yang Ping on WeChat. It turned out to be that guy, the athlete who still loved football despite all his trials and tribulations. This young man was quite famous, a main player of the Nandu Province team, who excelled in speed, endurance, explosive power, and skills, and had a high reputation in the Super League. Unfortunately, every test God gave him was too heavy. The injury this time, with ruptures of the anteroposterior cruciate ligaments, the medial and lateral structures, was enough to force him to retire. Yang Ping checked WeChat and found a new friend request. After he accepted the request, the other party sent an emoji of a handshake. ¡°I¡¯m Luo Jin, Doctor Yang. I¡¯m sorry to bother you. I was wondering when I could come for a follow-up. I couldn¡¯t find your name in the outpatient doctor list on the official website of Sanbo Hospital.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t do outpatient service! If you want a follow-up, come to the general orthopedic ward from four to six o¡¯clock tomorrow afternoon.¡± ¡°I am very grateful. I¡¯ve started jogging, and it feels great. My knee is very stable, and I am very confident about returning to the field!¡± ¡°Go for it! You can definitely do it.¡± Chapter 297: 0281 Spokesperson Chapter 297: Chapter 0281 Spokesperson The production crew began to settle into the Orthopedics department, aiming to capture some aspects of the Orthopedics team¡¯s work, such as morning handovers, reading films, rounds, and more importantly, surgery. This documentary will fully showcase how a young team dares to scale the heights of surgery. Yang Ping had read the script of the documentary. The first episode covers five-section replantation, the last episode covers paper publication, and in between, there is five-link reconstruction, Academic Conference surgery, and Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s dural arteriovenous fistula. Each case, from pre-operative decision making to surgical operation and post-operative recovery, will be shot panoramically, showing the difficulty, heart-stopping moments, and precariousness when doctors solve tough problems. The high-quality papers are used to wrap up in the end, showcasing the team¡¯s excellent professional ability and status in the academic world. The last episode is labeled as ¡°To Be Determined!¡±, meaning that the papers haven¡¯t been published yet, so it seems that the documentary will continue filming until the papers are published. Obviously, this manuscript has been modified by Director Han, and possibly written by him personally, as the professionalism has exceeded the knowledge of the media personnel. ... After Yang Ping submits his paper, according to the normal process, it takes three months for paper review and some more time for the publication. However, Director Han still included the paper in the last episode of the documentary. The paper is the best summary and proof of the team¡¯s work. In fact, a solid academic reputation in a discipline can only be established with high-quality papers. Otherwise, stories wouldn¡¯t happen where a professor who raises rabbits becomes the head of Internal Medicine, and a professor who doesn¡¯t perform surgery becomes the head of Surgery. The mixing of research and clinical work, is it good or bad? The answer is obvious. Top hospitals need to solve medical puzzles and must conduct research, which is reasonable. However, for ordinary hospitals, forcing promotion and professional title requirements to have projects and papers is purely nonsense. This makes papers and projects become a business and this business is growing. Anyway, there are often agents selling papers secretly dropping their business cards in various hospitals, looking for potential customers who need promotions. Morning teaching, reading films, rounds, a day of surgery, the production crew has been following. When working, the camera pointed at oneself. At first, everyone felt awkward, but after getting used to it, it didn¡¯t seem like a big deal anymore. In the afternoon, Luo Jin, the soccer boy, came for a review. The young man was sunny and handsome, he showed white teeth when he laughed: ¡°Doctor Yang, hello, sorry for the interruption.¡± Yang Ping took him to the treatment room for an exam, he asked in detail about the post-operative rehabilitation process. The physiotherapy department of the First Affiliated Hospital helped him with the rehabilitation, as did team doctors. He himself bought several books about sports rehabilitation, aiming to understand the purpose of each rehabilitation exercise. Yang Ping found that the muscle atrophy of the operated limb has significantly recovered. There was no significant difference in thigh and calf circumference on both sides. He further examined his knee. Forward, backward, lateral, and rotational are all very stable. Checked the ligament stability with KT2000 knee stability tester, the ligament is not slack, stability is very good. Currently, three months post-operation, at least he is very satisfied with the early stability. ¡°How is it? Doctor Yang, I feel good myself.¡± The boy worriedly asked. Yang Ping let him get up from the examination bed: ¡°No matter if it was a manual check or an instrumental check, the post-operative effect is very good, your knee is very stable, congratulations, at least for now, after three months, you can return to the field.¡± ¡°Yeah! I knew I could make it!¡± The boy excitedly clenched his fists, just like when he finally passed a game level. ¡°Rehabilitation must be carried out in an orderly and progressive manner, not too much or too little. The surgery used allogeneic tendons, which vascularize much slower than autogenous tendons. Therefore, you cannot suddenly increase the amount of training and must let it gradually adapt and remodel itself.¡± Yang Ping is worried that he is anxious and eager to get ahead, which backfires and can easily lead to rupture of the transplanted tendon. ¡°I understand, I have enough patience, don¡¯t know if I can take part in this year¡¯s competition in June?¡± The boy is eager to participate in the match. ¡°Based on the current progress, you should be able to.¡± Yang Ping estimated the progress of his recovery for him. The boy got off from the examination bed, and put on his shoes, the treatment room was already surrounded by people, Zhang Lin, Little Five, and Fatty, all of the standardized training students and interns were there. ¡°What, observing the knee examination?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t call them at all, he was puzzled by why so many people were crowded around him, their enthusiasm for learning was commendable. Fatty squeezed to the front and pulled out a white autumn T-shirt: ¡°Brother Jin, please give me an autograph.¡± ¡°Brother Jin! Please sign this.¡± ¡°Brother Jin! Please sign this.¡± ¡°Brother Jin! Please sign this.¡± Oh, I see. These guys. Yang Ping only treated Luo Jin as his patient, completely forgetting that Luo Jin is a rising star in the Chinese Super League and is extremely popular. If it wasn¡¯t for this injury, he reportedly could have gone to Europe to play soccer. Unfortunately, during the match, he was advancing with the ball and about to score a goal when he was aggressively fouled. The tackle sent him flying, and he fell just as he was about to take a shot at the goal. Tempers flared among the players from both sides and they almost came to blows. Thankfully, the referee and coaches intervened in time, averting a brawl on the field. Underneath Fatty¡¯s white gown, his bare chubby chest could be seen. Yang Ping tugged at his gown: ¡°Mate, this outfit of yours? Isn¡¯t it a bit inappropriate for kids?¡± ¡°Bro, forgive me, Luo Jin came so suddenly, I had no time to prepare. I took off my shirt, I¡¯ll put it back on as soon as I finish signing.¡± Fatty handed his shirt and a black marker to Luo Jin. ¡°Queue up, one by one, no rush, Luo Jin will definitely sign for all of you,¡± the team doctor helped maintain order. Luo Jin readily agreed: ¡°Register your names and numbers. Next time I come, I¡¯ll give each of you a team jersey with my signature on it, how does that sound?¡± Hearing that there would be signed jerseys, everyone cheered instantly. After getting his signature, Fatty promptly prepared to register the details: ¡°Luo Jin, you better keep your word.¡± Honest as ever, Luo Jin signed one by one. One guy, who hadn¡¯t brought anything to sign, extended his palm. Realizing the signature would wash off, he quickly stripped off his gown and turned around: ¡°Luo Jin, sign directly on my back!¡± Left with no choice, Luo Jin signed his name on the man¡¯s shirt. Taking pictures was inevitable. First, they took a group photo, then they took turns to take individual photos with Luo Jin. Luo Jin didn¡¯t have the air of a football star and showed no signs of impatience. He was very cooperative, which made everyone quite satisfied. ¡°Alright, that¡¯s enough, hurry up anyone else who needs a signature or photo, he¡¯s here for a medical checkup,¡± Yang Ping scolded the crowd. Luo Jin laughed and said, ¡°It¡¯s fine, I appreciate the attention.¡± ¡°Luo Jin, fight on! We hope to see you back on the pitch soon. Without you, the games are boring. It¡¯s not interesting to watch foreign imports who just play aggressively.¡± ¡°Luo Jin, I heard you¡¯re considering joining a European Club?¡± ¡°Luo Jin, do you have a girlfriend?¡± ¡°Luo Jin, we love watching you play. You¡¯re like lightning, a leopard... ¡± The autograph signing session suddenly turned into a paparazzi interview. Luo Jin simply laughed. He was very disciplined: he didn¡¯t have a girlfriend, he didn¡¯t drink or smoke, his diet was strictly controlled by a nutritionist. Everything he did was to maintain his athletic condition. If China had more players like Luo Jin, the state of Chinese football wouldn¡¯t be so dire¡ª No more talking about that. Yang Ping felt very emotional. He doesn¡¯t watch the Chinese Super League anymore. It¡¯s not good for his heart to get too worked up, one needs to take care of their health. ¡°I just saw a TV crew shooting here, are they shooting a TV show?¡± Luo Jin, who is only 20 years old, was curious about a TV show being filmed in the hospital. Yang Ping explained, ¡°The TV station is making a documentary about our department!¡± ¡°A documentary? How about I endorse your sports medicine for free? Truly free, no endorsement fee.¡± This was a great surprise. Given Luo Jin¡¯s popularity, a promotional video featuring him would surely be effective. Especially if his inspirational story was used as the main theme. With this idea popping into his head, Yang Ping felt they¡¯d found what had been missing. Sports medicine had many patients, but something was lacking¡ªnow it seemed they had found it. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yes, you can make a short film about my surgery. I¡¯ve got some free time recently, and I won¡¯t charge a fee.¡± ¡°We¡¯re so grateful, we¡¯re indeed looking for the protagonist for our sports medicine promotional video.¡± ¡°Well, give me that protagonist¡¯s role. I¡¯ll perform for free, I¡¯d love to do a favor for Dr. Yang.¡± Luo Jin understood that the success of his surgery played a pivotal role in his recovery. Despite his dedication to rehabilitation, all would have been in vain had the surgery not been successful. Chapter 298: 0282: Urgent Delivery Chapter 298: Chapter 0282: Urgent Delivery Luo Jin, the spokesperson for the Sports Medicine Center? Voluntarily participate in the promotional video shoot for the Sports Medicine Center? The first reaction of Old Han when he received a call from Yang Ping was, which Luo Jin? After multiple confirmations from Yang Ping, it was indeed the soccer star Luo Jin from the Chinese Super League. Old Han had a general understanding of Luo Jin, given that he himself also played soccer and was a bold forward during his college days. Back in Shanghai, they would always gather to drink beer and watch the World Cup during its season, cheering and swearing. He was well-acquainted with several venues in Shanghai where soccer enthusiasts could gather. After the age of forty, his knees would always hurt after playing soccer. Being an orthopedic doctor, he was well aware that he was suffering from patellofemoral pain syndrome. With no choice, he had to stop playing soccer, but watching matches was still okay. Even now, he would often watch matches. ... Therefore, he had some knowledge about Luo Jin. The young man had potential, was diligent, and most importantly, he had a passion for soccer. He was not comparable to those who only pretended to work and did nothing. Good wine needs good marketing skills. A good hand must be played well. If Luo Jin could be the spokesperson for the Sports Medicine Center and his story could be made into a promotional video, it would be very inspiring and persuasive. The Sports Medicine Center would receive rapid rise opportunities just like the Minimally Invasive Trauma Orthopedics. To prevent further complications, Old Han immediately informed the Publicity Department to establish contact with Luo Jin¡¯s agent as quickly as possible. Luo Jin has already volunteered for this task, there¡¯s no need to hesitate. ¡°A patient in the trauma orthopedics department is undergoing surgery. Director Ouyang and Dr. Jin are encountering difficulties. Director Tan was hoping you could assist,¡± Zhang Lin passed along an urgent phone message to Yang Ping. ¡°Doctor Yang, please attend to your duties. I¡¯ll ask my agent to contact your publicity department. Leave this matter to me, you don¡¯t have to worry.¡± The old brother is very relaxed. He felt triumphant, as picking Yang Ping to perform the surgery was the correct choice. Life is filled with choices. Looking back, you¡¯ll find that many of these choices determine your life¡¯s path. Growing up is not an easy journey. Yang Ping quickly headed towards the operating room in the Surgery Building. He took the emergency elevator with a pace that was particular to doctors. It has been a long time since he last came to the surgery center. ¡°Doctor Yang, when will you be inviting us for a celebration drink?¡± The nurses in the operating room joked with Yang Ping upon seeing him, leaving him no choice but to laugh it off. After all, this was Xiao Su¡¯s ¡°maternal home¡±. In one of the operating rooms of the trauma orthopedics department, a patient was already lying on the operating table under surgery. Although covered in sterile drapes, Yang Ping could tell the patient¡¯s operating bed was made by joining two orthopedic operating beds because one wasn¡¯t big enough. ¡°Xiao Yang, come, look over the X-ray, then scrub in for surgery.¡± ¡°The patient weighs two hundred kilograms, with a thick thigh circumference. The fracture might have penetrated into the muscle, making it impossible to reposition it right now, and we are not willing to make an incision,¡± they sighed in frustration. Director Ouyang and Dr. Jin were struggling with the Minimally Invasive Percutaneous Plate Osteosynthesis (MIPPO) technique to reset and fix the fracture. The MIPPO technique is a percutaneous, minimally invasive internal fixation technique using steel plates, which doesn¡¯t require exposure of the fracture. Using a closed reduction technique, the fracture is repositioned and then small incisions allow the surgical insertion of the steel plate. Finally, the screws are introduced under the guidance of a guidewire. This method is a minimally invasive surgery with little trauma, and the fracture heals quickly. Very few instances of non-healing fractures occur. For long bone shaft fractures, it¡¯s unnecessary to reposition the fractured fragments, only the restoration of length and line of force is required. But for this patient, the femoral shaft fracture was overlapping and neither length nor line of force was restored. Two hundred kilograms, four hundred pounds is a heavy concept for Yang Ping, which meant that it barely could accommodate the patient¡¯s massive body, even with two surgical tables joined together. His left thigh hung on the traction frame, much thicker than a normal person¡¯s, about four to five times. The challenge of this femoral shaft fracture is not just the surgery itself. The fat and muscle is too thick, causing the fractured area to be too deep, making it very difficult to operate on. Performing minimally invasive surgery would be slightly more convenient. If they were to resort to open surgery at this point, it would be a nightmare for the surgical team. Just retracting the hooks could exhaust a few strong men. The X-ray hung on the view box, showing the entire length of powder-crushed femoral shaft, leaving only about five centimeters of intact bone at both ends. Intramedullary nails would not work. There¡¯s no place for distant locking screws ¨C only a locking plate could be used. ¡°Presumably, the fracture ends are inserted into the muscle, which makes it hard to achieve closed reduction. Even if repositioning is realized, fixation would still be difficult. The guidewire isn¡¯t ideal ¨C it¡¯s too short in relation to the steel plate, which makes it unable to penetrate, and hence is blocked by the skin and soft tissues,¡± explained the challenges that Director Ouyang was facing. It¡¯s not that the distance between the guidewire and steel plate was too short, but rather that the thigh fat and muscles were too thick. The guidewire was designed based on the typical size of an adult, without considering the thigh circumference of a four-hundred-pound patient. ¡°It¡¯s also not possible to lever or firmly move the bone back into the correct position, and I¡¯m not willing to perform open surgery!¡± Dr. Jin was clearly helpless. ¡°Let me come up and have a look!¡± Yang Ping went to scrub in. Yang Ping scrubbed in, dressed for surgery, got up on the stage, and started adjusting the guidewire: ¡°This guidewire won¡¯t work. It¡¯s unusable. I¡¯ve called the supplier to deliver a custom-made one.¡± ¡°Our device dealer has just been dialed around everywhere. There are no suitable ones.¡± Director Ouyang wouldn¡¯t have sought out Director Tan if there were other options. Director Tan was operating on the table, but he came to glimpse at the situation and felt it would be better to have Yang Ping come and help. ¡°We have a suitable dealer on our side, and I just made a call.¡± Before scrubbing in, Yang Ping had dialed Huang Jiahui. ¡ª It was pitch black outside ¨C as if it were night. The rain was pouring down heavily. The Wuling Hongguang driven by Huang Jiacai had its rear fog light on and was moving slowly through the torrential rain. He had just returned from the medical center and, although there were many vehicles on the expressway, none of them dared to drive too fast. The heavy rain was as if a dam had broken open the heavens. Despite having the windshield wipers on the fastest setting, the view wasn¡¯t clear. For safety reasons, he thought about temporarily stopping at a place to wait out the rain. But then, Yang Ping called, requiring a set of MIPPO technique¡¯s special steel plates and guidewire suitable for a femoral shaft fracture in a four-hundred-pound patient. He was the only one who had it in G City, and he needed to deliver it immediately. ¡°Brother, now that it¡¯s the New Year, should we send something to Doctor Yang?¡± ¡°No, our relationship with him is very delicate, some things might cause him trouble.¡± Huang Jiacai was driving, with Jiahui in the passenger seat. ¡°Look, what¡¯s that?¡± Jiahui saw a figure in the rain waving their hand. Huang Jiacai slowed down and drove over to the right. Indeed, there was someone standing in the heavy rain, waving. A stalled sedan parked next to the person was flashing its headlights. Its umbrella flipped inside out, caught in the gusty wind. He surmised the car had broken down and the person was in trouble, seeking help from passing vehicles. Huang Jiacai parked his car next to the stranded vehicle. An umbrella would be of no use in this weather; instead, he wore a raincoat and stepped out of the car. The wind was strong, the rain even stronger. His view blurred as the rain splattered on his face, stinging a little. ¡°What happened? Car broken down?¡± Huang Jiacai shouted. ¡°Flat tire! I¡¯m rushing to an important meeting. Rescue services haven¡¯t arrived yet, and I don¡¯t know how to change a tire.¡± The voice belonged to a woman. A flat tire? He thought she must have been fortunate not to be driving fast, or there could have been casualties. Huang Jiacai glanced at the vehicle and saw that it was a BMW. He was not sure of the model, but he thought it might be a 5 Series. It was surprising that a BMW would get a flat tire when his Wuling Hongguang was doing just fine. Luxury did not always translate to reliability. ¡°Got the tools? I¡¯ll help you change it?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± They communicated by shouting at one another, virtually face-to-face. Huang Jiacai glanced at the ground next to the BMW. The spare tire was lying on the ground; probably trouble pinpointing where to place the jack to lift the car since they had yet to start. Tools scattered around the area. Just a tire replacement? Simple. His raincoat impeded his movements, so Huang Jiacai took it off and tossed it over the woman. He rolled up his sleeves and knelt down to change the tire. His sister, Huang Jiahui, wanted to help, but he waved her off, telling her to stay in the car. Huang Jiacai gathered up the scattered tools. His movements were deft as he swiftly changed the tire while the woman used the raincoat to shield him from the rain. After removing the flat tire, Huang Jiacai placed it into the vehicle¡¯s trunk and tidied up the tools. Only when everything was in order did he feel relieved. ¡°You¡¯re good to go. Drive slow because of the heavy rain. The spare tire can¡¯t tolerate high speed or long distances. You need to find a store to get a new tire.¡± ¡°I understand, thank you!¡± Due to the heavy rain, their visibility was poor. They were both soaked to the skin. Huang Jiacai frowned; he should have recognized her. Wasn¡¯t this Gan Fengyi from Johnson & Johnson? ¡°Gan Fengyi?¡± ¡°Yes, who are you?¡± ¡°Huang Jiacai, Ruixing!¡± Gan Fengyi was taken aback. Upon closer look, she saw that it was that rogue, Huang Jiacai. She wanted to give him a cold look, but didn¡¯t. The rescue she had called earlier hadn¡¯t arrived, and she had been frantically waving at passing vehicles for help. While others ignored her, he stopped to help and got to work changing her tire without a word. She had to be reasonable and could no longer be harsh to him. ¡°Thank you!¡± Gan Fengyi was truly grateful. ¡°No worries. Change your clothes; you¡¯re soaked. I must go now; I have a delivery to make. Be careful¡ª¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Huang Jiacai quickly got back into the car; he couldn¡¯t afford to waste too much time. ¡°Brother, what happened? Who was that?¡± Jiahui handed a towel to her brother. ¡°What a small world. That was Gan Fengyi from Johnson & Johnson. Her BMW had a flat tire. She doesn¡¯t know how to change a tire, so I did it for her.¡± Huang Jiacai dried his face and hair. ¡°Gan Fengyi? The intimidating woman?¡± ¡°Right. We need to hurry and deliver the items. They are waiting for us in the operating room.¡± The Wuling Hongguang lived up to its reputation. It drove steadily in the heavy rain, even through turns. The high-quality suspension system ensures a great riding experience in such adverse weather. They finally arrived safely at their destination. Jiahui hastily selected sterilized surgical instruments from the warehouse and rushed to the operating room of Sanbo Hospital. Doctor Yang Ping had finished setting the bone and was awaiting the arrival of the instruments. Director Ouyang and Dr. Jin had struggled for a while but were unable to reset it. Then Dr. Yang Ping got onto the stage and made a shift: he inserted a dissection device into the small incision already made and, with a quick flick of his wrist, the bone was reset. The length and direction of force were restored, and the other disfigured parts wouldn¡¯t matter much; the bone fragments would hardly make a wave. As expected, the specific set of instruments is suitable for a patient who weighs four hundred pounds. The operation went smoothly. After the heavy rain, the looming dark clouds slowly dispersed, and Huang Jiacai changed into dry clothes. ¡°Manager Huang, this is Gan Fengyi ¡ª thank you!¡± ¡°No problem at all!¡± Gan Fengyi called him. Because of the heavy rain and their tight schedules, they hadn¡¯t exchanged phone numbers, so Huang Jiacai was unsure how she obtained his. ¡°When you¡¯re free, let me treat you and your sister to a meal. Also, I¡¯m sorry about what happened at the academic conference.¡± Gan Fengyi was somewhat embarrassed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯ve already forgotten. Which academic conference are you referring to? Have we had any issues between us?¡± Huang Jiacai feigned surprise. From the other end of the phone line came giggling. Chapter 299: 0283: Acid Poisoning Chapter 299: Chapter 0283: Acid Poisoning Huang Jiacai and his sister were reliable in a crucial moment. This set of equipment was truly one-of-a-kind in the city, as it was custom made by Huang Jiacai. He had extended the connecting rod between the guidewire and the steel plate to accommodate particularly obese patients. He had also customized some unusual equipment, such as elongated steel plate screws, to be prepared for unexpected circumstances. Once the fracture was repositioned, the steel plate was successfully inserted. Led by the guidewire, the locking screw was put into place. The long steel plate with a high span dispersed the stress, bridging the fracture. ¡°Why do others have equipment while your company doesn¡¯t? Are you trying to sabotage us?¡± Director Ouyang, disgruntled and humiliated on stage, vented his spleen to the surgical equipment representative. They had tried every avenue to get the equipment, but to no avail. A couple of the bigger companies were inquired, but who would customize a set of equipment for a four hundred pound patient? Even frustrating them to the point of cursing was of no use. Yet, Yang Ping¡¯s supplier unexpectedly had it and even brought it. Director Ouyang had reason to suspect that the supplier was not giving his best effort. If it were not for Yang Ping saving the day, or for the exceptional performance of Yang Ping¡¯s supplier, this operation wouldn¡¯t have been able to proceed. ... ¡°Sorry, sorry, sorry, our work was subpar. Our manager will arrive shortly, he will come to apologize personally,¡± the representative of the surgical equipment company didn¡¯t dare to retaliate. Director Ouyang was still considered easy-going, if this had happened with Director Bai, the equipment would be thrown in your face and all you could do was nod, bow and smile in apology. Regardless of whether they were at fault or not, the only thing to do was endure till Director Ouyang let out his frustrations. The surgical equipment representative was currently the punching bag, the necessary party to receive the anger. In this industry, without the ability to swallow one¡¯s pride, one would not be able to make money. Especially when the Chief Surgeon runs into difficulties and no equipment seems to handle well, avoiding reprimand was impossible. Once all the screws were set, the C-arm X-ray machine was used for fluoroscopy. There were no issues. Dr. Jin measured the leg force line with an electric knife, targeting the front upper spine, the centre of the patella and between the first and second toe. Like aiming for a shot, the three points were aligned ¨C normal. This type of surgery was an innovative result of bone fracture treatment technology, called biological fixation, applicable to long bone fractures of limbs. Of course, it was not applicable for ulna and radius fractures because their delicate rotation function required them to be treated as an intra-articular fracture, needing anatomical repositioning and strong fixation. For this type of femoral shaft fracture, anatomical reduction wasn¡¯t necessary, and there was no need to restore it to its original condition. As long as its length and force line were restored to normal, the aim of the surgery would be achieved. Those meddled fragments of bone could be ignored. Even though these bone debris may appear sloppy and ignored, their blood circulation was protected. Eventually they would mend and the body would reshape them. After a while, the femur would not differ from its normal shape and it wouldn¡¯t affect its function at all. This was the advancement of medicine, the innovation of theory which brought about changes in surgical methods and equipment, ultimately improving treatment outcomes. ¡°What a damn thing, don¡¯t bring this here again,¡± Director Ouyang fiddled with the original guidewire for a while before throwing it directly into the trash can, easing some of his frustrations. The manager of the surgical equipment company did, indeed, come rushing into the operating room, his back continuously bent, ¡°Director Ouyang, our service didn¡¯t keep up with your needs, causing you troubles. How about we dine together after work as an opportunity for me to sincerely apologize to you and your team?¡± Like a grandchild enduring scolding, allowing the Director to vent his anger then treating him to dinner and drinks was inevitable. The quality of the dinner should not be below par. After catering to everyone and everything, they still had to carry on business as usual. After all, it was not a negligent error, but a lack of necessary equipment. They had also tried to source the equipment from their brother company but they didn¡¯t have it either. Only after the manager had quietly conferred with the representative about the situation was he informed that a small company had provided the equipment. Seeing it fulfilled Director Ouyang¡¯s urgent need, the manager glanced at Huang Jiahui, an inexperienced young woman. After glancing a few times at the special guidewire on the surgical equipment table, he couldn¡¯t figure out why such an eccentric guidewire existed. After his many years of experience in the industry, he considered himself a surgical equipment expert. Director Ouyang took off his surgical gown, and the manager quickly went up to him with a smile, helping to untie the straps. His assistant brought a chair and adjusted the height. Director Ouyang didn¡¯t sit but walked up to the film viewer to look at the X-rays, with Yang Ping standing beside him. ¡°Old Jin, explain clearly to the family members. There is no need to reposition these bone pieces. It won¡¯t affect the function,¡± Director Ouyang instructed Dr. Jin. The hardest part of such a surgery was dealing with the relatives. The family members didn¡¯t understand. When they saw the post-operative X-rays, they thought that the doctor was incompetent, and the surgery wasn¡¯t successful because the bone pieces were still jumbled. Regardless of the doctor¡¯s explanation of medical principles, the family members didn¡¯t understand. In the end, just one sentence remained: the X-rays post-operation look almost the same as before the surgery. In fact, utilising this method, rather than cutting up to piece the bone pieces together, would result in faster and better fracture healing. Joint fractures couldn¡¯t be operated on like this. Joint fractures must be pieced together piece by piece, ensuring complete repair. Director Ouyang approached, intending to ask Yang Ping how he achieved repositioning at once successfully. However, because the equipment manager was there, he restrained himself due to face-saving issues. Yang Ping did not have an impulse to lecture and naturally, he didn¡¯t take the initiative to explain. Some people were keen to learn, others were not. It was everyone¡¯s call. For those who wanted to understand further, they could directly ask him and he would gladly explain. If no one asked, he wouldn¡¯t take the initiative to explain- except for Song Zimo. The operation ended, but moving the patient onto a gurney was still a challenging task. Upon entering the operating room, the stretcher was not wide enough, so they had to push the patient in on a bed directly. Now for the bed transfer, the width of the bedsheet wasn¡¯t sufficient. The nurses took a innovative approach, spreading several bedsheets horizontally, which worked fine. Six people, three on each side, pulled strenuously while another group pushed. It felt as if their intervertebral discs were almost protruding, and it was only then the patient moved a sliver. They had no choice but to call in two more young men. With five people pulling together, they finally managed to move the patient onto the bed. The equipment manager and the assistants participated heavily in this process, putting a lot of effort to prove their worth to Director Ouyang. The patient was under general anesthesia with an endotracheal tube. The common type of anesthesia used in these surgeries is sciatic and femoral nerve block, or combined spinal and epidural anesthesia. However, due to the thick fat layer, it was extremely difficult to locate the injection point. Combined spinal and epidural anesthesia requires the anesthetist to inject an anesthetic into the epidural space. The regular needles for doing lumbar punctures used by anesthesiologists wouldn¡¯t be able to reach the epidural space as the puncture path was too thick, the regular puncture needle comparatively too short. ¡°Wei Danian, wake up!¡± The anesthesiologist tapped the patient¡¯s face, hoping to awaken him by stimulating his senses to be ready for extubating. Dr. Jin reminded the anesthesiologist, ¡°Try a different method. Not long ago, in the Emergency Department of a hospital, an old lady¡¯s heart stopped beating and her breathing ceased. A doctor used a fist-pounding method to resuscitate her. After a punch, the lady¡¯s son retaliated instantly with a slap saying, ¡®You bastard, she¡¯s already in this condition and you¡¯re beating her, right in front of me, it¡¯s outrageous, you think I¡¯m a fool.''¡± The frightened anesthesiologist halted. This habit was not good, it is better to use voice rather than force. He strained his voice and shouted at the patient, ¡°Wei Danian, wake up! The surgery is over.¡± The patient was groggy, he opened his eyes, seemingly following the voice, and then closed them again. Once he opened his eyes, indicating spontaneous breathing, the anesthesiologist could remove the tube. The anesthesiologist used a suction device to clear the respiratory tract of secretions and successfully extubated. ¡°Blood pressure is dropping!¡± Dr. Jin, who had been staring at the monitor, reported that the blood pressure had surprisingly dropped to 76/35mmHg, and the patient¡¯s breathing had become deep and labored. ¡°Ketoacidosis?¡± The patient had diabetes. The sudden change to deep breathing combined with a drop in blood pressure led the anesthesiologist to suspect ketoacidosis first. He sniffed near the patient¡¯s nose, slightly pulling down the mask to reveal a gap, but didn¡¯t detect the smell of rotten apples from the breath. ¡°Reintubating!¡± The anesthesiologist swiftly reintubated. ¡°Test the capillary blood sugar with the glucometer. Collect blood samples for complete blood count, biochemistry, liver and kidney function tests, arterial blood gas analysis...¡± the anesthesiologist gave out a series of orders. Being an experienced anesthesiologist, he knew the deep breathing signified acidosis. The patient had diabetes and his blood sugar level was 38mmol/l upon admission. It was only after careful adjustment with insulin that they dared to proceed with surgery. But perhaps the surgery had somehow raised his blood sugar level again. In the operating room, the anesthesiologist is responsible for the patient¡¯s life. Naturally, the anesthesiologist was on edge. ¡°Blood glucose is 6.2mmol/l.¡± The nurse looked at the data on the glucometer. ¡°It¡¯s not high? What¡¯s the matter?¡± The anesthesiologist was perplexed. Director Ouyang and Dr. Jin also became anxious, suspecting that a fat embolism might have caused a pulmonary embolism, but the blood oxygen level wasn¡¯t low. ¡°Test the blood lactic acid!¡± Yang Ping suggested. ¡°Yes, test the blood lactic acid.¡± The anesthesiologist instructed the nurse. The hospital has a specialized automatic logistics system for the transportation of emergency specimens, so there is no need for manual transportation. The nurse only needs to apply a label to the sample, scan it into the computer and put it into a logistics tube. It will then be automatically transported through the pipeline to the laboratory. The results came out quickly. Bicarbonate ions 8mmol/l, PH value 7.21, blood lactic acid concentration 2.8mmol/l. ¡°Certainly it¡¯s acidosis ¨C lactic acidosis, not ketoacidosis!¡± Lactic acidosis has a higher mortality rate and is often fatal. Chapter 300: 0284: Admitted to ICU Every Year Chapter 300: Chapter 0284: Admitted to ICU Every Year According to several key lab results, it can be definitively diagnosed as lactic acid poisoning. It¡¯s peculiarly lactic acid poisoning. Neither the anesthesiologist, Director Ouyang, nor Dr. Jin understood why lactic acid poisoning occurred. The anesthesiologist glanced at Yang Ping; his mild suggestion to ¡°check for lactic acid¡± timely indicated the correct direction, otherwise, they would have undoubtedly wasted much time. Without time to investigate the cause, the anesthesiologist immediately decided to treat the symptoms first¡ªthe patient¡¯s life was the top priority. ¡°250ml of 5% sodium bicarbonate, to be administered through IV, examine urine output, measure central venous pressure!¡± Correction of acidosis was the imperative task, then fluid resuscitation was necessary, and in severe situations, hemodialysis would be needed to filter out the lactic acid from the blood. ... 250ml of 5% sodium bicarbonate was hanged, the anesthesiologist began to mentally calculate the amount of alkali to be supplemented using a formula. The nurse began to measure central venous pressure; fluid supplementation needed to be adjusted according to central venous pressure. The urine output from the start of the surgery to now was over six hundred milliliters, there was no water and sodium retention, so the alkali could be safely supplemented. Director Ouyang had been in orthopedics for twenty years. If it weren¡¯t for the training before the academic conference, he wouldn¡¯t remember anything about the formulas for acid-base balance. Not to mention the acid-base balance formulas, even how to rescue lactic acid poisoning cases would have completely slipped his mind. The training before the academic conference was extremely beneficial, it strengthened his weakness in knowledge. Now, he could keep up with the anesthesiologist¡¯s rhythm and understood the significance of these emergency measures. Lactic acid poisoning has a mortality rate of 50%. When blood lactate exceeds 25mmol/l, it is rarely possible to achieve a successful rescue. Fortunately, it¡¯s only currently at 8mmol/l, so it has not reached a point of certain death. ¡°Send him to the ICU!¡± The patient¡¯s vital signs have temporarily stabilized, and Director Ouyang made the decision. ¡°Quickly, move the bed.¡± The anesthesiologist followed beside the bed, the endotracheal tube had to be disconnected, so they could only squeeze the balloon to the ICU. When things go wrong, they usually go wrong together. A good surgery, a muscle insertion fracture, an emergency call for a special guide caused a smoothly completed surgery to become a potentially critical situation, a sudden onset of lactic acid poisoning out of nowhere. The equipment dealer manager was the most embarrassed at this time. He had booked the private rooms at the restaurant, but with this situation, he didn¡¯t have the mood to eat. He stood aside, feeling inappropriate to leave, and could only wait in an awkward manner. The manager was afraid that if anything happened to the patient, Director Ouyang would blame them. Of course, it was impossible to blame them in any case. His fear was that Director Ouyang would stop using their equipment out of anger, even if it was just for a while, the loss would be significant. As the patient was pushed out of the operating room, Dr. Jin shouted, ¡°The family members of Wei Danian...¡± A big family, two pairs of elderly people, and a middle-aged couple immediately surrounded them all. Looking at Wei Danian lying on the bed, with a tube in his mouth, depending on a balloon for breathing. The father of the patient, a fat middle-aged man, was shocked: ¡°What happened? Doctor, why can¡¯t he be alright all of a sudden?¡± The grandmother felt dizzy and was about to fell. The father of the patient immediately supported the old woman. ¡°Danian, Danian!¡± The mother shook his shoulder violently, sobbing uncontrollably. ¡°He was perfectly healthy before, could eat and drink, what did you do during the surgery, turning him into this.¡± The grandmother pounded on the bed rail. ¡°Lactic acid poisoning, his condition is critical, he must be taken to ICU for rescue immediately, his life is in danger at any moment, do not hold on to the bed.¡± Dr. Jin tried to push the bed, but couldn¡¯t move it as all the family members were holding onto the bed rails tightly. ¡°Lactic acid poisoning?¡± The patient¡¯s father was quite familiar with this term, he immediately regained his composure, and his face turned from pale to red: ¡°Doctor, this condition occurs to him every year, he has to be admitted to the ICU at least once a year. It has been this way since he was a child. The doctors also said that it was lactic acid poisoning, but even after going to many hospitals, the cause of lactic acid poisoning was not found.¡± When the whole family heard it was lactic acid poisoning, they stopped crying. Perhaps they had already become numb from experiencing so many times, or maybe they were just not so frightened because every time, fortunately, Wei Danian survived through rescuing. ¡°ICU, send him to ICU. Every time he has an attack, he is sent to ICU, sometimes he even needs dialysis.¡± The father was familiar with the process, dialysis probably meaning hemodialysis. ¡°We asked about the medical history several times, why didn¡¯t you mention the lactic acid poisoning?¡± The doctor in charge of the bed was so angry that he clenched his teeth. ¡°Our child is afraid of pain. If we told you this, he was afraid of postponing surgery, so ¡ª¡± Wei Danian¡¯s mother whispered. ¡°Confused, really confused, can the condition be concealed?¡± Dr. Jin harshly criticized, wishing he could kick them. Also, this young man is already twenty-five years old, and they still treat him like a child, cooing at him whenever there¡¯s a sign of pain: ¡°Good boy! Be obedient.¡± The stretcher rushed to the ICU, going so fast, there were inevitably small bumps. ¡°Slow down, slow down, doctor, the child is in pain.¡± The grandparents were all worried, fearing that the bumps would hurt the child on the stretcher. Rescuing a life is a race against time, are they seriously worried about the stretcher moving too fast and being bumpy? Dr. Jin got angry: ¡°Stop holding on, let go!¡± After a few reprimands, the several pairs of hands that were more of a hindrance than a help finally let go. The patient was finally taken to the ICU, the door kept the family members outside, they pounded on the door hard. ¡°How high is the lactate level?¡± The on-duty doctor asked. ¡°8mmol/l,¡± Dr. Jin sighed in relief. That was not too bad, there was still hope. If it¡¯s above 25mmol/l, recovery would basically be impossible. Ultimately, lactate poisoning is metabolic acidosis. The acid-base balance in the human body is usually maintained, with a ph value of about 7.35 to 7.45. An increase or decrease in the body¡¯s acid-base substances beyond the body¡¯s regulatory capability can cause changes in the ph value. This is known as acid-base imbalance, which can be life-threatening. The causes of acid-base imbalance can be due to respiratory factors or metabolic factors, an increase in lactic acid is caused by the latter. ¡°Put him on a ventilator, test his blood for routine examination, biochemistry, liver and kidney functions, blood lactate, blood gas analysis, prepare bedside hemofiltration...¡± The ICU doctors, who have seen many critically ill patients and are professionals in dealing with them, are more skilled than orthopedics and anesthesiologists in dealing with these conditions, and they are well equipped. Even the use of a lung machine is considered everyday business to them, let alone something like bedside hemofiltration. The ICU doctor, while listening to the heart and lungs, discussed the condition of the patient with Dr. Jin and the anesthesiologist. After the handover was completed, the anesthesiologist, Old Qin, finally had the chance to ask Yang Ping, ¡°How did you know it was lactate poisoning?¡± ¡°It was down to two options, this diabetes patient showed typical Kussmaul breathing, so of course I considered acidosis.¡± Kussmaul breathing, also known as acidosis hyperpnea, involves a regular pattern of deep, rapid breathing which helps to get rid of more CO2 and has a compensatory effect on acidosis. It is a sign of the body¡¯s self-compensatory capability. ¡°His breath also had a smell of ketone, so acidosis caused by substances like salicylic acid, phosphoric acid, and sulfuric acid can be ruled out. Insulin was still being pumped in, and at a rather fast speed too. For the blood sugar level to still rise up to ketoacidosis under such circumstances, the insulin must be fake. Hence, lactate poisoning is more likely.¡± Just like that, with clear and rigorous logical deduction, from symptoms to pathophysiology, peeling back the layers to reveal the answer. The super training program of the system allowed Yang Ping to link human anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, pathophysiology, and clinical symptoms with test results through logical relationships, continuously training and strengthening his clinical logical thinking abilities. Through devilishly hard training, each session included a system screen for feedback and error correction. With repeated reinforcement, even in emergencies, Yang Ping can quickly reach a deeper understanding through established logical chains from symptoms. Every appearance has deep underlying logic, you might not have discovered it yet, or medical science might not have discovered it yet. Old Qin the anesthesiologist, carefully recalled Yang Ping¡¯s words, there was nothing wrong and no flaws in them, they weren¡¯t randomly made up. The process of deduction was as rational and evidence-based as solving high school problems. Why could an orthopedic doctor have such strong diagnostic thinking abilities? Old Qin was somewhat puzzled. ¡°Why does this patient keep having lactate poisoning? Now, Metformin ¡ª¡ª phenethylbiguanide has been phased out, this doesn¡¯t make sense, we need to look for the cause.¡± Yang Ping instructed Dr. Jin, as the patient was from their team. Diagnoses can be divided into symptom diagnosis, pathophysiologic diagnosis, pathological diagnosis, and etiological diagnosis. Etiological diagnosis is the highest level, but unfortunately, many diseases cannot obtain an etiological diagnosis. For examples, common diseases like hypertension and diabetes, their diagnoses are just symptom diagnoses, These are the lowest level of diagnosis in terms of diagnostic logic. The lowest level of diagnosis implies that the cause is unknown, pathological anatomy and pathophysiology have not been fully studied, so only symptomatic treatment can be given. Lactate poisoning can only be considered a pathophysiologic diagnosis, and treatment can only be initiated from a pathophysiological perspective. This time it¡¯s okay, but next time it may happen again, because the cause has not been found. If you want to start etiological treatment, you must get an etiological diagnosis, and this is the hardest part. ¡°I¡¯ll go back and check the literature.¡± Dr. Jin thought it was necessary. However, whether Wei Danian could be saved or not was still an unknown. Chapter 301: 0285: The Coin of Life Chapter 301: Chapter 0285: The Coin of Life Lactic acidosis disrupts the acid-base balance in the body, further resulting in electrolyte disorder, leading to cardiac arrhythmia or cardiac arrest. A 50% mortality rate, almost equal to the probability of coin flipping. Wei Danian has an episode at least once a year, meaning he has to flip the coin of life and death every year. Remarkably, he has managed to get the outcome he wanted every time over the years. ¡°Perform bedside blood filtration immediately!¡± Dr. An, the resident doctor in the ICU, made the decision promptly. This is the fastest method to eliminate excessive lactic acid in the blood. At the same time, he continues to administer bicarbonate to the patient, carefully calculating the amount and rate of bicarbonate administration. If the quantity of bicarbonate provided is too high or if it¡¯s given too rapidly, it could trigger new problems and cause further electrolyte disorders. The quantity and rate must be just right; carelessness is not an option. ... The nurses start to perform arterial and venous punctures to connect the patient¡¯s blood vessels to the hemofilter. Once successful, they turn on the blood pump, activate the replacement fluid and filtration device, and begin blood filtration. ¡°Will our anticoagulation cause major bleeding in your surgical site?¡± Dr. An inquires Dr. Jin¡¯s opinion. Dr. Jin states unequivocally: ¡°No, there won¡¯t be any problems. After our total joint arthroplasty under general anesthesia, the patients can immediately receive subcutaneous injections of low-molecular-weight heparin to prevent deep vein thrombosis.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good to hear!¡± Dr. An feels relieved. Once the lactic acid is depleted, the acid-base balance is restored, and the patient is sufficiently rehydrated. The effectiveness of these steps now needs to be observed. Yang Ping is also waiting by the side. Some young doctors and interns are asking him questions. He is well-known in the hospital and all the young doctors know who he is. They are usually unable to interact closely with such a distinguished person, so now they have many questions to ask. It seems that their three-pronged approach is working. Wei Danian¡¯s blood pressure gradually increases, and his lactate levels are dropping as indicated by follow-up blood tests. The pH value of his blood is also slightly rising. ¡°We identified the issue very quickly. The chances of a successful recovery are pretty high.¡± Dr. An begins to see hope. ¡°Is there anything we need to pay attention to with the operated lower limb?¡± a nurse asks. ¡°Be careful when moving the patient. We need a dedicated personnel for slight traction. We will handle changing the dressing and pulling out the vacuum drain.¡± Dr. Jin guides the nurse on what they need to be careful of in nursing care. Director Ouyang continually flips through examination records on the computer: ¡°Make sure to communicate properly with the family. Record in the medical history that the family concealed information regarding the patient¡¯s condition.¡± Lactic acidosis is a rare complication of diabetes. Previously, metformin was used to lower blood sugar, but it could trigger lactic acidosis. Metformin has since been phased out, making lactic acidosis less common. ¡°How did he develop lactic acidosis? This patient can¡¯t possibly be using metformin. This medication has been phased out and discontinued. It wouldn¡¯t be possible to buy it even if he wanted to. Therapeutic doses of metformin are not associated with lactic acidosis. There must be other reasons.¡± Dr. Jin loves learning and thinking deeply. Naturally, he could not let go of such a case. As the patient slowly stabilizes, he aims to uncover the causes. The patient experiences annual episodes of lactic acidosis. It is therefore feasible that he might experience it again during his hospital stay. It¡¯s crucial to determine the cause of the condition as quickly as possible. Lactic acid is a byproduct of glucose metabolism in the human body. There are three primary sources of energy in the human body: proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Glucose, as a type of carbohydrate, is the main source of energy. It produces energy via two mechanisms: aerobic oxidation and anaerobic fermentation. Aerobic oxidation is the primary mode and is considered the main road. Anaerobic fermentation is a supplementary mode and is considered the side road. Whether glucose goes the main road or the side road, it eventually breaks down into carbon dioxide and water. Lactic acid is the illegitimate child when glucose takes the side road. Regarding glucose undergoing anaerobic fermentation, which produces lactic acid, the most direct experience in the human body is post-excess exercise muscle soreness. Especially in those who don¡¯t regularly exercise, sudden increases in exercise volume result in a shortage of energy production from the aerobic decomposition of glucose. The body is forced to activate anaerobic metabolism, putting the pedal to the metal to urgently replenish energy. Under such circumstances, glucose produces a byproduct ¨C lactic acid, through anaerobic metabolism. When this excessive lactic acid can¡¯t break down into carbon dioxide and water quickly enough, it accumulates in muscle tissue, stimulating nerve endings in the muscles, thereby causing muscle soreness. Clinical doctors, especially surgeons, often give back their knowledge of basic medical science, such as biochemical knowledge related to carbohydrate decomposition, to their teachers. ¡°Under anaerobic conditions, glucose forms pyruvate through glycolysis, which then generates lactic acid through lactic acid fermentation; under aerobic conditions, glucose forms pyruvate through glycolysis, which then forms acetyl CoA in mitochondria. Acetyl CoA eventually forms carbon dioxide and water through the citric acid cycle; it can also eventually form carbon dioxide and water through the pentose phosphate pathway. Pyruvate needs the help of pyruvate dehydrogenase and a coenzyme to enter the citric acid cycle. In cases of diabetes and starvation, there is a shortage of pyruvate dehydrogenase and the coenzyme, so pyruvate cannot follow the typical pathway and has to take a detour, leading to an increase in blood lactate.¡± Yang Ping explained this to Dr. Jin. Not just Old Jin, but also Dr. An from the ICU who found it headache-inducing. Despite knowing how to diagnose and treat these diseases, learning about these biochemical pathways and the citric acid cycle was a hassle during their student years. Relevance quickly faded after starting work, and they discarded this knowledge to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Director Ouyang was even more confused and had no idea what they were talking about. Conversely, interns who had just graduated could understand some of it, but only just. ¡°I don¡¯t know where the problem occurred that forced glucose to take a detour. If we want to find the cause, we should start from here.¡± Yang Ping wanted to explain in simpler terms but couldn¡¯t manage it. Using terms like ¡®main route¡¯ and ¡®shortcut¡¯, making the citric acid cycle sound interesting, the interns quickly made notes in their pamphlets. Everyone knew that Dr. Yang was skilled in surgery and had instructed the Japanese on how to be human at an academic conference. They had not expected his knowledge of basic biochemistry to be so solid, and furthermore, he could even link it with clinical applications, which is why he was considered outstanding. ¡°Could it be a genetic disorder?¡± Dr. An guessed based on his experience. ¡°We can look into this aspect, but I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s not that simple. If it were a genetic disorder related to glucose metabolism deficiency, the other hospitals would have detected it.¡± Dr. Jin was more cautious. Dr. Jin was very interested in these tricky and complicated cases. Last time, they eased a patient¡¯s years of pain from metal-allergic synovitis by removing screws. This time, he was eager to collaborate with Yang Ping to explore the tough question. To be rigorous in medicine, one cannot ignore any clue, but should follow objective evidence, reason strictly, and finally unveil the truth. ¡°Let¡¯s create a group and bring in the doctors from the endocrinology department as well,¡± Dr. Jin suggested. The suggestion was immediately approved by Dr. An of ICU and Old Qin, the anesthesiologist. They were academically inclined. As doctors, to gain more recognition, they had to be more outstanding. Director Ouyang didn¡¯t want to get involved, as this was a matter for the young people. He didn¡¯t have the passion or energy himself. He was already halfway to being white-haired; if he went on with them, he wouldn¡¯t be able to keep the other half. Dr. Jin immediately created a group, named ¡°Medical Detective Society¡±, and added everyone into it. The case of Wei Danian became the discussion target in this group. The fact that he suffers from lactic acidosis every year made the case interesting. Finding the cause of a disease is a huge task that requires a lot of work and may not necessarily succeed in the end. Many diseases in the world are still undiagnosed each year; some are even diseases that have not been formally recognized in the world yet. Wei Danian¡¯s blood pressure increased, and his acid-base balance gradually corrected. The coin once again gave him the desired result. When Yang Ping exited the ICU, it was already evening. All of Wei Danian¡¯s family members were waiting outside the ICU doorway in the family waiting area. Dr. An went out to discuss his condition with them. Wei Danian¡¯s father was wiping sweat while saying: ¡°Doctor, thank you for your hard work. Our child has been like this since he was young, so we decided to stay near the hospital. We recently moved near your hospital. When we buy houses, we choose those that are nearest to the emergency department.¡± It¡¯s hard to imagine the feeling of enduring such a rescue operation every year. Not to mention the financial burden, they also have to bear immense mental pressure. Every rescue is a pullback from the brink of death, and they never know when the next one will come. ¡°We dare not travel far, fearing that he may get sick on the road without any rescue conditions,¡± the mother said helplessly. ¡°If that is the case, why would you hide his condition? It¡¯s so dangerous,¡± Dr. An criticized the parents for their ignorance. ¡°We thought, since he is in the hospital, if he suddenly falls ill, he could be resuscitated in time. That¡¯s why we didn¡¯t dare mention his condition, fearing you might delay the operation. Seeing the child crying in pain on the bed hurts our hearts,¡± the father replied with an awkward smile. ¡°Now his condition has slightly improved, his blood pressure has risen, but we need to continue observing him. We also want to find the cause of his illness, and you¡¯ll need to sign the documents for this,¡± Dr. An said, placing a stack of consent forms on the negotiation table. ¡°We have consulted big hospitals in Shanghai and Beijing, but no disease was diagnosed. Every medical consultation outside is a worrisome ordeal. Immediately after landing, we run to the hospital. We no longer hold hope for finding the cause of his illness; we just hope that he will be safe and well,¡± the father said as he flipped through the forms. Without even needing to look, they were familiar with the procedure and knew how to sign them even with their eyes closed. Chapter 302: 0286 Genetic Testing Chapter 302: Chapter 0286 Genetic Testing The next day, Wei Danian was out of danger for good. His blood pH level has returned to the normal range of 7.40; his blood lactic acid also dropped to within the normal range, 1.0mmol/l, and the other electrolytes, potassium, sodium, chlorine, and calcium, all returned to normal range. Once the patients¡¯ acid-base imbalance and electrolyte disorder were corrected, their internal environment stabilized, and their life was out of danger. The internal environment of human cells is like a person¡¯s living environment, it needs to be maintained within certain parameters, otherwise survival would be threatened. Wei Danian¡¯s tracheal intubation was successfully removed, but for safety reasons, he still needed to be monitored in the ICU for one day before being transferred to the regular ward. In the ICU ward, all the patients were critically ill or in serious danger, and there were always patients who left the world because their rescue measures weren¡¯t enough. Wei Danian could only lay in bed, still connected with various tubes and wires, naturally he was afraid, and he clamored to be discharged, shouting loudly. ... Doctors and nurses kept persuading him, he, a man of 25, was like a child, relentless and unyielding. Left with no options, Dr. An contacted Dr. Jin, preparing to transfer him to the trauma orthopedics department. But before even hanging up the phone, Wei Danian fell asleep again, his snoring echoing like thunder, after a flutter of snores, suddenly, silence befalls¡ªhis heart monitor showing signs indicative of a ceased breath, Dr. An hurriedly loomed close to his nose listening to his breath, his respiration had truly stopped, then, after a moment, Wei Danian opened his eyes, looked around in a daze, and then the thunderous snoring and normal breathing returned. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Hypopnea Syndrome, alarmingly harmless, this illness is common in overweight men. It often happens at night due to the collapse and blockage of the upper airway, leading to a pause in breathing, and then the patient wakes up, and the breathing resumes. ¡°Record the progression of the illness, and after transfer to orthopedics, I suggest a respiratory medicine consultation and sleep apnea monitoring,¡± Dr. An instructed the standardized trainee standing beside him. Dr. Jin detailedly inquired Wei Danian¡¯s parents about the number of times and specific months he gets sick each year and drew a statistical chart. Following the pattern shown by the statistical chart, there will be no seizures within three months for now. Before finding the intrinsic rhythm, this kind of apparent rhythm could also play a predictive role, at least it could guide the patient, which season, which month of the year are the most dangerous for them. Dr. Jin would report Wei Danian¡¯s examination results in the group chat every day, so everyone could analyze the situation and discuss what to check next. The blood sugar control was very good, which ruled out the possibility of elevated blood lactic acid caused by diabetes. According to the examination results, the acquired diseases were also ruled out one by one, and everyone¡¯s attention turned to genetic diseases. Although these diseases had been tested for at other hospitals, it was necessary to check again. Wei Danian¡¯s parents agreed to further investigate the cause of the disease. Doctors were so enthusiastic; they were of course willing to cooperate. Their only son lived in constant fear. If the cause could be identified, targeted treatment could be initiated, perhaps lifting this tight hoop spell. ¡°Can we get in contact with the genetics lab of Nandu Medical University for gene sequencing?¡± Yang Ping suggested to Dr. Jin. If considering any genetic disease, gene sequencing must be carried out to try to find the cause at the genetic level, along with a thorough investigation into family medical history for constructing a genetic pedigree. ¡°Getting in touch with the genetics lab at Nandu Medical University? Might be a bit difficult!¡± Dr. Jin replied. ¡°I¡¯ll try to get in touch!¡± Yang Ping responded. ¡°There seems to be a problem with the conversion of pyruvic acid, whether due to enzyme deficiency or abnormal mitochondrial function¡ªthe base camp for processing lactic acid. Only gene sequencing can clarify this,¡± Yang Ping analysed. ¡°Congenital lactic acidosis is due to the deficiency in the structure or activity of the enzymes involved in the conversion of pyruvic acid. This disorder was first reported by Hartmann et al in 1962. It¡¯s an X-linked disorder; the mutation is on gene Xpz. Affected patients usually show intellectual and motor developmental delay and may have an enlarged liver, cardiomegaly, cataracts, etc.,. I suggest testing the intelligence with an IQ test, assessing motor function, it¡¯s quite strange, this patient doesn¡¯t have an enlarged liver, no cataracts, and the heart size matches his physique,¡± a doctoral student in endocrinology voiced his opinion. Contacting Nandu Medical University and finding Su Nanchen is the best way. Yang Ping got in touch with Su Nanchen on WeChat, explained his thoughts, and sent the patient¡¯s records to him. Su Nanchen was very interested; he immediately recommended a young female doctor¡ªWen Yulin¡ªfrom the genetics lab at Nandu Medical University. The efficiency of the internet era is high. Soon, Su Nanchen and Dr. Wen were added to the group. Dr. Jin sent all of Wei Danian¡¯s data again, so they could see it. He also sent the screenshot of everyone¡¯s discussion just now to the group, so they could understand the progress of the discussion. Dr. Wen was very interested in the case and quickly responded, ¡°Our lab can check for gene fragments and can test if there is a mutation on Xpz.¡± ¡°How should the sample be collected and stored? Do we need ethical approval? And what about the cost?¡± The group¡¯s discussion started to flood the screen like a snowstorm, with the discussion having escalated from the clinical level to genetic testing, everyone was extremely excited. This is challenging cooperation, with clinical doctors and basic medical researchers having rare overlaps. When doctors read and do research projects as graduate students, they might have some interactions with basic medical researchers. Once they enter the clinic, they no longer cross paths. ¡°I¡¯ll send everyone the detailed standard collection and ethical procedures later¡ª¡± Dr. Wen was quite enthusiastic. From a patient¡¯s clinical symptoms, tracing the vine to find the melon, gradually deepening the investigation, reaching the level of genetic testing, connecting various isolated knowledge that they usually come across. This was destined to be no ordinary case. Yang Ping faintly sensed that this case could set a precedent for a completely new diagnosis method, and it was likely that a previously unknown disease might be discovered. Because, none of the currently known diseases matched the condition of Wei Danian. Medicine needs this group of passionate and courageous people to challenge the unknown. Without obsession, without madness, it is difficult to forge ahead along the thorny road. As the Spring Festival drew near, the holiday atmosphere grew increasingly rich. The hospital started to hang red lanterns in advance, and the hospital leaders inspected each department, issuing numerous instructions to arrange holiday shifts and ensure medical safety during holidays. Usually, at this time, everyone would be discussing the Spring Festival holidays or scrambling for tickets. However, doctors and nurses remained calm, because none of them have holidays or anything of that sort. Zhang Lin scheduled a duty roster, allowing everyone to review it. Barring any special circumstances, the Spring Festival would proceed according to this schedule. ¡ª Luo Jin participated in the recording of the hospital¡¯s promotional video, as well as the recording of a documentary featuring the Department of Orthopedics. The TV station added a segment specifically documenting his injury, surgery, and recovery process. Hermes was discharged from the hospital. He continued his treatment at the outpatient department. Skinny as he was, he was still larger than the average person. He sold a house near the hospital, a duplex of over two hundred square meters, and got over ten million cash from the sale. This fellow had a head for business. He used the cash to buy a 140 square meter apartment near the hospital for him to live in. He spent the remaining four million to buy a small investment property near the Nandu High-Speed Rail Station. In the end, he still had one million cash on hand, which he would use for his medical expenses and to find opportunities for a comeback. After all this operation, although his living space had shrunk, he still owned a house, had cash on hand, and owned a small property that could appreciate in value. During Hermes¡¯ hospitalization, the community near the hospital experienced a hike in property prices. Unexpectedly, upon selling his house now, he not only recovered his medical expenses but also made a significant profit. Hermes was rather lucky. Although his company had gone bankrupt, other worries, like going to prison, hadn¡¯t come to pass. Upon hearing about his bankruptcy and potential jail time, his friends and relatives, including those who had often relied on him for help, all severed their ties with Hermes. When you¡¯re wealthy, even distant relatives become close, but when you¡¯re poor, even close relatives act like strangers. Previously, even though he was all the way in G City for treatment, friends and relatives would keep calling to express their concern. Messages filled with care would pop up on WeChat, and people often delivered various precious medicinal ingredients to the hospital. Now, it was as if his phone had lost network access overnight. It was eerily quiet without any incoming calls. Occasionally, when Hermes tried reaching out to friends and relatives through phone calls or WeChat, he met with no response. Some even blocked him outright. After experiencing these changes and having revisited the oncology department, he had gained a deeper understanding of life. He was no longer upset about his huge loss and faced life calmly. As Yang Ping told him, ¡°The fact that there is no obvious abnormality on your test results is your biggest fortune.¡± Hermes bought a nice sound system, and every day he would have his wife push it to the footbridge next to the hospital. He would belt out the old song ¡°Boundless Oceans Vast Skies¡±. Having personally experienced the ups and downs of life, he sang with sincere passion and heart, moving the listeners deeply. Passersby were all moved to tears. Even though there was no begging bowl in front of him, kind-hearted passersby still generously tossed one or ten yuan coins his way. Hermes picked up the coins and returned them to the passersby. His singing was just a way for him to vent, and although he was down on his luck, he was not so desperate for money. With the money from selling the house in hand, he could make ends meet by investing in the stock market through his phone daily. At this point, an investing mind was also an essential survival skill. The third phase of Sisi¡¯s surgery has begun, focusing on treating the tumor in her lungs. The ribs made it very difficult to carry out high-frequency ultrasound focusing on the lungs, as the ultrasound waves could only penetrate through narrow gaps between the ribs. However, Yang Ping had already run countless simulations in the system space and obtained accurate data. He could use these data to complete the surgery. Medication, iron, and fire! The energy represented by fire would surely shine brightly in the future. Perhaps one day, many surgical procedures would not even require minimal invasive incisions, and these forms of energy could be used to remove lesions. That would be the dawn of a new era. Chapter 303: 0287 A Generous Gift Chapter 303: Chapter 0287 A Generous Gift Sisi was about to undergo her third surgery, and Duan Xiaoming of the Gamma Knife Department in Sanbo Hospital was very excited, he had prepared the operating room early. Brother Ming, once disheartened about his career prospects and adopting an attitude of resigned despair, now found the fire in his heart reignited. Yang Ping¡¯s treatment of Sisi¡¯s tumor showcased the tremendous power of the Gamma Knife. Regaining his professional confidence, Brother Ming decided to strive for a successful career, no longer just coasting through life. Through the simulated surgery on Sisi, Yang Ping had also accumulated some experience with the Gamma Knife. He applied this knowledge when treating uterine fibroids. He then guided Duan Xiaoming, providing a set of Gamma Knife parameter ranges for patients of different heights and weights. This allowed him to operate within the set parameters, yielding good results and minimal side effects. Duan Xiaoming tested these methods and data on several patients. As expected, the results were very good. Although it did not achieve the same effect as Yang Ping¡¯s treatment of Sisi¡¯s tumor, the treatment effectiveness had increased several times compared to his previous treatments. ... Not only were the results good, but the side effects were also minimal. No patients experienced skin burns, vaginal bleeding, abdominal pain or bloating. The operation of treating uterine fibroids without surgery was truly achieved; Brother Ming decided to seize this opportunity firmly. ¡°Doctor Yang, your methods indeed yield good results with fewer side effects, you¡¯re really amazing.¡± ¡°This is based on the ultrasound characteristics of the Gamma Knife, combined with the patient¡¯s anatomy data, and the set parameters. It¡¯s all about accumulating experience.¡± Yang Ping was helping adjust Sisi¡¯s position to provide the most advantageous position for surgery. ¡°Big brother, I heard that the uncle with the belt went bankrupt and was discharged from the hospital because he couldn¡¯t afford his treatment?¡± ¡°Yes, but don¡¯t worry, he will continue his treatment in the outpatient department, his condition won¡¯t be neglected.¡± ¡°He¡¯s quite pitiful. I heard from my mom that he sings on the overpass. I want to go see him.¡± ¡°You can ask your mom to take you there in the wheelchair.¡± After properly adjusting Sisi¡¯s position, Fatty administered some medicine into Sisi¡¯s vein to put her under intravenous general anesthesia, for treating the tumor in her lung. The ultrasound needed to be sent in through the intercostal space. If it¡¯s off by a little bit, it could be blocked by a rib. So the entire process was handled with extreme caution; Every shot had to be very precise. Yang Ping was confident in using the data the system had figured out from the previous two successful operations. He firmly believed this one would be successful too. If this operation was successful, Sisi¡¯s life could be extended. How long it would be extended depended on the speed at which the remaining tumor cells rebounded. Radiotherapy has certain ionizing radiation side effects, but ultrasound doesn¡¯t have these side effects. If precise attacks could be achieved, it would be almost perfect. If the tumor cells rebounded, Yang Ping decided to perform surgery for Sisi again. He would simulate the surgery in a system space, obtain precise attack data, and then use these data to perform the surgery on Sisi. After the surgery, Sisi¡¯s breathing was not problematic. Yang Ping used some drugs to liquify phlegm for her to do oxygen nebulization. The tumor cells were killed by the heat energy from the ultrasound, dissolved and absorbed. Some of them would enter the trachea through the bronchi, becoming phlegm and being coughed up. Nebulization treatment could decompose and liquefy this phlegm, making it easier to cough up. In the afternoon, Sisi counted her New Year¡¯s money, and then her parents added some more money, a total of three thousand yuan, and put it into an envelope. Three thousand yuan was a considerable amount for this family. Although the money donated by kind-hearted people to Sisi¡¯s account temporarily relieved her treatment worries, Sisi¡¯s dad still continuously deposited money into it. Upon hearing of Hermes¡¯ bankruptcy and that he was singing on the overpass, the kind-hearted couple agreed with their daughter¡¯s suggestion to pool some money together, and donate it to Hermes. Even though it wasn¡¯t a lot, it was their sincerity. ¡°Mom, do you think he¡¯ll accept it?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Mother pushed Sisi to the overpass, where Hermes, leaning on crutches, was passionately singing ¡°Sea and Sky¡±. The overpass was crowded with spectators, many of whom were patients from the hospital, moved by his singing. Hermes saw Sisi in the crowd. She had the same external fixation frame on her leg as Hermes. Hermes waved and said hello to Sisi. When they were hospitalized, they were the longest-term patients in the Orthopedics department. Although they often bumped into each other in the hallway, they usually just greeted each other with smiles and didn¡¯t engage in much verbal communication. After the song ended, Sisi pushed her wheelchair over and handed him the thick envelope: ¡°Uncle, hang in there. Nothing can defeat you, everything will pass. Your life will be vast, like the sea and sky. This is my little contribution, hope it can help you.¡± Hermes received the envelope with tears in his eyes, patting her head. He didn¡¯t expect the little girl to remember him. At this point, she was still thinking about helping him. Hermes held the thick envelope: ¡°Uncle is well now, and he appreciates your kindness.¡± ¡°I heard from some brothers and sisters that you went bankrupt, penniless, couldn¡¯t afford treatment, and are now singing on the bridge. That¡¯s why I came looking for you, you really have to take it. This is all my New Year¡¯s money.¡± Sisi insisted. Hermes was touched and somewhat choked up. The heavy envelope in his hand reminded him of how understanding this child was. He decided to temporarily accept the envelope, not wanting to hurt the child¡¯s feelings. ¡°Uncle will accept your kindness for now. You also have to keep fighting, you¡¯re the best. I know your name is Sisi.¡± Hermes shook the envelope. ¡°I also know, you are Hermes, Uncle Belt, haha, such an interesting name.¡± Sisi giggled. ¡°Uncle does not have a Hermes now, but uncle likes that name!¡± Hermes touched his belt. He took Sisi¡¯s hand and continued singing on the overpass. Sisi was bobbing her head and snapping her fingers to the beat. The crowd looked at the couple, deeply moved. They threw their spare change at their feet. Hermes waved his hand, persistently collecting the money from the ground to return to everyone. ¡°I heard this guy used to be a billionaire, but now he has nothing, he can¡¯t even afford his treatment.¡± ¡°Ahh... life is a drama, it¡¯s pretty pathetic. His wife will run away with someone else sooner or later.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the point of having money? Look at him, he¡¯s worse off than us now. Don¡¯t be deceived by the glitz and glamour of the wealthy, they could go bankrupt any moment. There are also many who jump off buildings out of desperation.¡± ¡°Exactly. That¡¯s why we shouldn¡¯t envy those with money.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t he keep the money? Wasn¡¯t he singing for money?¡± The crowd was buzzing with chatter. Many of them were patients from the hospital, taking a walk for fresh air. Attracted by the singing, they gathered on the overpass. ¡°Uncle, keep it up! I come to hear you sing every day, and to cheer you on. Look, you still have such a beautiful lady and all our support.¡± It was time for Sisi to return to her ward. Hermes and his wife waved her goodbye. Sisi continually turned around, clenching her fist to mimic the action of cheering with all her might towards Hermes. Hermes had become a fixture on the hospital overpass. Some beggars saw an opportunity and formed a line with their bowls in hand whenever he began singing, hoping for some good fortune. ¡ª Xiao Su had informed her parents that she would be working in the hospital over Chinese New Year. ¡°Old Su, is our child going to work during Chinese New Year?¡± ¡°If she has to work, she has to work. It¡¯s fine!¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you visit Sanbo last time you had a meeting? How is she doing in her love life?¡± ¡°She¡¯s currently in the throes of a passionate relationship. Xiao Yang is quite ambitious, he managed to successfully complete a surgery that even the Japanese failed to perform at a Sanbo academic conference.¡± ¡°Old Su, have you ever considered bringing them both over to the hospital here? After all-¡± Professor Su waved his hand: ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the children. They¡¯re doing fine. Xiao Yang is highly regarded there. Both Old Zou and Old Huang indirectly hinted at me that they wished to handle things without my interference and bring Xiao Yang over. I prevented them.¡± ¡°Their platform there is rather limited. If they regard Xiao Yang so highly, they should nurture him well. Our daughter, she¡¯s dating Xiao Yang and hasn¡¯t mentioned it. We can only pretend that we don¡¯t know,¡± said Mrs. Su as she tidied Professor Su¡¯s study. ¡°She has her own considerations. I suspect that they plan on presenting a substantial gift as a token of respect when they meet us,¡± Professor Su speculated. ¡°A token of respect? We don¡¯t need any. Are you implying that she wants to present us with a grandson before she introduces Xiao Yang to us? That¡¯s not acceptable! Our Su family is of scholarly heritage.¡± ¡°You have quite an imagination. Our girl is well-educated, she won¡¯t behave recklessly. She has her own plans and introducing Xiao Yang to us rashly would not only alarm us but also unsettle the aunts and uncles of the Su family. She wants to use this token of respect to shut their mouths.¡± In the next generation of Su Qingyun¡¯s siblings, Su Yixuan is the only girl, so her boyfriend would naturally be the focus of the Su family. ¡°Does our little girl have such scheming thoughts?¡± Mrs. Su poured more tea for Professor Su. Professor Su was confident: ¡°You underestimate her. She¡¯s quite clever. You may not know this, but I believe they fell in love a long time ago, well before Nanchen¡¯s birthday party. We were kept in the dark.¡± ¡°No way, how did you find out,¡± Mrs. Su did not believe it. Professor Su smiled and said, ¡°Do you remember when Nanchen asked Xiao Yang to the hospital for a consultation? The security department informed me that someone drove Xiao Xuan¡¯s car into the underground garage of the hospital and asked me to confirm it.¡± ¡°I called Xiao Xuan at the time, and she insisted that her car was definitely parked in Sanbo Hospital¡¯s parking lot and there would be no problem.¡± ¡°Since that was the case, I didn¡¯t instruct the security department to investigate further. But in hindsight, something wasn¡¯t right. Our little girl had us fooled.¡± Professor Su and his wife naturally knew their daughter well and trusted her. Professor Su had always thought highly of Yang Ping, considering him to be a rare talent. The relationship between Yang Ping and Su Nanchen was already deep. After Su Nanchen¡¯s assessment, they considered Yang Ping to be a man of talent and virtue. They were satisfied with him as their future son-in-law. If they wanted to spend Chinese New Year together, let them spend it together. Why bother disturbing this pair of lovebirds? Professor Su didn¡¯t wish to disrupt his daughter¡¯s rhythm. Being her father, he understood her best and had the utmost faith in her judgement and choices. As for what type of substantial gift the two youngsters were planning to prepare, Professor Su hadn¡¯t figured it out yet. Young people sure have profound thoughts! Chapter 304: 0288 - Consulting Abroad Chapter 304: Chapter 0288 ¨C Consulting Abroad The integrated orthopedic outpatient clinic began to stop receiving patients, and the patients in the ward recovered quickly, being discharged one after another. Sisi also got discharged from the hospital to go home for the Chinese New Year and will be readmitted after the Spring Festival for continued treatment. After her parents handled the discharge procedures, they didn¡¯t withdraw the remaining money but left it in Sisi¡¯s hospital account. They plan to transfer this money to a new hospital account when Sisi is readmitted after the Spring Festival. This couple is honest, and the money is given by kind-hearted people. They don¡¯t want the money to pass through their hands and hope to keep it in the hospital account for Sisi¡¯s treatment. Sisi¡¯s father began to walk with partial weight-bearing with the help of a crutch, and he can soon walk without it. His surgery was managed in such a way that costs were minimized. The steel plate to fix the fracture was provided free of charge by Huang Jiahui; the anesthesia fee was only a few dozen yuan as Fatty used a nerve block anesthesia, which is charged as local anesthesia; he got discharged just a few days after the surgery, and the outpatient clinic provided free medication for him, so the entire surgery cost only a few thousand yuan. ... The entire ward was emptied, and doctors and nurses in the department finally let out a sigh of relief. After working as doctors and nurses for so many years, they have never taken a formal holiday during the Spring Festival. This time, they finally can have a Spring Festival where they can switch off their mobile phones. Everyone planned their Spring Festival holiday schedule, but a phone call from the Medical Affairs Department shattered their illusions. For the Micro Trauma Orthopedics, the number of patients has not decreased but increased. The ward is overwhelmed and the doctors and nurses of Integrated Orthopedics have to go to support them. What a letdown! As all divisions are within the same department, most surgeries in the Trauma Orthopedics are emergency operations. A lot of patients¡¯ conditions are severe and complex. So, they will have difficulty getting discharged before the Spring Festival. Therefore, there¡¯s no question of having the festival off. The Integrated Orthopedics only accepts outpatient patients. Most of them are elective surgeries and won¡¯t be scheduled during the Spring Festival. Moreover, the operating room will not take elective surgeries during the Spring Festival and only arrange emergency surgeries. So once the outpatient clinic of Integrated Orthopedics stops receiving patients, and with the speedy recovery of the patients in the ward, the ward will soon be emptied. Zhang Lin Xiaowu leads a group of graduate students and standardized training students to support Trauma Orthopedics, Song Zimo prepares their second-line team, and Yang Ping prepares their third-line team. Cai Qiaojun also allocated the nurses. Except for very few who genuinely need to take leave during Spring Festival, most will normally work and support Trauma Orthopedics. There are many who offer gifts and treats before the New Year. Some medical device merchants already admitted into the hospital, in order to have their goods placed in the Integrated Orthopedics, are racking their brains, sending tea, cigarettes, and alcohol and inviting for meals and drinks, but are all rejected by Yang Ping. Director Han had handed all these permissions over to Yang Ping. The medical device department frequently calls Yang Ping, hoping him to let these merchants in. But Yang Ping just beats around the bush, superficially agreeing: ¡°No problem, let them send their products.¡± In reality, even if the goods are sent and placed in the sterile room of the operating room, Yang Ping would only use them occasionally, eventually not satisfied with the service quality in the end. He still trusts the Huang siblings. Huang Jiahui is honest, Huang Jiacai is smart, and no ordinary medical device merchant can compare. Dealing with smart people can avoid a lot of unnecessary efforts, and importantly, it won¡¯t add any trouble. The house which Zhang Lin bought is ready to move in. It came with decoration and the young couple is extremely excited. They¡¯ve been yearning for it day and night. With the efforts of two generations, they finally have their own house in G City. They hired professionals to test and remove formaldehyde. They plan to ventilate it for a few months before moving in. They are somewhat wary of the indoor pollution of the new house. So-called environmentally friendly renovation is just an ostensible label as there¡¯s no genuine environmentally friendly material. Even if they do the renovation themselves, they may still get cheated. But now Zhang Lin¡¯s financial situation is much more relaxed. Working with Yang Ping, his income is good, and Yang Ping is very generous in income distribution, which greatly motivates everyone. His wife Li Shan¡¯s income has increased a lot too. Dean Xia forcefully implemented the pediatric subsidy policy, taking a portion from the total hospital income to subsidize pediatrics, raising the salaries of pediatric doctors. This stabilizes the morale in pediatrics, not only preventing doctors from leaving but also recruiting several high-ranking doctors from other hospitals and hiring a batch of new staff, easing the staffing tension in pediatrics. Zhang Lin and Li Shan are very optimistic about their future. Once they move into the new house, the couple plans to have a baby, something they didn¡¯t dare to think about before. Dean Xia frequently says in his meetings, ¡°If I as the dean of the hospital were only able to retain talent through their passion and dedication, I would consider that a dereliction of my duty.¡± He always delivered on his words and never made empty promises, hence he commanded high respect in the hospital. ¡ª The expansion of Cheng Liquan¡¯s hospital had to be temporarily halted due to the workers¡¯ vacation during the Spring Festival. Not only did he personally ensure the quality of the renovation construction, but he also personally selected doctors and nurses to be sent to Singapore for training; For the certification by the Joint Commission on International Health Organizations, he proactively contacted professional organizations to provide advance coaching as well. He believed that a good hospital must not lack any of the three ¨C staff, systems, and infrastructure. He intended to build the best, most standardized, and most advanced private orthopedic hospital in the country. The day before the Lunar New Year¡¯s Eve, Boss Cheng delivered fresh beef, mutton, fish, and others to Yang Ping¡¯s house. On the 29th, Yang Ping had performed several surgeries for Cheng Liquan. The data from Dean Cai showed that within just two or three months since the beginning of their collaboration, the gross income from Yang Ping¡¯s surgical patients reached ten million, with the total hospital stay cost per patient all exceeding two hundred thousand. Because they unified the procurement of all medical instruments and consumables, the costs were relatively low. As a private hospital that resells them at a price higher than that of ordinary hospitals, the profit from consumables was staggering. All of the patients operated on by Yang Ping were satisfied with the postoperative care. No one complained about the high costs. As long as their problems could be solved, they didn¡¯t care about the money at all. This ten million-dollar income, from less than a hundred patients, leaving aside all costs, had a net income of over four million. The profit was considerable. It appears that as long as the quality of services is high, the financial capacity of the wealthy group shouldn¡¯t be a concern. Old Cheng suddenly felt very ashamed, thinking to himself, ¡°I can no longer let Yang Ping charge only five thousand per surgery. It¡¯s too little. Starting next year, the contract needs to be revised and the rate should be at least eleven thousand per surgery.¡± Seeing these numbers, Old Cheng was overjoyed and his confidence soared. If things continued in this way and the market was effectively tapped into, it wouldn¡¯t be a problem for the hospital¡¯s turnover to exceed one hundred million tomorrow. The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. He even wanted to have Yang Ping over for a contract renewal immediately. However, he held himself back ¨C it was almost the New Year and everyone was resting, it wouldn¡¯t be good to disrupt them. He decided to wait until after the New Year. ¡°Have the finance department produce a detailed report!¡± Old Cheng felt very confident. He planned to use this report to lobby for more investment from the family during the Spring festival. If he was going to bet, he was going to go big. Director Zhu, once again accompanied by Director Tian, invited Yang Ping for a meal to bring him news: A patient from Malaysia was going to have an international consultation. The experts invited were all from various insurance companies. Representing Anning Insurance, Director Zhu invited Yang Ping to participate in the consultation and sought his opinion. Yang Ping agreed without hesitation, he would help Director Zhu unconditionally. The date for the consultation couldn¡¯t be confirmed yet. It might take place during the Spring Festival as the patient¡¯s lower limb muscle strength continued to deteriorate. This patient¡¯s condition was progressing relatively slowly, not as rapidly as Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s. Even if he were to travel abroad, he would still need to apply for a visa and register with a hospital. Right now, Yang Ping would have to apply for a new passport. ¡°Our company will liaise with your hospital and assist you in obtaining the visa,¡± said Director Zhu, full of confidence. This time, representing Anning Insurance to deal with this patient¡¯s case in Malaysia, he was facing several other insurance companies, all of which were international giants. But he was confident and even more so in Yang Ping. Chapter 305: Intrigue within an Intrigue Chapter 305: Intrigue within an Intrigue Director Zhu¡¯s confidence was by no means blind, but rather founded on a comprehensive, in-depth understanding of Yang Ping. As a former doctor, his decision-making and actions still bear the style of a medic: well-grounded and meticulously careful. Therefore, he carried out a thorough investigation and appraisal of Yang Ping, not out of distrust, but as a scientific approach to work. After all, this multinational consultation was a showcase of Anning Insurance¡¯s medical resources. The success or failure of this endeavor would determine the fate of the company¡¯s overseas expansion plans. The patient, Guo Jingyao, a prominent Malaysian businessman at the age of sixty, has numerous businesses such as mining, ports, rubber, and palm oil. He is a prominent figure in Malaysia. Guo Jingyao acquired this high-end medical insurance as a personal gift from Ning Qi, the chairman of the Anning Group. Guo Jingyao and Anning Group had numerous business collaborations in China. ... If Guo Jingyao¡¯s trust could be won, not only could he promote the purchase of Anning Insurance¡¯s high-end medical insurance among his company executives, but his family and friends also presented potential customers. He could become a natural ambassador for Anning¡¯s premium insurance. Director Zhu was an intelligent man and felt deeply moved by Yang Ping¡¯s readiness to aid. Regardless of the outcome of this consultation, Director Zhu planned to cooperate with Yang Ping afterward. With the arrival of the Spring Festival, government departments would be on holiday, which might make passport processing a bit complicated. However, whether Sanbo Hospital or the Anning Group stepped in, this was not a significant issue. The Public Security System was on duty and could fast-track the process. International consultation involved many medical-legal issues and could not be treated as a personal matter. Director Zhu contacted Sanbo Hospital on behalf of his company, hoping to invite Yang Ping for the international consultation. Yang Ping reported the matter to Director Han, who then notified Dean Xia. Considering the importance of this matter, Dean Xia immediately pledged his support for Yang Ping to participate in the international consultation and arranged for the hospital administration to assist in various ways, like contacting the Public Security Bureau for passport processing, facilitating visa applications, etc. ¡ª¡ª Soon after the launch of Li Quan Hospital¡¯s new official website, WeChat public account, and Alipay life account, the surgery appointment function began to yield results. Several patients scheduled surgeries for the post-festival period and the service team in the backend immediately launched one-on-one follow-up services. Dean Cai received reliable news that football star Luo Jin was endorsing Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Sports Medicine Center and shooting promotional videos for free to express gratitude to Yang Ping. He reported this news to Boss Cheng. Although he was uncertain about the value of this news, he knew that Boss Cheng had extraordinarily sharp insights. ¡°Old Cai, the situation is evolving too quickly. We haven¡¯t kept pace and it¡¯s risky!¡± Boss Cheng meditated for a while after hearing the news and then made this unexpected remark. ¡°Boss, what¡¯s wrong? Isn¡¯t everything fine now?¡± Dean Cai was confused. He thought a significant issue had cropped up that might lead to a loss on the millions invested in the hospital. ¡°I¡¯m so confused! I was contemplating raising Yang Ping¡¯s surgical fees to ten thousand, but now, it seems utterly ridiculous.¡± Old Cheng felt a chill at the thought of potentially missing an opportunity. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Dean Cai was on tenterhooks, yet still baffled. ¡°Old Cai, prepare a contract right away, and quickly. I want to invite Su Nanchen and Yang Ping to become shareholders. I¡¯ll talk to Su Nanchen first. Let me think about how to approach this.¡± Old Cheng slapped the table. ¡°If we invite them to hold shares, will they contribute capital? Such investment usually costs millions. They are earning well with their respective positions and surgical fees, would they take a risk with us?¡± Dean Cai struggled to keep up with Boss Cheng¡¯s thoughts. Old Cheng laughed heartily: ¡°Why would they need to contribute any capital? They can contribute with their skills instead. They don¡¯t have to spend a penny, and they will receive dividends at the end of the year. I need to discuss this with Su Nanchen first before he can convince Yang Ping.¡± Such matters must be successful at the first attempt. Once refused, it would be difficult to raise again. The market is capricious, and Old Cheng always had to analyse the situation and make judgments instantly. He now clearly understood that it was impossible to develop the hospital into an advanced, high-end, international orthopedics hospital on his own. If he could get Su Nanchen and Yang Ping onboard, success was almost guaranteed. Old Cheng was determined to persuade Su Nanchen to hold shares, which would make it easier for Yang Ping to do the same. As for the relationship between Su Nanchen and Yang Ping, how could Old Cheng, with his sharp acumen, not be aware? ¡°That was close! Old Cai, your news came just in time. It¡¯s a good thing we gifted Doctor Yang a respectable car, or it would have been laughably embarrassing. Continue monitoring the news. Let me know immediately if there¡¯s any development.¡± Old Cheng wiped the sweat off his forehead. ¡°I didn¡¯t quite get it, what was the danger?¡± Dean Cai wondered as he watched Old Cheng¡¯s edgy reactions. ¡ª¡ª Before the Spring Festival, Xiao Su accompanied Yang Ping¡¯s parents to buy clothes, visit the flower market, and helped them embrace a fashionable look. She even treated Yang Ping¡¯s mother to a new hairstyle and light makeup. Yang Ping¡¯s parents were delighted. Their son had a thriving career and a fulfilling family life. As parents, they could now rest assured. They couldn¡¯t be happier with their daughter-in-law. In reality, the old couple just wanted an excuse to visit their son, to see first-hand the challenges he confronted to establish himself in the big city. Yang Ping was deeply moved. He knew that his parents wouldn¡¯t be able to visit often, but seeing them smile with Xiao Su around filled him with a sense of contentment. Since Su Nanchen¡¯s fiance?e, Lin Lan, was spending the New Year with his family for the first time after their engagement, Xiao Su had to accompany her. Lin Lan, Su Nanchen¡¯s fiance?e, is a fundamental researcher in genetics. She was appointed as a professor and doctoral adviser at Nandu Medical University when she was only twenty-eight. Despite her young age, she¡¯s already accomplished a lot in academia and is now the head of Nandu Medical University¡¯s Genome Lab. Lin Lan¡¯s student, Dr. Wen, was recommended by Su Nanchen for investigating the cause of Wei Danian¡¯s disease. On New Year¡¯s Eve, Xiao Su helped Yang Ping¡¯s parents make dumplings and have lunch, and then hurried back home in the afternoon. On the first day of the new year, Xiao Su stayed at his own home to accompany his future sister-in-law. On the second day, he visited Yang Ping to be with his parents. Of course, Xiao Su always justified his visits with the excuse of being on duty, and Professor Su and his wife did not press him for answers, giving their daughter full freedom. The city¡¯s Spring Festival was a lot quieter without the sounds of fireworks characteristic of the countryside. Fireworks were prohibited in the community, but you could still occasionally hear them. Xiao Su and Yang Ping¡¯s mum were cooking together while the two men chatted and watched TV. ¡°Xiao Su, take a break. Let me take over.¡± ¡°Auntie, I love cooking with you.¡± ¡°Your sweet talk sounds as if you¡¯ve smeared honey on your lips.¡± ¡°Auntie, do you think it¡¯s clean? Is it acceptable?¡± ¡°Acceptable, absolutely! If Xiao Su cleaned it, it¡¯s definitely acceptable!¡± ¡°Today we are making ten dishes for a perfect meal.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll help you!¡± The future mother and daughter-in-law were joyfully making lunch in the kitchen. Yang Ping watched television with his father. The television was wishing everyone a Happy New Year, some channels were even replaying the Spring Festival Gala. His phone hasn¡¯t stopped buzzing since New Year¡¯s Eve with New Year¡¯s wishes, sending and receiving red packets. ¡°I heard you might be traveling abroad for a medical consultation?¡± his father asked. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°A patient in Malaysia with a complex condition has invited me for a consultation.¡± Wow, his son is now seeing patients abroad ¨C that¡¯s impressive! As for him, his medical visits were typically limited to a few villages at most. His passport and visa were quickly processed, and the consultation date was also confirmed. Guo Jingyao¡¯s condition continued to worsen, with muscle strength in his lower limbs falling to level one. Yingge Hospital was quite anxious and hoped to organize a consultation during the Spring Festival. According to the lunar calendar, the consultation would be on the sixth day of the Spring Festival. Guo Jingyao¡¯s condition was very similar to Fang Xiaoyun. His case was a complex one, but his progression was considerably slower. A complex case usually involves one disease masking another. The biggest challenge comes when a common disease disguises a rare one, as both can cause similar symptoms. The common disease usually gets all the evidence in its favor, while the rare disease is difficult to detect. This can be quite misleading as everyone gets caught up in the common disease, making it hard to consider the rare one. This is especially true when the common disease and the symptoms are tightly linked, with the history, physical examination, and additional tests all supporting the diagnosis. Doctors get caught in this trap, simply going around in circles focusing on the common disease, almost as if they¡¯re trapped in a labyrinth. Guo Jingyao had a cyst in his spinal canal, the symptoms of which perfectly matched those of a nerve disease. After the surgery, the patient¡¯s symptoms briefly subsided, leaving no scope for questioning the diagnosis. But then, a few days later, his lower limb symptoms began to worsen. Doctors naturally assumed there were issues with the surgery, such as haematoma compression or spinal cord vascularity disruption leading to an increase in neurological symptoms in the lower limbs. No one would think of a rare disease like dural arteriovenous fistula, let alone conduct a DSA of the spinal vessels. The doctors always base their analyses on CT and MRI scans, but it is hard to reach a conclusive diagnosis using these alone. Therefore, to unravel such complex cases, the doctor needs to have extensive experience and strong logical reasoning skills. Chapter 306: 0290: Shut Out Chapter 306: Chapter 0290: Shut Out During the Chinese New Year, the population in G City declines, the volume of vehicles on the road decreases, construction sites and factories shut down, naturally reducing various accidents. The volume of surgeries in the trauma orthopedics department exploded before the Chinese New Year, but ever since New Year¡¯s Eve, it has gradually started to decrease, entering a slack period. This allowed the doctors and nurses from the comprehensive orthopedics department to enjoy a worry-free vacation. They no longer had to assist the trauma orthopedics department, which was very rare. Everyone was able to have a real break during the Chinese New Year. Yang Ping was going overseas for medical consultation on the sixth day of the Chinese New Year. Xiao Su helped him pack his luggage, using a travel case. Taking into account the climate of Southeast Asia, she packed several sets of clothes, as well as essential travel items such as an electric razor, neatly filling up the travel case. She also painstakingly made a layout card for the travel case. The card listed the items in the travel case and their locations, so Yang Ping could easily find items he wanted without having to rummage through his luggage. Since Xiao Su had often followed her parents abroad for vacations since she was little, she was very familiar with Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, and wished she could accompany Yang Ping. However, under special circumstances, she had to stay at home to keep Yang Ping¡¯s parents company, allowing him to go on his overseas medical consultation with peace of mind. The girl was meticulous. Even though the plane ticket was booked by Anning Insurance, Xiao Su still wanted to review it. Only after confirming that it was not a Malaysian Airlines flight, but a Southern Airlines flight directly to Kuala Lumpur, did she feel at ease. ... Dean Xia and Director Han repeatedly reminded him over a phone call to be cautious. Because Anning Insurance was in charge of Yang Ping¡¯s trip, and Director Zhu was accompanying him all the way, Dean Xia and Director Han were somewhat at ease and did not arrange for additional escorts. Su Nanchen also got wind of Yang Ping¡¯s overseas consultation trip. He planned on asking his classmate in the Singapore Central Hospital, Tong Zhenyu, to receive Yang Ping in Malaysia, but was tactfully rejected by Yang Ping. The entire itinerary was tight. After an approximately four-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, he would rest for a night and join the consultation at Yingge Hospital in Kuala Lumpur the next day at nine o¡¯clock. The entire schedule was arranged by Anning Insurance, and Yang Ping didn¡¯t have time to meet other people. Moreover, everyone had break plans during the Spring Festival, so it was not nice to bother others. Mother Yang was very worried: ¡°I heard that there are many mosquitoes there, as big as dragonflies, and dengue fever is often reported. You¡¯ll need to take precautions.¡± Since rural areas often run anti-mosquito campaigns, Mother Yang was quite knowledgeable about infectious diseases such as dengue fever. ¡°We are not going to a primeval forest, there are very few mosquitoes in cities, and even fewer now in winter,¡± said Father Yang, who was not as worried. ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a few days, and Xiao Su will keep you company,¡± said Yang Ping to reassure his parents. ¡°Give us a call when you arrive, and keep in touch on WeChat. Your parents and I will be at home, so don¡¯t worry,¡± instructed Xiao Su, speaking sincerely. She had inadvertently blurted out, and Xiao Su blushed deeply. Mother Yang hugged her adorable daughter-in-law: ¡°If there¡¯s anything, discuss it with Xiao Su over WeChat. She¡¯s more thoughtful than you.¡± ¡°Yes, keep in touch at all times. We will be at home, don¡¯t worry,¡± said Father Yang, agreeing with his wife. Women are sensitive, which can complement male traits to a certain extent. Director Zhu had put a lot of thought into the trip¡¯s schedule. The airplane ticket he booked was a direct flight to Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Southern Airlines¡¯ first-class cabin. Anning Insurance¡¯s Southeast Asia Company assigned a team to manage Yang Ping¡¯s activities in Kuala Lumpur. Anning Insurance¡¯s Southeast Asia Company is based in Singapore, with a branch office in Kuala Lumpur. The team responsible for receiving Yang Ping included several personnel specifically transferred from the Singapore company, who had already arrived in Kuala Lumpur in advance. On the sixth day, they set off early in the morning and arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at noon. The pick-up personnel smoothly received Yang Ping and Director Zhu, and arranged for both of them to stay at a hotel near Yingge Hospital. After settling down at the hotel, Yang Ping immediately reported his status to Xiao Su, his parents, Director Han, and Dean Xia. Chinese New Year, the biggest festival for Chinese people, was also celebrated in Kuala Lumpur. One could see the festive atmosphere everywhere, with dragon lion dances, couplets, and large red lanterns. Contrary to our beliefs, Malaysia¡¯s medical security level is among the world¡¯s top ranks, whether in terms of the quality of doctors or the medical security system, both of which are excellent. Yingge Hospital is a hospital under the Pankor Group, which is Asia¡¯s largest private hospital group. Pankor Group has seventeen hospitals worldwide, and their boss is a Chinese man, Mr. Chen Shilong, who is also a doctor. Director Zhu accompanied Yang Ping all day. They had lunch together, toured Yingge Hospital in the afternoon, and during dinner, they were joined by some Chinese physicians and employees of Anning Insurance. Although Yang Ping had only interacted with Director Zhu for a short while, he could not help but be impressed by his mature and steady demeanor, his unwavering character, his genial manner, and his careful and comprehensive analysis of issues. He had insights that were uniquely his own. No wonder, despite having been forced to leave the medical profession, he could thrive in a completely new industry ¨C insurance ¨C and achieve accomplishments that few could match. After resting for one night, on the second day, at about half past eight in the morning... Director Zhu took Yang Ping to a rest area next to the Yingge Hospital meeting room to collect their conference passes for the consultation meeting. However, to their surprise, Yang Ping and Director Zhu, the representative of Anning Insurance, were not on the list of consultation experts. Their conference passes were also missing. This left Director Zhu quite bewildered. Was this an oversight on Yingge Hospital¡¯s part? Or did they intentionally exclude them? Showing the invitation letter from Yingge Hospital, the Hospital staff double-checked it and confirmed there were no errors. But why weren¡¯t their names on the list? Case consultations are highly confidential matters. Especially at a high-end private hospital like Yingge, if someone¡¯s name isn¡¯t on the invitation list, they absolutely cannot be admitted. As the time approached nine o¡¯clock, invited experts from the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany began entering the meeting room one by one under the accompaniment of their attendants. The oversight wasn¡¯t intentional. Mr. Guo Jingyao had purchased over a dozen high-end insurance policies, all from internationally renowned insurance companies. While Anning Insurance is a giant in China, it has little popularity internationally and the hospital staff simply overlooked their representatives and experts when arranging seats. Feeling embarrassed, Director Zhu immediately instructed Yang Ping to rest on the spot and began contacting his colleagues at the Southeast Asia Company to inquire about the rationale. ¡°It¡¯s alright, there¡¯s no problem waiting a bit more!¡± Yang Ping reassured Director Zhu. After some negotiation, the hospital finally responded explaining that Mr. Guo¡¯s family had arranged this and the hospital had provided a list of attendees for them to verify. Upon perusing the list, the family retained the representatives and experts of several major international companies but crossed off the representatives and experts of Anning Insurance, citing a reduction of unnecessary personnel. What a joke, what do they mean by ¡®unnecessary personnel¡¯? On the phone, Director Zhu sternly told the representative from Yingge Hospital: ¡°Mr. Guo¡¯s medical condition is complicated. You¡¯ve already sought consultations from multiple batches of experts and yet remain clueless. Now I have invited an exceptionally skilled and experienced doctor from China, a doctor who has handled similar cases before, but you arbitrarily remove his name. I demand a reasonable explanation. Otherwise, I have cause to suspect that there are hidden internal dealings, and that the consultation meeting has been manipulated by unknown forces. We have come all the way from China without any prior notification, only to have our entry denied. This violates both protocol and convention, and is extremely crude and disrespectful. I will definitely hold you accountable after this¨C¡± The administrative staff at Yingge Hospital, having heard Director Zhu¡¯s tone, quickly became aware of the gravity of their mistake. An internal plot? That¡¯s a blame they couldn¡¯t bear. Consultation matters are typically organized by the hospital, and although the patient¡¯s family can make suggestions, they don¡¯t have the final decision. The hospital can invite additional experts depending on the specifics of the medical condition. Soon, the secretary from the administrative department appeared outside the meeting room to communicate face to face with Director Zhu: ¡°Sir, I am Li, the liaison from Yingge Hospital¡¯s Administrative Department responsible for this consultation meeting. We will ask both Dr. Lin Mingyuan, the chief medical officer in charge of the consultation meeting, and the patient¡¯s family for their approval. If either party agrees, you can participate in the consultation meeting. If both parties disagree, I¡¯m sorry, but there is nothing we can do.¡± Members of the administrative department knew how to handle such situations¡ªit was all about adhering to the procedure. Director Zhu handed her the invitation letter: ¡°Miss Li, we could walk away from this whole affair, and then your patient, Mr. Guo Jingyao, will remain bedridden forever. It¡¯s not we who need your consultation meeting, but your patient who needs us. Frankly, this case has surpassed the capabilities of your hospital and any other experts you¡¯ve invited. I am merely fulfilling the insurance company¡¯s obligations by seeking the best medical resources for our clients. But when I painstakingly find the best doctor, you brusquely exclude him from the meeting¡ª¡± ¡°I am sorry, truly sorry!¡± Miss Li was even more convinced that this wasn¡¯t as simple as it seemed. These two Chinese men in front of her were no ordinary people and letting them go could potentially lead to grave consequences. Chapter 307: 0291: This Man is From Earth Chapter 307: Chapter 0291: This Man is From Earth This kind of incident was, at the end of the day, due to Anning Insurance¡¯s recent venture overseas and lack of fame. Guo Jingyao¡¯s family simply did not care, casually omitting the name, which resulted in such a farcical event. Yang Ping didn¡¯t become angry, he came here to assist Director Zhu. In regards to the Guo family, if they trust him, he would give his utmost effort. If they don¡¯t, there¡¯s nothing he could do. An ancient saying goes: those who believe can be healed, those who don¡¯t can¡¯t! Despite the great benevolence of heavenly rain, it cannot nourish the rootless grass; despite excellent medical skills, it is challenging to treat those one is not meant to help! People who don¡¯t believe in you simply can¡¯t be treated. In the meeting room, the consultation meeting had already started. Director Zhu was waiting in the resting room for the outcome. The staff of Anning Insurance Southeast Asia Company, feeling that their work error had caused this awkward situation, were deeply terrified. Director Zhu is the deputy head of the newly established high-end medical insurance subsidiary, their immediate superior. ... Just as the company was making a key overseas expansion, committing such a basic error was unthinkable. It¡¯s not impossible that a few people might be fired as an example to others. However, Director Zhu didn¡¯t blame them. He explained that things happen for a reason, and if one should be held responsible, there would be penalties, but he would never vent his anger without cause. ¡°This wasn¡¯t your fault; it was a mistake made by Yingge Hospital,¡± Director Zhu placated everybody with his gentle demeanour. The staff slightly relaxed since they had heard rumors before that President Zhu was polite, modest, but also wise, meticulous, and serious in his work. Miss Li had been gone for quite a while, and still hadn¡¯t returned. Director Zhu checked his watch; almost half an hour had passed. This can¡¯t be right, this situation obviously isn¡¯t as simple as casually removing some names. How could that be possible? The family members don¡¯t even know which expert is internationally renowned. A conspicuous high-class family like this wouldn¡¯t mind an extra person or two attending the consultation. Director Zhu¡¯s mind was spinning rapidly, imagining various possibilities and analyzing their likelihood. Increasingly, he felt that the situation was not that simple. He immediately stood up and picked up his cell phone. Being kept waiting for so long without seeing her return probably just meant they were dragging out the time until the consultation meeting was over, naturally making the issue disappear. Director Zhu quickly decided to report this matter to his superiors. At this moment, Miss Li emerged from the room, along with a refined and cultivated middle-aged doctor, who was none other than Dr. Lin Mingyuan from Singapore Central Hospital. Recognizing Yang Ping at a glance, he said: ¡°Doctor Yang, it really is you, hello. My apologies for our oversight in our work¡ª¡± ¡°Doctor Lin!¡± Yang Ping also recognized him. He had met Doctor Lin during an academic conference, where Director Han had introduced him. The world is small, but the medical field is even smaller. Yang Ping and Doctor Lin had run into each other here again. The two immediately shook hands. Doctor Lin asked about Director Han¡¯s current situation and enthusiastically invited Yang Ping to join the consultation meeting. He then turned to Miss Li and said sternly, ¡°This is Doctor Yang from China, who is very accomplished in the field of orthopedics. Please ensure you find out where the error occurred and why Doctor Yang was denied entry.¡± Although Doctor Lin is a chief expert, he was not the chief expert of Guo Jingyao¡¯s medical team, but the chief expert of this consultation meeting. Yingge Hospital had invited him from Singapore, and he wasn¡¯t aware of the list of invited experts from Yingge Hospital. It was only when Miss Li came in with the invitation to report that he saw the names and hospitals on the list, including Yang Ping, a name he remembered vividly. ¡°Please, come in quickly!¡± Dr. Lin was very respectful and polite to Yang Ping. This surprised Director Zhu. Doctor Lin, who was based in Singapore, actually knew Yang Ping, and he respected Yang Ping deeply, and this respect was completely heartfelt. Miss Li, seeing this scene, was relieved that she didn¡¯t handle this matter arbitrarily. However, she did not understand how a doctor highly respected by Doctor Lin could have his name casually scratched off the list. ¡°You must be Mr. Zhu, the representative from Anning Insurance, let¡¯s go in together,¡± Doctor Lin said politely. In this conference, representatives from the insurance company were present, mainly assisting the experts and attending the meeting as observers without any speaking rights. Under Dr. Lin¡¯s guidance, Yang Ping and Director Zhu entered the meeting room and quietly found empty seats to sit in. Dr. Lin whispered a few words to Dr. Huang from Yingge Hospital, who kept nodding in response. Dr. Huang is the head of the Spine Surgery department at the Yingge Hospital in Kuala Lumpur and the team leader for Guo Jingyao¡¯s medical team. The discussion in the meeting room had already begun. Everyone gathered around the oval conference table, engaged in a heated debate with a variety of English accents blending together. In academic discussions, people were direct and straightforward, especially Westerners. They had no regard for face-saving and did not mince their words. Every speaker presented their views and argued their points strongly. ¡°It seems that everyone¡¯s opinions are quite unified. The patient sought medical attention due to a reduction in sensation and muscle strength in both lower limbs. CT and MRI scans of the thoracic and lumbar spine showed a cyst within the spinal canal of the thoracic spine. The cyst was compressing the spinal cord and causing neurological symptoms. The neurological symptoms and the compression caused by the cyst matched perfectly. Postoperative neurological symptoms improved, which is an effect of releasing the compression. However, one week later, the sensation and muscle strength of both lower limbs started to diminish again. This is in line with symptoms indicative of the surgery damaging the spinal cord blood supply. The postoperative MRI showed spinal cord edema, further corroborating this point. Symptoms of spinal ischemia manifest rather late. They do not show immediately after the surgery but gradually appear a few days later. The fourth to ninth thoracic segments of the spinal cord are known as risky areas due to poor blood supply. Any rough surgical operation can easily disrupt the spinal cord¡¯s blood supply. Hence, there is plenty of evidence for postoperative spinal cord ischemia symptoms in this case.¡± Dr. Milton from the British Royal Orthopedic Hospital¡¯s Spine Surgery department, a renowned figure in European spinal surgery, was invited by Bao Bo Insurance Company from the UK. His speech had a summarizing tone, suggesting that the discussion was nearing its end. ¡°However, Dr. Milton, we have only concluded so far. The patient¡¯s most pressing needs are, how can their spinal cord be saved?¡± Dr. August from Germany was not satisfied with this inconclusive discussion. ¡°In the face of disease, medicine can sometimes be quite helpless. Be it trauma or ischemia, we are powerless when it comes to spinal cord injury. I hope the next Nobel laureate will be awarded for solving this problem.¡± Dr. Milton shrugged. If anyone could solve this problem, they would surely earn the Nobel Prize. ¡°I suggest that the patient be transferred to our Juntendo Hospital for treatment. We may discover new problems.¡± Kobayashi Takeshi, the expert invited by Fuji Insurance from Japan and the Professor and Department Director of the Department of Spinal Surgery at Juntendo University Hospital, believed that the patient still had hope. However, he temporarily couldn¡¯t sort out his thoughts and suggested that the patient continue with the examinations. Fuji Insurance, a newly growing Japanese insurance company, specializes in high-end medical insurance and has now also started penetrating the Southeast Asian market. It is Anning Insurance¡¯s biggest competitor. Because the insurance giants of Europe and America have always overlooked the Southeast Asian market, Japanese companies with a strong market offensive mentality react more sensitively than their European counterparts. They have taken a liking to the Southeast Asian market and wish to eat into it while the giants of Europe and America are not paying attention. The representative of Fuji Insurance, Takashi Matsumoto, carried a black document bag in his hand and sat in the observer¡¯s seat, his eyes sweeping over and briefly passing over Director Zhu¡¯s face. Director Zhu had a keen eye for details. He observed everyone¡¯s actions within the venue. Of course, even the actions of Takashi Matsumoto could not escape his sight. However, he feigned ignorance. At present, Yang Ping was no longer greatly moved by these top-level personalities. With the progress of his training in the system space, Yang Ping¡¯s medical experience far exceeded that of ordinary people. This novel experience in the system space reminded Yang Ping of a science fiction movie¡ª ¡°The Man from Earth.¡± The protagonist in it was an immortal who lived from primitive society to modern society. Yang Ping had a very similar feeling now. However, Yang Ping still listened very earnestly to other people¡¯s speeches because some things could not be learned in the system space. Everyone has their strengths, and even if a single sentence can be useful to him, the discussion would have been worthwhile. ¡°I apologize, but I have to catch a flight, so I may need to leave early. I¡¯m sorry¡ª¡± Dr. Milton glanced at the mechanical watch on his wrist and shrugged. He felt there was no point in continuing the discussion. Chapter 308: 0292: Triple Play Chapter 308: Chapter 0292: Triple Play Just now, when Doctor Yang and Director Zhu were outside, they had a heated discussion. Several international medical bigwigs unanimously believed that the blood supply to the spinal cord was damaged. If it really was, it would be impossible to restore the blood supply through surgery. The only option would be conservative treatment, using some drugs to improve blood circulation and let nature take its course. Paralysis was inevitable eventually. Dural arteriovenous fistula leading to increased venous pressure, insufficient arterial supply, and subsequent spinal edema, all of these symptoms mirror spinal cord blood supply damage. Moreover, judging from the MRI and CT that the spinal cord¡¯s blood supply was damaged is not something an ordinary orthopedic surgeon or radiologist can do. Only top-notch orthopedic specialists possess this judgment capability. Therefore, this case within a case, poses as an advanced stage. Ordinary doctors have ordinary entries, advanced doctors have advanced entries. This is the reason why many experts can not break free. Disease, sometimes, is so peculiar. Several bigwigs cracked the case using their abundant knowledge, but they never realized that cracking the case was entering a new one. They thought the case was broken, yet they stepped into another more complicated new one. Since they were oblivious to this, it was impossible to break free. ... ¡°We can try performing DSA (Digital Subtraction Angiography) on the main feeding blood vessels of the spinal cord, look for damaged blood vessels, such as those caused by excessive ligation of the intercostal arteries during surgery, we can attempt to repair. At present, the spinal cord has not undergone necrotic degeneration, there¡¯s still a chance.¡± Auguste Bimilton was more proactive. ¡°This is a massive and complex project, the magnitude and complexity of which exceed your imagination. If it is a research topic, we can give it a try, but there are many obstacles in implementing immature ideas for clinical cases.¡± Milton remained conservative. ¡°If the patient is transferred to our Santen Hospital, we have more advanced equipment than DSA to examine and evaluate the location and extent of vascular damage, and whether it is suitable for surgical repair. If surgery is required, our orthopedics department has experience in this field.¡± Kobayashi Takeshi was confident. They do possess a more advanced set of equipment than DSA. It was jointly developed by Tokyo University and its affiliated hospitals and Toshiba Corporation. Santen had the opportunity to obtain a prototype. ¡°If it¡¯s about examination, our hospital also has better vascular examination technology than DSA. It¡¯s the computer X-ray dynamic simulation angiography technology, which can perfectly reconstruct the entire human vascular image.¡± Auguste Bimilton stood his ground. Auguste Bimilton came from Harald Orthopedics Hospital in Munich, Germany. The spine surgery of that hospital is top-notch worldwide. When the Japanese touted their advancements, he was slightly displeased. Among the invited bigwigs for this consultation, there was also a professor from the Twin Cities Spine Center in Minnesota, United States. The center was hosting an academic conference on spinal surgery and declined the consultation invitation. The pride of the Britons was shattered by the Germans and the Japanese, as they each claimed to have a more advanced set of examination equipment. These pieces of equipment must be in the experimental research phase and have not been widely deployed yet. But Milton couldn¡¯t come up with such equipment. Cutting-edge equipment has mostly been monopolized by these guys. Now, in Milton¡¯s hospital, most of the advanced medical equipment is from these two countries. To identify the location and condition of the damaged blood vessels, it¡¯s not something ordinary equipment can do. It requires even more advanced imaging equipment and technology. The several doctors from other countries hardly said a word and simply complemented the bigwigs, making the scene appear grand. ¡°Doctor Yang from China hasn¡¯t expressed his opinion yet. Let¡¯s hear what Doctor Yang thinks.¡± Doctor Lin took the opportunity to push Yang Ping forward. Everyone turned their eyes to him. He was just a young doctor. He might be a doctor hired by an insurance company just to fill the quota. Moreover, during the discussion just now, they didn¡¯t notice this doctor and didn¡¯t know when he entered the conference hall. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, gentlemen, I can only stay here for another half an hour at most.¡± Milton, the gentleman, reminded them to either conclude the meeting within half an hour or he would leave early. Doctor Yang looked around the room calmly and said, ¡°Actually, this patient is quite simple, not very complicated. It¡¯s just that it¡¯s less common, leaving you all a bit bewildered.¡± The entire conference was conducted in English, and Doctor Yang was no exception. As soon as these words came out, everyone in the room was stunned by the confidence and calmness that characterized Doctor Yang¡¯s ¡°man from Earth¡± demeanor, stating simplicity when gazing across time and space. Simple? Such a complex case was simplified into two mild words in his mouth ¨C simple! Milton, Auguste, and Kobayashi Takeshi were all authorities in orthopedic surgery. Someone just said this in front of them. Professor Milton shrugged, considering it a boring joke; Auguste propped his elbow on the table, holding his chin in one hand, listening attentively; Kobayashi Takeshi was contemptuous, considering it to be pure show-off, forcibly seeking attention. ¡°Can someone help me call up the patient¡¯s imaging pictures? I need both CT and MRI!¡± Doctor Yang asked. Doctor Lin immediately ordered the doctor in charge of computer operations to bring up the patient¡¯s imaging pictures. Yang Ping walked towards the screen opposite the oval table and pointed at the images on the screen, ¡°Slow down, just these few, and the MRI ones, yes, keep these ones.¡± After selecting the images, he used a stylus to point at the screen, ¡°This is a typical case within a case, a white trap enclosing a black one. You are all deeply stuck in the white case, unable to extricate yourselves, and the patient is trapped in the black case, unable to be saved.¡± A case within a case, incomprehensible. Nobody had heard of this kind of medical condition before. Everyone shrugged, looking helpless. ¡°On the surface, this case is about a cyst compressing the spinal cord, followed by surgery to remove the cyst from within the vertebral canal. The operation accidentally damaged the spinal cord¡¯s blood supply. Postoperatively, the neurologic symptoms were temporarily relieved due to the cyst removal, but later aggravated due to the disruption of the spinal cord¡¯s blood supply. Everything seems perfectly consistent, with the whole diagnostic and therapeutic process being textbook worthy. Even years later, no one would doubt this,¡± Yang Ping paused. Doctor Lin took this opportunity to hand him a bottle of mineral water, which Yang Ping took a sip from. He continued, ¡°But in reality, it is far from this. If we dissect this case, within it hides a rare disease¡ª¡± Yang Ping¡¯s rhetoric had also improved, with his case presentation much resembling storytelling. ¡°The rare disease is¡ª a dural arteriovenous fistula. You solved the white case, but failed to notice the black one. The black case continues to wreak havoc, and grows progressively worse. Thus, the neurological symptoms of the legs aggravated. The white case conceals the black one, with surgery damaging the blood supply of the spinal cord playing the role of a scapegoat. It blinds everyone¡¯s eyes and leads everyone unconsciously into a trap, but they remain completely oblivious,¡± he concluded. ¡°This is so thrilling! My God, are you sure you¡¯re being serious?¡± Auguste exclaimed in surprise. He had never heard such a strange opinion before. It was incredibly refreshing. ¡°Complete nonsense! A dural arteriovenous fistula must be diagnosed with DSA or more advanced vascular imaging technologies. CTs and MRIs simply cannot diagnose it. This patient did not undergo these examinations, how did you arrive at your diagnosis?¡± Kobayashi Takeshi sneered. There were no papers or textbooks in the world mentioning using CTs and MRIs to diagnose a dural arteriovenous fistula. Milton shook his head, ¡°No, no, no, there are fewer than 300 reported cases of a dural arteriovenous fistula worldwide. CTs and MRIs cannot diagnose it at all. It requires DSA, a specialist arteriography procedure of the spinal cord. Even then, there¡¯s still a chance that the diagnosis might be missed. I believe you should at least demonstrate some professional caution when making statements.¡± ¡°No matter if he¡¯s right or wrong, we heard a different voice, and that¡¯s very important. Most times, the truth is held by the minority. Please continue, I am very interested,¡± said the old German man who strongly disliked the arrogance of the British. ¡°That¡¯s true. From these images, one cannot directly see the fistula, but if you all look at the MRIs and CT scans, a few images make it apparent¡ªthese images show vascularization. This is the blood vessel image from the CT scan, this is the MRI image obtained using blood flow effects. Both have one thing in common, which I refer to as the ¡®cutoff effect¡¯: from a certain point as the boundary, the diameter of the proximal veins appears discontinuously expanded, while there are no such changes in the arteries. This is a characteristic of arteriovenous fistulas, indicating a fistula connection between an artery and a vein at some point, causing venous congestion. This congestion leads to venous dilatation, and the dilatation lacks the expected smooth transition. The venous congestion consequently causes spinal cord edema, and the combination of these two conditions leads to the diagnosis being trapped in a labyrinth,¡± Yang Ping said, pointing at several images. If observed from a standpoint of medical knowledge, everyone lacked information in this regard and was unable to either support or refute Yang Ping¡¯s statements. ¡°So, if the patient underwent a DSA and a superselective arteriography of the spinal cord vessels, wouldn¡¯t Doctor Yang¡¯s diagnosis be confirmed?¡± Auguste was always deeply interested in this case. The Briton maintained his conservative stance, ¡°Superselective arteriography is time-consuming and may be unsuccessful. Can you trust his words?¡±. ¡°We have technologies that are even more advanced than DSA and can verify this diagnosis,¡± Kobayashi Takeshi kept suggesting that the patient should be transferred to Japan. ¡°In fact, there is no problem with this patient¡¯s diagnosis. It¡¯s just that we want to confirm the diagnosis in a way that everyone is familiar with. We could carry out a DSA again, which imposes very high technical requirements on the physician. There is a more crucial problem¡ªthe surgery. The arteriovenous fistula is located in a rather hidden place and handling the blood vessels requires high precision. The surgery must be extremely meticulous. It is best for my team to treat this patient. Others may have difficulty gaining experience in this area.¡± What Yang Ping said was the truth. In terms of handling the arteriovenous fistula, the treatment requires neither ligating the blood vessel nor repairing the fistula after separating the blood vessels like a normal fistula. For the patient¡¯s safety, he might indeed have to perform the operation himself. ¡°Doctor, your words lack basic supportive evidence. Plus, you claim that only you can perform the surgery? May I ask which hospital you are from, what research you are engaged in, and what research achievements you have made?¡± Kobayashi Takeshi sharply retorted, unimpressed. ¡°I am Yang Ping from China¡¯s Sanbo Hospital. Soon you will see my research papers. I am not making unfounded assertions. This operation is truly difficult. There might indeed be a real disruption of blood supply to the spinal cord after the operation, which would be disastrous and irreversible. I do not wish to witness that.¡± Yang Ping was extremely calm, having said all that was necessary. He stepped down from the podium and drank a mouthful of water. He always goes the extra mile for each patient, trying his best to achieve the best outcome for them. This patient was actually a triple-layered case, Yang Ping only explained the first two layers. He would let them accept these two layers first before explaining the third layer. As some people had not yet fully understood the two layers, abruptly explaining the third layer would be too mind-boggling. The reason why Yang Ping insisted on performing the surgery himself was that, during the surgery to treat the arteriovenous fistula, several arteries in the access route had to be either ligated or electrocoagulated. However, these arteries are usually considered useless in the surgical access route and can be ligated or electrocoagulated. In fact, these arteries are the main blood supplying vessels for a specific segment of the spinal cord. It was a bizarre variation, which made this case weird and unpredictable at every turn! If Yang Ping had not obtained strong abilities in the system space, this triple-layered case, like most perplexing diseases around the world, would probably never be solved, remaining an eternal mystery. Everyone started whispering and discussing in low voices, unsure of what to do next. Chapter 309: 0293: Only One Can Understand Chapter 309: Chapter 0293: Only One Can Understand ¡°Doctor Yang, is this case really so complicated?¡± Doctor Lin asked quietly. ¡°It¡¯s far beyond everyone¡¯s imagination. My verbal expression ability is limited and cannot truly convey the difficulty of this case.¡± Yang Ping spoke very clearly. Doctor Lin had witnessed Yang Ping¡¯s capabilities and trusted him deeply. He whispered a few words to Dr. Huang beside him. As a leading authority in orthopedics in the Southeast Asian medical sector, Lin Mingyuan was highly respected and trusted by Dr. Huang. At this moment, Dr. Huang relied on Lin Mingyuan to make decisions. Yingge Hospital invited Lin Mingyuan to preside over the consultation meeting for this purpose. ¡°Doctor Yang, I¡¯m puzzled. Why are you so confident that this patient should be handled by your team? Neither you personally nor Sanbo Hospital have any international reputation. Your opinions are hard to convince others. Can you explain your reasons more clearly?¡± Kobayashi Takeshi¡¯s tone carried a trace of sarcasm. ¡°I apologize, considering the difficulty for everyone to understand and accept in a short time, I just mentioned part of the condition. If you insist, I will continue.¡± Yang Ping was a bit embarrassed, they hadn¡¯t digested the double situation, and now they had to talk about the triple situation. ... ¡°Doctor Yang, please tell us your valuable thoughts in full so we can learn from them.¡± Kobayashi Takeshi sounded sarcastic, as if he was waiting to see Yang Ping make a fool of himself. He didn¡¯t even consider Yang Ping as a proper doctor. ¡°In my opinion, I¡¯ve already understood what you meant by situation within a situation. It¡¯s too marvelous. I look forward to hearing more!¡± Professor August became increasingly interested, he was listening and thinking, occasionally jotting down notes. Milton remained silent, no longer speaking, quietly waiting for everyone else to comment. The doctors from Yingge Hospital, other Malaysian hospitals, and from Canada, Switzerland, Australia were all at a loss. They didn¡¯t quite understand what the Chinese doctor was saying. The roundtable meeting, a serious case discussion, suddenly became somewhat awkward. The speaker and the listeners seemed isolated, with the speaker speaking earnestly and the listeners in the clouds. ¡°Can I draw on the electronic screen?¡± Yang Ping asked Doctor Lin. ¡°Yes, please call up the drawing board.¡± Doctor Lin nodded, then motioned for Yang Ping to approach the screen. The doctor in charge of computer operations showed Yang Ping how to use the electronic pen to draw on the board. After trying out the long-distance responsive electronic pen a few times, Yang Ping was quite satisfied. The lines were delicate, the operation was sensitive, and drawings could be made. Whispering filled the conference room, Yang Ping focused on drawing, step by step, combining various lines and colors. Soon, a detailed three-dimensional image of a thoracic vertebra appeared. ¡°My God¡ª¡± Professor August watched as the final image took shape, his mouth formed into an ¡®O¡¯. ¡°This is a thoracic vertebra anatomical atlas, this is the spinal cord, these are the arteries that supply the spinal cord. Please take a good look at the distribution of these blood vessels.¡± Yang Ping reminded everyone. ¡°The anonymous arteries have become the main blood vessels supplying the spinal cord, and the original supply arteries have an extremely narrow supply range?¡± Professor August asked tentatively. ¡°Exactly, that¡¯s it. Everyone¡ª¡± Yang Ping¡¯s words were interrupted. ¡°I admit that you¡¯re quite the artist, but are you sure you¡¯ve drawn Guo Jingyao¡¯s thoracic vertebra anatomy? He hasn¡¯t undergone DSA or any other precise vascular reconstruction yet. Have you just imagined this all up? Do you want to analyze the condition based on a speculative picture?¡± Kobayashi Takeshi felt that Yang Ping¡¯s claims were more and more ridiculous. Yang Ping shook his head helplessly: ¡°This is a hand-drawn vascular reconstruction I made based on the thoracic CT and MRI images. To clarify the problem, a picture of Guo Jingyao¡¯s spinal vascular image is essential. Unfortunately, the patient didn¡¯t have a precise vascular imaging examination, so I had to draw one myself. It would be great if you could understand, but if you can¡¯t, it¡¯s okay. Just arrange for Guo Jingyao to have a DSA as soon as possible, and everything will become clear.¡± Professor August stared intently at the image on the screen. In order to see more clearly, he stood up and walked closer to the screen, muttering to himself: ¡°Too incredible. China? Doctor Yang? Sanbo Hospital?¡± The noise in the conference room slowly increased, only for Professor August to shout, ¡°Quiet!¡± He looked at the screen, closed his eyes and thought for a while, then slowly opened his eyes and said: ¡°Doctor Yang, listen to me. Are you trying to tell us that after going through all the hard work to get the diagnosis of dural arteriovenous fistula, joyously conducting the surgery, overcoming numerous difficulties in the surgery, finally handling the arteriovenous fistula, waiting for the patient to recover after the surgery, but only to see the patient paralyzed, permanently paralyzed?¡± After receiving Yang Ping¡¯s affirmation, Professor August continued to say: ¡°Don¡¯t tell me, let me say it. We thought we had escaped the trap and solved the complicated cases. But unknowingly, we had fallen into a completely new trap. Those few malformed arteries are the main supplying blood vessels for the thoracic cord, unfortunately, they are exactly in the surgical route of the dural arteriovenous fistula. The professional knowledge of spine surgery tells us that these few arteries can be completely severed and ligated, and that¡¯s what we have been doing. So, quite naturally, we did it, and that¡¯s when the tragedy happened. We severed the main supplying blood vessels of a segment of the patient¡¯s spinal cord and were even self-satisfied that the surgery was successful?¡± As expected, Professor August was sharp-minded. His vast experience as a top-notch spine specialist enabled him to follow Yang Ping¡¯s train of thought from the drawing he had prepared. It felt great to Yang Ping that his graphic illustration finally made sense to someone. As for the others, he was not sure if they got the idea. Milton¡¯s face turned beet red. ¡°I¡ªI still don¡¯t quite understand. Perhaps I¡¯m a bit slow. Would you mind if I took a moment to think about it? Could you please explain it a little more, Mr August?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve made it as clear as I could. You need to be more open-minded. Have you ever watched ¡®Journey to the West¡¯, a Chinese series? The monkey in the series flew a long distance, thinking he had reached the boundary of the world, but he was still in the palm of God¡¯s hand. That¡¯s the kind of delimma we¡¯re facing now.¡± August went back to his seat, now completely convinced by Yang Ping¡¯s words. ¡°Milton, I suggest you cancel your flight and stay. This is a magically intriguing case.¡± August suggested, his eyes half-closed. Milton was not pleased with August¡¯s approach. During every European academic conference, August had always been merciless, often leading to heated debates. Although they were evenly matched over the years, on this occasion, Milton admitted, August had a slight upper hand ¨C he actually understood it. ¡°Let me explain it to you in a different way¨C¡± August attempted to explain again. Milton shook his head, ¡°No! Don¡¯t tell me. I want to think it through by myself. Oh, could you please help me cancel my flight? Tell them I¡¯ll return tomorrow.¡± Milton directed his words to his assistant, not wanting to fall behind August, who seemed to have a better grasp of the case. Is that really it? Kobayashi Takeshi kept asking himself this question. Could Yang Ping reconstruct the blood vessel image from CT and MRI cross-sectional images alone? Since Professor August reinforced Yang Ping¡¯s opinion, could it be that he didn¡¯t understand it himself? ¡°Why not give it a try? One DSA test could unlock this mystery. There¡¯s no need for us to waste time speculating here.¡± Yang Ping thought it best to expedite the examination process than to rack their brains in vain. With the DSA imaging of the blood vessel, everything would definitely make sense. However, Yang Ping was uncertain about Yingge Hospital¡¯s expertise in DSA intervention. This case called for more than the regular DSA, especially for the selection of several abnormal blood vessels they had never encountered before. It was obvious that they wouldn¡¯t be able to perform the operation without Yang Ping guiding them on-site. ¡°I think we should expedite the DSA procedure to clear up this confusion.¡± The doctor from Australia finally spoke up. ¡°Indeed!¡± Other doctors voiced their agreement. They all wanted to see the truth. The explanations provided by the Chinese doctor were too abstract for them. ¡°Doctor Lin, how sophisticated is the DSA intervention at Yingge Hospital?¡± Yang Ping inquired bluntly. Though it might come across as impolite, it was essential to comprehend the situation, and who better to ask than Doctor Lin, rather than Doctor Huang? Doctor Lin could not provide a definitive answer: ¡°I¡¯m not sure about the required standard of an intervention doctor, Dr. Yang.¡± No doubt the doctors at Yingge Hospital were highly trained theoreticians under international standardized training programs. However, their practical skills might not be up to par, considering they hadn¡¯t dealt with as many cases as Chinese doctors had. Yang Ping contemplated inviting Director Ji from the Intervention Department of Sanbo Hospital to come over. At least they had worked together before and conducted a DSA for dural arteriovenous fistula. A specialized team familiar with microsurgery would certainly be needed for this patient since ill-coordination might lead to serious mistakes. ¡°Shall we go ahead with a DSA first?¡± Yang Ping suggested to Dr. Lin. This was indeed the most crucial matter right now. Chapter 310: 0294: Navigation Chapter 310: Chapter 0294: Navigation ¡°Schedule a DSA examination for the thoracic spinal cord blood vessels for Mr. Guo.¡± Lin Mingyuan advised Dr. Huang privately. Lin Mingyuan now had a clear understanding of the Guo Jingyao¡¯s next treatment plan. He had no doubts about Yang Ping¡¯s suggestions, his memory of the Sanbo Hospital Academic Conference was still very clear. ¡°If anyone has differing opinions, please speak up. I support Dr. Yang¡¯s thoughts. I recommend we proceed with the DSA scan to diagnose definitively.¡± Lin Mingyuan announced the discussion¡¯s conclusion aloud. ¡°I agree and fully support Dr. Yang.¡± August raised his hand, his face flushed and excited. Milton¡¯s facial muscles twitched a few times, he hesitated, slowly raised his hand, and accepted the decision. A young Chinese doctor managed to change the discussion¡¯s outcome with just a few words, negating their previous dialogue. Kobayashi Takeshi reluctantly accepted this, but couldn¡¯t counter. He couldn¡¯t always argue with ¡°lack of sufficient evidence¡± as an excuse. So, he had to raise his hand in agreement. ... The other doctors around the round table in formal attire loosened their ties, pretended to drink water, and whispered to the people next to them. In due course, everyone raised their hands. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen the patient yet?¡± Yang Ping realized that there had been no arrangement for him to see the patient clinically during the meeting¡¯s discussion. Before the meeting, around eight-thirty, other specialists were arranged to see the patients in the inpatient department, and then attend the meeting. However, Yang Ping and Director Zhu weren¡¯t informed and did not receive relevant notifications. ¡°Make the arrangements right away¡ª¡± Dr. Huang immediately called the ward¡¯s resident doctor. When the consultation meeting ended, Dr. Lin and Dr. Huang accompanied Yang Ping to see Guo Jingyao, and naturally, the other doctors also went along. Although everyone had seen the patient before, the analysis of the condition had now completely changed. Guo Jingyao was staying in Yingge Hospital¡¯s best suite, measuring about three hundred square meters, with excellent natural light. The suite included a patient¡¯s room, living room, conference room, caregiver¡¯s room, guard¡¯s room, and nurse¡¯s room, with all necessary furniture and appliances included. The in-charge doctor was also of Chinese descent, and the nurse was a Malaysian lady. They guided everyone to the patient¡¯s room. Guo Jingyao was sixty years old, yet he seemed to be in his prime. His hair was slightly gray, but he was spirited and energetic, with few wrinkles on his face, looking just like a man in his forties. ¡°Mr. Guo, this is Dr. Yang, who we¡¯ve invited from China. He is a top expert in the field of orthopedics. He would like to examine you now.¡± Dr. Huang introduced Yang Ping to Guo Jingyao in English. ¡°Hello, Dr. Yang. Thank you for your efforts.¡± Guo Jingyao greeted Yang Ping in Chinese as they shook hands. As he went to school in a Chinese school in Malaysia during his childhood, he could naturally speak Chinese. Although he wasn¡¯t fluent, he could communicate sufficiently. ¡°Do what you need to do. I will cooperate.¡± Guo Jingyao then switched back to English. As always, Yang Ping carefully inquired about the history, performed a physical examination, and carefully reviewed the previous examinations one by one. He examined carefully following the spinal surgery protocol. All skin segments and muscle segments were examined carefully. There was a reduction in lower limb skin sensation, muscle strength in most muscle groups was just at level one, and for some muscle groups, the muscle strength was at level zero. Some superficial and deep reflexes had decreased as well, and pathological signs such as the Babinski sign couldn¡¯t be provoked. With muscle strength so weak, surgery was imminent! The meticulous German man, August, stood by Yang Ping¡¯s side the entire time. Once Yang Ping finished the examination, stood up, and handed the reflex hammer back to Dr. Huang, August immediately took over and handed it to Dr. Huang. ¡°How is he, Dr. Yang?¡± August asked cautiously. Indeed, regarding various titles and designations, people in European and American countries prefer to directly address someone as ¡°Doctor,¡± as they believe it to be the most honorable title. ¡°I suggest we immediately arrange for a DSA, to obtain a clear angiographic image. Delay will cause some blood vessels to occlude, leading to spinal degeneration. Then, permanent paralysis might truly occur. What¡¯s more dangerous is that as the spinal cord edema continues to progress upward, if it affects the respiratory muscles, it will severely impact the breathing in the end...¡± Various knowledge points connected logically in Yang Ping¡¯s mind, forming a clear picture of the disease¡¯s development. ¡°Dr. Huang, I implore you to execute this immediately!¡± August took a deep breath. He felt as if he was back in Munich where he could issue orders. After issuing the order, a strong sense of guilt surged within August¡¯s heart. As an authority in spinal surgery, he had fallen into the disease¡¯s trap and couldn¡¯t escape. If not for the arrival of this Chinese doctor, the patient would have unwittingly ended up paralyzed forever, and the truth would never have been uncovered. The conclusion that paralysis was caused by the surgical damage to the spinal cord would have been part of the final case discussion record, becoming a conclusive diagnosis. The chief surgeon would also be scrutinized and investigated for potential errors. The conclusion they all deemed as a given two hours ago now seemed ridicules. Have similar mistakes been made in the past without his awareness? August shivered at the thought. ¡°Do no harm!¡± This is the first rule for doctors ¨C to use medical skills to help patients, not to use them to harm patients. Although August did not harm the patient, he almost delayed the patient¡¯s treatment due to his ignorance. If everyone had just stubbornly stuck to their own point of view, arrogantly dismissing the young Chinese doctor, the harm might have occurred. Indeed, the more knowledge one has, the more one realizes one¡¯s ignorance. ¡°Thank you, Doctor Yang,¡± August involuntarily said. ¡°Save time, immediately assess the anesthesia risks, send for Radiology and imaging diagnostics for DSA,¡± Dr. Huang understood the implications of Dr. Yang¡¯s words. ¡°Those variant arteries are extremely difficult to select. I¡¯ll need to be there throughout, to provide anatomical guidance for the chief surgeon,¡± Yang Ping solemnly proposed. Without his guidance, the intervention doctors would overlook these arteries, simply following the standard anatomy spine blood supply for angiograms. Milton was still skeptical. He didn¡¯t have much concept of this supposed triple manifestation case. How could Dr. Yang have such thorough research? It was unreasonable. Was Chinese medicine really that advanced? The British are more conservative than one might imagine. Many elderly Brits have never left the country. Their impressions of China often remain stuck in the era of queues and foot-binding, deeply influenced by the glory of the once-thriving British Empire. Prejudice can cloud one¡¯s vision, making it impossible to see things as they really are. Milton was now troubled by his prejudice. From beginning to end, Kobayashi Takeshi thought Yang Ping was making a farce. He waited to see how he would conclude it, but now, how could this be a farce? If we consider the speech in the conference room as a farce ¡ª after all, it was nothing more than words ¡ª now he was personally taking the field, directing interventional doctors to select blood vessels. Which doctor would treat the patient as a farce? It also shook Kobayashi Takeshi, and he began to think about Guo Jingyao¡¯s condition. Regardless of the opinions of these big shots, Dr. Huang only listened to Lin Mingyuan. Leaving the ward, Yang Ping seemed to have become the center of everyone¡¯s attention. That¡¯s the nature of technical fields: either you can or you can¡¯t, and it becomes obvious as soon as you show your hand. ¡°I ask for everyone¡¯s understanding. We can¡¯t have too many people in the interventional surgery room, there are only a few spots. Dr. Yang, Dr. August, Dr. Milton, and Dr. Takeshi, will accompany me into the interventional surgery room. Other doctors will be accompanied by Miss Li, to await in the Radiology and Imaging conference room. I¡¯m very sorry!¡± Dr. Huang announced the list of personnel allowed into the interventional surgery room. The number of people allowed to observe in the operating room is limited, and must comply with hospital infection regulations. The Yingge Hospital, a hospital certified by the International JCI, enforces stricter infection control. Once, the British Prime Minister Cameron visited a hospital in London. The hospital authorities found that Cameron and his entourage failed to comply with the hospital infection control procedure. In front of the camera, they shouted, ¡°Get out!¡±, ignoring that Cameron was Prime Minister. This is the spirit ¨C I am the boss on my turf, and you¡¯re banned if you violate the rules. The process at Yingge Hospital was very smooth and Guo Jingyao was quickly transferred to the interventional surgery room. ¡°Dr. Yang, tell us anything we need to be aware of,¡± Dr. Lin brought Yang Ping into the interventional surgery room, while Director Zhu accompanied Yang Ping to the door of the operating room and waited outside. ¡°We need the best interventional doctor on stage!¡± Yang Ping only had one thing to say. ¡°Our hospital¡¯s Dr. Zhou, a student of the American Interventional Master Raymond Nolan¡ª¡± Dr. Huang introduced. Everyone changed their shoes, washed their hands, put on masks, hats and lead clothing, and entered the operating room. This interventional surgery room is a standard 100-level hybrid operating room with a very high specification. After satisfactory anesthesia, patient¡¯s position was set, routine sterilization and placement of sterile linens were accomplished, then Dr. Zhou performed femoral artery puncture, his movements adept and standard. Dr. Zhou¡¯s technique was indeed good. These doctors earned high salaries, each of them being the breadwinner for their families, living in villas and driving luxury cars. In private hospitals like Yingge Hospital, the relationship between doctors and the hospital was not one of employment, but of cooperation. Doctors performed surgeries and all the fees from the surgery belonged to the doctor, while the hospital only made money from bed places, nursing, etc. Therefore, doctors who could operate in private hospitals were highly skilled. They were not short of money and focused on dedicating themselves to medical research. ¡°Do I start selecting as per usual?¡± Dr. Zhou asked. ¡°Hmm, let¡¯s start as per usual!¡± Yang Ping agreed. Chapter 311: 0295: The Truth Comes Out Chapter 311: Chapter 0295: The Truth Comes Out Dr. Zhou¡¯s operation was highly standardized and proficient. The hands of the Chinese are indeed dexterous, making Yang Ping¡¯s earlier worries seem a bit superfluous. Dr. Zhou, one by one, carefully and patiently selected the feeding vessels of the spinal cord. Yang Ping acted as his guide, instructing when to stop, when to advance, and when to push the drug. Even though there was a delay from the instructions to the operation, Dr. Zhou proved to be great at understanding and cooperating smoothly. ¡°Slow down, push, stop, push again, cross the fork, go to the outside, right, push another two centimeters, stop¡ªyou can push the drug now.¡± Every instruction of Yang Ping, Dr. Zhou was able to transform into precise movements. ¡°Have you studied interventional procedures, Doctor Yang?¡± Dr. Zhou was surprised; a surgeon also understands intervention techniques. Yang Ping thought for a moment: ¡°I¡¯m very familiar with the anatomy of this area. I know the origin, course, and supply range of each blood vessel.¡± ... Following his navigation, Dr. Zhou surprisingly completed angiography for the first set of blood vessels quickly and safely. His familiarity with the anatomy was truly extraordinary. The expressions on the faces of the British are always so rich. Surprise, confusion, worship, various expressions on his face were dramatically exaggerated by his facial muscles. Milton took two steps forward to the imaging screen, puffed up his cheeks, his face flushed as if holding his breath, his eyes as wide as possible, as if doing so could obtain a higher degree of clarity. August glanced at his old friend, unwilling to fall behind, also took two steps forward. As long as they remained outside the yellow line on the floor, they were in accordance with the hospital¡¯s infection control requirements. The image on the screen resembled a Chinese ink painting with dark, winding blood vessels, gradually getting thinner as they branch out. The color also varied, with just-selected vessels appearing more concentrated and others appearing lighter. Dr. Zhou was now very accustomed to following the navigation. Not daring to speak anymore, he concentrated fully on the screen, his hand movements extremely gentle and precise while selecting the spinal cord vessels one set at a time. Finally, the location of the arteriovenous fistula was found. The contrast agent leaked out through the fistula and entered the vein, forming a clear communication between the artery and vein. ¡°Dural arteriovenous fistula!¡± Milton exclaimed while holding his breath as if he had been waiting to shout out this sentence. Milton¡¯s voice was soft, fearing to disturb the operation, but he had to shout out this sentence to show that he was not inferior to August in front of him, causing August to glare at his old friend unkindly. ¡°What¡¯s the global case count, August?¡± Milton, his eyes never leaving the screen asked. ¡°Don¡¯t bother me, now is not the time for academic discussions, I also need to concentrate.¡± August was really annoyed. All suspicion in Kobayashi Takeshi¡¯s mind vanished. The doctor who was just filling the team injury was in fact a real top expert. His familiarity with the anatomy far surpassed Kobayashi¡¯s understanding. Even the renowned trauma surgeons from Tokyo University¡¯s Affiliated Hospital, Takahashi Fumiya and Sasaki Jiro, would have a hard time being superior to him. Takahashi Fumiya and Sasaki Jiro, who had personally dissected over a hundred ¡°body teachers¡±, those times when Tokyo University, for a certain topic, had bought several hundred ¡°body teachers¡± from Eastern Europe for teaching purposes. Takahashi and Sasaki acted as the chief surgeons dissecting a total of one hundred of them. But how could such a doctor have no international reputation to speak of? Kobayashi had never seen any of his papers, nor seen him attend an international academic conference. Under Yang Ping¡¯s guidance, Dr. Zhou saved considerable time. The surgery originally planned for seven or eight hours was now expected to be completed within three or four hours. Another arteriovenous fistula was found. This patient had two arteriovenous fistulas. Yang Ping told Dr. Zhou that he could relax a bit: ¡°There are only two arteriovenous fistulas. You can also select the rest of the groups for them to see. Take a few minutes break and then select a couple of variant arteries.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Dr. Zhou, due to his high concentration, seemed a bit tired. He thought to himself, if every surgery had Dr. Yang¡¯s instruction, even the toughest surgeries could be smoothly completed. If Dr. Yang performed interventional surgeries, he could possibly be among the world¡¯s top level. After the remaining vessel groups were selected and found to be problem-free, Dr. Zhou rested briefly, then began to select the variant arteries. Selecting these variant arteries were to prove to everyone that these vessels were the primary feeding vessels to the spinal cord, and any harm to them could cause ischemic necrosis. At the same time, the DSA images from this session would be used to create a 3D virtual reality image, which would help everyone understand the location of this vessel in the surgical approach, and how to protect it. These few arteries are not in the standard anatomical knowledge, and they twist and turn, making the angiography much more difficult than that of some of the groups. For those groups, without Yang Ping¡¯s guidance, Dr. Zhou could gradually complete them on his own. For these few arteries though, without guidance, Dr. Zhou would not be able to complete the surgery. ¡°Do not rush, slow down a little. These blood vessels have a complex course and a large curve, making them difficult to select. Any careless injury could easily cause bleeding or obstruction, just like just now. Listen to my navigation¡ª¡± Dr. Zhou did not dare to move the wire in his hand recklessly, waiting for Yang Ping to start the navigation. ¡°Push forward, continue, continue, push forward about 0.5 centimeters, which is 5 millimeters!¡± Yang Ping expressed it in two units to prevent Dr. Zhou from mishearing. ¡°Stop! Now cross the branch.Rotate the wire, stop! Push forward 5 millimeters, stop! The curve is too large, do not advance more than 5 millimeters each time. Stop after each step, think clearly before proceeding.¡± ¡°Alright, continue forward, stop, push the contrast agent!¡± The tree-branch-like ink painting spread out, indeed, this was a main blood-supplying vessel of the spinal cord. Dr. Zhou¡¯s palms were completely drenched in sweat. Despite the gloves, they felt somewhat sticky. Looking at the image on the screen, he could hardly believe that he had successfully navigated this complex vascular path. Doctor Lin and Dr. Huang stared at the screen without uttering a word. The surgery proceeded slowly as the blood vessels twisted and coiled. Dr. Zhou¡¯s hand remained steady, each minor movement cautious and measured, needing his utmost concentration. A split second of inattention could lead to the guide wire piercing the blood vessel, triggering bleeding or damage the interior of the vessel, leading to an embolism. The repercussions of each mistake were extreme. At this moment, Dr. Zhou felt like he was driving a car on a windy mountain road at night, the edge of the roadway a sheer abyss. Each advancement felt like following a specific navigation, turning the steering wheel slightly left, then right. A little further now, stop. Having successfully navigated a few branches, one successful exercise of super-selection completed, he injected contrast agent and moved onto the next vessel. The second and third blood vessels were successfully imaged without any issues. The vivid curved line of contrast agent on the screen traced the path of the blood vessel. With the successful super selection of the three variant arteries, Dr. Zhou gently let out the breath he had been holding. It felt like he had just put down an invaluable fragile antique. The feeling was akin to the break of dawn, the car reaching the peak of the mountain. Looking down, the mountain road snakes along the cliff edge, a bottomless abyss below. The seemingly impossible climb had been accomplished, the fear only sinking in after all was said and done. Dr. Zhou shivered involuntarily, perhaps a sign of stress relief. Finally, it was done. They could all breathe a sigh of relief and start speaking again. The truth was revealed! The diagnosis made by the Chinese doctors based on the CT and MRI was correct. The patient indeed had a dural arteriovenous fistula, and there were three variant arteries supplying the spinal cord. ¡°Can we use virtual reality for a 3D reconstruction? A 3D image would offer a much more intuitive perspective,¡± suggested August. ¡°Our central hospital has the facility for it. We can transmit the data there,¡± Doctor Lin agreed with him. ¡°Yes, using virtual reality to reconstruct the spinal cord and vessels would be more direct. I can see everything clearly,¡± Milton finally grasped the situation. Unfortunately, Milton was a step behind August, who had already understood the situation before the DSA procedure. This could leave him feeling insecure in front of August for a long time. The DSA procedure took close to four hours, which was relatively swift given the circumstances and without any wastage of time in between. Dr. Zhou was no longer just another person in other people¡¯s eyes, but a ¡°man from Earth.¡± With such a complex case seeming so effortless in his hands, his confidence during the analysis, his familiarity with the procedure during the DSA, made it seem like everything was straightforward. Milton reflected on Yang Ping¡¯s words: ¡°Actually, this case is quite simple. It¡¯s not complicated. Since it¡¯s rare, it can be overwhelming at times.¡± Doctor Yang was calm, collected, and at ease, while everyone else seemed confused, lost, and at wits¡¯ end, unable to comprehend even after he had explained the case fully. Only August managed to understand it beside him, leaving Milton feeling humiliated. Dr. Zhou removed the catheter and applied pressure to the puncture site with sterile gauze to stop the bleeding. At the same time, Dr. Lin was coordinating with doctors to collect images for transmission to Singapore to create virtual reality 3D images. Meanwhile, Yang Ping went to the changing room to remove his lead apron. Both August and Milton followed, trying to help Yang Ping take off his apron. ¡°Can you explain more precisely how to accurately diagnose such vascular disorders using CT and MRI scans?¡± asked Milton, yanking at one side of the lead apron. ¡°And how do you perform hand-drawn reconstructions of medical images?¡± chimed in August, tugging at the other side of the lead apron. They each pulled back, removed the lead apron, and hung it on the rack. ¡°Explaining these doubts isn¡¯t as easy as you think,¡± replied Yang Ping with a nonchalant expression. If he didn¡¯t have intricate knowledge of the anatomy, explained seemed temporarily impossible. Wait until he has gathered his experiences and turned them into universally applicable knowledge then it would be easier to understand. Just like the reconstruction of multiple knee ligaments, it could be generalized when a standard procedure for it was established. ¡°Doctor Yang, I finally get it. This case is like a series of nested diagnostic traps. When you overcome one trap, you immediately encounter another, forming an inescapable chain of traps. This classic case should be used as a teaching example at Cambridge University¡¯s school of medicine,¡± Milton observed, a bit late in his understanding. ¡°According to you, it should be Charite? Medical School!¡± argued August without hesitation. Chapter 312: 0296 VR Dissection Imaging Chapter 312: Chapter 0296 VR Dissection Imaging Guo Jingyao was wheeled out of the operating room to the family waiting area, where his wife and children came up to express their concerns. Dr. Huang briefly introduced Guo Jingyao¡¯s condition to his family, asking them to wait in the conference area of the orthopedics ward. Dr. Huang would explain Guo Jingyao¡¯s current condition in more detail later, with the intention to arrange surgery as soon as possible. Guo Jingyao was pushed back to his room, and the team of doctors who had consulted returned to the meeting room to discuss the surgical plan. ¡°Doctor Yang, could you perform this surgery for us, please? What preparations do I need to make?¡± Doctor Lin requested Yang Ping on their way back to the conference room. The diagnosis was now very clear, consistent with Yang Ping¡¯s diagnosis during the consultation meeting. Only Yang Ping could perform this surgery, because if it failed, there will no longer be an opportunity to remedy. ... ¡°I need to bring my team over. They just got back to work after the spring festival. It would be difficult to make arrangements. I¡¯ll try my best.¡± Yang Ping was not sure, as the team had just resumed work. If the whole team left, the hospital would be understaffed. If necessary, he would bring Song Zimo alone. Having a good assistant would make the surgery a lot easier. Unknowingly, it was already evening in Kuala Lumpur. He had breakfast in China in the morning, and now he was discussing a case in Kuala Lumpur. He didn¡¯t feel uneasy about the sharp changes in time and space. Yang Ping reported the situation to Director Han. Director Han immediately replied, asking him to stay in Malaysia. The entire orthopedics team would rush to Malaysia as soon as possible. The hospital office would arrange for someone to manage the team. He reassured Yang Ping that everything at home is taken care of and that he had arranged enough staff. Director Zhu also reported to the company¡¯s headquarters. Anning Insurance immediately contacted Sanbo Hospital to jointly organize a team to rush to Malaysia. In order for Yang Ping to perform the surgery in Malaysia, he needed a temporary medical license of Malaysia. That way, he could legally go to the operating table. Otherwise, the surgery could not take place. Yingge Hospital¡¯s administration department also initiated procedures to apply for a temporary medical license and spinal surgery permissions for Yang Ping and the arriving team from Kuala Lumpur Health Bureau. When everything was in place, Yang Ping realized he hadn¡¯t checked scores of WeChat messages from Xiao Su, most of which were reminding him to take care of his health. Suddenly, he remembered that since the whole team was coming over, Xiao Su would definitely be dispatched as well. His parents, left alone at home, shouldn¡¯t have any problems. They were familiar with the vendors in the community. His father often taught him to prioritize the patient¡¯s condition. He should be able to understand him. Thinking of this, Yang Ping immediately called Xiao Su. Although they had only been apart for a day, it seemed like a long time. ¡°I am packing up already!¡± ¡°Yes! You have worked hard.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about mom and dad, they¡¯re very familiar with the community and the surrounding environment.¡± ¡°I will give them a call and chat.¡± Everyone is busy, Yang Ping was about to participate in a surgical discussion, and Xiao Su was packing luggage. They didn¡¯t have time for romance, everything was unsaid. Yang Ping called his parents, who told him to focus on the patient and not to worry about things at home. They were very familiar with the surroundings of the community, so he didn¡¯t need to worry. None of the doctors who participated in Guo Jingyao¡¯s DSA, including Yang Ping, had meals. Dr. Huang had fast food delivered to the meeting room while they were waiting for the VR images from Singapore Central Hospital. The other doctors, who were waiting outside during the operation, also had fast food. The fast food was simple and high-calorie, like KFC burgers and chicken legs. ¡°August¡ª¡± Milton wanted to ask him a question. But August was focused on eating his burger, having finished almost three layers of it as well as most of a chicken leg. Is this old coot trying to show off that he has better appetite and stamina than himself? Milton grabbed a drumstick and started gnawing on it with big bites. ¡°Wasting food is disgraceful¡ª¡± August finished his last French fry, wiped his hands, cleaned up the trash, and threw it into the large bucket in the corner specially for fast food waste. Milton belched twice but continued to stuff his mouth, thinking: Whatever those Germans can do, he can do too. Pre-surgery discussions, a system that exists in every hospital, gathers collective wisdom to prevent discrepancies in some major surgeries. The Virtual Reality (VR) image reconstruction of Singapore Central Hospital has been completed. Everyone was wearing Google VR glasses. The 3D image of Guo Jingyao¡¯s thoracic vertebrae appeared in the air, very clear. It would be convenient for Yang Ping to explain the surgery using this image. ¡°Gentlemen, look, this is the local anatomy of the patient¡¯s thoracic vertebrae. We enter the spinal canal from the rear median entry, cutting layer by layer, straight to the back of the spinal canal¡ªthe lamina. We create a window on lamina to enter the vertebral canal. Our surgical target is the blood vessels outside the dura of the spinal cord. We¡¯ll remove all the exterior structures, leaving only the spinal cord and blood vessels to facilitate observation.¡± Everyone immediately reached out, removing the skin, fascia, and muscles from the hovering 3D anatomical image, then extracting all thoracic vertebral skeleton, leaving only the spinal cord and surrounding blood vessels for more intuitive observation. This basic Virtual Reality technology only demonstrates anatomy. Another team from the United States has developed a VR technology that can simulate the anatomy and physiology of an organ. With the help of virtual haptic feedback, surgeons can operate on the virtual organ. When a part is cut open, it bleeds; if a crucial part is injured, it ceases life activities. It closely resembles real surgery. ¡°These few arteries must be severed and ligated, or they would interfere with the operation. Normally, these few blood vessels are unimportant and can be fully ligated. We would do so without hesitation, revealing the location of the dural arteriovenous fistula,¡± Yang Ping pointed out the few flickering arteries. Indeed, these arteries blocked the surgical approach, hiding the surgical target. The only way to reveal it was to sever and ligate them. If the function of these blood vessels was not clarified beforehand, any spine surgeon probably wouldn¡¯t hesitate to sever and ligate these vessels. All the doctors present broke out in a cold sweat, including Dr. Huang. He had performed the surgery on Guo Jingyao¡¯s thoracic spinal canal cyst. Luckily, the cyst wasn¡¯t in this segment, otherwise the blood supply to the spinal cord would have already been compromised, losing the opportunity for further surgeries. ¡°These arteries can¡¯t be pulled aside. If we don¡¯t cut them, there won¡¯t be enough space to operate. How do we treat the arteriovenous fistula?¡± a doctor asked. Yang Ping¡¯s indicator showed up on the 3D image: ¡°We can only operate through the gaps in the arteries. That¡¯s the only operation space.¡± ¡°The gap is too small and it¡¯s under a microscope. It¡¯s practically impossible,¡± another physician thought it was too challenging. Kobayashi Takeshi chimed in: ¡°The surgical window indeed seems too small. Can we bypass it?¡± ¡°We can¡¯t! There¡¯s only one operation gap and we can¡¯t expose the arteriovenous fistula site from elsewhere,¡± Milton was very sure. ¡°If not for seeing it with my own eyes, it would be hard to believe. They seem naturally designed to obstruct our surgery. Could we sever the blood vessels, treat the arteriovenous fistula, and then rejoin these arteries?¡± August proposed with some imagination. Yang Ping affirmed his idea: ¡°Possible, but not necessary. We can finish the operation within the gap.¡± ¡°So, it is my team who will perform this surgery!¡± Yang Ping emphasized again.¡± ¡°I can be your assistant¡ª¡± August volunteered. ¡°No, the surgery is too difficult and the operating table is too precise. Even a careless movement can cause disastrous trouble for the surgery,¡± Yang Ping blurted out. A master of European spine surgery was rejected on the spot in front of so many doctors for an assistant position. Milton was about to volunteer but immediately swallowed his words... Luckily everyone was wearing VR glasses, so no one could see the embarrassment on August¡¯s face. ¡°After separating the arteriovenous fistula, the artery cannot be repaired, only severed, then doing a vascular bridge anastomosis. Performing this operation within the small space between the arteries is extremely difficult, probably beyond any of your capabilities.¡± Yang Ping explained. Milton dared not contest further; indeed, if the surgery needed to be performed this way, he lacked the confidence to be an assistant. Chapter 313: 0297: Super Group Chapter 313: Chapter 0297: Super Group After Yang Ping finished explaining the surgery, everyone removed their VR glasses and placed them on the table. Everyone now had a clear understanding of the entire surgery, and no one had any more questions. ¡°Does anyone have any objections?¡± Doctor Lin was making the final summary. He knew that everyone was clear-headed and had unified opinions now, but according to the meeting procedure, he still had to ask this question. This difficult case was like a powerful enemy, everyone was initially beaten and defeated. Now that Yang Ping appeared and attacked the enemy, everyone¡¯s confidence was instantly restored, gathering under Yang Ping¡¯s command. ¡°Does anyone have any objections?¡± Doctor Lin asked again. ... Everyone shook their heads. All the questions that needed to be asked were asked. There wasn¡¯t any conflicting opinion; now they were all eager to see the surgery of this Chinese doctor and what kind of team he led. Even Dr. August¡¯s offer to assist was rejected by him. ¡°If no one has any objections, then this surgical plan will be confirmed.¡± Doctor Lin asked the meeting secretary to record the consultations¡¯ statement and the final conclusion. These discussions would be included in the patient¡¯s medical records as a basis for surgery. Any decision in medicine is not made out of thin air; it needs to have a foundation and be able to withstand scrutiny, even decades from now. Doctors sitting around the oval long table were all top experts in their respective fields within their countries. Now they were all looking at this young Chinese man as if he were an alien. Yang Ping remained calm and unconcerned about how others viewed him. He was calculating the surgery plan in his mind, constantly simulating the surgery in his mind to catch and correct any flaws. ¡°The earlier the surgery is performed, the better!¡± August urged. Milton had a different opinion, ¡°Monitor the plasma D-dimer, if it remains within normal levels, it indicates we can wait; should it show a rising trend, we operate immediately.¡± The plasma D-dimer is a biochemical indicator in the blood. If it¡¯s normal, it can exclude the presence of a thrombus within the body. Once it rises to a certain extent, it indicates that there might be a thrombus. If the thrombus blocks the blood supply to the spinal cord, it will cause spinal cord ischemic necrosis, equivalent to spinal stroke. This necessitates thrombolysis treatment, increasing the difficulty of treatment. The effect of such thrombolysis is also not good, spinal cord ischemia implies irreversible paralysis. This created a dilemma. Operating earlier would be preferable, but whether it¡¯s Dr. Lin, Dr. Huang, August, or Milton assisting, Yang Ping lacked confidence in them, at least they were unfamiliar. If the surgery is delayed, there is a risk of a thrombus developing. If the disease crosses a certain critical point, it will cause a qualitative change. Currently, the location of this critical point is unknown. Yang Ping weighed the pros and cons repeatedly, analyzed Guo Jingyao¡¯s progression of the disease trajectory, and his recent plasma -D dimer values, eventually deciding to monitor the plasma -D dimer dynamically and operate immediately if there is a rising trend. If it maintains its original level, he would wait for his team to arrive. For this surgery, the most crucial step requires an excellent assistant to help relieve the surgeon¡¯s pressure. As the pre-surgery discussion was going on, Sanbo Hospital was quickly organizing a team to rush to Malaysia. Dean Xia personally commanded and dispatched a proficient English-speaking staff member from the hospital office to lead the team. Sanbo Hospital, a provincial level three hospital, was full of talents. Qi Yanan, a young office worker in the hospital office, had graduated with a master¡¯s degree three years ago. She was a student union cadre at school and was very active. After joining Sanbo Hospital, she didn¡¯t practice clinical medicine. Instead, she switched to administrative work in the hospital. She was proficient in English listening and speaking, and was a part-time translator in the hospital¡¯s translation department. Dean Xia personally appointed Qi Yanan to lead the ¡°Flying Knife Squad¡± to Malaysia. Interestingly, she was once a pursuer of Song Zimo, but Song Zimo only had feelings for Tang Fei, so she had to give up temporarily. Of course, Dean Xia was unaware of this emotional relationship between the young people. Anning Insurance didn¡¯t initially expect Yang Ping to play a major role in Guo Jingyao¡¯s treatment. After receiving Director Zhu¡¯s report, they also immediately dispatched a competent team to Malaysia to coordinate with Director Zhu. The next morning, they all boarded a plane to Malaysia. ¡°How does my hairstyle look? It cost 600 yuan, and was done by an image designer.¡± On the plane, Zhang Lin asked Little Five, who was seated on his left. ¡°Your short hair, however it¡¯s styled, still looks the same. I think there¡¯s no difference from when you cut it yourself,¡± Little Five said disdainfully. Zhang Lin touched his head, ¡°Five, you just don¡¯t get it. It¡¯s all about image, you know? Image! Look closely, how can there be no difference? A 600 yuan image design, you can¡¯t see it, you just lack judgment.¡± ¡°Since you¡¯ve spent 600 yuan, you need to firmly believe it¡¯s worth it. Even if you shave it bald, this bald head is a 600 yuan bald head, not like the ordinary ones that cost tens of yuan. People didn¡¯t just come to shave it; they wash and massage it for you, making you comfortable before shaving. I heard that when feeding Japanese wagyu, they play music for them and help them with regular massages before they are slaughtered when they grow up. I don¡¯t know if the meat is more delicious, but the cost indeed rises.¡± Fatty analyzed eloquently, even relating a haircut to slaughtering cattle. As Zhang Lin listened, he realized something was wrong, ¡°Fatty, are you saying I got cheated?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t say you got cheated, I said the cattle got slaughtered¡ª¡± Fatty¡¯s gaze shifted to the aisle of the cabin, where a flight attendant was elegantly walking by. ¡°Miss, could you please get me a drink?¡± Fatty immediately raised his hand. Little Five tugged at Fatty, ¡°Call the flight attendant!¡± Fatty immediately corrected himself, ¡°Flight attendant, hello, could I please have a glass of juice?¡± ¡°Hello, sir, we have orange juice, mulberry juice, mango juice, and apple juice. Which one would you like?¡± The flight attendant smiled sweetly, having a melodious voice. Fatty pondered, ¡°Could you make a recommendation or pick the one you think is best?¡± ¡°Sir, how about a glass of orange juice?¡± The flight attendant had gotten used to his glances, whether they were intentional or not. Fatty seemed to have difficulty deciding and took a long time before saying, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll have the orange juice.¡± ¡°Fatty, you¡¯re pretty bold. Usually, you can¡¯t get a word out when you see girls, but today you dare to order orange juice?¡± Little Five, sitting between Fatty and Zhang Lin, made fun of him once the flight attendant walked away. ¡°Stop messing around. Show some class. We¡¯re all educated people, don¡¯t give anyone the wrong impression.¡± Fatty took out a book and began reading it. ¡°We¡¯ve got instructions from our senior. The surgery this time is very challenging, considering it¡¯s our first time operating overseas. Everyone should rest well.¡± Song Zimo had been studying the patient¡¯s file the entire time. ¡°It would be best if everyone could get some sleep. We may have to go straight to the operating room once we disembark.¡± Tang Fei added. Qi Yanan and Xiao Su were sitting together, both were resting. ¡ª After approximately four hours of flight, the Sanbo team arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Director Zhu was there to pick them up and immediately took them to a hotel near the hospital. Xiao Su hadn¡¯t seen Yang Ping in two days and felt as if they had been apart for quite some time. If it hadn¡¯t been for the crowd, she would have rushed over to hug Yang Ping the moment they met. Xiao Su¡¯s lips moved, ¡°Didn¡¯t sleep well, did you?¡± ¡°And you?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t know what to say. ¡°I got a few hours of sleep on the plane, everyone¡¯s here.¡± Xiao Su said. ¡°Never thought that we would actually fly together this time. It feels a bit like a dream.¡± Fatty, who liked to punch people¡¯s shoulders, wanted to give Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder a slight punch. Song Zimo immediately stopped him, motioning him with his eyes,¡¯ Xiao Su was still speaking, why are you in such a hurry to get up?¡¯ ¡°Take a seat, we¡¯ll eat after a bit of rest.¡± Director Zhu called everyone to sit. The suite was spacious. The living room was quite large and didn¡¯t seem crowded even with so many people there. Yang Ping¡¯s phone rang, ¡°Doctor Yang, it¡¯s Old Cheng, which hotel are you at in Kuala Lumpur?¡± ¡°Old Cheng, where are you? You¡¯re in Kuala Lumpur? No way, what a coincidence.¡± Yang Ping couldn¡¯t believe it. This was Malaysia, how could it be such a coincidence that Cheng Liquan was also there. ¡°I¡¯m coming to see you, ask the front desk at the hotel to expect me. I know Malaysia well, I have several relatives here. You didn¡¯t even tell Old Cheng about such a big event, let¡¯s meet and chat¡ª¡± Old Cheng hung up the phone. When Cheng Liquan heard that Yang Ping was consulting in Malaysia, he immediately bought a ticket and rushed over. He arrived a day earlier than the Sanbo Hospital team as he had bought a flight from Malaysia Airlines. He was familiar with Malaysia and wanted to provide logistical support for Yang Ping. Although he knew there were people from the insurance company in charge of this, he believed no one knew Malaysia as well as he did, and no one¡¯s mind was as agile as his. Without wasting a moment, Old Cheng let his cousin drive him to the hotel where Yang Ping was staying. ¡°I have a friend coming over. Shall we wait and go eat together?¡± Yang Ping asked Director Zhu to wait. Director Zhu wasn¡¯t in a hurry. Since Yang Ping had spoken, his friend was also a friend to him. It would be nice to meet and get to know him. Before Old Cheng arrived, Yang Ping briefly introduced the surgery to everyone. After lunch, they would go to Yingge Hospital to familiarize themselves with the case using VR, and then acclimate themselves to the anesthesia machine, surgical instruments, microscope, etc., in the operating room. Never fight an unprepared battle, this was something Yang Ping often told everyone. Chapter 314: 0298: A Bystander Chapter 314: Chapter 0298: A Bystander Everyone is waiting for Boss Cheng to come and eat together. Little Su, Tang Fei, Zhou Can, Qi Yanan, the four girls, are led by Director Zhu to another presidential suite to rest. Fatty, Little Five, and Zhang Lin head to the bathroom to wash their faces. Doctors mostly have some kind of germophobia and no matter how high-end the hotel is, they dare not use its towels. They always bring their own towels when they travel. There¡¯s a knock on the door. Director Zhu peeks through the peephole before opening it. Boss Cheng is standing at the door, travel-weary, holding a black leather bag in his hand. ¡°Old Zhu?¡± ... Boss Cheng paused before realizing it¡¯s his old colleague Zhu from the Department of General Surgery. Why is he here? He heard that Anning Insurance was the one who invited Yang Ping to Malaysia. Could Old Zhu be the one in charge of it? ¡°Old Cheng?¡± Director Zhu was also surprised. The world is too small, running into old colleagues in a foreign land makes the encounter all the more exciting. Back when Director Zhu was forced to resign, Cheng Liquan blamed the hospital¡¯s leadership for their lack of backbone, and caused a stir in the dean¡¯s office, accusing him of being weak and eventually throwing a bottled water at him. After the incident, he quit saying, ¡°I am done.¡± This led to Cheng creating his own hospital. At the time, he and Director Zhu knew each other but were merely colleagues, they did not have a deep personal relationship. Cheng was just one of the many angry doctors then. Cheng Liquan, standing at the door, feels both surprise and assurance. Once, when he went to the UAE, as he was resting at the Dubai Transit lounge, he heard someone speaking Chinese. When he instinctively turned back, it turned out to be his old college roommate. The guy was hugging a woman, who was also a college mate. Cheng knew, they were college sweethearts who later separated, each had their own families now. A recent gathering revealed they are back together now, Cheng never gave credence to it, but witnessing them now makes it all too real. The situation was a bit awkward, for a while, no one knows what to say. Cheng quickly averted his eyes, pretending not to have seen anything. The world really is small, hence, it¡¯s best not to do wrong things because one might just run into old acquaintances even in Dubai. ¡°Do you know each other?¡± Yang Ping comes out to greet Old Cheng as he perceives their expressions. Come to think of it, it¡¯s not surprising that they know each other, given that they both came from the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital. ¡°More than that, we¡¯re old friends.¡± Director Zhu quickly welcomes Old Cheng into the room. ¡°How did you get here? Old Cheng, I thought you were just joking?¡± Yang Ping has him sit down. Old Cheng did not decline, he sat down trying to be comfortable. He takes the tea from Director Zhu and moistens his throat: ¡°I heard you were coming to Malaysia for a consultation. I am familiar with the place, so I thought I¡¯d come and be your guide. I have been trying to call you yesterday to no avail, so I bought a ticket and decided to talk when I get here. I landed in Kuala Lumpur last night, on the Malaysia Airlines flight.¡± ¡°Old Cheng, it really takes a boss to be so adventurous!¡± Little Five gives him a thumbs up. ¡°We were in Yingge Hospital¡¯s consultation meeting yesterday, we were there the whole day, no time to mind the phones.¡± Director Zhu explains on behalf of Yang Ping. True enough, Yang Ping did not notice the missed calls. He just looked at Little Su¡¯s WeChat messages. ¡°How many days are you going to be in Malaysia? How is your schedule? I¡¯d like to invite everyone to lunch.¡± Old Cheng extends an invite, generously. ¡°Lunch is already arranged.¡± Director Zhu looks troubled. ¡°Dinner?¡± ¡°Dinner won¡¯t work either, Yingge hospital has something planned.¡± Director Zhu shakes his head. ¡°Tomorrow?¡± ¡°Tomorrow morning we have surgery and the rest of the day is really tight.¡± Director Zhu is straight Stforward. ¡°Did you came all the way to Malaysia just to take us to lunch?¡± Yang Ping joked. Old Cheng won¡¯t be deterred: ¡°Anyway, you should spare some time for me as well. It doesn¡¯t matter when, I tell you, Malaysia and Singapore are like my second homes. I am very familiar with the place. I have several relatives here. Even the cousin who just dropped me off at the hotel.¡± ¡°You have a compulsive disorder to pay. It doesn¡¯t always have to be you who should treat, we can treat you just the same.¡± Director Zhu knows Old Cheng has not changed at all, he is still generous! ¡°Well then, if you need me to run errands, just tell me. It¡¯s not easy to come to Malaysia. How about this, you can concentrate on the surgery, and I¡¯ll help you buy some local specialties to take back.¡± Old Cheng always feels more comfortable when he can help. ¡°How can we let you do all the running?¡± Yang Ping knew what he meant. ¡°Buddy, any formalities between us are unnecessary. It¡¯s settled then. I¡¯m actually planning to visit some high-end hospitals here. Since Yingge Hospital is also a high-end private hospital, can I join you in your visit?¡± Old Cheng plans to visit Singapore¡¯s Elizabeth Norvina Hospital after the new year. Elizabeth Norvina Hospital and Yingge Hospital are both high-end private hospitals owned by Baihui Medical Group. Yang Ping felt there should be no issue in just saying hello to Dr. Huang, as it wasn¡¯t like he was going up on stage for surgery. ¡°I¡¯ll apply to Yingge Hospital to arrange for you to visit in an observational capacity. There should be no problem,¡± said Director Zhu, believing he would be the best person to take this up. Everyone set out to enjoy a delectable, abundant Malaysian buffet lunch at the hotel, eating to their heart¡¯s content. After lunch, under the guidance of Dr. Huang, everyone familiarized themselves with the hospital¡¯s equipment and surgical instruments. The anesthesia machine was the latest generation of the Zeus from the German company Dra?ger, the most advanced anesthesia machine available in the world. Yingge Hospital didn¡¯t use their medical equipment until it was worn down. They replaced old devices with new models once they were available on the market, keeping their primary equipment at the frontier of technology. Yingge Hospital assigned an anesthesiologist to assist Liang Fatty. Liang Fatty, bolstered by Yang Ping¡¯s impressive performance at the consultation meeting where he solved a complex medical problem, was filled with renewed confidence, feeling like he himself had evolved into an international expert. Sanbo Hospital also had a few Zeus anaesthesia machines, but they weren¡¯t the newest generation. The differences were minor, mostly in the details of operation, and Liang Fatty endeavored to grasp every nuance of the new anaesthesia machine. Xiao Su and Zhou Can, guided by their designated assistants, inspected the surgical instruments, with Xiao Su scrutinizing each tool, particularly the microscopic instruments. Yingge Hospital¡¯s management of surgical instruments was meticulous. Specialists would daily examine them and repair or replace any that didn¡¯t meet their standards, avoiding embarrassing incidents during surgery. Dr. Huang reported D-dimer monitoring results to Yang Ping regularly, and they remained stable within normal levels. Yang Ping decided to let everyone rest for the night, recuperate, and begin the surgery the next day. After familiarizing themselves with the equipment, Yang Ping led everyone to the hospital-provided conference room to study the case. August, Milton, and Kobayashi Takeshi all requested to participate. Once they started to discuss the case, everyone immediately dove in. Only Zhang Lin seemed restless, trying several times to snap pictures with his phone and post them on his moment, but not daring to do so. Despite his usually stubborn attitude, he was like school kid in front of a teacher. Now they began to test the Google VR glasses. Yang Ping and Song Zimo put on their glasses, with Yang Ping using the opportunity to go over the diagnosis and surgical plan for this case with Song Zimo. Thanks to the groundwork laid by Fang Xiaoyun¡¯s case, Song Zimo¡¯s talent allowed him to quickly grasp the essence of this case. The difference between a genius and an average person is like the difference between operating systems: geniuses operate on the latest Mac system, while your average person may function on the original Windows system, and those slightly less sharp run on DOS. Zhang Lin and Little Five¡¯s responsibilities in this surgery are the same as always, which is to handle exposure ¨C colloquially, they ¡°hook.¡± They enjoy this role enormously. Numerous renowned professors have started their careers ¡°hooking.¡± For example, Zou Yingsheng, the head of Spinal Surgery department at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, now nationally famous and the director of one of the three major scoliosis centers nationwide. And who would know that he started as Professor Su¡¯s dedicated ¡°hooker¡± and evolved into the great figure in spinal surgery that he is today? Who knows, someday Directors Zhang and Lu might also be nationally known. With their glasses on, they started trying to figure out what was meant by ¡°circles within circles¡± or ¡°third circle¡±. Song Zimo spared no energy and effort, even referencing the story of the chained stratagems from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, expanding on it in the airport lounge, on the plane, and in the car that came to pick them up. Thanks to Song Zimo¡¯s groundwork, Yang Ping found it much easier to explain things to the others now. Boss Cheng got his visitor¡¯s pass and sat next to the two foreigners. No matter what, Yingge Hospital had to give face to Yang Ping; if a friend of Yang Ping wanted to visit the hospital, once or twice, eight or ten times even, they wouldn¡¯t mind. The more you associate with people, the more the road broadens ¨C more and more people can help you and more and more people can give you face. Cheng¡¯s road was definitely broadening. ¡°Hello, may I ask who is Dr. Yang¡¯s assistant?¡± August pointed at Song Zimo and asked Old Cheng clandestinely. Old Cheng nodded and wondered why the golden-haired, blue-eyed German was asking about this. Perhaps he had a daughter at home waiting to get married and he was looking for a Chinese son-in-law. ¡°Excuse me for the interruption. How about you? Are you also in Dr. Yang¡¯s team?¡± August was indomitable. Old Cheng responded casually, ¡°I¡¯m just here to buy some soy sauce.¡± ¡°Buy some soy sauce?¡± August shook his head, finding Chinese ways of speaking English puzzling. ¡°Buy some soy sauce¡± was easy to understand literally, but he was sure that wasn¡¯t what it meant. Chinese often spoke metaphorically. Milton, whose language aptitude wasn¡¯t half bad, figured out what Old Cheng meant: ¡°You¡¯re a cook, right? Dr. Yang¡¯s cook?¡± Old Cheng¡¯s English might not be very good, but he was a former associate professor, travelled often, and could manage daily conversation just fine. ¡± ¡®Buy some soy sauce¡¯ can mean ¡®cook¡¯? What an inspired translation!¡± It seems English, like Chinese, also conveys feeling. Old Cheng can¡¯t be bothered to explain. If it meant being a cook, so be it. As long as they were happy. But among the people here who looked like they might serve as Dr. Yang¡¯s cook, he didn¡¯t think it would be him. The status of Chinese doctors is so high? When they travel to perform surgeries, they bring their own cooks who can also speak English. Really a high-quality team. ¡°Listen attentively. They¡¯re discussing the case. The case is a dural arteriovenous fistula, a rare case among rare cases,¡± Old Cheng said coolly, putting on the VR glasses seated on the table. ¡°The cook is familiar with medical knowledge?¡± August and Milton locked eyes and simultaneously thought¡ªtruly a high-quality team! Such an excellent team. The surgery set to take place tomorrow should indeed be noteworthy! Chapter 315: 0299 Chapter 315: Chapter 0299 Before the surgery, Yang Ping needed to conduct a brief conversation with Guo Jingyao, with both Dr. Huang and Dr. Lin accompanying him by the patient¡¯s side. In the eyes of Yang Ping, Guo Jingyao was just one of his many patients. Doctors have to go into surgery clear-headed and confident, and so should the patients. This was the purpose of the conversation. Regardless of how wealthy one is, on the operating table, there is no difference. Their bodies still conform to the principles of anatomy and physiology. Often, ancient books would have descriptions of celebrated people bearing unusual physical features, such as exceptionally long arms, or oversized ears. From a medical perspective, these would be seen as deformities. Like any ordinary patient, Guo Jingyao hopes that sensation and strength would return to his legs, and to be able to stand without using a wheelchair. ... He asked many questions about the details of the surgery, some of which were quite naive and even absurd, yet Yang Ping patiently explained everything. He did not want his patient to enter the operating room feeling nervous. The operation for Guo Jingyao officially began at nine o¡¯clock the next morning. The surgery was scheduled in a level-100 laminar flow hybrid operating room, which facilitated a postoperative DSA angiography to confirm whether the fistula was truly closed. The team of Chinese doctors, full of energy, led by Dr. Huang, entered the operating room. Dr. Huang and Dr. Lin assisted Yang Ping by opening doors, fetching slippers and fetching clothes for him. Zhang Lin was wearing all new clothes, from his hairstyle to his garments, belt and shoes. The clothes even carried a faint machine smell from the new fabric. This operation required entrance into the spinal canal and might proceed with vascular anastomosis within the canal. To reduce the risk of infection, irrelevant personnel were prohibited from entering. In addition to Doctors Huang and Lin, the accompanying anesthesiologist and nurse, others were not allowed in the operating room, and could only observe the procedure via video in the viewing area of the operating room. August and Milton were among those prohibited from entering. As the chief surgeon, Yang Ping had absolute authority to enforce some rules, all of which were aimed at only one purpose: to make the surgery goes as perfect as possible! Guo Jingyao lied on the operating table, his body trembling slightly and his heart rate speeding up to 105 beats per minute. ¡°Don¡¯t be tense!¡± Fatty comforted him. His voice was trembling slightly, ¡°I¡¯m not nervous ¨C I just can¡¯t control it.¡± Not nervous? His body would not lie. Fatty administered a sedative through the IV, beginning the induction before anesthesia. Under the effects of the sedative, Guo Jingyao¡¯s body stopped trembling and his heart rate also dropped back to the normal range: 87 beats per minute. Successful intubation, connected to the anesthesia machine. The Zeus anesthesia machine uniquely integrated the information processing engine system with the life sign monitoring system. The patient inhaled the anesthetic through respiration. Through the circuit system, the anesthetic was delivered to the alveoli, from the alveoli it entered the bloodstream, and the anesthetic spread to all parts of the body along with the flow of blood within the vessels, blocking the perception of the central nervous system and achieving the purpose of general anesthesia. Guo Jingyao¡¯s autonomous breathing was temporarily inhibited by the anesthetic, and his breathing was taken over by the anesthesia machine. Fatty gave an ¡°ok¡± gesture, much to the amusement of others. ¡°Anesthesia successful!¡± Dr. Lin remained, but Dr. Huang stepped onto the operating platform. In this surgery, not all surgeons can be foreign doctors with temporary licenses. It is necessary to have a doctor with a normal license present on the platform. Dr. Zhou, the interventional doctor, carried out a femoral artery puncture and cannulation to one side of Guo Jingyao while in the lateral position, keeping it for postoperative DSA. After completing the placement of the femoral artery catheter, the patient was switched from the lateral position to the prone position, lying face down on a special prone frame for spinal surgery. The patrolling nurse, Zhou Can, used soft pads to protect each prominent bone part. The abdomen was suspended to avoid compression which would cause congestion in the spinal venous plexus. Both eyes were closed using adhesive tape to provide protection. She checked that the urinary catheter was unobstructed, and that the reproductive organs were not compressed. Every detail had to be executed perfectly for the overall procedure to be flawless. They disinfected their hands, laid down sterile drapes, and slowly overlaid disposable 3M sterile clothes one by one, only exposing the surgical area. Song Zimo connected a sterile handle to the shadowless lamp, using it to adjust the height and angle of the lamp to its optimal position. ¡°Surgery preparation is complete. Now beginning pre-surgical safety check!¡± Everyone immediately focused, stopping all activity. ¡°Patient for surgery is Guo Jingyao, male, sixty years old, hospital ID number¡ª¡± ¡°Correct¡ª¡± All doctors and nurses participating in the surgery unanimously voiced their agreement. Any objections had to be raised on the spot as it was both a responsibility and a duty. ¡°Surgery site?¡± ¡°Thoracic vertebrae!¡± ¡°Surgical method?¡± ¡°Posterior thoracic laminectomy for formation of dural arteriovenous fistula!¡± ¡°Estimated blood loss?¡± ¡°Less than 50ml!¡± ¡°Crucial points during surgery?¡± ¡°Avoid injuring spinal cord and nerve roots. Successfully perform arteriovenous fistula formation!¡± ¡°Anesthesia focal points?¡± ¡°Ensure the patient¡¯s vital signs are steady during surgery.¡± ¡°Does anyone have any questions about this surgery?¡± ¡°None!¡± ¡°If there are no questions, you may commence the surgery now.¡± The circulating nurse closed the medical record book. The safety check was complete and the surgery could officially begin. ¡°Anesthesiologist, please report the patient¡¯s vital signs.¡± ¡°Heart rate 82 beats / minute, breathing 20 times / minute, blood pressure 132/84mmHg, ear temperature 36.6 Celsius ¡ª¡± ¡°Very well! I¡¯m going to start the surgery now, scalpel! ¡ª¡± Preoperative pause check is a serious task, there is no room for carelessness. It is the last confirmation of the operation patient, the operation site, and the surgical method. A surgical patient needs to undergo triple checks before surgery in the operating room. Once when collecting the patient from the ward, again before anesthesia in the operating room, and finally just before the chief surgeon begins the surgery. This persistent verification reduces the errors of operating on the wrong patient, the wrong part, or using the wrong surgical method to a minimum. On the screen in the observation area, during the preoperative check, August, Milton, Kobayashi Takeshi also stood up straight, respectful, as if they were there in person. This sense of formality constantly reminds surgeons to maintain reverence for the surgery and life itself. The yellow line on the floor next to the operating table marks the boundaries which observers must not cross. If crossed, it could contaminate the surgery, and once contaminated, there is a risk of infection. Infection spells disastrous consequences for any surgery, especially orthopedics, which could be downright catastrophic. In the barbaric era of surgery, there were no disinfectants, no anesthesia, and no hemostasis and blood transfusion. In such a surgery era with no basics, even a simple amputation surgery had a mortality rate of fifty percent, people died of pain, bleeding, or infection. Back then, surviving after surgery was considered luck, whether one could survive was equivalent to flipping a coin. After mastering the three major techniques of disinfection, hemostasis and blood transfusion, and anesthesia, the field of surgery officially entered the modern era. It¡¯s hard to imagine that in those times, to stop the bleeding after an amputation, some doctors would plunge the bloody stump into boiling water or hot oil. Patients often fainted due to the excruciating pain. The only observer on the scene, Doctor Lin Mingyuan, consciously stood behind the yellow line. The noise from the air treatment machine and the air conditioning system, the ¡°breathing¡± sound of the anesthesia machine became the background noise of the operating room, which everyone was used to. Yang Ping, dressed in surgical gowns, wearing a sterile cap and face mask, with his eyes protected by goggles, Song Zimo stood opposite him, Zhang Lin Xiaowu at their sides. The scalpel in his hand felt like a pet that had been nurtured for many years, possessing its own consciousness. A ten-centimeter longitudinal incision was made, the skin was cut with a single stroke, then the deep fascia was sliced open with an electric knife. The bright red bleeding spots were eradicated by the use of double electric coagulation in the initial stage. Subperiosteal dissection was performed along the side of the spinous process, which could reduce bleeding. The muscles beside the vertebra were stripped down from the spinous process and the lamina, along the bone surface. Snow-white gauze was held in Song Zimo¡¯s hand, ready to be used for hemostasis, but it wasn¡¯t needed. The less blood lost during surgery, the less interference with the patient¡¯s physiological function, and the better reflection of the skill level of the surgeon. The spotlight above had several cameras that filmed the surgical field from different angles, transmitting images to the screens. There was not a single superfluous movement, and every step was extremely concise. In less than three minutes, the surgeon revealed the lamina in a bloodless state. An automatic hook was inserted, and the surgical space was revealed. The surgery seemed extremely easy, with every move being extremely precise. This kind of surgery had entered a different realm. ¡°Can you do that? After entering the lamina, doesn¡¯t even need to use gauze?¡± August asked. Milton shook his head, ¡°I can¡¯t do it, neither can you.¡± ¡°Does he have magic that can temporarily stop the patient¡¯s blood flow?¡± August always had some bizarre ideas. ¡°Remember, you are a doctor.¡± Milton reminded. ¡°Doctors evolved from wizards.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you say barbers then?¡± ¡°The earliest doctors in Europe were barbers, the red, white, and blue signs used to be the signs of the barber shops.¡± ¡°He started to open a window on the lamina, doesn¡¯t he need to utilize some anatomical markers or imaging tools for positioning?¡± ¡°Uncovering-style window opening, this is my forte.¡± Uncovering-style window opening requires excellent surgical skills, opening a window on the lamina, the outer and inner surfaces of the lamina are of different sizes. Like a manhole cover, the outer mouth is large, the inner mouth is small, after the surgery, the cover can be replaced, just fitting and not sinking. In this way, the back of the vertebra is protected, there is no bony defect, the stability of the spine is even better. The cover was lifted, revealing the dura mater. In the middle of the spine is a hollow bony canal, which harbors the spinal cord. The spinal cord, like the brain, is the center of the human body¡¯s nerves. But while the brain is the upper center, the spinal cord is the lower center. The spinal cord is as delicate as tender tofu, and its outside is wrapped in several membranes, among which the outermost layer is the dura mater. This surgery is to operate outside the dura mater. ¡°He found the fistula, right under the window.¡± Milton said, looking at the screen. ¡°Just by this precise positioning, he is at least 5 years ahead of us.¡± August exclaimed. ¡°No, there¡¯s only us here, just us, we can be bolder, why not ten years.¡± Milton was serious. ¡°Oh God, the blood vessel is indeed stubbornly in front of the arteriovenous fistula, it can¡¯t be pulled apart, those damn things.¡± ¡°Only a tiny gap can be revealed, the surgery has to be completed in this gap, which is very difficult.¡± Under the microscope, two small rubber strippers gently pulled the blood vessels open a bit, revealing a gap to operate in. The surgical target lied still under the window, it deceived through rounds after rounds of case analysis, eventually falling into the hands of Yang Ping. ¡°If only there was a robotic surgical system for microsurgery, using a delicate mechanical arm terminal instrument, providing a three hundred and sixty-degree range of motion, it would be able to handle this kind of surgery.¡± ¡°Can Doctor Yang¡¯s wrists and fingers move in three hundred and sixty degrees?¡± Chapter 316: 0300 Flat Surgery Chapter 316: Chapter 0300 Flat Surgery Yang Ping skillfully controlled the microscopic instruments with the thumb, index finger, and middle finger, maneuvering effortlessly in a cramped space. The instruments seemed to be adhered to his fingers by some magical force, remaining securely under control no matter how he shifted his grip. The feeder vein had been successfully separated. However, the fistula was large, and a simple repair would lead to arterial narrowing, which could cause vascular obstruction and hinder the blood supply to the spinal cord. The only option was to cut off the fistula and perform a vascular end-to-end anastomosis. Such complicated procedure seemed incredibly easy and straightforward in Yang Ping¡¯s hands. With precision, he used the microscissors to cut a small section of the artery and vein. After the fistula was removed and both ends of the vessel were slightly freed, the healthy ends could be joined together without tension. The micro-suturing needle and thread were steadily clamped onto the needle holder. Inside the confined space, it could be tossed and turned, achieving any desired angle for needle insertion and withdrawal. ... The tweezer¡¯s tip lifted the outer layer of the blood vessel while the needle smoothly pierced and exited, tying a beautiful surgical knot. The two instruments worked together flawlessly without interfering due to crowding. The assistant¡¯s micro-scissors ¨C the third instrument ¨C also slipped in, accurately cutting the thread. Despite three instruments within such a confined space, no collisions or obstructions occurred. After completing the anastomosis on one side of the vessel, the assistant¡¯s tweezers held the long threads at both ends, gently turning the vessel to expose the other side. Only after the other side is also sutured, the circle of the vessel would be considered fully sutured. After the artery was perfectly anastomosed, the vein was precisely anastomosed in a similar manner. Regardless of whether the instruments belonged to the chief surgeon or the assistant, each appeared at the most appropriate time, disturbing the harmony between each other neither by being early nor late. The observing medical team, witnessing such a masterful surgery, finally understood why Yang Ping refused August¡¯s assistant application and insisted on flying his own team cross-country. This surgery was conducted within a confined space, surrounded by variant arteries that required protection. Even the slightest off timing for the entry of the assistant¡¯s instrument into view could result in a clash of the instruments. Even a small tear in the blood vessel from the clash could push the surgery to a dead end. ¡°You know why you were rejected, don¡¯t you? If you were the assistant, you would definitely clash with the chief surgeon¡¯s instruments, damaging either the variant arteries we need to protect or the arteriovenous fistula we need to handle.¡± Milton taunted August. August smirked, ¡°Do you think your outcome as an assistant would be better? Could the instruments work in harmony like they are now?¡± Hit where it hurt, Milton couldn¡¯t retort. He chose to ignore August¡¯s words, pretending to watch the surgery earnestly and not hear him. As fate would have it, Boss Cheng was seated once again with the two European experts. August glanced at Boss Cheng, and seeing his focused demeanor, curiously asked, ¡°Do you understand the surgery?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t I understand the surgery? Or do you think I¡¯m staring at the screen counting sheep?¡± Boss Cheng muttered grumpily. ¡°Any insights?¡± August wanted to test the Chinese chef. Boss Cheng made several comments: ¡°Great precision in positioning. Opening the vertebral window directly revealed the arteriovenous fistula; operating within a narrow space increased the surgical difficulty, but it was a necessary move, as it was essential to protect the variant spinal cord feed arteries. The quality of vascular anastomosis was excellent ¨C end-to-end, slightly everted, so there was no need to worry about thrombus forming at the anastomosis. It was astonishing how instruments in the surgeon¡¯s hand seemed to have grown roots, capable of being adjusted freely. Without such flexible instrument handling capabilities, performing this surgery could have been very awkward!¡± August looked at Boss Cheng skeptically, then at Milton. Milton just shrugged. The comments from the Chinese chef were quite professional and did not seem flawed. The first arteriovenous fistula surgery was successfully completed. Using the same procedure, the second arteriovenous fistula was revealed via a window in the upper vertebra. This fistula was smaller and could be repaired directly. The entire operation was uneventful and quite ordinary. Just like the American ¡®blitzkrieg¡¯ strategy used towards the end of World War II ¨C bombing from the air, artillery cover followed by mechanized infantry advancing forward, crushingly dominant, without any twists or turns. ¡°A brilliant doctor can turn danger into safety, but a more brilliant professional creates scenarios where he never falls into danger in the first place.¡± August felt that Yang Ping was in the latter category. ¡°Although the operation was uneventful and not very stimulating, this is exactly what I wanted. I¡¯m glad I canceled my flight,¡± Milton confessed. He had bought time by suppressing his breath throughout the surgery, not seeing any of the dangers he had feared. The surgical instruments were in and out a handful of times. Milton was afraid that a careless movement could damage the blood vessels, make the surgery more difficult. However, nothing happened. Even after the treatment of two arteriovenous fistulas and the hemostasis of the vertebral canal by double electric coagulation, there was no collision between the instruments. ¡°Dr. Zhou, please perform a DSA to verify if the fistula has been successfully treated,¡± Yang Ping gently placed the instrument back onto the curved plate. Taking care of surgical instruments is part of the professional ethics of surgeons. Everyone moved away from the operating table to rest in the adjacent area while Dr. Zhou and his assistant, already dressed in surgical gowns, were waiting. As it was his second procedure, and he was directly targeting the blood vessel rather than surveying, he was naturally more skillful. Quickly, Dr. Zhou completed the DSA. After a few minutes, it was clear that the contrast agents remained in their respective pathways ¨C there was no leaking from the artery into the vein. The operation had been a great success. They rinsed the surgical area with saline, drilled small holes around the edges of the vertebral block, and fastened it securely just like a manhole cover. Once the edges were tightened and knotted, the opening would heal naturally within three months without any complications. Hemostasis was performed layer by layer, then sutures. The automatic hook was taken out, and the paravertebral muscles returned to their natural place. Even drainage tubes were omitted, underscoring his supreme confidence in his hemostasis techniques. As Yang Ping and Song Zimo turned around, Zhang Lin and Little Five took their places back to back, switching places as suturing was their task. ¡°One layer each?¡± Little Five suggested. Zhang Lin nodded: ¡°Deal!¡± As Little Five stitched the deep fascia and Zhang Lin the skin, it seemed beneath their future statuses as Director Lu and Director Zhang to bicker over such a trivial matter as stitching skin. Both took their stitching seriously, whether it was of the deep fascia or skin, fully aware that any irregularity could be magnified on the close-up shots on the screen under the watchful eyes of over a dozen doctors. Thankfully, they had been rigorously trained in surgical skills by Dr. Yang and Song Zimo, who often led them in practicing such skills in the department¡¯s laboratory. As Zhang Lin stitched the skin and Little Five cut the threads, each thread had just one centimeter left. If one measured, there wouldn¡¯t be much error. The stitches were quite standard; the skin was matched uniformly. They didn¡¯t even need the final counter skin and were able to attach the sterile dressing directly. It was so smooth! August, being an international expert in spine surgery, couldn¡¯t escape the degeneration of his intervertebral discs and gave a slight stretch. Luckily, the surgery didn¡¯t take long, and after a bit of stretching, the minor pain was immediately relieved. ¡°Does Doctor Yang perform other spine surgeries this way?¡± A miraculous thought crossed Milton¡¯s mind. He wanted to get Yang Ping¡¯s contact information and invite him to perform surgery in the United Kingdom. This way, he could learn a lot. Making no signs of his thoughts, he simply said, ¡°The surgery is over.¡± He didn¡¯t want to unintentionally remind this German about the idea or else even he might try to get Doctor Yang¡¯s contact. In the internet age, while Britain uses Whatsapp, he didn¡¯t know what type of similar software Chinese people use. Milton slyly took out his phone and started Googling. WeChat! Decisively, he downloaded it, registered and researched how to use it. When August¡¯s gaze moved away from the screen, Milton quickly tucked away his phone like a thief, causing August to look puzzled at his reaction. It was just using his phone, why was he so nervous? ¡°Arranging surgeries for next week!¡± Milton found an excuse to cover up. Seeing Milton clutching his phone and appearing uncomfortable, August skeptically said, ¡°Your expression seems off, like you¡¯re chatting with a lover?¡± ¡°So what if I am? Doubt my stamina?¡± Milton played along. August shrugged and said, ¡°No, how could I question your stamina? Viagra is available everywhere.¡± Kobayashi Takeshi was impressed by the entire surgery process, especially the microsurgical operations in such a confined space. Some of the operational angles were impossible for an ordinary person, but with Yang Ping¡¯s skills, the instruments could easily change angles. The words yang Ping had said during the consultation weren¡¯t an empty boast. This surgery wasn¡¯t something other doctors could complete smoothly if at all. Even if they could, it wouldn¡¯t be as fast or perfect and would have definitely encountered various difficulties along the way. Director Zhu was also in the observation area. After watching the entire surgery, he was somewhat excited. This time, Yang Ping had indeed done him a huge favor. Anning Insurance had stood out among many high-end insurance companies, demonstrating its powerful capabilities in organizing medical resources. The surgery was over. As Old Cheng went to the restroom in the meeting room, Milton took the opportunity to approach him: ¡°Chef, hello!¡± ¡°Hello, is there something wrong?¡± Being followed to the restroom is always an uncomfortable situation. Milton pondered for a moment: ¡°Chef, can we add each other on WeChat?¡± This Brit knew how to add people on WeChat? Milton was an internationally renowned expert, and since Old Cheng owned a hospital, he thought knowing more people wouldn¡¯t hurt. ¡°Shall I scan your code?¡± Old Cheng took out his phone. Milton flushed a bit: ¡°I¡¯m still not very familiar with it, could you teach me how to add someone on WeChat or let them add me?¡± Old Cheng gave a simple explanation of the social tool, and Milton seemed to get the hang of it. After adding Old Cheng on WeChat, he finally went to the restroom. It seemed this Brit had come all the way to the restroom just to add WeChat. Chapter 317: 0301: Calculation in the Dark Chapter 317: Chapter 0301: Calculation in the Dark The surgery was over, with the anesthetic administered just right, Guo Jingyao regained his autonomous breathing. The rhythm of the anesthesia was perfectly in sync with the surgery, Fatty, holding the suction device, cleared the respiratory secretions, decisively extubated and disconnected, and Guo Jingyao slowly woke up. ¡°Where is this? Why are there intense lights everywhere?¡± Guo Jingyao woke up, just freed from restraints, he immediately grasped Fatty¡¯s hand. Fatty knew he was a bit confused, patted him on the shoulder: ¡°Relax, this is the operating room. The surgery is done, very successfully! That¡¯s the surgical light, of course, it¡¯s dazzling if you keep staring at it.¡± Guo Jingyao¡¯s eyes slowly rolled a few times, blinking, apparently still a bit groggy, his grip on Fatty¡¯s hand not loosening. ¡°Doctor Yang! Where¡¯s Doctor Yang?¡± He finally remembered being on the operating table, and recalled that Doctor Yang was the chief surgeon. ... Yang Ping stepped forward, touched Guo Jingyao¡¯s forehead, and said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the surgery was very successful.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± Guo Jingyao stared at Yang Ping for a good ten seconds or so, kicked the operating bed a few times with his foot, and finally let go of Fatty¡¯s hand. ¡°You¡¯re welcome, now let¡¯s move to the ward.¡± Yang Ping understood Guo Jingyao¡¯s unusual behavior. Some patients, upon waking up from the operating table, feel as if they have just had a brush with death, feeling as if they have been through another life, unable to calm down for a long time. As Guo Jingyao was pushed out of the operating room, Yang Ping took off his surgical gown and gloves, with Doctor Lin assisting on the side. After Yang threw his gloves into the trash can, Doctor Lin immediately shook his hand, expressing gratitude for the successful surgery. Some surgeries make you sleep peacefully once they¡¯re done, while others keep you on tenterhooks, causing sleepless nights. Everyone is a surgeon, they can empathize. Their greatest daily concerns revolve around their patients¡¯ conditions. Each worry adds a few gray hairs to their heads. Over time, their heads become prematurely full of gray hair. If someone were to conduct an international multicenter study to research the correlation between gray hair and doctor¡¯s experience, Chinese doctors would surely rank at the top for the speed of gray hair growth, far ahead of other countries. Of course, Yang Ping is an anomaly, still maintaining a head full of thick black hair. If the correlation between white hair and medical experience was used in reverse, he would seem more like a medical student who had just entered school. This first cross-national surgery, the team¡¯s performance was very satisfactory to Yang Ping. Everyone progressed quickly. It was evident that success is not achieved overnight, but rather as a result of daily diligence and accumulated effort. This surgery not only tested the team¡¯s strength but also boosted their confidence. Only by continually interacting and exchanging with the outside world can one truly lead. The automatic sensor doors opened one after the other, moving from the restricted area to the semi-restricted area, the Chinese medical team gradually exited the operating room. ¡°Doctor Yang, please!¡± ¡°Doctor Song, please!¡± ¡°Doctor Zhang, Doctor Lu, please!¡± ¡°Nurse Su, Nurse Zhou, please!¡± ¡°Dr. Liang, please!¡± Yingge Hospital was very thoughtful, not leaving out anyone¡¯s name. Lead surgeons, assistants, nurses, anesthesiologists, each had designated personnel accompanying them. Zhang Lin and Little Five followed behind the team, Zhang Lin walked with his head high and a serious expression on his face. He held his chest as high as possible and pulled his shoulders back as hard as he could. For the sake of appearing more impressive, he had sacrificed his comfort. ¡°Relax a bit, you¡¯re marching!¡± Little Five gently reminded. Zhang Lin did not respond: ¡°We have to be calm and serious, bring out an international demeanor, unlike our usual carefree selves.¡± But looking at his own movement, he was indeed marching with his arms and legs in unison, and he struggled to correct it. Embarrassed, he hoped nobody noticed and continued walking with his chest held high. Tang Fei and Qi Yanan were waiting in the observation area. As they saw the team appear at the main entrance of the observation area, they immediately greeted them and handed out bottled water. Old Cheng was a step ahead, he loosened the cap of a bottle of mineral water in anticipation and handed it over in time. Yang Ping took a sip, feeling very refreshed. The doctors immediately gathered around, rushing to ask various questions, the atmosphere was heated. ¡°Doctor Yang has just completed a surgery, let him rest a little, have a sip of water, and then answer everyone¡¯s questions, alright?¡± Doctor Huang gestured and explained to everyone. In the observation area of the operating room, after a brief rest and answering the doctors¡¯ questions, they went to the hotel for a buffet lunch. In the evening, Doctor Huang had arranged a banquet and invited many Chinese doctors to accompany them. During the buffet, Milton maintained an appropriate distance from Yang Ping all the time. The cunning Brit wanted to ask for Yang Ping¡¯s WeChat, but he was worried about letting August know, so he was always looking for the best opportunity. Milton¡¯s plan was meticulous, like dealing with a chef, follow him to the restroom, quietly, stealthily, get his WeChat, and then invite him for a flying knife surgery. In this way, he had a chance to break through the technical bottleneck and get ahead of the Germans. Milton nudged his way to Yang Ping¡¯s table with a plate, and August approached as well. Milton followed Yang Ping to get a drink, and so did August, without leaving any loopholes. Yang Ping didn¡¯t have time to deal with Milton and August, and was enjoying his conversation with Dr. Lin and Dr. Huang. Thinking of a plan, Milton decided to retreat as a way to advance. ¡°Old chap, shall we go over there to have a few drinks and come back when Dr. Yang is free?¡± Milton suggested. Given the current situation, August thought it would be annoying to Dr. Yang to always stick around him, so he agreed with Milton¡¯s suggestion, ¡°Good idea.¡± So the two of them sat down at a nearby table, poured a few different drinks, and began toasting. Despite having great differences, their friendship endured. ¡°Dr. Yang, if you don¡¯t mind, we could establish a long-term partnership. Both the Singapore Central Hospital and the dozens of hospitals under the Baihui Group hope to cooperate with you,¡± Dr. Lin sincerely invited. Dr. Lin has a say in the orthopedics department of Singapore Central Hospital. Regarding the Baihui Group, its boss, Mr. Chen, is a good friend of Dr. Lin, making his opinions easily accepted. Singapore Central Hospital is the highest standard hospital in Southeast Asia, and the Baihui Group is the largest high-end private hospital group in Asia, and now they have thrown open their doors to Yang Ping. By expanding his medical reach, he could save more lives. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t have asked for more and happily agreed, ¡°We can collaborate both clinically and scientifically in the future.¡± ¡°Yes, we can collaborate in these two areas in the future. I want to thank Mr. Zhu for this. If it wasn¡¯t for Mr. Zhu¡¯s efforts, how could we have met Dr. Yang? There were some minor hiccups along the way, and for that, I apologize,¡± Dr. Huang said embarrassedly, recalling the hiccup before the meeting. ¡°Just a misunderstanding¡ª¡± Director Zhu simply laughed it off. Milton and August were now toasting with fruit juice, both feeling high-spirited, going back and forth. Although the juice didn¡¯t have any alcohol, it would eventually gather in the bladder. ¡°I need to go and loosen up a bit, old chap,¡± said August, shaking his head and emptying his glass. Milton, restraining his own uncomfortable bladder, casually said, ¡°Go ahead, I¡¯ll wait for you.¡± Watching August head to the restroom, Milton smirked. He immediately shifted to where Yang Ping was, and without any formalities, he got straight to the point, ¡°Dr. Yang, I¡¯m Milton from the British Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. If you¡¯re interested, we can collaborate? We¡¯re backed by Cambridge University and have a robust research base. Many of our equipment is one-of-a-kind in the world.¡± Milton extended his hand right away. Yang Ping shook hands with him, having an impression of this Englishman who was in a hurry to catch his flight. ¡°Can we exchange WeChat contacts? Can I scan yours?¡± Milton suddenly proposed. While he was saying this, his gaze drifted towards the doorway, the mandatory route to the restroom, looking like a secret agent attempting to crack a safe under strictly limited time. Yang Ping was initially taken aback. He actually uses WeChat. He pulled out his mobile and showed the QR code. Milton, while scanning the code, muttered to himself, ¡°Top right corner, scan, add friend¡ª¡± Great! It worked. Milton was thrilled like a child. He glanced at the entrance of the hall, and quickly turned to Yang Ping, ¡°I¡¯m sincere about this, we¡¯ll chat on WeChat when I¡¯m free¡ª¡± He hurried back to his seat, pretending nothing had happened, nonchalantly waiting for his old buddy to return for more juice. At last, everything was settled. He opened his phone to see that Yang Ping had confirmed his request and a smile crept onto his face. ¡°Milton, you are a lucky one!¡± Milton complimented himself. August came back from outside the hall, looking relaxed. Milton suddenly remembered that his bladder was unbearable too. He had gone all out to get his old buddy to the restroom. He couldn¡¯t hold back anymore as there would be some hidden health issues like reduced bladder tension which could lead to residual urine. ¡°I need to loosen up too, mate. Wait for me here. It¡¯s rare for us to sit together across an ocean. We still have a lot to talk about,¡± Milton told August before leaving. The straightforward German looked towards Yang Ping¡¯s table, feeling he needed to do something, but couldn¡¯t remember what exactly. Yes, he should talk to Dr. Yang and, ideally, get his contact information. Just as August was about to get up, Milton returned, ¡°Old chap, were you planning on getting his phone number?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± August was honest. ¡°You don¡¯t understand Chinese culture. There are some rules for dealing with the Chinese, like not asking for their contact information at the first meeting. If you do, you¡¯ll be seen as a conman and they¡¯ll ignore you next time,¡± Milton said convincingly. ¡°Yes, I guarantee that if you rashly go up and ask, Dr. Yang will hold a prejudice against you,¡± Milton added. August sat back down. He really didn¡¯t understand the Chinese culture¡ªwhether these norms indeed existed, he wasn¡¯t sure. As a thorough German, he would never take someone¡¯s words as the gospel, even if it was his old buddy. He figured he would ask Dr. Lin when the opportunity presented itself or ask the Chinese chef. August was puzzled, when did Milton start researching Chinese culture? He was suspicious. Looking at Milton¡¯s expression, it seemed like he was hiding something. Having dealt with each other for several decades, August trusted his intuition¡ªhe was feeling like he¡¯d been tricked somehow. August picked up his phone: ¡°Markus, come here.¡± Chapter 318: 0302 Returning to the Country Chapter 318: Chapter 0302 Returning to the Country Markus, August¡¯s assistant, was in his early thirties, a blonde, blue-eyed young man, smart and capable, a high achiever of Charite? Medical School in Germany. This time August brought two assistants, one was his medical assistant and the other one was arranged by the insurance company. As an assistant, Markus tried not to disturb Mr. August¡¯s private activities during his spare time, so he was currently discussing recent developments in spinal surgery with other doctors. ¡°Markus, you don¡¯t need to come over, just see my message on Whatsapp and do as I asked.¡± August realized something and changed his mind. Markus was meticulous and always able to exceed August¡¯s expectations, never once disappointing him. Now August instructed him to figure out if there is a social taboo in China: asking for contact information from a guest at the first meeting might result in the guest¡¯s disdain. ... Upon receiving the task, Markus used all possible means: searching online, asking Chinese friends, and so on. Approximately ten minutes later, a report with academic rigor based on his survey was sent to August. The conclusion was clear: there was no such social taboo in China. Milton, old devil! August cursed, he was indeed being deceived, and perhaps Milton had successfully obtained Dr. Yang¡¯s contact information. Looking at Milton, who had just returned from the restroom, August kept his composure. The competition was everywhere, with no end in sight. August issued another instruction to Markus. Today, he must get Dr. Yang Ping¡¯s contact information and establish some formal contact with Dr. Yang Ping¡¯s team. He believed that this young man would faithfully execute his commands and would surely succeed in the task. As for the process, he didn¡¯t need to be concerned. ¡°Old pal, thank you, if it wasn¡¯t for your reminder, I almost violated China¡¯s social taboo. The consequences would have been unimaginable.¡± August raised his cup in thanks. Milton sat down, and the two old pals lightly toasted, ¡°Toast for medical progress, toast for friendship.¡± A few drinks and some food later, they slightly squinted their eyes, like a slight drunken state after drinking, looked at each other for a moment. Milton began to speak first: ¡°Pal, how is your research on spinal cord injuries progressing? After transecting the monkey¡¯s spinal cord, is there any breakthrough in reconnection techniques?¡± ¡°No, the research has stalled. How about you? How was it when you used polyethylene glycol for connection?¡± August expressed regret. Milton was also struggling: ¡°That didn¡¯t work either. We used stem cells to promote repair, but the results were still not satisfactory.¡± August played with his empty cup: ¡°We should cooperate, but you have hidden some data. If we are to cooperate, we must be honest.¡± Milton puffed out his cheeks: ¡°You are not sincere enough, how dare I give all my data? This is our many years of hard work.¡± The two of them had been like this for dozens of years, tug of war, fighting and arguing, neither able to gain an advantage over the other. They had been discussing cooperation for decades, but with no substantial progress. About fifteen minutes later, August received a message from Markus. He had collected all of Dr. Yang Ping¡¯s personal phone numbers, work phone numbers, communication addresses, and WeChat information. Markus had also established formal contact with Dr. Yang Ping¡¯s capable assistant. August was very pleased with Markus¡¯s work. Suddenly, he looked down at this English colleague ¨C Want to trick me? He¡¯s not qualified. Who¡¯s out front and who¡¯s still up in the air. ¡°Cheers to friendship!¡± ¡°Cheers to friendship!¡± Both old pals were very happy. The trip to Malaysia was very fruitful. In the buffet restaurant, to let Yang Ping chat freely with his friends, Xiao Su kept selecting food for him, not quite to the point of spoon-feeding him. Song Zimo was having a pleasant chat with Markus; Zhou Can and Qi Yanan were sitting together, looking somewhat lonely; Fatty, Zhang Lin and Little Five were chatting with several doctors from Yingge Hospital. Doctor Lin and Dr. Huang excused themselves to greet other experts, when Boss Cheng stepped in: ¡°The local specialty products are already bought and will be sent by international express. This way it¡¯s easier, and I¡¯ll deliver them to your door.¡± ¡°President Zhu, aren¡¯t you looking for a high-end private hospital to collaborate with? Old Cheng¡¯s hospital is being upgraded, preparing to receive JCI accreditation.¡± Yang Ping thought their collaboration would be excellent. Director Zhu didn¡¯t expect Old Cheng¡¯s hospital to have developed so rapidly, it was already entering the JCI accreditation process. In G City, there were still no hospitals with JCI accreditation. Old Cheng modestly said, ¡°We¡¯re in the planning stages, Doctor Yang is our specially appointed Chief Expert. We will have a chance to collaborate in the future.¡± Director Zhu immediately agreed, ¡°No matter what, we have to collaborate. When I get some free time, I will visit your hospital.¡± ¡°We welcome your guidance,¡± Old Cheng said with a smile. ¡°When is everyone planning to return home? I¡¯ll fly back with you. As for the plane tickets, allow me!¡± Old Cheng was very enthusiastic. Director Zhu said, ¡°Dr. Yang will leave tomorrow. Our company is currently helping with booking the flight tickets. Give me your passport number, and we¡¯ll book the tickets together.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go with President Zhu,¡± Old Cheng said straightforwardly. Kobayashi Takeshi, standing in one corner, was eagerly asked by Ikuta Takashi, ¡°Is there no chance of recovery?¡± Kobayashi Takeshi was just a doctor, completely uninterested in their insurance company¡¯s competition, ¡°Mr. Ikuta, please stay away from me. I despise your mixing of medicine and business. I¡¯m telling you seriously, there is no chance of recovery.¡± In Japan, Juntendo University is equivalent to China¡¯s Peking Union Medical College, and Juntendo Hospital is equivalent to China¡¯s Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Its status is self-evident. The medical department of Tokyo University was established with the help of professors from Juntendo. How could an executive of an insurance company dare to offend a professor at Juntendo Hospital? Ikuta Takashi immediately stood at attention: ¡°I¡¯m sorry for my rudeness just now.¡± ¡°As long as you understand that. Dr. Yang Ping¡¯s lateness, is it related to you? Let me remind you, if such a thing happens again, Juntendo will cancel our cooperation with your Fuji Insurance, at least in orthopedics, we will permanently cease to cooperate with you.¡± Kobayashi Takeshi was somewhat indignant. ¡°I¡¯m terribly sorry, really sorry, Mr. Kobayashi. We received intel that Dr. Yang Ping had completed a surgery at an academic conference that Mr. Takahashi Fumiya couldn¡¯t manage. We were worried¡ª¡± Ikuta Takashi explained tremblingly. Kobayashi Takeshi reacted, ¡°You said, he has interacted with Professor Takahashi? Repeat what you just said.¡± Ikuta Takashi was apprehensive, unable to grasp Kobayashi Takeshi¡¯s intentions, and kept apologizing, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, we may have misunderstood again, maybe it was just a rumor.¡± Kobayashi Takeshi disliked this insurance person, ¡°I want you to repeat what you just said. What did you just say?¡± Ikuta Takashi stammered, ¡°Yang Ping, at an academic conference, demonstrated a surgery. He completed a surgery that Mr. Takahashi couldn¡¯t. This is no secret at the affiliated hospital of Tokyo University, everyone in Orthopedics knows.¡± ¡°What surgery?¡± Ikuta Takashi inhaled deeply. Seeing that Kobayashi Takeshi didn¡¯t get angry, he cautiously continued, ¡°It is said that it was the removal of a huge damaged vascular tumor. Mr. Takahashi could only ligate ten blood vessels, but Yang Ping successfully ligated over a hundred blood vessels, completely removed the vascular tumor, repaired the damaged organ, and successfully saved the patient.¡± The businessman¡¯s shrewdness stretched too far. If Yang Ping was rejected, this patient would never have a chance to stand up again. Although he was a little upset, he had the courage to face the facts. If one doesn¡¯t even have the courage to face the truth, how could one become a great figure? In the evening, Yingge Hospital arranged a sumptuous dinner. The head of Yingge Hospital personally attended. Several department directors of the hospital and renowned Chinese doctors from other hospitals were invited to accompany them. Guo Jingyao¡¯s family extended a warm invitation to the medical team to stay in Malaysia for a few days. However, Yang Ping declined. They had been out for a number of days and could not afford to cause further delay. There had been no time for sightseeing this time. Perhaps there were lots of patients piling up at home. They heard that Director Han was personally leading a group of young people, working shifts and admitting patients. Before leaving Malaysia, Yang Ping went to visit Guo Jingyao. The results of this kind of surgery were generally very rapid. The postoperative MRI showed that the edema of the spine had eased. Carefully examining the postoperative inspection, although the recovery of muscle strength was not obvious, there was still progress. Guo Jingyao was very grateful, ¡°Dr. Yang, you flew from China to perform the surgery, and now you have to rush back. We didn¡¯t have time to entertain you.¡± Yang Ping responded that he would come to Malaysia for a vacation when he had time. He couldn¡¯t right now, as there were many patients waiting for him. Guo Jingyao instructed his family to prepare a check, but Yang Ping refused it. This trip was not at the invitation of Guo Jingyao himself, but at the request of Anning Insurance. Anning Insurance had agreed to pay a high consultation fee and surgery fee. To accept payment again, regardless of the amount, would be unreasonable. If it were the personal invitation of Guo Jingyao or his family, that would be another matter. Chapter 319: 0303: A New Journey Chapter 319: Chapter 0303: A New Journey After leaving Guo Jingyao¡¯s ward, his wife and children were all waiting in the living room. Having watched Guo Jingyao¡¯s condition for the past couple of days, he didn¡¯t have a strong impression of his family. Upon looking now, the Guos appeared to be a traditional Chinese family, dutiful wife and filial children, harmonious siblings, always wearing a mature and composed smile. ¡°Doctor Yang has traveled all the way from China, refusing to accept any of our humble gifts. It leaves us feeling guilty. When you visit Malaysia next, we insist on showing you our hospitality,¡± Mrs. Guo said in a dignified and respectful manner. Clearly, she was the kind of woman who could steady a situation in times of crisis. The rest of the children were refined; the sons were courteous, the daughters dignified. No wonder the Chinese in Southeast Asia were in better economic conditions. They maintained the excellent Chinese traditions of diligence, eagerness to learn and progress. Mrs. Guo asked her eldest son to exchange contact details with Yang Ping in order to stay in touch. They also had business in China, planing to visit to show their thanks in person. Without bringing any business cards, Yang Ping left his phone number with Guo Jingyao¡¯s eldest son. The son seemed to be a solid yet shrewd man, who spoke and acted with proper discretion. ... Apparently, Guo Jingyao had even been ennobled as a ¡°Datuk¡± in Malaysia, indicating his noble status. But Yang Ping didn¡¯t pay much attention to this. Being a doctor, he put more of his energy into the medical aspect. All of Yang Ping¡¯s focus on Guo Jingyao was on his illness. If Guo Jingyao could be reduced to a keyword in Yang Ping¡¯s mind, it would be a ¡°rare triple complication case,¡± rather than a ¡°Malaysian businessman¡±. After bidding farewell to Guo Jingyao¡¯s family, Dr. Lin and Dr. Huang were reluctant to part with Yang Ping. Dr. Lin even inviting him to visit Singapore Central Hospital. But with Yang Ping¡¯s tight schedule, Dr. Lin refrained from saying more. There would be many opportunities for collaboration as Singapore Central Hospital didn¡¯t just have patients from within Singapore, but also from all over the world. August, Milton, and Kobayashi Takeshi said their goodbyes to Yang Ping. Kobayashi Takeshi sincerely apologized, ¡°Doctor Yang, I¡¯m very sorry. Please forgive my offense at the consultation meeting.¡± ¡°Ignorance is not a crime!¡± Yang Ping knew how to be discerning, some people and things could be passed by. However, he was fully aware that dealing with the Japanese required standing firm, otherwise it would make them think that he was not competent. The right approach was to assert dominance, which would make them respect and yield to him. Back at the hotel, everyone packed, preparing to board the afternoon flight of Southern Airlines. They were about to return to their country. Looking at the bustling scene of Kuala Lumpur outside the window, they had not been able to go anywhere in the few days in Malaysia apart from discussing cases and performing surgeries. They didn¡¯t even have the time to stroll down the street. ¡°When I was in general surgery, our batch took turns to go on vacation. We flew to Sanya in Hainan for a trip. We spent a few days playing mahjong in the hotel and then flew back. We didn¡¯t leave the hotel at all in Sanya. Do you think that¡¯s interesting? We¡¯re somewhat in the same situation now,¡± Zhang Lin said while packing. Old Cheng wanted to keep them around for a few more days: ¡°How about canceling the flight and leaving tomorrow? I can show you around the city today.¡± ¡°He asked them to go out and wander last night, but none of them wanted to,¡± Fatty complained. Little Five didn¡¯t mind: ¡°I was exhausted like a dog yesterday, who would want to go out?¡± After the banquet last night, Little Five had a long video chat with his wife. Yang Ping, Xiao Su, Song Zimo, and Tang Fei played cards, while Zhou Can and Qi Yanan helped Boss Cheng to check the local specialties. In addition to the specialties that were sent back by express, Cheng had also prepared some for people to bring with them, such as the Sabah Black Tea for Director Han, and cubilose for Yang Ping¡¯s parents. It was only after the surgery that Yang Ping remembered to bring gifts for his family and Director Han but Boss Cheng had already thought it through and prepared everything. He had a clear plan on what to send via express and what to carry with them. On the return flight, everyone was in high spirits. Fatty met the same flight attendant again, asked her for orange juice and even tried to ask for her WeChat, but was politely declined. On the plane, Yang Ping used the system space to buy some surgical training programs for bones diseases like lumbar disc protrusion, and cervical spondylosis. Coming out of the space, he felt much more energized. When they got off the plane, it was already evening. Everyone cheered upon landing, finding their own country more comfortable, even the air felt more oxygen-rich. Qi Yanan had arranged for a car to pick them up at the airport. After arriving at the hospital and having a late-night snack provided by Boss Cheng, everyone went home. The next day, everyone arrived at the department punctually at seven. The department had already admitted more than a dozen patients. Director Han arrived first, just after six. Looking a little worn out, getting personally involved in clinical work was starting to take a toll on him due to his age. When they arrived at the department, he was sitting by the computer, guiding a doctor on writing a case report. He paused after every few sentences, to take a moment to reflect. ¡°You¡¯re back!¡± Old Han noticed everyone entering and immediately greeted them. ¡°Didn¡¯t we agree to give you a day off, and have you return to work tomorrow?¡± Old Han was worried for these lads. When Yang Ping was in Malaysia, Old Han had said that they should all rest for a day after returning home. Yang Ping asked him to sit down and brought out several cans of Sabah black tea from his bag: ¡°This is a gift for you from all of us. Now that we are back, you should take a rest.¡± Upon seeing the tea leaves, Old Han¡¯s eyes sparkled: ¡°Good lads, my affection for you was not in vain. You still remembered what I like.¡± It was common knowledge that Old Han loved tea, so Yang Ping had been wanting to buy him some tea leaves. As it turned out, Boss Cheng had the same thought and bought some on behalf of Yang Ping. Old Han examined the tea canister from all sides. The Sabah black tea was also a specialty product of Malaysia. It was good to have a change of taste, since drinking Longjing tea daily wasn¡¯t ideal. ¡°So, how was your experience abroad? I heard that August and Milton also went. They are masters in European spinal surgery. They have many accomplishments in the field of spinal surgery, such as corrective spinal deformity, spinal cord injuries, degenerative spinal diseases, etc. They have had some groundbreaking achievements,¡± Old Han asked with a smile. ¡°Milton has added brother Yang on WeChat. August sent an assistant who went through so much trouble just to get brother Yang¡¯s WeChat. I think they all want to cooperate with us.¡± Song Zimo reported calmly. Old Han put down the tea canister: ¡°This case is very interesting. When I have time, I will talk to you all in detail. This case, from diagnosis to treatment, is full of the wisdom of doctors.¡± After a detailed report of the trip to Malaysia, and after much persuasion, Old Han finally agreed to rest. Everyone went back to their duties, and the whole department resumed normal operation. Old Han led everyone in ward rounds, only leaving work after the condition of each patient was made clear. Anning Insurance had a very credible reputation, worthy of being one of the big corporations in G City. The overseas consultations paid Yang Ping a fee of 600,000 RMB, while the others received 200,000 RMB each. Through this incident, Director Zhu was able to stabilize the company¡¯s footing in Southeast Asia and gained some recognition. The senior management of the group was very pleased. Following this, Director Zhu planned to collaborate with Yang Ping long-term, inviting him to be their cooperation expert in orthopedics. It was rumored that Hermes was discovered being chased by his creditors on a bridge. A few guys were about to gang up on him when his wife stepped in. She fiercely warned that anyone who dared to touch a hair on her husband¡¯s head would see their house set on fire. The debt collectors, upon encountering someone who was willing to risk it all, didn¡¯t dare to make a move. However, those people had also lost everything, so Hermes had no choice but to give all the cash he had to a few of the debt collectors who used to be his business partners. Now everyone was suffering from the ripple effect, and they were all in the same boat. The money still wasn¡¯t enough, and Hermes prepared to sell the two houses he had as a safety net to distribute a little more to everyone. Seeing that he was already destitute, they all decided it was best to disband after dividing the money. Otherwise, Hermes might have had no choice but to commit suicide. This time, Hermes truly hit rock bottom. As the saying goes, times change, fortunes change. He thought he still had houses to back him up, and that life wouldn¡¯t get too bad, but in the end, he lost everything. However, his wife was still quite good. She hadn¡¯t left him, and the two were considering the next steps for their survival. Sisi also re-admitted herself to the hospital, transferring all the leftover money from her previous hospital stay to her current account. Conveniently, a nursing home worker from the department was going to resign because a grandchild was born back home, and they were planning to take care of the baby. Yang Ping asked Sisi¡¯s mother if she was willing to take over this position. The department¡¯s nursing home worker duties include assisting nurses with non-medical tasks like helping to clean the ward, pushing patients to examinations, and so on. With this job, not only could Sisi¡¯s mother take care of her daughter, but she could also earn a salary and be entitled to five insurances and a housing fund. Sisi¡¯s mother was overjoyed. This was a dream job for her. Head nurse Cai Qiaojun contacted the Human Resources Office and arranged for Sisi¡¯s mother to go for a job interview and physical examination. The process was completed in a few days, and she began to work. Most of the new patients in the department had undergone surgery conducted by Director Han. Yang Ping also arranged to complete the surgery for a few remaining patients to avoid accumulating too many cases. The establishment of the Sports Medicine Center was in full swing, and the promotional clip that Luo Jin was helping to shoot is still ongoing. Operations were paused for a week due to Chinese New Year and have now resumed. Soon, the Chinese New Year passed, and the doctoral examination was just over a month away. A new year, a new journey begins. Chapter 320: 0304: The Princes Chapter 320: Chapter 0304: The Princes ¡°After the Lantern Festival, Yang Ping¡¯s parents wanted to return to their hometown. Yang Ping advised them to stay a bit longer, but they insisted on leaving. The local clinic had been closed for nearly a month, making it inconvenient for villagers to seek medical care as they had to go to the neighboring village. Yang Ping and Xiao Su drove his parents to the high-speed railway station. His parents saw that their son had made significant progress in his career and had done well, even performing surgeries overseas. They saw that he had found such a good girlfriend, and they were satisfied with both his career and love life. The old couple felt exceptionally gratified, acknowledging that their child had truly grown up and had a world of his own, which they should not disturb too much. After saying goodbye to his parents, Yang Ping felt melancholy. Xiao Su comforted him, clinging onto his arm as they walked. During the time Xiao Su spent living with his parents, she won their hearts with her knowledge, politeness, and thoughtfulness. Thinking of his future with such a wonderful wife, Yang Ping felt relieved and sweet. On returning to the hospital, they started another day of hectic work. Both material and spiritual motivation kept everyone energetic. ... Life is just like this. Only when you have covered the basics can you afford the luxury of dreaming. ¡°Little Five, I¡¯ve been preparing to conceive recently, so I won¡¯t be able to work around radiation. Please take care of those tasks for me.¡± Zhang Lin seemed in good spirits. He took out his personal radiation dosimeter, examined it for a while before putting it in his white gown pocket. Orthopedic surgeons often use C-arm X-ray machines, so they inevitably get exposed to some radiation. The personal dosimeter can monitor the amount of radiation received. ¡°Really? I thought you had decided to delay having a child. Are you considering it now because you¡¯re well-fed and in the mood?¡± Little Five was somewhat doubtful. Zhang Lin was in high spirits: ¡°Reproduction, such a divine act, becomes vulgar when you mention it, how shallow! This is an economic-based family strategy. If our financial strength can afford diapers and milk powder, naturally, it¡¯s time for a family planning adjustment. Unlike you, we plan our child scientifically, not an accidential byproduct of impulsive behavior at midnight.¡± ¡°No wonder there are fewer pimples on your face recently, Zhang Lin. Is that also a byproduct of midnight impulses? Let¡¯s go to the operating room right away and not waste time. I¡¯m off to the main operating room to assist Director Gao in surgery. Let¡¯s get today¡¯s surgeries done. There are a few simple ones that you¡¯re in charge of, did you review the procedures yesterday?¡± Song Zimo urged them. Director Gao had another case of a four-ligament reconstruction of the knee. The patient was a professional athlete, with ruptures in both the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments, as well as in the posteromedial and posterolateral structures. Every time a surgery like this is needed, Director Gao invites Yang Ping to guide him. Before publishing his paper, Yang Ping taught Director Gao the surgical method described in it. Director Gao meticulously learned it and performed dozens of similar surgeries. Under Yang Ping¡¯s careful guidance, he mastered the surgical method and grasped some of its nuances. Now, when Director Gao performs complex reconstruction surgeries of the multi-ligament knee, he equals his senior ¨C Guan Sheng from this hospital. If he continues to accumulate more case studies, soon he¡¯ll surpass him. Old Gao now adopts a modest attitude, completely disregarding the age gap, treating himself as Yang Ping¡¯s student. At this moment, he is performing surgery. Yang Ping, dressed in his surgical gown, stood by and watched. For each critical step, Director Gao would ask Yang Ping numerous questions, until he thoroughly understood. A 3-liter bag of saline, hung at a height of 1.5 meters from the ground, was being injected into the knee joint cavity through a connected inlet pipe. In arthroscopic surgery, to create more operating space, a specific gas or liquid is often injected into the surgical cavity. In laparoscopic procedures, carbon dioxide is often used to inflate the abdomen and create space for the operation. In arthroscopy, substances like saline are used to inflate the joint cavity and maximize the operating space for better observation and operations. Director Gao was a good learner. He tried to emulate Yang Ping throughout the entire surgical procedure. On entering the joint cavity and after inspecting all the structures in the knee, he confirmed the rupture of the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments. Then he asked his assistant to begin preparing the allograft tendons. In knee ligament reconstruction, using one¡¯s tendon is the best option, also known as an autograft tendon. However, for multi-ligament reconstruction, many tendons are needed. Thus, using one¡¯s own tendons can¡¯t meet the demand, and allograft tendons are a better choice. Allograft tendons, also known as homograft tendons, are harvested from human donor bodies and, after special treatment, are stored in a specialized warehouse for future use. There are also heterograft tendons, which are animal tendons. But they are not used in medicine. As he positioned the anterior cruciate ligament tibial stop, Director Gao turned his head and asked, ¡°Doctor Yang, could you please check if this position is accurate?¡± Although Director Gao knew how to position, in order to be precise and individualized, he needed to consult Yang Ping. Therefore, as he sought high-quality surgery, he was not satisfied with just passing, instead aiming for excellence. After Yang Ping assured him the position was good, Director Gao dared to drill the tibial tunnel. After completing the tunnel in the tibia, a plasma knife burns a dot on the lateral wall of the femoral intercondylar fossa. ¡°To find the geometric center of the ligament footprint, one must recognize the difference between the bone surface of the footprint region and the non-footprint region. This difference is subtle and requires rich experience to recognize. This is the best positioning method. All other methods, such as bone spur positioning, residual positioning, and two-step positioning, have certain errors and cannot precisely locate the original ligament footprint¡¯s geometric center,¡± Yang Ping shared without reservation, knowing that teaching another person his medical techniques could save more patients. ¡°Each time I perform cruciate ligament reconstruction, I follow your method to find the geometric center of the ligament footprint. Now I have some insights. Do you see, is this the footprint region? The bone surface is a bit rough compared to the surroundings,¡± Director Gao drew a range with the probe. ¡°Correct!¡± Yang Ping confirmed the range drawn by Gao. An associate chief physician watching from the side suddenly understood. Director Gao had been making frequent visits to the Comprehensive Orthopedics department in recent months. He had learned from them, and now he was far ahead of everyone else. When Yang Ping¡¯s papers are published in the future, many doctors will improve their ligament reconstruction skills. However, the shared method is a universal version, simplified for everyone to easily grasp, and naturally not as potent as the advanced version Yang Ping personally taught. Director Qin of the Spine Surgery department stood on the side, seeking to learn from Director Gao in his spare time. Seeing this scene with Director Gao, he finally understood. Director Gao¡¯s skills had improved rapidly recently, performing a series of difficult surgeries. All thanks to clinging to Yang Ping. In the past, when performing such a surgery, if it was for an elderly patient, functionality wasn¡¯t as important, just doing it for show would suffice. If it was for a professional athlete, Gao would not dare to touch it. Now, he dares to perform this kind of surgery on professional athletes. This guy was also favored by Director Han. For the soon-to-be-established Sports Medicine Center, everyone thought another director would be parachuted in, but instead, the position was left for Old Gao. The Big Orthopedics department held a status within Sanbo Hospital akin to a hospital within a hospital. Its affiliated center departments had equal status with other centers within the hospital, and their powers and treatment were much higher than that of ordinary department directors. Currently, in Orthopedics, only Tan Boyun has such treatment. The sub-specialties under the title of the center, Old Han delegated all powers. The hospital gave many privileges, equivalent to a feudal lord. Looking at people like Tan Boyun, if he wanted to recruit someone or equipment, he could make the decision. Even the performance distribution within the department was under his control. Having full autonomy over personnel, finances, and materials, everyone in the hospital envied these lords. But not everyone had the strength to be a lord. You need ability to foster a team of talents, to build a business scale, to seize the academic high ground. Director Qin was ashamed. Old Gao, in his current form, treated a young man as a teacher, invited him to give advice during surgery, nodding and bowing, it was a bit embarrassing. Director Qin could certainly not do it. Yang Ping was excellent, but Old Qin¡¯s seniority was there. No matter what, he couldn¡¯t lower his head to a young man twenty years his junior and call him his student. However, the attraction of being a feudal lord was strong. Not only income but also the status within the hospital, the academic status in the industry, Director Qin was in a dilemma. ¡°Doctor Yang, what do you think of this point?¡± Director Gao asked sincerely. Yang Ping carefully examined it: ¡°Good, make the tunnel according to this point.¡± Listening to his tone, Director Gao addressed Doctor Yang as if he were his teacher, which made Director Qin¡¯s face turn beet red. The reconstruction of Director Gao¡¯s anterior cruciate ligament was completed, and now the reconstruction of the posterior cruciate ligament was started. ¡°Director Gao, the several sets of arthroscopic equipment you applied for have arrived. The equipment department has also tuned them. When would you like to try the new equipment?¡± The nurse leader of the operating room came in. ¡°The surgery tomorrow will use the new equipment. Why hasn¡¯t the new plasma knife arrived yet?¡± Director Gao seemed dissatisfied. The authority! Here was the power of a feudal lord! ¡°It should arrive soon. They wouldn¡¯t dare to delay your application,¡± the head nurse explained. The equipment department staff were like lords, usually disregarding Director¡¯s requests and finding various excuses to delay. But when a center director urged them, they ran errands immediately, not daring to delay. It came to power in the end. Center directors were all members of the hospital committee, holding votes. According to the system of Sanbo Hospital, those votes could dismiss the director of the equipment department. If a few center directors got together, they could gather enough votes to skin the director of the equipment department alive. Who wouldn¡¯t want to be such a feudal lord in the hospital? Chapter 321: 0305: The Disappeared Intervertebral Disc Chapter 321: Chapter 0305: The Disappeared Intervertebral Disc After completing the surgery, Director Gao felt less confused and a touch more enlightened. He was aware that the insights gained from this experience surpassed any he could have obtained from attending a training course elsewhere. There weren¡¯t many doctors across the country skilled in multi-ligament reconstruction of shoulder and knee joints. From now on, he, Gao Yuan, would be one of them. While Yang Ping still had some spare time, Director Gao decided to seek more guidance from him in performing surgeries. Once Yang got busy, climbing this towering tree would become impossible. ¡°Director Gao, I still have several surgeries to perform on my end. I will take my leave now.¡± Yang Ping gave Director Gao a heads-up before making his exit. Director Gao hastily transferred the task of wrapping up to his assistant. Hurriedly stripping off his one-time-use surgical gown, he followed Yang, adding, ¡°I¡¯ll see you off. I gained a lot today and now have a better understanding of the starting and ending points of these ligaments. There¡¯s a bigger difference than I thought between reconstructing a single ligament and reconstructing several. Achieving balance truly requires advanced skills.¡± ¡°You already have a basic grasp of static balance. You still need to further hone your skills when it comes to dynamic balance. The data I gave you requires more attention. It shouldn¡¯t be blindly followed. These data should be observed in relation to one another. The intricacy lies in why when a ligament¡¯s start or end point changes just a little, it results in changes in every other aspect,¡± Yang Ping summed up his current learning progress. ... ¡°Thank you, Teacher Yang!¡± Director Gao expressed his gratitude for Yang Ping¡¯s unreserved guidance. His address of Teacher Yang came from the heart and was uttered spontaneously. Yang Ping paused in surprise before jokingly retorting, ¡°Please, don¡¯t call me like that. It makes me feel old. You can just call me Doctor Yang.¡± ¡°Fair enough, let me call you Doctor Yang. He who excels, teaches. If it weren¡¯t for your hands-on teaching, I would¡¯ve still been blindly groping around the subject of multi-ligament reconstruction. I would¡¯ve still been a novice.¡± Director Gao wasn¡¯t just flattering him. Maybe some doctors claimed they could perform multi-ligament reconstruction, but all they managed to do was implant tendons and formulated no actual postoperative functions. It was like taking a test, completing all the questions but scoring just twenty or thirty points. Across the whole country, only about ten doctors were truly qualified in shoulder and knee multi-ligament reconstruction and scored an acceptable mark. Not more than a handful of doctors could manage decent scores. As for scoring as well as Yang Ping could, there was only one Yang Ping. ¡°I¡¯ll go around the other operating rooms. Take care of yourself and don¡¯t be shy. We are colleagues, call me whenever you need anything.¡± Yang Ping felt that Old Gao was highly motivated and was willing to teach him. ¡°Ok, I¡¯ll show you out from here. Feel free to look around.¡± Director Gao waved. Yang Ping noticed that one operating room for spinal surgery was not very bustling with people, so he decided to take a look. Recently, he had participated in bone disease surgery training in the System Space; many of the cases were within the scope of spinal surgery, such as Lumbar Disc Herniation and Cervical Spondylosis among others. The surgery here had not yet commenced. The patient was having an anesthesia administered and appeared in acute pain, his facial muscles contorted. The patient¡¯s X-rays, CTs, and MRIs were displayed on the light-box. Director Qin and Dr. Wen under him were reviewing the images, discussing crucial points about the surgery. Dr. Wen was also a well-known figure in Sanbo Hospital, whose full name was Wen Zhong. Known as the elder master, he was professionally proficient and heedless of his appearance, often seen sporting disheveled hair, mumbling to himself as he walked. But he was undoubtedly intelligent and possessed diverse interests, well-versed in chess and calligraphy alike. Whenever the hospital held chess contests, he would have intense matches with Song Zimo. However, against such a talent, he would always narrowly miss the win. When a group of retired directors crowded around them, some were on the edge of their seats. Yang Ping also squeezed in to have a look. It was a lumbar intervertebral disc herniation between the 1st and 2nd lumbar vertebrae, a free type. A piece of intervertebral disc had fallen into the spinal canal, roughly the size of half a thumb. The spinal canal was severely narrowed with the nerves under compression. Dr. Wen turned around, saw Yang Ping, and promptly introduced the case. ¡°The patient is a thirty-five-year-old male taxi driver. He was brought in as an emergency case. He¡¯s in intense pain on the inner side of his left thigh. The pain is unbearable, he¡¯s rolling around in his bed. We tried giving him morphine and infusing him with mannitol and glucocorticoids, but nothing worked. Emergency surgery is the only recourse.¡± The so-called lumbar disc herniation isn¡¯t diagnosed just because the x-ray shows lumbar disc protrusion. There have to be related symptoms, such as lower back pain or leg pain, to diagnose as lumbar disc herniation. Sometimes, lumbar disc herniation can be highly painful. Yang Ping had seen a muscular man crying out in pain because of it. This is ¡ª lumbar pain is a minor illness, but hell when it strikes! About 90%-95% of patients with this condition can be treated conservatively; only 5%-10% need surgery. The proportion requiring surgery is very small. Which conditions demand surgery? For instance, if it leads to the weakening of defecation and urination; affects the sensation and muscle strength of the lower limbs; causes significant lower back and leg pain that remains ineffective after six months of standard conservative treatment, seriously affecting work and life; these need surgery. At present, minimally invasive spinal surgeries have seen significant progress. Young people with simple lumbar disc herniation can undergo minimally invasive surgery and get the protruded intervertebral disc removed. Only in elderly patients with unstable spines does the consideration of major surgery arise. The pedicle screws are implanted in the lumbar spine, followed by bone grafting of the intervertebral spaces. ¡°We¡¯re planning to perform percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy, remove the dislodged intervertebral disc, and then scrape off some of the residual disc between L1/2.¡± Director Qin also noticed Yang Ping and shared his plan for the surgery. Intervertebral discs are the round padding structures between the vertebrae, functioning as stress absorbers. The lumbar spine has five of them. Generally, lumbar disc herniation occurs at the segments L5/S1, L4/5, and L3/4. Like this patient, the herniation of the intervertebral disc between L1/2 is quite rare. The spinal canal at this part still houses the spinal cord. Therefore, performing percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy requires extreme caution. The anesthesia took effect, and the patient was positioned. A prone position frame designed exclusively for spinal surgeries was used. The patient was laid prone on the frame. Dr. Wen took his team to scrub up, readying for sterilization and draping. ¡°What do you think? Any suggestions?¡± Director Qin sought Yang Ping¡¯s opinion. Director Qin felt that he could never resort to the flattering approach adopted by Gao Yuan to ask for guidance. But, a discussion with Yang Ping seemed feasible. ¡°Director Qin is the expert here. I am just here to take a few pointers.¡± Yang Ping stated humbly. A surgery such as this posed no difficulty to an expert in spinal surgery, provided the location is accurately pinpointed, one can find the intervertebral disc once percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy is performed. When the disc is removed using the nucleus pulposus forceps, and a part of the remaining intervertebral disc between L1/2 is cut away, the surgery would be deemed successful. Yang Ping had planned to have lunch with Xiao Su at the cafeteria at noon. He didn¡¯t have time to watch the surgery, so after a brief exchange with Director Qin, he left the operating room. Returning from the surgical building, Luo Jin¡¯s promotional film, after several revisions, was finally finalized, and began playing on loop in the lobbies of several large buildings in the hospital. The artistic charm was extraordinary. Luo Jin working up a sweat, combined with music, captured the spirit of passion, perseverance, and tenacity very powerfully. Following a series of shots, the last scene showed Luo Jin kicking a goal, followed by a few striking letters appearing against the backdrop: Letting You Move Forward¡ªSanbo Hospital Sports Medicine Center! It was splendid. The purpose of any ad is to plant a concept in people¡¯s brains, reinforce it constantly, and finally make people trust it. Who directed this promotional film? They¡¯ve certainly grasped the essence of advertising. After watching it, Yang Ping instantly felt a sense of trust in the Sports Medicine Center at Sanbo Hospital! Many patients paused to watch the promotional film on the large screen. Some young people familiar with Luo Jin took out their mobile phones and started taking photos and recording videos. Luo Jin had fallen several times in the face of painful illnesses, yet he always got back up, ever fiercer. He was a fine horse in the soccer field. Unlike other players, he came from a humble background, was an orphan, adopted by a sports teacher, and had faced hardship to get where he was now. ¡°Did they perform the surgery on Luo Jin?¡± ¡°Yeah, I heard that he can join the competition in June this year.¡± ¡°That¡¯s amazing!¡± ¡°I thought he had surgery abroad.¡± ¡°Our Chinese doctors are not inferior to foreigners.¡± As a group of young people discussed this, one of them had already sent the video he had just recorded to a friend. The friend had a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament and was weighing on which hospital to choose for surgery. Dean Xia and his team were briskly walking through the lobby. He was inspecting the board hanging for the Sports Medicine Center. Upon seeing Yang Ping, Dean Xia took the initiative to say hello: ¡°Xiao Yang!¡± ¡°Dean Xia!¡± Yang Ping reacted upon hearing his booming voice, as he had been engrossed in the promotional video. Dean Xia glanced at the screen: ¡°How about it, did they film it well?¡± ¡°Very well!¡± Yang Ping praised. Dean Xia seemed quite proud: ¡°Directed by a gifted Peking University student and with a true performance from one of the country¡¯s top soccer stars, how could it not be successful? Xiao Yang, if you have any thoughts or difficulties at work or any situation at home that the hospital can help with, you can mention them. We are here to offer you logistical support.¡± ¡°Everything is great.¡± Yang Ping genuinely felt that Director Han and Dean Xia were good to him and they had provided everything he needed. Dean Xia was very busy. After chatting with Yang Ping for a while, he hurriedly passed through the lobby and his group went into the elevator. Yang arrived quite early when there were not many people in the dining hall. Xiao Su had already got the food and was waiting for him. They sat in a corner and chatted while eating. While halfway through the meal, a phone call came. It was from Dr. Wen from the spine surgery department. He said that the patient he had just operated on did not have an intervertebral disc after positioning and checking with an endoscope. The disc disappeared? It was strange! Was the positioning wrong? Did they operate on the wrong segment? This patient had neither lumbosacralization nor sacralization, a normal spinal arrangement, without any variation, so the possibility of a wrong position was almost zero. These experienced doctors wouldn¡¯t make such a basic mistake. It was unthinkable for both Director Qin and Dr. Wen. But if he called at this time, it meant he was seeking help. If they said the intervertebral disc was gone, it was truly gone, otherwise, they would not have called so hastily. In urgent situations like this, Yang Ping hung up the phone and stuffed all the food left in the plate into his mouth after a few quick bites. ¡°Spine surgery, Director Qin¡¯s patient, during surgery, the herniated disc they planned to remove with the endoscope is somehow gone, they need me to take a look.¡± Yang Ping put down his chopsticks. Xiao Su helped to collect the cutlery: ¡°Should I come with you?¡± She was also quite interested and really wanted to accompany Yang Ping to see how the disc had disappeared. ¡°I really like to accompany you on consultations and surgeries, but I feel embarrassed, I¡¯m worried that other people might say I¡¯m clinging to you.¡± Xiao Su said with a blush on her face. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go and take a look.¡± Yang Ping decided to take her along. ¡°Wait for me, I¡¯ll clean the tableware.¡± Xiao Su said, taking the tray of tableware. Chapter 322: 0306 Are you teasing me? Chapter 322: Chapter 0306 Are you teasing me? Yang Ping took Xiao Su to the operating room, and they happened to come out from the respective changing rooms just as they bumped into head nurse Jiang. Xiao Su immediately greeted her, and head nurse Jiang replied with a warm smile, ¡°Xiao Su, are you back home? Have you suffered any grievances over there?¡± Xiao Su laughed and replied, ¡°Not at all. Thank you for your hard work, head nurse. I just came with Doctor Yang to observe the surgery.¡± Head nurse Jiang sternly told Doctor Yang, ¡°Don¡¯t dare to bully nurse Su, or else we will not spare you.¡± Yang Ping simply smiled and said, ¡°Go on then. There are too many emergency surgeries today. I need to go arrange medical personnel. I will come back to the office later.¡± After saying goodbye to the head nurse, Yang Ping brought Xiao Su to the operating room of the spine surgery department. Director Qin and Dr. Wen were discussing the cause of a large free-floating intervertebral disc disappearing mysteriously. It was quite alarming. ... ¡°Doctor Yang!¡± Dr. Wen immediately felt hopeful upon seeing Yang Ping walk in. Dr. Wen¡¯s impression of Yang Ping had been deep since the time he performed surgery on Professor Zhang. He had also attended Yang¡¯s small lecture and took part in the discussion. In front of the G-arm machine screen, Director Qin was studying the images of perspective positioning, ¡°Start from the first one, slow down, I haven¡¯t seen clearly yet, don¡¯t flip the images.¡± Director Qin was a bit frustrated; his tone was not good. This type of minimally invasive surgery usually involves a preoperative discussion with the patient about potential complications and the possibility of converting to a conventional open surgery. However, the intervertebral disc had disappeared mysteriously. Even if they proceeded with open surgery and did not find the disc, the patient¡¯s problem would remain unresolved. The patient would still be in pain after the surgery, and not to mention, Director Qin¡¯s reputation would be at stake too. Director Qin was pacing back and forth between the light box and the G-arm machine screen, comparing the images. The CT and MRI scans clearly showed a half-thumb-sized intervertebral disc, but there was absolutely no sign of it when the camera was inserted. ¡°Oh, Xiao Yang, could you help us take a look?¡± Director Qin noticed Yang Ping standing nearby. Inviting Yang Ping over was Dr. Wen¡¯s suggestion. When the trauma orthopedics department faces difficult questions, it¡¯s common for them to seek Yang Ping¡¯s advice. However, this was the first time for the spine surgery department. Although both are orthopedics, the specializations are entirely different. The entry standard for chief surgeons in spine surgery is higher than those in trauma orthopedics. For a straightforward surgery, if you¡¯re not a senior attending physician, you¡¯re not eligible to operate. Major surgery requires an associate professor. After all, the surgery involves the spinal cord and nerve roots. Any small mishap could lead to paralysis or disability. Yang Ping, who was recently promoted to attending physician, would not normally get a chance to perform spinal surgery. Therefore, it was only natural that Director Qin would have reservations about Yang Ping, unlike Director Gao, who was humble. Since Dr. Wen suggested inviting Yang Ping while they were in the operating room, rejecting his suggestion would mean that Director Qin was stubborn and obstinate. Therefore, he agreed to invite Yang Ping over. ¡°Were you having a meal? Sorry to interrupt your meal.¡± Dr. Wen noticed Xiao Su following along, realizing that it was mealtime. Yang Ping did not mind at all, ¡°No problem. I had just finished eating when I got your call.¡± After Director Qin finished analyzing the imaging pictures, he regretfully suggested, ¡°Let¡¯s pause the surgery for now and redo an MRI to find out where the intervertebral disc is.¡± The G arm machine, similar to the C arm machine, is essentially a portable X-ray machine. The only difference is that the C-arm can only produce one-face images, while the G-arm machine can produce both front and side images at the same time. The intervertebral disc is not visible under X-ray, so under the G arm machine¡¯s perspective, one can only see the vertebra, but not the disc. The position is usually determined by the MRI and CT before the surgery to determine the protruding sections of the intervertebral disc. Once identified, the surgeons will proceed to this section under the G-arm machine¡¯s perspective. The process was followed without any known mistakes. Possible errors that might typically occur were also repeatedly checked, and no such errors occurred. ¡°Xiao Yang, I¡¯m sorry to interrupt you, but we need to take the patient downstairs for an MRI.¡± Director Qin had already removed the instruments. Dr. Wen was in the process of suturing the small incision on the patient¡¯s back, covering the cut with a dressing and removing the sterile coverings. This type of surgery is usually performed under local anesthesia, but this patient had very noticeable pain symptoms, making it impossible for him to bear the pain during the surgery. Hence, a combined spinal-epidural anesthesia was chosen, numbing the lower part of his body. The patient was awake, and Director Qin personally explained the complications encountered during surgery. The patient was understanding, as he knew everyone was trying to solve his problem, and no one was intentionally messing with him. Before Yang Ping had a chance to read the images, everyone quickly transferred the patient to the operating bed as they were preparing to take him to the imaging department for an MRI. Although this treatment procedure was a bit embarrassing and even cost them their face, Director Qin had to put aside his ego for the safety and effectiveness of the patient¡¯s surgery. The operating bed was pushed towards the magnetic resonance room of the imaging department. Everyone followed in silence as they didn¡¯t dare to speak, as the director had made a mistake. After being transferred a few times, they finally arrived at the MRI room. Director Meng gave them face and personally waited in the operating room. A machine was already available. The patient was pushed in, and doctors and nurses were busy checking for contraindications, inspecting for magnetic metals, pacemakers, etc., before finally signing and moving the patient onto the platform. ¡°Old Qin, what happened? The intraoperative exploration and preoperative imaging are not consistent?¡± Director Meng let Director Qin sit down, knowing that he had encountered a difficult problem, otherwise there wouldn¡¯t be a situation where the surgery had to be interrupted midway for an MRI. Director Qin had an unlucky look on his face, ¡°The positioning is accurate, completely flawless, but after the endoscope entered the spinal canal, we couldn¡¯t see the free-falling intervertebral disc.¡± ¡°Was there such a thing?¡± Director Meng was surprised. The technician and nurse were adjusting the patient¡¯s position, while other doctors waited outside. Only Yang Ping and Dr. Wen followed them in, with Xiao Su tailing Yang Ping. Director Meng, seeing Yang Ping approaching, courteously offered his chair, ¡°Doctor Yang, please sit!¡± Director Meng was familiar with Yang Ping, especially after Yang Ping diagnosed the patient¡¯s dural arteriovenous fistula from the MRI. He highly respected Yang Ping and would always invite him when there was a challenging case to be discussed. The preparations were nearly completed. Director Meng glimpsed into the examination room through the thick glass window. The technician and nurse were already out, and the door to the room was closed. ¡°Been doing arthroendoscopy for nearly ten years, must have done around two thousand cases. I¡¯ve never encountered such a situation before.¡± Director Qin still felt a sense of helplessness. Conversation flowed as the technician expertly adjusted the parameters on the operating platform. The switch was pressed, the table moved, and the patient was slowly sent into the dark tunnel. The strong magnetic field caused the hydrogen ions in the human body to spin in unison. When the magnetic field was withdraw, the direction of hydrogen ions reverted to a disordered state. This result, the differing time taken to revert to order, created differentiation, which is the basis of imaging. Only with differentiations could product depiction It was just like a pencil, creating an image with the density of lines. X-ray images were done with differentials of absorbed rays from objects of different densities. Without these differentials, there was only white or black. A few doctors from the radiology department were lingering outside the door, reluctant to enter because Director Meng was inside. They were all there to see Yang Ping. Once someone became renowned, many tales would spread. These tales could be amplified and mythicized, causing people to admire and feel distant towards them. Let¡¯s not talk about those past tales of success, just the most recent one. It was heard that Yang Ping was invited by a Malaysian millionaire to perform a surgery consultation on the 6th day of the first lunar month. Rumors were that Yang Ping had humbled a well-known expert and that the fee from the cross-country consultation was in millions. Even the minor members who accompanied him received one to two hundred thousand. Although the actual figures weren¡¯t clear, Zhang Lin¡¯s recent attempts to buy a car hinted that the rumors weren¡¯t far off. With all these tales piling up, Yang Ping slowly became a legendary figure in these people¡¯s minds. Some even began to suspect that the integrated orthopedics department might want radiologists. If luck was on their side, they could join the team and enjoy the fruits of success. Take Liang Fatty from the anesthesia department ¨C didn¡¯t he get popular via Yang Ping? The story about him flirting with flight attendants on the plane ¨C who on earth spread it? Liang Fatty roamed around trying to find the big mouth, but whenever this was brought up, Zhang Lin would pacify him: ¡°Calm down; famous people don¡¯t have any secrets.¡± The speed of high-speed MRI was extraordinarily fast, slowly generating images. Director Meng paused the conversation, as Director Qin leaned over to take a look. They could discern a slipped disc just at first glance, even with their eyes closed. The object was still there and so clear! Judged by the low signal, it was undoubtedly the extruded nucleus pulposus, and it was still at its original position without any change, located inside the spinal canal, at the back of the L1 vertebrae, and the entry route of arthroendoscopy was precisely facing the slipped disc. There was no positioning error, neither on the sagittal view nor on the transverse view. ¡°There¡¯s no mistake, the slipped disc is right here!¡± Director Meng pointed at the image. Director Qin flipped through the images a few times, assuring there was indeed no mistake. The object was perfectly fine ¨C this was just unbelievable! Could the scope have mistakenly entered some other tissues such that it was separated from the slipped disc? As long as the slipped disc was still there, there could be a solution; they just needed to try one more careful exploration. ¡°Send to the operating room, sterilize and re-drape for surgery again.¡± Director Qin finally had a plan. Despite the trouble, surgeries were still surgeries. Once you¡¯re on the operating stage, you have to proceed until the end, even if there were complications. It¡¯s better to have complications on stage than abandon it halfway through. ¡°Director Meng, sorry for the trouble, we¡¯ll have to continue the operation.¡± Director Qin excused himself. Director Meng got up to see them off, ¡°No worries, let me know if you need anything.¡± ¡°Yang, sorry for the bother. Do you want to come back with us?¡± Director Qin kept a safety net, fearing if there would be problems again, there would at least be an additional hand for help. The patient was wheeled back to the operating room where they adjusted his body position, used the C-arm for fluoroscopy to confirm the correct segment was there, and re-sterilized and draped him again. The initial entry route was not a problem, so they entered through the same location after removing the stitches from the small incision. The scope was inserted inside, and the field of vision was clear after a wash of water. The dura and nerve roots were clear. Having performed such surgeries for ten years, how could they have been mistaken? The lens didn¡¯t enter any other tissue gaps, and it was obviously inside the spinal canal. Where was the slipped disc? Where was it? ¡°Is this some sort of joke? Is this the MRI we just did?¡± Director Qin needed a confirmation. Doctors under the stage verified the date: ¡°Yes, it¡¯s the one just taken, I¡¯ve just hung it up.¡± Shit, Director Qin cursed inwardly; today¡¯s situation was ridiculous. The slight confidence that he¡¯d just regained soon deflated, collapsing! Director Qin reorganized his thoughts, where could the problem be? Where could it be? ¡°Open the screen, bring out the previous MRI and the one we just take. Zoom in!¡± This was a multi-functional operating room with a large screen allowing the chief surgeon to operate the control panel to retrieve necessary medical records through sterile drapes. However, Director Qin was used to looking at films on a lightbox and wasn¡¯t accustomed to this high technology. Dr. Wen opened the screen through the sterile drape, brought out imaging pictures, found a few characteristic ones, and opened them. By comparing the images side by side, the slipped disc was still at its original position, whether it was on the previous images or the current ones. But they didn¡¯t mess up with the segments, and the camera was inside the spinal canal, so how come they still couldn¡¯t see the slipped disc nucleus pulpous tissue? They just couldn¡¯t see it no matter how they adjusted it. ¡°How could this be possible!¡± Director Qin was flustered again, sweat was breaking out on his forehead. Chapter 323: 0307: Too Handsome (Added More for the Silver League Wolf Pulling the Sleigh) Chapter 323: Chapter 0307: Too Handsome (Added More for the Silver League Wolf Pulling the Sleigh) ¡°On to the next segment, let¡¯s cut a new entry!¡± Director Qin is the chief surgeon, naturally he would showcase his courage at critical moments. The mistake can¡¯t be too far off, it¡¯s probably just by one segment, and if there is an error, it would not be upwards, it would be downward. Removing the scope and working cannula, Director Qin cut a small opening on the left side of the next segment, puncturing a path, dilating the channel, inserting the working cannula, then inserting the scope, then the plasma knife began to clear the field of vision, gradually entering the spinal canal. There was nothing, everything was so normal that it took one¡¯s breath away! Just now we could still see the ruptured annulus fibrosus, now the view was completely normal. Director Qin¡¯s hope was extinguished like a soap bubble, one couldn¡¯t possibly blindly puncture the patient¡¯s back with two rows of holes. In an urgent moment, Director Qin turned his attention to Xiao Yang, renowned as a prodigy, but unsure about his skills in spinal surgery. In trying circumstances, Director Qin asked, ¡°Xiao Yang, what do you think? Still no sign of it, what should we do?¡± ... At this point, for the sake of the patient, even if he had to devalue and bargain his prestige, Director Qin, though troubled, still resorted to asking. Even though Director Qin knew all along that he had been waiting for this moment to ask for help, when it came to the asking, he was still a little uncomfortable. Prestige is curious, though you know it¡¯s nothing of value, yet you can¡¯t help constantly trying to preserve it, fearing it will fall. Xiao Yang earnestly studied the MRI scan: ¡°Prepare a bottle of Omnipaque, intraoperative spinal angiography!¡± A single sentence made them all enlightened, why didn¡¯t they think of this? Since the popularization of MRIs, spinal angiography had almost faded from the minds of orthopedic doctors. In this era, who still performs spinal angiography. However, at this time and place, spinal angiography was the best method, they had seen such a big thing on the MRI, could it have just vanished in thin air? After the angiography, would it not be clear, and then positioned accordingly. ¡°Wipe my sweat.¡± Director Qin moved his head away from the sterile area, and the patrolling nurse dabbed at his brow with a tissue. No need to employ heavy hitters, these were all experts after all. One sentence pointed out the solution to the problem, this kid does have a handle on spinal surgery. Director Qin was much more relaxed and regained his confidence: ¡°Omnipaque, get me 100ml bottle, less than that is useless.¡± Omnipaque, iodixanol injection fluid, which Director Qin was familiar with, is a type of iodine radiographic contrast agent often used in percutaneous vertebral kyphoplasty for vertebral body imaging, but he has not used this method for intraspinal angiography, so he did not think of it. ¡°Is it sterile?¡± a doctor below the stage asked. Director Qin retorted bluntly: ¡°Use your brains more during work. An injectable can enter human blood vessels, would it be sterile or not?¡± The doctor who asked the question turned red in the face, indeed, an injectable that can enter human blood vessels, how could it be non-sterile? Such a dumb question, he must have been confused just now. The patrolling nurse opened a 100 ml bottle of Omnipaque, the equipment nurse used a 50 ml large syringe to draw two full tubes, and placed them ready for use. The patient was lying face down, slightly inclined at this time, Director Qin returned to the first entry point, established the working cannula, inserted the endoscope, and injected the Omnipaque into the spinal canal, waiting for it to spread evenly. ¡°Fluoroscope, let¡¯s check the situation.¡± The C-arm was pushed in, the sterile cover was put on both the emitter and receiver near the surgical area, and Dr. Wen directed the operator to adjust the position. ¡°Hurry up, move aside!¡± Dr. Wen rushed the people. The operator stepped on the footswitch at the door, everyone lined up and went back in, the angiogram on the screen was clear, the intervertebral disc appeared at the right rear of the L4/5 gap. ¡°Today is such an unlucky day, I¡¯ve been doing this kind of surgery for ten years and haven¡¯t encountered something like this. The intervertebral disc moving in the spinal canal, during the exam, it moved to the L1/2 position, during the surgery, it ran to the right rear side of L4/5.¡± Director Qin was caught between laughter and tears. If it wasn¡¯t for Xiao Yang¡¯s guidance today, Director Qin would definitely be trapped in a fixed mindset, and the surgery would end up a sham surgery. Attempts made to protect his pride all fell through. ¡°Dr. Yang, your thinking is broad, we were almost tricked by this thing.¡± Director Qin was also a straightforward person. Yang Ping reminded him: ¡°Indeed, this is quite rare, such a big thing can freely move inside, be careful, it may run again.¡± His just relaxed nerves were suddenly tensed again by Yang Ping¡¯s words, Director Qin was scared now, he felt like a frightened bird. The patient¡¯s upper body was not anesthetized and could move, the patient might have been lying down for a long time and moved slightly, the anesthesiologist immediately shouted: ¡°Don¡¯t move around, tell me if you feel uncomfortable.¡± ¡°Puncture from the right side of L4/5, this is not the high iliac crest, it should be easier to make a way.¡± Director Qin needed a break, he let Dr. Wen do the puncturing. Thoughtfully, he decided to get his hands dirty, ¡°Wait, I¡¯d do it.¡± Director Qin proceeded to take over the puncture tool. Fluoroscopic positioning, puncturing, multiple checks with fluoroscopy, no deviation in positioning, then way-making and hole-expanding, establishment of the working channel, insertion of the endoscope into the spinal canal. Again, there was no trace of the free intervertebral disc! It was just seen in the spinal angiography. Today is full of bad luck, Director Qin¡¯s hand was a bit stiff: ¡°There¡¯s still contrast agent inside, fluoroscope it again!¡± Yang Ping was very calm, familiar with these things, and used to it. Director Qin may have performed a few thousand conventional spinal endoscope surgeries. But he has fifty thousand training points, and isn¡¯t interested in wasteful surgeries, he only does simulation surgeries. Now he can do anything without going broke, he often strolls around in the system space, doing all kinds of strange surgeries, so he¡¯s never unnerved. It¡¯s like going to war, the constant battles make a big difference. With bombs exploding all around and bullets whizzing past your head, you can still calmly take a puff of a cigarette. ¡°More contrast agent, fluoroscope!¡± With people backing him up, Director Qin was confidently incisive. At first glance through the fluoroscope, everyone just wanted to laugh, the intervertebral disc was now on the left rear side of the L4/5 gap, could they go to the left side of this segment and cut another hole? Director Qin turned his head to seek help from Yang Ping, ¡°What¡¯s the solution to this difficult problem?¡± ¡°Just pull it over from the other side, the spinal canal isn¡¯t that large anyway?¡± Yang Ping felt the task was simple. Blind operation? Absolutely forbidden under foraminoscopy. ¡°What if you accidentally pull the cauda equina and yank it out, that would pose a big problem.¡± Director Qin put forward his concern. Is it impossible to differentiate between the cauda equina and the nucleus pulposus of an intervertebral disc by touch? Yang Ping was somewhat puzzled, then realized. Only he could do this, not others. Thanks to years of surgical training in his system space, he is more experienced than anyone else. ¡°If the mobility is so high, it means the pressure is not heavy. Then why are the symptoms so severe?¡± A doctor in the audience questioned. Dr. Wen took the time to explain, ¡°Some people have been trying for years to get pregnant without success, while others can conceive after just one attempt. Can you explain why?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t move, mate! Anesthesiologist, give him a sedative!¡± The patient moved again, as Dr. Wen called out. ¡°How about I do it?¡± Yang Ping volunteered to take over. If he continued like this, the patient would be exposed to unnecessary radiation, every time his position had to be redefined via fluoroscopy, let alone the risk of the intervertebral disc getting stuck in a corner. Director Qin decided to let go at this point. It seemed he was not having luck with this surgery, so it would be helpful if an expert could step in to save the situation. If the surgery can¡¯t proceed, what dignity do I have left to lose? ¡°How about this? Doctor Yang, you take over.¡± Director Qin consented. ¡°Should I get on the operation table?¡± Xiao Su spoke in a moderate tone. ¡°Just wait for me here, it will only take a few minutes.¡± At this moment, to Xiao Su, Yang Ping was the most attractive man in the world. Regardless of how tough the surgery was, he always appeared calm and composed, making it look easy. Scrub up, gown up, step up. This type of procedure could be completed by one person. Even an assistant was unnecessary. Yang Ping adjusted the working channel and the lens slightly once he was on the operating table. He inserted a neurodissector and delicately prodded around. For some unknown reason, the separated intervertebral disc appeared in his field of vision. He then smoothly replaced the neurodissector with disc forceps, and he unbelievably managed to extract the entire piece in one attempt. He placed it in the saline gauze handed to him by the nurse for washing. Once the bleeding stopped, he removed the instruments and the working sheath. He positioned the sheath in the path on the left side of the L1/2, extended the disc forceps from the broken posterior L1/2 annulus fibrosus, bit by bit he removed a portion of the intervertebral disc, shaping the annulus fibrosus, and ultimately, with the dura and nerve root as the center, carried out a thorough decompression on the head side, tail side, ventral side, dorsal side, and the opposite side. Watching this, Director Qin was dazzled. Yang Ping¡¯s skill with the foraminoscope was not just proficient, it was leagues ahead of his own. With the surgical instruments inside the spinal canal, he could manipulate them as he pleased. At this level, all spinal canal issues can be solved under the foraminoscope. Paired with percutaneous pedicle screws, and interbody fusion devices inserted under the microscope, there would be no need for open spinal surgery in the future. ¡°It¡¯s done!¡± Yang Ping put down the instruments, having solved the problem in just a few minutes. Director Qin had to admit, indeed a master is a master. For him to become a legend of the hospital, he certainly had his unique skills. One would not be proficient with the foraminoscope without at least a decade or so of surgical experience. As a young man, where would he get so much surgical practice from? As Director Qin was pondering, Yang Ping had already started to take off his gown and gloves, with Xiao Su assisting. So cool! Each time he was on the operating table, Yang Ping evidenced an invincible mode which was just too cool to ignore. ¡°Rinse it once more, then you can close it up.¡± Yang Ping advised. Director Qin looked at the extracted intervertebral disc and the adequately decompressed nerve root. The surgery was impeccable. He could regard him as his own teacher. This was not trauma orthopedics anymore, it was spinal surgery, a field Director Qin had been practicing in for ten years. ¡°Dr. Yang¡ª Thank you for your hard work¡ª¡± Director Qin was thankful from the bottom of his heart. Had he let Yang Ping take over earlier, he could have avoided all the hassle¡ªvanity could lead to disastrous consequences! His handling was not the work of a novice, it was indeed quite mature. ¡°I¡¯ll be going back to the department now¡ª¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get in touch with you later, we should hang out sometime.¡± Yang Ping stepped down from the operating table, left the operating room, with Xiao Su following him. ¡°Every time I see how invincible you are in the operating room, it¡¯s too cool!¡± Xiao Su secretly murmured. Chapter 324: 0308: Killing Two Birds with One Stone Chapter 324: Chapter 0308: Killing Two Birds with One Stone In the vast world, anything is possible, even a human spinal disc being able to move around within the spinal column. If Director Qin hadn¡¯t seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed it. The spinal canal was so tiny, how could such a large piece of tissue move around in it? Yang Ping explained the case all the way to Xiao Su, who became increasingly interested and questioned Yang Ping tirelessly. Just when they returned to the department, Director Qin personally called to express his thanks and wanted to arrange a dinner with Yang Ping, his tone extremely humble and courteous. To build a closer relationship seemed to require a meal. This kind of socializing did not suit Yang Ping¡¯s introverted character, but one had to bend with the wind. In the afternoon, Xiao Guoqiang came over for a check-up. His nerve had grown past his wrist and reached his palm, showing no signs of stagnation. The hope of restoring full hand feeling and mobility was very high. ... Such cases could have topped the international top journals thirty years ago, but now it¡¯s different, the tide of technology is no longer focused on this. Due to necessary debridement of vascular and nerve ends during the operation, and to minimize vascular and nerve suture tension, bone shortening was necessary when replanting. Each interface was slightly shortened, and the whole right upper limb was shortened by about five centimeters compared to the left one. This made it look very uncoordinated. However, Xiao Guoqiang didn¡¯t mind. He was already satisfied with saving this arm. Being shorter was better than being non-existent. After examining Xiao Guoqiang, Yang Ping told him, ¡°In the future, you can opt for orthopedic extension to lengthen your forearm, palm and fingers proportionally. This will restore the normal length of your upper right limb, but not now, you will have to wait at least a year.¡± ¡°Extension is possible? You¡¯re saying my arm can be as long as the left one?¡± Xiao Guoqiang was somewhat disbelieving, thinking that Dr. Yang was just trying to comfort him. However, Xiao Guoqiang knew that Dr. Yang never lied about medical matters. If it were really possible, he could have an arm with no significant defects in appearance. ¡°Don¡¯t get too excited yet. We still need to wait until your nerve function is fully restored. Whether the nerve can grow over the last bit is still uncertain. The success rate is high, but it doesn¡¯t exclude the possibility of stopping at some point,¡± Yang Ping¡¯s words were very objective. He had an overall plan for Xiao Guoqiang¡¯s treatment, advancing step by step, slowly. ¡°I plan to get married on May 1st, and I will invite everyone to celebrate together,¡± Xiao Guoqiang happily said, turning to look at his gentle and considerate fiance?e. The shy primary school teacher¡¯s cheeks were flushed, showing bashfulness. A hero matched with a beauty, it¡¯s a good thing since ancient times! ¡°Continue to receive functional training in the Rehabilitation Department until your nerve function is fully restored,¡± admonished Yang Ping. Xiao Guoqiang was very obedient. He wanted to return to his job as soon as possible. Although it was dangerous, he loved his job and felt a sense of honor doing it. At five in the afternoon, Yang Ping¡¯s cellphone gave a QQ Mail alert of a new email. Upon opening it, it wasn¡¯t spam. It was an email from AJSM in the United States. There were actually three emails, all reply emails from AJSM reviewers. One was just received, the other two were received around noon and one o¡¯clock, which he failed to check. Converted into U.S. time, it should be late night and early morning. Do Americans work this hard? Don¡¯t they sleep? The feedback from the three reviewers was very brief: ¡°Brilliant, you have solved a difficult problem.¡± ¡°Incredible, you have summarized the data we need.¡± ¡°Congratulations to you, and to me, it¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve seen a manuscript like this.¡± The editors had not much revision opinions on the article, just correcting some grammatical habits, indicating that it would be published as soon as possible. With AJSM, the average peer review period is three months. It has only been a month now, and the editors have already responded and indicated that they will arrange for publication as soon as possible. Yang Ping began to wonder if he had submitted to a high-quality fake journal. One of the reviewers was actually Professor Robert. Yang Ping looked up Professor Robert¡¯s personal information. This professor was actually the director of the Sports Medicine Center at the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States and the current president of the North American Society for Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy. AJSM, the journal with the highest impact factor in orthopedics, had accepted both his papers at once. This was indeed unprecedented. Yang Ping found Song Zimo and told him, ¡°The AJSM reviewers have replied. Both papers have been accepted in one go, and the editor is arranging for publication as soon as possible.¡± Song Zimo was also a bit incredulous, ¡°AJSM? They have replied now, haven¡¯t they got the wrong publication? Nowadays there are many scam journals for making money. You didn¡¯t submit to a high-quality fake, did you? They didn¡¯t ask for dollars, did they?¡± In these times, doctors have also become targets for scams. Because promotion needs to have papers published, many doctors are so busy with their clinical work that they don¡¯t have time to write papers. What to do? Buy! Where there¡¯s demand, there¡¯s a market. This is an open secret. The numerous business cards surrounding each job title examination site show how hot this market is. Scammers have also come up with new means. They create a whole set of fakes, from journals to websites. It¡¯s said that the printing paper for the journal is even better than the real one. And they offer package prices. With just a few thousand yuan, your paper can be successfully published. They claim it can be checked online and will be worry-free for job title promotion. For doctors who don¡¯t usually publish papers, this is such a time-saving offer. Who wouldn¡¯t want to make money with it? They believe it¡¯s true, so they transfer the money. The scammers kept their promises. The paper was published on time, and a fake journal was ceremoniously sent to you. And indeed, the fake website does show the published paper. It¡¯s not until job title promotion when it¡¯s found out that the journal is fake. They were tricked. Yang Ping showed Song Zimo his email. Song Zimo helped him collect these materials, and he checked them again carefully. It was accurate. For a high-ranking scholar who had his doctoral thesis published in The Lancet, he would not make such a low-level mistake. If the journal is genuine, then it¡¯s a done deal, and moreover with one stone killing two birds! Awesome! Song Zimo holds up two thumbs in approval. Liang Fatty feels a bit upset. There have been rumors going around the hospital that he was trying to woo a flight attendant on an airplane. He was wronged. All Liang Fatty did was find the woman attractive, glanced at her a few times, and then ordered an orange juice due to his palpitations. Now, people are saying that he was hitting on the flight attendant, and even worse, harassing her. His potential romantic interests who had faith in him, now began doubting his character. Just like that, any potential success was nipped in the bud. People are brainless. A toad wishing to eat swan meat, not considering if the toad is of high grade. If it was Song Zimo chasing the flight attendant, that¡¯s plausible. But this toad, Liang Fatty... But who needs intelligence for rumors? Just go with what feels good. ¡°I¡¯ll look into this for you, bro. Whoever started this rumor, I¡¯ll give them a slap.¡± Zhang Lin console. Yang Ping, seeing the dejected look on Fatty¡¯s face, said, ¡°Fatty, why bother? You¡¯ve been sulking over it for days. In my opinion, you should be thanking the person who started the rumor. It¡¯s essentially a tailor-made matrimonial ad that raises your value.¡± Thinking about it, Fatty realized, wasn¡¯t this implying his infinite charm? His worries instantly vanished. You are strong as the wind, blowing over the hills. ¡°Yeah, brother¡¯s right. You should be thanking this guy...¡± Zhang Lin agreed with this perspective. Yang Ping gave him a look, and Zhang Lin immediately avoided him and stopped talking. Director Han appears at his office door. Old Han is now permanently based at the Orthopedic Research Institute and rarely comes over. ¡°Come, Xiao Yang, have a seat!¡± Old Han sought out Yang Ping specifically. The doctoral exams were approaching, and he planned to give Yang Ping half a month¡¯s leave to prepare. After all, there¡¯s a lot to cover for the PhD exam, not to mention, the English part alone poses a problem to many. ¡°The doctoral exam is approaching. You tell me how long a break you need, and I¡¯ll approve it. Just make sure you get good results.¡± Old Han was sorting through some tea leaves. ¡°Let¡¯s have some Sabah Black Tea. It¡¯s something you guys bought, let¡¯s try it together.¡± Yang Ping had brought it back from Malaysia after performing a surgery. Old Han hadn¡¯t had the heart to open it yet. ¡°I don¡¯t need a break, we¡¯ll just go on as usual. On the exam days, I can take a break.¡± Yang Ping hadn¡¯t thought about taking time off. In truth, what was the need? He had plenty of preparation time. Plus, if he really had to revise, he could just go into the System Space and focus on studying for a few months. It would only cost him a few thousand points. He was not someone short on points now. He had originally thought the system was weak, but the more he used it, the more he realized that this system was unstoppable. Just the system library alone, made learning limitless. ¡°No break? Every day I see you doing surgeries in the department and taking naps at noon, I never see you reading. Even if you read after going home in the evening, it¡¯s not enough. Judging by your lively appearance in the morning, you don¡¯t seem to stay up to study either. You knew you had to take the exam, I didn¡¯t get you an exemption this time.¡± Old Han voiced his worry. Being good at practical stuff doesn¡¯t mean that you are good at taking tests. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It¡¯s just a doctoral exam, after all. Just a few exam papers, how tough can they be?¡± Yang Ping reassured Old Han. Old Han stared at him. This confidence, it was as dominating as when he was doing surgery. ¡°Have some tea. This black tea isn¡¯t bad, right?¡± Yang Ping felt uneasy under his gaze. Old Han shifted his gaze, ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t need a break?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t!¡± Yang Ping remained calm. ¡°How¡¯s your paper coming along? Any news?¡± Every time Old Han came, it was a regular push. ¡°The two papers submitted to AJSM have passed the review. The editor says they will be published soon.¡± Yang Ping said nonchalantly. ¡°Both papers passed?¡± AJSM, it¡¯s the apex in the world of orthopedics, this was no laughing matter. ¡°Yes, the papers were reviewed by Professor Robert.¡± It was rare to see two papers published in top journals simultaneously, but for this lad, the unusual was commonplace. Many of the surgeries he did, were performed better than anyone¡¯s, so it was only natural to widen one¡¯s perspective when assessing this extraordinary person. ¡°Once you pass the doctoral exam and your papers are published, I¡¯ll talk to Dean Xia about a promotion.¡± Director Han said leisurely. Promoting someone with lesser qualifications to a higher position was more common in private hospitals or ordinary first-rate hospitals, but was quite rare in a provincial-level teaching hospital. Yang Ping¡¯s promotion to associate professor based on these few papers was still not a certainty. If he had papers published in ¡®Science¡¯ or ¡®Nature¡¯, it might be enough. However, those journals generally focus on basic research, and clinical articles are rarely published there. If one seeks to rank surgical medical techniques, proficiency, unsurpassable expertise in performing surgeries, is just the first level. Higher up is the innovation of surgical methods, enhancing the safety, simplicity, and effectiveness of operations, a significant contribution. Then there¡¯s the innovation of theories, and above that, is the revolution of basic theories. So, if a surgeon is only good at their craft, they will always be just a ¡°craftsman¡±. ¡°Dean Xia is already considering this.¡± Chapter 325: 0309: Brain-burning Chapter 325: Chapter 0309: Brain-burning Yang Ping¡¯s words were so casually spoken, yet Director Han had no doubt. For him, Old Han had already extended his imagination as far as it could go, but now it seemed not far enough. ¡°If there¡¯s one article in ¡®Science¡¯ or ¡®Nature,¡¯ could I be promoted to associate professor ahead of schedule?¡± Yang Ping asked merely out of curiosity, with no other intentions. Old Han was stunned, he really could not imagine big enough: ¡°This¡ªif there¡¯s such an article, not to mention an early promotion, I¡¯m afraid you could become a doctoral supervisor.¡± Now Old Han was a bit confused, he came to talk about applying for a doctorate, and somehow the talk drifted to the issue of doctoral supervisor. Doctor, doctoral student supervisor, it sounded like a tongue twister. ¡°Can one article really secure me a doctoral supervisor position?¡± Yang Ping gleamed at this idea. ... ¡°Really!¡± Old Han almost spouted his tea. Are you dreaming? Who are these people, do they know what kind of journals ¡®Science¡¯ and ¡®Nature¡¯ are? The thought that these are similar to a primary school¡¯s copywriting paper, where you can stick anything on it after a few scribbles. Yang Ping didn¡¯t speak. He set his teacup on the tea table next to him, his right index finger rhythmically tapping on his thigh, although he didn¡¯t hum any sound. He was very calm, just pondering whether he should delve into ¡®Science¡¯ and ¡®Nature¡¯ journals at some point. As his abilities improve, he should set higher goals. ¡°Xiao Yang?¡± Old Han saw that he was a little strange. Yang Ping responded: ¡°Ah!¡± ¡°Just in case, I mean in case, Director Han, don¡¯t mind, I¡¯m just curious and want to learn more...you said that I would be a doctoral student and at the same time a doctoral supervisor? How should this work? It seems a bit confusing.¡± Yang Ping suddenly asked. ¡°This...¡± Old Han was disoriented by the question; it was a brain-burning question. What would happen in this case? There should be no conflict between the two, right? Some professors, after graduating with their masters¡¯ degree, but still desiring to fulfill their doctoral dream, also apply for doctorate programs, or those who have already become doctoral supervisors, it doesn¡¯t matter if they¡¯ve completed their doctorate or not. ¡°There¡¯s no conflict, you¡¯re studying my PhD program, not the PhD program of your doctoral students.¡± Old Han believed his statement made it clear, but admitted it was convoluted. ¡°Well, I thought so too.¡± Yang Ping also agreed with his answer. The two were silent for a while, and Old Han asked: ¡°Any more questions?¡± ¡°No more!¡± Yang Ping was still thinking about something. ¡°Buck up, at present the biggest thing is the doctoral exam, understand?¡± ¡°Ah, got it!¡± The two drank tea for a while. That evening, Dean Xia had a dinner appointment with Old Han, and it was time for Old Han to end his workday. As he was leaving, Old Han repeatedly reminded Yang Ping about the doctorate exam. After leaving Old Han¡¯s office, the nurse told Yang Ping: ¡°Your friend is waiting for you, in the meeting room, a woman, she¡¯s been waiting for a long time.¡± ¡°A woman, a friend, who could it be? Could it be Huang Jiahui bringing some equipment documents?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t pay much attention. He went to the meeting room to see and his friend had already come out, standing at the door: ¡°Dr. Yang, hello. I¡¯m sorry, because I don¡¯t have your phone number, I didn¡¯t make an appointment.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s memory was very good, even if he didn¡¯t try to remember someone, he wouldn¡¯t easily forget. This was Ning Qi, the daughter of his patient, Mr. Ning, from the Overseas Chinese Building. ¡°Miss Ning?¡± Yang Ping could not think of why she came to see him. Ning Qi, thirty years old, quite tall and slender, her beautiful face blushed. She seemed to have recovered from the grief of losing her father: ¡°Sorry to bother you, I¡¯m here to thank Dr. Yang.¡± ¡°No need to be polite, please sit.¡± Yang Ping asked her to sit. The meeting room was quite spacious, usually used for signing documents and talking to patients. Ning Qi sat down, laid a gift box on the table, and showed great grace and generosity: ¡°Dr. Yang, this is a box of cookies, as a token of gratitude. I am very grateful for how you cared for my father, allowing him to pass away with great dignity.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mention it, it¡¯s what we¡¯re supposed to do.¡± Yang Ping felt like he wasn¡¯t of much help at that time. The two didn¡¯t know what to talk about. Ning Qi was a bit uneasy, which seemed out of tune with her usual maturity and composure: ¡°Oh, this is my business card, Dr. Yang. If you don¡¯t mind, we could be friends. I just came from your outpatient building, and saw the introductions of your hospital. You¡¯ve conducted numerous admirable surgeries.¡± Yang Ping received her business card with both hands. The card showed that Ning Qi was the chairman of Anning Group. Then Yang Ping remembered, her father Ning Tianxiong was the boss of Anning Group, she now inherited her father¡¯s business and took over as chairman of the Anning Group. This young woman was actually the chairperson of this massive enterprise. There was no way to discern this fact. If not knowing, one might even think she was a middle school teacher. The Anning Insurance, where Director Zhu served, wasn¡¯t it a subsidiary of the Anning Group? Now the company where Director Zhu served as vice president perhaps should be considered a subsidiary of the subsidiaries under the Anning Group. ¡°I¡¯ve been wanting to visit Doctor Yang for a while, but I¡¯ve been too busy with company affairs, so it¡¯s only now that I can come. Miss Ning sincerely said. During those days, Miss Ning was always at her father¡¯s side, seeing Yang Ping almost every day. But their conversations, mostly about Mr. Ning¡¯s condition, left them unsure of what to discuss outside of it. ¡°You¡¯re very busy, and I won¡¯t take any more of your time. These cookies are homemade, and once again, thank you for taking care of my father. I¡¯m truly grateful!¡± Miss Ning said, as she bowed and prepared to leave. When Mr. Ning passed away, he never got a chance to speak directly to his son, leaving this world with regret. Seeing Ning Qi¡¯s retreating figure, Yang Ping felt deeply moved. After seeing Miss Ning off, Yang Ping went to the ward. He visited Sisi, checked the adjustment registration card of the external fixation frame by her bed and found that she seemed more spirited after the New Year, possibly due to the cessation of radiation and chemotherapy. ¡°Thank you for helping my mom find a job,¡± Sisi said with her youthful voice. Every time he saw her, she was always doodling on table. He wondered what she was writing or drawing this time. Sisi showed Yang Ping her drawings, ¡°I¡¯m drawing a comic. In it, my illness is portrayed as a monster that I¡¯m battling against. You¡¯re helping me, and I¡¯ve temporarily defeated it. It¡¯s run away.¡± ¡°So this toothy critter here is your disease?¡± Yang Ping admired her drawing skills. She was good at everything. If it weren¡¯t for her illness, she would be sitting in a spacious and well-lit classroom, an excellent student consistently praised by teachers. ¡°You even know how to use comic panels?¡± Yang Ping was impressed. Sisi defended her skills, ¡°I studied a lot of comics before I learned, you see, drawing a single frame is too flat, lacks impact. Using panels to illustrate from different angles brings out the tension of the scene¡ª¡± Her bedside chair was neatly piled with a lot of comics. Yang Ping picked up a volume of ¡°Slam Dunk¡±. ¡°That big brother, he¡¯s just like Rukawa Kaede in the manga, always so cool.¡± Sisi pointed at the comic in Yang Ping¡¯s hand. Yang Ping laughed, ¡°And what about me? Who do I resemble in the comic?¡± Sisi was a little troubled and furrowed her brows, ¡°Big brother, I don¡¯t think there¡¯s a character as awesome as you in there!¡± ¡°What should we do then?¡± Yang Ping teased her. This had Sisi stumped. She pouted and propped her chin, ¡°Let me think... What if we combined several of the strongest characters, could that work?¡± Yang Ping put the book away, ¡°You should rest now. You need to prepare for a complete set of examinations again, are you worried?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not worried anymore. I¡¯ve been ready for the darkest night for a long time. Big brother, I have a question for you.¡± Sisi said calmly. ¡°Go ahead, we¡¯re good friends.¡± Yang Ping had no idea what she wanted to ask. Sisi hesitated for a moment, ¡°Tell me, how can I persuade my mom and dad to have another brother or sister?¡± Yang Ping could no longer hold back his tears, his eyes instantly moist, his vision blurred. ¡°Silly child, don¡¯t worry about it for now. They probably just want to give all their love to you at the moment. Trust me, everything will get better.¡± Yang Ping hugged her and encouraged her. ¡°But¨CI¡¯m scared¨C¡± Sisi whispered. As he left the ward, Yang Ping blinked, trying to clear his blurred vision. Sisi¡¯s mother had started working in the department as a nursing worker. She was diligent and organized. She took on extra duties beyond her job scope, like helping doctors and nurses with deliveries and takeaways. Cai Qiaojun was very satisfied with her work. She was not picky or grumpy and always worked hard with a grateful heart. Xiao Su was waiting for Yang Ping to join her for dinner, even though it was past her finishing time. Song Zimo and Tang Fei came towards him. Tang Fei was tutoring Sisi daily. They did not know that Sisi was already aware of her condition. ¡°Brother?¡± Song Zimo noticed something off in Yang Ping¡¯s eyes. Yang Ping casually replied, ¡°Oh, an eyelash fell into my eye and it wouldn¡¯t come out even after blinking a few times. Are you coming to tutor Sisi?¡± ¡°Yes, I assigned her some homework this morning, and now I¡¯m here to check on it.¡± Tang Fei knocked on the door a few times. ¡°Please come in!¡± Sisi answered from inside. ¡°Xiao Su is waiting for you, you should hurry.¡± Song Zimo told Yang Ping. Yang Ping straightened his white gown, lifted his chest and walked through the hallway. Chapter 326: 0310: Consumer Chapter 326: Chapter 0310: Consumer Innumerable patients, endless surgeries, as the cycle continues, this is how each day is spent. There are two things in the world that people hope will disappear every day, but they never do. These two things are¡ª disease and war. Where is health? Where medical care is most advanced, people are most likely to be healthy, and life expectancy is highest. Where is peace? Where the armed forces are most powerful, the likelihood of war is the least, and people live the most stable lives. The results of Sisi¡¯s follow-up examination came out. Yang Ping let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, there were no obvious signs of recurrence. ... However, Yang Ping was clear that recurrence was only a matter of time. With malign tumors at this stage, surgical methods could not completely eradicate the tumor cells. It¡¯s just that the remaining tumor cells had not yet divided up to a significant extent and were not yet noticeably reflected in the imaging. There were quite a few surgeries. By the time he finished the last one for the day, it was already past six in the afternoon. Yang Ping suddenly realized that the doctoral examination was tomorrow. ¡°I¡¯m taking a break tomorrow and the day after. You lead them in rounding and operating,¡± Yang Ping said as he discarded his gloves into the yellow trash can. ¡°Doctors are always on the road to examinations. After finishing undergraduate study, it¡¯s on to the master¡¯s degree, then the doctoral degree after the master¡¯s degree, and the attending physician examination after that. After becoming an attending physician, it¡¯s on to the deputy senior, and then progressing to full senior, with a variety of dizzying exams interspersed. If one day you suddenly find that you can take a break and not have to take any exams, congratulations, you probably only have a few more years before retirement.¡± Zhang Lin said as he lifted the sterile cover. ¡°Since we have chosen this bowl of rice, we must eat this bowl of rice well. Every industry has its own hardships. Which industry is easy? Teachers? Haven¡¯t you seen parents hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction because they were tutoring their children with homework? Teachers face dozens of children. Imagine how many times they might have myocardial infarctions. Businessmen? You see them as a glamorous boss, but have you seen them when they were sleeping on the floor eating sweet potatoes? Civil servants? Everyone thinks it¡¯s easy, but they also have to pass many thresholds and take on numerous tasks. Overtime work is a common occurrence.¡± ¡°Next year, both of us also need to prepare for the doctoral examination. I heard that the hospital is planning to require a doctoral degree. Perhaps one day the policy will be implemented, and those without a doctoral degree will have to transfer positions. We need to be prepared so as not to be caught off guard.¡± Little Five and Zhang Lin lifted the bed together. ¡°I¡¯ve already booked my car. When the time comes, Little Five, Fatty, you two will come with me to pick up the car. Each of you get a red packet. Make sure you prepare it for me in advance.¡± Zhang Lin was living a good life now. ¡°You aren¡¯t scared to drive on the road, are you? You want us to help you drive it back?¡± Fatty teased him. Little Five smiled and said, ¡°A doctor from the neurosurgery department just picked up a car a few days ago. He said he wanted to find the joy of driving, so he chose a manual gear. On the way home from the 4S shop, the car stalled more than a dozen times. In the end, he had to call an experienced driver from his department to help him drive home.¡± ¡°Underestimate your brother Zhang¡ª¡± Zhang Lin was not convinced. Little Five stuck to his sore spot: ¡°Remember how clumsy you were playing PlayerUnknown¡¯s Battlegrounds? How many times has Elder Man Zhang scolded you?¡± Director Tian called. He had a patient over there and wanted Yang Ping to help him take a look. The patient was a friend of Director Kong and was suffering from a damaged ligament in his right knee. After seeing the outpatient department, the patient was not reassured and asked Director Kong to accompany him to the Overseas Chinese Building to see Director Tian again. From the tone of his voice, Yang Ping figured out that the patient probably had a complex knee joint with multiple ligament ruptures. Otherwise, Director Tian would have sorted it out himself and wouldn¡¯t have called him over. The Overseas Chinese Building originally only had an internal medicine department and a surgery department. Now an orthopedics department has been added. Director Tian is the head of the department and he has moved several doctors from the major orthopedic department. Maintaining about twenty patients on a regular basis is considered a good deal. Although this new boss of the Overseas Chinese Building is young, under forty, he is well-rounded and adept at networking, not at all inferior to his two predecessors¡ªDirector Kong and Director Zhuang. ¡°I¡¯ll go with you.¡± Song Zimo followed in Yang Ping¡¯s footsteps. Whether it¡¯s the knee joint or the shoulder joint, if three or more major ligaments are ruptured, it¡¯s called a multi-ligament rupture. It¡¯s not very common. Seeing one is rare enough. The development of a doctor requires nourishment from cases. For someone like Song Zimo, if fed a bit more, he could grow rapidly. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Yang Ping led him. ¡°You should be confident about the doctoral exam, right?¡± Song Zimo was a bit worried about him. Theoretical knowledge, no matter how smart, still requires time. Yang Ping didn¡¯t speak. The exam was tomorrow, so there was no point in saying anything now. The patient, Junhao, was a 25-year-old male professional football player. He was already sitting on the bed in the treatment room of the orthopedics department in the Overseas Chinese Building. His MRI results hung from the light box. The patient was engrossed in his phone, laughing to himself while in conversation with someone. A well-dressed, fashionably attired woman in her fifties stood beside him, waiting. ¡°Oh, Doctor Yang is here.¡± Director Tian and Director Kong stopped their conversation. Director Tian immediately introduced him, ¡°This is our hospital¡¯s Doctor Yang. He performed Luo Jin¡¯s surgery.¡± ¡°Luo Jin?¡± The woman sneered slightly. Yang Ping walked to the light box. The MRI showed a fresh injury. The anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments, medial collateral ligament, and posteromedial corner were completely torn. There were four ruptures, which were usually career-ending injuries. The violence of the original injury must have been substantial. ¡°He and Luo Jin are teammates.¡± Director Tian also came over to look at the images. The woman was the mother of Junhao, she possessed an intimidating air of an affluent housewife. They had always looked down on Luo Jin, considering him as someone who had come up from an unconventional background with no formal training during his childhood and was only successful because of his luck in scoring a few extra goals. They couldn¡¯t fathom why his popularity was so high. Junhao, too, had been playing football since he was a child. However, his talent was mediocre. Fortunately, his family was wealthy and so they sent him to Brazil for training. He was able to participate in all kinds of competitions and was a celebrity in his own right. But despite the considerable amount of money they invested, his skills hadn¡¯t improved much. Watching him play football could make one feel sick. But that didn¡¯t stop them from letting him play in matches. No matter how many eggs you threw at him, it couldn¡¯t impede his rise to fame and wealth. ¡°Please lie down, I need to check your knee.¡± After finishing examining the images, Yang Ping was ready to carry out a physical examination. Junhao was unwilling to put down the phone in his hand. This lack of respect for the doctor irked Yang Ping a bit, but he didn¡¯t say anything. He just reminded him, ¡°Please put away your phone temporarily and cooperate with the examination.¡± ¡°Oh, sorry.¡± Junhao reluctantly put away his phone and softly said to the screen, ¡°Baby, I¡¯ll be back to chat in a bit.¡± ¡°During the examination, there might be some pain. If you feel any pain, please let me know immediately and I¡¯ll try to be as gentle as possible.¡± Yang Ping put on his gloves and patiently explained the procedure to Junhao. Junhao sighed, ¡°Doctor, it¡¯s very painful, don¡¯t be so harsh.¡± Harsh? He hadn¡¯t even started yet. Yang Ping was as gentle as he could be as he started the medial and lateral stress tests to determine whether the collateral ligaments were damaged, the extent of injury, and whether the knee joint was stable under medial and lateral stress.¡± As soon as Yang Ping applied pressure, Junhao started to scream, ¡°Oh my God, Doctor, can you be a bit gentler? This is too harsh.¡± If it weren¡¯t for Yang Ping¡¯s quick reaction to hold down his leg, Junhao¡¯s leg would have shot up and kicked him. He stopped his examination. Normally, even female patients wouldn¡¯t have such a low tolerance for pain. The woman, seeing this, was extremely dissatisfied. She stepped up and blocked Yang Ping, ¡°Can you be a little more gentle? What are you trying to do? You¡¯ve hurt him. Do you know he¡¯s a professional football player? Do you know this?¡± No one expected this reaction, all he was doing was a normal examination. Even children cooperate more during a physical examination. ¡°We plan to seek treatment in the United States. The appointment hasn¡¯t been scheduled yet, so we wanted to have a look here first. I know that you guys aren¡¯t competent, this is the level of healthcare in our country. But, at the very least, you should avoid causing further injury!¡± The woman declared angrily. ¡°Director Tian, if this is the situation, then I won¡¯t waste everyone¡¯s time, I am quite busy, I will take my leave.¡± Yang Ping took off his gloves and accurately threw them into the yellow garbage bin. Yang Ping had already felt irritated by their indifferent attitude, but he had still maintained his composure. Currently, this disrespectful behavior from the patient was unacceptable. What was the point of treating such a patient? The most awkward positions were held by Director Tian and Director Kong. Just a while ago, Director Kong had introduced the patient to them and invited Yang Ping for the consultation. They hadn¡¯t expected this kind of attitude from the patient and their family. Were they here to seek medical consultation or just to show off? ¡°Ah! And now you¡¯re throwing gloves. Who are you venting your anger at? Let me tell you, we are here as paying customers. What does this attitude of yours mean?¡± Junhao¡¯s mother, seeing that Yang Ping wasn¡¯t giving into her demands, grew angrier and started creating a scene. ¡°As a customer? I¡¯m sorry, but for now, I¡¯m closed.¡± Yang Ping exited with Song Zimo. Director Kong explained to Junhao¡¯s mother whilst Director Tian went after Yang Ping to apologize. He hadn¡¯t expected such an awkward situation. He had only recently got to know this patient and his family. A quick look at the MRI revealed multiple ligament tears in the right knee, an injury that only Yang Ping could handle. ¡°That doctor, I¡¯m going to file a complaint against him for his lack of medical ethics!¡± Junhao¡¯s mother cursed. Yang Ping remained calm and wasn¡¯t irritated. He stopped at the door and told Director Tian, who was following him, ¡°You tell her, although it¡¯s right to treat and save patients, we doctors do it whilst standing, not kneeling. Doctors and patients are equals ¨C¡± Junhao¡¯s mother had never heard such a thing before in G City. In every hospital she went to, the doctors surrounded her. She couldn¡¯t accept that a young doctor wouldn¡¯t tolerate being bossed around. What was going on? She started clamoring to see Yang Ping¡¯s work badge to file a complaint. Initially, Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to provoke her and thought it¡¯d be better to have one less problem. But now, she acted as though the doctor had committed a mistake. It was definitely not a misunderstanding any longer. Then, Yang Ping displayed his badge, ¡°Did you see it clearly?¡± ¡°Remember this, you¡¯re just a doctor, why are you showing off?¡± Junhao¡¯s mother displayed a nasty attitude. ¡°You also remember this, no matter where you go to see a doctor in the future, learn to respect people, alright? This is basic manners.¡± Yang Ping was not polite in his response either. Song Zimo, standing by his side, was ready to intervene at any time and protect Yang Ping from any unfair treatment. He had seen many unreasonable patients who screamed, shouted, kicked, and even stripped off their clothes and cried harassment. Yang Ping was not a quarrelsome person and didn¡¯t want her to continue crisising, so he left with Song Zimo. This made Junhao¡¯s mother angrier, and she wanted to follow them, but Director Kong held her back. All the while, Song Zimo shielded Yang Ping, ¡°You¡¯re just like a shrew, not letting things go. What more do you want to do now¡ª¡± Chapter 327: 0311: Feeling Anxious Chapter 327: Chapter 0311: Feeling Anxious Yang Ping ignored her. Arguing with someone like her was just like barking at a mad dog. Even though the woman positioned herself as being acquainted with Director Kong, in reality, she was a friend of a friend, so the connection was tenuous at best. ¡°You stop right there! Don¡¯t you dare walk away from me!¡± she yelled, refusing to be ignored. If it wasn¡¯t for the professional relationship required between a doctor and a patient, Song Zimo would have already dealt with her harshly. She was already being ignored, yet she refused to stop pushing. ¡°You should go get treatment in the U.S., and you better go quickly, don¡¯t delay your treatment. We admit, we aren¡¯t up to your standards, we can¡¯t treat your condition. Is that not enough?¡± Song Zimo was a force to be reckoned with when provoked, his gaze alone could kill. He glared at the woman, who did not dare to approach him. She took note of his imposing stature, realizing it would be no easy feat to confront him. Even her son would have a hard time dealing with him. ... Bao Junhao came out, hobbling with the support of his crutch, and seeing his mother¡¯s flustered state, he jabbed his crutch in her defense, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare leave! Have some guts, how dare you treat us like this, I¡¯ll make you pay for this!¡± The injury didn¡¯t deter his combative stance; on the contrary, it stoked up the troublemaker in him, just like he used to be on the football field. Yang Ping paid no mind to their threats and continued to walk faster to put distance between them. He understood that some battles aren¡¯t worth fighting, especially with people like these. On the other hand, Song Zimo stayed behind to shield Yang Ping, ready to fight should they decide to turn violent. He would do anything to protect Yang Ping ¡ª after all, he is skilled in martial arts. A doctor quickly pressed the elevator button for them. Yang Ping hurried in, followed by Song Zimo. They managed to evade the woman and her son. ¡°Don¡¯t bother with them, it¡¯s not worth getting angry over such trivial matters.¡± Song Zimo tried to console Yang Ping. Yang Ping was rather calm in response: ¡°It¡¯s fine, I have an exam tomorrow, I don¡¯t have time to get upset about this. They can seek treatment wherever they want.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s calm demeanor wasn¡¯t an act, years of refining in the system space had molded him into a person of exceptional composure and precision. ¡°That¡¯s the spirit. Rest well today and do your best in the exam tomorrow.¡± Song Zimo gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. ¡°Things have been hectic in the department lately, I appreciate your help with Zhang Lin and Little Five.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the department, and don¡¯t pay any mind to those two either. Just focus on your exams.¡± The elevator arrived, and they both exited. Yang Ping received a call from Director Han: ¡°Xiao Yang, I heard about the incident at the Overseas Chinese Building...¡± ¡°Director Han, let me explain...¡± Considering the call was from Director Han, Yang Ping naturally took it seriously. He didn¡¯t want any misunderstandings. Director Han¡¯s voice boomed, ¡°No need for explanations, leave these petty issues aside and concentrate on your exams, that¡¯s all.¡± ¡°So, they really filed a complaint?¡± Song Zimo overheard the conversation. Yang Ping hung up the phone, ¡°It¡¯s fine. Old Han told me not to explain, saying I need not concern myself with such nonsense.¡± ¡ª After all the preparation, the doctoral exam came and went within two days. As soon as the exam was over, Old Han called to ask how it went. Yang Ping didn¡¯t feel too good about it, there was a sense of uneasiness: ¡°I didn¡¯t do too well¡ª¡± ¡°You are done with your exams, don¡¯t worry about it. We can sit down for a cup of tea and relax. At worst, I can get a reserved exam spot for you next year. This isn¡¯t that big of a deal, it¡¯s only a year¡¯s delay. Nothing more,¡± Old Han¡¯s voice was as gruff as usual. Originally, Yang Ping thought if he could score average marks, it would be sufficient, but in the heat of the moment, he worked hard on every question. The examiners probably deducted points ruthily. It felt like he was overdoing it. Considering, he realized deductions could have been made on his English essay, basic subjects, and professional courses regarding disputed answers. Other than that, he couldn¡¯t think of where else they could have deducted marks. His overall score might be unnaturally high. A high score made him even more uneasy. Screw it! What¡¯s done is done. Since Old Han likes high scores, Yang Ping thought, let him enjoy it then. ¡°So, how¡¯d it go? Did you pass?¡± The next day when Yang Ping returned to the office, his colleagues were eager to know his results. Zhang Lin and Little Five approached him from either side to ask about it. Yang Ping waved his hand and kept his silence. The exam was over, and there was no point in talking about it. The less said, the better. ¡°Did he flunk it?¡± Given his expression and reluctance to discuss his results, they concluded he must have flunked it. Considering his day-to-day responsibilities with surgeries and limited time for studying, it was understandable why he flunked. The doctoral exam and clinical work are polar opposites. Having failed was not the end of the world, there was always next year. They knew better than to rub salt on his wound. They figured let sleeping dogs lie and decided not to bring up the exam. ¡°Here are the application documents for Takahashi Fumiya and Fujiwara Miyuki. Could you check them? If you approve, just sign here,¡± said Zhang Lin cautiously. The transfer documents had arrived from the Medical Education Department the very day. Since Zhang Lin was in charge of the education department, the medical education department sent the documents to him. Yang Ping carefully reviewed their documents. Takahashi Fumiya had passed Level Four of the Chinese proficiency exam, and Fujiwara Miyuki had passed Level Six. Both candidates had good educational backgrounds and clinical experiences with sincerity reflected in their self-introduction columns. They both met the department¡¯s criteria for transfers. Therefore, Yang Ping signed ¡°Approved¡± along with his name. ¡°The educational aspect of the department is your responsibility. Be strict with the management and treat everyone equally. Ensure every trainee acquires profound learning and doesn¡¯t tarnish our reputation. This task is quite suitable for you.¡± Yang Ping reminded Zhang Lin. ¡°I quite like managing people, it¡¯s my area of expertise. You can trust me, I¡¯ll be strict.¡± Zhang Lin was elated with the additional responsibility. It was right up his alley. Takahashi... you conceited jerk. Just wait till I make your life miserable. Zhang Lin could barely conceal his resentment against Takahashi. ¡°I mean I¡¯m good at managing student cohorts; being patient, diligent, and empathetic towards young individuals¡ª¡± Zhang Lin quickly corrected himself, realizing his phrasing had been too bureaucratic. ¡°Xiao Yang, come in for a moment!¡± Director Han was signaling from the doorway. He didn¡¯t mention a word about Yang Ping¡¯s doctoral exam, assuming that he had failed, and knowing better than to salt his wounds. ¡°Set aside your doctoral exam for now, and don¡¯t worry about it too much. The patient who filed a complaint against you is being dealt with. You don¡¯t need to pay any mind to such matters, the hospital won¡¯t let them create havoc. However, they might want to get some information from you for the records, just cooperate and say a few words when the time comes. This patient has some clout, his household is involved in business with assets worth billions, and they think they¡¯re almighty. You were right; we are doctors standing on our feet, not beggars. This family is just trying to stir up trouble after they¡¯ve had their fill. They found connections equal in rank to Dean Xia, pressuring her to make you apologize and give them an explanation. But Dean Xia suggested that they apologize first, she¡¯ll think about it if they do so, but if they expect you to apologize ¨C not a chance!¡± Old Han advised Yang Ping not to worry about this trivial issue. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Director, I won¡¯t let this bother me. As for the exam..., we¡¯ll see.¡± Yang Ping wanted to explain, but thought better of it in the end. ¡°Leave the exam aside for now, there¡¯s no need to burden yourself with it. There¡¯s always something one is good at. Tomorrow, I¡¯ll get you a reserved exam spot, it¡¯s not a big deal.¡± Old Han was more open about it than anyone else. Before the exams, he pushed Yang Ping hard; after the exams, he was the least bothered about it. Chapter 328: 0312: Overwhelming with Power Chapter 328: Chapter 0312: Overwhelming with Power ¡°Old leader, about this issue¡ª¡± ¡°Xia Changjiang, people have been complaining to me. You must promptly present a solution. This relates to the reputation of our medical industry¡ª¡± Dean Xia rubbed his forehead and navigated the situation on the phone: ¡°Old leader, technically the issue was caused by Mrs. Bao who tends to bully others. Nonetheless, I don¡¯t want to cause you any trouble. I will personally apologize to Mrs. Bao. How does that sound?¡± ¡°Straighten out the issue yourself. We must pay attention to our attitude and approach at work. We can¡¯t be blunt and crude.¡± The voice on the phone sounded much more calmer. ¡°Thank you for your guidance, old leader. We will handle it properly. Please rest assured.¡± Dean Xia promised earnestly. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s leave it at that.¡± The other party hung up the phone. ... ¡°Dean Xia, was that Director Lin on the phone?¡± Director He, who was sitting across the desk, asked. Dean Xia waved his hand: ¡°Yes, that was him. Mrs. Bao is such a petty woman that she made a formal complaint. But don¡¯t worry, I have a solution. This is a minor issue. Director Lin most likely wanted to save face; this phone call was just a formality. As for asking Yang Ping to apologize? What has he done wrong? If I really made him apologize, where would I put my old face?¡± ¡°The Bao Family is quite influential in G City, how can they be so lacking in integrity, insistent on making issues out of trifles?¡± Director He felt indignant for Yang Ping. ¡°Integrity has little to do with money. She just feels embarrassed and wants to regain face. With her money and influence, she can¡¯t stand being unable to control a mere doctor. This grudge is hard for her to swallow. Director Lin knows this; the phone call was just to show his concern.¡± ¡°You never know, the incident that occurred in the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital led to a dismissal.¡± Director He expressed his concern. Dean Xia became slightly upset: ¡°Those are two different matters. Besides, who is the dean at Sanbo Hospital now? Xia Changjiang! Who is Xia Changjiang? Would I be so spineless? As long as I hold this position, it¡¯s impossible for our doctor to apologize. Why should we cater to her whim?¡± ¡°You still need to be cautious about this, the Bao Family is quite powerful.¡± cautioned Director He carefully. Dean Xia took a sip of water and reassured himself: ¡°That¡¯s why I am tackling the issue carefully step by step. Bao Yulou is a big businessman who is measured in his actions. Since he most likely relies on his father-in-law for his position, he must be afraid of his wife at home. If his wife makes a fuss, Bao Yulou would have no choice but to give in to her. One of these days, I will have to personally apologize and put an end to this matter.¡± ¡°Are you really going to apologize?¡± Director He seemed quite upset. Dean Xia was indifferent: ¡°Director Lin was promoted by Bao Yulou¡¯s father-in-law. Since I¡¯m an old subordinate of Director Lin, I need to give him some face if he showed concern. As long as I step in to smooth things over and keep the peace, everything will be resolved; it¡¯s just a matter of giving them some satisfaction. My pride doesn¡¯t cost much.¡± ¡°Who would have guessed, Dr. Yang has quite a spine. If anyone was in that situation, they would feel indignant. He could have stayed abroad where conditions are better, why would he come back to be looked down upon and treated like a second-class citizen, and forced to forget who his ancestors were?¡± Director He admired Yang Ping¡¯s spirit. ¡°He¡¯s talented. Which talented person doesn¡¯t have some character? Is he even a talent if he lacks personality? We shouldn¡¯t mention anything to Dr. Yang or conduct customer service inquiries. Although this is part of the procedure, it can irritate people. The more talented they are, the more they value their dignity. They shouldn¡¯t be burdened with such petty affairs at work. They might just pack up and leave one day.¡± Dean Xia advised Director He. This way of handling the matter seemed to be appropriate. Dean Xia didn¡¯t worry about the other party¡¯s complaints, even if they did, it would be a trivial matter. He was concerned that mishandling the issue might affect Yang Ping¡¯s mood. Additionally, in this world, certain matters can¡¯t be resolved with a simple sentence; every aspect must be considered. Talents have high expectations, and what they care about isn¡¯t just money, but their dignity at work. ¡°That settles it. No department should interfere or mention this anymore. I have to go to the province soon to request some positions. The current allocation is too tight; the orthopedics department is planning on recruiting more people this year.¡± Dean Xia picked up his document bag and hurriedly left. ¡ª¡ª Many colleagues and media were invited to the hospital for the opening ceremony of the Sports Medicine Center. A large bronze plaque replaced the old ordinary one, covered with a red silk cloth. In the main meeting room of the administrative building, Director Gao was dressed in a suit and tie, hustling about to welcome the guests. Luo Jin was also invited to attend the opening ceremony. Dressed in his own sportswear with an overcoat, he attracted many people. A lot of them were waiting to get his autograph after the meeting. Dean Xia and Director Han were chatting, faces beaming with smiles. Director Gao stood on the stage, testing the microphone, waiting for the meeting to start. Now, he appeared quite confident and domineering, far different from his humble appearance in front of Yang Ping. After Luo Jin¡¯s promotional video was played, a series of high-difficulty sports medicine surgical cases were introduced, especially the shoulder joint and knee joint multi-ligament reconstruction, the crown jewel of sports medicine. Each operation garnered respect from colleagues. The directors of the Sports Medicine departments of various hospitals in G City, who were already seated, started discussing privately. Any one of these surgeries would be beyond their reach. After Yang Ping finished his work, he also came from the department. Director Han signaled him to sit next to him. ¡°With the establishment of the Sports Medicine Center, you have made a significant contribution. Don¡¯t wander around, sit here.¡± Old Han pulled Yang Ping over. Dean Xia smiled and said: ¡°Xiao Yang, how¡¯s it going? Are you still enjoying your work?¡± ¡°I¡¯m excited, of course I¡¯m excited, I¡¯ll go check things out while you guys chat.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to hold up their conversation. ¡°Go ahead.¡± Old Han spoke as if he were telling a child to go off and play. ¡°Doctor Yang!¡± Li Jingshu appeared in the crowd out of nowhere, greeting Yang Ping. She smiled at Yang Ping, her smile as radiant as a blooming flower. However, someone soon approached her as if to report something. That person was a director from a documentary production team Yang Ping recognized. Li Jingshu was extremely busy, having just finished receiving a report before picking up a phone call. ¡°Ahong, why haven¡¯t you arrived yet? We absolutely need Tencent News to be present, are you almost at the entrance? Thank you, thank you.¡± ¡°Brother Cheng, it¡¯s Jingshu. Oh, you¡¯re nearing? Great, thank you.¡± ¡°Teacher Hua, how come you¡¯re here? I¡¯m honored, I¡¯m truly grateful.¡± Li Jingshu¡¯s assistant, Xiao Yu, was also extremely busy, retrieving a list: ¡°Big sister, the media we invited are all here except for these few.¡± Li Jingshu pushed a few strands of hair from her forehead; she was starting to perspire: ¡°I just gave them a call, they should be here very soon. Xiao Yu, stay put here. I¡¯m going out to greet some people, Teacher Hua is here as well.¡± ¡°Big sister, why don¡¯t you go chat with him for a bit? You should have him check your arm.¡± Xiao Yu nonchalantly glanced towards Yang Ping. ¡°Stop joking around¡ª¡ª¡± Li Jingshu sneakily glanced at Yang Ping before promptly exiting the meeting room. A woman who appeared to be about fifty years old appeared at the entrance of the meeting room, dressed in a fitted professional suit and a floral shawl, accompanied by an assistant. Many of the journalists that were already there immediately stood up, and so did those who caught sight of this scene. ¡°Teacher Hua!¡± Someone recognized her and greeted her. Teacher Hua adjusted her shawl and, under Li Jingshu¡¯s guidance, took her seat. Director Yan from the hospital¡¯s publicity department promptly went over and whispered to Dean Xia. Dean Xia immediately stood up and came over to shake hands: ¡°Much appreciated, we are extremely grateful for Teacher Hua¡¯s personal guidance.¡± Teacher Hua is Chief Editor of G City¡¯s News and Media Group. In the field of news in Nandu Province, G City¡¯s News and Media Group is an aircraft carrier, and Teacher Hua is the eldest sister of G City¡¯s journalism world. ¡°No need for formalities, go about your duties. I¡¯m going to sit around here. I was just having a meeting nearby and heard that Sanbo Hospital was holding a press conference that Jingshu assisted in organizing. So, I came to have a look.¡± Teacher Hua was very poised. ¡°Jingshu, you go do your work, no need to accompany me.¡± After exchanging a few greetings with Dean Xia, Teacher Hua took her seat. ¡°This event is quite grand, huh. Where is senior brother? Let¡¯s go sit with him.¡± Zhang Lin anxiously looked around for Yang Ping. ¡°Senior brother is sitting next to Director Han. Can you squeeze in by dragging a stool over there?¡± Little Five felt this guy had no idea what he was doing. ¡°My goodness, did I walk into the wrong filming set?¡± Fatty stumbled about. When had the hospital ever seen this many reporters? The reporter area was completely filled up. For the establishment ceremony of this sports medicine center, they originally expected to just fill up spaces with a few people, set off a few firecrackers, yank off a red cloth, and call it a day. This was almost like the launch of a new movie. Even Luo Jin had been invited and was sitting in the guest seat. ¡°Professor Guan!¡± At last, Professor Guan arrived, and Director Gao hurried over to greet him. He was a fellow alumnus and the director of the sports medicine center at hospital number one. The other hospital colleagues immediately stood up to greet him, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries. Chapter 329: 0313: Tyson and the Green Giant Chapter 329: Chapter 0313: Tyson and the Green Giant In the changing room of the operating suite at Tokyo University Hospital. ¡°Takahashi, so you¡¯re planning a trip to China?¡± Sasaki greeted Takahashi. Takahashi responded, ¡°I will be leaving at the beginning of next month for a three-month clinical observation stint.¡± ¡°Takahashi, you¡¯ve changed a lot since you returned from China, losing your former arrogance and self-confidence. I¡¯m starting to suspect you¡¯ve developed some sort of obsession when making judgments.¡± Sasaki was somewhat baffled by his senior. Ever since returning from China, he had become exceedingly cautious, perpetually humble, a stark contrast to his previous arrogance and confidence. ¡°Sasaki, if you had been in my shoes at the time, you would have felt the same. Someday, you¡¯ll understand,¡± Takahashi had no desire to explain further. ... Those who have never been utterly defeated will always harbour illusions about their opponent¡¯s strength, especially if they themselves once stood atop the world. ¡°Teacher Fujihara¡¯s decision seems a bit baffling. Why do we need to learn from an unknown Chinese hospital?¡± Sasaki was disgruntled. Sasaki, two years younger than Takahashi, was unanimously considered more gifted. While Takahashi excelled in trauma surgery, he explored less in other sub-specialties. Unlike Takahashi, Sasaki was not content to stick to trauma surgery. He ventured extensively into spine, joint, and sports medicine with noteworthy achievements. The one likely to succeed Fujiwara Masao in the future could very well be Sasaki. Even Takahashi himself had to admit that his junior outperformed him. Although Sasaki had watched Yang Ping¡¯s surgical videos, a single video was not enough to convince his self-pride. He always imagined himself to be far superior to Takahashi. Whatever Yang Ping could do, he believed he could do as well. ¡°Teacher Fujihara!¡± Takahashi and Sasaki, upon seeing Fujiwara Masao enter the room, quickly greeted him with respect. Fujiwara Masao, wearing a blue scrub suit, removed his mask and cap. ¡°Takahashi, your trip to China is a precious opportunity. Remember, the best way to become the best is to learn from the very best. Facing them bravely is the key to defeating them.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Takahashi stood at attention and bowed. Although Sasaki appeared obedient externally, he was discontent within. He felt somewhat dissatisfied with his teacher¡¯s logic. Weren¡¯t they the strong ones? Despite his discontent, Sasaki, who held an evenly matched status with Takahashi, remained unreserved in his interactions. In front of Fujiwara Masao, however, Sasaki wouldn¡¯t dare voice his earlier comments. ¡°Mr.Fujiwara! Director Niaoqu¡¯s upper cervical tumor surgery has run into trouble and needs your assistance.¡± Someone rushed into the changing room. Without even having a chance to change, Fujiwara Masao followed the messenger out of the room. ¡°Takahashi, it seems like the world champion has been punched silly by you,¡± Sasaki couldn¡¯t resist a jab. ¡°This is no longer a match between Tyson and Holyfield,¡± Takahashi commented helplessly. Sasaki, wearing a teasing smile, asked, ¡°So, who are we dealing with then?¡± ¡°If you and I were Tyson and Holyfield, then the opponent is the Incredible Hulk?¡± Takahashi finally found a comparison, albeit not a particularly fitting one. Sasaki stifled his laughter: ¡°That¡¯s hilarious!¡± Had it not been for that comment, he might have tried to understand Takahashi. But with that remark, he was convinced that Takahashi must be suffering from some psychological disorder. Takahashi didn¡¯t have the time to explain to Sasaki. One day, Sasaki would experience it for himself. Takahashi wished that Sasaki could go with him this time to witness firsthand what the world¡¯s top surgeons were truly capable of. Takahashi was in a hurry. After work later that day, he arranged to meet with his Chinese teacher for a language enhancement class before the trip. Since returning from China, with some effort, he had found a top-notch Chinese language teacher. This teacher was a Chinese student studying molecular biology at Tokyo University¡¯s School of Medicine. With a medical background, this foreign student helped Takahashi pass the Level 4 Chinese language exam within a mere four months. Takahashi had paid a 20 million yen tuition fee, feeling it was worth every yen. The teacher began teaching him Chinese phonetics, enabling him to get the hang of the Chinese pronunciation system using several dozen alphabets, then provided him with a set of textbooks and some flashcards with Chinese characters. The set of textbooks consisted of 4,000 unique rhymed characters. Takahashi mastered these 4,000 common Chinese characters within a month using these verses. Thereafter, the teacher arranged reading and listening training, with four hours of language lessons every evening without fail. This allowed Takahashi to overcome his language barrier. He used to think that Chinese was the hardest language to learn in the world. But now, he believes Chinese to be the easiest language in the world, because by mastering these four thousand characters, he could read almost all articles without hindrance. Now, he needs to reinforce his medical vocabulary. This is much easier than English, which forms each medical term as a separate word in a cryptic way, with no obvious connections between them. The magic of Chinese is that with only these four thousand characters, an infinite number of words can be formed following certain logical relationships. For example, the liver, spleen, kidney, lung, and heart are all organs, and most of them are represented by the character for ¡®moon¡¯, which symbolizes the human body, immediately indicating that they belong to the same category. It¡¯s no wonder that Japan has always retained the use of Chinese characters, what a wise choice. ¡°Teacher Tang, hello, I¡¯m going to China next month, and I want to reinforce my Chinese learning,¡± Takahashi shakes hands with the teacher. This is a night school, and Teacher Tang is only a part-time teacher here. Takahashi arrived at the classroom on time. He enrolled for one-on-one teaching. ¡°These are the Chinese case examples I prepared for you. They include not only medical history but also surgical records and medical reports. You need to reinforce the reading of these materials.¡± Teacher Tang handed the sorted-out materials to Takahashi. Teacher Tang is a very young man, a doctoral student in molecular biology at Tokyo University, who teaches Chinese in his spare time to earn some living expenses, which is much better than washing dishes. Takahashi is currently his biggest client, a generous doctor client who once led Teacher Tang to suspect that he had encountered a scam in Tokyo. Like a primary school student, Takahashi hunched over his desk and read the cases earnestly. Being someone who always has his meals standing up in normal times, he would never waste a minute. Four hours a day, from seven in the evening to eleven, if he is late for any special reason, he will stay up until one or two in the morning to complete four hours of study. Of course, if this that¡¯s the case, the training fee doubles. Takahashi worries that the teacher might prolong the teaching time due to the tuition issue. He promises that for each month in advance, he will pay an extra tuition fee, directly to the teacher. Teacher Tang did his utmost, shared his knowledge generously, and Takahashi mastered Chinese proficiently in four months. For the words he did not understand or comprehend, Takahashi would highlight them with a pencil. After reading each case, Teacher Tang would explain with care, and Takahashi would take meticulous notes. ¡°Teacher, thank you for your careful teaching, please accept my sincere thanks!¡± Takahashi deeply bowed. The teacher returned the bow, then Takahashi bowed again. The teacher returned it once more and Takahashi bowed again- Forget it, the teacher stopped returning the bows, and only then did Takahashi stop bowing. ¡°May I ask, according to Chinese custom, how should I address Doctor Yang?¡± Takahashi decided to figure it out before his departure. ¡°It¡¯s best to address him as Professor Yang, it¡¯s more formal and respectful.¡± The teacher suggested. ¡°If I go to China, can I keep in touch with you? I might need to consult you on language or cultural issues at any time. I am willing to pay the corresponding consultation fee.¡± Takahashi considered thoroughly. ¡°Of course, we can charge the consultation fee by the hour. If it¡¯s less than one hour per day, we still count it as one hour.¡± The teacher agreed eagerly, hoping that Takahashi would continue his studies for several years, ideally until the teacher completes his doctorate. With the teacher¡¯s approval, Takahashi felt more confident. He pondered whether he had any further questions to ask the teacher. ¡°Also, do you have any social advice?¡± Takahashi asked. The teacher considered slightly, ¡°You¡¯re only studying for three months, remember some simple rules: do more and talk less; take immediate action when given commands; when toasting, keep your glass lower than the other person; seize the opportunity to pay when having a group meal; get to the point when drinking, without delaying using excuses; if you¡¯re in a group dormitory, try not to snore when sleeping at night-¡± Blushing, Takahashi replied, ¡°I can manage all but the last one.¡± ¡°Then try your best, and if you do snore, apologize to your roommates the next day.¡± The teacher was very professional, he had considered everything. ¡°Our time is up, it¡¯s time to end the class.¡± Today¡¯s class ended at eleven, very punctually. Chapter 330: 0314: Thanos Chapter 330: Chapter 0314: Thanos The Sports Medicine Center has been established, and the Orthopedics Department no longer primarily focuses on sports medicine. A large number of patients with sports injuries have been diverted to the Sports Medicine Center, significantly reducing the pressure on the Orthopedics Department. Yang Ping often takes everyone to the Rehabilitation Department to see patients. He regularly visits his surgery patients in the Rehabilitation Department. Orthopedics and Rehabilitation are sibling departments. Many Orthopedics patients, after being discharged from surgery, do not go home but instead go to the Rehabilitation Department for either outpatient visits or hospitalization, to undertake rehabilitation training. Even for a minor finger tendon rupture, good postoperative hand function recovery requires scientifically active rehabilitation training. In the past, after surgery for a hand tendon rupture, a plaster cast was applied. After three weeks, the cast was removed. The tendon adhesion and finger stiffness required a long period of time for rehabilitation. The final function recovery was often not satisfactory. ... Now, after surgery, a specially made splint is worn. Hand rehabilitation training begins within 24 hours post-operation, which leads to a very good hand function recovery. Of course, there is a risk of tendon re-rupture during functional exercise, but since the probability is quite low, we cannot avoid therapy because of potential risk. The patient with the surgery performed by Yang Ping at the academic conference recovered very well. After the successful re-implantation, the scar on the previously defaced half of the face isn¡¯t very noticeable, avoiding the need for cosmetic plastic surgery. The severed left upper limb successfully survived. The nerve was broken from the position of the brachial plexus in the shoulder, where the position was too high. Future nerve function recovery will be poor and the left upper limb functional reconstruction will have to be performed in a second phase. This is a very challenging operation. Whether it is central nervous system spinal cord injury or peripheral nerve injury, medical science has not yet overcome these challenges. All current research has not made substantial progress. Some teams are conducting research on stem cell therapy for spinal cord injury, but the progress is stagnant. The much-touted stem cell therapy is like the graphene batteries that are constantly shouted about on the internet. There are daily announcements of breakthroughs, but actually, there is no substantial progress. The patient with a body bent like a knife wasn¡¯t operated on by Yang Ping, but Yang Ping saw him undergoing rehabilitation training. The break happened between the 3rd and 4th lumbar vertebrae. At this location, it is not the tofu-like spinal cord that is contained in the spinal canal, but the horse-tail nerves, which, like a bunch of wires, have far greater damage resistance than the spinal cord. So this patient was very fortunate. Through rehabilitation training, he has recovered his normal walking capacity. If the bent area was on the higher plane of the 1st lumbar vertebrae, the outcome wouldn¡¯t have been so perfect. He would have definitely ended up with a lifelong disability. Everyone still vividly remembers the scene. This patient¡¯s body was bent into a horrifying sight. Even his bladder was squeezed and ruptured. The urological surgery department also performed bladder repair surgery. These patients were all pulled back from the ghost gate. Seeing them talking and laughing, standing alive in front of them, Yang Ping is particularly pleased. This is the greatest sense of accomplishment for a doctor. Upon returning from the Rehabilitation Department, Director Han was holding a teacup, sitting in the doctor¡¯s office. Old Han usually comes to the Orthopedics Department and generally sits in the Director¡¯s office. It is rare for him to drink tea in the doctor¡¯s office. ¡°Xiao Yang, the hospital is planning to recruit a batch of new people. Think about it, do you need manpower? Make a list of talent requirements for me.¡± Old Han was leisurely and content. Currently, the Orthopedics Department¡¯s medical team has only one treatment team configuration. Yang Ping also wanted to introduce a few doctors, but his personnel requirements are rather high. He does not require them to have the ability of Song Zimo, but they need to be able to handle things independently. A while ago, Director Han mentioned that a female doctoral student from Beijing Medical University wanted to join, but she has not yet arrived. Yang Ping assumes that Director Han has forgotten about this or maybe she has already gone abroad or chosen another hospital. The range of options for the eight-year doctoral program at Beijing Medical University is still quite wide. Some excellent students may choose to practice medicine abroad. ¡°Let me think. If suitable ones are available, I want to introduce one or two.¡± Yang Ping was not certain at the moment. Director Han seemed somewhat absent-minded. It seems that he came here for other matters, and just casually mentioned staffing requirements for the department. Ah, the doctoral examination results can be queried now. English, professional foundation, and professional courses can all be checked. Could it be for this matter? The tea of Old Han is almost finished. More should be added. He wanted to say something but hesitated: ¡°Xiao Yang ¡ª¡± ¡°Did Old Han come to inquire about the doctoral results? The results can be checked now.¡± Song Zimo, clever as always, whispered in his ear. ¡°Whether it¡¯s a mule or a horse, it needs to be brought out and shown. I heard that waiting has been going on for quite a while.¡± Song Zimo encouraged Yang Ping. This is a hurdle that must be passed. Even if the exam goes badly, you have to face it. ¡°Well, let me check!¡± Yang Ping took out his phone, and Song Zimo waited to see the results. As expected, he put in too much effort. He scored 96 in English, 97 in the professional foundation, and 98 in the professional course, summing up to a total of 291 points. Presumably, he lost points in the English composition, and some controversial topics were marked down. In the professional foundation and professional courses, certainly, the marking down came down to incorrect or controversial questions. Because some medical knowledge changes with development, occasional errors or controversies may arise in the standard answers of some questions, this is not an impossibility. ¡°How many points?¡± Song Zimo couldn¡¯t believe his own eyes, he grabbed the cell phone to check again. 96, 97, 98, the scores were so conspicuous, and cell phone inquiries wouldn¡¯t lie. ¡°What? Checking your scores? How many points?¡± Old Han asked knowingly. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°Did I go a bit overboard with the exam?¡± ¡°Ah, it doesn¡¯t matter!¡± Old Han was a bit disappointed. ¡°How many points?¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five were also eager to know. Yang Ping still shook his head: ¡°Scores don¡¯t necessarily represent real abilities. Everyone should not worry about them.¡± ¡°Will you just say it?¡± Fatty leaned in to take a look, everyone was waiting. Song Zimo took a deep breath, holding Yang Ping¡¯s phone: ¡°English 96 points, professional basics 97 points, professional subject 98 points¡ª¡± Dizziness, like a bolt of lightning splitting the roof, didn¡¯t he hear it wrong? How could there be such scores? There was never such a high score in history, no one believed it, so Song Zimo showed them the scores on the cell phone, one by one. Old Han thought Yang Ping had bombed the exam and joined Song Zimo in making a joke to lighten up the mood, as a sort of self-deprecating humor. But, the scores shown on the cell phone were indeed that high. How could they be wrong? You bastard, I thought you bombed it, but now you¡¯ve come up with such earth-shattering scores. Clearly, I seriously underestimated you, Old Han thought as his cognition got massively rectified once again. The hand he used to hold the cup was a bit unsteady due to happiness, excitement, surprise, and shock! ¡°That¡ªtonight, I¡¯m treating, you guys choose the place, don¡¯t save me money, go all out.¡± Old Han said enthusiastically like a young man. ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± Song Zimo immediately extended both hands for a handshake. Now, he was really Dr. Yang. When he used to go to the affiliated hospital, everyone thought Yang Ping was Old Han¡¯s doctoral student, and they would call him Dr. Yang, making Yang Ping feel a bit uncertain. ¡°I¡¯m telling you senior brother, if you continue to call Dr. Yang, who else would dare to be called a doctor? I wouldn¡¯t dare to, from now on nobody can call me Dr. Song. From now on in this department, ¡°doctor¡± is only for senior brother.¡± Song Zimo announced in the department. By making this proclamation, Song Zimo standardized the way to address Yang Ping. People called him all sorts of things before, Doctor Yang, Teacher Yang, Professor Yang, but from now on, it¡¯s only Dr. Yang. ¡°From today onwards, we standardize the address, Dr. Yang, shortened to Doctor.¡± Song Zimo reiterated. ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± ¡°It sounds weird!¡± ¡°You¡¯ll get used to it if you hear it more often.¡± A score of 291 points exploded first in the WeChat group of graduate students, standardized training students and interns, then it quickly spread throughout the entire hospital. A score of 291, instantly killing all previously known academic overachievers. ¡°Damn, am I mistaken, which overachiever is this, I need to pay a visit when available.¡± ¡°It¡¯s Yang Ping from Orthopedics!¡± ¡°This is not an overachiever, this is a destroyer!¡± ¡°Are you sure this is not an April Fool¡¯s joke?¡± ¡°Oh woe is me, I just checked my scores, thought I had become an overachiever for once, but now I realize I¡¯m just a shower genius.¡± The WeChat group of Ph.D. candidates in Sanbo Hospital started to flood with various messages. Yang Ping knew that overdoing it, scoring such high marks, would cause quite a commotion, and moreover, this commotion in the hospital would last for some time. This was something Yang Ping really didn¡¯t want to see. As a person accustomed to keeping a low profile, he didn¡¯t want to always be in the limelight. Chapter 331: 0315: Upgraded Cooperation Chapter 331: Chapter 0315: Upgraded Cooperation Now, wherever Yang Ping goes in Sanbo Hospital, he draws onlookers. Their gazes remind him of how people would look at a panda in a zoo, no, it¡¯s more like they are looking at an alien. Even when Xiao Su is lining up in the cafeteria, the people in front would politely say to him, ¡°You can go ahead.¡± If Yang Ping and Xiao Su are eating in a corner of the cafeteria, the people around would take turns stealing glances at them, their eyes sweeping back and forth like spotlights. He¡¯s often greeted on the streets with, ¡°Doctor Yang, I heard you scored two hundred and ninety one points?¡± Yang Ping could only nod, laugh it off, and concede that the novelty of it all has quickly worn off. ... He hopes this wave will pass soon, and people will forget about the number ¡°291¡±. Boss Cheng set up a meal. After sharing his after-work plans with Xiao Su, Yang Ping hurried off to the underground parking lot. The usual place, ¡°Fine Wine and Good Food¡± Restaurant. Old Cheng was happy. He pulled out the contract, glanced over it a few times, tapped it lightly with his fingers and carefully placed it in his document bag. The proportion of shares had been amended several times by Old Cheng, from ten percent to twelve, fifteen, and now to twenty percent. Offering twenty percent of shares with a guaranteed dividend of five million a year should be quite appealing. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Sports Medicine Centre has grown as large as it is today all due to Doctor Yang¡¯s efforts. If he really pushes at Li Quan Hospital, achieving an annual turnover of over one hundred million would not be a problem. Old Cheng checked the time; Yang Ping and Su Nanchen would arrive soon. He had intended to pick them up, but they insisted on coming themselves. As long as Yang Ping and Su Nanchen join, Li Quan Hospital will be unrivalled in G City, unthreatened by Yunjian. The renovations are almost done, staff training is ready to go. Next, they will apply for international JCI certification. Once these steps are completed, Li Quan Hospital will become a truly high-end private hospital. ¡°How has Yunjian been doing lately? Any news?¡± Boss Cheng¡¯s competition with Yunjian is about to heat up, and he needs to be on guard for any potential interference. Not everyone plays a fair game. ¡°Director Tang recently made quite a stir, gaining a lot of fans by saving a patient with sudden cardiac and respiratory arrest. He performed CPR for three hours.¡± Dean Cai has been closely monitoring Yunjian¡¯s activities. Since the boss is competing with them, he himself must lead the charge. Old Cheng has always had a poor impression of this internet celebrity doctor, but regardless of what he feels, the doctor¡¯s fanbase continues to grow, proving the power of positive publicity. ¡°What exactly happened?¡± Boss Cheng was still unclear about the details. Dean Cai immediately pulled out his phone and pulled up the video: ¡°This video is going viral, it got covered by national top media and received praises from all sides. Would you like to take a look at it?¡± ¡°Let me see, if it¡¯s that good, top media outlets don¡¯t lack funds, unlike local media. If they get covered, it means there¡¯s something of value there, something out of the ordinary.¡± The video on the phone was full of positive energy, so much so that even Old Cheng thought Yunjian was an exemplary medical practitioner. ¡°Thank you to Yunjian Hospital for giving me a second life. I have truly experienced the meaning of ¡®great medical dedication¡¯ with my life.¡± The patient was tearfully grateful. ¡°All of this is our duty. Rest well and recover as soon as possible.¡± The doctor shook hands cordially. ¡°Thank you, really, I¡¯m extremely grateful. At the time when my heart and lungs stopped, I thought there was no hope for me. After a long time, I became desperate, but when a pair of warm hands pressed down on my chest, I saw the dawn of life ¨C¡± The patient wiped his tears with his sleeves. This was a round of ward visits. The doctor and nurses were following Director Tang during the ward visit. To celebrate the patient getting a second chance at life, the nurses had prepared flowers. It was a touching scene. Director Tang ceremoniously taught everyone: ¡°As doctors, are we not trying to save as many patients as possible? Each life in our hands is invaluable¨C.¡± The whole video was not long, shot at good angles and very clear, very professionally done. ¡°Wait a minute, can you go back?¡± ¡°Just there. If his heart stopped and he couldn¡¯t breathe, how could he feel a pair of warm hands pressing down on him?¡± Boss Cheng spotted the problem. Dean Cai hadn¡¯t noticed before: ¡°Yeah, wasn¡¯t the patient experiencing sudden cardiac and respiratory arrest? How was he conscious and able to feel a pair of warm hands pressing down on him? The patient¡¯s heart had stopped and he wasn¡¯t breathing for two hours, then received another three hours of CPR at the hospital. His heart stopped for five hours? Couldn¡¯t have been Lazarus Syndrome, coming back to life from the dead, right?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not right. The patient¡¯s recounts are so vivid, he could feel a pair of hands pressing down on him, who¡¯s lying here.¡± Old Cheng was confused, had the patient¡¯s heartbeat and breathing really stopped? After parking, Yang Ping took the elevator up to the private dining restaurant. Su Nanchen had arrived a step earlier. ¡°Big Brother!¡± Yang Ping greeted. Previous appellations like Dr. Su and Su Doctor, were now replaced with a proper address: Big Brother! The dishes hadn¡¯t arrived yet, Boss Cheng got straight to the point: ¡°Doctor Yang, Doctor Su, I called you here today to discuss something with you.¡± Old Cheng poured the tea. ¡°Speak up if you have something on your mind!¡± Su Nanchen urged him, they were all scholars, so they spoke in a straightforward manner. Old Cheng sat down, pondered for a moment, and said, ¡°Our hospital is about to complete its upgrade soon, and I have an idea, I want to invite you two to own shares. The shares will be based on technological inputs, you don¡¯t have to spend a penny. As for the share ratio, I think each person should hold twenty percent, and a minimum annual dividend of five million is guaranteed. What do you think?¡± ¡°Shares?¡± Yang Ping was slightly taken aback. This was a good thing, twenty percent of the shares, and a guaranteed five million dividends, was definitely a generous offer. However, energy is limited. He was good at medicine, not business. Yang Ping did not want to get involved in any business matters and just wanted to be a pure doctor. Boss Cheng threw out the proposal and waited for their reply. Yang Ping took a sip of tea, ¡°Old Cheng, this is a good proposal, and you are also sincere and generous.¡± ¡°Friendship always counts, even though we are all assembled here for profit, we should also go with someone who is agreeable.¡± Old Cheng was feeling confident now. Yang Ping paused for a moment and said, ¡°But I am not good at doing business, I don¡¯t want to engage in it, I just want to be a pure doctor.¡± ¡°This...¡± Old Cheng¡¯s heart, which had just warmed up, was suddenly frozen. Countless disturbing thoughts flashed through his mind. Could it be that someone else had already approached Yang Ping and he was completely unaware of it? If so, the consequences would be unbearable. If Yang Ping were to help his competitor, he might end up being crushed into pieces. Su Nanchen was also surprised. This twenty percent share was neither too much nor too little for Yang Ping. Old Cheng¡¯s hospital had invested sixty million real gold and silver recently. Although it was a bit small, this high-end specialized hospital could easily earn several million in dividends every year. This guy turned down the offer without leaving any room for negotiation. He wondered what was going on. ¡°Young Master Su, this...¡± Boss Cheng turned to Su Nanchen for help. Su Nanchen was also in a dilemma. Although Yang Ping would be his future brother-in-law, he couldn¡¯t boss him around just because his little sister could. ¡°Old Cheng, don¡¯t misunderstand. As I said, I admire your honesty and integrity. Among all the private hospitals in G City, none of them operate with as much dedication as you do. As long as you continue to run the hospital in this way, I will continue to cooperate with you.¡± Yang Ping saw his disappointment and worry. Old Cheng felt a bit relieved, ¡°Thank you for your praise. In that case, how about using the same cooperation model as with Yingge Hospital, where all the surgery fees are yours, and our hospital only earns from bed spaces, nursing and other peripheral fees?¡± Old Cheng had adjusted his thinking, he was prepared for this. He had put together several ABCD plans and had several contracts prepared in his bag. This scheme was good, it was a common model for international high-end private hospitals. ¡°That¡¯s acceptable, I agree.¡± Yang Ping was straightforward and gave a brief reply. Boss Cheng felt a bit relieved. This was a good solution. The surgery fee plus some other charges at Li Quan Hospital would amount to fifty to sixty thousand for each surgery, which would still bring in a considerable amount. Professor Ye was at Yunjian, and if the dividends were also included, the average would be about the same. ¡°Shall we finalize this? A prompt decision is better than delaying. Should we sign a new contract immediately?¡± Old Cheng was afraid of any further delays. ¡°Alright!¡± Old Cheng brought out the contract. Yang Ping read through it carefully. He was now capable of speed reading, browsing through the entire contract casually. Su Nanchen also took it over to help him review it once more. Friendship stands aside while business is in place. Proper account settlement is needed between family, let alone between friends when it comes to business. After checking, Su Nanchen handed the contract back to Yang Ping, indicating that he could sign it. Su Nanchen saw that Yang Ping just glanced through the contract, and was worried that he would be taken advantage of. That¡¯s why he took the contract to take another look. His future brother-in-law would be part of the family, and he certainly had to help when it mattered. ¡°Young Master Su, you can¡¯t refuse these shares, otherwise my heart won¡¯t take it.¡± Old Cheng joked. Su Nanchen laughed, ¡°Old Cheng, are you ready to take a big loss? Offering me twenty percent of the shares?¡± ¡°After so many years of dealings with me, do you think I¡¯m crazy?¡± Old Cheng was serious. The way Su Nanchen thought was different. He had faith in Old Cheng¡¯s hospital and wanted to get involved, to build a hospital of his vision, together. ¡°In that case, I agree to this. To be honest with you, since you¡¯re giving me such a big gift, I¡¯ll need to talk to my father first about it. You don¡¯t mind, do you?¡± Su Nanchen didn¡¯t sign right away. ¡°I understand!¡± Old Cheng knew he wouldn¡¯t sign immediately. The position of the Su family was special. Su Nanchen needed to consider many aspects of such matters. Although he did not achieve his goal in one step, Old Cheng was quite happy that he had accomplished half of it. Chapter 332: 0316: Little Gao Chapter 332: Chapter 0316: Little Gao I¡¯m not certain if it¡¯s true or false that Liang Qichao was able to learn Japanese overnight while on a trip to Japan. But it is true that Takahashi learned Chinese in four months. As Takahashi exited Nandu airport, even the air felt sweet to him. On the flight over, he recited the social rules repeatedly reminded by Teacher Tang until he knew them by heart, so he could apply them smoothly in real life. The person picking him up was still Manager Yangzi, and even the Toyota Alphard car was parked in the same parking space as the last time. It was unthinkable that after just four months, everyone had met again. Manager Yangzi was very excited. Last time he saw Takahashi, he was talkative. This time, he remained silent. Before he left, Teacher Fujihara told Takahashi the story of ¡°carving the boat to find the sword,¡± and Takahashi understood his teacher¡¯s painstaking efforts. He decided to make the most of this trip and not to let his teacher¡¯s high expectations down. ... ¡°Your talent may be slightly inferior to Sasaki¡¯s, however, you possess a quality that Sasaki lacks ¡ª you know how to lose. Those who can lose with grace, can win even more. Therefore, I have higher hopes for you in the future.¡± Before he left, these words from Teacher Fujihara seemed to hint that his successor might not be Sasaki, as everyone believed. The chances were high for Takahashi as well. Takahashi and Fujiwara didn¡¯t go to Yangzi¡¯s hotel, they went straight to Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Medical Education office to report in, hoping to start their studies as soon as possible. Three months were too short, but it was impossible to spare more time. Takahashi was not an ordinary doctor, he was the head of the Trauma Center at Tokyo University Hospital. Looking at the twin-tower building of Sanbo Hospital, a sense of reverence was born in Takahashi¡¯s heart. He respectfully bowed to the tower. Miss Yangzi was ordered to return to the hotel. Takahashi did not wish to offend Professor Yang, thus losing this precious learning opportunity. After asking around, under security¡¯s guidance, the two Japanese arrived at the Medical Education office. Director Zhou had been waiting for a long time and immediately stood up to shake hands. Takahashi bowed: ¡°Thank you for your care!¡± The foreign professor naturally had shown some concern. Originally, Director Zhou had everything arranged satisfactorily, such as a hotel suite, personal translator, Japanese cuisine chef, but was scolded terribly by Director Han. So, Director Zhou hastily canceled all these arrangements, signed some papers randomly, and let Manager Xu lead Takahashi and Fujiwara to the dormitory. Sanbo Hospital has one building dedicated to dormitories, run like apartments and not expensive. The rent is much cheaper than outside, mainly for doctors, researchers, trainees, interns, and standardized training students who just started working. Takahashi and Fujiwara were placed in ordinary dormitories. After they settled in, under Manager Xu¡¯s guidance, they received their trainee certificates, white gowns, access cards, etc. Then Manager Xu took Takahashi and Fujihara to the general orthopedics department to report in and handed them over to the academic secretary, Zhang Lin. ¡°This is Zhang Lin from the general orthopedics department, Dr. Zhang!¡± Manager Xu introduced. Zhang Lin was slightly displeased: ¡°Please call me Teacher Zhang!¡± ¡°Teacher Zhang, thank you for your support!¡± Takahashi and Fujiwara bowed simultaneously. ¡°You may go now. Once they¡¯re in the general orthopedics department, I¡¯ll take care of everything about their training.¡± Zhang Lin signed the handover list, urging Manager Xu to leave so he wouldn¡¯t get in the way. Manager Xu, seeing the displeasure on Zhang Lin¡¯s face, obediently left. Takahashi looked around, seemingly searching for Yang Ping. ¡°Stop looking. Dr. Yang has gone to the orthopedic research institute and won¡¯t be back until later. Takahashi Fumiya, Fujiwara Miyuki?¡± Zhang Lin asked with an odd tone. Takahashi and Fujiwara immediately responded: ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°First of all, welcome to your internship in Sanbo General Orthopedic department. I¡¯ll skip introducing our academic stature. I need to mention that we have strict requirements for our students because we aim to cultivate truly world-class doctors. You may quit anytime if you can¡¯t keep up.¡± Zhang Lin stood up and spoke, very much like lecturing an intern. ¡°Fujiwara Miyuki, you¡¯re assigned to Teacher Wu¡¯s team, and Takahashi Fumiya, you¡¯ll be in my team. Your direct superiors are the leaders of these two teams, understood?¡± Zhang Lin was very stern. Takahashi and Fujiwara nodded: ¡°Understood!¡± ¡°Good. Little Five, there¡¯s a new intern in your team. Go ahead.¡± Zhang Lin pointed at Little Five. Little Five was discussing a case with an intern when he saw Takahashi and Fujiwara enter, and everyone¡¯s attention was attracted to them. After dividing them into teams, Zhang Lin planned to give Takahashi a formal talk, for some in-depth communication with the intern. ¡°Dr. Zhang, bed number 3 needs an air mattress, can you please send an intern to help carry the patient?¡± a nurse called from the doorway. Zhang Lin sized up Takahashi, his physique was impressive: ¡°You, go with that nurse teacher to carry the patient.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Takahashi immediately followed the nurse out. Before coming to China, Teacher Tang had instructed: Act immediately upon hearing orders. ¡°After you finish, wash your hands as per standards, and then come back!¡± Zhang Lin instructed Takahashi. ¡°Understood!¡± Takahashi responded promptly. According to Teacher Tang, in China, if you¡¯re asked to do some work, it means the teacher regards you highly and may consider you for specialized training; if you¡¯re not assigned any tasks, it means the teacher is very disappointed in the student and has given up on them. Being assigned a task right after arriving made Takahashi very happy as it indicated a good start. Soon, Takahashi returned, with sweat on his forehead. Zhang Lin was quite satisfied. Fujiwara Miyuki was already doing her afternoon rounds with Little Five. Being a tall girl can attract some attention. At around 5¡¯10¡±, she would be rather ordinary if she were a guy, but as a woman, she stood out wherever she went. The male white gown on Fujiwara Miyuki, with no tailored waistline, still could not hide her perfect body. Those who walk the runway truly are different, her steps even hinting at a runway rhythm. Zhang Lin couldn¡¯t help but take another look. It¡¯s hard to imagine why such a beauty is working as a doctor instead of being a celebrity. I can¡¯t comprehend the worldview of these people. ¡°You must come to the hospital before 7 o¡¯clock every day, move all the case records to my desk, neatly stacked, quickly scan the examination results of our patients on the computer, record the abnormal ones and report them to me.¡± ¡°No matter what position or title you previously held in the hospital, now you are a visiting doctor here. Your immediate superior is me. Do you understand?¡± ¡°I will arrange for someone to familiarize you with the computer HIS system, after checking the ward there will be a written and operation test, only those who pass the test are qualified to observe clinically and enter the operating room ¡ª¡± ¡°Understood, Teacher Zhang! Please take good care of me!¡± Takahashi stood at attention and bowed, both hands tightly against the sides of his body. Good, this visiting student is very obedient. If he weren¡¯t, Zhang Lin would give him a good scolding, teaching him manners before discussing his studies. ¡°Also, Teacher Zhang likes to drink tea. When you come to the department every morning, you should brew the tea in advance. Don¡¯t put too many tea leaves. That¡¯s my cup with my name on it. Don¡¯t get it wrong. The tea is on the side, you know how to brew tea, right?¡± Zhang Lin pointed to his cup on the shelf, ¡°Yes! I am very good at it! And Professor Yang? Should I brew his tea too?¡± Takahashi was pleased, feeling valued. Zhang Lin showed a disdainful expression: ¡°It¡¯s not your turn to brew tea for Dr. Yang. Don¡¯t fantasize about unrealistic things. Doctors need to be down-to-earth. Some things come step by step.¡± ¡°Understood! I¡¯ll remember.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take you to make some ward rounds, Guodong, you demonstrate for him.¡± Zhang Lin got up and lead everyone to check the ward. ¡°We usually do our own rounds. On Tuesday mornings, Dr. Yang has a big ward round. Preparation is needed in advance, as you¡¯ll be asked questions. We have two physician groups, Teacher Wu and I are the leaders. Above us is Dr. Song Zimo, and Dr. Yang is higher still. Make sure to lay clear the hierarchy, don¡¯t overstep your bounds.¡± By mistake, Zhang Lin called Lu Xiaowu ¡°Teacher Wu¡±. It¡¯s almost the same, Zhang Lin is too lazy to correct himself. Guodong is a standardization student, leading from the front, knocking at the door of the ward three times then pushing it open, Zhang Lin swaggered in, acting as if he were a director making a ward round. He had quite a style. ¡°When leading the way, keep pace and distance, don¡¯t rush or slow down. As I enter, you need to push the door open, tell the patient in advance, ¡®Dr. Zhang is coming to check the ward¡¯, as I leave, you should all follow¡ª¡± ¡°Our patients are very special, all are ones that others can¡¯t cure or dare not treat, those with high surgical difficulties and risks, there are hardly any simple ones.¡± ¡°You can change dressings, write case records, right? Also, do you have any problems typing on the computer?¡± ¡°I can type with Pinyin, but it¡¯s really slow. My language teacher didn¡¯t have time to teach me before I came to China.¡± This was a problem for Takahashi. ¡°Takahashi! I¡¯m not criticizing you, but your preparation is a bit lacking,¡± Zhang Lin stroked his chin. ¡°Understood, I¡¯m very responsible, I will take up the role. Please rest assured, Teacher Zhang.¡± Takahashi tried to explain, afraid of any mistakes. After Zhang Lin finished the ward round, he passed by the nurses¡¯ station with his hands behind his back. Head Nurse Cai saw Zhang Lin¡¯s team and laughed, ¡°Dr. Zhang, new students have arrived.¡± ¡°From Japan, Takahashi. He¡¯s just arrived, not familiar with everything yet. Everyone please remind and guide him. Professor Yang asked me to help him along.¡± Zhang Lin showed off his teacher-like demeanor. ¡°Please advise me.¡± Takahashi bowed again. ¡°Takahashi, do you have WeChat? Register a WeChat, a lot of communication relies on it.¡± Back in the doctor¡¯s office, Zhang Lin sat down. ¡°Yes, I have WeChat.¡± Takahashi immediately took out his phone, a Huawei, specifically asked Yangzi to buy in advance. ¡°Teacher Zhang, should I scan you?¡± Takahashi asked cautiously. Zhang Lin lazily revealed his QR code: ¡°Go ahead and scan!¡± Takahashi opened the phone, not very skilled, clicked into the wallet a few times, Zhang Lin saw his WeChat balance had a long string of zeros, actually a hundred thousand! Damn, keeping so much pocket money, do Japanese people like to stash their private stash too? ¡°Takahashi, where do you live?¡± Zhang Lin found it easier to call Takahashi by his shorter name, it felt much better. It feels great to call someone else by a shorter name after being called ¡®Little Zhang¡¯ all this time. Takahashi immediately replied: ¡°I live in a dormitory in the hospital, for visiting students.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Zhang Lin took a sip of tea, his cup was empty. Takahashi reacted quickly, immediately reached out with both hands to take the cup: ¡°Teacher Zhang, let me refill your water.¡± Little Five took Fujiwara Miyuki to do a ward round as well, seeing Takahashi obediently following Zhang Lin¡¯s instructions was quite amusing.. At this time, Yang Ping came in. Zhang Lin immediately stood up: ¡°This is Dr. Yang!¡± Finally meeting his idol, Takahashi stood at attention and bowed, even more rigidly than in front of Teacher Fujiwara. ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± Yang Ping nodded slightly. ¡°These are the visiting doctors from Japan, Takahashi Fumiya and Dr. Fujiwara Miyuki.¡± Zhang Lin immediately reported. ¡°Welcome!¡± Yang Ping shook hands with them. ¡°Welcome to China, welcome to Sanbo Hospital. If you encounter any difficulties in study or life, report them to Teacher Zhang in time. I hope everyone can spend a happy and fulfilling study period.¡± ¡°We are very grateful for the opportunity Dr. Yang has provided. We will cherish this opportunity and will be happy to be fulfilled.¡± Takahashi¡¯s Chinese is indeed good. The expensive tuition was not wasted. Chapter 333: 0317: Half-Man Chapter 333: Chapter 0317: Half-Man By six o¡¯clock, Takahashi and Fujiwara had arrived at the department. As they were not very familiar with the place, Takahashi seemed somewhat suspicious. The nurses initially thought he was a thief. It wasn¡¯t until they grabbed him and asked that they realized he was the Japanese intern who had just arrived yesterday. He put the medical records neatly on Zhang Lin¡¯s desk, made tea for Zhang Lin, organized the tea cup, and then sat down to familiarize himself with the HIS system on the computer. It wasn¡¯t until he logged in with his work number that he remembered that he didn¡¯t learn how to use this system from Teacher Zhang before he left work yesterday. Despite his efforts, he still struggled to get the hang of it. At this time, the hardworking graduate student Li Guodong also arrived at the department. Seeing him, Takahashi found his savior and grabbed Guodong: ¡°Dr. Li, teach me how to use this medical instruction system please.¡± Xiao Li glanced at the computer without saying a word. Takahashi thought he was unwilling to help, he brandished his cell phone and said, ¡°I¡¯ll send you a WeChat red packet?¡± Really? A red packet for teaching you the HIS system? You¡¯re generous! ... ¡°No need for a red packet, here, let me teach you.¡± Xiao Li sat down and began to demonstrate and explain the system. Takahashi was a top student in Japan. As Xiao Li explained, surprisingly, he got the hang of it in no time. Li Guodong was astounded by this Japanese man¡¯s learning ability. They say that the Medical Department of Tokyo University is the hardest to get into in all of Japan, so those who get in are very intelligent. It appears the rumors are true, Takahashi¡¯s learning ability really is formidable. ¡°Can I send you a red packet? Let¡¯s add each other on WeChat.¡± Takahashi really wanted to send a red packet. If it were in the past, Li Guodong would¡¯ve been eager for the red packet. His economic conditions weren¡¯t great, and he usually relied on going to some medical instrument promotion meetings for the department and managed to get by on a travel allowance of one-two hundred dollars. However, currently at Orthopedics, following Yang Ping, he was quite well-off and didn¡¯t need the red packet money. He flicked his hand dismissively, ¡°Forget about the red packet, let¡¯s exchange WeChat contacts. It will be convenient for communication. I will add you to our team group.¡± More people began to arrive one after another. Takahashi recorded the abnormal test reports on the computer. If he came across words he didn¡¯t understand he used translation software to overcome the language barrier. Zhang Lin came over and saw the neatly arranged medical records on his desk and the tea that had already been made. He wanted to berate someone but couldn¡¯t find a reason to do so. ¡°Takahashi¡± Upon hearing Zhang Lin¡¯s call, Takahashi immediately ran over to him and stood by his side. Zhang Lin picked up the cup, took a sip of the tea. It wasn¡¯t too bad, though it could use some adjustments: ¡°Takahashi, the tea is a little strong.¡± Takahashi immediately took out a notebook and jotted this down. Zhang Lin looked askance. Was it really necessary to take notes for this? After finishing his notes, Takahashi said, ¡°Teacher Zhang, I counted the tea leaves in your cup yesterday, there were twenty-nine. So, this morning I added twenty-nine tea leaves. If that¡¯s too much, I¡¯ll reduce it by three leaves tomorrow. Is twenty-six alright?¡± Zhang Lin stiffened. This guy actually counted the tea leaves in his cup. The Japanese man was certainly meticulous. Zhang Lin tried to maintain his composure: ¡°Hmm, you are diligent. However, tea leaves vary in size, so you can¡¯t always use the same amount. Adjust the quantity based on the size of the tea leaves.¡± ¡°I see, Teacher Zhang. I¡¯ll make your tea based on the weight of the tea leaves in the future.¡± Takahashi found a solution to the problem. The doctors in the department arrived one after another. At precisely 8 o¡¯clock in the morning, they changed shifts. Just as they finished changing shifts, the direct line to the Trauma Emergency Center rang. The primary focus of the Trauma Emergency Center was microscopic trauma orthopedics, but other orthopedics departments were also involved. Each orthopedics department, including the comprehensive orthopedics department, had a direct line to the Trauma Emergency Center to avoid situations where emergency calls couldn¡¯t get through. Early in the morning, the ring of the phone was truly hair-raising. ¡°The Trauma Emergency Center requires assistance. The patient is in the emergency department resuscitation room!¡± Song Zimo put down the phone. The Comprehensive Orthopedics department was the ace department of major orthopedics. If they needed assistance from Comprehensive Orthopedics, it must be a seriously complex trauma case. ¡°The Trauma Emergency Center requests assistance. All personnel, besides those on duty, move out!¡± The patient¡¯s condition is a command! Yang Ping immediately ordered the department staff to move. Every second was crucial, he didn¡¯t dare to delay for even a second. He led everyone, almost running, to the emergency department. As expected, it was another car accident, a serious car accident. The tense atmosphere in the emergency department lounge told everyone the story. At the door of the resuscitation room, a man¡¯s face was as white as a sheet, calling with his cell phone, his voice hoarse: ¡°Teacher, I¡¯m sorry to bother you. Her mother is currently injured in the hospital and can¡¯t come over. I¡¯m also at the hospital now, could you please help take care of the child?¡± After finishing the call, the man squatted on the ground and cried. ¡°Dr. Yang, in the resuscitation room, quickly!¡± A nurse led the way and the resuscitation room doors swung open. ¡°Quick! Insert the intra-aortic balloon to stop bleeding, move quick!¡± It was Director Tan¡¯s roar. ¡°Can¡¯t do it, there¡¯s no way to place a tube in the femoral artery. A blind tube placement would be impossible to reach the aorta from the subclavian artery!¡± Again, Director Tan¡¯s roar. ¡°The heartbeat¡¯s gone again!¡± A nurse screamed. The screen of the heart monitor displayed a long line of ventricular fibrillation waves. This was an indication of cardiac arrest. ¡°Defibrillation, quick defibrillation!¡± When Director Tan encounters these large-scale rescues, he is like a lion. His booming voice fills the room, urging the entire resuscitation room into action. The patient lay on the stretcher, their whole body bloody, and in an unbearable state. The entire lower half of their body was completely crushed. Their intestines too, squeezed from the wounds on the abdomen, were scattered all over the stretcher. The dark red blood on the stretcher, mixed with feces, flowed everywhere, spread across the floor, forming a pool of dark red blood. My God, the bloody and grotesque scene was an extremely intense sensory assault that left one breathless! A standardized training student immediately covered his mouth, ran to the garbage bin and vomited everything out. ¡°Is he part of our department? Tell him to get out!¡± a physically robust emergency nurse shouted. ¡°200 joules. Clear! Defibrillate!¡± The emergency department¡¯s doctors were well-trained, swiftly preparing the defibrillator ¨C switching it on, applying conductive gel in one smooth sequence. Holding one electrode in each hand, he placed them upon the right distal clavicle and left cardiac apex of the injured patient. ¡°No fractures in the ribs, no chest injuries, cardiac massage!¡± Director Tan¡¯s gloves and outfit were covered in blood. His explosive temperament was fully unleashed during the rescue, each statement delivered with a shout. The endotracheal intubation had been completed earlier at the scene, with the ventilator now maintaining the patient¡¯s breathing, as cardiac massage and electrical defibrillation were performed alternately. ¡°We¡¯ve got a pulse back! Blood pressure still not detectable.¡± After another defibrillation, the ventricular fibrillation wave on the monitor transformed into a regular sinus rhythm. ¡°The blood is here!¡± A nurse frantically pushed a cart full of blood bags over, stopping next to the bed; another nurse swiftly replaced the blood bags, funneling blood into the patient¡¯s body via an inserted catheter in the subclavian veins on both sides. The sound of the emergency cart¡¯s medicine box being hastily opened and slammed shut filled the room. One life-saving drug after another was methodically injected through the IV. This injury was like the aftermath of his lower half being relentlessly smashed by an enormous sledgehammer. Visibly shaken, Takahashi stood to the side, wanting to lend a hand but had no clue how to help. The attempt at resuscitating this patient was merely symbolic at this point. Yet every doctor and nurse here was giving it their all; a surge of respect welled up within Takahashi. ¡°Director Tan¡ª!¡± Yang Ping arrived with his team at the patient¡¯s side. Looking like he was on his last legs after fending off waves of attacks, Director Tan saw the reinforcements arrive and said, ¡°Look, the bottom half is completely gone; the abdominal wound was blown open due to compression; the intestines and internal organs are a total mess ¨C we still don¡¯t know the full extent of injuries. We were about to move him to the operating room, but his heart and breathing stopped. I believe there¡¯s no hope.¡± ¡°If it weren¡¯t for that emergency doctor thrusting his hand in and manually staunching the bleeding from the aorta, the patient wouldn¡¯t have lasted until now¡±. Director Tan was drenched in sweat. The doctor who had blocked the aorta by hand had his hand still inside: ¡°I¡¯m pinching the aorta, but it¡¯s not working. The bleeding is too severe.¡± ¡°Aortic clamp, quick! And hemostatic forceps, bring all of them.¡± Yang Ping remained calm, his voice loud and clear without a hint of panic or shouting, he instantly commanded the room. When the equipment he requested was brought over, Yang Ping immediately put on his gloves and reached his hand in, blindly searching for the blood vessels amongst the internal organs. This was a blind act, requiring a sound knowledge of anatomical structures. ¡°Hold your hand still for now!¡± Yang Ping ordered the emergency doctor. The young doctor¡¯s hands had been stationary from the scene to the hospital and had already become rigid. Yang Ping held the aortic clamp, under the cover of invisibility, he located the closest part of the abdominal aorta to the diaphragm by touch: ¡°Quick, get me the aortic clamp!¡± Dominant but not rough! Speedy but not impulsive! Upon being handed the aortic clamp by Director Tan, Yang Ping accurately clamped the aorta. The entire process took only a few seconds. The bleeding below had already been reduced by half, but it was still ongoing, Yang Ping¡¯s hand continued: ¡°There are collateral vessels penetrating into the abdominal cavity above the diaphragm!¡± Either open the chest now or blindly search for collateral vessels, clamping each one at a time with a hemostatic clamp to completely stop the bleeding. ¡°Keep passing me hemostatic clamps, the large ones, yes!¡± Without turning his head, Yang Ping took the hemostatic clamp; he knew their numbers by touch alone, his left hand was groping around the abdominal cavity. Behind the liver, he located a collateral branch and clamped it. The superb anatomical skill allowed him to navigate without direct vision, his touch alone offering a clear understanding of each structure. There were collateral vessels near the head of the pancreas and next to the hilum of the spleen. These were all emerging from above the diaphragm, the blockage of the abdominal aorta could not stop them from bleeding. A dozen or more haemostatic clamps were inserted one by one and the bleeding finally stopped. The entire operation took less than three minutes. It made one wonder, what kind of level of anatomical proficiency was required to perform such an operation. Takahashi watched clearly, this was not the work of a man but that of a god. It was no wonder he dealt with over a hundred blood vessels with ease during the academic conference. ¡°Part of the liver can be preserved, the spleen needs to be removed, the rectum needs to be removed, the bladder and the ureter need repair, the entire pelvis is crushed, the pancreas is all right, the entire lower limbs along with the pelvis needs to be amputated¡ª¡± Yang Ping had already made a preliminary diagnosis based on touch alone. The hands of a surgeon are their second pair of eyes; in surgery, when things cannot be visualized, they rely on touch. ¡°Take him to the operating room now, the dedicated operating room for trauma emergency, I¡¯ll operate!¡± Yang Ping decisively declared. ¡°Dr. Yang, I would like to observe your surgery, would that be possible?¡± The young doctor who had performed manual hemostasis earlier came forward. Yang Ping took a glance at him while walking, and said, ¡°You¡¯re very courageous, familiar with anatomy and your assessment of injuries is accurate. The blockade should¡¯ve been applied further up.¡± ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± Takahashi promptly followed. Chapter 334: 0318: Ambush on All Sides Chapter 334: Chapter 0318: Ambush on All Sides ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± Yang Ping walked very fast, and Takahashi followed closely with a light jog. Soon, everyone entered the elevator. ¡°Mr. Takahashi, what is your assessment of this patient?¡± Takahashi is a world-renowned trauma surgery master, by no means ordinary. He should have some unique insights about many things. ¡°I noticed that the professor planned to use the Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta (REBOA) technique, but the casualty¡¯s femoral artery has been damaged and the balloon planting could not be achieved successfully. The current common REBOA technique is outdated, we have an advanced REBOA technique that uses portable devices and ultrasound guidance. It can enter the aorta through any relatively thick artery in the human body, such as subclavian artery, radial artery, brachial artery, femoral artery, popliteal artery and even dorsal artery. It can navigate itself, bypassing some dangerous bifurcations to enter the aorta, and deliver the balloon to the designated location. ... Everyone was in a hurry, their speech fast-paced. Although Takahashi¡¯s Chinese was a bit rusty, he managed to express his ideas clearly. ¡°If Dr. Yang is interested, I will send you the complete set of materials. However, the accurate vascular occlusion technique you used just now is already a step ahead of our simple aortic occlusion.¡± Takahashi was surprised that Yang Ping had asked for his opinion, treating him equally rather than looking down on him. On his last trip to China, his arrogance had made him appear narrow-minded, as if a clown. Dr. Yang was the true master. Soon, everyone hurried to the operating room¡¯s changing room, ceasing the discussion. There was no time for academic discussions. Everyone rushed to change. The patient had already been taken to the operating room via a separate entrance. Normally, clothes are folded neatly after taking them off and placed in individual lockers. This time, they were thrown aside in a haste, with no one caring about items that fell on the floor. ¡°Brother, I beg you, please save her, okay?¡± Song Zimo asked, looking down to pull on his pants. With such an injury, who could guarantee that she could be saved? They could only strive for the best. Whether she could survive or not, it all came down to fate. Yang Ping didn¡¯t understand; the usually rational Song Zimo had suddenly said something so emotional, so wishful. Song Zimo finished pulling on his pants and looked up. Yang Ping noticed there were tears in his eyes. Yang Ping instantly understood. He laid his hand on Song Zimo¡¯s shoulder: ¡°I promise I will do everything I can to let her survive!¡± Whether she could live, whether she could survive the surgery, Yang Ping didn¡¯t know. It was a beautiful wish. The patient was wheeled into the operating room and transferred to the operating table as Fatty Liang awaited. ¡°We have blood pressure, 65/30mmHg!¡± Finding the measurable blood pressure, the nurse was so overjoyed that she broke into tears. For such trauma, the primary cause of early-stage deaths was massive bleeding. If the bleeding could be stopped and replaced with fluid infusion, there could be a glimmer of hope. Yang Ping sent over a dozen vascular clamps of different sizes into the abdominal cavity, accurately blocking almost all possible sources of bleeding. This minimized further blood loss. With adequate blood transfusion and fluid resuscitation, there was still a slight hope for success. Because the abdominal cavity had become contaminated with feces, the autologous blood transfusion machine couldn¡¯t be used; they could only rely on conventional allogenic blood transfusions. Two blood transfusion sets with warming functions were continuously infusing blood, with a steady stream of blood products flowing into the patient¡¯s body non-stop through both subclavian veins. But blood transfusion had its limits, going overboard could introduce some complications. The time for vessel occlusion had also to be monitored; the safe duration was 60 minutes. The surgery had to be completed within 60 minutes of occlusion. Fatty Liang¡¯s hands hadn¡¯t stopped for a second. Resuscitation drugs like dopamine and adrenaline had been constantly administered intravenously. The blood pressure slowly elevated as if a challenging rock climb. The anesthesia machine was connected to the already inserted endotracheal tube, and various parameters were adjusted effortlessly. The sound of cart wheels rubbing against the ground could be heard from outside. Someone had already opened the sensor door of the operating room early, blocking the sensor area with their hand, so the blood delivery cart could glide smoothly into the operating room. Another cart carrying packed red blood cells and plasma was pushed in, the nurse¡¯s actions expert and swift as they replaced the blood bags. Several instrument trays had been laid out. Xiao Su, now dressed in surgical gowns, had categorized and allocated the surgical instruments. The ones to be used first were singled out, with the needle and thread ready, and even the labels for alcoholic saline were properly pasted. Everyone¡¯s work proceeded simultaneously. No commands were needed ¨C much less anyone yelling. The permitted observers held their breaths in the corners so as not to disturb the surgery. Anesthesia achieved, blood pressure continued to climb like scaling a cliff. Based on Takahashi¡¯s extensive professional knowledge, such a surgery would take at least four hours if he were to be the chief surgeon the whole time. If it was performed with the multidisciplinary collaboration mode, where different injuries were treated by different doctors, the surgery might take eight hours. Experts from general surgery, urology, and gynecology all rushed to the operating room. The trauma emergency center functioned with a multidisciplinary model, with trauma orthopedics as the leading department. Seeing that Yang Ping was already there, ready to take the stage, everyone else didn¡¯t bother going up. Yang Ping¡¯s surgical authority allowed him to perform trauma surgery on the entire body; a special authorization from the hospital, and he did it better than anyone else. The operating room was spacious. Since everyone was already there, they decided to stay and observe to learn. Such trauma was too rare. Chapter 335: 0318: Ambush on All Sides_2 Chapter 335: Chapter 0318: Ambush on All Sides_2 Irrigation, numerous washes with a large amount of saline solution, alternating between hydrogen peroxide, saline solution, povidone-iodine-solution, and saline solution, immense quantities used interchangeably. The large amount of feces contaminating the abdominal cavity significantly increases the chance of infection. Many open pelvic fractures are contaminated by feces, ultimately resulting in severe infection leading to the death of the patient. Irrigation, ceaseless irrigation, continuously diluting the bacteria, this is the best method. Driven by an almost obsessive need, Yang Ping irrigates, diluting the mix of clotting blood and feces again and again. His sterile-gloved hands stirred within the abdomen, ensuring that the pulsating spray head in Song Zimo¡¯s hands reached every corner. The three-liter bag of saline solution is hung, connected through the pulse irrigation machine, connecting the irrigation pipes, water spraying from the irrigation head. ... The saline solution is rapidly depleted, and the circulating nurse continuously replaces it. The bucket designated for empty bags has already filled with more than twenty bags. The bucket collecting fluids however, sees a constant rise in liquid levels, it contains a substantial amount of impurities. Only when the irrigation fluid became clear did Yang Ping and Song Zimo leave to scrub their hands and sanitize. Zhang Lin Xiaowu, who had already scrubbed his hands, began to disinfect the cover sheets, flawlessly picking up where they left off. To save time, Yang Ping scrubbed much faster than usual, simplifying the process. The electric knife, bipolar electrocoagulation, suction tube, irrigation tube were all properly connected. Yang Ping dressed in surgical scrubs, put on gloves, and began the surgery. The usual preoperative procedure was naturally omitted. The scalpel was used to extend the abdominal wound, attempting to expose the entire abdomen. Two large S-shaped retraction hooks were gently placed, and Zhang Lin Xiaowu took his position. A complete new set of tubes were arranged to continue the irrigation. Once irrigation was completed, everyone changed gloves. With both hands, Yang Ping stretched inside, carefully examining each organ in the abdominal cavity, determining which ones were worth repairing, and which ones needed to be surgically removed without hesitation. The spleen was already shattered, often Yang Ping would ligate blood vessels, sometimes he¡¯d separate with his fingers, sometimes with surgical scissors, the dazzling array of surgical instrument switches caused confusion. Moving so quickly, the steps weren¡¯t clear, the fact that the destroyed spleen was successfully removed and thrown into a metal basin happened in the blink of an eye. Without wasting a moment, he began working on the removal of the shattered right liver lobe, a normally tricky procedure handled with dexterity, even performing some steps all through touch without exposure. Things like ligating vessels, removing the gall bladder, separating the right liver lobe were done so quickly, you couldn¡¯t clearly see the procedure. The hemostatic forceps were threaded, tied, then forceps were used to separate. After a few rounds, the gall bladder was removed, followed swiftly by the shattered right liver lobe. From the head to the tail of the pancreas, Yang Ping¡¯s hands swiftly but carefully examine, flip and probe, noting light bruising on the pancreas, requiring attention for possible traumatic pancreatitis postoperatively. Having assessed the pancreas, he immediately moves to the stomach, continuing from top to bottom, probing through the whole gastrointestinal tract in the abdominal cavity. He turns over the small intestine in his hand while examining it, allowing his eyes to see the entire perimeter of the intestine and mesenteric vessels. The information collected visually and tactilely are merged in his mind into an absolutely precise judgment. Yang Ping¡¯s familiarity with anatomy has elevated to an unrestricted level of freedom; sometimes he doesn¡¯t even have to look, simply feeling with both hands he can accurately identify anatomical structures. His hand reaches out, catching the scalpel handle, before anyone catches their breath, the small intestine had a reduction incision, his hand continues downward, holding slippery, smooth intestinal tracts, even the appendix is not spared. Following this, the ascending and descending colons and the sigmoid colon were retained. The sigmoid and rectum were completely removed and taken out. The large metal basin that harbours the removed tissues was meticulously set on a sterile cart. A few of them were already full. He examined the kidneys and the adrenal glands on both sides, two hands simultaneously probing, tracing down the urinary tract after the kidneys to the bladder and further to the urethra. As he continued probing, Yang Ping reported out damage areas and degrees, as well as the upcoming operative plan. ¡°Kidney, adrenal gland, no noticeable injury. Both ureters ruptured, bladder burst, urethra damaged.¡± His voice echoed loud and clear, but remained extremely calm, no yelling, no pressure. However, everyone tried their best to keep up with his pace, especially Song Zimo, who was paying close attention and dared not slack off. Everyone understood, at this moment, Yang Ping was contending with death. Any negligence, and death would snatch life right out of their hands. The ovaries are fine, but the fallopian tubes have lacerations and the uterus has contusions. The exploration and repair of these organs are done simultaneously with suturing, ligation, or electrocoagulation of blood vessels. The bilateral internal and external iliac veins, left renal vein, and both lower abdominal wall veins are ligated; the sacral venous plexus, on the other hand, is either sutured or electrocoagulated from time to time. These operations are ongoing and may seem disordered, yet they follow the most optimized order. When all exploratory measures are completed, the whole omentum is lifted out of the abdominal cavity and dumped into a metal basin. Turns out, while examining and repairing the organs, the surgeon was also removing the omentum. Upon the completion of the exploration, the omentum was naturally fully excised. ¡°Microscope!¡± Zhou Can had already prepared and pushed it into the operating area, Yang Ping yelled for Song Zimo to adjust the focus and interpupillary distance. Under the microscope, both ureteral anastomosis and bilateral ureteral stent nephrostomy were performed, and the ruptured bladder was repaired. Additionally, the stump of the cystic duct was inserted with a T-tube to create a biliary fistula; a drainage tube was also placed where the spleen originally was. A bladder fistula and a colostomy of the descending colon were performed, leading to a series of fistulas. No urethra, therefore a temporary bladder fistula was performed. No rectum or anus, thus a temporary descending colostomy was performed to maintain ephemeral urinary and fecal excretion after the operation. In the end, a beautiful skin flap was used to repair the remaining wound. Three drainage tubes were placed into the wound to drain it, adding to the various tubes already in the abdominal cavity. A total of over ten drainage tubes extended out from the body. During the operation, 20,000 milliliters of fluids were transfused just to barely maintain blood pressure. Finally, the entire lower body was detached; the remaining body resembled a heap of mud, leaving the casualty¡¯s body. A person taller than one meter and sixty had become a ¡®half-man¡¯, about seventy centimeters tall, like a half porcelain doll. The operating room was eerily quiet. Takahashi, staring at the screen, watched the entire operation. He precisely calculated the time, from prepping to the start, it took only thirty-five minutes. Moreover, each step was executed without any pause or hesitation, as if every single move was crystal clear. Knowing what process was needed at each step, with consciousness leading the hand, every action was accurately accomplished. Countless operations were not conducted routinely but were interweaved, flexibly combined without any dissonance. Such combination was not about performing surgeries one by one. To save time, the surgeon integrated the steps of all independent procedures, scrambled them, mixed them all together. There were operations inserted into operations, with operations accompanying other operations. Like a DJ spinning a record, speeding it up here, inserting it there, suddenly stopping this part and connecting another part. Each hand moving within the abdominal cavity, coordinating when needed and operating independently when required. With seamless transitions, no discordance could be felt. The entire operation was completed under the pressure of death, an experience that was tense, thrilling, and exciting. A surge of great power, like an incoming tsunami, overwhelmed Takahashi, making him feel a tremendous pressure, a pressure so strong that he felt like surrendering and kneeling down. Yang Ping gently placed the needle holder into the sharp object transfer tube and asked, ¡°Vital signs?¡± ¡°Blood pressure is 102/60mmHg, heart rate 102 beats per minute, low flow oxygen, mechanical ventilation, oxygen saturation 100%.¡± ¡°She has gotten past the first Ghost Gate, but many more are waiting for her.¡± Yang Ping let out a sigh of relief. ¡°I¡¯ll take care of this patient.¡± Song Zimo looked at the monitor. ¡°You¡¯ll be responsible for assembling the medical team and include Takahashi as well. I¡¯ll discuss with the head nurse about forming a nursing team. If the patient is to survive, a dedicated team must be in charge. Any minor mistake could result in failure, and death could strike at any moment.¡± ¡°In addition to this case, there are only two examples of high-level ¡®half-men¡¯ in China. One was reported in Shanghai, but died six days after the operation¡ª¡± Takahashi was very familiar with these cases. Chapter 336: 0319: Cant Be Duplicated Chapter 336: Chapter 0319: Can¡¯t Be Duplicated The patient is being transferred to the trauma ICU, and everyone is following along. Liang Fatty attached a portable ventilator to her tracheal intubation, ensuring her breathing safety during the transfer. The doors of the operating room opened, and the patient was wheeled out. Her husband and child had been anxiously waiting. Seeing the patient emerge, the husband immediately rushed forward. Their four or five-year-old boy, standing by his father¡¯s side, was trembling, clinging onto his father¡¯s clothes, his eyes filled with fear. The patient¡¯s body was covered by a white blanket from the operating room, making her missing lower half less conspicuous. ¡°You must be Yu Shuilian¡¯s husband? Your wife has survived the surgery, but she is still in critical condition. I¡¯ll explain her injuries in detail to you later.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to say too much with the child present. Seeing the emptiness beneath the blanket, the man was prepared. The doctors had explained thoroughly before the surgery that there was a high probability she wouldn¡¯t survive, and even if she did, she would be a half-man. Now, seeing that she was alive, he was ready to accept her in any condition. ... As long as she¡¯s alive, that¡¯s all that matters! Yu Shuilian¡¯s husband, Fu Xiayang, looked at his wife. Tears fell like rain as he continuously wiped them away with his sleeve. His trembling hand tried to lift the blanket, but Song Zimo held it down, his voice soft, ¡°The child is here!¡± Fu Xiayang understood and withdrew his hand. Muscles in his face twitched, his lips trembled. Holding his wife¡¯s pale hand tightly, he said, ¡°The doctor said it¡¯s okay; don¡¯t be afraid! Don¡¯t be afraid! I¡¯m here¨C¡± The husband did not know what to say and kept repeating this phrase as he followed the gurney. ¡°She can¡¯t hear you!¡± Liang Fatty told Fu Xiayang. Song Zimo patted the child¡¯s head, ¡°Your mom¡¯s okay now. Don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t be afraid. So many aunts and uncles are here, she will definitely be fine.¡± The little boy nodded wisely, and his scared eyes gained a little bit of calmness. When they got to the ICU, Yang Ping explained to Director Pan that he wanted Song Zimo to take charge of this patient. According to the rules, it¡¯s not supposed to be, a doctor from another department managing an ICU patient, but Yang Ping¡¯s reputation had to be respected. ¡°Doctor Yang, no problem, let Dr. Song manage, our department¡¯s doctors and nurses, at his disposal.¡± Director Pan agreed without hesitation. The patient was transferred to the ICU bed by Song Zimo and Takahashi, aided by the others. Changing the bed sheets was a breeze with their help. After the transfer was completed, Song Zimo pulled back the blanket and arranged more than a dozen drainage tubes, connecting all the different monitor cables. The ICU doctors and nurses finally saw the half-man patient. All of them were shocked. The sudden visual impact caused great discomfort in some of them. Director Pan was taken aback. No wonder Dr. Yang insisted on letting Song Zimo take charge. With such a patient, their experience would indeed be insufficient. After connecting to the monitors, the newly measured blood pressure was 105/62mmHg. The blood pressure had risen a bit again. ¡°Did you use dopamine?¡± Song Zimo was pleased with the blood pressure reading. Fatty connected the ICU ventilator, ¡°We didn¡¯t use dopamine, it¡¯s her natural blood pressure.¡± The critical phase of hemorrhagic shock was temporarily passed, but she still had to confront the risk of infection and organ failure. Serious abdominal contamination, as well as major trauma and surgery, could turn the patient¡¯s immune system as fragile as thin paper, ready to break at the slightest touch. Once a severe infection sets in, it would be like an avalanche, unavoidable death. Dealing with postoperative complications could be complicated and troublesome, especially for patients in such conditions, and these complications could last for a long time. As the patient continued to receive blood transfusions and fluid replacements under central venous pressure monitoring, prophylactic antibiotics for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria were already in use. Now was not the time to consider the side effects of antibiotics. Saving the patient¡¯s life was the utmost priority. ¡°See if you can contact the psychology department to provide psychological counseling for the child.¡± Song Zimo instructed Tang Fei. He had noticed earlier that the child was not doing well. Tang Fei knew, no one could understand better how the child was feeling right now than Song Zimo. ¡°I¡¯ll take care of the child. You stay here, keep it up. She must survive, she must.¡± Tang Fei encouraged Song Zimo. Song Zimo stayed in the ICU. Takahashi also insisted on staying to take care of the patient, but ICU had already broken the rules by letting Song Zimo stay. Having one more person stay would be inappropriate. ¡°Let Dr. Song stay alone. If he needs help, then you guys can come. Little Five and Zhang Lin, go to our operating room. We have several surgeries to do today.¡± Yang Ping felt more at ease knowing the patient was in the trauma ICU with Song Zimo there. There were still a few surgeries to do in his department, so he couldn¡¯t stay long. Upon exiting the ICU, in the family waiting area, Yang Ping saw the patient¡¯s husband again. ¡°I¡¯ll explain your wife¡¯s condition to you.¡± ¡°Dear, can you let your dad talk to the doctor, and go with the nice nurse for a while?¡± Tang Fei gently spoke to the boy. ¡°Go with the nurse, son. Let your dad talk to the doctor about your mom¡¯s condition.¡± Fu Xiayang told his son. The little boy was obedient, following Tang Fei away. Fu Xiayang rested his head on the back of the chair and muttered to himself, ¡°When we were young, we were in a relationship. My family was too poor and her family disapproved. She stole her household registration and ran off with me to get married. We started working secretly in the south. During that time, she never lived a comfortable day with me. She never used any make-up or skin-care products, and her clothes were always the cheapest. It may sound ridiculous, but unless we had guests, we wouldn¡¯t go out for a meal at a restaurant for a year. After struggling together for many years, we finally had our own bakery. We saved some money and planned to buy a house. We were recently thinking about retaking our wedding photos, but because of the price, she never agreed, and I never got to propose. I secretly bought a ring and was about to tell her. The hardships had just ended, and I wanted to make her¡ª¡± Fu Xiayang wept uncontrollably, ¡°Doctor, I beg you, let her live, no matter the cost¡ª¡± Thud! The man suddenly fell onto his knees. Yang Ping promptly helped him up, ¡°We will do everything in our power¡ª¡± Once he had regained control of his emotions, Yang Ping described to him in detail Yu Shuilian¡¯s medical condition and the possible difficulties they could face. At that time, Song Zimo and the ICU doctor also came out; some informed consent forms needed to be signed. Takahashi had not yet recovered from the recent surgery. The steps of several surgeries were completely disrupted and conducted in a cross-over manner. He was still trying to figure out how the surgeon coordinated such steps. It was like writing a piece of writing, the author does not write one word at a time, but rather jumps from place to place, seeming disorderly, but surprisingly, when the final stroke was done, the whole piece was complete, and every word remained beautiful. Takahashi had never seen anyone perform surgery like that, but it was indeed much more efficient. For example, in removing the aneurysm, the typical process was to isolate and remove it separately while Yang Ping was conducting other surgeries and simultaneously separating and removing the aneurysm. By the time he had finished examining the organs, the aneurysm had been completely removed. Although the principle was clear, the actual operation involved countless steps. To manage all these in such a tense situation required great mental capacity, didn¡¯t it? If executed in an orderly manner, this surgery would have taken at least three to four hours. Yet, Yang Ping astonishingly completed it in 35 minutes. Back in General Orthopedics, Takahashi followed Yang Ping and asked, ¡°Dr. Yang, earlier, you split each independent surgery into many steps. These steps are shuffled and performed in an interlaced manner, saving a lot of time. Can you teach me how to achieve such efficiency?¡± Yang Ping pondered for a moment, ¡°You are very attentive, noticing the particulars of my procedure. However, you shouldn¡¯t try this method of surgery carelessly, as it can easily lead to panic and, on the contrary, prolong the surgery time. I will soon be publishing a paper discussing the management of such severe multiple injuries. In dealing with these injuries, one must have a concept of systems engineering, taking into account the whole, planning and optimizing the surgery in its entirety. However, most people can only manage multiple surgeries but are unable to delve into each step of these surgeries for optimization. Therefore, my method is not reproducible, and it is not worth learning.¡± Takahashi immediately felt a chill in his heart. It meant that, no matter how hard he tried, he could never reach Dr. Yang¡¯s level, and this hit him hard. However, after calming down, Takahashi realized that Dr. Yang wasn¡¯t unwilling to teach. He indeed couldn¡¯t disrupt and reorganize the steps of a surgery. ¡°In my paper, I propose a trauma treatment system model and a scientific scoring method. It¡¯s very simple. Patients are scored according to the model, and based on these scores, an optimized process can be automatically selected. This process minimizes surgical time and maximizes success rate. You can learn this decision-making model and put it to use¡ª¡± Yang Ping suggested to Takahashi. A person who performs surgery well is not truly a master. A true master can refine and simplify their own surgical techniques, turning them into a method that is easy to grasp and spread. In this way, many doctors can benefit and save more patients after receiving training. ¡°Takahashi understands. Takahashi will strive to learn your surgical thinking and methods, and then do his best to promote it, widening the scope of your medical skills.¡± Takahashi was clear-minded. He agreed with what Yang Ping said. Instead of pursuing something unattainable, it was better to maximize the skills he could master. In his excitement, he suddenly referred to Yang Ping as his mentor, following a Japanese custom. ¡°Dr. Yang, I¡¯m sorry, I was too excited just now¡ª¡± Takahashi didn¡¯t know whether calling him ¡°mentor¡± was appropriate. Yang Ping noticed his apprehensive and agreeable demeanor: ¡°Takahashi, you don¡¯t need to be so formal. If you have any good ideas, you¡¯re free to express them. We have academic freedom here. You can freely express your ideas.¡± ¡°Thank you, Dr. Yang. Please accept student Takahashi¡¯s sincere apology. Takahashi¡¯s previous behavior was like a frog at the bottom of a well¡ª¡± Takahashi immediately stood up and bowed deeply. Little Five called to inform that the patient was ready for surgery. Yang Ping brought Takahashi to the operating room. Graduate student Li Guodong had just returned from helping in the ICU and also entered the operating room. In the changing room, Takahashi tried to bond with Li Guodong: ¡°Guodong, can you teach me how to shop online?¡± Li Guodong found this Japanese man to be quite keen on learning. An international professor was acting the same as a student. At least his learning spirit was worth learning from, so he didn¡¯t dislike him. Li Guodong wasn¡¯t sure about the process to register on Taobao and Alipay for foreigners, or about making online payments. He wasn¡¯t sure if a bank account in a Chinese bank was required. ¡°Do you want to buy something?¡± Li Guodong asked curiously. He had only been there for one day. ¡°If it¡¯s not urgent, I can buy it for you. What do you want?¡± Li Guodong asked him. Takahashi made a motion with his hands, ¡°I want to buy an electronic scale, one that labs use, with an accuracy of up to 0.01 grams.¡± ¡°That¡¯s easy. Do you want me to buy it for you? It should be inexpensive, maybe around three to five hundred. It will arrive in a few days. Do you have any price requirements?¡± Li Guodong thought it was something much more complicated. ¡°I don¡¯t understand, can you buy it for me? Can I transfer 1,000 yuan to your WeChat wallet first?¡± ¡°No need for that, we¡¯ll talk about it when it arrives.¡± Li Guodong was puzzled as to why the Japanese man needed an electronic scale. Did he have fun playing with this kind of stuff? An electronic scale with such high accuracy, could it be used for conducting experiments, weighing tablets or powder? Chapter 337: 0320 Stutter Xu Chapter 337: Chapter 0320 Stutter Xu Yang Ping finished the surgery and returned to the department. Dr. Xu Zhiliang, the Emergency Department doctor who had stopped Yu Shuilian¡¯s bleeding with his bare hands, was waiting for Yang Ping in the office. As soon as he saw Yang Ping return, he immediately stood up. ¡°Do-doc¡ªtor Yang, it¡¯s an¡ª-honor to¡ª-assist you in surgery. My name is¡ªXu Zhiliang.¡± The man spoke with a stutter; his speech was inconsistent, and it took a long time to finish a sentence. After speaking, his face turned red, purely out of embarrassment. Xu Zhiliang was in his early thirties and was nicknamed stutter Xu. He was born with a stutter. But the weird thing about him was that whenever he had to perform emergency treatment, he could speak fluidly. But once the emergency was over, he would resume stuttering. He graduated with a Ph.D. from Nandu Medical University. With his grades, he could have stayed at Fuer, but because of his stuttering and expressionless face, no one wanted him. With so much talent out there, nobody would keep a stutterer around. ... With no other choice, Xu Zhiliang went looking for work. But he couldn¡¯t even pass the Human Resources Department¡¯s basic interview, let alone meet the department head. Once he showed his stuttering during an interview, people would straight out reject him, not even giving him the chance to meet the department head. After being turned down multiple times, Xu Zhiliang saw that the Emergency Department at Sanbo Hospital had a vacancy. He went for an interview and luckily met Xiong Sihai. Xiong Sihai, being short of staff, was fine as long as the person could work. He valued experience over technical skills, so he kept Xu Zhiliang. Stutter Xu did a good job, especially during major emergencies. He was efficient and would stop stuttering. He was decisive and almost appeared like a different person. Plus, he was willing to do whatever daunting tasks thrown his way as if he were an ox, working hard without any terms. Moreover, he had a brave heart during critical times, like this patient, he dared to reach in and grip the aorta. He had done this reckless thing several times, scaring Xiong Sihai badly who had a conversation to be more cautious and not so aggressive. Yang Ping wanted to talk to him because during the surgery, he noticed that a portion of Yu Shuilian¡¯s abdominal wound was not naturally formed. The edges were neat, clearly cut open by a surgical scalpel, so he wanted to confirm it with Xu. During the surgery, Xu Zhiliang was observing. But Yang Ping was too focused on the procedure to ask him on the spot. ¡°Buddy, can you speak more fluently?¡± Zhang Lin patted him. Xu Zhiliang blushed and said, ¡°No¡ªcan-not.¡± No wonder no one accepted him, this guy¡¯s stutter could drive anyone to madness, especially those with a short temper, would be infuriated to the point of vomiting blood. Yang Ping signaled Zhang Lin not to push him: ¡°Xu Zhiliang, during the emergency treatment at the scene, did you extend the abdominal wound and then reach in with your bare hand to stop the bleeding?¡± ¡°Yes- it is!¡± Xu Zhiliang tried to speak fluently, but he couldn¡¯t. Yang Ping gave him a thumbs up. This man had courage, unlike others who wouldn¡¯t even think of doing this, let alone dare to do it. He not only dared to reach in and pinch the aorta, but even extended the abdominal wound on the spot. ¡°Can we¡ªchat on WeChat?¡± The stuttering was affecting the efficiency of their conversation, and Xu Zhiliang felt embarrassed, so he simply suggested chatting on WeChat. He added Yang Ping on WeChat. Chatting through typing on WeChat was a lot smoother. ¡°I occluded it intermittently.¡± Xu Zhiliang typed very quickly on WeChat. Perhaps because of his stutter, he preferred this communication method. ¡°You are very familiar with abdominal anatomy and very brave.¡± Yang Ping praised him. ¡°Give me a piece of¡ª-paper.¡± Xu Zhiliang asked for a piece of paper from Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin handed him a piece of A4 paper. He drew an anatomy of the abdominal on it, which was very detailed and neat: ¡°Dr.Yang¡ªI don¡¯t want to stay in the Emergency Department¡ªI want to come to Orthopedics, I was originally a Ph.D. in Orthopedics. Because others despise me, I went to the Emergency Department. I want to work under you. I will work very hard. I am stronger than many people. I will definitely satisfy you, except for my stutter¡ª-¡± He managed to say this sentence smoothly, likely because he had practiced it many times. This guy, even though he was stuttering and expressionless, his onsite emergency treatment for this patient is commendable. If not for his unconventional methods, there wouldn¡¯t have been a chance to bring the patient back to the hospital for treatment. This not only required extraordinary courage but also a solid knowledge foundation. ¡°Do you want to come to our Integrative Orthopedics?¡± Yang Ping asked him. Integrative Orthopedics was short of staff, and Director Han asked him to recruit. The batch of people he interviewed were all quite ordinary. ¡°Yes, I am stronger than many people. If you don¡¯t believe me, you can test me,¡± Xu Zhiliang was not humble at all. Yang Ping laughed: ¡°Alright, I will give you a three-month probation period. Go back to the Emergency Department first. I will speak with your director about transferring you. If you pass the probation period, you will stay in Integrative Orthopedics, otherwise, you will return to the Emergency Department.¡± ¡°Tha- nk you, I can¡¯t speak properly, so I don¡¯t like talking. I will definitely not disappoint you,¡± Xu Zhiliang thanked Yang Ping. His purpose in coming to Yang Ping was to join Integrative Orthopedics. Now that Yang Ping agreed, he was so happy that he started smiling foolishly, and his words were much smoother. ¡°Big brother, he has a stutter and is wooden. Nobody wants him, and even his pants have holes. You still want him?¡± After Xu Zhiliang left, Zhang Lin reminded Yang Ping.¡± However, Yang Ping felt that even though Xu Zhiliang had his issues, he was a rare talent. He was curious as to why he hadn¡¯t caught Director Han¡¯s eye. Yang Ping asked Zhang Lin, ¡°Has Xu Zhiliang ever worked in Orthopedics? Isn¡¯t he a Ph.D. in Orthopedics?¡± ¡°No, many hospitals didn¡¯t want him, he couldn¡¯t find work, and he wasn¡¯t willing to go to smaller hospitals. Just when Emergency Department was short of staff, he came through that department¡¯s recruitment. Director Han doesn¡¯t even know about this guy,¡± Zhang Lin was more familiar with the hospital¡¯s affairs. Usually, Xu Zhiliang was like an invisible man, only working and not speaking, so he didn¡¯t have much presence in the hospital. The only thing people remembered about him was that he could eat six or seven large steamed buns for breakfast. Yang Ping contemplated. If this was the case, it made sense. If Xu Zhiliang had come to Orthopedics, Director Han would have at least given him a chance. ¡°Dr. Yang, he is an excellent surgeon. He is intelligent and brave, and his drawings are also very good,¡± Takahashi commented. Yang Ping had an idea. To be able to draw the anatomy of the chest and abdomen so quickly, to calmly analyze during a crisis, take decisive action, dare to take responsibility, be brave, and have a meticulous heart, indeed showed that Xu Zhiliang was a talent. The Integrative Orthopedics department was short of staff, and it would be good to let him try. Yang Ping immediately called Director Han to inform him about Xu Zhiliang. The Director didn¡¯t know about him, and had only heard that the Emergency Department had a good worker who stutters and didn¡¯t know he originally specialized in Orthopedics. ¡°I will talk to Xiong Sihai about this. I will definitely get him for you,¡± Director Han assured. Director Han knew that whoever caught Yang Ping¡¯s attention must have been exceptional. ¡ª Song Zimo stayed by the trauma ICU the whole time. The next day, Shuilian was finally able to have her breathing tube removed, and so was no longer in need of a ventilator. Fortunately, her liver and kidney functionality had not been notably impaired. Shuilian slowly woke up and instinctively wanted to move about, but she was tethered with tubes all over her body. Her hands fumbled around in a frenzy as she called out: ¡°Liangliang, Liangliang¡ª Fearing that she would pull out the drainage tube, a pair of nurses each held down one of her hands. Liangliang was the nickname of Shuilian¡¯s son. Upon hearing no response to her call, she awoke from her nightmarish stupor: ¡°Liangliang¡ª ¡°You¡¯ve been injured and are now in a hospital ward. Your son is safe, don¡¯t worry,¡± the nurse comforted her, urging her to calm down and not to struggle. But Shuilian wouldn¡¯t obey, forcefully trying to break free from the nurses¡¯ restraint. ¡°Dr. Song, Dr. Song¡ª¡± Song Zimo was at the nurse¡¯s station, reviewing the latest blood test results, only to sprint back at the nurses¡¯ call. ¡°Liangliang!¡± She disregarded everything else, simply repeating her son¡¯s name on and on. ¡°Your son is fine. You were injured and are now in the hospital.¡± Song Zimo reassured her, dialed her husband¡¯s number, and explained several things to him. He then set the phone to speaker and put it in front of Shuilian. From it, the sound of their son came, ¡°Mom, Mom, are you awake yet?¡± The woman didn¡¯t respond but just listened. Her eyes gazed at the doctors and nurses around her, and then she stopped struggling, ¡°Liangliang¡ª No longer resisting any more, Shuilian calmed down, and Dr. Song hung up the call. ¡°They are waiting for you to come home. Take good care of yourself.¡± The woman gasped for air, appearing exhausted, and soon fell asleep again. Seeing that her blood pressure and oxygen levels were normal, Song Zimo felt relieved. He instructed the nurses to keep a close watch and returned to reviewing the lab results. ¡°Dr. Song, was that the Japanese guy who helped you carry the patient?¡± Dr. Meng casually struck up a conversation with Song Zimo. Song Zimo was usually rather frosty to people, often giving off an indifferent appearance, ¡°Yes.¡± Dr. Meng understood that this was just his temperament; he wasn¡¯t really unapproachable. ¡°He is Takahashi Fumiya, the internationally renowned trauma surgeon?¡± Dr. Meng was puzzled. An esteemed professor had helped carry a patient ¨C to what extent had orthopedics grown? Young Master Song was the hospital¡¯s number one prodigy. At such a young age, he was capable of being the Chief Surgeon in so many operations. He was a legend in the hospital. Who would have thought a newcomer such as Yang Ping would appear, even more formidable than Song Zimo? The orthopedic department seemed to be full of exceptional talents, one after another. Dr. Meng thought back to when Yang Ping first arrived. When they first met, Yang Ping was a junior doctor who led them in performing surgery on an HIV patient. Now, he was the head of a department, with not only Song Zimo but also internationally renowned professors coming to further their studies under his guidance. Comparisons are odious! Dr. Meng shook his head and went about his business. ¡°Dr. Song!¡± A call from a nurse came from Shuilian¡¯s ward again. Through the glass, Yang Ping saw two nurses holding her down. ICU patients were each given individual rooms, with one nurse assigned to a patient providing 24-hour care. Song Zimo and Dr. Meng rushed over immediately as they saw Shuilian furiously squirming and attempting to pull out tubes from her body. ¡°Let me die, don¡¯t stop me, let me die¡ª¡± She wept loudly. When Shuilian woke up the second time, she was still somewhat disoriented. After adjusting her emotions somewhat, she realized she could no longer feel anything in the lower half of her body. Initially, she assumed she had become half paralyzed. When the nurse was not paying attention, she reached down to touch her lower body and was terrified to find nothing there. She frantically tossed aside the blanket and propped herself up to see that her lower body was missing. She felt like she had been thrown into ice-cold water. It was like a bolt from the blue. Shuilian trembled violently; her whole body went ice-cold. Looking at the missing half of her body, she was overwhelmed by a sense of absolute despair. The medical treatments she would need would undoubtedly cost a fortune; she would no longer be capable of taking care of herself and would become a burden on her family. Continuing to live would inflict great pain on her husband and her family. Unable to accept her situation and in disbelief, she started entertaining thoughts of suicide. She resisted treatment and attempted to pull out all the tubes attached to her body. Seeing her like this, the two nurses were shocked and immediately restrained her arms. ¡°Enough, your son is waiting for you to come home. Although you¡¯ve lost half of your body, as long as you¡¯re alive, there¡¯s still hope. Think about those who don¡¯t even have a chance to live. Think about your son, who won¡¯t have breakfast before school without you, who will be bullied at school, whose clothes will be unwashed for days¡ª¡± As Song Zimo helped restrain her, he spoke loudly to her. Shuilian cried in devastation but stopped struggling, her face covered in tears. Anyone in a similar predicament would find it difficult to come to terms with, demanding a process of adaptation. Song Zimo had seen many such cases, particularly in oncology, where patients had chosen suicide immediately after being diagnosed with late-stage cancer, with some even jumping off the hospital building. Sometimes, to live required a certain kind of bravery. Having just come off the ventilator and being physically weak after the operation, Shuilian was already gasping for breath after just a few moments of struggling. Soaked in sweat, she burst into silent tears as Song Zimo mentioned her husband and son. She was in the utmost distress. While alive, she would be a burden to her family, but if she died, she couldn¡¯t bear to leave her husband and son. Especially her son ¨C if he were to lose his mother, he would be left all alone and wouldn¡¯t even have hot meals anymore. She couldn¡¯t bear the thought, and the pain in her heart was devastating, making her grieve to the point of heartbreak. But there was nothing she could do; she could only struggle with the harsh reality in front of her. ¡°There, there. You need to live on, for your son. We will figure out everything else later.¡± There always will be a concern in lives to worry about. Grasping this concern and counseling around it often gives better results. Chapter 338: 0321: Brain-Machine Interface Chapter 338: Chapter 0321: Brain-Machine Interface Takahashi arrived at the department precisely at six in the morning. After completing his tasks as per Zhang Lin¡¯s request, he started making tea for him. He weighed twenty-nine tea granules using an electronic scale and recorded it in his notebook. He decided to start with this weight from today, adjusting based on Zhang Lin¡¯s satisfaction until he found the optimal tea leaf weight. Takahashi also recorded and calculated the time for making tea, the time when Zhang Lin started working, and the cooling rate of a cup of tea. He ensured that when Zhang Lin arrived at work he would have warm tea that was not too hot. In Japan, Takahashi had some knowledge about tea ceremony, but China and Japan are different, and brewing a satisfying cup of tea in Dr. Zhang¡¯s simplified method entirely relied on meticulous experiences. ¡°Takahashi, did you buy this electronic scale just for making tea?¡± Li Guodong thought Takahashi was conducting some experiments. Takahashi was very satisfied with his tea-making. After rubbing his hands, he said: ¡°Yes, the tea granules are of different sizes. It is hard to get accurate measurements by merely calculating the granules. Only precision weighing can ensure accuracy.¡± ... Takahashi was so diligent in making tea for Zhang Lin, to the point of even using an electronic scale with a precision of 0.001 gram. Li Guodong was amazed at how serious Takahashi was about making a cup of tea, as if he was conducting an experiment. The speed of Takahashi¡¯s transformation¡ªfrom arrogant and rude to humble and obedient¡ªwas so swift that it was hard for Li Guodong to believe. Xu Zhiliang also reported to the department early. After not being able to find a job in his specialty despite being an Orthopedic doctor, he switched departments and joined the Emergency Department, in order to stay in a good hospital. Today, he finally got the opportunity to join the Orthopedic Department and return to his original profession. He greeted everyone with a nod and a smile. Some young nurses who knew him covered their mouths and giggled, because he stuttered when talking. It was rumored that the pants he wore had a hole on the buttocks, which was quite unusual in the hospital. Some tried to peek at his buttocks discreetly, but it was obscured by his white gown and could not tell whether there were really a hole or not. Professor Zhang was now living comfortably, as the lukewarm tea was already placed on his desk when he sat down. He leisurely opened the lid and took a sip, ¡°Good, there¡¯s progress, although it¡¯s still a tiny bit strong.¡± Takahashi, who was standing by his side, listened attentively to Zhang Lin¡¯s feedback and immediately recorded his comments into his notebook, deciding to slightly reduce the amount of tea leaves starting from tomorrow. Unfazed by people giving him sidelong glances, stutter Xu moved to an inconspicuous corner and started studying the human skeletal model alone. As Yang Ping entered from the door, everyone immediately stopped what they were doing, stood up and greeted in unison, ¡°Good morning, Dr. Yang!¡± Over time, a sense of reverence known as prestige gradually grew in everyone¡¯s heart. Xu Zhiliang, who had been studying the skeleton model, also stood up straight and expressed his heartfelt admiration. Being able to showcase his talent under such a figure, Xu Zhiliang felt invigorated, his heart surging with pride and joy. There were several surgeries scheduled in the morning, including lumbar disc herniation, cervical spondylosis, pelvic tumor, and one percutaneous kyphoplasty. Yang Ping let Xu Zhiliang perform surgery as the Chief Surgeon, wanting to evaluate his surgical skills while observing from above the operating table to ensure there wouldn¡¯t be any safety issues. When Xu Zhiliang performed surgery, he completely transformed into a different person¡ªconfident and calm, speaking and moving fluently without stuttering. Zhang Lin could hardly believe that this was the same Stutter Xu. There were several occasions that Zhang Lin ignored the instructions given by the Chief Surgeon and was severely scolded by Xu Zhiliang, while Yang Ping just watched and smiled from the operating table. After a few surgeries, Xu Zhiliang not only followed standard operating procedures but also operated very quickly, and his fundamental skills in surgery were excellent, nearly catching up with Song Zimo. Those who have great skills are bold. No wonder he could extend the wound on the abdomen at the emergency scene, reach in to block the aorta, and perform bare-handed hemostasis. Yang Ping felt like he had found a treasure. After interviewing several doctoral candidates in the Human Resources office, not one of them was satisfactory. Surprisingly, he picked up a gem in the Emergency Department. Having seen Xu Zhiliang¡¯s surgical skills after just a few operations, there was no need for a three-month probation period. After finishing the surgeries, Yang Ping said to Xu Zhiliang in the changing room, ¡°I will make a call later, and you will go to the Human Resources department to process the department transfer procedure tomorrow.¡± ¡°No need ¡ª for the three-month probation period?¡± Xu Zhiliang had already prepared for the three-month probation period. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°No need. Others need a three-month probation period. You, Xu Zhiliang, only need to prove yourself in one day. From now on, do well in the Comprehensive Orthopedics. If you need anything, tell me directly. If you find WeChat convenient, just send me a WeChat message.¡± Xu Zhiliang nodded in gratitude, ¡°Is this ¡ª approval ¡ª?¡± Being so excited, it took him quite a while to say the word ¡°approval¡±. ¡°Passed with full marks,¡± Yang Ping said satisfied, while Takahashi also gave a thumbs-up to Xu Zhiliang. Zhang Lin always had the desire to assert his dominance over newcomers, but in the operating room, Zhang Lin, who was scolded by Xu Zhiliang, did not dare to cross swords with this stutterer. Little Five, who was standing aside, couldn¡¯t help but smirk¡ªZhang Lin was pretending to be superior but instead made a fool of himself. In the afternoon, the Comprehensive Orthopedics discussed Yu Shuilian¡¯s case in the conference room, learning from the rescue and surgery of this patient and discussing the next treatment plan. Yu Shuilian¡¯s condition was temporarily stable. Song Zimo also took time out to attend the case discussion in the department. Everyone gathered together, and the atmosphere was excellent. Upon seeing Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang was ecstatic: ¡°Dr. Song, it¡¯s been a long time¡ª¡± ¡°Nice to meet you!¡± Song Zimo shook his hand. He recognized stutter Xu from the Emergency Department, although they hadn¡¯t interacted much. They had only played chess a few times. Song Zimo didn¡¯t even know that stutter Xu was also an orthopedic specialist. ¡°When will we play another game of blindfold chess?¡± ¡°You still want to play blindfold chess with me?¡± In Sanbo Hospital¡¯s chess and card games, Wen Zhong from the Spine Surgery Department lost his chess game to Song Zimo. stutter Xu from the Emergency Department also lost his Go game to Song Zimo. He had been dwelling on his defeat, remaining unconvinced. Little Five came over with several jigsaw puzzles and placed them on the conference room table. ¡°What are you doing with these?¡± Zhang Lin asked. ¡°They¡¯re teaching aids¡ªfor the lecture later.¡± Xu Zhiliang replied annoyed. Zhang Lin cast him a glance and decided to keep his distance, not daring to sit next to him. Doctors, graduate students, standardized training students, and interns, everyone was present. The case discussion began promptly at three in the afternoon. They first discussed the next step in the treatment plan, then Yang Ping explained the key points of the surgery. Dr. Song, having been taking care of the patient in the ICU all along, acted as the attending physician and reported the case: general situation, medical history, physical examination, auxiliary examination, treatment process, current difficulties, and the next treatment plan. ¡°The main risk she currently faces is infection and organ failure. Fortunately, so far, there has been no infection or organ failure.¡± Song Zimo posed the problem. ¡°If she can make it through the critical phases of infection and organ failure, the next thing to consider is the second stage of surgery, to reconstruct her anus and urethra, and establish urinary and defecation function,¡± Xu Zhiliang was very positive and didn¡¯t stutter. ¡°For the reconstruction of the urethra, I suggest a multi-curved reconstruction. Looking at the normal anatomy, the female urethra is shorter and straighter than the male¡¯s, making it easy for bacteria to invade the urethra from the outside and enter the urinary tract. This is why females are prone to urinary tract infections, ¡°Takahashi quickly spoke up, glancing at Yang Ping halfway through his statement. Seeing Yang Ping nodding and encouraging him, he continued: ¡°In this patient, the urethra is already damaged. If we still adopt a straight and short reconstruction during the procedure, urinary tract infections will still easily occur. Compared to normal people, her ability to resist infections is weaker. In order to reduce future urinary tract infections, I suggest we use a multi-curved long diameter urethral reconstruction to reduce future urinary tract infections.¡± Typically, in case discussions, doctors, from resident physicians to attending doctors, then to deputy senior and senior doctors, gradually upgrade, and finally, the department director summarizes. However, in case discussions in Orthopedics, Yang Ping broke the convention. Participants are not divided by rank, everyone is free to comment, and in the end, Yang Ping summarizes everyone¡¯s opinions. ¡°The patient has a hard time accepting her disability. We need to rebuild her psychological state. I suggest that a complete psychological counseling plan should be designed specifically for this patient to provide long-term psychological counseling and reshaping,¡± a graduate student spoke up. ¡°Very good! Everyone is participating very actively. Don¡¯t be afraid of saying something wrong,¡± Yang Ping encouraged everyone. One of the standardized training students mustered up his courage to speak: ¡°The patient is still in the ICU. I think we should let her son and husband visit her in the ICU every day. It would be best if her son looked a bit sloppy. Seeing her pitiful son, she wouldn¡¯t bear it in her heart and would muster up the courage to keep living, which I think is more useful than any psychological counseling.¡± Another female student quickly added: ¡°I know of a disabled person who lost both his lower limbs from the root of his thigh. He later became a calligraphy artist and is quite famous. We can contact this calligraphy artist and let them meet. A real-life example would let Yu Shuilian know that her life is not at a dead end, that she still has intrinsic value, and she is valuable to both her family and society.¡± ¡°We should guide her to train the strength of her upper limbs early, so that she can use her upper limbs to walk in the future.¡± The discussion was very lively, everyone unleashed their imagination and spoke freely. ¡°We can be slightly more optimistic. If she can safely get through this critical period, we can use axillary chest wall support and neuroprosthetics in the future,¡± Song Zimo sounded even more optimistic. Xu Zhiliang¡¯s knowledge also proved to be vast: ¡°Musk owns a company that is at the forefront of neuroprosthetic research. They have managed to train monkeys to feed themselves using a mechanical arm through a brain-computer interface.¡± ¡°The Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute in Kyoto, Japan, has even created practical mechanical arms. If needed, I can contact ATR. We have collaborated with them to develop power aids for patients with lower limb paralysis. In experiments conducted on patients with spinal cord injuries, it has been very successful,¡± Takahashi was increasingly engaged in the discussion. ¡°Stanford¡¯s team in the United States also has successful cases. Their findings were published in Nature. They have progressed to human trials. The trial subjects are paralyzed patients. When the patient tries to move their hand, functional magnetic resonance imaging is performed on the brain to determine the precise area of the motor cortex. Then a chip is implanted in this area of the patient¡¯s brain. When the patient wants to move their hand, motor nerve signals are translated into electric pulses to drive the muscles in the arm. By stimulating electrodes, the arm muscles contract according to the will, completing tasks like clenching, extending, grasping, and even playing games or guitar,¡± Song Zimo¡¯s setup was very effective. Originally, they only intended to discuss the second stage of the reconstructive surgery in this session. However, the discussion unexpectedly evolved into how to let Yu Shuilian stand and walk again due to everyone¡¯s high enthusiasm. It seemed that they all had lofty visions, looking far ahead. Yang Ping was very pleased. Chapter 339 03-25 - 0322: Puzzle Chapter 339: Chapter 0322: Puzzle ¡°The Nandu University of Technology also has a team studying brain-computer interface technology. I wonder how they¡¯re progressing? The members in charge of studying brain electrical signals often consult me with their questions and have invited me to participate.¡± Xu Zhiliang was fully immersed, his passion from his studies reignited. ¡°Xu Zhiliang, you should contact them. If possible, we can initiate collaboration, we¡¯ll discuss this matter separately after the meeting.¡± Yang Ping had a clear plan in his mind, he wanted to use the research on Brain-Computer Interface to progress towards the artificial transmission of neural signals, and finally tackle the recovery of spinal cord injuries. In the system space, he virtually had infinite time to read. This kind of massive reading allowed Yang Ping¡¯s understanding of professional technology to reach a breadth and depth that ordinary people simply cannot match. ¡°I can also help to reach out to ATR.¡± Takahashi always wished to contribute something. He always wanted to do something meaningful, like an introduction, to establish an even stronger relationship with Yang Ping. ... ¡°Hmm, Takahashi, are you well-informed about their progress and technological approach?¡± Yang Ping appreciated this change in Takahashi. This spirit of exploration corresponded very well with an adage in China, ¡®Nothing is difficult for one who sets his mind on it¡¯. After an open discussion, everyone¡¯s opinions were fairly unanimous and clear. Yu Shuilian¡¯s post-surgical treatment was divided into three stages: first, to avoid infection and organ failure, to pull through the critical period; second, to reconstruct the anus and urethra, to restore bowel and urinary functions; third, to regain the ability to walk erect as much as possible with the help of prosthetics. Each step was incredibly daunting. Yang Ping paused for a moment, summarizing the just finished speech: ¡°Everyone¡¯s opinion is quite clear. Our most pressing matter at the moment is to help the patient successfully pass through the difficulties of infection and organ failure; then to reconstruct the anus and urethra, to restore physiological excretion abilities. Finally, to restore the patient¡¯s ability to walk erect. Throughout the entire process, psychological counselling will be carried out to foster an optimistic, proactive mindset in the patient.¡± Song Zimo took notes of the meeting on his laptop, all of which were to be written into the patient¡¯s progress report as a special entry for case discussions. As for Doctor Yang, he has yet to express his own views. Everyone looked forward to hearing what Yang Ping had to say, especially the students, who waited eagerly for Yang Ping to start speaking. Yang Ping knew everyone was waiting. He slowly composed his thoughts and spoke: ¡°The patient¡¯s bladder is still intact, retaining the function of the sphincter and urination reflex, so urine control can be achieved, and there will be no urinary incontinence in the future. However, the anus, rectum, and sigmoid colon have all been removed. The largest problem we face in reconstructing the anus is how to restore the original sphincter function and fecal reflex, to avoid fecal incontinence. If the patient suffers from fecal incontinence, the quality of life will significantly decrease.¡± Source: , updated on ?¦Ï¦Í??.§ã? Takahashi originally thought that the second-stage surgery would mainly involve plastic surgery, simply establishing an evacuation channel. He had not expected Yang Ping to aim at recreating the anal sphincter function and fecal reflex, pursuing the simulation of normal functions. Indeed, why hadn¡¯t he thought of that? Takahashi immediately took out a notepad and began taking notes. Whether it was surgical technique or surgical reasoning, Doctor Yang was far superior. In these few days, he felt he had learned a great deal. ¡°This is a completely new topic. The anal sphincter is a circular muscle, and there are few places in the human body where circular muscles exist: the area around the eyes, the area around the lips, and the neck of the bladder. These are all circular muscles, but they surely cannot be used as donors for reconstructing the anus, right?¡± Takahashi, now more relaxed, spoke freely like a young student. ¡°Then how can the mouth open and close? How can the eyes blink? How can the bladder control urination? Surely none of these can be used to replace the anal sphincter?¡± Zhang Lin felt like a mute amidst a gathering of immortals, unable to utter a word. He was completely marginalized. He had to seize an opportunity to at least say something. ¡°Can a part of it be used as a donor? After all, muscle fibers and muscle strength are pliable. Even if a part is cut off, can it be restored to its original shape and strength through training?¡± Little Five finally caught up. It¡¯s already hard enough to keep up with a group of geniuses in a conversation. Just when they thought they were having a normal chat, the topic would somehow switch from ¡°Nature¡± to ¡°Science¡±, making their heads spin. Just when they thought they had a clue, it would slip away without a trace. The two, as pitiful as each other, locked eyes and felt a resonance: Thank heavens, they finally grasped the tail end of the discussion. ¡°Not only is finding replacement material for the anal sphincter a problem, but also the restoration of the fecal reflex. In order to rebuild the bladder reflex for spinal cord injury patients, Professor Xiao Chuanguo of Wuhan Tongji Hospital created the Xiao Reflex Arc and achieved some success. We may learn from that.¡± After being silent for a while, Song Zimo returned to the center of the discussion. ¡°This is definitely a challenging problem. How exactly are we going to reconstruct it? We¡¯re not here to discuss that now. This is homework for everyone. I expect everyone to present a specific surgical plan in two weeks. If no one has any objections, shall we conclude today¡¯s case discussion?¡± Everyone agreed. If the discussion continued, even by tomorrow they would not come up with a specific plan. Takahashi was extremely intrigued by this homework. This is an internal case discussion, and the homework assigned was such a profound problem. This sort of surgery, even if material and solutions are available, is extremely difficult. It requires a collection of knowledge from orthopedics, reconstructive surgery, plastic surgery, microsurgery, neurosurgery, gastroenterology, and proctology, in order to perform such a surgery. ¡°Doctor Yang, could you please explain to us the surgery on Yu Shuilian? How was your Code Chaos surgery performed? Why was it arranged like that?¡± Takahashi feared Yang Ping would abruptly end the meeting. Once, Yang Ping told Takahashi that this type of surgery had no learning value because it was too difficult, and others couldn¡¯t replicate it. Takahashi clearly understood that he wouldn¡¯t be able to do it, but in his heart, he didn¡¯t want to give up. Even if he couldn¡¯t learn the technique, he wanted to understand the principles behind it. There were five large jigsaw puzzles on the table, teaching tools prepared by Little Five. Yang Ping got up, tore the thin film off the five jigsaw puzzles, picked out all the finished pieces, dumped them on the table, and thoroughly scrambled them. The background color of these five puzzles was different; they were respectively red, yellow, blue, green, and purple, but now they were all mixed together into a messy pile. ¡°Everybody pay attention, first I¡¯ll demonstrate the approach of a regular surgery.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t bother explaining much, and very quickly sorted the pieces by color, picked the same colored ones and put them together, then in the order of red, yellow, blue, green, and purple, he started fitting the puzzles one by one, and each piece was placed in order from left to right, top to bottom. As he progressively inserted the pieces one by one, soon, the five puzzles were completed in sequence, eliciting admiration from everyone for his memory and puzzle-solving abilities. Yang Ping had already scrambled the puzzles again, mixing them all up into a messy, colorful pile. ¡°Now, I¡¯ll demonstrate another surgical method, the so-called ¡®chaos code¡¯ surgery.¡± This time, Yang Ping didn¡¯t categorize the small pieces, but instead randomly picked from the pile of pieces. No matter which puzzle the piece came from or which position it belonged to, he placed it right back in its original spot. Sometimes he stuck one piece to a puzzle, and sometimes to another puzzle. Sometimes he was putting a piece to the middle of a puzzle, and other times to the edges. There was no specific order. He just picked and placed whatever piece was at hand. Gradually, the number of scattered pieces on the table decreased and the picture of the puzzle became more and more complete. When the last piece was fitted in, all the puzzles were completely finished without a single piece missing. Language explanations were too exhausting; Yang Ping demonstrated his ¡®chaos code¡¯ method clinically and succinctly using a puzzle. However, it was like everyone was watching a magic show; before they could prepare themselves, the puzzle was already successfully assembled twice using two different methods. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Takahashi all got up, picked up a few puzzles off the table, and took a look. There were no errors at all. These puzzles still had their protective films intact just moments ago; Yang Ping had just gotten his hands on them. There was no way he could memorize them beforehand, and there was no need for him to play tricks just for a demonstration. Such immense cerebral power, such robust planning ability; was this the power of a human brain? The time taken to assemble the puzzle the second time was actually much less than the first. If it were anyone else following the second method, they¡¯d surely fall into chaos. Takahashi understood; this was why Yang Ping told him not to learn. Because, others simply were unable to do it. The puzzles scattered on the conference table kept Takahashi occupied. The operations on Yu Shuilian were like each piece of a puzzle and moreover, they were emergency rescue operations. There was no time to familiarize oneself with the surgery, so it was just like a bunch of new puzzles scrambled in front of you, there was no time to think, you had to start solving the puzzle immediately without even a chance to hesitate. Under such circumstances, no one would choose the second method; any reasonable person would definitely choose the first method. ¡°Can you do it?¡± Xu Zhiliang asked Song Zimo. Song Zimo shook his head: ¡°I can, but it would be slower than the first method, as I would need some time for thought and searching in the middle.¡± ¡°Me too, if it were a puzzle competition, I would not dare to use the second method.¡± Xu Zhiliang admitted defeat. Takahashi was playing with the puzzle as if he was looking at magic props: ¡°Teacher Wu, did you buy these new?¡± Little Five crumpled the film on the table into a ball: ¡°The film was torn just now, Doctor Yang asked me to bring several puzzles. I didn¡¯t even know what it was for, I thought they were for Sisi to play with.¡± Takahashi sucked in a breath of cold air, at the academic conference that Yang Ping, who crushed him, not only had the strongest hands, but also the most powerful brain. To be defeated by him, was a form of honor! Chapter 340 03-25 - 0323: Pain Chapter 340: Chapter 0323: Pain ¡°Do you think when Doctor Yang looks at us, it¡¯s like how humans look at dogs? In terms of IQ, I mean?¡± Takahashi suddenly had this thought. Unable to find an appropriate simile, he fell back on this crude one. ¡°Speak for yourself, don¡¯t lump us together,¡± Zhang Lin shot him a glance. Takahashi quickly clarified, ¡°What I meant was about IQ. Dogs have an IQ of 40, an average person has an IQ of 100, and Doctor Yang¡¯s IQ must be at least 160. In that sense, it¡¯s like he¡¯s looking at dogs when he looks at us.¡± ¡°Well¡ªleave me out of this,¡± Zhang Lin corrected him once again. A flush growing on his face, Takahashi didn¡¯t dare to argue with Zhang Lin. He could only admit to the harsh rebuke. Little Five patted Takahashi on the shoulder: ¡°Takahashi, that¡¯s not a great comparison, it¡¯s hurtful.¡± ... Takahashi felt his comparison was indeed inappropriate, but he couldn¡¯t think of anything else. Takahashi also tried to do jigsaw puzzles like Yang Ping; he would scramble them, then try to assemble the pieces out of order. Each time he picked up a piece, he had to figure out where it belonged and where it should go, a task that took a long time. Sometimes, if he couldn¡¯t find the correct position for a piece right away, he would be stuck, and everything would come to a halt. At such moments, he would be plunged into confusion and long periods of waiting. This method of doing jigsaw puzzles required powerful memory and calculation capabilities. Yang Ping allowed everyone to do their own thing. Graduate students, standardized training students, and interns all busied themselves changing dressings, writing medical records, and studying jigsaw puzzles. Takahashi harangued Little Five until he agreed to take him to buy the same jigsaw puzzle; he wanted to bring it back to the dormitory and study it thoroughly. Reluctantly, Little Five led him to a toy store near the hospital. Yang Ping called Song Zimo to his office to discuss the medical expenses of Yu Shuilian. The treatment might take a long time and be very costly. If there was any problem, they needed to figure out a solution for her in advance. Song Zimo explained that the party at fault was a soil truck, and its mandatory liability insurance wouldn¡¯t cover much. However, she did have private insurance that covered accidental medical expenses up to two million. The insurance company had already sent a representative to confirm that this was within the scope of the compensation. The private insurance would cover all expenses over what the mandatory liability insurance covered, up to two million. Source: , updated on ?¦Ï¦Í?0.?¦Ï When this couple insured themselves, one of their fellow villagers tried to dissuade them, claiming that insurance was all a scam. But they didn¡¯t listen to him. They had their own judgment and bought the insurance anyway. Now, when the insurance proved useful, it acted like a powerful shield, helping them withstand a nearly catastrophic blow. Upon hearing that the insurance company would reimburse the medical expenses and that the advance payment had been credited to her hospital account, Shuilian felt some of her worries alleviating. With the insurance company standing behind them, Yang Ping could worry less about their medical bills. This freed him to focus entirely on planning the next surgical procedure. ¡°Did Xu Zhiliang start working today?¡± asked Song Zimo. When Yang Ping brought in Xu Zhiliang, he also solicited Song Zimo¡¯s opinion. Song Zimo supported Yang Ping¡¯s decision to give him a chance: if he was indeed capable, they should decisively bring him in. ¡°There¡¯s no doubt about his theoretical knowledge. During our discussion earlier, he showed a good grasp of the latest research in orthopedics. I¡¯ve looked over his dissertation, which was published in JBJS. I never realized before, he has a Ph.D. in orthopedics. How did you find him?¡± Song Zimo asked curiously. Yang Ping showed a hint of smugness: ¡°When Shuilian was involved in an emergency car accident, he was there. He extended the incision in her abdomen on the spot, reached in and blocked her aorta to stem the bleeding. And he did it intermittently, with great precision.¡± ¡°That¡¯s bold! This man is quite unconventional. I played chess with him; he¡¯s highly intelligent and very daring. Once in the emergency department, he performed an open chest cardiac massage on a patient suffering a cardiac arrest following multiple rib fractures and a hemothorax. He saved the patient¡¯s life. If his surgical skills are truly top-notch, it would be best to let him lead a team. If he were to work parallel with me, he might not be happy working under me. Didn¡¯t you see during the case discussion, how he intentionally or unintentionally challenged me?¡± Song Zimo chuckled. Yang Ping was pondering this matter: ¡°When you have time, you should watch the video of his surgeries today. I specifically assigned a few surgeries to him. His surgical proficiency is...¡± Yang Ping gave a thumbs up, and Song Zimo readily agreed, ¡°In that case, give him a team now.¡± ¡ª After work, Takahashi returned to his dormitory. He locked himself in his room and played the surgical video of Shuilian on his laptop, watching it over and over. He played the video in slow motion, assigning each surgical step a number. Then he wrote the numbers on little blocks. Each block was painted a different color, with each color representing a different surgery. For example, spleen removal was painted brown, right hepatectomy was red, omentectomy was yellow, and each operation was assigned a different color. Takahashi attempted various combinations with the colored blocks, resulting in many different surgical sequences. Upon careful comparison, he found that Yang Ping¡¯s surgical sequence was indeed optimal, saving the most time and benefiting the patient the most. These mixed up steps appeared to be gibberish, but they adhered to the fundamental principles of a rescue surgery. The most lethal threats were eliminated first. For instance, Yang Ping blocked the splenic artery and vein two minutes apart. After blocking the splenic artery, he didn¡¯t block the splenic vein immediately, but rather prepared for a hepatectomy. Two minutes later, he returned to block the splenic vein. Those seemingly arbitrary two minutes held a secret that Takahashi figured out: it allowed some of the blood in the splenic sinusoids to circulate, achieving autotransfusion. While separating the right lobe of the liver and the spleen, Yang Ping also separated some parts of the omentum. This way, when he finished with the organ surgeries, the omentum was naturally completely removed. Takahashi had finally penetrated the mystery. However, even though he now knew how, he still couldn¡¯t reproduce it. He was unable to execute the surgical sequence on his own. For Takahashi, this was undoubtedly distressing. Each step of the jumbled sequence was not arbitrary; they all had a purpose. Like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle laid out because they originally belonged there. During the surgery, he had a clear understanding of the whole procedure. Just like how a jigsaw puzzle solver should memorize the image on several puzzle pieces at a glance and immediately determine where each piece belongs in the picture as soon as it is picked up. It was a top-tier coordination between the brain and the hand. Takahashi packed away the jigsaw puzzle pieces. He attempted to assemble a few pieces of the jigsaw puzzle using the scrambled pieces. It didn¡¯t work. He had to observe and contemplate every single piece before he could place it in the correct position, but he couldn¡¯t guarantee the accuracy. Sometimes, he would get stuck on a single piece, wasting a lot of time. This was only for a few pieces of a puzzle. For a patient with multiple injuries, the time wasted would cause their life. Chapter 341 03-25 - 0324: Priceless Treasure Chapter 341: Chapter 0324: Priceless Treasure After work, Yang Ping and Xiao Su played tennis for an hour. After the match, they went out to have a meal, and then had a coffee at Starbucks, catching up and talking. The days without emergencies are blissful. Life is not just about work, but also about enjoyment, for a better work life. If a person can get regular rest, they can regather their energy and reflect on their work, which ultimately leads to better performance. Of course, such opportunities don¡¯t come every day, but whenever they arise, Yang Ping treasures them just as much as his work. Yang Ping opened WeChat on his phone. In one of the doctor¡¯s groups, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Takahashi were constantly discussing puzzle surgery; they had almost simultaneously deciphered the underlying logic of the mess. ... Yang Ping didn¡¯t say anything. He scrolled through WeChat for a while, observing the chat history. Song Zimo was slightly more insightful, Xu Zhiliang and Takahashi were evenly matched, they also understood the inherent logic, but it wasn¡¯t as profound and clear as Song Zimo¡¯s understanding. But Xu Zhiliang had just returned to orthopedics. Previously, he had always been in the emergency department, so his exposure to orthopedics was certainly not as extensive as Takahashi¡¯s, one of Tokyo¡¯s top experts. Xu Zhiliang being on par with Takahashi, from this perspective, Xu was a tad superior. In any aspect, Takahashi was a commendable doctor ¨C high IQ, tenacious, diligent, hardworking, and serious. Always willing to fully commit to his studies, his pursuit of medicine was pure and relentless. Yang Ping sometimes wondered, if Takahashi was also a member of his team, he would have three such top-notch doctors. How wonderful would that be. In the past, when he was working at the city people¡¯s hospital, he heard legends of a Ph.D. from Beijing¡¯s medical university who could perform a surgery after just watching it once. But later, this person, Wu Siwen, was ousted. During Yang Ping¡¯s tenure at the city people¡¯s hospital, this individual had already left, so he never met this doctor. If the legends were true, that would make him quite an exceptional talent. Precisely because such outstanding talents are extremely rare, Yang Ping put away his phone, letting them discuss further in the group. Source: , updated on ?0¦Í?¦Ï.§ã¦Ï After finishing their coffee, the two took a walk near the hospital and then reluctantly parted ways at the overpass. Once back home after taking a shower, Yang Ping turned off all the lights in his room and lay down on the couch in the living room. Yang Ping loved this feeling. He could think quietly, especially when he entered the system space. Laying on the grass with his face up, under a big tree, gazing at a distant waterfall, he found such silent and solitary exploration surprisingly fascinating. Ding¡ª The system is upgraded¡ª It had been a while since Yang Ping heard this crisp and pleasant sound. Now that the system doesn¡¯t issue individual tasks, he only hears the sound when the system upgrades. Yang Ping was growing fonder of this system. Just like how his phone¡¯s system would often upgrade, this system also followed the same pattern. Every upgrade brought unexpected new features. ¡°Considering the host¡¯s excellent performance, the system has undergone an upgrade¡ª¡± The mechanical female voice was also rather pleasant to listen to. Yang Ping opened the light screen. The interface of the light screen had undergone a noticeable change. The original Super Training Program¡¯s physical examination training and auxiliary examination training options disappeared, replaced by two options: Case Push and Medical Case Library. The main functional modules on the screen now included ¨C Shopping Mall, Surgery Training Camp, Simulator, Library, Case Push, and Medical Case Library. ¡°Case Push¡ª Continuously pushes cases. It can randomly push various cases, or push precisely based on certain conditions. You can perform complete medical activities on the pushed cases, including surgeries. If you¡¯re not interested in the current case being pushed, you can ignore it, and the system will push the next case.¡± After listening to the mechanical female voice¡¯s explanation, Yang Ping more or less understood the function of Case Push. It was similar to how news was pushed on the app, Today¡¯s Headlines. ¡°Every medical activity requires a certain number of points deduction. For example, if you think a patient needs to undergo lumbar MRI, you can choose to complete the lumbar MRI examination. The system can instantly complete the examination, provide images and reports, but it will deduct a certain amount of points.¡± The mechanical female voice continued explaining. Yang Ping was already very familiar with the system and knew that nothing came for free. Except for reading, which was close to being free, everything else had a clear price attached. ¡°What does this medical record library mean?¡± Yang Ping was very curious. ¡°It stores the medical records of all patients in the real world. As long as there¡¯s a medical record, regardless of whether it is still kept in the archive, whether it is an emergency record, outpatient record or inpatient record, whether the patient has been discharged or still in the hospital, it will be stored here. You can access it at any time.¡± If this is true, it¡¯s too powerful, almost as powerful as a space library. Yang Ping entered the medical record library and tried to retrieve Yu Shuilian¡¯s medical record using the touch screen. He entered her name, and among dozens of Yu Shuilian¡¯s records, there was one from Sanbo Hospital, which was his patient Yu Shuilian. As expected, every hospital admission record, first-recorded patient history, progress notes, blood transfusion records, surgical records, nursing records, and test results were all there ¨C a complete in-hospital medical record. The progress notes had been updated until today, consistent with the real world. So, is he going to carry a super medical record room with him? He could access any patient¡¯s data at any time? To further confirm, Yang Ping casually picked a few medical records from other hospitals to retrieve, including Guo Jingyao¡¯s records from Yingge Hospital in Malaysia. He could retrieve all of them smoothly. Yang Ping really wished he could pull this mechanical voice out and give it a kiss. This feature is the ultimate treasure for a doctor! Yang Ping checked the system log, which recorded every surgery he had performed and the corresponding points awarded. He had received an additional 60,000 points for his everyday bonus during this time. The long-term task for the second phase was: winning the Golden Knife Award. The prize was generously stated: one million points and a space lab. Lab? What would he do with a lab? ¡°Similar to the library, this is a lab in a space. You can do various experiments in the lab. The instruments, equipment, consumables, and experimental subjects needed for the experiments can all be purchased through the mall. You can create your own lab and experimental projects.¡± If he had such a lab, he could conduct all kinds of experiments in the space. To be honest, the Golden Knife Award didn¡¯t attract Yang Ping much. But if he could accomplish the task and get the spatial laboratory as a reward, that would be priceless. He couldn¡¯t let such a good thing go. If he had the lab, he could conduct any experiment in this space. He could have infinite time to accept various failures and explore the correct method. For any researcher, time is the most precious asset. Some scientists devote their whole life to a single research project, repeatedly trying and failing, summarizing the results until they finally figure out the correct path. He must win the Golden Knife Award and get this space lab. It would be his ultimate weapon to conquer medical challenges. After he came out of the system space, Yang Ping received an email in his QQ mailbox, from Professor Robert in the United States. ¡°Dear Doctor Yang Ping, I am Doctor Robert from the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States. Your paper has been arranged to be published, but as it hasn¡¯t been published yet, could I use your surgical methods and data for experiments and application? Please reply. Also, I cordially invite Doctor Yang to give a lecture at our hospital. If you could spare the time, please contact me at any time. Many thanks!¡± These surgical methods, originally meant to guide the surgeries of colleagues, shouldn¡¯t be kept a secret. Yang Ping replied with an email: ¡°Agreement to use the data. The time for a lecture is currently uncertain. Will keep in touch!¡± The sooner and faster the new surgical methods are popularized, and the wider the range, the more patients that can benefit. Regarding the lecture, Yang Ping genuinely didn¡¯t have the time right now. If he had the chance, he would love to go to New York to give a lecture. The New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States (HSS), has long been known for its top-rated orthopedics department. HSS is located in the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York and is affiliated with Cornell University. Each year they perform thirty thousand orthopedic surgeries, ten thousand joint replacement surgeries, and ten thousand sports medicine surgeries. Many sports stars have undergone surgeries here. The late father of artificial joints, John N. Insall, conducted his research on the modern artificial hip joint prosthesis here, marking the start of a new era for joint replacement. The hospital only has 95 orthopedic doctors and 250 beds but boasts 35 operating rooms, 10 MRI machines, and 60 X-ray machines. The research funding they receive for orthopedics is more than Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital combined. Many of the products from medical equipment giants were designed by doctors at HSS, such as Johnson & Johnson¡¯s joint prosthesis. Its status in the world of orthopedics is unparalleled! Yang Ping had a great interest in this hospital because it could promote his surgical methods to the world at the fastest speed. Chapter 342 03-25 - 0325: Three People Group Chapter 342: Chapter 0325: Three People Group Thanks to Song Zimo¡¯s meticulous treatment, Yu Shuilian did not experience liver and kidney failure. Her hemoglobin rose to more than 90g/l, and her biochemical, liver and kidney function, and coagulation function all remained within normal limits. The standby artificial liver and bedside dialysis machine were not needed; her wounds remained clean. The dozens of drainage tubes started to be gradually removed. By the time she was transferred from the ICU to the general ward, only one drainage tube remained, used for renal pelvis drainage via bilateral ureteral stent. Cleanliness is an important aspect of quality assurance, and this is also true in medical activities. High levels of cleanliness help to reduce the incidence of infection by preventing bacterial colonization and division. This is similar to the removal of stagnant water garbage to reduce the presence of mosquitoes and flies. As soon as the sheets were slightly soiled with secretions or excreta, the nurses immediately changed them. The frequency of sheet changes exceeded ten times a day. If there was wound exudate, Song Zimo immediately changed the dressing with the nurses. Sometimes it took up to an hour to change the dressing, and they would do this over a dozen times a day, which exhausted the doctors and nurses. ... Song Zimo would culture each bit of exudate for bacteria. As soon as he detected the presence of bacteria, he would use sensitive antibiotics precisely, according to antibiotic susceptibility tests. This meticulousness helped eliminate small details, thus preventing the escalation of infections. To allow the remaining liver to gradually adapt its function, Song Zimo meticulously calculated the daily amount of intravenous nutrition to minimize the load on the liver. Director Pan of the ICU suggested Dr. Meng to turn Yu Shuilian¡¯s treatment into a PowerPoint presentation and use it as an exemplary case study for the doctors in ICU to study repeatedly. This case study fully exemplified what eradication of risks in their infancy means, as well as what is meant by meticulous observation and proactive prevention. Finally, Yu Shuilian was transferred from the ICU to the Comprehensive Orthopedics. Cai Qiaojun had prepared a single room for her and assigned three nurses, one of who was a stoma nurse with an international certificate for stoma care and extensive experience in stoma management. Yu Shuilian was about to gradually start eating. Her fecal elimination relied on a colostomy in her abdomen. However, this stoma lacked the ability to contract and had no control. Without meticulous care, feces would be everywhere. The stoma nurse¡¯s job was to manage the two stomata in her body. Another stoma was a bladder stoma which was currently the urinary tract. After the ureter and bladder healed, the drainage tube left in the ureter would be removed. Source: , updated on ?¦Ï¦Í??.§ã¦Ï Before her artificial urethra and anus were rebuilt, the stoma nurse would be in charge of managing her excretion. In the medical team, Song Zimo appointed a few people. Because Zhang Lin and Little Five were taking care of the patient, Song Zimo called Takahashi and selected several graduate students and standardized trainees to form a dedicated medical team. In the ward of the Comprehensive Orthopedics, Yu Shuilian finally saw her husband and son again. Her husband and son were both looking haggard and thin, especially her son. His pitiful appearance beside the bed made Yu Shuilian feel distressed. ¡°Have you been eating enough these days?¡± Yu Shuilian asked, holding her son¡¯s hand. The son shook his head: ¡°No, I just have some cold rice in the morning. At noon and evening, either the dishes dad cooked are extremely salty, or they¡¯re burnt.¡± Fu Xiayang felt quite embarrassed at his son¡¯s words, but they were indeed true. In these days, his mind was not in the right place. He was absent-minded when cooking. He either absent-mindedly added a spoonful of salt or forgot to turn off the fire. ¡°Once mom gets better, I will make delicious food for you.¡± Yu Shuilian stroked her son¡¯s face, her heart aching. Seeing her husband standing there like a child who had done something wrong, Yu Shuilian said emotionally, ¡°Thank you, Xiayang, for all your hard work!¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, we are all waiting for you to get better and come home.¡± Fu Xiayang stroked his son¡¯s head. ¡°Mom, let me see.¡± The son wanted to lift the quilt, but Fu Xiayang immediately grabbed his son¡¯s hand. He was afraid of scaring the child, and Yu Shuilian also signaled her husband not to let the son know. But the son insisted on seeing, and sooner or later he would have to know. His mother¡¯s sigh finally signaled her husband to let go. Fu Xiayang let go of his son¡¯s hand. The son lifted the quilt and saw that his mother had only half of her body, and there were two holes in her belly, both connected to bags. The son acted bravely, ¡°Mom, I¡¯m not afraid. From now on, I will carry you wherever you want to go. I will carry you to see the national flag raising and climb the Great Wall.¡± ¡°That sounds good, you¡¯ll take mom to see the flag raising and climb the Great Wall when the time comes.¡± Yu Shuilian was moved to tears. The warmth of her family gave her the determination that she had to survive and should never be abandoned. ¡°Xiayang, though you might be too busy in the morning, you could take him to the breakfast shop near our store, or simply let him eat breakfast at school. The rainy season is coming, so make sure to close the windows, especially the wardrobe. Don¡¯t touch the things in the vacuum bags, otherwise they may get damp. There¡¯s half a black chicken in the fridge. You can cook a soup with longan and lotus seeds and have it with our son.¡± Yu Shuilian gave point-by-point instructions to her husband. Now that she was bedridden, all she could do was to give advice, which would at least help her husband a little. Looking at the two of them appearing helpless and downcast, Yu Shuilian genuinely felt their pain. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Takahashi gathered together. Whenever they had a moment, they would discuss the next step for the reconstructive surgery. The bladder function was still intact, and the restoration of urination only required the reconstruction of an artificial urethra. However, the reconstruction of the anus, where Yang Ping intended to recreate an artificial anus capable of controlling defecation, posed a challenging question¡ªhow could this be done? In order to accomplish the homework assigned by Yang Ping, the three of them found it immensely challenging to design the surgery procedures separately. Hence, they decided to pool their wisdom together to solve this difficult problem. Although defecation seems simple, it¡¯s actually an intricate process. When feces enter the rectum, it stimulates receptors in the rectal wall. This impulse follows the sacral nerves and the pelvic nerves, transmitting to the primary defecation center in the lumbar sacral region of the spinal cord. Simultaneously, the entering impulse also transmits to the cerebral cortex, thus causing a sensation of needing to dispose of the waste. If the conditions for defecation permit, the impulse transmits through the pelvic nerves (parasympathetic fibers), causing the descending colon, sigmoid colon, and rectum to contract, resulting in the relaxation of the internal anal sphincter. At the same time, the outgoing impulses from the pudendal nerves decrease, causing relaxation of the external anal sphincter, leading to the expulsion of feces. Additionally, nerve excitement causes the abdominal muscles and diaphragm to contract, increasing the intrabdominal pressure, thereby promoting defecation. If conditions for defecation do not permit it, the cerebral cortex emits an impulse, suppressing the activities of the primary lumbar sacral nerve center in the spinal cord, suppressing impulses to transmit through the descending nerve fibers, causing an increase in the tension of the anal sphincter, relaxation of the sigmoid colon, and the defecation reflex would be inhibited. In this way, feces are temporarily stored in the body, thus avoiding uncontrollable incidents. The patient currently doesn¡¯t have an anal sphincter or rectum. The sigmoid colon wall lacks sensors that can be compared to those in the rectum that can reconstruct the reflex arc and imitate the standard defecation process. Regarding Xiao Chuanguo¡¯s reflex arc, there were redundant body nerves that could be utilized. However, both the bladder and the anus were intact, anatomically, meaning, once connected, they would possess an intact nerve arc. Unfortunately, the patient¡¯s nerve arc lost its receptor and effector, there was no way to conduct the surgery without these two indispensable endpoints. Takahashi, an internationally respected master of trauma, wracked his brain but couldn¡¯t come up with a surgical plan. ¡°Dr. Song, Dr. Xu, the regrettable fact is that I can¡¯t figure it out for now¡ªhow to proceed with this surgery. If I were to operate on this patient, he¡¯d be obliged to resort to uncontrollable methods for defecation for the rest of his life.¡± Takahashi dropped his pencil and sulked in his chair. Only the three of them were in the meeting room at this time. Xu Zhiliang also shook his head, ¡°I¡¯m the same. I¡¯ve boldly thought about taking a part of the bladder sphincter to replace the anal sphincter and then applying rehabilitation training. But, even if this is possible, what nerves should be used to complete the muscular contraction and nerve connection?¡± Song Zimo felt relieved. Prior to the arrival of Xu Zhiliang and Takahashi, discussing with Yang Ping? There was evidently no need for discussion; he just listened to Yang Ping¡¯s lectures. Currently, with Xu Zhiliang and Takahashi, Song Zimo finally didn¡¯t feel alone anymore. He had peers with whom he could genuinely discuss. ¡°Both of you, what if we use an artificially constructed apparatus with electronic components, such as a silicone device, implanted at the end of the descending colon to fulfill the function of the anus? The device might function according to certain stimuli to close and open?¡± Song Zimo looked at Xu Zhiliang and Takahashi. ¡°You mean an artificial anus?¡± Both Takahashi and Xu Zhiliang asked simultaneously. Song Zimo nodded, ¡°Have we lost our way? Reached a deadlock? Should we necessarily utilize the body¡¯s own structures for reconstruction?¡± ¡°If we continue following this thought process and designing an artificial anus, the difficulty level would not be any less than utilizing the body¡¯s own structures for reconstruction,¡± said Takahashi. Xu Zhiliang disagreed: ¡°Although designing an artificial anus is difficult, at least it¡¯s achievable.¡± Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Takahashi, this trio took over the closed meeting room and engaged in fierce discussions, each finding a kindred spirit in the others. For such eminent individuals, finding a kindred spirit to fully express themselves was a cause indeed for great joy. Chapter 343 03-25 - 0326: When Something is Ready, It Will Come to You Naturally Chapter 343: Chapter 0326: When Something is Ready, It Will Come to You Naturally Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Takahashi had been discussing until it became dark in the meeting room. The lights were switched on, and the discussion resumed. Someone¡¯s stomach was growling from hunger. When they checked the time, it was already nine o¡¯clock in the evening, and others had long since left work. The three of them decided to go eat at a restaurant near the hospital. Takahashi suggested eating Sichuan hotpot, everyone agreed immediately, and they went for hotpot. Around the hotpot, they continued their discussion, talking nothing but anuses and excrements, which scared away some of the new diners and caused those already eating to put down their chopsticks, feeling nauseous, and run up front to complain. In an instant, many customers in the hotpot restaurant¡¯s hall were scared away by these three. The restaurant owner had to intervene and find them a private room to restore the flow traffic. Otherwise, the three would eventually evacuate the entire hall. After dinner, Takahashi insisted on paying the bill with a rush akin to fighting. No one could stop him. ... This could only be blamed on Takahashi¡¯s teacher, who had instructed him never to give up if someone tried to stop him from paying the bill, but to strive forward, break through, and pay first. This was the way to show sincerity. For this sincerity, Takahashi had no choice but to strive. Those nearby watched with admiration, recognizing him as a true brother, always charging ahead. The three of them had been discussing from the afternoon till evening and finally had some ideas. They decided to continue the discussion the next day. ¡ª Thanks to everyone¡¯s meticulous treatment, Yu Shuilian¡¯s wounds were healing nicely, and it was almost time to remove the stitches. For his reconstruction surgery, Yang Ping had drawn dozens of surgical diagrams, hoping to present them to everyone before the surgery. Yu Shuilian¡¯s rescue surgery was a pinnacle challenge in trauma surgery, and her second phase of reconstruction surgery was equally a pinnacle challenge in reconstructive surgery. Source: , updated on ?¦Ï¦Í¨À0.§ã¦Ï To reconstruct an artificial anus that can substitute for a normal one, not only does it entail ingenious and exceptional surgical design, but the surgical operation also needs to exhibit marvelous craftsmanship. Yang Ping temporarily locked a stack of surgical diagrams in his desk. This was a complete surgical plan. He had pondered this plan for a long time, referenced a large amount of information in the system space, and verified a large number of case records, following the clues of academic papers. He conducted systematic research on all existing surgical methods, and then used his imagination to design this safe and effective surgical method. Director Zhu came to Sanbo Hospital again. This time, he came for a medical examination. All employees of Anning Insurance, at his suggestion, shifted their medical examinations to Sanbo Hospital. To thank Yang Ping, Director Zhu invited the medical staff of the comprehensive orthopedics department to dinner. Director Han and Dean Xia had to attend a dinner and did not participate. Everyone in the comprehensive orthopedics department, except for those on duty, attended. Director Zhu opened three tables at a rather good restaurant near the hospital. He should have come to meet with everyone long ago, but he has been truly busy recently. He currently works mainly in Singapore, and his wife and children have already joined him there. His child is preparing to go to school over there. This time, he returned to the country specifically to finish the medical examination. ¡°Old Ju, how was your check-up today? No issues, right?¡± Director Tian, being a good friend of Director Zhu, naturally attended. ¡°I suspect there are minor issues with my cervical and lumbar spine, otherwise, there should be no other problems. This time I came back from Singapore, just to participate in the medical examination. My examination next year will be done at Singapore Central Hospital.¡± Director Zhu poured tea for everyone. ¡°Guo Jingyao is recovering very well now and can already work normally. All middle and upper-level employees of his company have bought our insurance. Doctor Yang, I truly appreciate it. You have helped Old Ju tremendously. Mr. Guo is very happy. He apparently had a phone call with the chairman of our Anning Group, expressing his desire to make a special visit to China to meet you.¡± Director Zhu gratefully said. ¡°President Zhu is too kind.¡± Seeing Director Zhu doing well in his business, Yang Ping, of course, felt happy, for he was the heartache of all doctors. ¡°Didn¡¯t I recommend you the right person? My younger brother Yang¡¯s technical level is world-class. I can¡¯t keep up with it. If he can¡¯t perform a surgery, then it¡¯s truly a global challenge.¡± Director Tian talked with finesse. ¡°Old Ju, are you living in Singapore now for a long time?¡± ¡°For work, I will probably have to be in Singapore for at least a few years. My wife and son quite like Singapore.¡± ¡°Everyone, please feel free to eat.¡± Director Zhu greeted the other two tables, which included graduate students, standardized training students, and nurses. Some people recognized Director Zhu and chatted privately. ¡°This is Director Zhu from the provincial People¡¯s Hospital. I heard that he is now the CEO of an insurance company.¡± ¡°Yes, he is really amazing. I heard that in Singapore, his annual salary is several million.¡± Everyone tactfully did not mention Director Zhu¡¯s past, only focusing on his current situation. Those in the know couldn¡¯t help but look at him with both sympathy and admiration. They sympathized with his experiences and admired his outstanding performance in his new position. Director Zhu also felt this kind of gaze from others. He didn¡¯t care at all, as everyone meant no harm and was just concerned about him. After dinner, everyone left. Director Zhu asked Yang Ping and Director Tian to have tea with him separately. He wanted to discuss some cooperation matters with Yang Ping and Director Tian. As everyone sat down around the tea table, Director Zhu took out a contract. It was a cooperation agreement with the comprehensive orthopedics department and Overseas Chinese Building¡¯s Orthopedic Department: ¡°Take a look in advance. If there are no issues, I¡¯ll submit it to Sanbo Hospital.¡± ¡°Also, Doctor Yang, we invite you to become our special consultant, in charge of our international high-end insurance orthopedic consultations and surgeries. This is the agreement, take a look. If you¡¯re not satisfied with the expert commission on it, tell me directly. This agreement is a three-party agreement, between the individual, the hospital, and the insurance company. The price stated is paid to you personally, we will pay the hospital separately. You are the first expert we have invited, next on our list is a cardiac surgery professor from Fuwai Hospital in Beijing.¡± Director Zhu handed another agreement to Yang Ping. Yang Ping casually flipped through it, international consultations were 60,000 US dollars per time, and surgery fees were 180,000 US dollars per time. If a special situation arises, the fee would increase. As far as Yang Ping was concerned, money came naturally once he had reached a certain level. This kind of international flying knife commission, let alone more, has a few opportunities a year, and millions of dollars can fall into his pocket. Furthermore, adding the income from Old Cheng, these two incomes will be enough for him to be financially free. Now, Yang Ping¡¯s interest in money is not that strong, his primary interest is to win the system reward of that space laboratory. ¡°Here are the photocopies of the contracts, you can take them and look at them. If you have any comments, feel free to contact me,¡± Director Zhu said while sipping tea. Director Tian was also looking at the contract: ¡°Old Ju, it seems like you¡¯re fully supporting my work. In this case, we will soon run out of wards in our orthopedics department in the Overseas Chinese Building.¡± ¡°Old Tian, we support each other. The conditions of your Overseas Chinese Building are indeed good. Our president has personally experienced it and he spoke very highly of it.¡± ¡°With Younger brother Yang backing us, no matter what kind of patient it is, just send them over to us.¡± The three of them, following Southern traditions, settled everything over a few cups of tea. ¡ª Singapore is one of the four major financial centers in the world; many multinational companies have branches in Singapore. Fuji Insurance is no exception, this newly established Japanese insurance company aims to tread a novel path on the global stage. The European and American insurance giants weren¡¯t too concerned about the Southeast Asian market, making it a golden opportunity. Fuji and Anning both eyed this treasured land and began their beachhead battle. However, Ikuta Takashi lost the first battle. Ikuta Takashi was the president of Fuji Insurance and a reliable assistant to Yamashita Kumizo. He was assigned to develop the Southeast Asian market, showing the importance of the Southeast Asian market to Fuji insurance. Initially, Ikuta had planned to bring Guo Jingyao for treatment at Shuntendo Hospital in Japan. He thought it would boost his popularity, as there can¡¯t be a better effect than an endorsement from a Southeast Asian tycoon. ¡°Mr. Ikuta, this is the new data we¡¯ve collected.¡± The secretary neatly placed a pile of printed information in front of Ikuta Takashi. Several stacks of thick files were already on his desk, all of them printed and bound. Ikuta Takashi¡¯s gloomy eyes scanned over a stack of files: ¡°I have been analyzing day and night, Zhu Cheng, a man who started as a doctor, worked as an insurance actuary, and then took charge of Anning Insurance¡¯s Southeast Asian market. He is a formidable opponent with strategy and courage, meticulous and serious. ¡°This time, had he not invited Doctor Yang Ping from China, we would have succeeded,¡± added the secretary. Ikuta Takashi squinted his triangular eyes: ¡°To counter Anning Insurance, we must first deal with this man. Either we dig him out to work for us, or we make him leave this battlefield. To conquer the enemy, you must put the enemy into a test tube and study them. Only when you know your enemy and yourself can you win. The intelligence you guys have collected is too crude. From your intelligence, we still can¡¯t figure out, who are his career enemies? Who is his career backer? What major events has he experienced in his life? What is his personal ideological trajectory?¡± These data, some collected by Fuji Insurance¡¯s China Company and some commissioned by third-party institutions, were already very detailed. The intelligence was detailed enough to shock, it included everything from Zhu Cheng¡¯s height, weight, hobbies, blood type, marital status, wife¡¯s occupation, child¡¯s academic performance, Zhu Cheng¡¯s economic income, activity trajectory, and even online shopping habits. Yet Ikuta Takashi still thought it wasn¡¯t enough. ¡°Sir, we failed. We will continue our efforts to collect information,¡± the secretary immediately bowed in a customary manner. European companies were preoccupied with their own matters and not too bothered about the Southeast Asian market. Now, Anning was Fuji¡¯s biggest enemy. Failing this battle would make the subsequent counter-attack even more difficult. Therefore, Ikuta Takashi pretended to give up the Southeast Asian market but secretly prepared for a ruthless Surprise assault. Their main aim was to target President Zhu of Anning. Ikuta Takashi felt careless during the last round, for underestimating the opponent. He only bribed the person in charge of passing on the doctor¡¯s list and had him secretly cross-out Anning Insurance; however, they still managed to enter the meeting. Had it not been for Dr. Lin¡¯s familiarity with Yang Ping during Guo Jingyao¡¯s consultation, the result might have been different. According to the situation at that time, Anning Insurance would have indeed been shut out. ¡°Mr. Ikuta, should we consider Mr. Kobayashi Takeshi...¡± suggested the secretary timidly. ¡°No, maintaining the relationship with Shuntendo is a matter for higher management. My duty is to develop the market. Any obstacles must be overcome. We must first defeat Anning Insurance to capture the Southeast Asian market. Going forward, we will then take root and deal with the European and American giants. Fuji Insurance is not about curling up in Japan like a ninja turtle, but about going global to become a true international giant,¡± Ikuta Takashi raised his head high. ¡°Miyamoto, you have been cultivating in Southeast Asia for many years. Can¡¯t you come up with a strategy to drive him out of the industry?¡± Ikuta Takashi asked sternly. ¡°Legal traps, office politics, even family relationships, making the first crack, and giving a fatal blow, like commercial bribery, could all be lethal,¡± Ikuta Takashi reminded. ¡°Are we being too despicable?¡± the secretary asked. ¡°This is called wariness towards soldiers. People only care about the results, and don¡¯t care about your methods. Sometimes, kindness can mean success¡¯s biggest enemy,¡± Ikuta Takashi banged the table. The secretary immediately realized his words were inappropriate. Chapter 344 03-25 - 0327: Young Master Bao Sees Emergency Cases Chapter 344: Chapter 0327: Young Master Bao Sees Emergency Cases Young Master Bao and his mother had been in the United States for quite some time, and having just received their green cards, they were incredibly excited. Young Master Bao became overwhelmed with excitement and late one night in his mansion¡¯s bathroom he nearly plunged headfirst into the toilet, and then took a tumble. His already injured right knee joint twisted once more, adding insult to injury as it immediately swelled and caused such pain that Young Master Bao grimaced in agony. Being unfamiliar with the United States and unable to speak English fluently, they could only turn to Manager Qian for help. Manager Qian was the head of the Bao Family¡¯s real estate company¡¯s office in New York. American officials wouldn¡¯t even allow them to build a house or renovate a lawn. In truth, this office was only to serve mother and son. They acted as their life assistant. The task of medical appointment was carried out by Manager Qian who enlisted a multinational medical intermediary company and made an appointment with Professor Robert at a specialized surgical hospital in New York. Mrs. Bao picked up the phone and dialed Manager Qian¡¯s number, who was in bed at the time. ... ¡°Mrs. Bao, we still need to wait a while for Junhao¡¯s medical appointment,¡± Manager Qian blurted out. Everytime Mrs. Bao called, she would be pressing for the medical appointment. The hospital ranked first in the world in orthopedics, boasting top experts in Sports Medicine. They had a long waiting list of patients from all around the world. It wasn¡¯t like in their home country, where one could simply pay a few dollars to see a doctor. Mrs. Bao was unhappy: ¡°Please come over quickly. Junhao has taken a tumble in the bathroom and can¡¯t bear the pain in his right knee joint. Please take him to the doctor promptly.¡± Disgruntled, Manager Qian mumbled, ¡°What was Young Master Bao doing to fall in the bathroom late at night? His motor coordination seems off,¡± as he crawled out of bed, hurriedly got dressed, almost falling over in the process. Groggily, Manager Qian drove to the Bao Family¡¯s mansion. Luckily, the roads were clear and he lived close by, so he reached within ten minutes. Young Master Bao was lying on the couch with Mrs. Bao applying an ice pack to his knee. Hearing the doorbell, Mrs. Bao swiftly opened the door. ¡°Manager Qian, it¡¯s not good. Junhao is in terrible pain. Can we go to the hospital and request Professor Robert to see him tonight? We will pay more,¡± Mrs. Bao expressed anxiously. Source: , updated on ?¦Ï¦Í??.?? ¡°Mrs. Bao, this isn¡¯t about the money. The appointment is set, and there¡¯s no such thing as pushing it forward. Besides, the professor doesn¡¯t work at night; there¡¯s no such thing as seeing patients at night,¡± Manager Qian explained as he patted his bald head. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you more competent? Can¡¯t you use your connections to move up the appointment to tomorrow? Increase the consultation fee by ten times!¡± An agitated Mrs. Bao retorted. ¡°The patients ahead of us at the international medical center are either wealthy or influential figures ¨C sports stars, politicians, and wealthy businessmen from all over the world. Giving them more money won¡¯t help expedite things; they don¡¯t need it. We just need to wait,¡± Manager Qian clarified frankly. ¡°Our Junhao is a star player too. Do they pay more than us?¡± Mrs. Bao showed dissatisfaction. Manager Qian was helpless: ¡°Mrs. Bao, the ones with appointments ahead of Junhao include three NBA frontline stars, a prince from the United Arab Emirates royal family, and the foreign minister of a certain Eastern European country. Which one of them lacks money?¡± Meaning, stop talking about money. These people are waiting too. What makes you feel entitled not to wait? If you consider Young Master Bao a star player, that¡¯s just a family joke. He couldn¡¯t hold a candle to any real star athlete. ¡°So what do we do now?¡± Mrs. Bao was also out of ideas. ¡°We have two options. Either go to the hospital¡¯s emergency room ¨C given Junhao¡¯s condition, we probably won¡¯t even see a doctor until tomorrow morning; or go to a private clinic, something like a family doctor. We may have to wait for one to two hours, but we¡¯ll be able to see a doctor,¡± Manager Qian provided his suggestions. Despite the mistreatment, he was still diligent about his responsibilities and had served the Bao family for over a decade. Left with no choice, they had to listen to Manager Qian. ¡°So be it,¡± Mrs. Bao was defeated. Other than venting her anger at Manager Qian, she had no better ideas. Manager Qian drove Mrs. Bao and Young Master Bao to a familiar private clinic offering emergency medical services. Upon entering, a nurse asked for a brief medical history and performed a physical exam of Young Master Bao, and then guided them to the waiting room to wait their turn after affixing a label to him. There were already several people sitting in the waiting room. The doctor took his time examining the patients. Although many names were called out, they didn¡¯t hear theirs. Even worse, a few who arrived after them were called in before them. Young Master Bao, whose keen eyes had picked up on this, asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on? They came after us, why did they go in before us?¡± ¡°They arrange the order of examination based on the severity of the patients¡¯ condition. Your condition is considered to be not very serious so you were given a green label and have been moved to the back of the queue. If no more severe cases come in, then it will be your turn. If more serious cases do come in, we¡¯ll have to wait,¡± Manager Qian explained patiently, fully aware and frustrated at their lack of understanding of life in America despite having received their green card. If this had happened in their home country, Mrs. Bao and Young Master Bao would have exploded by now. Young Master Bao might have even hurled his crutch at a nurse. But now, he didn¡¯t dare act out. Not long ago, a fellow countryman had argued with a doctor and nurse in the emergency room, even grabbing the nurse¡¯s uniform. When the police arrived and ordered him to let go, step back, and raise his hands, he refused. Without uttering another word, the cop brought his whip down directly onto that guy¡¯s shoulder, causing a fracture. Then, he pinned him to the ground with his knee and caused a fracture in his rib as well. In the end, the two cops handcuffed the man and dragged him to the police station. The police presented him with two options: be charged with second-degree murder and face jail time, or be deported and forbidden to enter the United States for twenty years. Repenting his move, the guy was deported, and indeed banned from re-entry for twenty years. Such a vivid example has turned Junhao Bao into a tame cat; even when someone spits in his face, he dares not react rashly, not to mention fight back. After a full two hours, it was finally Junhao¡¯s turn. The doctor was patient and kind. He asked for Junhao¡¯s medical history, conducted a physical examination, and handed him a prescription to buy medication from a pharmacy after removing his gloves. Then the nurse led them to a treatment room and gave him two ice packs to ice his knees. After a two-hour wait, just like that Junhao¡¯s appointment was over. On checking out, they were presented with a bill of two thousand dollars. ¡°Do you think I¡¯m a bumpkin, that you can rip me off?¡± Junhao gritted his teeth but restrained his voice, ultimately holding back his outburst. Manager Qian patted Junhao¡¯s shoulder, ¡°This is how it is in the United States; healthcare is expensive. In fact, without insurance, a single ambulance ride could bankrupt some people. Come on, I¡¯ll take you to buy the medicine.¡± ¡°Daddy ain¡¯t paying.¡± Young Master Bao chokes out, his voice barely audible. Manager Qian was taken aback, realising he was joking. ¡°Treat it as a joke. They aren¡¯t scared of you skipping payment. If you have the means to pay but refuse, debt collection lawyers will soon be knocking on your door. And once your credit is ruined, you basically won¡¯t have a future in the United States.¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t have insurance, you can negotiate a discount. Since we do have insurance, let¡¯s not make trouble for money¡¯s sake. Go get the medicine.¡± Manager Qian urged Junhao to hurry and buy the meds. Junhao was so furious he felt like he was on fire. It wasn¡¯t about the money, but more about whether he had been played for a fool. Back in his home country, a few hundred RMB could solve the problem ¨C a few painkillers and a couple of cold compresses, maybe even less than a tenner. Now he was paying two thousand dollars, over ten thousand RMB. He had to get the meds himself with the prescription. Wasn¡¯t this a joke? ¡°Junhao, let it go, these are their rules, we can¡¯t break them.¡± Mrs Bao looked at her son¡¯s expression and was worried he would get into trouble. ¡°Sir, can I assist with something?¡± A tall black security guard walked over to them, a gun holstered at his waist. Junhao wanted to speak, but he didn¡¯t have the English vocabulary to deal with the situation. Since Manager Qian immediately said, ¡°No problem, thank you. We¡¯ll be leaving soon.¡± When Junhao stood up, the security guard tried to help him, making him shiver in fear. The man towered over him, his arm size comparable to Junhao¡¯s leg. Manager Qian took Mrs Bao and Young Master Bao to a chain pharmacy to buy medicine, and then took them back to the mansion. After a full night of running around, Manager Qian felt like his bones were falling apart. A few pills were housed within a cylinder; their names weren¡¯t listed, only instructions on how to take them. ¡°What if these are steroids?¡± Mrs Bao worried. Junhao sat on his sofa at home, a glass of water in front of him and a small pill in his hand. He flipped it back and forth, hesitant to take it. ¡°There¡¯s no name for the medication. How can I take it?¡± Junhao remained reluctant to swallow it. Manager Qian hoped he would hurry up and take the medicine; he still needed to get home and rest. ¡°It¡¯s fine, the doctor said it¡¯s a painkiller. Americans all do this, and they¡¯re still living fine, aren¡¯t they?¡± Manager Qian tried to encourage him. Gathering his courage, Junhao took the pill, and at last, Manager Qian could leave. However, Young Master Bao had a miserable night: after all that hassle, he received merely a few pills which weren¡¯t even useful. In pain, he tossed and turned in bed throughout the night, unable to sleep. This situation also worried Mrs Bao, she was at a loss about what to do. She could only keep calling Manager Qian, who could only reiterate the doctor¡¯s advice, ¡°Apply a cold compress and distract yourself.¡± How to distract oneself? By watching television. So, Young Master Bao stayed up all night watching TV. Chapter 345 - 0328: Red-nosed Robert Chapter 345: Chapter 0328: Red-nosed Robert Professor Robert, aged forty-six, is at the peak of his career. With a tall and sturdy body, he once won a medal in a New York bodybuilding competition. He always keeps his hair closely cropped, has blond hair, blue eyes, and a wide face. His prominent large nose is quite noticeable and appears somewhat red against his fair skin. Therefore, people often privately refer to him as Red-Nosed Robert. At times he¡¯s demure and exudes total gentleness, and at times, he has a fiery temper, like an enraged lion. The massive fees for his surgeries have consistently placed him among the wealthiest physicians in the United States. Unlike some doctors who amassed wealth by investing in pharmaceutical companies and medical equipment, his wealth comes solely from performing surgeries. According to the standard charges at the New York Special Surgery Hospital, the surgery cost alone varies from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of US dollars. If other costs are taken into account, the expenditure for a complete inpatient surgery usually exceeds one million US dollars. However, there is virtually no way to make an appointment through the hospital¡¯s channels. Their limited slots for the year are completely booked the instant they open for scheduling. If you wish for him to operate personally, your best bet is to make an appointment through his private clinic and have the surgery take place there. Although it¡¯s referred to as a clinic, it¡¯s actually a specialist hospital capable of performing surgeries at all levels of sports medicine. The surgical equipment and conditions there are absolutely world class. Robert handed over the management of the clinic to a trusted professional manager, freeing himself from many worries and leaving him responsible only for the surgeries. Here, patients pay exorbitant surgery fees and surgeries can be arranged as swiftly as possible, but there still is a waiting period, typically three months. Certain patients with good personal connections with Robert have their surgeries expedited, but all other patients, regardless of where they¡¯re from, wait in order of their appointment. The appointment fee for the clinic is a flat rate of twenty thousand US dollars. Paying more or less is futile, it¡¯s simply twenty thousand US dollars. If you have surgery in the clinic, the surgery fee alone always exceeds one million US dollars. Of course, those who come to his private clinic for surgery, often spare no expense. Several international stars from American basketball, American football and golf, have all undergone surgery by him. In the United States, for any professional athlete, given that the cost is not a concern, Doctor Robert is their first choice. Robert¡¯s grandfather and father were also doctors at the New York Special Surgery Hospital. His grandfather was the founder of its sports medicine department and his father promoted the department to a fresh pinnacle. He is the third generation in his family to practice medicine. In the industry, he has a more precise title, ¡°Little Robert¡±, to distinguish him from his grandfather ¡°Old Robert¡±, and his father ¡°Robert¡±. However, with his father¡¯s retirement, calling him Robert doesn¡¯t cause any confusion, so people gradually started directly referring to him as Doctor Robert. Robert sometimes swears, when he¡¯s riled up, he¡¯s like a roaring lion. His students secretly jest about him as Mr. Patton. Once, a visiting boxing champion became emotionally unstable and in front of him said: ¡°FUCK, can¡¯t you do the surgery earlier, I¡¯ve had enough.¡± Professor Robert suddenly halted the conversation, stood up and walked towards the door, roaring at the boxing champion: ¡°Bullshit, either you obediently wait for the next round of scheduling or you lose the chance to ever be my patient.¡± The boxing champion had no choice but to wait obediently for several months. When he next met Robert, his attitude in their communication was very good. No one wanted to retire early when some surgeries could only be done well by Robert, so there¡¯s no other option. Hence in the sports circle, one saying is widely circulated, ¡°You may offend your coach, even referees, but don¡¯t you dare offend Red-Nosed Robert.¡± Robert practises celibacy. His current mistress is his sixth, and three of them have children for him, raising the children as single mothers. Now, Robert is performing a multi-ligament reconstruction on a former soldier¡¯s knee. After receiving approval from Dr. Yang Ping of China, he¡¯s using the surgical method outlined in Yang Ping¡¯s paper. Using the new method, the surgery went smoothly and the difficulty was significantly diminished. Robert had never found this type of surgery as relaxed as this. If it were previously, he would have used various measuring templates before the operation, conduct measurements on the MRI image, and utilize CT scans and MRI for different reconstructions. Using 3D printing technology, he¡¯d print out a patient¡¯s knee joint simulation model, then perform a simulated surgery on it to get the ligament¡¯s starting and ending points and tension data. Even so, the surgery process was fraught with difficulties and the postoperative effectiveness was suboptimal. The initial stability only meets the requirements for normal walking and a limited amount of exercise such as jogging. The chance of returning to the field was close to zero. Robert gave a name to this type of injury ¨C ¡°Retirement Multi-Syndrome,¡± although this is his personal name for the condition and it hasn¡¯t been included in classic textbooks. He believes his terminology will one day be included in textbooks, just like how a specific type of elbow triple injury is called ¡°Terror Triad Syndrome.¡± Doctor Robert hums a tune, he¡¯s in an excellent mood. Each step of the procedure is executed with ease, and the experience will be even more delightful once he gets a hang of it. This being his first time using the new method, Doctor Robert was very cautious and took more than four hours. After the surgery, he manually tested the knee joint¡¯s front-back, inner-outer, and rotational stability. The result exceeded his expectation ¨C he could hardly believe that such a result could be achieved by this type of surgery had he not tested it himself. End of examination, Robert laid the patient¡¯s lower limb flat, excitedly patted the patient¡¯s knee and said, ¡°It¡¯s brilliant! This former Navy Lieutenant has been blessed by God, making him the first patient of my new surgical procedure.¡± Doctor Robert took a few steps away from the operating table, moved to an open area, turned his hips, and started to dance. ¡°Doctor, is this your new surgical technique? The next Sports Medicine Congress is going to go wild over this.¡± His assistant had never seen the red-nosed doctor behave this way at an operating table. Even when he had done something similar in the past, he only gyrated a few times after completely taking off his surgical gown. Today, he started dancing before he even undressed. ¡°Doctor, be mindful of sterility,¡± a plump patrolling nurse reminded him. Robert was indifferent: ¡°Jenny, the surgery is over. Barel is taking care of the final touches. I won¡¯t be on the operating table anymore, so please don¡¯t interrupt my dance. It¡¯s not polite and it might hurt our colleagues¡¯ feelings.¡± He continued to dance as he undressed, then, like a stripper, made a saucy, sexy gesture and threw his surgical gown into the trash bin, blowing a kiss to everyone. Camilla, Robert¡¯s sixth lover, and his little Andrew were waiting for him in his office. ¡°Darling, was the surgery successful? Your expression tells me everything,¡± Camilla said, swinging her golden hair, her full figure wrapped in a long skirt. A five or six-year-old black child ran towards him, hugging him: ¡°Daddy¡ª¡± ¡°Sweetheart, let daddy hug you.¡± Robert¡¯s sturdy arms picked the child up, holding him to his chest. ¡°Oh, you¡¯ve grown taller.¡± Robert kissed the child. Robert and Camilla haven¡¯t had a child yet. This black child wasn¡¯t theirs, but an orphan whose single mother was shot and killed while protecting her students during a school shooting. Robert and Camilla, as charity volunteers, temporarily acted as his foster parents, taking him out for fun whenever they had spare time and letting the child experience the love he lacked from his parents. The child fell down from the loft when he was three, injuring his left knee and rupturing several of his ligaments. Because the child¡¯s surgery would involve growth and development, it was more difficult than adult surgery, and, once failed, there was no remediation. ¡°I just had his MRI done, and the images were burned onto this CD.¡± Camilla took a CD from her bag and handed it to Robert. Robert put down the child and took the CD: ¡°His knee joint might be able to fully recover. Maybe a Chinese doctor can help him.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great! But how can other doctors perform the surgery if even you can¡¯t?¡± Camilla was surprised, excited but also a bit disappointed. Maybe it was just Robert¡¯s way of amusing the child. ¡°I can¡¯t be completely certain right now. I have to take a trip to China. Before I leave, I want to get Andrew¡¯s most recent examination data, contact the Chinese doctor, send it to him in advance, and listen to his opinions. However, I will not make the final decision until I have witnessed Dr. Yang Ping¡¯s surgery with my own eyes.¡± ¡°Daddy, these books are so heavy.¡± Little Andrew climbed onto the chair to reach a medical book on the desk. ¡°Careful, sweetheart. That thing is too heavy.¡± Robert took the book from Andrew, opened it and showed him. ¡°Daddy has another surgery, sweetheart. You and mommy stay here and play.¡± Robert gave Andrew a kiss. Camilla and Robert hugged, Robert bending over as Camilla kissed his forehead: ¡°Andrew will be home these few days. Come home early, we¡¯ll be waiting. Love you, darling.¡± ¡°Love you, sweetheart. I¡¯ll come home tonight and cook dinner for you.¡± Robert kissed Camilla¡¯s forehead too. ¡°Daddy, you go to work. I want to bring this book home.¡± Little Andrew was deep into the book, not even looking up. Chapter 346 - 0329: I Have Always Loved to Show Off Since Childhood Chapter 346: Chapter 0329: I Have Always Loved to Show Off Since Childhood It¡¯s already been two weeks since Yu Shuilian¡¯s surgery, her wound is ready to have the stitches removed. At four-thirty in the afternoon, everyone started getting prepared to remove her stitches. Doctors and nurses crowded around in a large circle, a few from the trauma ICU hurried over too. During this period of time, everyone had diligently treated and taken care of Yu Shuilian, and now it was time to see the results. Someone had already taken out their phone to record this significant moment. Yu Shuilian¡¯s husband and son were also by her side, her husband held their son, incredibly moved. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Takahashi all personally participated in removing the stitches. Song Zimo was in charge of removing the stitches while Xu Zhiliang helped with removing the dressings. Takahashi was ready to place the removed dressings in a yellow trash bag, while some standardized training students lent a hand. Takahashi cleaned up trash on the side, putting it into a yellow trash can. Sisi¡¯s mother wore gloves, accepting the yellow trash bag Takahashi handed over, she checked the seal and promptly cleared out the replaced dressings. In her spare time, she had joined the team caring for Yu Shuilian, helping the nurses change her clothes, bed sheets, and handle her personal hygiene needs. If the wound healed nicely and the stitches got removed smoothly, it meant that Yu Shuilian had passed the first hurdle, and her treatment had achieved an intermediary success. Yang Ping was also watching from the side. For a surgery he had personally performed, a life he had saved from death¡¯s grip, he wanted to personally see the condition of the wound. The bags for storing feces and urine had already been replaced by the nurses in advance. The urine bag was slightly filled with yellow urine, while the feces bag was clean and empty. To celebrate the removal of the stitches, Head Nurse Cai specially ordered a flower basket and placed it by the window sill in the single room, as a symbol of celebration. With utmost caution, Song Zimo peels off the clean dressings layer by layer, placing them in the yellow trash bag Takahashi had opened. The last layer was the vaseline gauze that was directly covering the wound. Though everyone had seen the wound each time they replaced the dressings and knew it was healing well, showing no signs of any infection, at this moment, everyone still held their breath as if a heavy sigh could disturb the wound and lead to sudden infection. Song Zimo used the forceps in his left hand to pick up an iodine cotton ball from the dressing tray. His right hand then takes it over, where he gently presses it onto the vaseline gauze, this helps to both sterilize and moisturize the gauze and thus, reduce the pain when the gauze is removed. Chapter 347 - 0330: The Mail of the United States Chapter 347: Chapter 0330: The Mail of the United States It is now just after five in the afternoon, which should be just after five in the morning according to American time. This Robert from the United States seems to have a lot of energy, sending emails either at one in the morning or five in the morning. Doesn¡¯t this man need to sleep? Yang Ping opened the email: Dear Dr. Yang, sorry to trouble you again. I have used your surgical method and have completed a multi-ligament knee reconstruction. The result exceeded expectation. Now, among my patients, there is a special case, I have sent the case file to your email, see the attachment, if possible, please give your advice, greatly appreciated! Robert from New York. Since the review process began, Yang Ping has communicated several times with Robert via email. Now that he is sending the case file, it seems that Old Robert is a real technician. Yang Ping generally likes this type of person. The mobile phone screen is too small, and it is inconvenient to view imaging pictures. Yang Ping opened the email on the computer in the office, downloaded the files in the attachment, and then habitually scanned them for viruses. The hospital¡¯s information department has issued several notices on the internal network not to open emails casually, especially ones from overseas, and to conduct a routine antivirus scan before opening them to prevent ransomware infection. Better safe than sorry. This email is from America, it¡¯s better to scan it for viruses. The computer is connected to a professional radiographic display, and the MRI images are very clear. This is a rare case of a five-year-old boy with knee injuries and multiple ligament ruptures. Yang Ping has done many of these surgeries in system space, ranging from bizarre to common cases. This kind of case is considered relatively common in the system space but in reality, Yang Ping has not yet encountered it. The difficulty of this case lies in that he has multiple ligament ruptures in the knee joint, and he is also a child in the growth and development stage. The reconstruction of multiple ligaments itself is difficult, let alone for a child, the difficulty is multiplied. Children are not miniature adults. Children¡¯s bodies are in the process of growth and development, each with its own characteristics, and children of different ages have different characteristics. Surgery for children cannot be regarded as a scaled-down version of adult surgery. For a five-year-old child, the entire operation must not damage the epiphysis, otherwise, the knee joint and even the left lower limb will develop malformations. The epiphyseal line of adults has long since closed, which is not an issue. When an adult undergoes this kind of surgery, neither the tibial nor femoral tunnels need to take the epiphysis into account. If the surgery for children is performed in the same way as adults, the tunnel will pass through the epiphysis. Therefore, when performing this type of surgery on children, the starting and ending points of the ligament cannot be placed in the original anatomical position. They need to be moved to a special position to bypass the epiphysis. In this way, once the starting and ending points of the ligament are changed, all anatomical data related to the normal ligament cannot be used. Under such special circumstances, simulating the normal function of the ligament is very challenging. The tendon implanted during the operation, simulates the normal ligament function not only to achieve initial stability but also to account for his future growth and development trend. After the tendon is implanted, it remains dead for a period of time, and it takes time to activate; after activation, for a long period of time, the growth rate of the ligament does not match the growth rate of the knee joint; after passing through this non-matching period, it enters a matching period, and the stability at this time is the ultimate stability. The relationship between the growth of the ligament and the growth of the knee joint is not linear for a long time and is extremely complex. If these are not taken into account, soon after the operation, the knee joint will return to an unstable state, requiring a second operation to adjust the tension of the ligament; after the adjustment, it is unknown when the stability gained from the operation will be lost again, requiring a third operation; endless operations until adulthood, and the surgical effect is still unsatisfactory; in this terrible process, the negative impact of instability on the growth and development of the knee joint has quietly occurred and is permanent. This is also why Robert, a master of sports medicine, has not yet come up with a satisfactory surgical plan. The market has relatively few medical devices and implants for children¡¯s sports medicine. Only one American company makes these products¡ªOrthoPediatricS, the only company in the world that focuses on pediatric orthopedic implants. In China, devices for children¡¯s sports medicine are a blank slate. For Yang Ping, the problem lies in the medical devices and consumables; technology is not an issue. ¡°Doctor Robert, congratulations on the success of your first surgery. I have studied the case material you sent. For this case, the surgery should be performed as soon as possible, the longer the delay, the more profound the damage to the growth and development of the knee joint. The surgery is very complicated, involving many factors, and many of these factors are related to growth and development and are in a dynamic state. However, there is no difficulty with the surgery. To successfully complete the surgery, it requires the assistance of the OrthoPediatricS company. However, their current products are not suitable for this patient. They need to use their flexible production line to design and manufacture a set of personalized devices and implants for the patient. Yang Ping from G City.¡± Yang Ping replied to the email. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was the influence of system space, or if he was too focused on medicine, but now he likes being straightforward to avoid wasting time. Yang Ping turned off the film review screen, realizing that, when she had time, she should write a paper on the reconstruction of children¡¯s shoulder and knee ligaments to spread related knowledge. In reality, countless doctors might take decades to accumulate this knowledge, but Yang Ping could quickly gain experience in the system space, elevate experience into theory, and provide it for everyone ¨C a wonderful thing indeed. ¡°My God, this is fantastic! Upon hearing this news, I spilled coffee everywhere: all over the floor, my desk, my computer keyboard, my clothes, and my pants. It wasn¡¯t very hot, fortunately. OrthoPediatrics Inc., always stays in close contact with me, so producing dedicated instruments is not a problem. If possible, could we cross the Pacific and sit together, sipping coffee while discussing this case? If God would bestow a little more grace upon me, it would be even better if I could observe Doctor Yang¡¯s surgery. Unfortunately, I saw on your hospital¡¯s official website that Doctor Yang¡¯s department requires international interns to have a level four proficiency in Chinese, a requirement I sadly can¡¯t fulfil in the short term. However, could I visit Doctor Yang for academic exchange¡ªeven if for just one week? If that¡¯s not possible, three days? If three days is not possible, even one day would do. Little Robert from New York, typing with one hand, and using the other one to clean up coffee on the desk.¡± This American seemed to be waiting for emails and was treating emails like instant communication on WeChat. Just a few minutes after the email was sent, Robert replied. ¡°Regarding the academic exchange, I can¡¯t give a definitive answer at this moment. I will ask the secretary of our department to contact you. Yang Ping from G City, China.¡± Yang Ping called Zhang Lin to her office: ¡°Zhang Lin, there¡¯s a doctor from the United States, Doctor Robert from New York Specialty Surgery Hospital, who wants to come and learn about surgery. He said he temporarily can¡¯t pass Chinese level four test. Can he visit our department as an academic exchange for a few days?¡± ¡°According to our department¡¯s protocol, international interns must pass the Chinese level four. But for academic exchange, there is no language requirement. However, they can only observe and cannot participate in clinical work or perform surgery on the operating table,¡± Zhang Lin replied seriously, as he has been very diligent about this work. Yang Ping gave Zhang Lin Robert¡¯s email address: ¡°Regarding the academic exchange, you can directly contact Robert and arrange it based on the regulations.¡± Zhang Lin noted down the email address, feeling the weight of his responsibility. Little Gao has recently arrived, and now Little Robert is also planning to come. ¡°Doctor Yang, these foreigners are coming one after another. It¡¯s quite a burden, you know? Allowing a loose management can lead to them not learning much, which would tarnish our reputation. But if I am too strict, I am afraid these foreigners would accuse me of being cold and oppressive,¡± Zhang Lin voiced his concerns. Yang Ping smiled, getting a sense of Zhang Lin¡¯s current state: ¡°Just manage them as you should, focus on the work, not the people. As long as you follow the regulations, there will be no problem.¡± ¡°That¡¯s reassuring. I¡¯ll take care of Robert¡¯s matter then.¡± Zhang Lin took on the responsibility. In the future, there will be many doctors coming for internships and exchanges, and many of them are top-tier technical experts. It should be fine if they are respectful, but if they do not comply with the discipline, it is impossible without strict management regulations. In the doctor¡¯s office, some standardized training students were engaged in a lively conversation. When they saw Zhang Lin come in, they said, ¡°Teacher Zhang, there¡¯s some news.¡± Zhang Lin was curious about the news amongst all this busyness. ¡°Director Zhu and Wang Ge¡¯s lawsuit is going to court for the second trial next Monday.¡± One of the training students showed Zhang Lin on his phone. Not long ago, they had dinner together¡ªDirector Zhu was paying¡ªso naturally, everyone started paying attention to Director Zhu¡¯s affairs. Out of boredom, they searched online and found this news. ¡°Let me see.¡± Zhang Lin knew about it a few days ago but was too busy to share the news. Chapter 348 - 0331: Answer Chapter 348: Chapter 0331: Answer The Overseas Chinese Building was indeed imposing, Director Tian¡¯s office was spacious, and even the real leather boss chair exuded an air of grandeur. Upon seeing Yang Ping enter, Director Tian got up and invited him to sit down, then casually locked the office door behind him. ¡°Brother, I asked you to come at this time because I wanted to chat. There¡¯s something that¡¯s been weighing heavily on my mind. Do you remember when we were rescuing Wang Ge at Shipo? Wang Ge has type A RH negative blood. At a critical moment, there happened to be a person with the same blood type nearby who urgently donated blood to help him through the crisis. Do you remember that?¡± ¡°I could never forget. How could I? If not for that blood donor, no matter how good or fast our surgery was, Wang Ge wouldn¡¯t have been able to make it. He¡¯d have died of hemorrhagic shock on the operating table.¡± Yang Ping sat down, unsure of Director Tian¡¯s intention for bringing up this matter all of a sudden. Director Tian picked up a file from his desk and handed it to Yang Ping: ¡°This is Director Zhu¡¯s medical report. Because the X-Ray shows mild osteogenesis in his vertebrae, the physical examination center sent the report to me for a specialist opinion. Can you take a look at his blood type on there?¡± Yang Ping took it over, opened the physical examination report, found the section for the blood type, and was startled to see written there: Type A RH negative. Could it be? Director Tian suspected that the person who had donated blood at the time was Director Zhu. Yang Ping didn¡¯t give it much thought, but now upon recalling, he remembered running into Director Zhu with Director Tian on their way to Shipo. After the car accident, the doctor from the emergency department at Shipo People¡¯s Hospital mentioned that a middle-aged man with proficient first aid skills had helped the rescue team at the scene and saved Wang Ge. He¡¯d even followed them to the emergency department. Could that have been Director Zhu? Did Director Zhu save Wang Ge at the scene and also donate blood to him? If this was the case, what an astonishing coincidence. That coincidence would have been unbearably cruel to Director Zhu. Mr. Guo was bitten by a serpent he saved; what an melodramatic predicament. Yang Ping put down his examination report. Director Tian, leaning on the couch, closed his eyes and took a deep breath before speaking: ¡°Now I¡¯m certain that the one who saved Wang Ge at the site and donated blood to him was Director Zhu. My intuition suspected this at the time. After the surgery, I went down to the emergency department and didn¡¯t see him. I called him but Old Zhu said that he hadn¡¯t been to Shipo People¡¯s Hospital and had already arrived at the Daxiang Mountain Scenic Area. I thought it couldn¡¯t have been such a coincidence but as it turns out, reality is full of unbelievable coincidences. The bastard who ruined Old Zhu was saved by him. Why would fate play such a brutal trick on Old Zhu? As if his life hadn¡¯t been hard enough! After studying hard for eleven years, he finally graduated, from a resident physician to an attending doctor, then to a deputy chief doctor. It took him several years of painstaking effort, only to be undone by one piece of fake news from this bastard. Why was Old Zhu supposed to save him? Why did he choose to save this scoundrel?¡± As he spoke, Director Tian¡¯s anger spun out of control. Clenching his teeth in a bid to suppress his seething fury, he cursed profusely, no longer the refined person he normally was. ¡°I only just found out. Director Zhu has been in a legal battle with Wang Ge for five years over defamation caused by fake news. The verdict of the first trial stated that Director Zhu¡¯s surgery was in complete conformity with the medical standards, with absolutely no errors found. Wang Ge¡¯s news was proved to be false, violating the principle of seeking truth in journalistic practices. The court ordered Wang Ge to apologize publicly to Director Zhu and compensate him with 20,000 yuan for reputational and emotional damage. Wang Ge refused to accept the judgment at the time and chose to appeal. The second trial is scheduled to take place in a few days.¡± Director Tian spoke hastily, his emotions running high. ¡°Director Zhu¡¯s current mental state is very good. I think he¡¯s moved on from this incident and is very passionate about his new endeavor.¡± Yang Ping tried to comfort Director Tian. ¡°He has not changed at all, still as persistent as ever. Do you know that he also graduated from Huaxi, one year ahead of me? We were in Japan for further study, shared a dorm. In the United States too, we were in the same dorm. Although I specialized in orthopedics and he in general surgery, we had a good relationship. I knew him very well. He was very passionate about medicine. He always got up earlier than anyone else for fear of disturbing others. He would read under a tree by the roadside while we were asleep. Every time we woke up, he¡¯d already prepared breakfast for us. He, like me, also came from a humble rural background, completed our studies with loans, and no one understands him better than me. Every step forward was extremely difficult.¡± Director Tian got carried away as the memories from his study abroad days flowed before his eyes. ¡°I will accompany you and support Director Zhu.¡± Yang Ping did not know what else to say. ¡°That¡¯s why I asked you to help him last time.¡± It seemed as if Director Tian was talking to himself, lost in his recollection. Yang Ping quietly listened. Director Tian, who had always been so steady, had never been so overwhelmed before. It was as if he needed to vent everything that was on his mind to feel relieved. ¡°Oh, I called you here just to tell you about this. If there¡¯s nothing else, you can go back to your work.¡± Director Tian snapped out of his reverie. Yang Ping had already finished his shift, so he wasn¡¯t particularly busy. ¡°Next Monday, remember to call me. I¡¯ll go with you.¡± ¡°Mhm!¡± Director Tian got up to open the door to let Yang Ping out. He fumbled around for a bit before he found the handle of the door lock. Source: , updated on .co Chapter 349 - 0332: The Future of Mayo Chapter 349: Chapter 0332: The Future of Mayo Xiao Su was waiting for Yang Ping at the entrance of the Overseas Chinese Building, and the two of them are going to the canteen for a meal. After their meal, they take a walk and walk to the overpass where Hermes is singing. His wife is adjusting the sound system for him. This brother is a singer who was sidetracked by making money. They perform one song after another, ¡°Glorious Years¡±, ¡°Sailor¡±, ¡°Been the Eldest Brother for Many Years¡±. He¡¯s phenomenal; his emotional investment in the songs is so genuine that it brings tears to the audience¡¯s eyes, not to mention his incredible singing skills. Although Hermes sings loudly near the hospital, the security guards wanted to discourage him, but after so many days, no one has complained, and many patients run to listen to his songs. The security guards have given up trying to stop it and have started clapping along with the music. ¡°I heard he used to be a coal boss; he lived quite luxuriously but is now bankrupt, sigh...¡± ¡°Look, his singing makes people cry.¡± In front of Hermes, many notes of money, including hundred yuan notes, have been thrown into the stainless-steel basin. His daily income is quite good. Since Hermes started performing, the overpass has become a hotspot attracting business resellers, herbalists, fortunetellers, and antique sellers. With his performances, Hermes has stimulated the local economy. ¡°Specialist appointments! Fuer, Provincial Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Sanbo available...¡± Scalpers are promoting their services in the crowd. ¡°A cure for impotence and premature ejaculation, an 18th generation royal medical practitioner. A refund provided if three doses are ineffective.¡± The stallholder stroked his white beard while chatting with prospective customers. ¡°Genuine Qing Dynasty official kilns, selling due to financial difficulties.¡± An old scholar with round black glasses is fanning himself with a paper fan. After walking around the hospital, the two stop under a tree. Yang Ping shares some recent events with Xiao Su. Regarding Boss Cheng offering shares, Xiao Su has a different perspective. She says, ¡°I think you should accept the shares, and you thoroughly deserve them. In Europe and America, doctors, especially well-known ones, have their own clinics. This is a way for them to realize their value, not just to make money. Besides, there¡¯s no such thing as too much money. If we have more money, we can do more and help more people. If we have more money, we can help children like Sisi, and in the future, we can do charity and help even more people.¡± ¡°With more money, you don¡¯t need to rely on others when conducting research or wait for funding approvals. You¡¯d be free to establish your own lab to conduct your own research projects. Only financial freedom could provide other forms of freedom.¡± He understood that although these techniques seemed quite good, it was clear his father didn¡¯t think much of them. It made sense, considering that the techniques collected by the Qin Family wouldn¡¯t be all that profound. In the Qi Refinement stage, the most powerful among them was probably the ¡®Nine Revolutions Mixed Element Technique,¡¯ since it came from a great sect. He observed the few techniques carefully before finally choosing the ¡®Dragon and Tiger Profound Returning Origin Skill.¡¯ It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t want to cultivate the ¡®Nine Revolutions Mixed Element Technique.¡¯ Although this technique could help him lay a firmer foundation, it consumed too much spiritual energy, and there were only a little more than six months left until the family¡¯s assessment at the end of the year. By then, he needed to compete with other family disciples for a spot in the sect. Cultivating the ¡®Nine Revolutions Mixed Element Technique¡¯ meant he might fall behind in cultivation and fail the selection. ¡°Good.¡± Qin Long, seeing him choose the ¡®Dragon and Tiger Profound Returning Origin Skill,¡¯ nodded in satisfaction. After all, his son knew how to make choices, which was commendable. If he had chosen the ¡®Nine Revolutions Mixed Element Technique,¡¯ it would have required a significantly higher consumption of spiritual energy. Although it would lay a thick foundation, gaining entrance into the sect was the priority now. After joining the sect, he would change techniques anyway, so there was no need to be overly concerned. Qin Long then went into detailed explanations of the ¡®Dragon and Tiger Profound Returning Origin Skill¡¯ for Qin Feng. He would repeat the explanations if his son had any confusion to ensure there would be no difficulties in cultivation. Subsequently, Qin Long went to the ancestral hall to have the family elder record Qin Feng¡¯s name in the family registry. This registry was different from that of the ordinary family members, specifically used to record the Qin Family¡¯s cultivators. In Qin Feng¡¯s generation, he was the eleventh to open his Spiritual Acupoint and begin cultivation, thus ranking as the eleventh. Of course, if there were elder peers who opened their acupoints later than him, he would still need to address them as older brothers. For the subsequent period, Qin Feng diligently cultivated at home. Though the ¡®Dragon and Tiger Profound Returning Origin Skill¡¯ wasn¡¯t an exceptional technique, its most powerful aspect upon reaching Great Success was its ability to manifest dragon and tiger illusions. Compared to the cultivation methods Qin Feng practiced before opening his Spiritual Acupoint, it was far superior. Once the technique was in motion, he could feel strands of spiritual energy flowing into his body through the Spiritual Acupoint, circulating through his meridians, and transforming into his True Yuan. This area was at a common location for vascular impressions, which was naturally overlooked by all doctors and not thought abnormal. ¡°Do another MRI. This is chronic osteomyelitis, localized. This spot is not a vascular impression, it¡¯s necrotic bone.¡± After Yang Ping finished reviewing the films, the diagnosis was out. CT has a relatively large ionizing radiation, not good for a child to do multiple times. So, do another MRI to get the latest lesion image to guide the surgery. ¡°You can tell this is osteomyelitis from just that tiny spot?¡± Takahashi turned to Yang Ping. Right up to now, it wasn¡¯t noticeable. The vascular impression on the image seemed typical. How could it be said to be necrotic bone? Could necrotic bone look like this? In the future, if Takahashi wants to take over Fujiwara Masao¡¯s work, he needs to accomplish something significant in orthopedics, not just be limited to trauma surgery. So, he wants to learn more from Yang Ping. ¡°If you show him two mosquitoes, with a glance, he could tell you whether they¡¯re male or female. If you ask him how he figured that out, he¡¯d simply tell you: look at their reproductive organs.¡± Song Zimo knew that Yang Ping¡¯s judgment would definitely not be wrong. ¡°From now on, just follow his instructions. What you don¡¯t understand, just ponder slowly.¡± Song Zimo had Little Five call the family members over, and then explained to them the child¡¯s illness: This is chronic osteomyelitis, localized. It¡¯s a tiny spot and needs to be surgically removed. The infected and necrotic bone tissue inside needs to be fully cleared out, and then it¡¯s to be filled with something called calcium sulfate. After the surgery is complete, the child¡¯s problem will be solved. The family members¡¯ expressions fluctuated at the mention of surgery, ¡°We can do minimally invasive surgery. Cut a small incision about 1 cm, then use instruments to drill into the bone, and get out the necrotic bone along with the surrounding normal bone tissue. Afterwards, fill in the calcium sulfate, and stitch it up¡± The mention of a minimally invasive approach pleased the child¡¯s parents. If it had involved major surgery, they would have been a little fearful and worried. ¡°You certainly live up to your reputation. The technology here is really amazing. We¡¯ve heard that the orthopedic department at Sanbo Hospital is very powerful, especially a certain Doctor Yang, you. We¡¯ve heard that surgeries even the foreigners can¡¯t handle, Doctor Yang can easily complete.¡± The parents of the child, enthused for a moment, began to flatter them. Takahashi, standing on the other side and listening, heard it all loud and clear. His face flushed with heat; the ¡°foreigner¡± referred to was obviously him, right? ¡°The doctor at our local health center said, ¡®For your child, don¡¯t bother with any other place. Just go to Sanbo, find Doctor Yang. Don¡¯t get the wrong person. If even he can¡¯t figure it out, you can stop bothering in the future, this disease can¡¯t be treated.''¡± The child¡¯s father was very articulate. Source: , updated on .co Chapter 350 - 0333: Root of the Disease Chapter 350: Chapter 0333: Root of the Disease The lightbox was very bright, Takahashi had looked for a long time but could not see the necrotic bone mentioned by Yang Ping. Yang Ping had already indicated the area with a slight abnormality, but in Takahashi¡¯s understanding, that was an impression made by a blood vessel, a typical vascular imprint. How could it be seen as necrotic bone? Necrotic bone and vascular impressions are two completely unrelated concepts and now they have become connected in the differential diagnosis. Staring into the bright light for too long, Takahashi¡¯s vision began to blur, his eyes began to sting, tears were squeezed out, and he had to divert his gaze temporarily. He looked away, his vision filled with flashes of light, even people were flickering in his sight. ¡°This advanced skill cannot be mastered in a short time. Even if Doctor Yang points out the male and female reproductive organs on a mosquito, we cannot distinguish them. We will study this in our spare time later,¡± Song Zimo said, temporarily putting away the film. This surgery looks simple, but is actually quite difficult to perform. The key is positioning. Without the navigation system, relying solely on the surgeon¡¯s experience, a window needs to be opened at the lower end of the right tibia, and a large block of bone tissue has to be dug out to potentially remove the infected necrotic bone. This type of infection in the necrotic bone must be fully excavated. Leaving even a bit behind is like leaving out an infection source, causing the infection to recur after a period, thus wasting all previous efforts. Therefore, when excavating the necrotic bone, part of the normal bone tissue surrounding it also needs to be removed in order to guarantee thoroughness. This surgery is like digging sweet potatoes. The sweet potato is buried deep in the ground. An open surgery is like digging a huge pit to finally excavate the sweet potato. Minimally invasive surgery is like inserting a hollow bamboo tube into the soil and hammering it in. After reaching a certain depth, the tube is pulled out, filled with soil, and at this point, the sweet potato is inside the tube. ¡°Should we use the Tianji surgical robot and make a reservation with the operating room in advance?¡± Song Zimo thought that without navigation technology assistance, it would be difficult to perform minimally invasive surgery on such a tiny necrotic bone. The Tianji surgical robot is equipped with a navigation device, and the accuracy of its navigation can reach 0.8 millimeters. If the robot is used for the surgery, the child has to have a CT scan again, and the CT data needs to be imported into the robot¡¯s navigation system. Intraoperative CT scans also have to be used for positioning, which would expose the child to a lot of radiation. ¡°I saw that the child has had a lot of X-rays and CT scans. No need for that again. Using robotic guidance would expose the child to more radiation. Let¡¯s try to simplify this. We¡¯ll do it in our operating room, I¡¯ll perform the surgery.¡± Yang Ping looked at the large bag of images, hoping to reduce the child¡¯s exposure to radiation as much as possible. ¡°This is the lesion we dug out, with necrotic bone and infected bone tissue. Have a look.¡± Song Zimo showed a photo on his phone to the child¡¯s father. The child¡¯s father didn¡¯t understand, but he knew roughly that this was the root of the illness, and now the doctor had skillfully excavated it. ¡°Will it hurt a lot to remove the bone?¡± The child¡¯s father asked worriedly. ¡°There are few nociceptive nerves in bone tissue, so it won¡¯t feel too painful. If it does hurt, it¡¯s the wound that hurts, and we will give a little painkiller tonight,¡± Song Zimo explained. ¡°Will the hole that has been dug be filled in later?¡± ¡°Generally, it will be filled with new bone tissue in about three months.¡± ¡°Now that the root has been removed, it won¡¯t recur, will it?¡± ¡°Generally not, but no one can guarantee it 100%.¡± ¡°What should be noticed about the diet, anything to avoid? Or anything to supplement that will be beneficial to his bone growth? Can we make bone soup?¡± ¡°A normal diet is sufficient. If you like bone soup, you can make it for him. It doesn¡¯t have any special benefits for this condition, but it doesn¡¯t harm either.¡± ¡°Can I make soup with Chinese ginseng? It improves blood circulation and dissolves stasis!¡± The child¡¯s father was asking questions, many of which had already been thoroughly discussed preoperatively, but he brought them up again. ¡°Chinese ginseng is a Chinese medicine, don¡¯t eat it casually. A normal diet is enough. Do you eat Chinese ginseng every day at home?¡± Zhang Lin, who was losing patience, interrupted. ¡°Could you share the photos with me?¡± The child¡¯s father, embarrassed by Zhang Lin¡¯s comment, changed the topic. Song Zimo shared the photos with him. The father was quite active and immediately posted a moment with the photo: Finally dug out the root of my child¡¯s disease, we can sleep peacefully tonight. Then the trouble came. After the post in the moment, many people responded one after another, inquiring about which hospital it was and which doctor they had seen. Source: , updated on .co Chapter 351: 0334 Scaring Yourself Chapter 351: Chapter 0334 Scaring Yourself The day after the surgery, the child said he hadn¡¯t felt any pain all night. The child¡¯s father was certain that the root of the illness had been completely removed, but then a problem arose: the number of friends who had asked him to get in touch with Doctor Yang had grown to more than ten, and they were all from G City. He had only spoken a few words with Doctor Yang when discussing his child¡¯s illness; they were hardly acquainted. But he had spoken out of turn, claiming on a whim that he was familiar with Doctor Yang. Now his friends wanted him to arrange an appointment, eager to see the doctor for a consultation as soon as possible. After making rounds, the child¡¯s father followed Yang Ping to his office, ¡°Doctor Yang, I am Zhang Zhe¡¯s father¡ª¡± ¡°Do you need something?¡± Yang Ping asked, seeing his hesitance. ¡°Doctor Yang, I have more than ten friends whose children have conditions similar to Zhang Zhe¡¯s. They want to bring their kids to see you for treatment, hoping for the same surgery to remove the root of the problem.¡± More than ten? He guessed they were parents troubled by their children¡¯s ¡°growing pains.¡± ¡°Most children¡¯s pain is not a serious issue. Your child¡¯s condition is relatively rare, and not every child requires such surgery.¡± Yang Ping felt he had a deep misunderstanding, believing that all ¡°growing pains¡± had an underlying root that surgery could remove, naturally eliminating the pain. ¡°Everyone is anxious, Doctor Yang. Please, could you see when you might have time to help us all out?¡± Zhang Zhe¡¯s father finally blurted out his request. ¡°Have them come precisely at 4:30 p.m. to the teaching room. I¡¯ll hold a free clinic for everyone. Zhang Lin, you¡¯ll be responsible for the reception and arrangements,¡± Yang Ping said, noting his urgency. Any pain has a cause, and if the cause can¡¯t be found, at a minimum, other rare, serious diseases must be ruled out to reassure the parents. With chronic, recurrent pain, certain basic tests definitely have to be conducted, or else falling into the trap of low probability can delay treatment of an illness, leading to regret. The development of medicine has been a gradual process from ambiguity to precision, from reliance on experience to evidence-based practice. Testing may not always find a problem, but it can also confirm the absence of feared issues, such as tumors. Upon hearing Yang Ping agree, Zhang Zhe¡¯s father immediately posted in the group chat: ¡°Everyone hurry, this afternoon at four o¡¯clock, meet at the main entrance of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Comprehensive Orthopedics, don¡¯t be late.¡± Zhang Zhe¡¯s father felt empowered, and there was nothing he could do about it¡ªafter all, he knew such an impressive doctor. Everyone had to depend on him and count on his help. If it were his own matter, he would likely make various excuses to delay, not taking it to heart as he did with his child¡¯s well-being, which could not afford a moment¡¯s delay. That afternoon, aside from a few special cases, a dozen parents, either fathers or mothers, led their children to the Comprehensive Orthopedics entrance. The security guards thought some group incident had occurred and came to inquire. When told they were there to see a doctor, the guards didn¡¯t press further. Zhang Zhe¡¯s father called out, directing everyone to line up, reminding them of the etiquette during the medical consultation and to cherish the hard-earned appointment time. The parents were immensely grateful. Zhang Zhe¡¯s father had never before held such a leadership position among a group of people, or received such respect. He felt as if he had done a great service for everyone, and his pride soared. Following him, they took the elevator to the Comprehensive Orthopedics Ward. As they passed by, Zhang¡¯s father greeted every doctor and nurse, demonstrating his familiarity with the place. Zhang Lin led them to the teaching room, and Little Five offered water to everyone. With the parents and their kids, there were almost thirty people gathered, a modestly sized group. At 4:30 p.m., Yang Ping appeared on time. Despite his youth, his unique demeanor inspired great trust among everyone. Some had already had tests done and brought their X-rays, while others had never gone through an examination and now felt somewhat worried and afraid. But then they thought, it was only about removing the root of the illness; it was nothing too serious. ¡°In fact, most children¡¯s lower limb pain is not a major issue, and you don¡¯t need to be overly anxious. Everyone¡¯s situation is different, and surgery isn¡¯t always necessary. For example, Zhang Zhe¡¯s circumstances are relatively rare. For chronic, recurrent pain, necessary tests still have to be done. The tests are not solely to diagnose an illness but more importantly to rule one out. Necessary testing is not overtreatment.¡± Yang Ping began with these opening remarks to alleviate everyone¡¯s excessive anxiety. Then they proceeded to consult with the patients in order, those without test results first, and those with results after. Even for a hastily organized free clinic, Yang Ping was still meticulous and serious, with no intention of skimping. With each child, he would ask about their medical history, personally examine them, and the X-rays had to be carefully reviewed on the light box; he never just held them up to natural light for a quick glance. ¡°This child is likely to have an osteoid osteoma, with pain in the proximal part of the left lower leg, night pain, and progressively worsening. Oral aspirin can relieve the pain. Doctors at Fuer have already conducted diagnostic treatment and recommended an X-ray considering osteoid osteoma. Why haven¡¯t you had one taken?¡± Yang Ping wondered, as the medical history written by the doctors was very clear. ¡°X-rays have nuclear radiation, and my child has never had this disease before, and no one in my family has ever had it. I looked it up online, and it¡¯s just growing pains.¡± ¡°You should listen to the doctor, get the X-ray done quickly. Once diagnosed, proceed with surgery for resection and then a pathological examination. Don¡¯t worry too much; if it¡¯s an osteoid osteoma, it¡¯s benign, and as long as it¡¯s completely removed, the likelihood of recurrence after surgery is very low. Every diagnostic and therapeutic activity is a choice made after weighing the pros and cons. Not performing needed tests, you¡¯ll delay the illness,¡± Yang Ping had to explain to him. ¡°Doctor Yang, there¡¯s something I don¡¯t understand. Can you explain in detail why you can determine this just by looking, and if you¡¯re so sure, why do we still need to get an X-ray? Also, isn¡¯t there a way to treat this disease with medication? Why must it be surgery?¡± This parent liked to get to the bottom of things. Placing him first, who knew he was going to be so fussy. When a doctor tells you to get checked, you go do it. If you want to probe deeper, will the others still get their turn? ¡°You want to understand? First, go read all the textbooks for a five-year bachelor¡¯s degree in clinical medicine, then study the textbooks for a master¡¯s and doctorate in orthopedics, and after that, read a hundred academic papers on bone tumors. Find an orthopedic and oncology department in a hospital, train as an apprentice for a few years, then come back and discuss with me slowly. Right now, everyone¡¯s in a hurry, it¡¯s not suitable for discussion. Little Five, could you arrange a left knee joint anteroposterior and lateral view for him? Be quick, the imaging department is closing soon.¡± The parent wanted to discuss a few more points but was taken away by Little Five. The parents behind, with their children, immediately filled the vacancy, and Yang Ping moved on to examine the next child. ¡°Your child has flat feet, which leads to excessive internal rotation of the lower leg when bearing weight. Have a pair of flatfoot orthopedic insoles made to elevate the arch and correct the internal rotation of the lower legs. The pain should be relieved,¡± Yang Ping advised the parent. ¡°Flatfoot deformity? Can¡¯t be, that should be hereditary. Look at my feet, aren¡¯t they normal?¡± The child¡¯s father immediately took off his shoes and stepped on a piece of paper that Yang Ping provided. ¡°Your arches are normal,¡± Yang Ping glanced. The child¡¯s father was a bit confused: ¡°I don¡¯t have flat feet? Then how does he have flat feet?¡± ¡°Flat feet tend to be hereditary, but it doesn¡¯t mean they absolutely are. I don¡¯t want you to get the wrong idea. Some people can be stubborn and sensitive, and if you keep thinking about it, you might end up with a misconception,¡± Yang Ping said, fearing the man might take it the wrong way. Next was a mother with her ten-year-old daughter, who had pain on the inner side of her right thigh, particularly after exercise. Yang Ping called a nurse to accompany them to the examination room. Upon returning, he said, ¡°Dance leg presses injured the adductor muscles; take her to the rehabilitation department for adductor muscle recovery training.¡± ¡°No problem with that. It¡¯s caused by lactic acid buildup or minor muscle fiber injuries due to exercise. Take a warm bath in the evening.¡± ¡°Look, there¡¯s a slight deformity in the ribcage and both lower limbs are slightly bow-legged. Did he have rickets as a child? Increase outdoor sports, get some sunshine, and take calcium supplements.¡± After seeing more than a dozen children, Yang Ping slowly finished. A few had other diseases, but most of them had no problems and were attributed to lactic acid buildup or minor muscle fiber injuries from exercise. Warm baths after more strenuous activities could usually provide relief. The parents were all pleased and felt much more secure, knowing the cause of the pain and the solutions to deal with it. The face of the parent of the child being considered for osteoid osteoma was ashen. Yang Ping asked Little Five to help contact the radiology department to quickly arrange the X-ray. After the X-ray was done, they should come back to the Orthopedics general ward, and Yang Ping would explain the condition to the child¡¯s father in person. This wasn¡¯t the time to be unclear, as the whole family might not sleep well that night. Under Little Five¡¯s supervision, the X-rays were swiftly completed, and the parent, with their child, took the X-rays and reports back to the Orthopedics general ward. Yang Ping opened the X-ray on the electronic review screen: indeed, there was a small osteoid osteoma on the proximal part of the left tibia. The medical history, physical examination, and X-rays, all three combined, led to an unquestionable diagnosis of osteoid osteoma. However, a final definitive diagnosis would rely on a postoperative pathological examination. ¡°Where¡¯s your child?¡± Yang Ping only saw the parent coming in. ¡°Such a big kid should understand this for himself; otherwise, he might feel burdened.¡± The father, seeing the slight bone prominence on the X-ray, was gloomy and sighed, ¡°Doctor, you were right, it really is an osteosarcoma. Doctor, this is too much for me to take in at once, but don¡¯t comfort me; just tell it like it is. I just checked on Baidu, and osteosarcoma is malignant, highly malignant, and incurable.¡± As he spoke, his eyes reddened, and tears flowed. ¡°Calm down, look carefully at these words: ¡®considering osteoid osteoma,¡¯ not ¡®osteosarcoma.¡¯ It¡¯s different,¡± Yang Ping corrected him. ¡°It¡¯s almost the same, one grows inside the flesh, the other inside the bone.¡± The child¡¯s father rubbed his eyes. ¡°Osteosarcoma is a malignant tumor, osteoid osteoma is benign. With osteoid osteoma, you just need surgery for a complete resection, scaring yourself for no reason. Pick a time for the child to be admitted and have the surgery done. It will only take three days; admit the day before, operate the next day, and be discharged the third day, followed by a pathological examination after surgery, so that everyone is assured. Don¡¯t go searching aimlessly at night.¡± Then, Zhang Lin brought out a textbook of ¡°Surgery,¡± flipped to the chapter on osteoid osteomas, and pointed for him to look: ¡°See, this is osteoid osteoma, and this is osteosarcoma. Read it for yourself.¡± The child¡¯s father read it slowly, word by word, and then burst into a smile, ¡°It really is different.¡± Chapter 352: 0335: Reaching the Limit Chapter 352: Chapter 0335: Reaching the Limit Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Orthopedics is full, all forty-five beds are occupied. Now that Xu Zhiliang has joined, Yang Ping¡¯s pressure has been greatly relieved. Having an extra Xu Zhiliang is like having an additional team. At present, there are four surgeries that Yang Ping doesn¡¯t have permission for ¨C spinal scoliosis correction, artificial hip and knee joint replacement, pelvic osteotomy, and upper cervical spine surgery. Apart from these four surgeries, Yang Ping is permitted to perform all other orthopedic surgeries. So, these four types of patients are usually referred to other departments in Orthopedics. This is specially arranged by Director Han, as these four are the most challenging surgeries in Orthopedics. Director Han is waiting for Yang Ping to proficiently perform the other surgeries before giving him the permission for these four. And for these four surgeries, Director Han must personally guide Yang Ping through each of them once before he authorizes him. This is a procedural issue and also safeguards Yang Ping in legally acquiring surgical permission. The Golden Knife Award is approaching. It serves as a stage for young talents to show their abilities, and for surgeons to showcase their exceptional skills. It can boost the professional identification of young doctors. Old Han and Professor Zhang have spent a lot of effort to get Yang Ping, as an attending physician, to participate in the Golden Knife Award competition. They had to seek endorsements from a few industry leaders before getting the permission. Now, Old Han feels it¡¯s time to authorize these four surgeries. He has already discussed with Professor Zhang about starting to admit patients for these surgeries. One of the patients who rushed from Australia displays adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. When her mother was two years old, she underwent surgery performed by Professor Zhang for her congenital developmental dysplasia of the hip and has been maintaining follow-up contact since then. They trust Professor Zhang immensely, so they rushed back from Australia to have the surgery performed by him. Sanbo Hospital performs fewer of surgeries of this type, especially detecting spinal scoliosis. Only around forty procedures are carried out yearly and most of them are personally performed by Director Han. If the orthopedic surgeries that Yang Ping is allowed to perform as Chief Surgeon are regarded as a mobile house, Old Han plans to add a few main beams and finish the house, allowing him to compete for the Golden Knife award. Old Han also understands that with Yang Ping¡¯s talent, he doesn¡¯t really need his guidance to successfully perform the surgeries. But the practice of medicine is mainly practical, so even if he only guides him through one surgery, it can be considered justifiable in terms of procedure. ¡°Xiao Yang, I¡¯ve been busy and haven¡¯t guided you through any surgeries. In the upcoming period, our Department will perform some orthopedic surgeries such as spinal scoliosis correction, pelvic osteotomy, artificial joint replacement, upper cervical spine surgery. I¡¯ll guide you through some of them and then authorize you to perform them later, do you feel confident?¡± Old Han felt that he was overdoing it as this young man had never let him down. Yang Ping was eager to try. In the system space, he had already completed the training for these types of surgery. Now, he has completed all orthopedic surgeries. ¡°You should prepare the department, Professor Su and some experts are coming to our department to see Yu Shuilian. He just called me and I don¡¯t know if he¡¯s passing by or something.¡± The future father-in-law, Professor Su is coming. It¡¯s time to prepare to welcome him and take the opportunity to make an extra round of ward rounds. There are many patients recently, and it¡¯s no harm to take a few extra looks. The whole Orthopedics team assembled, preparing for a huge ward round, Professor Su from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One is here, everyone dressed up neatly. Now everyone knows that Su Qingyun is Xiao Su¡¯s father and Yang Ping¡¯s future father-in-law. Zhang Lin began to count the number of people and asked everyone to fasten their white gowns. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang prepared their teams respectively. Takahashi didn¡¯t know what was happening, a VIP had arrived, even Dr. Yang was hastening preparations like he had immense respect and fear for the person. Does Sanbo Hospital have such figures? ¡°Teacher Zhang, what¡¯s happening?¡± Takahashi mixed in with the crowd, asking Zhang Lin. While counting the number of people, Zhang Lin said, ¡°Don¡¯t ask, a VIP has arrived, everyone remember to be polite later and maintain the formation of the team.¡± ¡°What VIP?¡± Takahashi asked Li Guodong again. Li Guodong told him, ¡°It¡¯s the bone science committee, the main professor from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. But these aren¡¯t that important, the most critical thing is that he is Dr. Yang¡¯s Big Man of Taishan Mountain.¡± ¡°Dr. Yang¡¯s Big Man of Taishan Mountain?¡± Takahashi couldn¡¯t understand. It should mean that Dr. Yang¡¯s boss had arrived. He hadn¡¯t heard of the role called Big Man of Taishan Mountain in Chinese employment titles or mentorship relationships. Should it refer to Dr. Yang¡¯s academic mentor, the relationship between Teacher Fujihara and himself? That¡¯s not right. It should be Professor Han¡¯s relationship with him as his mentor. But how can such a grand figure suddenly appear, which makes Dr. Yang busy preparing? The surgery room¡¯s Xiao Su, Zhou Can, and Liang Jing all came down, Professor Su has arrived. The teams just got ready. They began with checking on a few patients in the corridor. Several figures in white gowns have appeared in the corridor. Dean Xia, Director Zhao, Director Han, and a few unknown experts were walking towards them. They are here so quickly, Yang Ping hurried to greet them. The newly formed team followed behind, moving in a triangle formation with Yang Ping leading, and Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang slightly behind on both sides. Zhang Lin Xiaowu, Xiao Su, Zhou Can, and Liang Fatty followed next. After that were the graduate students, standardized training students, interns with Takahashi and Fujiwara Miyuki among the graduate students. Song Zimo also neatly fastened his white gown. Young people, what a magnificent aura! Two generations, old and new, two teams moving face-to-face in the corridor. It was like two clouds meeting in the corridor. The young people, full of vitality and exhibiting a majestic aura, made Professor Su stop and look at the impressive team approaching. Yang Ping extended his hand, ¡°Welcome, Professor Su.¡± ¡°Xiao Yang, your team is excellent. The young men are all spirited, dynamic, and handsome.¡± Professor Su looked at the formidable team.] ¡°You mean your son-in-law, don¡¯t you?¡± Old Han thought to himself. His gaze was fixated on Yang Ping as he spoke. ¡°The patient you guys recently saved ¨C the one who lost half of his body ¨C very impressive.¡± Yang Ping along with Professor Su, two teams mingling together, made the corridor a bit crowded. These professors came from several hospitals such as the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital, Affiliated Hospital One, and Affiliated Hospital Two. They didn¡¯t know why Professor Su suddenly brought them here. Song Zimo took care of this patient personally, and now the patient naturally belongs to Little Five. Little Five opened the door in advance to avoid scaring Yu Shuilian unconscious. Song Zimo personally reported the patient¡¯s medical history and after listening, the plastic surgeon nodded frequently: ¡°We also tried to train composite trauma surgeons. Was the patient¡¯s rectum preserved?¡± ¡°The rectum, anus, and sigmoid colon were all removed. The pelvis was shattered, only one-third was preserved, part of the sacrum was also removed, but the urethra was preserved.¡± Yang Ping introduced it with utmost reverence to Professor Su. ¡°The reconstruction of the anus is a difficult problem. You must plan well, especially the reconstruction of the nerve reflex arc. Not only need to be able to lock solids but also liquids. Did the operation take about four to five hours at that time? A lot of manpower was invested, right?¡± ¡°Yes, it was very laborious, four doctors, it took about an hour.¡± ¡°Thirty-five minutes!¡± Song Zimo corrected. Professor Su didn¡¯t mishear, this operation actually only took around forty minutes. How fast that would have been! He examined the patient¡¯s wound and also the feces in the urine bag and feces bag. ¡°Has there been any infection?¡± ¡°Fortunately, there was no infection after the operation till now.¡± ¡°The liver and kidney function are normal?¡± ¡°There was a temporary abnormality, but it was corrected in time.¡± ¡°This is a textbook-style rescue operation. It¡¯s like snatching life from the hands of death. Impressive.¡± ¡°Impressive young people, the new generation surpasses the old one.¡± Professor Zou sincerely admired. Professor Huang didn¡¯t agree at all. He couldn¡¯t believe that the operation was completed in thirty-five minutes: ¡°Thirty-five minutes, isn¡¯t that exaggeration? Do you have the operation video? Let¡¯s watch it together.¡± Ever since he had heard that a ¡°half-man¡± was rescued here, Professor Su had been wanting to come over. But it was shortly after the surgery, he was afraid to disturb the patient. Taking the opportunity of everyone gathering today for a trauma surgery salon, he suggested coming over, and everyone raised their hands in agreement. What a spoilsport he was. Although Professor Zou specialized in spines, he came over specially. Looking at Huang Zhong who was acting out of place at this moment, he was supposed to be saying some nice things, but now he was insisting on watching the video. What if they exaggerated a bit and were caught in the act? This was the future son-in-law of the big boss after all. Seeing an opportunity when no one was paying attention, Professor Zou pulled Huang Zhong a bit. Professor Huang turned his head and glared at Professor Zou. Professor Zou made a gesture, intending ¡®you dumb ass! I¡¯m giving you a hint and you still don¡¯t get it?¡¯. How did he endure working with someone like him for more than twenty years? ¡°We do have a video. We have retained the complete data of this patient.¡± Director Han guided everyone to the office. Professor Su praised, ¡°Hmm, very good, very scholarly to preserve clinical data.¡± He was praising the whole time. Experts from Affiliated Hospital Two, the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital, and experts from other places, had never seen Professor Su praise someone so much. In the teaching room, Little Five played the video on a high-definition screen. Whether the video was edited or not, insiders could tell at a glance. It was really just thirty-five minutes? And they used a chaos sequence operation for multiple injuries. This required extremely high courage and surgical skills. The chaos sequence was the most time-saving but also the most difficult. If it was him at the peak of his trauma surgery days, he probably wouldn¡¯t dare to use it. Maybe he would simulate it a bit post-operation, but who had ever used this chaos sequence in such a critical situation on site? ¡°Little Yang? That¡¯s impressive, you even used a chaos sequence operation.¡± ¡°We were short on time and it was too urgent, that method was faster, so I used that method without thinking too much.¡± ¡°Today I had my eyes opened.¡± said Professor Su: ¡°Old Huang, share your thoughts.¡± ¡°The surgery really only took thirty-five minutes, I can¡¯t do it that fast. Without three or four hours, I can¡¯t do it, I probably also need the assistance of general surgery and urological surgery.¡± ¡°As for chaos sequence operation, I wouldn¡¯t even think about it, let alone dare to think about it. It¡¯s okay to simulate it in the brain, but who would use it in reality? Gentlemen, I suppose none of you would dare to use it, right? In an emergency situation, to disrupt the order, this isn¡¯t something humans do.¡± If you want to say something, just say it, why resort to insults. A good word from Huang became offensive. Professor Zou immediately corrected: ¡°What Old Huang meant was, this isn¡¯t something ordinary people do.¡± Who was he insulting, the son-in-law of the big boss? Chapter 353: 0336: Gold Standard Chapter 353: Chapter 0336: Gold Standard After Professor Su and his team watched the video and visited Orthopedics, they left. The child, who came for free medical consultation in the teaching room and was suspected of having an osteoma, had already had his surgery. His father was pacing at the doorway to the doctor¡¯s office, upon seeing Little Five he asked: ¡°Doctor Lu, have the pathology test results come out yet?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t we tell you it would take three to five days? You¡¯ve asked me that seven or eight times already.¡± Little Five was a bit annoyed with him. The child¡¯s father thought for a moment and then said: ¡°Doctor Lu, can you expedite my son¡¯s examination? Everyone else is not as anxious, if just his examination can be expedited without affecting anything else, no one else will know.¡± Little Five was most annoyed with this kind of person who always thought their matters were always urgent, and didn¡¯t respect others¡¯ matters as important. This sort of person was also always cutting the line, thinking that since they were the only one, it wouldn¡¯t impact anyone else. ¡°It¡¯s not possible to expedite. These things can¡¯t be rushed. If we rush the pathologists, and they hastily review the results, would you be okay with inaccurate results?¡± Little Five handled it tactfully and refused him gently. The child¡¯s father was anxious, he pinched his trousers with one hand: ¡°This is so nerve-wracking. Do you think it¡¯s benign or malignant? What should we do if we have to wait so long?¡± ¡°If you knew this was going to happen, why didn¡¯t you bring your child earlier? Reading a few articles online doesn¡¯t make you a real doctor. Everyone can wait three to five days, why can¡¯t you?¡± The mother of the child also came over, as if ready to grasp his ear and drag him away. This couple was quite interesting. The husband was short and appeared timid, the wife tall and hearty, in terms of both physique and character, this couple was rather mismatched. If they were to quarrel at home, I suspect the wife could carry the husband around like a chicken, taking a few laps around the house without breaking a sweat. After being scolded by his wife, the husband returned to the ward in a downtrodden manner. The wife apologized to Little Five and then returned to the ward as well. Reminded by the question about pathology results, Song Zimo remembered that he had scheduled to visit the pathology department in the afternoon to look at Zhang Zhe¡¯s biopsy slides, he wanted to ask Yang Ping if they should go together. Yang Ping agreed to show everyone pathology slides, establishing it as a basic skill that all physicians in the department have to master. They wanted Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang to learn it first, so in the future, they would be able to interpret pathology slides as easily as x-rays. Some countries, such as the United States, require surgeons to carry out their own pathology examinations. Sometimes, when the chief surgeon excises a tumor, it is sent to the Pathology Department next to the operating room for frozen sectioning. The surgeon then removes his surgical gown, goes in person to the Pathology Department to examine the slide under a microscope, determines what type of tumor it is, then scrubs in again and selects the appropriate surgical procedure based on the pathology diagnosis. In China, pathology slides are always examined by pathologists; surgeons don¡¯t know how to interpret them and haven¡¯t received any specialized training in this regard. During their time in school, those few experimental pathology classes only served as a kind of experience. Therefore, in China, if there is a surgeon who can interpret pathology slides, he is truly a rare treasure. When everyone arrived at the pathology department, they were all busy: Gross Section, Micro Section, Immunohistochemistry. Only two people were in the doctor¡¯s office: Director Guan of the Pathology Department, and Director Shi, who had retired but had been re-hired. Director Shi was resting on the window side with sunglasses on while Director Guan was looking at something on his computer. As they entered, Director Guan looked up and recognized Song Zimo: ¡°Young Master Song, welcome! Won¡¯t you introduce us? This is Doctor Yang from your department, right?¡± Song Zimo was quite familiar with both Director Guan and Director Shi, as he often sought their guidance in examining pathology slides. He also often brought them gifts, like Maotai and the like during holidays, to keep them in good spirits. ¡°Director Guan, thanks for your efforts.¡± Yang Ping extended his hand toward Director Guan. Director Guan laughed and said: ¡°Don¡¯t mention it, we are normally detached from the other departments, dealing mostly with pathology slides all day, yet know very few people. Of course I know you, Doctor Yang. You are young and promising. You all came to see the pathology slides from the orthopedics cases, right? Today¡¯s specimens are still undergoing decalcification treatment, but the slides from a few days ago are ready for examination. I¡¯ll have someone find them so you can have a look.¡± ¡°Director Shi, are you admiring the beauty of the outside world with your shades on?¡± Song Zimo joked with Director Shi. Director Shi waved his hand: ¡°I¡¯ve been under the microscope for so long that now just a slightly stronger light hurts my eyes. For a few years now, if it¡¯s a sunny day outside, I have to wear sunglasses. Starting this year, I¡¯ve resorted to wearing them indoors too. I can¡¯t stand even the direct light of a lamp, my eyes keep tearing up.¡± ¡°After Director Shi finishes this month, he won¡¯t be working here anymore, he¡¯s retiring.¡± Director Guan explained. Director Shi said: ¡°I can¡¯t carry on anymore. My eyes are the issue. If not for them, I¡¯d want to work for a few more years.¡± Being in the pathology department was indeed lonely and without much financial perks. A bunch of doctors spent their day looking at slides under the microscope. One doctor had to look at approximately three to four hundred slides every day and didn¡¯t get a spare moment even to take a loo break. However, at places like Nandu Cancer Hospital, a national cancer hospital, the situation for the pathology department was much better. Some patients wishing for a more skillful doctor to privately review their pathological slides would have to give a little something extra. It wasn¡¯t too expensive. The doctors would charge a service fee of a few hundred bucks, just to aid in looking at the slides. There was no help for it, the pathology department was really poor. With a salary of just a few thousand per month, it was impossible to make ends meet without doing some private gigs. If a patient follows the standard process and has pathological tissue sections done elsewhere, top hospitals would likely not help in examining them. They can¡¯t even handle reviewing their own, let alone others¡¯? The so-called pathological diagnosis is theoretically the gold standard for tumors. However, whether this ¡°gold¡± is pure gold or gold-plated, there can be different interpretations, after all, it depends on human inspection to read pathological tissue sections. After looking at them, determining what kind of tumor it is, whether it¡¯s benign or malignant, and if malignant, what stage it¡¯s at, all rely on human knowledge and experience. Therefore, there is also a possibility of error. This probability is extremely low, but it exists. Typical and simple cases are usually fine. If one encounters complicated or atypical cases, misjudgments might occur. It is not unheard of for non-cancerous conditions to be misdiagnosed as cancer. Many patients, when diagnosed with malignant tumors at grassroots hospitals, refuse to accept it. Their family members approach the doctors in charge to try to get their pathological sections examined at top-ranked national hospitals. For a few hundred dollars, they seek a private consultation with a pathological specialist in hopes of finding peace of mind. The chances of misdiagnosis are not high, but they are present. There have been patients diagnosed with malignant tumors who, upon re-examination at a top tier hospital, found out what they had were inflammations. After being treated for inflammations for a while, they recovered. Director Shi used to be a renowned pathology specialist at Nandu Medical University Cancer Hospital. After retirement, he was hired by Sanbo Hospital. At this moment, a hospital staff member is trying to reach out to Director Shi through Director Guan to ask for a private consultation regarding a relative¡¯s tissue section. Director Shi waved his hand dismissively: ¡°No, I won¡¯t look at it. I won¡¯t look, no matter whose relative it is.¡± Not long ago, a patient¡¯s relative asked Director Shi to look at a tissue section, giving him five hundred yuan. This was recorded and photographed. After Director Shi had taken a look, the patient¡¯s relative submitted the video to the hospital¡¯s discipline inspection office, demanding the return of the five hundred yuan, accusing the doctor of accepting payments privately. This incident infuriated the old man. He decided to refuse to look at anymore, regardless of who the relatives were. During the short time they were sitting there, dozens of specimens from the operating room have been sent to the check room. The sample bags contained removed tumors, parts of livers, stomachs, and intestines. All sorts of things are present. On the sampling table, there were a few clean chopping boards, along with neatly arranged tools such as rulers, scissors, and tweezers. The doctors, wearing gloves, were cutting the tumor into sections on the chopping boards. Surgeons take things out of the human body, and these things are called specimens. They are sent to the pathology department, where the objects go through more than a dozen procedures such as cleaning, fixing, sampling, dehydration, wax soaking, embedding, sectioning, and staining. Only then can a pathological section be made. This pathological section can be placed under a microscope for examination and pathological diagnosis, forming a verdict on the disease. For typical cases, the diagnosis made by a doctor will have to be audited by the lead doctor. If it¡¯s a difficult case, the department¡¯s experts will have to discuss it. Everyone comes to look, and only then is the final diagnosis given, to prevent any miscarriage of justice. ¡°General Surgery sent a specimen and they want to do a frozen section. I need to go take a look. The pathological section for Zhang Zhe, I¡¯ve got someone to find it. You guys can go to the check room to look at it, I need to go.¡± ¡°You go ahead,¡± Yang Ping said to Director Guan. ¡°Teacher Shi, can you come and take a look with me?¡± A frozen section is a rapid pathological diagnosis. The results need to come out within fifteen minutes, requiring doctors with extremely high diagnostic skills. Director Guan asked Director Shi to take a look too, since it would be safer. Theoretically, pathological diagnoses must be 100 percent accurate, without a single error. Even though his eyes weren¡¯t good, Director Shi showed no intention of refusing. He took off his sunglasses, rubbed his eyes, and followed Director Guan out. The surgeon is still waiting in the operation room, waiting for the pathology results to decide on the next steps for the surgery. If it¡¯s benign, surgery can be concluded. If it¡¯s malignant, based on the pathology results, the surgery might need to be expanded, for example, to clear the lymph nodes. Once they¡¯re in the check room, Zhang Zhe¡¯s pathological section was already under the microscope. Yang Ping let everyone else look first, and Song Zimo sat down to take a peek. Under the 400x microscope, the bone tissues on the paraffin section were clearly visible. Osteocytes, osteogenic cells, osteoblasts, osteoclasts, bone matrix; Song Zimo examined each cell. When examining pathological sections, patience is needed. No doubts can be overlooked, and conclusions should not be drawn rashly. Any negligence, a single misdiagnosis, can ruin a patient¡¯s life. Chapter 354: 0337: The Omnipotent Chapter 354: Chapter 0337: The Omnipotent Zhang Zhe, the child, actually suffers from chronic osteomyelitis. Chronic osteomyelitis doesn¡¯t require a pathological examination for diagnosis. A clear diagnosis can be made based on the patient¡¯s medical history, physical examination, and radiological examination. However, any organs and tissues removed during surgery need to undergo a pathological examination ¨C this is standard medical practice. Song Zimo took this opportunity to study the pathological manifestations of this rare focal chronic osteomyelitis and to determine whether the surgery truly completely removed the diseased tissues. To this end, Song Zimo asked the Pathology Department for assistance, and they made dozens of pathological slides from the entire bone fragment that was removed. This allowed for a detailed observation of the entire bone fragment. Under the microscope, the pathological slides displayed a sandwich-style appearance resembling concentric circles. The necrotic bone was in the center, surrounded by the infected bone tissue, and the outermost ring was normal bone tissue. Under a high magnification microscope, the visual field looked like an abstract painting. In the necrotic and infected bone tissues, a small number of infiltrated lymphocytes were observable, which was not the case in the normal bone tissue. From viewing these dozens of pathological slides, each slide had the same sandwich-like structure. Which means that Yang Ping¡¯s precise judgment based on the patient¡¯s radiographic images and the planning for the diameter of the ream drill used during the surgery, allowed for a successful one-time surgery that completely removed the problematic bone tissue. Even robotic surgery couldn¡¯t achieve such precision, because no robotic tool can replace the clinical judgment of the chief surgeon before surgery. The robot is merely a passive tool. After examining the slides, Song Zimo admitted that his eyes became uncomfortable after a while. He asked Xu Zhiliang to take over and recommended Takahashi to get ready. Throughout the system-assisted examination training in the system space, Yang Ping had undergone rigorous training in looking at pathological slides. Not only examining the pathological slides, but he was also proficient in creating them as he had personally performed every step of the process. Given his experience, he now wanted to pass on his knowledge to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, hoping they too could understand how to interpret pathological slides. He hoped that one day, they would surpass the expertise of specialists in the Pathology Department. Xu Zhiliang had significantly less experience with pathological slides than Song Zimo. It was limited to some he had seen during his PhD studies when conducting experiments and rarely encountered after his clinical training. Xu Zhiliang settled at his workstation to examine the pathological slides while Takahashi sat beside him, waiting for his turn. Song Zimo received a call from Tang Fei. She, along with Fujiwara Miyuki, were already at the entrance to the Pathology Department and requested to come in to watch. During this period, Fujiwara Miyuki became quite close with Tang Fei. She was eager for the chance to learn from Yang Ping and gain exposure to more advanced technology. Song Zimo went out to bring them in. They sat quietly on the side and Fujiwara Miyuki greeted Yang Ping, who responded with a smile. The examination room was quiet except for the occasional sound of someone getting up to use the restroom. They quickly returned to their workstations and continued examining the pathological slides without rest. Tasks that were not finished in a day would accumulate, causing even more work the following day. The Pathology Department was difficult to staff. It proved challenging to find people who preferred Pathology over clinical practice as their medical speciality. Thus, the competition in the Pathology Department of big hospitals was not as intense as it was in clinical departments, where those without a doctorate degree would hardly get a chance to apply. Even Master¡¯s degree graduates could find opportunities in the Pathology Department. A young doctor suddenly stood up, ¡°Have you seen Director Guan or Director Shi?¡± ¡°They should be checking the frozen sections next door. A few more samples just came in for freezing.¡± Another doctor responded. ¡°Can you help me take a look at this kid¡¯s case? There shouldn¡¯t be any problems, right?¡± The young doctor asked another senior doctor for help. The senior doctor went over and helped him for a while and then said, ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem to be a problem, but I¡¯m not sure. Let¡¯s wait for the two directors to come over and discuss.¡± Yang Ping was resting on the side, he heard the doctor¡¯s dilemma and offered purely technical help: ¡°Can I help you take a look?¡± The senior doctor looked up at Yang Ping, somewhat skeptical: ¡°Could you take a look?¡± He was just curious. Could this orthopedic doctor actually interpret pathological slides? Especially those concerning gastric pathologies? He did not raise his hopes. The senior doctor gave up his seat, Yang Ping sat down, looked for a while, and said, ¡°Esophageal squamous epithelium infiltrated with lymphocytes, it is likely Crohn¡¯s disease. Are there slides of other parts? If the biopsy of the gastroscopy and enteroscopy shows similar changes, it can be diagnosed as Crohn¡¯s disease.¡± Those pathologists who were focused on their work all lifted their heads, as did Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Takahashi, Tang Fei, and Fujiwara Miyuki, looking at Yang Ping. ¡°Why are all of you looking at me? It¡¯s just the way it is. The infiltration of lymphocytes in the squamous epithelium of the esophagus is a mild manifestation of Crohn¡¯s disease in the esophageal mucosa. Are there slides of other parts of the digestive tract? Shall I help you take a look?¡± Yang Ping was surprised to have attracted so many eyes. An orthopedic doctor sitting in the examination room of the Pathology Department, directing other pathologists on reading the slides ¨C it was pretty normal that the senior doctor with ten years of experience was surprised. The senior doctor was stunned for a while, then picked two slides from a big box and handed them to Yang Ping. Yang Ping put the slides under the microscope, one by one, and then said, ¡°Focal amplified gastritis in the gastric mucosa, with focal active inflammation in the terminal ileum mucosa. There is no doubt, it can be diagnosed as Crohn¡¯s disease.¡± At this point, Director Guan and Director Shi entered the room. The young doctor shared his confusion with both of the directors. After all, Director Shi was tremendously experienced, and he was always the one to turn to when encountering difficult cases. ¡°Maybe you should rest for a bit, Dr. Shi,¡± Director Guan suggested sympathetically. Director Shi had just looked through several cryostat sections, his eyes red from strain. ¡°It¡¯s okay. Let me take a look.¡± Dr. Shi insisted steadfastly. Yang Ping gave up his seat and the old director sat down. He examined all three slides thoroughly before speaking: ¡°There are infiltrates of lymphocytes seen within the squamous epithelium in the esophagus, chronic gastritis characterized by irritations in gastric mucosa, focal active inflammation in the mucosa at the terminal ileum... it¡¯s Crohn¡¯s disease!¡± The old director looked up and put on his sunglasses: ¡°The pathological changes in this case were very subtle and could easily go unnoticed by most people. But I was taught by my mentors during my time as a visiting scholar in the United States. Make a note of this set of slides, it would be good to arrange a session for me to explain them to everyone.¡± The pathologists present immediately looked at Yang Ping again, this time with admiration. He had only looked at one slide and had deduced the pathological characteristics of the other two slides, providing the most probable diagnosis. After examining the remaining two slides, he made a definitive diagnosis in just two minutes. As pathologists, they were in awe of his ability to capture images under the microscope. A doctor from orthopedics looking at pathology slides was outperforming the actual pathologists, and he was even looking at gastroenterological slides. They felt utterly outdone. Song Zimo was also amazed. Had he not invited him down to examine the pathology slides today, he would have not known that Yang Ping was so proficient at it. His skills seemed too multifaceted! ¡°Dr. Yang, the orthopedic doctor, mentioned earlier that it was Crohn¡¯s Disease, but I didn¡¯t believe it,¡± said the senior doctor. ¡°Oh?¡± Director Shi was astonished. He stood up, picked up two glass slides from the box, and placed one under the microscope: ¡°Could you take a look, Dr. Yang?¡± Should he, or shouldn¡¯t he? Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to seem discourteous. Despite whether it was an honest request for help, or a test, he felt he couldn¡¯t refuse. Sitting at the microscope, he diagnosed: ¡°Serrated polyposis syndrome (SPS)!¡± Director Shi immediately switched to another slide for Yang Ping. Yang Ping quickly diagnosed again: ¡°Pan-cell metaplasia.¡± ¡°The quality of the slide isn¡¯t good. We can only see a cross-section. If we could see the whole mucous membrane, that would be better,¡± Yang Ping added. Director Shi removed his sunglasses: ¡°Young man, it would be a waste if you¡¯re not pursuing pathology. Diagnosing the serrated pattern in the colon adenoma and seeing the Pan-cell metaplasia from a cross-section, these are the things that national pathology experts would be impressed with. Indeed, the quality of the slides are lacking. With high-quality endoscopic biopsy specimens, we can see the whole mucous membrane layer by layer. But we often can¡¯t obtain those. Serrated pattern in the colon adenoma and Pan-cell metaplasia are identified by observing the base of the crypt. In cases where we cannot observe the changes at the base of the crypt, a general doctor would struggle to make a diagnosis.¡± Turning to all the pathologists present, Director Shi said, ¡°The quality of a pathology slide has a very important impact on the diagnosis. In order to make a satisfactory tissue section, every step of specimen collection, embedding, slicing, staining, and encapsulation must meet very high standards.¡± ¡°When I was a visiting scholar at MIT¡¯s Pathology Department, their endoscopic biopsy specimens allowed us to see the entire mucous membrane structure. Compared with that, the cross-sections we often see in our endoscopic biopsies are of lower quality.¡± ¡°This made me realize that the reason we don¡¯t often diagnose serrated polyposis of the colon (SSP) or often see Pan-cell metaplasia, an important diagnosis in inflammatory bowel disease, is not due to a spectrum of diseases, but rather the quality of the slides.¡± Of course, it¡¯s partly due to the lack of advanced machines and equipment, but the more important issue is professional spirit and professional attitude. A perfect tissue section is extremely important. Not only is it pleasant to look at, but the pathological changes are clearly visible, ensuring the quality of the pathological diagnosis to the greatest extent.¡± ¡°Young man, what do you think the problem with this slide is? How can it be improved?¡± Director Shi asked Yang Ping, wanting to know the extent of his understanding. Yang Ping could only objectively point out: ¡°The specimen curled during dehydration in the manufacturing process. The tissue wasn¡¯t arranged vertically during embedding. The color scheme in the Hematoxylin and Eosin staining was not harmonious. There were air pockets and resin overflow in the encapsulation. If these issues could be improved, it would be better.¡± Director Shi almost clapped his hands: ¡°You¡¯ve said it very well. For instance, if the color scheme in the Hematoxylin and Eosin staining is perfectly coordinated, lymphocyte infiltrates in the epithelium could be accurately identified under a low magnification microscope. You wouldn¡¯t even have to struggle over identifying them under high magnification. When you embed the tissue, making sure all of the tissue is arranged upright like soldiers in formation can ensure complete cross-sections.¡± ¡°Young man, have you worked in pathology before?¡± Director Shi was curious about how he had acquired so much knowledge. Yang Ping didn¡¯t mean to show off. He just wanted to share what he knew with everyone. That way, everyone could improve and do better next time. The hardest part was explaining: ¡°During my studies, I had a particular interest in pathology, hence, I studied it very diligently.¡± It was not only that he could read pathology slides, but he was also very familiar with the process of making pathology slides. He could easily identify the flaws on a slide and where the problem might have occurred during its production. This was more than just having interest. If we judge intelligence with scores up to 200, Takahashi initially imagined Dr. Yang¡¯s score starting at 160. But now he felt that Dr. Yang¡¯s intelligence was onto breaking the 200 score limit. His professional systematic pathology training couldn¡¯t compete with Yang Ping¡¯s occasional interest. Looking at Yang Ping sitting there, calm and composed, Fujiwara Miyuki suddenly had a feeling that Yang Ping was hiding some sort of loneliness. Perhaps this was the loneliness that comes with being a genius and having to walk a path that others can¡¯t follow. Chapter 355: 0338: The Final Judgment Chapter 355: Chapter 0338: The Final Judgment A week passed quickly, and over the weekend, Yang Ping performed over a dozen surgeries at the Li Quan Hospital. On Monday, Yang Ping agreed with Director Tian to go to the court to attend Director Zhu¡¯s hearing, just as they were leaving, Boss Cheng called again. A CEO had attempted to climb Mount Everest in Tibet, but he hadn¡¯t even started climbing when he tripped at the base, injuring his knee. He wanted to be treated at Li Quan Hospital. Usually, this CEO enjoyed mountain climbing and took many photos every time he ascended Mount Everest to cultivate an adventurous masculine image. He had a strong backup team that would pull and carry him up the mountain. By playing often, one easily becomes illusioned. This time, the CEO thought he could handle it on his own, gathering several CEOs with the same hobby, intending to have a real attempt. However, just as they were about to start their ascent, a stone caused the CEO to trip, resulting in a heavy fall, and his left knee swelled severely. A friend recommended him to Li Quan Hospital in G City, where he could get quick treatment from a specialist surgeon, Luo Jin. Even if he chartered a flight from Tibet, he couldn¡¯t possibly arrive in the morning. Yang Ping and Director Tian hurriedly rushed to the court. When they arrived, the spectator stands were already occupied, and both Director Zhu and Wang Ge were also in their spots. On the plaintiff¡¯s bench to the left of the judge¡¯s seat, there were Director Zhu and his attorney. Director Zhu seemed calm, as if waiting for a regular company meeting. On the right, the defendant¡¯s bench, Wang Ge was hunched in his chair with a wheelchair next to him, his substitute attorney was frantically browsing through documents. His previous attorney had rejected representing Wang Ge in court, and he had to find another at the last moment. Wang Ge was in poor mental state, his eyes bloodshot and his face covered in papules of different sizes. His breathing was erratic, and the entire man exuded an explosive aura, as though he could lose control and explode at any moment. This case had been dragged on for five years from the first to the second trial, with the court leading over a dozen investigations. During the numerous hearings, Wang Ge had challenged the surgery appraisal done by the expert panel from the Nandu Province Health Department for Zhu Cheng, suspecting favoritism among professionals, the media also followed this trend. The court invited two expert groups from other provinces to conduct a second appraisal of the surgery. Both groups independently concluded that the entire diagnostic and treatment process was normal and did not in any way violate any medical standards. The surgery performed by Zhu Cheng was a conventional colostomy, a commonly used procedure for abdominal intestinal injuries and considering the condition of the patient, the procedure was necessary. There were no incidents of abdominal ruptures or extruding feces post-surgery. Wang Ge refused to admit to spreading false news about the surgery. A thorough investigation was carried out on the news article, verifying each detail meticulously. The final conclusion was that the article was a complete fake. The court clerk was well prepared. The presiding judge, accompanied by two other judges wearing robes, walked in. After taking their seats, they didn¡¯t speak. The presiding judge lifted his mallet and banged it on the table. As the gavel struck the table, there was a hush from the crowd. The court was officially in session. This was the final hearing to announce the judgment of the second trial. The judge had a serious expression, flipping open the judgment and began to read aloud: ¡°¡ª The defendant, as a veteran journalist, should have a thorough and clear understanding of the professional conduct and principles of journalism. However, when the defendant was reporting the plaintiff¡¯s surgery involved in this case, he did not uphold an objective and fair journalistic principle, failing to accurately reflect the truth. Despite the plaintiff¡¯s repeated communication with and cautioning of the defendant, the defendant not only failed to correct his mistake, but he also continued to publish reports contrary to the facts, severely infringing the plaintiff¡¯s right to reputation ¡ª¡± The judgment was over fifty pages long and contained more than thirty thousand words. Every single word was a testament to the hard work of the court staff. Every detail could withstand the scrutiny of history, and this judgment would go into the annals of law. The presiding judge read out the fifty-page judgment in a clear and loud voice. The final judgment was that defendant Wang Ge had infringed upon the plaintiff Zhu Cheng¡¯s right to reputation. He was to apologize to Zhu Cheng in court and in a newspaper, and compensate Zhu Cheng thirty thousand RMB for the damage to his reputation. After five years, justice was finally served. When Director Zhu heard the final verdict, he was overwhelmed with emotions, experiencing a mix of feelings. A few years had passed ¡ª a period he didn¡¯t want to remember! He had been burdened with the infamy of being an unscrupulous and incompetent doctor who disregarded the value of life. He was forced to leave his beloved job, and his decade-long efforts were in vain as he has to start from scratch. Wang Ge leaned back into his chair, his eyes closed, looking rather haggard. The sound of the judge¡¯s gavel reminded him to apologize in court and to publish his apology in the newspaper within a specified period, as well as to make the financial compensation. However, Wang Ge pretended not to hear, not responding. Nobody can wake a person who is pretending to be asleep. Wang Ge knew that this verdict was final. The outcome of the lawsuit with Zhu Cheng had been determined. The unruly approach no longer worked. He resorted to playing dumb. He did not object to the verdict neither did he create a scene in court. By playing mute, what could be done against him? ¡°The defendant¡ª¡± The judge reminded him again. ¡°My client is currently in poor physical health and unable to express himself verbally.¡± Wang Ge¡¯s attorney immediately explained to the judge. ¡°According to the Answers to Several Issues Concerning the Trial of Reputation Rights Cases issued by the Supreme People¡¯s Court on August 7, 1993, if the person who violated the law refuses to carry out the effective judgment and does not restore the reputations for others and eliminate the impact, the People¡¯s Court can adopt measures such as announcements and newspaper advertisements to publicize the main contents of the judgment and related matters. The expenses shall be borne by the person to be executed!¡± The judge said sternly. Chapter 356: 0338: The Final Judgment_2 Chapter 356: Chapter 0338: The Final Judgment_2 ¡°Court is adjourned!¡± Along with the sound of the gavel, the three judges and the clerk all stood up and left the courtroom one after the other. The five-year trial had finally concluded with Zhu Cheng¡¯s victory. The law had defended justice and fairness for Zhu Cheng, but the price he had already paid could not be recovered. Everyone began to leave the courtroom. Director Tian and Yang Ping accompanied Director Zhu. Director Zhu¡¯s mood was very stable, and Wang Ge was wheeled out in a wheelchair. The one pushing him was a young man in his twenties, bearing a strong resemblance to Wang Ge. He may be his younger brother, cousin or some other relative. Director Zhu and Wang Ge encountered each other at the court entrance, stopping three meters apart from each other. Director Zhu smiled at him, then walked over briskly. One hand grabbed the back handle of Wang Ge¡¯s wheelchair. Wang Ge instinctively avoided his grasp, ¡°What are you trying to do, this is the entrance of the court!¡± ¡°No need to panic, Mr. Wang the reporter, I just want to have a few words with you and thank you in person.¡± Director Zhu moved the young man aiding Wang Ge¡¯s wheelchair to the side. Wang Ge said to the young man, ¡°Go wait over there, I¡¯m fine.¡± Director Zhu held the handles of the wheelchair with both hands and kept pushing Wang Ge along a considerable distance till they reached a secluded area fifty meters away. ¡°Honestly, I really wanted to thank you. As you may know, I¡¯m now a vice president of a company, with an annual salary of five million. I enjoy paid leave of more than a month a year, work five days a week, only six hours a day. Both I and my family enjoy generous medical insurance, plus at least two public-funded trips lasting up to fifteen days each year. If it weren¡¯t for you, I could never have dreamed of having such a life. Don¡¯t you think I should be thankful for you?¡± Wang Ge turned his head to look at Director Zhu, and Director Zhu instantly rotated the wheelchair so that they could face each other, ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that. I am genuinely thankful. You are the one who step by step brought me to where I am today. You should be my benefactor. Over there, see that Audi A8? It was here to pick me up. For today¡¯s trial, my secretary and driver have been waiting by the door the whole time. Without your help, how could I be here today?¡± ¡°You¡ª¡± The muscles on Wang Ge¡¯s face twitched, crowding together and creating a grotesque twist. He wanted to say something, but couldn¡¯t squeeze out a single word. ¡°I really want to know, how can your heart be so dark that you could write such an article, and even when I warned you multiple times that it was false and it was infringing on my reputation, you acted as though you heard nothing. You were prepared to do anything to achieve fame, even destroy others and ignore their pain and survival? Is this your life philosophy?¡± ¡°Enough! So what if it is? Look at yourself; have you ever suffered hardship in your life? Have you ever had to study while working labor jobs? Have you ever had to only sleep four hours a day in order to attend university? Have you ever been mocked at university for not being able to afford a good set of clothes? Have you watched the woman you loved go into another man¡¯s arms? I worked hard to get into university, and after graduation I managed to settle in a big city, but what then? Even the woman I love looked down on me. I want to prove myself, want to show that I¡¯m no less than anyone else. Is that wrong? Don¡¯t I have the right to be famous?¡± Wang Ge was extremely agitated, trying to stand from the wheelchair several times, but his paralysis made it impossible. Yang Ping, Director Tian, Director Zhu¡¯s secretary and driver, and Wang Ge¡¯s follower, all rushed over to them. ¡°Bro, what happened?¡± It turned out that his company really was his younger brother. ¡°I¡¯m fine, don¡¯t come over here.¡± Wang Ge yelled. Director Zhu waved his hand, signaling Director Tian, Yang Ping, and the others not to come over. They had stuff to talk about. Director Zhu was not as agitated as Wang Ge. He remained very calm, ¡°I also come from poverty, even poorer than you. I have always been grateful in my heart. Grateful for the college entrance exam that gave me the opportunity to realize my dreams, grateful for the student loan that allowed me to complete my studies, grateful for the help I¡¯ve received from teachers, classmates, relatives, and friends along the way. What¡¯s wrong with coming from poverty? Many industry leaders come from humble beginnings, they have never had such extreme views like you. They work hard, step by step approaching the peak of their careers. But you, your eyes are always filled with grievances, as if the world owes you. Look at yourself? You¡¯re filled with hostility.¡± Wang Ge fell silent, breathing heavily. Director Zhu¡¯s voice also became quieter, ¡°There¡¯s one more thing I want to tell you, do you know who donated blood to save your life when you had a car accident in Shipo?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care who it was. Donating blood is a civic duty, there¡¯s no need to be grateful.¡± Wang Ge said coldly. ¡°You¡¯re wrong, donating blood is a voluntary action, not a civic duty. Let me tell you, I was the one who donated blood to save you. If I hadn¡¯t, you might already be dead.¡± Director Zhu corrected Wang Ge. Wang Ge was startled for a moment, then turned to look at Director Zhu. As their eyes met, he immediately looked away, ¡°What a joke, you¡¯re saying all this to get me to thank you? So that I will apologize to you? That¡¯s impossible. Even without your blood donation, I could have lived on because I have a strong will to live.¡± Wang Ge said scornfully. Director Zhu shook his head, ¡°No, I¡¯ve never thought of getting you to thank me. Do you know why I saved you?¡± ¡°You¡¯re just being hypocritical¡ª¡± Wang Ge said scornfully. ¡°Actually, I hesitated at that time, wondering whether I should save you or not. But then I thought, no matter from which angle, I should save you. If you realized your mistakes, repented and started anew, started to do something meaningful for society, I should save you. If you were obstinate, continuing to harm others, I should also save you. You should live and accept punishment step by step!¡± ¡°You?¡ª¡± Wang Ge pointed at Director Zhu. ¡°Alright, don¡¯t always be so agitated, like the whole society owes you something. Go rest well when you get home, life is still long. Next, your press card should be revoked, and you¡¯re likely to lose your job. Soon, like me, you will face the difficult problem of changing jobs. Think well about what you should do next.¡± ¡°Lastly, I¡¯ll leave you with this: don¡¯t bully honest people¡ªgoodbye!¡± Director Zhu walked away quickly, said his goodbyes to Yang Ping, Director Tian, and thanked everyone for their help. The Audi A8 was parked not far away, the assistant opened the door and waited by the side. Director Zhu got into the car and made a goodbye gesture to Wang Ge. Wang Ge sat in his wheelchair, his hands furiously hitting the armrests. As his whole body twitched uncontrollably due to rage, the wheelchair toppled over. His younger brother ran over, helped him up, and held him in his arms. Chapter 357 - 0339: Hidden Trap Chapter 357 - 0339: Hidden Trap All was progressing steadily. Old Cheng had just inspected the new wards and was very satisfied with the renovation. Dean Cai was indeed dependable. The doctors and nurses sent to Singapore were already receiving training at Elizabeth Novena Hospital. The original plan didn''t have the training scheduled this early, it was at least three months later. Everything changed after Yang Ping''s trip to Malaysia and his meeting with Doctor Lin. Elizabeth Novena Hospital also belongs to the Baihui Group. Doctor Lin has a close personal relationship with the owner of Baihui Group. Upon hearing that Boss Cheng wanted to send people for training, Doctor Lin quickly made arrangements, and thus the plan was moved ahead. The team there mainly learns about service delivery, focusing on high-end client care. It''s not just about the beautiful wards, but about genuinely superior service. Just like the famous saying by Lexus: a technician who only repairs cars is not qualified. "To serve customers with sincere hearts" "Right+Kindness=Trust" Boss Cheng does not like Japan, but he appreciates these phrases. The question of service involves allowing the patient to feel cared for, on top of getting things right. With Yang Ping''s unparalleled skills, if perfect service could be provided, Li Quan Hospital would have no rivals in the high-end medical market in G City and southern China. With access to Yang Ping''s talents, there''s no reason the hospital cannot prosper. Whatever challenges come their way, they can crush them as easily as crushing an ant. Huang Jiacai knocked on the door. He had delivered a batch of goods today and Boss Cheng needed to sign for them. They both operated under the same benefactor and saw each other quite often, so they were familiar with each other. "Come in, President Huang. Not too busy? Sit down, let''s chat." Old Cheng signed the papers and waved Huang Jiacai over to sit down. Old Cheng considered Huang Jiacai a clever and far-sighted man and liked conversing with him. "Boss Cheng, I''ve already distributed all the goods for this month. And there will be regular replenishments. For urgent needs, just make a call and it''ll be delivered to the operating room within fifteen minutes," explained Huang Jiacai. Huang Jiacai had just hired a few new employees and set up a warehouse near Li Quan Hospital, staffing it with two twenty-four-hour employees to be in charge of delivering and receiving goods. President Huang''s main clients in G City were Sanbo Hospital, Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, and Li Quan Hospital. These three hospitals had a monthly goods turnover exceeding three million, a figure that was continually rising. He set up a warehouse at each hospital, supervised by dedicated staff twenty-four hours a day. The warehouse layout, workflow, and service norms were all personally designed by Huang Jiacai. President Huang bought two new Wuling vans and standardized the delivery processes. The new employees underwent training and were paid more than the average worker. Having just replaced the tea and water, he took out three cups from the boiling water: "Our tea-drinking habit calls for three cups." As soon as the tea started to get warm, Old Cheng poured a cup and put it in front of Huang Jiacai: "Brother, I''ll get straight to the point. We are all friends of Doctor Yang and depend on the same benefactor. I need some advice on hospital operation. I''m determined to become the top player in the high-end medical market in G City." The Guizhou people were not used to the tea-drinking habit of the Chaoshan people ¡ª a small cup with barely a sip of tea and one has to sip it in small quantities ¡ª it was a hassle. "Boss Cheng, have some confidence. G City? National! And why not global!" Huang Jiacai took a few sips and tasted a small amount. Not bad. "Are you pulling my leg, global?" Old Cheng thought he was joking. "You''re talking about taking meals together under the same tree, but you''re squandering all this. Doctor Yang is helping you so much, and you''re talking about becoming the top player in G City? Are you playing house?" Huang Jiacai knew Boss Cheng was generous, so he spoke bluntly. "What do you mean?" "Global!" "Do you truly believe this?" "Boss Cheng? Could we switch to a bigger cup?" The tea had cooled down, and Huang Jiacai accidentally drank it all in one sip. "Oh, sorry. Here." Old Cheng immediately found a larger cup from the sterilizing cabinet and poured another cup of tea into it. "Boss Cheng, you''re moving too slowly and you''re too cautious. If this hospital is to achieve greatness in the future, I have two suggestions for you: Change the name of the hospital from Li Quan Hospital and alter the equity structure inviting Doctor Yang to hold shares." This was sincere advice from Huang Jiacai. Boss Cheng hesitated for a moment: "In all honesty, I''ve already offered him twenty percent of the shares, but he refused, saying he didn''t want to venture into business." "Propose it to him a few more times, emphasize that you will manage the hospital and he will only perform surgeries. Highlight your ambition to transform the hospital into a world-class institution." Huang Jiacai reminded him. "Will that work?" Boss Cheng half-doubted. Huang Jiacai nodded: "You need to make him believe you are a person of capability and ambition. The modest goal you just mentioned, of becoming the top player in G City? That''s child''s play. You''re not catching up with Doctor Yang''s pace. Also, offering a twenty percent share is too little. At the moment, this proportion seems relatively suitable as you shouldn''t give too much at once. In the future, you need to gradually decrease your ownership while increasing Doctor Yang''s, and I don''t care how much you need to hold onto, Doctor Yang should hold at least fifty-one percent, giving him absolute control." "Twenty percent is not small. By your logic, won''t I end up relinquishing my hospital?" Boss Cheng was a bit confused. "Would you rather be the boss of a roast goose shop across the street or the second boss of Alibaba?" Huang Jiacai asked Old Cheng. "Of course, I would prefer being the second boss of Alibaba!" "That''s right." Boss Cheng looked up, suddenly enlightened: "President Huang, your advice has just opened up my mind in an instant. My friend, you are a talent. Drop by often in the future. How much stock do we have this time?" Chapter 358 - 0339 Hidden Trap_2 Chapter 358 - 0339 Hidden Trap_2 "One million." "That''s not enough! The wards are full, there''s a queue of people waiting for surgery, so add another million." "Is that fair? Will it encroach on others'' shares?" "Of course, it will. If I say it''s okay, then it''s okay." "It will be done immediately." After a few cups of tea, an additional one million was immediately added for purchase, which truly pleased Huang Jiacai. Although Huang Jiacai was the manager of a small company, he had a good mind. He truly was an expert. Boss Cheng said enthusiastically, "President Huang, if you think highly of your brother Cheng, you should visit often. This big cup is reserved for you." The two men drank tea, one in a small cup, the other in a large cup. It was an interesting scene. "Huang, my brother, if you need help, just say it. In G City''s medical circle, your brother Cheng still has some influence. I know a few people." Boss Cheng was very generous. Huang Jiacai understood his generosity: "There will be many times in the future when I will need Brother Cheng''s help." Huang Jiacai couldn''t stay long as President Wang was hurrying over from Shanghai, and he had to pick him up from the airport. On the way back, Huang Jiahui drove a Mercedes E300. Several years ago, Wang Jiachai had made some money working for President Wang, so he had both a car and a house. Huang Jiacai sat in the back seat conversing with President Wang and handed him a bottle of mineral water with the cap loosened. President Wang took a sip of water: "Jiachai, the company is currently preparing to go public. Once it does, don''t worry, I won''t treat you unfairly. The shares I promised you will be fully given to you. The betting agreement is about to expire, and the higher-ups are not satisfied with our market share. They can only start from your side. The company wants to appoint you as the sales manager of South China and you''ll be responsible for the entire South China region. If you do well in South China, the position of marketing director will be yours in the future. President Jia''s capability is questionable, and if not for President Wei being his classmate, he wouldn''t hold that position." "Your biggest competitor now is Johnson & Johnson, and you must defeat them no matter what. Let me remind you again, the company needs impressive market data to go public, and you''re the only one who can complete this task. Gan Fengyi from Johnson & Johnson''s South China region is a famous figure in the medical device sector. When Johnson & Johnson first entered G City, the market was firmly controlled by companies like Shi Lehui and Jiemai. They''ve replaced several sales managers, but they couldn''t seize any market. When Gan Fengyi took over, these companies couldn''t fight back. They repeatedly lost markets like Fuer and the provincial hospital. Like this, Gan Fengyi managed to push Johnson & Johnson''s market share in South China to rank first. Don''t underestimate her, Gan Fengyi is not just an ordinary woman; she''s incredibly smart and extremely ruthless." As a matter of fact, Huang Jiacai admired this woman greatly. Despite having a small dispute with her, he later encountered her on the road and helped her change a tire. Gan Fengyi had even treated Huang Jiacai and his sister to a meal. Snatching food from this woman''s hands is a difficult task, even more difficult than pulling a tooth out of a tiger''s mouth. This time, Huang Jiacai really felt like he had run into trouble. "If you need support from the headquarters, whether it''s manpower or money, they''ll provide full support. If something comes up, directly communicate with me. Performance is currently the company''s top priority. If we encounter obstacles in getting listed and lose the bet, our company will be ruined overnight." "President Wang, don''t you find this matter a bit strange?" Huang Jiacai had been listening carefully. "Just speak your mind. It''s just us two here, so don''t worry about anything." President Wang leaned forward a little. "The more I think about this matter, the more I feel something is not right. I fear that our end is near, and they''ve already started to cut and harvest. Our company''s brand and channel have basically formed and they''ve made their plans a long ago. If we lose the bet, the company faces bankruptcy, and they take over with a low-price acquisition, gaining control of our company. On the surface, we will still be a domestic brand and continue the drama of fighting with foreign capital, but in fact, it''s just a game of left hand fighting the right hand. It''s a show for others to see, in order to tightly control the Chinese market and leave little room for other domestic brands to grow." "Are you saying that the whole process is a play directed by the capital system from behind?" "Yes, why would they want you to go public? What they want is the channel and a domestic signboard. If it goes public, a lot of things must be made public. Everyone will know that it''s a domestic brand controlled by foreign capital, which is meaningless to them. Only by killing it before going public and secretly controlling the company from behind can they hide their identity." President Wang touched his chin, pondered for a moment, and said: "Jiachai, what you said gave me chills. Does this mean we''re certain to lose the bet?" "Of course, we''ll lose 100%!" "But as long as we try our best, it should be easy for us to go public. Even if you encounter difficulties, we can beautify our data a bit to remove any obstacles to going public. I don''t see any traps or unequal terms in the contract." President Wang felt like Huang Jiacai was exaggerating. "If traps were so easy to spot, they wouldn''t be traps. They''re aiming to catch us off guard and make us complacent." "Make it clearer." "The patent noose. Currently, almost all of the company''s products are imitations. They''ve been turning a blind eye, making us believe there''s no such thing as a patent. When it''s beneficial to them, they close their eyes. But the day they need to use this weapon, they''ll open their eyes and bare their fangs. Picture this, if suddenly, right before going public, the company was hit with a patent infringement lawsuit, would you still be able to go public?" President Wang shivered, he put down the bottle he was about to drink from, and muttered: "If that''s the case, we''re done for." "In the end, they''ll gain control of our company at an extremely low price and use it as their tool. Of course, in the public eye, we continue to be a domestic brand, and we even seem to be trying really hard, battling with the giant and continuously defeating other domestic brands. However, in reality, the left hand is merely fighting the right." "Aren''t you overthinking it? Aren''t you just buying into a conspiracy theory?" President Wang believed in Huang Jiacai, but he found it hard to believe that his competitors would be so cunning and deceitful. Huang Jiacai laughed: "President Wang, we both had a fair share of struggles in the business field. You, my mentor, understand the nature of capital better than I do. Don''t underestimate the greed of capital or its wisdom." "Can you explain further?" "I''ve been thinking about this matter a lot and the more I think, the more worried I become. Think about it, among the companies that started the same time as us, few have innovated products, and the ones that do are quite decent. By rights, these are the companies worth investing in. Their stories should be more in line with the tastes of investors. But why do our brands and channels that replicated others match their taste? And we imitated without getting into any trouble. Do you remember any company with an independent product that imitated a key component of theirs? They device they pursued and fiercely fought them, using the patent as a sledgehammer, they''ve beaten them to death." "Jiachai, what you''ve said has awakened me. Now that you''ve put it this way, I can''t help but feel jittery. I need to go back and discuss this with President Wei." President Wang had complete trust in Huang Jiacai and knew his capabilities inside out. Chapter 359 - 0340: Difficult Reconstruction Chapter 359: Chapter 0340: Difficult Reconstruction After Yu Shuilian¡¯s stitches were removed, her liver and kidney function remained normal, thus successfully passing the dangerous period of organ dysfunction. As such, the reconstruction surgery of the urethra and anus was put on the agenda, and it came time to hand in the homework that Yang Ping had assigned to everyone. What Yang Ping planned by assigning them homework, each to design a reconstruction surgery plan, was to hope that the three of them could discuss it together. Takahashi is a master of international trauma surgery, mastering the latest concepts and techniques, allowing Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang to collide with Takahashi and create a spark of thought. According to the discussion information in the group, the three actually had their own advantages. Takahashi had the richest clinical experience, Song Zimo had the highest talent, regardless of cognition or practical ability, he was clearly above Takahashi and Xu Zhiliang. The difference between Song Zimo and Takahashi lay in clinical experience. For Song Zimo, the experience Yang Ping shared with him was still theoretical, a theory that can¡¯t be achieved from textbooks. Since the number of surgeries he performed wasn¡¯t as many as Takahashi, his clinical experience was naturally not as good as Takahashi¡¯s. Xu Zhiliang¡¯s cognitive ability wasn¡¯t inferior to Takahashi¡¯s. However, both in theoretical knowledge and clinical experience, he was far behind Takahashi, who, after all, had been studying this specialty for a long time and had been learning and exchanging ideas everywhere. Unlike Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang didn¡¯t have the experience given to him by Yang Ping and only had the limited clinical experience obtained from his Ph.D. studies. Xu Zhiliang had been a student of Beijing Medical University from undergraduate to doctoral degree. Among China¡¯s billion-plus population, being able to admit to Beijing Medical University indicates a top student from among billions. Takahashi is a top student among a hundred million Japanese people. From this selection ratio, Takahashi is merely a top student in a province-level in China. Thus, it made sense that Xu Zhiliang¡¯s intelligence level is not inferior to Takahashi¡¯s. However, the elite medical training route that Takahashi underwent widened the gap between him and Xu Zhiliang in terms of clinical and research capabilities, which was reasonable. Xu Zhiliang, given the necessary grooming and enough time, it¡¯s completely possible for him to surpass Takahashi, or at least that¡¯s what Yang Ping believed. He hoped that the two could learn from Takahashi¡¯s broad international perspective from interacting with him, which was the most important thing. In the meeting room, crowded with people; some sitting, some standing, all wearing clean white gowns, even the usually most sloppy ones tidied up their collars and buttons. These people were doctors, graduate students, standardized training students, interns of Orthopedics, and young doctors from other departments, who took the time to attend this meeting. Those who were sitting were generally from Orthopedics, and those surrounding them were usually from other surgical departments. Many stools were moved around, but everyone stood up for fear of not seeing or hearing, as standing allowed a better view. The rescue operation of Yu Shuilian had already caused a sensation throughout the hospital. Now that Orthopedics was planning to reconstruct her urethra and anus, everyone wanted to know how this surgery was going to be performed. If the rectum is present, and only the anal sphincter is damaged, a general surgeon or plastic surgeon would have many methods to reconstruct the anus. But reconstructing a functional anus from the end of the colon surpassed everyone¡¯s knowledge. Everyone was very interested in what kind of cutting-edge new surgical procedure was involved. Besides, a department that snatched patients from the hand of death, a department that could attract top international trauma surgeons, a department that kept creating miracles. Each focus point was fascinating, several high-ranking doctors from Plastic Surgery, General Surgery, Urologic Surgery, and Colorectal Surgery came, with the mentality of attending an academic conference. This discussion, although it was a department-level surgery discussion, in everyone¡¯s eyes, there was no difference from an international academic conference. Yang Ping was almost like a god at Sanbo Hospital, Song Zimo, a genius figure, and Takahashi, a top figure in international trauma surgery. This meeting was bound to be exciting. White gowns neatly lined up, the silent conference hall, a medical discussion was serious and solemn, everyone carried a sense of reverence. The first one to showcase the surgery plan was Takahashi. The arrangement was purposeful, as no one, other than Yang Ping, had as much surgical experience as him. He is a leading figure in international surgery today. However, during their time in the Comprehensive Orthopedics department, everyone forgot about Takahashi¡¯s original identity. They treated him as the ever respectful, ¡°Little Takahashi¡±. Yang Ping wanted to bring him in to inspire everyone¡¯s enthusiasm. Takahashi adjusted his white gown, turned to look at Yang Ping, and with his permission, confidently approached the podium. It was only then that he rediscovered his real identity. He had many times walked to the podium at international trauma surgery conferences, his head held high. However, those occasions could never compare to this one because today, sitting next to him was the man he regarded as a deity. The surgical charts were already entered into the computer and up on the high-resolution screen; these were drawn by Takahashi over his lifetime. The purpose? No other reason than to gain acceptance from his young mentor. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Takahashi Fumiya, a specialising trainee in Comprehensive Orthopedics. You can call me ¡®Little Takahashi¡¯. I will be presenting my surgical plan for Yu Shuilian.¡± ¡°Modern surgery began with controlling blood-flow, pain and infection. Up until today, surgery has solved many pathological issues. Regardless of the operation, it can never escape these three concepts: removal, repair, reconstruction.¡± ¡°Removal, like the treatment for an inflamed appendix, discards the infected tissues or organs, leaving our body free of it. Repair includes the treatment of skin lacerations, fractures, torn tendons. We try patched it up, returning it as close to the original anatomy and functionality as possible. As for reconstruction, it is currently the highest level in the field of surgery. If an organ is damaged and its functioning compromised, we exhaust all means possible to create a facsimile that can replicate its functionality. Artificial joint replacement is one such example.¡± ¡°Today, my plan for Yu Shuilian is reconstructive surgery because her naturally occurring anus and urethra no longer exist. To restore her excretory functions and allow her to live a dignified life like normal people, we need to reconstruct an anus for her.¡± ¡°The ultimate aim of reconstructing an organ is to mimic its function. The patient in question requires two reconstructions: for the urethra and the anus. The reconstruction of the urethra needs to only achieve a passageway for the passing of urine. The muscle controlling urination, located in the bladder¡¯s neck, hasn¡¯t been damaged. Therefore, this is a routine plastic surgery. It is not difficult. I have numerous papers on this type of surgery published in Lancet. One of them is about a reconstruction that I have proposed.¡± ¡°The hardest part is the anal reconstruction. To reconstruct an anus that can control defecation, current medical technology requires a remaining rectum and a complete nerve pathway. Unfortunately, this patient¡¯s anus, rectum, and sigmoid colon have all been removed. Our defecation reflex¡¯s terminal receptors and pressure receptors are located in the rectum¡¯s mucosa. The descending colon does not have these receptors. Therefore, lacking a terminal for the nerve reflex arch, reconstructing an anus that can control defecation under these circumstances is nearly impossible.¡± ¡°Despite advancements in artificial anus development today, the technology is still imperfect. The prolonged insertion of a sphincter bag, the repetitive movement of the bag, the inevitable inflammatory reaction due to constant tissue stimulation; high-pressure activity of the bag causes tissue corrosion, pain, infection, and wound dehiscence, just to name a few complications.¡± ¡°I have performed many instances of electrically stimulated graciloplasty or gluteoplasty for in-situ anal reconstruction. The liquid closure rate is over 95%, a high figure worldwide, but for such high positioning ectopic reconstruction, we lack experience.¡± ¡°For grafting, we discard muscles around the patient¡¯s upper limb and shoulder joint because they are needed to perform an array of backup functions. Therefore, I prefer to use muscle from the waist region. She will not need her waist muscles to maintain an upright position and the muscle strength impairment will be kept to a minimum.¡± ¡°For creating the sphincter, we can opt for a free pectoralis minor muscle flap, which comes with the thoracoacromial artery and medial antebrachial cutaneous nerve. Make a hole in the center of this muscle flap and implant it onto the descending colon¡¯s end. The blood vessels can merge with the colon¡¯s nearby supplying blood vessels, and the nerves can merge with the remaining genital nerves, forming a muscular control nerve conduction pathway. However, I still don¡¯t have an ideal solution for producing an urge to defecate.¡± Explaining his surgery this way brought him back to the level of a master in trauma surgery. After finishing, he was met with a round of warm applause. The surgical plan was designed based on Takahashi¡¯s extensive experience in reconstructive surgery, suitable for Yu Shuilian¡¯s current condition. The most significant problem at the moment is the inability to reconstruct the reflex for defecation. His operation can end the inconvenience of Yu Shuilian having to excrete through the abdominal stoma, possibly employing a regular defecation strategy to solve the issue of fecal incontinence. Takahashi¡¯s surgical plan is a high-level reconstruction combination. To achieve a 95% success rate is indeed globally top-class. Downstage, Xu Zhiliang could feel the gap between him and Takahashi. He completely lacks clinical experience in this aspect and is determined to work hard to catch up with him. When it was Song Zimo¡¯s turn, Takahashi had already comprehensively discussed the surgical plan. Many things overlapped, but he highlighted the different elements in his approach. The second brother of Comprehensive Orthopedics, under the leadership of Yang Ping, has improved significantly. Despite not having as much surgical experience as Takahashi, he surpasses him in theoretical knowledge and surgical intuition. If Song Zimo is considered the genius, then Xu Zhiliang would be the outstanding individual amongst regular people. ¡°For urethra reconstruction, I do not recommend the use of bladder wall because it can cause some damage to the bladder. I would suggest using blood vessels instead.¡± Reconstruction of the urethra is not a problem because of the external sphincter of the bladder.¡± The challenge lies in reconstructing a functioning anus. If the damage is limited to the anal sphincter, there are many ways to rebuild the sphincter. However, due to the high degree of damage in this case with the anus, rectum, and sigmoid colon all being removed, the likelihood of reconstructive surgery being able to achieve a functioning anus is very low. Chapter 360: 0341: Surgery in Theory Chapter 360: Chapter 0341: Surgery in Theory Takahashi¡¯s speech received a burst of enthusiastic applause, and the few brilliantly drawn illustrations were also constantly praised. ¡°Dr. Takahashi, with your procedure, after the rectum is reconstructed, the sequence of muscle control and nerve reflexes is opposite to that of the natural anal sphincter. Normally, the anal sphincter is contracted and tightly closed, relaxing and opening only when defecating. Whereas, the pectoralis minor muscle that you use for grafting is normally in a relaxed state, only contracting when exerted.¡± a graduate student questioned. Those able to ask questions are the ones who usually study diligently. Otherwise, their heads would be filled with confusion, leaving them unable to ask any questions at all. ¡°You lack a basic understanding of reconstructive surgery-¡± Takahashi began, then immediately realized his tone was off and glanced at Yang Ping. There was no surprise on Yang Ping¡¯s face. After confirming that Yang Ping hadn¡¯t noticed his slip in tone, Takahashi paused and continued in a softer voice, ¡°After the surgery, we will use biofeedback stimulation to coordinate the contraction of the transplanted muscle. In other words, we will train the muscle to remain contracted and tightly closed most of the time, only relaxing and opening when necessary.¡± ¡°Defecation doesn¡¯t only involve the opening of the anus, but also the rhythmic contractions and peristalsis of the rectum, propelling feces downward until they are excreted. This patient has both her rectum and sigmoid colon damaged. How do you plan to solve this issue?¡± A Ph.D. student asked an even sharper question. In academic debates, ad hominem arguments are not recognized. It is obvious that those who usually delve deep into research, do not have the cunning and sophistication of socialites. ¡°This problem does not exist. The entire intestine has peristalsis. Although the descending colon doesn¡¯t have as strong a propulsive force as the lower part of the rectum, according to the principle of anatomical and functional adaptability in the human body, as the use of the reconstructed anus increases, the propulsive force of the descending colon will gradually increase to adapt to its role.¡± ¡°You mentioned earlier that the graft for the sphincter is taken from the pectoralis minor muscle but you did not say anything regarding the material for urethral reconstruction. I am interested to know which material you plan to use for urethral reconstruction? The anterior or posterior wall of the bladder?¡± An associate chief physician from Urological Surgery asked. Having performed urethral reconstruction himself, he naturally showed interest in this matter. Yu Shuilian had nearly the entire length of urethra missing. How to find enough material to cover such a length? If the bladder wall mucosa was used for reconstruction, it might not be enough. ¡°The colonic mucosa can be used for urethral reconstruction. This material is abundant and imposes no limitation on the length of the urethra. This method comes from Magic City Sixth Hospital, and I have improved it.¡± Even though urethral reconstruction is a field of Urological Surgery, Takahashi, being a trauma surgeon, is on par with any expert urologist in the world. The questions asked varied, ranging from newly graduated research students to high-ranking professionals within the field. Takahashi utilized his broad and profound knowledge to perfect each question. Takahashi is known for his aggressive style in international academic conferences. Once, in a trauma surgery conference in North America, he single-handedly took on several Americans, leaving them speechless. Today, he got a bit carried away in his enthusiasm, almost going off track. Luckily, he realized it in time to prevent severe consequences. Of course, these were ¡°serious consequences¡± as per Takahashi¡¯s thoughts. The conflicting feelings of stress and confidence were intertwined. Due to Yang Ping sitting in the audience, he was nervous. The student within him constantly observed Yang Ping¡¯s expression, fearing any bad performance from himself. On the other side, standing in front of the audience, he was accustomed to eloquence, brimming with confidence, and often getting carried away in excitement. When it was Song Zimo¡¯s turn, the surgery diagram he presented was even more stunning than Takahashi¡¯s. Possibly under the influence of Professor Zhang and the guidance of Yang Ping, his diagram had a strong three-dimensional effect; its visual effects surely outperformed those of Takahashi¡¯s two-dimensional figures. Takahashi¡¯s surgical plan was extremely comprehensive. Many parts overlapped with Song Zimo¡¯s plan. Hence, Song Zimo quickly went over the similar parts, focusing mainly on the portions that Takahashi had not covered. ¡°The patient¡¯s ovaries, fallopian tubes, and uterus have already been preserved. I can¡¯t focus solely on urethral and anal reconstruction, but should consider reconstructing the vagina as well, to solve the problems associated with the cyclic breakdown and associated bleeding of the endometrium in female patients.¡± ¡°The patient has already given birth, under such unusual circumstances, retaining the uterus serves no purpose, why not remove the uterus? By doing so, there will be no need to reconstruct the vagina, which will reduce complications.¡± A newly-appointed Ph.D. in orthopedic trauma, proposed a more simplified method. We can remove it, why reconstruct? It¡¯s superfluous! The logic of the questioner was clear. ¡°Uterus removal does not only make pregnancy impossible but may also cause the ovarian function to decline and result in estrogen secretion disorder, metabolic abnormality in blood lipids, and other endocrinal abnormalities, which might affect mental and psychological conditions. It doesn¡¯t rule out the possibility of causing depression.¡± ¡°A little extra trouble for us can ensure a lifetime of comfort for our patient.¡± Song Zimo¡¯s thinking was contrary. Since it could be reconstructed, why remove it? Why aim for sixty out of a hundred, when you can aim for ninety?. Discussions among academically excellent students naturally marginalize average students. This is an inevitable reality. The discussion placed Song Zimo and Takahashi as the main characters, even Xu Zhiliang from the triage group felt immense pressure. If you consider clinical experience as the card power and personal intelligence as the card technique, this discussion is like playing cards. When the power of the cards is evenly matched, technique can sway the outcome. But when the balance of power is skewed, no amount of technique can affect the result. While Takahashi¡¯s cards were the best and Song Zimo¡¯s strategy was superior, Xu Zhiliang did not excel in either area. His card playing skills were inferior to Song Zimo¡¯s, and his hand was weak compared to Takahashi¡¯s. But he wasn¡¯t downcast; on the contrary, he was fired up. Delighted to be part of this formidable team, he appreciated Yang Ping for not disregarding his inherent deficiencies and granting him this precious opportunity. Director Gao Yuan of the Sports Medicine Center was extremely busy. Having completed his work, he hastily left for the comprehensive orthopedics meeting. Case discussions, preoperative discussions, and mini lectures ¨C he would always participate whenever he could. By the time Director Gao arrived, the meeting room was already packed. The center table was of rounded rectangular shape. Around it, people were standing three deep with a one-meter gap. Even the doorway was crowded. Wondering how to get in, Director Gao paid no heed to his reservations and was determined to force his way in. He turned his body sideways and pushed inwards with a considerable force. An intern, eyes fixed firmly on the screen and with ears pricked up, couldn¡¯t help but feel irritated by the constant pushing and shoving. Irritated and infuriated, the intern, without a backward glance, harshly bumped into the direction of the pressure, causing Director Gao to stagger backwards, almost falling. ¡°Stop pushing! It¡¯s already crammed full. Should have come earlier,¡± the intern muttered under his breath, eyes fixated still on the screen. Director Gao managed to regain balance, wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked around. Everyone was engrossed in the presentation, paying him no heed. Old Gao didn¡¯t bother arguing with the intern. The meeting room had two doors, so if he couldn¡¯t get in through this one, he would try the other side. However, it was no better. It was packed and airless. With no other choice, Old Gao got a chair from a nurse and placed it near the doorway. He stood atop the chair after cushioning it with a piece of paper, and now, finally, he could see inside. Luckily, everyone was maintaining discipline; except for the speaker, no one was talking, not even whispering. He could listen with absolute clarity. Song Zimo was speaking at the moment. Yang Ping hadn¡¯t spoken yet. He would speak last, and Director Gao was glad that he had not arrived late. Takahashi felt a touch of shame upon hearing Song Zimo¡¯s proposal for YD reconstruction. He hadn¡¯t considered the patient¡¯s condition as comprehensively. Indeed, Song Zimo being Dr. Yang¡¯s assistant, had contemplated the patient¡¯s surgery deeper than he had. As for Xu Zhiliang, his surgical plan was unlikely to surpass Takahashi¡¯s. When Xu Zhiliang came up on stage, Zhang Lin felt a shudder run through him instinctively. As soon as Xu Zhiliang began to speak, Zhang Lin grew anxious. However, Old Xu wasn¡¯t stuttering as he discussed the case: ¡°The surgery plan has been thoroughly decided upon. I have an immature suggestion. When the patient loses her lower body, she also loses her sexual identity. Considering her mental state, can we reconstruct the shape of the vagina? It is more acceptable than an abrupt cavity look. Besides, the natural anatomy of the female vagina can protect the urinary opening, potentially reducing the chances of urinary infection.¡± The suggestion Xu Zhiliang had given was not essential, even something most doctors wouldn¡¯t consider, but he did ¡ª and bravely so. A round of discussions ensued, featuring questions from the surrounding audience and debates among the orthopedic team. Finally, it was time for Yang Ping to speak. Everyone had been awaiting this moment eagerly, especially Old Gao, who had been standing until his legs were numb. The minute Yang Ping stepped on the stage, dozens of cellphones discreetly aimed at him. Better to record him than rely on memory. A dozen or so pictures circulated, one after another. Just looking at these images was enough to grasp the contents of the meeting. To someone oblivious, these might have looked like old black-and-white photos of the human body, but these images had an extraordinary depth. By utilizing the technique of split-screen storytelling from comics, the surgical steps were distinctly elaborated upon. The key steps even received a close-up shot. After summarizing everyone¡¯s proposals, he added his own thoughts: ¡°To reconstruct bowel function, apart from reconstituting the sphincter, it is also necessary to transplant bladder mucosa. Part of this mucosa should be relocated to the inner surface of the descending colon. Since pressure receptors exist inside the bladder mucosa, these could be used to reconstruct bowel sensations and establish autonomous bowel control.¡± To transplant bladder mucosa inevitably meant connecting nerve endings. However, the dissection of lesser-known, minuscule nerves is almost impracticable. Otherwise, many surgeons would have done so. If nerve connections are not considered during mucosal transplantation, then the pressure receptors cannot transmit signals to the brain and spinal cord centers. Therefore, their existence would become insignificant. If unknown nerve connections could be found and then utilized in biofeedback training, regaining bowel sensation would be entirely possible. Yet finding unidentified nerves in bladder mucosa and additionally searching for nerves in the genital area capable of connecting branches, is something that surgery simply cannot accomplish. Takahashi had once conducted related research, but it had ended in failure. Many top international urological surgeons and reconstructive surgeons had attempted this too but had similarly failed. Such a surgery was bound to be impossible to carry out and could only exist in theory. Chapter 361: 0342: The First Person to Eat Crab Chapter 361: Chapter 0342: The First Person to Eat Crab Is Doctor Yang really planning to implement the surgery from the theory? It¡¯s impossible. Takahashi remained fully lucid, but Doctor Yang just announced in front of so many people that he was preparing to use such a plan. Without absolute assurance, a doctor would never be so calm. Especially a doctor like Yang Ping who has already established a reputation, he doesn¡¯t need to elevate himself with fake titles. Therefore, there¡¯s only one possibility ¨C he really wants to use this type of surgical procedure. The procedures of rebuilding the bowel reflex of the anus with bladder mucosa and reconstructing the urethra with veins have been attempted by top technicians in the international field of surgical repair and reconstruction. Many leading gastroenterology surgeons, urological surgeons, and repair and reconstruction surgeons have made various efforts in vain. They have so far failed to dissect the fine nerves connected to the bladder mucosa or to collect veins with sufficient thickness. Takahashi had just considered anointing the bladder mucosa to rebuild bowel reflexes, and was currently reflecting on reconstructing the urethra with veins. The surgical drawings on the screen have already switched to urethral reconstruction. Yang Ping pointed at the surgical drawings and said, ¡°The urethra can also be reconstructed with vein grafts instead of colon mucosa. There are many sources for vein grafts and due to their web-like structure, taking one branch would result in almost zero loss to the patient.¡± Reconstruct the urethra with the veins? Reconstruct the urethra with the veins again? He brought up these surgeries, already proven impossible by surgical procedures, one after another. Internationally, several top teams have conducted research on this and all have failed. It has always been thought that these procedures are theoretically feasible, but the surgical skills required are too high. In transplantation of bladder mucosa to rebuild bowel reflex, the Chief Surgeon has tried all kinds of methods and nerve staining during animal experiments, but could not find the fine nerves in the bladder mucosa. Even if some were found by good fortune, it was impossible to dissect them. Transplantation of blood vessels to reconstruct the urethra was once attempted, but the separation of the blood vessels could not be performed and the wall was too thick. Someone tried using stepwise expansion technique to expand the vessel diameter while trying to thin the wall, but all ended in necrosis. The conclusion is that the original nutrition of blood vessels depends on the blood flow in the vessel. After transplantation, it relies on fluid seepage from the recipient area tissue bed for nutrition, which is much more difficult than with other types of mucosal tissues. If the two operational techniques Doctor Yang is challenged with are successful, it will cause sensation in the field of surgical repair and reconstruction and bring anal and urethral reconstruction several steps forward. ¡°For the treatment of veins, we use the technique of separating and peeling the layers of the vascular wall. We take a part of the wall and then implant it using the regular method. Veins are natural fluid channels and using them to replace the urethra will improve the urine flow rate and reduce the chance of stenosis. When they are inverted for implantation, the vein valve can help to prevent bacteria from moving upstream, thereby reducing the probability of urinary tract infection.¡± Yang Ping spoke nonchalantly, as if he wasn¡¯t talking about a high-difficulty surgery. The surgical diagram showed the layered anatomical structure of the vascular wall, making it clear where to start peeling and how far to peel. Is he really going to challenge the surgery from the theory? Takahashi¡¯s heart churned. It was fine to challenge one, but now he was challenging two surgeries previously determined impossible. No, this is not a challenge, it looked more like he had everything under control. From his expression and tone of voice, it seemed as if the surgery was routine, and there was no mention that no one had ever successfully performed it before. If it was true ¨C Takahashi¡¯s excitement was like overflowing high-proof alcohol, leaking everywhere. Upon lighting a match, the flame would surge, and the surgical techniques once considered only theoretically possible could be learned immediately. Song Zimo was not surprised at all; he was used to such situations. He would not waste time doubting, but rather would ponder how Yang Ping was going to implement the procedures, and also hoped he would be the second person to learn the new surgical techniques. Fujiwara Miyuki sat quietly on one side. She didn¡¯t show much interest in the discussion. Maybe she wasn¡¯t used to looking at the electronic screen for a long time, or perhaps the outside light was a bit dazzling. Ms. Fujiwara took out a pair of glasses ¨C light brown sunglasses ¨C and put them on. One picture after another was turned over. Simply viewing these pictures was pleasing; blood vessels, nerves, and viscera were all crystal clear. The three-dimensional sense of anatomical layers was just right, and the display of surgical details was easy to understand. ¡°As for the WY reconstruction that Doctor Xu mentioned just now, I think it is very necessary. In reconstructive surgery, we not only pursue function, but also the appearance. Of course, the pursuit of appearance is a higher pursuit, and it must be ensured after the function is stable.¡± ¡°The thoracodorsal muscle selected by Takahashi for rectal sphincter reconstruction is very accurate. It is a choice that can only be made after strict screening. The YD reconstruction that Song Zimo mentioned is completely necessary. We should make patients experience slow and natural aging just like normal women, rather than premature aging. Even if she only has half a body, we have every reason to let her live a more dignified life.¡± The final picture showed the result after successful surgery. A portion of bladder mucosa was transplanted into the lower colon, and the function of the sphincter was replaced with thoracic muscle. The veins cut from the abdominal cavity were inverted to reconstruct the ureters. Of these dozen or so pictures, some people wanted to take them to keep ¨C maybe they could be sold at a high price after many years. The discussion on Yu Shuilian¡¯s surgery was finished. These surgical methods were not just theoretical discussion, they were going to be executed without fail. In a few days, Yu Shuilian¡¯s surgery would be performed exactly according to these dozen or so pictures. Each step was clearly described in the drawings, and the combination of various camera angles made it easy for even an intern to understand the entire surgical process. It was about the same as reading a comic book. Yang Ping stood on the podium, waiting for questions, but no one asked anything. Even heavyweights like Takahashi couldn¡¯t think of any questions now. The only question anyone could possibly ask was: ¡°Isn¡¯t this surgery impossible? Many have already failed, including me.¡± But if someone is determined to pursue it, even the stupidest surgeons would never joke about surgery. ¡°Don¡¯t understand, do you?¡± ¡°It seems I understand a little.¡± ¡°Well, tell me about it later, I¡¯ll buy you dinner tonight?¡± ¡°I¨CI¡¯d better review some books.¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing in the books. A senior just mentioned it, didn¡¯t you say you understood?¡± ¡°Ah, what I meant was, I understand a little¡ªthe kind of topics that I can¡¯t figure out even by reviewing the books.¡± The interns started discussing among themselves. Now that Yang Ping¡¯s speech was over, everyone relaxed and began to lower their heads to chat. After waiting a few minutes without any response, Yang Ping planned to end the pre-operation discussion, which had turned into a mini-lecture. ¡°Dr. Yang¡ª¡± Fujiwara Miyuki stood up. ¡°Dr. Fujiwara, do you have a question?¡± Yang Ping was about to leave the podium. ¡°The model, that Japanese model doctor¡ª¡± The students standing around began to squeeze forward. They all wanted to catch a glimpse of the beauty hidden beneath the white gown¡ªFujiwara Miyuki. Her sparkling eyes, her fair skin, her height of one meter seventy-eight, and her unique oriental charm immediately attracted the attention of the young men who were used to seeing Japanese beauties only in short videos. ¡°As far as I know, the reflection of bowel movements reconstructed by the bladder mucosa and the urethra reconstructed by the veins have never been successfully performed. Why are you so confident, Dr. Yang? Why not opt for a more traditional surgical approach which has a higher success rate?¡± Miss Fujiwara asked, taking off her sunglasses and waiting for Yang Ping¡¯s answer with a slight smile. Despite her ordinary standing posture, it felt as though she was on a fashion runway, shining charismatic energy with her every move. ¡°This surgery is theoretically the best, and the reason why everyone has failed is that they couldn¡¯t dissect the required nerves from the bladder mucosa and couldn¡¯t perform layered peeling on the veins to obtain their desired thin vessel wall. To me, these are not obstacles, they are just problems at the operational level. Such a good surgical approach shouldn¡¯t be kept away. Someone should come forward to realize it, and I¡¯m willing to be the first to try.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s explanation may or may not have satisfied her. Fujiwara Miyuki started clapping softly: ¡°You are the one standing at the peak, I wish you a successful surgery!¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± Yang Ping stepped down from the podium. Miss Fujiwara came over and offered her hand to shake Yang Ping¡¯s in a gesture of good luck. Yang Ping lightly shook her hand in a symbolic gesture. The pre-operation discussion was more or less over, the surgical plan had taken shape, and everyone was still intrigued. In such a meeting, they had learnt valuable knowledge. In future when discussing this kind of surgery, casually dropping keywords would certainly make people scratch their heads. As the meeting ended, to avoid blocking people on their way out, Director Gao immediately got up to move the chairs out of the way. He intends to squeeze in and talk to Yang Ping before leaving the meeting room. But as the crowd was exiting, Director Gao bumped into the same intern again. ¡°Stop pushing, what¡¯s the rush, reincarnating?¡± The intern blurted out, then turned around to find out that he¡¯d been yelling at Director Gao. His heart squeezed in fear. Wasn¡¯t this Director Gao from the Sports Medicine Center? Isn¡¯t this asking for trouble? This guy is also an intern at the Sports Medicine Center. ¡°What¡¯s with all the shoving, cut it out.¡± Quick thinking, the guy quickly turned his anger onto another student standing next to Director Gao, acting as if he hadn¡¯t seen the director, he blurted out: ¡°At first, it was you who were pushing, and now you¡¯re at it again.¡± The other student, who hadn¡¯t done anything, found himself being yelled at for no reason and stammered in response, having no idea how to reply: ¡°I¡ªI¡ª¡± Chapter 362: 0343: The Man on the Peak Chapter 362: Chapter 0343: The Man on the Peak Just three days after the preoperative discussion, Yu Shuilian¡¯s surgery officially began. For the surgery, Yu Shuilian underwent thorough intestinal cleansing three days ago and was put on a diet, all her nutrition being supplied intravenously. The aim is to ensure there is no food residue in the intestines during the operation, thereby minimizing the risk of infection. The urine bag and feces bag were temporarily removed. Urine will be expelled via a sterile urinary catheter attached to a urine bag installed during surgery. As Shuilian was on a diet, there were no feces temporarily, thus no worries of fecal contamination during surgery. However, after this surgery, a fistula in the bladder and colon needs to be maintained for a while, so that urine can be drained directly from the kidneys through a drain tube, without affecting the survival of the rebuilt urethra. For at least one week after surgery, intravenous nutrition will supply Shuilian¡¯s nutritional needs to prevent the surgical site from being contaminated by feces ¨C not even the slightest bit is allowed. Just like a newly constructed road, traffic is not allowed before completion. Sometimes, women can be more resilient than men. Shuilian had mentally accepted her disabled identity, understanding that she¡¯d live the rest of her life in this state. To her, this was going to be the norm for her future life, akin to a paralyzed person on a wheelchair, a blind person using a cane, or a mute person communicating with sign language. This was to be her special state of life. Having experienced a life-and-death surgery, Shuilian was very composed about her second surgery, without any hesitation or worries. In the face of such adversity, some people fall, while others obtain a new understanding of life. Her husband and son held her hand the entire time journeying with her on her gurney, not releasing their grip until they reached the operating room doors. Her son obediently kissed her on the cheek, clutching his small fist, ¡°Fight on!¡± Her husband let go of her hand only after a while:¡± We¡¯ll be waiting outside, don¡¯t be afraid ¡ª¡± Anesthesia, patient positioning, scrubbing hands, sterilization ¡ª they were daily procedures repeated over a dozen times so familiar that it¡¯d be impossible to make a mistake even in one¡¯s dreams. Song Zimo assisted first, followed by Takahashi, with Xu Zhiliang observing from the side of the operating table. The knife moved like a paintbrush, making incisions on the remaining part of Shuilian¡¯s body. Due to the adhesive tissues caused by the trauma and previous surgery, the anatomy in the second surgery was no longer in its normal state. However, the chief surgeon remained adept. Whether it was the same plane direction of the scalpel or the layer-by-layer penetration across the plane, the altered anatomy did not affect either. The combination and direction of the incisions were initially puzzling. Some were straight lines, some were diagonal, others were curves, and a few even resembled wavy lines. Regardless of the direction or length, it seemed as if he already had precise measurements in mind. The ease of use and control of the scalpel¡¯s weight were surprisingly accurate. But why was it done this way? It was not until the various incisions had begun to penetrate into the abdominal cavity that Takahashi, along with the long-following Song Zimo, could glean some clues, whilst others remained utterly baffled. Why did the operation begin in this way, and where was it ultimately leading to? Being unable to understand the beginning nor guessing the end was quite frustrating. Only when the planned tunnels for placing the urethra, vagina, and anus had been opened did Takahashi finally get a sense of what was happening. The colon was not cut open but turned inside out from the end, just like one would with a sock. After a certain length, it was stopped; following that, the remaining opening of the bladder neck was opened and turned inside out in a similar manner. The lower part of the descending colon, with its inner surface exposed. Under the microscope, the colonic mucosa was peeled off bit by bit using a snake-brand micro-scissors. The nerves leading to the mucosa, each one thinner than a baby¡¯s finger, started to unravel, yet maintained their connections with the mucosa. The colonic mucosa, along with all its nerves, was completely peeled off without any breakages. They then started excising the mucosa along with the surrounding nerves. With the recipient area ready, they began to excise the bladder mucosa in the donor area. Using the same sophisticated techniques, they removed the mucosa along with multiple nerves. To maintain the integrity of each portion of the mucosa, an exchange was performed. The bladder mucosa, replete with pressure sensors, was transplanted to the lower segment of the colon, precisely filling the defect that was cut just now. The nerves from the bladder mucosa were sutured to the nerves in the recipient area, one by one. Even with the use of 12-0 micro-sutures, each nerve could only take two to four stitches. Colonic mucosa was used to fill the loss in the bladder mucosa, with nerves being connected as well. Although the colonic mucosa did not possess pressure receptors, the pressure receptors in other parts of the bladder continued to trigger urinary sensation. The content of the East wall was moved to fix the West wall, yet the East wall still remained solid, continuing to shelter against the wind and rain. The two fresh pieces of mucosa were cut and exchanged without any pause, thereby completing the most delicate part of the surgery. Under the microscope, even Takahashi, who dared not blink, realized that a operation that no one could achieve before had just been realized within his field of vision. The entire process was as smooth as water, just like performing a routine operation. Also under the microscope, the removed veins from the abdominal cavity were slowly peeled layer by layer with the snake-brand micro-scissors. Thin layers of the vascular wall were stripped off without any damage, down to the required thickness. It was like cutting several layers from a thin sheet of A4 paper. Each layer was a complete A4 paper sheet, remaining intact even when thin enough to be transparent. The eligible vein was led to connect with the remaining part of the urethra at the neck of the bladder. It then followed a predetermined route to be buried into the opened tunnel. No wonder so many people have failed and finally had to give up the research on this kind of surgery, aside from him, who else would have such exquisite surgical skills? With the completion of the two most difficult steps, the subsequent colonic reconstruction of YD and the pectoralis minor reconstruction of the sphincter will pose no difficulty. The preoperative 3D printed mold is implanted into the reconstructed anus, urethra, and YD to prevent postoperative adhesions. The suturing of the external orifices of the three reconstructed structures is highly meticulous, with beautiful round eversions sewn to the surrounding skin, resembling naturally formed transitional parts. The scalpel never paused, flowing through various strengthening techniques and combinations of lines on the incisions, making the skin and tissue flaps flip up in pieces for recombination-some turned over, some buried, others folded. Damage-free cosmetic sutures flowed like a divine brush, used in conjunction with surgical techniques such as cutting, suturing, grafting, and transposing. Astoundingly, the anus, urethra, and YD are arranged in a natural order, with the reshaped skin and tissue flaps of WaiYinj indistinguishably real, even an artificial buttock crease is molded. The residual bilateral iliac bones, which were smoothed during the first surgery, replace the original ischial tuberosity, and the remaining muscles are moved to the bilateral artificial ischial tuberosity as much as possible. Thus, the half body is able to stand vertically, just as if it still had hips, by means of two supports with muscle padding and the help of hands. During the first surgery, Yang Ping had already considered the second one, preparing many steps perfectly for it, such as the muscle padding around various reconstruction ducts. Only then did Takahashi realize that Yang Ping¡¯s surgical design capabilities greatly exceeded his imagination. He viewed Yang¡¯s chaotic sequencing of surgical steps as an insurmountable obstacle. But now, while racing against the clock, Dr. Yang had linked the two surgeries together, planning the sequence of surgical steps beyond the scope of the first operation and connecting to the second one. Insurmountable upon insurmountable! Beyond the insurmountable mountain, stands an even taller mountain. If there isn¡¯t any infection or accident, Yu Shuilian will gain a nearly normal anus, urethra, and YD, preserving the basic functions of the half body. Only her ability to walk is lost. If one day power-assisted devices become available, she may be able to walk upright like any normal person. Trauma surgery, urological surgery, general surgery, reconstructive surgery, and plastic surgery, a combination of the top operations from various departments, completed this piece of art-like medical feat. Each one of these surgeries, when placed in their respective departments, would be unassailable. But who would know that these mesmerizing techniques were acquired by Yang Ping in the system space, enduring one devilish training after another. A space that belongs only to him, a space filled with endless case analyses, surgical training, and anatomy learning, requires an indomitable will to overcome loneliness and solitude. Only those who have the heart to become divine can be so persevering. ¡°The man standing at the summit!¡± Fujiwara Miyuki admired Yang Ping who was focused on his surgery from the bottom of her heart. At the end of the surgery, not to mention anything else, the perfect symmetry of Yu Shuilian¡¯s remaining truncation could only be achieved by Yang Ping. To achieve symmetry, everything from the grinding of the residual iliac bone, the padding of the muscles, and the adjustment of skin suturing needs to be taken into account. This isn¡¯t a requirement for surgery, but a reflection of the Chief Surgeon¡¯s precision, precise to an impeccable extent. ¡°The surgery is over, the three of you, starting tomorrow, practice peeling grapes under the microscope. Dissect the grape skin into three intact layers to pass.¡± Yang Ping was referring to Song Zimo, Takahashi, and Xu Zhiliang. ¡°Do you have any questions?¡± Yang Ping asked Xu Zhiliang. As his foundation in microscopic surgery should be the weakest, Xu Zhiliang nodded, ¡°No problem.¡± ¡°What about us?¡± Zhang Lin asked. ¡°Peel out two layers, as long as there are no major holes, you are qualified.¡± ¡°Also, you have to practice suturing, suturing with one hand continuously for an hour without trembling to qualify.¡± Yang Ping stepped away from his position as Chief Surgeon, and Song Zimo, Takahashi, and Xu Zhiliang began bandaging Yu Shuilian¡¯s truncation. This was no casual task; it required advanced bandaging skills. Vaseline gauze was used as a base, followed by a layer of dry sterile gauze. Areas that needed to be loosened or tightened were treated accordingly, as were places that needed to be separated or compactly filled. Finally, cotton padding and bandages were used to secure the wrapping of the truncation, ensuring it was neither too tight nor too loose and that the gauze bandages would not easily fall off. ¡°What about me, Dr. Yang? You haven¡¯t assigned me any homework,¡± Fujiwara Miyuki proactively asked. Yang Ping almost forgot about her, as she was here for further study, and she was in sports medicine, so she couldn¡¯t be as multifaceted as Takahashi. ¡°Under the arthroscope, carve an olive kernel into a model of the knee joint. The contours of the distal femur, the tibial plateau, and the patella should be close to anatomical forms. Primary internal structures for anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments, medial and lateral collateral ligaments, and meniscus should be included.¡± Fujiwara Miyuki was taken aback, is this even possible? Chapter 363 - 0344 Training in Progress Chapter 363: Chapter 0344 Training in Progress At the fruit store on the first floor of Tri-Bo Hotel, the Kyoho grapes were all sold out. The store owner didn¡¯t know why today¡¯s winds blew such a fruitful sale, and why the grapes were selling like hotcakes, particularly to this fat customer who didn¡¯t want any other fruit but the grapes. ¡°Would you like to try one? They¡¯re sweet!¡± the owner offered one. Fatty tasted one and liked it. He picked more than a dozen more, tasted them and wanted to try more. The shopkeeper did not stop him, but he had a painful expression on his face. ¡°I¡¯ll take them all, sprinkle water on them to keep them moist and pack them up. Do you have more stock?¡± Fatty brushed his hands and glanced at the shopkeeper. ¡°Yes, there are two more boxes of new arrivals, do you want them?¡± the boss immediately opened the packaging to show Fatty. ¡°I¡¯ll take them all. Can you deliver?¡± Fatty was feeling quite generous. ¡°Of course!¡± The boss felt as though he had stumbled upon a goldmine. The boss swiftly packed and weighed the grapes, while the boss¡¯s wife helped, grinning from ear to ear, ¡°Take a look at our other fruits, do you want any? Durians from Thailand, smell how fragrant they are?¡± ¡°Do you have olives?¡± Fatty looked around. The boss shook his head, ¡°No olives at this time of the year.¡± No olives, he thought, but he could casually buy other fruits for that Japanese girl to play with, even though she couldn¡¯t really carve. Why assign such a task, making Fatty to search everywhere for olives, whether fresh or dried, none were found. The boss carefully packed the grapes into cardboard boxes, then loaded the boxes onto a store trolley. Per Fatty¡¯s instruction, he began to deliver them to the Department of Orthopedics. To show off his own generosity, the boss selected a watermelon as a gift to send along with the grapes. The issue with the grapes was resolved, but there was no sign of the olives. Fatty could only seek help from the all-knowing moment and someone replied: ¡°Olives, also known as Qingguo, is available in traditional Chinese medicine stores.¡± Fatty immediately ran to the outpatient department of Traditional Chinese Medicine to ask. So there was Qingguo, which was olive. He immediately asked the old traditional Chinese medicine doctor to help him get a kilo, and with that, the ingredients for training were finally complete. To benefit from someone¡¯s favour, one should show gratitude. No choice, one of the conditions was that he could eat grapes every day, without limit. Every day after surgery, the Orthopedics laboratory was very busy. Several microscopes were in continual use. Song Zimo, Takahashi, Xu Zhiliang, and others were all peeling grape skin with focused attention. Peeling grape skins is a basic skill in microsurgery. Microscopes are most popular in Orthopedics, Ophthalmology, and Neurosurgery, less so in other departments. Surgeons practice microsurgery using grapes with a three-step training method, both strict and fun. A disposable cup is filled with water, a fresh grape is placed in the water, then the cup is sealed with a latex glove, tightly knotted to cover the cup opening. Step one, cut open the sealed latex piece, and use a microscope tweezer to take the grape out of the cup. The tweezers must not pierce the grape skin when taking it out, otherwise it is considered a fail. Step two, under the microscope, use microscopic scissors and tweezers to fully peel off the grape skin. The grape skin shouldn¡¯t have any cuts or deficiencies, and the pulp should be smooth without any peeling, otherwise it is considered a fail. Step three, cut open the sealed latex piece, silk-stitch the opening closed with 7-0 needle and thread, and do not let any water leak when the cup is inverted, otherwise it is considered a fail. According to Yang Ping¡¯s training requirements, the content of this three-step training method is only the basic level. Song Zimo, Takahashi, and Xu Zhiliang are currently practicing high-expert level procedures. Peeling the grape skin completely doesn¡¯t even count as the first step. The skin of the grape needs to be divided into three layers ¡ª complete and unbroken three layers. Only if each layer doesn¡¯t break or miss any parts, it is considered a pass. Dividing the grape skin into layers, each additional layer exponentially increases the difficulty. Being able to completely separate two layers is the peak of the pyramid; being able to completely separate three layers is the pinnacle of the peak. Several people focused on the microscope, and with tiny tweezers and scissors, they were carefully dissecting the grape skin. The operation was incredibly slow, any carelessness could lead to failure. So far, no one has been able to completely separate two layers. Song Zimo performed the best by separating two layers but one layer had a few small holes. If only separating two layers is this difficult, when can they manage three layers? Every consumed grape and grape skin was thrown into the trash can. Fatty never eats grapes that have been peeled, even when his terms for procuring them was to have an unlimited stock of fresh, untouched grapes. Fujiwara Miyuki was practicing arthroscopy on a seed core. The specially made long-armed carving tools were about the same length and size as the usual arthroscopy tools. These are tools specially provided by Yang Ping for Song Zimo. When training Song Zimo¡¯s arthroscopy skills, carving models of knee and shoulder joints from seed cores, that was a basic requirement. Fujiwara Miyuki clearly had not found her rhythm yet. The seed core slipped away from her instruments from time to time. Once she finally stabilized the seed core, the tip of the carving instrument refused to cooperate. She wasn¡¯t impatient, though. She kept trying with the hope of getting it right. Zhang Lin and Little Five each held a hook in one hand, as if they were statues, motionless. The end of the hook had a small hole with an iron block hanging from a string. This kind of iron block was usually used for bone traction. The timer on the phone lightly ticked away. ¡°There¡¯s only half an hour to go, I can¡¯t hold on anymore, Little Five.¡± Zhang Lin¡¯s hand began to shake, with veins throbbing in his arm. ¡°Hang in there a bit longer. Your stamina really is lacking. No wonder your wife hasn¡¯t shown any signs of pregnancy yet.¡± Little Five derided Zhang Lin but compared to Zhang Lin, he seemed far better. His hand holding the hook was steady, not budging a millimeter. ¡°Little Five, will you ever admit when you¡¯re out of it? I bet half the basketball team could have been here by now. Just look at you, you¡¯re clearly worn out. Let go before you injure your tendon.¡± ¡°If you want to let go, do it on your own, and don¡¯t look for excuses to strike up a conversation, trying to distract me.¡± The two had a bet. The loser had to treat the winner to a meal if their daily training sessions ended on odd numbers. Zhang Lin was taken aback by Little Five¡¯s stamina. His complexion was like that of a woman¡¯s, which misled Zhang Lin into thinking he was weak. But now, more than half an hour had gone by, and yet his grip had not weakened. ¡°You¡¯re squandering good grapes, what a pity.¡± Fatty sat off to the side, peeling and eating grapes. ¡°Fatty, don¡¯t just pick the large ones, leave some for us.¡± After peeling a grape, Song Zimo greeted Fatty. ¡°Smaller grapes are good for practicing skills, I¡¯m doing you a favor.¡± Fatty expertly squeezed the fruit out of their skins and popped them into his mouth. Almost simultaneously, he tossed the skins and seeds into a nearby trash can. The bunch was now bare, and Fatty reached for another one to peel. ¡°We have to make our mark in this year¡¯s Golden Knife Award under the guidance of Dr. Yang. I have to stop eating and practice.¡± Fatty sprang up from his chair. An anesthesiologist needed to practice intubation, various punctures, medical box pulling, and operating the anesthesia machine. In a surgical team, the anesthesiologist is a hidden boss, responsible for sustaining the patient¡¯s life. Although they often operate behind the scenes, their role is only second to that of the chief surgeon. With Yang Ping¡¯s help, Fatty managed to pull out a scrapped anesthesia machine from the equipment department¡¯s warehouse for practice. Fatty disassembled the machine and then reassembled it. However, after reassembling, there were still a few parts left on the floor. He didn¡¯t know where they were supposed to go. Obliged to start again, he disassembled the machine once more. Fatty was determined to fully understand the internal structure and principles of the anesthesia machine, and to be able to disassemble and reassemble it himself. Once this was mastered, he would learn about the purpose and principles of each button, and practice operating the anesthesia machine with his eyes closed. In contrast with his medical box training, during operations, anesthesiologists often need to open their medical boxes and retrieve various medications to save lives. Any delay or mistake, due to unfamiliarity with the medical supplies, would waste precious time. When Fatty practiced pulling the medical box, he was able to open and close the drawers repeatedly without missteps, his movements neither too slow nor too fast. Opening the box, grabbing the medicine, uncapping the bottle, drawing up the medicine, and administering an injection ¨C all done smoothly in one swift motion. Then there was intubation training. Not satisfied with practicing on a model, Fatty moved on to practicing on rabbits. Without anesthesia, he had to successfully intubate the rabbits while they resisted. For puncture practice, he also used rabbits. Sadly, the poor creatures were pricked countlessly under his needle. Even though the anatomy of rabbits differed greatly from that of humans, the practice allowed Fatty to improve his techniques. To secure his standing in the team, Fatty had to make some sacrifices. Now, he was known for his exemplary intubation skills. When a patient was difficult to intubate in the Anesthesia Department, Emergency Department, or ICU, they knew to call on Orthopedics Department¡¯s Liang Fatty. Who is Liang Fatty? The toad on the plane who wanted to eat swan meat, oh right, the guy who smokes Zhonghua cigarettes. Eventually, Zhang Lin couldn¡¯t take it anymore and was the first to let go of the hook, which dropped onto the cushion. ¡°Director Zhang, you¡¯re wilting, unlike Director Lu, who¡¯s more steadfast,¡± Fatty teased after a while of training and then took a break himself. Zhang Lin waved away the comment, acknowledging defeat, but Little Five continued to hang in there. Fatty, seemingly finding the answers, stated: ¡°I see. Director Lu¡¯s wife is pregnant, so he¡¯s conserving energy. You, Director Zhang, are still sowing your seeds, shedding energy in the process. It makes sense you lost this round.¡± ¡°What the hell goes through your mind? Any cigarettes on you?¡± Asked Zhang Lin. ¡°Haven¡¯t you quit smoking?¡± Fatty questioned. Recalling his decision, Zhang Lin said: ¡°Oh, never mind.¡± ¡°Want to go somewhere for a smoke?¡± Little Five put down the hook. ¡°The restroom?¡± Chapter 364 - 0345 Artwork Chapter 364: Chapter 0345 Artwork ¡°Have you seen Doctor Yang?¡± Xiao Xu runs into Little Five and Fatty as they were leaving. Fatty points inside: ¡°He¡¯s busy in there!¡± Then he and Little Five leave to find a place to smoke. The foreigner follows Xiao Xu with a bag on his back, one that is so large it looks exaggerated. Even though he is tall and strong, the oversized bag looks mismatched with his physique. It gives the impression that his entire belongings are stashed in it, and given an open space, he could set up camp and cook a meal. Xiao Xu knew that the lab was a training place. So, not to disturb anyone, he brought the foreigner in quietly. Most people in the comprehensive orthopedics department were easy to talk to, except for Zhang Lin who was a bit difficult to handle. Xiao Xu had been scolded by him several times and it left a shadow in his mind. Since everyone was busy, Xiao Xu could only stand by with the foreigner and wait for them to finish. Yang Ping was demonstrating to Fujiwara Miyuki how to carve a fruit pit under an arthroscope, telling her it was something achievable. Song Zimo, Takahashi, Xu Zhiliang, and Zhang Lin were all watching nearby. Arthroscope? The foreigner was immediately interested, moving a little closer to see clearly what this doctor was up to. On the screen, the fruit pit was held in place by the left-hand forceps which didn¡¯t budge, like a nail hammered solidly in place. Meanwhile, the posterior forceps in his right hand smooths out the irregular bumps and edges of the pit. After processing one area, the left-hand forceps immediately move to turn the pit and expose other parts that need processing. The pit moves flexibly but steadily under the control of the forceps. When needing to move or turn, it maneuvers precisely; when needing to be fixed, it stays absolutely still. After the pit is smoothly polished, the right hand replaces the tool with a long-arm carving knife and begins to carve. Like a sketch artist outlining a simple still life, each stroke of the carving knife appears effortless. As Yang Ping carves bit by bit, more scraps start to accumulate around the pit. After he finishes carving one side, he turns to another. It¡¯s a complete 360-degree, all-around carving. Just like a precision machine tool manufacturing an exquisite part, producing a perfect rendering of the pre-designed image, under the coordination of Yang Ping¡¯s double-instrumented hands, a model of a knee joint slowly takes form on the screen within a few minutes. The contours of the patella, inner and outer condyles of the femur, tibial plateau, medial and lateral collateral ligaments, anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments, and meniscus are all clearly defined. It¡¯s a perfect miniature, even if it weren¡¯t under an arthroscope but done by a carver on a desk, it would still be a work of splendid art. Fujiwara Miyuki covers her mouth, turns to look at Yang Ping, then at the screen, in a loop. She can¡¯t quite believe her eyes. The effect is almost dreamlike. The well-brought-up madam is so astonished that her mouth hangs open. But she promptly covers it with her hand to mask her indiscretion. This is a training method Yang Ping thought of himself. There¡¯s nothing like fruit pits in the system space, so he used peanut-sized cartilaginous tumors from synovial chondromatosis lab samples as carving objects. Without special carving tools, Yang Ping used arthroscopic knives and scissors and other equipment to do the carving. The complexity is even greater. ¡°In our Chinese traditional arts, there are many similar training methods. I just borrowed some simple methods to improve surgical skills. After entering the industrial era, we are good at machine operation, but we over-rely on machines. Our learning of craftsmanship has lagged far behind our ancestors. Or perhaps, in our hearts, the concept of craft no longer exists.¡± Yang Ping places down his instruments and hands them to Fujiwara Miyuki. Fujiwara Miyuki takes the instruments; the handles still bear Yang Ping¡¯s body temperature. She holds the instruments, looking at the finely carved pit on the screen, not daring to move the instruments for fear of damaging this exquisite work of art. Normally, for micro-carving, to ensure the stability and precision of the hand movements, the tools are usually short-handled, about the length of a pen. The long-handled tools with various levers makes it very challenging to transmit the movements and strength of the hand accurately to the tip of the instrument. Arthroscopic carving compared to regular desk carving is several orders of magnitude harder. The foreigner puts down his gigantic bag and stares at the screen. Nobody understands better than him the level of this technique. In the few minutes that Yang Ping demonstrated his carving skills, such a level of arthroscopy is rare and unique in the world. No introduction was necessary. This young doctor must be the first author of the paper ¨C Dr. Yang Ping. Before Xiao Xu could speak, the foreigner, with a cheerful grin on his face, greeted Yang Ping using expressive gestures: ¡°Doctor Yang, hello. It¡¯s Robert from New York, I¡¯ve been emailing you.¡± He then took out his mobile phone and used a translation app to continue: ¡°Can your artwork be auctioned on the spot? If so, no one else can bid against me.¡± The humorous gentleman didn¡¯t get the expected laughter. His sudden vocal interruption disturbed the quiet appreciation everyone was engaged in. The glances everyone gave him carried a hint of hostility. Just like a heavily fatigued, sleepy person, if you disturbed his sleep, he wouldn¡¯t be able to suppress his anger, and would burst into flames of rage at any moment. ¡°I¡ªI¡ª Ladies and gentlemen, I did not mean to offend¡ª¡± Robert took a step back, shrugged, and spread his hands in apology. ¡°Dr. Robert!¡± Yang Ping shook hands with him. Robert had mentioned in an email that he would arrive today, and as promised, he was here. Doctor Robert came alone, without contacting any of his Chinese students, quietly making his way to Sanbo Hospital instead. This man, an avid surfer, always liked to infuse his life with a dash of adventure. What a great way to live¨Cheading into unfamiliar territory to meet new people. Su Nanchen and Lin Hao were both his students. In China, the number of students he had amassed was vast, especially in top hospitals in Beijing and Shanghai, where many specialists in sports medicine were his students. After landing, he took a taxi to Sanbo Hospital. Using translation software and some simple phrases, he managed to awkwardly communicate with the hospital¡¯s education department. Unlike Takahashi who came well-prepared, he was in a hurry to learn Yang Ping¡¯s multi-ligament reconstruction surgery under arthroscopy. Having performed the surgery once according to the papers he read, with great results, he was eager to watch the creator perform the operation. Robert looked like he had returned from a long journey, weary from travel, yet excited, shaking Yang Ping¡¯s hand, ¡°I was so eager; I couldn¡¯t sleep a wink.¡± It was then that Xiao Xu found a break in the conversation to briefly introduce Robert¡¯s intention to observe surgeries in the Orthopedics Department for academic exchange purposes over a week¡¯s time. After listening to Xiao Xu¡¯s introduction, Yang Ping picked up a form, carefully reviewed it before signing, and handed it to Zhang Lin: ¡°You arrange things for Doctor Robert.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not here for academic exchange, but for further learning.¡± Robert seemed to catch a few keywords and promptly corrected Xiao Xu. Academic exchange is an exchange of knowledge on equal terms, but regarding multi-ligament reconstruction surgery, he had no results to share with Doctor Yang. He was here to study Doctor Yang¡¯s surgery technique. Hence, he would refer to it as advanced study. He had smartly used academic exchange as a way to bypass the language barrier and come to learn Doctor Yang¡¯s surgery. He was desperate to master this technique. In the United States, the top-notch individuals in medicine are distributed widely, with no concentration in big cities, much less in certain big hospitals. Some of these top-notch specialists might work in a town hospital, which is no surprise. American hospitals don¡¯t have ratings; they only conduct evaluations for specific surgeries. As long as the personnel, technology, and equipment meet requirements and pass certifications, even a clinic can perform a heart bypass surgery. Furthermore, American doctors don¡¯t really feel impressed by big hospitals in Beijing or Shanghai. In their eyes, all Chinese hospitals are the same. Therefore, after reading Yang Ping¡¯s paper, Robert didn¡¯t bother to find out which hospital Yang was at, nor did he harbor any doubts, even if he were at a small hospital with only a hundred beds. He wouldn¡¯t question how there could be such an amazing doctor there. Doctor Robert was intrigued, ¡°Miss, may I give it a try?¡± ¡°Of course, you may.¡± Fujiwara Miyuki removed the nut sculpture from the dark box, putting it into her pocket. After placing a new nut in the box, she made room for Robert: ¡°Would you like to give it a try?¡± Robert walked over, picked up the tools, and tried to start carving under the arthroscope. Forget about carving, even making a recognizable letter was proving difficult. He struggled to control the nut holding forceps. Even when he did, the scalpel lacked the power to complete one stroke of carving. When he exerted more force, the nut was pushed away by the scalpel. After much struggle, Robert managed to carve a crude letter A. The operation¡¯s force and movements could not be accurately transferred to the tip of the tool. Even that was a feat for Robert, for he was able to carve a crooked letter. This would have been hard for Fujiwara Miyuki, too, let alone carving a letter. Seeing such a magical performance on his first day, Robert¡¯s curiosity was instantly piqued. How did Doctor Yang manage to possess such skillful arthroscopic operation techniques? No wonder he was able to innovate the multi-ligament reconstruction of the shoulder and knee joint surgery. ¡°Could you... like with the young lady... maybe teach me when you have time?¡± Robert put down his tool, took out his cell phone, and made the request through his translation software. ¡°When you can carve the letters ABC properly, I¡¯ll teach you.¡± Yang Ping thought that demonstrating more now was futile. Chapter 365 - 0346 Ten Cups of Tea 365 Chapter 0346 Ten Cups of Tea After observing the arthroscopic micro-engraving, Doctor Robert was filled with regret. He regretted rushing off too quickly and not bringing a decent gift with him. In the following days, Doctor Robert became increasingly curious about the department of orthopedics, as it was completely different from their hospital. The most significant surgical indications were different, some patients who were considered useless for surgery, or even relatively contraindicated, became surgically advisable here. These patients were scattered throughout the corridors, wearing braces, undergoing postoperative gait training, and often gathered to exchange experiences. Among them, many patients who had undergone multiple ligament reconstruction of the shoulder and knee were professional athletes, including football and basketball players. No matter if they were doctors or nurses, or the patients, there seemed to be no significant apprehension about the difficulty of this surgery. The treatment was no different than the common anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. The day after surgery, these patients were allowed to walk freely in the corridor wearing their braces, going on their own to the rehabilitation room for training. With Zhang Lin''s permission, Doctor Robert performed stability tests on a few patients who had undergone multi-ligament knee reconstruction. Whether it was a manual examination or the KT2000 test, the stability was very good, and their return to the field would not be a problem. Doctor Robert felt as if he had stepped into a parallel universe. Had it not been for a miraculous paper, he would have no idea that such doctors and techniques existed in China on the west side of the Pacific. After observing several surgeries led by Song Zimo for a few days, Doctor Robert was a bit embarrassed. The assistant''s skills were not inferior to his, and even the ability to reconstruct multiple ligaments in the shoulder and knee completely exceeded his level. Today, he could finally observe Doctor Yang Ping leading a surgery. Doctor Robert arrived at the operating room early, following everyone else. How could Director Gao miss Yang Ping''s surgery? He rushed in just before the operation commenced. Now, under Yang Ping''s guidance, Old Gao''s technique in multiple ligament reconstruction of the knee and shoulder has been leaping forward. Given time, he will advance to the national forefront, which is inevitable. Director Gao silently sneaked into the operating room, a behavior he was used to. Doctor Robert greeted Old Gao, who had just entered, in a jerky Chinese, "Hello!" Everyone was wearing masks and could not see each other''s faces. But when he saw the eyes of this European and American fellow, Old Gao found it familiar but couldn''t figure out who he was. Director Gao had spent a year as a visiting scholar at the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States and recognized a few foreigners. He always felt this person''s eyes were familiar. Perhaps he was another one coming for advanced studies. The Japanese have already come, so it would not be strange if an American or European showed up. All foreigners look alike; Director Gao did not have time to speculate. He found the best viewing angle and staked out his position. Doctor Robert noticed that Old Gao''s position was very good, very safe. It was convenient to watch the screen or the operating table. Hence, he stood next to Old Gao. Director Gao did not intend to relinquish his position. It didn''t matter if people squeezed a bit. These are here to learn. First-come, first-served. It was his own fault that he wasn''t proactive, came in so early, and wandered around the operating room. Old Gao has now mastered the basic techniques of such surgeries and is now learning fine-tuning ligament balance. Currently, there are quite a few patients of this type. With Yang Ping providing technical guidance and support, Old Gao is progressing very quickly. A little more effort, learning the fine-tuning of ligament balance, he would step into the national forefront. With experience in performing more surgeries, Old Gao could join the international first echelon for this type of operation. When the preparatory work for the operation was done, Yang Ping took over the lens and began the operation. This racing speed of surgery struck the New Yorker, Doctor Robert, causing his eyes to widen in astonishment. He was genuinely worried that too much force could make his eyeballs pop out. Let alone the endoscope operation, the micro-engraving was so incredible that it took Doctor Robert a few days to return to normal thinking. Whether it''s anterior or posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, no positioning tools were needed. Just drilling holes directly in the tibia and femur. Yet, the start and end points of the ligament can be extremely precise. Whether it''s the posterior medial structure or posterior external structure, the complex ligament starts and ends were as simple as drawing lines in Yang Ping''s hands. Doctor Robert stood behind the yellow line. His tall body blocked Director Gao''s view, and this foreigner seemed a bit selfish. When he squeezed a bit, Old Gao kindly made way, but this fellow took a mile when given an inch and continuously encroached on Old Gao''s space. Old Gao was somewhat dissatisfied and squeezed Doctor Robert to retrieve his position. Robert was engrossed in watching, and with his tall and robust physique, he casually shifted his body and squeezed Old Gao back, seeming quite justified. When he squeezed for some space, Doctor Robert took even more. Old Gao''s anger flared up, but the physical difference was too considerable, and Old Gao couldn''t out-squeeze him. He immediately called out to Zhang Lin: "Xiao Zhang, Xiao Zhang!" Zhang Lin heard Director Gao calling: "Director Gao, what''s wrong?" "This international friend, what''s going on? Is he a new intern in your department? Why doesn''t he have any discipline? He keeps squeezing people." Old Gao complained. Zhang Lin took a look, and indeed Robert was indeed taking up too much space. That was a bit of bullying. "Doctor Robert, discipline! Follow the discipline! Otherwise, I have the right to forbid you to enter the operating room." Zhang Lin sternly warned Doctor Robert. I don''t care if you come from Japan or the United States. In my territory, you must duly follow the rules, or there''ll be no discussion. Robert immediately moved a little to the side his chin and gestured to the vacated space. His meaning was that he conceded; here I leave half for you, his eyes continuing to observe the surgery. Witnessing the seriousness of the Japanese intern helping Zhang Lin make tea, Robert could guess the weight of the secretary''s power. Just like at the New York Special Surgery Hospital, all interns are under his management. He could grant or forbid interns from performing certain actions, even recommend to the hospital to advise interns to leave. To actually meet Doctor Robert in the operating room. Anyone who''s seriously into sports medicine knows Doctor Robert¡ªhe''s the Chairman of the North American Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Association and the Director of Sports Medicine at the New York Special Surgery Hospital. What is he doing here? Old Gao wondered. The man stood outside the yellow line, his feet touching it but not crossing it, not even blinking once. His eyes shifted between the operating table and the screen, just like when he observed surgeries at the New York Special Surgery Hospital. "Doctor Robert from the New York Special Surgery Hospital?" Director Gao asked Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin nodded, "He arrived a few days ago, here to learn surgery from Doctor Yang." That confirms it, it''s Playboy Robert. Right now, no matter who he is, Director Gao doesn''t have time to engage him and just quietly continues watching the procedure. Even if the American President stood there, he wouldn''t get in the way of Old Gao watching the surgery. The American President has nothing to do with Old Gao, but this surgery matters a lot to him. The entire surgery was finished in half an hour, bypassing the ligament adjustment steps altogether. Could it be? There''s no need for deliberate adjustment; once the surgery is complete, the ligaments naturally adjust themselves. Has his intuition reached this level? This kind of surgery surely opened Robert''s eyes. Generally, he''s the one enlightening others, but this time, it''s his turn. After the surgery, the patient''s limb was bandaged and the sterile sheet was lifted. Robert dared not go a step further, so he made a request from outside the yellow line, "May I perform a knee examination on the patient? Under your supervision, of course." Such a non-invasive examination is acceptable in the presence of our hospital''s doctors. Yang Ping also knew that he wanted to evaluate the results of the surgery, so he allowed Robert to give it a try. Robert put on gloves, completed the whole set of knee examinations, gave thumbs up with both hands, and raised his eyebrows, "Incredible, the stability of the knee joint is excellent." With such stable joints, one might actually question whether any damage occurred at all. Every time he performs a surgery, he hopes to achieve such a feeling, but over the years, he''s never once managed to attain this sensation until today. This feeling is marvelous. Robert fiddled with it a few more times, and if he was currently in New York, in his own operating room, performing a surgery that he had conducted himself, he would definitely be dancing for joy. This surgery is significantly better than the one he performed based on a research paper. This is a procedure that can allow patients to return to the sports field. This is the operation that can end the career-ending syndrome. With the trip to China, Robert has discovered a new world. This is a magical place with magical people and magical techniques. No one understands the enormous significance of this surgery better than Robert. If such results are achievable, many sports stars from the past wouldn''t have had to leave the stage so sadly. For surgeries like this, Robert tried every means possible, collaborated with Cornell University, and Columbia University, utilizing computer technology, 3D imaging technology, and motion analysis technology, attempting to find the optimal balance, but results were still far from satisfactory. Patients from all over the world with such conditions are lining up to see him, considering him the final destination on their path to seeking medical help. After being treated by him, the patients have reached the pinnacle of medical science. Typically, once Robert performs the surgery, patients regain the ability for normal walking. If they are lucky, they can even continue some jogging and other exercises, but retirement is inevitable sooner or later. If Robert wants to achieve Doctor Yang''s level, standardized operations won''t cut it. He must gain his experience. When the surgical methods are similar, the difference lies in experience. However, experiences aren''t readily shared by everyone. Even Robert himself doesn''t always have enough patience to share his minute experiences with all his students around the world, except perhaps his own favorite disciples. It''s a pity that he''s not allowed to participate in the surgeries himself; otherwise, he could have learned so much more. He was quite envious of Takahashi; how could he be allowed to perform surgeries along with Doctor Yang? Seeing is believing. Robert was a bit disoriented after witnessing the carving of fruit kernels under a microscope during their first meeting and the current arthroscopic surgery. He had always thought of China as a mystical country, and now his impression was even stronger. Back when Bruce Lee movies were popular in America, American hooligans took care to avoid Chinese people in cloth shoes. Kung fu! Now, Robert had this misconception that everyone in the operating room was highly skilled, and he had just misused humor to jostle the doctor beside him. "Sorry!" Robert said in his untuned Chinese. In front of Yang Ping, Robert felt that his surgery skills were obviously one level lower. Robert, world-class and stationed at the top of the pyramid for a long time, was not accustomed to this. But seeing is believing - the arthroscopy of this young doctor not only surpassed his own, but the ligament reconstruction surgery was simply... The starting and ending points of the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments were all positioned in mere moments and absolutely centered anatomically. In front of him, Robert was a true student. With the world''s largest number of surgeries per year and the highest quality surgeries, this doctor was several times faster than himself. "In the short term, it will be difficult for you to achieve a high level in this kind of surgery. Start with common people, then non-confrontational professional athletes, before finally moving on to strongly confrontational professional athletes, such as football or basketball players," Doctor Yang didn''t hold back from sharing his experience. In comparison to others, experience is much cheaper for him. As long as he''s willing, he can accumulate decades'' worth of experience in an instant. "Zhang, can making tea for you earn me a chance to operate?" Robert pulled Zhang Lin into a corner and showed him a translation on his phone. "If possible, let me make tea for you. Ten cups a day. Not the Japanese man, he''s unsanitary. He doesn''t wash his hands before making tea." "Cigars, from Cuba. I have plenty. I''ll bring some for you tomorrow," Robert felt he had discovered the shortcut to Oriental wisdom. Chapter 366 - 0347 Same Frequency Chapter 366: Chapter 0347 Same Frequency Ten cups of tea, cigars from Cuba. Bribe? It¡¯s a blatant bribe! Teacher Zhang is hardly someone who can be bought. Who are you trying to embarrass? Zhang Lin sneered inwardly. He had fought hard to secure his position in the team. Would he destroy his future for such a trifle? If one lacks such insights, how could they serve as the secretary of education for the Department of Orthopedics? Initially, he thought this American was much more spirited than the Japanese man, but now it seems they¡¯re much of the same sort. ¡°Doctor Robert, you should have a righteous heart. If you want to join, learn from Takahashi. Meet the required criteria, and the opportunity will arise. Unfair practices aren¡¯t going to work here,¡± said Zhang Lin, patting Robert¡¯s sturdy shoulder before turning to leave. Throughout his life, Teacher Zhang had never been this noble. It felt good. Robert was left alone in a corner, staring blankly. Director Gao was heading his way. Director Gao had just finished watching a surgery and was looking to greet Robert. He had learned under him before, and now that Robert was here, it was only polite to greet him warmly. He had seen him and Zhang Lin conspiring in a corner, and it didn¡¯t seem proper to intrude. He waited from a distance. Upon seeing Zhang Lin leave, Old Gao approached and greeted him in English, ¡°Doctor Robert, it¡¯s indeed an honor to meet you here. I¡¯m Gao Yuan. I studied sports medicine at the New York Special Surgery Hospital under Dr. George. Do you remember me?¡± Robert was taken aback for a moment, then opened his arms for a warm American-style hug: ¡°Gao? How could I forget! I¡¯ve missed you, why didn¡¯t you keep in touch? Are you working at this hospital now?¡± Who is Gao Yuan? There are countless visiting doctors worldwide every year, how could Robert remember each one. However, at this time and place, encountering a Chinese person who could possibly help him out was a good thing, even if he had to pretend to know him. Robert¡¯s enthusiasm was overwhelming. Old Gao was left breathless from the hug and slapped on the back before being released. ¡°I¡¯m currently serving as the director of the sports medicine center here.¡± Director Gao stated confidently. Robert¡¯s interest was immediately piqued: ¡°Gao, are you familiar with Doctor Yang Ping? I see you¡¯ve also been studying his surgery.¡± ¡°Of course, I am. We are colleagues at work, but technically, I learn a lot from his guidance,¡± boasted Old Gao. He felt no shame in admitting to being mentored by Yang Ping, but rather felt proud. In Gao¡¯s understanding, Yang Ping, a gifted individual, would be world-renowned sooner or later, and it would be beneficial to share his ¡°school of thought.¡± However, even if he maintained this connection, Yang Ping might not acknowledge it. Currently, the only recognized trainee of Yang Ping was Song Zimo, and stuttering Xu Zhiliang seemed to be trending in that direction. ¡°Impressive stuff, Gao. I¡¯ve got something to discuss with you. Do you think you could help?¡± Robert, quick on his feet, felt he had found a reliable individual who could aid him. ¡°What is it? Just tell me.¡± Old Gao was generous; if he could help, he would. In a way, Robert was even his mentor. ¡°Doctor Yang¡¯s surgical skill needs no praise. My reason for being here is to learn from his surgery. The time I have is just one week, three days of which have already passed. I¡¯m eager to work closely with Dr. Yang in the operating room. Could you help? Name your conditions. How about a membership in the North American Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine Society? I can recommend you at any time.¡± Indeed, this was appealing. Being part of that society had prestige, and locals would buy into it, essentially gilding your reputation. If visiting the New York Special Surgery Hospital as a scholar was gilding one¡¯s credentials, then becoming a member of the North American Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine Society would be equivalent to encrusting diamonds. Director Gao was quite familiar with the integrated orthopedic surgery department. In any other hospital, Robert¡¯s situation would make him a big shot. He would undoubtedly be assisted by the department director, entertained by the hospital director, and welcomed with banners for days. How could they possibly have issues with letting him operate? However, sadly, the integrated orthopedic surgery department at Sanbo was a bit different. What with having Yang Ping pushing boundaries, even the brightest individuals would see their glow fade upon arrival. Was Takahashi an influential figure? He may have a grand reputation in the trauma surgery world, but he was still relegated to making tea, thanks to Yang Ping¡¯s self-assumed superiority. As for Robert, he¡¯d probably end up transferring patients in the ward. ¡°I assume you would have extensive experience in shoulder and knee ligament reconstruction and opportunities to speak at the large North American sports medicine conferences?¡± Seeing Director Gao not immediately responding, Robert further sweetened the deal. Director Gao stroked his chin, finding the situation somewhat tricky. If he were to seek Yang Ping¡¯s approval, he would most likely end up dealing with Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin, despite having worked with Yang Ping for quite some time, hadn¡¯t made much progress in his skills, even though his attitude suggested otherwise. He felt he could compete with even the President of the United States, and couldn¡¯t care less for the likes of Robert. This could prove to be awkward. ¡°Visiting Professor at the Sports Medicine Department of New York Special Surgery Hospital?¡± The stakes were raised again, and Robert gritted his teeth. The conditions were quite appealing to Director Gao. If he could indeed secure these titles, his reputation would absolutely skyrocket. ¡°Alright, Doctor Robert, I¡¯ll try to work it out. We can¡¯t get you on the table directly here, but I¡¯ll try to get you in with me, following Doctor Yang¡¯s surgical procedures at my place. You did say your previous conditions are valid, correct?¡± Old Gao wasn¡¯t sure how reliable Robert¡¯s word was ¨C would he go back on his promises once they have served their purpose? Either way, even if Robert didn¡¯t keep his promises, there was no loss to Gao. ¡°Deal!¡± Robert high-fived with Director Gao, his intelligence had solved his problem. The next surgery must have started. Robert and Director Gao slipped into the operating room again. Yang Ping was explaining the essentials of the surgery to Fujiwara Miyuki. In fact, since Fujiwara Miyuki is a specialist in sports medicine and had a good command of Chinese, Yang Ping was willing to explain it to her. On the other hand, Robert didn¡¯t know Chinese. Even though Yang Ping¡¯s English wasn¡¯t bad, he was not particularly keen to speak in English. As expected, this Japanese beauty has a special relationship with Doctor Yang; she gets special treatment regularly. ¡°Can I feel the rough surface of the ligament attachment area you mentioned on the table using a probe?¡± Miss Fujiwara also strives for technical excellence. ¡°In the next surgery, you follow me up to the table, and I¡¯ll let you feel how easy it is to find the anatomical center of the ligament footprint just by the difference in the bone surface.¡± He had taught Takahashi in the last surgery, this time he would specially teach Miyuki. In the three months of further studies, Yang Ping wanted them to learn the anticipated techniques. Unlike Robert who had a week of observational learning, which had no prior expectations, and was purely of an observational nature. She was personally taught by Doctor Yang, while he couldn¡¯t cross the yellow line from the podium. Now it was not time to consider what you lacked, but what you could do with what you have. There were four days left; he had to find a way to get on the operating table and learn from Doctor Yang¡¯s personal experience. Telling Doctor Yang straight up about his wish was hardly hopeful. In a specialty surgical hospital in New York, if a short-term observer asked to get up on the table, Robert wouldn¡¯t bother to answer, but would hand it over to the teaching secretary to resolve it according to the rules. Clinical medical practice involves safety, ethics, etc., and requires a strict system. In the United States, a consulting doctor, along with a Chinese refresher doctor, would ask the patient before the check-up, ¡°This is my refresher doctor from China, do you mind him watching from the side?¡± If the patient refuses, the refresher doctor would be asked to leave the consultation room or the ward. If the patient agrees, the refresher doctor could watch from the side. Robert also considered using his status in the field of sports medicine to get some special treatment, but it seemed impossible. This young doctor gave him a bland treatment without seeing him as a leading figure in sports medicine. Being a leading figure can only be seen in the eyes of others. In the eyes of this young doctor, Robert is nothing. ¡°Takahashi had mentioned in Yu Shuilian¡¯s pre-op discussion that reconstructive surgery is a simulation of function, a principle that also applies to this type of surgery. Still, it¡¯s not a superposition of multiple ligament function simulations, but a simulation of the complex functions constructed by several ligaments. Therefore, we must discard the thinking of single ligament reconstruction and treat balance issues from the perspective of the complex,¡± said Yang Ping, his words as precious as gold. Old Gao¡¯s little notebook was writing non-stop; the entire notebook was almost filled, ready to be replaced with a new one. Takahashi and Miyuki were also next to him, taking notes on their portable tablets. Zhang Lin and Little Five have already completed the pre-surgery preparation for the next patient, and it was Song Zimo¡¯s turn to perform a knee arthroscopy. After the examination, Yang Ping would be up for surgery, and he would take Miyuki up to the theatre to scrub in. Outside the yellow line, Robert was very envious, his toes kept moving forward, getting as close as possible without crossing the yellow line. This time, he didn¡¯t dare to squeeze Old Gao, and he kindly invited Old Gao to stand in the best position with him. ¡°Doctor Robert, we have a surgery over there tomorrow. We¡¯ve invited Doctor Yang to be the Chief Surgeon. Would you be interested in coming to observe?¡± When Director Gao put this news out there, Robert was thrilled with excitement, he voluntarily moved aside, leaving the best place to Old Gao alone. After several surgeries and a break for lunch, Robert was still following Yang Ping. Yang Ping wanted to lie down for a while in the resting room. Robert also followed him in there, and the two of them sat side by side on the bench. He wanted to chat with Yang Ping to get closer, but he couldn¡¯t find a common topic for a while. Suddenly, Robert had an idea, men full of love! Nothing could be a better common topic. He couldn¡¯t do it in Chinese, so he had to resort to English. ¡°You have good taste; she¡¯s awesome! She is an Eastern Scarlett Johansson. She has Scarlett¡¯s peak body, beautiful face, charming eyes, her whole body exudes sexiness, which could make your hormones explode, and I dare to assure you, she¡¯s only interested in you¡ª¡± Yang Ping looked at the American guy and then around him, they were the only ones in the rest room, he was not talking on the phone, was he talking to himself about women? This guy was quite interesting, suddenly talking about women, was this the unrestrained American humor? Chapter 367 - 0348 Brother Chapter 367: Chapter 0348 Brother Director Gao kept his word. He invited Yang Ping to guide a knee joint multi-ligament reconstruction surgery. He personally went to the department to fetch Yang Ping, and along the way, he also called for Robert. On the road, he instructed Robert not to say anything, to stay close to him, and to follow him to the operating room once the surgery began. This was a surgery carried out by the Sports Medicine Center. Zhang Lin would not comment carelessly, and Yang Ping cared even less about meddling with petty affairs. Once they arrived at the operating room, Old Gao, in his capacity as Department Director, urged the doctors under him to work quickly and not dawdle. In the past, the associate chief doctors and head doctors from the Sports Medicine Department had some complaints about Old Gao. They thought that as Department Director, Old Gao was shamelessly building a relationship with a young doctor, which damaged the reputation of the Sports Medicine Department and made them feel embarrassed. Now they had to shut their mouths. Among their idle talks, Old Gao had already performed the most challenging surgery in sports medicine ¨C multi-ligament reconstruction of shoulder and knee joints ¨C to an excellent standard. The surgical results were already nearing those of top-tier professors in Beijing and Shanghai. It seemed like this was just the beginning. Considering the rapid progress of Old Gao, he seemed set to surpass these professors. Director Gao arranged for Yang Ping and Robert to rest while he coordinated the surgery preparations. ¡°Director, I met a patient with severe multi-ligament rupture in the knee joint during my clinic session yesterday. He had consulted in Shanghai¡¯s Huashan hospital before, and they said his surgical prognosis is poor. The patient came to me for a second opinion and I sent him away. This kind of ungrateful and tough surgery, even Huashan doesn¡¯t dare to undertake, we better not do it,¡± reported Director Nong, the group leader of the Sports Medicine Center. Director Gao, who was smiling just seconds ago, immediately frowned upon hearing this, ¡°What are you doing? If Shanghai can¡¯t do it, we can¡¯t do it either? I¡¯ve said it several times at the morning meeting, no matter how difficult the patient¡¯s condition is, we must accommodate them. We absolutely cannot avoid patients. If there are any issues, I, Gao Yuan, will take responsibility. Didn¡¯t you hear that?¡± Old Gao displayed his dominance with his authoritative demeanor of a Department Director and his ambitious words. Gao Yuan indeed had ambitions. He was challenging the top hospitals in Shanghai and Beijing. He was extremely dissatisfied with the mentality of some of his subordinates who cowered upon facing Shanghai and Beijing. If they didn¡¯t dare to undertake the surgery that others refused, then when could they ever stand out? Old Gao¡¯s skills are now no worse than those in Shanghai. Besides, with Yang Ping backing him up, what did he have to fear? Moreover, patients with multi-ligament ruptures in the knee joint are much fewer compared to those with single ligament ruptures. To accumulate more experiences, they cannot be picky. With Yang Ping there, Director Gao didn¡¯t continue to demonstrate his authority as Department Director. Instead, he coldly said: ¡°Such incidents should not happen again. Next time there will be penalties. I hope everyone is clear on that.¡± Director Nong was a little fearstruck, ¡°Understood, Director, I will pay attention next time.¡± Execution, without execution, how can we proceed? The policies I line out simply aren¡¯t executed. This laxity isn¡¯t acceptable. Perhaps it¡¯s time to make an example of someone, Old Gao thought. Some unambitious group leaders needed to be replaced. Some proactive individuals who hadn¡¯t had the chance to lead groups should be promoted. A team with a pioneering spirit needs to be formed. Especially a few old-timers needed to be challenged. Since becoming the Department Director, Old Gao hadn¡¯t taken any significant actions. It looked like now he had no choice but to take actions. Once the surgery preparations were complete, Old Gao accompanied Yang Ping to scrub in, with Robert following behind them. Everyone knew that this foreigner was a friend of Director Gao¡¯s, so no one dared to ask too many questions. None of the others had been to the Special Orthopedic Hospital in New York, so they didn¡¯t recognize Robert. At the three-tiered Southern Hospitals, contact with foreign countries is frequent, and inviting a few foreigners to an Academic Conference to enhance its prestige is standard practice. Everyone thought that Robert must be one of the European or American experts invited by Old Gao to elevate the prestige of the event as soon as he took office. After Yang Ping put on his surgical gown and sat down to rest as instructed by Old Gao, he and Robert started preparing for the surgery together. They first conducted an arthroscopic examination of the knee joint to further confirm the diagnosis before carrying out joint cleaning to prepare for surgery. Then, they marked the starting and ending points of each ligament tunnel with a low-temperature plasma knife, so Yang Ping could amend them later. This is a core technique of the surgery. Once everything was ready, Yang Ping finally took the stage. Old Gao immediately instructed the circulating nurse, ¡°Raise the height of the operating table.¡± Yang Ping was 1.83 meters tall, while Old Gao was only 1.7 meters. The height of the operating table had been adjusted according to Old Gao¡¯s height earlier. Now that Yang Ping was the Chief Surgeon, the table had to be adjusted to his height. Robert straightened his back, which eased his discomfort greatly. He had been hunched over to accommodate Old Gao, and it had felt awful. ¡°Foot stool!¡± the nurse brought a foot stool for Old Gao. When Yang Ping took over the surgery, he instructed them point by point which marks were good and which ones were off. He clearly explained why the good ones were good and how the off ones were off, gave reasons for the deviations, and why these deviations arose. He not only made sure you knew what was happening, but also why it was happening. Several doctors who precisely came to observe the surgery stood by the side. Apart from one who was making notes on an A4 paper, none of the others were taking notes. It¡¯s not hard to understand why, everyone knows that the college entrance examination can change their lives, yet many chose not to work hard. ¡°Doctor Yang, Doctor Robert doesn¡¯t understand Chinese well.¡± Director Gao reminded. Indeed, Robert was actually quite confused. He could understand phrases like ¡°Hello, goodbye¡±, but the rest was like Greek to him. Oh, Yang Ping admitted he neglected him. Robert had traveled a long way to learn. Given the limited time, it was understandable that he hadn¡¯t mastered Chinese yet. Spreading my surgical technique rapidly to Europe and America by teaching him would achieve twice the results with half the effort. It¡¯s like an emperor going to war, just need to command several generals, and Robert and Takahashi are those generals. By teaching them, I¡¯m teaching countless others. Yang Ping explained it again in English to Doctor Robert who was immediately flattered. Relationships warm up in amazing moments. Those you can talk about women with, those are the real comrades. The heart-to-heart exchange in the resting room yesterday worked out. Yang Ping didn¡¯t respond much yesterday, it was an Eastern-style reserve, he actually really agreed with my view on love. Robert prided himself on never misjudging. Although he¡¯s only been here for a few days, he can be sure that at least two women are currently entangled with Doctor Yang. This Japanese woman doesn¡¯t need explaining. How could it be without affection when her eyes deliberately or unintentionally linger on Doctor Yang? Furthermore, this instrument nurse is even more clear. Their affections couldn¡¯t escape Robert¡¯s eyes, even if they tried to hide it. Common hobbies are the best social bonds, start a conversation and a relationship of comradeship begins to establish. If Doctor Yang goes to the United States in future, Robert decided he will certainly introduce him to some passionate American girls. This one week of study only reveals the tip of the iceberg. Only by maintaining a good relationship with Yang Ping and continually learning from him, can he truly make progress. The surgery for little Andrew... I¡¯m afraid only Doctor Yang can be the chief surgeon. I can perform the surgeries well in the future, but to reach his level, may not be realistic. Furthermore, to perform this surgery well, it¡¯s impossible without one or two years of time. I need to maintain a stable and close relationship with Yang Ping in future. ¡°Determining these starting and ending points isn¡¯t isolated, they need to be understood from the perspective of the ligament complex. It¡¯s definitely not about independently reconstructing each ligament.¡± This is the essence, Robert remembered. No paper has ever dissected the principle so deeply. By applying this principle, surgical effects can be multiplied, but that requires a large amount of surgical experience accumulation. For any operation, in order to achieve the greatest surgical effects, an abundance of case accumulation is required. It progresses bit by bit, there aren¡¯t any shortcuts. ¡°Doctor Yang, I have many similar patients in the U.S. Unfortunately, before your surgical method appeared, surgical results weren¡¯t good. Can I ask Doctor Yang to operate in the U.S. in the future? Name your price.¡± ¡°There¡¯s also a small request. Not long ago, I sent you information about a little boy from an orphanage, he¡¯s one of my sponsorees. The boy is growing up very fast, if we don¡¯t hurry up with the surgery, I¡¯m afraid he¡¯ll have severe after-effects. I want to ask you to operate on him there or we could bring him over here. Would that be okay?¡± Robert knew that he must ask him to operate. Have him guide himself personally for a while, then can he truly master this surgery. Figuring it out himself, not only is it time-consuming, it will encounter bottlenecks as well. This Gao Yuan, he studied in New York before. Now seeing him perform surgeries, he¡¯s doing even better than any surgeon in New York. The reason is that he¡¯s received Doctor Yang¡¯s careful guidance. At least for the next year, Doctor Yang will have to do the surgeries for professional athletes. I will follow him for a while. As for the commission, following U.S. practice, all surgical fees will be his. One week is too short, Robert¡¯s trip to China is coming to an end soon. He confirmed one thing, the surgical method in the papers is real. The original creator¡¯s surgical results are even better than those in the papers. He alone has completed this magical journey in China. Like a cowboy with a gun, riding a horse in the west, he found a treasure land unknown to the world. Yang Ping was performing and explaining at the same time, occasionally passing the instruments to Old Gao and Robert in turn for experience. Once the surgery was completed, Robert learnt a lot. He has finally fulfilled his wish. When Robert was leaving the operating room with Yang Ping, he found Old Gao: ¡°Gao, I¡¯m a man of my word, let¡¯s exchange email addresses to stay in touch.¡± Old Gao cared about Robert¡¯s conditions, but doesn¡¯t consider them as indispensable. Robert is the department director of sports medicine at the top-ranked orthopedic hospital in the world. Befriending him, future collaborations and exchanges become easier. ¡°When are you going back? Let me know a day in advance. I¡¯ll take you out for a meal and drinks.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll invite Doctor Yang along!¡± Old Gao said under his breath. Robert was over the moon, his exaggerated expression was not unlike a character in an American comedy. Chapter 368 - 0349: Past Events Chapter 368: Chapter 0349: Past Events Before he left, Robert had only managed to carve a single legible letter into the olive stone. With time pressing on, he couldn¡¯t learn this advanced operation technique from Yang Ping, but he vowed they would meet again. However, he made significant progress, under Yang Ping¡¯s personal guidance, glimpsing the surgical methods for reconstructing the multiple ligaments of the shoulder and knee joints. The day before he left China, Old Gao played host and invited Robert for a meal, gathering all the brothers from the Orthopedics Department. However, it was Takahashi who eventually paid the bill, outmaneuvering everyone with the speed of lightning. Song Zimo occasionally managed to peel off two layers of grape skin completely, while Takahashi was still striving for the second layer. He and Xu Zhiliang both failed in their attempts, but he was faring better than Xu. Even though he created several holes, he could still separate the second layer, whereas Xu¡¯s attempts resulted in several fragments. Fujiwara Miyuki¡¯s fruit-stone carving was progressing slowly, having difficulty carving a single letter properly. But the Japanese girl was working hard, taking every available opportunity to train in the afternoon. She wanted Dr. Yang to teach her personally, to show her how to master the control of the tools, how to transmit force to the tip of the tools but she was too shy to ask. Zhang Lin and Little Five were still at the first layer in peeling grape skins. The prospect of advancing to the second layer, despite breaking a few holes, or shattering into large pieces, was unlikely in the short term. However, they had made considerable progress with their hook holders, managing to hold a one-kilogram iron block for a half-hour, completely steady, and they were still improving. Now, they were training with soap bubbles¡ª using the hook to gently pull apart a basin full of large soap bubbles, with the intent not to burst any bubble. This type of training was aimed at mastering the appropriate strength of the hook, to avoid damage to human tissue or organs. If they can handle soap bubbles with appropriate force, they would certainly avoid causing pressure damage during actual surgery. Yang Ping had no intention of relaxing his strict requirements for them. Whenever he had time, he would supervise and guide them. Song Zimo, Takahashi, and Xu Zhiliang were very self-disciplined, while Zhang Lin, Little Five, and Liang Fatty were less consistent. Liang Fatty¡¯s cigarettes were also confiscated by Yang Ping. During training, Fatty would take Little Five for multiple breaks, all as an excuse to smoke, wasting a massive amount of time. Yang Ping himself occasionally entered the system space for training. All the orthopedic surgeries had been unlocked, and Yang Ping had gone through training for all of them. However, the pursuit of perfection never ends. Yang Ping, with his over half-a-million points, was consuming points from time to time, but there were also daily rewards being credited to his account. So, without any major expenditures, his points were generally fluctuating around five hundred thousand, ensuring a strong purchasing power for the system mall. Although the system space did not consume real time, nor physiological energy, the psychological experience was no different from reality. The psychological tolerance for fatigue also had a limit, so even someone as resolute as Yang Ping had a limited time to stay in the space. During this period of constantly entering and leaving, even Yang Ping himself did not know how much total time he had spent in the system space. The figure should be astonishing. As for the Golden Knife Award, Yang Ping was confident, but he dared not take it lightly. To acquire the reward of the space lab, he must win the championship of the Golden Knife Award. The Golden Knife Award was divided into regional competitions and national competitions. The whole country was divided into five major competition areas: East, West, South, North and Central, each region held a three-month regional competition, with the top three teams in the scoring standings going onto the national competition. The national competition adopted an elimination system, where the competition continued until the final match. Each hospital was allowed to send unlimited teams from each department, the team¡¯s lead surgeon had to be at least an associate chief physician. A chief physician needed two external authority experts to sign a recommendation to take the role of lead surgeon. Each step from diagnosis, surgery indication selection, pre-operative preparation, surgical operation, to post-operative treatment in the surgical case would be scored. Key steps that had severe errors resulted in zero points. For instance, an incorrect diagnosis or incorrect surgical indication selection, regardless of how well the other steps are performed, would earn zero points. The competition had a dedicated website, app and public account. Complete case data should be uploaded before surgery, and post-operative records should be updated and uploaded daily. All surgeries were elective and conducted live, directly encrypted and archived on the website after the broadcast, with no option to modify or edit. If there were any fraudulent practices discovered, the participating hospital would be barred from participating in the Golden Knife Award for two consecutive cycles. Some surgeries could be performed by the first assistant. All surgeries in the regional games could be performed by the first assistant. In the national games, the majority of surgeries must be performed by the lead surgeon, and lead surgeons must perform all surgeries in the finals. In Yang Ping¡¯s team, Song Zimo was the first assistant, and others included Zhang Lin Xiaowu, Liang Jing, Xiao Su, and Zhou Can. Xu Zhiliang came later, he worked in the emergency department when they registered so he was not part of the team, but he could participate as a substitute replacement if any member beside the lead surgeon or first assistant was unable to perform for special reasons. The Golden Knife Award took place once every four years. Its purpose was to motivate young doctors to be persistent in the pursuit of technical perfection, so it was a platform for young people. Participants for the competition had to be forty-five years old or younger. In this South China regional competition, the strongest contenders naturally came from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, Fuer, and Provincial People¡¯s Hospital. The Mary Hospital and Prince of Wales Hospital from Hong Kong also registered for the competition, which made the competition in the South China region extremely fierce. ¡ª Sanbo Hospital, Orthopedics Operating Room. This was a teenage spinal scoliosis correction surgery, Professor Zhang¡¯s patient. The patient traveled from Australia, with Professor Zhang sitting in a corner of the operating room. ¡°Begin!¡± Director Han stood tall. After routine pre-surgery confirmation, he took out the scalpel, the back of the blade traced a mark on the patient¡¯s back. The patient was prone, lying on the spinal prone rack. Following the imprint on the skin, a long vertical incision was cut in the center of the patient¡¯s back. Attentive to Yang Ping¡¯s height, Director Han made a point to stand on a footstool. Undoubtedly, Director Han, who had been appointed the successor by the former chief of Mo Sixth, operated with unwavering precision and agility, exhibiting an impressive rhythm as he cut through the skin. Once an electric knife was in his hand, he meticulously stopped the blood flow, layer by layer, he went deeper. ¡°Everything has its own pace, including surgery. You must catch its rhythm: speed has its own rhythm, and so does slowness. Losing the rhythm can easily lead to chaos,¡± Director Han advised Yang Ping during a brief pause to change surgical instruments. By this point, there was hardly anything technical left for Director Han to teach him. Instead, Director Han thought he should share some of his own introspective experiences. Before the surgery, the child¡¯s entire spine had been 3D printed to scale. Based on the 3D printed model, a pedicle screw positioning guide was also designed, making the entire procedure feel incredibly relaxed. A few gauze pads were lightly stained with blood. Director Han carefully separated the layers of tissue on either side of the spinous process, revealing parts of the lamina and other spinal appendages. Using the guide, he created an opening at the proposed point for the screw, using a probe to examine the four walls of the bone tunnel. Confirming there were no problems, the guide needles were inserted into the prepared bone tunnels one by one, passing through the pedicle and into the vertebral body. Once the last guide needle was inserted, a C-arm X-ray machine was used for fluoroscopy. On the curved, deformed spine, the positions of the guide needles were exceptional. Each one was in the optimal position, direction, and length. Scoliosis is a three-dimensional problem, correction is equally three-dimensional. The importance of 3D printing technology becomes evident at this stage, as it allows for a simulated surgery pre-operation. Whether it¡¯s screw insertion or osteotomy correction, all the data can be mastered beforehand. Director Han¡¯s surgeries are always impressively fluid and robust. Regardless of its magnitude, he makes any surgical procedure seem straightforward and effortless. The instruments in his hands seemed powerful, yet when he used them on the operating target, his touch was precise and just right. Satisfied with the position of the guide needles, the widening of the holes followed, inserting the pedicle screws. Thanks to the preoperative 3D model, the length and diameter of each screw had already been determined. There was no need to measure, they could directly be put in place. In the end, the crucial step was the osteotomy, which also had templates available. Having already rehearsed on the model, Director Han now carefully started the osteotomy, following the preoperative plan. A somatosensory evoked potential monitor was used to constantly monitor the electrophysiological activities of the spinal cord, preventing overstretching and compression which could lead to severe consequences when correcting the spine. Director Han executed the osteotomy at the preplanned locations in one swift action, before beginning the reshaping process. The reshaping took place slowly and steady. With every small correction made, he glanced back at the monitor, which showed normal readings on the somatosensory evoked potential monitor. Once the reshaping had reached a satisfactory level, Director Han stopped. This was the most dangerous and experience-demanding part of the surgery. ¡°Knowing when it¡¯s enough is vital at this stage. Once the critical point is crossed, paralysis is inevitable,¡± he warned Yang Ping on the opposite side of the operating table. Two metal rods were finally implanted, a crossbar was added, and then locked tight. The critical surgical steps were completed. After another fluoroscopy, the results of the correction were very satisfactory. The somatosensory evoked potential monitor showed that the electrophysiological activities of the spinal cord were normal, indicating no injuries. A mundane procedure with no dramatic ups and downs, that¡¯s what characterized Director Han¡¯s surgeries. ¡°Excellent doctors can turn dangers into safety, but achieving a higher level entails not exposing oneself to dangerous situations at all. Therefore, for a chief surgeon, a smooth, effective procedure is the best kind of surgery,¡± Director Han continued. ¡°In the final battle for the Golden Knife Award, all contenders are surgical geniuses and the judges are exceedingly harsh. Any minute flaw will be penalized.¡± ¡°I have complete confidence in you. But remember, we must never underestimate our opponents just like in a battlefield.¡± Director Han personally handled the final stages; inserting the drain tube, closing the incision, and suturing the skin until the last stitch was done. ¡°I¡¯m getting old. The stage is yours now.¡± Director Han took off his gloves and went to chat and rest with Professor Zhang. There were several surgeries lined up and he didn¡¯t want to waste time. He planned to complete the critical surgeries alongside Yang Ping all in one day. ¡°Second Brother Han, don¡¯t lose the Golden Knife Award again this time,¡± Professor Zhang told Director Han who had just sat down. Director Han didn¡¯t respond, he just sat there, watching Yang Ping unfolding the sterile sheet on the operating table. Years ago, Director Han and his senior fellow Hong Zhigang represented the Orthopedics department of Mo Sixth. Both of them led a team and made it to the finals. In the end, the championship showdown was between him and his senior. Regrettably, Director Han withdrew from the competition just before the final match. His assistant ended up completing the final surgical procedure, leading to Hong Zhigang winning the national Golden Knife Award for Orthopedics. This allowed the Golden Knife Award, after twelve years, to return to Shanghai. With the prior three championships going to hospitals in Beijing. Chapter 369: 0350: Formidable Enemy Chapter 369: Chapter 0350: Formidable Enemy Magic City Sixth Hospital, Professor Hong Zhigang¡¯s office. The Golden Knife Award trophy is placed on the office desk. In principle, the Golden Knife Award is presented to the team, but among the team members, the chief surgeon makes almost all the significant contributions. Therefore, by unwritten rules, the trophy is received by the chief surgeon representing the team and is kept by him. When discussing, it is generally said which doctor from a certain hospital won the Golden Knife Award. On the exquisite base, there stands a gleaming surgical knife model, inscribed with the Chinese characters for ¡°orthopedics¡±. This represents the highest surgical standard in the field of orthopedics nationwide. Hong Zhigang was staring at the trophy in a daze. He usually kept this trophy hidden. Now, he had taken it out and placed it on his desk. It was not for any other reason that he kept it hidden, but because this trophy stirred up too much controversy. There was talk within the industry that the Golden Knife Award would definitely fall into the hands of Magic City Sixth Hospital. Teacher and student competing, whoever loses or wins, it would belong to Magic City Sixth Hospital. Everyone was in agreement, however, that the champion should have been Han Jiangong. Because Han Jiangong abruptly left, Hong Zhigang had the opportunity to reach the top. If Han Jiangong had completed the competition, Hong Zhigang¡¯s chances of winning would not have been great. According to technical strength, Hong Zhigang was slightly inferior. This was the mainstream understanding of orthopedic doctors who participated in the Golden Knife Award that year, because Han Jiangong¡¯s performance had been leading Hong Zhigang before the finals. Wen Rentao had just returned from the United States yesterday. After performing several surgeries in the morning, he received a call from his mentor, took off his surgical gown, and hurried to Hong Zhigang¡¯s office. For this student, Hong Zhigang had invested his life¡¯s work. There are not many students who fully possess the qualities of talent, diligence, interest and perseverance, but Wen Rentao is exactly one of them. ¡°Teacher, did you want to see me for something?¡± Wen Rentao was very respectful. Without his teacher, he would not have his present day. He might still be working at a private orthopedic hospital. Although he could also lead a barely acceptable life, compared with his present, it would be worlds apart. At a private hand surgery hospital, even if he became the hospital director, he would still not be comparable to an ordinary associate director of Magic City Sixth Hospital, let alone Wen Rentao, a technical backbone, and future successor. In the future, he will become Hong Zhigang¡¯s successor, the head of the top orthopedic hospital nationwide, and if he strives, he could even attain the position of a hospital board member like his mentor. His future was brighter. ¡°Rentao, sit! You¡¯ve worked hard these few days. I want to talk to you about the Golden Knife Award. We must do our best for this Golden Knife Award. The Golden Knife Award has returned to Beijing two terms in a row, this term it must fall into Magic City.¡± Hong Zhigang asked the standing Wen Rentao to sit down. ¡°Understood, teacher, I will definitely live up to your expectations.¡± Wen Rentao replied calmly and confidently. The aroma of coffee filled the entire office. Hong Zhigang poured a cup for Wen Rentao: ¡°This coffee bean isn¡¯t bad, you should try it.¡± Hong Zhigang actually preferred hand-ground coffee, but where would he find the time to prepare it? So, he had to settle for a cup from the coffee machine. ¡°The competition for this Golden Knife Award is fiercely contested. There are so many talented young people among your generation. In Beijing alone, you know there are four to five who could challenge for the award. There are also many powerful competitors in the South, Central, and West China regions. Among them, several young candidates from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One are not bad and have comprehensive and exquisite technical skills.¡± In the past, the selection of the Golden Knife Award was difficult. Contestants would make a video recording of their surgery and mail a disc to the judges for scoring. With the popularization of the internet, the surgical procedures could be broadcast live through the network platform, and the videos could be transmitted instantly, thus upgrading the enthusiasm for the Golden Knife Award. Hong Zhigang was full of confidence in this student of his. After careful comparisons, no matter who his student was up against, he would always be a cut above the rest. However, young people need some pressure to perform to their fullest. ¡°Have you paid attention to the academic conference at Sanbo Hospital last year? Zeng Ran attended that conference, and he subtly expressed in his speech that Sanbo Hospital could become a dark horse.¡± Hong Zhigang brought up Sanbo Hospital. Hong Zhigang brought up this topic himself. Otherwise, Wen Rentao would never dare to mention Sanbo Hospital and Han Jiangong. Everyone had some understanding of the grudge between the teacher and Uncle Han Jiangong. It was a taboo topic for the teacher. ¡°I have not seen the original surgical video, because it was only an internal live broadcast at that time, and no original video was leaked. The video taken by Zeng Ran on his phone was not clear. I think the teacher is too worried. Sanbo Hospital does not have a well-known young talent. As far as I know, even the young doctor who performed the five-section replantation surgery only has a bit of talent in trauma orthopedics. For other types of final surgeries, such as scoliosis correction, upper cervical surgery, and spinal tumor, Sanbo Hospital does not perform many of these types of surgeries. Especially for scoliosis correction, they only perform a little over thirty surgeries a year, which can¡¯t even be considered third-tier at a national level. If he relies solely on trauma orthopedics, he would be doing well just to make it out of the regional competition. The chances of winning the final is slim.¡± Wen Rentao¡¯s analysis made sense. Hong Zhigang pondered for a moment: ¡°Well, as long as you perform at your usual standard and make no mistakes, it should not be a problem. However, if it is as Zeng Ran said, that was a complex huge abdominal vascular aneurysm accompanied by abdominal visceral injury. Being able to rescue that in the operating theater is not an ordinary achievement. I heard that Takahashi went up to the stage but couldn¡¯t finish it. In the end, that young doctor completed the surgery, which caused a sensation among the doctors attending the conference.¡± Wen Rentao spoke concisely: ¡°Takahashi is a world-class master of traumology, and do you really think a surgery that he can¡¯t handle can be done by a recently promoted young doctor? Medicine is not math or literature, where someone can skyrocket through mere talent. In front of any genius, practical experience is an insurmountable gap. On this type of rare injury, without a certain amount of surgical experience, how is it possible to succeed the first time on stage?¡± Though Wen Rentao was quite arrogant, his analysis was not condescending, but rather sensible and reasonable. ¡°What do you think of that surgery?¡± Professor Hong Zhigang felt that Wen Rentao¡¯s analysis made sense. Wen Rentao replied calmly: ¡°Zeng Ran¡¯s video was shot with a mobile phone against the screen; the surgical video only shows the operation on the surgical field with only a pair of hands, appearing as the surgeon¡¯s in the video. Whoever did the surgery is entirely dependent on the textual explanation and introduction.¡± ¡°Are you saying...¡± Professor Hong Zhigang guessed what Wen Rentao meant. ¡°If I¡¯m not mistaken, the entire surgery was completed by Takahashi. They joined Takahashi to stage this play. With the help of Takahashi at the academic conference, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s orthopedics department came into the limelight. Look at the development speed of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s trauma orthopedics department after the academic conference, and you will know that their plan was successful.¡± Hong Zhigang pondered for a while: ¡°That¡¯s possible. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s orthopedics department and Fujiwara Masao of Tokyo University Affiliated Hospital have a certain private relationship, or for a certain cooperation project, they each get what they need.¡± Professor Hong Zhigang spoke to this extent without mentioning Han Jiangong¡¯s name, just using ¡°Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Orthopedics Department¡± as a substitute. ¡°What you said makes sense. As far as I know, Takahashi Fumiya has secretly rushed to Sanbo Hospital. It should be for technical guidance to help Sanbo Hospital improve its technology as soon as possible.¡± Wen Rentao heard about this news when he was in the United States. He didn¡¯t want to judge whether it was true or false. He simply wasn¡¯t interested in Sanbo Hospital. ¡°In the South, there are quite a few competitors. Su Nanchen and Lin Hao from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Both of them graduated from the Xiehe eight-year program, went to university at the age of 16, entered professional training early, and studied in the United States. They are the youngest associate professors in our orthopedic field.¡± ¡°Indeed, these two people should be taken seriously. Professor Su Qingyun has always advocated for the youth of talent, and advocates for training surgeons during their golden youth period. Their orthopedic department has many associate professors in their thirties, which is very rare in similar hospitals across the country.¡± Professor Hong Zhigang was very familiar with Su Qingyun, and the two were good friends. ¡°So, although these two are young, they¡¯re a completely different concept from the young doctors in other hospitals. In many large hospitals, some surgeries don¡¯t have the opportunity to be led by those in their forties, but these two have had countless surgeries before they are even thirty. They are the true rivals in the South China region.¡± Wen Rentao was not arrogant and had a clear understanding of his competitors. The importance of the Golden Knife Award goes without saying. Whichever hospital ends up with the Golden Knife Award, peers will naturally think that the hospital is the most skilled and performs the surgery the best. Every year for the Golden Knife Award, orthopedics, neurology, thoracic surgery, and general surgery competitions are the most exciting because these majors¡¯ surgeries have a very high technical content and are quite entertaining for surgeons. Like in thoracic surgery, Fuwai and Anzhen take turns every year. Tiantan is the sole leading force in neurology. Xiehe, Beijing Third Hospital, Jishuitan, and 301 hospital fight among each other in orthopedics, while Huaxi Hospital, Magic City Sixth Hospital, Huashan Hospital, and Nandu each hold their own. In plastic surgery, Xiehe and Magic City Ninth Hospital go back and forth in fierce competition, with other hospitals unable to gain footing. Basically, the Golden Knife Award can indeed represent the specialist level of a hospital. ¡°In the younger generation from Sanbo Hospital, Tan Boyun, Tian Yuan, and Song Zimo have published articles in top international magazines. Song Zimo is too young and is only a resident, with a very limited number of surgeries he can lead. Tan Boyun and Tian Yuan have rich experience, but they¡¯re also limited by the type of final surgery. So, they¡¯re not worrisome.¡± Wen Rentao knew his teacher¡¯s thoughts and was worried about his uncle¡¯s challenge. The grievances of the older generation can sometimes carry on involuntarily to the younger generation. Wen Rentao also heard some rumors that his uncle Han Jiangong overshadowed his teacher in momentum back in the day. His grandteacher had appointed Han Jiangong as his successor, but his teacher used some methods to disqualify his uncle before the final and ended up forcing him to leave the Magic City Sixth Hospital. As a result, his teacher smoothly received the Golden Knife Award and naturally became the head of the orthopedic department at Magic Sixth Hospital. These words are just rumors within the industry and are not very credible. Wen Rentao believed another version more: his uncle Han Jiangong had academic fraud and was unkind. He was exposed by his upright teacher, felt shameful and indignant, left Magic Sixth, developed in a nameless hospital in South China, and ended up sinking in the academic world. Hospitals also value inheritance. Whether it¡¯s Xiehe or Magic Sixth, they owe their present status to the blood and sweat of generations of people. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s orthopedics department, which grew to its current scale in ten years, is quite an achievement. But in the end, it still lacks the prolonged development and accumulation of an established institution. Han Jiangong also aged, and without any shining young figures in the younger generation, they may end up in the second or third tier. That five-section replantation did surprise Professor Hong Zhigang a lot, so he was a bit uneasy. But after listening to Wen Rentao¡¯s analysis, Professor Hong Zhigang felt that his worry was unnecessary and that he was overly sensitive. After all, Professor Hong Zhigang still had a sense of fear for that particular Apprentice Brother. Chapter 370: 0351: Ready to Go Chapter 370: Chapter 0351: Ready to Go In the large conference room of the Orthopedics Center at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, doctors were seated solemnly in tidy white gowns. This was not a case discussion, but rather the team debut for the Golden Knife Award competition. Affiliated One sent five teams to compete, all led by young Associate Senior Doctors under the age of 35. Only Nandu Affiliated One could muster so many young Associate Senior Doctors. The most dazzling among them were Su Nanchen and Lin Hao, who, owing to their excellent educational backgrounds and strict specialist training routes, could hold their own despite their young ages. They both graduated from the eight-year program at Xiehe, which represented the highest level of medical education in China, and was more difficult for high school students to be admitted into than even Tsinghua or Peking University. Thus, to be admitted into Xiehe¡¯s eight-year program from the South meant that they were academic overachievers. Su Nanchen gained admission with his status as the top science student in Nandu Province, while Lin Hao, who was in the same year as Su Nanchen, was also admitted with one of the top provincial scores. The other competing chief surgeons, Chen Ge, was a bachelor, master, and doctorate graduate from Nandu Medical University; Su Fengyu graduated from the eight-year program at Beijing Medical University; Cao Qian graduated from the eight-year program at Huaxi Medical University. For Professor Su¡¯s recruitment of the younger generation, the eight-year program has become the standard. To maintain team vitality and prevent inbreeding, Professor Su did not solely favor graduates from Nandu Medical University, instead retaining many positions for other top medical institutions such as Xiehe, Huaxi, and Beijing Medical University. These years under his advocated 3+5 system, the new generation quickly grew. This 3+5 system was by no means a formality ¨C with 3 years of surgical rotation and 5 years of specialist training, the training was extremely rigorous. The training plan specified when they could be the chief surgeon in what surgeries, how many cases they had to lead, and required at least one year of further study at world-leading orthopedic centers. With this formidable team, they represented the highest level in South China, competing against Beijing, Shanghai and the Western region for the Golden Knife Award. Professor Su had not arrived yet; Professor Zou, the deputy director and actual manager of the Orthopedics Center, was leading the team in waiting for him. As Dean and also focusing on research, Professor Su was not very much involved in clinical practice now. He was currently very busy, participating in the election for academicians. With his academic achievements, unless there were unforeseen circumstances, becoming a new academician should not be a problem. Su Nanchen, Lin Hao, Chen Ge, Su Fengyu, and Cao Qian all sat together. Lin Hao and Chen Ge sat next to each other. Lin Hao took part in the competition for a bit of a personal reason ¨C he wanted to prove his own strength. At that banquet, he was deeply affected. The girl he had been pursuing for many years had shown interest in Yang Ping, which was intolerable for any man. Defeating Yang Ping and proving his own strength had become his necessary choice. He had carefully analyzed Yang Ping and found that while he had high talent in microsurgery and arthroscopy, he had serious shortcomings in his overall skills. Compared to Nandu Affiliated One, Sanbo Hospital was insignificant. Yang Ping, who had grown on the platform of Sanbo Hospital, had at most only these two specialized strengths. He himself had spent three years at a special orthopedic hospital in New York, the world¡¯s number one ranked orthopedic hospital, learning from several masters in trauma orthopedics, sports medicine, joint replacement, spine surgery and orthopedic oncology. Then he had worked at Affiliated One for many years, gaining a wealth of surgical experience, which Yang Ping could not have obtained at Sanbo. Yang Ping was just a specialist student and couldn¡¯t compete with him comprehensively. Just the upper cervical spine and bone tumor surgeries alone could firmly suppress him. ¡°If it were a knockout competition, we could have knocked that little guy out of the southern competition zone as soon as we met him. It¡¯s a pity that it¡¯s now a points competition. As long as he makes it into the top three, he still has a chance to reach the national competition. I heard that Wen Rentao from Mo Sixth is quite powerful and is a hot favorite to win this time.¡± Chen Ge discussed with Lin Hao, while Su Nanchen was chatting with the other two. ¡°My Xiehe classmates mentioned Wen Rentao and they all seemed a bit less confident. This time, Wen Rentao clearly intends to help Shanghai reclaim the Golden Knife Award. During his master¡¯s degree, Professor Hong Zhigang started teaching him surgeries personally. This guy is highly talented and Professor Hong devoted a lot of effort to him. He has studied at several of the world¡¯s top orthopedic centers, in the United States, Europe, and Japan. His study content touched on all subspecialties of orthopedics. Additionally, each study period was generally one year long and he was learning from master-level professors.¡± Lin Hao had many classmates who stayed to work at Xiehe and every time they discussed the Golden Knife Award, the person they feared most was Wen Rentao. A person who even the doctors at Xiehe¡¯s main hospital feared, was certainly extraordinarily powerful. When Yang Ping¡¯s five-section replantation was live-streamed online, without mentioning the hospital and the chief surgeon, many doctors guessed that Wen Rentao was the chief surgeon as the Trauma Orthopedics Online Conference that year was hosted by Mo Sixth. Later, Sanbo Hospital voluntarily released the news, only then everyone knew that the surgery was not led by Wen Rentao, but was a case of Sanbo Hospital. You can see that when people see such a high-level microscopic operation, the first person they think of is Wen Rentao. Only he has this kind of ability. Wen Rentao is the representative figure of the young generation in the orthopedic field of Shanghai, followed by Yue Zhengming from Huashan Hospital. Compared with the two, whether in terms of academic achievements or surgical operations, Yue Zhengming is slightly inferior. All of these doctors are elites in the medical field. Making it past entrance exams into these key universities, then successively cutting through their master and doctorate degrees, and finally entering key hospitals for key training, these achievements are all thanks to a combination of wisdom and sweat. ¡°That¡¯s why you must also work hard, strive for our hospital to secure the top three places. This way there will be no room for others.¡± Lin Hao was still confident about his own hospital¡¯s teams, sweeping the South China zone wouldn¡¯t be too stressful. Chapter 371: 0351: Ready to Go_2 Chapter 371: Chapter 0351: Ready to Go_2 Chen Ge chuckled, ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking, you¡¯re hoping that the kid will make it to the top three and advance to the national competition. You want to face him at the nationals and personally eliminate him. Traumatology in orthopedics is rare in the nationals, with high scores concentrated in spinal diseases. Those spinal tumors, what chance would Yang Ping have to operate on them? Without the opportunity to perform surgeries firsthand, how can he impress?¡± Perhaps Chen Ge had touched a nerve, Lin Hao felt uncomfortable and muttered, ¡°You think too little of me.¡± In fact, Lin Hao was thinking exactly that. He hoped Yang Ping would make it out of the South China region and into the national competition. Ideally, he would face Yang Ping in the knockout rounds, personally eliminating him, and restoring his masculine pride in this way. His goddess had feelings for Yang Ping, a slight he, as a man, could not swallow. Lin Hao was an educated elite. He wasn¡¯t like a middle school student, who would gather thugs to corner someone and beat them up. Different people had different ways of resolving issues. The Golden Knife Award competition was the best duel for Lin Hao. Defeating Yang Ping, whether directly or indirectly, was the best way to regain his dignity. Lin Hao had confidence in himself. He felt a little short in traumatology and sports medicine. He had seen Yang Ping perform multi-ligament reconstruction on knees; his expertise was high, and he even saved Professor Ye¡¯s prestige. Without a high level of expertise, this could not have been accomplished. But Lin Hao wasn¡¯t one to back down; he had never backed down since he was young. He wanted Su Yixuan to see who the real genius was. Traumatology and sports medicine were just a part of the Golden Knife Award for the orthopedics specialty. There were numerous surgeries, especially in the finals, focusing on the spine, joint replacement, orthopedics and bone tumors. Some of these surgical procedures, Yang Ping had never laid a hand on. How could he possibly be better than him? In sports medicine, Lin Hao was not necessarily worse than him now, especially in multi-ligament reconstruction of shoulder and knee joints. Recently, Doctor Robert had taught him a new method, arguably the most advanced in the world. Lin Hao confidently assured himself that Yang Ping could not possibly master this method. It was an innovation by another surgeon, and the paper was still being scheduled for publication. Doctor Robert repeatedly emphasized that until it was publicly published, to respect the author¡¯s copyright, the technique should not be disseminated. Lin Hao speculated that this surgical technique was probably created by Robert himself, but he didn¡¯t want to make a big deal until the paper was published, so he claimed to respect the author¡¯s copyright and keep it confidential. So the only area where there was a significant gap between him and Yang Ping was in microsurgery. However, emergency surgeries were ruled out from the Golden Knife Award, naturally weakening the scoring ability of microsurgery. Emergency surgeries often vary greatly in trauma and disease, as well as surgical techniques. It¡¯s hard to standardize scoring, so the Golden Knife Award excluded emergency surgeries. The examination of microsurgery was scattered among other surgical procedures. Adding all this up, Lin Hao was far ahead of Yang Ping. Even his strongest subject, sports medicine, Lin Hao was quickly catching up with the help of Doctor Robert. Lin Hao exhaled and a smile appeared on his face. Suddenly, he thought of how good Su Yixuan was to that kid and didn¡¯t know how far their relationship had progressed, his heart instantly burned with jealousy. Feelings can be blinding. A man¡¯s humiliation in a woman¡¯s eyes is greater than any other blow. This is determined by a man¡¯s nature, regardless of his level of education. ¡°In our orthopedics department, you and Young Master Su have the greatest chance, but Cao Qian and Su Fengyu are not bad either. After all, they are a few years older than you and have more surgical experience.¡± Chen Ge had a lot of confidence in Lin Hao. In mentoring the younger generation, Professor Su adopted a mentorship system. Each mentor typically mentors one student, or more if they could manage. If the five-year specialist training didn¡¯t yield impressive results, the mentor would be held responsible. If the person was a director, the directorship would be revoked; if it was a group leader, the group leader position would be revoked, and they would not be allowed to reapply for five years. If the students mentored were excellent, this counted as an achievement for the mentor. It was a necessary qualification to compete for a position as a department director. Without this achievement, you were rejected with one vote, regardless of how talented you were; you didn¡¯t even qualify to compete for directorship. Even if a person was very talented, if they were unwilling or unable to mentor talents, Professor Su believed that they could not be in a leadership position. They could only be an ordinary doctor, working alone. Under such a severe system, mentors taught without reservation and tirelessly, as though they could teach their mentees all their medical knowledge overnight. This batch of deputy high-level backbone members, all under 35, were all trained under this background. Those who were contemporaries of these people, in other hospitals, some were still making idle promises. The elegant Professor Su, when formulating policies, would repeatedly convene everyone for discussions to resolve the issues one by one. Once a policy was established, he implemented it ruthlessly. Those who obstructed policy implementation were all swept away by his iron-fisted methods. When Professor Su arrived, everyone immediately stood up. Professor Su smiled and gestured with his hand as a greeting. Professor Su, guided by Professor Zhou, took his seat. At a glance, he saw such a robust team, all backbone members in their early thirties. Young and energetic, full of ambition; these were the fruits of his many years of labor. Theoretically, these young people were all outstanding, especially the top five in the front row, the elite of the elite. Any one of them could potentially win the Golden Knife Award. But this year was too special, none of them had a chance. However, it would be good training to let them just participate and getting second place wouldn¡¯t be bad. No one understood these people better than Professor Su. Professor Su had always believed that for a surgeon, practical experience was an insurmountable gap. Any surgery must accumulate to a certain volume before a technical transformation could occur. For decades, no one had violated this objective law. But now, there was someone who had broken this rule. In this Golden Knife Award tournament, whether it was Beijing, Shanghai, the West, or the Affiliated Hospital One in Nandu, everyone was eager for it. Sadly, everyone¡¯s chances were slim. Some gaps could not be bridged with just effort and dedication. But Professor Su couldn¡¯t say it out loud as it would dampen everyone¡¯s spirits. The establishment of this award was not just for the sake of winning. The pursuit of the award was meant to inspire young people¡¯s passion for vocational skills. However, looking at the sturdy soldiers he had cultivated with years of hard work, all about to be wiped out, he couldn¡¯t help feeling a twinge of sadness. Chapter 372 - 0352: Go For It Chapter 372: Chapter 0352: Go For It The second phase of Shuilian Yu¡¯s reconstructive surgery went very well, and the third and final procedure of the treatment plan was soon successfully completed. This operation was straightforward ¨C it involved closing the original bladder and rectal fistulas and removing the moulds that had been placed in the urethra and rectum. The newly built ¡®highway¡¯ was ready for use, signalling an end to the expulsion of urine and feces through the fistula and allowing them to be excreted instead via the rebuilt urethra and rectum. However, at the start, the processes of urination and defecation needed to be trained to achieve satisfactory results. Training for the rebuilt urethra had already begun, and the urethra showed no signs of narrowing. After testing, the urinary flow rate was excellent. In the reconstructed rectum, biofeedback training had also started to reshape bowel sensation in conjunction with sphincter muscle contraction. When the pectoralis minor muscle was used to replace the rectal sphincter muscle, a small slit was opened along the muscle fibers instead of making a hole in the muscle, and the descending colon was implanted into this slit. This small slit now acted as the rectal opening, with a better airtight capability than a hole. The reconstructed rectum would be considered successful only if it could completely seal liquid. Otherwise, loose feces could leak out due to insufficient or incomplete sealing of the anus, severely affecting the quality of life. This method of opening a slit in the muscle fibers achieved the desired airtight result, similar to the sealing ability of a normal rectum. In this way, nearly normal control of bowel movements was restored, thus preserving Shuilian Yu¡¯s natural eliminatory function. Previously, the unconscious discharge of urine and feces from the abdominal fistula, collected in a plastic bag, marked a huge step forward in improving Shuilian Yu¡¯s quality of life. Furthermore, Yang Ping had helped her reconstruct her YD using plastic surgery and retained her womanly dignity. What remained was to provide her with a set of powered braces to help her stand and walk like a normal person. As for the powered braces, everyone was actively contacting the relevant companies. While these braces were not widely used, many companies already had mature products. The most advanced were those with brain-computer interface braces, followed by braces interfacing with thoracoabdominal muscle electrophysiological signals¡ªeven simpler were those controlled by upper limb movements. For these types of powered braces, American and Japanese companies were leading. The Boston Dynamics company in the US, relying on its robotic technology, had developed advanced power braces. Another American company, Kinda Recovery Company, basing their designs on military power exoskeleton technology, had the most mature applications. Because of a variety of reasons, military use of powered exoskeletons was obstructed. As a result, some companies shifted their technology for civilian use, applying it to medical rehabilitation, which allowed patients who had lost their lower limbs or suffered lower limb paralysis to walk using powered braces. For civilian use, the environmental and usage requirements were not as stringent as for the military ones. As a result, this technology evolved rapidly. The ART company from Japan also developed leading-edge powered braces, surpassing American companies in some aspects. Initially, American companies developed this technology for military use, so they put a lot of effort into payload and speed, while the precision and efficiency of signal conversion lagged. The Japanese ART company developed their technology with patients in mind, resulting in a profound foundation in signal compilation and conversion that far exceeded American companies. According to Yang Ping¡¯s plan, the next step was to equip Shuilian Yu with powered braces and let her walk out of the hospital. Takahashi had been keeping in contact with the ART company. They were eager to have a typical case for experimental application to build their early market influence. With Takahashi¡¯s mediation, they were willing to cooperate with Sanbo Hospital and provide the powered braces for free. However, equipping Shuilian Yu with powered braces was not a straightforward task. It required studying and compiling her brain electrophysiological data. Within the system space, Yang Ping had read numerous books and papers on brain electrophysiology and was an expert in this field. The collaboration with the ART company was an example of cooperation between medicine and engineering, where each party brought their individual strengths. Yang Ping decided to lead everyone to thoroughly study Shuilian Yu¡¯s brain electrophysiology to prepare for engineers to carry out the compilation. Each person¡¯s brain electrophysiology is different. When using a brain-computer interface with powered braces, it was necessary to compile brain electrical signals individually. After Shuilian Yu¡¯s entire treatment was completed, Yang Ping wanted Song Zimo to author a paper specifically discussing Shuilian Yu¡¯s case. This would be a heavyweight paper, discussing life-saving emergency surgery, secondary reconstruction of the urethra and rectum, the application of powered braces, involving trauma surgery, repair and reconstruction surgery, plastic surgery, urological surgery, general surgery, power braces, brain-computer interfaces, brain electrophysiology, neural signal conversion, and so on. It was a complex and classic case of multi-disciplinary integration and combination. Yang Ping went to find Song Zimo but did not see him in his office so he assumed that he was probably in the lab and went there. Everyone was still performing surgeries with Xu Zhiliang and Takahashi, leaving Song Zimo alone in the laboratory. He stood by the window. On the street below, Yu Shuilian¡¯s husband and son were wheeling her in a wheelchair, laughing and chatting together. Hearing footsteps, Song Zimo knew it was Yang Ping entering. He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes with his hand. ¡°If we had doctors like us back then, could my mother have been saved?¡± Song Zimo continued to stare out the window. Yang Ping paused, did not respond, yet Song Zimo answered his own question, ¡°She could have been saved! Do you know? She died in my arms, her breath and heartbeat slowly stopped, right in my arms, I watched her leave¡ª¡ª¡± ¡°There are no ifs in this world, everything in the past will be forever, life is like that. That¡¯s why we¡¯re working so hard to improve our medical skills. It¡¯s all about leaving fewer regrets behind. You¡¯re a great surgeon, your mom would be proud if she knew.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want Song Zimo to dwell on regrets. ¡°Look at that little boy, how lucky he is. Even though his mother is only half a body, he still has his own mother, his only mother.¡± ¡°Her voice and laughter, her face, are still etched clearly in my mind. She was beautiful, intelligent, gentle, and virtuous. She always had a smile for everyone. When I went to school and came back, she would always hold my hand. Every morning, she made me boiled eggs with syrup, sent me to the school gate, watched me walk into the school, waved goodbye. Whenever she picked me up from school, she would always ask me, ¡®Zimo, what did you learn today?¡¯ ¡°You¡¯re right, the past is forever gone, there are no ifs in this world. Why do we work so hard? To reduce regrets in the world.¡± Song Zimo sobbed a few times, rubbed his eyes, and turned around. ¡°The first surgery for the Golden Knife Award is ready. It will start tomorrow. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m fine.¡± ¡°In the past, Director Han and Professor Hong were both students that the former director of Mo Sixth valued greatly; Director Han was the favoured one and was designated as the successor.¡± ¡°During the Golden Knife Award years ago, Director Han and Professor Hong both made it to the finals. When they were both contending for the championship, Director Han suddenly withdrew from the race. Not long after, Director Han resigned from Mo Sixth and headed south to develop his career.¡± ¡°What exactly was the reason, there has never been a definitive explanation. There have been all sorts of rumors, but one thing is certain. Had Director Han not withdrawn from the competition, the Golden Knife Award would have definitely been his. If Director Han did not leave Mo Sixth, he would be the current head of orthopedics at Mo Sixth.¡± ¡°So this time, you must win back the Golden Knife Award. Perhaps it¡¯s a bit selfish of me, but it¡¯s to fulfil Director Han¡¯s wish. Even though he never mentioned it, I believe he must have had regrets from that time. I¡¯ll be the chief surgeon for the regional competition; if we start falling behind in points, you can make it up. You should rest and prepare for the national competition.¡± ¡°At the time of the Golden Knife Award, Director Han¡¯s assistant was Huang Zhong, who is now the director of the trauma orthopedics department at Affiliated Hospital No. 1. After Director Han resigned, Huang Zhong resigned as well. They were both invited by Professor Su to join Affiliated Hospital No. 1. It was during this period when Sanbo Hospital was planning to become established; Director Han wanted to join the hospital, with Professor Su as his recommender. He along with Dean Xia and Director Zhou became the three founding elders of Sanbo. Meanwhile, Huang Zhong entered Affiliated Hospital No. 1 and developed under Professor Su, becoming the director of trauma orthopedics.¡± ¡°The student of Hong Zhigang, Wen Rentao, represents the highest level of the young generation in Shanghai. He is indeed strong, in both academics and surgery; he¡¯s a perfect surgeon. He used to be my idol, but not anymore.¡± ¡°Now, you¡¯re my idol!¡± ¡°If I were to compete against Wen Rentao, I¡¯d be at a disadvantage because of my lack of surgical experience; after all, we have an eight-year gap. Those eight years could have been spent performing numerous surgeries. But if you were to compete against him, these issues wouldn¡¯t exist. Having been with you for so long, experience seems to matter little to you. You seem to be able to perform any surgery with the skill of having done it thousands of times before, every time exhibiting excellent proficiency. It might be a form of higher talent.¡± Whether it¡¯s for himself, for Director Han, or for the hospital, they must win this award, thought Yang Ping. ¡°You need to familiarize yourself with the rules of the Golden Knife Award surgery, every single scoring point, because your surgical methods are vastly different from the traditional ones.¡± ¡°In the South China region, we will strive to advance as the number one contestant. Our strongest opponent is Affiliated Hospital No. 1, but it is also the toughest opponent you will face.¡± ¡°So, all the regional competition surgeries will be conducted by me in your place. That way, you don¡¯t have to face Su Nanchen and Affiliated Hospital No. 1. Although it¡¯s not an elimination match, it¡¯s still not good to face them.¡± ¡°Let Xu Zhiliang be my assistant. According to the competition rules, he can serve as my first assistant, as an unknown one.¡± Yang Ping just saw Song Zimo secretly crying by the window and was worried about his emotional state. It seemed that his worry was redundant. Song Zimo¡¯s mental strength is very good, he was simply reminded of his childhood memories by the joyful scene of Yu Shuilian and her son. At that time, he was just five, having suffered such a blow, it was inevitable that painful memories remained. Yang Ping believes that since he overcame stubborn blood phobia, there are no obstacles that can prevent him from becoming an excellent surgeon. ¡°Fight on!¡± Song Zimo extended his hand. Yang Ping¡¯s hand, tightly intertwined with his. ¡°For you, this award is insignificant. Your future lies among the stars over the vast ocean. Believe me, I will definitely be the best first assistant.¡± Chapter 373 - 0353: Start of the Competition Chapter 373: Chapter 0353: Start of the Competition The competition started at midnight on the first day, and the Golden Knife Award website was launched on time, using Alibaba Cloud for its setup. At 8 o¡¯clock in the morning, in the changing room, Yang Ping took out his phone and opened the Golden Knife Award app, the icon of which was a detailed surgical knife. Whether it¡¯s the website, the app, or the WeChat official account, only registered members can log in. Registration is free, but it requires an ID card and a doctor¡¯s qualification certificate, all of which had been prepared before the start of the competition. Yang Ping logged into the app, and the video for the South China division was still blank. It was unlikely that anyone would start this early. The video section for Nandu Affiliated Hospital One indicated that it was connecting, suggesting that surgery would start shortly. The cameras for the video were on the surgical lights. If the surgery was under a microscope or performed laparoscopically, it would directly connect to the equipment¡¯s video system, limiting filming to the surgical area to protect the patient¡¯s privacy. Before surgery, a notice of informed consent would be signed with the patient, explaining that the surgical area would be recorded for the competition and viewed by surgeons nationwide. Patients usually agreed to this, believing that doctors participating in the competition were carefully selected and highly skilled. A few patients declined, but this didn¡¯t affect the selection of cases for the competition. The number of cases in large-class-A hospitals was abundant, with no limitations in terms of selection. After the live video, it was encrypted and stored on Alibaba Cloud. Judges could either mark live videos or watch the replays. Judges generally preferred to watch the replays so that they could observe repeatedly for more accurate scoring. Doctors were more interested in the live broadcasts for a more immersive experience, but most didn¡¯t have much time and would watch the video after work. After a surgery finished, all judges were required to finish scoring within 24 hours. Any deductions had to be fully justified. Final scores were calculated by removing the highest and lowest scores and averaging the rest. The judges came from a pool of experts and were subjected to a recusal system to avoid conflicts of interest, such as being from the same competition district, related by blood, or having a mentoring relationship. There was no need to worry about people hiding conflicts of interest. Thanks to the internet, every possible special relationship was scrutinized. Therefore, the chances of favoritism were very low on this public online platform. If favoritism were detected, doctors nationwide would critique and condemn you. Perhaps because of advancements in internet technology, this Golden Knife Award was particularly lively, with the number of online users exceeding 100,000. There are only over 3 million practicing doctors in the country, including assistants, so hitting 100,000 online users meant a very high level of participation. At this time, everyone was just entering the operating room and changing clothes in the changing room. They would take a glance at their cellphones to see which hospital was the most confident and would be the first to start the live broadcast. All surgeries for the regional competition were trauma orthopedic surgeries. Many hospitals could present cases, and even some county-level hospitals were eager to try. Although they knew they couldn¡¯t proceed, even a few surgeries would allow them to get a taste of the competition. A comment section was set up next to the video section, somewhat like a chat box. This allowed viewers to see entertaining comments while watching the video, separating the chat box from the video. Some hospitals¡¯ comment sections were quiet, while others were bustling, like Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Their video hadn¡¯t even started yet, and there were already many users chatting. ¡°I came to watch Su Nanchen.¡± ¡°He was from my grade. The science champion of Nandu.¡± ¡°I heard he is Professor Su¡¯s son? Can anyone confirm?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, science champion, Fudan University eight-year program. Even without Old Su¡¯s connection, he wouldn¡¯t have any problem getting into Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, right?¡± ¡°His wife teaches at Nandu Medical University. She¡¯s a doctoral advisor at 28.¡± ¡°Is that true? A doctoral advisor at 28? How old was she when she started college?¡± ¡°She¡¯s in basic medical sciences, unlike clinical medicine where you climb step by step. With one or two papers in ¡®Nature¡¯ or ¡®Science¡¯, she would easily become a doctoral advisor.¡± ¡°A 28-year-old doctoral advisor? You¡¯re talking about Lin Lan from Nandu Medical University¡¯s genetics laboratory, right? She¡¯s a truly beautiful and talented woman.¡± ¡°At this level, only someone like Su Nanchen could keep up.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t Nandu Affiliated Hospital One also have Chief Surgeon Lin Hao?¡± ¡°He¡¯s also from the Fudan University eight-year program.¡± ¡°He was a deputy senior physician at 30. I¡¯m still pulling a catheter. Gotta stop chatting and pull this catheter now, or I¡¯ll be reprimanded again.¡± As the conversation went on, the topic began to drift. As long as nothing illegal was said, participants could freely express themselves, which was another reason the internet made the competition immensely popular. Curious, Yang Ping entered the video section of Sanbo Hospital. Song Zimo was still preparing for surgery with his team, and the video area was still closed. But their chat box was no less bustling than Nandu Affiliated Hospital One¡¯s. ¡°Guys, who still remembers the Five-section Replantation?¡± ¡°Who wouldn¡¯t? Did your village just get electricity? The Five-section Replantation from Sanbo is old news. The impressive surgery at the academic conference that crushed the Japanese, that¡¯s the major one.¡± ¡°Does anyone know the chief surgeon, Yang Ping? I heard that dude is awesome.¡± ¡°Even Takahashi was defeated by him. Could you say he¡¯s not awesome?¡± ¡°Is it true that he performed that surgery? It¡¯s hard to believe.¡± ¡°Any brothers from Shanghai know Song Zimo?¡± ¡°I do, he¡¯s from Fudan University, but he did his clinical internship at Mo Sixth. We call him Rukawa Kaede; this guy can compete with the big shots from Wendu, but he¡¯s only an assistant surgeon now. This competition will be worth watching.¡± ¡°Sanbo Hospital isn¡¯t big enough, I guess. Scoliosis, bone tumors, upper cervical vertebrae, these surgeries are the highlight of the finals. They might get into the top eight or so, but their chances of winning the championship are slim.¡± ¡°I heard that they¡¯ve added robotic surgeries for this year¡¯s final?¡± ¡°Yeah, robot-assisted surgeries are included in the final competition.¡± Yang Ping wasn¡¯t particularly interested in all of this. He pulled up the standard steps for some surgeries; each step came with a score. Getting a perfect score would indicate that the chief surgeon had a deep understanding of every detail of the surgery. For some reason, many hospitals selected the open reduction and internal fixation of double fractures in the radius and ulna for their first surgery. The first surgery Song Zimo uploaded was also for an open reduction and internal fixation of a right forearm fracture of both the radius and ulna. This was a relatively simple surgery, considered an entry-level procedure in trauma orthopedics. The regional competition lasted three months, with the surgeries in the first month focused on limb fractures. The surgeries simply had to be completed by the end of the month, with no particular sequence required. If a hospital couldn¡¯t arrange for all the required surgical cases within a month, they should reconsider whether they needed to take a decade or so to develop their department before participating again. What the regional competition mainly tested were the basics¡ªfundamental knowledge, theory, and skills. The most crucial factor at this stage was stability; competitors had to ensure they didn¡¯t mess up. Yang Ping opened up the scoring guide for the surgery to treat the double forearm fracture. It would probably take quite a few pages to print everything out. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were probably about to start performing their surgery. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t concerned about Song Zimo at all¡ªhe was sure that this assistant surgeon was up to the task. So, he decided not to watch for now and went to the break room to relax and casually watch other hospitals¡¯ surgeries. The video section started broadcasting the surgeries one after the other. Some judges were even grading the surgeries live. As the surgery progressed, the scores for each step were released instantaneously. The judges were indeed impressive. Yang Ping took a brief look; all of the initial surgeries were for double forearm fractures. Some contestants had many points deducted as soon as they started their procedures. Double forearm fractures, failure to obtain a complete x-ray of the joint above and below the fracture before surgery, points deducted! Dislocation of the inferior radioulnar joint, emergency relocation done before but failed to consider the injury to the triangular fibrocartilage complex and the inferior radioulnar ligament. No wrist MRI scan was done, points deducted! Usage of the tourniquet was not standardized pre-surgery, points deducted! Holding the scalpel wrongly, points deducted! Incorrect angulation of the incision, points deducted! Upon entry, inadequate protection of blood vessels and nerves, did not gently retract with a rubber strip, points deducted! The superficial branch of the radial nerve passes through the fracture site of the radius, no detailed sensory check of the hand noted on clinical records. Failed to explore the superficial branch of the radial nerve during surgery, points deducted! Too much periosteum was stripped, there was no conscious effort to protect the blood supply at the fracture end, points deducted! Improper holding of the electric drill while drilling, points deducted! The order of depth measurement and threading was reversed, points deducted! An uncomplicated transverse fracture, chose to use a locked plating system, inappropriate choice of implant, points deducted! There was another surgery where the surgeon opted for a single incision to treat the radius and ulna fractures, which could easily lead to cross-union, violating the basic principles of surgery, points deducted! A simple double forearm fracture had dozens of scoring points. Every aspect was clearly defined, all deducted points were justified, none were deducted arbitrarily. Yang Ping pulled up all of the surgery grading guides to take a thorough look. The competition was a bit different from regular surgeries. For instance, when he performed anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, he never used a locator, preferring to drill by hand. But in the competition, if he didn¡¯t use the locator, he would be considered to have missed a step and be docked points. Therefore, it¡¯s crucial to carefully review the grading guides. It was like solving problems in a college entrance exam; every step had to be clear and precise. After all, he still had three months. Yang Ping read through some of the grading guides and then pulled up the case information for Andrew, a child with multiple knee ligament ruptures that Robert had previously sent him. He planned how he would approach this surgery in his mind. It was indeed a challenging operation, with no established surgical plan to follow. He would have to design a customized surgical plan, and also create specific surgical tools. Yang Ping decided to go into his system space to study this surgery in detail. In the system space, he drew plans for an entire set of surgical instruments, and also graphically represented each step of the surgery. After several modifications, he finally settled on the final plan. After leaving the system space, he went to the anesthesiologist¡¯s office and took a stack of A4 paper. He began to sketch out the surgical steps and the surgical instruments. He was quite experienced in drawing now, especially since he had already worked out the details in the system space. Now he only had to replicate what he remembered. With a pencil, he quickly sketched out several pieces of paper. Yang Ping took photos of all the pictures with his phone and sent them to Robert, asking him to ask OrthoPediatrics company to produce all the instruments in advance. Chapter 374 - 0354 Topic Chapter 374: Chapter 0354 Topic Yang Ping was quite worried about the surgery for little Andrew. Even though he had already drawn detailed surgical blueprints, he was afraid Robert would still not be able to perform the surgery with satisfactory results. Given Robert¡¯s rigorous approach as a doctor, he would certainly not rush to perform this procedure. He would either ask Yang Ping to perform it or wait a few years to do it himself once he had thoroughly mastered the operation. Robert would likely choose the former, as he is a doctor¡ªan outstanding one. He would consider the problem from the patient¡¯s perspective, not his own interests. Currently, the difficult cases in Yang Ping¡¯s hands include, apart from little Andrew, a patient with kneecap osteomalacia referred by Boss Cheng. After Yunjian botched the surgery, the patient planned to have it redone in Liquan Hospital. Wei Danian, who ends up in the ICU once a year, does not have a definitive diagnosis. What might be the cause of his lactic acid poisoning? The WeChat group specially created for discussing Wei Danian¡¯s condition has been quiet recently¡ªit seemed that no genetic test results had been released by Dr. Wen of Nandu Medical University. The most challenging case that demanded Yang Ping¡¯s full attention was Sisi. Sisi¡¯s femur had been extended by more than ten centimeters. Once the target was reached and the two ends connected, the next step of the surgery would involve reconstructing her thigh muscles. During the multiple surgeries to remove the primary tumor, not only was the entire segment of the femur removed, but the surrounding muscle was excised to the point where almost nothing was left. If the muscle is to be rebuilt, muscle flaps must be harvested from other areas for transplantation. The thigh muscles, both quadriceps and hamstrings, are the strongest muscles in the human body and it¡¯s impossible to find suitable donor sites. This was a challenging problem. However, all these issues could be handled slowly. On Sisi¡¯s last review, it was found that the tumor treated with Gamma Knife had not recurred for now. But recurrence was only a matter of time. It is nearly impossible to fully eradicate the spreading tumor cells through surgical means alone. What if it recurs? Continuing using Gamma Knife is like fighting fire; it only deals with the symptoms, not the source, and one is always on the run. However, for osteosarcoma, there are no magic bullet targeted drugs in the world. Apart from surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, there are no good methods. Relatively speaking, the focused ultrasound wave of the Gamma Knife is currently the best method. In regards to Sisi, Yang Ping had to plan further into the future. Deep down, he had already resolved to give his all, regardless of the outcome. Hence, the laboratory rewarded by the system space was urgently needed for Yang Ping. He needed a lab to conduct research, just like the mass surgical training. With this lab, he could initiate research projects and use unlimited time to carry out studies. It should be time for Song Zimo¡¯s surgery. Yang Ping rose from the bench to go check in the operating room. The first surgery posed no pressure for Song Zimo as he strictly followed the standard procedure. The steps of the standard procedure corresponded to each score point; the two were not in contradiction. Then, Director Han and Professor Zhang also came in, discussing something. Song Zimo¡¯s surgery was flawless. Each step was accurate, thorough, meticulous but not stiff, without any trace of rules just for the sake of the competition. The judges who were watching the live and scoring, marked full scores for each step¡ªfull scores, full scores, full scores¡ª Director Han and Professor Zhang seemed very relaxed. Seeing Yang Ping, Director Han beckoned, ¡°Xiao Yang, we got the license for stem cell research in the Orthopedic Research Institute. If you have any research projects, you can propose one.¡± Currently, Yang Ping did want to propose research proposals, and he wished to focus on tissue repair, such as the repair of muscle tissue defects, which is the next problem to be resolved for Sisi. For larger projects, he would wait until he was awarded the system space lab. ¡°I want to set a project in tissue engineering, which requires the use of stem cells and 3D printing. I don¡¯t know if our 3D printer can perform nano-level micro-view printing?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t have a good understanding of the performance of this 3D printer. ¡°It can do macro-view printing, but not micro-view printing, and nano-level printing is even more impossible. This equipment originally had nano-level micro-view printing, but when we imported it, they refused to sell this restricted technology, so it lacks the corresponding hardware and software modules,¡± explained Director Han, who was more familiar with the equipment since he participated in the negotiation to procure it. It wasn¡¯t surprising. Once these high-end devices were imported to China, the foreign sellers would castrate the features, deliberately reducing hardware and software modules and impairing performance, putting it under the name of ¡°technology restriction.¡± Song Zimo¡¯s surgery was completed, the video was cut off, and all the scores that had been awarded were perfect. This kind of surgery was not difficult for any orthopedic surgeon. However, achieving a perfect score was significantly difficult. President Guo from the trauma orthopedics department was going around the operating rooms informing everyone about the dinner he was hosting that night. Those not in the loop would probably think that he was either getting married or celebrating the full moon of his child. President Guo was single, and there were no recent promotions in his title. What was this joyous event that had him happily inviting everyone to dinner at every turn? It turned out that President Guo was ending a year¡¯s life of being on-call around the clock, being available 24/7 for 365 days. It¡¯s obvious that it¡¯s a cause for celebration. He planned to set up some tables in the hospital¡¯s neighborhood to celebrate, and he signaled to everyone: his sisters, cousins, other unmarried female relatives, and friends could officially introduce them to him now. Everyone in the Orthopedics department who heard the news was cheering, planning for a good gathering in the evening. After Song Zimo completed the first operation of the Golden Knife Award, Director Han and Professor Zhang, who had nothing to do, planned to leave. Director Han asked Yang Ping to prepare the project as quickly as possible, and he would assist in applying for funding. Takahashi approached Yang Ping when he was free, ¡°Would you like to play tennis together after work in the afternoon?¡± Yang Ping found it strange, he usually played tennis with Nurse Su in mixed doubles, what was he hinting at? Takahashi laughed, ¡°Not what you think¡ª¡± He then pointed to Fujiwara Miyuki who was chatting with Nurse Su about equipment. ¡°It¡¯s her, Dr. Fujiwara. She saw you and Nurse Su playing tennis several times in the hospital sports hall and asked me to tell you to join them,¡± Takahashi was just a messenger, and it was up to Yang Ping to agree or not. ¡°Tennis expert!¡± Takahashi added explanation. Seeing their enthusiasm, Yang Ping agreed to play: ¡°Okay, President Guo of the trauma department invites us for a meal in the afternoon, we can all go for tennis after the meal.¡± After the Golden Knife Award surgery, there were several more surgeries. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were the surgeons, and Yang Ping was idle in the operating room. He had wanted to talk to Takahashi about tissue engineering and what new research trends there were at Tokyo University. Having been standing for so long, Yang Ping let Takahashi get a stool to sit down. He then moved a round stool and sat next to Yang Ping. ¡°What progress have you guys made in tissue engineering, especially the application of stem cells in tissue engineering?¡± Yang Ping asked Takahashi. Takahashi was very familiar with these areas, and he discussed them passionately: ¡°Duke University in the United States was the first to successfully cultivate muscle using stem cells. The stem cell lab at Tokyo University followed soon after by cultivating muscle as well. These muscles have the function of normal muscles and can accept stimuli and contract.¡± ¡°They used pluripotent stem cells and injected a large amount of Pax7 protein. These proteins sent signals to the stem cells, leading the stem cells to differentiate into muscle cells. Once the differentiation was complete, they stopped injecting Pax7 protein and provided the nutriment required for muscle cell development. These muscle cells were able to maintain stable division and development under this nourishment. After three to four weeks of cultivation on a prefabricated nano-3D model, the muscle cells gathered to generate muscle fibers. These muscle fibers are similar to normal human muscle fibers and can contract when stimulated, but their strength and power are not as strong as natural muscles. They transplanted the cultivated muscles onto mice, achieving a survival time of three weeks. During the survival period, they possessed normal muscle function.¡± ¡°I am one of the main persons in charge of this project in the stem cell lab at Tokyo University. The key to the technology lies in guiding the differentiation of stem cells and 3D printing of nano scaffolds. Our common obstacle now is that the cultivated muscle cells have a short survival time in experimental animals. Our time can be extended to six weeks, which is double that of the United States, but ultimately the muscle cells still disintegrate. If we can solve the mystery of the disintegration, we could grow unlimited muscle in labs in the future. Building on that, we could search for inducement substances for various tissues, so differentiating any tissue would no longer be an issue. Unfortunately, whether in America or in our country, we have only mastered one differentiation substance¨CPax7 protein.¡± Takahashi believed deeply in Yang Ping¡¯s ability and was very eager to cooperate with him on this project because he had encountered an obstacle with this project and couldn¡¯t make any more breakthroughs. He had just learned from Director Han that the equipment in the Orthopedics lab, the 3D printer, did not have the capacity for microvision printing. This function had been neutered by the German manufacturers. Because these advanced technologies need to be kept confidential, only the macrovision printing function is currently made available. No matter how much money is given, they won¡¯t sell the microvision printing function, so this machine cannot perform nano-level microvision printing, lacking physical and software modules. To conduct this experiment, the 3D module scaffold used to cultivate the muscle is indispensable; it¡¯s used to guide the arrangement of muscle cells. ¡°I want to establish this project in the Orthopedics Institute, also using stem cells to grow muscle tissues. The disintegration issue lies in the mitochondria, which is equivalent to the mechanism of cell aging and death, except that it¡¯s just an accelerated version of this mechanism. I set up this project to solve this issue. Both you and the Americans are stuck in a dead-end¡ª¡± The knowledge Yang Ping acquired from the system space, whether width or depth, was incomparable to Takahashi. However, Yang Ping had not yet conducted such experiments. If he could cooperate with Takahashi, he could make use of their results, saving a lot of time compared to starting on his own. Yang Ping had pinpointed the solution to the project issue but stopped speaking halfway through. It was like patting a pocket, where there were keys making a sound, but not taking them out: ¡°The keys are here!¡± Takahashi highly recognized Yang Ping¡¯s terrifying intelligence. He strongly believed that by cooperating with Yang Ping, they could find a way to break through. But Yang Ping didn¡¯t propose cooperation, he only mentioned casually that Takahashi and the Americans had already gone astray. ¡°Dr. Yang, if you are interested, could we cooperate?¡± Takahashi probed. Yang Ping seemed uninterested, ¡°My starting point is higher. If we do cooperate, I don¡¯t want to deal with the basic stuff. I will only be responsible for prolonging the survival period of the post-cultivation muscle cells.¡± ¡°Sure!¡± Takahashi was very happy, as this was exactly the solution they wanted but couldn¡¯t break through. Chapter 375 - 0355: Old Irons Chapter 375: Chapter 0355: Old Irons Yang Ping¡¯s decision to use stem cells for muscle cultivation wasn¡¯t spontaneous, but rather the result of careful consideration. If successful, it becomes relatively easy to expand into cultivating other organs such as skin, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, bones, and even joints. In the long run, it may be possible to develop towards cultivating organs such as heart, liver, and kidneys. The organization techniques and equipment required for this topic will be relatively convenient, such as nanoscale micro-stents, which can be easily acquired through Takahashi. Nanoscale micro-stents have high demands on 3D printing technology. Their three-dimensional structure is arranged at the cell cluster level and should be able to guide muscle fiber into spatial configurations. This level of 3D printing technology is not currently available domestically. The core technology is monopolized by German and Japanese enterprises. This is why Yang Ping seeks international collaboration. One person cannot possibly break through all industrial technologies and can only make effort in medical technology. The obstacles that the United States and Japan are currently unable to overcome are cell collapses which are caused by the instability of certain cellular structures. There are many potential causes for the instability, such as an unstable cell membrane or cell organelles Several papers are making assumptions about the causes of these collapses. Any of these factors as the initiator can trigger cell collapse, causing other structures to collapse as well. It¡¯s understandable that researchers tend to focus on one aspect due to various reasons. This is the inevitable result of artificially inducing stem cell differentiation. Without mature induction technology, it will inevitably cause some structures to become unstable, which is the potential reason for the collapse. Indeed, the cultivation of organs using stem cells is already underway and is developing rapidly. Tokyo University has even cultivated the world¡¯s first heart, with a diameter of 1 millimeter, complete with ventricles, atria, and blood vessels, roughly the size of a fetal mouse¡¯s heart. The National Center for Child Health and Development in Japan has cultivated a liver; the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom has cultivated a kidney; Harvard University in the US has cultivated skin. These technologies all face a common problem ¨C maturity and stability. If this problem is solved, these technologies can move from the laboratory to the clinic. At present, muscle cultivation is the most mature, it can be transplanted into animals and can survive for a few weeks. For organs such as the heart, the diameter is only one millimeter. Cultivating it further would lead to the issue of collapse, preventing the small heart from growing successfully. Yang Ping wants to start with muscles, then solve the problem of maturity and stability. Then it could be extended to skin, tendons, cartilage, etc, these have a wide range of applications in orthopedics. With skin, there would be no need to graft or flap skin from other parts of the body. With tendons, the surgical outcomes of patients undergoing ligament reconstruction would be better. With cartilage, degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis of knee joints in the elderly can be addressed. A joint could even be cultivated for joint replacement. Stem cells are the most promising field for the future of surgery, they will change the history of surgery. Perhaps one day, patients like Yu Shuilian can cultivate an entire lower body using her own cells and then undergo a transplant surgery to connect the upper and lower halves to restore a whole body. In the afternoon, the young doctors from the Department of Comprehensive Orthopedics who were free, all attended President Guo¡¯s dinner party. President Guo was generous and set up several tables at the Hakka restaurant next to the hospital, indicating his willingness to spend money for the occasion. After dinner, they rested for a while. Xiao Su said that Fujiwara Miyuki had invited her to play tennis and wanted Yang Ping to come as well. It seemed they had planned it earlier as they were dressed in tennis clothes under their jackets and had brought along their racket bags. Xiao Su usually worked in the operating room of the Comprehensive Orthopedics Department and only interacted with Miyuki during surgeries. Surprisingly, they got along well, along with Tang Fei. The three of them seemed like old friends. Everyone rested for half an hour, by the time they arrived at the tennis court, they were ready for intense exercise. Song Zimo, Tang Fei, and Xu Zhiliang returned to the department; Little Five went home to accompany his wife; Zhang Lin¡¯s wife was on duty, he packed some of her favorite food and needed to deliver it in time. Yang Ping, Takahashi, Xiao Su, and Miyuki went to play tennis. Yang Ping and Takahashi did not change their clothes. Xiao Su pulled Yang Ping aside, ¡°Miyuki and I will play a few rounds. You guys can just watch.¡± Miyuki held onto Xiao Su¡¯s hand, ¡°A friendly tennis match between China and Japan.¡± Takahashi felt like he was surplus to requirements, so he followed them, maintaining a certain distance. However, watching two tall beauties play tennis was quite entertaining. Both of them had reserved the court in the hospital sports hall in advance, so Yang Ping and Takahashi sat down next to them to discuss the collaborative project. The sight of two stunning beauties playing tennis attracted many onlookers. Occasionally, passersby would glance over. Both of them were skilled players and the game was intense. The score was close, indicating that Xiao Su had met her match. Takahashi took the initiative and said, ¡°Dr. Yang, the prematire collapse of stem cells is a problem that all cell cultivation currently faces. If this can be solved, it would be a groundbreaking advancement. If Dr. Yang decides to taken on this topic, I¡¯d like to request a collaboration. I am the lead of the research team at Tokyo University and have significant authority over our work.¡± ¡°Collaborating can save us a lot of time. I do not want to reinvent the wheel. I only want to focus on tackling the most crucial difficulties,¡± Yang Ping expressed his plans. ¡°If Dr. Yang agrees to collaborate with us, we can share all our initial technology to save your time, this way it¡¯ll be mutually beneficial,¡± Takahashi shared his thoughts. At the moment, Tokyo University is leading in this field but has encountered a roadblock; Yang Ping analyzed all the current research papers. He found that Tokyo University¡¯s recent papers mainly focus on the survival period of cells implanted in animals, and the extension of the survival time seems to take many days, even with incremental increases. It indicated that they haven¡¯t had any significant breakthrough but are continually improving on the existing technology. Collaborating with them would significantly enhance efficiency. Scientific research is similar to sailing on a sea journey. To open a new route, one must go through multiple trials and errors, constant corrections, and data accumulation. If he gains access to the System Space Laboratory in the future, he will still need a real-world lab to conduct experiments. The data obtained in the System Space Lab could help streamline his research path in reality or even help him hit the target at once, but experimental verification must still be executed in a real-world lab. Therefore, collaborating with these top international universities and hospitals would be beneficial. The key is how to control and utilize these resources to play a leading role while maintaining self-reliance in scientific research and promoting openness for collaboration. Having witnessed Yang Ping¡¯s surgical skills and intellectual capacity, Takahashi firmly believes in his ability. Now, having forged a friendship with Yang Ping due to further training, Takahashi cherishes the opportunity to work with him. In the future, when Yang Ping¡¯s scientific research develops further, many teams will line up to work with him, and it would be much harder for Takahashi to get in on the collaboration. Yang Ping pondered while watching the girls play, ¡°Takahashi, let¡¯s collaborate and share our findings.¡± ¡°No problem, I¡¯ll send an official email to Tokyo University tonight to get the authorization for agreement negotiations. We won¡¯t be any worse than Duke University. Though we were a bit late in cultivating muscles out of stem cells, we did it independently. We just published our paper a bit late. Compared to them, we¡¯re more advanced in induction technology and micro braces. They managed to keep the cells alive inside an animal for three weeks, we did it for six.¡± Ever since meeting Yang Ping, Takahashi has repeatedly witnessed him create miracles. He firmly believes that if Yang Ping concentrates on the field of stem cells, he can definitely work wonders. From a personal standpoint, Takahashi wants to join in on this favorable situation. As for lab conditions and current technology, which may be precious to others, for someone like Yang Ping, even if you don¡¯t collaborate with him, he will eventually catch up. It simply might take a bit longer. By the time he proposes a collaboration, Yang Ping probably won¡¯t be interested. Proposing a collaboration now, at least he can use the existing technology to help Yang Ping save time. After playing a few rounds, the two beauties drank water, laughing across the net. They were sweaty from the exercise, and the athletic girls were adorable. After five rounds, Xiao Su proved better and won three rounds. Everyone started packing their stuff. Xiao Su and Miyuki went back to the dorm to shower and change. Yang Ping and Takahashi went ahead to save seats. They planned to find a barbecue stall for night snacks. Yang Ping invited Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, and Little Five. Zhang Lin was still in Pediatrics, on night duty with his wife. Little Five lived near the hospital. Both of them could be there quickly. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were practicing peeling grapes under a microscope. As soon as they heard of the late-night snack, they did not hesitate to join. The group gathered together. Zhang Lin ordered a box of beer. Except for Yang Ping and Song Zimo, the other men drank. The men were chatting about professional topics, while the three girls chatted among themselves. Fujiwara Miyuki spoke excellent Chinese and often used interesting internet phrases, which made everyone laugh. She even took selfies with Xiao Su and Tang Fei and posted them on her ¡°moment¡±. Takahashi was straightforward with drinking. Whenever his cup touched another¡¯s, he drank it all. And as per Teacher Tang¡¯s rules, regardless of who he clinked cups with, his cup should always be a centimeter lower. ¡°When you come to Japan, I¡¯ll invite you all to seaside beers in Wakayama,¡± he offered. Takahashi felt that these Chinese friends were amazing. Like Abe Nakamaru, he wanted to write an article about his training experience to enlighten the Japanese. The women were laughing happily, seemingly discussing fun places to visit in China. Miyuki seemed to have found good friends in China. They seemed oblivious to the men¡¯s discussion. The girls clinked their fruit juice glasses, planning to gallop across the grasslands in Inner Mongolia, see the snow mountains in Tibet, dress in Han Chinese clothing and photographed in West Lake, Hangzhou. Skewers with beer, damn it feels good! Takahashi, Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, Little Five, one cup after another, plus the two women in vinegar, the atmosphere was very lively. ¡°Xiao Gao, good job! Cheers!¡± Zhang Lin immediately filled up Takahashi¡¯s cup. ¡°Drink first for a toast!¡± Takahashi didn¡¯t hesitate, he flipped the cup and drained it, declining no one. After drinking, Takahashi got up and pointed in the direction of the restroom. ¡°Lads, wait for me! I¡¯ll relax a bit, I¡¯ll be back to fight again!¡± Who taught him to call out to ¡°lads¡±? Zhang Lin and Little Five were stunned for a moment. This guy. Chapter 376 - 0356: Dominating the List Chapter 376: Chapter 0356: Dominating the List Takahashi, Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, Little Five, and Fatty, the lot of them had consumed several boxes of beer. The vicinity was strewn with empty bottles, and everyone had pretty much let off their steam. As the gathering was about to take its course, Little Five suddenly recalled, ¡°Zhang Lin, aren¡¯t you trying to have a baby?¡± Zhang Lin narrowed his eyes, ¡°Already got one, no need for any more considerations. Look at us today; whoever has not had a drink is prepping for a baby.¡± This remark prompted everyone to cast their gazes upon Yang Ping and Song Zimo, then onto Xiao Su and Tang Fei. At the utterance of Zhang Lin¡¯s words, everyone fell into a strange silence while Xiao Su and Tang Fei, the two girls, flushed red with embarrassment. ¡°Zhang Lin, has your brain been soaked in alcohol? We¡¯ve always stuck to not drinking.¡± Song Zimo quickly clarified. Zhang Lin chuckled, ¡°I didn¡¯t specifically say anything. Even if I had, I can¡¯t remember, so don¡¯t take offence.¡± ¡°Why are you all staring at me?¡± Yang Ping started feeling uneasy. After Song Zimo¡¯s explanation, everyone shifted their gaze back onto Yang Ping. Takahashi leaned in, ¡°Dr. Yang, come! How do you say it in Chinese?¡± Takahashi held up an empty cup in a hazy manner, thought for a while, ¡°May you have a child soon!¡± ¡°Takahashi...¡± Miyuki looked at Takahashi, whose eyes were stained with a tipsy red glow, and promptly reminded him. Takahashi¡¯s mind worked quickly. With a single hint from Miyuki, looking at the crimson faces of Yang Ping and Xiao Su, he sobered up sudden realising the faux pas he had committed. But, why was Miyuki blushing too? What concerned her? Takahashi couldn¡¯t understand. Zhang Lin immediately urged Takahashi, ¡°Little Takahashi, send red packets, quick, two hundred a piece, quick¡ª¡± With ten thousand in spare change, send more red packets now instead of saving it to collect interest. Keeping the money in a wallet wouldn¡¯t earn any interest anyway. As they carried on with their banter, it took a sizeable amount of disk to eventually settle down and call it a night. But they didn¡¯t have to perform surgery the next day, so there were no concerns. During the competition, they would perform surgeries for one day and take a break the next. This was a suggestion offered by Professor Zhang. This way, they could take a day to reflect and summarise, as well as check on the preparations for the next set of surgeries, to prevent any oversights. On the days off, the department would hold discussions. Professor Zhang and Director Han would attend and offer some advice, but only as suggestions for the younger ones to refer to. The surgeries on the first day, most of the hospitals only performed one as an opening act, exploring the waters so to say, which was mostly an open reduction internal fixation for a forearm with a dual fracture. During the discussions on the second day, the scores from all the judges from the first day of surgeries were already compiled and displayed on the high-definition screen, via the Golden Knife Award¡¯s website. Song Zimo had received full points from all the judges. On the leaderboard for the South China region, teams from Sanbo¡¯s Song Zimo, Fuyi¡¯s Su Nanchen, Lin Hao, Chen Ge, Cao Qian, Su Fengyu, Fuer¡¯s Yan Jiejun, as well as Tian Xu from the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital, were all tied for first place with perfect scores. The other hospitals, including the Provincial Chinese Medicine Hospital and the Affiliated Hospitals of the University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, had their points deducted to varying extents, as it was challenging to attention to every detail during surgery. The team from the Comprehensive Orthopaedics department conducted a summary of their first surgery, then scrutinised the preparations for the second batch of surgeries, closely inspecting the several aspects in management around the surgical area, operation procedures, medical case writings and so on. Any detail missed was promptly rectified with no issues found, finally putting their minds at ease. In the initial stages of the competition, Fuyi employed a similar strategy, allowing their surgical team to perform surgery one day and take the following day off. They were also conducting a debrief on the surgeries performed on the first day. Taking the dual fracture surgery on the forearm as a reference, they dissected the surgery to clarify what should be paid attention to. Everything from the big picture to the details were made crystal clear. Among the eight teams with full scores on the leaderboard, only Sanbo¡¯s team had their surgeries performed by an assistant. According to the Golden Knife Award¡¯s rules, surgeries during the regional competition can all be performed by an assistant. Sanbo¡¯s arrangement didn¡¯t violate these regulations, but no other team dared to do the same. There was indeed a significant gap between the capacities of a chief surgeon and an assistant. Allowing an assistant to perform a surgery or two, to display their skills, would not pose an issue. But entrusting all surgeries to the assistant could risk unforeseen circumstances. It would be challenging to restore the points once there was a drop, especially when competing against strong opponents. Furthermore, no team had the courage to let an assistant perform the first surgery. Establishing confidence in the first battle was crucial. Any mishap would directly impact the mood during the subsequent surgeries. Currently, except for Sanbo Hospital in the South China region, no other hospitals in the other five regions had their first surgery performed by an assistant. In the East China region, the first surgery was also performed by Wen Rentao from Mo Sixth, and he had no intention of allowing an assistant to take over. Lin Hao was always keeping a close watch on Yang Ping¡¯s performance. But now, all of Sanbo¡¯s surgeries were being performed by Song Zimo, and Yang Ping hadn¡¯t made an appearance. What did that mean? Did they give up on the Golden Knife Award? Did they treat it as an experience? But it didn¡¯t seem like it, they managed to garner full points for their first surgery, judging by the score, they were clearly aiming to be among the top few. For the second batch of surgeries, each team from Fuyi had multiple surgeries prepared, all kinds of fractures ¨C femur shaft fracture, tibiam fracture, humerus shaft fracture ¨C had all been scheduled. The pre-surgical preparations, operative plans, and post-surgery precautions for each case had been reviewed multiple times by several head surgeons to ensure there were no oversights. As the second batch of surgeries began, some people gradually started to fall behind, some of the eight teams which had full points before had already fallen apart. Tian Xu from the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital, while performing a closed reduction PFNA fixation for an intertrochanteric fracture of the femur, had the position of his helical blade slightly off-centre on the lateral X-ray, which resulted in points being docked, and lost his full score. Yan Jiejun from Fuer, while performing surgery for a femoral shaft fracture, did not apply enough traction pre-surgery, and took too long for the reduction during surgery, almost going over ten minutes. He barely managed the reduction successfully just at the ten-minute mark, barely managing to save his full score. Pulling off such basic surgeries without any points being docked required the surgery and theory to be impeccable. This required the Chief Surgeon to have received standardised training since they started clinical practice after graduation, developing good habits and a meticulous attitude. Due to intensive training before the competition, achieving full marks for one or two surgeries is possible. But consistently achieving full marks for each surgery is extremely difficult, a single lapse can result in a deduction of points. Thus, these surgeries maintaining a consistent perfect score can only be attributed to a profound accumulation of everyday surgical skills. Take the surgery for femoral shaft fracture, for instance. The closed reduction during surgery must be performed quickly. The scoring criteria dictate that reduction during surgery may not exceed ten minutes; any excess leads to point deductions. Managing to reposition a fracture within ten minutes and ensuring appropriate alignment, length, and rotation is entirely reliant on the accumulation of everyday surgical experience. Of course, if the repositioning time exceeds this duration, there could be many reasons for it, such as not operating at optimum capacity, insufficient muscle relaxation due to anesthesia, or the fracture being embedded in the muscle. As Professor Zhang puts it, whether it¡¯s nervousness, carelessness, or simply subpar performance, all are rooted in inexperience. In reality, there is no nervousness, carelessness, or poor performance. These are just excuses for inexperience. One plus one equals two¨Chow is it possible to make a mistake due to nervousness, carelessness, or subpar performance? By the third day of the competition, Song Zimo had completed surgeries for femoral shaft, tibial shaft, and humeral shaft fractures, achieving full marks for each operation with remarkable consistency. Reviewing the judges¡¯ grades, it¡¯s clear there are reasons why these chief surgeons achieved full marks. One of the patients with a tibial shaft fracture treated by Sanbo team was a foreigner who, due to his religious belief, frequently knelt. In such cases, those with a transverse tibial shaft fracture, undoubtedly, closed reduction and Intramedullary nailing is the gold standard treatment. In long bone fractures of the lower extremities that do not involve the joint surface, according to Golden Knife Award¡¯s grading rules, direct point deductions will occur if minimally invasive techniques are not used. If you want to score high, you must use minimally invasive techniques and cannot perform open surgery. Percutaneous minimally invasive techniques for long bone fractures of the lower extremities offer a choice of Intramedullary nailing or plates; the choice depends on the specifics of the case. In this instance, Song Zimo forwent the first-choice Intramedullary nail fixation and opted for a minimally invasive approach using a long locking plate. Many in the comments section disagreed with this decision. ¡°For transverse tibial shaft fractures, the first choice is not a locking plate but Intramedullary nailing. The stability of Intramedullary nail¡¯s central fixation is clearly superior to the eccentric fixation of a plate.¡± ¡°Indeed, the chief surgeon and first assistant of Sanbo Hospital are still inexperienced. They may lose points due to incorrect choice, and the point deduction may not be insignificant.¡± ¡°There goes another perfect score.¡± Many of the comments came from high-ranking orthopedics doctors with rich experience, but also from aspiring young doctors eager to learn. ¡°No need to rush. I attended an academic conference at Sanbo Hospital. The chief surgeon, Yang Ping, is no ordinary person. How could such a simple operation result in a mistake in the choice of internal fixation? There must be some hidden reason.¡± ¡°What hidden reason could there be for something so straightforward? From Campbell to orthopedic surgery, and then to AO internal fixation manual, Intramedullary nailing is the first choice for this kind of surgery everywhere. Now is not the time to be pioneering.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s keep watching. The chief surgeon of this team is truly an expert. It is too early to draw a conclusion.¡± Except for a few who reserved their judgments, the majority were unanimous in their belief that the team chose the wrong fixation method in pursuit of novelty. This is not uncommon, some surgeons, in their quest to stand out and bring a new perspective, come up with some bizarre surgical techniques. Take, for example, open reduction and plate fixation for humeral shaft fractures. The anterolateral incision is the gold standard, yet some insist on using an anterior-medial incision, boasting about its many advantages. The anterior-medial side has so many nerves and blood vessels, extending upwards into the axilla, filled with nerves and blood vessels. How could it possibly be superior to the anterolateral side? If they didn¡¯t strive to be original, how would they write their research papers? But now this is a surgical competition, not a paper-writing contest. One inappropriate innovation could wind up costing them the competition. Finally, the first judge began scoring. Everyone was fixated on the score revealed. Each step received full marks, right up to the final step which too was marked perfect, making it an overall perfect score. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Where did we go wrong?¡± ¡°Why weren¡¯t there any points deducted?¡± ¡°¡ª¡± ¡°Read the scoring instructions carefully!¡± The scoring instructions clearly state: Due to the patient¡¯s religious beliefs that required frequently kneeling, using Intramedullary nailing for tibial fractures could result in a higher probability of developing anterior knee pain. Such complication could severely impact the patient¡¯s ability to kneel, whereas percutaneous techniques using a long locking plate do not have this complication. Therefore, for professional athletes, those who frequently kneel for their activities, or those unable to tolerate possible complications of anterior knee pain, Intramedullary nailing should be avoided if possible. ¡°Experts! They¡¯ve thought of this, something we would never have considered.¡± ¡°I told you, this is a truly expert team.¡± ¡°Over at the provincial hospital, a professional athlete¡¯s case was penalized for this.¡± There were eight perfect scores on the board; now only seven remain, with Song Zimo still among them. They managed to avoid any point deductions for this case, an issue most orthopedic surgeons wouldn¡¯t consider. A certain soccer player once had a transverse fractures in the middle of the tibial shaft. The surgery was performed at a hospital in East China. After much thought, the chief surgeon abandoned the Intramedullary nailing method in favor of a long locking bone plate. Pre and post-operative X-rays were posted on a forum online, and many questioned this approach. Only when an expert stepped in to explain did everyone finally understand what had happened. Enjoying a panoramic view of surgical thinking is built on a solid foundation of theory and experience. Lin Hao continued to analyze Sanbo Hospital¡¯s surgery, wondering how long they could maintain their impressive performance in the competition. Chapter 377 - 0357: Big Topic Chapter 377: Chapter 0357: Big Topic The regional competition for the Golden Knife Award proceeded methodically, becoming increasingly competitive, and the harsh scoring made it increasingly difficult to achieve full marks. Yan Jiejun from Fuer and Su Fengyu from Fu Yi, dropped out of the full-scoring camp in the third round of surgeries due to the same mistake. In a surgery for a distal humeral comminuted fracture, they incorrectly chose the suture for the cosmetic incision of a young female patient and were deducted points. In the past, articular locations were contraindications for cosmetic suturing. The advantage of cosmetic suturing is fewer scars, but it is not as secure as regular interrupted suturing. After joint surgery, early rehabilitation training is necessary, typically starting the day after surgery, in order to achieve satisfactory joint function. The less robust cosmetic suturing cannot meet the needs of early rehabilitation training and can lead to cuts easily opening during movement. Nowadays, cosmetic suturing techniques have greatly improved. If each stitch can hook enough dermis, the suturing can be initially robust, and what used to be contraindications can now be indications. There was no problem with the cosmetic suturing techniques of Yan Jiejun and Su Fengyu, but unfortunately their mastery of surgical suturing techniques was not comprehensive enough, they lacked a sufficient understanding of the various sutures, so they made errors in their choices. For their cosmetic suturing, they used absorbable sutures, which is a mistake that is easy for many surgeons to make. Many doctors even call absorbable sutures ¡°cosmetic sutures,¡± which is completely wrong. Currently, the sutures used for cosmetic suturing must be non-absorbable, such as needle-bearing fine nylon thread, which needs to be removed after surgery. Although absorbable sutures don¡¯t require removal, the process of their absorption can cause foreign body reactions and inflammatory reactions if used for skin suturing, leading to more pronounced scars. This contradicts the purpose of cosmetic, this does not exist with fine nylon thread, which can be removed within a few or a dozen days after surgery. If it were normal surgery, this wouldn¡¯t be an issue. However, for a competition, one must strive for perfection. After the third round of surgeries, those still maintaining full marks were Song Zimo, Su Nanchen, Lin Hao, and Cao Qian. The teams from the other provinces were still weaker than those from Nandu Province, and no team from these provinces achieved full marks. Lin Hao is feeling a bit pressured now. After three rounds of surgeries, he still hasn¡¯t been able to pull ahead of Yang Ping¡¯s team; they¡¯re still firmly tied for first in the South China region. Yang Ping is very clear about Song Zimo¡¯s capabilities. This first assistant has no competitors in the regional competition, and he could even sweep the field for him in the national competition. Unfortunately, the chief surgeon must perform more than half of the surgeries in the national competition, and the chief surgeon must personally perform the final surgery. So Yang Ping is not in a rush right now. As long as he doesn¡¯t fall behind in points, he temporarily doesn¡¯t plan to step in directly; he¡¯s concentrating on more important things. A research plan to cultivate human muscles in a stem cell laboratory has been written. All his time in recent days has been dedicated to this. The more than one hundred pages of research plan lying on the desk are mind-numbing to look at. But there was no other option, the aspects covered by this large-scale research project were too broad. Like building cars, it requires cooperation from many factories; it¡¯s impossible for one factory to make all the parts. Yang Ping wishes to focus on core technology. Although he plans to cooperate with Takahashi, he doesn¡¯t hold out much hope for the Japanese; that is a backup plan. Yang Ping¡¯s main plan has already taken shape; he needs to find several domestic partners. The gene laboratory at Nandu Medical University is a potential partner for obtaining or synthesizing inducing proteins. Among the topics within the stem cell cultivated muscle cell research, there are several core technologies. Two have already appeared: induction differentiation technology and micro-infrastructure technology. The third core technology for the future is cell structure stabilization technology. After a long search for micro-infrastructure technology, Yang Ping finally found a start-up company in Pengcheng, called Magic Cube New Materials Company. Its 3D printing technology can achieve 15-micron printing. Although it¡¯s not yet enough, it¡¯s promising. This company was established by a group of overseas Chinese doctoral students, and it is uncertain whether the team has the ability to develop micro-infrastructure. This is the only hope of domestic companies. Once these two partners are found, there is hope of completing the research project. Yang Ping plans to negotiate with each of them individually as soon as possible. If Tokyo University can cooperate and share technology, Yang Ping could digest and absorb their technology then improve upon it, which would save a lot of time. But such hope is slim, and Yang Ping does not harbor false expectations. Therefore, in the main plan, they can only start from scratch to chew on this tough issue. Overtaking on the bend has never happened before. Technology can only progress step by step. If you want to overtake others, you can only rely on speed. Research funding is also a big issue; the funding for the first phase requires around 30 million yuan. This investment is enormous. Even if you apply for a research fund and it is successful, it would amount to at most 1 million yuan. A budget of 1 million yuan is a drop in the bucket. If you count the follow-up investment, this research project can reach the billion-level. If there isn¡¯t enough funding, it will be hard to carry out the project. These are very practical problems. Yang Ping now thinks that Xiao Su¡¯s words were entirely correct. Suppose there is a day when he can easily obtain tens of billions of yuan in funding, he would not have to worry about this money. Someone knocked on the door, it should be Song Zimo who has finished his surgery. ¡°I was planning to have you write it, but you had to perform the competition surgery. I¡¯ve already written it. This is the research plan I¡¯ve written.¡± Yang Ping pointed to a thick stack of documents on the office desk. Song Zimo glanced over the summary: ¡°How come you haven¡¯t written about the research funds?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that I didn¡¯t write it, but that I temporarily couldn¡¯t. The first phase requires 30 million yuan.¡± Yang Ping said with a smile. Song Zimo took a deep breath: ¡°The first phase requires tens of millions of yuan, this is a billion-level major project, aren¡¯t we a little¡ª¡± Yang Ping waved his hand: ¡°Let¡¯s do this project. I¡¯ll take care of raising the funds.¡± Yang Ping believed it was time to get started without any further delay. If they start now, they can gain momentum once they secure the championship in the Golden Knife Award and earn the reward of the system space laboratory. By then, the project would already be underway. Yang Ping began to realize that it was impossible to accomplish anything without money. Huawei invests billions of dollars in research and development annually, and after a decade or so, the Kirin chip was developed. Other companies lack this kind of boldness and foresight, especially since the outcome of these kinds of investments is uncertain. Compared to this painstaking technical development, constructing a few buildings for a huge profit seems like an easier choice. It¡¯s quick and satisfying. Duke University and Tokyo University had both invested millions of dollars into this project, and this was only the preliminary phase. They plan to continue investing billions more in research and development funds into this project. ¡°With all the research grants combined, you¡¯d be lucky to get one million. The hospital¡¯s funds, the Overseas Chinese Foundation, even if Director Han and Dean Xia agree, it doesn¡¯t matter. The money belongs to the hospital, not to individuals. They won¡¯t give you tens of millions for research.¡± Song Zimo was worried. Tens of millions is not a small amount. If it were a business, there might be venture capital investments. But who would want to invest in potentially losing scientific research? ¡°I¡¯ll figure out the money.¡± Yang Ping had thought about the difficulties when he had the idea. ¡°Thirty million. Some of the big professors might not have received thirty million in total research funding in their entire life.¡± Song Zimo thought the amount was too large. ¡°You focus on the competition. I¡¯ll handle this; we have to do this project,¡± Yang Ping assured without doubt. ¡°Okay, no matter what, I support you. Even though there is a lot of money involved, we would just need to find a way out together.¡± Song Zimo fully supported Yang Ping. He had to organize everyone for the review of today¡¯s surgery, explaining to Yang Ping that they needed to find a way to raise funds when he had time. In the WeChat group on his mobile phone, the results of Wei Danian¡¯s genetic sequencing were finally out. All hereditary diseases were ruled out: glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, pyruvate dehydrogenase and carboxylase complex deficiency, fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase deficiency, and oxidative phosphorylation deficiencies. All these inherited conditions that could cause lactic acidosis were not present in Wei Danian. Despite employing the most advanced genetic testing technology in the country, they were still unsuccessful. Dr. Wen Yulin¡¯s genetic sequencing report, which was dozens of pages long, detailed the sequencing method, equipment used, and results. Dr. Wen asked if they should continue with larger-scale sequencing, analyze its precursor molecules and metabolic products, or even re-sequence genes. This would be a major project. Was there any need to continue if they couldn¡¯t find the issue even through gene sequencing? Such rare cases are valuable resources. It would be a shame to simply give up. But the gene lab at Nandu Medical University could not possibly devote all its resources to gene testing for Wei Danian; there are many other projects they needed to work on. They never would have committed to such a difficult task if it weren¡¯t for the influence of Su Nanchen. Yang Ping suddenly remembered the recent push notification functionality of his system for cases: the case-push feature allows for comprehensive medical activities on the recommended cases. He went into the system space and using the case-push feature, he constantly modified the keywords, narrowed down the scope and, finally, managed to get a precision push case which was extremely similar to Wei Danian. Yang Ping decided to conduct the most comprehensive examination on this experimental subject, running the subject through all kinds of laboratory and equipment tests. However, he didn¡¯t find any clues, so he attempted to improve the patient¡¯s genetic sequencing. All the inspection methods in reality were available in the system space, and in the system space, there was no need to wait in line: all resources were around the case. It was astounding that after only a few hours, a gene sequencing report, dozens of pages long, was completed by the fourth generation of gene sequencing technology. After examining the genetic testing report, the cause of the disease was still not apparent. Yang Ping ordered a few more gene sequences. This colossal examination cost him tens of thousands of points. However, compared to the simulated surgery, these points were still bearable. Finally, one report showed: there was a mutation in the ATP5F1D gene, which is involved in mitochondrial function. This mutation led to a metabolic issue with pyruvate, which caused an accumulation of lactic acid. ¡°Could we continue testing, using the fourth-generation sequencing technology, focusing on the ATP5F1D gene, and do it multiple times? It¡¯s possible that this gene might have had a mutation.¡± Yang Ping left a message in the group. ¡°I really regret to say that at the moment, the fourth-generation sequencing equipment is not available.¡± Dr. Wen expressed her remorse as they were extremely busy with projects recently as well. Approximately ten minutes later, Dr. Wen replied with an OK hand gesture. ¡°If we were to carry out a comprehensive re-sequencing, we wouldn¡¯t be able to spare the resources. If we were to do a precise sequence of the ATP5F1D gene, that can be arranged.¡± It would be almost impossible to find a lost treasure by searching every nook and cranny of every house in the entire city. Now, they only needed to search one house. The task would be considerably easier. It was Yang Ping¡¯s first time using the case-push feature, and he wasn¡¯t sure if the checks performed in the system space would be helpful in reality. ¡°We will use the fourth-generation gene sequencing technology, and the results can be out within a few hours. We will start tomorrow,¡± added Dr. Wen. Once Su Nanchen saw the chat in the group, he called Lin Lan who then agreed to continue assisting with the tests. Lin Lan was the director of the gene lab at Nandu Medical University and a doctoral supervisor. She was also Su Nanchen¡¯s fiance?e. With Lin Lan handling the arrangements, Dr. Wen Yulin would definitely comply, considering Lin Lan was her doctoral advisor. Chapter 378 - 0358: Competing for Supremacy Chapter 378: Chapter 0358: Competing for Supremacy The fourth round of the Golden Knife Award surgery competition entered the pelvis and acetabulate surgery phase. Even though the competition simply requires the completion of different types of surgeries and cases within three months, most hospitals follow a progressive principle. Start simple and then get complicated, using simpler surgeries to get into the competition state, and doing complex surgeries when at the peak state naturally forms this kind of sequence. Pelvic and acetabulum fracture surgery is one of the more complex surgeries in trauma orthopedics. Classified generally, this type of surgery is often a fourth-tier surgery, and also the type of surgery in regional competitions that widens the gap in scores more. Some surgeons can deftly handle simple limb fractures, lackadaisical and calm, seeming to be able to complete the surgery elegantly in accordance with standard steps. But when it comes to pelvic and acetabulum fractures, many become utterly disorganized. Who cares about standard procedures then, as long as the surgery is successfully completed. The technical accumulation of a hospital requires several generations, so it is difficult for a dark horse to emerge, making the orthopedics competition very intense at present. In the Western Division, Huaxi and Xi Jing Hospitals have always been in the lead, with other hospitals forced to follow behind them. In the Northern Division, the orthopedic titans of Beijing, Jishuitan, 301, Beijing Third Hospital, Xiehe, and the Beijing People¡¯s Hospital are almost in a dominant position, with the other hospitals unable to make headway. The teams dispatched by these hospitals are locked in fierce competition with each other, almost all climbing the rankings with perfect scores. If they are the slightest bit careless and drop even a single point, it will be very hard for them to catch up. In the Central Division, Tongji and Xiangya are battling for supremacy, in a dead heat. Compared to the other divisions, this one is the calmest. The Eastern Division is similar to the Northern Division, and they are expected to be the two most fierce divisions. Mo Sixth, Mo Ninth, Long March, Huashan, Ruijin and others are fighting fiercely, but due to the presence of Wen Rentao, Mo Sixth clearly has the upper hand over the other institutions. The developed internet has made this Golden Knife Award competition incredibly exciting, with everyone ambitious. Beijing believes that it should continue to hold its consecutive titles in this edition. Shanghai is restless, vowing to seize the Golden Knife Award. Huaxi is eyeing it closely, believing that the Golden Knife Award should have been theirs long ago. With their overall strength consistently ranking in the top three nationwide, they wouldn¡¯t be afraid of Beijing, Shanghai, or Nandu. Nandu Affiliated Hospital One is bolstering its fight forces. After several years of accumulating strength, their orthopedics department can already look afield at Beijing and Shanghai. If one were to speak of tranquility, it would be the Central Division. When Xiangya and Tongji look around, it seems as if they have no other opponents, trading punch for kick between themselves. These two hospitals are also long-standing powerhouses, especially Xiangya. Although it no longer ranks alongside Xiehe, no one can shake its position as the leading regional institution. All these mighty soldiers from five paths are giving their all, vying for the Golden Knife Award. Pelvic and Acetabulum Fractures are the surgeries in trauma orthopedics that make the score difference, and everyone can¡¯t afford to be slack. The scores are so close, and only the top three can advance to the national competition. A small mistake could lead to a loss of multiple points, making it difficult to recover. This tense atmosphere is also an incentive for surgeons: They cannot make mistakes. One mistake and it will be hard to turn things around. ¡°Sanbo Hospital is a dark horse this time, actually surpassing Fuer and the Provincial Hospital, even able to hold its own in the full-score group.¡± Lin Hao sat next to Su Nanchen this time, deliberately seeking to hear his brother¡¯s opinion. All the orthopedic physicians are watching the review of these rounds of surgery on a high-definition screen, all attending except those who can¡¯t leave their posts because of duty. The Southern Division includes several provinces, but Nandu Affiliated Hospitals One and Two and the Nandu Provincial People¡¯s Hospital are the strongest. Every time in the Southern Division¡¯s competitions, it focuses on these hospitals. This time, Hong Kong also sent a team to compete, performing well. But no team got full marks. Looking at the current trend, the qualifying teams seem to be the ones who can still maintain full scores. ¡°Sanbo Hospital¡¯s knife-holders have always been the assistants. It¡¯s strange. Why haven¡¯t their main surgeons shown up?¡± Lin Hao deliberately said this, hoping to pry out some news from Su Nanchen. Su Nanchen understood his brother¡¯s meaning and could only tell him the truth: ¡°Don¡¯t belittle this assistant of theirs, he¡¯s capable of competing for the national championship, if not surpassing us, at least he¡¯s on the same level as us.¡± Su Nanchen was very polite and conservative, in order to avoid damaging Lin Hao¡¯s confidence. ¡°Not necessarily, it¡¯s limb fractures now, and it¡¯s hard to distinguish the level. In the next round of pelvic fractures and subsequent spinal fractures, it might not be so easy.¡± Chen Ge supported Lin Hao, he also thought that Sanbo wouldn¡¯t be able to hold on for long. Just like when high school students are doing math problems, many can get full scores in the school¡¯s general exams, but if you place these full score students in the Olympiad, it¡¯s fortunate if they can even pass. They believe that the current competition is just like a general exam, where getting full marks is not surprising. Su Nanchen couldn¡¯t favor another hospital and damage the confidence of his own colleagues, so he had to keep silent. But he was clear in his mind that this first assistant, is not only going to sweep the Southern Division but also predictably lead for Yang Ping in the national competition, going all the way to the halfway point of the national competition. ¡°In this competition, arthroscopic surgery has added shoulder and knee multiligament reconstruction.¡± Chen Ge reminded Lin Hao. Lin Hao was full of confidence. For the younger generation of surgeons handling shoulder and knee multiligament reconstruction, a peer to match their skills might be hard to find across the country. This was his secret weapon in this competition. Su Nanchen glanced at Lin Hao and Chen Ge, wanting to speak but stopping himself. It¡¯s all about participation, so there¡¯s no point in saying more. Cao Qian and Su Fengyu kept quiet, hoping that a few of the full score teams would lose points and give them hope. In the front row, Professor Huang and Professor Zou were to the left and right of Professor Su, watching the playback of videos. The ongoing display was the surgery of Sanbo. Professor Zhou pointed to the video and spoke in a low voice, ¡°Even a surgical assistant is so brilliant, it¡¯s not surprising if Yang Ping wins the championship. Wen Rentao, who is highly anticipated, may not be his match. This young man is extremely formidable.¡± ¡°Sanbo Hospital is a complete dark horse this year. In the national competition, it¡¯s best for us not to confront them too early!¡± Professor Huang rarely agreed with Professor Zhou. ¡°It¡¯s estimated that Sanbo will take home the prize for the best surgical nurse this year.¡± Said Professor Zou, leaning over to share with Professor Su. ¡°Looking at the momentum, it¡¯s very likely.¡± Professor Huang agreed. In addition to the main prize, the Golden Knife Award also includes other sub-prizes, such as Best Surgical First Assistant, Best Surgical Nurse, and Best Anesthesiologist. Professor Su simply smiled without saying anything, only listening to the discussions beside him. Both of his colleagues were surprisingly harmonious today, for some reason not arguing with each other as they usually did. At this time, Magic City Sixth Hospital was also busy, with Hong Zhigang leading the team to study the surgeries of the top competitors in each group to learn from their strengths. ¡°Rentao, does Sanbo Hospital still have a perfect score?¡± Hong Zhigang was most interested in Sanbo. ¡°They¡¯re maintaining the perfect score along with the three contestants from the Nandu Affiliated Hospital One.¡± Wen Rentao wasn¡¯t surprised, he had expected this. He had known long before that Sanbo Hospital was strong in trauma orthopedics, and he had confirmed that Takahashi Fumiya was not in Tokyo, but at Sanbo Hospital. It seemed that Takahashi had contributed a lot to the training of Sanbo. ¡°It¡¯s amazing that a surgical assistant performed the surgery.¡± Hong Zhigang furrowed his brows. ¡°Sanbo is likely utilizing this competition to bolster its orthopedic trauma department¡¯s reputation and consolidate their previous prestige. Their goal is not to win the Golden Knife Award, it¡¯s hard to quickly make up for their technical shortcomings.¡± Wen Rentao analyzed, trying to prevent his teacher from worrying too much, thinking to himself that it¡¯s necessary to pay more attention to strong teams like Huaxi and Jishuitan rather than allowing his judgment to be affected by emotions. Wen Rentao was also perplexed. The formidable competitor mentioned by Zeng Ran hadn¡¯t appeared yet, and all of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s surgeries were performed by the first assistant. How daring is the chief surgeon to let the first assistant lead the surgery? Could they afford the risk of a mishap considering this intense competition? Could it be that the chief surgeon still needed the first assistant to cover for them? He couldn¡¯t understand the reasoning behind this arrangement. Su Nanchen and Lin Hao in the southern competition area were very formidable. ¡°Song Zimo, the surgical assistant, trained with us at the Sixth Hospital of the Magic City.¡± Zeng Ran said to Wen Rentao. ¡°Oh?¡± Wen Rentao didn¡¯t show much interest. ¡°It¡¯s that tall and handsome guy. He broke our hospital¡¯s record in microscope operations, and the record is still held by him till date.¡± Zeng Ran was familiar with Song Zimo. ¡°Rukawa Kaede?¡± Wen Rentao didn¡¯t remember his name, but he did recall the nickname he was given at the time. He had some impression of him, as that guy always had an air of aloofness around him. ¡°Yes!¡± Zeng Ran thought Wen Rentao had forgotten. ¡°Wasn¡¯t he a graduate of Fudan University? I heard that none of the affiliated hospitals of Fudan accepted him for surgical training because he had a stubborn habit of fainting at the sight of blood? Later, a leader from the medical school of Tongji University called and sent him to us. It sparked a little controversy, as he was leaning against the wall to work during his time at the Trauma Emergency Center?¡± Wen Rentao¡¯s impression of Song Zimo suddenly became more vivid. ¡°Yes, teacher. You¡¯ve finally remembered him. Things have changed a lot since then. He has overcome his phobia of blood, and he is now Yang Ping¡¯s assistant at Sanbo Hospital.¡± Zeng Ran felt that his teacher and senior brother were somewhat careless. ¡°Indeed, the surgery was very well executed. In another ten years, he will definitely be vying for the Golden Knife Award.¡± Wen Rentao praised. Zeng Ran always had an uneasy feeling. The surgery that he had personally seen had instilled a fear in him. No matter how skilled Yang Ping and Song Zimo were in other surgeries, the capability displayed in that surgery at the Academic Conference was too formidable. It had taken root in Zeng Ran¡¯s mind. Maybe it was just the mental shadow that made him overestimate Sanbo¡¯s strength whenever he made judgments, and he always felt there was something mysterious about what the teacher said about Takahashi going to Sanbo. Perhaps he was thinking too much, and Zeng Ran tried to suppress these thoughts. Senior brother¡¯s analysis was very objective. They had never practiced those final surgeries like spinal scoliosis correction and cervical spine surgery, and tumor removal from the spinal pelvis. How could they possibly be skilled at them? Wen Rentao was curious about Yang Ping. He had not shown himself, allowing his assistant to conduct the surgery. Since the first Golden Knife Award, there has never been such a precedent. ¡°Rentao, we must not underestimate them. If we face Sanbo in the national competition, we must give it our all.¡± Hong Zhigang reminded him, looking somewhat worried). ¡°Do we need to eliminate a single Sanbo? I¡¯m afraid they won¡¯t even meet us. Huaxi and Jishuitan, any team can easily eliminate them. Not to mention anything else, a single cervical spine surgery would make their hands tremble. In my opinion, under the onslaught of the guys from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, it¡¯s hard for Sanbo to even qualify.¡± Another associate professor spoke disdainfully. Every year in the hospital rankings, in the category of orthopedics, the Magic City Sixth Hospital has always been among the top few. Their competitors are hospitals like Jishuitan, 301 and Imperial Hospital Beijing, and even Xiehe Orthopedics is often ranked behind the Magic City Sixth Hospital. Now they¡¯re discussing caution with Sanbo. I don¡¯t know what got into their heads. ¡°They are still maintaining a perfect score now!¡± Zeng Ran was still worried. This associate professor didn¡¯t care: ¡°Did you see what kind of surgeries they¡¯re doing now? They¡¯re all limb surgeries. If you perform them, you could probably achieve a full score as well.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s not be careless. Rentao, keep an eye on this team.¡± Hong Zhigang is now overly cautious. ¡°Understood!¡± Wen Rentao thought the teacher was being overly suspicious. Chapter 379 - 0359: The First Shot Chapter 379: Chapter 0359: The First Shot In the fourth round, surgeries for pelvic acetabular fractures have not been performed by anyone for several days. Many doctors have requested the organizing committee to change the competition format to live broadcasts for all surgeries. They suggested that similar types of operations be performed simultaneously within the specified time, with real-time scoring for more excitement and contrast. However, concentrating all the surgeries and scoring into one time frame is probably not realistic. Both the contestants and judges are doctors, who are extremely busy. It would be difficult for all of them to convene at a predetermined time. A small number of judges watch video replays in their free time to score, deliberating carefully before awarding each point. Unlike sports competitions, which are straightforward and clearly determine winners and losers, a single surgery can be broken down into dozens or even hundreds of steps, accompanied by various other aspects. Even if live broadcasts are used for the final round, judges are still expected to complete the scoring within 24 hours, without immediate scoring required. Therefore, due to their specific nature, it¡¯s hard for all surgical procedures to adopt direct live scoring. Those who want to watch live can do so, and those who don¡¯t have time can watch replays. Some people pointed out that with video, the ones operating earlier would be at a disadvantage and the latter ones would have the advantage to avoid mistakes made earlier. While this makes sense, each surgery is unique. And with the lack of detailed directives in the public surgery scoring rules, those directives lay in the hands of the judges. Only after all participating doctors complete such surgeries, will the reasons and details of point deductions be published. Before that, even if you knew that earlier surgeries had points deducted, you wouldn¡¯t know where they were deducted. For instance, only the detailed directives would state the selection of sutures for patients whose surgery grading must consider visual demands. It would be difficult for others to learn lessons from the surgery without the publication of the reasons and details of point deductions. Regarding pelvic acetabular surgery, everyone maintained a cautious attitude. No one rushed to operate first and they were all waiting for others to make the first move and potentially make a mistake. It seemed that only then would they feel at ease and secure. In Sanbo Hospital¡¯s orthopedics teaching room, a hand-drawn anatomical diagram of the pelvis was frozen on the high-definition screen. Then, it was switched to a drawing of a right acetabular fracture. The patient¡¯s acetabular fracture was rather severe, classified as a Judet-Letournel double-column fracture and an AO C23 type. The patient¡¯s radiological images, including anterior-posterior pelvic images, anterior-posterior right hip, obturator oblique and iliac oblique X-rays, and pelvic and acetabular CT scans with 3D reconstruction, were all displayed. On the X-ray images, six radiological markers¡ªthe posterior and anterior rim of the acetabulum, the dome of the acetabulum, the teardrop, the ilio-ischial line, and the ilio-pubic line¡ªwere specially colored in. All the case materials were meticulously sorted, with every detail carefully considered. As Song Zimo explained onstage, Yang Ping listened with the others from below. In integrated orthopedics, standardized training students were now required to learn drawing as a basic skill to foster image thinking abilities. All surgical steps were expressed in hand-drawn diagrams with annotations. The several major steps, as well as dozens of minor steps, didn¡¯t delve too much into detail, yet allowed an overall grasp on the surgery, striving for perfection and revealing the team¡¯s deep and meticulous understanding of the procedure. ¡°No one has started yet, everyone is waiting. Should we wait too?¡± Though Takahashi had not been on stage, he had long considered himself a part of the team. Through such a substantial event, he had learned many things from Yang Ping, such as preoperative diagnosis, the choice of surgical indications, preoperative preparation, surgical planning, and postoperative rehabilitation, thoroughly studying the entire diagnostic and treatment process. ¡°I don¡¯t think we need to wait anymore. They won¡¯t gain a significant advantage by waiting. It¡¯s simply a waste of time,¡± Song Zimo believed, regarding the pelvic acetabular fracture surgery in the Southern Division. ¡°There are no flaws in our surgical plan. I suggest we proceed,¡± Xu Zhiliang agreed with Song Zimo¡¯s opinion. ¡°If nobody objects to the surgical plan, then let¡¯s start the operation at half past eight tomorrow morning,¡± Yang Ping decides. In fact, Yang Ping¡¯s thoughts on the surgery had far exceeded the competition requirements. He passed this mindset and approach onto Song Zimo. Thus, Song Zimo¡¯s understanding of this surgery had surpassed the scoring syllabus. If the intraoperative procedure faithfully adheres to the plan, this surgery would be another flawless operation. Song Zimo stood on the podium, habitually unbuttoned his white coat. The second-in-command team member confidently turned off the screen. The operation would commence tomorrow. ¡ª¡ª The website preview announced the imminent surgery at Sanbo Hospital. The entire country¡¯s divisions were all the same, holding back and waiting for the first to proceed. Funnily enough, Sanbo Hospital was the first to initiate surgery, with a resident serving as the primary surgeon. Some even doubted whether Yang Ping was only Sanbo¡¯s mascot and if he needed Song Zimo¡¯s support to complete the regional competition. If not for the competition, Professor Hong would not have had the time to relax. Wen Rentao, Mu Jun, and Zeng Ran gathered in the teaching room to watch the video. Wen Rentao was also waiting for the first to initiate, and if no one else made a move, he would take action. ¡°They are brave to be the first one to perform this surgery,¡± Mu Jun, the vice-director physician who was also the primary surgeon in the competition, commented jestingly. ¡°The resident is performing this surgery, seems like they are making room for him to complete the regional competition?¡± Mu Jun chuckled. ¡°They are speeding too fast; are they risking a crash this time?¡± Mu Jun continued to remark. Wen Rentao remained calm, ¡°I don¡¯t think so. With Sanbo¡¯s strength in trauma orthopedics, it¡¯s unlikely that this resident with basic solid skills would fail for pelvic acetabular fracture surgery.¡± The more everyone downplayed Sanbo, the more they were intrigued to watch. Perhaps that¡¯s what curiosity does. At this time, the usual strategy was that the main team would postpone their surgery, whilst the secondary team would go first to scope out the situation, in order to minimize mistakes made by the main team. ¡°Who lets the assistant do everything? This primary surgeon must be a special figure, someone who¡¯s using the Golden Knife Award to make his name known,¡± Mu Jun snorted. Every profession has such people. Incompetent and just wanting thrills, they try to garner an impressive reputation. How? They seek loopholes and shortcuts and let others prop them up. ¡°The rules of the Golden Knife Award state that, in the regional competition, an assistant is allowed to conduct all the surgeries. These are just basic procedures, so they do not affect the evaluation of the primary surgeon. Let¡¯s wait and see,¡± Wen Rentao responded impatiently to Mu Jun. The surgery began, and the level of skill was enough to silence anyone. Certain details could be gleaned from the hip joint surgery of the pelvic bone. With Yang Ping¡¯s help, Song Zimo¡¯s control over surgical procedures had already far surpassed his past skills. An excellent surgeon must be able to command his operations smoothly. This is the manifestation of the invisible comprehensive ability. Let the surgery proceed according to your will, rather than being led around by the nose by it. Drivers must control their vehicles, bosses must control their businesses, chefs must control the heat and ingredients, and basketball players must control the pace of the game. The rhythm of the surgery was entirely under the control of the surgeon: make an incision, stop the bleeding, make another incision. The level of proficiency in the local anatomy of the pelvic bone made it hard to believe that the surgeon was a young attending physician under thirty. ¡°The surgery is getting stuck. It¡¯s a waste of time,¡± Mu Jun said, noticing the gradually slowing pace of the surgery. ¡°The external iliac vein and obturator vein anastomosis are most likely to show variants here. They need to slow down and proceed cautiously until the anatomy is clear, then they can speed up,¡± Wen Rentao offered a different perspective. Just based on this pelvic acetabular fracture surgery, it indeed represented the top national standard. The strategic slowing down at the potential appearance of variant blood vessels or nerves already surpassed many surgeons. Perhaps, even in the Magic City Sixth Hospital, few surgeons could be found with such a surgical consciousness. This operation strategy was like driving a car: when reaching a dangerous section, such as intersections, pedestrian crosswalks, or bends, the driver would instinctively slow down, shift the foot from the accelerator to the brake, prepared to stop at any moment. Once past the intersection, and confirmed safety, they would speed up and leave quickly. This was the experience Yang Ping shared with Song Zimo: in pelvic acetabular fracture surgery, he advised several points to slow down, which allowed risk avoidance and prevented unnecessary trouble and wasted time. However, most people did not understand the significance of such an operation. It was like people who knew nothing about music listening to a piece, finding it entirely chaotic. ¡°Why slow down? It¡¯s not the location of the death crown,¡± Mu Jun failed to understand. ¡°Pelvic surgery has a low probability of encountering variant blood vessels and nerves. But once encountered, if the knife doesn¡¯t stop, it could risk the patient¡¯s life,¡± Wen Rentao had to explain. Wen Rentao identified three points where Song Zimo slowed down, but there were a few more he did not understand. A doctor can¡¯t harbor any luck. For a doctor, the risk may be one in ten thousand, but for the patient, it is one hundred percent. A variant anastomotic branch was picked out with a vascular forceps, clamped, cut, ligated, and then the surgery proceeded quickly. Wen Rentao couldn¡¯t help but inhale sharply; the low probability event had actually occurred. If there had been no deceleration during the surgery and the knife had passed over, it wouldn¡¯t just have endangered the patient¡¯s life, it would have also resulted in a significant blood loss, at least a thousand milliliters. Given the same training and number of operations as himself at Mo Sixth, Song Zimo might have indeed become his rival. Unfortunately, he went to Sanbo Hospital. No matter how you look at it, with all its history, Sanbo Hospital could not possibly produce a Golden Knife Award champion. The surgery was executed cleanly, with very little blood loss. The placement and force of the several hooks were also extremely fitting. None of the acetabular hooks slipped out, and there was never a time when the exposure of the surgical field was poor and required adjustment from the primary surgeon. The muscle relaxant from the anesthesia was sufficient, making the exposure of the operation field very easy. Takahashi is indeed formidable, having helped Sanbo foster such talent. ¡°Their hidden mentor is Takahashi Fumiya!¡± Wen Rentao stated as the perplexed Mu Jun stood nearby. Mu Jun trembled inwardly. Takahashi Fumiya, a master in the international trauma surgery field, gained renown worldwide in his early forties. Takahashi was strict, and Mu Jun had been scolded by him numerous times during his training in Tokyo. ¡°No wonder they have Takahashi-Sensei¡¯s guidance,¡± Mu Jun finally understood why they didn¡¯t fail. Calling Takahashi Fumiya ¡°sensei¡± was not an exaggeration. Both Wen Rentao and Mu Jun had been trained by Takahashi in Tokyo, and their experiences with his strictness still lingered in their minds. ¡°I called and asked, Takahashi is not in Tokyo, he¡¯s in China. As for where in China and what he¡¯s doing, no one in their department knows, or they¡¯re keeping it confidential. I think, he should be in Sanbo Hospital,¡± Wen Rentao was confident in his judgment. With Takahashi¡¯s training, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s trauma orthopedics would definitely not be weak. Mu Jun felt a bit intimidated, not by Sanbo, but by Takahashi. ¡°Takahashi sensei can only increase their level in trauma orthopedics, and can¡¯t improve much in the short term,¡± Mu Jun tried to comfort himself. ¡°For the pelvic acetabular fracture surgery, you¡¯re scheduled for tomorrow. Feeling pressured?¡± Wen Rentao asked. It did feel a little like playing the role of cannon fodder. With Wen Rentao present, Mu Jun didn¡¯t harbor aspirations of winning the Golden Knife Award, he could only play the part of the cannon fodder. In other words, Mu Jun¡¯s team was there to assist. It was an arrangement made by Hong Zhigang. Song Zimo¡¯s surgery was already completed. If they were swapped into the position of judges, from where would they deduct points for this surgery? What you thought of, he thought of. What you didn¡¯t think of, he did. Their level in trauma orthopedics was indeed not bad, Wen Rentao had always thought so. Zeng Ran hasn¡¯t spoken for some time, possibly due to some psychological shadows. Chapter 380 - 0360: Twisted Dough Stick Folding Chapter 380: Chapter 0360: Twisted Dough Stick Folding Once someone fired the first shot, the courage of those who followed grew. In various hospitals, one after another, surgeries for pelvic acetabular fractures were started. In less than a month, all of the dozen or so surgeries in this category had been performed. Chen Ge was being docked points due to incomplete bleeding control during the acetabular fracture surgery, and too many ineffective and repeated movements during fracture reduction, resulting in him falling out of the full score camp in the Southern Region. In surgery, ineffective or repetitive movements frequently occur, which are manifestations of a lack of proficiency or experience in surgery, and in the face of difficulties, the surgeon is at a loss of what to do. These actions can waste a large amount of time, disrupt the rhythm of the surgery, and make it difficult to proceed normally. Ineffective actions are those that do not contribute any benefit to the surgery, such as continually changing instruments when the surgery encounters difficulties. These changes do not have a clear objective but only serve to buy time and allow the surgeon to think of countermeasures and adjust their emotions. Or some chief surgeons complain about improper coordination by their assistants, which is also a sign of insecurity and a lack of confidence. Instead of complaining when assistants perform poorly, the chief surgeon can help correct them. In short, these actions do not substantively benefit the surgery. They are simply a waste of time. Repetitive actions, where an operation that could have been completed in one go, undergo repetitive operations, have similar sources and consequences to ineffective actions. In the regional competition of the Golden Knife Award, the occurrence of ineffective or repetitive actions will result in points being deducted, but in the national competition, no points will be removed for this reason. The reason is simple. The surgeries examined in the regional competition are all basic surgeries. If ineffective or repetitive actions appear, it means that the basic surgeries have not reached the desired excellent level. However, the surgeries in the national competition are mostly highly difficult surgeries, facing these surgeries, it¡¯s understandable if you encounter difficulties, need temporary rest, or if ineffective and repetitive actions appear. As long as you can solve it when faced with difficulties in a highly difficult surgery, it¡¯s considered to be sufficiently excellent. In the Southern Region, Song Zimo, Su Nanchen, and Lin Hao all have full scores. As long as these three teams do not make mistakes, they have the greatest hope of advancing. However, it is also possible that some teams may be deducted points in later surgeries, allowing those lagging behind to catch up. This happens in every competition, where teams that have always been leading are overtaken by teams behind them due to mistakes. Getting past the pelvic acetabulum fracture, the subsequent spinal fracture is somewhat easier on the contrary. The pelvic acetabular fracture is a hurdle, where many people get points deducted. The main focus of the regional competition in spinal fractures is the posterior surgery of the thoracolumbar vertebrae. The most crucial part of the posterior spinal surgery is still the pedicle screw placement technique, and everyone thinks it¡¯s more relaxed than the pelvic acetabular fracture. As the next round of the spinal fracture surgery competition begins, Song Zimo has already selected a case, drawn up the surgical plan and handed it to Yang Ping, and if there aren¡¯t any problems, he will be reporting on it in the routine department meeting in the afternoon. Just as he was halfway through looking at the surgical drawing, Professor Zhang called. He admitted a special patient in the outpatient department and asked Yang Ping to wait in the teaching room. The ¡°special patient¡± referred to by Professor Zhang is undoubtedly not some high-ranking official or wealthy person. In his language, a ¡°special patient¡± refers to someone with a severe or rare condition. Yang Ping collected the surgical drawing, placed it on his office desk under an Orthopedics textbook and went to the teaching room to wait for Professor Zhang. He went to the teaching room because it has a large professional film viewing screen, which is used for teaching and is larger than the one in the office, making it easier to view films. About ten minutes later, the patient appeared at the door, being pushed in by Xiao Mo in a wheelchair, followed by Professor Zhang, and also a woman carrying a luggage bag, presumably a family member of the patient. If Yang Ping had not seen this type of patient in the system space, he would certainly be shocked to the point of dropping his jaw. Anyone, any spinal surgeon, upon seeing this type of patient, will be deeply shocked. The entire person is curled up into a ball, like a spring onion roll, or like a twist stick, the entire waist is curved up, the head is twisted over from the side of the thigh, with the face close to their own buttocks. The spine is twisted like a twist stick, and the entire person is folded more than 180 degrees. This does not even account for the fact that while folding, it¡¯s twisted like a twist stick. Both hip joints and knee joints are stiff, in a flexed deformity state, on the wheelchair, the patient is curled into a complex ball, like a caramel ball. For such folding deformities, no existing medical name can describe them. If one were to use an image-related term to express it, ¡°twist stick¡± does not convey the full idea, ¡°Caramel Ball Fold¡± ¡ª can only describe this exaggerated deformity. Yang Ping thought that only the devil training in the system space would show such severe cases of spinal deformity in reality. The patient¡¯s arrival attracted many curious people. People crowded around the door of the teaching room, whispering and discussing in low voices. Some even took out their phones to take pictures. Some who had just finished their surgeries not long ago, leaning on crutches, or supported by walking aids, hastened over to the commotion. Nurses followed behind, trying to disperse the crowd. Director Han came in through the crowd and turned back to tell the nurse who was persuading people, ¡°Don¡¯t let them crowd around, Xiao Mo, close the door.¡± Xiao Mo, the graduate student, immediately closed the door to the teaching room, blocking the curious gazes outside the door. Old Han couldn¡¯t help but be startled too. He¡¯d seen knife-like deformities before, but never one like this caramel ball. ¡°This is Lu Gang, male, twenty-two-years old, discovered spinal deformity fourteen years ago. I don¡¯t need to describe how serious it is. He has been to many hospitals, in Beijing, Shanghai, all over the country. They all said it was impossible. He came to find me, and I¡¯ve never seen anything this severe either. The young man just graduated from university, he still wants to get married and lead a normal life. Let¡¯s discuss this, can we treat it? If so, how should we go about it?¡± Chapter 381: 0360: Twisted Dough Stick Folding_2 Chapter 381: Chapter 0360: Twisted Dough Stick Folding_2 Despite such circumstances, he managed to attend university and even graduate? Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but admire this patient¡¯s perseverance over these past ten or more years. ¡°Can you take care of yourself in daily life?¡± Although Director Han was aware that he couldn¡¯t, he asked anyway. ¡°This is Lu Gang¡¯s mother, here we have Professor Han and Doctor Yang from our department,¡± Professor Zhang introduced, inviting everyone to sit down and have a chat. Lu Gang¡¯s mother, in her fifties, had dark skin, but there was a streak of stubbornness between her brows, perfectly embodying the saying, ¡®women are soft, but mothers are tough¡¯. She said, ¡°He can walk. He can only eat with the bowl on the floor, I serve his meals, put the bowl on the ground, and he can eat by himself. He handles toileting himself, but he needs a special commode.¡± ¡°Little Gang, walk for the doctors, let them see!¡± His mother lifted Lu Gang from the wheelchair, and he demonstrated walking, using his hands and feet to support his weight, crab-like. He went along not too badly, but because of his twisted deformity, his limbs were unbalanced, making his stride uneven and slower. ¡°I walk like a crab, which doesn¡¯t look good. I can only eat my meals on the floor. We used to have cats and dogs, and they would often steal my food. So, we stopped keeping pets, and I have no difficulty eating. For toileting, we have a specially made commode and toilet at home, making things much easier. Going to the bathroom outside is difficult, but I seldom go out,¡± Lu Gang said with self-deprecating humor. His face was close to his buttocks because his spine twisted as it folded. This allowed him to tilt his face slightly, optimally positioning him to eat, although eating must have been very challenging. ¡°That¡¯s enough, rest a bit. Has it been like this since you were eight?¡± Director Han signaled him to stop. ¡°I started to hunch when I was eight years old. It wasn¡¯t this extreme at first, but it transformed over just a few years, twisting me into a churro-like lump,¡± Lu Gang said. These years had been tough on the young man. Yet, judging by his self-mocking tone, he seemed rather optimistic. With tears in her eyes, Lu¡¯s mother pulls out a handkerchief: ¡°He earned provincial first place in the college entrance examinations and just recently graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China, even though he is like this.¡± ¡°I studied computer programming. Doctors, please help me. I still want to get married and have a child, and let my mother hold her grandchild,¡± Lu Gang confidently said. This made everyone laugh. He was quite open and cheerful, showing no signs of hardship. Lu¡¯s mother was a single parent. When Lu Gang was six years old, his father passed away. His mother raised him alone, not remarrying and maintaining their living by selling buns from a tricycle, she even put him through university. ¡°Xiao Mo, bring up his x-rays,¡± Professor Zhang instructed Xiao Mo. Xiao Mo had already pulled up Lu Gang¡¯s CT scans and the 3D reconstruction on the computer. The entire person was more compact than a fetus in the womb, especially the spine which was completely folded, exceeding 180 degrees, spiraling within 3D space. His cervical spine, thoracic spine, lumbar spine, and sacrococcygeal vertebrae were all severely deformed. Even more terrifying was that his upper cervical spine was also deformed. Both hip joints and knee joints were stiff, with the hips being dislocated. A complete mess, only his upper limbs remained normal. To straighten him up, return his body to a normal order, and remedy the structure so he could stand erect, was so difficult! The risk of correcting the spine was particularly high; any error might result in death or paralysis. If surgery is done, it would be very difficult to intubate him for anesthesia, posing an insurmountable obstacle. ¡°He¡¯s been to all the hospitals he could across the country. None of them worked out. He came to me to try his luck. Can we operate?¡± Professor Zhang asked Director Han, pointing at the CT 3D reconstruction on the screen. The suggestions from specialists at the other hospitals weren¡¯t incorrect. Without surgery, he could continue to live like this. If the surgery failed, he might lose his life or become paralyzed. ¡°Doctors, even if the risks are high, I am willing to fight for it!¡± Lu Gang declared resolutely. His mother earnestly pleaded, ¡°I am in my fifties, I am not going to be around forever. Who will look after him after I¡¯m gone? So, I want him to undergo surgery now, while he¡¯s still young, to live like a normal person. If he can do that, I will have no worries left in this world.¡± Listening to his mother speak, Lu Gang remained silent. Yes, his mother had a tough life. She worried that he wouldn¡¯t be able to survive on his own after she was gone. If his mother hadn¡¯t cared for him so meticulously, he might not have made it this far. ¡°This surgery would be the first of its kind in the world. Correcting the thoracolumbar spine might leave him paralyzed, and correcting the cervical spine could be life-threatening. Look, the most dangerous part is the deformation of the upper cervical spine. This is where the control centers for respiration and circulation are located. If something goes wrong, you might be left on the operating table.¡± Director Han solemnly stated that after a brief conversation, he had confirmed the young man¡¯s determination and there was no need for ambiguity. ¡°As long as there¡¯s a glimmer of hope, I wish to fight for it, I don¡¯t want to live like a normal person, I¡¯m not afraid to risk my life.¡± Risking life, just for the hope of being able to hold up his head, to stand upright, the request is simply that. ¡°Have you thought it through?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve considered it for several years.¡± ¡°Xiao Yang, what do you think?¡± Director Han asked Yang Ping for his opinion. This surgery is difficult, but not impossible. At most, he would perform hundreds of similar surgeries in the system space to strengthen training. If that¡¯s not enough, no matter how risky, he still has the surgical simulation to rely on. ¡°Admit him to the hospital!¡± Admit him to the hospital! A simple sentence, but in Director Han¡¯s heart, it was the most audacious thing he had ever heard a doctor say. However, Director Han did not ask him if he could do it, only about his availability. Yang Ping¡¯s words meant he could handle it, and was ready to admit the patient to the hospital. Ever since Director Han brought Yang Ping on stage for a spinal scoliosis correction, Yang Ping hadn¡¯t yet performed such a surgery independently. However, they already had a patient with spinal scoliosis in their department, and Director Han planned to let Yang Ping handle it. How could a doctor who has never performed, or just learnt spinal scoliosis correction surgery take on such a major surgery? That¡¯s too exaggerated. But hasn¡¯t Yang Ping done numerous exaggerated things? The surgery he performed at the academic conference, wasn¡¯t it rare in the world, yet he mysteriously managed to pull it off? A miracle, this is a person continuously creating miracles, an individual who has already defied normal logic. All the boasts he made, he realized them. ¡°Okay!¡± Director Han approved. Seeing the two have agreed, Professor Zhang naturally supports it. ¡°First, let Dr. Che give him some breathing, muscle strength, and traction training to prepare for the surgery. I will complete the preoperative examination, as the surgery will affect the spinal cord, cardiopulmonary function, etc. The tolerance to correction is an unknown variable that needs careful assessment. This will be a tough long-haul battle. The surgery can only be done in stages, and it won¡¯t be completed in less than half a year.¡± ¡°If possible, let¡¯s use this case for the Golden Knife Award. It¡¯s apt as he needs correction for the cervical vertebrae, thoracic vertebrae, and lumbar vertebrae, and also needs to undergo pelvic rotation osteotomy correction. It¡¯s also likely he would need bilateral hip and knee joint replacement¡ª¡± Yang Ping said. Doing this surgery as a case for the Golden Knife Award, isn¡¯t this picking the hardest one? Who does that? While meeting the requirements, others always choose classic cases. Yang Ping is intently looking at the CT three-dimensional reconstruction on the screen. Director Han and Professor Zhang look at each other, this kid hasn¡¯t done any such surgeries, and there are no global precedents for this. However, he has always realized the boasts he made. ¡°I¡¯ll admit him.¡± Originally, Old Zhang¡¯s intention was to consult Director Han so they could perform the surgery together. He called Yang Ping to come over and watch this rare case together. This kid seems to intend to be the chief surgeon himself, and also plans to enter it for the Golden Knife Award. This left Old Zhang no choice but to be amazed. Chapter 382: 0361: The Reviews are also Spectacular Chapter 382: Chapter 0361: The Reviews are also Spectacular Lu Gang has been assigned a bed and placed under the care of Xu Zhiliang¡¯s and Zhang Lin¡¯s team. With Song Zimo participating in the competition, Xu Zhiliang¡¯s team is responsible for the routine work in the department. Each team is complemented by several standardized training students and interns, ensuring smooth operation without peril. Such top-notch arrangements are only seen in orthopedics, and other departments are not entitled to such privileges. People who didn¡¯t agree with this tried to complain to the dean but Dean Xia said: ¡°When you achieve results like Orthopedics did, I¡¯ll assign Ph.D. students to your bedsides to write case histories personally. How does that sound?¡± The complainant had to retreat sullenly, knowing continued protests would lead nowhere. The standardized training students pushed Lu Gang to the ward and stopped the wheelchair. They tried to lift Lu Gang onto the bed while Xu Zhiliang prepared for a detailed case history inquiry and physical examination. But seeing the slight physique of the student, Doctor Xu worried the student might drop Lu Gang or injure his own back during the process. ¡°Zhang Lin!¡± Doctor Xu called with slight irritation. Zhang Lin, who was standing at the side, immediately stepped in to help, having abandoned his usual defiant attitude. As Doctor Xu asked about the case history, Zhang Lin kept his pen moving, noting every detail. There was no room for lounging. The stuttering Doctor Xu would inspect his case records in front of the students. Should there be any omissions or inaccuracies, he would swiftly critique him right on the spot in his stuttering speech. This doctor may stutter, but his mind is sharp and memory exceptional. He remembers every detail. Only once Doctor Xu finished asking about the case history, could Zhang Lin finally close his notebook. When Doctor Xu extended his hand, Zhang Lin handed him the tape measure. Once the measurements were completed, Doctor Xu extended his hand again and readied his percussion hammer. Any miscalculation in Zhang Lin¡¯s timing would warrant a stern glance from Doctor Xu. After finishing all superficial and deep reflex reviews, Zhang Lin returned the percussion hammer and handed over the stethoscope. Auscultation of the heart, lungs and abdomen had to be performed, as spinal deformities could lead to displacement of the chest and abdominal organs, causing heart, lung, and digestive function issues. After completing a comprehensive physical examination, Xu Zhiliang stood still as Zhang Lin started to tremble, predicting incoming inquiries. Every time Doctor Xu had finished a physical examination and started asking questions, Zhang Lin would become extremely nervous, as each question from Xu Zhiliang was like a chess move, potent and unyielding. ¡°Big brother, can you give me face, we have standardized training students and interns here.¡± Zhang Lin seemed to plead with his eyes. Xu Zhiliang didn¡¯t raise any queries, but simply said, ¡°Everyone, please review the chapters on Ankylosing Spondylitis and Scoliosis in ¡®Clinical Orthopedics¡¯ and ¡®Orthopedic Surgery¡¯.¡± Lu Gang¡¯s severe deformities of the spine, hip joint, and knee joint were caused by Ankylosing Spondylitis. Boss Xu was giving him face this time. Zhang Lin let out a sigh of relief. ¡ª¡ª Xu Zhiliang quickly imported the data from 3D reconstruction of Lu Gang¡¯s CT scan into the 3D printer, and printed a model of Lu Gang¡¯s entire skeleton. The model was already placed on Yang Ping¡¯s desk. Yang Ping studied the model repeatedly, formulating the surgical plan. The spinal deformity was too severe. In addition to the Kyphotic deformity in the sagittal plane, there was rotational deformity in the cross-sectional plane and Scoliosis in the coronal plane. The surgery would be complex, as it had to correct deformities on three planes, making it much more difficult than an ordinary spinal deformity correction surgery. The surgery needed to correct the spine and also straighten the spinal cord within the vertebral canal. Once straightened, some parts of the spinal cord could be pulled and others compressed. This tension and compression could damage the spinal cord, leading to death or paralysis. The tolerance limit for correction was unknown and could only be guessed based on experience. Although intraoperative neuroelectrophysiological monitoring can be conducted with modern instruments, their usage was limited, especially in severe cases like this. The entire operation could be understood as breaking Lu Gang¡¯s spine into several sections and reconstructing it. The pelvis would be cut into several pieces and reassembled, the hip and knee joints would be sawed off and replaced with artificial joints. This massive operation not only posed the risk of spinal cord damage, but also bleeding, infection, risks of osteotomy, and the risks of screw insertion. Taking the risk of screw insertion as an example, due to deformity and the loss of bony landmarks, the standard pedicle screw insertion technique failed. Each pedicle screw had to be inserted uniquely. Lu Gang¡¯s skeleton formed in Yang Ping¡¯s mind, then started to shift, rotate, stretch, and compress. The soft tissue attached to the skeleton was stretched, wrinkled, and twisted accordingly. The anterior blood vessels, nerves, and viscera also changed, starting to move. Yang Ping mentally visualized the entire dynamic process, and based on that, started sketching the bones to be cut. Having just finished planning Lu Gang¡¯s surgery and looking forward to a brief rest, an old friend, Ou Lichun, unexpectedly called him. Ou Lichun had already reported to the First Affiliated Hospital. The Spinal Surgery department warmly welcomed him and arranged for him to join the medical team led by Professor Fan Jiguang, a star pupil of Professor Zou. The director of the medical teaching department personally escorted him to Spinal surgery, and Professor Fan was extremely courteous, making inquiries about his well-being, and asked Ou Lichun about his relationship with Yang Ping. To express his gratitude to Yang Ping, Ou Lichun brought some local specialty products from his hometown and insisted on delivering them to Sanbo Hospital. Yang Ping made an appointment with him to meet and catch up. Among classmates, it was common to help each other in order to make collective progress. There was a knock at the door. Opening it, Yang Ping found Takahashi standing at the entrance, with an unusual expression. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Yang Ping asked, seeing Takahashi¡¯s concerned look. Takahashi attempted to speak, but he seemed to struggle. ¡°Come in?¡± Yang Ping welcomed Takahashi into his office. Takahashi sat down and said, ¡°Dr. Yang, I¡¯m sorry, Tokyo University refuses to cooperate. They¡¯re worried about technology leaks. I¡¯ve tried hard to persuade them.¡± Takahashi had argued logically but he hadn¡¯t been able to convince the die-hards at Tokyo University. Yang Ping thought it would be a big deal, nonchalantly replying, ¡°Takahashi, thank you, but it¡¯s no big deal. Don¡¯t stress. If we cooperate, I could save a few months. If not, it only means it¡¯ll spend a few more months.¡± Yang Ping hadn¡¯t held many hopes for Tokyo University, he had already started to plan on his own. Takahashi thought it¡¯s a pity. Without working with Yang Ping, they would lose the opportunity to be leading in the field. One could foresee that once Dr. Yang entered this field, the advantages of Tokyo University and Duke University would vanish quickly. From Yang Ping¡¯s expression, it was evident that he didn¡¯t react at all, as if the matter did not exist. Tokyo University¡¯s cooperation did not matter to him. Just as Miyuki had said, Yang Ping was a man at the peak of the mountain. In Takahashi¡¯s eyes, Yang Ping was such a man: when his sword is undrawn, it remains undrawn; when he draws his sword, there is no opponent. ¡°Is this Lu Gang¡¯s skeletal model? And his surgery blueprint?¡± Takahashi looked at the skeletal model on the table and the stack of blueprints beside it. Takahashi hadn¡¯t expected that Yang Ping was an all-rounder in orthopedics, not only is he unreachable in trauma orthopedics and sports medicine, even his attainments in spinal surgery are unfathomable. Firstly, the cervical spine deformity needs to be corrected for easier intubation during surgery and for the position of the subsequent surgery. Then the deformities of the thoracolumbar spine are corrected, followed by the rotation osteotomy of the pelvis, the osteotomy of the knee joint, and the optional hip-knee joint replacement. Various soft tissue relaxation and balance surgeries are interspersed in between. The steps of the surgery are clear and interlinked. The osteotomy on each part is extremely precise and ingenious. With all the osteotomies combined, the skeletal deformity would be completely corrected¡ªan aesthetic of surgery presents before the eyes. Being able to learn from such a person, it is a rare opportunity in life! ¡°Dr. Yang, you are about to create another miracle,¡± Takahashi said with admiration. ¡°No, I¡¯m just doing my job,¡± Yang Ping replied calmly, leaning back in his chair. ¡ª¡ª Song Zimo is preparing a patient for thoracolumbar fracture surgery. In the southern competition region, those who are maintaining full marks are still Song Zimo, Su Nanchen, and Lin Hao. Teams from each competition region, like several powerful torrents, are gradually taking shape and rushing towards the national competition area. In every region, the early frontrunners are still those old-fashioned hospitals; Jishuitan in Beijing, Beijing Medical University Third Hospital and 301 Hospital are still firmly leading with full scores. Magic City Sixth Hospital, Huashan, and Long March are standing out, other hospitals are gradually falling behind. Huaxi and Xi Jing are outperforming all the others, other hospitals can only watch them lead. Xiangya and Tongji Hospital are standing out uniquely. Their brother hospitals can still compete, others don¡¯t have the slightest hope to win. Except for Magic City Sixth Hospital and Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, no one cares about Sanbo Hospital. Even Magic City Sixth Hospital is only paying a little attention out of curiosity. Only Su Nanchen of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One knew that Sanbo was the real championship team but he couldn¡¯t say much. It would be useless even if he did. Yang Ping glanced at the leaderboard, Song Zimo had remained high-scoring and he didn¡¯t have much to worry about for the time being. If he couldn¡¯t remain strong, he wouldn¡¯t be Song Zimo. His robust fighting ability greatly satisfied Yang Ping. For this Golden Knife Award, if it weren¡¯t for the chance to win the system-rewarded laboratory, for fulfilling Director Han¡¯s wish, and to fuel the passions of his peers, Yang Ping would really have no interest in it. The time spent on this could be used to do a lot of things. The next round of surgery is the posterior thoracolumbar fracture surgery, there are comparatively fewer accidents. If there are any, most of them happen during the pelvic acetabular fracture surgery. As long as Song Zimo can hold steady, advancing with a full score wouldn¡¯t be a problem. Indeed, whether it was surgical skills or mentality, Song Zimo was thoroughly reliable. The Golden Knife Award¡¯s website was exceptionally bustling, fans of the large hospitals formed groups spontaneously. For example, those who like Magic City Sixth Hospital, those who once practiced in Magic City Sixth Hospital, graduate students who came out of Magic City Sixth Hospital, naturally become fans of Magic City Sixth Hospital. While another group became fans of Huashan, these fans engaged in ferocious battles in the comments section. However, these are academicians, even the battles were like case discussions, academicians start battles in an academic way. No cursing, coarse language, or personal attacks, all the fighting passion has turned into tightly-knit, paper-like comments. Sanbo Hospital also gained a lot of fans, they were active in the comments section of Sanbo Hospital. Most of the people in this group are doctors who have personally attended the academic conferences of Sanbo Hospital. ¡°The chief surgeon hasn¡¯t appeared yet, has he chickened out? Letting an assistant all the way?¡± ¡°Joke! Killing a chicken with a bull¡¯s knife?¡± ¡°If your so-called great god doesn¡¯t come out, I¡¯m afraid there won¡¯t be much for him later. Look what surgeries are in the national competition? If all the surgeries Sanbo has done over the years are given to him, would they be able to feed him? It¡¯s good to have passion, but intelligence is also needed. Who can be spared by the learning curve?¡± ¡°Without considering efficiency, discussing the learning curve is just mischievous. Factor in efficiency, and the difference in curvature appears. With the same surgery, one person produces ten times the effect, while another only produces the effect once¡ªthis disparity makes the learning curve unfair.¡± The competition is exciting and the comments were also brilliant. Chapter 383: 0362: Period of Psychological Stress Chapter 383: Chapter 0362: Period of Psychological Stress United States, New York Special Surgical Hospital, Doctor Robert¡¯s office. The strong aroma of coffee filled the room, Robert had already consumed three cups, and his assistant, Barel, sat across from him at the office desk. ¡°Barel, I am going to ask you a few questions, and you must answer them honestly.¡± Robert¡¯s expression was serious. Barel was caught off guard. Robert had abruptly called him into his office, and after a long deliberation, finally asked him a serious question. This question must be of great importance. Could it be about his relationship with the female intern doctor? That couldn¡¯t be it. The love affair, mutual and consensual, did not violate the hospital¡¯s regulations, and there was no coercion of power involved. ¡°Am I Robert?¡± Robert leaned on his elbows on the desk, and suddenly asked. ¡°Yes, Doctor!¡± Barel responded passively. ¡°Is this the New York Special Surgical Hospital?¡± ¡°Yes, Doctor!¡± ¡°Is the orthopedics department of this hospital ranked first in the world?¡± ¡°Yes, Doctor!¡± ¡°Am I the current chairman of the North America Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine Association?¡± ¡°Yes, Doctor!¡± ¡°Alright, Barel, you may go now, I need some alone time.¡± The tension in Robert¡¯s facial muscles eased, and he waved his hand, indicating that Barel could leave. The questioning was formally over. What on earth? Was that all he wanted to ask? These questions were so overly simple and juvenile that it felt bizarre. ¡°Doctor! Should we call the police or request psychological assistance?¡± Barel suspected that Robert was having mental health issues. Robert was clearly off kilter, now fiddling with a spinning top in his hand. ¡°What is this?¡± Barel queried, having seen Robert play with the spinning top in the office multiple times. Robert would spin it on the desk and then crouch over the table, watching it intently until it fell over. When on earth did Doctor Robert develop a fascination for spinning tops? Barel was worried, and did not immediately leave. ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t need psychological help?¡± Barel asked once more. The hospital had mental health professionals available at any time to support doctors, assisting them with any difficulties and providing psychological counseling. This was a standard provision in American hospitals, as the medical profession was high-risk with immense pressure, especially for young doctors who frequently needed psychological support. Barel always felt that Robert had been acting strangely since he returned from China, but his performance during surgeries did not raise any red flags. As a colleague and assistant, it was his responsibility to pay attention to Robert¡¯s mental health. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Barel, I¡¯m fine. Some things are just beyond common sense, and I always tend to deal with them scientifically. I¡¯ve done multiple self-analyses with these scales, I¡¯m probably just in a psychological stress phase, it¡¯s really no big deal.¡± Robert pulled out a few forms and tossed them to Barel, all were self-psychological testing scales. ¡°If I tell you, when I went to China this time, I met a young doctor who could be my mentor. His surgical skills are unparalleled. The gap between him and me is just like the gap between you and me, or even bigger.¡± Robert reasoned. ¡°That¡¯s impossible. That¡¯s like saying some random street fighter could beat Mike Tyson at his prime. People would love to see that, but in reality, it¡¯s not possible, whether in terms of training time, intensity, methods, competition experience, coach subscriptions, or nutritional support, a street fighter could not surpass Tyson.¡± Barel¡¯s analysis was not unfounded. ¡°What if it were the Hulk? A blow from him could easily knock out Tyson.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just nonsense from Marvel!¡± ¡°But I did see it. Alright, Barel, I won¡¯t argue with you. How many of the patients I have scheduled for this month have I not seen yet?¡± ¡°There are seven left from Long Island, one of them has a multi-ligament rupture in his knee and is a professional football player.¡± Robert¡¯s luxurious clinic was located in the Long Island area of New York. Each week, Robert would go to his own clinic to perform surgeries. Of course, Barel and others would accompany him. This clinic was actually a luxury specialty hospital. It held all the necessary authorization for sports medicine surgeries. Many sports stars completed their surgeries and then received rehabilitation treatment from the clinic¡¯s rehab team. They received a one-stop service from diagnosis to surgery, to rehabilitation. The high cost of surgery here is chosen only by those who do not care about money. Of course, Doctor Robert does not disappoint. His superb skills have long kept the surgical results at the top. Carrying on the tradition of his grandfather and father, they perform long-term follow-ups with their patients. That is, he has the world¡¯s best follow-up service. It is said that some patients of his grandfather¡¯s surgeries are still being tracked in his clinic. Some patients, limited by the medical technology of their time, could not achieve good results. But when they came to Little Robert, they underwent the latest surgeries for correction. This has been a clinic run by three generations. Going back further, his ancestors were Germans. That is, Robert is of German descent, and his great-grandfather was a renowned doctor in Germany in his day. Knee ligament reconstruction! This phrase had once depressed Robert. It was a surgery he never really succeeded in. A true success would mean enabling an athlete to recover their sporting ability and return to the field, which Robert could not achieve. Now, upon hearing this term, he no longer felt the previous fear, but spoke indifferently. ¡°Any new developments in Little Andrew¡¯s specialized surgical equipment and implants? Any replies from the OrthoPediatrics company?¡± ¡°The engineer says the prototypes can be presented to you next week. He said if you weren¡¯t a doctor, they¡¯d be jobless. Your equipment design is too exquisite. I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve applied for a patent. He suggested you should.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t create this design ¨C my teacher did. No, I never steal. Tell them just to produce it according to the blueprint. If they dare to apply for a patent secretly, I would ensure their bankruptcy.¡± ¡°Your teacher?¡± Barel had never heard Robert refer to his father in this way. He always addressed his father as Mr. Robert of Florida, as his father lived in Palm Beach, Florida. It is well-known that Robert¡¯s teacher was his father. ¡°Don¡¯t misunderstand, I¡¯m referring to a Chinese doctor. Yes, don¡¯t be so surprised. He is indeed my teacher. The surgical method used on the fortunate veteran was his invention. However, I haven¡¯t fully grasped it yet. Barel, I tell you, his surgical patients can return to the field. I¡¯ve witnessed it with my own eyes ¨C he is the world¡¯s best sports medicine doctor.¡± ¡°You mean, your visit to China this time was to see this teacher?¡± Barel was incredulous. Robert naturally answered: ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°It¡¯s a miraculous hospital with miraculous doctors. Not everyone gets this opportunity. Even if I¡¯m there, I can only observe from beyond the yellow line. If you were there, Barel, I¡¯m afraid you wouldn¡¯t even qualify to enter the operating room. A trauma surgeon from Japan respectfully makes tea for their teaching secretary every day. Yes, my teacher, he completed an olive core carving under an arthroscope on a knee joint model.¡± ¡°Arthroscopic olive core carving? Are you sure what you¡¯re talking about is not imaginary but real?¡± ¡°I swear, if there is any lie in what I¡¯ve said, Camilla will marry me.¡± Robert placed his hand on his chest. My God, only Barel knew the weight of this vow. How could he tolerate marrying a woman? For Little Andrew¡¯s surgery, I¡¯ve decided to have my teacher operate. You prepare for it. I will contact the teacher to find out when he can fly to United States. ¡°Barel, keep your eyes open then, and also prepare a spinning top. Otherwise, you might think you¡¯re dreaming. Listen to me, I¡¯m not mistaken.¡± Barel glanced at the spinning top on his desk. No wonder, that is what it was for. ¡°Schedule the surgery on Long Island, prepare as soon as possible. This is the first surgery I¡¯ve invited the teacher for, there can¡¯t be any negligence. Once the teacher¡¯s schedule is confirmed, we must be ready.¡± Doctor Robert is normal, he would never joke about Little Andrew¡¯s case, nor would he gamble with the reputation of generations of medical practice. It can be assured that this person does indeed exist. Furthermore, the patient of Robert¡¯s new surgical style, that Navy Lieutenant, had very good post-operative results. Robert¡¯s surgery never had such an effect before. Facts don¡¯t lie. Robert took out the printed blueprint and laid it on his desk: ¡°Barel, come and have a look!¡± ¡°Be careful, your arm is crumpling the blueprint.¡± Robert brushed Barel¡¯s arm off the blueprint. ¡°Look, he cleverly avoids the epiphysis, whether it¡¯s the tibia or femur. They all circumvent it and suspend the ligaments away from the epiphysis. They also design a terminal embedment. Look how they still function ¨C it¡¯s a genius concept. I don¡¯t know why I didn¡¯t think of this.¡± Barel was also a sports medicine expert. With a hint from Robert, he saw the ingenuity. Indeed, it was a genius concept that completely solved the problem of anterior and posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in children. ¡°What else do I need to do?¡± Barel was excited. Robert thought for a moment: ¡°All the booked patients, especially those with shoulder and knee ligaments multiple ruptures, inform them in advance to get their MRI and CT scans, and also the motion analysis. Now, for all such patients, I want to invite my teacher as the Chief Surgeon, until I fully master this surgery. Proceed with these as soon as possible. I need to get the data beforehand.¡± ¡°I will notify the Long Island clinic right now,¡± Barel said. Chapter 384: 0363: Lad, Thats Strength Chapter 384: Chapter 0363: Lad, That¡¯s Strength Due to the high difficulty and risk of the surgery, there are not many hospitals nationwide that can perform spinal scoliosis correction. Among the few hospitals considered top-tier in this field nationally are Xiehe, 301, Nanjing Drum Tower, and Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital¡¯s overall ranking nationally is not high, but its spinal scoliosis surgery is at the forefront, with more surgeries performed than the other top-tier hospitals, thanks to the efforts of Professor Qiu, who returned from studying in France. Professor Qiu studied for eight years in France with the famous spinal correction master, Professor Contrel, learning advanced spinal correction surgery. Professor Contrel is one of the creators of the world-renowned CD correction technique. After his studies, Professor Qiu gave up a generous offer in France to return to China and establish the spinal surgery department at Drum Tower Hospital, focusing on spinal scoliosis correction and narrowing the gap with developed countries. The center for Spinal Scoliosis at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One is also top class. Under the hard work of Professor Su, it ranks alongside Xiehe, 301, and Drum Tower, creating a balanced situation. In the second-tier hospitals that perform spinal scoliosis correction, there are the 304, 306, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, and Beijing Children¡¯s Hospital. The rest can only be relegated to third-tier or below. Sanbo Hospital, which only performs a few dozens of surgeries a year, is considered third or fourth-tier. Yet for a new hospital established just ten years ago, this achievement is quite impressive. Many emerging hospitals fade to obscurity after initial enthusiasm, losing staff, lacking patients, and struggling to survive. There are examples everywhere. They invest billions and end up mainly owning a few beautiful buildings, a few nurses playing on their phones, plus a few online articles filled with grievances. For a hospital like Sanbo to achieve this scale, especially in orthopedics, and to be able to subdivide its departments into spine, joint, sports medicine, and trauma orthopedics, is quite remarkable. Lu Gang¡¯s surgery is very challenging. Director Han has no doubts about Yang Ping¡¯s capabilities, but as a doctor with decades of experience, seeing is believing. Before Lu Gang¡¯s surgery, Old Han wants Yang Ping to perform a standard spinal scoliosis correction surgery, so he can evaluate his skill level for this kind of surgery. Even a genius needs an evaluation. It¡¯s not a matter of distrust, but of a scientific attitude. Spinal scoliosis correction surgery is the pinnacle of orthopedic surgery. Any mistake can lead to paralysis. So, no matter how much one trusts, there needs to be this evaluation process. Just so happens there is a patient, a 19-year-old college freshman, who has suffered for ten years from untreated scoliosis. Her current thoracic scoliosis measured at Cobb¡¯s 52 degrees and lumbar scoliosis at Cobb¡¯s 64 degrees. After unsuccessful brace treatment, she sought surgical treatment and was referred to Professor Zhang. She was admitted to the hospital before Lu Gang, and her pre-operative preparations have been completed. Before the start of the surgery, Old Han and Professor Zhang were already seated nearby. Old Han knows that Yang Ping is steady and experienced, and he would not agree to be the chief surgeon without being sure of success, so Old Han only needed to watch from below the stage. During the spinal correction surgery, Yang Ping went back and forth, constantly entering and exiting the system space, having completed the devil¡¯s training. In the system space, there is no need to consume physical energy, eat, drink, sleep or excrete. As long as one can mentally endure loneliness and monotony, one can keep performing surgeries non-stop. From being unskilled to being proficient, even if one surgery takes an average of three hours, one can do eight surgeries in a day, eighty in ten days, and eight hundred in a hundred days. In the system space, Yang Ping can perform eight hundred surgeries in just over three months. In reality, this three months is just a moment. Staying for three months each time is Yang Ping¡¯s starting endurance level. With his incredible endurance, even if he does eight hundred surgeries each time, after ten times, it would be eight thousand; after twenty times, it would be sixteen thousand. As long as the fire is hot enough, even a stone can be melted. That¡¯s the devilish part about the system space. Who can perform sixteen thousand surgeries in reality? Even the hospital with the highest number of surgeries couldn¡¯t reach this number with all surgeries throughout the entire department combined. The points Yang Ping has accumulated has started a virtuous cycle, similar to when an investment enters a virtuous cycle and you hold a large amount of capital, profiting continuously, the more you spend, the more you have. Previously, the five hundred thousand points rewarded from the main line task could buy a lot of surgery training. With this surgery training, he can perform higher and more difficult surgeries in reality, obtaining even more reward points. Several surgeries on Yu Shuilian rewarded him a cumulative forty thousand points from the system. According to the system¡¯s characteristics, future main-line tasks only reward new modules, and surgeries in reality reward points. The more difficult, the more reward points. Spinal correction surgeries have a training package starting from a thousand surgeries. Each training pack consumes about sixty thousand points. The points rewarded from Yu Shuilian¡¯s surgeries can support about seven thousand trainings. Moreover, there are also surgeries like those performed on her shoulders and knees, each of which rewards tens of thousands of points. Points continue to accumulate from various reward channels. So, although Yang Ping has spent a lot of points on training during this period, his points are not decreasing, but increasing. Now, he still has more than eight hundred thousand points in his account. As long as Yang Ping controls it well and maintains continuous profit from the points, he can get whatever he wants now. ¡°Should I use a thoracoscope and laparoscope to soften the thoracic vertebrae and lumbar vertebrae first?¡± Yang Ping seeks the opinions of Director Han and Professor Zhang. This surgery plan is quite detailed, considering the use of endoscopy for anterior loosening. Director Han nods. Song Zimo disinfects and prepares the table, Yang Ping scrubs in for surgery. With the assistance of a thoracoscope and a laparoscope, the anterior loosening is completed quickly. The surgery is progressing rapidly, which doesn¡¯t seem like his first surgery. But in the eyes of Old Han, this is definitely Yang Ping¡¯s first spinal correction surgery. After the anterior loosening, the patient¡¯s position is changed to prone, the area is disinfected again, and another scrubbing in for the surgery. The incision is made rapidly, the bleeding is thoroughly controlled, and only a few dots of blood are seen on several pieces of gauze. First the screws are placed, then bone is cut, and finally the deformity is corrected. The steps of the surgery are clear. The major steps contain smaller ones, each progressing steadily, without redundant or repeated movements. This shows that Yang Ping is not a newbie, or rather, his performance in this first surgery doesn¡¯t resemble that of a newbie. Old Han and Professor Zhang get up, walk over, and stare at the screen. Making incisions, creating a path, detecting, and inserting guide wires, follow this sequence to complete one side, then the other, finish a vertebra, then move to the next. Dozens of guide wires are implanted into the pedicles like this, and all are prospectively seen at once. On the screen, dozens of guide wires are jumbled together, inserted from different points and in different directions. Old Han and Professor Zhang check each guide wire on the screen of the C-arm machine, checking them multiple times. The insertion point, direction, and depth of each guide wire are nearly perfect, with each one passing through the center of the pedicle at the optimal angle. None of them are unsatisfactory, not even the slightest acceptable deviation exists. It may look chaotic, but each individual guide needle is in its optimum position, even a slight change would cause deviation. After ensuring that the guide needles are properly positioned via fluoroscopy, they are removed one by one. For each needle removed, a pedicle screw is implanted in its place, some adjustable, some not, until all guide needles are replaced with pedicle screws. Another fluoroscopic examination shows that the screws are perfectly positioned without any doubt. The locations of the pedicle screws are all beautifully done. ¡°Ready for bone cutting!¡± Yang Ping reported the progress of the surgery and obtained permission. ¡°Proceed!¡± Director Han consented. Bone cutting is a high-risk operation and one of the most technically-demanding steps of surgery. Bone cutting requires several sections of the spine to be severed and reassembled. It is not as simple as just cutting, as it requires precise cuts to ensure successful reassembly. The bone cutting process could potentially damage nerves, leading to paralysis. During the reassembly process, any misalignment could also result in nerve damage and paralysis. In order to minimize nerve injury, neuro-electrophysiological monitoring and wake-up tests are often used during the surgery. When cutting the bone, Yang Ping uses an ultrasonic bone knife, which is more precise and safer compared to traditional tools. This tool is specific to hard surfaces¡ªit only cuts through hard bone and does not affect the soft neural tissue. The rhythm of the surgery is excellent. While cutting the bone, Yang Ping would glance at the neuro-electrophysiological monitor every time he makes a cut. Fatty had adjusted the angle of the monitor to the best position so that Yang Ping could see the monitored waves at any time. If they stimulated or damaged the spinal cord or nerve roots, the wave amplitude would change, signaling a warning that the operation was dangerous. Although Yang Ping had not employed the ultrasonic bone knife many times, the tool seemed incredibly obedient in his hands, as if it was born to serve him. The bone cutting process was swift, causing Old Han and Professor Zhang¡¯s heart rates to rise along with it. As they listened to the noise created by the ultrasonic bone knife, they dared not speak, fearing that it would disrupt Yang Ping¡¯s rhythm and lead to accidents. ¡°Bone cutting completed!¡± Old Han and Professor Zhang were brought to reality. It was already done, and so fast. ¡°Beginning the spinal correction!¡± This step is the riskiest, where sometimes during the spinal correction, the patient could become paralyzed on the spot or a few days after the surgery due to the spine¡¯s lack of tolerance for the correction. Given paralysis would lead to disastrous consequences, every surgery is like walking on thin ice for the doctors. In the system space operating room, Yang Ping had mastered a vast amount of data from more than ten thousand surgeries, such as to what extent deformations can be safely corrected¡ªthe data doesn¡¯t lie. He planned to organize the data when he got some time, summarize the patterns, and create a predictive model to guide scoliosis surgery so that operations could become more precise and standardized. ¡°Take it slow, Xiao Yang¡ª¡± Professor Zhang and Director Han both whispered their reminders simultaneously. Yang Ping then took the tools and began to correct the spine. During this process, Yang Ping wasn¡¯t rushed. He would slightly adjust, then check for pulsation in the spinal cord and the monitor waves. Everything was normal, with no changes in the wave amplitude due to stimulation. Bit by bit, step by step, at the right rhythm, the severed parts of the spine started to change spatially, and sequences were reconstructed. The spine was corrected in three-dimensional space, followed by the implantation of a titanium rod, a gradual pedicle screw lock, and finally the insertion of a crossbeam for final locking. The whole process took an hour. The pieces of tail gauze thrown into the collection basin were spread out by Zhou Can, dried, displaying a few faint bloodstains. ¡°Fluoroscopy!¡± Director Han commanded the standardized training student operating the C-arm. ¡°Should we also carry out a CT scan?¡± Yang Ping suggested. This operating room was multifunctional, equipped with CT imaging equipment. The CT scan was completed, and the three-dimensional reconstruction images slowly appeared. Each screw was perfectly nestled in the bony tunnels of the pedicle, and the spine had fully restored its normal physiological curve, meaning that the bone cutting correction was carried to its very extent. ¡°Move your toes, yes, up, down, very good!¡± Professor Zhang instructed the patient to wiggle his toes. Everything was normal. Old Han was lost in the 3D images from the CT scan. There was nothing more to say about the operation. This kid was born to perform surgeries¡ªhe truly was a surgical genius. This was not an exaggeration at all. As soon as he started, it was like masterwork that takes a thousand years to perfect! Old Han was used to it. His perspective had been altered several times, so what difference did one more time make? If one must attribute it to something, it would be talent! Talent could explain everything. A talent like him is rare to find, and Old Han felt extremely fortunate to have encountered him. Yang Ping helped move the patient to the bed. Professor Zhang went over to Director Han, ¡°The patient¡¯s toe movement is very good!¡± Considering it was his first time, how could he dare not to leave any leeway and precisely correct it to zero degrees? Well, it¡¯s simply his talent! ¡°Let him be the chief surgeon for Lu Gang¡¯s surgery, right?¡± Director Han had no more doubts. What else could Professor Zhang say: ¡°The young man is really strong!¡± Chapter 385: 0364: The Dying Mentor Chapter 385: Chapter 0364: The Dying Mentor The female student with spinal scoliosis was wheeled out of the operating room, followed by a patient with a lumbar 3 vertebral burst fracture. This patient had a lumbar 3 vertebral burst fracture, but his posterior longitudinal ligament was intact. Imaging also showed no signs of cortical flipping of the fracture fragments, making him a good candidate for posterior spine surgery. Posterior spine surgery is relatively simpler, less bloody, and lower risk than anterior spine surgery. If the issue can be resolved from the posterior, the anterior approach is generally avoided. Anterior spine surgery, which involves accessing the area through the chest or abdomen, entails greater difficulty due to the involvement of thoracoabdominal organs, large blood vessels, etc. However, if satisfactory results can¡¯t be achieved with posterior surgery, the anterior approach would be preferred despite its greater complexity. There¡¯s no superior or inferior method between the two surgeries. It depends on the specific case. It¡¯s like asking whether a sedan or a truck is better. For family use, a sedan is undoubtedly a better choice, but for hauling, a truck does a better job. With Yang Ping present, Director Han and Professor Zhang didn¡¯t need to stay in the operating room. They chatted in the changing room. The independent operating room of the orthopedics department was devoid of personnel from other departments. The young ones were all busy operating, leaving only Old Zhang and Old Han in the changing room. Old Han and Old Zhang were usually occupied with their respective duties. Old Zhang was in charge of the orthopedic outpatient clinic, and Old Han had a lot to handle at the orthopedic research institute. Thus, it was quite rare for them to gather together like this. ¡°This was his first time performing scoliosis correction surgery.¡± Old Han exclaimed. ¡°The screws were beautifully placed, whether in terms of osteotomy or correction, he¡¯s already mastered the skill,¡± Professor Zhang was still savouring the operation. ¡°Such an extraordinary talent almost slipped through my fingers,¡± Old Han recalled his first encounter with Yang Ping. ¡°We must treasure this seedling and create the best platform for him. In medicine, there¡¯s hardly anything we can teach him except for the things that come with experience,¡± Professor Zhang advised Director Han. ¡°Right now, my main focus is building a platform for his team and providing them with the best services.¡± Old Han promised to put Professor Zhang at ease. ¡°Did Old Feng get sent to the ICU again?¡± After a pause, Professor Zhang changed the topic. Old Feng, Professor Feng Tiancheng, is the mentor of Director Han and Hong Zhigang. He¡¯s several years younger than Professor Zhang Zongshun but still from the same generation. Academically, Professor Zhang Zongshun is Feng Tiancheng¡¯s older schoolmate, thus making Zhang the equivalent of a grandmentor to Director Han. ¡°I¡¯ve visited him. I saw him through the glass. It¡¯s a spinal tumor in the upper cervical cord that has extended into the medulla oblongata through the skull base. The orthopedics and neurosurgery teams from Mo Sixth have revised the surgical plan several times, but it¡¯s still not feasible. The tumor¡¯s placement deep within the center of the upper cervical cord and medulla oblongata implies that our teacher wouldn¡¯t last much longer,¡± Old Han sighed heavily, with his eyes moistening. The mentor has remained unmarried throughout his life, devoted to the pursuit of medical arts. Holding his own reputation as dear as his life, he sees his senior schoolmate and himself as his own sons. Thinking back about the times of his younger years as a student, he couldn¡¯t help but well up. ¡°Last year, he could still walk. He asked me to help him apply for body donation to the Jiaotong University Medical College Anatomy teaching and research department. He hoped that his body could still be of use after his death, serving as a cadaver for teaching, and thus making his last contribution to medicine.¡± Professor Zhang was also emotional. ¡°Many qualities, like purity and nobility, that your generation holds are something we must learn to uphold,¡± Old Han admired the previous generation¡¯s spirit. ¡°It¡¯s nothing lofty. My father passed away in the clinic¡¯s chair, and I hope when my time comes, I will also be sitting in the clinic¡¯s chair. Perhaps it¡¯s the best way to go. My father¡¯s body was donated to Xiehe Hospital. We¡¯re materialists; I don¡¯t believe in life after death. If after death, my body can serve as a specimen with which medical students can practice their incisions, that would be a good thing. I remember my father¡¯s words, ¡®I¡¯d rather have the medical students make a thousand cuts on my body than make one wrong cut on a patient.''¡± Professor Zhang squinted his eyes and leaned back in his chair. After a prolonged silence, Old Han said, ¡°I heard from people at Mo Sixth that the mentor once strongly demanded for the surgery himself.¡± ¡°He wants to serve as a test subject to accumulate experience for Mo Sixth. This kind of operation is currently a forbidden area in surgery, with few successful global precedents. The success rate of the operation is less than one percent. If he doesn¡¯t undergo surgery, he can still hold on for a while. Once he does, he might die right on the operating table. How would Mo Sixth dare to perform the operation?¡± Professor Zhang had also been closely following Professor Feng¡¯s condition. ¡°Old Han, I won¡¯t ask you again about what happened that year. It¡¯s been over a decade. I know that you wouldn¡¯t commit such an act as you were accused of, given what I know about you. Do you intend to let Feng Tiancheng die with this misunderstanding?¡± Professor Zhang turned to look at Old Han, his gaze as sharp as can be. Old Han deliberately looked away and focused on the cabinet in front of him, ¡°This is the best outcome.¡± ¡°I¡¯d just like to remind you, I estimate that Old Feng can¡¯t hold out for more than six months. He will soon become a postmortem anatomy teacher. Take some time to think about it!¡± Professor Zhang got up to stretch his back and walked into the restroom with a hobbling step. Director Han was left alone, leaning on the back of his chair to rest. Song Zimo¡¯s operation had already begun. It was the fifth round of surgery, a posterior operation for the thoracolumbar vertebral fracture. The focus was on the pedicle screw technique. This was a basic operation in spine surgery ¨C not a difficult task for Song Zimo. He would perform even better than in the pelvic acetabular fracture surgery. Yang Ping had developed a novel pedicle screw placement technique and taught it to Song Zimo. By using this method, the optimal entry point could easily be identified and a screw could be placed following the most favorable trajectory. Nandu Affiliated Hospital One had already finished their fifth round of surgery. At this time, they were observing the surgeries performed by outstanding participants from different regional divisions around the country. Lin Hao felt conflicted. He had thought that by the fourth-round surgery ¨C pelvic acetabular fracture, they would have outpaced Sanbo Hospital. But now, going into the fifth round of surgery, he saw no hope. While he hoped for Sanbo to advance, he definitely didn¡¯t want them to advance with full marks, as it wouldn¡¯t highlight the gap. Incision, approach, probing, implantation of positioning needles. How could he move so quickly? Regardless of whether it was the thoracic or lumbar spine, there were several methods for pedicle screw placement, and Lin Hao simply couldn¡¯t tell which one Song Zimo was using. All he could see was where Song Zimo made the incision. A pointed bone-biting clamp at the point of insertion, biting off a tiny bit of the bone cortex, then making an incision, followed by an approach, probing, and implantation of the positioning needles, done entirely without pressure. After all the positioning needles had been implanted, the fluoroscopic images soon appeared on the screen, each needle placed perfectly. ¡°Is this the human spine method?¡± Lin Hao asked Su Nanchen. Su Nanchen shook his head: ¡°Unlikely, I also don¡¯t know what this positioning method is. I¡¯ve never seen it before.¡± Chen Ge, Cao Qian, and Su Fengyu, who were sitting at the side, were all staring at Song Zimo, hoping he¡¯d make a mistake, which would allow them to advance into the top three. Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t make any mistakes. Given how familiar he was with this surgery, it was impossible for it to fail. Su Nanchen knew very well that a lot of Song Zimo¡¯s techniques came from Yang Ping. He didn¡¯t show himself, simply wanting the competition in the southern region to look better and the performance of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nandu to look good. If he did appear, surgery wasn¡¯t like other sports competitions, where there was room to hold back. A surgical case can be done perfectly. To deliberately do it poorly or offer a discount would be to blaspheme against medical principles. Since he cannot hold back, he must go all out for each operation, then, the entire southern competition area would be very embarrassed. The Golden Knife Award would witness a scene full of sarcasm ¨C Nandu¡¯s First Affiliated Hospital, dubbed the top hospital in the southern region, with its powerful team, was beaten by Yang Ping alone. ¡°He really is putting in a lot of thought!¡± Su Nanchen thought, laughing to himself; he hadn¡¯t expected Yang Ping to even consider this aspect. ¡°Hao Bro, it looks like this guy will push Sanbo to the national competition with full marks.¡± Chen Ge said helplessly. ¡°Still an assistant performing the surgery, consistently achieving full marks. Doesn¡¯t anyone think Sanbo could be the dark horse of this competition?¡± ¡°There have never been any dark horses in previous competitions, and that¡¯s the same this time.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, there were so-called dark horses that rushed into the national competition in the past, and they were all eliminated in the first round.¡± ¡°To reiterate again, regional matches involve basic operations. The real deal will be in the national competition. Just look for starters at the arthroscopic surgeries of six major joints in the national competition. What about cuff repair and ACL reconstruction? They¡¯re not even exciting. This year, they¡¯ve added multi-ligament reconstruction of the shoulder and knee as the starting surgery. How many hospitals nationwide can perform the multi-ligament reconstruction of the shoulder and knee? Many hospitals still can¡¯t understand a single anterior cruciate reconstruction, let alone perform multi-ligament reconstruction?¡± ¡°Luo Jin! Please. How hard is it for you guys to move a finger? Luo Jin¡¯s surgery is Yang Ping¡¯s masterpiece. He¡¯s already started regular training and is rumored to be returning to the game soon.¡± ¡°How hard is it to think? Don¡¯t listen to their propaganda. Who saw it? Was it knee multi-ligament reconstruction? Isn¡¯t what they say what it is? Try thinking with your toes. With such a surgery, with Luo Jin¡¯s fame, shouldn¡¯t he have gone overseas or at least to the Three Empires or Demon Sixth if not overseas? And think again ¨C if it really was a four-way reconstruction, who¡¯s that awesome to have a footballer with a four-way reconstruction return to the field? You guys search for Little Robert¡¯s articles, he even coined a term ¨C retirement syndrome! Guys! Anyone involved in sports medicine shouldn¡¯t say they don¡¯t know Little Robert, shouldn¡¯t say they don¡¯t know the New York Special Orthopedic Hospital. If they can¡¯t do it, Sanbo can. It really is an era of omnipresent genius doctors, they dare to brag about everything. They shouldn¡¯t dream that an amateur chess player can defeat Nie Weiping.¡± Who knew who it was that posted such a lengthy discussion that made one¡¯s eyes blur, yet its game was coherent. ¡°Actually, Sanbo isn¡¯t weak at all, Professor Han Jiangong is from Demon Sixth and was a standout figure back in his day.¡± ¡°I heard that another retired professor from Demon Sixth, Zhang Zongshun, who is a leading figure in the domestic orthopedics field, is currently at Sanbo as well?¡± ¡°No wonder Sanbo is so strong!¡± ¡°Is the story about Han Jiangong true? Anyone who knows the inside stories want to share?¡± ¡°Everyone please note, we are only discussing technical matters here, please refrain from discussing personal privacy.¡± The one initiating the topic knew how to take a hint and didn¡¯t continue, allowing the topic to cool down. ¡°Everyone, don¡¯t overrate Sanbo, what the guy said earlier is right.¡± Looking at these comments, Su Nanchen merely smiled faintly. When Tesla first proposed the concept of alternating current, the whole world shared similar views: How could it be possible? No surprise there, anything beyond comprehension gets naturally rejected. Source: Webnovel.com, updated on Novgo.co Chapter 386: 0365: Eighty Percent Chapter 386: Chapter 0365: Eighty Percent The three-month training period of Takahashi is almost over, and he hopes to extend his training time and continue to stay at the Sanbo Hospital. There are still many cases that he needs to learn about. During his time with Yang Ping, he not only learned advanced surgical methods but also adopted a completely new way of thinking. His understanding of anatomy and surgery has reached a new level. Takahashi feels that three months are far from enough. If he could stay, he would be willing to stay for one year, even three years¨Che¡¯s willing to. Unfortunately, it¡¯s impossible for him to stay in China for that long. Tokyo University Affiliated Hospital still has a lot of work waiting for him. Takahashi¡¯s visa allows a maximum stay of 180 days, and he doesn¡¯t want to waste a single day. Therefore, he applied to Fujiwara Masao for an extension of three months. Fujiwara Masao replied: Takahashi can continue to study in China, but Miyuki must return to Japan on schedule after her term expires. Miyuki¡¯s arthroscopy skills have improved rapidly, and she can now engrave a twisted letter on an olive nucleus. She is not bothered by Fujiwara Masao¡¯s words. Although he is the director of the Orthopedics Department of Tokyo University, he is also her brother. In fact, Miyuki has more time to stay than Takahashi. She is just a junior young doctor with no immediate responsibilities. ¡°You should listen to Teacher Fujiwara and return as soon as possible,¡± Takahashi didn¡¯t want her to disobey Teacher Fujiwara. Miyuki didn¡¯t care at all: ¡°Why should I listen to him? I have my own life!¡± In fact, Miyuki understood that her brother only wanted her to return to Japan to meet Mitsui Tasuku. The two families were discussing their marriage arrangements. This was a major event¡ªan alliance between the Fujiwara and Mitsui families. Despite the fact that Mitsui Tasuku was also a high-achieving student at Tokyo University, with exceptional talents and looks, she didn¡¯t care for him at all. She felt nothing for him. ¡°I also have a 180-day visa. I don¡¯t want to call him anymore. You tell Mr. Fujiwara that I have decided to stay in China to continue studying,¡± Fujiwara Miyuki said firmly. Takahashi sighed helplessly. This had become a matter for the Fujiwara siblings, something he couldn¡¯t interfere with. ¡ª After the fifth round of surgery, the final round of regional competition was up next: anterior approach surgery for thoracolumbar fracture. Much like the hip fracture surgery, this surgery carries significant risk. The surgical approach is a crucial part of the surgery, and the high-risk approach makes this surgery inherently risky. One major hospital, after having a patient die on the operating table during anterior thoracic spine surgery, became excessively cautious. For quite some time, they prohibited anterior spine surgery. Following the sixth round, Song Zimo still held onto his full score. His formidable ability and performance had attracted a lot of attention. As the completion of the sixth round concluded the regional competition, the emblems of the qualified hospitals from each section were displayed on the homepage of the website. The pictures of the chief surgeons from each team were also rotated on the website. Everyone was familiar with everyone else except for Yang Ping as he had never shown up in the regional match. In the Western region, Li Ling from Huaxi Hospital, Professor Fu Shancheng¡¯s student, advanced with a full score, while a team from Xi Jing Hospital missed the full score by only one point and advanced as the second place team. The third team to advance was also from Huaxi. In the Northern region, Ouyang Siming, Xiao Yi, Lu Qing, and Song Yun, respectively representing the top three hospitals in the imperial capital ¨C Jishuitan, 301, and Xiehe ¨C all advanced with full scores. In the Eastern region, Wen Rentao and Yue Zhengming advanced with full scores; Wang Kaisheng from Long March Hospital advanced as the second place team. In the Central region, only Xiangya had a team that advanced with full scores, while Tongji Hospital was two points behind, and Xiangya¡¯s brother hospital ¡ª Second Hospital was four points behind. In the Southern region, Song Zimo and Su Nanchen advanced with full scores. Lin Hao lost one point during the anterior approach for thoracolumbar fracture surgery because his ligation of the intercostal artery was too hasty. The number of teams that could advance from each region was three. Full scores were not limited by quota, and teams with tied scores could exceed the quota. For instance, if there were more than three teams with full scores, all could advance and no chances would be left for other non-full-score teams. If there were two full scores, the second place team would fill the last spot. If the second place was tied, all of them would advance together with that one remaining spot. If there was only one full-score team, the other two spots would be filled by the second and the third-place teams. If the second place was tied and occupied all the spots, there would be no chance for the third-place team, and so on and so forth. With a total of sixteen teams advancing to the national competition, there would be a two-week break and the teams would be randomly paired in the national competition. The competition would follow a knockout system. Within a specified competition period, the teams would perform specified surgical operations. The overall points at the end would determine the winner. The team with the fewer points would be eliminated, while the team with more points would advance. If the teams had the same score, an extra competition round would be held. The advancing teams would enter the second round of knockout, followed by the third round, until finally, the championship competition. According to the current situation, the competition has exactly sixteen teams. The first round would narrow the competition down to the top eight, the second round would determine the top four, and the third round would decide the championship and the runner-up. The fourth round would be the championship competition. In these high-level competitions, any slight deficiency in one aspect could leave a team lagging behind. The young rising stars of the medical world were all eager and ready for the upcoming competition. For the national competition, the first round of orthopedic surgery included arthroscopy and foraminoscopy. Doctors lacking comprehensive skills would find it difficult to go far in the competition. Some hospitals with limited resources could not even find enough cases to participate in the competition, let alone compete. So, in the end, the participating hospitals were all well-known top-ranking hospitals. Knowing oneself and one¡¯s opponent makes winning possible. After the regional competition ended, everyone started to analyze the competitors. Most were familiar, except for Sanbo Hospital which many knew little about. Among those who attended the Trauma Orthopedics Academic Conference, many doctors, including Professors Fu Shancheng and Meng Heng, remembered the hospital. Lin Hao was extremely frustrated. He had originally thought of outperforming Sanbo Hospital, but ended up almost being outranked by Song Zimo. He decided to be safe than sorry during the national competition. Even if he didn¡¯t face Sanbo Hospital, he had to go farther than they did. If he could face Sanbo Hospital in the first round of the competition, that would be even better. The reconstruction of multiple ligaments under an arthroscopy of the shoulder and knee were the highest-scoring surgeries in this round. Lin Hao could rely on the world¡¯s most advanced surgical techniques taught by his mentor Robert to score points and eliminate Sanbo Hospital in one fell swoop. The two-week break, the random pairing results generated by computer, will be announced on the website before six o¡¯clock on the second Friday afternoon. ¡ª In Director Han¡¯s office, the flash drive containing Professor Feng¡¯s medical imaging was inserted into the computer. X-rays, CT and MRI of the cervical spine and skull, as well as enhanced images, appeared on the digital screen. The chordoma is malignant and relatively rare in the upper cervical spine. It¡¯s even rarer that it extends from the upper cervical spine into the skull. The tumor originates from residual embryonic chord tissue and usually grows quite slowly. Therefore, if the surgery is successful in removing it, the patient can have a certain survival period. However, where the upper cervical cord connects to the medulla oblongata is the center for respiration and circulation, controlling a person¡¯s heartbeat and breathing. If this area is damaged, the person¡¯s breathing and heartbeat will stop instantly. Director Han called Yang Ping to his office, but he didn¡¯t yet reveal that the patient was his mentor, Professor Feng. Yang Ping carefully analyzed the imaging and the 3D printed model. Director Han imported the imaging data into a 3D printer and printed a model of the upper cervical spine, skull base, and tumor. The tumor grows intertwined, presenting in a dumbbell, antler, and complex twisted pattern. Yang Ping observed for a long time. This case is indeed challenging, involving neurosurgery, orthopedics, and oncology. You might as well say that this tumor should be a no-go area for surgery. If you want to do this surgery, there are four difficult points. The first is exposure. The usual exposure wouldn¡¯t work; you would need to approach it from the rear, completely opening up the backside of the upper cervical spine and skull, and also be able to seal it up afterward. Only then can the upper cervical cord and medulla oblongata be exposed. Afterwards, the medulla oblongata and upper cervical cord would need to be cut open, while protecting the life functions area and trying to remove the tumor as thoroughly as possible. The other three points of difficulty require extremely precise surgical operations. This would be the ultimate test of surgical precision. Robotic surgery could be very precise, but it¡¯s not suitable for high-risk operations like this. Machines are the most reliable but also the least reliable. Robots lack the touch of a human. If an error occurs, even the slightest one, it could be lethal. The precision of this kind of surgery needs to be controlled to about 0.1mm. Even the sharpest metal scalpel could not achieve this level of precision, and a scalpel cannot cut tissue without causing compression. Regular scalpels inevitably cause compression when cutting. Therefore, it is essential to use advanced laser knives for the operation. Third, the boundary of the tumor needs dedication, the tumor is mixed with the medulla and upper cervical cord. No matter what method is used, it¡¯s impossible to identify the tumor and the life function area that needs to be protected during surgery. It can only rely on the experience of the surgeon. This case is rare to begin with, let alone the operations that have been carried out. Most of the case studies are failures. Where is the successful experience to draw from? Finally, stopping the blood is a challenge too. The blood supply of this tumor is quite rich. If the bleeding is not thoroughly stopped, the hematoma will compress the respiratory and circulatory center, causing the patient¡¯s breathing and heartbeat to cease. Yang Ping was looking at the imaging and the 3D model, and Director Han was nervously fiddling with his cup on edge. After a long time, Yang Ping finally spoke. ¡°Using the most advanced laser knife, the upper cervical spine and skull base are exposed from the rear, fully revealing the upper cervical cord and medulla oblongata, then performing surgery with a precision of 0.1 millimeters.¡± Is the surgery feasible? Director Han finally heard Yang Ping¡¯s answer and immediately asked, ¡°What is the success rate for the surgery?¡± ¡°Not high!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s reply was less confident than usual. This was the first time Yang Ping didn¡¯t sound confident in his response. Even with Lu Gang¡¯s case, he was full of confidence, saying without hesitation: ¡°Admit him.¡± ¡°How high do you think it is?¡± Old Han still wanted to ask. ¡°About eighty percent.¡± Yang Ping made an approximate estimate. It couldn¡¯t be helped, the surgery was too difficult. For this kind of forbidden surgery, how high could the success rate be? ¡°Eighty percent?¡± Old Han thought he had misheard. The success rate of this kind of surgery, currently reported, has not exceeded one percent. ¡°Yes, nothing can be done, it¡¯s too hard, a maximum of eighty percent!¡± Yang Ping was very troubled. Only after confirming it was eighty percent did Old Han settle down. ¡°Where is the patient?¡± Yang Ping was very concerned. This case was very special. Now, which case hasn¡¯t been special or highly difficult in his hands? ¡°The patient is in Magic City Sixth Hospital. I don¡¯t currently know their arrangement.¡± Old Han finally had an idea in his heart. Chapter 387 - 387 0366 The Helplessness of the Dream Team ?Chapter 387: Chapter 0366: The Helplessness of the Dream Team Chapter 387: Chapter 0366: The Helplessness of the Dream Team A tense case discussion is underway in the conference room of Magic City Sixth Hospital. Chaired by Hong Zhigang, the main participants are from Orthopedics, Neurosurgery, Tumor Surgery, Tumor Internal Medicine, and various other departments such as Cardiology and Respiratory Medicine. Dean Chen from Magic City Sixth Hospital and Director Peng from the Medical Department are also present. Among the many experts, there are several specialists who have come from the United States for consultation. The case being discussed is that of Academician Feng Tiancheng, who is a renowned Orthopedist. Both Magic City Sixth Hospital and Hong Zhigang personally are committed to providing him with the utmost care. Hong Zhigang has invited Professor John Ansen from the Neurosurgery Department of the Mayo Clinic, Professor Griffin from the Anderson Cancer Center, and Professor Woodhead from the Twin Cities Spine Center in the United States. Without question, this team assembled to treat Professor Feng is a dream team in today¡¯s world. Professor Feng¡¯s tumour, located in his cervical medulla and medulla oblongata, has compromised his respiratory and circulatory centers, leading to slowed breathing and heart rate. Due to respiratory depression and arrhythmia, and an inability to increase blood oxygen saturation, he was admitted to the ICU with acid-base and electrolyte imbalances. He was admitted for treatment which included mechanical ventilation, following that he improved. After a week, his ventilator tube was removed. As it stands, with oxygen support, his blood oxygen saturation is maintained above 95%, his acid-base and electrolyte balance has been corrected. Despite this, his heart rate and respiratory rate remains slow; his heart beats approximately 50 times per minute and breathes 16 times per minute. If his heart rate falls further, a cardiac pacemaker may be needed for implantation. If he experiences further respiratory depression, intubation may be required again along with the assistance of a ventilator. ¡°The tumour is high in vascularization and originates from the upper cervical cord; it grows aggressively through the base of the skull into the medulla. The tumour has now merged with the respiratory and circulatory center tissues; during resection, the respiratory and circulatory centers will be damaged inevitably.¡± ¡°This is akin to removing the yolk from an egg without damaging the egg white. However, in this case, the yolk and egg white are intertwined and have permeated each other. Who can completely remove the yolk without damaging the egg white in such a situation?¡± ¡°Once the breathing and heart rate begin to slow down, they will gradually stop within a few months. If life boundaries are breached, or if a foramen magnum hernia is induced in the meantime, the patient may die at any moment...¡± Professor John Ansen from the Department of Neurosurgery at the Mayo Clinic spoke in an American accent. He expressed his regret for being unable to help, as the Neurosurgery Department of the Mayo Clinic is ranked first in the United States, and John Ansen is among the world¡¯s leading neurosurgeons. Professor Griffin of the Anderson Cancer Center, a bald and overweight man with sparse, curly golden hair around his head, loosened his tie and said: ¡°This kind of chordoma, without pathological examination, we will temporarily call it chordoma. Current surgical success rates are less than one percent, which is essentially close to zero. The few successful cases have been ones where the tumour and respiratory circulatory center are not obviously mixed. In Professor Feng¡¯s case, even with the use of laser surgery, we could not avoid causing damage. No one can challenge this kind of surgery. Currently, this is forbidden in the surgical field.¡± Professor Woodhead from the Twin Cities Spine Center, who appears fit and energetic, explained while pointing at the anatomical model on the screen: ¡°Exposure is also a problem. Neurosurgery involves exposure by joining the occipital craniotomy and posterior cervix, opening the posterior occipital craniotomy to expose the medulla, and opening the posterior cervical craniotomy to expose the upper cervical spinal cord. Then, the upper cervical spinal cord and medulla must be removed. Either they are not removed, or removal will result in damage. The tumour and the circulatory centers have converged, making it impossible for us to act surgically.¡± ¡°Hong, I suggest you abandon the surgery and maintain his current state. Let nature take its course. Moreover, given the age of the patient, and having undergone resuscitation once, his current state will not withstand the trauma of surgery; not to mention the success rate of this surgery is almost negligible, hence the surgery is meaningless and will only hasten death...¡± Professor John Ansen spread his hands, indicating that everyone had done their best, but it was to no avail. Dean Chen looked towards Hong Zhigang, who flipped through the medical records in hand. He was not willing to give up. Is there really no way? He knew a man close to eighty years old wouldn¡¯t necessarily fight for a virtually impossible surgery, but he couldn¡¯t just watch his mentor pass away like this. He wanted to do something. These world-class experts are all at their wits¡¯ end. This implies that they could only helplessly watch his mentor pass away which could be in two or three months¡¯ time, or even as early as tomorrow. At this moment, Hong Zhigang¡¯s heart was on fire, he was in deep pain. The mentor who had greater graces than the sea for him, he himself was helpless to rescue. Even though his mentor is nearly eighty years old, judging from his other physiological indicators, he would not be fatally unwell if not for this tumour. ¡°Hong, when you sent me the patient¡¯s information, I used virtual reality technology for surgical simulations and did not succeed once. Each simulation ended in failure due to cessation of breathing and heartbeat,¡± Professor John Ansen said again. The virtual reality technology he mentioned is the world¡¯s most advanced technology, capable of creating a virtual representation of an organ¡¯s anatomy and physiology. Using virtual touch technology, surgeons can perform surgeries on the virtual organs. If a certain area is cut, it will bleed. If an important area is injured, physiological interference will be simulated, closely mimicking real surgeries. This is Professor John Ansen¡¯s secret weapon for tackling high-risk surgeries, he would use this system for simulation. However, no matter how true-to-life the technology, it cannot truly model the complex human body. It can only simply model anatomy and physiology; if the simulated surgery does not lead to a successful outcome, the chances of success within the human body are nearly impossible. ¡°Professor Hong?¡± Wen Rentao looked at Hong Zhigang, observing his unusual demeanor. A tear slowly glistened in the corner of Hong Zhigang¡¯s eye. He quickly took out a tissue to wipe it away. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Let¡¯s keep thinking. There has to be a way.¡± No matter how difficult the surgery, in his hands, danger was turned into safety, with success in the end. The atmosphere of the entire venue fell into a lull, today¡¯s recollection was mainly about listening to the opinions of American experts, the hospital¡¯s experts had already discussed many times. ¡°I¡¯d suggest palliative radiotherapy, which may prolong the survival period; if needed, I can help arrange it, and recommend the EDGE non-invasive surgery system. I can help connect with the Tumor Center at the Henry Ford Hospital in the United States,¡± Professor Griffin broke the silence. The EDGE non-invasive surgery system, the most advanced tumor radiotherapy equipment in the world. ¡°Thank you for all your valuable opinions. We¡¯ll consider them again,¡± said Hong Zhigang, bowing to everyone as he stood up. Despite receiving help from several colleagues who traveled across the Pacific for a consultation, there¡¯s not much they could do, for this case was too complicated. After all, the physicians were human, they weren¡¯t gods. The consultation meeting came to an end, and the American professors were led to tour the hospital. ¡°ICU called, Old Feng wants to see you,¡± Wen Rentao whispered to Hong Zhigang. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go right away, you stay with our guests. Have the MRI results for bed 16 come out?¡± asked Hong Zhigang. ¡°Yes, they have,¡± said Wen Rentao, being highly informed about the patients in their department. Hong Zhigang entrusted Wen Rentao with the task of accompanying the American professors. He was very satisfied with this student¡¯s technical strength and communication skills. Hong Zhigang rushed to the ICU. While his teacher was still alert, his heartbeat and respiration rate were slow. This was due to the tumor¡¯s interference with the central respiratory and circulatory system. He did not know where this lifeline was; once it was crossed, his mentor would pass away. Hong Zhigang put on an isolation gown, a cap, a face mask, and shoe covers and entered the ICU. Upon seeing Hong Zhigang coming, Professor Feng extended his hand and said clearly, ¡°Zhigang!¡± ¡°Professor, I¡¯m here. We have just finished the consultation. Professor John Ansen from the Mayo Clinic¡¯s Department of Neurosurgery, Professor Griffin from the Anderson Cancer Center, and Professor Woodhaid from the Twin Cities Spine Center. They have discussed the surgical plan together. They all have extensive experience in this area and the success rate of the operation is very high,¡± said Hong Zhigang as he adjusted the professor¡¯s oxygen tube and held his hand. Professor Feng gave a faint smile, ¡°Zhigang, I appreciate the sentiment, but as doctors, we must be realistic. Given my current condition, the success rate of surgery based on the existing reports is less than one percent. For complex upper cervical and medullary tumors like mine, our hospital has no precedent. You all don¡¯t need to hesitate. Just arrange for my surgery. You will be the chief surgeon. If it fails, perform an autopsy on me after surgery to thoroughly understand the pathological features of this kind of tumor and the surgical methods. This will take our hospital¡¯s surgical level for complex tumors at the base of the upper cervical spine and skull to a new level. The advancement of medicine is fraught with risks and difficulties. Even if I did not have this disease, how many more years could I live?¡± ¡°Professor, you should rest. The EDGE non-invasive surgical system from the Tumor Center at the Henry Ford Hospital is quite suitable for your condition, and I¡¯m currently in contact with them,¡± Hong Zhigang comforted his teacher. ¡°At the end of the day, the EDGE is radiotherapy. Its precision is only 0.2 millimeters. This cannot guarantee that the central respiratory and circulatory system is not damaged. If a laser knife is used in surgery, the chances of success are greater because the precision of the current laser knife has reached 0.1mm, or even less. There is a glimmer of hope,¡± said Professor Feng, whose mind was currently clear. ¡°Did the MRI results for bed 16 come out?¡± Professor Feng suddenly remembered, which was the reason he had asked for Hong Zhigang. ¡°Yes, they came out!¡± ¡°Show it to me.¡± Professor Feng coughed a few times, trying to sit up, but Hong Zhigang immediately held him down, ¡°Professor, don¡¯t move, I¡¯ll bring it to you.¡± Through the glass door, Hong Zhigang waved to the doctor in the ICU, ¡°Can I borrow a tablet, please?¡± The doctor brought over a tablet. Hong Zhigang logged into the hospital system, pulled up the patient¡¯s MRI, and then slightly raised the professor¡¯s bed. ¡°I am not used to seeing this thing,¡± Professor Feng complained. He preferred viewing the film on a light box, but now that he was staying in the ICU, he had to make do. ¡°This is likely a substantial hemangioblastoma, you need to be careful when removing it, these blood vessels are very thick, so while removing it, ligate the blood vessels. This is the dangerous area of thoracic spine blood supply, remember to protect the blood supply of the thoracic spine. Especially this blood vessel, be very careful not to damage it. Once it¡¯s damaged, the spine will be ischemic, which may cause paralysis after surgery. Remember, remember! Is the surgery scheduled?¡± Professor Feng reiterated. ¡°It¡¯s scheduled, Rentao will be the chief surgeon,¡± said Hong Zhigang as he massaged Professor Feng¡¯s leg to help maintain blood flow. If the patient remained in bed for too long, it could lead to a venous thrombosis in the lower extremities. ¡°Rentao is a good kid, but after all, he¡¯s still a young man with less experience. You must be on the stage as his assistant. This kind of operation can easily fall into a trap, and there shouldn¡¯t be any slack or negligence,¡± Professor Feng instructed Hong Zhigang with great care. ¡°He¡¯s stable. To remove this tumor, we need to use a microscope. He now operates more steadily than I do under the microscope. But rest assured, I will be present in the operation,¡± Hong Zhigang smiled. Professor Feng put down the tablet and lay half-reclined to rest. This could ease the burden on his heart. ¡°Once you¡¯re better, I¡¯ll take you to our countryside for a rest for a month. Now is the time when you can go fishing in the small river,¡± Hong Zhigang talked to his teacher while watching the monitor. ¡°Ah, I¡¯m afraid I won¡¯t be able to go. You go ahead and be busy, I¡¯ll take a nap.¡± Professor Feng squinted his eyes. Source: Webnovel.com, updated on Novlove.com Chapter 388 - 388 0367 Duel ?Chapter 388: Chapter 0367: Duel Chapter 388: Chapter 0367: Duel The basic plan for Lu Gang¡¯s surgery was already in place, and this case carried extremely high risk. To make the surgery safer and more effective, Yang Ping decided to conduct a surgery simulation in the system space, not now, but half an hour before the surgery, to achieve the best surgical feeling. Takahashi¡¯s application for deferral was approved, and he continued to stay in Sanbo Hospital. He wanted to participate in the entire process of Lu Gang¡¯s surgery, which was the world¡¯s most difficult spinal correction. Fujiwara Miyuki did not listen to her brother¡¯s words, she stubbornly stayed in China. Fujiwara Masao loved his sister, and he didn¡¯t really agree with this marriage, but as an heir of the Fujiwara family, he could not decide on his own marriage. The results of the random pairing of teams by the computer were finally released. Sixteen teams were divided into eight groups, and the emblems of the hospitals connected by VS were paired on the main page of the website. Su Nanchen against Ouyang Siming from Diyi Medical University¡¯s Third Hospital, Lin Hao against Sanbo Hospital, Wen Rentao against Li Ling from Huaxi... The top sixteen were all elites from different competition areas, and the competition would be very exciting. The doctor audience was excited and eager to watch the first season of the competition start as soon as possible. This was a grand event for surgeons themselves; everyone had their own ¡°stars¡± to chase, and they also learned advanced surgical techniques from these ¡°stars¡±. Apart from orthopedics, other specializations were also in full swing, and the internet allowed everyone to communicate without being limited by time or location. In the national competition, a variety of procedures like heart bypass, brainstem tumor, and various organ transplants would appear, it was like a feast of surgical techniques. The plastic surgery leader Xiehe¡¯s Eight Great Sites and Shanghai¡¯s Ninth Hospital disregarded others, and simply staged a competition of man-made beauties, completing all the surgeries of the national competition with a single case. Some private hospitals saw a business opportunity and tried to insert advertisements into the competition videos of these two hospitals, but they were promptly refused. Actually, these private hospitals must have been out of their minds, as the viewers of the competition were all doctors, not ordinary people, who would want to watch their ads. Moreover, the organizing committee of the competition stipulated that they only accepted sponsorships from professional equipment or pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other sponsorships were not accepted as a matter of course. The names of the medical device sponsors were only hung at the bottom of the homepage of the website. The internet made everyone¡¯s involvement very strong. During this time, the topic when surgeons across the nation met was the Golden Knife Award competition. Everyone who graduated from the medical universities which the top sixteen hospitals came from or had interned in some of the hospitals, felt extremely happy as if they shared a part of this honor. Some people even talked about some inside stories of certain teams, showing that they had contacts with the chief surgeons. Others debated fervently over who would win and who would lose, supporting different teams. Some doctors were very busy, taking the opportunity to go to the bathroom during a break in surgery to take a look at the video, make a few comments, or chat in the changing room and smoke a cigarette. Some doctors, whose surgeries started in the afternoon, gathered around the computer to watch the live-streamed broadcast if they had time. Some hospitals with good conditions even had high-definition screens in the teaching rooms where everyone gathered, snacked, and watched live broadcasts. Of course, improper disposal of trash afterwards would warrant a scolding from the head nurse. The atmosphere was similar to watching the World Cup. ¡ª To compete against Sanbo! Seeing this result of the computer draw, Lin Hao was very happy, finally getting what he wished for. He actually met Sanbo Hospital in the national competition, and even in the first round of the competition with arthroscopy and foraminoscopy, it seemed like heaven was helping him. Lin Hao was very excited, he was always eager to encounter Sanbo in this round. Since Yang Ping was also good at arthroscopy, only by defeating him at his own area of expertise, would it be a fair fight. If he met him in other rounds, like the spinal correction stage, even if he defeated Yang Ping, it would not be considered a righteous victory. Now, he hopes that Yang Ping would perform this round of surgery, but he didn¡¯t know if Yang Ping would show up. Lin Hao refreshed the page several times, but Sanbo¡¯s team hadn¡¯t been announced yet. Generally, the team list should be announced in advance, the chief surgeon, first assistant, other assistants, anesthesiologist, equipment nurse, and patrolling nurse all needed to be listed. For example, Lin Hao¡¯s team had already assembled, with Lin Hao as the chief surgeon, associate chief physician, and doctor, who had studied at the Special Surgery Hospital in New York, United States, for three years. Would Yang Ping go on stage? According to the competition rules, the chief surgeon must perform more than half of the operations in the national competition. This way, there was still a possibility for Song Zimo to be the chief surgeon for some surgeries. If Song Zimo could come on stage, that would be good too, to avenge the defeat from the regional competition. As for the outcome, Lin Hao was already confident of victory. In the national competition, if the same surgery used a new technique, and this new technique was revolutionary in terms of safety and surgical outcome, it would have bonus points. This additional score was very intimidating, and often left the opponent with no chance to fight back. This was the difference between the national and regional competitions. The regional competition was about basic techniques, the national competition was about leading-edge techniques. Of course, if an immature or non-progressive new technique was used indiscriminately and caused a failure in surgery, it would result in severe point deductions. The new technique secretly taught by Professor Robert, Lin Hao could be certain that he was the first person in China to master it. Everyone else had to wait until the paper was published to have the opportunity to learn and master it. This new technique, Lin Hao had already done it subtly more than a dozen times, and he was proficient in the operation of the surgery. The outcomes had been practical, and even if he didn¡¯t deliver his best in the competition, the results would still be several times better than normal surgery. Source: Webnovel.com, updated on Novlove.com Chapter 389 - 389 0367 Duel_2 ?Chapter 389: Chapter 0367: Duel_2 Chapter 389: Chapter 0367: Duel_2 This new surgical method doubles the effect of surgery and is sure to earn bonus points. With these bonus points, as long as Lin Hao doesn¡¯t make any elementary errors in the other surgeries, he can practically crush Sanbo. Professor Robert, a world-leading expert in sports medicine has standardized this complex surgical procedure with a model. By utilizing this method, a complicated surgery becomes straightforward and clear. It is the result of his years of dedication. Those like Yang Ping and Song Zimo, who made progress through unconventional means, are like blind cats catching mice. When they¡¯re lucky, they might achieve some effect, but when they¡¯re not, it could be a complete mess. Lin Hao looks forward to Yang Ping entering the ring and having a showdown with him. This has moved beyond a mere competition; it¡¯s a battle for dignity. He wants to defeat Yang Ping in the field he is best at. Furthermore, Lin Hao decides to operate on the multiple ligament reconstruction surgeries of the shoulder and knee before Sanbo Hospital. Only in this way can he show his superior surgical skills. He isn¡¯t worried that Yang Ping would learn from his surgical video. This method requires a formula to calculate the beginning and end points of the ligament. Without the formula, even if you learn from watching the surgeon, you¡¯ll simply be imitating without being able to achieve any results. Lin Hao tries not to appear this superficial, yet he can¡¯t suppress his excitement. Since the beginning of primitive societies, there has been a desire in people¡¯s hearts to demonstrate their excellence before the opposite sex and to defeat their competition. The events that occurred at the party that night, stoked the flames of Lin Hao¡¯s rage like pouring oil on fire. Especially when Su Yixuan rejected Lin Hao¡¯s embrace, she hugged Yang Ping in front of many people, causing Lin Hao to lose face. Lin Hao anticipated calling Su Yixuan the day before the competition to get her to watch. ¡ª ¡°You make the surgery plan for Lu Gang. For the first round of surgery, I¡¯ll operate for you,¡± announced Song Zimo as he volunteered. In the meeting room, the Sanbo team is preparing for the first surgery, and the arrangement of the chief surgeon is one of the topics. Yang Ping is quite busy now with two cases, Lu Gang¡¯s and Director Han¡¯s. He constantly needs to adjust the surgery plans. Song Zimo performed very well in the regional competition. He wasn¡¯t afraid of any opponent. The first round of surgery consists of arthroscopy and foraminoscopy. Song Zimo had performed numerous surgeries like these, so he wouldn¡¯t be inferior to any competitor, even against Wen Rentao, he would still have a good chance of winning. Song Zimo lags behind Wen Rentao in performing high-threshold surgeries such as scoliosis and upper cervical tumors. Because Sanbo Hospital doesn¡¯t have many surgeries of this sort, Song Zimo definitely does not have the same experience as Wen Rentao. ¡°Who are we competing against in the first round?¡± Yang Ping hadn¡¯t paid much attention to the competition recentl. ¡°Lin Hao from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One!¡± answered Son Zimo. ¡°Oh, if it¡¯s settled, then Song Zimo will perform the surgery for me, Xu Zhiliang will assist, and Zhang Lin Xiaowu will set up the operating room.¡± As long as it wasn¡¯t Su Nanchen, there was no need for him to personally perform surgery. But if it were Su Nanchen, Yang Ping would have to go on stage himself.. Now, facing a direct knockout round against Su Nanchen, regardless of whether he is Xiao Su¡¯s brother or Yang¡¯s close friend, Yang Ping must personally show up. Regardless of the outcome, it¡¯s a matter of courtesy, a sign of respect. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t we be taking a big risk by using Lu Gang for the scoliosis correction surgery? This case is the Mount Everest of scoliosis correction surgery. Putting it into a competition is a massive risk.¡± Takahashi was somewhat worried. ¡°It¡¯s not as bad as that. Dr. Yang must have a well-thought-out plan to be so confident,¡± Xu Zhiliang felt that Takahashi was worrying about nothing. Yang Ping smiled faintly and said, ¡°The operating schedule of Lu Gang¡¯s case happens to align with the schedule of our competition. Let¡¯s just use his case for the competition. The surgeries over the several stages involve deformity correction of the cervical spine, thoracic spine, and lumbar spine. It has not only kyphotic deformity, but also scoliotic deformity and rotational deformity. What¡¯s more, there is craniovertebral junction deformity. No other case is more classic than Lu Gang¡¯s. It demonstrates all the techniques of spine correction surgery in one case.¡± The Golden Knife Award is not only a competition, but it also invokes a sense of professional honor, inspiring everyone to continue pursuing perfection in surgical techniques. The history of surgery is a continuous journey of conquering peaks and turning impossibles into possibles. In ancient times, surgery was only performed on the skin surface, while all internal organ operations were considered taboos. In modern surgery, after countless generations of effort, one forbidden zone after another has been conquered, from the abdominal cavity to the thorax, and then to the cranial cavity. It is now routine to perform surgery on the heart. ¡°We need to conduct more robot surgeries during this time. I am preparing the cases. As for the cost, Director Han has already applied to the hospital for three months of free use of the surgical robot,¡± Xu Zhiliang flipped open his notebook. He was responsible for preparing surgical cases. Everyone was worried about the final round of the competition because it involved a robot surgery duel, and currently, Yang Ping did not have experience in this area. However, Yang Ping was not in a rush. He had already undergone extensive training in robotic surgery through the system. If necessary, he could further intensify his training before the surgery. There were valid reasons for everyone¡¯s concern, as he had limited real-world exposure to this: ¡°Dr. Xu, prepare more cases, I¡¯ll intensify my training during this period.¡± Sometimes, it¡¯s necessary to keep up appearances just to reassure everyone. ¡ª The lineup from Sanbo Hospital had finally been arranged, much to Lin Hao¡¯s disappointment. The Chief Surgeon was not Yang Ping, but Song Zimo, so even if he defeated him, there wouldn¡¯t be a sense of accomplishment. Nevertheless, taking this opportunity to debut a new surgical approach in the competition was not a bad idea. Wasn¡¯t Song Zimo ahead of him in the regional competition? Well then, let¡¯s have another round of competition in the national contest. The comment sections for both the Sanbo team and Lin Hao team from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One were now combined, divided on both sides, creating a very heated discussion¡ª ¡°This first assistant is really awesome. After the regional competition, he¡¯s now fighting the first battle in the national competition as the Chief Surgeon.¡± ¡°Bold prediction, Sanbo will stop here. This guy did quite well in the regional competition, but I fear he won¡¯t survive the first episode of the national competition. Lin Hao from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, a student of Professor Robert from New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States, is highly skilled in arthroscopic surgery. In the first episode, besides Wen Rentao, the most challenging ones are Ouyang Siming from Diyi San Hospital and Lin Hao from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Arthroscopy is the strongest point for these two.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so one-sided. Doesn¡¯t Sanbo know their opponent is Lin Hao? Open your eyes, they are sending their first assistant as the Chief Surgeon, which shows their confidence.¡± ¡°Confidence? I¡¯ve never seen such confidence. Even Wen Rentao wouldn¡¯t dare to do this. Are they even better than Wen Rentao? No way! I have reason to suspect that the Chief Surgeon may have injured a hand by accident and was forced to let the first assistant to take charge. Otherwise, there¡¯s no reason to do this.¡± ¡°Agreed, this has happened before. The Chief Surgeon had a distal radial fracture on the right side and couldn¡¯t go on stage, so the first assistant came forward, but later they were eliminated.¡± ¡°Why argue? Didn¡¯t the last dark horse get beheaded in the first episode?¡± ¡°Do you think this is the World Cup? A ¡®dark horse¡¯? Without enough surgical experience, even a lame horse can¡¯t turn into a dark horse!¡± ¡°Ah, bad luck, got Lin Hao in the first episode. I wanted to see the dark horse run a little farther.¡± ¡°The last glory of the dark horse! Brother Hao, show mercy. For those competing for the crown, don¡¯t make it too ugly.¡± ¡°Brother Hao is mighty. Please, be gentle.¡± Aside from Wen Rentao, the opponent everyone is most afraid of in the first round is Ouyang Siming, a student of Professor Meng Heng from Diyi San Hospital. Diyi San Hospital has the strongest sports medicine in the country. Anyone who encounters Ouyang Siming in the first round has to be on their toes, including Wen Rentao. Next up is Su Nanchen and Lin Hao. The sports medicine at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One is second only to Diyi San Hospital, and Lin Hao has spent three years studying special surgery in New York under the personal guidance of Professor Robert. The one facing Ouyang Siming now is Su Nanchen, the most terrifying opponent in the first round of surgery, according to popular opinion. And the other opponent is the one that the Sanbo team has to face. Source: Webnovel.com, updated on Novlove.com Chapter 390 - 390 0368 Tracheal Intubation ?Chapter 390: Chapter 0368: Tracheal Intubation Chapter 390: Chapter 0368: Tracheal Intubation During the competition, Director Gao still often visited the Department of Orthopedics; besides watching surgeries and auditing the case discussions, he also kindly asked how he could offer help. His care was not just verbal, but was demonstrated in action: Old Gao drafted several young and capable doctors to support the Orthopedics Department, assisting them in various tasks such as writing case studies. Upon knowing that arthroscopic surgery was the centerpiece of the national competition¡¯s first season, Old Gao had already mobilized out-patient doctors within the department in advance to channel suitable cases to Orthopedics. This way, during the competition, Orthopedics Department would have a wealth of cases to choose from. Once Lu Gang¡¯s surgical plan was confirmed, Yang Ping began to finalize the details. A lack of attention to detail could ruin everything: surgery, after all, focused heavily on the details. A single oversight could demolish all the hard work put into the surgery. Yang Ping was a rational person; he was ardent, yet did not rely on passion to achieve his goals. Instead, he utilized scientific methods. He solved all matters, piece by piece, based on Lu Gang¡¯s actual medical condition to ensure the surgery¡¯s biggest possible success while also making it as safe as possible. Despite having advanced medical equipment, Yang Ping would not dare take a single procedure lightly or let loose for even a second. He continued to maintain an attitude of walking on thin ice and was always walking on the edge of a cliff. Lu Gang¡¯s surgery required general anesthesia, which meant intubation was necessary. Consequently, the first hurdle was the difficulty of intubation. The first intubation during surgery had to be performed while Lu Gang remained conscious. Lu Gang¡¯s severe cervical kyphosis and rotational deformity made inserting a tube into his airway extremely difficult. Despite the fact that a bronchoscope could be used for guidance, there was still the possibility of failing to insert the tube. If they failed to intubate, anesthesia could not be performed. Without anesthesia, ensuring the continuation of the subsequent surgeries would be impossible. Therefore, not only did Yang Ping need to address the surgical issues, but he also needed to assist Liang Fatty in overcoming the anesthesia-related issues. If necessary, he would personally take over and perform the tracheal intubation. Even if the tube could only be maintained for just a few minutes, as long as it was inserted, the resulting pressure on the back of the throat and tracheal walls wouldn¡¯t matter. As swiftly as possible, he would complete the double knee and hip joint osteotomy to increase the distance between Lu Gang¡¯s head and trunk. Only then would Lu Gang be able to proceed with the second step: cervical spine correction. After accomplishing normal curvature through cervical spine correction and lifting Lu Gang¡¯s head, he might be able to achieve a suitable prone position. The third step was to perform thoracic and lumbar spine corrections in the prone position. The last step, the fourth, was to perform hip and knee joint arthroplasty on both sides. Lu Gang¡¯s hips and knee joints had contracted to the point of being dorsoflexed for a long time, leading to the formation of a double joint stiffness: contracted extrajoint soft tissues and bone fusion within the joint. Only through joint arthroplasty could he regain normal hip and knee joints and restore his ability to walk normally. Yang Ping painstakingly considered and refined every detail, striving for perfection in every way. Liang Fatty did not idle either. After work, he stayed in the laboratory studying Lu Gang¡¯s tracheal intubation. The rabbits were unlucky: Fatty immobilized them in a twisted posture, employing a newborn¡¯s tracheal intubation kit. He practiced extensively on them. If any animal rights activists were to witness this scene, they would certainly spit blood from anger and desire to beat Fatty up. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Brother Rabbit. I, Liang Fatty, have no choice but to do this for the sake of saving people. After the surgeries, I will definitely treat you well and no longer make you suffer,¡± Fatty murmured in guilt to himself. After failing several times to insert the tube and causing distress to the rabbits, Fatty, a little disheartened, sneaked off to the bathroom for a smoke of Soft Zhonghua before continuing his practice. Working with live rabbits as practice models was more realistic. When Fatty inserted the bronchoscope, the rabbits were able to tolerate it. But once the laryngoscope went in, they would immediately bite down on it due to the stimulation and struggle fiercely. Fatty kept reminding himself- if Yang Ping¡¯s Everest-level surgeries were to fail because of missteps in the intubation process, Liang Fatty¡¯s reputation would be ruined. And Liang Fatty already had quite a good reputation in the hospital; several head nurses were trying to introduce him to their girlfriends. Upon observing his numerous failures, Yang Ping stepped in to assist him, demonstrating and teaching him along the way: ¡°You need to have a mental image of the path from the mouth to the laryngopharynx, and then from the laryngopharynx to the trachea. Your hands should also have a sense of the anatomy. Look, you have tied up the rabbit in such a twisted posture that its airway is no longer in its normal state. Even inserting a bronchoscope would be difficult, let alone a tube.¡± Fujiwara Miyuki, who was practicing arthroscopy in the lab, paused her training and attentively listened to Yang Ping¡¯s explanation. Yang Ping tried many times in the system space and was now teaching Fatty how to accomplish intubation under these extreme conditions. ¡°Open the mouth a little to expose the epiglottis. Do you see those two openings? Remember them, don¡¯t mistake them. The front one leads to the airway, and the back one leads to the esophagus. The airway is curved, but there is still a slit, otherwise how does it breathe?¡± ¡°Do you see the slit of the glottis?¡± Yang Ping showed Fatty while Miyuki leaned in closer to observe. The bronchoscope navigated the intricate and winding passages like a snake exploring its path. On the screen, like a first-person perspective in a counter-terrorism game, it advances, pauses, advances again, pauses again, going deeper all the way. Guided by the fiberoptic bronchoscope, Yang Ping deftly and quickly inserts a laryngoscope with his left hand, following the curve of the tongue, gently lifting up the epiglottis at the base of the tongue. The vocal cords are revealed on the electronic screen. ¡°When it inhales, you go deeper. Seize the moment of inhalation and make your detailed movements smooth and natural.¡± The rabbit inhales, the glottis opens, and Yang Ping¡¯s endotracheal tube in his right hand quickly enters the trachea, passing the vocal cords by 4 cm. Looking at the scale on the tube, it¡¯s about 18 cm from the incisors. Very Good. Yang Ping pulls out the stylet, places a dental pad, and withdraws the laryngoscope and bronchoscope. ¡°Stethoscope!¡± Yang Ping listens to the lung sounds on both sides with a stethoscope, confirms the intubation is correct, secures the tube and dental pad, and injects 5ml of air into the balloon on the tube, sealing the gap between the tube and the tracheal wall. The tracheal intubation is successfully completed. Yang Ping removes his gloves: ¡°The difficulty lies in the fact that the oral cavity, pharynx, and trachea are not in a straight line, forming some bends. Some sections are flattened. Each bend must be carefully negotiated, and each flattened section must be carefully dilated.¡± ¡°Be gentle, try not to damage the inner wall. Even with topical anesthesia, try to reduce the stimulation because the topography inside the airway is complicated. Some areas are hard for the anesthetic to reach, and due to insufficient anesthesia, there will still be stimulation.¡± ¡°The deeper you go, the more sensitive it becomes. The pharynx can trigger a gag reflex, and the tracheal mucosa can trigger a cough reflex. These reflexes cause restlessness and spasms, making it impossible for you to go any deeper. Adequate skill and flexibility are prerequisites for you to go deeper.¡± ¡°The instrument in your hand must be spirited, adjusted according to the airway, not rigidly thrust in.¡± Yang Ping explains the key points clearly to Fatty, who takes them to heart. In their spare time from performing surgeries, Zhang Lin and Little Five are studying Lu Gang¡¯s postures, how to sit during several surgeries, how to position themselves, and how to expose the hooks properly. In this team, even correctly attaching the hooks is not an easy task. The 3D printed models, over a dozen of various sizes, include full-scale models of the human body, smaller models, models of the spine, and models of the cervical spine and the base of the skull. Zhang Lin and Little Five are currently using Lu Gang¡¯s full-scale model to demonstrate how to position. Several surgeries, each with a different position, Zhang Lin and Little Five need to study repeatedly. Fatty has practiced intubating for a long time and is a bit tired. He wants to rest a bit and then follows Zhang Lin and Little Five to study positioning. Fujiwara Miyuki puts on rubber gloves, takes Fatty¡¯s instruments, and tries to practice this extreme state of intubation. After several unsuccessful attempts, she asks Yang Ping for help. Yang Ping has no choice but to turn around and teach her, taking over her bronchoscope. Fujiwara opens the rabbit¡¯s mouth, and Yang Ping, watching the screen of the fiberoptic bronchoscope, guides her, ¡°Try to pry upwards as much as possible, open up a little, otherwise you can¡¯t get it in.¡± Without damaging the teeth, you need to open the mouth as much as possible to expose the throat so you can intubate. This special position requires a high level of exposure skill. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid, open up a little more, yes, you¡¯re about to go in, don¡¯t move around, excellent, you¡¯re in.¡± Under Yang Ping¡¯s guidance, Miyuki tried a few times and finally succeeded. ¡°Now that you¡¯re in, don¡¯t move around, feel it for yourself.¡± Yang Ping encourages her to properly experience the sensation of guiding the tube over the vocal cords and into the trachea. ¡°It hurts a bit!¡± Miyuki switches hands to support the tube, flexes her wrist, and begins to secure the tube. Several of the movements in the previous tracheal intubation were quite awkward, requiring a large range of wrist motion, reaching the limit. After trying a few times, her wrist naturally feels sore and painful. ¡°You¡¯re too tense, relax!¡± Yang Ping comforts her. Zhang Lin, Little Five, and Fatty figure out the optimal position, and ask Yang Ping to look over and see if it¡¯s suitable. After work, no one has time to rest. Song Zimo is preparing for the first season¡¯s surgery. Xu Zhiliang is planning for the following season¡¯s surgery. In particular, for the robot-assisted surgeries, he needs to arrange a certain number for Yang Ping to do as warm-up training. Takahashi has to help them both. But Yang Ping forbids them from staying up late, prioritizing health over hastening the surgeries. Sacrificing health for work is one thing when there¡¯s no choice, but when there¡¯s room to adjust, it¡¯s better to protect your health and thus work more efficiently. Everyone must stop working before ten o¡¯clock, as per Yang Ping¡¯s orders. Yang Ping¡¯s own schedule is also packed. Every Saturday, he also has to perform surgeries with Boss Cheng. Yingge Hospital in Malaysia also wants Yang Ping to perform surgeries there. Yang Ping responds that he¡¯ll only have time after the Golden Knife Award. Although learning and training can be done in the system space, things in reality also need to be done one at a time. Therefore, time management is extremely important. Song Zimo and Lin Hao¡¯s face-off is quickly approaching. Each of them is fully prepared. In the first season, they have to go through six major joint arthroscopies of the entire body. Then they have to perform a foraminotomy, followed by multi-ligament reconstruction of the shoulder and knee joints. Doctors who love arthroscopy can hardly contain their excitement. Old Gao is like this, exceptionally excited. Chapter 391 - 391 0369 New Technique ?Chapter 391: Chapter 0369: New Technique Chapter 391: Chapter 0369: New Technique The countdown of the first season surgery begins amidst everyone¡¯s eager anticipation. At eight-thirty in the morning on the day of the competition, Lin Hao¡¯s surgery promptly commenced, and his swift start without hesitation displayed his tangible confidence. ¡°Go, go, go!¡± Chen Ge, Cao Qian, Su Fengyu, and many other doctors from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One were all cheering for Lin Hao. Everyone was disgruntled by the wildcard Sanbo, who had surprisingly snatched Nandu Affiliated Hospital One¡¯s qualifying spot. Now, they hoped Lin Hao could defeat it, avenge their loss, and vent their frustrations. As one of the top experts in arthroscopy, Lin Hao was destined to be the focus of attention. Many young doctors loved watching arthroscopic surgeries, so even before the surgery had started, the comment section was already abuzz. If they knew Lin Hao was about to conduct a topside surgical method for the first time in China, the comment section would be exploding. Regardless of whether or not Lin Hao wins the competition, he will become famous overnight; the glory of this arthroscopy competition belongs to Lin Hao. But he has kept a low profile, he has not revealed any information about the new surgical method. Even the dozens of warm-up surgeries he performed were purposefully downplayed and quietly completed to avoid flaunting their results. Lin Hao proceeded carefully, reconstructing the anterior cruciate ligament and suturing the meniscus in the knee joint; then, he repaired the rotator cuff and SLAP lesion in the shoulder joint. Following that, in one breath, he completed all the classic surgeries on the elbow joint, wrist joint, hip joint, and ankle joint. Within four days, Lin Hao had effortlessly completed all six classic joint surgeries, receiving full scores. He didn¡¯t want to rest, he wanted to finish the multi-ligament reconstruction of the knee on the fifth day. The added surgery ¨C multi-ligament reconstruction of the shoulder and knee joint, the Chief Surgeon only needed to choose one to perform. Lin Hao naturally chose to reconstruct multiple ligaments in the knee joint, as research on reconstruction of multiple ligaments in the shoulder joint was still far behind the knee joint globally. Not to mention within China, even abroad, there are no mature surgical techniques, so no one would choose to reconstruct multiple ligaments in the shoulder joint. The competition offered two choices, which was no different from giving just one choice. For Lin Hao, Professor Robert only taught him the new surgery for multi-ligament reconstruction of the knee. He didn¡¯t say a word about shoulder surgery, indicating that Professor Robert had not yet made a breakthrough. Able to score so highly in the National competition, Lin Hao, who had studied in the United States for three years, demonstrated formidable prowess. Song Zimo didn¡¯t rush like Lin Hao, he planned to complete the classic surgeries in the first week. He would rest for two days and then perform the multi-ligament reconstruction of the shoulder and knee joint in the second week. Lin Hao watched Song Zimo¡¯s video; the outsider surprisingly also received full marks, he had a stellar grasp on every scoring point. Even the action of holding the puncture awl was extremely standardized, his fingers held 2.5 cm away from the tip. The entire surgery was incredibly smooth and fluid, without any hesitation or stumbling. After performing the classic surgeries on the six major joints, he did not get the result he expected. Song Zimo still kept pace with Lin Hao with full marks. Although surprising, it did not deviate from Lin Hao¡¯s plan. He had considered this point, as this was their specialized field after all. This was exactly what Lin Hao expected; a match is only interesting when both sides are evenly matched. If the opponent is too weak, winning won¡¯t show his skill. Since it¡¯s hard to tell the winner from the classic arthroscopic surgeries on the six major joints, let¡¯s make the final battle. The final battle, the multi-ligament reconstruction of the knee joint, and Lin Hao is determined to take it. As long as he doesn¡¯t make a mistake, he is practically guaranteed to win over Song Zimo. The day before the surgery, Lin Hao had already called Su Yixuan, asking her to pay attention to the competition the next day. This was his most proud moment, and Su Yixuan had to see it, or else it would be like walking in brocade at night. Lin Hao was very cautious, replaying the whole operation procedure countless times in his mind, and the preoperative parameters calculated in advance were firmly imprinted in his brain. Moreover, during the competition period, he ensured sufficient sleep, always going to bed before 10 pm; he ensured a healthy diet, he even refrained from drinking cold water, only drinking warm boiled water, for fear of causing gastrointestinal discomfort by eating something bad, which would affect the surgery. The fifth day, also a Friday, at eight-thirty in the morning, Lin Hao calmly began his surgery. A line of text appeared on the video: ¡°This surgery will be executed using a brand-new surgical method, sourced directly from Professor Robert of the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States.¡± The new surgical method; this young scholar studying in America brought back the newest, most advanced surgical method. The comment section immediately exploded, countless comments began to flood the screen. Not only the doctors of arthroscopic surgery, even many judges were attracted. Since many original medical technologies originated in developed countries, the person who first introduces a new surgical method is considered a trailblazer, with outstanding merit. The first person to introduce the dynamic steel plate, the first person to introduce intermedullary nail fixation, the first person to introduce pedicle screws, the first person to... Every person who introduces a new technology for the first time will be recorded in the history of their specialty in China, meanwhile, the majority of the introducers would become top figures in the industry. Lin Hao, with this surgery, will take a pioneering position in the field. As a young doctor, this is an immense honor. In the future, he can write books, popularize this new surgical method, become the promoter of the new surgical method in China, and finally, achieve a high-ranking position based on this merit. ¡°Start!¡± Lin Hao was calm and cool. In the arthroscopic showdown, he was destined to be the protagonist, the first Chinese to do the new surgical method, possibly even the first in Asia. Puncturing and inserting catheters, his technique carried an American flair. Upon insertion of the arthroscope, the examination of the knee joint began, followed by the reconstruction of the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments. Chapter 392 - 392 0369 New Technique_2 ?Chapter 392: Chapter 0369: New Technique_2 Chapter 392: Chapter 0369: New Technique_2 ¡°Probe!¡± Lin Hao had a tendency to sprinkle his conversations with some English words. The nurses were used to it. Many doctors who had studied abroad preferred this style of communication, considering it stylish, high-end, and classy. Lin Hao¡¯s surgery was advancing steadily, unhurriedly. The comment section was getting busier, and the atmosphere was heating up. ¡°Wow, such an advanced surgical method? ¡°So, it¡¯s a secret weapon huh? Looking like he¡¯s aiming for bonus points.¡± ¡°Sanbo¡¯s first assistant has got some stamina. Brother Hao has finally broken out his secret weapon. Sanbo, catch this, he¡¯s done playing around.¡± ¡°Professor Robert¡¯s new surgical technique, Brother Hao is China¡¯s first.¡± ¡°Impressive. I heard rumors that he might even be the first in Asia.¡± In the explanatory video section, a detailed explanation of how to measure this technique using X-ray, what parameters are needed, and how to use formulas to calculate the start points of each ligament and construct a ligament complex is ongoing. Lin Hao integrated the ongoing surgery with the explanatory video perfectly. The new technique ushers a new era for poor knee-joint, multi-ligament reconstruction. Everyone was overjoyed. This black technology was being seen for the first time and there were no papers on it to date. Lin Hao was indeed Robert¡¯s star pupil. Even unreleased surgical techniques were taught to him generously by Robert. The surgery continued with Lin Hao completely focused. He repeatedly probed with the guidance tool in his hand, searching for the center of the ligament footprint in the anatomy. A few minutes later, he finally found a satisfactory point, and the guide needle paved the way. The procedure carried on methodically. Despite its high level of difficulty, particularly in locating the anatomical center of the ligament footprint, everyone agreed that he had performed remarkably. After the guide needle had been placed, the drilling to open the canal started. Indeed, the new technique was advanced. The surgery for rebuilding the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments was quite fast. The rebuilding of lateral and medial structures in the posterior was more difficult than the reconstruction of the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments. The new technique made the reconstruction of these two structures, particularly the lateral structure in the posterior, simple and clear. ¡°Robert is indeed amazing, leading knee joint multi-ligament reconstruction into a new era.¡± ¡°Eye-opening. The latest surgical technique in the world, I¡¯ve added the video to my favorites. I will study it slowly.¡± ¡°I understood a bit. This technique solves several old problems.¡± ¡°I suspect the surgical outcome will double. The concept of this ligament complex is indeed ahead of conventional surgery.¡± ¡°Americans are remarkable. All the original stuff comes from them. We need to catch up. New York¡¯s Special Surgery Hospital is indeed the world¡¯s number one.firstChild.¡± ¡°This attack is a blow from a higher dimension! Sanbo is probably done for.¡± ¡°Gulp!¡± The comments were growing in number. It was an influx of new traffic brought by the new surgical technique. Even Su Nanchen¡¯s and Ouyang Siming¡¯s showdown didn¡¯t receive this many comments. Lin Hao¡¯s surgery retained a steady rhythm. It reflected his iron will. He performed the surgery step by step. No one compared this surgery with him. Speed was not an issue here. Every stop and stop was searched repeatedly. Once confirmed, the drilling took place. After more than four hours, he finally completed the surgery. Not a single step was neglected. He was serious and thorough, even his suturing technique for the skin was extremely standardized. The surgery¡¯s fundamental skills had been examined during the regional competition. This was not the focus here. Even the final suturing of the skin was not a scoring point anymore. After the surgery, Lin Hao immediately tested the stability of the knee joint with the KT2000 on the spot. The data from each test was displayed on the screen. Nobody dared to manipulate the post-operation tests. The main committee had several inspection teams who were dedicated to visiting cases around the country. They did personal check-ups on these cases to get reliable data. For example, in cases of lumbar vertebra fracture, they would check the sensation and muscle strength of the patient¡¯s lower limbs after the surgery and even check the surgical cut to see the recovery status and if any complications have occurred. If any falsification was discovered, a public critique of the chief surgeon team and the hospital would be made. If a participating hospital is reprimanded, they would not be able to participate in the Golden Knife Award for two consecutive times and the chief surgeon would be banned from participating in the Golden Knife Award for life. Therefore, no one dared to risk their reputation and that of their hospital. The series of data displayed by the KT2000 were all measured in real conditions. The knee¡¯s anterior, posterior, internal rotation, external rotation, and rotational stability were all excellent. Even Professor Ye couldn¡¯t achieve this kind of results. In this season, even if Lin Hao had to face Ouyang Siming and Wen Rentao, if they didn¡¯t bring anything new to the table, he could still defeat them. The advantages of the surgical technique couldn¡¯t be compensated for by surgical skills. No matter how fast a car is, it can¡¯t compete with the speed of an airplane. This bonus had been given. Even the judge was amazed. This new surgical procedure represented a new level of understanding stability in the knee joint. It no longer saw each ligament independently but considered several ligaments as a complex. This calculation method was incredibly ingenious. It controlled the balance points of the ligaments using a formula and could precisely calculate the start and stop points and tension of all ligaments based on several measured parameters. After removing his surgical gown, Lin Hao had displayed the surgery perfectly. There were no flaws. Now, Sanbo Hospital would have no opportunity left. It was time for him to rest. The observers in the operating room, anesthesiologists, and nurses all looked at him enviously. Lin Hao enjoyed being the center of attention. He had predicted the stir his surgery would cause. His breathtaking performance kicked up a storm, and Lin Hao gained countless fans. He was the first to bring this advanced international technique to China. Even Professor Guan was surprised, not expecting that Lin Hao had mastered such advanced technology. Robert certainly lived up to his reputation. He was unmatched, having solved a global problem. However, while this surgery can restore basic physical function, it can¡¯t enable athletes engaged in intense competitive sports to return to play. It is believed that Robert, after improving the surgery over the years, might just be able to do so and allow athletes engaged in intense competitive sports to return to the field. ¡°As the introducer of the new technique, I guess you will become a regular speaker at future academic conferences, won¡¯t you?¡± someone complimented as they followed Lin Hao. Lin Hao pretended to be unaware: ¡°Is it? Impossible, there must be others who have performed this technique. After all, Professor Robert isn¡¯t just my teacher.¡± Although he responded modestly, Inside, Lin Hao was overjoyed. The weight he had been carrying was finally lifted. Eagerly, he unlocked his phone and opened the Golden Knife Awards APP. As expected, the comment section was filled with astonishment and admiration. According to the scoring rules, bonus points for the new technique wouldn¡¯t be given out immediately. They would be awarded at the end of the season, provided there was no dispute. ¡°Congratulations!¡± Everyone who had just watched his surgery knew, there was no suspense. He had beaten Sanbo in the first season. Even if Sanbo scored perfectly, the bonus points created an insurmountable gap between them. Lin Hao sat in the changing room, feeling completely relaxed. Chapter 393 - 393 0370 Misunderstanding ?Chapter 393: Chapter 0370: Misunderstanding Chapter 393: Chapter 0370: Misunderstanding The power of the new surgical procedure was massive, akin to a nuclear explosion. Lin Hao became an overnight sensation, the star figure of the Golden Knife Award. His surgical videos received the highest views on the entire Golden Knife network. As the introducer of the latest surgical technique, he deserved the admiration and respect he received. ¡°What is going on? How did Dr. Yang¡¯s new surgical technique become Radish Head¡¯s?¡± Upon watching Lin Hao¡¯s surgical video, Zhang Lin was astounded. This was Dr. Yang¡¯s surgical method, wasn¡¯t it? Although Zhang Lin wasn¡¯t as adept as Song Zimo, who had already mastered this surgical technique, he recognized it instantly because it was used frequently. Zhang Lin then read the comments ¡ª glowing praise was everywhere, interspersed with contempt for Sanbo Hospital. He immediately became agitated, reporting to Song Zimo who had just finished surgery and convened a meeting with his colleagues in the department. ¡°This Radish Head, I never knew he was such a person. Such a blatant act of theft! And he¡¯s a world-leading sports medicine expert, no less. I cannot let this go. I have to confront him about what happened. He spent just a week here, learning and then claiming it as his original creation.¡± Zhang Lin picked up his phone, the contact list still had Robert¡¯s number. In the records of visiting scholars, there were other detailed information including the hospital he was working at, his title, email address, and so forth. ¡°There must be some misunderstanding in this. Even if Robert wanted to take the credit, he would not be foolish enough to announce it at our Golden Knife Awards. Wouldn¡¯t it be better to announce at the orthopedic arthroscopy and sports medicine conference in North America?¡± Song Zimo doubted the situation. Xu Zhiliang prepared a draft of the statement: ¡°Even if there is a misunderstanding, he has already been implicated. According to the procedure, we need to report to the disciplinary committee of the organizing committee.¡± ¡°Reporting is definitely a must. Radish Head, and Lin Hao too, I won¡¯t let them off. This must have been instigated by one of them. I wondered why they were so eager to be the first in the country to start performing multi-ligament knee reconstruction surgeries,¡± Zhang Lin said, recording everyone¡¯s discussion. As for handling this matter, he would take responsibility since the problem emerged from the visiting scholars under his watch. Apart from reporting normally, he also needed to contact Robert for clarification. ¡°Americans are used to usurpation. This matter cannot be taken lightly,¡± Takahashi didn¡¯t have a good impression of this American. Everyone looked at Yang Ping. He too was surprised about this situation. If Robert really plagiarized his work, he would not let him off. It was one thing to give away his creation willingly, but it was another when it was stolen covertly without regard for the value of his work. How could he allow his creation to be stolen so casually? Yang Ping submitted his academic paper to the journal¡¯s email, not to Robert¡¯s personal email. All emails exchanged with Robert were saved. The receipt of acceptance of the paper was still with Yang Ping. In addition, three editors reviewed the email. It was hardly possible for Robert to falsify the information, there must be some misunderstanding. Robert, as the editor reviewing the paper, could obtain the surgical method information in advance. Although there¡¯s no patent for the surgical method, the identity of the original creator exists. It wouldn¡¯t be possible for him not to know these basic academic ethics. Yang Ping felt that the matter was not simple. To find out the real situation, Zhang Lin and Xu Zhiliang were the appropriate people to handle it: ¡°Zhang Lin and Xu Zhiliang, why don¡¯t you communicate with Robert to find out what¡¯s going on?¡± After Zhang Lin and Xu Zhiliang accepted the task, Zhang Lin drafted an email and prepared the content for a call. He first wrote it in Chinese and then translated it into English. After completion, Xu Zhiliang helped him revise it. When Xu Zhiliang looked at the draft, it was full of Chinglish. Many sentences, grammar and idioms were incorrect. He helped Zhang Lin revise it many times before it was finalised. After finalizing the draft, Zhang Lin immediately sent the email and read the content prepared for the call a dozen of times. Zhang Lin was about to make the call when Xu Zhiliang said, ¡°It¡¯s 3 a.m. there now?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care what time it is. Regardless of whether he¡¯s in bed with a woman, he has to get off and clarify this with me.¡± Zhang Lin dialed Robert¡¯s number and started to make a transatlantic call. After several rings without anyone picking up, Zhang Lin kept calling, almost in a frenzy to crash Robert¡¯s phone. Still, no one answered. ¡°Americans usually turn off their phones during their personal time. Wait until later to call,¡± Xu Zhiliang suggested calmly. ¡°The call went through, but no one answered.¡± Zhang Lin was not willing to give up and continued calling, but it still didn¡¯t go through. He had only supervised two visiting scholars so far, and such a scandal had already erupted. If he didn¡¯t manage this well, he would have to resign from his position as the secretary of education. But he really enjoyed his work, and felt that he was quite suitable for the position of secretary of education in the department. ¡°This Lin Hao, he really thinks that he¡¯s the number one in Asia. Those comments are treating him like a god, claiming he completely outplays us.¡± Zhang Lin put down his phone, still feeling indignant. Xu Zhiliang consoled him: ¡°What¡¯s real¡ªcan¡¯t be faked, and what¡¯s fake¡ªcan¡¯t become real.¡± Zhang Lin disagreed: ¡°Old Xu, that¡¯s kindergarten thinking. Who can distinguish what¡¯s real and what¡¯s fake? Without investigation or argument, fake could turn into real. Even women¡¯s breasts can be faked, what can¡¯t be?¡± No way around it, he continued to call. ¡°Old Xu, fetch me a charger, I¡¯m in it for the long haul today.¡± Zhang Lin instructed Xu Zhiliang. He immediately realized this wasn¡¯t right: ¡°I¡¯ll fetch it myself, you wait here for me. We need to discuss what to do next.¡± ¡ª¡ª At three in the morning, his cellphone kept ringing. Due to his profession, from the time when Robert was training as a resident doctor, his cell phone was always switched on. He worried that some post-op patients might encounter problems and need to ask him for help. ¡°Dear, what¡¯s going on?¡± Camilla asked. His mood was suddenly disrupted, and Robert felt quite upset. He groped around for his phone, then switched on the bed lamp and sat down on the sofa next to the bed. Robert geared up to yell at the caller, only to see that the caller ID was a number from China ¡ª Teacher Zhang. Instantly, Robert sobered up. Teacher Zhang ¡ª that represented Doctor Yang. Robert managed his emotions, trying to stay calm and composed as he answered the phone. A stern reprimand in English from Teacher Zhang came through, delivered like a diplomatic ultimatum. Once it was ended, the caller hung up without giving any opportunity to object. Robert apologized to Camilla, put on his pajamas, went to his study and opened up his computer. He looked at the email sent by Teacher Zhang and immediately understood what had happened. Lin Hao, this Chinese student, had gotten him into big trouble. No wonder Teacher Zhang was so infuriated. The Chinese student had publicly announced that the new surgery was Robert¡¯s original work. The nature of the matter was deeply troubling ¡ª it was as bad as academic fraud. ¡°Dear, how much longer is this going to take, is it the old man from Florida?¡± Camilla, clad in a gold silk nightgown, leaned against the doorframe of the study with a seductive look in her eyes. The old man from Florida was Robert¡¯s father. Only when he received a call from his father would Robert be this jittery. ¡°No, it¡¯s my teacher from China. I¡¯ve got myself into some big trouble.¡± Robert explained the whole situation to Camilla. Camilla, a sports journalist, has more experience in handling public relations crises than Robert. ¡°The student is the one directly involved, but you¡¯re also implicated. Have your student apologize and explain the truth on that medical website via a livestream; but that alone won¡¯t suffice. You need to personally reach out to the Chinese party and apologize via a video livestream. Only then will your sincerity be demonstrated. Both elements are indispensable. That way, the other party might forgive you.¡± Camilla quickly offered her suggestion. ¡°Is there really no other way? Let me think. If this matter is mishandled, it will not only tarnish my reputation but also drastically affect my relationship with Doctor Yang, a relationship that means a lot to me.¡± Robert sank into the sofa. Doctors in the US belong to the upper social class and so value their reputations greatly ¨C or at least appear to do so. Camilla sat down next to him: ¡°Just follow my recommendation and it should defuse the crisis. This entire incident is just a misunderstanding. Whoever caused the misunderstanding should be the one to dispel it.¡± ¡°Is Doctor Yang really the best doctor in the world? I¡¯ve never seen you praise anyone else like this.¡± Camilla observed how Robert completely changed upon receiving the phone call from China. Even a scolding from his father would not leave him so flustered and disheveled. Robert brought out a glass and some red wine from the cabinet: ¡°If the doctors in the world were to be categorized, Doctor Yang would be in a category of his own, all the other doctors including me, would be in another.¡± ¡°So, is Andrew¡¯s surgery hopeful then?¡± Camilla received her glass of red wine. Robert shook his head, ¡°Not just hopeful, but near success.¡± ¡°A toast to Andrew!¡± ¡°Cheers!¡± ¡°You should call your student now, have him apologize first, followed by you.¡± ¡°Understood, I need some time to get my thoughts and timelines in order.¡± At three in the morning, in a seaside villa in East Hampton, Long Island, New York, the deep sound of ocean waves filtered in through the window. Chapter 534 - 534 485 Bowing in Respect ?Chapter 534: Chapter 485: Bowing in Respect Chapter 534: Chapter 485: Bowing in Respect Outside the operating room, Ning Qi¡¯s heart ached in waves. Her young brother had made a mistake in his youth, spent five years in prison, and due to a misunderstanding with their father, had become estranged and wandered abroad for many years after release. At their father¡¯s deathbed, he returned home, but their father had already passed away. Now, as his elder sister, she wished to treat him well and make up for the lost affection he had missed, yet this had taken place. Such a cruel twist of fate! If her little brother couldn¡¯t overcome this hurdle, Ning Qi would mourn for the rest of her life. She sat and then stood pacing around, not knowing what to do. The TV in the family waiting area was broadcasting some medical science programs in Japanese, but Ning Qi had no heart to watch. Each time the operating room door opened, she would look to see if it was her brother. But it never was. Her female secretary, who accompanied her, kept comforting her: ¡°President Ning, good people are favored by heaven, he will be just fine.¡± Hopefully! Ning Qi sat down again, her chest under a weight just like a stone, which was very suffocating. She didn¡¯t know how long she had been waiting, but the feeling of anguish was extremely painful. Finally, the door of the operating room opened, and Yang Ping, wearing surgical scrubs, appeared at the door, with Takahashi following behind him. Yang Ping! Despite his sterile cap and mask, Ning Qi recognized him at a glance. She rushed forward without a second thought: ¡°How was it?¡± Yang Ping made an OK sign and said: ¡°Success!¡± Was it successful? Ning Qi was startled at first, then her eyes welled up with tears, as she rushed forward to embrace Yang Ping tightly. This caught Yang Ping off guard. She was hugging him, but he couldn¡¯t push her away forcefully. Ning Qi said nothing, just held Yang Ping tightly, letting her tears flow freely. The period of waiting had been incredibly nerve-wracking. The operating room door had been closed all the while, and not knowing what was happening inside, Ning Qi had been imagining all kinds of outcomes- the worst and the best. Her heart was a whirlwind of emotions, she had never felt so frantic before. Now¡ªthe surgery was successful, meaning her little brother had been saved, he was still alive. ¡°Don¡¯t get excited, don¡¯t get excited. I¡¯m finding it hard to breathe.¡± Yang Ping had to remind Ning Qi. She was hugging him so tightly he was finding it hard to breathe. Ning Qi¡¯s female secretary, not far away, was unsure what to do on seeing this, so she pretended to take a phone call. Takahashi was behind her, momentarily unsure what was going on, wondering why Ning Qi had rushed up to hug Yang Ping. Ning Qi realized that she had been holding Yang Ping tightly only after his reminder. She immediately let go, embarrassedly laughed and blushed: ¡°I¡ªI¡ªI!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he¡¯s okay now. His vital signs are stable, the tumor has been thoroughly removed, and he should be fine after the surgery. However, we still need to be cautious and keep him in ICU for a few days.¡± Okay! Ning Qi, embarrassed by her emotional outburst earlier, avoided eye contact with Yang Ping, taking out a tissue she wiped the tears from her eyes. She was really overjoyed. In these recent days, she had lost the appetite for food and sleep over her brother¡¯s condition. ¡°Ning Yu will be brought out later. He just had surgery, and will wake up in a couple of days.¡± Yang Ping reassured Ning Qi. ¡°Okay, okay, okay!¡± Ning Qi nodded excitedly. After explaining the surgery details to Ning Qi, he returned to the operating room where Ning Yu¡¯s vital signs were very stable. Liang Fatty confirmed that he could be transferred to the neurosurgery ICU for postoperative monitoring and treatment. ¡°Dr. Yang, would you like to rest a bit?¡± Takahashi asked respectfully. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°No need, let¡¯s escort Ning Yu back to his room, then head to the meeting.¡± For others, this was an insurmountable surgery that would drain their energy and spirit. For Yang Ping, it was just a routine surgery. His face did not even show any signs of fatigue; he was still chatting and laughing with Takahashi. Mitsui and Komori were even more shocked to see that Yang Ping was calm after his surgery, just like how he would be after any regular surgery. They tried several times to get close to him, but Yang Ping only gave them a polite smile, then ignored them. Although Yang Ping was said to be aloof, he still smiled at them. However, he did not talk to them, only talked to Takahashi. Ning Yu was escorted back to his ward together, and the neurosurgery ICU¡¯s special nursing ward had a small team in charge of Ning Yu¡¯s care. However, the charges were very high. For someone like Ning Yu, with his financial status, money was not an issue. Senior doctor Sakurai, who was in charge, had no resistance now. He respectfully completed the patient handover. Every time Yang Ping asked or instructed something, Sakurai would become nervous and could hardly articulate his words. Even when standing in front of Professor Ikeda, Sakurai was not this nervous, but now he was clearly shaking. Sakurai had reason to be nervous. In front of him stood a top-tier genius surgeon in the world. His own knowledge in front of him was like that of a child in kindergarten, prone to loopholes. ¡°He will wake up in seventy-two hours, at which time the tube can be removed.¡± ¡°After the tube is removed, the head of the bed can gradually be raised. Start with 15 degrees, then increase by 15 degrees every 6 hours, gradually increasing to 90 degrees, to avoid sudden height increase, which can lead to insufficient blood supply to the head and venous return obstruction.¡± ¡°Brain tissue has plasticity. Even if the medulla oblongata is compressed by a tumor and deformed to a certain extent, the tumor can be removed as it has a certain plasticity. Therefore, if the heart rate drops again, don¡¯t worry, it won¡¯t drop below fifty beats per minute.¡± ¡°The feedback mechanism between the central nervous system and the heart needs some time to reshape, and once it is complete, his heart rate will stabilize within the normal range.¡± ¡°Did you remember?¡± Yang Ping asked at last. ¡°Ah¡ª no, I dont...no, I mean, I¡ªI¡ªI remember.¡± Sakurai had been recording in his small notebook, and Yang Ping suddenly asked. He immediately became flustered and started babbling. ¡°Sorry, Dr. Yang, I have already made a note.¡± Sakurai was scared of being questioned by Yang Ping, so any question from him startled Sakurai. ¡°If there are any more questions, feel free to contact Dr. Song at any time. Don¡¯t be afraid of causing trouble. We¡¯re all on team Ning Yu now.¡± Yang Ping instructed Sakurai, urging him not to hesitate or act out of line if they encounter any problems. Komori Daisuke seized the opportunity straight away: ¡°Dr. Yang, don¡¯t worry. I will stay with Sakurai to take care of Ning Yu, if there are any problems, I will report to you immediately.¡± His attitude had made a complete 180-degree turn without any sense of conflict. ¡°I¡¯ll join you as well, we¡¯re a team, let¡¯s do this!¡± Mitsui clenched his fist. After handing over Ning Yu, Yang Ping left the ICU ward with his team to attend a meeting at the venue. When he stepped into the venue, all the doctors surprisingly stood up to salute him, leaving Yang Ping suspended in confusion. Among them were Professor Su; the grand sight was overwhelming. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Yang Ping quietly asked Takahashi. Takahashi smiled: ¡°Your surgery was successful. They are expressing their respect to you.¡± ¡°All this for a surgery?¡± Yang Ping felt uncomfortable. Among those standing were his predecessors ¨C Professor Liang and Professor Qin, and Professor Su ¨C his future father-in-law. His father-in-law was also standing. It was so embarrassing. They bowed! Old Ito and Ikeda led the Japanese doctors in a standard ninety-degree bow. All at once. It felt like a scene out of ¡°Shiroi kyoto?¡±! Yang Ping was taken by surprise. He looked back at Xiao Su, wondering if his father-in-law had also bowed along with the Japanese, but by the time he looked, everyone had straightened up, and he couldn¡¯t see where Professor Su was. He wasn¡¯t certain whether his father-in-law had bowed or not. What a chaos, what a chaos! The Japanese were actually pulling this stunt. Mitsui and Komori were also with Yang Ping¡¯s team; they had never witnessed such a sight. Ito and Ikeda, prominent figures in the Japanese medical field, were also saluting with a bow. ¡°Dr. Yang! Please!¡± Fujiwara Masao had left his seat to personally welcome him at the aisle. The first row had empty seats reserved for Yang Ping. Instead of sitting down, Yang Ping saw that all the doctors were still standing. Ikeda and Ito had already made arrangements for their hospital to appoint Yang Ping as a visiting professor, much more than just a respectful bow. Yang Ping quickly took his seat. Whether it was pre-arranged, or arranged on the spot, Yang Ping¡¯s seating was excellent. To his left were Fujiwara, Ito, Ikeda, and on his right were Professor Liang, Professor Su, and Professor Qin. ¡°Little Yang, what are you waiting for, sit down quickly!¡± Professor Liang urged Yang Ping to be seated. Professor Su also said cheerfully: ¡°Please take a seat, you must be tired.¡± Yang Ping shook hands with each professor in turn, being extremely humble before finally taking his seat. ¡°Miracle, you¡¯ve created another miracle!¡± ¡°At that time, I thought the surgery was surely going to fail. But you managed to turn the situation around. It was amazing.¡± ¡°You really are a miracle.¡± Professor Liang held Yang Ping¡¯s hand, not caring about the public setting, and spoke excitedly. Across from Professor Liang, Yang Ping nodded at Professor Su, conveying a polite greeting with his gaze. Professor Su smiled, meaning: It¡¯s alright, you guys chat, don¡¯t mind me. Fujiwara Masao, who didn¡¯t understand Chinese, could not join in on the conversation and merely nodded along with the occasional awkward smile. Not understanding what Professor Liang and Yang Ping were talking about, he would also laugh whenever they did. Fujiwara Miyuki, who sat in the middle of the auditorium, had watched the entire surgery without blinking once. At a time when everyone believed the surgery was going to fail, she was the only one who steadfastly believed in Yang Ping¡¯s capabilities. This wasn¡¯t a rational judgment, but an instinctive one. She gazed at Yang Ping from afar, not saying anything nor walking over to greet him. She just watched him from a distance. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you go over to embrace your man standing on the peak when he made his entrance just now?¡± Miyuki¡¯s best friend, another female doctor from Tokyo University Hospital, teased her. ¡°He isn¡¯t mine, if only he was.¡± Miyuki was filled with affection in her heart. ¡°Look, the bigwigs from Shuntendo and Tokyo Universities actually bowed to him. It¡¯s my first time seeing such a spectacle. Even Dr. Amano didn¡¯t get treated like this. No wonder you¡¯re so infatuated with him.¡± Her friend looked at Yang Ping. His confidence and handsomeness were indeed charming. Not only Miyuki, but she also found him attractive. Miyuki playfully pinched her friend: ¡°Keep your voice down! Do you want everyone to know?¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five were sat in the auditorium. ¡°Teacher Zhang, that yell of yours in the operation theatre, that was fucking powerful.¡± It had given Little Five quite a shock. Zhang Lin was extremely proud: ¡°I have been practising for a month. My wife said that with my daily practice, the first words our child will learn must be the scream.¡± ¡°Your wife is pregnant?¡± Little Five hadn¡¯t heard anything from him. Zhang Lin had been saying he was preparing for a baby, but there were no changes. Zhang Lin¡¯s expression changed: ¡°What do you mean by that? It sounds as if I can¡¯t make a baby.¡± ¡°No, no, misunderstanding. Given that yell of yours in the operation theatre, your testosterone levels must be through the roof. If you said ¡®one shot, three kills¡¯, I¡¯d believe you.¡± Little Five patted him on the shoulder. Zhang Lin smiled again: ¡°Five, only a brother like you could understand me. Not saying ¡®one shot, three kills¡¯, but ¡®one shot, two kills¡¯ I am confident.¡± ¡°Twins?¡± ¡°If I say more, it would violate the state¡¯s law.¡± ¡°Alrighty!¡± ¡°I may not have caught up with you in terms of speed, but I should overtake you in terms of quantity. What about you? Your time is nearing.¡± ¡°The due date is these few days.¡± Chapter 396 - 0372 Insane Opening - Part 2 Chapter 396: Chapter 0372: Insane Opening ¨C Part 2 Chapter 396: Chapter 0372: Insane Opening ¨C Part 2 Second is the issue of infection. With so many incisions, and each one being a major surgery, the chance of infection is invisibly increased. At the normal human speed, each of these four surgeries would take five to six hours. In total, that¡¯s more than twenty hours of surgery ¨C something neither the patient nor the doctor could endure. Finally, there¡¯s the consideration of the spinal cord¡¯s tolerance to the corrections. If this limit is exceeded, paralysis could occur in a best-case scenario, and death in the worst. If these three issues could be resolved ¨C if the whole surgery could be completed within three to four hours, if blood loss could be kept below four hundred milliliters, and if the spinal cord¡¯s tension tolerance could be ensured ¨C the entire surgery could be completed in one go. Yang Ping decided to enter the system space to simulate surgery on Lu Gang¡¯s case. The case recommendation feature could only push similar cases, not an exact copy of Lu Gang¡¯s case. Only the surgery simulation function could replicate Lu Gang¡¯s case precisely. It could reproduce a test subject identical to Lu Gang within the system space. The more difficult the surgery, the more interested Yang Ping was. Interest is the best teacher, and it allowed Yang Ping to lose track of time within the system space. After spending 300,000 points to buy 300 hours of surgery simulation, Yang Ping made sure not to purchase too much time at once. He needed to retain points for multiplication and for simulating Director Han¡¯s case. That case posed even more substantial risks than Lu Gang¡¯s, and the simulation function was indeed necessary to ensure the safety of the surgery. 300 hours, or twelve and a half days, was never a problem for Yang Ping. After countless surgeries and tedious pathological dissections, Yang Ping finally found viable surgical data. The surgery could be completed in one go, and it would be safer than doing it in stages. Through repeated simulations, Yang Ping could complete the surgery in about three hours. He could control the blood loss within 200 milliliters. After correcting the spinal deformity, there would be no damage to the spinal cord. At the preoperative meeting, when Song Zimo asked about Yang Ping¡¯s plan, Yang Ping said: ¡°Complete all four stages of the surgery in one go! Make sure Huang Jiahui has all the surgical instruments ready.¡± He then handed Song Zimo a detailed list of surgical instruments. Complete the surgery all at once? Combine all four surgeries into one procedure? ¡°Exactly. If compared between completing it all at once and completing it in stages, the surgical outcomes would be the same, but the risks would be smaller if done all at once. So, why wouldn¡¯t we opt for doing it all at once?¡± Yang Ping confirmed. Complete it all at once? This surgery would drive all the national doctors mad. But they can¡¯t do anything about it. If he says he can, then he certainly can. Song Zimo did as instructed, and Xu Zhiliang told Zhang Lin to start uploading the surgical case and plan onto the website. The upload of medical history and imaging pictures took half an hour interval. When the medical record was uploaded, within a few minutes, there were numerous doubts and abusive comments in the comments section. ¡°Be serious! Make sure you don¡¯t upload the wrong medical record. Are you sure this case entered the competition? Spinal scoliosis, and there¡¯s no description of the degree. Not even an intern at the hospital next door would dare write like this. Using non-medical terms like ¡®doughnut¡¯ for description.¡± ¡°Precisely, could it be written by an intern fresh into orthopedics?¡± ¡°Is there a mistake in uploading medical records?¡± ¡°Estimated error, uploading error.¡± ¡°Whatever method you use, Cobb measurement or any other, you need to give a degree, right? Was this orthopedic case written by a colorectal doctor?¡± About half an hour later, Lu Gang¡¯s X-ray, CT 3D reconstruction, MRI, and whole-body skeletal CT 3D reconstruction images were uploaded to the image section in large quantities. At that time, it was after working hours, and a series of surprised emoticons followed by a tide of comments. ¡°Okay, I was wrong. This case indeed can¡¯t be measured by conventional curvature degree measurement methods. It seems that only ¡®doughnut¡¯ can describe it.¡± ¡°Doughnut! The one who wrote the medical record must have thought a lot about this word?¡± ¡°Confirmation that there is no error in uploading the case? Is Sanbo using this case for the competition?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been a doctor for five years, and I¡¯ve never seen such a case.¡± ¡°Five years? Uncle, I¡¯ve been practicing medicine for more than twenty years, and I haven¡¯t encountered such a case.¡± ¡°This medical record looks so familiar, he came to our hospital to see a professor. Can this kind of case be operated on? Did I get it wrong? I¡¯m a doctoral student in spinal cord medicine, and my tutor, a top spinal cord expert in the country, said it¡¯s not operable.¡± ¡°Brother, handshake, I also find it so familiar, he has also been to our hospital. Are you a big brother from Drum Tower?¡± ¡°A brother from the General Hospital?¡± ¡°Yang Ping is a madman, the identification is complete.¡± ¡°Is this to show us how medical accidents are formed?¡± ¡°How can you talk like this? They haven¡¯t done it yet.¡± ¡°This case must be done in stages. It can¡¯t be done all at once due to blood loss, infection, and spinal endurance. Unless the main surgeon can guarantee that the surgery will be completed within six hours, blood loss will not exceed four hundred milliliters. But how is that possible? Is Hua Tuo alive?¡± ¡°Even if Hua Tuo were alive, it wouldn¡¯t help. Hua Tuo wouldn¡¯t know how to perform this surgery.¡± ¡°Completing the surgery in one go, any element going wrong will cause a crash. After winning the first season¡¯s surgery, has Sanbo forgotten who they are? Is this the way to make the chief surgeon¡¯s debut?¡± There are actually a few top spinal cord surgeons in the comment section. Seeing that Sanbo dares to take on such a case and wants to do it in competition, and moreover, to complete all surgeries in one go, Young people are desperate to make a name for themselves, disregarding the life and death of the patient, betting with the patient¡¯s life. One top surgeon was so furious that he even called Director Han¡¯s phone directly, sternly questioning why he was so indulgent with young doctors. Director Han just laughed it off: ¡°Calm down, it¡¯s for the patients that we have compacted the surgery to one time. Whether it¡¯s safety, outcome, or economicality, as long as we can finish the surgery within six hours, control the blood loss to less than four hundred milliliters, and guarantee that the spinal cord can endure it, there will be no problem. Splitting the surgery into stages is an act of compulsion. If there¡¯s no need for that, why wouldn¡¯t we opt for doing it all at once?¡± Not just the young ones, even the old ones have gone mad. Someone directly suggested forbidding Sanbo Hospital¡¯s behavior. Sanbo Hospital had not carried out more than fifty spinal scoliosis surgeries annually and had no precedent of such complex cases. They were playing with lives. But no such rule was covered by the competition rules, prohibiting others from performing this kind of surgery. Since Sanbo Hospital was willing to take the risk, as an independent medical entity, they had full decision-making power, and the organizers stated that they could not interfere. ¡°Sanbo¡¯s chief surgeon has made his appearance. Did you see his case? One surgery to cover all types.¡± ¡°It¡¯s odd, given their performance with the new arthroscopic technology in the last season, Yang Ping doesn¡¯t seem like an impulsive person. Why is he being so preposterous now?¡± ¡°Everyone has their limits. Probably he was dazzled by the victory from last season and started to think he¡¯s invincible, growing arrogant. It¡¯s a common scene.¡± ¡°In the medical industry, few can become arrogant. What the hell are they up to?¡± ¡°His opponent is Song Yun from Xiehe Hospital. If he really can pull off this surgery, I fear no one would be his match this season.¡± ¡°Is it possible? For such a case, even the top spinal surgeons of today wouldn¡¯t dare take it on. It¡¯s either death or disability.¡± Mo Sixth¡¯s Wen Rentao, Zeng Ran, Mu Jun all saw Lu Gang¡¯s case. Given the difficulty of the case, probably none of the top spinal surgeons would dare to take on such a surgery. But this was Yang Ping¡¯s introductory surgery. Wen Rentao did not understand the meaning behind such reckless behavior. Since they¡¯ve already reached the second season, why didn¡¯t they proceed with caution? Chapter 394 - 394 0371 Counterfeit Surgery ?Chapter 394: 0371 Counterfeit Surgery Chapter 394: 0371 Counterfeit Surgery Lin Hao successfully completed the endoscopic foraminotomy surgery, ending this season¡¯s operation with a perfect score. The outcome was no longer in doubt, Lin Hao sat in front of the electronic screen as the regular meetings of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One began. He had good reason to remain calm, Lin Hao was set to advance to the second round. Previously, the national competition was also a point-based competition, but the elimination round was introduced later in order to increase the difficulty and encourage young doctors to pursue comprehensive skills. If it were a point-based competition, even if the Chief Surgeon had a weakness in a certain type of surgery, they could offset this by scoring high in other areas, resulting in high total scores and potentially winning the competition. However, in an elimination round, there are no strengths or weaknesses. Even if you are extremely proficient in scoliosis correction surgery, if your arthroscopic surgery skills are lacking, you may be eliminated by a better arthroscopic surgeon, squandering any chance of performing later surgeries. Therefore, you must excel in every area to potentially win the final competition. The type of operation to be performed in each season is determined by a computerized draw. The order for this season¡¯s competition, which placed arthroscopic surgery in the first round, was randomly assigned by a computer. This meeting lacked the solemnity of previous ones, everyone was lax, occasionally playing with their phones, and coming and going. If it weren¡¯t for the department¡¯s rule requiring everyone to observe others¡¯ surgeries, to learn from their strengths and make improvements on their weaknesses, the meeting would have certainly adjourned early. Only Su Nanchen was taking the meeting seriously, sitting next to Lin Hao. Many people came over to congratulate Lin Hao in advance, and he responded politely each time, maintaining a humble and cautious demeanor. He felt like a top-scored exam taker who had applied to Tsinghua University, waiting calmly and peacefully for the Tsinghua admission letter, indeed a wonderful and novel feeling. ¡°Actually, I didn¡¯t want to compete this fiercely, but the scores have always been too close to call, and since it was a competition, I had to give it my all.¡± Lin Hao saw that Su Nanchen, sitting next to him, had no smile on his face. Su Nanchen appeared a bit upset, ¡°Was your surgery taught by Robert?¡± Lin Hao had expected him to congratulate him, but his tone indicated that he was clearly unhappy. Unexpectedly, Su Nanchen had moments of pettiness and jealousy. ¡°Doctor Robert taught me personally. It¡¯s his original procedure. If I¡¯m not mistaken, I¡¯m the first Asian to learn his approach and also the first one to introduce it in Asia.¡± Lin Hao didn¡¯t care about Su Nanchen¡¯s mood. From the very beginning, he kept this technique secret, even from Su Nanchen. However, by the time of revelation, he anticipated Su Nanchen would be upset. No matter how he looked at it, Su Nanchen believed that it was Yang Ping¡¯s surgery method. Lin Hao¡¯s operation was a simplified, pirated, and crudely copied version. Having learned this method from Yang Ping for over half a year, Su Nanchen was very familiar with it and was very averse to Lin Hao¡¯s seemingly low-key but high-profile approach. Yang Ping must have seen Lin Hao¡¯s video by now. There was certainly something going on that Su Nanchen didn¡¯t understand for now. Before clearing up the issue, Su Nanchen could not spread the word, so as not to bring any negative impact to Lin Hao and the hospital. Su Nanchen maintained a cautious attitude toward this matter. He only sent a WeChat message to remind Yang Ping that Lin Hao¡¯s surgery may have plagiarized his, asking him to verify it. It turned out that even good friends can be jealous. Lin Hao was a little disappointed. Su Nanchen should be happy for him, but now he was silent. ¡°The operation has started, Sanbo¡¯s operation has started!¡± Someone shouted. In a matchup with no suspense, the crowd naturally lost interest. Much like a basketball game where the score gap is too wide, even if a beautiful three-pointer is scored in the last few seconds, it would do no good. Everyone sat in the room, bored and unable to play with their phones. Gradually, one by one they started watching the surgical video on the big screen. Song Zimo took the stage, performing multi-ligament reconstruction of the knee, merely a routine surgery for him. If anyone was to rank this surgery excluding Yang Ping himself, it would go as follows, without any doubt: Song Zimo, Su Nanchen, Takahashi, Gao Yuan, Robert ¡ª and the rest of the ranks wouldn¡¯t really matter much. Evey batch of Song Zimo¡¯s surgeries were personally guided by Yang Ping, and he was taught the original version of the surgery. As many people could not master the original version in a short period, Yang Ping simplified the operation, creating an abridged version. Su Nanchen often worked with Yang Ping at Li Quan Hospital, so he came into contact with this surgery method very early on, naturally mastering the technique very well. Takahashi has a very good foundation as a top professor in Trauma Surgery, and has gained a lot of insights by following Yang Ping for several months. Although Gao Yuan is not as proficient as Takahashi and Robert, he learned a great deal from observing countless surgeries and learned face to face, therefore he is already ahead of Robert in mastering this type of surgery. Being a top sports medicine expert in the world himself, Robert can also grasp the basics after lightly studying with Yang Ping. As for the others, they are not quite proficient with this type of surgery. They can only rely on their surgical experience to get by, much like a car racing against an airplane; even if the engine catches fire, there would be nothing they can do about it. ¡°Lin Hao, look at this one, even the assistant is using the new technique.¡± Su Nanchen nudged Lin Hao with his shoulder, drawing the attention of the mobile-phone engrossed Lin Hao. Several lines of text appeared on the screen: ¡°This surgery was completed using a new technique. The origin of the new technique: First created by Dr. Yang Ping, currently a large number of cases have been accumulated. A paper has been submitted to AJSM, approved and is in the process of being published.¡± They¡¯re using the new technique too? Lin Hao had a start. It was indeed unexpected. The comments section was bursting with activity like a machine near its breaking point, relentlessly spewing out comments as if it had gone beyond the host¡¯s limit and was about to crash any minute. ¡°What¡¯s going on, Sanbo is also using the new technique? New technique versus new technique? The peak duel of arthroscopy?¡± ¡°Sanbo is also going for additional points, now this is interesting.¡± ¡°My goodness, they¡¯re really going at it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a head-on collision!¡± ¡°Is this a last ditch attempt to follow the hype?¡± On the explanation video alongside these lines, new knowledge about ligament complex appeared, such as the balance principle of the ligament complex, the internal relationship between biomechanical principles and anatomical data, anatomy and physiology of ligaments. The theory is easy to understand, devolving gradually, discussing the theoretical foundation of the new surgical method, its practical application, and the key points to note. Lin Hao was taken aback once again. It seemed very similar to his own surgery, but¨C Song Zimo¡¯s surgery was very quick. Punctures, tool placement, arthroscopic examination, anterior and posterior cross ligament reconstruction, the locator found the anatomical center of the ligament footprint in one go, followed by the lead needle puncture and drilling of the tunnel. Step by step, the reconstruction of the anterior and posterior cruciate ligament was completed quickly. The laxity was checked under the arthroscope; it was collision-free. So skillful, it didn¡¯t look like a last-minute, slapdash job; the work was even smoother than his own. The national audience also noticed that this surgery had the same origin as Lin Hao¡¯s, but was more skilled, more advanced. Interesting, these novel procedures of the same origin, one claimed to be pioneered by Robert of the New York Special Surgical Hospital, the other claimed to be pioneered by Yang Ping of Sanbo Hospital, both parties held their ground, who could we believe? In conflicting statements, one side must be lying, or both were lying. This level of skill was too incredible to believe. Unless one had performed over a hundred surgeries, such proficiency was impossible. Especially the rebuilding of the posterior lateral structures. Since there are many ligaments, the surgery required utmost precision. Lin Hao had to repeatedly search to confirm the ligament origins and endpoints. Now, Song Zimo was getting it right in one shot, finishing the task within a few moves. It was also a 4-in-1 reconstruction, Song Zimo completed the surgery in two hours. After the surgery, KT2000 measurement of knee joint stability, the data greatly surpassed Lin Hao¡¯s surgery. Lin Hao felt on pins and needles. He couldn¡¯t possibly miss that Song Zimo¡¯s surgery far surpassed his own. Not only was the surgical method more advanced, the surgical maneuvers were also more proficient. Could it be that Doctor Robert also taught them, in greater depth? The online comments poured in, initiating a war between the two camps. One side thought that Sanbo Hospital plagiarized Lin Hao, shamelessly. The sequential order was clear; it was blatant that the latter plagiarized the former. After all, how could Yang Ping of Sanbo Hospital compare to Professor Robert? It was clear who the creator was, no authentication needed. The other side argued that the latter¡¯s surgery was obviously more advanced and proficient. In comparison, Lin Hao¡¯s surgery held more signs of imitation. Online comments continuously fermented. The Discipline Committee of the Organizing Committee immediately stepped in, intending to investigate the issue of surgical originality. With the online disputes spiraling, Nandu Affiliated Hospital One¡¯s meeting room was filled with buzzing discussions. Lin Hao remained calm, the creator was clear. It was definitely Robert. Yang Ping could¡¯ve borrowed the idea, but he was overcome with greed, claiming it was his original creation. Such act of forgery should result in disqualification and public criticism. Lin Hao was puzzled on why Yang Ping acted this way. Since he reported the new technique first, Yang Ping could use the idea truthfully and earn additional points. So why did he claim the new technique as his own? While he was pondering, his phone rang. An overseas call from Professor Robert. Almost roaring, the American English poured out. A relentless verbal hammering on Lin Hao, barely leaving out American slang. Even though his cell phone couldn¡¯t leak sound, Lin Hao still left the conference room with a red face, pretending that the signal was poor, while actually searching for a restroom in haste. Seeking refuge in a restroom stall, Lin Hao slumped, feeling like collapsing, after he hung up the phone. He clearly heard that this surgery was originally created by Yang Ping from Sanbo. The paper was submitted to AJSM. As the editor-in-chief for review, Robert had the privilege to interact with the paper¡¯s content first. After obtaining Yang Ping¡¯s permission, he applied the methods in the paper into his surgeries, and the outcome was outstanding. Therefore, when Lin Hao consulted him about the latest advancements in multi-ligament reconstruction of the knee joint, Robert recommended this new surgical technique. Robert repeatedly warned him to not widely publicize the information out of respect for the author¡¯s originality, since the paper was not published yet. Yet he, he had blatantly boasted about the surgery¡¯s originality being Robert¡¯s at the National Technology Exchange Conference. Wasn¡¯t this equivalent to publicly exposing Robert¡¯s plagiarism of academic achievements? ¡°To restore Doctor Yang¡¯s reputation, and my reputation, you must personally issue an apology live on the website and reveal the truth. I am currently in contact with the organizers, hoping to personally apologize too and ask for forgiveness.¡± How could this be? The surgery pioneered by Yang Ping, not Robert¡¯s. Lin Hao was still in disbelief. He felt dazed, semi-conscious, with a buzzing sound in his ears. Apologize, yes, apologize, clarify, yes, clarify, if not, he would bear the stigma for life, and this would also harm the hospital. Lin Hao felt lost. His desire to win had just landed him in a big mess. But how was it possible? How could the pioneer not be Robert, but Yang Ping instead? It was too unbelievable. Upon leaving the restroom, Lin Hao wished he could crawl into a crack in the ground. Right now, he felt that everyone was whispering about him. Putting on a brave face, he walked into the conference room and forced himself to sit down. Su Nanchen saw that his face was off: ¡°The inspection team of the disciplinary committee will gather in Nandu City tomorrow to investigate the truth behind the original creator of the surgery.¡± ¡°Oh¡ª¡± Lin Hao turned pale. He had no ideas now; maybe Su Nanchen could help. ¡°Let¡¯s find a place to talk. Perhaps you have something to tell me.¡± Su Nanchen had guessed that Lin Hao¡¯s sudden emotional fluctuation was related to this matter. ¡°Uh-huh,¡± Lin Hao answered, stupefied. Previously, Lin Hao felt like he owned the whole world, but now, he lost it in the blink of an eye. From up in the clouds to a free fall, crashing into the ground without any cushion. His head buzzed with countless thoughts, he had no idea how he should handle the upcoming situation. Chapter 395 - 395 0372 Insane Opening ?Chapter 395: Chapter 0372: Insane Opening Chapter 395: Chapter 0372: Insane Opening The disciplinary inspection team moved quickly, as they were originally spread across different hospitals. Now they are rushing to G City in Nandu by plane, gathering at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One to investigate the dispute over the joint arthroscopy¡¯s original authorship. Robert drafted a formal email and sent it to the Chinese Golden Knife Award Organizing Committee, explaining the detailed course of events, clarifying that the creator of the surgery was Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital. Yang Ping submitted the paper to AJSM, and Robert, as the review editor, had the opportunity to access the new surgical technique and privately taught it to Lin Hao. At that time, he did not claim that he was the creator of the new technique and did not tell Lin Hao who the creator was. This causes Lin Hao to misunderstand, thinking that he was the creator of the new technique, leading to such a big misunderstanding. In this matter, there were issues in his communication, which led to Lin Hao¡¯s misunderstanding. He should bear the main responsibility for this incident and hopes the committee could forgive Lin Hao. Robert expressed that he hoped the committee could give him a chance to apologize live to the Chinese doctors through the Golden Knife Award website, and if necessary, he could go to China to apologize in person. In such a situation, Robert knew that if Lin Hao was categorized as plagiarizing, it would be a devastating blow to his career. The inspection team, after thorough investigation and considering Robert¡¯s email, revealed the actual truth and released a public notice to clarify the truth of the matter and awarded additional points to Sanbo Hospital. As to how to punish Lin Hao afterward, everyone was rather cautious, as this involved the reputation of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One and Lin Hao. The inspection group held a meeting at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One and invited Yang Ping, the representative of Sanbo¡¯s team, to further listen to both sides¡¯ opinions. The attendees at the meeting were Professor Su, the director of the medical affairs department of Affiliated Hospital One, Director Han, Yang Ping, Su Nanchen, Lin Hao, and the entire team of the Golden Knife Award Disciplinary Inspection Group. When the inspection group asked for Yang Ping¡¯s opinion, Yang Ping expressed that Lin Hao didn¡¯t intentionally plagiarize or forge. He merely misunderstood and thought that Robert was the one who created the surgery. Due to his eagerness to succeed, he credited the new technique to Robert. He believed that Lin Hao wouldn¡¯t do such a thing if he knew the real creator of the surgery. Yang Ping hoped that the inspection group would not categorize this case as plagiarism, as it would have a great impact on Lin Hao and might potentially result in his social death. He said that Lin Hao is an excellent doctor, an eight-year Ph.D. holder, who had undergone years of good training. It¡¯s not easy to nurture a good doctor. Although he made a mistake, an apology to all doctors in the country should be sufficient. Lin Hao originally thought that Yang Ping would take joy in his downfall, however, Yang Ping was still speaking on his behalf at this time. He was deeply moved and secretly admired that he was inferior to Yang Ping. Su Yixuan made the right choice choosing him, and he could only silently bless Su Yixuan in his heart. When it was the time to give up, he could only accept it. Feelings cannot be forced. The inspection group decided, after discussion, to let Lin Hao publicly apologize, concluding that the incident was a misunderstanding and did not involve intentional plagiarism or forgery. When the meeting was adjourned, Lin Hao specifically went to thank Yang Ping. Lin Hao and Robert apologized sincerely via live-stream on the website, and thus the storm was finally calmed. The first season of the competition ended, and the top eight were determined. Song Zimo defeated Lin Hao, and Sanbo successfully advanced. Su Nanchen defeated Ouyang Siming and successfully advanced, Wen Rentao defeated Li Ling and successfully advanced. The others who successfully advanced were Song Yun from Xiehe, Lu Qing from 301, Yue Zhengming from Huashan, Zheng Huahua from Xi Jing, and Xiao Yi from Jishuitan. After a two-week break, the computer-assigned second season competition began. As per the earlier computer-randomized assignment, the second season competition was orthopedic correction surgery, including scoliosis correction and hip and knee joint replacement surgery. Yang Ping planned to use Lu Gang as a case, using this one surgery to demonstrate all the surgeries in the second season. Starting from the second season, Yang Ping planned to go on stage personally. The new joint arthroscopy technique allowed Sanbo Hospital to officially enter the sight of national orthopedic doctors. Those who had never paid attention to this dark horse opponent before also began to reconsider Sanbo Hospital. Now, everyone finally realized the reason Sanbo let an assistant on stage wasn¡¯t due to other reasons, but rather because their assistant also possessed the ability to compete for the championship. If the assistant was this formidable, how strong would be the chief surgeon? Everyone was looking forward to it. ¡°Sanbo is amazing. The assistant completed the regional competition and still won a season in the national competition. The chief surgeon should be up next, right?¡± ¡°What kind of god is the chief surgeon? Come out quick, I dare you to answer if I call you?¡± After much anticipation, finally, Yang Ping appeared in the second season. His opponent was Song Yun from Xiehe. Mo Sixth Wen Rentao was against Lu Qing from 301, Su Nanchen from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One was against Xiao Yi from Jishuitan, Zheng Huahua from Xi Jing was against Yue Zhengming from Huashan. The types of surgery for the top eight competition were scoliosis correction and joint replacement. These were high-threshold surgeries in Orthopedics with more technical content than the regional competition could have provided. The competition was getting more and more exciting. Each team started to upload their case data so that everyone could familiarize themselves in advance, making it easier to understand when watching the surgery. All kinds of scoliosis and joint replacement cases were uploaded to the website. Yang Ping examined the 3D model of Lu Gang¡¯s skeleton. Other matters were not difficult. The difficulty lay in determining the maximum limit of scoliosis correction. He contemplated the degree to which it could be corrected and whether it could be fully corrected to the normal physiological curvature of the spine. If the surgery could be done in one shot, without stages, would it be feasible? The surgery plan was divided into different parts, mainly considering several issues, first being the problem of blood loss. With the sum of blood loss from each surgery, excessive blood loss would be hard for patients to endure and could result in hemorrhagic shock. Chapter 396 - 396 0372 Insane Opening - Part 2 ?Chapter 396: Chapter 0372: Insane Opening ¨C Part 2 Chapter 396: Chapter 0372: Insane Opening ¨C Part 2 Second is the issue of infection. With so many incisions, and each one being a major surgery, the chance of infection is invisibly increased. At the normal human speed, each of these four surgeries would take five to six hours. In total, that¡¯s more than twenty hours of surgery ¨C something neither the patient nor the doctor could endure. Finally, there¡¯s the consideration of the spinal cord¡¯s tolerance to the corrections. If this limit is exceeded, paralysis could occur in a best-case scenario, and death in the worst. If these three issues could be resolved ¨C if the whole surgery could be completed within three to four hours, if blood loss could be kept below four hundred milliliters, and if the spinal cord¡¯s tension tolerance could be ensured ¨C the entire surgery could be completed in one go. Yang Ping decided to enter the system space to simulate surgery on Lu Gang¡¯s case. The case recommendation feature could only push similar cases, not an exact copy of Lu Gang¡¯s case. Only the surgery simulation function could replicate Lu Gang¡¯s case precisely. It could reproduce a test subject identical to Lu Gang within the system space. The more difficult the surgery, the more interested Yang Ping was. Interest is the best teacher, and it allowed Yang Ping to lose track of time within the system space. After spending 300,000 points to buy 300 hours of surgery simulation, Yang Ping made sure not to purchase too much time at once. He needed to retain points for multiplication and for simulating Director Han¡¯s case. That case posed even more substantial risks than Lu Gang¡¯s, and the simulation function was indeed necessary to ensure the safety of the surgery. 300 hours, or twelve and a half days, was never a problem for Yang Ping. After countless surgeries and tedious pathological dissections, Yang Ping finally found viable surgical data. The surgery could be completed in one go, and it would be safer than doing it in stages. Through repeated simulations, Yang Ping could complete the surgery in about three hours. He could control the blood loss within 200 milliliters. After correcting the spinal deformity, there would be no damage to the spinal cord. At the preoperative meeting, when Song Zimo asked about Yang Ping¡¯s plan, Yang Ping said: ¡°Complete all four stages of the surgery in one go! Make sure Huang Jiahui has all the surgical instruments ready.¡± He then handed Song Zimo a detailed list of surgical instruments. Complete the surgery all at once? Combine all four surgeries into one procedure? ¡°Exactly. If compared between completing it all at once and completing it in stages, the surgical outcomes would be the same, but the risks would be smaller if done all at once. So, why wouldn¡¯t we opt for doing it all at once?¡± Yang Ping confirmed. Complete it all at once? This surgery would drive all the national doctors mad. But they can¡¯t do anything about it. If he says he can, then he certainly can. Song Zimo did as instructed, and Xu Zhiliang told Zhang Lin to start uploading the surgical case and plan onto the website. The upload of medical history and imaging pictures took half an hour interval. When the medical record was uploaded, within a few minutes, there were numerous doubts and abusive comments in the comments section. ¡°Be serious! Make sure you don¡¯t upload the wrong medical record. Are you sure this case entered the competition? Spinal scoliosis, and there¡¯s no description of the degree. Not even an intern at the hospital next door would dare write like this. Using non-medical terms like ¡®doughnut¡¯ for description.¡± ¡°Precisely, could it be written by an intern fresh into orthopedics?¡± ¡°Is there a mistake in uploading medical records?¡± ¡°Estimated error, uploading error.¡± ¡°Whatever method you use, Cobb measurement or any other, you need to give a degree, right? Was this orthopedic case written by a colorectal doctor?¡± About half an hour later, Lu Gang¡¯s X-ray, CT 3D reconstruction, MRI, and whole-body skeletal CT 3D reconstruction images were uploaded to the image section in large quantities. At that time, it was after working hours, and a series of surprised emoticons followed by a tide of comments. ¡°Okay, I was wrong. This case indeed can¡¯t be measured by conventional curvature degree measurement methods. It seems that only ¡®doughnut¡¯ can describe it.¡± ¡°Doughnut! The one who wrote the medical record must have thought a lot about this word?¡± ¡°Confirmation that there is no error in uploading the case? Is Sanbo using this case for the competition?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been a doctor for five years, and I¡¯ve never seen such a case.¡± ¡°Five years? Uncle, I¡¯ve been practicing medicine for more than twenty years, and I haven¡¯t encountered such a case.¡± ¡°This medical record looks so familiar, he came to our hospital to see a professor. Can this kind of case be operated on? Did I get it wrong? I¡¯m a doctoral student in spinal cord medicine, and my tutor, a top spinal cord expert in the country, said it¡¯s not operable.¡± ¡°Brother, handshake, I also find it so familiar, he has also been to our hospital. Are you a big brother from Drum Tower?¡± ¡°A brother from the General Hospital?¡± ¡°Yang Ping is a madman, the identification is complete.¡± ¡°Is this to show us how medical accidents are formed?¡± ¡°How can you talk like this? They haven¡¯t done it yet.¡± ¡°This case must be done in stages. It can¡¯t be done all at once due to blood loss, infection, and spinal endurance. Unless the main surgeon can guarantee that the surgery will be completed within six hours, blood loss will not exceed four hundred milliliters. But how is that possible? Is Hua Tuo alive?¡± ¡°Even if Hua Tuo were alive, it wouldn¡¯t help. Hua Tuo wouldn¡¯t know how to perform this surgery.¡± ¡°Completing the surgery in one go, any element going wrong will cause a crash. After winning the first season¡¯s surgery, has Sanbo forgotten who they are? Is this the way to make the chief surgeon¡¯s debut?¡± There are actually a few top spinal cord surgeons in the comment section. Seeing that Sanbo dares to take on such a case and wants to do it in competition, and moreover, to complete all surgeries in one go, Young people are desperate to make a name for themselves, disregarding the life and death of the patient, betting with the patient¡¯s life. One top surgeon was so furious that he even called Director Han¡¯s phone directly, sternly questioning why he was so indulgent with young doctors. Director Han just laughed it off: ¡°Calm down, it¡¯s for the patients that we have compacted the surgery to one time. Whether it¡¯s safety, outcome, or economicality, as long as we can finish the surgery within six hours, control the blood loss to less than four hundred milliliters, and guarantee that the spinal cord can endure it, there will be no problem. Splitting the surgery into stages is an act of compulsion. If there¡¯s no need for that, why wouldn¡¯t we opt for doing it all at once?¡± Not just the young ones, even the old ones have gone mad. Someone directly suggested forbidding Sanbo Hospital¡¯s behavior. Sanbo Hospital had not carried out more than fifty spinal scoliosis surgeries annually and had no precedent of such complex cases. They were playing with lives. But no such rule was covered by the competition rules, prohibiting others from performing this kind of surgery. Since Sanbo Hospital was willing to take the risk, as an independent medical entity, they had full decision-making power, and the organizers stated that they could not interfere. ¡°Sanbo¡¯s chief surgeon has made his appearance. Did you see his case? One surgery to cover all types.¡± ¡°It¡¯s odd, given their performance with the new arthroscopic technology in the last season, Yang Ping doesn¡¯t seem like an impulsive person. Why is he being so preposterous now?¡± ¡°Everyone has their limits. Probably he was dazzled by the victory from last season and started to think he¡¯s invincible, growing arrogant. It¡¯s a common scene.¡± ¡°In the medical industry, few can become arrogant. What the hell are they up to?¡± ¡°His opponent is Song Yun from Xiehe Hospital. If he really can pull off this surgery, I fear no one would be his match this season.¡± ¡°Is it possible? For such a case, even the top spinal surgeons of today wouldn¡¯t dare take it on. It¡¯s either death or disability.¡± Mo Sixth¡¯s Wen Rentao, Zeng Ran, Mu Jun all saw Lu Gang¡¯s case. Given the difficulty of the case, probably none of the top spinal surgeons would dare to take on such a surgery. But this was Yang Ping¡¯s introductory surgery. Wen Rentao did not understand the meaning behind such reckless behavior. Since they¡¯ve already reached the second season, why didn¡¯t they proceed with caution? Chapter 397 - 397 0373 Sweating While Watching Surgery ?Chapter 397: Chapter 0373: Sweating While Watching Surgery Chapter 397: Chapter 0373: Sweating While Watching Surgery Song Yun from Xiehe Hospital, aside from Wen Rentao, doesn¡¯t consider anyone else as a worthy opponent. Even if competing against Wen Rentao, Song Yun is still very confident. Some hospitals have specialties that exceed Xiehe, but in terms of overall capability, Xiehe is undoubtedly the leader. Its excellent tradition has kept generations of Xiehe people tirelessly striving for perfection. Now, Song Yun¡¯s opponent is Yang Ping, who never competed in previous events. For his first appearance, he used a Mount Everest-grade case. To be honest, this kind of case at Xiehe, even his director would not dare to take it. Medicine is not a place for competition, not taking a case is not shameful, but being responsible for the patient. The more skilled the doctor, the better aware they are of the boundaries of medicine. But what makes Yang Ping so arrogant to take this kind of case and use it in competition? Analyzing the surgical video from Sanbo Hospital, Song Yun had to admit that the single-line base surgery performed by the assistant was on par with him. The new method of multiple ligament reconstruction of the knee joint created by Yang Ping, the chief surgeon, was simply a work of genius, which at one point led people to mistakenly think it was from the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States. If the inspection team didn¡¯t reveal the truth, Song Yun would not believe it was originated by Yang Ping from Sanbo. The creation of this surgical method requires, aside from talent, a large number of cases, which Sanbo does not possess. The mystery around Yang Ping puts tremendous pressure on Song Yun. Can he really complete this operation? And if he can¡¯t, why would he attempt it? A person who can create new surgical methods cannot be treated lightly. As for the remarks going around online about him being crazy, arrogant, and forgetting himself. How could it be possible? Song Yun totally doesn¡¯t believe these comments. The qualities exhibited in the assistant¡¯s surgery suggest that the chief surgeon is a calm and experienced person with excellent surgical skills. What Song Yun doesn¡¯t understand is how Yang Ping can take on such a high-difficulty surgery, which seems impossible. Why? Not only Song Yun is confused, but orthopedic doctors around the country, the judges, and several prominent spinal surgeons are also skeptical. When the second season of competition began, Yang Ping was fully prepared, with the patient¡¯s condition constantly changing. The sooner the experience from practice surgeries is applied, the better. Yang Ping didn¡¯t plan to wait for anyone, nor did he deliberately want to be the first to start. In any case, for the patient¡¯s sake and for the surgery¡¯s safety, he wants to start as soon as possible. Before the operation, Yang Ping had another preoperative conversation with Lu Gang and his mother. The risks of the operation are great. There are possibilities of death, paralysis, infection, etc. The doctors can only do their best to reduce the risks, but they can¡¯t completely eliminate them. ¡°No matter how big the risk is, we have to take it. If he suffers a bit and faces some risks now, it¡¯s okay. Once I¡¯m old, who will take care of him? From elementary school to college, you don¡¯t know how hard it has been. He has suffered, and so have I, having to push him to school in a wheelchair every day and pick him up. Even in college, we had to rent a house near his school for daily pick-up. Even meals at noon and evening were taken in our home after picking him up,¡± Lu Gang¡¯s mother said as she wiped away her tears. Lu Gang just stayed silent, even the most mundane task was difficult for him. For instance, eating, a simple task for others, is an enormous challenge for him. Without his mother, let alone studying in college, even survival would be a problem. For over ten years, his mother has taken him to seek medical treatment everywhere, spending a lot of money on travel expenses alone. But no hospital was willing to perform surgery. Now Doctor Yang is willing to do so, they decided to take the risk. Only when Yang Ping asked again: is there any other concern? Lu Gang and his mother could not think of any other questions. Everything that needed to be explained had been explained several times, everything was clear. Lu Gang and his mother both signed solemnly. Surgical informed consent, blood transfusion informed consent, anesthesia informed consent, power of attorney. For such complicated high-risk surgery, unexpected issues might occur during the operation. Since the patient would be anesthetic and unable to make decisions, someone is needed to assume legal rights. Lu Gang used the power of attorney to delegate this authority to his mother. The surgery is unpredictable. Yang Ping is confident of keeping the bleeding volume within 200 milliliters, but autologous and allogeneic blood transfusions have been prepared. The more thorough the preparations, the better, even if it is not needed. Director Han and Professor Zhang were sitting nearby as Lu Gang was wheeled into the operating room on the trolley. Zhang Lin and Little Five had practiced the transfer process many times, so they smoothly carried it out. Along with the standardized training students, they transferred Lu Gang onto the operating table. Fatty began to intubate. Despite having practiced for a long time on Lu Gang¡¯s model and on rabbits, he is still not completely confident. Fatty slowly inserted the fiberscope. The view of the oral cavity, pharynx, and trachea gradually came into view, then he paused the view at the glottis. He gently inserted the laryngoscope and positioned the tracheal tube. Fatty¡¯s hand was very steady. As the tube passed the vocal cords, Fatty held onto the tube with one hand, while his other hand used a stethoscope to listen to the lungs, then he gestured OK. It went smoothly, the intubation was successful, everyone applauded, the first hurdle was over. Zhang Lin and Little Five placed various position cushions around Lu Gang¡¯s body, arranging him in a strange position. Yang Ping planned to first perform hip and knee joint relaxation and replacement, which would allow the area below the hip to move freely, helping with the positioning in the next step. Completing bilateral hip and knee joint replacement in this curled position is a very difficult thing. Chapter 398 - 398 0373 Sweating while Watching Surgery_2 ?Chapter 398: Chapter 0373: Sweating while Watching Surgery_2 Chapter 398: Chapter 0373: Sweating while Watching Surgery_2 Even in a normal position, completing bilateral hip and knee joint replacements simultaneously is a challenging surgery. This extreme position, in which it is possible to complete the surgery, is extremely difficult. Even Professor Zhang and Director Han have to wonder how he quickly completed the replacement of these four joints. As to how the surgery is conducted, Yang Ping has done nearly a hundred surgeries on Lu Gang¡¯s system so skillfully that it¡¯s become muscle memory; he¡¯s even conducted numerous research-based pathological dissections. Song Zimo sterilizes the drapes quickly. In the final pre-operation check, Yang Ping makes a small incision for the minimally invasive hip joint replacement. In a few minutes, the deep hip joint is revealed, hooks are positioned, and Zhang Lin Xiaowu is asked to help hold them. As for where the hooks should be placed, and what¡¯s inside, Zhang Lin Xiaowu has no clue. All they need to do is steady the hooks. This is a task they can fully handle, and in accordance with Yang Ping¡¯s requirements, they hold the hooks firmly. The femoral neck is amputated in one go, and the already deformed femoral head is easily removed with the extractor. Just now, Director Han was worried about the difficulty of removing the cut femoral head, but the femoral head has already been handed over to Xiao Su and placed in the metal basin. Under normal circumstances, a caliper is needed to measure the diameter of the femoral head to guide the selection of the model of the artificial joint prosthesis. Now that the femoral head is deformed, it no longer serves as a guide. Where is Lu Gang¡¯s acetabulum? The acetabular area of the pelvic hip joint on the CT 3D reconstruction has lost its true acetabulum, and the shallow indentations are meaningless. For over a decade, his hip joint has been in a dislocated state, the femoral head has been floating in soft tissue, and there¡¯s no socket to contain it. When orthopaedic surgeons usually deal with the acetabulum, to correct the direction and depth of the acetabulum, they take the patient¡¯s lying position as a reference to find the right angle. Now, Yang Ping has to make a new acetabulum for Lu Gang where the location, direction, and depth all have to meet the anatomical requirements. Lu Gang¡¯s position is very irregular, and finding the right angle in such a position requires the doctor to have a very strong spatial imagination. ¡°Xiao Yang -¡± Professor Zhang was just about to give him some advice. The acetabular rasp has already been inserted, it makes a rasping sound, and through the safety glasses, a mist of blood rises. The high-speed drill with the acetabular rasp hasn¡¯t even finished its work when Yang Ping directly announces the model parameters of the acetabular prosthesis. Huang Jiahui immediately opens the package and lays the prosthesis on the instrument table. While the competition requires a trial run, Yang Ping doesn¡¯t really need it. After a hundred surgeries, what¡¯s a trial for him? It¡¯s purely a waste of time. Yang Ping finishes the trial run process and directly asks Xiao Su to start the prosthesis. Due to lack of physical activity, Lu Gang has osteoporosis, and a biological prosthesis is not suitable. A cemented prosthesis is used instead. The cement package is opened and mixed with a special solvent. The aromatic smell fills the entire operating room. The acetabulum is rinsed, the gauze is wrung dry, then the acetabulum prosthesis with dough-like bone cement is accurately implanted into the artificially chiselled acetabulum, pressed tightly. Immediately afterwards, the end of the femur undergoes marrow expansion, the marrow cavity is rinsed, and after going through the trial process, the bone cement gun introduces the bone cement into the femoral marrow cavity, and then the real femoral prosthetic end is implanted into the marrow cavity, pressed tightly. All the excess bone cement is entirely removed, the artificial prostheses of the joint head and acetabulum are installed, and the only thing left to do is to stop the bleeding completely. But there¡¯s hardly any blood, and there¡¯s no need for drains. Under the magnifying lens in charge of zooming in, the camera observes for a few minutes. No obvious bleeding can be seen. As minimally invasive access was used, all the important structures, such as the pear-shaped muscle, were not damaged. The bleeding from the bone surface is already stopped by the pressure of the joint prosthetics and bone cement. There¡¯s virtually no bleeding left. Rinsing, suturing the layers, and thus, one side of the hip joint is replaced. ¡°Young man, you perform surgery like it¡¯s a game,¡± Professor Zhang, not daring to blink, exclaimed, ¡°This handiwork, is this still human?¡± He initially wanted to communicate with Yang Ping a bit, but the other hip joint was started. The process was too quick, his mind couldn¡¯t keep up with Yang Ping¡¯s rhythm. Both Professor Zhang and Director Han were mentally racing to keep up with him. As soon as the bilateral hip joints were replaced, without a break, the knee joints were replaced next. It¡¯s Song Zimo¡¯s first time as a surgical assistant, and for the first time, he¡¯s struggling to keep up. Zhang Lin Xiaowu couldn¡¯t see the whole process of the surgery, every time Yang Ping positioned the hook, they just mechanically held it. Luckily, with their long training, they were outstanding at holding the hooks. The two men held it firmly and didn¡¯t waver. Knee joint replacement tests bone cutting and soft tissue balance techniques. Yang Ping¡¯s movements are too quick. Whether those participating in the surgery or those observing, like Professor Zhang and Director Han, everyone dares not take a moment¡¯s rest. One little hesitation and they would be thrown off by the rhythm. Exposing and cleaning the knee joint synovium, loosening the ligaments and the joint capsule, then the cutting of the tibial end and the femoral end. Trial cutting is a requirement of the surgical procedure. Otherwise, what does Yang Ping need a bone cutting template for? He could directly perform bone cutting by hand, with exact precision down to the millimeter. Once the locator is set up and the tibial bone-cutting template is assembled, the bone-cutting is completed in a few moves. Then, it¡¯s the femur¡¯s turn for bone-cutting. It all flows smoothly. After bone-cutting, the tibial end prosthesis and the femur end prosthesis are sequentially implanted and firmly fixed onto the bone ends with bone cement. The aromatic smell of bone cement is getting stronger. Both knee joint replacements are complete, suturing, applying a dressing over the incision. They readjust the body position and sterilize again to perform the cervical vertebra osteotomy correction. This is the most dangerous step, especially dealing with the malformation of the upper cervical spine and the skull base. Chapter 399 - 399 0373 Sweating while Watching Surgery_3 ?Chapter 399: Chapter 0373: Sweating while Watching Surgery_3 Chapter 399: Chapter 0373: Sweating while Watching Surgery_3 ¡°Xiao Yang, don¡¯t rush. Take it slow. If need be, we can stage it,¡± Director Han was gripped as if he was holding a heart in his hands. Professor Zhang was also living on the edge. An eighty-year-old man watching this young man perform the operation. His heart would probably starve for lack of blood from fear if it wasn¡¯t so healthy. ¡°Slow down, slow down¨C¡± Professor Zhang got choked up mid-sentence. However, Yang Ping was already completely engrossed in the operation. He needed to follow his own rhythm, just like a running athlete who cannot be suddenly stopped by others. The quicker the operation is completed, the lower the risk. Make incision, reveal the area, first nail it, then cut the bone. If it hadn¡¯t been for preoperative training over the 3D model where Yang Ping led everyone, no one would be able to keep up with his pace. Lateral mass screw of the atlas and pedicle screws of the other cervical vertebrates. This is the cervical pedicle screw! If not operated properly, it could damage the vertebral artery and blood would splatter all over the ceiling. There are vertebral arteries around the cervical spine. The root of the vertebral arch is delicate, not as thick as the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae. The insertion of a cervical pedicle screw is a high-risk operation. You need to be top-notch to dare to do it. Most spinal surgery department directors wouldn¡¯t dare touch it. Now Yang Ping was inserting screws like planting beans, one by one, completely ignoring the risks. ¡°My Lord, could you please slow down?¡± Director Han stood watching the screen, his body a little restless, his legs uneasy, repeatedly praying inwardly, swallowing his saliva again and again. Professor Zhang simply brought a stool to sit in front of the screen. Standing while watching was too draining. Watching a surgery can also be a taxing endeavor. This speed was indeed too fast, like performing ¡°Speed and Passion¡± on a crowded street. Wouldn¡¯t anyone who saw it be scared out of their wits? Several cameras captured the operation with different focal lengths and angles, making the view crystal clear. Another osteotomy, using an ultrasonic water knife to cut bone, just like child¡¯s play. Oh my heavens! Young man, slow down, slow down, slow down. One over eighty, one over fifty, none of them had ever seen surgery performed this way. You are doing somersaults on a tightrope. There¡¯s no stopping you. The chief surgeon now operates according to the rhythm in his mind! Osteotomy is complete. Now it¡¯s time to reassemble the cervical spine. This is the most risky step in the whole operation. A slight carelessness can damage the upper spinal cord, and the patient will die directly on the operating table. ¡°Song Zimo, take off your surgical gown and adjust the skull clamp. Zhang Lin Xiaowu, be mindful of the automatic ligature position. Anesthesiologist, pay attention to the patient¡¯s vital signs.¡± At this step, Yang Ping slowed down the pace. For each step, they had practiced on the model before the surgery. Especially, this step, Yang Ping had decomposed Song Zimo¡¯s actions into dozens of steps, how to adjust, and how much to adjust, very precise. Song Zimo took off his surgical gown and gloves and put on a new pair of gloves. Everyone was engrossed in their work. ¡°Are you ready?¡± ¡°Ready!¡± ¡°1, 2, 3, start adjusting.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t need to see how Song Zimo adjusted it. He just needed to watch the movement of the various sections of the spine. Song Zimo adjusted the head clamp while Yang Ping started to correct the spine. They worked in perfect harmony. The sections of the severed spine began to shift in space along the three axes. The spinal cord in the spinal canal was also affected, but Yang Ping had planned this space shift trajectory to be the best, with minimal effect on the spinal cord. In the process of precise displacement along the preset trajectory, no one dared to slack off. Lu Gang¡¯s life was in Yang Ping¡¯s and Song Zimo¡¯s hands. A tiny mistake, and Lu Gang would never leave the operating table. ¡°Stop!¡± The correction of the cervical spine was complete. The physiological curvature was formed, secured by the rod, and the internal fixator locked firmly. The successful completion of cervical spine correction. A big wet patch had formed on Old Han¡¯s back. He let out the breath he had been holding in his chest. Professor Zhang rubbed his eyes. His stool was drenched in sweat. Breaking a sweat just by watching the operation was something neither of them had anticipated. The correction of the cervical spine was complete, and after a brief slow down, the fast-paced operation began again. It¡¯s time to readjust the position and re-sterilize and re-drape. Thoracic and lumbar spine correction: the scoliotic spine will be loosened, reshaped, and restored to the physiological curvature in the form of a double ¡®S¡¯. At this time, not only would it affect the spinal cord but also the organs in the thoracic and abdominal cavities. Though it¡¯s much better than correcting the cervical spine, the risk is still very high. Professor Zhang wanted to take a break. He was too exhausted, both mentally and physically. Seeing that Director Han was also struggling and had brought a stool to sit next to him. The two of them met each other¡¯s gaze but didn¡¯t say a word. As the exposure, pedicle screws are planted like beans. Song Zimo followed Yang Ping¡¯s rhythm. Though lagging behind, it was still considered good. If it were someone else, they most likely wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up at all. Not even if dragged. Several dozens of screws were inserted into the pedicle. Then another osteotomy. This time, Professor Zhang and Director Han felt much more comfortable. They were no longer on tenterhooks. After all, they had survived the most dangerous hurdle. Again, Song Zimo assists. With every correction Yang Ping makes, Song Zimo tightens the internal fixator. They rely on the internal fixator to secure the severed spine in the new position. Step by step, not a single step redundant. A recombination of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae had been done again. When the last screw is tightened. ¡°Imaging!¡± ¡°Should we do a 3D-CT scan and reconstruction right away?¡± Director Han reminded. This was the first time Yang Ping had heard Director Han speak since the operation began. Suddenly, he remembered that Director Han and Professor Zhang were beside him. ¡°Yes!¡± Operation procedures require a postoperative C-arm or G-arm imaging in the operating room. As for CT scan, if conditions allow, it can be done in the operating room. If not, it can be done back in the ward, and later in the radiology department. The waveform on the screen displaying the electrophysiological monitoring of the spinal cord was stable. No abnormal changes occurred. After the imaging was done, it was time for a 3D CT scan and reconstruction. Beautiful! While most people pursue moderate correction, this operation has achieved the restoration of normal physiological ¡®S¡¯ curvature, pushing surgical results to its limit. Each screw was in the best position, and the length and thickness were extremely appropriate. ¡°Wake-up test!¡± Liang Fatty¡¯s anesthesia dose was very precise. Yang Ping told him four hours, and it was four hours. Surgery took three hours, and several times of sterilization and draping took one hour. Slowly, Lu Gang woke up. Preoperatively, Lu Gang had gone through repeated training in this regard. ¡°Move your toes. Yes, up, down, very good!¡± The operation was successful, extraordinarily successful! Chapter 400 - 400 0374 No Top Expert Under the Video ?Chapter 400: Chapter 0374: No Top Expert Under the Video Chapter 400: Chapter 0374: No Top Expert Under the Video For the first time, Lu Gang can lie flat, have a normal person¡¯s view, and stretch his body. According to the sterility rules of the operating room, the patient¡¯s bed can¡¯t be brought in. But this orthopedic bed, after being disinfected, was allowed in the operating room, and Lu Gang was transferred directly from the table to the Orthopedics bed. He lay on the bed, his neck stabilized with a neck brace. Although the upper cervical spine was firmly fixed, a neck brace was still used for safety. The doors of the operating room opened, and Lu Gang was wheeled out with everyone in sterile coats gathered around the bed, pushing it together. Lu Gang¡¯s mother had been waiting outside the door, and the moment it opened, she rushed over. After more than ten years, she finally saw her son¡¯s face clearly. ¡°The surgery is over, and it was very successful. There are still two phases to get through post-op: infection and delayed paralysis.¡± Yang Ping explained to Lu Gang¡¯s mother. This had been mentioned pre-surgery, but it was being repeated as a reminder. Lu Gang smiled at his mother: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be fine. When I wake up from sleep, the doctor will ask me to wiggle my toes. That¡¯s when I¡¯ll know the surgery was successful. When can I eat? I want you to steam five large buns for me.¡± Liang Fatty, steadying the Orthopedics bed, replied: ¡°You can eat six hours from now, but in the next few days, try to eat porridge. You can sit up after three days. If you don¡¯t feel discomfort, you can try getting out of bed and walking. You can eat buns while watching TV.¡± Everyone laughed, and Lu Gang¡¯s mother joined in, but she couldn¡¯t stop tears from rolling down her cheeks. ¡°It¡¯s been hard. Thank you, doctor. Thank you, doctor!¡± His mother, while moving with Lu Gang back to the ward, kept expressing her gratitude. The nurses in the ward were prepared, with thoracic and lumbar braces ready inside. Due to osteoporosis, the reliability of all internal fixation is reduced, hence using braces to protect while standing or walking for some time is safer. The bed was pushed to position number one, the emergency ward closest to the nurse station. A few nurses smoothly connected the oxygen tube, ECG monitor, and positioned Lu Gang¡¯s lower limbs in a slightly hip and knee flexed position. A nurse started instructing Lu Gang¡¯s mother about nursing care, while Dr. Che taught Lu Gang about lower limb muscle training and ankle pump exercise¡ªearly rehabilitation training after joint surgery is critically important. Lu Gang transformed from a twisted state to a normal human being. His cardiovascular and respiratory systems, balance organs, central nervous system, and vision regulation system all needed to adapt anew. Dr. Che employed his scientific rehabilitation knowledge, step by step, helping Lu Gang, who had amassed rich experience in special case rehabilitation in the course of Yu Shuilian¡¯s rehabilitation. The amount of blood lost during the surgery was limited¡ªa total of 140ml. The prepared autologous blood transfusion system, suspended red blood cells, and frozen plasma did not need to be used. Shorter surgery times resulted in shorter exposure and reduced chances of infection. Considering the short half-life of prophylactic antibiotics, second-generation cephalosporins were used; Yang Ping instructed a dose of post-op antibiotics for Lu Gang. Only when there is no infection, no occurrence of delayed spinal injury, will the surgery truly be considered successful. None of these steps can be neglected. ¡ª Professor Zhang and Director Han remained in the dressing room, their emotions yet to calm completely; they hadn¡¯t fully recovered from the shock yet. Driving so fast in a street full of people, but Yang Ping managed to weave between them all. Between the two, they had over eighty years of medical experience, but neither could withstand such stimulation. Schumacher was an award-winning Formula 1 racer, but even he would likely be unable to endure the thrill of a car racing at 360 kilometers per hour in the busy streets of Berlin. ¡°This joker, my clothes are drenched.¡± ¡°Way too fast, it¡¯s frightening! Especially during neck osteotomy, particularly the upper cervical area. That¡¯s a death trap. I can¡¯t believe he dared to go so fast.¡± ¡°Pedicle screws in the cervical spine, placed like planting beans, one every ten seconds. It¡¯s terrifying. Just a slight deviation can damage the vertebral artery in the transverse foramen, causing severe bleeding.¡± A few ¡®tops¡¯ internationally have had such a case, where damaging the vertebral artery on the operating table led to the loss of over twelve liters of blood in half an hour. If not for blood transfusion and autologous reinfusion, the patient could not have survived. ¡°None of the screws were off.¡± ¡°How dare he correct and not reserve any leeway.¡± ¡°He calculated the deformation of the spine along with the corrective shaping, viewing the sequence of the shaping and osteotomy sites. While shaping, the deformation of the spine was accurately dispersed, reducing injuries to the minimum. This guy is meticulous when it comes to surgical planning.¡± ¡°Director Han, I am too old for this, my heart is still racing. Don¡¯t inform me of such a surgery in the future; I will just review the X-rays after the operation.¡± ¡°I showed Professor Feng the X-rays.¡± ¡°What did he say?¡± ¡°He said there¡¯s an 80% chance.¡± Professor Zhang nearly jumped off his chair, looking at Director Han. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right, he said 80%. I also thought I had heard it wrong. I confirmed it. It¡¯s 80%, meaning there¡¯s an 80% chance of success.¡±Director Han clarified. ¡°I need to visit Mo Sixth. Have someone cover my outpatient shift. 80%, why hesitate? If not for this tumor, the old Feng can live another five or ten years. Why wait?¡± ¡°Should I go with you?¡± ¡°Yes, Director Han. At this time, you should see him. It¡¯s been more than ten years; I guess he wouldn¡¯t decline.¡± ¡°Perhaps.¡± Chapter 401 - 401 0374 No Top Expert Under the Video_2 ?Chapter 401: Chapter 0374: No Top Expert Under the Video_2 Chapter 401: Chapter 0374: No Top Expert Under the Video_2 ¡°Go on with your work. I need some quiet time,¡± said Professor Zhang, wanting to take a break. Director Han disagreed, ¡°Better you go back to the department.¡± Professor Zhang stood up, bent over and tapped his knees, ¡°Are you afraid I¡¯ll have a heart attack here alone and no one would notice?¡± ¡ª After the live surgery, the video was stored on the website, but none of the judges gave real-time scores, collectively silent. The comment section was also eerily quiet, as if the surgery video from Sanbo Hospital didn¡¯t exist. Eventually, a doctor dared to post, ¡°Is there anyone here? If so, respond. This silence is weirdly scary.¡± Another one, who had been silent for too long, didn¡¯t dare to speak, always waiting for someone else to start, but no one was leading the discussion. ¡°Did the patient come out of the surgery alive?¡± The doctor asked. He actually knew the answer but he just wanted to ask, fearful that he may have seen a different video. ¡°Post-surgery examination shows normal toe movement in both feet. After the anesthesia wore off and the tubes were removed, the chief surgeon spoke with the patient, and the patient moved. This should mean he survived right?¡± Another doctor replied uncertainly. ¡°Any spine specialists here? Can you explain? I don¡¯t understand. Is this surgery, completed in one go, taking four hours, with perfect correction shown in the X-ray, high-level expertise?¡± There were many top-tier figures in the comment section of the website, but everyone was anonymous, so no one knew each other¡¯s real identities, which made commenting more relaxed and free. ¡°No ¡®big shots¡¯ here. As an experienced spine surgeon, I have some experience with scoliosis corrections. If I¡¯m wrong, please correct me. Four-hour surgery, including several position changes and disinfections throughout, the actual surgery lasted over three hours. The pace was fast, but I¡¯ve watched the video repeatedly. It¡¯s more suitable to watch at a slower speed. The entire surgical procedure was smooth, with clear rhythm, no steps were missed. The post-op images show perfect correction without any flaws, achieved all at once. The patient was conscious post-op, limbs were moving normally, strength was reported as normal, at least alive, not paralyzed. In recent years, I¡¯ve been reading journals, attending international conferences regularly, and I cannot think of anyone, domestic or international, who could perform at this level. Perhaps it¡¯s my narrow perspective. If there were any doubts, it would be about the authenticity of the video itself.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t understand the surgical process, but I know the result was good. There were no unnecessary or useless movements in the surgery. Is there video editing?¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t the knee multi-ligament reconstructions previously said to be from New York Special Orthopedics Hospital? Now you¡¯re suspecting video editing again?¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t everyone think it¡¯s unbelievably fast? It¡¯s so unbelievable that you have to doubt it.¡± ¡°I recommend the organizing committee intervene, check the video, track this case, and hold off on scoring.¡± The comment section gradually came back to life, beginning to become active again. In the beginning, everyone was startled. It seemed like they understood what they saw, but dared not confirm their understanding, their hearts trembling, temporarily losing their ability to comment, reluctant to speak freely for fear of being deemed idiotic. ¡°The surgery is not simply a matter of speed, it contains a high degree of technical complexity, maximally dispersing spinal deformation. The design for correction was ingenious. The correction of malformations whilst actively dispersing deformation stress is clearly a progressive concept compared to the traditional surgeries passively adjusting to spinal deformations. This also gave the chief surgeon confidence to complete the procedure in one go. The surgery was elegant, swift and so fast that by the end I was soaked.¡± ¡°Finally, everyone¡¯s talking. I need to take a moment, my hands are still a bit shaky, uncontrollable.¡± ¡°I just stood up and realized I¡¯d left a large damp patch on the chair. Secretly took a sniff ¨C there¡¯s no smell of urine.¡± ¡°I have nitroglycerin cream in my hand. Currently asking a cardiologist if I should consume one, suffering from chest tightness and discomfort in the precordial area.¡± ¡°Call the Chest Pain Center immediately! Don¡¯t hesitate!¡± ¡°I¡¯m watching the slow-motion replay and have watched it more than ten times already. It¡¯s thrilling.¡± ¡°Did anyone experience jaw dislocation?¡± ¡°My Department Director said he watched the whole thing with a tight clutch on his chest. My palms are really sweaty.¡± ¡°Will the fast speed of the surgery result in a point deduction?¡± ¡°There are no rules against speed. They didn¡¯t miss a single step. They perfectly executed each point awarded. If I could finish it in four hours, should I deliberately drag it out to over twenty hours?¡± ¡°What do we do? Did Song Yun from Xiehe lose?¡± ¡°I guess he lost.¡± ¡ª In the meeting room of Xiehe Orthopedics, everyone was gathered, the atmosphere was dense. The meticulous Xiehe, played Yang Ping¡¯s surgical video in slow motion, then broke it down and studied each step. They had even made surgical animation demonstrations to help understand the surgery. This was not arrogance, not self-centeredness, not recklessness, not treating lives lightly. It was a meticulously planned and executed operation that was impeccable in every way. Whether it was the design of the macro-steps or the handling of the details, everything was flawless. The technical content hidden in this surgery has already broken through the highest level of similar surgeries. ¡°The design of several orthopedic parts is not simply for correcting deformities, but also for considering the dispersion of spinal deformations. This is where the core technology of the chief surgeon lies, no one besides him can precisely achieve this dispersion of spinal deformations.¡± ¡°The rectification of the cranial base cervical vertebrae has entered the realm of truly precise medicine. Look at the cooperation between the assistant and the chief surgeon, the breaking down of their movements. Their movements are precise to millimeters, they must have practiced together countless times.¡± ¡°The surgery is performed very skilfully, with a strong rhythm. This surgery, no matter who does it, will not dare to do it all at once, let alone fully correct the deformity. The combined operation time would probably take about twenty hours.¡± Through the screen, Song Yun felt a huge pressure that left him feeling breathless, despairing and cold. In the second season competition, Yang Ping only had this one surgery. Having lost the competition just as the surgery began, Song Yun found it hard to accept. His heart was chilled, and any remedial measures were futile. Even if there was another surgery similar to Yang Ping¡¯s and he was given ample preparation time, he couldn¡¯t handle it. Even if he were to manage it by force, he wouldn¡¯t be able to do it as smoothly and skillfully. ¡°Put together a finite element analysis model of the relationship between spinal correction and spinal deformation in this surgery. Director Hu! After the competition, lead a team to Sanbo in Nandu and learn from them about spinal correction.¡± Professor Liang, the director of Xiehe Orthopedics, said seriously. ¡°Professor Liang?¡± Professor Hu Guolin, the deputy director of Orthopedics, gently objected. The dignified Xiehe, how can it be possible to submit to others? It¡¯s always been people coming to us for advancement learning. If we go out, we would go to top-tier foreign hospitals. Song Yun and others also looked at Professor Liang expectantly, hoping for him to take back his words. Professor Liang¡¯s face changed, ¡°Professor Hu, stand up, repeat Xiehe¡¯s motto to me.¡± ¡°Precision, Excellence, Diligence, Dedication.¡± Professor Hu stood up and recited fluently. ¡°That¡¯s right, you keep that in mind, but sadly you haven¡¯t understood it. I always remind everyone to learn from teachers, textbooks, colleagues, experiences, and lessons.¡± Professor Liang¡¯s voice was raised, echoing in the meeting room. ¡°What does excellence mean? In front of such an excellent doctor and such a rare case, instead of thinking about how to learn, you care about your pathetic vanity. I want to ask all of you, next time we treat such a patient, can you do it like this? Complete the surgery in four hours, correct it to a physiological curve, with only a hundred and forty milliliters of blood loss?¡± Professor Liang sat upright on his chair, looked around, and everyone rose to their feet. ¡°You don¡¯t want to go? Fine, I will. I¡¯ll go and learn, then teach you.¡± Professor Liang stood up to leave. ¡°Professor Liang, we will go. We didn¡¯t say we wouldn¡¯t go.¡± Professor Hu bowed his head and said awkwardly. Professor Liang sat down again, ¡°I always say, as doctors, our learning is never-ending. Never become complacent. We are dealing with the diversity of human bodies, unique life systems, no effort is too much.¡± ¡°Song Yun, show your Xiehe spirit. Even if you are eliminated, we will continue to do every surgery meticulously. Don¡¯t care about people¡¯s comments. If you have a learning attitude, there will be no losers in this competition, everyone is a winner. If not for the competition, how would you know that there are people beyond you?¡± ¡°Elimination is a given. I couldn¡¯t turn the tide even if I went on stage. Exit the competition with the dignity of an outstanding surgeon. Xiehe, with its hundred-year history, should have its own elegant and confident posture.¡± Professor Liang¡¯s words deeply moved Song Yun, ¡°Director, I understand. I will treat every surgery tomorrow as if it was the first one. After the competition, I am willing to go to Sanbo for learning.¡± ¡°Good that you understand, you are all excellent surgeons. In tomorrow¡¯s surgery, I will personally support you from the sidelines. There is no winning or losing, the only thing is that every surgery must be done with full effort.¡± Professor Liang stood up, everyone immediately snapped to attention, watching as he walked out of the meeting room with a robust stride. Chapter 402 - 402 0375 Like a Fish Bone Stuck in the Throat ?Chapter 402: Chapter 0375: Like a Fish Bone Stuck in the Throat Chapter 402: Chapter 0375: Like a Fish Bone Stuck in the Throat On the fourth day after surgery, with the assistance of a support frame for his neck and chest along with a walker, Lu Gang began to walk on his feet again. When Lu Gang first got on his feet, he felt dizzy, his vision wobbled, and he felt nauseous and even vomited. His limbs were uncoordinated, but he gradually began to adapt to the new state of being upright, after being twisted for so long. The young man now stood up straight, as tall as 1.7 meters, with a shaved head, looking energetic. Dr. Che remained by his side, matching Lu Gang step by step, ready to lend a helping hand at any moment, and continually correcting Lu Gang¡¯s stride. When Nurse Cai encountered Lu Gang in the hallway, she joked with him, ¡°Didn¡¯t you want to find a wife? Take a walk around and see our nurses. If you like any, I can help you make a connection.¡± Lu Gang just smiled and greeted everyone. Previously, his field of view was upside down and very limited, masked by his own buttocks. Now, he stood tall and found a wide open space before him. Yang Ping checked on him at least three times a day, examining the sensation and muscle strength of his limbs, as well as conducting auscultation of his heart and both lungs. If any postoperative complications arose, he would deal with them immediately. The scores for Yang Ping¡¯s surgery were finally announced. According to the competition rules, the scores had to be given within 24 hours after surgery. However, the surgery was so unique that the judges had to review the video in slow motion. Each step had to be analyzed in detail and studied repeatedly, and occasionally they had to seek opinions from senior professors. As a result, being a special case, the scores were only announced four days later, and all the judges¡¯ scores were announced together. It was clear that all the judges had communicated and coordinated with each other. Full score, full score, full score¡ª Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Many of Yang Ping¡¯s fans had been on tenterhooks for the past four days, as the surgery was so quick. They worried that some judges might not have understood it well and hastily given a low score. Now, with the string of full scores revealed, everyone was relieved. In a national competition, it is very difficult to get a full score, and it becomes even harder as the contest progresses. Song Yun from Xiehe Hospital in Beijing, maintained the quality of an excellent surgeon. Even when he had no hope of winning, he painstakingly completed his contest surgery. Every detail, every step, was carried out without any slack or crudeness, but instead with utmost diligence and thoroughness. Even the last stitch for skin closure was done extraordinarily strictly without any deviation. The needle holder was gently placed in the sharp instrument disposal container, and the skin at the incision line was disinfected with an alcohol swab. The sterile dressing was applied neatly and smoothly over the surgical incision. The contest between Yang Ping and Song Yun concluded, and Song Yun got stopped in the second season competition. ¡ª- After a full day of tense surgeries, the doctors at Mo Sixth Orthopedics gathered to watch Yang Ping¡¯s surgical video. They didn¡¯t move for the full four hours of the video. Finally, at eleven o¡¯clock in the evening, they finished watching the video and were now ready to watch it a second time in slow motion. The takeaway meals ordered by the department were already delivered to the resting room, but no one stood up. They were all waiting for Professor Hong to speak. Wen Rentao felt like a fishbone was stuck in his throat, and Mu Jun could only stare in disbelief. They were both deputy chief physicians, capable of understanding the surgical video without slow motion¡ªthey were aware that this level of surgery had completely surpassed the pinnacle of their peers. Wen Rentao could not do it, and he did not believe that anyone else could, until he saw it. If there was no problem with the video, Yang Ping had accomplished it. The organizing committee had issued a statement in response to everyone¡¯s doubts: the videotape was found to be without any problems after technical inspection, and was an automatic archive after live broadcasting. ¡°Does anyone have any thoughts?¡± Finally, Professor Hong began to speak. His shirt and white gown outside were already soaked with sweat. He felt heavy in his chest and was very uncomfortable. He reached for a bottle of mineral water, but his hands were trembling a bit, and he failed to unscrew it several times. ¡°At last year¡¯s academic conference of Sanbo, he was exactly like this. He was calm and composed. More than a hundred complex blood vessels were separated, clamped, cut, and ligated under his hands at an astonishing speed. If I hadn¡¯t seen it with my own eyes, I would never believe that surgery could be performed like that.¡± The video was playing in slow motion for the second time, and Zeng Ran broke the silence, extending Professor Hong¡¯s words. ¡°Is this Yang Ping a student of Professor Han?¡± For the first time in over a decade, Hong Zhigang mentioned Han Jiangong in front of the department doctors. Zeng Ran nodded: ¡°He is Professor Han¡¯s doctoral student. The primary surgeon of the five-section replantation last year, the multiple ligament reconstruction of Luo Jin¡¯s knee, and the devilish surgery at the Sanbo academic conference, he was the chief surgeon for them all ¡ª¡± At this point, there was nothing left to consider. It must have dawned on everyone. Zeng Ran has been reminding everyone that Yang Ping is the strongest contender for the championship this time, but no one paid any attention to him. Hong Zhigang now realized more clearly than anyone else that if this Yang Ping maintains the standard seen in the current surgery for the following ones, no one can compete with him for the championship. He now understood that under the leadership of his junior fellow, a group of powerful young people had gathered. The young man signaled to him in this way that even without Mo Sixth, he was still the strongest, and the Golden Knife Award belonged to him. ¡°Sanbo performs fewer than fifty scoliosis correction surgeries each year. How could he possibly have such skills? Are the stats wrong?¡± Mu Jun struggled to understand how Yang Ping acquired such powerful surgical skills. ¡°The stats shouldn¡¯t be wrong. After obtaining his master¡¯s degree, Yang Ping worked at the People¡¯s Hospital of G City. According to legend, he was fired for performing unauthorized surgery, and then somehow he was recruited by Professor Han. Professor Han cherished and nurtured him, and he obtained his PhD under Professor Han with nearly full scores. Although he is currently a newly promoted attending physician, he has already become the actual academic leader in the comprehensive orthopedics of Sanbo.¡± Zeng Ran had studied Yang Ping for a long time and in fact, he was somewhat an admirer of Yang Ping¡¯s work. But because of his status, he never openly admitted this fact. ¡°Cross-boundary surgery, dismissal, what does that mean?¡± Wen Rentao began to inquire. ¡°There was a trauma surgery, a variant external iliac artery rupture, hypovolemic shock. Their department head was helpless at that time. In urgent circumstances, Yang Ping served as the chief surgeon and saved the patient. However, the hospital later believed that Yang Ping violated disciplines, hence the cross-boundary surgery, which resulted in his dismissal.¡± Zeng Ran had heard about all these, but was not sure about the authenticity of the facts. ¡°A young man with guts and knowledge, managed to save the patient, so why the dismissal?¡± Hong Zhigang asked. Zeng Ran couldn¡¯t come up with a reason, ¡°As for the details, I¡¯m not sure. But I heard that the hospital politics were complex, and the hospital¡¯s dean and the head of orthopedics were later dismissed due to financial issues.¡± ¡°Has he never undergone advanced training abroad?¡± Wen Rentao added. Zeng Ran smiled, ¡°Advanced training abroad? He had never even received advanced training domestically. After leaving G City People¡¯s Hospital, he has always been at Sanbo. He hasn¡¯t gone anywhere else and just last year, before his thirtieth birthday, he was promoted to attending physician.¡± Hearing about this attending physician who was not yet thirty, Wen Rentao, who himself was thirty-eight, didn¡¯t know whether to laugh or cry. ¡°His assistant Song Zimo had completed his clinical training at our Trauma Emergency Center and Orthopedics Department.¡± Zeng Ran added this information for Professor Hong. ¡°Song Zimo?¡± Professor Hong did not recall this individual; there were too many doctors undergoing clinical training every year. ¡°He¡¯s an eight-year Ph.D. from Fudan University. He was originally conducting clinical training at Huashan Hospital, but because of his chronic phobia of blood, they proposed transferring him to the Department of Internal Medicine. He used his connections to arrange our training instead.¡± Zeng Ran was quite familiar with Song Zimo¡¯s circumstances. ¡°It seems I recall this individual. Why didn¡¯t we keep him here afterwards?¡± Professor Hong seemed to remember. ¡°Professor, at that time you also wanted to send him back, but a senior leader from Jiaotong University Medical School involved himself, merely allowing us to reluctantly keep him on board.¡± Zeng Ran spoke smoothly, but once he had finished, he realized he had said something he shouldn¡¯t have. Hong Zhigang did not get angry, but after recalling for a while, asked,Sagely ¡°The young man who faints at the sight of blood, who had to brace himself against the wall to walk ¨C that tall, impressive fellow?¡± ¡°That¡¯s him!¡± Zeng Ran confirmed. ¡°Is it?¡± Hong Zhigang narrowed his eyes. ¡°Song Zimo also has the ability to challenge the champion, but Yang Ping is just too strong. He can only play a supporting role. Fortunately, our senior disciple in the first season is not facing Song Zimo, otherwise the promotion would be fraught with risks.¡± Zeng Ran had said something wrong again, but Professor Hong¡¯s face remained the same without any difference. Hong Zhigang slowly said, ¡°Let¡¯s stop here for today, everyone should rest early, we will have another meeting tomorrow¡ª¡± As he spoke, Hong Zhigang got a call. Professor Feng¡¯s condition in the ICU worsened; his heart rate and breathing suddenly decreased and he needed tracheal extubation for ventilatory support. Hong Zhigang didn¡¯t have time to say more, he hurriedly departed and ran to the ICU. Professor Feng lay in bed, breathing laboriously. In an attempt to speed up his breathing and inhale more oxygen, he couldn¡¯t keep up with it. ¡°Teacher, it¡¯s me ¨C Zhigang!¡± Hong Zhigang bent down to the bedside, with one hand taking Professor Feng¡¯s pulse and the other hand touching his forehead, trying to keep him as calm as possible to avoid panic. ¡°It¡¯s okay¡ªI won¡¯t¡ªdie yet. Did¡ªJiangong¡ªcome?¡± Professor Feng was speaking in broken sentences. He had probably heard the ICU doctors and nurses discussing that Han Jiangong had been over a few times but hadn¡¯t come in. He had stood for a long time in the observation corridor, separated by a glass window. At that time, Professor Feng relied on a ventilator to remain conscious and did not know anything. Hong Zhigang hesitated for a moment: ¡°Teacher, Jiangong has been here.¡± ¡°Let him come in!¡± Professor Feng struggled to speak. ¡°Teacher, he was here last month and has now returned.¡± Hong Zhigang knew that his junior fellow apprentice had come several times, and the last time he had gone to the radiology department to copy his teacher¡¯s information. ¡°Oh, next time Jiangong comes, let him in. I want to see him.¡± Professor Feng looked at Hong Zhigang, waiting for his response. Hong Zhigang nodded his head: ¡°Mm, I will remember.¡± ¡°Professor Hong, Professor Feng¡¯s respiratory rate has dropped again, and he needs help from the ventilator, we¡¯re prepared for intubation.¡± The ICU doctor was already prepared and wearing gloves. Hong Zhigang let go of his teacher¡¯s hand: ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid, everything is okay, just like it was last time.¡± The ICU doctor administered a sedative through an intravenous line to make the old man unconscious. They reclined Feng¡¯s head, provided oxygen by mask for a few seconds, then removed the mask, propped open the oral cavity, inserted the laryngoscope, quickly inserted the catheter, connected the ventilator and fixed the catheter. His respiratory rate was too low and the oxygen saturation level would not rise. We have to put him on a ventilator.¡± The ICU doctor explained to Hong Zhigang, this was the second time to put him back on the ventilator. After Hong Zhigang¡¯s friends from the United States returned, they needed to discuss with their colleagues, hoping to bring good news when they came next time. If they still can¡¯t come up with a plan by then, they really can only give up on the surgery. Chapter 403 - 403 0376 Full of Twists and Turns ?Chapter 403: Chapter 0376: Full of Twists and Turns Chapter 403: Chapter 0376: Full of Twists and Turns In Director Han¡¯s office, Professor Zhang, Director Han and Yang Ping are discussing Professor Feng¡¯s condition. ¡°Yang Ping, this is Director Han¡¯s mentor, Academician Feng Tiancheng of Mo Sixth, he has been put on a ventilator for the second time,¡± Professor Zhang told Yang Ping. Director Han¡¯s teacher, that would make him Yang Ping¡¯s grandteacher. Professor Feng Tiancheng, Yang Ping certainly knows him. Anyone in orthopedics in China would know Academician Feng for his significant contributions to Orthopedics. ¡°In five days, there¡¯s a consultation meeting, perhaps the last to discuss Professor Feng¡¯s situation. Director Han and I are going to Shanghai. You should also come with us after sorting out your work,¡± Professor Zhang arranged on behalf of Director Han. He planned to take Yang Ping to Shanghai for case discussion. Since there is an eighty percent chance, Professor Zhang must strive for Academician Feng. Sometimes Director Han might feel impotent due to his complicated relationship, but Professor Zhang could act without inhibitions. In the second season of surgeries, Yang Ping demonstrated all types of surgeries with one operation. The third season won¡¯t start until two weeks later, so he didn¡¯t have anything significant on hand at the moment. Even if it weren¡¯t his grandteacher, but an ordinary person, Yang Ping would feel duty-bound to help. The difficulty of this operation was too high. Yang Ping had already performed many similar cases in the system space, and in each case, the heartbeat would stop during the operation. These sudden cardiac arrests during the operation were caused by disturbances to the respiratory circulatory center during the operation. Because there was a ventilator performing mechanical ventilation during the operation, respiratory arrest wouldn¡¯t appear on the surface. But sudden cardiac arrest could be reflected. Some of these could be resuscitated, while others could not. After accumulating a large number of cases and performing in-depth pathological autopsies on deceased cases, Yang Ping was able to continuously improve the success rate, but still, about twenty percent of the cases could not be rescued. What was deadly was that in these cases, the heart stopped beating more than once during the operation, some as many as a dozen times¡ªmeaning that the heart would stop, be resuscitated, then stop again, requiring another resuscitation. This operation required a prone position. If cardiac arrest occurred, defibrillation would be needed, and defibrillation could only be performed in the prone position. Normal defibrillation is done in the supine position. Defibrillation in the prone position has a lower success rate than in the supine position. If the patient¡¯s position is changed during the operation, it could easily cause injury to the upper spinal cord and medulla oblongata, resulting in the patient¡¯s death during the turnover. There have been such cases in cranial base upper cervical spine surgery. During combined anterior and posterior surgeries, the patient died from injuries to the upper spinal cord or medulla oblongata during turnover. ¡°Yang Ping, at that time, I will let you speak. Prepare a draft and think about how to convince those big shots, including several Americans from Mayo Clinic, Twin City Spine, and Anderson Cancer Center.¡± Professor Zhang instructed Yang Ping. He didn¡¯t doubt Yang Ping¡¯s eighty percent confidence, he was just concerned that he would not be able to persuade the many top experts when the time comes. After all, the success rate he quoted was far different from the success rate currently reported. If it wasn¡¯t for their regular interaction and deep understanding of Yang Ping, no one would believe what he said. They would all think he was talking nonsense. Even Professor Zhang and Director Han, who had spent so much time with him, found it hard to believe when they saw Lu Gang¡¯s surgery. If they hadn¡¯t seen it with their own eyes, they wouldn¡¯t have believed it. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I will find a way to convince them when the time comes. They are all top experts in the field, communication should not be a problem.¡± Yang Ping was completely confident. These were all world-leading experts, the strongest team in the world to treat such diseases. However, Yang Ping felt that they wouldn¡¯t be of much help with Professor Feng¡¯s disease. Cases like this are considered no-go areas for surgery. The removal of tumors slightly damages or stimulates the breathing circulation centre, causing the heart and breathing to stop. It¡¯s like writing on a soap bubble ¨C a slight stimulus causes the soap bubble to burst. Because the risk of such cases is too high and the chance of success is almost impossible, there is very little surgery performed. This creates a vicious cycle where fewer surgeries means doctors can¡¯t gain experience. Without experience, there¡¯s no way to improve surgical methods or outcomes. These world-leading experts are no different, there are far too few cases they can operate on. In the system space, a large number of experimental bodies allows Yang Ping to perform surgeries without restraint. After failure, he could dissect and study the experimental body to find the cause of the failure, which is why he had eighty percent confidence. Upon hearing Professor Zhang¡¯s words, Director Han was a bit troubled: ¡°Is this appropriate?¡± Director Han¡¯s relationship with his teacher and senior fellow student has been rather tense for over a decade. This time his teacher fell ill, Director Han just stealthily peeked from the visiting corridor through the glass. For many years, he had no communication with Hong Zhigang, merely exchanging polite smiles when they bumped into each other at academic conferences. Director Han really wants to save his teacher¡¯s life but could never find a way in. Now suddenly, his student was invited to join the consultation meeting for Professor Feng and even set to speak, which caught him a bit off guard. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll arrange this. With me there, Hong Zhigang won¡¯t dare to object,¡± Professor Zhang decided. Director Han could only say, ¡°Okay, we¡¯ll follow your arrangements.¡± ¡°Who other than Yang Ping can perform this surgery now? With an eighty percent chance, are we just going to sit and watch Academician Feng go?¡± Professor Zhang spoke straightforwardly. Yang Ping didn¡¯t know the grudges between Director Han, his teacher, and his senior fellow student, but he could see that Director Han respected Professor Feng very much. When Professor Feng fell ill this time, Director Han made several trips to Shanghai and had been continuously looking for ways to help Professor Feng, indicating that his respect for his teacher was still strong and deep. Chapter 404 - 404 0376 Full of Twists and Turns_2 ?Chapter 404: Chapter 0376: Full of Twists and Turns_2 Chapter 404: Chapter 0376: Full of Twists and Turns_2 Yang Ping did not want to be concerned with the past grudges and animosities. What mattered most to him was performing the surgery to the best of his ability. Having made that decision, Yang Ping returned to his ward. He checked his system points; Lu Gang¡¯s surgery rewarded him with six hundred thousand points. His point total had increased nearly twofold, rising to over a million points. The principle of the system now was simple: higher risk, higher reward. For a case like Lu Gang¡¯s, a successful surgery could reward him with six hundred thousand points. If the surgery failed, he would lose double his total points. Meaning, not only would his previous balance of five hundred thousand points be wiped out, but he would also owe another five hundred thousand points. Without points, he wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything on the system. He would need to constantly earn points in the real world to repay his debt, regaining purchasing power only when his points balance returned to positive. Yang Ping planned to simulate Professor Feng¡¯s surgery in advance. He entered the system space and spent four hundred thousand points to purchase four hundred simulated surgery hours. The tumour was located too deeply, intertwined with normal tissues and embedded inside the respiratory cycle hub. Despite repeated simulations, Yang Ping could only improve the success rate of the surgery by ten percent, bringing it up to ninety percent. Any further improvement seemed impossible. The surgery became more stable as it progressed. Initially, the experimental subject would experience eighteen cardiac arrests. Gradually this number decreased and eventually remained at five, unable to decrease any further. Professor Feng¡¯s operation was bound to be eventful, with five instances of cardiac arrest occurring during the procedure. It was a terrifying prospect. In order for the surgery to have a ninety percent success rate, specific external conditions were required. For instance, the room temperature had to be 25 degrees Celsius. Any fluctuation in temperature would reduce the success rate. During the prone position, the fixed angle of the neck had to be at a specific value. Any deviation would also decrease the surgery¡¯s success rate. Yang Ping also attempted to use a surgical robot. However, compared to traditional methods, robotic surgeries had a much lower success rate because the robotic arm lacked a good tactile feedback system, and couldn¡¯t accurately gauge the force needed. It was like trying to write on a soap bubble using the remote-controlled arm of a surgical robot. Its high precision and stability didn¡¯t provide any advantage. Without a good tactile feedback, the robot would burst the soap bubble without knowing the appropriate pressure. Utilising almost all possible optimizations, the probability of the surgery¡¯s success was stuck at ninety percent, unable to increase further. Four hundred hours of simulated surgery improved the success rate by ten percent. Professor Zhang¡¯s assistant, Xiao Mo, sent a WeChat message asking for Yang Ping¡¯s ID number to book flight tickets to Shanghai for the three of them. Yang Ping went to the laboratory to inform Song Zimo that he was planning on going to Shanghai in a few days and asked him and Xu Zhiliang to look after things. Upon learning that Yang Ping was going to Shanghai, Fujiwara Miyuki was very excited. She wanted to accompany him on the trip. Yang Ping tactfully refused. Miyuki was a girl and if she accompanied him, even if Xiao Su was broad-minded, it might arouse suspicion. Besides, this was a personal matter for Director Han. He didn¡¯t want to bring anyone else along. ¡°I can carve a letter now,¡± Miyuki asked Yang Ping to check the carvings to see if they were satisfactory. Yang Ping glanced at it casually; a nicely etched ¡°L¡± on the olive pit. It was neat and tidy, a marked improvement from the initial awkward strokes. Song Zimo knew that Yang Ping was going to Shanghai for Professor Feng¡¯s condition. He reassured him to accompany Professor Zhang and Director Han without worrying, as he and Xu Zhiliang would handle things in the department. In the corridor, Huang Jiahui, with an eco-friendly bag in her hand, was seen hurrying around. She appeared more mature and skilled than when she first graduated, with no traces of her initial innocence and naiveness. ¡°Doctor Yang!¡± Sweat lined Jiahui¡¯s forehead as she respectfully greeted Yang Ping. In this period, Yang Ping hadn¡¯t seen Huang Jiacai, so he asked, ¡°Where¡¯s your brother? Why haven¡¯t I seen him lately?¡± ¡°He has been really busy lately. His company is planning to expand its business volume in the South China region, so he has been out and about constantly,¡± Jiahui explained on her brother¡¯s behalf. Right now, Huang Jiacai and Gan Fengyi were fiercely competing for market share, stirring up huge waves in the orthopedic device market in South China. The Director of the Municipal People¡¯s Hospital, the Department Director of Orthopedics, the Director of Dispensary, and Instrument Director were all replaced with new faces. The suppliers of orthopedic devices had to reshuffle their deck. In the fight for this market, Huang Jiacai and Gan Fengyi were competing tooth and nail, leaving no room for other medical device retailers. In order to prepare for its Initial Public Offering (IPO), Ruixing Company aggressively expanded its market share, putting significant pressure on the lower-level sales managers. Huang Jiacai was the most heavily burdened among them. Huang Jiacai adopted a cautious and steady approach, solidifying his dominance in the three biggest strongholds: Sanbo, Fuer, and Li Quan Hospital. Using these as a stepping stone, he was now advancing towards other regional hospitals such as Fuer, Provincial People¡¯s Hospital, and Municipal People¡¯s Hospital. Gan Fengyi, on the other hand, took a defensive approach, holding down her leading position in trauma, spine, and joint segments, and then rallying around the high-end products to attack Huang Jiacai¡¯s old bases: Sanbo, Fuer, and Li Quan Hospital. Huang Jiacai¡¯s weakness was indeed capitalized on by Gan Fengyi. Li Quan Hospital was planning to go high-end and had just passed JIC certification. Some patients specifically demanded imported devices, thus a certain number of imported devices had to be prepared. The services and products offered by Gan Fengyi were superior to several other companies. This reflected in the highly professional training of the technicians, error-proof deliveries, and extended payment periods. Gan Fengyi even promised to provide devices first and receive payment three years later. If that didn¡¯t work out, she was ready to extend the payment period as she was confident in the future of Li Quan Hospital after researching Yang Ping meticulously. This three-year extended period could alleviate the financial pressure on Cheng Liquan. The tangible benefits had forced Boss Cheng to squeeze out the space for other medical device retailers and give it to Gan Fengyi. Due to the relationship between Huang Jiacai and Yang Ping, and the good relationship between Boss Cheng and Huang Jiacai, Boss Cheng could not squeeze Huang Jiacai¡¯s space. Therefore, he reluctantly kicked out the old partner, Shi Lehui, and brought in Gan Fengyi. The fight between the two companies affected the market space of others. Shi Lehui¡¯s space got compressed, leaving other companies in a precarious situation. For the market of Fuer, Professor Su aimed to expand the scale of the Sports Medicine Center. To align with Fuer¡¯s strategy, Gan Fengyi recruited a team of talents nationwide. These young doctors had obtained a bachelor¡¯s degree in clinical medicine and had a fair amount of clinical experience in orthopedics. Some of them were even graduate students. She offered these individuals high salaries and sent them to the United States for training. Upon returning, they would then work exclusively with Fuer, significantly elevating the standard of Fuer¡¯s device fitting services. This hit Huang Jiacai¡¯s weak point. Being a small company, Huang Jiacai didn¡¯t have the resources or the capability to do this. For strategic needs, Professor Su naturally had to reduce the space for other medical device retailers and make room for Gan Fengyi. Of course, Huang Jiacai¡¯s space would be preserved. To tackle Gan Fengyi¡¯s aggressive approach, Huang Jiacai had a smart trick up his sleeve. He established a training department within his company and personally trained the technicians to get certified for work. He not only trained them in their specialized business competence but also meticulously trained them in employee dressing, service etiquette, and service process. This standardized service training made these employees just as competent as those who have been trained in the United States by Johnson & Johnson. For instance, training on how to position oneself in the operating room, how to set up, and the etiquette toward doctors, nurses, and janitorial staff in the operating room, were all standardized. They also received professional training for additional services like operating the C-arm machine, helping nurses clean the operating room, and washing devices. The competition between the two was intense, both overtly and covertly. After chatting with Huang Jiahui for a while, Yang Ping went to visit the wards alone. He conducted sensation and muscle strength tests for Lu Gang¡¯s four limbs, checked the progress of Yu Shuilian¡¯s rehabilitation training, and had a chat with Sisi. Chapter 405 - 405 0377 Second Consultation ?Chapter 405: Chapter 0377 Second Consultation Chapter 405: Chapter 0377 Second Consultation Yang Ping followed Professor Zhang and Director Han to Shanghai, marking his first visit to the city. Previously confined to G City, he had not been to many places. His first notable trip was to Malaysia for the surgery of Guo Jingyao, also known as the Flying Blade. Professor Zhang, a local of Shanghai, upon hearing about Director Han joining Sanbo, decided to end his reappointment at Mo Sixth. He and his wife moved south to Sanbo to help Director Han develop orthopedics at Sanbo Hospital. Professor Zhang had two sons. The elder one studied finance and was now involved in politics in Shanghai, while the younger one studied pharmacology and worked in Europe. Both sons had adamantly refused to become doctors, which Professor Zhang always regretted. The elder son was quite busy, so his grandson picked them up from the airport. Seeing his grandfather coming to Shanghai made him delighted. Being very particular, Professor Zhang insisted on treating Yang Ping to a meal, claiming it was an obligation as a host. So he booked a table at an old Shanghai restaurant for local dishes. After the meal, Professor Zhang booked a five-star hotel closest to Mo Sixth, insisting they stay there. Despite Director Han¡¯s multiple attempts to discourage Professor Zhang, even offering to pay for the hotel, Professor Zhang hotly said, ¡°You all are southerners now, and I host you when you come to Shanghai. Moreover, it¡¯s Yang Ping¡¯s first time here!¡± Director Han had to concede to Professor Zhang¡¯s insistence. The next day, Professor Zhang took Yang Ping to Mo Sixth for Professor Feng¡¯s consultation meeting while letting Director Han rest at the hotel. This was Professor Feng¡¯s last consultation meeting, with several American experts ¡ª Professor John Ansen of the Mayo Clinic¡¯s Neurosurgery, Professor Griffin of the Anderson Cancer Center, and Professor Woodhead of the Twin City Spine Center ¡ªinvited by Hong Zhigang. The ¡®Dream Team¡¯ was again gathered at Mo Sixth for one last effort. Woodhead and Hong Zhigang were close friends. With Woodhead¡¯s help, they managed to invite John Ansen and Griffin. The three professors took Professor Feng¡¯s condition very seriously. Apart from personal relationships, the case was rare and crossed into the forbidden territory of neurosurgery and spinal surgery. Being at the peak of their professions, they were extremely intrigued by such an operation from the forbidden field. Professor Zhang led Yang Ping into the venue, and no one paid much attention, assuming Yang Ping to be Professor Zhang¡¯s assistant. Hong Zhigang didn¡¯t recognize Yang Ping but noticed the young man had a unique temperament, a combination of stability and confidence. According to seniority, Professor Zhang was Hong Zhigang¡¯s senior comrade. Thus, Hong Zhigang didn¡¯t dare to neglect him. Given the relationship between Professor Zhang and Professor Feng, it was like they were family. Dean Chen and Director Peng of the medical department of Mo Sixth also held deep respect for this predecessor, personally leading him to his seat before returning to their own. Everyone present did not find it surprising that Professor Zhang, who had not participated in any previous consultation meetings, attend this one. Looking at the familiar conference room, 15 years later, Professor Zhang attended a major Shanghai consultation again. The fact that the patient was, once again, his own junior, filled him with feelings. With everyone present, they convened around the rectangular conference table, and the consultation meeting could begin, chaired by Director Peng of the medical department. Compared to the last meeting, the three American professors were visibly less active, bringing few new ideas this time. After returning to America, John Ansen organized a small academic salon for this rare case, inviting North America¡¯s most excellent neurosurgeons to participate. No matter how they discussed it, the final opinion was unanimous ¡ª with less than a 1% chance of success, there was no value in carrying out the surgery. Gathering all the advanced technology: Transferring Professor Feng to the United States for treatment, Professor Griffin would use Henry Ford Hospital¡¯s EDGE technology to preoperatively radiate the tumor to achieve shrinkage before heading to the Mayo Clinic. Here, Professor John Ansen would perform the surgery with the assistance of Woodhead. Professor Galan from Johns Hopkins ICU would be responsible for unexpected rescues during the surgery. The surgical team would need to conduct coordinated training three months in advance. Even with these measures, the success rate of the surgery could only theoretically rise to 5%. Professor John Ansen never felt so dejected. ¡°After I went back, I invited North American colleagues to have an in-depth discussion. Unfortunately, by now, this surgery remains our forbidden zone. No breakthrough has been made in the fundamental study of life. This surgery is destined to fail. Even surgeries of the same category, much simpler than this, are filled with risks for us. Rare successful cases are left with severe disabilities. Hong, I respect your sentiments for your teacher, but medicine is rational, you must acknowledge its limits. Unfortunately, your teacher¡¯s condition lies beyond that boundary.¡± After he spoke, Professor John Ansen shook his head, and Professor Griffin, with his sparse curly hair fluttering, sorted his thoughts. ¡°At the Henry Ford Hospital, I have arranged everything, and if you wish, they are always ready to welcome Mr. Feng. Perhaps there might be unexpected effects.¡± Professor Griffin was too tired to speak anymore platitudes of surgical difficulties or minimal hope. His words were just comfort for a friend. Or in Chinese ¡ª doing one¡¯s best. ¡°The surgery can¡¯t avoid harming the vital centers for circulation and respiration, and this is the most fatal part. John Ansen and I attempted surgical simulations using virtual reality technology and, unfortunately, despite multiple attempts, we couldn¡¯t break through the probability described in reports.¡± Having been to China twice without rendering much help, Woodhead felt quite helpless. However, as a doctor, he often encountered such feelings of helplessness. ¡°Director Hong, it seems everyone has the same opinion; what do you think?¡± As the host, Director Peng of the medical department asked Hong Zhigang to make a decision. Hong Zhigang also knew the result of this consultation meeting wouldn¡¯t be different from the last time. This repeated discussion was only to make everyone feel a bit better. ¡°Zhang, what do you think? Any differing opinions?¡± Hong Zhigang turned to Professor Zhang. Since Professor Zhang was present, out of respect, Hong Zhigang sought his opinion. Whether it was experience or seniority, Hong Zhigang would be respectful. Professor Zhang looked around: ¡°What if the success rate of the surgery could reach 80%?¡± His words caught everyone by surprise, prompting renewed attentiveness from the previously weary group. Everyone seemed puzzled by his sudden mention of an 80% success rate. ¡°Old Zhang, I didn¡¯t quite understand,¡± Hong Zhigang asked in embarrassment. Not only Zhigang, but also everyone else, failed to grasp the meaning. ¡°I mean, if this surgery has an 80% success rate, would everyone agree to proceed with it?¡± Professor Zhang felt that he had spoken clearly enough. ¡°Are you talking about Mr. Feng¡¯s surgery? The one we are discussing now?¡± asked John Ansen. Professor Zhang, who has a good command of English, nodded, ¡°Exactly!¡± Everyone was taken aback. They did not find this out-of-place joke funny, given the seriousness of the consultation meeting. John Ansen could not help but laugh: ¡°I apologize for my rudeness. If there was an 80% success rate, we wouldn¡¯t be sitting here with furrowed brows. At this moment, Mr. Feng should be in his ward, smiling and receiving everyone¡¯s post-surgery blessings.¡± The others, including Zhigang, Dean Chen, and Director Peng, found Zhang¡¯s comment inexplicable and wondered why the venerable Old Zhang was making such a confusing statement. However, they didn¡¯t feel it appropriate to interrupt him, assuming that his coherence might be compromised due to old age. ¡°Let¡¯s put aside this amusing topic for now. I apologize for the slight delay! I¡¯d like to show you something.¡± Professor Zhang signaled, and a staff member from Mo Sixth Medical Office immediately approached. ¡°Display the contents of this USB stick to everyone!¡± Professor Zhang handed over a prepared USB stick to the staff member. The staff member quickly ran over to the computer, inserted the USB stick, and began playing a video. The video was of Lu Gang¡¯s entire diagnostic and treatment process, from his admission to the hospital, through the surgery, and to his post-operative recovery. Zhigang quickly recognized it. This was a case from the Golden Knife Award competition held at Sanbo Hospital, wasn¡¯t it? The surgery involved the correction of a spine that was as twisted and deformed as a pretzel ball. ¡°My God!¡± Spinal surgery expert, Woodhead, covered his mouth and promptly stood up. He walked to the end of the conference table to get a closer look at the video. Woodhead crossed his arms and stared at the video. He had never seen such an odd deformity ¨C an intense spinal deformity coupled with bilateral hip and knee joint deformities, causing the patient¡¯s body to twist and turn like a pretzel ball. Next, Lu Gang¡¯s 3D CT reconstruction appeared on the screen, and Professor Zhang instructed the staff member, ¡°Pause it! Enlarge the image to fill the entire screen.¡± The image was instantly magnified to fill the entire screen. ¡°Mr. Woodhead, how would you approach this surgery? How much time would you need?¡± asked Professor Zhang. Woodhaid leaned closer to the screen, silently visualizing the surgery, ¡°This is extremely challenging! It¡¯s like the devil has given us a test. Look at the severe malformation of the base of the skull and the cervical vertebrae. This spinal folding exceeds 180 degrees and it¡¯s spirally deformed as well. The hip joint? The hip joint is practically nonexistent, and the knee joints are also stiff.¡± ¡°If I were to undertake this surgery, it would have to be done in four stages: the first would entail bilateral femoral neck osteotomy, the second would correct cervical vertebrae deformation, the third would correct thoracic and lumbar vertebrae deformation, and the fourth would involve artificial hip and knee joint replacement. It¡¯s really challenging! Visually, my hands are shaking already.¡± ¡°And the duration of the surgery?¡± asked Professor Zhang. Woodhaid stroked his chin, ¡°The first surgery is quite simple and can be completed in one to two hours. The following three surgeries would each take five to six hours. The cumulative time for all the surgeries would be around 16 to 20 hours. The entire procedure would likely span six months.¡± ¡°What if I told you somebody managed to complete the surgery in one go in just four hours, with only 140ml of blood loss, achieving physiological curvature of the spine, and without any post-operative neurological symptoms?¡± Professor Zhang posed this question only to Woodhead, the spinal surgeon. Zhigang had a vague hunch that the young man sitting next to Professor Zhang was none other than Yang Ping from Sanbo. ¡°No¡ª no¡ª no, sir, you should know that I am a spinal surgery specialist. This is my area of expertise. Nobody knows this type of surgery better than I do. Your comments are insulting my profession. Your words today have been too outrageous. I refuse to entertain such pointless humor. Let me be very clear, the kind of doctor you described... does not exist on this planet.¡± ¡°I agree with your sentiment. Please continue the video!¡± Professor Zhang said with a smile. The high-definition video continued to roll on the conference room screen. The four-hour video couldn¡¯t be watched in its entirety, but Woodhead¡¯s eyes remained wide open in astonishment as he stared at the screen, having just finished watching the cervical deformity correction segment. ¡°Stop there for a moment,¡± Professor Zhang stood up and walked over to the screen, ¡°This video lasts four hours. I believe Professor Hong and all the Orthopedics doctors have seen it. In fact, all the Orthopedic surgeons in China have seen it. Don¡¯t doubt the credibility of the video. The surgery was broadcasted live across the country and the video was verified to have no issues. I know Mr. Woodhead is eager to watch the entire four hours of the video, but time doesn¡¯t allow that. Let¡¯s skip to the final result.¡± The 3D reconstruction of Lu Gang¡¯s post-operative CT appeared on the screen. Woodhead took in a deep breath and exclaimed, ¡°A perfect correction, I couldn¡¯t have done it! Completing such a flawless surgery in four hours, I can¡¯t think of anyone who could do that.¡± ¡°So, believe me when I say, there is someone who can achieve an 80% success rate with Professor Feng¡¯s surgery, and that person is the chief surgeon in the video. Today, I have brought him to the meeting, Xiao Yang!¡± Professor Zhang immediately prompted Yang Ping to stand up. Yang Ping stood up and bowed to all the attendees. Chapter 406 - 406 0378 Raise the Right Hand ?Chapter 406: Chapter 0378: Raise the Right Hand Chapter 406: Chapter 0378: Raise the Right Hand So this is Yang Ping? Hong Zhigang¡¯s gaze fell upon Yang Ping. Indeed, the young man had an extraordinary demeanor, his confidence far surpassing that of Wen Rentao. To Hong Zhigang, Yang Ping¡¯s appearance was somewhat sudden. When he first heard about Yang Ping from Zeng Ran, he didn¡¯t pay much attention. Yang Ping entered Hong Zhigang¡¯s field of vision with that recent surgical correction of the twisted spine. This surgery exploded like a high-powered bomb in the orthopedics department of Mo Sixth. His debut was strong and impactful. Back then, Hong Zhigang was somewhat mystified by Yang Ping, the most talented young man under Junior Brother Han, who was now sitting at this conference table. ¡°I¡¯m Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital, I look forward to learning from all of you.¡±. He stood tall, full of vigor, and spoke with humility even as he asserted himself. ¡°This is the chief surgeon from the surgical video earlier, Dr. Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital. Could Dr. Yang explain to us all how Professor Feng¡¯s surgery is to achieve an 80% success rate?¡± The octogenarian Professor Zhang was as charismatic as he was in his youth at academic conferences. Professor Zhang endorsing Yang Ping, bringing him from the south all the way to Mo Sixth. Who dare to contradict them, whether they could pull it off or not? Dean Chen of Mo Sixth, also a big figure in the Shanghai medical community, trembled in the presence of Professor Zhang. He remembered being scolded by Professor Zhang in his youth, leaving traumatic marks on his heart. When he saw Professor Zhang enter the conference room, Dean Chen first made sure his collar was straight before daring to greet him. During the handshake, he bowed and made himself smaller, as though any accomplished person, upon seeing their middle school headteacher, would involuntarily show some deference. John Ansen, a typical American, was very curious about Professor Zhang¡¯s remarks: ¡°I¡¯d be delighted to hear, I¡¯m very interested to know how this young doctor plans to create a miracle.¡± Woodhead, who only saw part of the surgical video, was negotiating in a low voice with the administrative staff about whether a copy of the video could be made. The staff said they needed to ask for Dr. Yang¡¯s permission, but the conference was in progress and Dr. Yang was about to give a speech. They would have to wait until after the meeting to ask. ¡°I haven¡¯t finished watching the surgical video from earlier, but regardless of the procedure, the result of this spinal correction is jaw-dropping. A complete correction, can¡¯t they worry about spinal cord damage? Even for moderate scoliosis, no one has been able to achieve a complete correction. The precise spatial changes of the spine are not to be trifled with. This surgery is already a miracle, and I want to hear how Dr. Yang can create another one.¡± Woodhead raised his hand to demonstrate his support. The Twin City Spine Center is one of the world¡¯s top-tier spine surgery institutions, and Woodhead¡¯s status is self-evident. At this point, all other factors can be ignored by anyone who can truly save their mentor. If this was a little while ago, before Yang Ping performed this spinal correction surgery, Hong Zhigang would never have believed Professor Zhang and Yang Ping¡¯s words. Now, he was at least somewhat convinced, willing to let Professor Zhang and Yang Ping finish their points. Hong Zhigang¡¯s feelings for Professor Feng were not put up for show; he truly respected him like a father figure, teaching not only how to practice medicine, but also how to live as a person. As an orphan who was raised by his aunt and uncle, Hong Zhingang cherished his relationship with his mentor, who was his spiritual belief. ¡°Yang, share your thoughts with everyone.¡± Professor Zhang encouraged him. Yang Ping nodded, handed his USB drive to the staff, and stepped up to the podium in front of the electronic screen with confidence. The staff gave the remote control to Yang Ping. After adjusting slightly, he opened the USB drive and pulled up Professor Feng¡¯s imaging data and surgical blueprint. ¡°Everyone is familiar with Professor Feng¡¯s condition, so I won¡¯t repeat it. Yes, the reported success rate for such cases is less than one percent at the moment. If we combine the most advanced technologies in the world, it¡¯s hard to break five percent. This virtually zero success rate makes surgery an absolute no-go area. All neurosurgeons and spinal surgeons are intimidated and dare not challenge it.¡± ¡°The tumor is in a dangerous location, intertwined and infiltrated with normal tissue. During tumor resection, it¡¯s hard to protect the life center of the upper spinal cord and medulla. During surgery, any intervention or stimulation, not just damage, can cause instant death of the patient.¡± ¡°Comparing this surgery to making an incision on a soap bubble is no exaggeration.¡± After briefly presenting Professor Feng¡¯s imaging data, Yang Ping pulled up his hand-drawn anatomical diagram. ¡°But, with a sufficiently delicate, precise, and careful surgical operation, it is possible to make an incision on a soap bubble.¡± ¡°The minimum cutting precision for this surgery is 0.1 millimeters. The surgical knife needs to navigate between life centers, without more than a 0.1-millimeter deviation at any time. Exceeding this range may cause damage, interfere, or stimulate the life center, leading to death.¡± ¡°The only two surgical knives currently available that can achieve this level of precision are the 0.1-millimeter precision laser surgical knife as a first choice, followed by the 0.1-millimeter blade thickness gold diamond surgical knife.¡± ¡°With the help of these two high-precision surgical knives, I can achieve 0.1-millimeter operating precision throughout the surgery, which is the basis for success.¡± John Ansen was completely absorbed. This young doctor was no exaggerator, his understanding of Professor Feng¡¯s condition was far superior to his own. The anatomical diagram on the screen displayed the tumor in Professor Feng and the surrounding local anatomy in a fine, three-dimensional form, clearer than any image. ¡°I¡¯m curious about this image. Doctor Yang, how did you get it?¡± John Ansen wasn¡¯t aware that there existed such excellent medical illustration software in the world. Yang Ping paused a moment, looking at the image on the screen. ¡°Oh, this is my work. I enjoy expressing anatomic details of cases and surgical procedures through my drawings.¡± His hand-drawn pictures? John Ansen found it difficult to believe; he had never seen such detailed anatomical drawings before. ¡°Exposure, how to expose? The growth of this tumor is complicated and vast, ranging from the superior cervical vertebra to the base of the skull, sprawling and proliferating like tree roots. It not only deeply penetrates into the medulla oblongata and the upper spinal cord, which are vital centers of life, but also intertwines with blood vessels and nerves at the base of the skull.¡± Woodhead found the exposure a seemingly insurmountable problem. Yang Ping opened another image, a drawing of the surgical approach. ¡°The traditional approach can¡¯t fully expose it; it requires the entire posterior attachments of the cervical vertebra to be widely opened from the midline to both sides. The same procedure must be done to the occipital region of the skull, like opening a gate. The entire superior spinal cord and posterior cranium will then be exposed to us,¡± Yang Ping said, pointing to the exaggerated image of the approach. ¡°Is that even possible? That¡¯s madness, Doctor Yang. You are an orthopedic surgeon; the cranial part is the neurosurgeon¡¯s job.¡± Woodhead gazed intently at the image. Yang Ping was unruffled: ¡°At Sanbo Hospital, I am authorized to perform all surgical procedures.¡± ¡°Excuse me for interrupting. Doctor Yang recently successfully rescued a classic ¡®half-man¡¯ patient at Sanbo Hospital. The patient¡¯s entire lower body, below his navel, was crushed by a car, resulting in chaotic injuries to the abdominal organs. Not only did Doctor Yang save this patient, but he also performed reconstructive surgery to reconstruct the patient¡¯s anus and urethra, restoring the patient¡¯s normal bowel and urinary functions. The paper has been written, and it will be published soon. If anyone is interested, you are welcome to visit the Orthopedics Department at Sanbo Hospital, where you will witness miraculous things,¡± Professor Zhang interjected at an opportune moment. The half-body crushed by a car accident was astonishing news, even to those not in trauma surgery. After everyone¡¯s astonishment, Yang Ping continued. ¡°During Professor Feng¡¯s surgery, the patient¡¯s heartbeat will stop several times. It is necessary to perform cardioversion in the prone position, and it must be done quickly; otherwise, it won¡¯t be possible to save the patient.¡± Several occurrences of cardiac arrest during surgery and, yet, they dare to perform it? It seemed like no big deal coming from Yang Ping. John Ansen had a similar understanding; he had simulated the operation using virtual reality technology multiple times, and he encountered similar situations. He was unclear about the cause, and he didn¡¯t know if it was possible to rescue the patient. Virtual reality technology could only simulate basic surgical objectives; it wasn¡¯t capable of fully reproducing the complexity of the human body. The fact that Yang Ping knew there would be several occurrences of cardiac arrest during the operation confirmed John Ansen¡¯s belief in Yang Ping¡¯s words: he was dealing with a top neurosurgery expert. Yang Ping¡¯s statement was very conservative; he only mentioned a few occurrences of cardiac arrest when, in fact, he knew there would be five during the operation. If any episode lasted longer than five seconds, the patient couldn¡¯t be rescued. This was based on the data he had obtained from extensive simulations and anatomical research. Compared to Yang Ping¡¯s method, John Ansen¡¯s virtual reality technique was like the difference between a toy airplane and an actual fighter jet; perhaps it wasn¡¯t even worthy of being called a toy. ¡°Doctor Yang, you are incredible. I¡¯d like to know how you found out that cardiac arrest will happen multiple times during the surgery?¡± John Ansen was curious. He was sure that Yang Ping didn¡¯t possess any virtual reality technology since, at present, his team was the only one with such technology. ¡°By relying on anatomy and physiology, making theoretical deductions. Look, it¡¯s impossible to bypass these dangerous zones when excising the tumor. Heartbeat will cease once you operate here. If surgical precision exceeds 0.1 millimeters, cardiac arrest can¡¯t be rescued, and the patient dies. If you can maintain a precision of 0.1 millimeters, the patient could be saved, but the operation has to be swift¡ªin theory, defibrillation must be carried out within five seconds.¡± Yang Ping had already marked a few inescapable death zones with red circles. ¡°This is the position in which the patient¡¯s head and neck need to be maintained during surgery. There¡¯s a certain requirement for the angle of the body position. If it exceeds or lacks the required angle, the medulla oblongata and the cervical cord won¡¯t be in the optimal position, which will increase the interference with or injury to vital centers during the operation.¡± ¡°And these are the blood vessels of the tumor. One hundred and ninety-four hemostasis points need to be dealt with. It¡¯s essential for the success of the operation; if any blood vessel is mishandled, bleeding will put pressure on the vital centers and lead to death.¡± This was the first time John Ansen had seen such detailed and meticulous surgical planning, where each step was based on anatomical knowledge and an exceptional understanding of medical imaging data for the case. It was as if Yang Ping had already performed a dissection study on the patient. It was incredible. If all these things could be achieved, the success rate of the surgery could genuinely rise to 80%. The most challenging part was maintaining a precision of 0.1 millimeters throughout the surgery. Let alone during surgery, just drawing a straight line freehand with 0.1 millimeter precision is a challenging task in itself. After listening to Yang Ping¡¯s surgical explanation, all those attending the meeting, including the three international masters, Hong Zhigang, Dean Chen, and Director Peng, felt their scalps tingle and their chests tighten. It was like displaying the intricate circuits of a gigantic computer chip. Someone was standing on the stage, explaining how they worked. Also, cardiac arrest would occur several times during the surgery? One occurrence was scary enough, let alone several times. Where do they get the confidence that they can rescue patients from such episodes of cardiac arrest during surgeries? ¡°Gentlemen, I apologize to Doctor Yang and retract my earlier disdain. Now, I believe that Doctor Yang can achieve an 80% success rate. Though this percentage seems exaggerated, I believe in it. If a vote is taking place, I cast a vote in favor,¡± John Ansen raised his hand. Woodhead also raised his hand, ¡°It¡¯s truly amazing. How did you manage to study this case so thoroughly? All my confusions have been cleared. All I want to say is, when the surgery is due, reserve a spectating spot for me. I am the first to apply; no one should try to take it.¡± ¡°What about you?¡± John Anson looked at Griffin, who hadn¡¯t reacted. Griffin touched his bare head. ¡°Gentlemen, are we still in a consultation meeting? Are we sure no comet just flew across the sky? Or are things still entirely normal?¡± ¡°Griffin, we need you to raise your right hand now. We can chat later. I suggest everyone raise their right hands to vote in favor of Doctor Yang as the chief surgeon for Professor Feng¡¯s surgery,¡± John Ansen said, barely able to contain his excitement. As Griffin hesitated, Woodhead walked over and raised his right hand for him. Chapter 407 - 407 0379 Fifteen Years Ago ?Chapter 407: Chapter 0379: Fifteen Years Ago Chapter 407: Chapter 0379: Fifteen Years Ago Director Fu of the Department of Neurosurgery and Director Wei of the Department of Oncology at Mo Sixth Hospital also raised their hands in agreement, and after a moment of consideration, Hong Zhigang also raised his hand in agreement. Seeing that the three main experts at their hospital had raised their hands, Dean Chen and Director Peng also expressed their support, leaving others with no choice but to follow suit. Hong Zhigang, Director Fu, and Director Wei are all major members of Professor Feng¡¯s medical expert group. The three all have doctorates from Europe and America and are experts in top domestic hospitals; Hong Zhigang is also a candidate for the newly added academician. One can get a sense of Yang Ping¡¯s skill level from his surgical plan, even if it is not immediately obvious. Sanbo¡¯s research on surgery for upper cervical spine and brainstem tumors has already placed them at the forefront, both nationally and globally. The professional level that Yang Ping displayed in his surgical explanation just now is far above that of the others, to whom he is genuinely impressive. Given that the old man has been insisting on surgery and now there is an 80% success rate with the full support of the three American experts, there is every reason to strive for it. Professor Feng has already written a power of attorney letter stating that all his medical decisions will be made by Hong Zhigang, and that Hong Zhigang will also sign off on the final surgery. In Hong Zhigang¡¯s opinion, although there is an 80% theoretical probability of success, the actual success rate won¡¯t be that high. Who can guarantee that the surgical operation won¡¯t deviate from an error margin of 0.1 mm throughout the process? A slight tremor of the hand holding the scalpel, and a mistake will occur. There are several continuous operations where cardiac arrest occurs. When it happens once, it needs to be resuscitated once. After the successful recovery, the surgery continues, and then it happens again, and resuscitation is needed again¨C If cardiac arrest occurs several times consecutively and even one time isn¡¯t resuscitated in time, the heart will stop beating forever. The entire tumor not only invades the center of life but also intertwines with base of the skull blood vessels and nerves. A mistake in any place would have unimaginable consequences. However, no matter how high the risk, given the current situation, Hong Zhigang is prepared to throw caution to the wind. Seeing such talent being cultivated by his junior brother Han, Hong Zhigang sighed regretfully in his heart. As he remembered the past, Hong Zhigang let out a sigh and felt a hidden pain in his heart. Fifteen years ago, during a surgery for cervical myelopathy, Hong Zhigang was the chief surgeon and Han Jiangong was the first assistant. When the operation was nearing completion and the post-route window decompression and rod placement had been performed, one of the rods was not fully inserted. At this point, a specialized rod press should be used to push the rod down to the best position. But since the operation was about to end and Hong Zhigang happened to have a periosteal separator in his hand, he didn¡¯t think twice and tried to push the rod down with the periosteal separator for convenience. The periosteal separator slipped on the metal rod and directly scratched towards the exposed cervical dural sac. The force used to push the rod instantly bruised the cervical spinal cord. As the surgery was nearing completion, another assistant was discussing instrumentation issues with operating table, so none of the others noticed this operation, only Han Jiangong did. He wanted to stop it, but it was too late. In his haste, Han Jiangong stretched out his hand to block Hong Zhigang¡¯s wrist, which buffered some of the force of the periosteal separator, although it still bruised the cervical spinal cord. Hong Zhigang was extremely nervous. This kind of mistake could cause quadriparesis. Han Jiangong suggested reporting to Professor Feng, but Hong Zhigang refused. After the surgery, Hong Zhigang privately revealed to the other assistant that Han Jiangong had bruised the cervical cord with the periosteal separator during the surgery, potentially causing quadriparesis. Because Professor Feng had plans to promote Han Jiangong, Hong Zhigang chose to conceal instead of reporting, fearing such a report would be construed as a deliberate smear. This assistant was a junior doctor to Hong Zhigang, who, feeling the severity of the situation and dissatisfaction with Han Jiangong due to the problem of succession, immediately reported to Professor Feng that Han Jiangong had made a mistake during the operation, injuring the cervical cord with the periosteal separator. To get Professor Feng to believe him, the assistant said he had witnessed it all with his own eyes. As expected, the patient developed quadriparesis after surgery. Before surgery, his limbs were only slightly weakened, but now he had full paralysis, which was a big deal. Professor Feng was furious and interrogated each participant in the operation, investigating the process. When he talked to Han Jiangong alone, Han Jiangong did not deny it, nor did he rebut; he admitted that he had made a mistake. A mistake? Using a periosteal separator to push down a rod? Professor Feng slapped Han Jiangong on the spot. Without uttering a word, Han Jiangong resigned and left Shanghai, even giving up the then-ongoing Golden Knife Award competition. At the time, Hong Zhigang merely wanted to use this incident to put his junior brother in difficulty and make him lose the qualification to compete for the position of department director. But he did not expect that he would resign and leave directly. Afterwards, Professor Feng was very disappointed in Han Jiangong, who also became a stranger to his senior brother. Looking back, Hong Zhigang felt extremely ashamed. He had, after all, done something wrong with a guilty conscience, and had been having restless nights for years since. ¡°Since everyone agrees, then let¡¯s decide on the surgery.¡± Hong Zhigang made the decision. Professor Zhang was rather satisfied with Hong Zhigang¡¯s performance, at least he did not let personal grudges obstruct Professor Feng¡¯s treatment. Professor Zhang suggested, ¡°Shall we go see Professor Feng?¡± Since the surgery has been decided, it is a requisite of the consultation process to see the patient before the process. Director Peng immediately contacted ICU to arrange for Yang Ping to see Professor Feng. ¡°Dr. Yang, may I copy your surgical video?¡± Woodhead immediately approached him. Yang Ping readily agreed, and Woodhead immediately took out a hard drive from his bag and handed it to the officer: ¡°Hello, could you help me copy the surgical video onto this hard drive?¡± Zeng Ran and Mu Jun had just finished their surgery and came to find Hong Zhigang. As Wen Rentao was about to compete, Hong Zhigang needed Zeng Ran to assist him with many tasks. Yang Ping? Zeng Ran was surprised to see Yang Ping walking out of the meeting room, surrounded by three American professors. Yang Ping was his idol. Since he saw Yang Ping¡¯s surgery at the academic conference, Zeng Ran had admired him greatly. Now, seeing Yang Ping suddenly made him even more excited, just like a fan encountering his idol star. ¡°Who is this?¡± Mu Jun asked Zeng Ran. ¡°This is Yang Ping from Sanbo¡ª¡± Zeng Ran quickly approached. ¡°Dr. Yang, hello.¡± Zeng Ran greeted enthusiastically. Yang Ping didn¡¯t recognize him, but he politely shook hands with him: ¡°Hello!¡± ¡°I¡¯m Zeng Ran from Mo Sixth, I¡¯ve seen your surgery at last year¡¯s academic conference and learned a lot.¡± Zeng Ran introduced himself. After the polite handshake, Yang Ping was pulled by the three Americans asking questions, and they walked toward the ICU together. ¡°What is he doing in our hospital?¡± Mu Jun watched the departing expert team. ¡°I just arrived and I¡¯m not sure what¡¯s going on.¡± Zeng Ran really didn¡¯t know, he was still a bit confused. He guessed that Yang Ping came with Professor Zhang and was related to Professor Feng¡¯s condition, as this was a consultation meeting for Professor Feng. Despite the decision being made, the sudden change left Hong Zhigang a bit stunned. He accompanied Professor Zhang and followed Director Peng to the ICU. Since Han Jiangong left Mo Sixth, Professor Zhang had always felt something was wrong and thought that Hong Zhigang was causing trouble, so he was not very friendly to Hong Zhigang, and all Hong Zhigang could do was accept it. Professor Zhang¡¯s students and Junior Brother Han have arrived, that meant Junior Brother should have arrived in Shanghai. Hong Zhigang didn¡¯t feel right asking. Professor Zhang asked Hong Zhigang: ¡°Did Professor Feng say anything to you?¡± Hong Zhigang was taken aback and stuttered: ¡°Teacher Zhang, what do you mean?¡± ¡°Do I need to spell it out?¡± Professor Zhang glared at him, and Hong Zhigang¡¯s face instantly turned red. The group of people arrived at the ICU. Because of the need to control the number of people entering the ICU, Professor Zhang, Yang Ping, Hong Zhigang, Director Fu, Director Wei, and the three American professors went in. Dean Chen, Director Peng, and others waited in the ICU doctor¡¯s office. Professor Feng was sedated, requiring a ventilator to assist with his breathing, but his heartbeat could still be maintained at around fifty times per minute. This respected senior who had dedicated his life to medicine, was now lying in the ICU. Professor Zhang held his old colleague¡¯s hand and said: ¡°He knew that the success rate of the surgery was close to zero, but he has always been advocating for the operation. He requested that if the surgery failed, he should be dissected for research to let everyone gain surgical experience. He has already put his life and death out of consideration and completely treats himself as an experimental subject for everyone.¡± This was the mentor in Director Han¡¯s heart. This respectable senior was so thin, covered in various tubes, his chest rising and falling with the positive pressure ventilation of the respirator. Yang Ping took a tablet from the ICU director and looked at the medical results step by step. Although John Ansen couldn¡¯t read Chinese, he could understand the English abbreviations of the medical indicators: ¡°Respiratory and circulatory centers are already disordered, compensatory ability has been exhausted, and it is feared that he will have difficulty getting off the ventilator this time.¡± ¡°He can still be taken off the machine this time. This is a tug of war between the compensation and decompensation of the life control center. After using the ventilator for a few days, the feedback mechanism of the respiratory center will be reestablished and it will be possible to get off the machine again. If he survives the second crisis and the only regulatory ability of the respiratory and circulation centers is exhausted, if it happens a third time, I¡¯m afraid he won¡¯t be able to get off the machine, then his heartbeat will gradually slow down until it stops.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s opinion differed from John Ansen¡¯s. These data came from his pathological anatomy research in system space and was very accurate, accurate enough to predict the day of leaving the ventilator. ¡°After getting off the machine, the patient¡¯s tolerance for surgery will peak within 24 to 48 hours. This is the golden time for surgery.¡± When Yang Ping simulated the surgery, he conducted simulations under different conditions. The golden time for surgery was 24 to 48 hours after getting off the machine, during this period, the success rate of surgery is the highest. ¡°That makes sense. It¡¯s like a battery that, even though it¡¯s depleted, as long as it receives even a bit of charge, it can maintain for a little while.¡± John Ansen agreed with Yang Ping¡¯s perspective. The ICU director told Hong Zhigang: ¡°We don¡¯t know if we can get him off the machine this time, or how long he¡¯ll last even if we do. You need to make a decision as soon as possible.¡± Hong Zhigang looked at his emaciated mentor, his chest rising and falling with the ventilator, he felt as though a knife was twisting in his heart: ¡°We have decided to operate. Be ready. As soon as there is a chance to get off the machine, operate immediately after 24 hours off the ventilator.¡± Unexpectedly, in the end, it is the apprentice who could lend support at this time. Back then, he was determined to compete for the position of department director. He was foolish and wronged his apprentice. Now he really feels ashamed to face his apprentice. Chapter 408 - 408 0380 Like a Song Like a Cry ?Chapter 408: Chapter 0380: Like a Song, Like a Cry Chapter 408: Chapter 0380: Like a Song, Like a Cry On the fourth day after Yang Ping visited Professor Feng in the ICU, Professor Feng was weaned off the ventilator, his sedatives were discontinued, and he woke up. Mo Sixth immediately got ready for Professor Feng¡¯s surgery. When Professor Feng woke up, Professor Zhang stayed by his bedside. ¡°Elder brother, why are you here?¡± Professor Feng¡¯s tears welled up. Professor Zhang sat by the bed and patted the back of Professor Feng¡¯s hand. ¡°If not for your surgery, you¡¯ve lost so much weight. If you were to donate your body now, I¡¯m afraid it wouldn¡¯t meet the quality standards. Better to live a few more years, put some meat on your bones, then donate.¡± Professor Feng gave a bitter smile, his old friend was still teasing him even in this moment. ¡°Did Jiangong also come?¡± Although Professor Feng had just woken up, his mind was still clear. Professor Zhang nodded. ¡°He¡¯s been here for quite a few days, staying in the neighboring hotel. When you were first put on the ventilator, he also came and watched you through the glass in the visiting corridor.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t he come in, that child?¡± Professor Feng said, slightly irritated. Professor Zhang snorted: ¡°That slap of yours sent him away for fifteen years. How dare he see you, for fear that seeing him would cause you to have a heart attack.¡± Professor Feng looked around the ward. There were doctors and nurses from the ICU guarding it. Understanding what Professor Feng meant, Professor Zhang told the doctors and nurses, ¡°You all go and get busy. I¡¯m going to chat with Professor Feng.¡± The ICU doctors and nurses left. With Professor Zhang there, they felt at ease. Moreover, there was video surveillance. If anything were to happen, they would be able to intervene immediately. ¡°As you know, I have been thinking about this for the past fifteen years. Jiangong is even more careful and cautious than Zhigang, so how could he possibly use a periosteal stripper to press the rod?¡± Professor Feng, who had just woken up, was very weak and coughed between his words. Professor Zhang helped him pat his back, letting him cough up the phlegm from his respiratory tract smoothly. ¡°After the patient was paralyzed in all four limbs, the two of us together took the operating table, reopened the patient¡¯s cervical spinal canal, and indeed the spinal cord was contused. There was a hematoma under the dura mater. We performed an incision, removed the hematoma and relieved the pressure, and in the end the patient¡¯s muscle strength was restored to grade three and then stopped, leaving him with a lifelong disability.¡± ¡°What a pity!¡± Professor Feng was more comfortable. Professor Zhang took his phlegm wrapped in tissue and threw it into the trash bin. ¡°This is a mystery, who exactly used the periosteal stripper to inflict contusion? But I am sure it wasn¡¯t Han Jiangong, even though he admitted it himself.¡± ¡°Elder brother, I have been thinking that Jiangong probably knew about Zhigang¡¯s relationship with me a long time ago. He wanted Zhigang to take my place, but I had made up my mind. He was struggling without a way out, and he took this opportunity to take advantage of the situation and fulfilled Zhigang¡¯s wishes.¡± Professor Feng sighed. Professor Zhang looked at Professor Feng. ¡°I¡¯ve been keeping this from you for fifteen years. Did you know? Zhigang has secretly visited the patient every year since, quietly supplementing the patient with a lot of money, even helping the patient¡¯s son get a decent job in Shanghai. The patient¡¯s family is very grateful to him.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me? I didn¡¯t know any of this! I¡¯ve always been wondering, knowing them as well as I do, Jiangong wouldn¡¯t make such a mistake, nor would he leave in a huff because of my slap.¡± The vague intuition of Professor Feng was confirmed by Professor Zhang. ¡°At that time, the anesthesiologist, Old Liao, found me privately to discuss the matter. He overheard Zhigang and Jiangong¡¯s whispered conversation. Jiangong probably suggested to report to you, but Zhigang refused. He didn¡¯t hear very clearly, so he didn¡¯t dare to be sure. He didn¡¯t dare to tell you. Everything points to the fact that the one who made the mistake at that time should be Zhigang. Jiangong just took advantage of the situation and helped Zhigang.¡± Professor Zhang laid it all out. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me earlier?¡± Professor Feng¡¯s tears welled up again. Professor Zhang shook his head. ¡°Do you still understand that kid Jiangong? If he¡¯s determined to help Zhigang, we have no way of stopping him. And by the time I knew something was off, it was already several years later. And it was still conjecture at that point, with no concrete evidence. At that time, Zhigang had already taken up the position of Director, and Jiangong had been gone for several years. What¡¯s done is done, what would you have us do? We had already ruined one life, were we to ruin another? Moreover, he is your son. How could I bring myself to do it?¡± Professor Zhang lowered his voice. Professor Feng tearfully asked, ¡°Where¡¯s Zhigang, why hasn¡¯t he arrived yet? Have him come over!¡± ¡°I had him go to your house to pick up some things. The surgery is tomorrow, and who knows, he might not make it down. The things you wanted me to take care of, I didn¡¯t do as you asked. I thought that while you still had a breath, I¡¯d let him call you ¡®Dad¡¯.¡± Professor Zhang was a bit emotional, but his voice was very low. ¡°I don¡¯t deserve it, which is why I¡¯ve always...¡± Professor Feng gasped. Professor Zhang caressed his chest: ¡°You deserve this. You never let them down, but life is unpredictable, and things often go awry.¡± Professor Feng waved his hand, unable to speak, and Professor Zhang comforted him: ¡°It¡¯s okay, the chief surgeon performing your operation tomorrow is Jiangong¡¯s student. The young man¡¯s talent is extremely high, and experts from the United States highly recommended him for this role. He can ensure an eighty percent success rate for your surgery.¡± ¡°How is that possible? Don¡¯t comfort me, I don¡¯t care about the success rate,¡± said Professor Feng as he caught his breath. ¡ª As per Professor Zhang¡¯s request, Hong Zhigang hurried to Professor Feng¡¯s home, a place he often visited and was very familiar with. He groped around, using the key Professor Zhang had given him to open the desk drawer in the study. Inside was an old notebook, something akin to a diary. This must be what Professor Zhang asked him to fetch. Carefully, he opened the notebook. Inside was an old photograph, and Hong Zhigang was immediately thunderstruck. His shaking hand picked up the photograph¡ªwasn¡¯t this photograph of his own mother? It was identical to the one he had kept, but how did this photograph come to be in the hands of his mentor? This was the only photo left by his mother. A refined and beautiful face, adorned with a radiant smile, her hair tied up in a ponytail and a backdrop of the river among peach trees in the photograph studio. According to his uncle, his mother passed away due to cardiac failure three days after giving him birth. The knowledge Hong Zhigang had of his mother was through this photograph given by his uncle. Now, his mentor also had one. Underneath the photo was a letter, written on it was: ¡°To my son, Hong Zhigang¡± To my son? Hong Zhigang? Hong Zhigang¡¯s head began to spin. He suppressed his shock and opened the envelope. ¡°Zhigang, when you read this letter, I¡¯ll have left this world¡ªYour mother and I couldn¡¯t be together due to certain circumstances, but we never gave up on one another. To avoid jeopardizing my career, she didn¡¯t tell me about her pregnancy. Before she left, she made your uncle promise not to let this matter affect me. I remained unmarried all my life due to this love. It was only when your uncle came to see me that I learned about your existence¡ªI dare not call myself your father¡ªI¡¯m filled with profound regret. If I had known the truth, I would have brought your mother here no matter what¡ªTime flew by, and several decades passed in a blink¡ªI have one last wish, there is a set of clothes in the safe in my study. I wore these work clothes when I was in Huzhou, where I met your mother. My request is for these clothes to be buried next to your mother¡¯s grave. Unable to be together in life, may we be as neighbors in death¡ª¡± Tears welled up in Hong Zhigang¡¯s eyes. Everything made sense now, just that it was all too abrupt, too bizarre. The love story of this nearly eighty-year-old man, the sacrifices both parties made to hold on to their love. To avoid impacting the father¡¯s prospects, the mother lied about getting engaged and urged him to marry someone else. The commitment to this love made the father remain unmarried all his life. He went to Huzhou to find the mother only to come face to face with a mound of earth. Slumped in the chair, Hong Zhigang wasn¡¯t in a position to blame this lonely old man, his own father, whom he¡¯d never met but who has been there as a kind fatherly figure. He remembered the first time they met, in the hallway of the Orthopedics department of Mo Sixth hospital. The professor was leading his students, his white gown crisp and neat. Hong Zhigang and Han Jiangong stood in the hallway. Seeing their shy faces, the professor asked them to stop. Hong Zhigang was very nervous, thinking he did something wrong and bracing himself for severe criticism. The professor simply reached out and fastened a button on Hong Zhigang¡¯s white gown and helped him adjust the clothing. ¡°Hold your head high and uplift your spirit. Learn to respect and enjoy your work.¡± As it turned out, the place the Professor always held dear in his heart is where his beloved resided. He remained a bachelor all life, watching over the sacred love in his heart. The depth of his love and the pain of missing her lasted for dozens of years, countless lonely nights, the old professor kept thinking of his beloved one. Chapter 409 - 409 0381 Deep Bow ?Chapter 409: Chapter 0381: Deep Bow Chapter 409: Chapter 0381: Deep Bow Hong Zhigang returned to the hospital. At the entrance of the ICU, in the family waiting area, a familiar face was waiting. Hong Zhigang¡¯s lips trembled as Han Jiangong slowly stood up and smiled, ¡°Brother¡ª¡± For the first time in fifteen years, the two spoke to each other as if a fifteen-year rift never existed. ¡°Jiangong, my junior brother,¡± Hong Zhigang was somewhat disoriented. The ICU door opened, with Professor Zhang standing at the entrance: ¡°Zhigang is here too. Both of you come in, his condition is barely stable, he wants to see you both.¡± The news of the surgery scheduled for tomorrow had spread throughout the entire hospital. Everyone knew how dangerous the surgery was and knew that Professor Feng was offering himself as an experimental subject to the operation table. Many doctors spontaneously contacted each other on WeChat, gathering at the family waiting area outside the ICU. As they were not allowed inside the ICU, they could only wait at the entrance. ¡°Dean Chen, everyone wants to see Professor Feng in the visiting corridor,¡± Director Peng addressed, looking at the increasing crowd. As if it were the last glance at this orthopedic giant, Dean Chen sighed, ¡°Negotiate with ICU, open up the corridor for visits, let everyone take a look.¡± The number of people in the waiting area kept increasing. The hospital doctors, doctoral and master students being educated, standardized training students, and interns, were all quietly waiting, with no commotion or discussion. Among them were also the impoverished students from mountainous regions who had once received financial aid from Professor Feng. ¡°How are the preparations going in the operating room?¡± Dean Chen asked, his voice becoming hoarse. Director Peng reported, ¡°Everything is ready. All the instruments are prepared. Dr. Yang is the chief surgeon, with Professor Hong and Professor Han assisting. The nurses are all elite.¡± ¡°Hmm, just in case, has the administrative office made all preparations?¡± Chen asked, worried. The office director, Deng, lifted his head and said: ¡°All prepared.¡± ¡°Cancel all my meetings for tomorrow. I¡¯ll be waiting in the changing room of the operating theatre,¡± Dean Chen said, his eyes red. The crowd kept increasing, nearly overfilling the family waiting area. ¡°Why are there so many people?¡± Dean Chen saw many unfamiliar faces. ¡°I didn¡¯t send out any messages. These people are here spontaneously after receiving other messages. Since Professor Zhang¡¯s condition worsened, there are dozens of Professor Zhang¡¯s students who have returned from abroad. As visits are not allowed, everyone just wants to take a glance from the corridor. The administrative office has arranged for a special reception,¡± Director Deng said, also surprised by the number of people. ¡°There are more downstairs. Quite a few of Professor Zhang¡¯s former patients heard about it somehow and came over,¡± added Director Peng. ¡°Good Lord, he saved countless lives and cultivated many talents throughout his life. It¡¯s as if they all knew that this might be the last time they see him,¡± Dean Chen choked on his words. Han Jiangong and Hong Zhigang put on their isolation gowns, masks, and caps, following Professor Zhang into Professor Feng¡¯s private ICU room. Professor Feng lay in bed, hearing their footsteps. ¡°Is that you, Jiangong?¡± His voice was feeble. ¡°Zhigang is here too,¡± Professor Zhang informed Professor Feng. Han Jiangong slowly approached, kneeling by the bed, holding his mentor¡¯s hands tightly, ¡°It¡¯s me, Jiangong¡ª¡± ¡°Are you here?¡± Professor Feng¡¯s hand suddenly strengthened, gripping Han Jiangong¡¯s hand. Two tears streamed down, wetting his entire cheeks. Professor Feng tried to rise, but he lacked the strength to do so. ¡°Are you okay?¡± His hand was trembling. After fifteen years. The master and the apprentice reunited in such a manner after fifteen years. Even though they had been in the same city these fifteen years, they had not been able to meet. ¡°Master, Jiangong is very well¨Cyou can rest assured,¡± Tears streamed down Han Jiangong¡¯s face. Professor Feng let out a sigh, ¡°Do you still resent me?¡± ¡°How could I? I have never resented you, Master.¡± Jiangong helped him move his hand to touch his face. ¡°Does it still hurt?¡± Feng asked anxiously. ¡°It doesn¡¯t hurt anymore.¡± Han Jiangong sobbed uncontrollably. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Jiangong, I¡¯m so sorry.¡± Professor Feng¡¯s trembling hand reached out again for Han Jiangong¡¯s. ¡°Please don¡¯t say that, teacher, you did not let me down, nor did my senior fellow apprentice, I¡¯ve never resented you.¡± Han Jiangong¡¯s field of vision was blurred by tears. Professor Feng, looking up at the ceiling, realized that fifteen years had gone by. He himself was in his twilight years and his two students were both in their fifties. ¡°Jiangong, as a teacher, I never believed that you could do such a thing. After some reflection, I¡¯ve concluded that you probably had already learned about the relationship between Zhigang and me, and decided to sacrifice yourself to advance his cause, am I right? I need straightforwardness,¡± Professor Feng finished forcefully. ¡°In fact, Zhigang is more suitable to be the director of the department. Under his leadership the orthopedics department has become one of the top three nationwide.¡± Han Jiangong did not answer directly. ¡°I finally found out the answer, thank you.¡± Professor Feng choked up. ¡°Zhigang, come over.¡± Kneeling by the bed, Hong Zhigang reflexively extended his hand to his mentor, his father. Professor Feng joined his hand and Han Jiangong¡¯s together: ¡°Apologize to Jiangong. I want to hear it¡ª¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Jiangong!¡± Hong Zhigang didn¡¯t care about anything else at this point. ¡°Hmm. I also want to say, I¡¯m sorry. Really, I¡¯m sorry¡ª¡± Professor Feng¡¯s face was full of tears. ¡°It was fifty years ago. We were sent to the countryside. I was assigned to a hospital in your town in Huzhou, where I met your mother. She was a beautiful woman and we fell in love. But, as you know, due to special reasons, your mother was never able to join my family, preventing me from fulfilling my original promise. I didn¡¯t know¡ªdidn¡¯t know that she was pregnant¡ª¡± ¡°So, you never got married in your life?¡± Zhigang asked. ¡°Except for her, I would never love anyone else again.¡± A sigh escaped from Professor Feng. ¡°Later, I visited Huzhou, Hong Xue was already dead, her heart was weak. After giving birth to you, she just didn¡¯t last through it, passing away three days later. But she was pregnant, why didn¡¯t she come to me, write a letter to me to tell me that she was ready to settle down and get married, asking me to forget about this relationship and find a suitable wife? I went to find her, but your uncle didn¡¯t tell me that she had a child¡ª¡± ¡°Afterward, when you got admitted to college and were about to graduate, your Uncle got lung cancer. He had very little time left and he came to Shanghai to find me, asking me to look after you. That¡¯s when I started to suspect something about your identity. You look a bit like Hong Xue. At that moment, I didn¡¯t think to question it, believing you were your Uncle¡¯s son. It¡¯s not surprising that you look like Hong Xue. After a while, during one of your medical check-ups, I secretly took a blood sample and had a paternity test done. In the end, it became clear that you were the child of Hong Xue and me. Your Uncle raised you because Hong Xue made him promise never to let you interrupt my life, and absolutely never to mention this to you. He took this secret to his grave.¡± Hong Zhigang and Han Jiangong were practically collapsed at the edge of the bed, sobbing uncontrollably. Han Jiangong reflected on their youth, how their benevolent teacher not only embodied rigorous scholarship, but also often provided them with financial support, instructing them during surgeries. Once, there was a patient whose aortic arch was encroached upon by a spinal tumor. The teacher raced all the way to the train station, using the station¡¯s broadcasting system to get the patient back for surgery. At that time, the patient was rushed into the operation room with his aorta on the verge of rupturing ¡ª just one step away from rupture and death. Even during the last moments of his life, the teacher planned to turn himself into an experiment subject for surgery. If the surgery failed, a pathological autopsy would be performed to provide experience for the younger generations. He had dedicated his life to medicine and in the end, chose to donate his body to the cause as well. ¡°Dad¡ªI don¡¯t blame you¡ª¡± Hong Zhigang sobbed. ¡°Listen up¡ª¡± Professor Feng took a deep breath. ¡°All of you, come in!¡± The doctors who had just been kept out by Professor Zhang, were now being allowed in by him. Hong Zhigang, Han Jiangong, the ICU doctors and nurses, as well as a group of young doctoral students stood around the bed, ready to listen to Professor Feng¡¯s last words. ¡°First, no matter how great the risk, even if the success rate is zero, the operation must be performed. Second, a pathological autopsy will be conducted after my death, followed by in-depth and extensive research on this type of tumor to accumulate experience and achieve a breakthrough. Third, keep my funeral simple and avoid extravagance. Hong Zhigang and Han Jiangong will be in charge of all arrangements. Fourth, I don¡¯t have much savings, only 84,000 yuan in the bank. Donate all of it to the Medical College of Jiaotong University. Fifth, my old house may be of some value. After selling it, split the proceeds evenly between Zhigang and Jiangong. Sixth, there is a patient follow-up record book in my study. On it is recorded a paraplegic patient. At that time, I had just started to perform scoliosis surgery, which led to the patient¡¯s paralysis. I¡¯ve always felt guilty about it. Zhigang, please continue to follow up and visit the patient every year. In the future, if medical treatment becomes possible, bring them to the hospital for treatment. The expenses will be covered by the money obtained from selling the house. Remember, don¡¯t contravene these points.¡± Professor Zhang recorded everything on the side. After finishing, Professor Feng motioned with his hand, ¡°Arrange the surgery as soon as possible. Although I have many regrets in this life, I believe I have done my best. You may all leave now.¡± The visiting corridor was already packed with people, including all of the doctoral candidates, masters, standard training students, and further education students at Shanghai Sixth Hospital, as well as Professor Feng¡¯s foreign students who had rushed back from abroad¡ª Hong Zhigang and Han Jiangong stood upright, bowing deeply in farewell to their mentor. Perhaps, this really was their final farewell. In the ward, in the hallway, everyone followed suit, bowing deeply. The ICU ward fell into silence. Chapter 410 - 410 0382 One Hour Before Surgery ?Chapter 410: Chapter 0382: One Hour Before Surgery Chapter 410: Chapter 0382: One Hour Before Surgery At this time, Yang Ping, Wen Rentao, Zeng Ran, and Mu Jun were also standing in the ICU ward, deeply bowing to Professor Feng. John Ansen, Griffin, and Woodhead, who were among the crowd in the visiting corridor, were affected by the solemn atmosphere. When they learned that Professor Feng volunteered to be a research subject, they couldn¡¯t help but be deeply moved. Huang Zhong, the Director of the Trauma Orthopedics Department of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One and a student of Professor Feng, had also rushed to the Magic City Sixth Hospital and stood in the visiting corridor. Years ago, Huang Zhong was Han Jiangong¡¯s assistant, and when Professor Feng surreptitiously took blood samples to Hangzhou for identification, Huang Zhong accidentally saw Professor Feng outside the laboratory. This was a private matter. Huang Zhong immediately avoided him and didn¡¯t greet him. Professor Feng also didn¡¯t notice Huang Zhong. By sheer coincidence, Huang Zhong¡¯s fiance?e was the laboratory technician. So, Huang Zhong naturally learned about the relationship between Hong Zhigang and Professor Feng. He secretly told Han Jiangong about it and didn¡¯t tell anyone else. When Han Jiangong knew the truth, he was incredulous. However, he understood his mentor must have had his reasons and instructed Huang Zhong not to tell anyone else. Huang Zhong was a loyal and reliable person, so he didn¡¯t divulge this to anyone else. Until the incident of the medical accident occurred and Han Jiangong resigned out of resentment, Huang Zhong knew better than anyone else that Han Jiangong was using a plan to facilitate Hong Zhigang¡¯s success by sacrificing himself. Huang Zhong admired Han Jiangong¡¯s character and resolutely resigned to follow Han Jiangong south. To protect Han Jiangong from leaving the medical profession, Professor Feng later took full responsibility. He apologized to the patient¡¯s family and offered compensation. When Han Jiangong and Huang Zhong went to the south, Professor Su from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One was eagerly looking for talent at the time and invited them to join him. At that time, Nandu Province was preparing to establish the Overseas Chinese Hospital. Han Jiangong was interested in joining the new hospital, and Professor Su strongly recommended him. Han Jiangong successfully became part of the first batch of talent introduced by the hospital. The future of the new hospital was uncertain. Han Jiangong persuaded Huang Zhong to join Affiliated Hospital One, and Professor Su was willing to help Huang¡¯s wife transfer jobs. Hence, Huang Zhong joined Affiliated Hospital One and developed his career under the guidance of Professor Su. Han Jiangong steadfastly rooted himself in the newly established Overseas Chinese Hospital¡ªSanbo Hospital. Step by step, from only forty beds and empty wards, it developed to one hundred and fifty beds, frequently adding beds, and branched out into four specialties: spine, joint, trauma, and sports medicine. ¡ª¡ª Professor Feng¡¯s breathing and heartbeat began to stabilize. Twenty-four to forty-eight hours after being taken off the respirator would be the golden opportunity for surgery. Once missed, there would no longer be such an opportunity. The surgery was scheduled for half-past seven the next day. At seven o¡¯clock sharp, the operating room was ready to receive the patient, an hour earlier than the usual time. The largest operating room of the Magic City Sixth Hospital¡¯s Orthopedics Department was cleared out. Yang Ping was the chief surgeon, Han Jiangong the first assistant, Hong Zhigang the second group. Wen Rentao and Zeng Ran were substitutes. The anesthesiologist, surgical nurse, and circulating nurse were all elite personnel. These people were usually the specialized surgical team of Magic City Sixth Hospital¡¯s Orthopedics Department. Old Feng led a low-key and simple life all his life, eating coarse grains and never seeking special treatment. This time, it was probably his most special moment in his life, and the only time he would enjoy luxurious treatment. He cultivated numerous students, including visiting scholars, masters, doctoral students; some arrived in Shanghai a few days ago, some had just arrived not long ago; all of them found out about this from their WeChat moments or WeChat groups. Everyone knew that Professor Feng¡¯s surgery success rate was less than one percent. As he voluntarily served as a subject of a surgical experiment and would undergo post-operative autopsy research, he stirred up respect from everyone. Most of these students had already become department directors in their respective hospitals and were key figures in their local orthopedics departments. Dozens of students who came back from abroad also had outstanding accomplishments. At seven in the morning, the head nurse of the operating room came personally to ICU with two senior nurses to transfer Old Feng. Hong Zhigang, Han Jiangong, Dean Chen, and several vice-deans together lifted Old Feng onto the bed. Hong Zhigang and Han Jiangong helped push the cart from behind, the head nurse led the way at the front of the cart, while several deans held the handles on both sides of the cart. The cart carrying Professor Feng started to move from ICU to the operating room. As soon as they emerged from the emergency elevator of the ICU, the corridor outside was already full of people. They instinctively leaned against the wall, forming two neat rows and leaving the middle path clear. All of these people were Professor Feng¡¯s students. Some were still wearing their white gowns from different hospitals. Clearly, many of them had prepared in advance. Everyone quietly saluted Old Feng as the cart passed, not inquiring about or discussing anything, silently watching the cart being sent to the operating room. Then quietly followed behind until Old Feng was pushed into the operating room and the operating room doors closed. Professor Zhang, Director Han, Hong Zhigang, and Yang Ping were already changing clothes in the changing room. Neither Dean Chen nor Director Peng entered the changing room temporarily, afraid of affecting the surgeons¡¯ changing process due to too many people. During these days, Yang Ping had been discussing Professor Feng¡¯s condition with everyone. Wen Rentao hadn¡¯t had the chance to talk to him. He did not see Yang Ping in the consultation meeting at the time, only Zeng Ran told him that Yang Ping had come with Professor Zhang. The first time he saw Yang Ping was in the ICU doctor¡¯s office. At that time, Yang Ping was discussing the surgical approach and perioperative management with the three American professors, Director Fu, and Director Wei. No, it wasn¡¯t a discussion. From Yang Ping¡¯s confidence when he was surrounded and the reverent gaze of the American professors, slightly bent waist, it was clear that Yang Ping was teaching them. He originally thought Yang Ping was a strong opponent. It was then that Wen Rentao realized that Yang Ping¡¯s only opponent was the disease. No one else could be his opponent. Wen Rentao and Zeng Ran were always accompanying Yang Ping, leading him around, getting his clothes and slippers, and opening the locker in the changing room. ¡°Xiao Yang, don¡¯t stress, stay calm and relaxed. Treat it like a usual surgery. Even if it fails, no one will blame you.¡± Director Han¡¯s hand was on Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder, pressing it slightly. ¡°Okay, teacher, I will give it my all. You can rest assured.¡± Yang Ping used to call Director Han as ¡°director,¡± but this time, he felt that calling him ¡°teacher¡± from now on would be more respectful. Director Han released his hand and smiled: ¡°Okay, good luck. You are the most outstanding.¡± After Yang Ping had put on his sterile gown, mask, and hat, instead of going directly to the operating room, he sat on a chair in the changing room to rest. Wen Rentao and Zeng Ran also accompanied him. ¡°I¡¯ll personally arrange the patient¡¯s position later. Control the operating room¡¯s temperature at 25 degrees Celsius. Only the necessary personnel for the surgery are allowed in the operating room during the operation. Regardless of what happens, no one is allowed to shout loudly.¡± ¡°Understood, I have already briefed the others involved in the surgery,¡± Wen Rentao responded. ¡°Three laser scalpels have been prepared?¡± Yang Ping asked again. ¡°You personally confirmed it, touch-type laser scalpel with precision of 0.1 millimeters,¡± Wen Rentao affirmed. ¡°Three defibrillators ready?¡± ¡°Charged and in position.¡± ¡°How about I assist you? I am worried about the emotional state of Professor Hong and Professor Han.¡± Wen Rentao volunteered. His worry was not unfounded, and Yang Ping was considering these concerns. This operation demanded extreme stability and endurance under the microscope. The emotional fluctuations of Director Han and Professor Hong could negatively affect the surgery. Wen Rentao, being younger, would probably provide more skillful operations under the microscope than the two directors. Moreover, Wen Rentao¡¯s natural ability to operate under the microscope is exceptional. He is probably the best available assistant for Yang Ping at present. Yang Ping planned to perform the whole operation himself, but thorough preparation was still required. ¡°May I?¡± asked Wen Rentao to Yang Ping with a hopeful tone. ¡°Yes!¡± agreed Yang Ping. Seeing that Yang Ping had agreed, Wen Rentao proposed to Hong Zhigang: ¡°Teacher, you and Professor Han can rest off stage, and Zeng Ran and I will go on stage as assistants, how about that?¡± Hong Zhigang was taken aback, and looked toward Han Jiangong who pondered for a moment: ¡°Let the young ones go. Their ability to operate under a microscope is superior.¡± ¡°Alright, Rentao, cooperate well with Dr. Yang.¡± Hong Zhigang agreed. ¡°Thank you. I am honored to assist you.¡± Wen Rentao extended his hand. Yang Ping shook his hand: ¡°Let¡¯s work together.¡± ¡°And me!¡± Zeng Ran also reached out her hand. ¡°The surgery carries extreme risk. In theory I have an 80% success rate, but that¡¯s assuming everything goes perfectly. Any mistake in any step could cause the surgery to fail. And failure means a stop in the heartbeat. Remember, no matter what happens during the surgery, do not panic, do not shout, stay at your posts, and absolutely do not cross the line.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Wen Rentao and Zeng Ran responded in unison. Yang Ping stood up, walked towards the mirror, and adjusted his mask and hat. After a few seconds, he said: ¡°Let¡¯s head into the operating room.¡± The automatic sensor doors, one after the other, led the team from the semi-restricted area to the restricted area, and then into the operating room. Every step, every detail, could not afford any mistakes. Everything had to be precise down to the 0.1 millimeters. Any deviation could result in failure of the surgery. The patient would have to be defibrillated within 5 seconds of a cardiac arrest. Two people were standing guard at the entrance of the operating theater to prevent any unsuspecting doctors from walking in and interrupting the surgery. ¡°Nobody is allowed to enter during the surgery. Without orders from the chief surgeon, no matter what happens inside, you¡¯re not to go in.¡± Two of Wen Rentao¡¯s students stood guard at the operating room door like stone lions. ¡°We shall guard the door.¡± The voice of Hong Zhigang echoed. ¡°Teacher!¡± exclaimed Wen Rentao, surprised and confused. He had just instructed them to rest in the changing room. However, both men were too on edge to rest, opting instead to guard the door of the operating theater. Professor Feng was already lying on the operating table with his head shaved from his time in the ward. The anesthesiologist was waiting for the chief surgeon to arrive. The temperature in the operating room was locked at 25 degrees Celsius. Three sets of PhotoMedex contact laser scalpel systems were prepared ¨C one set in the operating room, and two sets in the equipment room. The laser scalpels, transmission fibers, Carl Zeiss NC4 surgical microscope, and laser safety glasses ¨C all were ready. A defibrillator sat in the corner, fully charged and ready for emergency use, with two additional sets in the equipment room. The circulating nurse had prepared all kinds of positioning pads, and the scrub nurse prepared to clean her hands. ¡ª As per Professor Feng¡¯s instructions, this was an experimental procedure for scientific research, and hence fully open to the hospital¡¯s internal staff. Doctors who wished to observe the surgery were invited to the teaching conference room in the operating area. Order was maintained by the head of the medical office, Director Peng. Griffin crossed himself in prayer: ¡°May God bless Professor Feng, and let the surgery succeed.¡± John Ansen told Griffin: ¡°Doctor Yang is God¡¯s messenger, sent to help Professor Feng fight against disease.¡± Woodhead sat quietly with his laptop on his knees, engrossed in watching the video of Yang Ping¡¯s spinal orthopedic surgery. He determined to focus only on the video until Feng¡¯s surgery began, fearing that once that happened, the video might no longer be available. As an orthopedic surgeon, Woodhead regarded the video as invaluable. The job schedules of American doctors are very organized; conference attendances must align with schedules back at home, as both job tasks and patient appointments for several months ahead would have been prearranged. Now these three American doctors disregarded everything else, having informed their secretaries that they would delay their return. Such a rare opportunity to observe surgery wasn¡¯t something they wanted to miss at any cost. Chapter 411 - 411 0383 Entering the Forbidden Zone ?Chapter 411: Chapter 0383: Entering the Forbidden Zone Chapter 411: Chapter 0383: Entering the Forbidden Zone Professor Feng was lying supine on the operating table, and the circulating nurse connected the indwelling needle to the left radial artery, maintaining the venous channel. Professor Ma, Mo Sixth¡¯s anesthesiologist, performed a right subclavian venous puncture under local anesthesia, connecting various monitors to dynamically monitor the electrocardiogram, heart rate, arterial blood pressure, central venous pressure, pulse, and blood oxygen saturation. Professor Ma administered 0.2mg of fentanyl, 100mg of propofol, and 50mg of rocuronium bromide intravenously. After successful anesthesia induction, he inserted a spring stent tracheal tube and connected it to the anesthesia machine for mechanical ventilation. After auscultating the bilateral lung breathing sounds, which were clear and symmetrical, Professor Ma adjusted the respiratory parameters, maintaining the end-tidal carbon dioxide pressure between 35-45mmHg, inhaled isoflurane, and maintained a 1% end-tidal concentration, planning to add 2mg of vecuronium bromide every 40 minutes. After satisfactory anesthesia, everyone worked together to change Professor Feng¡¯s position to be prone. Each position pad and restraint band were properly in place, and Professor Feng¡¯s eyes were also fixed with protective tape in the closed position. The head was fixed on the Mayfield frame. Yang Ping personally installed the fixed frame, checking each screw several times, especially the three skull screws, ensuring they were installed at the largest diameter of the head, completely penetrating the outer plate of the skull, securely attaching the head with the outer plate of the skull. If it was not installed properly and the tapered part does not penetrate enough bone, the head could slip during the surgery, which would be lethal for Old Feng. Not only the head and neck fixation needs to be secure, but the angle of fixation also needs to be optimal. After adjusting these, Yang Ping checked the defibrillator. Yang Ping also personally checked the sundries bag used for prone position cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This kind of sandbag is stuffed in the part below the sternum. Thus, when pressing the heart, pressing the back, the sternum below is depressed by the sandbag, forming pressure on the heart, achieving the same effect as supine press. The sandbag should not squeeze the abdomen, it should only be at the lower part of the sternum. According to the positioning principle, this position should not have a sandbag, which could easily lead to pressure sores, but to save rescue time, these considerations had to be disregarded. The sensory-evoked potential and motor-evoked potential monitoring equipment for the brainstem and spinal cord are working normally. Only after these detailed checks were completed and some precautions repeatedly emphasized, did Yang Ping felt satisfied and led everyone to wash their hands. Performed disinfection and sheet preparation, pre-operation check, the anesthesiologist reported the vital signs: heart rate 75 times/minute, breathing (mechanical ventilation) 20 times/minute, blood pressure 120/65mmHg, blood oxygen saturation (low flow oxygen) 100%. Yang Ping, wearing protective glasses, began the surgery with a laser scalpel, holding the sapphire scalpel end with a pen grip. He played with the laser scalpel in his hand for a while, looking for the feeling, and then started the skin incision. According to the principle of two-point positioning, Yang Ping chose to connect the posterior cervical entry with the midline occipital foramen magnum, creating a combined approach. There are fourteen safe zones in brainstem surgery, and the medulla oblongata has six. The midline occipital foramen magnum is one of them. This tumor affects the upper cervical spinal cord and the medulla oblongata. It would ideally be managed by orthopedic and neurosurgeons jointly, but now Yang Ping is tasked with completing the operation alone. Yang Ping¡¯s research on anatomy has already far surpassed these basic notions of safe zones. In the brainstem area, he has a mature and complex safe map in his mind. Even in the most dangerous areas, he knows how to execute smoothly. After the skin was cut, the scalp clips were neatly clamped to the edge, and the laser scalpel gradually penetrated. Two holes were drilled below the ridge line of the external occipital protuberance. The occipital skull was lifted like a well cover, the ring vertebral canal of the upper cervical vertebrae was completely opened from the posterior, and the entire rhomboid fossa was exposed. This exquisite craniotomy can be reclosed like a cap after surgery, and along with the closed cervical vertebrae, can be securely fixed with an internal fixation steel plate screw. When the vertebral canal and cranial cavity were opened, the pulsating dura mater appeared in the field of vision, which enveloped the upper cervical spinal cord and medulla oblongata. The entire brainstem is only thumb-sized, the medulla oblongata is just a part of it, about one third of a thumb, and the upper cervical spinal cord is almost the same size as the fingers. It was also connected to a complex network of blood vessels and nerves, such as the vertebral artery, cranial nerves, and spinal nerves. The surgery had to be carried out in this finger-sized space with complex and precise incisions, separation, and hemostasis. There could not be any mistakes. Even a minor error could cause patient death. Because the tumor only affected the medulla oblongata and the upper cervical spinal cord, the entire approach did not need to be used. Yang Ping held the laser scalpel in his right hand, and the gun-shaped bipolar electrocoagulation forceps with light source in his left hand. Under the extremely proficient anatomical skills, all the obstructions to the surgical goal were removed. The posterior part of the entire upper cervical spinal cord and the brain stem was safely exposed in the field of vision, with hardly any bleeding. The accuracy of the gun-shaped bipolar electrocoagulation forceps was astonishing. Every bleeding point before the appearance of red color was resolved by the bipolar coagulation in advance, completing hemostasis in one movement, without any repeated movements. ¡°Microscope!¡± The Carl Zeiss neurosurgical microscope was pushed to the operating area. Yang Ping changed his gloves, adjusted the focal length and interpupillary distance himself until he was satisfied, and then changed to a new pair of sterile gloves. The subtle light of the laser knife made a Y-shaped incision in the dura mater and flipped it open. The central hole of the fourth ventricle was opened, with the choroid plexus tissue, cerebellar tonsils and posterior inferior cerebellar artery on the side. Gentle nerve hooks were used to pull the cerebellar tonsils and posterior inferior cerebellar artery to the sides. The choroid plexus tissue and inferior medullary velum were separated, exposing the entire rhomboid fossa. By now, the dorsal area of the brain stem exposed via the telovelar approach appeared in the field of vision, placing the safe surgical operation area near the facial colliculus in the surgical field of view. The entire exposure surprisingly completed within minutes, the movement was smooth, stable, precise and swift. The chief surgeon did not want to waste time on the step-by-step exposure process. The job of Wen Rentao and Zeng Ran was merely to attract and expose with hooks. The whole process was bloodless; Wen Rentao¡¯s suction device did not play a big role, making it seem quite relaxed. ¡°So fast, true bloodless operation, beautiful!¡± John Ansen exclaimed. This was indeed at the level of a success rate of 80 percent. The surgery had just completed the exposure phase. The excellent surgical technique, the clear surgical field of view, and the extreme mastery of dissection, all had already won over John Ansen. As the saying goes, the layman watches the excitement, the insider watches the entrance. As a world-leading neurosurgery expert, his understanding was more profound than others. Only, he found it hard to believe that it was an orthopedic surgeon performing the operation. ¡°He seemed to know in advance every possible point of bleeding. This kind of bloodless operation, this is the first time I¡¯ve seen it.¡± Griffin, as a tumor surgeon, was particularly sensitive to hemostasis. Woodhead had not taken his eyes off. As a spine surgeon, his surgery range often extended to the medulla oblongata. In the United States, spine surgery was not considered a branch of orthopedics, but a branch of neurosurgery. At this time, he greatly appreciated this bold and open exposure, and for this careful handling of bone, he found the technique difficult to replicate. ¡°This kind of precision, it might be difficult to replicate?¡± Woodhead was both envious and helpless. He was thinking, what kind of surgical training had Yang Ping received, to possess such a finely honed knowledge of anatomy and surgical ability. Under the microscope¡¯s field of view, the laser knife, the gun-shaped bipolar electrocoagulation forceps and the light-equipped suction device were in the operating field. The earlier exposure was just a lead-in, the actual steps of the operation were still to come. This surgical knife would have to flawlessly navigate through the central nervous system. ¡°Guys, stay focused.¡± John Ansen reminded. The three of them sat up straight, concentrated, and started watching the video of the microscopic surgical field. The conference room was as quiet as could be, one could practically hear the breathing of the person next to them. ¡°Anesthesiologist, I¡¯m about to make an incision into the upper cervical spine and the medulla oblongata, and to start separating the tumor. Keep a close eye on vital signs.¡± ¡°Prepare the defibrillator. Remember, if ventricular fibrillation occurs, the anesthesiologist must immediately report, and the defibrillator must complete the defibrillation within five seconds.¡± Yang Ping reminded everyone, but there was no immediate danger, so it was necessary to get them into the zone in advance. The laser knife began to make an incision along the posterior median sulcus of the medulla oblongata, one of the safe zones of the medulla oblongata. Chapter 412 - 412 0384 Extreme Thief ?Chapter 412: Chapter 0384: Extreme Thief Chapter 412: Chapter 0384: Extreme Thief A brain weighing about 1400 grams, harboring hundreds of billions of cells, with various electrochemical signals constantly transmitting along extremely intricate and complex pathways ¨C its structure is millions of times more complex than our most advanced chips. The thumb-size brainstem deep within the human brain governs heartbeat and respiration. It is packed with critical groups of neurons and conduction bundles. The vertebral arteries, vital for supplying blood to the brain, also pass through this area. In such a perilous, complex, and narrow zone, often the room for surgery is measured in millimeters. Old Feng¡¯s tumor takes on the convoluted shape of a tree root, entwining in the crevices between these neuronal groups and conduction bundles. Some are even attached to the neuronal clusters, making it challenging to differentiate between the two. The tumor has the most tenacious attachment to the dorsal nucleus of the vagus nerve. A slight deviation of the scalpel could cease both respiration and heartbeat. Professor Feng¡¯s spontaneous breathing was suppressed by anesthesia, and a ventilator took over his breathing at a rate of 20 breaths per minute. Meanwhile, under the anesthesiologist¡¯s control, his heart rate was maintained around 70 bpm. Unlike in a spinal correction operation, in this kind of surgery, you cannot just speed through to the end. Yang Ping would stop after every step, instructing the nurse to prepare the instruments for the next step and coaching the assistant on the crucial points to note. Under the microscope, the various structures are magnified, appearing clearer and more precise. The laser knife accurately separates the tissue. The concomitant minor thermal effect shrinks the fine blood vessels, thereby achieving hemostasis without damaging the surrounding tissue. The delicate, pointed tip of the laser knife, compared to the blade of the traditional scalpel, does not exert pressure on the surrounding tissue. It is also more suitable for operating in narrow spaces. The scalpel incision followed the midline groove at the back, extending from the medulla oblongata in the head all the way down to the cervical spinal cord at the top of the cervical spine. The arachnoid membrane was incised, the pia mater was cut open, and the grey-white brain tissue, soft as tofu, gradually splitting longitudinally under the precise carving of the laser knife. Going deeper bit by bit, every recurring linear incision did not deviate at all, always following the same route and matching the anatomical gap. This process of working within the tissue gaps ensured safety. Carrying bloodless operations to the extreme, showing utmost care for the tissue, the tumor gradually revealed itself. Yang Ping began separating the tumor. The tumor had intertwined with normal tissue, lacked a capsule, and essentially had no discernible boundary. However, Yang Ping managed to locate their intertwined boundaries. Under the laser knife¡¯s precision of 0.1 millimeters, Professor Feng¡¯s vital signs temporarily remained stable, and the ECG maintained a normal sinus rhythm. ¡°No use of fluorescence imaging?¡± John Ansen was surprised. Typically for such a surgery, to ascertain the boundaries between the tumor and normal tissue, a special fluorescent imaging agent is injected into the patient pre-surgery. During the operation, the microscope is set to fluorescent mode. This allows the surgeon to clearly differentiate the fluorescently lit tumor from the non-fluorescent normal tissue and proceed with precise tumor resection under the guidance of the navigation system. Regrettably, even with these advances, the success rate for treating a tumor like Old Feng¡¯s still falls short of 1 percent. ¡°There¡¯s no use of navigation equipment either?¡± John Ansen couldn¡¯t comprehend. It¡¯s impossible to perform this operation without these two technologies, let alone achieve a successful outcome. Professor Fu from Mo Sixth Neurosurgery was also taken aback. During their pre-operative discussions, Yang Ping had not mentioned this. Everyone assumed that these were routine matters that did not need mentioning. But now, looking at the surgical field, there was neither the use of fluorescence imaging nor navigation equipment. What was going on? This doctor who graduated from the Temple of Heaven Hospital was supervised by the nation¡¯s top neurosurgery experts and, under their attentive tutelage, he too had become a first-rate neurosurgeon. ¡°We aren¡¯t using fluorescent imaging agent?¡± Wen Rentao also realized and asked. While operating, Yang Ping replied, ¡°It¡¯s not needed. The fluorescent imaging under the microscope would interfere with my judgement. Although navigation is precise, it only provides indirect images derived from CT scans, which is of little help to me.¡± For Yang Ping, his countless surgeries and anatomical studies in the system space yielded true tumor anatomical images far more precise than what both fluorescence imaging and navigation could provide. To an ordinary person, or even top experts like John Ansen, fluorescence imaging and navigation are essential. However, for Yang Ping, these became a burden. The faint flickering of fluorescence could interfere with Yang Ping¡¯s visual judgement during surgery and disrupt the comparison between the live anatomical structures and the images in his mind. The picture in his mind had far surpassed any fluorescent imaging. The image in his mind, formed by hundreds and thousands of images from Professor Feng¡¯s study, was more accurate than any imaging or navigation system. Despite their doubts, both John Ansen and Professor Fu guessed that Yang Ping, with his systematic and meticulous surgical planning and ability to anticipate momentary cardiac arrests when disturbing the nerve clusters, must have had a superior method to carry out the surgery; otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have discarded the usual essential techniques. The delicate bipolar forceps took the shape of a pistol when not used for coagulation. Paired with the laser knife, the tumor¡¯s outline gradually became clearer and the deeply buried tumor began to surface. Both Wen Rentao and Zeng Ran sat beside him, retracting. Wen Rentao was also responsible for suction, though thus far, his aspirator hadn¡¯t been needed. Until now, almost no blood was visible during the surgery. The brain tissue was filled with interwoven blood vessels. The laser knife could smoothly operate within the gaps of these vessels. Even when small blood vessels inevitably got damaged, they were electrically coagulated in advance. Chapter 413 - 413 0384 Extreme Thief_2 ?Chapter 413: Chapter 0384: Extreme Thief_2 Chapter 413: Chapter 0384: Extreme Thief_2 The double-click electrocoagulation can accurately clamp the ends of the blood vessels, implementing coagulation hemostasis with minimal energy. The separation of the nerve nuclei and gaps is very rapid. Near the rear nucleus of the vagus nerve, a root of the tumor almost wraps around it, forming a tight adhesion. Yang Ping stopped, gently put down the instrument in his hand, and rested for a while. The next step was to separate the adhesions between the nerve nucleus and the tumor. Such adhesions are very tight, almost indistinguishable, which is the anatomical basis for the low success rate of the surgery. Yang Ping picked up the instrument again, adjusted the two instruments in his hand, and looked for the best feel once more. Which ones are tumor blood vessels, which are normal blood vessels, which are tumor tissues, and which are normal tissues, where are their safe gaps, and where are the true boundaries of the tumors. Guided by the images in his brain, these images become commands in the brain, the commands are conducted to the hand, and the hand controls the laser knife head. The slim laser knife head is much more adept at navigating the complex and narrow anatomical space than a normal scalpel. Professor Zhang did not go to the conference room to observe, but paced back and forth at the door of the operating room. Han Jiangong and Hong Zhigang both stood at the door of the operating room, and no one spoke. Other departments also began their surgeries one after the other. Some doctors made a special trip to take a look over here, knowing that Professor Feng¡¯s surgery was being performed inside. The laser knife with a focus of 0.1 millimeters has no mechanical collision with the tissue and is very easy to use. The instrument has a precision of 0.1 millimeters, but it¡¯s extremely difficult for a doctor to fully utilize this precision throughout the whole process. This requires extremely steady hands, not affected by any disturbances. Even though a human hand may not appear to tremble, it actually does. This is the reason why there is image shaking when taking long-focus photos. The trajectory of a 0.1 millimeter scalpel according to a person¡¯s will is bound to deviate. Even a simple straight line, when observed through a magnifying glass, cannot maintain a 0.1 millimeter precision all the time. ¡°The tumor separation is extremely precise. Does their microscope have some special features which can distinguish the tumor and even navigate?¡± John Ansen couldn¡¯t believe it, as the surgery was being performed without fluorescein and navigation aids. Griffin shook his head: ¡°If such equipment existed in the world, we should be privy.¡± The surgery reached near the nerve nucleus. Based on anatomical knowledge, John Ansen concluded that the ballet on the scalpel point had officially begun. From the image judging, this would be a surgical operation delicately balancing life and death. Under the naked eye, it¡¯s almost impossible to distinguish the tumor from the nerve nucleus. But the scalpel did manage it, beginning to separate between the tumor and the nerve nucleus. Even with the 0.1 millimeter precision, slight thermal injury can still cause disturbances. If mechanical scalpels were used instead, the disturbances and injuries would be even greater. ¡°This is turmoil at the edge of the scalpel!¡± Griffin tightened his chest. ¡°Have you seen Point Break?¡± John Ansen¡¯s heart began to pound in his chest. ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°When Johnny Utah was free climbing Angel Falls, his partner lost his grip and fell, shattering into pieces.¡± ¡°Dr. Yang can¡¯t afford any mistakes. Not even one.¡± ¡°But even if he makes no mistakes, there will be a few falls. Once he falls, he must catch another rock in mid-fall and continue to climb.¡± These ¡°falls¡± symbolize the abrupt heart stoppages that would occur during the surgery. ¡°I am about to enter the first dead zone separation. Professor Ma, please pay attention to electrocardiographic monitoring and evoked potential monitoring, and report to me at any time. Once ventricular fibrillation waves appear, aseptically cover the surgical area, lift the trunk aseptic sheet to the shoulders, remove the back electrocardiographic electrode sheet, and complete the cardioversion as quickly as possible. Remember, we only have five seconds. Does everyone understand?¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Everyone knew their roles, as they had been repeated and drilled before the surgery. Dr. Wu, an emergency technician trainer from ICU in Shanghai, who is in charge of defibrillation, pushed the defibrillator near the operating table. Yang Ping took a deep breath, and the laser knife began to separate the adhesions of the tumor and neural nucleus. The cruel devil training made Yang Ping¡¯s mental quality and hand stability as strong as a machine. However, Yang Ping has human tactile feedback and thinking adaptability that machines do not have. The laser knife began to enter the edge of death, with a precision of 0.1 millimeters, there could be no deviation. Even a slight one could damage the neural nucleus, bringing about irreversible cardiac arrest. The atmosphere in the entire operating room was condensed to its peak, everyone was fully focused, and all their energy was concentrated on a tiny point. The tip of the knife gradually penetrated deeper, along the edge of death, separating along the 0.1 millimeter life-death line. ¡°The heart rate suddenly drops, 30 times per minute, blood pressure 40/20mmHg¡ª ¡°Administer 1 milligram of adrenaline now, withdraw surgical instruments, cover the surgical area, prepare for defibrillation!¡± The rescue drug was injected through the vein, a folded sterile sheet immediately covered the head and neck surgical area, and the body sterile sheet was lifted. Old Feng¡¯s entire back, up to his shoulders, was exposed. Everyone acted in their roles, the team worked seamlessly, and the anesthesiologist stared at the monitor after administering the drugs. After the normal ECG waveform, suddenly, there was a wave of ventricular fibrillation, which soon filled the entire screen. Ventricular fibrillation¡ªa lethal arrhythmia and a type of cardiac arrest. ¡°Cardiac arrest¡ªventricular fibrillation wave!¡± ¡°Transverse defibrillation!¡± The wires and electrode patches connected to the ECG monitor were quickly removed by the patrolling nurse. Almost at the same time, Dr. Wu from the ICU pressed down on the right infrascapular region with the cathode of the electrode plate in his right hand while pressing down the left intercostal 5th space with the anode using his left hand, defibrillating the patient with 200J. ¡°Stand Back!¡± Everyone withdrew from contact with the operating bed. After discharge, the only straw of life was grasped, and the defibrillation was successful once. A familiar waveguide line appeared on the defibrillator screen. This was the sinus rhythm oscillation line, the oscillation line of life. Everyone¡¯s hearts that had been hanging in their mouths slowly relaxed, but the hearts in their chests were still pounding violently. Cardiac arrest occurred during the surgery, no one was certain that it could be rescued. Especially when it¡¯s caused by nerve nucleus interference, the investigation into the brain in medicine is still very crude. Only Yang Ping was calm and composed, watching the restored ECG: ¡°Reconnect the ECG monitor!¡± ¡°Sinus rhythm, heart rate 50 beats per minute, blood pressure 90/45mmHg.¡± The anesthesiologist reported, and a milligram of adrenaline was injected once again. Shortly after, the heart rate was 60 beats per minute, and the blood pressure was 100/60mmHg. Yang Ping observed for a few minutes, confirmed that we have stabilized: ¡°Reapply disinfectant, add sterile sheets, change surgical gown and gloves, be careful not to contaminate the surgical area, continue the operation¨C¡± Watching Yang Ping¡¯s calmness, Wen Rentao admired him immensely. At this moment, the chief surgeon is the faith of the team members. ¡°One can never step into the same river twice.¡± Yang Ping studied in the system space countless times, simulated countless times, but the patient¡¯s state will never be exactly the same as when simulated in the system space. Therefore, Yang Ping did not dare to relax at all, he always made the best decision according to the state at that moment. ¡°The heart rate center is disturbed and regulation is disordered, we must defibrillate within five seconds. Every time, we only have five seconds.¡± Because the sterile sheet covering the body was just lifted, someone has been contaminated and needs to scrub in again. The sterile sheet on the table also needs to be piled up again. Everyone return to their positions to continue the operation. Chapter 414 - 414 0385 Hand Climbing ?Chapter 414: Chapter 0385 Hand Climbing Chapter 414: Chapter 0385 Hand Climbing Everyone in the observation area, upon witnessing the recent event, abruptly stood up from their chairs. A sudden cardiac arrest during surgery is a stern test of clinical experience and psychological quality for any chief surgeon. ¡°The heartbeat has stopped?¡± ¡°Defibrillating!¡± ¡ª ¡°It¡¯s back!¡± ¡°It¡¯s back.¡± Amidst the noise and shouts of surprise, everyone saw the normal ECG waves on the screen, and heaved a long sigh of relief. Some people reached out to touch their chair, returning to their seats. People with residual fear crawled out from the danger, adjusting their emotions. ¡°In researching this type of tumor, Doctor Yang is a generation ahead of us; he predicted the cardiac arrest long ago.¡± ¡°We are still stuck in the stage of primitive exploration. To us, apparently insurmountable problems seem like routine to him.¡± The massive wave that had just risen in John Ansen¡¯s heart slowly calmed down, but the aftershocks continued to roll. Griffin, too, was left shaken. The medulla oblongata is part of the brain stem, with numerous nerve nuclei distributed in this region. Surgery in this region used to be a no-go zone. In recent years, due to advancements in brain stem anatomy and microscopic surgical techniques, and the application of various cutting-edge examination and surgical devices, surgeons have stepped into previously prohibited areas. But surgical operations are still limited to the safe area, between the nerve nuclei and the conduction bundles. The tumor Old Feng had, which is tightly adhered to the life nuclei, remains a surgery-free zone. Yang Ping¡¯s hands remained incredibly steady, like a precise machine¡ª- more notably, excellent haptic feedback allows for proper manipulation of operational intensity. This is something present-day machines cannot achieve. Wen Rentao, an expert at microscopic operations, despite watching Yang Ping¡¯s operation, had to admit that his gap with Yang Ping could not be narrowed. Under the enlarged microscope, manipulation is extremely smooth, maintaining maximum precision throughout, without the slightest deformation of movement. Having crossed the first danger zone, the tumor was further separated with ongoing hemostasis. Yang Ping perceived the tumor without a capsule as if it were enveloped in some invisible layer, and he managed to dissect it along this hidden surface. It was as though he were free-climbing. Five falls would occur in the climbing process, and after each fall, he would have to grasp the rock again and continue climbing. A single mistake could be beyond redemption. ¡°This represents the limit of humankind. His hand always remains steady, with no signs of slackness or fatigue.¡± ¡°Regardless of success or failure, this surgery should become a classic.¡± ¡°Damn, the adhesions are too tight. We¡¯ve encountered another danger zone. A precision of 0.1 millimeters isn¡¯t sufficient for this surgery. There¡¯s going to be another fall. Oh my God.¡± ¡°¡ª¡ª¡± The more one can understand, the more nervous they become. John Ansen covered his mouth, barely suppressing a shriek. Griffin and Woodhead were huddling together as if to find a sense of safety. The tip of the laser scalpel emitted faint light, once again entering the danger zone. Yang Ping paused briefly and communicated with his assistant, hinting what was to come. ¡°Everyone, please pay attention. The second cardiac arrest is about to occur. Stay focused.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s voice was clear and calm. Everyone refocused their attention, awaiting the second arrival of death. As a scream rang out in the meeting room. The second cardiac arrest occurred even quicker than the first, with absolutely no warning. Without delay, swift actions were taken. The aseptic sheet covered the surgical field to protect it, the aseptic sheet at the back was lifted, and the electrode piece and lead for the ECG were removed. The first defibrillation attempt, unsuccessful¡ª¡ª The observation room¡¯s screen showed the whole view of the operating room and various monitoring parameters. The second defibrillation attempt, unsuccessful¡ª John Ansen stood up with the others. Everyone was up on their feet. The second attempt had failed. Time passed second by second. With this type of cardiac arrhythmia, if early defibrillation fails, there is little chance of success later. John Ansen understood the risks involved. As if the patient was right before him, John Ansen, unable to help, clenched his fists. ¡°Come on, hang in there!¡± His clenched fist, his fingers deeply buried into his palm, caused a throbbing pain. Continuing¡ª Dr. Wu from the ICU, having experienced many resuscitations and struggles with death, found his hands slightly trembling as the second attempt failed. At this point, the doctors¡¯ exemplary professionalism was fully demonstrated. Despite this, he still moved as swiftly as possible, with not the slightest deformation in his movements, pressing the defibrillator plates onto the exact positions, and executed the third defibrillation. ¡°It¡¯s back!¡± The anesthesiologist, who had been staring at the ECG waves on the defibrillator screen, noticed the familiar waveform of normal sinus rhythm appearing after the dense ventricular fibrillation waves. ¡°It¡¯s back¡ª¡ª¡± Everyone almost began to cheer. The anesthesiologist did not even realize that when he shouted ¡°It¡¯s back,¡± two tears were hanging on his face. It wasn¡¯t just because of Old Feng. Doctors don¡¯t want any patient to pass away on their watch. When a life slips away from their hands, it impacts the soul of any doctor. Life and death, just within that split second. Life and death, just between the three defibrillation attempts. The heartbeat returned¡ª The patrolling nurse began wiping the sweat off everyone¡¯s forehead. Outside the operating room door, Han Jiangong and Hong Zhigang had been waiting. From time to time, doctors from other departments would look over, but none dared to come over. They all knew, as long as the door to the operating room was not opened ahead of time, the operation was still ongoing inside. For Han Jiangong and Hong Zhigang, both of them felt like they were on pins and needles. From what they could see through the small window, they knew they had passed the second Ghost Gate. Chapter 415 - 415 0385 Bare-handed rock climbing _2 ?Chapter 415: Chapter 0385 Bare-handed rock climbing _2 Chapter 415: Chapter 0385 Bare-handed rock climbing _2 Sometimes Professor Zhang stood still, at other times he paced back and forth with his hands behind his back. A neurosurgeon brought a stool over, inviting Professor Zhang to sit against the wall. Professor Zhang waved it off and indicated that he did not want to sit. Sitting down made him jittery ¨C it was easier if he moved around a bit. Dean Chen sat in the changing room, leaning back in his chair. He hadn¡¯t gone in yet, he was checking his phone periodically for any missed calls. ¡°He¡¯s got it, god, he¡¯s got it again.¡± Everyone sits back down; John Ansen gasps for breath, letting go of his whitened fingers. Woodhead and Griffin¡¯s hands tightly clasp together. Senior surgeons are anxiously watching the surgery unfold, especially during times when the heartbeat stops, fearful that it may not resuscitate. There is no indication when breathing stops due to general anesthesia because it inhibits autonomous breathing, thus completely relying on a breathing machine, hence it is unapparent. However, a heartbeat can be immediately detected; if it is not resuscitated in time, even if ECMO temporarily replaces the function of the heart to pump blood, it would be futile. Because the patient¡¯s brain function area is already disorganized, brain death is inevitable. ¡°Everyone, steady your emotions. Does anyone want to switch places?¡± Yang Ping asked everyone. Countless instances of harsh training have hardened his heart while operating, making him highly rational. Just like a robot, he is too rational to express emotions. In the face of such surgery, any emotional fluctuation, any flamboyant expressions of goodwill are useless. Everyone needs to act according to scientific principles, and every choice and judgement must be rational; this is the only way to come closest to success. After two sudden stops of the heartbeat, and two bouts with death, everyone¡¯s mental strength is greatly depleted. When asked by Yang Ping, no one responds. The quality of the doctors from the Magic City Sixth Hospital is indeed top-notch nationally. ¡°There are still a few more rounds to go, everyone stay focused. Death is right beside us, ready to strike at any moment. We cannot afford to make any mistakes, check the charge on the defibrillator,¡± Yang Ping reminded everyone. The operating table was reset, they changed clothes and gloves, and the surgery continued. The chief surgeon¡¯s unwavering will was focused on the tip of his scalpel. Fearless, it pressed on. The surgery had veered into the most dangerous region of the medulla oblongata. The third heartbeat stoppage would be more abrupt. Yang Ping had to make a judgement call early to allow other doctors enough time. Five seconds of hesitation, or a delay, could cost them the opportunity. Five seconds. The God of Life was only granting them five seconds at each turn. ¡°How can Doctor Yang predict the exact point at which the heartbeat is going to stop?¡± ¡°This means that his understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the brainstem is thorough.¡± ¡°In China, brainstem surgery is a neurosurgeon¡¯s job.¡± ¡°I heard that his research on cervical spine tumors extended into the medulla oblongata, hence his studies.¡± ¡°Our trip to China this time has advanced the surgical standards of upper cervical spine and brainstem tumors by at least ten years.¡± ¡°The Chinese are too wild; there seems to be no problem they can¡¯t crack.¡± ¡°Sir, don¡¯t forget, the world¡¯s first limb reattachment was performed in this hospital.¡± John Ansen, Griffin, and Woodhead sat down without a bathroom break. The same held true for the others in the observation room. They stayed glued to their seats without getting up. An operating object the size of a third of a thumb, all of it is as delicate as tofu, containing countless blood vessels and many nerve nuclei, forming its own dangerous world. The further down they went, the harder it was to separate, and any misdjudgment or operational error could be fatal. The laser knife followed a precise trajectory, without a hint of trembling or deviation. The chief surgeon seemed to know the boundary between the tumor and the normal tissue. Even if there was no boundary, he could separate them. As the dissection deepened, they got closer and closer to the third sudden stop of the heartbeat. ¡°The third sudden stop of the heartbeat is imminent. This time it is going to be stubborn. It may take dozens of rounds of heart compression and electric defibrillation to succeed. Everyone must hold on.¡± As Wen Rentao listened, he realized that Yang Ping could predict dozens of rounds of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and remain so calm. This guy was literally half-god, half-human. ¡°Are they going to peel the tumor out from the shallow layer of the nerve nucleus?¡± John Ansen felt chills all over his body; this was the real death zone. If they had been operating on the edge of death before, this time they were stepping directly onto death. This was something no neurosurgeon in the world would dare to do. Operating in the gap has already pushed the limits. Now, to enter the shallow part of the nerve nucleus? Even the slightest nudge of the forceps could trigger death. Yang Ping adjusted his position. This time there were two dangerous operation points connected. Yang Ping planned to cross them in one go, as splitting them into two parts would lower the success rate. If the nerve nuclei were akin to reefs scattered throughout a vast sea, the previous operations were akin to navigating between the reefs. Now, they were about to collide with a reef. At this point, even the 0.1-millimeter laser knife seemed to lack confidence. For this crossing of the perilous area, two operational risk zones required a single, smooth curve to be drawn in one go. Any pause would increase the time of the blade¡¯s stay, leading to an increase in thermal aggregation effect, causing irreparable consequences. ¡°Everyone, pay attention. Upon my command, don¡¯t look at anything else, directly defibrillate. Alternate between defibrillation and heart compression, do not stop, keep going until we succeed.¡± They only had one chance, and they had to succeed on the first try. In the movie Point Break, the protagonist jumps a canyon riding a motorcycle, landing on an isolated peak, with only one chance to do so. Failure meant death. Now, Yang Ping was going to jump across two canyons in a row. Chapter 416 - 416 0385 Bare-handed rock climbing _3 ?Chapter 416: Chapter 0385 Bare-handed rock climbing _3 Chapter 416: Chapter 0385 Bare-handed rock climbing _3 Wen Rentao didn¡¯t dare move the suction device in his hand. There was currently no bleeding, but even if there were, he wouldn¡¯t dare to suction the blood. ¡°Take a break, are you scared?¡± Yang Ping asked Wen Rentao. Wen Rentao tried to stay calm, ¡°The target of your operation is the heartbeat center, right?¡± ¡°Yes, I am going to go into the shallow layer of the core and strip out the part that the tumor has reached,¡± Yang Ping told him. ¡°If this method is viable, we only have one shot at it, there¡¯s no time to wait. As soon as we start, we must finish. Whether or not it¡¯s successful, we only have one chance.¡± Wen Rentao understood the risk of the upcoming operation. ¡°Everyone take a break and adjust your emotions. The resuscitation process that comes next is even more challenging. Trust me, we¡¯ll make it through.¡± Yang Ping encouraged the team. After a brief rest, Yang Ping resumed the surgery. He adjusted his breathing several times and constantly adjusted the laser knife in his hand, seeking the best feeling, like a sniper looking for the best moment to shoot. The laser knife head started to move. Unlike before, it was no longer unhurried. The small bright tip rapidly cut along the preset curve at the junction of the brain tissue and the tumor. Once, twice, three times, four times, each incision made with precision, deepening the separated area. Finally, two fatal zones were traversed. When the last procedure was completed, Yang Ping put down his instruments and directly ordered, ¡°Start cardiac compressions, defibrillate now!¡± No sooner had he finished speaking than the wave pattern disappeared, the heartbeat stopped, and this time the line was flat, not ventricular fibrillation. Although Yang Ping had warned everyone in advance, they were still shocked by the sudden change. A flat line was even more dangerous than ventricular fibrillation. Cover the surgical area, open the sterile sheet, and start open chest cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Dr. Wu from the ICU moved methodically. The force of the compressions on the back was reciprocated by the sandbag under the lower part of the sternum, which compressed the lower part of the sternum, causing the chest cavity to collapse. This created a manual pump effect, squeezing the heart to circulate oxygenated blood throughout the body. John Ansen was extremely nervous. This daring operation was necessary, otherwise, there was no hope for the surgery to succeed. His pores were contracted, his muscles were in spasm, and he remained motionless in his chair. ¡°Anesthesiologist, continue the epinephrine push.¡± ¡°It¡¯s back!¡± Ventricular fibrillation appeared again, this time as fine fibrillation waves. ¡°Anesthesiologist, convert it to coarse fibrillation waves, quickly!¡± Another dose of epinephrine was pushed in quickly. Fine fibrillation waves were very dangerous as defibrillation was hard to achieve. Thanks to the efforts of the anesthesiologist, the fine fibrillation waves quickly turned into coarse fibrillation waves, resembling a rapidly trembling rope. ¡°Wen Rentao, prepare to defibrillate, quickly!¡± Wen Rentao didn¡¯t hesitate at all. The electrodes in his hands, already coated with conductive paste, were pressed against Old Feng¡¯s back. Yang Ping looked calmly at the screen, his heart as solid as a rock. Defibrillation failed! Continue compressing the heart. ¡°Keep going, don¡¯t lose heart, we can definitely revive him, definitely...¡± Yang Ping, with a firm tone. ¡°Defibrillate again!¡± Failed again. Outside the door, Han Jiangong and Hong Zhigang were looking through the small glass window. They could see the resuscitation efforts happening on the inside, their hearts pounding, a tight contraction emanating from their chests. Professor Zhang sat on a stool, squinting his eyes. He couldn¡¯t stand anymore. Whether they¡¯d make it through depended on his old companion¡¯s fate. Alternating between cardiac compressions and defibrillation. The third time, the fourth time, the fifth time, the sixth time, the seventh time¡ª Still no sign of success. John Ansen stared at the screen, eyes wide, not daring to blink, with extreme pain. He hoped for the appearance of a sinus rhythm electrocardiogram, hoping for a QRS complex. QRS complex, something everyone has. Right now, for Professor Feng, it was out of reach. ¡°God¡ª¡± Griffin continuously made the sign of the cross. Woodhead¡¯s whole body was chilling. He tightly gripped Griffin¡¯s hand, his body had slid off the chair into a reclining position. ¡°Go faster, go faster!¡± Someone in the observation room started to weep loudly. The fifteenth defibrillation. Anesthesiologist Professor Ma looked at Yang Ping, everyone was non-stop. ¡°Change the person performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Zeng Ran replace Wen Rentao right now.¡± Zeng Ran stepped up. ¡°You¡¯re not pressing hard enough!¡± Yang Ping immediately replaced Zeng Ran. Normally, Yang Ping was supposed to be in overall command. However, Zeng Ran was not well-versed in performing supine cardiopulmonary resuscitation, as it was not frequently practiced and even in assessments, the patient is usually lying face up. Yang Ping rhythmically exerted force to press on the back, while the pressure on the back and the squeezing of the chest bone sandbag caused the chest cavity to deform, allowing the heart to pump out the blood. He then released his hand to let the chest cavity rebound, allowing the blood to return to the heart. ¡°Continue defibrillation!¡± It was the eighteenth defibrillation performed by Wen Rentao, who was almost in despair after eighteen attempts. ¡°Continue, everyone don¡¯t panic, we definitely can do this, we definitely can¡ª¡± Yang Ping spoke with firm and confident tone, boosting everyone¡¯s courage and confidence. Finially, sinus rhythm resumed after the twenty-first round. After the storm of heart dysrhythmias, all was silent, as people looked at the sinus rhythm waveform on the defibrillator¡¯s screen. The heart monitor was reconnected. The QRS complex, long missed, was back on the screen, the curve like the most beautiful melody in the world. Everyone sighed with relief after the near-death experience, all turning their gazes toward Yang Ping. Right now, in their eyes, he wasn¡¯t a human, but a god. ¡°Wipe your sweat, scrub your hands and come back to the table, the operation continues. Does anyone want to switch out?¡± Everyone shook their heads, encouraging each other. There were three cardiac arrests on the operating table. It took twenty-one rounds to revive him each time. Although each doctor had been exhausted, they were now pepped up and ready to go. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid, everyone. Remember, follow my orders for every action. We can definitely revive him. If I¡¯m not mistaken, we¡¯ll have one more cardiac arrest. I¡¯ll warn you all in advance.¡± ¡°We revived him again?¡± Griffin woke up John Ansen, who had closed his eyes. A sinus rhythm wave, a pleasant surprise, had appeared on the screen. ¡°I love you¡ª¡± The world¡¯s top neurosurgeon blew a kiss to the QRS complex on the screen. The crying man was a student of Professor Feng who had rushed back from Germany. He wept like a child while others handed him tissues. Chapter 417 - 417 0386 Crossing the Line of Death ?Chapter 417: Chapter 0386: Crossing the Line of Death Chapter 417: Chapter 0386: Crossing the Line of Death The deepest root of the tumor had not yet been completely removed, and its final adhesion to the nerve nuclei had not been separated yet. The ballet at the knife¡¯s edge continued, the scalpel that had already faced three threats of death unabashedly marched on. The last of the adhesions had passed the shallow layers of the nuclei and was now deeper than before. The previous task was just peeling, this one was excavation. Yang Ping knew clearly that the preceding three risks were not the most thrilling. The upcoming cardiac arrest was entirely different from before. If a sudden cardiac arrest occurred, it could not be immediately rescued. If he wanted the surgery to be successful, he must complete the final dangerous separation based on the cardiac arrest of Professor Feng. In other words, after the sudden cardiac arrest, he had to smoothly complete the surgery before initiating the rescue. If his surgery was not successfully completed, there would be no chance of rescue; if his surgery took too long, even if it was completed, he would lose the optimal time for rescue. The brain can tolerate ischemia for only 4-6 minutes, also time needs to be left for others to perform the rescue. After calculating, Yang Ping gave himself only sixty seconds to operate during cardiac arrest. During these sixty seconds, he would be under tremendous pressure, he would need to accurately complete the surgery in the most dangerous area within the specified time. Without the robust mental quality cultivated from countless devilish training, such a test would be nearly impossible and utterly desperate. John Ansen was tormented to live hell. It would¡¯ve been fine if he were a layperson, able to watch calmly. However, as a world-class neurosurgical expert, every step was crystal clear to him. With every move Yang Ping made, it felt as if the laser knife was operating on John Ansen¡¯s heart, he could almost feel his own heart beating intensely. The surge of adrenaline in his body was the peak of excitement, followed by constant cold sweats and continuous muscle soreness. ¡°He was saved!¡± Director Han told Professor Zhang, the old eighty-year-old man was completely soaked: ¡°I know¡ª¡± But the moment it arrives, no one knows how many storms have overturned in their hearts. Even if there¡¯s an 80% probability, when it comes to this surgery specifically, it¡¯s a choice between zero and one hundred percent. The mystery of the human body is complex, no one can guarantee safely crossing danger every time. ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± Dean Chen couldn¡¯t stay in the changing room and came out to stretch his legs. ¡°Three times passed the Ghost Gate, a moment ago it was touch and go.¡± Professor Zhang said. Dean Chen leaned close to the small window on the operating room door and looked inside. Inside the operation was still in progress. The extreme tension was followed by uncontrollable relaxation. The entire observation room was filled with doctors, most of whom were orthopedic and neurosurgical doctors, all having a feeling of being spared from calamity. But that laser knife did not relax at all, it was still separating and was about to enter the deepest part to dig out the deepest root. The most dangerous step was about to come, the success of the surgery depended on this step. Even the third time, with as many as twenty-one heart compressions and electrical defibrillations, it was also a brush with death. This time it was different, Yang Ping had to directly operate during cardiac arrest, effectively passing through death, side by side with the Grim Reaper. ¡°It¡¯s incredible, there¡¯s neither fluorescence imaging nor navigation assistance, the boundary of the tumor is located so precisely.¡± John Ansen admired. John Ansen felt that the chief surgeon behind the screen now was not that young doctor, but his own mentor. His wisdom, his courage, his tenacity, and his extreme rational brilliance in the face of disease. He was not anxious, not impatient, not threatened by death. He always proceeded methodically, meticulously following a scientific plan. Any accidents, he would always have a response plan. Unfortunately, this surgery was only allowed to be made public internally. If it could be broadcasted live in front of doctors worldwide, John Ansen would definitely ask all his colleagues to drop whatever they were doing and watch the surgery attentively. What is the limit of human precision, stability, rationality ¡ª This surgery not only showcased unparalleled surgical operations but also a thorough study of disease anatomy, pathology, and pathophysiology preoperatively. ¡°The heartbeat is about to stop abruptly again. Everyone, remember, don¡¯t panic. Excluding drug rescue, all other rescue measures can only be implemented after I complete the surgery.¡± Yang Ping reminded everyone one last time. Because the vibrations caused by the rescue would affect the operation, if there¡¯s an operation error causing nerve nucleus damage it would be irretrievable by any rescue. Yang Ping didn¡¯t plan to rest anymore. Taking advantage of his current excellent state, he planned to tackle the most challenging step in one go. While separating, while stopping the bleeding, the laser knife kept on going deeper. The laser knife went deeper and deeper into the small deep medulla oblongata. The tree roots were crisscrossing among the nerve nuclei, winding and twisting. Interwoven and adhered with the life center, Yang Ping was ready to dig out this last root. Finally, the surgery interfered with the life center, the electrocardiogram on the screen once again became a terrifying ventricular fibrillation wave. If ventricular fibrillation turns into full cardiac arrest, the chances of resuscitation are extremely slim. The sooner defibrillation is performed for ventricular fibrillation, the better. However, they couldn¡¯t possibly lift the sterile sheet right now, let alone carry out defibrillation. Even the anesthesiologist administering epinephrine was extra careful not to disturb Yang Ping¡¯s operation. Everyone watched the ventricular fibrillation on the screen, their hearts clenched tightly together. The operating room was eerily silent. Director Ma watched the ventricular fibrillation with trepidation, afraid that it would suddenly flatten into a straight line, turning into full cardiac arrest. Inwardly, everyone urged: hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. Dr. Wu¡¯s hands gripped the defibrillator¡¯s paddles, ready to defibrillate at any moment, the circulating nurse¡¯s hand was already holding the end of the sterile drape, ready to lift it up. But Yang Ping was still operating, with no intention of finishing. Once the golden defibrillation time passes, there¡¯s no second chance. But they dared not rush him, they could only grow increasingly anxious, their hearts aflame with worry. The time on the wall panel, the numbers of the ticking seconds, increased unceasingly, time slipping away bit by bit. Yang Ping, as stable as a mountain, moved faster and faster with the instruments in both hands, cutting, separating, clotting. The dance of the scalpel was nearing its most difficult act. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± From the observation room, no one understood what was going on. With ventricular fibrillation present, he¡¯s still operating? Not resuscitating? Once the optimal opportunity is lost, no one can bring it back. John Ansen murmured: ¡°To take advantage of the flatline period to complete the surgery as quickly as possible, and then resuscitate afterwards, this is gambling face to face with the Grim Reaper.¡± Perhaps, only John Ansen could understand the difficulty, risk, and unwavering determination of this final endeavor. The self-confidence and courage required to perform such a surgery were monumental. There was no other way, under the current medical conditions, this was pushing the limits. John Ansen¡¯s adrenaline was exhausted, unable to sustain his full concentration any longer, yet he gathered his strength, barely rising to his feet, paying homage to the chief surgeon on the screen behind him. The last straw of life floated on the water, at risk of sinking at any moment. The laser scalpel, unaffected by anything else, proceeded at the fastest speed to dislocate the base of the tumor. Finally, like digging out a yam, the last and deepest root in the medulla oblongata was successfully removed. ¡°Defibrillate!¡± The command was loud and clear. Like arrows released after a long draw, everyone took their positions, as the defibrillator paddles pressed against Old Feng¡¯s back. Once, twice, three times, four times, five times, six... This time only six rounds were needed to successfully defibrillate. Electrocardiographic defibrillation! Indeed, in a high-stakes gamble with death, a final, no-turning-back showdown, he won. He successfully traversed the gates of death. Like crossing through a long darkness, everyone was worn out, but at last, they glimpsed a ray of hope. The tumor in the brainstem was completely removed, leaving the upper cervical spinal section, which seemed quite simple. When the last tumor root was separated, the tumor was like a tree root, thrown into a metal basin with a splash of blood. Through the microscope, the surgical field was clean. After observing for a full five minutes and finding no bleeding points, Yang Ping started flushing. ¡°Did he succeed?¡± Griffin¡¯s voice was hoarse from exhaustion. John Ansen, on the other hand, was so excited he couldn¡¯t speak, completely ignoring Griffin¡¯s words. He stared blankly at the screen, murmuring to himself: ¡°He succeeded, succeeded, succeeded¡ª¡± The observation room erupted in jubilation, with people shaking hands and hugging each other. In the operating room, the work continued: flushing, re-clotting, fixing the cervical vertebrae at the skull base, placing drainage, stitching layer by layer, covering the head section. Dismantling the fixation frame, turning the body position into the supine. After three hours, three long hours, the operating room door opened. Professor Zhang, Han Jiangong, Hong Zhigang, and Dean Chen, as well as the doctors looking from afar, all came over. ¡°Vital signs stable, ready to return to ICU!¡± Yang Ping stood at the door and said. Director Han embraced him tightly, his eyes overly blurred to speak any word. Chapter 418 - 418 0387 Stable After the Operation ?Chapter 418: Chapter 0387: Stable After the Operation Chapter 418: Chapter 0387: Stable After the Operation Yang Ping¡¯s back was drenched in icy sweat, even he himself didn¡¯t know when he had sweated so much. Highly concentrated attention is greatly exhausting both mentally and physically. Four instances of hanging by a thread with heartbeats suddenly stopping could completely drain a doctor¡¯s confidence. However, he remained unwavering, pushing the surgery towards success step by step. Director Han tightly hugged Yang Ping, this young man who usually did not talk much, always managed to turn the tide at critical moments, remaining calm even when facing great danger. ¡°Quickly, go change your clothes, don¡¯t catch a cold,¡± Director Han finally spoke. ¡°It¡¯s fine, they¡¯re almost dry,¡± Yang Ping said with a laugh. Professor Feng was pushed out from the operating room, with an endotracheal tube inserted, connected to an emergency transport respirator. On the portable electrocardiograph following the gurney, the heart rate was 80 times per minute, blood pressure was 132/85mmHg, and blood oxygen saturation was 100%. Wen Rentao and Zeng Ran pushed the gurney, Dr. Wu held the resuscitator bag, the patrolling nurse held onto the rail, and Professor Ma followed alongside. They all escorted Professor Feng back to the ICU ward. Professor Zhang, Director Han, Hong Zhigang, and Dean Chen immediately surrounded them. Seeing the steady parameters on the monitor, all their anxious hearts were finally put to ease. ¡°The surgery was successful!¡± The news quickly spread. People started to come out from the other operating rooms, watching as Professor Feng¡¯s gurney was pushed out of the surgery room. If there were no complications, two hours after returning to the ICU, Professor Feng¡¯s endotracheal tube could be removed, and he could resume autonomous breathing. The surgery room doors opened, and Professor Feng¡¯s gurney was pushed out, heading towards the dedicated surgery elevator. The family waiting area was surrounded by people, all of them being doctors observing from the teaching room. John Ansen, Griffin, and Woodhead were also among them. Everyone kept quiet and didn¡¯t interrupt the progress of the gurney. The elevator doors opened, and Professor Feng was pushed into the elevator. Upon arrival at the ICU, the doctors and nurses were already well prepared, almost as if they were standing in a welcoming line. They transferred him to the bed, connecting the respirator and monitor, drawing blood for dynamic monitoring of various indicators. Professor Zhang, Han Jiangong, Hong Zhigang, and Yang Ping stayed by the bedside, while others were asked to leave. The tumor from the upper cervical cord to the medulla oblongata was completely removed, the nerve nuclei and conduction bundles were perfectly preserved, and the minor heat damage caused by the weak laser knife head was only transient. Next, they must be alert to the possible swelling of the medulla oblongata and spinal cord, but Yang Ping had been extra careful with the tissues during the operation, so even if there was postoperative swelling, it would be very mild. The use of mannitol and 20% glycerin solution would be sufficient to deal with potential slight swelling. Two hours later, Professor Feng¡¯s endotracheal tube was removed, he was taken off the respirator and resumed autonomous breathing. The heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, and blood oxygen saturation were all normal and very steady. Early postoperative weaning can truly monitor the patient¡¯s breathing status. Sometimes, if the respiratory center is damaged, the patient cannot be weaned and must rely on the ventilator¡¯s mechanical ventilation. Now, Professor Feng¡¯s breathing and heartbeat were very steady, the mobility of his limbs was normal, which indicated that the surgery did not damage the respiratory and heart centers, nor did it damage the spinal cord. All the evidence pointed out, the surgery was very successful, not only removing the tumor, but also leaving no postoperative complications. When the old man woke up and found out that his surgery was successful, he couldn¡¯t believe it. After all, he felt exhausted after general anesthesia, he also didn¡¯t want to talk too much, only answering a few questions before wanting to rest. ¡°You all go eat, I¡¯ll stay here to keep watch, there are also these ICU doctors,¡± Professor Zhang told Director Han, Hong Zhigang, and Yang Ping to go have their meals. ¡°You should also go eat, we will keep watch,¡± the ICU Director said to Professor Zhang. With the patient in the ICU, there was nothing to worry about. They still had to eat after all. Seeing that no one wanted to eat, Professor Zhang had to make an official command, ¡°Everyone go to eat. After eating, Jiangong and Zhigang come back, and Xiaoyang return to the hotel to rest.¡± Dean Deng of the Hospital Office had booked a private room in a nearby restaurant. Dean Chen led the team to accompany them, expressing the hospital¡¯s gratitude towards Sanbo Hospital on behalf of the hospital. During the meal, Dean Chen naturally had to give an official thank you speech. Accompanied by Han Jiangong, Hong Zhigang felt very embarrassed and guilty as he had been led astray and had used improper means to slander his junior brother out of selfishness. And his junior brother was aware that he was denigrating him but let him do so willingly, taking over the opportunity to succeed as department director. Over these past ten years, he was the only one kept in the dark, foolishly congratulating himself for his small trick. The more Hong Zhigang thought about it, the sadder he became. Back then, his teacher had taken all the responsibility, apologizing sincerely to the patient, negotiated compensation, preventing the situation from worsening. Though not his fault in intent, Hong Zhigang¡¯s negligence led to severe disability in the patient. He visited the patient multiple times after, explaining the situation, and gave financial compensation multiple times. He even funded the patient¡¯s son¡¯s tertiary education, helped him find a job in a state-owned enterprise in Shanghai after graduation. The patient not only forgave him but was extremely grateful to him. For over a decade, Hong Zhigang was tormented by his conscience towards the patient and his junior brother. Hong Zhigang did not anticipate that the teacher he respected was his biological father. These past few days¡¯ experiences were like a dream to Hong Zhigang. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, junior brother,¡± Hong Zhigang raised his cup, substituting wine with tea. Han Jiangong hugged his back, ¡°Let¡¯s not bring up the past. Okay, I accept your apology and let¡¯s turn over this page.¡± Though his senior brother was at fault, it wasn¡¯t unforgivable. He had sincerely repented afterward. Under his leadership, the Orthopedics department of Magic City Sixth Hospital had greatly developed over these years. He had selected and trained a group of young people, employing the most advanced training and management approaches from hospitals around the world, forming a standard training and management system. Yang Ping was surrounded by Wen Rentao, Zeng Ran, and Mu Jun. Remembering Takahashi Fumiya, the international Master of Trauma Surgery, Mu Jun asked, ¡°I heard that Professor Takahashi came to China?¡± He wanted to ask if he was in Sanbo Hospital. Yang Ping said, ¡°He has been in our hospital for several months now, do you know him?¡± ¡°He is our teacher. When we were studying in Japan, we received his training. He is very strict,¡± Mu Jun quickly explained. As expected, Takahashi was in China, at Sanbo Hospital. Wen Rentao and Mu Jun¡¯s speculation had been confirmed. Yang Ping thought they knew about Takahashi¡¯s further studies and wanted to inquire about his current situation. So he took a sip of tea and said, ¡°Takahashi originally planned for a three-month study period, but now it has been extended to half a year. He is quite good, very serious and hard-working in his studies.¡± Everyone looked at each other. Takahashi was further studying at Sanbo? They all thought he was there to train them, but Takahashi was actually studying at Sanbo. This was quite awkward for the unintentionally brought up topic. ¡°Your Golden Knife Award Spinal Orthopedic Surgery was amazing. There are many questions I still don¡¯t understand,¡± Zeng Ran quickly changed the topic to lift the awkwardness. Speaking of the Golden Knife Award, Director Peng of the Medical Affairs Office said: ¡°We have discussed uploading a video of Professor Feng¡¯s surgery to the Golden Knife Award website, but according to the rules of the Golden Knife Award, the case must be from the participating hospital. Even though Dr. Yang was the chief surgeon, Professor Feng¡¯s case is considered as belonging to Magic City Sixth Hospital. We don¡¯t know if it can be considered Dr. Yang¡¯s competing case. We will try our best to apply and communicate with the main committee, such a classic case is rare.¡± Director Peng has been dealing with this matter. Before the surgery, Professor Feng instructed that his own case be used for teaching. If the surgery failed, a post-mortem should be conducted for research. Now that the surgery was successful, Director Peng and Dean Chen had been considering, as Professor Feng wished, making the surgical video public to their peers. This surgery is an excellent teaching case for both spinal surgeons and neurosurgeons. And the best way to disclose it is to post it on the Golden Knife Award website, which is currently the most powerful way of dissemination. If it could be considered as Yang Ping¡¯s competing case, that would be even better. Even if it couldn¡¯t, creating a separate area on the Golden Knife Award website to display this surgery could benefit everyone. ¡°The purpose of the competition is to inspire young doctors to strive for perfection. This surgery embodies this spirit. I believe the main committee will take this into consideration,¡± Professor Zhang strongly recommended that this surgery be considered as a competing operation. Dean Chen was aware that they had detained Yang Ping here for several days, and he would need to stay a few days more postoperatively, which would definitely delay his preparation for the Golden Knife Award season. If they could have Professor Feng¡¯s surgery as a competing case, it would not only uphold Professor Feng¡¯s intent but also make up for Yang Ping¡¯s delayed time. So he said, ¡°We will contact several authoritative professors in the field of orthopedics in the name of Magic City Sixth Hospital and request the main committee. We hope to get approval.¡± Such a case that challenges forbidden areas and showcases doctors¡¯ intelligence and courage, should be respected and learned from by doctors nationwide. The third season competition is the surgery of spinal and pelvic tumors, among which, the upper cervical tumor is the focus. Thinking of Professor Feng¡¯s case, Yang Ping started to ponder how to simplify, standardize, and popularize this kind of high-difficulty surgery. To make the surgery replicable on a large scale. Even though other doctors might not be able to reach his level, it was enough to take a step forward regarding the surgery of upper spinal and brain stem tumors. Among them, Yang Ping¡¯s experience in anatomy and pathophysiology was the most precious. Without thorough anatomical research on the brain stem, such a high success rate would not have been possible. Without deep research into the pathophysiology of the brain stem, he wouldn¡¯t have been as composed in the face of several sudden cardiac arrests. Yang Ping decided to write a paper, researching the anatomy and pathophysiology of the upper spinal cord and brain stem. Based on this foundation, involving more scientific and safe surgical approaches and methods, enabling everyone to master his surgical techniques. Everyone had almost finished their food and tea. Professor Zhang suggested that they conclude the meal. Professor Zhang arranged for everyone to visit Professor Feng in the ICU again. Hong Zhigang and Han Jiangong stayed overnight in the ICU, taking turns on duty. Wen Rentao drove Yang Ping back to the hotel. He was exhausted and went back to the hotel to rest. These past few days, his old buddy had worn out Professor Zhang. He was so exhausted that he needed to rest, otherwise, he feared he might end up in the ICU himself. Chapter 419 - 419 0388 Superior to The Three Strong ?Chapter 419: Chapter 0388: Superior to The Three Strong Chapter 419: Chapter 0388: Superior to The Three Strong A bold idea began to form in John Ansen¡¯s mind as he prepared to return to the United States with Griffin and Woodhead. He wanted to establish an online community dedicated to studying and discussing Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries, inviting Griffin and Woodhead to be the first members of this community. In the future, members would hold academic salons periodically, focusing on Yang Ping¡¯s case studies. With the consent of Magic City Sixth Hospital, John Ansen obtained Old Feng¡¯s surgical video, which would be the first research case for John Ansen¡¯s online community. Five days after the surgery, Professor Feng¡¯s condition remained stable. The postoperative pathology showed chordoma, with low malignancy. There was a possibility of recurrence, but for Old Feng, the ability to extend his life for a few years signified the purpose of the surgery. Even if a relapse occurred, there would still be a chance for surgery. Old Feng¡¯s vitality gradually returned. Seeing his two disciples letting bygones be bygones and finally recognizing their father in his lifetime brought him great joy. Upon learning that his heartbeat suddenly stopped four times during the surgery, and Yang Ping fearlessly resolved the crisis there and then, he praised Yang Ping for daring to remove the tumor located in the nerve nucleus area of the brainstem. Old Feng held Yang Ping¡¯s hand and looked at him up and down, admiring this young man of his grandson¡¯s generation. He advised Han Jiangong to nurture and protect this young whiz-kid, whose thinking was beyond ordinary individuals. Old Feng repeatedly urged Yang Ping to write more articles, not for the title or fame, but to refine his own experiences into theories to share with everyone. As Professor Feng passed the critical postoperative period, Yang Ping, along with Professor Zhang and Director Han, left Shanghai and returned to Sanbo Hospital. Before leaving, Hong Zhigang requested Han Jiangong for a partnership with Sanbo Hospital. During Yang Ping¡¯s absence, his daily departmental patient reports were sent to him on WeChat by Song Zimo. Song Zimo complimented Xu Zhiliang for his quick progress and dedication, helping to relieve him of some workload. Yang Ping felt very pleased to see his two assistants getting along well. Although he spent almost every day with Xiao Su, he still missed her a lot during his days in Shanghai. When they returned to the Nandu airport, with Xu Zhiliang staying to look after the house, Song Zimo was there to pick them up. The rest of the gang also wanted to come, and they came in several cars to pick up Yang Ping, including Takahashi and Miyuki. With Zhang Lin¡¯s introduction, everyone knew that Yang Ping¡¯s lengthy trip to Shanghai was all for Professor Feng¡¯s surgery. Everyone asked about the status of Professor Feng¡¯s surgery as soon as they met. Professor Zhang told them that Feng¡¯s heart stopped four times during the operation, with one episode requiring twenty-one electric shocks to restart. In another episode, surgery was performed during cardiac arrest. Everyone was captivated and awestruck hearing about the thrilling surgery. Xiao Su, seeing Yang Ping after several days, could not express her feelings openly in front of everyone else. She simply opened the car door and gazed at Yang Ping tenderly, signaling him to get into her car. Everyone realized what was happening and did not get into Xiao Su¡¯s car. Zhou Can deliberately walked towards that car, but Zhang Lin held her back, saying, ¡°Are you developmentally delayed or mentally bankrupt?¡± ¡°Doctor Yang needs to explain the surgical instruments used in this operation to Xiao Su, you guys don¡¯t need to join the crowd.¡± Professor Zhang waved his hand, letting everyone get in their respective cars. Takahashi reminded Miyuki, who was in a daze, ¡°Get in the car, let¡¯s go.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Miyuki looked at Xiao Su¡¯s departing car and got into Little Five¡¯s car with Takahashi, feeling melancholic. Everyone headed back to Sanbo Hospital. Upon returning to the hospital, Yang Ping familiarized himself with all the departmental patients along with the team. Lu Gang¡¯s stitches had been removed long ago. There were no postoperative infections or delayed paralysis, and the postoperative rehabilitation training was progressing well. He was preparing to be discharged and go home. His mother prepared a banner and personally sewed a cross-stitch banner to express her gratitude to the doctors and nurses. Yang Ping jokingly said to him, ¡°When you get married, you should invite us to the wedding banquet.¡± Lu Gang¡¯s mother laughed, ¡°Absolutely, I will definitely invite you.¡± Yu Shuilian¡¯s rehabilitation training showed significant progress, allowing her to walk freely with the support of both hands. Dean Xia visited her and proposed to set up a bakery for her on the first floor of Tri-Bo Hotel. The hospital has a high footfall, ensuring the business will be brisk. The baking teacher that Xiao Su had previously helped contact said he was willing to provide technical guidance regularly at her bakery. It would soon be time for Sisi¡¯s next assessment. Yang Ping was most worried about her and was unsure about the results of the upcoming review. According to Song Zimo, while Yang Ping was away in Shanghai, Hermes came for a review once. The tibial elongation was going well, and in about three months, the elongated segments at both ends would successfully meet. Hermes had formed a band called ¡°The Beggars¡± where he was the lead vocalist. They not only sang on the overpass but also went on tour. They also started performing on some short video websites like TikTok. He had quite a number of fans and was now preparing to promote used items through live webcasts. Miss Ning from the Anning Group sent a message on WeChat saying that Mr. Guo Jingyao, one of her important clients from Malaysia, wished to visit China and meet Yang Ping. She wanted to know when Yang Ping would be free so she could schedule a visit on behalf of Mr. Guo. Such influential people preferred to follow the proper etiquette and planned their visits ahead of time. Miss Ning, a heavy hitter in the business world, was handpicked for making the arrangements. Ning Qi had once visited the Comprehensive Orthopedics department to express her gratitude to Yang Ping for assisting her father, bringing him a box of cookies that she had baked herself. At that time, she and Yang Ping had exchanged WeChat contacts. After the Golden Knife Award, Yang Ping checked his phone calendar and sent Ning Qi a date. Ning Qi replied with a laughing emoji and an OK hand gesture. During Yang Ping¡¯s time in Shanghai, the final four for the Golden Knife Award had been determined: Yang Ping, Su Nanchen, Wen Rentao, and Zheng Huahua. The third round of surgeries had already begun. After a computerized draw, Yang Ping was paired against Zheng Huahua from Xi Jing, and Su Nanchen was paired against Wen Rentao. Through collective voting by the Golden Knife Award¡¯s main committee, Old Feng¡¯s surgery was approved as Yang Ping¡¯s third round¡¯s surgery. Like the spine-correction surgery, this surgery demonstrated all the technical skills required for similar surgeries. If all goes well, Yang Ping will once again establish his advancement in the competition through presenting this surgery. With the surgery led by Academician Feng, involving upper cervical spinal cord and medulla oblongata tumors, spanning orthopedics and neurosurgery to completely remove tumors in the center of life, the operation experienced four abrupt cardiac arrests, but everything went perfectly well. Who can compete against such a frontline surgery? A spine-correction surgery for a twisted spine had already caused a stir on the site, and now another surgery like this one suddenly came to light. This competition is basically over. The championship is just waiting for Yang Ping to seize it. The rest can only compete for the runner-up spot now. ¡°I can imagine Zheng Huahua¡¯s feelings at this moment.¡± ¡°Is there any point in continuing the competition? They might as well just present the award.¡± ¡°Your spinal-correction surgery frightened me to the point of nearly losing my soul. Now you¡¯ve pulled off such a surgery. After watching the video, I was so scared that I wet my pants. A tumor buried in the upper spinal cord and medulla oblongata, involving the center of life, with no more than a one percent success rate, four abrupt cardiac arrests, but you held on and succeeded in the surgery.¡± ¡°I¡¯m still trembling all over.¡± ¡°I have nothing more to say ¨C I salute you.¡± ¡°Areas that are forbidden for others are freely accessible to you. I¡¯m planning to go to Sanbo for further study after the competition, do you think they will take me?¡± ¡°Get in line. Look ahead. I¡¯ve already reserved a spot.¡± ¡°Yang God, I respect only you. Not to be disrespectful, but now I really want to kneel.¡± ¡°Watching the surgery, my chest hurts. This can¡¯t go on, there¡¯ll be trouble.¡± ¡°God Yang ¡ª¡± ¡°Directly advancing, Brother Hua, it¡¯s not that you¡¯re not good, but that your luck is very bad.¡± ¡°Brother Hua, hold on, being able to compete against Yang God, it¡¯s honorable even to lose.¡± ¡°The West has indeed put in a lot of effort this year, but ending up against Yang God, just shows that man proposes, God disposes.¡± The entire site is overwhelmed with a flood of comments. The abilities demonstrated through the two surgeries, no one else can surpass. In the not so distant past, every participant in the Golden Knife Award was eager to win, and the audience made their own guesses and bets. Now there is no controversy at all. One man surpasses the other three strong competitors and sits in an unshakable position, just waiting to receive the award. The runner-up is the highest accolade the other three can aim for. This situation has never happened before in the history of the Golden Knife Award. At Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, everyone is learning from Yang Ping¡¯s surgery. ¡°This year¡¯s Golden Knife Award is interesting. Half of the final four is controlled by the big boss.¡± Professor Zou said mirthfully to Professor Huang. There is no flaw in this statement, Huang Zhong also agrees: ¡°Perhaps both the Champion and Runner-up will come from the Boss¡¯ family.¡± Among the final four, Su Nanchen is Professor Su¡¯s son, and Yang Ping is his future son-in-law. These two occupy two out of four seats, so to say they own half the game isn¡¯t wrong. If Su Nanchen could smoothly advance to the final round, and the top two positions were taken by the Su Family, the son-in-law and the son competing for the championship would add a memorable story to the medical world. Professor Su, observing this situation, doesn¡¯t say anything, but his heart is sweet. Who could dislike having such honor? He truly hopes Su Nanchen could defeat Wen Rentao. However, the opponent is strong, being eight years older than Su Nanchen, he has eight more years of clinical experience. Especially this round¡¯s competition surgery, spinal pelvic tumors. Although the Bone Tumor Center of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One is one of the top three centers in the country, Su Nanchen is still young, the surgical experience can¡¯t compare with Wen Rentao¡¯s. After following Yang Ping for so long, Su Nanchen has actually improved quite a lot. He is probably the person that has benefited the most from Yang Ping¡¯s surgical experience, only next to Song Zimo. Before the competition, Su Nanchen sent Yang Ping the case he¡¯d chosen to present, asking for Yang Ping¡¯s opinion. Yang Ping helped him analyze the case and together they formulated a surgical plan. They meticulously laid out plans for tumor exposure and removal. This included specific orders for ligating the blood vessels and stages to separate the tumor. By leveraging 3D printing technology, Yang Ping had Su Nanchen repeatedly simulate the operation before the actual surgery, constantly enhancing his familiarity with the procedure. Following the guidance from Yang Ping, Su Nanchen had a much more thorough understanding of the anatomy and pathophysiology of the tumor. The most important basis for surgical operations is anatomy: both normal and pathological anatomy. Yang Ping helped Su Nanchen understand each case¡¯s anatomy clearly, and then imparted all of his valuable surgical experience to his future brother-in-law. This talented future brother-in-law quickly absorbed Yang Ping¡¯s experience and made it his own. Wen Rentao had already given up on the championship, seeking instead for the second place. As for defeating Su Nanchen, he still had some confidence. Chapter 420 - 420 0389 A Great Lesson ?Chapter 420: Chapter 0389 A Great Lesson Chapter 420: Chapter 0389 A Great Lesson Zheng Huahua from Xi Jing, originally thought that Wen Rentao and Song Yun were his biggest rivals. The entire department considered Wen Rentao and Song Yun as their imaginary enemies, but they never seriously studied the dark horse, Sanbo. Not until the second season of the surgery, did Yang Ping make a leisurely appearance, and Zheng Huahua sneered at this seemingly pretentious guy. However, in the second season, Yang Ping directly advanced by defeating Song Yun of Xiehe Hospital with a nearly world¡¯s most difficult spinal correction surgery. Before Zheng Huahua could adjust, Yang Ping, who had been resting for a long time, immediately uploaded Professor Feng¡¯s surgery video for cervical spinal cord and medulla oblongata tumor. A surgery with a success rate of less than one percent immediately knocked the unprepared Zheng Huahua completely dumbfounded, as if he was a boxer in a competition. He was knocked out by a heavy punch even before he was able to steady himself on the stage, without even getting a clear look at his opponent, and the referee had already started the countdown. The match had just begun, and he was already eliminated, losing in a very humiliating and confused state. Looking at the comments, Zheng Huahua was so angry that he felt like vomiting blood, but there was nothing he could do. The strength displayed by Yang Ping¡¯s two surgeries was like a huge mountain weighing down, and no one could move this mountain. Zheng Huahua has been preparing for so long, wanting to bring this championship back to the West, but now there seems to be no hope. For the surgeries that followed, he had no motivation to complete them, His fighting spirit that had been gathered earlier was like a deflated balloon ¡ª all gone. ¡°Cheer up and complete the following surgeries properly. Didn¡¯t you see Song Yun from Xiehe? Despite knowing he had failed, he still completed his surgery meticulously. At the end, he even graciously included a subtitle in the video paying tribute to Yang Ping.¡± Professor Dou, the head of Xi Jing¡¯s Orthopedics Department, comforted Zheng Huahua. The reality of surgery is plain. The gap in level was clear; if the gap was not big, he could rely on his own seriousness or the opponent¡¯s mistakes to fight. But with a huge gap, there was absolutely no chance. Absolute strength made all strategies or strokes of luck seem insignificant, it was better to learn from Song Yun of Xiehe. ¡°For your last surgery, you should also include a tribute subtitle. This young man¡¯s surgeries are indeed ahead of ours by a lot.¡± Director Dou felt that, as the competitor who had made it the farthest from the western region, Zheng Huahua should show some magnanimity at the end. Director Dou felt that losing to Yang Ping was not unjust. Zheng Huahua remained silent, needing to adjust his mindset. ¡ª Wen Rentao¡¯s biggest hope now was to win the runner-up. No one had the strength to compete for the championship anymore, a consensus among everyone. In the fight for the runner-up, he was fairly confident. Su Nanchen was just around thirty, with far less surgical experience than him. Especially for spinal and pelvic tumor surgeries, these surgeries required a lot of experience, such as tumor exposure, where to start the removal, determining the boundaries, order of ligating the blood vessels, range and order of lymph node dissection during an aggressive tumor surgery. If he could defeat Su Nanchen and stand next to Yang Ping in the final, it would be an honor in itself. ¡°Su Nanchen¡¯s arthroscopy is very similar to Song Zimo¡¯s style, have you noticed?¡± Zeng Ran kept finding it more and more suspicious. That meant, that Su Nanchen and Yang Ping had some close ties. Wen Rentao rewound Su Nanchen¡¯s joint surgery video and indeed, the more he watched, the more justified Zeng Ran¡¯s words seemed. These words made Wen Rentao scared, the usually self-confident Wen Rentao lost his confidence whenever Yang Ping¡¯s name was mentioned. ¡°Are you saying that they often communicate with each other?¡± Wen Rentao needed to confirm this. Zeng Ran remembered something: ¡°I¡¯m not sure, but I remember seeing them talking together at the banquet during a conference I attended. They seemed to have a very close relationship.¡± Wen Rentao compared Su Nanchen and Song Zimo¡¯s surgical videos, their styles were indeed extremely similar, including the layout of the surgical table, tubes and cables. Because there is no uniform rule for these details, as long as they comply with the aseptic principle, they usually have a strong personal style. ¡°Your guess is correct, they are in the same city, so communication between them is inevitable.¡± Wen Rentao was almost certain of Zeng Ran¡¯s words. Mu Jun felt a little discouraged: ¡°Does this mean we might even have difficulty grabbing the second spot?¡± If this were true, Su Nanchen wouldn¡¯t only concern himself with arthroscopic surgeries, his other surgeries would also involve frequent communication with Yang Ping. Being able to have such similar surgical styles was definitely not due to occasional exchanges, but rather constant learning and interaction. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much.¡± Zeng Ran encouraged Mu Jun. Wen Rentao shook his head: ¡°He¡¯s right, we probably can¡¯t count on winning the second place anymore.¡± ¡°If we get eliminated, can we only compete with Zheng Huahua for the third spot?¡± Mu Jun now lacked confidence. At this time, Hong Zhigang walked in. Professor Feng had already been transferred back to the orthopedics ward from the ICU. Hong Zhigang had just accompanied Professor Feng for a chat and came to the teaching room to take a look. ¡°Doctor¡ª¡± Wen Rentao and the others stood up. ¡°How¡¯s it going, have all the surgical cases been prepared?¡± Hong Zhigang saw that they were discussing something. Wen Rentao felt somewhat ashamed. He had intended to reclaim the championship, but now even the second place seemed difficult. Hong Zhigang gave a thumbs-up: ¡°Rentao, you¡¯ve done your best. No matter what place you get in the end, I still think you are the best.¡± ¡°Sit, let¡¯s talk while sitting.¡± Hong Zhigang asked everyone to sit down, and he also took a seat. ¡°You don¡¯t have to feel guilty about the competition. Dr. Yang¡¯s surgical skills have far surpassed ours. The gap between us and him is huge. Even when John Ansen, Griffin, and Woodhead were leaving, they asked me for Professor Feng¡¯s surgical videos to study when they got back. Now we are about to collaborate with Sanbo Orthopedics, which is a great learning opportunity. You can learn a lot from the collaboration. It¡¯s no shame to learn. I heard that Academician Liang from Xiehe Hospital, was deeply moved when he saw Dr. Yang¡¯s performance. He is going to arrange for Professor Hu¡¯s team to travel to Sanbo in batches for further study after the competition. ¡± Hong Zhigang encouraged Wen Rentao earnestly. When Wen Rentao heard his teacher¡¯s words, the pressure was greatly relieved. He said, ¡°Teacher, please arrange for me to study at Sanbo. Honestly, I want to go and learn!¡± ¡°I will contact Professor Han.¡± Hong Zhigang was very satisfied with Wen Rentao¡¯s attitude. Back then, it was because of his lack of broad-mindedness that he made a mistake. Now that Wen Rentao has shown such magnanimity, Hong Zhigang felt particularly gratified. This young man had not let him waste his efforts. ¡ª When John Ansen returned to the Mayo Clinic in the United States, he immediately threw himself into his bustling work. His stay in China had exceeded the planned time, delaying a lot of things. However, he didn¡¯t care at all. The unexpected rewards from his trip to China still had him feeling elated. ¡°Collins sent over a batch of brain imaging photos. According to the workflow, I¡¯ve locked them in the safe. These photos need your personal review and signature. You delayed your return and postponed the surgeries as per your request; the patient appointments were also forcibly delayed. I explained that you had extremely important things to attend to in China. There are several papers in NATURE REVIEWS NEUROSCIENCE nearing the review deadline, should you take a look at them? That gentleman from the Middle East has scheduled the review of your surgery, and will arrive at Mayo a week later ¡ª¡± The secretary pulled out the work notes from her tablet and began to report to John Ansen item by item. ¡°Take out the imaging photos from the safe. Let me take a look.¡± John Ansen briefly prioritized the tasks. This efficient Latina secretary quickly brought out a bag of imaging photos and hung one of them on the light box. An MR of cerebrovascular imaging. John Ansen was an advisor to many medical organizations. These photos were just scans from the medical examinations of some special individuals. Image specialists had already thoroughly reviewed them. All John Ansen had to do was to provide a final check. If there were no issues and he had no objections to the report, he could sign his name. John Ansen took a magnifying glass and carefully inspected each figure. Then he replaced it with another one and repeated the process several times until he was finished with all the photos in the bag. There was also a report in the bag. John Ansen found the place where he had to sign and signed his name. ¡°Lock them back in the safe and let Collins come and get them personally.¡± John Ansen instructed his secretary. The secretary put the things away, put them back into the bag, and locked them back in the safe. ¡°Gather all the doctors in the neurosurgery department. Saturday morning at eight, in the department¡¯s meeting room. I want to give them a lesson.¡± John Ansen reminded his secretary. Chapter 421 - 421 0390 Da Vincis Hot Dance ?Chapter 421: Chapter 0390: Da Vinci¡¯s Hot Dance Chapter 421: Chapter 0390: Da Vinci¡¯s Hot Dance Sure enough, the southern region turned out to be the biggest winner of the Golden Knife Award. In the third season of the surgery competition, Yang Ping defeated Zheng Huahua without a doubt. Wen Rentao, the most popular candidate for victory, was defeated by Su Nanchen, resulting in the top two winners being from the southern region. Ever since Yang Ping entered the scene, he changed the dynamic of the Golden Knife Award competition, and everyone was confident that he would win. However, Su Nanchen¡¯s defeat of Wen Rentao was unexpected. Su Nanchen is one of the younger competitors, and although he is strong, he is still young and lacks experience. No one expected him to defeat Wen Rentao. Nevertheless, this round of the Golden Knife Award has disrupted everyone¡¯s predictions, and an additional surprise isn¡¯t shocking anymore. Seeing this outcome, Professor Su was overjoyed. His son and future son-in-law were competing for the championship. No matter who won or lost, the champion would belong to the Su family. Professor Zou was the first to congratulate Professor Su, saying, ¡°Dean Su, this situation is quite embarrassing. Both of them have advanced. No matter who wins or loses, it makes us feel uneasy.¡± The flattery was subtle, and others didn¡¯t detect a hint of sycophancy upon hearing it. ¡°It¡¯s all about participation, all about participation!¡± said Professor Su, smiling. No matter who won or lost, wasn¡¯t it just a matter of the right hand winning over the left hand? The more Old Su thought about it, the happier he was. Due to this, Sanbo Hospital became famous nationwide. Compared to previous academic conferences, this was truly a significant event. Dean Xia was continuously visiting the Orthopedics department. For Sanbo Hospital, winning a Golden Knife Award would be a historic event. In the past, only top-tier hospitals in the country have won the championship. There have been no cases where a second-tier hospital has won the award, let alone a hospital like Sanbo that was not categorized. Upon hearing that the fourth season finals would involve a competition of surgical robots, Dean Xia, Director Han, and Director Zhao planned for Yang Ping and his team to practice with the hospital¡¯s surgical robot to strive for a total victory. A 20 million yuan Da Vinci robotic surgical system and a 15 million Tianji system was given to Yang Ping for practice. If any part was damaged, it would cost at least several hundred thousand yuan. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s equipment is quite good. They currently have two surgical robots: an American Da Vinci and a locally produced Tianji. The Da Vinci can perform thoracic surgery, general surgery, urological surgery, gynecological and obstetrics surgery, and head and neck surgery, but can¡¯t perform orthopedic surgery. It is actually a high-level endoscope auxiliary system. The Tianji surgical robot, on the other hand, specializes in orthopedic surgery. It is the only surgical robot in the world that can perform various procedures on hard skeletal tissues, like spinal segment, pelvic fracture, limb fracture, and trauma fracture, bone tumor surgeries, along with joint navigation. It can be considered a high-level X-ray navigational auxiliary system. So-called surgical robots are just remote operation systems. The robot itself cannot perform surgery; it is merely a surgical assistant tool that requires the doctor to remotely control the robotic arm for surgical operations. The technology is far from developing a real robot. Operating a surgical robot is not hard. This technology is similar to playing a video game. An experienced surgeon can master it with a little training. It has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that the robotic arm can filter out the tremors in human hands, making it more stable, can perform sub-millimeter operations, becoming more accurate, and can perform movements at any angle, making it more flexible than the human hand. Combined with X-ray technology, it can perform a human body X-ray; combined with imaging technology, it can enlarge the surgical target. The obtained image is three-dimensional, making it more advanced than two-dimensional endoscopic surgery. The downside is that there is no tactile feedback; it cannot accurately control the force of the instrument, nor can it use tactile sensation to feel different human body tissues. Of course, there are also characteristics innate to machines. There is a chance of malfunction, leading to loss of control, which has been the case in the world. In short, the current robot surgery tests the doctor¡¯s remote operation ability, expressing their surgical ability through the remote control machine. In the end, people still need to perform the surgery. Dean Xia personally wanted to see Yang Ping¡¯s surgical robot operating capability, and quickly took Director Zhao, Director Han, and others to the operating room. The Tianji was busy. Tan Boyun had one surgery which was nearly finished. The Da Vinci was available. Since it was all about testing remote control operations, Dean Xia asked which machine should be used first for the demonstration, if Da Vinci would work? Just a tool, there shouldn¡¯t be anything wrong with it. Although it¡¯s not specialized for orthopedics, it can still demonstrate manipulation technology. Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to waste everyone¡¯s time, so he said, ¡°Let¡¯s go with the Da Vinci!¡± ¡°Director Fang, shall we go with the Da Vinci?¡± Dean Xia consulted with Director Fang from the Department of General Surgery. The Da Vinci is currently more widely used in general surgery, thoracic surgery, urological surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology, but it is most commonly used in general surgery. Dean Xia, in a show of respect, asks Director Fang for his opinion. The dean brought along a large group of people and asked if it was okay. How could Director Fang say no? He reluctantly said, ¡°Okay!¡± With equipment worth twenty million yuan, this young man, who had never seen him operate the machine before, could potentially cause damage. Who wouldn¡¯t be heartbroken? If there is a problem, the hospital will pay for it. Director Fang thinks this way and feels a little relieved. ¡°Dean Xia, Xiao Yang has never used this before... There... there is a risk...¡± Director Fang stammered. Dean Xia reassured him, ¡°It¡¯s okay, Director Han said he¡¯s familiar with it. He¡¯s done a lot of surgeries with the Tianji. We¡¯ll deal with it if the machine has issues. There are so many people here. It¡¯s not like I can deny responsibility.¡± Chapter 422 - 422 0390 Da Vincis Hot Dance_2 ?Chapter 422: Chapter 0390: Da Vinci¡¯s Hot Dance_2 Chapter 422: Chapter 0390: Da Vinci¡¯s Hot Dance_2 Waiting for such a response, Director Fang¡¯s expression lightens up, ¡°Dean Xia, you misunderstood me, that¡¯s not what I meant. I was saying, should I give a demonstration to Xiao Yang?¡± ¡°Xiao Yang, would you like a demonstration from Director Fang?¡± Dean Xia asked. After all, as this wasn¡¯t an Orthopedics procedure, Yang Ping was eager and it seemed more natural. ¡°I was just about to say, please do give a demonstration, Director Fang.¡± A group of people arrived at the Da Vinci operating room, which was quite large and designed specifically for its use. With a few doctors, Director Fang demonstrates to Yang Ping, explaining step by step, from turning on the machine, positioning the robotic arm, to controlling the console, and so on. A surgeon from general surgery took out a glass bottle. Director Fang placed it on the surgery table. This was a bottle that Director Fang had specially bought when he was training in the Da Vinci system at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong. When Director Fang was training, there was no training center for Da Vinci in mainland China, so he went to Hong Kong to complete the training. Now, a training center for Da Vinci was set up in the Changhai Hospital in Shanghai, which made everything more convenient. ¡°Grape, grape¡ª¡± Director Fang called out. Another general surgeon brought out a grape, inserted a thin, long stick into it, put the grape into the glass bottle, and used the stick to stabilize it to prevent it from rolling around. A good show was about to start, everyone crowded around the bottle to watch. There were also a lot of doctors, grad students, and standardized training students who were now free. With everything set up, this was not a demonstration for Yang Ping. It seemed like Director Fang was setting up an opportunity to show off his skill in front of Dean Xia. Director Fang was quite skillful, the robotic arms were equipped with refined tools; one arm with a pair of forceps, and the other with scissors, and they were carefully introduced into the bottle. First, he cut a piece of the grape skin, separated it, and then peeled it off. The scissors were withdrawn from the bottle, another set of forceps holding a needle and thread went in, and with the two tools coordinating, the piece of grape skin was sutured back onto the grape, stitch by stitch. Sewing, tying the knot and cutting the thread, the tools, flexible enough to be adjusted three hundred and sixty degrees in any direction, sewed the grape skin back on. Upon finishing the demonstration, Director Fang came out of the operation room: ¡°Now it¡¯s your turn, Xiao Yang. You can move slower, you¡¯re young and a quick learner. You have operated on the Tianji before, the feeling is somewhat similar.¡± This was how Director Fang had practiced during his training in Hong Kong. ¡°Go give it a try!¡± Director Han encouraged Yang Ping. Yang Ping went into the control room and sat at the console. There was no other choice. In order to make Dean Xia feel at ease, Yang Ping had to show off his skills. A robotic arm costs a hundred thousand yuan and can only be used ten times, Yang Ping hated to use it for practice. Like a pair of snakes, the two robotic arms were simultaneously inserted into the glass bottle. The tools at the end rapidly adjusted their position and the two robotic arms worked together with scissors and forceps in the bottle. Cutting open, peeling off, separating layers, and then the scissors were withdrawn. Another set of forceps held the needle and thread and went in, starting to suture. Under the operation of the robotic arm, the grape skin was completely peeled off, then divided into two layers. The two thin grape skins were re-wrapped around the grape, with one layer sewn after another until both layers were sewn up nicely. The movements were very quick, which left the crowd astonished. Among them, Director Fang, the person who used Da Vinci the most in Sanbo, opened his eyes wide. On the screen, the image was magnified by ten times and the veins of the grape skin were clearly visible, and still intact. The grape skin was amazingly divided into two layers and was sutured back. How was it done? With such a level of skill, he could train those teachers, why would he need practice? Once the separation and suturing of the grape skin were completed, the terminal tools of the robotic arm began to ¡®dance¡¯ rhythmically inside the bottle. The two robotic arms crisscrossed without touching each other, like a passionate couple dancing. The intense ¡®dance¡¯ seemed to push the machine to its limit, and then a third robotic arm entered, followed by a fourth. The four robotic arms in the confined space of the glass bottle began to chase, weave and entwine each other without once colliding. It was as if they were juggling machines. Suddenly, the four robotic arms stopped, not moving a single thread. Director Fang wiped the sweat off his forehead, barely catching his breath, when the four robotic arms started dancing again inside. If there was music playing, everyone in the room would probably start dancing too. The four robotic arms started to twirl and intertwine wildly, making anyone dizzy to watch, yet no collisions occurred. It was like watching a chase between stunt cars at a circus show. Each robotic arm, costing a hundred thousand yuan and having only ten uses, stopped abruptly at Director Han¡¯s wave of a hand. ¡°Enough, enough, no need for intensive training, this will do for the competition.¡± Yang Ping removed the robotic arm from the glass bottle, got up from the operating console, and slowly walked to the operating table. ¡°The Da Vinci Dance, an original creation!¡± With one robotic arm costing a hundred thousand, four would amount to four hundred thousand. To think that this four hundred thousand worth of equipment is being used for a dance performance, Director Han was livid. However, he had no choice, it was his idea to improve the technology and insist that Yang Ping takes part in it. Everyone was initially worried that Dr. Yang might have issues with the surgical robot this season. Now that concern could be put to rest. This ¡°Da Vinci Dance¡± guarantees a rhythmic intertwining and chasing of the four robotic arms, without any collision. It¡¯s an operation on the level of a circus stunt. Director Fang, heart-ached, inspected the robotic arms, and then the bottle. There were no collisions whatsoever. These robotic arms can only be used ten times. Reportedly, for safety reasons, once used ten times, the machine would automatically lock, and new ones would have to be bought. ¡°Why does the Da Vinci Company set it to lock after just ten uses? Who can afford this? Can¡¯t it be used unlimitedly? Wouldn¡¯t that make them more popular?¡± quipped a disgruntled doctor. ¡°This use-and-dispose mindset doesn¡¯t only exist in the medical industry, it pervades all industries. Only by doing so can they make a profit, which then funds the research and development of new technology, leading to even more profit. It¡¯s a virtuous cycle. Without limiting usage, the company will not make money. Without a hefty profit, who would conduct the research and development for these high technology?¡± Song Zimo found the doctor rather naive. ¡°Just like Shelby company manufactured a light bulb that could last a hundred years. Yet, that factory eventually closed down.¡± Little Five was reminded of this story. ¡°Other than a company working to make money for itself, no one is going to donate money just to let you survive.¡± ¡°The risk of research and development in the healthcare industry is extremely high, an unsuccessful endeavor could easily waste billions. No one will donate to cover the loss. If it is successful, they definitely will squeeze every last bit to recover the cost and make a profit. Otherwise, no one would explore these things. Without a high-profit incentive, ninety percent of these advanced drugs and equipment would cease to exist.¡± ¡°If you were given no wage for work, treated as voluntary labor, how enthusiastic would you be to clock in every day?¡± ¡°Boldest heroes come where rewards are greatest. Such is the logic of the high-tech industry.¡± Everyone was spouting theories, all talking over each other. Two graduate students even started a heated debate. ¡°It¡¯s just unethical to purposefully manipulate prices like that. All they care about is money.¡± ¡°Unethical? If you¡¯re so moral, why don¡¯t you work for free for the hospital? Let¡¯s see how long you can keep that up.¡± ¡°You¡¯re defying morality!¡± ¡°What nonsense! They invested money in research and development. Did you donate even a penny? Why shouldn¡¯t they make money?¡± ¡°They could make it cheaper, it doesn¡¯t have to be this expensive.¡± ¡°They made their calculations. With cheaper prices, how could they make a quick profit? Without profit, they¡¯ll be operating at a loss, and that would lead to bankruptcy.¡± Seeing the pair almost ready to fight, Director Zhao of the Medical Affairs Office scolded, ¡°Focus on your own tasks. Perform the surgeries that need to be performed, go write the medical records that need to be written. There are so many more important things to do. I have over ten patients waiting to have their bills paid. If any of you can settle one patient¡¯s bill for me, I¡¯ll treat you like a lord!¡± This caused the crowd to burst into laughter, yet the two debaters still refused to let it go, glaring at each other. Director Zhao became angry, ¡°What, you¡¯re still here? Still glaring? If you don¡¯t leave, I¡¯ll fine each of you a thousand yuan, and deduct it from your salary.¡± Upon hearing this, the two immediately trudged away dejectedly. ¡°Director Tan¡¯s surgery is completed!¡± a standardized training student ran in to report. Everyone immediately rushed to the other operating room, where Yang Ping was about to perform a solo act with the Tianji surgical robot. Chapter 423 - 423 0391 Painting of Tianji ?Chapter 423: Chapter 0391: Painting of Tianji Chapter 423: Chapter 0391: Painting of Tianji Director Tan is performing a surgery, a posterior cervical pedicle screw fixation following a cervical vertebral fracture. The exposure and decompression parts of the surgery have been completed, now waiting for Yang Ping to deploy pedicle screws using the Tian Ji surgical robot. Director Tan has completed over three hundred surgeries with the Tian Ji robotic system, which involve procedures on the spine, pelvis, and fractures of extremities. His surgical experience is among the top in the country. For laparoscopic surgery with the Da Vinci system, most of the surgery can be completed using several robotic arms, with the assistant only being required to assist with sterlizing, establishing pathways, and changing instruments. However, when Tian Ji performs orthopedic surgery, it cannot complete the entire surgery with one robotic arm alone. It only assists doctors in completing process steps like image registration, pre-operative planning, automatic positioning, screw placement, and post-operative verification. Essentially, its primary role is to assist with screw placement, with much of the work still needing to be done by the assistant. If Da Vinci is considered an upgraded laparoscopic system, Tian Ji can be seen as an upgraded navigation device. The previous navigation systems could only offer image navigation, and the screws needed to be placed by the chief surgeon. Now this navigation device can not only provide navigation for the chief surgeon, but also remotely control this robotic arm to insert screws. Because Tian Ji has only one robotic arm, doctors have given it a nickname ¨C ¡°Lone Ranger¡±. Its biggest advantage is placing screws accurately and steadily under real-time percutaneous navigation. In the realm of Tian Ji robotic surgeries, the posterior cervical pedicle screw fixation following a cervical fracture is the most challenging and riskiest procedure. In conventional surgery, inexperienced doctors, while inserting screws into the cervical pedicles, may easily cause damage to the vertebral arteries or cervical cord due to slight deviations, leading to severe consequences. In Tian Ji robotic surgery, inserting screws is as accurate as launching a missile. It uses X-ray computer imaging technology for navigation to place screws with sub-millimeter accuracy, so there is virtually no chance of making a mistake. This diminishes the role of experience in the surgical process. Regardless of whether they¡¯re experienced experts or not, as long as one becomes familiar with the machine, they can safely and accurately place the screws. Therefore, robotic surgery lowers the skill level required for screw placement, which enhances the safety of the procedure. In addition to the tasks that the robotic arm is unable to perform, the assistant also plays an important role in the event that the robotic arm loses control, as they¡¯re able to take emergency action. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released data as early as 2015 stating that between the years 2000 and 2013, 144 patients died during robotic surgery. Reasons include ¡°robotic malfunction¡±, ¡°electrical short circuit¡±, and ¡°parts falling into the body¡±. Dr. Tan attaches the screw insertion instrument to the robotic arm. Yang Ping sits at the console and begins to register the image with the tracker. A guiding line that passes through the pedicle center is drawn. The virtual image of the screw is simulated to enter the pedicle. The entry point, direction, route, and the diameter and length of the screw are automatically calculated. The machine automatically complete the positioning and the screw insertion tool precisely opens the pathway. The fluoroscopic image of the machine shows that the pathway is perfect without deviation. Dr. Tan changes the instruments and mounts the screw insertion tool and screw onto the machine. The robotic arm implants the screw into the cervical pedicle. Without robotic assistance, performing this type of surgery for Yang Ping is like planting beans. With robotic assistance, it¡¯s even easier and more effortless. Dr. Tan is a bit overwhelmed, and he and Dr. Zhong keep changing instruments. One by one, the pedicle screws are precisely implanted into the narrow cervical pedicle. The entire procedure is completed under navigation and fluoroscopy. The surgical step is completed in few minutes. The three-dimensional reconstructed fluoroscopic images show that each screw is perfectly positioned, enveloped by vertebral tissue. As for the visual performance, Tian Ji¡¯s surgery still falls short of Da Vinci¡¯s ¡°hot dance¡±. A single robotic arm doesn¡¯t have the thrill of coordinated operations. To prepare for the surgery, Manager Gu, the Tian Ji technology specialist, arrives at the operating room early to see if he can be of any assistance. Yang Ping hasn¡¯t used robotic surgery much in his past operations. Manager Gu wouldn¡¯t have thought of him if it weren¡¯t for this competition. Manager Gu, a middle-aged senior technician entering his middle-aged years, with the savvy gained from experience, is quick to follow Yang Ping around to see if he requires any assistance whenever he learns that Yang Ping would definitely win the competition. His search aims to showcase Tian Ji¡¯s robotic strength by controlling a robotic surgery from over a thousand kilometers away with 5G during the competition, so as to create a sensational effect. But this plan is rejected by Yang Ping, because in the current orthopedic robotic surgery, remote control robotic arm can only complete a part of the steps, many other steps still require the doctor. So his control over the entire operation would be lost. If he can¡¯t control the whole operation, he can¡¯t guarantee its safety, which is unacceptable to Yang Ping. When it comes to surgery, being careful is the key. To demonstrate his loyalty, the technician brings a pencil for training and a paintbrush and board for demonstrations. After Dr. Tan completes the remaining steps of the surgery, the technician mounts a pencil on the robotic arm, holding drawing board in his hand, and asks Yang Ping to draw a few letters casually on the board. Draw letters? That¡¯s underestimating him. The robotic arm, under Yang Ping¡¯s control, begins to draw. With every stroke and contour meticulously outlined, a detailed skeletal anatomy illustration gradually appears on the drawing board. Finally, Yang Ping signs his name on it. The technician treasures the drawing like a priceless possession. People nearby gather to see it. He¡¯s worried that someone might damage the drawing, as it¡¯s an excellent promotional material. Wherever he brings it to display in the future, the strength of Tian Ji is evident in this painting, with no words needed to explain. A surgical robot that can draw? Everyone¡¯s seeing this for the first time. Whether it¡¯s the Da Vinci¡¯s hot dance or Tian Ji¡¯s skeletal anatomy, Dean Xia is relieved. The Golden Knife Award is bound to go to Sanbo. ¡°Are the competition cases prepared?¡± Dean Xia asked with concern. ¡°They¡¯re all prepared,¡± said Director Han with a big smile. ¡°Pick the classic cases for the competition. The one about the cervical fracture just now isn¡¯t bad. As for the costs, the hospital will cover the operation start-up fees for surgery cases,¡± Dean Xia said generously. In order to win the Golden Knife Award, this amount of money is not an issue. ¡°How about I try to set up a training center at your hospital?¡± Manager Gu said, expressing his admiration. He¡¯s visited many hospitals, but hasn¡¯t seen anyone quite as proficient with their robotic system. ¡°Have you played before?¡± Manager Gu carefully asks. Yang Ping, seeing that he keeps following, sends him off with, ¡°This isn¡¯t difficult, it¡¯s similar to a child¡¯s toy bulldozer. You get proficient after playing it a few times.¡± Awkwardly, Manager Gu adjusts his sterilization cap and mask. A $15 million high-tech device is being compared to a child¡¯s toy bulldozer. After thinking about it, Manager Gu realizes that coarse words sometimes express an accurate idea. That¡¯s exactly the principle here, it¡¯s just a high-end remote control toy. Naming it a ¡°robot¡± feels a bit excessive. The Da Vinci next door is also a high-end remote control toy, just with a few more robotic arms and a slightly higher technical content. They¡¯re obviously remote control toys, so why are they named robots? Even Manager Gu couldn¡¯t figure that out. Chapter 424 - 424 0392 Five Million US Dollars ?Chapter 424: Chapter 0392: Five Million US Dollars Chapter 424: Chapter 0392: Five Million US Dollars After much preparation, the final round of the Golden Knife Award had finally begun. Robot surgery was a new field and everyone was very interested in it. Doctors from all over the country made arrangements to watch Yang Ping¡¯s robot surgery live. At Sanbo Hospital, apart from the outpatient and emergency doctors and those currently performing emergency surgeries, almost all surgeons had rescheduled their elective surgeries to watch Yang Ping¡¯s surgery in the hospital¡¯s large conference room. Some doctors from internal medicine and auxiliary departments also wanted to join in the excitement and came to watch the surgery. All the hospital leaders had arrived, seated in the first row. Dean Xia was high-spirited, constantly asking, ¡°Why hasn¡¯t it started yet?¡± Everyone wanted to witness this historical moment where Sanbo Hospital was about to win the championship. ¡°The last surgery by Academician Feng, the tumor spread from the upper cervical spinal cord to the medulla oblongata. Isn¡¯t this a surgery that requires both orthopedics and neurosurgery? Did Xiao Yang do it all by himself? He could even handle brainstem tumors?¡± Dean Xia asked the Director Han sitting next to him. He had purposely seated Director Han next to him so that he could help interpret the surgery; after all, he was not an expert in orthopedics. ¡°Not just any brainstem tumor, it was one that intruded on the brain¡¯s life center with less than a one percent success rate. The Sixth Hospital had invited several Americans for consultation, including the Head of Neurosurgery from the Mayo Clinic. All of them dared not operate. When I showed the scan to Xiao Yang, he said he was eighty percent confident. I thought I had misheard. But he actually did it. You didn¡¯t see it. During the consultation meeting at the Sixth Hospital, when he was introducing his surgical plan, several Americans were surrounding him like students.¡±, Director Han gloated. ¡°This guy, when I asked him about his confidence in winning the championship, he also said eighty percent.¡± laughed Dean Xia. Director Han explained: ¡°That means he¡¯s pretty confident.¡± ¡°Have you heard any rumors? I heard that the First Affiliated Hospital is planning to poach him. That¡¯s my biggest concern.¡± What Dean Xia was most worried about was this. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, they can¡¯t poach him. Old Su¡¯s daughter is here, how can he poach him?¡± Director Han was certain. ¡°I heard Xiehe Hospital is going to send people to learn Xiao Yang¡¯s surgery?¡± Dean Xia was quite concerned. ¡°Yes, Academician Liang has called me several times to send several groups of people to learn in shifts. 301 is also sending people.¡±, Director Han answered. ¡°Sanbo has gained face this time. As dean, I find meaning in my work. Old Han, you need to be careful and not let them poach our staff. Xiehe and 301 are the best platforms in the country, and they are quite crafty, not hesitant to poach staff.¡± ¡°Xiehe is still quite gentle, but 301 is scary. They might poach the whole team, direct enrollment, giving military ranks, that would be troublesome.¡± As he thought more, Dean Xia became more worried. Director Han was not worried: ¡°Xiao Yang doesn¡¯t care about these things. What he cares about most is being able to work freely. We should think about how to help Xiao Yang get his promotion against the rules.¡± He proposed to Dean Xia. Dean Xia said: ¡°I¡¯m also considering this matter.¡± After thinking for a while, Director Han said: ¡°Old Xia, I¡¯m thinking, in Xiao Yang¡¯s case, should we help him establish a surgical research institute so that he can carry out cross-departmental patient research? This is how I see it. For such a talent, conventional methods might limit him. We need to break the shackles and let him fully unleash his potential. We should not just limit him to orthopedics, let him work on tumors, heart, skull, anything difficult, let him do it.¡± This idea was exactly what Dean Xia was contemplating: ¡°Old Han, I was just thinking about discussing this with you. Such a move has never been made in the country, and it¡¯s rarely seen in the world. Precisely because of this, other hospitals cannot offer these conditions, but we can, we must decisively establish this institute, launching it on the basis of your comprehensive orthopedics department. Also, regarding the research funds, our hospital should set up a dedicated fund for him. The funds obtained from winning the projects are too little, useless. We should establish a fund that can accept donations from society. I¡¯ll handle this.¡± The two of them discussed in low voices, with Dean Xia jotted down notes from time to time. He said to Director Han, ¡°Good memory is not as efficient as bad pen. Not until I have accomplished one thing will I tick it off. No empty promises.¡± As they were discussing, the surgery had begun. A few hospitals, leading in the number of robot surgeries nationwide, were very aggrieved. They felt that robot surgery was put at the very end, which limited the full play of their strength. If robot surgeries were placed ahead, they definitely could have eliminated many competitors, including Yang Ping. Zheng Huahua was one of them. He felt that his elimination was too rough and it did not reflect his actual competence. Now, he was also waiting for the start of Yang Ping¡¯s surgery. The first patient was a 45-year-old male with severe congenital malformation of the atlas and basilar invagination. This patient had been to several hospitals, but no one wanted to operate on him. Yang Ping, through CT scan images, looked for the screw path and found that there was no route on the right side, no place for screws at all. There was only one passageway on the left side, which was very close to the vertebral artery and spinal cord. The screw path of this passageway was only 4 millimeters wide. Ordinarily, the precision required for this surgery far exceeded human capabilities. No wonder others refused to take it up. With such a unique screw placement pathway, even a slight error would result in either death or disability. If Yang Ping were to use traditional methods, he could still achieve the same outcome. However, with such advanced tools like robots, the process becomes much easier. Additionally, the cost of operating the robot is free during the competition, creating no additional financial burden for the patient. So why not use a better tool? The robot is positioned, Song Zimo sterilizes the operating room and lays the sterile drapes. With the assistance of the circulating nurse, a protective film is attached to the robotic arm. Then an antenna¡ªthe tracker¡ªis installed in the operating area. The tracker pairs with the robot¡¯s tracker. Yang Ping scrubs in and the surgery begins. The C-arm performs a three-dimensional scan of the patient, and the image is transmitted synchronously to the orthopedic surgery robot system and displayed on the screen. On the navigation system screen, Yang Ping designs the screw trajectory, a guiding line marks the center of the channel, and then the entry point, direction, and length are calculated. The robotic arm precisely positions the surgical instrument to its location, and the sleeve is directed towards the penetration point of the intended screw path. Along the sleeve, a guide wire is drilled in and inserted into the patient¡¯s vertebrae. Once the position is confirmed correct, a hollow screw with a diameter of 4 mm is inserted through the guide wire, screwed into place, and then the guide wire is removed. Next, Yang Ping scans the patient again to confirm that the screw¡¯s position matches the initial plan. The 4 mm screw is inserted into the unique 4 mm screw path with no error. The entire operation is clean and smooth, like a precision bombing guided by a missile. Aimed, launched, guided, and hit¡ªthe process is seamless and highly precise. The entire process is completed in less than ten minutes. Although robotic surgery has many disadvantages, Yang Ping believes that it is the trend of the future. There will come a day when all intracranial tumors can be removed without craniotomy. Only a small hole needs to be drilled, or access via the nasal cavity, to extend several tiny robotic arms into the skull and completely remove the tumor. The tumor will then be bagged, isolated, crushed, and finally suctioned out while still in the bag. Perhaps in the future, all surgeries can be performed by doctors controlling robots, especially battlefield first aid. Doctors can perform remote surgeries on frontline patients from the rear. Moreover, this type of surgery drains very little of a doctor¡¯s physical energy. Even in extreme emergencies, a skilled doctor can perform several surgeries at the same time. Subsequently, there were surgeries for cervical vertebra fracture, thoracic vertebra fracture, lumbar vertebra fracture arch root screw fixation, sacroiliac joint separation sacroiliac screw insertion. The robotic arm¡¯s joints quickly maneuver, carrying out precise operations with its end-effector. The limit of the machine is thoroughly exploited. Five surgeries were sequentially completed. This level of mastery in controlling the robot is mind-boggling. The robotic arm has far surpassed the significance of a tool¡ªit has truly become an extension of the doctor¡¯s hands, achieving a state of unity between man and machine. Watching Yang Ping¡¯s robotic surgery is a pleasure full of artistic charm. Zheng Huahua¡¯s last bit of resentment dissolves, realizing that his elimination process was too crude compared to Yang Ping¡¯s skill level. Just like in a ping pong game, when the skill gap between the two players is too large, the losing party always feels they didn¡¯t perform at their best. If the first round had been robotic surgery, no matter who was against Yang Ping, they would have been eliminated just the same. Su Nanchen naturally lost to Yang Ping, earning the runner-up position. But he was still very satisfied. This Golden Knife Award ceremony comes to an end, with Yang Ping winning the championship, followed by Su Nanchen. Wen Rentao defeats Zheng Huahua, earning the third place. John Ansen, being clever, obtained an account for the Golden Knife Award website from a Chinese doctor studying at Mayo, and repeatedly studied Yang Ping¡¯s surgery. Even though he is mainly focused on neurosurgery, he still was extremely interested in Yang Ping¡¯s spine surgery and robotic surgery. After watching the video of Yang Ping¡¯s robotic surgery, he thought¡ª this is the true unity of man and machine. At the time, John Ansen invited the Chinese doctor from Mayo to dinner. The doctor was flattered and surprised that all John wanted was an account. Moreover, this professor even solemnly signed a promise stating that the account would only be used for watching surgeries and would not be used for illegal activities. The video of the Da Vinci dance and Tianji¡¯s painting quickly spread on WeChat moments. The doctor from China who worked at Mayo got this video and sent it to John Ansen. In the Da Vinci Dance, John Ansen could not figure out how the four robotic arms managed to cross and wind around each other in a narrow bottle without collision. If he were to use four mechanical arms to operate on a grape, there would be collisions¡ªthe space is too narrow, not to mention the speed is so fast. This is already the limit speed of the machine. No matter what technique, it can be pushed to the limit in Dr. Yang¡¯s hands simply. ¡°For this video, the visual company should pay Dr. Yang at least 5 million US dollars!¡± John Ansen thought. Chapter 425 - 425 0393 Miyukis Homework ?Chapter 425: Chapter 0393: Miyuki¡¯s Homework Chapter 425: Chapter 0393: Miyuki¡¯s Homework Winning the championship in the Orthopedics category of the Golden Knife Award was undoubtedly a significant happy event for Sanbo Hospital. Department Directors and their doctors came in turns to the Integrated Orthopedics to give congratulations. A banner was placed at the entrance of the clinic on the day of the award announcement. Dean Xia even thought about inviting a pair of lions to the hospital entrance to create some excitement, but decided against it, thinking it might be a bit too high-profile. Director Han¡¯s cell phone was almost blowing up with all kinds of familiar people calling to congratulate him. This award showed that Sanbo¡¯s Orthopedics department stood at the top nationwide. The celebrations gradually died down after two full weeks. ¡°Ding dong, System reward: Lab module added!¡± The system announced the reward while Yang Ping was resting in his office. The main task of the second phase was finally completed. The process went smoothly, but Professor Feng¡¯s surgery was indeed challenging. However, it was successfully completed. The laboratory rewarded by the system, what black technology is it? Yang Ping entered the system space, opened the new lab, and found an empty space without anything. ¡°You can purchase various experimental equipment in the mall to build your laboratory and start your research journey. Have fun!¡± The mechanical female voice guided. Yang Ping used the holographic screen in front of him to enter the mall, opened the category of experimental equipment, and found various types of devices for sale, just with different prices. For example, the electronic microscope, gene testing instruments, 3D printers, etc. As long as the experimental equipment exists in the real world, you can buy it here without any restriction, provided you can pay enough accumulated points. Yang Ping carefully examined these devices. The Milo Single-Cell Protein Expression Quantitative Analysis System, the Sequel Sequencing System, the Lumos Light Transmission System ¨C these were all top-of-the-line medical devices, all available here. These cutting-edge devices cost anywhere from several tens of thousands to several hundreds of thousands of points, even over one million for the most expensive ones. Yang Ping checked his accumulated points. He had over two million points after adding the points he got from the Golden Knife Award and the points he had accumulated previously. He bought some equipment related to his research topic, spending over a million points. It seemed that even in the system, research was a costly endeavor. This system had never promised unlimited mode. Progress had to come through constant effort. However, doing experiments in the system space could involve constant trial and error, and such exploration had no time costs. The only cost was point consumption. After setting up the laboratory, Yang Ping had a good night¡¯s sleep in the system space to rejuvenate. He didn¡¯t have any clue about the next task, but no matter what the task was, as long as there were rewards, Yang Ping was willing to complete it. The system task did not conflict with his real-world work. Studying or conducting research in the system space, applying the skills or research results learned in the real world to earn points, then using the points to purchase goods in the system space for further learning and research. This positive cycle was the logic of the system. ¡°Main task three: You can set your task objective. Once it¡¯s approved by the system review, it will be set as the task objective. You must complete it, otherwise, the system will reset all existing function modules to zero,¡± the mechanical female voice issued the third main task. This time it wasn¡¯t an assigned task. The system let Yang Ping set his goals, providing a great deal of flexibility. ¡°The harder the main task, the greater the difficulty should be. That means the further you go, the more difficult a task should be. The reference difficulty: this task should ideally be a global goal,¡± the mechanical female voice added. ¡°Global? Seems like the Nobel Prize is global too. Since an objective must be set, let¡¯s set the goal as the Nobel Prize,¡± Yang Ping thought, and tried to type these characters on the screen panel. ¡°Ding dong, Review passed! Main task three: Obtain the Nobel Prize in Medicine, task deadline: within four years. Reward: System¡¯s surgical navigation function.¡± The captions and the mechanical female voice appeared almost simultaneously. Then, there was nothing else. The mechanical female voice disappeared and said nothing more. Four years? Nobel Prize? Even if I make amazing achievements, whether I can win the prize and whether it will be within four years is not up to me to decide. This system is a bit ingenious, completely guiding me to set a goal, and then immediately passing the review before I have fully considered it. There is no room for negotiation. The reward is the System¡¯s surgical navigation function. Does it mean that even if I don¡¯t have navigation equipment when I am performing a surgery, I can still perform a digital navigation or X-ray scan? Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to think too much for the time being. Since the task was set, he would strive to achieve it. With this experimental lab module, he might as well strive to win the Nobel Prize, testing the real power of the lab. When he exited the system space, Yang Ping planned to make a round in the ward. Just then, Miyuki came to find Yang Ping, asking him to go to the training laboratory. She had finished her pit carving assignment, and wanted Yang Ping to evaluate whether it was satisfactory. Takahashi and Miyuki were about to finish their six-month study trip and were preparing to return to Japan. They wanted to extend their training period, but their visas were about to expire, and they couldn¡¯t extend them anymore. The Tokyo University Affiliated Hospital also couldn¡¯t let them continue to stay in China. Especially Takahashi, who was a key figure in the hospital, had many tasks waiting for him back home. Fujiwara Miyuki always dreamed of traveling around China by high-speed train, but due to her tight schedule and being busy with her studies, she didn¡¯t have the time to fulfill this wish, she decided to put it off until next time. During these six months, Takahashi has learned a lot, and Miyuki¡¯s arthroscopy technology has also progressed rapidly. Although she couldn¡¯t carve the model of the knee joint, she was able to easily carve the twenty-six English letters on an olive kernel. Yang Ping followed her to the lab. At that moment, there was no one else in the lab; they were still in the operation room and hadn¡¯t come back yet. ¡°Dr. Yang, do you think my work is up to the mark?¡± Miyuki asked with a smile. Yang Ping inserted the arthroscope and tools in, adjusted the olive kernel, and was taken aback. The kernel had beautifully carved letters on it: I LOVE YOU. This Japanese girl, how should he say it, must have carved the wrong word, Yang Ping sighed in his heart. Fujiwara Miyuki stood by, a blush spreading on her face: ¡°Is my work good enough?¡± Yang Ping turned to look at the hopeful Miyuki: ¡°Dr. Fujiwara, your arthroscopic carving technique is very good, but you carved the wrong letter.¡± Miyuki looked at Yang Ping with disappointment, her eyes slightly damp: ¡°But, I can only carve those few letters? What should I do?¡± ¡°Those letters have already been carved by someone else. This kind of work is unique and cannot be duplicated.¡± Yang Ping had no choice but to answer firmly. Some things needed to be made clear; being vague was a harm. Yang Ping was always busy with work, and had never seriously noticed this Japanese girl, let alone have seen her regard for him. ¡°Why lingering around a river when the sea is so vast?¡± an endearing Miyuki muttered. ¡°Three thousand waters, yet only drink one scoop.¡± Yang Ping replied with a stoic calmness. Having said that, he hardened his heart, turned his head and left the lab, leaving Miyuki alone, deeply disheartened. Yang Ping ran into Liang Fatty and Zhang Lin, nodded in greeting, but walked past them in silence. The two noticed his unusual expression, went into the lab, and saw Miyuki standing alone in front of the arthroscopic training device. Miyuki noticed someone coming over, immediately hid the kernel, arranged her emotions, pretending as if nothing had happened, and left with silence hanging over her. ¡°What just happened? Director Liang, did you understand?¡± Zhang Lin asked Liang Fatty. Liang Fatty shook his head: ¡°I don¡¯t understand, I don¡¯t get it, it looks like she has been crying, she looks so endearing crying... Beautiful women are indeed beautiful.¡± ¡°Fatty, something¡¯s not right. You see, Miyuki is always smiling, why is she suddenly crying today?¡± Zhang Lin was very puzzled. Liang Fatty was a bit annoyed with Zhang Lin: ¡°Was it because her arthroscopic seed carving didn¡¯t pass, and she was criticized for it?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not it¡ª¡± Zhang Lin shook his head. ¡°Then what is it?¡± Liang Fatty asked, seeing he seemed to know something. ¡°Could it be that Dr. Yang has broken her heart?¡± Zhang Lin murmured to himself. Liang Fatty immediately looked around nervously and covered Zhang Lin¡¯s mouth: ¡°Listen, Zhang Lin, you cannot go around speaking rumors like this. We know Dr. Yang¡¯s character very well. He¡¯s currently dating Xiao Su. If your words get out, it can cause serious trouble. Don¡¯t speak without thinking.¡± Zhang Lin slapped his own mouth: ¡°I¡¯m just whispering it to you, it¡¯s a guess. When I saw Miyuki like this, I just thought of this scene, it¡¯s purely emotional speculation. Last time at the bar, didn¡¯t Takahashi toast to Dr. Yang for early childbirth? Miyuki¡¯s face turned red at that moment, and she even argued with Takahashi. I know that the flowing water is heartless, but I¡¯m afraid the fallen flower has an intention.¡± ¡°Even if it¡¯s a guess, it shouldn¡¯t be a wild guess. We all know what kind of person Dr. Yang is,¡± said Liang Fatty nervously, constantly glancing towards the door, luckily no one came. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I know how to behave, I sometimes have a big mouth, but I will not make trouble at crucial times.¡± Zhang Lin felt he was a bit too thoughtless just now, it was purely unintentional. ¡°What I said just now was unintentional, it was a joke. Pretend I never said it, and Fatty, if gossip about this, I will slap your mouth.¡± Zhang Lin threatened Fatty. ¡°Watch your mouth, or else I will tear your mouth.¡± Fatty retorted unconvincingly. ¡°In my opinion, I guess the Japanese maiden made some indication, and was rejected by Dr. Yang. I noticed long ago that this maiden is not pure at heart,¡± Zhang Lin whispered into Fatty¡¯s ear. Fatty nodded: ¡°Your analysis seems reasonable, but that sentence just now, it was sudden and startled me.¡± Chapter 426 - 426 0394 Only my teacher can do this surgery ?Chapter 426: Chapter 0394: Only my teacher can do this surgery! Chapter 426: Chapter 0394: Only my teacher can do this surgery! Since coming to the United States, Junhao Bao¡¯s belly had grown even bigger from attending various gatherings. However, the gatherings were always the same few people. Over time, Junhao Bao grew tired of this. Life was not as comfortable here as it was in China. In China, he had been a football star with both money and fame. In America, he was nothing, completely isolated from mainstream life. If this continued, Junhao Bao would become depressed. His phone¡¯s speaker was turned up high. Junhao Bao was engrossed in playing games in his living room, completely unaware of his father, Bao Yulou, coming downstairs after changing his clothes. Manager Qian gently nudged Junhao Bao as a reminder. Bao Junhao reluctantly set down his phone and sat up straight, an expression of dissatisfaction on his face. Bao Yulou frowned, ¡°Junhao, as a football player, you should have some self-control. Don¡¯t indulge yourself too much.¡± Bao Yulou had come to the United States amidst his busy schedule for his son¡¯s surgery, while also having some other business matters to discuss. ¡°Why hasn¡¯t she come down yet? Qian, we won¡¯t be late, will we?¡± Bao Yulou looked at the Patek Philippe on his wrist. Mrs. Bao was still in her room. Manager Qian was also a bit anxious. ¡°We must hurry. Our appointment is at ten. We can only be early, we must not be late. Once the time has passed, we will have to wait for the next round.¡± Bao Yulou was notoriously afraid of his wife, so he didn¡¯t dare to rush her. However, it was of great importance, and it was rare for them to get an appointment. If they missed it, they could only get priority by making a donation to the New York Special Surgical Hospital. But even with a donation, they would still need luck. Rumor has it that Doctor Robert is an eccentric person. In America, doctors don¡¯t have an employer-employee relationship with the hospital, but a cooperative one. The hospital has no right to force them to do anything beyond the scope of their cooperative agreement. Doctor Robert¡¯s private clinic doesn¡¯t accept donations. In Doctor Robert¡¯s own words, his clinic is profitable, and every cent is earned by his scalpel. Just as they were getting anxious, Mrs. Bao came down from upstairs. Resplendent and elegant, worthy of being a rich lady, she held a handbag¡ªthe Chanel ¡°Forever Diamond.¡± The bag in Mrs. Bao¡¯s hand was so dazzling that Manager Qian¡¯s sight blurred. He could not understand this world of the rich. ¡°Shall I start the car?¡± Manager Qian immediately stood up. Bao Yulou waved his hand, ¡°Go ahead, hurry up.¡± The Maybach from the Mercedes-Benz was out of the garage, waiting in front of the Bao family¡¯s villa. Manager Qian opened the car door, bowed, one hand on the door, the other on the roof of the car. ¡°Qian, you have worked hard!¡± Bao Yulou is very satisfied with Manager Qian¡¯s loyalty and wit. Handpicked by himself, Manager Qian is the steward for the Bao family in the United States. He is faithful and responsible to the Bao family. Manager Qian humbly replied, ¡°Not at all. It¡¯s all thanks to President Bao¡¯s teaching.¡± Indeed, life in the US would have been tough for Manager Qian if he had not been serving the Bao family. A graduate of Peking University, he had a respectable job as a formal worker at a state-owned bank when in China. However, after immigrating to the United States with great difficulty, he did not become the Wolf of Wall Street, but a real estate salesperson. Later, through an introduction from someone he met, he became acquainted with President Bao. He became the manager of the Bao family¡¯s real estate company¡¯s American office. Although he only had a dozen employees under him, he was a manager, with a much better life quality than waking up at dawn to sell real estate. While Mrs. Bao and Young Master Bao were harsh, Bao Yulou was patient and well-mannered. Whenever he thinks about Bao Yulou¡¯s good qualities and the large amount of US Dollars he receives each year, Manager Qian feels he can bear any humiliation. ¡°I don¡¯t understand the affairs of America very well, Qian. You have to talk more with Junhao,¡± Bao Yulou reminded. He knew well what his son was like. When everyone was seated, Manager Qian hadn¡¯t started the car. He said, ¡°Professor Robert is eccentric and has a bad temper. Whatever he asks, answer. Be polite. The consultation period he has given us is 45-minutes. Within these 45 minutes, we must clear up all questions. Be direct, Americans don¡¯t like beating around the bush. Remember to be polite! I heard a famous boxer was thrown out for rudeness and only made a second appointment after apologizing.¡± Mrs. Bao looked displeased, ¡°Are these things any of your business? Junhao is highly educated.¡± Bao Yulou said sternly, ¡°You just arrived in the United States and don¡¯t know much about it. Learn more from Qian later, especially Junhao. Don¡¯t make trouble.¡± Mrs. Bao quieted down immediately. She had spent so much time in America but lived an isolated life, similar to Junhao, always mingling with a few acquaintances. The Maybach set off, heading to Doctor Robert¡¯s clinic on Long Island. The hospital was not big, with only 120 beds, but it had received many sports stars. Most athletes preferred to come to his clinic for surgery, while politicians and businessmen preferred to go to the New York Special Surgical Hospital to have their surgeries done by him. The lovely receptionist, with her professional smile, said very politely in Chinese, ¡°Welcome!¡± Her Chinese was stiff, showing that she had just learned it. However, there was a Chinese translator at the front desk to accompany Young Master Bao for the entire consultation. The nurse carefully checked his identification and medical insurance card, inputting Bao Junhao¡¯s information to compare with the one provided during booking. Then she handed over a form, for recording medical history, treatment history, medication history, and history of drug allergies etc. The translator helped Junhao fill it out. Halfway through, Junhao let Manager Qian take over the writing while he dictated. Chapter 427 - 427 0394 Only my teacher can do this surgery_2 ?Chapter 427: Chapter 0394: Only my teacher can do this surgery!_2 Chapter 427: Chapter 0394: Only my teacher can do this surgery!_2 After filling out the forms, the guiding nurse and the interpreter led the Bao Family up to the waiting room on the second floor, a separate waiting room. The guiding nurse poured them coffee and apologized, explaining that Professor Robert was busy. She asked them to wait patiently; when it was their turn, someone would notify them and guide them into Doctor Robert¡¯s office. The walls of the waiting room were adorned with photographs of Robert¡¯s grandfather and father: brief introductions to their medical careers, their contributions to medicine, and the history of the clinic. On another wall, there were pictures of three generations of the Robert family with some celebrities, tycoons, and politicians. ¡°The competence of American doctors is indeed admirable, even their nurses are incredibly professional ¨C quite unlike the ones back home,¡± said Junhao, leaning on his crutch, as he admired the display of the Robert family¡¯s distinguished medical career. Bao Yulou, upon hearing this, was irritated: ¡°Watch your words!¡± Mrs. Bao was unhappy: ¡°Junhao is right. At that awful Sanbo Hospital back home, they couldn¡¯t figure out what was wrong with him. They moved his leg around and ended up making his injury even worse!¡± ¡°That¡¯s enough, let¡¯s wait quietly,¡± Bao Yulou found his wife hard to handle. ¡°Are there good opportunities here for Junhao to play soccer and develop his career?¡± Bao Yulou asked Manager Qian, whom he trusts. Manager Qian replied honestly: ¡°President Bao, I¡¯m afraid that wouldn¡¯t be possible.¡± Bao Yulou felt that it wasn¡¯t the right time to discuss this and quickly changed the topic. Everyone waited in silence. Mrs. Bao, growing bored, went over to read the information on the wall. She hardly understood English but could make some sense out of the pictures. Mrs. Bao complained intermittently about the poor medical skills in China and blamed Bao Yulou for poor planning, for making their son wait so long. Doctor Robert¡¯s office door opened, and a towering athlete came out cheerfully, bidding Robert goodbye. He was happy because his surgery had been scheduled. ¡°Mr. Bao, it¡¯s your turn now.¡± being accompanied by a nurse and a translator, both were smiling. ¡°Are you all accompanying Mr. Bao?¡± The nurse sought everyone¡¯s opinion. Mrs. Bao nodded her head: ¡°Yes, we all are.¡± Under the lead of the nurse and the interpreter, everyone entered the office in single file and finally met the legendary Professor Robert. He was tall, with reddened nose, crew cut and exuded the aura of an internationally reputed sports medicine expert. The nurse collected Young Master Bao¡¯s height, weight, heart rate, blood pressure, pulse, and body temperature data. ¡°Please take a seat¡ª¡± Professor Robert was very polite. Everyone sat down on the sofa which was opposite to Dr. Robert¡¯s seat. As Young Master Bao sat, he wriggled slightly on the sofa. He was nervous and feeling a little uneasy. ¡°Very good, a football player. Mr. Bao, you must know C Ronaldo? He is a good friend of mine.¡± Seeing Junhao¡¯s medical record and his Chinese name, Robert guessed that this was a Chinese patient. Now Robert had special respect for the Chinese. He specifically instructed his nurse to welcome Mr. Bao in Chinese when they met him. C Ronaldo, Young Master Bao knew of course, but C Ronaldo did not know Young Master Bao. ¡°Pretty good, pretty good!¡± Young Master Bao exclaimed vaguely. The translator was proficient and translated accurately, according to what Young Master Bao intended. ¡°Chinese?¡± Robert¡¯s eyebrows raised as he cut to the chase. Mrs. Bao swiftly replied: ¡°Oh, no, we already have a U.S. Green Card.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t you get treated in China?¡± Robert was a bit puzzled. Young Master Bao, nervously said: ¡°The medical standards in China are so poor that they can¡¯t treat my knee injury, so we had to seek Professor Robert¡¯s help.¡± ¡°Yes, the medical level in China is too poor, they simply can¡¯t cure it.¡± Mrs. Bao chipped in sycophantically. The Chinese translator, who happened to be a Chinese international student, was annoyed when he heard this. However, professional ethics dictated that he did not look unhappy but translated accurately, word for word. Professor Robert furrowed his brows, feeling displeased: ¡°I have studied your medical records in detail. Now, I need to conduct some simple physical examinations on you, is that okay?¡± The nurse assisted Young Master Bao to lie down on the examination table, while Dr. Robert patiently inquired about his medical history and conducted a comprehensive and thorough physical examination of his knee joint. When conducting the medial and lateral stress test on the knee joint, Professor Robert exerted more force to determine the stability, which caused Junhao to feel excruciating pain. Professor Robert asked: ¡°Does it hurt?¡± Young Master Bao gritted his teeth and nodded: ¡°Just a little!¡± After seeing this, Mrs. Bao muttered to Bao Yulou, ¡°American doctors are truly professional. The doctor back in China didn¡¯t exert any force at all.¡± After completing the detailed examination, Robert took off his gloves and washed his hands. The nurse sprayed a no-rinse hand sanitizer, and Robert sterilized his hands. The nurse assisted Young Master Bao off the examination table and back onto the sofa. ¡°Mr. Bao, your right knee injury is very severe. If you wish to return to the pitch, it will be extremely difficult¡ª¡± After the examination, Professor Robert confirmed that it was a typical case of a quintessential injury, extremely severe, and could directly lead to retirement. Mrs. Bao immediately grew worried: ¡°Professor, this is the most advanced hospital in the world, and you are the best doctor in the world. There must be a way, right?¡± Doctor Robert nodded: ¡°You¡¯re very lucky. In the past, you would¡¯ve had no other choice but to retire, possibly even struggle to recover your normal walking ability. But now, there is hope that you can return to the pitch.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great!¡± Mrs. Bao was overjoyed. Coming here was the right choice. Top doctors in the world were incomparable to local ones back in China. ¡°When can we schedule the surgery?¡± Manager Qian asked with concern. Robert considered for a moment: ¡°I am currently unable to perform this surgery. It must be done by my teacher.¡± There was a surgery that even Robert couldn¡¯t perform? Young Master Bao found it hard to believe. ¡°Let¡¯s follow Professor Robert¡¯s plan.¡± Bao Yulou understood well. If Dr. Robert¡¯s teacher was to operate, he must be more skilled than Robert. The Bao family did not know who was the leading expert in sports medicine in the United States, so they decided to follow Doctor Robert¡¯s arrangement. ¡°To return to the pitch, only my teacher can perform this surgery. He is very busy right now, and I don¡¯t know if he would be willing or be able to make the time for this surgery. So, you must go back and wait for news. I¡¯ll notify you when I manage to contact him,¡± said Robert unhurriedly. ¡°However, if I manage to arrange him to perform the surgery here, the fee will certainly be very high,¡± Robert added in advance. Money is not an issue. Mrs. Bao was very happy: ¡°No problem, Professor. We¡¯re very grateful if you could arrange it for us as soon as possible!¡± Mrs. Bao clasped her hands together in a gesture of gratitude, trying her best to look like a lady from high society. ¡°I must remind you that everything is just a possibility at the moment. If my teacher is unwilling to perform the surgery or unable to find the time, I can only express my regret,¡± Professor Robert said seriously. What? ¡°Professor Robert, money is not an issue.¡± Manager Qian became anxious, unsure of what they were supposed to do. Robert shook his head: ¡°Your values are wrong; it¡¯s not about the money.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry, we meant no disrespect. We¡¯re just anxious about the surgery. We¡¯re counting on Professor Robert¡¯s help¡ª¡± Mrs. Bao spoke politely and then glared at Manager Qian. ¡°I¡¯ll try my best. Any other questions?¡± Dr. Robert asked. ¡°¡ª Chapter 428 - 428 0395 Not Buying Anyones Account ?Chapter 428: Chapter 0395: Not Buying Anyone¡¯s Account Chapter 428: Chapter 0395: Not Buying Anyone¡¯s Account During Takahashi¡¯s tenure at Sanbo, he would make tea for Zhang Lin every morning for six months, without skipping a day. Every doctor and nurse in the department was touched by the persistence and dedication of this Japanese man. During this time, Takahashi formed a deep friendship with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. They would often discuss patients¡¯ conditions together, study Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries, study Yang Ping¡¯s anatomical and surgical images. Through these research discussions, Takahashi, along with everyone else, absorbed and digested Yang Ping¡¯s surgical experience, progressing very quickly. Regardless of whether it was understanding anatomy, learning new surgical techniques, or improving surgical skills, he gained a lot. Miyuki¡¯s arthroscopic techniques also improved rapidly, especially multi-ligament reconstruction of the shoulder and knee joints. Under Yang Ping¡¯s meticulous guidance, she completely mastered the basic methods of this type of surgery. Miyuki forged sister-like bonds with Xiao Su, Tang Fei, and Zhou Can. Before Miyuki left China, they took a trip to the West Lake in Hangzhou over the weekend. Dressed in Hanfu, they took photos together, fulfilling one of Miyuki¡¯s wishes. On the morning of the day before he left China, Takahashi made a cup of tea for Yang Ping with utmost sincerity. This was to show respect for this young teacher and to thank him for his patient guidance. ¡°During this time, Mr. Yang, you have guided me devotedly and without reservation. I have benefited greatly. Please accept my respect. I vow to work hard and not to disgrace what I have learned!¡± In the afternoon, after completing his tenure, Takahashi went to Yang Ping¡¯s office and bowed deeply to salute him. Whether in terms of talent, diligence, the spirit of learning, or indomitable will, Yang Ping believed that Takahashi was a rare medical talent. He hoped that this Japanese student could maintain his original intention in the future, become a good doctor, and save people¡¯s lives. In the evening, Yang Ping held a farewell dinner for them. Everyone ate, drank, and chatted gleefully. When emotions ran high, Takahashi couldn¡¯t hold back his tears. Miyuki and the few sisters also hugged and wept, finding it hard to leave. After dinner, Xiao Su secretly told Yang Ping, ¡°Didn¡¯t you notice, Miyuki has a crush on you.¡± A woman¡¯s intuition is very keen. Xiao Su had long noticed Miyuki¡¯s feelings, but she just didn¡¯t mention it. Yang Ping also shared with Xiao Su about Miyuki¡¯s love confession. Xiao Su generously said, ¡°She is leaving for Japan, I give you special permission to accompany her for a little walk tonight.¡± Yang Ping shook his head, reluctant to do so, but Xiao Su insisted. She called for Miyuki, and since Yang Ping wasn¡¯t willing to accompany her alone for a walk, they decided all three of them would walk and talk together. There¡¯s no feast that doesn¡¯t end. Amid the reluctance to part, Takahashi and Miyuki left China. ¡ª¡ª The first postgraduate delegation from Xiehe arrived at Sanbo, led by Professor Hu Guolin. Song Yun was among them. In the past, Song Yun had only seen Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries and had never seen him in person. Now that she saw Yang Ping in person, she was full of admiration. ¡°This is Dr. Yang Ping.¡± Director Zhou led Professor Hu and his party to the Comprehensive Orthopedics and introduced them to Yang Ping. Yang Ping shook their hands: ¡°Welcome, welcome¡ª¡ª¡± Yang Ping never looked down on others and always treated people equally. He was like this with anyone who came to learn from him. ¡°Dr. Yang Ping, you are impressive for such a young age. Professor Liang has repeatedly instructed us to learn from you.¡± Professor Hu Guolin felt particularly at ease seeing no signs of condescendence from Yang Ping. ¡°Professor Liang is overstating, we should learn from each other, making up for each other¡¯s deficiencies.¡± Yang Ping replied in a straightforward and comfortable manner. ¡°This is Dr. Zhang from our department. During your time at Sanbo, if you need anything, feel free to communicate with Dr. Zhang. Please make yourself at home.¡± Yang Ping introduced Zhang Lin to Professor Hu. Director Zhou was also busy. Now that he had brought the people, he could leave: ¡°Professor Hu, you guys chat. Director Han has arranged everything. We will all get together tonight.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve all been bothered too much. I¡¯m really sorry to trouble you all.¡± Professor Hu Guolin felt somewhat embarrassed. The status of Xiehe Hospital was not diminished because they came here for further study. On the contrary, they were greatly respected by everyone. Director Han personally held a banquet to host the Xiehe postgraduate delegation, showing respect to Xiehe Hospital and Professor Liang. Zhang Lin stood up, full of energy, and shook hands with Professor Hu, feeling quite good about himself. He instantly felt like he was the best teaching secretary in the entire country. Temporary troops on a solid base. Takahashi and Robert had already gone through his hands, and now it was the turn of the top hospital in the country. Knowing that the Xiehe postgraduate delegation would arrive today, old Zhang specially wore a new shirt and a new tie. To avoid the hassle of tying a tie, Zhang¡¯s tie had a zipper to make it easier. ¡°Zhang, you are very promising at such a young age.¡± Professor Hu praised him. They were here to study on other¡¯s turf, no matter how young the teaching secretary in front was, he was still a teaching secretary. Such deference was necessary. Zhang Lin smiled brightly: ¡°Not at all, Professor Hu is too kind. In this period, I¡¯ve been serving you all, always ready to communicate.¡± Zhang Lin went through a stack of further learning materials, reading them line by line diligently before signing on them. ¡°Our scale here is not big, we are divided into two teams. One is led by Song Zimo, who you all know as the assistant of Golden Knife Award Doctor Yang. The other team lead is Xu Zhiliang. Although Professor Xu isn¡¯t talkative, his professional skills are top-notch. Shall I divide the teams for you?¡± Professor Hu volunteered, ¡°Please divide us according to your needs, including me.¡± He said it to avoid any potential embarrassment. ¡°Professor Hu, you do not need to stick with a group, usually, you will assist Doctor Yang in performing surgeries.¡± Zhang Lin said, as instructed by Yang Ping. Zhang Lin handed out a detailed list of what they needed for further studying to everyone. Everyone understood the protocol after reading through the list once. This way, there wouldn¡¯t be any awkward verbal explanation to Professor Hu¡¯s team. Ever since the surgery conducted in Malaysia, Yang Ping has been given more opportunities to operate outside. It necessitated a foreign liaison officer, and this position fell on Little Five. A team can only function well with clear division and collaboration. Yang Ping assigns work to each member according to their strengths. Little Five has strong communication skills and is good at social interaction, making him suitable for external liaison. Zhang Lin, being serious and unafraid to offend others, is needed for internal management, otherwise, it would be hard to carry out rules and regulations. Now, not only has Anning Insurance partnered with Yang Ping, but Yingge Hospital has also signed an independent contract with Yang Ping, following their usual model¡ªprofit sharing. The income related to the doctors, including all surgical expenses, belongs to Yang Ping. Yingge Hospital only charges for the cost of nursing care, bed fees, and other supporting services. The flight from Nandu to Malaysia takes just four hours, which is very convenient. The income of the Orthopedics Department has risen significantly, and Yang Ping has been just and fair in the distribution of departmental benefits. Yang Ping takes the distribution of both large and small profits seriously, allowing everyone to improve their quality of life while improving the quality of medical services. For a time, the enthusiasm of the medical and nursing staff in the Orthopedics Department was extremely high, and they were working overtime with total dedication. At the same time, Yang Ping¡¯s requirements for medical technology are constantly increasing. He has been training everyone and sending them out for further learning, allowing them to broaden their horizons. Yang Ping plans to contact Robert and Takahashi to send doctors and nurses to the United States and Japan for further study. Regardless of how exceptional Yang Ping himself is, he believes strongly in maintaining openness. The hospital will cover all costs for medical and nursing staff going for further studies. They are also eligible for basic wages and the average bonus within the department. If there are any discrepancies in learning opportunities, they will be allocated based on the results of exams ¨C both written and practical. All the scores were transparent, with no underhand tactics. Whether they are master¡¯s or doctoral students, or standardized training students, they are all working hard to learn and work, hoping that they can stay in the Orthopedics Department. The nurses, too, have a good learning spirit and often ask the doctors to teach them. The first batch of personnel sent out comprises two nurses who were selected based on written and practical examinations. They will be studying in the United States for three months. Director Zhou had just stepped out of the Orthopedics Department office when he remembered something and signaled Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin understood and immediately followed him. Director Zhou pulled him into the meeting room. ¡°Little Zhang, there is a nurse named Lian Qianru, who is related to Section Chief Lian from the Provincial Hall. Your department plans to send people to study, right? This young lady did not perform well in the exam. Can you adjust the allocation and add a quota? I asked Doctor Yang, but he said you are in charge of this.¡± Director Zhou almost forgot this important matter entrusted to him by Section Chief Lian from the Provincial Hall. Zhang Lin felt awkward: ¡°Director Zhou, adjusting this is impossible. If I help her, Doctor Yang will have to adjust me.¡± Director Zhou became annoyed: ¡°Can¡¯t you be a bit more flexible? Think of a solution.¡± Zhang Lin stood his ground: ¡°Director Zhou, this really can¡¯t be done. Please don¡¯t make it difficult for me. Fair competition, ranking by score, these are the rules set by Doctor Yang and agreed by everyone in the department unanimously. How can I adjust it? Why don¡¯t I have a chat with her, encourage her, let her work harder and try to get a good score next time?¡± ¡°You?¡± Director Zhou didn¡¯t expect Zhang Lin to refuse him outright. ¡°Are you getting cocky now?¡± Director Zhou left angrily. Zhang Lin muttered to himself. He only listened to Doctor Yang, and no one else, not even the hall chief mattered. ¡°Professor Hu, let¡¯s take a walk together and have a look around the department.¡± Yang Ping led Professor Hu¡¯s team out. Zhang Lin fixed his hair and immediately followed them out. Chapter 429 - 429 0396 Bridge ?Chapter 429: Chapter 0396: Bridge Chapter 429: Chapter 0396: Bridge The fellowship team from Xiehe Hospital quickly adapted due to their thorough preparation. They were studying cases, assisting with surgeries, and attending lectures delivered by Yang Ping just like the common interns. Song Yun was almost obsessively thorough, afraid to miss any technical detail and carefully noting down every word Yang Ping said during his lectures without blinking an eye at every step of the surgery. Currently, the comprehensive orthopedics department deals with every sub-specialty in orthopedics, mostly handling high-risk and high-difficulty cases that others are unwilling to take. Song Zimo could handle the relatively simpler surgeries in the department, for example, procedures like the twisted ball fold spinal deformity. Xu Zhiliang also made rapid progress, but he still lagged quite a bit behind Song Zimo. He strived to catch up, hoping to become as independent as Song Zimo. Being independent in comprehensive orthopedics is a completely different thing from other departments. Those who can do it are considered top-tier talents. To provide more observation opportunities for his colleagues from Xiehe Hospital, Yang Ping performed a larger number of surgeries during this period. Dean Xia and Director Han were discussing upgrading comprehensive orthopedics to comprehensive surgery and setting up a corresponding surgical research institute. This approach is unprecedented in big hospitals across the country. However, in smaller hospitals, township hospitals, and county-level hospitals where departmentalization was not very developed, they were divided into internal, external, obstetrics, pediatrics, and otolaryngology. A single surgery department would handle everything, from brain surgery, chest surgery, general surgery, to orthopedics. Doctors would perform surgeries from head to toe and handle all kinds of cases. But the surgeries performed by these grassroots hospitals are limited, and generally are simple procedures. More difficult ones are transferred to higher-level hospitals, so mastering the surgeries is not difficult. In third-tier teaching hospitals, especially in top-tier hospitals across the country, specialization is required, and with the larger the hospital, the finer the departmental division. Now, many people oppose the establishment of a comprehensive surgery department in a hospital like Sanbo. They claim it¡¯s absurd and would make people laugh ¨C surgeons from a third-tier teaching hospital performing general surgery is unheard of. Regardless, Dean Xia meticulously analyzed medical and health laws, regulations, and policy documents, and believes that there are no obstacles in theory to establish a comprehensive surgery department. The key is that the establishment of the department must be meaningful. For a talent like Yang Ping, it is necessary to provide him with an independent, large platform. It may be even necessary to establish a hospital within the hospital, allowing him to fully utilize his talent and only then could talents like him be retained. In a meeting, Dean Xia overrode all objections and firmed up this plan. He planned to allocate all eight floors of the comprehensive orthopedics building to Yang Ping for the purpose of comprehensive surgery. The original orthopedics lab was to be moved out and relocated into a medical building. A lab for comprehensive surgery was to be set up inside its building for Yang Ping. Yang Ping promised Dean Xia that he would not need a penny from the hospital or the country for research funding, and would raise the funds himself. However, he needed Dean Xia to establish a legitimate process for receiving donated funds to allow his lab to be eligible for donations. Because the process for the hospital to accept donations is complicated, Dean Xia would need to streamline the process administratively. Transforming Sanbo into a top-tier hospital nationwide was what Dean Xia wished for years ago, but he felt overwhelmed by the task. Now, the ambition he had when starting the hospital began to burn again. With comprehensive surgery as a foundation, he hoped to lead Sanbo to become a national industry front-runner. Dean Xia was brimming with confidence and felt energetic like when he was young. Yang Ping was incredibly busy as well. Apart from performing surgeries and delivering lectures, he also had numerous scalpel surgeries to handle, invitations from Li Quan Hospital, Malaysia, and Robert as well. The newly appointed Dean Chen of the Municipal People¡¯s Hospital also approached him several times, hoping to cooperate with Yang Ping and rebuild the orthopedics department of the Municipal People¡¯s Hospital. The Municipal People¡¯s Hospital was currently a mess, with assets depleted and lacking talents due to high attrition rates over the past years. There was no money left in their account, only debts owed to banks and pharmaceutical manufacturers. With his hands full, Dean Chen decided to start with orthopedics and step by step, renew the Municipal People¡¯s Hospital. Seeing Dean Chen¡¯s sincerity, Yang Ping decided to aid him in rebuilding orthopedics without any charge. After studying Robert¡¯s cases in detail, Yang Ping concluded that they were not too hard. It was just that Robert¡¯s study duration at Sanbo was too short, and he has yet to grasp the nuances of such surgeries. He could handle routine multiple ligament reconstruction surgeries of the knee joint for the average person, but for professional athletes whose sports abilities needed to be restored, Robert was not yet up to par. When he saw Junhao Bao¡¯s name among the cases, he couldn¡¯t help but smile. Junhao brimmed with arrogance, showing extreme disrespect, showing off the moment he stepped into the United States. Not even out of the country yet, he started acting high and mighty. After going around in circles and countless setbacks, they ended up requesting his surgical services. The world was indeed too small. Though the surgery needed to be performed, an apology from the Bao Family was an absolute must. They could not be allowed to keep misbehaving. Yang Ping tasked Little Five with coordinating these matters while he decided to take a trip to the United States. If possible, he would bring some people along for the trip to broaden their horizons. ¡ª¡ª After several exchanges of emails, Yang Ping¡¯s trip to the United States to perform surgery was finally confirmed. For Robert, this was a big deal, as it signified that he would establish a channel of communication with Yang Ping. Once this bridge was successfully built, he would quickly learn Yang Ping¡¯s complex shoulder and knee ligament reconstruction techniques, even for more complicated surgeries. Robert rushed to apply for a temporary surgical license for Yang Ping. The application for such a license in the United States was strict, but for Robert, this was not an issue. It was the first time his mentor was invited to America, and Robert would meticulously arrange for his reception. The surgeries, all five of them, were scheduled to take place at the Specialized Surgical Hospital in New York. Despite his own clinic being equipped with advanced facilities, only the Specialized Surgical Hospital in New York seemed fitting to invite his mentor for the first time. The welcoming ceremony must be Chinese-style. He repeatedly insisted with the hospital administration department, it must be Chinese-style. Robert looked at the banner template on his office desk, utterly satisfied: ¡°Welcome Dr. Yang Ping to instruct surgeries¡±. ¡°This company specializes in Chinese-style wedding planning, and has a high reputation in New York¡¯s Chinatown. They say this is the most Chinese way to welcome someone. If you agree, they will write it according to this template. The person who will do the calligraphy is an old gentleman, many of the Chinese New Year decorations on Chinatown come from his hand.¡± Barel was very confident in his arrangements. ¡°Very excellent, did you tell them? Write it with a brush-like pen, on red paper, with black characters, a big brush pen.¡± Robert was very satisfied with Barel¡¯s performance, the previous lady from the administration department was terrible. He explained to her for ages but she was utterly clueless. ¡°I¡¯ve already told them, it is that kind of ancient brush, the one with a bundle of hair.¡± Barel opened the event planning booklet, pointed and showed Robert. ¡°Yes, just like that.¡± Robert looked at the photo in the album. ¡°The cheerleaders that day will wear cheongsams and hold a cheongsam flash mob event, but should the event location be at the airport or at the hospital entrance?¡± Barel needed Robert to decide. ¡°At the hospital entrance, are the cheering personnel confirmed?¡± Robert cared about the details. Barel nodded: ¡°Per your instructions, to show our sincerity, we¡¯ll use our own people. We¡¯ve pulled in all the secretaries from the Orthopedics Department, as well as the nurses, to form the welcoming committee.¡± ¡°Very good, you are indeed my most capable assistant Barel, you know? I¡¯ve been to China, and saw the way they welcome important people. It is just like this, long banners written with welcoming words, and young boys and girls standing on both sides holding fresh flowers, shouting ¡®welcome! welcome!¡¯. You¡¯ve found the right event planner this time.¡± Robert was so excited that he began pacing around the room. ¡°We need to create the atmosphere of China. Barel, after the surgery, Dr. Yang is going to visit our clinic. We need to hang red Chinese knots in our clinic, and also, we need to paste the Chinese character ¡®Fu¡¯ on our doors.¡± Robert became more and more excited. Barel seemed to feel it was inappropriate: ¡°Those decorations are only used during the Chinese New Year.¡± ¡°We need to decorate it like the Chinese New Year. Our mentor will definitely like it.¡± ¡°The hotel, the chefs, all have been booked in advance¡ª¡ª¡± ¡°What else? What else? Let me think.¡± Robert rubbed his hands together, gesticulating with enthusiasm. Unable to think of anything else for the time being, Robert opened the surgical instrument case again. This was a set of instruments designed by Yang Ping. ¡°What¡¯s the use of this flexible drill?¡± Barel could not understand the purpose of these instruments. This flexible drill, the connecting rod of the drill head is a spring, which can change direction. ¡°Dr. Yang should be planning to perform a curve segmented drilling.¡± Robert understood the mystery behind it. Barel did not understand the significance of curve segmented drilling. Robert walked over to the office desk and drew it for him on paper. ¡°Drill out from the femoral condyle inside the knee joint, the back of the condyle, exit from the section below the epiphyseal line, then follow the arc, cross the epiphyseal line, again from the section above the epiphyseal line, enter from the lower section of the femur, the two tunnels break off at the plane of the epiphysis, if we extend the line, they are on an arc.¡± Finally, Barel understood why Robert regarded this Chinese man as his mentor. This type of surgery technique ingeniously conceived can solve the difficult problem of reconstructing the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments in children. It is much more advanced compared to the current suspensory fixation procedure. ¡°Also, the mentor will send two nurses here for an exchange. You need to communicate with the Nursing Department, they must be well arranged. Tell them, these are the people sent by the mentor I respect.¡± Robert reminded Barel, in the Specialized Surgical Hospital in New York, clinical doctors, especially the consulting doctors, have absolute authority, and the administration department is only a servicer. He had to build this bridge well. If Dr. Yang was satisfied, their communication would be unimpeded. Dr. Yang¡¯s surgeries are a goldmine in medical techniques, Robert had seen it with his own eyes. Chapter 430 - 430 0397 New York ?Chapter 430: Chapter 0397: New York Chapter 430: Chapter 0397: New York Yang Ping squeezed in some time to complete a batch of surgeries at Li Quan Hospital and then flew to Yingge Hospital in Malaysia to perform eight surgeries. Considering that Yang Ping had just started working with Yingge Hospital, Lin Mingyuan accompanied him from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Director Zhu also accompanied him throughout the entire journey. Currently, Director Zhu works mainly in Southeast Asia, and his wife and child have moved to Singapore where his child is studying. After finishing these surgeries, the Visa to the United States was ready. During the Visa interview, the personnel at the U.S. Embassy thought there was a mistake when they saw that the purpose of the trip was to guide surgeries in the United States, and they had to confirm multiple times before believing it was correct. Boss Cheng and Huang Jiacai, hearing that Yang Ping was going to the United States to perform surgeries, also got their Visas, claiming they were going for a study visit. Cheng was going to investigate the New York Specialty Orthopedic Hospital, whereas Huang was curious about the condition of medical equipment merchants there. Xiao Su helped Yang Ping pack his suitcase and reminded him to be careful abroad. She told him that if he encountered any difficulties, he should inform her immediately as her uncle has many friends there who could help. He was only going abroad for surgery; he didn¡¯t anticipate facing any difficulties. The routine was simple: hospital, hotel, back and forth. Moreover, he would be accompanying two bosses. Huang was a very shrewd person, and Cheng claimed to have relatives in the United States. Actually, it seemed like he had relatives wherever he went. He even had relatives when they were in Malaysia. They spent more than 30 hours on the plane and had several transfers. To kill time, they chatted with each other. When tired, Yang Ping would sleep, perform virtual surgeries in a system space, conduct experiments, or ponder some issues. Unfortunately, the system space did not soak up real-world time, so it did not help to kill the time. Yang Ping sorted out his research approach. Currently, all techniques aiming to grow organs from stem cells utilize 3D printing. This technology involves cultivating cells that can form organs from stem cells, which then serve as raw materials for a 3D printer to shape specific organs. The current bottleneck of this technology is that the volume can¡¯t be too large, and normal growth and development cannot occur. Once it reaches a certain stage, it collapses, which is why it can¡¯t currently be used for organ transplants. If advancements are to be made, this passive cell assembly technology needs to be improved. To truly realize self-differentiation and growth of stem cells¡ªas well as inductive cultivation¡ªit¡¯s necessary to cultivate organs directly from stem cells, not printed out. Only in this way can organs meet the actual requirements for transplantation. The plane crossed the Pacific Ocean, from the west coast to the east, and after several transfers in Shanghai and Los Angeles, it finally landed at Newark International Airport in New York. By the time they arrived in New York, it was just past seven in the morning. Yang Ping and his two companions, lugging their suitcases, followed the route markers out of the airport. Huang Jiacai, who had never attended university, self-studied English and his level wasn¡¯t inferior to that of an educated person like Boss Cheng. Robert and several of his assistants were already waiting for them at the terminal exit, holding a banner written in Chinese to welcome them. Robert spotted Yang Ping from afar in the crowd and waved enthusiastically to get his attention. ¡°That¡¯s Dr. Yang!¡± exclaimed Robert as he excitedly introduced Yang Ping to Barel and others while holding up the banner. Robert and his crew were all wearing the same red T-shirts. Their faces were flushed with excitement. The words ¡°Welcome Yang Ping¡± were printed on the front and back. Yang Ping recognized him easily. ¡°Welcome, Dr. Yang, welcome.¡± Robert ran up to greet him with a hug, then reached out for a powerful handshake midway. Upon closer inspection, Yang Ping thought the Chinese script on Robert¡¯s clothing was well written. Yang Ping introduced Boss Cheng and President Huang to Robert, explaining that they were his friends and were there for a study visit. Together with his assistants, Robert accompanied them to the car. He personally drove them to their hotel to settle in. Mark New York Hotel, located in the Upper East Side district, was among the best hotels in the area and conveniently located near the Specialty Orthopedic Hospital. After breakfast, Robert took Yang Ping to tour the hospital. ¡°Welcome Dr. Yang Ping for the Guiding Surgery¡± a red banner was hung at the front door of the main hospital building. Several young doctors holding flower bouquets stood on both sides of the walkway. Patients gathered around to watch the commotion, excited to see Yang Ping arrive. Just like the Chinese, Americans also enjoyed a spectacle. Suddenly, an exuberant flash mob of secretaries and nurses, dressed in cheongsams and holding fans, began dancing to the sounds of a traditional Chinese Guzheng. It had a touch of ancient elegance. The sudden appearance of the flash mob in cheongsams caught Yang Ping off guard. Nothing was mentioned beforehand. Out of nowhere, a group of Western women wearing cheongsams blocked his way, which startled him. Everything was fine; it was just that the American girls wearing cheongsams lacked something. An Asian face among them seemed to blend in more harmoniously. ¡°Dr. Yang, please!¡± Robert was all smiles and exuberance. Seeing Yang Ping¡¯s surprised look, Robert confirmed that his welcoming ceremony had been successful. Through the aisle in the lobby, under the curious eyes of the onlookers, Robert led Yang Ping and two others on an official tour of the New York Special Orthopedic Hospital. This is the place of pilgrimage for orthopedic surgeons worldwide, ranked as the first orthopedic hospital in the world. This ancient orthopedic hospital, with only 255 beds, has 35 operating rooms, 10 MRI machines, 60 X-ray machines, and 95 orthopedic doctors. More than 30,000 orthopedic surgeries are performed each year, over 10,000 joint replacements, and over 10,000 in sports medicine. The late ¡°Father of Artificial Knee Replacement,¡± John N. Insall, was a doctor at this hospital. Therefore, it is the birthplace of modern knee replacement technology. Besides John N. Insall, there are many other internationally famous masters, such as Peter Walker, Chitranjan S. Ranawat, John Marshall, and others. Many professors are the main designers of the currently used artificial joint replacement devices. The most widely used HSS knee joint scoring system in the world was also formulated by doctors at this hospital. Many doctors also serve as team doctors for famous teams and competitions, such as the NBA New York Knicks, New Jersey Nets, NHL New York Rangers, U.S. Open Tennis, Davis Cup U.S. Team, and U.S. Olympics. These doctors all had a strong curiosity, knowing that Professor Robert of the Sports Medicine Department had invited his mentor to perform surgery, they were very interested. They knew that Professor Robert had recently developed a new surgical procedure to solve the difficult problem of multiple ligament ruptures in the knee joint, which he had learned from his mentor. Before this, Robert had never mentioned having a mentor outside, so everyone made a special effort to come and see who this revered mentor could be. Seeing that the mentor Robert revered was a young Asian man, everyone was a little taken aback. Visiting the outpatient clinic, the inpatient ward, and then the operating room, Robert enthusiastically and meticulously introduced the hospital¡¯s situation and some new surgeries being performed. Two Chinese doctors who were in the process of furthering their medical studies were assigned to accompany them, one from Jishuitan and one from Xiangya. In the operating room, the scrub suit Robert gave to Yang Ping was blue, a color reserved for in-house doctors at this hospital. All visiting doctors and visitors wear bright purple scrub suits, strictly distinguished from the hospital¡¯s doctors, reminding them at all times, ¡°Beware of him, his understanding and practices on sterility may be flawed.¡± Of the 35 operating rooms, except for one under routine maintenance, all rooms are in operation for knee replacement, hip replacement, shoulder arthroscopy, knee arthroscopy, and so on. A knee replacement surgery was ongoing, and not many people were allowed in. Robert invited Yang Ping in, but he suggested that he would just observe from outside the door. An organic glass shield hanging from the ceiling separated the operating area from the surroundings. Inside the shield, the surgeons dressed in ¡°spacesuits¡± were busy at work. Outside the shield, circulating nurses and anesthesiologists were also busy. There was a thirty-centimeter clearance between the shield and the floor, facilitating laminar flow. The presence of the shield allowed those outside not to worry about bumping into the operating area, greatly increasing the safety of the entire operation. At the very back of the operating room were the instrument room and the disinfection room. All sorts of orthopedic instruments and various joint prostheses were stored in the instrument room, ready for use at any time. An engineer from the manufacturer was following the ongoing artificial knee replacement surgery. These engineers are required to undergo at least half a year of training on sterile procedures in the operating room, earning a certificate of qualification, before they are permitted to enter the operating room. The chief surgeon was an internationally renowned joint replacement expert, who was currently using navigational technology to perform osteotomy. ¡°Professor Rongge would have come to welcome you at the door if it wasn¡¯t so busy. He was delighted to hear of Dr. Yang¡¯s visit, and is looking forward to discussing joint replacement technology with you,¡± said Robert, who had visited Sanbo for a week and had seen Yang Ping perform various orthopedic surgeries. Perhaps someone had told Professor Rongge that there were visitors observing, so Rongge, who was watching the navigational screen, turned and looked at the door, giving a gesture over his chest. ¡°Let¡¯s go over and have a look at the arthroscopic surgery for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction over there,¡± Robert suggested, as this was a common procedure in his department. After observing the knee arthroscopy, Robert brought Yang Ping to a surgery room that was currently under maintenance. ¡°This is where Dr. Yang will perform surgery. In the interest of safety, a maintenance check will be carried out,¡± Robert had prepared everything meticulously. Chapter 431 - 431 0398 The Earth is Round ?Chapter 431: Chapter 0398 The Earth is Round Chapter 431: Chapter 0398 The Earth is Round Originally, Professor Robert had planned to set up a meeting between Doctor Yang and the patients at the Long Island Clinic. However, considering Doctor Yang¡¯s long flight and potential fatigue, they wanted to reduce any unnecessary hassle. So, they decided to set up the patients at the International Center of the Special Surgery Hospital. The staff at the International Center¡¯s guest service department had already gathered the five patients in the international outpatient lobby, waiting for Doctor Yang¡¯s arrival. Under the company of Manager Qian, Junhao¡¯s family was also sitting in the lobby waiting. The other patients were American NBA basketball players, NFL football players, and Cornell University basketball players. There was also a child named Andrew, accompanied by Camilla. ¡°Ladies and Gentlemen, Professor Robert¡¯s mentor, Doctor Yang has arrived at our hospital. He is currently visiting the operation room and will be here soon. The esteemed professor is very diligent, and he needs to discuss with you personally, ask about your medical history, conduct physical examinations, and analyze imaging pictures. Please cooperate. Also, if you have any questions, you can ask him directly. It¡¯s extremely hard to get Doctor Yang here, consider yourself lucky. He is the only doctor in the world who can let you return to the sports arena.¡± The lady at the guest department provided a heads-up to everyone. Manager Qian didn¡¯t pay much attention to whether the surname Yang was of Chinese descent. As Robert¡¯s tutor, it was undoubtedly a master of masters. ¡°Professor Robert¡¯s mentor is about to arrive, and he will personally see these patients.¡± Manager Qian asked everyone to be calm. ¡°American professors are so responsible. Such a high-ranking professor sees the patients personally before surgery.¡± Mrs. Bao was very impressed. ¡°There is only one professor in the world who can perform Junhao¡¯s surgery now. He is the chief surgeon of this type of surgery. Not only can Junhao recover his ability to walk normally after the surgery, but he can also return to the field. If someone else performed this surgery, Junhao would struggle to walk in the future. He can walk with crutches now, but in a year or two, when the cartilage wears out, it will hurt every time he walks.¡± Manager Qian intentionally highlighted some critical information to show the importance of his efforts. Mrs. Bao was delighted, ¡°Junhao is so lucky. If he underwent surgery in China, he would definitely be disabled. That would be problematic for the rest of his life.¡± Young Master Bao stopped playing his mobile game and moved his neck, with a cracking sound. He looked up at the glass door. The professor hadn¡¯t arrived yet. Everyone was waiting quietly. Sitting with these genuine sports stars, Young Master Bao felt insecure, and he occasionally stole glances at the NBA basketball player in front of him. Young Master Bao looked around and found the English words ¡°INTERNIONAL CENTER¡± above the door frame confusing. It was such a long English word. Then he sent a few WeChat messages to a girlfriend and posted a few photos on Moment. Waiting at the world¡¯s top orthopedic hospital to meet the sports medicine master. Who do you think the person in front of me is? Guess! The post was accompanied by a secretly-taken picture of an NBA star from behind. There was the sound of people talking from the distance, growing closer and closer, and the staff from the guest services immediately stood by the door, which was open. Surrounded by a slew of professors in suits and leather shoes, the revered tutor finally appeared. Out of respect, all seated patients and their companions stood up. Young Master Bao also got up. The respected professor turned out to be a relatively young Chinese, full of energy and elegance. Because the patients in the front were towering and blocked the view, Mrs. Bao and Young Master Bao didn¡¯t see much. They only noticed that he seemed to have an Asian face. Once everyone was seated, Mrs. Bao felt something was not right. This Asian professor seemed familiar, as if she had seen him before. There was a row of chairs set up at the upper end of the patient tables. Professor Robert and others accompanied Yang Ping to sit down. ¡°Gentlemen and Ladies, I apologize for the long wait. The respected Doctor Yang flew over thirty hours straight from China to perform your surgeries. I propose a round of applause for Doctor Yang¡¯s dedication.¡± After Robert finished talking, he respectfully led the applause, prompting a round of applause throughout the room. Mrs. Bao could not understand English and kept staring at Dr. Yang. Her mind was like a temporary memory lapse, trying to remember something but unable to recall instantly. The distance was significant, and Doctor Yang was wearing a white gown at the time. Now he was in a suit and shirt, and considering the occasion in the United States, Mrs. Bao still couldn¡¯t remember. ¡°Manager Qian!¡± Mrs. Bao asked quietly. Manager Qian was talking to Bao Yulou and turned around, lowering his voice, ¡°What¡¯s the matter, ma¡¯am?¡± ¡°Could you ask where this professor is from and what his name is?¡± Mrs. Bao was very nervous. Manager Qian replied, ¡°He was just introduced, Doctor Yang from China.¡± From China. Manager Qian didn¡¯t pay attention just now, but now he found it a bit surprising. From China? Isn¡¯t this supposed to be from a Chinese-American? Doctor Yang? Doctor Yang! Doctor Yang! Doctor Yang! Mrs. Bao repeated the name in her heart, and suddenly there was light in her mind. Isn¡¯t this Doctor Yang from Sanbo Hospital? She had an argument with him. It can¡¯t be right? How could it be possible? It¡¯s absolutely impossible. But the appearance and size indeed looked similar, and his last name was Yang. Mrs. Bao started to feel nervous. It¡¯s impossible. That awful doctor from Sanbo Hospital, who came here for further study, might not have been wanted by anyone. How could he possibly be Professor Robert¡¯s mentor? How could he? Mrs. Bao had been just a little nervous, but now she was all over the place. ¡°Go and ask him his name and what hospital he¡¯s from.¡± Mrs. Bao felt a lump in her chest, it couldn¡¯t be mere coincidence, could it? It wasn¡¯t quite appropriate to go ask for this information at this time, but when Mrs. Bao issued the command, Manager Qian had no choice but to comply. Manager Qian surveyed the doctors in the hall, noticed that one of Professor Robert¡¯s assistants was free, made his move discreetly, walked over to him, and inquired about the professor¡¯s background. China Sanbo Hospital, Doctor Yang Ping. When Manager Qian returned and informed Mrs. Bao, her body jolted as if she had been electrocuted out of shock. How was this possible? From this distance, it was hard to see the details of his face, but there was no mistaking it, it was indeed that doctor. Such a young, Chinese doctor from Sanbo Hospital... how could he be Professor Robert¡¯s guide? This was, after all, the world¡¯s top-ranked orthopedic hospital, and Robert was a prominent master in sports medicine. What was wrong? Something didn¡¯t add up. Still, the thing was, all these doctors, Robert included, were paying the utmost respect to the young man sitting there. Even those star athletes were waiting for his surgery. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? You look ill.¡± Bao Yulou noted that his wife¡¯s face had turned as pale as cooked liver. Mrs. Bao muttered somewhat incoherently, ¡°You¨C come out for a moment.¡± She called out to Junhao, who was engrossed in his video game. Mrs. Bao wanted to slap him, but the setting didn¡¯t permit it. Manager Qian noticed the strange expression on Mrs. Bao¡¯s face and instantly sensed something was wrong. He quickly patted Junhao, who looked up impatiently. Manager Qian pointed at Mrs. Bao, causing Junhao to submit immediately after seeing his mother¡¯s face. The group followed Mrs. Bao out of the sitting area, only to be approached by a staff member who informed them that Dr. Yang was about to start accepting patients. Manager Qian quickly explained that their number is later, and they were stepping away to discuss some private matter. The staff member urged them to make it quick. Once they were a bit farther from the entrance, Mrs. Bao weakly said, ¡°This doctor is Doctor Yang from Sanbo Hospital.¡± ¡°Which Doctor Yang?¡± Bao Yulou asked in confusion, trying to understand her seemingly random sentence. ¡°Which one?! It¡¯s him with whom Junhao and I quarreled, the one I demanded an apology from,¡± Mrs. Bao said, her face alternating between flushes of red and white. Bao Yulou looked back towards the entrance, he had never met Doctor Yang, so he asked Junhao: ¡°Is that even possible? He¡¯s Professor Robert¡¯s mentor.¡± Junhao, whose mind was previously distracted by his video game, hadn¡¯t paid much attention to the professor. He stared blankly at his mother. ¡°What are you doing all day? Can¡¯t you recognize a person? Is he Dr. Yang?¡± Mrs. Bao sought final confirmation. Manager Qian was puzzled about their fuss. What did it matter who he was? Since Professor Robert introduced him, it shouldn¡¯t be an issue. But indeed, from China... this situation had unexpectedly taken a complete roundabout. ¡°What do we do?¡± Mrs. Bao asked. ¡°That can¡¯t be, are you sure? Manager Qian, you go and ask again,¡± Bao Yulou said in disbelief, the situation was just too absurd. Within a few minutes, Manager Qian came back from asking again: ¡°China Sanbo Hospital, Dr. Yang Ping.¡± Damn it, really from Sanbo Hospital. That must mean it¡¯s Dr. Yang. As panic took over Mrs. Bao, she groaned, ¡°How can I be so unlucky to run into him after traveling half the globe? I could¡¯ve never seen this coming.¡± ¡°What do we do? What do we do?¡± Now Mrs. Bao felt as though a cat was clawing around within her chest, causing panic and distress. ¡°You¡¯re saying, the professor is Dr. Yang from Sanbo?¡± Young Master Bao furrowed his brows. ¡°What¡¯s going on in your head, why is it taking you so long to figure this out?¡± Mrs. Bao felt an urge to swear. ¡°Keep your voice down. This isn¡¯t the time to scold the child, let¡¯s go back inside,¡± Bao Yulou reminded her. ¡°Let¡¯s leave. We shouldn¡¯t go back in,¡± Mrs. Bao said through gritted teeth. Bao Yulou disagreed: ¡°Leave? Are you joking? Didn¡¯t you hear? He¡¯s the only doctor who can heal Junhao¡¯s leg. Otherwise, why would Robert go through so much trouble to invite him? Those athletes are also waiting for him. Do you want Junhao not to be treated and become a cripple?¡± Bao Yulou was still thinking rationally. They had to face the music and go back in, seeing things one step at a time. This wasn¡¯t a bitter feud; there must be a way around this. Yet, Bao Yulou too couldn¡¯t wrap his head around it all ¨C a young doctor from Sanbo Hospital- Robert¡¯s mentor- the esteemed guest at a specialized surgical hospital in New York. The situation just didn¡¯t seem to align, but it was apparent from the respect he was shown that there was no mistake. ¡°Well, let¡¯s go back in. I¡¯ve told you all to be more modest and not to make a fuss over trivial matters, but you never listen. Now you¡¯re tasting the bitter fruit. And you, always so irritable, threatening to ruin this person, to ruin that person, now you know the trouble you¡¯ve caused, right?¡± Bao Yulou murmured reproachfully. ¡°Dad, my leg absolutely can¡¯t end up crippled,¡± Junhao dragged his twisted leg, his face without cheer. Mrs. Bao looked at her pitiful son: ¡°Bao Yulou, why are you being so harsh?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go in quickly, time waits for no one, I heard Dr. Yang is very busy,¡± Manager Qian defused the tense atmosphere. Mrs. Bao stamped her foot: ¡°So unlucky!¡± Youg Master Bao limped behind, cursing his luck. Indeed, the world truly was round. Chapter 432 - 432 0399 Unexpected Event ?Chapter 432: Chapter 0399: Unexpected Event Chapter 432: Chapter 0399: Unexpected Event Back in the lobby, Dr. Yang had already begun seeing patients, following the prearranged order and seeing them one by one. Everyone was waiting in the lobby. As each patient was seen, the secretary would call out the number from the doorway of the consultation room and usher the next patient in. Rober and Barel acted as assistants in the consultation room, with a lady translator on hand to provide instant translating service. Mrs. Bao was in a state of disarray. Despite having confirmed it was Yang Ping, she still wished it was a misunderstanding. Given Mrs. Bao¡¯s haughty temper, if it had been something else, she would have stormed out defiantly, rather than sitting down waiting for the upcoming awkward situation. But it was about her son¡¯s lifelong health. The young man was in pain every step he took; it was agonizing. Junhao¡¯s knee had been seen in several hospitals and by Professor Ye at Dido Medical University Third Hospital. Professor Ye stated that he was helpless in this situation. It was difficult enough to recover the ability to walk normally after surgery, let alone regain athletic ability. In a few years, the cartilage would wear out and cause traumatic arthritis. At such a young age, a prosthetic joint replacement is unthinkable. Professor Ye suggested they consult Dr. Yang Ping at Sanbo hospital; he currently specializes in this area. Mrs. Bao did some research on Yang Ping. He was a young attending physician, which made her consider this as Professor Ye¡¯s stalling tactic. So, they decided on treatment in the United States. After a lot of effort, they found that the orthopedic department of the New York Special Surgery Hospital was ranked first in the United States, and Professor Robert had a strong reputation in sports medicine. Thus, they asked Manager Qian to book an appointment with Professor Robert. Before leaving for the United States, Junhao¡¯s knee pain worsened, leading Mrs. Bao to take him for a temporary visit to Sanbo¡¯s Orthopaedics VIP. That¡¯s when the conflict with Yang Ping occurred. It was unthinkable that, after going through such a huge loop, the mentor invited by Professor Robert turned out to be Yang Ping. Mrs. Bao felt as if she were dreaming. Bao Yulou consoled his wife: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, if it¡¯s indeed Dr. Yang who had the disagreement with you, we¡¯ll play it by ear. If he forgets about it, we¡¯ll act as if we don¡¯t know. If he remembers and makes things difficult for us, we¡¯ll sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding.¡± That was the only option. The disease had to be treated. But an apology was difficult! Those two words ¨C ¡°say sorry¡± ¨C never appeared in Mrs. Bao¡¯s dictionary. ¡°Should we return to China for treatment? Ask somebody from the provincial hall to say a word to Sanbo hospital?¡± Mrs. Bao suddenly thought of a different approach ¨C to go back to China to see Yang Ping for treatment. After all, the hospital was under higher management, right? If a friend gives a word, would he not treat? ¡°Where do you get such ideas? With just one word from Yang, saying ¡®I can¡¯t treat him¡¯, who dares to force him to perform surgery? You guys think just like children. I see that you haven¡¯t quite realized where the problem lies. Would there be such trouble if your public profile was a little lower? I bet the surgery might have been done already.¡± Bao Yulou thought his wife¡¯s attitude was problematic. ¡°Junhao, when you see Dr. Yang later on, mind your manners and apologize if you need to, understand?¡± Bao Yulou instructed. He was out of any options with this son of his. He lived in constant fear for his son. When he was strict with this son in his childhood, his wife would make a fuss. Bao Yulou sometimes thought that if the Bao family got in trouble in the future, it would either be because of his wife or this spoiled son. ¡°I know. Isn¡¯t it just about money? I am paying him so much. He wouldn¡¯t dare refuse to treat, would he?¡± Young Master Bao said impatiently. Bao Yulou was pissed. Had he been at home, a shoe would already have been thrown. Junhao was the last one. Everyone who went in with a worried expression came out beaming. Especially that NBA basketball star, who gave each staff member a hug when he came out, expressing how fortunate he felt and his gratitude for everyone¡¯s help. When it was Young Master Bao¡¯s turn, a staff member from the ceremonial department invited them in. ¡°Remember what I said. Don¡¯t make a scene. If you cause trouble again, I won¡¯t do anything about it.¡± Bao Yulou reminded them again. ¡°I got it, it¡¯s really annoying!¡± Mrs. Bao complained. Although Young Master Bao was stubborn, it was only a release of the pent-up anger. He was actually terribly scared inside. His leg had been injured for less than a year, but the pain was so intense in just a few months that he felt like he couldn¡¯t live on with such agony for the rest of his life. He stood up, leaned on his crutch, and looked helplessly at his mother, wondering whether to go in or not. ¡°What are you dazing for? Hurry up, go.¡± Bao Yulou urged. Accompanied by Manager Qian, the family entered the consultation room. Yang Ping was looking at information on the computer, Barel was helping with the computer to record medical records, Robert was assisting Yang Ping, and the translator was casually prepared to translate. Young Master Bao sat down, looking very uneasy. Facing this situation, all his previous bluster was gone. ¡°Hello, Doctor... Yang!¡± Junhao stuttered a bit as he spoke. Mrs. Bao was flushed: ¡°Hello, Dr. Yang.¡± Upon seeing Yang Ping¡¯s face up close, they conclusively confirmed it was Yang Ping from Sanbo hospital. Yang Ping glanced at them, indicating they should sit down. Mrs. Bao and Young Master Bao let out a sigh of relief, as it seemed he didn¡¯t recognize them. ¡°Please have a seat!¡± Robert invited them. The Bao family sat down. Mrs. Bao had seen this scene before; when they had visited Professor Ye¡¯s outpatient clinic in Beijing, he too had been accompanied by two graduate students, one typing and the other assisting with various things. Dr. Yang Ping held up a form, asking in his hand and asked, ¡°What¡¯s your name? Where are you from? How can I assist you today?¡± He spoke in American-style English, entirely incomprehensible to Young Master Bao, who looked towards Manager Qian for help. Dr. Yang Ping shrugged and laughed, ¡°You¡¯re American, sir. How come you can¡¯t understand English?¡± Just as Manager Qian was about to assist with translation, the translator had already translated Dr. Yang¡¯s words. Fury ignited within Young Master Bao. Who did this guy think he was? He was about to stand up, but barely got halfway before realizing his misstep. He forced himself to sit back down. While he was dealing with the same man as before, the circumstances had completely changed. Young Master Bao just barely escaped making a scene as he was still encapsulated by his previous mindset. He really needed their help now. He came to realize that Dr. Yang was a prestigious figure in America. This understanding caused Young Master Bao to squeeze out an extremely awkward smile. Mrs. Bao¡¯s also looked displeased, never having been questioned in this manner before, yet she held her anger in check, not daring to challenge him. ¡°He¡¯s Chinese, a fellow countryman who recently arrived in America,¡± Manager Qian hastily explained, inadvertently referring to the Bao family as fellow countrymen. ¡°Chinese? Bao Junhao? I thought you were American. You look somewhat familiar; have we met before?¡± Dr. Yang Ping looked down at the form and then up at Junhao, noting a vague resemblance. ¡°Dr. Yang, we have...we have met before, at Sanbo Hospital. There was an incident at the time...a misunderstanding,¡± Mrs. Bao said, realizing that there was no point hiding the facts. Dr. Yang turned to Professor Robert rather placidly and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I cannot treat this patient. They have a history of violent tendency and has previously attempted to harm me.¡± Even Dr. Yang didn¡¯t expect Professor Robert¡¯s face to change significantly at his words. This was a serious matter. Once a patient was suspected to display violent tendencies or have a record of attempted harm towards a doctor, the doctor had the right to refuse treatment and seek protection. ¡°Security, security, hurry!¡± Professor Robert immediately stood up, positioning himself protectively in front of Dr. Yang. Barel pressed the panic button concealed underneath the office desk. Professor Robert attempted to shield Dr. Yang as they tried to exit the consulting room through a side door designed for quick evacuation. Soon, security rushed in. Professor Robert shouted, ¡°Protect Dr. Yang! This patient has a history of trying to violently harm doctors¡ª¡± The sturdy security guards were armed. They have a standard operating procedure: one of them took his place in front of Dr. Yang to facilitate an evacuation, while another drew his stun baton and ordered, ¡°Stay where you are! Don¡¯t move!¡± Shortly, more security personnel came in. Young Master Bao was taken aback; he knew these guards were armed. Raising his hands, he didn¡¯t understand what was happening. Manager Qian was also flabbergasted. As the guards escorting Dr. Yang out through the side door asked him whether he wished to continue the consultation, they assured him that they would remain watchful if he chose to go on, ensuring his safety. The other security personnel kept an eye on Young Master Bao in the consultation room since he was not protesting or causing a commotion. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but given your past record of physically assaulting Dr. Yang, we can¡¯t provide you with services now,¡± the guard explained solemnly. Outside, a few patients who hadn¡¯t left and several medical staff members had presumably sounded the alarm, as two police officers arrived. The police officers asked the security personnel about the situation to determine whether they could intervene. ¡°When did you enter the country?¡± One of the police officers began his investigation, examining Young Master Bao¡¯s identification and making a phone call to check whether he had any negative records in the United States. If indeed he had attempted to attack a doctor, they would have to escort him to the police station for explanations. Young Master Bao began to shudder uncontrollably. He had never experienced such a situation before and was close to wetting himself out of fear. He feared that the security guards would draw their holstered guns. Meanwhile, Manager Qian kept saying, ¡°It¡¯s a misunderstanding.¡± Bao Yulou was helpless against this situation; he didn¡¯t know what had happened at all. Dr. Yang hadn¡¯t said anything just now. Why had Professor Robert reacted so much? ¡°Not long ago, he was fined for drug use,¡± a police officer reported after finding his record. The situation had become complicated, and his blood had to be drawn at the police station to check for any recent drug use. ¡°Can you understand English? You have to come with me to the police station to confirm whether you are still using drugs,¡± the officer declared. Manager Qian felt helpless but translated the officer¡¯s words for Bao Yulou. Bao Yulou was so angry he almost spat blood. If it weren¡¯t for the presence of the police, he would have certainly slapped Junhao several times. ¡°Dad, mom!¡± Young Master Bao was so scared that he looked spiritless. Chapter 433 - 433 400 Its Not About the Money ?Chapter 433: Chapter 400: It¡¯s Not About the Money Chapter 433: Chapter 400: It¡¯s Not About the Money New York Special Surgery Hospital¡¯s administration department immediately intervened, arranging for a doctor to replace Yang Ping and assess whether Junhao Bao had an emergency need. If an emergency existed, or if his condition was unstable, emergency services must be provided, regardless of any violent tendencies. Of course, security and police also had to provide protection for the doctor, controlling the patient, such as applying handcuffs, allowing the doctor to treat the patient under safe conditions. After ruling out emergency requirements, the doctor began going through Junhao Bao¡¯s medical history to check if there was any ongoing treatment activity with the hospital. If ongoing medical treatment was being carried out, it could not be ignored or unilaterally terminated, or the hospital would be accused of patient abandonment. If the hospital decided to decline service, the patient had to be given a 30-day notice, allowing enough time to select another hospital or alternative options. During these 30 days, the hospital had to continue treatment. After checking, the doctor found that Junhao Bao¡¯s treatment had not begun, and this situation didn¡¯t exist. Finally, the hospital¡¯s security, administrative personnel responsible for doctor safety sat together, analyzing and determining if any improper behaviour occurred during Junhao Bao¡¯s treatment. They reviewed the surveillance footage of the consultation room. One detail revealed Junhao Bao was anxious and fidgety, suddenly standing up with fists clenched, although he later sat back down, the security personnel judged this as a dangerous action with potential violence. If the attending physician had not been forewarned and had left the scene, physical assault could have very well transpired. For safety, the hospital CEO¡¯s secretary called a meeting to discuss continuing medical services for Junhao Bao, with the majority voting in favor of refusing treatment. So, the hospital issued a formal notice to Junhao Bao, explicitly stating the refusal to provide medical services, proposing suggestions, and listing the recommended hospitals with their addresses and contact information. He was also notified to select another hospital promptly, to ensure his right to medical treatment. Furthermore, Junhao Bao was included in the hospital¡¯s network, suggesting necessary security measures during his visits. Fortunately, he was not blacklisted. If he had been blacklisted, many hospitals would refuse to provide services apart from emergencies. Yang Ping was taken to a safe room. Police, appointed psychologists, and lawyers were rushed over. The police asked if he wished to continue treating the patient, promising necessary protection if he agreed to continue. The psychologist asked if he needed psychological support. ¡°Our apologies for the oversight of assigning a patient with a history of violence towards you and with no security in the consultation room,¡± apologized Robert. In fact, Robert was not aware of Junhao Bao¡¯s previous record. The hospital¡¯s lawyer told Yang Ping: ¡°Patients who threaten or attack doctors, nurses, or other patients, display obvious hostility that interferes with professional duties, or who do not follow medical orders can be refused service. If you decide not to accept him and refuse to provide services to Junhao Bao, you will not bear any legal risks. The hospital will handle everything that follows.¡± The lawyer explained the relevant legal clauses to Yang Ping and advised him not to resume medical services readily until the threat of violence was completely resolved. ¡°Do we need to reschedule the surgery tomorrow?¡± Robert was unsure about Yang Ping¡¯s state. ¡°Follow the original plan,¡± Yang Ping was very calm. As he was an expert invited from another country, the CEO¡¯s secretary asked if they needed to provide any other assistance. Every department treated this unexpected incident seriously, with doctors, security personnel, lawyers, psychologists, and administrative staff each performing their duties conscientiously. It was not the scale of the matter but its nature¡ªany threat to the personal safety of doctors, even as minor as tugging at a doctor¡¯s clothing, pointing a finger at a doctor, or verbal threats, would be considered a violent threat unless the doctor chose to ignore and tolerate such behavior. In the presence of police, the hospital¡¯s lawyer and medical officer had an official conversation with Young Master Bao, first informing Junhao Bao of his refusal of treatment and the reasons for the refusal. They helped him choose another hospital for treatment, ensuring his right to medical treatment. Finally expressing regret, they handed the formal notification to him in person, reminding him that if he disagreed, he could go through the legal procedure. Young Master Bao didn¡¯t expect things to get this serious. Before, at Sanbo Hospital, didn¡¯t he just chase after a doctor, wanting to beat him with a few crutches? That didn¡¯t become a major issue, but was construed as a prior act of violence against a doctor. Just a rash act of clenching his fists and standing upset, this detail was judged as posing high-risk physical threats to a doctor. After spending several hours in the hospital and being taken to the police station to understand the situation, in the end, there were no major issues. The police educated him about the law, and Young Master Bao returned to his villa. After all the fuss, Young Master Bao had lost his temper, he was obedient now, still sweating and trembling. He began to regret. He didn¡¯t know who to vent his anger at: ¡°Coming to the United States, what a fuss, is this how people live?¡± Bao Yulou had always looked pale and troubled. ¡°Junhao!¡± Manager Qian made eye contact. ¡°President Bao, the top priority is to find a way to get Junhao treated. Other issues can be left for later. Junhao is still young and ignorant. Here in the United States, even drug abuse doesn¡¯t count against you. In some states, marijuana is even legal,¡± Manager Qian knew President Bao was angry about this matter, but his face wouldn¡¯t have looked this trouble if it was just about getting treatment. Chapter 434 - 434 400 Its Not About the Money_2 ?Chapter 434: Chapter 400: It¡¯s Not About the Money_2 Chapter 434: Chapter 400: It¡¯s Not About the Money_2 ¡°Seriously, it¡¯s not a big deal, last time we only got fined ten thousand dollars.¡± Mrs. Bao chimed in. ¡°You¡ª¡± Bao Yulou looked at Manager Qian and didn¡¯t blow up, after all, it was his own matter. Looking at the current atmosphere, it seems that there¡¯s going to be a big fight in the family. Manager Qian, sensing the mood, felt it was time to leave. He said to Bao Yulou, ¡°President Bao, you all should rest. I should go, I don¡¯t want to disturb you. If you need anything, just call me. Let¡¯s put Junhao¡¯s treatment aside. I heard that Dr. Yang will be in the United States for quite a few days.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, President Bao. I didn¡¯t plan this well. It causes you all trouble.¡± Manager Qian also felt quite embarrassed. It was meant to be a good thing, something praiseworthy, but now it¡¯s ended like this. Bao Yulou coughed once and Manager Qian immediately poured him tea. Bao Yulou said, ¡°What are you talking about, Xiao Qian? It¡¯s unlike you to say that. Why would we blame you? You¡¯ve worked hard during this period. Go home and rest, and I will think about Junhao¡¯s treatment.¡± Manager Qian seized the opportunity to leave. Otherwise, it would have been awkward to witness family quarrels. Once Manager Qian left, Bao Yulou said, ¡°How could you not inform me about something this big?¡± Bao Yulou had been restraining himself. ¡°What a big deal is it? The kid was bored here, so what if he found some fun? You, Bao Yulou, have been outside, do you dare to tell me you have never solicited prostitutes or gambled?¡± Mrs. Bao interjected unexpectedly. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s not China, it¡¯s the United States. Why overreact to such a thing?¡± Junhao spoke with contempt. Bao Yulou jumped up and rushed over, kicking Junhao hard in the butt. Junhao fell on the ground, crying out. Mrs. Bao clung tightly to her husband, ¡°Bao Yulou, have you gone mad¡ª¡± ¡°I tell you; if you come at me again, I¡¯ll fight back!¡± Junhao got up, dodging and shouting. ¡°You¡¯ll fight back? If you dare, I¡¯ll beat you to death today.¡± Bao Yulou struggled to break free from Mrs. Bao¡¯s clutch. Seeing that Bao Yulou was serious, and unable to hold him back, Mrs. Bao let go and shouted, ¡°Bao Yulou, if you want to hit our son, hit me to death first.¡± Then she cried and created a fuss. Her nose was running continually. ¡°If you hit me again, I¨CI¡ªwill call the police.¡± Junhao, limping, brandished his phone. Mrs. Bao held her son, who she adored. Her eyes were red: ¡°Look, his leg is hurt like this, and you can still lay your hands on him.¡± The family was in chaos. Bao Yulou was at a loss, whether to hit or not to hit. After all, Junhao was his son; he couldn¡¯t really beat him to death. But if he didn¡¯t, his anger wasn¡¯t going to go away. ¡°They all took drugs; it wasn¡¯t just me.¡± Seeing that his mother was protecting him at full strength, Junhao gained a lot of confidence. From childhood till now, this kind of scene had happened many times. No matter how big the issue was, it often ended this way. If it didn¡¯t work out, he could call his grandfather. In front of grandfather, his old man would only say, ¡°Yes, yes, yes!¡± ¡°You think you¡¯re in the right? Can you touch this shit? Once you do, you can¡¯t get away. Your life is ruined.¡± Bao Yulou slumped on the sofa, breathing heavily. His hand was shaking non-stop as he groped for a drink. He poured himself a cup of tea, took a sip, and began to slowly catch his breath. ¡°Go back, speak to someone, and specifically request his treatment. Don¡¯t say he¡¯s just a doctor. Even if he was the dean himself, he would have to behave. If he doesn¡¯t treat it, I will tear down Sanbo Hospital.¡± Mrs. Bao suddenly yelled, her words filled with arrogance and tyranny. ¡°Yeah, if that doesn¡¯t work, we can use money to smash him.¡± Junhao interjected. Bao Yulou stared at the mother and son, his lips trembling. He was clearly at a loss. ¡°Your tone is so big. You really think you¡¯re almighty. Just look at yourselves. I don¡¯t even want to say anything. To think that you two, one day, will bring down the Bao family. Right now, I have only one question for you two¡ªDo you want this leg to get better?¡± ¡°Of course we want it to get better. Who would want it to stay like this?¡± Mrs. Bao snapped. ¡°Of course we want it to get better.¡± Young Master Bao echoed as well. ¡°Good, since you want the leg to get better, I¡¯ll ask you another question: will you listen to me? If not, tomorrow I¡¯ll buy a ticket and go back to China.¡± Bao Yulou¡¯s tone was much calmer. ¡°What should we do then? He is not willing to treat it.¡± Mrs. Bao¡¯s tone also softened. ¡°This is what we will do: Let Xiao Qian find out where Dr. Yang lives. We prepare some gifts and go over to apologize in person. From what I see today, Dr. Yang is a broad-minded person. It was probably because you went too far earlier that it caused so much chaos. As long as we sincerely apologize, I believe he would not make things difficult for us. At this point, this is the only way.¡± Bao Yulou didn¡¯t want another fight. It was pointless. ¡°We go to him to apologize? Are you sure about what you¡¯re suggesting?¡± Young Master Bao instantly revived. ¡°Or what? You¡¯d prefer your leg to stay like this for the rest of your life? Should I buy a pharmaceutical factory to make painkillers just for you? How does that sound?¡± Bao Yulou ridiculed. ¡°There are no other ways?¡± Mrs. Bao didn¡¯t want her son to be crippled either. ¡°No, this is the only way. These matters must be resolved in the United States. If they drag on, it¡¯s unknown how long it¡¯ll take. It¡¯s truly confusing to not see common sense in a simple situation. What is this place? It¡¯s the world¡¯s rank one Orthopedics hospital. And what is Dr. Yang doing here? He was invited for surgery. Even NBA stars prefer him as their chief surgeon. Isn¡¯t such a doctor worth an earnest apology from you? The previous incident was probably forgiven due to Dr. Yang¡¯s magnanimity. If he wanted to settle scores with you, it¡¯s unknown who would win. Did you think he doesn¡¯t have any support? His backup might be more formidable than yours. These are heartfelt words. You can take them as you wish. To be a person, one must have a sense of propriety and understand the height of the sky and the thickness of the earth. Learn to respect everyone, control themselves, be cultured. That being said, Xiao Qian is also a person, a staff member serving us, not a dog you¡¯ve raised, to scold as you please. People are all equal. If you don¡¯t respect others, they won¡¯t respect you in their hearts. As you¡¯ve seen yourself, you don¡¯t respect the doctor, and now he won¡¯t even consider treating you.¡± ¡°I know you¡¯re laughing inside, but I have to say this anyway, because you¡¯re my son, that¡¯s why I say this. As a twenty-something-year-old, I support you enjoying playing football. But, play sensibly, make good friends and avoid mixing with bad company. There are a lot of people from better families; lots of them are humble and hardworking.¡± Bao Yulou also couldn¡¯t continue berating. It wasn¡¯t a solution. Bao Yulou sighed: ¡°You both think about it. Whether this leg could be saved depends upon your attitudes. No one else can help with that.¡± ¡°Are there no other ways? Could we resolve this with a few million dollars?¡± Mrs. Bao turned her head to the side, refusing to cave. Bao Yulou became angry again: ¡°Is this a matter of money? It¡¯s not a matter of money! Would a doctor, who has been invited to teach at a top US hospital, bend his back for your petty amount of money?¡± ¡°How did he become the mentor of Professor Robert? Wasn¡¯t he just a junior doctor at Sanbo Hospital? How did he become a mentor to the Americans?¡± Young Master Bao wasn¡¯t catching on. It¡¯s no wonder he nearly blew up when he was seeing the doctor. ¡°You don¡¯t need to know why; you just need to question how amazing he is. The reality is like this, and the fact is in front of you!¡± Bao Yulou¡¯s mood was much calmer. After Bao Yulou¡¯s lengthy explanation, Mrs. Bao and Young Master Bao had a bit of understanding. ¡°If there are no objections, then let¡¯s follow my guidance. If you disagree, I¡¯ll buy a ticket and go back to China tomorrow. You both can decide what to do.¡± Bao Yulou was tired. He decided to go upstairs and rest. Mrs. Bao and Young Master Bao couldn¡¯t say anything. What other solution could there be? There¡¯s indeed some truth in that. Judging by the situation today, the Americans are afraid of getting involved. This Dr. Yang is not a simple character. If he was in his own country, no one would even regard him, but here in the United States, he¡¯s like a boss. ¡°Mom, what should we do?¡± ¡°What else can we do? Just listen to your dad.¡± Chapter 435 - 435 401 Curved Drilling ?Chapter 435: Chapter 401: Curved Drilling Chapter 435: Chapter 401: Curved Drilling With Robert¡¯s assistance, Huang Jiacai visited several medical device companies in the United States. Old Cheng conducted his research on the spot at a specialty orthopedic hospital in New York. Accompanied by an administrative staff member from the hospital, he conducted an in-depth study of the hospital¡¯s culture, management, and structure. Once Robert confirmed that Yang Ping was not affected by the recent incident, he proceeded with the surgery as originally planned, with little Andrew¡¯s surgery being the first. Robert had planned the surgery for two years, but had never proceeded due to uncertainty. Uncertainty meant waiting; once a surgery started, there was no turning back. If something went wrong, a secondary reparative surgery would not only be difficult but also less effective. Therefore, Robert had been conducting research, hoping to develop a new surgical method to address multiple ligament reconstruction in children¡¯s knees. Existing surgical methods were not even adequate for simple anterior and posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, let alone multisystem ligament reconstruction. For two years, Robert hadn¡¯t made a breakthrough despite diligent thinking, until he met Yang Ping and saw hope. Everyone was eagerly waiting to see how Yang Ping was going to perform the surgery, and exactly how skilled Robert¡¯s mentor really was. The New York Specialty Orthopedic Hospital has long been at the forefront of world orthopedics. The doctors were accustomed to being the best, teaching others, and having never seen their hospital hire an external surgeon during their careers. Now, everyone was anxiously looking forward to and curious about the Chinese professor Robert invited to perform surgery. In children, the presence of growth plates means that adult methods can¡¯t be used. Suggestions have been made to delay surgery until adulthood, though some people have designed ways for external fixation, but this alters ligamentous anatomy and does not result in a solid tendon-bone healing, thus it remains an act of desperation. In short, performing surgery in the same way as in adults requires drilling into the bone. But as soon as bone tunnels are opened, the growth plates suffer damage that could lead to bone deformation while growing and, in severe cases, it could even lead to the closure of the growth plate, halting growth. Performing multiple ligament reconstruction in the knee joint is already very difficult in adults, not to mention in children¡ªit is challenging upon challenging. For the sake of observing the surgery, except for doctors on-duty, all the doctors in the Department of Sports Medicine took the day off, and no other surgeries were scheduled for that day. Several practitioners from other departments also showed up. Professor Rongge, a specialist in knee replacement, also carved out time to observe Yang Ping¡¯s surgery. As sports medicine and joint replacement are both a part of orthopedics, many hospitals don¡¯t distinctly separate these areas, and a single doctor may perform both knee replacement and knee arthroscopy. The reason for Professor Rongge¡¯s deep interest in Yang Ping¡¯s arthroscopic surgery was because one of the critical techniques in knee replacement¡ªbalancing of the ligaments¡ªwas even more challenging than balancing of soft tissues in knee replacement. They were simply not on the same level. Professor Rongge was curious to see how this Chinese doctor, Robert¡¯s mentor, could manage to balance such a multitude of ligaments. Engineers from OrthoPediatrics also rushed over. They wanted to observe how the equipment was used to perform the surgery, especially the drill bit that could create curved holes. This drill bit was made by OrthoPediatrics, using designs provided by Yang Ping. However, they didn¡¯t fully understand how or where to use it since they weren¡¯t surgeons. Little Andrew was the first to have surgery, with Robert assisting in setting up the patient¡¯s position with Barel. Yang Ping washed his hands, put on his surgical gown, gloves, and took up his role as the Chief Surgeon. The first and second assistant surgeons, along with the scrub nurse, were already in place. At least ten instrument trays were set up around the operation table, ensuring that every instrument was available if needed. Yang Ping had toured the hospital¡¯s supply room, likely the most complex and advanced one in the world. It operated like a factory assembly line, managing over a hundred surgeries a day, each requiring about ten instrument trays. Each surgeon had their unique tray of surgical instruments due to their personal preferences. Handling over a thousand instrument trays daily, they managed to clean, collect, inspect, repair, replace, sterilize, and pack each one after every procedure, with a computer system tracking and monitoring the entire process. He noticed that they took the inspection of the instruments very seriously. Each instrument had to pass a standard procedure check, with any damaged instruments immediately identified and replaced. The efficiency level was extremely high. Any instrument that the hospital did not have in stock and required restocking from the supplier would have to be included before the packing of the surgical instruments. This way, they could ensure that all surgeries the following day would not be delayed due to lack of instruments or instruments having minor faults. He was meticulous with each tool needed for the surgery, especially those he designed, going over all of them and ensuring that none of them were missing before formally starting the operation. Glass protector barriers were installed around the operating table, separating it from the surrounding area to ensure the utmost safety within the surgical zone. Before starting, they checked everything, made an incision, and inserted the probe to commence the inspection of every anatomical structure within the knee joint. The probe moved smoothly within the child¡¯s knee joint, always staying in the gap, without any collisions with cartilage. Each time the position of the knee joint was changed, there was no need to wait¡ªthe movement of the probe was almost synchronized with the change in the knee joint¡¯s position. The two operations worked perfectly together. The latest model of Stryker¡¯s Arthroscope, with its 3D imaging, was extremely useful. The images displayed on the screen were in clear, 3-dimensional view instead of the usual 2D plane. Chapter 436 - 436 401 Curved Drilling_2 ?Chapter 436: Chapter 401: Curved Drilling_2 Chapter 436: Chapter 401: Curved Drilling_2 The places that needed to be examined with the probe, he examined meticulously; where it was necessary to pause and observe carefully, no steps were neglected; even when it came to lifting up the meniscus, no steps were omitted. And he didn¡¯t waste any time that shouldn¡¯t be wasted, not even a second. The proficiency of the surgery had reached a level that brought enjoyment. In the teaching room of the operating theatre, everyone was watching the video. The arthroscopy was completed under the camera, and the chief surgeon was also performing the surgery while looking at the real-time video, so the surgeon¡¯s view and the audience¡¯s view were the same. Precise yet delicate, swift but not impatient, elegant without any frivolity, the surgery was performed with the infectious capacity of an artistic expression. Professor Rongge, an amateur music enthusiast and a professional-level violinist, showed rational judgment and emotional perception in his surgeries. To have the surgery create an emotional appeal indicates that rationality has reached an extreme, unconsciously producing harmony and rhythm. This level is of a master among the masters, far beyond the reach of an ordinary person. Professor Rongge sighed, from this Chinese surgery, he noticed a kind of temperament¡ªbroadness, depth, simplicity, and sensitivity, not concluded by logical reasoning, but achieved through emotional imagination. The examination within the knee joint had been completed. Next, the reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament commenced. This surgery involved the reconstruction of multiple ligaments. Instrument nurse was overwhelmed and couldn¡¯t keep up with the pace. Robert had coached her through the surgical steps many times. She was also psychologically prepared, but she still couldn¡¯t keep up. However, the pace of the operation exceeded her imagination, and she started to become anxious. Robert comforted her, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Dr. Yang will wait for you.¡± Robert was worried that she would break down. Barel was holding the leg, and Robert assisted by handing over the instruments to keep the situation under control. Preparing for tunnel opening, according to Robert, Dr. Yang would use sagittal plane curve drilling, circumventing the epiphysis. Everyone was eager to watch this step, how Yang Ping would carry out the curvilinear excavation of the tunnel. ¡°Curve drilling, without the need for a guide pin, currently we can only manually drill, in the future we can use computer software for navigation. There are three types of drilling methods, sagittal plane curve drilling, coronal plane curve drilling, and horizontal plane curve drilling. Sagittal plane curve drilling, to avoid damaging the posterior nerves and blood vessels, the second curve requires a small incision on the front of the knee, from the front to the back, to drill in the opposite direction; horizontal curve drilling, postoperative stress concentrates below the epiphyseal line, may easily lead to concentration of traction stress on the epiphysis, in severe cases causing epiphyseal separation; coronal plane drilling is the safest, most convenient, and most effective, avoiding the shortcomings of the first two drilling methods. Yang Ping explained as he proceeded, ¡°Robert thought too simply. He thought Yang Ping would perform sagittal plane curve drilling, which was exactly the first method that Yang Ping had eliminated.¡± The coronal plane is the hypothetical plane that divides the body into front and back halves; the sagittal plane divides the body into left and right halves; the horizontal plane divides the body into upper and lower halves. Coronal plane curve drilling, this curve will be located on the coronal plane. Starting the coronal plane curve drilling, the flexible drill bit could change direction at will for directional drilling. ¡°Under unfamiliar circumstances, you must use C-arm fluoroscopy monitoring or navigation equipment to assist in preventing damage to the epiphysis.¡± Of course, Yang Ping doesn¡¯t need such complex assistance, he can manually drill, he¡¯s too familiar with the anatomy. Yang Ping told Robert this, merely as a reminder: dangerous shots, do not imitate. The drill bit starts from the outer wall of the femoral intercondylar fossa, the anatomical center of the anterior ligament, and starts drilling towards the lateral side. Without such a directional drill bit, this curved tunnel could never be drilled. Following the safe zone underneath the epiphysis, the drill bit travels along a predetermined curve, enters from the outside of the lateral femoral condyle, and then a flexible protective sheath, which can turn corners, is put on to prevent the drill bit from twisting and damaging the soft tissue in the next drilling step. Under the protection of the sheath, the drill bit turns, passes the epiphyseal line, drill bit drills into another safe zone just above the previous exit, this direction is opposite to the previous one, from outside to inside, passing through half of the entire lower femur is enough, the drill bit is not needed. This operation is concealed in the bone tissue, and cannot be seen on the screen. To confirm that the tunnel did not damage the epiphysis, Yang Ping decided to carry out a C-arm fluoroscopy. As the glass shield rose, everyone moved away, and the operator of the C-arm carried out a fluoroscopy. The drill bit was still in the tunnel, the metallic shadow was the direction of the tunnel, and two curved metallic shadows were beautifully located above and below the epiphyseal line without damaging the epiphyseal plate. ¡°Curved drilling, beautiful curved drilling!¡± exclaimed Professor Rongge. Soft drills are often used in orthopedics, especially when performing drilling in narrow spaces. In some operation blind spots, because the hard and straight drill bit will get stuck, drilling is impossible, just like a bullet has shooting blind spots. Therefore, soft drills are widely used. Because the drill rod is flexible, stress can be applied to change the direction of the drill bit, allowing for almost any angle of drilling. But that only allows for any drill holes to be set, the route through the tunnel cannot be controlled. Now this Chinese doctor, with his designed set of instruments, could skillfully perform drilling on any path. No wonder Robert took him as a master and secretly went to China to study. The Chinese are too clever. Not only does this doctor have superb surgical skills, but his concept is also advanced. The tibial tunnel follows the same method, completing the coronal plane curve segment drilling. The tendon is inserted into the bone tunnel, neither end of the tendon fixed in the bone tunnel uses the common mini flip steel plate suspension fixation. Instead, a novel reverse hook anchor nail technique is used. From drilling to fixation, all used the novel anchor nail technique. All these new techniques, Yang Ping successfully avoided some approval requirements, which are within the FDA¡¯s permitted range. Anterior cruciate ligament, posterior cruciate ligament, internal posterior structure, internal and external structures, many ligaments are inserted with curved drilling and reverse hook anchor nail fixation method, making children¡¯s surgeries as mature as adults¡¯. The combination of new instruments and superb surgical technique made this world-leading surgery simple and direct. ¡°How did Robert meet this Chinese doctor?¡± Professor Rongge couldn¡¯t help wondering. The chief sports medicine doctor next to him shook his head: ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°Does Dr. Yang only focus on sports medicine?¡± asked Professor Rongge. ¡°Not really, they say he¡¯s good at spine, joints, trauma, sports medicine!¡± the chief doctor replied. Professor Rongge was very unsatisfied. This guy Robert had found such a good teacher but never mentioned it to him. Stingy, despicable, selfish, narrow-minded! Professor Rongge was fuming, all the words he could think of, he went through each one in his mind. Afterwards, he was going to have a serious word with Robert. Why hadn¡¯t he said anything about having such a mentor? If he only concentrated on a few arthroscopic surgeries of sports medicine, it might be understandable, but this mentor is also good at joint replacement! Last time, he went out for a week and ambiguously mentioned something about attending an academic conference in China. This dishonest person, such a dishonest person! ¡°Prepare for the next surgery.¡± Someone reminded Professor Rongge. The second surgery was about to begin in another operating room. Chapter 437 - 437 402 350 kilometers ?Chapter 437: Chapter 402 350 kilometers Chapter 437: Chapter 402 350 kilometers Four surgeries were completed before noon, each surgery not exceeding an hour. In order to avoid damaging the quadriceps, tourniquets weren¡¯t used in any of the surgeries. Low pressure anesthesia was used to keep blood pressure below 90/60mmHg, and water pressure inside the knee joint was maintained at 120mmHg by a pump. In this way, even without the use of tourniquets, a bloodless surgical field could be achieved. The damage that a tourniquet can cause to the quadriceps may be a non-issue for the general population, but for professional athletes, it can greatly influence recovery time. Maintaining 120mmHg pressure in the knee joint can easily cause interstitial edema if the doctor lacks experience. This could trigger compartment syndrome and lead to severe consequences. With the surgeries over, the nurses, Linna and Jenny, both heaved a sigh of relief. The surgeries¡¯ speed put them under enormous pressure for fear of awkward scenes. Fortunately, with Robert¡¯s help, there were no holdups due to delayed assistance from the nurses. The most relaxed person was Barel. His only task was to hold the patient¡¯s leg, and every time there was a need to change the patient¡¯s position, Yang Ping would operate with a single hand and he would just assist. As the glass shield lifted and retracted to the ceiling, Barel began setting up the braces for the patients. Robert helped Yang Ping take off his surgical robe. Both the anesthesiologist and nurses complimented Yang Ping, saying the surgeries were impressive and it¡¯s no wonder he was Robert¡¯s mentor. Inside the operating room¡¯s teaching room, the doctors who watched the four arthroscopic surgeries realized they fell behind their previous understanding of multiple ligament reconstruction in the knee joint, despite having been at the top of their field. Whether it was the proficient surgical technique or the novel curved drilling bit design, they were seeing them for the first time. They envied Robert for having such a great mentor. Such an exquisite art! This is how Professor Rongge summed it up: Adjusting the balance of the knee joint was just like the work of a sound engineer, achieving the best balance based on feeling. After Robert prepared lunch, he planned to hold a Q&A session with multiple ligament reconstruction in the knee joint as the main topic. Everyone could ask Yang Ping questions to improve their understanding of this type of surgery. The next day, an academic conference would be arranged where Yang Ping would lecture. Opportunities like this were rare considering Yang Ping¡¯s infrequent visits to the United States. Professor Rongge, engineers from OrthoPediatrics, and many other doctors were not willing to leave. They were waiting for Robert to introduce Dr. Yang Ping to everyone. Impatient, Professor Rongge decided to go to the changing room to find Robert, hoping to speak to Yang Ping in advance. The engineer swiftly reported back to his company, hoping that the company could either buy the patent of this curved drilling bit or obtain its authorization. Before sending his designs to Robert, Yang Ping had already applied for both Chinese and international patents. They had passed the preliminary examination, and he had also applied for early publication. This precaution legally protected his technical achievements. Otherwise, he would have been vulnerable to unscrupulous individuals or companies who might steal his technical achievements, make money from them, and even accuse the originator of infringement. There were countless such incidents. When it comes to interests, anything can happen. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t hoping to protect his work through the consciousness of others. Even in the United States, a spine surgeon from Indiana, Dr. Rick Sasso, had a legal battle with Medtronic, a medical device company, over patent licensing fees for the Vertex Cervical System. The case had dragged on for five years and went as high as the U.S. Supreme Court. The court finally ruled that Medtronic had to pay a patent fee of $112 million to Dr. Rick Sasso. Therefore, regarding such matters, Yang Ping, like when he was performing surgery, did not wish for any chance of uncertainty. The engineer astutely felt that this curved drilling bit and this complete set of instruments would become indispensable equipment in pediatric sports medicine. They could also be used in other surgeries. Alongside these, a complete instrument system could be built to dominate the field. The company quickly responded, authorizing him to have initial discussions with Yang Ping about purchasing or licensing the patent, and the company would send its negotiation team as soon as possible. Professor Rongge hoped to discuss issues of knee joint replacement with Yang Ping because he was designing a new type of knee joint prosthesis and encountered difficulties. At the entrance of the changing room, Rongge gestured to Robert and whispered, ¡°Robert, come over here.¡± Seeing Rongge¡¯s disapproving look, Robert got a gist of what he would say. He explained to Yang Ping and left him with Barel while he followed Rongge. The two went to a small room next to the changing room and an raging Professor Rongge declared, ¡°Robert, you have a lot of explaining to do. Why have you hidden your mentor, and did you go to China to learn?¡± ¡°Please hear me out, Rongge.¡± ¡°Such a selfish guy.¡± An angry Rongge responded. ¡°Calm down!¡± Robert, ignoring Rongge¡¯s rage, lowered his voice to continue. ¡°If it wasn¡¯t for Dr. Yang Ping¡¯s surgery that you saw today, would you believe me if I told you a few months ago to come to China with me, to learn from a young Chinese doctor? Would you believe me?¡± Rongge fell silent for a moment, seemingly comprehending the reasonability of the explanation. If it wasn¡¯t for what they witnessed today, he assuredly would have rejected Robert¡¯s invitation to China with laughter. ¡°Do you know why I kept it to myself? Because none of you would believe it. I know you guys well, you are a bunch of stubborn rocks, full of arrogance and prejudice. Today, I invited him to demonstrate the surgeries and you have deeply admired him because you saw it with your own eyes. However, if it was a few months ago, you definitely would have said ¡®Robert, you are crazy. You should see a psychiatrist.¡¯ Right before the surgeries began, I¡¯d bet you were expecting me to embarrass myself.¡± In speaking, Robert¡¯s words overpowered Rongge¡¯s anger. Chapter 438 - 438 402 350 kilometers_2 ?Chapter 438: Chapter 402 350 kilometers_2 Chapter 438: Chapter 402 350 kilometers_2 ¡°Alright, I¡¯m not going to pursue that matter, is he proficient in joint replacements?¡± Rongge, intentionally avoiding Robert¡¯s gaze, asked in a rush, changing the subject. Robert nodded, ¡°He excels in trauma, spine, joint replacement, and arthroscopy surgeries. I¡¯ve observed his joint replacement surgeries. He is absolutely qualified to be your mentor. If you can get his guidance, I guarantee your skills will greatly improve from their current state. However, his standards for accepting students are quite high.¡± ¡°Can you introduce me?¡± Rongge requested. Robert sneered, ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it. If you want to be his student, look for opportunities and fight for them yourself. It took me a long time to get this opportunity. When I was at Sanbo Hospital, I didn¡¯t even get a chance to step on the platform at first. I only got the chance to step on the platform with Doctor Yang, thanks to the help of a Chinese friend.¡± ¡°You could at least help create an opportunity.¡± Rongge pleaded. ¡°I can organize that. We can have lunch together later. At tonight¡¯s dinner, I¡¯ll arrange for you to sit closer to him. But whether he will be interested in you or not, I won¡¯t get involved.¡± Robert did not want to bother Doctor Yang because of Rongge and risk annoying him. ¡°How long is he going to be in the United States?¡± Rongge was confident that as long as Robert organized an introduction, things would be straightforward. ¡°Five days. He will rest on the first day, perform a surgery on the second day, give a lecture on the third day, visit my clinic on the fourth day, make the grand rounds in our department on the fifth day, and return to his country on the sixth day.¡± Robert counted the days on his fingers. ¡°Could you invite him to do the rounds in our department, please! Robert, during that rugby match, you tripped me and I fractured my left tibia. I still feel some pain here now.¡± Rongge, clueless about how to interact with Chinese people, pleaded. ¡°Don¡¯t bring up that matter. That happened when we were attending Harvard Medical School ¨C it was twenty years ago. I have never heard you complain about the pain before.¡± Robert laughed and cried at Rongge¡¯s absurd demand. ¡°That¡¯s because due to our friendship, I decided not to bring it up.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll bring up the matter to him tomorrow, but I can¡¯t guarantee that it will work,¡± Robert conceded. ¡°Thank you!¡± ¡°No problem. When chatting with him, don¡¯t brag about how great you are or discuss your achievements. All these are worthless to him. Talk about the difficulties you are currently facing to resonate with him. He is most interested in medical challenges and is constantly pondering on these problems.¡± They couldn¡¯t delay too long here because Doctor Yang was still resting in the changing room. Robert promptly returned to the changing room with Rongge following him. ¡°Professor Rongge from the Knee Joint Replacement Center!¡± Robert introduced Rongge. Yang Ping shook Rongge¡¯s hand, ¡°A renowned name, the designer of Depuy¡¯s latest generation of knee joint prostheses.¡± ¡°We are currently facing a major problem, and we hope Doctor Yang can give us some guidance,¡± Rongge got straight to the point. Robert was taken aback by Rongge¡¯s blunt approach, this is not how he advised him to connect with Doctor Yang. On emerging from the operation, a group of waiting doctors crowded around but Robert pushed them away: ¡°Doctor Yang needs to rest at noon. Everyone will meet in the hospital conference room at 3 o¡¯clock in the afternoon for a Q&A session. Doctor Yang will then answer all of your questions.¡± Only then did the crowd disperse reluctantly. They all had many questions they wanted to ask Yang Ping. When he had a moment, Yang Ping pulled out his phone. John Ansen had sent him a message saying he planned to fly to New York tomorrow. Yang Ping asked him not to come, explaining that all the doctors were very busy and a telephone greeting would suffice. John Ansen insisted on coming over and said he had already booked his flight and would arrive by noon. ¡ª Minnesota, Rochester, Mayo Medical Center Neurosurgery, John Ansen¡¯s office. John Ansen has consistently maintained contact with Yang Ping. His online community¡¯s construction has proceeded smoothly, with the number of members already growing to twelve. However, they are all currently doctors in his department or friends in the industry, all of them neurosurgeons or orthopedic spine surgeons. Upon learning that Yang Ping had arrived in New York, he was preparing to choose a time to visit him. ¡°First to go. As you requested, the airplane ticket to New York has been booked for tomorrow morning, 6:08 AM.¡± Miss Langley was John Ansen¡¯s secretary, and she handled these daily chores. ¡°Thank you¡ª¡± John Ansen¡¯s cell phone rang and he glanced at it. It was a call from Collins, his good friend in Houston, who had contacted him quite frequently lately. Langley tactfully exited the office and gently closed the door. ¡°I¡¯m sending you some information, a routine checkup report for Steven. Take a look; things don¡¯t look good. We might need you to come to Houston tomorrow for a discussion.¡± Collins¡¯ voice contained a hint of urgency. ¡°No, my plans for tomorrow have been set. I have to visit a very important friend, extremely important. I cannot disappoint him.¡± John Ansen was quite unhappy. ¡°Please, can you at least check the report first? It¡¯s also crucial and we need to discuss the next steps in the plan. Your opinion is very important to us.¡± Collins requested. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll check it and contact you again once I¡¯m finished.¡± John Ansen temporarily hung up the call. He opened his computer, pulled up the encrypted email, and reviewed the information Collins had sent. The ECG showed sinus rhythm, bradycardia. His heart rate was only 52 beats per minute. Comparing it to his previously stable rate of 70 beats per minute, his rate had dropped by 18 beats per minute, and it was the first time such a thing had occurred. Apart from the reduced heart rate, the ECG revealed no other problem and neither did his echocardiogram. Indeed, this was a bad sign. But what did it imply? As an experienced neurosurgeon, a variety of differential diagnoses flickered through his mind. To trace it back through these clinical symptoms, a large network of knowledge was compiled in his brain. A simple reduction in heart rate, which had never occurred before, seemed to be emerging for the first time now. Could it be that some influence had affected the myocardium? Or possibly a problem with the central nervous system? A nervous nuclear group in the brainstem, or maybe a problem with a connected nerve path? The sharp intuition cultivated by an expert suddenly made John Ansen shutter. Indeed, this was a major issue. For a doctor, nothing could be more important than a person¡¯s health and life. Even if he failed to keep his promise, Doctor Yang, who was also a doctor, would surely understand. ¡°The situation is very bad. I¡¯ll catch the earliest flight tomorrow. No, I¡¯ll leave tonight.¡± John Ansen called Collins and informed him concisely. ¡°Langley, could you check whether there are any flights to Houston available tonight? Yes, it¡¯s an emergency. Cancel tomorrow¡¯s flight to New York.¡± John Ansen called Langley and urged her to handle it immediately. After making the call, John Ansen¡¯s heart pounded. He fervently hoped that he was being overly anxious. He walked over to the window and looked up at the sky outside. Steven, may God bless this gentleman. He happens to be 350 kilometers above ground right now. Chapter 439 - 439 403 Deal ?Chapter 439: Chapter 403: Deal Chapter 439: Chapter 403: Deal Johnson Space Center, on the shores of Clear Lake, 35 kilometers southeast of Houston, Texas. By the time John Ansen landed, it was already past ten in the evening. The Space Center¡¯s special car picked him up from the airport and took him to a hotel near Space City to rest for the night. Without having breakfast, John Ansen rushed to Building 1 of the Johnson Space Center at seven in the morning. At this time, Space City was empty, with only some night security guards. The staff didn¡¯t start work until ten, and visitors weren¡¯t allowed in until that hour as well. In Johnson Space Center¡¯s entire Building one, only one office light was on. Dr. Collins was waiting at the entrance of the building. As the head of the medical team at the Johnson Space Center of NASA, John Ansen was their specially appointed expert consultant. After showing their credentials to the night security guards and completing the necessary security checks, Collins led John Ansen to the medical team¡¯s office. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to arrive last night. I¡¯m very sorry. It must have interfered with a lot of your plans. Would you like some coffee?¡± Collins apologized and offered coffee. John Ansen declined the coffee. Other than plain water, he had no interest in coffee or any other beverages. When he was studying for his biology degree at Harvard University, coffee, smoking, and drinking were an everyday occurrence. After graduating smoothly from his four-year degree, he successfully entered Harvard Medical School. Since then, he quit all drinking and smoking, including coffee. ¡°Sorry, I always forget that you only drink mineral water.¡± Collins fetched a cup of boiling water from the water dispenser for John Ansen. John Ansen had no time for chitchat and asked directly, ¡°Is Steven experiencing any physical discomfort at the moment?¡± ¡°I had a conversation with him yesterday at the Ground Control Center. He didn¡¯t experience any discomfort at all. His heart has constantly been around 52 beats per minute. We can¡¯t figure out why.¡± Collins sat down. ¡°Although the microgravity on the space station causes many puzzling physiological abnormalities, some of the problems we¡¯ve confronted till now are still unsolved. However, Steven¡¯s abnormalities this time seem unsettling, and we require more experts in the areas of cardiovascular medicine, respiratory medicine, neurology, endocrinology, thoracic surgery and so forth, to have a comprehensive discussion.¡± John Ansen felt unusually tense this time. ¡°They will all be here. The latest time they can arrive is by afternoon four o¡¯clock. Dr. Eugene from the cardiovascular department of Johns Hopkins will catch the first flight this morning that departs at six. He should arrive here before nine.¡± Collins had invited all the special experts. Despite Steven not experiencing any discomfort, the slowing down of his heart rate is a matter of concern. Some problems are already beyond the abilities of their medical team and must be discussed by the top experts of the country. In another twenty days, Steven would have spent six months on the International Space Station. Then, he¡¯d return to Earth, and new expedition team members would replace him. ¡°You also feel that this isn¡¯t a simple problem?¡± John Ansen said with a smile. Collins furrowed his brows, ¡°Any minor issues related to the heart, and I feel as though it¡¯s a big problem. Before we identify the cause, we dare not rashly administer atropine to increase his heart rate. There¡¯s no meaning in doing that since he presently doesn¡¯t feel unwell. But who can guarantee that a bigger problem won¡¯t quickly follow?¡± The International Space Station¡¯s medicine box routinely stocks Atropine. ¡°The reason why I rushed here overnight is that I fear that the problem might be within the skull ¡ª the brain stem! Although the likelihood is extremely low, I still felt that I should remind you.¡± John Ansen took a deep drink of water. ¡°When he was on the ground, he never had any problems in his physical examinations. Not a single one.¡± Collins felt that the probability of an intracranial disease was too small. ¡°Medical instruments are never 100% reliable. The slowing of a heart rate has many causes. I hope that I¡¯m over-worried. If Steven¡¯s condition is just a transient display in the microgravity environment and doesn¡¯t affect his return, that would be best. But what if¡ª.¡± John Ansen never comforted himself. Even if there were a one in ten thousand chances, he should still pay attention. He couldn¡¯t have a mentality of simply hoping for good luck. This was the quality of a doctor. ¡°If it is so, can he be expected to return to Earth? Our current exchanges are only unofficial and will not be recorded.¡± ¡°I find it hard to judge without knowing the cause. But if it is something like an intracranial aneurysm, I¡¯m afraid he won¡¯t be able to return. The impact of the fall during the return could be fatal.¡± ¡°No, no, no, that¡¯s horrifying. If it¡¯s an aneurysm, the artery would explode and rupture during the return journey.¡± Collins¡¯ heart was in a state of wild palpitation. John Ansen shook his head, ¡°If it¡¯s located in the brain stem, the situation could be even more horrifying.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t be. With intracranial aneurysms, the leading symptoms shouldn¡¯t be a slowed heartbeat. It should be headaches and dizziness, or some neurological symptoms. What is your verdict based on? He is a robust fellow, as per his records, which shows countless check-ups. There has never been any problem, not even a tiny anomalous data. The last examination before launch didn¡¯t uncover any problems either, especially with his MRI scans and cerebral angiography.¡± ¡°Of course, this is my worse guess. I hope it¡¯s not the case. Recently, I saw a case in China. A tumor in the brain stem area manifested itself through a slowed heart rate and breathing as the initial symptoms. This has made me feel uneasy, and because of it, I think of such possibilities. Perhaps I¡¯m too sensitive. You don¡¯t need to worry excessively. As a neurosurgeon, I naturally feel like everyone has a problem within their skull.¡± John Ansen didn¡¯t want to scare Collins, especially since there¡¯s presently no evidence at all. Chapter 440 - 440 403 Closed Deal_2 ?Chapter 440: Chapter 403 Closed Deal_2 Chapter 440: Chapter 403 Closed Deal_2 There are many reasons that could cause a slowing heart rate, they were only considering one of them. ¡°We hope it¡¯s not the case, because if it is, we¡¯re powerless. If we return, it could result in death. If we don¡¯t return, we¡¯re just waiting for death.¡± Collins glanced out the window, the sunshine was increasingly bright, causing him to get up and turn off the lights in his office. ¡°How about we go grab some breakfast? It¡¯s been a while since you¡¯ve had a meal at the space city.¡± Collins invited John Ansen. John Ansen was also hungry, ¡°I thought you only had mineral water to offer me.¡± ¡ª During yesterday¡¯s Q&A session, everyone enthusiastically asked questions. Some of the questions were very tricky, but Yang Ping easily handled them. Some of these tricky questions were so outrageous that even Robert thought it was too much, but Yang Ping¡¯s responses left the questioners speechless. ¡°Today, keep the style from yesterday. Doctor Yang, if you remain humble, they will think you¡¯re timid, scared, and lack knowledge and ability. Only by fiercely arguing with them until they are tongue-tied, and then mocking them a few times, will they sincerely respect you. Americans are different from the Chinese, you don¡¯t have to save face for them.¡± ¡°How would you say it using a Chinese phrase?¡± Robert turned to ask Old Cheng. Boss Cheng said: ¡°Beat them down hard!¡± ¡°Right, Beat them down hard!¡± Robert instructed Yang Ping that during the lecture later, those unsatisfied rascals from yesterday would certainly attack again. He should beat them down hard. From the fact that a few people were still asking questions after the meeting yesterday, it¡¯s clear that many of them are still not content and are planning to bombard Doctor Yang again today. Yang Ping agreed with what Robert said. For these Americans, if you hold back, they would think that you¡¯re not capable. Only by ruthlessly retaliating can you set things right. Americans only understand other Americans. Yang Ping really liked Robert and gave him a thumbs up. Seeing Yang Ping¡¯s thumb-up, Robert was overjoyed. An engineer from OrthoPediatrics followed behind, ¡°Doctor Yang, could we make time to discuss the issue of patent trade after the lecture? Our negotiators have arrived.¡± This engineer has been wanting to discuss cooperation with Yang Ping. Yang Ping is not that he doesn¡¯t have time to discuss with him, he wanted to delegate these trivial business matters to Huang Jiacai, who is very clever in business. Huang Jiacai only came back last night, Yang Ping prepared a power of attorney for him, authorizing him to negotiate about patent licenses. With the help of Old Cheng and Robert, Huang Jiacai found a translator and a lawyer specializing in intellectual property rights to form a complete negotiation team. After the lecture, Doctor Yang would have other things on his plate. He wouldn¡¯t have time for negotiation. Robert immediately told the engineer, ¡°Don¡¯t bother Doctor Yang, you should talk to Doctor Yang¡¯s representative, this is Mr. Huang, I have arranged a place for you guys.¡± Robert found a meeting room in the administrative area of the hospital for them to negotiate, then he accompanied Yang Ping to the lecture in the meeting room. ¡°This is Doctor Yang¡¯s power of attorney. He has fully authorized me to negotiate.¡± Huang Jiacai took out the power of attorney for the representatives of OrthoPediatrics to see. OrthoPediatrics sent four representatives, including an engineer, a vice president, a lawyer from the legal department, and a patent commissioner. It was a perfect match, four against four. ¡°We are very interested in Doctor Yang¡¯s equipment and would like to buy the international patent rights for the whole set of equipment. I don¡¯t know if you would agree with this deal. Currently, we are the only company in the world that focusses solely on pediatric orthopedic implants.¡± The vice president Solin, who represented OrthoPediatrics in the negotiation, was very direct. Although Huang Jiacai could understand and speak English, he had only learnt it in a training class. He would struggle to handle formal negotiations with Americans and relied on the help of a translator. ¡°We do not intend to sell patent rights, we only want exclusive licensing.¡± Huang Jiacai answered firmly. Solin shrugged, ¡°Of course, if you only want exclusive licensing, we would also pay a licensing fee that will satisfy you.¡± ¡°How much?¡± Huang Jiacai didn¡¯t want to waste time. Solin stretched out two fingers, ¡°Two million US dollars a year.¡± Huang Jiacai cursed inwardly, these guys were ripping him off, treating the Chinese like hicks that had never seen money before. Honestly, if it were in China, this price would already be sky high. But this is in the United States. Huang Jiacai was very familiar with the medical and medical equipment market. He had a thorough understanding of some well-known patent trades and lawsuits. For this negotiation, he hardly needed to prepare. Huang Jiacai casually wrote down the patent transaction and litigation cases of orthopedic equipment in the United States in the past three years on a piece of paper on the office desk. ¡°Please take a look, Mr. Solin, these are the similar transactions in the past three years. Which one should your previous offer refer to? In the dispute over the license fee for the Vertex cervical spine system, between an orthopedic surgeon from Indiana, Rick Sasso, and the medical equipment giant Medtronic, Medtronic paid Doctor Rick Sasso 112 million US dollars in patent fees.¡± Huang Jiacai was straightforward. Solin¡¯s face instantly flushed. ¡°Doctor Yang¡¯s equipment has a much larger market potential than the Vertex cervical spine system. It will help you dominate the entire pediatric sports medicine market. Furthermore, you could also develop a set of trauma orthopedic instruments around this curved drill bit. Just based on the Vertex cervical spine system, the licensing fee will not be a mere two million US dollars a year. Doctor Solin, you¡¯re underestimating us too much.¡± Although Huang Jiacai was visiting the United States for the first time, he felt very confident facing these people. He was mentally strong and experienced in negotiation. Chapter 441 - 441 403 - Deal Made_3 ?Chapter 441: Chapter 403 ¨C Deal Made_3 Chapter 441: Chapter 403 ¨C Deal Made_3 After a brief blush, Solin immediately said, ¡°No, you cannot see it that way. If we cannot work together, the value of these patents will not be realized. If you return to China, these patents will be greatly cheapened, even left unused. The inner core in this curved drill bit cannot feasibly be manufactured given China¡¯s processing skill level.¡± His statement truly hit a sore spot. Because the inner core required high precision, domestic manufacturers were unable to process it. It was this fear of waste that led Yang Ping to be willing to authorize its use to the Americans, otherwise, he would have cooperated with a domestic manufacturer long ago. Helpless, he had tried to cooperate with domestic manufacturers but they would only offer several hundred thousand and were lackadaisical about it. So, Yang Ping planned to sell to an American company to first earn a sum of money. Then, he could make other plans. For this set of instrumentation¡¯s technical route, he had also identified alternatives. If one day, a domestic manufacturer was willing to cooperate in manufacturing, he could redesign an upgraded version avoiding his own patents. ¡°Mr. Solin, you are wrong. The market for orthopedic consumables for children is currently a blue ocean. However, Stryker, Shi Lehui, Johnson & Johnson, and all other giants have begun to lay out their strategies. You are all in jeopardy yet oblivious. I find your dullness surprising. I won¡¯t hide from you that your company is not the only one interested in our equipment. Because it is a trade secret, I cannot disclose more information, but I should kindly remind you, these giants, no matter who gets authorization for our equipment, it will be a heavy blow to OrthoPediatricS.¡± Huang Jiacai placed the ticket for his trip to Stryker¡¯s headquarters in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on the office desk. ¡°This is my ticket to Kalamazoo a few days ago. The purpose of my trip is self-explanatory, a trade secret. We are still negotiating with you because you are focused on orthopedic implants for children and can do a better job than others at maximizing the value of the equipment. It¡¯s a pity that you can¡¯t recognize their worth. In that case, we have to go for the next best option. Allow me to tell Mr. Solin some information. One, we are not short on money. If you look into Doctor Yang¡¯s surgery commission, you can verify this info. Two, our friends in Kalamazoo are more discerning than you. Our negotiations with you, in our Chinese terms, contain a hint of sentiment.¡± Huang Jiacai¡¯s speech was full of ups and downs, neither hurried nor slow, thinking: Lawyers and patent commissioners are sitting opposite. This is a formal team, and the board of directors does not hold a meeting without sending such a team. It seems that the foreigners are anxious and treat us like rookies. Old Cheng looked at the ticket on the table, completely baffled, thinking: This kid, he went to inspect, when did he go to negotiate patent matters? His ability to bluff, speaking without blushing, as if everything he said was true. If it were not for Old Cheng knowing his situation, he would really think he was telling the truth. ¡°An exclusive annual license fee of 20 million US dollars payable annually. Keep in mind, for other manufacturers, we require a five-year payment. If you agree, we will sign the contract today. If you disagree, we have no need to talk further.¡± Huang Jiacai put the ticket back on the office desk. Solin stood up: ¡°Wait, let me make a phone call. Give me ten minutes.¡± After ten minutes, Solin returned: ¡°Deal!¡± ¡°Deal!¡± Huang Jiacai shook hands with him. The equipment set is readily available, and one could start production with the blueprints, opening up a new market. This is essentially a cash cow. The cost was within the price range that the OrthoPediatricS company could accept psychologically. When Solin reported back to his company, the CEO immediately replied: Go for it! The company¡¯s board of directors had already discussed the trade price and drawn a range. Chapter 442 - 442 404 Returning Home ?Chapter 442: Chapter 404: Returning Home Chapter 442: Chapter 404: Returning Home The Bao family finally settled into a period of quiet, Bao Yulou returned home, his mind constantly elsewhere. He was seated on the living room sofa, a cup held up by his lips, his entire body as rigid as a statue for several minutes. Mrs. Bao was worried, her hand waving in front of her husband¡¯s eyes: ¡°Bao, Bao?¡± Bao Yulou gave no reaction, so Mrs. Bao called out: ¡°Junhao, your dad¡¯s not okay, hurry!¡± Bao Junhao hobbled downstairs and saw his father¡¯s condition. He thought his father had suffered a stroke: ¡°Dad! Stroke! I¡¯ll call 911, and you quickly contact Manager Qian.¡± Bao Junhao took his phone to make a call, when Bao Yulou finally came to his senses: ¡°It¡¯s nothing, it¡¯s nothing.¡± ¡°You scared us. We thought you¡¯d had a stroke.¡± Mrs. Bao was frightened, she kept patting her chest. Bao Junhao was also a bit shaken: ¡°Dad, can you not scare us like this? I¡¯m not even married yet, haven¡¯t had a kid and you want to kick the bucket?.¡± ¡°Watch your mouth!¡± Mrs. Bao scolded Junhao, as she lightly patted Bao Yulou¡¯s back. Bao Yulou didn¡¯t mind: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not going anywhere for now.¡± ¡°Old He¡¯s child is gone!¡± Bao Yulou took a sip of his tea, his eyes vacant. ¡°Isn¡¯t his son about the same age as Junhao?¡± Mrs. Bao thought there must be some mistake. Bao Junhao also thought his father had got it wrong: ¡°We had dinner together just two months ago.¡± ¡°It happened last month. I just visited Old He and his wife, and got to know. There was a car accident. The car ran over him from the lower abdomen. His pelvis was crushed. He was sent to the nearest Trauma Emergency Center, a second-tier one. The luck was not on his side, the doctor, who was best at these types of emergency surgeries, was on vacation abroad. He did not make it through the surgery.¡± ¡°A person ¨C is just gone, just like that.¡± Mrs. Bao mumbled, her heart aching. Bao Junhao paled. Two months ago, he was alive and well. How could he be just gone? ¡°Accidents and tomorrow, you never know which comes first.¡± Bao Yulou remarked deeply. ¡°Sometimes, if you¡¯re lucky enough to get a good doctor, there¡¯s a great chance of survival but if you get a less skilled doctor, then the chance of survival is much lesser. Life and death hang by a thread.¡± Bao Yulou took another sip of tea. Mrs. Bao seemed to sense something and felt a creeping fear. After a while, she said: ¡°Bao, why don¡¯t we go and apologize to Doctor Yang?¡± It was not that they had suddenly become civil and polite. The thought of death and the unknowing future frightened Mrs. Bao. She suddenly found herself inexplicably dependent on doctors. ¡°Doctor Yang is returning to China this Saturday; we don¡¯t have much time. I¡¯m thinking about what kind of gift to give him. The gift cannot be too trivial but also not too extravagant; it should still show our sincerity.¡± Bao Yulou mused, squinting his eyes. ¡°Why not give him a house? One with a rooftop garden, you¡¯ve still got some left unsold.¡± Young Master Bao blurted out. Bao Yulou waved his hand: ¡°No, he would refuse.¡± Bao Yulou closed his eyes to rest for a while and then said: ¡°Having the surgery these few days is not realistic, it can only be done in China. I will contact Sanbo Hospital and help them establish an aid fund, specifically for assisting impoverished patients with their medical expenses; Next, we will write a formal written apology for the incident with Doctor Yang and submit it directly to Sanbo Hospital; Finally, I will arrange for us to personally apologize to Doctor Yang through the hospital¡¯s assistance.¡± ¡°Junhao, maintaining a good relationship with Doctor Yang is not a one-time deal. As you play soccer, injuries are inevitable. Having a good doctor at hand is reassuring. Also, we¡¯re getting old and will likely need help at some point. In crucial times, a good doctor can potentially save your life.¡± ¡°Does it really have to be like this?¡± Mrs. Bao begrudgingly found the situation more bothersome than she thought. ¡°It can only be this way!¡± Bao Yulou couldn¡¯t think of a better solution. Submitting, Mrs. Bao said: ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll listen to you. Let¡¯s find a time to go back to China?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to stay here anymore, let¡¯s go back!¡± Bao Junhao had been holding it in for too long. Bao Yulou raised his head and said: ¡°People shouldn¡¯t see the United States as a paradise. We are considered wealthy people and can live carefree lives here. People without money can hardly move a step. In China, even in the top-tier Xiehe Hospital, ordinary people are still able to register and see the doctor. But in the US, these top-tier hospitals charge 20,000 dollars just for making an appointment ¨C how many can afford it? Without high-end private insurance, people can only dream of getting treated here. Basic medical insurance at most covers one-third of the hospitalization fee, the rest have to be covered by commercial insurance. Who can afford high-end private insurance? Thus, in the United States, top-tier hospitals aren¡¯t intended for ordinary people.¡± ¡°I feel like I can hardly move a step here either, completely out of place with the life here.¡± Bao Junhao was full of grievances. ¡°I told you to learn English well all along, but after all these years, you¡¯re still stuck with those few words. It¡¯s no wonder you¡¯re struggling. I have quite a few friends whose children have made it to prestigious schools.¡± Bao Yulou was exasperatedly disappointed in his son. ¡°Everyone has their strengths, Junhao¡¯s talent is playing football, he is in no way inferior to them now.¡± Mrs. Bao became upset again. ¡°Fine, as long as you are happy.¡± Bao Yulou had no other options. ¡°Junhao, listen to your dad, we will head back in a few days.¡± Mrs. Bao felt a sudden chill in her heart for some reason. ¡ª The meeting room in the administration area of the New York Special Orthopaedics Hospital was packed to the brim. All the doctors in the hospital, who were available, attended, numerous orthopedic doctors from other hospitals in New York also rushed over. The fact alone that the New York Special Orthopaedics Hospital had invited a professor to guide the surgery was enough to draw attention. The United States has always been a country fond of debate and carries no overbearing concept of authority, such academic conferences could not avoid pointed questions. However, all those who raised questions were refuted by Yang Ping, among them were a few professors, whom Robert labeled as arrogant and prejudiced stones. They were in the meeting room, currently sweating profusely, and whispering to each other. In the history of the New York Special Orthopaedics Hospital, it was breaking precedence to invite a Chinese man to perform, let alone guide a teaching surgery. Being in first place for a long time, it¡¯s inevitable that some people grow arrogant, these conservative hard-liners were not pleased and were hoping to refute Yang Ping, but now they¡¯re left battered and bruised by his rebuttal. This Chinese man, who appears gentle and refined, shows no mercy when it comes to debating, and now no one dares to question him. ¡°Now you understand why I didn¡¯t make a fuss about it, right? If it was a few months ago, Rongge, you¡¯d also be a stone,¡± Robert said to Professor Rongge from the first row. Rongge did not deny Robert¡¯s statement: ¡°At least I¡¯m not one now.¡± ¡°Which is why you are not the hardest one, look at those few, they are the hardest ones, but they have been completely shattered by Dr. Yang,¡± Robert smirked, he was very satisfied with the result of this academic lecture. The complacency of holding the top position for a prolonged period gave rise to laziness, the passionate era of their elders seemingly never to return. In the days of his grandparents and parents, while researching artificial knee joint prostheses with John N. Insall, that was truly exciting. Now such epoch-making innovations are hard to come by, the dean had instructed Robert to invite Dr. Yang to lecture and awaken a sense of crisis in everyone, Robert agreed with the dean¡¯s words. ¡°Any more questions? If so, continue to ask. If not, Dr. Yang needs to rest.¡± Robert approached the podium and asked the crowd. The audience remained silent, no one could ask any more questions. Robert ended the academic lecture with satisfaction and sent Yang Ping back to his hotel to rest. In the evening, he arranged a grand dinner. He invited all the Chinese doctors studying in New York. Most of the doctors from the New York Special Orthopaedics Hospital would attend, and Professor Rongge¡¯s seat was right next to Yang Ping. As a result of four years of friendship at Harvard Medical School, Rongge really wanted to invite Yang Ping to visit his department¡¯s wards, so he painstakingly selected a few difficult cases, hoping to pique Yang Ping¡¯s interest. John Ansen, unable to visit New York due to an emergency issue and meet with Yang Ping, apologized profusely over the phone. Being fellow doctors, they understood, an unplanned surgery could shatter any previous beautifully laid-out personal plans. ¡ª Finally, it was 3 pm for John Ansen. The medical team at the Johnson Space Center called almost all its specially appointed experts to discuss Steven¡¯s slowing heart rate. In twenty days, Steven would return to Earth, he would ride the Dragon Spaceship by SpaceX back to the ground. ¡°Finally, no need to buy those high-priced tickets from the Russians, 81 million US dollars per seat, that¡¯s just too expensive.¡± Steven received news that the Dragon Spaceship from SpaceX would be coming to pick them up, he joked with himself. In order to ensure his successful return, he doubled the amount of exercise he performed daily. He needed to maintain the strength of his skeleton and muscles to adapt to future life on Earth. Chapter 443 - 443 405 Connecting with Steven ?Chapter 443: Chapter 405: Connecting with Steven Chapter 443: Chapter 405: Connecting with Steven International Space Station, United States module. Steven had just completed a fitness workout on the combined weighted external resistance treadmill. He had persisted in running for an hour, and he also did some other resistance training. In a microgravity environment, muscle atrophy and bone calcium loss can easily occur. If a certain level of physical exercise isn¡¯t maintained, these symptoms will get worse. Upon returning to Earth, due to muscle atrophy, an astronaut could be unable to walk, and due to osteoporosis, the bones could easily fracture. Steven dried his sweat, moved his lithe body back to the living module, where all sorts of equipment were hanging on the wall. He checked the pressure inside the module and found nothing abnormal. Not long ago, there was a leak in the Russian module, losing 220g of air per day. The amazing Russians took a month to finally find the leak, a hole of only 1mm. They used tape to seal it and then proclaimed themselves out of danger. If it were Steven, he would have definitely taken a spacewalk to weld and seal the hole externally, else he wouldn¡¯t sleep comfortably. His partner David Hollis was still in the cupola, watching Earth. He loved photography and was always taking pictures out of the module, then selecting high quality photos to post on Facebook. David Hollis was in love; he just wanted to use these photos to attract a girl. From inside the cabin, the Cupola, with its seven observation windows, undeniably, was the best choice. Steven opened his laptop and also started selecting photos. These were taken by cameras outside the space station. He had promised his daughter that he would collect photos from different regions of Earth that were taken by those external cameras that wouldn¡¯t have the effect of a transparent window. Every time at this moment, Steven was the most relaxed. He had completed the day¡¯s research tasks, and was doing some private job for his daughter. He was proud of this. It was time for a video call with his wife. With the help of three communication satellites, the International Space Station had internet access. So, not only could they contact the ground control center in Houston, but also make video calls with families, browse web pages, read the news, and post on Twitter, Facebook. ¡°Dear, I just got back from the grocery store. Look, our daughter is filling up the fridge with your favorite fruits. I asked her to wait for twenty days, but she didn¡¯t listen.¡± His wife was busy while letting the camera point at her. Steven¡¯s wife was a teacher at an elementary school in Houston. She was preparing dinner, with steak, salad, and juice laid out on the table. ¡°Darling, in twenty days, we¡¯ll meet again.¡± ¡°We¡¯re waiting for you, dear. It feels like a year has passed. I saw news on NASA¡¯s official website that in twenty days, a Dragon Spaceship will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center, for your rotations.¡± ¡°Daddy, Daddy!¡± The voice of his eight-year-old daughter interrupted. ¡°Take it easy, sweetheart. What are you doing?¡± Steven saw his interesting daughter who was covered in cheese-like stuff on her face, hands, and clothes. ¡°I am making a salad. When you come back, I will make you a fruit salad.¡± The girl was so excited that she was dancing. ¡°She¡¯s learning to make fruit salad. Look at her face, that¡¯s her devotion to you.¡± His wife carefully wiped her daughter¡¯s cheetah face with a wet wipe. ¡°Daddy, remember to save a set of photos for me. I promised my classmates, each will get one with your signature. I must be a trustworthy person.¡± His daughter always reminded him. ¡°I¡¯m selecting them now. I¡¯ll email them to you in a few days.¡± Steven was almost done selecting. ¡°She has prepared a speech topic ¨C Observing Earth from Space. She practices every day speaking to our cat. Now all she needs are your photos as materials.¡± His wife stroked their daughter¡¯s face. ¡°Thank you, daddy! You guys chat. I¡¯ll go hide in my room for fifteen minutes.¡± His daughter said goodbye to Steven and hid in her room. His wife was talking into the camera, ¡°Dear, really, I miss you so much, and I worry about you. Everyday we look through the telescope out our window, hoping you fly over us. Lynn has made a timetable on when you pass, marked with a red pen. Are you ¨C okay?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been through a lot, darling. I¡¯m fine. Are you okay?¡± ¡°Mmm, I¡¯m also fine. Lynn wants to learn to surf, but I can¡¯t. She¡¯s waiting for you to come back.¡± The door cranked open slightly, Lynn¡¯s eyes were watching her parents having a video call through the crack. ¡ª In the Johnson Space Center, lights have been turned on in the administration office in Building One. The medical team members and specially invited experts from various places were in heated discussion. The discussion began from three o¡¯clock in the afternoon to seven o¡¯clock in the evening, and still hadn¡¯t ended. ¡°We have identified our core issue. The reason for Steven¡¯s slowed heartbeat is unknown. Will this unknown reason affect his return to Earth? Once he can return to the ground, everything will be easy to solve,¡± Collins sorted out the thread of the problem. ¡°Exactly, you¡¯ve found the focus. I insist on my opinion, not ruling out the possibility of a tumor in the brain stem, or other pathological changes.¡± ¡°Gentlemen, not long ago in China, I saw a seventy-year-old patient with a medullary tumor in his brain stem. Slow heart rate and respiration were the first symptoms.¡± ¡°What I mean is, if a pathological change affects the heartbeat center, it could lead to the slowing of the heart rate. If it affects the respiratory center, it will cause the respiration to slow down.¡± ¡°I suspect that some kind of pathological change is affecting Steven¡¯s heartbeat center. The probability is very low, one in a thousand, but we can¡¯t gamble. I suggest that he can¡¯t return to Earth before we find out. If it¡¯s a vascular malformation, the spacecraft getting into the atmosphere, falling at a high speed, a ruptured blood vessel would undoubtedly be fatal.¡± Chapter 444 - 444 405 Connecting with Steven_2 ?Chapter 444: Chapter 405: Connecting with Steven_2 Chapter 444: Chapter 405: Connecting with Steven_2 John Ansen got to his feet, expressing his views with stirring conviction. Dr. Eugene also rose, ¡°From the current surface ultrasound results, the heart shows no issues. The blood samples brought back last time also revealed no abnormalities. However, I would like to connect with Steven to guide him through the heart surface ultrasound again. As everyone¡¯s health state is dynamic and ever-changing, previous exams don¡¯t tell the whole story.¡± ¡°Once this meeting is adjourned, we¡¯ll communicate with Steven to rerun the heart surface ultrasound.¡± Collins agreed with Dr. Eugene. The doctors in their medical team lacked the expertise in interpreting ultrasound images compared to the professor of cardiology at Johns Hopkins. ¡°Also, I support Professor John Ansen. Before we understand the cause, making a hasty return would indeed put Steven¡¯s life at risk,¡± Dr. Eugene added, his tone serious. The other experts were in complete agreement with both professors. Whether it was heart disease or intracranial disease, the cause must be made clear to evaluate the risk of returning. ¡°Our opinions are unanimous at this point, further examination is required to get to the root of the problem, and to rule out any potentially fatal diseases,¡± Collins summarized. John Ansen was to the point, ¡°Absolutely. We must complete the angiography. While having an intracranial CT or MRI scan is impractical, an angiography would allow me to assess the basic risks at the very least.¡± ¡°There is no iodine contrast agent in our medical supplies, and the simple X-ray machine on the space station is too unreliable to ensure digital subtraction angiography,¡± Collins pointed out, who was well-versed with the medical supplies in the US module of the International Space Station. He looked at the Russian doctor in the medical team. Regrettably, the Russian doctor was also unable to help, ¡°Unfortunately, even though we have 18 medical kits, we don¡¯t have any iodine contrast agent either.¡± A Russian handed over the latest manual of medicines, which Collins browsed. As far back as 50 years ago when humans first ventured into space, astronauts have had the habit of taking medical supplies with them. What should be put in this small medicine box was anything but mature at that time. As the number of space flights soared and space medical knowledge improved, the list of medications became more sophisticated. The International Space Station, prepared for astronauts¡¯ health incidents, stored a considerable variety of medications. The medical team drew up a list of medication names based on a list of injuries and illnesses that might occur during their stay on the space station. Aside from medications, the space station also had some medical equipment: a small ECG measuring device, pulse meter, sphygmomanometer, amplifying stethoscope, as well as rudimentary cardiopulmonary resuscitation equipment. The spaceship traveling back and forth between the space station and the ground flew only once every two or three months. If astronauts urgently needed medications that weren¡¯t in the box, the ground crew had to prepare the required quantity in advance for delivery to space by spaceship. Due to the payload limitations of the spaceship, medication selection had to be meticulous, with the emphasis on broad-spectrum mature drugs. The US module of the International Space Station had nine medicinal kits, none of which contained iodine contrast agent since no one would anticipate an astronaut needing an angiogram in space. Collins amended the temples of his forehead, ¡°If this is the case ¨C I have to report. It will require scheduling in advance a special dispatch to deliver supplies and instruments to the station, and sending Susan.¡± Collins had made his decision ¨C he had to report. This problem was no longer something the medical team could solve. The head of the Aerospace Agency should make the decision. The medical training received by astronauts was quite basic, primarily focusing on basic treatment and first aid. In order to carry out an angiography, a more qualified professional was needed. This person was Susan. Not only was she an astronaut, but she was also a surgeon with professional medical literacy and had the capability to independently perform some basic surgeries. Collins tilted back his head, feeling a heavy pain in his neck, ¡°Does anyone have any comments? The situation needs escalating and if a special flight to send Susan and the medications to the Space Station becomes necessary, what ideas do you have?¡± ¡°A launch will cost at least 100 million US dollars, assuming two people¡¯s weight.¡± ¡°This is Musk¡¯s price. In the past, the average launch cost of the United States was 450 million US dollars.¡± Two attending engineers reminded everyone to consider if there are any better solutions. ¡°This is a math problem for the director. Our problem is how to reduce a one thousandth risk to zero.¡± John Ansen said with extreme seriousness, considering the monetary cost in the face of human life is contempt for life. The two engineers quickly silenced under the hostility of all the doctors, their presence at the meeting was just to answer possible questions about the space station project from the doctors. ¡°Exactly, leave this issue to Mr. Jim Basa, maybe he can negotiate the price with Mr. Musk.¡± ¡°I will draft a report tonight to report to the Chief Medical Officer and the Director at headquarters in Washington, requesting an additional express delivery to send Susan and the medications up there. Gentlemen, I apologize for the inconvenience. We will go to the Ground Control Center immediately to connect with Steven and conduct another ultrasound examination. Lastly, we need to make detailed plans together. For instance, the inventory list of medications and equipment for the express delivery, whether Susan needs to undergo further training, and unfortunately, we can only have fast food for dinner. I¡¯m very sorry for this.¡± Collins ended the meeting and immediately led everyone to another building ¨C the Ground Control Center. There, eight staff members were busy, all staring at the screens. The Ground Control Center operated in shifts, nine hours per shift, ensuring that seven or eight staff members were always on duty around the clock. ¡°Emergency medical connection, connect with Steven, now!¡± Collins directed the shift leader. ¡°Connect with Steven!¡± The shift leader ordered loudly. The communication staff promptly linked the station¡¯s video system. After a few calls, Steven¡¯s face appeared on the screen. ¡°Hello, everyone, I¡¯m Steven. I¡¯m fine. What¡¯s happened, Collins? Looks like your whole team is there?¡± Steven greeted. Collins kept smiling, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we just had a meeting about your slowing heart rate. Now, Dr. Eugene needs to guide you to conduct another ultrasound. Do you need David Hollis¡¯s assistance?¡± ¡°No, no, I can do it myself. I don¡¯t feel uncomfortable at all. I completed an hour of running today. I don¡¯t think I have a problem. Either you guys are wrong, or the device is wrong. Anyway, it¡¯s not my fault.¡± Steven moved his body, started opening a storage box, and pulled out the ultrasound machine. ¡°From now on, you must stop exercising.¡± Dr. Eugene warned Steven. If the cause was not found, and it happened to be a myocardial problem, exercise would increase the stress on the heart, causing arrhythmia, and the consequence could be unthinkable. ¡°Johns Hopkins, Dr. Eugene, a cardiovascular specialist.¡± Collins introduced. Steven straightened the wires, turned on the switch: ¡°Although I strongly disagree with you, I will listen to your advice because you are a doctor. Can we start now?¡± ¡°We can start now.¡± The communication staff adjusted the image. The ultrasound images from the space station were synchronized with the screen in front of them. ¡°Alright, you can now redo the heart ultrasound step by step.¡± Collins ordered. Dr. Eugene and everybody gathered in front of the comms screen, looking at the ultrasound image frame. Left and right ventricle, left and right atrium, each valve, aorta, vena cava, pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein¡ª Dr. Eugene carefully observed the pulsating heart ultrasound images. He asked Steven to repeat it several times. There were no issues at all! ¡°Do you have any discomfort? Such as chest discomfort, feeling out of breath, general weakness, lack of energy? This is related to your return trip.¡± Dr. Eugene was still not reassured. ¡°No, I don¡¯t have any discomfort.¡± Steven was very optimistic and didn¡¯t think there was anything wrong with him. ¡°Headache, dizziness, muscle incoordination, anything unusual?¡± Professor John Ansen asked. ¡°No, if possible, I would like to challenge Tyson.¡± ¡°Alright, rest well, and contact us at any time if there is any issue.¡± Dr. Eugene couldn¡¯t find any issues with the heart ultrasound. They could only wait for the next check-up. Chapter 445 - 445 406 Space Rescue ?Chapter 445: Chapter 406: Space Rescue Chapter 445: Chapter 406: Space Rescue Robert¡¯s planning for his days in the United States was rational, neither rushed nor sluggish and wasteful in terms of time. Yang Ping¡¯s goal of coming to the United States had been fully realized. The five surgeries were successfully conducted, an equipment patent was successfully sold, and the $20 million raised was already credited, relieving the financial worries for his research. Everything turned out much smoother than expected. As Bacon said, knowledge equates to power, or rather, technology equals money, and there seems nothing wrong with that. In addition, he would have an annual revenue of $20 million for the next twenty years, providing ongoing funding for the research projects and ensuring Yang Ping no longer needed to penny-pinch. In the future, Yang Ping would have enough energy to realize his ambitions. Xiao Su was right, only with money could one be free and fully express his talents. Musk, for instance, is headstrong because of his strong ability to earn money and explore fields he¡¯s interested in. Money is not a bad thing, let alone excrement. A gentleman values wealth in the right way. In the past, Yang Ping had many bizarre ideas yet without the chance to realize them. Now, with the support of the system, realizing them wouldn¡¯t face any barriers. Even if he failed, the only losses would be points. During his time in the United States, Yang Ping had started experimenting within the system space laboratory. Although the system space doesn¡¯t occupy real time, whether in the operating room, laboratory, or library, all are like a closed real world space where no one interacts with Yang Ping. In a closed space, there¡¯s a limit to human psychological endurance, a natural weakness of people. The limit for ordinary people stands between three to five days; special agents with special training might hold on longer, making it several times that of an ordinary person. Once the limit is exceeded, psychological breakdown is inevitable, which may lead to mental disorder, such as schizophrenia. That Yang Ping can keep up for several months while maintaining a healthy mental state is beyond normal. Without this ability and mental fortitude, he might not be able to handle this devil system. The mental state when entering system space is related to the mental state at the moment of entering. That¡¯s why one can have the longest stay when entering calmly. The next two days were given for visiting Robert¡¯s clinic and attending teaching rounds at New York Orthopedic Hospital¡¯s Sports Medicine Department. Yang Ping was generally pleased with Robert¡¯s arrangements. But the decoration of the clinic confused Yang Ping. With Chinese knots, Fu characters, and red lanterns hanging on the front door, the most outrageous thing was the Chinese double happiness symbol on the red shrouds worn by the etiquette ladies. This idea didn¡¯t come from a Chinatown wedding planner, rather it was Robert¡¯s. Despite the company¡¯s repeated warnings that it was inappropriate for the occasion, Robert insisted: ¡°Be creative, don¡¯t stick to formalities. Only by combining various festive elements can we create an extraordinary effect.¡± Indeed, the effect was impressive. Yang Ping asked in amazement, ¡°Who came up with this setting?¡± ¡°I personally designed this layout,¡± Robert proclaimed proudly. ¡°You¡¯re a genius!¡± Yang Ping patted Robert¡¯s sturdy shoulder. Robert was tickled pink. Boss Cheng and Huang Jiacai, too, gave Robert thumbs up for his unique application of Chinese culture. Boss Cheng and Huang Jiacai also reaped a lot, as Old Cheng had a thorough look at the New York Orthopedic Hospital and Robert¡¯s clinic. On Friday, as Professor Robert, Yang Ping did rounds in the Sports Medicine Department of New York Orthopedic Hospital. The rounds lasted a whole four hours. After a Q&A session and a lecture, the doctors of New York Orthopedic Hospital were completely conquered, even the toughest nuts were cracked. This round became truly instructive. Professor Rongge enthusiastically invited Yang Ping to perform rounds at the joint replacement center, but unfortunately, Yang Ping was completely exhausted and could not do another large-scale round, so he had to decline. This frustrated Rongge, fearing he and Robert¡¯s tech capabilities would diverge from now on. Yang Ping¡¯s five-day stay in America flew by, and he was set to leave the United States on Saturday. John Ansen was unable to leave Houston at short notice, so he called Yang Ping several times to apologize. Griffin and Woodhead found the time to come to New York and meet with Yang Ping, both fervently invited him to visit their hospitals for exchange. Regrettably, time was tight. He had to return home as planned-with many things back in China waiting for him. ¡ª¡ª At the Washington headquarters of the United States Aeronautics and Space Administration, upon receiving Collins¡¯ report, the chief medical officer immediately summoned Chief Jim Basa for an emergency meeting. Seeing as lives were at stake, the department head immediately called for an emergency meeting. What else was there to discuss? The doctors had done their planning and were just waiting for Basa¡¯s approval. Wasn¡¯t there a rocket launch mission in over ten days? Let SpaceX¡¯s Falcon 9 launch earlier and lift the Dragon Spaceship to space with Susan and medical supplies. Merritt Island on the east coast of Florida in the United States, home to the Kennedy Space Center. Even though the Falcon 9 rocket was ready, its sudden early launch disrupted the plan, requiring pre-launch inspections to be conducted in advance, weather assessments to be made, and personnel adjustments to be replanned. As an astronaut, Susan had been in constant training and could go to space at any time. However, she needed specific training on cerebral angiography. Radiology experts from the Mayo Clinic were invited to Houston to train Dr. Susan on how to complete an angiography in a microgravity environment. She only needed to successfully perform the procedure, and the interpretation of the images would be left to the doctors on the ground. The list of drugs and equipment prescribed by Collins was procured by NASA¡¯s Department of Supplies at the fastest speed, but these items weren¡¯t easy to come by. Both the drugs and the equipment needed modifications. The X-ray machine that could perform digital subtraction angiography wasn¡¯t compatible with rocket transportation and use on the space station. The manufacturer was asked to make modifications to suit this mission. The contrast agent, iohexol, was required to be made into a ready-to-use syringe loading model. Extracting liquid from a bottle on the space station is a laborious task for anyone. Fortunately, astronauts had undergone allergy tests for commonly used medications on the ground, and their records were kept. Steven was not allergic to iodine contrast. Otherwise, it would be a hassle if the medication was transported all the way up there and then an allergy test had to be performed, and it turned out to be positive. The lights in Building 1 of Space City in Houston were often on all night long. Attentive journalists sensed something unusual and started making inquiries: what was happening in Houston? Was it a rocket launch explosion? It should have been earth-shattering. It seemed that there was a problem with the International Space Station. Was it another drilling leak? It couldn¡¯t be that simple. The office of the medical team had the longest nights and most frequent shifts. It must be a problem with the astronaut¡¯s health. The journalists became interested. This was something that Americans cared about the most. Even the president¡¯s office affairs could be written about in magazines and other media outlets, these reporters dare to write about anything. NASA was candid, satisfying everyone¡¯s curiosity by holding a press conference to tell them to be patient. Astronaut Steven encountered a slight problem¡ªhis heart rate slowed down. The cause was still under investigation, but NASA was confident in solving the problem. They have planned to send Dr. Susan and a batch of drugs and medical instruments to the space station by rocket. Astronauts were all physically fit and underwent multiple full-body examinations before going to space. However, it didn¡¯t mean that they couldn¡¯t fall ill on the space station. There was nothing to worry about, and most journalists dispersed. A few journalists thought the issue wasn¡¯t as simple. A small problem that required a doctor and medication to be sent by rocket at a cost of hundreds of millions of US dollars? Weren¡¯t there nine medicine boxes up there? The Russians had more than a dozen. Couldn¡¯t small issues be resolved with over twenty medicine boxes? When an astronaut on the International Space Station caught a cold, NASA didn¡¯t hold a press conference. These journalists were relentless. They soon found out that a huge team of doctors from Mayo, Johns Hopkins, etc., had gone to Houston for a meeting. Was this still a small issue? Collins set the phones of the bureau chief, colleagues, and family members to the whitelist, and all other calls were blocked. He checked the medical assistance plan for Steven item by item. Some had been implemented, and some were not yet. Susan had mastered cerebral angiography and started training on how to handle and rescue from accidental situations, such as allergies caused by the contrast agent and acute renal failure. We hope Steven will be fine. If there were no organic lesions in his intracranial blood vessels, he could take atropine orally to increase his heart rate. Monitor for a period of time without abnormality, Steven can return to Earth. As long as he could come back, everything would be fine. The worst was the one in a thousand possibility that John Ansen worried about. If that happened, it would leave people helpless. Collins prayed that Steven would be fine. ¡ª¡ª While waiting for his flight, Boss Cheng bought a copy of The New York Times and saw the news about Steven. ¡°Musk is going to make a few hundred million US dollars again. Is this reusable Falcon 9 rocket of his really reliable? Does it really have the capabilities he boasts, or is he just boasting?¡± Boss Cheng asked Huang Jiacai. Huang Jiacai was also reading a book: ¡°Is NASA¡¯s money for anyone to make? Could anybody without real capabilities handle this? If Old Ma wanted to boast, there would be ten thousand comfortable ways to do so. He didn¡¯t need to brag about launching rockets, which is physically demanding and thankless.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true. Look, this Steven guy has health problems, his heart rate has slowed down. Now NASA wants to deliver doctors and medication by rocket express. Is this real or fake?¡± Old Cheng was very interested, and the newspaper rustled as he shook it. ¡°The International Space Station?¡± Huang Jiacai closed his book. ¡°Yeah!¡± Old Cheng continued to read. Huang Jiacai leaned over to look: ¡°Are they planning a space rescue?¡± Yang Ping was resting, thinking about the experiments. He could enter the system space to conduct several experiments once they boarded the plane as it would be quieter. ¡°It¡¯s time to board!¡± Upon hearing the announcement, Old Cheng folded the newspaper, and together with Huang Jiacai, carrying their luggage, the three of them joined the boarding line. Chapter 446 - 446 407 The Highest Emergency ?Chapter 446: Chapter 407: The Highest Emergency Chapter 446: Chapter 407: The Highest Emergency Merritt Island, Florida, Kennedy Space Center, Falcon 9 rocket takes off. This rocket is going to send the Dragon Spaceship to the International Space Station. Originally, it was designed to carry four astronauts; now, it only carries Susan with the remaining payload all given to medical instruments and medicine. Eight hours later, the Dragon Spaceship is captured by the Canadian Robotic Arm of the International Space Station, successfully completing its docking with the space station. Susan, the doctor astronaut, is traveling to space for the second time. The first time, she stayed for six months and completed a medical experiment, successfully developing a drug to cure lung cancer. This time, she is not up there for an experiment; she is there for further examination of Steven. Of all the astronauts who can travel to space anytime, only she can independently complete the DSA of the whole brain blood vessels, which requires certain interventional treatment techniques. There¡¯s not a moment to spare. With the help of David Hollis, Susan secures the instrument equipment. On the space station, in a microgravity environment, anything to be used steadily needs proper fixing, otherwise, it fluctuates. Many generic interfaces are on the cabin wall to fix these devices. The manufacturers of the digital subtraction X-ray machine have modified the machine overnight according to NASA¡¯s requirements. Not only can it be sent to space by the rocket, but it can also be fixed. Steven wanted to participate in these tasks as well, but Susan refused. Before his condition is clear, he is not fit to engage in any physical labor or sports. Once everything is prepared, Steven is secured on a flatbed. The restraints on his limbs prevent him from losing control, especially his head must be fixed securely. Having grown accustomed to such microgravity environment, Susan can perform skills freely that even the best-interventional doctors are unable to in this kind of surrounding. Having performed an iodine contrast agent allergy test and confirmed its negativity, Susan begins her formal operation. Susan and David Hollis put on protective lead clothes. David Hollis assists as Susan puts on sterile gloves. The right groin area is disinfected, up-to-the-navel and down to the middle of the thigh, including the perineum. Adhesive film sheet is used to spread the sterile sheet to prevent it from floating up. After local anesthesia, she begins to puncture the right femoral artery. The puncture is successful, and the blood that sprays out is compressed in time by Susan, otherwise, those red blood droplets will scatter everywhere. Even actions that are considered simple on Earth are very difficult in space. If it was not for Susan, this plan would not be feasible. The puncture is pulled out, the sheath was left inside, then the guidewire was inserted until it reached the suitable location. The catheter was inserted along the guidewire, pulled out, and Susan connected the syringe to begin pushing the contrast agent. Even after ten hours of training, her movements are proficient, and she doesn¡¯t create scattered blood droplets in the cabin. The special syringe that carries iodixanol, the contrast agent, is injected into the artery from the end of the catheter. The machine starts the X-ray scan, and the ink-like vascular image begins to spread gradually. The image is transmitted to Houston¡¯s ground control center on Earth. The long-awaited group of experts immediately focuses their attention. Each of them has a computer, with the graphics on the screen slightly delayed due to network latency uncertainty. The automatic screenshot function of the computer captures the images one-by-one and saves them for meticulous study later on. The common carotid artery, internal and external carotid arteries, vertebral artery, angiography of the blood vessels of the whole brain, step-by-step, the angiography of the whole brain, coarse and fine branches, winding, and juxtaposed, gradually perfect the image. ¡°Susan! Do not use heparin! There may be a risk of bleeding!¡± Professor Massimo from the Intervention Department of Johns Hopkins directs Susan to conduct DSA of the whole brain blood vessels. The first meeting did not include this professor. When John Ansen suspected a cranial disease, this top-notch Intervention professor was invited. The continuation of the intervention relied heavily on him. This Intervention doctor is extraordinarily gifted. His numerous contributions to the Intervention Department, for instance, familiarizing TIPS surgery, and designing many cardiac and cranial intervention methods. TIPS surgery, transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt. In 1986, Doctor Palmaz established the drainage channel using balloon dilation stent technology based on the work of his predecessor, hence modern TIPS surgery was established. In 1988, Frerburg first applied this technology in clinical practice. And Professor Massimo, when he was younger, devised an entirely new set of intervention instruments and operating methods to lower the threshold of the top-notch technology in intervention, enabling it to be widely used. Massimo is highly creative; his contribution to Intervention is countless, which has also accumulated a huge amount of wealth for him. He has invented many interventional instruments and consumables. Medtronic, Abbott, Cook, and Boston Science technical all have cooperations with him. Currently, half of the new products come directly or indirectly from him. In the field of neurosurgery, John Ansen is top-tier in the United States, but in terms of intervention, he must admit defeat to this gentleman. ¡°You¡¯ve wasted a hundred million US Dollars. If half were given as gambling money, I would certainly dare to return to Earth this way.¡± Steven said. ¡°Quiet, Steven!¡± Susan stopped him. ¡°How¡¯s the image quality, professors? I dare not go any further with my catheter. I can only inject the contrast agent from here. I request guidance.¡± Indeed, Susan did not dare to go any farther. If she was a bit bolder and placed the catheter deeper, by doing a step-by-step super selection, the image quality would be better. ¡°No need to go forward, it¡¯s enough.¡± Massimo¡¯s hair is a mix of white and black. He is charming with a handsome face, tall and robust body, a pair of fascinating blue eyes, which have once infatuated countless girls in Johns Hopkins University. The quality of this complex and diffuse whole brain blood vessel angiography image is not very good, but, it can be considered as a failed angiography. Susan did her best. If on Earth, her performance would have been better, able to produce high-quality images. John Ansen frowned; it might be necessary for GG Corporation¡¯s AI to read the images. It was hard to tell by eye if there was a problem and if so, where. Professor Massimo untied and took off his tie, tossing it onto the workbench: ¡°Damn! Medulla oblongata¡¯s life center internal small artery aneurysm, a life-threatening aneurysm!¡± Before all the doctors could react, Professor Massimo had made a diagnosis. John Ansen and Eugene studied the pictures one by one, asking with some doubt, ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°100% certain. In imaging and intervention, as long as I¡¯m alive, no one can surpass me. John Ansen, Eugene, believe me, this medulla oblongata¡¯s life center artery aneurysm is like a ticking bomb that could go off and kill this guy at any time.¡± Massimo unbuttoned another shirt button. ¡°Is your air conditioning broken?¡± Massimo asked. Collins shook his head. How could that be? Wasn¡¯t the temperature quite appropriate? ¡°See, here is the aneurysm!¡± Massimo pointed out the location of the lesion. It was a black mass, in which details were indistinguishable, vaguely appearing. DSA was also of limited accuracy, not all anomalies could be detected. But if Massimo said it was there, then it was definitely there. This genius, currently, the most classic interventional works in the world, more than half were edited by him, the most advanced interventional techniques, more than half came from his innovation. He wasn¡¯t bragging, nor was he arrogant. In terms of intervention, he was truly the peak of the world, an unsurpassable existence. ¡°You can stop now, Susan. Thank you for your hard work,¡± Massimo commanded. John Ansen finally noticed the not so obvious anomaly. Massimo¡¯s judgment was correct. The computer connected to GG Corporation¡¯s medical brain, the image was enlarged, processed for comparison, then slowly contrasted. Indeed, a small artery aneurysm had penetrated the inner part of the medulla oblongata. John Ansen felt a shiver run down his spine- this artery was the nameless artery, the artery that crossed the heart¡¯s central hub. This symptom usually occurred in one in a thousand cases, yet Steven was the unlucky one. ¡°Medulla oblongata unnamed small artery aneurysm. This artery is the devil¡¯s curse. It traverses the heartbeat core.¡± John Ansen turned pale. Collins¡¯ dry lips quivered a few times, ¡°What should we do next?¡± Everyone in the control center froze, staring at Massimo who was now their greatest hope. ¡°If he returns to Earth, high-speed plummeting would cause the aneurysm to rupture, undoubtedly leading to death. You can simulate this using computers if you don¡¯t believe me.¡± Massimo asked Collins to have a doctor use the GG Corporation platform to build a model for a return simulation. ¡°I believe you. I want to know, what should we do?¡± Collins asked. ¡°If we were on Earth, I¡¯d have a 20% chance of completing this intervention. The target vessels are too complex. No one in the world has ever achieved intervention on such an aneurysm. The current available catheters, guidewires, and coil springs are not capable of completing it. But, in my lab, I have thinner and better products. Unfortunately, they lack FDA certification. If I could use these instruments, I could have a 20% success rate on Earth. I¡¯ve completed 200 monkey animal experiments. Damn it, the air conditioner is broken.¡± Massimo was sweating profusely. Collins immediately said: ¡°The situation must continue to escalate. I¡¯m reporting to Washington now.¡± ¡°He is on the space station now. Even if I risk going up, I wouldn¡¯t be able to adapt to the microgravity environment there without sufficient training. I wouldn¡¯t be able to perform the surgery.¡± Massimo shook his head. ¡°He¡¯s just an aneurysm, and you¡¯re the best interventionist in America!¡± Collins got a little excited. ¡°Don¡¯t shout at me. I don¡¯t like the way you¡¯re acting now. Put away your arrogance. I¡¯m not a member of your expert group. You asked me to come here. Believe it or not, I can go back to Baltimore right now. This is your NASA issue. It has nothing to do with me.¡± Massimo yelled. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I was too impulsive. Please forgive me.¡± Collins realized he was too impulsive. Massimo nodded: ¡°Be a gentleman. Talk to me nicely. I don¡¯t like it when people speak loudly. The situation must escalate. He can¡¯t last more than 3 days, that is 72 hours at most. Or it could be that the blood vessels burst in the next second. The vessels have already exceeded the limit and can explode at any time.¡± ¡°This is not an ordinary intracranial aneurysm. It passes through the life core. No one in the world has ever done this kind of intervention. Even on the ground, I only have a 20% success rate. This is already the highest level in the world today. But unfortunately, he is now in the sky, 400 kilometers above. I can¡¯t do anything.¡± Massimo put away his usual confidence. ¡°And it is still expanding, just measured precisely a few times from the imaging, it is expanding.¡± John Ansen reminded. ¡°But Steven is not uncomfortable?¡± Collins¡¯ dry throat made his pronunciation unclear. ¡°A slow heartbeat is the symptom. The next symptom is death. Once it bursts, the heartbeat instantly stops.¡± Massimo emphatically informed Collins. ¡°I¡¯m reporting now!¡± Collins looked at Massimo and John Ansen. ¡°Yes, report it. This is not a problem you can solve. Let your director roll over from Washington. Don¡¯t let him sleep. ¡°I¡¯m reporting right now!¡± Collins repeated. He immediately reported to NASA¡¯s Chief Medical Officer: ¡°Sir, we need to initiate the highest level emergency plan. Steven has an aneurysm in the brainstem heartbeat center, which can burst and cause death at any time. He won¡¯t last more than 72 hours. If he¡¯s not lucky, he could die at any moment.¡± ¡°Susan, lower Steven¡¯s blood pressure and have him rest quietly, talk less.¡± Massimo commanded. Susan was also very nervous inside. On the space station, she was the only doctor, and with her limited simple equipment, what can she do? She felt helpless, extreme helplessness. Chapter 447 - 447 408 Hope in Despair ?Chapter 447: Chapter 408: Hope in Despair Chapter 447: Chapter 408: Hope in Despair The news exploded like a nuclear bomb at NASA headquarters in Washington. What was originally deemed a routine medical incident had now escalated into a potentially lethal emergency. Chief Jim Basa immediately activated the top-level emergency protocol. There had been no fatal disasters in American space exploration since the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster in 2003. If something befell Steven, it would be impossible to explain. On February 1, 2003, the Columbia Space Shuttle was entering the atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana, on the verge of completing its 28th mission. Then disaster struck. The shuttle exploded and disintegrated, killing all seven astronauts on board. The wreckage from the Columbia explosion scattered from the suburbs of Dallas all the way to Tyler, with some even falling in Louisiana. Like the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1986, the shuttles were grounded for two years following the accident. Despite this being a medical incident, the public would struggle to accept another fatal accident. The internet, newspapers, television, all were tracking the news. Everything was under the scrutiny of the public magnifying glass. No one could face the surging public pressure. Even with the collective efforts of the United States, they must do everything possible to prevent an accident. Chief Jim Basa had a keen sense of the severity of the situation. He immediately set off for Houston with the Chief Medical Officer and several officials, personally directing this emergency medical incident, all the while maintaining video communication via his laptop. Dozens of America¡¯s top medical experts had gathered in Houston. The professional tasks were left to the professionals, while Jim Basa¡¯s role was to coordinate, marshalling every resource for this emergency. Jim Basa was grateful that he had made a decisive decision to commence an early launch of Falcon 9; otherwise, they would have had to wait another ten days. Steven might have been in trouble before they could even make a diagnosis. Identifying where the problem originated was an issue for future investigation. Their current task was to find a way to help Steven safely return to Earth. Upon disembarking the plane, the group hastily made their way to the Houston ground control center. Collins handed Chief Basa a cup of instant coffee, but he was too anxious to drink it. He hastily asked, ¡°What should we do?¡± Only the doctors present could answer him. They were the most elite medical personnel in the entire United States. Particularly, John Ansen, Eugene, and Massimo, experts in surgery, internal medicine and intervention. Their knowledge in neurosurgery was nothing short of world-class. ¡°Intracranial aneurysm. The blood vessels could burst at any time. It cuts through the brain stem, the center of life. If left untreated, death is inevitable. There would not be a second outcome,¡± Massimo explained to Jim Basa. The simulation results from GG company are in. The computer simulated the event ten thousand times, and in every instance, Steven would die from a burst blood vessel during the return journey. Jim Basa wiped sweat away, still considering the question, ¡°Can we risk a return to Earth?¡± ¡°Can we only treat him in the space station?¡± Jim Basa asked. ¡°Yes, we can only intervene. The medical package we sent up contains interventional equipment, but the artery is a very small unnamed artery that cuts through a bundle of nerves. Even our smallest equipment cannot perform the surgery,¡± Massimo clarified. If he can¡¯t return and we can¡¯t treat him, does that mean he just waits to die up there? Jim Basa didn¡¯t understand why these doctors couldn¡¯t find a solution after all their research. When they asked to advance the rocket launch and send Susan and the equipment, he immediately signed off on it. The rocket was already in space. ¡°The problem now is that my lab has finer catheters, guide wires, and coil springs. Even if we send them up, no one would be able to perform the surgery. Even if I were sent up, I wouldn¡¯t be able to perform the surgery on the space station. Maneuvering the wire through countless curved blood vessels in the brain, even the slightest mishap could puncture a blood vessel and result in death. On Earth, I¡¯d have a 20% chance of success. In the microgravity environment of the space station, an untrained person couldn¡¯t even complete simple tasks, let alone such a delicate surgery,¡± a clearly disheartened Massimo confessed. Jim Basa didn¡¯t understand the complete cerebral angiography picture shown to him. ¡°Do you have any suggestions? Could the remote medical equipment help?¡± Jim Basa asked Chief Engineer and Scientist, Richard Franklin. Richard was not optimistic: ¡°Remote medical equipment feedback is inadequate, and latency is unpredictable. Based on Dr. Massimo¡¯s explanation, success rates could fall below 20%.¡± Richard had a great understanding of the problem. Although he wasn¡¯t a medical expert, he quickly grasped the crux of the issue. ¡°It is impossible to send more doctors to space due to lack of time. Our best hope is to use remote medical equipment to navigate this crisis,¡± Dr. Richard was clear-headed. ¡°Massimo, I¡¯ve trained with this remote device, developed in collaboration between Direct Intuition Company and NASA. Even with the most superior surgical robot operational experience, you couldn¡¯t surpass your current success rate.¡± John Ansen didn¡¯t feel this would be of much help. Massimo was aware of the shortcomings of the equipment: ¡°The uncertain delay, the lack of tactile feedback, these are lethal weaknesses that would drastically reduce the success rate of the surgery.¡± ¡°Perhaps there¡¯s a person who can do it?¡± John Ansen suddenly recalled. ¡°Who?¡± Jim Basa stood up and leaned forward. He had just been baffled by these doctors and was trapped in desolation ¨C now someone suggested there was a hope, an unexpected light in the darkness. John Ansen hesitated: ¡°A Chinese doctor. If anyone in the world could do it, only he comes to mind. I¡¯ve seen him perform a brainstem tumor removal, a surgery that has less than five percent success rate in our hands. He can achieve eighty percent.¡± ¡°A Chinese man?¡± Jim Basa hesitated. This incident would definitely be exposed to the public eye. The final resolution by a Chinese person would be quite embarrassing. But as a pragmatist, Jim Basa didn¡¯t care about appearances; the man¡¯s life at stake was of greater concern. ¡°Professor John Ansen, you will be held accountable for your statements. Johns Hopkins possesses the most advanced interventional medicine in the world. If anyone could surpass us, it would be the top Chinese interventional specialists, many of whom we have trained ourselves,¡± Massimo cautioned John Ansen. ¡°I stand by my words, please do record them. However, I am not certain if he specializes in intervention. What I am certain of, is that no one in the world understands this disease better than him. Perhaps he has a solution.¡± ¡°There was a case I was invited to consult on. We believed the success rate wouldn¡¯t be more than five percent until I met him. His calm and composed demeanor left a lasting impression on me. He told me that the success rate of the case could reach eighty percent.¡± ¡°Do you know him? I watched the entire operation. He used a 0.1 mm laser scalpel and precisely removed the tumor from the nerve cluster controlling heart and respiration. His heart stopped four times during the surgery. He went through twenty-one electric shocks one of those times. He fought with the grim reaper, operating during heart failure and resuscitating afterwards. He had foreseen all of this.¡± ¡°After watching the whole surgery, I was almost wasted. He is god of surgery in my heart, Massimo. To put it bluntly, if he is proficient in intervention, you would be outshined,¡± John Ansen spoke seriously, nothing like bragging. Massimo shook his head: ¡°John Ansen, you are a serious neurosurgeon. I have no idea what you are talking about. If there were such a person in this world, wouldn¡¯t I know?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if you don¡¯t understand. I didn¡¯t expect you to. All I¡¯m saying is, invite him! He¡¯s our best hope. Steven is waiting up in the sky, any second now, a blood vessel could burst...¡± John Ansen realized he was helpless in convincing the others. ¡°If we want to save Steven, we should invite him to Houston immediately. If he can¡¯t do it, that means God has given up on Steven.¡± John Ansen was firm. ¡°Professor Griffin from Anderson Cancer Center, and Professor Woodhead from Twin Cities Spine Center experienced this along with me. You can immediately invite them to join the meeting. Trust me, even if he does not perform interventional surgery, he can guide you on how to handle this emergency. I, John Ansen, plead in God¡¯s name, invite him!¡± John Ansen stood up and spoke fervently. ¡°Everyone here is among the top doctors in America, and we¡¯re inviting a Chinese man to handle our national emergency? Don¡¯t you find this funny? Captain America saved the whole of the US, only for it to turn out that he¡¯s a Chinese man in the end.¡± Massimo was a conservative American. ¡°Is there a problem? I think it¡¯s great, Doctor Massimo, do you have a better solution? After being diluted by a distance of 400 kilometers, how much of the twenty percent success rate is left?¡± John Ansen, out of arguments, could only deal definite blows to them. For a moment, Massimo was at a loss for words. He had never experienced such humiliation. But he was a man who respected facts. ¡°Are you certain this man can do it?¡± Massimo conceded. John Ansen wasn¡¯t one to make empty promises. ¡°I can¡¯t say for sure. But if he can¡¯t do it, I doubt anyone can. This is the limit of my knowledge.¡± John Ansen responded. ¡°Contact him immediately!¡± Jim Basa didn¡¯t care who it was, as long as they could resolve the issue at hand. ¡°I¡¯ll try, he¡¯s been in New York recently. I¡¯m not sure if he¡¯s left.¡± John Ansen took out his phone. After a little more than ten minutes: ¡°He¡¯s already on a flight, it¡¯s been five hours since takeoff.¡± Jim Basa lowered his head: ¡°Are you sure he¡¯s our best hope?¡± ¡°In God¡¯s name!¡± John Ansen reiterated. Desperate for hope, no matter how slim, Jim Basa made the most important decision. Chapter 448 - 448 409 Houston We Have a Problem ?Chapter 448: Chapter 409: Houston, We Have a Problem! Chapter 448: Chapter 409: Houston, We Have a Problem! Jim Basa decided¡ªit was time to report to the White House. This issue had to be reported to the White House. If they were to invite the Chinese to help handle this emergency, it would be beyond his authority. The proper channels for such an invitation would have to be diplomatic, which was the Secretary of State¡¯s job. Jim Basa couldn¡¯t direct the Secretary of State, but the White House could. ¡°This has gone beyond our capability. I need to report this to the White House, if everyone would please wait.¡± Jim Basa gathered NASA¡¯s scientists and officials for an emergency meeting in the control center¡¯s meeting room. Even those who couldn¡¯t be there in person were required to join via video link. ¡°Ladies and Gentlemen, we are encountering the biggest crisis we have faced since the Columbia incident in 2003. You¡¯ve all heard the medical experts¡¯ opinions. They made it very clear that we have to seek the assistance of a Chinese doctor. This is the only way we can resolve the crisis. These experts are the top medical professors in the United States, and their opinion represents the most professional stance. I am preparing to report this to the White House.¡± Jim Basa understood the complexity of the situation. If there were any mishandling in how they dealt with this crisis, he would not only be held accountable but could also resign in disgrace. ¡°The International Space Station has always kept China out, now we are asking¡ªno, begging for help. It¡¯s not going to be easy.¡± Richard was concerned that under these circumstances, asking for help from China would be hard for the United States to verbalize, and China might not necessarily agree to help. ¡°Indeed, this is a very sensitive issue. But, under such circumstances, we can only rely on the White House to step in. We are not capable of dealing with this embarrassment. It¡¯s our responsibility to report, but whether they are willing or capable of bringing the Chinese doctor here is their problem,¡± said aerospace scientist Mercado, hitting the nail on the head. ¡°Perhaps we¡¯ve been overly sensitive. China doesn¡¯t need to cooperate with us. They have already developed their own space station. We¡¯ve been treating it like some precious secret, but they might not have even been interested,¡± another scientist, Vincent Bold, responded optimistically. ¡°This is the White House¡¯s responsibility. All we know now is that we need the help of a Chinese doctor. Otherwise, Steven won¡¯t make it back to Earth alive. The ¡®how¡¯ should be left up to the state.¡± Most agreed to ask for help from the Chinese. If this were a problem related to aerospace technology, they would have a say on the matter. But given this is a medical emergency, all they could do other than supporting Jim Basa was nothing. Anyone who obstructed would face criticism afterward. The truth that life is above everything else is something they could not possibly miss. ¡°Gentlemen, I am about to report this to the White House, does anyone have objections?¡± Jim Basa was eager to get this reported. If they strayed off the right path and things got turbulent, he didn¡¯t want to become the scapegoat. ¡°Object? Are we objecting to Steven returning to Earth alive?¡± No one dared to object. The intrusive journalists were everywhere, listening. Their opinions might be on the news as soon as the meeting finished. ¡ª The speed at which news circulated on the internet was faster than a newspaper. In the overhead cabin, Yang Ping was browsing the news online. The checkup results came out: Steven had a small aneurysm in his brainstem. Yang Ping was quite interested in such complex cases. Treatment for this required interventional technique to perform spring coil embolization. However, this required a very small spring coil and the operation was extremely difficult. The blood vessels in the brain are extremely complex, far more than those in the heart and the liver. Particularly those in the brainstem near or penetrating the cranial nerve nuclei, these blood vessels were beyond the reach of the interventional technique. Yang Ping read John Ansen¡¯s Wechat message. Luckily, John had learned to use WeChat earlier to stay in touch with Yang Ping, since there was WiFi on the plane but one couldn¡¯t make phone calls or send text messages. Intervention? Cranial intervention? Even in the brainstem, and John Ansen was in Houston. It turned out it was for Steven¡¯s illness, but Yang Ping didn¡¯t rush to reply. Intervention wasn¡¯t Yang Ping¡¯s specialty, but it didn¡¯t matter. Yang Ping entered the system space and searched in the surgery training database to see if there was any training for interventional surgery. In one of the many training packages available, there was indeed comprehensive interventional training available. Internal medicine, surgery, and intervention had become three coequal techniques. To perfect his medical skills, he couldn¡¯t ignore interventional procedures. Yang Ping believed it was time to get the hang of this technique. Yang Ping purchased a heavyweight interventional training package and underwent grueling training in the system space. With his strong background in anatomy and surgery, the learning process for the interventional techniques was quite smooth. The interventional procedures for all systems in the body were repeatedly practiced. Cranial intervention posed the greatest challenge and held the highest risk. Intervention in the brainstem was currently considered a restricted zone. But in the system space, there were no such restrictions. Having conducted hundreds of operations, Yang Ping lost interest in them. Now he was choosing training packages that started with the thousands. Regardless of the difficulty of the case or the cutting-edge intervention techniques, Yang Ping could pick anything in the system space. After he had thoroughly mastered the interventional skills, he pushed through diseases similar to Steven¡¯s using the case push function. He carefully researched these cases and ran through the simulations until he was proficient. Yang Ping even practiced performing surgery in a microgravity environment on a space station, using a remote robot. Upon finally feeling that he had completely mastered the interventional techniques, Yang Ping felt a sense of relief. If it was a suitable time, he would duplicate Steven¡¯s case and simulate it hundreds of times. After all, what could be problematic about this operation? ¡°The spring coil embolization can be conducted via interventional methods. It would be safer if we used drug-eluting bead techniques.¡± Yang Ping replied to John Ansen in a simple and to the point fashion. Drug-eluting bead techniques were the most cutting-edge technology worldwide. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t just posturing. Rather, this was the best method for Steven¡¯s condition. The common spring coil embolization can successfully neutralize the crisis of an aneurysm. However, it might lead to a new crisis¡ªthe spring coil left inside the blood vessel could become a ticking time bomb. Steven would eventually have to return to Earth. If the spring coil moved during the high-speed descent, the consequences could be unimaginable. Yang Ping¡¯s analysis of the case was more profound than that of his American counterparts. The powerful analytical capability that he gained after practicing in the system space was something that ordinary people couldn¡¯t compare with. Old Cheng was sprawled out asleep, snoring while Huang Jiacai was still reading his book. The flight attendant brought over a glass of juice, and Yang Ping leaned over to accept it. Outside the window, the vast Pacific Ocean lay beneath. At this time, the plane had already been flying for seven hours. ¡ª ¡°Houston¡ª¡± Susan was calling. ¡°Susan!¡± John Ansen and Massimo stared at the screen. The communication signal was not very good, stuttering, Susan¡¯s anxious voice intermittent: ¡°Houston, Houston, requesting Houston.¡± It took more than ten minutes for the communication to stabilize. Susan, on the verge of tears, finally managed to say, ¡°Houston, we have a problem!¡± ¡°Steven can¡¯t breathe right now!¡± Susan expressed her fear. ¡°Oh my God!¡± John Ansen shook his head. Massimo was also breathlessly tense. The arteries in the brainstem were expanding progressively on the space station, 400 kilometers from the earth¡¯s surface. ¡°The blood pressure can¡¯t drop further, he¡¯ll go into shock if it does,¡± Susan¡¯s voice shivered. ¡°Steven? How are you feeling?¡± Massimo asked. ¡°He can¡¯t breathe,¡± Susan, unable to control herself, started crying again. ¡°Besides giving him oxygen, I can¡¯t do anything. He can¡¯t breathe.¡± Susan was on the brink of collapse. On the space station, she had never handled such a serious case before. The loneliness and the feeling of helplessness overwhelmed her thinning confidence. ¡°Don¡¯t panic, we¡¯re trying to figure something out. If necessary, we can use telemedicine equipment to assist you,¡± John Ansen comforted Susan. ¡°Steven, you¡¯ll be fine, hang in there!¡± John Ansen encouraged him. ¡°¡ª¡± Steven gave the OK sign with his hand. But Chief Jim Basa hadn¡¯t responded yet, everyone was waiting. ¡°Has Doctor Yang¡¯s plane been in the air for five hours?¡± Collins asked. ¡°It should be close to seven hours now.¡± John Ansen was more anxious than anyone else. Everyone was helpless. Even on Earth, Massimo had only a 20 percent success rate. He had performed surgery on two hundred monkeys but never on a human being. Finally, Jim Basa emerged from the meeting room. ¡°The White House has been notified and assistance from China has been requested. Whether to bow or kowtow is a matter for the Secretary of State. In any case, I told them that without the help of this Chinese doctor, Steven will never be able to return home,¡± Jim Basa seemed to have unloaded a burden. Now, all they could do was wait, or perhaps do something else. But Jim Basa was still somewhat confident. The President was planning to seek re-election, so it was absolutely crucial not to stumble on this issue. ¡°Reporters are swarming downstairs, questioning why we rejected the help from the Chinese, why we ignored the safety of astronauts for our own selfish interests?¡± The secretary hurriedly reported to Jim Basa. How did they get the information so fast? The meeting had just ended. Looking around, the director saw people shifting their gazes, pretending to cough, shrugging helplessly. In short, everyone made it clear that there was nothing they could do about it. The director sat down, looked at his watch, and wondered if the White House was hesitating or if the Secretary of State¡¯s negotiations had hit a snag. ¡°Why is it taking so long?¡± Chief Medical Officer Alfa couldn¡¯t wait any longer. Jim Basa was relatively calm, understanding that politicians had to consider more things than experts, who tended to be straightforward. ¡°Let¡¯s wait patiently. The report has been submitted. All we can do is wait,¡± Jim Basa said. Who could he push? The President? Everyone was on edge, as if the last glimmer of hope could shatter at any moment. ¡°Director, look, the reporters have interviewed Steven¡¯s wife.¡± The secretary opened the computer, showing Steven¡¯s wife on the screen. Steven¡¯s wife was being interviewed by reporters. She also knew about the invitation to the Chinese doctor. She made it clear: ¡°Deciding on this matter shouldn¡¯t just be up to NASA. Family members should be involved in the decision too. She strongly demands, if the Chinese can help Steven get home, why can¡¯t the Chinese be the hero? She accepts it, and Steven would too.¡± ¡°Now the Internet is saying that we are hesitant to invite the Chinese doctor. We are not willing to let the Chinese be the hero. We lack basic self-confidence. We are afraid of the Chinese. We¡ª¡± The secretary explained the direction of the public opinion on the Internet. ¡°Enough!¡± Jim Basa angrily said, wondering how these reporters got the news so fast. Even his washroom breaks were probably known to the reporters. But the reporters were not wrong. What were the big shots in Washington up to? Why was there still no news? Even Jim Basa was getting impatient. Chapter 449 - 449 410 In the Polar Sky ?Chapter 449: Chapter 410: In the Polar Sky Chapter 449: Chapter 410: In the Polar Sky ¡°Why hasn¡¯t there been an update?¡± Jim Basa was beside himself with worry, desperate for information ¨C it had been so long since they first reported in, and yet no news. Steven¡¯s condition was growing increasingly dangerous. Previously symptomless, he had now started experiencing headaches and dizziness, feeling suffocated due to a lack of oxygen. The biggest problem was, everyone was at a loss for what to do next, frustratedly pacing on the spot, feeling helpless. Susan was only an excellent general practitioner; managing a whole brain DSA was already quite an achievement. She could not possibly offer better treatment options, and the conditions onboard the spaceship were insufficient for further treatments. All the top doctors in the United States were here. Even Dr. Massimo, the best intervention physician, was powerless. Even if they sent Massimo now, it would be pointless. Using remote surgical equipment would also be of no use. Massimo¡¯s theoretical success rate on Earth was only 20 percent. Having factored in myriad variables, the remaining hope was minimal, otherwise, Massimo would have already taken action. ¡°Steven has requested to connect with his wife.¡± reported an operator at the control center. The internet connection onboard the spaceship had been shut down, with only a single line of contact with Houston remaining. ¡°No, the communication systems have malfunctioned.¡± Jim Basa replied coldly. ¡°What do you mean? Why didn¡¯t I get informed about the communication systems going offline?¡± Collins, already frustrated from waiting, roared angrily. ¡°In an emergency, communications failures are not all that surprising, Collins. Even your cell phone could malfunction, it¡¯s entirely within reason.¡± Mercado was obviously more mature, gently reminding him. The room went silent; everyone was looking around at each other. ¡°Are we just waiting for death?¡± John Ansen broke the silence. ¡°This is space exploration; it¡¯s space adventure. With adventure comes sacrifice. In 1986, seven astronauts sacrificed their lives in the Challenger explosion. In 2003, another seven sacrificed their lives in the Columbia explosion.¡± Jim Basa was sombre and calm. ¡°Steven! Can he be saved? Is there someone who could save him? Why abandon him? Why are we abandoning him?¡± John Ansen burst with emotion. ¡°We haven¡¯t given up, we are all waiting for news. Everyone, please calm down. Screaming won¡¯t help to rescue him. Trust me, let¡¯s work together, and we can save him, we must.¡± Jim Basa tried to stabilize everyone¡¯s emotions. ¡°Isn¡¯t this just a waste of time? Isn¡¯t this giving up?¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t up to you, nor is it up to me. I¡¯m trying my best too, you need to calm down.¡± Jim Basa¡¯s tone shifted from loud to calm; he understood John Ansen¡¯s feelings. ¡°We don¡¯t need to wait anymore, activate the rescue operation and connect the remote medical equipment. I am going to perform the intervention operation.¡± Massimo suddenly decided, rallying in support of John Ansen¡¯s protest. ¡°Is this what Washington is waiting for? Is this how they want us to act?¡± Someone suddenly brought this question up. ¡°Everybody, slow down, let me think. Is there any news from the outside? If you can solve this problem, I can order it right now, but we¡¯re depending on the help of the Chinese doctors now, which is beyond my abilities. The situation is complex, it¡¯s not as simple as you think.¡± Jim Basa was still doing his best to comfort everyone, otherwise they would start turning on each other. ¡°Secretary, are there updates from outside?¡± Jim Basa asked his secretary, who had been tracking the progress of the situation. ¡°Retired astronauts joined together and initiated a movement to save Steven. They¡¯re expressing dissatisfaction with Washington¡¯s slow actions.¡± ¡°Congressional opposition lawmakers have started to speak out, asking the president to explain the situation.¡± ¡°A few lawmakers have combined their criticisms, claiming that the situation was a result of insufficient NASA funding. They insist that every effort should be made to rescue Steven, otherwise the public¡¯s faith in the space program would be shaken. This would create a vicious cycle, making it difficult to implement grand space programs.¡± ¡°Susan, how is Steven doing?¡± Jim leaned on the table with both hands, facing the communicator and making the call. ¡°His heart rate is 40 beats per minute.¡± Susan had to suppress her inner fear and helplessness to pull herself together. ¡°How long can he hold on?¡± Jim Basa loosened his tie. ¡°I don¡¯t know, it¡¯s up to God.¡± Massimo was staring at the screen. ¡°Professor Massimo, I agree with your opinion that the air conditioning is indeed broken here.¡± Jim Basa¡¯s shirt was soaked with perspiration. Finally, Jim Basa¡¯s cell phone rang. ¡°John Ansen, please repeat the name of the doctor you want to invite, the hospital where he works¡ª¡± ¡°Yang Ping, Sanbo Hospital in Nandu Province, China¡ª¡± ¡°This is an order from the White House. Spare no effort in the rescue, at any cost. Find out where Dr. Yang Ping is. John Ansen, get in touch with Dr. Yang Ping immediately. We need to prepare in advance. The Vice President will fly to Houston to coordinate the rescue.¡± Everyone started to get excited. ¡°The Secretary of State will meet with the Chinese Ambassador to ask for China¡¯s assistance.¡± Jim Basa was as cold and calm as ever. If Steven were to lose his life, the public¡¯s faith in the space program would be shaken, causing the appropriations committee in the House of Representatives to slash funding for NASA, which would slow down the pace of the grand space program. Business from dozens of companies such as Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics would take a significant hit. The agents of these giants could not sit by and watch as their slice of the cake shrinks. Therefore, their attitude and ability to handle risks directly determine the scope of their future aerospace steps. The size of these steps determines the amount of funding invested. Jim Basa understood these intricate relationships better than these simple doctors. ¡ª¡ª ¡°Where are we now?¡± Yang Ping looked out the window at the landscape below. ¡°We just left Alaska. Now we¡¯re flying over the North Pole; Polar flight.¡± Old Cheng was shuffling a deck of cards. Having mostly digested their lunch, the three discussed playing a few rounds of the game Fight the Landlord to relax. ¡°Excuse me, which one of you is Dr. Yang Ping?¡± A beautiful flight attendant walked in and asked. Yang Ping raised his hand. Did the flight attendant recognize him? ¡°Hello, Dr. Yang, we received a message from our company asking you to check your email inbox. Because you have a national emergency task, our plane needs to return immediately and make an emergency landing at Fairbanks Airport in Alaska. After you disembark, a special American plane will take you to Houston.¡± The flight attendant didn¡¯t know the specifics of the task either. Yang Ping was slightly puzzled. He was about to open his email when a WeChat video call from Director Han rang. ¡°Xiao Yang, are you currently on a plane back to China?¡± ¡°Just passed Alaska. We should be over the North Pole now.¡± Once confirmed, the person speaking changed to Dean Xia. In the video, Director Han, Dean Xia, and several other unfamiliar faces seemed to be gathered in a small meeting room in the hospital. ¡°Dr. Yang Ping, Sanbo Hospital now formally notifies you that you have been appointed by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs to go to Houston, United States, to deal with an emergency in the International Space Station. The plane will soon make a U-turn and make an emergency landing at Alaska¡¯s Fairbanks Airport. A special American aircraft will transport you to Houston after you leave the plane. Remember, in this mission, you represent our country. You also have absolute diplomatic immunity during your mission. The U.S. State Department is holding a press conference to announce to the world that they have invited our country¡¯s doctors, in other words, you, to help manage the crisis in space, and to announce your diplomatic immunity.¡± Dean Xia spoke word by word. Then, a staff member from the Nandu Province Foreign Affairs office read the appointment letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the end, Director Han reassured him not to worry, since they were the ones who made the invitation, he should confidently showcase his expertise. Yang Ping inhales deeply, he was actually asked to help with Steven¡¯s crisis. Upon further inquiry about any additional support needs, the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. would send the personnel to Houston to welcome Yang Ping and to accompany him throughout. Caught off guard and unable to think of any support he might need, Yang Ping asked, ¡°How is the patient, Cory, doing?¡± ¡°Everything¡¯s fine, rest assured!¡± Director Han pacified Yang Ping. At a loss for words, Yang Ping ended the WeChat call and pulled up his emails, a little over a dozen in total. President Huang and Old Cheng were both stunned, as if part of a movie. ¡°Look, what¡¯s happening?¡± Old Cheng pointed out of the window. As far as the eye could see, a military aircraft could be observed. Amazingly, another one on the other side of the window. The fighter jet roared past and continued to accompany the flight for only about a minute, then immediately dispersed, one flew ahead and the other stayed behind. Passengers who saw the fighter jets in the cabin started to panic. What was happening? ¡°Dear passengers, please stay calm. These are planes from the US Eielson Air Force Base, they are here to escort and navigate our plane. We¡¯ll make an emergency landing at the Fairbanks Airport in Alaska due to a special passenger aboard our plane carrying out an urgent task. Please keep calm and remain seated. After landing, there will be a fifteen-minute stop before we continue this flight. We apologize for the inconvenience.¡± The soothing voice from the intercom spoke in different languages. ¡°They¡¯re escorting us for the emergency landing. Air currents are complex above the polar region.¡± The flight attendant explained. ¡°I thought it¡¯s a hijacking?¡± Old Cheng gave out a sigh of relief with cold sweat. Anything can happen these days. Old Cheng kept wiping his sweat and drank some juice to calm himself down. ¡°Is it really about Steven?¡± President Huang continued to gaze out the window, it was a spectacular sight. Yang Ping speculated that it should be, probably John Ansen¡¯s suggestion. The air currents are complex over the polar region. It is necessary to have navigation assistance for such an abrupt change of course and emergency landing. The escort, on the other hand, seemed pointless. Just a brief show for the sake of formality. As Yang Ping was considering this, John Ansen sent another message on WeChat, asking if he needed anything else prepared. It really was his suggestion. What a coincidence. Chapter 450 - 450 411 Lets Get to Work ?Chapter 450: Chapter 411: Let¡¯s Get to Work Chapter 450: Chapter 411: Let¡¯s Get to Work Under the guidance of fighter jets, the plane entered Alaskan airspace, established contact with Fairbanks airport tower, and landed smoothly. The airport manager, accompanied by several staff members, boarded the plane to express his intentions to Dr. Yang, and led him to the specially prepared private jet that would fly directly to Houston. They were very warm and considerate. Knowing there were three people, they prepared three coats to temporarily fend off the cold. There was some distance from one plane to another, and having the coats for warmth during the journey would prevent them from suddenly feeling too cold. As Fairbanks is near the North Pole, the average annual temperature is quite low. Upon disembarking, it was indeed chilly. The emergency situation on the International Space Station is now the hottest news in the United States, leaving no one uninformed even in the remote town of Fairbanks. Upon learning that Dr. Yang was rushing to Houston to take part in the rescue of astronaut Steven from the International Space Station, the African-American manager told Dr. Yang that after accomplishing his mission, he must visit Fairbanks. He offered to show everyone the Northern Lights, treat them to reindeer meat and king crab, and enthusiastically left his phone number with Dr. Yang. As day began to darken, everyone raced against time, not daring to waste any second. They immediately boarded the private jet to Houston. By the time they arrived in Houston, it was already late at night. Jim Basa, accompanied by John Ansen and several officials, were waiting at the airport. This was a world-leading expert recommended by John Ansen from Mayo Clinic. Famous for being even more prestigious than Ansen, considered Ansen¡¯s teacher in medicine, his unique charisma was evident at first sight. Given John Ansen¡¯s prominent position in the United States¡¯ neurosurgery field, it was a gamble for Jim Basa to rely heavily on Dr. Yang. A business vehicle rapidly transported them to Space City, the ground control center at the Johnson Space Center, where lights were on all night. The Emergency Rescue Team had already laid floor bedding here, allowing anyone who needed rest to lie down at any time. Everyone was working in shifts to maintain a continuous 24-hour operation. When Dr. Yang entered the main hall of the Ground Control Center, the myriad of screens, busy staff, and clicking of keyboards all signaled that this was the communication center between the United States and the International Space Station. Upon hearing of Dr. Yang¡¯s arrival, over a hundred people, including doctors, engineers, and ground control center staff, gathered to finally meet the expert highly praised by John Ansen. He was much younger than they had imagined. In such an emergency, no time was wasted on extraneous introductions. The patient¡¯s condition had already been communicated back and forth several times. John Ansen brought Dr. Yang straight to a screen, and the doctors gathered around. ¡°Blood pressure 85/40mmHg, heart rate 38 beats/minute. We¡¯re currently using nifedipine for controlled blood pressure lowering, and applying an ice cap to lower the temperature of the head.¡± Ansen said, choosing only the most vital points. As soon as Dr. Yang sat down, he got into the swing of things. He had already gone through Steven¡¯s medical records on the plane and was simply revisiting the case now. On the private jet to Houston, Dr. Yang had already cloned Steven¡¯s experimental body in system space and performed a simulated surgery. The formidable capabilities of the system space not only allowed for the cloning of cases but also for the cloning of surgical equipment and environments. He simulated two methods: one using remote medical surgical equipment and the other performing the surgery directly on the space station. This was the first time Dr. Yang had encountered such a peculiar case. In human history, Steven would probably be the first astronaut in space who required surgery, and many aspects of the situation had to be explored. ¡°This is a full-brain DSA that the astronaut Dr. Susan carried out for Steven at the space station. The image quality is not very good,¡± Ansen revealed as he pulled up the DSA image. ¡°The image quality is bad, but sufficient for diagnosis. He has a small cerebral aneurysm. The artery it¡¯s on is very risky. It impinges upon the medulla oblongata¡¯s circulatory system ¨C fatal if it ruptures. Immediately proceed with endovascular surgery to embolize the aneurysm.¡± All the onlookers were first-class doctors, so Dr. Yang decided to be straightforward and not beat around the bush. ¡°Routine MRI and CT angiography of the cerebral vessels conducted on the ground showed no abnormalities. It¡¯s likely a cryptic cerebral aneurysm with the initial symptoms of a slowing heart rate. Several days ago, Steven had started to display headache, dizziness, and feelings of suffocation from lack of oxygen,¡± Ansen continued to introduce the case. ¡°Correct, cryptic cerebral aneurysm. In a microgravity environment, without normal gravity on earth, venous drainage from the head becomes difficult, resulting in relative venous congestion and arterial congestion. The concealed aneurysm appeared under higher blood pressure, it disrupts the circulatory system, leading to myocardial inhibition. This is a case of central myocardial inhibition. Surgery must be arranged as soon as possible. What medications, equipment, and medical conditions do you have on the space station? Give me a detailed list and be quick about it!¡± Dr. Yang did not have the time to lecture them, as Steven¡¯s condition could not afford the wait. An intervention surgery had to be performed. If there was access to drug-loaded microspheres, it would be even better, especially flexible stent drug-loaded microspheres that absorb coagulation drugs, which could then be transported to the location of the aneurysm. The coagulation drugs carried by the microspheres would gradually initiate the coagulation process at that local area to form a thrombus. With no blood flow to pass through, the aneurysm naturally wouldn¡¯t experience any pressure of blood flow, eliminating the risk of rupture. After two weeks, the thrombus would become an old one with added stability, which could withstand the shock brought by a swift plummet when returning to Earth. Companies that have more mature microsphere technology include Biocompatibles in the UK, BioSphere in the United States, and Hengrui in China. Their embolic microspheres ¨C DC Bead, HepaSphere, and CalliSpheres ¨C are mainly used to treat liver cancer, by binding with anthracene through ionic (mainly) and hydrogen bonds. They can precisely control the dosage of medications, which are then slowly released through an ionic exchange mechanism following arrival at the lesion. If the microspheres could be loaded with coagulation drugs like thrombin, there would be no need for release, simply let it act locally at the target area. Laboratories of some companies are currently researching this type of microsphere. Dr. Yang was not sure about its progress towards clinical usage. If there isn¡¯t such microsphere product, traditional coil embolization has to be used. However, with subsequent risks involved with metal coil embolization, after dealing with the aneurysm crisis, Steven would eventually have to return to Earth. He couldn¡¯t possibly stay on the space station for the rest of his life. During the high-speed descent back to Earth, if the coil were to move in his brain, it could pose a life-threatening danger. Therefore, the second method, coil embolization, would require an additional surgical procedure to ligate the artery after stabilising the condition, so as to withstand the shock caused by a high-speed descent when returning to Earth. Performing a craniotomy on a space station, let alone a brainstem surgery, is absurdly impossible. Yang Ping shared his ideas, hoping to make use of the first method; to deal with everything at once, simple, safe, and minimally invasive. ¡°Regardless of the method, I want to know the success rate?¡± Professor Massimo had been silent all this time, he was repulsed by Yang Ping¡¯s self-confidence. ¡°This is Professor Massimo, the head of the intervention department at Johns Hopkins.¡± John Ansen took the opportunity to introduce him. ¡°Hello, Professor Massimo!¡± Yang Ping had read many of his classic interventional publications in the system space, and the latest industry-leading micro-spring coils were his design. But now, Yang Ping had neither the mood nor the time to flatter him. ¡°Success rate? If I must give a definitive number, above eighty percent.¡± Yang Ping could only give a rough estimate. ¡°Eighty percent?¡± Massimo almost burst into laughter on the spot, not even the most brazen charlatan dares to boast so wildly. What kind of person did John Ansen invite? He was just a charlatan. Massimo would have been willing to listen even if he said thirty or forty percent. ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Professor, did I say something wrong?¡± Yang Ping thought his reaction was too exaggerated. ¡°You didn¡¯t say anything wrong, maybe I heard it wrong, how many of these cases have you, Dr. Yang, operated on before?¡± Massimo asked in a questioning tone. At this point, every second was crucial, and the aneurysm up in space could burst at any moment. And he was still debating with me. ¡°Professor Massimo! Are you doubting my surgical skills? I don¡¯t have time for your questioning, did you invite me to Houston for questioning? Or to help solve a crisis? If it¡¯s the former, I¡¯m not interested, and I believe you aren¡¯t either. Right now, either follow my lead or solve the problem yourselves, and buy me a flight ticket, I will return to China immediately.¡± Yang Ping got impatient, at the crossroad of life and death, there was no time to waste on small talk. Jim Basa thought Massimo¡¯s entanglement was reasonable, but meaningless and not suitable for this emergency scenario. With the endorsement of John Ansen and Mayo, there is no room for doubt. Otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t have invited him. ¡°The implementation of medical rescue technology will be directed by Dr. Yang Ping, and no refutations or debates will be accepted.¡± Jim Basa stabilized the situation. ¡°We will contact BioSphere company immediately to enquire about the availability of drug-loaded microspheres for blood coagulation.¡± Alpha, the Chief Medical Officer of NASA, mobilized immediately. The emergency rescue team was directly commanded by the president, with Jim Basa as the team leader. In times of crisis, they could allocate all resources. This type of resource allocation by the rescue team, a flat-style crisis management, is highly efficient. A few phone calls later, it was confirmed that BioSphere¡¯s research on drug-loaded microspheres for blood coagulation hadn¡¯t been successful yet and didn¡¯t meet clinical requirements. Currently, only microspheres for liver cancer treatment were available. So, they could only use spring coil embolization to solve the most urgent problem, and further problems would be researched later. ¡°Professor Massimo has more precise intracranial intervention equipment.¡± Dr. Eugene reminded everyone. ¡°If necessary, we can launch another rocket to deliver the equipment, but it will take eight hours.¡± Richard thought it would be feasible to launch a high-density rocket. ¡°Eight hours is too long, Steven can¡¯t hold on for that long.¡± Yang Ping rejected this plan, his simulated surgery and pathological dissection gave him a very accurate assessment of Steven¡¯s condition. ¡°The Russians can deliver it in three hours.¡± ¡°The equipment is in the United States, but their rockets are in Kazakhstan.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get to work! Proceed with the surgery directly, using your existing equipment, and prepare to open the remote surgery system.¡± Yang Ping was ready to perform the surgery overnight. By tomorrow morning, Steven would no longer need rescue. His aneurysm would have ruptured. The eighty percent success rate was in reference to using the remote surgery system. All the doctors were stunned. The remote surgery system had uncertainty due to communication delays and interruptions, and the stability of the patient on the space station was also a concern due to various reasons. Under such circumstances, the intervention of the small arteries in the brainstem ¨C regardless of interrupting communication, any delay could pierce a blood vessel, resulting in immediate death. But now, he was the only one with confidence, and there was no other way. Chapter 451 - 451 412 Test ?Chapter 451: Chapter 412: Test Chapter 451: Chapter 412: Test ¡°Susan, prepare to initiate the remote surgery system, Doctor Yang is about to operate on Steven.¡± Collins, more familiar with the communication between Houston and the International Space Station than the Chief Medical Officer who had rushed from Washington, became the de facto coordinator of the operation. The network communication consisting of three satellites is the only link between the International Space Station and Houston. It is also Steven¡¯s only lifeline. Susan and David Hollis, who were already on the verge of despair, leaped into action upon hearing the instructions. Regardless of feasibility, this was their only hope. They had long since secured the remote surgery system. The sterile-packaged robotic arm was protected by a shield. The flat surface that replaced the operating bed was also securely fixed. Steven was firmly restrained on the flat surface with a binding device. In a microgravity environment, any drift due to weightlessness can be lethal if the human body isn¡¯t adequately secured. This is the first space surgery in human history, and it¡¯s being performed using a remote surgery system. The International Space Station is well-prepared with equipment and medications, but there aren¡¯t many instances that require a real doctor¡¯s interventions. The last medical incident involved an astronaut developing a left internal jugular vein thrombosis, triggering high levels of anxiety among the ground doctors. After assessing the condition, doctors first used the space station¡¯s backup anticoagulant, subcutaneous enoxaparin injections. After 43 days, a rocket delivered a batch of orally administered anticoagulants, apixaban, to the International Space Station. The astronaut returned successfully under pharmacological treatment. But Steven¡¯s condition is entirely different. It¡¯s not something medication can handle. Interventional surgery is necessary. ¡°Do we need to adjust the station¡¯s posture?¡± David Hollis became Susan¡¯s only assistant. Richard is in charge of engineering issues on the station: ¡°Maintain the existing posture, check the station¡¯s air pressure, examine the power system, beware of micro meteorite collisions with the station. If preparations are satisfactory, we¡¯ll begin communication testing.¡± The space network relies on a system of tracking and data relay satellites in high orbit, primarily using radio signals for communication with ground antennas. Once the signal is received on the ground, it is transmitted via dedicated lines to various NASA centers. Then, NASA¡¯s computer system converts these signals into readable data. When data is sent back to the International Space Station from Earth, the process is reversed, with a delay of less than 1 second. A delay of less than 1 second is when the signal is stable. Occasionally, due to various interfering factors, the signal weakens and causes communication delays or interruptions. Even if the signal is steady, a delay of 1 second could be fatal to such a high-risk surgery. Not long ago, the International Space Station¡¯s network communication capacity was expanded to six hundred megabits per second, bandwidth that, strictly speaking, still fails to meet the demands of remote surgery. The four flexible robotic arms, a collaborative research project by NASA, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Intuitive Surgical, are currently the best surgery system in the world. They not only provide exceptional accuracy but also demonstrate excellent flexibility and stability. However, they have a significant flaw: the absence of haptic feedback. The original intention behind the development of the surgical robot was for NASA to use it for medical treatments for astronauts on the space station. It was later repurposed for civilian use. Therefore, NASA¡¯s surgical robot is the forerunner of the entire surgical robot industry. A room at the ground control center in Houston is dedicated to operating the surgical robot on the space station. Jim Basa stationed a large number of security guards to provide security protection. Stern precautions were taken from the entrance, corridors, elevators, stairs to prevent interruptions during surgery. In addition to the security personnel from Space City, both the Houston Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent officers to protect the building. Jim Basa currently had the strongest authority. The operation room was turned into a safe house, with only Huang Jiacai, Cheng Liquan, John Ansen, and Collins inside. Everyone else stayed outside. Engineers ready to deal with emergencies were also on standby outside of the isolation zone in the room. Reporters were barred from entering the building. Any reporter who managed to infiltrate could jeopardize the surgery, rendering all efforts futile. Even amid the onslaught of criticism, Jim Basa ruthlessly blocked all reporters outside Space City in Houston. The entire Space City was under lockdown. As soon as the emergency rescue escalated to a national level, Jim Basa received direct authorization from the President. Powerful support was pouring in fast. Aerospace giants such as Raytheon Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman stood ready to provide support at any time. SpaceX¡¯s Falcon 9 was ready for intensive launches to deliver possible medical supplies or even personnel to the International Space Station. Private space companies such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic also joined the rescue plan, ready to be dispatched. Symantec was in charge of the security of the communication network between the space station and the ground to prevent disturbing hackers from invading and disrupting the remote surgery operation. The meteorological department upgraded their meteorological monitoring. They provided weather forecasts at any time, as weather was the most unstable factor interfering with communication. On the surface, everything was calm, but all the protective forces were in their respective positions. All of this was for the success of this surgery. Every request from Yang Ping was transformed into a command and then converted into useful resources to support this surgery. Technically speaking, it was nearly impossible to perform Steven¡¯s remote surgery. No one could operate remote medical equipment to such a degree: freely entering and exiting the brain stem¡¯s blood vessels. But this Chinese man could do it. He was the only hope. All resources would revolve around him and serve the purpose of achieving the goal. ¡°Establish communication connection!¡± ¡°Begin testing!¡± All six hundred terabytes of bandwidth are being used for the surgery, yet due to signal issues, the communication remains unstable. Yang Ping begins manipulating the four robotic arms, facing the enormous challenge of overcoming random and irregular delays and interruptions. Network testing reveals that the picture delay makes it impossible to achieve the precision required for surgery. Can the internet speed and stability be improved? If so, the success rate would be higher. Yang Ping halts the testing, hoping for faster internet speeds and greater network stability. Jim Basa and Richard enter the ¡°safe room¡±. Richard says, ¡°We have two solutions available to us and both can be readily utilized. First is the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS), a military communication system. With the White House¡¯s approval, we can temporarily use it. Secondly, we can use all the satellites of SpaceX¡¯s Starlink project to support this surgery. However, both methods cannot guarantee no delays as there are many unstable factors in space communication.¡± Indeed, the communication supported by three satellites at the international space station falls short of the requirement for such high-risk surgery. If either of these two communication systems could be used, the powerful and stable communication they provide would increase the success rate of the surgery. Even a slight improvement in this phase could make a significant difference. ¡°The Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) is critical to the U.S. global military and we do not know how much communication capacity can be allocated to us. But utilizing SpaceX¡¯s Starlink satellites would be much more convenient. Their services can be temporarily paused to support our rescue mission.¡± Yang Ping ponders, ¡°Whichever method we use, I need a more powerful network connection, and I need it as soon as possible!¡± Even without the delay, using a robot to perform such surgery is extremely challenging, fraught with numerous risks. A slight increase in success rate equates to a glimmer of hope. A single phone call to SpaceX results in immediate support for the rescue mission. The headquarters of the Starlink project begins adjusting the satellite connections, establishing links with NASA¡¯s international space station and Houston to form a surgery-specific network. Weather conditions can affect the stability of the network. The meteorological monitoring agency incessantly monitors the cloud distribution over Houston. If heavy rain is forecast, cloud dispersion measures can be taken if necessary. Despite not completely meeting the requirements, the communication issue is resolved to the best extent possible. Over the years, the international space station has aged and frequently experienced minor issues. Apart from the communication problem, other issues such as power failure and micro-meteorite impacts pose potential risks. The sector built by Japan previously developed a crack, almost killing several astronauts. Any cause of communication delay or interruption, the patient¡¯s body movement, or a robotic arm malfunction during the procedure of the thrombosis surgery in the brainstem could cause Yang Ping to lose control. If these issues occur when the catheter, guidewire, or stent are entering the target blood vessel, it would be akin to a sudden power outage during surgery, leaving everything in darkness. It¡¯s like a racecar driver suddenly going blind. Regardless of how brief this period is or how skilled the driver is, the outcome would be catastrophic. The communication was tested again and showed significant improvement from the previous test. ¡°The power system?¡± Richard inquires in another room, which is the command center for the rescue mission. ¡°It¡¯s being checked!¡± David Hollis tests the power system nervously, his shaking hands holding the instrument. Yang Ping sits before the operating console, reacquainting himself with the operation of the robotic arms under the new network environment. ¡°Someone¡¯s attacking our communication system!¡± Symantec¡¯s security team has diffused several dozen attacks and immediately reports to Jim Basa. ¡°Damn it! Who would attack us at a time like this? We¡¯re trying to save a life!¡± Jim Basa is very upset. Richard is also alarmed: ¡°Aren¡¯t we using a dedicated communication link that¡¯s isolated from the external networks?¡± The network security expert from Symantec shakes his head: ¡°As long as the equipment has the physical capacity to network, there is no such thing as isolation. Rest assured, these attacks are child¡¯s play. We¡¯ve got them covered.¡± Among all the dangerous factors, now there¡¯s an additional one¡ªa hacker attack. Jim Basa is extremely worried as there have been instances of high school students hacking into the Department of Defense¡¯s website in the past. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s some mischievous middle schoolers. Those troublemakers.¡± Jim Basa curses. The network security expert agrees with Jim Basa, ¡°Judging by the attack methods, they are rather immature; it could well be a juvenile prank.¡± In the sky 400 kilometers from the ground, the international space station flies overhead at a speed of over 28000 kilometers per hour. Who would have thought that an astronaut onboard is about to undergo surgery? Chapter 452 - 452 0413 Pet ?Chapter 452: Chapter 0413: Pet Chapter 452: Chapter 0413: Pet The International Space Station, with the boundless universe just outside the window, appearing grand and glorious against the backdrop of Earth. ¡°Susan, I¡¯ll be able to make it home, won¡¯t I?¡± Steven¡¯s only source of comfort was Susan. Regarding these robotic arms, and the doctors far away on Earth, he had no confidence at all. These doctors, having never met him or even had face-to-face interactions with him, had to rely on cold mechanical arms to save his life. Steven had no faith in this. The loneliness and oppression brought about by being away from Earth and in confined space magnified his inner fear and desperation to the extreme. Even though Steven had undergone strict psychological resilience training, in the face of death, anyone could collapse. ¡°You certainly can. God has not abandoned you. We have called upon Dr. Yang Ping, a genius surgeon. He will definitely save you.¡± ¡°He is the former teacher of Professor John Ansen of Mayo Neurosurgery. He has successfully completed surgeries with a degree of difficulty higher than yours. Now, we have dozens of satellites supporting our communication. Dr. Yang will certainly complete your surgery smoothly,¡± Susan kept encouraging, trying to alleviate Steven¡¯s fear. ¡°He¡¯s a messenger sent by God. Trust me, Steven. I¡¯ll tell you a secret. As a doctor, I have never lost a patient. Once in the emergency room, a patient¡¯s heartbeat and breathing had stopped, but I believed that she wasn¡¯t dead. A few hours later, she actually revived. This was considered Lazarus Syndrome, a revival after death, which has only been reported 53 times worldwide. Can you imagine how lucky I am? You¡¯re lucky to have met me,¡± Susan said mysteriously. ¡°Is this true?¡± ¡°Of course it¡¯s true. Look at how calm I am now. I know your surgery will definitely be successful, so there¡¯s no need to worry.¡± ¡°In a little while, you¡¯ll only need local anesthesia. Dr. Yang will use the robotic arm to insert a tiny spring into the blood vessels in your brain. It will cause the aneurysm to clot, forming a blood clot. This way, the aneurysm will no longer be subjected to the impact of blood flow, naturally eliminating the possibility of rupture, and you will be safe.¡± ¡°It¡¯s that simple?¡± ¡°In Dr. Yang¡¯s hands, it is that simple. He has already left the United States by plane. We went to great lengths to make his plane return from over the North Pole. You can¡¯t imagine how lucky you are. At one point, people were worried that we wouldn¡¯t be able to get Dr. Yang, but I knew we definitely could.¡± Under Susan¡¯s intentional and unintentional psychological guidance, Steven gained a bit of confidence. His inner fear and anxiety slightly eased, and he was able to calm down and cooperate with the surgery. Steven¡¯s clothes were removed, and the strap-down device was checked again, especially the fixation of his head. There was no room for negligence. Preparation of the perineum (shaving) was skipped. Susan covered and isolated the entire perineal and rectal areas with a medical protective film and then began sterilization with sterile gloves. The entire perineum was included in the sterilization range, from the navel up to the thighs on both sides. Steven¡¯s wife and daughter kept watch at home by the window, praying, unable to help in any other way. They took turns using a telescope to capture the space station as it flew overhead. ¡°I see it, I see it!¡± Lynn screamed. Steven¡¯s wife leaned in, and in the clear night sky, the shape of the International Space Station appeared clearly in the telescope. On that distant spaceship, her husband was about to receive a life-saving surgery. Ever since 1971, when the first spaceship was sent into space, the International Space Station has now become a super behemoth: 109 meters wide, 73 meters long, 20 meters high, weighing 419 tons, with an internal volume of 916 cubic meters. It is comparable to a seven-story, small-sized sports stadium. Not just Steven¡¯s wife and daughter, many astronomy enthusiasts were also capturing the International Space Station at this moment, knowing that an astronaut aboard was scheduled for surgery today. The entire United States was drawn to the International Space Station, the internet, newspapers, and television all discussing the topic. After covering with a sterile drape, Susan stood by in a specially made disposable surgical gown and gloves. She was only responsible for changing the instruments on the robotic arm. Interventional surgery is, to put it simply, using the vascular pathway, puncturing a certain part of the blood vessels, using catheters and guide wires, going along the vascular route, and delivering therapeutic drugs and instruments to a certain part of the blood vessels. Like the road transportation system on the surface of the earth, the entire vascular system of the human body allows intervention to start at a certain station, follow a predetermined course, and deliver therapeutic drugs and instruments to its destination. It has become one of the three major medical treatments alongside internal and external medicine. Like any treatment method, it is not all-powerful and has its limitations. The operation utilizes the vascular system, and once the treatment of a disease cannot be achieved through this system, intervention cannot be implemented. The right femoral artery puncture was completed ¨C puncture, core needle removed, guide wire inserted. The instruments on the robotic arm were as though they were in Yang Ping¡¯s own hands, without a trace of delay or unfamiliarity. Femoral artery, external iliac artery, aorta, innominate artery, subclavian artery, vertebral artery, basilar artery ¨C the guide wire raced down the course. Every time it encountered a branching point, the guide wire slowed down and then precisely crossed the branch in one swift move, and entered the next target blood vessel. The robotic arm was an extension of Yang Ping¡¯s hand. This was true man-machine integration. Every movement could be accurately replicated by the robotic arm. This level of proficiency, no one but Yang Ping could achieve. This gave him the confidence to carry out such a high-risk, complex interventional surgery using the remote surgery system. As long as there were no communication failures, no significant delays or interruptions, he could smoothly complete the surgery. The guidewire continued to advance, the blood vessels growing finer and finer. The tip of the guidewire seemed to respond to Yang Ping¡¯s thoughts, skillfully progressing. The further it went, the finer the blood vessels became, the higher the risks, and the lower the tolerance for error. Any carelessness could rupture a blood vessel, leading to death. Once the guidewire entered the skull, it navigated through the complex and winding blood vessels. The angiography showed a network distribution of vessels, with each area a complex world in its own. No mistakes could be made during selection, especially when entering the brainstem area. The blood vessels grew increasingly fine, and the space available for the guidewire to maneuver became smaller and smaller. This was why Massimo believed that the surgery could not be completed using the current instruments. He suggested sending new equipment, but there wasn¡¯t enough time. In the control center¡¯s hall, the medical team¡¯s experts watched the screen closely as the guidewire carefully advanced within the blood vessels, faster than expected. Most devastatingly, it even managed to deal with the occasional slight hiccups in movement. Whenever there was a hiccup, it would immediately stop, holding its place in the center of the blood vessel, where it was most safe. After the hiccup, the guidewire would resume its advancement. ¡°How¡¯s the weather outlook?¡± Jim Basa asked Richard. Rain, especially a downpour, would severely affect the transmission of satellite radio signals. ¡°All good, no need to worry. If there¡¯s a hint of rain, they¡¯d use artificial rain-dispelling technologies. Just that our communications keep getting hit by some unidentified attacks, but Symantec says they can handle it.¡± Richard was in charge of all physical technological assurances. ¡°Incredible, his guidewire¡¯s movements are so flexible and accurate.¡± This was a surgery performed remotely using a robotic arm, and Yang Ping had not previously been familiar with this set-up of remote surgical equipment. Massimo¡¯s face flushed, muttering in awe to himself. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s brilliant! Unbelievable!¡± John Ansen had already come out from the ¡°safe house¡± and was sitting next to Massimo. If these instruments weren¡¯t on the list drafted by John Ansen, he would certainly think the guidewire was a nanotech-made robot, with the tip navigating autonomously under the influence of artificial intelligence. ¡°I¡¯m preparing to enter the unnamed artery network to inspect the equipment. This process will take at least 30 minutes, and there cannot be any interference throughout.¡± If he could use matching equipment, Yang Ping would be able to operate faster, but the size of the current equipment set was too large and barely sufficient. If it were to enter the final target vessel, it might just fit, leaving no room for error. ¡°The Space Station is moving!¡± Richard shouted, almost simultaneously, Yang Ping maneuvered the robotic arm, controlling the guidewire to change its status with the movement, mitigating the risks involved. The guidewire actively followed the sudden change in direction and began to withdraw from within, successfully retracting the guidewire without damage. ¡°He can micro-manage the guidewire at will.¡± Massimo saw the operation in practice, a mere theory earlier. John Ansen informed Massimo: ¡°Doctor Yang was originally an orthopedic surgeon, his expertise is in surgical operations, and intervention is only his hobby.¡± He was completely outmatched by his hobby! The intervention genius, Massimo, felt an unexplainable shame. He couldn¡¯t accept the fact. But in Yang Ping¡¯s hands, the guidewire seemed to have a soul and appeared like Yang Ping¡¯s pet, obeying his every command. ¡°Any instrument becomes Doctor Yang¡¯s pet as soon as it reaches his hands. It is simply ¨C I can¡¯t even describe it, Massimo. You didn¡¯t see his last surgery. He completed an impossible-to-do chordoma surgery in the upper cervical spine and medulla oblongata. It was out-of-this-world, quite a spectacle. He forcefully made the impossible possible, it was extremely moving.¡± The extent of the movement increased, but the guidewire retraced its path in advance, passed numerous bifurcations, withdrew from the blood vessels, and avoided any accidents. Waiting for the next opportunity was the best and only solution. The surgery was brought to a halt, Susan was applying pressure to stop the bleeding. ¡°Find out the reason, quickly!¡± Richard looked at the data transmitted back by the external camera. Someone had triggered the space station¡¯s thrusters. Based on the direction of the movement, Richard quickly figured out that there was a problem with the Japanese module. ¡°Pig-headed!¡± Richard cursed. ¡°Check the Japanese module, find out what they¡¯re up to.¡± Richard shouted. Chapter 453 - 453 414 Jordan Plays Table Tennis ?Chapter 453: Chapter 414: Jordan Plays Table Tennis Chapter 453: Chapter 414: Jordan Plays Table Tennis The propulsion system of Japan¡¯s ¡°Hope¡± spacecraft bizarrely activated, and the International Space Station suddenly shifted its position. The engineers at the Houston ground control center were busy at their computers, pulling up a three-dimensional structural diagram of the Space Station. They planned to use the remote control system to shut down the propulsion system, but no matter what they did, they couldn¡¯t shut it off. They had no choice but to start another propulsion system to counteract the first one, thereby maintaining mechanical balance, and preventing the Station from tilting excessively. The old International Space Station couldn¡¯t handle the upheaval. This small mishap could trigger countless chain reactions. In regular times, it might be patched up and kept running, but the situation was different now. A high-risk surgery had to be completed. In a crisis, any flaw can be amplified indefinitely, and that was exactly the case with the International Space Station right now. Richard sighed with relief, the Space Station finally stopped flipping, barely retaining its balance, but it was still tilted at 45 degrees. This balance was temporary. To achieve true stability, the cause of the problem had to be identified and both propulsion systems had to be shut down. Richard angrily cursed, ¡°David Hollis, help them investigate what happened!¡± He had little trust in allies capable of making a mistake even in measuring height. He wanted David Hollis to find out the reason as soon as possible. Richard connected to the Japanese module where the astronaut feigned ignorance: ¡°I have no idea what happened, I was resting in my sleeping bag the whole time, I didn¡¯t touch anything.¡± ¡°Could it be that your snoring was too loud? Did the sound waves activate the propulsion system?¡± a engineer couldn¡¯t help but joke. No one knew if this engineer was serious or just making a sarcastic remark. Richard angrily responded, ¡°That¡¯s impossible! It¡¯s not a voice-activated switch. You guys proceed with remote diagnostics. Last time when their ¡®Hope¡¯ sprung a leak, they also claimed they hadn¡¯t done anything.¡± Luckily, Yang Ping had quickly retracted the guidewire earlier. If it was still inside the blood vessels and it plunged further in abruptly, such instability could lead to surgical failure, and failure would mean the loss of Steven¡¯s life. ¡°Coordinate with David Hollis, find the cause and shut down the propulsion systems together.¡± Richard commanded the Japanese astronaut. ¡ª The doctors¡¯ team at the ground control center just had a close shave. The guidewire had faced many obstacles and branching paths on its path to the network of blood vessels in the skull. But, just as it was moving further in, an accident occurred. Yang Ping swiftly retracted the guidewire. This retraction is not a mere yank out, if he did that, the blood vessels in the skull would be seriously damaged. This retreat is exactly the reverse of the guidewire¡¯s advancement. It¡¯s just that Yang Ping was familiar with the route back, thus he retracted it at the fastest speed and safely withdrew it despite numerous branching paths. When the guidewire was entirely retracted from the blood vessels, they had dodged a bullet. John Ansen clapped excitedly. In a real remote surgery, if a problem arises, there would be no one present to manage the emergency. It requires the surgeon to have extremely profound surgical skills and psychological quality. For a surgery to succeed, one only has one shot. If a problem arises midway, there would be no way to remedy. While in regular robotic surgery on the ground, if a problem arises, the doctors who wait on standby and the whole hospital can provide the remedial action and rescue. On the Space Station, Susan was the only doctor, a general practitioner; apart from CPR, she wasn¡¯t capable of offering any other powerful resuscitation measures. ¡°Did he get scared?¡± Massimo was still in shock. He managed to suppress his wildly fluctuating emotions and seemed to have found an excuse. The world-leading United States, Johns Hopkins¡¯ genius, the unbeatable Massimo in the field of medical intervention all over the world was shockingly overtaken by a young Chinese doctor. What¡¯s more ironic was that the Chinese doctor¡¯s major field was orthopedics, and interventional surgery was merely a hobby for him. John Ansen knew that arguing was pointless: ¡°Dr. Yang isn¡¯t scared. During surgeries, he is calmer than anyone else, but during high-risk surgeries, the people watching the operation are scared. I¡¯m scared, you would be scared too. These operations would drain us of our adrenaline.¡± Massimo touched his forehead and found it sweaty, but he pretended not to know it. John Ansen glanced at him and just smiled inwardly. On the screen, the angiogram of the cranial blood vessels spread out like black fireworks. The aneurysm, like a balloon, has swelled much larger than before, and they didn¡¯t know how much longer the thin blood vessel wall could hold up. ¡°Hurry up! He won¡¯t last till dawn, the vessel could burst at any moment!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s voice resounded through the broadcasting system. Everyone in the control center could hear it, Jim Basa heard it the clearest. ¡°It¡¯s expanding like a balloon, constantly expanding!¡± Massimo swallowed heavily. A balloon always bursts when it is continuously inflated. The heart rate on the ECG monitor continued to decrease, and the myocardial depression became more prominent. Such a minute pressure evoked such a significant reaction; if a rupture occurs, the pressure from the blood would cause sudden death. ¡°Steven¡¯s heart rate is still dropping!¡± Susan was staring at the monitoring screen; the problem hadn¡¯t been resolved, and the surgery couldn¡¯t proceed. They didn¡¯t know how long they would have to wait like this. ¡°The propulsion system of the Hope spacecraft can¡¯t be manually shut down right now.¡± David Hollis reported. Unable to shut down? How could something like this happen at a crucial time like this? Richard thought and said: ¡°Use the emergency mechanical switch, the propulsion system must be shut down, both at the same time.¡± They had initially activated the propulsion system to balance the one that had accidentally turned on. If only one was turned off now, the Space Station would tilt due to the exerted force. ¡°The Russians have already come to assist them.¡± David Hollis decided to stay put. With the Russians lending a hand, things would be much easier as their experience was far superior to that of the Japanese. ¡°I¡¯ve reached the Hope, I¡¯m preparing to flip the mechanical switch of the propulsion system.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s do this together, are you ready?¡± 9-8-7¡ª Okay, shut it down! The space station adjusted slightly to regain balance. The aging International Space Station usually wouldn¡¯t be an issue with a few patch jobs, but once an emergency like this occurred, problems arose in a multitude. ¡°The voltage is unstable!¡± The sudden tilt of the space station may have interfered with some old equipment in the power system, causing poor connectivity. Ah! The International Space Station is severely aged, like a thatched hut in the storm, wind leaks here and water leaks there. Richard, troubled and anxious, said, ¡°Unstable voltage could cause the remote surgery system to crash. Hurry, find out why.¡± David Hollis in person is an engineer. Very familiar with these, after hard troubleshooting: ¡°Multiplexer-de-multiplexer (MDM) malfunctioned, one has stopped working, and one is unstable.¡± ¡°Replace it! Quickly!¡± Richard was now having a splitting headache. One accident sparked so many problems. It would take two hours to replace the MDM, which would require a spacewalk. The MDM, weighing 23 kilograms on Earth and only the size of a small microwave oven, controls important components of the space station such as radiators, solar panels, and cooling circulation systems. The station is equipped with two of these devices. Now that only one was working, if it malfunctioned again, it could endanger the lives of the astronauts. ¡°Remote troubleshooting shows that the other one is only having unstable voltage, and it can continue to work for at least three months.¡± The ground engineer checked the space station¡¯s equipment logs. What if? What if this one malfunctioned unexpectedly? Without a backup, the people on board would be in danger. Even if we¡¯re not worried about unexpected events, this kind of unstable voltage seriously affects the surgery. Should the robotic arm lose control at the crucial moment, everything would go back to square one. ¡°I intend to exit the cabin for inspection and repair, and I need a helper.¡± David Hollis decided to leave the cabin. ¡°Ask the Russians for help.¡± Richard could only ask the Russians for help as the others lacked experience in spacewalks. ¡°I just checked the stock of spare parts on the space station, and there are none!¡± Oh, my God! Steven, ¡°There¡¯s a power failure, no MDM spares, urgent delivery would take eight hours.¡± The engineer reported anxiously to Richard. Richard could only ask for help from Jim Basa. Jim Basa composed himself: ¡°Is there any temporary solution to keep the voltage stable, even if it¡¯s just for an hour?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. It would require David Hollis to do a spacewalk and hope for a fix.¡± Richard had no confidence. ¡°Proceed from both directions. David Hollis leaves the cabin for maintenance while I coordinate an urgent shipment. We can only ask the Russians for help since they can complete resupply in just over three hours, while we need at least eight. They also have spare parts.¡± No choice, the Russians¡¯ Union Rocket is fiercer than Falcon Nine. The Union Rocket, launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, could dock with the International Space Station in just over three hours. ¡°Ask Dr. Yang if there are any medical materials that need replenishing. Let¡¯s send them together.¡± Jim Basa was about to get in touch with the Russians. Yang Ping sat in front of the remote surgical system control panel. With this voltage, the risk of surgery was much higher. It would be troublesome if the machine went out of control halfway through surgery. ¡°Ask them to get some tea. We could do with a few cups of tea.¡± Yang Ping wanted a break. By the time they prepared the basic conditions for surgery, Steven should be able to hold on for a few more hours. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t interested in the coffee that the Americans had prepared. Even with sugar, the bitter drink was hard to take. ¡°Get some tea. Brew a few cups and we can rest. That¡¯s Dr. Yang¡¯s habit.¡± Old Cheng told Collins. Tea, there should be some in the Space City. But Collins wasn¡¯t sure. However, anything Dr. Yang wants is trouble. ¡°The good stuff, West Lake Longjing or Anxi Tieguanyin would do. Just don¡¯t get something too low grade!¡± Old Cheng urged Collins to hurry. Old Cheng¡¯s became animated when it came to drinking tea. If he had his way, he would set up a tea tasting session here. Collins knew he wouldn¡¯t manage to find the top-notch tea, but the uniformed police officers outside should have a way to get hands on it, especially the FBI. They always had tricks up their sleeves. Drinking a few cups of tea should lighten up the atmosphere. As soon as the conditions for surgery were suitable, they could go right ahead. ¡ª ¡°Dr. Yang just requested some tea. They need some to rest and drink.¡± Someone whispered into John Ansen¡¯s ear. John Ansen suddenly remembered he had premium Harney & Sons tea that he had intended to gift Dr. Yang, but it wasn¡¯t with him. He¡¯s got the mood to drink tea? Massimo was both amused and baffled. This sense of leisure seemed so out of place amidst the current tense atmosphere. He was sweating with nerves, yet he was clamoring for tea. ¡°Is intervention really his hobby?¡± Massimo still didn¡¯t believe John Ansen and thought that Ansen was being sarcastic. After some thought, John Ansen said: ¡°Strictly speaking, it¡¯s a hobby within a hobby. For Dr. Yang to do intervention is like Jordan playing ping pong.¡± Massimo glared at John Ansen, furious. John Ansen shrugged: ¡°Sorry, but you forced me to tell the truth.¡± Chapter 454 - 454 415 One Arrow Three Birds ?Chapter 454: Chapter 415: One Arrow, Three Birds Chapter 454: Chapter 415: One Arrow, Three Birds Massimo almost spewed blood. John Ansen¡¯s words were akin to pressing his head against the ground. Yang Ping was waiting for his next opportunity. It wasn¡¯t in his nature to perform the surgery rashly amidst the risk of unstable voltage. A successful surgery should be stable. Starting with a gambler¡¯s luck means failing from the beginning. Sometimes there was no choice, and risks had to be taken. However, when he has a choice, he was not willing to add unnecessary risk without reason. When he simulated the surgical procedure using Steven¡¯s case, he gained a deep understanding of Steven¡¯s condition. He realized that Steven could hold on for more than five hours. If the engineers could repair the power system, he would just need half an hour to complete the surgery. This kind of surgery must be performed under the best conditions. He wouldn¡¯t make a move if not prepared, but once he does, it would be a lethal blow. If it came to the last moment and the power system was still not repaired, Yang Ping would be forced to gamble. However, if there was the slightest hope, Yang Ping did not want to gamble. Sometimes, life and death hung in the balance. Although he couldn¡¯t guarantee that nothing would go wrong, Yang Ping would strive for the highest probability for his patients. The technical support for Steven¡¯s condition did not stop. His data got sent to the artificial intelligence doctors at GG Company and also IBM¡¯s AI doctor Watson. The Artificial Intelligence at GG company conducted a simulated progression of Steven¡¯s condition. After multiple simulations, the final result was revealed. Steven could only hold on for seven hours, after which he would die due to ruptured aneurysms. ¡°Why doesn¡¯t he take action? Only seven hours left. If he doesn¡¯t take action now, there will be no time left later.¡± Massimo didn¡¯t understand why Yang Ping was waiting. Even though the voltage was unstable, the robot could still be operated. It was a risky business from the get-go. This surgery would take between five to six hours. If they waited for the spare parts to arrive, David Hollis to exit the cabin, and carry out the repairs, there wouldn¡¯t be any time left for the surgery. ¡°Dr. Yang has his own plans. During one surgery, the patient¡¯s heartbeat stopped four times, and it was only on the 21st defibrillation that the heartbeat started again. But he was still calm and composed. We shouldn¡¯t try to understand him from our perspective. Massimo, you¡¯re a genius, I admit, but both you and I are on the same dimension. Dr. Yang is on a higher level because he is younger, so you haven¡¯t fully comprehended his achievements. Believe in him, trust him more than you trust yourself.¡± John Mason tried to pacify Massimo. Yang Ping stayed in the operating room. He couldn¡¯t leave, nor did he dare to. If Steven was in danger, he needed to instruct Susan on emergency procedures, or could even use the remote surgical robot for some operations. IBM¡¯s Watson sent over the diagnosis report for Steven: ¡°Steven¡¯s brainstem has more than one aneurysm. There¡¯s another concealed microaneurysm.¡± Compared to GG company¡¯s artificial intelligence, IBM¡¯s Watson was much more robust and mature in the medical field. Especially in the area of AI diagnosis, it simply crushed GG company¡¯s AI. Of course, it could even crush human doctors. No matter how skilled a doctor is, they can only diagnose a few hundred images a day. But Watson could analyze hundreds of thousands of images in a few seconds. In the images, some minute details could be enlarged and distinguished in the computer host, then precise measurements and big data calculations could be performed. Steven had two aneurysms! Plus another concealed one. This was drastically different from the original diagnosis. At this time, no one would question Watson¡¯s diagnosis. Upon receiving the news, John Ansen couldn¡¯t sit still. He had to tell Doctor Yang immediately. If they only operated on one aneurysm, it would be like disarming one of the two time bombs, which is still ineffective. The command center on the ground, the doctors whose nerves had just relaxed, became tense again. Two aneurysms doubled the difficulty of the surgery. The last bit of self-confidence in Massimo¡¯s heart shattered. If there was only one aneurysm, he could give it a try and bet on the inconsiderable few percent chance of success. But with two aneurysms in the brainstem, even dreaming of taking such a gamble was not an option. The medical team started to get restless. John Ansen hurried to Yang Ping¡¯s operating room, with Massimo close behind. Yang Ping was sipping tea with Old Cheng and President Huang. Seeing the tense John Ansen, he asked, ¡°Has the power system been fixed?¡± John Ansen shook his head, his face pale, ¡°Dr. Yang, IBM¡¯s Watson just diagnosed: Steven has got two microaneurysms on his brain stem, both located on the complex vasculature. Another one is concealed, straddling the intersecting part of the blood vessels.¡± Yang Ping apparently wasn¡¯t anxious: ¡°Sit down, let me explain slowly.¡± ¡°Old Cheng, bring that diagram over.¡± Yang Ping called to Old Cheng. Boss Cheng immediately brought over a pencil drawing made by Yang Ping. Yang Ping pointed at the drawing and said, ¡°See, actually there are not just two, but three. Two others are very concealed and have not shown up yet. In a microgravity environment, venous return slows down, arterial congestion happens, and the first one is easier to present the symptoms. The other two¡ªone is very concealed and the third one hasn¡¯t shown up at all, and it¡¯s unclear whether these are Steven¡¯s inherent vascular defects, or vascular changes caused by the microgravity environment.¡± ¡°You ¡ª knew all along?¡± John Ansen was perplexed. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Because neither the joint viewing session nor the AI diagnostic system of GG company detected it. If I had brought it up, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to convince anyone, and it would have wasted a lot of time. Since surgery has to be performed anyway, there¡¯s no difference for me whether I am dealing with one problem or three during the operation.¡± ¡°But¡ª Watson only diagnosed two arterial aneurysms?¡± Massimo was lost in confusion and disbelief. Yang Ping had no choice but to explain, ¡°The ability of an artificial intelligence robot like Watson relies on feeding it all the existing medical knowledge of humanity, all articles, books, imaging pictures, etc. If something has never occurred in previous knowledge, it can¡¯t access it. Therefore, in terms of exploring the unknown, it cannot outperform us. It can only detect two based on image disparities, whereas we can deduce the existence of the third one from the mechanisms of the disease. Similar to how the Frenchman Levil and the Briton John Adams derived the existence and trajectory of Neptune based on the anomalous trajectory of Uranus.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re saying, this aneurysm doesn¡¯t show up on any imaging studies, you deduced it?¡± John Ansen finally understood a bit. ¡°How can you just put an additional spring coil in his skull based on conjecture?¡± Massimo asked. Yang Ping spoke calmly, but left no room for argument, ¡°Why not? If we wait until it shows up on imaging, it would be too late. We need to predict its existence ahead of time and deal with it in advance. Just like how we need to predict the likelihood of stomach cancer if Helicobacter pylori is found in excessive amounts in the stomach. We can¡¯t wait until stomach cancer develops, we have to resolve the issue of Helicobacter pylori beforehand.¡± ¡°Further, its blood flow dynamics have already shown abnormalities; it¡¯s just that no one has observed it from a dynamic perspective. Watson naturally wouldn¡¯t be able to, but I can. Isn¡¯t all medical diagnosis based on the deduction of evidence? Isn¡¯t the diagnosis of an aneurysm based on its presentation in imaging studies? It¡¯s just that the evidence I based my deduction on is unfamiliar to everyone else. I didn¡¯t deduce from static images but from dynamic changes. This is a highly advanced diagnostic skill. Every minute, the angiographic image of the whole brain changes. You not only have to observe the static differences, but also see the continuity of change between them, the internal driving logic, and the basic principles governed by the laws of physics. Physics is their underlying logic. Do you understand?¡± ¡°I see!¡± John Ansen didn¡¯t want to waste any more of Yang Ping¡¯s time, he knew it was impossible to understand a high-dimensional creature like him so easily. He could ask for clarification later. Didn¡¯t they have an online forum? He could ask Yang Ping to post explanations there in the future. Massimo didn¡¯t understand, ¡°You understood?¡± ¡°Alright, there¡¯s no way we can understand it right now. Now is not the time for academic discussion, just accept this diagnosis obediently.¡± John Ansen whispered in Massimo¡¯s ear. But Watson only saw two? Where¡¯s the other one? If there truly were three, the surgery would be impossible to perform. ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear him say, one, two, three, to him, there¡¯s no difference.¡± John Ansen didn¡¯t think too much about it. Apparently, Dr. Yang knew all along. ¡°But three microarterial aneurysms, each surgery is going to take several hours, right? And they need to use the remote surgery system. Right now, he¡¯s not showing any intention of getting started, still drinking that damned stuff.¡± Back in the hall, Massimo chattered. John Ansen comforted Massimo, ¡°Don¡¯t be so anxious, he must have arranged everything.¡± But how could he not be anxious, Massimo felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, glancing from time to time at the activity in the ¡°Safe House¡±. If they had to wait until the power system was repaired, the time left for surgery wouldn¡¯t exceed one hour. What terrified him was, what if, what if the blood vessel suddenly ruptured during this time? For complex procedures like this that require addressing multiple issues, how could one hour be enough? No matter how you looked at it, it wouldn¡¯t be enough. Was Dr. Yang some sort of demigod? Did he plan to finish the surgery within one hour? One hour? It was something he didn¡¯t even dare to think about. Massimo shivered, almost as if he had just relieved himself in winter. The Union Rocket was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Approximately three hours and forty minutes later, the spaceship would dock with the International Space Station. David Hollis prepared to leave the cabin for a spacewalk to repair the MDM. If he couldn¡¯t fix it, he would have to replace it. He calculated the timing of his exit. If it was determined to be unrepairable, the delivery spaceship would arrive just in time for docking. His Russian colleagues, clad in their ¡®Sea Eagle¡¯ spacesuits, would exit from another hatch to bring over the spare parts. Together, they would complete the replacement procedure. This was such a hassle. Steven had been having bad luck lately. David Hollis thought, it might be because of the last conversation he had with Steven. When they were discussing returning to Earth, Steven unexpectedly said, ¡°I will miss this place.¡± Damn guy, why would he say something like that. Yang Ping used his tea-drinking time to continuously simulate the surgery and enter the System Space. He performed simulation surgeries on the duplicate case almost non-stop, ensuring that the simulations were always the most up-to-date. The brainstem¡¯s complex vascular network branched out layer by layer, forming a world of its own. On the duplicate test subject, the guidewire penetrated layer by layer to the deepest part of the medulla oblongata, into the nerve nucleus, and the final stretch saw the guidewire crawling along the vessel wall, advancing bit by bit, slowly but surely. The coil was in position, release! The process was repeated countless times. Chapter 455 - 455 416 Three Gluttonous Snakes ?Chapter 455: Chapter 416: Three Gluttonous Snakes Chapter 455: Chapter 416: Three Gluttonous Snakes David Hollis exited the cabin to examine the MDM. It couldn¡¯t be repaired, it could only be replaced. Fortunately, the ferocity of the Russian Union rocket was unequivocal. It completed the docking in three hours and forty minutes, successfully performing a space delivery task. At last, with the help of a safety tether, David Hollis and the Russian astronaut completed the spacewalk, replacing the electrical component and ensuring the power system. The whole operation took exactly five hours. Stable voltage removed the worry of any downtime for the robotic arm¡¯s control system. The surgery could proceed, but time was running short for Yang Ping. All over the angiogram of the brain, a micro-aneurysm had expanded perilously close to its limit ¨C ready to burst at any moment. A second started to inflate speedily, and a third was appearing faintly. IBM¡¯s Watson had been right, there was a second aneurysm. Yang Ping was also right ¨C a third was quietly surfacing. ¡°Given the speed at which he initially accessed the cerebral vascular network, it would take at least half an hour to address a single aneurysm. Now there are three; there¡¯s just not enough time,¡± John Ansen began to worry, considering how three needed to be resolved at once. Yang Ping instructed Susan to change the equipment for simultaneous puncture of the left femoral artery, right femoral artery, and left radial artery. Simultaneous puncture? Was he intending to insert three guidewires at once? How could that be possible? Massimo looked at the screen, then glanced around the hall ¨C he was not the only one surprised. But that¡¯s what Yang Ping¡¯s voice conveyed over the broadcast: punctures at three locations, and the insertion of three micro guide wires simultaneously. Three guidewires simultaneously weaving through human blood vessels, entering cranial blood vessels, and finally reaching the target microartery. This required the surgeon to be extremely familiar with the patient¡¯s cranial vascular pathway. Understanding the intertwining, forking, and looping of millions of blood vessels was not within the realm of human anatomical knowledge. The surgery robot had four robotic arms. Only one was needed to do the intervention. If the operations were performed one after the other, wouldn¡¯t that be a waste of time? But if three robotic arms operated simultaneously, the procedure would be shorter, thereby significantly reducing surgical risk. Yet, the simultaneous insertion of three guidewires seemed like something out of a myth. Within interventional surgery, there have been cases of two guidewires being inserted ¨C like the dual guidewire technique in cardiac intervention. But this was a completely different ball game. In cardiac intervention, there is a dual guidewire technique. During the process of percutaneous coronary intervention, a second, 0.36-millimeter coronary guidewire is inserted alongside the first coronary artery guidewire. This stabilizes the guiding catheter, aiding the passage of the balloon and stent ¨C this is the buddy guidewire technique. In the percutaneous coronary treatment of bifurcation lesions, a guidewire is placed to protect the coronary branch vessels. Once the stent is deployed, the guidewire is withdrawn from between the vessel wall and stent ¨C this is the protective guidewire technique. In the percutaneous treatment of chronic total occlusions, when the first guidewire enters the subintimal space, it is left in place as a marker of the false lumen while a second, stiffer, guidewire is advanced into the true lumen ¨C this is the parallel guidewire technique. Regardless of the dual guidewire technique, the secondary guidewire is always an aid, not three guidewires treating different targets independently. But it seemed that¡¯s exactly what Yang Ping was about to do! Getting a single guidewire safely to a microartery in the brainstem is already an arduous task. Now, three are to be released simultaneously. And throughout their journey, they cannot repeat, intersect, or touch any pathways. This kind of route planning demanded an artificial intelligence level of proficiency, not feasible for humans. Professor Eugene switched seats, joining John Ansen and Massimo. ¡°Are you sure he¡¯s going to launch from all three puncture points and operate simultaneously?¡± asked Massimo. ¡°That should be impossible. Of the three guidewires, two should be like our dual guidewire technique and act as an aid, right?¡± was Eugene¡¯s guess. ¡°No, just now, Dr. Yang said that they would operate the three guidewires simultaneously and independently, each having its own target. He wanted to solve all three aneurysms at once,¡± John Ansen had indeed heard Yang Ping say that even if he didn¡¯t believe it himself. He was planning to embark on embolization of three aneurysms simultaneously, yes, simultaneously. This would be a world-first. Three robotic arms operating independently, leaving the fourth as an assistant. It was an unbelievable proposition. While everyone was left in confusion, all speculation became irrelevant. Three guidewires were already being inserted into the blood vessels by the robotic arms, navigating over hills and through valleys, making a long trek, step by step towards the cranial blood vessels. They all embarked from different paths, completely unrelated. All roads lead to Rome! The body¡¯s blood vessels are the same, the true essence of intervention was already mastered by Yang Ping. The angiographic imagery of all brain vessels looked like ink, the three guidewires rushed forward like a race, moving along the blood vessels. The extremely smooth snake-like guidewires worked smoothly under Yang Ping¡¯s hands. No matter the angle at any fork ¨C acute, obtuse, or right angle, the extraordinary guidewires managed to glide past effortlessly. Like agile hungry snakes, the three guidewires moved in an enchanting and magical manner. However, those three slender, serpentine structures were moving into the depths of the human brain, penetrating deeper along the complex network of vessels. The whole surgery displayed on the screen was like a game, the agile motion of the snake-like entities unnerving the audience. This made observers feel as if those tiny entities were slithering inside their own bodies, triggering spasms in the pores and causing their scalps to tingle. The largest aneurysm might have already reached its limit. GG Company¡¯s artificial intelligence was consistently flashing red lights indicating that the blood vessels could burst at any moment. And the second has already swelled, the third is forming, swelling faster than the previous two. There¡¯s a limit to how far the guidewire can penetrate the blood vessel. This not only relates to the diameter of the vessel, but also to the surgeon¡¯s precision in controlling the guidewire. The guidewire cannot enter a vessel larger than itself, nor can it randomly bypass branches to reach the target vessel. There are always branches that it cannot pass. Not all target vessels can be reached, and not all aneurysms are suitable for intervention. ¡°Three guidewires have simultaneously entered the cranium? Aimed at three different cerebral aneurysms.¡± Massimo finally believed it. This was a high-dimensional being, beyond his reach. No doctors in the world would dare or could do what is required: simultaneous insertion of three guidewires. But that¡¯s exactly what Steven must do now. It¡¯s the only hope. If it hadn¡¯t been for an accident, Dr. Yang would have plenty of time to resolve each brain aneurysm one by one, but the accident had consumed more than five hours. He was only left with one hour, maybe less than an hour. Other than the triple-action approach, he had no other method. The robotic arm¡¯s inherent advantage was maximized in Yang Ping¡¯s hands ¨C as were all other instruments; they always reached their extreme potentials when handled by him. The more he delved into smaller and deeper vessels, the more complicated their intersections became, and the pathways became harder to identify. Some of the well-known blood vessels have simple layers, but the blood vessels that Yang Ping needs to enter now are unnamed arteries, to the depth of who knows how many layers. With this type of intervention, there are only a handful of people in the world who can stay on track, locate the target blood vessels clearly. Massimo is one of them, but he has only just touched the doorknob of this field. The ongoing surgery requires the practitioner¡¯s knowledge of the cranial, especially the brainstem part of the vascular study far exceeds the current anatomical research. No doctor could reach this level of anatomy knowledge. Neither surgeons, interventionists, nor internal medicine doctors can achieve this. Even a professor studying human anatomy at a medical school can¡¯t do this. It would require a massive amount of ¡°cadaver teachers¡± for research, conditions that no one possesses. The total length of the brain¡¯s vascular system, including the arteries, veins, and capillaries, would stretch to 1.6 million kilometers if laid out in a straight line. The Earth has a circumference of only 40,000 kilometers. What a complex network this is! Our understanding of this vascular network is far from complete; we are still only focused on some central routes. From centimeters, to millimeters, to submillimeters, the three guidewires kept descending. They need to reach their destinations and complete the task within the last half hour. This is their one and only chance, their last resort. Massimo was hunched up, feeling icy in the warmth of the hall like a fever victim. If he could, he would wrap himself in a heavy blanket. Intense anxiousness not only consumes adrenaline but also large amounts of heat due to the excessive continuous muscle contractions and sweat evaporation. ¡°He¡¯s really dealing with three aneurysms at once, he¡¯s really controlling three guidewires simultaneously!¡± Massimo murmured. John Ansen saw the look in Massimo¡¯s eyes, the very look of nothingness that was once in his own eyes, like all the glory and brilliance he had was dashed to pieces at this moment. ¡°I told you, he is one dimension higher than us,¡± said John Ansen. He was relatively more composed, having been tempered once before. Dr. Eugene was no better than Massimo: ¡°He is operating four robotic arms with two hands, three main surgery robotic arms and one assisting robotic arm.¡± Dr. Eugene¡¯s words reminded everyone that these four robotic arms are controlled by Yang Ping¡¯s two hands. But without a single false move, every time a guidewire needed to slow down and stop to bypass a fork, the other two would rush forward at high speed. When it was another guidewire¡¯s turn to stop at a fork, the guidewire that had just stopped had already turned, bypassing the fork. Like a juggler throwing several balls at once, Yang Ping was controlling four robotic arms with his two hands, always keeping two robotic arms moving while the other two rested. But resting wasn¡¯t really resting. It was each time they paused to maneuver a risky bypass. The robotic arm¡¯s ability to rotate at any angle made the guidewire even more flexible than when operated by human hands. The speed of the guidewire kept slowing down, but it never lost its flexibility and precision. Because the vessels were getting thinner and any ruffled movement could be fatal. Any hasty or significant movement would make the guidewire uncontrollable due to inertia. So, they had to slow down at this stage. However, the more guidewire is released, the harder it becomes to control the direction of the tip. As the vessels got thinner and the guidewire kept descending, it was like a submarine diving deeper and deeper, sinking to the very bottom of the sea. The deeper you go, the thinner it gets, the more dangerous it becomes, and the harder it is to control. This kind of depth, this kind of sinking, there is no way back ¨C it¡¯s either a success or a failure. This is why Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to perform the operation when the voltage was unstable. He had to take down the enemy in one strike, without any chance of turning back, without any chance of remedying anything. Success or failure, it¡¯s all down to this one time. Life or death, it¡¯s all down to this one opportunity. They had already sunk deeply into the blood vessels of the brainstem, and there was no chance to withdraw the guidewire. ¡°They¡¯re still not lost in the maze-like blood vessels network. They¡¯re each taking the closest route.¡± Massimo dared not even breathe too heavily or too fast. This was the most crucial moment. He had once used the finest guidewire, with the help of various auxiliary equipment, to intervene in the central blood vessels of a monkey¡¯s brain stem. Here he was, after fatal trials on many monkeys- On the huge crystal-clear screen, three slender wires crawled like winding snakes. Everyone held their breaths, amazed by how far the wires have traversed. At this moment, nothing must go wrong! Chapter 456 - 456 417 Game Over ?Chapter 456: Chapter 417 Game Over Chapter 456: Chapter 417 Game Over Doctors everywhere are on edge. Richard receives bad news: clouds are gathering over Houston; if no measures are taken, a rainstorm will hit. When it rains, it pours; things always seem to go wrong all at once. A storm could seriously disrupt satellite communications which rely on Ku-band waves. The dense raindrops not only absorb electromagnetic energy, but also scatter electromagnetic waves ¡ª factors that could degrade the quality of satellite communication, even causing it to fail entirely. While SpaceX¡¯s satellites are going all out to support the surgery and communication bandwidth should be sufficient to tackle the possible rainfall, the destructive potential of a storm on satellite communication should not be underestimated. Richard rallies and reports the situation to Jim Basa. ¡°Use artificial rain dispersal technology!¡± Jim Basa commands. Richard relays NASA¡¯s opinion to the supportive meteorological company. Their several rain dispersal vehicles set out. They need to get to the right location to launch their rain dispersal projectiles in order to alleviate the impending storm. The three guide wires are advancing judiciously; one wire pauses slightly, while the other two proceed together. They alternate this way, maintaining a rhythm, methodically approaching the target aneurysm, inching closer and closer. The GG Corporation¡¯s AI Medical Brain is on high alert for the aneurysm. The emergency vehicle¡¯s red warning light is continuously flashing. Doctors in the operating room have risen from their seats; some are constantly drinking water; Professor Massimo is purposely holding his breath, maintaining a calm front. If the bright red warning light were a sound, it would be a continuous, ear-splitting noise. It is warning the doctors ¨C the largest aneurysm is about to rupture. ¡°It¡¯s started to rain in Houston!¡± Upon receiving the news, Richard is in shock. Heart pounding, Jim Basa asks, ¡°What happened, didn¡¯t they claim to possess rain-dispersal technology?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll find out!¡± Richard shakes his head to clear it, using this action to wake himself up. A few minutes later, Richard shakes his head again, ¡°The rain dispersal vehicles have been detained by the traffic police. FBI agents are negotiating with them, but¡ª¡± ¡°What?¡± Jim Basa roars, ¡°What is this nonsense at this critical time?¡± ¡°They refuse to let us go, insisting on imposing a fine and conducting a necessary inspection on the detained vehicles. They threatened to accuse the FBI agents of obstructing official duties unless they leave. They said the FBI doesn¡¯t have full jurisdiction over them,¡± Richard reports verbatim. Jim Basa frowns, stretches out one finger, massaging his temples. As NASA¡¯s administrator, he calls the Houston traffic police, only for their response to take him aback, ¡°Not even the President can help, let alone the NASA chief!¡± The complicated police system is headache inducing. These state traffic police are not governed by the federal government. They were right. Even if the President came, they could still ignore him. ¡°¡ª¡± Jim Basa swears. Faced with these stubborn traffic police, Jim Basa is helpless. During the Cuban missile crisis, the covert missile transporter carrying nuclear weapons was detained by traffic police for a whole five hours due to overloading. When the General leading the emergency operation personally called the traffic police and asked them to let them pass, they cursed at him over the phone. Jim Basa walks to the window. The rain in Houston is beginning to pour, and although the remaining satellite communication is just about holding on, the picture is barely tolerable. ¡°Dr. Yang, I¡¯m sorry, it has started to storm in Houston and communication may be affected. We¡¯re barely holding on,¡± Despite his reluctance to disturb Yang Ping during surgery, Richard feels it is necessary to let him be mentally prepared. ¡°Received,¡± Yang Ping only briefly replies. At this time, besides accelerating the completion of the surgery, there is no other way. Any panic or hesitation is a waste of time. Old Cheng can¡¯t help but stand up. Huang Jiacai signals him not to move around, but rather, obediently sit down. Yang Ping¡¯s hands swiftly move back and forth on the control sticks, hastening his actions. The guide wires, which were progressing slowly, now speed up. All doctors in the hall have risen from their seats. They lean forward, as though this will allow them to see more clearly. The staff members are affected by the doctors. They stare at the screen with their fists clenched. ¡°God, please don¡¯t let there be a communication failure, please don¡¯t¡ª¡± This is everyone¡¯s wish. ¡°We hold hands, so God can feel our voices. Like the tightly held hands, communication will maintain a stable connection,¡± A lady suggests. She has already stood up, squeezing the hand of the person next to her. Hand in hand, this act quickly spreads in both directions. Everyone stands up and grabs the hands of the people next to them. Soon, everyone in the hall is holding hands, tightly holding hands. ¡°Let us pray together¡ª¡± This lady closes her eyes, encouraging everyone. The guide wire moves quicker and quicker, maintaining a rhythm of two and then one, at an astonishing speed crossing the most dangerous splits again and again, approaching the target. Yang Ping needs to complete the surgery before rain attenuation damages the communication. The speed must be increased. He sits in front of the control station. The 3D image of the virtual reality operation is vividly presented in front of his eyes through his glasses, making it seem as though he is actually there. His ten fingers are inside the control rings. Four hundred kilometers above, the four mechanical arms, under his control, move forward, rotate, and sway. Each fine action translates to adjustments in the direction of the guide wire tip. Each finger movement corresponds to an action on the mechanical arm. His elbows are supported by soft pads. This type of robotic surgery requires a unique level of engagement. This engagement allows the chief surgeon to sense no spatial separation from the surgical object. The rain is getting heavier. Rain attenuation is getting worse. Delay, interruption or collapse, are just a touch away. The high tension and continuous worry causes spasms in John Ansen¡¯s stomach. Crushing pain comes and goes, as if his stomach and all surrounding organs were twisted into a knot. His heart is compelled to output powerfully, in order to maintain this enormous energy expenditure. Professor Massimo, Dr. Eugene, and the doctors in John Ansen¡¯s field of vision were soaking wet, their final sprint as desperate as an end-of-the-world escape. The catastrophe was imminent, and everyone was fleeing. Even with the support of dozens of satellites, it was of no avail. In the face of nature, human technology seemed insignificant. The first lagging in the video feed appeared. At this moment, the glaring red light turned into a soothing green. The three guidewires were in place, several spring coils were precisely delivered to the target location, and released! The most dangerous and crucial operation was completed. John Ansen let out a long breath, as if a pressure that had been building up for years in his chest was finally released. He slumped in his chair, removing his hands from the controls. On the screen, a beautifully clear angiogram of the entire brain displayed the spring coils accurately placed in optimal locations, without the slightest deviation. It was the most beautiful image in the world. Slowly, the blood clots formed, the force of blood flow reduced until it disappeared, and the balloon began to shrink until there was nothing left. The embolization was successful. Three aneurysms were occluded successfully in one go. The image trembled, followed by irregular delays and freezes. But this would no longer affect the surgery; Yang Ping began to retract the guidewires from memory. The guidewires were slowly withdrawn. When they were completely pulled out, Susan immediately pressed a bandage against the puncture point to stop the blood. But she forgot there were three puncture points to press, and she only had two hands. The blood from the left radial artery puncture, which wasn¡¯t pressed quickly enough, sprayed out the instant the guidewire was removed. It immediately floated in the air like a string of red agates, then transformed and eventually clumped together like a crystal-clear ruby. Seeing this, David Hollis quickly put on gloves to help stop the bleeding. The ruby-like blood droplet split into two and floated in the air. ¡°Game Over!¡± Yang Ping released his hand, pulling his fingers out of the control handle and removing his virtual reality glasses. Boss Cheng and President Huang opened the ¡°safe room¡±. The hall was silent. What happened? Just as Yang Ping was puzzled, a sharp cry from a woman broke the silence, creating chaos in the hall, and people collapsed limply into their seats, holding each other in confusion. Game Over? An ambiguous phrase? ¡°The Operation was successful!¡± Yang Ping sat back down at the operating console, put on the communication headset, and shouted into the microphone. His voice resonated throughout the entire hall from the space station. The wailing people stopped crying. After a moment, the hall exploded into cheers; everyone jumped up, and applause rolled in like waves. Professor Massimo, shivering, mechanically joined in the applause with his stiff hands, believing the operation to be a non-human achievement. Game Over! This was a huge joke. Apart from a few medical professionals who knew the surgery was a success, everyone else thought the operation failed and was over. If it hadn¡¯t been for the shout, ¡°The operation was successful!¡± as a remedy, Jim Basa¡¯s heart might not have held up. Jim Basa rose unsteadily, as if crawling out from a freezing ice cave, he wanted to lead everyone to thank this Chinese doctor. He looked calm on the surface, but inside he felt tumultuous. He stumbled as he got up, and everything went black. Richard alongside quickly lent him support. But Richard wasn¡¯t much better either, supporting Jim Basa with one hand, and using the other to hold onto the chair. ¡°I¡¯m fine, let me rest for a moment.¡± Jim Basa held on to the back of the chair. Having experienced high-intensity stress, it was a temporary drop in blood pressure. After a few seconds, blood supply to Jim¡¯s head returned to normal, and his vision cleared. Richard followed behind Jim Basa. John Ansen, Professor Massimo, Eugene joined them, with others following in succession. Yang Ping stood at the ¡°safe room¡± door, Jim Basa ran up and hugged Yang Ping tightly. He attempted to cup Yang Ping¡¯s face and give him a grateful kiss, which was promptly refused by Yang Ping, the respected Doctor Yang did not share this unorthodox fondness. Seeing the hand Yang Ping extended out, Jim Basa came to his senses ¨C of course, a handshake! Jim Basa twisted his neck, gripping Yang Ping¡¯s hand tightly with both of his hands. ¡°Thank you so much, really, I¡¯m so grateful. You saved Steven, you saved all of us.¡± ¡°He should be alright now. During the occlusion, I carried out an anti-slip occlusion treatment before and after. You can use a simulation to assess his reentering the atmosphere at high speed on the way back to accurately judge whether the spring coils will dislodge. If they won¡¯t, he can return successfully after four weeks. If there is a chance they will dislodge, we will have to figure out a solution, even if it means a craniotomy surgery if necessary.¡± Yang Ping instructed John Ansen and Professor Massimo. Anyway, the figurative mountain had been moved; they could slowly figure out solutions to subsequent issues. ¡°Champagne! There should be champagne now!¡± Jim Basa exclaimed. John Ansen reminded him, ¡°Dr. Yang has no interest in champagne, perhaps an apple cider would be better.¡± But no one was listening to their conversation. Everyone lifted Yang Ping and gave him a collective toss up into the air. Boss Cheng and President Huang stood by, ready to deal with any possible accidents. Chapter 457 - 457 418 Rejecting the Presidents Invitation ?Chapter 457: Chapter 418: Rejecting the President¡¯s Invitation Chapter 457: Chapter 418: Rejecting the President¡¯s Invitation Everyone was cheering and jumping, lifting Yang Ping up, tossing and catching him repeatedly. It scared Cheng Liquan and Huang Jiacai to death, worrying if they might accidentally let her fall and hit the floor hard. Fortunately, these Americans are well-versed in this, having played football or basketball or, at the very least, some sort of soccer or volleyball during their student days. Such celebrations were a common occurrence during competitions. The conservative Massimo, who has always been arrogant and self-important, believes in American supremacy and looks down on other countries. Although he now admits defeat, he still harbours doubts about John Ansen¡¯s claims and has been looking for opportunities to find out how many of these intracranial interventions Yang Ping has performed. A cross-disciplinary doctor could not possess such skills ¨C such techniques must be developed through a combination of genius, diligence, and a large case volume. Massimo too joined in with the excited crowd, who have reached nearly a manic state, as if celebrating a Super Bowl victory in American football. After lifting him up and down several times inside the hall, they showed no signs of stopping. The crowd, celebrating with Yang Ping overhead, was intending to move their celebrations from the indoor control center to the outdoors. The outdoors was in the midst of a heavy storm, and these professors had entirely forgotten that they were no longer the students they once were. In the face of the storm, the procession hesitated only slightly before someone called out, ¡°Let¡¯s circle around the space city, forward!¡± These words ignited an overwhelmed reaction, and the suppressed youth within everyone was fully unleashed. Without considering whether Yang Ping was willing, the crowd, singing and utterly disregarding the storm, lifted him up and embarked on a joyful parade around the space city. The police, security, engineers, and other staff all joined the parade, with some reporters hurriedly joining as well. The joyful parade circled around the space city before happily returning to the ground control center. By this point, everyone¡¯s clothes were soaking wet from the rain, dripping with water. Some were laughing heartily, while others were shouting into the storm. Seeing this, Jim Basa quickly instructed his secretary to find dry clothes for Yang Ping and everyone else. A press conference was scheduled to start shortly, and the reporters who had been waiting overnight were eager to get started. But Yang Ping declined to attend the press conference, thinking it was a waste of time. He felt that instead of wasting words on those garrulous reporters, it would be better to rest and return home as soon as possible. Jis Basa had no choice but to abandon the plan and deal with the reporters himself with his secretary. He reported the good news to the White House, and the President enthusiastically invited Dr. Yang for lunch or dinner at the White House, hoping to arrange a time with him. Eating a meal wasn¡¯t his priority. If it weren¡¯t for saving people, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t want to return at all. He was eager to return home. His return journey had already been delayed unexpectedly; he didn¡¯t want to linger a moment longer, especially for non-urgent matters. Yang Ping asked Boss Cheng to book a plane ticket immediately, preferably on the fastest available flight, as he was eager to return home. Having lunch or dinner with the President at the White House is an honor many dream of. Old Cheng was tempted by the opportunity. He thought that delaying their return home by one day wouldn¡¯t be a big deal. After all, they have to eat meals anyway, so why not have a meal with the President? To his surprise, Yang Ping declined the offer straight away. Boss Cheng felt it was a pity. Many wealthy individuals would spend millions of US dollars to invite the President of the United States for a meal, even if he is no longer in office. Traditionally, former American Presidents don¡¯t have any special sources of income; earning money through giving speeches and writing books, which are both laborious. However, with the development of the world economy, wealthy individuals from some developing countries would spend hefty sums of money to invite former US Presidents to their birthdays or other special occasions, in order to save face. It¡¯s a win-win situation. The wealthy individuals get to showcase their high social status, boasting about dining and drinking with former American Presidents, even though in reality, these guests were just brokers who were not known to the hosts. These former Presidents are also happy to attend these events with their spouses. They earn hundreds of thousands, or even millions of US dollars just by sitting at a dining table, being treated like VIPs. They could easily earn billions in a year with such engagements, which requires minimal physical or mental effort ¨C as long as they could manage the ¡°three highs¡±. Yet, Yang Ping showed no interest in dining with the President. Although Huang Jiacai didn¡¯t think much of it, Boss Cheng felt it was a great loss, but he hesitated to persuade Yang Ping. Seeing Yang Ping reject the President¡¯s invitation, Jim Basa was surprised but upon second thoughts, understood. He concluded that a doctor like Yang Ping who¡¯s engrossed in his craft would agree to seeing the President for a medical consultation, but not for a meal. Backing this up, Jim Basa said, ¡°I also don¡¯t enjoy having meals with the President. He has peculiar tastes ¨C he likes his steaks well-done, salads loaded with cheese and crumbled bacon, soups in extra-large bowls, and every meal comes with a large array of desserts and ice cream. Plus, he likes to drink loads of carbonated drinks, which make him burp during meals.¡± Jim Basa added, ¡°If you went, he would cater to your tastes. But the White House chefs are unlikely to satisfy your palate, no matter how hard they try. You declined rightly so.¡± ¡°Dr. Yang, you don¡¯t need to book air tickets. United Airlines will arrange a charter flight to send you back home. You only need to tell us when you¡¯d like to depart, and we¡¯ll make the arrangements.¡± Seeing that Yang Ping was insistent on returning home as soon as possible, Jim Basa didn¡¯t try to make him stay longer. ¡°In that case, we¡¯d appreciate it if you could help us arrange the flight as soon as possible. I have a lot of matters to attend to back home, and the surgery on Steven has already caused a lot of delays. I can¡¯t afford any more delays.¡± Yang Ping voiced his eager wish to return home. Jim Basa immediately instructed his secretary to arrange for the charter flight and remembered the matter of the surgery fee. ¡°Dr. Yang, we will pay you in full for your surgical services. What amount do you propose?¡± At the time, Yang Ping was in a hurry and didn¡¯t discuss compensation. Now that the problem had been resolved, it was time to talk about money. In the American mindset, they are upfront and blunt, without beating around the bush. If you don¡¯t ask for money, they won¡¯t feel obligated towards you. On the contrary, they may believe your skills are worthless. If you charge them, they wouldn¡¯t bear any grudge. They would believe that your skills are worth the cost. At this point, Yang Ping didn¡¯t put the issue on their table. It wasn¡¯t appropriate for Huang Jiacai and Boss Cheng to help set the price. Yang Ping just thought for a moment and said, ¡°How about charging a symbolic fee? Let¡¯s base it on the cost of your rocket launches. How much does it cost to launch Falcon 9 once? You¡¯ll pay me that as a service fee.¡± ¡°Sixty million US dollars?¡± Jim Basa cautiously confirmed. ¡°Then sixty million US dollars it is!¡± said Yang Ping firmly. Money didn¡¯t mean too much to Jim Basa. NASA¡¯s annual budget exceeded two hundred billion dollars. Steven¡¯s rescue alone cost several billion dollars, separate from normal expenses. Sixty million dollars, just the cost of a single Falcon 9 launch, was a merely symbolic charge. Situations like this weren¡¯t common, but it was important to maintain a good relationship, just in case they needed help again in the future. If it wasn¡¯t for Dr. Yang, the incident involving Steven could have cost Jim his career. Many of NASA¡¯s programs would have been postponed amidst public outcry, leading to a reduction in funding. Space companies like Raytheon, Boeing, and General Dynamics had powerful backers, and they wouldn¡¯t hesitate to quarrel with the president. But now, things had been resolved. NASA regained public confidence, and their funding was not only safe¡ªit was set to increase. Now lawmakers were clamoring about NASA¡¯s inadequate funding, which they claimed led to the Steven incident. They urged Congress¡¯s Appropriations Committee to increase funding for NASA. Sixty million US dollars! When Dr. Yang mentioned the amount, it rolled off his tongue with an ease that made Boss Cheng and Huang Jiacai exchange looks of admiration. He really knew how to carry himself with flair. But the American was straightforward. Jim Basa didn¡¯t even blink at the amount. Indeed, the American government seemed to have a money-printing machine at their disposal. Old Cheng was full of admiration. Dr. Yang¡¯s performance was like a tiger¡¯s. Sixty million US Dollars in pocket in one round of negotiation. Old Cheng felt lucky to be associated with him. Life was unpredictable. When luck struck, you couldn¡¯t stop it. Old Cheng decided to donate some money to the Daoist temple next time, in appreciation of their accurate life guidance. ¡°Please take a moment to fill out a receipt. We will transfer the service fee to your account. Doctor Yang, please have a good rest. We will arrange a special flight for you to return to your homeland,¡± said Jim Basa. He arranged for John Ansen and Massimo to accompany Yang Ping to the hotel to rest. After the flight was arranged, they would escort them to the airport. There were too many reporters around. Once Space City was reopened, journalists flooded in, all trying to find Yang Ping, but Jim Basa had already secretly sent him back to the hotel. A breathless FBI officer called to report that the fees for the rain-dispelling vehicles had been paid, but they had been deemed illegally modified and ordered to be corrected. The surgery was done, and it was pouring rain outside. They didn¡¯t need the rain to go away anymore. ¡°No worries. You guys take your time to negotiate with them. We have plenty of patience.¡± Jim Basa was furious. The call came too late. After a rest at the hotel, Yang Ping and his team changed into clean clothes. The hotel had somehow found a team of Chinese chefs to cook for Yang Ping exclusively. To prevent Yang Ping from being disturbed by the press, the FBI and Houston police were assigned to his security detail. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t used to all the attention, feeling like some sort of VIP. Some clever individuals, including Jim Basa and Richard, secretly asked Yang Ping for his personal phone number, email, and social media handles. As a terrific doctor, having him as a friend, a layer of insurance of sorts, would be reassuring should they have health problems in the future. Even a few FBI officers had the audacity to ask for Dr. Yang¡¯s phone number. Yang Ping was generous enough to share his phone number and WeChat account with them. After a while, the hotel¡¯s chef had the Chinese food ready for serving. As they had gotten quite hungry, Yang Ping and his colleagues were invited to dine at the top-floor restaurant. The private jet was also ready. While Jim Basa was busy preparing for a press conference, Yang Ping was getting ready to return to China. John Ansen, Massimo, and others were waiting to take Yang to the airport. Chapter 458 - 458 419 Out of Battery ?Chapter 458: Chapter 419: Out of Battery Chapter 458: Chapter 419: Out of Battery Jim Basa was about to hold a press conference and he asked Yang Ping if he had any requests, such as for his privacy. Yang Ping formally requested: he did not want to expose himself to the public, he hated becoming a public figure, he only wanted to be a quiet, undisturbed doctor. If it was really necessary to disclose information about him, the only information that could be revealed was the code name Doctor Y. Doctor Y! Jim Basa repeated the name with a meaningful tone. Collins, John Ansen, Massimo and Eugene also repeated the name. It was very good, from now on they could use the code name Doctor Y when mentioning Dr. Yang in certain situations. Jim Basa bid Yang Ping farewell to go deal with the press, journalists he had blocked for a long time. They had already put their cameras on tripods and were ready to fire at him. He respected Yang Ping¡¯s wishes, much like a genius scientist, a genius doctor should be protected and not influenced by these noisy voices. After dinner, Yang Ping rested at the hotel. He discussed Steven¡¯s condition and follow-up considerations with a few doctors including John Ansen. John Ansen privately informed Yang Ping about the establishment of an online club and invited Yang Ping to join to help clarify doubts for everyone. John Ansen had an idea. He wanted to turn this online club into a high-level, non-public medical club surpassing any medical associations, with members that were geniuses in the medical field. They would discuss advanced issues. Considering some of these advanced issues might be controversial and even incomprehensible to ordinary doctors, they wouldn¡¯t be discussed publicly. He hoped that when Yang Ping had time, he would send some surgical videos, new surgical methods, new medical ideas to the club forum before forming a paper, so that everyone could learn. This way, among top-notch doctors, new ideas and techniques could spread quickly. Of course, there would be a complete set of rules for the club in the future, for example, the establishment of an invitation system, membership qualifications, member discipline, confidentiality regulations, medical ethics, intellectual property protection, and so on. Yang Ping strongly agreed with John Ansen¡¯s idea. In this way, new theories and techniques can be promoted and applied at the fastest speed, rather than relying on traditional papers, books or further studies to spread. The club would continue to increase its members in the future, but the requirements for membership were very strict, basically the world¡¯s top experts in the industry. As for the club¡¯s name and some details, John Ansen was still considering them. Massimo also got wind of the club and asked John Ansen about it, but John Ansen didn¡¯t want to invite him yet. He would wait until the club¡¯s name and details were well-established, then naturally invite some suitable doctors. Except for a few initial members, John Ansen decided the admission of following members must go through a strict procedure. Except for those personally recommended by Dr. Yang, who could take the express green lane. Having gotten enough rest, Yang Ping said farewell to everyone. John Ansen sent Yang Ping and his party to Houston International Airport in a special car. Collins, Massimo, Eugene and so on, almost all the doctors who participated in the emergency rescue at that time came to see them off. Right before getting on the plane, Massimo summoned the courage to ask: ¡°Doctor Yang, how many interventional surgeries have you performed? Can you tell me?¡± Yang Ping thought for a while: ¡°I am a surgeon, I hardly ever do interventional surgeries.¡± Having said that, Yang Ping waved his hand and led by the airport staff, he began to board the plane. At that moment, the air froze, and Massimo stood there, his mind blank. United Airline¡¯s charter plane left Houston and followed a direct flight path to China. On the plane, two blonde, blue-eyed young flight attendants asked Yang Ping for his autograph. Yang Ping could not refuse and could only sign the code name Doctor Y. The two girls directly asked Yang Ping for his social media account, hoping to become friends with Yang Ping. Old Cheng tried to shield Yang Ping: ¡°Come on, add my account, let¡¯s be friends.¡± The girls didn¡¯t listen to him at all, they directly ignored Old Cheng and pursued Yang Ping relentlessly. After all, it was a charter plane, they did not care. Yang Ping said he didn¡¯t have a whatsapp account. If he didn¡¯t have an account, then he could leave his mobile number. Anyway, there¡¯s Wi-Fi on the plane, and the two girls started downloading WeChat from the App store on their mobile phones. The enthusiasm of the American girls was overwhelming, not restrained at all. Technically, most of the flight attendants on American flights are old ladies, but the flight attendants on this charter flight were surprisingly young, which seemed to have been selected on purpose. This was rather uncharacteristic of American flights. On the plane, Yang Ping wanted to take a nap, but Old Cheng was clamoring to play Dou Dizhu (a popular card game in China). When they were flying here, Cheng had a really good hand, but the plane had to return, which ruined his good hand. Old Cheng was always not convinced about this. Huang Jiacai was not one to be outdone and continued to play. He wanted to add a punishment this time: losing meant drinking a full cup of beverage, regardless of whether it was Coke or coffee. He pointed to the cup while suggesting this. Since this charter flight was going to take more than ten hours anyway, the three of them started playing Dou Dizhu again. The loser drank a beverage. Old Cheng was always the one losing, drinking cup after cup, which caused him to continuously run to the bathroom and burp uncontrollably. This prompted a flight attendant to come over and ask if they needed any help. Old Cheng repeatedly waved off the help, saying everything was fine. He patted his belly, which was bulging with carbonated drinks, and said, ¡°Dr. Yang has worked hard, let us all rest.¡± When the plane flew over Alaska, it made a brief stop for refueling and then took off again. Two fighter planes took off from Elmendorf Air Force Base to escort the charter plane across the Arctic sky as a sign of gratitude to Yang Ping. After everyone had a good chat playing cards, Yang Ping chatted with Xiao Su on WeChat, then lay down to sleep for a while. The ten-plus hours passed quickly, and the plane landed at Nandu airport a little past midnight. Dean Xia and Director Han, along with a few colleagues from the comprehensive orthopedics department, waited at the airport to pick them up. When Yang Ping came out of the terminal building and saw his two old leaders waving at him from afar, he felt a sense of familiarity and was almost moved to tears. Little Su was also standing in the early morning wind, her hair flowing, and a hint of tears in her eyes. Yang Ping, seeing her, felt an overwhelming sense of affection. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, Little Five, and Liang Fatty were almost jumping up, waving their hands and shouting. ¡°Dean Xia and Director Han...¡± Yang Ping was so moved, he didn¡¯t know what to say. Both leaders were in their fifties, and the fact they waited for him in the middle of the night was very touching. ¡°You¡¯ve lost weight, it¡¯s only been a week but you¡¯ve lost weight, the nutrition of the American burgers must not be enough.¡± Director Han said, holding Yang Ping¡¯s hand. Dean Xia also looped his arm around Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder and said: ¡°What kind of nutrition can it have, it¡¯s just a big, half-cooked veggie bun.¡± Yang Ping was surrounded by Dean Xia and Director Han, with Dean Xia being tall and sturdy, no one else could get close. As they walked towards the car park, Director Han suddenly realized something was amiss, Xiao Su was unable to approach. So he called out loudly: ¡°Xiao Zhang, how has the car been arranged?¡± With a hearty voice, Dean Xia said: ¡°Xiao Yang will sit with me, we can have a good chat.¡± As he pulled Yang Ping towards the car park, the hospital¡¯s chauffeur quickly came over to meet them. Director Han stopped Dean Xia: ¡°This car, Xiao Zhang has arranged it, it¡¯s well thought out, Zhang Lin, Zhang Lin...¡± Only then did Zhang Lin get a chance to speak: ¡°Yes, Director Han and Dean Xia will take one car, the hospital¡¯s car. Dr. Yang will take Xiao Su¡¯s car...¡± Dean Xia paused for a moment, Zhang Lin quickly explained: ¡°It¡¯s an electric car, very quiet. Dr. Yang is tired, he needs rest.¡± Then Dean Xia understood: ¡°Oh, right, right, Xiao Yang, have a good rest when you get home. Come to my office for tea tomorrow, we need to have a chat.¡± Director Han, pushing Dean Xia, already started walking away. That¡¯s when everyone got a chance to approach, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, Little Five, Liang Fatty, and a few others asked after his wellbeing. Liang Fatty, trailing behind, gave Yang Ping a shoulder massage. Everyone surrounded Yang Ping as they escorted him to Xiao Su¡¯s car. Xiao Su didn¡¯t say anything. She started the car, left the car park, made a big round, returned to the car park, then found a parking spot and stopped again. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Yang Ping saw her making rounds and stopping again without speaking. He thought she was angry. Xiao Su was normally open and straightforward, not a petty person. What could be the matter? Could it be about the American girls hassling him on the plane? She didn¡¯t know about it. Even if she did, there was nothing to be upset about. He was the victim. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°It seems like the car¡¯s out of power!¡± Xiao Su said softly. ¡°Out of power?¡± Yang Ping let out a sigh of relief. He thought he had offended the young lady somehow. What a big deal, it¡¯s just a power shortage, they could just find a place to recharge the car. There should still be some emergency power left, right? ¡°Can you check if the car¡¯s out of power?¡± Xiao Su pointed to the dashboard. Yang Ping unbuckled his seat belt, leaned over to turn on the atmosphere light to see what was going on. As Yang Ping leaned over, before he could touch the light, a pair of hands grabbed his head, soft, moist lips had already pressed onto his. Pummeled by the strong electric shock, dazed! Like a flood that burst the dam, Yang Ping couldn¡¯t control himself anymore. One hand was already going upstream, trying to trace the source, but was firmly held by Xiao Su. ¡°Sit down, buckle up.¡± After the two separated, Xiao Su¡¯s other hand pushed Yang Ping back into his seat. ¡°Haven¡¯t recharged the car yet?¡± Yang Ping tried to get up. Xiao Su held him down: ¡°No problem, the car has power now. Stay seated, we¡¯re driving.¡± The car started, Xiao Su giggled a few times. The car immediately left the parking space, accelerating out of the car park. ¡°Or, should we recharge when we get home?¡± Yang Ping was in a rush. Xiao Su held back her laughter: ¡°There¡¯s a bottle of mineral water on the side, it¡¯s cold, have a few sips.¡± Chapter 459 - 459 420 Rain is Coming ?Chapter 459: Chapter 420: Rain is Coming Chapter 459: Chapter 420: Rain is Coming Early in the morning, Yang Ping rushed to the department, feeling uneasy after not being back for a week. Returning to the department, the familiar sense of security was quite comforting. After the shift was over, Song Zimo reported the recent events of the week in the department, then Yang Ping led everyone on a round of patient rounds. There were a lot of new interns in the department now, so the rounds were much larger than they used to be. After the rounds, Director Han called to ask Yang Ping to go to Dean Xia¡¯s office for a chat over tea. When Yang Ping arrived at the dean¡¯s office, Director Han was already waiting there. ¡°Yang, sit down!¡± Dean Xia was pouring a few pills into his mouth and drinking some water. He gestured for Yang Ping to sit down. Once Dean Xia had swallowed the water, he said, ¡°Yang, Director Han and I have been discussing this. We¡¯re thinking of upgrading your department to the Comprehensive Surgery Department. This will broaden the spectrum of patients you can treat. I¡¯ll give you all eight floors for this purpose. If you need personnel, funds, or equipment, just say the word!¡± Yang Ping was an orthopedic doctor. If his department was to become a comprehensive surgical department, it would mean breaking the limits of specialization, which was actually quite advantageous as many diseases crossed the bounds of their respective specialties. For example, Old Feng¡¯s upper cervical spine tumor had grown upwards and invaded the medulla oblongata. Typically, this would require cooperation from the departments of Spine Surgery and Neurosurgery. In major tertiary hospitals, such comprehensive surgery departments are probably a first. Even if small county hospitals have distinct specializations, major tertiary hospitals would typically not have such a comprehensive department. Dean Xia was not going backward with this idea; he was looking at Yang Ping¡¯s recent progress, and he had thoughtfully decided to establish this comprehensive surgery department for him. Yang Ping, together with Song Zimo, had been pioneering compound trauma surgery, performing several high-difficulty surgeries. The most outstanding one was the emergency surgery for Shuilian¡ªthe ¡®half-woman¡¯. Both the emergency surgery and the subsequent restoration and reconstruction surgeries were top-notch worldwide. Dean Xia and Director Han predicted that Yang Ping should not be confined to ordinary surgery in the future; it would be a waste of talent. Rather, he should focus on difficult medical areas such as tumors, transplants, reconstruction, and orthopedic deformities, many of which involved multiple departments. Without a true interdisciplinary platform, it would be difficult for Yang Ping to fully utilize his talents. This arrangement perfectly aligns with Yang Ping¡¯s views. Specialization and non-specialization are relative concepts. For ordinary people, specialization is necessary, while for Yang Ping, interdisciplinary development is necessary to conquer difficult medical problems. Yang Ping¡¯s current research on stem cell muscle cultivation, once successful, will expand to the cultivation of hearts, livers, and kidneys with stem cells, which cannot be solved by orthopedics alone. In short, this comprehensive surgery department will allow Yang Ping¡¯s future research on the human body to be unrestricted and unrestricted by ethical and legal concerns. ¡°The leadership has considered this thoroughly. I will definitely fulfill this mission,¡± Yang Ping responded feeling relieved. ¡°Also, about the title, we¡¯re helping you get promoted to Associate Senior Specialist. It will take some time, but for now, the hospital has appointed you as Associate Chief Physician,¡± Director Han added. Yang Ping had recently become a resident physician. Now, the hospital had appointed him as Associate Chief Physician. This was an exceptional talent-utilizing method. ¡°Yang, feel free to operate. Your Comprehensive Surgery Department is like a microcosm of the hospital¨Cindependent in regards to finances, personnel, and supplies. For example, you have full independence in orthopedic consumables procurement,¡± Dean Xia said confidently. ¡°Also, we have applied for the research fund. Let¡¯s show it to Yang,¡± Director Han added. It felt like both of them wanted to announce all the good news at once. ¡°Here¡¯s two million in research funds to start with. Kick off your research project, and I¡¯ll source more in the future.¡± Two million was substantial for any research project. Although it was a mere drop in the bucket for Yang Ping¡¯s research project, it was what Dean Xia had managed to source after substantial effort. Dean Xia knew it wasn¡¯t enough. He understood that resolving part of the problem was still progress. The hospital would resolve a part of the issue, and he would find some external funding to make do for the time being. Gathering the total research funding worth twenty million wouldn¡¯t be tough. ¡°You should thank Dean Xia. He has put in a lot of effort for your research project, to the point of nearly being admitted to the Gastroenterology Department,¡± Director Han understood the challenges involved. Dean Xia waved his hand dismissively, ¡°You were equally concerned. There¡¯s no need for thanks. We¡¯re simply offering our services to Yang Ping. Although the money is less, there¡¯s no rush. Let¡¯s get the project started first while I try to figure out a way to get more financial support from the hospital. I¡¯ll also try to secure some donations. You just concentrate on your research, and I¡¯ll handle the money.¡± Yang Ping looked at his research proposal, which had been approved by the country. The two million in funds represented the hard work of Dean Xia and Director Han. With gratitude, Yang Ping said, ¡°Thank you, Dean Xia. Thank you, Director Han. This funding is like a lifeline. When I was in the United States, I earned some money from surgeries and patent sales. The funds should suffice for my research project for now.¡± Dean Xia objected, saying, ¡°Your money is yours. Regardless of the amount, it¡¯s for your personal use! How could it be used for the research project? Moreover, young people like you are at an age where they need money.¡± Director Han agreed with Dean Xia¡¯s opinion. It was improbable for Yang Ping to fund his research project. ¡°I managed to generate a considerable amount of funds during the trip. Even after buying a big house, I¡¯ll have plenty left over. Money is just a number. If it is used for research, it¡¯s a beneficial thing,¡± Yang Ping tried to explain to his superiors how he felt guilty watching them worry about funding. Director Han noticed Yang Ping¡¯s expressions and chuckled silently. The young lad hadn¡¯t been whipped by society yet. ¡°How much did you manage to generate? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? Buying a house wouldn¡¯t leave much.¡± Dean Xia spoke earnestly, ¡°Xiao Yang, you should save your earnings to buy a house. Settling down is a major expense. You have saved some money now, and the hospital will give you a housing allowance. Hurry up and buy a house, get married, and you can focus properly on your career. The price of houses around the hospital rises year by year. If you hesitate, you will lose out. As for us old folks, we can still grind our bones. Don¡¯t worry about us. What¡¯s this amount of money? Ask Director Han. When Sanbo was established, there were more headache-causing issues than this. With a single slap of my hand, there isn¡¯t a problem Old Xia couldn¡¯t solve.¡± Facing the two adorable middle-aged men, Yang Ping didn¡¯t know what to say, how to respond? ¡°The funds I¡¯ve raised this time are considerable and should be enough for the initial investment in this project.¡± Yang Ping had to reveal his financial situation. Dean Xia and Director Han exchanged glances. Did this child have no concept of money? Did he think that a hundred or so million would be enough for this major project? ¡°Let me tell you, Xiao Yang, all your money would be used up just buying a single house,¡± Director Han reminded him. Yang Ping said, ¡°You must be talking about Thomson One in Shanghai. A single unit there could wipe out my savings. But for property near the hospital, it¡¯s a drop in the bucket.¡± Director Han and Dean Xia both looked surprised, ¡°What did you say?¡± ¡°How much did I raise this time?¡± Yang Ping made a gesture with his fingers. It looked like the number eight. Director Han showed a surprised expression, ¡°Eight hundred thousand?¡± Dean Xia shook his head, gathering courage,¡±Eight million?¡± Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°Eighty million, in US Dollars!¡± Oh my God! Dean Xia¡¯s jaw almost dropped, and Director Han leaned back on the sofa. The poor kid¡¯s been driving himself crazy, talking nonsense. Eighty million dollars, that¡¯s a few hundred million RMB. No wonder he¡¯s like this. They were once in his shoes. When applying for national natural science research for the first time, they spent nights writing proposals, revising them over and over again. After the proposals were submitted, all they could do was wait anxiously for them to be approved. Just applying for one research topic could turn half your hair white. Fearing for the funding of this project, the child thinks about it day and night. Plus with the exhaustion from the trip abroad, it¡¯s no wonder he might be delirious. Such a precious talent. God forbid anything happens. They¡¯ve put too much pressure on him. This child is not even thirty and has so much to bear. ¡°Old Han, we can discuss this matter later. You should take Xiao Yang for a break. Let him and Xiao Su have a week off to relax nearby.¡± Dean Xia kept signalling with his eyes. Old Han got the message, and immediately took Yang Ping. ¡°Xiao Yang, we¡¯ll talk about money later. Let¡¯s have some tea first. Then we¡¯ll give you and Xiao Su a week off, how does that sound?¡± What¡¯s wrong with these two today? They are behaving strangely. ¡°Dean Xia, Director Han¨C¡± Director Han took Yang Ping and left. Watching Yang Ping leave, Dean Xia felt sorry. The platform of Sanbo was perhaps not big enough. Dean Xia couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit desolate. He had done his best. As long as Xiao Yang remained in Sanbo, he would provide him with the best conditions. The hospital had received notification that Yang Ping had just won the Golden Knife Award for assisting NASA in a successful astronaut rescue in the United States. Superior instructions were to transfer Yang Ping and his team to 301 in Beijing. The local health supervisor would join Dean Xia to do Yang Ping¡¯s ideological work in advance. Soon, the 301 team will come to Sanbo to talk to Yang Ping face to face. The offer was very generous: corresponding doctorates to military ranks, position as department director, tens of millions in research funding, a hefty housing allowance, settling employment for partners. The key was to dig out a whole team, not only to bring Yang Ping into Beijing, but also to invite him into the Medical Care Group. Yang Ping¡¯s recent surgery in the United States was kept quiet in domestic media, per the leaders¡¯ suggestion. Protecting talented young people, since online public opinion has great influence now. It easily elevates someone but it could also easily destroy someone. The leader¡¯s consideration was justified. Once famous, one tends to attract attention. For a genius like Yang Ping, who could defy convention, exposure to the media could easily make him a target for malicious media. Desire to retain him wouldn¡¯t be of much use, Dean Xia thought as he walked to the window and looked down. Since Sanbo¡¯s establishment, he had worked tirelessly, digging up talent everywhere. He had paid numerous visits to the humble thatched cottages of others. Dean Xia still acknowledges his ambitious but mediocre ability. The hospital has not achieved his goal. Just when he was about to take a step closer to his dream, they want to dig out Yang Ping and his whole team. This would mean taking away his core technology, it would be like taking the firewood from under the pot. When it rains, it pours! Nobody could stop these things from happening. Maybe going to a better platform would allow Xiao Yang to truly demonstrate his talents. Still, it caused Dean Xia heartache in waves. Chapter 460 - 460 421 Which Father-in-Law ?Chapter 460: Chapter 421: Which Father-in-Law? Chapter 460: Chapter 421: Which Father-in-Law? Regarding the matter of being transferred to 301, the higher authorities asked Sanbo Hospital to mentally prepare Yang Ping in advance. However, neither Dean Xia nor Director Han could bring themselves to bring it up. This matter was akin to giving away one¡¯s own son to someone else and asking themselves to persuade him, which was undeniably emotional. Yang Ping also felt that Director Han was hiding something from him, as he had been looking worried and seemed deep in thought these days. When asked, he stayed silent. For the time being, Yang Ping wasn¡¯t keen on prying deeper, but he was concerned that Old Han would wear himself out over this issue. As for the establishment of Yang Ping¡¯s Comprehensive Surgery Department, it doesn¡¯t mean that he wouldn¡¯t have a clear direction in the future, constantly flitting between different areas. The focus would still be on orthopedics, but if a cross-specialty patient needed treatment, he would have the authority to intervene, and legal and ethical issues wouldn¡¯t hinder him. For example, if a patient came in with a heart deformity that no one else could correct, if Doctor Yang had a solution, he couldn¡¯t act on it because of legal and qualification boundaries, as he was an orthopedic doctor, not a heart surgeon. This could cause trouble. If a patient with severe spinal deformity came in, accompanied by deformity and displacement of thoracic and abdominal organs, would Yang Ping have the ability to handle the organs in question? To operate or not to operate? In rescuing Yu Shuilian, apart from the orthopedic aspects, there were also damages to the abdominal organs. Doctor Yang was capable of saving her if he performed the surgery. However, if someone else performed the surgery pertaining to organ damage, they would not be able to save her. So, should Doctor Yang save her or not? These were all real issues. Now all these problems had been resolved; with the scope of the Comprehensive Surgery Department, no issues of exceeding authority would arise. There would be no barriers, either legally or ethically, to saving lives. In short, the authority of the Comprehensive Surgery Department was to unshackle Yang Ping, allowing his capabilities to be utilized to the fullest. Yang Ping was very clear about his technical path. His primary focus would be orthopedics, with the development of other specialties as secondary. His skills tree would be nurtured vigorously. The current topic was proceeding in this direction, starting with the cultivation of muscle from orthopedic stem cells, developing to the cultivation of the entire organ with stem cells. Once successful, it would be revolutionary. Future research would focus on bone tumors, degenerative spine and bone joint diseases, etc., and then extend these research findings to other specialties. The majority of the patients in their department were uncommon and complex orthopedic cases, surgeries with high difficulty, with large risks, or prone to disputes. Some had botched their first surgeries elsewhere and had come here for correction. Since the Golden Knife Award, bizarre patient cases had drastically increased. Many were from other provinces, recommended by local doctors. Several cases of severe scoliosis had been admitted to the department. Although not as extreme as Lu Gang¡¯s case, other hospitals were still reluctant to take them on. As for these severe spinal deformities, Song Zimo was still hesitant to operate and wanted to follow Yang Ping for a while before daring to take on such high-risk cases. The department¡¯s daily work was well managed by Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. Zhang Lin managed the interns, and Xiao Five handled the external connections. Everyone was fulfilling their duties and the department was growing steadily. However, if suitable candidates could be found, they wanted to bring in more young doctors to strengthen the department¡¯s competence. Yang Ping was explaining a case of scoliosis to Director Hu from Xiehe. These high difficulty cases required skill in how to correct the deformity with minimal impact on the spinal cord, finding the balance, and establishing a baseline. Only when this point was determined could spinal correction be performed confidently. Director Han came to find Yang Ping. He greeted Director Hu and called Yang Ping into his office for a chat. Director Han had always kept his office in the Comprehensive Orthopedics Department, but he rarely used it, as he generally worked from the office in the Orthopedics Research Institute. Director Han hemmed and hawed: ¡°Xiao Yang.¡± Director Han fidgeted with his cup, avoiding eye contact. ¡°Director Hu has mentioned to me a few times that Professor Liang from Xiehe thinks highly of you, Xiao Yang. If there¡¯s an opportunity in the future, it would be good to go to top-tier hospitals like Xiehe or 301. They have a larger platform for development.¡± Director Han surprisingly hinting at this. What did he mean? Where was he supposed to go? Yang Ping had a feeling that these words were not said casually and had a hidden implication. ¡°Director, you and Dean Xia, something seems off between you, since I came back, you sounded strange, I¡¯m at Sanbo Hospital, where else could I go? This place is my home, I¡¯ll stay here, I¡¯m not going anywhere.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t talk nonsense! Just as people strive for higher positions, and water flows downwards, you should aim for better hospitals, you cannot nest here forever. As doctors, we strive to make a significant impact, we must aim higher, go to Shanghai, go to Beijing, especially to top platforms like Xiehe and 301. It is an unavoidable fact that many resources are skewed towards those hospitals. If you want to achieve great things, you need a larger platform, such as in scientific research, when applying for projects, it is much easier at Xiehe or 301. The platform is different, and your future development will be different. Nesting here will hold back your career. If you have the opportunity to go, I fully support you. Being on a better platform can save more people and create more achievements.¡± Director Han opened up the topic and excitedly said a lot. Yang Ping squinted his eyes, looking at Director Han: ¡°You guys? You¡¯re not hiding something from me, are you?¡± ¡°Stop beating around the bush. In matters of fact, your Uncle Hong and I are just examples. He is now moving towards becoming an academician, holding over a billion in scientific research funds.¡± Director Han finished, his hands trembling slightly. Yang Ping waved his hand: ¡°Director! I¡¯m not arguing with you. Regardless of what you¡¯re keeping me out of the loop on, I¡¯m telling you, old man, I¡¯m not going anywhere, nobody can force me. Isn¡¯t Mayo also in a small town?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not the same. Let me tell you, in the face of major issues, don¡¯t be stubborn with me.¡± Old Han was a little angry. He had finally mustered up the courage to convince Yang Ping and after saying so much, Yang Ping remained unmoved. Truth be told, Old Han also hopes that Yang Ping can go to Xiehe or 301. There is no banquet that does not end. ¡°What¡¯s not the same? I¡¯m a bit stubborn indeed, I¡¯m not going anywhere, I¡¯ll stay right here. Director, when I went to the United States this time, I really brought back 80 million US dollars. I say it frankly, I will leave some of it for myself to buy a house, the rest will be used for scientific research.¡± Yang Ping quickly changed the subject. ¡°What did you say? Are you joking with me, an old man, for amusement? 80 million US dollars? Is it a truckload?¡± Old Han laughed heartily. Yang Ping looked disdainful: ¡°What era¡¯s thinking is this? 80 million, isn¡¯t it just a string of zeros after eight, still need a truck to haul it?¡± Yang Ping showed the deposit message from his phone to Director Han: ¡°Look, this is the surgical fee paid by NASA. They launch a rocket for 60 million US dollars. I saved a person for them. It¡¯s not too much to charge this amount. These phone calls and text messages are invitations from the bank to help me open some wealth management privilege services.¡± Director Han looked at the phone, it seemed to be true. There was no need to make up a whole set of lies to deceive himself. However, the amount was too large and beyond cognition. He had never seen so much money in his life, so naturally, he started to be a bit skeptical: ¡°You dared to quote this price?¡± Yang Ping smiled and said: ¡°It depends on the occasion, who you¡¯re charging. It¡¯s a big event, the investor is rich, why not? If they dare to invite me to perform surgery, I dare to charge. Rockets costing hundreds of millions of dollars are shot into the sky like fireworks, and I dare not ask for 80 million? I already show internationalist spirit by not raising the price.¡± This kid, is he the obtuse person I brought in? Director Han looked at him up and down. Yang Ping said: ¡°What are you looking at? You go and tell Dean Xia, I¡¯m an insolent person, I¡¯m not leaving, it¡¯s no use whoever comes.¡± ¡°What if you¡¯re invited to join a health care group?¡± Director Han tried to probe. ¡°Which health care group?¡± ¡°The top one!¡± ¡°No problem, that¡¯s not a full-time job, it¡¯s part-time, it doesn¡¯t affect my work here, the key is that the license is useful.¡± Yang Ping said mysteriously. ¡°You little rascal, have you already calculated this? Don¡¯t want to leave, want to stay at Sanbo, is this your real thought?¡± Director Han asked seriously. ¡°Really, I have found a way to raise funds now, with this way, money keeps flowing in like water, so I won¡¯t lack money for my research.¡± Yang Ping was very relaxed. ¡°Oh, also, this time your father-in-law was appointed, becoming a new academician, it¡¯s a sure thing!¡± ¡°Which father-in-law?¡± Yang was confused. Old Han glared at Yang Ping: ¡°Listening to you, it seems you have many fathers-in-law?¡± ¡°No, no, I haven¡¯t gotten married yet, when you mentioned father-in-law, I didn¡¯t react immediately.¡± ¡°Professor Su, who else? What father-in-law, be careful with your words, you can say this in front of me. This time there was only one addition in clinical medicine, and it¡¯s your father-in-law, the others are all from basic medicine. The Su Family is evergreen, your father-in-law¡¯s elder brother has already gone to Beijing.¡± Chapter 461 - 461 422 The Mysterious Back Pain ?Chapter 461: Chapter 422: The Mysterious Back Pain Chapter 461: Chapter 422: The Mysterious Back Pain Upon seeing Yang Ping¡¯s determination, Director Han was deeply moved and confessed that the higher-ups wanted to transfer Yang Ping to the 301 Hospital. However, this kind of talent poaching ultimately requires the consent of the individual. If the person insists on not going, the other party can do nothing about it. Director Han, who was initially indecisive, hoped that Yang Ping could go to the best platform, but he was very reluctant to part with him. Now, he¡¯s made up his mind, he wants to keep this young man here. He and Dean Xia can still work for many years and use these years to help Yang Ping accomplish extraordinary things. What Yang Ping needs is not money or honor, but freedom, understanding, sincerity, respect, and care. If Yang Ping went elsewhere, even though the platform might be bigger, those people might not truly understand such a prodigy, and if not cared for properly, it may lead to terrible consequences. ¡°Yang, we are alone here, let me ask you once more, are you really willing to stay at Sanbo? I sincerely hope you could go to a bigger platform and achieve greater things, don¡¯t let our personal feelings interfere with your decision.¡± Director Han spoke from the bottom of his heart. Yang Ping responded resolutely: ¡°I only want to stay at Sanbo, I don¡¯t want to go anywhere else. What I need is here, other platforms, no matter how big, may not have it.¡± ¡°Good!¡± Old Han stood up. ¡°I¡¯ll go and tell Dean Xia right now. You can concentrate on your work, and we¡¯ll handle other things.¡± ¡°During your trip abroad, Professor Su called me several times to inquire about your situation. He¡¯s quite worried about you. I told him, he asked the wrong person, he should have more information than me, but he didn¡¯t say anything.¡± Director Han recalled this and reminded Yang Ping to find an appropriate way to respond to Professor Su. Professor Su has passed through many challenges and has successfully passed two rounds of the academician review. He was elected with a high vote in the final round of voting and he is now in the public announcement stage. Professors Hong Zhigang, Meng Heng, Fu Shancheng who were also running for the academician fell out in the second round and could only wait for the next selection in two years. When Director Han just mentioned ¡°father-in-law¡±, Yang Ping did not catch it immediately. Yang Ping knows that Xiao Su is smart and has her plans. She is looking for the right time to introduce Yang Ping to her parents, so Yang Ping is not in a hurry. Probably Xiao Su has not formally mentioned her romance with Yang Ping to her father, so Professor Su does not inquire about Yang Ping¡¯s situation from his daughter. Yang Ping wrote a WeChat message about the general situation in the United States and sent it to Su Nanchen, this should allay Professor Su¡¯s worries. Director Han hurriedly went to find Dean Xia, and Yang Ping returned to the doctors¡¯ office. Director Hu was eagerly waiting for Yang Ping to continue the explanation about scoliosis surgery, and several doctors from Xiehe Hospital were also waiting, Song Yun was also present. Zhang Lin just came in, followed by a doctor in his thirties with his head down, whom Yang Ping did not recognize, he must have come while he was in the United States. ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± Zhang Lin greeted respectfully, and the doctor also followed suit. Then he brought the doctor to a side meeting room, leaving the door not fully closed, with a small gap. ¡°Teacher Zhang, sorry, here¡¯s my self-criticism letter¡ª¡± The doctor presented the self-criticism letter with both hands, Zhang Lin received it, read it and signed it. ¡°This self-criticism letter is just about right. Let me tell you why are you here? For an internship! Internship has its rules, learning has its attitude. Regardless of which hospital you were from and what your title was, once you come here, you are an intern at Sanbo, you have to follow my rules and show your learning attitude, otherwise why are you here? Vacation? This is not a place where you can come and go as you please. Once you¡¯re expelled, you will be put on the blacklist, you won¡¯t have a chance to come here for an internship in the future, and it can also affect your colleagues¡¯ internship application. I¡¯ve seen a lot like you, how good do you think you are? Do you know where you are in the global academic rankings? Have you heard of Takahashi Fumiya? Are you as good as he is? Ask anyone in this department, isn¡¯t he a person with norms and rules?¡± Teacher Zhang was serious and straightforward, the listeners dare not overstep, presumably this is not the first time he¡¯s been scolded. The voice was loud and seeped through the gap in the door, all people in the doctor¡¯s office were listening. ¡°The new intern is from Fuer Hospital, came here to learn about scoliosis orthopedics, he¡¯s the nephew of the vice-chancellor of Nandu Medical University, he¡¯s either late or leaves early, doesn¡¯t take things seriously.¡± Song Zimo whispered to Yang Ping. ¡°Zhang Lin¡¯s got him by the throat¡ª¡± Song Zimo chuckled silently. Yang Ping turned to the side and saw Zhang Lin through the gap in the door, he couldn¡¯t help but smile. He really looks the part and carries himself with authority. ¡°He manages the interns very well, no one dares to make trouble.¡± Song Zimo was obviously very pleased with Zhang Lin¡¯s performance. Just as Yang Ping was about to resume the explanation of scoliosis correction to Director Hu, a disturbance came from the hallway. Yang Ping faintly heard someone shouting ¡®quack¡¯, ¡®sue¡¯, ¡®wrong surgery¡¯ etc. Graduate student Li Guodong came in with a worried look: ¡°Director, the patient transferred from the spinal surgery department is still experiencing back pain after the surgery. He¡¯s creating a disturbance there, Director Qin and Dr. Song contacted us to transfer him to our department.¡± ¡°Oh, they¡¯re here. Let¡¯s go take a look, it¡¯s a patient dispute case I¡¯m consulting on.¡± Song Zimo immediately took Yang Ping to see the patient, followed by a group of medical trainees. The patient was a male, thirty-six years old, and was noticeably overweight. For two years, he had been suffering from back pain and numbness coupled with a burning sensation on the outer side of his left thigh; the pain would intensify when he stood or sat for long periods and would only ease after resting. An X-ray of his lumbar spine showed slight narrowing between the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae and between the fifth lumbar vertebra and the first sacral vertebra. An MRI indicated protrusion of the disc between the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae, along with inflammation of the vertebral endplates above and below the disc. He had previously been diagnosed at another hospital with lumbar disc herniation and had undergone minimally invasive surgery ¨C cryoablation of the disc at L4/L5. However, his symptoms had not improved after surgery, so he was referred to the Spinal Surgery Department at Sanbo Hospital by an acquaintance. He underwent a second surgery, consisting of removal of the L4/L5 disc from the back and fusion of the intervertebral space with bone graft and pedicle screw fixation. The patient was wheeled into the ward, while the spinal surgeons were handing over the case to Li Guodong from the Comprehensive Orthopedics Department. The patient was lying on his side in a curled position, with what looked like a weird creature tattooed on his arm. In this day and age, where crackdowns on criminal activities were rigorous, it was audacious of this fatty to still get tattoos of dragons and tigers. Nowadays, tattooed people were under special scrutiny. The patient was a potential dispute case, and it being a tricky task, Director Qin had to seek help from Comprehensive Orthopedics. Since Yang Ping was in the United States, Song Zimo was called in for a consultation. As soon as Song Zimo saw the case, he decided to transfer the patient to Comprehensive Orthopedics. Spinal Surgery was the subfield within Orthopedics with the most disputes. When Yang Ping was seeing patients in rural areas with Southbridge Hospital, Teacher Yan¡¯s case was a classic example of a dispute. For patients with back pain, lumbar disc herniation may seem straightforward as it is a common diagnosis made within Spinal Surgery, but in actuality, it is extremely complex. This patient had already caused trouble once at another hospital. Now, after his second surgery, with no improvement in his condition, he had concluded that Director Qin had operated on the wrong part because there was no effect from the surgery whatsoever. Director Qin, a straightforward man, sincerely wanted to help the patient, especially since the patient was referred to him by an acquaintance. Usually, doctors would be reluctant to undertake cases that required additional surgeries, especially those with potential disputes. They did not want to invite trouble upon themselves. When the patient first arrived, Director Qin had hesitated. However, since an acquaintance had referred him and the patient had earnestly pleaded for help, Director Qin had softened and taken on the case. After careful analysis, he believed that the patient¡¯s herniation at L4/L5, along with severe inflammation of the vertebral endplates at the same segment, could not be dealt with by minimally invasive surgery but required an open procedure. So, he decided to surgically remove the disc and scrape off the inflamed vertebral endplates for a thorough treatment. However, even after the seemingly successful operation, the patient¡¯s symptoms did not improve. Initially, the patient didn¡¯t think too much about it, attributing it to recent surgery. In fact, he even thoughtfully sent a banner expressing his gratitude. But after a few days passed without any reduction in his pain, he lost his temper and started to make a fuss in the ward. ¡°I have lumbar disc herniation, and this quack surgeon must have operated in the wrong place. He didn¡¯t remove the herniated disc but instead removed a healthy one? I¡¯ve asked around and searched online. It¡¯s just like this. He operated on the wrong spot. It¡¯s a medical accident!¡± The patient was aggressive and fully confident in his assertions, challenging the doctor¡¯s competence. Many patients who come to the outpatient clinic say the same thing: ¡°I have lumbar disc herniation.¡± Indeed, the imaging report would confirm lumbar disc herniation, and both doctors and patients would have little doubt about this. But back pain does not necessarily equate to lumbar disc herniation, and lumbar disc herniation does not necessarily mean the presence of lumbar disc herniation disease. If this logical relationship is not clarified, it¡¯s impossible to effectively treat patients suffering from back pain. Back pain is the primary complaint in outpatient clinics, with 80% of people experiencing it at some point in their lives. At any given time, 18% of people are suffering from back pain. This means that in this moment, out of 100 people, 18 are experiencing back pain ¨C a quite significant ratio. The causes of back pain are complex. Lumbar disc herniation is just an imaging diagnosis, whereas lumbar disc herniation disease is a clinical diagnosis. The difference may be subtle, but the implications are significant. It¡¯s not right to diagnose every case of back pain as lumbar disc herniation disease. Similarly, spotting ¡°lumbar disc herniation¡± on a CT or MRI report does not confirm diagnosis of lumbar disc herniation disease. It¡¯s not as simple as that, nor as frustrating. ¡°Can you lie down? I want to examine you!¡± The patient turned his head and shot a sidelong glance. He seemed about to curse, but the gaze of Yang Ping, together with the group of doctors in white lab coats around him, had a powerful effect and silenced him. ¡°You¡ªare¡ªDr. Yang? The one who straightened that twisted guy?¡± The patient suddenly changed his demeanor. The fearless disposition he just exhibited seemed to have faded, replaced by a timid inquiry. ¡°This is Dr. Yang I told you about. You need to cooperate with his examination. You¡¯ve already had two surgeries without improvement, which is more than a simple issue. This is what we call a complex and difficult disease. If you trust us, trust Dr. Yang, and want to get better, comply and behave. If you don¡¯t trust us, tell us. We will immediately transport you back to the Spinal Surgery Department for you to continue your fuss.¡± Song Zimo had already dealt with him before. The patient struggled to turn and lie down: ¡°Dr. Yang! I believe in you. Outside, people say you¡¯re a miracle worker. You reattached several amputated parts of a firefighter¡¯s arm; you healed a football player who was thought to be done for and sent him back onto the pitch; you operated on a man who was as twisted as a pretzel when no other doctor in the country dared to.¡± ¡°Are you still in pain?¡± Song Zimo urged him to lie down properly. ¡°Pain! Of course it¡¯s painful! I¡¯m rolling with pain!¡± The patient readily replied. Chapter 462 - 462 423 Orthopedics Doctor Performs Ultrasound ?Chapter 462: Chapter 423: Orthopedics Doctor Performs Ultrasound Chapter 462: Chapter 423: Orthopedics Doctor Performs Ultrasound After looking through the images one by one, Yang Ping said, ¡°Lumbar 5/Sacral 1 discogenic pain.¡± He put on the gloves Song Zimo handed him and examined the patient. Wearing gloves for the examination is a habit of Yang Ping¡¯s. It¡¯s not to show off or because he feels repelled by patients; it¡¯s a more stringent hand hygiene practice to prevent cross-infection. After a thorough examination, Yang Ping had a good understanding of the situation. At a spot two centimeters from the anterior superior iliac spine in the right groin, there was localized tenderness, positive Tinel¡¯s sign, aggravated symptoms during hip extension, and a positive pelvic compression test. The super training program at that time focused on anatomy, physical examination, instrument, and laboratory tests, which laid a solid clinical foundation for Yang Ping. ¡°Lateral femoral cutaneous neuritis! Call the ultrasound department; bring a bedside ultrasound machine.¡± Yang Ping removed his gloves. Song Zimo immediately contacted the ultrasound department. Soon, a beautiful female doctor from the ultrasound department came with a bedside ultrasound machine through the emergency elevator. She set the ultrasound machine and prepared to start. Yang Ping said, ¡°Should I do it?¡± Orthopedics doing ultrasound? Unheard of. Without any further explanation, Yang Ping began, smearing coupling agent and scanning along the path of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve. His technique was like that of an experienced ultrasound doctor who had decades of experience. ¡°Dr. Yang can perform ultrasound?¡± The female doctor standing by asked Song Zimo. She was quite curious, never having seen an orthopedic doctor performing ultrasound before. It is not unusual for orthopedic doctors to take X-rays. Some doctors are very dedicated to their field and have some knowledge about related disciplines. Some doctors even have better radiography skills than radiologists. But to have an orthopedic doctor who can perform ultrasound is not just rare; it¡¯s unheard of. Song Zimo remained silent as Yang Ping smoothly scanned with the ultrasound probe. He paused two centimeters from the anterior superior iliac spine in the groin. Pointing at the image on the ultrasound screen, Yang Ping said, ¡°Look, this is the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve. It was compressed while passing through the inguinal fascia, causing nerve inflammation. There must have been a previous injury at this spot, causing scar adhesion and compression. Arrange for surgery. Under local anesthesia, a minimally invasive thermoablation will be performed to release the right lateral femoral cutaneous nerve, as well as thermoablation for the Lumbar 5/Sacral 1 intervertebral disc.¡± In just over ten minutes with an ultrasound machine, a diagnosis was established and the treatment plan was clear. Who could understand the colorful, streaming image on the ultrasound screen? As for the ultrasound, Professor Hu Guolin from Xiehe Hospital knows some basics but is not an expert. Other than Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang who were trained by Yang Ping, no one else understands it well. Even the ultrasound doctor was surprised. Frankly, not many experienced ultrasound doctors are capable of identifying this type of nerve compression. Dr. Yang casually scanned a few times and came to a conclusion. Song Yun blushed and said, ¡°Doctor Yang, I still don¡¯t know how to do ultrasound. Can you teach me when you have time? Starting from zero.¡± ¡°Song Zimo, bring out the printed book for them to see.¡± Yang Ping placed the probe properly. He took two tissues from the trolley of the ultrasound machine for the patient. A standardized training student helped the patient clean up the coupling agent. The patient pulled up his pants. All the complaining from before was gone. ¡°Dr. Yang, you just mentioned that I had a previous injury from a motorcycle accident. Is there a connection?¡± ¡°Yes! We need to do a minor surgery. It¡¯s a minimally invasive operation that takes about ten minutes to solve your problem.¡± Yang Ping spoke unequivocally. The patient simply nodded, remaining silent. It seemed like nothing could be hidden from Dr. Yang. As for the printed books, there were several, all cherished by Song Zimo. These were compilations of Yang Ping¡¯s explanations, which Song Zimo had organized, printed, and bound into books. One of them was about the application of ultrasound in orthopedics, or the popular musculoskeletal ultrasound. It summarized all of Yang Ping¡¯s explanations. Director Hu also had his eyes opened. At Xiehe, the doctors¡¯ clinical basics are top-notch. They usually handle basic diseases in orthopedic patients, like diabetes, hypertension, and coronary heart disease, without needing consultations. Any doctor on duty can handle them smoothly. Why is that? Because of their strong clinical foundation. In other hospitals, it would be an age-old legend for a surgeon to know how to read electrocardiograms. At Xiehe, a surgeon who can¡¯t read an electrocardiogram is not considered a qualified doctor. Comprehensive and solid clinical training, whether it¡¯s for common diseases or rare ones, allows Xiehe doctors to handle them with ease. Some rare diseases may not even be in the minds of doctors from other hospitals, but even resident doctors at Xiehe are clear about them. This is what makes the overall strength of Xiehe hospital rank first in the country. This patient, in other hospitals, might have fallen into the trap easily. For Director Hu from Xiehe, whether in terms of diagnosis or treatment, there wouldn¡¯t be any major difficulties. However, to make a clear diagnosis, a lot of time would be needed for analysis and comparison. It would definitely not be possible like Yang Ping, who hit the nail on the head in just over ten minutes. Especially the ultrasound operation just now, that was not ordinary clinical skill. Yang Ping has such solid clinical skills, no wonder Professor Liang has been unable to forget that surgery. If Yang Ping¡¯s knowledge is an ocean, Director Hu feels that he is merely a lake. Professor Liang has a keen eye for talent. Director Hu couldn¡¯t help but sigh. He didn¡¯t understand it back then; why would Professor Liang never forget about a single surgery and persistently remind him that, apart from furthering his studies, he had to accomplish another task ¨C headhunting! Chapter 463 - 463 423 Orthopedics Doctor Performs Ultrasound ?Chapter 463: Chapter 423: Orthopedics Doctor Performs Ultrasound Part 2 Chapter 463: Chapter 423: Orthopedics Doctor Performs Ultrasound Part 2 Upon hearing that 301 has already taken action, Xiehe would also bear the responsibility without fear. In contrast to 301¡¯s strong stance, Xiehe is more moderate. In terms of academic atmosphere, Director Hu has more confidence in Xiehe, and talents like Yang Ping would prefer Xiehe. Returning to the doctor¡¯s office, Song Zimo pulled up the imaging pictures again, and Yang Ping took the opportunity to explain lumbar disc herniation to the young doctors. ¡°This is not lumbar disc herniation, but lumbar discogenic pain and lateral femoral cutaneous nerve inflammation on the right side. Lateral femoral cutaneous nerve inflammation is often misdiagnosed as lumbar disc herniation, fooling many doctors. Add to this lumbar discogenic pain, and most doctors would fall into the trap.¡± Yang Ping spoke without constraint only after returning to the office. Lumbar disc herniation is a syndrome caused by degeneration of the intervertebral disc, rupture of the fibrous ring, and protrusion of the nucleus pulposus, irritating or pressing on the nerve roots or the cauda equina. As can be seen, without symptoms of nerve roots or the cauda equina, one cannot be diagnosed with lumbar disc herniation. That is, having only lower back pain does not justify a diagnosis of lumbar disc herniation. Lumbar disc herniation must have symptoms of nerve root or cauda equina compression and irritation. But often, a large number of patients who only have lower back pain are easily diagnosed with lumbar disc herniation. The manifestations of radicular pain are mostly symptoms of sciatica, but sciatica can result from many other causes. The two are not synonymous. Therefore, even if there are manifestations of sciatica, it doesn¡¯t necessarily mean it¡¯s lumbar disc herniation. This patient is such an example. If we compare the spinal cord to the main electrical switch, the spinal nerves are the wires emitted from the main switch, while the sciatic nerves are the wires that have left the main switch and are spread out in the room. The pain caused by lumbar disc disease can be of several types. There is discogenic pain, which is caused by stimulation of the nerve in the disc itself ¨C the sinuvertebral nerve ¨C resulting in lower back pain. Radicular pain is when there is a problem with the main line where the wire leaves the main switch, resulting from compression or irritation by the lumbar disc, leading to pain in the area innervated by this nerve. Furthermore, there is referred pain, wherein the location of the pain is different from the site of the disease, but because their sensory nerves transmit to the spinal cord at the same segment. This can be understood as having two locations under the same central control and monitoring. When a nerve in one location is stimulated, the signal is transmitted to the spinal cord and upward to the brain. The brain tends to make mistakes, unable to determine exactly where the problem is. As a result, it sends out pain signals to both locations, resulting in pain at the location that has no issue. The pain caused by a lumbar disc can be broadly divided into these three types, with the first one being what we call lumbar discogenic pain, and the second is lumbar disc herniation. As for sciatica, it can be caused by lumbar disc herniation or problems related to the nerve itself. If problems arise after the nerve has left the main switch, unrelated to a protruding disc, it¡¯s not diagnosed as lumbar disc herniation. Take piriformis syndrome as an example. Teacher Yan is one such case, causing distress for both the doctors and patients for two years. While speaking, Yang Ping sketched an anatomical diagram of the lumbar spine on the whiteboard. With the aid of the diagram, everyone could understand more clearly. Drawn on-the-go, it was even more accurate and beautiful than the anatomical atlas. Even if a herniated disc compresses and stimulates the nerves, there are patterns that can be followed. Look, the most common lateral herniation of the lumbar disc affects the traversing roots. The traversing roots are those that pass below the intervertebral disc and exit from the intervertebral foramen of the next vertebra. The extreme lateral disc herniation affects the exiting root; the nerve root exiting directly from the corresponding intervertebral foramen. Central disc herniation compresses the cauda equina and is the most troublesome type. ¡°Men are most afraid of this type!¡± Director Hu humorously pointed out. ¡°Does lumbar disc herniation affect sexual function?¡± A quick-thinking student asked. That¡¯s correct, but men often find it hard to bring up this issue. Even when asked, many are unwilling to admit it and beat around the bush, so people don¡¯t pay attention to it. ¡°No wonder when the back is good, she¡¯s also good,¡± Zhang Lin joked. Xu Zhiliang gave him a stern look. Zhang Lin immediately withdrew his smile and did not dare to say more, grumbling in his heart: ¡°Just trying to liven up the atmosphere, this guy is so serious.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s organization of the back pain symptoms was as clear and straightforward as a mind map created by an elementary school student. ¡°Why do we need to perform discography during surgery on this patient?¡± Li Guodong, who was eager to learn, asked. ¡°If it¡¯s discogenic back pain, the pain can be induced by the contrast medium used in discography, or be eliminated by anesthetics. It confirms that the pain comes from between discs in the lumbar spine, pinpointing the culprit of the back pain. We then perform radiofrequency ablation to kill the sinuvertebral nerve, thereby naturally eliminating the pain,¡± Song Yun explained. Song Yun admired Yang Ping¡¯s meticulous thinking ability. Given the patient¡¯s back pain and radiating leg pain, it seemed obvious to diagnose him with lumbar disc herniation. This was the root cause of the misdiagnosis. ¡°Dr. Song, share with us your knowledge about lumbago caused by lumbar disc herniation,¡± Yang Ping encouraged everyone to discuss. As in academia, the more debates, the clearer the information. With Yang Ping¡¯s guidance, Song Yun lit up with insight: ¡°Diagnoses like lumbar disc herniation and lumbar muscle strain are becoming abused, causing both patients and doctors to feel helpless.¡± ¡°As the advancements in diagnostic techniques become consolidated, it¡¯s held that the most common cause of chronic back pain is discogenic. This clarifies the diagnosis of back pain.¡± ¡°As Dr. Yang mentioned earlier, the most accurate diagnosis for this patient should be: first, discogenic lumbago, and second, right-sided meralgia paraesthetica.¡± ¡°Through diskography, discogenic lumbago can be divided into nucleus pulposus-associated and annulus fibrosus-associated types. The term ¡®source¡¯ refers to the origin of the pain.¡± Song Yun¡¯s professional knowledge was excellent, however when it came to verifying it with MRI imaging, his lack of experience showed and he sought help from Yang Ping. Yang Ping encouraged everyone to come closer to look at the images displayed on the screen: ¡°See this cross-sectional image, where high-intensity zones (HIZ) appear in the lumbar disc. MRI scans with both T1-weighted and T2-weighted images must be examined. Can¡¯t just look at one angle. If there¡¯s localized low or equal signal on T1, and localized high signal on T2, it indicates the annulus fibrosus of the disc has ruptured with granulation tissue growing into its interior. This signal from the granulation tissue is a definitive imaging marker.¡± ¡°Indeed, I see it now.¡± Song Yun had an epiphany. The things he had been reading about and researching for a long time, but never fully comprehended, suddenly became clear to him through Dr. Yang¡¯s explanation. Yang Ping then explained to Song Yun the pathology of granulation tissue, the principle of MRI imaging, the theory of image artifacts, the signal presentation of granulation tissue on MRI, the reasoning behind the specific signal types, how to determine the disease¡¯s onset time from the signal, how to differentiate image artifacts, and more. Especially when explaining the principle of MRI imaging, he was so profound that probably even those who invented MRI couldn¡¯t understand it as deeply. And he used such accessible language to explain it. Coming here for further study was the right decision! Song Yun noticed Song Zimo was constantly taking notes, so she quickly pulled out her notebook and wrote vigorously. As the lecture was in progress, the operating room upstairs had been prepared. Li Guodong took the patient to the operating room. Song Zimo performed the surgery under the guidance of Yang Ping with others observing. The surgery was completed in just over ten minutes and it worked wonders. The patient was no longer in pain and was able to get out of the operating bed and walk back to the ward all by himself. And so a dispute had been effortlessly resolved by Yang Ping. Upon receiving the news, Director Qin of the Spinal Surgery department breathed a sigh of relief and immediately called Yang Ping to express his gratitude. He reminded himself to be extra cautious with such trivial patient issues in the future. The patient offered a banner as a token of gratitude to Director Qin. He was about to retreat from the scene. It¡¯s a good thing Yang Ping helped defuse the situation. If things had escalated, where would he have hidden his face in shame? Director Gao from the Sports Medicine Center rushed over to practice arthroscopic sculpting. Upon hearing the news about the patient from the Spinal Surgery Department, he shook his head disapprovingly. Old Qin, how could you send over such a patient and wash your hands of it? You should have come and followed the case from start to finish, listened to Dr. Yang¡¯s lecture, and helped out during the operation. Only in this way you can learn from the situation and avoid falling into the same pitfalls in the future. Having heard that Dr. Yang employed a new surgical procedure for pediatric anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction while in the United States, Director Gao saw it as an opportunity to learn ACL reconstruction techniques using curved drilling from Yang Ping. He carried a notebook and a USB drive around with him at all times in anticipation. Chapter 464 - 464 424 The Tigers Tail ?Chapter 464: Chapter 424: The Tiger¡¯s Tail Chapter 464: Chapter 424: The Tiger¡¯s Tail Yang Ping had made some modifications to the curved drilling technique for the reconstruction of cross ligaments in children. The key point was to make the new surgical method widespread. Otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t be good if it couldn¡¯t be replicated. Ultimately, it would disappear over time, just like some unique skillsets of old traditional doctors. Of course, the spread of new technology would still follow the conventional hierarchy. Director Gao Yuan would be among the first to benefit from this due to his proximity. Almost everyday, he was filled with fervor, in a state of excitement due to his thirst for new knowledge. Following Yang Ping, given time, he would become a top expert who others in the field would admire. A soldier who doesn¡¯t want to become a general isn¡¯t a good soldier, and likewise, a doctor who doesn¡¯t aim for expertise isn¡¯t a good doctor. This was how Gao Yuan thought. He was an ambitious doctor who wanted to be at the top of his field. As long as there was time, he¡¯d hang out at the comprehensive orthopedics department, shadowing Yang Ping, even if he learned only one sentence per day, he felt it was worthwhile. The colleagues at Orthopedics jokingly called Director Gao an ¡°off-record postgraduate¡±, a moniker which he simply laughed off when he heard about it. Naturally, he wouldn¡¯t miss Yang Ping¡¯s first real large-scale ward rounds when he returned from the United States. He knew that Yang Ping liked powder-free rubber gloves and used a sanitizer gel to clean his hands after taking off the gloves. Thus, during every ward rounds, Gao brought a bag containing these items to fill in when others were not prepared or weren¡¯t fast enough. At first, Gao Yuan couldn¡¯t understand some of Yang Ping¡¯s new theories and surgeries, but that was okay. After repetitive pondering, he eventually grasped them. He thought about it when eating, when sleeping, even when going to the restroom. The key was he was shameless. If he didn¡¯t understand, he would ask, no matter the situation. As long as there was an opportunity, he would ask for clarification. Furthermore, the more he learned later on, the easier Director Gao found his studies, feeling as if he had passed the bottleneck stage and was now delving into a wide ocean of knowledge. Initially, Song Zimo didn¡¯t think much of Director Gao, deeming him to be fawning excessively. However, gradually he began to like him, realizing that Gao¡¯s attentiveness wasn¡¯t malicious. He simply wanted to learn more from Yang Ping. Sometimes when he saw Director Gao jammed with standardized training students and graduate students, he couldn¡¯t help but admire him. The ward round team moved on to the case of the fierce guy who was transferred from the spinal surgery. Apart from a slight pain at the puncture site, the patient¡¯s preoperative symptoms had completely disappeared. He could have been discharged, but he insisted on staying a few more days in the hospital for peace of mind. The guy was lying on the bed, shirtless, working out his back muscles. When he saw the doctor coming for rounds, he quickly put on a shirt. ¡°No more pain?¡± Yang Ping asked him. ¡°Absolutely no pain!¡± The patient nodded. His life without pain was as pleasant as a breeze. ¡°Lie down, let me see!¡± Yang Ping wanted to give him a simple examination, starting from the prone position, to determine whether the postoperative symptoms had rebounded. The patient lay properly: ¡°Doctor Yang, you not only saved me but also saved the two doctors who operated on me previously. If it weren¡¯t for you, I would definitely cause trouble for them. I can summon three thousand brothers with just one phone call.¡± The patient reversed his hand to show three fingers. Yang Ping just ignored him. He had met all types of patients. Now that the patient¡¯s problem had been solved, Yang Ping wasn¡¯t worried about him causing trouble to the doctors. It was just bluster. For Director Qin, the problem that had been perplexing him was solved by Yang Ping in just a few minutes. Of course, for such case, Yang Ping had never considered it to be particularly difficult. To Yang Ping, a problem that could be solved by surgery was really no problem at all! He pulled the patient¡¯s clothes aside to reveal the two anterior superior iliac spines. Pointing at the patient¡¯s waist, Yang Ping said, ¡°How comes your tiger is missing a tail?¡± The tiger tattooed on the patient¡¯s back originally had a mighty tail at the waist, but now the tail had disappeared. ¡°Really?¡± The patient promptly twisted his head to see, indeed, his tail was gone. A magnificent tiger with no tail. What a sight! ¡°Where¡¯s the tail? ¡ª¡± The patient creased his brow. Yang Ping motioned for him to lower his head and not to look up. ¡°It was probably wiped off during the disinfection before the surgery. The disinfectant contains alcohol, an organic solvent. The quality of your ink wasn¡¯t particularly good.¡± Once he said this, the ward erupted in laughter. Even the eyes of the patient in the next bed, which previously held admiration and fear, immediately turned scornful and contemptuous. The social big brother¡¯s image had completely collapsed. The patient¡¯s face turned red immediately. He had just been bragging to the other patients about how he¡¯d single-handedly faced dozens of enemies and established his reputation in the underworld. ¡°Doctor¡ª¡± the patient wanted to say something. ¡°Lie down properly! Otherwise, I¡¯ll wipe off the tiger¡¯s head too.¡± Yang Ping began his examination. Afterwards, Yang Ping took off his gloves and dropped them into a yellow trash bag next to him. He pumped some disinfectant gel onto his hands and rubbed them together. ¡°You can be discharged, go home. You are a taxi driver, right? Rest for a week and strengthen your back and waist muscles. Then you can go back to work normally after a week.¡± Yang Ping concluded the ward round of the fierce guy. I never told him that I drive a taxi. How does he know? Did this doctor also practice fortune telling? The patient quickly got up and sat at the head of the bed, watching as Yang Ping left the ward. ¡°How do you know he drives a taxi? He said he was a boss.¡± Little Five was also puzzled. The others wanted to know the answer too. They had been through too many serious and rigid rounds of ward visits, and they liked Yang Ping¡¯s relaxed atmosphere. It was neither rigid nor frivolous. ¡°When you do a physical examination, you can figure out some patient¡¯s occupations, then you¡¯ve mastered it, so consider this a question for you all. Occupation is also part of the symptomatology,¡± Song Zimo explained to the young doctors. The next few patients were all suffering from severe, rare cases of spinal deformity. Most of the doctors who have come for further training are doing so for the correction of spinal deformities. Professor Hu was one of the first to come for the training. This leading physician from Xiehe Hospital, with his gold-rimmed glasses and meticulous demeanor, took the training seriously, like a student. Before meeting Yang Ping, Professor Hu was quite resistant to Professor Liang¡¯s arrangement. But after meeting Yang Ping, that resistance disappeared completely, and he just wanted to make the most of these three months to learn and improve every day. Every patient with spinal deformity in the department is a cause for concern, some even have torsion and displacement of thoracoabdominal organs. Director Hu was keen to see how Yang Ping would handle these cases, especially that of a six-year-old child with severe spinal deformity. However, Yang Ping was not in a hurry. For the correction of spinal deformity, during the surgery on Lu Gang, he had already created a whole new theory of correction, with a new surgical method designed specifically for it. He wanted to see more cases of spinal deformity and apply this surgical method in real-world cases. This surgical method, although so far only has been successful in Lu Gang¡¯s case in the real world, Yang Ping has practiced successfully in countless cases in the system space, after continuous improvements, it is very mature. He planned to gather some more cases and then publish another paper, specifically discussing this new theory and method. This theory will be a larger innovation following the three-dimensional correction of spinal deformity. The period when a deluge of papers is being published is coming soon; Yang Ping¡¯s previously submitted papers will be published one after the other. The papers ¡°Balance adjustment of multiligament reconstruction of the knee joint¡± and ¡°Balance adjustment of multidirectional instability reconstruction of shoulder joint¡± have been published in AJSM. The cases of Yu Shuilian and Lu Gang, as case reports, have also been successfully published in the New England Journal of Medicine. ¡°Application of Trauma Surgical System Engineering¡±, ¡°Application of Precise Vascular Selection Occlusion in Trauma Surgery¡±, ¡°Analysis on the Cause of Trauma Death and Its Treatment¡± are scheduled later, the manuscripts are in the queue and have not yet been published. ¡°Application of a Novel Paediatric Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Surgery Method¡± was once again submitted to AJSM. Within a year, dropping papers like popcorn in these top medical journals, Professor Hu Guolin could hardly believe it. For this six-year-old patient with spinal deformity, even the smartest osteotomy seems unsuitable. No worries, Yang Ping has another method. He only lacks real-world cases. This method doesn¡¯t require osteotomy correction, only an orthotic device needs to be implanted inside the patient¡¯s body, which can continuously and precisely adjust the deformity in the reverse direction. Based on Ilizarov¡¯s theory of distraction osteogenesis, the vertebrae and soft tissues slowly deform under this tension, finally returning to their normal posture. Actually, Ilizarov¡¯s theory has been widely used in limb deformities. Orthopedic surgeons represented by Qin Sihe have applied the external fixator to the correction of limb deformities. No surgery is required to correct the deformity, and it stands unique in the world. What Yang Ping wants to do is to design such an internal orthotic device to correct spinal deformities. This will be another first. The existence of the system space makes these firsts mature when they appear. However, each experiment consumes a lot of points. Otherwise, Yang Ping¡¯s pace of innovation would be faster. Therefore, he must constantly challenge high-difficulty surgeries in reality in order to get points and keep the system space running. After going around the ward, Professor Hu felt a tremendous pressure on behalf of Yang Ping. Not to mention the other patients, just these few with spinal deformity were already headache-inducing. How should surgery be done on that six-year-old with severe spinal deformity? Also, an eighteen-year-old with spinal deformity, combined with severe thoracoabdominal organ displacement deformity. How should the organs be handled? Any of these patients would require the combined effort of the whole hospital at Xiehe, and even then the surgery might not be satisfactory at the end. At other hospitals, they were basically too scared to handle it. The family members of the patients also said that after making a round, some doctors pointed out: ¡°Go to Sanbo in Nandu and find Yang Ping. If he doesn¡¯t dare to do it, just give up, no one else dares to take this surgery.¡± That patient with spinal deformity and organ deformity has been to 301 several times. They said: ¡°After the spinal correction, the patient will die of organ failure. Maintain the status quo.¡± ¡°Are you ¡ª really ready to handle these patients?¡± Professor Hu Guolin asked worriedly. Yang Ping¡¯s voice was a bit heavy: ¡°If we don¡¯t admit these patients, there¡¯s nowhere else for them to go.¡± ¡°Song Zimo, have their tests completed, and arrange a time to discuss it. The six-year-old child might be a bit tricky. Explain to the family that the surgery won¡¯t be soon. Pay attention to the way you speak, give them confidence, don¡¯t make them think that we¡¯re politely refusing them.¡± This patient is a child, and his growth has to be taken into account, which is very complicated. He still needs to further verify the surgical plan. At this point, Director Han called: The team from 301 will arrive at Sanbo Hospital in three days. He needs to prepare himself well. Chapter 465 - 465 425 Secret Warfare ?Chapter 465: Chapter 425: Secret Warfare Chapter 465: Chapter 425: Secret Warfare Shanghai, Office of the Director of Orthopedics at 301 Hospital. Professor Qin Shi, in his early fifties, had a square-shaped face, high-ridged nose, and a burly figure. His military uniform further emphasized his formidable, upright stature. He excelled in orthopedics, currently serving as the Chair of the Military Orthopedics Professional Committee. Alongside Professor Su Qingyun, he was considered the most likely candidate to succeed Professor Liang from Xiehe Hospital as the next Chair of the Chinese Medical Association Orthopedics Branch. Professor Qin received the first-class National Science and Technology Progress Award. As a leader in orthopedics, and particularly spine surgery, he devised a new osteotomy method for the treatment of severe scoliosis. In scoliosis treatment, he and Su Qingyun from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, coordinate and complement each other. He also recently became a new member of the China Academy of Engineering together with Professor Su Qingyun. Professor An Shirong, the Deputy Director of Orthopedics, knocked on the door and walked in, ¡°Director, you called me?¡± ¡°Book me a flight ticket too, for tomorrow. I¡¯m going to Sanbo Hospital with you.¡± Professor Qin put down a stack of manuscripts. He had just been reading Yang Ping¡¯s published papers, then suddenly decided that he needed to be involved in person. Director An was taken aback by Professor Qin¡¯s decision, ¡°Don¡¯t you have an important meeting?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve postponed the meeting. Talent recruitment is the most important thing. Look at these papers by Yang Ping¡ªthey¡¯ve all been published in top international journals, which are groundbreaking. The reconstruction of multiple ligaments in the shoulder and knee, published in AJSM, achieves the level of restoring athletic ability. The case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine¡ªthe folding man, using a new type of osteotomy, clearly explains the theory and clinical application of this method. I believe there will be more papers revolving around this method.¡± Professor Qin handed the printed papers to Dr. An, excitedly. ¡°This osteotomy method not only maximizes the therapeutic effect but also minimizes the disturbance to the spinal cord. It¡¯s ingenious!¡± Prof. Qin himself became renowned for his method of treating spinal deformities by osteotomy, which established his academic position domestically and internationally. It is exceptional for him to keep praising Yang Ping¡¯s correctional method. Director An quickly skimmed through the papers. The writing was spectacular; it¡¯s rare for a doctor to have such a good writing style. ¡°No wonder he was sent to assist in the rescue of American astronauts.¡± Professor Qin said to himself. This matter was kept secret by the higher-ups, so only Dean Liu of 301, Professor Qin, Dean Xia and Director Han of Sanbo knew. Even Director An Shirong was left in the dark for the time being. ¡°Director, is he really that capable? Isn¡¯t he just the champion of the Golden Knife Award? We haven¡¯t tried this hard to recruit past winners of the Golden Knife Award, have we?¡± Director An couldn¡¯t help but ask. Director An was appointed the leader of the negotiation team, whose only task was to recruit Yang Ping. The team included not only astute and capable professors from the orthopedic department but also members of the medical office and political work department. This grand setup was unprecedented. ¡°In the past, not even the top three winners of the Golden Knife Award were under 35, yet Yang Ping, who¡¯s not even 30, won the championship with ease. The surgeries he demonstrated¡ªscoliosis correction, upper cervical tumor, robot-assisted surgery¡ªmade other competitors bite the dust. Look at these papers. Each of them is of extreme value, with every achievement being something others might take decades to achieve, whereas he has published multiple papers simultaneously. Such talent is rare. He excels in both theory and practice, imaginative and academically sound, with high manual skill.¡± Professor Qin genuinely admired. Even without the directive from the higher-ups, Qin was already taken by this young man. He had never seen a doctor with such talent. He admits that Yang Ping¡¯s method of spinal osteotomy is a whole generation ahead of his own. Among the young doctors at the hospital, no one could compete with Yang Ping. Even those who are exceptionally talented and performed eye-catching surgeries weren¡¯t this exaggerated, let alone have such innovation ability. The innovative thinking behind Yang Ping¡¯s scoliosis surgery, multi-ligament reconstruction of the shoulder and knee, and the rescue operation for the Half-man was full of imagination. ¡°Lu Qing, a representative of our department¡¯s younger generation, lost miserably this year, which is understandable. Even if he had made it to the next round, he would have been utterly defeated by Yang Ping. The gap between him and Yang Ping is huge. This year¡¯s Golden Knife Award was undoubtedly the least suspenseful one in history.¡± Professor Qin had felt sorry for Lu Qing before, but now he felt that a lot of things were inevitable. ¡°Director An, Xiehe has already taken a step ahead. Professor Hu Guolin¡¯s team has been stationed at Sanbo Hospital for a full two weeks. Our action this time seems to be a bit slow.¡± Professor Qin was somewhat worried. Two weeks is enough to do a lot of things and make a lot of decisions. ¡°Aren¡¯t they there to further their studies?¡± Director An had also heard the rumors. ¡°Do you truly believe they are there purely for further studies? You don¡¯t know Professor Liang well enough. Studying there is just a facade. Their real intention is talent hunting. I¡¯m aware that Xiehe¡¯s Orthopedics Department is planning to add forty-five more beds. It seems that this time, Professor Liang is determined and wants to compete with us for talent.¡± Professor Qin had a frown on his face. For a hospital like Xiehe, just like 301, the number of beds allocated to a professor¡¯s team is only in single digits, which is extremely tight. Adding even one extra bed is a big deal. Chapter 466 - 466 425 Secret Warfare_2 ?Chapter 466: Chapter 425: Secret Warfare_2 Chapter 466: Chapter 425: Secret Warfare_2 The addition of 45 beds, that¡¯s a ground-shaking matter. To whom these 45 beds will go? It¡¯s self-explanatory. ¡°Professor Liang is aware that we have many procedures for introducing talents, their procedures are much simpler, so they seized our weakness and acted swiftly.¡± Director An quickly understood. ¡°The people going tomorrow must all wear military uniforms.¡± Professor Qin suddenly commanded. ¡°Why?¡± Director An was puzzled. Professor Qin had just decided to personally go to hire someone, and now demanded that everyone dress in military uniforms. When going out for meetings or business trips, they usually wear casual attire and only wear military uniforms on special occasions. ¡°Every man has always dreamed of being a soldier since childhood, we need to inadvertently stir up their dream, this is our biggest advantage compared to Xiehe Hospital.¡± ¡°Haha, brilliant!¡± Director An had to admire Professor Qin¡¯s attention to detail. Dressing in military uniforms, displaying the spirit of a soldier, also presents the advantages of their hospital. ¡°I have a bad feeling that running back and forth a couple of times, would be hard to implement.¡± Professor Qin expressed his lack of confidence. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me that Chief you have to make three sincere visits? Isn¡¯t this young man too conceited?¡± Director An felt a bit upset. In a hospital like 301, everybody would want to squeeze in, does Yang Ping have a reason to refuse? ¡°Never say that, a hospital¡¯s competitiveness relies on its doctors, everyone likes talent, even if I have to make ten visits, as long as it can be done.¡± Professor Qin appeared very anxious. ¡°Fifty million in research funding, fifty million in An Family¡¯s expenses, special enlistment, exceptional promotion to Colonel, exceptional appointment as the director of the ward, at the same time enlisting his girlfriend, also bringing in the whole team, establishing a friendship hospital with the original hospital, who can refuse these conditions? Who wouldn¡¯t like to be on top platform, only Xiehe Hospital can match us at the national level, he¡¯s just a doctoral student?¡± Director An thought that Professor Qin was worrying over nothing. ¡°Shirong! This student is not ordinary, we cannot fathom him with ordinary thinking, this is his information, delivered by the Political Work Department, I have studied it in detail, he is a great talent who does not rely on the platform, he himself is the platform, so he will not be as desperate for a platform as the average person.¡± Professor Qin presented the information to Director An again. Director An also had a copy of the material to better carry out the negotiations by knowing the other party well. ¡°Are you really planning to dig up the entire team? I have researched his team, his capable assistant, Song Zimo, is also a very formidable character, his doctoral dissertation was published in The Lancet, Xu Zhiliang is also not bad, the anesthesiologist is also an excellent doctorate, the two nurses are all undergraduates, but those two resident doctors are much worse, they are just master¡¯s degree holders, nothing special.¡± Director An thought this seemed a bit like guilt by association. ¡°You¡¯re wrong, the ones who help in the process of refining the elixir of immortality won¡¯t be far behind in their abilities.¡± Professor Qin corrected Director An¡¯s idea. ¡°Find a young nurse with good appearance from the operating room to go together, she must have a military status, and must wear a military uniform.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you trying to deploy a honey trap? This isn¡¯t our style.¡± Director An was puzzled. ¡°We need to influence not only him, but also the people around him, negotiations have strategies, some strengths need to be subtly displayed.¡± Professor Qin gave a mysterious smile. While they were chatting, Professor Qin received a call, Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao invited him. Professor Qin instructed Director An to prepare promptly and they would set off together tomorrow, then quickly rushed to the Dean¡¯s Office, where the two leaders were waiting for him. ¡°Professor Qin, you have a heavy burden on your shoulders this time, you may have to make a personal trip!¡± Dean Liu said with a serious expression, inviting Professor Qin to sit down and talk. ¡°I was just about to report to you, I plan to go personally, just now I was arranging this with An Shirong.¡± Professor Qin sat down. ¡°As expected of Professor Qin, your considerations are more thorough than ours, the higher-ups sent sixteen words: Mission must be completed, think outside the box, patiently mobilise, adapt strategically.¡± ¡°In case he is unwilling ¨C this possibility is very slim, we have to consider it too, we can offer part-time special positions to invite him to participate in operations regularly, step by step, the higher-ups are paying great attention to this young man.¡± ¡°It¡¯s no wonder, that Steven, all top-grade American hospitals are in a hurry, helpless, Johns Hopkins, Mayo, they are all top-tier hospitals in the world, clueless. When Yang stepped in, he easily solved it, the President of the United States invited him for dinner, but he responded with two words ¨C No Time!¡± Dean Liu vividly described, bringing out light laughter from Commissioner Qiao and Professor Qin. ¡°So busy, who has the time to eat your food, and your food does not suit my taste.¡± Commissioner Qiao intentionally chimed in. ¡°Those Americans usually look down on others, in front of Yang Ping, it¡¯s said they respectfully call him teacher, interesting! The higher-ups specifically instructed, our country has lost a lot of talent, gratuitously nurturing for others, so we have to treat talents well, especially such experts, geniuses, wonders, who doesn¡¯t have a bit of character, we have to provide sufficient tolerance and respect, I asked you here to discuss, and to remind other people, after going there, remember, don¡¯t appear high and mighty, which is annoying, but you must also show the vigor of our hospital that can attract him, how to balance this, you understand better than me.¡± As Dean Liu poured tea, he said all this. Chapter 467 - 467 425 Secret War_3 ?Chapter 467: Chapter 425 Secret War_3 Chapter 467: Chapter 425 Secret War_3 ¡°What does the national technological development depend on? What does the advancement of hospital technology depend on? It depends on talent. These talents are our treasured resources. If we fail this time, we must be prepared for a protracted battle,¡± said Dean Liu with a gravity. Professor Qin said, ¡°Have you seen his papers? Each one of them is an innovation in technology.¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve seen them. I heard that the interventional master Massimo asked him how many interventional surgeries he had done. This young man said, oh, I am a surgeon, I¡¯m not proficient in interventional surgery and rarely do it.¡± ¡°Massimo was so frustrated, we don¡¯t even know if it¡¯s true or not.¡± ¡°I heard three guidewires were advanced simultaneously.¡± ¡°Yes, he was just helping them save a patient along the way.¡± Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao were talking back and forth like a two-person song. Professor Qin became increasingly interested in this young man. ¡°This young man should be nurtured well, he has a promising future.¡± In the end, Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao gave Professor Qin a piece of advice: employ talents without sticking to established rules. If it doesn¡¯t work out once, try twice, three times¡ª If all else fails, turning Sanbo Hospital into a southern medical center of 301 is also not a big deal. There¡¯s nothing wrong with having an additional medical center. Dean Liu and Professor Qin were determined to recruit Yang Ping. ¡ª At Xiehe Hospital, Professor Liang had already issued the order to Director Hu. ¡°Try to recruit Yang Ping before 301 does! We offer simple conditions: 1. Introduce Professor Han Jianguo as the doctoral supervisor at Xiehe. 2. Give him an independent Orthopedics department with 45 beds, under the nominal jurisdiction of the general orthopedics department, but his department should act independently. 3. Establish a new orthopedics research institute for him. 4. My postdoctoral mobile workstation is always open to him. 5. We¡¯ll handle his spouse¡¯s job according to his wishes. 6. Train him to become a Yangtze River Scholar or an Outstanding Young Talent. 7. He can decide the amount of the research fund and settlement fee. 8. The century-old Xiehe and its academic heritage is not something any other hospital can compare to.¡± Professor Liang was all in this time, throwing out the greatest package in history. The competition between Xiehe and 301 to recruit the best talent was secretly underway, and Professor Liang was determined not to lose. Such a talent must be brought to Xiehe, otherwise, it will be a loss to Xiehe. ¡°Guolin, I am ready to head over right now. I have already called Han Jianguo to convey our intentions to the hospital. If Sanbo is willing to release him, Xiehe will establish a close strategic partnership with Sanbo Hospital,¡± Professor Liang lastly reminded. ¡°Professor Liang, you don¡¯t need to come over, we can handle it,¡± said Director Hu, feeling this was too big a move. ¡°No can do! That¡¯s it, I¡¯m leaving right away,¡± declared Professor Liang, cutting off any debate. The Chairman of National Orthopedics, Professor Liang from Xiehe, was about to fly to Sanbo. Director Han immediately reported to Dean Xia. This recruitment war, which had suddenly erupted like a bolt from the blue. ¡°These bandits, all bandits!¡± Dean Xia cursed, but in spite of his cursing, he had to think of a solution quickly. Two large forces were already on their way here. Honestly, no one can refuse an invitation from such a big platform. And he was certain that the conditions that these two hospitals would offer, though he didn¡¯t know them, would definitely be considerable. If only he had known, he wouldn¡¯t have participated in that Golden Knife Award, nor would he have gotten involved in the international space station matters. He regretted selfishly. 301 is coming with the mandate from above, and Xiehe has a century-old reputation. Which doctor doesn¡¯t dream of entering these two hospitals? Which doctor has the guts to refuse an invitation from these hospitals? Poor Dean Xia and Director Han, the two old men were pacing around in the office. ¡°Xiao Yang said he will stay here and not leave,¡± said Director Han. Dean Xia shook his head, ¡°People change. If the temptation is great enough, no one can resist. Just as if the poison is potent enough and the dose is large enough, no elephant can survive.¡± ¡°I think we should just let things take their course. If he really wants to leave, nobody can keep him. It¡¯s also a good thing. Soaring eagles need an expansive sky,¡± Director Han counseled the pacing Dean Xia. Dean Xia sat down and lit a cigarette, ¡°Ah... Old Han, I also think so, and sincerely hope that Xiao Yang can soar high. But when this day really comes, my heart... it hurts!¡± Director Han took over Dean Xia¡¯s cigarette, and the two of them smoked in the office. ¡°We should also prepare for something. When people marry off their daughters, they still have to prepare a dowry,¡± Dean Xia lit another cigarette. Director Han didn¡¯t know what to prepare, ¡°Prepare what?¡± ¡°We must prepare something!¡± Dean Xia was agitated. ¡°Let¡¯s keep that building of the comprehensive orthopedics department. If Xiao Yang is unhappy over there, he can come back anytime. Sanbo will always be his home¡ª¡± Dean Xia snuffed the cigarette in the ashtray. Director Han just hummed in response. The two men were silent, smoking one cigarette after another, non-stop. Chapter 468 - 468 426 Ideal ?Chapter 468: Chapter 426: Ideal Chapter 468: Chapter 426: Ideal What is meant to come, will always come! With Professor Liang¡¯s arrival, all of the administrative departments of the hospital, such as the office, medical services, human resources, educational affairs, etc., started to operate. An academician, national orthopedics chairman, and the director of orthopedics at Xiehe Hospital, any one of these titles is worthy of respect from Sanbo Hospital. Professor Hu Guolin took Professor Liang from the airport, and Dean Xia and Director Han had been waiting early at the hospital gate. As soon as Professor Liang got out of the car, he shook hands with Dean Xia and Director Han: ¡°I¡¯m causing you so much trouble, really causing you all trouble.¡± Dean Xia welcomed him to the office. Dean Xia was already aware of Xiehe Hospital¡¯s opinion. Director Han had conveyed it, and Professor Hu Guolin had also had face-to-face discussions with Dean Xia and Director Han. So, there was no need for beating around the bush when they met, they went straight to the point. Professor Liang¡¯s hurried journey was specifically focused on bringing Yang Ping on board. Professor Liang had promised to give Sanbo 30 training seats every year, no department restrictions. This was equivalent to allowing Sanbo Hospital to send a doctor from nearly every department to Xiehe for further studies every year. No other hospital in the country had this treatment. Xiehe wanted to establish a strategic partnership with Sanbo Hospital, to help Sanbo nurture talents, not only by regularly dispatching experts to provide hands-on training, but also allowing young doctors from Sanbo to complete 3+5 training at Xiehe. Three years as a resident and five years of specialist doctor training. As long as Yang Ping was willing to go to Xiehe, he could still hold his position at Sanbo part-time, Xiehe would give him the most freedom. Finally, Sanbo Hospital could rest assured that, once Yang Ping joined, Xiehe would cultivate him well. His current cultivation goal is to become a ¡°Yangtze River Scholar¡± or an ¡°Outstanding Young Talent¡±, and his future goal is to become an academician. Professor Liang¡¯s conditions were not empty promises, but came with an authorization from the president of Xiehe. He kept his word and could sign the official agreement immediately. The conditions put forward by Xiehe were simply perfect. They benefited both Yang Ping¡¯s personal development and the development of Sanbo Hospital. There was a reason why Professor Liang had invested so much this time. Once, his most proud student had great talent, but he had gone to the United States and never returned. Now he was a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States, which always made Professor Liang hurt. Since then, he hadn¡¯t seen any real geniuses. Ever since Yang Ping appeared, Professor Liang spared no efforts, he was willing to pay whatever price to bring Yang Ping onboard. Yang Ping¡¯s talent far exceeded that of his past student. He didn¡¯t want to let such a talented student slip through his fingers again. After listening to Professor Liang¡¯s conditions, Dean Xia and Director Han had no reason to refute them. Director Han could only say: ¡°Professor Liang, we need to discuss this with Yang Ping. As long as he agrees, we have no objections.¡± ¡°Of course, these are the conditions we offer to the hospital, and the eight conditions we offer to Yang Ping, Director Hu should have conveyed them already. We all want to cultivate and care for him, so collectively raising him and putting him at Xiehe should be the best choice. I believe that you all also want Yang Ping to have a bigger platform,¡± said Professor Liang confidently. These conditions brought benefits to all three parties, no one had any losses. ¡ª Yang Ping was sleeping in the on-duty room¡ªstudying and reading books in his system space. Director Han gave him a call stating that Professor Liang of Xiehe had arrived in the hospital office and wanted Yang Ping to come over for a meeting. Professor Hu Guolin had informed Yang Ping earlier about the introduction conditions from Xiehe and hoped that Yang Ping could consider them. In his heart, Professor Liang, as an academician, a respected and reputable individual, had personally taken the initiative and come to Sanbo from afar, offering such nearly perfect conditions. If Yang Ping stubbornly refused, he was really afraid of hurting the old man¡¯s heart. But being ambiguous would hurt the old man¡¯s heart even more. How should he refuse then? Only through an honest conversation! In the hospital office, Professor Liang, Director Hu, Dean Xia, and Director Han were sitting together, chatting over tea. Yang Ping knocked on the door, and Director Han said, ¡°This is Professor Liang from Xiehe.¡± What orthopedic doctor wouldn¡¯t recognize Professor Liang? He was the national chairman of orthopedics after all. ¡°Hello, Professor Liang!¡± Yang Ping called out respectfully. Without arrogance or impatience, not taking pride in his talents, excellent, Professor Liang said as he set down his teacup, his fondness growing. ¡°You already know the situation, Professor Liang has come to speak to you alone.¡± Dean Xia stood up, he and Director Han prepared to leave to give them privacy for their talk. Director Han advised Yang Ping, ¡°Xiao Yang, follow your heart, don¡¯t let personal feelings affect your choices. No matter what you decide, we will support you. Especially since Professor Liang says, even if you go to the Xiehe Hospital, you can still hold a position at Sanbo Hospital. So, don¡¯t worry about our feelings, we sincerely hope you can move onto a bigger platform.¡± Only Professor Liang and Yang Ping remained in the room, Professor Liang, donned in black-framed glasses, exuded a scholarly aura. ¡°Xiao Yang, I¡¯ve looked at your surgeries and research papers, and they were quite remarkable. Our offer to you at Xiehe is sincere. Whether for you personally or for Sanbo Hospital, it is a positive move. Our country needs talents like you. At Xiehe, you can exert greater capabilities and achieve better results while also reciprocating Sanbo¡¯s development.¡± Professor Liang kindly said, then clearly explained the conditions offered to the hospital and to Yang Ping as an individual. ¡°When I was young, I thought it made no difference where my contributions came from. But later I realized that capable people must make the greatest contributions from bigger platforms and higher positions. The greater one¡¯s ability, the greater the responsibility. High achievers should actively step up and take higher positions. What are your thoughts? I would like to hear. Regardless of your decision, I can accept it.¡± Professor Liang spoke earnestly. Yang Ping was clear about his thoughts. He did not plan on going to either Xiehe or 301 simply to brag about his capabilities. It was not a capricious decision but a thoroughly considered one. Yang Ping had his own ideals and he was clear about his life planning. Xiehe and 301 are established hospitals, everything there is already mature, but Sanbo is a new hospital. The new hospital can be changed according to his ideals. He wants to innovate medical techniques and reform the hospital. The hospital is the carrier of medical techniques and only the combination of the two can better cure patients. He wants to establish a new salary system, where doctors are given a fixed high salary, the income is decoupled from workload, allowing doctors to focus on treating patients. Create a research fund, powered by community donations, to provide ongoing financial support for research. Establish a strict and efficient talent-training system. After doctoral graduation, engage in three years of residency training, then five years of specialized training. In this way, they can truly be competent and not wait for positions based on seniority. He wants to create an efficient laboratory, encouraging imaginative individuals to freely explore the mysteries of the human body. The researchers can decline all social engagements, spend all day researching medicine, never fret over necessities, and not worry about publications and professional titles. All of these could not be realized in Xiehe or 301 but could in Sanbo. That¡¯s because Sanbo has Dean Xia with his reforming spirit and sincerity, and supportive Director Han. Sanbo Hospital, funded by overseas Chinese donations, has specific features allowing it to bear the risks of change. After listening to Yang Ping, Professor Liang stared at this young man, overwhelmed by the depth of his ideals and exceeding his expectations. His sense of responsibility and mission likewise far exceeded his expectations. ¡°I respect your choice. If everyone were like you, bravely taking on responsibilities, we would not have so many talents staying overseas without returning. They take the country¡¯s money, learn knowledge, and not only not contribute, but also complain about everything. Despite their grand reasons for not returning from studying abroad, if everything were already perfect, why would we need them to come back to help? Actually, our country is already doing quite well, and we can say that this is the best era. If everyone could complain less, do more practical things, and commit wholeheartedly to their work, that will aggregate into the country¡¯s progression.¡± Professor Liang emotionally said. ¡°What about establishing a partnership? I support you!¡± Professor Liang extended his hand. Yang Ping did not expect Professor Liang to understand so thoroughly, he hesitated for a moment, then shook hands with Professor Liang. ¡°Are these your true feelings? You won¡¯t go to the United States or Europe and never return, right?¡± Professor Liang candidly asked. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°Thanks for understanding, Professor Liang. I will stay at Sanbo Hospital, remembering your words. This is the best era, and we should all contribute.¡± The office door opened, and Professor Liang came out with a smile on his face. Looking at Yang Ping, he was also smiling. Dean Xia and Director Han guessed, ¡°Did the discussion go well?¡± Professor Hu Guolin came over. Professor Liang said, ¡°Continue with your studies, I need to go back.¡± ¡°Was it a success?¡± Director Hu asked softly. Chapter 469 - 469 427 The Academicians Ward Round ?Chapter 469: Chapter 427: The Academician¡¯s Ward Round Chapter 469: Chapter 427: The Academician¡¯s Ward Round The professor from Xiehe Hospital flew from Beijing to Sanbo Hospital to personally invite Yang Ping. Shortly thereafter, a group of professors from 301 will also fly to Sanbo, with the same purpose. A young doctor has managed to summon these professors from top-tier hospitals. It¡¯s said that every year, Tsinghua and Peking University swoop in to poach top students from each province after the college entrance exam, storming homes with a full team, pulling out all the stops to portray their own advantages while mercilessly revealing the other university¡¯s weaknesses. They grandly promise numerous benefits, even unabashedly asking if the student has a girlfriend. If the girlfriend¡¯s performance is up to par, they offer to recruit her in as well. Yang Ping is being treated this way right now, with 301 and Xiehe standing as the Tsinghua and Peking University of hospitals. The young women in the administrative department, who have impressive abilities to spread news, much like online shopping search capabilities, immediately seize upon these developments. The young doctors and old directors alike are all sighing. The young doctors can¡¯t help but lament, why isn¡¯t it them. Merely being associated with the prestigious Xiehe, not even talking about income, one could still live a decent life. 301, with its imposing military uniform, the fusion of a soldier and a doctor, many men dream of this. And another advantage any other hospital cannot compete with ¡ª even China¡¯s most notorious medical troublemakers have to avoid it. The young women in the hospital have also begun to reflect. If they had taken the initiative in the first place, then the future wife of the head of that eight-story building could have been them. In the future, they might be the wives of wealthy professors from Xiehe or 301, or even more boldly, the wife of an academician. It¡¯s said that Dr. Yang was single when he came here. How did Nurse Su from the operating room spot him right away? Regrettably, the stock has already skyrocketed, and there¡¯s no capital to make a move now. Since he has come, Professor Liang naturally wants to take a look at Yang Ping¡¯s Comprehensive Orthopedics Department, as well as the operating room. He¡¯ll stay for dinner in the evening to discuss possible cooperation between Xiehe and Sanbo Hospitals. Professor Liang suggests that Yang Ping can hold a position at Xiehe, periodically participating in surgeries and case discussions. Don¡¯t underestimate this position, Xiehe only sends its own doctors to other hospitals, it does not bring doctors from other hospitals to Xiehe. Professor Su from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One will also come over to have dinner with Professor Liang. All are prominent figures in the orthopedics field, it¡¯s rare for them to meet. This is a rare opportunity and they must sit together to catch up. Under the guidance of the secretary in the office, the crowd moved toward the Comprehensive Orthopedics Department, taking the opportunity during a gap in a phone conversation between Professor Liang and Professor Su. Director Han quietly asked, ¡°Did the negotiation with Xiehe go successfully?¡± Until his death he must know, he still must ask even without a certain result. Although, he already knows the outcome from their expressions. ¡°It went well!¡± Yang Ping replied with a smile. Director Han felt a dull ache in his heart while simultaneously feeling happy for Yang Ping. This matter could finally be put to rest. Feeling a bit dazed and unable to catch his breath, Director Han felt his eyes getting slightly moist. He scolded himself for being too sentimental and giving others a chance to laugh at him. Professor Liang was still on the call while Director Han and Yang Ping were whispering to each other. ¡°When are you leaving?¡± ¡°Not leaving!¡± ¡°Not leaving?¡± ¡°I never said I¡¯d leave.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you say the negotiation went well?¡± ¡°Yes, it did, but I¡¯m not leaving.¡± You rascal, playing tricks on this old man, Director Han¡¯s face immediately split into a grin and he seized the opportunity to share the news with a despondent Dean Xia. Dean Xia, if not for his many years of experience in hiding his feelings, would have burst into laughter. At this moment, the two leaders felt as light as goose feathers, walking on air. ¡°Did the old man really let you go so easily?¡± Director Han was still not at ease. Yang Ping looked at Professor Liang, who was still on the phone, and said, ¡°He said he¡¯d accept it as long as I didn¡¯t go abroad.¡± Under the tree, to block out noise, Professor Liang covered his mouth and continued to call Professor Su. Looking at Professor Liang¡¯s figure, Director Han felt a surge of inexplicable emotion. ¡°Please!¡± Dean Xia smiled. Professor Liang hung up the phone, followed by Director Hu, Song Yun, and several doctors from Xiehe. ¡°Su Qingyun has to come over tonight. Good. We can have a get-together.¡± Professor Liang said while walking. That¡¯s good. Dean Xia and Director Han aren¡¯t very familiar with Professor Liang, but they are very familiar with Professor Su. With Professor Su accompanying them, the dinner will be even more harmonious. Arriving at the Comprehensive Orthopedics Department, several quick-witted standardized training students, prepared by Zhang Lin, brought white gowns. Everyone put on their white gowns, whether they fit or not, they just needed to make do on the spot. Through force of habit, a group of doctors from Xiehe, following behind Professor Liang, formed a ward round in the Comprehensive Orthopedics Department of Sanbo Hospital. ¡°Here, we¡¯re about to change it to Comprehensive Surgery, the entire building, all eight floors, will all be given to Little Yang.¡± Dean Xia introduced proudly. ¡°Soon a foundation will be established specifically to provide continuous funding for the scientific research in this building.¡± ¡°The Comprehensive Surgery Department will have complete independence for finances, personnel matters, and equipment procurement.¡± ¡°We will have private operating rooms, ICUs, and rehabilitation departments here¡ª¡± The implication of Dean Xia¡¯s words was that here, at Sanbo, Yang Ping could truly have boundless freedom and vast possibilities. Professor Liang stopped, everyone else stopped too, and the group stood still in the corridor. After a moment of contemplation, Professor Liang said: ¡°We can¡¯t call it the Comprehensive Surgery Department. This name isn¡¯t quite right. If we want to open up all the research and clinical authority of surgery, I suggest you name it¡ª the Surgical Research Institute. This would be more appropriate.¡± Dean Xia mulled over Professor Liang¡¯s suggestion. Surgical Research Institute... Doesn¡¯t that position it as an institute within the hospital? Naming it the Surgical Research Institute seems classy, grand, and high-quality, much better than the commonplace Comprehensive Surgery Department. Truly an academician, well-educated, even the naming is tasteful. ¡°So, what do you think?¡± Professor Liang was quite satisfied with his own suggestion. Dean Xia responded cheerfully: ¡°Let¡¯s call it the Surgical Research Institute. What do you think, Xiao Yang and Old Han?¡± ¡°Integrating clinical and research, taking a new path, sounds good. Do you have any recent new ideas? We could collaborate,¡± Professor Liang was particularly impressed with several papers by Yang Ping. They showed real innovation. What sets Xiehe Medical University apart from other medical schools is its unique blend of school and hospital. The Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Beijing Union Medical College are one entity, unified under one administrative system. If Sanbo Hospital establishes a Surgical Research Institute, integrating the lab and the wards, that would be progressive. This kind of system is the most suitable for tackling medical challenges and groundbreaking work. A surgeon could perform surgeries with impeccable skill, but that can only take him to a basic level, there¡¯s always a ceiling to the best of surgeries. Even having a superb aim with a firearm, a bullet can only do so much. Moving up from there, the next stage would involve improvements or inventions of new surgical techniques to enhance surgical safety and effectiveness and allow a greater prevalence of surgery. This could be considered middle-grade. Further up from that, is innovation in fundamental theory, which pertains to the advanced stage. Updates in basic theory can change the entire concept of a diagnosis and treatment, bringing revolutionary changes to treatment methods. The treatment of gastric ulcers, for example, once used partial gastrectomy; then upgraded to selective vagotomy, and eventually to highly selective vagotomy. No matter how perfectly these surgeries are done, the results are not satisfactory. Not until new basic theories about gastric ulcers emerged¡ªthe discovery of Helicobacter pylori in the stomach¡ªdid it became unnecessary to operate on gastric ulcers. Patients just need medication, triple or quadruple therapy for a few courses, to be cured completely. Barry Marshall, a professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Western Australia, was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for revealing the relationship between Helicobacter pylori and gastritis. When Barry Marshall was studying Helicobacter pylori, a doctoral student in China also extracted an unknown bacterium from the stomach even earlier. He was overjoyed, thinking he had found something new. His tutor scoffed: ¡°The digestive tract is open, people always have to eat, and there must be bacteria in the food. It¡¯s not strange to extract bacteria in the stomach.¡± The doctoral student thought it over, ¡°True!¡± So he abandoned his research. The doctoral student eventually became a professor, but he missed the opportunity to win the Nobel prize. Every time he thinks of it, he regrets it deeply. Professor Liang was very fond of doctors with imagination and innovative ability. He considered them to be true talents. There were many new ideas, but which one to share? Yang Ping pondered and then spoke, ¡°I am designing an external fixator frame for correcting scoliosis, aiming for non-surgical correction of scoliosis.¡± Upon hearing this, Professor Liang said: ¡°Yang, your idea is very innovative, but it requires a lot of research work to realize. If it really works, it would be a revolutionary innovation.¡± This young man, full of daring ideas, he liked him more and more. ¡°Currently, there is a six-year-old boy in the ward suffering from severe scoliosis and concomitant cardio-pulmonary dysfunction. Dr. Yang is preparing to use this new method for correction.¡± Director Hu, familiar with ward cases, introduced it to Professor Liang. ¡°Oh! Let¡¯s see, it is rare to see a six-year-old with severe deformity!¡± Professor Liang was very interested. Little Five and Zhang Lin immediately stepped forward to show the way. They knocked, entered, and everyone moved to the ward. Song Zimo gave a brief introduction to the patient¡¯s family. The parents, both local ordinary civil servants, were immediately nervous when they heard that an academician had come to check on their sick child. The mother stood aside, not daring to say a word. The father was clearly so nervous he was stuttering a bit. Professor Liang carefully inquired about the medical history and then personally examined the child, reviewing the X-rays and other imaging pictures one by one at the bedside. The little boy blinked his eyes, gazing at the group of people calmly. He was accustomed to the attention; every time he went to the hospital, he was surrounded by a bunch of people discussing and taking pictures of him. A six-year-old child can¡¯t be treated as a miniature adult or a pre-teenager. He is in the middle of growing up. When the research on scoliosis wasn¡¯t mature, many such cases happened. Children were operated on using standard procedures. After the surgery, the doctors felt that the operation was successful, but after a few years, the deformity occurred again, even more serious than before. This was because they did not take into account the normal development of the child¡¯s spine. They didn¡¯t sufficiently consider the ensuing growth, so instead of achieving the desired effect, the surgery backfired. Now Yang Ping is trying a daring attempt, adjusting the deformity of the spine using Ilizarov¡¯s ¡°tension-stress principle¡±. It will be difficult to actually implement it. This theory has been successfully applied to the correction of limb deformities. Professor Qin Sihe of China has achieved great success in correcting various complex limb deformities with external fixators. He has given special reports on orthopedic surgery at the ¡°Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction Center¡± at Queen¡¯s University in the United Kingdom and at the ¡°International Limb Deformity Training Course¡± in the United States for orthopedic physicians from 44 countries. He was also invited to do teaching surgeries in Russia and other countries. This is unprecedented among Chinese doctors. ¡°We¡¯ve been to many hospitals, and the doctors were helpless. One doctor recommended us to come here and find Dr. Yang. He said he had seen Dr. Yang perform surgeries and had read his papers. Dr. Yang¡¯s research on such cases should be the most profound.¡± The boy¡¯s father gathered his thoughts and finally managed to say it clearly. ¡°He was absolutely right. Dr. Yang¡¯s research on these cases is above other doctors. We are here to learn from Dr. Yang this time. You guys should cooperate well.¡± Professor Liang was amiable and approachable, showing no airs or intimidation. The child¡¯s parents immediately relaxed a bit, feeling more reassured. If even the academician admired Dr. Yang so much, what else was there to say? Chapter 470 - 470 428 The Serious Professor Liang ?Chapter 470: Chapter 428: The Serious Professor Liang Chapter 470: Chapter 428: The Serious Professor Liang The challenging aspect of this case is that the deformity is not yet fixed and is dynamically changing. Ordinary osteotomy is only suitable for static deformities and cannot cope with future growth and development. Osteotomy itself can cause damage and interfere with the development of the spine, making the problem complex and variable. If an external fixator could be used for correction, all the challenges would be resolved. However, designing such a fixator is no easy task. The distance between concept and reality is far. Back in his office from the ward, Professor Liang sits down and asks, ¡°At what stage is your external fixator?¡± Medical devices and drugs have strict procedures from research to application. Compared to drugs, the regulations for medical devices are much more lenient. ¡°The design is mature, and we are now preparing to conduct animal tests. We need a group of juvenile monkey models with scoliosis. We are in contact to acquire test monkeys and find methods to create scoliosis models. The whole process will take some time, so we plan to let the child go home and return after a while,¡± Yang Ping explains the progress. In fact, in the system¡¯s space, Yang Ping has completed the entire experimental process. However, the system¡¯s space is the system¡¯s space, and reality is reality; the experiment must be redone in the real world. For this child, Yang Ping has conducted countless research experiments in the system¡¯s space, and screened various technologies, such as epiphyseal blocking technology. This technology involves the selection of some points on the spine¡¯s epiphyseal, causing a slow growth, leading to an imbalance in the growth and development of different parts of the spine. Scoliosis is a result of this growth imbalance, and using epiphyseal blocking technology could theoretically counteract this imbalance. Theoretically, during the growth process, the deformation of the spine would adjust naturally. In a simple bending model, the growth of the convex side slows down, and the concave side speeds up, creating an imbalance. Eventually, the bend straightens out. This curved stick theory is the theoretical basis for applying the epiphyseal blocking technique in orthopedics. This technology is currently being used in the correction of simple joint deformities in children. For example, for children with true X-shaped or O-shaped legs, children¡¯s long bones have epiphyses and growth plates on both ends, an ideal correction effect can be achieved by simply controlling the growth plates through surgery. The trauma is small, recovery is quick, and there is no need to cut the bone; for adults with X-shaped or O-shaped legs, the only option is osteotomy and correction. This surgery uses the principle of epiphyseal blocking, called temporary hemiepiphysiodesis. Temporary means that the blockage caused by the surgery is not permanent and should be suspended once the purpose is achieved, letting the epiphyseal resume growth; hemiepiphysiodesis means to stop the growth of part of the epiphyseal while allowing the other parts to continue to grow. Like a simple curved stick model, for the knee joint, if the medial part is controlled and the lateral part continues to grow, the medial side grows slower and the lateral side grows more quickly, the knee joint bends inward, turning a normal knee joint into an O-shaped structure and vice versa into an X-shape. If it was initially an O-shaped leg, blocking the lateral side and letting the medial side grow quickly, the knee joint grows and bends outward, correcting the deformity; the opposite is true for X-legs. This technology is applicable for X or O-shaped legs of the knee joint because the deformity is simple, just bending inward or outward. However, the spine is three-dimensional, finding a control point is extremely difficult. Even if a control point is found, the degree of blocking is hard to control, which may result in the spine transforming from one type of deformity to another. So Yang Ping has given up applying epiphyseal blocking technology, and instead chose Ilizarov¡¯s tension-stress theory. Yang Ping has conducted a large number of experiments in the system¡¯s space, consuming many points, finally obtaining valuable data, and improving the external fixator to a clinically useful level. Yang Ping asks Song Zimo to take out the mobile hard disk, connect it to the computer, where the detailed drawings of the external fixator¡¯s design are stored. Upon hearing that it was a detailed drawing, Professor Liang waves his hand, ¡°Just knowing that it¡¯s at the stage of animal testing is enough, I don¡¯t need to see the details.¡± Professor Liang is renowned in the academic circles for this; he doesn¡¯t claim to be the first author for his students¡¯ work that he didn¡¯t play a key role in, and he doesn¡¯t add his name to any work in which he didn¡¯t substantively participate. He never encroaches upon his students¡¯ research results. He also constantly reminds his students that no matter how they obtain others¡¯ achievements, they must cite sources when writing an article or using it in public, to indicate that it is a quote. As a member of the National Political Consultancy Committee, one of Professor Liang¡¯s proposals is to increase penalties for violations of intellectual property rights. Without effective penalties, violators will act recklessly. The disregard for intellectual property severely suppresses actual creators¡¯ motivation. Yang Ping did not expect Professor Liang to take this matter so seriously, and quickly explains, ¡°This is merely a device blueprint, just a part of the technology, and can be disclosed.¡± As long as Yang Ping says it can be disclosed, there¡¯s no harm in taking a look. Only then does Professor Liang nod in agreement. The blueprint in the mobile hard drive is very detailed: exploded views, 3D images, images of each part, a set of graphical displays showing the application principles. Yang Ping explains the principle and some details of this device based on the images. This device, from the theoretical foundation to mechanical design, is very mature and can be directly applied in clinical trials. The only thing missing now is supporting animal experiment data. Is Yang Ping¡¯s research talent so high? A single innovation can be so mature; once the animal experiment is done, it could immediately enter clinical application. For this kind of device, from concept to diagrams, with all the trial and error, even a full team would take several years, and success is not guarantee. Now that he has presented one that is already mature, did he start researching this immediately after graduation? In reality, Yang Ping experienced countless failures in the system space before succeeding, consuming millions of points. If it weren¡¯t successful, he wouldn¡¯t dare to continue spending points. Professor Liang didn¡¯t delve too deeply, after all, regardless of the reasons, the product was already in front of them, so he said, ¡°This set of equipment is very mature, just lacking animal experiments. We have a collaborative laboratory with the Chinese University of Hong Kong which uses experimental monkeys to study scoliosis. This lab is located in Guilin, Guangxi, and has been operational for three years, accumulating a lot of data. The data is now available to you. Director Hu, how many juvenile monkeys do we have in our current models?¡± ¡°These experimental monkeys are all crab-eating macaques, which should be very suitable for research. What age of monkeys do we need? Under six years old?¡± Professor Liang asked. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s great. I was just thinking about making a trip to Guangxi to see the experimental monkey base there.¡± Yang Ping knew that their laboratory was located in Guilin because it was convenient to obtain experimental monkeys. Guangxi has the largest experimental monkey breeding base in the country. ¡°I¡¯ll get on it right away!¡± Director Hu noted Professor Liang¡¯s words. Professor Liang showed a bit of displeasure: ¡°Don¡¯t wait later, do it now. It¡¯s a matter of a few words, ask now.¡± ¡°Alright, right away!¡± Director Hu was used to Professor Liang¡¯s style, but he was still a little embarrassed. In front of everyone, Director Hu made a phone call to inquire about the situation at the Guilin laboratory. Besides a few people who handle daily management, everyone else is from Peking Union Medical College Hospital and the Chinese University of Hong Kong on rotation. The models for the scoliosis of experimental monkeys need to be created after the monkeys are purchased, which is a process. Therefore, if the experiment starts soon, they need to find out if there is sufficient stock. ¡°There is! Thirty-four juvenile monkeys! All have completed health quarantine and immunization plans and are ready to start the experiment at any time.¡± Director Hu replied. ¡°Thirty-four, that¡¯s enough!¡± Professor Liang did a quick calculation. ¡°Gather them all for Dr. Yang¡¯s project experiment. Xiao Yang, if you agree, we can cooperate on this part. We can help you complete your animal experiment. What do you think? We won¡¯t put our names on the paper, just let us have the priority to observe the first batch of experimental cases.¡± Professor Liang did not want to take advantage of the young people. He sincerely wanted to use his resources to help Yang Ping. ¡°Thank you, Professor Liang.¡± Yang Ping agreed. Actually, it wouldn¡¯t be overstepping to add their names, as they are indeed helping to complete the animal experiment, but since this is Professor Liang¡¯s style, Yang Ping didn¡¯t bring it up and just went with his way. ¡°Xiao Yang, you send a detailed experimental plan over there. They will complete the animal experiment. Director Hu is in charge of the liaison for this subject.¡± With a few words from Professor Liang, the cooperation on this subject was decided. Cooperating on the subject can stimulate everyone¡¯s progress together and avoids isolating oneself. Just like the production of enterprises, they can possess the core technology and let upstream and downstream cooperative enterprises do the rest. If everyone does everything themselves, it will reduce efficiency. After visiting the ward and the operating room, there was endless conversation with Yang Ping, which left Director Han and Dean Xia unable to join the conversation. They just shook their heads and sighed. That night everyone had dinner together. Those accompanying included Professor Su, Dean Xia, Director Han, Director Tian, and several directors of the orthopedics department, all the doctors of the comprehensive orthopedics department, and the Peking Union Medical College Hospital advanced study group. When Professor Su saw Yang Ping, he was exceptionally cordial. If it hadn¡¯t been for the occasion, he would have wanted Yang Ping to sit next to him. Ever since Yang Ping returned from the United States, Professor Su has always wanted to find an opportunity to meet Yang Ping. This time at the Golden Knife Award, Yang Ping won the championship, and Su Yixuan was awarded the best surgical nurse. The two won awards together, and Professor Su and his wife laughed every time they talked about it. Both husband and wife were also anxious. Why hadn¡¯t their daughter told them about her relationship, and why hadn¡¯t she brought Yang Ping to meet them? They wanted to urge her a few times, but held back. This time, the battle for talent between Peking Union Medical College Hospital and 301, Professor Su also heard about it, he has been watching it closely. He did not know which hospital Yang Ping would eventually choose, based on his comprehensive analysis, he estimated that Yang Ping would likely stay where he was, but it was hard to guess what a young man was thinking. He knew that by being nearer, Nandu Affiliated Hospital One had an advantage, but Professor Su knew just like he¡¯s seeing it in a mirror. Yang Ping¡¯s everything in Sanbo is currently going smoothly. There was no need to relocate, and even if he did, going to Peking Union Medical College Hospital or 301 would be stronger than Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Therefore, Professor Su was not in a hurry or agitated. He was as steady as a mountain and had planned how to proceed. He knew that whether it was Yang Ping or his daughter, neither wanted to develop under his wings. Otherwise, Su Yixuan would not have been working at Sanbo Hospital. ¡°Professor Su!¡± Yang Ping had already raised his glass. In the green-themed dinner, everyone was drinking beverages. Professor Su quickly raised his cup: ¡°Xiao Yang, your performance in the Golden Knife Award was extraordinary, especially that scoliosis operation, it made my heart beat.¡± ¡°Professor Su overpraises, my method is just a little improvement on the basis of my predecessors.¡± Yang Ping was being humble in front of his father-in-law. This kid, Professor Su felt joy in his heart, he was being humble when he should be, and proud when he should be. He loved this character. ¡°When will you come to Affiliated Hospital One and visit us? Nanchen always mentions you.¡± Professor Su put down his cup. ¡°Xiao Yang and your son are in contact?¡± Professor Liang was greatly surprised, and at the same time was puzzled, why didn¡¯t Su Qingyun, who is famous for cherishing talents, make any moves towards Yang Ping? Su Nanchen graduated from Peking Union Medical College Hospital, and all the clinical courses were completed at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, so Professor Liang was naturally familiar with him. Seeing Professor Liang¡¯s puzzled eyes, Director Han understood, but he just laughed. No matter what, Su Qingyun would have to recognize him as a father-in-law. Chapter 471 - 471 429 A handful of Peanuts and Beer ?Chapter 471: Chapter 429: A handful of Peanuts and Beer Chapter 471: Chapter 429: A handful of Peanuts and Beer Though Professor Liang didn¡¯t achieve his aim, after talking with Yang Ping and seeing the strong support from Dean Xia and Director Han for Yang Ping, he felt reassured and cherished Yang Ping even more. What he termed as ¡®cooperation¡¯ was really an attempt to help Yang Ping in certain areas. Perhaps, this child, he can freely experiment here. It might not work in Xiehe, their limits may be more rigid. So, Professor Liang no longer insisted on bringing Yang Ping into his department. Director Hu continued to study at Sanbo Hospital, displaying significant interest in Yang Ping¡¯s cases. Moreover, he wanted to wholly participate in Yang Ping¡¯s treatment of pediatric scoliosis through external fixation. He wanted to see how Yang Ping could complete this miraculous correction. Having dealt with other matters, Dean Xia almost forgot the information he meant to relay to Yang Ping: ¡°Do you still remember that ¡®Bao Ruffian¡¯?¡± The ¡®Bao Ruffian¡¯ didn¡¯t spark any memories. After all, Yang Ping had relatively good recall. ¡°That¡¯s the ¡®Bao¡¯ something or other who conflicted with you and assaulted people with a crutch,¡± Director Han explained. It was Bao Junhao. How could he not remember him? He was arrogant and imperious. Accompanied by his ridiculously matched mother, Yang Ping simply couldn¡¯t tolerate him. Reminded of this, Yang Ping immediately recounted his encounters with Bao Junhao in the United States to Director Han and Dean Xia. The two of them listened as though it were a tale. How incredible that they would cross the Pacific, only to run into Yang Ping after months of waiting. With no outsiders present, Dean Xia and Director Han shared hearty laughter. ¡°His family will send an apology letter to the hospital tomorrow. Moreover, his father is willing to make a donation for patient economic relief. In future cases where ¡®Sanwu¡¯ patients, poor patients, and those unable to afford hospital fees arise, this relief fund can provide monetary assistance.¡± After laughing, Dean Xia got back to the point. This is a good thing. Every repentant person should be given another chance. Although coverage is now quite high, many doctors have still encountered patients who try to evade payment, especially ¡®Sanwu¡¯ patients. They¡¯re a big headache. Whenever patients evade payment or owe money, it¡¯s the doctors who suffer. Charges are deducted from the treatment group, from group leaders to bed-attending doctors in proportion. Real money is deducted from salaries and bonuses. Dr. Guo, the in-charge of the Trauma Orthopedics department, had to eat instant noodles for a continuous month due to a patient who escaped without paying after ripping out his catheter. These incidents, sometimes coming after tiring all-night surgeries, not only save lives but also extract a painful cost. The lighter cases last a month, worse ones several months, doctors work for the patient. Patients who evade payment come in various forms. Some are ¡®Sanwu¡¯ patients who are genuinely helpless. Some have family but are impoverished and lack health insurance or business insurance. In spinal surgery, a high-paralysis patient fell from a high place. With several children recognizing their father as a great burden, they clearly expressed their wish not to need him anymore and to leave him permanently in the hospital. The patient, informed of the news, washed his face in tears daily and relied on doctors and nurses for his three meals a day. Thus, in hospitals, human nature, both its beauty and its ugliness, is exposed without warning, particularly in ERs and ICUs, where life and death hang in the balance. You never expect human nature to be so ugly. Neither do you dream it could be so beautiful. Abandonment, persistence, love, unfeelingness ¨C it¡¯s all on show every day. For example, it¡¯s not unusual for children to squabble over property rights in the ward while a loved one is on their deathbed. A doctor declaring there is hope only to charge a patient¡¯s fee, after which a horde of filial children disperse in all directions. And all these ¡®children¡¯ are well-educated. Patients without medical or commercial insurance are encountered by every hospital, in every department, naked to the world. For example, the high-profile gods of Sanhe, are presumably without health insurance, nor would they have commercial insurance. Most of the migrant workers coming into the city to work can be seen everywhere. Those who enter the factory generally have no problem. Those who do odd jobs, who find work wherever they can, for example those who form their own small team for renovations, mostly lack health insurance, let alone commercial insurance because they lack the awareness of need. Many of this group of migrant workers don¡¯t even have a residence permit, so how could they know about health insurance? Even if some do, they often unwillingly save their limited cash unwilling to spend it, confident that misfortune will not befall them. These small construction teams purely gamble on luck. If nothing happens, everyone¡¯s fine, they earn a bit of money, and return home happily for the New Year. But once an accident occurs, the contractor will generally pay those who are financially capable and not badly injured. Some, on their first day at work, barely remembering names, fall and fracture a vertebra, paralyzed in bed, suffering from substantial medical expenses. The boss himself having run out of money, has no choice but to run away. Having this relief fund for cases of fee evasion and payment arrears means that doctors won¡¯t need to resort to eating instant noodles, and they won¡¯t need to look at the red deficit on the computer every day, stressing and worrying. Bao Yulou is quite magnanimous, donating thirty million. The crucial point is not the amount, but that he pinpointed the pain point of donation. This shows he put thought into it. Annual countrywide hospital expenses from fee dodgers amount to around four billion, with Sanbo Hospital reaching four to five million annually, but the civil affairs department only allocates tens of thousands for this cause to Sanbo Hospital, which only suffices for minor expenses. Essentially all hospitals follow this convention, leaving these expenses for the doctors to cover ¨C deducted from wages and bonuses. Thanks to Bao Yulou¡¯s donation, the establishment of this fund, regardless of how rascally his son may be, shows sincerity. He is earnest in his apology. ¡°Looking at his son and wife¡¯s attitude, if they are indeed well-behaved, should we help him with the surgery?¡± Dean Xia said. Director Han took over the conversation: ¡°Depends on his behavior. As long as the patient is not violent and our personal safety can be ensured, we doctors are naturally willing to treat them. However, if there is no improvement in the patient¡¯s behavior, we are sorry, they should seek treatment elsewhere. It¡¯s not a matter of life and death.¡± Dean Xia and Director Han both were too busy to have a proper chat with Yang Ping that day. Now that they had some free time, Director Han suggested going up to the rooftop of the Twin Towers to enjoy the breeze and have a chat. Indeed, it suddenly occurred to everyone that they were still in the hospital¡¯s open-air parking lot. This suggestion was immediately agreed upon by Director Han. The two elders acted like young students, eager to go up to the rooftop for a chat. Without further ado, the three of them took the elevator directly to the rooftop of the Twin Towers. The rooftop was a helipad, accessible by elevator. The air on the rooftop was good. They found a place to sit down and slowly started chatting. Director Han somehow had a few bottles of Wong Lo Kat in his hand. Everyone got one, and they drank as they chatted. Dean Xia summarized some recent matters. All were related to Yang Ping. His promotion to the post of Associate Chief Physician seemed to be going smoothly, the procedures were underway and would likely be resolved within the year. For the Overseas Chinese Foundation, Dean Xia had sent a formal email to the governing board, hoping that the foundation would set up a special research fund unit to serve Yang Ping¡¯s research and accept directed donations for Yang Ping¡¯s research project. Usually, the board would agree to accept directed donations and establish a unit, as it doesn¡¯t involve any other issues. For this, Dean Xia had made dozens of trips to the provincial government, persuading the leaders to agree with this approach. Establishing a new fund would be difficult. Since Sanbo Hospital had a close connection to the Southeast Asian Overseas Chinese Foundation, he was familiar with the foundation¡¯s operations and used it to expedite the process, quickly and steadily. The Sanbo Hospital, after being established by rich Overseas Chinese businessmen from Southeast Asia, in order to maintain its steady development, set up a foundation to provide continuous support for doctors¡¯ education, equipment purchases, and infrastructure. Therefore, the chances of successfully setting up a research fund group are quite high. Once it¡¯s established, they can announce it to the public and accept directed donations. How much money they can receive depends on Yang Ping¡¯s capabilities. This kind of directed donation depends on Yang Ping¡¯s attractiveness. As long as people were willing to fund the cause, nobody could stop them. As for establishing the Surgical Research Institute, it¡¯s an internal hospital matter. All they have to do is hold a meeting to discuss it. There¡¯s no suspense about its establishment. The things Dean Xia had noted down back then were now being systematically implemented. ¡°Yang, if there¡¯s anything else you need us to do, let us know. We might be old, and our thinking might not keep up with you youngsters, but we can handle logistics for you. After all, experience matters,¡± said Director Han, telling Yang Ping to be free with his requests. Dean Xia remembered another thing: ¡°Yang, I will set up an office for your Surgical Research Institute. This will be a special office, which will handle everything outside of your technical domain ¨C logistics, public relations, legal affairs, clerical work, and more. For instance, even if you scratch a car while driving, a single call from you will send someone from the office to pick you up and handle the aftermath. If there are any legal disputes, a lawyer will work with the hospital¡¯s legal department to resolve them. This office is your logistical support, allowing you to focus solely on research, surgeries, and patient care.¡± ¡°Furthermore, the security department will establish a dedicated security team for your Surgical Research Institute¡¯s operations.¡± Dean Xia had thought of everything, and there were many things Yang Ping didn¡¯t even consider. Without today¡¯s conversation, he would have remained clueless. ¡°If there is anything that needs arranging at home, feel free to say. Don¡¯t be polite, like arranging for relatives to work at the hospital, or helping them set up a shop nearby. Just mention it without hesitating. I have set a special ringtone for your calls on my phone. You should work happily and wholeheartedly here,¡± said Dean Xia, as he took all the minor details into account. With such a work attitude, it¡¯s no wonder that he is both a national model worker and among the top hundred deans in the country. He even received an award at the People¡¯s Hall. ¡°We are here to take care of all your needs. Don¡¯t feel pressured. Do not feel the urge to produce results quickly. Let it happen naturally and go at your own pace,¡± Director Han warned Yang Ping, afraid he would feel pressured. ¡°Right! Go at your own pace,¡± Dean Xia agreed. ¡°What was that famous quote from an Italian poet?¡± ¡°Follow your path¡ª¡± ¡°Right, that¡¯s the one.¡± ¡°Shall we get some peanuts and beer up here?¡± Dean Xia seemed energetic. Director Han said, ¡°Why not get some?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go for it¡ªI¡¯m in a good mood today!¡± Dean Xia picked up his phone, but put it back again. ¡°You both rest up here, and I will go get it.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to dampen their moods. ¡°Young people should naturally move around more. We¡¯ll rest here, let him go. Get us chilled beer,¡± Director Han directed Yang Ping. ¡°Should we invite Old Zhang to join us?¡± ¡°No need, his wife keeps a close eye on him.¡± Chapter 472 - 472 430 Breaking Through Each One ?Chapter 472: Chapter 430: Breaking Through Each One Chapter 472: Chapter 430: Breaking Through Each One Professor Liang had just left Sanbo Hospital, and early the next day, the professorial team from 301 had arrived in Sanbo, which was quite a spectacle compared to Professor Liang¡¯s solitary, hasty visit. The team from 301 was fully prepared and impressively arrayed, including the Orthopedics Department Director, Professor Qin Shi, Director Zhang Zhenglong from the Political work department, Director Zhou Min from Medical Affairs, Director Wu Zhanli from Human Resources, and more. Notably, there was also a female officer, Qin Peiling, a nurse from the operating room of 301. Most of those in this military cohort, all uniformed, had been praised for their numerous merits. After being on the receiving end of Xiehe Hospital¡¯s first wave of assault, now Dean Xia was able to respond with finesse. After a heart-to-heart with Yang Ping on the rooftop the previous night, the fire within Dean Xia was reignited. He thought he was getting too old but had since changed his mind and decided to spearhead a significant venture. He was in his fifties, and retirement was still a long way off. He had ample time to accomplish many things. Besides, he had a clean record, and his past achievements had solidified his position as dean, allowing him to continuously provide the best conditions for Yang Ping. He planned to accept Yang Ping¡¯s suggestion. Using the Surgical Research Institute as the core, radiating to all the hospital departments, they would in the future recruit the most outstanding talent globally. In the past, this was something Dean Xia had not dared to dream of, but now he had the daring to make it a reality. Using his exceptional eye for discerning people¡¯s capabilities, Dean Xia affirmed that Yang Ping was a pivot with enough energy to easily spearhead the entire Sanbo Hospital. In one¡¯s lifetime, it¡¯s necessary to do several things that one won¡¯t regret. Now was the best time for Sanbo, and he was not going to miss this opportunity, lest he live with regret. Compared to the nervousness he experienced when meeting with Professor Liang, Dean Xia was now calm and composed. As was customary, Dean Xia led everyone to the hospital¡¯s office. The office had a dedicated reception room that was spacious and brightly lit, stocked with a variety of beverages like tea and coffee. The secretaries in the office also started getting busy. They were professionals in handling reception work. The purpose of the visit was clear. The notice from higher ups had already been sent to Dean Xia, asking him to prepare Yang Ping mentally. It was unusual that Professor Qin just chatted leisurely with Dean Xia and Director Han, asking about the hospital¡¯s development, the annual patient consultation volumes, the volume of surgeries, the number of admitted patients, research funding, etc., but not mentioning Yang Ping¡¯s recruitment at all. It was as if he was just there to tour the hospital. They didn¡¯t bring it up, and Dean Xia couldn¡¯t possibly do so first. He just waited to see what they were up to. After several cups of tea, and Dean Xia playing dumb by only chatting about the condition of the hospital and not mentioning Yang Ping¡¯s situation, Professor Qin finally suggested, ¡°Let¡¯s visit Yang Ping¡¯s department. Please assign a nursing department colleague to guide our nurse to the operating room to see where Yang Ping usually performs surgeries.¡± Actually, Professor Qin was well-prepared and knew everything about Yang Ping¡¯s situation: his girlfriend was a nurse in the operating room, so a nurse was specifically brought along this time to conduct an ideological conversation with her. Conducting ideological conversations was a high-level technique, a secret well-known to Director Zhang Zhenglong and Director Wu Zhanli. Before coming to Sanbo, these two directors prepared Nurse Qin Peiling of 301 grounds by teaching her the essence of conducting ideological conversations. Furthermore, Professor Qin didn¡¯t expect to succeed in one go, and it wasn¡¯t even possible. He had plenty of patience. Administrators, doctors, nurses each had their own negotiation targets. The negotiation team could be divided into several groups and achieve their goals one by one. For Dean Xia, Director Zhang Zhenglong would lead the negotiations, discussing the bigger picture and focusing on the need to avoid local protectionism. Talent belonged to the nation and should be placed where it was most suitable. As long as he released people, 301 could reciprocate with enough power for Dean Xia to establish remarkable achievements for Sanbo Hospital. The fact that he could cultivate talents like Yang Ping was credit to him, and if he sent Yang Ping away, his credit would only increase. He would personally be rewarded for it. Director An Shirong¡¯s target was Director Han, who he heard was grateful to Yang Ping as a student and mentor. This point should be used as a leverage. Retaining Yang Ping was a selfish act and would only waste talent. It would truly show care and respect for talent by letting him go to a large platform like 301. Men should dream big, so why should a father keep his child under his wing, tied to a small piece of land? The other young doctors would surround doctors like Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, using the future and honor to weaken their defense and uproot the entire team this time. As for the conversation with Yang Ping, Professor Qin would personally handle it, patiently influencing him. When the timing was right, waiting till those around him had almost entirely lowered their defenses, the negotiation team would finally consolidate its power to secure Yang Ping once and for all. The plan was clear, comprehensive, and things should be conducted systematically. Professor Qin was extremely confident. When this group of military doctors appeared in the comprehensive orthopedic ward, the men, tall and proud, and the women, valiant and heroic, attracted countless envious gazes. Every man had once dreamed of being a soldier as a child. Yang Ping, too, had aspired to be a soldier in his childhood, to defend his home and country. Looking at these doctors in military uniforms, his childhood dream was reignited, stirring his heart. While this excited him, and despite reminiscing about childhood dreams, Yang Ping was a very rational person. He was clear about what he wanted. Any position could contribute to the country. As Professor Liang had said, every person doing their best in their work contributed to the greatness of the nation. Chapter 473 - 473 430 Breaking Through Each One - Part 2 ?Chapter 473: Chapter 430: Breaking Through Each One ¨C Part 2 Chapter 473: Chapter 430: Breaking Through Each One ¨C Part 2 ¡°This is Director Zhang Zhenglong of the Political Work Department, this is Professor Lei Zhengguo, this is Professor Wang Wei¡ª¡± After Professor Qin introduced himself, he introduced each team member one by one, and each person who was introduced immediately performed a standard military salute. Seeing the envious looks from everyone, Professor Qin smiled in satisfaction. It was exactly the reaction he wanted. For professors engaged in clinical work, their main concerns are the current patients in their care and the surgeries performed. Hence, ward rounds are inevitable during any visit. After making rounds and looking at the cases here, all of which involved high-risk, high-degree-of-difficulty patients, Professor Qin couldn¡¯t help but worry. Not to mention the other patients, even for those with scoliosis, if they were in Hospital 301, and Professor Qin himself was the Chief Surgeon, he might not dare to perform surgery. The last case was one Professor Qin was very familiar with. The patient was an eighteen-year-old male who had been discussed within the department at Hospital 301. It was a multi-disciplinary collaboration which involved a long discussion among the Cardiac Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, Hepatobiliary Surgery, and General Surgery departments. After correcting the scoliosis, the issue of how to deal with the displaced and deformed internal organs arose. Everything inside was currently a mess, and the situation was delicate; a single move during surgery could affect the entire body. The final conclusion was to give up the operation. Not all patients can be treated, not all patients can be operated on. It was a complete coincidence that this patient came to seek help from Yang Ping. ¡°Are you planning to perform surgery? What is the surgical plan?¡± Professor Qin asked briefly and clearly. Yang Ping¡¯s answer was simple: ¡°Correct the scoliosis and carry out correction on the displaced, deformed internal organs!¡± ¡°Who will perform the internal organ surgery for the heart and hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery?¡± Professor Qin continued to ask. Medicine is serious; it cannot rely solely on passion. Just taking the heart into account, that¡¯s already at the level of Anzhen Fuwai. The Thoracic Surgery department of Sanbo Hospital does not meet this requirement. ¡°I will be the Chief Surgeon!¡± ¡°You?¡± Professor Qin was shocked. An orthopedic surgeon performing heart surgery ¨C what a joke! ¡°We will soon put up the sign of the Surgical Research Institute here!¡± Dean Xia hurriedly explained. When most people hear about Yang Ping¡¯s cross-specialty surgery, they would have doubts, as it¡¯s a normal reaction. Professor Qin came back to his senses and nodded. Surgery requires the accumulation of experience, and there are no shortcuts. They dare to let Yang Ping handle this kind of cross-specialty surgery? However, thinking about it, it did make sense. For that tumor surgery on the cervical spine that Yang Ping performed, Academician Feng Tiancheng noticed that the tumor involved the medulla oblongata. The surgery for tumors of the medulla oblongata should technically be neurosurgery, yet he managed it all by himself. However, as the upper spinal cord and the medulla oblongata are anatomically continuous, a surgeon treating an upper neck tumor implicating a medulla oblongata tumor is actually within the purview of neurosurgeons in Europe and America, so it¡¯s not surprising. As for Yang Ping¡¯s show of interventional techniques in the US, it¡¯s normal for trauma surgeons dealing with pelvic fractures to master interventional techniques for hemostasis in some individual cases. Therefore, mastering interventional skills is not strange either. As for crossing from orthopedics to heart, or to hepatobiliary and pancreas, it¡¯s very rare across the world, and those one or two instances cannot be imitated. Take a Swiss surgeon for instance, who was an authority in trauma surgery, general surgery, neurosurgery, urological surgery, and gynecology and obstetrics. This person not only mastered multiple disciplines, but also won a Nobel Prize. The Charite? Hospital affiliated with Charite? Medical College in Germany also has such a top talent. Starting with trauma surgery and becoming world¡¯s top, then getting bored and moving to orthopedic surgery, he accidentally became world¡¯s top in that too. Tired of orthopedics, he felt like exploring oncology next. After some studying, he again rose to the top in the field. Attending various top international academic conferences as an authority, people are unclear about which specialty he belongs to. He has textbooks in several specializations, all of which are classics. Unaware people might think they are written by people having same names. Such extraordinary people are rare in the world and cannot be imitated. In China, we stress that everyone has their own specialized field. No matter how much we value talent, we should not act so recklessly. Professor Qin felt that Dean Xia¡¯s excessive doting on the young was dangerous. Young people need guidance and help, and they can¡¯t be left to their whims. This would in fact ruin them, making them haphazard and ultimately unproductive. Furthermore, if this continues, there will be trouble. Once it happens, it will harm the young people. Like when a girl is choosing a partner, parents must help provide advice and proper guidance. For evidently wrong choices, some intervention is necessary, otherwise one can easily go astray and wreck their entire life. The misuse of talent like this is a complete waste. Director Zhang Zhenglong was somewhat discontented with Dean Xia. It was understandable to set up an orthopedics research institute, but what was the meaning behind setting up a surgical research institute? Let¡¯s not interfere with others¡¯ affairs and focus on this case. The orthopedic professors were all interested in how Yang Ping was going to perform the operation. Director Han, seeing their high enthusiasm, said: ¡°Xiao Yang, why don¡¯t you explain it to everyone?¡± Bao Yulou, accompanied by his wife and children, personally delivered an apology letter. Dean Xia was too busy, so Dean Sun received them. Dean Sun led the Bao family towards the comprehensive orthopedics department to wait for Dean Xia and Dr. Yang to be available so they could meet. After a lengthy detour to the United States, Bao Junhao and his mother have become thoroughly obedient. After returning to China, they saw that Luo Jin was even more severely injured than Bao Junhao, and had already started to compete again. The outcome of an athlete¡¯s surgery could be determined by just a few laps on the field, void of any other tests. In the United States, Yang Ping was treated like a teacher by Robert. Seeing Robert¡¯s respectful demeanor, Bao Junhao had been wholeheartedly scared, afraid of becoming disabled. Everyone has something they¡¯re afraid of, and for the rich, their greatest fear is having health issues. Bao Yulou knew that Yang Ping was busy but insisted on seeing him, even if it was just waving from a distance without disturbing him would work. This way, his sincerity was expressed, and everything else could be taken care of later. ¡°A few esteemed professors from the 301 Hospital came over today, they are currently visiting and exchanging views in the comprehensive orthopedics department, so both Dean Xia and Dr. Yang are quite busy,¡± Dean Sun explained to Bao Yulou. Dean Sun, being a smooth operator and worldly-wise, made sure to approach these important figures, regardless of their field. ¡°It¡¯s no problem, we just need to catch a glimpse.¡± Bao Yulou simply wanted to say hello, as long as Dr. Yang knew they had visited. They still had to sign an agreement and make a donation, after all. ¡°301? Last time Old Wan was diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer, he wanted to be admitted to the 301 Hospital for surgery but couldn¡¯t get in. Do you know how he¡¯s doing now?¡± Even Mrs. Bao was familiar with the 301 Hospital. Bao Yulou replied, ¡°That hospital doesn¡¯t admit anyone just because they have money. It wasn¡¯t until we found a senior official in Beijing to intervene on their behalf, that he was given a bed.¡± The standing of 301 in China is something those at their level certainly know about. While chatting about this, they arrived at the comprehensive orthopedics department. They inquired the nurses¡¯ station and found that everyone was in the doctors¡¯ office. Dean Sun led the Bao family to the doctors¡¯ office, just as they approached the entrance. The room was full of officers, all gathered around Yang Ping while he lectured in front of the electronic screen for viewing film. The officers were listening very carefully, occasionally asking questions in the manner of a student. Yang Ping would then answer them, and some still didn¡¯t seem to understand after his explanation. Is Dr. Yang lecturing them? Bao Yulou was stunned for a moment. He understood the symbols on those people¡¯s shoulders a bit ¨C their ranks were not low. Professors in such a hospital generally associate with high-level officials. Now they were gathered around Yang Ping, their eyes filled with respect, like students. Sweat broke out on Bao Yulou¡¯s back, realizing the true nature of Yang¡¯s prestige. It was truly dangerous! Mrs. Bao also seemed to discern something, and began to feel a sudden wave of fear wash over her. Chapter 474 - 474 431 Boiling a Frog in Warm Water ?Chapter 474: Chapter 431: Boiling a Frog in Warm Water Chapter 474: Chapter 431: Boiling a Frog in Warm Water This case, with its high difficulty of spinal correction, was not an issue for Yang Ping, seeing as he had successfully corrected the spinal deformity of Lu Gang. However, Professor Qin was somewhat doubtful of Yang Ping¡¯s ability to execute the thoracic and abdominal visceral surgeries due to the significant disciplinary crossover involved. The handling of thoracic and abdominal viscera, whether it¡¯s the heart, lungs, and large blood vessels, or liver, gall, and pancreas, require highly specialized skills. Even the experts of cardiac surgery and hepatobiliary pancreatic surgery at the 301 Hospital thought the surgical risks were too high after studying the case and had to give up. Many of these vital organs are adhered in many places. Once the spine is corrected, the entire layout and suspension of the organs will be affected. If not handled properly, this could lead to sudden cardiac arrest and organ failure ¡ª this is no laughing matter. Moreover, the patient is already 18 years old and has lived with this malformation for nearly ten years, during which the organs have adapted to their deformed state. Although there is partial functional obstruction, it still meets the needs of life. Surgery at this point will interfere with the organ system¡¯s ability to readjust to a new environment and could easily lead to various complications, such as torsion at the organ¡¯s base, herniation, and fatal necrosis or functional failure due to the organs being stretched or squeezed. To avoid these situations, it is necessary to perform surgery on the thoracic and abdominal organs in advance to adapt to the new thoracic and abdominal capacity and new spinal sequence. How to operate and how to adapt to these changes poses many challenges. For this case, Professor Qin had previously consulted with Professor August, a renowned spine surgery expert in Germany. They had encountered similar patients with severe spinal scoliosis combined with thoracic and abdominal organ deformities and displacement. The patient at that time suffered heart failure and had to undergo surgery. Despite being assisted by an artificial heart-lung machine, the surgery, unfortunately, carried out in coordination with cardiac surgeons and hepatobiliary pancreatic surgeons, lasted for 14 hours. The patient was unable to get discharged from the artificial heart-lung machine post-surgery. On the 12th day after the surgery, the patient was declared dead in the ICU. Such cases, given the current state of research on the heart, lungs, and hepatobiliary pancreas, carry an extremely high mortality rate. Listening to Yang Ping¡¯s explanation, it seems like everything is under control with a high surgical success rate, having considered all potential complications with detailed contingency plans. The theory is one thing, but even without considering the postoperative treatment, just the reshaping and rehanging of the organs alone seems to be an insurmountable medical challenge. As Yang Ping intends to perform this surgery without showing any signs of fear, with the whole hospital supporting him, Professor Qin has nothing more to say. He wanted to stay and see how exactly the operation is performed. ¡°Dr. Yang, the heart, lung, and hepatobiliary pancreatic surgeries you just described might be too difficult. Do you need someone to come over and provide support?¡± Professor Qin bluntly asked. He is willing to help, and it would be easy for him to invite cardiac or hepatobiliary pancreatic surgery experts from any hospital. Moreover, Qin heard that a Chinese cardiac surgery expert from the American Cleveland Medical Center will come to guide surgeries in 301 shortly and could help Yang Ping. Professor Qin is doing this purely out of his duty as a doctor. The cardiac surgery department of Cleveland Medical Center ranks first in the entire United States. This Chinese cardiac surgery expert is a top specialist at the center, honored with the heart surgeon¡¯s chief¡¯s recognition, and he is just entering his forties. After discussing the situation with Professor Qin, Yang Ping thinks it is a good idea to have such an expert to discuss and share knowledge regarding academic matters. ¡°When will this professor arrive? We could discuss further and perfect the surgical plan.¡± Yang Ping very much agreed with Professor Qin¡¯s suggestion. Professor Qin didn¡¯t know the exact time, apparently in the next few days. He commented, ¡°I will confirm, but I¡¯m not sure about his itinery.¡± He wasn¡¯t sure because he heard that this professor would go to the North Shore Hospital in Australia after instructing surgeries in China. Since it wasn¡¯t certain, the matter was put aside for the time being. There was no rush for surgery for this patient. Should the professor from Cleveland be able to come, Yang Ping would be very eager to exchange thoughts and learn from him. There is no end to learning. The young doctors of 301, with many unresolved queries, put forward many questions to Yang Ping, who patiently explained them. His deep academic competence astonished both Professor Qin and Professor An. They felt as if Yang Ping had read all specialized textbooks and papers, even those from years ago or the most recent ones. He seems to know every knowledge point, and the amount of specialized knowledge he grasps is astonishing. Dean Sun saw an opportunity and brought Bao Yulou¡¯s family in to meet Yang Ping. Bao Yulou knew that today was just a brief meet-and-greet and that an official apologizing ceremony was to be held the next day. Hence, afraid of wasting Yang Ping¡¯s time, he only made a few polite remarks. Yang Ping was busy and only responded with a courteous nod. Mrs. Bao and Young Master Bao were also by the side, smiling and bowing, which made them look a bit awkward and at a loss. Thus, after having greeted each other, Bao Yulou did not want to bother Yang Ping any further. He decided to come back another day to apologize in person and sign the donation agreement. After discussing the case, Professor Qin still did not bring up the matter of bringing Yang Ping into the fold. But he had learned that Yang Ping had a research topic that greatly interested him, the use of external braces to treat scoliosis in children, especially when he saw the design of the external braces, he realized that the research was already in its final stages. If this technology were to prove successful, it would have a tremendous impact. Therefore, using this as a breakthrough point, Professor Qin suggested a collaboration with 301 since its orthopedic department is one of the few major centers in the country. If the data from animal experiments are promising and the procedure is minimally invasive, the clinical trials of these external braces would easily pass ethical review. Large-scale clinical trials usually require multi-center cooperation. This not only allows for the collection of a large sample but also gains widespread acceptance. Trials conducted singlehandedly do not have as much credibility as those done by multiple centers. Institutions like 301 and Xiehe Hospital have very high credibility and would greatly benefit Yang Ping¡¯s research plan. Professor Qin stated that 301 could participate in the clinical trials, and Yang Ping gladly agreed. After the case discussion, everyone wanted to continue mingling. Before they knew it, Dean Xia, Director Han, and Yang Ping, were separated from each other. Dean Xia was taken to the administrative building by Director Zhang Zhenglong and Director Wu Zhanli. Director Han was asked by Director An Shirong to visit their orthopedics laboratory. Professor Qin wanted to discuss the topic of collaboration with Yang Ping, as well as the arrangements for the heart specialist from Cleveland. Song Zimo and others were taken to see the orthopedics training room by several young doctors from 301. Seeing that the time was ripe, Professor Qin formally expressed to Yang Ping that he admired him greatly after having seen his Golden Knife Award-winning surgery and published papers. He stated that if Yang Ping was willing to join 301, they could grant him military rank as a senior colonel as special recruitment. They could give him a ward in the orthopedics department and provide fifty million in research funds and the same amount for housing. His fiance?e could also be specially recruited, and his entire team could consider joining 301. Professor Qin added that Yang need not rush his decision, as the doors of 301 were always open to him. Professor Qin was not in a hurry. He abided by the sixteen-word principle of his superiors, which meant that he could not explicitly state that it was an order from above, yet he had to make sure everything was in order. He needed to bring in Yang Ping willingly, without issuing any direct orders. Professor Qin also knew that Yang Ping had a stem cell subject that had already been approved. The country had allocated two million, and the hospital planned to allocate twenty million. However, this was far from enough. With the strength of 301, they could help Yang Ping raise seventy or eighty million for research, and it could even become a national key project, attracting over a hundred million in funding. In the operating room, Nurse Qin Peiling and Xiao Su were already hand in hand, about to address each other as sisters. Nurse Xiao Qin also loved playing tennis and enjoyed the game when not at work. As the two women shared this interest and were both operating room nurses, they had a lot to talk about and quickly became good friends. Nurse Xiao Qin loved the military and invited Xiao Su to visit 301. If she had a chance to enlist and put on the uniform, that would be ideal. After all, some girls also dream of being soldiers. The points Director Zhang Zhenglong raised in his conversation with Dean Xia left Dean Xia unable to rebut. Talent belongs to the nation, and provincial protectionism should be avoided. Director Zhang did not explicitly mention these points, but his central idea was loud and clear. In short, through his clever negotiation, Director Zhang made it clear that sending Yang Ping to 301 was greatly beneficial to both the nation and its citizens. Any opposition to this could be seen as a lack of understanding. Director Zhang gradually built his case, occupying the moral high ground in the negotiation. In the end, he earnestly said to Dean Xia, ¡°Let¡¯s complete this good deed together. Let¡¯s do our best for our country and the medical field.¡± If he refused, it would mean he was not doing his best. After circling around, he had trapped Dean Xia in. Left with no choice, Dean Xia decided to go along with the change. He expressed his agreement with Director Zhang¡¯s opinion, saying that he had always been trying to persuade Yang Ping. But he admitted that he wasn¡¯t sure of Yang Ping¡¯s real thoughts on the matter. He suggested that Director Zhang talk to him personally. On Director Han¡¯s side, Director An Shirong greatly admired the teacher-student relationship between Director Han and Yang Ping. He shared a story about how, right after he graduated with his master¡¯s degree at a military region hospital, his former director had been very good to him. He encouraged him to pursue higher education and actively helped him get in touch with a mentor at 301. He did not disappoint his former director and successfully obtained his doctorate at 301, leading to where he was today. He still felt grateful for his old director¡¯s help and encouragement. Song Zimo and his team, in the comprehensive orthopedics training room, were surrounded by a few young doctors from 301. In an intentional or unintentional manner, the discussion veered towards painful issues such as medical disturbances and patient evasion of fees. They expressed their anger and indignation, saying they had never encountered such a situation before. After stating the conditions for Yang Ping¡¯s introduction, Professor Qin refrained from discussing this matter further. He just discussed the specifics of cooperation with Yang Ping. He had never thought of achieving his goal in one try. He planned to apply the strategy of boiling the frog slowly. As long as Yang Ping agreed to cooperate, he knew he could make him like 301. This kind of thing was like dating; it couldn¡¯t be straightforward, it had to be taken slow. There were many things Yang Ping needed to face if he wanted to go to 301 -the compassion of his old employer, the favor he owed Director Han, whether he could adjust to the environment at 301, and so on. Young people, after all, are afraid of restrictions and have many concerns. He should be left to slowly think it over. Chapter 475 - 475 432 Against the Routine ?Chapter 475: Chapter 432: Against the Routine Chapter 475: Chapter 432: Against the Routine By lunchtime, the separated group had reconvened again. Professor Qin began quietly collecting everyone¡¯s achievements, Nurse Xiao Qin and Xiao Su already began calling each other sisters. Nurse Xiao Qin had a decent skill at tennis, and hearing that Xiao Su received an award at a college sports competition, she was quite envious and felt a kindred spirit in her. As the two chatted, Nurse Xiao Qin found herself admiring Xiao Su more and more. She thought that when the time came for her to transition from her current job, she hoped to join Sanbo Hospital. Yang Ping¡¯s team tremendously intrigued her, it was the team of her dreams. Director Zhang Zhenglong said that originally his compelling arguments left Dean Xia speechless and at an overwhelming disadvantage, yet after Dean Xia gave him a tour around the hospital, pointing at an eight-story building and saying this entire building was for Yang Ping. HR and finance were to be kept separate, with Yang Ping having the final say on material procurement. Before long, a dedicated fund would be set up to financially support the research conducted in this building, though the money isn¡¯t much, probably a few billion per year. Dean Xia pointed to another very large vacant lot and told Director Zhang that although Sanbo Hospital wasn¡¯t particularly wealthy, it had a vast plot of land. Young people with ambitions could spread their wings here, and if necessary, an eighteen-storey building could be built for Yang Ping. He, Xia Changjiang, is no more than a servant, there to serve talent. What about Director Han¡¯s side? Has Director An Shirong, who has won Professor Qin¡¯s trust, gained any advantage? After Director An Shirong praised Director Han extensively, he recounted stories from when he was a junior doctor. His insinuation seemed to be that if Director Han didn¡¯t let people go, it would be due to his narrow-mindedness. Director Han said that Yang Ping, this young man, is too bold; he dares to take big risks in performing surgeries, and is like Sun Wukong. Director Han always lives in dread and his heart can¡¯t take it. Now, both 301 and Xiehe Hospital are sending people, hoping to introduce Yang Ping to their institutions, which is a good thing. He should let Yang Ping go as soon as possible, otherwise, his, old Han¡¯s, heart will have a problem sooner or later. He still wants to live a few more years. What does that mean? Has he been outmaneuvered? Professor Qin¡¯s carefully crafted plan seems to have been maneuvered around, encountering a worthy opponent indeed. However, Professor Qin was prepared, this matter could not be concluded in one or two negotiations, they had time. Xia Changjiang, who had received an award at the People¡¯s Hall, was not one to be trifled with. Poaching someone from him would not be an easy task. Given this situation, Professor Qin refrained from mentioning the introduction of Yang Ping again. For the initial visit, they were only testing the waters and probing the other party¡¯s reactions. As it stands, this was a hard nut to crack. After lunch, Professor Qin arranged¡ª Director Zhang Zhenglong led a team back to Beijing, leaving himself behind to observe Yang Ping¡¯s surgery. Nurse Xiao Qin had applied to stay behind, but was rejected by Professor Qin. The young lady was too innocent; in this situation, even if she wished to stay, she should have asked discreetly, not letting it show on her face. Chinese-American expert Professor Li Zehui from Cleveland, being entrusted by his parents, was scheduled to return to his hometown and pay tribute to his ancestors. He had prepared ample time for this trip to China, and had shown great interest in this case at Sanbo Hospital. Professor Qin, pulling Director Han together, planned to go to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One to see Professor Su¡¯s Spine Surgery Department. Yang Ping could finally have some peace and quiet. He was a bit overwhelmed with this relentless pursuit; however, he felt very touched. Everyone paid such great attention to him, or rather, the talent. Although he was still young and had performed a few complicated surgeries, he was considered an upcoming talent. The fact that these hospitals were opening their doors wide for him, and especially the attitudes of Professor Liang and Professor Qin, made Yang Ping feel that the country really valued talent. ¡ª For this talent introduction event promoted by Xiehe and 301, Yang Ping felt it necessary to discuss with the team members. It was a matter of respect for everyone. Song Zimo immediately gathered everyone in Yang Ping¡¯s office. Xiao Su, Zhou Can, and Liang Fatty from the upstairs operating room were also called down, and they started a closed-door meeting. Yang Ping made a simple opening speech, saying, ¡°Everyone has seen what¡¯s happened in the past two days. Both Xiehe and 301 have extended an olive branch to our team. What does everyone think?¡± While it was said that the olive branch was extended to the team, in reality, they just wanted to dig out Yang Ping. If they loved the house, they loved the crow as well, intending to pry the entire team away. But all in all, this was Yang Ping¡¯s private matter, and it was improper for everyone else to give their opinions. Seeing that everyone was silent, Song Zimo took the initiative to break the ice, ¡°I¡¯ll share my perspective. Xiehe and 301 offer the best platforms, there¡¯s no doubt about it! If it were me, I¡¯d definitely go. However, Dr. Yang, I don¡¯t think you should go. You¡¯re someone who can set up their own platform. You don¡¯t need to rely on any. Whether it¡¯s Xiehe or 301, for various reasons, you won¡¯t have the freedom to develop as you do at Sanbo. And I feel that any restrictions on you are unacceptable.¡± ¡°I also want to go to 301, dressing in its uniform, stepping out of there with immense pride, we won¡¯t have to worry about dealing with patient disturbances at work. But I agree with Dr. Song¡¯s opinion, I wouldn¡¯t go. Why leave here where we are kings, to go somewhere else and become a mere horsekeeper? A mountain does not need to be high, it is revered when it has a deity; water does not need to be deep, it is revered when it has a dragon. Dr. Yang, you are both the deity and the dragon, capable of making a difference anywhere. I think Dean Xia and Director Han understand you the best. If you go elsewhere, they won¡¯t. To clarify, I especially want to go with you to 301, although I heard that they want the whole team, I guess I¡¯m not up to the mark, but fantasizing seems legally okay. Wearing the military uniform, making a heroic appearance. I¡¯ve made my point.¡± Zhang Lin followed up. ¡°Zhang Lin¡¯s speech was quite impressive!¡± Xu Zhiliang showed significant amazement at Zhang Lin¡¯s remarks. What do you mean? It¡¯s like I¡¯m normally not impressive. Teacher Zhang is also a person of considerable knowledge and wisdom. Zhang Lin looked unconvinced as if he was underestimated, acting as if his usual competence was forgotten. After all, he was the department¡¯s educational secretary, and many top experts both domestically and internationally had passed through his hands. Xu Zhiliang agreed with Zhang Lin¡¯s view, ¡°As I see it, Dr. Yang, what you need now is freedom and the decision-making power. In Sanbo, you can establish a Surgical Research Institute but at Xiehe or 301, that would be impossible. Even if Professor Liang and Professor Qin value you and agree to let you establish the institution, would the hospital¡¯s management agree? Would the other departments agree? Imagine, if you were in Xiehe or 301, and you wanted to research the heart, would research funding be given to you first or to the top experts in the Cardiac Surgery Department?¡± Was Xu Zhiliang not stumbling over his words? Yang Ping found it strange. He had improved a lot compared to before. Song Zimo, sitting next to Yang Ping, leaned over and said, ¡°It is said that for fear of holding back the team, he practices oration against a wall every day after work. He has been doing this for six months.¡± No wonder his speech has become more fluent. As long as there is willpower, even stuttering can be corrected. ¡°I also think so, don¡¯t go!¡± Xu Zhiliang concluded in the end. ¡°Have you finished?¡± Yang Ping asked him. Xu Zhiliang nodded his head, ¡°I have, don¡¯t go!¡± It was Little Five¡¯s turn to speak, ¡°I don¡¯t understand all these big truths. Wherever you go, Dr. Yang, I will follow. As long as you don¡¯t mind me, the person they want to dig up is you. We are just riding on your coattails. You don¡¯t need to discuss it with us, you can decide for yourself. As for me, it¡¯s better if I can go with you, but we can¡¯t hold you back.¡± While the principle is as such, Yang Ping still wanted to discuss it with everyone. This was out of respect for everyone. ¡°Dr. Yang, you have to take your brothers with you. I am very confident in my anesthesia, and I am not afraid to go to Xiehe and 301.¡± Fatty was very straightforward. Zhang Lin ridiculed him, ¡°Your greatest confidence is surely your weight.¡± ¡°I run every evening now, and I make sure to drink a lot of water. I haven¡¯t had a gout attack for six months. Zhang Lin, how about one day we compete in 5,000 meters? We can bet five packs of Zhonghua.¡± Fatty retaliated. ¡°Let¡¯s talk about off-topic matters after the meeting. Who else has something to say? Please express your opinion.¡± Song Zimo maintained the meeting discipline. Only Xiao Su and Zhou Can had not expressed their views. Xiao Su said with a smile, ¡°Wherever Dr. Yang goes, I will go too.¡± There was nothing wrong with this. There was no need for Xiao Su to speak. Having already received an offer from Xiehe and 301, Xiao Su was a priority. ¡°Wherever Sister Xiao Su goes, I will go.¡± Zhou Can held Xiao Su¡¯s hand. There wasn¡¯t much to discuss. Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to leave Sanbo either. He was just getting warmed up here, and many plans would be disrupted if he suddenly left. Cooperating with Xiehe and 301 on this subject would be the best method. If he moved to these hospitals, Yang Ping knew himself that there would be many restrictions. He wouldn¡¯t be as free as he was at Sanbo. There were now two topics in Yang Ping¡¯s hands, one was on the spine, and the other was on stem cells. Xu Zhiliang was responsible for the spine, and Song Zimo was responsible for the stem cells. The project on using stem cells to cultivate muscles would require billions in funding. If it relied entirely on national input, it would be very difficult. At Sanbo, by attracting social donations with a fund, he could raise a lot of money himself. The spine project was relatively simple. Once the animal experiment data met the requirements, it could enter the clinical trial stage. Yang Ping had already gone through the entire experimental process in the system space laboratory. How could the data not meet the requirements? He just had to repeat the process in reality. This set of equipment had undergone surgery on a large number of experimental bodies in the system space and was already very sophisticated. As for the topic of cultivating muscle with stem cells, it was difficult to take the first step in reality. Many things were not that easy to achieve. Obtaining PX7 protein and the production of micro-scaffolds are major challenges. Chapter 476 - 476 433 Commercial Secrets ?Chapter 476: Chapter 433 Commercial Secrets Chapter 476: Chapter 433 Commercial Secrets After the battle for personnel between Xiehe Hospital and 301, Yang Ping started to focus on developing the external fixator for treating scoliosis. Yang Ping had now mastered the skill of writing patent applications. When he had worked on the device for reconstructing children¡¯s crossed ligaments, he had engaged several agencies to do the writing. However, these engineers didn¡¯t quite understand Yang Ping¡¯s device, they kept missing the point. Without catching the key points, the intellectual property couldn¡¯t be effectively protected and could easily be circumvented by others. Yang Ping had no choice but to take matters into his own hands. He wrote the patent application himself and handed it over to the agency to assist with the application. Since then, Yang Ping had realized the importance of writing patent applications and dedicated time to studying how to write them. He also taught Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, and Little Five how to write patent applications, making this a key skill for all to master. After completing the patent application for the external spinal fixator, Yang Ping asked the agency to apply for the patent. Moreover, he applied for an international patent so that the intellectual property could be protected in several major countries with a single application. Now, he needed to prototype the new external fixator, which was a formidable task. The material requirements for the external fixator were very high. The metal rods were to be made of high-strength shape-memory alloy, and the gears and steel cables also had to be very strong to withstand constant tension without deformation or slackening. The design also paid great attention to the dispersion of orthopedic forces. Overconcentration of forces could easily lead to fractures around the screws; if the forces were too scattered, deformities could not be reversed. The device combined biology, developmental biology, physiology, anatomy, biomechanics, mechanics, and materials science, making it highly technologically advanced. Yang Ping contacted a few factories, but they said that it was challenging to prototype and that a single factory couldn¡¯t produce it. Just the few rods of shape-memory alloy alone posed a challenge; it didn¡¯t seem like any factory could meet the requirements, which required very precise control of the effective deformation parameters of the shape-memory alloy. It turned out it was quite difficult to translate the blueprint into reality. In the System space, it was just a matter of integration, but in reality, there were many challenges to overcome. Professor Qin also leveraged his resources to help. Everyone initially thought it was straightforward, merely an external fixator, but as soon as they saw the detailed blueprints and principles, they shook their heads, believing it couldn¡¯t be realized. Once manufactured, the external fixator¡¯s advantages would be very clear. Compared to osteotomy, its orthopedic process was minimally invasive and gradual, which could reverse scoliosis. After successful orthosis, normal spinal sequences, stability, and mobility would be fully regained, conforming most closely to the natural form of the human body. However, the disadvantages were also obvious. Compared to osteotomy, the process was more prolonged. Patients would have to wear a metal frame on their back for several months, which made it inconvenient for activities like going to school. They wouldn¡¯t be able to sleep on their back, and there was the risk of infection from the percutaneous pedicle screws protruding from the skin on each level. Considering the long-term benefits, these disadvantages were entirely acceptable. The external fixator used to treat limb deformities also had to remain on the limbs for several months, or even over a year. Risks such as infection from the needle holes were within the control safety limits. However, prototyping it for animal experiments proved to be unexpectedly challenging. Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t be discouraged. He had the blueprints and the cases. The monkeys had been prepared for the animal experiments. Now, they just needed to manufacture the device. To help with Yang Ping¡¯s external fixator, Huang Jiacai started wrecking his brains too, contacting manufacturers to initiate the prototyping process. The other medical device companies didn¡¯t react at all. Gan Fengyi somehow received the news and reached out to Yang Ping, stating that Johnson & Johnson could help with the manufacturing and even buy the patent in the future. Huang Jiacai and Gan Fengyi were at daggers drawn, competing for the market. Now they started wrangling over the production of Yang Ping¡¯s external spinal fixator. Interestingly, other companies showed no interest in this external spinal fixator, considering it an immature technology. If they were to prototype it, at least tens of millions of funds would be wasted. The only condition Yang Ping put forth was that whoever helped him manufacture the device would be prioritized for patent licensing. Many manufacturers shook their heads, finding it meaningless to invest tens of millions in an immature device. However, Gan Fengyi¡¯s perception differed from others. Upon learning about Yang Ping¡¯s device, she immediately reported to Johnson & Johnson¡¯s headquarters in China and was determined to secure the qualifications for prototyping the device at all costs. Johnson & Johnson¡¯s headquarters trusted Gan Fengyi¡¯s judgment and immediately ordered her to go all out to secure it. At this time, Huang Jiacai was in a difficult situation. Ruixing company was in crisis after crisis. Just as he had feared, all the major companies were relentlessly attacking him with patent lawsuits. Lawyer¡¯s letters came to Ruixing like snowflakes, followed by court lawsuits. Ruixing, which was actively preparing to go public, suddenly faced a patent dispute that disrupted all preparations. All energies were used to respond to the case and handle the patent dispute crisis. If they lost the case, there would be only one outcome ¨C a massive amount of compensation leading to company closure. Huang Jiacai had already lost faith in Ruixing¡¯s various operations, but out of loyalty to President Wang, he persisted painstakingly. The morale in other regions of Ruixing was shaking, and staff were leaving. Only the South China region remained stable. There was no chaos, and they were actively expanding their territory. However, recently, Gan Fengyi¡¯s offensive seemed to have weakened, even showing signs of disorder. This was not like Gan Fengyi¡¯s style. Although this was good news, Huang Jiacai felt a little unused to it. For a long time, the two companies were battling for market share, especially the totally reshuffled People¡¯s Hospital, competing fiercely without a clear winner. It was like two masters fighting at their peak, and suddenly one of them showed signs of losing. Huang Jiacai was waiting for Yang Ping in Orthopedics¡¯ meeting room. They had agreed to discuss the prototyping of the spinal external fixator today. But Gan Fengyi didn¡¯t show up. She had only sent a young subordinate with a leather bag who rushed in hastily. Such an important meeting, and Fengyi Gan doesn¡¯t attend personally? She just sends a subordinate? Huang Jiacai increasingly felt that something was off, as Johnson & Johnson¡¯s recent actions completely contradicted Fengyi Gan¡¯s style. Huang Jiacai took out his phone, intending to send a text to ask. He had Fengyi Gan¡¯s number on his phone¡ª he had helped her change a tire once when they bumped into each other, and in gratitude, she had treated Huang Jiacai and his sister to dinner. They had just shared a meal together, they weren¡¯t that close. What was the point of sending a message? Huang Jiacai pocketed his phone, unable to resist his curiosity. ¡°How should I address this lady? I¡¯ve rarely seen Manager Gan recently?¡± The lady representing Johnson & Johnson immediately stood up and nodded: ¡°My surname is Ma, just call me Xiao Ma. Manager Gan is on a vacation recently.¡± Xiao Ma often heard Huang Jiacai¡¯s name from President Gan. Huang Jiacai of Ruixing was well-known in their Johnson & Johnson South China division, and often came up in meetings. This President Huang was President Gan¡¯s greatest rival. How could President Gan¡¯s subordinate not know about it? When Xiao Ma stood to bow just now, she sincerely respected this senior. This workaholic is actually taking a vacation, has the sun risen from the west? Could it be she moved to another company? Huang Jiacai was suddenly a bit disappointed and felt a bit uneasy for some reason. ¡°Which company did your President Gan go to? Do you know?¡± Huang Jiacai asked. Xiao Ma respectfully replied, ¡°No, our President Gan didn¡¯t change jobs, she¡¯s truly on vacation.¡± ¡°Maybe she got married and is on her honeymoon?¡± Huang Jiacai said somewhat disappointedly. Xiao Ma shook her head: ¡°President Gan is single. I heard she went back to her hometown. I don¡¯t know the details. I only heard from our deputy manager. After receiving a call from home, she secretly cried in the office then hurriedly went back home.¡± She suddenly went back to her hometown? Could something have happened at home? Moreover, she cried, it must have been serious. This woman, she wouldn¡¯t cry in the office unless it was something serious. Huang Jiacai felt a bit panicked. Hearing that this woman cried, Huang Jiacai felt an inexplicable sense of compassion. She¡¯s in trouble, why are you panicking? Laughable, Huang Jiacai pretended to be calm, they are not very close after all. This girl from Johnson & Johnson is pretty honest. Maybe she¡¯s new to the field, she even told Huang Jiacai everything. During such a fierce rivalry with Ruixing, someone like Fengyi Gan should keep any changes to herself. Still too young. If she encountered someone ruthless, he might seize this opportunity to launch a fierce attack, breaking the market balance between the two companies. But Huang Jiacai did not want to do this. There was no sense in taking advantage of other people¡¯s vulnerability. ¡°President Huang, our President Gan said to give this document to you.¡± Xiao Ma took out a thick set of documents from her bag and handed them to Huang Jiacai. Huang Jiacai hesitated for a moment and took a look. This was business confidential material. ¡°Give to me? You must have made a mistake.¡± Huang Jiacai only flipped through about ten pages when he tried to give it back to Xiao Ma. Xiao Ma was very certain: ¡°Yes, President Gan reiterated that this document should be given to you and not to anyone else. I even kept it under my pillow when I went to bed.¡± Huang Jiacai opened the thick booklet again. It was Doctor Yang¡¯s pilot production plan for the spinal fixation frame, a complete plan from molding, materials, processes, and cooperation in the industrial chain of upstream and downstream enterprises. The production of this set of equipment involves several key technologies. These technologies were mastered by foreign enterprises. Inside, they detailed those companies¡¯ weaknesses, how to negotiate, exchange terms for terms, break their technological alliance, and gain cooperation. The document even had detailed lists of which factories and who to look for in certain key processes, and even had their phone numbers and addresses. Only half-way through and Huang Jiacai felt goosebumps. This woman was too good. To think that in this world, he, Huang Jiacai, could reach this level. Little did he know, this woman was even better than him. ¡°Are you sure this is for me from President Gan?¡± Huang Jiacai was still doubtful, considering it as a misunderstanding. This was business confidential material. To make this document, one would not know how much effort had to be put in. ¡°Yes, before President Gan left, she personally handed me this document and said that when attending Doctor Yang¡¯s meeting, it should be given to you. It cannot be given to anyone else. Moreover, she said that besides her, only you can make Doctor Yang¡¯s project happen, no one else could do it.¡± Xiao Ma was very serious. Huang Jiacai took a deep breath and accepted the document. ¡°I see. Do you know where your President Gan¡¯s hometown is?¡± Huang Jiacai couldn¡¯t help but ask. Xiao Ma thought for a moment and said, ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Chapter 477 - 477 434 Red Flowers Still Need Green Leaves ?Chapter 477: Chapter 434: Red Flowers Still Need Green Leaves For Support Chapter 477: Chapter 434: Red Flowers Still Need Green Leaves For Support After his surgery, Yang Ping returned on time to his department, accompanied by Professor Qin from 301, Professor Hu from Xiehe Hospital, and others. These days, they spent their time together discussing a special case¡ªscoliosis combined with visceral deformity misplacement. The rest of their time was spent on the trial production of the external spinal fixation frame. Only when the sample trial production is successful can they proceed to animal experiments, then to clinical trials, and finally actually enter clinical use. Professor Qin took the initiative to contact several domestic manufacturers. Out of respect for Professor Qin, they readily agreed, only to subsequently express difficulties. The key technologies, materials, and processes involved all have insurmountable obstacles. Even with a significant investment, breakthroughs might prove difficult. These manufacturers suggested that the best approach is to cooperate with giants like Johnson & Johnson, Jiemai, Stryker, etc., who are the only ones capable of producing the required key materials and processes. The giants of various industries have established technological barriers over a long period of continuous accumulation. These technological barriers cannot be crossed in a short period. Because technological research and development require an investment in talent and funds, much of the domestic businesses have a disdainful attitude towards this aspect. Very few companies are willing to spend time and money on breaking these barriers. By imitating and cooperating with the giants to make some money, who would want to take the risk and effort? Just one erroneous decision could mean failure. Moreover, for certain high-tech products, these giants are willing to supply as long as there¡¯s money involved. Let the giants eat meat while these manufacturers sip soup ¨C it¡¯s still better to sip the soup peacefully than to mess up the pot altogether. After weighing the pros and cons, Yang Ping decided to use the exclusive patent licensing as a bargaining chip to attract several giants to cooperate. During the cooperation, they would exchange technology and include some domestic enterprises to grow together. However, the effect was not obvious. Only Johnson & Johnson showed genuine interest. In reality, this was due to Gan Fengyi¡¯s intervention. Huang Jiacai and Xiao Ma had been waiting in the meeting room for a long time. After Professor Qin and Professor Hu went to the ward for a round, Yang Ping summoned Huang Jiacai and Xiao Ma to his office. Seeing Yang Ping, Xiao Ma explained why Gan Fengyi did not personally attend the meeting. She also gave a copy of the data to Yang Ping and quickly excused herself: ¡°President Gan instructed that I should leave as soon as I delivered the data to you and not participate in the meeting.¡± This Gan Fengyi was strange. She didn¡¯t attend in person, sent a subordinate to forward the information, and did not allow her to participate in the meeting. Yang Ping sat down and flipped through the plan. The technical details in it were very detailed, something that a sales manager could not deliver. Huang Jiacai was also puzzled: ¡°The technical details here are too specific. I¡¯m afraid that even ordinary engineers cannot do this. Look, regarding the nickel-titanium memory alloy, she explicitly mentioned seeking the cooperation of a certain professor from Northwestern Polytechnical University in order to meet our requirements. She even provided his name, address, and contact information. She was clear. In China, only this professor¡¯s laboratory has hope to produce materials that satisfy our requirements.¡± This nickel-titanium shape memory alloy rod is one of the crucial technologies. It must have a wide range of shape memory and its duration needs to be long, so it¡¯s extremely difficult to achieve. ¡°Since Johnson & Johnson is willing to cooperate, they surely have ways to procure the materials from Europe and America. Then why guide us to cooperate with Northwestern Polytechnical University? I don¡¯t know why she gave me this data,¡± said Huang Jiacai, who was clueless about what had happened. Normally, in such a project, Ruixing is a competitor of Johnson & Johnson, it is unlikely to give important business secrets to a competitor, even if the three parties finally cooperate, it¡¯s not the time to disclose these secrets. Yang Ping didn¡¯t have much contact with Gan Fengyi. The most frequent contacts were recently during this project. After Yang Ping introduced the project, among the several international giants, only Johnson & Johnson contacted them. The others didn¡¯t make any moves. On careful thought, it does make sense to Yang Ping. If it¡¯s an ordinary apparatus, any company could cooperate. The trial production of this set of equipment costs tens of millions just for the mold, and at present, there is no experimental data to support it. No company would dare to partner rashly. Also, judging the future value of this apparatus is a real test of the manufacturer¡¯s discernment. With new things, only a few people can discern their true value. ¡°Doctor Yang, there is only one possibility. Johnson & Johnson¡¯s cooperation with you was a unilateral act by Johnson & Johnson China. In a rush for time, they connected with you first and then reported back to its headquarters. Because the follow-up investment would not just be millions but billions of US dollars, and a project of this scale isn¡¯t something that Johnson & Johnson China could decide. It would need approval from the US headquarters. I suppose there was some issue in the process, which is why Gan Fengyi handed over the information to us,¡± analyzed Huang Jiacai. ¡°If this apparatus becomes a success, the subsequent iterations will be even smoother and potentially control the direction of an industry. I really hope domestic businesses could take over and keep core technological industries in China,¡± Yang Ping realized the potential value of his apparatus which could guide the entire scoliosis orthopedic technology direction. But understanding that himself was pointless, others needed to understand it too. In the case of the previous child anterolateral ligament reconstruction device, he had to sell it to the American company out of necessity for cash. Moreover, the equipment was an improvement on existing technology, which was easy to judge based on maturity. But this external spinal fixation frame was a paradigm shift from existing technology, and most manufacturers might lack confidence about its maturity. All of Yang Ping¡¯s data was obtained in the system space laboratory, and real-world animal experiments hadn¡¯t even started yet. Without sufficient data to support it, it¡¯s hard for manufacturers to make a decision since their decision-making processes rely on data. ¡°If Ruixing were not in trouble, we could go full tilt in assisting you,¡± Huang Jiacai was very distressed, as Ruixing was in internal and external predicaments, on the brink of collapse and totally unsure about how long it could last. He could only try to help Yang Ping find other manufacturers. ¡°Dr. Yang, I think we should have our own medical equipment factory. I have an idea,¡± Huang Jiacai took a turn in his conversation. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Yang Ping wanted to hear his opinion because Huang Jiacai knew more about business matters. ¡°Given the current situation of Ruixing, it cannot escape being sold at a low price. Soon, foreign buyers who intend to purchase it should emerge. If Dr. Yang can support me, I would like to acquire Ruixing,¡± Huang Jiacai confidently said. Yang Ping had also thought about having his own medical equipment factory, but it is a distant solution to an immediate need. Establishing a medical device company takes a lot of time due to various approvals required. But acquiring a company is different. A buyout is tantamount to entering twice the results with half the effort. Currently, Yang Ping has only $80 million obtained from the United States, which is more than 500 million RMB. Considering the funds reserved for stem cell experiment, it probably won¡¯t be enough to acquire Ruixing. ¡°How can I assist you?¡± Yang Ping looked at Huang Jiacai, who seemed confident of his plan. ¡°Provide the capital, only need four billion, I can make Dr. Yang the largest shareholder of Ruixing and avoid it from falling into foreign hands.¡± Huang Jiacai shared his thoughts. If he could take over Ruixing, he could control a medical equipment company. With Huang Jiacai¡¯s help, it would be very beneficial to connect the factory with the laboratory for the transformation of future scientific research results on equipment. Medical equipment, when compared to medicines, has a faster conversion speed and higher efficiency. Once the medical equipment generates profits, it can contribute to basic research, for instance, research on cultivating muscle from stem cells, creating a positive feedback loop in scientific research. This is what Yang Ping longs for. But because he is a doctor, focusing on medicine, he has no interest or expertise in business matters. ¡°Once you have this company, you will have absolute controlling shares. I will let you be the CEO. Believe me, I can manage the company well. Dr. Yang, a peony needs its leaves for support. If Dr. Yang sees value in me, Huang Jiacai is willing to serve as these supporting leaves. There are many things you will need to do in the future and these all need money. From treating Sisi¡¯s condition to stem cell cultivation of muscle, if you trust me, I am willing to share these burdens and make Ruixing a powerful financial backup for you,¡± Huang Jiacai stood up, bowed to Yang Ping and then extended his hand. Despite the fact that Ruixing is a small company and is currently on shaky ground, Huang Jiacai has still managed to stabilize the morale of the South China branch and compete against international giants like Johnson & Johnson. While at Sanbo, Huang Jiacai could only stand firm under the protection of Yang Ping¡¯s wings. However, during the battle with Johnson & Johnson¡¯s Gan Fengyi in the South China region, he held his ground, not losing out in the slightest. Giants like Jiemai Meibang, Shi Lehui, and Stryker have been continually losing their market shares to his various stunning market maneuvers, both overt and covert, forcing them to retreat one after another. A small division of a small company, yet he managed it very well, establishing such a strong market position. Having been acquainted with Huang Jiacai for a while now, Yang Ping knows him well. This man is highly intelligent and very appreciative. He¡¯s been headhunted by many other companies, but in his gratitude, he was unwilling to leave Ruixing. Even when he was previously marginalized and suppressed, he remained unyielding and dedicated to expanding the market for Ruixing. This man is dependable! Yang Ping shook his hand: ¡°You have a free hand, but I can only provide four billion, not a penny more. I do not understand business, nor do I wish to get involved in it. I just want to be a doctor.¡± Huang Jiacai smiled: ¡°I understand, thank you for your trust, Dr. Yang. I am fully confident that I can take over Ruixing, and then, leaning on Ruixing, do great things with you.¡± ¡°Sit down and talk!¡± Yang Ping sat down. Huang Jiacai felt a little excited, he was confident that he could persuade Yang Ping, but he did not expect him to agree so readily. ¡°Dr. Yang, I have decided to take a trip to Gan Fengyi¡¯s hometown to investigate Johnson & Johnson¡¯s situation. Then I will head to Ruixing¡¯s headquarters in Shanghai to talk to the shareholders.¡± ¡°You go busy yourself. The matter of the spinal external fixator trial production is fully entrusted to you.¡± After thinking for a bit, Huang Jiacai said: ¡°We should prioritize partnering with domestic enterprises as this project can drive the technological development of other companies. If it fails, we actually have a back-up plan that can force these giants to cooperate.¡± ¡°Force?¡± Yang Ping was curious. Huang Jiacai calmly said: ¡°Indeed, Dr. Yang, imagine this scenario. If Professor Liang from Xiehe, Professor Qin from 301, Professor Su from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, and Professor Fu from Huaxi all sit together, hoping that one of the giants will cooperate with you, how will things proceed?¡± ¡°In the field of orthopedics, no manufacturer can ignore any of these professors. If several professors sit together, they can squeeze the lifeblood of these companies in the Chinese market, making them immobile,¡± Huang Jiacai grinned. This guy is ruthless! But he¡¯s correct. Huang Jiacai continued: ¡°However, this is a backup plan and it should not be used until the last step. If really used, it will cause a tremendous stir. But if Dr. Yang is determined to achieve the trial production goal while retaining control of the key technology, and all other methods are not possible, we will not think twice about causing an uproar.¡± This guy is indeed suited to handle big things. Not only is he smart, but he¡¯s also brave. ¡°Yes, this can only be a backup plan. Proceed with your tasks as quickly as possible. Tell me when you need the money,¡± Yang Ping handed these tasks to him, which greatly eased his burden. Recently, Professor Qin and Director Hu have also been contacting manufacturers, but they are professors and they do not have the expertise of Huang Jiacai. ¡°I will immediately find out where Gan Fengyi¡¯s hometown is and set off tomorrow,¡± Huang Jiacai stood up to take his leave. In the information age, can¡¯t he just make a phone call to ask for information? Why does he need to go to her hometown in person? Yang Ping doesn¡¯t understand the feud between Gan Fengyi and Huang Jiacai, but either way, he doesn¡¯t have the time to dwell on it. Chapter 478 - 478 435 The Anxious President Huang ?Chapter 478: Chapter 435: The Anxious President Huang Chapter 478: Chapter 435: The Anxious President Huang ¡°Synthes, an AO internal fixation device manufacturer, was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. Johnson & Johnson further consolidated the acquired Depuy, significantly strengthening its position. They became the leader in the global orthopedic device industry, followed closely by Jiemai Bonmei. Jiemai Bonmei itself was a federation of two companies, following the merger it became the world¡¯s second-largest orthopedic device company. At this time, a regular meeting was underway at a Synthes research institute in Switzerland. Johnson & Johnson¡¯s China subsidiary submitted a document to its U.S. headquarters, which was then forwarded to the Swiss research institute. Among all of Synthes¡¯ global research centers, the Swiss one is technically the most superior. The document mentioned an external fixation frame for the spine, derived from the external frame of traumatic orthopedics, Synthes¡¯ area of greatest expertise. Thus, it made the most sense to let them evaluate it. The headquarters hoped they could evaluate the technology recorded in the document to ascertain its value for potential investment and collaboration. ¡°This apparatus hasn¡¯t even entered animal testing yet, there¡¯s no preliminary data. Suggesting to pour a huge investment into collaboration? The proposer must be mad, wasting our time.¡± Chandler, the Chief Engineer of Synthes¡¯s Swiss research institute, tapped a thick stack of data. ¡°Who else is interested in participating in the company?¡± Chandler asked. ¡°Aside from us, there is a small Chinese company. I can¡¯t recall the name.¡± The secretary answered. ¡°The CEO of the China branch decided to cooperate with this Doctor Yang in private, defying the company¡¯s procedure; their Chinese company also strongly opposed. Apparently, this proposal came from a sales manager. Within the Chinese research institute, only one engineer agreed, the rest opposed.¡± The secretary added. ¡°Have we fallen to the point that we have to compete for a project with an obscure small company?¡± Chandler was still angry. ¡°I¡¯ve scrutinized this document; it looks impressive, but many critical aspects simply don¡¯t comply with biological and physical principles. There hasn¡¯t even been any animal testing; it¡¯s all talk and no action,¡± another engineer also spoke bluntly. ¡°Let¡¯s vote, they¡¯re awaiting our conclusion.¡± ¡°We¡¯re all engineers, specializing in orthopedic trauma devices for decades, and we¡¯ve never seen such a humorous technical document. There hasn¡¯t even been any animal testing and they talk as if they know it all, it¡¯s just full of grandstand statements.¡± ¡°Are there any other opinions? If not, we move on to the next step¡ªthe vote. The gentlemen at American headquarters are awaiting our report to deal with that Chinese CEO.¡± Chandler smacked the conference table. A young bald engineer, after everyone else had finished their discussion, spoke leisurely: ¡°I disagree with everyone. This document is camouflaged. I¡¯ll bluntly tell you all, none of you present can write such a technical document. It¡¯s crafted in such a way that one can perceive the contours of the technology and even some details, yet you can¡¯t take it directly to production. All the key technology has been disguised. This is a highly sophisticated technical document camouflage technique, which is often used in patent applications.¡± ¡°It can explicitly protect patents from infringement, yet make it impossible for competitors to replicate the technology even if they were to acquire detailed patent information. To replicate it, they must break through numerous layers of disguises, constantly trial and error. If they¡¯re lucky and eventually see the real truth, it would be years later and a new generation of technology would¡¯ve been developed.¡± ¡°You see, if I¡¯m not mistaken, these one hundred-twenty drawings will soon appear in the patent document, and the real drawings are in some reassembled part of these one hundred-twenty drawings. Think about it, this is a huge amount of information. It cleverly protects the intellectual property, dismantles the technology, disrupts and reassembles it, making it impossible to replicate.¡± ¡°If I may say something impolite, this young doctor¡¯s ability to design equipment surpasses everyone here. His technical implementation ability is astounding.¡± The bald engineer spoke in a languid tone tinged with arrogance. ¡°Silo, what do you mean by ¡®technical implementation ability¡¯?¡± someone asked. ¡°A typical person designing a product needs to undergo simulation experiments, animal tests, human tests, rely on test data to make improvements, repeatedly many times, before the product can mature. The impression this product gives me is that it¡¯s matured upon launch. Either the designer possesses remarkable computer simulation technology, or his ability to bridge theory and practice in technology is impressive. He can directly see the future evolution of the technology, the problems occurring in the evolution process, and resolves issues at the theoretical level.¡± Facing everyone¡¯s questioning, the bald engineer, Silo, remained completely calm. ¡°Are you serious in reviewing this with us?¡± Chandler had always disliked this guy. He hadn¡¯t been here for long and already acted as if he knew everything. ¡°I¡¯m serious, very serious. My recommendation: accept the trial production of this device and acquire preferential exclusive patent licensing. In the future, in the field of spinal surgery, we can dominate for at least twenty years. Look here, the opinion of this young Chinese engineer is clearly written. His foresight exceeds most of us here. I suggest we bring this Chinese engineer into the Swiss Research and Development headquarters, or immediately promote him to be the Chief Engineer of the Chinese research institute.¡± Silo shrugged his shoulders. ¡°I¡¯ve said my piece, you may do as you please.¡± ¡°Your tone is much like a Chief Engineer¡¯s, unfortunately, you¡¯re not,¡± the secretary mocked. ¡°That¡¯s right, I¡¯m not. So, we¡¯re about to fall behind our peers. Thankfully, Jiemai Bonmei, Stryker, Medtronic, even Shi Lehui don¡¯t stir, even Medtronic isn¡¯t moving. I can only say: a group of good-for-nothings.¡± Silo didn¡¯t mind the secretary¡¯s mockery at all. ¡°Watch your behavior and please maintain basic manners.¡± Chandler pounded the table. ¡°Weakness and ignorance are not barriers to survival, but arrogance is! This small Chinese company is called Ruixing, remember its name. It will be your biggest enemy in the future.¡± Silo warned them. ¡°Ha ha¡ª¡± Someone couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°Don¡¯t you know that this company is being ravaged by Johnson & Johnson? We can destroy them at any time, they are infringing our patents, we can shut them down forever if we wish.¡± The secretary looked pleased to provide Silo with the latest intel. ¡°Weakness and ignorance are not obstacles to survival, arrogance is! I reiterate this point, I suggest you read this book, I¡¯ve read it three times, it¡¯s written by a Chinese person, ¡®The Three-Body Problem¡¯, do you know what dropping into a lower dimension means? You will understand in the near future, oh, not understand, but experience.¡± Silo pulled out a book. This guy reads novels during meetings, which infuriated Chandler even more. ¡°Makers of panic, I wish I could ban you from speaking, but I don¡¯t have that power, your expressions will be recorded, you have a vote against it, but it won¡¯t change anything, we won¡¯t invest this much capital in an obscure technology, external fixation frame to treat scoliosis, do you know how difficult it is to implement?¡± Chandler maintained his composure. ¡°I know, just because we can¡¯t do it, doesn¡¯t mean others can¡¯t, you¡¯re stuck in a mindset!¡± Silo started reading again after he finished speaking. ¡°This is a trap, they want to use this partnership to obtain our key technology and processes, we can¡¯t fall into the Chinese¡¯s trap.¡± ¡°The project we should be considering for our current investment is Dr. Mitsui Tasuku¡¯s project affiliated with Tokyo University.¡± ¡°To be honest, I abstain. I don¡¯t understand it.¡± ¡°Alright, let¡¯s vote!¡± ¡°One vote in favor, one abstain, the rest against. If no one has any objections, please check your speeches, sign above them, the record of our meeting will be attached to the report, and our conclusion will be sent to our headquarters in the U.S. as the basis for their decision.¡± Mr. Chandler ended the meeting, not forgetting to glare at Silo, who was quietly reading his book. ¡ª Huang Jiacai bought a plane ticket to Chengdu, Sichuan, and then rented a car to go to Fengyi Gan¡¯s hometown. For some reason, he had never worried about anyone else as much as he did about his own sister. Something must have happened to Gan Fengyi, this strong woman shed tears in her office, it was not a small matter, but what exactly was it? She wasn¡¯t answering her phone or responding to messages. The ordinarily rational and composed Huang Jiacai felt very impulsive rushing to Gan Fengyi¡¯s hometown like this, he might even be laughed at, but he couldn¡¯t help it, the situation seemed to be controlling his brain now. He rented a car from Chengdu to Pujiang County, then went down to the township and headed straight for Gan Fengyi¡¯s village. It was a small village. Huang Jiacai, based on the address he had gathered, urged the driver to hurry. As soon as they arrived at the entrance of the village, there was a household where a woman in her fifties was washing vegetables at the door. Huang Jiacai asked the driver to stop, introduced himself as Gan Fengyi¡¯s colleague, and asked about her. The old woman was wary at first, but when she heard he was asking about Gan Fengyi, she immediately smiled and invited Huang Jiacai into the house for tea. The woman obviously respected Fengyi Gan¡¯s family and was warm and polite when she heard that the visitor came for her: ¡°So you¡¯re our Feng¡¯s colleague?¡± ¡°Yes, we are colleagues. I¡¯m passing through Chengdu on a business trip and the company asked me to give her something. I couldn¡¯t reach her via phone so I decided to drop by directly. Here¡¯s my ID card so you don¡¯t misunderstand,¡± Huang Jiacai was afraid they would misunderstand. The woman glanced at it but didn¡¯t look closely: ¡°You look like a well-mannered and talented person, not like a swindler. Ah, a few days ago, Gan¡¯s mother fell ill and was hospitalized. It seems serious, she¡¯s in the county hospital. When Feng heard the news, she immediately rushed back. She¡¯s such a loyal girl.¡± ¡°Do you see that school there? Feng built it with her own money. Several villagers have gone to college thanks to her funding. Every year she comes back and gives presents to every household in the village. She also gives red envelopes to the elderly. She¡¯s so caring, never forgetting her roots.¡± ¡°Feng¡¯s father died early, more than twenty years ago during a flood in the village. Her father was the village party secretary and drowned trying to save people. He saved half of the people in the village but was exhausted himself and was washed away. Gan¡¯s mother single-handedly raised the sister and brother. Feng has been sensible since she was a child.¡± The woman even teared up as she spoke. ¡°Why am I telling you all this?¡± ¡°Actually, auntie, I¡¯m here on behalf of President Gan¡¯s company to visit Gan¡¯s mother. I¡¯ve been anxious because I couldn¡¯t reach President Gan,¡± Huang Jiacai went along with the conversation. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s good, you can go with me. I was just about to clean up the house and go to the county to take care of Gan¡¯s mother.¡± The woman hurriedly made a phone call, seemingly to order a car. ¡°Auntie, don¡¯t bother ordering a car, I¡¯ve rented one. Shall we go together?¡± ¡°Alright, just wait for me, I need to tidy up a bit.¡± At this, Huang Jiacai again felt a heartache for no clear reason. Something had indeed happened to this woman. Chapter 479 - 479 436 One of a Kind ?Chapter 479: Chapter 436: One of a Kind Chapter 479: Chapter 436: One of a Kind For some reason, every time Yang Ping encounters a high-risk, high-difficulty surgery, a strong sense of interest arises within him. This interest leads him to tirelessly overcome numerous obstacles, eventually achieving his goal. Even in cases where the goals seem impossible to achieve, he retains absolute confidence, continually experimenting, analyzing, and summarizing within his system space. Each time a high-risk, high-difficulty operation is conquered, and a patient safely escapes the clutches of disease, Yang Ping feels an immense sense of achievement. It¡¯s like a hacker who, after strenuous efforts, discovers a loophole and successfully breaks through a strict defense. This strong interest and sense of achievement cycle, causing Yang Ping to be deeply invested in every case. He can¡¯t suppress this mentality, nor knows whether this mentality is healthy and correct. In the end, he constantly reassures himself that as long as it¡¯s beneficial for patients, it is healthy, it is correct. It is this mentality that allows him to endure countless devil-trainings in his system space. A confined space is unbearable for ordinary people. The so-called confined space doesn¡¯t only isolate physically from the outside world but also confines the flow of information from the outside world. For example, if a person is put in a small room with internet access and online games, it¡¯s not a true confined space. Because the person can still interact and exchange information with the outside world or others through the internet and games. If this person is put in a small room without internet or phone access, cutting off any interaction and informational link with the outside world, It would be truly terrifying. He couldn¡¯t endure a few days before experiencing a mental breakdown. In Yang Ping¡¯s system space, both physical and informational connections with the outside world are severed, the biggest driving force able to keep him going is his interest. Interest and a sense of achievement cycles continuously. Yang Ping also discovers that between each cycle, there is a period of rest ¨C a brief relaxation allows him to go into the next cycle. As a doctor, he likes to dissect his mentality with medical knowledge. Yang Ping doesn¡¯t know whether this state of mind is a side effect of the system, but he is sure that he currently enjoys this state and needs this state. Fortunately, his girlfriend Xiao Su is a surgical nurse. Thus, even if Yang Ping spends every day in the operating room, they can still be together. The two can even discuss some cases during rest. If it were any other profession, maintaining a romantic relationship under such circumstances would be impossible. Love requires time to nourish. Without enough spending time together, love will slowly wither away. As promised, Professor Li Zehui from the Cleveland Medical Center visited Sanbo Hospital. Even though, as a world-leading heart-specialized hospital, Cleveland has no interest in Sanbo Hospital. What interested Professor Li was the case. Zheng Baosheng, male, eighteen years old, diagnosed with scoliosis combined with aberrations of intra-thoracic and intra-abdominal organs, especially the displacement and malformation of heart and large blood vessels, are the most challenging within cases of scoliosis. Even without considering the scoliosis, the case of the heart and large blood vessels alone is an extremely rare and extreme case. Professor Qin Shi sent the case details to cardio surgeon Professor Wu Yucheng at the 301 Hospital, who then forwarded it to Professor Li. Professor Li was very intrigued by this case and decided to take time to come to Sanbo Hospital for consultation. When he came to Sanbo Hospital, he was accompanied by Professor Wu. As a heart surgeon, Li Zehui isn¡¯t a specialist in scoliosis correction, but he has participated in many treatments of heart and large blood vessels related to scoliosis correction, so he has experience with these types of cases. Professor Li was born and raised in the United States, but he can speak Chinese, albeit not very fluently. Similar to a Chinese person using unpolished English, sometimes he has to think a while, organize his language, then express himself accurately. For particular pronunciations that greatly differ from English customs, he would pause before accomplishing an accurate pronunciation. After Professor Qin, acting as the intermediary, finished introductions for both sides, Professor Li simply shook hands as a courtesy. He showed little interest in Yang Ping, even towards 301¡¯s Professor Wu Yucheng, his attitude was simply out of fulfiled courtesy. ¡°Let¡¯s visit the patient first. Prepare the case details for later,¡± said Professor Wu, who was accustomed to such scenes. He was frequently invited to lower-level hospitals for consultations or surgeries. The routine was to rush to the hospital shortly after getting off the plane and dive right into the subject matter. Song Mo led the way, with Yang Ping and Professor Qin accompanying, guided Professor Li and Professor Wu to the ward. On the way to the ward, Professor Li and Professor Wu engaged in a conversation with Yang Ping, inquiring about the details of the case without any superfluous conversation. Professor Li personally asked for the patient¡¯s history, with Professor Wu assisting at the side. A large crowd followed them. The cardiac surgery professors from the Cleveland Medical Center are regarded as divine. Many doctors from the Thoracic Surgery Department of Sanbo Hospital and nearby hospitals hurried over to witness the extraordinary skill of these top experts. Quite a few surgeons from the Cardiac Surgery Department of the Nandu Provincial People¡¯s Hospital also came. The cardiac surgery team of Nandu Provincial People¡¯s Hospital is technically strong, with many doctors having received training from a Chinese-Australian heart-surgery professor at the North Shore Hospital in Australia. This Chinese-Australian professor is the technical source of the cardiac surgery department of the Nandu Provincial People¡¯s Hospital. This Chinese-Australian doctor is the senior fellow of Professor Li, and they are both students of the current chief expert of the Cleveland Medical Center. Professor Li asked about the case history with great detail. With the patient¡¯s consent, Professor Wu recorded the conversation to retain first-hand case history. Professor Li would repeatedly ask about any unclear issues until he was clear about every detail ¨C he didn¡¯t miss out on any valuable detail from birth till present. After going through the disease history, Professor Li began to examine the body, conducting a complete set of auscultation of the heart with two different stethoscopes. After a full hour, Professor Li finished asking about the disease history and performing the physical examination, his brow furrowed. Back at the doctor¡¯s office, Song Zimo pulled up Zheng Baosheng¡¯s imaging data. Professor Li studied it repeatedly before finally speaking, ¡°The case has severe adhesions of the thoracic and abdominal organs, especially the heart and major blood vessels. These adhesions have altered their anatomical layers and relationships. Due to developmental malformations, the positions of many blood vessels are uncertain, leading to potential massive bleeding during surgery. There is a need for a complete rearrangement of the heart and major blood vessels. You see, the inferior vena cava is distorted due to adhesions, adjacent to the anterior side of the spine, and further compressed due to scoliosis. This leads to venous return obstruction, causing significant ascites and heart failure. The patient will eventually die of heart failure. This operation is unlike anything in our standard textbooks ¨C it¡¯s a brand new challenge. In theory, it can be done. But in reality, no one has ever attempted this before; the risk is incredibly high, there¡¯s a strong chance the patient might die on the operating table.¡± ¡°Who do you plan to invite to perform this surgery? Anzhen or Fuwai?¡± Professor Wu asked with a stern tone. Professor Li Zehui is familiar with both hospitals, as every year several doctors from both hospitals further their studies at the Cleveland Heart Center. Professor Qin Shi wanted to explain on behalf of Yang Ping that he would perform the operation, but he didn¡¯t know how to express it. He was a bit uncomfortable with the way Professor Wu spoke to Yang Ping. The matter of the 301 group coming to Sanbo to poach talent was only known within 301 Hospital by the leadership and a few professors in orthopedics. ¡°My suggestion is to abandon the operation. We should treat the symptoms, try to address the problem of venous return obstruction to temporarily prolong the patient¡¯s life. Sadly, these types of patients are destined to die of organ failure. We¡¯re powerless in this situation, as the probability of a successful operation is virtually nil.¡± ¡°Dealing with adhesions is already significantly difficult, let alone the correction of a large amount of vascular variation, and malformation of the heart and major blood vessels. You see, the thoracic aorta is adhered to the front side of the thoracic vertebrae, the inferior vena cava is not only adhered to the front side of the thoracic and lumbar spine but also to the surrounding organs. Surgeon¡¯s biggest enemy is unknown and ambiguous anatomical aspects. To rearrange the heart and major blood vessels, we dare not undertake such an operation.¡± Professor Li was quite frank. The surgery of a surgeon is unfamiliar and ambiguous if unknown anatomical aspects exist; it¡¯s like going to a war without any knowledge of the geographical environment. ¡°Indeed, the risk of this operation is very high, but if we don¡¯t take the risk, the patient can only wait for death. Imagine the despair of a young person waiting for death. Maybe, we can fight for the last ray of hope for him.¡± Yang Ping will not change his decision. He just wanted to discuss with Professor Li on how to perform the surgery in the hope of gaining valuable suggestions. ¡°Who are you?¡± asked Professor Li, looking a bit embarrassed. They had just introduced him. ¡°This is Dr. Yang Ping of the Surgical Research Institute of Sanbo Hospital, the champion of the Golden Knife Award in orthopedics this year.¡± Professor Qin had to introduce him again. Although he didn¡¯t want to flaunt these achievements, given Professor Wu¡¯s tone, Professor Qin couldn¡¯t help but bring out this title. As for his experience in assisting NASA with surgery in the United States, it should not be mentioned. ¡°Ah, Dr. Yang Ping!¡± Professor Li nodded in acknowledgment, indifferent towards the Golden Knife Award. But Professor Wu understood the weight of the Golden Knife Award. It signifies that among doctors aged 45 and below in the respective specialty, their surgical skills are rated as the best nationwide. Professor Wu shook hands with Yang Ping again; the tone of his dialogue improved significantly. ¡°In the field of spinal surgery, I can¡¯t voice an opinion. I really can¡¯t be sure who can help you solve the problems of the heart and major blood vessels. This is the biggest obstacle. Only by solving the problems of the heart and major blood vessels, can you carry out orthopedic surgery on the spine, otherwise, major blood vessels will be torn during orthopedic surgery, and the patient will die directly on the operating table.¡± Professor Li expressed his concern. ¡°Dr. Yang Ping is prepared to be the chief surgeon and complete the entire operation!¡± Song Zimo said on the side. ¡°You?¡± Professor Li shook his head. ¡°Surgeons need a well-trained brain and hands, not excessive courage.¡± Professor Li¡¯s words were pointed. He believed that this was irresponsible behavior, a young doctor is going to perform an interdisciplinary surgery? Absolutely not allowed. ¡°Dr. Yang Ping will be the director of our Surgical Research Institute, he has the capacity to handle these problems.¡± Song Zimo was very confident. Professor Li looked at Yang Ping: ¡°How many of these kinds of operations have you done?¡± ¡°He is unique, no one in the world has done it before, but that¡¯s not an obstacle!¡± Yang Ping answered calmly. Chapter 480 - 480 437 Super Brain ?Chapter 480: Chapter 437: Super Brain Chapter 480: Chapter 437: Super Brain Yang Ping is right, this case is unique, no one has performed a similar surgery; including the anatomy, it is also one of a kind. The anatomical relationship in the chest and abdomen was in utter chaos. If one didn¡¯t know the detailed medical history, they might think that multiple surgeries have been performed in the chest and abdominal cavities. The heart and large blood vessels are a problem, as are the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. The patient¡¯s heart and large blood vessels are compressed in a narrow, malformed space. They can¡¯t hold up much longer and will eventually die of heart failure. Living to the age of eighteen is already remarkable. This malformation wasn¡¯t caused in a short period of time but evolved gradually over a long time. The malformation of the heart and large blood vessels significantly affected the function of the heart. Coupled with the pressure caused by spinal malformation and displacement caused by adhesions, the situation has worsened. The massive accumulation of ascites now is a result of this. Not only did this cause ascites, incorrect body positions could also lead to shock. Obstruction of the inferior vena cava¡¯s return flow causes a decrease in the volume of blood returning to the heart. The pressure in the right atrium decreases, the cardiac output correspondingly decreases, leading to a drop in blood pressure. In severe cases, a series of manifestations of shock occur. In a supine position, the symptoms are even worse. Clinically, this kind of syndrome is referred to as inferior vena cava syndrome or positional shock. In clinical practice, pregnant women tend to develop this special condition, such as in cases of multiple pregnancies, polyhydramnios, and other conditions where the uterus abnormally enlarges. The enlarging uterus compresses the inferior vena cava, leading to return flow obstruction and triggering the symptoms mentioned above. Now, there are neither fetuses nor tumors compressing in this patient. The constriction of the inferior vena cava is due to adhesion. The wall has become bent and flattened. The malformation of the spine and thoracic cage also cause compression, leading to a syndrome similar to the one described. If a fetus or tumor compresses the venous cavity, patients are prone to shock when in the supine position. Zheng Baosheng¡¯s situation is unique. Several body positions can lead to shock for him. Due to the body¡¯s self-protection instinct, he has identified these positions and consciously avoids them. However, this makes sleeping at night risky. A sudden drop in blood pressure could lead to shock at any time, posing a life-threatening risk. Once a shock-inducing position is assumed, if it lasts more than five minutes, symptoms of shock follow¡ªthey include dizziness, chest tightness, nausea, vomiting, frequent yawning, cold sweats all over the body, increased pulse rate, decreased blood pressure, and a rapid drop in systolic pressure below 80mmHg. If the decrease in blood pressure isn¡¯t swift, like in sleep apnea syndrome, he could wake up from sleep, adjust his position, and obtain relief. However, if blood pressure drops rapidly, and he loses consciousness quickly, he could die in his sleep. Ever since he developed these symptoms, his parents have been taking turns to watch over him at night, ensuring he doesn¡¯t go into a shock-inducing position. Surviving to this day, Zheng Baosheng has already weathered numerous threats to his life. ¡°Aside from ascites and heart failure, his liver has also enlarged. Without surgery, there isn¡¯t much hope of survival. Yet, the odds of a successful surgery are almost nil.¡± Seeing Yang Ping¡¯s perseverance, Professor Li now feels it¡¯s worthwhile to take risks. Risking a surgery and not trying it both means certain death, so why not take a proactive approach? ¡°What can I do?¡± Originally, Professor Li thought that Yang Ping would ask him to be the chief surgeon, but since Yang Ping said he would do it himself, Professor Li didn¡¯t say anything more. ¡°If convenient, let¡¯s carry out this surgery together. Would Professor Li be interested?¡± Yang Ping felt that the experience of an exceptional cardiac surgeon could be instructive to him. Even with the system on his side, Yang Ping does not isolate himself. Keeping open-minded in academia, he could go further and higher. All of Yang Ping¡¯s medical knowledge comes from reading in the system space and practicing on a large number of experimental bodies. Still, he needed the experiential knowledge of others. As the old professors often say, learn from teachers, books, practice, and peers. In this case, whether out of interest or responsibility, Professor Li was willing to participate in the surgery. He also wants to see where Yang Ping¡¯s audacity to perform this kind of surgery comes from. Afterwards, Yang Ping and Professor Li started discussing the details of the surgery. Because of its immense complexity, every detail must be handled well. Initially, the people around could participate in the discussion. As the conversation went on, the others, including Professor Wu Yucheng, couldn¡¯t join in, because the discussion was getting more advanced, and their knowledge base simply could not keep up. ¡°The space here is too narrow and irregularly so. The curves of the channel are too large, making it difficult to implant an artificial blood vessel. Otherwise, we could use interventional methods to implant the artificial blood vessel in advance to improve the venous return, which would also facilitate the separation of the vena cava during surgery. Even if a rupture occurs upon separation, there will be no excessive bleeding.¡± ¡°There are difficulties, but we can try.¡± ¡°We must preserve these mesenteries. After successful adhesion separation, if these mesenteries aren¡¯t present for support, the heart and major blood vessels would have a significant degree of mobility inside the chest cavity, which is extremely dangerous.¡± ¡°The sheath of the heart must be completely stripped off, as it already shows signs of narrowing.¡± ¡°We can use a temporary bridging technique on the blood vessels before surgery, allowing the blood to circulate in a different route, avoiding the area of surgery.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s best to have blood filling in. It¡¯s more conducive to separating.¡± ¡°Yes, if necessary, the heart can be taken out, which could make handling the pericardium and structures within the mediastinum easier. Then, we can rebuild a suitable bed for the heart.¡± ¡°Some of these adhesions can be useful; they can¡¯t be completely removed.¡± ¡°What about the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas? Do you need me to get someone to assist?¡± ¡°No need, I can handle them.¡± ¡°There is also a significant risk factor. This patient has RH negative blood type; the preparation of blood for transfusion will face many restrictions. Can enough blood products be prepared?¡± ¡°We will get in touch with the blood bank in advance to prepare sufficient blood products. We will also use a series of autotransfusion techniques to assist.¡± ¡°If necessary, we can use the low-temperature technology to reduce the oxygen consumption of tissue cells. This might extend the duration of the application for blood vessel blocking techniques.¡± ¡°Blood vessel blocking techniques are for temporary use only, so there is no need to use them during surgery. During the operation, blood circulation is beneficial for separation.¡± ¡ª The two discussed for a full two hours. Others just sat aside foolishly, listening to them converse. From clinical to basic medical science, then back to clinical again, they covered anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, histology and embryology, pathology, pathophysiology, and so on. They also cited the latest articles from various journals and brought together the achievements of cardiovascular experts worldwide. After the discussion, Professor Li began to reassess this young doctor. Dr. Yang Ping seemed to have a vast amount of knowledge within his mind. What he had mastered had far exceeded the depth and breadth that a surgeon should know. At times, it required much effort for Professor Li just to keep up. He now somewhat believed that this young man dared to venture to conduct this kind of surgery because he had a solid theoretical knowledge foundation. Professor Li decided to stay and complete the surgery with Yang Ping. Yang Ping asked Little Five to book rooms for Professor Li and Professor Wu at Tri-Bo Hotel. Professor Qin said, ¡°No need to bother, I¡¯ll book for them. We can stay in the rooms next to mine; they are all vacant.¡± Since Professor Qin was also staying at Tri-Bo Hotel, it would be convenient for them to chat. Yang Ping asked Song Zimo to gather all the doctors in the teaching room. He needed to give a simple report on this case so everyone could grasp some knowledge beforehand for the benefit of the patient¡¯s treatment plan execution. All of them were in the department, except for Zhang Lin. Song Zimo said with a smile, ¡°Zhang Lin is in the training room explaining the basic operations of arthroscopy to a few young doctors. A few young doctors from Xiehe Hospital also came to listen.¡± His ability to discuss arthroscopic operations indicates rapid progress. ¡°He and Little Five practice for one or two hours a day. They¡¯re making quick progress. He was just asked by the Obstetrics and Gynecology department to help out. He showed off some endoscopic operations in the Emergency Department¡¯s operation room.¡± Song Zimo offered this progress report on the two students as well, as Yang Ping usually left Zhang Lin Xiaowu under the tutelage of Song Zimo. Yang Ping was puzzled, ¡°He was asked by the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department to help?¡± ¡°A patient was admitted to the Emergency Department with acute abdominal pain. No issues were found in the procedure for acute abdominal diseases, but upon surface ultrasound scan of the uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes, two active, strip-shaped organisms were found. An X-ray further revealed two images resembling spinal bones in the uterus. The patient finally admitted that two live eels had accidentally entered her body. The Emergency Department immediately requested a consultation with Obstetrics and Gynecology. They decided to use a hysteroscope to remove these foreign bodies in the emergency operating room. Given the fact that these organisms are still alive and slippery, it¡¯s not easy to remove them. They¡¯re aware of our excellent arthroscopy techniques, so they requested our help, although we felt it a bit of an overkill. Zhang Lin happened to be available, so he went to their aid. He didn¡¯t embarrass us, using the grasping forceps once and solving the problem within two minutes. He¡¯s quite proud of himself now.¡± Song Zimo clarified the entire incident. This was no strange matter; when Yang Ping was in the Emergency Department, he often encountered such foreign body removals. There were cases from the rectum, the urinary tract, etc., and the foreign bodies varied greatly. Zhang Lin, who was with Yang Ping every day and trained strictly by Song Zimo, naturally progressed faster than others in both theory and practice, with broader exposer. ¡°Be strict with Zhang Lin and Little Five. Basic knowledge, basic theory, basic skills ¨C they have to master each point completely,¡± Yang Ping told Song Zimo. ¡°What about Little Five? How¡¯s he doing?¡± ¡°Little Five¡¯s practical ability is very strong, especially his skills in endoscopy. He is making rapid progress, especially mastering the fundaments like eye-hand separation, and the ¡®triangle¡¯ technique.¡± Song Zimo then made a call to Zhang Lin and informed him about the meeting in the teaching room. Shortly after, he arrived, followed by a few young doctors. He was still discussing the key points of endoscope operation. Apparently, he was explaining well ¨C the doctors were listening attentively with respectful looks on their faces. Chapter 481 - 481 438 Aerial Rescue ?Chapter 481: Chapter 438: Aerial Rescue Chapter 481: Chapter 438: Aerial Rescue Since Zheng Baosheng was admitted, Yang Ping had not had a private conversation with Zheng Baosheng¡¯s family yet. He called Zheng Baosheng¡¯s parents into the meeting room. For such high-risk patients, it¡¯s necessary to have repeated conversations before the surgery, with both the patient and the family. Zheng Baosheng¡¯s parents, both in their fifties, have graying hair and dark circles under their eyes. They used to run a small restaurant in Qingdao, Shandong, and managed to save a bit of money. They are financially stable. For years, they¡¯ve traveled far and wide seeking medical help for their son. They¡¯ve visited several big hospitals, where the doctors all told them the same thing: Zheng¡¯s scoliosis was extremely severe and intimidating. His chest and abdominal organs and blood vessels appeared to be affected by some unknowable inflammatory disease causing widespread adhesions, leading to the displacement and deformation of the organs and blood vessels. Moreover, variations in his anatomy made the operation seem impossible. In the past year, Zheng Baosheng¡¯s abdomen began to bulge, his breathing became laborious, and even slight movements left him breathless. If he slept in the wrong position, he would experience dizziness, chest tightness, nausea, vomiting, and cold sweats. The couple were desperate. They took their son to the affiliated hospital of Qingdao University where doctors informed them that his condition was complicated due to the inferior vena cava syndrome. They dared not drain the fluid from his abdomen, fearful it could lead to a shift in internal organs and result in more severe consequences. They suggested the family go to Beijing. They had no choice but to close their restaurant, take stock of their savings, and once again embark on their journey for medical treatment for their son. It was unexpected, Zheng¡¯s father said, that at this time, Professor Liang from Peking Union Medical College Hospital had called him. Over the years, some professors had kept his number. He never dared to change his phone number in fear that someone would suggest a surgical option and wouldn¡¯t be able to reach him. Professor Liang called him, saying there was a glimmer of hope and suggested they find Dr. Yang Ping of Sanbo Hospital. Among Dr. Yang¡¯s successful spinal correction cases, some were more severe than Zheng¡¯s condition, but he was not sure how to deal with the concurrent chest and abdominal organ problems. Upon hearing this news, Zheng¡¯s father immediately gathered his wife and son, bought train tickets, and rushed to Sanbo Hospital in Nandu Province. However, Yang Ping did not see patients directly. So, he made an appointment with Professor Zhang Zongshun. After understanding the situation, Professor Zhang said it would be very challenging but there was hope, and arranged for hospitalization. Zheng¡¯s parents, with their hospital admission card in hand, were so excited that they couldn¡¯t sleep all night. ¡°Professor Liang recommended you? I hadn¡¯t heard of you before.¡± Yang Ping heard Zheng¡¯s father say this for the first time. Zheng¡¯s father blushed, ¡°Since we¡¯ve been in the hospital, every time you, Dr. Yang, come to do rounds, there are a lot of people around. I was afraid that mentioning this would affect Professor Liang¡¯s reputation. He is a highly respected professor and he¡¯s been a big help. We must care about other people¡¯s reputation.¡± It¡¯s rare for patients to have such considerations. Professor Liang¡¯s medical ethics were indeed admirable. Despite his high position, he always looks out for his patients, even personally calling them and guiding their medical path. Thinking of the professor¡¯s hurried figure, Yang Ping was deeply moved. ¡°Doctor, I understand that the success rate of this surgery is very low. If we don¡¯t operate, he won¡¯t live much longer. Our son knows he¡¯s just waiting to die now, and waiting like this is too cruel. If there¡¯s even a slight hope, even just a little bit, we¡¯re willing to take a risk. Even if we fail, at least we¡¯ll have tried.¡± Zheng¡¯s father said passionately, fearful of giving up on this last glimmer of hope. Zheng Baosheng¡¯s mother nodded in agreement from the side, these were also her thoughts. As long as they tried their hardest, there would be no regrets. A parent¡¯s mindset is that simple. All parents in the world worry and try their best for their children. ¡°The reason I wanted to talk to you today was about the surgery. There are no references for this kind of operation because Zheng¡¯s anatomy has completely changed, and the location of many blood vessels is uncertain. There is a risk of rupture during the separation of the large vessels, and all the organs need to be repositioned. I have never performed such a surgery before and no one else in the world has either. There are no reference cases. However, after carefully analyzing Zheng¡¯s case, I think the operation is feasible. The risk is high, but there is hope. I cannot guarantee how much hope there is. But if you¡¯re willing to take this risk with me, I¡¯m willing to give it my all.¡± Yang Ping spoke slowly and deliberately. Whether it¡¯s legally or ethically, good communication before any operation, other than emergency surgery, is crucial. Beware of doctors who can confidently guarantee a 100% success rate in surgery. ¡°I know, one doctor once said this surgery would be like rebuilding from a heap of ruins,¡± said Zheng¡¯s father. Zheng¡¯s mother sat by his side without saying a word. Obviously, she was going to follow her husband¡¯s decision on this matter. ¡°Today, I wanted to talk to let you know, and to help you prepare mentally: there¡¯s a chance his heartbeat could stop during the surgery.¡± Yang Ping finally got to the main point. After a brief silence, the mother sobbed. The father lowered his head, wiped away some tears, then looked up, ¡°Understood, we¡¯re prepared.¡± ¡°Good, then let¡¯s join forces, share the risk, and give Zheng a glimmer of hope. Right now, we need to further investigate his chest and abdominal organs and blood vessels. We also need to prepare blood for him before the surgery, not only heterologous blood, but also his own blood for storage in case it¡¯s needed during the surgery. His situation is a bit special because he has RH-negative blood type, which is quite rare. In China, only about 0.34% of the population have RH-negative blood and only 0.034% of the population have AB-type, RH-negative blood like him. We need to contact the blood bank and arrange for volunteers to donate blood in advance to increase the supply. If large amounts of blood are lost during this surgery, a large amount of blood will be needed. Once everything is ready and conditions are suitable, we will arrange for surgery.¡± Regarding surgery, Yang always tried to be as thorough as possible. A mentality of blind luck is an invisible killer! ¡°I know there will be a lot of blood loss. He has donated a lot of blood before, saving many people. Now that they know he needs surgery, a lot of people have asked when the surgery is so they can come here anytime to donate blood.¡± Zheng¡¯s father¡¯s eyes glowed as if he believed that as long as there was enough blood, his son¡¯s surgery would be successful. If that¡¯s the case, arranging for blood would be much easier. ¡°How many people with AB-type, RH-negative blood can you call in to donate blood?¡± Yang Ping needed to be sure. ¡°We should be able to get dozens of people.¡± If there are dozens of people, and each person donates around four hundred milliliters, we can collect over ten thousand milliliters of blood. ¡°Can these people be notified to come now?¡± ¡°Yes, some people have already arrived. They¡¯re staying nearby the hospital, waiting until after his surgery to leave.¡± ¡°I am for everyone, and everyone is for me.¡± Yang Ping was deeply moved: ¡°How many people have arrived?¡± ¡°There are fourteen here, and over twenty more. If the blood draw time is confirmed, they will rush over immediately.¡± ¡°With the support of these people, the likelihood of a successful surgery will greatly increase. Ask them to come as soon as possible to make a preemptive extraction for blood storage. We need a lot of blood.¡± Yang Ping felt a boost of confidence inside. One can never predict what unexpected situations might arise during the surgery. All preparations are made in anticipation of uncertainties. It¡¯s better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. ¡°You all can go back now. I will keep you updated on the preparations.¡± Yang Ping began preparing for the surgery. When Mr and Mrs Zheng heard from Yang Ping that there was hope, they were so overjoyed that they kept bowing. Disease is a perpetual threat to humanity. From ancient times to the present, with the advancement of science, diseases continue to be overcome, but new ones keep emerging. Therefore, humanity is always on the path to conquering diseases. This threat, once it descends upon an individual, can sometimes be a calamity. Just after sending off Mr and Mrs Zheng, Yang Ping received a call from Huang Jiacai. Gan Fengyi¡¯s mother was ill, seriously ill! The case data has been sent to Yang Ping¡¯s mailbox, requesting Yang Ping¡¯s help. Yang Ping quickly opened the mailbox on his mobile phone. Inside, there was a file with many attachments. It was difficult to examine the contents on the small screen of his phone, so Yang Ping transferred the data to his office computer and then examined the scans on his specialised electronic screen connected to the computer. The tumor of the ependyma of the upper cervical spinal cord was located at the base of the skull, already causing quadriplegia. Due to paralysis from the respiratory machine, she was now relying on a respirator to breathe. An urgent operation was needed ¨C to remove the tumour and alleviate the pressure on the neural tissues. This was much easier compared to Old Feng¡¯s tumour. ¡°Urgent! Transfer to Sanbo Hospital as soon as possible!¡± Yang Ping immediately called Huang Jiacai. Such a case, even if he flew over, without a cooperative team in place and without sophisticated equipment to assist, there would be no way to perform the operation. The patient had to be transferred here, but the risk during the transit was also very high. ¡°I¡¯ve contacted Old Cheng, and asked him to have President Zhu step in, help to arrange a medical plane to come to Chengdu. We will have an ambulance from the hospital take her to the plane, and when it arrives at Nandu airport, can you arrange for an ambulance to meet us?¡± Huang Jiacai had started arranging for the transfer while contacting Yang Ping. If they could arrange for a fixed-wing medical-plane transport, the safety factor will increase significantly. ¡°Alright, make it quick! When you arrive, I¡¯ll arrange a helicopter to pick you up from the airport. Keep me posted at all times.¡± After hanging up the phone, Yang Ping immediately dialed Old Cheng¡¯s number: ¡°Old Cheng, how is the preparation of the airplane going?¡± ¡°President Zhu has stepped in and arranged a medical plane through Anning Insurance. I am rushing to Nandu airport now.¡± Old Cheng was hurriedly leaving for the airport. Old Cheng and Huang Jiacai had a particularly good relationship, and they had all gone to the United States with Yang Ping previously. ¡°Come to Sanbo Hospital first. I have a few people for you to take with you.¡± Yang Ping planned to send a few people along with Old Cheng on the plane. Anning Insurance has a collaborative relationship with China¡¯s Red Cross 999 Professional Air Medical Rescue Fleet. One of the 999 planes had just completed a task and was temporarily stationed at Nandu airport. The plane Zhu arranged for was this one, a Gulfstream G550 adapted for air ambulance service. This professional air medical rescue fixed-wing aircraft had a maximum range of 12,501 kilometers, with a cruising speed of 980 kilometers per hour, and could make a round-trip to Chengdu in just a few hours. The plane¡¯s cabin was divided into four compartments: service cabin, medical cabin, family exclusive cabin, and captain¡¯s resting cabin, with a total of thirteen fixed seats and one multi-purpose medical stretcher bed. The plane was equipped with four full ICU rescue transfer units, including an infusion pump, micro pump, ventilator, suction machine, defibrillator monitor, vacuum negative pressure forming stretcher, blood gas analyzer, and other medical equipment, along with four sets of general patient transfer equipment. It could simultaneously transport eight patients at most, four lying down and four sitting. The plane was also equipped with an ECMO extracorporeal membrane oxygenation system, airborne blood bank, baby incubator, temperature-lifting blanket, medical viewing light, testing operation table, remote consultation wireless WIFI digital image transmission system, and other medical equipment. The multi-purpose medical bed in the medical cabin could be moved horizontally to the middle of the cabin during flight, ensuring that medical rescue personnel can attend to patients at any time. At the same time, the top of the medical bed could be switched out for an onboard baby incubator or negative pressure isolation cabin to meet the needs of newborns and patients requiring negative pressure isolation. The plane was equipped with four large-volume oxygen cylinders of 21.5L and four portable oxygen cylinders of 8.4L, to provide uninterrupted oxygen supply to patients during transit. The plane was also accompanied by several professional doctors and nurses and stocked with routine emergency medicine. This plane could be said to be equivalent to a small ICU ward, and was currently the most powerful medical transfer vehicle. Yet Yang Ping was still worried. He immediately took along Song Zimo and borrowed a doctor and nurse from ICU, letting Song Zimo lead the ICU¡¯s doctor and nurse to accompany Old Cheng onto the plane. Once the plane picked up the patient and returned to Nandu airport, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s helicopter would pick them up. Yang Ping roughly calculated the time and immediately called Xiao Su to prepare the surgical instruments. Chapter 482 - 482 439 Nine Deaths One Life ?Chapter 482: Chapter 439: Nine Deaths, One Life Chapter 482: Chapter 439: Nine Deaths, One Life Thanks to Huang Jiacai¡¯s coordination and scheduling, time was well aligned, and not a moment was wasted. The charge for such an air rescue is costly; the standard fee for helicopter medical transportation is 35,000 yuan per hour. As for fixed-wing aircraft medical transportation, the base price for take-off is 200,000 yuan, and 80,000 yuan per hour within three hours; the hourly flight price decreases incrementally thereafter. The cross-provincial transportation for Gan Fengyi¡¯s mother, which required the use of a Gulfstream G550 and a helicopter, would amount to about 400,000 yuan if charged standard fees. The Gulfstream G550 landed at Chengdu Shuangliu Airport and took Gan Fengyi¡¯s mother back to Nandu Airport. From Nandu Airport, the helicopter transferred the patient, Song Zimo, and the ICU doctors and nurses back to Sanbo Hospital. The entire process took less than four hours, an efficiency that land transport could not achieve. On the plane, Song Zimo completed his pre-operative talk and paperwork with Gan Fengyi. The helicopter landed on top of the Twin Towers. The noise from the massive engine could be heard throughout the hospital. However, the helipad is on top of the surgical building, so transferring patients requires riding a dedicated elevator down to the first floor, and crossing a corridor to reach the orthopedics building. Dean Xia has already planned for a helipad to be built on top of the future Surgical Research Institute, mainly for their use. If they are to build the Surgical Research Institute grandly, Dean Xia even plans to cooperate with 999 Air Rescue. For some special patients who are far away, they can dispatch fixed-wing aircraft for transportation. Once the helicopter was stable, the stretcher was lifted out, the four supporting legs opened, and it became a flat bed. Song Zimo, the ICU doctors, nurses, and EMTs pushed the flat bed towards the dedicated elevator. According to the procedure for emergency surgery, the doctors and nurses who greeted them immediately drew blood, completed the pre-operative examination, and then directly sent the patient to the operating room. The longer the compression time, the more difficult it is to recover. Even if the surgery is successful, autonomous respiration cannot be restored because the respiratory muscles have paralyzed. For some reason, upon hearing that surgery was imminent, Yang Ping immediately felt an abnormal excitement, and his adrenaline production accelerated. Could this be the ¡°Bloodlust ¨C Excitement¡± surgical behavior in Bi Shumin¡¯s writing? Mikhail¡¯s ¡°Heart Flow Benefit¡±? Or the adrenaline benefit of Vistabi? Each time he encountered such moments between life and death, the bigger the challenge and the higher the risk, the more excited Yang Ping became. No matter how tired he had been before, he would instantly cast away all distractions, and go into the rescue single-mindedly and without hesitation, giving his all for the task. As one door after another opened, the patient was eventually pushed into the operating room. The skin preparation on the head had been completed, and the necessary test results had been displayed on the electronic screen. ¡°The local hospital immediately administered the Jiaqiang Long Shock Therapy when the patient was admitted to the emergency room. Now, her limbs are completely paralyzed, and so are the respiratory muscles. She can only breathe with the help of a ventilator. The local hospital planned to transfer her to Huaxi Hospital, but they didn¡¯t dare to. They invited professors from Huaxi for a remote consultation. After reviewing the scans, the professors said that the tumor is wrapped around the upper spinal cord, then further invades the spinal cord, penetrates the large hole in the occipital bone at the base of the skull, and enters the medulla oblongata. The chances of a successful surgery are extremely slim.¡± Song Zimo, who had changed into his scrub suit, briefly explained the patient¡¯s condition and began scrubbing his hands with Xu Zhiliang. Yang Ping had already studied the patient¡¯s condition thoroughly in advance. As long as the pre-operation check did not show any absolute contraindications, surgery would start immediately. Tracheal intubation was performed for general anesthesia. Fatty was skilled in his techniques. In order to make his hands more flexible, Fatty has recently taken up juggling lessons, specifically to train his hands. The anesthesia was successful, the patient¡¯s position adjusted, and the head secured. Disinfect and lay out the sheets, check before surgery. No matter how often it is repeated, everyone enjoys their work and never gets tired. The tools neatly filled the table, and team members took their places. ¡°Scalpel!¡± Without having to ask, a surgical scalpel is gently placed in his palm. Each time he picked up the scalpel, Yang Ping felt like he was a god, capable of controlling everything. He was addicted to that extraordinary feeling. That feeling was like magic, making his brain clearer, calmer, and more flexible than ever, and his hands more stable, accurate, and fast than ever. The posterior midline approach was used, similar to the approach used by Academician Feng Tiancheng. Every anatomical structure of the human body is deeply imprinted in his mind. The biggest problem with this tumor is that it envelops the spinal cord, infiltrates it, travels up through the foramen magnum in the occipital bone and into the cranial cavity, and then enters the medulla oblongata. Fortunately, the tumor did not involve the nerve cell groups and only lodged in the gaps between them ¨C the safe zones. This made it seem to Yang Ping, like taking an object out of a bag. He didn¡¯t even need a large microscope. With just a head-mounted microscope, he could perform the surgery. Under his scalpel, the tumor had nowhere to hide, and was dissected little by little. Bipolar electrocoagulation minimized bleeding. Given the limited space on the helicopter, Huang Jiacai, Gan Fengyi, and Old Cheng didn¡¯t take the helicopter. Instead, they took a car. By the time they arrived at Sanbo Hospital, the surgery had already started. The operating room¡¯s doors were tightly closed. Gan Fengyi was so familiar with the operating room, but she had never felt, like now, that this closed door was so solemn and dignified. Her mother¡¯s life and death hung in the balance behind this door. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Trust Doctor Yang. Let¡¯s wait here.¡± Huang Jiacai comforted Gan Fengyi, who lingered at the door of the operating room for a long time before she finally went to sit in the family waiting area. On the blue chair in the family waiting area, Gan Fengyi was visibly anxious. She knew her mother¡¯s chances of survival were slim, so she clung tightly to Huang Jiacai¡¯s hand. This strong woman, when her mother¡¯s life was hanging by a thread, was at her wits¡¯ end, anxiously restless, completely unlike her usual calm demeanor at work. ¡°Why haven¡¯t they come out yet?¡± Gan Fengyi wiped her tears with a tissue, asking. Gan Fengyi felt dizzy, and she couldn¡¯t resist leaning into Huang Jiacai¡¯s arms to sob. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Doctor Yang has handled harder surgeries than your mother¡¯s, such as the one of Academician Feng Tiancheng.¡± Huang Jiacai soothingly patted her back. ¡°Um¡ª¡± Realizing that she was losing composure, Gan Fengyi quickly straightened up and suppressed her tears. The professors at Huaxi Hospital had said that the survival rate for this kind of surgery was typically less than 10%, offering very little hope. Finally, the door to the operating room opened. Dr. Yang Ping, dressed in surgical attire, stood in the doorway, holding a metal basin in his hands. Gan Fengyi hurried to his side, Huang Jiacai followed, should she faint. ¡°The surgery went smoothly!¡± ¡°The tumor has been completely removed without excessive bleeding. Both the spinal cord and nerve root have been well-protected. Having the possibility of recovery from paralysis is high provided there are no unexpected incidents. She will be transferred to the ICU. It might take five to seven days to be off the ventilator. You¡¯re lucky you acted promptly. Any later hesitation could have costed her life. This is the tumor that we removed.¡± ¡°Look, the pathology examination will be performed on this.¡± In the large metal basin lay the intact tumor that had been removed from her neck and skull. It looked like a piece of ginger, bloodied on the surface. Gan Fengyi was too emotional to utter a word. Even though she was familiar with doctors, she couldn¡¯t hold back her tears of relief. It seemed that her mother¡¯s life had been saved. Faced with insurmountable odds, her mother had pulled through. The operation room doors closed as soon as Dr. Yang had finished his briefing. ¡°Everything¡¯s okay. Doctor Yang confirmed the procedure went smoothly.¡± Huang Jiacai also breathed a sigh of relief. Gan Fengyi rubbed her swollen eyes: ¡°Thank you so much, Manager Huang!¡± ¡°I need to know how to reimburse the cost of the medical flight,¡± she added. She knew if it weren¡¯t for Huang Jiacai¡¯s quick decision to arrange a medical airlift to Sanbo Hospital, her mother could have been in grave danger. She had been on the verge of breakdown back then. Old Cheng rested his hand on Huang Jiacai¡¯s shoulder: ¡°Old Ju said we¡¯re all brothers. Your matters are our matters. Their company will handle the medical flight costs. If you keep bringing up money, it¡¯s tasteless. But, President Huang, I was in the middle of a massage and had to rush over due to your urgent call. My backache¡¯s worse now.¡± ¡°Sorry about that, Old Cheng.¡± Huang Jiacai appreciated his friend¡¯s support. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be mentioning the flight¡¯s expenses anymore. Though, you should treat us to a drink. What do you two bosses think about that?¡± Old Cheng joked. ¡°We¡¯ll certainly pay you and also treat you to a drink.¡± Gan Fengyi felt a lot more relaxed. ¡°The drink we¡¯d like is not just your ordinary drink.¡± Old Cheng patted Huang Jiacai¡¯s shoulder and walked away. Gan Fengyi didn¡¯t understand. Whether it¡¯s alcohol or not, it¡¯s still a beverage. She wondered if they had any special requirements when drinking. ¡°What kind of drink do they prefer? Since I¡¯m not familiar with their preferences, I¡¯ll ask you when the time comes since you¡¯re their friend.¡± Gan Fengyi turned to Huang Jiacai for guidance. Gan Fengyi¡¯s mother was wheeled out of the operating room, still on a temporary ventilator. After relieving pressure on the spinal cord, there will be a period of swelling. Only after that period is over, wherein the condition stabilizes, can the muscles of the limbs and chest begin to recover gradually. The power of the ventilator, at that time, will be enough to stimulate breathing and it can be stopped. Gan Fengyi knew that she couldn¡¯t help at this point and left everything to the doctors in the ICU. Crying and refusing to let go would only lead to chaos. Therefore, she silently followed the stretcher to the ICU, watched her mother being admitted to the ICU, had a conversation with the doctor, and then went to pay the hospitalization fee. After finishing these errands, she found Huang Jiacai had been keeping her company the entire time. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome!¡± ¡°Would you like to join me for dinner? And perhaps call your sister?¡± ¡°Why should I call her for a meal? She¡¯s on a diet lately.¡± ¡°Then¨C what¨C do you like to eat?¡± ¡°Anything!¡± ¡°Can I make the decision?¡± ¡°Yes! And also, you need to wash this shirt for me.¡± ¡°You want me to wash your clothes?¡± ¡°Yes, who was leaning on my shoulder the whole time? See, it¡¯s all wet here, and there¡¯s lipstick on it. How can I wear it out?¡± ¡°Huang Jiacai, you¡¯re taking advantage of me!¡± ¡°Gan Fengyi, are you going to wash my clothes or not, give me a straight answer!¡± ¡°¡ªI¡¯ll wash them! I¡¯ll accompany you to buy a new shirt later. Just give me this one to wash.¡± ¡°That¡¯s more like it.¡± Chapter 483 - 483 440 The Patients Wish ?Chapter 483: Chapter 440: The Patient¡¯s Wish Chapter 483: Chapter 440: The Patient¡¯s Wish On the third day after the surgery, when Yang Ping went to ICU for ward rounds, he found that the muscle strength in the lower limbs of Gan Fengyi¡¯s mother had recovered somewhat, increasing from level one to level two. This rate of recovery was quite fast. The sooner and faster the muscle strength recovered after compression of the spinal cord was relieved, the better the surgical effect it indicated. Based on Yang Ping¡¯s experience, there was a considerable chance of Gan Fengyi making a full recovery. If she regains level four muscle strength, she can begin to consider removing the tubes. If she regains level five, she is completely normal. When Yang Ping came out of the ICU ward, there was a dispute among several family members in the waiting area. ¡°A male patient, just in his thirties, was suffering from fulminant viral myocarditis. By the time he was brought in, he was barely alive and is currently being kept alive with ECMO,¡± the ICU¡¯s Dr. Meng explained to Yang Ping. Issues like these were frequent in the ICU, possibly the place with the highest death rate in the world. Not everyone managed to fight off the specter of death. Not everyone had the chance to live. To live is to be lucky. The family members arguing were loud. The woman, who seemed to be the patient¡¯s wife, was crying while sitting on the chair. ¡°You just kept belittling him, you know men have their dignity too. Do you even realize that after his company went bankrupt and he lost his job, in order not to worry you, he still carried his document bag every day and worked from morning till night? And he still gave you money on time every month, all of which were borrowed. All you did was scold him. Now, he can¡¯t even hear you if you want to scold him.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you know that he had a high fever for some days?¡± ¡°If I had known, I wouldn¡¯t have argued with him.¡± ¡°You kicked him out in such heavy rain?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t know, really.¡± ICU and Emergency Departments often witness such disputes among family members. Both places were where life and death were separated. Yang Ping was used to such incidents. Yang Ping hurried back to the Comprehensive Orthopedics Ward, where Professor Li was studying the latest test results of Zheng Baosheng. Zheng Baosheng¡¯s heart and blood vessels were like a blurred image, and the operation needed to differentiate one noodle from another. These ¡°noodles¡± could neither break nor be destroyed, which was why the operation was so challenging. The renewed tests included angiography of the surgical area. The distribution of many of his blood vessels differed from normal human anatomy. Professor Li Zehui sat at his desk holding a heart model, staring at it, his hands slowly turning it around. After coming to China, except for 301 Hospital and Sanbo Hospital, Professor Li didn¡¯t have time to go anywhere else. He declined all social and entertainment activities, focused on studying Zheng Baosheng¡¯s case, and spent all his time in the ward. Sometimes, he closed his eyes and thought about it, while at other times he carefully reviewed the images. Sometimes he stared at the heart and large blood vessel models, often for a whole hour or two. One day in-between, he made time to visit his parents¡¯ old home to pay respects. After, he returned to Sanbo Hospital. Several times, he personally performed a surface ultrasound for Zheng Baosheng bedside, ensuring everything was well-prepared before the surgery. After looking for a long time, Professor Li started to sketch diagrams. He has might have sketched almost a hundred diagrams and always apologized to everyone for wasting so much paper. Whenever he saw people, Professor Li would nod his head, considering it as a form of greeting. Doctors from the People¡¯s Hospital, Fuer and Fuer Cardiology, invited Professor Li for dinner, but he declined politely. Yang Ping had a habit of running. The Tri-Bo Hotel had a gym, and Yang Ping used to run on the treadmill there regularly. Professor Li began running with Yang Ping, discussing their cases as they ran. Back in the United States, Professor Li adopted a habit from his teacher. Every weekend, he would run alongside Lake Erie with his pet dog. Professor Li was working intently on a drawing, and Yang Ping just smiled at him before they both got busy with their own matters. Song Zimo reported that Zheng Baosheng¡¯s pre-surgical preparations had been completed, and the surgery could be scheduled at any time. As for Zheng Baosheng¡¯s surgery, Yang Ping had already completed a simulation in the system space. For this kind of high difficulty surgery, as long as the score allowed, Yang Ping was willing to do a preoperative simulation. This was because, when it came to irreplaceable life, he wanted to maximize the success rate as much as possible. Taking advantage of the spare time he had now, Yang Ping decided to have a one-on-one conversation with Zheng Baosheng himself. Song Zimo knew that before every major surgery, Yang Ping, in his role as the Chief Surgeon, would have a one-on-one conversation with the patient. It was Yang Ping¡¯s prerogative, so Song Zimo stepped aside. The young man was hunched up on the hospital bed, with his parents by his side. Yang Ping said, ¡°We¡¯re fully prepared to go ahead with the surgery. I¡¯d like to have a private chat with him.¡± Old Mr. and Mrs. Zheng left the ward, carefully closing the door to wait outside. Yang Ping opened the curtains, ¡°Do you always keep the curtains shut?¡± ¡°Um, I¡¯m afraid to see the sunlight outside,¡± Zheng Baosheng¡¯s eyes were half-closed, his voice timid. Yang Ping stood by his bed, ¡°Whether you look or not, the sun is still outside. Keep the curtains open and be open-minded,¡± he advised. Zheng Baosheng consented, his half-closed eyes gradually adapting. ¡°We are prepared for your surgery. The risks are high, but I have a lot of confidence,¡± Yang Ping broke the ice. When talking to patients, honesty was essential. ¡°I know. I could very well die on the operating table,¡± Zheng Baosheng said, somewhat numbly. Yang Ping comforted him, ¡°That is just one possible outcome. As a surgeon, I¡¯ve brought several patients back from death¡¯s door. You wouldn¡¯t be the first.¡± ¡°Thank you. I¡¯ve seen many doctors. You are the only one who gives me confidence, but I am familiar with my condition. It doesn¡¯t matter. If I get through this, my dream, my parents¡¯ dream, all could come true. If I unfortunately die on the operating table, well, then at least I can finally be free, and they too will be liberated. I¡¯ve been holding them back. They would be much happier if they had a healthy son,¡± Zheng Baosheng said, sounding defeated. ¡°You¡¯re taking this well. Anything else you want to share? Fears, worries?¡± Yang Ping encouraged him. ¡°There¡¯s not much to say, just resentment. Why me, when I haven¡¯t done anything wrong,¡± Zheng Baosheng replied dispassionately, clear signs of his despair. ¡°That¡¯s simply down to chance. You must face it, there¡¯s no running from it. Your severe spinal deformity led to inadequate thoracic development. Your heart and large blood vessels are compressed into a small space, coupled with some sort of unidentified exudative inflammatory lesions, resulted in a tangled mess inside you. During this surgery, we¡¯re going to decouple this entanglement, separate these factors, move each to where it is supposed to be and then straighten your curved spine. If we succeed, you¡¯ll be able to lead a normal life. If we fail, you will die on the operating table. That too is a matter of chance. But I am confident, the chance of success is higher,¡± Yang Ping gave Zheng Baosheng a straightforward rundown. ¡°Even without this surgery, I can clearly see the end of my life looming ahead. Do you have any idea how terrifying that is? To live each day counting down, with endless fear and helplessness!¡± Zheng Baosheng sobbed softly. ¡°That¡¯s why I want to have this final discussion with you, to hear your thoughts.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to die! So, I would jump onto the flame even though I know it¡¯s fire.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± asked Yang Ping. ¡°I am sure. I¡¯ve thought about this for many years. No one ever gave me a choice until now. Whether the surgery succeeds or fails, I accept my fate. I¡¯m scared of dying, but sometimes I think it wouldn¡¯t be so bad. It¡¯s like falling asleep and never waking up,¡± Zheng Baosheng said with a resigned tone. ¡°If I do wake up, I want to take my parents around, let them enjoy life. I will take over our family restaurant and learn from them how to manage it. I will cherish every day, not waste my time gaming, not shout at them anymore, I want to live properly. But right now, even being alive is a luxury. I don¡¯t ask for anything else, I just ask to live,¡± Zheng Baosheng turned his bedstead to face Yang Ping slowly and painfully. Yang Ping stretched out his hand, ¡°If you trust me, I will do my utmost for your wish.¡± Zheng Baosheng reached out his skinny hand, ¡°Thank you. Please tell my parents for me, that I really don¡¯t want to leave them.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you say it to them directly?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. Every time I want to, I just want to cry. I don¡¯t want them to see me cry.¡± Chapter 484 - 484 441 The Strong Heart ?Chapter 484: Chapter 441: The Strong Heart Chapter 484: Chapter 441: The Strong Heart Volunteers with AB RH-negative blood type gradually gathered at Sanbo Hospital, and the blood collection vehicles of the blood bank were specifically parked nearby to prepare blood for the surgery. The blood bank collected more than twenty thousand milliliters of blood, minus the potential unusable due to various reasons, there were almost twenty thousand milliliters of qualified blood. These rare blood type volunteers came from all over the country, they knew that helping others was like helping themselves. In medicine, life and death are sometimes separated by a thin line. If massive bleeding occurs during a surgery, and there is not enough blood transfusion support to gain a window of time for hemostasis, the patient could suffer from hypovolemic shock, and important organs could suffer from ischemia and hypoxia due to insufficient perfusion, and eventually die. If there is enough blood transfusion support, doctors get a chance to stop bleeding, and their lives can move in the opposite direction to being able to survive. With this reservoir of blood, Yang Ping¡¯s last concern was addressed, allowing him to calmly take to the operating table. Using the duplicating function of the system space, Yang Ping had already conducted experimental surgeries on the duplicated Zheng Baosheng body. A good doctor enjoys taking risks while also dislikes it enormously. Enjoying risk, because they must have enough courage to challenge high-difficulty, high-risk surgeries. Disliking risk is because their pursuit of surgical success relies not on luck, but their own professional knowledge and skills, a nearly obsessive seriousness about surgery, strict selection of surgical indications, comprehensive preoperative preparation, exquisite surgical operations, and mature postoperative management. In strategy, despising the enemy; in tactics, taking the enemy seriously. Yang Ping felt that this was also the dialectical logic of excellent surgeons ¨C their enemy being all diseases and injuries. Over these days, Yang Ping performed thoracocentesis and abdominal paracentesis on Zheng Baosheng daily to relieve the pressure of the liquid on the heart, so that the heart would be in the best state during the surgery, capable of tolerating the surgery and anesthesia. If too much liquid is drained at once, the internal pressure of the thoracic and abdominal cavity could suddenly become unbalanced, then organ displacement, or herniation of the internal organs would occur, which can sometimes be lethal. In order to avoid such a lethal situation, Yang Ping carefully drained the fluid in multiple sessions with restraint, stopping as soon as the conditions required for the surgery were met. During each case analysis and treatment, Professor Li was present, observing Yang Ping¡¯s preoperative preparation for the patient. Some of Professor Li¡¯s doubts gradually dissipated. He hadn¡¯t seen Yang Ping perform surgery yet, but he already approved him a bit more in his heart. The nearly impeccable preoperative preparations, thorough understanding of the disease, treatment of uncertain factors in anatomy, understanding of human anatomical functions, the formulation of various emergency plans, all impressed Professor Li. What surprised Professor Li even more was that Yang Ping seemed to have mastered all the relevant knowledge about this case study, and was able to connect all these pieces of knowledge together, understanding from the principles, systematizing it, from one instance deducing all others. Sometimes the bold and imaginative methods proposed by Yang Ping excited Professor Li ¨C it was possible to do it this way. Professor Li didn¡¯t quite understand how this young man managed to do all of this. Did he possess a photographic memory and did not need to sleep at all, spending all his time studying and thinking? However, based on their interactions these days, Yang Ping didn¡¯t seem to be like this. He even slept in the duty room during the rare free time after completing surgeries, and did not seem to spend time reading various journals. He occasionally sat in front of the computer in the office, speed-scanning papers. His scanning style was strange, always flipping pages non-stop, flipping ten or more pages in one second. How could he possibly grasp the information? Professor Li could not figure it out, but he was sure that Yang Ping was indeed a genius doctor. Now his main task at Sanbo was to follow Yang Ping. He even compressed his planned visit to Australia from a few days to one day to stay at Sanbo longer. Gan Fengyi¡¯s mother recovered well after surgery. On the fifth day after surgery, the muscle strength on her limbs had recovered to level three, and on the seventh day, it increased to level four. The ICU doctors tried to extubate her, let her off the ventilator. After the extubation, the muscles that supported her respiratory movements were completely capable of doing the job, her oxygen saturation remained at 95% without supplementary oxygen. Although her muscle strength was still somewhat weaker than normal, to increase the effectiveness of each breath, the ICU doctor decided to keep her on low -flow supplemental oxygen. Gan Fengyi stood in the visit corridor watching her mother who had regained consciousness, no longer dependent on a machine for breathing, felt the sensations of post-disaster surviving and a return to the former life. At this rate, she could soon be transferred out of the ICU and return to the ordinary ward for further treatment. Gan Fengyi¡¯s mother had a lung infection due to intubation and ventilator usage. Under the control of antibiotics, a re-examined chest x-ray showed improvement, and the sputum culture turned out to be ordinary Staphylococcus aureus, not any drug-resistant bacteria. For a long time, the drug-resistant bacteria in the ICU had given doctors and infection control staff a headache. They collected samples daily in the ICU for culturing and analyzing, and then looked for causes and countermeasures. Upon rechecking, the leukocyte count, procalcitonin and other infection indicators had significantly decreased. Once transferred to the ordinary ward, care is needed, and Gan Fengyi decided to take care of her mother herself, she asked for a month¡¯s leave from the company. Walking out of the ICU, following behind Yang Ping were Professors Qin and Li, as well as Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. Yang Ping glanced out of the corner of his eye towards the family consultation room. Its door was half-opened, and there was again the relative of that patient, the wife of the patient with fulminant viral myocarditis. This time she was alone, facing the chief physician, seemingly pleading with him. Yang Ping stopped, feeling a bit uneasy in his heart. Despite having encountered this situation countless times and building up tolerance, he had never become numb to it. The others also stopped along with him and Dr. Meng, who was seeing them out, explained again. This is the patient¡¯s wife. The patient has been surviving on ECMO for twenty days, the hope of survival is extremely slim, as slim as a drop of ink in the ocean. The family members do not agree on whether to continue. Regardless of whether it¡¯s the relatives from the husband¡¯s side or the wife¡¯s side, all are persuading her to give up, arguing that going on is meaningless and only a waste of money. In the ICU now, including the cost of ECMO, it¡¯s tens of thousands per day, much of which is not covered by medical insurance and has to be paid out of pocket, most of this money is borrowed. Other relatives all suggest giving up, turning off the ECMO, but she alone insists, not to give up. She¡¯s knelt down to the doctors several times, begging them to keep trying. It is said that the couple was always quarreling, minor disputes every day and major disputes every three days. The wife was always complaining about the husband not making enough money, and how suffocating their life was. Through the half-open door, Yang Ping looked at the teary-eyed wife from afar. Perhaps now she understands something, learns to cherish, and hopes to make amends. But¡ª¡ª Regardless of love or not, they will never meet again in this life or the next. This is not Yang Ping¡¯s specialty, he can¡¯t help either. ¡°Can¡ªwe¡ªkeep going?¡± Yang Ping asked Dr. Meng. ¡°Depends on the will of his family. If they give up, we can only extubate. If they insist, we¡¯ll do what we can. Yet, there¡¯s almost no hope.¡± ¡°Please, could you try again? I beg you, I beg you all¡ª¡± ¡°We¡¯ll give it our best, but the hope is slim. You need to be prepared.¡± The patient¡¯s wife watched the departing doctors, unable to hold back her tears. Now, there is no one to comfort her because the person who usually comforted and tolerated her is lying on the hospital bed, kept alive by a machine. ¡ª¡ª Dean Xia and Director Han personally held up the bronze plaque of the ¡°Surgical Research Institute¡±, along with some workers, and hung it at the original location of the ¡°Department of Orthopedics¡±. Move it a little left, a bit to the right, up, yes, too much, now a little bit down. Under Dean Xia¡¯s direction, the sweat-drenched workers finally hung the bronze plaque to his satisfaction. ¡°Is the time set?¡± Dean Xia held his pointing finger vertically, measuring whether the plaque was hanging straight. Director Han also leaned back, looking carefully at the plaque, ¡°I planned to choose an auspicious time, Xiao Yang recommended 8 o¡¯clock on Monday.¡± ¡°Eight o¡¯clock it is. It¡¯s our usual shift change time. How good.¡± Dean Xia agreed. ¡°I want to invite a few people to celebrate. Xiao Yang said it¡¯s not necessary. Simple arrangements won¡¯t be too complicated, but Professor Liang from Xiehe Hospital will come, Professor Qin from 301 is here, Professor Su said he would definitely come, just a few people like that?¡± Director Han counted the guests. ¡°Hmm, we can¡¯t make it too simple. We need to keep some ceremonial sense. Old Han, look here, we can place a step here. At the unveiling, I¡¯ll accompany him on his left, you on his right. We¡¯ll accompany him up the stage to unveil the plaque together. As for the number of steps, let me think.¡± Dean Xia motioned with pointing fingers, planning where to stand at the time, even simulating the steps. ¡°You decide these things. I don¡¯t understand such trivialities with a show of formality.¡± Director Han didn¡¯t care much about these details. Dean Xia pulled a long face, ¡°This is not trivial, it¡¯s a ceremony. Get it? We need a sense of ceremony. When I received an award at the People¡¯s Hall, there were female ushers to guide me on how to walk, stand, pose for photographs. All these are important, we can¡¯t be careless.¡± ¡°Where¡¯s Xiao Yang? He was here just now, where did he go?¡± Dean Xia looked around. Director Han took a glance inside the hall, it seems they were having a small lecture. Professor Li Zehui was giving a lecture and Yang Ping had invited him to lecture the doctors in their department, many young people had gone to attend. ¡ª¡ª While Professor Li was at Sanbo Hospital, Yang Ping asked him to deliver a lecture to everyone. The work here, sooner or later, would have to face various heart-related problems and those common fractures would no longer appear here unless for very special reasons. Professor Li¡¯s research on the heart has reached the pinnacle. He is a world-leading cardiac surgery expert and is often invited to give lectures and perform surgeries around the world. ¡°To understand the heart, I first need to understand its structure and how it works. Only in this way can we confidently face this lively and beating heart.¡± ¡°It¡¯s like the engine under the hood of a car, the engine is divided into four chambers. These four chambers are like a small house, two floors, two rooms on each floor, totalling four rooms.¡± ¡°The two atria are for recycling blood, and the two ventricles are for pumping blood. This recycling and pumping forms a closed loop. It beats 60-100 times a minute, pumping about 5 litres of blood, roughly 3,600 beats an hour, 86,400 beats a day, over 31 million beats a year, 2.5 billion beats in 80 years. Everyday the heart sends around 6,000 litres of blood to the lungs and the body. Look, how robust the human heart is. If it were a car engine, given this intensity of work, it would have been scrapped long ago¡ª¡± Professor Li stood on the podium, at ease, starting with the most basic knowledge for the young doctors. The audience in the teaching room was captivated by Professor Li¡¯s interesting and straightforward explanation, from time to time breaking into laughter. The teaching room was packed. Yang Ping quietly entered and sat down in a reserved seat in the first row. Seeing Yang Ping, Professor Li paused his lecture, greeted him with a smile, and continued. Chapter 485 - 485 442 A Complete Mess ?Chapter 485: Chapter 442: A Complete Mess Chapter 485: Chapter 442: A Complete Mess On Monday at 8 o¡¯clock in the morning, the unveiling ceremony of the ¡°Surgical Research Institute¡± commenced punctually. As the bronze plaque was to be hung at the top of the first floor entrance, which was quite high, a wooden step was specially constructed for the unveiling. Amid hearty applause, Dean Xia and Director Han, walked towards the step on either side of Yang Ping, pulled down the red silk cloth and subsequently gave brief speeches. At this moment, it was the shift change time, so there weren¡¯t many bystanders. Only a few people, including Professor Liang, Professor Qin, Professor Su, Professor Hu, and Professor Li Zehui, along with the leaders of several departments in the hospital, stood below the stage. The entire process took just over ten minutes. After the simple unveiling ceremony, it was time for the shift change in the wards of the Surgical Research Institute, and then came the surgery by Zheng Baosheng. Everything was conducted without any frivolities. The purpose of a heavy-duty vessel is to serve its function in battles; any decoration is superfluous. The surgery was not only eagerly anticipated by a few professors but also by some surgeons from the Orthopaedics and Cardiac Surgery Department who came over to watch and learn. Due to sterility protocols, the number of people allowed inside the operating room was limited, so everyone else observed the procedure via video, a method which was both clear and did not violate sterility rules. Professor Su and Professor Zou from Xiehe Hospital, Professor Qin from 301 Hospital and Professor Liang from Nandu University arrived early and took seats in the first row of the operating room¡¯s teaching room, followed by a large group of doctors. When Nurse Qin of 301 heard about this complex surgery, she applied to Professor Qin, hoping to come over to watch and learn. Professor Qin had no choice but to agree to her request, and now she too was sitting among the crowd. This surgery presented a valuable learning opportunity for everyone, regardless of its success or failure. Naturally, Professor Su wouldn¡¯t miss these important moments, and at critical times, he would support Yang Ping, as young people sometimes lack the strong backing of their senior colleagues. As everyone was a big shot within the industry, it was impossible for them not to exchange a few pleasantries upon meeting. Professor Liang and Professor Qin have always found it difficult to comprehend Professor Su¡¯s actions. Although he is known for his talent, when it came to recruiting Yang Ping, 301 and Xiehe Hospital clashed fiercely, yet Professor Su remained incredibly calm, refraining from getting involved. Professor Su had his own plans. He was attempting to facilitate a significant event¡ªbringing Sanbo Hospital under the direct affiliation of Nandu Medical University. Once accomplished, the overall strength of Sanbo Hospital would greatly improve. At present in China, for a hospital to achieve significant growth, it must rely on a robust university, as operating independently presents significantly greater challenges. Everything was being strategically planned. Professor Su¡¯s style was to press ahead patiently and strategically, revealing nothing prematurely, letting all plans fall into place naturally. The surgery performed on Zheng Baosheng begun in the prone position to loosen and align the viscera and large blood vessels in order to restore them to their normal positions and paths, to adapt to the posture after orthopedics. Otherwise, the tension would tear the heart and blood vessels. Then, the necessary spinal curvature correction is performed while the patient is still in a prone position. The procedure is complex and daunting to even think about. If necessary, extracorporeal circulation is used to bridge and lengthen blood vessels to accommodate the new thoracic anatomy. Currently, it¡¯s evident that the operating room lacks enough staff to support the future development of the department. Previously, the Synthesis Orthopedics department followed a lightweight route, so the operating room had only one anesthesiologist and two nurses, borrowing staff from the main hospital operating room for temporary needs. In future, the Surgical Research Institute will certainly follow the heavyweight route, and the current team will be completely unable to meet its needs. Yang Ping submitted a staffing request to the hospital, requiring one additional anesthesiologist and two more nurses. Upon hearing the news, doctors and nurses from Sanbo Hospital scrambled to join the Surgical Research Institute. But joining the Surgical Research Institute wasn¡¯t that easy. Anesthetic doctors must have a doctoral degree, with full-time doctoral credentials; part-time or equivalent doctoral studies will not be accepted. Nurses must have a bachelor¡¯s degree and it must again be full-time, obtained through a college entrance examination, not through self-study or an adult education degree. Although bachelor-degree nurses make up a considerable number in coastal large-scale hospitals, they still represent a minority compared to specialized nurses. Currently, the majority of nurses are still trained specialists. With the number of applicants far exceeding the requirements, a high bar was necessary, and there was no way around that. Professor Li served as Yang Ping¡¯s surgical assistant, intending to witness the entire surgery firsthand. Even if it resulted in failure, there would be lessons to learn from. Medical science is always about advancing forwards, and progress requires sacrifice. When Cardiac Surgery first gained prominence, many doctors from various countries went to the United States to further their studies, and upon their return, they hurriedly launched their own cardiac surgeries. Most of them were skilled general surgeons who had never performed surgery on the heart and whose only training had been to watch and practice on models or animals. In other words, these trained doctors had never performed surgery on a human body before. Upon their return to their respective countries, they had to independently launch cardiac surgeries. To evolve from nothing to something and from weakness to strength required sacrifice, and hence, few of their early surgical patients survived. It¡¯s a cruel fact¡ªdue to the unique nature of medicine, without opportunities to actually operate, growth is never possible. If growth is stunted, becoming a skilled doctor is impossible, forging a vicious cycle. If it¡¯s about a mature and popular specialty, the teachers in the department can guide the students by hand over a few years. But when it comes to emerging disciplines, during those years, there were only several surgeons throughout the world who could perform cardiac surgeries, and there was no one to provide hands-on guidance over several years. Chapter 486 - 486 442 A Complete Mess_2 ?Chapter 486: Chapter 442: A Complete Mess_2 Chapter 486: Chapter 442: A Complete Mess_2 Thus, only after repeated failures, could a proficient cardiac surgeon evolve. By the time of Professor Li, it was indeed the golden age of cardiac surgery, where teachers could guide through every step, avoiding patients from making huge sacrifices. Having emerged from a background in orthopedics as an instrument nurse, Su Yixuan had undergone training in various surgical procedures. However, she was unfamiliar with the first half of this surgery. Nevertheless, that was not a problem. Yang Ping pointed out a set of surgical procedure illustrations for her. She simulated the entire operation in her mind according to the illustrations. She even imagined herself assisting in the surgery and handing out the equipment piece by piece, envisioning how to assist the chief surgeon if a sudden accident occurred, so as to avoid mishandling the equipment. The chief surgeon was most afraid of misdelivery of the equipment. Sometimes a sharp instrument could pierce through the gloves and injure the doctor¡¯s hands. Many surgeons went through such experiences, and occasionally, the patients carried infectious diseases like hepatitis B. To prevent such accidents, certain surgical rules were innovatively set. Sharps like scalpels, sutures, and syringes couldn¡¯t be handed directly to the lead surgeon. Instrument nurses were only allowed to place them in a transfer dish, from which the lead surgeon picked them up. After such reform, as per a survey, the risk of lead surgeons getting injured by sharps was greatly reduced. Therefore, being a doctor is also a high-risk profession. Perhaps born into a medical family and being exposed to it since childhood endowed Su Yixuan with medical talent, she quickly grasped the coordination of the surgery. Moreover, Yang Ping patiently explained to her every detail of the surgery, thereby not just enabling her to understand what was happening, but also why it was happening. To reinforce her understanding further, Yang Ping simulated the entire operation on an empty operating table and demonstrated how to pass the medical instruments and respond to unexpected incidents. Sometimes, both Yang Ping and Su Yixuan felt that this was their unique way to ¡°coexist¡±. Liang Fatty¡¯s skillset improved progressively. Working with Yang Ping brought immense respect and substantial income, putting his professional life into a virtuous cycle. Fatty always liked to wear cropped pants, displaying his ankles which hung above. This had become his symbolic attire. Being Yang Ping¡¯s designated anesthetist, his worth skyrocketed. No less than three head nurses proposed to introduce their female friends to him, and even an aunt from the medical records room often approached Liang Fatty to introduce excellent young women to him. It is said that Fatty had been on several blind dates, many of whom had impressive conditions such as being civil servants, teachers, or bank clerks. If it were in the past, Fatty would¡¯ve been thrilled to the core, couldn¡¯t wait to get married immediately, fearing that missing this opportunity would ruin his life. However, with his rising value, Fatty¡¯s concept of choosing a mate has changed and he has grabbed the initiative. He was no longer in a rush, instead taking his time to choose. When finding a partner, since it is a blind date, the girl has to scrutinize him, whether he has a house, its size, whether or not it¡¯s fully paid or on installment, whether he has a car, its brand, the car loan installment, his salary, the occupation of his parents, and how many siblings he has. Likewise, Fatty had his own criteria. Those below 165 cm were directly ruled out. Those overweight, or who didn¡¯t fit the beauty standards at first sight wouldn¡¯t get a second chance. Holding a master¡¯s degree was a priority, and anything less than that was a disadvantage. With his skillful and elegant maneuvers, Fatty treated tracheal intubation not as a mere technical practice, but as a kind of acrobatics. He wanted to play it to a certain height, to achieve a certain level of skill. In order to keep up with Doctor Yang, he started to lose weight a long time ago. He insisted on running daily and going to the gym, spending at least an hour there daily. The private training fees had become a major expenditure each month. He wanted to change himself and even got a tattoo on his upper arm: Change! After performing a jaw-thrust, and leaning the head back to open the airway, Fatty gently inserted the tracheal tube, causing nearly no pressure or friction on the surrounding mucosa. The movement was smooth. His hands coordinated quickly, managing the tracheal intubation in a few seconds. Unlike his usual casual self, Fatty looked serious this time. After all, professionals from large hospitals were observing. He couldn¡¯t afford to embarrass himself. He connected the anesthesia machine, and the anesthetic gas followed with each breath into the lung¡¯s air sac causing the patient to enter the anesthesia state. Fatty then gave an OK sign, confidently. Since so many people were watching, let them witness the expertise of Doctor Yang¡¯s designated anesthetist at this point, Doctor Liang Fatty, a Ph.D. graduate from Huaxi Medical School, sitting at the head of the patient, began to record the various data clearly. About his cropped pants, both Zhang Lin and Little Five had adviced him that they looked too casual and unprofessional. However, he had gotten used to wearing them. Longer pants were uncomfortable around the ankles, so he had to make do. Except for special occasions, he wore cropped pants all 365 days in a year. It was his standard outfit. Professor Li played the role of an assistant, while Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang served as retractor holders. This time, there were no spots for the two retraction experts, so they had to do odd jobs beneath the table. As retraction experts, Doctor Lu Xiaowu and Doctor Zhang Lin planned to collaborate on a book called ¡°Hooking Techniques in Surgery.¡± They¡¯ve looked it up seriously; no such monograph currently exists. If they could publish one, it would certainly stir up excitement and establish the two brothers¡¯ status in the medical field. They¡¯ve already contacted the publisher¡¯s intermediaries. The two doctors have started amassing information, planning to cover the history of retraction, basic knowledge, working principles, training methods, surgical practice, how to use retractors without harming blood vessels and nerves, the correct position of the hook and the hand, and how to save energy while handling retractors effectively. Many scattered pieces of knowledge about retraction have become outdated. Doctors Lu and Zhang plan to examine retraction as a systematic discipline within their book, presenting a copious amount of illustrations and case studies. Indeed, retraction is a discipline of its own. Otherwise, those in charge of operating retractors on the surgical platform are forever pulling and intermittently being rebuked! If difficulties arise during surgery, those in charge of the retractors are invariably scapegoated. Visibility is hard to achieve. ¡°Coming up, we¡¯ll move onto the spinal surgery. You two will take up retraction on the platform!¡± This is what Dr. Yang said while looking at the dispirited duo. The two doctors immediately perked up. They have been training for this moment. If they didn¡¯t step up to the platform at this point, they wouldn¡¯t be at peace. After the heart and the major blood vessels¡¯ surgeries, treatment of the liver, bile, spleen, and pancreas was next, followed by corrective spinal surgery. For spinal surgery, naturally, Song Zimo or Xu Zhiliang¡¯s assistant would be operating, and the professional retraction experts¡ªReactor Heroes¡ªwould take over retraction. The sterile drape was already in place, covering the patient entirely. All that was visible was a tiny area called the ¡®operative field,¡¯ which was the location of the incision. Everyone assumed their positions, performing a ceremonial verification before surgery began. The major surgery was about to commence. This surgical approach consisted of opening up the thorax and abdomen, revealing all the organs¡ªthe heart, major blood vessels, liver, bile duct, pancreas, and others. The pulsating heart would be flipped back and forth in the surgeon¡¯s hand, with clotted major blood vessels being separated under the scalpel. If any rupture were to occur, blood would spurt out, splashing onto the surgical lamp or someone¡¯s face. The sharp scalpel was placed in the transposition treasury. Yang Ping reached out and picked up the scalpel handle. In order to ensure maximum exposure, the most invasive approach had to be used. A sternotomy was performed¡ªcutting straight through the centerline of the chest, followed by the splitting open of the sternum on both sides to uncover the thorax. This was similar to lifting the hood of a car and seeing the engine and all the various components laid out for the engineers to inspect. The simple sternal saw turned out to be an effective tool; when activated, the sternum cleanly split into two halves through the emerging blood mist. ¡°Rib spreader!¡± The rib spreader was inserted into the thoracic cavity, spreading apart to the two sides, revealing the heart, major blood vessels, and both lungs within the field of vision. Through protective glasses, the pulsing heart was in view. This pulsing seemed more like squirming, rhythmically driving life. A suction device was used to remove the fluid inside. It was indeed a mess in there, with severe adhesion. ¡°It¡¯s like an old mud hut that¡¯s collapsed and been mixed numerous times with rainwater. Everything is stuck together, and it¡¯s impossible to distinguish anything.¡± Professor Li shuddered. Even as a top cardiovascular specialist in the world, faced with such conditions, one would hesitate unless they disregard the patient¡¯s life and death. Professor Li looked up, his eyes meeting Yang Ping¡¯s: It¡¯s more serious than imagined. Shall we proceed with the surgery? However, Yang Ping showed no signs of stopping. ¡°Scalpel!¡± The round knife was replaced by a sharp one, commencing the separation of the adhesions. Chapter 487 - 487 443 Fatal Adhesion ?Chapter 487: Chapter 443: Fatal Adhesion Chapter 487: Chapter 443: Fatal Adhesion This type of adhesion caused Professor Li to fear. He had meticulously observed Yang Ping¡¯s surgery just now. The surface of the heart was almost adhered to the inner surface of the sternum. When the sternum was sawed open, the saw blade cut through the sternum without damaging the heart that was adhered to it. This was not due to sheer luck. One cannot rely solely on luck to avoid errors throughout the entire process. Professor Li¡¯s teacher once said, ¡°Remember, excellent surgeons need to be skilled at constructing images in their minds.¡± So now there was only one explanation. Dr. Yang was able to construct a three-dimensional anatomical diagram of the surgical area in his mind using the imaging pictures. Relying on this mental image, he guided the electric saw in his hand to operate with precision. During Professor Li¡¯s first heart surgery, the patient had a history of heart surgery that he was unaware of. Previous surgeries had caused the heart to adhere to the inner surface of the sternum. As Professor Li wielded the chest saw, he severed the sternum from top to bottom, then a profusion of dark red blood gushed out. At that time, he was scared by the sight of the blood and didn¡¯t know what had happened. Fortunately, his composed teacher directed from below the operating table: ¡°The saw has cut into the atrium below. Apply pressure to it, stop the bleeding, then repair it.¡± The patient¡¯s blood pressure plunged. The anesthesiologist instructed the patrolling nurse to administer a blood transfusion. In the chaos, Professor Li mechanically followed his teacher¡¯s instructions, but could not locate where the bleeding was coming from. ¡°Saw through the sternum completely, the tear is underneath,¡± his teacher shouted, then prepared to go up to the operating table, gloves already on. Professor Li, with gritted teeth, picked up the electric saw once again in the middle of a pool of blood and completely sawed through the sternum. Sure enough, under the help of the suction device, Professor Li saw the source of the bleeding, a wound on the right atrium about 3 cm from the top. He reached out and held the wound. ¡°Suture it!¡± The teacher issued the command. The teacher took over for Professor Li¡¯s trembling hand, pressed against the wound to stop the bleeding, and Professor Li began repairing the tear in the atrium. The teacher let go of his hand, creating a barely visible view with the suction device. Thankfully, due to stringent training, Professor Li was able to repair the tear quickly. The blood was stopped, and the patient¡¯s blood pressure rose again. Since then, Professor Li had never trembled when encountering blood or the sight of a heart, seeming just like a soldier baptized in warfare. But at this moment, Professor Li could not help but feel shaken. The heart as well as the large blood vessels connected to it were blurred, especially the large blood vessels. Everywhere was covered with adhesions. Compared to round blades, scalpel blades have a higher precision in dissection, but they also carry a higher risk. First, let¡¯s open the pericardium. The pericardium is a membrane around the heart consisting of a fibrous layer and a serous layer, forming a potential cavity in between. This cavity contains a fluid similar to lubricating oil. This fluid can reduce the friction when the heart beats, just like the oil in an engine. Furthermore, the entire pericardium, especially the fibrous layer, can not only protect the encapsulated heart but also keep the heart in the right position, limiting the heart from excessive expansion. If there is no pericardial restriction, the internal pressure of the heart will rise rapidly during contraction. The heart will expand unrestrictedly and may cause the heart to rupture. Of course, this situation occurs when the heart contracts violently. It¡¯s like putting a balloon in a cloth bag, no matter how much you blow into it, it will not exceed the size of the bag. If there is no constraint from the bag and you keep inflating the balloon, the balloon will burst when it expands to a certain degree. Originally, the pericardium that had positive effects now forms adhesions and narrows, restricting the normal beating of the heart and threatening life. Now Yang Ping has to peel off this pericardial membrane that is restricting the heart. The pericardium must be opened to fully release the vitality of the heart; otherwise, this contracted membrane will strangle the heart. The scalpel is replaced with a round blade again. The blade tip scraped across the pericardium with appropriate depth, just tearing through the membrane without injuring the actual surface of the heart. This knife skill was unbelievable to Professor Li. The fibrous and serous layers of the pericardium had already adhered together to form a hard connective tissue. ¡°Be careful!¡± Unable to restrain his concern, Professor Li voiced his worry. However, it was as if Yang Ping had not heard him. The blade already made a long incision in the heart, successfully in one attempt. The concern of Professor Li was in fact, unnecessary. Because with this cut, every location on the pericardial membrane had been grazed just enough to penetrate it, without injuring the heart beneath it. As the pericardium was opened, the living heart was ready to burst forth. Using a toothless forceps to lift the pericardium, the scalpel nearly touching the surface of the heart, started to dissect around it. Gradually, the membrane that restrained the heart was half-separated, no longer able to restrain the heart. ¡°Leave the rest, it helps to keep the heart in position.¡± Yang Ping put down the scalpel in his hand. If the entire pericardium was peeled off like a boiled egg, the bare heart would roll and collide everywhere inside the chest cavity due to lack of constraint. The blood vessels connected to it would be torn or spasm. All the internal organs of the human body must be properly secured; otherwise, they will be running around. The remaining pathological pericardium can no longer constrain the heart. This allows the heart to contract freely but, compared to a normal heart, there is a risk of rupture when it contracts suddenly and violently. Change the blade! A blade must be changed after each section of the dissection. Because of the worrying quality of these blades, they become blunt in just a few minutes, unable to meet the demands of delicate dissection. The thing that surgeons hate most¡ªa blunt surgical blade! Switching back to the scalpel again, Yang Ping started to dissect along the aorta. The aorta and the chamber vein were adhered and drawn towards the anterior side of the spine and stuck there. An abnormal spine and chest wall resulted in a very narrow chest cavity volume. The blood vessels and organs were almost squeezed together. The large blood vessels meandered like intestines, but because of the adhesions, nothing was clear. Adhering connective tissue drowned everything, making it impossible to tell what was a blood vessel. Underneath the scalpel was just one structure: an adhering connective tissue. The scalpel persevered, and the tortuous ascending aorta slowly revealed itself. Following that, the first major branch of the aorta, the brachiocephalic trunk, began to show its outline under the scalpel. As though the tip of the blade had some sort of special detection ability, a branch of the unnamed artery was separated. Yang Ping had no intention of ligature, but continued to separate until he was satisfied with the length, so that it wouldn¡¯t be a drag on the entire aorta¡¯s reposition. ¡°The workspace is so small; they are squeezed together, they adhere to themselves, and they adhere to everything around them.¡± Professor Li concentrated intently, following Yang Ping¡¯s rhythm, as there was an unknown down every cut, every stroke of the blade left one¡¯s heart in their mouth. This was like running blindly in a minefield! Although the operation was not an intracardiac surgery and everything was done on the outside of the heart, any carelessness could cause the blood vessels to rupture. However, it seemed that Yang Ping knew where to cut in advance. Each time his scalpel descended, whether it was the coordinates of his cuts from left to right, up and down, or their depth, he never made a mistake. This was not how Professor Li had imagined it. He imagined that there should be occasional breaches in blood vessels with blood gushing or spurting out, followed by quick fixes and only then could they proceed. Yet in Doctor Yang¡¯s case, there was nothing like that. Up until now, from the root of the aorta to the brachiocephalic trunk, there had not been a single instance of unexpected bleeding. There were several instances where they thought there might be a spurt of blood, but there wasn¡¯t. Could it be that Doctor Yang had some other advanced imaging device to aid him in conducting these examinations? Impossible. Professor Li looked up and around, everything was normal. ¡ª Family waiting area. The parents of Zheng Baosheng were experiencing bouts of anxiety. This worry for their flesh and blood was uncontrollable. Their son now lay on the operating table and may never wake up. Old Zheng checked his phone from time to time, calculating the time, dreading the surgical door suddenly opening and the doctor somberly saying, ¡°We did our best.¡± Zheng Baosheng¡¯s mother was quietly muttering something, probably praying for divine blessings. This torment was extremely painful. ¡°Old Zheng, do you think our son can make it?¡± Zheng Baosheng¡¯s mother opened her eyes. Old Zheng looked towards the surgical room door, ¡°Our son said, he can make it. He mentioned those whom Doctor Yang had brought back from the verge of death are countless, and he believes he will be one of them.¡± Upon hearing this, her heart found a little comfort. For such situations, really, it was a matter of fate! ¡ª Nurse Qin was now inside the operating room. Since the video was only filming the surgical area, she couldn¡¯t see how the surgical nurse was performing. So, she could only go to the operating room and observe firsthand. The silent cooperation between the chief surgeon and the surgical nurse, that seamless tacit understanding, opened up a new world for Nurse Qin. She had always thought herself to be the best scrub nurse, having trained at the best hospital in China and experienced countless surgeries daily. But she had never seen such a perfectly coordinated operation. Everything was clear and orderly. This kind of clarity and order was natural, not mechanical, rigid, or deliberate. She had once invited Xiao Su to come to 301 for training, but now she realized it should¡¯ve been the other way around. This was the place truly worth learning from. The circulating nurse, a young girl, was handling the operation solo, without any help, yet she was not flustered at all, remaining calm and collected. Everything she did seemed like she had employed mathematical scheduling and achieved optimal order. And the anesthesiologist, calmly sitting at the patient¡¯s head side, was even toying with his phone. Every now and then, he would glance at the monitoring screen before returning to his phone. Perhaps everything was under his control and he didn¡¯t need to worry. The reserve perfusionist who had come from the Thoracic Surgery Department was idle, sitting on one side and glancing around out of boredom. ¡ª ¡°How is it that Yang is so proficient in cardiac surgery?¡± Professor Liang couldn¡¯t help but ask. They had come to observe spinal orthopedics, but ended up watching a heart and large blood vessel operation instead. ¡°I don¡¯t know. He said he will be the principal surgeon for the whole operation, and I thought he was joking.¡± Professor Qin didn¡¯t have the answer either. It could only be explained as a gift of talent. Professor Su remained silent, his gaze fixed on the screen. Although he was a top surgeon for spinal deformities, sometimes cardiac surgeons were needed to deal with heart and lung issues during spinal curvature operations. Thus, he was fully aware of the difficulty of the current operation. They were right to conduct this operation under the auspices of the Surgical Research Institute. It seemed that the ones who truly understood him were Xia Changjiang and Han Jiangong. Professor Su glanced at Professor Qin. Now, Professor Qin was the most determined to recruit Yang Ping to 301. If he really went to 301, his prospects might not be as good as they were at Sanbo. Professor Su had this realization. But some things were beyond ordinary people¡¯s control. Professor Liang had Professor Su on his left and Professor Qin on his right, turning his head to chat with them now and then. ¡°Young people can be pretty scary. Does Yang have a partner?¡± Professor Qin nodded, ¡°Yes, he does.¡± ¡°Where¡¯s the partner from? What¡¯s the situation?¡± Professor Liang asked in detail. ¡°A nurse from the operating room, she¡¯s assisting in the operation right now.¡± Compared to Professor Liang, Professor Qin knew more about Yang Ping¡¯s personal situation. Professor Su glanced sideways, wondering: Asking about a partner? Is he trying to get to the bottom of things? Had the attempt to poach Yang gotten to this stage? Chapter 488 - 488 444 Inserting a Catheter for Oneself ?Chapter 488: Chapter 444 Inserting a Catheter for Oneself Chapter 488: Chapter 444 Inserting a Catheter for Oneself ¡°Qin Peiling is your daughter, isn¡¯t she?¡± Professor Liang suddenly asked, seemingly with some hidden intention. Being confronted with the question, Professor Qin could only nod, ¡°Hmm.¡± The young Miss Peiling had visited once before, and she was bewitched, insisting on observing the surgery this time. Professor Su remained unfazed, his peripheral vision noticing Professor Qin¡¯s slight embarrassment. ¡®Sparing the child to catch the wolf¡¯? Was this his ultimate strategy? Things weren¡¯t this simple. It seemed very intricate; this cunning old fox, Professor Qin. Professor Liang was about to step down from his position as the national chairman of Orthopedics, and the most likely successors were Professors Qin and Su. These two professors represented the competition between the North and the South academically, neither conceded to the other. Upon hearing this information, Director Han was surprised. Nurse Qin, who came along with the 301 Hospital doctors, was actually Professor Qin¡¯s daughter. Professor Qin hadn¡¯t mentioned a word about it. Truth be told, Old Qin¡¯s daughter is both beautiful and tall, she can definitely compete with Xiao Su. Especially last time when she was in her military uniform, she was absolutely dashing. Every movement and gesture of hers was filled with a unique charm. Thinking about it, Old Han chuckled to himself, laughing at his own rich imagination. Director Han suppressed his laughter, sneaking a glance at Professor Su. He was calmly sitting there as if he hadn¡¯t heard anything. ¡ª When it came down to dissecting the Subclavian artery, the aorta began to relax and was no longer twisted. This was a pleasant surprise. It meant that there was hope for this patient, and it was not just a humanitarian effort. Professor Li, acting as an assistant, instantly became excited. He hadn¡¯t held much hope for this patient. The anatomical relations were too messy. Looking for the original anatomical structure in a heap of muddled tissues was a daunting task. The separation continued. The arteries and veins were stuck together; it was unclear which was which. If it wasn¡¯t necessary, it would have been much better to let them stay twisted together like this; the risk of separation was too high. However, this distorted ¡°romance¡± between the arteries and veins was destined to not end well. It would severely affect the functions of the heart, eventually leading to death. It would increase the resistance of the blood being pumped out of the heart, reducing the returned blood. Over time, the heart muscle would become fatigued and exhausted. Then, the only choice left would be to replace the heart with an artificial or allograft heart to sustain life. Unlike the usual scoliosis correction, this surgery was not just for correction, but to save a life. Regardless of how difficult it was, the surgery continued. The sanctity of a doctor¡¯s work came from the fact that they confronted and controlled life. Life and death was separated by an extremely fine line. ¡ª ¡°What¡¯s happening today? Why does he keep going to the bathroom?¡± Zhang Lin had already made several trips to the restroom. It was probably due to the large pot of chicken soup his mother-in-law made for him in the morning. She also added Chinese medicine, like coix seed, which had a diuretic effect. ¡°He has to go on stage later. Should we insert a urinary catheter?¡± Little Five suggested. Zhang Lin shook his head. Regardless of how skilled one is, inserting a urinary catheter could still risk damaging the urothelial membrane. The urothelial membrane was like the rifling of a gun. If it were to be damaged, the urinary stream would scatter, or lose its beautiful trajectory. At times, one has no choice. When one is perfectly healthy, who would willingly insert a urinary catheter and carry around a urine bag for nothing? However, the effects of this chicken soup are estimated to last several hours. If he has to go on stage for surgery, his bladder wouldn¡¯t be able to handle it. This was one thing that surgeons could not tolerate. During a surgery that was a matter of life and death, you were still irritatedly wiggling your buttocks and then claiming that you cannot hold it in and need to go for a pee? However, considering his current urination frequency, he may not get a chance to be on stage. ¡°Let¡¯s do it!¡± Zhang Lin made up his mind. Little Five motioned for help. Zhou Can immediately made time to come over. In a low voice, Little Five asked, ¡°Where is the catheter bag?¡± Nurses were most familiar with the supplies in the operating room. Zhang Lin initially planned to sneakily find a catheter bag and then quietly run to the changing room to insert it so that no one would notice. But now, this rascal Little Five had exposed him. ¡°It¡¯s in the supply room. Why?¡± Zhou Can asked as she looked at Zhang Lin, whose face was puffed up and flushed red. Little Five said, ¡°Director Zhang has frequency urgency of urination. He has to go on stage for surgery later. Help find a suitable catheter bag and insert it.¡± Zhou Can couldn¡¯t help but cover her mouth and chuckle, ¡°Really? Seriously?¡± ¡°Really? Quickly give me a catheter bag, and a pair of sterile gloves!¡± Zhang Lin said in irritation. ¡°What size of catheter?¡± Zhou Can asked. ¡°What size, just grab any!¡± Zhang Lin was impatient. Little Five said seriously, ¡°Are you a first-day doctor? If it¡¯s too big, it won¡¯t go in. If it¡¯s too small, it will leak urine.¡± ¡°How the fuck would I know my catheter size. Have I ever inserted one before?¡± Zhang Lin was slightly angry at Little Five intentionally messing with him. But, Little Five was correct. ¡°Don¡¯t you even know your own size?¡± Little Five laughed at him. ¡°I¡¯ll choose one myself.¡± Zhang Lin immediately blushed and got up to go to the storeroom to find a urinary catheter bag. Zhou Can immediately stopped him, ¡°Do you want me to help you insert it?¡± Little Five told Zhou Can to ignore him, ¡°Let him do it himself. Even if you go, you won¡¯t be able to insert the thinnest one.¡± Zhang Lin left the operating room, went to the storage room, and checked each storage box label. He finally found the catheters and chose one that seemed appropriate. He also took a pair of sterile gloves, a syringe and then slipped off to the men¡¯s changing room. Inserting a catheter into himself, usually it was the nurses who did the catheter insertion. Although doctors knew how to do it, the chance of inserting a urinary catheter was relatively rare. Normally this simple task became quite difficult when done to oneself. Zhang Lin wanted to ask Little Five to come help but was worried about being laughed at. So, he gritted his teeth and prepared to do it himself. After opening the catheter bag, Zhang Lin did the disinfection for himself, then put on gloves, and laid a sheet. He gritted his teeth and inserted it into the urethra. It was a bit painful and couldn¡¯t go in. If he had known beforehand, he would have brought some lidocaine gel for a surface anesthesia before inserting. Upon careful inspection, he had forgotten a step¨Clubricating. Zhang Lin re-coated the catheter with lubricant, and this time it went in smoothly. The catheter was easily inserted, and urine came out. He inflated the balloon, pulled back to secure it, attached the urine bag, and clipped it to his pants. This time, there was no need to worry. He could perform the operation in peace. Zhang Lin returned to the operating room, sat down, and Little Five glanced at the urine bag hanging on his pants and the exposed catheter. ¡°Did you really insert it?¡± ¡°How can one achieve great things without being harsh on oneself? This is the first surgery in the Surgical Research Institute. As a key member of the department, I can¡¯t afford not to participate in Doctor Yang¡¯s golden silver duo operation.¡± ¡°That¡¯s hardcore!¡± Little Five couldn¡¯t help but give a thumbs up. ¡°Not really.¡± Zhang Lin replied nonchalantly. ¡°The size of your catheter isn¡¯t bad, huh? 20?¡± Little Five picked up the catheter to inspect it. ¡°Don¡¯t touch it, it¡¯s thinner than yours, you probably need a 22 catheter.¡± Zhang Lin swatted away Little Five¡¯s hand. Zhang Lin calmly sat in the corner, no longer needing to worry about holding in his urine, feeling a bit relieved. ¡ª The more Professor Li followed Yang Ping, the more confident he became. The separation had reached the subclavian artery, the adhesions of the aorta and the vena cava had been separated, as well as the adhesions around it. Fortunately, the three-layer structure of these blood vessel walls was still intact, otherwise, they would need to implant an artificial blood vessel to prevent the formation of aortic dissection. Yang Ping¡¯s proficiency in anatomy, his familiarity with abnormal anatomy, the calm and composed demeanor during the surgery, all these made Professor Li admire him greatly. Yang Ping¡¯s performance gave Professor Li a sense that he is very proficient in any surgery, well-prepared, and he respected this young doctor. Moving downwards, the aorta and the vena cava were stuck together, and they adhered to the anterior longitudinal ligament of the spine. If it were other surgeons, they would definitely be at a loss. Another scalpel blade was replaced. He had lost count of how many times he had changed his blade. Anyway, the curved tray specifically used to hold blades was already filled with round and pointed scalpels. ¡°Vital signs are stable!¡± Fatty reported to Yang Ping from time to time, his legs crossed and his short trousers seemed even shorter, revealing the lower half of his calf. This was the first time Nurse Qin witnessed a surgery performed by Yang Ping. His composure on the operating table impressed her. In 301, the surgeries she assisted with were all performed by national-class experts, yet they lacked this kind of aura. Yang Ping stood there as if he could control the entire situation. Indeed, Yang Ping often had a peculiar feeling during each surgery, that he could control the world. ¡°Increase the blood pressure a bit more!¡± Yang Ping ordered. The higher the blood pressure, the more distended the aorta will be, which would be more conducive to surgical separation. Fatty decisively pushed some medication through the indwelling pipeline. Soon, the blood pressure rose. There were messy blood vessels growing inside some adhesions, which couldn¡¯t be ligated in advance and had to be cut during separation, followed by double-click electrocoagulation for hemostasis. Crossing over the aortic arch, for Zheng Baosheng¡¯s anatomy, there was no true aortic arch as all the vessels were stacked up together. The tortuous vessels made it hard for the heart to pump blood and it was the reason for his limited survival time without surgery. Although presently young, the remaining normal cells of the myocardium can barely work overload. Gradually, all myocardial cells would fatigue and the entire heart would reach its end stage. By then, there would be no solution other than a heart transplant. ¡°Would you like to take a rest?¡± Yang Ping asked Professor Li. Professor Li¡¯s forehead was covered in sweat. Excessive tension exhausted him. Despite learning not to fear pressure or danger from his mentor, this surgery still left him in a difficult condition. He was merely an assistant at the moment. If he were the chief surgeon, he wouldn¡¯t be able to complete even a third of the procedure, and the patient would die on the operating table. ¡°No, it¡¯s okay!¡± Professor Li moved his head out of the sterile zone, and a patrolling nurse in white gauze helped wipe the sweat from his forehead, preventing it from gathering into beads and falling into the patient¡¯s chest, increasing the chance of infection. Continue! Professor Li was very determined. He couldn¡¯t let his own weakness drag the chief surgeon down. Back in the day, one of his patients died on the operating table. After the surgery, he curled up on a chair in the changing room. His mentor told him, ¡°Drop your empathy, forget about grief. What you have to do is not to grieve, but to learn from failures and avoid making the same mistake again.¡± Right now, he needed to forget the fear and follow Yang Ping¡¯s steps. The aortic arch was already exposed, and the corresponding vena cava was successfully separated from the aorta without any rupture during the separation. From beginning to end, Doctor Yang preserved the entire three-layered wall of blood vessels which was crucial as it determined whether the separated vessels were healthy and whether they would leave dangerous hidden risks behind. The scalpel began to explore downwards. The large blood vessels formed a curved pathway at this point before passing through the diaphragm and into the abdominal cavity, making the anatomy seem dangerous and complex. ¡ª ¡°Can I... help on stage?¡± Nurse Qin asked tentatively during a short break of Yang Ping¡¯s. ¡°Thank you, but there¡¯s no need!¡± Yang Ping declined decisively. There was already an instrument nurse on stage, adding another person would only cause confusion. Sometimes, having more people wouldn¡¯t improve efficiency, but may instead disrupt the inherent rhythm and lower efficiency. Being declined straightforwardly by Yang Ping, Nurse Qin didn¡¯t feel upset. She really wanted to participate in such high-risk and high-difficulty surgeries like Xiao Su. However, after giving it some thought, she realized that stepping up without preparation would only create confusion, and she regretted her previous reckless suggestion. There were already at least two hundred milliliters of urine collected in Zhang Lin¡¯s urine bag, and he decided to change a new one. As he didn¡¯t know when he would be called on stage, he wanted to be prepared. ¡°Zhang Lin?¡± Fatty waved his hand. Zhang Lin reluctantly walked towards Fatty. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Fatty pointed at the urine bag hanging on his pant leg. ¡°I drank a large pot of chicken soup this morning, which probably contained some diuretic Chinese medicine, causing frequent urination and polyuria!¡± Zhang Lin held up the urine bag, as the heavy urine bag was pulling his pants down. Fatty casually said, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you say so earlier? I could have given you a shot to counteract the diuretic effect, it would tide you over for a few hours.¡± ¡°Never mind, the catheter is already in.¡± Zhang Lin knew, once Fatty was done, he would definitely want cigarettes as a bargaining chip. Chapter 489 - 489 445 Shadows of the Past ?Chapter 489: Chapter 445: Shadows of the Past Chapter 489: Chapter 445: Shadows of the Past The aorta and inferior vena cava were separated up to the diaphragm opening. In addition to separating the main trunk, countless branches had to be separated, with the branches separated to a sufficient length, otherwise during spinal correction, the powerful pull would tear the blood vessels, causing the patient¡¯s chest to fill with blood instantaneously. There are too many branches, each with its own branches, and almost all the main branches need to be separated like this. This is detailed work, and there¡¯s no way to speed it up, with Yang Ping meticulously separating the old adhesions one by one with the tip of his scalpel. It requires patience, one cannot be impatient, discouraged, or negligent. In addition to the heart and large blood vessels, the chest cavity also contains the thymus, lungs, trachea, and bronchi. Now that the issue with the heart and large blood vessels has been dealt with, the thymus does not need special treatment, what¡¯s left are the lungs and the trachea to handle. Under the inflating machine, the lungs are expanding and contracting. The current state of the lungs is very good, and they will not be affected during the upcoming spinal correction. Some adhesions were easily dealt with by Yang Ping. However, the trachea and bronchi are not so optimistic and need to be separated carefully like large blood vessels. The trachea and bronchi are behind the heart and large blood vessels. Yang Ping put in two rubber strips, bypassing the aorta and superior vena cava, pulling them aside, then clamped the ends of the rubber strips with large curved forceps, giving them to the second and third assistants who were in charge of exposure. Opening the aorta and superior vena cava revealed a window, and the hidden trachea and bronchi were exposed. If the previous separation of the aorta and superior vena cava hadn¡¯t been done, they wouldn¡¯t be independently formed and wouldn¡¯t be possible to open. The trachea and bronchi couldn¡¯t have been exposed, and without exposure, surgery wouldn¡¯t be possible. Exposure is a prerequisite for surgery. Exposure of the trachea is easier than exposure of blood vessels, because of its ring-shaped fiber cartilage structure, which makes it easier to distinguish from blood vessels and surrounding adhesion tissues. Once the trachea and bronchi are freed, the treatment of the thoracic organs is not over. Organs in the human body must have proper suspension and fixation, otherwise they will pile up due to gravity and movement. Yang Ping had already considered this. During the treatment of adhesions, some suitable for suspension were retained, but there are very few of such adhesions. In order to give these organs good fixation, suspensions must be rebuilt for them at key points. This seems simple, but is extremely complicated. If there is no suspension and fixation, simply, while running, the five to eight meters long intestines will either pile up due to gravity, or twist into knots. But the fact is that this doesn¡¯t happen, whether we¡¯re running or even doing a few somersaults, the organs and intestines remain fixed in their original positions. This is because our organs have a specialized structure to fix them, these fixing structures are membranes, but the fixation can¡¯t be too rigid, it has to give the organs certain room for pulsation or peristalsis. The main blood vessels emanating from the heart run in all directions and have a fixing function, but this is far from enough. The main structure holding the heart in place is the pericardium, so after stripping the pericardium, it should be done just okay, not completely removed, leaving the heart as smooth as an egg. The abdominal organs are fixed to the body wall by the omentum, mesentery, and ligaments. The intestines are wrapped and fixed by the omentum and mesentery, and the liver, gallbladder, pancreas and spleen are also fixed by many ligaments. So, after separating the thoracic organs, the next key step is to recorrect or rebuild their fixation structure, allowing them to stay in their proper places and hold their posts. This is beyond the understanding and operating capabilities of general surgeons. Few operations require such comprehensive consideration. Apart from rebuilding of joint ligaments in sports medicine, rarely has reconstruction of ligaments in internal organs been considered. The majority of ligament structures have been separated by Yang Ping, but because they are contracted, they need to be extended. Very few need to be shortened because they are relaxed, and some ligaments need to be reconstructed. Considering that the healing of the reconstructed ligaments takes time, Zheng Baosheng will be restricted in movement after the operation, he¡¯ll be doing gentle activities on his bed for two weeks, start moving around after two weeks, and cannot engage in sports for three months. Yang Ping began operating on these ligaments and mesenteries again, extending, shortening, or reconstructing them. The removed pericardial tissue was put to use at this time, being recycled and serving as a supplier of reconstruction materials. Only after every ligament had been carefully handled, could the thoracic organs be considered fully treated. It seemed as if they were still squeezed together like before, but this was only a superficial phenomenon. In reality, they¡¯ve already said goodbye to the previous adhesions. Only due to the space limitation, they still have to squeeze together. If the spine were suddenly to regain its normal curve, the entire thorax volume would expand, and these organs would immediately be able to be distributed in the chest cavity, placed in their correct positions, like in a normal person. The diaphragm opening, where the chest and abdominal cavities connect, the aorta, inferior vena cava, and vagus nerve and esophagus all enter the abdominal cavity through their respective gaps. The dome-shaped diaphragm is now also like a collapsed roof, losing its proper shape and full of wrinkles. If these wrinkles aren¡¯t undone, once the spine is corrected and the thoracic volume is restored, they will also be pulled and torn. Like a folded lotus leaf, the diaphragm needs to have its wrinkles opened, allowing it to gain the ability to expand, adapting to a future normal posture. Once the diaphragm is dealt with, it is time to open the abdomen, with a midline incision for the abdomen as well. ¡°Is it the liver and pancreas next?¡± Professor Li was very careful, even holding his breath while speaking. Yang Ping nodded. Going beyond the diaphragm, entering the abdominal cavity, was no longer Professor Li¡¯s area of expertise. ¡°Let¡¯s have Dr. Song do it?¡± Yang Ping thought it would be more suitable to have Song Zimo assist in the next step. In the training of the compound trauma surgery, Song Zimo had already become very familiar with the anatomy of the entire body. In terms of the heart and large blood vessels, Song Zimo was far behind Professor Li Zehui, but when it came to the anatomy of the abdominal cavity, he definitely surpassed Professor Li. It had nothing to do with fame. Being straightforward is the greatest conscientiousness of a doctor. ¡°Dr. Song will assist in the next step after the treatment of the diaphragm is complete, and I will be the second assistant.¡± Professor Li followed the arrangements of the Chief Surgeon. The organs found within the abdominal cavity are much more optimistic than those in the thoracic cavity, as they go through far less transformation. ¡ª A group of esteemed orthopedic surgeons, eager to witness the correction of scoliosis, are now engrossed in watching thoracic surgery. The young man¡¯s familiarity with anatomy, especially during heart and large blood vessel surgery, whether separating adhesions or carrying out suspension fixation, is nothing short of marvelous craftsmanship. With such a firm grasp on anatomy, any surgery in his hands would seem much simpler compared to others. Professor Qin is becoming more and more fond of this young talent. Even if he does not poach him, he is committed to making Sanbo Hospital the 301 hospital¡¯s medical center in the southern region. With the support of the leadership and his own efforts, this endeavour is eighty percent likely to succeed. ¡ª The surgery of the abdominal cavity organs was quickly completed by Yang Ping, which mostly involved the separation of adhesions, and there was no need for fixation. The positions and lengths of the original ligaments did not need correction either. Once the organs in the thoracic and abdominal cavities were taken care of, the main part of the surgery was completed. A seemingly impossible surgery was systematically and successfully carried out by Yang Ping. At this moment, Professor Li felt nothing but admiration. If he hadn¡¯t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn¡¯t have believed that anyone could complete such a procedure or possess such proficiency in human anatomy. ¡°You take a break, I¡¯ll handle closing the chest and abdomen,¡± offered Professor Li, fulfilling his duty as the First Assistant. Yang Ping indeed needed a rest. He left the remaining work to Professor Li and Song Zimo. They began by cleaning the surgical area, then placed drainage tubes and performed layered suturing from the inside out, to close the chest cavity and abdominal cavity. Holes were then drilled into the split sternum and steel wires were used to pull it together and secure it. Next, it was time to correct the scoliosis while the patient was in a prone position. All sterile sheets were removed, the patient was turned over to a prone position, and the area was disinfected and reclothed in fresh sheets. There are strict guidelines for changing the position of the patient on the operating table. These include tasks for several individuals, positioning, responsibilities, and hand gesture guidelines. A head nurse from the Peking Union Medical College Hospital compiled a book called ¡°Safe Surgery Positioning Atlas¡±. This is probably the only professional work in the country that systematically introduces how to position for surgery. In Europe and America, there are specialized positioning technicians in the operating room. They specifically assist patients in adjusting their positions to facilitate the doctors¡¯ comfort during surgery. One should not underestimate the importance of the patient¡¯s surgical position. A good position can make surgery much easier, while poor or incorrect positioning often increases the difficulty of surgery, sometimes making it impossible to complete, and causing complications. This is the difference between crude and refined techniques. If Zhang Lin and Little Five managed to publish ¡°Hooking Techniques in Surgery¡±, it would undoubtedly be a pioneering work that fills a gap in the domestic market and potentially even on the world stage, as they have advanced hooking techniques from rudimentary to sophisticated. The outcome is unimaginable when you take something as simple as an apple falling from a tree and study it academically. ¡ª ¡°Little Five, Zhang Lin, take the stage!¡± After changing the patient¡¯s position, Yang Ping removed his surgical gown and gloves to take a break, while Song Zimo led them to disinfect and expose the area, fixing the pedicle screws in place. Yang Ping returned to the operating table for the osteotomy procedure. ¡°Alright!¡± Zhang Lin, trailing his urine bag, followed Song Zimo out to scrub in. Because he walked too quickly, the urine bag swung back and forth against his thigh. Upon seeing the urine bag hanging from Zhang Lin¡¯s trouser leg, Professor Li immediately understood what was going on. He recalled a time when he was a low-ranking resident, he and a senior resident drank a lot of beer and happened upon an emergency surgery. Professor Li had no choice but to sneak a urine bag onto the operating table where he had a secondary role. The senior resident who had been drinking with him was not as clever. Standing as the First Assistant during the surgery, he could no longer hold his urine, so he had to ask his mentor for permission to urinate! Angered, the mentor let the First Assistant go to urinate, then turned to Professor Li and said, ¡°I¡¯ll remember you. From now on, you will be the First Assistant.¡± A simple urine bag had dramatically changed Professor Li¡¯s standing in the mentor¡¯s eyes. Those who can achieve great things are often the ones who can be harsh on themselves. This young man somehow reminded him of his younger self. Chapter 490 - 490 446 One Step Ahead ?Chapter 490: Chapter 446: One Step Ahead Chapter 490: Chapter 446: One Step Ahead During the mid-surgery break, Yang Ping removed his surgical gown, and Professor Li hurried over to help untie the straps on the back, however, Nurse Xiao Qin beat him to it. After undressing Yang Ping, Nurse Xiao Qin helped to find a stool for him to sit on and rest. Song Zimo returned from washing up with Xu Zhiliang, Little Five and Zhang Lin. They began to sterilize and lay out the new gown. Zhang Lin, still dealing with his urinary bag, followed them onto the stage. For the follow-up orthopedic correction for spinal scoliosis, Song Zimo was responsible for laying the foundational groundwork: cutting, exposing, and implanting the pedicle screws. The osteotomy correction was to be done by Yang Ping. The case was prepared extensively to facilitate learning, Yang Ping had used 3D printing to print not only the model of the spine but also a guide for the placement of the pedicle screws. The guide, much like the sight on a rifle, allowed for faster and more accurate screw placement and reduced the chances of errors. This was Yang Ping¡¯s philosophy ¨C mere mastery of a surgery was not enough; devising ways to simplify the entire process to make it easier for everyone else was what made one a real professional. Like a fighter jet, if it¡¯s designed to be flown by only one pilot in the world with the skill to fly it, the value of that jet becomes greatly diminished. It¡¯s the same for doctors. If only one person can perform a certain surgery, then that surgical technique would eventually be lost as the doctor ages. Song Zimo, carefully following the surgical procedure taught by Yang Ping, inserted all the screws. The x-ray from the C-arm machine showed that the positions of the screws was very satisfactory. Only then did Yang Ping scrub in to join them on stage to perform the osteotomy correction. He instructed Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang on how to carry out the osteotomy and correction. Sometimes, Yang Ping would let Song Zimo do it, allowing him to complete a high-risk osteotomy correction under his supervision. Zhang Lin and Little Five also listened attentively. Even though they hadn¡¯t quite reached the level of leading such a surgery yet, that didn¡¯t stop them from learning now. One¡¯s environment can have a significant and subtle influence. Little Five and Zhang Lin were brimming with confidence and strongly believed in their future as renowned specialists. People who believe in their capabilities and act upon them are much more likely to succeed. ¡°Did you record it?¡± asked Zhang Lin. Little Five replied, ¡°We record every surgery.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s have a good analysis after work this afternoon?¡± ¡°Sure, we need to breakdown the steps first though, or we might not be able to digest it.¡± {¡°Fatty, Zhang looks like a real nerd, doesn¡¯t he?¡± ¡± incorrect coding?} Zhang Lin easily dismissed it: ¡°Fatty, there¡¯s something you don¡¯t understand. Even if a person isn¡¯t a nerd, if they believe and behave as nerds do and persist, they might not be able to get into a top university but they could still attend a decent one.¡± ¡°So, you¡¯re suggesting, if a bad person acts like a good person and pretends to be a good person, then they¡¯re good people?¡± Fatty refuted Zhang Lin¡¯s strange theory. Little Five interjected, ¡°You¡¯re right! If a bad person behaves like a good person and does good things all their life, then that would make them a good person.¡± ¡°Exactly, our confidence remains unshaken. Fatty, we have big plans, we¡¯re planning on publishing our own books.¡± Zhang Lin revealed. Little Five quickly added, ¡°Let¡¯s not get ahead of ourselves, let¡¯s keep this quiet for now.¡± ¡°Will you two keep quiet!¡± Song Zimo was blunt, and the two immediately quieted down. The visceral organs and blood vessels from the anterior side had already been loosened, so the correction now wouldn¡¯t need to worry about the adhesion to the anterior organs and blood vessels. Even if the teaching was occurring alongside the operation, it wouldn¡¯t take up much extra time. The ultrasonic osteotome completed the cutting. The spine was corrected, and the waveform on the induced potential monitor was normal. Attaching the metal rod, then locking the rod-screw system. ¡°Wash out¡ª¡± Yang Ping rotated out of place, left the operating table. Song Zimo filled in his role at the front, leading everyone to start the irrigating and suturing process. Watching as the sterile sheet was lifted at the end, the operation ended. The feeling of achievement sprung up spontaneously for Yang Ping. It provoked thoughts in him; one surgery was just part of a regular day for doctors, but for the patients, it was a once in a lifetime event. Therefore, every operation had to be undertaken with full dedication. Not just to satisfy the wining desire, but also to fulfill the responsibility. ¡°Zheng Baosheng, wake up.¡± Fatty patted Zheng Baosheng¡¯s face, starting the anesthesia recovery process. He inserted a suction tube into the tracheal tube to clean out respiratory secretions. The control of anesthesia dosage was very precise, Zheng Baosheng¡¯s eyes opened slightly, he gave a vague response and then lazily closed his eyes again. Perhaps he couldn¡¯t remember that he just had surgery yet. Only when the secretion in the transparent suction tube had been completely cleared out, with only the sound of empty suction remaining, did Fatty remove the tracheal tube. Afterwards, he used a stethoscope to listen to Zheng Baosheng¡¯s breathing and heartbeat. After organizing the pain relief pump¡¯s hanging belt and lines, Fatty was an expert at pain relief. Not only ensuring the patient¡¯s safety during surgery but also ensuring the relief of postoperative pain. ¡°He can be transferred to a bed now, and be sent back to the ward!¡± Fatty put down his stethoscope and announced loudly. Nurse Qin was very diligent, she put on gloves, helped Xiao Su organize the instruments, and then together they pushed the instrument cart out from the back door of the operating room to the dirty washroom to clean the instruments. Zhou Can tidied up the surgical drapes, called on cleaners from the operating room to start the cleaning process. Yang Ping and Professor Li arrived in the changing room. Professor Li told Yang Ping that he had a charity project in Africa, for which he flew to a Red Cross hospital there to perform surgeries every year. There was currently a peculiar patient there ¨C a six-year-old girl whose heart and blood vessels were not only extensively adhesive but also randomly positioned. Two world-renowned cardiac surgeons had attempted surgery on her, but once they¡¯d opened her chest, they had both given up. These two operations didn¡¯t benefit her at all; rather, they increased the adhesion, making the anatomical relationship of her chest cavity even more complex. As he introduced the case, Professor Li took out his bag from the locker and then picked out a small laptop. He turned it on and pulled out the patient¡¯s case information. Indeed, it was a peculiar case! The entire anatomical relationship was chaotic and completely abnormal. ¡°I¡¯ll look into it when I have time.¡± Yang Ping suddenly remembered that Zheng Baosheng¡¯s parents were still waiting outside. ¡°Good, give me your email. I¡¯ll send it to you, and then we can keep in touch.¡± Professor Li also understood that now was not the right time to discuss the case. Yang Ping quickly went to the entrance of the operating room and told Zheng Baosheng¡¯s parents that the surgery was successful. The old couple was so overjoyed that they kneeled on the ground. Yang Ping helped them up. They didn¡¯t know what else to say and just kept saying thank you without uttering another word. Over the years, the elderly couple¡¯s life revolved around only one major concern ¨C their son¡¯s treatment. Hence, all their energy was focused on it. Professor Li stayed at Sanbo Hospital for several days. He had to rush to Australia, where doctors from the North Shore Hospital were waiting for him to discuss a difficult medical case. Presumably, all the top doctors in the world live like this, perhaps lecturing abroad one day, then performing surgeries in their own operating rooms the next day. ¡°Dr. Yang, I need to catch a plane. We¡¯ll catch up later.¡± After changing his clothes, Professor Li, holding his bag, talked on the phone with Professor Wu while saying goodbye to Yang Ping at the door, indicating that he would leave first. Is he not eating lunch? Yang Ping didn¡¯t think it was appropriate to impede him. Everyone was a doctor, purely engaged in technical work, straightforward in their interactions. If the man was in a hurry, he might have already arranged his schedule to leave immediately after the surgery. ¡ª¡ª The professors in the operating room teaching room have finally fulfilled their wish of observing Yang Ping¡¯s scoliosis correction surgery. Professor Liang, who had not had enough of observing Yang Ping¡¯s scoliosis surgery during the Golden Knife Award, deliberately came from Beijing this time. He had no other intention but to relive the experience. Experiencing it again was a wonderful feeling! Professor Liang stretched his waist and showed a satisfied smile on his face. He had once been unable to help this patient, but now the patient had been saved. As if he had performed the surgery himself, he was delighted. The whole surgery was over, his legs were no longer sore, his back didn¡¯t hurt, he walked with more energy, everything tasted delicious, and everyone looked pleasing. ¡°Director Hu?¡± Professor Liang stretched his back. Professor Hu Guolin immediately came over. Professor Liang said, ¡°What did you apply for last time?¡± ¡°¡ª¡± Before Professor Hu could answer, ¡°I approve!¡± Professor Liang laughed heartily. After observing the surgery, Professor Qin found that he had been here for quite some time. After lunch, he planned to return and immediately called Nurse Xiao Qin to join him for a meal. Nurse Xiao Qin might have been helping in the operating room and didn¡¯t answer the phone at all. ¡°Lost your daughter?¡± Professor Liang watched as Professor Qin called several times, looking anxious. Perhaps what was said touched a nerve, and Professor Qin nodded awkwardly: ¡°She might be busy. Old Liang, when do you plan to go back? Have you booked a flight? Can we go together?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It doesn¡¯t matter if you can¡¯t find your daughter. She will have to leave one day, right? If she really gets lost here, at least she¡¯s lost in the right place.¡± Professor Liang said, laughing heartily. He always liked to joke. Interestingly, Professor Qin and Professor Su were rivals from the south and north, and even their families were somewhat similar. Professor Qin also had a son and a daughter. His son was a doctor at 301, and his daughter was Nurse Xiao Qin. This time with Professor Liang stepping down, the competition between the south and north became fierce. Professor Su and Professor Qin were vying for the position of national orthopedic committee chair, once again competing against each other. Director Han invited everyone to eat, ¡°Professor Qin, don¡¯t worry. Your daughter can¡¯t be lost at Sanbo.¡± At this point, Yang Ping happened to walk in. He had finished his work and wanted to greet his seniors. Since everyone had been watching him, he couldn¡¯t ignore them. Basic social interaction was necessary. While Professor Liang was busy talking with Director Han, Professors Su and Qin almost simultaneously noticed Yang Ping entering and waved to him from a distance. Of course, Yang Ping headed to Professor Su first, he knew the order of priorities. ¡°Xiao Yang, in the future you will carry a lot on your shoulders. Be sure to take care of your health.¡± Professor Su held Yang Ping¡¯s hand, speaking kindly. Professor Qin felt a bit disappointed. He was just about to greet Yang Ping, but Professor Su had taken the initiative. Chapter 491 - 491 447 Thirty Years in East of the River ?Chapter 491: Chapter 447: Thirty Years in East of the River, Thirty Years in West of the River Chapter 491: Chapter 447: Thirty Years in East of the River, Thirty Years in West of the River Professor Qin left Sanbo Hospital with Nurse Xiao Qin. Nurse Xiao Qin said she would be back soon to study with Xiao Su. During these days at Sanbo, Professor Qin discovered that Yang Ping¡¯s talent was far beyond his imagination. Now, bringing Yang Ping into 301 wasn¡¯t only an upper-level instruction; it had also become Professor Qin¡¯s personal ambition, and the aspiration was very intense. In short, Professor Qin had taken a liking to this young man. Whether out of self-interest or public interest, he was in favor of him. Professor Liang informed the laboratory in Guilin, Guangxi, to make time for Yang Ping¡¯s animal experiment on spinal external fixations. Yang Ping planned to take a trip to Guilin, Guangxi, to examine the experimental conditions there as there were many instruments in the future that would require animal tests. Upon receiving the news, Professor Liang immediately notified the people there to prepare for Yang Ping¡¯s visit. ¡ª After the inauguration of the Surgical Research Institute, Yang Ping¡¯s work didn¡¯t change much. He was still tirelessly operating every day, but the scope of the surgeries had expanded. Now he didn¡¯t have to worry about surgical privileges and could exercise his skills freely. Weekends were for resting; no surgeries were performed. On Saturday mornings, all the doctors in the department gathered to review the previous week¡¯s surgeries, discuss the surgeries for the next week, and took the opportunity to further their studies. Sundays were for pure rest, allowing everyone to relax from their constant state of tension, which could easily snap if extended for too long. Yu Shuilian opened a bakery on the first floor of the Tri-Bo Hotel. The pastry chef from Hong Kong kept his promise and often came to teach baking skills to the couple. The first floor of the Tri-Bo Hotel was bustling with a lot of shops. All the hospital¡¯s shops were concentrated here, and the customers were patients and their families. Aside from convenience stores, fruit shops, and catering shops, there were also pharmacies and medical equipment stores such as eyewear shops, hearing aid stores, and prosthetics shops. Essentially, they were businesses revolving around the hospital scene. Some stores were owned by the hospital, some were opened by outsiders. The inspiring story of the ¡°half-man¡± helped the bakery do very well. Out of curiosity or compassion, some people would patronize their business. In the beginning, Yu Shuilian was ill at ease with the strange looks from passersby, but gradually, she completely adapted. It was just another lifestyle. Hermes hadn¡¯t appeared on the overhead bridge for a few months and he didn¡¯t show up for follow-up treatment either. As the spirit of the Wanderers band, Hermes¡¯s departure dealt them a gigantic blow; the new lead singer was clearly unable to hold the stage. At some point, the band disbanded, and the bridge returned to its previous humdrum. What remained were stallholders, people selling protective film for mobile phones, secret recipes, antiques, and ticket touts. Now Hermes reappeared in the ward, with his modish wife in tow. He came for a check-up, considering having the external fixator on his right lower leg removed. Seeing the doctor, Hermes was like a big shot returning home, nonstop handshaking, expressing gratitude to the doctors for preserving his leg. Everywhere he went, he pointed out places, indicating how familiar he was with the place. In fact, it hadn¡¯t been long since he left Sanbo Hospital, only a few months. But Hermes felt as if he had been away for years. The Hermes belt that had been missing from his waist for a long period was back, and it was new. Hermes didn¡¯t use a wheelchair, aided by crutches, he walked very nimbly. Little Five pulled up a chair for him. When Hermes was previously hospitalized, Little Five had been his doctor in charge and had followed up on his case since his discharge. ¡°Sasha, you sit, rest a while.¡± Hermes was exceedingly tender towards his wife. ¡°Sit down, everyone!¡± Little Five pulled up another chair. Hermes sat down, looking around: ¡°The sign outside has changed, but the doctor¡¯s office hasn¡¯t. That skeleton model is still placed there.¡± ¡°You were due for a check-up last month, and according to the schedule, we were supposed to remove the external fixators. But we couldn¡¯t get a hold of you; your phone was unreachable too.¡± Little Five criticized Hermes for his phone always being switched off. ¡°I was in Africa for a few months.¡± Hermes hastily explained. Since he went to Africa, he had been using a different phone, that¡¯s why this one was unreachable. Little Five looked at him: ¡°Old Wang, you¡¯re now rich, making a fortune in Africa?¡± ¡°Getting rich is an overstatement. I got my African mines back, thanks to the country. The gold mine I invested in Africa, regained after it was lost, and my dividend was accurately calculated, a mere ten billion. Small money, not worth mentioning.¡± Hermes chuckled, his shirt shining like silk, he flicked a speck of dust off his sleeve. I had previously heard about his investment in a gold mine in Africa, but then the country went to war, and the gold mine was taken over by anti-government forces and confiscated, directly leading to the loss of a share bonus of over 10 billion, causing a chain reaction and the company went bankrupt. Now that he¡¯s regained control of the mine, it¡¯s like a resurrection. Thirty years on one side of the river, thirty years on the other, don¡¯t belittle Old Wang because he¡¯s broke! Thinking about the time when the company went bankrupt and debt collectors came to the hospital, Hermes, who was forced by life to sing on the overpass, was filled with mixed feelings. Only by experiencing ups and downs can people understand what¡¯s real from what¡¯s fake. Hermes had been in Africa for a few months this time. Not only did he regain the mine, but he also obtained the mining rights to several other mines. It could be said that he found good fortune after a great disaster. His life has begun a second spring. Little Five was left in wonder after hearing Hermes¡¯ story. This material could be used to make a TV series with a little bit of modification. ¡°Dr. Yang has gone to the radiology department. There¡¯s a difficult case there and they want him to review the scans together. I¡¯ll help you with the registration for your scans first. When he comes back, he¡¯ll help you review the films to determine the time for your external fixator removal. Where is your consultation card?¡± Little Five asked him to take out his previous medical card. His wife was looking through her bag for the card, there were too many cards and she couldn¡¯t find it for a while. ¡°Don¡¯t rush, Sasha, take your time!¡± Hermes said gently. Once the card was found, Little Five helped him to order a review of his X-ray films. ¡°Africa is hot, and the medical conditions there are poor. I was worried that this needle hole would get infected. My wife would disinfect it every day with alcohol. Luckily, it was fine.¡± ¡°I even doubted whether the alcohol there had enough concentration.¡± ¡°There was no smell of alcohol.¡± Hermes pulled up his pants to let Little Five check the needle hole. Fortunately, the hole was sealed by a scab, very dry, without any obvious redness or swelling around it, no exudation, no signs of infection, the alcohol in Africa was pretty good. After Hermes reviewed his X-ray films, Yang Ping came back from the radiology department. Seeing Yang Ping, Hermes was very excited. In fact, during his darkest period of life, Hermes felt warmest in the hospital. At that time, without money, Yang Ping asked him not to worry and let him stay in the suite. For several check-ups, Yang Ping helped him save money. When he was singing on the overpass, Yang Ping even talked to the security guard so as not to put him in a difficult situation. Hermes remembered all these. Yang Ping looked at the X-ray film on the lightbox. The newly grown bone tissue of the right tibia not only connected well after the elongation but also had a good shape. The reconstruction of the trabeculae was also good. He advised that the rehabilitation specialist guide Hermes for three to four weeks of training, and then the frame could be removed. ¡°Dr. Yang, let¡¯s find a time to have a gathering, with me as the host. You choose the place.¡± Hermes still spoke as a tycoon. ¡°Okay, coordinate with Little Five.¡± Yang Ping did not reject. ¡°I heard that our hospital has recently set up a foundation. This foundation mainly raises funds for Dr. Yang¡¯s research?¡± Hermes was confident and spirited when he called Sanbo Hospital ¡°our hospital,¡± which showed his deep affection for Sanbo. ¡°Yes, the demand for research funds is huge. Attracting social donations is one way. Whether you are planning to be admitted or getting outpatient treatment, all are possible.¡± Yang Ping turned off the lightbox. ¡°Hospitalization, hospitalization. Is the suite still vacant? If it is, can I stay there? How do I contact this foundation? I want to donate some small money to show support.¡± Hermes rubbed his head, sporting a unique greasy middle-aged hairstyle where the sides are shaved and the top is left long. ¡°The office of the foundation is located in the Administration Building. You can find out by asking there.¡± Little Five guided him. The foundation had an office in the hospital, which was located in the administration building, but it was independent and had no management connection with the hospital. They only borrowed the hospital¡¯s premises for an office. Hermes said he would do it. So he hobbled on his crutch to the Foundation¡¯s office for a look, and by the time he came back, Yang Ping hadn¡¯t finished work yet. ¡°I just went to understand the donation procedure. I originally wanted to be the first to donate, but someone beat me to it. Anning Group donated one billion, and I heard the money is already in the account.¡± Hermes looked a bit disappointed. Being beaten to the first by President Ning from Anning Group, Hermes admitted defeat. What kind of enterprise was that group, a monstrous behemoth! ¡°Anning Group? Ning Qi¡¯s Anning Group?¡± Yang Ping was surprised. It was so quick, the foundation wasn¡¯t open for long. ¡°Apart from the Ning Family, is there a second Anning Group?¡± Hermes laughed. ¡°This young female president is a formidable role in the business world. Now, under her leadership, Anning Group is undergoing drastic reforms and the business is steadily rising.¡± As a businessman, Hermes admired Anning Group extensively. After talking with Yang Ping, Hermes went to see the little girl, Sisi. She was such a well-behaved girl. When he was singing on the overpass, she even brought two thousand yuan to donate to him. He was curious about her condition and felt sorry for her. Chapter 492 - 492 448 Animal Experiment Base ?Chapter 492: Chapter 448: Animal Experiment Base Chapter 492: Chapter 448: Animal Experiment Base Hermes was once again hospitalised, his leg was saved, and after three to four weeks of rehabilitation training, the external fixation frame could be removed, thus concluding the entire treatment. At the behest of Yang Ping, Huang Jiacai began to strategize. He already had a well-established plan in mind. First, he set up a development limited company in the name of Yang Ping, which was essentially an investment firm focusing on pharmaceutical industry investments. The plan was to use this investment company to gain control over Ruixing, and to control many more companies in the future. In the company, Yang Ping held ninety percent of the shares, Xiao Su held ten, and the registered capital was one hundred million. Huang Jiacai appointed himself as the CEO and legal representative, becoming Yang Ping¡¯s agent and assisting him in handling business matters. Huang Jiacai was high-spirited, with a grand blueprint in his heart that he sought to steadily realize. After the surgery on Li Baosheng, other surgeries did not need Yang Ping¡¯s involvement for the time being as Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang could handle them. As for high-difficulty surgeries, Xu Zhiliang was not quite ready for them, but he was perfectly capable of independently performing general surgeries and could do them beautifully. Thus, Song Zimo¡¯s workload was significantly lightened, allowing him to concentrate on performing challenging surgeries. When he had some time, Yang Ping took a trip to Guilin, Guangxi to inspect the Xiehe Hospital¡¯s laboratory there. Yang Ping needed to have a thorough understanding of the Guilin lab in order to design an animal experiment plan based on the lab¡¯s conditions. Traveling from Nandu to Guilin, Guangxi was very convenient. The high-speed rail only took about three hours, not much different from taking a plane. Besides, he could also enter the system space lab to read and conduct experiments on the way. Upon arriving in Guilin, Director He of the lab came to pick up Yang Ping with a driver in a Haval H9. The lab was located in the Yanshan District of Guilin. There was an experimental monkey breeding base here. Xiehe Hospital set up the lab here to conveniently acquire experimental monkeys. ¡°Professor Liang called me a few days ago and repeatedly instructed me to ensure good reception,¡± said Director He enthusiastically when he met Yang Ping at the high-speed rail station, shaking his hand and even insisting on carrying his bag. Old He was the director of the lab. He used to work in the animal department of Guangxi Medical University. After the establishment of this lab, he applied to work here. This lab didn¡¯t have a standard system, but the salary was much higher and the work was interesting, which met Old He¡¯s life expectations. Before he changed jobs, he had found out that this lab was established by Xiehe Hospital and planned to exist for the long term. Therefore, he quit his original job and joined this lab. Director He was a veterinary science graduate student. He loved animals and was always researching. He was an expert in experimental animals. He was familiar with the purchase, breeding, and caretaking of experimental animals, and was also familiar with the production of most medical models currently. In addition to Director He, there were about a dozen other permanent staff members in the lab. Plus the rotating researchers, there were usually two or three dozen people working in the lab. The rotating staff consisted of employees from Xiehe Hospital and Hong Kong, and occasionally foreign researchers came over. They usually stayed less than three months. On the way, Old He explained the situation of the lab. They drove in the Haval car for what seemed like a long while before stopping in a yard in front of several small buildings. There was an open-air parking lot with a shed that could fit at least ten cars in the standard parking spaces that had all been marked out. As Old He opened the car door, Yang Ping got out of the car. The several small buildings were beautifully built, all three stories high. The yard was large, and the trees inside were tall and big. ¡°The first building over there is offices and dormitories, the second is the lab, and the last is the breeding site for experimental animals,¡± Director He pointed to the distance. The third building was quite far away, located on an artificial island surrounded by wide and deep trenches. To get there, one had to cross a bridge which had a locked iron gate on it. ¡°The young monkeys you ordered are prepared. The models for scoliosis are also ready. It¡¯s hard to get a monkey for experimentation now. The people in charge of supply are my classmates. I¡¯ve told them that under any circumstances, we have to guarantee supply on our end. They didn¡¯t complain, but indeed, there¡¯s a shortage of experimental monkeys. The last time a company from the United States ordered one thousand five hundred of them, they had to refuse because they could not deliver,¡± explained Director He, who was familiar with several large-scale experimental animal breeding grounds in Guangxi. Darwin said that humans evolved from monkeys, so monkeys are highly similar to humans in terms of genetics, anatomy, immune system, physiology, and metabolism. Therefore, it is very suitable to use monkeys for pharmaceutical and biological research experiments. Especially in the pharmaceutical industry, the reliance on monkeys is evident. Every type of drug has side effects, but what are they? Are they carcinogenic, pathogenic, teratogenic, toxic, mutagenic, disable causing, or even lethal? The best way to get data before applying a drug to humans is to acquire it from monkey experiments. However, not all monkeys are suitable for experiments. To become an experimental monkey, various conditions need to be met. Currently, the frequently used monkeys are Rhesus monkeys and Crab-eating macaques. These two types of monkeys are anatomically and physiologically closer to humans, and are currently the most favoured medical experimental animals. In Europe, raising a cotton monkey would cost about 3,800 euros, while a larger macaque would cost 15,000 euros. However, in China, raising a macaque suitable for pharmaceutical experiments only costs 8,000 RMB. The low cost of experimental monkeys in China determines a lower price, which is a huge temptation for foreign research institutions and pharmaceutical companies. Such a monkey that costs 8,000 RMB can be sold at market price for 12,000 RMB, yielding a gross profit of 50%. With such high profits, naturally, people are willing to earn money from monkeys, and as such, many ¡°monkey farming¡± bases have emerged in the country. Places like Guangxi and Hainan are regions where monkey farming bases are concentrated. The raising of experimental monkeys also requires professional knowledge. As monkeys for scientific research, not only do they need to be physically healthy, but also psychologically healthy. Therefore, their breeding conditions are very good. ¡°Now our lab is making profits. Not only can we meet our own experimental needs, we can also make money. In our spare time, we rent out part of the lab to some biomedical research and development institutions to perform drug and toxicity experiments. We charge by day, and a project fee can be as low as several hundred thousand or as much as several million,¡± said Director He radiantly. ¡°We¡¯ll have lunch in the cafeteria. There¡¯s a pig farm nearby, the owner is a good friend of mine, I asked him to help buy some fresh meat and pig offal from the slaughterhouse. It will arrive soon, and once the ingredients arrive, the dishes will be made right away.¡± According to Old He, around tens of people usually have meals in the lab, and the chef in the cafeteria was his wife. Afterwards, Old He took Yang Ping on a tour of the lab. The lab was not only well-equipped, but also very advanced. There was a surgery room where the surgery anesthesia equipment was very sophisticated, and they even had extracorporeal circulation equipment, which meant that they could simulate heart surgery. ¡°For the scoliosis models that we urgently need, they usually remove the Erector Spinae muscle to create them. Professor Liang said that such models are not suitable for your experiments. Hence, we eliminated all such monkeys and only prepared monkeys with scoliosis caused by embryonic drug teratogenesis, thus preserving the entire soft tissue structure of the spine,¡± explained Director He very professionally. People who are interested in their work and have a sense of professional honor, will certainly do a good job. ¡°Our suppliers are quite proficient in creating models of other diseases, such as models for Parkinson¡¯s disease, diabetes, obesity, middle cerebral artery occlusion, hypertension in monkeys, and renal dysfunction. They also have experimental monkeys carrying specific genes for creating special models for diseases like AIDS. But for scoliosis models, they are not very familiar, and I often have to guide them. The method I use to create scoliosis models was taught by Professor Liang,¡± said Old He enthusiastically. He seemed invigorated when talking about experimental animals. The business of experimental animals is very specialized. These disease models have to mimic human diseases in monkeys either by special breeding or injection, in order to study related drugs. The specific methods involve a high level of technical skill. Creating a model with drugs involves calculating the right timing, selection, and dosage. The creation of a high-quality disease model is not an easy task. After visiting the laboratory, Old He guided Yang Ping around the campus which could be developed into tourist attractions with a bit of improvement. A considerable investment was made in the laboratory. The Animal Island, the isolation rivers surrounding it, and the animal rests are all outstandingly designed. The animal rest area provides swings, slides, seesaws, wooden houses, and more for the monkeys to play. Around noon, Old He receives a call. The fresh ingredients had arrived, provided by the manager of the pig farm he entrusted. He instructed the driver to fetch them promptly and told him to turn on the air conditioning in the driving cabin. As soon as he gets the ingredients, he should hand them over to the kitchen immediately. The freshness of pork offal is specifically important for the taste. The driver in the Haval car set off again. Surprisingly the roads were quite convenient here, and they were paved with concrete, much wider than rural roads, standard two-lane roads. Yang Ping felt at ease with the conditions of the lab, and after this visit, he felt reassured enough to hand over many animal experiments to them in the future. On the technical aspect, there was nothing to worry about. Old He and his staff were very professional. The actual research was conducted by the graduates from Xiehe, so there was no issue at all. Several young people returned in a pickup truck. Old He said, ¡°These are PhDs from Xiehe. They like to have fun, often go fishing in their spare time. Today, since you¡¯re here, I had them catch some fish. I wonder what their haul was.¡± The young people parked the truck and took a big tub out of the pickup bed. ¡°Let me see... very good.¡± Old He and Yang Ping walked over. There were several big fish in the tub, splashing water around. ¡°Take them to the kitchen,¡± Old He ordered. ¡°And this is Dr. Yang!¡± Old He remembered to introduce him. Several young people immediately greeted him respectfully. They seemed to know about Yang Ping¡¯s circumstances already and appeared somewhat constrained since he was personally recommended by Professor Liang. ¡°Did you buy all the drinks? Beer, can¡¯t be short of beer,¡± Old He commanded, showing a good rapport with these young individuals. ¡°This car is so dirty, go get it washed,¡± Old He said, revealing his affectionate side. The young people drove the car aside, picked up a hosepipe, and started to wash the car. ¡°You see, when it¡¯s time for the experiment, just tell me what you need,¡± Old He said to Yang Ping after showing him around. Each experimental project has its specific requirements, and Old He needed to prepare in advance. ¡°If we usually use monkeys for spinal surgery, do you have any spinal surgery position frames to fix the monkey¡¯s spine?¡± Yang Ping asked, as he noticed this was missing earlier. ¡°Yes! We have several in the warehouse,¡± Old He was well-acquainted with the equipment. ¡°That¡¯s good. Our spinal external fixation frame experiment model has not yet come out of the factory. Once it does, I¡¯ll contact you and have it couriered over. We will perform the fixation placement surgery. You guys need to help adjust daily,¡± Yang Ping explained the division of labor simply. Old He responded, ¡°Hmm, I¡¯ve scheduled some time in the afternoon for you to lecture. The few doctors from Xiehe will be specifically responsible for your project.¡± From the kitchen, Old He¡¯s wife sent someone to ask him for help. ¡°You go and see, I¡¯ll wander around by myself,¡± Yang Ping offered, and he walked around the lab complex. Several doctors came over to chat. Chapter 493 - 493 449 Everyone is Happy ?Chapter 493: Chapter 449: Everyone is Happy Chapter 493: Chapter 449: Everyone is Happy Yang Ping had gone to Guilin to inspect the laboratory, and Huang Jiacai had already rushed to Shanghai, discussing the acquisition of Ruixing on behalf of Yang Ping. Ruixing Company is currently in complete disarray, and their lawsuit is undoubtedly lost. Infringing on others¡¯ patents for imitation is a matter where everything is fine until trouble is caused by the other party, and then the only solution is to pay up. These international giants are well versed in this, and they have already collected a lot of evidence before the lawyers arrived. Almost every move of Ruixing is under their surveillance, and it is said that there are several boxes of evidence. The other party had applied to the court for asset preservation, this move caught the top of Ruixing off guard, they couldn¡¯t even raise some money to escape. Ruixing, from top to bottom, is full of unease, their previous dreams are all but shattered. Going public, waiting for the right time, and then cashing out, all would have been very satisfactory. But now, let alone making money, they have lost every penny of their capital. Huang Jiacai hurried to Shanghai, rushing to the company headquarters, the first person he met was President Wang. President Wang was the guide for Huang Jiacai¡¯s career, he owed him a favor. When Huang Jiacai knocked on the door and entered, President Wang was sitting in the office, smoking with a worried face, there were already a lot of cigarette butts piled up in the ashtray. Seeing Huang Jiacai, President Wang had a look of guilt: ¡°Jiacai, sit down, you know about the company. I truly regret it. I didn¡¯t heed your advice, I didn¡¯t prepare early, I was concentrated on going public.¡± It¡¯s not President Wang¡¯s fault actually, he didn¡¯t have much say in the matters, the say was in President Wei¡¯s hands. Huang Jiacai sat down, and President Wang said: ¡°Over the years you¡¯ve been with me, your performance has been obvious to all. I promise I won¡¯t treat you badly, no matter what. I will personally compensate you a sum of money. Make plans as soon as possible, the company¡¯s products have been banned from sale, and a huge fine will be imposed soon, the company has nowhere to go.¡± Huang Jiacai was brought into Ruixing by President Wang, who promised Huang Jiacai that he would reward stocks if he worked well. But now, let alone stocks, even normal wages cannot be paid. All of Ruixing, from top to bottom, everyone is trying to find a way to escape. Looking at the despondent President Wang, Huang Jiacai didn¡¯t rush: ¡°With things as they are, there is not much we can do, but it¡¯s not the end of the road yet.¡± ¡°You say ¡ª there¡¯s hope?¡± President Wang put out his cigarette and looked up. In President Wang¡¯s eyes, Huang Jiacai has always been resourceful. By saying this, was he implying there was yet another way to revive the dying company? ¡°I wouldn¡¯t go as far as saying there¡¯s hope, but it¡¯s possible to reduce everyone¡¯s losses so that they don¡¯t lose everything.¡± Huang Jiacai took a sip of water and said slowly. ¡°What¡¯s the method? Tell me?¡± President Wang saw a glimmer of light in his despair. ¡°Being acquired.¡± Huang Jiacai said decisively. ¡°Who would dare to acquire us at this time¡ª¡± President Wang was deflated, thinking Huang Jiacai had some good plan, but this was what he had to offer. In the current situation, you¡¯d have to be a fool to acquire Ruixing. ¡°What if there is?¡± Huang Jiacai said with a smile. ¡°Impossible! Who would willingly embrace a grenade with its pin pulled out? Spend money to acquire it and then wait for the fine? Wait for the company to collapse?¡± President Wang shook his head, having spent so many years in the business world, he had never seen such a fool. ¡°President Wang, I came to the company headquarters not to ask for any money, but to help the company, to help everyone out of this situation. If someone is willing to acquire the company, take over all this trouble, and give you a lump sum of money to let you go, would you agree?¡± Huang Jiacai got straight to the point without beating around the bush. ¡°Ha ha¡ª¡± President Wang laughed a few times in an abnormal manner, then nearly went into tears saying: ¡°Brother, your consolation method is too childish, but I still thank you for your good intentions, is there such a fool in this world?¡± Huang Jiacai ignored President Wang¡¯s breakdown, and continued: ¡°Now there is a company, run by my friend, no matter the reason, be it foolishness or sentiment, he wants to acquire Ruixing. In other words, he gives you a sum of money, you leave Ruixing, and Ruixing with all its problems is given to him, how about it?¡± Huang Jiacai asked very seriously. It was then that President Wang realized that Huang Jiacai was not joking, but was serious. ¡°Are you telling the truth?¡± President Wang stared at Huang Jiacai. Huang Jiacai remained calm and assured: ¡°Absolutely, I¡¯m here today on behalf of a friend to formally discuss this matter. President Wang, we have known each other for over a decade, sharing both joys and sorrows. I say truthfully that my friend, Dr. Yang Ping, is willing to purchase. This is a win-win situation. For you, getting cash at this time is an opportunity that is hard to come by. As for Dr. Yang, he¡¯s fully aware of the potential difficulties that may come after taking over, but he¡¯s willing. It¡¯s a fair trade.¡± President Wang took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair: ¡°Jiacai, if you can really make this happen, it would be doing us a huge favor. Now, which of the shareholders isn¡¯t on edge? President Wei is still at the hospital getting infusions.¡± Despite his longstanding friendship with President Wang, Huang Jiacai knew better than to reveal all his cards to the straightforward man. Once his bottom line was disclosed and if President Wang were to accidentally share them, the deal would become very complicated. Now was the best time to act, and they could not afford to miss this opportunity. ¡°We need to act decisively while Dr. Yang is still interested. Once we miss this chance, it might be gone forever. You should speak with President Wei now and hold a shareholders¡¯ meeting. This matter needs to be kept confidential. If it gets out, our rivals could sabotage us and ruin everything.¡± In business, it was always a battlefield, trust no one. At this moment, Huang Jiacai couldn¡¯t reveal his real intentions to anyone. ¡°Okay, given our more than a decade of friendship, I trust you. I¡¯ll go deal with it now, you wait here.¡± President Wang placed absolute trust in Huang Jiacai. He clearly understood the relationship between Dr. Yang of Sanbo Hospital and Huang Jiacai. As for how Dr. Yang has so much money, it was none of his business. Huang Jiacai wouldn¡¯t betray them. Given the current circumstances, a real acquisition could be their saving grace. Huang Jiacai waited in President Wang¡¯s office. He felt that Johnson & Johnson wouldn¡¯t act until the court handed down a judgment. To acquire at the right price requires seizing the opportunity before an opening disappears. Losing this gap would mean confronting Johnson & Johnson head-on. Ruixing already had a strong brand and sales channels. However, under the control of President Wei, it was destined to be a tool of giants to constrain domestic medical device firms. He had also thought about what to do with President Wang. Despite his gratitude towards Huang Jiacai, he eventually concluded that President Wang was not the type to achieve great things. He could only compensate him as much as possible financially. Upon hearing someone wanted to buy the company despite the imminent crisis, President Wei immediately pulled out his intravenous catheter and rushed to the company, not even having time to sit down properly. ¡°Jiacai, tell me the truth, how much are they offering?¡± President Wei cut right to the chase. Over his years in business, he¡¯d picked up some strategy. He didn¡¯t care about others¡¯ motivations, as long as there was hard cash on the table, he could walk away from it all happily. ¡°120 million RMB, all at once.¡± Huang Jiacai responded without hesitation. President Wei was a bit troubled. This seemed a bit low. Ruixing was valued at at least one billion. However, times were different now. The compensation that Ruixing faced was uncertain but it would undoubtedly be substantial. Not to mention several hundred million, even tens of millions are required. All products were to be withdrawn from sale, and Ruixing would not have any products to sell for at least a year. If the company was to be maintained, the net loss would be over a hundred million each year. The more than ten million RMB frozen in their accounts was not even enough for compensation. Under current circumstances, seeking investments was out of the question. If they could get 120 million RMB in cash, get up and leave without a care, he could gain at least fifty million and the other shareholders could also get tens of millions. Compared to losing everything and all those unresolved lawsuits, this was a thousand times better. ¡°Ah Huang, you know our company Ruixing was valued at over one billion before, so this seems a bit low.¡± President Wei said straightforwardly. Huang Jiacai sighed, ¡°President Wei, I know, but that was when we were on the rise. Now things have changed. Under the current situation, who else besides Dr. Yang would be willing to inject hundreds of millions to take over a mess? Ruixing cannot delay for a day, you are aware of that. Whoever accepts to take over Ruixing is really taking on a pile of debts. You may want to look into it, President Wei, to see if there are other companies willing to take it over. Dr. Yang doesn¡¯t want to see Ruixing collapse and he plans to venture into the medical device field. This is an opportunity for him to start a business by acquisition. You know, for a medical device company, it takes years to get a license approved. Dr. Yang doesn¡¯t want to wait, he wants to buy a company now. That¡¯s why he has this idea. We can¡¯t solve Ruixing¡¯s dilemma and can only wait for life or death. Who knows, maybe Dr. Yang has the ability to solve it? Yang¡¯s money is also hard-earned. Let me see if I can negotiate a higher price, although I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯ll be successful. Even though we¡¯re friends and he trusts me, business is business, he may not listen to me.¡± ¡°Jiacai, given the current situation, it¡¯d be great if we could get a bit more. Once the deal is done, President Wei will not shortchange you.¡± President Wang offered from the side. Truthfully, as a shareholder, selling the company and walking away with the money would be the best route. Not to mention, those investment companies who demand money could force President Wei into a tough spot. Due to an agreement written in black and white, regardless of how much these lawsuits may cost or even the delay in listing, the investment companies would turn hostile immediately if the money couldn¡¯t be collected. ¡°The two Presidents, how about this? I¡¯ll fight for a little bit more for you, I¡¯m not sure how much, but every little bit counts. Think about it, once the company is sold, you¡¯ll get the money, and other shareholders will also get their share. They¡¯ll not only get back their capital but also make a profit. Although it¡¯s not as intense as going public, you¡¯re at least not losing money. This is a win for everyone. Otherwise, not to mention the headache from the lawsuits, you wouldn¡¯t even be able to pass the hurdle on the investor¡¯s side.¡± Huang Jiacai drove home the point to President Wei. Failure in gambling agreements had driven bosses to leap from buildings. Investors only saw money. They treated you like their own father, because you were able to make money for them, or because they believed you would make money for them in the future. Once they saw no profit, or hope of turning a profit, they would immediately turn against you and acknowledge no kinship. ¡°President Wei, I am a Ruixing person and still working at Ruixing. I am fond of Ruixing, that¡¯s why I hope someone can save it. But it¡¯s different for Dr. Yang ¨C he has several companies in mind. If I were you, I wouldn¡¯t hesitate too much, take the money and leave. If you drag things out, many things could arise.¡± Huang Jiacai reminded. President Wei felt a mess inside, but he had a basic judgment about this matter. Firstly, this transaction wouldn¡¯t result in loss. It would be better to walk away with the money, rather than face a ticking time bomb. This was a bomb guaranteed to explode, with his destruction certain. Secondly, this deal wouldn¡¯t be a scam. With Huang Jiacai speaking, it was basically true. Even if he wanted to deceive him, he wouldn¡¯t deceive President Wang. Lastly, he would see the contract. If there was no problem with the contract, he would sign it, take the money, and everything would be great. ¡°Jiacai, you go and talk again, see if you can go a little higher, no matter how much, just as high as possible. It will be easier for me to explain to everyone.¡± President Wei had already decided to sell Ruixing. Huang Jiacai was also well-prepared. At most two hundred million, not a penny more. This was a win-win situation. For him to take over Ruixing was better than for Johnson & Johnson to acquire it. Besides, once Ruixing was in his hands, he would be capable of providing more compensation to President Wang in the future. If Johnson & Johnson were to appear to acquire Ruixing in the future, they would surely conspire with surname Wei. At that time, President Wang wouldn¡¯t have any say in it and wouldn¡¯t be able to get any benefits. Chapter 494 - 494 450 Mirror Man ?Chapter 494: Chapter 450: Mirror Man Chapter 494: Chapter 450: Mirror Man Upon returning from Guilin, Yang Ping had yet to receive news from Huang Jiacai. However, he was not concerned about these matters, as business matters were not his forte and he did not want to interfere. What he worried about was when the external spinal fixation frame product would be released. Things were more challenging in reality than in the System Space. In the System Space, if an item was on sale in the points mall, one could get it instantly with a mere thought and deduction of points. Things were not so complicated there. Hence, all required materials could be readily obtained for experimenting in the System Space. The fruits of research from the System Space Laboratory required exhaustive efforts to be realized in the actual world. The day after Yang Ping returned to Sanbo Hospital, The Bao family made a special apology. A ceremony was held where Mr and Mrs Bao Yulou, leading their son, bowed and apologized to Yang Ping in front of everyone present. Bao Junhao read the letter of apology aloud. Among those at the ceremony, some were reporters invited by Bao Yulou himself. He indeed showed utmost sincerity this time. This was unprecedented in not just the history of Sanbo Hospital, but all hospitals across the country. All traces of arrogance disappeared from the faces of both Bao Junhao and his eccentric mother. The promised donation by Bao Yulou had also been received. Donated was the exact amount of 30 million yuan. This relieved the doctors at Sanbo Hospital, particularly the young doctors responsible for patient management. In the future, they would no longer have to worry about patients sneaking out without paying their medical bills. Regardless if they were sincere, at least they seemed to be. Yang Ping felt there was no point in dwelling on it. He didn¡¯t have time to tie himself up for this trivial matter. Since they had admitted their mistake, Yang Ping agreed to operate on Bao Junhao. Hermes donated 60 million yuan to Sanbo¡¯s Research Fund. Old Wang, just climbing out of a crisis with a capital of over a billion yuan, donated 60 million in one go, demonstrating his extravagance. He needed the money for various expenses. Guo Jingyao from Malaysia often messaged Yang Ping through Ning Qi, desiring to visit him in China as a token of gratitude for saving his life. Since Yang Ping was occupied with the Golden Knife Award that time, he didn¡¯t have the time. But when Ning Qi booked an appointment for Mr. Guo recently, Yang Ping finally agreed. After Boss Cheng¡¯s hospital achieved an JCI accreditation, it signed a cooperative agreement with many international insurance companies. Thus, patients with medical insurance from these companies could undergo treatment and surgery in Boss Cheng¡¯s hospital, and these international insurance companies would accept it. For some high-end insurance, a direct report system was established. Patients didn¡¯t need to pay from their own pockets when hospitalized. They could settle the bill with the hospital and insurance company after discharge. This led to a rapid increase of patients in Boss Cheng¡¯s hospital. During this time, Boss Cheng ruminated over the words Huang Jiacai left him. ¡°Would you like to be a grocery store boss or Alibaba¡¯s second boss?¡± ¡°To give up is to get.¡± This philosophical multiple-choice question influenced Boss Cheng¡¯s final decision to opt for the latter choice. He decided to let his hospital be associated with Yang Ping¡¯s investment company, which meant giving part of its shares to Yang Ping¡¯s investment company. The company would hold the shares while Boss Cheng would only possess a part of them. In this way, Liquan Hospital could ride on the coattails of Yang Ping. As for the management, Boss Cheng would still be responsible for it. ¡ª In his office, Yang Ping remembered the case Professor Li Zehui left with him ¨C a child he had encountered in Africa. Yang Ping turned on his computer, downloaded the case data from the email, and then opened it for reading. Images were displayed on a dedicated electronic screen. Mirror Man! A rare Mirror Man! All the organs in the thoracic and abdominal cavities are reversed. The heart is on the right and the liver is on the left. The stomach and spleen are on the right. Not only are they left-right reversed, but they are also front-back reversed. The heart and major blood vessels had severe abnormalities. There was a ventricular septal defect, an overriding aorta, stenosis of the pulmonary artery, and hypertrophy of the right ventricle. Severe Tetralogy of Fallot! There was also a tumor in the left ventricle. A Mirror Man with severe Tetralogy of Fallot! Also with an intracardiac tumor! The child had already undergone two surgeries, and the internal anatomical structure was a blur. Such a strange case, no wonder Professor Li Zehui was not hasty to operate. This operation was practically a transformation of the entire heart and blood vessels. Even top heart professors from the Cleveland Medical Center would be helpless. It was like remodeling an entire house, not just patching up parts. The remodeling couldn¡¯t cause the house to collapse. X-ray films, 3D CT reconstruction, echocardiogram and so on, each image was displayed on the screen one by one. After viewing, he went through them again, repeating many times. Severe Tetralogy of Fallot, hardly anyone dared to operate on such a case, let alone on a Mirror Man who had already undergone two surgeries. This case needs some thorough research before I can respond to Professor Li Zehui. Yang Ping enters the system space, checks his points. The experiments being carried out are increasingly consuming points, leaving less and less for clinical case simulations. He needs to be careful and meticulous to ensure the healthy accumulation of points. Someone knocks on the office door. Yang Ping tells him to come in. It¡¯s Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. Looking at the image on the screen, Song Zimo asks, ¡°Is the image reversed?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s not reversed!¡± Yang Ping tells them. Song Zimo stares for several minutes, tentatively asking, ¡°Mirror Man? Severe Tetralogy of Fallot? Left ventricular tumor?¡± ¡°A child from Africa, Professor Li Zehui¡¯s patient. Two international peers have performed surgery on her, but the operations were unsuccessful and resulted in ¡®switch¡¯ surgery. The two surgeries not only failed to solve the problem, but also left adhesions, making the internal anatomy a chaotic mess, a tragic sight.¡± Yang Ping said unhurriedly. ¡®Switch¡¯ surgery refers to an operation where the patient is cut open but the substantive problem is not resolved, so the incision is simply sutured back together. ¡°Our current cardiac surgeries are only related to scoliosis. This case must be very difficult.¡± Xu Zhiliang, who had less academic exposure than Song Zimo and had spent less time with Yang Ping, said. Song Zimo pats Xia Zhiliang on the shoulder, ¡°As long as it¡¯s a surgery and if Dr. Yang is willing to do it, it seems that there¡¯s none he can¡¯t handle. At least that¡¯s the conclusion I¡¯ve resulted to through the process of induction.¡± Song Zimo has recorded all of Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries, none of which have failed yet. He initially thought that the guy was bragging, but every boast has been realized. Although induction is not always absolutely reliable, there have been no exceptions so far. ¡°Severe Tetralogy of Fallot, there¡¯s no chance for surgery, only mild cases have the possibility of surgery.¡± Xu Zhiliang said softly. Theoretically that¡¯s correct, but for Yang Ping, common sense can¡¯t be used to judge. ¡°Bro, it seems that you haven¡¯t fully adapted yet. You need to change your thinking quickly. When are you going to Africa?¡± Song Zimo couldn¡¯t help asking. Seeing his anxious expression, Yang Ping laughed, ¡°Professor Li is only discussing the case with me, he didn¡¯t say anything about inviting me to perform surgery in Africa.¡± ¡°For this kind of surgery, Dr. Yang has to be the one to perform it. Besides you, who else could do it? Who?¡± Song Zimo asked deliberately. Yang Ping was unimpressed by his flattery, ¡°Has the sign for the Surgical Research Institute just been hung up?¡± ¡°Performing a surgery for scoliosis and managing a large blood vessel surgery was also a recent event.¡± Song Zimo retorted, not willing to lose out. ¡°I don¡¯t know if this child is still alive or not.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t flinch. Patients with these conditions generally do not survive into adulthood, some even die in infancy, some can hold on for a few years, but the chance of surviving into adulthood is extremely small. Living conditions and health care in Africa are poor, whether the child is still alive is really hard to say. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang fell into silence ¡ª A few days later, Huang Jiacai called, he had acquired Ruixing for 180 million yuan. For this company alone, the price is extremely low, but given Ruixing¡¯s current situation, other than Huang Jiacai, no one would be willing to take over. Paying 180 million yuan for Ruixing means facing a lot of trouble afterward, which will soon turn into a huge debt. It¡¯s like buying an empty shell for 180 million yuan and then holding this empty shell to fight lawsuits and repay debts. Accepting a company that is bound to go bankrupt, many people don¡¯t understand. Right before the contract was signed, the shareholders looked it over again and again, unable to find any traps, only then did they sign cautiously. Yang Ping doesn¡¯t have time to deal with these matters. He trusts Huang Jiacai with the operations, letting him deal with it as he pleases. Although he is the major shareholder behind the scenes, Yang Ping does not participate in the company¡¯s operations, the company¡¯s operations are handled by Huang Jiacai. Yang Ping only responded with one sentence to Huang Jiacai: Let him handle everything, and 20 percent of the shares of Ruixing Company will be given to Huang Jiacai personally. Huang Jiacai gladly accepted the shares offered by Yang Ping. This way, he was officially tied to Yang Ping. Furthermore, accepting these shares at this time shows that he¡¯s not afraid of the difficulties ahead and believes in the possibility of turning danger into safety, instead of just throwing money away. Shares are both a right and an obligation. Accepting them at this time means being willing to share the risk that comes next. Huang Jiacai stayed in Shanghai to reorganize Ruixing and dissolve its current perilous situation. The remaining two-plus billion yuan is used to cover Ruixing¡¯s daily expenses, but the lawsuits haven¡¯t been resolved yet, so he dared not transfer the two-plus billion yuan to Ruixing¡¯s account. In Huang Jiacai¡¯s report to Yang Ping, he assured that he will definitely resolve Ruixing¡¯s current crisis. In less than a month, Ruixing will be able to carry out its business normally. A wise man has his own ways. Since he dared to accept this poor hand, he must have a way to turn bad luck into good fortune. As for Yang Ping¡¯s external spinal fixation frame, Huang Jiacai has also not delayed, he has begun to contact various manufacturers. He doesn¡¯t expect others to invest; he¡¯s decided to have Ruixing invest in developing the prototype. Once Ruixing gets out of its predicament and resumes normal operations, these works can start immediately. After waiting for so long, finally having his own company, he can now flex his muscles. At the moment, Huang Jiacai is strategizing in his office in Shanghai. Chapter 495 - 495 451 There Must Be a Way When We Get to the ?Chapter 495: Chapter 451: There Must Be a Way When We Get to the Mountain Chapter 495: Chapter 451: There Must Be a Way When We Get to the Mountain Huang Jiacai took over Ruixing, and Yang Ping, as the backdoor boss, was invited to attend the first senior management meeting. Whether it is Yang Ping¡¯s parent company holding the stakes upstream or Ruixing Medical downstream, the current CEO of both is Huang Jiacai. When Huang Jiacai invited Yang Ping to the meeting, he wanted Yang Ping to understand the company¡¯s current strategy, to see whether his crisis management for Ruixing is acceptable. In other words, he is now on the front lines, allowing Yang Ping to observe him as a general, to see how capable he is. As a backstage shareholder, Yang Ping stated that he would just be present at the meeting and would not make any comments, much less reveal his identity. In the high-level management meeting of Ruixing, the atmosphere was heavy with worry and filled with lamentation. All products in infringement were banned from being sold, with a substantial amount of compensation to pay. Taking into account the sales volume of the products sued for infringement, the margin, the contribution rate, and reasonable expenses, the compensation amount reached 100 million. All products were banned from being sold. All stocks and molds had to be thoroughly destroyed. Now, it¡¯s not breaking news that a few tens of millions are sentenced to be paid due to patent infringement. One billion, this will break the compensation record of patent infringement in the medical device industry. For Ruixing, it is almost a devastating blow. Amid the howling winds and rains, some people have already resigned. A few regional sales managers have already resigned, and those attending the meeting are newly promoted. Of course, there is another way out ¨C reconciliation. How? By being acquired at a low price and becoming completely a tool of the other party. This was something Huang Jiacai had predicted from the start. He wasn¡¯t worried; he had a plan in mind. Even if he lost the lawsuit and all products were banned and destroyed, he had a way to bring Ruixing back to life. There¡¯s always a way out where a will exists, and this path is what Huang Jiacai has already prepared. President Wei and some shareholders have completely cut ties with Ruixing, while other executives and employees remained in place, and President Wang was retained. President Wang was somewhat dazzled by the rapid changes. With this series of moves, Huang Jiacai became the actual head of Ruixing. President Wang has always had a high regard for Huang Jiacai, thinking that this young man was talented and extraordinary. He did not expect him to ascend to this position so quickly. Truthfully, President Wang was quite unhappy deep down, feeling as though Huang Jiacai had somewhat deceived him, since he had not been completely transparent with him before. But when he thought about it, the business world is a battlefield. Huang Jiacai¡¯s actions were reasonable and justified. Besides, he treated him well. Apart from the regular 30 million from the acquisition fund, Huang Jiacai secretly compensated him with another 20 million. Apart from that, Huang Jiacai also retained him as a consultant for Ruixing, with an annual salary of two million. Having already aged, the no longer ambitious President Wang would say that this is the best outcome. Having obtained so much money, he can continue to draw a high salary. The work is practically relaxed, he lives comfortably and is highly respected by the newly appointed boss, Huang Jiacai. This is practically living like a god. ¡°So, what do we do next? We have stock that we cannot sell, which we need to destroy. The company¡¯s already out of money, and yet we have to pay compensation. We even have to destroy the molds. How will the company survive in the future?¡± A sales manager asked gloomily. ¡°This day was bound to come. Better sooner than later. Our sales channels are still intact, and even if we have no products of our own, we can help sell for others. I have already negotiated with Jiemai. We will lay out their goods across our channels and share profits equally. This not only alleviates our situation of having no stock to sell but also allows us to maintain our sales channels. Most importantly, it gives us a stake when we negotiate with Johnson & Johnson.¡± Your enemy¡¯s enemy is your friend. According to this logic, Huang Jiacai stakes his ground. Whoever pushes him, he will side with another company and help that company fight against his enemy. ¡°I don¡¯t know if any of you have heard the story of ¡®One Peach Kills Two Generals¡¯? Today, I want to kill two generals with one peach. Since someone wants to push us, then fine, whoever pushes me, I will completely side with another company. So, everyone, don¡¯t panic. As long as each department, each region holds the line and keeps our structure intact, we can definitely endure this. My fellow colleagues, our parent company upstream has plenty of funds to support us. You¡¯ve already received the salaries owed to all of you, right? Not to mention it comes with an additional 20% compensation. I will tell you all, you regional sales managers are all here, some newly promoted. Moving forward, each product will come with a commission for you. The rates are all on this sheet.¡± The commission for each specific product, with the company¡¯s database settling the accounts daily, shows how many products were sold, how much commission the sales department can receive, how much the manager can get, and how much the salesperson can get. It¡¯s plain to see that this visible incentive is very stimulating. Seeing the rates on the sheet caused a clamor at the meeting. These rates were quite generous, the highest in the industry. The sales managers exchanged looks. ¡°Don¡¯t think that I¡¯m just bluffing. We¡¯ll sign the agreement later. I¡¯m not afraid of you earning money, not afraid of you getting rich. With great rewards comes great performance. I won¡¯t give you a pep talk, my respect is in the rates in your hands. I hope that each and every one of you will drive luxury cars and live in villas in the future. That would be my greatest blessing for Ruixing.¡± ¡°To the R&D department, from now on you will receive both salary and bonuses. For every product you market, you will receive a commission based on the profit the product brings to the company, even if you don¡¯t create a product, it¡¯s okay, the salary will ensure your livelihood. But if you want to drive luxury cars and live in villas, you need to exert effort to develop good products for me.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid to take more, it¡¯s all earned by yourselves. Whoever¡¯s competent can step up, if not, step down.¡± Huang Jiacai was very eloquent, speaking with great resolve. Seeing his reputation in Ruixing previously, everyone held a high degree of trust in him. Now that he¡¯s suddenly pulled in an investment of two billion and acquired Ruixing, then cleared all overdue salaries, including a 20% compensation bonus. This truly lit up a beam of hope for everyone. At these words from Huang Jiacai, who wouldn¡¯t feel as excited as if they¡¯d been injected with chicken blood (very energized)? Ruixing focuses mainly on sports medicine products, similar to Shi Lehui in his early days. Therefore, in order to fill the void left by Ruixing in areas like the spine, trauma, and artificial joints, Huang Jiacai has long been utilizing his own sales channels to line up other companies¡¯ products and carry out agency sales. At least that¡¯s how it is in South China currently. The profits of these agency products are enough to keep Ruixing from starving. ¡°Today, I also want to introduce the company¡¯s trusted chief engineer. Please come in!¡± The meeting room door was pushed open, and a young engineer walked in. ¡°Chen Zhi, is that Chen Zhi?¡± Everyone was in discussion, wasn¡¯t Chen Zhi the one who was fired by the company? The one whose online loan debt was chased down, with calls even made to the president¡¯s office, named by the president to be fired, rumored to have committed suicide, isn¡¯t he just fine? ¡°Yes, he is Chen Zhi, he is now our chief engineer. Now, let him introduce the future patent and product layout of our company.¡± As Chen Zhi took off his coat, Huang Jiacai immediately stepped forward to take it for him. Perhaps it was his first time giving a speech in front of so many people, Chen Zhi was a bit shy, Huang Jiacai raised a thumb to encourage him. On the large screen, one after another certificates of utility patents were displayed. ¡°These patents, currently under my personal name, will soon be transferred to the company¡¯s name. They cover the entire sports medicine product line, bypassing the existing patent protection barriers, starting anew. Look, this meniscus suture device, bypasses the anchor point technology at the capsule stop point, and it adopts knot-tying technology. It can complete a blind knot within the safe area behind the joint capsule, maintained by the knot attached to the posterior joint capsule. For the consumables that hang the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments, we abandoned the methods of our peers and adopted the internal hanger beam technology. You see, the ligament is pulled into the tunnel, the hanger beam just stops on the tunnel wall. When the ligament is in place, with the help of the guide, the hanger beam traverses the middle of the ligament, suspending the ligament. For the repair of the rotator cuff, we also found a new path. This kind of no-anchor bone suture technology is both firm and saves the trouble of anchors. These techniques may not be leading, but they have successfully bypassed existing patents, there is no need to pay patent fees to others, we hold the initiative in our hands, but the results will be absolutely no worse¨C¡± When Chen Zhi talked about technology, he was eloquent, and his passion for medical devices was almost crazy. ¡°Where did this engineer come from?¡± Yang Ping asked sideways. ¡°A secret weapon, I¡¯ll report to you in detail after the meeting.¡± Huang Jiacai smiled with satisfaction. ¡°Why is it him?¡± President Wang was also surprised. ¡°This is my ace in the hole. Ever since he left Ruixing, I set aside a sum of money to sponsor him in developing devices and applying for patents, saving for later use.¡± A considerable part of the money Huang Jiacai earned over the years was invested here. ¡°You saw this day coming and made preparations in advance?¡± President Wang was more amazed at Huang Jiacai¡¯s foresight. ¡°A man without a plan for the future will find trouble at hand.¡± Huang Jiacai said calmly. With this batch of patents, Ruixing could withstand any blow. As long as there are sufficient funds, start molding, register for entry, and quickly spread the supply. Survive by acting as agents for other people¡¯s products, speed up the production of their own products, and then get back on track one step at a time. Just hold on for three months, and Ruixing will be reborn. ¡°With the spinal external fixator, he has been studying the issue of trial production. He proposed a suggestion that some parts can be improved a bit, although the accuracy is reduced, but the requirements for the whole material and process are reduced a lot, and we won¡¯t be strangled by others. This is his blueprint, take a look.¡± Huang Jiacai took a document out of his bag next to him. Yang Ping took a close look: ¡°Good, this suggestion is very good, in fact, the production difficulty is reduced with this change, there is no need to use high-demand memory alloy, and the demand for the metal rod is much lower.¡± Because Yang Ping was completely out of surgery¡¯s purpose and did not consider the material and process too much. Yang Ping¡¯s product is the most ideal product, and after being revised by Chen Zhi, it is a compromise to reality, a product that can be immediately produced and marketed, considering factors such as cost. Now this improvement has reduced the difficulty and cost of mass production, although the precision has decreased, but it does not affect the use. ¡°I plan to give him a little bit out of the 20% equity I have, considering these patents as a technology stake.¡± ¡°Get the shares from me, don¡¯t move yours.¡± ¡°I already have plenty of 20% on my side, you need to maintain absolute control on your side.¡± ¡°As long as I have 51% control, you can use the remaining 29% on my side, you can decide how to use it, who will reward it to in the future.¡± Yang Ping knew that once this path was opened, all future business matters would be handled by Huang Jiacai, and he would become a hands-off boss. Ruixing will be the core enterprise in the medical sector, and it does not intend to go public to finance in the future. It will adopt a steady strategy, giving Huang Jiacai 20% is the most appropriate. Yang Ping doesn¡¯t like business and is not good at business, but he needs money, a lot of money, to support his future research. Huang Jiacai will be his financial support in the future, how can he do if the shares are too small. ¡°Is this kid a talent?¡± President Wang was quite ashamed. ¡°Our country has never lacked talent, it is just short of good employers and a good employment environment.¡± These were Huang Jiacai¡¯s heartfelt words. But President Wang was ashamed to hear this, he didn¡¯t try hard to retain him at that time, but it was something he couldn¡¯t help. Chapter 496 - 496 452 Painting a Big Picture ?Chapter 496: Chapter 452: Painting a Big Picture Chapter 496: Chapter 452: Painting a Big Picture After Chen Zhi resigned from Ruixing, Huang Jiacai helped him settle his debt problems. Moreover, Huang Jiacai had always maintained contact with him and even gave him a sum of money specifically meant for the research and development of equipment and patent applications. The saying goes that ¡®gold always shines¡¯. After many twists and turns, Chen Zhi joined the R&D center of Johnson & Johnson based in Suzhou, quickly displayed exceptional talent, and was sent to the research center in the United States to study. Upon his return, he was intended to be entrusted with great responsibility. However, upon learning about Huang Jiacai¡¯s acquisition of Ruixing, Chen Zhi spent a sleepless night and rushed to Ruixing¡¯s headquarters the following day. After meeting Huang Jiacai and confirming the news, Chen Zhi was thrilled. He returned to Suzhou that very day to resign and join Ruixing. The medical device patents that Chen Zhi brought with him to Ruixing had no ties with Johnson & Johnson, as all of them were applied for prior to him joining Johnson & Johnson. Moreover, upon leaving Johnson & Johnson, he left no debts but some excellent equipment design plans for them. Once Chen Zhi finished introducing the new products and patent layout of the company, everyone¡¯s confidence was further boosted. They hadn¡¯t expected President Huang to have such measures in place and to have made such thorough preparations in advance, no wonder he seemed so composed. According to this strategy, as long as there is steady financial support, a bright future is definitely in store for Ruixing. Even if they lose the lawsuit, the worst-case scenario is just paying a fine. In the future, Ruixing will embark on a new chapter, with all its devices utilising its own patents. The patents just displayed cover all devices and implants in the field of sports medicine. Now, the country¡¯s strong support for the nationalization of some important industries works out perfectly for Ruixing¡¯s rise. After Chen Zhi finished speaking, Huang Jiacai returned to the stage and draped a coat around him, handed him a bottle of mineral water, and opened the cap for him, conveying a message to everyone ¡ª In Ruixing, as long as someone is talented, capable, and has achieved results, they will be reused, respected, and the boss will even take their coat and pour tea for them. Chen Zhi thanked Huang Jiacai and returned to his seat in the front row. Leaning on the podium with both hands, Huang Jiacai¡¯s voice rang out, ¡°Starting from today, not only is Chen Zhi Ruixing¡¯s Chief Engineer, but he is also one of our shareholders. Why? Because of his innovations, his patents. These patents are used as technical equity, obtaining a 3% share. If you want shares in the future, show your performance. In front of everyone in the company, I, Huang Jiacai, will take your coats and pour your tea. Do not underestimate this 3% share. In the future, Ruixing will be a company worth billions, you can do the math. Ma Yun only has a 7% shares on Alibaba¡ª¡± ¡°You, don¡¯t get too excited, sit down. Just you, at such a young age, even if you went to Johnson & Johnson or Jiemai, would you get this opportunity? To be a regional manager? No, only at a start-up like Ruixing would you get this kind of opportunity. If you want to achieve something big, you have to be at Ruixing.¡± Huang Jiacai pointed at a manager who had involuntarily stood up to listen. ¡°Everyone, think about it, all of those who managed to become kings starting from scratch in history, weren¡¯t they all striving through entrepreneurship?¡± Yang Ping, seated in the audience, found it amusing. Huang Jiacai was indeed born to be a boss. The giant cake he drew was highly effective. Everyone in the audience was drooling with anticipation, bubbling with excitement. Probably even a pyramid scheme meeting wouldn¡¯t generate such an effect. She wondered if Ma Yun looked like this when he gave speeches in a rented house in Hangzhou back in the day. Not only did Huang Jiacai draw a giant cake, but he also let these people take a small bite to taste the sweetness. The overdue wages of several months were not only paid, but there was also an addition of 20% compensation. A few newly promoted managers, several of whom were performing more or less managerial duties following the resignation of the original managers, had all their back pay calculated based on their managerial positions by Huang Jiacai. The newly promoted managers were extremely grateful, seeing a bright future before them. They were almost ready to shout, ¡°Charge!¡± ¡°President Huang, I would like to know, exactly how much financial support do we currently have?¡± A manager raised his hand and asked. Huang Jiacai pulled down the microphone: ¡°That¡¯s a very good question. How should I answer you... I just want to ask you¡ª how much funding do you need?¡± The person who raised the question didn¡¯t know how to respond, so Huang Jiacai answered for him: ¡°However much you need, that¡¯s how much I can provide. I took over this failing company, Ruixing, on behalf of the parent company, paying 180 million as the acquisition fee. Do you think that I just had money to burn, spending 180 million to buy a company to play at going bankrupt? Like buying a BMW in full for over a million and leaving it at home, with no money to buy gas?¡± Huang Jiacai¡¯s response drew laughs from the crowd. ¡°Therefore, since I bought the BMW in full, you don¡¯t have to worry about whether I have money for gas. Plus, the wages you received were real money, right? No one received counterfeit money, right? Oh, I forgot, they were all paid through banks, not in cash. I, Huang Jiacai, do not like discussing sentimental matters. If any of you ever feel that you are being paid less than what the contract stipulates, feel free to leave. You can even come to my office and smash a few things up. It¡¯s your legs after all, right?¡± The room broke into laughter once again. After painting a rosy picture, Huang Jiacai began outlining the immediate plans: the funds to be invested in the R&D department, sales, and production department were detailed with specific numbers. This high-level meeting was, in essence, aimed at stabilizing and lifting morale. The meeting was a success, restoring everyone¡¯s confidence and instilling hope. It effectively stabilised the army¡¯s hearts and boosted their morale. Next, Huang Jiacai led Yang Ping on a tour of Ruixing¡¯s headquarters. If they were to continue keeping the headquarters in Shanghai, it would be too far from Yang Ping, which wouldn¡¯t be suitable. Huang Jiacai pondered again and again, deciding to move the headquarters of Ruixing to G City in Nandu. Wherever Yang Ping¡¯s roots are, that¡¯s where the company headquarters should be relocated, which will make many things much more convenient. Although the company is small now, a spark can start a prairie fire. In the future, Ruixing can gradually grow into an international giant. Technology-wise, Yang Ping is confident about it. Following that, he will design a lot of new equipment to solve some difficult problems in clinical practice. It is inevitable that surgeons are keen on designing equipment. Instruments are the tools of surgery, and improvements in tools will inevitably enhance the effectiveness of surgery. To a large extent, the progress of surgical technology is the advancement of medical equipment and instruments. Many of the medical equipment and instruments internationally are designed by surgeons, such as the modern artificial joint, which was designed by a doctor at the Special Surgery Hospital in New York. In Western countries, especially the United States, many surgeons have become wealthy because of their patented instruments. Many have become billionaires. Earning money by performing surgeries is like fetching water with a bucket, one bucket at a time. Making money by relying on equipment patents is like laying a water pipe, it¡¯s steady and efficient. With the management of Huang Jiacai and the participation of engineers like Chen Zhi, the efficiency of equipment transformation in Yang Ping¡¯s future will be very high. He doesn¡¯t even have to consider the cost and process too much. He can directly take out the experimental products, let Chen Zhi transform them, and achieve mass production. After visiting the headquarters, Huang Jiacai separately reported to Yang Ping about the arrangement of the remaining two hundred million yuan, the company¡¯s strategic plan, and personnel arrangement. He plans to reform the whole structure of the company, reduce many middle layers, make the management more flat, make the R&D department and sales department closely linked, and let the frontline fighters call for fire support. Huang Jiacai knows everyone in Ruixing very well. Some capable young people have been promoted, and those who occupy positions without producing results have been ruthlessly laid off. Huang Jiacai fully demonstrates the clarity and decisiveness of a corporate manager. Obviously, before the acquisition of Ruixing, Huang Jiacai had already regarded Yang Ping as his big boss. He is smart. Only by being absolutely loyal to Yang Ping can he possibly show his talent and do great things. From his attitude towards President Wang, Yang Ping could see that Huang Jiacai is a principled person with a sense of righteousness and principle, yet not lacking in sentimentality. Regarding Yang Ping¡¯s proposal to allocate some shares to reward talents, Huang Jiacai insists on preserving Yang Ping¡¯s shares, only willing to give a little from his own 20% stake to Chen Zhi. He knows that he will rely on Yang Ping in the future and will definitely make the company bigger. If he has 10% of the shares, it would be quite impressive. This 20% stake is really too much. Huang Jiacai handled the critical situation with great composure, quickly stabilising the precarious Ruixing, which greatly pleased Yang Ping. After finishing his inspection at Ruixing, Yang Ping took the time to visit Professor Feng Tiancheng at the Sixth Hospital. The old man was in great spirits. The reviewed CT and MRI showed no signs of tumour recurrence for the moment. Professor Hong was worried about Old Feng¡¯s health and didn¡¯t allow him to operate. Old Feng was not pleased. He insisted on performing at least three surgeries every week. Professor Hong had no choice but to agree. Upon hearing that Yang Ping had set up a Surgical Research Institute at Sanbo Hospital, the old man criticised Yang Ping for not informing him so that he could join in the fun. It wasn¡¯t for any other reason. Yang Ping simply didn¡¯t want to show off. He just wanted to do his job in a down-to-earth way. The old man insisted on having dinner together, asking about his recent work status, and inevitably discussing some difficult diseases. He was very fond of his disciple. Upon hearing that Yang Ping had come, Wen Rentao immediately came to see him. Since their last parting after Old Feng¡¯s surgery, Wen Rentao had not seen Yang Ping again. Hearing that Yang Ping was working on a project to treat scoliosis in children with spinal external fixators, Wen Rentao also wanted to participate. Yang Ping was willing to cooperate. Multi-centre cooperation could yield more data. Professor Hong Zhigang asked Yang Ping about the status of Director Han. Although the grudges of over ten years between the senior and junior brothers had disappeared, Hong Zhigang¡¯s sense of obligation to his younger brother would forever be a pain in his heart. He planned to take some time to go to Sanbo Hospital and establish some academic collaboration with his younger brother to see if he could help in any way. This way, he would feel better. He had just returned to Sanbo after leaving Shanghai. Huang Jiacai called to report: The mould drawing of the spinal external fixator has been finalized and is ready to start moulding. Having one¡¯s own manufacturing factory is reliable. Yang Ping was a bit averse to doing business before, but now he knows that in cases like his, if he doesn¡¯t own a medical device factory and relies on cooperating with others, it¡¯s fine if others recognize and accept his products. If they don¡¯t, it can delay a lot of things. Now it¡¯s fine. He has a company in his hand. Although it¡¯s not big, it¡¯s his own, after all. Chapter 497 - 497 453 Melancholic Blue Eyes ?Chapter 497: Chapter 453: Melancholic Blue Eyes Chapter 497: Chapter 453: Melancholic Blue Eyes Back at Sanbo Hospital, Yang Ping went to work as usual, with the addition of a company in his hand, which had almost no impact on him. Everything is but a tool, this company, like the surgical instruments in his hand, are all tools. With the money earned from the United States, Yang Ping invested in scientific research, set up a company, and bought a house in a community near the hospital. He bought a duplex house of more than three hundred square meters with an airspace garden. Yang Ping is a person who doesn¡¯t shortchange himself. If he has the capability, why not make himself live more comfortably. This house was prepared for marriage. Although Xiao Su¡¯s family was well-off, the two decided to be self-reliant and to take it step by step. It seems that under the current situation, the house has been bought and there is no need to take it step by step. Gan Fengyi¡¯s mother¡¯s respiratory muscle and limb strength have recovered to level five. From zero to five, there are six levels of human skeletal muscle strength. Level zero indicates no muscle contraction at all, the muscle is no different from a piece of dead meat, unable to perform any exercise function; level one is when the muscle can contract, but cannot generate movement, you can see the contraction of the limbs muscle, but the limbs still do not move; Level two is when the muscle can drive the movement, but cannot resist gravity, the limbs can move on the bed, but they just can¡¯t lift up; Level three can resist gravity, the limbs can lift up, but can¡¯t resist resistance, when you lightly touch a finger, the limbs can¡¯t lift up; Level four, not only can they lift up, they can resist some resistance, add some strength, they can still lift up, but with a larger force, the limbs still can¡¯t lift; Level five means that they have returned to normal and can resist normal resistance. Gan Fengyi¡¯s mother has now completely recovered, can walk freely, and breathe effortlessly. She can actually leave the hospital, but for the sake of caution, Gan Fengyi has transferred her to the rehabilitation department to continue her rehabilitation. At some point, money can buy health, if not for the hundreds of thousands of air transfers, there is probably no hope for Gan Fengyi¡¯s mother now. Yang Ping took the opportunity to check on the rehabilitation of her mother. Gan Fengyi was accompanying her mother in training. Firefighting hero Xiao Guoqiang happened to be there, too, focusing on finger training, and he could now perform thumb to palm actions, which are critical to hand function. Seeing their recovery, Yang Ping thought of the person in the ICU who was kept alive on ECMO, he called Dr. Meng of the ICU. Dr. Meng said that the patient miraculously held on. If it weren¡¯t for his wife¡¯s persistence, there wouldn¡¯t have been any hope left. He held on! That¡¯s truly a miracle! Sometimes life is fragile, and sometimes it is tough. Until the end, no one can predict the outcome. Yang Ping recalls the tearful young woman at the door of the ICU who tried to kneel before the doctors and begged them to hold on. He was deeply moved, some people still do not give up when in that situation. If love can play a role in treatment, then this might be the greatest role that love plays. Although not his patient, upon hearing this news, Yang Ping felt at ease. This might be a doctor¡¯s professional reaction, a person unrelated to him coming out of life-threatening danger also makes him genuinely happy. Song Zimo was leading everyone in surgery, after finishing the work in the department, Yang Ping drove to Li Quan Hospital. They have just admitted a special case, a patient with brittle bone disease. Brittle bone disease, commonly known as porcelain doll, also known as osteogenesis imperfecta, is a hereditary disease caused by a disorder in the synthesis of collagen, the immature development of mesenchymal tissue is a metabolic, connective tissue disease. Frail bones, loose joints, poor tooth enamel, hearing impairment, and most characteristic blue sclera are characteristic manifestations of this disease. The biggest characteristic of this disease is that the bones are brittle and prone to fractures. Turning in sleep or sneezing can cause fractures. This patient had a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee joint. The surgery was performed at Yunjian Hospital by Director Tang. During the surgery, the drilling and tunneling resulted in the shattering of the entire distal femur, leading to surgical failure. At that time, Boss Cheng sent the case information to Yang Ping. Yang Ping suggested waiting for the fracture to heal before redoing the surgery to rebuild the anterior cruciate ligament. Now the patient¡¯s fracture has healed well and hopes to undergo surgery. As Yang Ping¡¯s Volvo XC90 drove into the parking lot of Li Quan Hospital, Boss Cheng was already waiting at the entrance. Seeing Yang Ping¡¯s car coming in, he ran along with the car, leading the way, and parked Yang Ping in a specific parking spot. This parking spot was left specifically for Yang Ping. It was usually locked and not available for anyone else to park. After parking his car, Yang Ping got out, and Boss Cheng was sweating profusely. He immediately helped to open the car door. Why was Boss Cheng running after his car? Yang Ping knew that this parking spot was vacant, so he drove straight here at a faster speed. Boss Cheng ran a good distance and was a bit exhausted. Yang Ping also forgot to stop the car for a moment to let him get in. ¡°Why are you running after my car? This is not my first time coming here.¡± Yang Ping followed Boss Cheng into the hospital. Old Cheng wiped his sweat while saying, ¡°It¡¯s okay, acting as a form of exercise.¡± As they passed by the hospital lobby, a few nurses greeted him enthusiastically. They seemed to be talking about something. Yang Ping didn¡¯t care, and pretended not to notice. The hospital which has passed the JCI accreditation is quite regulated and carries out every detail perfectly. Every matter can be conducted according to the procedure. JCI indeed provides a complete and scientific hospital management system. The ward was professionally designed, such as the color combinations, which was not done randomly. They were designed by psychologists and color experts. Doctor Wan escorted, Old Cheng accompanied Yang Ping to visit the patient. Upon opening the door, a pair of hesitant blue eyes immediately drew attention. A pair of profoundly sorrowful blue eyes, as if they held a depth of blue sea, flickering with a unique charm. Even among Europeans, it is the iris that is blue, but this patient has blue sclera. Blue sclera, a symptom of osteogenesis imperfecta. Of course, the disease does not just affect the bone structure, it often affects other connective tissues such as eyes, ears, teeth, and skin. Yang Ping was very familiar with this patient¡¯s medical history because he had visited him several times before. Male, thirty years old, an art teacher. He often suffers from fractures, making him a frequent visitor to the hospital. He rolled up his sleeves and pant legs to show us. His upper and lower limbs on both sides had all gone through fractures. This time, he doesn¡¯t know why, there was no significant trauma, yet the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee suddenly ruptured. Originally, he did not want to undergo another surgery, but after the ligament was torn, his right knee became very unstable, severely inhibiting his ability to walk, so he decided to have surgery. This type of patients usually have very loose joints. With one primary ligament torn, the entire knee becomes even more unstable. He sways while walking, always fearing a fall. At that time, the head of the Yunjian Hospital, Director Tang, was very popular ¡ª a social media celebrity doctor with high praise for his skill and sense of responsibility. So, the patient decided to seek medical treatment there. However, during the surgery, he ended up with a comminuted fracture at the distal end of his right femur. The patient had no choice but to transfer to Li Quan Hospital for help. Boss Cheng decided to provide subsequent treatment for the patient. Doctor Wan asked him why he chose Yunjian Hospital. The patient stated he did not want to queue up. Yunjian Hospital had advertisements everywhere, and Director Tang¡¯s popularity on TikTok was high, so he was drawn in by his reputation. Upon arriving at the hospital, he found the doctors and nurses were very kind. Several doctors and nurses surrounded him, speaking courteously and showing meticulous care during the check-up. This made him feel really moved¡ªsomething other hospitals, particularly public ones, couldn¡¯t match. He felt that if he didn¡¯t choose Yunjian Hospital for his surgery, he would not be doing justice to their warmth. Besides, during his hospital stay, he observed that Director Tang was indeed a good doctor. Several examples were seen firsthand. For instance, Director Tang often said: ¡°This doesn¡¯t need surgery. The doctors at that hospital just want to make money.¡± Or, ¡°This surgery was done terribly. The nail placement was poor. I have been a doctor for 30 years and I have never seen such lousy basic skills.¡± And, ¡°Is this surgery performed in a major hospital? Is this their standard now?¡± Immediately, the patient felt Director Tang was the best doctor in the world, and that all others were just hacks, undeserving of their reputation. Hence, he willingly decided to have surgery at Yunjian Hospital. Upon Director Tang¡¯s recommendation, he spent extra 20,000 RMB for an AI-powered high-tech examination, another 40,000 RMB to get his foreskin circumcised, and even had a delayed surgery, which they threw in for free. Upon discharge, the doctors and nurses helped him pack up his belongings, and a car was arranged to send him home. This was the standard of a good hospital in China. The patient felt indignant about his past experiences in hospitals where each visit would only last a few minutes and the doctors wouldn¡¯t even give a pleasant face. They really cared for the patients by offering a home-service. This was really commendable. Not long after, Yunjian Hospital sent doctors and nurses to his home to guide his rehabilitation, stating it was necessary to strengthen his muscle before he could undergo anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery. They also brought along some crucial news from his AI body-check: a mole on his neck had a high chance of turning into a malignant melanoma and needed to be removed, followed by an anti-cancer treatment. The patient was filled with gratitude and spent tens of thousands more to undergo a mole removal and anti-cancer treatment. ¡°Hold on, I didn¡¯t quite catch that. You¡¯re saying you went to have your anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery, but before that happened, you had a circumcision, mole removal, and some kind of anti-cancer treatment? All of these cost nearly 100,000 RMB in total?¡± Boss Cheng attempted to clarify what the patient just said. The patient was extremely proud: ¡°That¡¯s correct! Especially the AI body check and the anti-cancer treatment. I would recommend your hospital to introduce this military-grade black technology from the United States. It¡¯s very practical.¡± Yang Ping and Old Cheng exchanged looks. ¡°Isn¡¯t Yunjian supposed to be specialized in sports medicine? Why are they also performing circumcisions?¡± Yang Ping was confused. Dean Cai explained: ¡°Yunjian¡¯s business is very broad. They own many hospitals and their patients can interchange among them¡ªthey have a specialized health check hospital, a department for men¡¯s health, a cancer hospital, and many others.¡± ¡°Alright, enough with the useless talk. Tell us, how did you end up here for surgery?¡± Old Cheng believed that this patient had trouble with his intellect. Dammit, with this intellect, how could he willingly spend 40,000 RMB on a circumcision? Even for someone like Old Cheng, a boss, if he were to actually get a circumcision that costs 40,000 RMB, he¡¯d need to weigh his options carefully first. Chapter 498 - 498 454 Jumping Clown ?Chapter 498: Chapter 454: Jumping Clown Chapter 498: Chapter 454: Jumping Clown ¡°Yes, indeed. First, I had my circumcision, followed by a complete AI medical examination and a preventive cancer treatment package. Once all of that was sorted, I had the knee surgery. This mole you¡¯re talking about, thankfully it was detected early, excised, and followed by additional preventive cancer treatment. Otherwise, it would¡¯ve been real trouble if it had turned malignant. Yunjian hospital did a good job with this, particularly with the AI medical examination. It was like having Bian Que¡¯s diagnostic skills©¤¡¯curing a disease before it happens¡¯. But when it comes to knee surgery, they are no match for you all. Doctor Yang, you¡¯re truly the master at it. I¡¯ve heard from my friends that Luo Jin, the football player who completely ruined his knee, is now back in matches after you performed the surgery on him. That¡¯s impressive!¡± The patient gave a thumbs up, spraying saliva as he spoke enthusiastically. ¡°Initially I had no idea and went to see Director Tang. Unfortunately, the surgery did not go well, but I don¡¯t blame him. Who can guarantee 100% success in a once-in-a-century surgery? In hindsight, I should¡¯ve come to see Doctor Yang directly. But it¡¯s not all bad, at least they discovered my potential tumor in time and completely resolved it.¡± The patient didn¡¯t seem to hold any grudge against Director Tang; it was evident his reputation was well-earned. Clearly, Director Tang should organize training classes for doctors across the country to train them in effective communication skills. Yang Ping had heard of this Director Tang. He was indeed impressive. He had a silver tongue, capable of turning black into white and white into a rainbow, thus earning the trust of his patients. Once, when Director Tang was conducting arthroscopy, the patient ended up developing compartment syndrome in his calf, his limb ended up necrotic and ultimately had to be amputated. However, not only didn¡¯t the patient¡¯s family cause a fuss, but they also sent a banner to Director Tang expressing their gratitude. Why they thanked him remains a mystery. ¡°Your hospital¡¯s service is very good, but to be honest, it still doesn¡¯t match up to theirs.¡± The patient recalled his hospitalization in Yunjian Hospital; the service was so excellent that it made his stay comfortable, even without any sickness. ¡°How about you help us as an experimenter and write a detailed report about your hospitalization experience? It will help us find the gap between us and Yunjian. How about it? There will be a reward.¡± Boss Cheng proposed sincerely, shaking hands with the patient. Forget about other matters, a service reaching this level of satisfaction is more than enough to justify the money spent, leaving no room for any potential disputes. It¡¯s truly commendable. Boss Cheng previously had a strong dislike for Director Tang but he now admired him for no particular reason. ¡°Fine, I will help you figure out areas where we lack in the coming days and write an experience report.¡± The patient was equally serious. ¡°You spent forty thousand on your circumcision?¡± Doctor Wan couldn¡¯t help but ask in a low voice. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. That¡¯s something you public hospitals don¡¯t understand. The circumcision techniques in public institutions are outdated. Others learn cutting-edge techniques from Europe and America. There are American, European, Korean, and Japanese techniques. I chose the best one from Europe: the reinforced German technique.¡± The patient was very excited, almost showing off his circumcision to everyone. Doctor Wan was shaken, the name ¡®reinforced German technique¡¯ did sound intimidating, although it seemed to only be a simple circumcision with no enhancement whatsoever. If he weren¡¯t a doctor himself, Doctor Wan would¡¯ve been convinced by such a daunting name. Upon hearing this, Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but smile. It was just a normal circumcision, but they had exaggerated it to resemble a United Nations project. All urologists know that circumcision usually involves the following techniques: Normal circumcision, ring circumcision, stapler circumcision, foreskin peel-off technique, invisible root sleeved circumcision. The first one is the most basic technique where the penile head is cut. Every urologist mastering basic surgical training can perform it. Some hospitals use traditional tools like scalpel and scissors; others use laser cutting. The outcome varies slightly depending on the tools. Its biggest advantage is that it¡¯s cheap and all doctors are trained to perform it. However, its drawbacks include a less aesthetically pleasing appearance, possible asymmetry, visible sutures, and slightly more blood loss. The second technique commonly known as ¡®ring circumcision¡¯ is more suitable for children and does not have a huge benefit for adults. Its advantages lie in the cleaner cut and shorter operation time. However, it does have downsides: there¡¯s significant pain when removing the ring, and if an erection occurs post-operation, it could lead to the wound opening again, causing bleeding, pain, and swelling. This operation isn¡¯t suitable for phimosis patients. The third, the highly lauded 3D titanium stapler, is easy to use, efficient, and results in a neat cut. However, it could lead to too much or too little foreskin being removed, uneven sections, and issues with blood vessels and fasciae under the skin. It could hinder venous and lymphatic outflow which could cause post-operation edema. The fourth and fifth techniques are quite similar, with one performed at the penile head and the other at the root. These two techniques, especially the fifth, carry the spirit of plastic surgery. They avoid large surface veins such as the dorsal vein, preserving intact inner membrane tissue, reducing secondary bleeding, and swelling after the surgery. Traditional circumcision techniques cannot guarantee the length of the frenulum left will be appropriate or that the suture lines will align with the outer skin properly. The wounds from these techniques, especially the invisible root sleeved circumcision, heal quickly and the scars are almost invisible. This technique involves fine craftsmanship and is highly-rated by urologists. However, not all doctors can perform it. Having no time for idle conversation, Boss Cheng interrupted the patient¡¯s discussion so Yang Ping could conduct the patient¡¯s history, physical examination, and review radiographic images. ¡°Due to your osteogenesis imperfecta, your bones are severely osteoporotic, as brittle as fragile glass, thus, easily susceptible to fractures. During the surgery, there is still a possibility that you could sustain fractures.¡± Yang Ping stated realistically. The patient suddenly recalled the tips about identifying a good doctor his friend had told him. He said: A proper doctor leaves room for uncertainties and never guarantees 100% success in surgery. A genuine doctor doesn¡¯t have time to chit-chat with you. A genuine doctor appears slightly exhausted because of the number of surgeries they perform and lack of adequate sleep¡ª It seemed that this friend was somewhat right. At least Doctor Yang didn¡¯t pound his chest, promising a hundred percent surgical success, but Director Tang did. Doctor Yang was indeed a qualified expert, and Luo Jin was perfect evidence of this. Could Director Tang indeed be what the friend alluded to? That was hard to believe. He was an excellent doctor who spoke and behaved nicely, almost more than one¡¯s own kin. ¡°You rest well. We¡¯ll inform you once we¡¯ve set the surgery date.¡± Yang Ping finished his rounds, and Doctor Wan addressed the patient. Boss Cheng and Dean Cai accompanied Yang Ping back to the doctor¡¯s office where they all settled down. ¡°Director Tang is a terrible person, always putting others down to elevate himself. Presenting himself as an upstanding character while posing as a crusader revealing the medical industry¡¯s ugly side. A simple surgery turns into a complicated one once it leaves his mouth. According to him, procedures performed by other hospitals are either too simple or should not be performed at all. Patients worship him, not knowing any better. Yunjian¡¯s sports medicine, orthopedics, and hand surgery departments are still relatively civilized, taking a new approach. However, their andrology, gynecology, and cosmetic departments are supreme. Their aesthetic hospital earns a whopping two hundred million a year, even the Eight Great Sites of Xiehe Hospital cannot compare,¡± Boss Cheng shared with Yang Ping about Yunjian. Yang Ping was already familiar with this hospital. When he first gained fame as a hand surgeon, the boss of this hospital had asked Huang Jiacai to poach him. After he rejected the offer, there was no further movement. Yang Ping felt relieved that he had maintained his focus back then and not swayed by short-term benefits, else he wouldn¡¯t be experiencing this upward progression. ¡°Last time, Yunjian promoted Director Tang online, claiming he saved a patient whose heart and breathing had stopped for a few hours. Lots of media helped spread the news,¡± Dean Cai always kept up with this hospital¡¯s affairs. ¡°Really? They saved someone after their heart stopped for a few hours? Was it the Lazarus Syndrome?¡± Yang Ping was curious. Dean Cai fumed, ¡°During the interview, the patient said they felt as if a pair of hands was pressing on their chest and they saw hope.¡± ¡°A meniscal removal during a knee replacement surgery, performed while kneeling on the ground. That heartwarming photo went viral on the internet,¡± Boss Cheng added on the splendors of Director Tang. ¡°This hospital is our competitor, always causing trouble for us,¡± Dean Cai was upset. Yang Ping waved his hand, ¡°They are just a bunch of fools. Our goals and levels are different; ignore trivial matters. If we focus on our work and widen the gap, they will eventually fade out of your sight. However, we must stand our ground on matters of principle and fight if necessary.¡± Boss Cheng understood Yang Ping¡¯s meaning, ¡°Doctor Yang, rest assured, we won¡¯t stoop to their level. ¡®If others don¡¯t offend me, I won¡¯t offend them. If others offend me, I¡¯ll definitely respond.¡¯ We don¡¯t have the energy to spar over minor issues, but if they try to trip us up, we will counterattack fiercely not allowing them to hinder our progress.¡± Yang Ping agreed with Boss Cheng¡¯s attitude. During a hospital¡¯s growth, conflicts are inevitable. To resolve these conflicts, fight when necessary, and never show weakness. Kindness invites bullying, a well-behaved horse is often ridden. This was sage advice. Yang Ping had heard that Yunjian often stirred up trouble. There was a period when anonymous tips flooded in, causing various departments to investigate the hospital. Yunjian was behind it all. Dean Cai mentioned that he heard Yunjian had many writers ready to slander Li Quan Hospital the moment this surgery failed. Now that Li Quan Hospital was developing so swiftly, they were looking for opportunities to pull them back, but couldn¡¯t find any handles. Now that this patient had come to Li Quan Hospital for their second phase surgery, they were waiting for something to go wrong. If problems arose, they would seize the opportunity and launch a widespread smear campaign. ¡°They just assume that we, as intellectuals, won¡¯t stoop to underhanded tactics and hence have no fear,¡± Boss Cheng sneered. Yet, they didn¡¯t know that Huang Jiacai had given him tips. Huang Jiacai was even more ruthless when it came to hooligan tactics. Currently, Boss Cheng was at ease, waiting for Yunjian¡¯s next move. Boss Cheng felt a bit uneasy about this patient, fearing a potential trap. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to worry about, they can¡¯t cause any significant trouble. Since the patient came to us, we¡¯ll just proceed with the operation as usual. Make sure to carefully monitor the patient¡¯s recovery after the surgery and ensure thorough record-keeping,¡± Yang Ping instructed them. ¡°Understood, don¡¯t worry, we will be extra careful,¡± Boss Cheng decided to personally oversee this issue. For these fools, Yang Ping really didn¡¯t have the energy to deal with them. Chapter 499 - 499 455 Request for Incorporation ?Chapter 499: Chapter 455: Request for Incorporation Chapter 499: Chapter 455: Request for Incorporation Actually, the crucial aspect in the case of this patient with blue eyes is that the surgical operation needs to be gentle. Because brittle bone disease has led to severe osteoporosis, if the surgical skills are not proficient, and the movements are not gentle during the drilling on the femur or tibia, rough operations can easily lead to fractures. Proficiency is the basis for gentleness. Without sufficient surgical proficiency, we cannot talk about gentle movements. Given Director Tang¡¯s situation, a simple partial resection and reshaping of a knee meniscus would take him five hours. He hasn¡¯t mastered the procedure for the anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery at all. So, how could he possibly achieve a gentle operation? However, Director Tang has been lost in his persona as an expert for so long, forgetting his own limits and overestimating his abilities, which led to the botched surgery. But he has strong communication skills that enable him to navigate through the problematic scenario without any complaints from the patient. In fact, Director Tang is the attending physician. He is yet to be promoted to the associate professorship. His former workplace was a second-tier hospital. However, this did not hinder him from displaying his extraordinary talent. His competency in the field isn¡¯t impressive, in fact, it¡¯s quite poor. But his mouth is incredibly persuasive. In other words, he practices medicine not through technical skills but through words. Three-quarters of the patients in the orthopedics department at his former unit came specifically for him, indicating that his communication and social skills are incredibly strong. Boss He from Yunjian spotted this talent, treated him as a rare treasure, and immediately hired him with a high salary to work in Yunjian hospital. Legend has it that Director Tang had a few hours-long talk with Boss He. Their views on values, life, and the world completely matched, and they instantly clicked. Boss He, in order to let this gold shine, specifically hired a team to promote his image. Director Tang is naturally suitable for promotional packages. In no time, an image of an expert with a heritage, rich experience, and the benevolence of a healer had been established This promotional team is exceptional, being responsible for many of the red robed, healthy and youthful-looking traditional medicine masters who passionately propagate the art of maintaining good health on TV. A myriad of such successful examples could be shown, and promoting Director Tang was just a piece of cake for them. So they put a lot of effort into Director Tang¡¯s promotion, from medical inheritance, his educational background, to successful cases ¨C they covered everything. Even Director Tang himself started believing that he was a nationally renowned expert. The titles given to Director Tang were each more impressive than the last. From the outstanding figure of the Chinese Medicine Hall, the Gold Award recipient of the United Nations Medical Recognition Object, and even the annual recommended figure of the World Medical Association. However, the World Medical Association¡¯s reputation was only well-understood by the dental prevention group. In simple terms, this man was an expert at taking advantage of situations. But not only could he catch fish in troubled waters, he could also catch a lot of big fish. His life was very comfortable, with both material and spiritual needs met in abundance. Unfortunately, Director Tang¡¯s education level was too low. If his education level was a bit higher, he could have at least made massive contributions to our maotai tobacco and other enterprises, instead of being a small expert in Yunjian Hospital. The world is full of wonders! After listening to the story of Director Tang, Yang Ping couldn¡¯t laugh. He couldn¡¯t help but feel trepidation. It was indeed a bit scary to see such a man standing on stage, a surgical knife in hand, performing complex operations on patients. ¡°Let¡¯s stop talking about Professor Tang now, let¡¯s go have dinner. Nanchen is also coming over, it¡¯s been a long time since we all gathered together.¡± Boss Cheng signaled to Dean Cai to end the topic. Knowing that Yang Ping was in Li Quan Hospital, Su Nanchen was just about to finish work and he decided to pass by so they could all have dinner together. Boss Cheng quickly reserved seats at a familiar farmhouse that served fish. The owner of this farmhouse recently bought a very large wild freshwater bass that weighed more than thirty pounds. Once Boss Cheng found out about this, he asked the restaurant owner to save it for him and nurture it in running water until it was time to be used. Yang Ping, Boss Cheng, and Dean Cai arrived at the farmhouse. Su Nanchen had not yet arrived. Yang Ping remembered Sisi¡¯s dad, who was out there delivering packages and takeout. He didn¡¯t know if Li Quan Hospital was still recruiting drivers, so he mentioned it to Old Cheng. Old Cheng immediately said: ¡°Tell him to come and find me directly. He was previously a soldier who drove cars, so his driving skills must be excellent. I¡¯ll let him work as a driver in the administration department of the hospital.¡± In this way, the job positions for both Sisi¡¯s mom and dad are arranged, securing the family¡¯s financial situation. While they were chatting, Su Nanchen arrived. Young Master Su was as elegant as ever. Old Cheng welcomed him: ¡°It¡¯s rare for all of us to gather. The restaurant owner got hold of a very large wild bass, which I have had him keep especially for me. Today, we¡¯ll slaughter it for a full fish banquet.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve kept that fish still? Is it alive?¡± Su Nanchen joked. Dean Cai had just returned from a normal checkup and seriously said: ¡°I just went to see it at the back, it¡¯s alive!¡± Boss Cheng had made a round of tea for everyone and helped Yang Ping and Su Nanchen wash the dishes. He said to Su Nanchen: ¡°We have accepted a patient with brittle bone disease who is prepared to undergo anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. This patient had botched surgery at Yunjian and is coming in for secondary repair. I am worried about any potential traps. I heard that Yunjian has contacted many writers. If any flaws emerge from this surgery, they will smear us relentlessly.¡± ¡°Those jealous bastards!¡± Dean Cai swore. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, when they targeted you in the past, they didn¡¯t know your true strength. Now they¡¯ve quieted down. Even if you gave them ten times the courage, they would not dare to do this,¡± Su Nanchen said while sipping tea. Considering the Su Family¡¯s position in the Nandu medical industry, perhaps the two Boss He¡¯s wouldn¡¯t dare to offend them. Yunjian company has two bosses who are brothers. He Chunsheng is rather sober-minded and wouldn¡¯t surf rashly. However, his brother, He Qiusheng, may not be the same, he is quite reckless. ¡°With your word, I¡¯m relieved. If they really don¡¯t know their place and try anything foolish, they won¡¯t be able to bear the consequences.¡± Hearing Su Nanchen¡¯s tone, Boss Cheng stopped worrying. In fact, Yang Ping was not worried either: ¡°Our development path is completely different from theirs. There may be some conflicts in the short term, but in the long term, we won¡¯t overlap in the slightest.¡± ¡°Dean Cai, could you go check on the kitchen?¡± Boss Cheng said, dismissing Dean Cai. ¡°Doctor Yang, Young Master Su, you are both here today. Dealing with this hospital singlehandedly is not practical. I¡¯d like to request that Doctor Yang take over.¡± Boss Cheng seized the opportunity to propose this subject. Su Nanchen just looked at Yang Ping, waiting for his response. Boss Cheng had mentioned this to Su Nanchen a few times before, but this was the first time in front of Yang Ping. ¡°Doctor Yang, you can¡¯t leave your brother hanging. Young Master Su, you have to put in a good word for me.¡± Su Nanchen looked at the two men, his eyes desperate. Yang Ping was well-acquainted with Boss Cheng, who was a doctor by profession. When he left the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital, he was already a vice-chief physician and associate professor. He was also skilful in hospital management and was quite a sincere person. If he is really willing to merge the hospital under his own investment company, it may not be a bad idea. In this way, everyone can work together to grow and strengthen the hospital in the future. An individual can¡¯t beat a team, and a team can¡¯t beat a system. Yang Ping¡¯s investment company is designed to build such a system. ¡°Are you really willing?¡± Su Nanchen asked. ¡°Do I not look serious? The wine hasn¡¯t even been opened yet!¡± Boss Cheng said earnestly. ¡°Well then, I¡¯ll make the decision for you both, it can be done!¡± Su Nanchen said confidently. ¡°Deal, discuss the specific share allocation with Huang Jiacai. They will also make an investment according to the share allocation.¡± Yang Ping liked straightforwardness and felt there was no point in hesitation at this point. ¡°Hold on! How to invest for future growth is your business, at least now there is no need for investment. We still have enough money for now. You only need to become a shareholder through technical contribution. However, I have one condition, the hospital will continue to be managed by me, Old Cheng. I have feelings for this hospital.¡± Boss Cheng looked very pleased. ¡°Regardless of how the shares are allocated, you keep 51% of the voting rights, how about that?¡± Yang Ping thought it was a fair deal. ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I mean.¡± Boss Cheng was a straightforward man. ¡°So, is it a deal?¡± Su Nanchen played the coordinator. ¡°You can¡¯t back out, can you?¡± Boss Cheng poured tea for Yang Ping. ¡°Once a promise is made, it should be kept.¡± Yang Ping raised his cup with both hands. ¡°You¡¯ve agreed, I¡¯ll go talk to President Huang about the specifics.¡± Boss Cheng said sitting down, his face clear and refreshed now the deal was done. Although they had been cooperating and everything was going smoothly, Boss Cheng was still nervous, afraid that Yang Ping would not agree or think highly of him and the hospital. ¡°Speaking of managing a hospital, I, Old Cheng, have my own ways. Doctor Yang, do not worry. You missed the supply room just now. If you have time, go and take a good look. It¡¯s absolutely no worse than the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States. I visited the U.S. once and studied a lot. I improved their workflow to suit us. After debugging, the process is normally running, even more standardized than a factory assembly line.¡± ¡°When we went through JCI accreditation, we passed with high scores. The accreditation officer was constantly giving thumbs up and saying ¡®GOOD.''¡± ¡°In the whole country, there are only a few private hospitals that can reach my level.¡± Boss Cheng was extremely confident and patted his chest. ¡°Enough with the bragging.¡± Su Nanchen poured tea for Boss Cheng. ¡°This is not bragging, this is confidence! When I was learning at Xiehe, the other learners were only learning techniques, but I studied not only techniques, but also how they manage it. I used a notebook every day to record it down and even make drawings.¡± Boss Cheng didn¡¯t think he was boasting. ¡°You guys met at Xiehe, didn¡¯t you?¡± Yang Ping knew of their deep friendship. Boss Cheng nodded: ¡°At that time, Young Master Su was interning at Xiehe, and I was learning there. That was when we met. You don¡¯t know about your big brother Su¡¯s glorious history, Young Master Su, right? At that time, it seemed a lot of girls were chasing you. There¡¯s Lin Lan of course, who has now promoted. And there¡¯s Shui Ling Shui Ling girl, Sanbo Dean Xia¡¯s daughter, seemed to like you very much too. And that one who sent roses with a Lamborghini, remember?¡± ¡°Young Master Su, a Lamborghini sending roses? How romantic!¡± Dean Cai had returned. ¡°It¡¯s not him sending roses to others, but a beauty sending roses to him. The whole Xiehe knew about it.¡± Old Cheng explained clearly, his tone rising and falling. ¡°Young Master Su, share some tactics will you?¡± Dean Cai looked at him in admiration. ¡°Old Cheng, you¡¯re only talking about me. Why not mention yourself? I heard when you were chasing sister-in-law, one day when sister-in-law was on duty and wanted to eat watermelon, you bought an entire watermelon and send it to her department. Sister-in-law said, ¡®You should have bought a whole one, not just a slice. What will the duty nurse, graduate students, interns, and accompanying doctors eat?''¡± ¡°Guess what Old Cheng said then. He said ¡®I did buy a whole one. But in my hurry to bring you the freshest piece, I delivered your slice first while running. I¡¯m going back to get the rest.''¡± Laughing heartily, Su Nanchen caused everyone else to follow suit. Boss Cheng¡¯s face turned red, and he lowered his head saying, ¡°Enough, enough.¡± ¡°Doctor Yang, let me tell you, you¡¯re still young; you should have more fun before getting married too soon,¡± Dean Cai advised Yang Ping, talking from experience. Old Cheng chided, ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Dammit, teaching others to be a bad guy in front of their brother-in-law. ¡°Ah, um...¡± Dean Cai was at a loss for words. ¡°Go check on the back and see why the dishes haven¡¯t arrived yet,¡± Boss Cheng said, helping Dean Cai relieve some of the awkwardness. Chapter 500 - 500 456 The German Hall ?Chapter 500: Chapter 456: The German Hall Chapter 500: Chapter 456: The German Hall After finishing the meal, Dean Cai called Doctor Wan to bring the patient to the operating room for preoperative preparation. Yang Ping prefers to observe the patient in the operating room complete the preparations himself. He does not like walking into the operating room to see a patient already covered by a sheet, revealing only the surgical area, this makes him feel uneasy. Both Boss Cheng and Dean Cai were aware of Yang Ping¡¯s habit, hence they did not commence anesthesia and sterilization too early. The patient had been moved onto the operating bed, the nurse connected the intravenous channel, hanging a 500 ml 0.9% saline drip to maintain the intravenous connection. This was a special patient, the doctors and nurses maneuvered him carefully, afraid that he might fracture a bone. The anesthesiologist checked the patient¡¯s teeth, examining each one, determining if any were loose. Loose teeth that dislodge could obstruct the windpipe, causing suffocation and endangering the patient¡¯s life. Patients with brittle bone disease tend to lose their teeth prematurely, and this patient was no exception. Many of his teeth had become loose and fallen out and had been replaced with implants. Confirming that there were no loose teeth, the anesthesiologist then examined his hearing aid. Due to his hearing impairment, he relied on the hearing aid for normal auditory function. ¡°Don¡¯t remove it! If I can¡¯t hear, I¡¯ll be scared.¡± The patient was extremely panicked. The anesthesiologist explained, ¡°During the surgery, we¡¯ll put you to sleep. Isn¡¯t that great? After a little sleep, the surgery will be finished.¡± Even if general anesthesia was not chosen, and instead combined spinal-epidural anesthesia was used, in order to lessen the patient¡¯s discomfort, most anesthesiologists would use drugs to put the patient to sleep. Otherwise, the patient would hear all the metallic noise during the surgery, which would leave an indelible traumatic memory. The patient shook his head, ¡°No! Absolutely not. Let me stay conscious throughout the surgery.¡± Yang Ping, who was sitting aside waiting for them to finish preparations, said, ¡°Keep the hearing aid on, let him wear it. Whether he wants to stay awake or sleep, let it be his own choice.¡± If the patient stays awake and suddenly can¡¯t hear the sounds around him, he will fall into a state of isolation. The entire surgical process can be very oppressive and frightening. Keeping the hearing aid in place wouldn¡¯t cause much of a problem. Just take care that it doesn¡¯t fall out. The anesthesiologist, nurse, and a few other doctors carefully turned the patient onto his side. ¡°Doctor, take it easy. I¡¯ve heard that having spinal anesthesia could leave behind back pain, is that true?¡± The patient was quite talkative and always felt like chatting with the doctors. ¡°Please don¡¯t move. Lower your head, hunch your back, bend your knees, like a shrimp. If you arch your back, it will be easier for me to give you the anesthesia.¡± The anesthesiologist began sterilization and positioning for the spinal tap. ¡°I¡¯m so anxious, yet you haven¡¯t answered my question yet?¡± The patient was persistent. ¡°In the past, when thick needles were used for spinal anesthesia, there was such a possibility. Now, thin needles are used, the chances are extremely low.¡± The anesthesiologist had to respond to him. ¡°Be careful! How old is your child? If he or she takes up painting as their special interest in the future, you should visit me. You may see my legs and arms are fragile, but when it comes to teaching painting, I¡¯m an expert.¡± The patient kept talking. For patients with brittle bone disease, their long bones fail to develop properly due to disturbances in endosteal ossification. As a result, the bones are incredibly thin, especially in the thigh, which often appears very slender. Some patients¡¯ torso and waist also become slender, with the organs inside squeezed into a long shape. While positioning the patient, the anesthesiologist said, ¡°My child is still young, we have a while to go.¡± ¡°Ah¨C doctor, do you have enough experience? Are you just an apprentice?¡± ¡°Stay still! I have a second child and the older one is already in high school!¡± ¡°Oh!¡± ¡°When I had surgery at Yunjian Hospital, a nurse kept chatting with me during the anesthesia to ease my nerves. You, however, are not doing this right.¡± The patient complained a bit. Boss Cheng stood up, walked over to the patient, and started chatting with him. ¡°You want a nurse solely for chatting? No problem. We have a package that¡¯s better than Yunjian¡¯s service. It¡¯s called the Ronaldo-style anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, prices start at 600,000. Do you want it? If it¡¯s okay, I¡¯ll immediately call two nurses to chat with you.¡± ¡°600,000? That¡¯s too expensive. No, no.¡± The patient shouted. ¡°Play some relaxing music.¡± Boss Cheng ordered the nurses to play music. He had completely forgotten the most crucial part; patients can listen to music during surgery, and they can even choose their own tracks. ¡°What type of music do you like?¡± The nurse listed a few songs and asked. The patient said, ¡°Rock and roll! Heavy metal rock and roll!¡± Boss Cheng laughed, ¡°We only play soothing melodies here to help relieve your tension. There¡¯s no rock and roll. Can you imagine listening to rock and roll during surgery? Aren¡¯t you afraid that the surgeon will get excited and make a rocking motion with the scalpel?¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. Once, I got so excited while singing rock and roll that I fractured a bone.¡± The patient really had such an experience. For the audio system in the multi-purpose operating room, Boss Cheng had spent no small sum. It was top-class German sound equipment, costing several hundred thousand. The excellent audio quality couldn¡¯t be compared to ordinary systems. Once the music started, the patient immediately closed his mouth, and his mood relaxed. ¡°You can do it now. I¡¯m not afraid anymore. You can give me the anesthesia whenever you like.¡± The patient was completely relaxed. The anesthesiologist lifted the disposable surgical towel, ¡°It¡¯s done!¡± Together, everyone carefully turned the patient back to the supine position. While changing the patient¡¯s position, everyone was extremely cautious fearing the possibility of causing unintentional fractures. This is something that such patients, whose fractures are like curses, can¡¯t get rid of. This patient had a fracture almost every year, caused for various reasons. One time, he was too happy and laughed too hard, leading to a rib fracture. Another time, he had to rush to the bathroom in the morning due to a strong urge to urinate. He moved too quickly, which twisted his ankle, leading to an ankle fracture. When left alone, they became slightly unbridled, and he ended up with a broken femur. When he sat down too quickly on the couch, he fractured a lumbar vertebra. In his own words, he got a bone fracture once a year, like clockwork. Once, he was thrilled because it was already New Year¡¯s Eve and he hadn¡¯t broken a bone that year. He was overjoyed that he didn¡¯t have any fractures, but amid his laughter, he suffered a sharp pain in his chest©¤he had fractured a rib. He broke into a sweat every time he saw a speed bump when riding in a car, fearing that the car¡¯s tremor would induce a fracture. Fractures had become a part of his life. He¡¯d gotten so used to them that he treated fractures roughly the same way most people dealt with catching a cold or the flu. Once Doctor Wan finished sterilizing and laying out surgical drapes, Yang Ping led Su Nanchen onto the stage. Thanks to the soothing effect of the music, the patient was no longer anxious or nervous. The surgery began. Yang Ping was extremely gentle. He now had to operate on a fragile, diseased bone tissue that was as brittle as a dried biscuit. During the examination of the knee joint, the probe moved within the tiny gaps without hitting anything. The rear side of the medial joint space of the knee joint, which is the hardest to reveal, was laid wide open now, without any strain applied. Normally, when dealing with the medial joint space of the knee joint, the knee joint has to be bent about 20-40 degrees and a certain amount of force has to be applied to cause the knee joint to abduct and rotate. This widens the medial joint space, providing enough room for the operation of the instruments. If we were to forcefully pry open the medial space now, it could easily cause a fracture. This is why these kinds of patients are commonly referred to as ¡°porcelain dolls¡±. When tunneling, he was extraordinarily careful. He¡¯d drill a bit, then pause before proceeding. Alternating in this way and advancing steadily, he managed to avoid applying too much vibration to the bone with the rotating drill, as the vibration could also lead to a fracture. Surgery is a process that must be approached with reverence. This attitude ensures that doctors act as carefully as possible. If a doctor lacks reverence, it would be utterly terrifying for the patient. ¡°Do not do unto others what you would not want done to yourself!¡± This phrase applies perfectly to doctors. Should this patient undergo surgery or not? Is the surgical plan good or bad? You can simply ask yourself, if the patient was you, would you choose this method? This kind of introspective questioning goes straight to the heart. If the doctor himself were lying on the operating table, he would want the primary surgeon to be extremely cautious, striving for a perfect process and result, rather than having a hasty, haphazard approach. Yang Ping often asked himself this question. Every time he did, all the difficult choices naturally became clear and obvious. Regardless of how much this patient had been deceived and tricked by others, his desire remained constant ¨C he wanted to cure his illness. Treating his illness was the patient¡¯s primary need. All other needs were secondary and stemmed from this primary need. They should not be confused with each other. With the rhythmic drilling and pausing, the tibial tunnel was successfully made without any sign of fracture. As for this surgery, Yang Ping was not striving for speed. Actually, he never chased speed in surgery. Speed in and of itself was not the issue, the patient¡¯s needs and condition were what mattered. After making the tibial tunnel, he began creating the femoral tunnel. Due to the narrow operative space, he tried his best to avoid any pressure on the surrounding bone tissue by the instruments. The patient¡¯s surgical lower limb hung naturally off the side of the operating table to avoid causing any shearing stress between the limb and the edge of the table. The aseptic fluid collection bag and a bit of ooze was sucked away by the suction device. The operating room floor was spotless without a drop of water, exceedingly clean. The femoral tunnel was also gently tunneled. The already prepared graft tendon was implanted into the bone tunnel, and the two ends were fixed in place with a button plate. This was almost the only fixation method for this patient, as compressive fixation could cause the fragile bone tissue to crumble due to the pressure and expansion stress exerted by the screws. Although his actions were somewhat slow, there were no repetitive or fruitless actions because the entire operation flowed seamlessly from one procedure to the next. The operation was completed in less than half an hour. When the sterile drape was lifted, the patient looked pale and resigned, sighing, ¡°Did it fail again?¡± ¡°How do you know it failed?¡± Yang Ping asked him. The patient replied dejectedly, ¡°The operation just started and it¡¯s already over. It must have failed.¡± Yang Ping reassured him with a smile, ¡°The operation was successful. You will need to wear a brace later to protect the site and do your best to avoid fractures.¡± ¡°Was it successful?¡± The patient asked. Yang Ping asked Doctor Wan to play back the surgical video for the patient. As Doctor Wan explained the process, the patient¡¯s face went from red to pale. ¡°You guys are really something. ¡®No man is a prophet in his own country.¡¯ I suppose the saying is true.¡± The patient praised. Boss Cheng asked him, ¡°How about writing us a service experience report afterward? Write it according to your own feelings, don¡¯t worry about saving our face.¡± ¡°Sure, that¡¯s easy. How about I write you one every year?¡± The patient responded without any reservations. After all, he pretty much broke a bone once a year. ¡°Your sound system is way better than Yunjian¡¯s, and not just by a little bit. It¡¯s really pleasant to listen to. I didn¡¯t dare fall asleep, but if it weren¡¯t for the music, the sound of the drill rotating would make me feel like my heart was being scratched by a cat.¡± The patient looked around the operating room, taking in his surroundings. Chapter 501 - 501 457 Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association ?Chapter 501: Chapter 457: Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association Chapter 501: Chapter 457: Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association ¡°You¡¯ve got quite an ear too, being able to distinguish that the sound system is German?¡± Boss Cheng was indeed impressed with this patient. The patient seemed to think it was nothing extraordinary: ¡°I¡¯m rich in artistic sensibility. Most of my time is spent painting, and I occasionally listen to music as a pastime.¡± ¡°Is your sound system also German?¡± Boss Cheng felt he had met someone on the same wavelength. Ever since this sound system had been placed here, many patients had listened to it, but no one had been able to identify the brand of the sound system. Lying on the operating table, the patient remarked, ¡°Exactly. However, mine is a basic model and it¡¯s secondhand. A high school classmate of mine moved to Australia and sold his house here. His sound system was also German-made, and he gifted it to me. I treat it like a treasure in my living room, listening to it whenever I have the time. Naturally, I¡¯ve grown accustomed to the sound quality, and yours is even better.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t lift your head ¨C it could lead to a headache.¡± The anesthesiologist restrained the patient, who was attempting to sit up to converse. Following spinal anesthesia, lying flat is required for six hours to prevent low intracranial pressure, which could cause headaches. ¡°If you¡¯re looking for someone to evaluate your service, you¡¯ve found the right person. We, who are involved in the arts, have highly sensitive senses and even better intuition. Whether your services are good or not, I don¡¯t analyze it logically, but feel it with my heart. For example, the layout of this operating room is excellent and doesn¡¯t induce a strong feeling of metal and sharp instruments. Adding in the music from your sound system, any fear of the operating room has completely been alleviated for the patient. Normally in an operating room, there is a strong menacing feeling of sharp metallic instruments, making people feel fearful, anxious and uneasy.¡± The patient continued speaking as he was getting ready to move from the bed. Threatened by sharp metallic instruments? This was Yang Ping¡¯s first time hearing that an operating room could evoke such a feeling of threat, and he was extremely curious: ¡°Threatened by sharp metallic instruments? That¡¯s a fresh phrase.¡± ¡°I came up with it based on my feelings.¡± The patient continued speaking even as he was being transferred to the stretcher, reluctant to leave. In order to improve hospital services, Boss Cheng had sought out a group of patients to serve as experience officers. Only patients can truly experience the process of being hospitalized and identify what worked well and what didn¡¯t. ¡°Your sound system really is great!¡± Yang Ping agreed, also feeling very comfortable. Using music for psychological massages and relieving patients¡¯ preoperative anxiety demonstrated Boss Cheng¡¯s meticulous attention to providing patient-centered care. Patients are human beings, not machines. The modern approach to medicine is the biopsychosocial model rather than a solely biological one. Yang Ping also noticed that from the ward to the elevator, and then to the operating room, the murals on the walls were very thoughtful, capable of easing patients¡¯ anxiety and inducing a state of relaxation, trust, and hope. ¡°From the decor style, wall paintings, sound system in the operating room, including the song choice, I made several trips to Austria to have a psychologist design this plan. He serves as a psychological consultant for many high-end hospitals.¡± Boss Cheng declared proudly. ¡°Why don¡¯t I send a similar sound system over to your operating room?¡± Boss Cheng suggested after seeing how much Yang Ping liked the sound system. Yang Ping waved him off: ¡°No need.¡± ¡°This patient could benefit from having an intramedullary nail placed within the medullary cavities of his long bones. It would distribute stress and reduce the probability of fractures.¡± Yang Ping had analyzed this patient¡¯s condition and noted that the bone density of his long bones was poor. While the ends of his long bones were relatively unscathed, the highest probability of fracture was in the shafts of his long bones. Apart from conventional osteoporosis treatment to increase bone density, Another method involved the insertion of an intramedullary nail into the medullary cavity of the long bones to distribute the stress load and reduce the possibility of fractures. Even if fractures occurred, if it took place in the shaft, with the intramedullary nail in place as support, fractures would not be displaced, avoiding the need for surgery. Simply resting the limb could allow for fracture healing. The aim of this surgery was to prevent fractures. However, these intramedullary nails needed customization, made according to the shape and length of the patient¡¯s long bone medullary cavity. ¡°Professional matters should be left to professionals ¨C you¡¯re the expert, so I¡¯ll let you make the decision.¡± The patient agreed with the plan. Over the years, by conducting art training classes, he had earned a bit of money. His financial situation was relatively comfortable ¨C if not, he would not have spent forty thousand on a circumcision. Due to his physical weakness, he stayed at home painting all day. From a young age, his focus was on art, and naturally, he developed remarkable skills. His pair of blue eyes actually brought him a lot of convenience and acted like a signature signboard. It was deemed as a unique artistic temperament. After he graduated from the art academy, he started art training classes. To many, it was a comfortable familiarity. Word spread, and it became well known that the art classes run by the blue-eyed art teacher were very good. Dependent on his expertise in art, he was not only able to make a living but also lead a pretty good life. During the peak tourist season, he would rent a booth at some provincial tourist attractions and earn some money from painting artistic portraits. The patient still wanted to chat with the doctors, but Boss Cheng asked him to return to his ward to rest: ¡°We can chat more when I have the time.¡± After the patient left, Dean Cai said: ¡°He doesn¡¯t misunderstand our recommendations, does he? Equating them to Yunjian¡¯s circumcision, AI health screening, cancer prevention methods?¡± However, after speaking, Dean Cai felt he had spoken out of turn. After being reminded by Dean Cai, Yang Ping felt he had made a valid point. His just now advice could easily be misunderstood by some patients. But after some thought, he had embraced being straightforward to save time and had no energy left for beating around the bush. ¡°If he didn¡¯t misconstrue the price tag of 40,000 for foreskin, why would he misunderstand the genuine treatment? You¡¯re overthinking it,¡± Boss Cheng thought Dean Cai was overstepping. ¡°Actually, you can¡¯t rule that out. I¡¯ve had such patients who didn¡¯t complain about spending one or two thousand on a haircut, but grumbled over a few hundred for an MRI; who wouldn¡¯t mind paying a few dozens for bathing their dog, but were reluctant to spend a dozen on medical registration fees.¡± Su Nanchen gave Dean Cai a way out. Boss Cheng lead Yang Ping and Su Nanchen for a tour around the hospital. They hadn¡¯t taken a detailed look after the new remodeling. The hospital, under Old Cheng¡¯s management, was ordered and regulated strictly. Doctors and nurses were vibrant and bound by rules without being overburdened. Starting from this hospital and shaping it into an internationally renowned one seemed very hopeful. The hospital site was currently leased. With enough funding in the future, they could purchase land and construct their own building. ¡°I have to get back to the department. They just admitted a gout patient. It is said that he has gout nodules all over his body with the biggest one the size of five fists.¡± Yang Ping couldn¡¯t be here for too long either. He had a lot to do every day and could hardly keep up without excellent time management. Boss Cheng didn¡¯t want to keep him any longer, so he saw Yang Ping and Su Nanchen off. Once they were alone, Su Nanchen talked to Yang Ping, ¡°Dad is going to Japan next month to participate in the Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association forum, and he wants to take you with him.¡± Even though Yang Ping hadn¡¯t formally been introduced into the Su family by Xiao Su, in Su Nanchen¡¯s eyes, Yang Ping was already his brother-in-law. This academic conference, hosted by the affiliated hospital of Tokyo University, served as a warm-up for the Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association conference and an exploration of the China-Japan rivalry. Currently, the chairman of the Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association was Fujiwara Masao, so Japanese people had always been in control of the association. Professor Su planned to take over as chairman this time. At that time, Professor Liang, Professor Qin, and others would attend the conference. It wasn¡¯t merely about one person, but the entire Chinese orthopedics community. The Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association (APOA), mainly comprised of orthopedic surgeons from the Asia-Pacific region, was a regional and authoritative academic organization. It was originally established as the Western Pacific Orthopedic Association (WPOA) in 1962 and renamed to the Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association in 2000. Fujiwara Masao planned to run for another term with full confidence. His team excelled in the research and clinical fields. His young crew members were all outstanding talents, such as Takahashi and Sasaki in trauma surgery, and Mitsui Tasuku in spine surgery. Aside from that, many medical universities and hospitals in Japan supported him running for another term, as did others in Australia and South Korea. Another term meant he could continue to lead this academic organization. Whoever sat in this position was not only a competition of personal capabilities but also of team strength, with the nation being the team level. ¡°I will prepare for it!¡± Yang Ping responded without hesitation. Yang Ping had already heard some stories about the competition between China and Japan for the academic lead in APOA from Director Han. Professor Su, Professor Liang, Professor Qin, and a number of people from that generation had been competing with Fujiwara Masao for several years. This time, these professors were prepared to defeat Fujiwara Masao. Therefore, this forum served as more than just a warm-up for the conference. Its significance was evident, to display their capabilities, garner support from other countries, and obtain more votes when the actual conference took place. ¡°When will you come to my house for a visit?¡± Su Nanchen asked tentatively, hoping to probe something out of Yang Ping since he failed to get any information from his sister. Yang Ping looked embarrassed: ¡°I will follow her arrangements. She probably thinks the timing isn¡¯t right yet.¡± Understanding his sister¡¯s considerations, Su Nanchen said: ¡°She has your best interest in mind. You know our family situation. My generation only has one girl, her boyfriend will definitely be scrutinized by countless people. Don¡¯t worry, just follow her plans.¡± Last time at Su Nanchen¡¯s birthday, their grandfather started examining Yang Ping, even asking him about the neurosurgery papers. Without the countless books he had read in the system space, he could have been caught off guard by the questions. They chatted for a while, and it was almost time. ¡°You should prepare well. Many of our young people are going, the lineup is huge, just as theirs. This is a showdown before the conference. I¡¯m confident we will overwhelm them,¡± Su Nanchen reminded Yang Ping before leaving. This academic discourse right was very significant to a country. ¡°I will do my best!¡± Yang Ping made a gesture. Chapter 502 - 502 458 Gout is the Devil ?Chapter 502: Chapter 458: Gout is the Devil Chapter 502: Chapter 458: Gout is the Devil In the afternoon, Yang Ping finished his surgery and returned to his office. Huang Jiahui had been waiting for a long time. She had received the sample of the spinal external fixator and delivered it as soon as possible. ¡°President Huang is very efficient.¡± Yang Ping sat down. ¡°Dr. Yang, please take a look. If you confirm that there is no problem with the sample, the Guilin laboratory can receive the experimental external fixator in just three days.¡± Huang Jiahui put on protective gloves, opened the instrument box, and carefully took out the model of scoliosis and the external fixator, laying them on the desk to demonstrate for Yang Ping. If the investment for this device was split evenly, calculated by weight, the unit price would be much more expensive than gold. One after another, screws spiraled into the preset pedicle channel of the spine model, as Huang Jiahui proficiently installed the external fixator. A few minutes later, the external fixator was installed. She then began to demonstrate the adjustment. With the rotation of the knob, the flexible spine model began to correct itself. It had taken Jiahui several hours of practice in her own company to perfect this demonstration, which only lasted a few minutes. ¡°How is it, Dr. Yang? Do you see any problems?¡± Jiahui had shed her youthful naivete and evolved into a mature and efficient professional. Yang Ping decided to operate on it himself. Jiahui hurriedly handed him gloves. He operated on it from start to finish himself, checking repeatedly to confirm there were no issues. ¡°Produce according to this sample and send the experimental products directly to the Guilin Laboratory.¡± Yang Ping planned to complete at least forty animal experiments before the Asia-Pacific Orthopedics Association Congress. It would be too late to present the spinal external fixator technology at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Orthopedics Forum, but there was still hope to introduce it at the larger conference. Theoretically, the rate of correction for infants is much quicker than it is for children. However, it was estimated that it would take about three months to complete the first batch of animal experiments. This is a completely new scoliosis correction technology. Once introduced at the conference, it would cause a uproar. It is a completely different technical route from the existing orthopedic surgery. The sample size is tiny and specifically fits the body of an infant monkey. It can¡¯t be used for humans. After successful animal experiments, equipment for human use will need to be produced separately. As Jiahui prepared to clean up the equipment, she asked, ¡°Dr. Yang, would you like to keep it on your desk for your daily research?¡± Yang Ping was thinking the same thing. As an office decoration placed on the desk, he could study it when he had time, and everyone else could familiarize themselves with it as well. ¡°Dr. Yang, when will you go to Guilin? I can follow you and be responsible for the equipment.¡± While Jiahui had already taken on the role of manager, she was still directly involved in Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries. ¡°I¡¯m not sure yet, I¡¯ll let you know when I am.¡± Yang Ping was very satisfied with the sample. Thinking about how children with scoliosis in the future won¡¯t need surgical operations, but just need to wear this external fixator with their parents helping adjust the screws daily while the deformed spine slowly auto-corrects ¨C what a miraculous thing. Compared to surgical correction, this method is not only less traumatic, but more importantly, it preserves the normal range of movement of each spinal segment, with the spine retaining full and normal function. But with surgical correction, much of the movement of the spine is sacrificed. In the future, upgrades to this technology for the correction of adult spines could involve cutting the cortical bone at crucial parts, then using an external fixator and applying the Ilizarov principle for correction. As Yang Ping was thinking, suddenly, a heart-wrenching scream came from the ward; the screaming grew louder and louder. ¡°What happened?¡± Yang Ping asked. Jiahui looked at a loss. Yang Ping asked her to go back first and then summoned a standardized training student to enquire about the situation. ¡°Bed 24, Teacher Zhang is changing the dressing.¡± The standardized training student replied respectfully. Bed 24 was for the patient with gout admitted from the emergency department. His body was covered with gout nodules, with the largest being the size of five adult fists. Because the pain was so severe, he was admitted to the Comprehensive Surgery Department after being seen in the emergency room during the night. At Sanbo Hospital, everyone still preferred to use the name of the Comprehensive Orthopedics, referring to Yang Ping¡¯s department as the Comprehensive Surgery Department, which seemed more grounded than the high-end Surgical Research Institute. No matter whether it was the emergency department, general surgery, or the Overseas Chinese Building, if they encountered a case they couldn¡¯t handle involving surgery, they naturally consulted the Comprehensive Surgery Department. The standardized training student led Yang Ping to the ward, where Zhang Lin was changing the dressing. Xu Zhiliang was directing from the side, and Song Zimo was watching with a crowd of standardized training students and interns. When the bandages on the wound were opened, the soaked dressings were covered with a white, lime-like substance. The patient, a sixty-year-old male, had gout nodules all over his body. There were forty-four that could be counted, the largest being the size of five fists. There were several more that were two or three fists large. The whole person appeared severely deformed, like a monster, making people feel extremely uncomfortable just looking at him. Several large gout tophi had ruptured, constantly oozing a white chalky substance. This ¡°chalk¡± mixed with tissue fluid, resembling white mud. Zhang Lin used tweezers to manipulate a disinfected cotton ball, stirring inside the ruptured wounds to clean out the chalk-like sludge. The patient lay on the bed, groaning in pain, occasionally letting out a sharp scream, begging to have all the limbs with the ruptured gout tophi amputated. Indeed, when gout pain flares, it can be excruciating. In 1799, renowned British cartoonist James Gillray portrayed gout as a black devil, vividly expressing the torment of gout. This cartoonist, having experienced gout in his big toe joint, drew a cartoon portraying gout as a black, terrifying devil hunched over the foot, biting and tearing wildly. ¡°Fatty, watch and learn!¡± Little Five commented, his tongue clicking in awe. Sweat was beading on Liang Fatty¡¯s forehead as if he was seeing a frightening vision of his own future. He hadn¡¯t realized gout could become this horrifying. ¡°Gout is one of the oldest metabolic diseases in humans, primarily resulting from issues in the body¡¯s uric acid metabolism. Excessive uric acid accumulates and crystallizes, attacking joints, organs, and other parts of the body. Records of gout can be traced back to the 5th century BC, with the ¡®Father of Medicine¡¯, Hippocrates, documenting its clinical manifestations.¡± Song Zimo took this opportunity to give the standardized training students and interns some knowledge about gout. ¡°Among historical figures we know well, such as Bacon, Newton, and Darwin from overseas, and Bai Juyi, Liu Yuxi, and Kublai Khan from our country, were all gout sufferers.¡± ¡°In the ancient times, gout was truly a ¡®rich man¡¯s disease¡¯. Only emperors, nobles, and the higher echelons of society were likely to suffer from it. The general population rarely had a chance to contract this disease.¡± ¡°In modern times, with improved living standards and lifestyles once exclusive to the wealthy, gout has become the second most prevalent metabolic disease in our country, next to diabetes. According to statistics, there are over 80 million sufferers in our country, and the number is rapidly increasing at an annual rate of 9.7%.¡± ¡°Generally, gout attacks without warning, often causing individuals to be awakened in the middle of the night by intense foot pain. The pain gradually intensifies and peaks around the 12-hour mark, with a tearing, knife-cutting, or gnawing sensation that is unbearable.¡± ¡°The majority of gout attacks occur in the first metatarsophalangeal joint, or the big toe joint. As the disease worsens, it gradually spreads upward, affecting the dorsum of the foot, heel, ankle, knee, wrist, and elbow joints. The affected joints and surrounding tissues become red, swollen, hot, and painful, resulting in movement limitation.¡± ¡°However, it doesn¡¯t stop there. Gout is a silent killer; it not only erodes and damages the joints, but also damages the internal organs, such as causing gouty nephropathy; in severe cases, it leads to uremia, ultimately requiring dialysis or kidney transplantation.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t overlook this disease. If you take it seriously and treat it well, it won¡¯t be a big deal. But if you ignore it, one day it will make you regret it.¡± ¡°Whenever there¡¯s a chance, we should have Old Liang give us a lecture on gout ¨C he¡¯s an expert in this area.¡± Song Zimo finished speaking and turned to look at Liang Fatty, who was shivering with fear. At that moment, Song Zimo spotted Yang Ping and immediately went over. ¡°This is trouble!¡± he said, ¡°Without surgery, these wounds will never heal. With surgery, all joints in the body have been corroded by uric acid crystals, the wounds may also not heal.¡± The surgery was definitely necessary, but the question was how to do it. ¡°We should be more cautious with the surgical plan and conduct a detailed assessment of the blood vessels in the limbs,¡± Yang Ping instructed. Zhang Lin, along with two trainees, was sweating profusely but finally managed to change the dressings on all the wounds. The used bandages filled up the nearby yellow trashcan. Everyone had never seen a gout patient this severe before. The patient lay on the bed covered in bumps and bumps everywhere. If you weren¡¯t prepared and suddenly looked at him, it would scare you into a cold sweat. Protracted illness wears out the patient¡¯s family¡¯s patience. Time has a way of eroding a person¡¯s resilience. ¡°What¡¯s all the yelling? Does it stop hurting if you yell?¡± The patient¡¯s daughter scolded him by the bedside. ¡°We administered a painkiller injection before changing the dressing.¡± Xu Zhiliang explained to Yang Ping who had just walked in. Apparently, before the gout tophi began to rupture, the old man lived with his daughter. After the rupture, they went to a local hospital to clean up the wound. Post-surgery, not only did the wound not heal, it got worse exposing the bone and the other big nodes began to break one after another. The unbearable smell pervaded the entire house. Left with no choice, the daughter rented a house for her father and hired a caretaker to look after him. The caretaker quit after a month, even a raise didn¡¯t convince her to stay, the mere task of changing the dressings was enough to scare her off. Caretakers are already hard to come by in the housekeeping market, and many are unwilling to take care of sick elderly people. Despite repeated raises, they still couldn¡¯t find a suitable person, so the patient¡¯s daughter had to take care of him herself. ¡°We both are only children and now have five elderly people to take care of. We were left with no choice but to send one who¡¯s in his eighties to a nursing home. Recently, he suffered a stroke and has just been discharged. We¡¯re about to be driven mad. Wealthy bosses might have it easier, but we¡¯re wage earners. In terms of both energy and finance, we just can¡¯t cope with it all, so right now we¡¯re hanging on for dear life.¡± The patient¡¯s daughter vented her frustration, a way to justify her emotional outburst. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, doctor, I¡¯m really on the brink of collapse.¡± The patient¡¯s daughter softened her tone, afraid she might give the doctors the wrong impression. ¡°Alright, alright, it¡¯s done now. Rest a bit.¡± The patient¡¯s daughter pulled the blanket over her father. ¡°I¡¯d better be dead.¡± The patient muttered with a desperation in his voice. ¡°Will you stop throwing tantrums? Focus on getting better. Dr. Yang will have a solution.¡± His daughter chastised him. ¡°I¡¯m really sorry for the trouble,¡± the patient¡¯s daughter apologized, seeming regretful about her earlier outburst. ¡°We¡¯re doing our best.¡± Yang Ping comforted her. Chapter 503 - 503 459 Fattys Health Classroom ?Chapter 503: Chapter 459: Fatty¡¯s Health Classroom Chapter 503: Chapter 459: Fatty¡¯s Health Classroom Gout is an internal disease that rarely requires surgical intervention. However, this patient¡¯s gout nodules are not only numerous but also large. Several of them have stretched the skin until it ruptures, forming a long unhealed wound. At this point, without surgical intervention, the wound is almost impossible to heal. The gout nodules are filled with uric acid crystals. Human tissue eroded by uric acid crystals hampers the healing ability of such wounds, sometimes rendering them unhealable. Even with surgery, the possibility of the wounds not healing and constantly oozing remains. Gout progressing to this stage is usually due to a patient¡¯s lack of attention to the condition. Some patients believe gout is not worth treating. They think as the condition sometimes is painful and sometimes is not. Times it hurts are fewer than times it doesn¡¯t. They feel normal when it doesn¡¯t hurt, so they see no urgency in treatment. Others acknowledge the need for gout treatment which requires medication use. They worry about the side effects of the medication, and thus continuously postpone treatment until it becomes irreversible. Gout is a disease; it must be treated. Dietary adjustments are one type of treatment method, but this is only applicable for patients with high uric acid without gout flare-ups or patients with early mild gout. A majority of gout cases require medicinal intervention to decrease the uric acid level in the blood. Inside the human body, uric acid is the final metabolite of purines. Gout patients experience a malfunction in purine metabolism, hence the increase in their uric acid metabolite. Unfortunately, this malfunction is often irreparable. ¡°Fatty, you are a gout specialist. When you have time, you should educate everyone about gout.¡± After examining this patient, Yang Ping felt a need to share knowledge about this disease with everyone. The hospital organizes a health class at the Tri-Bo Hotel every week, where lectures on public health knowledge are given. The audience usually consists of hospital staff, inpatients, or their relatives. Liang Fatty once volunteered in the medical department hoping to take responsibility for gout education. However, adhering to the principle of specialized lectures, the medical department denied Fatty¡¯s request and gave the gout lecture to internal medicine doctors. Fatty was disappointed when he attended the lecture given by the internal medicine doctor. He thought it was not accessible enough, lacked localization, and did not address key issues. Now that Yang Ping suggested for him to give a lecture on gout, he was eager to try. ¡°Why wait for another date when date seems fated. Since we have time now, how about a class now? If possible, we recommend that you give a lecture in the health class at the Tri-Bo Hotel?¡± Little Five was very keen because his father-in-law has gout. Every time he inquired about it from Fatty, he only obtained fragmented knowledge. He hoped that Fatty could give a formal class, knowing that he possesses in-depth knowledge about gout. ¡°How about now? In our teaching room?¡± Zhang Lin also supported, because his father¡¯s uric acid level was high every time he underwent a medical check-up. ¡°Fatty, give a lecture now without preparation, can you do it? If it¡¯s good, I¡¯ll recommend you for the health lecture.¡± Yang Ping encouraged him. With Yang Ping¡¯s recommendation, Fatty will for sure be appreciated by the medical department. Going to the health class to showcase would fulfill Liang Fatty¡¯s long-time dreams. ¡°Yes! If you all encourage me, then why wait for another day when the date seems fated. Give me half an hour, no, one hour. I¡¯ll educate everyone about gout. I feel the pain of it and have done extensive research on it. I took the opportunity to study carefully. With accumulated knowledge, I¡¯ve gained some achievements. Today, I¡¯ll showcase them.¡± Liang Fatty bowed his hand. With instant support from Little Five and Zhang Lin, Zhang Lin shouted: ¡°Let¡¯s prepare now, immediately, immediately, everyone, Liang Jing, the master of gout at Sanbo Hospital is about to begin. It¡¯s all valuable knowledge. If anyone of you or your family members has high uric acid or gout, invite them to attend the class. This class will help you so that gout sufferers don¡¯t have to seek other¡¯s help.¡± Hyperuricemia is when blood uric acid is high, but without signs of gout symptoms. It can be considered the pre-state of gout. If blood uric acid is high and gout symptoms appear, it is officially diagnosed as ¡°gout¡±. Suddenly, everyone crowded into the teaching room. The standardized training students and interns echoed each other: Comprehensive Surgery Department is giving a lecture. What is the lecture about and who is giving it doesn¡¯t matter, the key is the Comprehensive Surgery Department is giving a lecture, as long as they have time, they must attend. The fact that the lecture relates to gout, and that an anesthesiologist is the main speaker, is not significant. What¡¯s important is that this anesthesiologist is overweight and a gout patient himself. So when this news came out, everyone immediately dropped their tasks and gathered in the Comprehensive Surgery Department. The majority of the first few people to arrive at the teaching room were overweight. They wanted to secure the best spots. The improvised lecture attracted so many people. It seems the potential scale of gout patients is extraordinarily large. Fatty stood on the stage, a bit overwhelmed with the scene. He cleared his throat into the microphone, preparing to start the lecture. ¡°Today, I will tell you about the knowledge of gout. Being both a doctor and a gout patient, I am the most qualified as well as obligated to give this lecture.¡± ¡°I will not hesitate to say that half of you here do not understand gout, while the other half who do are all outdated.¡± ¡°Of course, the range of this statistic does not include Dr. Yang.¡± Although the attendees are standardized training students, interns, graduate students, and young doctors, they all have their dignity. Who is he looking down on? In internal medicine, who hasn¡¯t read the chapter on Gout? For lectures, to attract attention, it¡¯s necessary to create some headline-catching statements. ¡°Currently, China has over a hundred million patients with high uric acid. What does a hundred million mean, brothers? Generally, one in ten people have high uric acid. If you have high uric acid, raise your right hand. If someone at home has high uric acid, raise your left hand.¡± Many raised their hands in the audience, without the need to count. Those who attended the lecture today either did it for themselves or their family members. ¡°I will not elaborate on the definitions of high uric acid and gout. They can be considered as two different stages of the same disease.¡± ¡°In a nutshell, hyperuricemia and gout are the result of the body¡¯s malfunction in purine metabolism. Uric acid is the result of purine metabolism, and when this metabolism is messed up, blood uric acid levels rise. When a blood test reveals high uric acid levels, but you¡¯ve never experienced any adverse feelings, it¡¯s referred to as hyperuricemia. If a blood test reveals high uric acid and you¡¯ve had symptoms of gout, this is gout.¡± ¡°When there¡¯s an issue with purine metabolism resulting in an abundance of uric acid, which the body can¡¯t eliminate, the uric acid levels in the bloodstream breach a certain threshold, leading to the formation of uric acid crystals. It¡¯s akin to middle school chemistry knowledge that overly salty water will crystallize into salt ¨C the principle is the same. These crystals erode and stimulate surrounding tissues, causing symptoms of gout.¡± Liang Fatty (still a bit tentative), got everyone into the right mindset. ¡°Many people assume that gout is the result of diet, specifically high-purine foods. For example, if you eat a lot of seafood, you¡¯ll get gout. Wrong! Completely wrong!¡± With Liang Fatty looking so concerned and frustrated, the atmosphere of the meeting was instantly stoked. This level of discussion could go on national television. ¡°Many people, after receiving a gout diagnosis, are taken aback: ¡®I don¡¯t eat seafood, or drink beer, so how could I have gout?¡¯ Some even follow this logic: ¡®I¡¯ve been strictly following the gout diet plan, abstaining from seafood, organ meat, beer, soy products, and the likes. Why isn¡¯t my gout getting better?''¡± ¡°What you¡¯re eating doesn¡¯t have a strong correlation with gout. It¡¯s not that if you eat a lot of seafood, you¡¯ll get gout; It¡¯s more like because you¡¯ve got gout, you can¡¯t consume lots of seafood. Seafood is just a trigger. You already had gout, and eating lots of seafood merely induces the symptoms.¡± ¡°So if gout isn¡¯t caused by diet, should I continue tormenting myself by adhering strictly to the diet plan, depriving myself of this or that, living a life of a dietary ascetic?¡± Fatty posed the question to the crowd. The crowd immediately reciprocated: ¡°Yeah, do we have to avoid certain foods or not?¡± In everyone¡¯s knowledge, it¡¯s only natural that one should avoid certain foods when suffering from gout. ¡°Excellent, I¡¯ll begin our discussion by talking about food restrictions in cases of gout. I responsibly tell you, gout doesn¡¯t necessitate strict dietary restrictions. You can eat seafood, as well as poultry, fish, and meat. By abstaining from this or that, you¡¯re eliminating high-protein food, leading to dietary imbalance, and consequently higher uric acid. A balanced diet is more conducive to lowering uric acid,¡± said Fatty confidently. His conclusion isn¡¯t some unfounded blarney to please the crowd, but a conclusion drawn from reading the latest research findings on gout. His novel argument certainly captured everyone¡¯s attention, and all listened intently. ¡°About eighty percent of the body¡¯s purines come from endogenous metabolism inside the body, while only twenty percent come from external foods.¡± Higher uric acid levels do not indicate that you¡¯ve consumed excess high-purine food, but rather that your purine metabolism has malfunctioned. So, the food you eat has a very minimal effect on the purines inside your body. ¡°At the same time, there¡¯s a dynamic purine balance system inside your body. If your intake of dietary purines increases, your endogenous purine sources will decrease; if your intake of dietary purines decreases, your endogenous purine sources will increase, maintaining a dynamic balance.¡± ¡°The food you eat has a minute influence on purine levels ¨C to the tune of approximately 5%.¡± ¡°Following a strict gout diet will hardly help in lowering uric acid levels, and because of the dietary imbalance, it might even cause some side effects.¡± ¡°So, when it comes to diet, it¡¯s crucial for those suffering from gout to consume a balanced diet. Don¡¯t be partial to any particular food, consume fruits, vegetables, poultry, fish, and meat. Strict dieters following gout diets can only reduce their uric acid levels by about 50umol/l. While in contrast, those following a balanced diet without specific restrictions may reduce their uric acid levels by up to 100mmol/l.¡± ¡°But remember, a balanced diet does not mean an unrestrained diet. Even drinking too much water can make you burp.¡± Liang Fatty, all in one breath, eloquently abandoned the outdated diet concept and established a new concept of a balanced diet. I¡¯ve summarized several golden rules for gout, which I don¡¯t generally tell everyone, so remember to take notes. ¡°Don¡¯t drink alcohol, Don¡¯t drink sugary beverages, Reduce your salt intake, Feel free to eat fruits and vegetables, You can eat seafood, meat, eggs, fish, poultry, etc., in moderation. There¡¯s no need for dietary restrictions as long as you don¡¯t overindulge., You must exercise, must sweat, you must lose weight. Otherwise, it¡¯s all in vain., Drink lots of water, urinate frequently, and emphasize this with a red pen. If your uric acid levels are still high despite consistent exercise, weight loss, drinking copious water, and maintaining a balanced diet, you should decisively start taking medication,¡± These simple rules, compared to the comprehensive gout diet plans, are far more practical. Although Liang Fatty is an anesthesiologist, as a doctorate holder from Huaxi, he¡¯s used to focusing on investigating gout in depth. His easily understood new arguments are all backed by persuasive facts and scientific data. They are not mere hearsay or rumors.¡± ¡°If medication becomes necessary, how should one choose the right medication?¡± Little Five was eager to know. He trusts Fatty¡¯s approach to meticulous research, and finds him highly reliable. Chapter 504 - 504 460 Medicine - A Double-Edged Sword ?Chapter 504: Chapter 460: Medicine ¨C A Double-Edged Sword Chapter 504: Chapter 460: Medicine ¨C A Double-Edged Sword When it comes to drugs for treating gout, Fatty is even more familiar. Originally, in order to treat his own gout, he spent almost all his free time studying the knowledge of gout. In one¡¯s familiar territory, people often tend to be more confident. Now Fatty is growing stronger and stronger in his confidence, speaking eloquently, realizing that it feels so good to deliver a speech on stage, he couldn¡¯t stop himself. ¡°The treatment of gout is divided into acute and remission phases. The so-called acute phase is when the pain occurs. The goal of treatment at this time is to relieve pain and reduce inflammation. Pain relief means analgesia, and reducing inflammation means eliminating inflammatory responses. This inflammatory response is not the purulent inflammation that people usually think of, but a sterile inflammation, so there is no need for the intervention of antibiotics. Don¡¯t think that anti-inflammatory means using antibiotics, that¡¯s completely different.¡± The script in Fatty¡¯s mind was originally prepared for ordinary people, but then he realized that the audience was all medical students, so there was no need to bother explaining the concept of inflammation. ¡°There is a kind of drug that can relieve pain and also reduce inflammation, and that is non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Representative drugs include etoricoxib, celecoxib, diclofenac, ibuprofen, etc., among which etoricoxib is recommended by some guidelines. Remember, during an acute attack, it is not about lowering uric acid, but alleviating pain and inflammation. If you wrongly lower uric acid, it will worsen the pain. The timing for lowering uric acid is two weeks after acute pain is controlled. Of course, if you are currently undergoing hyperuricemia treatment, you can continue to take uric acid lowering drugs without stopping them.¡± ¡°There is another drug used during the acute phase ¡ª Colchicine! This drug is a cytotoxic agent for cell mitosis, and it is highly toxic. Once overdosed, there is a lack of rescue measures, so be extra careful ¡ª the drug cannot be overdosed, and a low-dose regimen must be used: a first dosing of 1 mg, followed by 0.5 mg/dose, 2 doses per day, preferably starting to take the drug within 12 hours of the acute gout attack, the therapeutic effect declines significantly after 36 hours, and once the gout symptoms are under control, stop the medication.¡± ¡°So, the first-line drugs in the acute phase are two kinds ¡ª non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and colchicine, these two drugs are ineffective or patients with kidney function impairment, corticosteroids can be used, but try to avoid their use.¡± These knowledge of Fatty are not random talks but are comprehensive summaries of textbooks, the latest guidelines, and recent summaries of top international journals. Each sentence is carefully considered and repeatedly verified. ¡°During the remission period of gout, the treatment goal is to lower uric acid! The familiar drugs include allopurinol, febuxostat, probenecid, benzbromarone, both allopurinol and febuxostat are drugs that inhibit uric acid synthesis, while probenecid and benzbromarone are drugs that promote uric acid excretion, the actions are different. First of all, the latest concepts tend to use drugs that inhibit uric acid synthesis, namely, allopurinol and febuxostat.¡± ¡°Allopurinol is low-priced and very effective, but be aware of its hypersensitive reaction. Once a hypersensitive reaction occurs, the fatality rate is 30%. It has now been determined that HLA-B*5801 gene positivity is closely related to hypersensitivity reaction to allopurinol. The HLA-B*5801 positivity rate is higher in Asians, with Han nationality reaching 10%-15%. Therefore, before using allopurinol, a highly recommended gene detection of HLA-B*5801 should be carried out. If positive, absolutely do not take this drug; if negative, you can normally use it.¡± ¡°The hypersensitivity reaction caused by Allopurinol is dose-related, so start with a small dose, usually starting at 50mg/day, increasing to 200-300mg/d after 2-3 weeks, the maximum dose should not exceed 600mg/d, to be taken three times; hypersensitivity reactions often occur before rashes, so once rashes appear after taking the medication, immediately stop taking and seek medical attention, there is no room for negotiating!¡± Remember this gene, HLA-B*5801! Many young doctors, have already forgotten much about internal medicine knowledge, lacking this knowledge, for doctors, is like streaking, very dangerous. Doctors are always walking on thin ice, only by constantly accumulating knowledge, can they deftly navigate through risks. ¡°Febuxostat has potential cardiovascular risks, which means it increases the occurrence of myocardial infarction and stroke. If people with cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension, and coronary heart disease, etc., should use febuxostat with caution.¡± ¡°Probenecid and benzbromarone are drugs that promote uric acid excretion, so if there is an excretory disorder type of hyperuricemia, which are ineffective with the first two drugs, they can be selected. For these two drugs, if there are kidney stones, kidney function impairment, do not use, both drugs will affect the kidneys, probenecid has a greater impact on the kidneys than benzbromarone, also, benzbromarone causes the greatest liver damage among the four drugs. In 2003, benzbromarone was withdrawn from the European market due to liver damage, but in 2004 it was re-registered in some countries.¡± Any drug carries risks while also treating, drugs are a double-edged sword, you have to take advantage of the benefits and avoid risks.¡± ¡°According to the principle of playing to one¡¯s strengths and avoiding weaknesses, of the above four drugs, actually if HLA-B*5801 is negative, allopurinol is the first choice; if HLA-B*5801 is positive and there are no cardiovascular diseases, febuxostat is selected; if HLA-B*5801 is positive, and there are cardiovascular diseases, and kidney function is not problematic, probenecid and benzbromarone can be chosen, and liver function must be monitored when using benzbromarone.¡± The introduction of these four drugs, Fatty has spoken straightforward but concisely. For more details, there are hundreds of tightly packed words in the instructions. Someone in the audience felt scared: ¡°Your words make my chill run down my spine, my dad has been taking allopurinol and never tested for HLA-B*5801.¡± A graduate student is more familiar with benzbromarone: ¡°The liver damage caused by benzbromarone is its weakness, it is best to regularly check liver function during intake. Around 2003, Europe reported a case of severe liver damage related to the drug, but that was under the condition of a higher dose of 100mg-200mg of benzbromarone in the European population, with a statistical incidence rate of only 1/17,000. Our clinical common prescription dose now is 50mg, very few patients can be prescribed to 100mg, at this medication dose, cases of liver damage caused by benzbromarone are extremely rare. However, we should be cautious because of its antecedent case.¡± ¡°For febuxostat in Asians, there is currently no data indicating a higher rate of cardiovascular events, so the safety is pretty good, but those suffering from cardiovascular diseases should try to avoid it.¡± Another graduate student added. ¡°Dr. Liang, after listening to your lecture, these fragmented pieces of knowledge have been comprehensively connected. Now I have a clear understanding in my mind, and next time I treat patients, if I encounter ones with gout, the choice of medication will be much more flexible.¡± Someone sincerely appreciated Fatty. It seems that Fatty has indeed put in a lot of thought, these commonly used drugs for gout treatment, especially several kinds of uric acid lowering drugs, where the advantages lie, where the disadvantages lie, where the risks are, and how to use them, are all very clear. ¡°After saying so much, the key point has not been mentioned, under what circumstances is it necessary to lower uric acid, and to what level should uric acid be lowered?¡± After listening for so long, one intern was still confused. Fatty thought everyone would already know these basics: ¡°These are all in textbooks and guidelines, I just skimmed over it. If you look at the most recent treatment guidelines: if the patient has already developed tophi, chronic gouty arthritis, or frequent gouty arthritis attacks, the target for uric acid reduction is blood uric acid < 300 ¦Ìmol/L, until the tophi are completely dissolved and the symptoms of frequent arthritis attacks improve, the treatment target can be changed to blood uric acid < 360 ¦Ìmol/L and maintained for a long period.¡± ¡°Is it better the lower the blood uric acid is?¡± an intern dared to ask. Fatty immediately criticized, ¡°Which department¡¯s intern are you? You haven¡¯t grasped medical basics! Uric acid in the human body within the normal range has important physiological functions, excessively low blood uric acid can increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer¡¯s disease, Parkinson¡¯s disease, etc., so it¡¯s not the case that lower is better. When reducing uric acid during treatment, blood uric acid should not be less than 180 ¦Ìmol/L.¡± The intern immediately blushed, not having thoroughly understood the textbook, he needed to go back and review carefully. ¡°For those who have developed gout, that is, uric acid higher than normal, it¡¯s recommended to reduce uric acid treatment; for those without gout symptoms, having only hyperuricemia, you can first try to change your lifestyle ¨C balanced diet, exercising, quitting alcohol, drinking plenty of water, etc. Additional evidence, I hope none of you don¡¯t know the diagnostic criteria for hyperuricemia? Two consecutive days of fasting blood uric acid levels¡ª for men higher than 420¦Ìmol/L, for women higher than 360¦Ìmol/L.¡± ¡°So, does anyone have more questions?¡± Fatty had enjoyed himself, and he needed to rest. Fatty finally understood why, when he was studying for a master¡¯s degree and PhD, the supervisor would always forget about the time once he seized upon a question during rounds, elaborating on it endlessly. Turns out, lecturing feels so satisfying! ¡°Professor Liang, if you change your profession and become a lecturer at a health product company, with your current teaching standard, an annual income of one million wouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡± Zhang Lin said seriously. Liang Fatty waved his hand: ¡°I can fight within the framework of evidence-based medicine, when talking about seriously legitimate things. But once I step outside this framework and start to improvise to cure all kinds of diseases, I¡¯d be completely speechless.¡± ¡°Does anyone else have questions? Ask away if you do. You should master this knowledge now. In the future, when you are about to get married and your father-in-law has a gout attack, you can alleviate his pain within a few hours, his goodwill towards you will double!¡± Zhang Lin shouted, ready to end the lecture. ¡°Dr. Yang! Anything else to summarize?¡± Zhang Lin turned to Yang Ping. Fatty had given an immensely insightful lecture, Yang Ping thought there was nothing else to add, he stood up, reminding everyone: ¡°When you are explaining this knowledge to your friends and family, you must tell them that all this medical knowledge is meant to help them seek medical help better, and it cannot replace seeing a doctor. Because usually people outside the medical profession lack basic medical knowledge, if they make decisions on their own, they can easily make mistakes, respect should be given to the unknown aspect of every domain, especially when it involves health!¡± ¡°Yes! An important reminder: if you¡¯re sick, see a doctor! This knowledge is to help you make better decisions, not to replace a trip to the hospital!¡± Liang Fatty found Yang Ping¡¯s words reasonable. Fatty had seen that kind of relative who, after reading few medical health books, thought they knew better than doctors. The growth of a doctor is far from as simple as reading a few books. Undergraduate studies last five years, if they pursue further education, a master¡¯s degree takes three years, and a doctorate another three to four years. Even if they take an integrated bachelor¡¯s-master¡¯s-doctoral program, they have to study for eight years. After graduation, they need to accumulate many years of clinical experience under the guidance of their senior doctors. It takes three years to take a residency exam and five years for an attending physician exam. If they reach the deputy senior level and above, they basically have decades of work experience. During this period, they accumulate a large number of books and papers that need a dedicated study to store. Only then are they qualified to treat people. ¡°Learning never ends, we are dealing with people¡¯s lives and health, the more knowledge we have, the deeper it is, the better it is! Respect must be given to knowledge. Don¡¯t just skim over it, we should strive to understand it thoroughly. Then, when we face complex risks, we¡¯ll be calm and confident.¡± Yang Ping encouraged everyone. ¡°If there¡¯s nothing else, let¡¯s disperse. Dr. Liang, you get ready. I am going to recommend you go to the hospital¡¯s health lectures.¡± Yang Ping finally said. Those are the real big classrooms, this is just internal warm-up, merely a rhetoric practice. After the meeting adjourned, everyone trickled out. ¡°A lot of old ladies attend the hospital¡¯s health lectures. You wouldn¡¯t be trying to test your luck to see if you could find a potential mother-in-law in the future, would you?¡± Zhang Lin pondered. Fatty sneered: ¡°Disgusting! With my current conditions, do you know how many head nurses want to introduce girlfriends to me?¡± ¡°Hold on, let me think, didn¡¯t I hear that the mom of a flight attendant from Southern Airlines was hospitalized in some department, and you were taking care of her? I heard her mom is a loyal fan of our hospital¡¯s health lectures?¡± Zhang Lin stroked his chin. Fatty blushed and was so flustered he couldn¡¯t speak. Chapter 505 - 505 461 Difficult Couple ?Chapter 505: Chapter 461 Difficult Couple Chapter 505: Chapter 461 Difficult Couple Should this gout patient undergo surgery, or not? And if he does, then which type of surgery should be chosen? The doctors in the department found themselves in quite a dilemma, for the gout had progressed so severely, such that they were devoid of any sound solutions for this patient. The patient had visited numerous hospitals seeking treatment. Both his ankles were ruptured by massive tophi from the gout, releasing endless quantities of ¡°chalk-like¡± substances. The wound was becoming increasingly larger and deeper, inhabited by various drug-resistant bacteria. It was persistent and did not show any signs of improvement. The terminations of both his tibia and fibula, talus, and heel bones were all exposed, with some parts necrotic, developing into chronic osteomyelitis. A wound like this had virtually no chance of healing. In fact, the wound has been treated by numerous hospitals, employing techniques such as wound debridement, vacuum-assisted closure and so forth, with a host of recently attempted surgeries. Yet, they were all in vain. The only response the doctors from each hospital gave was to shake their heads: ¡®Amputation is the only solution!¡¯. They further suggested seeking better hospitals for the surgery. But, where could they find better hospitals? The patient¡¯s family had no answers. Because the patient¡¯s both lower limbs were swamped with urate crystals, there would be an extremely high risk of non-healing following an amputation. Once a chronic wound occurred again, the doctors would be driven into a corner, harassed to death, unable to extricate themselves from their predicament. Therefore, the best strategy seemed to be ¡ª to not touch it! Keep one¡¯s distance! In this way, there would be no issues. Over the years, the doctors¡¯ courage had waned. ¡°Other than amputation, are there any other alternatives?¡± Song Zimo broke the silence. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°Amputation is the best course of action for him.¡± Above the ruptured wound, both of his lower limbs should be amputated at the level of his shins. Although the stump might not heal, that was only a possibility. As for the current situation, there was absolutely no chance for the chronic wounds at both his ankles to heal. ¡°Everyone, don¡¯t be so disheartened. For several patients, amputation is a reconstructive surgery, not a destructive one. An amputation could lead the patient from darkness towards the light!¡± Because if the stump healed well post-amputation, a prosthetic could be fitted, and the patient could recover his normal walking functionality. In such a case, he would be able to rejoin society. As lower limb prosthetics are highly developed, the modern medical perspective on lower limb amputations has undergone transformation. Amputation ¡ª sometimes, it brings hope, it illuminates, it is reconstructive surgery. In cases of severe lower limb injuries, after prolonged treatments, multiple surgeries, a lot of time, energy and money being used, the salvaged limb often has poor functionality, incomparable to a prosthetic. Preserving such limbs is a torment to the patient, it is an ineffective treatment plan. At these times, amputation becomes a reconstructive surgery, removing the useless limb, fitting a prosthetic, restoring the normal walking functionality, helping the patient quickly return to a regular, brighter life. ¡°I agree! Both his ankles have developed chronic osteomyelitis. Continuous treatments would only be futile, wasting time and money. The lower limbs should be amputated at the lower third of the shins. If the stump doesn¡¯t heal, another round of amputations should be conducted, each time increasing the level until the wound heals. The other tophi could be carefully excised. The patient¡¯s goal is to resume a regular civilian¡¯s life. If a prosthetic could put an end to his current terrible life, and turn him back into an ordinary person, why should we perceive amputation as terrifying?¡± Song Zimo strongly agreed with Yang Ping¡¯s opinion. His emphasis being particularly on Yang Ping¡¯s statement: Sometimes, an amputation is a reconstructive surgery, not a destructive one. An amputation could lead the patient from darkness towards the light! It seemed like others didn¡¯t have better solutions and the disease had reached a dead end, leaving not much choice. Once the treatment plan was decided, when the patient¡¯s daughter heard the news in the meeting room, she was quite disappointed. She thought coming here could offer some better or unique solutions. ¡°The most beneficial solution to him is the best one, it doesn¡¯t have to be the latest, or the most expensive, most treatment plans are common ones!¡± Seeing her disappointment, Yang Ping patiently explained. ¡°Amputation, if successfully done, can end his currently dark life. Once fitted with a prosthetic, he can walk as he used to.¡± Yang Ping said with great confidence. The patient¡¯s daughter was moved. Other hospitals had mentioned it, but none of the doctors were willing to undertake the surgery. Yang Ping also seemed to perceive the issue. The patient¡¯s daughter had been looking after her father for so long that she had gained some knowledge about the disease. Hence, she would question the treatment details repeatedly and scrutinize every single medication choice. It easily gave the doctors an impression ¡ª she didn¡¯t trust them. If there isn¡¯t trust, of course the doctors were unwilling to take unnecessary risks, and wouldn¡¯t perform this operation. Regardless from a legal or ethical standpoint, the doctors wouldn¡¯t have to take the blame for not conducting the surgery. On the other hand, if they did perform the surgery and encountered failure, they would likely have to face never-ending hassles. ¡°Is the success rate of the surgery high?¡± It was the biggest concern of the patient¡¯s daughter. ¡°It¡¯s hard to say about a specific success rate. His condition is rare, and there¡¯s no similar data to rely on. If we had to estimate, it¡¯s fifty-fifty. If it fails, and the amputation stump doesn¡¯t heal, forming a new difficult-to-heal wound, we would just amputate again, each time increasing the level.¡± Yang Ping explained the contingency plan if the surgery failed. The patient¡¯s daughter was still undecided: ¡°So, how many times would we have to do it? Wouldn¡¯t there be any assurance?¡± Does this mean that doctors always operate without certainty? ¡°No one can be certain! His current condition has already determined that this will be an uncertain surgery. It¡¯s not because the doctor isn¡¯t confident in his abilities, but because his body has already reached a point where healing is uncertain. The outcome is decided by his body. Whether it will be successful or not, the decision isn¡¯t up to me; it¡¯s up to him. I can only do my best with what I have to do.¡± Yang Ping stated with honesty. Although these words are unpleasant to hear, they are nevertheless true and candid. The patient¡¯s daughter¡¯s face was filled with anxiety. She hesitated and then finally asked, ¡°If the surgery fails, do you still charge for the failed surgery? Does it become free?¡± Yang Ping hadn¡¯t expected such a question from the patient. Yang Ping said seriously, ¡°Every surgery, whether successful or not, has to be charged.¡± ¡°How can you charge for a failed surgery? That¡¯s not fair. If I go to a shop and buy something that¡¯s broken and unusable, I can return it or get a new one. Likewise, I¡¯ve paid for medical services, but if they don¡¯t achieve the desired outcome, why should I still have to pay? Even if things don¡¯t get done, the money is still collected?¡± The patient¡¯s daughter finally gathered enough courage to speak up. Yang Ping was not angered by this, ¡°Treating patients can¡¯t be compared to commodity transactions; you¡¯re using the wrong metaphor. If you think this is a commodity transaction, then I can refuse to provide medical services. In other words, I can refuse to sell this commodity. Is that okay with you?¡± The patient¡¯s daughter¡¯s face flushed and went pale, and she was momentarily speechless. ¡°The human body is extremely complex, and all treatment outcomes are statistical. Nothing can guarantee 100% success. That¡¯s the nature of medicine. If your logic holds, then let me be straightforward with you¡ªno doctor would be willing to perform surgery on your father, including me!¡± Yang Ping had to tell her this harsh reality. These matters had to be cleared before surgery, otherwise, it would lead to complications afterward. ¡°To be honest, Dr. Yang, even though my father has medical insurance, our financial burden is quite heavy after such a long treatment period. We have several elders in our family, and we are feeling the strain.¡± The patient¡¯s daughter revealed the truth. Yang Ping also felt helpless, ¡°I sympathize with you, but I¡¯m just a doctor. I can¡¯t help you out financially. We can only try to help you save as much as possible on hospital fees. If you are truly having financial difficulties, we can try to secure some charitable financial aid for you. If you¡¯re willing to share the surgical risks with me, I will give it my all. But if you¡¯re not willing to take on the risk or think that doctors should bear all the risk, then I¡¯m afraid, regretfully, I can¡¯t bear it all.¡± In the face of risk, doctors can only share wisdom. If patients and their families insist on not taking risks, no one can force them to make a choice. The choice lies with the patient; doctors can only help him make it. ¡°Let me think, are there any other options? More conservative ones?¡± The patient¡¯s daughter was still hesitant. Yang Ping shakes his head, ¡°Right now there are only two options. Maintain the status quo or amputate the limb. Face the risk and pursue a normal life.¡± Many times, money is the deciding factor! Money isn¡¯t everything, but you can¡¯t do anything without money. If the patient¡¯s daughter didn¡¯t have to think about money, she wouldn¡¯t have so many worries and she wouldn¡¯t have asked such difficult questions. Her biggest worry was that the surgery would fail and further surgeries would be needed. In the end, the money would be gone, the disease wouldn¡¯t be cured, and the leg would be lost. Every family has its difficulties. The patient¡¯s daughter started to call her husband in front of Yang Ping to seek his advice. Her husband fell silent for a moment. He sounded a bit worn out as he briefly responded, ¡°Go ahead with it. What else can we do?¡± His tone was helpless and resigned. After finishing the call with her husband, the patient¡¯s daughter seemed to be searching her phone¡¯s contacts, as if there was nobody else to discuss this with. Both husband and wife were only children. Who could they turn to for advice? No one was there to help, and they had to bear everything on their own. Her phone rang again. It was her husband, ¡°Honey, don¡¯t worry. Let¡¯s go with what the doctor says. Do you need me to come over now? Everything in life carries risks. Even eating can be dangerous if you choke. If it doesn¡¯t work out, we can try again. If it still doesn¡¯t work, we can try yet another time. We can¡¯t carry on like this. In the worst-case scenario, if it doesn¡¯t work out, how bad can it get?¡± ¡°What about, what about...¡± The wife was worried about the money, but she couldn¡¯t bring herself to voice it. The man on the other end of the call knew what she was thinking. He chuckled, ¡°I¡¯ll advance next month¡¯s salary from my company. Let¡¯s arrange the surgery.¡± >Not so long ago, an elder member of the family had to be hospitalized due to a stroke. A lot of money was spent. He had just been discharged, and now someone else was admitted. ¡°Hasn¡¯t next month¡¯s salary already been advanced?¡± The wife had a good memory. She realized she was still in the meeting room. She smiled at Yang Ping and indicated she needed to step out for the call, ¡°Dr. Yang, I¡¯m sorry, we need to discuss this and decide later.¡± Yang Ping nodded. ¡°Oh, we haven¡¯t fully advanced it yet, we can still advance some more!¡± The husband hemmed and hawed on the other end of the phone. Chapter 506 - 506 462 The Evil Crystallization of Uric Acid ?Chapter 506: Chapter 462: The Evil Crystallization of Uric Acid Chapter 506: Chapter 462: The Evil Crystallization of Uric Acid After deliberation, the patient¡¯s daughter and son-in-law agreed to the surgery. However, the patient refused the surgery, insisting on going home, and started arguing with his daughter in the ward, throwing his stainless steel water cup on the floor. Although the daughter occasionally lost her temper, this only happened rarely. The bottled-up negative emotions needed an outlet. The complaints she made were merely emotional venting. The couple cared for five elderly family members, and the pressure was immense, leaving them hardly able to catch their breath. Regardless, she looked after her father immaculately, shaving him every day, cleaning him, washing his hair every few days. The hospital food was not very good, so she made time to go home to cook meals, bringing them to the hospital in a thermal lunch box for her father. The daughter is like a little cotton-padded jacket, showing her best during these times. As if coaxing a child, the daughter patiently explained to her father that he needed to cooperate with the doctors for quick recovery and minimal expenses. If he gave up the surgery and went home, future infections could spread throughout his body, causing septicemia. At that point, he would have to be hospitalized in the ICU, bearing costs dozens of times higher than now. Some things can¡¯t be avoided by avoiding expenses now only to spend more later. The patient verbally refused the surgery, insisting on going home, and giving up treatment because he didn¡¯t want his daughter to bear the financial burden. If the surgery failed this time, he would become a bottomless pit, putting his daughter under a heavy financial burden. No one wishes to live away from their loved ones with wounds that emit a foul smell. Even his grandson viewed him as a monster and kept his distance. He could only curl up in his rented room every day, relying on his wife for care. During this hospital stay, the daughter refused to let her mother care for her father in the hospital, fearing it would overwhelm her. Instead, she asked her mother to stay at home to take care of the children, while she personally took care of her father, handling his toileting needs. After persuasion from his daughter, the patient agreed to have the surgery, realizing that being stubborn would only cause trouble for his child. As for amputation, the patient showed little surprise and felt no difficulty in accepting it. Losing a limb seemed insignificant compared to bidding farewell to this miserable life. If he could really use a prosthetic limb and resume a normal life, he craved it. He yearned to help his daughter with some housework, like buying groceries or looking after her child. Only those who have lost something can cherish it more. Only those who have experienced illness know how important good health is. This surgery was not particularly challenging. The real test was the careful pursuit of perfection in every detail, aiming to maximize the success rate. The uric acid crystals had a significant impact on the body, which went beyond mere joint discomfort. Joint pain was simply the mildest symptom. Uric acid crystals could also affect the blood vessels, leading to atherosclerosis and causing problems in major organs like the heart, kidneys, and brain. Before the surgery, Yang Ping repeatedly studied the patient¡¯s lower body blood circulation. The damage caused by uric acid crystals to the blood vessels resulted in atherosclerosis in the lower limbs and some arteries were narrow. He finally decided to amputate above the knee. Because the blood circulation in the lower leg was already poor, giant gout nodes were present in both knee joints, and the knee joints had been severely damaged with considerable functional obstruction. Actively amputating above the knee would not only ensure a higher probability of healing at the amputation site, but it would also prevent possible problems that the damaged knee joint could cause in the future. Many times, surgeons tend to indulge in optimistic fantasies about the outcome, which makes their decision-making more conservative. For instance, when orthopedic trauma doctors treat some cases of skin avulsion, inexperienced doctors, upon seeing sound skin flaps, always fantasize that they can survive, hence favoring suturing in place. However, contrary to expectations, these skin flaps, having lost their blood supply, will slowly necrotize, resulting in the patient needing a second skin grafting surgery. Experienced doctors harbor no illusions and decisively handle the skin flaps with reverse skin grafting. Successful after one surgery, they avoid a second surgery for the patient and taking skin from other parts of the body. The same was true for this patient. Doctors often have fantasies, hoping that the amputation site would be a bit lower to preserve the knee joint, but reality often surpasses the expectations of doctors. Based on the condition of the blood vessels, Yang Ping thought he should be more proactive, let go of fantasies, and decisively amputate the entire lower leg above the knee, which seemingly appeared healthy. As for the more than forty gout nodes throughout the body, Yang Ping carefully evaluated each one, and finally decided to remove them all. During the amputation surgery, Yang Ping did not inflate the tourniquet, keeping it as a spare. This was because, during the operation, Yang Ping needed to observe the real blood circulation of the limb. His scalpel cut through the skin, subcutaneous layer, deep fascia, and muscle. He needed to observe the bleeding on each layer¡¯s cut surface, which was the most reliable method to assess blood circulation, more reliable than any preoperative vascular imaging examination. He attempted to cut the skin at the lower segment of the lower leg to verify his judgment, hoping that his judgment was wrong and that the skin would bleed significantly. However, regardless of whether it was the skin, fascia, or muscle, with no tourniquet, there was hardly any noticeable bleeding. Plenty of pus was still present between the muscles, which had spread from the ankle joint. The preoperative judgment was correct; amputation from above the knee was necessary. Yang Ping used a sterile medical film to seal off the cut lower leg, and changed his gloves and scalpel. He made another incision above the knee, at the lower segment of the thigh, and cut the skin into a standard tongue-shaped flap. Blood began to seep out from the edge of the skin flap, but Yang Ping did not rush to stop it. He had been hoping for this effect. ¡°The skin¡¯s blood circulation is comparatively good, and the bleeding is noticeable,¡± Song Zimo said as his forceps clamped onto the subcutaneous layer and gently lifted the skin flap. Yang Ping¡¯s assertive and brave amputation judgment had proven to be very accurate. ¡°The choice of the amputation site is very appropriate,¡± Yang Ping eased his heart at this time. At this moment, bleeding was the hope for successful surgery. The faster and more it bled, the higher the hope. The scalpel continued to cut the deep fascia, severing the muscle group enclosing the femur. Blood vessels were cut and ligated, nerves were incised at the high end with a sharp knife, and finally, it reached the femur at the core. The electric saw cut through the femur, detaching the thigh just above the knee, removing it from the patient¡¯s body, turning it into a separate, independent object that no longer belonged to the patient. The detached limb was taken off the operating table, put into a transparent plastic bag, and Zhou Can collected it. It would be sent to the Pathology Department after the surgery. Any tissue or organ cut from a human body must, in principle, undergo pathological examination. After the residual limb completed the pathological examination, its final destination would be the crematorium for incineration. Everything had a process and could not be handled casually. Yang Ping used a bone file to smooth the cut surface of the femur, and applied bone wax to stop the bleeding. At this point, the surgical area was flushed again repeatedly, removing some chalky uric acid crystals. He drilled holes in the bone end, sutured the muscles, wrapped the bone end, and used the holes in the bone end to fix it, forming a good residual muscle pad. This would allow the prosthetic limb to withstand strong impacts and wear in the future. Finally, the deep fascia and skin were sewn up, a negative pressure drainage tube was placed in, and the amputation of one side was completed. It¡¯s hard to imagine that a long time ago in Europe, during the medical barbarian era, amputation was extremely simple. Some even directly cut off the limb with a guillotine and pressed the limb into boiling hot oil to stop the bleeding. The bleeding limb was sizzling in boiling oil, and the patient was in unbearable pain. Some even died directly from the shock of the pain. Even those with strong physical fitness who endured the pain would die from the subsequent infection. In those days in Europe, it¡¯s unbelievable how crazy and barbaric surgery was to our modern minds. Meanwhile, traditional Chinese medicine of the same period was much more humane. Hua Tuo¡¯s anesthesia and surgical techniques already had a prototype of modern surgery. After completing the amputation on one side, Yang Ping continued with the other side. After the double amputation was completed, the remaining limbs were wrapped in sterile dressings and bandages. The huge gout nodule at the left elbow joint was cut open, and the chalk-like substance inside was revealed. A large curette scraped it out in clumps. Had this substance been placed somewhere else, it would undoubtedly be mistaken for high-purity lime powder. It¡¯s hard to imagine that this substance is produced within the human body itself. It¡¯s this ¡°lime¡±, or uric acid crystals, that cause the patient unbearable pain and misery. From this gout nodule, so much ¡°lime¡± was dug out that it filled a large metal basin. Even as a surgeon who has seen all sorts of strange diseases, this was still hard to bear. Liang Fatty was standing a meter away from the operating table, staring at this basin of sinful ¡°lime¡±. He vowed to remember this substance and to stay firm in his fight against gout. An intern in the corner, pale and sweating, murmured weakly,¡±Teacher, I can¡¯t hold on anymore.¡± Then, his body slowly slid down the wall. He tried to endure but was powerless to resist. ¡°Lay him down!¡± Nurse Zhou Can, on patrol, was quick and sharp, she threw a surgical gown on the floor, instructing another intern to help him lay down. For crying out loud, they were in the middle of a surgery and now had to rescue an intern. They had seen people faint at the sight of blood or needles, but never uric acid crystals. Zhang Lin, who wasn¡¯t on the stage, immediately got involved in the rescue. He quickly and clearly performed a series of operations including laying him flat, opening the airway, auscultating the heart and lungs, oxygen inhalation, and hooking up heart monitoring. The surgery didn¡¯t stop on this end. Yang Ping continued with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. ¡°Is he alright?¡± Yang Ping asked while operating. They¡¯ve all seen big operations, so they weren¡¯t too concerned about this little hiccup. ¡°He¡¯s alright, heart and breathing are stable, but blood pressure is a little low.¡± said Zhang Lin, taking off his stethoscope. ¡°Give him fluids, check his fingertip blood sugar.¡± Song Zimo assisted by cutting the thread. ¡°2.4!¡± The blood glucose level was reported by Zhou Can. ¡°Hypoglycemia. He didn¡¯t eat breakfast, right? Give him an IV of 50% dextrose.¡± Zhang Lin instructed Zhou Can. Once the diagnosis was confirmed, they stopped interfering with the intern¡¯s rescue, continued with the surgery and let Zhang Lin lead the rescue smoothly and efficiently on the other end. They were all veterans who had been through many battles. They didn¡¯t even blink at performing rescue operations. ¡°Who else didn¡¯t eat breakfast or can¡¯t bear the stimulation? Anyone who fits that description, get out.¡± Zhang Lin shouted. Gradually, the intern woke up. Hypoglycemia can sometimes be deadly. Liang Fatty was on standby to intubate the trachea. Once the intern was out of danger and woke up, he put away his intubation equipment. ¡°Has the surgery finished?¡± The intern¡¯s first sentence when he woke up. ¡°No!¡± Zhang Lin took out his stethoscope and auscultated the intern¡¯s heart and lungs again. ¡°How much was dug out?¡± The intern asked another question. Wants to watch? This guy doesn¡¯t know when to quit. ¡°Close your eyes, lay down and rest for a while, then we¡¯ll check your blood sugar again.¡± Zhang Lin stood up. Xiao Su had already covered the ¡°lime¡±) ¨C uric acid crystals on the table with a sterile sheet. There were already five metal basins filled, and the sixth was quickly filling up. After the gout nodules at several major joints were cut open, Yang Ping handed the surgery over to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang to continue. The intern lying on the floor rechecked his blood sugar level and it rose to 6.2, he was out of danger. He got up himself. ¡°Wow, so much has been dug out. Teacher, I want to take another look.¡± He fixed his eyes on the sterile sheet covering the metal trays on the table, and bored the sweat on his forehead curiously. ¡°Are you a masochist? Need more drama?¡± Zhang Lin chided. While performing the surgery, Song Zimo said, ¡°Let him watch. Consider it desensitization therapy. With so many people here, nothing can go wrong.¡± The sterile sheet was slowly lifted, revealing the pure white ¡°lime¡± filling up the metal trays. ¡°Teacher, I can¡¯t.¡± The intern quickly averted his gaze and started turning pale again. Someone nearby instantly supported him. It was his first failure at desensitization therapy. ¡°Take your time, you need to go through desensitization several times.¡± Yang Ping had already taken off his surgical gown and was resting on the side. Chapter 507 - 507 463 Can Monkeys Get a Herniated Disc ?Chapter 507: Chapter 463: Can Monkeys Get a Herniated Disc? Chapter 507: Chapter 463: Can Monkeys Get a Herniated Disc? ¡°Help him out?¡± Zhang Lin worried the intern might collapse again. If there were any mishaps, no one would be willing to take responsibility. It is better to prevent complications. The intern stubbornly shook his head, insisting on staying in the operating room. As a future surgeon, he would have to face even more stimulating scenes; this was a hurdle he must overcome. Song Zimo seemed to see a reflection of his own past when he was leaning against the wall of Mo Sixth emergency center, swaying and dizziness. He understood the intern¡¯s psychology best at this time. Afraid of been expelled from the specialty of surgery, he needed to appear unaffected even if he was experiencing inner turmoil, telling everyone: I can do it! ¡°Let him stay. Be careful and speak up if you feel unwell. In fact, it¡¯s not a big deal. You¡¯ll get used to it over time.¡± Song Zimo encouraged the intern and told Zhang Lin not to kick him out. Naturally, Zhang Lin did not dare to go against Song Zimo¡¯s words. Song Zimo¡¯s status as the second brother in the department was unshakable. Zhang Lin and Little Five used to dream of competing for the position of the third brother. But since Xu Zhiliang joined, they gave up the idea completely. This stutterer was not only incredibly hardworking, but also very intelligent. Zhang Lin even suspected that the reason why the man¡¯s mouth couldn¡¯t keep up with his mind was causing his stutter. The removal of gout nodules is no different from the removal of surface tumors. It¡¯s a basic surgery. However, maintaining normal healing of the surgical incision post-surgery is challenging. Every detail needs to be attended to with utmost precision. The bleeding needs to be thoroughly stopped, and layers of stitches need to be dense, with no leaks. If there¡¯s a leak, tissue fluids mixed with urinary crystals keep seeping out from the gaps in the surgical wound, causing the wound to never heal properly. ¡°Lime¡± cannot be completely cleared. It is almost ubiquitous, having soaked into cartilage, synovia, joint capsule, ligament, and tendon. Almost all tissues around the joint have been eroded by it, and there¡¯s no limit to this erosion. As long as the chunk of ¡°lime¡± is removed, it¡¯s good enough. The area is continuously rinsed with a large amount of saline and the white turbid ¡°lime¡± water, which flows from the aspirator to the suction tube and into the collection bottle. Excess skin and fascia are trimmed, and the incision becomes fusiform. Some areas with large gout nodules are also left with negative-pressure drainage. After efforts, over forty gout nodules all over the body were gradually removed, and the surgery ended. The patient regained a normal appearance, no longer looking disgustingly monstrous. The lower limbs were amputated from the knees, a result of many years of giving free reign to gout. In the future, if he can consistently take medication and control uric acid within the range of 180-300 ¦Ìmol/L, he can hope to live a normal life. Some of the uric acid crystals deposited within his body will also gradually dissolve. The intern managed to suppress his discomfort and stabilize himself. Although his face looked terrible, he didn¡¯t collapse. Pretending to be at ease in the operating room, he declared that he could become a surgeon. ¡°Fatty, it¡¯s been a long time since your gout acted up, hasn¡¯t it?¡± Zhang Lin asked Liang Fatty while he had some free time. ¡°I haven¡¯t had a gout attack for a year, I take allopurinol once a day, on time, just like brushing my teeth and washing my face. Now, my uric acid is stably controlled around 200.¡± ¡°My father-in-law also has gout. Do you have any good suggestions regarding medication?¡± Zhang Lin got to the point, and Little Five also listened attentively. The lecture time was short, and a lot of things were not fully understood. ¡°Conduct HLA-B*5801 gene screening. If it turns out negative, Allopurinol is highly recommended. Don¡¯t think it¡¯s ineffective just because it¡¯s cheap. If there¡¯s no other contraindications and HLA-B*5801 gene is found to be negative, Allopurinol is definitely the best option in terms of efficacy and safety. The latest gout guideline from the American College of Rheumatology recommends Allopurinol as the first-line drug. Although it is not a first-line recommendation in China because the prevalence of HLA-B*5801 gene positivity is relatively high in Han population, if HLA-B*5801 gene is confirmed to be negative, Allopurinol is the best choice.¡± Liang Fatty spoke clearly, he had thoroughly studied these medications. ¡°Makes sense. Elderly people generally have some high blood pressure or similar issues, so it¡¯s better to be cautious with Febuxostat. I will have him do a HLA-B*5801 gene test when he¡¯s free, it only costs a few hundred yuan, right? If it¡¯s negative, I¡¯ll have him switch to Allopurinol.¡± Zhang Lin was reassured after getting a clear answer. Little Five also noted this down, hoping that his father-in-law¡¯s HLA-B*5801 gene test result would be negative. ¡°Move the bed!¡± Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin¡¯s superior, threw his gloves into the yellow collection box and gave the order with authority. On hearing the superior¡¯s call, Zhang Lin immediately perked up. Along with the standardized training student and the intern, he lifted the patient, moving him from the operating bed to the Pingche. The amputated limbs were bagged, labeled, and handed over to the cleaner in the operating room who then took the amputated limbs to the pathology department. ¡°It would be best to spend three months in the pathology department. Stand by the sampling table in the gross laboratory, and eat meat buns while watching teachers dissect things like liver, stomach, and intestines. When you can do this, then you can consider having passed the test.¡± Song Zimo patted the intern¡¯s shoulder. The intern felt nauseated. Merely listening to this scenario made him nauseous, let alone eating buns while watching. That would require a high degree of cultivation. At this moment, Yang Ping was taking a phone call in the corner. The call was from Huang Jiacai in Shanghai. ¡°The spinal external fixators have been sent to the laboratory in Guilin. We need to make time to go there. Forty monkey surgeries will probably take two days. Fatty, you should go too. Any issues with the monkey anesthesia, Little Five? You arrange the travel.¡± After hanging up the phone, Yang Ping arranged the task to Guilin. ¡°Shall we go this Friday after work? Song and I will go with you. Old Xu and Zhang Lin will stay in the ward. We¡¯ll switch next time. Depart after work on Friday and return on Sunday night. I will get them to prepare the skin a day in advance.¡± Little Five was in charge of external liaison, including research activities. Preparing the skin involves removing hair from the surgical area and cleaning the skin. Monkeys have much denser body hair than humans, so preparing the skin is a laborious process. For forty monkeys, all the hair on their backs had to be removed with electric razors. ¡°The anesthesia equipment and drugs are available there. I¡¯d shown you the list of equipment and drugs. Any issues?¡± Little Five asked Liang Fatty. It was the first time they would be anesthetizing forty monkeys at once. The quantity of anesthesia could only be referenced from humans and adjusted based on the monkeys¡¯ weight. Liang Fatty had also consulted his mentor at Huaxi in advance. The mentor was researching a new type of local anesthetic and was currently in the animal experiment stage. He had vast experience with post-experimental anesthesia. Scientific research is gruelling, especially in basic research. It is both hard and tiring, and without pay, naturally no one wants to do it. However, basic research is vital. Like the foundation of a building, without a solid foundation, no matter how beautiful the building is, it would be futile. After the surgeries on the forty monkeys, the external fixators needed to be adjusted daily. Which screws to rotate, how many times, and how many degrees each rotation needs to be precise. In addition, regular X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans were required for the monkeys. Analyzing these imaging data, taking some tissue for microscopic analysis, studying the firmness levels of the fixators, and recording any issues that arose during the process. The PhDs dispatched from Xiehe Hospital were to complete these tasks. They had excellent research qualifications. When the patient woke up from the anesthesia and returned to the ward, although his entire body was bandaged, those lumps beneath the gauze were no longer there. If all goes well, he could start walking with prostheses after fourteen days. Back in the ward, Yang Ping had nothing to do and called up the monkey imaging photos from Guilin for review. Xiehe¡¯s lab in Guilin had complete equipment, and the quality of these imaging photos was very high. Full spinal X-rays, 3D reconstructed CTs, and various sections of MRIs were very standardized. In order to get the best imaging photos, the laboratory staff came up with many solutions. They designed an X-ray permeable stand to fix the monkeys for the inspection. These little guys wouldn¡¯t let you examine them compliantly. Even when fixed on the stand, some images had to be shot many times to obtain. ¡°Don¡¯t you find this monkey¡¯s X-ray picture looks a lot like a child¡¯s?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t Darwin say humans evolved from apes.¡± ¡°You can see, the physiological curves are not very prominent?¡± ¡°Yeah, why aren¡¯t the physiological curves very prominent.¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five also looked on from the side. ¡°The imaging data here not only includes our experiment of 40 monkeys but also many of their past experimental monkey data. The physiological curve of the spine was formed after humans started to walk upright. Monkeys can stand upright briefly, but they mostly walk on all fours, so their spine doesn¡¯t have the typical physiological curve of humans.¡± Yang Ping explained to them. Orthopedic expert Professor Qin Sihe once wrote a paper analyzing the formation and correction of deformities from an evolutionary perspective. ¡°You think monkeys might have lumbar disc protrusion?¡± Zhang Lin asked Little Five. Xu Zhiliang was surprised by Zhang Lin¡¯s question: ¡°Did you hit the mark by a fluke today with such a profound question?¡± Why didn¡¯t he stutter when he was giving lectures to the wall every day, but now he does? Zhang Lin was too angry to retort. ¡°Look, these are the MRIs of old monkeys¡¯ spines. The three lowest intervertebral discs in humans degenerate the fastest. By old age, they would surely have dehydrated, presenting a low signal, but monkeys seem not to have this problem.¡± Yang Ping pulled up some data for him to see. ¡°So, your question, if it wasn¡¯t hit the mark by a fluke, I might have to call you Teacher Zhang.¡± Xu Zhiliang genuinely thought this question was profound. ¡°Why don¡¯t we study the difference in lumbar disc degeneration between monkeys and humans for our next topic after finishing the current one?¡± Little Five suggested. ¡°Actually, from an evolutionary perspective, the human intervertebral disc is inferior. It hasn¡¯t evolved well yet to adapt to humans¡¯ upright posture, so it¡¯s prone to issues.¡± Song Zimo was also contemplating this issue. Yang Ping partly agreed with this view: ¡°Degeneration is inevitable. The degeneration of the human motor system always starts from stress concentration areas, such as the lower lumbar vertebrae and knee joints. Anatomy adapts to function, but ironically these areas are not anatomically reinforced.¡± To solve clinical issues in medicine, one must start thinking from the basics. Chapter 508 - 508 464 Right to Speak ?Chapter 508: Chapter 464: Right to Speak Chapter 508: Chapter 464: Right to Speak As for whether monkeys will develop lumbar disc herniation, it¡¯s indeed a valuable question. Many doctors theorize that lumbar disc herniation is the toll humans pay for evolving from four-limbed crawling to bipedal walking. The intervertebral disc, as an organ, hasn¡¯t had time to adapt to the upright human body and is hurriedly pressed into service. As a result, it tends to prematurely wear out under heavy burden, particularly at lumbar regions such as L3/4, L4/5, L5/S1 where the stress is concentrated. Although a monkey¡¯s spinal column resembles that of a human, there are differences, as monkeys crawl on all fours. The intervertebral disc of a monkey doesn¡¯t need to bear the burden of upright standing like that of a human. Theoretically, degeneration in monkeys would be much less than in humans. If anatomical studies show that during a monkey¡¯s lifetime, its lumbar discs rarely show the sort of degeneration or herniation seen in humans, this supposition could be supported by experimental data. Little Five and Zhang Lin decided to uphold Newton¡¯s apple spirit, and a research topic gradually formed during their discussion ¡ª comparing the differences between monkeys¡¯ and humans¡¯ intervertebral discs, and identifying the impact of human evolutionary factors on lumbar disc herniation. This would require observing monkeys at different age groups, with a certain number of monkeys chosen for each age group. They then plan to use age as a clue to create an MRI image spectrum of the monkeys¡¯ intervertebral discs from youth to old age. Similarly, they would develop an MRI image spectrum of the intervertebral discs of humans of different ages, compare the two image groups and apply a series of statistical comparisons. ¡°If you thoroughly research this issue and clearly elucidate it theoretically, clarify it through biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, genetics, and other perspectives, you would be of Nobel Prize caliber. The simple question of why eating chili peppers causes anal pain led to two Nobel prizes in medicine with the discovery of TRPV1 (the ¡®chili pepper¡¯ principle), TRPM8 (the ¡®minty cool¡¯ principle), and PIEZO1 (the ¡®feeling of pressure from hugging¡¯) channels.¡± Xu Zhiliang wasn¡¯t sure if he was encouraging or pouring cold water on their enthusiasm. Zhang Lin generally feels that whatever Xu says is designed to belittle him. If researching why eating chili peppers causes anal pain can win a Nobel Prize, then analyzing the formation mechanism of farts should also be award-worthy, although he didn¡¯t dare retort. ¡°Old Xu is genuinely praising you. The question of why eating chili peppers causes anal pain has really awarded two Nobel Prizes.¡± Song Zimo stated calmly. Yang Ping supports these two jesters¡¯ speculation. He isn¡¯t afraid of their absurdity, but rather if they become oblivious and have no desire to make progress. Regardless of whether they chose to research chili peppers and anal pain, or monkeys and intervertebral discs, maintaining curiosity is always a good thing. Yang Ping hopes the staff in his department would stay relaxed, optimistic, proactive, and independent instead of suppressed and rigid. ¡ª The schedule is very tight. Now that they have Xu Zhiliang, the unit has ample staff, making shifts manageable. Previously, if the team had to travel to perform surgery, they would definitely be short-staffed left behind. When they went to Malaysia¡¯s Yingge Hospital for surgery, Yang Ping¡¯s team drained their resources to the point where, out of necessity, Director Han had to personally be on duty with a group of standardized training students. This embarrassing situation will not happen again now. With either Xu Zhiliang or Song Zimo left to run the department, Yang Ping can rest assured. Thus, now they can pick up and leave for anywhere as they wish. High-speed rail has made transportation in China very convenient. They departed at eight o¡¯clock on Friday night and arrived in Guilin at eleven. They spent a night in a Guilin laboratory to rest before the surgery promptly started at eight the next morning. Perhaps Director He still remembers how much Yang Ping praised Guilin¡¯s offal the first time he visited, so the main dish of the night was again offal, and even the morning¡¯s porridge was made with offal. Liang Fatty, guided by the new dietary balance idea, kept burping from the offal, but his gout didn¡¯t recur. Director He led everyone to begin work, fully supporting Yang Ping¡¯s research. They tamed forty monkeys for the night, mingled sedatives in their food to keep them dozing off. No food is allowed eight hours before surgery, and no water four hours before surgery. The doctoral students from Xiehe Hospital were very dedicated. They removed all the body hair from the monkeys¡¯ backs and pre-cleaned their skins. During the hair removal, they strictly followed the latest guidelines for preoperative grooming, using a combination of scissors and electric razors to minimize skin damage. Each slight skin damage can be a settling point for bacteria, increasing the chance of postoperative infection. The latest preoperative guidelines prohibit the use of manual razors for hair removal and require scissors or electric razors to minimize the likelihood of skin damage. At eight o¡¯clock the next day, the first monkey was promptly fastened on a specially designed surgical table. In the supine position, Liang Fatty carried out tracheal intubation for general anesthesia. The procedure for tracheal intubation for monkeys was not significantly different from humans and was similar to tracheal intubation for babies. The anesthesia doses were calculated based on weight per kilogram, and the weight of each monkey had already been detailed in the medical records. Each monkey was assigned a number, and each one had a medical record that included a variety of data, including preoperative examination results and the types and degrees of scoliosis. After the anesthesia was completed, the monkey was placed in the prone position and still fastened by a specially designed rack. In the operating room, numerous medical students were revolving through the laboratory. Will the miraculous external spinal fixator devised by the youngest Golden Knife Award winner, who is highly valued by Professor Liang, turn out to be successful? Song Zimo led Little Five in sterilising and draping. As this was an animal experiment, they aimed to simulate the most realistic human surgery as much as possible. Even the preoperative verification was carefully completed to prevent a mix-up between monkeys and medical records, which might lead to false data. Yang Ping was the chief surgeon, Song Zimo the first assistant, and Little Five the second. Percutaneous pedicle screws were implanted in the lumbar area, followed by the attachment of an external fixation frame. The symmetrical incisions made during the procedure were so small, each only two to three millimeters across, that virtually no spinal structure was damaged. The surgeries were executed almost as if on an assembly line. With each procedure lasting only ten minutes, the two operating rooms alternated. As one room conducted the surgery, the other put the monkeys under anesthesia. And as soon as one operation concluded, the theme moved to the other room. The switching of rooms greatly increased efficiency. Once the monkeys awoke from the anesthesia, they were sent to the closed garden in the backyard for observation. Long ropes were used to bind them, limiting their movement. This was necessary for periodic rotation of screws. The doctor in charge of the monkeys¡¯ perioperative care had extensive experience. Having participated in many animal experiments, he had taught himself veterinary knowledge, including how to interpret monkeys¡¯ lab results, how to read their electrocardiograms, how to analyze imaging findings for them. Monkey¡¯s medical data differed from human¡¯s, and he knew how to make sense of these data. This doctor jokingly said that he planned to open a pet hospital after graduating, believing that he would make the best veterinarian. His rich experience in performing heart, lung, liver, and kidney transplants on monkeys and operating on dogs¡¯ brains and cats¡¯ burns instilled great confidence in him. As for minor ailments, medicine simply cured them. This wasn¡¯t just empty talk. He had seriously considered and analyzed the idea, concluding that there was a wonderful future in becoming veterinarian. This doctor, who had a babyface, was very familiar with Yang Ping. He said admiringly, ¡°Dr. Yang, you are the only associate chief physician that has won the Golden Knife Award since its inception. Your surgeries are so good. How come you are so proficient at performing surgeries, even the new operative methods, as if you have practiced them for numerous times?¡± Yang Ping could not tell him that he had an assisting tool on the side, which provided him with thousands of surgical cases. If he failed, he could retry without any worries. ¡°The more surgeries you do, the more proficient you become,¡± Yang Ping replied. As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. That is the reason. As for the animal experiments of the spinal external fixation frame, I have conducted countless successful experiments in the system space. The surgery was so simple, concluding within a day instead of the scheduled two. On the ¡°monkey hill¡± in the laboratory, forty monkeys were tethered by a long rope, with spinal external fixation frames fitted to their backs. They were curious, looking at each other¡¯s metal frames and even reaching out to touch them. If the external fixation frames could slowly correct their deformed spines, it would represent a significant innovation. This might mean no surgery for adolescents with spinal scoliosis, who could be corrected instead. If this technique is developed further, adults¡¯ deformations may also be minimally invasively corrected with external fixation frames. Ultimately, normal spinal form and function can be achieved. In contrast, traditional corrective surgery sacrifices much spinal mobility. Although doubts have been raised. Even Professor Liang in Beijing wondered about controlling the power and direction of correction, maintaining the durability of power, generating drag-induced tissue regeneration under tension-stress, screw loosening of percutaneously implanted pedicle screws, and whether screw holes would get infected. All these questions are still up in the air. Johnson & Johnson¡¯s Swiss research institute did not believe that the external fixation frames could be applied to spinal correction. They thought the technological complexity was hard to achieve. Therefore, they had chosen to cooperate with Dr. Mitsui of Japan on spinal external orthopedic devices. Yang Ping himself was very confident. After all, he was merely repeating a successful experiment of his own. Song Zimo had no doubt about this either. Since their first meeting, Yang Ping had never failed to deliver on his promises. Having worked all day, they could finally take a breather in the evening. There was no need to go back at night. The pace needn¡¯t be so hectic. They spent the night at the lab and would return to Sanbo Hospital early the next morning. They had no time to appreciate the scenery of Guilin. They had come twice and both times had gone straight to the lab from the high-speed railway station. They didn¡¯t have a clear picture of what Guilin looked like. ¡°This Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Forum in Japan is bound to be fervent. Professor Liang, Professor Qin, Professor Su, Professor Meng, and Professor Fu, all the big shots are going there. It is said that Fujiwara Masao is determined to win this time,¡± Song Zimo brought up this topic on the way back. Little Five reported, ¡°Takahashi will be responsible for picking us up, and he and his students will accompany us throughout the trip.¡± ¡°Additionally...¡± Little Five hesitated. ¡°What else?¡± Song Zimo asked, seeing him swallow his words. ¡°Takahashi mentioned that Fujiwara Miyuki insisted on participating in the welcoming ceremony.¡± Little Five knew about Miyuki¡¯s deep feelings for Yang Ping but felt embarrassed to mention it. Yang Ping didn¡¯t have the time to think about these things. All he was concerned about was not losing to Fujiwara Masao at the upcoming forum. This forum was seen as a prelude and trendsetter for the upcoming Asia-Pacific Orthopedics Conference. Whoever had the final say between China and Japan would determine who would get more support. In international academic organizations, the right to speak is critical. Without this right, you can only follow others and conform to the standards they set. This is why Professor Su, Professor Liang, and others are rallying power to clamor for the post of conference chair. Chapter 509 - 509 465 See You in Japan ?Chapter 509: Chapter 465: See You in Japan! Chapter 509: Chapter 465: See You in Japan! Yang Ping left Guilin, and following their operational process, the doctors in the lab began to adjust the nuts and bolts at scheduled times, gradually forming complex tensile stresses. Every day, the laboratory¡¯s daily report would be delivered to Yang Ping¡¯s computer in the form of text, images, and videos. He would personally check every detail to prevent errors from inadvertently happening. The experiment had to be meticulous. Any tiny mistake could lead to failure. Every day after the surgery, Zhang Lin would change the dressings for the gout patient, observing the condition of the surgical incision. Whether it was the incision at the amputation site or the incision from the gout nodule surgery, there was no seepage or swelling, and it was clean. This was a sign of good luck and a successful surgery. Sometimes, we must acknowledge the existence of luck in this world. It¡¯s like an invisible hand, either advancing or hindering things for us behind the scenes. ¡°Doctor, how is it?¡± Both the patient and his daughter were deeply worried. The success of the surgery would directly impact their family¡¯s future life. After changing the dressings, Zhang Lin took off his gloves and calmed the place by saying, ¡°The healing of the amputation site is excellent, the other incisions are also problem-free. Theoretically, he¡¯s already out of the danger period.¡± Days five through seven after the surgery were the most dangerous period for complications with the surgical incision. Now, on the eighth day post-surgery, the incision was healing well, significantly reducing the likelihood of future complications. Both the patient and his daughter breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the surgery was a success, rejoicing from within. ¡°The prosthesis engineer will come to take measurements. A doctor will accompany him, so please cooperate. There are many types of prosthetics at various prices. When the time comes, communicate with him on your choice. Once the prosthesis is fitted, you can start training to walk on it. If training goes well, you can even run with the prosthesis.¡± Zhang Lin instructed an intern to clean up the trash left from changing the dressings. ¡°Really? Can he go grocery shopping with the prosthesis?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± The patient stared at his leg, saying to himself excitedly, ¡°I¡¯m finally liberated this time.¡± He had been waiting for this moment for many years. ¡°Pengpeng is coming to see you with his mom tonight.¡± His daughter was also very happy. ¡°I am not scary-looking now, am I? Let him come, let him come.¡± The patient¡¯s face glowed with health, his spirit rejuvenated, appearing as if he had become a different person. He was finally able to rejoin his family and society. Zhang Lin sent several videos about prosthetics to the patient so that he could learn ahead. Currently, lower limb prosthetics are very advanced, with many paralympians wearing them to run and play sports. On the other hand, upper limb prosthetics still leave much to be desired. Even with the application of brain-computer interface technology, upper limb prosthetics still fall far short of satisfaction. Zhang Lin reported the gout patient¡¯s condition to Yang Ping. Hearing the updates, Yang Ping let out a sigh of relief, glad to have resolved the patient¡¯s problem. ¡°Dr. Yang, someone¡¯s looking for you!¡± Song Zimo announced at the door. Yang Ping¡¯s office door was open; he was currently reviewing the daily report from the Guilin lab. The visitor was Ning Qi, who stood outside the office with a delicate gift box in hand, a slight blush on her face as she smiled shyly. Yang Ping had agreed to this meeting with her. When Ning Qi sent a WeChat message saying that she urgently needed to see him about a patient¡¯s MRI images, Yang Ping had time and asked her to come right away. ¡°Dr. Yang, may I come in?¡± Ning Qi knocked lightly on the door. ¡°Please come in.¡± Yang Ping looked up from his computer. ¡°I¡¯ll leave you two to talk.¡± Song Zimo greeted them and left. Ning Qi entered and carefully placed the gift box on Yang Ping¡¯s desk before elegantly sitting down. The box contained cookies that she had made herself. ¡°You¡¯re too kind.¡± Yang Ping accepted the gift, the smell of the cookies tickling his senses. ¡°It¡¯s just a small treat. My baking skills aren¡¯t the best, so I hope you don¡¯t find it offensive. I apologize for taking up your time.¡± Ning Qi always wore a smile. ¡°Miss Ning, you don¡¯t have to be so polite.¡± Yang Ping thought she seemed a bit too restrained. ¡°You can just call me Ning Qi.¡± The CEO of a mega corporation was unexpectedly soft-spoken and gentle at this moment. ¡°I¡¯m here to trouble you again.¡± Ning Qi took a USB drive out of her bag. Upon receiving the USB, Yang Ping inserted it into his computer, checked it for viruses, and then opened the file. Clear MR images appeared on the electronic viewing screen. After a while, Yang Ping said, ¡°This is a brainstem glioma located between the pons and medulla oblongata. It spans from the upper cervical spine to the cranium, and crosses the base of the skull. It¡¯s an extremely dangerous tumor.¡± ¡°Fortunately, the tumor hasn¡¯t spread and is still confined to the original site.¡± Yang Ping scrutinized the full-body PET-CT scans and other examination treatments in detail. ¡°Whether surgery is performed or not, does the patient have no chance of survival?¡± Ning Qi was anxious, yet her exterior remained composed. ¡°That¡¯s too absolute a statement. Can you describe the progression of the disease?¡± Yang Ping poured Ning Qi a glass of water. ¡°He developed dizziness and headaches while attending a music event in Tokyo, Japan. He sought treatment at the attached hospital of Tokyo University, and after the examination, this was the conclusion. This falls under neurosurgery, which isn¡¯t your specialty. I hesitated to bother you, but I believe that no matter what, you can provide me with the best advice, so¡ª¡± Ning Qi¡¯s trust in Yang Ping stemmed from when her father was struggling in pain. Yang Ping had done his utmost, using his skilled medical techniques to allow her father to retain his dignity in his final moments, passing away painlessly. ¡°Doctors from Europe and the United States did an online consultation, and unanimously agreed that surgery is not viable.¡± Surgery being nonviable means waiting for death, Ning Qi understands the inevitable end. ¡°The risk of the surgery is tremendously high and could be fatal at any point during the procedure. But for such case, total fatality is certain without surgery. There is a slight chance of survival with proactive operation. I recommend we proceed with the surgery.¡± Yang Ping was very adamant. ¡°But, they all said the chance of success is zero. Sometimes I think, if only you were a neurosurgeon Doctor Yang, perhaps you could save him.¡± Ning Qi held back her pain. ¡°This kind of surgery is currently regarded as taboo in surgery because the area of operation involves a multitude of nerve nuclei. These nerve nuclei are what we refer to as the command center of life. Any slight misstep could lead to cessation of heartbeat and breathing. Even with tremendous effort from the doctors, the success rate for such operations remains exceptionally low at the present. This patient is the most dangerous amongst similar cases. This is the third case I have encountered, and luckily, the previous two surgeries were successful.¡± ¡°You¡¯re saying you can also perform this surgery? You¡¯ve succeeded twice?¡± Ning Qi¡¯s eyes immediately lit up with hope. After a brief consideration, Yang Ping said: ¡°In this world, I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m the only one who can perform this surgery for him.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want her to continue seeking random medical help in her panic. If they ended up at the wrong operating table, it could delay treatment and cost a life. ¡°Thank you¨C¡± Ning Qi was so pleased she didn¡¯t know what to say next. ¡°Is the person currently in Japan?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°At the Neurology Ward of the affiliated hospital of Tokyo University, Japan. Currently receiving combined treatment from the Spinal Surgery and Neurosurgery departments. Apart from examination, no other treatments have been given at the moment. The doctors said he can¡¯t be transferred yet and needs to undergo palliative dehydration treatment.¡± ¡°This is my brother¨C¡± Ning Qi added that her brother is the only immediate family she has now. In her early thirties, Ning Qi was steering the great Anning Empire. She originally just wanted to be a primary school teacher, but her destiny had dictated otherwise. It was impossible for her to live life her way. She had to ascend to a high position at a young age, had to be ruthless and tactful. She just wanted to live an ordinary life like others ¨C getting married, having children, and living an ordinary day-to-day life, but she couldn¡¯t. The trials of the business world had made her seemingly more composed and steady than the average person when faced with these changes. ¡°Let me perform the surgery for him, it¡¯s the only hope. I¡¯m heading to Japan soon, if it¡¯s convenient, I¡¯ll go and see him.¡± Modesty is a virtue, but there are times when it can be a flaw. ¡°Thank you!¡± How wonderful it feels to find hope in desperation. Although the surgery carries great risks, Ning Qi felt much relieved seeing Yang Ping¡¯s confident gaze. She brushed back her soft hair, beneath the hair at her temples a thin line of sweat was visible. ¡°Shall I go to Japan first, to wait for you?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m on the flight next Friday, I¡¯ll be in Japan on Saturday and Sunday. We can meet in Tokyo. According to the current condition, don¡¯t move him yet, continue with the dehydration treatment, he is not in immediate life danger.¡± ¡°Understood! Thank you!¡± Ning Qi extended her slender, fair hand, and Yang Ping shook it with a smile. ¡°The surgery comes with extreme risks, to save him, taking the risk is essential.¡± Yang Ping reminded her again. ¡°I know! Regardless of the outcome, I trust you.¡± Whether it was because of the man¡¯s aura or the trust she had for him in the past, Ning Qi had absolute faith in Yang Ping. ¡°My mother left me a long time ago, you know, and my father did too. Now I only have my brother left. He used to wander outside and I never got to take care of him. I feel guilty about it. Now that he¡¯s finally back, I never expected this to happen.¡± Ning Qi¡¯s eyes were shimmering with tears. She never had anyone to talk to and kept all her thoughts to herself. Now all her feelings just poured out. ¡°Man proposes, God disposes. As long as we do our best, there will be no regrets.¡± Yang Ping comforted her. ¡°Yes! How are the cookies?¡± Ning Qi quickly recovered her composure. ¡°Very Good.¡± Yang Ping praised, having tasted them before, he did think they were quite good. ¡°Thank you, I thought you wouldn¡¯t eat them.¡± Ning Qi laughed. ¡°Thank you for being the first to donate to the foundation. That sum of money is very useful for our scientific research.¡± Yang Ping knew that Ning Qi was the first one to donate when the foundation was established. She did it quietly without any publicity and didn¡¯t even inform Yang Ping. ¡°I¡¯m just the keeper of wealth. Giving money to those who need it most is what makes it meaningful.¡± ¡°If every entrepreneur were as responsible as you.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be better if every doctor were like you?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t take any more of your time, see you in Japan!¡± ¡°See you in Japan!¡± Chapter 510 - 510 466 Similar Cases ?Chapter 510: Chapter 466: Similar Cases Chapter 510: Chapter 466: Similar Cases Tokyo University Hospital Department of Surgery¡¯s main meeting room. Surrounding the rectangular conference table, specialists are discussing cases. Present are not only professors from Tokyo University Hospital but also professors from Juntendo University Hospital. It can be said that it is a gathering of Japan¡¯s top surgical professors. Among them are several professors who are revered figures in Japan, such as Professor Ito, a consultant professor of orthopedics and neurosurgery at Juntendo University Hospital. The current directors of orthopedics and neurosurgery are his students. He has always advocated that neurosurgeons should be proficient in both cranial A and the spine. After familiarity with the cranial A and the spine, they can then sub-specialize. In Japan, where the academic hierarchy is prevalent, these professors hold absolute say. They¡¯ve retired from front-line work. The case discussions they are invited to attend are usually for members of the royal family, business magnates, or political figures. Their wealth of experience can form an important basis for decisions. More importantly, their prominent status can be a solid backing for the chief surgeons. Juntendo Hospital¡¯s status in Japan is equivalent to that of Xiehe Hospital in China. In Japan, in terms of medical science, Juntendo University ranks higher than Tokyo University¡¯s School of Medicine, and Juntendo Hospital ranks higher than Tokyo University Hospital. It¡¯s fair to say, without exaggeration, that Juntendo is the ¡°father¡± of Tokyo University¡¯s School of Medicine. The case under discussion is none other than that of the head of the Fujiwara family, Fujiwara Tani, the current president of the Fujiwara conglomerate, and the uncle of Fujiwara Masao. Since the discovery of his tumor during a medical check-up, the Fujiwara conglomerate has donated three billion US dollars to Tokyo University specifically for researching his case. ¡°The surgical risk for Mr. Fujiwara is too high. At present, even under the most advanced navigation equipment, there is no success rate, less than five percent.¡± ¡°Yes, we¡¯ve conducted a large number of animal experiments, but the surgical success rate still fails to exceed five percent.¡± ¡°Should we consider involving Europeans and Americans in the treatment?¡± ¡°No, the success rate on American soil is no higher than ours. I am very familiar with John Ansen from Mayo; their surgical procedures might lag behind ours in terms of details.¡± ¡°Mr. Fujiwara¡¯s medical condition is confidential, and unless necessary, we should avoid inviting others to participate.¡± ¡°I agree, for such tumors, personally, I think we¡¯re already at the forefront.¡± ¡°All of you, have you ever thought about it? Without surgery, Mr. Fujiwara Tani has no chance! Professor Fujiwara Masao, what is your opinion? You are both a core member of the patient¡¯s treatment team and a family member.¡± Professor Ito¡¯s hair is grey, but he¡¯s spirited and straight-backed, his voice booming. Fujiwara Masao is listening and taking notes. Although he has a secretary dedicated to taking notes, he still makes some necessary records himself. ¡°According to what my student, Takahashi Fumiya, reported after his study tour in China, Dr. Yang Ping has had a successful case.¡± Fujiwara Masao feels that some fresh elements should be injected into the discussion. ¡°An individual case means nothing, what was distinctive about his surgical procedure?¡± The Department Director of Neurosurgery at Tokyo University¡¯s Hospital, Professor Komori Daisuke, questioned. ¡°He has done a lot of in-depth research on the upper cervical cord and brainstem, and particularly an anatomical and functional study on the nerve nucleus group. Based on this, he has designed a unique surgical approach. In his case, the patient¡¯s heartbeat stopped several times during surgery, and after resuscitation, the operation continued. The most incredible thing is that he performed surgery while the heart was stopping.¡± Fujiwara Masao can only describe it based on Takahashi¡¯s report. ¡°That¡¯s crazy! Surgery can be performed after the heart stops because it is supported by extracorporeal circulation. However, once the brain¡¯s vital center stops working, is there anything that can substitute for it? And who can guarantee that it can be revived?¡± Professor Komori finds it hard to believe, his tone appears dismissive. ¡°Are you sure Takahashi witnessed it himself? Based on your description, the credibility of his case appears very low. If we use it as a reference, we might go down the wrong path.¡± The Head of Neurosurgery at Juntendo Hospital also finds it hard to believe. ¡°We also have a five-percent success rate. It¡¯s not surprising to have individual success cases, and luck is often a major factor. Besides, if he had a mature surgical plan, why didn¡¯t he publish a paper?¡± Deputy Director of Orthopedics at Juntendo Hospital responded. The Director of Juntendo Hospital was attending a meeting elsewhere, so the deputy director was attending the meeting on his behalf. ¡°It takes time for a paper to be submitted and published, which can¡¯t be a reason to negate it. Everything should be based on evidence rather than emotions. Without evidence proving its low credibility, we can¡¯t just dismiss this information for now.¡± A white-haired professor replied in a calm voice. He is Fujiwara Masao¡¯s teacher, a consultant professor in orthopedics at Tokyo University Hospital, Professor Ikeda. ¡°Gentlemen, any matters that go beyond common sense, we must handle with caution. Do not easily believe, nor quickly determine them to be unreliable. Such a path might cause us to miss some valuable information. Some sneer at this, but I think such an attitude is extremely dangerous. Being blindly arrogant is a precursor to falling behind!¡± Professor Ikeda reminded everyone in a stern tone. Professor Ito immediately asserted, ¡°I completely agree with Professor Ikeda¡¯s view. You are only one step away from being left behind!¡± Upon the reminder from the senior professor, everyone turned red-faced, no longer daring to make light of the situation. ¡°Please, continue¨C¡± Professor Ito prompted Fujiwara Masao to go on. ¡°I had Takahashi mimic his surgical methods on a lab monkey, but regrettably, I was unable to replicate the effects of his surgery. I had the good fortune to cross paths with this doctor. He had once successfully completed an operation on a large and complex abdominal vascular tumor, a case where I had previously failed. But he succeeded. Therefore, I sent Takahashi to China to learn from him. After Takahashi returned and reported back to me, the doctor¡¯s surgical skills seemed supernatural. Takahashi was previously arrogant, but after returning from China, he became modest and cautious. Therefore, I think that this doctor is by no means ordinary. But, he is an orthopedic doctor. As far as I know, in China, upper cervical spinal cord tumors are within the scope of orthopedics, while brainstem tumors are within the purview of neurosurgery. It is hard to understand why he can perform cross-discipline surgery, especially the most dangerous types. In China, this is practically impossible.¡± Fujiwara Masao neither rashly denied nor wholly accepted but raised doubt. ¡°For now, let¡¯s set this matter aside, but we must not overlook it!¡± Professor Ito felt that further discussion on this matter was meaningless and would prove difficult to clarify. ¡°I heard that your inpatient department accepted a case very similar to Mr. Fujiwara¡¯s?¡± Professor Ito inquired. ¡°Yes, our neurosurgery ICU is currently treating a patient whose condition is strikingly similar to Mr. Fujiwara¡¯s. I think we can perform surgery on this patient, accumulate experience from it, and then apply the experience to Mr. Fujiwara¡¯s surgery. The surgery success rate will definitely increase considerably.¡± Professor Komori suggested. The professors were momentarily taken aback, then Professor Ito stated, ¡°This is a golden opportunity. The success rate of surgery requires a volume of cases. The animal experiments on monkey species are very similar to humans, but there are still differences. The tumor model is even more different. If there are similar patients available, regardless of whether their surgery is successful or not, it would certainly be a golden opportunity for President Fujiwara and must be cherished.¡±. ¡°Should we¡ª¡± someone began to object. ¡°The progress of medicine always has its sacrifices. This is not surprising and doesn¡¯t contradict ethics.¡± Professor Ikeda sternly stated. ¡°There is no ethical rule governing the order of our surgery.¡± Professor Ito stood with Professor Ikeda. Fujiwara Masao breathed a sigh of relief because, as a member of the patient¡¯s family, he couldn¡¯t suggest using this patient as a case study to accumulate experience for his uncle¡¯s surgery. Now that Professor Komori had proposed it and recieved agreeance from Professors Ito and Ikeda, Fujiwara Masao was, of course, delighted. His greatest concern was the two professors decisively rejecting. ¡°However¡ªthe patient¡¯s family has informed us to initially keep treatment conservative. They wish to invite a doctor to perform the surgery. The doctor¡¯s details will be submitted to our hospital soon.¡± Professor Komori revealed this disappointing news. Professor Ito¡¯s voice seethed with anger: ¡°Is there progession beyond us in the field of neurosurgery and orthopedics? Even John Ansen from the Mayo wouldn¡¯t dare say he exceeds us in surgical methods. Who are they going to invite? We have invited top professors from the United States and Europe to perform surgeries for the purpose of academic exchange and learning. Besides them, do we need to invite someone else? We can reject their request. For such cases, Juntendo University and Tokyo University are both top-tier institutions. There is no better choice. You should make it clear to them that they have the most dangerous tumor in the world- it¡¯s dangerous because of its growth position and not for our technology. There are only a handful in the world that can perform surgery on him, and we are one of them.¡± ¡°I have already patiently explained, but they are very adamant. The patient cannot be transferred. If a surgical operation is to be conducted, it can only be done here. But if they request an external physician to be the chief surgeon, as long as the doctor¡¯s qualifications meet the requirements, it seems that we can¡¯t refuse based on either law or ethics!¡± Professor Komori expressed regretfully. Professor Ito became even angrier: ¡°This is ridiculous. They are showing contempt for us. How can there be patients that do not trust us?¡± ¡°They may not be familiar with the medical field. Continue communication with them and make sure that we are the ones to perform the surgery. As for inviting a doctor in to perform the surgery, I can¡¯t think of who they¡¯d invite. It could only John Ansen¡ªthis neurosurgeon from the Mayo is not better than us.¡± Professor Ikeda agreed completely with Professor Ito. ¡°Understood, I will do everything in my power.¡± Professor Komori promised. Fujiwara Masao also stated, ¡°I will join Komori in changing the mind of the patient¡¯s family.¡± ¡°The founder of our first generation main hall, Mr. Sato Taisen, founded Juntendo University. And the founder of our third generation main hall, Mr. Sato Naonaka, founded the Department of Medicine at Tokyo University. At the time of its official establishment, 20 out of the 22 professors of Tokyo University¡¯s Department of Medicine came from Juntendo. Juntendo and Tokyo University Hospital are Japan¡¯s best hospitals. Now, with President Fujiwara lying in our ward, we appear helpless. This gives me unbearable pain. Therefore, everyone must reach out to the furthest extent, unite, and strive for the highest success rate for the surgery. When it comes to microscope-assisted surgeries, I am too old for them now. So, I have to leave it to the two of you, Fujiwara Masao and Komoi Daiichi!¡± Professor Ito stood up and bowed, at which Fujiwara Masao and Professor Komori immediately stood up and returned the bow. ¡°Can you take me to see President Fujiwara again?¡± Professor Ito requested. The meeting was temporarily adjourned. Fujiwara Masao and Komori Daisuke led Professor Ito and the others once again to visit Fujiwara Tani in the special ICU ward. Chapter 511 - 511 467 The Red Telephone Rings Again ?Chapter 511: Chapter 467: The Red Telephone Rings Again Chapter 511: Chapter 467: The Red Telephone Rings Again ¡°Which patient is this? This is your third patient like this, isn¡¯t it?¡± Yang Ping was studying MR images when Song Zimo came over to look along with him. ¡°It¡¯s Ning Qi¡¯s brother.¡± Yang Ping informed him. ¡°The domineering female CEO? I see she brought another box of cookies, homemade no less, she wouldn¡¯t have taken a liking to you, would she?¡± Song Zimo joked. ¡°So, a box of cookies is all it takes for her to fall for me? Am I that cheap?¡± Yang Ping retorted, amused. Song Zimo shook his head, ¡°Have some self-confidence. You¡¯re quite valuable. When our research fund was established, she was the first to donate, quietly and generously.¡± ¡°Quit the nonsense, focus on the films. Look, this tumor is cunning and vicious, growing precisely towards the vital centers of the body. We might have to use the laser knife again.¡± Yang Ping delineated the tumor¡¯s outline. Song Zimo didn¡¯t respond; he just kept staring at the images as if contemplating something. ¡°Is there a problem?¡± Yang Ping thought he might have discovered a new issue. ¡°Yes!¡± Song Zimo responded firmly. ¡°Speak.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been wondering¡ª are you even human? You dare to operate on such a tumor?¡± ¡°If we don¡¯t operate, what else can we do?¡± True. The patient wouldn¡¯t last long without surgery. Any other surgeon might not even get off the operating table, but if Yang Ping were to perform it, there would be hope, significant hope. Song Zimo was convinced of this. ¡°This time, let me assist you. Dr. Wen Rentao assisted in Professor Feng¡¯s last surgery.¡± ¡°Then get ready.¡± ¡°Where¡¯s the patient?¡± ¡°He¡¯s in the affiliated hospital of Tokyo University in Japan. We¡¯re going there for a conference and will visit him. If he can¡¯t be transported back, we¡¯ll have to operate there.¡± Japanese people are stubborn. Having a surgery in their Tokyo University¡¯s affiliated hospital might be a hard sell. ¡°That¡¯s Takahashi¡¯s stronghold. Let¡¯s have him help make the arrangements.¡± Song Zimo suggested. Yang Ping nodded in agreement, ¡°I was thinking the same. Let Takahashi act as the intermediary, and have our medical affairs department negotiate with theirs to arrange this cross-national surgery.¡± Such surgeries involve many legal issues. Even if they agree, we will still face procedures like obtaining temporary medical licenses. ¡°Japanese doctors should be quite interested in this case, I heard! Tokyo University¡¯s affiliated hospital recently launched a charity project. It¡¯s a collaboration between the Spinal Surgery Department and the Neurosurgery Department and offers free surgeries to patients from impoverished and undeveloped countries. This includes surgeries for upper cervical or brainstem tumors. Not just the treatment, but even the airfare, lodging, and food in Japan would be freely provided by the charity fund. A lot of foreign patients have signed up for this plan, and some have already reached Tokyo.¡± Song Zimo felt, since the doctors in Tokyo showed a high interest in cases like this one, they would surely accept a cross-country surgery from Yang Ping. ¡°Regardless, let¡¯s follow the procedure for now. If they disagree, I¡¯ll negotiate with them once we¡¯ve reached Japan. Saving lives is what matters. Is this document an experimental report?¡± Yang Ping briefly put aside the case. Song Zimo almost forgot his initial purpose of seeking out Yang Ping¡ª to submit a report recently printed from the Guilin lab. He handed it to Yang Ping: ¡°Good news from Guilin lab. The correction for the spinal curvature in the monkeys was successful. As per the research plan, during the correction period, samples were periodically taken from different parts of the monkeys including the anterior and posterior longitudinal ligaments, ligamentum flavum, interspinous ligament etc. Under the electron microscope, we detected cell division that resembled the division in the fetal stage. In other words, the external forces applied by the spinal fixation device successfully induced growth in the different soft tissues of the spine. Ilizarov¡¯s theory has achieved initial success in spinal correction.¡± ¡°Very good! Continue. At present, the cells taken from the monkeys are detached dead cells at various stages of division. If we could observe living cells with a confocal laser scanning microscope, we would be able to explain the mechanism more convincingly.¡± Yang Ping pointed out the shortcomings of the experiment. However, it was quite difficult to observe live cell division in monkeys under the current experimental conditions. ¡°The design of your spinal external fixator is too perfect. The animal experiment meets all our expectations. If it succeeds, we¡¯ll soon be able to enter the clinical trial stage.¡± Song Zimo was very excited. He didn¡¯t expect such a smooth experiment. Usually, such experiments would have setbacks; this smooth progress made Song Zimo uneasy. ¡°The experiment is going so well? Do you think those guys might¡¯ve forged the data just to finish the experiment quickly?¡± Song Zimo was worried. Yang Ping chuckled inwardly. Song Zimo¡¯s worry was understandable; the smoothness of the experiment was indeed beyond normal. Only Yang Ping himself knew that this research plan had been revised and corrected countless times in the space lab until it reached an intermediate version. He simply employed the final successful version from the space lab in the real world. There was, therefore, no room for setbacks. If it hadn¡¯t been for this, the experiment would¡¯ve taken several years; Yang Ping wasn¡¯t prepared to waste so much time. The time in the system space could be wasted freely, but the time in reality had to be saved. Yang Ping checked the data in the report which was very similar to the data obtained in the space lab. It was genuine, none of the testers had falsified it. ¡°I understand your concerns, but the data in this is reliable. You should trust their academic integrity.¡± Yang Ping dismissed Song Zimo¡¯s worries. Song Zimo was only skeptical because of the experiment¡¯s unlikely success. However, the final results would not lie, as the regular X-rays had already indicated the gradual correction of the spinal curve. ¡°The applications of Ilizarov¡¯s theory will definitely continue to expand. The spinal external fixator is only one aspect. We are far from fully exploring the potential of this surgical tool.¡± ¡°Exactly, it was originally used for bone lengthening, then for heightening people¡¯s stature, and later, it was successfully applied to correct limb deformities¡ª¡± ¡°Who¡¯s studying Japanese?¡± Yang Ping heard someone shouting ¡°baka¨C yarou¡± in the office. ¡°It¡¯s Zhang Lin. He learned a bit of Japanese from Takahashi previously, and recently he said he wanted to brush up on his spoken Japanese.¡± Song Zimo recognized Zhang Lin¡¯s voice. Baka¨C Yarou, Baka¨C Yarou, Baka¨C Yarou ¡ª ¡°Why is he always repeating that phrase?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t understand why Zhang Lin kept repeating that particular insult. Song Zimo was just as confused. ¡°I¡¯ll go and see,¡± he said. That doctor¡¯s office, the place where he worked, he always mumbled to himself. It was not presentable. ¡°Zhang Lin, lower your voice!¡± Song Zimo walked to the doctor¡¯s office. The doctor¡¯s office was next to Yang Ping¡¯s office. ¡°Oh, sorry, I was too absorbed.¡± Zhang Lin said, taking off his headphones. Looking at him, it didn¡¯t seem like he was playing around. He was reading aloud from the headphones quite articulately. ¡°Are you learning Japanese?¡± Song Zimo asked in doubt. Zhang Lin nodded: ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Why do you always learn to curse?¡± Song Zimo was dissatisfied. Wearing headphones, his voice was loud and always with a curse word. It was a bad habit. Zhang Lin said seriously: ¡°I¡¯ve been re-reading The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, and I¡¯ve gained some insights. On this trip to Japan, I need to learn some basic phrases. But the most critical one to learn is this¡ªa curse word. One sentence can not explain clearly, Young Master Song, you also need to learn this phrase. I know your Japanese is excellent, but when you say this phrase, being too polite doesn¡¯t work. You need to pronounce this curse word imposingly¨Clike this!¡± Suddenly shouting the curse word, he startled Song Zimo. ¡°I¡¯m heading to the duty room to study. Anything else?¡± Zhang Lin confirmed that everything was okay, put on his headphones again, and left with his cellphone. Damn it, has this guy lost his mind? He¡¯s crazy! I never said I was taking him to Japan, and now he¡¯s cramming at the last minute to learn Japanese. ¡°He said, ¡®Opportunities are for those who are prepared.''¡± Little Five said to a stunned Song Zimo. ¡°Genius!¡± Song Zimo cursed. ¡°Has he been acting out of the ordinary recently?¡± Song Zimo was worried. Little Five replied, ¡°He¡¯s lucid and makes sense.¡± There was a ringing, and the red phone on the office desk rang. Red phone? It¡¯s the emergency center¡¯s phone. Although the Comprehensive Surgery Department is independent, it is a cooperative department of the emergency center. Normally, they wouldn¡¯t be needed, but once needed, the Comprehensive Surgery Department has to provide support to the emergency center. This was the situation with Yu Shuilian¡¯s surgery before. Little Five grabbed the phone, giving a series of okays. ¡°The emergency room has requested support; Director Han has already rushed to the scene. A Maserati crashed into a group of students leaving school, injuring several people¡ª¡°, Little Five briefly reported the content of the phone call. Surgeons, never have a quiet day. Just finished half a day¡¯s surgery and just wanted to rest in the afternoon. His butt had not yet warmed the chair when the red phone rang. At this time, Yang Ping had already appeared in the office. He had received a call from Director Han. Director Han is the head of the large orthopedics department and the director of the Trauma Emergency Center. He had already rushed to the site to command the rescue. Tan boyun and his team had already begun the rescue. ¡°Li Guodong! Stay with the ward! The rest of you, follow me to the emergency room, quickly!!!¡± Yang Ping immediately led the rest to rush to the emergency room. The severity of the injuries commands instant action! Several standardized training students might not have had enough at noon. They were washing a few apples to eat. Upon hearing the command, they immediately dropped their half-eaten apples and ran out. The intern who had previously fainted at the sight of uric acid crystals mixed in as well. They took the emergency elevator, then jogged all the way directly to the emergency department. The emergency department was in chaos, wailing families, doctors, nurses darting around, traffic police yelling into walkie-talkies, and doctors from various departments rushing in to help. ¡°Pleural cavity closed drainage, quick!¡± For tension pneumothorax, the emergency doctor had already inserted a large needle on-site to release air. A nurse opened the pleural cavity closed drainage package, and the thoracic surgeon, with gloves on, was performing a closed chest drainage. ¡°Femoral artery bleeding, ligate it, ligate it first! Send it to the CT room for scanning, call interventional department, quick! The pelvis is shattered, it is estimated there¡¯s a lot of bleeding, we need interventional embolization!¡± Dr. Tan, leading Dr. Zhong, was ligating the femoral artery. The blood-soaked groin had been torn open, and the dressings from the emergency treatment could no longer stop the bleeding. ¡°Go to the emergency CT room!¡± The emergency CT room is on the first floor of the emergency department. The flat design allows for diagnosis and surgery to be completed on one floor. Yang Ping quickly assigned the personnel, all the standardized training students and interns assisted with the rescue, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang followed him to the CT room. The CT room also serves as an emergency operating room with integrated examination and surgery. ¡°Epidural hematoma, bilateral femoral shaft comminuted fractures, bilateral tibia and fibula comminuted fractures, bilateral calcaneus comminuted fractures, pelvic comminuted fractures, bilateral hip central dislocation. The right femur head has shifted into the abdominal cavity, more than ten rib fractures, hemothorax and pneumothorax, urethral rupture, rectal rupture, the right femur has pierced into the abdominal cavity, causing damage to the organs inside¡ª¡± Dr. Lv from the emergency department reported. He didn¡¯t even have time to put on his white coat, he probably was just about to get off work but heard the command and directly joined the fight. He was covered in blood. What kind of injury mechanism was this? There was no time to think. ¡°Transfuse blood, quickly! Keep transfusing blood! Pressurize!¡± ¡°We¡¯re in a critical shortage of AB-type blood! We¡¯ve only got eight units at the moment and there are two AB-type patients. That¡¯s not even enough for one person.¡± Dr. Lv said anxiously. This type of rescue demanded a large amount of blood, without blood, even a god couldn¡¯t save the patients. Director Zhao from the medical department also rushed over in a hurry. While walking. he was shouting into his phone to negotiate with the blood bank: ¡°Old Zhang, you have to procure it for me, without blood, what should we do? AB type, yes, AB type.¡± Chapter 512 - 512 468 Two Choices ?Chapter 512: Chapter 468: Two Choices Chapter 512: Chapter 468: Two Choices The last 8 units of AB type blood from the blood bank are being transported to Sanbo Hospital. Afterwards, an emergency procedure is initiated to gather relatives and volunteers for urgent on-site blood donation, which will take some time. For now, only these 8 units are available for rescue. ¡°This one is the driver, and there¡¯s a student next door. Both have severe injuries. Director Han says you need to evaluate them.¡± Dr. Lv provides a brief overview of the patients¡¯ conditions. Whether they can be saved or not depends solely on Yang Ping. No one else can act as quickly. At the end of the emergency surgery corridor, two policemen stand at the large doorway. The female driver is suspect of drunk driving. She drove straight into a crowd without any attempt to brake. After her first collision with the crowd was blocked by an obstacle, she reversed and then accelerated, hitting another group of people. She intentionally targeted crowded places. This is considered a crime. After understanding the situation, Yang Ping quickly glances at the CT images on the screen. The abdomen and pelvis are a mess; multiple large blood vessels must have ruptured. If she were to be treated conservatively for the time being, relying on blood transfusion and fluid replacement to resist shock, it would be impossible to maintain a blood volume balance. Even if a pelvic external fixation frame is temporarily installed to maintain pelvic volume, it still couldn¡¯t balance the volume. There are bleeding points everywhere. If intervention department is asked to perform embolization, it is impossible to embolize so many places, and there is no time. The fastest and most effective method is the application of aortic balloon occlusion technology. A puncture from one relatively intact femoral artery will deliver the balloon into the abdominal aorta. It can then expand within the abdominal aorta, blocking it and almost entirely stopping all bleeding below this plane, significantly reducing blood loss. The balloon can even be delivered to a higher position to control bleeding, cooperating with blood transfusion and fluid replacement to temporarily stabilize blood pressure, buying time for surgery. This operation can be completed in just one or two minutes. A plan rapidly formed in Yang Ping¡¯s mind, and he immediately ordered: ¡°Prepare for REBOA!¡± REBOA, Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta! Dr. Lv, who had followed, immediately took out the REBOA kit from the surgery room¡¯s storage cabinet as soon as he heard Yang Ping¡¯s order. This equipment is always ready in the emergency operating room, but no one can apply this technology as proficiently as Yang Ping. Director Ouyang and Old Jin arrived at this time. Yang Ping handed over this patient to them and went to the next room with Song Zimo and others to see the student. ¡°You start with REBOA!¡± Yang Ping gave an instruction and immediately went to the operating room No. 2 next door. There are currently 6 operating rooms in the emergency department, all of which are integrated examination and operating multifunctional rooms. ¡°Hypovolemic shock, pelvic comminuted fracture, sacral comminuted fracture, bilateral femoral shaft fracture, multiple rib fractures, hemothorax, mediastinal hematoma, lung rupture, severe pelvic comminution, blood pressure cannot be maintained¡ª¡± The emergency doctor in charge of this patient reported the condition to Yang Ping. ¡°This female student, a high school student, has the most severe injuries, along with the driver we just saw.¡± Dr. Lv followed over again; he was in charge of on-site emergencies and needed to report the patients¡¯ conditions to Yang Ping at all time. Screen images flashing past, Yang Ping made an immediate diagnosis. This patient¡¯s condition was extremely similar to the previous one; they were both on the brink of life and death. ¡°REBOA!¡± Without waiting for the emergency doctor to act, Little Five directly took out the REBOA kit from the cabinet, opened it, and Yang Ping and Song Zimo put on gloves. Song Zimo acted as the assistant. Puncture, insert the sheath, deliver the shrunken aortic occlusion balloon through the sheath. Based on the patient¡¯s height, CT scan images, image ratios, the amount of bleeding in each part, Yang Ping quickly judged the precise anatomical location of each segment of the patient¡¯s aorta and the height at which the balloon needed to be delivered. With swift actions, the balloon was delivered to the appropriate location and immediately inflated. The inflated balloon instantly blocked the aorta¡¯s lumen, similar to closing the main valve of tap water, thereby controlling the majority of bleeding. However, this is only a temporary measure to stop bleeding. If we want the patient to survive, we need to supplement blood to maintain the perfusion of important organs. The delivery of oxygen requires an adequate amount of blood. During this window period, we have to seize the time to perform surgery and achieve long-term hemostasis. Only then will the patient have a chance to survive. This kind of surgery is nothing more than a race against bleeding. Stopping the bleeding and transfusing blood before massive blood loss causes organ failure can all be reversed; if we fail to stop the bleeding and transfuse blood before organ failure, vital organ ischemia and hypoxemia will cause a domino effect, leading to a state of exhaustion from which it is impossible to recover. ¡°Continue transfusing blood! Prepare for surgery, I¡¯ll go check next door. I¡¯ll be right back.¡± In the next room, Dr. Jin and Director Ouyang are performing a puncture and inserting the aortic balloon, but due to their less accurate judgment of the location, they are slowly pushing it up, correctly inflating the balloon. ¡°Too low! Go up, again, go up more!¡± Yang Ping simply did it himself, pushing the balloon almost fifteen centimeters higher before inflating it. ¡°You continue with this one, I need to go back to the next room.¡± Yang Ping was only here to help insert the balloon, completing the emergency hemostasis. When Yang Ping returned to operating room No. 2, Song Zimo had already completed the disinfection process and was preparing for thoracotomy. They both held full surgical privileges and didn¡¯t need the assistance of the Thoracic Surgery Department. The Department Director of Thoracic Surgery stood at the door, saw that the surgeons were Yang Ping and Song Zimo, did not say a word, and changed his consultation target. Chapter 513 - 513 468 Two Choices_2 ?Chapter 513: Chapter 468: Two Choices_2 Chapter 513: Chapter 468: Two Choices_2 With these two guys around, who needs thoracic surgeons? ¡°After dealing with the chest, we need to perform surgery on the pelvis and bilateral femoral shaft next. The pelvis needs a reconstructive steel plate, while the bilateral femur requires interlocking intramedullary nails ¡ª¡± The emergency operating room is equipped with a complete set of Orthopedic instruments, from spine, pelvis to limbs. There are numerous boxes of them, now conveniently put to use. Shortly after, several sterile-wrapped metal boxes are wheeled over. ¡°Right-angled vascular clamp!¡± Yang Ping takes the clamp, realizes it¡¯s curved and promptly alerts the scrub nurse. ¡°Where is Su Yixuan, call for Su Yixuan quickly!¡± In such time-sensitive surgery, a single second can determine life or death. Yang Ping needs the best assistants, the best scrub nurses to perform the surgery at top speed. He doesn¡¯t have time to worry about others¡¯ feelings, simple and direct communication is the most effective. ¡°She¡¯s here!¡± A familiar voice, a tall figure, Su Yixuan has already walked into the operating room with her hands raised, having just finished scrubbing. Just in time! The scrub nurse on duty sees the scene and quietly gives up her position, waiting for assignment. Subsequently, nurse Zhou Can and anesthesiologist, Liang Fatty take over their respective positions, replacing the current circulating nurse and anesthesiologist. ¡°The muscle relaxant is insufficient, the abdominal muscles are too tense, I¡¯m going to need to proceed with an approach via the rectus abdominis.¡± Yang Ping advises Liang Fatty in advance. Liang Fatty makes an OK gesture, immediately increasing dosage of the muscle relaxant to relax the patient¡¯s muscles and make the procedure easier. ¡°We don¡¯t have enough blood! How come it hasn¡¯t arrived yet.¡± Liang Fatty glances at the data on the monitor. The delivered blood has been used up. The last 8 units have just reached the blood bank. The emergency nurse has gone to fetch them but hasn¡¯t returned yet. ¡°We only have 8 units of PRBCs in our inventory! The injured person next door is also type AB, so we can only assign 4 units to us, the rest will have to wait!¡± Zhou Can quickly grasps the situation, she has also been urging the nurse to get more blood. Dammit, 4 units, Yang Ping curses in his heart. It¡¯s not enough, far from enough. Even 8 units are not enough, let alone 4 units. 8 and 4, although it only differs by four, sometimes when hovering near a critical value, a push might save a life, but a slight miss could mean death. ¡°Bring all 8 units here, all of them!¡± Yang Ping orders Zhou Can, before throwing himself back into the operation. Liang Fatty swiftly estimates the accumulated blood loss, the ongoing blood loss, and the needed blood volume. 4 units are definitely insufficient, but 8 units can push the injured away from the critical line. He understands why Yang Ping insists on having 8 units. This is a matter of life and death. ¡°8 units! Quick!¡± Since the chief surgeon has given the order, Liang Fatty and Zhou Can are now in charge of fetching blood. The nurse fetching the blood returns to the No. 2 operating room with a trolley piled with 8 bags of PRBCs. Zhou Can pulls the entire trolley to them. The nurse fetching the blood is in a difficult position: ¡°Dean Sun said, distribute them evenly, 4 units each side.¡± In other words, she¡¯ll only give 4 units here, and the rest 4 units should be delivered to operating room No. 1. But if the 8 units of red cells are split for use, both of the critically injured patients won¡¯t survive. However, if they¡¯re used on one patient, this student still has a glimmer of hope. ¡°Leave them all here. If there¡¯s any problem, Director Han will communicate with Dean Sun!¡± Liang Fatty firmly grips the trolley handle. Liang Fatty doesn¡¯t dare to delay, he appropriates 4 units of blood and immediately reports to Director Han. Director Han is nearby and arrives in the operating room shortly. ¡°How are things going?¡± He leans in to ask. Yang Ping, engrossed in the operation, replies: ¡°We¡¯re making progress, but we can¡¯t proceed without blood. 8 units are barely enough, we can just pack up now with just 4 units.¡± ¡°I understand the situation. Ouyang and Ajin next door are barely holding up. Let¡¯s save whoever we can.¡± Director Han does a lap around the operation table but can¡¯t really see anything. They chat as if idly, simply talking. Perhaps the nurse who just fetched the blood also reported to the Head Nurse and the Director of the Emergency Department, Dean Sun has now come to operating room No. 2. ¡°Old Han, are you out of your mind? There¡¯s only 8 units of blood, just distribute them evenly, won¡¯t you?¡± Dean Sun anxiously tries to persuade Director Han. He¡¯s an old hand at bureaucracy and has his own considerations. Now, the two victims both have type AB blood and are severely injured. If the units are distributed equally, it¡¯s ethically sound and procedurally flawless, regardless of whether they can be saved or not. But once these 8 units are allocated, who should get them? No matter who they¡¯re given to, it would be trouble if anyone decided to make an issue out of it. If given to the student, some may argue that although this woman driver was drunk and might have committed a crime, she is also a life. Why should the student have priority? Where is humanity in this? If given to the female driver ¨C the student is innocent. He was perfectly fine until he got hit by this drunk driver and ended up severely injured, why should blood for saving lives be equally distributed between them? ¡°We must distribute evenly! The family of the driver and the family of the student are all outside, along with a bunch of reporters. The city government¡¯s commissioner is also present, overseeing the rescue. The driver¡¯s family has even called for a professor from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, who¡¯s rushing here to support the rescue! We can¡¯t leave any loopholes in the procedure.¡± Dean Sun continues to use his gentle tone to try and persuade. The unsaid insinuation: As long as the procedure is correct and nobody can fault us, everything is fine. As for whether we can save these two patients, that all depends on fate. In this day and age, people would nitpick over a doctor drinking a bottle of glucose when tired. Director Han leisurely says, ¡°Priority should be given to the most critical! As a consensus among several of us experts, this patient is in the most critical condition and is in need of these 8 units of blood. Those outside, they aren¡¯t doctors, they have no clue. Shall we invite them to perform the surgery?¡± ¡°You¡¯re really... Old Han, what am I going to do with you?¡± Dean Sun is angry internally ¨C Dean Xia is out for a meeting, he is now the one in charge and will have to take responsibility. Director Zhao, who is nearby, chimes in: ¡°Hmmm, Dean Sun, this is what you meant too. From the perspective of the patient¡¯s condition, this student is the one who needs the blood the most. Limited resources should go to those who need it most, and there will be more blood after all. The blood bank is in the process of sourcing more. Let¡¯s wait a while. It¡¯s only 8 units of blood, what¡¯s the big fuss.¡± Dean Sun has no choice but to agree. ¡°I¡¯ll go check the next room. You guys carry on.¡± Director Han walks around the operating room and then leaves. Liang Fatty keeps his eyes locked on those blood packs, afraid that if he blinks someone would steal them. This is a hopeless situation, sometimes, you have to make a choice. For example, the triage of emergency patients ¨C Red patients have priority. This is also a form of medical choice. Because red patients are critically unstable and would die without immediate rescue, yellow ones can wait a bit, and green ones are less urgent. Sometimes, when you can only save one life out of two, who should you save ¨C it¡¯s a choice between the lesser of two evils! It¡¯s incredibly cruel, but you must make a decision! Chapter 514 - 514 469 Saving one is saving one ?Chapter 514: Chapter 469: Saving one is saving one. Chapter 514: Chapter 469: Saving one is saving one. Yang Ping didn¡¯t pay any attention to anything that didn¡¯t concern saving lives. That was an issue for the higher-ups. He was just here to focus on the surgery. Save one life at a time ¨C there was no better way to do it. Knowing nearly every anatomy detail like the back of his hand, Yang Ping worked at a rapid pace. The CT scan images of this male patient were instantly converted into operational directives in his mind. Where the injury was, where it was bleeding, how fast the blood was coming out, which parts threatened life the most, and which parts needed priority ¡ª all of these were naturally transformed into a clear sequence. He opened the chest without any hesitation. His actions were as smooth and effortless as if he were cutting through skin. He stopped the bleeding in the mediastinum, relieved the tamponade, repaired any lungs that could be repaired, and decisively removed those beyond repair. All was done with the sole aim of saving a life. Any unnecessary actions were cast aside and every move was direct and to the point. The memory-alloy rib clamp held the ribs in place in order to restore the normal thoracic structure. Then, their focus shifted to the pelvis, which meant dealing with immense risks. For anyone else, opening the pelvis at this point would be out of the question. Their first thought would be to stop the bleeding using interventional embolization, then stabilize the pelvis using external gadgets, and only contemplate opening the pelvis after the blood pressure was stabilized. If the pelvis was opened now, once the closed volume was compromised, the pressure in the retroperitoneal space would drop instantly. The blood would gush forth even more rapidly under this new pressure difference, leading to the immediate death of the patient due to hemorrhagic shock. However, if the bleeding wasn¡¯t stopped right away, the blood pressure would be impossible to stabilize, and there would be no hope of survival for the victim. It was the only path to victory ¡ª they had no other choice. Despite the high risk, the pelvis had to be opened. Any conservative measures such as attempting interventional embolization would be a waste of crucial time. The sound of the suction device hissed in the background. Blood was everywhere but Yang Ping had already inserted the tip of his vascular forceps into the bleeding point with steady hands. He clamped and knotted the vessel in one smooth movement, completing all actions within the river of blood. Once the bleeding subsided and a clear surgical field appeared, Yang Ping had already managed to stop the bleeding from several key vessels. Song Zimo looked on, bewildered. What kind of technique was this? The surgery area was flooded with blood, and yet, he was able to successfully tie off the blood vessels within this sea of blood. Every single tie-off that Yang Ping made, unbelievably, was precise. Could his eyes pierce through the blood? How else could he have such impressive blind maneuverability? The blood vessels that were tied off within the bloody mire were all the most crucial sources of bleeding. Some of these ruptured blood vessels had already retracted, and even a perfect view during surgery couldn¡¯t ensure such an easy operation. ¡°The CT scans provide information about the distribution of the hematomas, and you could infer which vessels are damaged. When one is familiar with anatomy to a certain extent, one can find the bleeding point even with closed eyes since there are seldom anomalies,¡± Yang Ping explained as he operated, to prevent Song Zimo from mistaking him as a magician. It made sense. Just like typing ¡ª when one is proficient enough, there¡¯s no need to look at the keyboard or even think. When you want to type a character, your fingers will naturally type the correct keys. As Song Zimo hesitated, Yang Ping had already tied off several other vessels. With the bleeding from the venous plexus around the sacrum stopped, the pelvic bleeding was completely under control, and all the organs had been thoroughly examined. After repairing the damaged organs, they began reducing and fixing the fractures in the pelvic acetabulum. The crisscrossing reconstruction plates were nailed onto the pelvis, the separated pubic symphysis too was fixed with a steel plate, and the shattered and deformed pelvis was surprisingly back to normal. ¡°The blood pressure is rising, 85/48mmHg,¡± Liang Fatty reported the vital signs periodically. Finally, the blood pressure began to rise slowly, marking the beginning of a reversal. The patient¡¯s life, after lingering on the brink, began to revive and slowly moved away from the critical line. Fractures of both femur shafts were treated. They were closed and reduced, followed by intramedullary nailing. All these steps flowed smoothly, without any breaks. The trauma surgeries all over the body were successfully completed in one go, and the vital signs were within the stable range. ¡°90/62mmHg¡ª¡± Liang Fatty continued to report the blood pressure. If the blood bank could supply AB type blood in time, this boy would undoubtedly make it through the danger. He was just sixteen, in the prime of his life. He should not be robbed of it so soon! ¡°How is it going?¡± Old Han was moving between the operation rooms to keep up-to-date on the progress of each surgery. ¡°I think we managed to pull him back,¡± Yang Ping looked up and replied. Old Han felt somewhat relieved. Every life saved counted. ¡°Tell the ICU to watch for fat embolism, pulmonary embolism!¡± Having given his orders, Yang Ping took off his surgical gown ¡ª without any rest, he rushed to the next room to participate in the rescue of the female driver. With Director Ouyang and Dr. Jin, as well as two deputy chief physicians from the General and Thoracic Surgery Departments, they were hurriedly conducting a surgery on the female driver. They had only just made the incision in her chest and her heart had already stopped beating. The female driver¡¯s life was dependent on the support of an artificial cardiopulmonary machine. They were performing cardiac massage within the chest. The thoracic surgeon held the heart in his hands, rhythmically applying pressure and injecting adrenaline into the heart, but there was still no response. The heart in his hands felt like a chunk of dead meat, showing no signs of beating at all. When this woman, in her drunken stupor, drove her Maserati into the crowd, did she even give a thought to what the consequences might be? ¡ª¡ª In the emergency lobby, the middle-aged father of the female driver, a man in his fifties, was continuously on the phone calling people. Perhaps he was trying to save his daughter or find someone to help clean up the mess she¡¯d caused. A woman oozing opulence, the mother of the female driver, was anxiously trying to force her way into the operation room every now and then. They were surrounded by followers dressed in suits and lawyers who had rushed to the scene with their briefcases. Chapter 515 - 515 469 Saving one is saving one. Part 2 ?Chapter 515: Chapter 469: Saving one is saving one. Part 2 Chapter 515: Chapter 469: Saving one is saving one. Part 2 The operating room door opened, Director Han, Dean Sun, Director Zhao came out, standing at the doorway, no names having yet been called. A woman rushed up: ¡°What happened to my daughter?¡± ¡°Her heartbeat and respiration have stopped, we¡¯re trying to resuscitate her, but hope is slim.¡± Director Zhao said with a sigh. The woman immediately grabbed Director Zhao¡¯s shirt front, sobbing uncontrollably, questioning how it had come to this, why it had come to this. A man put down his mobile phone, pulled the woman¡¯s hand away. Security also rushed up, separated the woman, and Director Zhao straightened his collar. ¡°The injuries are severe; we¡¯re doing our utmost. Be prepared mentally.¡± Medical science is as cold as iron in its objectivity. Director Zhao could only objectively inform them of the patient¡¯s condition. As a father, the man felt dizzy. His precious daughter, who had caused numerous troubles that he had smoothed over one by one, made him feel fear for the first time, real fear. A stopped heartbeat signifies death. The man shuddered, touched his forehead, struggled to steady his mind, and nearly dropped the burning hot phone he was holding. ¡°Please, doctor, save her, she¡¯s still young.¡± The man pleaded. ¡°We¡¯re doing our maximum, the injuries are severe.¡± Director Zhao was very composed. With years of experience as the head of medical affairs, he was accustomed to such scenes. The male student who was just rescued by Yang Ping was pushed out, transferred to the Trauma ICU. His family hadn¡¯t arrived yet, the principal and the teacher followed: ¡°How is he?¡± ¡°The operation was successful, and his vital signs are stable for now. But he¡¯s not out of danger yet, he needs to be transferred to the Intensive Care Unit for continued treatment.¡± Little Five and Zhang Lin escorted the patient. Another student was pushed out of the operating room, his right calf destroyed, underwent an amputation. With the gurney being pushed out, seeing the empty side of the limb, the student¡¯s mother cried out heartrendingly. The father hugged her, constantly comforting her. A few hours ago, he was fine, but now he¡¯s missing a leg due to sudden misfortune. No matter what, they couldn¡¯t face it. In comparison to the student who died on the spot due to cranial injury, he is relatively lucky, at least he¡¯s alive. Students still undergoing surgery, their families, and teachers anxiously stared at the door, nervous and apprehensive. The third student was pushed out. This one had undergone a splenectomy, partial hepatotomy, and partial enterectomy. At the emergency surgery room door, it¡¯s chaotic. Government personnel in charge of comforting had to constantly reassure the families. The woman driver¡¯s parents sat back down on the blue plastic chairs. Her father picked up his mobile phone several times, but didn¡¯t know who to call, and was at a complete loss. As one after another these students were brought out, the parents of the woman driver didn¡¯t even bat an eyelash, let alone ask about their condition. It seemed as if the whole incident had nothing to do with them. When the mother of the student who had had his leg amputated learned they were the parents of the female driver, she lost control and rushed over to demand an explanation. The personnel stopped the grieving mother three meters away. The well-dressed lady instinctively stood up and stepped back, pulling at her clothes disdainfully, as if fearing the person rushing over would dirty or mess up her clothes. The disdain and scorn on her face were enough to incite anyone¡¯s anger. ¡ª¡ª Yang Ping had taken over the female driver¡¯s surgery, and Song Zimo had also stepped into the assistant¡¯s position. Director Ouyang, Dr. Jin, along with the associate chief physicians of the General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery departments, voluntarily made way. ¡°Defibrillate!¡± Direct defibrillation was performed on the heart inside the thoracic cavity. Under the stimulation of the electric current, the heart finally showed weak pulsations. The sound of the urgent rubbing of the cart wheels against the floor echoed in the corridor, and the urgently collected AB-type blood finally arrived. There was a glimmer of hope as long as the heart could pulse. This was their last chance. The cart rushed into the operating room, the nurse delivering the blood gasping for breath. The patrolling nurse immediately checked the blood type, hung the blood bag on the infusion stand, and the blood transfusion device with a heating and pressurizing device rapidly injected suspended red cells into the body. The operation must continue! It must continue! From the thoracic cavity to the abdominal cavity, then to the pelvic fractures, the femoral head inserted into the pelvic cavity was repositioned, and lastly were the limb fractures. Methodical, step by step. In trauma treatment, the principle is to deal in steps, first save the life, then preserve the limb, and only then consider function. As per conventional doctrine, such patients should have their torso and pelvic injuries treated first, eliminating life-threatening dangers. The pulverized bone fractures in the limbs could be dealt with in subsequent surgeries. However, this rule is typically set for average people, Yang Ping had his own principles. Given Yang Ping¡¯s speed, limb fractures wouldn¡¯t take much time and could be taken care of along the way. Moreover, these pulverized fractures were bleeding profusely, leading to significant blood loss. Generally, the blood loss from a pelvic fracture ranges from 500 to 5000 milliliters, whereas blood loss from a femoral fracture ranges from 200 to 2000 milliliters. Such high-energy pulverized fractures typically result in excessive bleeding. Blood accounts for 7%-8% of body weight. An adult weighing 50-60 kilograms has a total blood volume of only 4000 to 5000 milliliters. If there is no blood transfusion supplement, severe pelvic fractures can deplete all the blood in the body. Acute blood loss reaching 30% of the total blood volume is already at the human body¡¯s compensatory limit, thus posing a risk to life. 30%, that is around 1200 to 1500 milliliters; if not resuscitated in time, it could cause death. If the speed of the operation permits it, it is best to address all of these fractures at once. Each one is a leak of blood. The step-by-step method is adopted because ordinary people cannot complete the operation in one go. However, Yang Ping didn¡¯t adopt this step-by-step approach, instead, he completed the entire surgery at once. The two deputy chief physicians from the thoracic and general surgery departments stood on the sideline, watching admiringly. They silently observed this young man¡¯s cross-disciplinary surgical prowess. His skill in thoracic and abdominal trauma surgery was far superior to theirs. They had only heard about him or seen his operations before but had never truly worked with him on the same platform. Now, being able to observe the surgery up close, they wholeheartedly admired him and were in awe of his skills. The supplemental type-matched blood carried oxygen, circulating throughout the body. The cells were revitalized while some others died due to lack of oxygen. This patient, even if saved, would be left with some sequelae, such as brain function impairment. Professor Huang Zhong from the Trauma Orthopedics Department, along with the directors of Thoracic and General Surgery Departments arrived at Sanbo Hospital in a helicopter. They rushed to the emergency room. The female driver¡¯s father finally saw their saviors. ¡°Professor Huang, thanks for your hard work. I¡¯m afraid they can¡¯t handle it.¡± Professor Huang waved his hand, signaling them not to interrupt his speech. The greeting Dean Han said, ¡°Is Xiao Yang busy inside?¡± Huang Zhong, being very respectful to Dean Han, turned to the female driver¡¯s family and said, ¡°Dr. Yang represents the highest surgical level in the medical field. My presence here is also for learning and observation.¡± His tone was sincere, without a hint of casualness. ¡°Professor Huang¡ª¡± The female driver¡¯s father wanted to say something. Huang Zhong gestured again, ¡°If even Dr. Yang couldn¡¯t save her, we¡¯d just have to resign ourselves to fate.¡± Huang Zhong was always this blunt and straightforward. Upon hearing this, the wealthy woman, leaning back, was about to faint but was held up by two people beside her. The heart of the female driver maintained faint pulsations; it had already offloaded all its work. The ECMO ¨C Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation ¨C beside her was functioning continuously, replacing the work of her heart and lungs. Murmuring weak heartbeats, continue with ECMO. The last vascular forceps were thrown into the tray. The monitor showed a steady lifeline. Saving one life is as good as saving all. This one, for now, had also been pulled back from death. ¡°How is it?¡± Dean Han came closer again. ¡°Should be back!¡± Yang Ping was staring at the data on the monitor. Then he turned to Song Zimo and said, ¡°Close the chest!¡± They had not dared to close the chest until now, for fear that the heart would stop beating again. Chapter 516 - 516 470 The Super Group Crosses East ?Chapter 516: Chapter 470: The Super Group Crosses East Chapter 516: Chapter 470: The Super Group Crosses East After closing the chest, a few minutes of observation in the emergency operating room showed a faint yet constant heartbeat. No matter how faint, it meant she was still alive. Liang Fatty was on the side, instructing the anesthesiologist in the emergency operating room on medication. The surgery ended, Yang Ping and Song Zimo took off their surgical gown, Director Ouyang and others, awoke from a stupor¡ª The surgery ended, and the patient survived. ¡°How is it?¡± Director Zhao had been waiting at the entrance of the operating room all along. ¡°There¡¯s a heartbeat!¡± Director Han nodded. Director Zhao smiled. Both of them walked to the main door of the emergency operating room together. Boom, boom, boom, someone was banging on the gate hard, and judging from the sound, there were also sounds of kicking. Director Zhao pressed a button, and the gate slid open to both sides. At the entrance, a rich lady was crying loudly, screaming, ¡°What¡¯s happening to my daughter? What have you done to her?¡± She was trying to rush in but was held back by two people. Director Zhao wished he could kick her: ¡°What could we do to her? We¡¯re rescuing her! Your behavior seriously interferes with the rescue. You will be responsible for the consequences!¡± Damn it! Director Zhao cursed in his heart. He had never seen such a selfish woman. Her own daughter had injured so many people, even killing one on the spot. So far, she hadn¡¯t said a word of concern for anyone else. Throughout the rescue process, she had punched and kicked the operating room door several times. As the rich lady was crying her heart out, the female driver was pushed out. Zhang Lin, Little Five, Liang Fatty, Dr. Lv were pushing the stretcher, while Yang Ping and Song Zimo followed behind. The lady of luxury and other relatives swarmed up. Those who followed, to show their loyalty, looked even more concerned, as if they were even more saddened than the family of the female driver. Some of them had already cried to the point of having red eyes. The wealthy woman grabbed the stretcher¡¯s rails and accused the doctors of what had happened, then others followed suit, chattering away. ¡°Move away, move away! Don¡¯t press her oxygen tube with your hand! Don¡¯t grab my cart! Don¡¯t mess with the machines! ¨C¡± ¡°Are you trying to kill her?¡± Zhang Lin roared, and Little Five was protecting the oxygen tube. The rich lady, the followers, and other family members were all scared into letting go of their hands. The father of the female driver grabbed the rich lady, trying his best to control her crazy actions. ¡°How dare you speak to me that way? I am her mother!¡± The rich woman wiped away her tears, raging. While pushing the cart, Zhang Lin roared, ¡°Choking the oxygen tube, holding back my cart, randomly messing with the machines, if that¡¯s not murder, then what is? Do you know, pressing the oxygen tube can kill, randomly turning a switch can kill, even a delay of a few seconds can be fatal? You¡¯re her mother, yet you choked her oxygen tube?¡± The rich lady wasn¡¯t sure if she had really pressed the oxygen tube, but she had indeed been crowding too close and was reaching out erratically. Now, she was rendered speechless by Zhang Lin¡¯s outburst. Nobody wanted to escalate the skirmish to a matter of life and death. After Zhang Lin¡¯s rebuke, no one dared to crowd around the cart anymore, and the cart was finally able to be pushed smoothly towards the emergency elevator entrance. After all, there¡¯s a notable distance from the emergency operating room to the trauma ICU. If her heartbeat stopped on the way, the lack of equipment would make the rescue very troublesome. Dean Sun was with the government commissioner, the police from the Public Security Bureau, and directors from various departments. They were also in the emergency hall just now, originally planning to come over and say a few words of greeting, but they were scared off by the young doctor¡¯s roar. Everyone kept a certain distance from the cart, symbolically following a little and then turned to Director Han for detailed information. Dean Sun¡¯s heart was fluctuating throughout, and his thin hair was wet with sweat, clinging to his smooth scalp. Upon hearing that she was still alive, and all the patients sent in were still alive, Dean Sun found relief. He touched his thinning hair, pleased that nothing had gone wrong on his watch. He aimed not to make any merits, but certainly, no mistakes either. ¡ª Just after coming out of the operating room, Yang Ping ran into Professor Huang Zhong. Professor Huang was very fond of this young man. Given that he is Dean Su¡¯s future son-in-law, naturally, he was even more enthusiastic. ¡°Professor Huang?¡± Yang Ping immediately shook hands, one of the big shots under his future father-in-law, he dared not neglect. ¡°Although she was saved, her heart beats are very weak, and she is at risk of dying at any moment. Currently, her life is being sustained by ECMO.¡± Yang Ping briefly introduced the patient¡¯s condition. Huang Zhong gave a thumbs up: ¡°Miracle! It¡¯s a miracle that she was saved!¡± This was not flattery, it was the truth. ¡°This is Dr. Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital, the champion of the Golden Knife Award¡¯s Orthopedics group this year, and the only attending physician in history to become a champion¡ª¡± Only then did Professor Huang remember to introduce Yang Ping to the other two expert colleagues. Although they were not from the same field, the two experts had heard of Yang Ping. After all, they were from the same city, and Yang Ping had performed surgeries at their hospital. The father of the female driver realized at these words that this young man was key to saving his daughter. ¡°Thank you, Dr. Yang!¡± The father of the female driver bowed. ¡°You¡¯re welcome, it¡¯s my duty! It¡¯s the result of everyone¡¯s hard work, you should thank everyone.¡± Yang Ping remained modest. These so-called big shots were nothing more than patients¡¯ relatives in his eyes. ¡°This is¡ª¡± The man in a suit next to the father of the female driver was about to introduce himself to Yang Ping, probably intending to mention that he was the chairman of some corporation. But Yang Ping had already turned his head to chat with Professor Huang Zhong, paying no further attention to them. ¡°Without Dr. Yang, your daughter would definitely not have survived this injury. As her family, you need to cooperate with the doctor. It was such a critical rescue just now, and your wife was crying and making a fuss, even banging on the operating room door, do you know that? It¡¯s extremely risky, and this behavior can directly interfere with the rescue. In that kind of situation, every second counts, and absolutely no interference can be tolerated.¡± Professor Huang Zhong spoke rapidly, blaming the mother of the driver. Chapter 517 - 517 470 The Super Group Crosses East_2 ?Chapter 517: Chapter 470: The Super Group Crosses East_2 Chapter 517: Chapter 470: The Super Group Crosses East_2 ¡°We will certainly cooperate; we lost control in the heat of the moment. Please forgive us.¡± The female driver¡¯s father apologized. ¡°Professor Huang, shall we go to the ICU together? To offer some guidance for postoperative treatment.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to waste too much time. Huang Zhong had the same idea: ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go together.¡± Since he was there, entrusted by others, it was his responsibility to visit the injured in the ICU. It was very necessary. The trauma ICU at Sanbo Hospital is busy every day, an integral part of the Trauma Emergency Center, where almost all critical patients, whether preoperative or postoperative, have to spend some time. Thanks to the efforts of the blood station, the subsequent supply of AB-type blood was timely. The student on whom Yang Ping was the chief surgeon now had stable vital signs. Repeated tests, such as red blood cell counts, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and so on, were all on the rise. This suggested that the bleeding had been thoroughly stopped, and the transfused blood was not being lost again. The female driver was not so lucky; she was still relying on ECMO to maintain her life. Some vital organs had suffered from cellular necrosis due to hypoxia, and after a blood transfusion, ischemia-reperfusion injury could occur. Therefore, even if she could pull through the critical period, it would leave some serious sequelae. ¡°This is the second time! Last year, she drank and drove a BMW, rushing into a crowd and colliding with a tree, injuring no one but herself, breaking bones all over her body. I did the surgery. A young girl, lawless and reckless! This time, she deserves it.¡± Upon hearing it was drunk driving again, Huang Zhong was enraged. This kind of behavior was completely indifferent to life. ¡°This time she hit six people, one of them died on the spot, and the other five were severely injured. Some had to have limbs amputated, some had to have the spleen and liver removed, and some had to undergo craniotomy¡ª¡± Dr. Lv from the emergency department also came to understand the postoperative conditions of the patients, speaking in the crowd. ¡°Anyone without reverence is bound to run into trouble eventually.¡± Huang Zhong glanced at the amount of urine in the bag. There wasn¡¯t much. ¡°Acute renal dysfunction, observing closely. If there is no improvement after blood transfusion and rehydration, I¡¯m afraid the situation is not good. Haemofiltration might have to be initiated at bedside.¡± The ICU¡¯s Director Pan said, frowning. Once renal failure occurs, it may lead to multiple organ failure, with the body¡¯s functions collapsing like a domino effect. ¡°Hyperkalemia, high creatinine levels, troublesome!¡± Director Pan asked a doctor to display the newest blood test results on the bedside screen. ¡°After so much blood transfusion, poor kidney function will definitely lead to high potassium. Get ready for bedside haemofiltration.¡± The veteran of the ICU, Director Pan, was unimpressed. The patients admitted here were all on the brink of death¡¯s door. Both ECMO and bedside hemofiltration were being used simultaneously. This was truly a life-and-death situation. ¡°Director Pan, bed 7¡¯s heartbeat has stopped. They¡¯re trying to resuscitate.¡± A young doctor ran over to inform Director Pan. ¡°If it needs rescuing, then rescue. What¡¯s all the yelling about? I¡¯ll go take a look.¡± Director Pan kept his calm; rescues happened every day here. The one who had just shouted for Director Pan was a standardized training student, who was new to the trauma ICU. His mentor was busy with the rescue and had instructed him to call Director Pan. He was scared and shouting. This was a traffic accident patient who had been admitted a few days ago, with a pancreatic injury leading to hemorrhagic necrotizing pancreatitis. ¡°Dr. Yang, you¡¯re busy. I¡¯ll go back first. If you have time, please drop by our place. Professor Su often misses you.¡± Huang Zhong also had many things to do and couldn¡¯t stay long. It was enough to fulfill his duty. ¡°Let me see you off.¡± Yang Ping asked Song Zimo to stay and explain the postoperative precautions to the ICU doctors while he escorted Professor Huang out. The two of them exited the ICU, followed by two other experts from their hospital. Just as they came out of the ICU, the female driver¡¯s father was waiting at the door: ¡°Professor Huang, shall I send someone to take you back?¡± ¡°No need to trouble yourself, I can get back myself.¡± Professor Huang declined. Not long ago, in a state of emergency, a helicopter had been used to transport Huang Zhong to Sanbo Hospital. Now, without the urgency of saving a life, using a helicopter again would be a waste of resources. ¡°No, we insist on driving you home.¡± The female driver¡¯s father signaled, and the secretary next to him understood immediately, leading the way. ¡°Regarding the trip to Japan, I hope you are well prepared. This is a significant matter, and both sides have a big lineup. The competition will be intense because this is about the academic dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. I have seen the subject of your speech, it¡¯s very good, covering topics like spine, trauma, joints and sports medicine, bone tumors, etc., all of which are heavyweights. There will also be discussions on challenging cases at the conference, which is a very critical part. You must be well-prepared and not underestimate them since they have the home advantage.¡± Huang Zhong advised Yang Ping while waiting for the elevator. ¡°Thank you for reminding me, Professor Huang.¡± Yang Ping escorted Huang Zhong to his car. On the way, Huang Zhong reminded Yang Ping time and again about the necessity of thorough preparations, especially reading the recent top international journals to grasp the latest knowledge, which could be very useful in case discussion. As a matter of fact, Yang Ping was able to recite almost all of those journals. He often reads in the library of the system space. He immediately gets familiar with all the new issues of the journals and quickly grasps the knowledge therein. Now, he was pondering whether he should bring his team to Japan. Ning Qi¡¯s brother couldn¡¯t be airlifted for his surgery, which had to be done in Japan. Such a high-risk surgery could easily fail even with the slightest problem. Surgery is a team action. A temporary surgical team can easily reduce the effectiveness of the surgery due to their lack of coordination. ¡°So, are you thinking about taking me with you?¡± Returning to his department, Song Zimo joked. ¡°You¡¯re quite confident, huh?¡± Yang Ping was surprised. He had guessed his thoughts. Song Zimo asserted, ¡°I bet you can¡¯t find a qualified assistant like me in all of Japan.¡± That statement seemed flawless. ¡°The surgery on Ning Qi¡¯s brother must be performed in Japan, and I¡¯ve been wondering how to arrange the staffing.¡± Yang Ping disclosed his current thoughts. That¡¯s when Little Five and Zhang Lin arrived. ¡°Take us with you! What do you think, Wanna make a deal? Could you find a more qualified deal-maker in all of Japan? Not bragging here, but we are about to publish a book.¡± Zhang Lin joined the conversation. Little Five also chimed in eagerly, ¡°A thousand days to train an army for one crucial moment. The more high-risk the surgery, the more important it is to seal the deal. Let the Japanese seal the deal, and a slight tremor of the hand spells disaster!¡± ¡°No need to think too much about it, obviously our star team should set out to Japan, all the way unimpeded!¡± Apparently, Fatty also joined the group discussion and made a pushing forward gesture. ¡°What about things at home if everyone goes?¡± Yang Ping worried. Zhang Lin replied relaxedly, ¡°Xu ¨C stutter!¡± Turning to see, Xu Zhiliang had just walked in. Zhang Lin forcibly stopped himself from uttering the word ¡°stutter¡± and said instead, ¡°Professor Xu, he says he won¡¯t go. He says he won¡¯t step out of Sanbo for three years.¡± ¡°A strongman guards the pass, vanquishing all foes. With General Xu holding the fort, leading under him Li Guodong, the land is safe!¡± Little Five was worried that he and Zhang Lin might be left behind. ¡°Let me think about it, General Xu, come, let¡¯s discuss this.¡± Yang Ping beckoned. Now the doctors in the department privately called Xu Zhiliang ¡°General Xu.¡± It was said that once during a nap in the duty room, Xu Zhiliang was speaking in his sleep, repeatedly saying ¡°check, check, check...¡± When others asked him about it later when he woke up, he said he was dreaming about playing chess with Song Zimo, where he was about to call ¡°check,¡± but the chess piece was nailed to the board and couldn¡¯t be moved. He was sweating profusely due to the pressure from the dream. Yang Ping thought the nickname was quite fitting, so he also started calling him ¡°General Xu.¡± Chapter 518 - 518 471 Searching For a Needle in the Ocean ?Chapter 518: Chapter 471: Searching For a Needle in the Ocean Chapter 518: Chapter 471: Searching For a Needle in the Ocean Although Xu Zhiliang had a stutter, he was exceptionally smart. He was able to join Yang Ping¡¯s team because of Yang Ping¡¯s astute judgment. Otherwise, he would still be biding his time in the emergency department. He had no interest in going abroad. All he wanted was to stay in the ward quietly, studying earnestly under Yang Ping¡¯s guidance. Just like a newcomer in the martial arts world, studying secluded with a master for years, he could stand on his own in the proverbial world of jianghu. And this master was Yang Ping. Whilst Yang Ping could perform surgery anywhere, Song Zimo was the best assistant. Xu Zhiliang still needed to hone his skills; he was better suited to stay behind. Especially since Yang Ping was going to Japan for surgery, with the operation posing a high risk, any lack of coordination could introduce a considerable risk to the procedure. Xu Zhiliang was very self-aware. Self-knowledge is valuable. Only then could one see their path clearly without being blinded. ¡°I¡¯ll stay behind while you guys go out. We have me and Li Guodong at home.¡± Graduate student Li Guodong was equally dedicated to learning. Led by him and Xu, several other graduate students and standardized trainees could manage the department perfectly in a few days. There was no need for the embarassment of Director Han needing to step in personally. ¡°Keep in touch at all times, don¡¯t hesitate to disturb us,¡± Yang Ping urged. They were all astute individuals, part of the same team, open and straightforward with each other. There was no need for beating around the bush nor wasting time. When it came to medical issues, the first response when confronted with difficulty was to consult one¡¯s superior. Even late into the night, when the senior doctors were engaged in work to benefit humanity, they should not be hesitant to make decisive phone calls. Any serious surgeon, carrying multitiered tasks, needn¡¯t worry about unanswered phone calls. Phones at full charge, placed next to the pillow on vibrate and ring, were standard practice. Years of training also form reflexes. The moment the phone rings, they would wake up instantly, their minds crystal clear within seconds and ready to jump into action. ¡°Go out and see the world. I will be on duty. Guodong, work a bit harder,¡± Director Han appeared in the general orthopedic doctors¡¯ office. Yang Ping rushed to make tea. ¡°We¡¯re usually very busy, it¡¯s rare for us to get to go out over the course of the year. A few days¡¯ absence won¡¯t cause any trouble, Guodong and I can handle it,¡± Director Han sat down comfortably, leaning onto the backrest, his fingers habitually tapping on the desk. Yang Ping offered the tea with both hands, ¡°That¡¯s unacceptable.¡± Director Han was displeased, ¡°You think I¡¯m too old? I¡¯m not boasting, I can definitely handle several surgeries overnight, no problem.¡± ¡°You guys, the comprehensive surgery department, are holding up well. Over at the Overseas Chinese Building, Tian Yuan is managing. The trauma orthopedics is led by Tan Boyun, Gao Yuan is thriving in Sports Medicine, the Spinal Joint department has been gradually progressing. I¡¯ve been phased out by you all for almost a year. The other night the phone rang late, I got up in a sweat, feeling so happy inside thinking you young guys finally needed me for something. I was preparing to get dressed and work hard, but found out it was not the hospital calling,¡± Director Han slowly sipped his tea. Everyone laughed at his mimicking. ¡°After hanging up the phone, I felt so disappointed. It¡¯s been a long time since I did a proper surgery, you know how sad that makes me,¡± Director Han mimicked a sad expression. ¡°This time, whatever happens I want an opportunity. Guodong, have the department stocked with provisions, we¡¯ll work hard for a couple of days,¡± Director Han instructed Li Guodong. ¡°You all go ahead, I¡¯ve been wanting to perform a surgery but always seem to have no chance. Now is a good time for me to indulge,¡± Director Han dismissed the topic with a wave of his hand. After all this was said, Yang Ping didn¡¯t see the point in persuading further. He could only privately remind Li Guodong to take good care of the Director. After all, someone almost 60 shouldn¡¯t overwork like a young person. ¡°Xiao Yang, I¡¯ve picked out the anesthesiologist you wanted, a Doctor from Nandu Medical University. Let him try it out these few days. Right now Fatty is the only one handling the anesthesia in the Comprehensive Surgery Department and he¡¯s overwhelmed,¡± Fatty had always been single-handedly carrying the responsibility of anesthesia in the Comprehensive Surgery Department. Thankfully, his physical fitness was decent, and he never fell sick nor took time off. However, this couldn¡¯t go on forever. The department had just set up and was developing in a workshop manner, now it needed to upgrade. With the support of Dean Xia and Director Han, it seemed that Yang Ping could achieve anything he set his mind to. This was also why Yang Ping refused to go to 301 and Xiehe Hospitals; even if Professors Qin and Liang favored him very much, they couldn¡¯t represent the whole hospital, certainly not as liberally as Sanbo. As long as Yang Ping makes a request, Sanbo Hospital will do their utmost best. Even if Yang Ping doesn¡¯t make a request, Dean Xia and Director Han will rack their brains to provide the best services. The whole orthopedics department was escalating speedily. They had recruited over a dozen doctoral students at once to inject fresh blood. After these students finish their rotations in the various orthopedic wards, they must spend a year in Comprehensive Surgery Department. According to Dean Xia¡¯s plan, not only the orthopedic doctorate students, but all newly recruited surgery doctorate students would have to go to Comprehensive Surgery Department for a special training for a year. After a few years, Sanbo Hospital will have cultivated numerous excellent surgeons. Yang Ping also understood Director Han¡¯s mindset, his desire to indulge in the thrill and also to create opportunities for everyone to network and learn. After managing things within the department, Yang Ping pulled up Ning Qi¡¯s brother¡¯s imaging scans for discussion with Director Han. Professor Zhang Zongshun was also invited for his input. There isn¡¯t a completely identical case in the world. Everyone¡¯s experience is precious. For example, Professor Zhang Zongshun, who has practiced medicine for over fifty years, and has abundant experience. Even with the system at his disposal, Yang Ping humbly kept learning from others. Learning is endless, and it¡¯s invaluable to learn even one thing from a person. The system merely provided a plethora of cases, but it did not teach him how to think, or make decisions. These skills had to be fostered by Yang Ping himself. Professor Zhang arrived in the office, removing a large sports bag from his back. Once placed on his desk, the bag seemed rather heavy. ¡°Old Zhang, what¡¯s this? Are you on vacation?¡± Director Han asked. Professor Zhang sat down. ¡°Vacation, no. I¡¯ve arranged a duel with Su Butong. This is my training gear; I¡¯m going to train later.¡± ¡°Yang, whenever you are free, bring some people with you to the staff house at the Tri-Bo Hotel. There, you¡¯ll serve as field doctors for us. I¡¯ve arranged a duel with Su Butong, the time is yet to be decided.¡± Professor Zhang seemed eager to challenge himself. Su Butong was Professor Su Qingyun¡¯s father and Su Yixuan¡¯s grandfather. Last year, Professor Zhang and him engaged in Tai Chi push-hands. Both used excessive force and ended up falling down together. As a result, Professor Zhang suffered from a hip fracture, and Professor Su had a spinal compression fracture. ¡°Old Zhang, you haven¡¯t removed the intra-medullary nail from your hip yet, have you? And you are already gearing up for a fight? Be careful! You are eighty years old, why don¡¯t you engage in less violent activities?¡± Director Han advised him. But Professor Zhang was stubborn: ¡°This is what I enjoy. If I¡¯m not allowed to do it, why bother living to be a hundred?¡± ¡°You...¡± Director Han was silenced. This old man sure was stubborn! ¡°Director Han is right, take it easy.¡± Yang Ping also advised him. Professor Zhang hummed: ¡°You must think I¡¯m incapable just because I broke my hip last time. But let me tell you, it was different last time. We both got too carried away and thus the accident. This time, it will be a civilized and regulated fight at the staff house of Tri-Bo Hotel, where there are soft pads and we¡¯ve hired an official referee. Moreover, with you as our doctor on site, even if something happens, we could just move to the operating room for another surgery. It won¡¯t be a big deal.¡± ¡°Fine, fine!¡± Director Han waved his hands dismissively. ¡°As for Su Butong, he¡¯s always bragging about how he knocked me down and he only fell accidentally. In reality, I knocked him down, and it was me who tripped and fell. I can¡¯t accept that, so we have to fight again.¡± Old Zhang was getting worked up as he spoke. What a hassle! Two old men in their eighties doing Tai Chi push-hands. In plain language, it¡¯s a fight. A simple twist could result in either a strained muscle or broken bone. ¡°When will you be free? Whenever you can serve as our field doctor, we will hold it then.¡± Professor Zhang waited for Yang Ping¡¯s response. Yang Ping calculated his schedule. If it could be postponed, he would postpone it. As time passed, the two old men might cool down, forget about it completely, or their stubborn persistence might fade away. First he needed to appease them, buying some time to persuade both sides. Based on what happened last time, with both of them going all out, accidents were inevitable. ¡°I¡¯m pretty tied up these days, let¡¯s discuss it after I return from Japan.¡± Yang Ping replied seriously, he couldn¡¯t let Professor Zhang know he was attempting to postpone. ¡°Alright! Just let me know ahead of time when you¡¯re free. Also, keep our duel in mind¡ªit¡¯s very important¡ªwe¡¯ve already hired the referee.¡± Professor Zhang reminded Yang Ping. ¡°Let¡¯s look at the film, let¡¯s look at the film!¡± Director Han quickly shifted Professor Zhang¡¯s focus back on the matter at hand. ¡°The tumor is really small and located in a very tricky place. Look, it¡¯s on both the upper spinal cord and medulla oblongata. Two tumors, both very small, one is only 1mm in diameter, the other 2mm. The one in the medulla oblongata is right in the nerve nuclei. Luckily, we¡¯ve found no metastasis from the PET-CT scan. If we can fully remove it at this stage, we might even be able to completely cure it. This case is more challenging than Old Feng¡¯s, the tumors are too difficult to locate. It¡¯s like sending a satellite to search for an ant, using a cannon to kill a mosquito.¡± Professor Zhang squinted, pointing out the biggest challenge of the surgery. The visibility alone was extremely difficult. After delving into such hazardous areas, it¡¯s likely that the tumors would not be found. A 1-2mm tumor, even after overcoming obstacles to reach the upper spinal cord and the inside of the brainstem, it would be hard to spot them. A satellite may find it easy to locate a car, but locating an ant would be impossible. ¡°Prior to surgery, we need to find a way to stain the tumor, finding a dye that has affinity with this type of tumor ¡ª¡± Professor Zhang took off his glasses and cleaned them. Director Han shook his head: ¡°Easier said than done. We can¡¯t wait too long now, there¡¯s no time to screen for a dye. Even if we did have time, success isn¡¯t guaranteed.¡± ¡°I doubt the fluorescent imaging techniques would be effective either, due to the tumor¡¯s small size. Indocyanine green, 5-ALA, fluorescein sodium ¨C I fear none of them would cut it.¡± Despite his age, Professor Zhang closely followed international cutting-edge tech. ¡°Even if there are excellent imaging substances available, it¡¯s still very difficult to locate the tumor. Such substances are useful in outlining a tumor, but probably ineffective for locating such small tumors.¡± Song Zimo also couldn¡¯t think of a good solution. ¡°For this location, it¡¯s literally like finding a needle in a haystack. Are nanoprobes or multiphoton fluorescent excitation methods worth considering?¡± Director Han turned to look at Yang Ping. ¡°The thing is, we can¡¯t just experiment. If we try, we might lose the patient. Exposition is high risk, location is a high difficulty ¨C combining the two, it increases the difficulty exponentially.¡± Yang Ping shook his head. Director Han agreed that Yang Ping was right. This kind of surgery, with such low success probability, if they were to use unproven experimental tech, it would only introduce more uncertain variables. ¡°Why are you shaking your head? You managed to handle your master¡¯s surgery last time, didn¡¯t you? You must have some method to handle this surgery. If you were not at least eighty percent confident, would you stir up such a fuss to go to Japan?¡± Director Han drank his tea, calm and composed. Professor Zhang was initially very concerned, but after hearing Director Han¡¯s words, he ceased to worry: ¡°Just say it, are you sure you can handle it?¡± Yang Ping thought about it: ¡°I have some degree of confidence.¡± ¡°Good, let¡¯s adjourn! I need to get on with my training.¡± Professor Zhang stood up, pulling his backpack on. ¡°Trying nanoprobes might be worth it. Every structure in the body has a specific arrangement. You could investigate the gaps between nerve nuclei and enter through these gaps. Don¡¯t forget about my fight, don¡¯t make me chase you up.¡± Professor Zhang added before leaving. Chapter 519 - 519 472 Reputation and Dignity ?Chapter 519: Chapter 472: Reputation and Dignity Chapter 519: Chapter 472: Reputation and Dignity As long as Yang Ping says he¡¯s confident, there¡¯s definitely no problem; this is the logic of Professor Zhang and Director Han. This logic is simple but also very reliable. Because countless facts have proven that this is the case, it should be empiricism in philosophy. Professor Zhang is in a hurry to train in Tai Chi Push Hands, it is said that he has invited an expert to instruct at the Tri-Bo Hotel staff club. The risk of the surgery is very high, the difficulty is high, the success rate is minimal, everything is laid out here. It seems that discussing it over and over doesn¡¯t mean anything. ¡°You continue the discussion. I¡¯ll go check on Old Zhang.¡± Director Han also followed suit, he was truly worried about this old rascal. Despite his good health, old age inevitably leads to osteoporosis. If something gets bumped or knocked, a fracture could occur and everyone would have to scramble. ¡°A real duel?¡± ¡°Really! I saw him training, he was even training on how to fall without getting hurt.¡± ¡°Just now Director Han said, he is on call, we can all go to Japan? I didn¡¯t hear it wrong, did I?¡± ¡°It seemed so, I heard it too.¡± That said, the whole team is going to Japan! Everyone cheered, such opportunities are rare. The last time was when Yang Ping performed surgery on Guo Jingyao at Yingge Hospital in Malaysia. That was a last-minute team mobilization, everyone arrived and left in a hurry, there was not much feeling. This time is different, there is ample preparation. ¡°Dr. Yang! There¡¯s an embarrassingly difficult question.¡± Zhang Lin massages Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder while looking around, hemming and hawing. ¡°If it¡¯s difficult to bring up, it¡¯s better not to speak.¡± Yang Ping sees him acting suspiciously. Zhang Lin is somewhat anxious, his face flushing red. ¡°Well, this time, will it be like last time, those who make the hook, will there be... you know...¡± Zhang Lin quickly rubs the tips of his right thumb and forefinger together. ¡°What?¡± Yang Ping asks deliberately. ¡°This!¡± Zhang Lin repeats the gesture. This gesture represents¡ªmoney! ¡°Look at me, how vulgar I am.¡± Zhang Lin gives himself a light slap on the mouth. Yang Ping finds it amusing: ¡°Stop acting, none of us are saints. Even saints need to eat, drink, and use the bathroom. There¡¯s definitely going to be money, just do a good job.¡± ¡°Stop staring at me.¡± Zhang Lin feels everyone is laughing at him. ¡°I¡¯m an ordinary person, I can¡¯t escape the mundane. I have a mortgage and a car loan, both of which are due every month on schedule. If I can¡¯t pay, both the house and car belong to the bank. So naturally I think about money. Even if it¡¯s not allowed, I can¡¯t help but think about it. Talking about money doesn¡¯t hurt feelings, right?¡± Zhang Lin thinks in his heart but doesn¡¯t say¡ªunlike Little Five, who has a rich father-in-law and his wife is an only child, renting a few buildings alone. Even if he doesn¡¯t work, it doesn¡¯t matter. Every month, he just needs to take a notebook, do a few rounds, and he is set. ¡°Rest assured, there will be a consultation fee, it certainly won¡¯t be less than last time.¡± Song Zimo gives Zhang Lin a reassurance pill. With these words, Zhang Lin immediately feels relieved. Even if it¡¯s based on the price of last time, it¡¯s not a small sum. Unlike Zhang Lin, Xu Zhiliang doesn¡¯t care about these matters at all. He is alone studying the images on the screen, constantly asking Yang Ping for advice. As if worldly matters have nothing to do with him, Xu Zhiliang. What house, car, wife, it seems he has never thought about it in the slightest. ¡°Our friend Takahashi has already said that when we¡¯re on his turf, we don¡¯t need to be polite. He¡¯ll arrange everything.¡± ¡°Our friend Takahashi is quite reliable and has a meticulous work style.¡± ¡°Not long ago, he sent over many things via express delivery, Little Five and Zhang Lin¡¯s diapers, Fatty¡¯s cigarettes.¡± ¡ª Tokyo University Hospital Orthopedics Department. A cross-national consultation invitation was placed on Fujiwara Masao¡¯s office desk. After thinking for a long time, he called Takahashi Fumiya into his office. Fujiwara Masao was different from those old stubborn individuals. He wouldn¡¯t refuse a real top surgeon due to so-called reputation. For various reasons, he couldn¡¯t control his own uncle¡ªThe patient¡¯s treatment plan, but he could control the treatment of this young Chinese man. Besides, this Chinese man surnamed Ning had a very profound background. His family controlled a huge Chinese company. The family¡¯s authorized representative, one of Tokyo¡¯s best law firms, had formally notified the hospital in a document that Dr. Yang Ping from China must be invited for a consultation and to perform the main surgery. The medical department had already handed the consultation form to Fujiwara for signing. Fujiwara really wanted to sign, but he didn¡¯t want to be showy. He wanted to approve Yang Ping¡¯s consultation privately. ¡°Teacher!¡± Standing at the door, Takahashi bows in a standard Japanese manner. ¡°Come in!¡± Fujiwara Masao beckons. The teacher and student sit down across the office desk. Fujiwara Masao passes the consultation invitation to Takahashi to see. Takahashi is surprised: ¡°Inviting Dr. Yang to perform surgery? This young man can be saved.¡± Soon, he realizes his inappropriate outburst, particularly in front of Teacher Fujiwara, was very impolite. However, Fujiwara Masao didn¡¯t mind. ¡°Are you truly so confident that this young doctor can perform such a challenging surgery? Moreover, with a high success rate,¡± said Fujiwara Masao earnestly. Takahashi¡¯s attitude had greatly changed since returning from China ¡ª once haughty and arrogant, he now acted humbly and cautiously. Such significant change in a person intensified Fujiwara Masao¡¯s interest in Yang Ping. ¡°During my stay in China, I witnessed Doctor Yang perform a similar surgery. The operation was a public demonstration, thrilling and fraught with dangers, but he was undaunted, completing it successfully. The patient is still alive and well now,¡± Takahashi calmly narrated, repressing his admiration. He was aware that his opinion could affect Tutor Fujiwara¡¯s decision, possibly influencing the future treatment of the president. He wished to appear as objective as possible and not instigate any particular emotion. In Japan, conglomerates are the pillar of the nation, with their influence reaching the tip of society¡¯s pyramid. Take the Fujiwara Family as an example; there are hundreds of major descendants in Fujiwara Masao¡¯s generation alone, who occupy various fields ¡ª lawmakers, professors, doctors, lawyers, etc. and are all elites in their industry. Thus, the entire family grows deep-rooted and powerful in Japan. Despite being a doctor, Fujiwara Masao could not control his uncle¡¯s treatment decisions. The consultant group of the family corporation, those elders, hold the most power. Ikeda, appointed by them, had more say than Fujiwara Masao. Even Ikeda, Fujiwara¡¯s teacher, held less power in comparison. ¡°I¡¯ve seen the video you provided me, and I trust your judgement. If we can facilitate this international consultation surgery and it proves successful, we can use it as basis to push the medical team to invite Doctor Yang Ping to perform the president¡¯s surgery. Takahashi, if I sign my name on this invitation, it means we¡¯ll face the traditional powers of Tokyo University Hospital, not just one person,¡± Fujiwara Masao seriously stated. Takahashi understood the arrogance that can germinate in Tokyo University Hospital, Japan¡¯s top hospital. Inviting a young Chinese doctor here to operate would incur opposition from many, from the administration to the clinical staff. ¡°Don¡¯t mention this to Sasaki and Mitsui for now,¡± Fujiwara instructed Takahashi. Fujiwara knew that they, without any doubt, would strongly dissuade him from his course and he didn¡¯t want any complications. After graduating from Tokyo University, Mitsui Tasuku not only studied spine surgery under Fujiwara Masao but also brain surgery under several Japanese neurosurgery masters. He even rotated through top hospitals such as Mayo and Hopkins in the United States for further study. The young Mitsui, only in his thirties, was already a rising star in the Neurosurgery Department of Tokyo University. While discussing, Fujiwara received a call from his teacher, Professor Ikeda. Putting down the phone, he quickly signed his name on the consultation invitation, adopting a forgiveness-after-action approach. ¡°Takahashi, hand in this invitation to the Medical Department, have them send it out immediately. Preferably, you should be present, watching them send it,¡± Fujiwara handed the letter to Takahashi. ¡°Understood!¡± Takahashi promptly stood up. Professor Ikeda, Fujiwara Masao¡¯s teacher, is an advisory professor of orthopedics at Tokyo University Hospital. Although he has already retired, he still has more say in the treatment of important people. They are the senior advisors in medical care. Fujiwara Masao adjusted his clothes and headed for Professor Ikeda¡¯s office in the administrative area. ¡°Masao! I heard you guys are inviting a Chinese doctor to operate, and he is quite young too?¡± Professor Ikeda¡¯s tone was very serious. News had spread fast. Fujiwara Masao could not avoid it; although Professor Ikeda had no right to interfere, given his own seniority and respect as a teacher, it would not be difficult for him to do so. ¡°Yes, sir. Because the patient¡¯s family was very clear that they either wanted to transport him back to China, or request this Chinese doctor perform the surgery. I had no other choice. This patient cannot be transported. Moreover, this patient¡¯s condition is extremely similar to the president¡¯s. To my knowledge, this Chinese doctor has extensive surgical experience and a high success rate for this type of disease, if¡ª¡± ¡°Enough! Have you thought about how your actions will invoke the dissatisfaction of the whole hospital?¡± Professor Ikeda was noticeably impatient. Fujiwara Masao paused for a moment, then said meaningfully, ¡°This is just a normal exchange. Because the invitee is a young Chinese doctor, it¡¯s causing a sensation. Sir, you always teach us to be sincere in all things. I serve sincerely, unafraid of criticism. We have become too rigid. If we continue like this, we will quickly fall behind.¡± ¡°This is a fall from grace!¡± Professor Ikeda slammed his hand on the desk. Fujiwara immediately stood up, bowed his head, and said, ¡°Sir!¡± ¡°The competent person should be the teacher. This is also what you have always taught me. I have read this doctor¡¯s papers and seen his surgical videos. For cases like this, his surgical skills and experience surpass ours. Since this Chinese patient¡¯s condition is similar to the president¡¯s, and his family strongly wishes to invite this doctor, why shouldn¡¯t we promote this? Whether successful or not, it is beneficial to us.¡± Fujiwara defended himself. ¡°This has gone beyond the realm of medical skills. This is about the reputation and dignity of our hospital, reputation and dignity which need to be upheld by life itself. Yet, you are damaging it so lightly. And, your so-called papers and videos cannot provide enough evidence!¡± Professor Ikeda was so angry that his white beard was trembling. Fujiwara Masao immediately went to support him, but he brushed Fujiwara¡¯s hand aside. ¡°Sir, does Fujiwara not understand as a doctor why we must pay excessive attention to matters beyond medical skills? Compared to a patient¡¯s life, I find reputation and dignity to be insignificant, fully expendable. I remember when I followed you in learning medicine, Sir, you used to ignore personal reputation and challenge difficult surgeries to save patients¡¯ lives. When the surgery failed, all you said was¡ªI¡¯ve done my best; reputation is not something to be treasured!¡± Fujiwara Masao argued with reason. If he couldn¡¯t convince Professor Ikeda, then within the faction of the older generation, he wouldn¡¯t receive any support and it would be hard for him to face the hospital¡¯s public discourse. ¡°That¡¯s¡ªnot the same!¡± Professor Ikeda exclaimed angrily. ¡°It¡¯s the same! Just because he¡¯s a young Chinese doctor, you feel like you¡¯ve lost your reputation and dignity. If he were a professor from the world¡¯s topmost hospital, you wouldn¡¯t discuss it with such vitriol. Just like how the strongest Go master would feel exceedingly ashamed if he lost to a child¡ª-¡± Fujiwara did not back down. ¡°You¨C¡± Professor Ikeda leaned back in his chair, his lips quivering, unable to speak. Fujiwara handed him a cup of tea. He just gestured for him to put it down. After a long time, Professor Ikeda breathed steadily. ¡°Have you made up your mind?¡± ¡°The invitation has already been sent out. It should have been received by now.¡± Fujiwara answered. Professor Ikeda murmured, ¡°The things you said just now, is that really what¡¯s in your heart?¡± ¡°Indeed!¡± Fujiwara nodded. ¡°What do you need me to do?¡± ¡°If my decision is collectively rejected at the hospital advisory level, causing them to put pressure on the management, I hope, Sir, that you can help me.¡± ¡°Alright, you have defied me today. That old fellow Ikeda will not be easy to deal with.¡± ¡°He only cares about his loyalty to Shuon-an Temple. As long as you stand by me, Sir, no one will be able to overturn my decision.¡± Chapter 520 - 520 473 The Old Mother ?Chapter 520: Chapter 473: The Old Mother Chapter 520: Chapter 473: The Old Mother The invitation from Tokyo University Hospital has been sent to the medical affairs office of Sanbo Hospital. Director Zhao, along with a young officer from the medical affairs office, holding the invitation, hurried to the comprehensive Surgery Department to get a signature confirmation from Yang Ping. Normally, Director Zhao wouldn¡¯t personally take care of such inter-hospital consultation invitations. A phone call and a notice for someone to sign in the office would usually suffice. If it were a prestigious professor, he would also just have his subordinates take the invitation to the professor¡¯s department for a signature. But with Yang Ping¡¯s case, it¡¯s necessary for Director Zhao to make a personal appearance. He was even humming a song along his way to the department. Seemingly, it¡¯s not Yang Ping, but Director Zhao who was invited. It really added prestige to his position as the Medical affairs director, Director Zhao thought to himself. One of the world¡¯s top ten hospitals, Tokyo University Hospital, has formally invited Dr. Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital to consult and perform surgery in Japan. This kind of thing is rare even nationwide. ¡°Xiao Luo! Is the Japanese translator at work?¡± Director Zhao turns his head and asks the officer following him. The officer shakes his head: ¡°The international medical department hasn¡¯t been set up yet, the translators we hired haven¡¯t started work.¡± Director Zhao frowns: ¡°Then how¡¯s the follow-up communication going to work? We need someone who speaks Japanese to communicate with the Japanese, right?¡± The officer happily replies: ¡°No need for a translator, when their hospital called us, they spoke in Chinese. Their standard Mandarin is even better than yours.¡± Director Zhao immediately has a surprised look on his face, which freaks out the officer. He realizes instantly that he has said something wrong. Director Zhao is a local. His Mandarin is anything but flattering. Once he starts speaking, he reveals his origins immediately. ¡°This is Tokyo University Hospital, right? Look carefully, isn¡¯t there any fraud? Telecommunication fraud is rampant nowadays.¡± Director Zhao has read the invitation several times, but he¡¯s still not reassured. The officer is more aware of the situation than Old Zhao, ¡°This is Anning Group President Ning Qi¡¯s younger brother. Look at the name, Ning Yu. I heard that President Ning personally invited Yang Ping. This invitation is just for formality.¡± ¡°Ning Yu? Son of Ning Tianxiong?¡± Director Zhao asks. Ning Tianxiong, who doesn¡¯t know about him? Former Chairman of Anning Group, who passed on the baton to his daughter after his death. Everyone expected that the group would stumble, if not spiral into chaos, under the leadership of this young, beautiful CEO. But they were wrong. This young woman turned out to be a decisive and skilled leader. She initiated aggressive reforms and expansions in Anning Group, which became a real multinational corporation under her leadership. ¡°Given that he¡¯s seeking treatment in Japan now, why does he still invite Dr. Yang from China to perform surgery? He¡¯s going the long way around, making extra work for himself. Couldn¡¯t he just come to our Sanbo Hospital directly?¡± Director Zhao is walking and talking fast. The officer catches up quickly, ¡°We don¡¯t understand the mindset of rich people. Maybe they originally planned to have surgery in Japan. But when the Japanese doctors opened his skull and saw the complexity of the problem, they panicked and quickly sought help. Shouldn¡¯t it be Dr. Takahashi, who studied for half a year under Yang Ping, who suggested inviting Yang Ping? Otherwise, who else knows how skilled Yang Ping is?¡± ¡°What kind of nonsense are you spouting? How could it be possible to send for someone while the patient is still on the operating table? Do you think we¡¯re in the same city, that a phone call and a quick pedal to the metal could get a savior here immediately?¡± Director Zhao reprimands. The officer mutters, ¡°Even if they¡¯ve opened up the skull, they could also close it and then let him rest in the ward, waiting for the rescue. We¡¯ve done opening and closing procedures before, haven¡¯t we? Why insist on waiting in the surgery room?¡± ¡°What were you muttering about?¡± ¡°I said, Director, you¡¯re in such good shape that I can¡¯t even keep up.¡± The two men hurried to Yang Ping¡¯s office in a hurry. Yang Ping was reviewing a daily report from the Guilin lab. The experiment is going well. A monkey with mild scoliosis has been corrected to normal and is now in maintenance phase. There are also photos in the daily report, showing the doctors clustered around the monkey, making victorious gestures. Yang Ping put down the photo and immediately greeted Director Zhao. ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± Director Zhao¡¯s way of addressing him has transitioned from Xiao Yang to Dr. Yang. ¡°Here¡¯s the invitation for your surgery in Japan. Could you please sign to confirm?¡± Director Zhao personally hands over the invitation. Yang Ping quickly invited Director Zhao to sit down, ¡°For this kind of thing, you could just give me a call and I would go to the medical affairs office. There¡¯s no need to bother you to come here.¡± Director Zhao said solemnly: ¡°I have to! You really bring honor to our hospital. To be invited to perform a surgery by such a top international hospital is probably rare even across the country.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just the younger brother of a friend, who fell ill in Japan, and couldn¡¯t be transferred back here, so they invited me to go there and perform the surgery. It¡¯s nothing much.¡± After reading the consultation form, Yang Ping signed his name. ¡°Just let me know if you need the medical affairs office to do anything.¡± Director Zhao collected the invitation. ¡°There isn¡¯t much to be done, I was supposed to go there for a meeting anyway, so I might as well perform the surgery when I am there.¡± Yang Ping replied casually. ¡°Have you arranged for the work of the whole team during your absence? You must pay attention to medical safety. The additional staff that I have chosen carefully for your department must be put to good use.¡± Director Zhao never misses a chance to speak about his line of work. Medical safety is the most frequently mentioned term by the director of medical affairs. ¡°Everything has been arranged. Director Han is personally in charge.¡± Yang Ping invited Director Zhao for tea. If it was only about attending a meeting, there was no need for all this fuss; Yang Ping going alone would have been enough. However, during the meeting, there also has to be a surgery conducted. The difficulty of this surgery is too high, and to ensure success, the entire team must be taken there. It¡¯s not that Yang Ping is being showy; it¡¯s just the norm when doctors perform operations off-site. For some complex surgeries with high difficulty and risk, such as heart transplants or coronary bypass surgeries, the chief surgeon will usually bring the entire team¡ªassistants, nurses, anesthesiologists, perfusionists, etc. These surgeries involve many steps, and any hiccup in any of these steps can lead to unthinkable consequences. If the surgical members do not regularly cooperate, it¡¯s hard to ensure the success of the surgery. For such types of doctors, if another hospital poaches them, it tends to be not just one person, but the whole team. At present, the department has added one anesthesiologist and two nurses. The new anesthesiologist, called Doctor Wang, is tall and thin. He got his doctorate from Nandu Medical University and it has only been three years since he started working at Sanbo Hospital. He is a man in his thirties, a resident physician, and is both reliable and stable. Doctor Wang always has a smile on his face, is reticent, and works diligently. Because of his serious and calm nature, Director Han took a liking to him and repeatedly asked Director Zhao for him. Two additional nurses for the operating room were also requested by Director Han. Originally, the team just had enough members to carry out a single surgery, with no surplus at all. Every fundamental position must have a stand-in, so to avoid a situation where the staff is short-handed, it¡¯s not efficient to always rely on temporarily transferring people. This can easily disrupt the work schedule and make management difficult. Now with anesthesiologists and nurses, they can be divided into two teams, and arrangements for future surgeries will be much easier. Yang Ping is also satisfied with the people that Director Han helped to bring in. Having seen off Director Zhao, Yang Ping started to browse the messages in the group chat. The team of experts traveling to Japan is coordinated by Su Nanchen, who is responsible for liaison work. The so-called merit-based appointment system means that Professor Su appoints Su Nanchen as secretary. In terms of both knowledge and skill, Su Nanchen is top-notch, and his language skills are advantageous¡ªhe is very fluent in both English and Japanese. This academic conference, seemingly solely for academic exchange, is actually an underhanded contest of academic lineup and ability. Almost all of the elites from both sides have been dispatched. Xiehe, 301, Beijing¡¯s Third Hospital, Jishuitan, Mo Sixth, Huaxi, and Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Professors from the orthopedics departments of all these hospitals are included. On the Japanese side, led mainly by the University of Tokyo¡¯s Affiliated Hospital and the Sojo University Hospital, together with Kyoto University Hospital, Japan Medical University Hospital, Kyushu University Hospital, the National Institute for International Medical Research, St. Luke¡¯s Hospital, and others, they formed an ultra-luxurious team. The display of strength at this academic forum is to collect votes for the next election. The actual winner will gain recognition and support from representatives of other member countries in the Asia-Pacific Orthopaedic Association. The party with the most support will be the next chairman of the association. One side wants to carry on leading the Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association and refuses to let go; the other side is eager to take its place. The struggle will undoubtedly be intense. Yang Ping¡¯s team plans to arrive in Tokyo separately. Yang Ping will be traveling with Professor Su¡¯s group, while the other team members will arrive on another flight led by Boss Cheng. Huang Jiacai will arrive in Japan early to meet up with Ning Qi and prepare for Yang Ping¡¯s arrival. Song Zimo also arrived in Japan early with Huang Jiacai. As Yang Ping¡¯s assistant, he went to the University of Tokyo¡¯s Affiliated Hospital in advance to visit Ning Yu, the patient, to prepare for the surgery. Yang Ping¡¯s team has clear tasks, coordinating seamlessly, having already formed a unique operating mechanism. Clinically, they are centered around assistant Song Zimo. The logistics side is a combination of Huang Jiacai and Boss Cheng. Boss Cheng is mainly responsible for accompanying Yang Ping and taking care of his daily life, while Huang Jiacai is in charge of planning and provision of logistic support. With a strong team backing, Yang Ping appears calm and composed. He only needs to focus on performing the surgery well, without troubling himself over anything else ¨C even carrying his bag is taken care of by Boss Cheng. Speak of the devil; here he is. Boss Cheng has arrived, full of vim and vigor. He has already checked into the Sanbo Hotel, ready to accompany Yang Ping on the journey at any moment. ¡°Jiacai has already arrived in Japan. As per your request, you and the professor¡¯s group will be picked up by the Japanese, while the rest of us will be picked up by Jiacai. Song Zimo and Takahashi have already connected and are preparing to schedule a visit to Ning Yu¡¯s ward. Xiao Su already handed me your suitcase at the Sanbo Hotel. Here is the list of your supplies, let me read it out to you¡ª-.¡± Boss Cheng is very reliable. Yang Ping listened to him reading the list, to his surprise, there was a mention of ¡°Lao Gan Ma¡± chili sauce. ¡°Going to Japan, I¡¯m afraid you¡¯re not accustomed to their food. So I prepared this chili sauce. If needed, add some as seasoning, it helps to stimulate the appetite.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t we easily get Lao Gan Ma in Japan?¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s not authentic.¡± ¡°Why are there dozens of bottles of Lao Gan Ma?¡± Yang Ping found it curious. ¡°It¡¯s a whole box.¡± Boss Cheng replied. ¡°They said there¡¯s also some for Takahashi and Fujiwara Miyuki. Both of them specifically asked for this, nothing else.¡± Boss Cheng then put away the list. Chapter 521 - 521 474 Four Hours Ahead ?Chapter 521: Chapter 474: Four Hours Ahead Chapter 521: Chapter 474: Four Hours Ahead Professors heading to Japan gathered in G City, Nandu Province a day in advance. Professor Liang from Xiehe Hospital, Professor Qin from the 301, Professor Meng from the third hospital in Beijing, Professor Gu from Jishuitan, Professor Hong from Mo Sixth, Professor Fu from Huaxi Hospital, and Professor Su from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, among others, will be accompanied by a host of young doctors, most of whom participated in the Golden Knife Award. Everyone gathered together, united, vowing to secure the presidency of the Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association. Everyone utilized their personal networks to canvass votes for Professor Su, but the effectiveness of such canvassing via personal networks was quite limited, and yet they were still compelled to do it. If they did not make any recommendations to others, then representatives from other countries, unfamiliar with this person, would naturally not pay attention. Such academic organizations holding leadership positions are very important, as they represent a right to speak. Like the permanent membership in the United Nations, it represents the right to speak in the world. Similarly, in the Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association, whoever holds the chairmanship, whoever has more seats, holds stronger speaking rights in the orthopedics community of the Asia-Pacific region, occupying a dominant position. Professor Qin has always been in direct competition with Professor Su. Every time at an academic conference, debates are inevitable, a fact well-known in the academic world. For example, concerning the attitude towards artificial intervertebral disc replacement surgery, Professor Qin advocates active implementation, while Professor Su advocates conservative observation. Both have had heated debates at academic conferences. The two had even competed fiercely over the position of the National Orthopedic Committee¡¯s chair, giving no quarter. Ultimately, Professor Su came out slightly on top, garnering more votes. He defeated Professor Qin and took over from Professor Liang, becoming the chairman of the new session of the Orthopedic Committee. This matter had been troubling Professor Qin ever since. But this time, on the trip to Japan, Professor Qin had no complaints and actively assisted Professor Su in his contest with Fujiwara Masao for the Association¡¯s Chairmanship. It was as if all their past disputes never happened, and they instantly became close comrades, fighting shoulder-to-shoulder. It was said that Professor Qin was the most active in canvassing votes for Professor Su, putting in as much effort as he would in his own campaign. Utilizing the case review function within system space, Yang Ping called up Ning Yu¡¯s case, meticulously studied it, and got a handle on the situation. This case was more challenging than Professor Feng¡¯s, as while Professor Feng¡¯s tumor was singular, Ning Yu had three tumors, one big with two small ones. The large tumor was already tough, but the greater challenge lay in the two small tumors, which could not be precisely located. Meaning, during the actual operation, these two tumors could not be located. For such a surgery, the route of access needs to be extremely precise, as any deviation risks damaging the nerve nuclei, leading to death. One needs to employ an extremely precise route, causing the least possible damage, safely reaching the tumor site. The task is akin to sniping from several thousand miles away. There¡¯s only one chance, and there is no possibility for trial and error. This one chance is meant for Yang Ping, as others probably won¡¯t stand any chance at all. Even if Yang Ping replicates Ning Yu¡¯s body in the operating room within system space and conducts a mock surgery, the risk still remains extremely high. It¡¯s like shooting: exactly the same environment, target, and gun, with countless practice rounds. Still, during the actual competition, there¡¯s no guarantee of producing the best results. Replicating the body for pathology studies, Yang Ping repeatedly modifies the surgical approach, improving its precision and safety, navigating through one nerve nuclei after another, eventually reaching the tumor site. Moreover, the selected route needs to remain consistently accurate after countless repeats, as even the slightest deviations could risk impacting the nerve nuclei, resulting in death. This situation is like carrying out a decapitation operation in a heavily fortified enemy region, successfully completing the mission, and then safely retreating. The entire operation¡¯s route and procedures cannot accommodate any errors, not even the slightest bit. After studying the replicated body, Yang Ping sighs with relief, glad that Ning Qi did not allow the Japanese to perform the surgery, and instead invited him. Yang Ping spent a long time researching the replicated body before finally establishing a unique and precise entrance route within the brainstem. This unique route cannot be provided by any existing experience or surgical approaches. Without mastering this route into the surgery, it is absolutely impossible to successfully perform the surgery. Any surgery requires an approach. The approach must meet two basic requirements: safety and exposure, meaning it should safely enable reaching the surgical target, and maximally expose the surgical target. The approach for most surgeries is fixed, being textbook classic approaches. For a few special surgeries, the chief surgeon needs to design the approach themselves, which requires the surgeon to have rich knowledge and experience. Upon exiting system space, Yang Ping ends his meditation, opening his eyes. The mental exertion from system space requires rest in the real world for recovery. This is a rule of the system, something Yang Ping has gotten quite clear over time. While in system space, Yang Ping¡¯s physiological energy won¡¯t be consumed, but his mental energy, or psychological consumption, will be. This consumption restricts Yang Ping¡¯s continuous time in system space and prevents him from indefinitely staying there. Boss Cheng and Su Nanchen, sitting next to him, are chatting. Some professors in nearby seats are also whispering to each other. Professor Su and Professor Qin are saying something quietly, with Professor Su frequently nodding. Seeing Yang Ping awaken, Old Cheng, noticing his lips are slightly dry, hands over a bottle of mineral water with the cap already loosened. Yang Ping takes several sips, hands the bottle back to Old Cheng, and is then handed a tissue. The flight is direct, from Nandu airport to Narita Airport in Tokyo, only taking about four hours, not too long. ¡°We will arrive at nine in the evening, there are still two hours left, you can continue to rest.¡± Old Cheng knew Yang Ping wanted to ask about the time. Although Boss Cheng was chatting with Su Nanchen, he was always watching Yang Ping out of the corner of his eye. This was not the first time that Old Cheng followed Yang Ping overseas. The first time was in Malaysia. Upon receiving news, he rushed to Malaysia alone without hesitation and found the hotel where Yang Ping was staying on his own. Later when they went to the United States, he and Huang Jiacai both accompanied Yang Ping. He remembered that on the way back, the three of them played a card game. Old Cheng lost horribly and drank dozens of cups of juice, constantly having to run to the bathroom. Now that they were going to Japan, why would there be a reason not to accompany Yang Ping? It¡¯s colder in Tokyo with the weather forecast predicting a high of just 10 degrees and a low of 4 degrees. In Old Cheng¡¯s bag was a prepared coat so that he could put it on Yang Ping when they disembarked from the plane. In doing these tasks, he had to be discreet, not attracting attention. After all, Yang Ping was traveling with many other professors. If Old Cheng was too attentive, it would make Yang Ping stand out and that would be inappropriate. ¡°That kid Takahashi seemed to have arrived at the airport two hours ago.¡± ¡°Song Zimo has completed the pre-operative examination.¡± ¡°Ning Qi will arrange everything well.¡± Old Cheng reported the dynamic information from each party one by one. ¡ª At this time, at Tokyo¡¯s Narita Airport. Takahashi Fumiya had already arrived at the airport earlier. He was not in charge of the reception, but he felt he must personally pick up Yang Ping. In Takahashi¡¯s mind, Yang Ping was a respected teacher, not a common doctor. Before arriving, he met up with Sasaki and Mitsui. They mocked Takahashi, ¡°Takahashi-kun! Are you going to meet your Chinese teacher dressed like this? Hahaha¡ª¡± Takahashi nodded his head but didn¡¯t respond. He could understand Sasaki¡¯s and Mitsui¡¯s mentality, but they could not understand his. Leaving behind a trail of laughter, Takahashi hurried to the airport. He didn¡¯t go alone, accompanying him was also his Chinese teacher. Takahashi had to pay an extremely high hourly wage to hire this Teacher Tang. ¡°It¡¯s a bit cold!¡± Teacher Tang rubbed his hands together. They didn¡¯t have to arrive at the airport so early. But Teacher Tang, in an attempt to earn two more hours of pay, told Takahashi: ¡°In order to show sincerity when greeting such a respected person, it is best to arrive a little earlier.¡± ¡°So, how much earlier should we arrive?¡± Takahashi had a lot of faith in Teacher Tang. Teacher Tang thought for a while, considering the total of four hours of flight time, they couldn¡¯t possibly be waiting at the airport before the plane even took off. So he said, ¡°Let¡¯s be four hours early.¡± ¡°I¡¯m helping you out of my own will, not for the money, I¡¯m promoting Chinese. Of course, starting from the moment we depart, that¡¯s when the clock starts ticking. That would be reasonable, wouldn¡¯t it?¡± Teacher Tang added. Takahashi quickly nodded, ¡°Extremely reasonable.¡± So, they arrived at the airport four hours early and waited patiently for Yang Ping¡¯s arrival. Takahashi was holding a coat in his hands and kept checking the time. Teacher Tang was very calm, sitting on a bench: ¡°Stay calm, there¡¯s no rush.¡± ¡°Should we go to the exit of the terminal now? To secure a good spot?¡± Takahashi was still anxious, afraid he might miss something. Teacher Tang leisurely said, ¡°I¡¯ve already hired a few people to wait at the exit. I¡¯ve also prepared a welcome sign. Your sign doesn¡¯t work, the words on it have no artistic feel. Calligraphy! It¡¯s an art, understand? Success comes from the details.¡± Takahashi couldn¡¯t believe how well-prepared Teacher Tang was. This money was definitely well-spent. Teacher Tang leaned back to rest on the chair. In this cold weather, who would stand at the exit with you and wait for four hours like a fool? Hire a few students and order a few calligraphy signs off Taobao and everything is sorted. When the time comes, the two of them will squeeze into the exit of the terminal and they will replace the hired position holders. Takahashi looked at his own sign and wondered why he hadn¡¯t thought of doing all this himself. ¡°Teacher Tang, you¡¯ve put in so much effort, here, let me give you more money!¡± Takahashi felt a bit embarrassed, he had a feeling that he was taking advantage. Teacher Tang generously waved his hand: ¡°It¡¯s a small matter, it¡¯s an extra service, free of charge!¡± ¡°Teacher Tang, should Miss Miyuki come over? What do you think?¡± Takahashi now had to consult Teacher Tang on every single detail. ¡°She can come, but she should get rid of that scarf in her hands. Dr. Yang has a girlfriend. What does a young and beautiful lady like her mean by holding a scarf and rushing to wrap someone¡¯s neck? Takahashi, I¡¯m not criticizing you, but such an action of hers could ruin all your efforts and sincerity. Her approach towards receiving guests is undeniably a sabotaging shot at establishing friendship! You must prevent this kind of behavior.¡± Teacher Tang was very serious, leaving no room for negotiation. ¡°What if she refuses to listen to us?¡± Takahashi felt lost. Teacher Tang thought for a moment: ¡°This is out of the question, I can¡¯t interfere too much.¡± ¡°Teacher Tang, you must help. If you could help me avoid this potential risk, I can pay you an additional consultation fee.¡± Takahashi didn¡¯t want Miyuki to mess things up. If she did, Dr. Yang might end up disliking him. ¡°We can¡¯t always talk about money! Alright then, let me think.¡± Teacher Tang started pondering. Chapter 522 - 522 475 Five Hundred and Five Pieces ?Chapter 522: Chapter 475: Five Hundred and Five Pieces Chapter 522: Chapter 475: Five Hundred and Five Pieces Narita Airport is located in Narita City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, over sixty kilometers away from the center of Tokyo. By the time we landed, it was already nine in the evening. Stepping out of the airport, everyone quickly put on their warm clothes. Old Cheng promptly opened his bag and took out a trench coat for Yang Ping, disregarding his own needs. Yang Ping, however, didn¡¯t feel cold at all: ¡°You put it on yourself, I¡¯m fine.¡± Yang Ping enjoyed exercising, and has always maintained an early morning running routine, which made him very fit and with a strong resistance to cold. The reception staff from Tokyo University Hospital had been waiting at the exit. Takahashi and Teacher Tang were also at the exit holding signs. With beautiful regular script brush writing, one sign read ¡°Welcome Dr. Yang Ping¡±. The sign looked far more distinguished compared to others simply written or printed signs. Takahashi had already communicated with the reception staff of Tokyo University Hospital in advance, and he would be solely responsible for receiving Yang Ping. As Old Cheng was not among the attendees, he didn¡¯t care who would receive him, as long as he could follow Yang Ping. Even though it was winter night, the airport was still bustling with people. At the exit, a group of about a dozen doctors gathered. Su Nanchen took a head count, making sure no one was missing. As Yang Ping bid Professor Su and the others goodbye, preparing to head towards Takahashi, Professor Su suggested that Su Nanchen also go with Yang Ping. ¡°You go ahead, I¡¯ll be fine with everyone else.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t drink alcohol, please stay safe and get to bed early. We¡¯ll gather at Tokyo University Hospital tomorrow.¡± Professor Su called out to Yang Ping and Su Nanchen, reminding them. Like birds released from a cage, the two were incredibly happy. Truth be told, being on the plane with those professors and not feeling a bit constrained was simply impossible, there was indeed a generational gap, as most were of a teacher¡¯s age. What could be more comfortable and carefree than being with young people? The other young doctors were quite envious of the two. Upon arriving in Tokyo, they had friends picking them up and could act independently. The person picking them up was the internationally renowned orthopedic trauma expert Takahashi Fumiya. Having that friendly and respectful demeanor towards Yang Ping. Takahashi bowed deeply, extremely agitated, ¡°Welcome to Tokyo!¡± It was obvious that the show of politeness was sincere and heartfelt rather than pretentious. The term ¡°Sir¡± was a highly respectful term used by a junior to a senior. Normally, Takahashi would only address Fujiwara Masao, Professor Ikeda, etc. as ¡°Sir¡±. Dressed in a suit and tie, Takahashi made his respectful bow, his hands pressed tightly to the seams of his trousers, his body almost bending to a 90-degree angle. The overcoat he was holding was originally prepared for Yang Ping, but as Yang Ping¡¯s clothing seemed sufficient, he had no choice but to hold it the whole time. ¡°No need to be so polite, just relax a bit.¡± Yang Ping was quite frank. Takahashi could be considered a good friend, there was no need for formality. ¡°You must be hungry. We¡¯re heading back to Tokyo immediately. The meal has already been arranged.¡± The meal on the plane was rather unsatisfactory and low in energy. They definitely needed a late-night meal. ¡°Let me introduce you to the interpreter I hired, Teacher Tang Shun,¡± introduced Takahashi. ¡°A Ph.D. candidate in molecular biology at Tokyo University, my name is Tang Shun. You can just call me Xiao Tang!¡± Xiao Tang reached out his hand. Around the same age as Yang Ping, he was quite vibrant, his eyes sparkling mischievously. Under Takahashi¡¯s lead, Yang Ping, Su Nanchen, and Old Cheng boarded a business vehicle and rushed from Narita Airport to a restaurant in Tokyo¡¯s Edogawa Ward. Edogawa Ward, a suburb of Tokyo, neighbors the Chiba Prefecture. Along the way, one could see the occasional villa scattered about. The restaurant was quite secluded, located in a traditional Japanese house. The front was adorned with lanterns, each one bearing the words ¡°Yoshihoko Residence¡±. The wooden plaque on the gate displayed ¡°Yoshihoko Residence¡±. All the characters were in traditional Chinese script, without any hiragana. Behind the villa was a large pond, presumably the ¡°lake,¡± and a wooden walkway led to a pavilion in the center of the pond. According to Takahashi, this restaurant was akin to a private kitchen in China, not open to the public, only accepting reservations from members. A woman around fifty, dressed in a kimono, bowed in greeting near the entrance, smiling as she led them into the hall. Takahashi introduced her, revealing that she was the wife of the owner of the restaurant, Mr. Natsume. The air-conditioning inside was set to heat. As soon as Yang Ping entered, he felt much warmer. There was no central heating available in Tokyo. To endure the winter here, they relied on air-conditioning or in some cases, oil heaters and kotatsus. On his first visit to Japan, Yang Ping felt that the atmosphere seemed quite constrained and petty-bourgeois. The owner of the restaurant came from a family of chefs. Starting from the end of the Edo period, their culinary skills have been passed down from generation to generation, constantly improved, and have been passed down to this day. Their specialty, sea bream sashimi, was a Tokyo specialty. Many politicians and business people would visit here for a private taste. Thus, this rather unremarkable country restaurant only accepted reservations from patrons of a certain status. In the dining hall, two beautiful women in their thirties attired in kimonos greeted the guests to their seats, most likely the waitresses. Hearing that Yang Ping was an excellent surgeon and Takahashi¡¯s teacher, the restaurant owner readily agreed to make a reservation. In Japan, teachers and doctors were the most respected professions. ¡°Dr. Yang has traveled all the way from China to heal people. It is a great act of benevolence,¡± said the innkeeper very appropriately. Having spent a considerable amount of time studying in the system space, Yang Ping¡¯s Japanese was not too shabby and he could understand completely. He simply preferred speaking in Chinese. Takahashi had never seen Yang Ping speak Japanese before, so assuming Yang Ping couldn¡¯t understand, he translated for him. ¡°Being called a saint is far too much. We are only doing our duty,¡± Yang Ping said modestly. Chapter 523 - 523 475 Five Hundred and Five Pieces_2 ?Chapter 523: Chapter 475: Five Hundred and Five Pieces_2 Chapter 523: Chapter 475: Five Hundred and Five Pieces_2 Next, the lady boss spoke a long spiel, which Takahashi translated for the group: ¡°The plaque in front of our restaurant bears the name Jihuju, all in Chinese characters. Our ancestors, towards the tail end of Edo period, traveled widely and studied culinary arts at various locations. They once visited Jiangsu and Zhejiang in China to learn culinary skills under a Chinese master. After mastering their skills, they returned to Japan and opened Jihuju in Tokyo. The restaurant has relocated several times throughout its history, yet the plaque remains unchanged.¡± The waiter, with small nimble steps, placed various dim sum dishes on the table with agile and efficient movements. A smattering of light snow began to fall outside, and the lantern exuded a hue of soft yellow, lending to a picturesque and captivating sight. ¡°Kobe beef, grilled with charcoal, seasoned with only salt and pepper during the grilling. It tastes even better when eaten with this special sauce. This sauce is Natsume¡¯s secret recipe.¡± ¡°Sea Bream sashimi¡ª¡± ¡°¡ª¡± The waiter plated each dish one by one, each appearing like a piece of art. Once all the dishes had been served, the chef emerged. Dressed in a crisp, white chef¡¯s uniform, he gave a bashful smile and bowed to the group: ¡°Welcome, Dr. Yang. I apologize in advance for my unremarkable culinary skills.¡± His Chinese was a bit stiff, but the meaning was understandable. ¡°This is the famous Mr. Natsume. He has been learning culinary arts from his parents since childhood. Now at sixty, he has spent more than fifty years honing his culinary skills, earning him the nickname ¡®the wizard of taste buds,''¡± explained Takahashi. ¡°You flatter me. Please allow me to propose a toast.¡± Right on cue, the lady boss handed Natsume a cup of tea which he raised for a toast. Having done with the toast, Mr. Natsume bowed deeply and left the restaurant, saying, ¡°I won¡¯t disturb your meal further. Please, take your time.¡± A craft passed down for over a hundred years and personally pursued for fifty years by the master himself. This dedication towards one¡¯s profession filled Yang Ping with admiration. Any profession, as long as one delights in it and tirelessly pursues it, one can realize their own worth. This is possibly what is meant by the spirit of the craftsman. In truth, the craftsmanship spirit of the Chinese is in no way inferior to that of the Japanese. The Chinese were even the teachers of the Japanese once. But in this frenzied era, everyone seems to have lost their sense of self. Everyone wants shortcuts. Everyone aims to achieve their objectives through deceptive means. Once the illusory glamour fades away, the truth will certainly emerge anew. Just look at the centuries-old domestic brands in various industries such as Tongrentang, Yunnan Baiyao, Moutai, Quanjude, and so on. They are still thriving. The success of these brands is a testament to the wisdom and hard work of our predecessors. Each of them is a painstakingly crafted masterpiece of perfection. The ancient Chinese ceramics are inherently a form of clay play. However, the Chinese have elevated this craft to unprecedented heights, earning shiny silver coins in the process. It took Europe four hundred years to reproduce this craft. Not to mention the Great Wall, the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, the Zhaozhou Bridge, and the Grand Canal, which bear testimony to ancient Chinese engineering prowess. They dined while chatting. The conversation between Yang Ping, Su Nanchen, Boss Cheng, and Takahashi grew more animated when they discussed the medical condition of Ning Yu. ¡°Dr. Yang, the surgery this time is even more challenging than the one performed by Professor Feng!¡± Takahashi was worried. After all, everyone has their limits, and the limits of surgeons were something that he knew all too well. Even if Yang Ping¡¯s surgical skills were god-like and his knife skills remarkably refined, the surgery would mean very little if they couldn¡¯t locate and excise the two small tumors entirely. Moreover, the surgery would be fraught with risks. ¡°Our hospital, along with the Shuntiantang Hospital and several other hospitals in Japan, have held joint consultations but failed to come up with a viable plan. We also contacted Professor John Ansen from Mayo Clinic. He provided a bunch of suggestions but didn¡¯t dare to undertake the surgery himself, stating the success rate would be very low.¡± Takahashi¡¯s brows furrowed. ¡°John Ansen?¡± Yang Ping queried, without saying anything further. ¡°Yes, he is Mitsui¡¯s teacher. Mitsui is a young professor specializing in spinal and intracranial surgeries. He is considered a rising star in Japanese neurosurgery.¡± Takahashi handed a bowl of rice over to Yang Ping with both hands. The rice tasted amazing and was presented beautifully, a sight rarely seen. It looked gleaming and transparent, just like pearls. Not only were they dealing with Ning Yu¡¯s medical case, but also one other patient ¡ª Fujihara Kyusaku. Although John Ansen had kept the patient¡¯s name and other information confidential, Yang Ping had independently checked Fujihara Kyusaku¡¯s medical records in the system space. ¡°Yes, what makes this case tougher than Professor Feng¡¯s is pinpointing the exact location of the small tumors. Though medical devices can locate the tumors, they lack the subjective flexibility needed to assist us in devising a unique surgical approach. Artificial intelligence could possibly help us, but the prerequisite is a deep understanding of brain stem anatomy and extensive surgical experience. Unfortunately, even feeding it all the relevant surgical data from around the world to date wouldn¡¯t be sufficient.¡± Having finished a few pieces of the steak, Yang Ping hadn¡¯t touched the sashimi as he wasn¡¯t accustomed to raw food. During his rotation in the neurosurgery department, he had seen cases of patients developing brain parasites due to consuming raw food, which had left a deep impression on him. ¡°So, what should we do?¡± Takahashi was clearly siding with Yang Ping. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much. I have spent plenty of time studying this case and have found an approach. It effectively avoids crucial areas to reach the tumor, but the path is somewhat complex.¡± While these few statements were made casually, to explore such a surgery route that meets all the requirements might take even a top neurosurgeon a lifetime, and they still might not be able to figure it out. However, when these words came from Yang Ping, Takahashi couldn¡¯t help but believe it. In his eyes, Yang Ping was a man who constantly performed miracles. Anyone deeply connected with Yang Ping would understand that you can¡¯t try to fathom him based on normal reasonings. Einstein¡¯s theory of relativity was reportedly understood initially by only two and a half people, yet that didn¡¯t hinder its revolutionary nature. ¡°Do you have a piece of paper and a pen?¡± Takahashi immediately instructed a nearby waiter to fetch a pen and paper. Yang Ping drew a sketch on the paper: ¡°Look, these nerve nuclei are like islands and reefs. The surgical approach, or our safe navigation path, is this, and our target is the tumor.¡± Takahashi grabbed the paper and after studying Yang Ping¡¯s sketches, broke into a cold sweat. Theoretically, this route was incredibly superior. But in practice, it would be extremely challenging to perform. It¡¯s like performing surfing in the world¡¯s most dangerous sea ¨C ¡°See? You only need to pass that biggest wave¡±. Saying it out loud seems effortless, but to pull it off can cost you your entire life. This is a twisted surgical approach that maneuvered between nerve cells throughout the entire process. At certain points, it virtually grazed the nerve nuclei. ¡°How is it even possible to pull this off?¡± Takahashi was still glaring at the paper. ¡°Takahashi-kun, don¡¯t worry. Like our home¡¯s Natsume, he can slice a three-kilogram fish into more than five hundred pieces. What you find to be the limit might just be the starting point for others.¡± The lady boss comforted Takahashi while refilling tea. Boss Cheng picked up a slice of the raw fish fillet. It was almost transparent, thin as a cicada¡¯s wing. When observed under the light, it was astonishingly uniform. Such knife skills are truly remarkable. ¡°What splendid knife skills. Could this be Japan¡¯s best?¡± Boss Cheng couldn¡¯t help but admire. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know what rank I am, all I seek is to constantly surpass myself. My present self surpasses my past self; my future self, my present self. This is the essence of life. I haven¡¯t been able to go beyond slicing this weight of fish into 504 pieces for quite some time, but today, I achieved 505.¡± Boss Natsume emerged from the kitchen, carrying a bowl of freshly made soup. Chapter 524 - 524 476 Are You Satisfied with My Explanation ?Chapter 524: Chapter 476: Are You Satisfied with My Explanation? Chapter 524: Chapter 476: Are You Satisfied with My Explanation? Tokyo University Hospital has a history of over a hundred and sixty years. Together with Shun Tian Tang Hospital, it represents the highest medical standards of Japan and is also one of the top ten hospitals in the world. It¡¯s not about whether or not you can make an appointment to visit this hospital, but rather that you must have a referral letter to see a doctor here. Most of their doctors are graduates of the Medical Department of Tokyo University, the clinical majors of which are said to be the toughest in all of Japan. Only the top students among top students have the chance to enter the clinical major of Tokyo University¡¯s Medical Department. Hence the saying ¨C Only aliens can get in. It is obvious that these doctors are the elite among the elite doctors in Japan. The last preoperative case discussion of Ning Yu will start at half past seven on Saturday and end at eight forty. Because at nine, the Asia-Pacific Orthopedics Association Academic Forum will commence. For this case discussion, aside from participants from the Orthopedics, Neurosurgery, Central Surgery Department, and other related departments, the Administrative Department and High-risk New Medical Evaluation Department will also participate. This is a high-risk surgery, and even with the signature of Fujiwara Masao and the nod of Ikeda, all departments are very cautious. The surgery is too risky, and the invited doctor from outside the hospital is too inexperienced and not well-known. The hospital agreed to this invitation entirely because of Fujiwara Masao¡¯s endorsement. Komori Daisuke from Neurosurgery has repeatedly questioned the hospital¡¯s upper management. Ning Yu¡¯s tumor involves the cervical spinal cord and medulla oblongata. The main surgery needs to be conducted by neurosurgery. The task of the orthopedic department is to help open the bone window, as well as to reconstruct the stability of the cranial base and the spine. Now, Fujiwara Masao is taking the lead, replacing neurosurgery with an invited doctor from outside the hospital, and this matter has not been agreed by him. Professor Ikeda gave the reason that the legal team entrusted by Ning Yu¡¯s family had formally notified the hospital, proposing to invite Dr. Yang Ping from Sanybo Hospital in China to perform the surgery. As a key member of Ning Yu¡¯s treatment team, Fujiwara Masao has personal connections with Sanybo Hospital in China. It is appropriate and concords with the current procedures of Tokyo University Hospital to invite him to do the operation. Not only Professor Komori Daisuke, the entire Neurosurgery Department and a part of the Orthopedic Department were strongly opposed to inviting a doctor from outside the hospital. Apart from academic exchanges with top international experts, inviting an external doctor to perform a surgery should be something from many years ago. That time, they invited Amano Atsushi from Cardiothoracic Surgery. Dr. Amano, a Japanese citizen famed for his coronary bypass surgery, was invited to perform surgery at Tokyo University Hospital. At that time, because he was not a graduate of the Medical Department of Tokyo University, and the hospital he was working for was not outstanding and could not be compared with Tokyo University Hospital, he was questioned and opposed by the entire Tokyo University Hospital. It also led to a stir, and many people thought it was a shame. If we follow this logic, inviting Yang Ping to perform the surgery now would make them feel extremely humiliated. Has Tokyo University Hospital fallen to this point? The angry shouts of the doctors sounded like a storm. The young members of Tokyo University Hospital, Sasaki from Orthopedics, and Mitsui from Neurosurgery, these are all representative figures. If it weren¡¯t for the strict hospitals system, they would refuse to follow any medical opinions from air-dropped teams. If it weren¡¯t for Professor Ikeda¡¯s presence, they would have already bullied the hospital into canceling the invitation. Professor Ikeda is a towering figure of Tokyo University Hospital, Fujiwara Masao is his protege, and Komori Daisuke can be considered his half-student. For tumors of the spine, it used to be a cross-field between spinal orthopedics and neurosurgery. Neurosurgeons are good at surgically removing tumors located on the spinal cord. They are clueless about the approach to accessing the spinal cord and medulla oblongata through bone tissue opening, and even more so about how to reestablish spinal and cranial base bone stability. As a branch of orthopedics, spinal surgeons are skilled at opening the spine and reconstructing it, and deftly restabilize the cranial base and the spine. But when it comes to tumor removal from the spinal cord, they seem to be inferior to neurosurgeons. So, the spinal orthopedic surgeons began to learn how to completely remove tumors from the spinal cord, and neurosurgeons learned how to reach the tumors through the bone tissue opening, and how to restabilize the cranial base and spine after the tumor removal. That way, in the case of tumors crossing the upper spinal cord and the medulla oblongate, the two specialties are bound together. Song Zimo, assistant to Yang Ping, made everyone from the neurosurgery and spinal orthopedics departments on edge on his first day at Tokyo University Hospital. As a genius, Song Zimo, having followed Yang Ping for such a long time, whether theoretically or surgically, has been instructed by Yang Ping himself. He is not afraid of these arrogant Japanese ¡°beloved sons of heaven¡± at all. On Friday night, while Yang Ping was still eating dinner in the suburbs. In the office of the neurosurgeon, Song Zimo and the Japanese doctors gathered together to discuss the preparations for the surgery. ¡°To prevent a malfunction in the laser knife, prepare more super sharp blades, we need twenty. The operation requires precision, and the blade¡¯s sharpness must be maintained at all times,¡± ordered Song Zimo. ¡°Is that necessary?¡±, head doctor, Sakurai Hirokazu, asked as he paused in his note-taking. ¡°I am not here to discuss it with you, I am giving you a command, do you understand?¡± Song Zimo said, his voice deep and magnetic. ¡°He is just trying to understand the reasons for better compliance with your orders. The quality of Japanese blades is outstanding, with excellent sharpness and durability, five should suffice. These super sharp blades are highly valuable, preparing too many is a waste,¡± another doctor came to Sakurai¡¯s defense. In fact, Sakurai¡¯s misgivings about the number of blades were due to his inner resistance. Song Zimo turned and glanced at the doctor who had spoken up. He, like the other doctors nearby, had a fleetingly disdainful and disdainful look on his his face.¡± ¡°I will reiterate once more, to save time, you only need to faithfully execute every one of my commands. I am only responsible for the patients and my superiors, I am not obligated to answer to you, do you understand?¡± he continued. His fluent Japanese, undeniable tone, coupled with his tall and handsome stature and white coat, gave Song Zimo an authoritative presence among these so-called ¡°proud sons of heaven¡±. ¡°I don¡¯t want Tokyo University Hospital, with its long-standing reputation, to disappoint my superiors. They will arrive early tomorrow morning to participate in a case discussion. Professor Takahashi should have informed you already. Pull yourselves together, and pay attention.¡± ¡°If you can¡¯t do it, tell me. If you can, then demonstrate your efficiency.¡± ¡°Also, if it¡¯s not too much trouble, get me a larger white coat.¡± Finding a proper white coat for his towering one meter eighty five frame, fit enough to be a fitness trainer, was indeed quite a challenge. Song Zimo stood up. Head doctor Sakurai Hirokazu kept jotting on his notebook. He loosened his tie, sweat beading on his forehead. Mitsui and Sasaki, who had been silent throughout the discussion, watched Sakurai, who felt wronged. ¡°Hold on a minute, we¡¯ll talk about it during the case discussion,¡± Mitsui reassured him and gently touched his shoulder. This team was invited by Teacher Fujihara. They¡¯ve gone through the hospital¡¯s legal procedures. Everyone must obey their commands, as per the hierarchy among doctors. Defying orders from a superior doctor is not appropriate behavior for a doctor. ¡°Mr. Song, please forgive Sakurai, we will follow your medical orders faithfully to ensure the success of the surgery.¡± Mitsui bowed. Yang Ping softened his tone: ¡°The case discussion will begin tomorrow morning. Dr. Yang will be there promptly at seven thirty. I hope everyone can be as punctual. We should unite and strive for the success of the surgery. I don¡¯t want anyone to apologize afterwards, it¡¯s futile! If bowing could solve problems, why would we go through all this trouble for the surgery? No amount of bowing can bring a dead patient back to life!¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Mitsui bowed again, while Sasaki suppressed his discontent. He is just an assistant, yet he¡¯s managing to suppress these doctors. The case discussion tomorrow needs to be intense. ¡°Mr. Song, they just want a reasonable explanation as to why you asked for so many blades. This is Japan, things are a bit different here than in China,¡± Sasaki said calmly, but pointedly. The undertone was very clear: don¡¯t bring your Chinese thinking here, our blades are of very good quality. ¡°Do you really want to know the reason? I can tell you. The Kobe Steel incident has made it difficult for me to trust the performance of blades during surgery, are you satisfied with my explanation?¡± Song Zimo didn¡¯t mince his words. He had to squash the discontent among these people and create a good atmosphere for the arrival of Yang Ping. All the Japanese doctors immediately lowered their heads. Their faces turned red with shame. They had never been so humiliated before, but they were at a loss for a rebuttal. In front of this Chinese doctor, who was just an assistant, they felt an intimidating aura, and he seemed to fear nothing. ¡°I am going back to rest, you all should rest early too,¡± Song Zimo called the others. Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, Little Five, Liang Fatty, and others. They had to arrive a bit earlier than Yang Ping, and they were familiarizing themselves with the environment and equipment in the operating room. Chapter 525 - 525 477 He Can Definitely Go Back With You ?Chapter 525: Chapter 477: He Can Definitely Go Back With You Chapter 525: Chapter 477: He Can Definitely Go Back With You After dinner, Takahashi took Yang Ping to the hotel. A hotel near Tokyo University Hospital ¨C Mori Hometown. On the journey from Edogawa Ward to Bunkyo District, Takahashi incessantly explained to Yang Ping the scenery and stories of every place in Tokyo. The bustling lights of Tokyo could not be concealed by the night. Even at late hours, the city remained extremely vibrant. Many pubs, bars, karaoke bars, cinemas, retail stores stayed open until midnight, and many stores were open 24 hours a day. Neon signs on the streets overflowed with color, including English, Japanese, and many mixed with Chinese characters. ¡°Tokyo¡¯s splendid life truly begins at night. People work busily and feel repressed during the day, only at night can they find their true selves. After work, Japanese people don¡¯t rush home, instead they go to pubs to drink. Everyone believes that alcohol is the best lubricant of life, it helps unload the exhaustion and misery of the day.¡± Takahashi said through the car window, summarizing the city¡¯s nightlife. Yang Ping was reminded of an animated film he¡¯d seen before ¨C Hayao Miyazaki¡¯s ¡®Spirited Away¡¯, where a scene was fresh in his memory. As night falls and lights brighten, the silent street begins to buzz with activity. Various pubs and restaurants start filling with people. Spirits join in, arriving at a bathhouse on a luxury liner. The sedan arrived at the Mori Hometown Hotel. This was also the hotel where the other attending professors were staying. It wasn¡¯t overly luxurious, but it was very close to Tokyo University Hospital, only a few hundred meters away. From the hotel¡¯s front door, a hundred meters to the left, stood Tokyo University. Tokyo University and Tokyo University Hospital were separated by just one street. Despite the late night, everyone was eagerly waiting at the hotel entrance. When the sedan came to a halt, Boss Cheng was the first one to jump out of the car and open the door, waiting by the side. This took Takahashi by surprise, as it was supposed to be his duty to do so. Among the crowd, Yang Ping noticed Xiao Su. She rushed towards him before controlling her pace. The moment their eyes met, they shared an unspoken understanding. Genuine things are often simple, not needing to be flaunted in public. Song Zimo came forward: ¡°Everyone refused to rest and insisted on waiting for you.¡± ¡°Dr. Yang, welcome to Tokyo!¡± Fujiwara Miyuki, her face flushed, greeted Yang Ping. Once everyone had finished saying hello to Yang Ping. Ning Qi was the last to approach. She extended her hand gracefully: ¡°Thank you for your effort!¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome!¡± Yang Ping gently shook hands with her. To take care of her brother, Ning Qi put her work aside and rushed to Japan, he¡¯s been busy for many days. She¡¯s had her fair share of hardship. Losing their mother early in life, her brother being away from home for ten years, their father passing away regretfully, and now her only remaining relative, her brother, having just returned to her side, facing a sudden crisis. At this time, this thirty-year-old woman was trying her best to appear calm, hiding her inner anxiety and exhaustion. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, let¡¯s find a place, and I¡¯ll take a look at Ning Yu¡¯s medical records.¡± Yang Ping reassured her. ¡°Thank you!¡± Yang Ping immediately asked to see the case report upon getting off the car. Despite the tiredness from the journey, Ning Qi was deeply moved by his actions. At this moment, Yang Ping was like a sturdy mountain, serving as the only source of her confidence. ¡°It¡¯s very late, how about a rest first?¡± Boss Cheng suggested. ¡°Yes, no rush, we can check it tomorrow.¡± Ning Qi was also reluctant to disturb him. But Yang Ping insisted on checking the medical data tonight. He only had three days in Japan, every minute must be utilised to ensure the success of the surgery. ¡°I have prepared a suite for your meetings.¡± Takahashi immediately told Yang Ping. Song Zimo arrived in Tokyo two days earlier. He was already very familiar with the suite that Takahashi had prepared. In the deep winter night, everyone gathered enthusiastically in the suite of Mori Hometown. Song Zimo launched his laptop and connected it to a special film reading electronic screen. He had copied Ning Yu¡¯s complete medical treatment data into his laptop and had already arranged for the responsible doctor to complete the preoperative examination. Although these doctors had strong emotions of resistance, the stringent medical system of Tokyo University Hospital ensured that every medical order was executed without any compromise. These doctors resisted mentally, but there was no overstepping in their actions. It had to be admitted that the management of Tokyo University Hospital was very organized, especially with attention to detail being extremely meticulous. The quality of the doctors was also very high. Each imaging examination report was written in an extremely detailed and standard format. Ning Yu¡¯s head enhanced CT report had dozens of pages and was described in great detail. The case data came with many hand-drawn anatomical diagrams by doctors, supplementing the written case report. Yang Ping had studied these documents many times over. Now he was going through them one more time to reassure Ning Qi, and at the same time get in some early communication with the rest of the team. ¡°How is it?¡± Song Zimo quietly asked. Yang Ping drew his gaze from the screen, took a sip of tea from Boss Cheng: ¡°The tumor hasn¡¯t metastasized. It was detected quite early and can be completely excised. The surgery needs to be extremely meticulous. Bring up the drawing I gave you.¡± Song Zimo immediately brought up Yang Ping¡¯s drawing, Yang Ping pointed to the picture and said: ¡°This larger tumor is very similar to Professor Feng¡¯s. During the removal process, cardiac arrest will inevitably occur a few times. As you can see, disturbance at these three places will cause arrest. You don¡¯t need to worry too much. As long as we are timely, this kind of arrest can be reversed. But these two small tumors are very difficult to locate. Following a curved path to the tumors is critical and is very risky. All operating personnel must be our own: Song Zimo first assisting, Xu Zhiliang second assisting, Su Yixuan as the instrument nurse, Zhou Can as the scrub nurse, Liang Jing anesthetist, Zhang Lin Xiaowu in charge of maintaining operating room discipline.¡± ¡°Since we only have a temporary surgery license, there must be a superintendent from the Japanese side present on stage.¡± Song Zimo informed Yang Ping. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Yes, but the Japanese professor can¡¯t perform the surgery, they can only symbolically supervise it.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Song Zimo noted it down. ¡°After the preoperative discussion tomorrow morning, if there are no issues and the surgery time is confirmed, Song Zimo will still be in charge of communicating with Tokyo University Hospital¡¯s medical team. Takahashi and Xu Zhiliang will assist you. Zhang Lin, you will handle administrative communication. In other words, you¡¯ll act as the administrative officer of the Sanbo medical team, with Little Five assisting you.¡± ¡°Me? Administrative?¡± Zhang Lin pointed to himself. He only knew a few sentences in Japanese. How was he supposed to communicate? Everyone was initially confused by this arrangement. Logically, Tang Fei would be the best fit for the role as she understands Japanese and wouldn¡¯t encounter any communication barriers. ¡°You can speak Chinese, Takahashi, can you lend us your Chinese teacher to serve as Zhang Lin¡¯s translator?¡± Yang Ping had a good impression of that Chinese teacher. ¡°No problem. Teacher Tang, we need your help.¡± Takahashi turned to Tang Shun, who had been by his side. ¡°Sure, sure! ¡ª¡± Tang Shun was more than willing. ¡°I will compensate you separately, still on an hourly basis.¡± ¡°Alright, why talk about money? Should I start counting now?¡± Soon, Takahashi and Tang Shun settled their business adjustments. ¡°Old Xu, this? I can¡¯t do this. I know my own abilities. My technical skills are rather... thin...¡± It was Zhang Lin¡¯s turn to stammer and turn to Xu Zhiliang for help. Xu Zhiliang tried to boost his confidence, ¡°What are you afraid of? Dr. Yang has said that you are responsible for administrative communication. Do you understand? As long as you¡¯re good with words, you can handle it. You are more than capable. Many people who become deans don¡¯t necessarily have technical skills. They do well, don¡¯t they?¡± Is he encouraging me or mocking me? Zhang Lin muttered to himself, but hearing what Xu Zhiliang said gave him confidence. Administrative communication, he understood. Immediately, he pulled himself together and straightened his back. ¡°Haven¡¯t you always loved to show off since you were young? Now you have a chance to show off on an international level!¡± Xu Zhiliang patted his back, whispering in Zhang Lin¡¯s ear. ¡°Zhang Lin? Any problems?¡± Yang Ping noticed that Zhang Lin hadn¡¯t formally responded. Zhang Lin immediately raised his hand, ¡°I promise to complete the task!¡± ¡°That¡¯s good!¡± Yang Ping continued explaining Ning Yu¡¯s medical condition. ¡°I¡¯ve already explained this operation to you repeatedly beforehand. Now, I need to go over it again. The most dangerous step is the removal of these two small tumors. Following this exposed route, maneuvering through the gaps in the nerve nucleus group and ultimately reaching the tumor. Some areas of operation are extremely narrow. Any mistakes could lead to the patient having a cardiac arrest. This kind of arrest cannot be reversed. The whole process cannot tolerate any mistakes.¡± Everyone present felt a knot in their stomach. The surgery hadn¡¯t even begun yet, and their hearts were already racing. Ning Qi was also very nervous, but she believed in Yang Ping. This trust seemed natural and didn¡¯t need any reason. ¡°Does anyone have any questions? It¡¯s getting late. You all should rest.¡± Everyone began to disperse and return to their rooms to rest. ¡°Dr. Yang...¡± Ning Qi wanted to say something but only managed to call out quietly. The calm facade she had could fool others, but it couldn¡¯t fool Yang Ping. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It will be fine. I¡¯m here!¡± ¡°She will definitely be able to return with you!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s tone was gentle, but extremely confident and firm. ¡°Yes...¡± Ning Qi nodded, her eyes brimming with tears. The reason why brainstem surgery is so difficult and risky is because it is the core of life. It controls a person¡¯s heartbeat and breathing. If the life core is disturbed, the patient will die. With the advancement in neurosurgery, everyone¡¯s knowledge of brainstem anatomy is deepening. Doctors have found some safe gaps. Surgery in these safe gaps will not endanger life. However, these safe gaps are currently only superficially understood in anatomy and have not reached a mature and precise level. So, even with these safe gaps, the success rate of brainstem surgery is still only about 20%. Cases like Ning Yu have a success rate of zero globally. There are no successful precedents. The same goes for Fujiwara Tani. The success rate of the surgery is zero, which is why Japan¡¯s top doctors are stumped. ¡°Teacher Zhang, this is Teacher Tang. Let him follow you.¡± Takahashi introduced Tang Shun to Zhang Lin. ¡°Uhm, Secretary Tang, may I call you Secretary Tang?¡± Zhang Lin finally found his footing. Tang Shun immediately shook hands with Zhang Lin, ¡°Of course, you can. From now on, I¡¯ll be your translator. There¡¯s no issue with you calling me Secretary Tang. Rest assured, my Japanese is absolutely reliable. Whether it¡¯s Kansai or Kanto, even if they speak in dialect, I can translate it for you.¡± Zhang Lin exchanged phone numbers and WeChat accounts with Tang Shun for easy contact. He reminded Tang Shun not to leave his side the next morning and then he went back to rest with Little Five. ¡°Five! Tell me why, out of all the capable people here, Dr. Yang chose me as the administrative officer of this medical team?¡± Zhang Lin still didn¡¯t understand. Little Five laughed, ¡°The role of an administrative officer, as you said, is a position of authority. Out of all of us, you¡¯re the one who looks most like an official, so the position is yours by default. Look at Song Zimo, he has a lot on his plate and can¡¯t be distracted. He also lacks that official-like demeanor. As for Xu Zhiliang, you know him, three sentences are enough to make Tokyo University Hospital lose staff. Tang Fei would have been a good fit, but she lacks the official air about her. Only you, Teacher Zhang! You exude an official demeanor from head to toe. It¡¯s inherent, something about your aura. Only you, Teacher Zhang, has that aura. Dr. Yang¡¯s decision must have been well considered and not made carelessly.¡± ¡°Bro, really? I¡¯d never noticed before that I have this sort of demeanor.¡± Zhang Lin was doubtful as he rubbed his chin. Little Five nodded in affirmation. Chapter 526 - 526 478 Youre a Student Right ?Chapter 526: Chapter 478: You¡¯re a Student, Right? Chapter 526: Chapter 478: You¡¯re a Student, Right? At seven in the morning, the regular working hours begin at Tokyo University Hospital. By seven, all the doctors have already started their work, and some young doctors have arrived at the hospital as early as five to prepare for the day. The case discussions twice a week typically start at seven-thirty in the morning, and end at nine. This shows how tightly scheduled each day at Tokyo University Hospital is. Today¡¯s discussion about Ning Yu¡¯s case was also underway from seven thirty until eight. This was because the Asia-Pacific Orthopedics Association academic forum was starting at nine, and the time had to be tightly scheduled. Under the guidance of Takahashi, Yang Ping arrived at Tokyo University Hospital at six in the morning. On the way, doctors could be seen everywhere rushing about, dressed in neat suits and holding document bags, including both young doctors and elderly professors. One of the old professors, who was carrying packed breakfast while walking very fast, seemed unwilling to waste a single second. It is said that when they arrive at the department¡¯s break room and have breakfast, they do not make small talk but quickly get to work after they finish eating. Some even read the latest medical journals while eating, making use of every fragmented piece of time. Yang Ping first visited Ning Yu in the Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were also with Yang Ping. The Intensive Care Unit could not accommodate many people, so the rest of the team had gone to the meeting room for the case discussion. Many Japanese doctors had been waiting in the Intensive Care Unit to see this famous Chinese doctor who Professor Fujiwara had highly recommended. The Intensive Care Units around the world are probably alike, with doctors and nurses bustling about, and the big screen displaying monitoring images of each ward. All sorts of machines were running at full capacity, maintaining every life in the unit. Ning Yu was lying on the hospital bed, his heartbeat currently sustained by a temporary pacemaker. His tumor severely affected the central nervous system, causing the myocardium to move slowly and fail to form effective pumping forces, so it had to rely on a temporary pacemaker to maintain a normal heart rate. In order to reduce oxygen consumption and alleviate the burden on the brain and heart, Ning Yu was in a sedative state. Dr. Sakurai, the attending physician, stood aside with a very reluctant heart. Even if he wore a mask, his dissatisfaction could be seen in his eyes. Mitsui and Sasaki were also waiting in the Intensive Care Unit early in the morning. Finally, they met Yang Ping, the doctor who Takahashi admired. In addition to these three, there was a large circle of Japanese doctors surrounding them, both with intermediate and high professional titles. The experts invited by Tokyo University Hospital had to see for themselves. Komori Daisuke, the director of neurosurgery, did not show up. He either really had something that kept him from coming, or he was unwilling to appear on this occasion, or he protested by giving them the cold shoulder. The once almighty Takahashi stood next to Yang Ping like a primary school student, with a notebook in his hand. Behind Takahashi, there were several young doctors, all with notebooks, ready to take notes at any time. These doctors were Takahashi¡¯s subordinates and students. Dr. Sakurai reported the case, his tone was rather languid, and someone couldn¡¯t help laughing. Song Zimo was about to speak, but Yang Ping stopped him with a glance. ¡°Doctor Sakurai¡ª¡± Takahashi was upset. He reprimanded him in the stern tone of a superior doctor. Takahashi was senior to Sasaki and Mitsui, and he was their senior brother. He was second only to Professor Fujiwara in orthopedics. Despite not being in the same department, Sakurai didn¡¯t dare to cross the line and immediately corrected his tone. No matter how unwilling he was, Sakurai finally completed the case report earnestly. After listening, Yang Ping only said: ¡°I need to examine the patient!¡± Takahashi immediately put away his notebook and assisted at the side, handing over gloves, percussion hammers, and helping to adjust the patient¡¯s position. Many doctors on the side were stunned. Was this the usually lofty Professor Takahashi? Yang Ping didn¡¯t say a word, and the quieter he was, the more uneasy Takahashi felt. Was he angry? Mitsui! Sasaki! Dr. Sakurai, these brainless guys. After Yang Ping finished the physical examination, he took off his gloves. Takahashi received them with both hands and threw them away into the yellow trash bin. Yang Ping¡¯s gaze switched to the monitoring screen, a student immediately stepped forward to read the figures, but Takahashi called the student back and did it himself. He pointed his fingers at the figures on the screen, reading each one out to help Yang Ping. Then he operated on the touch screen beside the bed and called up the image: ¡°Doctor Yang, this is the result of the most recent head and cervical spine MR check.¡± Yang Ping browsed through the latest MRI images: ¡°Takahashi, bring up the original image, just the edge of the tumor, go through it, quickly.¡± Even the original images of the edge of the tumor, passed by quickly. ¡°Stop!¡± Yang Ping asked Takahashi to freeze the image, pointing at the image: ¡°Here! This is an artifact, it must be eliminated, otherwise it will affect the surgical positioning. We will be using extremely accurate fluorescence imaging during the surgery. This slight artifact, which does not affect to a regular patient, could lead to surgical failure for this patient. Any errors would lead to a surgical failure. So, this artifact has to be removed.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Takahashi immediately noted it down. ¡°This is not an artifact, we are using Toshiba¡¯s latest MR, which is very accurate when overlaying sagittal and coronal images. This is an image alteration caused by the tumor compressing the surrounding tissues, slowing down the blood flow. General MR can¡¯t recognize it, but our machine can. Such knowledge is not yet discussed in the textbooks, so doctors unfamiliar with this could easily make wrong judgments, like deeming it an artifact. The ¡®Journal of Neurosurgery¡¯ has published articles specifically discussing this issue. Doctor Yang, you should take the time to read them.¡± Mitsui waited for his opportunity from the sidelines, not saying a word until now. Mitsui finally spoke up when Yang Ping stated that the image was an artifact. Doctors capable of accurately recognizing such an image could be counted on one¡¯s fingers; most doctors directly ignore it, not even noticing the image alteration. It¡¯s admirable that Yang Ping could find it, but deeming it an artifact shows that he still needs to improve. Doctor Yang Ping, is just so-so. You could gauge one¡¯s expertise from a single move. Mitsui now had an estimation of his opponent¡¯s skill level. ¡°Doctor Yang, I suggest you spend some time studying such articles. Also, always keep in touch with the world¡¯s top experts. Only a select few have the opportunity to encounter such cases. If your image reading skills are not up to par, conducting surgery rashly could be very dangerous.¡± Professor Takahashi was not pleased with Mitsui¡¯s tone. He believed that even in public academic disputes, there was no need for provocative taunts like that. Everyone was looking at Yang Ping, especially Dr. Sakurai who felt particularly vindicated. After suffering a setback from Song Zimo, Mitsui had finally stepped up and put them in their place. Professor Takahashi was hesitating about how to translate the conversation, but Song Zimo had already started doing it. ¡°This is your student, isn¡¯t it?¡± Yang Ping was staring at the screen while he casually asked Takahashi sitting next to him. It seemed as if Yang Ping didn¡¯t care about Mitsui¡¯s attitude at all until he spoke up. He probably wouldn¡¯t have noticed him otherwise. ¡°Dr. Yang, I¡¯m sorry, I forgot to introduce you, this is Doctor Mitsui.¡± Takahashi introduced, feeling embarrassed. He knew they were disatisfied, but didn¡¯t expect them to confront him publicly. Takahashi hadn¡¯t originally planned on introducing people like Mitsui and Sasaki, due to their negative attitudes and prejudices. In Takahashi¡¯s mind, these people were essentially at the student level to Yang Ping, so there was no need to introduce everyone individually. ¡°Doctor Mitsui! An associate professor, proficient in spine and neurosurgery ¨C¨C¡± Sasaki was unsatisfied with Takahashi¡¯s simplistic introduction and added more details. In China, an associate professor would be equivalent to an associate chief physician. ¡°Oh, Doctor Mitsui. With limited time, let me keep it simple. The article you read is wrong. The image alteration isn¡¯t caused by compressions on the surrounding blood vessels from the tumor, but is a result of a machine software algorithm issue.¡± ¡°Of course, this problem isn¡¯t unique to you, many doctors lack understanding in this area. Most surgeons are unfamiliar with the principle of imaging equipment, while engineers of imaging equipment don¡¯t comprehend medical science. This naturally forms a cross-blank area, which this image alteration conveniently falls into. I believe the next generation¡¯s algorithm improvements will avoid giving rise to such issues. If I delve too deep, it may result in difficulty in understanding, due to the blind spots in your knowledge. ¡± Takahashi immediately translated. Understanding difficulty? What a joke. Mitsui was humiliated in a way he had never been before. These words indeed treated Misui as a student. The room was filled with doctors from Tokyo University Hospital, many of whom were young. ¡°This article was written by Professor John Ansen from Mayo.¡± Mitsui responded with pride. John Ansen was one of the world¡¯s leading professors of neurosurgery and one of his mentors. ¡°Professor John Ansen? I believe his next article will correct this issue. In medicine, spiraling upward is not surprising. The prefrontal lobotomy once won a Nobel Prize but was later proven incorrect.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to haggle with him. The so-called Mitsui really couldn¡¯t understand if he dove too deep into the topic. He dared to question the ¡®Journal of Neurosurgery¡¯ and even doubted Professor John Ansen. No one knew where this young Chinese doctor got the nerve. ¡°¨C¡± Mitsui was furious and wanted to argue further, but Yang Ping no longer acknowledged him and continued to talk with Takahashi. ¡°Takahashi, contact the radiologist now and have the MR re-done. Modify the parameter to avoid this problem. I will write out the adjustments for you.¡± Takahashi immediately passed a notebook and pen, and Yang Ping wrote down a series of parameters. ¡°Do the MR according to this, and after it¡¯s done, I will take another look. There are no other problems, only this MR needs to be redone.¡± Sometimes the setting of imaging machine parameters is also a high-level technique. Using some parameter combinations can avoid certain problems and capture the desired images. ¡°Doctor Sakurai, immediately execute this. I want to see the new image before the end of Doctor Yang¡¯s case discussion. Carry out the shooting according to these parameters, make no changes. Understand? You, accompany him.¡± Not feeling assured, Takahashi chose a doctor from his team to supervise the process. Meanwhile, Takahashi immediately memorized the series of numbers. With his experience, he knew this knowledge was precious. He could bypass the trap in the future if he encountered a similar situation. When he had time, he had to ask Doctor Yang for more information about the artifact issue, as textbooks and papers hadn¡¯t discovered it yet. It was Doctor Yang who brought it up first. In his opinion, Mitsui and the others were ignorant and arrogant, utterly ridiculous. ¡°Doctor Yang, is there anything else you need to address before the surgery? Our case discussion starts at half past seven, we need to hurry.¡± Takahashi glanced at the clock. Feeling that nothing was overlooked, Yang Ping replied, ¡°There are no other issues, Takahashi. You should teach these students about imaging science when you have time.¡± ¡°Understood! I will.¡± Takahashi answered respectfully. Wasn¡¯t it introduced just now? Why did you treat me as a student again? Mitsui and Sasaki both had puzzled expressions, frustrated and feeling very uncomfortable. Chapter 527 - 527 479 Old Friend ?Chapter 527: Chapter 479 Old Friend Chapter 527: Chapter 479 Old Friend Fujiwara Masao wanted to meet Yang Ping before the case discussion. Checking the time, Takahashi said: ¡°Dr. Yang, Professor Fujiwara wants to see you; he is waiting for you in his office.¡± ¡°I should visit him.¡± Yang Ping courteously replied. Leaving the Neurosurgery ICU, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang headed to the venue for the case discussion, while Takahashi took Yang Ping to Fujiwara Masao¡¯s office, where Fujiwara had been waiting for quite a while. Fujiwara Masao is about the same age as Director Han; he has cropped hair mixed with some white but looks very energized. The first time Yang Ping saw Fujiwara Masao, he suddenly thought of Mr. Funakoshi from ¡°Hero of Kung Fu¡±, especially his temperament ¨C they¡¯re incredibly similar. ¡°Professor Fujiwara! This is Dr. Yang from Sanbo Hospital!¡± ¡°This is my teacher, Mr. Fujiwara!¡± Takahashi introduced them respectfully. ¡°Dr. Yang Ping!¡± Fujiwara Masao was somewhat impatient; he immediately stood up, bowed slightly, and then shook Yang Ping¡¯s hand. This top Japanese professor was a little excited at the moment, finally meeting Yang Ping. Although Fujiwara knew that Yang Ping was very young and still a doctoral student, seeing him in person, he couldn¡¯t help but exclaim¡ªhe¡¯s too young. Among the elite surgeons, even those referred to as young people are mostly in their mid-thirties. Highly talented individuals like Mitsui and Sasaki, who¡¯ve achieved success before the age of thirty-five, are very rare even in Japan. However, the Yang Ping in front of him is much younger than Mitsui and Sasaki. ¡°Real heroes are always young!¡± Fujiwara expressed a famous Chinese proverb in Japanese. The first time Fujiwara learned about Yang Ping was in last year¡¯s academic conference at Sanbo Hospital, where both hospitals live-streamed their surgeries. Originally, Fujiwara didn¡¯t take Sanbo Hospital seriously and participated in the conference for the sole purpose of promoting medical techniques. Surprisingly, that conference subverted Fujiwara¡¯s previous understanding; a young doctor actually completed a surgery that had once been a thorn in his side. Later, he sent Takahashi and Miyuki for further study, and they brought back a large amount of data. After in-depth research, Fujiwara had to admit that Yang Ping is a genius surgeon. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect Dr. Yang to be so young!¡± Fujiwara Masao was very excited, repeating these words, the man who he often heard about from his sister¡ªthe man standing at the top of the world. Indeed, the confidence gleaming in their eyes gives people the feeling of being at the peak. ¡°Please sit!¡± Fujiwara cannot speak Chinese, so he uses Takahashi to communicate with Yang Ping, but he has taught himself some simple Chinese phrases for exchanging greetings, such as hello, please sit, goodbye. Takahashi poured the tea while sitting beside him: ¡°Professor Fujiwara heard that you like tea, so he has prepared authentic Chinese Longjing.¡± ¡°Thank you very much, I have heard a lot about Professor Fujiwara; his achievements in orthopedics.¡± Words of courtesy, Yang Ping felt obligated to say. ¡°You flatter me, Dr. Yang! I¡¯m very glad to meet you, Takahashi and Miyuki have mentioned you countless times¡ªfor your imaginative innovations, masterful surgical skills, and surpassing calmness in crisis. Therefore, I must invite Dr. Yang to be the chief surgeon at Tokyo University Hospital. You may have been informed by Takahashi, this matter is regarded as a challenge to traditional authority in Tokyo University Hospital, but I don¡¯t see it that way. I believe that medicine should be pure, all efforts should only have one goal, to relieve the patient¡¯s pain, anything else is of secondary importance.¡± Fujiwara raised his cup to invite Yang Ping to taste the tea. ¡°I greatly admire Professor Fujiwara¡¯s insights,¡± replied Yang Ping. Yang Ping took a small sip, this Longjing, was indeed authentic. Having started drinking tea with Director Han, Yang Ping now knew a bit about tea. ¡°Please, don¡¯t be polite, I¡¯ve watched your surgical videos and I¡¯ve seen your anatomy drawings¡ªwhich I¡¯ve treasured, they¡¯re simply works of art. I¡¯ve also read Dr. Yang¡¯s papers with reverence, after reading each one carefully, I found them all to be wisdom-filled innovations in medicine. I firmly believe that Dr. Yang will shine in world medicine in the future. In the discussion of cases later, there may be some discord, I¡¯ve tried my best to avoid it, but I can¡¯t control it, some vanity has nurtured prejudice and arrogance in Tokyo University Hospital, I hope Dr. Yang does not mind.¡± ¡°The more intense academic debates, the better we can analyze problems, I thank Professor Fujiwara for defying public opinion, inviting me to do the surgery, I thank you on behalf of the patient and his family!¡± ¡°That is a doctor¡¯s duty, I like the words that Dr. Yang often uses¡ªduty! All I¡¯ve done is to uphold a doctor¡¯s duty.¡± Takahashi or Miyuki, must often talk to Fujiwara about Yang Ping, since Fujiwara was very familiar with Yang Ping, even to the extent of knowing his usual vocabulary. ¡°This is your anatomical drawing, I have it enlarged. Dr. Yang, the surgical approach you designed is very scientific, the internal approach to the brainstem and upper spinal cord is in the gap between the many nerve clusters, and the external approach to the skull and spinal canal also coordinates with the internal approach, the whole approach is very finely connected. To design such a complex route, the prerequisite is at least a few hundred normal anatomical studies of the brainstem and upper spinal cord, plus a few hundred pathological anatomical studies, I can¡¯t figure out how Dr. Yang could have accumulated so much. As for the safety and effect of the surgery, it is demonstrated in Professor Feng¡¯s case, many people think that it¡¯s just a coincidence, but I never think so, the so-called coincidence, in fact, hides an undiscovered necessity.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s hand drawing is displayed enlarged on the computer screen. Fujiwara Masao is indeed a top expert in Japanese surgery, a master, his research into the issue is far deeper than ordinary people. Indeed, Yang Ping in the system space, has experienced hundreds of normal dissecting experiments, and hundreds of pathological dissecting experiments, before designing this perfect safety route. Medicine must be built on accumulated experience, there is no shortcut. ¡°I just put in more effort than others,¡± Yang Ping did not want to explain too much. Fujiwara Masao seemed to have a realization: ¡°I understand now! Kekule, in order to figure out the molecular structure of benzene, thought about it day and night, one day, he dreamed of a snake biting its own tail, forming a ring. When he woke up, he was inspired by his dream to come up with the benzene ring structure hypothesis. That is the inspiration that comes from being fully engaged. Dr. Yang¡¯s inspiration naturally comes from being fully engaged in medicine.¡± His talent and dedication made this young man more likely than others to achieve breakthroughs. ¡°This new approach, although very scientific and ingenious, is fraught with danger when it is implemented. Are you confident?¡± Fujiwara Masao had been studying it for a long time and was very aware of the difficulty of the operation. ¡°As a doctor, I hardly ever take meaningless risks because life happens only once and cannot be repeated,¡± Yang Ping answered. Never fight a battle without confidence, this was Yang Ping¡¯s motto. ¡°Well said. I really want to know, on this route where you have to pass through nerve clusters, if you inadvertently damage the nerve clusters, even minor damage, especially here, is there a contingency plan?¡± Fujiwara Masao¡¯s finger fell on the most dangerous part of the drawing. ¡°Professor Fujiwara, in this kind of surgery, on this route, there should be no mistakes, so¡ªthere is no contingency plan, and no need for one!¡± Fujiwara Masao gasped. Such self-assured tone! However, Yang Ping is correct. For such surgery, there¡¯s absolutely no remedial measure. A misstep would mean cardiac arrest, irreversible. ¡°Takahashi, find out when the meeting starts,¡± he said. Fully aware that Professor Fujiwara wanted a private conversation with Yang Ping, Takahashi stepped out of the office and closed the door behind him. ¡°Dr. Yang, I¡¯m really sorry for the predicament you are in. I have something non-academic to discuss with you,¡± Fujiwara said cautiously. ¡°Mr. Fujiwara, feel free to say,¡± Yang Ping replied, curious about what Professor Fujiwara wanted to talk about. ¡°As an elder brother, I deeply apologize for the inconvenience my sister, Miyuki, has caused you. Please forgive her for being straightforward.¡± Fujiwara¡¯s words seemed sincere. Yang Ping, still unsuspecting, realized now that the matter concerned Miyuki. ¡°Miss Miyuki is sincere and straightforward. She hasn¡¯t really caused me much trouble. You don¡¯t have to worry about it, Mr. Fujiwara.¡± ¡°Miyuki, being the youngest in the family, has been always doted on since childhood. I remember, I was already at university when she was born. Recently, her marriage arranged by the family was vehemently rejected by her, causing great embarrassment for the elderly at home and it had given me a great headache.¡± In Japan, the adage that the eldest brother should act like a father, a traditional Chinese culture, is still clearly evident. Arranged marriages still persist in Japan? However, Yang Ping thought, it would be the same anywhere else. Marriage in families like Fujiwara¡¯s isn¡¯t simple anymore, but more of a means of resource integration. Fujiwara Masao couldn¡¯t resist stealing glances at Yang Ping during their conversation, which he knew was impolite. Miyuki¡¯s taste is really not bad, but alas, unrequited love. Fujiwara sighed inwardly. ¡°Dr. Yang, let me accompany you to the conference!¡± Fujiwara raised his hand to check his wrist watch. ¡°Thank you!¡± Yang Ping stood up from his seat. Fujiwara hoped that he could control the atmosphere in the conference hall to avoid any awkwardness. With Takahashi leading the way, Professor Fujiwara accompanied Yang Ping. During their walk, he talked about the conditions of Tokyo University Hospital and asked about the recent activities of Professor Han Jianguo. ¡°How is Professor Han doing recently?¡± ¡°He¡¯s doing very well.¡± Fujiwara mentioned that when Han Jianguo was studying at Tokyo University Hospital, they both had a good relationship, both were under Professor Ikeda. ¡°The Yoshihoko Restaurant you went to yesterday for dinner, Professor Han and I frequented that place back in the days. Once, we had a fish-eating competition, seeing who could have the cleanest skeleton left. But in the end, no one was declared the winner. The fish skeletons from both of us were intact, and not a bit of fish meat could be found on them. Haha, it seems like I must admit my loss now,¡± Fujiwara said with a laugh while they were walking. Unconcernedly, they had already arrived at the entrance of the meeting room. The large meeting room was filled with at least a hundred people. The people, row by row, uniformly dressed in white gowns, had suits and ties underneath. Professors, associate professors, lecturers, assistant lecturers, graduate students, and interns, were all arranged according to their ranks. The front row was occupied by Ikeda, Ito, Komori Daisuke, Matsui Raizo, Kobayashi Takeshi, etc. Matsui Raizo, being the department director of neurosurgery at Juntendo Hospital, is Ito¡¯s student. Kobayashi Takeshi is the department director of orthopedics at Juntendo Hospital. In addition to Japanese professors, there were also doctors from various countries who participated in the Asia-Pacific Orthopedics Association Academic Forum. When they heard about a rare case discussion, they all rushed over. Among them were doctors from Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and other countries. Professor Lin Mingyuan from Singapore was among those present. In the first row, a Japanese professor kept looking back at the door, and when he saw Yang Ping, Yang Ping felt that he looked very familiar. Yang Ping had a good memory, and did not forget anything he saw. Kobayashi Takeshi! The Department Director of Orthopedics at Juntendo Hospital¡ªKobayashi Takeshi. He saw him at Yingge Hospital in Malaysia. It really is¡ªDr. Yang Ping! Kobayashi Takeshi immediately stood up and walked towards the entrance to welcome him. When he saw Yang Ping¡¯s name on the screen, he knew that there wouldn¡¯t be a second person in this world who would have the talent to perform such a surgery. ¡°Hey, where are you going?¡± Matsui Raizo, the chief of the Neurosurgery Department at Juntendo Hospital, tried to stop Professor Kobayashi. ¡°That¡¯s my old friend, my respected old friend, I must welcome him.¡± Professor Kobayashi ignored Matsui Raizo. ¡°Really¡ª¡± Shameful! Professor Matsui cursed inwardly. He had been away earlier and hadn¡¯t been able to attend the consultation for Fujiwara Tani. When he came back, he heard Professor Ito angrily commenting on how Ikeda dared to agree with Fujiwara Masao¡¯s suggestion to invite an unknown Chinese doctor to operate a surgery in Tokyo University Hospital, which had made the Japanese medical community lose face. In such a situation, Professor Kobayashi, ignoring the team¡¯s position, stooped down to welcome his so-called old friend. Moreover, Kobayashi¡¯s gaze clearly exuded admiration, submission, and humility. Bastard! Chapter 528 - 528 480 Defense Meeting ?Chapter 528: Chapter 480: Defense Meeting Chapter 528: Chapter 480: Defense Meeting ¡°Welcome, Dr. Yang!¡± Kobayashi Takeshi with utmost respect, he had personally witnessed Yang Ping¡¯s surgery at Yingge Hospital and the memory was still fresh. ¡°Does Professor Kobayashi know him?¡± ¡°Is he a friend of Professor Kobayashi?¡± ¡°They seem to be quite familiar with each other!¡± ¡°Look at the degree of the bow by Professor Kobayashi, he is very respectful towards him.¡± ¡°I heard that this young man was also a teacher to Takahashi?¡± ¡°Just who is this person, so impressive?¡± The Japanese doctors in the conference hall could no longer control their curiosity and started whispering amongst themselves, particularly the younger doctors, who couldn¡¯t help but steal glances at Yang Ping. Ito turned to look at Ikeda, hoping that he would react to this disturbance, but Ikeda had his eyes closed and was completely still. So Ito coughed a couple of times, signaling Matsui Raizo. Matsui Raizo, hailing from Shun Tian Tang, did not intervene to control the session and could only give Komori Daisuke and Mitsui Tasuku a look. Professor Komori immediately rose: ¡°Quiet! Please stay quiet! This is a case discussion.¡± The conference hall finally settled down somewhat. Fujiwara Masao led Yang Ping to the first row, to the seat next to him, while Takahashi Fumiya took to the podium to chair the meeting. Rather than a case discussion, it was more of a defense by Yang Ping, a defense about the surgical plan for Ning Yu. Ito, Matsui, Komori, Mitsui, Sasaki and other Japanese doctors, all were ready, hoping to regain their dignity during the conference. Even Komori and Mitsui hoped that they could reclaim the chief surgeon¡¯s role from Ning Yu through this case discussion. After all, those supporting Yang Ping were only Fujiwara Masao and Takahashi, and the newly arrived Kobayashi Takeshi was fighting alone. The old professor Ikeda was only trying to protect Fujiwara, being forced to do so. The doctors from various countries who were participating in the academic conference were only spectators, just to join in the fun. In terms of numbers, Komori and Mitsui had an absolute advantage. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much about everyone¡¯s reactions. Academic debates should be straightforward. they need a cognition storm.¡± Fujiwara Masao whispered to Yang Ping, having full confidence in him. When it came to performing surgery, no one knew more than Yang Ping. The countless cases in the system space made him indifferent to these unusual looks¡ªonly he seemed capable of performing Ning Yu¡¯s surgery for the moment. ¡°Please stay quiet, the case discussion for Ning Yu will begin now. Dr. Sakurai will introduce Ning Yu¡¯s condition shortly, and you can also refer to the tablets in your hands. We have provided versions in multiple languages including Chinese, Japanese, and English. We are fortunate to have Dr. Yang Ping from China¡¯s Sanbo Hospital as the chief surgeon for Ning Yu¡¯s surgery. He is currently the only doctor in the world who has successful surgical experience with such cases. Please welcome Dr. Yang.¡± Takahashi chaired the conference, Yang Ping stood up, slightly bowed to Ikeda and Ito, then turned around and bowed to everyone, and then sat down. ¡°I am very fortunate, Dr. Yang is also my teacher. I had the privilege of studying under Dr. Yang for half a year at Sanbo Hospital and benefited tremendously.¡± When Takahashi said these words, he felt no discomfort due to the age difference. This was the first time he publically recognized his relationship with Yang Ping. He felt very proud. He knew that this identity would be an honor in the future, not everyone could have it. Before the words even faded, the audience lost control and started murmuring again. Dr. Yang! The teacher of Takahashi Fumiya, the rumors were true. The doctors who had attended the orthopedic academic conference at Sanbo Hospital were not unfamiliar with Yang Ping and also knew about his connection with Takahashi. They just didn¡¯t know the story was so dramatic, with Yang Ping being Takahashi¡¯s teacher. ¡°Disgraceful¨C¡± Matsui Raizo was very angry, Ito kept looking at Ikeda, hoping that he would intervene as Takahashi¡¯s words at such a gathering would tarnish the team¡¯s reputation. After all, he was not from Tokyo University Hospital. But Ikeda acted as if he hadn¡¯t seen anything. He also disapproved in his heart, but this young man was invited by Fujiwara, and he had to protect his student Fujiwara. ¡°Disgraceful!¡± Matsui Raizo repeated. ¡°I heard that, you don¡¯t need to repeat, not everyone gets the chance to disgrace themselves like Takahashi.¡± Kobayashi Takeshi looked at Matsui with scorn. ¡°Do you know him?¡± Matsui Raizo noticed something strange about Kobayashi Takeshi. ¡°Of course, it was because of him that I got to know about the wonderful double and triple localization cases. Remember the case of the dural arteriovenous fistula that I finally solved? That was a rare double localization case, something I learned from Dr. Yang. Had I not known about it beforehand, I¡¯m afraid I would still be stuck.¡± By now, Sakurai had finished presenting the case history. ¡°Welcome, Dr. Yang! Please come up and explain your surgical plan.¡± Amid the low whispers, Takahashi invited Yang Ping to the podium. Yang Ping stood firm and tested the microphone: ¡°Thank you, Professor Fujiwara, Professor Takahashi, and everyone else for giving me this opportunity. Each doctor has different specializations hence we have academic conferences and case discussions, with the aim of exchanging insights, learning from each other¡¯s strengths, and pooling together different thoughts. Among the three persons walking, there is one who can be my teacher. This is especially applicable in the medical field. Each person sitting here could potentially be my teacher in a certain aspect. However, regarding Ning Yu¡¯s case, indeed, I do have more experience. I am also the only doctor in the world who has successful experience in this matter. Up to now, I have performed two similar surgeries, and both were successful with the patients left with no sequelae.¡± If it were other cases, boasting about only two would be laughable. But when the world¡¯s top surgeons dare not operate on this kind of case, success with two is certainly worth showing off. Mitsui raised his hand. ¡°Doctor Mitsui, please,¡± Takahashi handed over the microphone. Mitsui rose to his feet: ¡°Dr. Yang, I want to know, with only two cases, could there be accidental factors involved?¡± The undercurrent of the question was luck. Yang Ping replied with a smile, ¡°Doctor, it¡¯s easy to determine the proportion of accidental factors in the success of this surgery. I invite you to use all your life¡¯s luck and according to the Olympic shooting rules, shoot twice consecutively at 10.9 points for me.¡± As soon as the words fell, the whole venue was amused by Yang Ping¡¯s humor. Mitsui couldn¡¯t respond for a moment and had to sit down. He suppressed his anger. He had intended to stir up an enthusiastic discussion, but his attempt was shut down. Sasaki¡¯s hand rested on his back, signaling him to be quiet. ¡°As doctors, the thing we need the most and the least we can rely on is luck. For this kind of case, if you want the surgery to succeed, it must be a perfect 10.9 from beginning to end.¡± ¡°First, you must have a safe access route. All existing routes are unsatisfactory. That¡¯s the reason for the zero success rate of the operation so far, so I¡¯ve designed a route that meets the surgical requirements.¡± ¡°Look! This is a hand-drawn anatomical illustration of my surgical access route.¡± Takahashi manipulated the computer and following Yang Ping¡¯s tempo, displayed the hand-drawn illustration on the big screen in the meeting room. The exquisite and beautiful hand-drawn illustration, made with ultra-realistic techniques, looked like an art piece. The case discussion seemed to have started off like a lecture. Just this foundation of illustration could leave those who wanted to comment thinking twice. ¡°Beautiful! Really beautiful...¡± Professor Ikeda adjusted his dark, round glasses, exclaiming uncontrollably. Tokyo University Medical School has very high requirements for medical illustration, and every graduate must master excellent illustration skills. However, their medical illustrations, which they were once proud of, looked like kindergarten sketches in comparison to these. ¡°Are these hand-drawn?¡± Professor Ikeda couldn¡¯t believe these were hand-drawn illustrations. ¡°I can¡¯t believe it either, but Takahashi has seen him drawing, and after following Yang Ping for half a year, Takahashi¡¯s drawing abilities have improved a lot. No one in Tokyo University Hospital can match Takahashi when it comes to drawing.¡± Fujiwara replied with satisfaction. ¡°If they are indeed hand-drawn, he¡¯s truly an amazing young man,¡± said Professor Ikeda, his gaze fixed on the image on the screen. The nerve nuclei were like islands, some far apart, some close together, with the red surgical access line weaving between the gaps. The thumb-sized brainstem was magnified to the scale of a world map, with various structures marked clearly. What effort it must have taken to have such in-depth research, just dissecting corpses would take years of energy. ¡°To perform such complex and delicate operations on a thumb-sized brainstem... with the current surgical tools, it seems unrealistic. Even a surgical robot can¡¯t do it.¡± Warned by Mitsui¡¯s experience, Komori Daisuke was very cautious with a calm tone. In recent months, Komori Daisuke has performed many brainstem tumor surgeries, but none of this type. ¡°You¡¯re absolutely correct. With these access paths, if future surgical robots can be accurate to less than 0.1 mm and have good tactile feedback, then, brainstem surgery will become much easier. Unfortunately, the current surgical robots can¡¯t achieve this level of accuracy. More importantly, they lack good tactile feedback, so everything has to be done by the surgeons¡¯ hands. It¡¯s challenging, but necessary.¡± Komori Daisuke swallowed and stopped talking as if someone had pressed an acupoint. The sight of the winding access routes frightened him. The whole surgery required getting a perfect 10.9 continuously. A single mistake, even a 10.8, would be lethal. ¡°Don¡¯t you have anything to say?¡± Ito asked Matsui Raizo sitting next to him. Matsui had been contemplating a question, but he didn¡¯t know where to start. He couldn¡¯t let Professor Ito step in, could he? After a moment of thought, Matsui raised his hand. ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± ¡°Yes, please.¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to know, for the anatomy of the upper cervical cord and brainstem, you¡¯ve drawn such beautiful diagrams. How long have you been studying this? How many cadaver specimens have you dissected? How many brain MR and CT images have you collected? Or is this the safe access route just imaginative and not supported by any empirical work? If it¡¯s just theoretical, even if it looks perfect, it will be fraught with problems in clinical practice. In the history of surgery, countless operations were designed and considered flawless, such as frontal lobe resection for mental illness. It was considered a genius idea at the time, but later proved wrong.¡± Professor Matsui looked as stern and serious as his teacher Ito. This question hit Yang Ping where it hurt, all of his experiments had been conducted in system space. He didn¡¯t dissect many bodies in reality, except for the ones he dissected for his lectures to Song Zimo and others, or to get empirical evidence for his papers. Chapter 529 - 529 481 Two Meters Away ?Chapter 529: Chapter 481: Two Meters Away Chapter 529: Chapter 481: Two Meters Away ¡°This is Professor Matsui from Shunten-do.¡± Takahashi was there introducing the identities of the questioner and acting as a translator at all times. Tang Shun was providing translation assistance from the audience, but Takahashi managed with ease without needing Tang Shun¡¯s help for now. ¡°Professor Matsui!¡± Yang Ping bowed slightly in politeness. ¡°What you said is very good, I agree. We don¡¯t have hundreds of cadaver dissections, but currently, we have studies on thirty cases. Quantitative changes can cause qualitative changes, and the amount varies from person to person. Some people need a hundred surgeries to get proficient, while some only need ten. In other words, every person, every team, requires a different amount to cause qualitative change.¡± ¡°Moreover, this type of surgery, we already have two successful cases to back it up.¡± ¡°If this patient does not receive surgery, the probability of death is 100%. Why not apply an operation that already has successful experience to him? Even if it is experimental, it is entirely feasible. The goal of medicine is only one¡ªto cure the patient.¡± ¡°Hmm¡ª¡± Matsui felt that there was nothing wrong with the response. It seems that he, Komori, and Mitsui have no way to take back Ning Yu¡¯s chief surgeon¡¯s authority. ¡°How did you get to know this young man? How come you never told me about him before?¡± Ikeda¡¯s interest in this young man was growing. ¡°During an academic conference last year, Tokyo University Hospital and their hospital simultaneously live-streamed a trauma resuscitation. A patient with abdominal injuries had a huge aneurysm in his abdominal cavity which was also impacted, causing uncontrollable massive bleeding. At that time, Takahashi was attending the conference and went on stage to help the surgery. However, he could not continue after opening the patient up. This Doctor Yang took over, remained calm and composed, and successfully completed the operation. I failed to save a patient with the same condition last year¡ª¡± Fujiwara Masao explained the whole process to Professor Ikeda. ¡°Arrange this surgery as soon as possible!¡± Ikeda gave up his prejudices. ¡°You agree?¡± Fujiwara Masao did not expect him to change his mind so quickly. He previously agreed to uphold Fujiwara¡¯s decision, but now he agrees from his heart. ¡°Self-confidence coming from one¡¯s abilities is impossible to fake. You have chosen the right person. I must support whoever you invite. We are old, and the hospital¡¯s advisory group should not exist. I have proposed its disbandment several times, but there is still no progress. If the facts prove that he can succeed, then what about the president¡¯s surgery?¡± Ikeda spoke to Fujiwara in the lightest tone. ¡°I¡¯m considering it.¡± Fujiwara nodded and fell into thought. The internal relations of the family are complex, and the two factions fighting for the successor are irreconcilable. One side is the designated successor according to the medical advice, and the other hopes to change this decision. No one knows the cruelty of the struggle better than Fujiwara Masao. However, in a twist of fate, the designated successor hopes that the president will never wake up. The opposition hopes that he will wake up so that they can reconvene the family internal meeting and discuss the change of successor. Fujiwara Masao is just a doctor, but he is also part of the family and cannot stay out of it. Ikeda felt a bit tired. He heard that China has developed rapidly in recent years and didn¡¯t expect it to be true, even the young and promising Professor Takahashi submitted to this Chinese doctor. Looking back at those foreign experts who were watching, Ito felt that the chairmanship of the Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association might change hands in this session. Fujiwara could not hold it. Perhaps this is an unstoppable trend. After Yang Ping finished speaking, the venue was quiet, and no one asked questions. The vast majority do not have experience in this type of surgery. Those who do have experience in simple cases also cannot share their experiences. At this moment, administrative personnel such as those from the office and high-difficulty medical evaluation departments who were present could only give the decision-making power to Professors like Ikeda, Fujiwara, and Komori. Ikeda, this seasoned old professor with great medical achievements, suddenly fell silent. Perhaps an era is about to pass. ¡°I will not attend the next academic meeting. I¡¯m a bit tired. Some things are trends that cannot be resisted, so don¡¯t care too much.¡± Ikeda leaned back on the chair half-closing his eyes after he finished speaking. Fujiwara Masao understood the teacher¡¯s meaning. Not only in the field of medicine, but the development of China will also one day surpass Japan completely. This is the future trend. The advantage of Japan in some aspects is only temporary and will be surpassed one day. It¡¯s difficult to thoroughly explain this totally new surgical method within one hour, but everyone already basically understood it. ¡°Does anyone have any questions? This is a case discussion. Everyone is free to speak.¡± As the host of the meeting, Takahashi asked again. The venue was still quiet, and no one spoke. Both Japanese and foreign doctors who came to the conference were eager to see this surgery. Many people suggested whether they could observe this operation at the opening ceremony in the morning. Yang Ping also wanted the surgery to be performed as soon as possible, not to show off his skills, but to operate as soon as possible to reduce the possibility of sequela. Ning Yu¡¯s pre-op preparations were already done. She had been fasting and could be sent to the operating room at any time. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Liang Jing, Xiao Su, Zhou Can, Zhang Lin, and Little Five were also ready and standing by at all times. Someone stood up, it was Professor Lin from Singapore National Central Hospital. ¡°When can this surgery begin?¡± ¡°Anytime, as soon as possible!¡± Takahashi replied. ¡°Could the operation be scheduled for the opening ceremony today morning? Although this is a cross-disciplinary operation, it involves cervical vertebrae. Surgery on the basilar and cervical vertebrae is also a very complex operation in our orthopedics. We want to observe this operation. I had the privilege of observing Doctor Yang¡¯s spinal surgery, and I learned a lot.¡± ¡°Considering the patient¡¯s condition, the sooner, the better, and the patient¡¯s pre-operation preparations are already good to go. It will depend on the scheduling.¡± Takahashi gave the decision power to Fujiwara Masao. This proposition got the support of many doctors in the audience, and many eager Japanese doctors also expressed their support. The surgery which felt next to impossible, how exactly would it be done? Even a slight tremble in the action could be fatal, even the thought of it was thrilling. Especially doing such precise and complicated operations on such a small upper cervical cord and brainstem, even the current surgical robots can¡¯t do it, how is it possible to realize it with just hands? It seems everyone¡¯s interest in this surgery is overshadowing the upcoming academic forum. ¡°Have you made up your mind? Allow him to lead the surgery, and immediately?¡± Ito, who had kept silent all along, questioned Ikeda beside him. Ikeda half opened his eyes and calmly answered, ¡°We¡¯re both old, the advisory group should not even exist. Let Fujiwara decide. It¡¯s the family¡¯s choice. As long as Dr. Yang is qualified and there¡¯s no issue with the whole procedure, I think there¡¯s no problem.¡± ¡°You compromised?¡± Ito found the Japanese doctors in the venue to be performing awfully and he didn¡¯t expect Ikeda to utter such dreadful words. If it were Shunten-do Hospital, he would certainly step in to take control, but this was Tokyo University Hospital, Ikeda¡¯s territory. ¡°Not compromise, but we can¡¯t go against the trend. Let it be.¡± Ikeda did not intend to explain further. He turned to Fujiwara and said, ¡°Bring the high difficulty new medical evaluation form, I¡¯ll sign it, let the surgery start as soon as possible, don¡¯t wait anymore.¡± Fujiwara beckoned, a young doctor immediately brought the prepared evaluation form. Ikeda signed his name without hesitation. Then he stood up and left the venue early, ¡°I want to get some rest. I entrust everything to you.¡± ¡°Thank you, professor!¡± Fujiwara stood and escorted his former teacher out of the venue. Ikedea turning to leave said to Fujiwara, ¡°You¡¯re right, proceed as you see fit.¡± Ito, who was left in the venue fell into confusion. He didn¡¯t expect the old guy Ikeda to wash his hands of the whole affair. ¡°I¡¯ll arrange the surgery as soon as possible.¡± Takahashi picked up the phone, issuing orders to send the patient to the operating room. Ning Yu was sent to the surgical department, Ning Qi followed the stretcher all the way to the entrance of the operating room, then sat in the family waiting area, with her heart in her throat. After discussing the case, everyone moved to another meeting room to participate in the subsequent Asia-Pacific Orthopedics Association Forum. ¡°The young man took the initiative, even before the conference started, it¡¯s estimated he¡¯s already helped garner quite a few votes for you.¡± Professor Liang said to Professor Su with a smile. Just now, they sat in the venue with Chinese doctors without speaking, they only quietly observed. It was a case discussion within others, they could only observe. As soon as they arrived in the new venue and took their seats, Professor Liang didn¡¯t hold back and started chatting. ¡°This surgery is extremely difficult and it¡¯s cross-disciplinary. Higher cervical welts are within our orthopedics field, but the brain stem is entirely neurosurgery.¡± Professor Su couldn¡¯t help but worry for Yang Ping. However, he thought about how Yang Ping successfully performed Professor Feng¡¯s surgery at the Golden Knife award, and he calmed down significantly. Professor Liang said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry for him. This kid¡¯s smart, he doesn¡¯t fight battles without assurance. Looking at how assured he is, they¡¯re now part of a registered surgical institute, it is not cross-disciplinary for him.¡± ¡°The procedures are tough and complicated. If you dissect in the middle of these neural clusters, a slight misstep could cause heartbeat and respiration to stop. If it¡¯s successful, it¡¯s another advancement. This guy is really daring.¡± Professor Qin also joined in the chat. Sigh, no matter how they persuaded, this guy just wouldn¡¯t go to Beijing. Su Nanchen and a group of young doctors who came for the conference were also discussing this surgery. He really wanted to go to the operating room to take a look but thought about it, even if he entered, he wouldn¡¯t be able to see clearly. The screens would be clearer. Old Cheng couldn¡¯t enter the operating room, so he and Huang Jiacai just sat in the venue without anything to do. ¡°This¡ª will the Japanese try any tricks?¡± Old Cheng worried, he always felt uneasy. Huang Jiacai thought about it, ¡°I¡¯m also worried about this, but we can¡¯t help with anything.¡± Old Cheng rubbed his hands, ¡°I¡¯m not at ease. I look at these people and feel like they¡¯re trying something.¡± ¡°Surely not.¡± Su Nanchen joined in. The conference is about to start, Fujiwara needed to chair the conference while Takahashi accompanied Yang Ping to the operating room. The personnel for the surgery included Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and two Japanese doctors ¨C Komori Daisuke and Mitsui. The instrument nurse was Su Yixuan, and the patrolling nurse was Zhou Can. However, they both had assistance from a Japanese nurse. A Japanese anesthesiologist also assisted Liang Fatty in performing tracheal intubation, providing help nearby. Komori Daisuke and Mitsui were restricted by Zhang Lin from getting within one meter of the surgical area. Their presence was purely because it was required by law. Those who really performed the surgery were Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang. Zhang Lin, as the administrative officer of the medical team, he was responsible for maintaining the discipline of the operating room. His first rule was ¨C Komori and Mitsui had to stay behind the two-meter safety line. He even readied seats for them so they could sit quietly on the seats after washing their hands and dressing up, until the surgery finished. Hearing this rule, Komori and Mitsui were very angry. ¡°Why are we arranged to sit two meters away?¡± Mitsui was particularly angered being restricted like this in his own hospital. ¡°Please tell him that the surgery carries a very high risk. To ensure safety of the surgery, we must comply with protocol. Don¡¯t ask why, just obey. Otherwise, they would be expelled from the operating room. This is the power that the Tokyo University Hospital administration gave me, now in the entire operating room, where everyone sits, my word is law. If they continue with the complaints, they would be relocated to the corner.¡± Zhang Lin held his head high and chest out. This surgery didn¡¯t really need him to be hands-on, so he and Little Five were both beneath the platform. ¡°¡®complaints¡¯, can you translate that?¡± Zhang Lin asked Tang Shun. Tang Shun also donned a scrub, translating words in the operating room. ¡°Rest assured, you just spit it out, don¡¯t worry about my translating skills.¡± Tang Shun said with ease, then translated Zhang Lin¡¯s words verbatim. Mitsui and Komori turned pale with anger. Chapter 530 - 530 482 The Great Sea Route ?Chapter 530: Chapter 482: The Great Sea Route Chapter 530: Chapter 482: The Great Sea Route ¡°We are here to assist, and for the safety of the operation, we must be present,¡± Mitsui said angrily. ¡°You have to understand, this is Tokyo University¡¯s operating room, and according to Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare law, we must be on the platform to guarantee the safety of the operation.¡± Komori Daisuke had never seen such an arrogant guy, raising his head, showing a completely contemptuous look. Zhang Lin saw them still pressing on and couldn¡¯t help but sneer, ¡°First assistant, second assistant, third assistant, fourth assistant, Nth assistant¡ªthey¡¯re all assists. Which one do you want? Can¡¯t you see how many people are on the platform now? Can¡¯t you count? I, your teacher Zhang, can only be a third assistant at best, washing my hands, dressing up, and sitting on a cold bench. There¡¯s even a Teacher Wu behind us. You guys can be at most the fifth and sixth assists. As for who is the fifth and who is the sixth, you guys can figure it out with rock, paper, scissors. Talking about protecting the safety of the operation with your fifth and sixth assists? In orthopedic surgery, you won¡¯t even get a chance to lift a leg. I tell you in advance, as soon as the operation starts, after you wash your hands and dress up, just stay put and don¡¯t move around. Dr. Yang has a bad temper and is extremely rude, he swears frequently. Imagine, this is a live broadcast, with experts from all countries onlooking, and someone calls you ¡®what the hell¡¯ on one side, and ¡®motherfucker¡¯ on another, can you bear it? I arrange it this way to protect you.¡± Upon hearing this, Komori and Mitsui looked at each other and then took two steps back, tacitly accepting the position Zhang Lin arranged for them. This Teacher Zhang made sense, it would be even more humiliating to be scolded. Tang Shun¡¯s translation was so smooth that Zhang Lin began to doubt the accuracy of his translation. ¡°You can translate ¡®what the hell¡¯ and ¡®motherfucker¡¯?¡± Zhang Lin asked Tang Shun. Tang Shun confidently nodded, ¡°Piece of cake. This is basic skill, it¡¯s not a big deal. ¡®Fuck off¡¯, ¡®son of a bitch¡¯, I can translate all of them.¡± He could translate slang and convey the meaning, which truly demonstrated his high level of skill. Zhang Lin turned to look at Mitsui and Komori. Their faces were alternating between red and white. Without an accurate translation, effect like this wouldn¡¯t have been possible. ¡°For your ability, I¡¯ll ask Takahashi to double your commission.¡± Zhang Lin gave a thumbs up. Liang Fatty had already intubated Ning Yu, and after successfully administering the anesthesia, Song Zimo helped Xu Zhiliang and Zhou Can along with the Japanese nurse to position the patient. ¡°What are you two sitting still for? Help position the patient!¡± Zhang Lin directed Komori and Mitsui. They had no choice but to stand up and help. Zhang Lin shook his head, ¡°Move faster, cooperate better, it¡¯s clear you¡¯re not trained enough, you¡¯re a little messy when it matters.¡± Xiaowu on the side seriously said, ¡°It¡¯s mainly because they haven¡¯t taken Teacher Zhang¡¯s class.¡± Tang Shun basically translated simultaneously, very timely for every sentence. Komori and Mitsui were at a loss as to whether to laugh or cry. This was the operating room of Tokyo University Hospital. This guy didn¡¯t lift a finger but was pointing and gesturing on the side, commanding them like laborers. Yang Ping stood on the side while they were getting ready, and really couldn¡¯t help but want to laugh. In terms of bragging, no one could surpass Zhang Lin. The level of bragging, regardless of being in what place or facing whom, he could brag without blushing or feeling anxious. Under Zhang Lin¡¯s coercion, Mitsui and Komori didn¡¯t dare move. They obediently rushed about, helping to position the patient. ¡ª The patient was properly positioned in the prone position and the head was securely fixed. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Su Yixuan went to wash their hands, preparing for sterilization and bedding. After Komori and Mitsui finished their work they didn¡¯t know what to do. Should they follow to wash their hands? Or should they stand-by on the spot? Their heads were spinning. ¡°The professor is going to wash hands, lead the way!¡± Zhang Lin pointed to the open door of the operating room. Yes, they should accompany him, Komori and Mitsui were a little disoriented, but then they came to their senses. The two walked to the door and came back. It turned out that Takahashi had been waiting at the door. He had already taken everyone to wash their hands, and they weren¡¯t needed. When they were younger, when they were students, they had never been treated like this. Now they are renowned professors in Japan. They are being ordered around by someone whose background was unknown. They were furious, but there was nothing to do about it, they had to complete the tasks given to them by the Department of Affairs and the Department of High-Difficulty New Medical Evaluation. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang returned from washing hands and began to sterilize and prepare the sheets. Xiao Su and the Japanese instrument nurse began to sort out the instruments. Yang Ping didn¡¯t hurry to go on stage for now; having good assists makes his work naturally easier. They waited until the two revealed the upper spinal cord and the medulla oblongata, and opened the dura mater, then it¡¯s not too late to get on the platform without hurry. Depending on a person¡¯s position, they will naturally receive corresponding treatment. Even if you don¡¯t want it, others will give it to you. During his free time, Yang Ping explained to Takahashi how to examine this kind of disease, how to cut it open, how to enter safely, how to expose the spinal cord and the medulla oblongata and locate the tumor, and how to operate precisely in the safe gap. The most important thing is how to take the enemy¡¯s head in a battle¡ªsuccessful removal of the tumor with the patient still able to leave the operating table alive. Takahashi listened very carefully and occasionally raised some questions. Mitsui and Komori saw Takahashi looking like a pupil and wanted to move closer to listen to what they were talking about. ¡°Go and wash your hands. Put on your clothes and sit here afterwards, don¡¯t move. I¡¯ll accompany you,¡± Zhang Lin ordered Mitsui and Komori. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had already put on their surgical gowns. The surgery must have a doctor from Tokyo University¡¯s main office present. It¡¯s time for them to go on stage, even if they are only mascots, they must be there. Zhang Lin and Xiaowu also went to wash their hands together. The two had discussed in advance, each would watch one, on high alert. The heart to harm others must not be possessed, but the heart to defend against others must be possessed. For such a high-risk surgery, if someone sabotages it, any random touch to the main surgeon¡¯s arm could directly declare the surgery failed. Who knows what they are thinking in their hearts, trusting them would be like believing pigs could not only climb trees, but could also fly a round for you to watch. Zhang Lin, Xiaowu, Mitsui, and Komori had also washed their hands and stood next to the operating table. The last one to come on stage was naturally Yang Ping. If you follow the habit, you must wait until the assistant has exposed the upper spinal cord and the medulla oblongata, then Yang Ping will come on stage. However, it¡¯s safer to be cautious during an away game when unfamiliar with the environment and equipment. Under the accompaniment of Takahashi, Yang Ping also went up to the operating table after washing and dressing in advance. A surgery that only needs two or three people to complete, now there are seven people standing, there¡¯s simply no place to stand. But in order to complete the holy pre-operation check, everyone gathered around the operating table. Name, gender, age, hospital number, method of surgery, the part where the surgery will be conducted, focal points of the operation, estimated amount of blood loss¡ª The chief surgeon, assistant, instrument nurse, anesthesiologist, patrolling nurse, all have to stop their work and participate in the last preoperative check. Everyone is serious, carefully checking every step. Reverence for life, reverence for medicine, regardless of nationality. ¡°Check completed, any questions?¡± No questions, the surgery can begin. ¡°I have something to say!¡± The voice of Yang Ping. As the chief surgeon, he has the highest authority in the operating room. Everyone waits in place, not knowing what Yang Ping wants to say at this moment. ¡°Everyone, I just want to say one thing¡ªA doctor¡¯s only enemy is disease, there are no other enemies apart from this!¡± No one knew the meaning of Yang Ping¡¯s words, and Yang Ping didn¡¯t explain: ¡°Let¡¯s start the operation!¡± Song Zimo began his procedure, the sharp surgical scalpel, the skin of the back of the head and neck was cut, cutting the skin, cutting the superficial fascia, then cutting the deep fascia, step by step advancing. As the first assistant to Yang Ping, Song Zimo demonstrated superb basic surgical skills. Each step is smoothly connected, with a sense of rhythm, a style that is from Yang Ping¡ªsurgery also has its inherent rhythm. The base of the skull and upper cervical vertebral canal is opened from the back, the entire diamond fossa is exposed, gradually, the dura mater-covered upper spinal cord and medulla oblongata gradually emerges. Everything is so proficient and stable. The laser scalpel gradually advances bit by bit, vertebral artery, cranial nerves, spinal nerves, bit by bit they are separated and cleared. Gradually, the back of the upper spinal cord and brainstem appears on the screen. The laser scalpel draws a Y shape, the dura mater was lifted. Open the central hole in the fourth ventricle, lateral is the choroid plexus tissue, the cerebellar tonsil and the posterior inferior cerebellar artery. Xu Zhiliang¡¯s nerve hook gently pulls the cerebellar tonsil and the posterior inferior cerebellar artery to both sides. Song Zimo continues to separate the choroid plexus tissue and the inferior medullary velum, the entire diamond fissure successfully exposed. Still the same old way through the membrane behind the medullary sail, the back facet of the brainstem is exposed to the field of vision, the safe area near the face mound appears in the center of the surgical field of view. The exposure work is declared complete, the following steps are the task of the chief surgeon. Song Zimo respectfully moves to the side of the helper¡¯s position, Yang Ping sits in the chief surgeon¡¯s position. The microscope is pushed into the surgical area, the next every step, has to be completed under the microscope. ¡ª The big screen in the meeting room. Professor Ito seems a bit lonely, habitually turning his head, the seat next to him that was empty just now, now Old Ikeda has already returned. ¡°Didn¡¯t you go to rest? Not participating in the meeting?¡± Ito didn¡¯t know when Ikeda came to the conference. Ikeda stared at the screen saying, ¡°I¡¯m not participating in the meeting, but that doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t sit here.¡± This reasoning is impeccable, okay, if you like to sit there, then sit there. Ito is finding Ikeda¡¯s thoughts more and more inscrutable. On the screen, the membrane is getting opened, the substantive part of the medulla oblongata and spinal cord is about to be cut. ¡°The great sea line has just begun, his goal is Raf Talu, to get the One Piece!¡± Ikeda is mumbling to himself. ¡°You still watch such childish things?¡± Ito was quite surprised. ¡°Don¡¯t you watch it too?¡± Ikeda retorted. ¡°Truly shameful!¡± Ito blushed. ¡°Hypoglossal nerve nucleus, accessory nerve nucleus, ambiguous nucleus, dorsal vagal nucleus, solitary nucleus, and spinal dorsal tract nucleus of the trigeminal nerve¡ª, they are like hidden reefs, the scalpel will be traveling in a dangerous sea, at any time it will swallow the will of the chief surgeon, swallow the patient¡¯s life, I don¡¯t know whether my record compass can help him.¡± Ikeda¡¯s gaze kept focusing on the screen, the ¡°record compass¡± he referred to is the latest probe marking technology. The theory is wonderful, but the reality is still cruel. Errors caused by overlapping imaging technology, deformations brought about by stereoscopic imaging, blurring caused by irreducible halo, none of them can meet the requirements of surgery. ¡°Are you sure he can do it?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure, but I¡¯m sure Fujiwara¡¯s judgment won¡¯t be wrong.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not too late to regret it now!¡± ¡°Great sea route, there is also Gol. D. Roger who has reached the endpoint, but this sea route, no one has reached the endpoint, if I regret it, will you continue sailing for him?¡± Ikeda¡¯s tone was mild, but it sounded very harsh to Ito, who kept silent for a moment. ¡°He is the only person who has hope to reach the end, if you see those hand-drawn maps, you should have the same judgment as me.¡± Ito stopped speaking, only Ikeda¡¯s voice remained. Chapter 531 - 531 483 Rescue Quick Rescue ?Chapter 531: Chapter 483 Rescue! Quick, Rescue! Chapter 531: Chapter 483 Rescue! Quick, Rescue! The medulla oblongata, the size of a fingernail, connected to the upper cervical cord, lay under a microscope. Inside were various large and small neural nuclei, each closely connected to life. A single misstep with the scalpel, and the patient would die instantly on the operating table. Yang Ping¡¯s movements began to slow down, trying to minimize the damage of the scalpel tip to the tissue, completing each step of the surgery with the lightest and most precise movements. The laser knife cut into the medulla oblongata and its connected cervical cord tissue, slowly sinking deeper and deeper, at a very slow pace. The data on the monitoring screen fluctuated, heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, etc. Each piece of data represented the patient¡¯s vital signs. Liang Fatty watched the data on the screen closely, not daring to slack off for a moment, ready to report any abnormalities to Yang Ping at any time. Cardiovascular center, acceleration center, decompression center, inhibition center, respiratory center¡ª Countless centers were all concentrated in this fingernail-sized area, their relationships were complex, and any slight damage could lead to the patient¡¯s death. One¡¯s life is only once! The laser knife and bipolar electrocoagulation worked perfectly together, and there¡¯s almost no blood to see in the surgical field. This was indeed bloodless surgery, the highest state of surgical operation. ¡°Every step is extremely dangerous, if it were someone else, the surgery would not be able to continue at this point. Only in his hands could the 0.1-millimeter laser knife show its true power,¡± Ikeda muttered to himself. Ito held his breath. The deeper his understanding of this surgery, the more tense he became, knowing the risks of each step. The tip of the knife cut accurately between two neural nuclei, and the tumor gradually separated from the surrounding tissue under the knife. ¡°The Great Route is a chaos of geomagnetism, celestial bodies, ocean currents, and airflows. Travelers can¡¯t even confirm their positions, let alone find those islands. The old seafaring techniques and experience in the Four Seas are useless. Only the log pose and eternal pose are reliable. Now, we¡¯re facing this Great Route without even a log pose or eternal pose. How can we avoid dangerous reefs and rapids and safely reach the target?¡± Ito gradually changed his view. The facts proved that this young man is indeed the only one who might complete the surgery. Nothing else was needed to prove this. The fact that the patient¡¯s heart was still beating at this stage was the best proof. ¡°This is just the beginning of paradise. The latter part of the New World is the most dangerous. If I¡¯m not mistaken, the heart rate will drop to a few beats per minute at that time, no different from death. Can¡¯t use an artificial heart-lung machine to substitute, can¡¯t let the heart temporarily stop beating, can only let it stay in such a state. Under this condition, the blood supply from the heart cannot meet the needs of the vital organs of the body, especially the brain tissue. Dr. Yang has to cross the narrow dangerous zone within two to three minutes... If delayed, the heart rate will eventually drop to zero, forever zero!¡± Ikeda and Ito, their eyes staring at the screen, whispered to each other. Ito spoke slowly: ¡°There are seven lines of magnetic force extending from the Reverse Mountain, no matter which one you choose, you can¡¯t change it once you¡¯ve chosen it. You can only go down island by island along this route, and finally, these seven routes will converge to the Sabaody Archipelago, where you can choose your route again in the New World. And the island you end up with is the end of the Grand Line, Raftel. We¡¯ve done countless experiments, dissected hundreds of corpse specimens, trying to find these safe routes, unfortunately, we didn¡¯t find one. Now he seems to have found it.¡± ¡°The probe imaging technology is not much help to him.¡± ¡°He must have a positioning technology of his own.¡± ¡°What kind of hands are these? So stable, so gentle, so precise, so agile!¡± ¡°Hands born for surgery!¡± The laser knife followed this path, gradually delving deeper, performing such delicate and complex operations on the tissue the size of a fingernail. ¡ª Even the gentlest operation can easily cause minor injuries to the neural nuclei due to heat damage, pulling, squeezing, and friction. The tip of the laser knife in Yang Ping¡¯s hand hardly came into contact with anything, the operation was completed with the cutting of the laser. But heat damage could not be avoided. So he was moving so slowly, trying to avoid the accumulation of heat. After the status of the tumor was gradually relieved, the external environment of the neural nuclei would change, and this change would also trigger some risks. The heart rate and respiration slowed down more and more. This slow-down could not be interfered with by drugs. Once interfered with, it would disrupt and cause the collapse of the whole life system. Komori Daisuke and Mitsui Tasuku, who once planned to work together to handle this case, were staring at the screen in the operating room, falling into deep silence. With their skills, there was no way they could have gotten this far. They were top professors at Tokyo University Hospital, not laymen, and they understood a few things when they got to this point. ¡ª The doctors from various countries in the conference room seemed to have forgotten why they came to the meeting, as if they came to watch this surgery. Even doctors not in this specialty were shocked by such an exquisite surgical technique. It was the limit of human hand operation. Dr. Lin Mingyuan from Singapore was discussing with a doctor from Australia. Professor Liang was sitting with Professor Su and Professor Qin, very satisfied with this rising young man. Professor Su was very happy, but puzzled. He wondered why Song didn¡¯t bring Yang Ping home yet. He couldn¡¯t wait to acknowledge this son-in-law. The only one who was a bit depressed was Professor Qin. The job of digging people had not progressed, the upper level kept pressuring, a lot of work had been done, but it was all in vain. Other young doctors had all become fans of Yang Ping, each of them taking Yang Ping as a role model. Like Song Yun from Xiehe Hospital, who studied with Hu Guolin at Sanbo for a while and gained a lot. Now, he also joined Yang Ping¡¯s topic research. In the experimental topic of spinal external fixation, Song Yun was one of the main characters. ¡ª The patient¡¯s heart rate was dropping lower and lower, already below thirty, and still falling. The separation of the tumor was getting close to the heart rate center, and some adhesion remained between them, which was quite tricky. The probe imaging under the microscope could only serve a rough identification purpose and did not contribute to Yang Ping¡¯s meticulous operation. However, Yang Ping was so familiar with the anatomical structure here that even without any assistance, he could carry out the dangerous procedure accurately. When the patient¡¯s heart rate fell below 30 beats per minute, Mitsui and Komori shivered. Now, each drop meant that the patient was getting one step closer to death. They sat still, with the patient lying not far from them and could feel the looming breath of death. The Japanese anesthesiologist, the instrument nurse, and the circulating nurse all turned their eyes to Mitsui and Komori. They wondered if it was necessary to intervene at this moment because if they continued, a cardiac arrest would certainly occur. But Mitsui and Komori were helpless as they lacked experience in this area. Even if Yang Ping had called them up for rescue, they would not know what to do. Use a temporary pacemaker? Replace the function of the heart with an artificial heart-lung machine? Or simply let the heart stop and use extracorporeal circulation? None of them would work. Once these techniques were introduced and the feedback mechanism between the heart and the spinal cord and brain was suppressed, a collapse would follow, leading to a point of no return. Modern medicine sometimes seems powerful when facing the complex human body, but it can also seem incredibly weak. Mitsui¡¯s gaze fell on Yang Ping who was concentrating on the surgery. Yang Ping seemed unfazed, as if he had full confidence. It was as if he was accustomed to such situations. Finally, the heart rate dropped to only a dozen beats per minute, approaching the brink of death. This was the narrowest area between two nerve nuclei, so narrow that they were almost sticking together. The tumor squeezed through the middle, becoming very thin. Suddenly, the heart rate dropped to ten beats per minute, continuing to decrease, differentiating very little from death itself. All the body cells were in a state of hypoxia, struggling to breathe. The Japanese anesthesiologist and nurses glanced at each other, and seeing that Mitsui and Komori made no move, they became extremely anxious. The heart rate dropped below ten beats per minute. ¡°Ten times!¡± Liang Fatty began to count, his tone calm, obviously not his first time encountering such a situation. Ten times!!! Mitsui and Komori almost simultaneously stood up, yelling out loud. Rescue! Rescue immediately! If no resuscitation intervention was carried out, brain death would occur after eight minutes due to ischemia. A heart rate of ten beats was not capable of maintaining the perfusion of vital organs. The Japanese anesthesiologists and nurses sprang into action upon hearing the cry. Everyone in the operating room started moving around. ¡°Hakkaiyaro?!¡± Zhang Lin¡¯s eyes bulged with fury as he roared. He and Little Five blocked Mitsui and Komori, making them stay put and not carry out any rash actions. Tang Shun was so shocked he forgot to translate. Normally there was no need to translate what Zhang Lin said since it was in Japanese. This powerful ¡°Hakkaiyaro?¡± shout played a crucial role. Komori and Mitsui froze, then reluctantly sat down, sweat dripping down their foreheads, not daring to move again. The Japanese anesthesiologists and nurses who were preparing to take action also stopped at this shout of ¡°Hakkaiyaro?¡±. Everyone came to their senses. The chief surgeon was not them, but the Chinese. They were just symbolically assisting. Sudden shouts like that could severely disrupt the surgery. Three minutes was the golden window period. They must get through this dangerous phase within these three minutes, or else the patient would die. Let alone three minutes, no one could complete this step of separation even in thirty minutes. Mitsui and Komori breathed heavily and the Japanese anesthesiologist and nurses were also restless. However, unlike their agitation and panic, the Chinese team seemed as if nothing had happened. Yang Ping was not affected at all, remained as steady as Mount Tai, with steady breathing, and continued with the surgery. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were the same, unmoved. The instrument nurse still sat quietly, laying the next surgical instrument at a handy place. The anesthesiologist was cross-legged, staring at the monitor screen. Chapter 532 - 532 484 Did the Surgery Fail ?Chapter 532: Chapter 484: Did the Surgery Fail? Chapter 532: Chapter 484: Did the Surgery Fail? The atmosphere in the entire venue also began to cool down, one could almost feel the chill in the air. Completing such a dangerous and intricate operation within three minutes. How could it be possible! It¡¯s impossible! ¡°Darkness, whirlpools, fierce winds, and torrential rain, they have all finally arrived.¡± Ikeda took out a nitroglycerin pill from his pocket, threw it into his mouth, and held it under his tongue. Relieve the contraction of the coronary artery caused by tension, dilate the coronary artery of the heart, increase the oxygen supply to the heart, and prevent the potential danger that may arise at any moment. As he aged, he could not withstand such a blow. The heart rate had already dropped to single digits, there was no chance of rescue. Either get through it, or die on the operating table. Time was measured in seconds. Everyone could hear the ticking sound in their hearts; this sound was like a death knell, making people extremely uncomfortable. The numbers on the monitoring screen kept falling. Professor Liang took out a tissue and pressed it against his forehead. Professor Su and Professor Qin looked solemn, and stopped their whispered conversations. They wished they could rush into the operating room to help, this was just an impulse in a crisis situation, in reality they really couldn¡¯t help much. 8 times! Liang Fatty swallowed a mouthful of saliva and reported the sinking number. 7 times! Still falling. If it fell to zero, it meant the surgery had failed. 6 times! He dared to operate at 6 times. Komori and Mitsui felt as if they were sitting on pins and needles, all their pores opened up and they started sweating uncontrollably. A Japanese patrolling nurse came over to wipe their sweat from time to time; although they hadn¡¯t actually taken the stage, they had already scrubbed and dressed, needing to maintain a sterile state. 6 times lasted less than ten seconds before it dropped to 5 times. The laser knife was operating on the edge of the life center, the movements were bold yet exquisite, without even a tea trial, it directly entered the most dangerous area. 4 times! For some reason, the beep of the monitor¡¯s alarm sounded again. Liang Fatty turned off the alarm by hand. This time, Liang Fatty¡¯s heart skipped a beat too, his voice sounded a bit hoarse. The last time, the operation had been completed when the heart rate was still at 6 times. Now it dropped to 4 times, and the surgery was still in a dangerous area. There were still two minutes left, but there might not even be two minutes. Everything depended on the speed of the heart rate drop. A heartbeat of 4 times per minute, was not much different from a cardiac arrest. Death would start from the brain tissue and then spread to other tissues and organs. Xu Zhiliang also began to feel anxious, but he had to stand firm in his post, the nerve hook in his hand did not move. Only Song Zimo still appeared as calm and composed as Yang Ping. Xiao Su¡¯s gaze also moved to the screen; hearing the heart rate reported by Liang Fatty, she believed in Yang Ping, he could do it. The separation of the tumor was very slow, this step had to be slow. Only gentleness and slowness could reduce the interference to the minimum. The laser knife truly did not touch the tissue, eliminating mechanical pressure and friction. Otherwise, the surgery would not have been able to continue. 3 times¡ª Liang Fatty didn¡¯t want to see this number, but it appeared anyway. Doctor Yang can do it, he must do it! Liang Fatty told himself in his heart. But there are only 3 times! At this rate of fall, there¡¯s no time left, absolutely no time left! Is the surgery? Going to fail? With only 3 times heart rate left and two minutes remaining, it was already impossible to complete the surgery. Takahashi realized something and felt extremely uncomfortable. Because this was the first time he had seen Yang Ping fail in challenging a miracle. Failure was almost inevitable. The invincibility of Yang Ping was shattered in his mind. In his mind, Yang Ping used to be a god-like existence who could never fail. However, Takahashi quickly regained his calm. Being able to reach this step was already the world¡¯s first, but still Takahashi felt like something was missing. ¡ª Fujiwara Masao sat up straight and remained silent. Soon it would be 2 times, then 1 time, and finally, it would drop to zero. The separation of the death zone was just halfway through. No one could complete the remaining surgery under such immense pressure, let alone in two minutes, even twenty minutes wouldn¡¯t be enough. At this moment, it was as if a huge hydraulic press was pressing down constantly, the space was shrinking continuously, and the person in the middle had already curled up into a ball, there was no living space left, all that was waiting was to be crushed. There was no time left, no space left, Yang Ping was pushed to the brink of despair. He still failed in the end! Even though he failed this time, Fujiwara Masao was shocked by Yang Ping¡¯s surgery. This level of surgery was top notch in the world, without an equal. Unfortunately, Dr. Yang is also a human, and humans have their limits. Professors Liang, Su and Qin remained silent. They felt regret, but at the same time they also felt proud. The young man sought to reach the peak without fear of difficulties. Even in the face of failure, what could it count for? Medicine could only progress through difficulties and failures. In fact, Professor Su was thinking of sending a text message to encourage Yang Ping at this moment, so he could see it right after the operation was over. ¡°You¡¯ve already succeeded halfway.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Brave young man.¡± Su Nanchen, Old Cheng, and this group of young doctors were deeply moved by the nearly tragic calmness of Yang Ping until the end. Because up until now, the laser knife in the infusion hadn¡¯t stopped, there was no panic, it maintained consistent precision. The entire venue, the atmosphere had dropped to freezing point, the air seemed to have solidified. There were small whispers just now, but now there was no sound, one could hear a pin drop. This was everyone showing respect to the chief surgeon. Because they had realized that there was no hope for the surgery, but the chief surgeon was still making the final effort. This was a noble professional dedication! Chapter 533 - 533 484 Did the Surgery Fail_2 ?Chapter 533: Chapter 484: Did the Surgery Fail?_2 Chapter 533: Chapter 484: Did the Surgery Fail?_2 Never give up until the end! ¡ª ¡°This time, he might not make it?¡± Ito said after a long silence. Ikeda unbuttoned another button, pulled his collar, which made him feel much more comfortable. ¡°Do you have any nitroglycerin?¡± Ito asked Ikeda. Ikeda took out a bottle from his pocket and gave it to Ito. Ito took it, looked at the bottle, opened it, took out a pill, and put it under his tongue. On the video, the tip of the scalpel, under such incredible pressure, did not change in the slightest, remaining stable. This level of calmness was unparalleled. But the more Ito watched, the more things seemed wrong. He wanted to stand up, but his knees wouldn¡¯t allow it. ¡°Teacher!¡± Matsui tried to assist him, but he waved him off and stubbornly stood up by himself, hoping that this way he could see things more clearly. All the energy in Ito¡¯s later years was devoted to research on the tumours of the upper spinal cord and medulla oblongata, but there had been no breakthroughs. His students, Matsui, and Komori, continued his research, but they were also stuck in the same place. So compared to the other doctors at the conference, Ito¡¯s research on these kinds of cases was deeper, one could say that this was his specialty. ¡°Teacher!¡± Matsui saw that something was wrong with Ito¡¯s expression and tried to help him again, but was rebuffed once more. Ito¡¯s lips trembled, his facial muscles twitched, and his eyes were bright. ¡°He¡¯s reached Raf Talu, One Piece is under his feet!¡± As he said these words, Ito powerfully patted Ikeda. ¡°What are you saying?¡± Ikeda immediately stood up as well, squinting his eyes, doing his best to concentrate, following the direction of Ito¡¯s finger. ¡°Look at the tip of his scalpel, and the electrosurgical unit, he¡¯s got the situation under control, he¡¯s got it under control, he¡¯s got it under control!¡± Ito, like a madman, mumbled unclearly, with a hint of crying in his voice before bursting into laughter. Under Ito¡¯s guidance, Ikeda seemed to realize the issue and hugged him: ¡°Oh my god, he¡¯s got the situation under control!¡± The problem that Ito had failed to resolve all his life, this young man had now solved. ¡°Teacher!¡± Matsui still didn¡¯t understand the abnormal behaviour of these two old professors and hoped they could sit down and watch properly. Fujiwara also went to help Ikeda. ¡°This surgery should be watched standing up, as a sign of respect for the chief surgeon!¡± Ito stated. Because Yang Ping had solved a difficult medical problem, he had completely understood the anatomy of the medulla oblongata and the upper spinal cord. With Yang Ping¡¯s breakthrough on this topic, surgeries involving the upper spinal cord and the medulla oblongata will witness a leap forward in development. ¡ª 2! A heartbeat was finally detected on the screen. Once per minute, close to a state of cardiac arrest. Then the heart fell into stillness again. Whether it could beat again was unknown. There¡¯s no heartbeat anymore? A Japanese nurse covering her mouth, whispered softly. Komori and Mitsui were also keeping an eye on the numbers displayed on the monitor, unsure if the heartbeat would return. Maybe it would beat once more, or maybe not. ¡°Don¡¯t rush, he¡¯s still alive, in a state of hibernation!¡± Yang Ping finally spoke, his tone relaxed and casual, without a hint of tension. The scalpel was still as slow as it was, with the last few seconds starting to countdown. All of a sudden, the tip of the microscopic neuro-dissector moved positions, the tissue that had just been gently compressed by it slightly rebounded due to its elasticity. In the new position, the scalpel began to separate rapidly, tens of times faster than before. The laser scalpel on the screen moved faster and faster, as if this operation had been done hundreds of times before, each movement exuding an effortless proficiency. People hadn¡¯t reacted yet, still fully immersed in high tension. Believing that there would be no more heartbeats. The entire tumour, including the two small ones, were completely removed. Nurse Su had laid a piece of moist gauze cloth in the curved dish beforehand. Yang Ping placed the tumour on the gauze. In reality, it was just a tiny bit. The whole medulla oblongata and the upper spinal cord were no larger than a thumb joint, so how big could the tumour he removed from inside be? Once more, he stopped the bleeding under the microscope, and gently withdrew the strapped nerve. Finally, the numbers for the heartbeat appeared on the screen. 1! 2! 3!¡ª Slowly climbing. The patient¡¯s heartbeat did not stop, it really did not stop, it was just on the edge of cardiac arrest. He succeeded! Ito could not help shedding tears, looking at the screen with complex emotions, extending his hand and then clapping stiffly. Yang Ping¡¯s knowledge of anatomy completely surpassed all current research. He mastered the rhythm of each step, and he knew what would happen at each step. He knew that as long as the microscopic nerve stripper stayed taut, applying certain pressure to the nerve cluster, the heart rate could maintain at the edge and not collapse. When passing the most dangerous area, he knew that he could speed up at that time. And the nerve ganglion adapted to the new pressure. At this time, the nerve stripper was withdrawn, and all dangers had passed. It was amazing! The research was too in-depth! Ikeda also clapped, and then the applause resounded throughout the room, wave after wave, unable to calm down for a long time. It was so sudden. Even Fujiwara and the others didn¡¯t have time to get a clear picture before the surgery reached its end. Now the heart rate shown on the screen has reached 40, 50, and soon entered the normal range of 65 beats per minute. Bow! Ito and Ikeda bowed to the screen! All the Japanese doctors followed and bowed to show their respect. This was an awe-inspiring admiration for the strong. ¡ª ¡°Zhang Lin Xiaowu, step up, start suturing!¡± Mitsui and Komori were still in a daze, but the operation had entered the suturing stage. Upon hearing the summons, Zhang Lin Xiaowu was excited. He did not expect to have the chance to do the suturing. ¡°Teacher Zhang, can we ¡ª go to cut the stitches?¡± Komori Daisuke¡¯s back was so strained that he couldn¡¯t straighten it, he asked carefully. Seeing that they were quite honest, Zhang Lin nodded and said, ¡°Step up!¡± Mitsui also stood up with Komori to help, and the four of them sutured and cut the stitches together. Being able to participate in such a surgery, even if it¡¯s just cutting stitches, was an honor that would go down in history. ¡°Doctor Yang ¡ª¡± After the suturing was completed, Komori Daisuke wanted to ask Yang Ping about some specific details of the surgery. Mitsui had the same idea, he was a bit confused just now and didn¡¯t understand many of the steps. Yang Ping was taking off his gown, speaking to Takahashi, who was helping to untie the knot behind him: ¡°Can you explain to them when you have time.¡± Yang Ping himself didn¡¯t have time to explain to everyone unless he was giving a lecture. Privately, he could only explain to a few doctors he was close to, such as Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Takahashi was counted as one of them. ¡°Okay!¡± Takahashi responded proudly. Thinking that the surgery was destined to fail, but it turned out to be a success. Komori and Mitsui felt dispirited. They were ignored by others, who only recognized Takahashi. Takahashi¡¯s status in Tokyo University Hospital would be unparalleled in the future because he was following such a genius. It¡¯s no wonder Takahashi acted like a grandson in front of Yang Ping, he even put the slippers neatly on the floor in the operating room and helped Yang Ping wear them. Now Komori and Mitsui finally understood what was going on, but it seemed a little late. ¡°Dr. Yang, you worked hard!¡± Nurse Su gave a gesture and smiled to celebrate Yang Ping¡¯s successful operation. She was happier than anyone else about Yang Ping¡¯s success. ¡°Nurse Su also worked hard.¡± Yang Ping responded with a look full of admiration. ¡°Serving the people!¡± Answered Nurse Su playfully. Seeing this scene, two Japanese nurses did not know the relationship between Nurse Su and Yang Ping. They imitated Nurse Su¡¯s greeting to Yang Ping, hoping to get that admiring look. However, even though their actions were the same, Yang Ping only responded lightly, without any affection in his eyes. The two Japanese nurses were a bit confused as to why that was. Clearly, this was racial discrimination! Chapter 535 - 535 486 Touching Family Love ?Chapter 535: Chapter 486: Touching Family Love Chapter 535: Chapter 486: Touching Family Love The Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association academic forum carried on. The whole auditorium of doctors was still engrossed with the recent surgery, struggling with a shift of focus. Some were still discussing the procedure among themselves. Yang Ping naturally became the focus of the meeting. Some doctors who initially doubted China, had their prejudices completely changed by this operation. Additionally, those who were previously in support of China, now held a firm stance. The more people support China, the greater the likelihood of winning the election for the chair of the next annual meeting. The morning meeting time was shortened, only giving room for lectures from Professor Su and Fujiwara Masao. Professor Su¡¯s lecture was on bio-bone cement, a long-standing research area of Professor Su. Despite not yet being clinically applied, significant progress had been attained in the laboratory. Plain bone cement when injected in vertebrae during vertebroplasty is an inert body to the human body with a large difference in elasticity modulus comparing to surrounding bone tissue. However, after injecting Professor Su¡¯s bone cement into the vertebral body, it not only supports the vertebral body in the early stage but also induces bone formation, allowing the body¡¯s own bone tissue to crawl around and replace it. Finally, the bone cement disappears, leaving only normal body bone tissue. Bio-bone cement has great prospects. It is also the key scientific achievement that helped Professor Su to become an academician in China. Fujiwara Masao¡¯s topic was the biological fixation of artificial intervertebral discs. The controversy around artificial intervertebral disc replacement had been significant, for immature technology hindered it from replacing the original intervertebral disc, making postoperative looseness and displacement likely. However, Professor Fujiwara¡¯s innovative fixation approach to original artificial intervertebral discs, inspired from the biological fixation of artificial hip joints, allows biological fixation of artificial intervertebral discs. That is, after the artificial intervertebral disc is implanted in the intervertebral space, it can form osseous fixation with the upper and lower cartilage endplates and bone quality after a period. The two techniques are the product of the professors¡¯ decade-long devotion and are equal in technical value. Other accomplishments brought by both Chinese and Japanese professors roughly made for a balanced competition, making the competition fierce. Yang Ping¡¯s medical achievements were like heavyweight weights in favor of China, causing a significant tilt on the balance scale. Specifically, new surgical methods for multi-ligament reconstruction of the shoulder and knee joints, new surgical methods for reconstructions of crossed ligaments in children, new osteotomy methods for correcting scoliosis, and external fixators for treating scoliosis. In particular, the use of external fixators to treat spinal scoliosis was revolutionary. Yang Ping originally planned not to bring this technology to the conference, but before departing, a lab monkey reached success in spinal repairs, making it eligible to be reported at the conference. So, he decided to bring it at the last minute. At noon, during the conference break, they arranged for a traditional boxed lunch. During the leisure time for food, they also arranged some short speeches. These speeches are projects by young doctors who haven¡¯t yet had the opportunity to present at official meetings, so they present them during the tea break as an exercise. Fujiwara Masao was enjoying his box lunch with professors, when someone came and relayed a message: ¡°Professor Fujiwara, the CEO, Wakana, is here.¡± Fujiwara Wakan, Fujiwara Masao¡¯s younger brother, was the successor of the Fujiwara family and a graduate from Cambridge University. Fujiwara Masao quickly excused himself and rushed to the special care ward. It was the most top-notch special care ward in Tokyo University Hospital, only available to the giants of Japanese society and the royal family. The entire ward occupied a whole floor, with all medical staff and nurses providing healthcare services to only one patient. In the special care ward, Fujiwara Wakan held his uncle¡¯s hand firmly in his own, showing infinite grief. No matter how busy, he visited every day. Moreover, he did the same thing every day ¡ª gave his uncle a sponge bath and changed his clothes. These chores should have been the nurse¡¯s responsibility, but Fujiwara Wakan insisted on performing them himself. A nurse brought a basin of water, a white towel was soaked in the water, Fujiwara Wakan rolled up his sleeves to test the temperature. Then he wrung out the towel and gently wiped his uncle¡¯s body. He performed each step attentively without any signs of perfunctory attitude. After washing the body, Fujiwara Wakan and the nurse then helped his uncle into dry clothes. This had been the routine ever since Fujiwara Tani was hospitalized. But Fujiwara Tani was in a coma and could not see all of this. If he could, he would certainly be deeply touched. Doctors and nurses were all moved by the sight. It is uncommon to see such filial piety among wealthy young people, let alone from a prestigious president. Some were even moved to tears. ¡°Earlier this morning, a patient suffering from a similar condition as your uncle underwent successful surgery. The chief surgeon was Dr. Yang from China, so there¡¯s no need for sadness anymore. There¡¯s hope for your uncle,¡± Fujiwara Masao comforted his brother. Fujiwara Wakan was overjoyed, with genuine feelings displayed in his eyes, ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Absolutely!¡± Fujiwara Masao confirmed. ¡°Arrange the surgery immediately!¡± After speaking, Fujiwara Wakan immediately grabbed his uncle¡¯s hand again, ¡°Uncle, did you hear that? We¡¯ve found a doctor who can perform the surgery for you.¡± ¡°I want to stay alone with my uncle for a while.¡± Fujiwara Wakan¡¯s voice was hoarse. Everyone quietly left, and Fujiwara Masao also exited the ward. This was something Fujiwara Wakan did every day. After washing his uncle and changing him into clean clothes, he¡¯d sit by the bed, hold his uncle¡¯s hand, and tell stories about their childhood. There were three siblings, Fujiwara Masao, Fujiwara Wakan, and Fujiwara Miyuki. They lost their parents at an early age. They were raised by their uncle, Tani. Uncle Tani was technically their uncle, but he actually played the role of their father, raising and educating them until they grew up. Without the protection of their parents, they, three siblings, should have been removed from the core power of the Fujiwara Family. However, Fujiwara Wakan was a once-in-a-lifetime business prodigy. Fujiwara Tani recognized his talent early on, nurtured it carefully, even shaping him to take over as his successor. Doctors and nurses gathered under the large monitor screen, watching the footage intently. ¡°Really touching!¡± ¡°Yes, truly enviable familial love.¡± ¡°The picture by the old chairman¡¯s bedside was taken with him.¡± ¡°Entrusted with great expectations, he is a top student who graduated from Cambridge, and then the chairman arranged for him to start from the bottom, making his way up step by step to the pinnacle.¡± ¡°Indeed, an elite with a upright character!¡± ¡°It is said that he personally invited renowned doctors from around the world to treat the old chairman¡¯s illness.¡± ¡°Yes, you see, he is crying all alone.¡± ¡°I saw him for the first time, so handsome and spirited, but now he looks a bit haggard, his eyes full of sorrow.¡± A nurse said with sympathy. Such a high-ranking, capable and upright young man naturally attracted the admiration of women. ¡°I really hope the old chairman can wake up, then, he won¡¯t be sorrowful anymore.¡± Another nurse also said emotionally. It was about time, Fujiwara Masao slowly walked into the ward: ¡°Come what may, you need to cheer up. The Fujiwara Family needs you.¡± Fujiwara Wakan shook his head: ¡°The Fujiwara Family can do without me, but we can¡¯t do without uncle. Without him, there would be no us today, he always encouraged me, like a loving father. I remember once, when I lost a baseball game and wanted to give up, he got angry¡ªAs a son of the Fujiwara Family, are you so weak? The path to strength is lined with thorns, you were born to overcome these challenges, believe in yourself, you can be strong.¡± ¡°Because of that, you should pull yourself together, do something for him, birth, old age, sickness and death, are part of the human condition. Moreover, there is a high chance that uncle will wake up, Dr. Yang is very confident.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to comfort me, Tokyo University Hospital, Mayo, Charite?, The Royal Surgical Hospital UK, they all have no solution, they all told me to give up, how could there be hope all of a sudden.¡± ¡°Wakan, this is true, absolutely. This morning, Dr. Yang performed a perfect surgery. If we let him perform the surgery on uncle, it will definitely be successful, but we need your support.¡± ¡°Can you be more specific?¡± ¡°Dr. Yang is very young, his reputation in the medical field is not yet established, just like Dr. Amano back then. Without support, it is very difficult for the family elders to agree to let such a doctor perform the surgery on uncle.¡± ¡°Are you sure about him?¡± ¡°Definite! On my honor as a doctor.¡± ¡°I will go all out, to convince the family elders, I must request Dr. Yang¡¯s help, to keep uncle alive.¡± ¡°You need to be strong, I know your deep feelings for uncle, we feel the same way too, you are the future of the Fujiwara Family, there are more important things you need to do, you have to let go of your sorrow.¡± Fujiwara Wakan carefully covered his uncle with the blanket, doctors and nurses walked in, he bowed deeply to them. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen! I implore you!¡± ¡°Brother! Please!¡± A few nurses couldn¡¯t hold back anymore and shed tears. On leaving the ICU, under the protection of their bodyguards, the Fujiwara brothers took the special elevator down to the first floor. On the first floor, Fujiwara Masao happened to meet Yang Ping, Takahashi was taking advantage of the lunch break to give Yang Ping¡¯s team a private tour of Tokyo University Hospital. At that time, Huang Jiacai was also accompanying them, Huang Jiacai wasn¡¯t present during Yang Ping¡¯s surgery, he and the people of Ning Family were hanging around in the vicinity, familiarizing themselves with the environment. ¡°Dr. Yang, Hello, this is Dr. Yang whom I told you about!¡± The two parties met face to face and stopped. ¡°Fujiwara Wakan, my younger brother.¡± This was, as the gossips went, the new head of the Fujiwara family. Yang Ping got an inkling about a few things related to the Fujiwara family from Takahashi, except that Takahashi hadn¡¯t talked to him about Fujiwara Tani yet. As the matter of the surgery wasn¡¯t formally requested from Yang Ping by Fujiwara Masao, Fujiwara Masao just gave a brief introduction during this encounter. He genuinely is an extraordinary individual! Fujiwara Wakan¡¯s judgement of Yang Ping. His eyes swept casually across and made accidental eye contact with Huang Jiacai. Huang Jiacai felt a chill in his heart, he didn¡¯t know why, but he felt something different about this man, although he couldn¡¯t put his finger on it. After brief accidental eye contact, the parties broke away and went their separate ways. Fujiwara Wakan looked back, giving Huang Jiacai another glance. Just at that moment, Huang Jiacai turned back to look at him, their gazes meeting once again. Chapter 536 - 536 487 Visiting Professor ?Chapter 536: Chapter 487 Visiting Professor Chapter 536: Chapter 487 Visiting Professor Yang Ping¡¯s lecture was originally scheduled for the next day, but it was moved forward to the afternoon by Fujiwara Masao. As time was limited, Yang Ping chose only one topic for his lecture ¡ª treatment of scoliosis with external fixation device. The remaining topics were handed over to Song Zimo to present at the tea break venue. Reluctantly, with too many treasures in hand and limited display space, the ones of low value had to be discarded from the exhibition. However, what was considered of low value in Yang Ping¡¯s eyes was still priceless to others. The attraction of the tea break venue skyrocketed. Many big shots were unwilling to rest. They squeezed in with the young people to listen to Song Zimo¡¯s lecture. After the afternoon conference ended and before the banquet, Fujiwara Masao privately invited Yang Ping¡¯s team to visit the orthopedic ward. After the visit, Yang Ping rested in Fujiwara Masao¡¯s office. Takahashi was there accompanying and acting as the interpreter. Fujiwara Masao took out his uncle¡¯s imaging photos, ¡°Doctor Yang, can you help to look at this case?¡± After looking through them carefully, Yang Ping said, ¡°This elderly patient¡¯s condition is similar to Ning Yu¡¯s. Due to the limited brain plasticity of the elderly, we should be more cautious during the surgery.¡± ¡°This patient is my uncle. If it¡¯s alright, I would like to ask Doctor Yang to be the chief surgeon for his operation.¡± Fujiwara Masao bowed in request. Yang Ping felt that the main job of surgeons is to operate. There was nothing inconvenient, it was just a surgery and it would not take up too much time, so he promptly agreed: ¡°There is no inconvenience. Where is the patient now? Any detailed medical records?¡± Fujiwara Masao did not expect Yang Ping to agree so easily. He immediately retrieved the medical records and happily said, ¡°He is in the special care ward of our hospital. He has been ill for more than a month and is currently in a coma.¡± Yang Ping went through the medical records one by one, reading every word and sentence, and then said somewhat dissatisfactorily: ¡°It¡¯s been so long, a month? Why didn¡¯t you have surgery sooner?¡± Fujiwara Masao looked embarrassed, thinking to himself, this surgery couldn¡¯t be performed just because he said so. In the world today, only Doctor Yang had the capability to be the chief surgeon. Yang Ping realized that his question was inappropriate and immediately said, ¡°We need to arrange for surgery as soon as possible. We can¡¯t wait any longer. There is a risk of danger at any time. It¡¯s fortunate that his heart rate is at fifty, but it won¡¯t be able to maintain at fifty much longer. Once it drops, it could be fatal.¡± ¡°Emergency surgery?¡± Fujiwara Masao was quite anxious when he heard Yang Ping say this because Yang Ping had far more knowledge about this condition than they did. ¡°We can¡¯t rush into surgery!¡± Yang Ping thought for a moment, then asked, ¡°Have you been using an icing cap to reduce the oxygen consumption of the brain tissue during this period?¡± Icing caps and cooling blankets are generally used for physical cooling, such as reducing fever. They are commonly used in neurosurgery. For Fujiwara Tani, who did not have a fever, using an icing cap obviously was not for the purpose of lowering his body temperature, but to reduce the brain tissue¡¯s oxygen consumption and enhance the brain tissue¡¯s tolerance under low perfusion. ¡°We¡¯ve been using it.¡± Although Fujiwara Masao wasn¡¯t as formidable as Yang Ping, he was still a top-tier Professor. ¡°That¡¯s good! In this case, I¡¯ll have Dr. Song from my team involve in the preparation for the surgery. It¡¯s necessary to conduct some comprehensive tests to ensure safety during the surgery. Some tests need to be conducted a few times for comparison. At least a day¡¯s time should be reserved for preparation. Waiting for another day won¡¯t increase the risk.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t care who the patient was. His communication with Fujiwara Masao was entirely centered on the patient¡¯s condition. ¡°One day! So, the surgery won¡¯t happen until tomorrow evening?¡± Fujiwara Masao did a quick time calculation. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°At the earliest, tomorrow evening. If something unforeseen happens midway, we will have to risk emergency surgery. If nothing unexpected occurs, try not to take risks.¡± Fujiwara Masao had to admit, in Yang Ping¡¯s concept, this surgery seems to be without any risk. ¡°Then¨Cshall we go take a look at the patient together?¡± Fujiwara Masao had no choice but to refer to his uncle as a ¡°patient¡±, following Yang Ping¡¯s train of thought. ¡°Wait, let¡¯s wait for Dr. Song and the others.¡± Yang Ping took out his phone and called Song Zimo. They were chatting in the doctor¡¯s office. At this time, Fujiwara Masao received a call. Tokyo University Hospital, spurred on by Ikeda, was now eager to hire Yang Ping as a visiting professor and hoped that Fujiwara Masao could talk to Yang Ping. If possible, they wanted to sign an agreement as soon as possible. Fujiwara Masao put down the phone and expressed his intention to Yang Ping, asking him about his conditions. After thinking for a bit, Yang Ping felt that the visiting professorship was advantageous and harmless. As for conditions, there must be some. So, he told Fujiwara his conditions. Tokyo University Hospital would give Sanbo Hospital fifty training quotas each year. The allocation of specialties for these fifty people would be decided by Sanbo Hospital. Each person¡¯s study duration should not be less than three years. During their study period, Tokyo University Hospital would need to enforce strict requirements as if they were training their own doctors. If the quota was too small, they couldn¡¯t form a scale advantage. If it was too large, the quality of training from Tokyo University Hospital would inevitably decline. Fifty was just right. If all the newly recruited young doctors at Sanbo Hospital could be trained in these world-class hospitals given the time, the overall level of the hospital would soar. The more, the merrier! Yang Ping felt that it was limited to just rely on his own prowess. Only when the whole Sanbo Hospital advanced would it be the right course. Sanbo Hospital always thought about his needs, so he also had to consider Sanbo Hospital¡¯s needs too. He couldn¡¯t just focus on his own benefits; he needed to use these channels to seek opportunities for Sanbo Hospital. When Yang Ping stated his conditions, Professor Fujiwara was stunned for a moment. The conditions were so simple. He didn¡¯t even mention things like salary. ¡°Is it really just this condition?¡± Professor Fujiwara wanted to confirm. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Just this, is there a problem?¡± Chapter 537 - 537 487 Visiting Professor_2 ?Chapter 537: Chapter 487 Visiting Professor_2 Chapter 537: Chapter 487 Visiting Professor_2 ¡°No, no, there¡¯s absolutely no problem. We can sign a letter of intent as soon as possible. Afterwards, our hospital will promptly send a team to China to negotiate with your hospital and sign a strategic partnership agreement. Professor Fujiwara hadn¡¯t expected things to go this smoothly.¡± After reaching a preliminary partnership agreement with Professor Fujiwara, Yang Ping received a call from Zhang Lin. The people from Shuntiantang Hospital found Tang Shun and asked him to mediate ¨C Shuntiantang Hospital hoped to invite Yang Ping as a visiting professor and establish a strategic partnership with Sanbo Hospital. The learning spirit of the Japanese is well-known worldwide, but it wasn¡¯t expected that they would be this eager. Yang Ping had just completed surgery in the morning, and by evening, people were eager to have him as a visiting professor. Fifty slots were now secured. Now not only the newly enrolled PhD students at Sanbo Hospital, but even doctors who had been working for many years, had the chance to learn new things. ¡°Shall we go see the patient?¡± Yang Ping received a WeChat message from Song Zimo. They were ready. ¡°Then let¡¯s leave it to Dr. Yang!¡± So, everyone followed Professor Fujiwara to the special care ward. ¡ª Tokyo, inside a building. This building is the core business area of the Fujiwara Consortium. At the moment, Fujiwara Wakan, the new heir to the Fujiwara family, sat on a large sofa in the spacious and luxurious office. ¡°Chairman!¡± Sha Gui, who was loyal to him, stood by his side. Fujiwara Wakan waved his hand: ¡°You¡¯ve spoken a bit too soon, sit down and talk.¡± Upon being given permission, Sha Gui sat across from Fujiwara Wakan. ¡°Sha Gui, there¡¯s no need to be so formal. We¡¯ve known each other since we were seven years old. We were schoolmates through elementary school, middle school, and university. My success today also depends on your assistance.¡± Fujiwara Wakan filled two glasses with red wine and pushed one toward Sha Gui. ¡°Yes, Chairman!¡± Sha Gui was aware that despite their brotherly bond, their positions were different. Fujiwara Wakan, as the next leader of the Fujiwara family, would be one of the most powerful men in Japan. One should be as cautious as if one is walking on thin ice. Any negligence can lead to suspicion. Being as loyal as a dog is the key to survival. ¡°Sha Gui, what do you think of the present situation?¡± Fujiwara Wakan shared a toast with him. ¡°I think even though the overall situation has been settled, we must be vigilant! Your succession as the family heir was personally designated by the old Chairman and was voted for by the elders of the family, entering into the will. But Sha Gui is of the opinion that we must not be complacent. Mr. Jiu is becoming restless, but I am closely monitoring his every move and will capture them all in one swoop if there are any signs of unusual activity. Everything is under our control.¡± Sha Gui was calm and composed, just as he said, everything was under control. Now even Fujiwara Wakan¡¯s security had been upgraded to the highest level, and all the surrounding bodyguards were his close confidants. The Fujiwara family, such a large consortium and one of the pillars of Japan. The change of its head is no less significant than the change of a country head. ¡°However...¡± Fujiwara Wakan toyed with the wine glass in his hand, hesitating to speak. ¡°Chairman, are you worried about your acting chairman status?¡± Sha Gui understood his master¡¯s concerns. ¡°As acting chairman, I can¡¯t seize all the rights of the chairman. Some rights are reserved by the elders, several of whom support Jiu.¡± ¡°That is what I was going to share with you.¡± Fujiwara Tani did not suffer from an ordinary disease, but a terminal illness. No doctor in the world can cure him, so as long as Fujiwara Tani dies, Fujiwara Wakan can take over smoothly. The Fujiwara family, as one of the major families in Japan, has strict family discipline. Once the successor takes office officially, no one dares to overthrow him unless the successor is incompetent and repeatedly makes major strategic errors. This way, the family elites can be pushed into leadership positions, avoiding power struggles. But now, the situation is special, Fujiwara Tani is still alive, and Fujiwara Wakan cannot officially take office but can only serve as acting chairman. Sha Gui¡¯s eyes seemed a little uncertain. ¡°Sha Gui, it¡¯s just the two of us here. Do go on.¡± Sha Gui immediately got up and bowed: ¡°Sha Gui¡¯s loyalty to the Chairman is known to all.¡± Fujiwara Shochiku said seriously: ¡°Sha Gui, sit down, there¡¯s no need for you to be this tense.¡± Sha Gui sat down: ¡°Ning Yu¡¯s surgery at Tokyo University Hospital was successful, which means that the old Chairman¡¯s surgery may also be successful, and he may wake up. Once he wakes up, there are three possibilities: one, he voluntarily abdicates due to his health condition, allowing you to officially take over; two, he continues in his position, and you continue to wait; three, under the second possibility, changes may occur. This has happened in the Fujiwara family before.¡± Fujiwara Shochiku waved his hand, his brow furrowed. This was precisely what he had been worried about. It was just that Sha Gui had voiced it out. If he woke up, there was the possibility that he would have to continue waiting, not knowing when he would take over, and there could be changes during the waiting period. Sha Gui said in a serious tone: ¡°Prevent Dr. Yang from participating in the surgery. For instance, find an excuse for the Metropolitan Police Department to make him leave the country early, or revoke his temporary medical license. All of this can be easily done.¡± ¡°No, no, no. We cannot leave any room for mistakes. If he leaves, he can still come back.¡± Fujiwara Wakan was very unsatisfied with Sha Gui¡¯s plan. ¡°What do you mean?¡± For once, Sha Gui was unable to figure out his master¡¯s intentions. ¡°What do I mean?¡± Fujiwara Wakan raised his glass of wine, his eyes revealing a hint of a deadly intention. Sha Gui felt an extreme chill and immediately understood: ¡°I know what to do, just leave it to me.¡± ¡°I prefer to do things elegantly and beautifully, I despise simple and crude actions.¡± ¡°I understand, rest assured, Chairman, everything will be flawless¡ª¡± Fujiwara Wakan put out one finger, swaying it to stop Sha Gui from continuing. ¡°There can¡¯t be any mistakes in my life. Brother Wakan and Little Sister Miyuki are just doctors, they are far away from the core of the family¡¯s struggles. They don¡¯t understand my situation, they don¡¯t understand the cruelty of the fight.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± ¡°You have had a tough time lately, watch out for yourself, you can go home.¡± ¡°Thank you, Chairman.¡± Sha Gui bowed and exited Fujiwara Wakan¡¯s office. Fujiwara Wakan slowly walked to the floor-to-ceiling bulletproof glass that offered a 360 degree view of Tokyo¡¯s nightscape, gazing down at the beautiful view with determination. He was about to become the head of the Fujiwara family, the real master of the entire Fujiwara consortium. He had been waiting for this day for too long ¨C no mistakes could be made, none at all. He would soon become one of the most powerful people in Japan, able to control the formation and dissipation of clouds and decide the future of the Fujiwara family. The old head of the family had many strategies that no longer fit with the world¡¯s development. Only he, Fujiwara Wakan, could lead the family to a new chapter of glory. Fujiwara Wakan¡¯s life was destined to be fraught with trials and tribulations as he rose to be the most powerful. For the future of the family, someone always had to make sacrifices. There was a photograph on the desk. It was a photo of Fujiwara Tani and Fujiwara Wakan together. It was taken when he was 16 years old, when he won a baseball competition and Fujiwara Tani, as a parent, was cheering him on, so they took a picture together. Fujiwara Wakan picked up the photo and caressed it. ¡°I¡¯m sorry!¡± Then he bowed deeply towards the photo. Chapter 538 - 538 488 Coagulation Dysfunction ?Chapter 538: Chapter 488: Coagulation Dysfunction Chapter 538: Chapter 488: Coagulation Dysfunction The conference on the second day was packed full. Representatives from China and Japan took turns giving presentations, intermingled with representatives from other countries, but mostly from China and Japan. Among the other countries, an expert from Australia brought impressive research achievements. Australia has a smaller population, but its medical strength cannot be underestimated. Familiar medical devices such as ultrasounds, cardiac pacemakers, cochlear implants, in-vitro fertilization and embryo transplantation technology, CPAP respirators, and more, were all invented in Australia. Also, the discovery of Helicobacter pylori in the stomach and the cervical cancer vaccine are Australian achievements. The discovery of Helicobacter pylori even won the Nobel Prize. Surprisingly, Dr. Lin Mingyuan from Singapore brought very good research results as well¨Ca new type of biodegradable implant. This implant is made from a biocompatible and non-toxic magnesium alloy. It has the same strength as titanium, providing excellent mechanical stability and bone support to promote healing. More importantly, over time, the implant can completely decompose in the body, which is a clear advantage over traditional orthopedic titanium alloy plates. Actually, it is not a coincidence that Singapore has these achievements. The Singapore Central Hospital often ranks in the top ten globally. Do you want to know which hospitals are in the top ten? Medical powerhouses like the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Medical Center, and Massachusetts General Hospital. The fact that Singapore Central Hospital can join these hospitals in the top ten shows that it is indeed very strong. Attending these academic conferences allows one to keep a good grasp of industry research trends, and prevent information blockage or isolated practice. So Yang Ping was very serious when listening to other people¡¯s speeches. After the morning conference ended, as the host, Takahashi planned to use the lunchtime to take Yang Ping out for a tour, at least to Ginza. Due to his need to prepare for Fujiwara Tani¡¯s surgery, Yang Ping had no time for shopping. Fujiwara Miyuki invited Xiao Su, Tang Fei, and Zhou Can to go shopping with her, but Xiao Su, reluctant to leave Yang Ping alone in the hotel, declined. It took some coaxing and persuasion by Yang Ping to finally get Xiao Su to go shopping with Miyuki. Not long after the girls left, Fujiwara Tani¡¯s latest test results came out one by one, and Song Zimo sent them to Yang Ping¡¯s phone¡ªCoagulation dysfunction! Coagulation dysfunction is a surgical contraindication, meaning Fujiwara Tani cannot undergo surgery due to this reason. Never mind this type of surgery, even ordinary surgeries can be obstructed by coagulation dysfunction. Once the surgery begins, the bleeding in the surgical area can put more pressure on the medulla than the tumor does, which is even more terrifying. No one expected that the disease would take such a turn. Yang Ping immediately took Takahashi, Huang Jiacai, and Old Cheng to meet with Fujiwara Masao in the doctor¡¯s office at the intensive care unit. Fujiwara Masao, busy tending to both ends, appeared quite exhausted. ¡°There had been a clotting dysfunction before, but it has been improving with treatment. The clotting indicators have returned to normal. Look, this is a test from a few days ago¡ªit was normal. I didn¡¯t expect this fluctuation.¡± Fujiwara Masao was very worried. He had just convinced the family elders not to interfere in the medical decisions on his brother¡¯s side, and now there was this problem. If it were any other cause, it might be possible to overcome, but this clotting dysfunction is like the Achilles¡¯ heel of this kind of surgery. Even the most skilled surgeons would be helpless. Wait longer? We don¡¯t know when it could get better, and besides, we can¡¯t wait that long. If surgery is performed as planned? It¡¯s almost impossible. With clotting dysfunction, even an ordinary surgery could put the patient in danger due to heavy bleeding, let alone this type of medullary and upper cervical cord surgery. A little bit of bleeding can be life-threatening. This change in the condition at this critical time... Tokyo University Hospital is like facing a formidable enemy, and they immediately called together experts from all fields for an emergency discussion of the condition. Ikeda, Ito, Fujiwara, Matsui, Komori, all top-notch professors, gathered together to discuss how to deal with the upcoming condition. Fujiwara Masao and Yang Ping hurriedly rushed to the meeting room. As Yang Ping entered the venue, everyone stood up and bowed. The large high-definition screen displayed Fujiwara Tani¡¯s imaging pictures and various test reports. Nozaki Yoshihiro, Professor of Hematology, who is in charge of Fujiwara Tani¡¯s coagulation regulation, also found it hard to explain why this happened. Fujiwara Tani was lying in the ICU with various tubes connected to him. These data monitors were connected to the central host in the monitoring room and then transmitted to the screen. Any aspect of his condition could be monitored through the central host. Even the speed of the infusion pump could be finely monitored and adjusted. Nozaki Yoshihiro has been responsible for the blood aspects of the case. He once thought it was stabilized, but didn¡¯t expect this sudden occurrence. Such unpredictable changes in the condition are not uncommon. The problem is that everyone is tense because it is happening at this critical juncture. ¡°If we don¡¯t do the surgery this time, what does it mean?¡± Asked Ogawa, the head of the ICU, breaking the silence. ¡°It means that there will never be another chance. The tumor will soon bleed spontaneously. If there are no effective measures, the probability of death is 100%. All efforts will be in vain.¡± Komori Daisuke gave a clear answer. ¡°If we proceed with the surgery as planned, what does it mean?¡± Again, it was Ogawa¡¯s question. ¡°Coagulation dysfunction is an absolute contraindication for such surgeries. If the surgery is forced, death due to bleeding is certain, with a mortality rate of 100%.¡± Komori Daisuke took over the conversation. Two one hundreds percent chances! Never thought the consequences would be this serious. The director of the Office of Affairs looked around, then at Fujiwara Masao. Fujiwara Masao slightly adjusted his emotions and said: ¡°This surgery is high-risk to begin with. Currently, Dr. Yang is the only one with a grip on success. If all goes well, perhaps, Dr. Yang can successfully complete the surgery, but now, with such unfortunate circumstances, even Dr. Yang, with his successful track record, most likely won¡¯t be able to perform the surgery.¡± ¡°What¡¯s frustrating is that we can¡¯t currently find the cause of the change in the condition.¡± Nozaki sadly said. ¡°Now is not the time to find the cause; we need to make a decision, to give up the surgery or continue?¡± Professor Ikeda pointed out the focus of the meeting to prevent deviating from the main topic. As for the rest, such as summarizing lessons, that¡¯s a matter for later. ¡°Dr. Yang?¡± Professor Ikeda hoped that Dr. Yang would say something, as he was now being asked to be the chief surgeon. At this point, all they could do was make a symbolic effort. Whether politicians or business elites, none could escape the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death. Many important figures had died at Tokyo University Hospital, so such matters no longer stirred any waves in Professor Ikeda¡¯s heart. Yang Ping pondered for a moment, then said: ¡°Prepare for the surgery at eight o¡¯clock tonight. In this condition, waiting any longer leaves no hope. Operating tonight, however, leaves a glimmer of hope.¡± ¡°But I don¡¯t know, would you all be willing to take this risk with me?¡± In such a predicament, they could only take the risk of surgery. If they missed this opportunity, they would never get another one. No matter what Fujiwara Tani¡¯s status was, in Yang Ping¡¯s eyes, he was just a patient. For Yang Ping, every surgery had to be carried out with full effort, fighting for the best health benefit for the patient. ¡°Are you saying¡ª despite the clotting dysfunction¡ª you would still perform surgery?¡± Komori Daisuke was extremely surprised. This was taboo. No one dared to do this. For surgeons, it was a devilish challenge. In the surgical site, even a slight postoperative bleed could be fatal. How could they achieve such perfect hemostasis? Mitsui also waited for Yang Ping¡¯s answer, wondering if he had heard wrong. ¡°Dr. Yang, do we definitely have to take this risk?¡± Fujiwara Masao hoped Yang Ping would say this sentence, but the reality was cruel. Clotting dysfunction was definitely a contraindication! In medicine, ¡°absolute¡± means there is no room for negotiation, no exceptions. Surgery under such contraindications would have destructive consequences for both the surgeon and the patient. Yang Ping solemnly asked: ¡°I want to ask¡ªdo you all still wish to save him?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Professor Ikeda¡¯s words represented Tokyo University Hospital. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°We have no other choice, there is only this way. In such a coagulation state, the tumor will start to bleed spontaneously very soon. The sudden bleeding will compress the brainstem, leading to immediate death. Having the surgery now, while adjusting clotting function simultaneously, there is still a glimmer of hope.¡± All blood vessels in the tumor were abnormal, with walls far weaker than those of normal vessels. When clotting function was impaired, the tumor was likely to bleed spontaneously. ¡°I¡¯m really sorry for causing everyone trouble!¡± Nozaki Yoshihiro felt guilty. After all, an accident had occurred in the part he was responsible for. ¡°Professor Nozaki, there¡¯s no need to blame yourself. The human body is complex and mysterious, not everything changes as expected. Unexplained consumption of clotting factors, the body¡¯s special reactions to certain drugs, improper storage of clotting factors, and the unknown adverse effects of tumors could all be possible causes.¡± Previously when clotting function was impaired, they had been replenishing clotting factors and platelets, and everything had been improving as expected. Then suddenly, the indicators fell to this level. ¡°Let¡¯s prepare for the surgery at eight o¡¯clock tonight!¡± Fujiwara Masao made the decision, speaking on behalf of the family. Bleeding! Terrifying bleeding! This could greatly compromise Dr. Yang¡¯s extraordinary surgical skills, and might even prevent the surgery from proceeding. The situation was straightforward, and the discussion ended in gloom. Fujiwara Masao wanted to go to the meeting room to make the announcement, turning the afternoon¡¯s meeting over to Sasaki, while he focused entirely on dealing with his uncle¡¯s condition. ¡°I¡¯ll wait for my friends!¡± After leaving the meeting room, Yang Ping did not see Huang Jiacai and Old Cheng, so he called them. Fujiwara Masao instructed Takahashi to accompany Yang Ping well, while he hurried back to the meeting room. ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± Yang Ping turned around to find Fujiwara Miyuki standing behind him. ¡°Please, you must save my uncle.¡± Miyuki had also received the news of her uncle¡¯s changing condition. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best!¡± Yang Ping comforted Miyuki. ¡°He¡¯s a good man. The pharmaceutical company under his family¡¯s control¡ªTokyo Island Life¡ªhas developed dozens of advanced drugs. He¡¯s opened up the patents, letting countries produce generics, enabling many patients to enjoy inexpensive medicines.¡± Miyuki said emotionally. ¡°I will give it my all.¡± Yang Ping thought that this nai?ve girl hadn¡¯t realized the severity of the issue. Clotting function impairment! Was now the arch-enemy of a surgeon, and no one could say they definitely could handle it. Just one night had passed, but the condition had changed dramatically. ¡°Miyuki!¡± The voice of Fujiwara Wakan, his slender figure appeared from a distance, without any bodyguards by his side. ¡°Dr. Yang, nice to meet you!¡± Fujiwara Wakan recognized Yang Ping at a glance and greeted him in Japanese, Takahashi helping with translation. ¡°I¡¯ve heard of the changes in Uncle¡¯s condition, so I rushed over.¡± Fujiwara Wakan had just visited the special care ward and communicated with the doctor. ¡°The clotting function is impaired.¡± Yang Ping told him. ¡°I heard that Dr. Yang still insists on the surgery. I¡¯m deeply moved. In this world, I believe the most respectable people are doctors and teachers, the most divine professions!¡± ¡°That¡¯s high praise.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s true. Your profession is holy and inviolable. My brother told me that you are a rare genius doctor.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a love for medicine, nothing to do with genius.¡± ¡°The progress of the world is driven by geniuses. You¡¯re being too modest.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve always considered myself an ordinary person.¡± ¡°No matter the outcome, as family members, we are very grateful for your efforts, thank you!¡± Fujiwara Wakan bowed deeply. ¡°Thank you for understanding. As long as we¡¯ve given it our all and there are no regrets, that¡¯s enough.¡± ¡°Yes, as long as there are no regrets, that¡¯ll be good. I believe Uncle would think the same.¡± Chapter 539 - 539 489 Stick to the Original Plan ?Chapter 539: Chapter 489 Stick to the Original Plan Chapter 539: Chapter 489 Stick to the Original Plan In preparation for Fujiwara Tani¡¯s surgery, Song Zimo and his team stayed in the intensive care ward. As Song Zimo was fluent in English and Japanese, he had no difficulties with communication. Moreover, as Master Song had previously spent a short term at Tokyo University Hospital, he was quite familiar with the place. However, the Japanese are peculiar as they often insert some German words in their medical histories. Luckily this capable assistant was well versed in German as well, his proficiency was undeniable. The Japanese doctors, who had been following Song Zimo, offered their assistance when he encountered German words. However, they were taken aback by his perfect pronunciation leaving them embarrassed. A genius assistant indeed. With such a capable assistant, much of Yang Ping¡¯s stress was alleviated. He could focus on inspecting the reports sent to his phone due to his lack of trivial concerns. Yang Ping stayed in the hotel conducting research on Fujiwara Tani¡¯s condition. Huang Jiacai, Old Cheng, and Takahashi were by his side. Old Cheng served tea, filled water, and peeled apples. When the time came for snacks, the apples were already in Yang Ping¡¯s hands. Takahashi helped in searching for medical records. Whatever Yang Ping wanted to see got displayed on the dedicated screen. The image enlarged or rotated at his command. He memorized the medical records and studied the image data many times over. Huang Jiacai was in charge of coordination. He also kept in contact with the People¡¯s Insurance of the Ning family. For instance, their return flight on a private jet arranged by Ning Qi was ready to board at their convenience. After a large dose of clotting factors, the coagulation function stabilized temporarily but soon showed a downward trend. It was clear that the life span of clotting factors in the body had shortened, accelerating their consumption. Overdose of clotting factors could also lead to severe consequences. New CT and MRI images, like snowflakes, were sent one after the other, creating an overwhelming load. ¡°Should we take a break?¡± Filled with sympathy, Old Cheng suggested, considering the highly intensive mental work they were doing. Takahashi also suggested, ¡°Let¡¯s take a break.¡± Alright then, let¡¯s rest. They decided to skip the afternoon meeting and rest in the hotel until the surgery at night. Yang Ping took off his shoes and curled up on the couch for a rest. Old Cheng brought out a thick blanket from the room to cover Yang Ping. Noticing the temperature displayed on the control screen of the room, Takahashi pointed out, ¡°The heating is already set to 30 degrees, this blanket is too thick.¡± Old Cheng replaces the blanket with a thinner one. Everyone was careful not to disturb Doctor Yang while he rested and maintained silence as Old Cheng was well-acquainted with Yang Ping¡¯s habits. So the three sat in the living room of the hotel suite, looking after Yang Ping. They exchanged glances silently, creating an awkward atmosphere. ¡ª Coagulation dysfunction brought about a terrifying amount of bleeding and was the biggest obstacle in surgery. Hemostasis! Hemostasis! Perfect hemostasis! In the operating room of the system space. The familiar operating table and the familiar robotic arm. The experimental body of Fujiwara Tani was lying on the table, replicated by the system. The case replicated by the system was the real case at the moment of replication. That is, the laboratory lying on the operating table now was exactly the same as Fujiwara Tani at the moment of replication. After the coagulation time was prolonged, bleeding would sustain for more than five minutes even with a small puncture wound just like a needle prick. Just like in ordinary surgeries, the place was disinfected and a sheet was spread out. Then Yang Ping began the surgery. Incising the skin and opening the spinal canal and the base of the skull was something he was incredibly familiar with. As he incised the upper spinal cord and medulla with the scalpel, blood started gushing out from everywhere in the section. Yang Ping used bipolar electrocoagulation with great speed and precision to touch and coagulate each point on the section. All the bleeding points were obliterated. To achieve such accurate hemostasis, the position of bipolar electrocoagulation on the bleeding site had to be precise without any error, and the duration had to be controlled without extending, otherwise, it could cause burns to surrounding tissues. This was exceedingly difficult. Even though there was quick hemostasis, it was unable to avoid burns to medullary tissues caused by incorrect handling. Essentially, the principle of bipolar electrocoagulation in hemostasis was to cause contraction and carbonization of the bleeding blood vessel, thereby achieving hemostasis. It was easy to cause burns or carbonization to surrounding tissues if the control was not right. So many bleeding points ¨C each point increased the chance of a burn. Summing all these bleeding points, the damage caused to the medulla could be fatal. This wasn¡¯t a surgical process any human could perform. Even a supercomputer controlling the laser for spot welding couldn¡¯t yield such precise and meticulous results. Yang Ping composed himself, steadied his hands, and barely finished the surgery. Although he was satisfied with the hemostasis, it was far from the requirements of a successful surgery. The experimental body was declared dead due to minor postoperative bleeding. Yang Ping did not lose heart and continued with the surgeries. He performed five surgeries in a row. All patients either died during the surgery or postoperatively. There was almost no chance of success. As it is said, one cannot step into the same river twice. Similarly, differences, even if slight, always existed between every experimental body. It wasn¡¯t possible for Yang Ping to replicate precisely the tissue anatomy, every time he incised. This made it impossible to replicate each bleeding point on every section. As long as there are different, new, and unknown bleeding points, it is impossible to achieve the best hemostasis. To truly achieve perfect hemostasis, unless during the training now, when making the incision between the medulla oblongata and the superior spinal cord, every cut is the same, and the bleeding points on the surface are the same. That way, during hemostasis, muscle memory can form. This is so difficult! It is like stacking dozens of slippery iron balls one by one, continually building up. Yang Ping doesn¡¯t want to give up, as long as there is a glimmer of hope, he wants to give up. He calculated the integral, it was enough. So he continued to buy clone specimens, five, ten, twenty¡ª And so on, repeat endlessly like this. The damned thing about this is that this repetition is to minimize the difference for each cut and maximize similarity, so it can only be repeated over and over again. Yang Ping truly experienced the process of water dripping through stone. No matter what differences there are in Fujiwara Tani¡¯s specimens each time, his anatomical structure will not change. What changes are only his status and function. The anatomical structure doesn¡¯t change. Naturally, the distribution of those large and small blood vessels certainly won¡¯t change. As long as every cut is made, it can truly be reproduced. Then those bleeding points are fixed, and then he can achieve perfect hemostasis. Yang Ping is increasingly confident. The brain¡¯s memory, muscle memory, gradually forms in repetition. Hemorrhage dealing, making progress with each attempt. Specimens are continuously consumed. I don¡¯t know how many surgeries have been done. Every time when incising, there is no need to look, no need to think, the bipolar electrocoagulation just aims at the bleeding point. The position and force are very precise. Finally, the surgery is complete. Yang Ping saw on the monitoring instruments, the vital signs were stable, Fujiwara Tani was finally alive. Yang Ping continued the surgery to strengthen this memory. Moreover, after each surgery, he observes the specimen for one day, two days, three days ¡ª until it has left danger and can ensure there won¡¯t be postoperative bleeding. Not until he satisfied himself, unknowing how long he stayed in the system space, his mental fatigue was extreme, nearing the edge of collapse. Coming out from the space of the operating room, Yang Ping curled up on the sofa and actually began to sleep. Mental fatigue in the system space can be alleviated by real-life rest. This is the rule of the system. Fujiwara Tani¡¯s administration of clotting factors is nearing the limit. It must be paused to ensure that the clotting factors can continue to be administered after surgery to adjust the clotting function. When he woke, it was already five in the afternoon. The Asia-Pacific Orthopedics Association forum had already ended, Professor Liang, Professor Su, and Professor Qin had returned to their hotel and started preparing for their departure from Japan first thing tomorrow morning. They heard Yang Ping was resting and didn¡¯t want to disturb him. They know Yang Ping still has a major surgery to perform tonight, and he¡¯s going in despite absolute contraindications. ¡°What time is it?¡± Yang Ping woke up. ¡°Half past five!¡± Old Cheng had been sitting in the living room, watching Yang Ping, not even daring to blink. ¡°Nothing¡¯s wrong, right?¡± Yang Ping rubbed his eyes, he had rested well. ¡°Nothing¡¯s wrong!¡± Old Cheng had been watching all this time, if anything happened and Song Zimo called, he would know. Yang Ping took out his phone and checked. Xiao Su and the others had returned from shopping and bought him some gifts. They knew Yang Ping was resting, so they did not come in. ¡°Teacher Fujiwara has called, the supercomputer at Tokyo University has been simulating the surgery on President Gusheng all day today¡ª¡°Takahashi looked a little embarrassed. ¡°What¡¯s the outcome?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°All died from uncontrollable bleeding during the operation. It simulated ten thousand times, and there were no exceptions!¡± Takahashi frowned deeply, waiting for Yang Ping¡¯s reaction, whether the operation would still be performed. ¡°Ten thousand times? So many times!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s voice was very plain, there was no surprise at all. Using supercomputers to simulate surgeries are not new. Americans, Germans, they¡¯re all doing it. After all, the human body is so complex, many parameters are not clarified, the computer¡¯s modeling is definitely distorted, no matter how it simulates, it can only look like that. ¡°Dr. Yang? Professor Fujiwara will see you soon, bringing the simulation data of the surgery today... proceed with the surgery as planned?¡± Takahashi was cautious, thinking that Yang Ping just woke up and might be a little muddled. ¡°Proceed as planned!¡± Yang Ping was very laid-back. Chapter 540 - 540 490 Night in Tokyo ?Chapter 540: Chapter 490: Night in Tokyo Chapter 540: Chapter 490: Night in Tokyo The ¡°Digital Human¡± project of Tokyo University has been developed for more than forty years. The ¡°Digital Human¡± built with supercomputers can be said to be the world¡¯s top simulation technology. Digital Humans are widely applied in medical fields. For instance, in pharmaceutical production, they can use this platform¡¯s unique drug experimental model to simulate human drug trials, obtaining data within a few hours that would otherwise take several years or even decades to obtain. This accelerates the speed of drug research and development greatly. The primary funding source behind this laboratory is the Fujiwara Family. After Fujiwara Tani fell ill, professors from Tokyo University Hospital started using this technology for various simulations. Previous simulation results showed only a ten percent success rate, and the successful cases only appeared late in the simulation. If this conclusion is applied to reality, doctors would need to perform thousands of surgeries to possibly achieve this ten percent success rate. Now that Fujiwara Tani¡¯s condition has changed, another round of simulation was performed. Ten thousand times, not one was successful. At the Mori Hometown hotel, Fujiwara Tani met Yang Ping. He gravely handed Yang Ping a document that has been translated into Chinese. This document is the conclusion of the supercomputer simulation of the surgery at Tokyo University. ¡°Doctor Yang, this is the surgical report simulated by Tokyo University¡¯s supercomputer using the Digital Human. I hope it can help you.¡± No matter the result, Fujiwara Masao doesn¡¯t plan to change the course. Because the supercomputer also simulated that if no surgery is performed, there is a ninety percent probability of dying within 24 hours due to a hemorrhage from the tumor. There¡¯s a one hundred percent death rate within 72 hours. So, whether to have the surgery or not, the conclusion is hard to avoid. Opting for aggressive surgery is also a form of effort. Yang Ping just casually flicked through the report, then closed it. ¡°Let¡¯s operate at eight o¡¯clock tonight. This thing has no meaning. A Digital Human cannot simulate a real human, and the case model built using a Digital Human is even more distorted.¡± Yang Ping doesn¡¯t want to waste his effort by looking at these things. Fujiwara Masao assumed that Yang Ping would give up the operation after seeing this document. He didn¡¯t expect Yang Ping to seemingly have no reaction to it, not even a ripple. ¡°Dr. Yang, the supercomputer simulated ten thousand times, and the patient ended up dead in each one.¡± Takahashi thought Yang Ping should have a look, at least it can provide some reference for the surgery. Yang Ping waved his hand: ¡°This damn machine is useless.¡± The thing, produced with an investment of several billion US dollars, was described as a useless piece of junk by him. Fujiwara Masao was speechless at Yang Ping¡¯s comment. Yang Ping didn¡¯t mean to belittle it deliberatively, it was just that after performing so many surgeries in the system space, he had a clear understanding of many things and only trusts himself. He really didn¡¯t want to waste time to focus on these things. All he wanted to do was rest quietly and gather his energy. When the time came for surgery, he would focus his mind and complete it at one go. Fujiwara Masao didn¡¯t know what to say about Yang Ping¡¯s attitude. Since Dr. Yang is the Chief Surgeon, it would seem a bit untrusting if he continued to harp on this matter. ¡°Then, Doctor Yang, please rest well. The patient will be sent to the operating room on time at eight.¡± Fujiwara Masao hurriedly bid farewell to Yang Ping and rushed back to the special care ward. The doctor¡¯s office had already gathered many people, including Professor Ito, Ikeda, Komori, Matsui, and others. ¡°How is it, what did Dr. Yang say?¡± Fujiwara Masao shook his head: ¡°He said, we¡¯ll carry out the surgery as planned.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you let him see the report?¡± ¡°I did. He said the simulation from this crappy machine is inconsequential.¡± Fujiwara Masao could only tell the truth. Professor Ito was confused: ¡°Did he really say that?¡± ¡°Yes, those are his exact words. The plan hasn¡¯t changed, the surgery still starts at eight! The simulation for conservative treatment is also very clear. There is a ninety percent probability of death within 24 hours, one hundred percent death rate within 72 hours. Let¡¯s give it our all.¡± Originally, Ito was inclined to support the surgery, and he had no doubts about Yang Ping¡¯s operative competence. However, Fujiwara Tani¡¯s current condition is truly baffling. With Dr. Yang¡¯s knowledge and ability, there must be a reason why he still insists on performing the seemingly reckless surgery. Absolute surgical contraindication is one thing, but a hundred percent death rate in the supercomputer surgical simulation is another. Any doctor in the world would definitely give up voluntarily when faced with this outcome. But he remains indifferent and continues with the surgery. Is it just to accumulate surgical experience? Since Fujiwara Masao has already decided, Ito had nothing to say. ¡°Did he mention a method to stop the bleeding?¡± ¡°Continue to replenish clotting factors post-operatively and the blood clotting function will slowly recover within 5-7 days. But we can¡¯t wait even a single night, let alone 5-7 days.¡± Even as prestigious a professor as Fujiwara at Tokyo University Hospital, he was left dumbfounded by Yang Ping and failed to comprehend why Yang Ping seemed so confident. It¡¯s absolutely impossible! Such a headache. ¡°I have to step out for a bit, you guys wait.¡± Fujiwara Masao went to have a preoperative talk with his brother, while Mitsui and Komori stayed behind with Professors Ito and Ikeda. None of them plan to rest tonight. They must observe the whole process of surgery. Fujiwara Masao met his younger brother in the family rest area of the special care ward. ¡°How is it?¡± Fujiwara Wakan was very anxious. Fujiwara Masao handed the thick report to his brother: ¡°According to the supercomputer simulation at Tokyo University Hospital, the intraoperative mortality rate is one hundred percent¡ª¡± Fujiwara Wakan was extremely disappointed: ¡°How about conservative treatment?¡± ¡°The probability of death within 24 hours is ninety percent, and the mortality rate is one hundred percent within 72 hours.¡± Fujiwara Wakan took a deep breath. ¡°The family elders agreed not to interfere with the medical plan, what should we do now? I will listen to you, you are the doctor.¡± Fujiwara Wakan leaned against the chair back, his eyes vacant. ¡°Given the situation, we have no choice but to perform the surgery. Even if there is no hope, we have tried our best. If we do nothing, we will regret it. A moth¡¯s struggle against the flame is also a testimony of earnestness.¡± ¡°I agree with your decision, let it be our final attempt!¡± ¡°Can the situation¨Cbe maintained?¡± Fujiwara Masao did not want to ask these things, but after all, they were brothers. His brother nodded, ¡°I hope Uncle can make it through the night and take charge again, otherwise everything will fall apart.¡± ¡°Medically, it is already impossible for him to survive tonight,¡± Fujiwara Masao had to reiterate. Fujiwara Masao saw the tears in his brother¡¯s eyes, he knew that the relationship between his brother and sister with their uncle was just like father and son. ¡°It¡¯s the inevitable law of life. This time, the supercomputer used nearly all of its computational power, and the human body simulation conducted is the most advanced, most complex, and lifelike in the world today. It failed ten thousand times. This result can almost be considered a fact. I believe that this report has already reached the hands of the family elders and your adversaries. Moreover, they are even more aware of the disease than you and I. So you must be prepared for any unexpected events tonight.¡± ¡°As a doctor, I don¡¯t want to get involved in these family matters. However, you are my brother and I must remind you. If Uncle¡¯s heart stops beating tonight, according to the family law, you will automatically become the official president and head of the Fujiwara family. If they move against you then, they will be challenging the entire family and the family traditions.¡± ¡°Knowing the result of the surgery simulation, they will definitely take measures against you before the surgery. At this time, you are at your most vulnerable. Even if they take any measures against you, it will not cause a huge shock. I sometimes wonder, is the family tradition testing the ability of the transitionary leader? I really worry about you, Miyuki and I can¡¯t help you, take care of yourself.¡± Fujiwara Masao was just a doctor, but his brother was caught in a whirlpool, so he was very nervous. ¡°Brother, thank you. That¡¯s enough with just your words. We three brothers and sisters were originally abandoned by the Fujiwara family. If it weren¡¯t for Uncle¡¯s cultivation, I wouldn¡¯t be where I am today. I just saw Uncle. During the surgery, I have to handle some things and can¡¯t accompany him. Please take care of him.¡± Fujiwara Wakan sat upright. ¡°Tokyo will probably not be peaceful tonight, will it?¡± Fujiwara Masao moved his neck a bit. Fujiwara Wakan calmly replied: ¡°It will definitely be quiet.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go see him again, where is Miyuki, I¡¯ll call her over.¡± Fujiwara Masao picked up his phone. Across from him, his brother¡¯s face was full of tears. Fujiwara Masao knew that his younger brother¡¯s feelings for their uncle were deeper than anyone else¡¯s. Miyuki hurried over, her eyes also filled with tears. ¡°While he is still breathing, let¡¯s go see him one more time.¡± Fujiwara Masao got up, leading his brother and sister along a corridor of the intensive care ward. Through the glass, they could see their uncle from a distance. Fujiwara Wakan suddenly stopped. ¡°Wakan?¡± ¡°You guys go ahead, just let me stand here and take one more look.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Wakan?¡± ¡°Go on¡ª¡± Fujiwara Masao didn¡¯t know why his brother had stopped, maybe he was just too upset. So he nodded and continued along the corridor with Miyuki, turning into the intensive care unit through the wind tunnel passageway. ¡°Goodbye, Uncle. I will certainly become the strongest and lead the Fujiwara family into the future!¡± Fujiwara Wakan bowed deeply, taking a while to raise his head again, then he turned around, not looking back, but his face was full of tears. One scene after another from the past emerged in his mind. ¡°Get started, strike your sword at me, you bastard!¡± ¡°Uncle, your arm is injured.¡± ¡°This is your best chance to defeat me, don¡¯t be merciful, otherwise, you will fall under the enemy¡¯s sword.¡± ¡°No, I can¡¯t do this.¡± ¡°Get up, get up. Since you¡¯ve already engaged in a duel, don¡¯t be merciful. Listen to me, if there¡¯s a day when you can take charge of the Fujiwara family, you will be one of the strongest men in Japan. No one can be your obstacle, including me, and you won¡¯t have friends or relatives, everything will be your chess pieces.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do it!¡± ¡°You must do it, strike it, strike my injured arm.¡± Fujiwara Wakan gritted his teeth and brandished his sword, hitting his uncle¡¯s injured arm. ¡°Uncle, how¡¯s your arm¡ª¡± ¡°Very good! You finally overcame your own inner demon. If there¡¯s a day when you must do this, don¡¯t hesitate no matter who it is. Seize the opportunity and draw your sword. Don¡¯t disappoint your uncle.¡± This was when Fujiwara Wakan was practicing Kendo with his uncle. Fujiwara Wakan never had a chance to win. One day, his uncle injured his arm, and Fujiwara Wakan was unable to strike his uncle with his sword, which made his uncle furious. ¡°Uncle, I won¡¯t disappoint you.¡± ¡°Let me compete with them tonight.¡± Fujiwara Wakan adjusted his tie, wiped away his tears, and took a deep breath. Chapter 541 - 541 491 Tokyo Night (Part 2) ?Chapter 541: Chapter 491: Tokyo Night (Part 2) Chapter 541: Chapter 491: Tokyo Night (Part 2) Fujiwara Tani lay in his hospital bed, surrounded by medical instruments. The best medical technology in all of Japan had kept him alive for over a month, and any expensive medication and medical equipment that could be used in the intensive care unit was not hesitated to be used. How much it cost, tens or hundreds of millions, did not matter. The nurse had helped Fujiwara Tani prepare for surgery by shaving all his hair off to reveal a shiny, clean scalp, which was then sterilized. Fujiwara Masao carefully examined the scalp. There was no injury at all. The latest blood test results showed a slight improvement in coagulation function on the bedside data screen, indicating a slow response to treatment. This improvement was meaningless for the surgery. ¡°I should have invited Dr. Yang to operate earlier.¡± Fujiwara Masao blamed himself somewhat. Miyuki comforted her brother, ¡°At that time, the entire Tokyo University Hospital was against you. Even if you wanted to, it was impossible to do.¡± ¡°If there¡¯s anything you want to say, tell uncle now.¡± Although Fujiwara Tani was in a coma, he still had a heartbeat and was breathing. He was alive. Miyuki adamantly shook her head, ¡°No, I want to wait until uncle wakes up to talk to him, I believe in Dr. Yang. He can do it. He is a man at the peak of the world.¡± ¡°I wish I could be like you, harboring some innocent fantasies in my heart.¡± Fujiwara Masao sighed. Miyuki was insistent, ¡°When I was in China, before every surgery, I could always see the confidence in his eyes, like a burning flame. This time is the same, I see the flame of confidence in his eyes, it has not been extinguished.¡± Love can blind one¡¯s mind and eyes. It seemed that there was no mistake in this saying. Innocent sister, let her stick to her own views. Perhaps this was not a bad thing. ¡ª Professor Liang, Professor Su, Professor Qin and other people changed their travel plans and decided to wait for Yang Ping to complete the surgery before leaving. Ning Qi had prepared a private jet to send all the Chinese doctors back to the country. This way, everyone wouldn¡¯t need to catch a flight and could leave whenever they wanted. The doctors from various countries who attended the conference also smelled something. Although they didn¡¯t know who the patient was, they knew that Yang Ping was the chief surgeon and the Tokyo University Hospital put so much importance on it, it definitely was not a simple surgery. They still had fresh memories of Yang Ping¡¯s surgery on the first day. As long as they were not short on time, they all stayed. Because of the special status of Fujiwara Tani, this surgery was not publicized, and only the professors within the Tokyo University Hospital knew about it. Nevertheless, it has stirred up huge waves. This was destined to be a sleepless night. The conference room where the conference was held these two days was still bustling. The professors of Tokyo University Hospital would observe the operation here, and the conference attendees who stayed, following the Chinese and Japanese doctors, would also return to this conference room. The conference room had gathered a lot of people. Professors Ito and Ikeda had been sitting in the venue for a long time, truly impressive. Doctors from various countries confirmed their judgments and began to wait in the meeting room. Ito and Ikeda kept looking at their watches, calculating how long it was before the surgery would start. How exactly was the young Dr. Yang going to perform this operation. The digital human simulation technology of Tokyo University has accumulated more than forty years and expended a lot of manpower and resources, could it really be a piece of junk? ¡°Where is Dr. Yang now?¡± Ikeda asked Mitsui, who along with Sasaki, were commissioned by Fujiwara to be responsible for the reception here. ¡°They say he¡¯s still sleeping at the hotel!¡± This was the news Mitsui had just received. Such a significant surgery, and the chief surgeon Dr. Yang is actually sleeping. Is this resignation, or really holding a winning hand? When Ikeda heard this, he was taken aback, and Ito was also very surprised. Dr. Yang is really a strange person! In such a situation, he can still sleep? Can he fall asleep? Usually, before ordinary fracture surgery, if the patient takes aspirin orally, it would make the chief surgeon highly nervous. Now with this terrifying coagulation dysfunction, he could still sleep. Tokyo University Hospital is considered the top of the medical field in Japan and is also a top presence in the world. Shuntian Hospital in Japan is equivalent to Xiehe in China. Now, the top professors at these two hospitals were all confused by Yang Ping. The main professors in charge of the digital human project at Tokyo University also secretly arrived at the venue. If this surgery is really successfully completed by someone, then their model and algorithm may have to be overturned and restarted. Simulated ten thousand times with a zero success rate, it¡¯s impossible for a doctor to succeed. ¡°Do you think Tokyo University¡¯s simulation technology isn¡¯t really junk like Dr. Yang said?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so, but since Dr. Yang said it is, I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s not far from being junk.¡± ¡°I find this Dr. Yang getting weirder and weirder. Tokyo University has simulated it ten thousand times, and the result is the same every time, the patient dies during the surgery. He still wants to perform the surgery. I just don¡¯t understand him.¡± ¡°When do we ever understand? This is not the first time we¡¯ve encountered this. It always opens our minds. Remember in the United States?¡± ¡°Yes, let¡¯s watch it. Just treat it as a movie.¡± Huang Jiacai and Old Cheng were enjoying snacks provided at the venue while chatting. They were very comfortable. The two were not shy, each holding a large plate, filled with a variety of snacks, eating with relish. Sitting next to them happened to be a few professors from Tokyo University. One of them actually understood Chinese and turned green when he heard the two say Tokyo University¡¯s simulation technology was junk. He wanted to argue, but didn¡¯t know how to organize his language. If Tokyo University¡¯s simulation technology is junk, do they have better technology? This professor stared at Old Cheng, looking like he wanted to fight. Old Cheng felt his expression was not right. He was a Japanese and he didn¡¯t know him. Then he looked at the plate in his hand and the snack he had just put in his mouth. ¡°Japanese people are not so petty, are they? It¡¯s just eating some snacks, and they make a big deal about it. It¡¯s as if they want to fight.¡± The fork in Old Cheng¡¯s hand was about to stab a beef steak, and he felt somewhat embarrassed to put it in his mouth. ¡°There¡¯s more over there, don¡¯t worry, the amount is enough! Plenty!¡± Old Cheng said in a bit of Japanese. ¡ª The head nurse and the director of the anesthesiology department at Tokyo University Hospital personally stayed on duty. However, the patient¡¯s surgery was completely taken over by the Chinese team. They could only provide peripheral support and couldn¡¯t get directly involved. The elite of the operating room staff was asked to stay behind and be on standby at all times. President Fujiwara of the Intensive Care Unit is an important figure! When Yang Ping woke up, he was escorted by Takahashi to the operating room of Tokyo University Hospital, where he changed into surgical scrubs and put on a mask and hat. Instead of rushing into the operating room, he stayed in the changing room to rest. His calmness and composure were extraordinary. Even Takahashi was very anxious. The usually difficult surgeries are performed under adapted conditions. Today¡¯s surgery is completely different ¨C the patient has coagulation dysfunction, which could lead to uncontrollable bleeding. Song Zimo knew that Yang Ping had reached the changing room, so he returned to the changing room to meet him. ¡°Call me once the patient¡¯s position is set. I will personally inspect the head stabilizer. I will perform the operation starting from the incision.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Song Zimo took the instructions. He knew that the most lethal threat to this surgery was hemostasis; any uncontrolled bleeding could be equal to death. During a regular surgery, some minor bleeding points can be stopped by the body¡¯s self-coagulation function. Once there is a coagulation dysfunction and coagulation time increases, these minor bleeding points can only be stopped manually by the surgeon. Surgeries on the medulla oblongata and upper cervical spinal cord have almost zero tolerance to infiltration of blood. He did not know how Yang Ping would complete this horrific surgery, but he had faith that Yang Ping could do it. Because Yang Ping seemed to, inherently, not do anything he wasn¡¯t sure about. He would never put a patient in peril, never harm a patient¡¯s best interest, and never perform an operation just for the sake of operating. If there was not a reasonable chance of success, Yang Ping would undoubtedly choose conservative treatment, which could extend the patient¡¯s life. At eight o¡¯clock in the evening, Fujiwara Tani was brought into the operating room, with Fujiwara Masao and Miyuki accompanying him the whole time. The patient, who was too dangerous for countless top professors to operate on, was finally about to go on the operating table. After anesthesia, he was placed in the prone position, naked, lying on the operating table, his head firmly fixed by a stabilizer. ¡°The coagulation function is still the same!¡± The blood test report, performed after entering the operating room to check the coagulation function, had already been published and simultaneously displayed on the screen in the operating room. ¡°Do not disinfect first. Doctor Yang wants to check the status of the head fixation.¡± Song Zimo directed the team in coordination. ¡ª On the huge screen, two images were displayed: one was the surgical field of vision and the other was a panoramic view of the operating room. Regardless of the outcome, the Japanese used 360-degree, all-angle filming. They were intent on capturing classic moments, not overlooking any detail, for research and learning. The atmosphere in the entire conference room was tenser than watching the most thrilling movie. Though there was no music, they could feel the rhythm. The door to the operating room opened, and Yang Ping, dressed in surgical scrubs, walked in. He was confident with his head held high, showing no signs of discouragement. ¡°Doctor Yang!¡± Everyone in the operating room greeted Yang Ping. Yang Ping simply nodded. He went to the screen, carefully scanned the image, and then adjusted the head stabilizer by hand. Every screw was adjusted by him personally. With the assistance of Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, he made the strictest adjustments to the position of the head stabilizer until he was satisfied. He aimed to make the patient¡¯s position and the angle of the head fixation as consistent as possible with the system space during training. ¡°This surgery is special. Throughout the procedure, you all just need to handle the retractors. Apart from that, no other actions are allowed without my order. Also, there will be no questions during the operation. Any issues can be discussed after the operation.¡± Yang Ping gave his instructions to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang ahead of time, but it was also meant for everyone in the operating room. This was because any distracting action could disrupt his own rhythm and cause abnormalities in the functioning of his brain and muscle memory. ¡°No matter how much bleeding occurs, you all do not need to worry or pay attention to it. Follow my rhythm with the pulling of the retractors. You understand.¡± Song Zimo understood completely. They simply needed to handle the retractors, and Yang Ping would operate the entire surgery himself. Moreover, they needed to follow his operation rhythm with the retractors. When he had completed hemostasis at one point, the retractors subtly moved in, but had to make space for him when anticipating another hemostasis spot. ¡°I will be in charge of altering the retractor position, and you only need to keep the retractor stable.¡± Both Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang agreed. Their teamwork was quite tacit already; during Ning Yu¡¯s surgery, during critical procedures they had worked in the same way. Yang Ping operated alone, Song Zimo adjusted the position of the retractors, Xu Zhiliang took over to maintain their position, and Song Zimo immediately adjusted another retractor in sequence. ¡°Instruments!¡± Yang Ping glanced at the sterile instrument table. ¡°All set!¡± Xiao Su had already neatly arranged the instruments. 24 bipolar electrocoagulation equipment were placed on the surgical table, propped up by a dedicated mini stand, their pointed ends in mid-air. ¡°In the operation, every time I call out a number, that will determine the model of the bipolar electrocoagulation to be used immediately next.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Xiao Su was already prepared. ¡°Wash hands and disinfect!¡± Upon hearing Yang Ping¡¯s command, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang immediately left to wash their hands. For this operation, Tokyo University Hospital had signed a liability waiver, so Komori Daisuke and Matsui Raizo didn¡¯t need to be on stage and were only on standby offstage. Fujiwara Masao and Miyuki stayed in the operating room to accompany the entire surgery process. ¡°Please, Doctor Yang!¡± Miyuki bowed to Yang Ping again. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, trust me!¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t know how to comfort people, so he could only say that. Miyuki nodded, looking at Yang Ping with a complicated expression. Upon returning from hand washing, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang began to disinfect. Takahashi brought a stool for Yang Ping to sit on. Yang Ping sat on the stool, closed his eyes to rest, and performed one final simulation. Chapter 542 - 542 492 Tokyo Night (3) ?Chapter 542: Chapter 492: Tokyo Night (3) Chapter 542: Chapter 492: Tokyo Night (3) After the disinfection and laying of sheets, Yang Ping washed his hands and stepped onto the stage. The persistent devilish training in the system space has made his mind extremely mature and strong. Twenty-four bipolar electrocoagulation tools, with tips ranging from thick to thin, were arranged in a straight line from left to right and laid out on a specialized instrument table. These bipolar electrocoagulation tools were produced by the best medical equipment company in Japan, designed for the most meticulous surgeries. Normally, a surgery at Tokyo University Hospital would only require four or five of these tools. Today, Yang Ping was going to use all twenty-four tools, something unprecedented at Tokyo University Hospital. The preoperative routine check. As an essential procedure for every surgery, Yang Ping never perfunctorily concluded it, but always seriously and conscientiously completed the verification. Looking at the exposed surgical area, Yang Ping adjusted his breathing, holding the scalpel in his right hand and bipolar electrocoagulation in his left; Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were responsible for exposure. Report vital signs! ¡°Heart rate 48 beats / minute, breathing 20 times / minute, blood pressure 122 / 62mmHg, blood oxygen saturation 98%¡ª¡± ¡°Are you ready?¡± Yang Ping asked again. ¡°We¡¯re ready!¡± Everyone answered in unison. ¡°The surgery today is our greatest challenge ever, with the most critical challenge ironically being the most basic skill of a surgeon¡ªhemostasis! Do you still remember my first night in Japan?¡± Yang Ping wanted to lighten everyone¡¯s mood. ¡°Remember, at Yoshiko Residence!¡± Takahashi answered. ¡°What¡¯s your most impressive memory of that restaurant?¡± Yang Ping continued to ask. ¡°A three-kilogram fish, cut into five hundred and five slices, each as thin as a cicada¡¯s wing, uniformly thick and thin.¡± Takahashi will always remember Boss Natsume¡¯s superb knife skills. ¡°Yes, that is the result of constantly challenging oneself. Today, let¡¯s see if we can close thousands and tens of thousands of bleeding points accurately and quickly. Let¡¯s start!¡± The scalpel moved, the sharp blade opened the skin, swiftly drew a straight line, and then ended with a stylish finish. Not too deep, not too superficial, it just cut through the epidermis and dermis. The two hooks of the first assistant were very nimble, timely pulling apart the cut skin. After they were placed, the second assistant quickly took over to secure the hooks. The speed of the hands was faster than the speed of bleeding. The exposed cross sections of the blood vessels on both sides of the skin were about to seep out bright red blood, but before the faint red spots could form, bipolar electrocoagulation swept over them like lightning, one, two, three, four, five¡ª Each bleeding point required only one electrocoagulation, not more, not less, one by one corresponding, with no omission of bleeding points and no inefficiency, all bleeding points were quickly sealed. Such quick and precise technique was just like the laser spot welding on a chip assembly line. The third hook was placed at the place where hemostasis was already done, the first hook that was put in place was loosened, revealing a new section, and bipolar electrocoagulation quickly filled in, leading to another round of precise high-speed checks. The coordination of the hand-eye-brain of the chief surgeon was at its peak, seeming to know in advance all the bleeding points, and each movement was a sure hit. The second hook loosened again, and the chief surgeon repeated the hemostasis process. While the second hook was loosening, it was also immediately looking for a new position. In this way, hemostasis and exposure were extremely well-coordinated. Of the three hooks, there¡¯s always one looking for a new position while the other two remained stationary to maintain exposure. In this alternating, quick coordination. It was just like juggling, with three balls, at any time, one in the hand and two in the air. The surgery progressed in this rhythm, which was intentional for Yang Ping, his rhythm not only met the requirements of the surgery, but also took into account the best rhythm for Song Zimo, so that the team could exert the greatest power. Otherwise, if the rhythm was disrupted, mistakes could happen. Song Zimo himself could also feel that the chief surgeon could control the rhythm at any time, allowing him to follow smoothly and perform at his fastest speed. The bleeding points of the skin were perfectly closed. The metal blade was replaced with a laser blade, ready to cut open the subcutaneous fat layer. The giant high-definition screen was able to capture even the pores of the skin in the surgical area, with every detail clearly visible. At this point, everyone saw that when the chief surgeon cut open the epidermis and dermis with a single cut, the epidermis and dermis were completely cut through, and the subcutaneous fat layer remained intact. In the magnified view, there wasn¡¯t a single bleeding point in the subcutaneous fat layer. It demonstrated a magnificent knife skill, indicating a high level of control, carrying out actions with extraordinary finesse. Now, the laser knife was used to open the subcutaneous fat layer. Under the skin, the loose fat tissue and the web-like blood vessels, the bleeding points could easily recoil and be buried by fat particles. But this wasn¡¯t a problem, as the bipolar electrocoagulation tool had already been replaced with a second one. Instead of going for a one-time shape while cutting the subcutaneous fat layer, he chose to cut it in sections. After opening a section, complete the hemostasis, then open another section, then perform hemostasis again. With the coordination of the hooks in exposure, the bipolar electrocoagulation was able to clamp the hiding broken ends of the blood vessels through the gaps in the fat particles. The bleeding points were utterly suppressed in the first round as if they weren¡¯t willing to surrender in this round and would like to escape the killing by the bipolar electrocoagulation. But it was in vain. The bipolar electrocoagulation tool in the chief surgeon¡¯s hand didn¡¯t give them a chance at all. The broken ends of the blood vessels were firmly clamped wherever they went, contracted, carbonized and closed. The second layer of hemostasis was executed without a hitch; not a single bleeding point escaped, not even by chance. Nor did any bleeding points successfully seep crimson blood. If these bleeding points had consciousness, they would surely feel desperate. None were able to escape the clamp-down of bipolar electrocoagulation. The third layer is muscle, the blood circulation of which is exceptionally rich, greatly surpassing the skin and subcutaneous layer. Moreover, numerous arteries intertwine in a chaotic mishmash ¡ª once given the opportunity, they would spurt out. ¡ª The main screen displayed the surgical field in high-definition and magnified. Multi-angle camera feeds were arrayed on several auxiliary screens, allowing the observers to view the progress of the surgery from different angles. Japan¡¯s leading professors stared at the giant screen, feeling an oppressive sensation. It felt as if they were the bleeding points themselves, choked by bipolar electrocoagulation until they could no longer breathe. Hemostasis! It would run through the entire surgery. This god-like surgical technique left all the doctors astounded. ¡°Ikeda-kun!¡± ¡°Ikeda-kun!¡± ¡°Ikeda-kun¡± ¡°Be quiet!¡± ¡°I won¡¯t speak. I just want to confirm. Is this real?¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you bash your head against the wall to find out?¡± Ito and Ikeda momentarily fell silent as they continued observing the surgery. Professor Liang wore a smile. The new generation surpasses the old one. Youth is the world¡¯s future! He was very gratified. The professor quietly thought to himself that he must nurture this young man well to prevent talent loss. Seeing a student leave the country and never return wasn¡¯t unusual in this day and age, but Professor Liang had always been bothered by that, thinking he fell short in some way, causing talent drain. Therefore, he was exceptionally careful this time. The movements on the screen stopped. The chief surgeon allowed the assistant to pause for a moment to rest. Coordinating such a high-level surgery required significant mental exertion. From the muscle layer, they would penetrate through the natural crevices and then, along the posterior arch of the atlas and lamina of the axis, they would peel beneath the periosteum. This way, bleeding could be minimized. At the same time, achieving hemostasis on the posterior arch of the atlas and the lamina of the axis is more difficult than on skin and subcutaneous tissue. On one screen, a 360-degree panoramic camera presented a full view of the operating room. ¡°That instrument nurse, Xiao Yang¡¯s girlfriend, whose daughter is she? Every time there¡¯s a big surgery, she assists Xiao Yang. They are the perfect pair. The only problem is, both doing this job, who will take care of the children in the future?¡± Professor Liang pointed at the nurse on the screen who was currently sorting out the instruments. Professor Su smiled: ¡°No problem, no problem. If anything happens, the mother-in-law can retire early and help look after the child.¡± Upon hearing this, Professor Liang turned to look at Professor Su: ¡°Do you know the girl?¡± Realizing he accidentally leaked confidential information, Professor Su quickly changed the subject: ¡°Well yes, don¡¯t you know her too?¡± Professor Liang continued observing the screen, ¡°This girl must be the daughter of someone in our circle.¡± ¡°Old Su, doesn¡¯t she look a bit like you?¡± Professor Qin already understood the relationship between Xiao Su and Professor Su. Back when they were preparing to poach Yang Ping¡¯s team, the relevant departments had already fully investigated Yang Ping¡¯s team. However, Old Su, cunning and crafty as he is, played innocent. Without thorough investigation, Professor Qin would still be in the dark. No wonder he wasn¡¯t in a rush, and there was no news from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One when Xiehe and 301 Hospitals were aggressively poaching. So that¡¯s it! No matter where they move to, he would still be their father-in-law. Why does he always get a head start in everything? Professor Qin thought to himself. ¡°Oh, really? Really? You know, now that you mention it, I can see the resemblance,¡± Professor Liang responded with interest. Xiao Su resembled her mother, but sometimes children are like that ¨C at first glance, they look like the mother but upon closer inspection, they resemble the father. ¡°This young lady¡¯s surname is Su too?¡± Professor Qin continued probing. At this point, Professor Su blushed a little: ¡°You know this too?¡± ¡°Oh, is it? Her surname is Su too?¡± Professor Liang hadn¡¯t caught on. Xiehe and 301 hospitals differed from military hospitals; they wouldn¡¯t conduct such detailed investigations on Yang Ping. ¡°It won¡¯t be long before Professor Su will invite us to a wedding,¡± Professor Qin hinted without revealing everything. Professor Liang became even more curious: ¡°Oh? When is Nanchen getting married? Has a date been set?¡± ¡°He¡¯s marrying off his daughter!¡± Professor Qin revealed. Professor Liang was well-acquainted with Su Nanchen but he didn¡¯t know Professor Su¡¯s daughter. Chapter 543 - 543 493 Tokyo Night (Part 4) ?Chapter 543: Chapter 493: Tokyo Night (Part 4) Chapter 543: Chapter 493: Tokyo Night (Part 4) ¡°Marrying off a daughter?¡± Professor Liang became more and more interested. Just as Professor Su was contemplating how to respond appropriately, the surgery on the screen resumed and everyone immediately abandoned the discussion to watch the operation. The third layer was the muscle. The delicate dissection proceeded along the natural intermuscular spaces. Carefully, the muscles were parted without any tearing of blood vessels. Two hooks were accurately inserted, and the operating space was quickly formed. The laser knife began to peel off the muscle attachment to the bone surface. Some tiny blood vessels pass from the muscle attachment into the bone. These vessels are not abundant but difficult to handle. Once severed, they retract into the bone, making hemostasis challenging. This is not a problem when blood clotting function is normal. The blood vessels in this area are typically tiny and would quickly clot themselves even if they retract, posing no threat to the operation. However, with impaired blood clotting function, the self-coagulation capacity is reduced, and the retracted vessels cannot clot on their own for a long time, making bleeding a massive threat to the surgery. The chief surgeon¡¯s bipolar electrocoagulation was incredibly domineering. Seizing the very moment the blood vessel ruptured and before it could retract, they accurately clamped the cut end of the vessel and successfully completed the electrocoagulation hemostasis. The knife tip adhered truly to the bone surface, separating the muscle from the posterior arch of the atlas and the lamina of the axis without any bleeding. No trace of residual soft tissue was left on the bone surface. The muscles were now peeled off, allowing for the bone surface to be windowed. With the cooperation of a drill, osteotome, and an electric saw, a hole was made in the bone, and the edges of the hole were smeared with bone wax for hemostasis. Like a layer of coating, the bone wax securely sealed the bone surface, leaving no trace of bleeding. One after another, the bipolar electrocoagulation was replaced. Different layers required different models of bipolar electrocoagulation, maximizing the efficacy of the surgical tools. After passing through the hole in the bone to enter the spinal canal and cranium, the densely packed blood vessels and nerves were delicately pulled apart, while the vessels that needed to be ligated and cut were preemptively dealt with. The layers of membrane were gradually opened as the surgery delved deeper. The flurry of bipolar electrocoagulation for hemostasis gave all the observing doctors a renewed understanding of hemostasis and bipolar electrocoagulation. Could it really be done this way? Could one really achieve this? Amidst a wave of incredulous amazement, the medulla oblongata and upper spinal cord were finally revealed. Up to this point, hemostasis was perfect. Not a single overlooked spot led to visible bleeding. The operative field was squeaky clean, making it hard to imagine that the surgery was being performed with impaired clotting function. Everyone understood that this was just the beginning; the real difficulty of hemostasis would arise after cutting open the medulla oblongata and upper cervical spinal cord. Then, the operating space would be small, the surgical vision deep, the nerve nuclei densely packed, the tumor adhered to surrounding tissues, blood vessels crisscrossed, and bipolar electrocoagulation would become hesitant due to these challenges. ¡ª¡ª Yang Ping stopped again. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang needed to rest to maintain rhythm. Just like swimming, it was important to take a breath now and then. Fujiwara Masao and Miyuki were always accompanying in the operating room, and Miyuki¡¯s emotions were extremely complicated. Fujiwara Tani was her closest relative, and Yang Ping was the man she loved the most. Although Yang Ping already had someone else in his heart, that did not hinder Miyuki¡¯s unrequited love for him. The man she loved the most was performing surgery on her dearest relative. The surgery was not halfway done yet, and Miyuki had lost count of how many times she had secretly been watching Yang Ping. But his girlfriend was right there. Even Takahashi couldn¡¯t stand it, but it wasn¡¯t suitable for him to intervene. Yang Ping was completely engrossed in the operation and didn¡¯t care about anything else. ¡°Let¡¯s have a rest.¡± Yang Ping said to Xiao Su, who was again adjusting the instruments. Xiao Su reorganized the bipolar electrocoagulation tools following their use. After using some models in the cranium and spinal canal, which were no longer needed, she moved them elsewhere. Then she rearranged the remaining ones according to the surgical steps. ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± Xiao Su said. Yang Ping knew that everyone had to keep up with the rhythm and avoid mistakes, which required high concentration. That¡¯s why everyone was working hard. ¡ª¡ª In the conference room, the doctors also relaxed their minds for a moment, taking a break. Watching this type of surgery was taxing ¨C the screen was too clear, showing the texture of human tissues and all the details clearly, so concentration was intensely maintained. Ikeda and Ito were huddled together. I¡¯ve been a doctor all my life and I¡¯ve never seen such hemostatic skills. You can¡¯t achieve this without practicing every day. I guess they were just taken aback, the two old men haven¡¯t spoken for a while. Ito¡¯s bald head was drenched with sweat. Ikeda, on the fat side, was sitting in his chair, having a hard time moving. He even suspected he had a stroke, but at least he wasn¡¯t paralyzed. In the high-definition camera which enlarged the surgery area, there was no sign of bleeding. The quality of this type of hemostasis, I¡¯ve it for the first time in my life. Ah! The Chinese are still amazing! Ikeda had to admit. ¡°Professor Ikeda, do you think this surgery will be successful?¡± Ito began to doubt the supercomputer¡¯s simulation. Ikeda wasn¡¯t sure either, after all, the surgery is still in the peripheral zone, hasn¡¯t reached the core area yet. It¡¯s like the special force¡¯s decapitation operation hasn¡¯t yet entered the city, it¡¯s too early to say whether it will succeed. But the demonstrated hemostatic skills, that¡¯s truly divine. ¡°Did those professors from Tokyo University arrive?¡± ¡°They must have. After forty years of dedication, at least they should adjust their theories according to today¡¯s surgery results, right?¡± Ikeda looked to another side, a few professors from Tokyo University sitting there with serious expressions. During the break, Professor Liang continued on the previous topic: ¡°Professor Su, getting your daughter married? When? Is the son-in-law a doctor too?¡± Professor Su didn¡¯t know how to respond: ¡°Soon, soon. Yes, yes, where¡¯s the restroom? I¡¯ll be back soon.¡± So, Professor Su had to slip away, fearing that Professor Qin wouldn¡¯t let him off. ¡°Ah¡ª¡ªAh¡ª¡ªThis is¡ª¡ª¡± Watching Professor Su¡¯s retreating figure, Professor Qin shook his head: ¡°Old Liang, we¡¯ll soon find out who this old fox¡¯s son-in-law is, we are all kept in the dark by him.¡± He felt that it¡¯s better not to reveal, after all, they don¡¯t want people to know yet, it¡¯s kind of a personal secret, taunting indirectly is one thing, but revealing their secret is not interesting. Professor Qin was indeed a little unhappy, All the good things are his. How did he, Su Qingyun, manage to get such a good guy to become his son-in-law? If back then, I agreed to go to 301, put on the military uniform, maybe he might have become my, old Qin¡¯s, son-in-law right now. Thinking about the Golden Knife Award, the champions and runners-up all belong to the Su family, taking up half of the fame and glory, the more he thinks about it, the more uncomfortable he feels. The two of them are usually competing, always fighting for whatever they can. Su Nanchen, Song Yun and a group of young doctors gathered together, those young doctors who lost in the Golden Knife Award, now feel like the gap is just getting larger and larger. Old Cheng and Huang Jiacai had a full meal. Old Cheng, a big eater, was still eating till he was stuffed. ¡°Are you from China?¡± A curly-haired Tokyo University professor asked Old Cheng. Old Cheng nodded, looking suspiciously at the Japanese curly-haired professor. The professor asked, ¡°Are you with that chief surgeon?¡± Old Cheng nodded again, did he eat too much earlier and looked sloppy, and lost dignity. ¡°I¡¯m just a chef, his chef.¡± Old Cheng remembered when he was in Malaysia, the Germans and British thought he was a chef, so he instantly said he was a chef. ¡°A chef?¡± ¡°Yes, a chef!¡± A Tokyo University professor was flabbergasted: ¡°A chef? You can understand surgery?¡± Just now, Boss Cheng was staring at the screen intently as he watched the surgery. Why was a chef so focused? ¡°Just some simple surgeries, Simple surgeries. I got the hang of it. Tumors in the medulla oblongata and upper cervical cord, still can understand a bit.¡± Old Cheng responded perfunctorily. The Tokyo University professor who participated in the modeling of Fujiwara Tani¡¯s case, had a supercomputer simulate it ten thousand times and all failed. There¡¯s no doctor in the entire Japan who dared to perform the surgery. You, as a chef, call this a simple surgery, who are you looking down upon? This conversation can¡¯t go on, the Tokyo University professor got a bellyful of anger, this is clear contempt, and even had the desire to kill. Damn it, I even admitted that I¡¯m a chef, yet you still look at me this way, is it because I ate some of your food, is there a need to keep implying something? ¡°You know the medulla oblongata? Upper cervical cord? Neural nucleus?¡± The Tokyo University professor tried to suppress his anger. ¡°Studied anatomy, of course, I know.¡± Old Cheng didn¡¯t know what he was trying to express. The Tokyo University professor, who was slightly less angry, now was about to rage. Such a prestigious Tokyo University professor, being toyed around by you. You, a chef, studying anatomy? You might as well go fool kids. Chapter 544-- 544 494 Tokyo Night (5)-- ?Chapter 544: Chapter 494: Tokyo Night (5)¨C Chapter 544: Chapter 494: Tokyo Night (5)¨C The size of the bipolar electrocoagulation tip kept getting smaller and smaller. A laser knife cut into the substance of the spinal cord, further up, extending into the substance of the medulla oblongata. Before the cross-section could show a faint hint of red indicating bleeding, bipolar electrocoagulation killed the bleeding points with a flash-like speed. The carbonization points for hemostasis were very small. Under the microscope, only beautiful, tiny black spots were seen. The surrounding soft tissues were preserved very well. The area it passed over was clean and clear. Incredibly, there was virtually ¡®no blood¡¯ operation for patients with blood clotting issues. After a few rounds, the tumor, like a sweet potato buried in the ground, began to show a bit of its surface. From this point, the laser knife continued its sharp separation. The visible surface of the tumor grew larger and larger, continually separating from the surrounding tissues. Inside the medulla oblongata and the cervical spinal cord, the size of a finger, the tumor¡¯s blood vessels were crisscrossing in the three-dimensional space. Some distinctly red blood vessels were clearly visible on the video, and these spreading vessels made the tumor appear beautiful, like a poppy flower. The laser knife cut these blood vessels one by one, then the ruptured blood vessels were dealt by the bipolar electrocoagulation, implementing electrocoagulation hemostasis. The visual pleasure brought by the surgery seemed to make everyone forget, without the disorder of coagulation, this operation was insurmountable. If the earlier part of the surgery was about maintaining hemostasis on a flat plane, then now, these hemostatic points spread across a complex cross-section encapsulating the tumor. This cross-section varied on two fronts, one side being the surface of the tumor, and the other being the medulla oblongata and cervical spinal cord tissue encapsulating the tumor. These cross-sections were much like complex hills, canyons, even caves, making hemostasis increasingly complicated. However, the Chief Surgeon seemed undeterred, as before, wherever the bipolar electrocoagulation passed, bleeding points disappeared intensively. Every observer was on edge. Each coagulation moment felt as if the bipolar electrocoagulation was poking their hearts. ¡ª Fujiwara Masao held his breath as he kept vigil in the operating room, relying on the screen for updates on the surgery¡¯s progress. Even though he was only just over a meter away from the surgical field, he couldn¡¯t quite make out what was happening inside. Only on the screen could he get a clear view of the operative field. Though he considered himself talented in the field of surgery, this operation left him astounded. It seemed as if Yang Ping was very familiar with every bleeding point from each opened tissue cross-section. Logically, these bleeding points should be unknown and unfamiliar, impossible to predict accurately. No matter how good Yang Ping¡¯s basic skills were, it seemed impossible for him to spot a bleeding point, process it in his brain, and then perform the necessary operations so quickly. Impossible! There are limits to human response times! But Yang Ping did it. He hardly looked as if he was all at ease. It was as if he knew every bleeding point. Fujiwara Masao noticed that Yang Ping¡¯s bipolar electrocoagulation made no judgments. As the knife opened the cross-section, the moment the section was only partially revealed, and the eyes could not yet locate the bleeding spot, the bipolar electrocoagulation had already accurately pointed to the bleeding point. In other words, bipolar electrocoagulation was faster than eye¡¯s sight capture. It was much like a missile defense system that knew what the enemy¡¯s missile was going to do before it even took off and directly eliminated it while it was still in preparation. How was it possible? Did he have a way to nearly 100% reconstruct the three-dimensional local anatomy of the surgery area? Even if he could, he couldn¡¯t have performed at such speed. Fujiwara Masao simply couldn¡¯t comprehend. He had to give up on getting to the bottom of it and credit it all to talent. This monistic explanation, attributing everything he couldn¡¯t understand to talent, was a great time-saver. No one seemed to be much concerned about Fujiwara Tani¡¯s decreasing heart rate anymore. They had witnessed that even when death was so close, Yang Ping could still firmly grasp the slimmest hope. Everyone was focused on the hemostasis. Fujiwara Masao stared at the screen. Every time a new position was cut open, he mentally simulated himself as the Chief Surgeon and imagined how he would quickly and accurately stop the bleeding. However, before he could even determine the bleeding spot, Yang Ping¡¯s bipolar electrocoagulation had finished and had begun cutting open and coagulating another round. Even when imagining the surgery, he couldn¡¯t keep up with Yang Ping¡¯s pace. Fujiwara Masao couldn¡¯t help but look at Yang Ping with admiration. He was glad he had made the decision to invite Yang Ping to Tokyo University to lead the surgery. Otherwise, his uncle would not have stood a chance. If he had wavered even a bit at the time, his uncle might have already been¡ª Being at the pinnacle of Japan¡¯s medical field, he was accustomed to being admired. Now, Fujiwara Masao was deeply captivated by this young man. Sometimes, he thought, how great it would be if Yang Ping were his younger sister¡¯s boyfriend. Or if he were a member of his team, that would also be great. But alas, they weren¡¯t. In a quiet and unnoticeable manner, the laser knife had already dissected a part of the tumor. Yang Ping skillfully maneuvered between the dangerous nerve nuclei. An artery eerily pulsated under the microscope, having snaked out from a crack. Each pulsation unveiled countless tiny branches, which extended in different directions. Be careful! Fujiwara Masao unconsciously stood up from his stool and yelled in his heart. In his right hand was the laser knife, in his left the bipolar electrocoagulator. Sometimes it was vice versa, the switching between was seamless, adopted whatever was most convenient. As soon as a branch blood vessel was nearly cut off, the bipolar electrosurgery was there, successfully stemming the bleeding from both ends. Despite everyone¡¯s worries, all the branch blood vessels had been removed. The small and winding main trunk, now devoid of branches like a tree, was held with two microsurgery forceps. It was then cut from the middle and finally the blood was coagulated. Every single blood vessel in the tumor, whether an artery or a vein, followed these steps: firstly, the branches were removed, then the main trunk was dealt with. Even though it was lightning fast, it was unhurried and everything was distinctly clear! There was no casual-ness nor were there any mistakes during the process. There wasn¡¯t even a single case of double electric coagulation of a blood vessel. ¡ª ¡°It¡¯s unbelievable, it¡¯s as if he knew exactly where the bleeding points were, and without hesitation, he used the best and most exact strength and technique to clamp the blood vessels and stop the bleeding.¡± ¡°It seems as though it was all under his control, as though he had devoted countless hours to perfecting each step.¡± Professor Ikeda and Professor Ito felt that, even if they were given several attempts, they could never have completed this surgery. ¡°What do you sense?¡± asked Professor Ito, full of implications. Professor Ikeda took a deep breath: ¡°In the legendary battle on Ganryu? Island between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro, the victory was decided from the moment the swords were drawn. We always thought we were Miyamoto, but now, we must admit, we are Sasaki.¡± ¡°There were times, when doctors from Shuntendo and Tokyo University were so neatly seated here observing a surgery. I think it dates back to when Dr. Amano was revered for his heart bypass surgery; it was such a humbling experience,¡± Professor Ito reminisced. Dr. Amano¡¯s modest smile still resonated vividly in his memory. Professor Ikeda chuckled: ¡°Indeed, today, whether it¡¯s Matsui, Komori or Mitsui, everyone has humbly lowered their heads. As for Takahashi, he has already become more humble than anyone else.¡± Professor Ito, who has bad knees, wanted to stand up and relieve his lower limbs a bit, but found it hard to stand. Despite being overweight, Professor Ikeda has healthy knees. He helped Professor Ito up. They moved around while bowing their waist like they were in a movie theater, to avoid obstructing the views of others, and then sat back down. ¡°I daren¡¯t sit for long because I¡¯m afraid of deep vein thrombosis of the lower extremities. As you see, I always wear compression socks.¡± Professor Ito gently rubbed his knees. The erosion of medial knee cartilage led to chronic discomfort and pain on the inner side of his knees. ¡°I¡¯m wearing them too. These are unavoidable issues for the elderly. I¡¯m having stem cell treatment for my knee. I can still withstand it for now.¡± Professor Ikeda, who has a close connection with the Stem Cell Laboratory at Tokyo University, often enjoys their treatments, such as using stem cells to promote hair growth and darkening. Professor Ito shook his head: ¡°I¡¯ve tried it too. It has some effect, but it¡¯s not significant, probably because the wear and tear of cartilage is too severe. If it doesn¡¯t work, I suppose I¡¯ll have to wait for a knee replacement.¡± On the high-definition screen, more than half of the tumor had already been removed, and separation was happening deeper within. Most of the surgery time was spent on stemming the bleeding; hence, people¡¯s attention was always focused on it. The nerve nuclei at the center of life were tightly adhered together, much more so than in Ning Yu¡¯s case. Age had reduced the elasticity of brain and spinal cord tissues, making them brittler, and their tolerance and capacity for recovery were reduced, so the separation would be very dangerous. Without noticing, they had already entered the most dangerous phase of the procedure. It was then, everyone remembered, this was a surgery challenging the impossible. Only Yang Ping in the world was capable of successfully performing it. The coagulation dysfunction was just icing on a cake. ¡°The adhesion is tight, the situation is tricky. The heart rate is fluctuating. It is feared that¡ª¡± Professor Ito was terribly worried. ¡°He might have cardiac arrest.¡± Professor Ikeda observed the medical data from the auxiliary screen, this type of electrocardiographic waveform indicated that the connection between the heart and the medulla was about to become chaotic, the compensatory ability of the heart was about to be exhausted, and cardiac arrest was imminent. ¡°The solitary tract nucleus is stimulated, causing sinus bradycardia, junctional bradycardia.¡± ¡°It¡¯s more than just the solitary tract nucleus. By now, the cardiovascular control center, the heart rate acceleration center, the decompression center, and the heart inhibition center are all in chaos at the same time. This is bad!¡± After a few drastic changes in heart rate, the heart beat became more and more erratic, like a candle in the wind, about to be extinguished after violent flutters. Professor Ito and Professor Ikeda pulled themselves together. Everyone in the conference room braced themselves as imminent collapse seemed to be just a touch away. Chapter 545 - 545 495 Tokyo Night (6) ?Chapter 545: Chapter 495: Tokyo Night (6) Chapter 545: Chapter 495: Tokyo Night (6) At this point, Professor Liang was also getting anxious, despite having a lot of confidence in the surgery. But the current electrocardiograph waveforms clearly indicated an imminent cardiac arrest. Based on his experience, it wouldn¡¯t last more than three minutes. ¡°This is not good, look, the patient won¡¯t last much longer, right?¡± Professor Liang immediately shared his judgment with Professor Su and Professor Qin beside him. Professor Su was even more nervous, he quickly grabbed his mineral water, forcefully unscrewed the cap, and hurriedly took a sip to calm himself. ¡°To have made it this far, has already elevated the level of such surgeries by several steps!¡± Professor Su said. Su Nanchen and Song Yun, these young doctors, who were completely immersed in the smooth progress of the surgery, were suddenly awoken from their dream by this sudden change. ¡°What happened?¡± Huang Jiacai is not a doctor, but at this point, he too understood something was wrong from the atmosphere in the room. ¡°It seems Fujiwara¡¯s father might not make it.¡± Old Cheng was startled by the sudden change in the electrocardiogram. The professors from Tokyo University also breathed a sigh of relief at this time. ¡°It seems the model was accurate?¡± ¡°There must be a problem with the model, in our simulation the patient couldn¡¯t even get to this step.¡± ¡°But the outcome is the same!¡± ¡°With continuous improvements to the model, optimization of algorithms, and perfection of data, there hasn¡¯t been a failure in the simulation in the recent five years.¡± Learning from the previous lessons, Komori Daisuke and Mitsui refrained from shouting out loud. Fujiwara Masao had already stood up, he glanced at the screen, then at his uncle who was covered by the sterile sheet, the erratic ECG was probably indicative of his last moments. After exchanging looks with Miyuki, both of them moved closer to the surgical table while maintaining a safe distance of one meter. Clinical situations could sometimes slowly progress or suddenly occur. Fujiwara Masao had already become accustomed to this, they had to accompany their uncle through his final journey. ¡°What happened?¡± Miyuki asked in a low voice. Fujiwara Masao held onto Miyuki¡¯s outstretched hand, maintaining silence. From experience, there was no hope of safely getting through the surgery with such a sudden change. Fearfully¨Cit might be over! ¡°Professor Fujiwara!¡± Komori and Matsui came to Fujiwara¡¯s side, but Professor Fujiwara waved his hand. Let nature take its course, in such a situation, any resuscitation would be futile. At this point, the compensatory abilities of the heart and the medulla oblongata had been exhausted, rescue would be in vain. Since the chief surgeon was still engrossed in the surgery, just let it proceed naturally. Suddenly, the heart rate which had dropped to only a dozen, began to rapidly increase, soaring to nearly two hundred beats per minute. Everyone¡¯s hearts leapt to their throats with the heart rate, and then, after less than two seconds, the heart rate dramatically plummeted. Finally, as everyone had anticipated. Like an elevator plummeting out of control, after the fall, there was tranquility. All waveforms in the ECG vanished, becoming a straight line. The whole heart ceased its electrical and mechanical contraction activity, the P wave and QRS complex on the ECG disappeared, directly becoming a straight line, pumping of blood from the heart ceased, and blood supply to all organs was cut off. It was like a city suffering a power outage, plunging into darkness in an instant. Resuscitation? It would be meaningless! Everybody knew that the patient wouldn¡¯t last much longer, but they had not expected it to happen so quickly. Miyuki¡¯s head leaned against Professor Fujiwara¡¯s shoulder, she bit her lip, Fujiwara gently patted her back: ¡°Be strong, what has to come will come!¡± Everyone felt like they should do something at this point, but Yang Ping¡¯s hand did not stop. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were focused, following Yang Ping¡¯s rhythm with undivided attention. Fujiwara Masao silently watched Yang Ping, being awed by this level of focus, this was a true respect for life, a true all-out effort. Komori wanted to tell Yang Ping¡ªthe patient showed no signs of life. Fujiwara Masao blocked Komori, shook his head, indicating: ¡°Don¡¯t disturb him!¡± Maintaining silence at this moment was the greatest respect for the chief surgeon, the greatest respect for the effort he had put in. The entire operating room fell into silence. But the doctors and nurses on the surgical table were still intently carrying on with the surgery. Instruments were handed over one by one, as if the patient were still alive. Fatty Liang stared at the straight line and was about to speak. Yang Ping spoke: ¡°Stay calm!¡± ¡°Yes! Stay calm!¡± Fatty Liang sat down, habitually crossing his legs, slightly adjusting the anesthesia machine¡¯s tubes. The ankle he exposed made the Japanese surgical gown look like it was a pair of Capri pants. The dripping of the hanging fluid had stopped, there was no flow visible in the pipeline of the infusion device, Zhou Can looked at Fatty Liang. Fatty only said: ¡°Stay calm!¡± ¡°Stay calm!¡± Zhang Lin told Komori, Matsui, and others to keep quiet. Besides the word ¡°calm¡±, Yang Ping didn¡¯t utter another word. Time passed by every minute and every second. One minute, two minutes, three minutes¡ª Eight minutes passed, making it ten minutes since the cardiac arrest. Everyone appeared calm. The outcome seemed certain! We could pronounce him dead! Whether he was a tycoon or a beggar on the street, he ultimately couldn¡¯t escape the laws of life. ¡ª ¡°Ten minutes! We can pronounce him dead.¡± Ito heaved a long sigh. ¡°It was a great success indeed; perhaps in a few years, he might succeed with such a case.¡± Ikeda felt deeply regretful. ¡°Such a tenacious young man.¡± Ito exclaimed. ¡°I remember when I was operating on a car accident victim, the patient died due to hemorrhagic shock during surgery. I knew she was already dead, but I couldn¡¯t stop my hands. I kept trying to stop the bleeding, to suture her up. I remember the chief surgeon shouting at me, ¡®Ito, that¡¯s enough! Stop! She¡¯s already dead! She has been gone for a while! You¡¯re a doctor and need to remain calm and objective! Stop and move on! There are more people waiting for you to save them!¡¯ But I couldn¡¯t hear him, I mean I TRULY couldn¡¯t hear a thing. I couldn¡¯t bear the cries of the victim¡¯s daughter, her heart-wrenching sobs echoed in my mind. All I could think in the moment was: I have to save her, I HAVE to save her, SAVE HER!...back then, I was probably around thirty.¡± Ikeda looked at Yang Ping, who was still persisting on the screen, and couldn¡¯t help but shed tears as he recalled his own experiences from his youth. The memory felt as fresh as if it had happened only yesterday. ¡°Wipe away your tears, the younger generation is watching us.¡± Ito handed Ikeda a tissue. ¡°As a doctor, I am respected wherever I go. No matter who they are, people bow in respect and address me as ¡®sir¡¯ when they meet me. Over the decades, I¡¯ve saved countless patients, but many others have slipped away from under my knife, leaving this world forever. Some of these losses were due to limitations of human medicine, some were my own deficiencies in skill, and some were simply errors in my judgment. I often find myself thinking that, if given a second chance, some of those patients could have lived.¡± Ikeda grabbed the tissue, but made no move to wipe away his tears. Ito shook his head: ¡°Every doctor has this sense of helplessness. There are gaps in human medical science, flaws in the doctor¡¯s skills, and even errors that doctors make. As long as we have a sincere heart, we have no need to blame ourselves. Like Dr. Yang, he has given his all; the outcome may not have changed, but progress has been made. The field of medicine is just like that, with gradual accumulations. In a few years, maybe it¡¯ll be him, or maybe it¡¯ll be someone else who succeeds.¡± ¡°Do we need to declare the outcome?¡± Ito said, remembering that the patient was already dead, and he looked back at the silent hall. Ikeda shook his head: ¡°Wait, keep quiet and let Dr. Yang finish the surgery.¡± The whole hall remained silent. It had been ten minutes, he could be declared dead. The brain cells were already dead, and the cells of various vital organs had begun to deteriorate. ¡ª The chief surgeon who was still persisting, maintained the quality of the operation. Each and every blood vessel was handled very perfectly, and the tumor was delicately extracted from the deep pons and upper spinal cord¡ª a large one with two smaller ones, to be gently placed on the tray. ¡°Great job!¡± Fujiwara Masao bowed deeply. ¡°Double-check for any bleeding under the microscope, rinse, and close!¡± Yang Ping stood up, handing over the remaining surgery to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. He turned to look at the flatline on the screen, staring. ¡°Dr. Yang?¡± Fujiwara Masao, filled with gratitude, reminded Yang Ping. Yang Ping was still staring at the screen: ¡°The surgery was very successful!¡± Very successful? The patient¡¯s heart had stopped beating for twelve minutes! ¡°In thirty more seconds, the heartbeat will return. Once the heartbeat is restored, follow the principles of advanced cardiopulmonary resuscitation to medicate. After recovery, there won¡¯t be any neurologic sequelae.¡± Yang Ping said calmly. What he was predicting was a very low probability event that could occur in the system space after countless simulations ¨C the Lazarus Syndrome! This patient would be ¡°dead and resurrected¡±! Since it was reported in 1982, there have been only about fifty cases reported globally till now. Lazarus Syndrome, or delayed return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), happens when after failed attempts of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, all rescue measures including external chest compression, machine-assisted breathing, IV fluid infusion, and rescue medicines are stopped, the blood circulation restarts out of nowhere. Hence, it¡¯s also known as the phenomenon of ¡°coming back from the dead¡±. In layman terms, ¡°coming back from the dead¡±! There have been cases where the patient was declared dead, taken to the morgue, but then came back to life and crawled out of the morgue. He ended up eating in a restaurant close to the hospital, managed to be seen by the attending doctor, who was then shocked out of his wits thinking he had just seen a ghost. However, the probability of such ¡°coming back from the dead¡± cases is extremely low. Although the patient, for several reasons, didn¡¯t receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation though his breathing stopped for twelve minutes and then resumed spontaneously, it can still be classified as Lazarus Syndrome. Though everyone knew that what Yang Ping said was ridiculous, everyone was solemn at that moment. Every doctor present hoped his words were true. Thirty seconds! Liang Fatty stared at the monitor screen, the resuscitation drugs were ready and could be used at any time. When the thirty seconds were up, really, really! The lifeless line on the screen began to move, twitching a few times, and then a wave appeared. Eventually, clear P-waves and QRS complexes appeared! Resurrection, it really came back to life! Fujiwara Masao looked at Yang Ping as if he were dreaming. Without any intervention, the patient on the operating table revived. Chapter 546 - 546 496 Tokyo Night (7) ?Chapter 546: Chapter 496: Tokyo Night (7) Chapter 546: Chapter 496: Tokyo Night (7) The heart-shaped symbol on the monitor flickered red. Liang Fatty immediately began his tense resuscitation efforts, injecting various revival drugs to support the fragile heart of Fujiwara Tani. Unlike during surgery, using these drugs at this point was beneficial, not harmful. Liang Fatty¡¯s usually heavy-handed basic skills were fully displayed. His hands juggled the drugs like a juggler, picking them up at will, opening bottles, drawing medicine, pushing them into the infusion tube. The entire process was smooth, carried out in one go, with the Japanese anesthesiologists and nurses having no need to assist. On the operating table, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang observed under a microscope for a full fifteen minutes, but there was no bleeding. The conditions for closing the incision were met, so they asked Yang Ping if they could close the incision. ¡°Rinse, close!¡± Yang Ping was very confident. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang washed the surgical area and closed the incision layer by layer. By the time the incision was completely closed, the heart rate was stable at 70 beats/minute, with no arrhythmia. This dramatic turn of events was so sudden that Fujiwara Masao himself could hardly cope. His heartbeat had stopped, but twelve minutes later, it restored on its own; his vital signs now stable. It all felt like a dream. Miyuki¡¯s body was still trembling. Fujiwara Masao comforted his sister, ¡°It¡¯s okay now, look, uncle is okay!¡± Miyuki stared at the fluctuating EKG and the stable vital signs; she could hardly believe her eyes. That¡¯s right, the operation was over, and the uncle on the operating table was alive. Miyuki turned her gaze to Yang Ping, her eyes complex, her heart filled with admiration for Yang Ping as if he were a god. The Japanese anesthesiologist stared at Liang Fatty¡¯s rolled-up pants revealing almost half his calf. This fashion of wearing cropped trousers was indeed very trendy, especially when the wearer sat next to the anesthesia machine, cross-legged¡ªit was so cool. That was how an anesthesia doctor should look. The Japanese anesthesiologist decided that he would also dress like this and sit cross-legged like that in the future. In China, Takahashi had become accustomed to seeing Yang Ping perform miracles, but at this moment, he felt like he was caught in some time warp. Calm! Takahashi repeated this word to himself as he stood beside Yang Ping, not daring to sit down. ¡°Sit down and rest!¡± Yang Ping told Takahashi as he sat on a stool. Even though there was a stool, Takahashi stood by. ¡°Dr. Yang, I want to ask, did you know that the patient¡¯s heart stopped beating? And did you know that he would come back to life?¡± Yang Ping was taken aback. Presumably, everyone present wanted to ask this question, including Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. ¡°Of course¨C¡± Immediately everyone present was petrified, including Fujiwara Masao. Yang Ping knew from beginning to end that this situation would arise, so he did not stop the operation, let alone panic. How did he manage to predict this highly unlikely event and face it calmly? Had his analysis of the condition reached this level? Had his understanding of human anatomy and physiology reached this high? Had he somehow anticipated, based on the position, size, adjacency, and surgical procedure of the tumor, that the operation would result in the occurrence of Lazarus Syndrome, cardiac arrest, and then, a spontaneous recovery? What was even more terrifying was his precise prediction of the recovery time. There was only one explanation, advanced technology, more advanced than the supercomputing digital human technology of Tokyo University was at work behind him. His surgical simulation was even more advanced. This was the thought in the minds of Fujiwara Masao, Komori, Matsui, and others. ¡ª In the conference hall, everyone felt as if they were dreaming. After a moment of silence, there was an uproar. The doctors who had attended the trauma orthopedics academic conference at Sanbo Hospital were once again profoundly shocked. ¡°Dr. Yang, you did it again!¡± Old Cheng raised his arm and shouted loudly. Upon lifting his arm, he heard a crisp sound, and his palm started tingling as if he had been pricked by needles. Damn it, what¡¯s going on? Old Cheng turned his head and was so surprised that his jaw almost dropped. The Japanese professor who was sitting next to Old Cheng was covering half of his face, looking pitifully at Old Cheng. Did he just accidentally slap the guy while waving his arm in excitement? ¡°Keep calm!¡± From Huang Jiacai¡¯s surprised look, Old Cheng could almost confirm that this was precisely what had happened. ¡°Ah... I... I am sorry! It was accidental, purely accidental!¡± Old Cheng said with a laugh. The Japanese man took his hand off his face, which was already swollen, and there was a faint bruise on it. ¡°Keep calm, it was an accident, an accident!¡± While Old Cheng was still in shock, Huang Jiacai quickly explained to the Japanese man to avoid any international disputes. At the same time, Huang Jiacai had already figured out the escape route in the hall, items that could be used as weapons, and even prepared to grab a notebook next to him as a weapon. But no matter how he looked, it didn¡¯t seem like the Japanese man intended to fight. In fact, the Japanese professor was seething inside, wishing to go up and fight. But considering that Cheng was the chief surgeon, he could only swallow his anger. They still wanted to invite this successful chief surgeon ¨C Dr. Yang to help find flaws in the surgical simulation model. If a conflict occurred with his chef, this could become problematic. ¡°The chef, is someone quite close and we don¡¯t want to offend anyone that we need help from. Such a fatal flaw indicates a fundamental error in the entire model, so the flaw must be dug out. And they concluded that Yang Ping must have advanced surgery simulation technology to support his success. ¡°No big deal, just a minor scrape. It would be nice if we can ice it.¡± Professor with the curly hair exhibited the Japanese trait of restraint to the fullest, holding back his anger, with a faint smile, pretending to be at ease, he said in a mix of Chinese and English, which he had learned over half his life. With an almost humble tone, he then bows with one hand holding his cheek. ¡°Ice, yes, ice, find some ice.¡± Old Cheng was once again startled by the Japanese Professor¡¯s politeness. ¡°No biggie, we can be friends-Mr. Chef! Do you have a business card? Here¡¯s mine, Fujisawa Yukihiro, a professor of Tokyo University.¡± The professor with curly hair took out a business card with one hand, handed it over with both hands, and then retracted his hand, still covering his cheek. Fujisawa Yukihiro, a name with five characters, gives headaches. Old Cheng takes the business card and was about to give a card to the professor, but he realized his card doesn¡¯t say chef. So, he said, ¡°I am sorry, as a chef, I rarely socialize, so I don¡¯t have a business card. My surname is Cheng.¡± ¡°Mr. Cheng! Hello, nice to meet you, ouch!¡± The professor with curly hair is again shaking hands and asking for contact information, as if he has forgotten the injury on his face. ¡°Shameless, damn it, he acted all high and mighty just now, staring like a bull, but now he¡¯s all friendly after being beaten up!¡± Old Cheng thought. Old Cheng really wanted to slap him again to see if the deeper the slap, the more respectful the other party would be. A few more slaps? Would he start to call him daddy right away? In the end, Old Cheng shrugged off the idea, and shook hands with the professor. A professor of Tokyo University¡¯s Digital Human project, this peaked Huang Jiacai¡¯s interest, he immediately took the business card and shook hands with the professor: ¡°Great to meet you, we have a similar project.¡± Huang Jiacai was considering investing in digital human projects for medical equipment development. Tokyo University¡¯s Digital Human is considered world-leading, so it would be a good opportunity to visit. China¡¯s Digital Human project is going well in its development, once, Nandu Medical University¡¯s Digital Human was world-leading, but it was in the visual human digital phase. The development of ¡°Digital Human¡± is divided into four stages: ¡°Digital Visible Human¡±, ¡°Digital Physical Human¡±, ¡°Digital Physiological Human¡±, and ¡°Digital Intelligent Human.¡± Digital physiological human, in other words, a 3D human body in the computer can simulate both anatomical structure and physiological function. Currently, only the United States has entered the physiological human stage. Surprisingly, Tokyo University in Japan, who never made a peep about it, also reached this stage. Previously, it was virtually unknown, even to the point where everyone thought Japan had not researched digital human at all. Huang Jiacai can read between the lines from the Japanese¡¯s attitude. They obviously want to establish some kind of cooperation with Yang Ping and help to find flaws. The success of Yang Ping¡¯s operation overthrew their model. This is not a trivility, but a fundamental denial of their model. ¡°Who are you?¡± The professor with the curly hair nodded and bowed. ¡°Dr. Yang¡¯s driver!¡± Huang Jiacai made up a identity on the spot. If a chef can be here, a driver wouldn¡¯t be out of place. ¡°Oh! Hello, hello.¡± The professor with the curly hair treasured the opportunity and immediately shook hands enthusiastically. The other professors from Tokyo University also came forward to shake hands. A driver and a chef, these are close acquaintances. Who would have thought that two of Dr. Yang¡¯s close acquaintances are sitting close by. Perhaps they can find out some inside information from them, such as whether Dr. Yang was involved in digital human research, or if he had similar computer simulation technology to support his work. ¡°Please have a seat.¡± The professor with the curly hair was very polite. ¡°Professor Fujisawa is renowned in the field of Digital Human, everyone knows!¡± Huang Jiacai complimented him. Professor Fujisawa was very pleased and gave a thumbs up: ¡°You flatter me, you flatter me, your digital human technology is the one!¡± ¡°Compared to Professor Tengze, we are just getting started.¡± Huang Jiacai shook his head. So it¡¯s true that they have strong digital simulation technology supporting them. Otherwise, how could they achieve such an operation? If it¡¯s true, their technology is probably much more advanced than ours. The professors from Tokyo University formed two groups: one chatted with Huang Jiacai and Old Cheng, trying to find out some information. The other group was already in talks with Sasaki, hoping to invite Dr. Yang¡¯s team to visit the Digital Human project in Tokyo University¡¯s hospital and establish a cooperation. Professor Sasaki, as the appointed by Fujiwara Masao, was responsible for hosting the doctors from all over the world at the conference. ¡ª ¡°Is the surgery over? Is the patient alive?¡± Professor Liang hasn¡¯t adapted to this turn of events, Professor Qin is flabbergasted, Professor Su takes a bottle of mineral water, and takes a sip leisurely. ¡°Look at the monitoring data, the vital signs are stable.¡± ¡°Revived after twelve minutes of cardiac arrest, I wonder if there will be brain death or brain function impairment?¡± Professor Qin worried. Professor Su didn¡¯t rush to answer: ¡°Let¡¯s wait and see.¡± With this kind of surgery, even if the patient survives a few days after, despite poor brain function, it would be a huge step forward, a breakthrough from zero. A group of foreign doctors flocked to Professor Su, because they knew that Professor Su was a candidate for the chairman position of the next Asia-Pacific Orthopedic Association, and Dr. Yang was brought to the conference by Professor Su. Naturally, everyone huddled around Professor Su, hoping to establish some kind of relationship with China through this. Some even voiced their support for Professor Su¡¯s run as chairman and would vote for him. Quite a few doctors who supported Fujiwara Masao hustled over, shook hands with Professor Su and hoping to get some valuable news. People always have preconceived notions. Originally, both Professor Su and Fujiwara Masao had equal contributions to their researches and are in the same league. But now these doctors felt that the professor Su¡¯s technology had a lot more to offer. In fact, some of the doctors even pulled out the conference paper collection again, and selected the papers from the Chinese delegates for another read. Seeing this, Professor Liang was quite excited.¡± Chapter 547 - 547 497 Throwing the Baby Out with the ?Chapter 547: Chapter 497: Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater Chapter 547: Chapter 497: Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater The night in Tokyo was dazzling, with lights as abundant as stars. In the office, a Go board was laid out before Fujiwara Wakan, who was play against himself with his left hand and right hand, while Sha Gui stood by his side. Telephone calls streamed into the office one by one, and all were handled by Sha Gui, leaving Fujiwara Wakan free to play the game. ¡°The elder statesman of the opposition, Mr. Seiji, has unfortunately passed away after his pacemaker unexpectedly failed,¡± reported Sha Gui. ¡°Mr. Shengjun is embroiled in a scandal involving an actress and cannot extricate himself.¡± ¡°Mr. Yoshi is under the control of the Metropolitan Police Department due to his involvement in money laundering.¡± ¡°It has been confirmed that Mr. Takahiro is not of Fujiwara bloodline.¡± ¡°Mr. Kyusaku wishes to see you; this can be viewed as a surrender.¡± Sha Gui reported in an orderly manner, and Fujiwara Wakan listened while moving the Go pieces. He did not comment. Fujiwara Wakan placed down the last Go piece and examined the board. The outcome of the game was apparent, but a dull pain nagged at his heart. He slowly rose and walked towards the floor-to-ceiling window. ¡°Look at this beautiful night. It¡¯s a pity that behind this beauty lies dirty transactions and survival of the fittest. And we have to keep going tirelessly.¡± Sha Gui also looked out the window. ¡°Survival of the fittest, that¡¯s the law of the world. Otherwise, you¡¯d be the one to be defeated.¡± Fujiwara Wakan fell into a long silence before asking: ¡°How is my uncle doing?¡± ¡°His heart has stopped. There¡¯s no new information yet,¡± answered Sha Gui, sounding distraught. ¡°We have no choice but to push the situation to a deadlock, to lure out the snake, and then strike with full legitimacy, capturing them all in one fell swoop,¡± added Sha Gui. ¡°Do you know, in my heart, he is my father,¡± Fujiwara Wakan could not hide his sorrow. Sha Gui immediately bowed, ¡°The situation is delicate, danger is everywhere. Please, sir, do not blame yourself.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve done well during this time, I appreciate it. Have the Eastern Europeans continue their surveillance on each and every one of them,¡± Fujiwara Wakan instructed. Sha Gui immediately noted down, ¡°Understood, they are at the intelligence center in Romania, providing us with 24/7 surveillance. Cameras, computers, phones, cars, they¡¯ve got them all covered.¡± Suddenly, the telephone on the desk rung again. Sha Gui picked up the phone. After listening, he turned to Fujiwara Wakan, ¡°The President¡ªwith the surgery¡ªwas successful!¡± ¡°You mean he¡¯s alive?¡± Fujiwara Wakan hesitated for a moment, gripping Sha Gui¡¯s collar. ¡°Yes! He¡¯s still alive. The game is set, but the president is still alive,¡± affirmed Sha Gui, repeatedly nodding. ¡°Get to the hospital! Quick!¡± Fujiwara Wakan let go of Sha Gui. ¡ª Professor Liang felt a surge of satisfaction with the phrase ¡®the new generation surpasses the old¡¯. He had never felt such relief before. Even the backache from sitting too long disappeared, and he stretched out comfortably. The staff that Ning Qi had sent over began discussing with Su Nanchen about when to charter the plane and commenced confirming the passenger list. Whether they were old professors or young doctors, everyone started packing up and preparing to return home. Professor Qin phoned China to arrange a surgery, ¡°How was the sugar control? Has the anticoagulant drug been stopped for seven days? Okay, prepare for surgery tomorrow. I¡¯ll be fine to rest on the plane. We can¡¯t delay any longer, or it will affect the surgical results.¡± Professor Su beckoned Su Nanchen over and advised him to arrange for Yang Ping and Su Yixuan to sit as close to him as possible on the plane. Professor Su wanted to have a good chat with them. Younger doctors like Song Yun all discussed going to find Yang Ping. Old Cheng and Huang Jiacai were in the middle of a heated Go battle with the professors of Tokyo University. The professor with curly hair had completely forgotten about the pain on his face and was sucking on an ice pop. Thanks to that powerful slap, Old Cheng had established a deep bond of cross-border friendship with the curly-haired professor, who even enthusiastically invited his two Chinese friends to a tour of Tokyo¡¯s Kabukicho. At this moment, a slightly plump professor, carrying his laptop, made his way through the bustling conference hall and quietly spoke with Professor Kobayashi Takeshi from Shuntendo. ¡°We have a unique case. Professor Ito has proposed to Professor Amano that we invite Dr. Yang Ping for consultation. Professor Ito has sent me to ask you.¡± Kobayashi Takeshi had already been informed about the patient they requested for a consultation. This slightly overweight professor was Dr. Joonryong from the Cardiac Surgery Department of Shuntendo Hospital. They had encountered a strange and rare case: a large complex tumor that filled the entire chest cavity. The tumour was adherently wrapped around all the organs and had severely invaded the left atrium and the left ventricle. Numerous blind spots made it almost impossible to completely remove the tumor by conventional intracardiac direct-vision surgery, planation. After several days of research by Dr. Joonryong and his colleagues, they could not develop a reasonable treatment plan. They created a three-dimensional model of the tumor and research various surgical approaches. Even after synthesizing dozens of possibilities, they could not determine a method to completely remove the tumor. Professor Ito suggested to Professor Amano: There is a Chinese doctor at the University of Tokyo who might have unique insights into complex cardiac cases. Thus, Professor Amano immediately instructed Dr. Joonryong to visit the University of Tokyo in hopes that Dr. Yang Ping could provide some insights before leaving Japan. Dr. Joonryong brought his laptop and rushed to the University of Tokyo to find Kobayashi Takeshi. Although Kobayashi Takeshi knew Dr. Yang Ping, they were not close. So, to avoid any awkwardness, he decided to take Dr. Joonryong to Professor Takahashi to help arrange the meeting. ¡ª After half an hour of observation, Fujiwara Tani was confirmed to be stable and was transferred to the specialized care ward. The group surrounded Yang Ping as he came out of the dressing room. Kobayashi was waiting by the door with Dr. Joonryong. ¡°Dr. Yang!¡± Kobayashi quickly approached, with Dr. Joonryong following behind. Professor Takahashi stepped in, ¡°Gentleman, Dr. Yang needs to rest. If you have anything to discu, please do it with me later.¡± Takahashi could tell from the laptop in Osaki¡¯s hands that they probably came to discuss a case with Yang Ping. Now is not the time for a case discussion. Everyone has limited energy, and it¡¯s Takahashi¡¯s responsibility to protect Yang Ping¡¯s resting time. ¡°Professor Takahashi, we have a rare case, we need¡ª¡± Kobayashi Takeshi tried to chase after him. ¡°Everyone, please hold on. Doctor Yang needs to rest, he is leaving for his homeland early tomorrow morning, so I beg of you.¡± Takahashi said, as he escorted Yang Ping out of the operating room. He¡¯s leaving tomorrow morning, what should be done then? Professor Xiaolin grabbed hold of Takahashi¡¯s hand, ¡°Professor Takahashi, please do me a favor out of our private friendship, could you possibly arrange just ten minutes for us?¡± Takahashi shook his head: ¡°I¡¯m sorry ¨D very sorry!¡± A prominent professor from Shunten Tang, wanting to meet a young doctor, who refuses to see him, that¡¯s simply infuriating. Fury boiled inside Osaki Toshitaka, but he couldn¡¯t vent it out. He wanted to turn around and leave, but he had to accomplish what Professor Amano instructed him. ¡°Professor Takahashi¡ª¡± Kobayashi Takeshi did not let go of him. Finally, Takahashi could not resist, ¡°Fine, come back to the hotel with us. I¡¯ll arrange for a meeting there, but only for ten minutes.¡± Operating in the evening was already exhausting, let alone doing such high-risk and difficult surgery, which drained a lot of energy. Right now, all Yang Ping wanted to do was go back and rest as soon as possible. Kobayashi and Osaki followed him back to the hotel and waited in the room arranged by Takahashi. Professor Osaki occasionally went out to check the conditions. Not far away in the hallway, Yang Ping was chatting and laughing with Chinese doctors. This made Professor Osaki even angrier. So he has time to chat but no time to discuss a case with himself. Did he think that Osaki, the professor from Shunten Tang, was unworthy? After a nervous wait finally, Takahashi came, telling them that they can meet Dr. Yang but only for ten minutes. Lead by Takahashi, Osaki Toshitaka finally met Yang Ping. Despite being furious, he opened his laptop and immediately pulled up an image ¨C a largely complex chest tumor. Yang Ping was quite interested in this case and examined each image one by one. Many young doctors gathered around, although they were orthopedic doctors, they had been through the thoracic surgery department during rotations and understood the basics. Takahashi served as a translator on the side, and Tang Shun was always there to help with difficult sentences or phrases. ¡°Dr. Yang, do you have any good suggestions?¡± Osaki Toshitaka hadn¡¯t cooled down yet. ¡°If you want to remove the tumor completely, there¡¯s a good method.¡± Yang Ping said, nonchalantly. A glint of hope flickered in Osaki Toshitaka¡¯s eyes, and his anger receded by half. ¡°Please, tell us!¡± ¡°Cut off the heart, lungs, large blood vessels, and even the mediastinum along with the entire tumor as a whole from the chest cavity, and take them out of the patient¡¯s body. Afterward, remove the tumor outside the body, repair the left atrium and left ventricle, and both sides of the lungs, then transplant back the heart and lungs.¡± Yang Ping explained. Osaki Toshitaka could hardly believe his ears: ¡°You mean ¡ª to cut off the heart, lungs, and tumor together? Take them out, let them leave the body? After the tumor is removed, perform autologous heart and lung transplants?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right!¡± Yang Ping was very sure. ¡°What a crazy idea? Throwing out the baby with the bathwater?¡± Osaki Toshitaka couldn¡¯t accept this kind of plan. Yang Ping corrected his understanding: ¡°That¡¯s correct. You throw away the baby along with the bathwater, but then you pick the baby back up.¡± Crazy man, crazy idea! After a moment of dizziness, Osaki Toshitaka seriously considered the plan and realized that it indeed made sense after thinking it through. If it¡¯s possible to take the heart, large blood vessels, and the lungs along with the tumor out. The chief surgeon wouldn¡¯t be troubled by adhesion anymore, nor vexed by operating angles, without any blind spots, the organs outside the body along with the tumor could be turned freely by 360 degrees on the sterile table, the doctor could separate the tumor from any angle. How extraordinary! But, I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t have the courage! Osaki Toshitaka¡¯s anger had entirely evaporated. He had performed many heart transplants, but for the sake of tumor removal to cut off all the hearts and lungs, take them out and then perform an autologous heart-lung combined transplant... ¡°The operation is a bit big! But I can¡¯t think of a better way right now.¡± Yang Ping looked a bit troubled. ¡°Yes, a bit big!¡± Osaki Toshitaka was in a daze, struggling to imagine this operation, how to cut off all the organs in the chest cavity, including the heart, large blood vessels, and lungs, take them out, and spread them out on the sterile table. It reminded him of when he was studying anatomy at Tokyo University. Takahashi¡¯s cell phone went off, notifying that ten minutes had passed. He immediately told Xiaolin and Osaki. ¡°Professors, time¡¯s up.¡± ¡°Thi¨Cthis¡ªthis.¡± Osaki Toshitaka was in an awkward position, the discussion had not even started yet, and so many questions about this method had not been raised yet. Takahashi closed Osaki Toshitaka¡¯s laptop: ¡°We can keep in contact for the details, you can email Dr. Yang.¡± Continuing to bother him would be deemed disrespectful. Reluctantly, Osaki Toshitaka gathered his laptop: ¡°Dr. Yang, could you leave your email address? A social media account would also be fine.¡± ¡°You can just keep in contact with Takahashi, he can reach me.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s idea was simple, since they were Japanese, he might as well let Takahashi handle it. ¡°Thi¨Cthis¨Cthis.¡± Osaki Toshitaka stammered, seemingly reluctant to leave. Kobayashi Takeshi pulled him up and bid farewell to Yang Ping, then pointed to the door, ¡°Tha¨Ctha¨Ctha.¡± ¡°Taking out all the organs in the chest cavity?¡± Osaki Toshitaka was still immersed in his thoughts, muttering to himself as he walked. Chapter 548 - 548 498 Leaving Japan ?Chapter 548: Chapter 498 Leaving Japan Chapter 548: Chapter 498 Leaving Japan It¡¯s predictable that Osaki Toshitaka will have insomnia tonight, pondering over this surgery until dawn. To disconnect all the organs in the patient¡¯s thoracic cavity from the body, take them out, spread them out on the sterile table, look at this pile of organs corroded by the tumor, start turning them over, and remove the tumor completely before implanting these organs back into the body. Such a crazy idea, even now if Yang Ping proposed it, Osaki Toshitaka would still find it hard to accept. For this case, Yang Ping could only give a suggestion, a guiding plan. With this plan, they should be able to handle it on their own. Shun Tian Tang is not an ordinary hospital. In Japan, the status of Shun Tian Tang Hospital is higher than that of Tokyo University Hospital, just like Xiehe Hospital in China, it is the highest. To remove a tumor, some top cardiac surgeons would take the heart out, but no one has ever removed all the heart, lungs and large blood vessels at once, and then transplanted them back. If this surgery were performed at any other slightly inferior hospital, they wouldn¡¯t dare to even think about performing it. Heart transplantation is already a top-level surgery, and heart-lung combined transplantation is the crown of transplant surgery, more importantly, it¡¯s necessary to remove a tumor externally, repair the left ventricle and left atrium, repair the aorta and vena cava cavity, and possibly even more structures need repair. With Professor Amano at Shun Tian Tang, their cardiac surgery department is world-class. Yang Ping believes they will succeed in this surgery. If it were not for the urgency of time, Yang Ping would be willing to spend some time on this case, even participating in the surgery. But time is too tight, Yang Ping must return to China tomorrow morning. There several critically ill patients waiting for him at home. Director Han is overwhelmed with work. Zhang Zongshun is also performing surgeries with Director Han. If he doesn¡¯t return, these two old men might mess things up. Director Han is in his fifties and still able to perform, but Professor Zhang is in his eighties. Yang Ping really worries about him overexerting himself. Takahashi felt very guilty. Yang Ping has been in Japan for three days without any free time to go out and play. He has either been in surgery, attending meetings, or discussing cases, always shuttling between the hotel and hospital. Only Xiao Su, Tang Fei, and Zhou Can, the few girls, went out to tour Tokyo with Miyuki. ¡°Dr. Yang, you¡¯ve been in Japan for several days and haven¡¯t been able to go out and play. I¡¯m sorry.¡± Takahashi regretted not having been able to act as a proper host. Even meals were quite casual, except for the meal at Yoshiko Residence, they either had fast food or quickly ate something in the hotel. Actually, Yang Ping is not very interested in these things, his greatest interest lies in treating patients and saving lives. He was originally very interested in medicine, but ever since he got the system, Yang Ping believed he had become a medical fanatic. ¡°This is the best. I have surgeries to perform, difficult cases to discuss, and can exchange academics with everyone. I do not like noisy places, so I¡¯m not interested in touring Tokyo.¡± This was Yang Ping¡¯s honest feeling. The idea of shopping and playing in Tokyo was a waste of time if not for accompanying Xiao Su. Fujiwara Masao rushed over to Mori Hometown Hotel specially to thank Yang Ping and his team. As a heavyweight in the Japanese medical community, he had never seen such a gifted doctor. In the end, Fujiwara Masao concluded that only a powerful country like China, with its profound background, could produce such an extraordinary genius. Xiao Su was very happy, holding Yang Ping to help count the luggage. She had bought a lot of things for herself, Yang Ping, her parents, her brother, Yang Ping¡¯s parents, and also had prepared presents for Director Han and Professor Zhang on behalf of Yang Ping. Moreover all the gifts were chosen according to individual preferences. It was a big pile. ¡°This is horse oil from Yakuwa Hall. Your mom said last time that her hands become very dry in winter and sometimes even crack. Horse oil can protect the skin and prevent drying and cracking.¡± Xiao Su stacked a lot of boxes of horse oil together. ¡°This is for my mom?¡± Yang Ping did not expect her to be so attentive. Xiao Su smiled, ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve been remembering it. I originally wanted to ask someone to buy it, but since we had the chance to come this time, I just brought some back.¡± ¡°These two bottles of sake are for your dad,¡± Xiao Su picked up the sake, checked the label, and looked very satisfied. With so little time for shopping, she actually bought so many things and took care of everyone. It was really impressive. Yang Ping had not considered these trivial matters of life. Looking at these piles of things, he felt slightly overwhelmed. ¡°I ¡ª didn¡¯t think about these things?¡± Yang Ping¡¯s face turned red. Xiao Su carefully packed the two bottles of sake in a box with a cushion, and wrote a brief description on the outside of the box: Contains sake, please handle with care. ¡°Leave these things to me in the future!¡± While Xiao Su was counting the things, she spoke to Yang Ping. She then told Yang Ping who each gift was for. Director Han¡¯s Jade Dew tea leaves, Old Zhang¡¯s reading glasses, everything Yang Ping could remember, were all included. Takahashi was also instructing his assistant to pack things. There was a charter flight back to China, so Takahashi¡¯s purchasing was much bold. He almost stepped on the quantity control line of the customs, arranging for someone to purchase many Japanese specialties, including diapers for Zhang Lin Xiaowu. Little Five, Fatty, Zhang Lin and a few others were huddling together, seemingly packing their luggage. ¡°It seems Miyuki is looking for you.¡± Song Zimo whispered in Yang Ping¡¯s ear. Miyuki? She wasn¡¯t still fixated, was she? ¡°You can¡¯t avoid some things. You need to clarify. Go, talk to her. I¡¯m here, she can¡¯t eat you.¡± Xiao Su gave a playful look. Alright, there was originally nothing, acting nervous makes it worse. Yang Ping went out openly. Miyuki was at the end of the hotel corridor, by the window. ¡°Miyuki¡ª¡± Yang Ping greeted. Miyuki looked very happy to see Yang Ping, as if she had a lot to say, but in the end she only asked, ¡°Will you come to Japan again in the future?¡± ¡°I am not sure. I might come for conferences.¡± Yang Ping responded gently. Miyuki simply responded ¡°Hmm¡±. Several times she wanted to open the package she was holding and take out something, but she gave up. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. When you and Xiao Su get married, please let me know. I will definitely go to China.¡± Miyuki pretended to smile sweetly. ¡°Definitely!¡± Yang Ping gave an OK gesture. ¡°Hmm... The weather in Tokyo is really cold!¡± Miyuki took her bag with both hands, babbling a bit. ¡°Alright, Thank you. Did Professor Fujiwara just come by? I saw uncle recently, his vital signs are stable. I¡¯m leaving now, won¡¯t be able to see you off tomorrow morning.¡± Miyuki turned away after saying this, bag in hand, went towards the lift. Yang Ping was a bit sad. She was a good girl with a high level of education, a beautiful face, a perfect body, and a persistent pursuit of love. But, love is dedicated, pure. There was no choice, in his heart there was only Xiao Su. Watching Miyuki¡¯s retreating figure Yang Ping sighed softly. By the time he returned to his room, everyone was still packing their luggage. ¡°Cigarettes, don¡¯t squash them, don¡¯t squash them,¡± Fatty¡¯s voice was loud. Then it was Zhang Lin: ¡°Fatty, you¡¯re using my son and daughter¡¯s diapers to protect your cigarettes?¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s just for cushioning, it won¡¯t affect the usage of the diapers, why are you in such a hurry?¡± Fatty gripped the cigarettes that Zhang Lin threw over, checking they hadn¡¯t been squashed by Zhang Lin, grumbling under his breath. The staff members sent by Ning Qi, packed up their items, labelled them, and then loaded it onto the plane with a special vehicle. After being done with the busywork, Xiao Su finally pulled himself away: ¡°Shall we go for a walk?¡± ¡°Now?¡± Yang Ping thought it was relatively late. ¡°Under the hotel, the road by the entrance of Tokyo University.¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Yang Ping and Xiao Su came to the road in front of Tokyo University¡¯s entrance, trees lined the road. Under the street lamp, some couples from Tokyo University, hand in hand, strolling on the path. Yang Ping was also holding Xiao Su¡¯s hand, chatting while walking, around the corner, the street light was dim. Looking at the couple huddled together under the big tree, in the dark. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help himself, pulling Xiao Su into a tight hug instantly. Looking at the beautiful and gentle Xiao Su, the fragrance of her hair infusing his senses. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t control his rapidly beating heart, pounding wildly like a wild horse, as Xiao Su raised her head, her eyes as calm as autumn water looking at Yang Ping. ¡°You¡¯ve been working hard lately, haven¡¯t gotten much rest!¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine, hold me tighter, and I won¡¯t feel any fatigue.¡± Yang Ping sniffed Xiao Su¡¯s hair. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Really!¡± ¡°What theory?¡± ¡°The derivative theory of stimulus response principle.¡± ¡°Is there evidence-based proof?¡± ¡°Not at the moment, that¡¯s why, I¡¯m planning to write a paper on this aspect, need to collect data.¡± ¡°What sort of data?¡± ¡°Firstly research the anti-fatigue function of a kissing act.¡± Next day, at dawn around five o¡¯clock, before departing for the airport, Yang Ping first went to Tokyo University Hospital for his ward rounds, to see Ning Yu and Fujiwara Tani, both of whom were very stable, and without complications, they should be recovering well after the surgery. After seeing Ning Yu and Fujiwara Tani, under the farewell of Fujiwara Masao, Takahashi and other Japanese doctors, Yang Ping and the Chinese doctors started boarding the bus to the airport. In the farewell crowd, surprisingly, stood Osaki Toshilong. Osaki Toshilong had many more questions to ask Yang Ping, didn¡¯t expect Yang Ping to be leaving Japan so quickly. ¡°Doctor Yang, let me ask one last question!¡± Osaki Toshilong seized the opportunity. Takahashi was rather disgusted with this person, like a piece of cling film, early this morning, everyone came to bid them farewell warmly, and he started asking questions. Looking at panda-eyed Osaki Toshilong, Yang Ping knew he hadn¡¯t slept all night. ¡°Go ahead.¡± ¡°The plan you mentioned yesterday? Do you have any surgical experience in this area?¡± Osaki Toshilong really didn¡¯t have the guts to implement such a whimsical plan. Yang Ping thought for a moment: ¡°No, but it should be fine. If it¡¯s convenient, bring the patient to China, we can study together, if there¡¯s a problem, ask Takahashi.¡± Yang Ping boarded the bus. Osaki Toshilong stood in the cold wind. Emptying out the entire chest cavity, isn¡¯t like cutting out an organ. Worldwide, currently no one has done such a crazy thing. Chapter 549 - 549 499 Aim for the Heart ?Chapter 549: Chapter 499: Aim for the Heart Chapter 549: Chapter 499: Aim for the Heart The flight took off early, yet it was still past noon when they arrived back in China. Upon landing, Yang Ping immediately led everyone towards their department. At this time, Director Han and Professor Zhang were huddled around a computer, while Li Guodong sat next to them, typing on the keyboard. Their eyes were rimmed with dark circles. Had they been pulling an all-nighter for emergency surgery? Did even Professor Zhang go on stage? Currently, the Surgical Research Institute treats all sorts of patients, but emergency surgeries are rather rare. Most of the cases are complicated ones, referring here in hopes of a miracle resolution. When Director Han looked up and saw Yang Ping and the others entering, he rubbed his sleep-filled eyes and sounded somewhat angry: ¡°Why didn¡¯t you guys go back to rest? Come to work tomorrow!¡± Professor Zhang checked the time: ¡°You came directly to the department after landing? You should go and rest first.¡± ¡°We got a few hours of sleep on the airplane.¡± Upon returning, Yang Ping felt an instantaneous sense of home. Familiar people, familiar scenes, brought great warmth to his heart. ¡°We had an emergency case of spontaneous bleeding from the conus medullaris that resulted in paralysis and bowel and bladder dysfunction. Old Zhang and I performed emergency surgery on him in the middle of the night,¡± Director Han explained why the two looked so frazzled. The angiographic images of the spinal cord on the electronic screen showed an abnormal blood vessel supplying the conus medullaris. The cause of this hemorrhage was similar to that of spontaneous cerebral vascular malformation hemorrhage. The difference was that this occurred in the spinal cord. The conus medullaris is the terminal part of the spinal cord. Once damaged, it can cause incontinence. Therefore, in cases of spontaneous spinal cord bleeding that lead to neurological symptoms, emergency surgery is required. Director Han seemed fine, but Old Zhang was at the age of 80 and couldn¡¯t keep up. ¡°Old Zhang, you should go back and rest,¡± Director Han suggested sympathetically. He then turned to Yang Ping and said: ¡°I tried to stop him from coming, but he¡¯s stubborn and insisted.¡± Old Zhang waved his hand: ¡°I¡¯m an 80-year-old man. What do I have to fear from sudden death?¡± ¡°Doctor Yang, has everyone returned?¡± At this time, Director Tian Yuan walked into the office. Yang Ping was surprised. Had Director Han also brought Director Tian to help? ¡°This patient is from my village. He couldn¡¯t be treated in the local hospital and called me for help. When I saw his MRI, I knew the situation was serious. I promptly contacted my peers in the area and sent an ambulance to transfer him across provinces to our hospital. It was fortunate that we performed the emergency surgery, or he could¡¯ve ended up permanently paralyzed and his whole family would have been ruined.¡± Tian Yuan, the director, was in charge of the trauma orthopedics group when Yang Ping first arrived. Later, when the Orthopedic Department was newly established in the Overseas Chinese Building, Director Han sent him to be the department head. Coming from a poor background, he was ardent and never forgot his roots. Often, some villagers would seek his medical help, and he would take great care of them. He would go out of his way to conserve their expenses. For particularly hard cases, he would even cover some of their medical costs. Afterward, they all settled down to their respective tasks. Of course, Zhang Lin couldn¡¯t resist sharing his experiences in Japan with the graduate students and standardized training students, spinning an intriguing tale. He attracted a host of followers. Song Zimo let his junior doctors bring the medical record cart. He checked record after record and then went on a ward tour with Xu Zhiliang. Now that Yang Ping was back, Director Han had to hand over his duties. After the handover, Professor Zhang went back to rest. Director Han and Yang Ping then led the team on ward rounds, handing over each patient¡¯s care in detail at each bedside. After the rounds, Director Han also looked tired and asked Yang Ping to persuade him to rest. After checking through all the new and old patients in the department, Song Zimo noticed Sisi¡¯s latest test results. His brow furrowed and he handed the report to Yang Ping, directing Li Guodong to bring up Sisi¡¯s imaging results. After Yang Ping read the information, he also frowned. The situation was very grim; the cancer cells have begun to regrow, visible in the image. The heart also showed star-like points. Surgical methods, even those using high-intensity focused ultrasound, could only treat the symptoms. This was cancer, not any other disease. Wildfires will burn again at the return of the spring wind. This was the perfect description of malignant tumors. A single uneradicated seed could grow back into a large mass given time. Thus, the most feared aspect of malignant tumors was metastasis. Once it had metastasized, countless seeds became uncontrollable, potentially hiding anywhere in the body. Several Gamma Knife treatments had temporarily stabilized Sisi¡¯s condition, but it was only temporary. ¡°Will she need another round of Gamma Knife surgery? If so, I¡¯ll contact Director Duan in advance.¡± Song Zimo was quite worried. The last check-up seemed fine, but this one showed significant changes. Director Duan, Duan Xiaoming, was the head of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Gamma Knife Department. Nicknamed Duan Bald, he was also known as Brother Ming. Bald was having a rather comfortable life now. After studying Gamma Knife with Yang Ping for a while, he had grasped some real skills and took his Gamma Knife competency to a new level. Especially in the removal of uterine fibroids, he reached a new pinnacle, no longer causing skin burns or other miscellaneous complications. The removal of uterine fibroids¡ªno surgery, no bleeding, complete removal with fewer complications¡ªquickly spread Duan Xiaoming¡¯s reputation. He not only attracted a significant number of patients but was often invited by other hospitals to give lectures on Gamma Knife. Now, Bald focused solely on using the Gamma Knife to remove uterine fibroids. With this unique skill, the department was revitalized, surprisingly thriving, to the point where he had requested additional staff from the Human Resources Office to expand his team more than once. Within and outside the hospital, Duan Xiaoming was known as the specialist in removing uterine fibroids, which had become his calling card. ¡°Right now, there is no better method. We can only rely on the Gamma Knife to barely control the disease¡¯s condition, but...this method won¡¯t work for long. Contact Director Duan to give us a gap in his schedule. I¡¯m going to check on Sisi now.¡± Yang Ping put down his work. He really wanted to help this adorable little girl, sparing no effort. In his heart, Sisi had become the embodiment of all the helpless patients, on the edge or outside of medical protection, waiting for life to pass. ¡°Big brother!¡± Sisi was playing with a plush toy, which was brought back from Japan by Tang Fei. Her hair, unaffected by the damage of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, had become shinier and thicker. ¡°The news is not really good. I reviewed your scans, the cancer cells have reformed, and you can see dotted lesions in the films. There is currently no better solution, so we may have to proceed with another Gamma Knife surgery.¡± Furthermore, the smaller the lesion, the more difficult it is to precisely target it with the Gamma Knife. Yang Ping felt that he should be straightforward with her, as she was more calm than most adults. ¡°Can you help me move this to the window?¡± Sisi picked up the cactus on her bedside table, its pot wiped clean. Her face beamed with a radiant smile, devoid of the numbness and fatigue often seen on terminally ill patients. Her skin had the same lustrous and smooth qualities seen in children. Yang Ping moved the cactus to the window, allowing it to receive as much sunlight as possible. ¡°Do you know why I love this? It¡¯s because of its tenacity. Even in the desert, it survives.¡± ¡°Hmm, it¡¯s just like our Sisi, not afraid of difficulty.¡± After placing the potted plant where Sisi wanted, Yang Ping clapped his hands together. Sisi pulled out a book from under her pillow and handed it to Yang Ping. ¡°I¡¯ve finished the book you¡¯ve given me.¡± That was the book Yang Ping gave her: ¡°Opening a Heart.¡± A work by Stephen Wester, a top cardiac surgeon from the United Kingdom. At the time, Yang Ping vaguely anticipated that her tumor would affect her heart, and this examination confirmed his prediction. Small spots were visible on her left atrium and ventricle. ¡°Actually, I¡¯m lucky because the greatest fortune for a patient is to meet the best doctor.¡± Sisi always remained optimistic. Yang Ping casually flipped through the book, creating a rustling sound. The book was quite old, the result of buying it from an older student at a campus flea market during his university years for just one dollar. The night he bought the book, Yang Ping read the entire thing in one sitting. It was from that moment on that he firmed his resolve to become a doctor. In the book, every patient becomes a story ¨C sometimes sorrowful and desperate, sometimes complicated and bizarre, and sometimes deeply moving. Whether confident, depressed, or helpless, the chief surgeon always gives his all because there is no other choice. ¡°You¡¯re feeling upset?¡± Sisi asked Yang Ping with a smile. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°A little.¡± Sisi chuckled as if it was nothing serious: ¡°You forget what this book tells us¡ªwe need to tune out empathy! Why should we tune out empathy? My understanding is, empathy will cause doctors to lose their precious courage.¡± Yang Ping was amazed at her reading and comprehension ability. ¡°Alright, it seems that your mood is stable, and my worry is unnecessary. Shall we arrange for your next Gamma Knife surgery? This time the target area includes the heart!¡± Yang Ping treated her as a friend and had equal conversations with her even though she was a child. ¡°Are you going to open my heart?¡± Sisi asked with wide eyes. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°No, it¡¯s not that dramatic yet. Bombarding the heart with the Gamma Knife can be very risky.¡± ¡°Sisi!¡± Sisi¡¯s mother¡¯s voice echoed from the corridor outside. She worked in the ward as a caregiver, assisting nurses in arranging beds and taking patients for examination. Sisi¡¯s father was assigned to work as a driver for Boss Cheng by Yang Ping. Money was always quietly deposited into Sisi¡¯s medical expense account, so the couple was not under much economic pressure right now. Sisi made a hushing gesture, and Yang Ping responded with a knowing smile. ¡°Dr. Yang, you are back. Did I interrupt your rounds?¡± Sisi¡¯s mother appeared at the door and felt sorry to have disturbed Yang Ping and Sisi¡¯s conversation. Yang Ping raised the book in his hand and said: ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯m here to see her and chat with her about this book.¡± ¡°Ah, and yes, Uncle Hermes called me a while ago. He¡¯s doing well in Africa, but his skin has become much darker due to the sun. He said that you will definitely cure me, that I should not worry about anything, and he plans to send me a photo of himself with a huge piece of gold in the background,¡± Sisi recalled the recent call from Hermes. Hermes, who had been cured and discharged, went to Africa. His gold mine was shallow with good mineral output, high purity, and low extraction cost which made him very wealthy. A while ago, Hermes contacted Yang Ping and offered to provide funding for his research if needed. Hermes was quite a generous and straightforward man, which was why Yang Ping enjoyed his company. ¡°Mr. Wang called and wanted to adopt Sisi as his goddaughter,¡± Sisi¡¯s mother added. Sisi shook her head: ¡°Uncle Hermes is a good person, and very interesting, but I will not be anyone else¡¯s daughter. I only want to be my mom and dad¡¯s daughter.¡± Apparently, Hermes and Sisi had formed a bond during his hospital stay. The Gamma Knife surgery that Sisi was about to undergo was a bit more challenging than previous ones. Previous surgeries mainly targeted the liver, with no obstructions from bones in the abdominal area. However, this time, the Ultrasonic Knife would target the heart, specifically in the position of the left atrium and left ventricle. The angles were hard to determine, and with obstructions from the rib bones, spine, and scapula, the focused ultrasound would have difficulty taking effect. Yang Ping needed to carefully plan for the operation. Chapter 550 - 550 500 The Ultimate Skill in Supporting a ?Chapter 550: Chapter 500: The Ultimate Skill in Supporting a Family Chapter 550: Chapter 500: The Ultimate Skill in Supporting a Family Upon hearing that Yang Ping, was going to perform surgery on Sisi, Director Duan from the Gamma Knife Department rescheduled all other patients for the day. For Director Duan, all his current top skills ¡°in the martial arts world¡± were from Yang Ping. At that time, the department was struggling. Director Duan was living hand-to-mouth; despite being a deputy chief physician in a first-tier city, he could barely make the mortgage payments. He saw no hope in life and spent his days obsessing over the stock market. Dreaming of making a fortune from stocks, he found that what he bought fell in price, what he sold rose in price, and eventually he lost all his original investment. This Gamma Knife, a multi-million-dollar machine, laid covered with dust, barely serving a few patients with uterine fibroids each month. Due to complications such as skin burns, few uterine fibroid patients came. Director Duan several times applied to be transferred back to the ultrasound department. However, the Hospital would always reply, ¡°We need to evaluate before making a decision.¡± Just like this, a few years passed. Director Duan knew that since so much investment had been made in the equipment, the Hospital was not willing to let it idle. It would be difficult to explain to their superiors if it were idle, so they dragged things on. With this dragging on, Director Duan¡¯s Mediterranean hair style gradually turned into complete baldness. At that time, when Yang Ping heard about his plight, he patiently guided Director Duan through several Gamma Knife surgeries for uterine fibroids removal. These surgeries unexpectedly achieved great results. Not only were they completely removed, but there were also no messy complications such as skin burns or excessive bleeding after the surgery. The patients were highly satisfied. Some young patients even fell pregnant shortly after recovery. Banners of appreciation were continuously propelled into Director Duan¡¯s hands. Director Duan quickly realized that the opportunity for him to rise in life had come. He immediately, unabashedly, asked Yang Ping to guide him through a few more surgeries. He recorded all the experiences and techniques taught by Yang Ping, especially certain parameter settings, in a notebook. He memorized them from morning till night, deeply embedding them into his mind. On the strength of this experience, he was remarkably able to successfully perform all subsequent uterine fibroids surgeries without any complications. So, Director Duan decided to concentrate his limited energy on the ¡°Gamma Knife uterine fibroids removal¡±. Surprisingly, the more he did it, the smoother it went. His reputation spread far and wide, and his life was improving as if his energy channels were opened up ©¤ things were looking up. Director Duan locked his document bag in the office cabinet, adjusted his clothes and straightened his tie, looking very complacent. Little Five was pushing Sisi in a wheelchair. Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Liang Fatty were trailing behind. Director Duan was waiting at the main door early on. He was beaming, full of spirit, a stark contrast to his previous state of decline. His Golden Benefit shirt and floral tie looked rather flashy, even his bald head seemed shinier. ¡°Dr. Yang, please! Everything is ready.¡± In the corridor of the Gamma Knife Department, seven or eight women were sitting on chairs. From their appearance, the oldest seemed to be in their fifties or sixties, the youngest in their twenties. These were all uterine fibroids patients. Some were scheduled for surgery, some were here to find out more about the situation. It seemed that Director Duan was indeed relying on the removal of uterine fibroids to uphold the entire department¡¯s operations. Yang Ping¡¯s first visit to this department was when Director Duan was studying stocks on his phone. The corridor was eerily quiet then. The only companion, a nurse, was busy browsing through TikTok. Now it was completely different. The corridor was bustling, with two nurses busy communicating with patients and rearranging surgery times. ¡°Brother Ming! I heard that you are planning to recruit and expand the team?¡± Song Zimo chatted amiably. Director Duan rubbed his bald head: ¡°I have submitted several reports to the Human Resources Office asking for more staff, but they only granted one additional nurse. Now, with two nurses and a rotational doctor, we can hardly cope.¡± A young man appeared out of nowhere at the door, nodding and bowing to everyone. This man was a sales representative from the Gamma Knife company. When he heard that the business at Sanbo was thriving, his company immediately sent him to understand the situation, and then invited Director Duan to give lectures at other hospitals¡¯ Gamma Knife departments and assist with surgeries. Especially some small hospitals, which adopted an equipment rental model with the company, couldn¡¯t sustain long-term business operations and ended up incurring losses for both the hospital and the company. The sales representative pulled out a few bottles of Wong Lo Kat from his backpack and put them on the table: ¡°Hard work, teachers, hard work, quench your thirst!¡± ¡°What are you doing? Trying to bribe us? Pack it up and get out.¡± Director Duan didn¡¯t notice how this lad had slipped in. At the entrance of the office, a sign that read ¡°Medical Representatives Not Allowed¡± was prominently displayed. Director Duan was afraid that Yang Ping would misunderstand and think this guy was a medical representative, so he immediately got angry. The young man quickly understood what was happening, repeatedly apologized, and slinked away quietly. Liang Fatty began to anesthetize Sisi, with two nurses assisting him. ¡°Director Duan, how are your stocks doing recently? Have you made a lot of money?¡± Little Five chatted with him casually. Director Duan was in a whole new state of mind: ¡°I quit that long ago, it¡¯s boring, like playing cards, you win some, you lose some. When you count it up at the end of the year, you end up at a loss.¡± Song Zimo took over the conversation: ¡°Little Five, you don¡¯t know, Director Duan is now a big shot. For Gamma Knife treatment of uterine fibroids, everyone in the city knows about Director Duan. Now any Gamma Knife operations in the city cost three thousand, and cross-city operations within the province would amount to five thousand per procedure. I heard he can do several operations over a weekend. What is a stock, what is a stock?¡± Director Duan chuckled. This conversation precisely described his current situation. Now, his entire focus was on surgeries. Truly, what were stocks? ¡°That young guy just now is a sales representative for the Gamma Knife company, who was coordinating for me to provide technical support to their partner hospitals.¡± Director Duan took the opportunity to clarify the identity of the young man. Little Five nodded: ¡°No wonder, did you upgrade from a Corolla to a Cadillac?¡± Director Duan said Embarrassingly: ¡°Ah, it¡¯s been discounted, just over 200,000, and it comes with an installment plan. The technical support certainly has to be paid for, but for some impoverished units, I waive the fee if it should be free.¡± For the safety of the surgery, Liang Fatty chose general anesthesia. After the anesthesia had taken effect, Director Duan personally assisted and helped Sisi position herself correctly. Yang Ping began the operation, with everyone gathered around him. The colored ultrasound image on the screen showed the rhythmic beating of the heart, and the red and blue large blood vessels made a whooshing sound. The thoracic cavity was enclosed by twenty-four ribs, creating a cage-like structure with extremely narrow gaps between each rib. Even if the body is arched forward or backward, opening up a little gap between the ribs, no satisfactory gap can be obtained. The focused ultrasounds are blocked by the ribs and cannot fully exert their power. ¡°The human body is truly amazing! The most important organs¡ªthe brain and heart, are protected by sturdy bones, such as the skull protecting brain tissue, and the rib cage protecting the heart and lungs. When it comes to layout, the human body bestows the strongest protection to the most important organs,¡± Song Zimo marveled at the image. Little Five asked, ¡°Why not protect all the airways, like the spleen, so that the spleen wouldn¡¯t rupture so easily?¡± Song Zimo shook his head: ¡°If everything were protected by sturdy bones, the body¡¯s range of motion would drop. Between soft and hard, the human body must maintain a balance.¡± Liang Fatty added, ¡°In primitive societies, human beings lived in low energy scenes where this kind of skeletal protection was enough. However, with the development of technology, especially the advent of cars, humans find themselves in high-energy scenarios where the hard bone protection also appears extremely fragile.¡± Following on, Director Duan said, ¡°It¡¯s the same principle as wearing helmets while riding motorcycles: it¡¯s better to have protection than none.¡± ¡°Yang Bo, are you going to make a precise strike through the gap between the ribs?¡± Having seen Yang Ping begin to set the parameters while chatting, Director Duan immediately halted the conversation, feeling secretly thrilled that he was about to learn a new technique. So, he could not wait to jot down these parameters, afraid that he might miss or mess up the numbers, he even took photos and made records. Indeed, using the gaps between ribs as a breakthrough point, Yang Ping began to precisely bombard the tumor of the mediastinum. Due to the limitation of angle, one target had to be hit multiple times from different points and angles. And each time required a change in body position. This was something others couldn¡¯t help with, only Song Zimo could take the field. At each tumor lesion, Yang Ping bombarded from different angles and points, with each point covering a portion of the lesions. Adding up several bombardment points, they could perfectly cover the lesions. The operation was completed in less than half an hour. ¡°How¡¯s Sisi¡¯s vital signs?¡± Yang Ping asked Liang Fatty. Fatty nodded with satisfaction: ¡°Stable!¡± After all, the target of the bombardment was near the heart, one had to be cautious about the cardiac side effects. Yang Ping re-examined the mediastinum, heart, lungs, and large blood vessels with the ultrasound probe, and under the colored ultrasound image, the target lesion had been perfectly eradicated. This time they were lucky that they could use this crisscrossed approach to complete the bombardment of the tumor. If the range was wider, and some lesions were in a blind spot, no matter how the angle was adjusted, it would be hard to bombard. ¡°Dr. Yang, can I ask a couple of questions? Would it take up a bit of your time?¡± Director Duan asked tentatively. ¡°Go ahead.¡± Having used their place for surgeries a few times, they always responded politely, in kind. ¡°Is there any rule to follow for the determination of these emission points and angles, like calculation by a formula?¡± Director Duan pointed at the dense numbers in his notebook, many of which have decimals. He did not know how Yang Ping could determine the numbers behind these decimals. When Director Duan performed uterine myoma, different heights and weights, measured the size of the uterus under colored ultrasound, then measured the size of the myoma, obtained a series of numbers, according to the experience taught by Yang Ping, determined the accurate bombardment parameters based on these data. He tried to modify the numbers behind the decimal point or round them up or down, after the modification, the surgical effect plummeted; complications such as skin burns, vaginal bleeding, and incomplete excisions began to emerge. That is, he could only have good results if he honestly followed the data given by Yang Ping. ¡°It¡¯s purely the accumulation of experience, just like many data of medicine, requiring a large amount of trial and error to slowly obtain accurate data, there¡¯s no one-time formula.¡± Yang Ping told him the truth. These data were precious information obtained by Yang Ping through constant trial and error in system space. As Yang Ping was not interested in uterine myoma, he did not have the time to study all diseases, so he taught the data to Director Duan, allowing him to bring these clinical data into play. Director Duan sort of understood, clinical medicine relied heavily on the accumulation of experience, a lot of things were accumulated data through constant trial and error. These data might mean nothing to Yang Ping. But to Duan Xiaoming, they were innate skills that could support his family! They were treasures for life¡¯s counterattack! ¡°My turn, my turn!¡± Little Five was calling for someone to push the wheelchair in. Director Duan immediately stood up, the keys in his pocket jingling. Chapter 551 - 551 501 Patient Number One ?Chapter 551: Chapter 501: Patient Number One Chapter 551: Chapter 501: Patient Number One Director Duan gave it a second thought. Experience? It seems Dr. Yang had never used the Gamma Knife apart from Sisi¡¯s surgery and teaching him how to perform the myomectomy. Speaking of myomectomy, Dr. Yang¡¯s specialty, it has nothing to do with it. However, when it came to teaching him myomectomy techniques, Dr. Yang was incredibly skilled. Could he have performed myomectomy with the Gamma Knife at his previous hospital? As far as Director Duan knew, the City People¡¯s Hospital has not yet introduced the Gamma Knife. Director Duan paused for a moment, admitting to himself, some things were beyond his comprehension. The surgeries Dr. Yang performed at Sanbo Hospital were often high-risk and challenging. Surely he couldn¡¯t have performed all of them frequently in the past? How old was he? How many years had he been practicing medicine? How long had he been performing surgeries? A genius, a true genius! Only this explanation could simplify everything. Director Duan suddenly felt ecstatic, as if he had met the rumored benefactor leading him toward a smooth journey in life. Snapping back to reality, he immediately squeezed over and blocked Yang Ping who was about to assist Sisi: ¡°Let me do it, let me do it, take a rest for a while.¡± Then he delicately helped Sisi into the wheelchair, speaking gently to Sisi: ¡°Little girl, take it slow, don¡¯t rush, how are you feeling, any discomfort?¡± Sisi shook her head, and licked her dry lips: ¡°I am fine, nothing¡¯s wrong.¡± ¡°Fetch a cup of warm water from the dispenser, soak a cotton swab in it and moisturize Sisi¡¯s lips,¡± Director Duan instructed the nurse. However, the nurse was a bit slow to react, so he immediately performed this task himself. Preoperative fasting, along with the use of drugs to suppress the secretion of respiratory tract glands, had left Sisi¡¯s lips extremely dry. But after general anesthesia, she couldn¡¯t drink water immediately and so a simple way to moisturize her lips was the only option. ¡°Let me do it!¡± Yang Ping took the moist cotton swab from Director Duan, gently moistened Sisi¡¯s lips, making her feel much more comfortable. This minor issue was nothing for a strong young girl like Sisi. Director Gao appeared at the doorway. ¡°Shoes! Shoes!¡± Everyone had forgotten about the shoes. As soon as Director Gao entered, without any hint of superiority as a department director, he quickly picked up Sisi¡¯s shoes and squatted down to help her put them on. He had heard that Sisi was having surgery today, so he also found time to check in on her. Sisi was Dr. Yang¡¯s first patient. If Dr. Yang cared so much about her, they naturally would follow suit. Yang Ping received the wheelchair from Little Five: ¡°Let me push it!¡± Accompanied by everyone, Yang Ping pushed Sisi to the Surgical Research Institute. Along the way, everyone chatted and laughed easily, and Sisi was made to giggle as well. The hospital area was bustling with hurried passers-by, including patients, relatives, and various salespeople. Some were walking, some were seated in wheelchairs, and some were lying on stretchers. People were gathered in the pavilion, the hallway, and under the trees. Some were leaning against the wall with a blank expression, holding a report card, their faces pale; some were making calls, shouting with joy: ¡°It¡¯s benign, the biopsy is benign;¡± others were squatting on the ground smoking, apparently a family discussing hospitalization expenses. At the entrance of the Surgical Research Institute, the brass plaque was very eye-catching in the sunlight. Originally, Dean Xia and Director Han put up this special plaque to allow Yang Ping¡¯s free development. To get this plaque, Dean Xia had to face a lot of opposition and then do a lot of internal and external work to achieve his wish. In other large tertiary hospitals, especially teaching hospitals, without a professor of an academician level, one would not even dream of hanging such a plaque, let alone skew the resources toward Yang Ping. A young attending physician who has only been working for a few years wouldn¡¯t catch anyone¡¯s eye. Therefore, Yang Ping had a special affection for Sanbo Hospital. At present, for Yang Ping, a relaxed environment was the most valuable aspect. He liked to work freely, carrying out his plans step by step. He didn¡¯t even want others to meddle in his affairs, as many things were hard to explain and even if explained, it would be hard for others to understand. Dean Xia and Director Han were such people. They only did their utmost to provide resources without interfering with Yang Ping¡¯s clinical or research plans. Because they understood that ordinary people couldn¡¯t possibly comprehend a genius¡¯s thoughts, let alone evaluate or identify them. If they tried to interfere with a genius¡¯s research work, it would be akin to a layman hindering a professional, which would only lead to disastrous results. As long as Yang Ping didn¡¯t break legal and ethical rules, he was free to do as he pleased. Upon returning to the department, Yang Ping transferred Sisi back to the ward. He then had a short chat with Director Gao and Director Duan. Because of his uterine fibroids cases, Director Duan had been affectionately termed ¡°Woman¡¯s Friend¡±. He was glad to accept this nickname that served the purpose of a business card. Director Gao¡¯s Sports Medicine Centre was developing very quickly, already ranking second in Nandu Province. Given time, it could even surpass the first-ranked Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Director Gao was a determined man with big ambitions. His goal was not to be the first in Nandu Province, but the entire country. Regardless of whether he could achieve this grand goal in his career, he was always striving. Even if one generation couldn¡¯t achieve it, he could lay a solid foundation for the next chief to charge forward. He was extremely generous with the young doctors in his department, teaching them hands-on, and also sending young doctors to the United States and Japan for training. Of course, the plans for training in Japan were still in progress, and thanks to the assistance from Robert, the trip to the United States had successfully arranged a stay at the Specialist Orthopedics Hospital in New York. Chapter 552 - 552 501 Patient Number 1_2 ?Chapter 552: Chapter 501 Patient Number 1_2 Chapter 552: Chapter 501 Patient Number 1_2 From Yang Ping, Director Gao didn¡¯t just learn surgery, he learned many other things, such as adopting an open-minded attitude towards learning and facing industry leaders with equal confidence. Even though Robert was technically a student of Yang Ping, Yang still advocated for sending people to learn from Robert. After all, that place is home to the world¡¯s strongest orthopedics hospital, and there are many things worth learning, including advanced concepts, management approaches, and systems. These things take time to digest, and they cannot be acquired quickly. Director Gao showed Yang Ping pictures from the moment of the postgraduate trainees, showing how hard they were working. They had fought their way into Sanbo Hospital through rigorous tests. During the exams, Dean Xia personally supervised the examination room. For this examination, Dean Xia repelled all kinds of interference, including personal connections, notes slipped to him, or so-called recommendations. Even for the limited recommendation quota, he only considered the truly eccentric geniuses. These unconventional candidates were evaluated by the hospital¡¯s expert committee, who then decided who should be admitted. None of these candidates had connections and for his refusal to cater to the privileged, Dean Xia offended many. However, being a national representative and national model worker, no one could do anything to him. When someone suggested that Dean Xia should bend the rules a bit to avoid offending others, he swept the idea away with a broad hand: ¡°Those who don¡¯t do things guilty of conscience are not afraid of ghosts knocking at the door ¨C why should I be afraid!¡± So these people greatly cherished their work and studied very hard. ¡°Robert personally picked them up from the airport and had even paid out of his own pocket for their hotel accommodation, which was located right next to the hospital. Robert even treated them to a meal at the best restaurant in New York. On top of that, Robert personally tutored them on technical matters and took care of their livelihoods meticulously. They are probably the luckiest batch of trainees ever.¡± Gao took the opportunity to chat with Yang Ping a bit. There was no helping it, Robert was clever and cunning, he had built a close relationship with Director Gao and insisted that Gao report his deeds to Yang Ping, even reminding him to update Yang Ping regularly and not omit any important details. Director Gao had no choice but to comply, after all, they were brothers. As Robert put it, he and Director Gao were brothers, not ordinary brothers, but sworn brothers! After Director Gao and Director Duan left, Yang Ping began to review the information compiled by Song Zimo. The research on treating scoliosis with external fixation was still progressing smoothly. This was an essential step for all future research achievements by Yang Ping. Experiments completed in the system space need to be repeated in reality to obtain real data, and then gradually applied to clinical practice. Therefore, in reality, it is also necessary to grasp research resources in order to comfortably translate the results of research from the system space into something legally viable. Regarding research resources, besides establishing his own powerful laboratory, he also needs to establish gradual cooperation with some top external laboratories. With a few substantial donations, the laboratory has purchased a lot of equipment, which are all used for stem cell muscle cultivation projects. This is the ultimate objective. As for the external fixation treatment for scoliosis, it is merely a starter and not even a minor objective. At present, there are two ways to create organs with stem cells. One is to use 3D printing technology to cultivate stem cells into target organ cells. These cells are scattered. Then, with the help of 3D printing technology and micro-supports, the organs are printed out with these cells as the material. This method is currently mainstream, but its biggest drawback is that the resulting structure merely approximates a real organ at a certain level. When the structure is reduced to the microscopic level, there are differences from real organs. The manner in which the cells compose the organ is different from reality. These 3D printed organs can perform some organ functions, but they can¡¯t develop normally and can¡¯t last for long. The second method is to use animals to grow organs, and then the organs are subject to antigen removal, such as using pigs to grow hearts, then removing antigens from the heart and transplanting it into a human. Structurally, this organ is a completely normal heart, but being cross-species, there are still rejections no matter how carefully the antigens are removed. Yang Ping has done a lot of research on these two methods and is planning to abandon these two approaches and directly use stem cells to cultivate organs. Cultivating organs in vitro using stem cells, the organ currently being targeted is muscle tissue. If it is successful this will be revolutionary, but understandably the difficulty is high. No one has yet tried this method. After reviewing the data, Yang Ping took a look at the new emails in his inbox. ¡°Dear Dr. Yang Ping, hello, I am Dr. Li Zehui from Cleveland. I have a very unfortunate piece of news to tell you. Not long ago in China, I mentioned a rare case to you, that little girl with situs inversus, tetralogy of Fallot, and left ventricular tumor, she passed away on the operating table. I deeply regret this. Strangely, a similar patient, even in a worse condition, appeared before me again. Is this God giving me a chance to atone? I am sincerely anxious and afraid to proceed, so I formally invite Dr. Yang to join me in the surgery. Detailed patient information is included in the attachment¡ª¡± Yang Ping remembered very well the six-year-old girl that Professor Li Zehui was talking about. This patient was a rare case of situs inversus! All her thoracic and abdominal organs were reversed, with the heart on the right, liver on the left, stomach and spleen on the right, not just reversed from left to right, but also from front to back. Chapter 553 - 553 501 Patient Number One_3 ?Chapter 553: Chapter 501 Patient Number One_3 Chapter 553: Chapter 501 Patient Number One_3 A reversed heart and large blood vessels, structurally severely malformed, an interventricular septum defect, aortic override, pulmonary stenosis, right ventricular hypertrophy ¨C severe Tetralogy of Fallot! But that¡¯s not even the worst of it, there¡¯s also a tumor inside the left ventricle. This little girl has already undergone two surgeries, both surgeons realized the difficulty and gave up halfway, so the anatomy inside is also a blur. Yang Ping didn¡¯t have much contact with Professor Li, but Yang Ping felt that Professor Li must be a cautious person. Judging from their contact at that time, he was apprehensive about this case and probably would not rashly perform the surgery. Perhaps the patient¡¯s condition changed suddenly at that time, and an emergency surgery had to be performed, so Professor Li had to hurriedly prepare. As a doctor, hearing this news, Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but feel regret. He opened the attached information, really miraculous, this patient¡¯s condition is extremely similar to the previous little girl, but even younger, only several months old. Perhaps the Cleveland Medical Center is the world¡¯s top heart center and therefore, it has the opportunity to come across these rare cases. Doctors around the world push their complex cases there, and patients from around the world also gather there. Cases that other doctors will never encounter in their lives, are continuously met in the Cleveland Medical Center. A six-month-old baby from a conflict-ridden country, a case admitted to a charity hospital operated by the International Red Cross. ¡°Dear Dr. Yang, as dispatched by the International Red Cross, I perform surgeries for free around the world every year. This poor guy is also one I encountered during one of my charity clinics. His mother died in the war, his father brought him through the war zone and found the charity hospital that cooperates with me¨C¡± ¡°When I first saw him, my body was shaking. I can¡¯t make the same mistake again. I see no chance of success. I can¡¯t let him die again on the operating table, so, I want to ask for your help¨C¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know how to say it, this is a personal request, perhaps only by doing this can I find peace in my heart¨C¡± ¡°You can agree or refuse based on your own situation and feelings. Whatever choice you make is not related to morality. It¡¯s just helping me with a personal request, or refusing me. There are no moral factors involved, and you¡¯re not obliged to accept the invitation. You have the right to refuse or agree¨C.¡± To treat diseases and save lives is the sacred duty of doctors! If one obtains superb medical skills, it is for the purpose of treating diseases and saving people, otherwise, it would be meaningless. Yang Ping did not feel that he was particularly noble, as he felt that he was simply fulfilling his duty. His response was humble but firm; ¡°Greetings Dr. Li Ze from Cleveland, I have thoroughly reviewed the case material, and I accept your invitation. Please provide more information quickly, so I can determine whether the surgery should be elective or urgent, to ascertain the best surgery time.¡± Every patient is a concern! This is what Professor Zhang Zongshun told Yang Ping, Professor Zhang¡¯s father, on his last day of life, was still seeing patients at Xiehe Hospital. After seeing his last patient, he peacefully passed away in his office chair. This elder, who dedicated his entire life to medicine, always told Professor Zhang that every patient is a concern! And now as Professor Zhang himself becomes an elder, he passes the same words onto Yang Ping. Yang Ping deeply felt this sentiment, every patient is a concern! Have his preoperative checks been thorough? Does he meet the surgical indications? Are there any surgical contraindications? Is there any flaw in the surgical plan? Could there be another backup plan? What complications and accidents can occur intraoperatively and postoperatively? How should they be handled? Yang Ping began to plan the surgery for this child on draft paper. Chapter 554 - 554 502 Pineapple Cake ?Chapter 554: Chapter 502: Pineapple Cake Chapter 554: Chapter 502: Pineapple Cake Yang Ping had a strong impression of the Mirror Man case and had tried to design a surgery plan for it in his mind before. Therefore, he quickly sketched it out on paper. For surgical plans, the expressiveness of drawings far exceeds that of words. Looking at the sketch he drew, Yang Ping fell into deep thought. Very few doctors in the world have the experience to perform surgery on a displaced heart, especially one with severe congenital deformities. Even top cardiac surgeons like Professor Li Zehui would have difficulty in applying their past experiences, given these circumstances. Without him noticing, Xiao Su was already standing at the door. She knocked gently, then entered with a smile to help tidy up the office. If it wasn¡¯t for Xiao Su¡¯s regular help, this office would definitely be a mess. Perhaps due to his immersion in medicine, Yang Ping often lacked attention to these life details; he was even too lazy to bother with these minor things. The office desk needed tidying, the tea needed changing, the tea utensils needed cleaning- The lady who was brought up in a well-off family was very skilled at these tasks. Perhaps she was just spoiled, but not pampered. ¡°Are you free next weekend?¡± Xiao Su asked while tidying up. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°How about having dinner at my house?¡± Xiao Su asked, a bit shyly. Yang Ping was stunned. It was time to meet her parents, a day which was bound to come, eventually. Having been dating Xiao Su for this long, he was familiar with Professor Su and Su Nanchen. However, he had not yet formally met her parents as the future son-in-law of the Su Family. The more he thought about it, the more nervous he became. ¡°What? You don¡¯t have time?¡± Xiao Su waited for Yang Ping¡¯s answer. Yang Ping immediately replied: ¡°I do, I definitely do!¡± Gifts, what about the gifts? Yang Ping suddenly rememberd. Such a formal occasion came so suddenly, he wasn¡¯t prepared at all. ¡°Why the rush? My parents have mentioned a few times for you to come to our house for dinner.¡± Xiao Su chuckled. Yang Ping didn¡¯t know why he was a bit flustered and stuttered: ¡°I haven¡¯t prepared anything. I need to plan in advance. Gifts, gifts, what should I prepare?¡± What a headache! ¡°Don¡¯t be nervous. I¡¯ve already prepared the gifts. Just follow me, you don¡¯t need to spend too much time on this. You¡¯re very familiar with my father and brother.¡± Xiao Su tidied up the books and materials on the office table. She arranged them according to Yang Ping¡¯s preferences and habits, putting materials he often needed to read within easy reach. ¡°That won¡¯t do. I¡¯m visiting your house, and you¡¯re helping me prepare gifts. There¡¯s no sincerity in that. I need to prepare something myself.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s mind was racing, but he found that his memory in this area was insufficient, leaving him at a loss. ¡°Oh come on, the gift is just a formality, don¡¯t stress over it.¡± A cup of hot tea was placed in front of Yang Ping. Xiao Su walked behind him, massaging his neck and shoulders to help him relax. ¡°I¡¯ve got it, how about we bake a box of pineapple cakes ourselves? I¡¯m sure my grandparents, and my parents will love them.¡± Xiao Su¡¯s gentle touch made Yang Ping feel extremely comfortable. Yang Ping hesitated: ¡°That¡¯s a good idea, but ¡ª I don¡¯t know how to bake?¡± If he could train that in the system space, he would go there and become a master traditional pastry chef. But this is a medical system, where there isn¡¯t anything like that to train, putting Yang Ping in a tight spot. ¡°It¡¯s okay that I know how, just do as I say and follow my instructions. We¡¯ll surely make some top-quality pineapple cakes. I¡¯ve even listed the ingredients and know where to buy the best ones.¡± Xiao Su reassured Yang Ping. Yang Ping felt much more relieved, it was indeed a good idea. Made by the two of them, this gift would be the best representation of their feelings. ¡°If you say so, I¡¯ll do it, even if that means grinding beans,¡± Yang Ping grabbed Xiao Su¡¯s tender hand. Xiao Su playfully retorted, ¡°But you don¡¯t need beans for pineapple tarts!¡± ¡°Anyway, I¡¯ll do whatever you tell me to!¡± ¡°That¡¯s my good boy!¡± ¡ª ¡°Are they wild ones from the Changbai Mountain? And there¡¯s a pair?¡± ¡°Boss Cheng, rest assured. These are worth millions. They can¡¯t be fake. As a connoisseur, you¡¯d know as soon as you inspect them.¡± ¡°Get them to me as fast as possible.¡± ¡°The items are not with me right now, they¡¯re in Baishan, Jilin. I can¡¯t just SF Express such a valuable item, can I? It¡¯d be best if I deliver it myself.¡± ¡°The faster, the better. I don¡¯t care how you do it, even if I have to charter a flight. The shipping costs are on me. But, mind you, the items must not be damaged, or I¡¯ll refuse delivery.¡± ¡°I know, Old Cheng. Don¡¯t you know how I operate by now?¡± Huang Jiacai rushed in hurriedly, and plopped down on the sofa in Old Cheng¡¯s office. ¡°Have a seat!¡± Old Cheng hung up the phone. ¡°What¡¯s the rush?¡± Huang Jiacai poured himself a cup of tea. ¡°I got some news from Jilin. They found a pair of wild ginseng in the side peak of Changbai Mountain Range. Each is about 200 grams fresh, around 60 grams dry, almost a meter long, over a hundred years old. A pair! What luck!¡± Old Cheng was overjoyed, clenching his fist and pounding it into his palm. ¡°Really? Or is it a fake?¡± Huang Jiacai was skeptical, as such things are very rare. Old Cheng waved his hand, ¡°This surely can¡¯t be fake. You can deceive others, but not me. Besides, I know the medicinal herb dealer inside out. He¡¯d gotten an even larger one before, over two hundred years old, and he sold it for over 3 million yuan.¡± ¡°I heard that next weekend, Doctor Yang is going to the Su Family for a formal meeting with the parents?¡± Huang Jiacai sought confirmation. Old Cheng nodded, ¡°The news is absolutely reliable. You guessed it right. The gift he¡¯s bringing is homemade pineapple tarts. Zhang Lin, the big mouth, was quite accurate with his intel, wasn¡¯t he?¡± ¡°That¡¯s his talent. He squeezed it out of Zhou Can. Xiao Su and Zhou Can have been really close. Xiao Su has been trying to learn how to make pineapple tarts from an old, famous pastry maker for quite some time. Seems like they really are planning to make pineapple tarts as a gift this time.¡± Huang Jiacai stroked his chin confidently. ¡°How¡¯s the preparation for the items I asked you to handle?¡± Huang Jiacai inquired. Old Cheng patted his chest, ¡°Rest assured. Those egg-laying hens are being raised like Wagyu cows, fed the best grains and serenaded with music every day. They even get regular massages.¡± ¡°I custom ordered the white sugar from an old, famous brand. The rest is as you instructed. Everything is according to plan. President Huang, you sure know how to handle things, eh?¡± Boss Cheng gave a thumbs up. Huang Jiacai replied calmly, ¡°Once you get your hands on the ginseng, keep it for the time being. We can use it as our wedding gift when they get married.¡± ¡°Why? Such a good thing would be perfect as a gift when Doctor Yang first visits. Why else would I be in such a hurry to get them delivered?¡± Old Cheng was confused. Huang Jiacai shook his head, ¡°You know what kind of person Doctor Yang is, don¡¯t you? He¡¯s diligent in his work, but in his personal life, he dislikes trouble! It wouldn¡¯t be suitable for him to bring such a valuable item as a gift. The Su family comes from a scholarly background. They don¡¯t care about such things. A box of pineapple tarts as a gift is more than enough. We should focus more on their future wedding. Let¡¯s not reveal the ginseng yet, and save it for the wedding.¡± ¡°I will follow your advice!¡± Old Cheng ceased arguing. In Old Cheng¡¯s eyes, Huang Jiacai was a shrewd and insightful character, prone to strikingly accurate predictions. ¡°Doctor Yang is due to go to Yemen soon for his flying knife surgery. He asked us to arrange it. The country isn¡¯t very stable. I am pondering how to handle this situation.¡± Huang Jiacai frowned. ¡°That place, they¡¯re still at war, right? No, we can¡¯t let him go!¡± Old Cheng shook his head emphatically. Huang Jiacai took a sip of tea, ¡°I was thinking, maybe we could find a way to bring the patient here. That would solve the safety issue. But things are not that simple.¡± ¡°The invitation from Professor Li Zehui in Cleveland? That guy who can barely talk in Chinese? Just reject him outright.¡± Chapter 555 - 555 503 Son-in-law ?Chapter 555: Chapter 503 Son-in-law Chapter 555: Chapter 503 Son-in-law These days, as soon as Yang Ping got off work, he would follow Xiao Su, making pineapple buns in his newly bought house. Yang Ping knew nothing about pineapple buns, he could only help out. As long as Xiao Su knew, things would work out fine. Xiao Su seemed to be an expert at this, how to prepare the ingredients, how to match them, and how to bake. She was attentive to every step, not until the pineapple buns were taken out of the oven did Yang Ping realise, one by one they were full of color, fragrance, and taste. The girl in front of him who was to be his wife, was a woman who was capable both out of and in the kitchen. She sorted out the things he was too lazy to do in his daily life in a well-organised manner. She not only prepared gifts, but had also chosen Yang Ping¡¯s outfit. Yang Ping didn¡¯t need to make any effort, he just had to follow her steps. It wasn¡¯t that Yang Ping intentionally paid little attention to the details, but when all his energy was invested in his medical career, the energy allocated to other matters naturally decreased. Xiao Su¡¯s gentleness and meticulousness relieved Yang Ping¡¯s anxieties greatly. There was still a hint of nervousness, though. It was his first time meeting his future in-laws. After this meeting, their love affair would be formally confirmed according to traditional customs. Next was marriage and having children ¨C a significant part of life was finally approaching him. Yang Ping thought a lot, his eyes were fixed on Xiao Su who was packing up. His hormones, being a man, uncontrollably surged once again. Her beautiful face, tall figure, fair skin, perfect curves. ¡°Why are you staring at me?¡± Xiao Su felt Yang Ping¡¯s gaze was strange. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°It¡¯s nothing, I¡¯m just thirsty.¡± ¡°Do you want me to pour you a glass of water?¡± asked Xiao Su. ¡°Yes, cold water please.¡± Yang Ping took a deep breath. Xiao Su could see through his little scheme. ¡°Just hold on a little longer. After this introduction to my parents¡ª I won¡¯t let you drink cold water again, ok?¡± Xiao Su said, shyly lowering her head. Yang Ping looked at the adorable girl, managed to hold back a smile and asked seriously: ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Really!¡± Xiao Su also responded seriously. A few days later, Yang Ping formally paid a visit to Xiao Su¡¯s family as Su Yixuan¡¯s boyfriend for the first time. It was the same villa on Shuangsha Island. Last time he came as Su Nanchen¡¯s friend, this time he was Su Nanchen¡¯s future brother-in-law and Professor Su¡¯s future son-in-law. This strange relationship made Professor Su and Su Nanchen seem both familiar and unfamiliar to Yang Ping. The villa on Shuangsha Island was a gift from Xiao Su¡¯s uncle, Su Qinghe, to her second brother, Su Qingyun. Su Yixuan¡¯s grandparents were both talented students who studied in the Soviet Union; their four sons were all academic achievers and doctorate holders. The eldest, Su Qingshan, pursued a career in politics and had been promoted in Beijing; Su Qingyun, the second, was already an academician; Su Qingyu, the third, was a business titan in the pharmaceutical industry; and Su Qinghe, the youngest, attended the military academy for his education and stayed in the forces, serving the country, hence he was less known to the public. Grandpa Su wished all his sons to be doctors, but everyone has their own aspirations and their own fortune. The Su Qingyun family line inherited the tradition of being a medical family, which was still maintained until Su Nanchen. Stubborn Grandpa Su declared that his grandson-in-law must be a surgeon, otherwise, he would not welcome him. Of course, this was just a statement. As a scholar, Grandpa Su wouldn¡¯t do such a crude, feudalistic thing. It did however illustrate his love and obsession with surgeons. Now, Su Yixuan¡¯s boyfriend, her future husband, was not only a surgeon but one of the best surgeons. Grandpa Su was naturally very happy and smiled ear to ear. He put on a Tang suit early in the morning and waited for his future grandson-in-law at home. ¡°You say that as a young attending physician, he won the championship of the Golden Knife Award?¡± Grandpa asked. Professor Su nodded: ¡°Yes! He was the champion, and Nanchen was the runner-up. Nanchen is very good friends with him.¡± ¡°Feng Tiancheng¡¯s surgery in Shanghai was performed by him?¡± Grandpa¡¯s thought process was extraordinary. Professor Su smiled: ¡°Yes! During the trip to Japan, the surgeries that the affiliated hospital of Tokyo University and Shuntendou Hospital couldn¡¯t handle were completed by him as the chief surgeon.¡± ¡°Oh! ¡ª Is he that good?¡± Grandpa was somewhat skeptical. The voices of Xiao Su and the others could be heard from outside, led by Su Nanchen. Xiao Su linked arms with Yang Ping, and they entered the living room. After presenting their beautifully packaged pineapple buns, Professor Su and Mrs. Su immediately took them. ¡°Come and sit, Yang.¡± Professor Su and Mrs. Su were very courteous. The grandparents, sitting on the sofa, also came out. With Xiao Su¡¯s introduction, Yang Ping greeted each of them by bowing. ¡°Come, come, have a seat. Don¡¯t be so formal.¡± Professor Su was already familiar with Yang Ping, he was always impressed and continually regretted that Yang Ping was not his student. The funny thing about life was that this young man eventually became his future son-in-law. Mrs. Su didn¡¯t know as much about Yang Ping as Professor Su. However, when Yang Ping was at the affiliated hospital to perform the flying knife surgery, Mrs. Su had already concluded that this young man was exceptional. She even urged Su Nanchen to play the matchmaker, and now, things had turned out as she wished. ¡°I¡¯ll serve the tea while you guys talk, I¡¯ll go prepare the food.¡± Mrs. Su enthusiastically arranged everything before heading to the kitchen to prepare a lavish lunch. Today, Mrs. Su planned to demonstrate her amazing cooking skills and prepare a lavish family feast. ¡°Young man, you are the one who hugged Xiao Xuan that time, aren¡¯t you?¡± Grandpa sat on the sofa, pointed to the piano in the living room. Yang Ping blushed from head to toe. ¡°Look at you making the child blush, sit.¡± Grandma said kindly. Su Nanchen quickly poured tea for Yang Ping, then quietly told Xiao Su: ¡°You go help in the kitchen, I¡¯ll be here.¡± Alright! Xiao Su glanced at Yang Ping, full of confidence, and then turned around to go help in the kitchen. ¡°Yang, have some tea.¡± Professor Su poured tea for Yang Ping again, Yang Ping held the tea cup with both hands, got up, unsure of what to do. ¡°Sit down, sit down. How is the development of orthopedic fixation for the treatment of scoliosis?¡± ¡°The animal experiments are progressing very smoothly. According to the data as of yesterday, all the experimental monkeys show different degrees of correction, some have been completely corrected, and there¡¯s no relapse.¡± ¡°Oh¡ª You worked on external fixation for the treatment of scoliosis, it¡¯s kinda difficult. You applied Ilizarov¡¯s bone dilation theory quite well. How effective is it when used on the spine?¡± Grandpa was also very interested. ¡°Currently, the effect of orthopedics is very good. The biggest disadvantage is having the external fixation on the back, which somewhat affects daily life. If the external fixation is too close to the skin, it can compress the skin. If it¡¯s too far, it¡¯s too high and affects daily life.¡± Yang Ping gave a serious answer and would not treat it lightly. ¡°Take it step by step. Any technology is continually developing and maturing. You can¡¯t expect it to hit the mark the first time. If the animal experiments are successful, it will be revolutionary.¡± Professor Su encouraged. ¡°Xiao Yang, I heard that you did a surgery on the upper spinal cord and medulla oblongata tumors in Japan this time? What¡¯s the specific situation?¡± Grandpa Su comes from a neurosurgery background and is very concerned about Yang Ping¡¯s case. ¡°Nanchen, add some more tea for Xiao Yang.¡± Grandpa Su wanted to understand this case thoroughly and was waiting for Yang Ping¡¯s response. ¡°I have the case information on my laptop, should I bring it for you to take a look?¡± Su Nanchen suggested. Grandpa Su was quite dissatisfied with Su Nanchen¡¯s dullness: ¡°Hurry up, hurry up! Give me the case of the meningioma of the medulla oblongata and upper spinal cord, I want to see what the situation is.¡± Back when Grandpa Su was practicing medicine, brainstem tumors were off-limits. After he returned from studying in the Soviet Union with mastery of microsurgical techniques, he began attacking the brainstem, but due to limitations of the medical technology at the time, he never made progress. Su Nanchen brought his laptop down from his study upstairs and opened the data of Fujiwara Tani. ¡°Glasses!¡± Grandpa Su reached out his hand. Grandma had already prepared the reading glasses and handed them over. Grandpa Su put on the glasses, leaned forward, and waited for the screen with utmost focus, looking at the imaging pictures frame by frame without even blinking an eye. ¡°You performed this surgery? You actually performed it?¡± Grandpa Su was dubious. This kind of surgery, even today, cannot be completed by even the top neurosurgeons in the world¡¯s top hospitals. The neurosurgery department of Mayo Clinic in the United States can be said to be the top team studying such cases, but they also can¡¯t perform this kind of surgery. It can be said that no one in the world can currently perform this kind of surgery. This young man in front of him, could he really have completed the surgery? ¡°Grandpa, he not only performed the surgery successfully, the patient is now alive and well. At the time, the patient had a coagulation dysfunction, and his heart rate and breathing during surgery were on the verge of stopping,¡± Su Nanchen explained. ¡°You¡¯re saying this kind of tumor can be removed?¡± ¡°How did you solve the approach?¡± ¡°How did you solve the bleeding control?¡± ¡°How did you solve the interference to the heartbeat center?¡± Grandpa removed his glasses and asked a series of questions. ¡°Grandpa, here¡¯s the surgical video¡ª¡± These questions couldn¡¯t be answered with language alone, the surgical video at the time could answer all of them. ¡°Let¡¯s take a look¡ª¡± Grandpa, who was just about to rest a little, immediately put on his glasses and started watching the video. As a former leading figure in neurosurgery in the country, grandpa was sweating profusely after watching the video. He stared at Yang Ping for a good ten seconds before finally speaking: ¡°Xiao Yang! It¡¯s impressive; young man! It¡¯s impressive.¡± ¡°Here, let grandpa pour you a cup of tea?¡± Grandpa Su immediately started pouring tea for Yang Ping, who was completely flustered, hands and feet in a mess. ¡°Grandpa, let me do it myself!¡± It was his first time meeting the parents, and he wouldn¡¯t dare to let grandpa pour the tea for him. ¡°Sit down!¡± Grandpa Su disapproved. Now even Professor Su and Su Nanchen were thrown off guard, the hot tea was not easy to handle, and they could do nothing but go along with grandpa. ¡°Why haven¡¯t I seen this approach in the literature?¡± Grandpa still reads neurosurgery journals every day to keep up with professional developments. After grandpa Su finished pouring the tea, Yang Ping still didn¡¯t dare to sit while holding the teacup. ¡°Son, sit down!¡± Grandma said with a smiling face. ¡°I designed it myself,¡± Yang Ping said, sitting down. ¡°This approach really solves a historical problem, it means you¡¯ve made a breakthrough in the study of local brainstem anatomy to design such a scientific approach; and the hemostasis was completed entirely by bipolar coagulation? The technique is too perfect, I¡¯ve been a doctor my whole life, and I¡¯ve never seen bipolar coagulation used to this extent.¡± Grandpa exclaimed. ¡°Grandpa, you flatter me,¡± Yang Ping humbly said. ¡°Just stating the facts!¡± grandpa Su said with a strong pitch. ¡°In academics, don¡¯t be too modest.¡± ¡°This approach is all about the gaps between the nerve nuclei, which shows your thorough understanding of the anatomy and function of the brainstem, have you prepared your paper yet?¡± ¡°The paper is already written, it¡¯s being revised, and it¡¯s ready for submission,¡± Yang Ping responded respectfully. ¡°I¡¯ll help you take a look when I have time, I didn¡¯t expect that you, young man, even though you¡¯re in orthopedics, have done quite a deep research in neurosurgery,¡± Grandpa was quite surprised. Yang Ping hastened to explain: ¡°Because we often encounter tumors in the upper spinal cord that grow into the skull and invade the medulla oblongata, so we also have done research into the brainstem.¡± ¡°The removal of tumors in this location can greatly interfere with the heartbeat center, theoretically, it¡¯s impossible to completely separate tumors from normal brainstem tissue and ensure that the patient¡¯s heartbeat doesn¡¯t stop, how did you manage to do it?¡± Grandpa Su had completely forgotten that Yang Ping was a guest, coming to meet the parents for the first time as his future grandson-in-law. A family gathering turned into a case discussion. Professor Su encouraged: ¡°Xiao Yang, since grandpa is showing such interest, have a good talk with him.¡± If it were other inquiries, Yang Ping would really be getting nervous. But now he¡¯s asking how this surgery was performed ¨C isn¡¯t this exactly what he¡¯s good at? So he took a sip of tea and slowly started talking. Professor Su was smiling. He was extremely satisfied with his future son-in-law. However, what Professor Su was most worried about was the approval of his eldest brother and his wife. Although it¡¯s his own daughter, Su Yixuan is the only girl in this generation of the large family, and her four brothers all attach great importance to her. His eldest brother and sister-in-law had tried to introduce boyfriends to Su Yixuan several times before, all of them sons of high-ranking officials. Now that he sees how much the old man likes Yang Ping, Professor Su feels relieved. As for his eldest brother and his wife, there¡¯s no need to worry, the old man will handle it. While Yang Ping was explaining the surgery, Professor Su quietly refilled his tea. In his eyes, he¡¯s not a future son-in-law, but the son-in-law who is already part of the family! Chapter 556 - 556 504 Medical Salon ?Chapter 556: Chapter 504: Medical Salon Chapter 556: Chapter 504: Medical Salon After the explanation, Grandfather kept nodding. He had a general understanding, but he was still not very clear about many details of the surgery. Although Grandfather was ninety years old, he still insisted on reading journal papers for four hours every day, and had a very clear understanding of the latest developments in neurosurgery. This surgery has not had a successful precedent so far. In the United States, Europe, Japan, even in the top hospitals, there have been no successful precedent. Obviously, it¡¯s not very convenient to discuss around a laptop. Grandfather said to Su Nanchen, ¡°Nanchen, can¡¯t your laptop be projected onto the TV screen?¡± It seems that Grandfather¡¯s ideology keeps up with the trend, and he even knows about screen projection. Su Nanchen thought that grandfather just wanted to have a simple understanding of the surgery and didn¡¯t expect him to be so serious, so he projected the content on the laptop onto the TV screen on the living room wall. The villa is huge and the living room is spacious, so the TV screen is naturally not small. The case information and imaging pictures were very clear. Everyone was sitting on the sofa, discussing in front of the TV screen. First, Grandfather asked a lot of questions about the surgery. Yang Ping answered them one by one. Then the two had an in-depth discussion on some issues, and Professor Su and Su Nanchen also joined the discussion. All being doctors, their most interesting topic naturally was the realm of medicine, especially cases. The scale of this medical salon was not large, but the standard was quite high. Although there were only four participants, the average medical quality was very high. Regarding this case, from the history of the development of the upper spinal cord and brainstem surgery, to the forefront of international research, the current focus of academic debate, tumor research progress, and finally some unresolved global medical problems. From classic medical works to the latest international journal papers, from China¡¯s Temple of Heaven to Mayo from abroad, from traditional microscope surgery to the application of molecular positioning technology, then to robot surgery. The depth and range of the discussion was expanding, and the atmosphere was getting more heated. At the peak, disagreements happened. In academic matters, arguments must be allowed. The more you debate, the clearer it becomes. The argument did not imply any emotion, but simply meant different opinions. Each side put forward their own arguments and proceeded to logically demonstrate their own view while opposing the other¡¯s. The ninety-year-old grandfather was very excited. This former doctoral graduate of Pavlov Medical University of the Soviet Union was clear and articulate in thought and speech, much like a young student. As an academician, Professor Su didn¡¯t just casually agree because it was a family salon, he retained the serious attitude he usually adopts in academic conferences. Neither Yang Ping nor Su Nanchen tried to flatter the two elders. During the salon, Su Nanchen¡¯s fiancee?, Lin Lan, arrived. Because of work-related matters, she came a little late. As soon as she entered she saw the scene and became interested, sitting down to listen attentively. When the topic of molecular positioning was brought up, she wanted to join the discussion since she was a doctoral guide in genetics and biochemistry was her expertise. However, Lin Lan was worried that Mrs. Su in the kitchen would be overwhelmed and only greeted everyone with a smile before going to the kitchen to help. Grandma at the side became the server for this salon, constantly pouring tea for everyone and placing snacks around for them to easily reach. Grandma, who has a doctorate in neurology from Pavlov Medical University, was able occasionally to offer valuable input from an internal medicine perspective as well. Time unknowingly approached lunchtime but the salon showed no sign of ending, with the topic continually evolving and heightening. Xiao Su and Lin Lan began setting chopsticks on the round table in the dining room. Mrs. Su, wearing her apron, came out from the kitchen and seeing the scene carefully asked Professor Su, ¡°Is it time for lunch?¡± Before Professor Su could reply, Grandfather waved his hand: ¡°There¡¯s no rush!¡± ¡°Once this nerve nucleus is disturbed, the heartbeat will slow down and quickly stop. Once stopped, it is irreversible. Hence the operation here is extremely dangerous. According to the existing surgical methods, it is impossible to safely separate, but you successfully completed the separation. I am curious to know how your hands could be so dexterous and stable? ¡± Grandfather insisted on seeing Yang Ping¡¯s hands. Yang Ping stretched out his hands, and after observing them Grandfather said: ¡°Just as expected of a good surgeon, young man, remarkable, truly remarkable.¡± Yang Ping was a bit confused, can one really tell surgical talent from a person¡¯s hands? ¡°The young man also needs to eat, have you looked at the time?¡± Grandma reminded Grandfather. Upon checking the time, Grandfather realized they had been discussing for three hours, delaying mealtime. This was Yang Ping¡¯s first time visiting Su Family¡¯s house. Keeping others hungry was not polite. ¡°Serve the dishes, let¡¯s eat!¡± With a wave of his hand from Grandfather, the salon formally concluded. Professor Su and Su Nanchen ushered Yang Ping into the dining room, and before the meal, Grandfather seized the opportunity to ask a few more questions. The classical southern-style dishes on the Chinese solid wood round table, each dish carefully prepared, made Yang Ping understand why Xiao Su was so good at cooking. It all comes from Mrs. Su¡¯s inheritance. Unexpectedly, this nursing specialist was also a culinary expert. Ten dishes were served, symbolizing perfection. Everyone gathered around the table in harmony. Although there was often a rule of not talking during meals, today was an exception. It would seem cold if everyone remained silent during their future son-in-law¡¯s first visit. ¡°Don¡¯t stand on ceremony, feel free to eat.¡± ¡°Xiao Yang, don¡¯t be formal, it¡¯s your first time coming to our house. We apologize for serving dinner a little late.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not my first time.¡± ¡°But, it¡¯s the first time you came with Xiao Xuan.¡± ¡°Eat this, give it a try.¡± The atmosphere was warm. When the dishes Professor Su liked came around to Yang Ping, he quietly held onto the table, not showing any expressions. ¡°On New Year¡¯s Eve, both of you will come back and make dumplings. We¡¯ll eat them together at night,¡± Mrs. Su said to Yang Ping and Su Yixuan. Time flies. It¡¯s already the Little New Year, not far away from New Year¡¯s Eve. Mrs. Su was extremely pleased with her future son-in-law. No matter how she looked at him, she was delighted. As parents, worrying about such an important life event for their daughter is quite natural. Now, that burden has been lifted. Next, she started planning about their wedding, and the matter of having children. Parents always worry about the next problem immediately after solving one. This was no exception, irrespective of the family. The entire process was quite comfortable for Yang Ping. His initial worries and anxiety were unnecessary. Xiao Su¡¯s grandparents were kind and gentle. His parents were understanding, and his big cousin, Su Nanchen, was like a brother. The main thing was that they all had common topics to talk about. After staying at Xiao Su¡¯s house and eating dinner, they didn¡¯t return to the hospital until about nine o¡¯clock in the evening. After their first formal meeting with their parents, they practically established their engagement. All that was left was to choose a date for the wedding. When they returned to the hospital, it was past ten o¡¯clock. The empty underground parking lot was very quiet. The car was parked and running smoothly. It was an electric car, and besides the sound of the air conditioner, there was no engine noise. Both of them didn¡¯t get out of the car; they were each sitting in their respective driver¡¯s seat. In the confined space, they could practically hear each other¡¯s heartbeat. Xiao Su¡¯s face blushed, she didn¡¯t dare to look directly at Yang Ping. Yang Ping¡¯s heart was pounding. After a good five minutes, he groped around to take Xiao Su¡¯s hand, turned his body to the side. Xiao Su leaned in also, they embraced tightly, they kissed passionately, whispering sweet nothings into each other¡¯s ear. ¡°We should...get out of the car. If we stay longer we might get carbon monoxide poisoning.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, electric cars don¡¯t emit exhaust fumes, the air conditioning is set on outside circulation.¡± ¡°What is your hand doing?¡± ¡°A whole body physical examination, the touch part.¡± ¡°Hmmm...¡± ¡°Do you still remember my top-secret project?¡± ¡°Which one?¡± ¡°Derivative Theory of Stimulus Response. The study has now reached the last step, but we lack data. I need your help.¡± ¡°How can I help?¡± ¡°The last part of the project, the Mechanism of Extreme Hormone Secretion triggered by Stimulation. Theoretically, I understand the mechanism, but lack empirical evidence. Tonight, I want to...perform an experimental trial.¡± ¡°So complex, how can I...help?¡± ¡°Later, don¡¯t go back to your dormitory, come home with me. I¡¯ll explain it to you slowly.¡± ¡°Hmmm...¡± ¡°This experiment could be risky, right?¡± ¡°Do not worry, just strictly follow the experimental safety regulations, ensure there¡¯s no Biohazard.¡± ¡°Hmmm...¡± Chapter 557 - 557 505 International Medical Department ?Chapter 557: Chapter 505: International Medical Department Chapter 557: Chapter 505: International Medical Department When Yang Ping woke up, Xiao Su was already busy in the kitchen preparing breakfast. Their experiment last night was quite exhausting, as it was ultimately an exploration of the origin of humanity. It was the first time for both of them, so they couldn¡¯t help but be unfamiliar. They had to carefully explore and progress gradually. On the bedside table, the clothes Yang Ping was to change into were neatly stacked. In the bathroom, a toothbrush lay across a cup with toothpaste already squeezed onto it; a basin was set, with a washcloth folded in the center. The mirror was covered in a layer of water vapor, and something was drawn on it using the water vapor. Upon closer inspection, Yang Ping saw it was two heart-shaped figures holding hands. ¡°Breakfast is ready¡ª¡± Xiao Su appeared at the bathroom door, looking stunning even in her pajamas, causing Yang Ping to pause. ¡°Why are you staring at me? Breakfast is ready!¡± Xiao Su blushed, looking shy. The breakfast on the dining table was neatly arranged¡ªsteak, sunny-side up eggs, hot porridge, and slices of fruit¡ª. ¡°This is a feast, finally I don¡¯t have to eat boiled eggs every day.¡± Before Xiao Su moved in, Yang Ping¡¯s daily breakfast was a glass of fresh milk and three eggs, which were simply boiled. His breakfast was the same every day, because it was simple and nutritious. Xiao Su handed Yang Ping a printed sheet: ¡°This is this week¡¯s breakfast and dinner menu. If there¡¯s no problem, it will start today. From Monday to Friday, breakfast and dinner are at home, lunch is at the hospital cafeteria, Saturday, and Sunday all meals are at home. We all agree on this, right?¡± Yang Ping took a look and it was full of a dazzling array of dishes. The types of breakfast dishes, the main dishes for lunch, soups, and fruits were all clearly marked. It was even more detailed than a restaurant menu. They were starting to live properly. ¡°Today after work, we will go grocery shopping together. I am in charge of the purchases and you will be in charge of the transport.¡± Xiao Su also sat down to have breakfast. The two finished breakfast and went to work together. The department was basically running smoothly under the management of Song Zimo, while Xu Zhiliang was a diligent worker. Their cooperation was very efficient. Only a few surgeries required Yang Ping¡¯s presence, and the majority of the operations, including scoliosis, were now competently handled by Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. He trusted them both. As for the company, it was handled by Huang Jiacai, so Yang Ping didn¡¯t need to worry at all. Although Yang Ping held the majority shares, he didn¡¯t participate in management and was simply a hands-off boss. Meanwhile, in the hospital, Boss Cheng was in charge. Except for some changes in equity, everything else remained the same. Boss Cheng was still Boss Cheng, and Dean Cai was still Dean Cai. When Yang Ping arrived at his department, many people were already bustling about. They greeted each other and continued with their work. While there was a strict hierarchy among doctors, Yang Ping believed that should only apply to medical skills and conduct. He preferred treating everyone as equals and creating a relaxed and free environment. Thus, the atmosphere in the Surgical Research Institute was excellent¡ªrelaxed, open, and positive. Everyone was passionate about their work and weren¡¯t afraid to voice their ideas, even if they might be wrong. Having got used to drinking tea with Director Han, Yang Ping would make himself a cup of tea upon arriving at his office. He didn¡¯t like others making tea for him, except for Xiao Su. After sampling a few sips of tea, he began browsing the emails in his electronic mailbox, which contained reports organized by Song Zimo and a few new emails. One of the new emails was from Professor Toshitaka Osaki of the Juntendo University Hospital in Japan. He hoped to bring the patient to Sanbo Hospital and co-operate on the surgery with Yang Ping. In the email, Professor Osaki mentioned that Professor Amano also wished to come to Sanbo Hospital to jointly treat the patient. Another new email was an invitation for an international consultation. This was the first encounter of the hospital with Yang Ping, and they weren¡¯t very familiar with the Chinese process, so they directly contacted Yang Ping himself. A cardiac surgery hospital in Saudi Arabia? To Yang Ping¡¯s knowledge, he never had any interactions with this hospital nor had he heard of it. Upon reading the email more thoroughly, it turned out to be an invitation issued by Professor Li Zehui on behalf of this hospital. The patient happened to be the second ¡°Mirror Man¡± that Professor Li diagnosed. At that time, Professor Li encountered this child in the Red Cross Hospital in Yemen. He told the child¡¯s family that Yemen did not have the hardware conditions to perform this type of surgery. He suggested that the patient go to Saudi Arabia and provided the family with the name and address of the hospital there. Professor Li then thought that it was almost impossible for this patient to go to Saudi Arabia, as his family simply couldn¡¯t get a visa. Even if they were to go there as refugees, they would have to go through a war zone and desert, which was also impossible. But the impossible somehow became possible. When the Saudi hospital sent information to Professor li, they surprisingly found the child¡¯s information, with the imaging pictures identical. Was there a third Mirror Man? After Professor Li verified by phone with the Saudi hospital, he found out that the child was a refugee from Yemen. From the imaging photos, it was almost certain that it was that child, as it was unlikely for there to be such a similar case in the world. So, Professor Li immediately commissioned the Saudi hospital to invite Yang Ping for a consultation on his behalf. There was also an email from Germany. Upon opening the email, Yang Ping read: ¡°Dear Dr. Yang Ping, I am Doctor August from Harald Orthopedic Hospital in Munich, Germany. I miss you since we last met in Malaysia. I have encountered a problem in my clinical practice. A serious case of scoliosis, which we call the ¡°Snail Man¡± due to the severity of the curvature, astonishingly, after I read your paper on how you successfully performed surgery on the ¡°Folding Man¡±, I saw a glimmer of hope in my despair. If there is any hope that this patient can be straightened, only you have the ability to do so. Your old friend from Munich, August, sincerely hopes to get Dr. Yang¡¯s help.¡± August, the interesting German. Yang Ping has an exceptionally good memory, how could he forget this guy? However, they¡¯ve only met in Malaysia, and this old man referred to himself as his old friend. Just like that, two international consultations appeared densely in Yang Ping¡¯s mailbox. He forwarded the consultation forms to the medical office for record, and was about to call Director Zhao. Unexpectedly, Director Zhao called first: ¡°Doctor Yang, there¡¯s no rush to get to the operating room, right? I¡¯ll come over and chat with you.¡± Every time they chat, Director Zhao always takes away some tea leaves. Yang Ping took out a can of tea leaves from the cabinet, put it on the office desk, and waited for him to come and take it. Soon, Director Zhao arrived at Yang Ping¡¯s office. He looked very excited. Even before he sat down, he began to talk non-stop. After all, people involved in political affairs always have a lot to say. ¡°Doctor Yang, we are setting up an International Medical Department, benchmarking against the Mayo¡¯s International Medical Department. Dean Xia talked to me about it a while ago. The main takeaway was that in the future, there will be many international patients in the Surgical Research Institute of Sanbo Hospital. We will use this as a starting point and will have a lot of international patients in Sanbo Hospital in the future. So, he wants me to establish an advanced, standardized, and powerful International Medical Department. This department will face the world, the future, and modern society.¡± While speaking, Director Zhao was dancing with joy. ¡°So, these consultations of yours will be handled by our International Medical Department moving forward. You just focus on treating the patients, we will take care of everything else. Dean Xia said, any undertaking is like going to war, it needs strong logistical support.¡± ¡°However, we are facing a small challenge. Dean Xia wants to lead us on a visit to the Mayo Clinic in the United States. But they have too many registered groups wanting to visit, we¡¯d have to wait a year.¡± Director Zhao looked a bit worried, and then shifted the topic. ¡°This will only be a temporary challenge, you¡¯re not in a hurry, are you?¡± Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°No rush, there are still a few minutes left until handover.¡± ¡°Oh, look, talking and talking, I forgot what I came here for. That being said, I have looked over your two international consultation invitations. Although our International Medical Department cannot meet the high requirements of the three aspects you mentioned for the time being, we still have no problem arranging your trips to Europe and Saudi Arabia during this early stage. There¡¯s no need for you to worry about this, we will liaise on your behalf.¡± ¡°We only have a few minutes left.¡± Director Zhao checked his phone. He wanted to say something, but there seemed to be nothing left to say. ¡°Director Zhao, you just mentioned that it would take a year to visit the Mayo Clinic in the US. I happen to have a friend working there. Should I call and see if we can expedite the process?¡± Yang Ping felt that he should utilize the resources at his disposal at this moment. Yang Ping checked the time. Considering the time difference, it would be evening in the United States, so it should be a convenient time to call. Yang Ping dialed John Ansen¡¯s number. After a few rings, he heard John Ansen¡¯s stuttered, monotone Chinese: ¡°Hello, Doctor Yang!¡± It couldn¡¯t be helped. To communicate smoothly with Yang Ping, one would have to overcome the language barrier of Chinese as Yang Ping published all his articles on the forum established by John Ansen in Chinese. And so, a group of people in the forum were fervently learning Chinese. John Ansen could understand some basic Chinese at this point. For anything more complicated, he would have to use translation software or translation company services. ¡°Let¡¯s chat on WeChat!¡± Yang Ping was worried that John Ansen¡¯s broken Chinese might cause some misunderstanding, so he decided to chat with him on WeChat. Having WeChat also became a necessity for this group of people who interacted with Yang Ping. Without WeChat on their phones, they would sooner or later fall out of the loop. Yang Ping composed a simple WeChat message about Sanbo Hospital visiting the Mayo Clinic, with a focus on their International Medical Department, and left the email of the medical office in the message. About a few minutes later, John Ansen replied: ¡°Within 24 hours, someone from Mayo will contact you, and they will arrange your visit according to your time.¡± Yang Ping relayed the reply to Director Zhao. Director Zhao was blown away. This was the Mayo Clinic, and this young man managed to arrange it with just one phone call? ¡°What does your friend do at Mayo?¡± Director Zhao asked cautiously. He knew Yang Ping was capable, but he never imagined him being so well-connected, with his reach extending all the way to the United States. Yang Ping smiled and said: ¡°Nothing much, just a doctor at Mayo. We met at a conference.¡± John Ansen sent over a few more WeChat messages. Yang Ping read them and said, ¡°About an hour from now, someone from Mayo should contact you, and they will be calling your office.¡± ¡°My office?¡± Director Zhao was getting anxious. That was so soon. ¡°Um, Doctor Yang, it¡¯s almost time for the handover. You¡¯re busy, I need to get a translator to my office in advance.¡± Director Zhao was in a hurry. Yang Ping told him not to worry: ¡°Relax, my friend said that they will arrange someone who is proficient in Chinese to communicate with you, don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°I should still be a bit more cautious, what if they speak English and I can¡¯t answer?¡± Director Zhao glanced at the can of tea leaves on the table: ¡°This tea isn¡¯t half bad.¡± ¡°How about it? Take a can to your office?¡± ¡°Would that be appropriate?¡± ¡°Absolutely! I still have some here.¡± ¡°Well, then I¡¯ll take you up on your offer.¡± Chapter 558 - 558 506 The Fifteen Plan ?Chapter 558: Chapter 506: The Fifteen Plan Chapter 558: Chapter 506: The Fifteen Plan An hour later, a staff member at Mayo, fluent in Chinese, called Director Zhao¡¯s office directly, indicating that Sanbo Hospital¡¯s visit could be given priority arrangement. How much priority? The timing and the number of visitors could be decided by Sanbo Hospital themselves. Once the time and attendees were determined, they needed to provide a list of names, and Mayo would send official invitations according to the list to facilitate Sanbo Hospital¡¯s visa application process at the embassy. When Director Zhao received the call, he couldn¡¯t quite believe it, but the incoming call clearly displayed an international number. The fluent Chinese on the other end of the line took him by surprise. His English translator was right next to him, yet the caller chose to speak in Chinese. However, Director Zhao had no idea that the other party was even more nervous than he was. Given the time difference, the morning in China corresponds to the evening in America, meaning that the administrative staff at the Mayo Clinic was already off work. This indicated that the phone call was made overtime. Moreover, the person who could speak Chinese was hastily arranged. In the United States, it really wasn¡¯t difficult to find someone who was fluent in Chinese. After hanging up the phone, Director Zhao looked confused, feeling like he was in a melodramatic twist of events. Mayo Clinic is one of the top hospitals in the world, weren¡¯t they said to schedule visits a year in advance? Now they say they can arrange it at any time, and the person in charge is not speaking English, but Chinese. Just how much influence did Yang Ping¡¯s call have? Did he command such respect? Director Zhao immediately reported the matter to Dean Xia, who was also very surprised. They knew Yang Ping was a genius, but he was still young, and it would take some time for him to make his mark. In his office, Dean Xia nearly jumped out of his seat with excitement. He wasn¡¯t angry, but rather, overjoyed. The man had a habit; when he was angry, he would slap his solid hand on the table, and when he was happy, he would do the same. Thus, his office desk was made of elm wood, solid enough to withstand his heavy slapping. This guy is amazing, it was clear that Mayo saw potential in Yang Ping. Obviously, Mayo¡¯s passionate reaction showed their intentions to work with Yang Ping. At the same time, Dean Xia was secretly relieved that he had taken early action; otherwise, this young talent would have been snatched up by others. Mayo! Mayo! Mayo! Dean Xia repeated the name Mayo over and over in his mouth. The hospital ranked first in the world for overall strength. Their medical level and management system were both at the top of the world¡¯s pyramid. Given such a golden opportunity, how could Dean Xia possibly let it pass? Don¡¯t think that Mayo¡¯s enthusiasm is out of pure charity, there must be benefits to reap; surely the next step would be to invite Yang Ping as a visiting professor or something similar. As sharp as Dean Xia was, how could he not have thought of this? There was a reason Mayo placed so much emphasis on this; under the push of John Ansen, they were preparing to establish some sort of cooperation with Yang Ping, inviting him to serve as a visiting professor at Mayo, to regularly give lectures and guide surgeries. This proposed cooperation carried a certain degree of urgency. For such a genius, how could Mayo possibly let him slip away? They would surely try all they could to win him over. This visit arrangement was but a mere token of goodwill. Subsequently, Mayo would offer some more significant gifts, such as spots for exchange internships, laboratory cooperation, research topic collaboration, shared patient data, remote case discussion, and so on. How could they let Mayo take full advantage of them? Dean Xia¡¯s mind raced, and he quickly picked up the phone, summoning a bunch of heads from the medical affairs and teaching and research departments to prepare for a meeting. Dean Xia wanted to discuss a thorough, complete, and scientific cooperation proposal for Mayo. The goal of this proposal was to fully utilize Mayo to enhance the capabilities of Sanbo Hospital, including medical and management levels. Damn it, they were just worrying about this issue when this opportunity came directly to them. Even the plans for the first, second, and third five years took shape in Dean Xia¡¯s mind. Dean Xia sat down and carefully pondered his first five-year plan. He planned to transplant Mayo¡¯s entire management model into Sanbo, first bring it over and implement it, then carry out adaptive improvements during operation. Each department should select two young doctors to undergo training at Mayo, yes, two from each department, including clinical, medical technology, and administrative personnel. Sanbo had gathered a large number of PhDs in reserve for this day. These PhDs would go to Mayo for standardized specialist training, and depending on their specialties, they would be trained for three to five years. Then, other PhDs would go to other top hospitals for training. Sending so many people out now would be financially tight for the hospital. But they could cut costs in many areas, delay payments to drug suppliers, and give up additional infrastructure construction and renovation for the time being. There¡¯s no point in having a hundred-story building without the right talent. If they have the best talent, even if it¡¯s a bungalow, patients will flock from all over the world. Three to five years from now! At that time, the overall strength of Sanbo¨C The thought alone excited Dean Xia, and the key point was that he would still be in office then, not retired. The A plan of his first five-year plan was somewhat ambitious; he wasn¡¯t sure if Mayo could accept it. Therefore, they also needed to have a B plan, C plan, and so on. After Director Zhao finalised things with the Mayo Clinic, John Ansen started getting in touch with Yang Ping via WeChat. He expressed in a boastful manner that he had resolved the issue of the visit in record speed. John Ansen had set up a forum named Young Forum which has already attracted over a dozen of America¡¯s top spine, neurosurgery and tumour surgeons. Currently, there are three sub-forums: Spine Surgery, Neurosurgery, and Tumor Surgery. Each sub-forum has a designated moderator. For instance, John Ansen himself moderates the Neurosurgery sub-forum. The official articles released on the forum have copyright disclaimers and are traceable. Anyone found to have plagiarized the articles will face severe penalties. It is important to remember that these are the world¡¯s top specialists. Together, they could easily take on a copyright infringer. Yang Ping holds a high status in this forum, much like how Linus Benedict Torvalds is treated in the Linux community. Each document he uploads tends to spark intense discussions. This kind of open and shared cyber community is practically real-time and much more efficient than publishing articles. Top doctors really appreciate this method. Thus, besides feverishly learning from Yang Ping¡¯s medical cases, they also upload their own cases onto the forum to share and discuss with everyone. Even the coding of this cyber community is done by top programmers, gathered through these doctors utilizing their influence. Operating costs are met by donations. Anyway, with someone like John Ansen running things, everything is no problem. Just know that in America, the influence and appeal brought by these top surgeons are incredibly strong. ¡°Currently, there¡¯s a flurry of interest in learning Chinese in the forum. Plans are in place to dedicate a special sub-forum for Chinese learning,¡± John Ansen reported. This is necessary because all of Yang Ping¡¯s articles are published in Chinese. While it is possible to understand the articles using translation services, it¡¯s always better to know Chinese. Medical term translation, whether from Chinese to English or English to Chinese, always ends up messy. Thus, many domestic experts and professors have excellent English skills. After all, in order to learn advanced knowledge, one must understand the language. Similarly, these top doctors who want to learn from Yang Ping must understand his language. Yang Ping writes in Chinese because it¡¯s his native language and the one he is most comfortable with. He could also write in English if he wanted to, but he wouldn¡¯t be able to express himself as freely. There are many advantages to Chinese that English can¡¯t compete with, like efficiency. The keystroke rate for writing an article in Chinese is much lower than in English. To prevent carpal tunnel syndrome, Yang Ping doesn¡¯t like to use English. Especially as Yang Ping likes using double-stroke input: two keys per character. The rhythm is very good, and he has compiled a large vocabulary database that makes writing articles feel like flying ¨C an experience that English cannot compete with. Reminded of Takahashi¡¯s teacher, Teacher Tang, who had greatly improved Takahashi¡¯s Chinese, Yang Ping wanted to recommend him to be the dedicated teacher for the Chinese learning section. However, he wasn¡¯t sure if Teacher Tang would agree, so he decided to let Takahashi do some persuasion. After John Ansen reported on the forum¡¯s plans and progress, he mentioned the Mayo Clinic¡¯s intention to invite Yang Ping to be a visiting professor. Yang Ping expressed his agreement, but said that the Mayo Clinic would need to communicate with the Sanbo Hospital about this, as it involved both hospitals. Since Yang Ping agreed, John Ansen had some direction. He could let the Mayo Clinic officially start negotiations with the Sanbo Hospital. The Mayo Clinic probably wouldn¡¯t expect that Xia Changjiang was already planning to form a team to handle them ¨C these negotiations would be very formal. Busy with these tasks, Yang Ping started to examine the experimental data treating scoliosis with an external fixator. This experiment has already entered its final stage. If the animal experiment data is eligible, it could start clinical trials immediately. Once complete, it could go on to the market. Since this device is a completely new application of technology, rather than an improvement on existing technology, the procedures are very strict. If this newly developed external fixator successfully obtains clinical application, the system space can reward thirty million points. This way, there will be enough funds to start the project for cultivating muscles with stem cells. In system space, points are equal to currency. Without points, you can¡¯t get anywhere ¨C you can¡¯t even sleep. That¡¯s because the entire system space is supported by points. If the points are too few, the air in system space will be very thin and the environment will turn harsh, making it unbearable. So, learning to play this system well is also a mind-challenging matter. You need to plan your research topics. If you exhaust your points on a topic and still haven¡¯t made any progress, you¡¯ll face a long time without points to support a new topic. According to the current system rules, the points supporting a large-scale experimental project aren¡¯t something you can accumulate just through performing surgeries. It¡¯s clear that the system¡¯s demand for Yang Ping is no longer about doing surgeries well, but about making breakthroughs in medical research. Therefore, the points rewarded for research achievements are much higher than for clinical surgery. A valuable innovation can benefit patients far more than performing one surgery. Cultivating muscle cells with stem cells, this kind of experiment consumes tens of millions of points. It¡¯s predicted to consume twenty to thirty million points. Accumulating this many points through surgeries might take many years, if it¡¯s feasible at all. The daily reward points from normal surgeries are pitifully low, and high-difficulty surgeries aren¡¯t available every day. Looking at the full-spine X-rays of these little monkeys, the severity of their spinal curvature was naturally divided into mild, moderate, and severe. Now, all the mild and moderate cases were successfully corrected, and the severe ones showed obvious improvement. Given some more time, they would likely be successfully corrected too. This just shows the power of the spatial lab. As long as there are enough points, you can keep experimenting until you make a breakthrough. Then take the successful data and repeat it in the real world, bypassing mistakes and going straight for success. This external fixator correction for scoliosis, with its incredible maturity, made people incredulous. Professor Liang has been closely following the progress of the experiment. He had never seen a topic progress so smoothly, achieving its goal while avoiding almost any pitfalls. The next step, the application for clinical trials, should not be an issue with such dazzling data. Where the head of the nation¡¯s expert assessment group is also Professor Liang, it¡¯s sure to go smoothly and swiftly. When it comes to clinical trials, practically speaking, Yang Ping can use it on his patients but cannot market it yet. He became excited thinking of how, in not too long, he could use this new set of equipment to cure scoliosis without having to perform surgery. Chapter 559 - 559 507 The Scam ?Chapter 559: Chapter 507: The Scam Chapter 559: Chapter 507: The Scam Yang Ping pulled up the X-rays and CT 3D reconstruction images of the six-year-old child. The child¡¯s parents went through various lengths before they found Yang Ping. At that time, Yang Ping¡¯s spinal external fixator had just finished experimental work in the system space and was merely a stack of blueprints in reality, yet to have undergone animal testing. With Professor Liang¡¯s help, and by partnering with Xiehe Hospital¡¯s lab in Guilin, Yang Ping smoothly launched animal experiments. If the degree of pediatric scoliosis is severe, it can be corrected through surgery, but this would potentially affect the child¡¯s future growth and development. Also, even if the surgery is performed successfully, the child¡¯s spine would lose most of its mobility, making simple actions like bending over to tie shoelaces impossible. Shortly after, the final group of experimental monkeys completed orthopedic treatment and Yang Ping planned to conduct clinical experiments as soon as possible. And this child would be the first clinical case treated with the external spinal fixator for scoliosis. Yang Ping measured various data of the child¡¯s spine and drafted a blueprint of the device. Then he contacted Huang Jiacai, asking him to coordinate the production of a complete set of personalized equipment. Ruixing Company had already established a flexible production line equipped with the most advanced industrial 3D printers that allow for the customization of internal fixation devices. After these arrangements had been made, it was almost time to finish work. Doctors including Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang came back one by one from the operating room to the department, having completed a day of intensive surgeries. With the aid of these two competent assistants, Yang Ping was able to escape the tediousness of clinical work and focus his energy on more important matters. Such as research topics and more complex surgeries. Yang Ping called Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang to his office and told them that he was going to Saudi Arabia for a knife surgery, and this time he planned to go alone. The child was only six months old and in a more severe condition than the case Professor Li offered earlier. He wouldn¡¯t live much longer without surgery, which puts him at risk of dying at any moment. Yang Ping always considers the patient¡¯s condition as the primary factor when solving problems, so he wanted to go to Saudi as soon as possible. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had to adapt to this situation since Yang Ping would frequently go out for surgeries or academic meetings in the future. After setting up his work, it was time to finish for the day. Yang Ping went with Xiao Su to the local market near their community to buy some vegetables. Xiao Su now handles all matters related to home life for Yang Ping, relieving him of any worries. Xiao Su shopped while Yang Ping followed behind, helping to carry the groceries. The two had begun to live as a married couple. In the market, Xiao Su haggled over prices and chose vegetables proficiently, much like a regular shopper. She told Yang Ping how to choose fish, shrimp, pork, and beef. When Yang Ping used to shop for groceries himself, he would normally pick up a bunch of vegetables, give them to the vendor, and pay the amount announced by the vendor after the electronic scale readout. He usually didn¡¯t know the prices of the vegetables nor the exact amount he bought. ¡°I learned how to shop for groceries when I was in primary school. Back then, my parents were busy with work, and I had to go grocery shopping after school. I learned to cook when I was in primary school,¡± Xiao Su said, sounding quite proud. ¡°You¡¯re exaggerating,¡± Yang Ping laughed. Xiao Su said very seriously: ¡°If you don¡¯t believe me, ask my brother or my parents.¡± ¡°One time, when my uncle was visiting and my parents were still out working late, he was going to take my brother and me to a restaurant. I told him I could cook. My uncle said that wouldn¡¯t do, and was going to cook himself. Then my brother said, ¡®let her do it¡¯. There¡¯s no pressure for her to do a few dishes. I was in the fifth grade at the time.¡± While walking home after grocery shopping, Xiao Su shared this story with Yang Ping. Yang Ping did believe her. He thought she could actually have made a full table of dishes to entertain guests when she was in the fifth grade. They¡¯d just left the market when they ran into the director of the Emergency Department, Xiong Shihai. He was carrying some groceries in one hand and talking on the phone with the other. His towering figure was very noticeable in the bustling crowd. Yang Ping nodded to him in greeting, and he responded while still on the phone. Just as he passed by Xiong Shihai, Yang Ping heard Xiong Shihai calling from behind, ¡°Dr. Yang, Dr. Yang!¡± ¡°Director Xiong, what¡¯s the matter?¡± Both Yang Ping and Xiao Su stopped. Xiong Shihai was a little embarrassed: ¡°The doctor on duty in the Emergency Department just called to say they suspect a patient with a fracture is attempting fraud. The patient refuses to have an MRI scan and the doctor on duty isn¡¯t sure what to do. They are asking for an Orthopedics consultation and over the phone, they were afraid to make a judgement. If it¡¯s confirmed that it is fraud, we have to call the police. Can you possibly spare some time to help check?¡± This market was originally close to the hospital. It wouldn¡¯t be too troublesome to pay a visit to the Emergency Department once, and that¡¯s why Xiong Shihai asked Yang Ping for help when he saw him. ¡°I¡¯ll go back and start cooking. You go with Director Xiong. Come back early for dinner,¡± Xiao Su said, then went home with the groceries. Yang Ping and Director Xiong went to the Emergency Department together. At the door of Room 3 in the Emergency Department, there was a noisy crowd of people. Someone was grabbing the collar of the doctor in the room and shouting, ¡°You useless doctor, my arm is broken, and you say I¡¯m a fraud? I¡¯ll break your bone, let¡¯s see how you like it!¡± The incident happened suddenly, and the nurse outside immediately discreetly pressed the alarm. ¡°What are you doing, looking for a fight?¡± Director Xiong rushed in, not yet fully decked out in his white gown. He effortlessly grabbed the man who¡¯d attacked first, like picking up a little chick, with his thighs-thick arms, and yanked him away. Just as the group was about to retaliate and attack Director Xiong, they saw the nearly two-meter tall, muscular man standing before them. Dumbstruck by his overwhelming strength, they wilted like frostbitten eggplants. ¡°So, you want to fight?¡± Director Xiong tossed his white gown to a nurse next to him and confronted the person charging at the front. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you, pick your place to wreak havoc. This is the Emergency Department of Sanbo Hospital, my territory. I dare you to make trouble here today.¡± Director Xiong¡¯s voice rang out like a bell. All the local hoodlums knew better than to mess with Sanbo Hospital, and specifically its Emergency Department. They all knew of a Director Xiong who, once he took off his white gown, would pummel people mercilessly till they were at death¡¯s door. The previously braggart men quickly swallowed their saliva and instinctively stepped back. Fight with this giant? Wasn¡¯t that asking for death? They suddenly found themselves tongue-tied. ¡°I want to complain! Get your leader here, this doctor has no medical ethics. Look at this person, who¡¯s this injured, and he accused us of insurance fraud.¡± Immediately, this group acted as if they had been gravely wronged. The emergency squad from the security department arrived at the Emergency Department upon receiving the alarm and saw Director Xiong addressing the situation. They immediately formed a circle separating the group from the medical staff. Seeing that things had gone awry, the group attempted to slip away, but it was too late. Director Xiong sternly said: ¡°Don¡¯t let any of them escape. Let¡¯s finish reviewing the X-rays before determining what to do. If it is truly insurance fraud, none of them will escape.¡± ¡°What happened? Come in and talk.¡± Director Xiong walked into Consulting Room 3 and asked Dr. Sun, a young doctor who had just been scared crooked in his glasses. ¡°Director, this group has come to our hospital for treatment for the third time. Look, there¡¯s a fracture on the upper part of the left humerus, and there are signs of hardening at the fracture site. It¡¯s clearly an old fracture. Each time they come, they change their identity. I remember this man¡¯s face. He blackmailed someone out of fifty thousand last time, this time he¡¯s asking for eighty thousand.¡± Dr. Sun said indignantly. ¡°Look, I just pulled up previous data, different identity information, but the X-rays are almost identical, all showing a fracture on the upper part of the left humerus.¡± Dr. Sun pulled up the previous data. ¡°Dr. Yang, can you help with this?¡± Director Xiong was crude on the outside but meticulous in thought. He needed to clarify the situation and have absolute certainty before dealing with the matter. Otherwise, if he made a mistake, he would be in a very passive position. The patient was unwilling to do an MRI. So, they had to base their judgment on the X-rays, which required a certain amount of experience. After Yang Ping carefully reviewed the films, comparing the before and after, he found that it was indeed the X-ray of the same person with a definitive old fracture that must have happened at least two years ago. ¡°Old Xiong! It¡¯s a definite old fracture, and the three X-rays that Dr. Sun pulled out are definitely the same person¡¯s.¡± Yang Ping said with certainty. If Yang Ping was so sure, it couldn¡¯t be wrong. Director Xiong glanced at the insurance fraud ring outside, ¡°So, you¡¯re saying that these guys are really an insurance fraud team?¡± ¡°I advised them to have an MRI to distinguish if it is a fresh fracture or an old one, and they refused, accusing me of making trouble.¡± Dr. Sun said aggrievedly. ¡°I understand. I¡¯ll deal with this. You¡¯re too straightforward. How could you say ¡®insurance fraud¡¯ in front of them? You could have quietly reported to me or the security department and then called the police. Wouldn¡¯t that be better? Your direct approach lacks wisdom; you could have been beaten.¡± Normally, if a doctor suggests further diagnostic clarification like an MRI or a CT scan for an injured person from a car accident, the injured party would definitely agree. The party who usually disagrees is the car owner, because some of them find it bothersome and fear having to spend more money. An injured party who refuses further examination is rare. Director Xiong had made up his mind. He came out of the office and said to the injured party, ¡°Our doctor suspects that the fracture in this part of your body is an old fracture. An old fracture is one that occurred before, not caused by this car accident. Of course, this is just a suspicion. In order to determine whether it is fresh or old, we need to do further tests for a clear diagnosis. This way, there will be no doubts. How about it?¡± ¡°Doctor, go ahead with whatever check-ups are necessary. I¡¯ll foot the bill.¡± The car owner immediately replied. This car owner drove a Mercedes S-class and clearly wasn¡¯t short on money. Besides, he had insurance. ¡°We don¡¯t have the time to waste with you guys. We¡¯re all temporary workers. The project is finished, and we have to go out of town tomorrow. This arm is broken like this, even a blind man can see. Why do we need an MRI? Are you doctors crazy for money? Trying to rip off patients by doing expensive tests so you can get commissions.¡± One member of the party, with a rather aggressive look, said. ¡°I¡¯m paying anyway, you guys go and do one. Once we figure out what¡¯s going on, we¡¯ll have a better time explaining it to the insurance company. Private settlement is just not going to work. I don¡¯t have the money for a private settlement.¡± The car owner suddenly stood his ground, obviously intimidated by the large number of people. Someone from this group had already taken out their cellphone and started saying they were going to complain, even threatening to call the mayor¡¯s hotline. The woman who claimed to be the injured party¡¯s wife began to cry and weep, talking about how her family¡¯s elder was bedridden and sick, how she was in a hurry to go back home, and how she couldn¡¯t afford the time, demanding the car owner to pay her eighty thousand for treatment back in her home town, stating that eighty thousand wasn¡¯t much. The team¡¯s division of labor was clear, and they worked together, with multiple contingency plans on the ready. It seemed they had defrauded many people before. There were so many security personnel blocking their way, any chance of escape was off the table, so they played the victim card thoroughly, accusing the doctors of being heartless, doing anything to get money, and diverting the attention of bystanders in order to gain sympathy. By now, the police who had received the 110 call had arrived. Seeing that things had truly gone sour, the group began desperately trying to escape, but they were held by the police and the security staff. After these people were controlled, an older policeman came over to Director Xiong and said, ¡°This group has been on our radar for some time. They specifically target luxury cars and alternate crime scenes among several accident-prone areas. They¡¯ve been quiet for a while, and we thought they might have moved on, but it turns out they¡¯re still around.¡± So, they were really insurance fraudsters. If it hadn¡¯t been for Dr. Sun boldly pointing it out, this guy would have almost succeeded again today. Chapter 560 - 560 508 Fellow Villager ?Chapter 560: Chapter 508: Fellow Villager Chapter 560: Chapter 508: Fellow Villager When he got home, Xiao Su had already prepared dinner. Yang Ping told Xiao Su about the incident in the emergency department, and Xiao Su told a story about her classmate. This female driver had just recently received her driving license when she encountered a scammer attempting insurance fraud. He, not being in the best condition or unfamiliar with the scheme, fell to the ground about two or three meters in front of the car. He fell clumsily, right in front of the car. Her classmate was driving at a turtle¡¯s pace, but when she saw someone fall down, she panicked and accidentally hit the accelerator thinking it was the brakes and ran straight into him. Needless to say, what happened next was predictable. It seems that insurance fraud scams can be risky too. ¡°So after I got my driver¡¯s license, I specifically enrolled in a training course for new drivers. It ran for three hours every day, for a month. They taught everything: from reversing into garages, entering and exiting underground parking lots, driving on winding mountain roads, high-speed driving, coping with various complex driving environments. I only dared to drive alone after mastering all of them. That¡¯s part of being responsible not just to myself but to others as well,¡± Xiao Su said with a hint of emotion. No wonder Xiao Su¡¯s driving skills are so good, and her operation is very standardized. That¡¯s the result of formal training. ¡°Why don¡¯t we go to my grandfather¡¯s place for the Lunar New Year? He¡¯s mentioned it a few times, he really likes you,¡± Xiao Su said with a smile. The old man is indeed interesting, at ninety years old, still so keen on his trade craft. ¡°Didn¡¯t he bring up the idea of competing with Professor Zhang a while ago? Why isn¡¯t he talking about it anymore?¡± Yang Ping recalled their discussion about a Tai Chi contest. Xiao Su smiled again: ¡°Of course, they still talk about it. Now, neither one concedes to the other. They¡¯ve agreed to have a big contest after the Spring Festival. My grandfather exercises every morning by jogging and doing chin-ups, and he¡¯s even hired a coach for training.¡± ¡°I see. Didn¡¯t you notice that Professor Zhang is also jogging around the hospital grounds every morning? He even straps sandbags to his legs. It seems neither of them will stop until they determine a winner. They¡¯re both preparing for the battle.¡± ¡°My father says, just let them be. Among their old buddies, only these two remain. Life is full of risks, even a fracture wouldn¡¯t be such a big deal,¡± Xiao Su said, her face serious. Yang Ping fell silent, suddenly recalling Professor Feng Tiancheng¡¯s last words before surgery, expressing his wish to donate his body for medical research. The older generation truly dedicated their lives to medicine. After dinner, the two of them divided up the work. Those who cook clean the kitchen, those who eat clean the table. Doing house chores is more fun when two people do it together. Yang Ping has no problem with this, he¡¯s not the macho type. ¡°I heard Yemen is at war, Saudi Arabia is right next to it, is everything okay?¡± Xiao Su seemed worried about Yang Ping. He¡¯ll soon be going to Saudi Arabia for a surgical operation. Yang Ping laughed: ¡°They¡¯re two separate countries not two villages. Even in a war, bombs won¡¯t fly that far. Don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just worried about you. So, promise me that you¡¯ll call multiple times a day,¡± Xiao Su asked Yang Ping to promise. Yang Ping reassured her: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be back as soon as the surgery is done. The New Year is almost here.¡± When you deeply love someone, you¡¯re always worried, always fretting. That¡¯s what they call concern. ¡°Now that we have such a big house, don¡¯t you feel it¡¯s a bit empty? Not lively enough,¡± Yang Ping purposely asked Xiao Su. Xiao Su was surprised: ¡°What are you thinking?¡± Back when they bought this house, Xiao Su helped choose it. He¡¯d also let Xiao Su decide on the house renovation plan, and she personally picked all the furniture. At the time of buying the house, a 140-square-meter space would have been enough. This 300-plus-square-meter duplex was indeed a bit too big. But unsurprisingly, he¡¯d just earned a good amount of money from the United States and was feeling generous. Who doesn¡¯t want to live in a bigger house? Yang Ping is that kind of person. If he doesn¡¯t have a lot of money, he¡¯s okay with living in a single room. If he does have the funds, he¡¯s comfortable in a 300 square meters duplex. He¡¯s just an ordinary person with ordinary desires. As the saying goes, a gentleman loves money and knows how to earn it rightfully. No problem with spending the money that one makes oneself. He doesn¡¯t feel like showing off, so this hidden duplex is a perfect choice. After dinner, once they¡¯ve cleaned the place, took a shower, he would sit on the big chair in the study and read for a bit. Such a delightful moment. In life, one has to know how to enjoy themselves without sinking into despair during hard times; and when the conditions are right, to know how to enjoy without letting themselves go! This is what they call a state of bliss. Yang Ping was reading in the study, Xiao Su came out of the bathroom, stood at the door of the study, her pink pajamas highlighting her charming curves, making Yang Ping¡¯s heart race. ¡°Doctor Yang, how can we make this empty house a bit livelier? Do you have any good ideas yet?¡± Xiao Su leaned against the door frame. Yang Ping stood up, walked slowly over, put his arm around her waist: ¡°I have an idea, but it requires Nurse Su¡¯s cooperation!¡± ¡°How? What do you need me to do?¡± ¡°Be a little bold and conduct a risk-free bio-leak experiment, how about that?¡± ¡°We haven¡¯t obtained a license to conduct unprotected bio-experiments yet. It would be more appropriate to get a license first.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter that much. As long as we reach an agreement, we can conduct the preliminary experiment first, and follow-up with the formalities later. The experiment we do is very sacred. Everything is for the future of our country, and the procedure should not be our limitation.¡± ¡°Alright, for the future of our country, I agree!¡± ¡°I have another suggestion. Actually, sometimes, our experiments cannot adhere to conventional ways. We need to unleash our imagination, try various methods to achieve the best experimental results. For example, when adding biological reagents, we can try multiple angles.¡± ¡°How do you know so much?¡± ¡°As a doctor, I am naturally learned! I can¡¯t ignore matters related to humanity¡¯s future. I¡¯ve watched numerous videos introducing experiments in the past, so I¡¯ve gained some knowledge.¡± The door gently closed, and the experiment began in full swing. ¡ª Apart from the struggle for survival, there is still poetry and the distance beyond. But even the distance meant surgery, and Yang Ping¡¯s trip to Saudi Arabia was swiftly confirmed. The new director of the International Medical Department, Director Lian, is a returned overseas scholar with proficiency in several languages. He is extremely familiar with the operations of international medical services. Despite his experiences in other hospitals, be they public or private, his work was unfulfilling. Because these hospitals had virtually no international awareness, let alone contacting international business, his department was expendable, most of the time acting as a translation department for foreign patients, with no actual international medical business to speak of. Shortly after he took office at Sanbo Hospital, Director Lian dealt with an international consultation invitation from Saudi Arabia. This was a legitimate international medical cooperation business, and he was invigorated. With his skills and experience, Director Lian arranged Yang Ping¡¯s cross-country consultation smoothly, including round-trip tickets, hotel reservations, pick-up arrangements on the other side, etc., every detail nailed down. Talent, talent is the most important. All capabilities are made up of talents. However, after completing these operations, Director Lian realized that it was almost the Spring Festival. He had been too eager to display his talents that he forgot about the Spring Festival. So he asked Yang Ping with trepidation, ¡°Do you want to change the date?¡± If he doesn¡¯t go before the Spring Festival, he will only be able to go after the Spring Festival. This delay of more than ten days may seem insignificant, but for a dying patient, it is a matter of life and death. Unconcerned with the Spring Festival, Yang Ping confirmed that this arrangement was very suitable and there was no need to change the date. Every country has its taboos due to cultural differences, and Director Lian prepared a booklet of information for Yang Ping. The booklet outlined details for what to pay attention to when traveling to Saudi Arabia, including cultural taboos, emergency contact numbers in the local area, and the emergency hotline of the Chinese Embassy. After finishing these tasks, Director Lian was pleased. At other hospitals, so-called international business consisted solely of inviting foreigners to have surgeries in China. At Sanbo Hospital, he was arranging for Chinese doctors to perform surgeries overseas. This job is great, to his liking. Thinking about it, Director Lian called Yang Ping: ¡°My phone is on 24 hours a day, when you¡¯re abroad, please call me anytime you need something.¡± Professor Li Ze began to express his gratitude. As an overseas Chinese, he understood the significance of Spring Festival to a Chinese person. It is the most important holiday of the year. Apart from the armed forces, police, and essential personnel and businesses, everyone else is on holiday. Professor Li Ze was deeply moved by Yang Ping¡¯s professionalism. Without any hesitation, he arrived in Saudi Arabia three days earlier to do some preparatory work. At this time, Professor Li was very excited. Although he himself is a top surgeon, it was only after watching Yang Ping perform surgery that he realized what a true world-class surgeon looks like. Operational qualifications were not a problem. As a formal contract doctor of the hospital, Yang Ping could perform any type and level of heart surgery as long as Professor Li Ze recommended him. It didn¡¯t matter that he was originally an orthopedic surgeon. Two days before the Chinese New Year¡¯s Eve, Yang Ping took a plane to Saudi Arabia¡¯s second-largest city¡ªJeddah, a place unfamiliar to him. This was the coldest time in Saudi Arabia, the temperature was only around 3-4 degrees, which made the cold feel particularly dry. Among the crowd at the airport, Professor Li recognized Yang Ping. He walked up to shake his hand excitedly, not knowing what to say. ¡°The weather is quite good today, just a little bit chilly. The little guy is not in very good shape. If we delay the surgery, I¡¯m afraid he can¡¯t wait.¡± After exchanging pleasantries, Professor Li expressed his apology for inviting Yang Ping to Saudi Arabia on the eve of Spring Festival. ¡°What are the conditions for surgery at the hospital?¡± Without any unnecessary small talk, Yang Ping got straight to the point. Nobody travels a great distance to chat about the weather. ¡°This is a place that spares no expense. The equipment in the hospital is the latest and most advanced in the world with the nursing staff coming from all over the world. The person assisting you is a nurse from Australia. The doctors are locals as well as from abroad. Even the local doctors have received standardized training in Europe and America. I will be there to assist during the operation.¡± Professor Li Ze offered to help Yang Ping with his luggage. However, there was only one luggage case, easy to pull along, and Yang Ping courteously refused. Professor Li had seen Yang Ping perform surgery at Sanbo Hospital¡ªsurgical correction of scoliosis concurrently with adhesive heart and major blood vessel malformation. He was impressed by Yang Ping¡¯s superb technique and believed that only he could be the chief surgeon on this operation. When he invited Yang Ping, and Yang Ping accepted the invitation with pleasure, Professor Li was even more convinced that his judgment was correct. A top doctor would absolutely never venture into an unfamiliar field, whether it¡¯s for the patient¡¯s sake or to protect their own reputation. Upon leaving the airport, Professor Li invited Yang Ping to get into the car. The vehicle picking them up was a Red Flag sedan, which gave Yang Ping a warm sense of familiarity. The driver was a local Saudi. He took pride in serving a Chinese professor. He shook hands with Yang Ping and said in Chinese: ¡°Fellow countryman! Hello!¡± Yang Ping was both amused and bemused. He guessed they thought ¡°fellow countryman¡± was a term that could narrow the distance between them. Chapter 561 - 561 509 Are You an Orthopedics Doctor ?Chapter 561: Chapter 509: Are You an Orthopedics Doctor? Chapter 561: Chapter 509: Are You an Orthopedics Doctor? Saudi Arabia, a country that thrived due to its vast oil reserves, emanates the aura of a new-moneyed elite. Jeddah has naturally absorbed this unique characteristic. Luxury vehicles speed past opulent buildings, distant sea fountains, and the under-construction Kingdom Tower. The Kingdom Tower, reported to exceed one kilometer in height, once finished, will surpass Dubai¡¯s Burj Khalifa and become the world¡¯s first building exceeding one kilometer. Every corner of this place tells of its status as a hub of wealth. The driver took them to a hotel near the hospital. After stowing their luggage, they headed straight to a local Chinese restaurant for a meal. Yang Ping was quite pleased with this arrangement. While he didn¡¯t despise foreign cuisine, he definitely didn¡¯t fancy it. Chinese food remained his favorite. The restaurant, ran by a Sichuanese, was thriving, thanks to the sizable Chinese population in Jeddah. The eatery was kept afloat just by catering to a large nearby construction site. During festivals, the workers from these sites often gathered here for a meal. Not far from Yang Ping¡¯s table, several construction workers were eating. The marking on their uniforms read as ¡°China Construction Seventh Bureau.¡± The restaurant owner explained that they were involved in a multi-billion-dollar project. After finishing their meal, the workers began to leave. The owner gifted them with a few bottles of Laoganma, a popular chilli condiment. ¡°How long will you be staying here? You can take a couple of bottles too,¡± the restaurant owner kindly offered. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°You¡¯re too kind. We¡¯re just here for a short stay.¡± ¡°They sometimes lose their appetites. This helps stimulate it,¡± the owner explained. The restaurant served authentic Sichuan cuisine, a rare find overseas. They were on a tight schedule. After the meal, Professor Li led Yang Ping back to the hotel without delay. Yang Ping took a quick shower, changed into fresh clothes, rested for a while, then accompanied Professor Li to IMC Hospital. This was the largest hospital in Jeddah. The newly constructed heart center attracted numerous top-tier doctors from around the world. Of course, most of these top doctors came in groups to reap rewards. They signed contracts with the hospital. For an attractive commission, they agreed to perform surgeries for a few days every month. There were also a few who were invited by charitable organizations to lead surgeries, but these were infrequent. Some younger doctors used this as an opportunity to gain practical experience on the ground since they didn¡¯t get enough exposure at their hospitals. The chance to perform operations here was much greater. The Saudi Red Crescent Authority frequently dispatched helicopters to neighbouring countries to transport patients to this hospital for treatment. All costs were covered by charitable institutions. Professor Li visited Saudi Arabia almost every month. He was quite familiar with the place. He was a contract doctor at the hospital and also worked on projects for the International Red Cross Society. Most of the nurses here were recruited from the Philippines and South Korea, as Saudi law prohibited women from working in the nursing field. Upon arriving at the doctor¡¯s office in the Cardiac Centre, they found the office to be spacious, able to accommodate dozens of people working simultaneously. ¡°Everyone, pause your work for a moment. I have someone to introduce!¡± Professor Li clapped his hands. The doctors in blue scrubs immediately halted their work. Even those discussing surgical plans became quiet and looked up. ¡°This is Doctor Yang, who I invited from China. He will be performing surgery on the Mirror Man.¡±. After the brief introduction, murmurs filled the office, and hushed conversations sprouted up. They all knew that Professor Li Zehui invited a top cardiac surgeon from China. This had caused a rift between him and his mentor¡ªProfessor Dodge from Cleveland, due to the controversy. Professor Dodge insisted on leading the surgery, but was firmly rejected by Professor Li Zehui. Li Zehui and Dodge were the leading surgeons at Cleveland Heart Center. If they couldn¡¯t perform the surgery, this doctor apparently could. It looked like a young doctor, at that. ¡°Hello, Doctor Yang!¡± The first to stand and shake hands was a rotund white man of about 1.75 meters tall. He greeted Yang Ping in English. In response, Yang Ping greeted him in English and shook hands. ¡°Dr. Dodge, an Attending physician from Cleveland Heart Center. He can perform cardiac surgeries on both children and adults,¡± Professor Li Zehui introduced. In the United States, the hierarchy of doctors didn¡¯t complicate¡ªonly two levels existed: residents and attending physicians. Residents were in training and couldn¡¯t practice independently. Attending physicians had completed training and could practice independently. Doctors in the United States didn¡¯t undergo rank evaluations, and the title of attending physician was lifelong. Every attending physician had full autonomy over diagnosis and therapy for their patients. No other attending physician had the right to interfere. Even a department head or hospital president, who only held administrative duties, couldn¡¯t interfere with the treatment plan set by other doctors. Different residency programs require different lengths of training, with variations across disciplines. Generally, internal medicine systems require 3~4 years, while surgical systems require 5~7 years. Specialties such as thoracic surgery and neurosurgery require longer training, up to seven years. Some even require subsequent subspecialty training, such as cardiac surgery. So in Cleveland, from a doctor¡¯s ranking perspective, both Li Zehui and Dodge are attending physicians. And for those who can be called a professor, that¡¯s a different evaluation system ¨C an academic evaluation system. It has nothing to do with practicing medicine. It can be understood that if you have extra capacity in your medical practice, or have the intention, you can earn a professorship at the university. That is extra, and has no relation to the doctor¡¯s title rank. You can understand it as a part-time job. Dodge and Li Zehui are alike in that they can perform cardiac surgeries for children and adults. Surgeons who can perform cardiac surgeries for both children and adults are extremely rare in the world, simply a precious rarity. ¡°Which hospital in China does Doctor Yang work for? Anzhen, or Fuwai?¡± Doctor Dodge only knows Anzhen and Fuwai when it comes to cardiac surgery in China, but compared with the Cleveland Heart Center, these two hospitals also appear quite ordinary. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°Neither, I¡¯m from Sanbo Hospital.¡± ¡°Sanbo?¡± Dodge murmured a few times, ¡°Sorry! I¡¯ve never heard of the cardiac surgery department at Sanbo Hospital.¡± For Doctor Dodge¡¯s directness, Yang Ping remained unbothered. He candidly said: ¡°Our cardiac surgery is just getting started, and my main specialty is orthopedics, not cardiac.¡± Dodge was astounded, his eyes immediately widened, mouth slightly opened. Were it not for the many eyes on him, he would definitely have opened his mouth to its limit. Orthopedics! Inviting an orthopedic surgeon to perform cardiac surgery? What a joke! That can¡¯t be right, can it? Dodge cast his gaze upon Professor Li Zehui, seeking confirmation, questioning whether he misheard, or if this was genuinely that insane. Inviting an orthopedic surgeon to be the chief surgeon for cardiac surgery! Professor Li Zehui looked composed: ¡°Dodge, you heard correctly. Yes, Orthopedics is Doctor Yang¡¯s main specialty, but that does not prevent me from inviting him to lead the surgery for this little guy. With my backing, it is in compliance with the medical regulations here.¡± Professor Li spread his hands casually, shrugged. The whole office was full of cardiac surgery specialists, even the rookies wouldn¡¯t think they¡¯re inferior to an orthopedic surgeon. All the expectations they had previously been harboring in their hearts vanished instantly. An orthopedic surgeon performing cardiac surgery, it¡¯s impossible, absolutely impossible. Not to mention this kind of top-notch surgery, even a routine pediatric cardiac surgery, how could an orthopedic surgeon possibly manage it. Some even started to laugh, and some began working on their own things. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Doctor Yang, some things do always take a process, but it does not impede my inviting you to be the chief surgeon for this operation. I¡¯ve anticipated this scene.¡± Professor Li knew something like this could happen. The first Mirror Man, a little girl. Dodge was insistent on the surgery, and the result was that the little girl died on the operating table. Dodge believed, there was nothing about it. No one in the world could successfully carry out this kind of surgery, and the courage he showed as a pioneer was commendable. But Li Zehui did not see it this way, he believed that there were even more formidable doctors in the world, and that was Yang Ping. So this time, he would not let Dodge touch this patient, no matter what. He even directed the junior doctors: No one is allowed to touch this patient. This command upset Dodge greatly, turning their relationship awfully stiff. Ever since coming to this hospital, Dodge and Li Zehui have enjoyed a smooth collaboration. This matter, however, has instigated several disputes between them. ¡°Alright, I won¡¯t interrupt your work, I wish you a pleasant day at work!¡± Dodge very gentlemanly said to Yang Ping. Then he turned to Li Zehui: ¡°Let¡¯s chat about this another time, you owe me some explanations.¡± Dodge held back his anger. Li Zehui had always kept him away from this patient, but now he was inviting an orthopedic surgeon to lead the surgery. He even suspected a conspiracy here. ¡°Dodge, I am not your subordinate. I take full responsibility for any decision I make, and I do not owe you any explanation.¡± Li Zehui led Yang Ping to his desk. As they passed by, he leaned towards Dodge¡¯s ear and whispered. ¡°Every one of us has to be responsible for Cleveland¡¯s reputation.¡± Dodge also whispered in reply. Professor Li had no intention of dragging this matter out. He turned to Yang Ping and said: ¡°Doctor Yang, shall we look at the patient¡¯s medical records, then go to the ward to see the patient?¡± ¡°Marshall!¡± Professor Li Zehui called a doctor¡¯s name. The doctor named Marshall had taken the medical records over, and the electronic screen on his office table was covered with images. Chapter 562 - 562 510 Poor Little Guy ?Chapter 562: Chapter 510: Poor Little Guy Chapter 562: Chapter 510: Poor Little Guy Yang Ping sat down in front of Li Zehui¡¯s desk, Marshall handed over the case file. Yang Ping didn¡¯t browse the paper case but looked at the imaging pictures first. This was a shared office. For easier information exchange, each doctor had a desk equipped with a computer, printer, and an electronic screen for viewing images. On another floor, some of them had private offices, but most of the time, they preferred to work here. The doctors in the office gathered around, standing nearby. They were curious to see if an orthopedic surgeon was truly proficient in cardiac surgery. The quality of the electronic viewing screen was excellent, the image was crisp, and any reflection had been eliminated. ¡°Doctor Yang, can you provide a detailed interpretation of this patient¡¯s heart ultrasound?¡± Doctor Dodge appeared behind him at some point. Li Zehui glanced at his senior. Was this a test for his guest? The electronic screen displayed several categories of images including standard X-rays, cardiac catheter angiography, surface ultrasound, and three-dimensional CT reconstructions. Yang Ping¡¯s mouse hovered over the cardiac ultrasound image category. He clicked to open the images within, revealing dynamic ultrasound images of the heart. The right side of the heart, the large blood vessels, the central septum, and both lungs were clearly displayed. Reading cardiac ultrasound images requires a high level of expertise. Many thoracic surgeons couldn¡¯t understand these images and instead rely on expert sonographers to interpret them. However, top cardiac surgeons often conduct ultrasound examinations on patients themselves and interpret the images on their own. This cardiac ultrasound map was produced by both Dodge and Li Zehui, the quality of the image very high. Pointing at the image, Yang Ping said, ¡°This is a rare case of a right-sided heart, or more accurately, all his thoracic and abdominal organs are reversed. On top of having a right-sided heart, the poor little guy also has a congenital heart defect: the Tetralogy of Fallot. It includes a defect in the interventricular septum, pulmonary artery stenosis, aortic overriding, and right ventricle hypertrophy.¡± Yang Ping pointed out the areas of deformity one by one and explained the basis for his judgement. This was a mirror-image heart. Identifying such abnormalities was extremely difficult. ¡°There¡¯s a mass under the aorta that obstructs the flow of blood, possibly a rhabdomyoma. Its position is extremely dangerous. Blood cannot flow smoothly and may even form a vortex. If you think you can open the thoracic cavity to remove it and perfectly correct the deformations of the heart and large blood vessels, it¡¯s impossible. Here, there are also adhesions, the anatomy is unclear, the blood vessel walls are underdeveloped, these will pose significant obstacles during surgery. The image quality is poor, I need to do another cardiac ultrasound.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s interpretation was spot-on, it didn¡¯t seem like a cross-disciplinary orthopedic surgeon speaking. But his last sentence stirred up discussion among the doctors present. This was an ultrasound done by Doctor Dodge himself. Could there be a problem with it? ¡°Doctor Yang, could you give us a reason why you want to redo the cardiac ultrasound?¡± a doctor couldn¡¯t help but ask. Yang Ping was simply stating the facts without meaning to offend. He didn¡¯t even know who had produced the ultrasound images. Since the question was asked, Yang Ping explained, ¡°This ultrasound didn¡¯t take into account the distinct anatomical characteristics, they still used conventional methods to collect the images, and a lot of crucial information was missed. The potential of ultrasound wasn¡¯t fully realized, it doesn¡¯t provide enough support for surgical decision making.¡± ¡°Well, I would really like to see Doctor Yang redo the ultrasound.¡± Dodge picked up the conversation. Li Zehui gave Doctor Dodge another glance. This American from the east coast was rather arrogant, often looking down on others. But as long as he didn¡¯t embarrass the guest and kept the discussion normal, Li Zehui wouldn¡¯t intervene. Especially in surgery, particularly cardiac surgery, long-term accumulation is needed. Nobody can leapfrog over it, even if they are a genius. Dodge believed that Li Zehui had given Yang Ping the information in advance. That¡¯s why Yang Ping was able to interpret the cardiac ultrasound images so smoothly. Even Dodge himself had spent several days with Li Zehui at the time to review all the tests in order to diagnose the case. It was hard for him to believe that Yang Ping could glean so much information from a single ultrasound. How could he possibly make all these judgments just based on the ultrasound? Afterward, Yang Ping also interpreted the rest of the images. They were in-depth, logically clear, and refreshing to hear, but he didn¡¯t manage to convince this stubborn American from the east coast whose obstinacy was beyond imagination. ¡°In such a case, if surgery is done hastily, it is destined to fail. Using conventional surgical methods for tumor removal or correcting the Tetralogy of Fallot deformation would simply hasten his death. We need to find a unique approach to have any chance of success.¡± Yang Ping released the mouse and looked up at Li Zehui. ¡°So¡ªwhat should we do?¡± Professor Li didn¡¯t understand what Yang Ping meant by a unique approach. After a moment of thought, Yang Ping said: ¡°Let¡¯s go see the patient first.¡± Under Marshall¡¯s guidance, everyone arrived at a separate ward. Considering the child¡¯s low immunity, Li Zehui had arranged for him to be in this isolated negative pressure room. All of the patient¡¯s expenses were covered by the Red Cross, so there was no issue with money. The little guy was lying in bed, wrapped in the hospital¡¯s baby blanket. He was very small, not looking like a six-month-old infant at all. His nostrils were connected to an oxygen tube, and he had an IV drip attached to his body. At the corner of the wall, a man was squatting on the ground, his eyes slightly dull ¨C he appeared to be an Arab. ¡°Does he speak English?¡± Yang Ping asked. Professor Li shook his head: ¡°He is mute but his hearing is very good. He understands Arabic, and this lady can help to translate.¡± An Asian woman stepped forward, signifying that she could translate. Yang Ping assessed the man briefly, he was extremely thin, like someone who had been starving for a long time. There were several bandages on his body, the thenar of his right hand had a thick callus, and the right side of his large T-shirt was slightly open, showing a broad callus trace at the clavicle area. This man must have held a gun and fought in a war; Yang Ping had this feeling. ¡°This is the child¡¯s father. He and his wife brought the child from Yemen. He went through the war zone, passed through the desert, and then sneaked across the border into Saudi Arabia. His wife was shot and killed when crossing the war zone. His condition has been in a very bad state ever since.¡± Professor Li¡¯s tone was sympathetic. Yang Ping extended his hand: ¡°Hello, I am a doctor from China. Perhaps I can help this little guy.¡± The translator lady immediately translated Yang Ping¡¯s words. He seemed to understand, immediately standing up from the ground, wiped his hand on his body before shaking hands with Yang Ping, showing a great deal of tension as they shook hands. ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯m a doctor,¡± Yang Ping comforted him. The man merely nodded, without saying a word. ¡°Let me take a look, may I examine him now?¡± The man nodded, then went to the side of the bed to untie the headscarf. His movements were very gentle and skilled, even more proficient than most young mothers. He made unclear sounds from his throat, as if he were comforting the child. When the headscarf was completely opened, Yang Ping was utterly shocked by the sight before him. The child¡¯s body was extremely thin, essentially just skin and bones, like an infant skeleton covered with a layer of skin. If it was non-medical personnel, they would definitely feel extremely uncomfortable at this sight. People living in peaceful environments would never see such infants ¨C mere skeletons. Poor little guy! His lips were cyanotic. He kept his eyes half-closed, oblivious to the dangers he was in. Perhaps humans have an inherent sympathy for their own kind. Facing this unfamiliar little guy, Yang Ping¡¯s eyes grew misty, blurring his vision. A slight pain throbbed in his heart. He made great efforts to control himself, only then could he steady his emotions. He approached the bedside, constantly rubbing his hands generate heat. His clavicle, sternum, ribs, pelvis, limbs, every bone was distinctly visible. His limbs were like a delicate, dried-up twig. One worried that even taking a breath would break his bones. His abdomen; the peristaltic movements of his intestines were clearly visible. They were just under the skin; the spine could be easily felt by touching the abdomen. Professor Li handed over a stethoscope, designed specifically for auscultation in infants. Yang Ping, being as careful as possible and soft to the extreme so as not to break the bones, placed the stethoscope on the right side of his chest, the location of his heart. The second heart sound at the pulmonary artery was obviously weakened; there was a systolic ejection murmur at the left edge of the sternum. The blood flow of the left ventricle impacted the tumor making a clicking sound. While in both lungs, faint moist rales were heard indicating lung infection. While he was auscultating, suddenly, his eyes opened up and looked at Yang Ping, continuously watching him. He seemed as if he was pleading, saying ¡®Save me.¡¯ Yang Ping took a deep breath, handing over the stethoscope to Li Zehui, and then finished some physical examination. After the examination, Yang Ping signaled the man to wrap his child with the towel. The man wrapped silently and smiled to the awakened child. Li Zehui spoke calmly: ¡°After his wife¡¯s death, the child was deprived of breast milk. In the war and the desert, there was no formula milk. He chewed some coarse food into bits, mixed it with cold water and feed the child. When the helicopter of the Red Cross found him at the border, he only had half a bottle of water left, which was mixed with some unknown food dregs and already turned rancid. He had several suppurating gunshot wounds on his body. He handed a piece of paper to the Red Cross staff, asking them to bring his child here for treatment.¡± It was hard to imagine how he steadfastly made it to this hospital with his child. ¡°Have you met him in Yemen?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°Yes, that was in the Red Cross Hospital. He and his wife brought the child to me, and I was helpless as the hospital was not equipped to perform such surgeries. I could only conduct trauma surgeries. I wrote this address and my phone number for him, told him that I would be here every month. Unexpectedly, he really made it here. I have no reason to give up.¡± Li Zehui shared the patient¡¯s experience, deep in emotion. ¡°Can he go through surgery?¡± Li Zehui gave a hopeful look. Yang Ping looked at the child¡¯s father again. He was squatting at the corner again, still looking over here, seeming to await some news. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best.¡± Yang Ping responded. Chapter 563 - 563 511 Unique and Unpredictable ?Chapter 563: Chapter 511: Unique and Unpredictable Chapter 563: Chapter 511: Unique and Unpredictable Humans are not machines, they¡¯re bound to have feelings. Once empathy is lost, it¡¯s sometimes impossible to recover. After leaving the ward, Yang Ping still did not fully recover his calmness. He had always thought the world was beautiful, he never imagined seeing such a baby in real life. It¡¯s just a tiny skeletal frame, thinly covered in skin. If not for those twinkling black eyes and heartbeat, no one would sense any sign of life from him. It appears that the world isn¡¯t beautiful after all, but he was just lucky to be born in a nice place. Yang Ping washed his hands in the hallway sink, then dried them thoroughly, saying to the people following him, ¡°Let¡¯s go to the office to discuss this.¡± Back in the office, everyone sat down. This case was presented on the big screen in the doctor¡¯s office, which is usually used for handovers, case discussions, or meetings. Yang Ping took a few sips of water, and Professor Li Zehui asked softly, ¡°Doctor Yang, can we start now?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get the anesthesiologist and perfusion team to join us.¡± Professor Li Zehui waited without getting a definite answer from Yang Ping, but judging from Yang Ping¡¯s steadfast look, it was clear that he had decided to perform the surgery since the anesthesiologists and perfusionists are being included in the discussion. Marshall reacted quickly. Without having to be called by Professor Li Zehui, he picked up the phone and invited the anesthesiologists and perfusionists from the operating rooms to a meeting at the Cardiac Surgery Centre. Marshall stressed that it was an emergency meeting, and the notice was issued in the name of Professor Li Zehui. Top cardiac surgeons in Cleveland have absolute authority here. In less than ten minutes, over a dozen operating room members appeared in the doctor¡¯s office, including anesthesiologists, perfusionists, and operating room nurses. They all brought their tablets and found a place to sit down. Everyone soon realized that the Asian-looking young man sitting in the prime spot in front of the big screen, the center of attention, must be the Chinese doctor who has been causing a stir in the hospital recently. Noticeably, not only was Yang Ping in the spotlight, but Professor Li Zehui was extremely respectful when speaking to him. But could this surgery really be successful? Most of the people understood in their hearts¡ªit was definitely not possible. Because a few months ago, a six-year-old child, unfortunately, died on the operating table during a surgery led by Doctor Dodge. The postmortem research report indicated that this kind of surgery could not be successful under current medical conditions. In the field of pediatric cardiac surgery, no one is more skilled than Dodge and Professor Li Zehui. The Cleveland Heart Center is the pinnacle of the world, and Dodge and Professor Li Zehui are among the topmost authorities in this domain. This Chinese doctor ¨C they had never heard him make any contributions to cardiac surgery before. Melvin Mason, a perfusionist, who was a doctor from the North Shore Hospital in Australia, which has a significant footprint in Europe and America in cardiac surgery, even if it couldn¡¯t compare with the Cleveland Heart Center. Nandu Provincial People¡¯s Hospital prides itself on its Cardiac Department, one of the best in the country. All the core faculties of the Cardiac Department received training from the North Shore Hospital in Australia. They owe their technical mastery to the assistance provided by the North Shore Hospital. Melvin Mason then sat down beside Doctor Dodge. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s the rush that called us all over?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know either. It was that Chinese doctor¡¯s idea. He said he could perform surgery on the baby from Yemen. He even said my echocardiograms were not professional enough.¡± Dodge¡¯s tone was a bit mocking. Melvin Mason, much like Doctor Dodge, always felt a notch above others in his profession. He felt a sense of superiority, especially towards doctors from third-world countries, viewed them with a serious bias. ¡°Let¡¯s just wait and see, mate. He¡¯ll fall flat on his face.¡± Melvin Mason comforted Doctor Dodge. As a perfusionist, he had been involved in various cardiac surgeries for many years. He knew very well that it was impossible to perform surgery on this patient. As they were talking in low voices, Professor Li Zehui signaled for silence on the other side. The meeting was about to begin. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, due to the uniqueness of this case, it has been shared with the entire team to harness collective wisdom and come up with the best possible solution. Albeit familiarity with this case since we¡¯ve already discussed it many times, I¡¯d like Dr. Marshall to recap it for us.¡± Marshall is a resident doctor currently undergoing sub-specialty training in cardiac surgery, and in a year he will be eligible for the attending physician¡¯s qualification. He completed his undergraduate degree in engineering for four years, then got accepted into medical school for another four years of medical education. After graduation, he has gone through step-by-step training and now, he¡¯s only one step away from his success. Becoming an attending physician means he can practice medicine independently, and can earn a salary that most would envy, and afford luxury cars and mansions. For such a case, Marshall is thrilled. It¡¯s something that some doctors might never encounter in their lifetime, yet now it lays before him. Marshall opened the case file: ¡°Hello everyone, I¡¯m Marshall from Harvard Medical School¡ª¡± ¡°Introduce the case, no need for self-introduction!¡± Professor Li Zehui reminded. Damn, Marshall might be a bit nervous, forgot, and blurted out this self-introduction, which he usually uses to kick-start his speeches. ¡°Yes, sir, let me introduce the case.¡± Marshall stared at the case file, paused for a moment, and began to report. The English case text slowly moved across the screen; images were changing one by one at a slow pace. Everyone can then view the baby¡¯s case information from their tablets at any time. This was the most difficult heart surgery in the world, not only because of the malformation, tumor, adhesion, but also due to its wholly new anatomy, mirrored anatomy, even seeming to be reversed, an almost extremely weakened physical constitution, various organ development disorders, causing the tissue structure to be flawed. These flaws might lead to fatal damage if overlooked during surgery. When Marshall confidently finished the case reporting with his loud voice, Professor Li Zehui looked around. Before officially beginning the case discussion, he seemed to have something to say: ¡°Everyone, there¡¯s no need for further elaboration. Even the youngest among us is an experienced resident, soon to be an attending doctor, with unquestionable professional knowledge. This is a very rare case of heart malformation combined with a tumor, the difficulty of the surgery is extremely high. We have once gathered the best abilities, trying to succeed in this type of case, but we failed. Failure is nothing to be ashamed of, especially in the medical field, because our current medical skills are far from where we hope them to be. The unresolved problems we face far outweigh the ones we can solve. Doctor Teodoro once said¡ª sometimes to cure, often to help, always to comfort, this truly resonates in medical statistics.¡± ¡°Our failed case, with the family consent, and the approval of the ethical committee, we conducted anatomical research. The result is this thick report that you hold in your hands. The severity of this type of case far surpasses our imagination. We were very naive and reckless at that time. But this was not subjectively created by us, because all of our motivations are to help, even if we were reckless and stubborn, it was not for our personal agenda, but to help the patient.¡± ¡°There is an idea quietly spreading among us¡ªthis six-month-old baby, he is so weak, so poor, so isolated, it is unprofitable to save him with enormous amounts of manpower and funding, there¡¯s no need to give it our best, let it go! He is only six months old, doesn¡¯t feel any pain, no one will blame us if we give up, let alone hold us accountable. He is just like a falling leaf that won¡¯t affect our lives.¡± ¡°But we forgot, the right to life is given to everyone by God, even if he is only six months old, he has the right to pursue his inherent rights. The essence of us doctors is to help people pursue these rights, no matter how weak they are, no matter how lowly they are, no matter how poor they are, these are not things we should consider. We only need to acknowledge that it is a life and should be treated equally. We should try our best to save every life, we can¡¯t, absolutely can¡¯t give up any life, that is our duty! Ladies and Gentlemen, I earnestly ask you, if this choice falls on you, should I give up on you or give up on him?¡± The voice of Professor Li Zehui¡¯s last sentence was very loud, once the words fell, the whole room fell silent. It has been a long time since they had heard such soul-stirring words, and all the doctors present were moved. Yang Ping turned his head and looked at the serious-faced Professor Li Zehui, full of respect for his colleague. ¡°This is Doctor Yang Ping, who I¡¯ve invited from China, this baby¡¯s surgery will be conducted by him as the Chief Surgeon. Now, he will share his perspective on this case and the surgical approach.¡± Professor Li Zehui finished his opening remarks. Yang Ping stood up, holding an electronic pointer in his hand. ¡°Everyone, the difficulty of this surgery is unprecedented in cardiac surgery history. The overall physiological condition of this patient is extremely poor, nearing the brink of collapse, with overlapping and misconstructed malformations. This is like stepping into an unknown minefield, where we could encounter dangerous explosions at any time. Therefore, conventional surgical methods seem weak and powerless, we need to use a completely new method to achieve our goal¡ª¡± Yang Ping paused, he wanted to give everyone time to digest his words, the information was too much to take in all at once. What was this completely new method he mentioned? Even Doctor Dodge was curious. Every top expert in their field, more or less, has some sense of curiosity, which is their driving force for progress. ¡°We plan to draw on the surgical model of left ventricle tumors, by separating the heart from the major blood vessels, remove it as a whole from the chest cavity, and then complete the removal of the tumor and the correction of the malformation on the open operating table!¡± This time Yang Ping used English to express himself; he was worried that the translator might not accurately express his words, leading to misunderstandings. As soon as the words were spoken, all the doctors in the hall froze as if collectively electrocuted. What a crazy idea! An impossible proposition, it seemed like a wild goose chase. With a left ventricular tumor, they only need to remove one tumor, which can be accomplished within the extreme time limit after the heart is removed from the body, even so, only a few top hospitals can achieve this. But to complete the correction of severe Tetralogy of Fallot, it also needs to be done under extracorporeal conditions, no one has such speed. Once a step is not completed, the heart will die from lack of oxygen, the myocardial cells will collapse, and the surgery can¡¯t be concluded at all. Finally, those people understood, this so-called cross-border big shot was nothing more than a quack. A total quack! He was just using this patient as an experiment, seeking to gain sensational effect. Even Professor Li Zehui was shocked, so this was the unorthodox idea Yang Ping had mentioned. In fact, in the case of the Japanese Shuntentani Hospital, Yang Ping had proposed this plan. For this child, Yang Ping had been researching for a long time, trying various methods, but all of them ended in failure. Only this kind of extracorporeal-transplantation line of thinking could bring about successful results. Indeed, the plan was a bit crazy! But there was no other choice! Chapter 564 - 564 512 How many surgeries in a year ?Chapter 564: Chapter 512: How many surgeries in a year Chapter 564: Chapter 512: How many surgeries in a year The heart will be taken out of the chest and broken down into pieces, if it cannot be put back. What a terrible prospect! People at the conference were uncomfortable, unable to suppress the doubts in their hearts, and began discussing amongst themselves. At that moment, a tardy doctor entered with his head lowered, and sat down next to Melvin Mason. This was Brin from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the United States, and of course, one of the gold diggers who came to Saudi Arabia. He had just finished a surgery, and when he heard that people invited by Li Zehui had arrived and were discussing cases, he decided to join them. ¡°What¡¯s going on? What¡¯s the situation?¡± Brin noticed the grim faces of Melvin Mason and Dodge, and the noisy conference area. ¡°My God, is this the guy that Li Zehui invited? Have you heard what he said? He wants to remove the heart, place it on the operating table, slowly dismantle it and fix it, and then put it back. Has he ever done such surgery? How many heart surgeries does he perform a year? What types of surgeries are these? Hasn¡¯t anyone investigated this?¡± Melvin Mason was about to leap up in frustration, but fortunately, he was relatively sober as he was just a perfusionist. ¡°Brin, your timing is perfect. You and Dodge can¡¯t let them run wild. Has Li Zehui gone crazy? Are you sure he can still practice medicine normally, and doesn¡¯t need a psychiatrist¡¯s intervention? I can guarantee, this isn¡¯t a case discussion, but a lunatic going on a rant.¡± The perfusionist¡¯s voice got louder and louder. The situation temporarily spun out of control, but Professor Li Zehui did not stop it, for it was a free discussion. As long as it was not a personal attack, he could not suppress anyone¡¯s speech. Everyone¡¯s opinion should be respected and protected. Li Zehui was different from the others. He had seen Yang Ping¡¯s surgery with his own eyes and didn¡¯t miss any detail. At that time, Yang Ping¡¯s surgical skills were far superior to his own. Besides, Yang Ping readily agreed to come to Saudi Arabia, which Li Zehui believed was not a decision made lightly. ¡°Are you sure about this? Doctor Yang!¡± Li Zehui asked with a flushed face. He believed in Yang Ping, that¡¯s why he invited him. However, this surgical plan was indeed outrageous, which he accepted as such. Yang Ping understood that releasing such a proposal would surely provoke doubt and cause a stir, as it was too crazy. However, some things cannot be achieved if one is not a little crazy. Many of the things he did would indeed be beyond common sense. He had no choice. In the future, he¡¯d often encounter such doubts. Yang Ping can¡¯t simply give up his decisions because of being doubted. ¡°The problem should not be big!¡± Yang Ping said lightly. He didn¡¯t pay too much attention to the unruly reactions of the people on the scene. Let them discuss. Discuss as much as they want. Hmm! Li Zehui grunted lowly with satisfaction. As long as Yang Ping had given his word, he felt more assured. Looking at Li Zehui, who seemed a bit anxious about the situation, Yang Ping thought to himself; you¡¯ve brought me here all the way from China, Old Li. You shouldn¡¯t lose control of the situation. This is your field with your people. If I have to step in and take control, that would be inappropriate. Yang Ping reached for his mineral water and took a leisurely sip, showing no sign of being in a hurry. Li Zehui was taken aback. In this situation, one would generally be anxious or angry. But Yang Ping seemed rather at ease. ¡°Dodge, we have to stop this madness. You start, we will follow. We have to clear this matter today.¡± Having finally understood the situation, Brin urged Dodge to speak up on behalf of everyone. ¡°Take him down, Dodge!¡± Melvin Mason cheered him on. Many doctors in the audience turned their eyes to Dodge, as if he were their chosen representative. Dodge also felt that he had the upper hand, it was his time to take the stage. He slowly stood up. ¡°Dr. Yang, may I ask you a few questions?¡± The more confident Dodge became, the more gentlemanlike he seemed. He didn¡¯t need to resolve the problem with yelling. ¡°Go ahead! Ask what you want!¡± Yang Ping was indifferent, signaling him to ask anything, as long as it was a professional question. ¡°May I ask Dr. Yang, how many heart surgeries do you perform each year?¡± Dodge asked. The room grew silent. Everyone thought this was a great question. It¡¯s exactly what needed to be asked. ¡°Let me think. Not many, and they were all performed alongside scoliosis surgeries as additional procedures,¡± Yang Ping calculated a bit. Damn it, my Surgical Research Institute has been in operation for only a short while. I didn¡¯t have that many heart surgeries to perform. Besides, I¡¯m not specializing in the heart, what would I do heart surgeries for every day if I had nothing else better to do? That¡¯d be boring. The crowd gasped as if the trick of a charlatan had been revealed. Doing a few surgeries a year, and daring to perform such a heart surgery. Are you making a mockery of us doctors? What do you think we are after seven or eight years of training as heart surgeons? Are you insulting our intelligence? Many people shot sharp glances at Yang Ping, waiting for his response. Professor Li Zehui¡¯s face also turned red, but it was unclear whether it was from guilt for putting Yang Ping in a tough spot or from some other reason. ¡°Dr. Yang, you perform only a few heart surgeries a year, and you dare to do this heart surgery on stage?¡± With people looking at him, Dodge shrugged his shoulders as if claiming victory. The question was really good, there was no logical error, and it was indeed the case. Everyone¡¯s intellect was on point. If it were not for Li Zehui witnessing Yang Ping perform a surgery firsthand, perhaps Li Zehui would be sitting next to Dodge, asking questions together. Li Zehui was also in a difficult position. He didn¡¯t know how to answer. With such a high level of surgical skill, it was impossible that he only performed a few operations a year. Either Li Zehui misheard, or Yang Ping misspoke. Impossible! Absolutely impossible! ¡°Doctor Yang, is there some sort of misunderstanding? Only a few surgeries a year?¡± Li Zehui carefully asked. Yang Ping dismissed it, saying, ¡°Roughly. It¡¯s just about that amount.¡± Are you kidding at a time like this? Li Zehui concluded that Yang Ping was responding to Dodge¡¯s provocation in such a humorous way, so he didn¡¯t say anything more. Anyway, he saw it with his own eyes, there could be no error. ¡°You still haven¡¯t answered my question?¡± Dodge was aggressive, but his tone was calm. This time, Yang Ping did not directly answer, but instead questioned Dodge, ¡°How many of these mirror man surgeries do you perform in a year?¡± Now it was Dodge¡¯s turn to be stumped. After a pause, he replied somewhat embarrassingly, ¡°So far, I¡¯ve only been the chief surgeon for one.¡± ¡°Do you dare to take the stage for a surgery you¡¯ve never encountered in your life?¡± Yang Ping asked nonchalantly. Dodge was now at a loss for words. But it didn¡¯t seem like there were any logical errors. It all sounded right. Sophistry, absolute sophistry! That¡¯s what Dodge cursed to himself. ¡°Alright, don¡¯t think that I crossed the ocean and came all this way to boast in front of you. I don¡¯t like the climate here at all. It¡¯s too dry. Haven¡¯t you seen me constantly drinking water? This climate isn¡¯t suitable for blowing hot air. To be honest, it¡¯s hard to explain to you in a short time the depth and breadth of my research on this kind of surgery. Has everyone seen the autopsy report of the previous mirror man surgery? Doctor Dodge, do you know why the surgery failed? Why did you step on a landmine with your first step?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to get into a pointless discussion with him. Continuing the argument would be meaningless. ¡°Why?¡± Dodge wanted to know too: what insights did he have? Dodge¡¯s surgical plan at that time was to proceed in stages, first to remove the tumor and then to correct the deformity with a second operation. However, the tumor could not be completely removed; only the majority of it was. At least, it no longer obstructed blood flow. Dodge decided to quit the operation and let the heart resume circulation. But this heart never restarted; it permanently stopped beating, regardless of all measures taken. ¡°In this case of failure, the distribution of the sinus node and conduction bundle in the heart had already been displaced. The deformity wasn¡¯t just what you saw on the surface, but hid deep in the anatomy. You cut open the heart and, in the process of removing the tumor, destroyed the sinus node, severing the conduction bundle!¡± Yang Ping pointed out incisively and decisively, holding the autopsy report that Marshall gave him; it didn¡¯t mention this. Dodge sat stunned, ¡°How did you know?¡± Yang Ping flipped through the complete medical record attached to the autopsy report, ¡°Didn¡¯t you notice his ECG? Here¡¯s a brand new electrocardiographic waveform. Not just you, many doctors lack the ability to interpret this ECG, because it was an abnormal heart. The established knowledge for interpreting ECGs would not apply. From this ECG, you could infer that the position of his sinus node and his conduction bundle had already deviated from our normal anatomy. They needed to be relocated. This was not our mistake, but rather his was beyond the scope of our current knowledge. Can we do a diagram?¡± Was the electronic screen capable of drawing with an electronic pen, or could it be done on a connected computer? Professor Li Zehui nodded and said yes. ¡°Let me give it a try!¡± Yang Ping started drawing on the screen. Soon, an image of a heart was presented on the screen. ¡°See? We have to understand it before we can repair it. How to understand it? Using all the examination results to reconstruct the true anatomy. This is the real face of it. Here is the position of the normal sinus node. I¡¯m curious to know, do any of us understand how closely the heart¡¯s electrical activity is linked to the structure of its electrical excitation? That is, how can we judge the distribution of the entire electrical excitation and conduction system based on the heart¡¯s electrical activity? If someone can answer this question, I can explain the following points.¡± Yang Ping pointed to the drawing on the screen. The whole audience was sweating. What kind of knowledge was this? Not even a postdoctoral researcher specializing in cardiac anatomy could likely answer. Looking at the heart, Dodge felt that if it really was as depicted, some issues that he has been unable to understand seemed to have an answer. But how could it be? He was a doctor in orthopedics. How was it possible that a young orthopedic surgeon from China would know more about the heart than him? Arrogance and prejudice can blind a person and take away their due reasoning. They can make a person be led by emotions. ¡°Doctor Dodge, does your research involve this? My previous question?¡± Dodge looked confused. If he really knew, he wouldn¡¯t have made the mistake you mentioned. ¡°Brin, it¡¯s your turn.¡± Dodge sat down, temporarily ceasing the battle, but he didn¡¯t intend to accept all this. ¡°Ahem! Ahem! I have a bit of laryngitis lately. It¡¯s really uncomfortable and I can¡¯t speak.¡± Brin coughed a few times and touched his throat. He looked rather tormented. What do you mean? Push me to the front while you hide behind? Just a moment ago, weren¡¯t you the one with the strong voice? ¡°Melvin Mason?¡± ¡°Look, I¡¯m not used to the local food and water. I¡¯ve had diarrhea for several days, and I need to go out for a bit.¡± Touching his stomach, Melvin Mason simply left. Yang Ping stood in the middle, sweeping his gaze across the crowd, ¡°Does anyone here know?¡± Everyone instinctively dodged his gaze, afraid to be called upon. It seemed like this guy knew everything. ¡°What about you?¡± Yang Ping pointed to a man with an Asian face who looked like he might be from South Korea. ¡°No, this, that, fellow-townsman, we¡¯re from the same place, I¡¯m from China, yes, China.¡± He thought Yang Ping¡¯s question was retaliation for his earlier criticism. ¡°What about you?¡± Yang Ping pointed to a white man. Scratching his head, the man said, ¡°Fellow-townsman, I was very serious just now. I really want to hear what you have to say.¡± Chapter 565 - 565 513 Signing ?Chapter 565: Chapter 513: Signing Chapter 565: Chapter 513: Signing Doctor Yang obtained much of his knowledge from the system space. For instance, he gained extensive knowledge in human anatomy through countless dissections conducted within the system space. Under such circumstances, he could only use this knowledge temporarily without publishing it as part of a paper. As Doctor Yang had no time to arrange his own anatomical research, the acquired knowledge could not be traced back through real-life experiments. Even in surgeries, Doctor Yang applied the surgical experiences obtained from the system space to real-life cases, publishing papers based on these cases. The same approach was taken for scientific research, which required the full process to be carried out in reality. Medical results had to be traceable in reality. Doctor Yang couldn¡¯t arrange all the real-life experiments based on the system space¡¯s results at once, so he prioritized them according to their necessity. For example, the experiment on the spinal external fixator had been prioritized. If not arranged, it wouldn¡¯t have been usable in reality. As for anatomy research, it wouldn¡¯t impede their use in real life, so the real-life experiments were naturally postponed. This delay brought about many complications, such as raising skepticism. It was inevitable. No one could answer the questions posed by Doctor Yang in the meeting room because it was unparalleled. Even the experts engaged in cardiac anatomy research couldn¡¯t produce clear results in this area for now. Doctor Yang knew they couldn¡¯t answer. He merely used these questions to control the situation since he didn¡¯t want to spend too much time on the surgery. Doctor Yang revealed the answers to his own questions. He then casually disseminated this knowledge in an informal setting and shared it with everyone for the patients¡¯ benefit. In such an informal setting, there was no need to trace the origin of his words through experiments. If they believe him, they could apply the knowledge cautiously. If they didn¡¯t, then they could disregard it. Unlike formal academic papers, there was no need to provide valid and ethical experimental data. Concerning the close connection between electrocardiographic expression and anatomical distribution of the sinus node and conduction bundle, it¡¯s advanced-level anatomy research, merging function and anatomy in study. That¡¯s like expanding the interpretation of the simple waveforms on electrocardiograms multiple times over. On the same chart, where you could only infer content A before, now you can derive many more contents, such as ABCD. ¡ª Inside the doctors¡¯ washroom in the ward. Brin and Melvin Mason meet. Melvin Mason¡¯s stomach was fine. Brin, however, faced the mirror, wetting a finger to style his hair. ¡°The Chinese man seems to know a lot, not as Dodge said. I¡¯m glad I slipped out early, or my pride would¡¯ve hit the floor,¡± said Brin, still having aftershocks. If he had been clueless in answering, his reputation would have plummeted, and so would that of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. ¡°Is his question accurate? Can we infer the anatomical distribution of the sinus node and conduction bundle from electrocardiographic expressions?¡± Melvin Mason asked. After all, he was only a perfusionist, not as professional as Brin. Brin nodded, ¡°The Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is currently conducting research combining anatomy with function. They are also trying to capture more information from electrocardiographic activities, but the current data is insufficient. There¡¯s not been significant progress. This guy, he¡¯s made a breakthrough in this area. It requires a massive amount of data ¨C specimens, animals, humans, even virtual modeling. My God! It¡¯s a lot of work! He doesn¡¯t strike me as the charlatan you claim but a real expert. What I don¡¯t understand is, how could he achieve what our substantial team hasn¡¯t?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see it that way. You should know he has no reputation in the cardiac field. How could he suddenly have these results? He¡¯s just bluffing,¡± Melvin Mason was much more stubborn than Brin. ¡°After all, Li Zehui¡¯s the patient of Doctor Li Zehui. He¡¯s overseeing everything. Why bother interfering? Let¡¯s just do our thing and stay happy,¡± Brin seemed more diplomatic. With the anger rising, Melvin Mason said, ¡°Don¡¯t you know? Doctor Li Zehui refused to let Dodge participate in the patient¡¯s treatment. What¡¯s more outrageous is he said perfusionists would be brought in from Cleveland, USA. Now the talk around the hospital is that the Australian¡¯s ability doesn¡¯t meet the Chinese¡¯s surgical requirements.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± ¡°Yes, he said anesthetists and perfusionists would be parachuted in from Cleveland. In this way, we¡¯d look like idlers in front of these Saudis, despite our salaries of hundreds of thousands of US dollars. Are we not fit to stand by the Chinese¡¯s operating table? They¡¯re all in this together. So, Brin, you should stand with us.¡± ¡°No, no, no, I¡¯m not joining anyone right now. I¡¯m me, and you guys are you. I have a feeling, we can¡¯t outdo the Chinese. I tell you, this guy seems incredibly smart. I regularly scored A¡¯s in psychology at university, and I bet this lad¡¯s head is worth a few of us. What¡¯s more, let me tell you, Melvin Mason, don¡¯t get involved with Dodge. He¡¯s from the northeastern United States and always believes he¡¯s the real American who looks down on everyone else and doesn¡¯t need you guys worrying about how he operates.¡± ¡°Are you planning to retreat?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t say that. My throat¡¯s not feeling well, I¡¯ll probably need to take a leave. Good luck to you.¡± Brin left after fixing his hair. Melvin Mason had thought Brin came out to discuss a strategy with him. He didn¡¯t expect him to distance himself from them so quickly. ¡°Bastard, traitor, spineless, damn Mexican.¡± Melvin Mason muttered to himself in the mirror, then he forcibly roused his spirit and returned to the office. ¡°Even if Brin chickened out, I¡¯d still support you.¡± Melvin Mason returned to his seat, and whispered into Dodge¡¯s ear. Dodge was silent, for he was also thinking. Indeed, he hadn¡¯t considered that the sinoatrial node and conduction system of this heart are ectopic. He carefully recalled the scene of the surgery. If this was the case, it seems to explain the problem at that time. But, this heart surgery center has always been the territory of Americans. Everyone took turns forming groups to make a fortune and cooperated happily. When did they let this Chinese guy give them instructions? Dodge felt annoyed. The heart on the screen was getting more and more detailed with the addition of lines. Yang Ping used the drawing to explain how to cut the heart away from the body, how to open this heart, how to remove the tumor, how to reshape the heart, how to quickly complete the surgery, and then transplant the heart back into the baby¡¯s body. ¡°He thinks this surgery is as easy as eating a hamburger.¡± Dodge muttered to himself. The case discussion was just to gather ideas, it couldn¡¯t take up too much time. Professor Li Zehui looked at the time, it was time to end the discussion. He announced on the spot ¡ª the discussion was just for everyone to learn, it would not change any existing decisions. Since it was his patient, he had one hundred percent autonomy, no one could interfere with him, and the surgery would go as planned. Dodge was very displeased. Clearly ending the discussion so fast was aimed at him, not wanting him to continue talking. After the discussion ended, Yang Ping suggested: ¡°I will talk to the child¡¯s father.¡± Before the surgery, he needed to have an in-depth conversation. Just in time, Li Zehui wanted the father of the child to sign a surgery informed consent form. Although the child¡¯s father was mute, he was able to cross a war zone, cross the desert, cross the border with his child with limited food and water. He must be intelligent, otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to do this. Li Zehui and Yang Ping went to the ward to find the child¡¯s father. The mute had just been brought back by two uniformed men. Li Zehui explained to Yang Ping, ¡°When he was found at the border, he had a gun and a few bullets on him. He voluntarily handed over the gun and bullets. The note said that he came to seek medical treatment. The gun and bullets were for self-defense. The police were cautious and investigated his background. It¡¯s not unusual to have a gun when coming from the border.¡± ¡°The policemen guarded him for a while. After they confirmed there was no problem, they withdrew.¡± Li Zehui was worried Yang Ping had other ideas and added a sentence. A few minutes later, the conversation began in a meeting room. The father sat opposite Yang Ping, his eyes were still a bit dull. Li Zehui poured him a glass of water. In addition to the Arabic translator, they had also prepared a sign language translator. ¡°Hello, I am Doctor Yang from China. I have just studied your son¡¯s condition in detail. There is a great chance of success with the surgery, but the risk is also high. I don¡¯t know if you are willing to take this risk with us. If successful, he will be able to live. If it fails, he will remain on the operating table forever. Without surgery, his survival time is unlikely to exceed three months. His heart is very weak at the moment.¡± In fact, Li Zehui had already told the child¡¯s father about all these. The translator translated Yang Ping¡¯s words. A ray of light passed through his dull eyes, adding a bit of vitality. The child¡¯s father asked for paper and pen and wrote some words and sentences on the paper. Apparently, he was literate and could write. The translator reorganized what he wrote and told Yang Ping, ¡°He says he knows, he asks you to save his child. He can¡¯t be without his son. He is willing to do anything. He can exchange his life for his son¡¯s life.¡± After finishing writing, the man covered his face with both hands, as if washing his face, repeatedly rubbing his face. After that, he began to listen to Li Zehui explaining the terms on the surgery consent form. Yang Ping didn¡¯t know if he understood. After Li Zehui finished reading, he didn¡¯t ask anything, not a single word. Guided by the translator, he picked up the pen and signed his name. ¡°Do you have any other questions?¡± Yang Ping asked. After hearing the translation, the child¡¯s father just shook his head. Then, he didn¡¯t write anything else on the paper, he just sat quietly. His eyes, full of gratitude, seemed to sweep over Yang Ping¡¯s face. Chapter 566 - 566 514 The Moon Over the Sea ?Chapter 566: Chapter 514: The Moon Over the Sea Chapter 566: Chapter 514: The Moon Over the Sea Human nature is universal. This father may be mute, and Doctor Yang may not have exchanged even a single sentence with him. However, from his gaze, Dr. Yang could understand ¡ª like most other fathers, he deeply loved his son. The whole world could abandon his child, but he never would. Otherwise, he would not have risked his life, crossing deserts and war zones, even when his wife had already lost her life in the process. He agreed very much with Professor Li Zehui¡¯s statement. Everyone has the right to pursue a bestowed right to life, and the existence of doctors is to help people realize this inherent right. ¡°Please trust us, no matter the outcome, we will give it our all!¡± Dr. Yang encouraged the child¡¯s father. The man¡¯s gaze fell on Dr. Yang once again. He didn¡¯t speak, or make any gestures, he just looked at Dr. Yang, expressing his gratitude through his eyes. Or perhaps he was trying to remember the face of this unfamiliar doctor and that was it. The preparation for the surgery needed to be more comprehensive. Marshall was in charge of this task, and the surgery was scheduled for the third day ¨C the eve of the Chinese New Year. The perfusionist and anesthesiologist had already come from Cleveland. Their services were voluntary this time and they did not charge any fee. For the success of the surgery, Professor Li Zehui mobilized all the best resources at his disposal. Waiting can sometimes seem boring but in the coming time, Professor Li Zehui arranged many activities to relax their bodies and minds, such as having barbecued meat and drinks on a yacht. As one of the world¡¯s top cardiac surgeons, his income could easily support his luxurious lifestyle. His surgical services are very expensive around the world unless it¡¯s for charity. On the yacht, Professor Li Zehui hired a team of chefs to prepare the ingredients. Fresh lamb sizzled on the grill, wafting an irresistible aroma for all around. There was no alcohol, just cola and juice. But it did not hinder everyone from enjoying the delicious food. Apart from Professor Li Zehui, there were also several American and local Saudi doctors, including the Korean one. Brin hadn¡¯t been invited, but he took the initiative to ask Professor Li Zehui if he could attend this private yacht party. Of course, Dodge and Melvin Mason wouldn¡¯t be invited. Professor Li Zehui didn¡¯t want to dampen his guests¡¯ moods. Dr. Yang was a meat lover, particularly fond of beef and lamb, so he feasted freely. He thought that being overly modest with food, letting oneself go hungry, was a foolish thing to do. When dusk fell, the moon rose above the sea. The yacht was anchored offshore, where the air carried a faint salty taste. The atmosphere was excellent. They discussed the details of the surgery while enjoying the barbecue. Work and life could find harmony in moments like this, even if the cost seemed rather significant. Professor Li Zehui was a fifth-generation Chinese American. His ancestors came to the United States as laborers during the Qing Dynasty to seek a living. They were part of many U.S. railway constructions. While his ancestors did manual labor, they highly valued education. Each generation spared no expense to provide the best education for their descendants. By the time of Professor Li Zehui¡¯s father, education had already changed their destiny. When it came to Professor Li Zehui, he had been able to attend Stanford to study medicine. The efforts of several generations, climbing step by step were not easy. In Professor Li Zehui¡¯s generation, they¡¯ve become completely westernized, essentially the so-called ¡°bananas.¡± Professor Li Zehui chose Chinese as an elective in college, not because his ancestors were from China, but because he foresaw that China would rapidly develop and become a significant pole in the world. Mastering Chinese was necessary. However, he did not do well learning Chinese, and even now, he could not pronounce several sounds correctly. After discussing the details of the surgery, Professor Li Zehui started introducing Dr. Yang to Saudi Arabia¡¯s medical conditions. Saudi Arabia is a feudalist autarchy, but it¡¯s incredibly stable, primarily due to its oil and wealth, which benefits the citizens. Their wealth makes things easier, and their healthcare system is splendid. Not only do they nurture numerous high-level local doctors, but they also spend lavishly to invite renowned doctors from Europe and America for consultations and teaching. Saudi Arabian hospitals are divided into public and private hospitals. At public hospitals, as long as you have Saudi nationality, all hospital expenses are free, including all check-ups and treatments. Food is also complimentary, as are toiletries. Private hospitals, on the other hand, are profit-oriented and require either self-payment or commercial insurance to cover expenses. Neighboring Yemen is not so fortunate, with daily conflicts forcing the common people to live a bitter life. ¡°Dr. Yang, the first time I watched you performing surgery, I was deeply shocked and my understanding of surgical limits was completely upended. At that time, I thought no one could perform that operation, but you accomplished it easily. So, when encountering this patient, I immediately thought of you. I was initially worried you would refuse, but to my surprise, you agreed readily. Thank you, my compatriot! ¡®The bright moon is rising above the sea, everyone faraway enjoys the same moment¡¯! Let¡¯s toast!¡± Professor Li Zehui toasted Dr. Yang with iced soda. Dr. Yang was speechless. This poetic Tang verse was completely changed in flavour when spoken in English by Professor Li Zehui. He waved: ¡°If we could afford to wait, I would not want to rush. However, the young lad cannot wait. The more we delay, the greater the surgery¡¯s risk.¡± Stick to normal conversation, don¡¯t suddenly produce half-baked Tang poetry, Dr. Yang thought to himself. ¡°My fellow countryman! Come, have some dates. They are rich in vitamins.¡± Professor Li Zehui had introduced Dr. Yang to Brin but Dr. Yang was deep in conversation with Professor Li Zehui initially, so Brin hadn¡¯t got a word in. Now he found an opportunity to chat with Dr. Yang, offering him a few dates. The overused appellation ¡®compatriot¡¯ made Dr. Yang feel both amused and helpless. This term actually came from the Korean, who was now around the grill, one of Professor Li Zehui¡¯s valued guests. At that time, Professor Li Zehui could not find a suitable Chinese adviser and resorted to this Korean. This guy knew nothing, had never been to China, but to please Professor Li Zehui, he shamelessly claimed he had relatives in Northeast China and frequented China, proclaiming himself an expert on China. Professor Li Zehui trusted him deeply, wondering how best to address Yang Ping, a title that could promote their relationship and reflect their cooperative alliance. The South Korean doctor replied, ¡°Fellow-townsman!¡± Fellow-townsman! Thinking about how, in the next few days, people of different skin colors from various countries would call him ¡®fellow-townsman¡¯, made Yang Ping feel uneasy. ¡°After the surgery, let¡¯s go camping in the desert. We need a thorough relaxation, my nerves are too tense, I believe you must feel the same, excited yet tense. Aming! Is the convoy ready?¡± Professor Li Zehui was indeed feeling a mixture of excitement and tension, a sentiment he believed Yang Ping must share. Aming, a student of Professor Li Zehui and a local Saudi doctor, gave an OK gesture, signaling that the diesel Land Cruiser convoy was ready, with guides, logistics, and security teams all set. Li Zehui dared not stay out too late, fearful it would disturb Yang Ping¡¯s rest. At ten o¡¯clock in the evening, the yacht docked and Yang Ping returned to the hotel to rest. ¡ª¡ª ¡°Bro! I heard you¡¯re at the IMC Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia right now?¡± That was a call from Robert, a junior alumnus. Dodge frowned and reluctantly admitted, ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve been there for a few days.¡± ¡°Great! Have a fencing match. It¡¯s been a long time since our last duel, I am arriving tomorrow. Ready for a serious contest this time?¡± Robert was absolutely thrilled on the phone. Good heavens! Dodge almost hung up the phone in frustration. One of the people he detested the most was Robert. Intensely proud, Dodge felt an inferiority complex in Robert¡¯s presence that had taken root during their student days. Dodge hailed from the Northeast of the United States, often insisting he was a quintessential American. Blessed with a high IQ, he was excellent at everything, be it fencing, football, or boxing; he was the pride of the heavens, sweeping all competitions from elementary to high school. Even during his four years in the College of Engineering, he was among the most outstanding stars, an all-around handsome guy with an academic halo. This experience fostered his arrogant character. But at Harvard Medical School, he met Robert, who was in the same class with him. His unbeaten streak was broken. It seemed that Robert was born his nemesis, destined to defeat his lonely heart. In football, he lost to Robert¡¯s team, a team Robert led as the captain. In boxing, he was KO¡¯d by Robert in the championship at a school competition. In fencing, he was consistently suppressed by Robert. For the four years of college, he remained second place. Robert seemed to always exude energy, forever victorious. Dodge was most reluctant to encounter Robert, yet he did so on a regular basis. At least after graduation, he didn¡¯t have to face him, as Dodge went to Cleveland to specialize in cardiac surgery while Robert, following in his father¡¯s footsteps, went to New York for special surgery, specializing in sports medicine. The two brightest stars of their year at Harvard, each shone brilliantly in their respective fields. Recently, Dodge heard that Robert, much like someone with a life cheat, had achieved numerous remarkable successes in his professional field. This trend was suppressing Dodge again! Although their respective fields differed, Robert was always a thorn in Dodge¡¯s side. He always wanted to shake Robert off, to defeat him once. Dodge and Robert were like a mix of love and hate. ¡°You there, bro? Get ready! My fencing skills have improved again. Be careful.¡± Over the phone came Robert¡¯s exhilarated voice. ¡°Don¡¯t get cocky too soon. I have been improving too, and I will win this time.¡± Dodge cut off the call. Robert was very familiar with Saudi Arabia, having been invited to perform surgeries for royal family members. He had once driven an off-road vehicle across the desert, enjoying the sense of adventure it brought. ¡°Hey! Why did you hang up on me? I wasn¡¯t done talking.¡± Robert called again. Although the two were rivals, having competed throughout their four years of college, they were also close friends. ¡°Spit it out if you have something to say, and let it rip if you¡¯re farting!¡± Dodge really wanted to hurl an insult at the phone, but he dared not. This guy would surely outdo him with more biting words. ¡°I mean, we¡¯ve got to wager something, right? Let me think about it. I haven¡¯t figured it out yet, we¡¯ll talk about it when we meet.¡± Robert hung up the phone himself. This arrogant guy, Dodge seethed, yearning to win, but unable to. How distressing! Chapter 567 - 567 515 Iron Triangle ?Chapter 567: Chapter 515: Iron Triangle Chapter 567: Chapter 515: Iron Triangle Yang Ping slept in the hotel until he naturally woke up, which was already past nine in the morning. Li Zehui did not disturb him. Yang Ping had a buffet breakfast at the hotel before calling Li Zehui. Li Zehui took Yang Ping from the hotel to the hospital. The preoperative examination results of the baby were out, and all kinds of biochemical indicators were terrible. ¡°Can we operate?¡± Li Zehui asked cautiously. Yang Ping read the examination results three times before nodding: ¡°We will operate normally tomorrow.¡± If looked at through conventional lens, the current physiological condition of the baby is not fit for surgery. However, if no surgery is performed, the state wouldn¡¯t improve either. This is a vicious cycle. The only way to break this cycle is to take a risk and perform surgery. Yang Ping personally performed a cardiac ultrasound and cardiac catheter angiography on the baby once again. He then conducted numerous examinations, each time carefully checking to dynamically monitor changes in the baby¡¯s condition. After each examination, Yang Ping would smile at the baby¡¯s father in the corner as a greeting. The man from Yemen would also smile back at Yang Ping, his smiles somewhat shy and embarrassed. In the doctor¡¯s office, Yang Ping once again pulled up the image photos, carefully observed them, and tirelessly explained the details of the operation to Li Zehui, as he would be his assistant. Li Zehui was one of the top cardiac surgeons in the world, but he was not Song Zimo, whom Yang Ping had trained personally and who could understand and connect with every detail he provided. The approximate procedure of the operation would involve opening up the chest cavity, severing the connection between the heart and the body, and removing the heart completely. The heart, now out of the body, would be placed on a sterile platform and had its tumors removed and deformities corrected. The heart would then be replanted into the chest cavity. After being removed from the chest cavity, the heart can endure ischemia for 4 to 6 hours, meaning that the entire procedure has to be completed within this time frame. If a problem arises during the surgery and it stalls, just like a car engine that is unable to be put back together after being taken out and disassembled, the consequences would be dreadful. Li Zehui was unsure whether Yang Ping could complete it within this time, considering the high difficulty. This string of operations cannot have any mistakes or delays. Even then, to complete this series of operations within such a short period was a tall order. Li Zehui felt that he had done his best. Yang Ping was the strongest surgeon in his opinion, and if surgery failed, Li Zehui would have no regrets. ¡ª Odd Orelli, a cardiac surgeon at North Shore Hospital in Australia, was a renowned doctor in the industry. He was a good friend of Dodge and, of course, also the contracted doctor of this Saudi Arabian hospital. He spent about ten days there per year, garnering hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions. Melvin Mason was his perfusionist. After receiving Melvin Mason¡¯s call, Odd Orelli boarded the earliest flight to Saudi Arabia, ready to fight alongside Dodge. When he arrived at Dodge¡¯s office, Dodge looked worried. ¡°What exactly happened?¡± Odd Orelli asked anxiously. He had never seen the usually confident Dodge so dejected before. Seeing his old friend, Dodge immediately gave Odd Orelli a hug: ¡°You¡¯ve come at just the right time. Things are about to change here. The Chinese want to dominate everything. If they succeed, the Saudis might break the contract with us and sign with the Chinese instead.¡± Dodge was indeed Dodge. Every time he rallied friends, he always provided two reasons ¨C one seemingly just and honorable reason like maintaining professional honor or order, and an implicitly recognized reason ¨C profit. Moreover, Dodge was good at exaggerating the consequences, scaring people, and then linking these severe consequences to their interests. Melvin Mason added fuel to the fire: ¡°I made it clear in the phone call. See, not only did Li Zehui leave out Dodge in this operation, he also left me out. It¡¯s okay to leave me out, I¡¯m just a perfusionist. But leaving out Dodge is unacceptable. If even Dodge isn¡¯t qualified for the operation on the child from Yemen, how is a young Chinese doctor qualified?¡± ¡°Where¡¯s Brin? Why don¡¯t I see him?¡± Odd Orelli felt that Brin should be present at this time. ¡°That guy Brin has already defected. He said he had a sore throat and wouldn¡¯t help either side. He¡¯s staying neutral. But in reality, as far as I know, he has been on Li Zehui¡¯s yacht and dined with him.¡± Melvin Mason was good at stoking the fire. ¡°Take a look at this?¡± Dodge passed the tablet to Odd Orelli: ¡°You are very familiar with this case of the baby from Yemen. Li Zehui invited a Chinese man to be the chief surgeon. What¡¯s ridiculous is this doctor is actually an orthopedic doctor.¡± ¡°This is the Chinese doctor¡¯s information, Yang Ping. Even the name sounds so rustic. He is an orthopedic doctor, truly an orthopedic doctor. The papers that can be found about him are all related to orthopedics, and there is not a single one in the field of cardiac surgery. It¡¯s inexplicable that such a person could be invited by Li Zehui to be the chief surgeon for this rare and highly difficult cardiac surgery. He has never shown in his educational history that he has received cardiac surgery-related training, not even for one year. If he is allowed to be the chief surgeon for this operation, where would you stand? Where would the professional order stand? This is the same as telling the Saudis that the Americans and Australians are powerless and that a Chinese orthopedic doctor has to step in.¡± Melvin Mason handed a thick file to Odd Orelli. This file contained all the information about Yang Ping that he had found after a long time of searching. Odd Orelli quickly browsed through the file. Although this doctor, Yang Ping, had several papers published in top international journals with high scores, they were orthopedic papers. If these papers had been about cardiac surgery, then everything would have been fine. But they were orthopedic papers, and the idea of an orthopedic doctor doing cardiac surgery was indeed the biggest joke of the year. Different professions in the medical field, especially surgery, are as different as mountains. They¡¯re not ordinary mountains but as vast as Mount Everest. ¡°Absurd! This is a blasphemy against specialisation, we must stop it!¡± Odd Orelli cursed. Indeed, this was a terrible situation. Even if the situation wasn¡¯t so severe, he would have been this angry ¡ª he would wholeheartedly support Dodge to maintain their standing in the academic world. The benefits of residing at this academic peak were profound ¡ª there was no way they would allow a Chinese person to share in them. How could they let a Chinese person be the Chief Surgeon for such a rare, unprecedented case? Whether successful or not, they believed that the Chinese could only observe and learn ¡ª it wasn¡¯t their turn to take the lead. Dodge and Odd Orelli were proud and influential, enjoying their power and rewards. The issue now was not about the success or failure of the operation, but the fact that letting a young Chinese man be the Chief Surgeon was a challenge to these academics at the top of their field. ¡°There are no legal or ethical loopholes because Li Zehui is willing to endorse him, and the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health issued a temporary surgery license. We seem to have no countermeasures,¡± Melvin Mason said helplessly. Li Zehui has absolute autonomy over his patients, and no one can interfere unless he violates the law or ethics. ¡°If there are no loopholes, we will create one. We can¡¯t let them succeed,¡± Dodge said domineeringly. In any case, he can perform the surgery, but for others to attempt it would be overestimating their abilities. If he failed, that would be expected ¨C he had attempted to reach the peak of their profession, it was a brave attempt at a medical challenge. But if Yang Ping did it, it would be a lack of respect for life and the medical field. ¡°This is a blatant challenge and disregard. We must fight back!¡± Odd Orelli said with determination. It was a sheer insult, a disregard for their existence. With the arrival of Odd Orelli, one American and two Australians formed a strong front, attempting to prevent the Chinese from operating. Dodge was adamant about stopping Yang Ping from performing the surgery; this raw thought surpassed academic confrontations ¡ª he saw Yang Ping¡¯s arrival as a personal challenge. In his logic, such a surgery should be performed by the world-class Dodge. An unknown Chinese person did not have the qualifications to perform this type of surgery. When it came to exploring unknown areas, it wasn¡¯t Yang Ping¡¯s turn. Especially since Li Zehui would not let him touch this surgery, he held an even bigger grudge. ¡°I have written a letter to the Academic Committee of the Cleveland Medical Center. They will respond soon. This Chinese doctor is not qualified to perform such surgeries. If he persists, let him pay the price,¡± Dodge said fiercely. Odd Orelli agreed that this was the correct course of action. As for whether they had the right to interfere with Yang Ping, they didn¡¯t care. ¡°Gentlemen, I have a tentative idea.¡± Anesthesiologist Melvin Mason gave a mysterious smile. ¡°Go ahead!¡± Odd Orelli encouraged him. This guy always had a lot of ideas. ¡°Why go through all this trouble before the surgery? Wouldn¡¯t it be more effective after the surgery? Once the operation fails, an unqualified orthopedic surgeon performing a challenging heart surgery and then the patient dying on the operating table. Don¡¯t you think this topic will be explosive? Will the Cleveland Academic Committee just sit by and do nothing? Li Zehui is one of you people right? The person he endorsed and recommended, shouldn¡¯t they investigate his educational background?¡± The anesthesiologist proposed his plan. Dodge and Odd Orelli were shocked. The most ruthless person turned out to be him. ¡°Do you think that orthopedic surgeon can pull off the surgery?¡± The anesthesiologist sneered contemptuously. Dodge shook his head: ¡°Impossible. I don¡¯t believe there¡¯s magic in this world. Facing such a case without the experience of ten thousand heart surgeries, his mind would go blank and his hands would tremble involuntarily. Ten thousand surgeries ¡ª that young man? He should go dream.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t even in his dreams, right? Ha-ha!¡± The anesthesiologist became excited. ¡°Are we sure we want to do this?¡± Odd Orelli asked uncertainly; this seemed a bit ruthless and crossed a line. If they stopped him before the surgery, it could be seen as respecting life and the profession. But if they knew they would fail and didn¡¯t warn them before the surgery and then accused them after the failure, it would be despicable. Dodge firmly said, ¡°Of course we will do it!¡± At this point, he was angry and somewhat irrational as all the pent-up anger from these past days was unleashed. It was like an NBA superstar in the middle of a game, playing well, and suddenly the coach tells you to step back and let a rookie who has never played before, take your place. Dodge saw Li Zehui¡¯s behavior as an insult. Odd Orelli hesitated: ¡°Alright, I will always stand by your side.¡± He felt the situation was a bit excessive, but what of it? He and Dodge were in the same boat. Chapter 568 - 568 516 Faith Rises ?Chapter 568: Chapter 516: Faith Rises Chapter 568: Chapter 516: Faith Rises In the afternoon, Yang Ping discussed the surgical plan once again with Professor Li Zehui in his private office. The plan had to be repeatedly communicated and refined among the team, making every detail crystal clear. The anesthesiologist and perfusionist flown in from American Cleveland Medical Center also sat by and listened in. Unlike Dodge, these two hadn¡¯t allowed prejudice to cloud their judgment. They had heard that Dodge had reported Li Zehui¡¯s actions to the Professional Committee before they arrived. This Professional Committee was very cautious in intervening with doctors, especially top-tier ones like Li Zehui. He had no prior offenses, no bad records, a good reputation as per the medical database, and an incredibly low failure rate for operations. There was no reason for the committee to suddenly intervene in his work. Even if Li Zehui failed in the surgery, the Professional Committee could not interfere. They would need to examine all of Li Zehui¡¯s surgical records. If his failure rate was within the average range of his peers, which doesn¡¯t exceed a certain limit, it would be acceptable. Nobody can guarantee 100% success in surgery. Only if his failure rate significantly exceeded the warning limit, the Professional Committee could initiate an intervention, applying to the Medical Association for an investigation. Only then would the Medical Association begin investigating Li Zehui. But an investigation doesn¡¯t necessarily yield adverse results. Experts from the Medical Association would analyze each of Li Zehui¡¯s failed cases. If the cases where he was the chief surgeon were more complex than others, and he was tackling medical enigmas, his operations would be considered reasonable. Only if he was found guilty of professional negligence, was unfit for surgery, or had an obvious mental or psychological defect, Li Zehui would be suspended from performing surgery and further in-depth investigation would follow. Out of respect for Li Zehui, the anesthesiologist and perfusionist took Yang Ping¡¯s explanation very seriously. They found that this orthopedic surgeon¡¯s knowledge of anesthesia and perfusion was not inferior to theirs, and many of his predictions and solutions for potential issues were astonishing. Judging by experience, this orthopedic surgeon surely had extensive experience in cardiac surgery; otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to have such in-depth knowledge. After all, some things can only be learned through practice. They had to believe that this orthopedic surgeon was indeed extraordinary; otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t be possible for a cautious and shrewd person like Li Zehui to casually ask him to perform the operation. As for Li Zehui, the deeper his interactions went with Yang Ping, the more he affirmed that his decision was right. For this baby from Yemen, he had found the perfect person for the job. Meanwhile, Dodge, Odd Orelli, and Melvin Mason, the trio sat in the public office and gathered a group of people by their side. They adopted Melvin Mason¡¯s despicable idea to let the Chinese doctor perform the surgery with no interference, wait for his inevitable failure, and then ruthlessly excoriate him. They would make him regret his actions and pay the price. How could the operation Dodge failed to complete be completed by him? Cardiac surgery was not a child¡¯s play; one couldn¡¯t possibly possess the required surgical capability without years of experience. They had seen many boisterous doctors. The pitifully small amount of cardiac surgeries that Sanbo Hospital handled annually was not enough to support an excellent cardiac surgeon. To be able to perform surgery on a baby from Yemen, it would have to be the finest cardiac surgeon. Even then, the outcome would be uncertain. ¡°Is the surgery scheduled for tomorrow?¡± Melvin Mason seemed worried. What he feared the most was that if Dodge suffered a downfall here and Odd Orelli couldn¡¯t survive, he would have to slink away. That way, he would lose a substantial income. Who would think they have too much money? ¡°No, we will intervene.¡± Dodge was looking for the right moment. If they stirred things up before the surgery and then criticized the surgeon afterwards, it would appear more natural. This would make everyone believe that Dodge was a righteous man and his actions were solely in the name of justice. ¡°We can¡¯t wait. This afternoon, we will make life difficult for that orthopedic bloke.¡± Odd Orelli acted like Dodge¡¯s goon, itching to take action. Dodge, however, was indecisive. He had experienced Yang Ping¡¯s sharpness at the case discussions. He was unable to tear him down but instead ended up being rendered speechless by Yang Ping¡¯s counterquestions. While everyone was deliberating, a tall figure entered through the door. Dodge recognized the man ¨C it was Red Nosed Robert, just as he¡¯d heard. ¡°Haha, buddy, you look a bit off-color? Who¡¯s the lady that did this to you?¡± Seeing his amusing old schoolmate, Robert immediately opened his arms for a hug. Without this old schoolmate, Robert¡¯s college life would have been incredibly dull. ¡°Weren¡¯t you treating a prince from Saudi Arabia?¡± The two hugged each other and patted each other¡¯s backs. For some reason, whenever Dodge saw Robert, he felt three points inferior. Even involuntary perspiration appeared on his face; it was the shadow of his student days. His greatest fear was seeing this Red Nosed Robert. As a world-renowned expert in sports medicine, Robert was quite famous in this hospital because the Saudi royal family often sought his services. The royal family didn¡¯t need heart transplants, but they frequently injured their joints due to horse riding, golf, sailing, and other such sports, hence they often sought treatment from Robert. This made Robert very well connected in high society and gave him a powerful status. Fresh off the plane, the energetic Robert, after sorting out matters at the Department of Sports Medicine, naturally came to have some fun with his old schoolmate. A fencing match or a boxing match would do. After the hug, Robert found a seat and sat down. Doctors from the sides frequently cast envious glances his way. Everyone knew that this doctor was a regular on America¡¯s Richest Doctors List. His visits to Saudi Arabia were not like those of most doctors who came seeking fortune. He came to experience life. He was not in need of money. His exceptional medical skills and outstanding business acumen had made him very wealthy. ¡°I heard you were being bullied? Who dares to bully the old number two from Harvard?¡± Robert had a bossy attitude and seemed ready to stick up for Dodge. ¡°You can¡¯t help with this.¡± Dodge hated people calling him the old number two, but when Robert said it, he didn¡¯t feel annoyed at all. Back then, in front of Robert, he was always number two. If Robert were a cardiac surgeon, perhaps this omnipotent guy could have taken revenge for him. Unfortunately, he was an orthopedic surgeon. Yes, he was an orthopedic surgeon. Dodge immediately realized and said with regret, ¡°Orthopedic surgeons really have the skill, even coming to Saudi Arabia to perform heart surgery.¡± ¡°The rumor I just heard in the elevator is true, is it? That a orthopedic surgeon stole Dodge¡¯s operation?¡± asked Robert. Dodge seemed to concede. ¡°Alright, it is indeed interesting. An orthopedic surgeon crossing into cardiac surgery, unheard of. I get it now, where is he? For the honor of Harvard, it seems that I must intervene.¡± Robert was genuinely curious about this person who had bullied his senior. If he was an orthopedic surgeon, they might genuinely have a confrontation. The situation was indeed absurd. The heart surgery of Harvard¡¯s number two had been seized by an orthopedic surgeon, which was baffling. Dodge seemed to see a glimmer of hope. If this guy was willing to help, the situation would definitely take a complete turn. Regardless of his intelligence or his status here. This guy was invincible and omnipotent. ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about my affairs for now, is Rongge okay?¡± Dodge asked about a classmate from the past, Rongge, who was also at the New York Special Surgery Hospital. Back then, they were the main players of the rugby team, representing the school team in all-American college rugby leagues, charging all the way till they finally won the championship. It was one of their rare cooperations, most of the time they were in competition. ¡°He¡¯s doing very well. I invited him to Saudi Arabia, but he refused. You know, after surviving a plane accident, he doesn¡¯t dare to fly anymore.¡± Robert responded. ¡°Where is the maverick, let me meet him!¡± Robert was full of confidence and didn¡¯t want to talk about anything else at the moment. ¡°I will definitely teach him a severe lesson and let him crawl back home humiliated.¡± Robert¡¯s tone was full of pride. At this moment, Yang Ping was entering the office with Li Zehui¡¯s company. Robert recognized Yang Ping from a distance. He rubbed his eyes. Wasn¡¯t that his mentor ¨C Dr. Yang? Why is he here? Yes, it was him! Robert immediately straightened his clothes and buttoned up the top button of his T-shirt. In Robert¡¯s heart, Yang Ping was more than a teacher, almost a religious figure. Seeing Yang Ping, his heart would involuntarily be filled with admiration. Even if Robert was cynical, even if Robert was more than ten years older than Yang Ping, even if Robert was a world-renowned expert, at this moment, upon seeing Yang Ping, he felt like a primary school student meeting the head of instruction. ¡°It¡¯s him!¡± Dodge reminded Robert. By this time, Robert couldn¡¯t hear what Dodge was saying. He immediately stood up with swift and standard movements. The person who was approaching was his idol. Robert greeted him respectfully in Chinese, ¡°Dr. Yang, hello, how come you are here?¡± Yang Ping was surprised to see someone standing in front of him so courteously. Looking closely, it was surprising ¨C Robert. The world is so small. After so long apart in America, he now unexpectedly ran into Robert in Saudi Arabia. How miraculous. ¡°Robert?¡± ¡°It¡¯s me! Dr. Yang, what¡¯s happening here?¡± Standing in front of Yang Ping, Robert was always half-bowing, adopting an extraordinarily humble posture. Now he had completely lost the aura of a proud American. He looked more like a restrained Japanese. What on earth! What on earth happened? Dodge could hardly believe the scene before him. Is that Robert? Is that the Robert who has always been suppressing him? The proud Robert, the overbearing Robert, the Robert who dismisses everything else. Just now he was still full of bluster, but now he looks like he¡¯s trying to please, standing in front of Yang Ping with the utmost respect. What on earth happened? The strange scene left Dodge completely dumbfounded, his mind a mess. ¡°Sit down and talk!¡± Yang Ping sat down, Li Zehui and others also sat down. Robert didn¡¯t dare sit. He wasn¡¯t sure if his previous words had been heard by Yang Ping. Sweat dripped from his forehead onto his face. He was afraid of losing this professional mentor who was simply omnipotent. It¡¯s hard to even ingratiate with him. Rongge has always been trying to learn something from Yang Ping. Despite his efforts, he never stepped foot into Yang Ping¡¯s circle. Rongge, who is now afraid to get on a plane, has asked several times to go to Sanbo Hospital and learn arthroplasty from Yang Ping, but Yang Ping said he didn¡¯t have time to teach him yet. But Robert could talk to Yang Ping directly and ask him for advice on surgery. That was such a huge honor! Yang Ping was at the peak of the world. No one knew better than Robert. Robert treasured this fortune granted by God. For this, he went all around to learn the way of teacher-student relationships in the East. But just now, he was making threats against his most respected mentor in a very rude language. Now, he wished he could slap himself and find a crack to slip into. ¡°Dr. Yang, I¡¯ll stand, it¡¯s okay for me to stand.¡± As Robert was speaking, he observed the changes in Yang Ping¡¯s expression. Did he hear what he said just now? Chapter 569 - 569 517 An Object to Suppress Another ?Chapter 569: Chapter 517: An Object to Suppress Another Chapter 569: Chapter 517: An Object to Suppress Another Dodge, Odd Orelli, and Melvin Mason were left baffled, their worldview completely shattered by the scene in front of them. Robert was showing such respect to this young man from China. They couldn¡¯t even trust their own eyes. Melvin Mason blinked several times to confirm that this was not an illusion. He pinched Odd Orelli¡¯s arm hard, causing him almost to yell out in pain. ¡°What do you see?¡± Melvin Mason asked. Odd Orelli answered indignantly, ¡°No matter what I see, I¡¯m concerned about who you just pinched?¡± ¡°Sorry, I thought that was my arm.¡± Melvin Mason withdrew the hand that was about to pinch for a second time. Odd Orelli massaged his arm, convinced that that the anesthesiologist had lost his mind. The other doctors in the office were also stunned. Robert was their idol, the ceiling of surgeons, and now he stood in front of Yang Ping like a primary-school student. The hardest part to accept was that Robert looked extremely nervous, with sweat appearing on his forehead. ¡°Please sit down. We¡¯re about to have a meeting. Listen along!¡± Yang Ping said in a gentle tone. Hopefully, they didn¡¯t hear that. If they really did, that would be fatal. Robert judged from Yang Ping¡¯s expression that he probably didn¡¯t hear the last sentence. Marshall placed a chair next to Yang Ping. Robert sat down nervously and slowly exhaled the breath he had been holding. He glanced around the room, his eyes landing on Dodge. It was a close call. Although Robert is now in a high position, he is not content with it. He wants to continuously break through in his profession. That Dodge, he almost got him in trouble. Robert glared at Dodge viciously. Dodge shivered and his inner fear expanded, causing him to become restless. ¡°Doctor Dodge, didn¡¯t you say that there were some issues that you wanted to discuss with us? With Professional Committee video participation from Cleveland?¡± Li Zehui had already conceded. He did not want to let this issue strain the relationships among them too much. Besides, Dodge had mentioned the Cleveland Professional Committee, so whatever the problem was, they could resolve it all at once. ¡°Um, ah, ya...¡± Dodge was hesitant. The Professional Committee¡¯s reply was just for observation, meaning they were not initiating an intervention plan. Observation means that Li Zehui can reject them. However, Dodge had obfuscated the concept and said that the Professional Committee would send supervisors. Supervision implies coercion. Yang Ping silently awaited their questions, present Yang Ping didn¡¯t even bother to argue with these people. ¡°Right, there are some things that we must clarify today.¡± Dodge mustered up the courage to finish his sentence through gritted teeth. Robert sitting across from him, next to Yang Ping, made him feel as if a huge mountain was pressing on him. He did not know the relationship between Robert and Yang Ping for the time being, but Robert¡¯s performance just now was indeed strange. Why was he so respectful? Who exactly was Yang Ping? A young man made Robert grovel in such a way. Dodge was now panicked. ¡°The surgery of tomorrow will proceed as planned, everything will abide by the laws of Saudi Arabia, and at the same time, it will not violate the general rules of the industry.¡± Li Zehui reiterated, implying that his decision was firm and none could shake it. The screen was connected to the Internet, and a doctor from the Cleveland Medical Center was attending the meeting remotely, but Dodge misinterpreted it as supervision. ¡°Doctor Yang, I really want to know, do you have the qualification to be the Chief Surgeon for this surgery? Your education, training and work experiences do not include any experience in heart surgery. This is not just about simple wound cleansing and suturing, but it is a top-notch heart surgery.¡± Dodge focused the question on Yang Ping¡¯s qualification issue. Seeing this scene, Robert quietly inquired about the matter from Marshall beside him and finally understood. This bunch of guys want to use the preoperative discussion to attack Yang Ping and question his surgery qualifications. They had even brought up the Professional Committee. But Yang Ping had the recommendation from Li Zehui. How could the Professional Committee initiate an intervention procedure? Robert was filled with doubt as he looked at Dodge¡¯s wandering gaze, sensing that there must be a problem. Now it¡¯s time to show off. ¡°May I say a few words?¡± Robert asked Li Zehui. He knew Li Zehui, both of them came from the United States, only from different fields. ¡°Go ahead.¡± Although Robert¡¯s field had nothing to do with this meeting, Li Zehui still gave him the chance to speak. ¡°Dodge, can you make public the letter you wrote to the Cleveland Professional Committee? I am very curious as to why the committee is remotely supervising this preoperative discussion. With the guarantee from senior cardiac surgeon Doctor Li Zehui and the temporary license issued by the Saudi Ministry of Health, isn¡¯t that enough?¡± Robert was very familiar with the workflow of American hospitals and various laws and regulations, so he naturally knew how to fight back. Robert was certain that these troublemakers, these short-sighted fellows, these smug fellows, must have distorted the facts and spread alarmist talk in the letter. That¡¯s why the Professional Committee had initiated an intervention procedure. How could it be otherwise? ¡°This!¡± Against Robert, Dodge had already lost psychologically. If that letter were made public, he would be utterly discredited. In that letter, he had used a lot of subjective opinions, greatly biased, interspersed with many lies. ¡°If everything is on fair and open grounds, then the documents should be made public. If you don¡¯t want to disclose it, then you should shut up. I don¡¯t want to say the reason. Dr. Yang, every surgery he has done, I have never seen failure. Forgive me for being blunt, he is several realms higher than us. You have no qualification to have a discussion with him on the same platform. Don¡¯t tell me about what¡¯s ranked first in the United States. In front of him, it¡¯s worthless. Having Doctor Li Zehui¡¯s guarantee is enough, this in itself is a qualification. As for the education and training experience you mentioned, it should be verified by Doctor Li Zehui, not you.¡± Robert was blunt. That was the simple truth. Just like in New York Special Surgical Hospital, Robert asked Yang Ping to be the Chief Surgeon and took all the responsibility himself, which had nothing to do with anyone else. ¡°This is the pre-surgery discussion, Robert. You¡¯re going way too far.¡± Dodge was furious. ¡°I¡¯m not going too far at all. You all are. Just a bunch of frogs living in a well. Do you understand how big the world is? You always think you¡¯re on top. A person capable of performing the surgery is sitting here, being questioned and evaluated by people who can¡¯t perform the surgery. How could you possibly evaluate? When Einstein presented his Theory of Relativity, only two and a half people in the world could understand it. If anyone else were to evaluate the academic value of the Theory of Relativity, wouldn¡¯t it be laughable?¡± Robert was aware that since Li Zehui invited Yang Ping to be the chief surgeon, Li Zehui must have seen Yang Ping perform heart surgery. Anyone who had seen Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries wouldn¡¯t doubt his surgical skills. ¡°This is surgery. It¡¯s an applied science. Like swimming, no matter how clever you think you are, you can¡¯t learn to swim without getting into the water. We are here to guard the dignity of life and medicine.¡± Dodge¡¯s heart was pounding. He couldn¡¯t beat Robert, but in front of everyone, he had to stand his ground, or he would lose face completely. ¡°Enough, have you ever seen Doctor Yang operate?¡± Robert did not want to argue with them. He knew exactly how these people thought. Dodge shook his head, his words carrying scorn: ¡°No, I¡¯ve never seen an orthopedic surgeon perform heart surgery.¡± ¡°If you haven¡¯t seen it, why are you denying it?¡± Robert turned to the screen again: ¡°Hello, gentlemen of the Special Committee at Cleveland Medical Center. I am Doctor Robert from Special Surgery New York. Nice to meet you. I am now questioning your abuse of authority, brutally intervening in doctors¡¯ clinical practice. I will collect evidence as a third party and a societal supervisor, and sue you. My lawyer will act swiftly.¡± The doctor in the video looked dumbfounded: ¡°No, we are here only to observe. We did not initiate any intervention plan.¡± ¡°Confirm you¡¯re just observing?¡± Robert pursued. ¡°Yes!¡± The doctor in the video seemed aggrieved. ¡°Alright, we refuse any outside observers. Please switch off the video and let¡¯s continue our discussion.¡± After Robert finished speaking, he leaned over and said to Yang Ping, ¡°Don¡¯t bother talking to them. They pretend to be righteous, but their actions are full of double standards. In Chinese, it¡¯s equivalent to saying ¡®it¡¯s okay for officials to set fires, but common people can¡¯t even light lamps.¡¯ Don¡¯t take them too seriously. Look, they are all trembling now.¡± Robert felt delighted and relieved. He had done something meaningful for Yang Ping, which would certainly strengthen their friendship. When the video was switched off, the doctor on the screen had a helpless and innocent look. The conference room fell silent. The so-called iron triangle turned pale as a sheet, their plans shattered instantly. ¡°Wasn¡¯t this supposed to be a discussion? Please, go on!¡± Robert had finished speaking, and he looked forward to the discussion that was to take place. ¡°You¡¯re merely an outsider. You have no right to comment.¡± Odd Orelli immediately sided with Dodge, but his voice was a bit quiet. ¡°This is the Cardiac Surgery Department¡¯s pre-surgery discussion. You are just an orthopedic surgeon.¡± Melvin Mason also chimed in. But all their voices were very quiet, so faint only they could hear them. ¡°I¡¯ve witnessed Doctor Yang¡¯s surgery with my own eyes. That¡¯s enough. Moreover, the law grants me the right to speak. Tomorrow¡¯s surgery will proceed as planned. If you gentlemen are interested, you may observe. There¡¯s actually no need for a discussion. I, Li Zehui, take full responsibility for the surgical plan.¡± Robert had already helped to control the situation; Li Zehui did not want to waste more time. ¡°Why isn¡¯t anyone speaking? Everyone, please chime in!¡± Robert made a gesture. Who the hell still dared to comment, it would just be embarrassing themselves. Li Zehui would have willingly accepted if it really were the usual pre-surgery discussion. But under Dodge¡¯s maneuvering, such discussion completely strayed off course and became a tool for attack. But Robert¡¯s arrival instantly simplifed the situation. ¡°Our intention was merely to remind you all to maintain respect for the profession. Nothing more.¡± Dodge managed to maintain his composure. He had to find a way to step back gracefully. Facing Robert, he was better off leaving as soon as possible. Just wait and see. I can¡¯t wait to see how you¡¯ll handle the aftermath of tomorrow¡¯s surgery. That was Dodge¡¯s thought. ¡°Doctor Yang, rest assured for tomorrow¡¯s surgery. He won¡¯t dare to intervene in your affairs anymore. I told him before, if he tries to mess with Doctor Yang, I¡¯ll teach him a stern lesson, making him roll back home defeated.¡± Robert cleverly made this remark in front of Yang Ping. The meeting was adjourned. ¡°Doctor Yang, I really can¡¯t believe I met you here. I am very excited. It¡¯s like old acquaintance in a foreign country, named in golden letters, on a wedding night! And¨C¡± Robert didn¡¯t forget to show off his Chinese, but he was struggling with one phrase that he couldn¡¯t remember. ¡°Right, paying respects to the teacher in snow!¡± What a mess. Facing his level of Chinese, Yang Ping felt like crying. His phrases were totally illogical, just a jumble of words. ¡°Who taught you these phrases?¡± Yang Ping asked with a smile. Seeing Yang Ping¡¯s smile, Robert proudly said: ¡°I¡¯m self-taught!¡± Chapter 570 - 570 518 Dangerous Dissection ?Chapter 570: Chapter 518: Dangerous Dissection Chapter 570: Chapter 518: Dangerous Dissection In this period, Robert was working hard to improve his Chinese. He had been putting in a lot of effort, memorizing a large number of idioms, verses, and good words and phrases. However, he was merely mechanically remembering these words and the situations they were used in, unable to apply them flexibly. For example, Robert initially intended to use the idiom ¡°meeting an old friend in a foreign place¡± to describe the chance encounter with Yang Ping in Saudi Arabia. But in his excitement, he ended up blurting out a whole sentence. The idiom ¡°standing in the snow to seek instruction¡± was what Robert had in mind to express his respectful student-teacher relationship with Yang Ping. Robert knew the phrase had this meaning, but didn¡¯t know how to use it, so he just blurted it out bluntly. In recognition of Robert¡¯s dedication to learning Chinese, Yang Ping gave him a big thumbs up. This made Robert even happier. He had made such an effort memorizing these idioms just to express himself in Chinese with a touch of literary grace, not just dry simple combinations of words. ¡°After the surgery is done tomorrow, we can chat freely, I happen to have a few questions to ask humbly,¡± he said. Yang Ping¡¯s encouragement gave Robert more confidence in the use of idioms. Li Zehui who was standing next to them was very envious of Robert because he spoke Chinese so well. At the very least, he wasn¡¯t just speaking in monotone but could differentiate and produce four different tones in Mandarin. For an American to speak Mandarin with the correct four tones, they were not a common person. This guy seemed to be there for comic relief, his Mandarin was so entertaining, even more so than a stand-up comedy act. Seeing that Robert seemed to be enjoying himself more and more, he even seemed like quite a cultured person to Yang Ping. The meeting naturally came to an end. Upon seeing Yang Ping, Robert naturally lost interest in having a fencing match with Dodge. In the evening, Yang Ping had dinner together with Li Zehui and Robert. This time, Li Zehui didn¡¯t invite anyone else, it was just the three of them. Robert, this fellow, was even more familiar with Saudi Arabia than Li Zehui was. When he heard that Li Zehui was organizing a caravan to go camping and have a picnic in the desert, he was very excited. He had often done this before and had even done more thrilling things, like riding camels across the desert. Li Zehui apologized to Yang Ping for Dodge¡¯s actions, but Yang Ping really didn¡¯t care too much. In regard to people like Dodge, he couldn¡¯t bother to argue about meaningless things. He came to Saudi Arabia solely for the purpose of surgery, not to compete with Dodge. There was no intersection between them, and Dodge could do whatever he pleased. Robert was very familiar with Dodge. He told Yang Ping that Dodge was a decent guy who had achieved a lot in his profession. He just had a narrow mind and wasn¡¯t accepting of others. After dinner, accompanied by Li Zehui and Robert, Yang Ping went back to the hospital to check on the Yemeni baby. The baby¡¯s breathing had become more rapid, his abdomen bulging severely, all a result of heart failure. The small heart could collapse under the pressure at any moment. Yang Ping was relieved that he had not waited until after the Spring Festival to come, this little guy may not have lasted till then. The frail little boy was still wrapped in a blue cloth, lying quietly on the bed. His father was kneeling in a corner of the room, eyes closed. Perhaps he was praying, hoping for some divine favor to ensure a smooth surgery the next day. Yang Ping didn¡¯t disturb this Yemeni man. With the help of a nurse, he undid the swaddling cloth and examined the baby before wrapping him back up again. Sometimes Yang Ping thought, the world was truly wonderful. If he hadn¡¯t met this child, he might have quietly left this world just like the previous ¡°Mirror Man¡±. He would only have been in this world for six months. In that brief six months, he wouldn¡¯t have left anything behind. Things would have ended before they had even begun. Now, assuming the surgery succeeded, what would his future look like? Could he grow up healthy and get married and have children? Yang Ping realized that he was thinking too much, too far ahead. His mission was simple ¨C to keep the boy alive for now. At night, Yang Ping didn¡¯t go anywhere else. To ensure that he could rest well, Li Zehui and Robert sent him back to his hotel early, without arranging any activities. In his hotel room, Yang Ping chatted with Xiao Su via WeChat. Xiao Su repeatedly reminded him to drink more water and to return home quickly after the surgery. Tomorrow would be New Year¡¯s Eve. Performing surgery on New Year¡¯s Eve must be the normal routine for a surgeon. Xiao Su told Yang Ping that she would be making many dumplings the next day for him to enjoy when he returned. Yang Ping calculated the time, even if he caught a plane immediately after the surgery was completed, he would only be back in China on the first day of the New Year. ¡ª The next day, Yang Ping arrived at the IMC hospital full of energy. The surgery was proceeding as planned. When the nurse brought the baby to the operating room door, the baby¡¯s frail hands swept around, and he began to cry. He seemed to be looking for his father. The anesthesiologist was nearby, preparing to administer a sedative through the scalp needle to allow him to enter a state of sedation. At this moment, the baby¡¯s father grabbed the baby¡¯s tiny hands. The little one seemed understanding, and stopped crying. Yang Ping asked the anesthesiologist to hold off on the sedative for a moment as he wanted to perform a final preoperative auscultation of the heart. ¡°Give his hand to me,¡± Yang Ping instructed. The baby¡¯s father seemed to understand Yang Ping¡¯s request, and he carefully released his grip, then smiled at his baby. Yang Ping took the baby¡¯s hand, and the little guy didn¡¯t cry anymore, he just opened his eyes and stared at Yang Ping. This was the second time Yang Ping had been stared at. The father of the baby clutched Yang Ping¡¯s hand, not saying a word, his eyes only filled with anticipation. Yang Ping patted his hand, saying: ¡°We will do our utmost!¡± The interpreter passed along the message. Letting go of Yang Ping¡¯s hand, the father retreated a few steps and a nurse picked up the baby, placing it on the operating room¡¯s gurney, marking it ready for transfer. Accompanied by Li Zehui and Robert, Yang Ping changed into his sterile scrub gown and gloves before entering the operating room. A frail little fellow lay bare on the operating table. The anesthesiologist had already intubated him and initiated general anesthesia. The artificial heart-lung machine was already set up in the operating room. Once the baby¡¯s heart was removed, this machine would be his lifeline. The perfusion physician, along with his assistant, stood by the heart-lung machine, while the anesthesiologist slowly administered the anesthesia to the baby¡¯s lungs. The attending nurse, who was from Australia, had previously assisted Dodge in a ¡°mirror man¡± surgery. Li Zehui was tasked with sterilizing the drapes personally, while Robert, as an outsider, sat in a corner of the operating room to observe. Marshall was the second assistant. The young man was a bit excited, having anticipated participation in this surgery for a long time. By the time Yang Ping was ready to intervene, the little one¡¯s body was completely covered with blue disposable sterile drapes, with only the chest and upper abdomen exposed. Under the surgical lamp, the baby seemed too small and too thin. After completing the preoperative check, Yang Ping, with his number 15 round scalpel, cautiously made the first incision on the skin. In order of better exposure, he chose a large median sternotomy. The scalpel made a vertical incision through the skin of the baby¡¯s chest, slicing straight down to the sternum. Her thin, edematous skin was cool to the touch. Subcutaneous fat was virtually non-existent, so the scalpel swiftly made contact with the surface of the sternum. Adhering to the periosteum, the skin was parted to either side, and some cool fluid oozed out, which was promptly suctioned by Li Zehui¡¯s aspirator. The thin tissues under the knife were soaked, indicating that heart failure was severe. Next, he needed to split the sternum in the middle, effectively bisecting the chest. All the surgical instruments were specifically designed for pediatric surgeries. The micro-sterna saw was excellent, drawing a straight line down the middle of the sternum. With the sound of bone dust being sucked out, a mist of particles formed. His protective glasses prevented any foreign bodies from reaching his eyes. The sternum was split wide open and the saw was perfect, cutting through the bone but not a millimeter more. The sternum was pried open, revealing the entire thoracic cavity. The bright pink lungs, due to edema, were unusually inflated. They adhered to the inner wall of the sternum, and a single millimeter of depth would have caused injury during the previous sawing. The aspirator was plunged deep into the chest cavity and a large volume of fluid was drained. The diaphragm was raised, compressing the organs within the chest cavity. Yang Ping made a small incision in the abdomen using a lancet and used an aspirator to drain the accumulated fluid from the abdominal cavity. Slowly, the diaphragm returned to its original position. Thus, the space within the chest cavity looked a little larger, and the lungs, mediastinum, and heart didn¡¯t seem so cramped anymore. That frail little heart lay on the right side of the chest, rhythmically pulsating. It was warm and always enduring, enduring long enough to arrive on the operating table. This heart, grappling with dextrocardia. The heart sac and surrounding blood vessels were densely adhered to one another, obliterating any space that was once present, making everything appear blurry and unfathomable. Perhaps it was the inflammatory response, developmental defects or another reason, but the adhesion was present before us. Dextrocardia, malformed heart, extensive adhesion; all these factors made the surgery viciously hazardous. Li Zehui raised his head, and what met his gaze was Yang Ping¡¯s confident eyes. Facing the sight before him, Li Zehui began to sweat, but Yang Ping remained composed. ¡°I am about to separate the heart and large blood vessels, then sever the blood vessels to remove the heart. Are you ready?¡± Yang Ping prompted the assistants and the anesthesiologist. Next, he would continue to operate in this perilous dissecting environment. ¡ª This rare surgery attracted a significant number of doctors; almost all doctors from the Cardiac Surgery Department gathered in the meeting room, watching the surgery via live video feed. The operating lamp in the operating room was equipped with a camera, which could directly capture the surgical area. He was truly going to remove the heart, incised tumor in a heart-lung machine, correct malformations? Currently, the heart and large blood vessels in view were riddled with adhesions, making the job even more challenging than previous surgeries. Dodge fixated on the screen, swallowing hard. If he were the chief surgeon, he would have no choice but to press on. As a world-class cardiac surgeon, he was, in fact, very interested in the operation itself. However, his arrogance and prejudices clouded his judgment. ¡°Bro, is this dude really going to do it?¡± Odd Orelli had also noticed something. Dodge nodded: ¡°It seems he is on that path!¡± ¡°The inside is riddled with adhesions? Malformation plus adhesion, extremely dangerous dissection.¡± ¡°Like navigating through a minefield in the dead of night.¡± Chapter 571 - 571 519 Creativity ?Chapter 571: Chapter 519: Creativity Chapter 571: Chapter 519: Creativity Yang Ping used the tip of the scalpel to cut open the pericardium. The scalpel tip, seemingly blind to the adhesions, threaded like it had eyes, always maneuvering safely in the gaps. These so-called safe gaps, due to the presence of adhesions, are indistinguishable to the naked eye. So, Li Zehui was puzzled about how Yang Ping could anticipate where the actual safe gaps were. ¡°Focus!¡± Yang Ping noticed Li Zehui¡¯s hands pause momentarily, knew he was distracted, and immediately reminded him seriously. Any negligence in such surgery could lead to serious errors. Yang Ping¡¯s voice was a bit loud, and Li Zehui¡¯s face turned red. He didn¡¯t have time to think about these questions, as Yang Ping¡¯s scalpel was moving rapidly. He immediately focused his attention to assist Yang Ping. This dextrocardia, the reversed dextrocardia, was slowly revealed under the scalpel. Following that, the aorta, pulmonary artery, superior vena cava, and pulmonary veins were swiftly differentiated and clearly displayed before their eyes. Li Zehui had thought that revealing the heart from the adhesions would take a long time, at least two to three hours. However, Yang Ping accomplished it in just over a dozen minutes. This was the dextrocardia covered with adhesions and not only that, but it was also reversed. Any doctor would be cautious in dissecting this kind of malformation, like crossing a river by feeling the stones. ¡ª Inside the Heart Center meeting room, the doctors observing the surgery, at the moment when the chest cavity was opened, all believed that it would be impossible to separate and reveal the heart and large blood vessels in less than three hours. Dodge thought so too. Yet, the daring speed of Yang Ping¡¯s scalpel exceeded their imaginations. They once thought that during the separation process, blood vessels or nerves would surely be damaged. However, when the entire heart and large blood vessels clearly appeared, there wasn¡¯t any unexpected bleeding observed during the surgery. In just over a dozen minutes, Yang Ping completed the reveal. What should have been fraught with danger was carried out smoothly and calmly in Yang Ping¡¯s hands. ¡°Bro, can this Chinese doctor really perform heart surgeries?¡± Experts watch the technique while amateurs watch the excitement. Odd O¡¯Relli only saw the reveal, and he was already feeling inferior. ¡°Yeah, he just knows how to do it, that¡¯s all.¡± Actually, Dodge¡¯s thoughts mirrored Odd O¡¯Relli¡¯s. He was following the rhythm of the surgery, wondering at each step what he would have done. But before he could figure anything out, the scalpel in the video had dived deeper. Even on this step alone, Dodge had to admit, he was not as skilled. No wonder Li Zehui was so insistent on having Yang Ping as the chief surgeon. Dodge¡¯s mind seemed to clear a bit now. But he still did not want to admit defeat, comforting himself that the surgery had just begun, and this didn¡¯t reflect one¡¯s skill level. An arrogant person will always find various reasons to convince themselves. ¡ª ¡°I want to get a good look at this heart.¡± Marshall was ecstatic. This was a heart that was reversed both left to right and front to back. It was now lying on the right side of the chest cavity, warm and pulsating. Yang Ping paused his operation, letting him get a good look. As a doctor, Marshall might only encounter a case like this once in his lifetime. ¡°May I touch it?¡± Marshall asked cautiously. Yang Ping pointed to the heart and said, ¡°Go ahead! Just be gentle, don¡¯t squeeze it like a rubber ball.¡± With the permission granted, Marshall, trembling with excitement, reached out with his sterile-gloved fingers, lightly prodded the pulsating heart, and then gently held it with his palm. The surface that should have been at the back was now visible. The distribution of the blood vessels was also reversed front to back. Gently squeezing it, he could feel the thing under his hand, like a rubber ball ¨C the tumor. A severe Tetralogy of Fallot ¨C aortic overriding, ventricular septal defect, stenosis of the pulmonary artery, and right ventricular hypertrophy, all were concentrated in this diseased heart. ¡°Marshall, have you had enough?¡± Li Zehui urged, as he also wanted to touch the heart. ¡°Hold on a second!¡± Marshall showed no intention of stopping immediately. Yang Ping simply stopped for a while to let them have the full experience, after all, the heart had not yet been removed, so there was no rush. About five minutes later. Li Zehui¡¯s hand emerged from the chest cavity: ¡°We can continue.¡± Now, Yang Ping will start cutting off the large blood vessels connecting to the heart and then take out the heart intact. Yang Ping ordered the connection to the artificial heart-lung machine, emptied the heart of blood, and injected arresting solution into the heart from the coronary artery. Soon, under the induction of the arresting solution, the heart stopped beating. ¡°Anesthesiologist! Perfusionist! I am going to remove this heart now.¡± After alerting the anesthesiologist and the perfusionist, Yang Ping cut off the aorta above the origin of the coronary artery, then without hesitation, cut off the superior vena cava, pulmonary artery, and pulmonary vein. The heart was detached from the infant¡¯s circulatory pipeline, becoming an independent unit. At this time, Yang Ping carefully took out the heart, holding it in his palm. The scrub nurse handed over a metal tray already filled with sterile ice. Yang Ping placed the heart in the metal tray and then personally brought the tray to the prepared sterile workstation. He was going to perform a series of operations at this workstation, targeting this excised heart. Li Zehui moved to the workstation to assist Yang Ping. Marshall stayed behind to guard the empty chest cavity. With the heart removed, the space left behind seemed vast and empty. The feeling was strange, as if a person had been hollowed out. The artificial heart and lung machine simulated the function of the heart and lungs, pumping blood to circulate throughout the body, maintaining the life of the infant. The first task was to remove the tumor from the left ventricle. Although the tumor was in the left ventricle, it could not be revealed by directly cutting the myocardium of the left ventricle. The function of the left ventricle is to pump blood. During blood pumping, the myocardium contracts strongly. If the ventricle is cut open and the incision is closed with sutures, it cannot fully adapt to the powerful contraction, and there is a risk of the incision rupturing during pumping. And the scars on the ventricles could reduce the heart¡¯s tolerance in the future. It¡¯s entirely possible that during some intense exercise, the heart might rupture at the scar due to rapid and vigorous contraction. So, the best way to remove such a tumor is to make an incision on the atrium, while the real masters will try to remove the tumor through the gap in the aorta. This preserves the integrity of the left ventricular myocardium, allowing the heart to function better and more resiliently. ¡°Wrist and finger joint arthroscope! Pediatric otolaryngology endoscope! Pediatric thoracoscope and laparoscope!¡± A series of instruments were unwrapped from their sterile packaging, each set of instruments occupied a sterile table, and various equipment was placed around the operating table. If it weren¡¯t for Yang Ping¡¯s in-depth communication with the entire team in advance, they wouldn¡¯t have known what all these assorted instruments were for. In fact, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t use many of these instruments. But he needed to make do with these instrument sets. Each set might have one or two pieces he needed, only by combining them could he get all the equipment he needed. ¡ª What is he going to do? Dodge couldn¡¯t figure out Yang Ping¡¯s next move. He was asking the circulating nurse to prepare so many endoscopic systems. Was he planning to use these scopes to look at the tumor inside to plan for the surgical incision? What an innovative guy! Yang Ping picked an appropriate lens and inserted it into the severed aorta. The aorta was connected to the left ventricle from which he could observe the tumor. ¡°Fix the heart!¡± Yang Ping needed someone to hold the heart steady. Li Zehui used both hands to fix the heart in place. Yang Ping held the endoscope in one hand and the instrument in the other, and began to excise the tumor. ¡°Is he really performing endoscopic surgery on an excised heart? Is he going to deal with the tumor and malformation through endoscopy without cutting open the heart?¡± Dodge¡¯s guess was correct. Yang Ping¡¯s madness went well beyond simply performing such complex surgery on an excised heart. He intended to use minimally invasive surgery to remove the tumor. Impossible! Dodge denied his own judgment. No one could do it! Chapter 572 - 572 520 Please Open Your Mind ?Chapter 572: Chapter 520: Please Open Your Mind Chapter 572: Chapter 520: Please Open Your Mind Imagination is a powerful weapon to solve problems. With plenty of imagination, Yang Ping can unleash this wildness through the support of the system, and even if he fails, it makes no significant harm. If one has the capacity to withstand failures, or if the cost of errors turns out to be practically negligible, then success becomes much more attainable. That¡¯s why, when some people fail in their first business venture, they find no opportunity to bounce back. While others, despite numerous business failures, still manage to find their way to success. The financial backing of entrepreneurs determines their resilience, the most persistent winners surely come from wealth, otherwise, they cannot afford to bear the cost of failure. The tumor being gradually separated under the microscope, and this entirely new microscopic dissection, makes it hard for Li Zehui to adapt. He has a hard time keeping track of the part of the surgery he is in; he is just focusing on steadying the lens. Marshall, gathering both his hands around the heart, does not make much effort, doing it motionlessly indeed turns out to be taxing. A patrolling nurse from the Philippines gave Marshall a high stool. He sat on the stool, which allowed his wrist and forearm to be supported by the operating table, hence making it much easier. The equipment enters from the side of the aortic break point of the lens. A water-injection tube also follows the lens deep into the atrium and ventricle as isotonic saline is irrigated, maintaining the heart in a dilated state provides maximum operational space. And the water egress tube is inserted from the break point of the superior vena cava, allowing the isotonic saline to form a flowing path from the inlet tube to the outlet tube, thus preserving the clarity of the field under the microscope. The tumor is completely removed, but it is too large to be taken out from the aorta. Yang Ping manages to divide it into four segments under the microscope, and removes it piece by piece, placing it on the curved dish handed over by the assisting nurse. The boundary of the tumor is clear, the surface is smooth, the hardness is comparative; it is close to the size of a bird¡¯s egg. Judging by experience, it should be a benign tumor. To ensure the integrity of the tumor, the instrument nurse tried to combine the four pieces to form a whole. Perhaps a hint of girlish innocence, after the task is finished, she arranged the tumor into a flower petal shape. Yang Ping checked the left ventricle to confirm the tumor had been completely removed with no remnants, calming his nerves for the next step. ¡ª Yang Ping successfully removed the tumor endoscopically! Without damaging the myocardium! Witnessing this amazement, Dodge did not know what to say. The surgery was wonderfully unheard of, a completely different process than he had originally envisioned. Following that, the correction of the tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary artery stenosis, and ventricular septal defect, Yang Ping also planned to finish under the microscope. As the right ventricle is hypertrophic, once the pulmonary artery stenosis is relieved, it can self-regulate over time. For the aortic override, the aorta has been cut off when the heart was removed. During the subsequent transplantation, it can be corrected. A complex surgery, simplified in the hands of Yang Ping. The ex-vivo heart can be manipulated in various positions catering to the need for surgery, this is the biggest advantage of using an ex-vivo heart. Most of the time, certain tumors inside the heart cannot be completely removed by any other methods except taking the heart out of the body. That¡¯s because the ex-vivo heart can be adjusted freely in all directions, making desirable exposure at will. Still, only a few top-notch cardiac surgeons dare to remove a heart, even for the excision of complex tumors in the heart. No one dares to take the heart out of the body for deformity correction. If it wasn¡¯t for his own eyes, Dodge could not possibly imagine how the surgery would go today, the procedure blew his mind. ¡°Ever seen this surgical procedure?¡± Odd Orelli asked. Dodge shook his head: ¡°I¡¯ve never seen it, not even heard of it.¡± ¡°He really was successful? Dodge, are you sure we¡¯re not mistaken? It just doesn¡¯t feel real.¡± Odd Orelli gave Dodge an unexpected pinch on the arm, a trick he learned from Melvin Mason. ¡°Ouch, are you out of your mind?¡± Dodge exclaimed in sudden pain. The doctors in the room immediately turned to look. Odd Orelli calmly said, ¡°I just wanted to confirm, we¡¯re not crazy, look, you feel pain, people around are looking strangely, everything seems normal.¡± ¡°Melvin Mason!¡± Odd Orelli noticed this guy had been silent since the beginning. Like a dead dog, Melvin Mason was staring at the screen motionlessly. The open top of his bottled water fell onto his seat and spilled onto the floor, completely oblivious to the whole incident. In his mind, he was simulating how he would have supported this astonishing surgery if he were the perfusionist in operation. ¡°Melvin Mason?¡± Seeing the water on the floor, Odd Orelli frowned. Did Melvin Mason pee his pants in fear? It can¡¯t be that exaggerated, can it? ¡°Melvin Mason?¡± Odd Orelli pinched Mason¡¯s arm again. Mason shivered and immediately snapped out of his thoughts. ¡°Did you pee?¡± Odd Orelli¡¯s voice carried throughout the room. The peaceful meeting room heard every word of it, and people nearby started noticing the water under the seat. Mason felt embarrassed, he picked up the bottle immediately aware of the spilled water, and drank the remaining water in front of everyone: ¡°Look, it¡¯s the bottled water that spilled, I didn¡¯t do anything, everything is normal.¡± He stood up and explained to the suspicious crowd. However, his pants were wet, probably because the water bottle first spilled on the chair and then rolled onto the floor. ¡°Your pants?¡± Mason felt his pants and cursed himself, there¡¯s no way out of this. ¡ª The pulmonary artery stenosis was eliminated, becoming incredibly wide, the ventricular septal defect was repaired, blood won¡¯t flow from one part to another, causing a mix of the arterial blood and venous blood. Yang Ping fully inspected the four chambers of the entire heart, then removed the instruments. ¡°I¡¯m going to transplant this heart back in!¡± Because once the heart is transplanted back, everything will be irreversible, therefore, Yang Ping¡¯s inspection was very thorough. The final step is actually a heart transplant surgery, the only difference being that in regular heart transplant surgeries, the transplant is from a donated heart, while in this infant¡¯s case, the transplant is of his own heart. Transplanting one¡¯s own heart eliminates the risk of rejection reaction, so as long as the heart is transplanted back within a safe time frame, the heart can regain vitality. Yang Ping corrected the position of the aorta overlap, then successively anastomosed the aorta, pulmonary artery, superior vena cava, and pulmonary vein. The heart returned to its original position, lying quietly. The heart-lung machine was removed, and blood was refilled into the heart. Everyone was holding their breath, waiting for this heart to be revived. In the previous surgery, Dodge only removed the tumor, but the heart never revived. With such a big move this time, can it revive? Everyone had a big question mark in their minds. About thirty seconds later, the stilled heart resumed beating. The surgery was a success! Li Zehui¡¯s heart surged with emotion, he had invested a lot into this case, even at the risk of falling out with his senior, he invited Yang Ping to Saudi Arabia. The surgery was really successful now! Marshall will probably never forget this moment in his lifetime, this strange heart is now beating again under his eyes. He was part of this surgery. ¡ª Dodge couldn¡¯t calm down for a long time, he didn¡¯t see any impending crisis, nor did he see an irretrievable situation. The surgery was completed in a strange way. Dodge¡¯s leftover pride was shattered. The gap in skills wasn¡¯t small, it was at utterly different levels. He never imagined that Yang Ping¡¯s surgery would be so proficient, not to mention performing surgery on an extracorporeal heart using an endoscope. It was probably a world¡¯s first! Such a bold attempt could perhaps become an academic leader in cardiac surgery, and new chapters could be unveiled around this technique in the future of cardiac surgery. With suitable equipment in the future, many surgeries could be performed inside the heart chambers. Dodge thought a lot, after finishing watching the surgery, his mind was opened, and he was excited inside. ¡°Any thoughts?¡± Dodge asked Odd Orelli. The Australian thought for a bit and said: ¡°It seems like there¡¯s a commentary with every step ¨C unleash your imagination.¡± Dodge agreed and even knocked on his own head thinking that loosening it a bit might improve his understanding. ¡°How have we never heard of this Chinese doctor before? Nor have we seen him publish any papers related to cardiac surgery?¡± Odd Orelli was confessedly convinced, what he saw was a figure who would guide the development trend of the discipline. Dodge also didn¡¯t know why. With this level of surgical skill, why isn¡¯t he well-known? ¡°Perhaps it¡¯s because his main specialty is orthopedics, or because he doesn¡¯t like writing papers.¡± Dodge speculated. A doctor gains a reputation within a small range based on word of mouth, and to do so in a large range, it definitely requires papers. ¡°But how does Li Zehui know him?¡± This was the focus of the question. How did Li Zehui come to know such a doctor and from what channel? Dodge felt threatened because Li Zehui could connect with top-notch people that he was completely oblivious to. ¡ª Robert was very relaxed, he had no interest in cardiac surgery, sitting in the corner resting, even starting to recite idioms when he was bored. When he heard that the surgery was completed, he was the first to stand up, ready to help Yang Ping change out of his surgical gown. With Robert here, no one else could take over this task. Looking around at the circle of surgical instrument tables, the surgical nurse felt like she had had a close escape. This doctor¡¯s surgery was too fast, and she couldn¡¯t keep up with the pace. There were several instances when the chief surgeon had to wait for the instruments, and needed guidance from the chief surgeon to find the correct instrument. For a surgical nurse, such a thing would create a lot of pressure and cause great shame. Li Zehui picked out the instruments Yang Ping had just used one by one, trying each one out. He intended to study the video of this surgery later and also go over these instruments, as he had not fully understood some of the steps just now. He had memorized the entire surgery process. However, there were a few steps he didn¡¯t quite understand, he didn¡¯t grasp the technical details, he intended to study it later and ask Yang Ping for advice. Li Zehui knew about Norman von from the Charite? Hospital in Germany today. This surgeon who ventured into multiple specialties achieved outstanding results in neurosurgery, cardiac surgery, tumor surgery, and hepatobiliary surgery. Now Yang Ping was the second cross-specialized surgeon he knew. Surgeons who can cross-specialize certainly have very high talents, not just anyone can do it through effort alone. Being with such a person can broaden one¡¯s horizons and open one¡¯s thinking. After Yang Ping finished the surgery, he prepared to remove his sterile gown, Li Zehui immediately took off his outer gloves to help with removing the surgical gown. The tall Robert blocked Li Zehui with his sturdy body, his proud eyes staring at Li Zehui ¨C intending to take over his work? No way! Chapter 573 - 573 521 Dumplings ?Chapter 573: Chapter 521: Dumplings Chapter 573: Chapter 521: Dumplings Li Zehui immediately gave way under Robert¡¯s glare, while Robert skillfully aided Yang Ping in removing his surgical gown. Then, this professor of sports medicine, who somehow acquired the skills of Tuina massage, followed Yang Ping¡¯s lead, his hands beginning to massage Yang Ping¡¯s shoulders. As Yang Ping sat down, he took his place behind him, busying himself with kneading shoulders and patting backs, even adeptly pulling Yang Ping¡¯s arms out to give them a shake. Li Zehui, Marshall, and the nurse all watched in astonishment. Was this Professor Robert from the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States? To them, he looked more like Yang Ping¡¯s tag-along junior doctor. The anesthesiologist and perfusionist from the United States were also bewildered by this scene, not recognizing Robert. ¡°Alright, good technique!¡± Yang Ping moved his neck and shoulder joints, and indeed the effect was good. ¡°Acupressure next!¡± Robert indicated that the massage was not finished. Acupressure, acupressure, Robert muttered, but struggled to proceed, as if he had forgotten something. He asked the patrolling nurse, ¡°Do you have a ruler?¡± A ruler is a common tool in the operating room and needed often for registering incisions. The patrolling nurse hesitated but finally handed him a steel ruler. The anesthesiologist was reviving the baby, and the instrument nurse began to put away the instruments. The patrolling nurse paused her work to see what Robert was up to, as Li Zehui and Marshall also looked clueless. Yang Ping, too, was confused about Robert¡¯s intentions. Robert began to use a ruler to make measurements on Yang Ping¡¯s back, as if to locate a certain point. Once he found the spot, he gently prodded it with his finger to confirm its position before poking it forcefully. Holy crap! Yang Ping almost jumped from the pain. This was acupressure? It felt more like a heavy-handed finger jab. ¡°That¡¯s enough, enough!¡± Yang Ping immediately waved his hand, showcasing a pause gesture. Robert raised his finger and said, ¡°I¡¯m not done yet.¡± However, seeing that Yang Ping had signalled a pause, Robert dared not continue. The monitor showed that the baby¡¯s heart rhythm was staying normal. After seeing Robert¡¯s acupressure demonstration, Marshall also raised his finger and gently pressed it against his own back. Li Zehui understood this as acupressure and told Marshall, ¡°This is a very Chinese way of relaxation. I¡¯ve seen it in Chinatown.¡± Marshall seemed to half-understand. He wondered, did one have to learn this massage and acupressure technique to gain the friendship of this Chinese doctor? The anesthesiologist let the baby regain automatic breathing, then absorbed the secretion in the respiratory tract and removed the tracheal tube. The baby might feel irritated when the suctioning and tube removal happened, causing his limbs to flail about. He was completely unaware that his fate had been profoundly changed. After observing for half an hour, all was well with the baby. Everyone headed to the changing room. When the baby was transported out of the operating room, his waiting father was thrilled. He ran up and clutched the back of his head, watching his son. He was still alive. Upon hearing that the operation was successful, the father was overcome, making indistinct noises in his throat and his eyes welling with tears. He wanted to touch the baby but didn¡¯t dare. The translator told him that the baby would need to be transferred to the intensive care unit next and would only be moved to an ordinary ward after he was stable. On the way to the intensive care unit, the father continued to hold onto the railing, watching the baby. Several times he wanted to touch his child¡¯s face, but he recoiled his hand every time. Li Zehui had requested a doctor from the Cleveland Medical Center to oversee the baby¡¯s post-operative care. This doctor was skilled in the post-operative care of paediatric heart surgeries. Yang Ping felt more assured knowing this. As long as no complications occurred, the baby could safely overcome the critical post-operative period, especially with Li Zehui present. At that moment, he only wanted to return to China as quickly as possible. However, there were not many flights from Saudi Arabia to China, so he could only leave the following day and had booked his ticket accordingly. Yang Ping checked the time; it was just past eleven. In China, it would be around six in the morning. He excused himself from Li Zehui and began to make calls and send messages on WeChat in a meeting room in the intensive care unit. At this time, Xiao Su should be exercising. They have a gym at home equipped with a treadmill. Xiao Su had a habit of exercising and would spend an hour working out every morning. If she had the time to develop a side business, Xiao Su would make a fine fitness coach for white-collar women. Tennis, swimming, and fitness ¡ª those were Xiao Su¡¯s favourite sports. Running was a shared hobby. Yang Ping has persistently run from his high school days to his university years and even now. He was determined to do pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and single-leg stands every day. He sent a message on WeChat and Xiao Su responded immediately. Xiao Su was at home on Shuangsha Island. Yang Ping remembered that today was the eve of Chinese New Year, a day of reunion, but he was far away in Saudi Arabia. He had promised to celebrate Chinese New Year at her home, but he was still abroad performing surgeries. Fortunately, all members of Xiao Su¡¯s family were doctors, and they understood. He had a video call with Xiao Su for about ten minutes. Next, Yang Ping called his parents. Upon receiving a call from their son, they were both overjoyed, taking turns talking, even though it was always his father letting his mother go first. Previously, they were most worried about Yang Ping finding a girlfriend. Now they need not worry about that, his mother has started asking about marriage and grandchildren. Now that Yang Ping¡¯s financial condition has improved, he has tried multiple times to send money back home, but his parents refuse. They said they recently ran into debt building a house but insisted it was their responsibility. They wouldn¡¯t let their children repay their debts, as each generation should do their own things. Before the Chinese New Year, Xiao Su sent gifts from Japan and some special southern products, as well as several sets of nice clothes, all packed and shipped back home. Yang Ping¡¯s parents were thrilled. His mother proudly wore her new clothes and when people asked, she proudly replied, ¡°My daughter-in-law bought it,¡± which earned her envious glances. After calling his parents, he called his sister. Since he was working outside and could only meet his parents once a year, the task of taking care of them fell on his sister. His sister and brother-in-law were both country teachers. A few years ago, his brother-in-law quit his job to start a business, and Yang Ping was unsure about the situation now. Every time he asked about their situation, they both said everything was fine. Now, it was Chinese New Year. After sending his greetings went around, Yang Ping sat down to rest. The handover on Li Zehui¡¯s side was also almost complete. It was now lunchtime. Robert, who knew Yang Ping better than Li Zehui, cancelled the lunch reservation at the restaurant near the hospital that Li Zehui had made and booked a private room at a Chinese restaurant instead. The restaurant was called Jixin Yuan, a famous Chinese restaurant in Jeddah. They would have both lunch and dinner there. Dumplings, authentic Chinese dumplings! The tables had to be round and the tablecloths red, and ideally, models of firecrackers would be hung at the entrance. Robert emphasized these details repeatedly and confirmed them with the restaurant before feeling at ease. It was the eve of Chinese New Year, and no dumplings would mean disrespecting Dr. Yang. This joke would have gone too far. Robert was greatly dissatisfied with Li Zehui¡¯s arrangement. Although Li Zehui was westernized, he understood some Chinese culture, but he still overlooked things. Fortunately, Robert stepped in, and the issue was resolved smoothly. After the baby was settled in the intensive care unit, the group went to eat lunch together. Chapter 574 - 574 522 Important Person ?Chapter 574: Chapter 522: Important Person Chapter 574: Chapter 522: Important Person In the afternoon, Yang Ping rested for a few hours, snuggled up in the hotel chatting with his family back home. His parents had made lots of traditional New Year goodies, many of which Yang Ping loved when he was a child. They took videos and photos to show Yang Ping and prepared to courier several big packages to him. His sister and her husband, along with their little nephew, were staying home to celebrate the New Year with their parents. Knowing they were there, Yang Ping felt reassured. Through the phone call, Yang Ping could hear the crackle of firecrackers. Yang Ping video chatted with Xiao Su and, borrowing Xiao Su¡¯s mobile, he called Xiao Su¡¯s grandparents, Professor Su, Mrs. Su, and Su Nanchen to keep them informed about the situation over there. Xiao Su¡¯s family was very understanding, with Professor Su telling Yang Ping not to worry about his family but to ¡°focus entirely on the surgery and to pay particularly attention to postoperative care.¡± ¡°The higher one¡¯s skill, the braver one is. But one can never be complacent,¡± he cautioned him. ¡°Strategically, despise the enemy, but tactically, respect the enemy,¡± he advised him. Although Xiao Su and Yang Ping had not gotten married yet, it was only a matter of time. When they were seeing each other on the down-low, Professor Su had had to turn a blind eye. Now that Xiao Su had brought Yang Ping home to meet his parents, their relationship was officially recognized. As such, Professor Su could extend his fatherly concern for Xiao Su to Yang Ping as well. Xiao Su told Yang Ping that he would go to have dinner with his department colleagues at noon and be back to have dinner with mom and dad at night. Yang Ping called Director Han as well, and the old man was at home preparing the reunion dinner, with a Beijing opera tune audible in the background. Song Zimo and his gang called Yang Ping before he could begin to start calling them. They planned to have a reunion lunch together at noon, after which each of them would head back home for the night. They each video-chatted with Yang Ping, greeting him one after another. The exchange of greetings and laughter made for a cheerful scene. ¡°How did the surgery go?¡± ¡°This¡ªthis¡ªthis¡ªwhat the hell are you asking, when¡ªwhen¡ªwhen¡ª¡± ¡°When¡ªwhen¡ªwhen, could you use more straightforward language? Aren¡¯t you supposed to practice speaking every day? I see no improvements. My kids are at the age of cognitive development. Don¡¯t let them hear you, lest they pick up your bad habit. Then, we¡¯ll be in trouble.¡± ¡°Old Xu is just overexcited. Old Xu is going to have a girlfriend soon, one I introduced to him. They¡¯ve met once and the girl liked him very much.¡± ¡°Stop squeezing me, let me, Liang handsome, say a few words. Bro, keep an eye out for special local cigarettes in Saudi Arabia.¡± ¡°Alright, let the professor rest. We¡¯ll have a reunion when you get back.¡± Hanging up the video call with these guys, Yang Ping sent a large red packet in the group chat. To his surprise, stutter Xu beat Liang Fatty to it. Xu was unexpectedly about to remove his bachelor status. Many head nurses introduced Liang Fatty to prospective girlfriends, whom he didn¡¯t fancy at all, and then there were rumors that he was chasing after a flight attendant. Stutter Xu always looked sloppy and spoke with a stutter. He showed no signs of getting off the bachelorhood, but the girl Little Five introduced to him actually liked him. At six in the afternoon, Robert and Li Ze came to pick Yang Ping up for dinner. This time the gathering was orchestrated by Robert, who was much better at organizing events than Li Ze. Robert had chosen the best Chinese restaurant in Jeddah, Jixin Garden, and booked the largest and most luxurious private room. On Chinese New Year¡¯s Eve, it was impossible to book a private room at short notice as bookings had been made a month in advance. In Jeddah, Chinese companies also held New Year¡¯s Eve dinners. But Robert, whose social skills were anything but ordinary, managed to secure the largest and most luxurious private room in Jixin Garden. Who was he? He was Robert, a friend of the Saudi Crown Prince and his personal doctor. How could Yang Ping, while in Saudi Arabia, have a modest New Year¡¯s Eve dinner? It just wasn¡¯t Robert¡¯s style. This private room was initially booked by the mayor of Jeddah, suggesting that a good friend of the Crown Prince would be dining there. Running a restaurant in another person¡¯s territory, one had to show respect where it was due. Moreover, hosting such a person would be great publicity for the restaurant. Back in the day, when Cameron had hot pot at Xiangtianxia in Chengdu, business had boomed at Xiangtianxia. No one knew who this important person was, only that he was a friend of the Crown Prince and had a room reserved by the mayor personally, which suggested he must be an influential figure. The order was to provide this guest with a New Year¡¯s Eve dinner that was chock-full of Chinese flavors. A sedan pulled up at a leisurely pace, and the moment had finally arrived. The restaurant owners personally greeted them at the entrance. The chubby owner was in a red Tang suit and his wife in a red Cheongsam, both festive and cheerful. The sedan stopped, its door opened, and out stepped Robert, who surprisingly wore a bright red Tang suit too. As he opened the car door, Yang Ping stepped out. Escorted by the owners into the private room upstairs, passing through the bustling hall filled with Chinese faces along the way. Yang Ping inquired and was told that a Chinese company based in Saudi Arabia was holding a reunion dinner there. Hearing the familiar voices and seeing the familiar decorations, Yang Ping was excited. The restaurant was decorated in a traditional Chinese style, exhibiting Chinese elements everywhere such as Chinese characters, lanterns, oil-paper umbrellas, porcelain, redwood-colored tables and chairs. It was as if he were back in China. ¡°Please!¡± Two beautiful waitresses at the door greeted him warmly in impeccable Chinese: ¡°Welcome!¡± Lanterns hung at the entrance with a round table inside, covered with a Chinese red tablecloth. ¡°We¡¯re having hotpot and dumplings today, while watching the Spring Festival Gala,¡± The lady boss introduced, everything arranged properly. Everyone sat around the table, appointing Yang Ping to the head spot, facing the entrance. The table was full of chopsticks around, two pairs per person, one of which was a serving chopstick. Since drinking is forbidden in Saudi Arabia, they couldn¡¯t have wine and used Chinese apple cider as a drink instead, which Yang Ping wasn¡¯t a fan of either. Having no surgery tonight and it being China¡¯s Lunar New Year¡¯s Eve, Yang Ping who had come to Saudi Arabia from China to perform surgery, now that the surgery was successful, everyone was ready to celebrate with apple cider. The hotpot soup base was served, along with various ingredients. A table full of people ¨C Yang Ping, Robert, Li Zehui, Marshall, the South Korean doctor and a few Saudi Arabian doctors were present, and later the Mayor was also expected to make an appearance. Dodge, on behalf of the Triple Alliance, had already made three phone calls to join this New Year¡¯s meal but was rejected by Robert and Li Zehui. They thought arrogance and prejudice should be punished, a very Western way of thinking. Robert was dressed in traditional Tang attire and was now holding a folding fan, sitting next to Yang Ping. At the outdoor New Year¡¯s meal, some representatives began to deliver speeches ¨C ¡°In the sound of firecrackers, we bid farewell to the old year...¡± The boss had hung a big TV in the hall so everyone could watch the Spring Festival Gala that wouldn¡¯t start until 1 a.m. ¡°Boss, can we still watch the Spring Festival Gala here?¡± Yang Ping could hardly contain his joy. Robert had already arranged it: ¡°We can watch the Spring Festival Gala on this TV, and we will accompany you.¡± Robert now had a keen interest in Chinese culture. He said the food in America was always chicken legs and burgers, while in China, it was different every day, with no repeats for a year, each major cuisine having its own characteristics. ¡°In the sound of firecrackers, we bid farewell to the old year, and welcome the new, warm of spring into our homes. The sun shines brightly on a thousand doors and windows, bringing renewal and the replacement of the old with the new!¡± Robert recited a poem, astonishing the whole room. Among those present, besides Yang Ping, Robert was most knowledgeable about Chinese culture. There was no help for it, who could deny someone who was capable of reciting poetry? The boss had arranged two competent waiters to serve this table exclusively. After the hotpot, no one planned to sleep, led by Robert, everyone was extremely excited. Yang Ping¡¯s cell phone rang, he looked and it was a call from Director Han. ¡°Doctor Yang...¡± ¡°Director Han, what¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°Nothing, you¡¯re coming back tomorrow, right?¡± ¡°Coming back tomorrow.¡± ¡°Plan to come back tomorrow?¡± ¡°Tomorrow¡¯s ticket.¡± ¡°Emergency mission, Dean Xia smoked three cigarettes before allowing me to make this call. An employee from a Nandu-based Chinese security company in Yemen was injured and requested medical support from home. The nearest now is you.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡± ¡°Explosion injury, can only trouble you¡± ¡°How do I get there?¡± ¡°The situation there is unstable. I didn¡¯t call you to go over there, but to have him sent over by helicopter, how about it?¡± Director Han had just vented his anger. ¡°Alright!¡± ¡°Someone will contact you later, make sure not to turn off your phone.¡± Seeing Yang Ping¡¯s changed face, Robert asked, ¡°What, did you eat a Sichuan peppercorn?¡± He knew Yang Ping didn¡¯t like Sichuan peppercorns and had specifically instructed the kitchen not to add any to the hotpot. ¡°An employee of a Chinese security company in Yemen got injured, an explosion injury, he needs medical help from me.¡± Yang Ping placed his phone on the table with all the ringing and vibrating settings in place, waiting for the call. ¡°Shall we go together?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go alone, it¡¯s more dangerous there.¡± ¡°It¡¯s precisely because it¡¯s dangerous that we should go together.¡± Li Zehui seemed to have understood something: ¡°Go to Yemen, I¡¯m quite familiar. Let¡¯s go together. I¡¯ve been to the Red Cross hospital there many times.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s finish the hotpot first, then discuss it after getting full.¡± Yang Ping knew it was no use being anxious at this point; he just had to wait for the call. He needed to eat enough first. Only when he had enough food and drink would he have the energy to work. Chapter 575 - 575 523 Clever Boss Lady ?Chapter 575: 523 Clever Boss Lady Chapter 575: 523 Clever Boss Lady The hot pot meal was almost over. The Mayor of Jeddah actually came to the restaurant to meet and greet Yang Ping and Robert, raising their glasses of juice in a toast. The owners of Jixin Garden were very pleased, today¡¯s distinguished guest certainly added prestige to their establishment. The couple were savvy, they gathered some intelligence from the sidelines; this esteemed guest was a young professor from China who had been invited to perform surgery at IMC Hospital. Watching the crowd of people fawning over the young Yang Ping, each one more respectful than the last, the Chinese owners felt an immense sense of pride. Thus, they took the opportunity to propose a toast to Yang Ping using tea instead of alcohol, then handed him their business cards: ¡°Professor Yang, your presence graced our establishment, whenever you visit Jeddah, consider this as your private kitchen, we are at your beck and call.¡± ¡°We are always ready to welcome you, Professor. You can watch the Spring Festival Gala here tonight, and there will be a lion dance performance tomorrow morning. I wonder what kind of tea you like, West Lake Longjing, Anxi Tieguanyin, Dongting Biluochun, or Yunnan Pu¡¯er. Although they aren¡¯t top-notch, we have some stocked up.¡± The lady boss, who was quite experienced in managing the scene, listed all the types of valuable teas they had in store, deciding to bring out her finest reserves. Running a restaurant involved a lot of socializing, the lady boss who was originally from Yunnan, planned to brew the tea in person. Originally, they had planned to treat the whole table to a free meal in order to establish a relationship, but then the lady boss thought, considering their guests¡¯ status, it would be improper to have their meal waived. So, they refrained from mentioning it. ¡°There¡¯s no need for formalities, just bring a pot of Longjing!¡± Yang Ping was quite straightforward. Robert slowly fanned himself, ¡°Indeed, bring a pot of Longjing for the professor.¡± ¡°I originally planned to watch the Spring Festival Gala here, but last-minute emergencies have arisen, so I have to leave shortly.¡± Yang Ping was waiting for a call, once the arrival time of the wounded was confirmed, he might have to leave right away and wouldn¡¯t have time to wait for the start of the Spring Festival Gala. The lady boss had already instructed two waiters to eavesdrop on their conversation, noting everything in their minds. These two waiters were not ordinary waitstaff, they were her star employees, highly observant, tactful, and exceptionally good at seizing opportunities. So, the lady boss was already aware that a Chinese patient from Yemen was to be airlifted to IMC Hospital for emergency treatment, and that Yang Ping was about to perform the surgery. The lady boss had secretly ordered the preparation of a late-night meal, to be served after the surgery. This meal would be on them. The cost of a meal was insignificant, but it served as a gesture of goodwill. In dealing with people, particularly those of such prominence, the emphasis was on sincerity. The lady boss, a master of this strategy, had taken it upon herself to personally serve the table. She had also planned to prepare a traditional Chinese breakfast the next morning to ensure Yang Ping started the New Year on a high note. Finally, Yang Ping¡¯s phone rang. He picked up immediately, a man with a hoarse, urgent voice answered: ¡°Hello, are you Professor Yang Ping from Nandu Province? I¡¯m Qiu Zhiqiang, the Yemeni manager of Hua¡¯an Gold Shield Security. My superior instructed me to contact you. The patient is en route to the airport and should arrive in Jeddah in about two and a half hours.¡± ¡°How is the patient now?¡± Yang Ping asked eagerly. ¡°Male, 32 years old, bomb blast injuries to head, chest, abdomen, and limbs with bleeding for 3 hours, currently in a coma, blood pressure 82/54mmHg, heart rate 118 beats/min, respiration 25 times/min, oxygen saturation 93%, under low-flow oxygen condition¡ª, is receiving a blood transfusion and rehydration therapy!¡± ¡°Do you have any other examination results? Add me on WeChat, and send them over.¡± Those oral descriptions of the patient¡¯s history and examination were far from enough. Yang wanted him to send over the imaging data as soon as possible. ¡°The local Red Cross Hospital is limited in resources but has managed to conduct chest scans and surface ultrasounds, as well as a whole-body CT scan. However, the CT machine is outdated, and the image quality is very poor. We¡¯ll send them over right away.¡± Qiu Zhiqiang struggled to maintain his calming voice. Yemen has always been unstable with ongoing wars. They were the security personnel left behind, whose main task was to protect the property of Chinese-funded enterprises. If the situation continued to worsen, they might also need to evacuate, but they would definitely be the last ones to leave. Previously, Chinese companies operating overseas primarily hired security companies from Europe and America. However, in recent years, China¡¯s own security companies have emerged and thrived. Foreign security companies can be very costly and unreliable during critical times. Because of this, Chinese-owned private security companies emerged, and the security tasks of Chinese enterprises gradually shifted to these companies within the country. The employees of these companies are mostly ex-military personnel. For instance, Hua¡¯an Gold Shield recruits security personnel with at least five year of service in Special Forces, Reconnaissance, and Marine Corps, and who have been retired for no more than two years. Thus, these security personnel are all elite soldiers, carrying out their missions in a different way after their retirement. Chinese security companies do not carry guns overseas. Instead, they ¡°command¡± the local subcontracting units and can ¡°borrow¡± weapons from them in case of emergencies. The other party did not have a mobile network and used the wired network of the hospital to send pictures, but the network speed was extremely slow, so it took Yang Ping a long time to receive the pictures. Yang Ping had no choice but to read the textual report first, to roughly understand the extent of the injuries. There was a shard lodged in the patient¡¯s skull, shrapnel spread throughout the chest, abdomen, and limbs, and many large blood vessels were damaged by the shrapnel. There was also a piece near the heart in the mediastinum. The injuries were very severe. ¡°How is it, Professor?¡± Robert had just heard the landlady call him Professor Yang Ping, and he followed suit. When he was in China, he heard a Japanese person often call him Professor Yang Ping, and Robert didn¡¯t think it was appropriate. Now it sounded completely natural. The key point of using the title ¡°professor¡± was to imply his student-teacher relationship with Yang Ping. Yang Ping told him: ¡°The injuries are severe. I haven¡¯t received the images yet. After three hours or so, the patient will be transferred to Jeddah airport. Have the IMC Hospital dispatch a helicopter to pick him up and prepare for his arrival at the Trauma Emergency Center. I will be the chief surgeon. I don¡¯t know if there will be an issue with my temporary medical license.¡± Li Zehui confidently said: ¡°There will be no issue. The temporary medical license covers emergency surgeries in trauma surgery as well as heart surgery.¡± Even if there was an issue, it wouldn¡¯t matter too much, as it was possible to simply have a doctor from the IMC Hospital accompany him on stage. It was clear that he wouldn¡¯t be able to watch the Spring Festival Gala tonight, but at least he had gotten a few hours of sleep in the afternoon. After confirming the news, everyone didn¡¯t dare to delay. Robert and Li Zehui started making calls to coordinate the medical resources of the IMC Hospital and organize the emergency surgery. The Chinese community¡¯s New Year¡¯s Eve party was still in progress in the hall, with some people in red scarves, presumably leaders, going around the tables to toast everyone. Of course, due to Saudi Arabia¡¯s laws, they were toasting with non-alcoholic beverages. The landlady pulled Robert aside: ¡°Mr. Robert, performing emergency surgery is a tough task. To express our utmost respect for you, our hotel has prepared complimentary midnight snacks for you. After the surgery, call this number and we will deliver them to your specified location.¡± The landlord then gave Robert a card. The astute landlady had noticed that among the table of people, this foreigner who could speak Chinese had the closest relationship with Yang Ping and that there seemed to be a hierarchical relationship between them. Robert accepted the card and readily agreed, which was exactly what he had in mind. ¡°Mr. Robert, I assume that after the surgery, you¡¯ll need some rest. If it¡¯s convenient, I can arrange for Chinese breakfast to be delivered to your hotel. I promise you, it will be the most authentic Chinese New Year breakfast.¡± The landlady seized the opportunity. Robert tapped his fan in his hands: ¡°That¡¯s convenient, very convenient. In order to keep the food fresh, I will inform you in advance of the specific time for the midnight snack and breakfast, and the delivery location.¡± ¡°Thank you! Don¡¯t forget to include Professor¡¯s favorite West Lake Longjing tea, in China, it¡¯s like coffee, it can revive spirits.¡± The landlady immediately asked someone to fetch the tea. Robert didn¡¯t expect that the landlady would solve all the problems he had been thinking about. ¡°You are a very smart woman, I believe we will become friends with this hotel.¡± The landlady was very modest: ¡°No, we sincerely want to do something for the doctors. While others are celebrating the holiday night, you have to work throughout the night.¡± ¡°We didn¡¯t tell you that we¡¯re going to perform an emergency operation, yet you knew?¡± Robert thought this Chinese woman was extraordinary. The landlady smiled slightly: ¡°You may not be familiar with us Chinese people. When we do something for friends, we always try to be as thoughtful as possible.¡± ¡°The midnight snacks and breakfast are settled.¡± Robert made an ¡®OK¡¯ gesture. The landlady was very satisfied. She seized the opportunity, controlled the situation, built a relationship, and didn¡¯t make anyone feel uncomfortable. Chapter 576 - 576 524 Going Against The Flow ?Chapter 576: Chapter 524: Going Against The Flow Chapter 576: Chapter 524: Going Against The Flow Yang Ping returned to the Trauma Emergency Center at Jeddah¡¯s International Medical Center (IMC), with Robert and Li Zehui following him closely. Perhaps the hospital had also received the notification, as their administrative department had already begun contacting Yang Ping. The staff member in charge of contacting Yang Ping found him and said, ¡°Our IMC in Jeddah will do everything possible to assist with the emergency rescue operation.¡± Yang Ping assessed the equipment and technical strength here, and it was completely capable of supporting his surgery. Moreover, the IMC hospital had a helicopter on standby, ready to pick up anyone from the airport at any time. Half an hour later, Yang Ping¡¯s phone rang again. It was Qiu Zhiqiang. ¡°This is Qiu Zhiqiang from Hua¡¯an Gold Shield, I will let our doctor speak to you.¡± The voice on the phone changed, it was a very tired voice, ¡°Professor Yang, the patient can¡¯t be moved. Just a small movement caused his blood oxygen to drop below 80, and there¡¯s simply no way to transport him. We¡¯re not even sure if he can survive the trip to the airport, let alone being on a plane. The nearest medical aircraft is in Oman, and it won¡¯t make it in time. Professor Yang, please don¡¯t wait for us. We can only utilize the existing medical resources for on-the-spot emergency treatment. The medical conditions here are very poor. We would greatly appreciate your remote assistance, Professor Yang.¡± The tone of the voice on the phone was a touch of helplessness. Yang Ping had been worried about this patient. As the various images kept coming in, Yang Ping studied each one again and found a lot of information not mentioned in the text reports. For example, at the lower right edge of the heart, there was a triangular metal shadow about 1.5 x 1.0cm in size. This metal shadow overlapped with the mediastinal metal shadow, which could easily lead to misjudgment. Yang Ping was confident that the metal shadow had pierced the heart, but had not yet penetrated the myocardium. At this point, the patient was in great danger. If his heart ruptured, he would die instantly. Even disregarding other injuries, this alone was a ticking time bomb. Transportation was very dangerous and even impossible. ¡°Then can I get to Aden? Can you arrange for me to get there by air? Or I can find my own way there.¡± Yang Ping believed that the coordinating force behind this would certainly be able to arrange a plane to get him there. From a few recent phone calls, Yang Ping had already caught the outline of the situation. ¡°No! The situation here is very complicated now, the airport could be attacked at any time, and the airspace could be closed at any moment.¡± Qiu Zhiqiang decisively rejected this, giving no room for negotiation. Given the current situation, evacuation may even be a possibility; there is no way they could let Yang Ping go to such a dangerous place. ¡°Manager Qiu, let me tell you, if you can get me to the patient¡¯s hospital within eight hours, I may be able to save him. With the current medical technology here, it is simply impossible to save him. Listen, the airspace is not closed and the airport is intact. Get me there as soon as possible, every minute might cost another life.¡± ¡°I know you have the ability to do this, if you want to save him, the only way is to get me there!¡± ¡°Please pass on my request!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s tone was earnest and resolute. While he waited, he had been examining the patient¡¯s condition. The patient was a soldier, in excellent physical condition with strong organ compensation capabilities. As long as his heart didn¡¯t rupture, he could still hold on for eight hours. The patient was in a neighboring country, it was inconceivable to just let him wait to die. Time ticked away, second by second, for about fifteen minutes. Then Yang Ping received a call from Dean Xia: ¡°Xiao Yang, you need to understand the situation over there.¡± ¡°I have extensive experience in trauma surgery, I am only one thousand kilometers from him. If a plane is available, it will take just over an hour to get there¡ª¡± ¡°I understand, you wait!¡± After the brief conversation, Dean Xia hung up the phone. As the dean, he knew how hard it must be for the young man to know that a life was waiting for his rescue and yet be unable to go to them. After ten minutes, Dean Xia called again: ¡°Xiao Yang, wait in your hotel room. Someone will come to pick you up. Keep your mobile phone on¡ªbe careful, complete the mission and come back as soon as possible, we¡¯ll wait for you.¡± Dean Xia didn¡¯t say much. He knew Yang Ping well, and there was no need for lengthy explanations or ideological work. Just cut to the chase to save time. Dean Xia had never been so worried about a doctor from his hospital. As he put the phone down, his hand was slightly shaking. Five minutes later, Yang Ping received a call from Director Han: ¡°Young man, make sure to eat well, keep your phone charged, stay sharp when you get there, stay in the hospital and don¡¯t wander around. Follow Manager Qiu¡¯s arrangements for everything and¡ªcome back sooner.¡± Director Han¡¯s voice sounded a bit strange. As soon as he hung up, Director Han called back. ¡°Don¡¯t forget to wear a bulletproof vest when you get there!¡± How unusual for the old man to be so fussy. The several back-to-back phone calls may have seemed simple, but behind them was a considerable mobilization effort. ¡ª On New Year¡¯s Eve, in the administrative office of Sanbo Hospital. Dean Xia¡¯s hand was shaking, and he didn¡¯t know whether it was a blocked chest or a stomach ache, but anyway, he felt a dull pain in the tip of his heart. Director Han¡¯s fingers were lightly tapping his thigh, the rhythm slightly off. ¡°Young man, you need to hone your skills.¡± After a while, Director Han squeezed out these words. Dean Xia grunted, ¡°Tell Old Su about it.¡± ¡°He must have known already. The superiors are searching all the major hospitals for trauma surgeons who might be on a business trip near Yemen. How could Old Su not know? Xiao Yang is in Saudi Arabia, and there aren¡¯t many who would be traveling during the New Year¡¯s period.¡± said Director Han. ¡°Why is this situation so coincidental and so urgent?¡± Dean Xia was really anxious. Director Han sighed, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s fine. Don¡¯t scare yourself. Even if war breaks out, the hospital is safe, we Chinese are safe.¡± ¡°That¡¯s one way of looking at it, but bullets don¡¯t have eyes, I¡¯m nervous,¡± Dean Xia said, clutching his mug. Director Han grabbed the mug from him, ¡°That¡¯s my mug, yours is over there.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Dean Xia realized he had picked up the wrong mug. ¡°Old Xia, you think that if a war really breaks out there, the hospital will be safe, right? And we Chinese will be safe, right?¡± Director Han asked again. Dean Xia affirmed, ¡°Definitely safe, don¡¯t worry!¡± ¡ª Yang Ping hung up the call, took a deep breath. The people who were supposed to pick him up still haven¡¯t arrived. He went to the hotel to pack his luggage and charge his phone. Right now, having communication equipment was extremely crucial. ¡°I have to make a trip to Yemen, tonight!¡± Yang Ping told Robert and Li Zehui who were with him. ¡°I¡¯ll go with you!¡± Robert declared firmly. ¡°No, you can¡¯t go.¡± Yang Ping rejected. It wasn¡¯t just about the danger, but also issues with the procedure. Seeing that Yang Ping was resolute, without any room for negotiation, Robert had no choice but to give up. He understood that there were procedural issues involved. In such an emergency to go to Yemen, definitely going through the green channel, it was possible for Yang Ping, but not for him. ¡°Take care of your safety. I¡¯m very familiar with the Red Cross Hospital there, contact me anytime if you need anything,¡± Li Zehui said calmly. Yang Ping entrusted Li Zehui to take care of the post-operative baby, told Robert not to worry, and that they would catch up when they had time later. For the postoperative care of the baby, Yang Ping made a note on paper and gave it to Li Zehui, telling him to contact him immediately if there was any unexpected situation with the baby. After making the arrangements, Yang Ping laid down on the sofa to sleep, and set his phone on the side to charge. Sure enough, a call from a stranger came. After confirming Yang Ping¡¯s identity and location, the person on the line said a car will be sent to pick Yang Ping up immediately. Thus, the trip to Yemen was confirmed. Yang Ping pondered whether he should tell Xiao Su about it. But he decided not to, as to prevent her from worrying. After all, he will return quickly after completing the surgery. So he sent a WeChat message: ¡°I¡¯m sorry, my dear, I need to postpone my return. There is one more surgery that requires my assistance.¡± ¡°You need to cancel tomorrow¡¯s flight?¡± ¡°Yes, there is another surgery that I need to assist with.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll explain it to our family. Take care of yourself, come back soon, and let me know as soon as you confirm your return journey.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I promised to spend the New Year with you and your family.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? It¡¯s not like I just found out that you are a doctor. I¡¯m used to it, don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll definitely come back soon.¡± ¡°¡ªTake care!¡± Minutes later, Yang Ping received a WeChat message from Professor Su: ¡°Xiao Yang, I am informed about your situation. Please remember to stay safe. Xiao Xuan and the others don¡¯t know about it yet, I will take care of it. Don¡¯t worry about home, go and come back quickly. Try not to leave the hospital. Follow the embassy staff¡¯s arrangements.¡± Professor Su was also notified because of the search for trauma specialists near Yemen in his own hospital. And Yang Ping happened to be in Saudi Arabia, the closest country to Yemen. Yang Ping also has a wealth of experience in trauma emergency surgery, so he is likely to be temporarily mobilized by the superiors to participate in the emergency surgery. With his own contacts, Professor Su found out. Indeed, Yang Ping had received the notice. He felt proud for his son-in-law, but he couldn¡¯t help but worry. But he understood that as a doctor, there are responsibilities on his shoulders. Things moved quickly. At the hotel, Yang Ping was met by two Chinese personnel. After a simple exchange and confirmation of Yang Ping¡¯s identity. They drove him in a sedan to Jeddah International Airport. A private jet was already waiting. Yang Ping marveled at the efficiency of the coordination. All in all, not a single minute was wasted. Chapter 577 - 577 525 Start Broadcasting ?Chapter 577: Chapter 525: Start Broadcasting Chapter 577: Chapter 525: Start Broadcasting The flight path was longer than usual, necessitating detours around war zones and no-fly zones. What would usually be over an hour¡¯s journey, took over two hours. Safely, the plane successfully landed at Aden International Airport. Upon disembarking, Hua¡¯an Gold Shield staff immediately received Yang Ping, escorted by an armed squad. Yang Ping instructed them to unload the supplies they brought on the plane. These were sterile instruments, gauze, anesthetics, analgesics, and antibiotics hastily prepared by Robert and Li Zehui. These items, during times of war, were more precious than gold. A commercial vehicle transported Yang Ping and the supplies to the hospital. The hospital was the Republic Hospital of Yemen in Aden, similar to our People¡¯s Hospital or Central Hospital. This hospital was considered the best in Aden, but the level of medical care and equipment could not compare to some decent county-level hospitals in our country. The hospital was bustling with people, most of them with terrified and anxious eyes, some of the injured people had just arrived from the war zone. Upon arrival, Yang Ping met Manager Qiu, who had been contacting him. He was in his thirties, strong, and his eyes were bright and focused, clearly a military man. ¡°Professor Yang, I am so grateful.¡± Manager Qiu was genuinely ecstatic upon meeting Yang Ping, as if he had seen a savior. Manager Qiu felt extremely painful seeing his comrades lying helplessly on the hospital beds. Now that Yang Ping had flown over from Saudi Arabia overnight, how could he not be excited? ¡°Where is the patient? Quickly, lead me there.¡± Yang Ping couldn¡¯t wait to operate immediately, he dared not delay for a moment. Manager Qiu wasted no further time and immediately led Yang Ping to the observation ward of the emergency department. Since the patient¡¯s wounds were too severe and it was unclear which department should admit him, and the ability among departments to collaborate and coordinate was lacking, the patient remained in the emergency department. The attending doctor was also a Chinese doctor, Dr. Zhou from Hong Kong, who had been dispatched by the International Red Cross to provide medical support to this hospital. ¡°Dr. Zhou, our compatriot from Hong Kong. Professor Yang, from Nandu Province, has extensive trauma surgery experience.¡± Manager Qiu introduced them. Dr. Zhou appeared extremely weary. His hair, sticky from an excess of oil, clung in strands to his scalp, and a thin film of fog had accumulated on his glasses. He shook Yang Ping¡¯s hand: ¡°Your arrival is timely.¡± Without wasting any words, Dr. Zhou got to the point: ¡°The patient has a total of 27 shrapnel wounds across the head, chest, abdomen, pelvis, and limbs. I¡¯m a trauma orthopedic surgeon and cannot do anything about the shrapnel injuries in the head and thoracic abdominal, which are the most deadly. We lack excellent neuro and thoracoabdominal trauma surgeons here, so they have been hesitant to operate. They can only maintain his life by blood transfusion and fluid replacement.¡± This Hong Kong doctor, who often supported war-torn areas and has seen many critically injured patients, felt powerless when faced with this patient¡¯s case. ¡°Take a break. I¡¯m going to see the injured now.¡± Yang Ping immediately began a whole-body examination. The injured was lying on the bed covered with two quilts to keep him warm, all his clothes had been cut off, Yang Ping could still see his bloody clothes piled in the corner of the ward. A few intravenous lines, including central venous and peripheral venous, were simultaneously transfusing blood and fluids into the patient¡¯s body. Dr. Zhou handed over a pair of gloves. Yang Ping put them on and walked to the bedside to begin his examination. The gloves were slightly small, and Yang Ping had a hard time putting them on. ¡°There¡¯s a shortage of medical supplies here, we only have small-sized rubber gloves.¡± Dr. Zhou explained. Yang Ping paid no attention to these things, his focus was on the patient, and he paid no mind to anyone else in the room. His blood pressure was low, only 65/36mmg, much lower than a few hours prior. His heart rate was very fast, exceeding 130 beats per minute. His pulse was very weak and difficult to detect unless closely examined. Even with two quilts covering him, his body still felt icy cold. His paper medical report was handed over by the Yemeni doctors. Yang Ping quickly reviewed it and immediately deduced that the patient¡¯s hemodynamics were extremely unstable. He could die from shock at any moment. The only reason he has lasted until now is that he has an excellent physical condition. If the shrapnel in the cranium was not removed, it could lead to a brain hernia; the small invisible piece of triangular iron on the heart could rupture the heart at any moment. Three fatal ropes tightly strangled the patient, and the situation was extremely critical. The lucky part was that the injured must have been at some distance from the explosion when it happened. All his injuries were mechanical wounds from shrapnel, without any blast injury. Thus, if he can be rescued, the prognosis of his organs¡¯ functionality would be pretty good. A family member standing by the bed was the patient¡¯s younger brother. He wanted to greet Yang Ping earlier but Yang Ping¡¯s attention had been on the patient all along, completely oblivious to anyone else. This younger brother was extremely anxious, unsure whether Professor Yang could save his brother. Yang Ping raised his head, as if he was thinking. The patient¡¯s younger brother suddenly knelt down in front of him: ¡°Professor Yang, please save my brother.¡± Yang Ping did not expect this tall young man to suddenly kneel down, he quickly helped him up: ¡°I will do my best.¡± ¡°The patient¡¯s name is Chen Dashun, this is his younger brother Chen Ershun. It should have been him who was injured in the explosion, but his older brother protected him with his own body.¡± Qiu Zhiqiang told Yang Ping. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Arrange for the surgery immediately! Manager Qiu, didn¡¯t you say you could summon the medical plane stationed in Oman? Get the plane here. After the surgery, we will use the medical plane to transfer him to Saudi Arabia for continuing treatment. I will accompany him during the transfer.¡± ¡°The hemoglobin level is only 40 grams!¡± Dr. Zhou took a lab report from the director of the emergency department, which recorded the most recent blood draw results. ¡°Regardless of the hemoglobin level, we need to perform immediate surgery on him. His condition is rapidly deteriorating. No matter the risk, surgery is mandatory. Find me an assistant now!¡± Yang Ping was assertive in his call. ¡°I¡¯m ready to assist!¡± Dr. Zhou volunteered eagerly and looked at this composed young colleague with admiration. Before Yang Ping¡¯s arrival, Dr. Zhou had briefly researched his medical papers. As expected, Yang Ping was a top expert in trauma surgery, particularly with cases involving severe and complex injuries. His work on ¡®half-man¡¯ surgeries, to save severely injured individuals, could be considered the pinnacle of trauma surgery. His theory on treatment had been published in top medical journals, and it was extremely influential. Dr. Zhou just didn¡¯t expect him to be this young. Outside the hospital ward, a flaring streak of artillery fire cut across the night sky in the distance. The atmosphere throughout the city was extremely tense. It was as if a storm was about to hit. ¡°Arrange for the surgery immediately,¡± Dr. Zhou ordered the Yemeni emergency doctor, who was also the head of the department. The Yemeni director replied anxiously, ¡°All of our operating rooms are in use. No room will be available for the next three hours.¡± Originally, this hospital only had a limited number of operating rooms. The influx of patients in recent times was overwhelming. ¡°Are there any surgeries that can be paused?¡± Dr. Zhou was decisive. The Yemeni director shook his head: ¡°All of them are emergency rescue surgeries.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t wait for an OR to become available. Does the emergency department have a room where we can perform the operation? Even a makeshift one will do.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to waste any more time waiting for an actual OR. ¡°Our emergency department has one surgery room, but it¡¯s only equipped for simple wound cleaning and stitches. The necessary equipment and an anesthesiologist are also both lacking,¡± the Yemeni director explained helplessly. This kind of operation required opening the chest, abdomen, and skull. General Anesthesia was a must. Without an anesthesia machine, how would the surgery be done? ¡°We¡¯ll conduct the surgery here in this emergency surgery room. Have a trauma care equipment bag ready and find a chest opener, two S-shaped hooks, two thyroid hooks and several different types of suture material. Start setting up immediately! Find some way to get an anesthesiologist and an anesthesia machine from a nearby hospital!¡± Yang Ping decided not to wait any longer. They had already missed the best opportunity. If they waited any longer, even divinity would not be able to help him. Exceptional situations required exceptional measures. They couldn¡¯t possibly just follow conventional requirements. ¡°Will these instruments be enough?¡± Dr. Zhou couldn¡¯t believe it. This included thoracic, abdominal, and cranial operations to remove bullet fragments, and to investigate and repair damaged organs. All of these consider major surgeries, Could they be completed only with these simple instruments? ¡°Ali, go and prepare the instruments! I¡¯ll check the surgeries currently in progress, to see if we can combine anesthetics for one patient. Regarding the anesthesia machine, I¡¯ll contact nearby hospitals right away.¡± The Yemeni director immediately sprang into action, directing his staff with clear orders. During normal circumstances, having one anesthesiologist handle two surgeries is strictly forbidden. But under current emergency circumstances, saving the patient¡¯s life was the highest priority. This rule was originally established to ensure the safety of patients. However, if they followed these regulations now, many patients would not have enough time to get to the operating table. The doctor called Ali came running back in, covered in sweat, ¡°All trauma care equipment bags have been used. Can we use instruments that have been sterilized temporarily instead?¡± What a predicament! Even the trauma care bags were all used up, how were they supposed to do a surgery? This was a surgery that would involve opening up the skull. Yang Ping suddenly remembered that when he was leaving Saudi Arabia, Li Zehui and Robert had prepared several boxes of instruments and medications. They would come in handy now. ¡°Hurry, there¡¯s a full set of trauma surgical instruments in the car that just picked me up. Bring them here, and be careful not to break the sterile packaging. Have a doctor come with you,¡± Yang Ping sighed with relief. Thanks to the instruments prepared by Robert and Li Zehui, this problem was solved. The Yemeni director hung up the phone and told Dr. Zhou, ¡°The staff hospital at the refinery can lend us an anesthesia machine. They can send it over immediately.¡± With the missing hands and instruments now available, they could finally begin the operation. Dr. Zhou, with two Yemeni doctors acting as his assistants, went onto the operating table. Although Dr. Zhou was not proficient in thoracic, abdominal or cranial surgeries, he would still be able to assist in retraction, knot tying and cutting the thread. ¡°Manager Qiu, I¡¯m about to perform surgery on him immediately. We can¡¯t wait any longer and have to operate here in the emergency surgery room. Has Oman¡¯s medical evacuation plane taken off yet? Ask them to hurry up. After the surgery, he can¡¯t stay here. He should be transferred to Saudi Arabia where the medical conditions are much better.¡± ¡°Prepare more blood of the same type, we¡¯ll need it during the surgery and afterwards.¡± Blood transfusion equals a transfusion of life. ¡°Ershun, call the rest of the guys over, we need to continue donating blood.¡± Chen Dashun had type B blood. Everyone in the company with type B blood turned out to give Dashun their blood. Their blood types were all registered. The tag on their clothes had their blood type labeled. So, when an emergency arises, they not only immediately know the blood type, but they can also quickly provide blood for each other. The emergency surgery room was quickly cleared, and Chen Dashun was wheeled into the room along with his bed. Chapter 578 - 578 526 One Man Equals A Team ?Chapter 578: Chapter 526: One Man Equals A Team Chapter 578: Chapter 526: One Man Equals A Team In the makeshift operating room of the Emergency Department, Chen Dashun was transferred to the operating table. During the transfer process, everyone was extremely careful to minimize disturbances and maintain the stability of the patient¡¯s blood oxygen level. However, the blood oxygen level still showed violent fluctuations due to systemic hypoperfusion. The limited oxygen could only maintain the minimum requirement of the cells, hence even a slight disturbance would cause the cells to consume more oxygen, leading to an oxygen deficiency. It took several minutes to stabilize the blood oxygen levels. After anesthesia, Yang Ping quickly scrubbed his hands and personally disinfected and draped the operation area. All of Chen Dashun¡¯s wounds were concentrated on the front of his body; presumably, he saw the explosion about to happen and immediately used his body to shield his younger brother. His brother was unhurt, but he was wounded by the blast, which scattered shrapnel that pierced through his body, cutting and tearing his internal organs. Yang Ping put on his surgical gown, with Dr. Zhou and two doctors from Yemen assisting. The circulating nurse was an emergency department nurse, who usually helps doctors perform simple trauma surgeries. The scrub nurse was temporarily reassigned from the operating room. Chen Ershun was waiting at the door. The management of this makeshift operating room was rather lax; it didn¡¯t have dedicated security, and passers-by could walk in at any time, possibly disrupting the surgery, and increasing the chance of infection. Yang Ping received the scalpel from the nurse and started the surgery. While performing the surgery, he informed the scrub nurse in advance about the preparations for the next steps in order to save time; otherwise, if the scrub-nurse cannot keep up, the transition between stages of the surgery would waste a lot of time. The first issue to address was the shrapnel in the chest, especially the small piece on the heart. This was a time bomb waiting to explode. The small hole pierced by the shrapnel on the heart, if it continued to tear, blood inside the heart would spray out from this hole. And the sprayed blood could tear the wound even larger. A midline sternotomy was performed, the chest cavity was opened, and a chest retractor was inserted. The mediastinum was cut open, and the pericardium opened. During the process of exposing and opening it, the shrapnel pathway was cleaned, and a piece of shrapnel on the mediastinum was removed. The heart was contracting and relaxing. During diastole, a small tear was visible on the outer edge of the right atrium. The tiny piece of shrapnel had already penetrated into the myocardium and was not exposed. Now it had to be found and removed through this wound. Currently, the wound was not entirely torn. The heart was still closed; once the shrapnel was removed, the tear could potentially evolve into a full-thickness laceration during contraction and expansion, leading to an immediate leak in the heart, resulting in high-speed blood ejection. ¡°There¡¯s a piece of deadly shrapnel here, don¡¯t move, vascular clamp!¡± Yang Ping asked Dr. Zhou to keep the suction device a little further from the tear on the heart because sometimes the suction power of the device could also pose a certain risk. ¡°You¡¯re saying there¡¯s a piece of shrapnel here?¡± Dr. Zhou recalled the CT and X-ray images, and there was no shrapnel at this location. ¡°The CT scan is sectional, and this scan is not thin-layered. It¡¯s 10 millimeters per layer and just missed this piece of shrapnel. It¡¯s on the chest x-ray film, but unfortunately, it¡¯s blocked by that piece we just removed from the mediastinum, so it¡¯s not visible.¡± As Yang Ping was explaining this to Dr. Zhou, his mosquito hemostat has already gently extended into the tear, accurately clamping the shrapnel. He gently tried to pull it out to confirm the shrapnel had not hooked onto the myocardium. Only then did Yang Ping slowly remove it along the insertion direction. With a crisp sound, the shrapnel was thrown into the kidney dish, and the blood smeared on it immediately spread out in the dish. ¡°Syringe with saline!¡± Yang Ping used a syringe to gently inject physiological saline to irrigate the tear on the heart. After a few rounds of irrigation, he started suturing. Every step was performed with extreme care to minimize the force applied. An aggressive move could cause a full-thickness tear. After suturing the tear on the heart, Yang Ping checked for any blood leakage. After confirming there was no leakage, he moved on to the next step: further wound cleaning, removing the other fragments in the chest cavity, and ligating or repairing the damaged vessels. Non-essential vessels were ligated, while the major blood-supplying vessels were repaired by vascular anastomosis. The damaged organs and tissues underwent meticulous repair. After exploration, wound cleaning, and repairing the damages in the chest cavity, a large amount of physiological saline was used for irrigation. For open wounds, irrigation is vital. Repeatedly doing so can continuously dilute the concentration of bacteria, minimizing the chance of infection. After irrigation, Yang Ping checked the chest cavity once again to ensure complete hemostasis before closing the chest cavity. Overall, the treatment for the chest cavity took only about ten minutes. The speed and proficiency of the operation left Dr. Zhou in awe. He felt like a mere intern in front of Yang Ping. He didn¡¯t know there were people in the world who could operate with such precision and speed. After treating the chest cavity, the surgical focus shifted to the head. The entrance of the shrapnel in the head was on the forehead, with the thin and long shrapnel sticking slightly out. Yang Ping made an incision around the puncture on the skull, stopped the bleeding, lifted the skin, then used a bone saw to directly open the skull, drawing a circle on the skull centered around the tail of the shrapnel. This action startled Dr. Zhou. This kind of bone saw was a normal orthopedic tool, with no safety depth control. A slight mishandling could cause the saw to penetrate the skull and damage the brain tissue within. Yang Ping was solely focusing on saving time. He would use whatever method was quickest without considering the feelings of the others. The skull was lifted. The depth of the bone saw¡¯s cut was just right, neither too shallow nor too deep, sufficient to just cut through the skull without damaging the dura mater, not to mention the brain tissue. Tracking the pathway the shrapnel entered the wound, Yang Ping cut open the dura mater and brain tissue, removed the shrapnel within and the hematoma around the shrapnel, then irrigated the wound, and finally used bipolar coagulation for hemostasis. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but gloat inwardly. This Chen Dashun was indeed lucky. The sharp bullet fragments had lodged in the folds of brain tissue, causing minimal damage to the functional areas of the brain. Yet, Yang Ping was still worried that the trauma would lead to some complications. Apart from damage to functional areas, scars left after the healing of brain tissue could disrupt the brain¡¯s electrical activity, leading to epilepsy. He rinsed the wound, stopped the bleeding, repaired the brain tissue and meninges, then closed up the cranium. He managed that with relative ease. Dealing with each of these injuries required a high level of surgical skill. All of them combined made for an exceptionally challenging procedure. Any other doctor would have needed a team of neurosurgeons, cardiothoracic surgeons, general surgeons, urological surgeons, and orthopedists. Over a dozen surgeons would have to perform the operation in rotation. On the other hand, Yang Ping managed the operation on his own, with apparent ease. One man, but so efficient it felt like a team was at work! No, perhaps not even a top trauma surgery team would match his surgical speed. Dr. Zhou finally understood why Professor Yang dared perform surgery in such basic conditions ¨C his surgical skills had reached points of finesse where they seemed to obey his will. With the cranium taken care of, Yang Ping began abdominal surgery. Upon opening the abdominal cavity, he conducted a thorough examination of the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen, stomach, and intestines, removed all the bullet fragments lodged within, and repaired each injured organ. Quickly, he concluded the abdominal surgery and proceeded to operate on the limbs. Whether it was investigating and repairing the axillary nerve or blood vessels, or grafting skin onto the area where skin was missing. With an artery clamp in his left hand and tissue scissors in his right, he removed all contaminated tissues, dead tissues, or foreign objects, layer by layer, every step of the way. An exhaustive examination, high-quality repair, each bullet fragment seemed to be located without need for guidance, every time they could be found and removed directly. Such a complex surgery looked as simple as stitching up a small clean wound under his hands. Dr. Zhou finally understood just how formidable this trauma surgeon was. Such speed, such proficiency, as if he knew the anatomy of the human body without needing to look. As the first assistant, Dr. Zhou could hardly keep up with Yang Ping¡¯s speed ¨C often, Yang Ping had to finish much of the assistant¡¯s work himself. Slowly, the bullet fragments were removed, the bleeding stopped, blood transfusion continued, and the patient¡¯s blood pressure began to rise slowly. Finally, the last wound was taken care of, and all the bullet fragments removed. Yang Ping looked at Chen Dashun, who was almost entirely wrapped in gauze and bandages, and said: ¡°Send him to the observation room, continue the blood transfusion and rehydration, and use antibiotics for a week to prevent infection.¡± Today, Dr Zhou felt like he had witnessed a world-class procedure, as if what he had seen was surreal. He had dealt with such complex multi-trauma in just two hours and concluded the operation. Dr. Zhou calmed his mind, called in the emergency department director, and arranged for postoperative care. The director from Yemen rushed in, thinking the patient had failed on the operating table, but then looked at the healthy EKG wave on the monitor. He asked Dr. Zhou: ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°The surgery is over. Please arrange a hospital room for him and assign two nurses to watch over him,¡± said Dr. Zhou wearily. Two hours? The surgery is over? The director of Yemen looked around, hoping for a different answer. That¡¯s when Manager Qiu and Chen Ershun came in. Seeing everyone taking off their surgical gowns, they thought Chen Dashun was beyond saving. Chen Ershun¡¯s mind went blank, and he shouted like a fool: ¡°Brother! Brother¡ª¡ªwhat¡¯s wrong with you?¡± His voice was as piercing as a thunderbolt, filled with unspeakable sorrow. ¡°What are you yelling for? If you¡¯ve got the energy, help us move the bed and take him to the observation room,¡± Yang Ping scolded him. Everyone was in good spirits after the surgery, but his sudden yell startled them. ¡°Professor Yang, how is it?¡± Manager Qiu asked, looking at the Dashun on the operating table. Yang Ping said calmly, ¡°The surgery has been successful. As long as there are no complications after surgery, there shouldn¡¯t be any problems.¡± This youngster¡¯s physique was truly robust. Anyone else, with injuries like these and loss of so much blood, wouldn¡¯t have held on for so long. ¡°Help to move the bed, what are you staring at?¡± Yang Ping gave Chen Ershun a little push. Chen Ershun snapped back to his senses, realizing his brother was alive. Looking at the steadily rising blood pressure, Yang Ping felt a weight lift from his shoulders. After surgery, as long as he could be transferred to Saudi Arabia for careful post-operative care, this Chen Dashun should be able to survive. Chapter 579 - 579 527 Radish Head ?Chapter 579: Chapter 527 Radish Head Chapter 579: Chapter 527 Radish Head This is the epitome of a surgeon! This level of proficiency gives the impression of having conducted tens of thousands of similar surgeries. Just now, Dr. Zhou observed carefully that every injury was treated not only with extreme skill but also leaving no stone unturned. Dr. Zhou can¡¯t help but admire Professor Yang Ping. His superb medical skills far exceeded his knowledge, giving him an inaccessible feeling. On the battlefield, it is unknown how many lives such techniques could save. The head of the emergency department vacated a ward for observation, the best condition they could offer Chen Dashun in the crowded emergency department. The limited number of beds in the ICU are in high demand. Even if they could find a bed, there are no extra equipment or manpower. Everyone worked together to transfer Chen Dashun over to the bed, and this time, his blood oxygen level showed no fluctuation. This indicated that the blood perfusion of the entire body had improved, and there was no situation where a slight increase in oxygen consumption could not keep up with the blood oxygen level. The complete bleeding stoppage in the body, supplemented with a large amount of fresh blood, blood transfusion, and blood loss entered a balanced state. This balance is the basic condition for the survival of trauma patients. ¡°Professor Yang, how is my brother doing now?¡± Although Ershun had calmed down a lot, he was still anxious. Ershun was a retired special forces soldier. He had undergone the most brutal training and was psychologically strong. However, his brother was too important to him, which is why he was a little out of control. Professor Yang Ping rather confidently said: ¡°Postoperative patients have to face several difficulties: infection, ischemia-reperfusion injury, systemic inflammatory response syndrome, among others. Each difficulty needs to be overcome in turn, but don¡¯t worry. I will follow up with him until he is out of the danger period.¡± The postoperative treatment and care of such patients are very important. If not kept up with, it can easily discard all the previous efforts. Upon hearing these words, Ershun didn¡¯t know what to say. He held Professor Yang¡¯s hand tightly, saying: ¡°Professor Yang, thank you, for this great kindness. My brother and I will remember it for our entire lives.¡± He knew that the life his brother led now was given by Professor Yang. Yang Ping patted his shoulder: ¡°Don¡¯t say that. It¡¯s my duty. Let¡¯s observe for a few more minutes before transferring him to the observation ward.¡± ¡°Dr. Zhou, do you need help with any operations here?¡± Yang Ping turned around and asked Dr. Zhou. If there is a need for help, Yang Ping plans to complete the surgery together, as there is nothing more valuable than saving a life. Dr. Zhou thought for a while and said, ¡°There is nothing to help with for now. Professor Yang, could I get your phone number or WeChat? Sometimes when I encounter a problem, I could ask for your advice.¡± ¡°Add me on WeChat. It¡¯s more convenient that way,¡± Without any hesitation, Yang Ping immediately took out his phone and allowed him to scan the QR code for WeChat. This deeply moved Dr. Zhou. This young man didn¡¯t show off, and communication was very smooth and straightforward. Chen Dashun was transferred to the observation ward of the emergency department. The monitoring facilities here were very limited with only one electrocardiogram machine. Yang Ping and Dr. Zhou, along with two nurses, waited in the ward, while Manager Qiu and Chen Ershun stood in the corridor outside the ward. The head of the emergency department gave them two plastic stools. ¡°Why hasn¡¯t there been any news from the aircraft,¡± Manager Qiu checked his watch. According to the time, the plane should have arrived. He worried that once the airspace was closed, or the airport was attacked, the plane wouldn¡¯t be able to arrive. Manager Qiu couldn¡¯t help but make a call to the person in charge on the other end. The aircraft was chartered from an American insurance company. There were only a few available medical aircraft in the vicinity, but this insurance company had the most. Knowing that Manager Qiu was in urgent need, they raised the price to five times their usual rate. To save people, Manager Qiu didn¡¯t hesitate. Five times it was, as long as they could get here as soon as possible and take the people away. After the call, Manager Qiu looked very upset. Ershun felt something was wrong and asked, ¡°Manager Qiu, what happened?¡± Manager Qiu composed himself and said: ¡°Damn, the plane landed in Zufar, Oman. They refuse to come here and are insisting that we send the person over instead!¡± Zufar is a province in Oman, bordering Yemen. ¡°Didn¡¯t they agree to come to Aden?¡± Ershun anxious. ¡°They fear being mistakenly hit mid-flight and are only willing to stay at the closest airport to Yemen in Amman, Oman, to have us send our patient over.¡± Manager Qiu was extremely angry, his teeth almost chattering in his mouth. However, now is not the time to hold them accountable. The most important thing now is to get Dashun sent out. ¡°We paid five times the price, and we also prepaid half of the deposit in advance. They totally lack a contractual spirit. Once they say they won¡¯t come, they simply don¡¯t come?¡± Ershun wished he could swear at those people. ¡°Contractual spirit? You really think they have a true contractual spirit? If you break the contract, they will talk about contractual spirit with you. If they break the contract, they will talk with you about the supremacy of life, of course, the supremacy of their own lives. Even the US military has withdrawn. Do you still expect a private company to be responsible?¡± Manager Qiu knew these people were unreliable, but he had no other options. This was the only available aircraft, and he didn¡¯t expect them to be this unreliable. ¡°Are there any other common planes available we could call for?¡± Yang Ping heard their conversation and came out of the ward to ask. ¡°It¡¯s very difficult. Now the planes are either afraid to come, or they are hired at high prices for evacuation. Let me think of something else.¡± Manager Qiu felt sorry that he hadn¡¯t managed this. The plane that flew Yang Ping over from Saudi Arabia dared not stay in Aden at all and immediately flew back to Saudi Arabia. Yang Ping suggested that a regular plane would suffice. Previously, because of the severity of the injury, there were no medical aircraft, and normal planes would have been very risky. Now that the surgery had been completed and the patient¡¯s condition had improved significantly, even ordinary planes or, possibly helicopters, carrying some necessary medical supplies plus Yang Ping¡¯s presence on board, the risk would be much lower, it wouldn¡¯t be completely unworkable. Transfer is definite as under these medical conditions, Dashun cannot survive the several postoperative life-and-death junctures. It¡¯s not realistic to expect to be able to transfer patients back to China under these circumstances. He can only be transferred to neighboring countries, among which Saudi Arabia has the best medical level, so he must be transferred to Saudi Arabia. ¡°If not, find a helicopter to send him to Zufar in Oman, then use their flight to transport him to Saudi Arabia.¡± Yang Ping thought that Zufar, Oman should not be too far away, perhaps a distance of about five to six hundred kilometers, which is similar to the distance within a province in China. If all else fails, an ambulance could be arranged to transport the patient there. As a last resort, even a truck could be considered. However, such measures would come with extreme risks. No matter how high the risk is, they definitely couldn¡¯t stay here. If chaos breaks out causing a shortage of medical supplies, all the surgeries done would be for naught. ¡°Helicopters are not safe; several have been shot down these days. I¡¯ll find a way. Professor Yang, thank you for your efforts,¡± Manager Qiu, a tough man, said. He didn¡¯t have any good solutions at the moment. All available resources have been deployed by the embassy. Besides ensuring the safety of Chinese enterprises in Aden and its surrounding areas, his tasks also included assisting in the search for Chinese nationals stuck in the war zone. Some even needed to be picked up and transported to Aden. Now that Yang Ping had completed Dashun¡¯s surgery, the issue was stuck at arranging an evacuation flight. Manager Qiu felt extremely guilty about this. There were only two options at present. The first, keep waiting for a commercial plane from either Amman or Saudi Arabia. But the timing was uncertain which could easily lead to undesirable outcomes. The second option was to transport Dashun by car to Zufar, Oman, which would take seven to eight hours, including a trip across the desert. There was also a third option ¨C Manager Qiu shook his head, right now, it wasn¡¯t feasible. Manager Qiu took a moment to gather his thoughts again, there are always more solutions than problems, sometimes the best solution just isn¡¯t immediately apparent. ¡°If we have no other choice but to use a car for the transport, let¡¯s get a refrigerator, prepare more blood bags and store them in the fridge. Then, bring extra oxygen and saline solution. I have brought a lot of emergency medical supplies in my luggage, we can pack them all in the car,¡± Yang Ping suggested as a fallback plan to Manager Qiu. Using a car to transport the patient would be the slowest option with the highest risk, but it¡¯s also the easiest to implement. This approach should only be used as a last resort. In the current situation, if only there were a medevac aircraft. If there was one, Dashun¡¯s condition would be much more stable. Otherwise, accidents might occur on the road. Manager Qiu started making phone calls, trying to arrange an aircraft using all available resources. Yang Ping returned to the ward to look after Chen Dashun, awaiting good news from him. He checked the patient¡¯s vital signs every few minutes, tested pupil reflexes, and observed conditions of the heart, lungs, abdomen, and peripheral circulation. Without the support of advanced equipment, one could only rely on their own attentiveness to detect and solve problems in a timely manner. At that moment, Yang Ping¡¯s phone buzzed. ¡°Professor, it¡¯s Robert. Which hospital are you in, in Aden? I¡¯m at the international airport now,¡± Ever since the restaurant owner in Jixin Garden started calling him ¡°Professor Yang,¡± Robert believed he had found the most fitting title for Yang Ping. Robert? How on earth did he get here? ¡°Li Zehui and Dodge are here too!¡± Robert seemed very excited. ¡°I¡¯m at the Aden Republic Hospital, in the observation ward of the Emergency Department. How did you guys get here?¡± Yang Ping looked out the window. There seemed to be a heightened frequency in the exchange of fire. There were rumors that the area would soon be under siege; surely Robert hadn¡¯t chartered a private plane here too? ¡°Professor, didn¡¯t you tell us to set up an ICU ward to receive your patient? We¡¯ve done that. We¡¯re worried you might have trouble transporting the patient, hence we took a medevac aircraft directly here. I can see the explosions from afar. It¡¯s quite electrifying-¡± Even though Robert sounded like he was on holiday, Yang Ping nearly cursed. Upon hearing the mention of a medevac aircraft, his eyes lit up instantaneously. He couldn¡¯t have heard wrong, could he? ¡°Can you say that again? What kind of aircraft did you just say you brought over?¡± Yang Ping pressed for confirmation. Robert replied, stressing each word: ¡°Medevac aircraft! Yiliaofeiji!¡± Worried that his Chinese wasn¡¯t good enough, he painstakingly pronounced the word phonetically as well. ¡°Radish Head, you are brilliant! Quickly, hurry over to the Aden Republic Hospital. I¡¯ll be waiting for you here,¡± Yang Ping was so delighted he almost jumped for joy. Asking for what you need and getting it. Brilliant! ¡°Professor, did you just call me Radish Head?¡± Robert¡¯s excited voice got even more worked up. ¡®Radish Head¡¯ was a nickname Zhang Lin gave Robert. Zhang Lin had told Robert that it was his new and friendly nickname at Sanbo Hospital. Robert really liked the nickname, but Yang Ping had never called him that, always referring to him as Robert. This was an indication, it suggested that Robert¡¯s relationship with Yang Ping was not as close as he would like. In China, close acquaintances were rarely addressed by their name, it was usually a nickname of some sort. Now that Yang Ping was calling him by his nickname, it signified an elevation in their rapport, an acknowledgment of Robert¡¯s place within his circle. How could this not excite Robert? Yang Ping hung up the phone. If Robert really brought a medevac aircraft, that was a major relief and Dashun¡¯s condition would likely then stabilize. The arrangements for an aircraft had not yet been confirmed on Manager Qiu¡¯s end. Yang Ping received a new message on WeChat. It was a video from Robert with footage of a medevac aircraft that was parked on the runway. It was a beautiful sight. Could it be that the guy arrived not long after Yang Ping left? Another call came from Robert: ¡°Professor, I¡¯m on my way to the hospital now, I¡¯ll be there soon. Did you just call me Radish Head?¡± Considering his limited Chinese, the word ¡®Robert¡¯ sounded rather close to ¡®Radish Head.¡¯ It¡¯s a big deal, so he had to clarify. Chapter 580 - 580 528 Transfer ?Chapter 580: 528 Transfer Chapter 580: 528 Transfer Li Zehui had participated in multiple international Red Cross medical aid operations, and he was very familiar with Yemen. The International Red Cross branch in Aden dispatched a vehicle to pick them up and then transported them to the Republic of Aden Hospital. In the emergency department¡¯s observation ward, Robert finally saw Yang Ping. He was so moved that he burst into tears and opened his arms to hug Yang Ping. Others who came with them were Li Zehui, Dodge, and a local doctor from Saudi Arabia named Aming. ¡°Professor, long time no see, is everything okay?¡± Robert remembered Yang Ping didn¡¯t like to be hugged by men, so he instead chose to shake hands, holding tightly onto Yang Ping¡¯s hand. ¡°It¡¯s so dangerous, why did you all come?¡± Robert said in a serious tone, ¡°Professor, true friendship is shown in tough times. I couldn¡¯t let you face danger alone.¡± ¡°Robert! Did you bring a medical plane?¡± Yang Ping immediately asked him for confirmation. ¡°Professor, if you think the plane I brought can function well, please call me Radish Head!¡± Robert said quite seriously, somewhat hurt. It seemed like if Yang Ping didn¡¯t call him Radish Head, he would be very upset. Yang Ping was startled and somewhat confused. Since when had Robert liked to be called Radish Head? If he liked it, then Yang Ping would call him that. The name wasn¡¯t so bad, it was down-to-earth! ¡°Radish Head, did you bring a medical plane?¡± Yang Ping asked again. Robert nodded proudly, ¡°Of course, we couldn¡¯t possibly come empty-handed. We also brought an ICU team. After you left, Li and I discussed that we couldn¡¯t just stay in Saudi Arabia and do nothing. We had to do something for you. I figured you would need a medical plane to transport the wounded. They are hard to find, even in Saudi Arabia, but we managed to find one. Li and Dodge did a lot to help too. We also brought a lot of red blood cells and plasma, matching the injured patients¡¯ blood types. We¡¯ve brought four thousand milliliters; that should be enough, right?¡± ¡°We need to move the wounded quickly. If we delay, the plane may not be able to take off. The doctors and nurses at the airport are waiting anxiously.¡± Li Zehui urged. Now that they had a medical plane, there was nothing more to be said. Yang Ping immediately relayed the good news to Manager Qiu. Manager Qiu was struggling with the situation, making so many phone calls that his device was hot to touch. It wasn¡¯t just a medical plane that was hard to find, even a regular passenger plane was hesitating to come. The sound of artillery fire outside was getting closer and closer. The tongues of flame formed by the gunfire were becoming denser and hadn¡¯t stopped at all. The sky was occasionally illuminated by the fire. Aden was an important port with an oil refinery, so it was definitely a main target in the war. The streets were a complete mess. People, together with their families and luggage, crowded and bumped into each other amidst the constantly honking cars. Expatriates from all countries were gathering here. Whether there were boats to leave or not, they were ready to evacuate at any time. It was said that the United States military had already evacuated, leaving behind a notice: American expatriates must find their own means of transportation to leave Yemen. Our embassy was working day and night to collect information from expatriates in order to contact them, find them, and transfer them to safe cities in preparation for the evacuation. Even two tourists on a small island had been contacted. From the time Yang Ping traveled from Saudi Arabia to Yemen, he spent almost all of his time in a hospital, only leaving when he was transported in a car straight from the airplane. Even though he hadn¡¯t been on the streets, he could feel the imminent danger from the artillery fire outside his window. The hospital was continually crowded with people. There had even been conflicts. Yemeni soldiers were beginning to maintain order in the hospital as the proximity of the war was transforming the hospital into a front-line field hospital. Dr. Zhou and the director of the emergency department were mobilizing ambulances, preparing to transport Chen Dashun to the airport. Manager Qiu arranged for Ershun to accompany Chen Dashun to Saudi Arabia to take good care of him. There were no problems with Ershun¡¯s visa as the company also operated in Saudi Arabia and many other countries, where they had work visas. At this time, a Yemeni officer led several soldiers into the emergency department, looking for Manager Qiu. With the guidance of a doctor, they found Manager Qiu, immediately stating that they had been dispatched by their superiors to protect the Chinese casualties here. The friendship between China and Yemen was very deep, and China had provided a lot of aid to Yemen. In addition to food and medicine, they had also helped them build hospitals, schools, libraries, and bridges. They had regularly sent doctors for medical aid, treating countless patients while also training over three thousand doctors for them. Thus, both the government and the public in Yemen had a high opinion of China. Despite the current chaotic situation, which left them with no time to spare, they still made efforts to help the Chinese and dispatched armed forces to assist and protect Chinese expatriates. Upon hearing that there was a critically injured patient in this hospital who needed transport, they received orders and promptly came over. Manager Qiu had a chat with the military officer, explaining that the medevac plane was grounded at the international airport. The injured needed to be transported, but there was traffic congestion on the roads. He sought the officer¡¯s help to solve the situation. The officer explained that the airport was under strict security measures due to possible firefights. They wanted to take advantage of the situation being under control for now, hoping to move the injured quickly. Their military vehicles would lead the way and escort them directly to the airport. Finishing, the officer shook hands with Yang Ping, showing special respect. The officer said that his father had been critically ill many years ago, his intestines were completely rotten. It was a Chinese doctor who performed surgery on his father and saved his life. He also added that he would have loved to entertain his Chinese friends properly. Still, at the moment, he was powerless. He could only do what was within his capability. Given the current tense situation, there was no time for delays. Manager Qiu organized the ambulance, the escort team, and carefully planned the flight route using a map. The flight would take off from Aden International Airport, divert directly to the sea route, follow the coastline, draw a wide arc to reach Oman, and then continue to Saudi Arabia. This route would take a longer time, but it was considerably safer and entirely avoided the conflict zones on land. Manager Qiu reported the flight route to the Embassy. The embassy was tasked with coordinating with various parties to keep records and air recognitions ¨C this would prevent being accidentally attacked. Soon, the ambulance was placed, parked at the entrance of the Emergency Department. Yemeni soldiers lined up on both sides, creating a passage through the crowded Emergency Department. Dashun was carried out of the ward on a stretcher. Dodge also participated in the transportation, working extremely hard. All the way, he followed Robert, and when he saw Yang Ping, he didn¡¯t dare participate in the conversation, just staying on the sidelines all the time. As Dashun was placed on the ambulance, the Yemeni officer jumped onto a pickup truck configured as a military vehicle, leading the way ahead. A machine gun was mounted on top of the vehicle, and a few armed soldiers were seated in the cabin. Behind the ambulance was a minivan with Manager Qiu, Ershun, Dodge, Li Zehui, and Aming on board. Following the minivan was another military vehicle with a mounted machine gun. After a few honks, the convoy consisting of four vehicles set off from the hospital, heading towards the international airport. The chaotic vehicles and crowd on the street were squeezed against each other. If it weren¡¯t for the military vehicle leading the way, it would have been impossible for the ambulance to reach the airport within a few hours. Seeing the military vehicle, people feared the machine gun mounted on top of it, and they quickly made way automatically. This enforced a road opening, and the convoy was able to move forward smoothly. The ambulance, not very large, contained Dashun on the stretcher in the middle, with Yang Ping, Dr. Zhou, Robert, and Yemeni doctors and nurses seated on both sides. It was incredibly compact. The ambulance started and stopped, progressing with difficulty. The harsh sound of the horn caused a continuous buzzing in their ears. Yang Ping truly understood what it was like to be part of a mass exodus, a scene he had only ever seen in movies before. Fortunately, there was a medevac plane. If they had to transport by car, it would have taken them a dozen or so hours just to get out of Aden. Yang Ping took a look at the data on the monitor, felt Dashun¡¯s pulse, listened to his heart and lungs, hoping that he could make it safe and sound through the transport. In a perfect world, Dashun should have been in an ICU ward now, not on a vehicle. However, they had no choice due to the ongoing circumstances. This transfer was extremely high risk. ¡°He¡¯s running a fever!¡± Dr. Zhou took the temperature and began to worry. Sepsis, or systemic inflammatory response syndrome, could be lethal combined with such severe complex injuries. He hoped that wasn¡¯t the case. Yang Ping had performed an excellent surgery, and they had thoroughly rinsed the surgical area, but since the surgery room was an ordinary room and not an aseptic operating room, bacteria were floating around everywhere. Given that Dashun had undergone craniotomy, thoracotomy, laparotomy, and was underperfusion at that time, he was at a high risk of an infection. However, an infection could not occur so quickly. This increase in body temperature was more likely due to absorption heat or massive blood transfusion. ¡°Apply a cold compress to his head!¡± Yang Ping quickly took measures to reduce the oxygen consumption of the brain. Li Zehui took out an ice pack and applied it to Dashun¡¯s forehead. The convoy moved forward sluggishly, like a snail. Chapter 581 - 581 529 Unexpected Changes in the Sky ?Chapter 581: Chapter 529: Unexpected Changes in the Sky Chapter 581: Chapter 529: Unexpected Changes in the Sky The convoy moved sporadically, taking around an hour or so to cover halfway. It was now late at night, but the streets were getting more crowded. The crisp, rapid gunshots were getting clearer, then suddenly, an abrupt barrage of cannon fire, the whistling sound of warplanes, followed by flashes of light and explosions. Nobody knew where the explosion had occurred, but the crowds on the streets scattered chaotically, running in different directions. In fact, the blast happened far away. Once people realized there was no immediate danger, they continued on their way. The convoy abruptly came to halt. Yang Ping peered ahead. Someone knocked on the truck door, and Ershun opened the back. Manager Qiu leaned in to speak to Yang Ping: ¡°Saudi coalition air strikes have begun, planes cannot take off. From now on, any aircraft flying in Yemeni airspace must have coalition approval or risk being shot down. The approval process takes quite some time, at least, several days.¡± The explosion they had just heard was indeed the result of a coalition airstrike. At this point, Yemeni airspace was effectively a no-fly zone. This was why no aircraft could be dispatched; nobody dared risk flying here. The northern forces were also preparing to head south to Aden, potentially escalating the conflict. A Yemeni officer disembarked from the vehicle, informing Manager Qiu that reaching the airport would be impossible. Any aircraft taking off risked being shot down. He asked Manager Qiu about the next steps, stating that their soldiers could escort the vehicles to the border. Traveling east was the safest option, while going north was extremely risky. Unexpected events can occur at any time, but one must always be prepared. Manager Qiu took out a map to study the situation further. He and his men were former soldiers who had joined a security company after retirement. They formed the backbone of security for Chinese enterprises operating abroad. They always thoroughly examined every contingency, ensuring that their plans were meticulously crafted. In addition to this, they had already prepared several strategies before setting off. Given the volatile situation, where all sides were bracing for battle and armed factions were rising up everywhere, any area could potentially turn into a battlefield. There were two potential routes to evacuate from the country: one leading north to Saudi Arabia, and the other east to Oman. The northern route was riddled with warzones and would be a focal point of future fighting. It was definitely not a viable option. The only option was to go east! Without hesitating, Manager Qiu decided to transport their cargo overland, crossing the desert to reach Oman, where a medical plane was waiting. Manager Qiu traced a line on the map with his finger and called Ershun: ¡°You and our Yemeni brothers will follow the second plan and head east until you reach Oman.¡± Ershun knew each of the plans by heart. The truck for Plan B was ready, equipped with a refrigerator secured in the truck bed with the necessary power supply installed. Regular travel vehicles had limited capacity and space, making it difficult to respond adequately to any unforeseen situations. Unfazed by the chaos, Manager Qiu immediately informed the Yemeni officer of the change in plans and they started moving towards the location where the truck was waiting. The convoy quickly rerouted, weaving through the crowds until they arrived where the truck was waiting. They transferred Dashun and the medical supplies onto the truck. The driver was a skilled veteran. Besides the two Yemeni pickup trucks, Manager Qiu instructed Ershun to take four officers from the security company in a minibus to escort the truck. He was severely understaffed already, with even the embassy staff fully mobilized in preparation for evacuation. The convoy, comprising of one truck, one minibus, and two pickups, were ready to cross the desert to Oman. At that moment, Manager Qiu approached the truck where Yang Ping was seated. He introduced a middle-aged man in a suit, a cultured gentleman whose weary demeanor did little to diminish the sparkle in his eyes. Two officials in People¡¯s Liberation Army uniforms stood three meters from the truck. Although Yang Ping was not familiar with diplomatic protocols, he knew that only military officers stationed in China¡¯s foreign embassies were permitted to wear People¡¯s Liberation Army uniforms abroad. ¡°Professor Yang, the ambassador insisted on seeing you off,¡± Manager Qiu introduced the cultured man. The Ambassador shook Yang Ping¡¯s hand, ¡°I¡¯m sorry we didn¡¯t get a chance to visit earlier. We appreciate your help during this chaotic time. Chen Dashun needs to be evacuated and can¡¯t be part of the general evacuation, which is why we¡¯ve asked for your assistance. We¡¯ve thoroughly communicated along the way and they will let you pass. You can contact us anytime if there are any issues.¡± The Ambassador¡¯s voice was hoarse. In a short span of time, he and the rest of the embassy staff had been on the phone, contacting every Chinese citizen in Yemen, ensuring that none were left behind. They confirmed the coordinates of all Chinese citizens and sent these coordinates to the Coalition Command Center, ensuring that these locations would be safe during air strikes. Besides, they had to grasp the situation on all fronts to prepare for a possible evacuation at any moment, feedback intelligence to their superiors, and allow them to make informed decisions regarding the timing and manner of the evacuation. If evacuation becomes necessary, the southern port of Aden and the western port of Hodeidah are their first choices. Once a specific evacuation date is determined, they are to move these people to those two ports. Some people have already been relocated. When the ambassador saw foreigners in the vehicles, he keenly realized some potential issues and asked, ¡°Who are they?¡± Because along the way, they would encounter many military checkpoints set up by various armed forces. The ambassador had already communicated with their superiors beforehand, so these forces would be very friendly to the Chinese, but only to the Chinese. Manager Qiu failed to foresee this problem at that time. ¡°My name is Robert, I¡¯m an American, and I¡¯m Professor Yang¡¯s student. These people are here from the IMC Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to help with transporting the wounded. We brought a medical aircraft, but it can¡¯t take off at the airport,¡± Robert explained in Chinese. ¡°Yes, they are here to help us,¡± Yang Ping responded. Manager Qiu immediately explained: ¡°Yes, they are friends of Professor Yang and came specifically with a medical aircraft which, unfortunately, can¡¯t take off now. So they will have to go through Oman.¡± The ambassador was considering leaving these foreigners behind, but if that¡¯s the situation, they could only continue with the convoy. If someone risked bringing a medical aircraft and couldn¡¯t fly it, surely they couldn¡¯t be left behind. ¡°Where is the crew?¡± the ambassador asked warmly. Manager Qiu said, ¡°They¡¯re all set. I¡¯ve arranged for them to evacuate with the people from the International Red Cross.¡± ¡°Good. Be safe on the road, remember, you are friends of Professor Yang, and medical staff responsible for transporting the wounded,¡± the ambassador exhorted. Facing the urgent situation, the ambassador didn¡¯t think there was anything else to address. He tightly shook Yang Ping¡¯s hand, ¡°Take care, see you in China!¡± Manager Qiu also warmly told Yang Ping, ¡°Take care, see you in China!¡± ¡°Take care, see you in China!¡± Yang Ping waved his hand and the convoy slowly started to move forward. He didn¡¯t normally feel much about it, but at that moment, the word ¡°China¡± felt incredibly endearing. As the convoy slowly drove off, the ambassador stood there still waving goodbye. They were all strangers before, but at that moment, they all shared a common identity ¨C they were Chinese. The night got deeper, and Li Dashun was still running a fever. Gunshots echoed in his ears nonstop. Ershun told him, even if they weren¡¯t at war, gunshots were a common occurrence here, just like hearing firecrackers back home. Yemen was reportedly the leading country in firearms , with an average of three guns per person. They had a tradition of shooting guns at celebrations. The louder and longer the gunfire, the more influential and prestigious the host was. Frequent gunfights broke out as villages occasionally fought over territory. After a long time, the convoy finally left the city and the roads began to deteriorate. Fortunately, the truck driver was highly skillful and managed to drive as smoothly as possible under the circumstances. Yang Ping checked Li Dashun¡¯s pupils. They were reacting well. Despite his persistent fever, his temperature hovered around 38.5 degrees Celsius. His pale lips and complexion were slightly better than before. With no medical equipment available in the truck, everything depended on Yang Ping¡¯s experience. The only tools at their disposal were a cardiac monitor, oxygen tank, stethoscope, and flashlight. ¡°Professor Yang, we will be alright, won¡¯t we?¡± Li Zehui asked, noticeably anxious. Robert comforted him, ¡°Whatever comes, we¡¯ll deal with it!¡± Chapter 582 - 582 530 Luca ?Chapter 582: Chapter 530: Luca Chapter 582: Chapter 530: Luca The convoy finally squeezed out of the city area, with fewer and fewer people on the road, and the highway getting progressively worse. Due to the lack of street lamps, the road ahead was entirely illuminated by the vehicle¡¯s headlights, and the surroundings were pitch black. The sound of gunfire still rang in their ears incessantly, and they could occasionally see the horizon brightly lit up by flashes of artillery fire. Once they left the outskirts of Aden, the convoy stopped. The Yemeni officer stated that they could no longer continue the escort. Any further, and it would be outside their military jurisdiction. Their presence could give rise to misunderstandings and possibly incite a firefight. From this point on, it would be safer for the Chinese to escort themselves. Regardless of the faction, all armed forces were very friendly to the Chinese. Ershun bid farewell to the Yemeni officers and soldiers, expressing his gratitude for their help, and offered them some cash as a token of appreciation. The officer refused to accept it, reiterating once more that his father had once been saved by Chinese doctors. After saying goodbye to the Yemeni military, the convoy continued its journey. Now there were only two vehicles left in the convoy, with a minivan leading the way and a truck trailing behind. They drove for about another hour. From a distance, the light from a flashlight swept towards them. Ershun had the minivan stop. Ershun got out of the car; the minivan did not turn off its engine, and the headlights stayed on. In the light of the car¡¯s headlights, Ershun saw around a dozen fully armed soldiers. This was a military roadblock. Unsure as to which faction had set the roadblock, they were currently inspecting all passing vehicles. Soon, around a dozen soldiers had surrounded the convoy, with two soldiers raising their guns towards Ershun. Ershun identified himself as Chinese, escorting injured Chinese citizens to Oman. A junior ranking officer looked Ershun up and down before taking his passport. Confirming that he was Chinese, his attitude changed instantly. He made a signal, and all the soldiers lowered their weapons. One soldier who might not have seen the gesture kept his gun raised, which provoked the officer. He walked over, forcibly lowering the soldier¡¯s weapon with his hand and even reprimanding him. Yang Ping got off the truck just in time to see this small gesture. It was a sign of respect towards the Chinese¡ªthe officer was indicating to his subordinates not to aim their weapons at the Chinese. The officer told Ershun that he had received orders from his superiors that a Chinese convoy, escorting injured persons, would be passing through, but they still needed to perform a routine check and hoped for his understanding and cooperation. Ershun agreed to cooperate. Four soldiers came out of the ranks, splitting into two teams to separately inspect the minivan and the truck. They asked everyone to get out of the vehicles. Having already gotten out of the vehicle, Yang Ping handed over his passport to the two soldiers. When they found out he was a Chinese doctor, the soldiers gave him a thumbs-up. One of the soldiers climbed onto the truck to inspect the inside. Li Zehui remained in the truck to take care of Dashun, while Robert, Dodge, and Aming were pulled down from the truck by the soldiers. The officer¡¯s face changed dramatically when he saw Robert and Dodge. He immediately shouted a command. The soldiers who had just relaxed were immediately put back on guard. Aming¡¯s passport was Saudi, while Robert and Dodge¡¯s faces didn¡¯t look Chinese at all, so the soldiers singled them out. As Robert, Dodge and Aming raised their hands, the soldiers brought them in front of the officer, who sternly asked: ¡°Who are you? Passports?¡± At this time, everyone had their passports handy. Robert handed his over. The officer skimmed through it and questioned, ¡°You¡¯re not Chinese?¡± Ershun and the interpreter explained from the side: ¡°They are doctors, responsible for the safety of the wounded on the road. They are students of our Chinese doctors.¡± Clearly they planned to question each one individually. The officer paced around Robert and queried, ¡°Student? How can you prove it? Do you have any documentation?¡± ¡°Documentation? In such an urgent situation, we don¡¯t have official documents,¡± Ershun told the officer. The officer beckoned another soldier, one wearing glasses, who looked more educated than the rest. The officer conferred briefly with the bespectacled soldier, then told Ershun, ¡°Since they are students of our Chinese friends, let them speak Chinese? If they can, let them all pass. If they can¡¯t, they need to stay to verify their identities.¡± Speaking Chinese was not a problem for Robert, he immediately rattled off a long string of words and even recited a verse from ¡°Thoughts in a Silent Night.¡± Apparently, the officer didn¡¯t understand Chinese, so he asked the spectacled soldier. The spectacled soldier may have known a bit of Chinese or at least heard it before. Sensing the general meaning, he nodded his head. The officer pushed Robert towards Ershun and said to Dodge, ¡°You¡ªcome here!¡± Dodge was pushed forward. His eyes were clouded over, his mind was buzzing. He did not know Chinese. If he had known Chinese would be so useful, he would have learned it long ago. He looked towards Robert for help, nervous and sweating profusely, his entire body trembling. Dodge is a doctor, unlike Li Zehui who had been to war-torn areas as a medical support. He¡¯s never seen anything like this before. Dodge remained silent for a full few minutes. ¡°You can¡¯t go!¡± The officer took his passport and two soldiers escorted him to one side. ¡°Robert is a student of a Chinese doctor, these two are Robert¡¯s students, so, they are the students of a Chinese doctor¡¯s student. They are all doctors working at IMC Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. They came to help carry stretchers with Mr. Robert. He can¡¯t speak Chinese.¡± Ershun explained for Dodge, not willing to leave him behind. The explanations were a bit convoluted, but it cleared up the relationships. After hearing the translator, the Yemeni officer thought that the relationships were a bit complex. He pointed at Robert and said, ¡°I don¡¯t understand your complex relationships, but I got one thing, are you the son of China?¡± The officer pointed to Dodge, ¡°Is he China¡¯s grandchild?¡± Ershun didn¡¯t want to untangle this any further. It seemed like the officer understood right, basically speaking it was a master-disciple lineage. ¡°Yes, yes, yes, that¡¯s what it means!¡± Ershun confirmed his understanding. ¡°Your great-grandteacher is Chinese, and didn¡¯t you learn any Chinese at all? Are you stupid? I find this hard to believe, next!¡± The officer lost patience and ordered the soldiers to bring up Aming. Aming¡¯s passport was Saudi¡¯s. The Saudi coalition was now at war with Yemen, making him a prime suspect for deep investigation. ¡°You speak Chinese!¡± The officer looked over Aming¡¯s passport, leaving no room for argument. In his judgment, anyone who couldn¡¯t speak Chinese was liable to be marked with a question. Aming immediately said: ¡°The moon born over the sea, seen at the ends of the earth!¡± The officer asked the translator and then laughed, patting Aming on the shoulder, returning his passport and letting him through. Now only Dodge was left detained. ¡°We received an order that this convoy was transporting Chinese casualties. He¡¯s to be left behind, while the rest can leave now.¡± The officer waved, opening up the roadblock. ¡°Do you need our help? Need a few bottles of water?¡± The officer warmly asked Ershun. Ershun said that they had enough water in the car, thanks, but could they give Mr. Dodge another chance. He really hadn¡¯t learned much Chinese. If they just abandoned Dodge, it couldn¡¯t be done. Ershun wished to try negotiating again, if that proved really impossible, he¡¯d report this to his superiors and find a solution. The glasses-wearing soldier came up, seeming to have devised a strategy with the officer. The officer changed his mind: ¡°Alright, let him come over. I¡¯ll ask him a question. If he answers correctly, he can leave. If he can¡¯t, I¡¯ll have to detain him, report to my superior and confirm his identity before he can leave.¡± If he was truly detained, the process of confirming identity would surely be a long one. Dodge was on the verge of a breakdown. If it wasn¡¯t for the people helping him hold himself up, he would have collapsed. ¡°Which is the longest river in China?¡± The officer asked. This glasses-wearing soldier who suggested the question seemed to know a lot about China. The glasses-wearer¡¯s logic was simple. Since you¡¯re a student of one of China¡¯s grandchildren generation, your teacher speaks fluent Chinese, you ought to know something about China. Otherwise, it didn¡¯t make sense. Dodge racked his brains. This was no joke. The other side was armed. One slip-up could cost him his life. This question seemed to be something talked about in geography classes in middle school. Studying in Detroit, the books had information on China. What¡¯s the longest river in China? Robert was getting anxious on the side, but there was nothing he could do. Americans didn¡¯t put much importance on geography lessons and in middle school most geography classes only talked about America. Non-America related matters were glossed over. Their hegemonic mentality was serious, as if America was the world and there was no need to study world geography. How the hell don¡¯t you know this simple question? Robert almost answered for him. Those on the side were rooting for Dodge, ¡°Yangtze River, Yangtze River, say it quick.¡± Sweat the size of soy beans dripped down Dodge¡¯s forehead. He clutched at the corner of his clothes, gritting his teeth. This seemed to be a life-and-death test. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, you must stay. The rest can leave now. Good luck.¡± The officer lost patience. Being a student of a someone in the Chinese grandchild generation, and not understanding China at all, that¡¯s impossible. He must have been trying to sneak by. ¡°You can leave now. We know that you Chinese people mean well and want to take this pitiful friend with you across the border. However, we have our own disciplines to maintain. Our orders are to let Chinese people pass, and we must execute our orders.¡± The officer seemed helpless, military orders couldn¡¯t be disobeyed, especially during wartime. Chapter 583 - 583 531 A Scare Without Danger ?Chapter 583: Chapter 531: A Scare Without Danger Chapter 583: Chapter 531: A Scare Without Danger Dodge had to stay since he couldn¡¯t answer the question. Poor Dodge was almost in despair. He had only come to help Robert, hoping to improve his relationship with Yang Ping, but things didn¡¯t quite pan out as expected. If he stayed, complications would surely follow. Dodge could even foresee his own tragic end. With the officer¡¯s permission, Ershun began to call Manager Qiu to report the situation. No matter what, they couldn¡¯t just abandon Dodge. Manager Qiu would surely find a solution. Yang Ping was standing beside the truck, not boarding it, knowing Dodge was in trouble. However, he wasn¡¯t familiar with the situation and could only wait patiently. ¡°I am an American, you can¡¯t treat me like this,¡± Frustrated, Dodge exclaimed in a fit of confusion. ¡°What did he say?¡± The officer didn¡¯t understand English and turned to the bespectacled man for translation. The bespectacled man was astoundingly cultured and knew English. Upon translating Dodge¡¯s words to the officer, the officer drew his handgun and held it to Dodge¡¯s forehead, causing all the soldiers to suddenly aim their rifles at Dodge. Everyone was taken aback by this sudden shift, and Ershun hastily ended the call. The previously cordial atmosphere dropped to freezing point, as if the surrounding temperature had plummeted to several degrees below zero. This was a gun. The moment the trigger was pulled, a bullet would be released. These were soldiers at war, individuals who had survived deadly situations. Killing someone wouldn¡¯t phase them. ¡°Say that one more time!¡± The officer¡¯s eyes were icy cold. Everyone could feel his lethal intent. Indeed, the bespectacled man understood English. He immediately translated the officer¡¯s words to Dodge. Usually unthreatening, the bespectacled man¡¯s face had turned icy, the tone of his voice completely different, harboring an air of murderous intent and hatred. The officer had disengaged the safety on his gun, loading it with bullets. Ershun immediately sensed the danger. As a former soldier, he felt the potent murderous intent. These men weren¡¯t merely threatening Dodge; their intent to kill was real and could be acted upon at any moment. In his desperation, Dodge believed that he could intimidate them. However, his words only led to a life-threatening situation. His legs were shaking uncontrollably. He could feel a cold liquid trickling down uncontrollably, running down his thighs. He was unable to utter a single word. ¡°Officer, he truly is our friend. He accompanied the medical plane to pick up our wounded. Now that the medical plane can¡¯t take off, we have to detour to Oman.¡± Ershun remained calm. The situation called for efforts to defuse it. If the soldiers became angry, Dodge was a dead man. ¡°Officer, I am a student of Chinese Professor Yang and have been to China. I am conversant with Chinese, and my Chinese name is Radish Head. He hasn¡¯t been to China and doesn¡¯t understand Chinese. Professor Yang has never taught him directly. Recently, Professor Yang was invited to Saudi Arabia to perform a charitable surgery ¡ª the patient was a poor infant from Yemen. This surgery was a rare, high-risk procedure internationally. As a result, I brought Dodge to Saudi Arabia to learn from the surgery. Later, Professor Yang went to Yemen to rescue a friend from a vehicular accident, and we followed to assist him.¡± Robert quickly clarified the situation. ¡°I¡¯m sorry! I¡¯m truly a doctor,¡± Dodge managed to stutter. The officer glanced at Robert and then at Ershun. Ershun nodded in agreement. The officer¡¯s expression softened slightly. He slowly lowered his gun, and the rest did the same. Dodge was on the verge of fainting. Ershun and Robert tried to help him, but the soldiers gestured for them to stay away. ¡°Officer, he is indeed our friend. Due to the urgency of the situation, related documents haven¡¯t been processed.¡± The officer looked at the trembling Dodge, believing in Ershun¡¯s words. At that moment, the bespectacled man suggested a possible course of action to the officer: A student of a Chinese professor may never have been to China or speak Chinese, but they should know some personal details about their mentor¡¯s grandfather, such as his name, the hospital where he works, and his medical achievements. As long as Dodge could provide this info, they could bring in the professor for verification. If Dodge could share this information, it would prove the validity of his statement. If not, he was certainly deceitful. Heeding the bespectacled man¡¯s new strategy, the officer decided to give Dodge one last chance. ¡°What is the name of your mentor¡¯s grandfather?¡± Dodge eagerly grabbed at this lifeline. This was a question he knew the answer to. He had gathered a wealth of information on Yang Ping to outdo him during case discussions and could recite a few of his major papers. ¡°Yang Ping!¡± ¡°Which hospital in China?¡± The officer continued questioning. ¡°Sanbo Hospital!¡± ¡°Medical achievements?¡± The bespectacled man asked the third question directly. Dodge fluently named a few of his papers. Only then did the bespectacled man signal a soldier to get Yang Ping, saying, ¡°Could you please get the Chinese doctor we had just now.¡± Apparently, the bespectacled man truly understood Chinese. He was the cultured one in their team, and his strategies were indeed effective. Yang Ping, who had been standing by the truck all along, immediately came over. He had been too far from Dodge to hear their conversation. ¡°I¡¯m really sorry, but I need to ask you a few questions to verify his identity,¡± the officer asked politely. ¡°Please go ahead!¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t know what they were up to, but he knew he had to cooperate with them. ¡°Your name?¡± ¡°Yang Ping!¡± ¡°Which hospital do you work at in China?¡± ¡°Sanbo Hospital!¡± ¡°Your medical achievements?¡± Medical achievements, this question is too broad, it¡¯s hard to answer. Glasses guy immediately supplemented, ¡°That is, the papers you¡¯ve written.¡± It seemed like Glasses guy might be a college student. This checkpoint was probably very important, and it served all kinds of people, so it was logical to assign a highly cultured soldier to man it. Yang Ping listed several papers published on top-tier journals, which perfectly matched what Dodge said earlier. The officer and Glasses guy exchanged a glance, thinking there should be no problem. No one trying to sneak past the checkpoint by blending into the crowd would be this familiar with Chinese doctors, so the officer approved of this approach. After thinking for a moment, the officer said, ¡°You can all go. We will soon be crossing the desert. Are you sure you have enough water?¡± The soldiers promptly disbanded and the barrier was now open. Ershun sighed a breath of relief, shook hands with the officer for a farewell, everyone got in the car, and the car team began to depart. Soldiers along the road waved to them. To maintain air circulation, both sides of the truck canopy were open, making two large windows. As Yang Ping watched the waving soldiers, he felt a mix of emotions. He had never felt such a profound sense of the word ¡°Motherland¡±. After about ten minutes, Yang Ping saw several armored vehicles on the side of the road, and vaguely, a lot of soldiers were in ambush. This checkpoint must be very important, otherwise there wouldn¡¯t be so many soldiers lying in wait. The following journey took the convoy off the beaten track, toward less populated areas. This way, they could move faster and were less likely to encounter checkpoints. To minimize bumps, the truck was laid with thick cushions. Everyone left one person to watch Ershun and the rest tried to sleep against the railing. Before entering the desert, everyone stopped to rest, eat dry food, and drink water before carrying on. The vast darkness of the desert, under the sparse moon and stars. Dodge felt like he was surviving a catastrophe. He sat on the truck in silence until Robert comforted him by wrapping an arm around his shoulder. Yang Ping handed a bottle of water to Dodge and Robert took it and urged Dodge to drink some water. Everyone could smell the urine stench on Dodge¡¯s pants, but everyone pretended not to know. After roughly more than twenty hours, finally, they crossed the border. Miraculously, there was no resistance at the border of Oman and Yemen. The convoy entered Oman directly. After driving into Oman for about ten minutes, a helicopter came across them. It flew low, shouting at the convoy. The convoy stopped and the helicopter circled a few times before leaving. Soon a patrolling military vehicle came to inspect the convoy. Compared to Yemen, Oman has always been relatively stable. Although it can¡¯t be compared to Saudi Arabia, it¡¯s still one of the wealthier countries in the Persian Gulf. Oman has a somewhat isolated feel to it; it¡¯s quietly made its fortune through its rich oil resources, its citizens live in peace and pleasure, life is good. Yemen, on the other hand, is frequently marred by civil war. Despite abundant oil resources and excellent ports, it remains desperately poor. This goes to show how crucial stability is for a country¡¯s development. Without a stable environment, everything equates to zero. The military vehicle stopped and soldiers checked everyone¡¯s passports. Next, they got information about the situation, made a phone call to report to their superiors. Finally, they told Ershun that they were in Zufar Province, and if they continued along the road for another 60-odd kilometers, they would reach the best hospital in Zufar. By now, it was deep into the second night. The convoy stayed on the road. The size of Oman¡¯s provinces is about the same as the size of my county. Finally, they found the hospital that the soldiers mentioned as the best one. Everyone transferred Ershun to the emergency department and got a bed for him. Li Zehui found out that he actually knew someone there. When he was doing medical support, one of the doctors from Zufar had attended his training class. He talked to the emergency department¡¯s doctor only to find out this doctor was a surgeon at this hospital. The emergency doctor helped Li Zehui get in touch with the surgeon. This Omani doctor was ecstatic when he saw Li Zehui. After finding out that they were escorting an injured person from China, the doctor became even more excited. The Omani doctor helped them get a bed in the ICU; Ershun was transferred to the ICU ward. Ershun had a fever and had not been checked with any equipment in over twenty hours. Yang Ping wrote down the condition of the illness and the next steps in terms of what needed to be done, then told the Omani doctor. The enthusiastic Omani doctor had the ICU doctors execute the instructions right away. They put Ershun under various monitors and drew blood for testing. Now that there was an ICU bed, Yang Ping felt much better. He decided to let Ershun stay here for a few days until he was feeling better before flying him to Saudi Arabia. If all went well, there may not be a need to go to Saudi Arabia. The Omani doctor arranged for everyone to stay at a hotel nearby and Dodge headed to the bathroom to shower. Everyone ate and showered before retiring to rest themselves. They were completely worn out. Yang Ping was worried about Ershun¡¯s safety. Thanks to the Omani doctor¡¯s intervention, the hospital agreed to let Yang Ping and Li Zehui rest in the ICU¡¯s staff room. If an emergency arose, the on-duty doctor could easily get their support. The Omani doctor also stayed in the ICU staff room with them. Chapter 584 - 584 532 The Impatient Dean ?Chapter 584: Chapter 532: The Impatient Dean Chapter 584: Chapter 532: The Impatient Dean The largest hospital in Zufar is located in the capital of Serrai. The next day, Mr. Aleph, the director of the capital¡¯s hospital, received news that several of the world¡¯s top surgeons had gathered in his hospital. The director was overjoyed, especially when he learned that one of them was the chief surgeon of the Mirror Man surgery at the IMC Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The director, a thoracic surgeon, is one of the elites in Oman¡¯s medical sector. He had studied in Australia and a friend at Jeddah¡¯s IMC Hospital told him about the surgery performed on a Yemeni baby. So he knew about this rare surgery, he just didn¡¯t expect that when he woke up, this legendary chief surgeon was now in his hospital. Aleph immediately called the doctor who had provided the information into his office. This doctor was Oman¡¯s doctor, who knew Li Zehui ¨C his name was Ode. The director gave Ode a strict order ¡ª retain this group of doctors for a few days. The capital¡¯s hospital will provide the best medical conditions for the Chinese injured. Though in some aspects it can¡¯t compare with Jeddah¡¯s IMC hospital, in others, Jeddah¡¯s IMC hospital also can¡¯t compete with the capital¡¯s hospital. In the end, the director decided to take the initiative. In the ICU doctor¡¯s duty room, the director saw Yang Ping and Li Zehui who had just finished breakfast. This director studied in Australia, so he speaks fluent English. There was no time for Dr. Ode to introduce him. The director was extremely excited and immediately shook Li Zehui¡¯s hand: ¡°Professor Yang from China, it¡¯s a pleasure to meet you. The capital hospital will provide the best medical conditions for your injured patients and you will be free to fully supervise the treatment.¡± The director chattered incessantly. Generally speaking, Jiddah in Saudi Arabia has serious air pollution, whereas here the air is fresh and this place is quiet and beautiful, closest to nature. Whether it¡¯s true or not, that¡¯s what the director said. Perhaps Yang Ping looked too young, so the director mistook him for the assistant. The director also grasped Yang Ping¡¯s hands: ¡°Young man, stay as well, stay until the patient is out of danger. The air in Serrai is hundreds of times better than in Jiddah, it¡¯s especially suitable for patient¡¯s convalescence. Many people from Saudi Arabia specially come here for their recuperation. Our neighbors are in a state of conflict, but we are still peaceful and quiet, there is no sound of gunfire here.¡± ¡°This is Professor Yang!¡± Li Zehui finally got his hand away from the director and took the opportunity to clarify. With an awkward expression, the director quickly apologized: ¡°I see, I was too excited. I¡¯m sorry, Professor Yang. Our ICU¡¯s artificial heart-lung machine is the latest model, just imported. What Jiddah¡¯s IMC Hospital has, we are not lacking. Besides, we have sufficient staff and beds. As you should know, Zheng He, an ancient Chinese navigator, once visited Serrai. We¡¯ve been friends ever since.¡± Yang Ping thought, it would certainly be better if they could stay and not be transferred. If what this director said is true, staying here would be a good thing. ¡°At least let the patient get out of the critical condition before being transported.¡± The director insisted on their stay. The director was eager to keep these top doctors, especially Yang Ping to give lectures and improve the technical strength of the hospital doctors. Although it might not make much difference in a short period of time, it could broaden the doctors¡¯ horizon and enhance their concepts. More importantly, it established a friendship, paving the way for the future development of the hospital. These people were all considered top-notch, hard to invite under normal circumstances. How could he let them go easily now? All he needed was a few days, and besides giving lectures, there could be free clinics to establish friendships. Then, Zufar¡¯s capital hospital would receive reliable technical support, and the reputation would get out, leading to better and better development in the future. The capital hospital has only more than four hundred beds, but it is considered a large hospital in Oman. There are less than ten thousand beds in the whole of Oman, which might not match a single hospital in China. For example, a certain hospital in China is known as the largest hospital in the world with more than ten thousand beds, surpassing the total number of beds in the whole of Oman. But Serrai has a population of only ten thousand, comparable to the size of a town in China. A city with a population of ten thousand, a hospital with four hundred beds can easily handle the medical tasks. Zufar has a population of just over two hundred thousand, so the workload at several hospitals is very relaxed. ¡°Ode, how is breakfast coming along?¡± The director is an impatient man, wanting to guide the professors to tour the hospital to showcase his strength after they had finished breakfast. ¡°We¡¯ve already eaten!¡± Yang Ping had just finished breakfast. ¡°That¡¯s good, oh, I should check on the injured. How are they?¡± The director immediately took action. Donning his isolation gown, mask, and cap, he went to visit Datushun by his bedside in person. Yang Ping, Li Zehui, and all other ICU doctors followed him. Ershun was still unconscious, but his temperature was being managed physically with ice hats and blankets, and there was no significant problem. Despite the increase in white blood cells, the procalcitonin concentration was within the normal range, which indicated that the fever was not caused by a systemic infection. ¡°Organize a specialized team to take care of this Chinese patient, go through green channels for all examinations, and try to conduct them as soon as the patient arrives,¡± instructed the hospital director from the bedside. The head of the ICU personally led the formation of a medical team on the spot specifically to care for Ershun. However, there seemed to be no other patients in the ICU. Besides Ershun, there was one other patient, who was loudly demanding porridge from the nurse. The hospital director waved his hand and the head of the ICU approached. The director asked, ¡°What¡¯s the story with that patient who wants porridge? He seems to be fine?¡± ¡°He¡¯s got high blood pressure-induced cerebral hemorrhage, bleeding in the basal ganglia area, but it¡¯s only a few milliliters. He¡¯s been here for three weeks and could be transferred back to the general ward,¡± replied the ICU head with embarrassment. This patient could have already been transferred out of ICU, but if he was, the ICU would look empty and that would not give a good impression. So he was kept around. ¡°In that case, let¡¯s transfer him out,¡± the director decided. At least for now, the entire ICU could be given over to the Chinese patients, a feat that the Jeddah IMC hospital in Saudi Arabia could not have managed. Free medical care is practiced in Oman, so patients don¡¯t worry about money while undergoing treatment, which makes communication very straightforward. They are willing to be transferred to whatever department is suggested, as long as they get better before going home. However, the patient insisted that he would eat his porridge before leaving and wanted to walk back to the ordinary ward himself instead of being pushed in a bed. The doctors and nurses promptly refused his unreasonable request. ¡°Professor Yang, look at our ICU beds, doctors and nurses ¨C we have an abundance of them, unlike Jeddah. Now that the Chinese patient is post-operative, he needs an excellent recovery environment. That¡¯s something we specialize in. There are several hospitals in the surrounding cities, all with ICU beds, so the pressure on medical resources is almost non-existent. Oh, and about the costs, we provide treatment for these injured patients free of charge, and about medications, we have all sorts. If we run short, we can request more from the Royal Hospital. The best course of action would be to keep the patient here until he is well enough to demand porridge, then he can leave,¡± the hospital director talked at length, adjusting his glasses. ¡°Moreover, you can use your free time to help improve our medical skills. This would be beneficial for the people of Zufar and Oman. We desperately need advanced medical technologies from around the world. The people of Zufar and Oman will be grateful for your contribution,¡± added the hospital director, shaking Professor Yang¡¯s hand with enthusiasm. Professor Yang was indeed impressed with the ICU facility. Its key advantage was that there was no pressure of limited medical staff or beds. He believed staying would indeed be advantageous for Ershun¡¯s recovery. Originally, the decision to go to Jeddah IMC Hospital was influenced by its safe environment, and advanced medical technology and equipment. While this place might lack advanced medical technology and equipment, there was an abundance of medical staff here. At that moment, two nurses started suctioning sputum from Ershun and turning him. ¡°Let¡¯s have four nurses, no, six, help with turning him over,¡± ordered the hospital director. Six! This number impressed Yang, signifying the advantage of sufficient manpower. ¡°Mr. Director, we are sincerely grateful for your kindness. Yet, if we decide to stay, we may trouble you,¡± decided Yang, although he knew he had to discuss with Ershun as the plan was changing. ¡°No, no, no, not at all troublesome,¡± the director seemed very relaxed. Six nurses began to turn Ershun over, and then cleaned him with warm water. Then, assisted by two nurses, two doctors began changing Ershun¡¯s dressings, very meticulously. ¡°The wound must be kept absolutely clean. If there¡¯s any oozing, immediately change the dressings,¡± the director continually reminded them. In the end, all the sheets and blankets on Ershun¡¯s bed were replaced with fresh and tidy new ones. When everyone left, one doctor and one nurse remained by the bedside. Back in the doctor¡¯s office, Yang called Ershun. Ershun, along with Robert and Aming, were already in the family waiting area outside the ICU. Yang asked the hospital director to wait while he discussed with the family members. Ten minutes later, Yang gave the director a definitive answer: they would stay. The shrewd Arabian man had successfully achieved his goal. He grasped Yang Ping¡¯s hand again. ¡°I forgot to tell you my name. It¡¯s Aleph. I¡¯m impatient by nature.¡± Chapter 585 - 585 533 Camel Man ?Chapter 585: Chapter 533: Camel Man Chapter 585: Chapter 533: Camel Man The impatient dean didn¡¯t break his word as he assembled all the hospital resources to treat Dashun. Due to Dashun¡¯s severe hypoproteinemia, he required human serum albumin. As the capital hospital lacked this, he urgently acquired twenty bottles of human serum albumin from the Royal Hospital in Muscat. The capital hospital had no nutritionist, so Dean Aleph hired one temporarily through his connections to specifically configure enteral nutrition for Dashun. Every day, he personally attended Dashun¡¯s daily condition briefing. Dashun was quite lucky, having the entire ICU to himself for several days in a row. On the fifth post-operative day, his body temperature stabilized. On the sixth day, Dashun woke up. On the seventh day, the tracheal intubation was pulled out. On the eighth day, he opened his eyes and began to talk. To show their gratitude to Dean Aleph and the capital hospital, Yang Ping, Robert, Li Zehui, and Dodge organized a ten-stage surgical training course at the hospital. After the completion of the first stage of the training course. Upon learning that Yang Ping¡¯s main specialty was orthopedics, Dean Aleph quickly recommended a very rare patient case to him: The Camel Man! The patient resided in the Zufar province and had been treated at the Royal Hospital. Due to the complexity of the surgery, there wasn¡¯t a doctor in Oman who would undertake it. The Royal Hospital had also sent the patient¡¯s data to doctors in Europe and America for virtual consultation, but to no avail. ¡°Feida, Feida!¡± Dean Aleph called over the Orthopedics Director, Feida: ¡°Please go and get that little girl¡¯s information!¡± Her case was first diagnosed at the capital hospital in Zufar. Unable to treat her, they referred her to the Royal Hospital. After bouncing around from the Royal Hospital to doctors in Europe and America, this eighteen-year-old girl ended up back at her circus in Zufar. No one knew how to perform the surgery! Director Feida brought the films from his office into the meeting room and hung them on the light box for everyone to see. The images were of a full-body CT scan to reconstruct the skeletal structure. At first glance, the entire skeleton resembled that of a reptile. ¡°Genu recurvatum disease?¡± Yang Ping recognized the peculiar image at first glance. ¡°Correct, this is Genu recurvatum disease. Have you ever come across a case like this, Professor Yang?¡± Although Director Feida, who was in his fifties, attended numerous academic seminars about this case and had engaged in teleconsultations with experts from Europe and America, there was still no clear operative plan after all the discussions. Yang Ping shook his head. The disease was scarce, so how could he possibly have encountered it in reality? ¡°During my time in orthopedics, I researched this disease and am quite familiar with it through literature.¡± In reality, there were very few documents on this disease. ¡°Doctors at the Royal Hospital have been in contact with some specialists from Europe and America, but they have no suitable plan. Treating only the knee joint deformity would have been feasible, but her deformities are too complex for her to be able to walk upright, and no one has surgical experience for this.¡± Being able to count the number of worldwide cases on one hand, it would be entirely normal for nobody to have experience. Genu recurvatum disease, also known as ¡°Camel Person,¡± causes the knee joint in both lower limbs to reverse, turning forward and backward. This way, the patient cannot walk like a normal person and can only crawl like an animal using all four limbs. Their entire body shape is like that of a camel, hence the name. Yang Ping pointed to the CT reconstruction image on the viewbox screen and said: ¡°Both hip joints are severely underdeveloped, the knee joints have dorsal deformities, the ankle joints have in-turned deformities, and the forefoot also has the same deformity. The femur and tibia show bow-shaped deformities. To restore the ability to walk normally, artificial joint replacements have to be performed at the hip joints and knee joints, corrective fusion at the ankle joints, reshaping of the arch of the foot, osteotomy at the femur and tibia, relocation of nerves and blood vessels from the anterior to the posterior of the knee joint, and reconstruction of the trajectory pathway of the lower limb. The weight of the body needs to pass down the spine, through the sacroiliac joints on both sides, to the head of the femur, and then along the vertical line of the lower limb to the mechanical center of the arch of the foot.¡± This surgery, the simple replacement of the knee joint alone, requires highly skilled surgical techniques. Not to mention the combination of a series of surgeries together to achieve a common goal: upright walking! The combination of such surgeries becomes exceptionally complex with the aim of being able to stand upright. ¡°Do the knee and hip joints need to have a soft tissue balance? For the body to adapt to an upright state?¡± Robert asked. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Humans evolved from four-legged crawling to upright walking over millions of years. We now need to perform a surgical procedure to help her stand upright. It¡¯s not as simple as straightening the limbs; they need to adjust to the function of upright walking after straightening. That¡¯s the core of the problem. The whole process requires a comprehensive surgical plan.¡± ¡°Can she hope to stand up?¡± Dean Alef was curious. ¡°Using digital simulation technology to do biokinetic modeling of the entire skeleton, then using the model to find the trajectory. With 3D printing technology to print out the entire skeleton and then trial surgery. Continually verify in multiple trials, whether the trajectory found by the computer is optimal; find the best way to reconstruct it, all surgeries are optimized around the core of the trajectory. Of course, to achieve the goal, the artificial joints must be personalized.¡± Yang Ping briefly outlined the surgery plan. As for the details, they cannot be determined yet. ¡°Professor Yang¡¯s surgeries were the main force for many seemingly impossible surgeries, such as the rescue of the half-man in trauma surgery, the folding man in the scoliosis and joint correction, and shoulder and knee ligament reconstruction in sports medicine.¡± Robert believed that Yang Ping is omnipotent. This kind of surgery, Yang Ping will definitely perform. Orthopedic correction surgery, this was Yang Ping¡¯s main field of work, old but gold. Dean Alef was about to ask Yang Ping if he was sure about the surgery, Yang Ping said: ¡°Where¡¯s this girl, bring her to me to see, there¡¯s a big chance she¡¯ll be able to stand up.¡± Dean Alef and Director Feida had never heard such confident words before. The impatient Dean said: ¡°We¡¯ll contact her right away and arrange for a car to pick her up. She works in a circus in our city of Serrai, Feida, you go pick her up yourself, right now, this afternoon, so Professor Yang can see her.¡± Director Feida knew that the dean was a man in a hurry. He didn¡¯t dare to delay and immediately set out to accomplish the task. After the class, Yang Ping went to the ICU to visit Da Shun who was being fed porridge by the nurse. After visiting Da Shun, Er Shun took Yang Ping and his group to have lunch. Upon reaching the bottom of the hospital building, they ran into a few people waiting for Er Shun. These people were all Arabians, either military personnel or police officers. They had all come to visit Da Shun, but he was in ICU and they had no authorization to visit, so everyone asked Er Shun about the patient¡¯s condition. Er Shun said, these are Da Shun¡¯s students, members of the Oman Special Force. His brothers were a bit famous in the military and police circles here in the Middle East. Many countries invited them to teach their special forces or SWAT team Wing Chun, as part of civil exchange. Yang Ping found it strange, Wing Chun? Wasn¡¯t it said that traditional martial arts were declining? Why are these countries¡¯ special forces interested in Wing Chun? Er Shun said with interest: ¡°Professor Yang, Wing Chun is actually not very famous in China, but it is very famous abroad. A Wing Chun disciple named Leung Ting introduced Wing Chun to all of Europe and became a trainer for special forces in many European countries. For example, the martial art used by German special forces is Wing Chun, the only traditional Chinese martial art that has been modernized and is especially suited to the battlefield due to soldiers carrying various weapons and weights. Many competitive martial arts are difficult to use effectively, whereas Wing Chun is the opposite, and is very suitable for this kind of combat situation. In Germany, Wing Chun has almost become their national martial art, Leung Ting¡¯s student Emin Boztepe, is considered the world¡¯s best Wing Chun practitioner, undefeated in four hundred standing fights, publicly challenged the Gracie family, but no one dared to accept. His modified Wing Chun is very fierce!¡± Yang Ping had never heard that traditional Chinese martial arts had such glory and was rather interested: ¡°Teach me some time, I also want to learn martial arts for fitness and self-defense.¡± ¡°Professor Yang, if you want to learn, I¡¯ll teach you tomorrow.¡± Er Shun always saw Yang Ping as a life-saving benefactor, who saved his brother¡¯s life as if saving his own. In the afternoon, in the Orthopedic Ward of the capital¡¯s hospital, Yang Ping met the eighteen-year-old girl. She was wearing a traditional Omani outfit, moving around on the ground with the help of all four limbs. Chapter 586 - 586 534 Surgery in China ?Chapter 586: Chapter 534: Surgery in China Chapter 586: Chapter 534: Surgery in China The girl named Yasmeen had a dream, a dream that might give her a chance to stand up through surgery. In Oman, free medical treatment eased her financial worries about medical expenses; however, there were no doctors in Oman who could perform her surgery. Thus, she had been saving money, hoping that one day she could go abroad for treatment. Now, Director Feida told her that a doctor from China might be able to help her. She immediately put down her work and followed Director Feida to the capital¡¯s hospital. She moved around solely by crawling on all fours, which caused the muscles in her lower limbs to become significantly weaker than normal. In the ward treatment room, Yang Ping asked her detailed medical history, examined her rigorously, measured her limbs, and then recorded her creeping gait from different angles to analyze the force applid to the spine and limbs in a crawling state. After Yang Ping had finished the examination, he asked her: ¡°If you come to China for treatment with me, we can make you stand and walk. Are you willing to do that?¡± Without any hesitation, the innocent girl replied: ¡°I am willing, but I don¡¯t know if I have enough money. How much does it cost to go to China for treatment?¡± Yasmeen crawled onto a chair and took out a small notebook. After looking through it, she said, ¡°I only have savings of sixty thousand US dollars.¡± This frail girl, merely 23 years old, almost never spent the money she earned from the circus over the past few years. It had been saved and converted into US dollars each year, ready for the day when she could go abroad for treatment. The cost of Yasmeen¡¯s treatment was extraordinarily high. Just the price of several custom-made artificial joints was steep, not to mention the costs of computer modeling and 3D printing. Cross-border treatment could easily cost more than half a million RMB. Sixty thousand dollars was definitely not enough. Yang Ping told her: ¡°We are friends of Dean Aleph, we will perform the surgery for free.¡± This case carried an immense scientific research value. Yang Ping planned to treat her free of charge as a way to express his gratitude to Dean Aleph. Dean Aleph had always been very concerned about Yasmeen¡¯s condition and actively helped her find doctors. ¡°If this is the case, I am willing to go to China with you for treatment,¡± Yasmeen was overjoyed. She had finally waited for this day. Yang Ping felt that she should discuss it with her family members. But Yasmeen said that she had no family. She was alone, and her circus companions were her family. Some surgeries can be completed with a few simple tools; others require a whole system of support. Yasmeen¡¯s surgery required a complete system for support. Oman did not have such a system, but China did. Moreover, when it came to these special surgeries, Yang Ping no longer considered simply completing the surgery. He used scientific thinking to approach the entire treatment process. Each surgery needed to be elevated to the level of academic research so it could benefit more people. If he only accumulated personal experience, he could only be considered a surgical technician. ¡°In a few days, I am going back to China. I will give you the address and contact information. You can bring her to China, and we will handle all the treatment costs,¡± Yang Ping made up his mind. He was going to help this girl stand up again and realize her dream. ¡°Yasmeen, you can go back and prepare, I will arrange everything.¡± Dean Aleph asked Director Feida to take her back to the circus. The old dean felt that he had made a fortune. Keeping this Chinese professor was the most correct decision he had made since becoming a dean. ¡°You are going back to China?¡± Aleph seemed reluctant to say goodbye. Yang Ping spoke with sentiment: ¡°Yes, Dasun¡¯s condition was stable now, and I need to go back to China.¡± At that time, because Dasun¡¯s condition was severe, Yang Ping was concerned about post-operative infections, complications, and the possibility of secondary surgeries, so he stayed to follow up. Now that Dasun had safely passed the crisis, Yang Ping could fully relax; there was no need to stay here. He had planned to spend the Spring Festival with Xiao Su. Now the Spring Festival had already passed. During this period, Yang Ping could only chat with Xiao Su on WeChat. Fortunately, the internet speed in Oman wasn¡¯t too bad. Professor Su was relieved to know that Yang Ping had left Yemen safely and arrived in Oman. Director Han and Dean Xia were also relieved to know that Yang Ping had completed his mission safely and evacuated to Oman. Certainly, these old men hadn¡¯t celebrated the New Year well; they were always worrying. Robert was with Yang Ping in Oman for so long that many of his clinical questions surfaced. Yang Ping answered patiently. During this period, Robert felt that his medical skills had improved significantly. Dodge now admired Yang Ping very much. Moreover, after being at gunpoint, his mentality had changed significantly, and he no longer felt superior in every way. Oman, a tranquil little country, had plain and straightforward folk customs. Whether it was Dean Aleph or the other doctors, they were all simple and sincere. Yang Ping confirmed Ershun was stable, and had already called Manager Qiu to tell him that he was planning on visiting the Yemeni baby in Saudi Arabia and then returning to China from there. Manager Qiu had been very busy; given the worsening situation in Yemen, he¡¯d been helping the embassy prepare for possible evacuation. Yang Ping suggested that everyone visit Ershun. Ershun had been moved to an ordinary ward today, but this ¡°ordinary¡± ward was anything but. It was a private room, with a dedicated medical care team. In such conditions, Yang Ping felt quite at peace regarding Ershun¡¯s subsequent treatment. If he could stabilize for another week or two, Ershun could return to China and continue with his recovery training at Sanbo Hospital. Entering the ward, they found Ershun on the phone with Manager Qiu. He was speaking clearly, totally lucid. It seemed the bullet fragment in his skull hadn¡¯t had a significant effect. If it would cause epilepsy later, that couldn¡¯t be determined for now. The moment Ershun had pushed his younger brother away and took the blast of the bomb for him, he hadn¡¯t thought he would survive. Neither fearing hardship nor death, these individuals might have retired, but this mindset had already become deeply ingrained. Therefore, when Manager Qiu rallied them, many retired special forces soldiers joined Hua¡¯an Gold Shield, electrified at the prospect of protecting their nation¡¯s enterprises abroad. Money couldn¡¯t measure this. If it were about money, they could make just as much back home where it was safe. What they cherished more was being together with their comrades, living the military life, and fulfilling their mission in another way. ¡°Ershun, I¡¯ll be leaving in a few days. Take good care of yourself. We¡¯ll meet again in China!¡± Yang Ping patted his shoulder. Ershun thumped his chest with his fist, signaling he was recovering quickly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, this life was saved by Professor Yang. I¡¯ll make you proud.¡± Ershun¡¯s younger brother immediately stopped him: ¡°You can¡¯t hit your chest so hard right now. Professor Yang said that it was split down the middle, and it¡¯ll take three months to heal.¡± Yang Ping had used a median sternotomy incision at the time, which most people think causes significant damage, so they rarely opt for it. But Yang Ping held a different view; he thought it caused less damage and provided better exposure. As for tissue healing in human bodies, like the skin, fascia, muscle, tendon, etc., it¡¯s a mixture of existing tissue and scar tissue. The healing of bones is the only exception whereby it¡¯s completely the original tissue¡¯s healing, also known as ¡°bone union¡±. This kind of healing is done through the original tissue recovering the wound, making the post-operation recovery the best. So, the damage from ligament injuries is often more serious than fractures. At this point, another group of soldiers from Oman had come over. They¡¯d heard Ershun was moved to an ordinary ward where he could receive visitors, so they rushed over. Several officers, representing the rest, brought a gift basket into the ward. Each traded high-fives with Ershun. Upon completing the high-five, the officers lined up at the edge of the bed as if waiting for Ershun¡¯s inspection. ¡°Heal up. I still need you two brothers to teach me to fight.¡± Yang Ping made a fighting gesture. Ershun knew he was kidding, so he just laughed. For a period, Dean Xia had actually asked a public security captain, the husband of a nurse at Sanbo Hospital, to teach the doctors and nurses self-defense. The instructor had helped design several moves to deal with violent attackers, both unarmed and using items like pens, patient charts, books, and chairs. During that time, a doctor from a hospital was attacked by a patient. Everyone in Sanbo Hospital was in fear, and the doctors and nurses all over the hospital were practicing martial arts. Dean Xia personally led everyone in morning runs. Everyone but the on-duty and resting staff had to get out and jog, reiterating the self-defense techniques repeatedly. The worst part was, Dean Xia issued an order that aside from the old retired experts, everyone had to be tested and everyone had to pass. But the martial arts campaign really worked. Dr. Lv of the emergency department encountered a patient who chased after him for a beating. He got away safely by using one of the defensive techniques, a blocking move with a chair. He then made a quick escape from the scene and left the problem for the security to handle. Later, Dr. Lv said with relief that if it hadn¡¯t been for the martial arts campaign, his reflexes wouldn¡¯t have been as quick, his physical fitness wouldn¡¯t have been as good, and his consciousness wouldn¡¯t have been so focused on escaping. He ran up several flights of stairs all in one breath, all thanks to Dean Xia¡¯s martial arts campaign, which he felt had given him a second life. Therefore, with Ershun and his brother here, Yang Ping ought to learn a few moves. In case there¡¯s another martial arts campaign, Yang Ping would also like to experience what it feels like to be an instructor. When he went through military training in college, he thought the instructors were really cool. Chapter 587 - 587 535 Professor ?Chapter 587: Chapter 535 Professor Chapter 587: Chapter 535 Professor Dashun successfully made it through the critical period. Yang Ping instructed Ershun that once all his body wounds were stitched up and observed for a week, if there were no problems, he could return to his home country and undergo rehabilitative treatment at the Sanbo Hospital. Three days later, Yang Ping, Robert, Dodge, and Aming returned to Saudi Arabia from Oman. The Yemeni baby, under the care of Marshall, has been stable since the operation. Due to improved nutrition, the little one has actually gained some weight, and his complexion has improved quite a bit, becoming rosy and glossy. This little one drinks bottle after bottle of milk, eating until his belly becomes round before he stops. Nurses from the Philippines say they¡¯ve never seen a baby eat so much. After these days of travelling through three countries, Yang Ping reflected deeply. Countries located in similar geographical locations can have great disparities in wealth, like Saudi Arabia and Oman. Oman is not as rich as Saudi Arabia, but it is decently well-off. And yet, some countries are painfully poor, where having enough to eat is a luxury, like Yemen. Even if you don¡¯t compare it to Saudi Arabia, when you compare Yemen to Oman, one could say that in terms of resources and geographical location, they are very similar. In fact, Yemen¡¯s oil resources are even richer than Oman¡¯s, and were discovered earlier. However, the situations of the two countries are completely different. During Yang Ping¡¯s ten or so days in Oman, his impression of the feudal monarchy was one of prosperity and harmony. But his less than 24 hours in Yemen was filled with memories of gunfire and flight. The world is not a peaceful place, it¡¯s just that he was born in a peaceful country. Yang Ping gained a deeper understanding of patriotism as a result. Without the support of a powerful homeland, a person is like floating grass. After spending one day in Saudi Arabia, bidding farewell to Robert, Dodge, and Aming, Yang Ping flew back to China the next day. The plane arrived at Nandu airport at 11am, and this time only Xiao Su came to pick him up. When Xiao Su collected Yang Ping, she threw herself into his arms and burst into tears. Young lovers separated for more than ten days, such a situation would be unbearable for anyone. Yang Ping did not return to the hospital. He went straight to Xiao Su¡¯s home from the airport. Professor Su had taken a day off specially to wait for the son-in-law at home. When Professor Su heard the news that day, he had been worried sick. It was only when he learned that Yang Ping had been relocated to Oman, that he relaxed. ¡°You¡¯ve looked out the door several times. Sit and wait for a while, they won¡¯t be so fast, Xiao Xuan just called to say they¡¯ve just departed from the airport,¡± Mrs. Su said with amusement. From time to time, Professor Su would say he was going to tend the flowers in the yard, that he thought there was a stray cat on the surrounding walls, and so forth ¨C basically, he was just looking for an excuse to check outside the front door. ¡°Don¡¯t start cooking yet, the cold food won¡¯t taste good,¡± warned Professor Su to his wife. When he saw his daughter¡¯s car turning a corner in the distance, Old Su immediately retreated into the living room, picked up a newspaper and started reading, all the while keenly listening for any commotion outside. ¡°They¡¯re back now? Aren¡¯t you going to meet them?¡± Mrs. Su was perplexed ¨C he had been looking out the door so often before, but now he was just reading the newspaper. Professor Su just grunted in affirmation and continued reading. Finally, the couple arrived ¡°Dad, Mom, we¡¯re back,¡± said Su, holding Yang Ping¡¯s hand. ¡°Hello, Uncle and Auntie?¡± Yang Ping greeted them politely. ¡°Oh, Yang Ping, you¡¯re back,¡± said Professor Su, putting down his newspaper. He immediately called Yang Ping to sit. Mrs. Su was quite frank: ¡°Are you still calling us Uncle and Auntie? It¡¯s about time to schedule your wedding, it would not delay your career.¡± ¡°The kids have their own plans, there¡¯s no rush¡ªbut getting married earlier would be beneficial to the country, to the family, and to yourselves. I support this,¡± Professor Su was adept at using evasive tactics, unlike his wife who was more straightforward. Mrs. Su kept busy by pouring tea, pushing the fruit platter in front of Yang Ping, and preparing lunch in the kitchen. ¡°Mom! Dad!¡± Yang Ping hastily corrected himself. Mrs. Su chuckled satisfyingly: ¡°That¡¯s better, sit down and chat with your father.¡± ¡°How are you, okay?¡± Professor Su anxiously asked. But this was just a rhetorical question, as Yang Ping was already standing right there in front of him. ¡°Everything went smoothly,¡± Yang Ping knew what Professor Su meant. The pair sat down and started to chat. Whether as a son-in-law or a talented young man, Professor Su had nothing but love for Yang Ping. After lunch, the two of them talked well into dinner time. After dinner, Yang Ping and Xiao Su finally returned to the hospital. ¡ª Early the next day, Yang Ping arrived at the department to work, Director Han arrived in a hurry shortly after Yang Ping finished his shift change. ¡°You youngster, are you alright?¡± Director Han scrutinized Yang Ping from top to bottom, then slapped him on the shoulder hard. ¡°I¡¯m fine, as soon as I landed, there were people to protect me, I was transferred to Oman overnight after the operation,¡± Yang Ping replied casually. Director Han laughed heartily: ¡°As long as you¡¯re okay. This time, you¡¯ve accomplished quite a bit, I have something to discuss with you, if you¡¯re not busy.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not busy!¡± Yang Ping invited Director Han to sit in his office and made him a cup of tea. ¡°Good news, you are now an attending physician, but the Sanbo Hospital hires you as a deputy chief physician, which is recognized only by the Sanbo Hospital.¡± Director Han took a satisfying sip of tea. This operation was similar to the internal low rank, high appointment in the hospital. Yang Ping was an attending physician, but Sanbo Hospital hired him as a deputy chief physician, which was only recognized by the Sanbo Hospital. Doctors and university teachers have two separate professional title systems, generally speaking, hospital doctors don¡¯t have the opportunity to apply for the title of university teacher at the same time. However, doctors in university-affiliated hospitals are different; they can also apply for the title of school teachers, hence why some doctors are known as professors. Chapter 588 - 588 535 Professor_2 ?Chapter 588: Chapter 535 Professor_2 Chapter 588: Chapter 535 Professor_2 Some provincial hospitals, though not affiliated with universities, have many high-ranking doctors who take on part-time roles and apply for teaching positions at the medical universities within the same province. Yang Ping originally held the position of attending physician. At Nandu Medical University, he could only apply for a lectureship. To attain the position of associate professor, he had to adopt a strategy of being appointed to a higher position than his current one. In the past, such a strategy was impossible¡ªcareer advancement had to be achieved step by step. Recently, Nandu Medical University has implemented reforms, promoting young talents with abilities. Every year, there is a very limited number of positions for appointment to higher positions. However, the requirements are extremely strict and require the recommendation of three scholars in the industry. ¡°Director, are you saying that I¡¯m now an associate professor? An associate professor with a formal employment contract, not just an informal title?¡± Yang Ping asked, taken aback by the sudden news that he, at his young age, was an associate professor. But it doesn¡¯t matter much. Though career advancement among doctors is highly dependent on seniority, this is less so in the case of academic rankings. For example, Su Nanchen¡¯s fiancee became a professor and doctoral advisor at the age of twenty-eight. Among doctors, it is impossible to be promoted to head physician at the age of twenty-eight. For someone like Yang Ping, who is not even thirty years old yet has been appointed to a higher position, this is a very unconventional and daring move. Director Han nodded, ¡°That¡¯s right, it¡¯s the same as when we appointed you as Deputy Chief Physician. This associate professorship is only recognized by Nandu Medical University because it¡¯s an appointment to a position higher than your current one. This is a special treatment reserved for unique talents that requires recommendations from three academicians. So obtaining the title of associate professor is not easy.¡± Old Han thought to himself, why are you worrying about this? As long as you¡¯re an associate professor, it doesn¡¯t matter who recognises it. Don¡¯t you know how excellent you are? Doesn¡¯t your father-in-law know dozens of academicians? Don¡¯t you know this? Given that all these internal and external conditions are met, securing an appointment to the position of associate professor should be a piece of cake. ¡°Tomorrow, your introduction column will add ¨C Associate Professor! That¡¯s all there is to it. You¡¯re busy, I¡¯m leaving. Dean Xia will come to see you in the operating room later.¡± After saying these words, Director Han got up and left, with Yang Ping trailing behind him. After seeing Director Han off, Yang Ping returned to the doctor¡¯s office, where Zhang Lin greeted him, ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Song Zimo came over and put an arm around Yang Ping¡¯s shoulder, ¡°You¡¯re just being rewarded for your abilities. When¡¯s the feast? I plan to make some progress and get another postdoc, so hurry up. When can you mentor a postdoctoral student? I¡¯ll be the first.¡± These guys have sharp ears and would hear the news even if the door was closed. Yang Ping coughed a few times before sitting down. ¡°The professor has something to say, everyone come over for a meeting!¡± Song Zimo waved his hand, signaling everyone to gather. This damn Robert has been calling me ¡®Professor¡¯ for more than ten days, and now I¡¯m actually one. Even though it¡¯s an associate position, it¡¯s still a professorship. When faced with difficulties in scientific research in the future, I can summon Robert to do nothing but shout, ¡°Success, success, success!¡± at dawn. Everyone sat down around Yang Ping, waiting to hear what the newly-appointed professor had to say. ¡°So...¡± What was there to say? Wasn¡¯t this just about being an associate professor? ¡°This weekend, we¡¯ll have a casual dinner at the seaside restaurant. Little Five, book a big room in advance. All doctors and nurses are invited, except those who are on duty.¡± Yang Ping was straightforward and blunt. Song Zimo was a little uncertain, ¡°Are you sure about the seaside restaurant?¡± A high-end seafood restaurant where anything goes, each table could easily cost more than ten thousand. ¡°What, do you want to change the venue?¡± Yang Ping was getting impatient. ¡°No, no, no, it¡¯s settled. Little Five, count the number of people later and call to book a private room.¡± Song Zimo feared that Yang Ping would change his mind, so he asked Little Five to act quickly. He¡¯s still a Ph.D. student, yet he already holds the position of an associate professor. It¡¯s entirely reasonable to make him pay dearly for a meal. ¡°What patients have we recently admitted, tell me.¡± Yang Ping had been out for so many days. There must have been many new patients in and out of the department. Song Zimo started to report the situation of hospital patients in the department during the past ten days. After the report, he said: ¡°There¡¯s one more thing, the hospital is preparing to organize a basketball tournament, our department needs to sign up.¡± ¡°Playing basketball, can we even put together a team?¡± Yang Ping looked around the office. There were only a few of us in the department now, but quite a lot of graduate students and standardized training students. ¡°Our department is currently high-quality but a bit short staffed, you, me, Old Xu, Zhang Lin, Little Five, Li Guodong are all good to go, Liang Fatty is a bit weak physically, but his three-pointer is pretty accurate¨C¡± ¡°Plus, several graduate students, and standardized training students, who aren¡¯t that good at it, one of the good ones got pulled away by Director Mei of the obstetrics and gynecology department.¡± Song Zimo is in charge of the department¡¯s daily management, something like the CEO under Yang Ping, who definitely needs to report these matters. Song Zimo is a basketball expert, and Yang Ping is not bad either. Little Five and Zhang Lin are decent enough, and Fatty is a bit weak, he can¡¯t run, but he has some tricks up his sleeve. Thinking about it, the team seems quite strong, they will put up a good fight in this basketball game. ¡°How is the strength of various departments in the hospital currently?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t really care about this usually. Song Zimo was very familiar with the power distribution in the hospital: ¡°The Emergency Department is pretty strong, Xiong Sihai is worth several players, and he has a few strong men under him; on the administration side, Dean Xia is the team captain himself, several deputy deans are all in. ¡°My god, who dares to fight them for the ball?¡± Zhang Lin cried out about the unfairness. Song Zimo said: ¡°No worries, Professor Zhang Zongshun is the chief referee, the old man has declared that if Dean Xia dares to keep hitting people with the ball, he will be sent off directly.¡± ¡°What about Paediatrics, there¡¯s a guy called Cai Junsheng, how¡¯s he doing?¡± Little Five asked. ¡°That Mama Cai plays quite well, but the other people in Pediatrics are not so competent, no need to worry about them.¡± ¡°The Orthopedics department this year is awesome, they¡¯ve formed a huge team, led by Tan Boyun himself, and they have declared they are aiming for the championship.¡± ¡°Director Mei of Obstetrics and Gynecology has gathered a team of graduate and standardized training students, there are only three men in their department, but they have asked for several pros from other departments saying they will let them leave after the game. They always do this, it¡¯s a silent agreement with the hospital¡¯s management.¡± ¡°General Surgery is also not bad, though they don¡¯t have any strong men, each one is skillful.¡± ¡°Plan well for the basketball tournament and prepare in advance. We¡¯re a new department and we need to show our level this year. You, Song Zimo, should take charge of the organization. In a few days there will be a patient from Oman coming over with a rare disease, genu recurvatum. All of you should do your homework beforehand. It¡¯s a rare case with not many instances in the whole world. The surgery is difficult and will test our biomechanics knowledge. There are many difficult problems to solve. The prosthesis to be used during the surgery needs to be custom-made, you should communicate more with Engineer Chen from Sharp Medical at that time.¡± Huang Jiacai has already moved the headquarters of Sharp Medical to Nandu, G City, which is more conducive to the company¡¯s future development, and has set up a medical equipment research institute, the chief engineer of which is Chen Zhi. Hearing that there would be a challenging case, Song Zimo immediately got excited, as did Xu Zhiliang. Yang Ping called everyone into his office, turned on the computer, and pulled out the data from his email. A 3D reconstruction image of the entire skeleton of a camel human. ¡°Can you guys identify the disease from this?¡± Zhang Lin stared for a long time: ¡°Are you sure these are human bones?¡± ¡°Your IQ¡ªis a bit worrying, the professor even said¡ªit is a genu recurvatum,¡± stutter Xu said to Zhang Lin. Stutter Xu had improved a bit through speech training, at least most of the time he didn¡¯t stutter as badly as before. Zhang Lin blushed, this guy always robs him of his dignity, he should at least give some respect to Teacher Zhang. Chapter 589 - 589 536 Case is Topic ?Chapter 589: Chapter 536 Case is Topic Chapter 589: Chapter 536 Case is Topic Anyways, getting scolded by Xu Zhiliang wasn¡¯t new to Zhang Lin; he was used to it. The two of them belonged to the same medical team. Zhang Lin liked to play the big shot, handling graduate students, standardized training students, interns, and even doctors from outside who came for further studies, very tightly. But, Xu Zhiliang handled him just as tightly. When Xu Zhiliang took him on rounds, he would basically be sweating profusely, shaking with fear. Little Five had also never seen such a case and didn¡¯t know what to say. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had vast knowledge, read various journals every day, although they were unfamiliar with this case, they at least had some preliminary understanding of it. ¡°I¡¯ve seen a document on this, the first case appeared in 1800. Since then, it has sporadically appeared a few times. The cases recorded in the literature show that although the knee bends backward, there is no front-to-back reversal in the anatomical structure. Every one of those cases was caused by various factors leading to ligament laxity, the knee evolving to bend forward excessively, and eventually all patellofemoral and tibiofemoral joints either dislocate or partially dislocate, with the knee stiffening in a deformed backward position. This knee is not the same, its backward bending is not due to ligament laxity, but is completely anatomically reversed. Look, the patella is actually at the back.¡± ¡°Could this be an example of atavism? The knees of mammals, like dogs, face backward.¡± Zhang Lin asked again. He was not ready to give up and wanted to show off because he had recently read an article by Professor Qin Sihe and was trying to learn from him, viewing some orthopedic issues from the perspective of human evolution. Teacher Zhang is awesome! This high-level statement immediately garnered admiring looks from the graduate and standardized training students nearby. Seeing everyone¡¯s reaction, Zhang Lin immediately straightened up, exuding a scholarly presence. It seems that if you want to show off, you need to read more books. Without culture, the failure rate of showing off is very high. Even if you succeed, the level is not high. Xu Zhiliang picked up the conversation, ¡°Is your pet dog¡¯s knee facing backward? The knees of mammals, just like humans, are also facing forward, with the patella in the front. With the patella of this case¡¯s knee behind, where does the atavism come from? Strictly speaking, we should call this case ¡®Knee joint posterior-anterior anatomical reversal deformity.¡¯ Zhang Lin failed to show off again, but there was no other way. This was a case discussion, and everyone was entitled to their own opinions. He learned online that a dog¡¯s knee joint faces backward, and it now seemed that such knowledge from the internet isn¡¯t reliable. He had to read more academic journals in the future. Song Zimo magnified the image and took another look: ¡°Old Xu¡¯s description is very good and very consistent with the situation of this disease. When we write a paper, we can name this disease ¡®Knee Joint Anterior-Posterior Anatomical Reversal Deformity Syndrome.¡¯ The hip joint also exhibits serious underdevelopment and is in a deformed dislocation state, and the ankle and foot are also inwardly deformed. Professor! You can¡¯t possibly be thinking of making her stand up through surgery right?¡± Song Zimo looked at Yang Ping, thinking that he is a half-human half-god guy, has a head full of crazy ideas, and somehow always manages to actualize them. Now, Song Zimo really hopes that Yang Ping can mentor some postdocs in the future and that he himself can become one of them. You say surgery, no matter how impossible it seems, he always manages to perform it as steadily as an old bull. You talk about scientific research. The external spinal fixator for treating scoliosis, such a complex thing, was completed successfully by him in one step. And now he¡¯s preparing to conduct research on a project involving the cultivation of muscle stem cells. If this project is successful, it¡¯s worthy of a Nobel Prize. At this moment, Song Zimo had not the slightest doubt that this guy could make it happen. Learning from such a person, Song Zimo felt excited at the mere thought. ¡°Once this patient arrives, we handle it as a new topic from start to finish. If we handle this case well, no lower limb orthopedic surgery will be an issue in the future. This case practically incorporates all knowledge of lower limb anatomy and physiological mechanics. If we fail to handle even one step well, the postoperative effect will be very poor. If the postoperative effect is too poor, it will backfire. Initially, the patient could crawl around, but after surgery, if they can neither walk nor crawl, they will end up in a wheelchair.¡± Yang Ping hopes that the team will pay attention to this case. Since he¡¯s already a professor, he might as well act like one. Little Five laughed and said, ¡°If the surgery doesn¡¯t go well, not only will there be no chance of a new life, but we might also destroy their current livelihood in the circus.¡± Indeed, that¡¯s how it is! ¡°I will contact Ruixing¡¯s laboratory, carry out 3D computer modeling, and then carry out simulations of osteotomy and soft tissue balance adjustment to find the best force line. After that, we can design the artificial joints for the hip and knee. Little Five, you are responsible for the patient¡¯s reception work. Zhang Lin, you are responsible for case collection, and Old Xu, you will be in charge of checking related materials and collating and organizing them into booklets for everyone to learn.¡± Song Zimo immediately assigned tasks to everyone on the spot. After discussing this case, Yang Ping led everyone on rounds. There was a patient who specifically requested Yang Ping to perform the surgery, saying that he knew Yang Ping and held in his hand a small note written by Yang Ping himself. Yang Ping found it strange, when did he write a note for anyone? When he was doing the rounds, he met this patient. Yang Ping had a good memory and recognized the young man in his twenties at first glance. He used to be a patient that was treated during a free clinic in Nanqiao County. He had uneven lower limbs. When he was a child, he fell from a tree and didn¡¯t receive proper medical treatment. He was treated instead by a folk bone-setting doctor in the countryside who spat cool water on his leg and pulled it hard a couple of times. Consequently, his left leg ended up 5 centimeters shorter than his right leg, and his left ankle and foot also had deformities. He had a limp when walking. The moment the young man saw Yang Ping, he immediately crawled out from the bed and shook Yang Ping¡¯s hand: ¡°Doctor Yang, I¡¯ve finally found you. Do you still remember me?¡± ¡°How could I forget, you are from Nanqiao County, right?¡± Yang Ping immediately remembered him. This guy even said at the time that with today¡¯s medical techniques, men can be transformed into women, so there should be some way to fix his leg too. ¡°You have a good memory. I thought you were the type to forget since you¡¯re successful. Look, Dr. Yang, I¡¯ve kept that note you gave me,¡± The young man carefully pulled out a notebook from his pocket with a note carefully tucked inside it. Upon examining the note, Yang Ping was surprised to see it was laminated. It was well preserved and contained the address, phone number, and name written systemically by Yang Ping. ¡°It¡¯s hard to find hospital doctors, so I dared not lose this note. I only dared to come find you after I had enough money,¡± said the young man as he carefully put the note back in his pocket after Yang Ping returned it to him. ¡°Dr. Yang, in all candor, I want to walk normally and marry a good wife,¡± the young man admitted, stating the ultimate goal of his surgery. Securing a good wife could be a bit challenging because of his leg. Yang Ping chatted casually with him, the young man¡¯s family was poor and had no relatives or friends to speak of. He dropped out of junior high school and started working at a construction site, carrying bricks. He was determined, saved money for a few years doing manual labor, and later enrolled himself in a cooking school. Eventually, he became a chef and his income increased drastically. The young man was also ambitious when it came to finding a wife, he had standards¡ªhe wouldn¡¯t just settle for anyone. ¡°What¡¯s your standard for a good wife?¡± joked Little Five patronizingly. The young man responded seriously, ¡°At least a junior high school education, good conduct, a clean history, healthy, taller than 1.6 meters, a good figure, and good-looking. As a skilled man, I can¡¯t be casual in choosing a wife. Women are allowed to be picky when choosing their husbands, and I should be picky when choosing my wife too ¨C gender equality.¡± This guy had a well-thought-out theory, and his worldview was pretty straightforward. His standards weren¡¯t too high, but they weren¡¯t too low either. If his leg isn¡¯t cured, achieving his goal could be a bit challenging. The young man¡¯s name was Fang Faquan. He had already completed his hospital entry check. Song Zimo passed him the full-length leg X-ray. Looking closely Yang Ping observed a chronic leg fracture which should have overlapped and healed improperly. At the time of injury, he must have been around twelve or thirteen, not leaving much space for the bone to mold, hence the inward rotation and shortening of the tibia and fibula. Even the hip joint, ankle joint, and foot had problems and he also had spine curvature. Corrective operations of this sort are usually difficult as they aim to restore as much functionality as possible. There are three stages of surgical operations: removal, repair, and reconstruction. Reconstruction is the highest level and also quite complicated. An apparently small surgery can become significantly more challenging once functional reconstruction is involved. If someone doesn¡¯t understand the core knowledge of the surgery, the operation may seem very visually pleasing but still not achieve the desired functionality. Just like some small factories can produce perfect replica Porsche exteriors and interiors, but they can¡¯t replicate the core technology, such as the engine and power and all that. Therefore, reconstructive surgery is the ultimate test for a doctor¡¯s skill. ¡°Is the purpose of your surgery just to get a good wife?¡± asked Yang Ping. Fang Faquan did not hide it, ¡°Yes, Dr. Yang, if it wasn¡¯t for this leg, I wouldn¡¯t bother. Although I limp, I¡¯ve gotten used to it, and it doesn¡¯t affect my current job.¡± ¡°You have a clear goal. There are two methods for it. The first one is relatively cheap and simple, and the second one is relatively expensive and complicated. The latter also carries more risks. For the first method, the normal long leg will be shortened by five centimeters, and then the left leg will be corrected. The second method is to correct and lengthen the left leg by five centimeters at the same time. You choose.¡± Yang Ping simply told him the options for surgery. Without hesitation, Fang Faquan replied, ¡°The kind that lengthens it. If the long leg is shortened, I would only be 1.55 meters tall, whereas if the short leg is lengthened, I could be 1.7 meters tall. I asked Dr. Zhang about the cost, and I have enough money.¡± ¡°The latter option carries more risk!¡± added Yang Ping. Fang Faquan replied, ¡°I¡¯m not scared. At most, I¡¯ll still be a cripple, or even a more severe one. What¡¯s there to do without risks? In our kitchen, someone cut off his fingers while chopping vegetables. Just a while ago, an auntie washing dishes stumbled and broke a bone. So, Dr. Yang, please help extend it. Ideally, both sides are stretched. I have read the introduction of your department. There was a patient whose leg was extended by thirty centimeters. Please help me stretch until I¡¯m 1.8 meters tall.¡± Fang Faquan became more and more excited as he spoke. Yang Ping felt that this young man was indeed ambitious, ¡°Your condition is different from others, and it¡¯s good enough to be able to walk normally after correction. Don¡¯t think about making it to 1.8 meters.¡± The young man¡¯s words amused everyone, and they all laughed. He not only had his own opinions, he also had his own views on life. Chapter 590 - 590 537 Insider ?Chapter 590: Chapter 537: Insider Chapter 590: Chapter 537: Insider It will be very difficult for this young man to have normal gait after the surgery. Whether it¡¯s limb lengthening or deformity correction, using Ilizarov technology and utilizing an external fixator is the best choice for correction. Professor Qin Sihe has done a lot of pioneering work in this area, using external fixators for the correction of lower limb deformities, and has accumulated a wealth of experience. The inspiration for Yang Ping¡¯s topic on the use of external fixators for the treatment of scoliosis comes from Professor Qin¡¯s research results, applying the use of external fixators from limbs to the spine. For this topic, the final experimental monkey has been successfully corrected and is now undergoing post-experimental data collation work. The experimental report will soon be ready. The magical Ilizarov technology enables skeletal to undergo magical changes. Yang Ping decided to once again use Ilizarov technology, design a set of personalized external fixators based on Fang Faquan¡¯s lower limb deformity, to complete the calf lengthening, ankle joint and foot arch correction at one go, allowing Fang Faquan to retain sufficient height and realize the goal of walking normally. After checking the room, except for the on-duty doctor, everyone crowded into the operating room, as surgery is the main content of a surgeon¡¯s work. Sometimes, surgeons spend more time in the operating room than they do at home. Now, two operating rooms are running simultaneously. In addition to Liang Fatty, Sanbo Hospital has recruited a new anesthesia doctor for Yang Ping. He is Wei Pengyuan, a graduate of Nandu Medical University. He usually doesn¡¯t talk much and is always serious and dutiful. Before going to Japan, Director Han had mentioned this matter, but Wei Pengyuan was not seen until after Yang Ping returned from Saudi Arabia, when he officially started work. In operating room one, Song Zimo and Little Five went up, the first surgery was scoliosis correction. Just as Yang Ping arrived at the door of operating room one, he heard a voice like a gong. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± Yang Ping turned around and saw that it was Dean Xia, and immediately greeted him: ¡°Hello, Dean Xia!¡± ¡°Professor Yang, happy new year!¡± Dean Xia quickly came over. It¡¯s past Lantern Festival, and it¡¯s still the new year? Dean Xia took out a red packet and gave it to Yang Ping: ¡°Here, here¡¯s your profit.¡± It¡¯s past the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and they are still receiving profit-filled red packets. Yang Ping quickly took it: ¡°Dean Xia, may you be healthy and may all your wishes come true.¡± ¡°Dean Xia, you can¡¯t be biased, you can¡¯t only give him a red packet. May you have a prosperous year!¡± Song Zimo and Little Five, who were disinfecting the patient, saw Dean Xia giving Yang Ping a red packet at the door. Everyone else in the operating room said, ¡°Dean Xia, prosperous year.¡± They are asking for red packets! Dean Xia said seriously, ¡°Be mindful of your words, we can¡¯t say ¡®may you have a prosperous year¡¯ in the operating room.¡± Dean Xia gave a pile of red packets to Zhou Can: ¡°Everyone gets a share, distribute them after the surgery.¡± These guys, who had already received Dean Xia¡¯s red packets, now wanted another one. But these red packets are just ten yuan a pack, just for good luck. ¡°Professor Yang, how¡¯s everything going? Everything went smoothly, right?¡± Dean Xia came to check on Yang Ping for peace of mind. Yang Ping said, ¡°Everything is going well, Dean Xia, it¡¯s better for you to call me Xiao Yang or Dr. Yang. The word professor makes me feel anxious, like there¡¯s a heavy stone pressing on my shoulder.¡± Dean Xia laughed and said, ¡°If you really feel that way, I should call you professor more often. Professor Yang, I have a meeting to attend. I won¡¯t disturb you all. Carry on.¡± This is Dean Xia¡¯s style. He comes and goes quickly. After Dean Xia left, Director Gao came to the operating room. As soon as he saw Yang Ping, he said ¡°Professor Yang!¡± This news is spreading so fast, it seems like everyone knows Yang Ping has been promoted to associate professor. The news must have been disseminated on the hospital¡¯s internal network. ¡°Old Gao? Are you not busy?¡± Yang Ping thought Old Gao seemed to be quite idle even though there were a lot of surgeries in the Sports Medicine Center. Old Gao smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m not busy. I came over to watch your surgery.¡± This guy was also wearing a pendant around his neck. It looked pretty nice. ¡°Old Gao, what kind of trend are you following, putting on this kind of charm?¡± Liang Fatty came over and picked up the pendant on Old Gao¡¯s chest. No surgeon wears such a thing, it¡¯s obviously a violation of the rules. Old Gao has a great relationship with Yang Ping¡¯s team, he quickly said: ¡°It¡¯s a USB drive, a USB drive!¡± Hanging a USB drive around his neck? That¡¯s peculiar. Yang Ping prepared to go to the adjacent operating room to take a look, with Old Gao following behind. Xu Zhiliang was performing a knee replacement surgery with Zhang Lin. ¡°Old Xu, what does Fang Faquan mean by having a clean history when looking for a wife? I¡¯ve never heard of considering a person¡¯s history when choosing a wife?¡± Zhang Lin chatted while assisting in the surgery. Old Xu was a bit annoyed by him: ¡°Other people¡¯s¡ªchoice¡ªof wives, what¡¯s it got to do with you? If you were as diligent¡ªin your studies¡ª-as you are about this, that would be better.¡± Zhang Lin and Xu Zhiliang were interesting. Even though Xu Zhiliang often scolded him, Zhang Lin still enjoyed chatting with him. ¡°I¡¯m just asking because I don¡¯t understand. I asked Little Five during rounds, but he seemed to know, but didn¡¯t want to say.¡± Zhang Lin seemed uncomfortable with not knowing the answer. Director Gao, standing next to Yang Ping, spoke up: ¡°Who considers a clean history when looking for a wife?¡± ¡°One of our patients, who came for lower limb corrective surgery, said the standards for choosing a wife are¡ªjunior high education, good health, beauty, height above 1.6 meters, good figure, moral integrity, and crucially, a clean history.¡± Director Gao understood: ¡°Oh, they are being strict with the anti-prostitution campaign now. Many professionals are losing their jobs, and honest people need to be careful who they end up with. It¡¯s normal to open your eyes wide.¡± After Director Gao made these remarks, many people in the operating room stared at Director Gao. They understood the meaning of a clean history. However, how did Director Gao know so much? How did he escape using such professional vocabulary so fluently? Everyone seemed to understand something, all their eyes focused on Director Gao. ¡°What are you all looking at me for? ¡ªNo¡ªno, don¡¯t misunderstand¡ª¡± Director Gao instantly understood the meaning of their strange looks. This big mouthed guy, he didn¡¯t choose his words carefully. He kept himself clean, even had never gone for a foot massage, these guys don¡¯t think he¡¯s a habitual offender, do they? With such hints, Zhang Lin finally understood the meaning of having a clean history. He felt there was something unusual in it, but he hadn¡¯t expected it to mean this. ¡ª The report on treating scoliosis with an external fixation frame has been sent to Professor Liang¡¯s email. When Professor Liang received the experimental report and saw the data, his first reaction was suspicion of data falsification. How could a new device produce such perfect data? He frowned, repeatedly reviewing the experimental report, without even going to surgery. Those in charge of conducting the experiments were doctors sent by Xiehe, and Professor Liang had no doubts about their academic integrity. He likewise had no doubts about Yang Ping¡¯s academic integrity. But why was the data so perfect, especially for this new invention? Could it be so mature? If it¡¯s true, it would mean that this young man¡¯s research capability is exceptionally strong, surpassing his own understanding. If the data had been falsified, this sort of behavior could ruin a genius. They must guide this young man well, turn back before it¡¯s too late. It¡¯s a difficult decision to make at this time, a slight misstep could either harm a genius, or lead to the misunderstanding of one. Professor Liang hesitated to share his concerns with others, going through several cups of strong tea before still being unable to make up his mind. Finally, at two o¡¯clock, Professor Liang decided to only investigate discreetly. If fraud was indeed found, they must educate and guide effectively. The nurture of a talent is not an easy task. He immediately bought an online ticket to Guilin, deciding to make a surprise inspection of the laboratory. Of course, this visit would not be announced as an inspection, but presented as a casual stopover. Chapter 591 - 591 538 Protagonist ?Chapter 591: Chapter 538: Protagonist Chapter 591: Chapter 538: Protagonist Director Gao didn¡¯t know how to explain, any further explanation would only muddle things more. Fortunately, Xu Zhiliang helped him out unwittingly, noting that the patient for this knee joint replacement surgery had rheumatoid arthritis. Xu Zhiliang asked Zhang Lin and the second and third assistants at the operating table to observe the pannus, a layer of new blood vessels that forms on the synovial surface of the knee joint, causing the cartilage to be completely invaded. Pathological granulation tissue and fibrous tissue form adhesions, causing the knee joint to become fibrous ankylosis due to adhesions. The wall of the operating room had an electronic screen, which the graduate students and standard training students viewing from the bottom huddled around to see. The assistants on the table also adjusted their positions to get a good view and observe the internal changes of a typical rheumatoid arthritis patient¡¯s knee joint. In this way, the topic was switched, giving Director Gao a false alarm. ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯m planning to hold a conference next month. Can you come by and talk if you have the time?¡± Director Gao took the opportunity to completely switch the subject. Director Gao, now very active in the academic world and guided by Yang Ping, has already made substantial progress in shoulder and knee joint surgery and is now a global leader. Moreover, Director Gao and Robert were sworn brothers. Their two departments established a close transnational cooperation, and this conference was co-hosted by both brothers. The academic conference jointly organized by Sanbo Hospital and the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States instantly raised Director Gao¡¯s status in the field. Director Gao sent out invitations to domestic colleagues to attend the conference; and Robert, using his personal influence and that of the New York Special Surgery Hospital, invited a group of top figures in Sports Medicine from Europe and America to China to join in the proceedings. As chairman of the North American Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Association, Robert¡¯s appeal was beyond question. So the academic conference organized by Director Gao, whether in scale or nature, was first-rate. Guan Sheng of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One was Director Gao¡¯s older classmate, and Professor Ye of Beijing Sanbo Hospital was Director Gao¡¯s mentor. When these two saw that attached with the invitation letter was a conference brief stating the names of all the world¡¯s top Sports Medicine figures appearing as guests. The two were baffled. They had not seen Director Gao make much noise before, but when had he suddenly become so prestigious? He organized an academic conference that not only was co-organized by the New York Special Surgery Hospital but almost all the world¡¯s top colleagues showed up to stand by him. ¡°I hate attending conferences the most, so I won¡¯t join in. You guys enjoy yourselves.¡± Yang Ping had an important topic at hand and was trying to participate in these conferences as little as possible. Director Gao knew Yang Ping was busy at the moment. He invited Yang Ping more out of politeness. The new anesthesiologist, Dr. Wei, recognized Yang Ping and immediately got up to greet him. ¡°Hello, Director.¡± Dr. Wei was very formal and respectful. Yang Ping gestured for him to sit down and focus on taking care of the patient and not bother with him. Xu Zhiliang made swift progress. He handled all grade three and four surgeries efficiently, including all orthopedic ones, and gradually ventured into some special and highly difficult surgeries. Song Zimo¡¯s surgical skills were becoming more and more refined. He almost completely absorbed all the techniques taught by Yang Ping, spending a lot of time outside of work to study and perfect them. During his free time, Yang Ping opened his email on his mobile phone. The latest experimental report was ready, and Yang Ping quickly reviewed it. As he had expected, the experiment was very successful. The highly anticipated clinical trials were soon to begin. ¡ª¡ª Professor Liang arrived at the Guilin lab quickly and without prior notice, immediately summoning his doctoral students upon arrival. Dr. Wang, who was responsible for the actual work of the experiment, was a student of Professor Liang. He found it strange that his mentor rushed to the lab without giving him advance notice. ¡°I¡¯m here in Guilin for an academic conference. Since I have some time, I¡¯ve come to check up on you. Bring out your original research data; I want to examine it,¡± Professor Liang said as soon as he sat down, requesting Dr. Wang to bring out the raw data of the experiment. There was a lot of raw data from the experiment. There were over a thousand full-length X-rays of the experimental monkeys stored in the data room. This data was very valuable, serving as an essential source material for the experimental data. ¡°Let me look at the X-rays first. Lead the way!¡± commanded Professor Liang. Dr. Wang led Professor Liang into the data room, from where Liang randomly selected X-rays from five experimental monkeys, over hundred in total. Starting from the monkey¡¯s first X-ray to the last, he read them carefully, measured, and then did some calculations. He then picked several main responsible persons and asked them some questions one-on-one and also checked the record of breeding and management of the experimental monkeys in the lab. Eventually, he asked the lab manager to capture a few monkeys and physically examine the outside of their spine and the condition of their external fixators. Everything was flawless! If the data was falsified, it wouldn¡¯t have been so impeccable. There was no way that someone with Professor Liang¡¯s experience wouldn¡¯t have noticed. So, this animal experiment is indeed perfect? ¡°Professor Liang, it¡¯s strange to me too. The experimental data is so perfect that it seems unreal. I wouldn¡¯t believe this data if I wasn¡¯t the one conducting the experiment,¡± Dr. Wang finally guessed the reason for Professor Liang¡¯s surprise visit to the laboratory. Professor Liang put on a stern face: ¡°Who said I don¡¯t believe it? The device is about to undergo human experiment review, and as the head of the review panel, I¡¯d thought I¡¯d drop by and check the experimental records and data myself. Is that too unreasonable?¡± Dr. Wang did not expect Professor Liang to lose his temper, and dared not say anything more. ¡°Dr. Wang, keep the data well-organized. The spinal external fixator is about to enter clinical trials. Once you finish your work here, you can go back to Xiehe and participate in the clinical trials. I¡¯ll notify you,¡± Professor Liang left a few instructions before he quicklymoved on to have a quick meal and catch the express train to Sanbo Hospital in Nandu. Yang Ping, this young man¡¯s scientific research ability is really too powerful. He¡¯s a genius, a rare genius, a talent that we come across once every few hundred years. Professor Liang immediately concluded, and his view of Yang Ping was elevated another level. These spinal X-rays, which gradually recover from the initial deformities to become normal or near normal. Professor Liang carefully measured and confirmed there was no foul play. This meant that the data from the animal experiments was just like this, so perfect and powerful. Professor Liang has been closely following this experiment and knew that the progress was going very smoothly, but he did not expect the progress to be so great and the data so perfect. If it can be explained by luck, how could all the details be the result of luck? The only explanation is that Yang Ping¡¯s scientific foresight is very accurate, and his design of the topic is so thorough it is almost watertight, to be honest, this level of scientific research ability is a bit scary. A shining star is about to rise, and Professor Liang feels extremely happy in his heart. ¡ª¡ª The next morning, Yang Ping received a call from Professor Liang, confirming that Yang Ping did not have any surgeries scheduled. Within ten minutes, Professor Liang appeared in Yang Ping¡¯s office. Seeing this young man, Professor Liang felt a thousand emotions, almost misunderstanding a genius. Professor Liang thought, our country¡¯s scientific research environment is already very good, and the state invests heavily in scientific research, but the soft environment still needs improvement. And who should make these improvements? It should be us, the so-called predecessors. ¡°Professor Liang?¡± Yang Ping was very surprised, the person appeared in the office as soon as the call ended. ¡°Yang, I was in Guilin for a meeting, visited the laboratory on the way, and then came here to find you. I wanted to talk to you about the next step of the clinical trials.¡± Professor Liang got straight to the point as soon as he sat down. ¡°Your experimental data is very beautiful. You may encounter some doubts in the clinical trial review meeting, so you need to be prepared!¡± Professor Liang took a cup of tea from Yang Ping. ¡°I¡¯m ready, all the original data is available for inspection at any time.¡± Yang Ping said confidently. After thinking for a moment Professor Liang said: ¡°Yang, the development of anything is not achieved overnight. There are unsatisfactory aspects in the current academic environment in our country, which we must admit. But overall, the general direction is good. The country values talents and values science and technology. If you encounter unsatisfied things or people in the future on your scientific research path, you must not make generalizations, feel depressed, and always look forward.¡± Professor Liang¡¯s words carried a deep meaning, even he himself almost misunderstood Yang Ping. In the future, misunderstandings that Yang Ping experiences will definitely not be few. Frankly speaking, he is considered to be broad-minded and can promote young people. But not everyone can do that. If Yang Ping meets narrow-minded people, he may face unjust treatment. Yang Ping understands what Professor Liang means by these words, he said to Professor Liang, ¡°Professor Liang, don¡¯t worry. I don¡¯t have such a fragile heart. This is the best time for us young people.¡± Professor Liang was very satisfied with the young man¡¯s answer, and continued: ¡°Well, I should say this as an elder. Yang, always have a master¡¯s mentality, not a spectator¡¯s mentality!¡± The two of them talked about the topic for a long time, and after finishing, Professor Liang planned to catch his flight back to Beijing. He did not even plan to see anyone else. He did not bring his assistants on this trip. Yang Ping sent Professor Liang to the airport, and they talked for a long time on the way. This old man, in these two days, went a big round. Last night he arrived near Sanbo Hospital. In order not to disturb Yang Ping, he found a random hotel to stay in, and only called Yang Ping the next morning. The country is supported by these seniors. They never complain, do their best to change the country, and make it better and better. They never worry about personal fame and gain, always worrying for the country. Because they possess the most valuable spirit ¨C the master¡¯s spirit. Yang Ping profoundly felt this strong master¡¯s spirit from Professor Liang! Chapter 592 - 592 539 Digital Human Project ?Chapter 592: Chapter 539: Digital Human Project Chapter 592: Chapter 539: Digital Human Project After bidding farewell to Professor Liang, Yang Ping returned to the hospital, organized his materials, and went with his patient Fang Faquan. Huang Jiacai was already waiting downstairs, they were going to the Digital Medical Laboratory at Nandu Medical University. This laboratory is constantly studying the ¡°Digital Human¡± project, which was stifling due to lack of funding. Huang Jiacai took the initiative to approaching Professor He Jirong, the head of the lab, proposing a collaboration where Ruixing Company will provide continuous research funding. At that time, Professor He was skeptical; ¡°Digital Human¡± is a basic medical research, no company would be willing to invest money in it. Such a purely fundamental project that can¡¯t generate profits, is of no interest to enterprises. Corporations prefer fast-paced projects that can make quick money. Professor He doubted whether Boss Huang had ulterior motives. When Huang Jiacai handed him the cooperation agreement, there were no clauses requiring profits, only a request for sharing the results of the collaborative project. Prudent Professor He took the agreement back for several days of consultation, then met with Huang Jiacai again with a try-it-out attitude and the two signed the agreement. After signing the agreement, Huang Jiacai immediately made a phone call, and the account of Nandu Medical University left by Professor He received the first research fund from Ruixing Company¡ªtwenty million. Twenty million! So casually given, Professor He was a bit bewildered at the time. At that time, Professor He saw the sincerity and courage of Huang Jiacai, feeling that his project had hope. This is the first time Yang Ping met Professor He and it was also the first time he used Professor He¡¯s ¡°Digital Human¡± technology. Yang Ping wants to use the ¡°Digital Human¡± technology to construct a dynamic model for Fang Faquan¡¯s motion system. Then, using computer to optimize the force line, calculate the ostectomy site and direction, determine the pinhole position of the external fixation device, and perform dynamic simulation of the correction process. These simulations could be done by Yang Ping in the system space. But the experience gained in the system space can only serve as his own surgical reference, which he is not satisfied with. He wants to elevate these experiences into scientific technologies that can contribute to medical advancement. Therefore, the best choice is to simulate surgery with computers. If they could use the data obtained in the system space for computer modelling, the computer simulation technology would become extremely accurate. Professor He had been waiting at the entrance of the research building. The research building houses many labs, with the digital human project being just one of them. The great respect shown by Huang Jiacai and Yang Ping towards him was not about Professor He bowing to his financial backer; it was because Huang Jiacai, a boss who only has high school education, had genuine vision and insight, and shows great respect for both Professor He and the other researchers. Professor He and Huang Jiacai had already become friends who felt that they should have met earlier. Today, Huang Jiacai bringing Yang Ping over indicates the importance he attaches to the task. Of course, he doesn¡¯t know the real relationship between Yang Ping and Huang Jiacai. The digital medical laboratory occupies only half a level on the third floor. After introductions and socializing, Professor He took Yang Ping and Huang Jiacai to their usual office. ¡°If it¡¯s convenient, shall we start building the model now?¡± Yang Ping proposed to start working as soon as he sat down. ¡°Yes, I am ready, President Huang informed me that Professor Yang needs to establish a model of lower limb walking function this time. We have just perfected the simulation of lower limb function. Without the module of digital human function, building this model would surely take several months. But now we have a module of digital human lower limb function, and by adding the module of external fixation, we could achieve modeling in just a few days. Once these modules become matured, modeling could be achieved in just a few hours.¡± Professor He was very excited, feeling a sense of achievement when someone uses his technology. Huang Jiacai said to Professor He, ¡°Professor He, just call me Xiao Huang, avoid using the formal term ¡®President Huang¡¯, it feels alienating.¡± Professor He liked this young man and immediately agreed, ¡°When we had just started simulating lower limb functions, we encountered funding difficulties, and it was at this very moment that Xiao Huang made a generous donation of twenty million, enabling us to complete the lower limb walking function modeling in one effort.¡± Currently, the ¡°Digital Human¡± is still at the anatomical human stage, and only the lower limb motion function has entered the functional human stage. Professor He asked a graduate student to take Fang Faquan to the motion information collection room. Professor He, Yang Ping, Huang Jiacai, and a few graduate students were in the computer room next door. The two rooms were separated by a glass wall and connected by a small door. The graduate student instructed Fang Faquan to perform movements according to the instructions, explaining each directive clearly and demonstrating as required. The young man was somewhat clever and had a good learning capability, and quickly learned how to perform movements according to the instructions. The floor of the motion information collection room and Fang Faquan¡¯s body were both outfitted with many sensors, and high-definition high-speed cameras with different angles were installed on the ceiling and walls to capture different side profiles of motion states. Slow walking was first, followed by sprinting, then jumping, abrupt stopping, and turning. Each motion state needed to capture a lot of dynamic images. On the computer screen in the lab, a model figure mimicked the same movements as Fang Faquan. This model was a stripped-down human motion system consisting of only bones, joint capsules, ligaments, muscles, and tendons. The image was a reconstruction composed of Fang Faquan¡¯s skeletal CT 3D, muscles and tendons MRI 3D, combined with the Digital Human model. Once Fang Faquan¡¯s motion data was fully captured, the screen split in half. One half still showed Fang Faquan¡¯s model, while the other half showed the model of a normal person¡¯s version of Fang Faquan. The latter model was generated based on corrections to the former one. Then, they demonstrated the dynamic process of transformation from deformity to normality using animation. Yang Ping explained to Professor He and the graduate students how surgical interventions should be performed, what information surgeons need, and how the model can assist them. These high-IQ masters and doctoral students, with medical backgrounds and computing research orientations, quickly grasped what Yang Ping was saying. In the orthopedic correction process, they incorporated the effect of the external fixation frame into the model, and then found the optimal tension core line, which is the osteotomy line. Based on biomechanics, they found the optimal distribution points for the holes in the external fixation frame. Then, they used the external fixation frame to apply tension and complete the transformation from deformity to normality. ¡°Give us three days and we¡¯ll give you a satisfactory digital model,¡± Professor He confidently stated after the explanation. The combination of digital technology and clinical practice held immense power. ¡°If we have a dedicated supercomputer in the future, this project will progress much faster.¡± Having a supercomputer was Professor He¡¯s dream. Huang Jiacai encouraged the professor: ¡°Take your time, before long, we¡¯ll have everything, not just a supercomputer, but even a supercomputing cluster.¡± This project was the most foundational in Huang Jiacai¡¯s plan and he intended to concentrate funding to support it. The company¡¯s funds were currently tight, but once money started coming in, he would continually inject capital into the project. ¡°If funding is sufficient, we can expand the research team and complete the modeling of the movement of the lower limbs, spine, and upper limbs within a year. Among these three, the upper limb, especially the hand, is the most complex and will require more time,¡± Prof. He said confidently. ¡°Professor He, you can focus on research in the future and tell me directly about any difficulties. We will always support this project,¡± Huang Jiacai assured Professor He. Professor He did not doubt Boss Huang¡¯s capabilities at all: ¡°Huang, your words reassure me. Honestly, for these foundational projects of ours, nothing is more worrisome than having to abandon them halfway.¡± Computer assistance in medicine will play a decisive role in the future. In the case of orthopedic corrections, achieving ideal results through experience alone is difficult. With computer simulation, everything becomes much easier. Yang Ping can make surgeries perfect in the system space by simulating numerous cases, but he always hoped to achieve this same perfection even without the system. This is what Yang Ping aspires to do. The system is just a tool for him, and now he aims to create one for every doctor. The Digital Human can help Yang Ping achieve this goal. If one day, the Digital Human is able to provide a lifelike simulation of the human body both in terms of anatomy and functionality, all patients can benefit from modeling with the Digital Human, simulating surgeries, and then combining the data with surgical robots or computer-assisted devices to make surgeries easy and precise. In the future, the Digital Human can also be combined with virtual reality technology to develop training systems for physicians, allowing them to repeat certain types of surgeries for practice. Centered around the Digital Human, many technologies can be expanded. In this way, every doctor would have a powerful cheat code at their disposal. Yang Ping and Professor He continued to discuss the details of modeling Fang Faquan¡¯s lower limb function. Yang Ping spent the whole morning at Nandu Medical University¡¯s Digital Medical Laboratory. At noon, Huang Jiacai played host and invited Professor He and all the lab researchers for a meal. Professor He was very excited at the meal. Intellectuals like him pursue one thing¨Cconcentrated and earnest scientific research. Now he had an investor who respected him, made no specific demands, and didn¡¯t interfere with his research. Aren¡¯t all researchers dreaming of this situation? Professor He had decided to cooperate with them. Reviews and awards were meaningless in comparison. As long as there was funding for research, it was worthwhile to devote his life¡¯s energies to it. Chapter 593 - 593 540 There Should be Music Here ?Chapter 593: Chapter 540: There Should be Music Here Chapter 593: Chapter 540: There Should be Music Here The task was expected to take three days, but by the second day, Professor He¡¯s team had already completed the digital model of Fang Faquan¡¯s lower limbs. The computer optimized the force lines, osteotomy lines, and pin distribution points of the left lower limb. The data calculated from the model were edited into a format that could be implanted into the host of a surgical robot. Professor He tasked a student with delivering this data to Yang Ping via a portable hard drive. Thanks to this hard drive, this complex surgery was about to become foolproof. With no Tianji surgical robot at the Surgical Research Institute, Yang Ping scheduled Fang Faquan¡¯s surgery at the Surgical Center. Sanbo Hospital currently has two Tianji surgical robots. One is in the Trauma Orthopedics Department, and the other is shared by other orthopedic departments. Yang Ping plans to buy one himself, but one machine costs 15 million and requires approval. Dean Xia already submitted the procurement for approval, and the process was almost complete. Three Tianji robots in one hospital would classify it as a major customer. Manager Gu of Tianji¡¯s South China district, upon hearing that Yang Ping would be the chief surgeon for today¡¯s operation, arrived at the operating room early. Tianji and Sanbo Hospital planned to establish a training center and asked Yang Ping to serve as the lead instructor. It was all because of the previous incidents involving the Da Vinci robot and the painting of Tianji. To this day, the two videos are still circulating on the internet. Especially your Da Vinci robot, the way it danced truly maxed out the ceiling of robot control abilities. The four mechanical arms weave around each other in a small glass bottle, but do not touch, creating a sultry dance. Yang Ping arrived at the Surgical Center early. Many orthopedic doctors, upon hearing that Yang Ping was coming to perform surgery, made every effort to find time to observe. They were keen to see again the magical operations of the surgical robot in Yang Ping¡¯s hands. ¡°Hello, Professor Yang!¡± ¡°Hello, Professor Yang!¡± ¡°Hello, Professor Yang!¡± This was the peak period for doctors to enter the operating room. As he passed by, every doctor who saw Yang Ping nodded and greeted him. They had already seen the notice on the hospital intranet that Yang Ping had been successfully promoted to associate professor. Such a young newly appointed chief physician, he had been consecutively promoted to deputy director and associate professor. Even though he was young and inexperienced, he had made impressive progress. What an accomplished young man! ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Director Tan and Manager Gu came out to greet him, flanking Yang Ping on either side. Although Director Tan Bo Yun was arrogant and had a bad temper, he was a man who respected true abilities. If you truly had abilities, he would sincerely respect you. Originally, Director Tan wanted to be an assistant on stage, but he had no place on the operating table as Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were preparing to step in. In the multi-functional operating room of the Trauma Orthopedics Department, the ¡°One-Armed Bandit¡± Tianji Surgical Robot stood quietly to the side. Its optical tracking system, mechanical arm host, and main control console were all ready. These three parts represent the robot¡¯s eyes, hands, and brain. Its eyes can see through, its hands are very steady. The optical tracking system is like ¡°X-ray eyes,¡± looking deep into muscles and bones, and real-time monitoring of every step of the surgery. The mechanical arm is the robot¡¯s ¡°steady hand¡± which is flexible, stable, and has sub-millimeter precision. Its end can connect to various instruments such as drills, saws, screwdrivers, guides, etc. The robot uses these tools to complete the surgery. The main computer system is equivalent to the robot¡¯s brain, transferring the doctor¡¯s ideas to the above two devices, helping the doctor make precise positioning and path planning. The surgical robot can also track patient movements during surgery, the mechanical arm automatically compensating for position differences, ensuring the surgical positioning path is consistent with the planned positioning path. Fatty prepares to anesthetize Fang Faquan. It seemed that he was chatting with Little Five. ¡°Will this robot go out of control?¡± Fang Faquan looked at the robot in the operating room with concern. Upon hearing that Yang Ping was going to use a robot to perform his surgery, he searched online for some information. Seeing cases of robots going out of control, he was a little scared. ¡°No, it won¡¯t. Rest assured, if it does get out of control, I¡¯ll just unplug it.¡± Little Five pointed to the switch on the wall. Fang Faquan was still uneasy: ¡°Does the robot have a battery?¡± According to his understanding, unplugging wouldn¡¯t be useful if the robot were battery operated. Little Five reassured him again: ¡°There¡¯s no battery, once you unplug it, it¡¯s out of power.¡± Seeing Fang Faquan being so chatty, Zhang Lin said, ¡°Fatty, give him the drugs, let him sleep.¡± Now Fang Faquan was even more scared: ¡°Don¡¯t let me sleep, aren¡¯t they supposed to only give me half the anesthesia? Just numb the lower half of my body?¡± ¡°Relax, stop being so tense, this robot has successfully performed hundreds of surgeries.¡± Fatty reassured him. Fang Faquan didn¡¯t dare sleep. If he fell asleep and the robot went haywire, he wouldn¡¯t even be able to escape. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you, as soon as you fall asleep, the surgery will be done. You don¡¯t need to be this tense. Besides, the anesthesia I¡¯m giving you usually results in nice dreams, like picking out a wife amongst a group of beautiful women in your dream.¡± Zhang Lin persuaded him, pushing the anesthesia, so he would quit his babbling. Fang Faquan resisted, ¡°I¡¯m a realistic person, I don¡¯t like daydreaming. Even if you made me emperor in my dream, I wouldn¡¯t be interested.¡± He kept shivering, and his heart rate on the screen exceeded one hundred beats per minute. Fatty gave him a sedative, and then his heart rate slowly dropped. Yang Ping walked over and said to Fang Faquan, ¡°Relax a bit. This robot is called a robot, but it is not a robot. It¡¯s just a remote-controlled surgical machine, completely under my control.¡± Fang Faquan had always thought this robot had autonomous thinking and would become homicidal just like in the movies if they disagreed with it. If it was just a remote-control tool, there was nothing to worry about. After all, it was controlled by humans. ¡°Professor Yang, you mean to say this robot is completely controlled by you?¡± Fang Faquan asked. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°That¡¯s right, I control it, and there are people watching it.¡± All these things had been explained to him before the surgery, but due to his nerves, Fang Faquan had forgotten everything. Yang Ping didn¡¯t need to scrub in; he sat in front of the console. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang scrubbed in and mounted the drapes; they were the assistants, responsible for assembling the instruments on the table and assisting the robotic arm in the surgery. Everything was ready; it was time to get started. ¡°Get the safety sheath, quickly!¡± Zhang Lin shouted at the circulating nurse. ¡°What¡¯s your rush?¡± The circulating nurse was not a pushover and directly confronted Zhang Lin. In essence, the so-called robot was far from a real robot, at most it was a remote-controlled surgical machine using one or several robotic arms to perform the operation in place of a surgeon¡¯s hand. With the help of X-ray imaging, real-time reconstructed images on the screen showing the tibia, fibula, heel bone, talus, and so on were clearly delineated, and they could even be rotated to achieve the best angle. The positions where the needles would be inserted were marked with blue dots, and the direction of their insertion was indicated by a blue line. The robotic arm was holding the drill with the fixation needle. The fixation needle appeared on the screen, the robotic arm automatically aligned with the original point, and then adjusted the direction to overlap with the guiding line. After calibration, it firmly and steadily maintained its position. The drill rotated at high speed, and the fixation needle entered precisely according to the designated direction. The insertion point, direction, and depth were all accurately carried out according to pre-set data. Each needle was twisted in using this foolproof method. The second step was the osteotomy. Song Zimo cut open the skin at the planned osteotomy site and retracted it to reveal the area to be cut. Xu Zhiliang changed the instrument on the robotic arm to a miniature oscillating saw, and then the saw blade appeared on the screen. In the images of the lower-left limb skeleton, the position of the osteotomy was marked by a blue line, the location, length, and direction were highly accurate, down to the submillimeter range. The saw blade located the direction, began automatic calibration. After calibration, the robotic arm locked in and started the osteotomy along the set route. Similarly, every osteotomy was carried out with remarkable precision. The robotic arm, under the control of Yang Ping, moved smoothly and rhythmically, like clouds and flowing water. Director Tan felt that music was needed at this point, so he asked: ¡°Should we put on some music?¡± Song Zimo shared the same thought: ¡°Crank up the music!¡± There was a sound system in the corner of the operating room, connected to a computer. Director Tan began to browse through the music library folder on the computer. ¡°Door to Door¡±, this was usually played for critically ill patients. Ce?line Dion¡¯s ¡°My Heart Will Go On¡±, a staple in cardiac surgery. The Bee Gees¡¯ ¡°Staying Alive¡±, the trademark music of trauma orthopedics. Britney Spears¡¯ ¡°Baby One More Time¡±, a song played in obstetrics during labor induction, how did it end up here? ¡°Please Come Back¡±, a song the emergency department played to celebrate a successful resuscitation. Director Tan was a man of taste, the background music couldn¡¯t be chosen casually, so which song should be played? ¡°The patient is very anxious. Coldplay¡¯s ¡®Fix You¡¯!¡± Song Zimo was very familiar with the music played in the operating room. Finally, Director Tan found ¡°Fix You¡±, and the music sounded in the operating room. ¡°What kind of music does Professor Yang usually prefer when he performs surgeries?¡± Director Tan thought he should prepare it ahead of time next time. Song Zimo answered: ¡°¡®High Mountain and Flowing Water''¡± ¡°Should we change it?¡± Director Tan asked. Song Zimo told Director Tan: ¡°No need. This song is for the patient, to relieve his tension.¡± In the end, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang completed the installation of the rest of the external fixator, secured clamps, placed the connecting rods, and tightened the nuts. A complex and complete orthopedic external fixator was installed. In fact, the Tianji robot only performed key steps, and many steps still require manual operation. Therefore, there is still significant room for improvement. The entire surgery, completed within ten minutes, resulted in less than 5 milliliters of blood loss. The precise pinning and osteotomy kept the joint capsule and other stabilizing structures intact. These intact structures will undergo correction along with the bones according to the Ilizarov principle. Director Tan watched the whole surgery and had to admit that even after performing hundreds of surgeries, he was not as skilled as Yang Ping, the gap was quite large. The difference between an experienced driver and a professional race car driver. Watching Yang Ping perform surgery was enjoyable. Under his control, the robotic arm truly followed his will and became an actual extension of a surgeon¡¯s hand. No wonder he could control the Tianji robotic arm to draw a human anatomical figure. He could also control the four robotic arms of Da Vinci to complete that hot dance in a small glass bottle. The music was still playing, and Yang Ping went to Fang Faquan¡¯s head. ¡°The surgery is complete!¡± ¡°Was it successful?¡± Fang Faquan anxiously asked. It seemed like the surgery had just started and yet it was already over? He didn¡¯t feel anything. ¡°Extremely successful!¡± Director Tan chimed in. The music continued to play, and Fang Faquan felt extremely comfortable. In his mind, he was walking with healthy legs, accompanied by his beautiful wife, returning to his small village. He couldn¡¯t help but feel self-important! Chapter 594 - 594 541 Two Peaches Kill Three Warriors ?Chapter 594: Chapter 541: Two Peaches Kill Three Warriors Chapter 594: Chapter 541: Two Peaches Kill Three Warriors There¡¯s no doubt that surgical robots will lead the development of future surgery. With the help of surgical robots, operations of high difficulty and high risk will become simple and safe. Take the placement of cervical spine screws as an example, it¡¯s a procedure with extremely high risk requiring the skills of experienced spine surgeons. But even the most experienced surgeons cannot avoid the disparity of screw placement, which could damage the vertebral arteries or spinal cord causing serious consequences. Because human eyes cannot see through, the operation, which relies on flat C-arm X-rays and is performed depending on experience and touch, is highly unreliable. But with the help of computer-guided navigation or robots, the operation becomes extraordinarily easy, it could be said that the surgery is like playing a computer game. The three-dimensional image of the patient¡¯s cervical spine is displayed on the screen, and the point and direction of the screw has been marked with colored lines. The chief surgeon only needs to face the screen and operate the machine as if playing a game. The screw just needs to follow the guide lines, aim at the needle insertion point, follow along the direction of the insertion, and then drill into the bone until reaching the marked depth. Whether the screw is in the ideal position, whether it has drilled through the bone, it¡¯s all clearly visible. Even if your hand shakes or you make a misstep in a moment of brain lag, the machine will automatically correct for you. For example, once the screw has reached the predetermined depth, it will automatically stop and not advance further. So, under this technology, it¡¯s impossible to misplace the screw. In this way, surgery becomes easier and safer. A young orthopedic resident only needs an hour of training to master operations that would require ten years of expert experience. Digital human technology, if combined with surgical robots, will exert a huge power. Digital human can allow surgery to be digitally simulated, from the change in the patient¡¯s condition before surgery, during surgery and after surgery, it can be simulated on a computer and the plans can be optimized for the optimal surgical plan to be used. For the future development of external braces, Yang Ping is preparing to embrace digital human and surgical robot technology. While pediatric orthopedics doesn¡¯t require cutting bones, adult orthopedics still does, and this type of bone cutting is different from traditional surgery. In traditional surgery, deformities are corrected directly by cutting bone, then fusion is carried out at the cutting site, causing the spine to lose some of its mobility. The bone cutting needed for the external brace, however, doesn¡¯t require any of this. It relies on the bone regrowth from the cut to correct the deformity, in other words, the cut slowly expands and the expanded part is replaced by new bone tissue. It does not require fusion or any sacrifice to the mobility of the spine, thus achieving a natural spine. Of course, the biggest limitation of this method is that the correction process is gradual and takes a certain amount of time. Moreover, during the correction period, the external brace is exposed on the back, affecting daily life. Fang Faquan¡¯s operation is finished, and he is being prepared for transfer. The external brace on his leg will need to be worn for one year. Compared to being able to walk normally for the rest of his life, it¡¯s worth it. For a manual laborer, this would be unacceptable. Because it means no manual labor and no income for a year. Fortunately, Fang Faquan is fully prepared. As a single man, he has no family to feed and has savings from many years. He has prepared for today¡¯s operation for many years. Also before the operation, he made an agreement with the restaurant owner to continue buying his medical and social insurance with his own money, and he will return to work at the restaurant after recovery. The boss naturally agrees and says that as long as he is willing to sign a ten-year contract, he can be paid the minimum wage for a year. Fang Faquan said, he is a skilled person. In that case, he really is skilled. Being able to prepare a few dishes well is a skill. It seems that the restaurant where he works would be heavily impacted without him. ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯ve arranged with the head nurse for meals to be ordered for all the doctors and nurses in the department. The restaurant will deliver them to your rest room at noon.¡± Fang Faquan is quite good at socializing, Little Five thought that if he could recover his leg, it wouldn¡¯t be a problem for him to find a good wife. ¡°You¡¯re skilled, you could open your own restaurant in the future, how great would it be to be your own boss!¡± Zhang Lin said to Fang Faquan. Department Head Fang Faquan said, ¡°Not everyone is destined to be a boss. I have a thin foundation, I can¡¯t withstand the ups and downs. If I fail, it will take me many more years to get back on my feet. It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to be a boss, but my current situation doesn¡¯t allow it. People must bow to reality, even if it¡¯s just opening a restaurant, it requires capital to do so.¡± As Fang Faquan transferred to the gurney, Zhang Lin continued to chat with him: ¡°A soldier who doesn¡¯t want to be a general is not a good soldier.¡± Fang Faquan had his own philosophy: ¡°Small wealth depends on hard work, great wealth depends on fate. Generals are few, besides ability, you need to have the right opportunity, I know my own weight.¡± Professor Yang did not plan to participate in the subsequent surgery, he had to return to his office to review the clinical trial report prepared by Ruixing Company, so he returned to the ward with the gurney. The inventor of the spinal external fixator is Professor Yang, but the ownership belongs to Ruixing Company. Therefore, the application of the clinical trial was initiated by Ruixing, which also had a specific cooperative company to operate these things. When Fang Faquan was sent back to the ward, the owner of their restaurant, along with several employees, was waiting for him at the entrance of the ward, bringing a basket of fruit. ¡°Brother Fang,¡± ¡ª¡ª At the headquarters of Ruixing Company, Huang Jiacai sat in his office. The company was in the process of gradually replacing its products, moving from imitation products to those with independent intellectual property rights. The company was ready to replace all its trauma and sports medicine products. The next step was to improve spine and joint products, which would complete the full orthopedic product line. These products with independent intellectual property rights were not restricted by patents, but they didn¡¯t represent any significant innovation. For example, the meniscal suture gun, Ruixing¡¯s new product can perform continuous suturing, but it still sutures the meniscus, and the treatment method is the same as its peers. However, the spine external fixator was different. Once it was on the market, it would revolutionize the entire treatment philosophy. This was the first product of Ruixing that overturned the treatment philosophy. This product was in the process of applying for clinical trials. After the clinical trials were completed, it could very quickly enter the market. In fact, entering clinical trials means it has already entered the market. This would cause a strong shock in the orthopedic device market. The strategy Huang Jiacai implemented since he took over Ruixing, the ¡°Two Peaches Kill Three Warriors¡±, would come to an end. The company was getting ready to confront giants like Johnson & Johnson and Jiemai directly. The timing was a bit early, but if delayed further, perhaps there would be no opportunity to grow. So, the timing would never be as mature as imagined. ¡°President Huang! Our negotiations with Johnson & Johnson have entered the eighth round, and with Jiemai the seventh round? Shall we continue?¡± Huang Jiahui asked. Huang Jiacai laughed, ¡°Of course, as long as they still want to defeat their competitors, they will never give up the idea of acquiring or controlling us.¡± Huang Jiahui has always wondered why her brother is so good at handling these two companies: ¡°Are they really that foolish? Don¡¯t they know our negotiations are just a facade, a delaying tactic?¡± Huang Jiacai shook his head: ¡°Of course they know, everything is just a pretense. They are also using the negotiations to maintain the collection of patent fees and to find our fatal weakness and then strike all of a sudden. Ultimately, they would force us to comply and accept their controlling or acquisition. At the same time, they are also looking for weaknesses in their competitors to launch attacks.¡± ¡°Then why are they complicating things? With their power, they can easily undermine us, just like they did before, with patent litigation?¡± Huang Jiahui still did not understand. So, Huang Jiacai had to patiently explain to his sister, ¡°Because there¡¯s not just two companies playing this game, there are three. Both Johnson & Johnson and Jiemai have their swords out, neither of them willing to let go. Nobody wants to see the other company swallow us up since that would increase their strength significantly altering the market balance and putting the other at a disadvantage. Their continued negotiations with us is not because they want to, they are forced to maintain this delicate balance.¡± ¡°I still don¡¯t understand!¡± Huang Jiahui felt it was too complicated. Huang Jiacai had to take a book from the shelf and hand it to his sister: ¡°Go through the story of ¡®Two Peaches Kill Three Warriors¡¯, it¡¯s worth the read.¡± ¡°Brother, I only know that you are very smart and successful in whatever you do!¡± Huang Jiahui admired her brother greatly. Huang Jiacai said: ¡°I am not extraordinarily clever, but I am capitalizing on the situation. However, before long, we will confront Johnson & Johnson and Jiemai face-to-face. We are prepared, are they?¡± Chapter 595 - 595 542 Thirty-Four Needles ?Chapter 595: Chapter 542: Thirty-Four Needles Chapter 595: Chapter 542: Thirty-Four Needles As long as there are no pinhole infections in Fang Faquan¡¯s surgery, with regular check-ups during the reshaping process and close monitoring, generally there will be no other problems. Many lower limb deformities caused by post-polio syndrome are much more complex than Fang Faquan¡¯s case, yet satisfactory reshaping can be achieved with the use of external fixators. So, this technology is already very mature. The use of external fixators in trauma orthopaedics and reconstructive orthopaedics has solved many problems. In some cases where traditional surgery cannot deliver satisfactory results, a satisfactory outcome can be easily achieved with the use of external fixators. Now in the afternoon, Yang Ping sits in his office, reviewing each patient¡¯s case record in the department, not missing a single test report. This has been his habit. When he was a resident, he would arrive in the department before seven in the morning and make sure to review all the case records in the department, especially the new test results, regardless of whether the patient was under his direct care. He still keeps this habit as the head of the department. Being a doctor, there are some things that must be done personally. Do each task with a cautious attitude, as if walking on thin ice. Once a habit is formed, it does not feel like a burden. On the contrary, whenever he is momentarily careless, he would feel uneasy. The approval documents for spinal external fixation have been submitted, and Yang Ping hasn¡¯t thought much about it. With such impressive animal experimentation data, clinical trial approval should not be a problem. In the doctor¡¯s office, everyone steals a moment of respite from their busy schedule. The resident doctors type up patient records while chatting. They need to complete the backlog of home case records and also organize discharge records. As per the hospital¡¯s medical record office rules, if the discharge records of a patient are not completed within one week, it will be regarded as a case of delayed archiving, and a fine will be imposed. There¡¯s no choice, the hospital has its own rules and regulations. Without these rules, no one would care about the mountain of discharge records piled up. The rule of discharging patient records within a week, whether it is reasonable or not, nobody knows. Regardless, even if it was one month, some would still lag behind. Anyway, the medical record office and frontline clinicians are always at odds; the former constantly accuses the latter of sloppiness, leading to numerous loopholes in the medical records. On the other hand, the frontline clinicians are not happy: while they work hard on the front line, the medical record staff sit in their comfortable office finding faults. But there is no choice, the job of the medical record office is to find faults. ¡°Whose medical record is this? It¡¯s expired for three days, you got too much money in your pocket, right?¡± Head Nurse Cai pulled out several case records from the filing cabinet in the doctor¡¯s office to find the person in charge. ¡°Sister, I sorted out the medical records till twelve last night. How come there are still three left?¡± A distressed standardized training student took over the case records. They hadn¡¯t finished writing the medical records for the newly admitted patients, yet there were already three waiting to be discharged. The standardized training student looked completely drained. ¡°Brother Song, can you call and ask the medical record office not to record the delay?¡± The standardized training student begged Song Zimo. The medical record office, with more women than men, was somewhat biased toward Song Zimo due to his good looks. ¡°Just this once!¡± Song Zimo agreed and picked up the phone on the desk. This phrase, ¡°Just this once¡±, had been said countless times. ¡°Brother Song is so awesome!¡± The standardized training student flattered him with an enthusiastic clap. ¡°Who¡¯s going to the meeting this weekend, 300 cash!¡± Zhang Lin held up a stack of invitations. Instantly, these graduate students and standardized training students went mad, rushing to snatch the invitations from Zhang Lin¡¯s hands. These graduate students and standardized training students earned meager salaries. They were the cheapest labor at the bottom of the hospital. These so-called academic conferences didn¡¯t actually provide much substance. Often, they struggled to find audiences. So, the organizers would bring in students from their own institution to make up numbers, offering an incentive of two to three hundred in cash, ostensibly as a travel subsidy. It was essentially a way to pay for attendees, which made the event seem lively. ¡°You went last week, it¡¯s my turn this week.¡± A standardized training student who managed to grab an invitation eagerly clung on to it. ¡°Don¡¯t fight, don¡¯t fight! If you want to go, sign up. If there are more people than spots, we¡¯ll draw lots!¡± Zhang Lin shouted. Professor Zhang called from the outpatient department looking for Yang Ping, asking him to take everyone downstairs to the outpatient department to look at an X-ray. Anyone available should go. The old man must have encountered another rare disease and wanted to use this real-time situation for a class. When Yang Ping and the team rushed there, Old Zhang was sitting in the chair, incessantly drinking tea, looking extremely troubled. X-rays hung on the viewing light panel, an elderly couple in their seventies stood nearby. The old lady was holding a baby girl, who seemed to be less than a year old. The old man was opening a yellow canvas bag, searching for something inside. ¡°This is my granddaughter. My son and his wife divorced. My son has married another woman and his ex-wife has also remarried. The child was living with my son. We are getting older and having mobility issues, so we visit her once a week. Recently, the child cried every time she saw us and refused to let us go. I asked that bastard, if the child was sick and if we should take her to the hospital. The jerk kept avoiding taking the child to the doctor, so we decided to bring her to the hospital ourselves. We went to pediatrics, but they couldn¡¯t figure out what was wrong. During the examination, they found that her knees couldn¡¯t be moved without her crying out in pain, so we were advised to see the orthopedics. The orthopedic doctor took X-rays and found a needle in each knee joint, and they were also in the thighs and calves. So they did a full-body scan and found more than thirty needles in her body.¡± The old man¡¯s lips were trembling as he told Professor Zhang about it, his hands shivering as he rummaged in the bag. ¡°Surely that vicious woman must have done this. We have already reported to the police. Oh, good girl, Minmin, Minmin, your grandma is here.¡± The old lady was incredibly angry as she comforted her granddaughter and cursed the person responsible. ¡°Professor Zhang, these are the medical records from the other hospital.¡± Old Zhang was wearing reading glasses. He wet his finger with saliva and began flipping through the records. ¡°Many hospitals didn¡¯t dare to perform the operation. We went to the provincial maternal and child health hospital, who suggested coming to your hospital.¡± Grandpa was so agitated he started to stutter in between his sentences. Upon seeing Yang Ping and the others walk in, Professor Zhang pointed at the X-ray on the viewing light panel and said: Let¡¯s examine the images first! Good Lord! On the X-ray, so many slim needles of different sizes were scattered throughout the child¡¯s tiny body, arranged chaotically with varying position and orientation. The thought of it was horrifyingly abnormal. Everyone couldn¡¯t help but shudder, their skin crawling. Yang Ping counted a total of thirty-four needles, which were distributed all over the limbs, chest cavity, abdominal cavity, and pelvic cavity. Some were near the heart, some were inserted into the intervertebral space of the cervical vertebra, some were in the knee joint space, and even in the hip joint ¡ª How on earth did those get into her body? And who would do such a thing? ¡°In my nearly sixty years of medical practice, I have never seen such a case. These must have been intentionally inserted by somebody. How wicked must someone be to commit such a heinous act.¡± Professor Zhang put down his cup heavily, breathing hastily. ¡°The police already have the bastard of a son and his wife under control and are conducting investigations. They denied any involvement, but the truth will come out in the end. This many needles couldn¡¯t have possibly grown in a body themselves, after all.¡± Even though it was their own son, the old man had clearly marked him and his new wife as vile creatures. ¡°Has everyone counted? Are any missing?¡± Old Zhang asked. Li Guodong replied: ¡°Thirty-four.¡± ¡°How do we take them out? There is a needle in the intervertebral space of the cervical vertebra, four in the chest cavity, one of them next to the heart, two near the brachial plexus, and six in the abdominal cavity ¡ª¡± Professor Zhang¡¯s voice choked as he spoke. ¡°We could only use the navigation system to locate them, and remove them one by one.¡± Zhang Lin said helplessly. Song Zimo shook his head: ¡°The operation would take a long time. The X-ray radiation from the navigation could be harmful to the child; ultrasound positioning might be a better option.¡± ¡°Are we planning to cut her open and remove them, or what?¡± Little Five chimed in. Thirty-four needles, if they would have to cut her open, countless incisions would have to be made on the child¡¯s body, and then search for the needles inside. ¡°Ultrasound-assisted location, making small incisions to extract them, using a thoracoscope, laparoscope, or arthroscope for assistance in certain areas. However, for a baby this small, our hospital may not have the necessary equipment.¡± Yang Ping analyzed while looking at the film. The poor child was looking at everyone with fear in her eyes. ¡°Borrow the equipment from the provincial maternal and child health hospital!¡± Professor Zhang decided without hesitation. The baby girl, perhaps frightened by seeing so many strangers, finally broke down and began to cry loudly. Professor Zhang got up and gently patted the crying child: ¡°Oh, don¡¯t cry, your grandpa will take a look at you.¡± While comforting the child, Professor Zhang looked around for something that could be used as a toy. ¡°First, let¡¯s admit her. And then we can discuss the situation. What Yang just suggested seems feasible. Considering the age of the child, we should try to minimize X-ray exposure.¡± ¡°To the two veterans here, I am going to admit the child now, then we will discuss the situation further and finalize a plan to remove all the needles, is that alright?¡± Professor Zhang instructed the elderly couple. The old lady kept expressing her gratitude: ¡°Professor Zhang, you are a living Bodhisattva, thank you so much.¡± ¡°First, settle down. We will have a solution. Do you know where the cafeteria is? Keep your wallet safe; there are all sorts of people in the hospital, keep your bags in front of you and within sight. And don¡¯t believe if people tell you about miracle doctors somewhere else.¡± Professor Zhang advised them, fearing that the elderly couple, being naive, could be easily deceived. ¡°Li, you go and help them with the admission procedures, and remind them about a few precautions.¡± Professor Zhang was still worried and so he got Li Guodong to accompany the couple to complete the admission procedures. Chapter 596 - 596 543 Removing the Needle Its Not That Easy ?Chapter 596: Chapter 543: Removing the Needle, It¡¯s Not That Easy! Chapter 596: Chapter 543: Removing the Needle, It¡¯s Not That Easy! Baby Minmin was admitted to the hospital ward, and even with Li Guodong¡¯s help, the two elderly were a bit dizzy from the rush. Nowadays, many activities require the use of smartphones and WeChat, which are inconvenient for the elderly now and hence cause some delay. Once they reached the ward, the elderly couple was finally able to take a breath. However, the baby started to cry, making the old grandfather hastily make some milk formula while the grandmother carried the baby back and forth to comfort her. Seeing this, Head Nurse Cai immediately took the child and was able to calm her down within minutes. Since there are not many infants in the ward usually, Head Nurse Cai ordered an infant bed from the pediatrics department and assigned a nurse who was already married and had childcare experience to take charge of Minmin. After Li Guodong, the attending physician, got the medical history, the old grandfather started to compile a list of payments, count the cash he had, make a detailed record of the expenses in his notebook, and then calculated each expense twice with a calculator. Luckily, the couple has pensions and are therefore not left utterly helpless in this situation, but their pensions were almost drained by their son. Thinking of this, the elders were heartbroken. They have lived a lifetime and have been continuously upset by their own son. The couple had their son when they were over forty and therefore overly adored him when he was little, spoon-feeding him every step of the way. The son¡¯s high school grades were dismal, but the elderlies invested money to send him to a private university. However, upon graduation, the son was too picky to settle for any job, preferring to stay at home, playing video games, and living on the savings of his parents. The couple belonged to the working class and therefore had some savings and pensions. As they had only one son, they managed to get by in hopes that their son would mature and become more responsible someday. It wasn¡¯t easy for their son to get married, and the old couple cobbled together whatever they had to buy a house for him. After buying the house, they were financially strained and couldn¡¯t afford a car. The son held a knife to his throat to argue that he couldn¡¯t continue living without a car when all his friends had one. Threatening to commit suicide, he knelt down and coerced his parents into making ends meet. Alas, there was no choice! The couple, who had scrimped and saved all their lives for their son, gritted their teeth and used up their last saved money to buy a car for their son. The son was quite picky about the cars and wouldn¡¯t look at anything but high-end brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Eventually, the last of the elderlies¡¯ savings were spent. The son had always been this way, stubborn, and always resorting to threats of suicide to get his demands fulfilled. Every effect has a cause, the couple admitted that they had not disciplined their son properly, but what could they do now? It¡¯s reaping what they have sown. Finally, the old man calculated and recorded the costs clearly, and he was able to rest and check how much milk formula they had left. After examining the milk formula, he then checked if the medications they brought, which they needed to take long-term for various conditions like hypertensions and diabetes, were enough for themselves. The grandmother mentioned that they might not have enough diapers and asked the grandfather to buy some more from the hospital store. It took the grandfather a few minutes to stand up and started to go downstairs to buy diapers with the help of a cane. Just then, Head Nurse Cai saw him and, unable to turn a blind eye, she asked a nurse-in-training to buy some diapers and check what else they needed, to bring back with her. Head Nurse Cai rarely saw elderly people bringing small children to the hospital alone, and the old couple themselves seemed to be in poor health and could not withstand too much wear and tear. As a result, she felt it necessary to arrange a rather flexible nurse-in-training to assist the elderly couple. The couple appreciated this greatly. ¡ª In the doctors¡¯ office, no one had left work yet, nor was there any plan to leave on time. Minmin¡¯s X-rays were hung on the film viewing light screen, and everyone gathered around it in a semicircular arrangement. Each needle¡¯s location was analyzed individually. What anatomical structures are adjacent to each? Where does each needle¡¯s removal procedure start? What path should it follow, and what potentially dangerous structures need to be avoided? One needle was located in the intervertebral space of the fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae. How it got there is no longer relevant. The task now is to figure out how to remove this needle. Extraction via incision is the preferred course of action. If the intervertebral space of the cervical spine is entered from the front, many key blood vessels and nerves need to be bypassed. If the posterior approach to the cervical spine is utilized, it enables us to bypass the blood vessels and nerves in the front. The needle can then be extracted through the small gap between the cervical spine plates. This is a feasible operation but would require X-ray inspection, and the path for extracting the needle includes the spinal canal. The narrow spinal canal makes it challenging to adjust the direction of the needle, potentially leading to it getting stuck inside. Open surgery also has a very high degree of difficulty, but Yang Ping suggested using surface ultrasound for minimally invasive surgery to remove the needle. Professor Zhang wanted to hear the details of Yang Ping¡¯s procedure, and everyone else was also eager to learn. ¡°Xiao Yang, can you explain how you would use ultrasound localization to perform minimally invasive needle removal?¡± asked Professor Zhang. No one had used this method for spinal surgery, especially cervical spine surgery. This was an innovation. Yang Ping placed his finger on the X-ray where the needle was located on the cervical spine and said, ¡°We can take the anterior approach. The puncture would be performed under ultrasound localization, inserting the working cannula to the front of the fourth and fifth cervical intervertebral space and aligning it with the direction of the needle. After inserting the endoscope, we can cut open the anterior longitudinal ligament and the intervertebral disc and remove the needle.¡± The anterior approach would require confronting many blood vessels and nerves, and if damaged, the consequences could be severe. Ultrasound localization could play a huge role at this point, as it could recognize soft tissues very effectively, particularly nerves and blood vessels. ¡°If you can truly remove it this way and reduce the trauma to the patient, that would be great. However, it¡¯s very difficult. If you are not absolutely confident, I suggest opting for open surgery as much as possible, and avoid taking unnecessary risks,¡± reminded Professor Zhang. Song Zimo said from the side, ¡°Professor Zhou Yue from the Third Military Medical University¡¯s XinQiao Hospital once mentioned that minimally invasive is to leave the difficulties and risks to the doctors and bring good results to the patients. If it can be minimally invasive, I support the attempt. With proficient surface ultrasound positioning, we can avoid blood vessels and nerves, but it would be difficult to locate the fine needle. If unsuccessful, converting to an open surgery may also work.¡± The difficulties and risks of minimally invasive surgery lie in the switch from traditional open surgery to surgeries under a microscope and endoscope, etc. Performing complicated operations in a tiny channel of only several millimeters to a few millimeters requires very high requirements on doctor¡¯s surgical skills. Spine surgery is inherently risky, filled with the spinal cord and nerves, a millimeters difference could cause lifelong impact on the patient. Therefore, minimally invasive surgery is like dancing on the tip of a knife, requiring more from the surgeon than an open surgery. This kind of surgery to remove the fine needle, without an utmost level of minimally invasive ability, is absolutely daring not to be attempted. In open surgery, you can toss around in the surgical area, if necessary, the incision can be extended. In minimally invasive surgery, if your skills are not up to par, you don¡¯t even have the chance to throw about. ¡°Surface Ultrasound¡ª timely guidance, can the ultrasound department¡ª doctor¡ª assist?¡± Xu Zhiliang posed the question. Yang Ping responded to Xu Zhiliang, ¡°I will operate the ultrasound probe myself.¡± Xu Zhiliang forgot, Yang Ping himself is capable of performing surface ultrasound, and he excels at it. If two people were to coordinate, one guiding with the surface ultrasound and one performing the surgery, this separation would make the complex operation highly risky. But if Yang Ping himself were to operate with the guided surface ultrasound, the risk would be somewhat less. ¡°If you are confident, I agree.¡± Professor Zhang affirmed Yang Ping¡¯s innovative initiative of combining the surface ultrasound with an endoscope, using the surface ultrasound for positioning, helping the endoscope establish an accurate route to the intervertebral space, and then extracting the fine needle with the help of the surface ultrasound guidance. ¡°I am very confident!¡± Yang Ping was very confident. Since Yang Ping said so, Professor Zhang also had a clear idea, stating, ¡°If there are no objections for this needle, then let¡¯s settle for this.¡± Without any objections, they proceeded to discuss the next needle: the one in the pericardial cavity of the chest. ¡°Thoracoscopy combined with surface ultrasound, is it feasible? Use surface ultrasound for positioning, cut open the pericardium with the thoracoscopy monitoring, and remove this needle?¡± Professor Zhang still favored the combination of the thoracoscopy and surface ultrasound. If the needle in the cervical spine can be extracted with minimally invasive guidance, then this needle could also be attempted the same way. ¡°The X-ray shows that the outline of this needle is not smooth, implying that it has already rusted.¡± Song Zimo had scanned the X-rays several times and was certain that it was a rusted needle. If it¡¯s already rusty, this undoubtedly increases the difficulty of extracting the needle, with the high possibility of accidentally breaking the needle. ¡°Correct, this needle has already rusted. The direction of thoracoscopy entering is extremely strict, it must line up with the planned extraction path, otherwise the needle could easily break.¡± Yang Ping found that Song Zimo¡¯s reading technique had improved again. Judging from the needle¡¯s outline on the X-ray that it¡¯s rusted, requires very high reading skills. Xu Zhiliang glanced at Song Zimo, then at the X-ray, and then leaned closer to take a careful look at the needle. ¡°Should we ask for Thoracic Surgery¡¯s assistance?¡± Professor Zhang was very straightforward. These doctors are all orthopedics, the hospital gave them the surgical authority for the whole surgery department, but that was for the convenience of the surgery. Yang Ping and Song Zimo have shown their skills in full body trauma surgery, but everyone has their specialities. ¡°In theory, it¡¯s needed. In actual operation, it¡¯s not necessary.¡± Song Zimo¡¯s response was very dialectical. With Yang Ping¡¯s capability, would he need the help of Thoracic Surgery? His skills in thoracoscopy and laparoscopy are quite proficient. Song Zimo¡¯s skills were personally taught by Yang Ping, so no one knows better than him how capable Yang Ping really is. This person is so strong, it seems as if there are no blind spots in his skills, and no ceiling either. Anyway, so far, Song Zimo hasn¡¯t seen a surgery that Yang Ping asserted he could handle that he didn¡¯t pull off. Professor Zhang adjusted his glasses: ¡°Well, in that case, there¡¯s no need for multi-department collaboration, you guys can work on your own.¡± Actually, inviting Thoracic Surgery or General Surgery to assist is not only for technical reasons, but also to share the risk, in case there is any problem, everyone accepts the responsibility together. If someone else was the Chief Surgeon, Professor Zhang would still invite other departments to collaborate, to distribute the risk for the younger people. Now that Yang Ping is the Chief Surgeon, then there¡¯s no need to invite others. Professor Zhang knows exactly how much Yang Ping is worth. With the surgical plan for these two most dangerous needles determined, the rest is not yet utterly devoid of any difficulties. The positions of the remaining needles are not as dangerous as these two, but the difficulty of their operations is not less than these two. For example, the few inside the abdominal cavity: going inside with a laparoscope, it¡¯s hard to locate the needle. With the intestines¡¯ peristalsis, the needle could move around. The X-ray shows it in the abdominal cavity, but who knows which part is it specifically inserted into, maybe on the intestinal wall, or maybe on the peritoneum. Even if the operation is open, revealing the abdominal cavity, turning it upside-down, it¡¯s hard to find exactly where the needle is. Let alone a minimally invasive surgery? Don¡¯t judge the tiny needle, when it comes to removing it, it¡¯s not that easy! Chapter 597 - 597 544 Unexpected Development ?Chapter 597: Chapter 544: Unexpected Development Chapter 597: Chapter 544: Unexpected Development There was a needle in the areas of both shoulder joints and below the outer clavicle. This area is where the nerve vessels of the brachial plexus come in and out. The anatomical structure is very complex, and careless movement could easily cause nerve vessel damage. Therefore, the surgery for removing tiny foreign bodies from deep within the human body is extremely difficult. This is because whether they¡¯re using a surface ultrasound or X-ray for positioning, they can only get a two-dimensional image. It¡¯s impossible to accurately position the needle. Sometimes, the supposed needle location turns out to be empty. It¡¯s challenging to locate the needle, which could be hiding in any tissue layer. There was a needle in both hips, knee joints, upper arms, forearms, thighs, and lower legs. These needles were all over the place, giving an eerie feeling. It¡¯s hard to imagine that so many needles were embedded in the tiny body of a ten-month-old infant, and that these were all intentionally inserted. What you would usually only see in a horror film was happening in real life. Everyone discussed each needle rigorously before finalizing their extraction plan. After much consideration, it was decided to use endoscopy if possible; if not, they would opt for a minor incision. Throughout the surgery, the position of the needle would be located using a surface ultrasound to ensure precision and reduce damage. The meeting ended at more than eight o¡¯clock, and everyone was still hungry. Professor Zhang paid out of his own pocket to treat everyone to a meal at a restaurant near the hospital. During the meal, a graduate student felt uneasy, always fearing that there might be a needle in the food. He kept moving the food around in his bowl, chewing slowly and carefully for fear of swallowing a needle. He knew it was impossible, but he just couldn¡¯t shake off this thought. The nurses in the department are all very loving. They voluntarily took turns feeding Minmin milk powder and changing her diapers. Those with childcare experience naturally moved skillfully, while those who were not yet parents seemed rather clumsy. With everyone¡¯s care, Minmin slowly adapted. She no longer cried and hid in her grandmother¡¯s arms whenever she saw someone. However, one thing gave the nurses a hard time. Due to the surgery¡¯s requirements, they needed to place a needle in Minmin¡¯s head. This way, they could administer medication immediately in case of emergency during surgery. Establishing a venous access prior to surgery is a standard procedure to be well-prepared. Imagine if something goes wrong during surgery, such as an allergic reaction to anaesthesia. If they have to administer an injection during an emergency, it will waste precious time and might result in errors due to haste. When they tried to insert the needle anyway, Minmin became terrified at the very sight of it. She clung tightly to her grandmother¡¯s clothes while her limbs flailed around as if she were trying to escape. Her crying was heart-rending and resonated throughout the ward. The nurses tried to restrain her, but she kept struggling with all her strength. Her face turned purple and her breathing became ragged. In this state, the nurses didn¡¯t dare to forcefully restrain her, making it impossible to insert the needle. ¡°We¡¯ll insert the needle after she¡¯s sedated in the operating room!¡± Head Nurse Cai had to tell the nurses to give up. It took a long time for Minmin to calm down and for the color to return to her face. However, the crying didn¡¯t stop. Her grandmother had to carry her around the ward. The nurses wanted to help, but it only made Minmin cry harder. Helpless, the on-duty doctor had no choice but to sedate Minmin and put her to sleep to solve the issue. The old lady couldn¡¯t help but sob constantly. The old man sighed and said, ¡°It¡¯s all fate... all fate,¡± with tears in his eyes. At their age, they worried about their granddaughter¡¯s future. The police contacted Minmin¡¯s mother, who said she was already remarried. Minmin had been awarded to her ex-husband in the custody settlement, and she didn¡¯t want to have anything to do with her daughter. She asked the police not to contact her again. Who would take care of the child in the future? Every time the elderly couple thought about this, they couldn¡¯t sleep. In the middle of the night, the old lady suffered from severe chest pain and shortness of breath, sweating profusely as if a huge stone was crushing her chest. The old man hurriedly called the nurse, who immediately called for a doctor. The on-call doctor was Li Guodong. He quickly diagnosed her with acute myocardial infarction. While calling the nurses to help with the rescue, he performed an emergency electrocardiogram, drew blood for a myocardial enzyme spectrum test, called the Chest Pain Center for help, and reported to Yang Ping. The on-duty doctor at the Chest Pain Center, Dr. Yu, rushed over quickly. After checking the electrocardiogram, he confirmed it was an acute myocardial infarction. Along with the myocardial enzyme spectrum results, he determined that it was indeed acute myocardial infarction that required immediate rescue and a coronary angiography with coronary stent dilation. In such a critical moment, every second counted. They immediately took the green channel, with Dr. Yu and the standardized training students pushing the old lady towards the catheter room in the Chest Pain Center. Li Guodong called the old man to sign the consent form and reported to the hospital¡¯s on-call supervisor. In this type of life-saving surgery, due to humanitarian reasons, money was not discussed. The priority was saving the patient¡¯s life; the money matters would be discussed after the surgery. Whether or not the payment has been made, it doesn¡¯t affect the rescue. The elderly man was flustered and rushed to the catheterization room, leaving his granddaughter alone here. Stay here, the boss urgently needs to be rescued now, and his life or death is unpredictable. The duty nurse had quite some experience, luckily there were intern nurses in the department, she left one to take care of the baby and assigned another to wheel the elderly man to the catheterization room, comforting him along the way, telling him not to worry. After receiving the report from the duty nurse, Head Nurse Cai rushed to the department in the middle of the night, rapidly increasing the manpower needed. Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang also rushed to their respective departments, then to the chest pain center¡¯s catheterization room. Sitting in the wheelchair, Minmin¡¯s grandpa held the armrests tightly, staring at the door of the catheterization room, tears streaming down his face. He wondered how life could be so hard. In his seventies, nearing his end, yet he was still being tormented. People say to raise children to take care of you in old age, but his son not only didn¡¯t provide for his old age but also tormented his parents to a point worse than death. Fearing that the intern nurse wouldn¡¯t take good care of the old man, Head Nurse Cai dispatched another nurse who had rushed from home to the catheterization room to ensure there were no additional complications. As Yang Ping was about to see what was happening in the catheterization room, he ran into Director Guan who had just received a phone call and rushed from home. ¡°Doctor Yang, let¡¯s go in together and see!¡± At this point, Director Guan was unsure of the specific situation. Everyone quickly changed into their surgical gowns and lead aprons following Director Guan, once inside, they saw Dr. Yu performing an intervention surgery, having just completed a catheter placement for the contrast agent. ¡°Acute myocardial infarction, cardiogenic shock, consciousness has been lost, left ventricular assist device maintaining blood pressure, ventilator assisting breathing¡ª¡± Dr. Yu reported immediately as he saw the Director, but his surgical operation continued without interruption. The contrast agent spread along the blood vessels, the branching image of the coronary artery appeared immediately on the screen. The contrast agent ceased to move further at the origin of the left main coronary artery. ¡°My God! The origin of the left main coronary artery is completely blocked!!!¡± Ignoring the much-needed process of handwashing, Director Guan immediately put on a pair of sterile gloves, hastily donned a scrub, and rushed to the operating table. The left main coronary artery refers to the proximal part of the left coronary artery beginning from the left coronary sinus and extends to its bifurcation. It and its branch vessels supply the myocardium, accounting for 60% to 90% of the heart¡¯s muscle. When the left main coronary artery is completely blocked, the patient faces a significant risk of fatal left ventricular dysfunction and malignant ventricular arrhythmia! This type has the highest risk level in cases of acute myocardial infarction, the lowest survival rate, the majority dying outside of a hospital. Even if the opportunity for emergency coronary intervention is availed, successful resuscitation is extremely rare. ¡°Stable, don¡¯t panic, locate the main left artery opening¡ªmove aside, let me do it!¡± Director Guan had already put on his surgical gown and asked Dr. Yu to step aside so he could take the lead. Experience speaks volumes, Director Guan, with his wealth of experience, strong mental resilience, and precise technique, was able to locate the opening of the left coronary artery and quickly unblock it. His moves were fluid and uninterrupted. Director Guan was a Ph.D. appointed by Dean Xia, the leader of the chest pain center. Under his guidance, the center actively conducted various high-risk complex cardiac intervention surgeries, implemented the concept of comprehensive treatment and intensive care combining cardiac assist devices and severe multi-organ failure treatment with high-risk complex coronary techniques. This significantly improved the level of treatment for urgent, dangerous, and severe cardiovascular diseases. If it weren¡¯t for Dr. Yu¡¯s timely use of the left ventricular assist device and ventilation machine as per the rescue procedure, there probably would have been no chance of saving the patient. ¡°What were you dawdling for just now? You don¡¯t take it seriously when I usually do it, yet you panic at a critical moment, can you afford to hesitate with such a case? Situate the entry of the left main coronary artery first, swiftly unblock the blood vessels, restore myocardial perfusion, what were you hesitating about?¡± Director Guan sternly criticized Dr. Yu who was a young Ph.D., the attending physician, and a proud prote?ge? of his. The more you valued something, the stricter the requirement. ¡°Carefully review the rescue just now, see if there are any loopholes? Any improvements needed? Your hesitation just now shows that you are not yet skilled in surgery. At the critical moment, what is tested is proficiency, there¡¯s no time for hesitation.¡± Director Guan continued to criticize Dr. Yu, expressing his dissatisfaction with his hesitation at the critical moment. In fact, Dr. Yu was quite fast, having checked the patient on-site and got onto the operating table within fifteen minutes. However, his lacking experience was evident, he hesitated a bit in his actions, not daring to make quick judgments. Director Guan transferred the concluding tasks to Dr. Yu, ¡°Here you go, for this case, write something for me tomorrow. Remember, you must never hesitate, this is a moment where a second can determine life or death.¡± Dr. Yu took over Director Guan¡¯s work. Director Guan stared at the screen, instructing, ¡°After the operation, send the patient to the CCU, beware of postoperative acute heart failure, lung infection, and metabolic acidosis.¡± ¡°Professor Yang! For now, the patient has been resuscitated, whether or not he can survive is still uncertain, but we have high hopes.¡± Director Guan knew that Yang Ping was a talented youth within the hospital and held him in high regard, hence he was quite polite in his speech. ¡°Director, thank you for your hard work!¡± Yang Ping expressed his gratitude. Director Guan waved, ¡°Dr. Yu was quite quick in his actions, from attending to the patient on-site to opening the coronary artery, not even thirty minutes have passed, any later and it might have been too late. Also, the correct and timely use of the left ventricular assist device and ventilator.¡± Chapter 598 - 598 545 Should the Surgery be Postponed ?Chapter 598: Chapter 545: Should the Surgery be Postponed? Chapter 598: Chapter 545: Should the Surgery be Postponed? Destiny is unpredictable, and man fluctuates between fortune and adversity. It always happens this way. What you fear most ends up coming to pass. The door to the catheterization lab opened and the old man was fraught with anxiety. His face as pale as a sheet, he hurriedly inquired about his wife¡¯s condition from Director Guan, who took the time to explain it to him in detail. The old man looked utterly broken, as if his body had come apart. He leaned against the back of his wheelchair, stupefied, taking a long while to come to his senses, even as his lips trembled incessantly. Yang Ping instructed the nurses to quickly wheel the old man back to his ward and to take good care of him. Then, he called Head Nurse Cai and asked her to try to get in touch with the old man¡¯s other relatives. People of their age, who are in poor health, have to be admitted to the hospital several times a year, usually in a constant state of distress. With his old darling currently in the CCU, her fate unknown, and their son currently in custody, the old man was at a loss for what to do. His mental health was on the verge of collapsing. Head Nurse Cai spent a long time communicating with him and managed to get a few phone numbers, but when she called them, the recipients assumed that the calls were scams and hung up after a few words. With no other options left, they waited for the old man to calm down so he could call his relatives himself. Given that he had little interaction with these relatives normally, when they received the calls, they either claimed they weren¡¯t in the city or said they would try to find time to visit tomorrow. Whether they would actually come tomorrow was uncertain. Fortunately, the hospital¡¯s chief on-duty officer happened to be Vice Dean Sun, who had experienced dealing with such situations. He notified the Medical Affairs Department to send a clerk overnight to handle the old man¡¯s affairs. He also instructed the Department to contact the residents¡¯ committee in the area where the old man lived during office hours tomorrow. This patient was unique. He wasn¡¯t an inpatient, nor was he a patient who needed to go through the emergency department, but a family member of a hospitalized patient who had suddenly fallen ill in the middle of the night and had had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment. The patient¡¯s husband was on the verge of a mental breakdown and was already incapable of making decisions. Their only son was currently in detainment. As for the other relatives, no one was reachable. The only option was to contact the residents¡¯ committee and have them intervene. Dean Sun instructed the first doctor, Li Guodong, to promptly complete the medical records, and to thoroughly record the details of the rescue to avoid being at a loss for words should a dispute arise. Dean Sun said that human nature is such that it cannot stand testing. Every patient might potentially be a litigant, and every medical record might potentially serve as evidence in court. While other matters could be put aside for now, the recording of the medical records had to be done immediately. If the old woman did not survive the critical postoperative period in the CCU, despite the fact that no relatives had turned up yet, when the time came, all kinds of far-fetched relatives would pop up out of nowhere, each seemingly more enthusiastic than the last, as though everyone had become the embodiment of justice. Having practiced medicine for many years and having served as Vice Dean for many years, Dean Sun had seen all kinds of ugliness and, therefore, he needed to be prepared. In contrast to Dean Xia¡¯s bold and decisive manner, Dean Sun was quite conservative. Li Guodong hurried to complete the medical record and Dean Sun went over it word by word. He asked Li Guodong, ¡°Dr. Li, according to what standard did you write these medical records?¡± Li Guodong didn¡¯t understand Dean Sun¡¯s meaning and truthfully replied, ¡°According to the latest standards for medical record keeping.¡± Weren¡¯t medical records meant to be written according to the standards for medical record keeping? Could there be other requirements? Dean Sun shook his head, ¡°That is the minimum requirement. Dr. Li, let me tell you, for every medical record, you need to consider that the patient could sue you at any moment. Only with this mindset can you write a good medical record.¡± Li Guodong nodded. It seemed that Dean Sun was right. Dean Sun guided Li Guodong in adjusting the medical records several times before they were finally printed out and signed. After the records were signed, Dean Sun looked over them a few more times and admonished Li Guodong, ¡°Hold off on the child¡¯s surgery tomorrow. I will talk to Professor Yang about it later.¡± Li Guodong didn¡¯t understand why the surgery should be postponed. If they didn¡¯t remove the needles promptly, they risked further complications, and the baby must be in great pain. Dean Sun seemed to understand Li Guodong¡¯s confusion. He said earnestly, ¡°You are still young and there is much you don¡¯t understand. You will mature over time. The baby¡¯s surgery is not an emergency, so it doesn¡¯t hurt to wait a few more days. Once everything is clear, we can proceed. What if a dispute arises? That would just add fuel to the fire, wouldn¡¯t it?¡± As he was leaving, Dean Sun told Li Guodong, ¡°Dr. Li, when working as a physician, don¡¯t do things haphazardly. Learn from Director Kong at the Overseas Chinese Building.¡± Having said that, Dean Sun left the ward and went on to inspect the work in the catheterization lab and the CCU. Li Guodong sat in his office, feeling somewhat at a loss. He understood what Dean Sun meant. Director Kong was indeed a legendary figure, currently serving as the medical director of the Overseas Chinese Building. Everyone at Sanbo Hospital knew about him and his rather poor standard of professional skill. However, Director Kong was adept with words and understanding people¡¯s psychology. So, he relied on these two skills and rose to the rank of chief physician and the advisor of a master¡¯s degree program, and he was currently seeking to become a doctoral advisor. When Director Kong was head of the Cardiology Department, his professional competence was quite poor, and he often made inappropriate comments during case discussions. Still, none of the doctors in the department exposed his mistakes, and no one complained about him. They were all willing to work under him. For he had a kind of chivalry ethos, capable of defending the interest of the department¡¯s doctors. At critical moments, he took responsibility and spoke up for the staff. He absorbed all the disputes within the department and solved countless conflicts with his eloquence. During his tenure as department director, there was not a single lawsuit, and complaints were extremely rare. It was truly amazing! Once during an interventional surgery, Director Kong was the chief surgeon and, unfortunately, punctured the patient¡¯s aorta. The patient died right there on the operating table. Yet, in the end, the patient¡¯s family did not utter a single word of complaint. Not only was there no dispute, but they even presented banners of gratitude and baskets of fruit. In the medical industry, he and Director Tang from another private hospital, were regarded as legendary figures. Not many doctors could reach such a level. Ah! Just one word ¨C admirable! Li Guodong had witnessed Director Kong¡¯s abilities, but he found he could not, simply could not, emulate his traits. Even for very common and simple treatments that lower-ranking resident doctors could handle, Director Kong would overcomplicate matters. He¡¯d insist how serious and complex the cases were, and then miraculous ¡®cure¡¯ them. The patients would not only believe him but also be overflowing with gratitude. Sometimes even the standardized training students couldn¡¯t stand it, but they only grumbled about it in private. Director Kong¡¯s unique abilities won the attention of Dean Xia. During reforms, most department directors were replaced by young, capable doctors holding doctorates. Yet, only Kong was promoted to be the director of the Department of Internal Medicine in the Overseas Chinese Building. As the director of the Department of Internal Medicine of the Overseas Chinese Building, he contributed a great deal to the hospital, making all the operations in the hospital run smoothly. Like when they needed to approve some budget, while other hospitals struggled with the approval, Sanbo Hospital could get it done smoothly. While the Medical Insurance Bureau was strict with other hospitals, they gave Sanbo Hospital a thumbs up, considering it as a model for medical insurance. Director Kong had a distinct trait; he was generous to his subordinates and colleagues, and always willing to help. If anyone came to him with a problem, he would treat it as his own and wouldn¡¯t brush them off. As Yang Ping, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang returned to the department from the CCU, Li Guodong quickly reported, ¡°Dean Sun says to delay Minmin¡¯s surgery. Should it be postponed?¡± Such a small child, with so many needles punctured into her body, must have been in a world of pain. Every time Minmin cried inexplicably, it was probably due to the stimulus of needles in certain parts of her body during movement. Although the operation was not a life-saving emergency surgery, the earlier it was done, the better. Furthermore, some needles, especially those in the heart region, carried deadly risks at any time. ¡°Dean Sun mentioned this to me. I¡¯ve already told him to go ahead with the surgery as planned tomorrow. Let¡¯s not delay the child because of tonight¡¯s incident,¡± Yang Ping was also feeling a bit sleepy and planned to head to the on-call room for a rest. Li Guodong reminded, ¡°The old lady suddenly suffered a myocardial infarction. The old man seemed confused and there are no other relatives present. What if ¡ª¡± What if there¡¯s some dispute, it would be a thankless task. Yang Ping looked at Li Guodong. He was right. From the perspective of self-protection, this would be the safest course of action. After some thought, Yang Ping told Li Guodong, ¡°Dr. Li, it is correct for a doctor to protect himself, but we also need to consider the patient¡¯s perspective. Having the operation a day early would relieve the child from the pain sooner. Of course, we are not rushing the surgery. We take full precautions technically and procedurally. Tomorrow, before the surgery, I¡¯ll report to Dean Xia.¡± Li Guodong nodded, ¡°I understand!¡± ¡°Proceed with the surgery as planned tomorrow!¡± Song Zimo also patted Li Guodong¡¯s shoulder. ¡°The best way for a pilot to ensure his safety is to never take off!¡± Then, Xu Zhiliang said to Li Guodong, ¡°Dean Sun ¡ªslick operator¡ªlearn from him¡ªat most learn half.¡± Li Guodong¡¯s face turned somewhat red in an instant. Chapter 599 - 599 546 Removing a Splinter is a Technical ?Chapter 599: Chapter 546: Removing a Splinter is a Technical Task Chapter 599: Chapter 546: Removing a Splinter is a Technical Task Sometimes, simple matters can become complicated due to certain reasons. A patient¡¯s family member having a myocardial infarction in the hospital, and the doctors staying up all night to save him, is usually a very positive thing. But for some unknown reason, it has made everyone in the hospital feel like they are facing a significant threat, making them extremely nervous. Dean Sun is quite worried about this, and so is Director Zhao, who harbours even more concerns. The next day, Dean Sun finished his shift as the on-duty administrator and handed the case over to the medical office. The duty of the on-duty administrator is rotated among the leadership of the administrative department. During the night and holidays, the administrative leaders are off duty, and the on-duty administrator, as the temporary highest authority of the hospital, handles emergencies such as coordinating major rescues and dealing with disputes. Once it¡¯s time for regular work hours, the on-duty administrator¡¯s responsibilities are automatically cancelled. Director Zhao took a detailed understanding of the situation and attached great importance to it, believing that it had the potential to turn into a dispute. In identifying a potential dispute, Director Zhao was never impulsive. He had his own set of methods. He designed a scoring system, assigning certain points for each risk factor. He would assess the event against the scoring system and if the score exceeded a certain limit, it was deemed as high-risk. When he got to work in the morning, Director Zhao scored the event against his sheet like reading an oracle. And when he finished, the result showed that it was a high-risk event. Theoretically, Minmin¡¯s surgery should be postponed and decisions made based on how the situation developed. No matter whether the old lady¡¯s condition was stable or not, the key was their son. Their son was currently detained in a detention center. Whether he would be convicted remained unknown. If not, he was likely to take advantage of this situation to cause trouble with the hospital, with a very simple goal ¨C to extort money. How could an adult male who lived off his parents, lacked a proper job and idled about miss the opportunity to use the two people as hostages to extort money? Actually, for all medical disputes that are not willing to follow regular procedures, without exception, the direct objective is money. Not going the regular route naturally means that they choose to make trouble at the hospital. No matter how much they claim that it¡¯s not about the money but justice, it¡¯s still about the money. Because deep down they know that if they follow the regular route, seek a medical appraisal, and wait for the court¡¯s judgment, they won¡¯t get any money. So they have to take a gamble, make a fuss, and hope to get some money out of it. If Yang Ping does not want to postpone the operation, then the medical office must ensure his protection. Director Zhao summarized the situation, asked his staff to notify the neighbourhood committee where the old woman lived, and the police station handling Minmin¡¯s case. Afterwards, he asked a staffer to personally visit. The hospital¡¯s legal department lawyer, the director of the publicity department, and the head of the security department were all invited by Director Zhao to his office to intervene in advance, make preparations, and avoid being caught off guard if a real dispute occurred. Doing good deeds requires both capability and skill. Sometimes without ability and skills, good deeds can easily cause trouble. In the past, Sanbo Hospital didn¡¯t really have a legal department, and the security department only had a few middle-aged guards. Dean Xia set up a Legal Department and a Security Department to strengthen the hospital¡¯s ability to deal with troublemakers. The Legal Department not only has staff attorneys but also cooperates with top law firms experienced in medical lawsuits in the city. The Security Department consists entirely of young retired military personnel, creating a disciplined and reliable team. The purpose is nothing more than to prevent doctors from being beaten or attacked. When a distinguished young ophthalmology professor in Beijing was crippled by a patient, Dean Xia was frightened and sent four strong security guards to the building where Yang Ping worked: two in the lobby downstairs and two in the wards upstairs. Thus, the building where Yang Ping worked came to have dedicated security guards. A rare talent must not be subject to such a heartrending incident. The thought of it makes Dean Xia a little scared. It is a necessary measure. To survive and develop in a complex environment, one must have a set of strategies. After handing over his shift, Yang Ping brought Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang to the CCU to visit Minmin¡¯s grandmother. Her condition was stabilized due to timely rescue and she was now conscious and able to have simple conversations. She immediately recognized Yang Ping and asked about Minmin¡¯s surgery. Yang Ping said it would be performed soon. The old lady asked Professor Yang to take great pains to ensure the operation¡¯s success. Yang Ping reassured her and told her to focus on recovering from her illness. When Yang Ping returned to his department, Minmin had already been sent to the operating room. Zhang Lin¡¯s wife, Dr. Li from pediatrics, was about to leave with her empty lunch box protruding from her belly. She had come to bring Zhang Lin breakfast. Seeing Yang Ping, Dr. Li respectfully greeted him, ¡°Professor Yang!¡± ¡°Are you still working? Don¡¯t you need a break?¡± Yang Ping asked her. Zhang Lin took over and said, ¡°The department has asked her to go on leave but she¡¯s not willing to. Pediatrics is short-handed. She¡¯s not on duty now and usually sees outpatients. When it¡¯s time to give birth, they¡¯ll just send her directly to the delivery room.¡± At this time, Head Nurse Cai came over and asked Dr. Li, ¡°When is your due date?¡± ¡°Any day now!¡± Zhang Lin replied. Head Nurse Cai said to Zhang Lin: ¡°You always say it¡¯s ¡®any day now.¡¯ You¡¯ve been saying that for almost half a year.¡± ¡°It really is ¡®any day now.''¡± Zhang Lin chuckled, sounding less harsh than usual as he was about to become a father. Head Nurse Cai reproached Zhang Lin: ¡°She¡¯s about to give birth and you¡¯re still having her deliver breakfast to you?¡± Dr. Li said with a smile: ¡°I¡¯m fine, walking around is good for childbirth and he works hard.¡± After chatting briefly in the ward corridor, everyone hurried to the operating room. ¡ª Minmin¡¯s surgery started as scheduled, the sooner it was done, the sooner she would be free from the pain. Chapter 600 - 600 546 Removing a Splinter is a Technical ?Chapter 600: Chapter 546: Removing a Splinter is a Technical Task_2 Chapter 600: Chapter 546: Removing a Splinter is a Technical Task_2 Liang Fatty moved quickly, letting Minmin inhale some anesthesia and swiftly completed the intubation, connecting the anesthesia machine. Zhou Can placed a retention needle on Minmin¡¯s scalp and set up the ultrasound machine beside them early. Hand disinfection, laying drapes, and dressing, everyone chatted as they prepped for surgery, the atmosphere was very relaxed. Things were done from easy to difficult. The needle extractions from the limbs were relatively easier than those from the chest and abdomen. The groin area of the thigh, where the nerves and blood vessels were concentrated, housed the femoral artery, femoral vein, and femoral nerve. The ultrasound probe used during the surgery was sterile, as was the coupling agent. After Yang Ping applied the coupling agent on Minmin¡¯s skin, the ultrasound probe pressed into the groin area, and the sound of blood flow was immediately heard. Subcutaneous, fascia, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves ¨C all kinds of images appeared on the screen. Slowly, the needle also appeared on the screen, along the direction set for extraction, Yang Ping made a small 0.5 cm cut with a scalpel. A mosquito clamp was extended through the incision, and under the watchful eyes of the ultrasound, the clamp tip skillfully avoided the nerve blood vessels, gripping the tail of the needle tightly, then the mosquito clamp was slowly pulled out, the first needle appeared in the curved tray. Ultrasound images were two-dimensional. It was extremely difficult to locate the three-dimensional needle based on those two-dimensional images. Even during open surgery, things might not have gone as smoothly as they did for Yang Ping, who managed to achieve accuracy on the first try. The needle was like a fish in water ¨C if the fish moves in the water, the picture a person gets does not have three-dimensional vision, it¡¯s merely a flat image. As a result, all fish seemed to swim on one plane, and the person trying to catch the fish wouldn¡¯t be able to judge its depth, making fishing extremely difficult. Human tissues are not water, but layers of solid tissues. These solid tissues appear as flat images on the ultrasound screen, and a needle hidden in any layer would be hard to locate. That¡¯s why in surgeries to extract small foreign objects, even though X-rays made it seem close at hand, they just couldn¡¯t be found. The surgical area was irrigated, the small incision was sutured, and then the needle from the groin area was removed. A small incision was made, a mosquito clamp was extended into it, grabbed the tail of the needle, and then extracted it, all actions accomplished seamlessly. Each of the needles in the lower limb was effortlessly removed by Yang Ping just like this. Next came the extraction of the four needles in the thoracic cavity. The pediatric surgical thoracoscope borrowed from the provincial women and children¡¯s hospital came in handy. First, the ultrasound was used to locate the needles, then an opening was made in the left chest intercostal space for the scope. Yang Ping carefully incised the pericardium bit by bit under the thoracoscope, a few millimeters, with slight separation. The needle tail was visible under the thoracoscope, right at the incision of the pericardium. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang turned to look at this young professor in astonishment ¨C they couldn¡¯t believe his impressive ability to position so accurately. Most people would have to probe several times, but he managed to get it right on his first try. It was as though he was the one who had initially planted the needle. It was like a treasure hunt game ¨C a toy was hidden in the room for you to find, and you found it directly. Either you hid the toy, or you saw someone else hide it, otherwise, you would have had to search for it. And it isn¡¯t just one needle, all the needles in the limbs, and now the needle in the pericardium were likewise. Can you not be so outstanding? Song Zimo had a thousand question marks and exclamation points in his mind. Using a grabber, he gripped the tail of the needle, carefully pulled it out, and placed it on the curved tray. Indeed, the needle had rusted and the tip had penetrated at least two millimeters into the heart wall. Fortunately, the needle was removed in time, or else, with the contraction of the myocardium, the needle might have slowly penetrated deeper into the heart, and eventually, broken into the heart. ¡°How did this needle get in there? Through the intercostal space? How could it go this deep?¡± Zhang Lin asked. Little Five answered: ¡°The needle doesn¡¯t remain still once it¡¯s in, it moves with the respiratory motion of the chest cavity and the contraction of the heart, its current position isn¡¯t the original position.¡± The two good friends were standing at the operating table with nothing to do. This patient was a baby and the operating room was so crowded that there was hardly any space, so both brothers stood far from the operating table, simply starting to chat. Large and blunt foreign bodies, such as shrapnel, rarely move. However, these sharp, thin needles can easily move and some may even enter the blood vessels, threatening the patient¡¯s life. Based on the locating by the surface ultrasound, Yang Ping used the thoracoscope to locate the three other needles; one tucked in the mediastinum, one lodged between the two lobes of the right lung, and the last one stuck to the wall of the aorta. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief once all three needles in the thoracic cavity were retrieved, especially the needle hanging on the wall of the aorta. ¡°Damnit, just how evil must you be to do such a thing to a little child?¡± Zhang Lin swore. Xu Zhiliang looked up, turning his head to look at Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin thought Old Xu was going to scold him again, so he immediately plastered on a grin. ¡°What sort of a monster does this?!¡± Xu Zhiliang cursed and then immediately resumed the surgery. The operation continued, and they then began to remove the needles from the abdomen. At that moment, Director Zhao came in: ¡°How is it going, Professor Yang?¡± ¡°My goodness, are those really needles inside? It makes my scalp prickle.¡± Looking at the dish on the instrument table, which already contained twenty or thirty needles, Director Zhao felt quite uneasy. ¡°There are still four in the abdominal cavity that haven¡¯t been taken out, we¡¯re preparing to do so.¡± Song Zimo was stitching up several small incisions on the chest while Yang Ping used the surface ultrasound to locate the six needles in the abdomen. As expected, the positions of the two needles were completely different. Whenever these big shots address him as Professor Yang, he would always ask them to simply call him Xiao Yang, or Doctor Yang. But it seemed like it didn¡¯t do much good; even Dean Xia called him Professor Yang. So Yang Ping simply stopped fighting it, since it was just a matter of addressing him. Nevertheless, he found that being addressed as Professor Yang was rather pleasant. ¡°Needle extraction is a technical task, don¡¯t rush it, take it slowly,¡± Zhao advised generously. Dr. Jin from trauma orthopedics had arrived at Director Zhao¡¯s back at some point, he agreed: ¡°Indeed.¡± The sound was close to Director Zhao¡¯s ear, startling Zhao. He looked back in surprise and found Dr. Jin standing behind him. ¡°There was a case where a needle had been shot into the patient¡¯s right upper arm by a high-pressure pneumatic gun used by a factory worker. The patient didn¡¯t have any obvious symptoms, but it had to be removed. After four to five hours of repeatedly looking for the needle under C-arm fluoroscopy and unsuccessfully locating it, despite having seen it in the image beforehand, it was frustrating. Later, I palpated it by hand, feeling layer by layer of tissue for over an hour. Still not finding it, I had no choice but to give up the surgery. The patient later on paid a follow-up visit to me after discharge. He said he was not uncomfortable at the time, but later when his right arm was in the wrong position, the tiger¡¯s mouth area of his right hand would feel numb and painful, like a needle prick.¡± ¡°Could it be that the needle ran from the upper arm to the hand¡¯s tiger¡¯s mouth? That¡¯s so bizarre!¡± Zhang Lin said excitedly. Dr. Jin continued: ¡°I thought so too, it couldn¡¯t be that strange, could it? So I went to ask Director Han for advice. Director Han said, ¡®take another X-ray. If the needle is still located in the right upper arm, there¡¯s a good chance it¡¯s inside the radial nerve.¡¯ ¡°So I did it according to what Director Han suggested, the needle was still in the original place, it hadn¡¯t moved. After I did the initial diagnosis of the patient¡¯s right radial nerve surface projection, sure enough, the moment I pressed on it, the patient reported an abnormal sensation in the area governed by the right radial nerve, especially in the tiger¡¯s mouth area. He said it felt numb and painful, like a needle prick.¡± ¡°I immediately suggested that the patient undergo surgery again. Luckily, the patient agreed. This time, I made an incision in the radial nerve sheath according to the location shown in the X-ray. My goodness, there lay the tiny needle, vertically.¡± Old Jin shared this clinical case with great excitement. At this point, Yang Ping had already inserted the laparoscope, inflated the abdomen and begun searching for the six needles in the abdominal cavity. Chapter 601 - 601 547 Whoever is Free Goes ?Chapter 601: Chapter 547: Whoever is Free, Goes Chapter 601: Chapter 547: Whoever is Free, Goes Under the laparoscope, Yang Ping located the approximate location of the fine needles based on the prior ultrasound. He then began to search for these needles. These fine needles were indeed hard to locate, so Yang Ping decided to start from the upper abdomen and search for these six needles in an upper-middle-lower sequence. Starting from the liver area on the right side, the first needle was found in the gallbladder area. One end was in the liver and the other end was in the gallbladder. Luckily, the child had a strong healing ability, avoiding bile leakage and preventing infection. Yang Ping gently pushed the gallbladder aside, creating operating space, and slowly pulled out this needle. Only a small amount of bile seeped out of the hole. Yang Ping suctioned the bile and found that the needle hole had naturally closed and was no longer leaking bile. Everyone in the room gasped in amazement. Even though the needle was hidden so deep, Yang Ping was able to locate it directly, saving a lot of time. Just as everyone had calmed their nerves, the second needle was found in the pancreatic area, about half of it was already pierced into the pancreas. The motion of the intestines pushed these fine needles into various corners, and the sharp tips of these needles pierced through nearby tissues before coming to a halt in these recesses. Astonishingly, the third needle was found near the esophageal hiatus of the diaphragm. Song Zimo was at a loss for words. These tricky locations, even if one were to cut open for the surgery and ¡°turn over¡± the intestines and stomach, it could still be hard to find these needles. Yet, Yang Ping always seemed to find them in one go. After receiving a call from Director Han and listening for a bit, Director Zhao said to everyone, ¡°Director Han has asked that after you all finish this surgery, you go to the Surgical Building¡¯s Operating Room to support the Trauma Emergency Center. Three people have fallen from a building, their injuries are very severe.¡± ¡°Three people fell from a building?¡± Song Zimo asked. He had seen two people jump simultaneously before, but never seen three. Director Zhao nodded, ¡°A high school student jumped from the seventh floor. Her mother didn¡¯t stop her and followed her down. Of the two who jumped from the building, one of them directly landed on a person watering plants on the first floor. Hence, one jumper resulted in three in need of rescue. The Trauma Emergency Center has already had several rescues today, they can¡¯t keep up and are requesting help.¡± ¡°Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, take Zhang Lin Xiaowu and go support the Trauma Emergency Center. Li Guodong, get up and assist with the mirror,¡± Yang Ping decided decisively. There¡¯s no waiting when it comes to rescue. Yang Ping immediately delegated the department¡¯s elite force to assist. As for this surgery, Yang Ping and Li Guodong could handle it by themselves. No matter how many people were there, it wouldn¡¯t make a difference. ¡°We¡¯re going now then? Guodong, quickly get up there, support the professor with the mirror, and make sure your hands are steady.¡± Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang immediately left the operating table, changed out of their surgical gowns, and rushed to the operating center. Li Guodong quickly scrubbed his hands and got onto the operating table. Zhang Lin Xiaowu waited until Li Guodong was up before stepping back. Li Guodong normally doesn¡¯t get a chance to assist Yang Ping with surgeries. Having this rare opportunity, he felt overjoyed. Although assisting mainly involved adjusting the mirror, it was still a genuine assist. This was something truly worth boasting about. Having passed on Director Han¡¯s concerns to Yang Ping, Director Zhao also had to rush to the Operating Center, so he bade farewell to Yang Ping and exited. ¡°Don¡¯t just stand there, hurry up and go to the Operating Center and help out.¡± Yang Ping asked all of the graduates, standardized training students, and interns in the department to go help at the Operating Center, and then everyone dispersed. Yang Ping continued the operation with Li Guodong, Xiao Su was the instrument nurse, Zhou Can was responsible for patrolling, Liang Fatty was in charge of anesthesia, and Dr. Jin was an observer. The operating room suddenly became much quieter. The fourth needle had pierced obliquely into the wall of the small intestine. Each and every one of these needles seemed tricky and deadly, as if intending to endanger the patient¡¯s life. The fifth was tucked away in the oily omentum. The needles that were found were all thrown into a curved dish. The longest needle was five centimeters long, and the shortest was about two centimeters. Xiao Su counted the number and checked the completeness of the needles. There were thirty-three in total, still one left. Now Yang Ping began to search for the last needle. ¡°This needle is in the right side of the abdomen ¡ª¡± Exactly which location that last needle was hiding would be hard to say. Each needle they found earlier was hidden in a really obscure place. Dr. Jin really dared not venture a guess. There are a lot of anatomical structures on the right side of the abdomen. Where was it hiding? Yang Ping began to separate the right side of the abdomen, and slowly followed along the cecum to explore the appendix. He then pushed aside the tissues surrounding the appendix. What the hell, could it really be around the appendix? Otherwise, why would he single out the appendix? Watching the monitor that was showing the view from the laparoscope, Dr. Jin pondered. It seemed like the position of the needle based on the ultrasound was at the McBurney¡¯s point in the right lower abdomen, which was indeed where the appendix was. But this location had many layers, going from shallow to deep. How did he know it was near the appendix? Dr. Jin concentrated, waiting and watching closely. Surrounding the appendix, he separated one round, but didn¡¯t see any fine needles. Where exactly was it? All Yang Ping did was use the tip of the separator to gently squeeze the appendix, squeeze, squeeze again, his movements were extremely gentle. Dr. Jin¡¯s eyes widened. The surface of the appendix was showing tiny needle-like points. Yang Ping¡¯s forceps in his hand immediately grabbed the suspected needle tip and steadily pulled it out. After slight adjustment, he successfully removed the fine needle. Upon seeing this, Dr. Jin almost fell to the floor. Darn it, was this needle hiding inside the appendix? How did it end up there? If it was him, he would never have thought to look inside the appendix. Yang Ping checked the appendix and confirmed that it was fine and there was no obvious inflammatory response. ¡°Professor Yang, how could you be sure it was in the appendix?¡± Dr. Jin, who was rather experienced, was greatly taken aback by the surprising location this needle had hidden. ¡°When I was using the ultrasound to locate the needle, I noticed that the needle moved rhythmically with intestinal peristalsis at the position of the appendix, exactly in sync with the appendix¡¯s movement.¡± Turns out one has to have a dynamic understanding of anatomy, Dr. Jin finally realized. No wonder he had been promoted to associate chief doctor and associate professor before turning thirty. Even if he was promoted to doctoral advisor, Dr. Jin would willingly admit his admiration. After extracting all the needles on that side, Yang Ping handed over the baby to Li Guodong and came to the Operating Center with Dr. Jin. The Operating Center was extremely busy, with an average of about 200 surgeries happening daily, adding up to about sixty to seventy thousand surgeries a year. Even though this number couldn¡¯t match Nandu Affiliated Hospital One¡¯s annual surgeries of over one hundred thousand, it¡¯s enough to rank among second or third tier comprehensive hospitals nationwide. The surgery for the high school student who had fallen from the building had already begun. With multiple injuries and fractures all over the body, her condition was very critical. Song Zimo, taking Zhang Lin Xiaowu, and Xu Zhiliang, taking Zhang Lin, were simultaneously performing surgeries on two different parts. Song Zimo and Little Five were dealing with a pelvic comminuted fracture, which had almost flattened the pelvis. Xu Zhiliang was leading Zhang Lin in treating a left thigh avulsion injury, which had caused the skin and muscle, along with the blood vessels and nerves, to be brutally torn open from the groin to the knee. ¡°Professor!¡± Song Zimo glanced up to see Yang Ping and quickly relayed, ¡°A fall from the seventh floor, the shock was slightly cushioned by an awning on the first floor. The patient displays a comminuted fracture of the thoracic vertebrae, a fractured sternum, multiple rib fractures, a comminutive pelvic fracture, a comminutive fracture of the left shoulder joint, a comminutive fracture of the right femur, and an avulsion injury to the left groin and thigh. The patient is currently in shock, emergency procedures performed included pelvic embolization to stop bleeding and closed thoracic drainage¡ª¡± Song Zimo worked swiftly, and Little Five was able to keep up with his pace. Little Five and Zhang Lin¡¯s progress was swiftly improving while working long term under Yang Ping¡¯s team. Even though their roles were at the bottom of the team, their skill level was much higher than average doctors of the same level. ¡°Hemostat!¡± ¡°Suction, pay attention to the suction!¡± ¡°Ligate the blood vessel!¡± When Xu Zhiliang was faced with a major rescue operation like this, there was no stutter in his speech. Xu Zhiliang was dealing with the avulsion injury to the left thigh. The skin, muscle and blood vessels were torn and flipping up, presenting an intensely graphic view of the flesh and blood. The injury was presumably caused by the steel frame structure on the awning catching and tearing during the fall. ¡°Artificial blood vessel!¡± Xu Zhiliang bellowed. The femoral artery had been completely damaged by the avulsion injury. To protect the lower limb and facilitate further surgical procedures, the severed femoral artery could only be bridged using an artificial blood vessel. ¡°No, I estimate the femoral artery was torn from inside the pelvis?¡± Xu Zhiliang tried to locate the proximal end of the ruptured femoral artery, preparing to move upwards into the pelvis. As Song Zimo was operating on the pelvic fracture, and had already opened the pelvis, he announced, ¡°I¡¯ve found the end of it. Insert the artificial blood vessel up, do we have another sheath?¡± ¡°No sheath, I¡¯ll create a cavity.¡± At the original sheath¡¯s location, Xu Zhiliang used a curved forcep to expand a gap, sending the artificial blood vessel through. Upon verifying that the remaining blood vessels were healthy and could be preserved, Song Zimo cut open the blood vessel, removed the torn damaged part and sewed the artificial vessel to the remaining part of the external iliac artery. At the other end, Xu Zhiliang again found the popliteal artery, then pulled the artificial blood vessel over, and sutured it in place. ¡°Palpate the dorsal pedis artery!¡± Once Xu Zhiliang had connected the artificial blood vessel, he proceeded to look for the end of the femoral vein. Zhang Lin placed two fingers on the left dorsal pedis, ¡°Can¡¯t¡ª can¡¯t¡ª feel it.¡± ¡°Is it there or not?¡± Xu Zhiliang asked. Zhang Lin wasn¡¯t sure if the slight pulsation he felt was from the patient¡¯s dorsal pedis artery pulse, or his own finger¡¯s pulse, so he could only say, ¡°Somewhat¡ªnot sure¡ªOld Xu.¡± ¡°What do you mean not sure? Can you not stutter and be clear with your words!¡± Unable to help himself, Xu Zhiliang had to pause his work and checked the dorsal pedis artery himself. It was faint, but it was there. ¡°Syringe needle!¡± Xu Zhiliang took the syringe needle and jabbed it into the first toe pad. Gradually, fresh blood began to seep out. The femoral artery bridge was a success, and surgery continued. ¡°Teacher Zhang! Teacher Zhang! Teacher Zhang!¡± An intern from who knows which department burst into the operating room, haphazardly calling for Zhang Lin. As he was busy with the emergency surgery, Zhang Lin had no time to deal with the intern and didn¡¯t even lift his head. ¡°Teacher Zhang! The obstetrics department requested you in operating room twenty.¡± The intern took a breath and spoke. Zhang Lin was frustrated, as he was in the middle of a life-saving operation. He raised his voice and reprimanded, ¡°Can¡¯t you see the situation? Calling me for a consultation at a time like this? Can¡¯t you see we¡¯re in the middle of a rescue operation?¡± ¡®This intern is brainless,¡¯ cursed Zhang Lin, but his operation never hesitating for a moment. ¡°No, Teacher Zhang! Dr. Li is preparing for a Caesarean section!¡± The anxious intern didn¡¯t know what else to say. ¡°Caesarian section and you¡¯re calling for an orthopedic doctor? Neurological breakdown!¡± Zhang Lin still didn¡¯t lift his head, completely ignoring the intern. ¡°Exactly! They¡¯ve probably encountered another congenital spinal or limb deformity, and want us to take a look.¡± Xu Zhiliang took over the conversation. This kind of thing was common in the obstetrics department. If a C-section brought forth any congenital spinal or limb deformities, they would immediately summons an orthopedic doctor to give an opinion. These congenital deformities weren¡¯t emergencies. There was no need to rush. Zhang Lin was most annoyed by such interruptions, ¡°Whoever is free can go!¡± ¡°Hemostat! Quickly!¡± Xu Zhiliang clamped a blood vessel. Zhang Lin immediately followed with a ligation, his movements were very efficient, swiftly tying a knot and then cutting the ligature. ¡°Get out, get out!¡± At this moment, the circulating nurse came over and found the intern sweating profusely and standing too close to the operating table. It was asking for trouble! ¡°I¡ª¡± The intern choked on his words. ¡°Out!¡± The circulating nurse sternly ordered the intern out of the operating room. Chapter 602 - 602 548 Whats Your Wifes Last Name ?Chapter 602: Chapter 548: What¡¯s Your Wife¡¯s Last Name? Chapter 602: Chapter 548: What¡¯s Your Wife¡¯s Last Name? Between the third and fourth cervical vertebral bodies, there¡¯s still one needle left. This is the thinnest one and is saved for last due to its high level of difficulty, even harder to extract than those in the pericardium. The structure filling the intervertebral space is the intervertebral disc; the needle is planted inside it. After rinsing the abdominal cavity and retracting the equipment, Li Guodong sutured the three small incisions on the abdomen. Yang Ping then shifted the battlefield to the cervical spine. The baby¡¯s cervical spine was very small; Yang Ping originally planned to use ultrasound positioning and then remove the thin needle under an endoscope. However, there was no suitable endoscopic system available for use in the neck area in the Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital. Equipment normally used for adult cervical spine minimally invasive surgery, such as the dilation tube system, was definitely not suitable for a baby. The endoscopic system used by the paediatric ENT department was also unsuitable. Yang Ping had no choice but to use an open mini-incision surgery. The cut was not big, only one centimeter. This needle was about 1.8 centimeters long. In theory, no matter if the needle punctures the human body from the front or the back of the neck, the needle¡¯s maximum depth would be under the skin and it could not go any deeper. From then on, the position of the needle would change with muscle contraction. With all the movement, how did the needle manage to enter the intervertebral space so perfectly? Moreover, one end of this needle is sharp without any anomalies, while the other end has lost its rounded feel. Was a long needle jabbed into the intervertebral space and then a part of it broken off inside? Yang Ping thought about this needle for a long time and felt that this was the only logical explanation. Dr. Jin performed surgery all night yesterday. He could rest now, but he wanted to observe Yang Ping¡¯s operation. He was standing on the side now, not thinking of any rest at all. Also, considering the situation in Orthopaedics today, any rest would certainly be out of the question. Dr. Jin decided to stay. He could watch the surgery and take a breather at the same time. Yang Ping was planning to use a small incision, so frequent positioning was unavoidable. And this area wouldn¡¯t be able to avoid X-ray positioning either. Dr. Jin looked around the operating room. Besides himself, there was only Liang Fatty and Zhou Can in the room; the interns and standardized training students had all rushed to the Trauma Emergency Center for assistance. Liang Fatty was sitting on a stool in a daze and it was clear that he couldn¡¯t be expected to do anything else. Zhou Can is a girl, Dr. Jin thought, standing there as a grown man while asking Zhou Can to move the C-arm X-ray machine, would not be appropriate or justifiable. So, he quietly went to the storage room next door by himself and started pushing the C-arm X-ray machine. He first moved the main computer screen out and arranged it, then pushed out the C-arm. It¡¯s a bit of an effort for one person to move this machine; usually, the interns do the pushing. In spine surgery, it is extremely important to position the segment correctly, and it is indispensable. In the past, before the C-arm machine was available, positioning was done based on experience, and there were instances where the wrong segment was operated on ¡ª even veterans were not exempt. Once everything was ready, Dr. Jin asked, ¡°Professor Yang, the C-arm machine is ready. Can I assist you on the platform?¡± ¡°Scrub in!¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t beat around the bush. Since Old Jin was so enthusiastic, he let him participate in the operation. However, they wouldn¡¯t need to use the C-arm machine at all. Yang Ping had not planned to use the C-arm machine for positioning. Using a C-arm machine for positioning would, in theory, be necessary. However, Yang Ping was highly skilled and daring. In order to minimize the radiation exposure for Minmin, They couldn¡¯t provide any protection for the thyroid during cervical spine surgery. If they could reduce the X-ray radiation, they would. ¡°No need for the C-arm! I will use ultrasound for positioning.¡± Yang Ping said as he began to disinfect the skin of the neck area again before making the incision. Not using the C-arm, but the ultrasound? How to position the segment? If the segment can¡¯t be positioned, how to perform the surgery? Dr. Jin was very confused. An experienced doctor and a senior physician actually couldn¡¯t figure out how to use an ultrasound to position spinal segments. That¡¯s normal, because only Yang Ping dared to do this. Yang Ping was too familiar with anatomy, he only needed to do a touch examination of the cervical spinous processes and he could accurately determine the corresponding sequence of the cervical spinous processes. Then, based on the distance relationship between the spinous process and the intervertebral space on the original X-ray, he was able to accurately locate the intervertebral space. Dr. Jin stepped onto the platform with his questions, scrubbed in, and assisted Yang Ping. Yang Ping planned to use the anterolateral approach. After a quick ultrasound scan for positioning, he made a small cut, slightly separated it with a microvascular clamp, then inserted a micro skin retractor and let Li Guodong retract the skin. ¡°Never ever imitate me. Always use the C-arm machine for positioning during your surgeries.¡± Yang Ping reminded Dr. Jin and Li Guodong, especially Dr. Jin. This reminder is necessary, just like when dangerous actions appear on TV and the audience must be reminded: Do not imitate. If imitated, the consequences would be disastrous. If it were Song Zimo, this reminder would be completely unnecessary. He understands clearly what can be imitated and what cannot. As the retractor pulled the skin apart, Yang Ping¡¯s vascular clamp continued to separate. It entered through the muscle gap, avoiding blood vessels and nerves, and went straight to the anterolateral of the 3/4 cervical intervertebral space. ¡°Deepen the hook a bit!¡± Yang Ping reminded, and Li Guodong immediately adjusted the retractor. Compared to Zhang Lin Xiaowu¡¯s golden-silver twin hooks, there was a huge gap in Li Guodong¡¯s retractor technique. ¡°Get me a headlamp.¡± The light from the overhead lamp could hardly illuminate the narrow space within the small incision. Only the concentrated light beam from a headlamp could give a clear view of the inside. Yang Ping moved his head away from the surgical area. Zhou Can helped him put on the headlamp, and then he returned to the operating table. The beam of light from the headlamp was just right to illuminate the narrow space. Yang Ping used a microvascular clamp to hold a corner of the gauze and inserted it in to soak up a small amount of blood. Dr. Jin stared into the small incision, seeing nothing at all. How was one meant to extract the needle? The scalpel merely pricked the anterior longitudinal ligament and the front of the intervertebral disc. Then, a straight microscopic vascular clamp was inserted, pulled back, and finally the last needle was removed and thrown into the curved dish. Dr. Jin nearly collapsed onto his knees. He had always heard that this guy was a half-human, half-god freak. Turns out, it was true. An old doctoral veteran, a senior attending physician, impressive in both theory and practical experience. Unable to understand how the surgery was completed, just making a small incision, pricking inside, and the needle got out. The thirty-fourth needle was removed, marking the end of the major task. Yang Ping inspected the needle. The tail was not rounded, with old fracture marks. It was likely that it broke inside after the long needle had been inserted. Looking at the dense array of needles in the curved dish, Yang Ping was relieved. All the needles in the young one were taken out. ¡°Don¡¯t try to imitate me!¡± Yang Ping warned again. If it wasn¡¯t to reduce the child¡¯s X-ray radiation, Yang Ping would still prefer to use the standard procedure of using a C-arm for positioning, so as not to mislead others. Xiao Su once again counted the quantity of the needles. The remaining closing work, Yang Ping handed over to Li Guodong. He and Dr. Jin went to assist at the surgery center. ¡ª¡ª The Trauma Emergency Centre was in full swing today, with all the operating rooms filled to capacity. The nurses delivering blood pretty much raced, one just came out, and another one would enter. Yang Ping and Dr. Jin arrived at the operating room to support. The two strongest in the Surgical Research Institute took action, bleeding from the pelvis and thigh was stopped, and the high school student¡¯s blood pressure was forcefully stabilized. Song Zimo looked up and saw Yang Ping. Just when he was about to report, Yang Ping signaled him not to be distracted and to continue with the surgery. Song Zimo understood, kept his mouth shut, continued the operation, there wasn¡¯t much to say anyway. If he couldn¡¯t handle this surgery, he could let the professor step in. If he could handle it, continue with the surgery and don¡¯t talk needlessly. With the professor standing beside him, even if the sky fell, Song Zimo wouldn¡¯t bat an eye. Clearly, the level of the top surgeon of the Surgical Research Institute, handling this kind of surgery, was as easy as pie. Dr. Jin, standing behind Yang Ping, watched Song Zimo¡¯s lightning-fast sewing, his surgery was steady and quick. He couldn¡¯t help but exclaim, Young Master Song, your progress is really fast. If it wasn¡¯t for his older age, he would definitely cheekily beg Yang Ping to work under him. Suddenly, Dr. Jin felt a pang of sadness. ¡°Teacher Zhang!!!¡± Another intern timidly asked. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Did an intern just say that Dr. Li in the maternity ward is doing a cesarean section?¡± Zhang Lin asked Xu Zhiliang. Xu Zhiliang thought for a while and said, ¡°It seems so!¡± ¡°Why did Dr. Li call us to the cesarean section?¡± Zhang Lin asked. ¡°Didn¡¯t he call us for a consultation? No, brother, what¡¯s your wife¡¯s surname?¡± Xu Zhiliang seemed to have an epiphany. Zhang Lin casually answered, ¡°My wife¡¯s surname is Li!¡± Surname Li? Both of them looked up and exchanged glances! Suddenly Zhang Lin thought, couldn¡¯t be, right? Isn¡¯t it that my wife is about to give birth? Taken to the operating room for a cesarean section, couldn¡¯t be such a coincidence, right? ¡°The heartbeat stopped!¡± The anesthesiologist screamed. ¡°Compress! Prepare to open the chest!¡± Song Zimo yelled. Zhang Lin and Xu Zhiliang couldn¡¯t think of anything else. They immediately joined the rescue with Song Zimo. ¡°Professor Yang, Old Jin, quick, go to the next operating room, Old Bai can¡¯t hold up. The abdominal cavity is open, and the blood inside is gushing out, can¡¯t be stopped.¡± The scene, which had just stabilized slightly, was suddenly plunged into extreme tension again. ¡°What are you standing here for? Hurry up and help!¡± The patrolling nurse shouted at the intern who had reported the obstetric situation. He was like an idiot, getting in the way. Chapter 603 - 603 549 The Secret ?Chapter 603: Chapter 549: The Secret Chapter 603: Chapter 549: The Secret Director Bai, along with his subordinate Fatty, was performing a surgery on a patient with comminuted pelvic fractures. The second assistant on the operating table was Director Bai¡¯s graduate student, also a chubby one. Director Bai¡¯s weight was almost 200 pounds, Fatty¡¯s estimated weight was almost the same, and the chubby student couldn¡¯t be less than 180 pounds. With three fatties on the same operating table, it was cramped. Another standardized training student who was in charge of the hook was squeezed to a point of agony. ¡°Gauze, gauze, gauze¡ª¡± Director Bai repeatedly packed gauze into the retroperitoneal space of the pelvis. Dozens of large pieces of gauze specifically used for hemostasis had already been packed in. Comminuted pelvic fractures were there as a signature surgery of trauma orthopedics. It was also the most challenging and risky surgery in trauma orthopedics. In certain serious comminuted fractures, particularly in the cases that conservative treatment still couldn¡¯t stabilize blood pressure, surgeries that required hemostasis presented massive challenges. This patient was assigned to Director Bai¡¯s team for the surgery. Despite the emergency embolization, the patient¡¯s blood pressure continued to drop. Director Bai had no choice but to get on the operating table for an emergency hemostasis on the pelvis. However, as soon as it was opened, blood gushed out like a fountain. Old Bai has led a team for many years, and he has rich experiences. He resorted to the traditional but tested method of gauze packing, which was a critical and reliable last resort for hemostasis. From a few to dozens, gauze pieces were packed into the pelvis. After packing in fifty to sixty pieces of gauze, most of which were in place, yet the blood pressure still couldn¡¯t be stabilized. Having used his last resort, Director Bai became unsettled, sweat starting to bead on his forehead. An intern discreetly said to Fatty, ¡°Teacher Yang from the Surgical Research Institute is next door, should we call him over?¡± Fatty immediately told Director Bai, ¡°Director, we¡¯ve almost finished the hemostasis. How about we have Professor Yang take a look, just to make sure?¡± Director Bai was a man who cared about face, but when lives were hanging in the balance, saving face was worthless. If a life was lost, it was not just face that he would lose. Hearing what Fatty said, Director Bai immediately responded, ¡°Please get Professor Yang, quickly!¡± Besides, inviting Professor Yang wasn¡¯t something to be ashamed of, even Director Tan sometimes requested for his assistance and guidance. ¡°Why the panic?¡± scolded Director Bai to Fatty. Now that Yang Ping was here as his backstop, Director Bai¡¯s voice had become much louder. Fatty was berated out of nowhere, but he was familiar with Director Bai¡¯s temperament and promptly echoed, ¡°I simply can¡¯t be as courageous as you face danger, Director.¡± ¡°As surgeons, we must remain calm in the face of any situation and not fall into chaos. Take it slow, experience requires accumulation.¡± Director Bai was very magnanimous, patiently guiding Fatty. Yang Ping appeared in the operating room with Dr. Jin. As soon as Director Bai saw Yang Ping, he turned his bulky body and said, ¡°Professor Yang, the bleeding is a bit tricky, it just won¡¯t stop. Could you help take a look?¡± ¡°Let me see!¡± At the critical moment, there were no formalities. Yang Ping and Dr. Jin immediately scrubbed in. Director Bai wanted to see how Yang Ping stopped the bleeding, having heard tales of how miraculous he is. This was his first time operating in such close proximity with him. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I can help assist you.¡± Director Bai exhibited magnanimity. Without much thought, Yang Ping said, ¡°Director Bai, take a rest and offer some guidance from the side. Dr. Jin and I will do it.¡± ¡°All right, I¡¯ll be here on the side. Just let me know if you need any help.¡± Director Bai knew continuing would just make things more awkward. ¡°Afei, you and the chubby student go rest, but don¡¯t remove your surgical attire, you¡¯ll still need it on stage later.¡± Director Bai wished to stay and observe the surgery, but there wasn¡¯t enough room, so he had to drive Fatty and the chubby graduate student off the stage. Yang Ping turned his head to check the blood pressure shown on the screen, which was still dropping. It seemed that the packing approach hadn¡¯t worked. He asked the circulating nurse, ¡°How many blood bags do we have left?¡± ¡°We have six units of suspended red blood cells and five bags of plasma at hand. Additional ones haven¡¯t arrived yet.¡± The circulating nurse hung up another bag of plasma. ¡°Anesthesiologist! Keep an eye on the blood pressure. Measure it every five minutes. I¡¯m going to re-open the retroperitoneal space of the pelvis for hemostasis.¡± The anesthesiologist was ready. Yang Ping began to remove the gauze along with Dr. Jin. The blood-soaked gauze was dull red, with some black blood clots on it. As Yang Ping removed the gauze, he also performed hemostasis. Sometimes it was stopping the bleeding with an electric knife, sometimes it was clamping the bleeding points with hemostatic forceps and ligating the blood vessels with silk threads. The progress was step by step, resembling an advanced mine detector. Dr. Jin simply couldn¡¯t keep up, so Yang Ping had to slow down, enabling Dr. Jin to barely follow along. The camera on the surgical light wasn¡¯t turned on, so there was no surgical image on the screen on the wall. Fatty peeked over to check from time to time. All 73 pieces of gauze were completely removed. No one knew how this operation was carried out. There was no major bleeding in the pelvis now, only seepage from the fracture ends. The blood pressure on the screen no longer dropped. ¡°Fold back! Prepare the steel plate template.¡± Yang Ping reset the fracture. After every two pieces of bone fracture were reset, he temporarily fixed them with Kirschner wires, then inserted the template for molding, bent the steel plate according to the molded template, and inserted the steel plate, and then screwed the screws onto the steel plate one by one. In less than half an hour, not only was bleeding stopped, but the fracture was also reset and fixed. The aspirator sucked away the remaining blood. After the bone fracture was reset, there was no longer seepage of blood, leaving the surgical area of the pelvis clean. Dr. Jin didn¡¯t know how to comment. He hadn¡¯t used to scrubbed in with Yang Ping. In this surgery, he witnessed the complexity of the pelvic fracture which was made to seem easy in the hands of Yang Ping. In a flash, in less than half an hour, not only had the bleeding been stopped, but the fracture was reset and fixed with a steel plate. Fatty sighs internally at the gap between Old Bai and Professor Yang. Not to mention his own capabilities. ¡°Director Bai, you¡¯ve actually done a thorough job of stopping the bleeding. The bleeding was from the fractured ends of the bones. Once I¡¯ve set and fixed the fracture, there will be no more bleeding.¡± Yang Ping, knowing that Director Bai was prideful, gave him a way out. Director Bai saw it all clearly and knew Yang Ping was looking out for his face, and nodded incessantly. ¡°I was wondering why the bleeding was so peculiar. Turns out it¡¯s from the fracture.¡± ¡°Professor Yang, you should rest. Fatty and I will suture the incisions.¡± How could Director Bai have the nerve to let Yang Ping continue? He decided to do the follow-up work himself as it was not only a face-saving endeavour for himself, but also a gesture of gratitude for Yang Ping¡¯s consideration. ¡°Fatty, get on the stage!¡± Director Bai¡¯s voice carried confidence. ¨C The rescue operation in the next room was pretty harrowing. Song Zimo, with Little Five, moved towards the chest area to perform an open chest cardiac massage. Xu Zhiliang and Zhang Lin halted the surgery on the left thigh and temporarily took over the pelvic operation to stop the bleeding. The transition between the two was extremely smooth. Due to the patient¡¯s fractures in the sternum and multiple rib bones, they were only able to perform internal chest compression surgery. For Song Zimo, who was capable of handling whole body trauma surgeries, this was indeed his strong suit. The speed at which he made the incision was incredibly fast, faster than one could pry open a box or kick open a door even. The cut, the spread, the reveal, he was extremely skilled. In less than a minute, the heart was in his palm. He rhythmically massaged the heart, creating a pumping force with his hand that maintained the blood flow in the body. The patient was young, and due to the cardiac arrest caused by hypovolemic shock, the chance of successful resuscitation was very high. After around three minutes of direct cardiac compression. ¡°There it is- ¨C -¡± The heart in Song Zimo¡¯s hand began to beat again. He immediately asked an equipment nurse for a vial of epinephrine, which he then injected directly into the heart. Xu Zhiliang and Zhang Lin kept working on the remaining bleeding in the pelvic area; the division of labor between the two surgical teams was very harmonious. The tense atmosphere in the operating hall eased slightly. The rate of blood pressure loss was now slower. But as long as it was still going down, the high schooler¡¯s life was still at risk. There might be another cardiac arrest any minute. Song Zimo and Little Five began to explore and repair the damaged tissues in the chest. ¡°Teacher Zhang!¡± The intern this time obviously has more perseverance than the last one, finally seizing the opportunity. ¡°Your wife, Teacher Li, just had a C-section ¨C twins, a boy and a girl, are safe. They have been transferred back to the maternity ward. Teacher Li said you should finish your operation first and then come to accompany her in the maternity ward.¡± The intern finally said it all. Zhang Lin was stunned, the joy came all of a sudden, it was surreal. Xu Zhiliang saw him in a daze and said, ¡°Hey Bro, you are a dad now? Get going.¡± ¡°What about this surgery?¡± Zhang Lin hesitated. ¡°Go, I got this. I¡¯ll take the intern with me.¡± Xu Zhiliang said. However, only after saying it did he realize that this surgery couldn¡¯t be done with just an intern. Even Professor Yang had gone to the operating room next door to assist, it seemed that aside from the intern, there was no other available manpower. ¡°Teacher Li is okay?¡± Zhang Lin took a few deep breaths, his mind clearing up slightly. The previous rescue attempt was indeed physically and mentally draining. The intern responded: ¡°She¡¯s fine, a pediatric nurse was with her the whole time, and the head nurse from the Surgical Research Institute went too. The two babies, one weighs four pounds and two ounces, the other four pounds.¡± Hearing that his wife was okay, Zhang Lin felt relieved. He felt guilty for not being there for such an important event. But this surgery couldn¡¯t be left unattended now, Xu Zhiliang, with an intern, definitely wouldn¡¯t be able to handle it. ¡°Let Teacher Li know that I¡¯ll head to the maternity ward as soon as I finish up here. Old Xu, let¡¯s continue.¡± Even during their conversation, their hands hadn¡¯t stopped. They were continuing with the surgery. The two men didn¡¯t talk anymore and continued operating, chatting while working. Holy shit, it wasn¡¯t a request for a consultation from the maternity department, it was his own wife having a C-section. She was alright in the morning, suddenly gave birth. ¡°Really twins?¡± Xu Zhiliang asked. Zhang Lin proudly said: ¡°Teacher Zhang never spouts nonsense.¡± Xu Zhiliang looked a little apologetic: ¡°I¡¯m sorry, at first, I really thought the maternity ward was calling for our consultation?¡± ¡°I thought so too, that the maternity ward was calling us for consultation. It¡¯s okay, just make sure your gift envelopes are on the heavier side when it¡¯s time for the full month celebration.¡± ¡°Of course, apart from the relations between the two of us, the minimum is two hundred!¡± ¡°Two hundred? Add a zero to the end of that, or there won¡¯t be a seat for you at the full month celebration.¡± ¡°Hey, brother, any secret to having twins? Any evidence-based medical secrets?¡± ¡°Want the secret? Add another zero to the gift envelope.¡± Chapter 604 - 604 550 Pushing All the Way Through ?Chapter 604: Chapter 550: Pushing All the Way Through Chapter 604: Chapter 550: Pushing All the Way Through Xu Zhiliang and Zhang Lin continued the surgery while they were talking. Song Zimo and Little Five were also busy dealing with the sternum fracture, multiple rib fractures, and a punctured lung from the broken bone ends, leading to pneumothorax. When the patient was admitted to the emergency department, a closed thoracic drainage was already placed, temporarily removing the life-threatening chest injury. The main conflict was shifted, which is why Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang prioritized treating the pelvic fracture and left thigh avulsion injury. This is because these two injuries were major sources of bleeding. No matter how much blood was supplied, it would be futile if the bleeding was not stopped quickly. Now that the left thigh avulsion injury had been treated, and more than half of the surgery for the pelvic fracture was complete, they had just begun the resuscitation and opened up the chest. It was a good opportunity to treat the chest injury. Otherwise, the abnormal breathing and flail chest caused by multiple rib fractures would be deadly. Song Zimo repaired the injured lung, ligated the bleeding blood vessels in the chest cavity, and repositioned and fixed the sternum fracture and multiple rib fractures. The memory alloy clips used for rib fractures were very convenient to use. One was used for each rib. There were a total of seventeen rib fractures, all of which had been repositioned and fixed. On the other hand, Xu Zhiliang had also completed the hemostasis, repositioning, and fixation of the pelvic fracture. Finally, the blood pressure on the monitoring screen stabilized and did not decline further. With the continued blood transfusion, the blood pressure slowly started to rise. The key to the successful rescue of hypovolemic shock was to strike a balance between fluid replacement and bleeding. Only a positive balance could create a cumulative effect on the components and volume of the body¡¯s circulation, slowly returning to the baseline necessary for maintaining life. The principle was simple: If the water flowing into the pool is greater than the water flowing out, the pool would be filled. ¡°How¡¯s the urine output?¡± Song Zimo asked the patrolling nurse. The patrolling nurse picked up the urine bag and said, ¡°Five hundred and twenty milliliters, a lot more than before.¡± The presence of urine indicated that the patient was recovering from shock. After completing the surgery on the chest and the pelvic fractures, the two teams each began operating on the limb fractures. The principle of trauma surgery is¡ªfirst save the life, then save the limb, and finally consider function. Thus, in a rescue operation, initial measures were centered around saving lives. Now that the life-threatening conditions had been eliminated, all that remained was to handle the limb fractures. These surgeries were not as urgent as saving lives but speed was still crucial. Waiting too long could lead to complications such as infection and fat embolism. Some interns, when the patrolling nurses weren¡¯t looking, would shuttle between different operating rooms. They were extremely excited when they encountered such massive rescues, especially when the whole department was involved in the rescue. This type of roaming could increase the risk of surgical infection, but it was mostly unavoidable as the patrolling nurses didn¡¯t have enough energy to continuously monitor these roaming interns. The information from the various operating rooms involved in the rescue was continuously disseminated through these roaming interns. ¡°How is the patient in the next room? The blood was gushing out like a fountain, and it couldn¡¯t be stopped. It made me break out in a sweat.¡± Someone asked the new intern who had just sneaked in. This intern had just come from the next room and witnessed Yang Ping¡¯s second operation: ¡°Professor Yang is operating.¡± ¡°Then the patient should be fine!¡± Another intern, who seemed to be more experienced, responded coolly. Yang Ping was a god in the hearts of these young students, an idol in the medical field. After the fracture surgeries on the limbs were successfully completed, Xu Zhiliang stretched his waist: ¡°Dude, go to the obstetrics department and accompany your wife now. I will take care of the rest.¡± Although he reprimanded Zhang Lin a lot, Xu Zhiliang and Zhang Lin actually had a very good relationship. ¡°Then I¡¯m going to retreat?¡± Zhang Lin began to take off his surgical gown, unable to suppress the joy in his heart any longer. ¡ª The surgery for the comminuted pelvic fracture in the next room was successfully completed. The patient¡¯s blood pressure slowly rose, and Director Bai stood in front of the C-arm¡¯s screen like a victorious general, staring at the X-ray image of the pelvis on the screen. The reduction of the pelvic fracture was excellent, the separation of the sacroiliac joint had been corrected, and the gap in the pubic symphysis was also within the normal range. The steel plates crisscrossing like a mess firmly connected the bone fragments together, now the normal shape of the pelvis looked beautiful. Although Director Bai did not complete the key steps of the operation, it did not prevent him from feeling a sense of unparalleled accomplishment. ¡°Afei!¡± Director Bai called out in his loud voice. Afei came over, and the plump graduate student also leaned over, waiting for their boss to give orders. Three big guys gathered in front of the C-arm machine¡¯s screen, their presence having a distinctive weight and character. No matter where they stood, others could tell at a glance that this was Director Bai¡¯s medical team. Compared to any other medical team, only Director Bai¡¯s team had such a sense of weight. ¡°Old Bai! You finished so quickly? This pelvis reduction is pretty good.¡± Director Han had just finished a surgery and was checking on the other operating rooms to see if anyone needed support. He saw the beautiful pelvic image on the C-arm machine screen. Director Bai¡¯s old face blushed, and he responded modestly with some indistinct speech: ¡°Barely passable.¡± Director Han praised him: ¡°This is not barely passable, it¡¯s very good! Old Bai, I heard that when you opened up the pelvis, blood was gushing out. I was worried that you wouldn¡¯t be able to handle it. I didn¡¯t expect you to finish so quickly!¡± ¡°The bleeding was a bit unusual, but thankfully, we managed to stem it completely.¡± Director Bai puffed his chest out. Director Han asked a few more casual questions before moving to another operating room. Director Bai took out his phone and took pictures of the screen. He wanted to keep these records. These pictures would make a good teaching point for lectures on pelvic fractures, enough to impress everyone else. ¡°Afei, you can write a paper about this case. We need to have a research mindset in our daily work. When a doctor reaches a certain level, they can¡¯t only focus on repeating surgeries, understand?¡± Director Bai reminded him. Fatty kept it in mind. Director Bai was preparing for a big move. He turned to the graduate student Xiao Fat and said, ¡°Xiao Fat, get ready to write a quality paper, then hand it to me for revisions.¡± Xiao Fat, the graduate student, nodded and accepted the task. ¡ª Yang Ping made the rounds of the operating rooms, checking if there was anything he needed to help with. The victim who had been hit by a falling person was taken care of by Director Ouyang¡¯s medical team. Dr. Jin worked all night and needed to rest, so Director Ouyang was performing the operation with a graduate student. The victim¡¯s spine was severed at the thoracic and lumbar sections, then displaced backwards, resulting in a full severance of the spinal cord. She would certainly be paralyzed and spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. This young woman, in her twenties, had just become a government official and had a bright future ahead of her. She did nothing wrong. She was just watering the flowers in her own yard when, out of nowhere, a living person fell from the seventh floor and landed on her back. She was bending over to water the flowers when this happened, and the falling person broke her spine. Director Tan was in charge of the surgery for the high school student¡¯s mother, whose injuries were very severe. She had a fractured pelvis and her hip bone had pierced into the abdominal cavity. She had four thoraco-lumbar vertebral body burst fractures, and a subdural hematoma in her skull. Both of her pupils were dilated and her light reflex was slow. Neurosurgery was also involved in the operation. There were also several severely injured car accident victims undergoing surgery almost simultaneously. Fortunately, so far, no bad news came. After making his rounds and finding no one in need of his help, Yang Ping called Li Guodong to prepare the patient for surgery and continue with the operations at the Surgical Research Institute. Due to the sudden rescue operations, the operations in his own department had been put on hold. Now that the rescues were nearing their end, the operations could be resumed. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Little Five, along with a group of their own interns, came out of the operating room together and returned to their department. Back at the ward of the Surgical Research Institute, Head Nurse Cai had also returned from the obstetrics department, where she had gone to accompany Zhang Lin¡¯s wife. ¡°Everything went smoothly with Zhang Lin¡¯s wife and the babies, right?¡± Yang Ping expressed his concern. ¡°Zhang Lin is a bit lucky, she gave birth to a boy and a girl. One of them is a bit jaundiced, but the neonatologist said it¡¯s nothing serious, a few days of phototherapy will take care of it. I¡¯ve spoken to the head nurse there to help take care of them.¡± Head Nurse Cai thoughtfully planned. Head Nurse Cai had also prepared red envelopes for everyone according to the department¡¯s rules. ¡°Give Zhang Lin some time off!¡± Yang Ping instructed Xu Zhiliang. Then everyone went to the obstetrics department to see Zhang Lin¡¯s wife and the babies under the guidance of Head Nurse Cai. Zhang Lin was sitting by the bed massaging his wife¡¯s legs. One of the babies was still lying in the crib and the obstetric nurse was about to take one of them to the neonatology department for phototherapy. Upon seeing Yang Ping and his colleagues from the department come to visit, Zhang Lin immediately stood up. After exchanging a few pleasantries, they gave him the red envelopes. Zhang Lin was grinning from ear to ear with joy. He handed the red envelopes he received to his wife. Liang Fatty, who was late, followed them in. ¡°Teacher Zhang, your wife is in childbirth, which is such a big deal. Why didn¡¯t you let us know?¡± Then, Little Su and Zhou Can from the operation room also came in. They held Dr. Li¡¯s hand, expressing their care and concern. The atmosphere was particularly warm and touching. ¡°Where¡¯s the other one?¡± Liang Fatty rubbed his hands and leaned in to get a closer look at the baby. ¡°My daughter just went to the neonatal ward for phototherapy. Fatty, what are you doing?¡± Upon seeing Fatty¡¯s movements, Zhou Can immediately stopped him. ¡°Fatty, you smell like smoke. Don¡¯t get too close.¡± Fatty immediately straightened up. Indeed, he had just finished smoking, so he backed away to a safe distance. ¡°If you like kids so much, why don¡¯t you have one with your flight attendant?¡± Zhou Can teased Fatty. Fatty reached for a red envelope, but couldn¡¯t find one on him. He clearly brought a red envelope, so why couldn¡¯t he find it now? Zhou Can handed him a red envelope. ¡°You dropped it next to the anesthesia machine. I thought it was someone else¡¯s, but then I saw the cover and knew it was yours.¡± ¡°I remember putting it away properly. How did it end up in your hands? That¡¯s strange.¡± Fatty took the red envelope and gave it to Zhang Lin. The cover of the red envelope was actually a custom-designed red envelope for a Chinese Cigarette Spring Festival special. It was probably given to him as a bonus when he bought cigarettes. ¡°Brother Fat, you don¡¯t seem to be very effective. You¡¯ve been chasing that flight attendant for so long without any progress.¡± Little Five teased Fatty. Fatty, blushing, said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Everything is under control.¡± ¡°Fatty, your roundabout tactics won¡¯t work. You need to be aggressive and charge forward.¡± Xu Zhiliang gave him some advice. It was unexpected that Xu Zhiliang, who was usually quiet and stuttered, was giving love advice. Fatty didn¡¯t take it well. ¡°Old Xu, you¡¯re giving advice with such confidence. Are you one step ahead of me?¡± Little Five said, ¡°Xu Zhiliang has only known her for a few days, and they¡¯ve already been holding hands, going shopping and watching movies together. I tell you, he¡¯s going to get married within three months, believe it or not?¡± Fatty was speechless. Xu Zhiliang was that good? At this moment, Yang Ping received a phone call from Oman. Oman¡¯s ¡°Camel Man¡± Yasmeen was planning to come to China, and a doctor from Oman would be accompanying her. Chapter 605 - 605 551 The Show Has Just Begun ?Chapter 605: Chapter 551: The Show Has Just Begun Chapter 605: Chapter 551: The Show Has Just Begun That day was spent providing rescue support and surgeries for our department. Everyone didn¡¯t get off work until after eight in the evening. As he left work, Yang Ping received news that the mother of the high school student had developed brain herniation in the trauma ICU. After a rescue operation, she was rushed to the operating room for a craniotomy to save her life for the moment. The story of the girl who jumped from a building began to circulate among the hospital¡¯s interns. It was said that this high school girl normally placed within the top three in her grade in terms of academic performance. Even though her marks had dropped in the recent semester, she still stayed within the top ten. Her parents were very dissatisfied with the decline in her grades as they had set their sights on her entering Tsinghua or Peking University. A neighbor had shared they¡¯d seen the girl getting very close with a boy when she came home over the weekend, walking arm in arm, acting very intimately. Taking the neighbor¡¯s gossip to heart, the middle-aged couple suspected their daughter of puppy love being the cause of her grade drop, and proceeded to use various methods to confirm their suspicion. Methods like secretly following her, reading her diary, unlocking her phone. After collecting and analyzing the information, the couple concluded that their daughter was in love. The high school girl had just taken leave to go home and fetch something. Her parents seized the opportunity to have a talk with her. The talk continued into the night without reaching a resolution. The same discussion resumed the next morning and escalated into an argument. The girl insisted that it was not what they thought, that she and the boy were merely classmates, but her mother didn¡¯t believe her. In a moment of desperation, the girl said she had grown up and didn¡¯t need her parents to control her. She had her own life, even if she was dating, it was none of their business. This hurt her mother deeply. She cried and reprimanded her daughter for being heartless, for not understanding that they, as her parents, had made huge sacrifices for her. They denied themselves of even the most basic necessities, trying to give her the best possible education and fulfill her every need. They even decided against having a second child, just for her. Yet she was letting them down in the most disappointing way. In the heat of the moment, they said things they later regretted, things that hurt deeply. Triggered by their harsh words, the girl yelled back: What¡¯s wrong with dating? They had no right to interfere. Seeing this, her father lost his temper and slapped her, saying: ¡°If you¡¯re so out of control now, we can¡¯t even imagine what you¡¯ll be like in the future.¡± The girl fell silent, staring blankly at her parents. Calmly, she said they controlled everything, from what she ate, what she wore, to how she could speak and when she could laugh. Even her friendship with her classmates was under their surveillance. Living like this was meaningless. She then ran towards the balcony and jumped. The truth was, this high school student had been struggling with depression all along, her parents just had no idea. Many people with depression appear cheerful and normal on the surface. The high school girl wasn¡¯t even in a romantic relationship. The boy who was seen hanging out with her was actually a former depression sufferer. He was trying to encourage her, helping her to get through depression and face the national college entrance exam with a positive attitude. The parents claimed to love their daughter more than anything, yet they never paid any attention to her mental condition. Their family that was once so harmonious became a tragic story known to all. Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang went to the trauma ICU to visit the high school girl. Her father was sitting in the visitor¡¯s area, leaning back in his chair, staring blankly at the ceiling. If he¡¯d known that a single slap could lead to this, he would rather have cut off his own hand than to have raised it against his daughter. The high school girl was still unconscious, her blood pressure was stable at 95/60mmHg. Blood transfusion was still ongoing, 44 milliliters of blood had been drained from the pelvic region. The drain was unobstructed, proving that the bleeding in the pelvic area had stopped well. The artificial blood vessel on her left thigh was also clear, the dorsalis pedis artery was pulsing normally. The skin in the torn area had been trimmed into patches and transplanted back, and the VSD negative pressure drainage was well-sealed. Yang Ping had originally planned to visit the patient with pelvic fracture under the care of Director Bai, but seeing that Director Bai and his team were already gathered around him, he decided not to interfere. After a quick glance at the patient¡¯s vitals from outside the room, Yang Ping felt reassured that the patient was stable. After leaving the trauma ICU, Yang Ping received a call from Huang Jiacai. Huang Jiacai delivered good news: the clinical trial approval for the external spinal fixation frame had gone through smoothly. This good news was a stimulant for everyone. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang couldn¡¯t wait to start applying the external spinal fixation frame on patients. The first target was a six-year-old child. His parents had already called several times asking when they could come in for the surgery. The external spinal fixation device will shed a whole new light on the treatment of scoliosis. ¡ª On the desk in Mr. Hans¡¯ office in Johnson & Johnson¡¯s China headquarters, there was a document. This thick stack of papers contained information about Ruixing¡¯s external spinal fixation frame, which was ready to start clinical trials. The clinical trials for this new device would take place simultaneously at Xiehe Hospital, Mo Sixth Hospital, Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, and Sanbo Hospital. More top-class hospitals in China were also set to join later. Previously, there had never been such large-scale clinical trials for a new orthopaedic device. Few Chinese orthopaedic device companies could produce new devices. If they did, the devices were usually minor improvements on imitation products. Mr. Hans studied the document carefully, acutely aware that it could revolutionize scoliosis treatment. The impact of a single device on market share is usually minimal, but this signifies a Chinese company¡¯s potential to innovate, a strength that could challenge the incumbent orthopaedic device giants in the future, Such a challenge was something Mr. Hans absolutely couldn¡¯t tolerate, nor could any of the behemoths like Johnson & Johnson. The top-tier companies in the orthopaedic device market had reached a relative equilibrium. Any new entrants aspiring to climb to the top would face a devastating blow. The more significant a company, the greater its sense of crisis. Using any means necessary to nip potential rivals in the bud was a testament to their understanding of how ruthless business could be. Picking up the phone, Hans personally called the China manager of Jiemai. It was time for them to sit down and have a talk. Mr. Hans¡¯ full name was Hans Douglas. He was originally Chinese but changed to an American name, even discarding his Chinese surname. After graduating from Beijing University, Hans Douglas studied in the United States. He settled there and had no difficulty in getting his green card and citizenship. Now, he had been deployed by Johnson & Johnson¡¯s headquarters to China to serve as the general manager. He was Gan Fengyi¡¯s senior and also her suitor, but was rejected by her. This time Hans returned to China, beaming with pride, resplendent in success. Perhaps Jiemai also recognized the same issue, and Manager Shi quickly met with Mr. Hans in the private business room of a high-end hotel¡¯s top-floor cafe. ¡°Mr. Shi, hello, I am Hans Douglas from Johnson & Johnson.¡± Mr. Hans was polite in his fluent and pure English. Manager Shi remained composed on the surface, but inside he was cursing. He knew this western poseur came to take up his post in China, not only did the man change his name, but also, it was said, spoke only English after arriving here ¨C speaking it everywhere. ¡°You should speak in Chinese, it¡¯s what I¡¯m used to hearing.¡± Manager Shi wouldn¡¯t bother with this kind of person if not for the need for cooperation. ¡°Ok, but please forgive me, my Chinese is not very good.¡± Hans seemed very gentlemanly. Manager Shi was already cursing Hans¡¯s eighteen generations of ancestors in his heart. He actually claimed that his Chinese was not good, even after growing up in China and studying here until college graduation. ¡°I think we should stop this war and deal with our common enemy?¡± Mr. Hans was direct and straightforward, speaking Chinese with an outsider¡¯s accent, devoid of tones. ¡°Common enemy?¡± Manager Shi didn¡¯t know who Mr. Hans was referring to. Could it be Stryker, Medtronic, or Shi Lehui? ¡°You see ¡ª¡± Hans handed a document from his briefcase to Manager Shi. Upon looking, Manager Shi found out that he was referring to Ruixing, which he had heard was set to launch a major new product but was still in the clinical trial stage. ¡°Mr. Hans, could you please pronounce the four tones of Chinese for me! I find it so awkward to listen to you, Are you ok?¡± Manager Shi was really losing patience and wanted to go up and slap Hans in the face. He did not believe that a person who had lived in the United States for a few years would lose control of their mother tongue. He had been to the United States and had contact with Chinese Americans. ¡°OK! OK!¡± Mr. Hans looked a little embarrassed. The number of domestic brands of orthopedic consumables in China is not large, and their scale is very small. Even the larger brands mostly depend on imitation products. To be honest, their competitiveness is very limited. Now, a Chinese company came up with such an advanced original piece of equipment, naturally drawing attention from the giants. Foreigners are often very conscious of their potential threats, constantly monitoring the dynamics of Chinese enterprises. They want to permanently squat at the top of the food chain, capturing huge profits while having others work for them. Manager Shi had also heard of Ruixing. Jiemai¡¯s foreign employees had reminded him several times too. However, as the Manager for Jiemai¡¯s China division, he just treats this as a job, turning a blind eye to these matters. They are all part of the same community, so there is no need to watch so closely. Letting him grow wouldn¡¯t matter, since he was only an executive of a foreign company for a while, but a Chinese for life. Just do your job with integrity, and live up to your salary. The kind of tactics Hans was using, Manager Shi would not go along with. ¡°Manager Shi, do you have any thoughts?¡± Hans asked Manager Shi, who was flipping through the treatments. Manager Shi casually replied, ¡°Isn¡¯t it just a new instrument? It scares you so much?¡± Hans shook his head, ¡°It¡¯s not cowardice, but market sensitivity. Haven¡¯t you noticed, Ruixing has recently applied for a large number of patents, ones that are still increasing. To my knowledge, someone has invested in them recently. Don¡¯t you find that strange?¡± ¡°What¡¯s so strange about it? Make one or two new instruments to prop up the facade. How else can they live up to the name ¡®independent brand¡¯? Some companies even spend money to buy technology and then package it as their own technology.¡± Manager Shi seemed completely relaxed. Hans felt that the two of them were not on the same wavelength and had to enlighten this insensible person: ¡°This is not simply an instrument. . . our engineers have made a preliminary assessment. It¡¯s a highly original piece of equipment.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Manager Shi raised his voice. ¡°That¡¯s right! Possessing the technological prowess to develop such an equipment, implies they will release many more in the future. We must strangle it in its cradle.¡± Hans said fiercely, making a throat-cutting gesture. Manager Shi asked, ¡°Are these your personal thoughts, or the ideas of Johnson and Johnson?¡± ¡°Does it make a difference?¡± Hans felt that Manager Shi was not paying attention. Manager Shi said, ¡°Of course. If it¡¯s Johnson & Johnson¡¯s idea, we could consider it. If it¡¯s only your personal opinion, then I¡¯m sorry for the time being, but I can¡¯t accompany you.¡± A bit embarrassed, Hans said, ¡°This is temporarily my personal idea, but I have already prepared a written material to report to the US Headquarter. My predecessor as China¡¯s General Manager was replaced and I was sent as a replacement due to his inefficiency.¡± ¡°I see, Hans, and Douglas, when your personal thoughts become Johnson & Johnson¡¯s will, it would not be too late to talk to me then.¡± Manager Shi picked up his cup and drank all the coffee in one gulp. ¡°Bye, thanks for the coffee.¡± After saying that, Manager Shi left. Hans sneered, ¡°If you are not competent, you will be replaced sooner or later.¡± ¡°Ruixing, ignorant fool, the excitement is only just beginning!¡± As Hans enjoyed the coffee alone, he was full of confidence. He was given a mission by headquarters when he came to China from the United States¡ª to acquire Ruixing. The previous general manager had been replaced by him due to a failure in the task. It is a small Ruixing after all, getting rid of it will be easy. Chapter 606 - 606 552 The Strong Support System ?Chapter 606: Chapter 552: The Strong Support System Chapter 606: Chapter 552: The Strong Support System ¡°Camel Girl¡± Yasmeen, accompanied by Dr. Feida, the director of Orthopedics at Zufar Capital Hospital, arrived in China. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s International Medical Department sent a car to pick them up from the airport and settled them in the Tri-Bo Hotel. For international appointment patients, this kind of reception process is standard. Patients accepted by the International Medical Department often have very expensive medical costs. The appointment fee alone is 20,000 RMB. Providing services like airport pickup and hotel accommodation are chargeable items, which help to generate income for the hospital. However, Yasmeen¡¯s expenses were covered by Professor Yang¡¯s Research Fund, as a gesture of gratitude towards Dean Aleph for his care of Dashun. Dashun was treated entirely free of charge at Zufar Capital Hospital, with Dean Aleph going to great lengths to provide the best recovery conditions. This reciprocation of kindness was only fitting. After Yasmeen and Dr. Feida had rested at the hotel, a commissioner from the International Medical Department escorted them to the consultation room, arranging a meeting with Professor Yang. Upon seeing an old acquaintance, Dr. Feida was delighted. He brought good news that Dashun was recovering very well. For now, there seemed to be no significant after-effects, and he had been doing morning exercises in the hospital garden, albeit light ones. The brainstem after-effects that Professor Yang had been worried about had not yet manifested. It seemed that Dashun was pretty lucky. Dr. Feida also brought a handwritten letter from Dean Aleph using the Arabic language, each sentence accompanied by a Chinese translation. In the letter, Dean Aleph requested that Professor Yang accept doctors from Zufar Capital Hospital for further training. If allowed, he planned to have Dr. Feida be the first to come for Orthopedic training. Dean Aleph was aware that Professor Yang¡¯s chief expertise was Orthopedics. Welcoming an additional ally was a good thing. Professor Yang agreed to Dean Aleph¡¯s request. He told Dr. Feida to pass on the message to Dean Aleph that Sanbo Hospital was willing to accept the Omani training request, and a representative would be put in touch with their hospital. If it¡¯s only short-term observation, it¡¯s no big deal. For formal training, Sanbo Hospital has specific Chinese language requirements for trainees. The hospital¡¯s medical service will liaise with Zufar Capital Hospital in Oman for these matters. Upon hearing this news, Dr. Feida was extremely enthused. The doctor from Oman had never been to China, with his knowledge of the country coming solely from the media. Hence, his arrival in China stirred great curiosity. Oman, as a whole country, only has 6000 hospital beds. Upon seeing Sanbo Hospital, with more than 2,000 beds, he was astounded. A single hospital had the medical capacity equating to half of his entire country. This sparked Dr. Feida¡¯s intense interest in Chinese hospitals. If he could receive training here, it would be a very fortunate opportunity. However, Dr. Feida knew that language would be a major barrier. Still, he believed that he could be proficient. He decided to spend some time getting acquainted with his surroundings before seeking ways to learn Chinese upon returning home. The consulting room at Sanbo Hospital¡¯s International Medical Department was very spacious and bright. In order to prevent attracting curious looks, Yasmeen chose to sit in a wheelchair, with Dr. Feida pushing her. With the help of an Arabic interpreter, Professor Yang had a lengthy and in-depth conversation with her and conducted a detailed physical examination. Yasmeen told Professor Yang that if she could stand, she would leave the circus. Her dream was to own an ice cream truck, spending her days selling ice cream on the beach. Whenever she met a Chinese tourist, she would give out ice cream for free. Song Zimo joked with her, ¡°You¡¯d have to limit the amount of free ice cream, there are so many Chinese tourists, more than you could imagine.¡± Yasmeen said that when she arrived, she saw so many people at the airport. She had never seen so many people or such a large airport in her life. She asked Song Zimo, ¡°Will there be as many tourists as there are people at the airport?¡± Song Zimo nodded. Yasmeen then compromised, deciding to limit the supply. Otherwise, she wouldn¡¯t be able to earn enough to support herself. Observing her determination, Professor Yang told her that she would have to wait five to seven days for surgery. A lot of work would need to be done before the operation. The artificial joint prosthesis used in the surgery was custom-made and one-of-a-kind in the world. Yasmeen said this wasn¡¯t a problem, she could go sightseeing around the hospital in the meantime. Professor Yang didn¡¯t expect Yasmeen to be so cheerful upon arriving in China, showing no fear or hesitation about the surgery. After all, there was a possibility the surgery could fail. If it did, she would not only be unable to stand, but she would also be unable to perform in the circus. Yasmeen had great confidence. She mentioned that when she arrived, she saw a bakery on the ground floor of the hotel. The owner gave her a piece of bread, which tasted very good. The owner only had half of her body, yet ran the bakery cheerfully every day. This greatly inspired her. She felt incredibly fortunate to still have a complete body, to have the chance to stand again. The bakery Yasmeen mentioned is the one run by Yu Shuilian and her husband on the first floor of the Tri-Bo Hotel, where business is thriving. The bakery has become a hit in G City, and her inspiring story has motivated many people. Many patients paralyzed due to external injuries are often brought to this bakery by their families to see how the shopkeeper lives her life with such tenacity. Unbeknownst to her, Yu Shuilian has inspired many people, becoming a role model for many. Yu Shuilian never tires of interacting patiently with these people, encouraging them, helping them build confidence, as if she has found the greatest value in her life. With the help of the commissioner of the international medical department, Yasmeen was admitted for surgery and settled into her room at the Surgical Research Institute. Song Zimo took Yasmeen to the Nandu Medical University Digital Medical Laboratory for data collection. Ruixing Company plans to use these data to manufacture artificial joints suitable for Yasmeen using 3D printing technology. After evaluations from the Digital Medical Laboratory, it was determined that Yasmeen¡¯s lower limb muscle strength could bear her body weight, meaning she could commence upright walking in the early postoperative period. Transitioning from crawling to upright walking isn¡¯t as simple as one might imagine. Aside from the surgery itself, there are many other problems to address. For instance, will there be insufficient blood supply to the head upon upright walking, and if so, how should corresponding adaptive rehabilitation training be undertaken? Will the human balance organ adapt, and will there be symptoms such as dizziness? Can the spine bear the body weight, can the intervertebral disc bear the weight, will there be complications of overloading the lumbar intervertebral disc leading to back pain in the future, among other issues? Whether the organs in the chest and abdomen will not be able to hang properly due to the sudden standing, causing herniation? These problems need to be analyzed, predicted, and solutions proposed. With Fang Faquan¡¯s lower limb modeling experience, this time, the modeling by the Digital Medical Laboratory will be faster and more complete. The design of such a prosthesis is extremely complex and completely different from a regular universal prosthesis. Centered around the three core issues of osteotomy, soft tissue balance, and prosthesis design, the computer simulates repeatedly. The best prosthesis and osteotomy methods are designed to achieve optimal soft tissue balance after prosthesis placement. Yang Ping provided the overall design framework. The fine details were left to the engineers at Ruixing. After taking on the task, Chief Engineer Chen Zhi was immersed in drafting designs in the laboratory every day. After several iterations, Ruixing finally produced the prosthesis model. The model was handed to Yang Ping who was very satisfied and immediately ordered production. All parts of the artificial joint prosthesis were 3D printed and then assembled. They were sterilized before being used in surgery. By the time it was returned to Yang Ping, it was a complete set ready for immediate use. Custom prosthetics and powerful industrial capabilities astonished Director Feida. This was unimaginable in his own country. Even if it is a bone tumor custom prosthesis, Director Feida often has to seek help from hospitals and equipment companies in Europe and America, which often takes several months. Now, in just a few days, a sci-fi-like artificial prosthesis was delivered to the operating room. Sanbo Hospital, the Digital Medical Laboratory, and Ruixing Company¡¯s well-oiled system provided strong support for Yang Ping¡¯s surgery. For surgeries like this, Yang Ping could also use the system space simulation function, finding key data through trial and error, and make the operation very successful in the end. But this isn¡¯t what Yang Ping wanted, he wanted a surgical method that could be replicated in reality so it can be promoted. Therefore, Yang Ping aimed to build a robust technological support system capable of completing complex surgeries even without the system, which is his pursuit. This powerful support system is being built step by step. Everything was ready and Yasmeen was prepared to go on the operating table. She was very excited to see what she would look like standing up. The doctors also looked forward to seeing the result. Chapter 607 - 607 553 Remote Control Toys ?Chapter 607: Chapter 553: Remote Control Toys Chapter 607: Chapter 553: Remote Control Toys A completely new case, a one-of-a-kind surgical plan, this is the true test of a doctor¡¯s skills. Otherwise, why would the name ¡°Surgical Research Institute¡± be displayed? The high prestige of this signboard is certainly not something an ordinary department can compete with. In order to perform the osteotomy more precisely, Yang Ping still planned to use the Tianji surgical robot, as a good tool is the guarantee of surgical outcomes. However, as of now, the robot for the Surgical Research Institute is yet to be delivered. Approval procedures always take time. Yang Ping had no choice but to vie for the machine with the Orthopedics department. Of course, whether it was Director Tan or the other sections of Orthopedics, they were more than willing. Borrowing the machine once means acquiring one more opportunity to observe and learn. Why not grab the opportunity? The level at which Yang Ping operates the surgical robot can be regarded as the perfect unity of man and machine. If the proficiency levels of operating a surgical robot were divided into tiers, Yang Ping would be the greatest champion, the one with the most stars to his name. Watching Yang Ping perform surgery with a robot at close quarters provides a gaming-like firsthand experience that is highly enjoyable. Although the Surgical Research Institute¡¯s plaque hasn¡¯t been up for long, they certainly aren¡¯t short on money. Even excluding Ruixing Company, it can¡¯t be said that they lack surgical robots. Certain big shots would never be stingy with money ¨C donating a robot or the like is just a matter of signing their names on a check for tens of millions. For instance, Ning Qi, the CEO of Anning Group, hopes that Yang Ping can provide a list. Her wording is very precise; not just a robot, but a list. Whatever equipment is needed, just write it down and she will provide it. The process would be through donation. As long as Yang Ping is willing, her donating a building, a hospital, wouldn¡¯t be difficult. With the robot that Dean Xia applied to procure already on the way, Yang Ping decided to have a little more patience; waiting a while doesn¡¯t hurt. Yasmeen, dressed in Sanbo Hospital¡¯s patient clothes, sat in a wheelchair and was pushed into the operating room by a nurse. Dr. Fida also followed Yang Ping into the operating room for a visit. His curious gaze scanned everywhere; thirty operating rooms starting work at the same time, nearly two hundred surgeries per day ¨C these grand scales were unforgettable for Dr. Fida. What does it mean to concentrate half the surgeries in their country to one floor? ¡°Is this the biggest hospital in China?¡± Dr. Fida couldn¡¯t help but ask. With the help of the Arabic translator, Little Five told him, ¡°We are not the biggest. The biggest hospital in China performs about 300,000 surgeries per year, and the daily number of surgeries is close to a thousand.¡± A thousand surgeries per day! Three hundred thousand surgeries per year! Dr. Fida was shocked. He had no definitive understanding of what it meant to be a big country. At this moment, as a doctor, in the operating room, he was feeling the momentum of a big country. His previous exposure was limited. Most of his time was spent learning English. He once went to a hospital in Britain for further study, but that hospital only had a hundred beds. During a short-term two-week progression, he only saw a few surgeries. He must learn Chinese well and definitely come to China for further study. Dr. Fida made a silent vow. Once again, Tan Boyun gave up his chance for the robot. Director Qin of spinal surgery was quite annoyed. Two opportunities to concede the robot were snatched away in a row. He felt Tan Boyun was a bit aggressive, but there was nothing he could do as he was one step too late on both counts. Light music began to play in the operating room, the Guzheng Version of ¡°High Mountain Flowing Waters¡±. It sounded quite pleasant and soothing. When Yang Ping performed surgeries, he liked to listen to this kind of calming guzheng music. Although the piano was also good, he just felt that the guzheng had more charm. Huang Jiahui was still personally following the table, all tools were spread out on the side, varied and splendid. Each one was custom-made for this surgery. Chen Zhi, the chief engineer from Ruixing, also came to the scene of the surgery with Huang Jiahui. He needed to see the surgery process with his own eyes. Only by understanding the surgical process could he design better tools in the future. Dr. Fida watched the scene in a dazzled state. When he was studying in Britain, he had never seen such a spectacle. Moreover, the impact of the British professor was still a bit inferior to Professor Yang¡¯s. As to exactly how much inferior, Dr. Fida was still not clear in his mind. Tan Boyun applied to be an assistant on stage, but Yang Ping refused. Just because he used your robot doesn¡¯t mean you have to be allowed on stage. In fact, this is not strange. With any surgery, Yang Ping would always make careful calculations in his mind, striving for the greatest success rate and the best outcome. Tan Boyun was not as well-prepared for this surgery as Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. If Yang Ping agreed to let Tan Boyun be an assistant, it would add unnecessary risks to the surgery. Director Tan knew Yang Ping very well. When it came to surgery, he showed no mercy. So he didn¡¯t feel upset. There would be plenty of opportunities in the future. Standing by the side and watching could also be very educational. The Arabic translator was also dressed in visitor clothing, wearing a sterile hat and mask, standing by to provide translation services at any time. Body language is the most universal language in the world. Liang Fatty¡¯s gestures were very good. Yasmeen understood Fatty¡¯s meaning, that she was to be given general anesthesia, and then to sleep. However, when Fatty mimicked the action of sleeping, his intentional snoring was a bit uncouth. On the surface, this surgery was nothing more than the replacement of four major joints ¨C bilateral hip joints and bilateral knee joints. But this surgery was totally different from ordinary artificial joint replacement. Due to severe developmental issues, Yasmeen¡¯s bilateral hip joints had long been fixed in a dislocated state. The original shallow acetabulum, whether in terms of position or depth, was of no use for this surgery. Yang Ping needed to grind out a new artificial acetabulum on the hipbone, and then put in a biological acetabulum prosthesis. The position and direction of this artificial acetabulum had no standard to follow, and had to be designed individually based on Yasmeen¡¯s situation. This would take into full consideration the orthopedic status of the hip joint, knee joint, ankle joint, foot arch, and the muscles surrounding the hip joint after the procedure. If he were to only rely on experience, even if it were very extensive, he wouldn¡¯t be able to carve an excellent acetabulum. The computer simulation easily determines the position and direction of the hip joints based on the target force line with great precision. Similarly, the reversal of the knee joint¡¯s anatomy makes it more complex to restore, with high precision required for the osteotomy. The ankle and foot arch also need to be reshaped to accommodate upright walking in the future. Sterilization, preoperative verification, then officially starting. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang are on the table, and Yang Ping operates the surgical robot from the control platform. Yang Ping¡¯s sequence of choice progresses from nearby to distant, first performing bilateral hip replacement, and finally dealing with the ankle and foot arch. Only when the hip joint achieves good mobility, can the knee replacement achieve a good operative angle. Dr. Fida stands beside, watching the operating video on the screen, considering himself as a fellow doctor now. Yang Ping uses a lateral approach to the hip joint, making successive incisions to expose the hip joint, and carries out moderate dislocation of the surrounding muscles, tendons, and ligaments to achieve desired balance. This balance is a new balance, a balance to adapt to upright walking. The stable structure of the human joint is divided into two parts, one is the dynamic stability structure: the muscle-tendon system; the other is the static stability structure: the joint capsule and the ligament. Their relative balance allows the joint to remain stable while providing some flexibility. Therefore, this surgery requires a high level of skill in achieving balance. After the soft tissue has been loosened, Yang Ping uses the robot¡¯s accurate positioning to grind a man-made hip socket out of the hip bone, then inserts a biological artificial hip socket. There are generally two methods of fixing the hip prosthesis, the cement type and the biological type. The main ingredient of bone cement is polymethyl methacrylate, which is suitable for older patients with poor bone quality. In these patients, prosthetics and bone are fixed using bone cement during hip replacement. It is named so because it is like using cement to fix bricks and other building materials during construction. The biological type, unlike bone cement, is suitable for young patients with good bone quality. This type of artificial joint prosthesis does not require the addition of bone cement as a fixing agent. For example, the handle of the femoral head prosthesis is inserted into the marrow cavity of the proximal femur, and the initial stability is obtained by squeezing the handle and the marrow cavity. Because the surface of the handle of this type of prosthesis is porous and has a coating that induces bone growth, over time, the bone tissue in the marrow cavity will grow into the void in the handle, forming a so-called biological fixation. It¡¯s like building a house, where no cement is needed to fix the bricks, the bricks will grow and penetrate each other, and finally be firmly connected. The cooperation of Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang is very good, and the speed of switching equipment is also very fast. The robotic arm of Tianji Surgical Robot is quite flexible. Whether it¡¯s for cupping the hip socket or amputating the proximal femur, it¡¯s both fast and precise. Soon, Yang Ping completes the bilateral artificial hip replacement. Then they start the bilateral knee replacement. After the hip joint is replaced, it has a good range of motion, and there is much freedom in placing the lower limbs, providing a good operative angle for knee replacement. With the help of the robot¡¯s navigation equipment, osteotomy and prosthetic implantation are done in one go. The knee prosthesis also adopts the biological type. At present, there¡¯s no such biological knee prosthesis on the market. The prosthesis that Yang Ping uses is completely printed using a 3D printer. Like the hip joint prosthesis, this new type of prosthesis, compared to the traditional bone cement prosthesis, promotes bone tissue growth into the prosthesis through the close contact of the prosthesis-bone interface, thereby improving the bond strength between the prosthesis and the marrow cavity, and achieving long-term stability of the prosthesis. Huaxi Hospital had once completed the world¡¯s first biological knee joint prosthesis replacement surgery. The artificial joint prosthesis used at the time was also printed out with a 3D printer. Yang Ping¡¯s replacement is possibly the world¡¯s second. Operating the surgical robot in Yang Ping¡¯s hands really feels like playing a video game. The bilateral knee joint replacements are completed. Finally, they deal with the ankle and foot arch. To adapt to upright walking, the ankle and foot arch must be orthopedically adjusted simultaneously. After all the steps are completed, Yang Ping leaves the control platform and goes over to the operation table. Song Zimo starts measuring the force line of the lower limb ¡ª it¡¯s perfect! The whole operation does not seem like an operation, but more like a video game. From start to finish, each step is both quick and accurate, with very little bleeding, almost negligible. The single robotic arm of the Tianji robot is absolutely not enough. It simply can¡¯t keep up with Yang Ping¡¯s pace, and many steps require human assistance. The improved robot of the future should be able to complete all steps under the chief surgeon¡¯s control, and equipment switches should also be done automatically. The equipment should be placed on the instrument table, with the robotic arm able to automatically install and uninstall the equipment. The assistant should be on standby in case of sudden machine failure, and should not participate in the operation. So, there¡¯s still a lot of room for improvement for the Tianji robot. At present, it¡¯s not the surgical robot catching up with Yang Ping¡¯s speed, and many functions cannot be realized. People have to help unload and load the equipment. ¡°Chen Zhi, surgical robots represent the future direction of surgery, and you should make a contribution.¡± Yang Ping said to the engineer Chen Zhi. This is consistent with Chen Zhi¡¯s thinking. He has always had this idea to develop surgical robots, so he came to watch the robot¡¯s surgery this time. Designing those instruments is just a small matter. If there is ample funding, Chen Zhi really wants to design such large things. However, it requires a huge amount of capital and a large team. The robot must have more than three mechanical arms. The mechanical arm must be flexible and rigid. The mechanical arm must completely replace the human hand. The mechanical arm must be able to perform the entire surgical process, such as laying sheets, incisions, etc. Otherwise, it¡¯s not a qualified remote-controlled toy. Chen Zhi thought to himself, he will definitely design such a qualified remote-controlled toy. Finally, he thought, the surgical robot must be connected to the supercomputer network and can combine with the Digital Human for real-time modeling during surgery. Chapter 608 - 608 554 Seek Stability ?Chapter 608: Chapter 554: Seek Stability Chapter 608: Chapter 554: Seek Stability On the third day after the surgery, Yasmeen, with a specially made brace, began to attempt to stand and walk with the help of a walker. This brace was like a pair of boots which protected her fused ankle joints and reformed arches, allowing her not only to stand and walk but also protected these areas from the damage of gravity before the bones were healed. Yasmeen had never walked upright¡ªshe had not taken a single step in her entire life. Once Yasmeen prepared herself mentally, Dr. Che, who was in charge of her rehabilitation, and the nurses helped her stand next to the bed. With shaking legs supporting her body, Yasmeen stood up slowly, unable to believe her newfound reality. Due to her standing position, Yasmeen felt a bit dizzy. But Dr. Che encouraged her to persist, to let her heart slowly adapt to the circulation of standing upright. About ten minutes later, Yasmeen started to feel a little more comfortable. Dr. Che instructed her to take her first bold step while leaning on the walker. Yasmeen looked at the doctors and nurses around her, then at her own lower limbs, and tried to take her first step. But with missing strength, she was unsure of how to step forward. Dr. Che demonstrated three times before she grasped how to take a step, finally managing to tremble her way through her first step while standing upright. This was the first step she had taken on her own since the day she was born. Walking upright made her field of vision so much broader, and Yasmeen instantly felt invigorated. There was a swell of cheers in the ward encouraging her to keep going because after that first step, a new chapter in her life had officially begun. Her lower limbs were still too weak to support her body, and each step was extremely tiring and difficult. After taking a deep breath, Yasmeen took her next step. ¡°One more step!¡± Dr. Che guided her from the front, gesturing with both hands. After adjusting herself and preparing her strength, Yasmeen took her third step. ¡°How do you feel?¡± Yang Ping asked Yasmeen. She nodded excitedly: ¡°I can actually stand and walk. Look, I am really standing up.¡± The young girl, overcome with emotion, cried continuously. She had dreamed many times about being able to walk upright, just like any normal person. Now that her dream had come true, Yasmeen¡¯s sobs grew louder. The nurses and translator stroked her back to calm her down. Observing Yasmeen¡¯s gait closely, Yang Ping was satisfied. Although her muscles were still weak, her gait was quite good. If she continued to train for about three months and her lower limb muscles strengthened, she would be able to walk without the aid of a walker. Previously, Yasmeen¡¯s lower limbs were only supporting half of her body weight, hence they were thinner compared to a normal person¡¯s, and the muscle strength was poor. As for average people whose upper limbs needn¡¯t bear any weight, Yasmeen¡¯s upper limbs helped her crawl, taking on the other half of her body weight, which made them more robust and stronger than those of an average person. This was the result of her body adapting its anatomy to function. Yang Ping entrusted Dr. Che to teach Feida and Yasmeen the necessary content for the rehabilitation training during their hospital stay, so that they could continue the rehab exercises once Yasmeen returned to Oman. There are two organs in the human body that can be reshaped ¨C muscles and the brain. This is the medical basis why working out can strengthen muscles. In her first attempt to walk, Yasmeen took six steps before she was drenched in sweat. Yang Ping instructed her to rest, stating that recovery can¡¯t be rushed; it is a sequential process with gradual improvement. ¡ª Minmin¡¯s grandmother was moved from the CCU back to the regular ward in the cardiology department. Seeing her granddaughter¡¯s surgery, removing the 34 needles, her feelings were extremely complicated. The elderly couple began to worry about Minmin¡¯s future. The couple, both in their seventies, realized they didn¡¯t have much time left. If Minmin was entrusted to either her father or mother, it seemed unlikely to bode well for her future. Minmin¡¯s mother had refused to take her back. Even if the law forced her to, the result wouldn¡¯t be better than her living with her father. With her father in his current state, if they were to leave the child with him, they were afraid next time it could be one hundred needles instead of 34. None of their relatives were willing to adopt Minmin, leaving their only options to send her to a welfare institution, or find a household willing to adopt her. At this time, several relatives came to visit Minmin¡¯s grandmother. Amid the many voices, some relatives suggested the elderly couple cause trouble with the hospital. They expressed that it was the hospital¡¯s fault, regardless of the cause, arguing that they had spent so much money and still had to pay a portion of expenses¡ªit wasn¡¯t fair. Some relatives even offered to confront the hospital, but the elderly couple refused. One of the relatives shared a similar experience: they passed a restaurant while grocery shopping, tripped, and fell. At that moment, they cried and made a fuss in front of the restaurant. Later, their son brought people to make a scene at the restaurant, resulting in compensation after several days of protest at the restaurant entrance. This relative insisted that in situations like Minmin¡¯s grandmother¡¯s, causing a stir would undoubtedly bring money. Not only would the medical expenses be waived, but they would also receive a lump sum of money. The elderly couple responded that being thankful was important. They were spending time with their granddaughter in the hospital because they suddenly got sick, and the doctors saved them. If they went back and caused trouble, it would be inexcusable. This relative was unrelenting and tried to persuade her, saying she didn¡¯t have to be so stubborn. Now that her granddaughter¡¯s surgery was done, they no longer needed the hospital¡¯s help. If they capitalized on this and got money out of the hospital, it would help her in her old age or they could leave it to their granddaughter. With their age, they were unable to earn any money. At last, the relative made a final proposition: the elderly couple wouldn¡¯t have to confront the hospital themselves. If they agreed, their son would take care of it, and they would only need to give him a part of the received money as an activity fee. The relative spoke angrily again, ¡°How could the hospital not take responsibility when the incident happened in the hospital?¡± Chapter 609 - 609 554 Seek Stability_2 ?Chapter 609: Chapter 554: Seek Stability_2 Chapter 609: Chapter 554: Seek Stability_2 The elderly couple rushed to prevent it, insisting that this mustn¡¯t be done, otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t have peace even in death. The disgruntled relatives left the ward in great disappointment, cursing the elderly couple for being behind the times and not knowing how to make money. The elderly couple had their own principles. They had led a tough life, but aside from failing in educating their son, they had never acted shamefully or betrayed their conscience. They could never resort to such disgraceful and appalling conduct. If they did succumb to it, would any doctor still dare to save lives in the future? It is quite possible that hospitals would shun elderly people bringing children for treatment and make excuses to postpone and refuse to provide diagnosis and treatment. Aged people are mostly in poor health condition, posing many potential risks of sudden diseases. If this problem spreads widely, all public places such as restaurants, shopping malls, and railway stations will place a signboard prohibiting old people from entering to avoid assuming responsibility. If the issue escalates even further, everyone visiting public places will have to provide a health certificate from the hospital and sign a liability waiver agreement. It¡¯s just like the reluctance to help old people up when they fall. Hospitals save their lives, but they turn around and extort money from the hospital! What in the world is happening? They¡¯re no better than swine or dogs, with no bottom line. Shouldn¡¯t there be some difference between humans and swine or dogs? The elderly couple cursed fiercely after their relatives left. ¡ª Six-year-old Cui Shukai, led by his parents, arrived at Sanbo Hospital. His father, Cui Xubing, was delighted to hear that his son would undergo a new, minimally invasive treatment for scoliosis. Cui Xubing took a month¡¯s leave from his job and brought his son, along with his wife, to Sanbo Hospital in Nandu province. They had complete trust in Yang Ping, especially after witnessing an academician from Beijing affirming Yang Ping at Sanbo Hospital during their last visit. This couple pinned all their hopes on Yang Ping for their son¡¯s treatment. During their last stay at home, Cui Xubing did a lot of research. He searched for information about Yang Ping on the internet and even asked a local doctor-relative to check on Yang Ping. The conclusive investigation revealed that Professor Yang Ping, despite his young age, acted as the chief surgeon for a folding man¡¯s scoliosis surgery, which was much more severe and complex than his son¡¯s condition. His son¡¯s degree of scoliosis was viewed as a routine surgery in Professor Yang¡¯s hands. Professor Yang, considering the age of the six-year-old child, attempted to use minimally invasive methods to not interfere with the normal growth and development of the spine. Therefore, he employed an innovative technique for treatment. Cui Xubing¡¯s family, who were from the old revolutionary base Yan¡¯an and had traveled miles to Nandu, expressed their gratitude by bringing their hometown¡¯s special products, Yan¡¯an red dates and Luochuan apples. After completing the hospitalization formalities and settling in the ward, he handed over the special products to Head Nurse Cai. Then he went to the office to find Yang Ping. When they sat down, Yang Ping provided detailed information about the new technology. He informed him that the experimental data from animal testing were very promising and now, Cui Shukai would be the first clinical trial candidate for this new technology. This technology doesn¡¯t require fusion of the spine, and the patient can obtain a normally functioning spine after correction. However, any surgery carries risks, especially new techniques, which have more uncertainties. Yang Ping explained the surgical risks to him one by one. The greatest risk was infection at the incision, but the probability was extremely low. Compared to a normally functioning spine, this slight risk was negligible. Compared to major surgeries, this was a lot safer. Cui Xubing had extensive knowledge about scoliosis and the surgery. He was willing to participate in the clinical trial. Scoliosis is classified as functional and structural. Functional scoliosis is non-fixed and is caused due to certain reasons such as incorrect posture, lumbar disc herniation, etc. and can be corrected once the cause is rectified. Structural scoliosis, on the other hand, is already formed and is further classified into idiopathic and congenital. Congenital means the deformity was present at birth. Idiopathic scoliosis, for which precise cause has not been identified in medicine, is most common. The word ¡°idiopathic¡± refers to conditions without a clearly identified cause, such as idiopathic hypertension. Generally, scoliosis under 20 degrees can be observed without special treatment. An X-ray of the full length of the spine should be taken each year, then measured. If it increases by more than 5 degrees each year, intervention treatment is required. Bracing therapy has been proven to be effective as conservative treatment. Wearing an orthotic brace is quite laborious but effective. Other methods, such as manual correction, have no evidence to support their effectiveness. But, if it makes one feel better to believe they are effective, then they are effective. If the scoliosis reaches 30-40 degrees, surgical treatment needs to be considered. Irrespective of whether it is thoracic scoliosis, thoraco-lumbar, or lumbar scoliosis, surgery is normally required when it reaches this degree. Thoracic Scoliosis indications are slightly more lenient than the other two types. Thoracic scoliosis generally requires surgery when it exceeds 40 degrees, whereas thoraco-lumbar or lumbar scoliosis generally necessitates surgery at 35 degrees. Regarding this basic information, Cui Xubing understands it all very well. The notice on surgical risks, clinical trials, and ethics were something he had already understood and acknowledged prior to this. ¡°I¡¯ll sign it now!¡± Cui Xubing didn¡¯t want to waste Professor Yang¡¯s time. Yang Ping told him: ¡°There¡¯s no rush. Only after perfecting all preoperative checks will we schedule the surgery. A responsible doctor will ask you to sign before the surgery.¡± Surgeries for scoliosis are concentrated in a few first-tier hospitals. He had been to Xiehe, 301, Nanjing Drum Tower and had also checked related information on the internet. Cui Xubing stood up, checked that there was no one outside, closed Yang Ping¡¯s office door, locked it, then surreptitiously handed an envelope bulging with cash to Yang Ping. ¡°You¡¯ve worked hard, Professor Yang. We are grateful for your help with Shukai¡¯s case.¡± Yang Ping initially wanted to refuse, but Cui Xubing was persistent: ¡°No one saw, you can be at ease. No one will know. Our gratitude is sincere.¡± These twenty thousand yuan were prepared in advance by Cui Xubing; they were sincerely grateful to Yang Ping. Well, Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to keep refusing as it was meaningless. Patient gifts like red envelopes are common, and Yang Ping follows an orderly process to manage them. He would accept the red envelope at that moment, after the patient had left, he would give it to the head nurse. The head nurse along with another doctor would count it, then record it. This money would be deposited into the patient¡¯s hospital account before the operation by the head nurse. The receipt would be given to the patient or the family ¨C the person who gave the red envelope ¨C after the operation. Many patients give red envelopes just for peace of mind. If they are refused on the spot and time is wasted back and forth, it can cause the patient or relatives to overthink. For example, it could cause worries about uncertainties in the surgery. Therefore, Yang Ping would accept it first, in order to give peace of mind to the patients and families, and then follow the standard procedure. When Cui Xubing left Yang Ping¡¯s office, he felt relieved and reassured. Giving the red envelope was just for reassurance. With the red envelope sent, it meant that his son¡¯s illness had something to rely on. He knew Professor Yang would do his utmost. Chapter 610 - 610 555 Sesame and Watermelon ?Chapter 610: Chapter 555: Sesame and Watermelon Chapter 610: Chapter 555: Sesame and Watermelon Back in the ward, Cui Xubing¡¯s wife, Guo Liu, quietly asked, ¡°How did it go?¡± Cui Xubing mysteriously returned with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s a done deal.¡± Both husband and wife were relieved, for they had feared that their child¡¯s surgery would be performed by an intern. Regardless of how successful the surgery might have been under an intern¡¯s hand, they believed that it wouldn¡¯t achieve the best possible result. They had somehow heard rumors suggesting that, without a bit of persuasion, the surgery might be left to an intern. But which hospital would ever allow an intern to be the chief surgeon? In the entire country, it was unlikely that any hospital would permit an intern to independently perform an operation. Not to mention chief surgeries, in major tertiary hospitals, even the opportunities for interns to be official assistants are scarce. The hospital¡¯s surgical grading management is extremely rigorous. Even a prodigious talent like Yang Ping would have to follow the process to get surgery rights and perform high-level surgeries. One method is to have a qualified doctor endorse them. This was how Yang Ping used to progress. He would be the chief surgeon, but Director Han¡¯s name would be on record. Director Han would sign to verify, and would be held completely responsible should any issues arise during the surgery. Another method, as is the case now, is to follow the ¡®low-position, high-hiring¡¯ process. This involves a shortcut to obtaining a high professional title, followed by authorization of corresponding maximum surgical permissions based on the title. The idea of an intern performing the surgery was a mere illusion in Cui Xubing¡¯s mind. Those relatives and friends who claimed to be in the know, earnestly suggesting such a possibility, only deepened this delusion in their minds. ¡ª Cui Shukai had scoliosis, a large C curve that reached 176 degrees. Dealing with such severe scoliosis in a six-year-old who was still growing could lead to significant complications if not handled correctly. By using the innovative spinal external fixation technique, many difficult problems could be easily solved. Yang Ping sat in his office, facing his computer screen. The three-dimensional reconstructed image of Cui Shukai¡¯s spine floated on the computer screen as he planned the surgery details. Traditional surgery could only select a few key osteotomy points, reassemble the spine through osteotomy, and then prompt the vertebrae to re-knit at the site of osteotomy. It was like trying to straighten a curved and inflexible rod by cutting it into pieces and using wedge-shaped osteotomy at the connection points to remove the excess parts on the convex side. This way, the deformity could be partially corrected when the pieces were reassembled. However, Yang Ping¡¯s new method treated every deformed vertebra as an osteotomy point. It didn¡¯t require removal of excess bone from the convex side, nor complete severance of the vertebra for re-knitting. This method required incising the concave side of each vertebra, without excising any bone, and then attaching the external spinal fixation device. Utilizing Ilizarov¡¯s principle, the osteotomy site underwent distraction osteogenesis. The location for vertebrae osteotomy had to be such that distraction osteogenesis was possible, with minimal damage to the growth plate. Essentially, the curved rod did not need to be broken and reassembled. It could be molded, slowly straightened, with the concave side gradually lengthening under the control of the external fixator. Consequently, the spine would gradually straighten. The entire process was dynamic. The Ilizarov theory was extensively used in limb orthopedics. It enabled satisfactory correction for limb deformities that traditional surgeries couldn¡¯t address. Now Yang Ping had successfully applied this theory to spinal orthopedics. If the chief surgeon relied on experience to find the osteotomy line and the locations and directions for vertebrae root screw insertion, they would need lots of experience. Delegating this task to a computer and surgical robot made this critical step of the surgery foolproof. Through computer simulation and calculation, the exact location of the osteotomy line and the position and direction for vertebral root screw insertion could be determined and then loaded into the surgical robot¡¯s host. During surgery, the surgical robot could perform precise positioning according to real-time fluoroscopic images, ensuring safety, speed, precision, and minimally invasive surgery. President Huang personally delivered the instruments. He used a trolley to transport two large boxes of instruments to Yang Ping¡¯s office, allowing Yang Ping to perform pre-surgery checks. The two boxes of instruments were opened on Yang Ping¡¯s desk. One set contained percutaneous vertebral root screws. These screws would be inserted into the vertebral root through the skin and into the vertebral body. Each screw protruded slightly from the skin, serving as a connection point for the external fixator. The other box contained equipment for the external spinal fixator, which were a large frame with many small brackets. The large frame and small brackets worked in conjunction to perform bone transport, also known as distraction osteogenesis. Turning the control knob on the large frame would initiate bone transport at all osteotomy sites simultaneously. Turning the knob on a miniature bracket would only perform bone transport at one osteotomy site. The clever design of large and small frames allowed them to work together, spreading the corrective process across all the deformed vertebrae. After the surgery, Cui Shukai will have regular X-ray check-ups, which can be used for adjustment, controlling the speed of bone relocation at each area, scanning commands to accurately move the spine along the expected pathway. Usually, bone relocation begins 7-10 days after the surgery by rotating the knob, proceeding at a speed of 1 millimeter per day. In a month, a bone can be relocated by 3 centimeters. This method distributes corrective forces across all the responsible vertebrae, so even the greatest degree of bone relocation is no more than 3 centimeters. Taking into account the rest period during relocation and consolidation after the relocation, it¡¯s estimated that the straightening of the spine can be completed in about three months. So, in three months, a C-shaped spine can be straightened, with the lowest possibility of neurologic complications, as the adjustment is done gradually. Looking at the exquisite devices on his desk, Yang Ping himself felt that the design was brilliant. ¡°Cui Shukai¡¯s CT scan data has been sent to Professor He, we¡¯re waiting for his data packet. As soon as it¡¯s ready, we can input it into the surgery robot¡¯s mainframe, and the robot can use this data for navigation.¡± President Huang Jiacai also has full confidence in this set of equipment, the key product of Ruixing and a robust weapon to combat big competitors. ¡°Professor, in order to quickly open up the market, I am prepared to fully disclose the patent of this equipment and allow worldwide free use.¡± Huang Jiacai proposes tentatively. Yang Ping continues to play with the equipment: ¡°What you decide, on business matters, I don¡¯t understand, and I don¡¯t want to be involved.¡± ¡°Understood. So, I¡¯ll make the decision. Actually, only by making the patent free, can manufacturers big and small participate. As long as everyone participates, our technology and products will quickly become widespread. Once our products are widespread, why should we worry about not making money?¡± While Huang Jiacai helps give Yang Ping the equipment, he says. Although Yang Ping is not interested in these matters, he still needs clarity. This significant decision must include the explanation of his rationale. Yang Ping is his back-end boss after all. He should definitely give a clear account to the boss. Yang Ping continues to assemble the equipment, seemingly not paying attention. ¡°Professor, did¡ªyou¡ªhear¡ªwhat I just said?¡± Huang Jiacai asks. Yang Ping looks up: ¡°I¡¯m listening; you continue, oh, hand me the screw from over there.¡± After speaking, Yang Ping buried his head back into assembling the external fixator. ¡°Professor, I mean, I will open up the patent of your spinal external fixator to the whole world. Do you have any objections?¡± Huang Jiacai has no choice but to repeat himself. Yang Ping doesn¡¯t have time to bother about him: ¡°Tell Professor He to hurry the data pack over.¡± ¡°Professor?¡± Huang Jiacai has not received a response yet and persists. ¡°You say, you say¡ª¡± Yang Ping is a bit annoyed by him. ¡°Professor, I will make the patent for the spinal external fixator free to the whole world!¡± Huang Jiacai says for the third time. Yang Ping says impatiently: ¡°Such a trivial matter, and you¡¯re still asking me? You¡¯re the president, can¡¯t you just decide it yourself? Do something meaningful. Pass me the cup of tea.¡± Huang Jiacai looks at the tea cup on the other side of the desk and immediately brings it to him. The boss, I¡¯m talking about a business worth billions, and it¡¯s not as meaningful as your cup of tea? Huang Jiacai wanted to cry but had no tears. He decided to avoid bothering him with these sorts of matters in the future. Huang Jiacai just stood by his office desk, passing him things. For over an hour, President Huang worked up a sweat, just handing things over. Yang Ping assembled and disassembled the external fixator over and over again, testing for more than an hour. After finishing, Yang Ping sat in his chair drinking his tea, while Huang Jiacai helped clean up and put the equipment back in their boxes. Only after wiping down the desk did he leave the office. This set of equipment will unveil a new chapter in the treatment of scoliosis. Is it really just a tiny sesame seed in Professor Yang¡¯s eyes? If this is just a sesame seed, then what is a watermelon? Anyway, Huang Jiacai didn¡¯t dare think about what was occupying Yang Ping¡¯s mind. Yang Ping¡¯s ideas were just too out of the box. Chapter 611 - 611 556 Straightening Artifact ?Chapter 611: Chapter 556: Straightening Artifact Chapter 611: Chapter 556: Straightening Artifact All of Yang Ping¡¯s interests were concentrated in medicine, he indeed lacked interest in business, let alone had the energy to get involved in such affairs. Thus, entrusting these affairs to a reliable and capable person was the best choice. Clearly, Huang Jiacai was the best for this role. Yang Ping was extremely satisfied with Huang Jiacai¡¯s performance. After Huang Jiacai took over Ruixing, he wisely used correct strategies, availing the conflicts among several major orthopedic consumable giants, effectively maneuvering between them, and squeezing a small space for survival. This tiny space for survival miraculously saved Ruixing, not only did it prevent its elimination, but it also gained profits and bought some time for it. In the limited buffer time, Huang Jiacai re-employed Chen Zhi to assemble a strong R&D team, systematically developed orthopedic medical equipment, and after the prototypes were finalized, certain numbers of finished products were produced and kept in the warehouse, ready to be sterilized for clinical use anytime. This strategic reserve allowed Ruixing to stop worrying and be prepared against the possible fallout with the giants. Ruixing¡¯s own products could replace theirs anytime. Although the new products may not be as mature, as long as they can replace the old ones, they would not fear threats. To stabilize the development team, Huang Jiacai took a series of measures. The guaranteed salary for the R&D staff would ensure their basic living needs, and once the designed medical equipment was brought to the market and turned profitable for the company, they would receive a substantial bonus. In sales, Huang Jiacai also executed reform with a firm hand, incorporating his own ideas deeply into the changes. He built several strong sales teams and designed a standardized sales distribution model. The company adopted an Internet mindset, building a national warehouse and delivery network platform, establishing central warehouses in several major areas, and satellite warehouses near hospitals. The construction of these warehouses, the delivery process, all followed a uniform standard, bringing the distribution of medical equipment into standardized management. Even the distribution models of the giants seemed amateurish in comparison to Huang Jiacai¡¯s. With the support of this warehouse and delivery system, elite salespeople aggressively expanded, seizing market share continuously. The process of seizing the market was not haphazard, but a set of standardized procedures was established. How to approach a hospital, which important departments to tackle, and what strategies to use, Huang Jiacai systematized, technologized, and standardized the whole process. Ruixing set up a department similar to an intelligence agency to specifically collect information on target customers, providing strong support for the salespeople. The directors of the target hospitals, heads of the medical equipment department and orthopedics department were all thoroughly investigated by this department. Salespeople were then well-prepared and had continuous support from the intelligence department during their sales process. In front of this scientific sales system, there was no battle they could not win in seizing the market and their performance kept soaring. With Huang Jiacai¡¯s commercial talents as support, Yang Ping¡¯s technical skills could be constantly monetized, creating a virtuous cycle. ¡ª Next, the Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory used digital human technology to edit a surgical data package for Cui Shukai¡¯s surgery, designing pin placement points and directions, and determining precise osteotomy lines. After the surgery was completed, Yang Ping would provide feedback on the actual situation during the operation to Professor He. This interaction allowed Nandu Medical University to continuously improve and optimize the modeling algorithm and elevate the level of core technology. In the future, the use of computer digital human to support Yang Ping¡¯s complex surgeries would become the norm. The surgery data Yang Ping provided to Professor He was the world¡¯s best. With this high-quality data feedback, it was only a matter of time before Professor He¡¯s computing model reached a world-leading level. Cui Shukai¡¯s preoperative checkup had been completed. Deformity of the spine had already affected his cardio-pulmonary function, with an extremely small lung capacity and his heart¡¯s ability to relax being affected. Cui Xubing finally understood why his son always looked unhealthy and was not too sharp. The severe spinal deformity affected lung function, causing insufficient oxygen supply, which affected the development of the brain and body. Cui Xubing was extremely suspicious. He considered himself upright and smart, and wondered how his son turned out to be congenitally deformed and mentally behind his peers. For a time, he suspected the child wasn¡¯t his own. The worst part was that his wife attended a college reunion once and didn¡¯t come home until the next day. Upon meeting his wife¡¯s ex-boyfriend, Cui Xubing noticed his shoulders were uneven, which he believed was caused by scoliosis. The time of their son¡¯s birth coincided with that reunion, and clever Cui Xubing connected the dots and reached a shocking conclusion. Could he be raising a child that was not his? Old Cui would not make such a foolish mistake. But Old Cui was cautious, he didn¡¯t make a sound and secretly took his son for a paternity test. In the end, the result of the paternity test was that the son was indeed Cui Xubing¡¯s natural child. Old Cui broke out in a cold sweat. Thankfully, everything stayed quiet, or his cleverness would have cost him a well-built family. As the surgery began, both parents were seated in the family waiting area outside the operating room. ¡°You think our son¡¯s surgery will go well, right? My heart is pounding,¡± Guo Liu said a bit nervously. Cui Xubing was calm: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Professor Yang himself is the chief surgeon. If he can straighten out a Folding man, there should be no problem with our son¡¯s surgery, plus it¡¯s minimally invasive.¡± Chapter 612 - 612 556 Straightening Artifact_2 ?Chapter 612: Chapter 556: Straightening Artifact_2 Chapter 612: Chapter 556: Straightening Artifact_2 ¡°Is this new technology reliable?¡± Guo Liu is still doubtful. Cui Xubing gives a mysterious smile. Seeing no one nearby, he leans over and whispers to his wife, ¡°Would they dare to accept the gift if the technology was unreliable?¡± With his extensive experience, Old Cui knows that if someone dares to accept a gift, it means they are confident about the matter. That makes sense! Guo Liu nods her head. The red envelope is like a reassurance pill, making Cui Xubing and his wife feel very secure. Six-year-old Cui Shukai is laid on the spinal positioning frame. For all orthopedic surgeries, the surgical bed and positioning frames are made from materials that allow X-ray penetration. Radiographic metal materials are infrequently used. The 3D reconstructed image of Cui Shukai¡¯s spine is displayed on the screen. It can be observed from various angles. The operating room is in full swing, and Yang Ping has already started the operation. A blue line emerges from the center of the pedicle root. Guided by the antenna, the robotic arm begins to align its position. The direction of the puncture needle matches the blue line on the image. The robot automatically calibrates and locks the direction of the robotic arm when there is no error. The puncture needle slowly moves forward, just touching Cui Shukai¡¯s skin when Yang Ping instructs it to stop. Song Zimo uses a scalpel to make a small incision at the needle tip on the skin. Yang Ping manipulates the robotic arm, guiding the puncture needle to advance accurately along the pre-set path. On the real-time fluoroscopic image, you can see the needle tip penetrate the skin and then reach the puncture point on the posterior part of the vertebra. At this point, Song Zimo removes the puncture needle, and Yang Ping¡¯s robotic arm backs off, moving away from the surgical site. Song Zimo starts the manual procedures, inserting the cannula along the puncture needle step by step, from thinner to thicker gauges. When satisfied, he removes the puncture needle. Xu Zhiliang has already fitted a drill bit onto the robotic arm. The robotic arm once again aligns with the blue line. After calibration, it extends into the cannula and starts to rotate slowly, drilling as it advances. It stops after a while, and then continues to rotate forward. Under fluoroscopy, you can watch the drill bit pass through the pedicle root into the vertebral body. The puncture point and direction are close to perfection. When the drill bit enters about half of the vertebral body, it automatically stops under the control of the depth limit program. Yang Ping rotates the 3D reconstruction image. The pedicle screw is in the only bony canal, surrounded by bone on all sides, perfectly centered. At this point, part of the pedicle screw is left outside the skin, while the rest has entered the bone of the vertebra. The robotic arm withdraws, while Song Zimo manually screws in a locking device. This device can prevent the pedicle screw from accidentally penetrating too deep, piercing the anterior part of the vertebral body, and damaging the anterior aorta and vena cava. If there¡¯s no locking device, even if the pedicle screw¡¯s position is good now, it¡¯s prone to penetrate deeper with the activity of the child, damaging the aorta and vena cava, putting the child¡¯s life in danger. This little locking device is an essential part of the surgical equipment¡¯s safety guarantee. The first percutaneous pedicle screw is successfully inserted. All the vertebrae involved in the spinal deformity have pedicle screws inserted. As the vertebrae are deformed, all these screws sticking out of the skin are oriented in different directions, generally presenting a large ¡®C¡¯ shape. The next step is osteotomy, which is also the riskiest operation. The osteotomy uses an ultrasonic bone cutter for minimally invasive incision osteotomy. The biggest advantage of the ultrasonic bone cutter is that it is hard but not soft. It can cut through bone, but it will not damage surrounding nerves, blood vessels, and other soft tissues. Song Zimo is responsible for cutting the skin open, holding the small opening apart, and allowing the robotic arm to perform the osteotomy. Each deformed vertebra undergoes an osteotomy in different positions and directions. After the osteotomy is complete. The remaining work can only be done manually¡ª the assembly of the external fixator. This is a very delicate job. ¡°The professor initially wanted to use shape-memory alloy to make the external fixator. In this way, some low-age children would not need osteotomy for orthodontics. But that external fixator is too complex, and the orthodontic time is too long. Considering its practicality, he gave up the initial design. The current external fixator has lower material requirements and shorter orthodontic time. Although it requires osteotomy, both its safety and purpose of osteotomy are different from traditional surgery.¡± ¡°By using osteotomy, the deformity correction is distributed to each vertebra, so the correction speed is very fast.¡± Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang work together to install the external fixator. They recheck the scale markers on each knob and ask the circulating nurse to help record them. Yang Ping¡¯s initial design for the spinal external fixator was more perfect, but perfection is not necessarily the best. When the product was designed at that time, no osteotomy was needed, and traction was applied to the soft tissue with the orthopaedic appliance. But the required traction force is relatively large. Several parts of it need a special memory alloy. Huang Jiacai found the raw material for this alloy at a materials laboratory at Northwestern Polytechnical University. Unfortunately, the material meeting the requirements is not mass-produced and still an experimental product. Thus, the supply chain is not mature. Moreover, although the external fixator is perfect and doesn¡¯t require osteotomy, the orthodontic time is long¡ª often half a year or a year for a successful correction. Later, Yang Ping opted for a workaround. He used the bone transplantation at the osteotomy site to achieve the orthopaedic purpose. Although the osteotomy is still required, both the method and purpose of this osteotomy are entirely different from traditional osteotomy. The current spinal external fixator is indeed the most practical. It has low material requirements, and ordinary limb external fixator materials are entirely sufficient. Moreover, the orthodontic time is short, usually completed within three months. Therefore, sometimes the most perfect technology, considering cost and efficiency, may not be the best. After the installation of the external fixator is completed, the whole operation only results in a few tens of milliliters of blood loss. A surgery with the highest risk in spine surgery, ends so quickly. Director Tan and Director Qin of Spine Surgery find it hard to believe that this magical device can straighten Cui Shukai¡¯s severe spinal curvature in just three months. If it can indeed achieve this, it¡¯ll be a subversive technological innovation in spinal surgery. ¡°Old Xu, the Publicity Department wants to promote this technology. They want to give this spinal external fixator a catchy name for ease of publicity, what do you think it should be called?¡± Song Zimo stitches the small incision while talking. Xu Zhiliang snaps his fingers, helping to cut the thread: ¡°Straightener!¡± ¡°Straightener?¡± Song Zimo thinks for a moment, ¡°Why does this name sound not like something from spinal surgery, but more like a name for a psychology department tool?¡± ¡°Right. When people hear ¡®Straightener,¡¯ they won¡¯t immediately think of straightening the spine, but of straightening other parts.¡± Little Five also agrees with Song Zimo. ¡°Other parts? What other part needs straightening by you guys?¡± The circulating nurse also joins the conversation, feeling that she doesn¡¯t understand their chit-chat. ¡°Adults are talking, little girl, don¡¯t interrupt. There are many parts that need us to straighten.¡± Song Zimo speaks to the puzzled circulating nurse. Chapter 613 - 613 557 Duty ?Chapter 613: Chapter 557 Duty Chapter 613: Chapter 557 Duty After the surgery, Cui Shukai, outfitted with an external fixator on his lower back, was sent back to his ward like a machine warrior. This external fixator would stay with him for about three months. During this time, he could walk normally, but he couldn¡¯t lie flat when sleeping; he could only sleep on his side. But that wasn¡¯t much of a problem for Cui Shukai. Before the surgery, his malformed spine had prevented him from sleeping flat anyway. Cui Xubing and Guo Liu stayed by his bedside, staring at the strange device on their son¡¯s back. The nurse gave them a detailed explanation of what to note during the period of treatment with the external fixator. If there were to come a day when their son¡¯s spine was successfully straightened by this apparatus, how happy they would be. Having their son go through this had caused the couple to hang their heads low in front of friends and relatives. They had been talked about quite a bit behind their backs. When the surgery was finished, Head Nurse Cai returned the red envelope to Cui Xubing. The twenty thousand yuan was transferred into Cui Shukai¡¯s hospital account. The original large envelope now contained the receipt for payment. Upon receiving the returned red envelope, Cui Xubing¡¯s face changed colors, and his heart began to pound. Was it possible that his son¡¯s operation had failed? This father, with a potent imagination, swiftly conjured up a mental map in his head, with the returned red envelope as the central node, his thoughts branching out in all directions. He then thought back to the terms and conditions they had agreed to before the surgery ¨C the possibilities of infection through the needle hole, damage to the spinal cord and nerves etc. An infection through the needle hole would mean pus seeping out from the needle hole. Damage to the spinal cord and nerve roots could lead to paralysis. After a bout of wild thoughts, Cui Xubing shivered. Every exposed fixing nail covered with gauze looked normal, yet he couldn¡¯t help but try to check for pus himself. Just as he reached out, Guo Liu smacked his hand away, ¡°His operation just finished! How can you mess around with it? You want to run the risk of causing an infection? Didn¡¯t the doctor just caution us not to touch the external fixator for now?¡± Old Cui didn¡¯t dare voice his worries, so he advised his son to move his feet a bit. But their son was groggy, wanting to sleep, and did not cooperate. Old Cui moved his chair even closer, his eyes locked onto his son¡¯s feet, waiting to see if they would move. ¡°What are you up to now?¡± Guo Liu sensed that her husband was behaving unusually, but his habit of suspecting everything was nothing new, and she had grown used to it. After observing for around ten minutes, their son¡¯s feet began to move. Where was the problem? Old Cui couldn¡¯t figure it out. ¡°You think they returned the red envelope because there is a problem with the surgery?¡± Guo Liu sneered softly, asking her husband. Old Cui looked contemptuous as he lowered his voice to reply, ¡°What would you, a woman, know about it? Who in this society would refuse money? There is definitely a problem.¡± ¡°You think everyone¡¯s like you, always after money?¡± Guo Liu thought her husband was misjudging others through his own narrow perspective. Old Cui glared at her, ¡°Enough talking. I¡¯m earning money for our family.¡± If they were at home, Old Cui would surely have given his wife a good scolding. He considered himself superior, whether in terms of intellect or life experiences. He often fancied himself a wise man, a ¡°real man¡±, deciding all the affairs in their household. Guo Liu couldn¡¯t be bothered to argue with him and remained silent. Cui Xubing spent the next few days in hospital in a state of anxiety. Sometimes he would visit Professor Yang¡¯s office to inquire about his son¡¯s condition. Professor Yang reassured him that everything was going smoothly and that all that was needed was patience. This corrective procedure was different from traditional ones. It was a gradual process, like the growth of a sapling, occurring daily but impossible to notice on a day-to-day basis. Despite Professor Yang¡¯s clear explanation, Cui Xubing could not put his mind at ease. He often found himself pacing the hallway outside Professor Yang¡¯s office, returning to the ward with a heavy sigh and a furrowed brow. On the 7th day, the knobs on the external brace on Cui Shukai¡¯s lower back started to be turned for bone shifting. Each day, 1mm would be moved in four increments of 0.25mm each. The task was straightforward ¨C turn each knob four times a day, strictly adhering to the schedule and the magnitude. While simple, the task required meticulous attention and persistence. If the knobs were turned incorrectly, or if they were often forgotten and left unturned, the surgical outcome would be directly affected. At the hospital, this task was performed by specially assigned nurses, and everything was recorded in real-time. After being discharged from the hospital, this task would be handed over to the relatives. ¡ª In Oman, Yasmeen was already able to walk back and forth in the corridor. She and Dr. Fida had picked up the contents of the rehabilitation training. In a few days, they planned to be discharged from the hospital and return home. Minmin¡¯s stitches were successfully removed, and she was discharged from the hospital. Her grandparents sent a banner to the hospital staff expressing their gratitude for the excellent care. Cui Shukai¡¯s spine model, with the external fixator installed, stood on a desk. The model was specially designed by Ruixing and was put in Professor Yang¡¯s office as a souvenir. Professor Yang sat in his office, contemplating his next steps. Once Cui Shukai¡¯s operation was successful, he would receive a huge sum of system points. With this, he could begin conducting an experiment in cultivating stem cells into muscle. A large-scale project, it would consume tens of millions of system points, exceeding the point cost of any previous project. Professor Yang inventoried the equipment in the system space laboratory. There was still a shortage of one electron microscope, a must-have piece of equipment. Stem cell cultivation for muscle growth via 3D printing might require much time to catch up with others. 3D printing is rather a rudimentary approach. It uses stem cells cultured into the cells of the target organ, then prints the organ¡¯s 3D shape using these cells as raw materials. The organs obtained in this way can only perform functions that are similar to the target organ, but they will never be able to perform their complete functions. That¡¯s because the assembly of these cells with each other is passive, very coarse, and can¡¯t simulate the complex relationship between the cells of a real organ. The most successful way to cultivate real muscle is by mimicking the method of how our body develops muscles from fertilized egg cells into mature cells. Why can some stem cells differentiate into the heart, while others differentiate into lungs, bones, or muscles? What exactly is guiding these cells to precisely differentiate? If we could uncover this secret and use stem cells to directly cultivate muscle, it would be generations ahead of biological 3D printing technology. Someone knocked at the door, and Yang Ping immediately stopped what he was doing: ¡°Come in!¡± It was Cui Xubing again. Yang Ping was a bit disgusted with this indecisive guy. If it weren¡¯t for the patient-doctor relationship, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t deal with him at all. For the same questions, which he had explained over and over again, this man still asked them repeatedly, thinking he was always in the right. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Cui Xubing had a forced smile on his face, feeling sheepish about disturbing Yang Ping so often. ¡°What is it?¡± Yang Ping asked him. Cui Xubing stuttered a bit: ¡°Professor Yang, is there any problem with my son¡¯s surgery? Why has there been no progress these days?¡± This question was explained no less than five times already, and now it was the sixth time. ¡°I just explained this to you yesterday, don¡¯t you remember?¡± Yang Ping was not polite about it; he didn¡¯t have the time to indulge him in repeat explanations. Each time Cui Xubing was hung up on one question, it took at least half an hour, and sometimes more than an hour. In an hour, Yang Ping could accomplish a lot. At this time, when Song Zimo saw that Cui Xubing was in Yang Ping¡¯s office again, he immediately came over. ¡°Old Cui, Professor Yang is busy. Let me explain it to you.¡± Cui Xubing was reluctant, saying, ¡°I will only take a few minutes of Professor Yang¡¯s time.¡± Every time he said a few minutes it always ended up being at least half an hour. Cui Xubing closed the door to Yang Ping¡¯s office himself and nothing could be done about this by Song Zimo, who, as Xu Zhiliang said, ¡°Only Zhang Lin can deal with him. If Zhang Lin were here, he would not even dare to hover around the entrance.¡± Zhang Lin is currently on maternity leave, and no one can scold Cui Xubing the way Zhang Lin did, making him question his life. Cui Xubing left Yang Ping¡¯s office with a fast pace, the expression on his face was like someone who got what he wanted. Yang Ping picked up the phone and called Head Nurse Cai over. ¡°Why does he insist on giving me this red envelope? He sent it once yesterday, I declined, but he came again with it today.¡± Yang Ping pointed to the envelope on his desk, anticipating another 20,000; this man did have some money. ¡°Who ever heard of such persistent red envelope-giving?¡± Yang Ping instructed Head Nurse Cai to register the red envelope for return again. Head Nurse Cai smiled: ¡°Professor Yang, didn¡¯t you see how upset this family member was after the red envelope was returned? He would grab any nurse he saw and ask, ¡®There should be no problem with this surgery, right?¡¯ It seems that if this red envelope is not accepted, his worries won¡¯t be relieved. If the treatment process still needs three months, he might get depressed during this period.¡± ¡°Surely we can¡¯t return it to him after three months?¡± Yang Ping really doesn¡¯t want to be bothered by this nuisance. He was actually suspected of not doing his job because he didn¡¯t accept the red envelope? How pathological is this man¡¯s thinking? Head Nurse Cai shook her head saying: ¡°Certainly not after three months. In case something really goes wrong midway through, you won¡¯t be able to clear your name no matter what you do. Nowadays, the patient¡¯s family members take loads of photos and videos. There have been cases in the past where patients from small towns came to Beijing to arrange a surgery with a top doctor, they agreed on a labor fee but secretly recorded the cash transaction and later on made claims about the doctors accepting red envelopes and asked for refund. The professors in Beijing had to give up arguing, and the refund was made. Since then, not a single specialist dared to go to that county for consultations or surgeries. No one wants to jump into a pit for just a small labor fee.¡± Head Nurse Cai continued: ¡°You don¡¯t have to cater to his feelings. Whether he is worried or anxious, it¡¯s his problem. You can¡¯t risk being bitten back just to accommodate him.¡± ¡°Alright then, take care of this matter for me. I don¡¯t want him to be always nagging, repeating the same issue endlessly.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to waste his time on such trivial matters. His principle in handling affairs is to stick to his duties. What are his duties? To perform surgeries meticulously, to save lives to the best of his ability; these are his duties. He doesn¡¯t want to concern himself with things beyond his duties, nor does he want to cater to them. Chapter 614 - 614 558 Stone hits egg ?Chapter 614: 558 Stone hits egg Chapter 614: 558 Stone hits egg Head Nurse Cai was quite thorough and came up with a solution. In the meeting room, she formally returned the red envelope to Guo Liu, the wife of Cui Xubing, and carefully counted the amount in her presence. A camera had been installed in this meeting room, which was usually where doctors have pre-operative discussions and obtain consent from patients. After Nurse Cai explained the situation to Guo Liu, this woman proved even more understanding than her husband. Perhaps compared to her husband, Guo Liu¡¯s thought process was more reasonable. She quickly grasped the head nurse¡¯s meaning, expressed her gratitude to the doctors and nurses, accepted the returned red envelope, and even wrote down the details on a ledger Nurse Cai had prepared. The matter of Guo Liu receiving the returned red envelope was not immediately disclosed to her husband. Thinking that Professor Yang Ping had received his red envelope, Cui Xubing felt relieved and was no longer worried about it. His logic was quite simple: if Professor Yang did not accept the red envelope, the surgery would surely have problems. Even if there were no problems now, there could be potential issues lurking in the future. Now that Professor Yang had accepted the envelope, even if there were potential issues, he would do his utmost to resolve them. This money was like insurance for his son. Previously, Cui Xubing was uncomfortable looking at the external fixation frame on his son¡¯s back, but now, the view was quite pleasing to his eye, regardless of the angle. Three months on, his son would be able to stand tall like a normal person. Cui Xubing started humming a tune, albeit quite tunelessly, which made it sound rather discordant. On the 10th day, Cui Shukai had his stitches removed and was discharged. Cui Xubing and his wife quickly became proficient at adjusting the knobs on the external fixation frame. Song Zimo required them to record a clear video every day, sending it to him so that he could confirm they were making the adjustments correctly. This was the first surgery using the new technique, and it could only succeed, failure was not an option. Furthermore, several other hospitals were waiting for the operative results from Sanbo Hospital. Sanbo Hospital would accumulate a set of operational standards for the other hospitals to follow. Ever since the live broadcast of the Golden Knife Award show, Sanbo Hospital had no shortage of patients with spinal curvature. Many problematic cases from outside were referred directly to Yang Ping. As such, all patients with this disease who agreed to participate in clinical trials were treated with the external spinal fixation technique. After two months, over forty cases were accumulated. The number of cases were ample for a complete paper, and also enough to establish a set of operational standards. Two and a half months post-op, Cui Shukai went for a local follow-up check-up and sent the X-rays of his whole spine to Song Zimo. Remarkably, his C-shaped spine was successfully straightened! There were ideal adjustments in three-dimensional space; the physiological curvature was also well-restored. No segments were fused, the functionality of each segment was preserved, and the gap of the osteotomy showed good regeneration of bone. The first severe distortion, a Cobb angle of 176 degrees, was corrected so gently. There were no any neurological symptoms at all. This outcome was nothing short of miraculous! The X-ray of Cui Shukai was displayed on the electronic screen in the doctors¡¯ office. Even Song Zimo, who had been pleased with the outcomes of the animal testing, couldn¡¯t calm down for quite a while. Professor Zhang Zongshun, who had pioneered the treatment of spinal curvature in our country and started conducting surgeries for this in the 1980s, knew well the wonderful application of the Ilizarov theory in limb correction. But he hadn¡¯t imagined this could be so successful in correcting spinal curvature. Director Han was also stunned. How long had Yang Ping been at Sanbo Hospital? In just over a year, he had easily put forward such a heavyweight research finding. This was not just an issue of a new device, but a complete revolution in the treatment of spinal curvature. There were more than 60 million people with spine curvature nationwide, including five million middle and primary school students, with an addition of three hundred thousand cases each year. If this technique could be popularized, imagine how many would benefit. In spinal surgery, this technique¡¯s influence was undoubtedly profound and widespread, nothing short of an academic nuclear bomb. If a patient of Cui Shukai¡¯s deformity severity could be successfully corrected, the corrections of a number of other patients would also be successful, while the rest were on the road to correction. The X-rays one after another appeared on the screen, each showing good correction effects. Aside from one patient who developed infection at the pin site, no other patients had any post-operative complications. The patient with pin-site infection had just one pin site infected, and the infection would be eliminated after the removal of the external fixator. The patient had neglected to clean the pin site regularly, contra-indicating operational advice by bathing the patient, leading to the pin-site infection. Preliminary clinical trials proved that the new technique was not only effective but also very safe. Director Han understood deeply the value of this new technique. Filled with excitement, he was at a loss for words. In his heart, he felt relieved that he had recognized the talent, made the right personnel decision, and retained Yang Ping, allowing him to fully utilize his skills. In his over fifty years of practicing medicine, Professor Zhang had never seen the speed of research like this. It had gone from formal approval to clinical application in just a few months, without any detours ¨C it was directly on target. Every research success was usually labor-intensive, involving countless detours before finally reaching its success. In most cases, people could not find the correct path and ended up battered and exhausted. ¡°Did it really straighten the spine?¡± Professor Zhang, not knowing whether he was excited or happy, actually blurted out something rather unprofessional. Director Han nodded: ¡°Indeed, we used to resort to osteotomy and fusion, but now with this external brace, the spine is straightened merely within three months, with each vertebra completely retaining its structure and function.¡± ¡°Would you say that when using this device to correct limb deformities in the past, we never thought of using it to correct scoliosis?¡± Professor Zhang took off his glasses, pulling out a cloth to wipe them. Director Han shook his head: ¡°Even if we had thought of it, the idea would have been fleeting. It¡¯s too difficult to implement.¡± ¡°Xiao Yang, you can undertake greater tasks. Be more daring, go full out. Whatever support you need, we will fully back you. Despite my age, I still have some influence in this circle.¡± Professor Zhang, enchanted by the striking results Yang Ping had achieved in just a few months, wondered whether it was possible for Yang to produce Nobel Prize-level research if he invested more time. This scoliosis external brace technique would have been Nobel Prize-level if it had been implemented earlier. However, with the progression of time, the Nobel Prize demands are increasingly high. They emphasize fundamental research outcomes that hold exceptional value. ¡°Xiao Yang is currently planning a project on culturing muscles with stem cells. How about it? What do you plan to propose?¡± Director Han thought of another larger project that Yang Ping had in mind. ¡°The research proposal is already written. I plan to self-fund the research without seeking national support, so as to save application time.¡± Yang Ping had already planned this project. If he doesn¡¯t need national funding, it¡¯s simple. If there are no legal or ethical issues, he can immediately begin the research. Director Han knew that the research fund established by the hospital had already amassed several hundred million yuan. It¡¯s more than enough to kickstart this project. Moreover, the Anning Group expressed willingness to continuously infuse the fund with more money. For the Anning Group, making charitable contributions to medical research and donating several billion yuan is quite feasible. Following this, they also received donations from Jiang Baicheng, Bao Yulou, and Wang Changxin. There¡¯s currently three billion yuan lying in the account.`, To think that at such a young age, Yang Ping could rally such strong support. Many entrepreneurs are willing to finance him. ¡°What, everyone is here?¡± Dean Xia entered with a hearty laugh. ¡°Oh, Dean Xia, how come you¡¯re free to stop by?¡± Director Han turned around. Dean Xia joined: ¡°I heard about Yang¡¯s successful clinical trial with the new technology and came to join in on the celebration. Aren¡¯t we going to hold a celebration? We need some sense of ceremony.¡± ¡°Forget it, Yang isn¡¯t fond of such pomp and show.¡± Professor Zhang spoke bluntly. Dean Xia greatly respected Professor Zhang: ¡°I just suggested it. I know Yang isn¡¯t fond of such a show. Look, I have come unaccompanied just to join.¡± ¡°Xiao Yang, the surgical robot hasn¡¯t been approved yet, we have to wait. Now the hospital has two Tianji, plus one Da Vinci, three robots in all. It¡¯s more difficult to apply for a fourth one as they have to take into account other hospital applications, that¡¯s why it hasn¡¯t been approved yet. I¡¯m planning to lobby again.¡± Dean Xia expressed his apology. Indeed, some things are not determined by him alone. For such million-dollar instruments, the approval power lies at the top, not with the hospital. The funds managed by the officials are not just for Sanbo Hospital, and many other hospitals don¡¯t have robots yet. The upper echelons naturally have to consider a lot. ¡°Old Xia, I¡¯m saying, if you don¡¯t feel that it¡¯s below your dignity, why don¡¯t you let Xiao Yang sort out this robot himself?¡± Director Han spoke straightforwardly. Dean Xia wasn¡¯t upset: ¡°What¡¯s the worth of my old face? But I already have a plan, I will transfer one from the orthopedics department for Xiao Yang to use. If orthopedics squeezes a bit, one should suffice.¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t do that, Dean Xia, don¡¯t worry about the robot. I¡¯ll sort it out myself. Okay? I know you are doing your best to fulfill all our requirements.¡± For Yang Ping, given his current influence, securing a surgical robot is straightforward. He doesn¡¯t wish to give the impression of being overbearing or oppressive. The orthopedics department is doing well with two robots. Their sudden removal would make everyone uncomfortable. As the dean, Dean Xia is acting out of necessity. ¡°It would be quite embarrassing to let you sort this out yourself.¡± Dean Xia felt he owed Yang Ping. Professor Zhang was more straightforward: ¡°Depending on our support entirely, we may not be able to keep up. Xiao Yang¡¯s next project involves stem cell cultured muscles. Without the 3 billion yuan from the research fund, could you gather so much money? Isn¡¯t this 3 billion yuan specifically earmarked for Xiao Yang?¡± Dean Xia patted his neck: ¡°Right, you make a good point, Professor Zhang. We are currently stretched too thin to accomplish all our tasks.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I say, people like us, who simply shouldn¡¯t bind Xiao Yang¡¯s hands or legs, are his biggest support. Every great enterprise carries risks, and research projects are the same. We should take on the risk together. That¡¯s true support, much more substantial than financial support.¡± Professor Zhang honestly voiced his thoughts. Dean Xia drew a deep breath and declared, ¡°Since we¡¯re all here, I, Xia Changjiang, am willing to bear the risk as long as I hold the position of dean. Xiao Yang, you can run without worries.¡± Clinical trials with new techniques like the ones carried out by Yang Ping inevitably carry risks. If a dispute arises, resolving it becomes much more difficult than a regular medical dispute. Even though everything is written black on white, with clear informed consent documents, the risks are considerable, and disputes will arise. The first batch of clinical trial cases in Sanbo Hospital was a resounding success. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were working overtime to compile operating standards for the entire procedure, including perioperative management, surgical operations, prevention of complications, and so forth. The operation guidelines and case files will be compiled into a book with an accompanying CD. These will be distributed to the Xiehe Hospital, Magic City Sixth Hospital and Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. These three hospitals will be starting second-phase large-scale clinical trials as per these guidelines. The news of the successful first phase of clinical trials for the exterior brace of the spine spread like wildfire. Giants like Johnson & Johnson, Stryker, Jiemai, Medtronic, and Shi Lehui received the news almost simultaneously. Johnson & Johnson¡¯s Hans was especially sensitive to this news. He saw buying Ruixing as imperative. If the acquisition isn¡¯t carried out smoothly, they would resort to suppression. With the might of Johnson & Johnson, crushing a small Ruixing is akin to crushing an egg with a rock. Hans was confident that as long as the headquarters backed him, Ruixing wouldn¡¯t last a month. Chapter 615 - 615 Refusing a toast only to be forced to drink a ?Chapter 615: Refusing a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit Chapter 615: Refusing a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit At this moment, the Spine Surgery Center of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One was filled with professors and doctors from the entire department. As a clinical trial partner for the spinal external fixator, they are also one of the experimental centers. The experimental data from Sanbo Hospital had been transmitted over, the case information was projected on the large screen, and Professor Zou, as the director of this center, sat in the front. A series of X-rays, two weeks, four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, ten weeks, and twelve weeks after surgery, all were displayed on the screen, forming a stark contrast. For every case, regardless of how severe the scoliosis was previously, the final X-ray will always show a nearly normal lateral image of the spine. The Spine Department of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One is one of the top four centers in the country. Xiehe, 301, Drum Tower, and Nandu Affiliated Hospital One are the leading hospitals for scoliosis treatment; all other hospitals take a step back in comparison. Chief physicians and doctoral advisors alone counted to over a dozen. This was where Su had begun his career. With the arrival of Professor Su, everyone in the conference room stood up. Professor Su made a gesture with his hand, and everyone promptly sat back down. The chief position was reserved for Professor Su. As Professor Su took his seat, Professor Zou next to him immediately introduced, ¡°Professor Yang Ping¡¯s project treatment from Sanbo Hospital has arrived. Look, the orthopedic results are somewhat shocking. I¡¯ve gone over it several times¡ªstill can¡¯t get over it.¡± Professor Su merely grunted in response while carefully examining the X-rays. The introduction of spinal external fixator¡¯s clinical trials into Nandu Affiliated Hospital One was partly due to private interests as he was unsure of the ultimate effect. After all, the technology was challenging, and even if it came out, it was uncertain whether it would enter the clinical stage without several generations of technology iterations. It was perfectly okay for now to favor one¡¯s own, for if he didn¡¯t support, others wouldn¡¯t either. The young people had indeed given a surprising performance; the data they¡¯d produced in mere months had astounded even Professor Su. From the establishment of the project to the success of clinical trials, it had shockingly taken only a few months. The speed was just too fast. ¡°Stop!¡± called out Professor Su, pointing at a slide. The doctor in charge of controlling the computer quickly paused the ongoing slow display of the X-rays. With a Cobb angle abnormality of 176 degrees, corrective surgery was successful in three months, with the functionality of each segment retained and no signs of fusion anywhere. Professor Zou was the commentator, ¡°From a three-dimensional perspective, the concave side of the curve has been opened up, the axial rotation has been straightened, and with the progressive correction, the tolerance of the spinal cord has been expanded. Hence, no cases of nervous symptoms occurred.¡± The screen image instantly switched, using animation to demonstrate the corrective process, as the curved spine gradually straighten. ¡°Who¡¯s the young man¡¯s mentor? It seems like he was the champion of the Golden Knife Award?¡± One professor inquired, flipping through some documents in his hand. Of course, he didn¡¯t realize that Yang Ping was going to be the future son-in-law of his own dean. ¡°That¡¯s him. He corrected the spine of the ¡®Folding Man¡¯ live in the Golden Knife Award. Quite audacious.¡± Another professor responded. ¡°He is Han Jiangong¡¯s student. He is currently pursuing his doctorate.¡± ¡°Han Jiangong has such an excellent student? Old Zou, why didn¡¯t you headhunt him?¡± ¡°Only one case of minor pinhole infection. Seems like the safety control was handled very well.¡± ¡°Spreading the correction across every responsible vertebra is an excellent approach.¡± The meeting¡¯s atmosphere was relaxed as everyone familiarized themselves with the material and chatted. They had never considered before that scoliosis correction could be achieved with Ilizarov theory. In their concept, although surgical methods continue to improve, they were nothing more than improvements to osteotomy and internal fixation devices centered around pedicle screws. The central idea was still to use osteotomy and fusion for correction. Using an external fixator for progressive correction directly subverted the concept of spinal correction. These professors often went to North America and Europe for conferences and no team out there was researching this technology, as far as they knew. ¡°We have a partnership with Sanbo Hospital and are one of the clinical trial centers. Now, we need to select some cases, carry out similar surgeries with informed consent. Today, we¡¯ve gathered everyone here to familiarize ourselves with this new technology in advance.¡± Professor Zou announced loudly. ¡°For the first case, it would be best to invite this Professor Yang to perform the surgery, given it¡¯s his technique. I heard he¡¯s a deputy professor hired through the ¡®low position, high employment¡¯ program at our Nandu Medical University?¡± Professor Zeng, a chief physician and doctoral advisor, was somewhat skeptical towards this new technology. If it would work or not, we¡¯d know after doing a few at Affiliated Hospital One, straightening it out in a month or two would make him a true believer. ¡°If there are no doubts about this technology, we are ready to enter clinical trials. Depending on the need, we have to prepare at least thirty cases¡ªthe more, the better. For starters, I will provide ten patients.¡± Professor Zou raised his hand. ¡°Perfect, I have five patients on hand, I¡¯d like him to give it a try?¡± Professor Zeng was eager to see how this Yang would employ his new technique. ¡°I also have six patients here. I want to see if this can indeed work. The cases demonstrated on the PPT just now looked promising.¡± Another professor offered a few patients. ¡°We should actively participate. When it comes to such talented young people, we must show our support.¡± Professor Su hadn¡¯t said a word for some time, leaving the meeting generally open for Professor Zou to facilitate, and would only speak at critical moments. ¡°I offer ten from my end!¡± Professor Wang stood up. ¡°Xiaohui, introduce two more from us.¡± Suddenly feeling a step behind, Professor Zou immediately added two more cases and asked the doctors under him to prepare. ¡°Old Zou, are you trying to compete with me?¡± Professor Wang was a shrewd individual. He remembered that Yang Ping had come to Affiliated One hospital to perform surgery before, so he had a subtle feeling that Yang Ping¡¯s identity was not simple. And Professor Zou was unusually enthusiastic about this clinical experiment from an outside hospital ¨C Zou was a cunning man! ¡°I have five more cases here, add them!¡± Professor Wang refused to be outdone. Finding a dozen or so patients with scoliosis all of a sudden wasn¡¯t an easy task. Would you follow or not? Professor Wang waited for Professor Zou to respond. It was indeed a bit of a quandary. If he claimed to be first, it would seem vulgar in the eyes of Professor Su. On the other hand, if he did not contest, he would seem less enthusiastic than that young man. ¡°We should show this kind of enthusiasm towards new technologies. I¡¯ll add four more.¡± Professor Zou gritted his teeth. The cases reported out were all pre-assessed and presumed to agree to participate in the study. Some had already been psychologically prepared. In case of temporarily added cases, it couldn¡¯t be guaranteed that they would agree. The atmosphere of the whole meeting was a bit lively. Professor Zou was the director of the Spine Center, while Professor Wang was the deputy director. Everyone knew that Professor Zou and Professor Wang were fiercely competitive in academia. But now, they were also determined to compete over the number of cases for the experiment. ¡°Fifty cases will suffice for this batch, we don¡¯t need too many. It is, after all, a clinical trial, we should try to minimize the risk.¡± Professor Su intervened to pacify the two men¡¯s rivalry. ¡°Well, let¡¯s calculate the number. If it¡¯s not enough, we¡¯ll leave slots for the medical teams that haven¡¯t participated. We should try to have everyone participate.¡± Professor Zou seized the upper hand and promptly diverted the argument. For Affiliated One Hospital of Nandu, preparing fifty cases was a simple task. The quota was quickly filled. ¡ª Hans had gathered some intelligence, all about the spinal external fixator. The first phase of the clinical trial was a success, and the second phase of the trial would be carried out in Xiehe, Magic City Sixth Hospital, and Nandu Affiliated One. The third phase clinical trial could potentially be even larger in scale. Hans had been intending to obtain a sample of the spinal external fixator, but hadn¡¯t managed to get one yet. So, he hastily brought the information to the American headquarters to report the unfavorable news to the senior management in person. After careful assessment, the senior management gave Hans an instruction ¨C either acquire the company, or make it disappear completely. Back in Shanghai, Hans, with the support of the top management, promptly took action. Huang Jiacai¡¯s office. Mr. Hans was having a discussion with Huang Jiacai. ¡°President Huang, we have shown enough sincerity, 1 billion. Only we can offer this price. If you¡¯re not satisfied, we can continue discussing. Say a price that you would be satisfied with.¡± The haughty Hans didn¡¯t understand why this company director, who only had a high school education, was so obstinate. Wasn¡¯t it the best outcome to take the money and leave? Hans felt that 1 billion was already the highest price his company was willing to pay for this small company. If they still did not agree, it really was unnecessary to continue the negotiation. Huang Jiacai shook his head: ¡°Mr. Hans, the acquisition price you have offered is far from our expectations. It seems that you still don¡¯t understand the value of Ruixing.¡± ¡°Value? Don¡¯t nai?vely think that one product can shift the market. I don¡¯t want to be your enemy. Here¡¯s the thing, take your time, give me your response in three days. There is a saying in China, ¡®Once the village is passed, there won¡¯t be this shop.¡¯ I believe President Huang understands this better than I do.¡± Hans was getting impatient. This was the last negotiation. If the negotiation broke down, it meant that he would have to take the second plan into consideration, making Ruixing disappear. ¡°Is this your final ultimatum?¡± Huang Jiacai was unfazed. Hans laughed in a gentlemanly manner: ¡°I can tell you frankly that we are determined to win. Have you thought about the consequences of rejecting us?¡± Hans had a myriad of ways to make Ruixing disappear. ¡°You are so confident, Mr. Hans? We are very curious about what this consequence might be.¡± Huang Jiacai was unabashedly blunt. As a representative of a giant corporation, Hans had never been treated this way before. Each time they swallowed up a small company, it was with an overwhelming momentum. The other party would have to gratefully accept the money. ¡°Mr. Huang, are you really not considering the consequences? Do you know what your actions are akin to? The Chinese have a saying, ¡®Refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit!''¡± Huang Jiacai scoffed: ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll give you another Chinese saying ¨C ¡®Wait and see,¡¯ Goodbye! ¡± Watching the furious figure of Hans leaving the room, Huang Jiacai asked his deputy, ¡°Has the equipment in the warehouse been completely sterilized?¡± ¡°It¡¯s been sterilized and can be used in the clinic at any time.¡± The deputy replied. The strategic reserve in the warehouse finally had its use. Without this reserve, Ruixing would not be able to withstand the heavy blows from the giant corporation. The staff at Ruixing finally understood why Huang Jiacai spent money to stockpile this batch of independent products, just for the purpose of precaution. Even during the most financially difficult times, the strategic reserve always held top priority. Chapter 616 - 616 560 Kill on Sight Order ?Chapter 616: Chapter 560: Kill on Sight Order Chapter 616: Chapter 560: Kill on Sight Order As a seasoned professional in the business world, Hans understood all too well that it wasn¡¯t that the price for acquisition was not satisfactory. Even if the acquisition price continued to increase, Huang Jiacai wouldn¡¯t sell Ruixing for the time being. The negotiation with Ruixing was merely a stalling tactic. But, unexpectedly, Mr. Shi of Jiemai couldn¡¯t see through the high school student¡¯s trick and was vying with him to collaborate with Ruixing. This high school student had managed to survive quite a long time, manoeuvring skillfully in the gaps between several companies, and still managed to lead a decent life. Since they couldn¡¯t acquire, the next move was to suppress and make sure Ruixing disappeared from the market forever. Of course, their spinal external fixation frame would also disappear. Hans was in no hurry, he would issue orders after returning to Shanghai. Coming to G City, he wanted to inspect the South China division of Johnson & Johnson, and meet Gan Fengyi, whom he had never forgotten. Especially when his pursuit was rejected by her, damaging his pride severely. Back in their college days in Beijing University, he was the student council president, an exemplary scholar, yet Gan Fengyi did not have any regard for him. This matter had left a deep wound in Hans¡¯ heart. Every time he thought of it, he felt a surge of anger and frustration. Now, Hans returned to China as the president of Johnson & Johnson¡¯s Asia division, concurrently serving as the president of the China region for the world¡¯s largest medical device giant. More importantly, he was an authentic U.S. citizen, and currently single at just over thirty years old. Over six feet tall with a good physique and smart eloquence; with these qualifications, he was definitely an eligible bachelor. These past few days, Hans frequently wondered if Gan Fengyi, as the manager of the South China division of Johnson & Johnson China, would regret her decision from back then. At that thought, Hans straightened his chest and lifted his spirits. Accompanied by his secretary, Mr. Hans came to a high-end office building in G City¡¯s core business district, where he finally met with Gan Fengyi. Compared to the past, the younger sister now exuded a mature aura. Her curvaceous figure, seductive red lips, elegant professional attire, and long legs left Hans slightly dazed. ¡°Mr. Hans, nice to meet you!¡± Gan Fengyi maintained her composure. His Chinese name had been changed to Hans Douglas. If they used the Chinese custom to address him as Mr. Douglas it would be awkward, so Gan Fengyi addressed him directly as Mr. Hans. ¡°Miss Gan, it¡¯s a pleasure to see you.¡± Hans was a little excited, but he tried his best to maintain the gentlemanly demeanor of a successful man. To show their welcome for this superior boss, all office employees stood up. ¡°Please be at ease, don¡¯t let my arrival disturb your work.¡± Hans was quite magnanimous. Gan Fengyi asked everyone to continue with their work while she escort Hans to the meeting room. The entire management team was assembled there, waiting for Mr. Hans¡¯ guidance. In the meeting, Mr. Hans was full of wit and humor. He talked at length about the company¡¯s current crisis and strategy, then encouraged everyone to strive for further success. His effusive expressions, gestures corresponding to his words and a mix of Chinese and English speech, all made Hans appear utterly charismatic. After the meeting, Hans had a private conversation with Gan Fengyi in the office. From a work perspective, it was appropriate for the regional manager to report to the China regional president. Although one side of the office was a glass door, it was soundproof. ¡°Fengyi, how have you been?¡± Hans took the opportunity to convey his personal concern. Gan Fengyi paused for a moment, then smiled and said, ¡°Thank you for your concern, Mr. Hans. I¡¯m doing great. You can address me as Xiao Gan, Manager Gan or Gan Fengyi.¡± ¡°Um!¡± Hans coughed lightly. After an awkward moment, he immediately changed the topic, ¡°Our negotiations with Ruixing have officially broken down. Next, we will completely sanction Ruixing. Please be prepared.¡± Gan Fengyi was startled but managed to hide it, her face unchanged, ¡°Because of their new equipment recently?¡± ¡°Not entirely. Since Ruixing changed their owner, they have been accumulating patents incessantly. The headquarters believes that the negotiation with us is merely a ploy to buy time, the real goal is to steal our technology through the partnership, and then break free from our hold and be independent.¡± Hans sees all companies that rely on Johnson & Johnson¡¯s patent licensing or core technology support as vassals. ¡°Is it the headquarters¡¯ intention?¡± Fengyi Gan asked tentatively. Hans nods, ¡°I just returned from the United States. The headquarters have been considering for a while. The external spinal fixator was only the straw that broke the camel¡¯s back. The headquarters believe that they can devise such a high-tech device, which is very dangerous in the future, so it either needs to be acquired or eliminated, leaving no third option.¡± Fengyi Gan gasped in shock. If Johnson & Johnson, the world leader, decides to completely eliminate a domestic company, no one can withstand it. Moreover, once this banning starts, it will definitely not just be Johnson & Johnson. Medtronic, Jiemai, and Meibang will join in. Despite the fierce competition usually, once it comes to the crucial moment, they will maintain their layer of interest and become united as a bucket of iron. ¡°It¡¯s a mere Ruixing that makes the headquarters pay such attention. I need to reassess this company.¡± Fengyi Gan said indifferently. Hans shook his head, ¡°Manager Gan, this is unlike your style. To my impression, you are very decisive. The headquarters has studied the data of their spinal external fixator in detail. It¡¯s not an ordinary new device. It will subvert the concept of treating scoliosis. Once it is on the market, the follow-up spinal products will come after. Finally, with injuries, joints, and sports medicine covering the entire market, you see, that high school student has inexplicably hoarded over three thousand core patents, covering all sub-specialties in orthopaedics.¡± ¡°That high school student?¡± Fengyi Gan felt slightly annoyed. Hans nodded, ¡°Yes, the current CEO of Ruixing. As far as I know, he has never been to university, only high school.¡± ¡°Mr. Hans is very familiar with him?¡± Fengyi Gan asked. Hans found it strange, ¡°Manager Gan, it¡¯s impossible for you not to be familiar with him, right?¡± Who is Fengyi Gan? She always has a clear understanding of the information of her competitors. As Ruixing quickly grows as the strongest competitor of Johnson & Johnson in South China, how can it not attract Fengyi Gan¡¯s attention? ¡°Oh, just a high school student, nothing to fear. Why do I have to know him?¡± Fengyi Gan said casually. Hans said contentedly, ¡°It seems you have also noticed his weakness. Although he is somewhat capable, they are just fragmented experiences from work. He hasn¡¯t received a formal education, is of low cultural level, and is bound to have a narrow perspective. This is like a feudal warlord, capable, yes, but how capable can he be? At most, he¡¯s just a bandit with a slightly larger scale.¡± Fengyi Gan felt like laughing. If Huang Jiacai was said to have a narrow perspective, she would hardly believe it. ¡°He thinks he can gain some benefits by exploiting the conflicts amongst our companies. But he doesn¡¯t know that the clever boy may become the victim of his own cleverness, and can only obtain temporary benefits. If we really make a move, they only have a dead end. I just don¡¯t understand. We¡¯ve offered a price of two billion, but they still haven¡¯t surrendered and are trying to buy time and sell at higher prices. Can they even afford a higher price?¡± Hans was full of confidence. ¡°Manager Gan, I won¡¯t keep you any longer. Once the banning order is initialised, South China will be the most intense battlefield. Your task is heavy. Considering Manager Gan¡¯s talents, I have always thought that you are best suited to be the sales director of the Asian region. I will nominate you to the headquarters. Hope you won¡¯t disappoint me.¡± Hans felt that it was time to leave G City. There are many things waiting for him to handle at the headquarters in Shanghai. ¡°Shall I send a car to take you to the airport?¡± Fengyi Gan asked politely. Receiving the boss of the headquarters was the responsibility of the branch offices. Fengyi Gan instructed the subordinate to arrange for the car, then escorted Hans to the first floor of the office building where the business car was already waiting. Upon leaving, Hans reiterated that he would help Fengyi Gan strive for the sales director of the Asian region. When he returned to Shanghai, Hans called a senior management meeting as quickly as possible. At the secret meeting of the core senior management, he initiated the ban against Ruixing. This plan had been brewing for a long time, and now it was finally time to execute it. ¡°Terminate all patent authorisations for Ruixing!¡± ¡°Notify all factories that have dealings with Johnson & Johnson, to terminate any business cooperation with Ruixing, and let them choose between Johnson & Johnson and Ruixing.¡± ¡°Factories that cooperate with Ruixing but do not have dealings with Johnson & Johnson, tell them that as long as they reject Ruixing, they can immediately become Johnson & Johnson¡¯s partners and receive a huge number of orders.¡± ¡°Accuse Ruixing of patent infringement for violating the contract and initiate a patent lawsuit!¡± ¡°Gather our media friends to focus on Ruixing¡¯s negative news, featuring their imitation products as crude and technically inadequate. It would be best if we could collect some cases of steel plates, nail-breaking, and creating an impression that Ruixing is synonymous with inferior imitation products. When Ruixing is mentioned, let people associate it with cheap, low-quality, plagiarised products.¡± ¡°Notify some key raw material manufacturers that we will buy all their supplies, such as high-strength lines for sports medicine. Their cornerstone product is a sports medicine product. Block it from the raw material supply.¡± ¡°Let the headhunting company secretly act, hiring Ruixing¡¯s R&D and sales team with three times their salaries, especially that Chen Zhi. He is a key member of their R&D team. Hire him at any cost, besides the salary, we can also promise to assist him with immigrating to the United States.¡± ¡°Contact the orthopedics professors who cooperate closely with us and help us deal with Ruixing academically.¡± ¡°Contact Medtronic, Jiemai Meibang, Shi Lehui. They are our common enemies.¡± ¡°Attack Huang Jiacai personally in public opinion. Concentrate on his history of rise, and create an image of him of being ungrateful, crafty, and usurping company¡¯s control.¡± ¡°Spinal external fixator, through our investigation, there was one case of infection after surgery, purulent infection. Amplify the fear of this kind of complication. This device was quickly introduced from the start of the project to clinical trials. Seize this and create an image of it being hastily introduced, full of dangers, and a half-completed product.¡± ¡°Everyone, the ban on Ruixing is a resolution unanimously approved by the headquarters. The headquarters has carefully analysed the data I brought, and after repeated discussion and consultation, they decided to accept my suggestion. If they can¡¯t be acquired, then they must be eliminated. So this time, we must be successful. The funds spent, I believe the headquarters has a better vision than us. It is better to spend some money now to solve the problem than to let the enemy grow into a giant.¡± Chapter 617 - 617 561 The Breakout Plan ?Chapter 617: Chapter 561: The Breakout Plan Chapter 617: Chapter 561: The Breakout Plan Outside, the atmosphere has changed, but Yang Ping remains oblivious. Leaning back on his office chair, he is as calm and collected. His routine tasks are delegated to his associates and a doctor on duty attends to the ward. No one dares to disturb him unless there¡¯s a dire situation. Everyone knows, Professor Yang prefers quiet. The successful development of the spinal frame brace skyrocketed Yang Ping¡¯s score, currently at thirty million. This amount of points can already fund the development of a stem cell muscle cultivation project. The sense of accomplishment from technological innovation cannot be compared to a single surgery. A single surgery can only save one person. A good new technology can save countless lives. Yang Ping is taking inventory of his laboratory equipment- all that¡¯s missing is an electronic microscope. He decides to buy it! If not now, then when? There is no time like the present to feel like a high roller. The range of equipment available in the system mall is dazzling; every medical device present in real life, whether for clinical application or research, is available. All kinds of electronic microscopes are available. Yang Ping chose a high-end product, selected it, placed an order and paid for it in one shot, the shopping experience was surprisingly delightful. For the stem cells to differentiate into muscle cells, the essential step is finding an inducing protein. Under the guidance of the inducing protein, pluripotent stem cells can then progress towards differentiation into muscle cells. After gaining a batch of muscle cells as raw materials, use the 3D biological printer to print the organ¡¯s 3D structures, with partial functionality. This is the current mainstream method, which will likely continue to develop. The cells that make up organs are of many types. Prior to printing, all types of cells have to be cultivated. For example, when a 3D printer prints a kidney, nephrons use one type of cell while renal tubules use another type, blood cells use yet another few types of cells. In doing so, all the intricate structures inside are printed out, only then can the complete functionality of the target organ be achieved. There¡¯s another approach, guiding stem cells to spontaneously differentiate into a living organ, much like a fertilized egg spontaneously developing into a fetus in the mother¡¯s womb. Yang Ping chooses the second approach, his logic is very clear: natural cultivation method versus man-made, the former is simpler and closer to the real thing than the latter. This project is somewhat ambitious, its vast scope may make it difficult to manage. It¡¯s like a recent graduate, looking at the distant sky at a forty-five-degree angle, thinking ¡°How can I achieve a small goal? The wonders of the human body amount to more than just a small goal. Yang Ping thought about buying some muscle from the mall to study its structure, to cultivate muscle, one needs to have a thorough understanding of the structure of the muscle. However, after a long search, he found no muscle. Buying a piece of muscle is illegal; it¡¯s considered as trading human organs. Since it¡¯s not for sale, he¡¯ll have to use the specimens he has. He took a small sliver of biceps brachii muscle from a specimen and began to study it under the microscope. That knowledge already exists; anatomical experts have written countless papers and books on it. However, Yang Ping wanted to see it with his own eyes, the structure of this muscle. Turning stem cells into muscle cells, has already been successfully accomplished by others. Duke University used pax7 protein as the inducer to successfully cultivate muscle cells. But these cells are scattered and not arranged in any certain order. Hence, they used a 3D printer. Using the muscle cells as raw materials, they printed out the muscle and successfully implanted it into a human body. However, they only printed the muscle, they have yet to cultivate it. Yang Ping meticulously observed and recorded the structures of the muscle cells, muscle fibers, and the muscle itself under the microscope in the lab. By the time he felt worn out and thought to get some fresh air, the tables in the lab were already filled with drawings. When Yang Ping emerged from the system lab, he took a few sips of tea and opened the door to his office. At this time it should be afternoon, a doctor on duty was behind a locked door. Yang Ping asked an intern who replied that Professor Zhang had called for a meeting with Fatty, Little Five, and Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin has resumed work, his elderly parents are busy taking care of things at home. Professor Zhang Zongshun managed to get hold of a rare cigar and gave it to Fatty. So Fatty was fully engaged today, and pulled Zhang Lin along to join the meeting with Professor Zhang. The door to the doctor¡¯s room then swung open. Zhang Lin was slouched, trailing behind Professor Zhang, who appeared to be giving him a talking-to. Yang Ping listened in: ¡°As a father of two already, how have your skills not improved? Your aim is always off!¡± Does having two children have anything to do with the level of skill in PlayerUnknown¡¯s Battlegrounds? Yang Ping didn¡¯t understand the correlation, if any. ¡ª At Ruixing company¡¯s meeting room, the top-tier management team is having a round table meeting. The expressions of people varied greatly- majority being angry, frustrated, excited. Huang Jiacai sat at the head of the table, holding a pen, calmly and attentively listening to everyone¡¯s comments while occasionally taking notes. ¡°We only have 120 million available funds on paper!¡± ¡°All raw material and spare part manufacturers have informed us that they will stop supplying from 8 o¡¯clock tomorrow morning. The supplier of high-strength line told us that if needed, they will prepare goods for us overnight until 8 o¡¯clock tomorrow morning.¡± ¡°These suppliers stated their regret. If they do not do this, they will not be able to survive for a month. They hope for our understanding.¡± Chapter 618 - 618 561 The Breakout Plan_2 ?Chapter 618: Chapter 561: The Breakout Plan_2 Chapter 618: Chapter 561: The Breakout Plan_2 ¡°We should have seen this coming a bit later. Confrontation came too early! We were caught off guard, not expecting they would play hardball.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not up to us to decide the timing. We¡¯re on the receiving end.¡± ¡°Over here in HR, we have already received twenty resignation letters from regular workers, engineers and salespeople. However, no core employees have resigned just yet.¡± ¡°All the manufacturers to whom we owe money are demanding settlement.¡± ¡°Province Second Hospital said there¡¯s a problem with our devices, suspending their use. Afterwards, we received notices from seventeen hospitals nationwide who are either suspending or removing our products. These hospitals all have high usage, our losses are substantial.¡± ¡°I have already been contacted by a headhunter, offering double the pay, a ten-year contract, the temptation is strong.¡± Laughter echoed among them. At least half of those present had received offers from headhunters. ¡°Don¡¯t laugh, it is indeed tempting. The headhunter said they can help my son attend college in the United States, and also spoke to my wife, causing her to argue with me.¡± Another round of laughter went round the room. ¡°This shows that these guys aren¡¯t just flinging feelers randomly, they are targeted. How else would they know I want my son to study in the United States? Or that my wife cares the most about this?¡± There was a lot of content in the reports, but the order of the meeting was good and there was no panic. Around the table, once everybody had finished reporting, President Huang began to speak slowly, ¡°Everyone, this day was bound to come sooner or later. The enemy never lets you prepare before the strike and the purpose of this boycott is to put us in a desperate situation. You could say that this is a moment of life and death for Ruixing!¡± All present unconsciously lowered their heads. No orthopedic consumables company could withstand such a blow. ¡°If we lose this battle, Ruixing will disappear. Of course, the stocks everyone holds, those already in hand, those preparing to be obtained, and those that could be obtained in the future, will all be worthless. Our blood, sweat, and tears will be wasted. There aren¡¯t many opportunities in a person¡¯s life for takeoff, Ruixing is our opportunity to take off. What is Ruixing? Ruixing is not an empty name, Ruixing is composed of all the individuals present, down to me. I rely on Ruixing to buy a house, to support my family, to build wealth, to realize my dreams.¡± ¡°Just now, it was stated that some of you already received an olive branch from headhunters. If it truly holds a bright future, I¡¯m glad for you. If I had a better opportunity, I would have already run off to take some president position instead of toiling away here. Why put myself through such tough times? But free lunch doesn¡¯t fall from the sky. They are inviting us to enjoy the luxuries of their kingdom, but why have they not offered double salaries to invite people before, and why are they throwing out so many conditions now?¡± ¡°What you all see now may be a crisis, but what I see is an opportunity. If we win this battle, we can not only survive, but also join the ranks of world-class companies. Why? Because it¡¯s like winning the world championship, your level is of the same level as the world champion. There¡¯s no need for us to say it, the entire world will recognize it as such. It¡¯s just a Johnson & Johnson, what¡¯s there to panic about? Their so-called boycott, do they really think they can starve us? Enough said, let¡¯s brace up.¡± ¡°Our preparation includes not only products but also production lines. Although they are not perfect, they are enough for our needs. Potatoes and bread are not as appetizing as delicacies, but they won¡¯t starve us. Now we are going to fully initiate the Breakthrough Plan. Engineering Department, tell us your situation.¡± The Engineering Department manager promptly reported, ¡°The reserved factory, all production lines are designed for our independent products. We have been maintaining them and can start running them at 8 a.m tomorrow following President Huang¡¯s requirement. The existing factory and all production lines can be modified to produce our independent products within a week.¡± At that time, the Engineering Department didn¡¯t understand. Things were going well, so why build several new assembly lines, and then seal them off after construction and assign people to maintain them daily? Also, why invest time and effort into studying assembly line modifications to adapt to the production of independent products? They thought it was a needless worry, a waste of resources. Now it seems that such a boycott can just happen overnight. Everything was fine just a few days ago, and now the boycott has begun. If there were no preparations in place, such a boycott would be a knockout blow. ¡°Are there any issues with raw materials and accessories, Warehouse?¡± Huang Jiacai moved on to resolve one problem after another. ¡°We have a year¡¯s worth of inventory that we can use now and can put into production.¡± The manager responsible for warehouse stock immediately replied, this person usually doesn¡¯t show up much and not many people recognize him. ¡°Finance side, how much money do we owe the suppliers who are demanding payment from us?¡± President Huang¡¯s voice was clear and loud. ¡°Sixty-four million, four hundred twenty thousand!¡± The Finance Manager read off his notebook. ¡°Don¡¯t pay a cent, no matter how much they press us, don¡¯t give them a single penny. Check and see which factory we owe money to, are they all our core suppliers?¡± President Huang reminded. The Finance Manager passed the list to the manager responsible for the supply chain. After looking it over, the manager nodded his head. ¡°Inform them, if they want the money, they must continue to cooperate with us. If they end the cooperation, they won¡¯t get a single penny of the owed money. Consider it our compensation, tell them to get their money from Johnson & Johnson.¡± President Huang said with a cold laugh. ¡°Won¡¯t this make the industry think we¡¯re unreliable?¡± Someone was worried. President Huang laughed, ¡°At a time like this, they talk about terminating cooperation and still discuss credit? If you start discussing credit with hoodlums, you¡¯ve lost from the get-go. The only way to deal with hoodlums is to be a bigger hoodlum. Understand?¡± President Huang¡¯s words provoked laughter. ¡°Manager Shui.¡± ¡°Here!¡± Manager Shui is the head of a special unit in Ruixing, led by Huang Jiacai himself, and is in charge of gathering information. This department is known internally as the Information Resources Department, and those who are unaware often mistake it for an IT department. This department¡¯s primary function is to collect intelligence, primarily to support the Sales Department. ¡°Manager Shui, are your gifts prepared?¡± ¡°All prepared, President Huang, don¡¯t worry.¡± Manager Shui was a former police officer who resigned to join Ruixing. At Huang¡¯s order, he used various connections to get hold of the internal account books of these suppliers, which cost a fortune. This time, following Huang¡¯s instructions, he¡¯d sent copies of the account books back to the bosses of these companies one by one. And he brought along a message: ¡°If any orders are lost due to cooperation with Ruixing, Ruixing will certainly compensate them.¡± ¡°What about those dozen or more hospitals, President Huang?¡± The sale department is very concerned. ¡°These idiots must have been kicked in the head by a donkey, blindly joining in the hype.¡± A manager said angrily. ¡°It won¡¯t cause any big waves. Public relations should prepare a formal notice, to be given to Xiehe, Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, and Magic City Sixth Hospital tomorrow. Just say that our company is currently facing major difficulties, and possible obstructions in our supplies. Even the possibility of company bankruptcy exists, advise them to prepare alternatives in advance. We deeply apologize, no need to say more.¡± Huang Jiacai casually suggested. ¡°President Huang, just like that? Seventeen hospitals!¡± A sales manager was a bit agitated. Another manager patted his shoulder: ¡°Didn¡¯t you see President Huang is not worried?¡± ¡°Is there anything else?¡± President Huang asked everyone. It seemed that everyone was not as tense as before. They were extremely nervous just a while ago, what happened? Why weren¡¯t they nervous now? A few managers began to feel less scared. Chapter 619 - 619 562 Mysterious Organization ?Chapter 619: Chapter 562: Mysterious Organization Chapter 619: Chapter 562: Mysterious Organization The meeting disbanded, and everyone returned to their respective posts. Huang Jiacai¡¯s unwavering presence quickly stabilized the morale within Ruixing. Their full preparations paid off, preventing Ruixing from crumbling under pressure. Instead, everything was carried out calmly and steadily. Things that previously seemed nonsensical ¨C like establishing backup production lines, burdensome financial pressure from heavy inventory, and deliberately delaying payments to core suppliers ¨C now, when combined, each was a chip to deal with today¡¯s crisis. In the world of survival of the fittest, no one trusts tears; self-strengthening is the only way to survive. Under the instructions of Huang Jiacai, the newly independently-produced product was not immediately launched but scheduled to go to the market a week later. During that week, Ruixing went into a silent period. All sales staff remained unmoved, the entire company suspended external business contacts, and employees were not allowed to reveal any information to the outside world. The company¡¯s independent new products had already been stocked in the satellite warehouses near each hospital, ready for action at any time. In his office, Huang Jiacai leaned back in his chair. This industrious man was harboring a grand scheme in his heart, today¡¯s crisis was just the first step. His mobile phone lay on his desk. After a brief vibration, he picked up the incoming call from Gan Fengyi. ¡°Hello, what are you up to?¡± ¡°Having tea!¡± ¡°At this time, you¡¯re in the mood to have tea?¡± ¡°Your boss has given me so much attention, if I don¡¯t enjoy this leisure time, how can I let down the painstaking efforts of others.¡± The other party went silent for a moment, her voice sounded somewhat strange. This sudden embargo was absolutely devastating. No one could bear it. ¡°Can you hold on?¡± The voice on the other end of the phone was gentle, filled with concern, yet also heavily weighed down by worry. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s only just begun.¡± The tone of President Huang was confident and relaxed. There was another pause on the other end as if she was trying to mask her emotions: ¡°Hans is no good guy. This is just the first wave. He has already killed several companies, including ones from Europe and Japan. Don¡¯t underestimate them, they are ruthless for their interests, with no bottom line. The companies that were hunted down either went bankrupt or were on their last breath, and then were forced to sell at a low price to them.¡± ¡°And at this time, I can¡¯t help you.¡± Gan Fengyi was filled with guilt, but as a member of Johnson & Johnson, having worked for the company since graduation and trained by it to become what she is today as the manager of its South China region, she had to comply with the company¡¯s strategy due to professionalism. And South China would indeed be the absolute frontline in this battle. However, her opponent was Huang Jiacai, which made Fengyi¡¯s feelings very complicated at this moment. ¡ª At Johnson & Johnson¡¯s Asian headquarters in Shanghai, Mr. Hans¡¯s office. In his spacious office, there was a special gym for him. After exercising for half an hour on the treadmill, he took a towel from his assistant, wiped off his sweat, and then drank some water from his provided water bottle. His assistant, Richard Feng, was of mixed race. His father is Chinese, and his mother is American. He currently serves as the first vice president of Johnson & Johnson¡¯s Asia region and was also a loyalist brought over from the United States by Hans. He had followed Hans into battles in Europe and Japan, defeating countless enemies. Hans enjoyed nothing more than this¡ªhunting down a company and then acquiring it, which could awaken a man¡¯s bloodthirsty and combative instincts. The business world is like a battlefield, and there is nothing more exciting than this. He thought that Huang Jiacai, who had managed to build Ruixing to this level, could resist for a while at least, but he did not expect him to crumble at the first blow. ¡°After the issuance of the ban, the entire Ruixing Company has stopped operating. It¡¯s only a matter of time before it collapses. I expect he will soon come to you willingly.¡± Richard Chen reported the latest developments. Hans caught his breath and went back to sit in his boss¡¯ chair. ¡°Their active hoarding of patents implies that they have long had a plan in place. It¡¯s just that they didn¡¯t expect us to strike so soon, without any warning. The cycle from patent to technology to product is very long, so they have no way out right now other than selling the company. But we should still be cautious. Prepare the second batch of sanctions.¡± Richard Chen felt that Hans was overestimating their opponent. In Europe, in Japan, other much larger companies had been firmly held in their hands under the same ban. A newly grown Chinese company like theirs couldn¡¯t bear the weight of any item in their ban. ¡°Mr. Hans, here is the second batch of hunting plans. News about Huang Jiacai personally will soon become common knowledge. He will become a rat in the industry¡ªungrateful and stealing from the company. This is such a good story, it could make an entire drama about business warfare.¡± Hans flipped through the plan, tapping a finger on one of the pages: ¡°Not enough, far from enough. We need to link Huang Jiacai¡¯s despicable character with spinal fixation, making people believe that this product is a risky moneymaking scheme concocted by Huang, and further link spinal fixation to an image of a substandard half-finished product. Ideally, we can say it¡¯s technology stolen from American companies, repackaged as domestic technology. This way, people will naturally associate Ruixing with low-end and inferior.¡± ¡°But spinal fixation technology is a highly advanced technology, and its inventor is not Huang Jiacai or Ruixing, but a doctor from Sanbo Hospital. Doing so, won¡¯t it harm the innocent?¡± Richard Chen was a bit worried. ¡°A minor doctor wouldn¡¯t have any say in this, he¡¯s nothing. Consider him as a scapegoat, he could only count himself unlucky. The audience does not care about the truth, they only care whether the story is captivating.¡± Hans was completely indifferent. Richard Chen: ¡°Understood. The launch time of the second batch plan awaits your command.¡± Johnson & Johnson¡¯s headquarters were very interested in Ruixing¡¯s spinal fixation technology. After reassessing, they believed that this was a product that could guide the direction of spinal surgical technology. So they added another command for Hans: ¡°You must obtain it no matter what.¡± Under the rolling wheels of the giant corporation, Ruixing was just a mantis. Hans was overflowing with confidence, and his desire for conquest was burning like a raging fire. ¡ª Cui Shukai made another visit to Sanbo Hospital. At this point, the C-shaped spine had vanished, replaced by a normal spine. He could finally stand straight and lead a dignified life. Cui Xubing hummed a tune, his gaze fixated on his son. The more he looked, the more he liked. Recently, his son didn¡¯t only appear more handsome, but also seemed a lot more intelligent. When his spine was previously curved, he didn¡¯t quite seem like his own son. Now, he could truly see that his son had inherited his upright stature, which had merely been hidden by the curvature of his spine before. The child walked back and forth a few times in the corridor. Old Cui insisted, ¡°Walk a few more times, so Professor Yang can get a good look.¡± ¡°Enough, he¡¯s already walked back and forth a dozen times. Professor Yang is busy and doesn¡¯t have time to watch your son walk around all day,¡± Guo Liu complained to her husband. Yang Ping examined the external spinal fixation frame on Cui Shukai¡¯s back. The needle holes were in excellent condition¡ªno swelling or seepage¡ªand they were sealed by a layer of biologically formed scabs around them. The revisited X-ray displayed promising new bone growth. The external fixation frame could be removed and replaced by a brace for about a month, allowing him total freedom afterward. Of course, it would take about half a year before he could engage in vigorous activity. ¡°Take him to the treatment room to remove the frame,¡± said Yang Ping confidently. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang escorted Cui Shukai to the treatment room. With a specialized wrench, they began to dismantle the external spinal fixation frame. No anesthesia was needed. After disinfecting the needle holes, the frame was removed swiftly. Two rows of tiny circular holes remained on Cui Shukai¡¯s back, and wrinkles appeared on some skin that was previously compressed during the adjustment. These needle holes were covered with sterile dressings, and Cui Shukai wore a body-fitting brace, akin to a suit of armor. The next step would be spine mobility training. His spine had indeed been forcibly straightened fit. Upon hearing that Cui Shukai was in for a checkup and frame removal, Director Qin from the spine division and Director Tan from the trauma orthopaedics rushed over to see. By the time they arrived, the external fixation frame had already been removed. As Xiao Cui was already wearing the body-fitting brace and his outer clothes, he looked exactly like any other normal child. ¡°Take a few rounds, show everyone.¡± Unable to suppress his excitement, Old Cui treated his son as a showpiece, having him take a few rounds every time there was a visitor. The growing crowd only served to fuel his enthusiasm. And this was in the hospital. If they were at home, he would allow his son to walk a few rounds in front of relatives and friends. Director Qin, Director Tan, and a group of doctors followed them into the hospital. ¡°Is this the child who underwent surgery last time?¡± Both Director Qin and Director Tan couldn¡¯t believe it. Had they not seen him for just three months, and was his seriously curved spine now completely straightened? Was this really the same child? Director Qin and Director Tan looked from left to right, and indeed, it was the same child. ¡°Salute and greet the professors!¡± Cui Xubing was becoming more excited. His wife kept signaling him, not wanting him to parade their son around. ¡°Why are you signaling me? Come on, son, listen to your father. Stand straight like a soldier and salute!¡± Guo Liu followed along awkwardly saying, ¡°Salute! Salute!¡± Old Cui didn¡¯t understand why his wife was signaling him. He just wanted to show off his son¡¯s new posture; it wasn¡¯t like he didn¡¯t know anything. Guo Liu felt sorry for their son who just had the frame removed. Her foolish husband had the boy parade around at every opportunity, turning him into some sort of circus monkey. ¡°Stand straight, one-two-one, good, at ease, salute!¡± Old Cui¡¯s enthusiasm grew. The treatment room was jam-packed. Everyone was entertained by Xiao Cui¡¯s performance and laughed heartily. It was truly a miracle that such a severe spinal deformity was successfully corrected. It wasn¡¯t until almost half an hour later that everyone dispersed. Having finished the tasks at hand, Old Cui said, ¡°Professor Yang, there¡¯s something I need to tell you. Some people claiming to be from some international association or something with a really long name came to our hometown. They brought milk nutrition products and consolation money, saying they wanted to check on the child¡¯s treatment progress. I found these people suspicious. They seemed particularly sensitive to complications such as needle hole infections. I drove them away eventually.¡± ¡°Why did you yell at them and drive them away? Their leader only uttered a few words before you started cursing him. You even threw the gifts they brought out of the house. What would we do if they were from a real charitable organization?¡± Guo Liu was still upset at the memory of her husband¡¯s actions that day. Old Cui said indignantly, ¡°The man¡¯s words were weird, as if he was deliberately provoking. He even brought video and audio recording equipment. Most probably they were up to no good. Professor Yang, I am afraid someone is plotting against you. I suspected that they were not kind people. They said they were a third-party organization, specifically monitoring the safety of clinical trials. They asked us not to tell you as long as everything was safe, but if there was any problem, they would help protect our rights.¡± Old Cui recounted the events in detail. ¡°He smashed the man¡¯s recorder and dumped it in the trash bin, and even called the police.¡± Guo Liu added. ¡°Is that so?¡± Yang Ping had never heard of a third-party organization monitoring the safety of clinical trials and visiting the homes of test subjects. ¡°Thank you, I understand now. You¡¯re right, this institution¡¯s origin is dubious.¡± Yang Ping understood internally that it definitely was not a good thing. After hearing about the current situation of Ruixing from Huang Jiahui these past few days, he didn¡¯t expect that this business dispute had extended to the patients. The thought of it made him feel indignant. He decided to inform Huang Jiacai of this news. As for the company, he was not worried at all. No matter how big the storm, he believed that Huang Jiacai could handle it. He was just a doctor, and he only needed to do his job well. ¡°I knew it. I knew that these people were suspicious. What¡¯s wrong with smashing his recorder? It¡¯s good enough that I didn¡¯t hit him. Long hair but short on wisdom!¡± Old Cui said, filled with anger. He finally felt a sense of vindication today. Chapter 620 - 620 563 Father-In-Laws Fury The Wind Rises and ?Chapter 620: Chapter 563: Father-In-Law¡¯s Fury, The Wind Rises and The Cloud Surges Chapter 620: Chapter 563: Father-In-Law¡¯s Fury, The Wind Rises and The Cloud Surges On the third day of the boycott order, Ruixing still showed no moves. This was the normal result that Hans wanted: to cut off the supply chain and strike the market. If you cut off their support, they¡¯re left with no way out. There¡¯s only one way left, and it leads to demise. No matter how big the corporate giant is, it¡¯s just a company. The main reason why Ruixing¡¯s suppliers obey its orders is due to the weapon of intellectual property. The giant tightly grasps the core technology and has a complete intellectual property system. In the country, there is almost no real intellectual property in the entire industry chain; they rely on patents authorized by these giants to survive. Once the giant terminates the patent authorization, these companies can¡¯t survive. Therefore, it tightly grasps the lifeline of these companies, and all companies dependent on it have no choice but to submit and bow their heads. This is why a giant can issue a boycott order. If an ordinary company issues a boycott order, who would it boycott? It would only make people laugh. However, the boycott order also has a weak link, the hospital. The hospital is the market terminal for orthopedic consumables. In other words, any orthopedic consumable must pass through the hospital to be sold and used on patients, otherwise, it cannot generate profit. For a company, if the product can¡¯t generate profit, it¡¯s just a pile of rubbish. As the terminal, the hospital has enough choice. It can freely choose from several companies. In a buyer¡¯s market, it is dozens of times more difficult for a giant to get a hospital to terminate its cooperation with Ruixing than to cut off its supply chain. Companies are restricted by intellectual property and must obey it, but hospitals don¡¯t have to take it into account. To separate the hospital from Ruixing, it relies on a complex network of relationships, which is not solid. But Hans didn¡¯t care because as long as he could ensure that Ruixing had no goods to sell, he could achieve his goal. No one would buy, he couldn¡¯t do it. If a dozen hospitals decoupled from Ruixing, it would be a heavy blow but not a fatal blow. It¡¯s just an assist. Hans¡¯ office. Zhou Mengyun, the sales director for the China region of the giant company, was reporting work. This woman always felt a sense of crisis; she knew that her position would be taken by Gan Fengyi sooner or later. Now that Hans has assumed the position of President of the Asian region, this sense of crisis is more intense. ¡°Mr. Hans, I have some news, I don¡¯t know if I should report it to you?¡± Zhou Mengyun deliberately hesitated. Hans didn¡¯t like her: ¡°If it¡¯s related to work, say it. If it doesn¡¯t, don¡¯t mention it.¡± ¡°Of course it¡¯s related to work, and it¡¯s hugely related to our company. It concerns the execution of this boycott order.¡± Zhou Mengyun was not a pushover. Her workplace warfare skills were adept. ¡°Speak¨C¡± Hans was very interested. Zhou Mengyun expression was serious: ¡°Gan Fengyi, the South China regional manager, is very close to Huang Jiacai of Ruixing!¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Hans smirked. He knew that Zhou Mengyun, as the sales director, would be replaced by Gan Fengyi. This was something Hans had planned in his mind. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if they¡¯re in a romantic relationship, but I know that her mother fell ill and was transferred from the western region to Nandu for surgery. The whole process was handled by Huang Jiacai, and they often have dinner together.¡± Zhou Mengyun¡¯s tone suggested there was more than what met the eye. ¡°How do you know?¡± How could Zhou Mengyun, who has been in Shanghai all this time, know about Gan Fengyi¡¯s affairs? ¡°Don¡¯t forget, Ruixing¡¯s headquarters used to be in Shanghai, and only recently it moved to G City in Nandu.¡± Zhou Mengyun¡¯s words were irrefutable. Hans felt a chill in his heart, as if something had pierced through it, yet he showed no emotion on his face: ¡°Miss Zhou, in this special period, what is your purpose of saying this? I do not want any internal strife. Unity is the basic requirement I have for you.¡± Zhou Mengyun wasn¡¯t alarmed: ¡°If it wasn¡¯t a special period, I wouldn¡¯t say these things. It¡¯s precisely because it¡¯s a special period that this will be the biggest loophole in the boycott order.¡± Hans looked at Zhou Mengyun, hesitating a moment, ¡°Thank you for your information, thank you very much. But for such an important matter, I will investigate and verify it, and I believe Manager Gan will handle the relationship between work and personal life well.¡± Although he said this, a chill was in Hans¡¯ heart. He just came back to China, heard about Gan Fengyi¡¯s single status and his passion reignited. However, now this news was like a bucket of ice water poured on his head. But how could Huang Jiacai from Ruixing, who only had a high school education, attract Gan Fengyi? It seemed unlikely! ¡ª Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, office of the dean. Su Qingyun is signing documents, a pile of files waiting for his signature. The knocking on the door is urgent. ¡°Come in!¡± Professor Zou pushes half-opened door and rushes into the office, standing in front of Professor Su¡¯s desk. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Sit down!¡± Professor Zou looks grim, he takes out a formal business letter from Ruixing and hands it to Professor Su. Professor Su stops flipping through the files, caps his pen, and takes a look at the business letter. ¡°What is happening? Everything was fine before, why is it suddenly so serious?¡± Ruixing Company is responsible for the production of the new spinal external fixation device, Professor Su naturally understands the relationship between this company and Yang Ping. He also knows the relationship between Huang Jiacai and Yang Ping, otherwise, how could Ruixing enter Affiliated Hospital One and compete with the giant companies? ¡°I¡¯ve just asked around, and the rumor is that the giant company has issued a ban on Ruixing, cutting off its patent authorization, all suppliers in the industry chain have refused to supply Ruixing, seventeen large hospitals have temporarily suspended or removed Ruixing¡¯s products, including our Provincial Second Hospital, even Fuer and Provincial Hospital are now considering removing Ruixing¡¯s products. I think it mostly has to do with the spinal external fixation device. I heard that Johnson & Johnson wanted to acquire Ruixing, but Ruixing refused, which upset Johnson & Johnson, who then issued the ban, intending to drive it out of the market.¡± This is a big deal. Even though Professor Zou says this information is a ¡°rumor,¡± he has already confirmed it through numerous channels. ¡°Is this information reliable?¡± Professor Su needs to confirm. Even with Professor Zou¡¯s words, he couldn¡¯t fully believe them. It¡¯s often said that partial belief leads to confusion. ¡°Absolutely reliable. The person who organized this ban is an American-born Chinese man named Hans. He has a vicious modus operandi. He has reportedly used similar tactics to drive several other companies out of business, then economically ravage the companies for their new technologies. This strategy has been proved repeatedly successful. This man is very familiar with China, hence the points of his attack are all fatal.¡± Professor Zou is really anxious now. If this continues, it would be strange if Ruixing really isn¡¯t driven to bankruptcy. ¡°There¡¯s more, it is very likely that someone is making covert moves around the spinal external fixation device.¡± If Professor Su doesn¡¯t intervene at this point, Professor Zou feels that this new technology might die before it could fully develop. As heads of top hospitals, they have expansive connections and extensive experience, allowing them to see issues more profoundly. Professor Su thinks for a moment, picks up the phone, and dials Yang Ping¡¯s number directly: ¡°Yang Ping, we received the business letter from Ruixing, saying that the company might go bankrupt and that the clinical trials could also be suspended. Are you experiencing any difficulties?¡± Yang Ping, who is currently in the operating room, is talking through his Bluetooth headset: ¡°Ruixing is being blacklisted by the giant company. We¡¯re in a dangerous situation, and the spinal external fixation device might not make it!¡± ¡°Okay, I understand. Don¡¯t worry. Our clinical trials will continue as planned. Stay in touch.¡± A question and an answer, a two-sentence conversation between father-in-law and son-in-law. Combining what Professor Zou said and information from the business letter, the nature of the problem becomes clear. A ban? Stealing new technology? This is too much! ¡°Damn it¡ª¡± Professor Su slams his pen onto the table. Ever since his student days, Zou has been following Professor Su, who has always been gentle and modest. He has never seen him swear before, even at his angriest times, he is always smiling. He has also never seen him throw his pen before. Professor Zou doesn¡¯t dare to make a sound, and Professor Su doesn¡¯t speak either, as if he¡¯s thinking about something. Several minutes later, Professor Su says to Professor Zou: ¡°Organize the sequence of events for me and investigate all of the giant company¡¯s products in our hospital. Whether they¡¯re on the shelves, in the declaration process, or just about to be declared, inventory them all. We¡¯ll have a meeting immediately. Inform the heads of the sub-centers in the orthopedics department, Dean Pei who is in charge of medicaments, the department director of devices, also inform President Huang of Ruixing.¡± At this point, Professor Huang Zhong also hastily arrives at the office. Professor Zou makes a hand gesture, implying that the boss is angry and not to be disturbed. Professor Zou leaves the office and begins to gather staff according to Professor Su¡¯s request. PS: From this chapter on, the Johnson & Johnson company will be referred to as the giant company. In future appearances, the name will be the giant company. Johnson & Johnson is just a borrowed term in this novel, just as Old Ma¡¯s or Xiao Ma¡¯s Company, they are only symbols, do not take it personally. Also, this novel is purely fictional, please avoid taking it personally. Only today did I learn that I can include such a postscript at the end of each chapter. Chapter 621 - 621 The Weight That 564 Cant Bear ?Chapter 621: The Weight That 564 Can¡¯t Bear Chapter 621: The Weight That 564 Can¡¯t Bear All day long, Yang Ping received several phone calls. Professor Liang, Professor Qin, Professor Hong, all asking about the ban on Ruixing. Just after six in the afternoon, Yang Ping took out his mobile phone to see if there were any unread messages on WeChat and found a new friend request in the contacts list. August! He didn¡¯t seem to recall knowing this person. Yang Ping was about to delete this stranger, but the name sounded so familiar, he had encountered it somewhere, but he couldn¡¯t recall where. Oh, it was the German big shot he met in Malaysia ¨C August. This is the professor from Charite? Hospital who later went to Harald Hospital as the dean and director of the Spinal Center, a top figure in European spinal surgery. No good, it seems he had sent a case via e-mail, and he had not responded yet. He had actually forgotten about this matter! The patient¡¯s spine exhibited a beautiful spiral shape, the only one in the world. August called it the ¡°Spiral Man¡±. Fittingly, if this patient is willing to participate in clinical trials, he could use an external spinal fixation frame for correction, which could easily resolve problems that surgery cannot. Yang Ping first accepted the other party¡¯s request. Shortly after, he received a message: ¡°Professor Yang, hello, I am August from Harald Hospital in Germany, glad to finally add you on WeChat.¡± ¡°Do you speak Chinese?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve learned for quite a long time, no problem communicating, just occasionally need the help of translation software.¡± ¡°Sorry for not replying to your email promptly. I suggest you join an online academic forum. There, you can see my recent surgeries. I have recently discovered a new technique that is highly suitable for your case and can achieve nearly perfect correction safely.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great!¡± August couldn¡¯t wait. He went to great lengths to learn Chinese and added Yang Ping on WeChat using the number that Yang Ping gave him. As soon as he got in touch, Yang Ping recommended him to join the forum. Presumably, this forum is where Professor Yang frequently conducts academic discussions. August is very familiar with this. When he was younger, he often frequented such academic forums. There are still several good forums in Europe at present, and he is a regular among them. According to the forum¡¯s membership process, if Yang Ping vouches for him, he can immediately join. If another member recommends, three members need to vouch before he can join, ensuring the quality of members. As the forum covers new technologies, for safety and ethical considerations, it cannot be disseminated until the technology has been officially promoted. Moreover, with cutting-edge technology, if the doctor¡¯s level is not high enough and they use it without thoroughly understanding it, it can easily harm the patients. August followed the URL that Yang Ping gave him and started registering step by step on his computer, putting down Yang Ping as the reference and then uploaded the required various documents. The final step was to answer some questions, ten random ones with no standard answers. You have to have a very high level in this field to answer. After completing the application, he waited for approval. The forum was established by John Ansen, but later administrative rights were transferred to Song Zimo, and the server was placed in China. Yang Ping gave a heads up to his brother Song Zimo, reminding him to review the application. Song Zimo video called August to conduct face-to-face professional inquiry. This is like an interview, he can officially join after passing the interview. While it looks like a simple process, becoming a member is quite challenging. With those ten questions and Song Zimo¡¯s interview, no one can bluff their way through. In today¡¯s era of various social apps, the forum seems a bit obsolete. Aside from different professional partitions, there are resource partitions, chat rooms. Even though chat rooms seem ancient, August, being of that generation, is quite familiar with such a format. Back then, John Ansen had hired someone to design these features. Song Zimo thought about hiring someone to change the design, or simply create a WeChat group for everyone to talk. Later on, it was found to be more reliable to retain an online forum like the one John Ansen envisioned. August browsed through the information on spinal external fixation frames in the Spinal Surgery partition of the forum, from device instructions, animal experiments to clinical trials, the information was very thorough. After reviewing all cases, especially Cui Shukai¡¯s case, August was deeply moved. Having lived more than half his life, he had never seen this method of correction before. It was a genius concept, perfectly applying the Ilizarov¡¯s theory to spinal correction surgery. There is actually this kind of forum in the world. Normal journal papers don¡¯t include such sci-fi-like technology. Just having arrived, was this the legendary dark web? August guessed, then curiously entered the chat room, which was very lively. At this time, it was past six in the afternoon in China, just past six in the morning in the United States, and past noon in Germany. ¡°Hello everyone, I am August from Germany, specialized in spinal surgery!¡± August typed out a string of English. But, no one responded to him. ¡ª Four days after the issuance of the ban. In Gan Fengyi¡¯s office. Xiao Meng, one of the subordinates, sprinted all the way and knocked on the door of the office: ¡°Today, I brought people to deliver goods to Facility One, but they refused to receive. The equipment department and the department director refused to sign, and they seem to not recognize us, even the access card to the operating room has been disabled.¡± Xiao Meng didn¡¯t know what had happened, and felt quite wronged. He usually sees the doctors from Facility One every day, and he is very familiar with them. He holds the Facility One access card, which allows him to use the elevator and go in and out of the operating room. Today, the access card has been deactivated, and every orthopedic director doesn¡¯t recognize him at all, Xiao Meng was totally dumbfounded. Gan Fengyi was taken aback: ¡°Did they say anything?¡± ¡°They said nothing!¡± Xiao Meng was almost crying out of frustration. ¡°Something¡¯s wrong!¡± Gan Fengyi suddenly realized something: ¡°Buy me a plane ticket to Shanghai, I need to see Hans. If anything happens in the company, call me at any time.¡± The fire Hans has been playing with might have gotten out of control! Su Qingyun wouldn¡¯t do such straightforward things so easily. Even if he turns his face, he would still leave some room for negotiation, and everyone would be polite. I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s the blocking order that has touched Su Qingyun¡¯s whiskers. Su Qingyun is a man who either doesn¡¯t make a move, but when he does, it might be something more than just one hospital ceasing cooperation. And he would do it flawlessly, not leaving the slightest loophole. Gan Fengyi, having cultivated in the South China region for many years, due to her cooperative business, knew Su Qingyun quite well. The Su family, is something that absolutely cannot be meddled with. The spine external fixation frame technology is the work of Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital. The relationship between Yang Ping and Su Qingyun might be unknown to others, but how could Gan Fengyi not know. Speaking business might be okay, but disparaging spine external fixation frames and using extreme tactics might have angered Su Qingyun this time. ¡ª Everything was eerily quiet as the second phase of Hans¡¯s blockade plan surfaced. In order to achieve absolute suppression, Hans did not hesitate to use strong forces in a narrow field. Huang Jiacai, Ruixing Company, and the spinal external fixation frame, three core elements were combined to create a fascinating story. A treacherous man who forgets favor and steals from the company stands out on paper; a company who relies on imitation of others or buying up trash technologies to package and create a persona also clearly forms; a lagging spinal external fixation frame dumped by a giant and imitated by a small doctor, boasted as advanced technology, hastily put into clinics, causing a large amount of complications, this is sheer disregard for life. The fire has started, it¡¯s burning fiercely, crackling relentlessly, showing no signs of stopping. Gan Fengyi urgently flew to the headquarters in Shanghai to dissuade Hans ¡ª the commercial war has deviated from the basic bottom line, and the consequences are unimaginable. ¡°Mr. Hans, you¡¯ve pushed our company to the brink of danger unknowingly. Do you want to give up the Chinese market?¡± Gan Fengyi cut to the chase. In an urgent situation, there¡¯s only right for a harsh wake-up call. Hans just smiled: ¡°Are you pleading for Ruixing in a different way?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand what you¡¯re saying. If you have something to say, just say it!¡± Gan Fengyi felt that the tone of Hans was weird. Hans chuckled: ¡°Manager Gan, I hope you can separate your work from personal feelings. This is a critical time; I don¡¯t need to remind you more. Gan Fengyi immediately realized that this was implying her relationship with Huang Jiacai, and someone must be stirring up trouble at this time. ¡°You misunderstood. I came to Shanghai this time to save our company. We are now standing at the edge of a cliff and are about to fall.¡± Hans laughed heartily. He really found Gan Fengyi ridiculous, as ridiculous as a child. What a joke. Such a powerful company, the top figure of the world¡¯s orthopedic consumables, gathering resources to deal with a high school student commander at Ruixing is as easy as crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood. The three consecutive victories in Europe and Japan have made Hans completely confident that he can crush Ruixing. Not long ago, a French company was suppressed by him till death, then cheaply bought into their pockets. The aftertaste of pleasure has not yet dispersed. How could Hans stop? Compared to that poor French company, Ruixing¡¯s end will only be worse. ¡°That¡¯s enough. Don¡¯t plead for the high school student anymore. You, how¡ª¡± Hans shook his head, expressing disappointment. Gan Fengyi looked at the confident Hans and had no idea how to persuade him: ¡°You can¡¯t fight him. Listen to me, immediately withdraw the blockade order. It¡¯s not too late. If it¡¯s too late, the consequences will be unthinkable. The high school student in your eyes has far superior business acumen and strategic intelligence than you. He isn¡¯t at the same level as you. What¡¯s even scarier is that the resources backing him are stronger than you think. He can easily resolve your blockade and then counter-attack. What you can think of, he certainly can think of. What you can¡¯t think of, he can also think of. Withdraw now. This time, you¡¯ve chosen the wrong enemy. You cannot afford the consequences.¡± Hans sneered, feeling enraged like a bursting blood vessel. His male ego took an extreme hit. Can¡¯t he fight this high school student? Not avenging this isn¡¯t worthy of being a man! ¡°Don¡¯t say anymore. I hope to stay sober. You are the manager of South China region for Johnson & Johnson, not for Ruixing. If you find it difficult to stay sober, I can arrange for someone to replace your work and give you enough time to rest.¡± Hans suppressed his anger and maintained his last bit of gentleman demeanor. Zhou Mengyun said that Gan Fengyi had a close relationship with Huang Jiacai. At first, Hans didn¡¯t believe it, but now it seemed to be true. In this case, no matter from a public or personal perspective, it¡¯s even more impossible to let Ruixing off the hook. He will keep suppressing them until they crumble. ¡°This is the decision of the headquarters, and there is no room for reconsideration. I can¡¯t help you. I have a meeting now. At this time, you should stay at your post instead of flying around.¡± Hans decided to not continue the conversation. It¡¯s over! Gan Fengyi felt a chill up her spine. Chapter 622 - 622 565 Chat Room ?Chapter 622: Chapter 565: Chat Room Chapter 622: Chapter 565: Chat Room The conference room of Beijing¡¯s Peking Union Medical College Hospital exuded an antique charm, a testament to its hundred-year-old architectural style. Although it wasn¡¯t the most luxurious building, it housed some of the best doctors. As the saying goes, ¡°A mountain does not need to be high; it is the presence of an immortal that makes it magnificent. A body of water does not need to be deep; it is the presence of a dragon that makes it powerful.¡± As a titan in the orthopedics field, Professor Liang was deeply respected by his peers. He had twice been the chairman of the National Orthopedic Committee, and his influence surpassed that of the newly appointed Professor Su. Moreover, as Professor Su had just taken up the position of chairman, it was not suitable for him to organize this kind of conference. Therefore, after the two professors discussed over the phone, Professor Liang suggested that he should preside over this meeting. At this moment, the conference room was filled with top orthopedic specialists from almost all premier hospitals in China. Besides those who were attending conferences abroad, everyone else had arrived. Present were Professor Qin from 301 Hospital, Professors Meng and Ye from the three top hospitals in Beijing, Professor Fu from Huaxi, Professor Hong Zhigang from Mo Sixth, as well as representatives from Jishuitan, Huashan in Shanghai, and more. This was an informal conference, there would be no official records or resolutions. The professors had hurriedly gathered for this private discussion. As they were pressed for time and some had not had lunch, they munched on pastries and fruits as they discussed. The graduate students at Peking Union Medical College Hospital sensed the uncommon urgency of the day as they witnessed these top doctors rushing around. After the three-hour conference concluded, the professors hastily dispersed. After the meeting, Professor Liang was busy making phone calls while Professor Hu Guolin immediately convened heads of various medical teams: ¡°Considering safety issues, from now on, we shall completely stop using all products by the medical giant. The National Orthopedic Professional Committee will soon issue a formal notice to investigate and evaluate the safety of their products. Department secretaries will submit data from the safety monitoring of these products over recent years.¡± Professor Hu also met with the head of the equipment department, and halted the procurement of all products from the medical giant. He also asked them to clear out all existing products from their inventory. A complete halt, a full recall, indefinitely! ¡ª¡ª Shanghai, Mr. Hans¡¯s office. Subordinates were rushing in and out of the office, and reports were fluttering in like snowflakes. ¡°More than four hundred grade three class A hospitals have removed our products. The Orthopedics Professional Committee has issued a notice expressing doubts about the safety of our products and declared the initiation of a safety investigation and evaluation.¡± China only had about seven hundred grade three class A hospitals. More than four hundred had withdrawn their products. This was akin to market annihilation, with no warning, and all of them removed our products at once. Mr. Hans¡¯s temples bulged as sweat formed on his forehead. How could Ruixing have so much clout? All the four hundred grade three class A hospitals were just the first wave. This signified that they might have to withdraw from the Chinese market. Hans dared not report to the headquarters without figuring out what to say. ¡°Ruixing has launched a new product, announced officially on the market.¡± This news hit him like a ton of bricks. How could they roll out new products so quickly? That was impossible. From molding to trial production, final production, and assembly line setup, none of this could be achieved in a few days ¨C it could take years. Did they have the production line set up and ready to go, just waiting for this day? How could this be possible? Mr. Hans felt like he could vomit blood. Coming back from the United States after defeating a French company, he never thought he would be defeated by a small Chinese company. He had long prepared a production line and even produced a large amount of new products in advance? Everything Fengyi said was true. Mr. Hans had thought that Fengyi was just exaggerating to save Ruixing. ¡°Mr. Hans?¡± Richard Chen looked at Hans, who had turned pale. ¡°They¡¯re just putting on a show. They won¡¯t be able to hold out for long. Now the question is who can hold on till the end. Let me think about how to report this.¡± Hans didn¡¯t know that Ruixing¡¯s new products had been in the warehouse for a while, and were being brought out now due to considerations of cost and profit. Using the products of the medical giant would lower their costs and increase their profits. If it hadn¡¯t been for these sudden events, President Huang wouldn¡¯t have wanted to use them yet, at least not until he amassed some reserves. At this moment, President Huang calmly stood in front of his office window, peering into the distance with an air of solemn wisdom. ¡°President Huang!¡± Huang Jiahui entered. ¡°Do I look cool?¡± ¡°Cool!¡± ¡°Help me take a picture!¡± ¡ª¡ª ¡°I¡¯m August from the Harald Orthopedics Hospital in Germany, specializing in spinal surgery!¡± Despite regaining his courage and typing out another line in English, nobody noticed him. People in the chatroom were all using nicknames; he had no idea from which hospitals they came, or what their ranks were. Did he greet them wrongly? August browsed the chat history and noticed everyone was using Chinese. The letters mixed in were Chinese pinyin and not English. So August re-entered the sentence in Chinese. The input method Markus installed for him was useful. He typed a complete sentence in Chinese. Finally, he got the greeting right! Someone called Radish Head said, ¡°First of all, the official language of this forum is Chinese. Second, you need an appropriate Chinese name.¡± Chinese, oh, they communicate in Chinese. Since parting from Yang Ping in Malaysia, the persistent German had been diligently learning Chinese so he could communicate with Yang. ¡°I¡¯m August from the Harald Orthopedics Hospital in Germany, specializing in spinal surgery.¡± He then used a bowing emoji. Professor Yang had personally recommended him for the group, so his qualifications weren¡¯t an issue. Moreover, his Chinese seemed pretty good. Choosing a Chinese name? August searched his mind to find a name that fit him. After a long search, he decided on ¨C Oreo. Yes, Oreo it is. August quickly changed his nickname to Oreo. ¡°Oreo?¡± If this German guy picked the name himself, his Chinese language ability shows potential for being a moderator, as the role requires a high level of Chinese fluency. The Orthopedics section is the most lively on the forum. Even though John Ansen founded the forum, clearly Robert is the most active one. Robert has recommended all the top-notch professors from the New York Special Orthopedics Hospital to join the forum, including Rongge from Joint Surgery, Luo Sha from Spinal Surgery, and McKinland from Bone Tumor Surgery, Brauen from Trauma Orthopedics. This gang came strongly prepared, aiming to seize the roles of moderators in their respective sub-specialties of Orthopedics. Because the requirement for Chinese proficiency for a moderator is high, there are only Robert and Takahashi who are official moderators. Robert is the moderator of the major Orthopedics section and the Sports Medicine section. Takahashi is the moderator of the Trauma Orthopedics section. Because of this, Robert¡¯s crew is very unhappy with Takahashi and has plotted to take back the Trauma Orthopedics moderator role from him. The other sections, such as Neurosurgery, are still small sections without the thriving community found in Orthopedics, as the Chinese language proves to be a barrier. John Ansen himself is still acting as a moderator, as his Chinese proficiency does not meet the moderator standards. ¡°I have a case that I would like to share with everyone.¡± August, a bit nervous, still hadn¡¯t recovered from the shock of the external spinal fixation. ¡°Before uploading the case, first upload your nude photos, front position, rear position, left side and right side, all full-body shots. Nothing else, this is the rule for joining the forum.¡± Robert typed a line of text. Right now is when everyone has time. There are some odd rules for joining organizations in Western secret societies, such as making certain private aspects of your life public. For example, the joining ceremony for some organizations has members masturbating in front of other members. The purpose of doing this is to test sincerity and to prevent easy betrayal or exit in the future. ¡°Oreo¡ª¡± Oreo didn¡¯t respond. ¡°Is he really going to send nude photos?¡± ¡°No way, right?¡± ¡°Germans can¡¯t be this serious, can they?¡± After a long time, August responded: ¡°Does it require a specific resolution?¡± Holy shit! Precise German people. Luckily, no photos were uploaded yet, so Robert could breathe a sigh of relief. ¡°Okay, it was just a joke, we are an academic organization, we¡¯re only interested in cases, quickly upload your cases.¡± August processed his case for privacy and uploaded it onto the forum. A spiral spine, the only one in the world! ¡°If this case had been presented before, the surgery would have been impossible. Now with the invention of an external spinal fixation rack, we can attempt to use the new technology. But it will require Professor Yang to perform the surgery, as not all of us have mastered this technique.¡± On the forum, only Yang Ping is referred to as ¡®Professor¡¯. This is his nickname. ¡°The main location, direction, and depth of the osteotomy require a certain amount of accumulation. We are currently applying to participate in clinical trials, and you should try to apply.¡± ¡°This kind of mild orthopedics, the most ingenious part is that while it corrects the spine, the theory of tension is also applicable to the spinal cord, nerve roots, and other soft tissues. Moreover, the orthopedics is spread out through each part, reducing the risk of spinal cord nerve damage to the lowest possible.¡± ¡°To unwrap the spiral of this spiral spine, there¡¯s no start for surgery unless you aren¡¯t afraid of paralysis.¡± ¡°Professor¡¯s straightener device is different. I look forward to the phase three clinical trial approval. I want to play with this thing properly.¡± ¡°The professor has been busy lately and hasn¡¯t uploaded new cases.¡± ¡°I heard he¡¯s not happy, he encountered something troublesome.¡± ¡°What happened? Medical troublemaker?¡± ¡°No.¡± This is Robert and Takahashi talking. They both speak Chinese very well and their conversation has a Chinese flavor. ¡°I asked around a little, I heard that Professor Yang¡¯s preferred medical equipment company is being blocked by big capitals.¡± ¡°Is that true?¡± ¡°Absolutely true, I confirmed it with Teacher Zhang.¡± ¡°Confirmed it¡¯s big capitals?¡± ¡°Absolutely true!¡± ¡°How did they block it?¡± ¡°If acquisition is impossible, they aim to kill the professor¡¯s preferred company.¡± ¡°Fellas, isn¡¯t this a declaration of war from capital to academics?¡± Robert was very active. Robert, the chair of the North American Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Association. The always outgoing Robert, how could he be an onlooker this time? ¡°I¡¯m watching the situation closely. Hospitals in China have issued a statement, due to safety issues, they¡¯ve removed all products from the big capital, and are now conducting a safety investigation and evaluation.¡± ¡°Respond to this statement! Fellas, shall we vote?¡± ¡°New York decided to support, Professor Yang is the future of medicine, academics cannot lose to capital.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s North America that decided to support!¡± ¡°Bird country has one vote!¡± ¡°Bird country?¡± ¡°A typo, it¡¯s supposed to be island country.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the input method?¡± ¡°Five Strokes!¡± ¡°Fuck yeah!¡± It seems the difficulty to take back the Trauma Orthopedics moderator line from Takahashi is too great. ¡°Oreo? Vote!¡± ¡°What exactly happened?¡± This one¡¯s brain reaction is a bit slow. While everyone else is voting and deciding, he¡¯s still in the dark. Chapter 623 - 623 557 The Duke ?Chapter 623: Chapter 557: The Duke Chapter 623: Chapter 557: The Duke An ancient European castle. A Mercedes car comes to a stop at the gate, then abruptly honks its horn. The caretaker drops his lawnmower, turns to look outside the iron gate, and curses under his breath, ¡°Who¡¯s this uncouth jerk!¡± The creaking sound of iron as the gate slowly swings open, and Doctor August poked his head from the car window. Recognizing him, the caretaker realizes that this is the duke¡¯s good friend. Though the system of inheritance no longer exists, the owner of the castle still likes being addressed as the Duke. ¡°Make way! I need to see the Duke right away!¡± Doctor August rushes the caretaker. Just a few hours ago, August had already arranged over the phone to meet the Duke at this hour. The caretaker opens the iron gate completely and steps aside. The Mercedes zooms into the estate, rushing down the broad main road all the way to the castle¡¯s front door. Doctor August gets out of the car, tosses the keys to the pursuing caretaker, who barely catches them in a hurry. Brother, you always make me park your car for you. And this car of yours throws a tantrum and stalls so easily. The front door is open, Doctor August bolts inside, following the winding staircase upward, where the Duke is resting on the terrace. On sunny days, he enjoys gazing at his estate from the terrace. Compared to estates in Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, and Liechtenstein, he prefers this one here. ¡°There¡¯s hope!¡± Doctor August exclaims loudly. The Duke, lowering the newspaper hiding his face, looks bewildered, ¡°Old buddy, what¡¯s going on? I could hear your crappy car¡¯s engine from miles away.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a way to treat your precious son.¡± August has finally climbed the terrace, panting heavily. With such fright every day, it¡¯s bound to cause premature wear of the cartilage in your knee joint. ¡°What did you just say?¡± Like being struck by lightning, the Duke becomes rigid on his classical deck chair. His younger son, a patient of spiral spine, has the same condition. This young man is a PhD from the University of Go?ttingen. Despite his young age, he has deep knowledge in physics. However, due to his spinal deformity that compresses his heart and lungs, the doctors predict that this genius will not live past his thirties. This inspiring young man, who draws parallels to Hawking, is the child of the Duke¡¯s last wife. The Duke loved this wife dearly, but she tragically passed away in a car accident ten years ago. This plunged him into prolonged agony, and he never remarried. For his son, he invested significant resources and wealth, seeking treatments everywhere on this planet, and financed doctors in researching his son¡¯s condition, hoping to see him recover within his lifetime. However, breakthroughs in medical research can¡¯t be achieved in a short span of time, even money can¡¯t expedite the process. At this moment, the good news brought by August has struck the Duke like a lightning bolt. Awakening from the rigidity, the Duke rolls off his deck chair, scrambling to his feet. His movements are so swift they appear mismatched with his age. ¡°Sit down!¡± ¡°A Chinese doctor I know¡ªno, a friend, actually, we¡¯re closer than friends¡ªhis new technique has made a breakthrough, it¡¯s now applied clinically,¡± Doctor August, now breathing steadily, told the Duke to listen carefully, ¡°and don¡¯t be panicked.¡± ¡°Take your time, I¡¯m not in a hurry.¡± ¡°Listen to me¡ª¡± ¡°Yes, I am listening. Go ahead.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t fret!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not fretting at all. Please, tell.¡± The Duke, mouth slightly agape, ears perked, is all ears. ¡°No matter how severe the curvature of the spine is, with his surgical technique, under the aid of a device that straightens the spine, the spine will gradually straighten itself over a few months. This slow correction allows the spinal cord and the internal organs to adapt to the adjustment process. It rarely results in complications,¡± August thinks that his description might not be accurate enough. He glances at the table before him and sees a small silver spoon. ¡°Do you mind if I bend this?¡± ¡°Go ahead. Bend it all you want ¨C it¡¯s a utensil from the Hohensohlen dynasty palace,¡± the Duke replied nonchalantly. A utensil is nothing when even the Duke himself could be bent easily. August is strong. He bends the silver spoon, then slowly straightens it out, demonstrating the process. ¡°In our surgery, we would cut this bent spoon then rejoin it. But this genius doctor¡¯s method is completely different from ours. They slowly straighten the spine, and it seems as if under a magic spell the spine gradually straightens itself.¡± August demonstrates again with the small silver spoon, bending and straightening it repeatedly. After a few times, surprisingly, the spoon breaks. It¡¯s rather awkward¡ª A utensil from Hohensohlen dynasty palace¡ª ¡°Straightening it like this, it won¡¯t break the spine, will it?¡± the Duke cautiously inquired. ¡°Of course not, the entire process is carried out naturally. It¡¯s very harmonious, like a seed sprouting quietly. This is Ilizarov¡¯s application of genius in spine correction. Even if I explained, you wouldn¡¯t understand. It¡¯s like a baby tree growing up straight.¡± August finds it challenging to articulate the idea to the Duke. ¡°Bottom line is, this new technique can fix your son¡¯s spine and save his life!¡± Doctor August grows tried of beating about the bush. The Duke was moved to tears. He¡¯d finally get to see his son recover in his lifetime and could break free from the curse of not being able to live past thirty. Sometimes, he wondered what would become of his lonely son once he returns to God¡¯s side. Now, there was finally hope. ¡°My dear friend, get this doctor for me, quick. Send a private jet. No matter how much it costs, August, my old friend, I¡¯m counting on you.¡± The Duke was so excited he could jump with joy. August has been in charge of his son¡¯s treatment since he was a kid, and still is. ¡°This technique is still in clinical trial. We have to legalize it in Germany or send the young Duke to China. I think the former is more viable. The latter could be problematic due to legality issues; their clinical trials might reject foreigners,¡± August attempted to calm the Duke down. However, the Duke couldn¡¯t cool down, ¡°What are we waiting for? Just legalize it then! We¡¯ll invite your friend to Germany.¡± August shakes his head, ¡°This Chinese doctor is not that easy to invite. I¡¯ve decided to visit him in China personally for this matter.¡± ¡°Shall I accompany you?¡± The Duke was excessively thrilled. ¡°No need. I should go alone.¡± Having only met Professor Yang once in Malaysia, whether he would acknowledge this friendship upon his arrival in China is uncertain. It¡¯s best to scout ahead, so as not to cause any awkwardness. The excited Duke has already pulled out his pill container, popping pills into his mouth. ¡°Don¡¯t get too excited, take it slow!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not excited!¡± After swallowing the pills, the Duke sits down and starts crying uncontrollably, hiding his face in his hands. ¡°Buddy?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine. I¡¯m just happy.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll head to China once I¡¯ve dealt with my affairs. Then you¡¯ll hear the good news.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± The Duke clutches August¡¯s hands. ¡°Cost is not an issue. You understand?¡± ¡°I understand!¡± Chapter 624 - 624 567 Insomnia and many dreams ?Chapter 624: Chapter 567: Insomnia and many dreams Chapter 624: Chapter 567: Insomnia and many dreams August felt that it was about time to plan a trip to China soon. To meet the ¡°Man from Earth¡± as he imagined him in his heart. In Malaysia, the entire procedure of Yang Ping¡¯s surgery on Guo Jingyao¡¯s triple compound case was witnessed by August. Such rare cases involved a series of interconnected complications, each trap leading to another. For this seemingly unsolvable case, the young doctor managed to overcome each challenge, just as if he knew the best path through the maze, successfully completing the surgery. At that time, August felt that this young doctor was like a ¡°Man from Earth¡±, full of confidence and power. His mind was sharp and calm; his hands were nimble and steady. Upon leaving Malaysia, August did not immediately contact Yang Ping. Instead, he focused on learning Chinese and waited until the right moment to connect with Yang Ping. By the time he drove back to Harald in Munich from the Duke¡¯s castle, it was already night. Despite his fatigue, August turned on his computer and eagerly logged back onto the mysterious website. The spine external fixator had a few more cases, and August couldn¡¯t wait to browse the new cases. Like a thirsty desert traveler finding a water source, he greedily absorbed the knowledge therein, contemplating the principles over and over again. In the chat room, a few people were discussing cases again. Here, no matter how high your academic status, your identity was that of a student known only by a nickname. August felt as if he had returned to his student days, a sensation that was both strange and mesmerizing. ¡°I plan to launch a research topic on the correlation between negative emotions of surgical doctors and giant medical device companies. I welcome anyone who is interested in participating in this multicenter study,¡± said the person using the alias ¡°Radish Head¡±. His message was followed by a long list of names. Upon reviewing the detailed plan of the research topic, August was thoroughly impressed. As one of the members, Oreo would not want to be left behind. Without any hesitation, he promptly added his name to the list. Clearly, the German had successfully integrated into the organization. ¡ª Furious Doctor Robert, once decided, acted immediately. A doctor has absolute authority over the choice of instruments used. He is the ruler of his domain. Under the puzzled look of the American giant corporation, several directors of the New York Special Orthopedic Hospital collectively announced the temporary cessation of the giant¡¯s orthopedic consumables due to safety issues. The giant corporation immediately sent high-level engineers to New York for communication. These engineers were all experts with doctorate degrees. Security issues must be justified and substantiated. You can¡¯t just be arbitrary. We are all experts, we could sit down and talk it out! They wouldn¡¯t simply comply without cause, saying that there¡¯s a lack of contractual spirit. Fine, here¡¯s your reason. Doctors experienced a sudden onset of anxiety, irritability, depression, and other negative emotions when using the giant company¡¯s instruments, a mental shift that could severely jeopardize the safety of surgery. For the sake of patient safety, Doctor Robert decided to conduct a large-scale survey in North America, along with an extensive double-blind study. Doctor Robert requested the giant company to provide a set of completely unmarked instruments to be used for the research study on ¡°Correlation between Giant Equipment and Negative Emotions of Surgical Doctors¡±. The question of academics is serious. The New York Special Orthopedic Hospital is a leader in the orthopedic field worldwide. Its actions often set a precedent. Other hospitals, regardless of whether they have encountered similar problems, followed suit for precautionary reasons, waiting for the results of Doctor Robert¡¯s double-blind study. We depend on science, we are serious, meticulous, and all are experts with a scientific spirit. Robert organized a team mainly consisting of orthopedic surgeons and psychologists to perform the double-blind experiment. Some groups used instruments from other companies, while one group used instruments from the giant corporation. All of these instruments arrived without any markings. The chief surgeons were not aware of which company¡¯s instruments were being used. Their usage time and environments were kept as similar as possible, with the chief surgeon¡¯s mood changes and sleep conditions monitored and documented. They studied the correlation between a doctor¡¯s emotions and various aspects of the instruments, such as the material, shape, color, reflectivity, and even the sound of metal colliding. Subsequently, Tokyo in Japan also claimed to have experienced a similar phenomenon. While it was currently uncertain whether the instruments were the cause, they decided to suspend the use of the company¡¯s instruments for safety reasons. Germany was the first to react on the European side, stating that similar symptoms were indeed observed. As an experienced specialist and the current president of the Spine Academic Association, Doctor August stated firmly in front of the camera that he had identified a new problem. He recently found that frequent use of the giant corporation¡¯s instruments not only led to feelings of unease, irritability, and depression but also caused symptoms of insomnia and vivid dreams. August stated: he did not take this seriously initially, but the discovery by the Americans served as a reminder for him. Therefore, he took the situation very seriously. He decided to suspend the use of all the giant¡¯s instruments and join Doctor Robert¡¯s multicenter international research. Patients¡¯ safety always comes first, and the mental health of doctors should also be cared for. Lastly, Doctor August solemnly told the reporters: the experiment was complicated, and to observe the samples would take at least a year. They awaited the hard truth. What on earth is going on? The executives of the powerful corporation are baffled, wondering why these top-ranking professors have all unanimously paused use and began shouting for double-blind control experiments. Experiments that will take at least one year? They¡¯ll starve for a year then. With such harmonic synchronization, the executives suspected that their medical instruments truly were problematic. Anxiety, unease, emotional instability, and suffering from insomnia and frequent dreams ¨C it seemed the executives were exhibiting these symptoms as well. An employee in the company¡¯s warehouse in Thailand expressed that after long-term exposure to these medical instruments, he began suffering from insomnia and frequent dreams. He had not known the reason until now. Workers, salespeople, and anyone else who had touched these instruments in different countries all revealed that they too exhibited similar symptoms. One worker even claimed that they had recently been experiencing unusual sexual orientations and suspected it was related to the instruments. They were planning on suing the company. The market in China collapsed, and the world plunged into a nightmare of insomnia and dreams. How much longer could this go on? The CEO at the corporation¡¯s headquarters was also suffering from insomnia. This was destroying people¡¯s trust in the corporation. The CEO shivered at the thought and pieced everything together. He wondered if they had offended a powerful entity that should not have been crossed. What kind of entity could mobilize so many top orthopedic surgeons globally? Even after pondering till his brain hurt, the CEO couldn¡¯t figure it out. Even if he stepped in, these big shots wouldn¡¯t take him seriously. When he reflected on the recent unscrupulous actions of the company, he didn¡¯t find anything amiss. But on further consideration, their hunting down of a small Chinese company seemed quite distasteful. Was that the problem? The CEO of the corporation angrily shouted at Hans during a phone call: ¡°What on earth happened? You must give me an answer!¡± I have no idea what happened. If the actions of the Chinese hospitals are related to Professor Su Qingyun, how could the reaction in North America, Europe, and Japan be related to this too? Who could command such a large group of international academic authorities? Hans lamented that he was innocent. All I did was scheme to block a small Chinese company, why has this turned into a crisis? Hans was on the brink of insomnia. Regardless of the reason, headquarters commanded a slowdown in the plan to target Ruixing. Hans reluctantly lifted the ban on Ruixing, though the so-called ban was already full of holes and moot. Wanting to kill and acquit on a whim, they were so full of themselves. The embargo was lifted, but things remained the same. Ruixing was still Ruixing, even Europe was busy approving clinical trials for its spinal external fixator. The corporation was still the corporation, and no one bought into its plea. PR personnel tried putting out the fires everywhere, looking to discuss things with these experts and big shots. But who exactly did they step on? They needed a clue. ¡ª ¡°Oreo, what about your case?¡± ¡°I plan on coming to China Sanybo Hospital for training. I¡¯m not sure if the professor has time.¡± ¡°You¡¯re fortunate, while the professor is quite busy, he¡¯ll personally instruct this forum¡¯s members. Only members of this forum could receive instructions from the professor. The forum has various procedures and contact methods. Check carefully.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll check, I need to contact Teacher Zhang.¡± ¡°Teacher Zhang is quite strict, Oreo, be careful. Before you head out, you should learn how to brew tea. There¡¯s an electronic scale in the doctor¡¯s office cupboard, it may help.¡± ¡°I have an old friend in the sports medicine center, he¡¯s very helpful. If you need help, just say the word.¡± ¡°The intern dorm is nice, the hospital cafeteria food is also good, and there are lots of restaurants nearby. There¡¯s a great hot pot restaurant, and if you mention the hospital, they offer a discount.¡± ¡°Anything else I need to be aware of, seniors, please tell me.¡± ¡°Charge your WeChat wallet, and send red packets in the group.¡± ¡°When doing rounds, try to stay hidden, try to stand in an inconspicuous location.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a guy in the operating room, likes to smoke.¡± ¡°There¡¯s an old guy on the lower floor. If you see him, avoid him. He wears glasses with tape on them.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a lot of information, I need to take notes.¡± August is excited once again. Starting from now, he isn¡¯t on the same level as the Brits, he could finally say goodbye. Chapter 625 - 625 568 Cell Bank ?Chapter 625: Chapter 568: Cell Bank Chapter 625: Chapter 568: Cell Bank At six in the morning, at noon, and at six in the evening. The forum¡¯s chat room is very active during these times. It¡¯s also at these times that Song Zimo uploads the latest batch of spinal correction case data to the forum for everyone to study and research. John Ansen founded the forum, but Song Zimo is the administrator. All the case data from the first phase of clinical trials have been sorted and uploaded to the forum. On Saturday, Yang Ping will host a live lecture on the forum. He will connect online to answer members¡¯ questions about new technologies and comprehensively explain the theory and practical operations of new technologies. Since Xiao Su hasn¡¯t come down yet and there¡¯s nothing else to do for the moment, Yang Ping decides to do a round of ward inspections on his own. Cui Shukai¡¯s father is singing by the window when a nurse knocks on the door to tell him to stop singing as there have already been several complaints. Old Cui had previously been complained about for singing in the garden and on the rooftop, not because he was being a nuisance, but because his singing was terribly out of tune, like a broken gong. He¡¯s happy and he can¡¯t help it! Since this is his only hobby and he isn¡¯t allowed to sing, he won¡¯t sing. Upon seeing Yang Ping conducting ward rounds, Cui Xubing immediately instructs his son to walk a few rounds. After the removal of the spinal brace, the focus is on whether the newly formed bone has collapsed in the area where it was cut due to insufficient strength. These are all factors to consider. When removing the brace, the new bone¡¯s strength needs to be fully evaluated. Therefore, Cui Shukai has not experienced any collapse so far. ¡°Professor Yang, a few days ago, I read an article online that said spinal braces are harmful. I wanted to thrash the person who wrote it. Strangely enough, today, I found multiple apology articles online saying that they had misunderstood spinal braces. Several big names even came forward to explain that spinal braces are a new, safe, and effective technology for correcting spinal curvature. Recently, my phone has been ringing non-stop with inquiries about the surgery.¡± Old Cui spoke candidly. Yang Ping knows that the giant companies now have no choice but to deal with the mess they¡¯ve created. This incident has essentially served as free advertising for Ruixing and the spinal brace. The advertising cost was quite high, but at least it was sponsored by big companies. Starting from yesterday, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s phone lines are jammed with inquiries from patients seeking spinal curvature correction. ¡°The clinical trial quota has long been filled. You¡¯ll have to wait until the product is officially launched.¡± Yang Ping informs Old Cui. Old Cui is filled with a sense of superiority. He was fortunate to have secured such a good opportunity. If he had to queue now, who knows how long he would have to wait. The process to fully implement a product in clinical use is a long one. This is typically because the promotion of medical technology is relatively cautious. It has to be very mature before it can be widely promoted. After completing a round of ward inspections, Yang Ping thinks of Sisi. He has been working on the topic of stem cells lately and currently lacks a stem cell bank. If the bank could be a child, specifically a child with a tumour, that would be ideal. This way, he could extract both pluripotent stem cells and tumour cells. Perhaps, this could be an opportunity to save Sisi. As he seeks to understand the patterns of stem cell differentiation, he could also observe the characteristics of the tumour cells in Sisi¡¯s body. Sisi¡¯s ward room is the last one. She only stays in the hospital when she needs to be re-examined. Normally, she doesn¡¯t stay in the hospital, instead living in a rented house near the hospital. The external brace on her thigh has also been removed, and her femur successfully lengthened. However, due to the large areas of muscle removed during her tumour removal surgery, her entire hip and thigh have lost their ability to move. Her affected limbs have no movement capabilities and she relies on crutches and a wheelchair. Since it¡¯s time for her to come in for a check-up, Sisi has been admitted to the hospital for a few days. ¡°Sisi, do you want to go for a walk with your brother?¡± Yang Ping enters the room. Sisi is practicing walking with crutches. The little girl¡¯s face is as radiant as a flower: ¡°Sure.¡± Yang Ping pushes Sisi in her wheelchair. Her mother is tidying up the sheets of the discharged patient to send them to the logistics team for washing. ¡°Mum, I¡¯m going out to play with big brother.¡± Sisi greets her mother. ¡°Don¡¯t stay out too long, we don¡¯t want to waste your brother¡¯s time.¡± Seeing her daughter happy makes her happy as a mother. Yang Ping pushes Sisi out of the first floor lobby¡¯s main door. The security guard salutes and greets Yang Ping. In the hall, some patients stand against the wall, looking at the doctor profiles displayed on it. Some patients are sitting in the waiting area, waiting for their number to be called. The distribution of the buildings in Sanbo Hospital is well planned, creating a sense of depth. The hospital¡¯s grounds are quite vast, especially the greenery which is very well-maintained. ¡°Do you have something to tell me?¡± The little girl is quick-witted. Yang Ping pushes her slowly along the small path in the woods. The golden fragments of the setting sun are sprinkling through the leaves, making the world seem peaceful. ¡°You¡¯re pretty smart,¡± Yang Ping compliments her. ¡°Have you found more cancer cells in the follow-up exam?¡± Sisi asks calmly, not seeming worried at all. Yang Ping shakes his head: ¡°I¡¯ve told you before, you need to learn to coexist with them. That¡¯s not the area I¡¯m trying to focus on right now.¡± ¡°Have you finished reading the book I sent you recently?¡± Yang Ping asks. ¡°The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks?¡± Sisi has already finished reading the book. ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. I plan to capture cells from you, normal cells or tumour cells, and then culture them in a lab. I want them to divide independently, like HeLa cells.¡± ¡°Normal human cells have telomeres¡ªa small segment of DNA-protein complex at the end of chromosomes. With each cell division, a piece of the telomere is lost. Hence, after about 50 divisions, the cell can no longer divide. This is known as the Hayflick limit.¡± ¡°But your tumour cells are different, they are very special. I¡¯ve seen your tumour cells, they are like HeLa cells and possess a kind of telomerase that can endlessly add the lost segments back to the telomeres after division. This allows them to proliferate indefinitely without division limits and achieve a form of cellular immortality, exactly what I need.¡± ¡°If I am not mistaken, these cells, when provided with sufficient nutrients, can grow madly. Their numbers could double in 24 hours. They are not limited by the number of divisions, or the equipment. When normal cells can only cover a thin layer on the wall of a test tube, these cells can heap up in the culture medium. I can research many things with these cells, including your treatment.¡± ¡°I want to use you as a cell bank. But extracting cells can sometimes be painful. Sometimes, I would have to draw bone marrow to find stem cells, or stick a needle into your tumour to draw tumour cells, or even take cells from your normal tissues. Are you afraid?¡± Yang Ping believes it¡¯s better to discuss this directly with the child first, and then talk to her parents. If he wants to save her, this is the only way, maybe he can crack the code of tumour cells, just maybe. ¡°I¡¯m not afraid!¡± Sisi turns her head, looking at Yang Ping with a determined gaze. ¡°So, does this mean that I will be taking part in your experiment?¡± ¡°Of course! You¡¯re now my good partner.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great. I¡¯ve read this book. Even though Henrietta Lacks passed away, her cells remained alive, saving countless people.¡± ¡°No, you won¡¯t die. Trust me, I can race against time.¡± Chapter 626 - 626 569 Welcome to our team ?Chapter 626: Chapter 569 Welcome to our team Chapter 626: Chapter 569 Welcome to our team Initially, Yang Ping thought that he would need to spend some time talking to the little girl. After all, no matter how smart and sensible she was, she was still a ten-year-old girl. He did not expect her to respond so readily. During the experiment, it was necessary to repeatedly extract all kinds of tissue cells, and the various punctures were inevitable. Even with local anesthesia, the punctures could cause certain pain. On Sisi, Yang Ping could get all the cells he wanted. Normal mature cells, cells currently in developing organs, tumor cells, pluripotent stem cells in the bone marrow. While unraveling the rules of cell differentiation, the research on Sisi¡¯s tumor cells would also go deeper, and perhaps a more advanced treatment plan than targeted therapy could be found. Yang Ping was boosting his own spirits, convincing himself that success was within human control, especially since he was no ordinary person. Originally, Yang Ping¡¯s topic was cultivating muscles from stem cells, which was not related to Sisi¡¯s condition. However, after stem cells differentiate into target organ cells, these mature cells become locked in Hayflick¡¯s limit and slowly undergo apoptosis. External cultivation can¡¯t naturally provide new cells to replace the apoptosis like the human body can, but can only rely on providing more stem cells for continuous division. The development of human organs is a natural increase, which means there is a powerful algorithm in the human body. It can regulate the ratio of newly born cells to apoptotic cells. This ratio is not the same during growth and development and adulthood. One is increasing, the other is balanced, but this mysterious algorithm of the human body cannot be simulated externally. Using a 3D printer to print these mature cells into target organs, these target organ cells also have Hayflick¡¯s limit, so their collapse is inevitable. This has become an insurmountable gap in artificially manufacturing human organs. On the contrary, if we find a way to let cells break through Hayflick¡¯s limit, these cells might unintentionally become tumor cells. They can divide indefinitely, but once unqualified cells appear, they will also divide. Eventually, the unqualified cells form malignant tumors. In a sense, normal cells in the body have a lifespan. When they reach a certain lifespan, they will undergo apoptosis, so even if unqualified cells appear, they will eventually be lost and will not cause damage to the body. If an unqualified cell loses its lifespan limit, it will infinitely divide, eventually replacing normal organs and causing organ function to be impaired. This is the mechanism of a tumor. So, finding a balance between normal cells and tumor cells, and discovering from them the mechanism for their locked and unlocked division. Would not only find the key to culturing organs externally, but also to the key to tumor treatment. In this way, whether it is culturing organs externally or printing organs with a 3D printer, they can achieve a certain stability and won¡¯t collapse like real organs. Yang Ping stopped the wheelchair by a bench and let Sisi enjoy the breeze and fresh air. He was still thinking about his research topic. Cultivating an organ from stem cells outside the body faced many challenges. It required a structural scaffold to support the organ¡¯s function, dedicated cell supply and a supportive environment, allowing these cells to repopulate the scaffold and form mature tissues, thereby performing complex organ functions. Such an organ in the human body is just a part of the body; it is supported and constrained by the body. Culturing organs outside the body, is about mimicking all the body¡¯s support externally. ¡°Sisi, in the future you will become a cell warehouse for my research. If I need to take cells, I may need to use a needle on you at any time. And that needle will be very thick and long. Sometimes it will pierce into your bone marrow to draw out the marrow, sometimes it will pierce into your internal organs to take a bit of organ tissue. You should consider this carefully,¡± Yang Ping took a rest for a moment, then pushed Sisi on. After taking several turns in the hospital, he bought an ice cream for the little girl at a small shop. ¡°I¡¯m not afraid at all. When the tumor was painful in the past, it was like being cut with a knife, I could endure that,¡± Sisi was nonchalant. Yang Ping had seen Sisi lying in bed, enduring the pain of the tumor, sweat continuously pouring from her forehead. ¡°Then it¡¯s settled, we formally invite you to join our research team!¡± ¡°Hook!¡± ¡ª The storm between the giant and Ruixing was still ongoing, it could not end so quickly. For each hospital that refused the giant, there would be no loss at all. Each hospital usually had several suppliers, the removal of one would have no impact, the products of the giant were not irreplaceable. Plenty of alternative products were available: Jiemai for trauma orthopedics, Suofa mould for the spine, Linko for joints. On the other hand, the giant was different. If it lost the hospitals, it would lose the market, lose the very foundation for survival. Mr. Hans was lying half-reclined in his boss¡¯s chair, draping a towel on his forehead. He had not slept all night, his head was swollen and hot. He hadn¡¯t figured it out all night, this didn¡¯t make sense. In his industry of orthopedic consumables, he had weathered all kinds of storms. He couldn¡¯t comprehend how dealing with a small Ruixing could turn out this way. Why had his boycott of Ruixing caused such turmoil? It could be explained if Chinese hospitals were collectively striking back. But, why were hospitals from Europe, America, and Japan jumping on the bandwagon? Why the hell? Mr. Hans tried to arrange meetings with the orthopedic department directors of several big hospitals in Shanghai. But, they claimed to be overseas attending conferences, showing him no face at all. He really felt like kicking the door in anger! Removing the handkerchief from his face and passing it to Richard Chen, Hans took a sip of coffee. Having skipped breakfast and being on an empty stomach, despite feeling ravenously hungry, he had no appetite. He couldn¡¯t choke anything down, and could only drink cup after cup of coffee to fill his stomach. After guzzling more than a dozen cups of coffee, he had repeatedly emptied his bladder several times. The US headquarters burdened Hans with all their wrath. If he did not solve the current predicament, they would have him pack up and leave. ¡°Arrange a meeting with President Huang of Ruixing!¡± Hans sighed. It was time to swallow his pride, beeing a mature man. ¡°Ruixing responded that President Huang is too busy to meet you!¡± What¡¯s with the high and mighty attitude? Declining to meet the Asia regional president of a conglomerate? But he¡¯s under their roof, so he has no choice but to bow down. Fengyi Gan has been deeply cultivating the South China area for many years and has personal ties with Huang Jiacai. Maybe if she reached out to Huang Jiacai, he¡¯d be willing to talk. Hans felt an aching sense of humiliation in his heart. But given the current situation, this was the only way he could go. Westerners operate on a survival of the fittest mentality, meaning they are willing to accept defeat. If they win, they¡¯ll ride roughshod over you. If they lose, they¡¯ll grovel at your feet without feeling the least bit embarrassed. ¡°Put me through to Fengyi Gan in South China,¡± Hans resignedly instructed. Richard Chen was a bit surprised, ¡°You want Fengyi Gan to intervene?¡± ¡°If she doesn¡¯t step in, can you resolve it?¡± Hans unleashing his frustration on Richard Chen. Richard Chen could only keep his mouth shut. The phone on his desk rang. It was the CEO from the headquarters. ¡°Yes, yes, alright, alright, alright. Will definitely carry out, definitely, definitely!¡± Hans seemed like a completely different person, immediately standing up, bowing, and talking to the phone like a submissive dog, his voice both gentle and pleasant. As if that CEO was right there in front of him. ¡ª Soon, a public apology signed by Mr. Hans from the conglomerate was sent to major media outlets. Firstly, it acknowledged the safety issues raised by various hospitals and solemnly pledged improvements, expressing the hope of providing superior products to patients. Secondly, it admitted that the recent slew of articles discrediting the Spine External Fixator were written under the direction of Hans himself. The headquarters was investigating and pledged serious action. It offered apologies to both Ruixing and the inventor. It elaborated in the letter that the Spine External Fixator was an original product of Yang Ping, not a plagiarized product of the conglomerate, and that Hans had taken it upon himself out of jealousy to organize media attacks on the Spine External Fixator. Lastly, the conglomerate stated that they and Ruixing were partners. It would continue to support free competition as always. The rumor of the boycott was Hans¡¯s personal action. The headquarters had relieved him of his position in the Asia region and had called him back for an investigation. After the statement was released by various media outlets, Hans came down with a high fever that lasted for several days. There was no choice, the conglomerate headquarters had to sacrifice a pawn to save the king. For the overall interest of the conglomerate, Hans had to be sacrificed. In front of capital, Hans was nothing but a chess piece. Useful, he could stay on the board; useless, he had to be discarded. ¡°What are we supposed to do now?¡± Richard Chen found himself in the fallout. Covering his forehead with a cool damp towel, Hans replied, ¡°What else can we do? Fengyi Gan will temporarily fill my position, pack up your things. I¡¯ve been appointed as the president of the Africa region.¡± ¡°Moving to Africa?¡± ¡°Yes, to expand business opportunities.¡± After all, Hans was a capable man. He had helped the conglomerate take down several companies and was indeed meritorious. Had it not been for this huge mess, the fiasco wouldn¡¯t have turned out this way. Chapter 627 - 627 570 The Demolished Householder ?Chapter 627: Chapter 570: The Demolished Householder Chapter 627: Chapter 570: The Demolished Householder At six o¡¯clock in the afternoon, China time, the forum became active again. ¡°Oreo?¡± ¡°Here!¡± ¡°I also plan to go to China soon to study with the professor for a while. Have you passed the fourth level in the Chinese language test?¡± ¡°Passed!¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be in the same dormitory then. Do you snore in your sleep?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know?¡± ¡°Is anyone going to Sanbo soon?¡± ¡°Me!¡± The respondent was Woodhead from the Twin Cities Spine Surgery in Minnesota. ¡°I¡¯m preparing for the fourth level. I¡¯ve taken it several times without passing. God bless, I must pass this time!¡± ¡°Why not hire a good Chinese teacher? I can recommend one, only available for online teaching, the tuition is very expensive but you¡¯re guaranteed to pass.¡± This was Takahashi speaking. Woodhead posted a crying emoji: ¡°It¡¯s too late, if I don¡¯t pass this time, I¡¯ll have to change my teacher.¡± Still Woodhead: ¡°Guys, I am currently reviewing for the exams, who knows how to answer this question? ¡ªI bought a ticket from a scalper at the train station. What kind of cattle is this scalper? How can it sell tickets? Is it like a Disney staff member dressed as Mickey Mouse, then it sells tickets at the train station?¡± Woodhead was anxious in his heart. Even the newcomer, Oreo, had already passed the fourth level of Chinese and was planning to go to China. But he, an old member, still hadn¡¯t passed the fourth level. ¡°Wu Zi, no offense, but you¡¯re not going to pass your exam this time.¡± Robert expressed his concern about Woodhead¡¯s Chinese skills, saying his talent was insufficient. Woodhead claimed innocence, it wasn¡¯t that he lacked intelligence, but that Chinese was too difficult to learn: ¡°The fourth-level exam is so difficult, and there¡¯s another question, can anyone give me some guidance ¡ª who is the father of the son-in-law of the third brother of the husband of the little sister of Sun Quan?¡± Those in the group who hadn¡¯t passed the fourth level of Chinese were surprised and astonished. Robert couldn¡¯t bear to witness anymore: ¡°You lack basic knowledge, yet you still want to take the fourth level?¡± ¡°Chinese time, Saturday nine in the morning, the professor will give a class. Take note of the time difference and remember to set your alarms.¡± Robert reminded everyone. It was three in the morning in Germany and nine in the evening in the United States. Germans were somewhat at a disadvantage here. Such a good learning atmosphere! Yang Ping considered whether to adjust the time to accommodate everyone¡¯s time difference. After some thought, he decided he¡¯d adjust it next time. After a day of surgery, the Department decided to have a celebratory dinner tonight to celebrate the successful clinical experiment of the external spinal fixation frame. The venue was Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish, everyone gathered and headed to Uncle Er¡¯s together. Uncle Er got another, larger venue on the same street. After a round of renovations, the new shop was open for business. The shop sign was a fish skeleton, which Yang Ping had left behind after his first time eating fish there. ¡°The private room upstairs is ready!¡± The waiter immediately led everyone upstairs while Uncle Er went into the kitchen to prepare grilled fish himself. Recently, Uncle Er somehow got his hands on a wild grass carp that weighed several dozen pounds. He kept it alive and waited for Yang Ping to come over to eat. Today Yang Ping brought his colleagues from the department to eat. Uncle Er took out this grass carp. Grilled grass carp is actually really good. This was Yang Ping¡¯s first time at this new shop. The renovations were quite interesting. The paintings on the wall didn¡¯t introduce the food culture, but instead they introduced common orthopedic diseases. Scoliosis, Lumbar disc herniation, Cervical Spondylosis, Osteoarthritis of the knee joint, etc., all were common orthopedic diseases. For example, for scoliosis, not only was the disease introduced, but also the treatment methods, and even the top hospitals in the country for scoliosis surgery were listed. That¡¯s interesting, Yang Ping stopped to look. ¡°Uncle Er asked me to write these.¡± Song Zimo said besides him. ¡°Interesting.¡± Yang Ping moved from one picture to another, then Uncle Er, dressed in an apron and chef¡¯s hat, came out: ¡°Professor Yang, when you live in the mountains, you eat from the mountains; when you live by the water, you eat from the water. We¡¯re living next to a hospital here, so we have to make good use of the hospital culture. According to my reckoning, in terms of utilising the hospital culture, we¡¯d best follow your Orthopedics department. Please head upstairs.¡± Yang Ping went from ¡°Doctor Yang¡± to ¡°Professor Yang¡±, Uncle Er saw his progression. ¡°Uncle Er, why don¡¯t you put up a big picture of a tumor on the wall, and introduce that the tumor, when cut open, is cauliflower-shaped, and its cross-section is similar to fresh fish meat?¡± Zhang Lin was joking with Uncle Er. ¡°Keep it down! Ever since my shop opened, many customers who came to eat would ask after paying the bill, ¡®Boss, how do I treat this lumbar disc herniation? How do I treat this cervical spondylosis?¡¯ Then I would tell them to find you guys. Recently, there have been many patients with scoliosis asking me for your department¡¯s contact. Haha.¡± The boss was very proud, feeling that he was on the right track. In the fiercely competitive catering industry, he had carved out a new path, combining the restaurant with its proximity to the hospital very well. The private room on the second floor was elegantly decorated, and everyone took their seats. Soon, Uncle Er brought up the grilled fish. Fatty had recently gone through a breakup, his relationship with the flight attendant had collapsed. He seemed quite optimistic, but was just bluffing, forcefully pretending everything was fine. ¡°Bring out the alcohol.¡± Fatty called out. Little Five and Zhang Lin could only accompany him, asking the waiter to bring out the alcohol, first a dozen beers. ¡°Change to a larger cup, these small ones are no good.¡± Fatty¡¯s voice was loud. Zhou Can next to him was not happy, ¡°Don¡¯t listen to him, what large cup? And you¡¯re truly infatuated, aren¡¯t you? You¡¯re like a young boy who¡¯s never been in love before. She¡¯s not your kind, why are you taking this so seriously?¡± Zhou Can held Fatty¡¯s small cup, telling Zhang Lin not to change it to a larger one. ¡°Zhou Can, what are you doing? Why are you always being a killjoy?¡± Fatty tried to snatch his cup back. Zhou Can simply ignored him, not letting him snatch it back. Zhou Can had a soft heart but a sharp tongue, and Fatty was somewhat in awe of him. This dinner was a celebration for the successful clinical experiment of the external spinal fixation frame. Everyone was busy and didn¡¯t have time to go out, so they gathered near the hospital. ¡°We won¡¯t go home sober today, let¡¯s drink to our heart¡¯s content if we¡¯re brothers.¡± ¡°Northeasterner¡¯s never back down when it comes to drinking. We rest tomorrow anyway, Young Master Song doesn¡¯t drink, so you take care of your hydrating needs. We few will drink freely. If a dozen is not enough, let¡¯s call for two dozens.¡± ¡°Two dozens? Is that enough?¡± Stutter Xu from the Emergency Department, once Xiong Sihai¡¯s subordinate, had his alcohol tolerance forced out of him. Little Five was a jack-of-all-trades. Xiao Su and Tang Fei were huddled together, whispering and giggling about something. ¡°Brother Fat, I¡¯ll introduce you to a girl, I guarantee you¡¯ll be satisfied. Ask General Xu, she¡¯s everything you want ¡ª a civil servant, postgraduate degree, local girl, newly-relocated resident.¡± ¡°As agreed, a newly-relocated resident!¡± ¡°Let me tell you, a doctor is the real iron rice bowl. There¡¯s no need to worry about not finding a partner. Why are you bothering with a flight attendant? You spend all day in the operating room, she¡¯s flying here and there. Even if something did happen between you two, she¡¯ll be flying away sooner or later. You¡¯re not of the same breed, she¡¯s not your type.¡± ¡°You¡¯re saying I¡¯m handsome?¡± ¡°Of course, among our group, you¡¯re the most handsome.¡± Chapter 628 - 628 571 The Pregnant Young Man ?Chapter 628: Chapter 571: The Pregnant Young Man Chapter 628: Chapter 571: The Pregnant Young Man Yang Ping and Song Zimo could only drink apple cider vinegar, but they drank it with the fervor as though it was alcohol. ¡°Cheers!¡± ¡°Cheers¡± Gulping down another glass. Those who didn¡¯t know the truth would surely believe they were witnessing the real spirit of a drinking party. Xu Zhiliang was a lightweight drinker, but his enthusiasm was impressive. Zhang Lin always claimed, ¡°No more, this is my last glass!¡±, yet he never reached his limit, it always seemed like he was one drink away. Little Five wasn¡¯t flushed, his heart kept its rhythm, as if they had just started drinking. Liang Fatty was unpredictable, sometimes he performed well, today was one of those days. The new anesthesiologist, Doctor Wei, seemed somewhat out of place. He sat aside, nodding quietly and maintaining a very restrained posture. Doctor Wei was a hard worker who preferred actions over words. Two dozen beers were polished off by them. Zhang Lin reclined in his chair resting when his phone rang. A check-in call from his wife roused him immediately. ¡°I only had a couple. Just meaningfully having some drinks with Professor Yang. Don¡¯t worry, I didn¡¯t finish the two glasses, still have half of it left. Yes, yes, yes.¡± Teacher Zhang was extremely tender, bending over as if he was about to touch the ground, but he couldn¡¯t help burping. At the same time, Fatty called the waitress and insensitively blurted out: another dozen. Zhang Lin immediately covered his phone. Fatty squinted at him, ¡°Look at you. Scared of your wife to such an extent. If I get married, I¡¯m going to make sure my wife is obedient.¡± Fatty reached for his glass, ¡°Fill it up.¡± But soon realized that his glass had disappeared. Where was the glass? They don¡¯t usually let loose and drink heartily, normally they stop at a reasonable point during meals. But today was different, the spinal external fixation clinical experiment was successful, and it was a significant achievement in their department. Except for Doctor Wei, who was new, everyone else had significantly contributed. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were the backbone of the project, Zhang Lin was responsible for collecting patient data after admission, and Little Five communicated with the patients and followed up after discharge. Everyone contributed to this success, and that made them very happy. Another reason was that Fatty was heartbroken. He had been brooding all day, so his brothers decided to join him to blow off some negative emotions. After dinner, they all dispersed. Little Five and Zhang Lin accompanied Fatty for a walk around the hospital. They planned not to go home but sleep in the department and casually play some games. Yang Ping and Xiao Su took a stroll around the hospital. Their families were both pushing them to get married, so they needed to discuss their wedding plans. Parents were always like that: first, they would urge you to find a date, then they would push you to get married, and then they would encourage you to have children. However, Yang Ping and Xiao Su were not in a hurry. Xiao Su knew that Yang Ping was busy with his new project. The wedding could be postponed. But as people say, man proposes but God disposes. ¡ª¡ª The following morning, the weather was excellent. Yang Ping crossed the overpass, rushing to the hospital for work. Today was Saturday, and he had a live-streamed lecture scheduled at nine. The ¡°Iron Triangle¡± had drunk pretty heavily the night before and were still freshening up in the on-duty room. Each had panda eyes, looking like they had played games late into the night. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had arrived early. They were preparing for the nine o¡¯clock lecture. The venue was the Teaching Room, which was equipped with a camera facing the podium for live streaming. Graduates, standardized training students, and interns started arriving at the doctor¡¯s office. They had all come to attend the lecture. Usually, the teaching schedule included rounds, surgeries, and end-of-shift transitions. But today was a Saturday, and there was no major shift change, only personal shift changes between the medical staff who were on duty. No surgeries were scheduled, and each doctor individually checked on their patients. Yang Ping asked the on-duty doctor if there were any patients with special cases. The doctor said that Gynecology and Obstetrics had admitted a patient in the afternoon. Li Jun, male, 26 years old, abdominal distension for three months. Physical examination revealed a mass in the lower abdomen, solid, clear boundaries, slightly tender to touching, moderate ascites, perineal and anal skin sensory disturbance, loss of anal reflex. Supplementary examinations done were a surface ultrasound and MRI. ¡°A patient admitted from the Gynecology department?¡± Yang Ping found it strange. It was common for patients to be referred to the wrong department, but it was rare for a man to be sent to Gynecology. Even if a man had abdominal distension, he would most likely think of a tumor than being pregnant. Not that Yang Ping was curious; physicians need to be clear about the diagnosis process. This is called medical history. Only by understanding the medical history can a real diagnosis be made, especially in complicated cases. ¡°I also don¡¯t know.¡± The doctor responsible for the patient was also a bit puzzled; he¡¯d been considering why a man would see a gynecologist. ¡°See the image!¡± Yang Ping casually mentioned, without dwelling on the matter. The outpatient department had conducted an MRI and a surface ultrasound. Usually, pictures were first displayed on the screen for everyone to analyze. This was both a way to get familiar with new patient information and to cultivate independent thinking among the doctors. After a brief analysis, the results of the imaging examination were displayed. Experienced clinicians often have a higher interpretation ability of X-ray, CT, and MRI images than radiologists, as they can combine these images with what they see during surgery. But less experienced doctors rely heavily on the diagnoses of radiologists. However, the surface ultrasound was an exception. Most surgeons lack the ability to interpret it and have to rely on its report. The images on the surface ultrasound report only appear symbolic and, unlike X-rays, cannot be directly interpreted. ¡°An abdominal mass? Is it a mass? Clearly, teeth and the spine, as well as other bones, are visible.¡± ¡°Is the medical record wrong? Is it a female?¡± ¡°A fetus?¡± Their first reaction was that, apart from a fetus, how could there be a spine? Someone questioned if he had made a mistake with the gender, which irritated the on-duty doctor who defended his reputation: ¡°I did a detailed physical examination; the patient has male genitalia.¡± ¡°To those voices of doubt, suspecting I¡¯ve written the case wrongly, shut up and stop adding fuel to the fire.¡± At this time, the crowd was growing, with people gathering around the digital viewing screen. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Zhang Lin, together with Little Five and Fatty, had also finished washing up and had breakfast. Drinking isn¡¯t great, and even after a night, after washing up, Yang Ping could still smell the alcohol on them. Fortunately, it was Saturday, everyone was off, which mitigated the issue. ¡°Zoom in, is that a spine?¡± ¡°It does look a bit like a spinal cord.¡± ¡°Do we have the CT scan?¡± ¡°No, I asked the head of the Ob/Gyn department who said they were afraid of misdiagnosing, so they didn¡¯t dare to perform a CT scan.¡± The doctor on duty was quite serious, commendable indeed. That being said, the Ob/Gyn doctors at the time were afraid this was the infant, and therefore didn¡¯t dare to do a CT scan, opting for an MRI instead. MRIs lack ionizing radiation, CT scans, on the other hand, expose patients to significant amounts of it. Everyone discussed at length, but the doctor held back on releasing the diagnosis like an enigma, mainly due to the spine which left everyone stumped. Among all known tumors, none seemed to have a growing spine. Even in the cases of teratomas, it¡¯s mostly teeth, hair, nerves, bone fragments, and fat, etc. A distinct spine like this, none has seen or heard before. Everyone was getting anxious, fearing Professor Yang would start inquiring, cursing the duty doctor for withholding the diagnosis. The duty doctor leisurely presented the patient¡¯s diagnosis: Pelvic teratoma with sacral nerve damage. Yang Ping furrowed his brows, gazing at the image on the screen. Teeth, hair, and irregular bone fragments are commonly found in teratomas, but a full spine is indeed rare. Perhaps it¡¯s best to meet the patient then. For a clinician, this is a principle that needs to be followed. It was just past seven, so Yang Ping decided to visit the patient. The patient had a fair and clean complexion, with delicate features and extraordinarily good looks, portraying a sort of gentle beauty that¡¯s in line with the popular image of a young male celebrity. By his bedside was a sunny-faced boy ¨C tall and sizable, wearing a trendy T-shirt, with some strange tattoos on his arms. After asking about the patient¡¯s medical history, Yang Ping found nothing notably different from what was recorded in the medical record. The patient continuously felt bloated in the lower abdomen, but didn¡¯t pay much attention to it. The belly started to bulge slightly three months ago. At that point, he thought it was because of lack of exercise that had resulted in a small belly. It was only until his belly continued to grow larger when they performed a surface ultrasound in a local hospital. Both of them didn¡¯t think the local hospital¡¯s expertise was up to par, so they came to Nandu¡¯s Sanbo Hospital from out of province for medical treatment. ¡°What is your relationship with him?¡± Yang Ping asked the sunny-faced boy. Li Jun, the patient, turned his head to look at the sunny-faced boy, seemingly indecisive. ¡°I¡¯m his cousin. Is it serious?¡± The sunny-faced boy seemed somewhat tense. ¡°I¡¯ll speak to you in detail about it later.¡± Yang Ping felt he should talk to them properly about it. The tumor was compressing the sacral nerve, even growing into the sacral canal via the sacral opening. It would be quite challenging to completely remove it. Moreover, physical examination revealed sensory impairment in the anal area, and the patient was having some difficulty controlling bowel movements. ¡°Did the outpatient doctor explain any treatment options to you then?¡± Patient Li Jun hadn¡¯t spoken for the entire time. The sunny-faced boy helped answer: ¡°They didn¡¯t explain anything, only that it might be a teratoma and that surgery would need to be conducted in your department. They did mention that this teratoma was a bit strange, asking why there was a fully developed spine in there, as they¡¯ve never seen such a teratoma before.¡± ¡°Indeed, it¡¯s a bit complex. Close the door, I need to examine you.¡± Yang Ping took over the gloves handed to him by Song Zimo. Although the door was closed, there was still a large circle of residents and interns surrounding them, all with eager, yearning gazes. Even for a male patient, it was a bit embarrassing. ¡°It¡¯s okay, we are a teaching hospital, this is a normal situation.¡± Indeed, while enjoying the advanced medical treatment at a teaching hospital, it should be remembered that it is still a teaching hospital. One needs to be prepared psychologically for the scrutiny that comes along. Without access to actual cases for these interns to observe, they would never truly grow. ¡°It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s okay!¡± The sunny-faced boy was comforting the patient by stroking his forehead. The patient was first lying down, then turned over to lie on his stomach, his trousers were completely taken off, and the diaper he was wearing was also untied. The medical record didn¡¯t get the patient¡¯s gender wrong, everyone can confirm now, there will be no more doubts. Yang Ping examined the skin sensation, following the dermatomes one by one, discovering that the duty doctor¡¯s physical examination was quite accurate. The perineal and anal skin had sensory disorders, and the rectal reflex couldn¡¯t be induced. ¡°Do you usually have any problems with bowel movements?¡± ¡°I often don¡¯t realize it, but excrement and urine just slip out.¡± That¡¯s why he was wearing a diaper. Which also meant the sacral nerve roots had been seriously compressed. These interns were eager to get a clearer look, vying to examine the rectal reflex because of the crowded room. ¡°Everyone can examine dermatome muscle strength, and sensation, especially rectal reflex. All should experience this.¡± No choice, in the face of a classic case, the interns had to get hands-on and experience it themselves. Everyone was excited, already brandishing the sharp-end reflex hammers, getting ready to stimulate the patient¡¯s anal mucosa with the spikes, observing whether the anus has any contractions. Sometimes, in their pursuit of accuracy, they even extended their index fingers, applying paraffin oil as a lubricant, their index fingers would then be inserted into the patient¡¯s anus to feel whether there was any contraction. ¡°Everyone line up, don¡¯t squeeze! One at a time!¡± Zhang Lin maintained the order and then demonstrated himself how to examine the rectal reflex. The sunny-faced boy was unhappy but kept his discontent to himself. ¡°I will talk to you separately about his condition later!¡± Yes, the situation was a bit complex. Even if the tumor was removed, there was still a possibility that the nerves would not recover post-surgery. The skin in the perineal and the anal area would be numb, just like a piece of dead skin, and worse, the patient could be incontinent unknowingly losing feces and urine. The sunny-faced boy¡¯s face turned gloomy, accepting the truth. Chapter 629 - 629 572 The Secret ?Chapter 629: Chapter 572: The Secret Chapter 629: Chapter 572: The Secret The teaching of the typical case officially began. After demonstrating the standard procedure, Zhang Lin stood aside. The interns, one after another, performed rectal reflex checks. An intern was performing the procedure with much zeal, while the following interns stayed far away. ¡°What are you hiding so far away for, if you¡¯re not watching properly?¡± Zhang Lin reproached them. The intern felt compelled, moving a little closer, yet ready to dart away at any moment. One can¡¯t blame this intern; he had a psychological scar. During his obstetrics and gynecology internship, he stood too close while observing an abortion procedure. The rounded fetus was pulled out from the uterus, causing a blood bag to burst all over him. Poor guy, he was covered in blood, absolutely drenched! Even worse, out of respect for the chief surgeon, he remained still, acting as if nothing had happened, completing the whole observation process. What a trauma! Fortunately, no mishaps occurred this time, and the second intern breathed a sigh of relief. When it was his turn, he hastily recalled the theoretical knowledge about the procedure. As he bent down to attend to the patient earnestly. The patient experienced fecal incontinence, and semi-liquid feces leaked out. At this moment, you absolutely cannot show any signs of disgust, not in your gaze, expression, or actions; you are a doctor. Teacher Zhang walked over, calmly put on gloves, took some tissues from someone nearby, painstakingly, meticulously cleared away the feces, and efficiently changed the patient¡¯s diaper. ¡°We will stop here for today!¡± The teaching has to consider the circumstance; if the patient is uncomfortable, it can¡¯t continue. If the patient outright refuses, it also can¡¯t continue. Doctors can¡¯t insist on patients against their will. Li Jun turned his head, his face full of grievance and innocence. His cousin finally breathed a sigh of relief: ¡°Thank you everyone, thank you all.¡± Those who didn¡¯t get a chance to participate were disappointed, their gaze lingering on the buttocks that people had already covered up. Some were complaining internally about their fellow students¡¯ clumsiness, which had robbed everyone of a potential learning opportunity. It was the same student in the breast department, when it was his turn, he trembled, unable to dare touch the breast lump for a long time. The supervising teacher, in a rush for surgery, was forced to terminate the teaching early. Under the disillusioned and blaming gazes of others, this unlucky student trailed behind Teacher Zhang, leaving the ward. ¡ª After taking a few sips of tea in his office, Yang Ping went to the meeting room. He asked Li Guodong to bring the patient and their family, wanting to discuss the medical condition one-on-one. During rounds, especially during major rounds, details about the medical condition and surgery shouldn¡¯t be discussed. About ten minutes later, the patient and their family were brought to the meeting room, with Li Guodong sitting by the side to take notes. ¡°Please sit down!¡± The cousin saw Li Guodong at the side and appeared unhappy, as he was expecting a private conversation. Yang Ping noticed his apprehension and instructed: ¡°Guodong, could you step out for a bit.¡± Li Guodong understood, knowing that the patient had confidential matters that they didn¡¯t want others to hear, only wanting to communicate with Professor Yang. Indeed, that¡¯s how it was; the cousin noticed from his rounds that Yang Ping was the one in charge. He only wanted a frank face-to-face communication with the person in charge. The door was closed, and locked! ¡°This teratoma is quite big, 34X25X27 centimeters in size. It has already developed spine bones, teeth, and hair. Part of the tumor has grown into the sacral canal, forming a dumbbell shape, substantially condensing the sacral nerve. Even if we remove it, there might be residual effects, such as perineal and anal sensory disorders, incontinence.¡± Yang Ping directly got to the point. The handsome guy, Li Jun, looked remarkably panicked, constantly looking at his cousin. The cousin, his hands burying in his hair, after a while, lifted his head and said, ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯m actually not his cousin, but his friend!¡± He hoped that Professor Yang could grasp the meaning behind his words. But Professor Yang couldn¡¯t understand. Cousins and friends were not immediate family and could only serve as spectators. In the end, Li Jun could only sign the surgical consent by himself. ¡°We¡¯ve taken precautions, how could we possibly be pregnant?¡± The sunny male student blurted out impulsively. Yang Ping almost spat out his tea, but his professional etiquette allowed him to remain calm. What does that mean? Is the patient female? How is that possible? He had personally examined the patient before, who was clearly male. How could he be mistaken? ¡°Are you male or female?¡± As a doctor, Yang Ping needed to clarify this with Li Jun face-to-face, as the issue was beyond his understanding. People with two sets of reproductive organs do exist, but Yang Ping had seen this patient¡¯s pelvic MRI. He takes the study of images very seriously and would never overlook such a significant issue. Li Jun¡¯s pelvic MRI had revealed no female reproductive organs, not even traces. Could the female reproductive organs be positioned high? No, that can¡¯t be true. An MRI covers the full scan of the abdomen. ¡°I¡¯m a doctor. I ask these questions just to understand your condition and offer better treatment. Do not worry, I will keep this confidential for you.¡± Yang Ping expressed his intentions. Li Jun¡¯s face turned red, he spoke shyly, ¡°I am a man.¡± ¡°I am his boyfriend.¡± The sunny boy gathered his courage to clarify. If he didn¡¯t clarify now, there might likely be misunderstandings about the illness. That¡¯s how the sunny boy was thinking. Yang Ping understood, he respected his patient¡¯s privacy, but felt it necessary to enlighten them. ¡°You thought this was a pregnancy? So you went to the obstetrics and gynaecology department?¡± Yang Ping asked. Li Jun turned to his boyfriend, hoping he would answer for him as he was not good with words. After a moment of hesitation, the boyfriend said, ¡°We did a surface ultrasound at a small local hospital. The doctor said there was a tumor, but it strangely resembled a child. They advised us to get tested at a bigger hospital. We thought it was pregnancy...we didn¡¯t dare get treatment at the local hospital, so we came to your hospital. Of course, for pregnancy, we would see obstetrics and gynecology. When I got off work, I went to see the doctor who after viewing my ultrasound recommended an MRI. After the MRI, I went back to see the doctor who suggested it might be a teratoma, with teeth, bone structure, and hair in it.¡± Yang Ping finally understood the whole story and patiently stated, ¡°Firstly, don¡¯t worry, this isn¡¯t pregnancy. Men can¡¯t get pregnant. In medical terms, conception starts from the fertilized egg when a man¡¯s sperm combines with a woman¡¯s egg. Without an egg, there¡¯s no possibility of pregnancy. You are worrying needlessly. Now you need to have surgery to remove this teratoma.¡± The sunny boy expressed his surprise, ¡°But there are spine and teeth developed inside, isn¡¯t that a child?¡± Clearly, there¡¯s significant absence of sexual education! ¡°I checked on Baidu, teratomas originate from reproductive cells, and sperm are reproductive cells. Isn¡¯t this also a form of indirect pregnancy? Just with a deformed child.¡± The sunny boy wasn¡¯t satisfied and kept asking. Yang Ping¡¯s patience encouraged him to communicate freely. Apparently, he had looked up information and had some understanding, just interpreted it incorrectly. ¡°No need to worry, this isn¡¯t pregnancy, just a teratoma. It originates from reproductive cells, caused by abnormal differentiation of reproductive cells during embryo development. It¡¯s a type of tumor. Although it¡¯s called ¡®fetus tumor¡¯, it has nothing to do with a fetus. Also, as I¡¯ve said before, men can¡¯t get pregnant, even if they wished to.¡± ¡°This teratoma does present these features; mature differentiation, teeth, skeletal structure, and hair. Based on experience, it¡¯s most likely a benign teratoma, but its exact nature can only be determined after surgical pathology.¡± The sunny boy seemed to understand something. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Professor Yang. No one explained this to us before, so we didn¡¯t understand.¡± Having clarified the misunderstanding, the two seemed much more relaxed. The sunny boy sent Li Jun back to his ward then returned to enquire about the operation costs and other details. They didn¡¯t have health or social insurance. He¡¯d been recently laid off from a livestreaming company for not meeting performance requirements and had yet to find a job. At the same time, the sunny boy felt regret for not taking Ajun to the doctor sooner. Since they had been financially strained, they¡¯d only recently managed to save a little money. They hadn¡¯t expected the matter to be this complicated so they didn¡¯t save up much. He told Yang Ping, ¡°Just wait for a few more days, I will definitely gather the money. No matter what, I can¡¯t give up on Ajun. Even if he¡¯s paralysed after surgery, I am willing to accompany and take care of him.¡± He also asked Yang Ping to keep their relationship a secret. Of course, respecting patient privacy is one of a doctor¡¯s primary obligations. Chapter 630 - 630 573 My Professor is Really Steady ?Chapter 630: Chapter 573: My Professor is Really Steady Chapter 630: Chapter 573: My Professor is Really Steady Maintaining patient privacy is a principle for doctors. The four key principles of medical theory are ¨C no harm, respect, beneficence, and justice. Due to the nature of the medical profession, doctors often have access to certain private aspects of a patient¡¯s life. These could be things the patient has never disclosed or exposed to anyone, including physical and mental aspects. Therefore, doctors must respect the medical confidentiality of patients. Breaching this confidentiality damages the doctor-patient relationship and results in a loss of patients¡¯ trust in healthcare professionals and medicine. This is a fundamental professional principle. Even Zhang Lin, who is known as one of the biggest gossips at Sanbo, will keep his mouth shut when it comes to patients¡¯ privacy. The sunny boy is called Qin Xiaowei. Apart from other things, his values are quite straightforward and upright. He told Yang Ping that Li Jun is actually a patient suffering from uremia, requiring dialysis twice a week. Both of them are Beijing-drifters. Instability in their work often leads to interruptions in their medical and social insurance payments. After a year in the live streaming industry, they made some money, all of which was spent on Li Jun¡¯s medical treatment, especially on dialysis, which is very expensive without reimbursement. Their financial situation improved when medical and social insurance was paid according to the flexible employment policy. Perhaps Yang Ping¡¯s steady image gave this young man trust, and he told Yang Ping a lot. ¡°Uremia, did you tell Dr. Li Guodong about this condition? Arrange for dialysis immediately.¡± Yang Ping asked, empathetic towards their situation. Qin Xiaowei nodded, ¡°I just told him. We had dialysis before coming here. Tomorrow, we need to arrange for dialysis.¡± ¡°Ajun is prepared to have a kidney transplant. We¡¯re waiting for a kidney donor. I¡¯ve been tested for compatibility and the doctor said I meet the requirements. I plan to donate one of my kidneys to him, but the doctor said we need to go through an ethical approval process. We are currently in that process. Will this surgery affect the subsequent kidney transplant?¡± Qin Xiaowei was quite worried. Yang Ping assured him that it would not affect the subsequent kidney transplant. In fact, if the teratoma is not removed, it could affect the kidney transplant surgery later on. At least, the pressure from the teratoma could cause organ displacement, making the kidney transplant surgery more difficult. ¡°Actually, I have ten thousand right now, reserved for the kidney transplant. I don¡¯t dare to touch it. So, I have to raise additional funds. Just give me three days, and I can get the funds together. Ajun has been very depressed due to his physical condition and has attempted suicide several times. I stopped him just in time. I will always stay by his side, but it would be great if the nurses could take extra care of him. It would be best to lock the doors and windows. Recently, his mood has improved a lot.¡± Qin Xiaowei became more and more relaxed as he spoke. He told Yang Ping that Li Jun had attempted suicide by taking sleeping pills and swallowing a ring. Fortunately, he found Li Jun in time and avoided a tragedy. ¡°Beijing¡¯s health insurance can be used for network reimbursement, so don¡¯t worry too much about money.¡± Yang Ping informed him about health insurance policies, as many patients are not familiar with them. In fact, now many places can access the internet and interstate medical insurance can be directly reported, which is very convenient. Qin Xiaowei is a person who knows how to keep it short. He didn¡¯t want to take up too much of Yang Ping¡¯s time. He asked a few simple questions and then left the meeting room. After he left, Yang Ping returned to his office and once again pulled up Li Jun¡¯s outpatient examination information. He instructed Li Guodong to add a few more tests to Li Jun¡¯s preoperative examination, such as a sex identification chromosome test. Still feeling unsure, Yang Ping returned to the ward and thoroughly examined Li Jun again. He did not find anything new. Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun were very understanding of Yang Ping¡¯s caution and showed no impatience. Upon reconfirming, Yang Ping was certain that this young man was indeed a male patient. The diagnosis of teratoma from imaging was definitely unquestionable. Yang Ping was just being extra careful and going the extra mile. Yang Ping also reminded Li Guodong and the head nurse to take preventative measures, given Li Jun¡¯s past suicidal tendencies. Also, during their interactions with him, they needed to be mindful of their attitude. Because patients with depression are highly sensitive, Yang Ping urged everyone to ensure he feels that the world is beautiful. As a doctor, excessive caution is never unnecessary! ¡ª After arranging these matters, it was already past eight o¡¯clock. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were already prepared for the lecture. During live streaming on the forum, only the PPT image is displayed. Yang Ping only contributed to the voice, as he prefers not to show his face. This lecture is not only for the members of the forum but also serves as a learning opportunity for the doctors in the department. Interns are not required to attend. As interns¡¯ knowledge and understanding is not yet at the level to comprehend such a lecture. However, those who volunteer to attend are welcome. So-called immersion probably works like this ¨C frequently receiving such information naturally improves understanding. Zhang Lin and Little Five are like that. They are ordinary people, far from having the scholastic talents of Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. However, they are constantly learning from Yang Ping, receiving hands-on guidance from Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, their theoretical knowledge and surgical skills are far superior to doctors of the same level. With many surgeries and consistent training, they naturally became proficient. It¡¯s like reciting a poem from the Tang dynasty hundreds of times, eventually, you will learn recitation, even if you can¡¯t compose a poem. Then again, these two have not only been forced to recite poems from Tang Dynasty, but they also study poetry composition with Li Bai and Du Fu every day. Even though they could only say ¡°WOW¡± in the beginning, now they can write a few decent poems. At this moment, the chat room in the forum is very lively. The management and key points of surgery with spine external fixation frame! The video window currently only displays a topic. Chapter 631 - 631 573 My Professor is Really Steady - Part 2 ?Chapter 631: Chapter 573: My Professor is Really Steady ¨C Part 2 Chapter 631: Chapter 573: My Professor is Really Steady ¨C Part 2 Xu Zhiliang was sitting in the last row of the teaching room, with a laptop in front of him, a bottle of mineral water on the side, and a bag of big buns, at least six or seven by visual estimation. He was in charge of the forum¡¯s live connection. He placed the video window on the left side of the computer screen, and on the right side was the chat window to facilitate communication. Zhang Lin maintained order in the teaching room, and Little Five helped operate the miscellany of network computer sound equipment and microphones. Song Zimo was the host of the venue. Dressed in a shirt and tie today, he appeared very formal and carried an academic conference style. Despite being a Saturday, many young doctors were present. Even a few female students who normally had no interest in lectures were quietly pushing to the back, their gazes fixated on Song Zimo. ¡°Everyone, please remain quiet. Those who haven¡¯t had breakfast can eat while listening. But things like durian, stinky tofu, pickled vegetables should be consumed outside before entering,¡± Zhang Lin stood in front and shouted. Little Five was testing the quality of Yang Ping¡¯s microphone. Director Gao, who worked in sports medicine, also came to listen to the specialized spine course and sat next to Xu Zhiliang. His morning work had delayed him and he hadn¡¯t eaten breakfast yet. Seeing a few big northern buns in front of Xu Zhiliang, he thought, you can¡¯t possibly eat all these, can you? ¡°Old Xu?¡± Everyone called him that, so Director Gao followed suit. Xu Zhiliang operated his laptop while reaching for a bun, taking big bites without choking. ¡°Your buns are still hot and they look good. Northeastern buns? May I try one?¡± Director Gao reached out. Xu Zhiliang focused on his computer screen, oblivious to who was reaching for his buns. With a smack, he slapped Director Gao¡¯s hand away. ¡°I eat eight in one go for breakfast. Today, the last six buns from the cafeteria were all taken by me, and I¡¯m supposed to share them with you?¡± Eating eight in one go? Is that true or a joke? He had heard from Xiong Sihai that the stuttering man from their department ate eight big buns for breakfast¨Che didn¡¯t think it was true. Watching Xu Zhiliang enjoying his meal, finishing an entire bun in a few bites without even drinking water, he couldn¡¯t help admiring. That¡¯s freaking impressive! Director Gao swallowed a gulp of saliva and said nothing more. He took out his notebook and prepared to listen to the lecture. ¡ª ¡°Is Oreo online?¡± ¡°I¡¯m here!¡± ¡°You are energetic!¡± ¡°Not really.¡± It was after 2am in Germany. ¡°Regarding the choice of osteotomy location and the depth of osteotomy, I have never fully understood it. Today, I have to pay close attention to the professor¡¯s lecture.¡± ¡°The professor¡¯s principle of osteotomy is that each vertebra involved in scoliosis participates in the osteotomy while retaining some stability.¡± ¡°The external fixator is elastically fixated, and if a segment loses stability due to osteotomy, it increases the risk.¡± ¡°Why does each segment need osteotomy? This is a big difference from traditional orthopedics.¡± ¡°The theoretical basis is different. In the professor¡¯s words, this is the zipper principle.¡± ¡°What is the zipper principle?¡± ¡°When a bag is filled up and you try to close it, the zipper cannot be closed. After great effort, you finally zip it up, but you find that the zipper seems to have borne no tension at all, very slack, as if all the force has disappeared.¡± ¡°The stress is dispersed to each segment of the zipper. Similarly, the professor¡¯s goal is to distribute the deformity to each vertebra, each segment, thus dispersing the major into minor, spreading the deformity so that each place undergoes the least deformation. Therefore, the risk is minimized and the distance of the bone move is reduced to the shortest, shortening the orthopedic time as much as possible.¡± ¡°Hold on a minute, I need to make some coffee to stay awake.¡± Woodhead spoke. ¡°I¡¯m not interested in coffee now.¡± Robert used to be very fond of coffee. ¡°What are you drinking?¡± ¡°West Lake Longjing tea!¡± ¡°Oreo, is your trip to China confirmed?¡± August didn¡¯t respond. ¡°Oreo? Have you fallen asleep?¡± ¡°Actually, Oreo needs to stay most alert. It¡¯s after 2am there.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already had a bottle of dark beer. Don¡¯t worry everyone, I¡¯m in good shape right now.¡± ¡ª Nine o¡¯clock, the lecture officially begins. Xu Zhiliang thus operates the computer while gobbling down buns. Six buns are consumed, leaving not even a crumb behind. Having finished all his tasks on the computer, he can finally take a rest. Xu Zhiliang picks up a bottle of mineral water, ready to twist off the cap and take a few sips. He feels slightly uneasy as he sees Director Gao next to him, staring intently. ¡°Director Gao? Do you have some free time today?¡± Unable to resist, Director Gao swallows and replies, ¡°Yes, I¡¯m free. I came to listen to Professor Yang¡¯s lecture.¡± Then he turns his attention back to the class, no longer engaging in idle chatter with Xu Zhiliang. The live-streamed teaching on the Internet runs parallel to the in-person lecture. Yang Ping first revisits the theory of Ilizarov, then outlines its application in limb correction surgery. In doing so, everyone develops a basic understanding of the application of Ilizarov¡¯s theory in deformity correction. He then briefly touches on the history of spine correction, and outlines the challenges in applying the Ilizarov technique to spinal correction. The main threads of the lecture are clearly defined, logically arranged, and seamlessly connected. After laying out the problems, he addresses how to approach each challenge, and how these approaches can be translated into practical techniques. Only after this groundwork does he explain the principle of spinal external fixation, the selections of surgical indications, the control of surgical contraindications, perioperative management, and the details of surgical operations. How to calculate the deductions for osteotomy is the pivotal part of this technique; the rest is following a set pattern. How to design each osteotomy so as to ensure the stability of the spinal segments throughout the treatment process, and yet ensure that osteogenesis can occur at the osteotomy site. Only by maintaining stability can the shortcomings of the external fixation frame be avoided. And only by ensuring osteogenesis at the osteotomy sites could deformity correction using osteogenesis be achieved. To maintain stability, Yang Ping innovatively creates several lines and angles. Based on these lines and angles, the planning of the osteotomy can be achieved in a formulaic manner. If assisted by a computer, this task becomes even simpler. The computer can perform precise planning, further simplifying the design of surgical procedures and lowering the threshold of the surgery. The lower the threshold for a surgical procedure, the wider its applicability, and the higher its safety. The animal testing was a huge success. All forty cases in the first-phase clinical trial achieved successful deformity correction. The second and third-phase clinical trials are underway. The classic case of Cui Shukai is projected onto the screen. He had a C-type scoliosis with a preoperative Cobb angle of 176 degrees. After three months, the correction procedure was completely successful with no complications, and the functionality of each spinal segment was fully preserved. The preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative X-rays are displayed in sequence, along with the videos showing Cui before, during, and after his surgery. In particular, the videos showing Cui bending down to tie his shoelaces after recovering from surgery indicate that his spine functions extremely well. Yang Ping¡¯s image of reliability and steadiness has deeply impressed all the doctors, and the success of this experiment makes his image shine even brighter. Many stories about Yang Ping circulate in the Sanbo Hospital ¨C how he saves the day at conferences, takes charge in the face of adversity on the academic conference stage, cleans up after international experts, and rapidly completes Folding Man surgeries (who were recipients of Golden Knife Awards). It seems that Yang Ping can complete all types of surgeries and cases with a smooth and steady hand. When Cui bends over, a round of enthusiastic applause breaks out in the audience. ¡ª At the same time, the forum¡¯s chat box fills with emojis celebrating the achievement! ¡°Incredible!¡± ¡°A complete correction!¡± ¡°The spine looks almost normal when looking at the X-ray in a straight position.¡± ¡°Has the patient been discharged from the hospital?¡± ¡°Not yet, he won¡¯t be discharged anytime soon.¡± Xu Zhiliang responds to the questions. ¡°Great, I want to see this patient in person. Out of forty cases, other than one mild infection at the puncture site, there were no other complications. Isn¡¯t it too perfect?¡± August expresses disbelief, finding it hard to believe that a clinical trial of a spinal device could be so mature. ¡°This is Professor Yang¡¯s style ¨C steady! Each of his works is extremely mature. Nobody can do better than him. You can check out another masterwork by him, the Folding Man spinal correction. At that time, the new technology was not yet fully developed, so traditional surgery was used for the correction. Watching the entire operation is more thrilling than a roller coaster ride. After watching that surgery, you¡¯ll know that our professor is meticulous and top-performance when he starts on something. Let me see, how to describe the professor.¡± Robert still clearly remembers the operation on the Folding Man. No wonder, Yang Ping¡¯s spinal external fixation technique had been tested and refined in the System Laboratory until it reached its present maturity. ¡°Our professor is really so steady!¡± Takahashi types out a row of words. Robert feels a chill. It seems that there¡¯s a slim hope of snatching the position of chief moderator of the Trauma Orthopedic Forum from the Japanese. PS: There¡¯s only one chapter today, but it has more than four thousand words. So, it¡¯s substantial! Chapter 632 - 632 574 Dukes Fund ?Chapter 632: Chapter 574: Duke¡¯s Fund Chapter 632: Chapter 574: Duke¡¯s Fund Indeed, whether it¡¯s surgery or research, the beginning is the peak. Yang Ping has no choice, he needs to save time. He can¡¯t intentionally stretch out the learning curve in surgery and in research, he can¡¯t fumble for three or five years just to please people. If one has the wings of an eagle but flaps like a hen, there are either issues with intellectual capacity or with character. The content of this course is a new technology that is still in clinical trials. Therefore, there won¡¯t be much interaction in the class because not many people will understand this. However, this does not prevent these young doctors from discussing according to their understanding during their free time. Dr. Jin arrived more than ten minutes later than Director Gao. By the time he arrived, there were no seats left and it was even hard for him to find a suitable perspective. But soon, with his reputation among the young doctors, Dr. Jin secured a seat in the corner. The trauma orthopedics department also handles some cases of spinal fractures. This group of patients overlaps with the spinal surgery department as a source of patients. In hospitals where the resources for patients are tense, if the boundaries are not clearly defined, the two departments often compete fiercely for patients, taking bold actions. When it comes to their livelihood, even the closest of kin can become enemies, let alone colleagues from the same hospital. An admission source refers to the source of patients. Top-tier hospitals don¡¯t need to consider this, but for general hospitals, it¡¯s a pressing problem. Without patients, there is no income, and this is a very practical problem. Public hospitals actually receive very little financial allocation, it¡¯s so small that it can be ignored, they basically depend on their own profitability. Civil servant salaries are all solved by financial allocations, but doctors¡¯ salaries are almost entirely paid by the hospital¡¯s own earnings. So under this economic logic, if there are no patients, or too few patients, there will be no income, leading to the plight of not being able to distribute wages. For public institutions, although they cannot declare bankruptcy, they exist in a state similar to bankruptcy. Given this, it¡¯s not surprising for department directors to turn hostile when competing for patient sources. At Sanbo Hospital, the orthopedics department has more than enough patients to treat, so there are no boundaries drawn for patients that overlap between the spinal surgery and trauma orthopedics departments. Whoever admits a patient with a spinal fracture treats them, showcasing their special skills. Dr. Jin, as a perpetual attending physician, has given up hope for any promotion, but he has never stopped pursuing his medical skills. Director Han had nothing to do over the weekend and came to peek into the teaching room. Whether they were graduate students or interns, those crowded at the door automatically stepped aside. The doctors near the door all actively gave up their seats when they saw Director Han. Director Han waved his hand to signal everyone not to disrupt the atmosphere and also took a good seat without any hesitation and began to listen carefully. Director Qin of the spinal surgery department did not show up. Instead, his subordinate, Dr. Wen, appeared among the audience. The joint surgery department didn¡¯t show up either, as if they had the least presence among all the subspecialties. Yang Ping was still lecturing up there, everyone was listening attentively below. It¡¯s fine if they don¡¯t understand new ideas right now, they can write them down and ponder them later. Those who lecture on stage all share one bad habit. Once they start speaking, they go on and on, and slowly lose control. This is especially true for professors and leaders. Often in academic conferences, they agree on fifteen minutes, but as they speak their brains become excited and they cannot stop. The host has to keep ringing the bell to remind them: pay attention to the time! Professors are fine, upon hearing the hint, those with thick-skinned will say: give me two more minutes. The thin-skinned ones will hastily wrap up their speeches, forcibly repressing all their enthusiasm. But it¡¯s different when leaders speak. Who dares to ring the bell to remind them of the time? Not only can they not ring the bell, they also need to take notes seriously, pretending to be carefully listening to the speech. Similar to a straight highway, no matter how attentive the driver is, he is likely to doze off while driving. The same happens in leaders¡¯ meetings, there¡¯s a pile of people dozing off at the bottom, and the reason is here. Yang Ping, on the other hand, is one of the rare speakers who do not have a speech excitement syndrome. When he finished, there was only a solitary spine floating on screen, causing everyone to be startled from their contemplative state that the research had ended. The audience was unhappy, feeling that the time was too short. Just as they were beginning to understand, the lecture ended abruptly. It was now time for questions and discussion. Yang Ping stood at the podium, waiting for everyone¡¯s questions. Song Zimo, holding the microphone, moved among the rows, his tie fluttering, ready to hand the microphone to anyone who wanted to ask questions. Someone raised their hand, and Song Zimo passed the microphone to them. Director Han looked at Yang Ping on the stage, nodded slightly, filled with a sense of fulfillment. One good doctor is enough! In the midst of everyone¡¯s bustling discussion, Director Han quietly left the conference hall, and at this time, he bumped into Director Qin, who was late, at the elevator door. ¡ª August¡¯s black beer was really effective in keeping him alert. At four in the morning, he was staring at his computer screen with bright eyes. The course materials were stored in the forum¡¯s data section, which August referred to, watched repeatedly, and did not miss a single detail. Opportunities belong to those who are prepared. Without a solid foundation in Chinese, he wouldn¡¯t be able to access this mysterious forum, let alone communicate with them or understand these topics. Now, whenever August saw a Chinese character, he felt as though it contained mysterious information. If he could personally go to China and see a successful clinical experiment case with his own eyes, then the Duke¡¯s son, his own nominal nephew, would be saved. ¡°Disperse deformity, maintain stability, guarantee distraction, these are the professor¡¯s three principles for osteotomy.¡± Takahashi mainly focuses on trauma orthopedics, but if he wants to take over Fujiwara¡¯s position, he must be an all-rounder in orthopedics. Therefore, Takahashi put a lot of effort into spine-related practices. Coupled with his good foundation in Chinese, he was able to summarize the core principles of osteotomy in twelve words. In the end, Takahashi exclaimed, ¡°It¡¯s truly magical, truly amazing!¡± ¡°Disperse deformity, every vertebra needs osteotomy; maintain stability, osteotomy should be selected in the posterior column whenever possible. If osteotomy must be performed in the anterior or middle column, try to maintain the stability of the posterior column.¡± ¡°The large frame is for coarse adjustment, the small frame is for fine adjustment, and on the basis of overall correction, the correction of each part is independent, thus avoiding any obstruction to bone distraction at a certain part, which affects the progress of others.¡± ¡°Yes, these healthy bone tissues are rich in blood supply. As long as the operation is done properly and not rushed, bone distraction rarely fails. Even if one part does fail, other areas can wait for it, or abandon that part and continue to progress, which will not affect the correction process.¡± ¡°I finally understand.¡± ¡°The first international clinical experiment base has to be the Specialty Surgery Hospital in New York,¡± Luo Sha, a spine surgeon, announced proud. With the help of Robert, he had already made a lot of preparations. Whether it was the source of the disease, or the medical legal and ethical procedures, he was ready. Behind the screen, Takahashi showed a disdainful sneer. ¡°We are not well prepared, we can only wait until next time.¡± The one who laughs last is never the proudest. What a sly fellow! Robert cursed in his heart, knowing that the Japanese had made sufficient preparation, but pretended to abandon it. ¡°It seems I am behind, but gentlemen, I will work hard.¡± August believed that although Germany had joined the forum last, the duke¡¯s huge financial power and determined resolution backing him up provided the greatest possibility of securing this opportunity. ¡°Public fund¡± powerful financial resource, conducting medical research worldwide, it is not something a single hospital, or even a few of them, or academic organization could compete with. ¡°Oreo? Is the date confirmed?¡± ¡°It¡¯s been confirmed, a week from now!¡± ¡°We arrive on the same day? Stay in touch.¡± In addition to coming to Sanbo for further study, August will represent the ¡°duke¡¯s fund¡± and have the first conversation with Yang Ping. Perhaps, it could open the door to a major collaboration. Chapter 633 - 633 575 Fetal Heartbeat ?Chapter 633: Chapter 575: Fetal Heartbeat? Chapter 633: Chapter 575: Fetal Heartbeat? After finishing his lecture, Yang Ping returned to his office and answered the forum members¡¯ queries online. An hour spent answering questions was very relaxing. The Chinese language level of these people was improving every day. However, the difficulty of learning Chinese was not the problem, but rather the strength of motivation to learn. When the motivation is strong enough, the difficulty is no longer an issue. At this time, it was a bit unfair for August. To be fair, Yang Ping planned to move the class time to around six in the afternoon. For him, eating early in the afternoon and then gathering together for two hours of learning was a good thing. In this way, everyone could balance their time, and August wouldn¡¯t have to stay up all night. Just listening to the class, there was no need to take the risk of sudden death. Zhang Lin had already received three applications for further study. August and Robert were studying for three months, while Takahashi was studying for two weeks. August and Robert would be arriving in China a week later. By contrast, Takahashi will be here in China in two days. Takahashi¡¯s application came a full month earlier than Robert¡¯s. Interestingly, Takahashi hadn¡¯t said a word about his further study in the forum chat room. Because he had another important mission in mind, he was trying to secure Tokyo University Hospital as the trial site for the phase 3 clinical trial of a spinal external fixator. He understood that this opportunity was only laying the groundwork for subsequent collaborations, so he needed to secure it. After asking around and making inquiries, Takahashi realized that if he could secure the experimental cooperation on the spinal external fixator, more cooperation on cutting-edge techniques would follow. Hence, by arriving earlier than the Americans and the Germans, his chances for success would increase. ¡ª The results of Li Jun¡¯s preoperative examination showed that due to renal failure, his biochemical results were out of order, especially the extremely high value of creatinine. Li Guodong arranged for him to undergo dialysis in the dialysis room, with a regular schedule of two sessions per week. The nephrologist recommended that two sessions a week might not be enough and suggested increasing it to three sessions per week. Due to renal anemia, Li Jun¡¯s complexion didn¡¯t look good. His originally fair face had lost some of its vitality. However, regardless, this disease is treatable and if a successful kidney transplant can be performed, Li Jun can live normally. Li Jun was rather fortunate because if he were like others aimlessly waiting for a kidney source, there¡¯s no telling how long he would have to wait. Thankfully, his boyfriend Qin Xiaowei¡¯s kidney was a suitable match for him. But regardless of whether it¡¯s a relative or non-relative, donation of a kidney must pass a moral review. The main concern is to prevent organ trading from taking place. The supply of organ transplants has always been tight, especially in China where organ donations are rare, so for a long time people who wanted a quick kidney transplant had to resort to taking the back door. The sunny boy, Qin Xiaowei, was still wearing his T-shirt. The peculiar tattoo on his arm was quite eye-catching and his attire made him look like the hip-hop dancers. He had a fanny pack around his waist and he secretly visited Yang Ping¡¯s office, slipping a moderately sized red envelope to Yang Ping. Yang Ping refused his offer. The young man sincerely stated that he wanted Yang Ping to perform the surgery. He knew that the surgery was very risky and he didn¡¯t want Ajun to have any postoperative complications. Ajun had suffered enough already. Yang Ping assured him that he would devote all his effort into the surgery. Uremia is not a contraindication for surgery. After completing dialysis, surgery can be performed the next day. It does not pose a great risk to anesthesia and surgery safety. When calculating anesthesia medication, one needs to be extra careful. ¡ª The first day after dialysis is when the physiological condition of patients with uremia is at its best. Li Jun¡¯s surgery began. In the supine position, they did a routine disinfection and sheet layout. Yang Ping¡¯s surgical knife made a vertical incision in the lower abdomen. The tumor in the pelvic area involved the sacrum, especially the presence of tumors inside the sacral canal. This was a matter for specialists in bone tumors. Furthermore, the numerous nerves and blood vessels around the sacrum made the surgery tremendously difficult. In most cases, this kind of surgery requires coordination among orthopedic oncologists, general surgeons, and urologists. This is the result of the specialization of modern medicine. General surgeons are familiar with the liver, gallbladder, spleen, stomach, and intestines. They are at a loss when it comes to the kidneys, bladder, and ureter; while it¡¯s just the opposite for urologists. Once general surgeons or urologists dive into the area around the sacrum, they dare not proceed, let alone open the sacral canal. Every field has its specialization, and naturally, if a surgery goes beyond their scope, they won¡¯t do it and they won¡¯t have the corresponding anatomical knowledge. Of course, some orthopedic oncologists who are well-versed in certain anatomical aspects can complete such surgeries independently, without needing the cooperation of general surgery and urology. For Yang Ping, with his high level of anatomical knowledge, there was no need for the cooperation of other departments. Sanbo Hospital had long loosened the restrictions on his surgical authority. With his sharp surgical knife, he incised through the skin, subcutaneous tissue, fascia, and muscles, and opened the peritoneum. Yang Ping pushed aside the intestines and various organs, revealing part of the tumor. A flesh ball with a capsule appeared into everyone¡¯s sight. The surface of the capsule was covered with blue and red blood vessels, some of which were bulging. ¡°I heard that Nezha¡¯s mother was pregnant for three years and six months before she gave birth to a ball of flesh. Do you think it was a teratoma at that time?¡± Zhang Lin asked while retracting the suture. ¡°If it is a teratoma, how come the patient¡¯s father cut out a lively little person with one stroke? Is this a medical accident? Misdiagnosis!¡± Little Five continued. These two brothers, whenever they performed surgery, in addition to suturing, had another important mission, which was to keep the atmosphere lively. Song Zimo wasn¡¯t much of a talker, and Xu Zhiliang¡¯s speech could be frustrating. But this didn¡¯t apply when it was time for resuscitation. Yang Ping used blunt forceps to separate the surrounding tissues bit by bit. The tumor had quite a number of blood vessels, intricately connected to the pre-sacral vessel plexus. Large pieces of gauze were placed all around, separating the tumor from the surrounding tissues to prevent tumor cells from falling off and implanting. Before the nature of it was certain, nobody dared to judge whether the tumor was benign or malignant. Therefore, during any tumor surgery, the aim was to achieve ¡®no residual tumor¡¯ technique ¨C this was the basic technique for tumor surgery. It was both an operating technique and an operating principle. The goal was to prevent tumor cells from coming into contact with other normal tissues during the whole operation, preventing cell detachment and seeding. ¡°It¡¯s moving?¡± While chatting, Zhang Lin saw the fleshy ball twitching. ¡°Professor, it¡¯s throbbing, is this a fetal heartbeat?¡± Yang Ping kept silent. After completing the work of isolating the tumor with the gauze, he said, ¡°You guys feel it and judge what exactly it is.¡± Zhang Lin¡¯s palm rested on the surface of the tumor. It felt like a beating fetus¡¯ heart, a sensation he was very familiar with since he had just become a dad. The throbbing was very rhythmic, just like the beating of a heart. How could a tumor have the beating of a heart? Zhang Lin looked surprised and spoke a bit louder, ¡°Fetal heartbeat?¡± He was convinced that Yang Ping had made him feel it to test him. If there wasn¡¯t a new discovery, why would he test him? The surgical nurses, the anesthesiologist, and all others present in the room suddenly froze, making the operating room go silent. The open surgical area, the rhythm of the tumor¡¯s throbbing was very strong. Just like Zhang Lin said, only the heartbeat of a fetus could be so rhythmic. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang remained silent because there was no opportunity for them to touch the tumor while the two brothers were. Yes, it was a fetal heartbeat. There could be no mistake. Zhang Lin had felt this throbbing through his wife¡¯s belly. ¡°Professor, it¡¯s a fetal heartbeat!¡± Zhang Lin was absolutely sure. This time he could certainly establish his glorious image in front of the students. It was not surprising that Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang hadn¡¯t discovered it, they were not fathers yet. Is it really possible for a man to get pregnant? Considering that spine, this was a fetus. That¡¯s just too magical. An umbilical cord? There¡¯s an umbilical cord, professor! Zhang Lin¡¯s hand felt something like an umbilical cord, and Little Five confirmed at this moment. It really was an umbilical cord. Surgeons had obstetrics and gynecology rotation experience; they knew what an umbilical cord looked like. This touch, this thickness, this texture, it was an umbilical cord! With the fetal heartbeat, if one listens carefully, they could hear the tadadum sound of the little heart beating. Fetal heartbeat + umbilical cord, if not a fetus, what else could it be? The two brothers exchanged burning glances and nodded: it¡¯s a fetus! Was this a hermaphrodite who was really pregnant? People around cast puzzled looks at Yang Ping, hoping the professor could provide an explanation. The young professor stayed calm, leisurely changed his gloves, and kindly said, ¡°This is the tumor¡¯s feeding blood vessel. Which thick artery on the living body doesn¡¯t throb? You feel his aorta again, or the internal and external iliac arteries?¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five looked at each other, stretched their hands in, indeed, the aorta was throbbing, and so were the internal and external iliac arteries. How could they forget about those! The glorious image they had just built collapsed instantly, and it was then that Song Zimo spoke, ¡°The professor asked you to touch it to let you experience the texture of the teratoma, not to let you judge whether it is a fetus.¡± ¡°Oh¡ª¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five stopped talking and focused on retracting the suture. After all, retracting sutures was their real job. They should just be honest retracting sutures heroes, instead of constantly trying to establish a grand and glorious image in front of students. Chapter 634 - 634 576 Dissecting a Strand of Hair ?Chapter 634: Chapter 576: Dissecting a Strand of Hair Chapter 634: Chapter 576: Dissecting a Strand of Hair Yang Ping let them touch to feel the teratoma tumor through tactile sensation. However, his imagination was rather rich. The pelvic tumor was shaped like a dumbbell with the sacral canal tumor, with one end larger and the other end smaller. For a complete removal of the tumor, Yang Ping planned to divide the tumor into two parts, first remove the larger tumor in the pelvis. This way, without the obstruction of the large tumor, he could open the sacral canal in a wide space and slowly remove the small tumor inside. One blood vessel after another was ligated and cut off, freeing it from these constraints. Yang Ping ligated and cut off the connection between the tumor and the inside of the sacral canal, then removed the entire tumor from the pelvis and gave it to Xiao Su, who placed it on a special sterile table. The structure of the sacrum was complex, with a sacral canal, sacral foramen, and nerves extending from both sides of the sacral foramen. Yang Ping sorted out the anatomical structure here, distinguishing between normal tissue and teratoma tissue. If he cut wrongly and injured the nerves, it would cause neurological symptoms. After sorting, Yang Ping marked the just cut connecting band of the tumor. All these tissues were the same as the tumor inside the sacral canal. It was unclear whether the tumor originally sprouted outside the sacrum or inside the sacral canal. If the tumor was in the vertebral canal or sacral canal, the bony canal had to be opened, otherwise the tumor could not be exposed. Yang Ping used an ultrasonic osteotome to open the sacrum from the front, shaping the cross-section of the cut bone into a trapezoid, this way the removed bone piece was larger on the outside and smaller on the inside. It was cut like this so that the bone piece could be covered back later without sinking and pressing against the nerves in the sacral canal. The anterior side of the sacrum was much thicker than the posterior side, so opening a window from the front made it easier to make this kind of well cover-like bone piece. Moreover, opening a window from the front could reduce the occurrence of postoperative sacrococcygeal pain. The whole bone piece looked curved and roughly square, with a trapezoidal cross-section, in total three such bone pieces were cut out. The bone piece was lifted, revealing the tumor hidden in the sacral canal. This way of exposure was completely different from textbooks. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang witnessed the way Yang Ping entered the sacral canal, and memorized the whole process in their hearts. Next time, they could also use this method. The advantages of this method were obvious, not only was it practical and aesthetic, but the bone piece could also be fixed back to its original position with a steel plate screw after surgery. Moreover, each step of Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries was clear, the anatomy was clear, it was naturally didactic. Following Yang Ping for a long term made both their anatomical knowledge and surgical methods improve significantly, and they learned a lot that wasn¡¯t in textbooks. Zhang Lin and Little Five, they would occasionally check what¡¯s happening inside while manipulating the retractor. Most of the time, the retractor holders had no visual field, they couldn¡¯t see what was happening inside, and naturally, they would feel sleepy after manipulated the retractor for a long time. So one of the most basic qualities of a retractor holder was to not fall asleep. Zhang Lin and Little Five were not ordinary retractor holders, they were the great ones, so naturally they wouldn¡¯t fall asleep. In the near future, their book about retractor holding would be published. ¡°Little Five, the hospital basketball game is about to start, let¡¯s draw lots after work this afternoon, you go, or I go?¡± ¡°You have bad luck, I¡¯d better go.¡± ¡°Brother, let me go, my luck has been great recently, I got an extra bottle whenever I bought Wong Lo Kat.¡± On such occasion, representing the most promising department and participating in the lottery in the image of a young talent, as the top of the tops, how could Zhang Lin miss this. The basketball game had been prepared for a long time and was about to start. In the preliminary round, the least wanted teams to bump into were the emergency department and the administrative department. Xiong Shihai from the emergency department was basically unmatched in the field due to his size. The administrative department, with a group of deans, deputy deans, medical directors and other big shots, their skills were not good, especially Dean Xia, who was simply a foul king. ¡°Dean Xia is in every game, I will personally referee, I won¡¯t let him off the hook!¡± ¡°Old Zhang!¡± Professor Zhang stood behind, hands behind his back. Sometimes Director Han also helped out in the outpatient clinic, which gave Professor Zhang plenty of time. If there was any special surgery, the old man would stroll in. For an eighty-year-old, if he didn¡¯t visit the operating room for a few days, he would become quite anxious, like he was lost. As long as he took a walk around, even if he did nothing, he would feel at ease. Surgeons actually spend more time in surgery than at home, it becomes a habit. ¡°Old Zhang is awesome!¡± While others call him Old Zhang, these rascals call him Zhang Old, and Professor Zhang didn¡¯t take offense. These brothers who often play online games together in private, are accustomed to calling him Zhang Old. ¡°Brother Fat, I heard that you¡¯ve been in low spirits recently, what happened? Did the swan fly away?¡± Professor Zhang sidestepped and came over to Liang Fatty. The intern quickly moved a stool for Old Zhang to sit on. Fatty lowered his head, spluttering indecisively. The shape of the sacrum is very irregular, and there are many outgrowth-like structures which make it difficult to completely remove the tumors; furthermore, these regions are full of blood vessels and nerves. This kind of surgery is as difficult as urban guerrilla warfare. The foundation of surgery is actually anatomy, the more familiar you are with it, the easier it is to perform surgery. The irregular teratoma in the sacral canal was completely removed by Yang Ping in the midst of laughter. Two tumors, one large and one small, one spherical and the other irregularly shaped, were placed on the sterile table. ¡°Send them for frozen sectioning!¡± A quick intraoperative frozen section can quickly provide a pathological diagnosis. Doctors can wait for the pathological section report on the operating table; if benign, merely removing the tumor suffices; if malignant, you have to perform the surgery based on grading and staging, often expanding the surgery to a radical one; not just removing the tumor, but also cleaning up the surrounding lymph nodes. In Europe and America, operating rooms are equipped with pathology rooms for surgeons¡¯ use. The chief surgeon removes the tumor sample, takes off his surgical gown, goes to the pathology room to personally review the frozen section, confirms the nature of the tumor, determines grading and staging, then scrubs back in and continues the surgery. However, in our country, surgeons don¡¯t have this tradition of viewing pathological sections. ¡°Anyway, you have to cut it open, so why not take a look?¡± Song Zimo took a keen interest in the structure of this teratoma. Since it¡¯s going to be sampled anyway, after cutting it open, different tissues can be sampled from multiple points, then sent separately to the pathology department. The fleshball was laid on the sterile table, and Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, one holding the fleshball steady and the other performing the incision. The swollen fleshball implied some internal pressure. To prevent splashing fluid when it¡¯s cut, Song Zimo asked everyone to keep their distance from the sterile table. As the capsule was cut open, a pile of fat came bursting out, immediately followed by a thick, greasy liquid flowing out, mixed with a disarray of black stuff. Song Zimo took a bit of the fat for a specimen and then continued the dissection. Those black and messy things turned out to be hair-like fibers; Song Zimo used a forceps to gently pull out a thick clump of hair that was over a meter long. This sight was a bit horrifying ¨C the idea of a bunch of hair growing in your stomach. And it wasn¡¯t just a little bit of hair, but large clumps, almost equal to the amount of hair snipped off a grown woman. No wonder the fleshball was so swollen. For a better diagnosis, Song Zimo sampled part of the hair too as a standard. The tissue inside the fleshball was exceptionally complex, and to ensure a precise diagnosis, samples had to be taken from multiple points. Apart from the bony tissue which could not be frozen sectioned, all other soft tissues could be. Besides hair, there were also structures resembling teeth, one by one. The spine-like structure seen on the imaging pictures was not actually a full spine, but well-aligned spine-like bone chunks. There was also irregular muscle tissue around it, and they even found skin and nerve tissues. Chapter 635 - 635 577 Huge Cunning ?Chapter 635: 577 Huge Cunning Chapter 635: 577 Huge Cunning Handfuls of black hair were pulled out, the more you look, the more pang you get in scalp. The specimen was sent to the pathology room, everyone waits for the pathology result of a frozen section. Benevolent or malignant, the pathology result is the gold standard, it¡¯s the highest court of judgement. While waiting, everyone chats, and they took turns to provide psychological counseling to Fatty Liang, helping him rebuild his faith in love. Less than half an hour, the pathology report of the frozen section came out¡ªteratoma benign. Though it was a bit disgusting to pull out so much black hair, the result was pretty satisfactory. Everyone was relieved, Yang Ping himself wearing a surgical gown went to the entrance of the operation room. From a few meters away, he told Qin Xiaowei that Li Jun¡¯s teratoma is benign and the surgery is almost finished. This tall and handsome young man, hearing the news, punched in his own palm, yelling out loud: Yeah! A smile appeared on his depressed face. ¡°Thank you, thank you!¡± He clasped his hands and thanked Yang Ping. ¡°There¡¯s not much bleeding. Wait for around half an hour, he can return to the ward. You can wait here.¡± Yang Ping gave the instruction clearly, then went back to the surgery. The young man made a street dance move at the entrance of the operation room, probably too delighted. Remembering that Qin Xiaowei¡¯s and Li Jun¡¯s kidney typing was successful, Qin Xiaowei will donate one of his kidneys to Li Jun. That¡¯s true love! Absolutely true love! The love between men is also so touching. Returning to the operation room, Zhang Lin and Little Five have finished washing and started suturing layer by layer. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were by their side, instructing their junior doctors respectively. Professor Zhang had his hands at his back, ¡°I¡¯m going to the clinic!¡± Strolling in the operation room today made him feel so well, otherwise, he¡¯d feel uncomfortable all the time. Zhang Lin¡¯s phone rang, Zhou Can picked it up: ¡°Little Gao? Do you want to pick up?¡± Pick up! Little Gao is now one of us, why not? ¡°Hi, Little Gao, when are you going to arrive? What? You¡¯re already here? Where? In the dormitory? You came so fast, come directly to the operation room, right!¡± Zhou Can helped to hang up. Zhang Lin criticized, ¡°Dammit, he¡¯s already here, he will come to the operation room immediately.¡± Takahashi has arrived at Sanbo Hospital, he arrived one week earlier than August and Robert. When the surgery ended, as Li Jun was pushed out of the operation room, Qin Xiaowei rushed over, slung a poach bag over his shoulder, pulled up the quilt to cover Li Jun, held the railing of the stretcher, and helped push it. ¡°The surgery is successful. Whether the nerve symptoms can recover, depends on luck after the surgery. Sometimes it¡¯s hard to predict.¡± Little Five told Li Guodong as they took the patient back to the ward. For the nerve damage symptom caused by nerve compression, it has a high possibility to recover. Because no matter it¡¯s the horse¡¯s tail or the nerve root, they¡¯re all peripheral nerves, and peripheral nerves are more resistant to pressure. This is why there aren¡¯t many paralysis cases of lumbar disc herniation. Yang Ping was resting in the changing room, leaning against the long bench, close his eyes to rest. As Zhang Lin was heading out, he saw Takahashi at the operation room entrance and brought him in. Takahashi was familiar here, he got the surgical gown, mask, hat and slippers himself. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you give us a call? We could¡¯ve picked you up.¡± ¡°No, no, I am quite familiar here. I arrived at the airport, called a taxi, it¡¯s really convenient. I have put my luggage in the dormitory.¡± When Takahashi was going to enter the changing room, Zhang Lin whispered, ¡°Professor is resting inside.¡± Takahashi responded; The thing Professor hated most is being disturbed when he was resting. Zhang Lin led Takahashi to the resting room. Fatty Liang was already sitting there. ¡°Do you want a smoke, Little Gao?¡± Fatty threw a cigarette over. Takahashi caught it, giggled. Everyone was used to calling him Little Gao, he thought it was very intimate. In order to blend in with everyone, Takahashi used to sneak out to smoke with Fatty and others. ¡°Let¡¯s have the operation meal together at lunch. We will give you a welcoming banquet tonight.¡± Zhang Lin hugged his loved Little Gao, the milk powder and diapers for his son and daughter, this guy actually took it all, and sent the cases over from time to time. They¡¯re all brothers. When they were in Japan, they¡¯d almost went to the Kabukicho in Shinjuku, Tokyo together. ¡°You didn¡¯t say it in the group chat that you were coming so early¡± Takahashi was a bit embarrassed, ¡°Initially, I was planning to come one week later, but I couldn¡¯t wait any longer, I couldn¡¯t. Teacher Fujiwara really hopes Tokyo University can be the third stage clinical experimental base for the spine external fixator, so he urged me to come to China ASAP to familiarize myself with the technology¡± On this overseas experimental base, Yang Ping only gave out one spot. Because the main scope of clinical trial is still domestic. They¡¯re afraid that control of overseas clinical trials is not good and problems may occur. So to play safe, they temporarily choose one hospital to collaborate, gain experience before promoting to other hospitals. ¡°I¡¯ll ask the canteen to send one more work meal. We will make do with it at lunch, and we will have dinner together in the evening.¡± While sending red packets on his mobile phone, Takahashi promised. He was still in the department group chat, continuously send out big red packets, several off-duty nurses, very fast, the red packets were immediately grabbed as soon as they were sent out. After sending the red packets, Takahashi looked up: ¡°Brother Fat, I brought several cigarettes for you. I had a lot of things, and it¡¯s hard to bring them by plane. I sent it out through express delivery earlier, it should arrive in two to three days.¡± ¡°Teacher Zhang and Teacher Wu, I brought milk powder and diapers for you.¡± ¡°Just now I went to the department, and made a cup of tea for you, Teacher Zhang.¡± ¡°And, I brought the Nintendo Switch!¡± Then Takahashi made a gesture for silence. Everyone understood implicitly. If Song Zimo knew about this, he would definitely be scolded, thinking about gaming all day long. ¡°Little Gao, you are really cunning. You said in the forum chat room that you were going to come a bit later, and now you¡¯re here one week earlier?¡± Zhang Lin made an evil smile at him. While sending red packets on his mobile phone, Takahashi promised. He was still in the department group chat, continuously send out big red packets, several off-duty nurses, very fast, the red packets were immediately grabbed as soon as they were sent out. ¡°Little Gao, you are really cunning. You said in the forum chat room that you were going to come a bit later, and now you¡¯re here one week earlier?¡± Zhang Lin made an evil smile at him. Takahashi gave an embarrassed smile, ¡°No choice, the competition is too intense.¡± ¡°Clinical experimental base, there¡¯s only one spot. If I don¡¯t come earlier...¡± After sending the red packets, Takahashi looked up: ¡°Brother Fat, I brought several cigarettes for you. I had a lot of things, and it¡¯s hard to bring them by plane. I sent it out through express delivery earlier, it should arrive in two to three days.¡± ¡°Teacher Zhang and Teacher Wu, I brought milk powder and diapers for you.¡± ¡°Just now I went to the department, and made a cup of tea for you, Teacher Zhang.¡± ¡°And, I brought the Nintendo Switch!¡± Then Takahashi made a gesture for silence. Everyone understood implicitly. If Song Zimo knew about this, he would definitely be scolded, thinking about gaming all day long. Chapter 636 - 636 578 Call Big Brother ?Chapter 636: Chapter 578: Call Big Brother Chapter 636: Chapter 578: Call Big Brother Takahashi spoke lightly, but he was fully prepared. Coming early this time was to showcase his advantages, so that Sanbo Hospital could fully understand Tokyo University Hospital¡¯s preparations. For this clinical trial base, Tokyo University Hospital spent a lot of resources. Fujiwara Masao gathered the orthopedic elites from Tokyo University for several discussions to develop a detailed plan. First of all, in terms of medical hardware and software conditions, Tokyo University Hospital is at par with its competitors. To support this clinical trial base, they developed a specialized software for the management of clinical trial cases. Fujiwara Masao also established a strategy team, dedicated to serving the establishment of the clinical trial base. Regarding the selection of cases, cases were almost screened nationwide, and case profiles were prepared in advance. The doctors participating in the clinical trial were carefully selected and then trained. Now they are waiting for Takahashi to bring back the operational guidance from China, and then they will proceed with further training according to the guidance. Whether in overall structure or detail handling, Tokyo University Hospital has been very meticulous. At this moment, everyone in the operating room was busy. Takahashi could only highlight the important points and make it brief. He will find a suitable time to use PPT format to give a presentation to Yang Ping. ¡°The professor is in the changing room, I¡¯ll take you to see him.¡± Song Zimo said, pouring a cup of water in the rest room. Takahashi shook his head: ¡°The professor is resting, I will go later.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, his eyes are open.¡± Song Zimo had just come from the changing room. Open eyes meant that one could go in and greet. Takahashi spent half a year at Sanbo where he got along well with everyone, especially Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, and often discussed cases with them. Seeing Yang Ping, Takahashi was very respectful, greeting with a bow and a handshake. Japanese politeness may be hypocritical, but their admiration for strength is absolutely genuine. Yang Ping was used to his courtesy, asked him about his dormitory arrangements, whether he had checked in at the medical office, and why he didn¡¯t call in advance. The professor¡¯s concern made Takahashi feel warm, just like an intern being cared for by his mentor. He answered all these questions one by one. At this moment, Zhou Can¡¯s voice came from the entrance of the operating room. She was calling for help to transfer the patient to the bed. The patient for the second surgery had arrived. Generally, patients were transported from the ward to the operating room either on a stretcher or in a wheelchair. For pediatric patients, some toy vehicles were also used. If a stretcher was used and the patient could not transfer to the bed by himself, the doctor would need to assist. This was known as lifting the patient. The stretcher from the ward could only bring the patient to the entrance of the operating room, and then they needed to switch to the transport tools of the operating room to bring the patient into the operating room. This process was essential because the cleanliness of the operating room far exceeded that of the ward. Areas of different cleanliness levels could not be interconnected. In order to prevent the carrier from the ward from bringing in bacteria, it was forbidden to enter the operating room. The operating room was generally divided into contaminated, semi-restricted, and restricted areas. In the restricted area, it was necessary to wear sterilized gloves, slippers, sterile hats, and masks. Surgeons usually stripped everything off in the changing room except for their underwear, and then put on the scrubs of the operating room. Hearing Zhou Can¡¯s call, Takahashi immediately went to help Zhang Lin and Fatty lift the patient. He used to do this often during his training, and did it very well. The patient was a teenager with scoliosis. Takahashi could learn from this case. After helping move the patient to the bed, Song Zimo gave Takahashi a manual. This was a technical guide to the external spinal fixation frame. It was very detailed. After reading the manual and participating in several cases, doctors with spinal surgery experience could easily operate this. Especially doctors with experience in scoliosis correction, they could get the hang of it more easily. Takahashi was very tactful. He was humble and respectful when necessary and casual when suitable. He never kept his distance from anyone. As for dirty and tiring work, he was always eager to do it. The second surgery was an external spinal fixation frame case, a case for the second phase of the clinical trial. At the same time, the second phase of the clinical trial was carried out in Xiehe Hospital, 301, Magic City Sixth Hospital, and Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Takahashi got the technical guide of the external spinal fixation frame, with the consent of Song Zimo, he took photos of each page with his phone and then sent them back to Japan. Have it printed at Tokyo University Hospital, then arrange for translation, and have all the doctors and nurses involved in the clinical trial familiarize themselves with it, studying it word by word, sentence by sentence, then taking repeated tests until everyone passes. ¡°Takahashi, you have a solid foundation in spinal surgery, don¡¯t you?¡± Yang Ping asked. Takahashi respectfully followed by his side, always half a step behind: ¡°Professor Yang, you can call me Little Takahashi, it feels more comfortable.¡± Little Takahashi it is. Just like calling Japan little Japan is more colloquial, Little Takahashi is certainly more colloquial than Takahashi. ¡°Little Takahashi, you are also quite familiar with Ilizarov¡¯s limb correction surgery, aren¡¯t you?¡± Yang Ping continued to ask. Takahashi understood that the familiarity Professor Yang was referring to was not ordinary familiarity. So Takahashi answered honestly, ¡°I have some experience in spinal surgery, and the external fixator in limb correction works quite well¡ª¡± He then listed his papers in top international journals and some international monographs, which were all proofs of his ¡°familiarity¡±. Well, not bad. ¡°You guys do this surgery, and I¡¯ll watch from the side.¡± After the first phase of clinical trials, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had fully mastered it, they could pass on the skills, and Yang Ping only needed to give pointers at critical moments. Takahashi moved a stool for Yang Ping to sit in the corner and followed the others to perform the surgery. ¡°Little Takahashi, come here! Help push the C-arm machine!¡± ¡°All right!¡± ¡°Slow down, haven¡¯t pushed for a while, not familiar anymore, huh?¡± ¡°Connect the power supply, right, that socket.¡± ¡°Teacher, where is the silicone positioning pad?¡± An intern nurse asked Zhou Can, who was busy and didn¡¯t hear. As Takahashi squatted down to plug in the power supply, he helped answer, ¡°It¡¯s in the storage room, left side, first shelf, second layer full of silicone positioning pads.¡± After plugging in the power supply, Takahashi entered the patient¡¯s name and hospital number on the machine, very proficient. ¡ª Again, it was forum member¡¯s rest time in the lounge area. ¡°Dalang? Dalang? Dalang?¡± Robert had given Takahashi this name, and he had called out three times, but Dalang did not respond. If you want to use the forum, you generally need to be online, so Takahashi is not online now. But, as a matter of fact, Takahashi had been ready. He was ignoring them. Even after a week, when others asked: Why did you ignore us? I do not have internet on my computer! If they asked: Weren¡¯t you unprepared? How did you come to China so early? Takahashi¡¯s prepared answer: I came to watch basketball as a guest player. ¡°Why isn¡¯t Dalang responding? He¡¯s usually quite active.¡± Even if he¡¯s short of time, he could spare these few minutes. ¡°He¡¯s lurking behind us and peeping.¡± August said. August believed that the Japanese excel at peeping. In any case, he had no good feelings towards the Japanese. When he was a professor at the Charite? Hospital, there had been frequent thefts of girls¡¯ panties. After the police were called, the suspect was finally caught after much effort: a Japanese exchange student. A sleazy male student. In his rental room, the police found more than a hundred pairs of girls¡¯ panties hung around the room like decorations. It was from that time that August began to have a bad impression of the Japanese. Always associating the Japanese with peeping, sleaze, pornography and the likes. So much so, every time Japanese doctors came to Charite Hospital for further studies, August would refuse them. The psychological shadow he cast was too big, in case he met a more experienced one, even his own underwear might get stolen. Chapter 637 - 637 579 The Best Fortune ?Chapter 637: Chapter 579: The Best Fortune Chapter 637: Chapter 579: The Best Fortune Today we finished work rather early, with all the surgeries done by five o¡¯clock. Everyone was planning to go out for dinner to welcome Takahashi. Once the location was decided, Little Five and Fatty accompanied Zhang Lin to draw lots for the basketball match. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Takahashi all examined the patients who were to have surgery tomorrow. Yang Ping had a habit of checking on some key patients before getting off work, especially those who had surgery that day. Li Jun was the first patient to have surgery today, and he could start eating six hours post-operation. Qin Xiaowei attended to Li Jun by his bedside and fed him porridge. He always had a fanny pack around his waist, and there seemed to always be cuts on his fingers, wrapped in adhesive tape. ¡°It¡¯s too dangerous, don¡¯t go, you can wait for the surgery.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯ve already signed the contract, took the deposit, I just need to be careful.¡± ¡°Listen to me, don¡¯t go.¡± ¡°The porridge is a bit hot, go slow.¡± Qin Xiaowei would blow on each spoonful of porridge, then taste a bit of it. The door was open, the two of them seemed very happy, and only stopped to chat when Yang Ping knocked on the door. Qin Xiaowei put down the porridge bowl and stood up: ¡°Professor Yang is here.¡± ¡°Professor Yang, hello, I¡¯ve been very well since returning, I just ate some porridge, and haven¡¯t vomited.¡± Qin Xiaowei stood with his hands folded over his abdomen, looking rather restrained. ¡°The anaesthetic has worn off, you can eat some food, anything easy to digest. Porridge is good. How do the anus and perineum feel?¡± Yang Ping knew that the nerve wouldn¡¯t recover so quickly, but still asked. ¡°Still numb.¡± Li Jun answered with a smile on his face. The handsome features of this young man seemed rather pale; the dark face typical of kidney disease patients didn¡¯t seem to exist for him. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much, the sacral nerve that was compressed is a peripheral nerve and is more resilient to pressure. Moreover, you haven¡¯t had symptoms for long, so there¡¯s a high possibility of recovery.¡± Yang Ping encouraged Li Jun. ¡°Thank you, Professor Yang!¡± Li Jun always spoke with a hint of shyness. Yang Ping¡¯s peripheral vision caught sight of a guitar in the room. Li Jun was a guitarist. When he wasn¡¯t in the hospital, he would sing in bars or busy places for people, charging ten yuan a song. Qin Xiaowei used to be a rock climbing coach. Now he¡¯s quit his job to shoot some short videos for money. ¡°The negative pressure drainage tube needs to be worn for a few more days.¡± Yang Ping looked at the drainage volume on the ball, which was quite little, barely a few milliliters. The purpose of the drainage tube is to channel potential bleeding in the surgical area, so it doesn¡¯t accumulate in the body. Blood is a conducive medium for bacteria, and accumulation can easily lead to infections. Generally, the negative pressure drainage tube can be removed when the 24-hour drainage volume drops below 15 milliliters. Normal film drainage and semi-tube drainage must be removed within 24 hours, otherwise it could lead to upward infection. This means that bacteria from outside could enter the surgical area along the drainage film. But the duration for negative pressure drainage is a bit longer, extending up to 72 hours in some special cases. Negative pressure drainage involves a kind of suction on the drainage area inside the body which, while drawing out the body¡¯s seeping blood, also prevents bacteria from the outside from entering. ¡°Get plenty of rest, if there¡¯s anything you need let the attending doctor or nurse know, or you can tell me directly. Don¡¯t disturb yourselves, keep the porridge light, without a trace of greasiness.¡± Yang Ping advised. Qin Xiaowei picked up the bowl of porridge and showed it to Yang Ping. ¡°Red date and lotus seed porridge!¡± Qin Xiaowei had bought the ingredients and found a small restaurant. He paid them to use their kitchen to make the porridge. ¡ª After Yang Ping finished checking the wards, he met up with Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang and Takahashi at the doctors¡¯ office. They decided to go check out the draw for the basketball match in person and take a look at the court. The annual basketball match, reflecting the spirit of the department, should be taken seriously. At Sanbo Hospital¡¯s basketball court, the girls from the Human Resources Office had set up a table. The head of the office, an older woman, sat next to the table to supervise the event personally. Zhang Lin was in line waiting, flanked by Little Five and Fatty. Zhang Lin looked very imposing, as if he was about to march forward, forgetting all his relatives. ¡°Dude, is your luck any good? Why do I feel uneasy, you¡¯ve been in the firing line quite often recently?¡± Liang Fatty has doubts about Zhang Lin¡¯s claim of good luck. Zhang Lin puffed out his chest: ¡°Lately whenever I buy Wong Lo Kat, I often win another bottle. With this kind of luck, who else should draw lots? This lot will determine the honor of the department.¡± The fact is, drawing lots to determine who will face whom in the first game often has a big impact on team morale. ¡°Unlucky in love, lucky in gambling, Fatty is actually more suitable.¡± Little Five recommended Liang Fatty. Zhang Lin glanced at Fatty dismissively and said, ¡°A bachelor like him, how good can his luck be?¡± Fatty, red-faced and neck flushed, was about to grab and wring his neck. ¡°It¡¯s our turn next!¡± Song Zimo reminded. Yang Ping looked on amused, these guys can¡¯t seem to get through a day without messing around. ¡°You¡¯ll represent your department?¡± A clerk from the Human Resources Department looked around as if looking for Song Zimo. ¡°Are you questioning my identity? I¡¯ll let you know, I¡¯ve officially accepted Professor Yang¡¯s authorization to represent the Comprehensive Surgery Department in this year¡¯s...¡± ¡°Enough, hurry up and draw, the professor is waiting.¡± Little Five urged him. Pretentious bastard ¨C timing is everything! No one was more deserving of the title ¡®Pretentious Zhang¡¯. Zhang Lin fixed his hair, adjusted his posture, and prepared to draw the lot. The HR clerk didn¡¯t see Song Zimo, so she had no choice but to say, ¡°Fine, remember, you only have one chance.¡± Zhang Lin rubbed his hands together and inserted his hand into the ballot box, fumbling around for quite awhile. The HR clerk was getting impatient: ¡°Dr. Zhang, what¡¯s the matter? Is your hand stuck?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not rush, the moment isn¡¯t right yet. Given the importance of this, we mustn¡¯t be hasty.¡± Slowly, Zhang Lin drew his hand from the box, gave the drawn lot to the clerk who opened it, handed it to the director, who gave it to another clerk to record in the book, and then asked Zhang Lin to sign for confirmation. ¡°Who are we up against?¡± Zhang Lin took a glance but didn¡¯t get any clues. The HR director took a look and said, ¡°Little Zhang, you¡¯re lucky! You drew the top lot!¡± Zhang Lin immediately beamed with joy, his recent good luck streak continued. He must be up against some weak-kneed department, like the Ophthalmology Department, Dermatology Department, or the Otolaryngology Department, perennial underdogs fighting for last place. ¡°Which department?¡± Yang Ping and Song Zimo came over and Song Zimo asked. ¡°Administration Office!¡± the clerk immediately answered. I really want to kick the shit out of you! Yang Ping nearly raised his foot as Zhang bolted. The Administration Department, filled with deans, deputy deans, and the director of medical affairs, that brute, Dean Xia, charges around the field like a bull. Competing with them, even if you have skills, it¡¯s hard to show it. Takahashi and Xu Zhiliang cornered Zhang Lin, each holding one side, leading him to Yang Ping for punishment. ¡°I told you, you¡¯ve had terrible luck recently, always being bombarded, could you have good luck?¡± This was Fatty¡¯s chance for revenge. ¡°Professor, have mercy! They must be deceiving, it¡¯s definitely a conspiracy, a definite conspiracy!¡± ¡°The department¡¯s honor is entrusted to you, given this glorious task to you, and you drew the Administration Department? How are you going to make it right?¡± Yang Ping was fuming at this draw. ¡°On the field, I¡¯ll¡ªI¡¯ll take on Dean Xia!¡± Zhang Lin, whose arms were twisted behind his back, said by Xu Zhiliang and Takahashi. That¡¯s a good idea! ¡°You said it yourself. So on the field, you strictly mark Dean Xia for us. If he scores, you¡¯ll be in charge of all the department¡¯s medical records for three months.¡± Only then did Yang Ping let him go. Three months of medical records, you might as well kill me! Chapter 638 - 638 580 Comic ?Chapter 638: Chapter 580 Comic Chapter 638: Chapter 580 Comic Takahashi came to China once again, filled with joy. He had always cherished his time studying overseas. Every day, he could witness Yang Ping creating miracles, emerging a new world before him and learning loads of new things. The learning experience during that period gradually distanced him from his fellow doctors. Sasaki once was superior to him, but now Sasaki was way behind. This made Professor Fujihara reconsider his successor. It was once commonly known that Sasaki would be the successor of Professor Fujihara. But now, Professor Fujihara started to waver, paying more attention to Takahashi. Takahashi outperformed Sasaki, not only in philosophy but also in surgery. Because it was not the weekend, everyone dared not to drink alcohol. They replaced wine with tea and had a delightful conversation. ¡°Professor, your last surgery in Japan is still a tale in the Tokyo University Hospital. The video is being studied repeatedly as a textbook,¡± Takahashi couldn¡¯t help his excitement and raised his teacup to toast Yang Ping. Yang Ping didn¡¯t think much of it: ¡°It was just a surgery, no big deal.¡± ¡°Eighteen days after President Fujihara¡¯s surgery, he woke up and was capable of reading newspapers when discharged. It was a very successful surgery. Teacher Fujihara always marvels about it. So this time, he insisted I come as soon as possible to express Tokyo University Hospital¡¯s attitude. Tokyo University Hospital will always be a friend of Professor Yang, open to cooperation.¡± ¡°During Ning Yu¡¯s hospitalization at Tokyo University Hospital, Teacher Fujihara, together with professors from all related specialities, visited her daily. Later, during her rehabilitation training, he personally checked her progress every day. Ning Yu has completely recovered and will return to China soon, if I¡¯m not mistaken.¡± ¡°Professor Amano from Sao Paulo Hospital also hopes to send a special patient to China for surgery.¡± Takahashi finished his tea and put down the cup respectfully. Seeing Yang Ping felt like seeing a respected mentor. Reuniting with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang felt like students attending a reunion after graduation. ¡°How¡¯s Yu Shuilian now?¡± Takahashi recalled this classic ¡®half-man¡¯ case. He was on the scene of the rescue then. Song Zimo told him, ¡°She¡¯s operating a bakery on the first floor of Tri-Bo Hotel and is in great shape now, able to control her bladder and bowels. The next step is to arrange a powered orthosis.¡± Takahashi gave a thumbs up: ¡°That¡¯s amazing! I want to see her.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll take you there tomorrow!¡± Xu Zhiliang clinked his cup with Takahashi. ¡°Are you speaking more fluently?¡± Takahashi noticed that stutter Xu didn¡¯t stutter as much. Xu Zhiliang shook his head: ¡°My symptoms are inconsistent, fluent sometimes and stuttering other times.¡± ¡°I just learned that both of you have achieved deep knowledge in the field of orthopedic spine surgery. I¡¯m falling behind again and hope you can guide me more to keep up.¡± ¡°Teachers Zhang and Wu, please pay more attention!¡± ¡°The three of you, Miss Miyuki misses you very much. She wanted to come with me this time but was stopped by Teacher Fujihara. Due to staff shortages in the department, too many people cannot be spared.¡± Takahashi didn¡¯t leave anyone out and was polite and decent throughout. There was something else important that Takahashi remembered. ¡°Professor, in Japan, there is a manga circulating among medical students named ¡®The Godfather of Surgery¡¯. At first, I thought it was just a doodle in the manga. But out of curiosity, I borrowed it and found it quite interesting. The manga tells the story of a genius surgeon, and the cases in it are surprisingly similar to yours, Professor. I was shocked ¡ª¡± ¡°The comic book is at my dormitory. I will bring it tomorrow for you guys to read. Really, the latest issue of the story is very similar to Ding Yu and President Fujihara¡¯s cases at Tokyo University. Plus, the hospital where the cases occur in the manga feels like the prototype is Tokyo University Hospital. And the twin-tower structure in the hospital where the protagonist works is exactly like Sanbo Hospital!¡± Takahashi found the manga peculiar and it was widely circulated among medical students in Japan. ¡°A twin-tower structure?¡± Yang Ping found it strange. When he first came to Sanbo Hospital, what impressed him most about the hospital was the twin-tower structure. ¡°Tomorrow, I¡¯ll bring the manga so you all can read it. My intuition tells me that the stories written by this manga artist are very much like Professor Yang¡¯s. The cases include ¡®Half-man¡¯ and ¡®Folding-man¡¯ and even feature a lovely little girl who resembles Sisi.¡± The more Takahashi spoke, the more magical it seemed. No way, everyone was staring at Takahashi, but the manga wasn¡¯t with him, so he couldn¡¯t present it at the moment. But how could this manga have appeared in Japan? The Japanese manga author¡¯s imagination was remarkably in sync with Professor Yang¡¯s story. This was truly miraculous. If, as Takahashi said, the manga included cases like ¡®Half-man¡¯, ¡®Folding-man¡¯, etc., it was no coincidence. However, it was also thought that cases like ¡®Half-man¡±, ¡®Folding-man¡¯, and almost all others would ultimately be published in the form of a paper. Moreover, with the developed internet, many online news pieces could be found through a simple search, thus material was easily accessible. Perhaps, this author had been searching for material everywhere, and had a keen interest in Professor Yang¡¯s surgical cases. ¡°Remember to bring the manga tomorrow,¡± Song Zimo reminded Takahashi. He wanted to read through the manga himself, to see what was going on. It was unthinkable that there could be such a coincidence. Everyone didn¡¯t stay late. There were surgeries the next day, so they wrapped up around ten. ¡ª After dinner, Yang Ping and Xiao Su went home. As Xiao Su was busy preparing ingredients for the next day¡¯s breakfast, Yang Ping laid on the sofa, contemplating. Each was intent on their own tasks without interrupting the other. Such harmony marked their relationship. The case of Li Jun could potentially be seen by others as a simple Removal of teratoma. However, Yang Ping had always wondered, why is it that mere reproductive cells, whether in male teratomas or female teratomas, can develop into bone fragments, muscles, skin and hair, and even nerve tissues. If seen from a different angle, isn¡¯t this process similar to organ cultivation? Moreover, the cultivation of these tissues and organs does not take place in the uterus under childbearing conditions, nor are they formed under the environments for childbirth. They can occur in any part of the body, so their requirements for the environment are less. Reproductive cells should normally develop into sexual organs, such as testes in males and ovaries in females. For some unknown reason, they have deviated, meaning a mistake occurred in the development direction. This mistake is essentially a minute error in the internal programming information of biology. The erroneous cell does not die off, it still roams on the path of division and surprisingly develops bone fragments, muscles, skin and hair within a membrane. What caused the reproductive organs to be able to do this? Is there a connection between the mechanism of teratoma formation and my research project? Yang Ping had a hunch that teratomas could be a new direction for breakthrough. By studying teratomas, it may be possible to find a breakthrough that could provide insight into how to cultivate organs from stem cells. ¡°Professor Yang, isn¡¯t it time to take a shower and rest?¡± Xiao Su prepared the breakfast ingredients, put them in the refrigerator, took a shower, saw that it was quite late, and reminded Yang Ping. ¡°Are you thinking about your research experiment?¡± Xiao Su understood Yang Ping¡¯s thoughts, he had been focusing on this matter recently. As soon as the experiment was mentioned, Yang Ping immediately perked up. This experiment was not like any other experiment. Young people just love doing experiments. Yang Ping quickly got up from the sofa: ¡°I¡¯m going to take a shower!¡± Xiao Su watched as Yang Ping suddenly became energized, wondering why he seemed like a different person. Soon, the sound of water could be heard from the bathroom. ¡ª¡ª The third day after surgery. Li Jun began to feel sensation in his anal and perineal areas, his anal reflex was weak, but his sphincter muscle could feel contraction, which were signs of nerve recovery. The teratoma was compressing the sacral nerves, the appearance of neurological symptoms wasn¡¯t for a long time, so the recovery was quick. If the sensation in the skin around his anus and perineum, and the contraction of his anal sphincter fully recovered, Li Jun would not have any sequelae. The volume of negative pressure drainage was very small, it was removed, and Li Jun could get out of bed and move around. The sacrum is made up of five fused vertebrae. The first and second sacral vertebrae need to support the body¡¯s weight. The weight passes down through the axis of the spine, reaching the second sacral vertebra, where it turns to the left and right, then passes down through the hip bones on both sides, and is transferred to the lower limbs. The third sacral vertebra and those below it, along with the coccyx, do not need to bear weight, even if they fracture, bed rest is not necessary. Yang Ping considered this in his surgery. When performing the sacral windowing, he created a large window in the area below the third sacrum, but the first and second sacral vertebrae were only windowed narrowly, not affecting their weight-bearing capability. Li Jun walked around the room with the help of a walker. His fair face was handsome, he was not good with words, and always smiled at the doctors and nurses during their rounds. According to the consultation from the Department of Psychology, his depression was improving, and the dosage of his depression medication was gradually being reduced. Yang Ping told him that there used to be a band on the overpass by the hospital¡¯s main entrance, which included a guitarist. The band was very popular back then, with its lead singer being a down-and-out rich man. Later, the rich man made a comeback, and the band broke up, becoming an immortal legend on the overpass. So, one must always look forward in life, the world is beautiful. Qin Xiaowei told Yang Ping that after discussing with Ajun, he decided to have a kidney transplant at Sanbo Hospital. Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun had a very favourable impression of Sanbo Hospital. He had been asking around these few days and found out that Sanbo Hospital also has the qualification for kidney transplantation. As a provincial hospital, it has a large surgical volume. So, they decided to have the kidney transplant surgery at Sanbo Hospital. Qin Xiaowei had asked the professor from the renal transplant center, who agreed to help expedite the typing and ethics review of the kidney. ¡°Are you that Brother Wei from TikTok?¡± one intern recognized Qin Xiaowei but wasn¡¯t sure. Yang Ping never watched TikTok, so he naturally didn¡¯t know. Upon confirmation, the intern excitedly introduced him to those around him: ¡°He is Brother Wei, he used to be a rock climbing trainer, and now he is a video blogger for extreme outdoor sports on TikTok.¡± After the intern confirmed, he began to whisper introductions to those around him: ¡°His videos are thrilling, they make people¡¯s hearts pound.¡± Turns out this young man was into extreme outdoor sports, no wonder his fingers were always wrapped in tape. During the ward rounds, everyone did not dare to speak openly, whispering a few words before stopping the conversation. Qin Xiaowei modestly said: ¡°I¡¯ve just entered this industry not long ago, not many followers.¡± As Yang Ping was about to leave, Qin Xiaowei told him that after discussing with Ajun, Ajun had also decided to have his kidney transplant at Sanbo Hospital. Following this surgery, Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun had developed a very favourable impression of Sanbo Hospital. After asking around, Qin Xiaowei found out that Sanbo Hospital was qualified for kidney transplantation and, as a provincial hospital, had a fairly high number of surgeries. Thus, they had decided to perform the kidney transplantation at Sanbo Hospital. Qin Xiaowei had asked the head of the renal transplant center if they could help expedite the typing and ethics review. Yang Ping told him that the teratoma surgery didn¡¯t result in much blood loss. After the stitches are removed, around two weeks later, they can proceed with the kidney transplant. At that time, they can be discharged and then readmitted to the renal transplant center. ¡ª ¡°Look, this is his video!¡± ¡°Let me see!¡± The intern who recognized Qin Xiaowei just now took out his phone and brought up one of Qin Xiaowei¡¯s TikTok videos. Everyone gathered around to watch. The video was shot atop an unprotected rooftop. A young man is seen circling the roof, capturing the scenes below from an overhead angle. From dozens of floors above, people looked like ants. After the fan base confirms the danger and height, he steps onto a balancing scooter and speeds up towards the edge of the roof. A backward brake slows the scooter just before the edge. Incredibly, he repeats this several times before the video ends. Everyone was truly shocked and had to take deep breaths after watching it. This was a raw video, without any special effect edits. The young man had no safety protection, one mistake and he would fall off the tall building. This video was recently shot, and during the live stream, fans had sent a lot of gifts. Chapter 639 - 639 581 The Scheming Plan ?Chapter 639: Chapter 581: The Scheming Plan Chapter 639: Chapter 581: The Scheming Plan Little Five had never seen Song Zimo so excited before, as he was holding a comic book in his hand. Yang Ping invited them to the office to chat leisurely. As everyone settled in, Yang Ping poured tea for them. It was a long-standing tradition imparted by Director Han to Yang Ping that sipping tea in the professor¡¯s office was quite prestigious. Before Yang Ping could even suggest pouring the tea, Song Zimo was already flipping through the comic book eagerly and showing it to Yang Ping: ¡°The characters in here align with our department, even the story scenarios look very familiar. There¡¯s no way there could be such coincidences in the world. Takahashi was right, you are the model for this comic.¡± Oh, is that so? I¡¯m even the protagonist. Yang Ping sat down and slowly skimmed through the contents of the comic book. Indeed, those twin towers, even the helicopter on top looked quite familiar. This professor character actually has quite a resemblance to me. Young and handsome, super confident, with horrifying talent. Regardless of how difficult the surgery was, he never failed. Could the comic book author be someone I know? But how could the comic appear in Japan? Moreover, how could it be so familiar with me? Who cares? Even if I¡¯m the inspiration for it, it doesn¡¯t defame or slander me, it actually sets up a towering image for me. ¡°Young, handsome, extremely intelligent and even a professor; this setup indeed resembles me!¡± Yang Ping was quite satisfied with the comic book. Song Zimo was speechless, he didn¡¯t expect Yang Ping to be even more narcissistic than him. Upon hearing that he was being represented in the comic too, Xu Zhiliang grabbed the comic book to find his own character, the Dumpling King. ¡°Wait, is this supposed to be me?¡± Does my image seriously look this bad? That frizzy hair and piles of dumplings next to him. ¡°A comic surely needs to exaggerate a bit, right?¡± Song Zimo reminded Xu Zhiliang that if everything was the same, it wouldn¡¯t be a comic anymore. ¡°Where is the exaggeration? It¡¯s not exaggerated at all. I think it¡¯s quite realistic. Takahashi, find out who the author of the comic is, I want to go to Japan and claim my copyright fees.¡± Yang Ping decisively rejected Song Zimo¡¯s claim. Young, handsome, supremely intelligent ¨C it¡¯s simply stating bare facts. How could that be exaggerated? ¡°Can we find this comic online?¡± Yang Ping wanted to read the complete set. ¡°We can¡¯t find it online, only the physical book. It is currently very popular among medical students, they are even discussing it among themselves, it seems to be very popular. I will contact the lawyer right away and sue the author.¡± Takahashi said very seriously. Yang Ping waved his hand: ¡°Never mind, no need to be so calculating.¡± I haven¡¯t lost anything, and I¡¯m not short of this bit of copyright money. Being the protagonist in a work of culture is also a nice thing. ¡°Takahashi, get me a complete set. I¡¯ll read through it when I am free. This comic is a masterpiece and has the role of refining character. It helps to vent emotions after working on a surgery. There are few comics that depict doctors ¨C it¡¯s precious.¡± Yang Ping lightly tapped the desk with his knuckles. Takahashi immediately took up the task. He didn¡¯t expect Yang Ping to be so fond of comics. However, it¡¯s still just a comic. For example, there is no character representing Director Han. But the strong and dominant character who doubles as the dean of the hospital and the preeminent figure in the surgery department does resemble the merged entity of Director Han and Dean Xia. ¡°Why aren¡¯t we in it?¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five looked expectantly at Xu Zhiliang who was still flipping through it. ¡°Let me see, here is a pair of superheroes used at the professor¡¯s beck and call, it might be you guys. But it seems like you don¡¯t appear much in this book. Perhaps you¡¯re not important characters?¡± Xu Zhiliang passed the book to Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin was skeptical. If the comic was actually inspired by them, how could it not include the stern Teacher Zhang and the handsome Teacher Wu? ¡ª The issue with the comic is indeed bizarre. If Yang Ping¡¯s cases were all laid out, it might be possible to gather and organise the comic from publicly available information. But these character roles are lifelike, especially that professor with glasses. Even the detail of the adhesive on the glasses was depicted in the comic. No ordinary person could draw that. Is there a mole in the department? If so, who is it? Could it actually be Takahashi? Is the thief calling for a thief? Everyone didn¡¯t care much either. They treated it as entertainment and didn¡¯t feel the need to seriously investigate its origin. The comic¡¯s drawing skills were high and the surgical details were vividly depicted using a multi-camera representation technique. Everyone was curious about the storyline of the comic, so they assigned this task to Takahashi, asking him to find a complete set so they could see where the latest plot had developed. Li Jun was recovering very well after surgery. Their kidney matching and ethical review were ongoing. That intern was a fan of ¡°Brother Xiaowei¡±, and was always following him on Douyin. Recently, Brother Xiaowei released another thrilling video ¨C he climbed up a television tower barehanded and took photos on the tip of the tower. Every one of his works increased the viewers¡¯ heart rate and was thrilling. This time, Brother Xiaowei attracted a lot more fans, and they were going crazy, giving lots of virtual gifts. Brother Xiaowei announced that he has found a very suitable place for climbing barehanded ¨C a natural cliff. He was busy during this period, but once he was free, he would prepare and train for a period, then live stream his barehanded climbing. His fans cheered, and were all looking forward to the live stream of his barehanded climb. ¡°Going for a spin?¡± Yang Ping saw Qin Xiaowei pushing Li Jun, who was on a wheelchair, ready to go out. After all, it¡¯s only been a few days after surgery. The wounds from the outside to the inside haven¡¯t completely healed yet. It¡¯s fine to walk a bit indoors, but long distance and high activity movement aren¡¯t suitable as it might pull the wounds. Pushing a wheelchair won¡¯t cause this problem. Staying in the ward all day can breed negative emotions. So go out and take a walk to breathe some fresh air and alleviate your mood. Li Jun was still holding a guitar, and Qin Xiaowei said with a smile, ¡°He¡¯s going to play the guitar on the East Gate Sky Bridge.¡± ¡°Be careful, and pay attention to your wounds!¡± Yang Ping reminded. The elevator opened, and the two of them laughed and chatted as they stepped in. Sisi¡¯s hair was in a ponytail, her slight blush made her look very energetic, and her clear and exquisite features looked like they were carved out of jade. Her nose, much like her dad¡¯s, was a bit high, making her facial contours quite three-dimensional, but not awkward. She was practicing walking in the corridor with a pair of crutches. Although her right leg was unable to move properly due to the lack of muscle in her hip, it could still serve as a pivot, and with the help of crutches, she could limp and hobble along. ¡°I¡¯ll go to school right after I finish watching your basketball game!¡± Sisi saw Yang Ping and hopped over with the aid of her crutches. She would be discharged to attend school after completing her follow-ups and receiving some treatment. Since she was renting a place near Sanbo Hospital and her mom was working at the hospital, she, with Song Zimo¡¯s help, managed to attend a nearby primary school. This way, she could continue her studies while conveniently receiving treatment. ¡°Keeping up with your schoolwork?¡± ¡°Thanks to Sister Feifei helping me with my homework, I scored full marks on all my entrance tests.¡± ¡°Good job!¡± ¡°Of course it is, I¡¯m a top student!¡± ¡°A bit proud, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°This is called confidence, not arrogance.¡± ¡°I really don¡¯t know the difference between confidence and arrogance.¡± ¡°Confidence is hidden in the heart, while arrogance shows on the face. For instance, you, big brother, are confident.¡± ¡°Our first basketball match this Saturday is against Administration Department, and it doesn¡¯t look good. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard of Dean Xia.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard of him. I sat in Auntie Shuilian¡¯s bakery at Tri-Bo Hotel, and all the doctors buying bread there said Dean Xia was very aggressive, and no one dared to clash with him.¡± Well, even a child knows this. It seems Old Xia¡¯s reputation precedes him. Yang Ping massaged his temples, ¡°We¡¯ll send Zhang Lin to deal with him!¡± ¡°Zhang Lin won¡¯t suffice. I have a good idea!¡± Sisi smiled mischievously. ¡°What good idea would a brat who doesn¡¯t understand basketball have?¡± Yang Ping teased her. Sisi huffed, ¡°Treat me to milk tea and bread at Auntie Shuilian¡¯s bakery, and then I¡¯ll tell you.¡± You cheeky rascal, dare to blackmail your professor. ¡°A child doesn¡¯t lie. This little brat has a great idea to ensure Dean Xia won¡¯t dare to move recklessly in the game.¡± Interesting! A brat who acts like she is a strategist. Let¡¯s go! Right now, I¡¯m going to treat you to milk tea. ¡°How should we go? Wheelchair or walk?¡± Yang Ping wasn¡¯t in a hurry anyway. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were in the operating room and didn¡¯t call him over. With Sisi¡¯s approaching discharge, it was a good time to chat. He pushed the little girl in a wheelchair to the tea shop. Seeing Yang Ping come in, Yu Shuilian was extremely delighted. The milk tea and bread were laid out on the table. ¡°Can you tell me now?¡± Yang Ping wanted to see what great idea this little girl had. ¡°What¡¯s the rush? Let me take a few sips of milk tea first.¡± Sisi enjoyed her milk tea before beckoning him over: ¡°Come here! I¡¯m not mooching off you.¡± Making it so mysterious, Yang Ping leaned over. ¡°In each of your games with him, specifically target Dean Xia, and he¡¯s done for?¡± What kind of logic is this? If I go after him, he¡¯s done for? ¡°Yes, because he won¡¯t dare to act recklessly once he sees it¡¯s you. He¡¯ll be worried about you getting hurt.¡± Such a cunning strategy! However, this strategy seems a bit devious and underhanded. Chapter 640 - 640 582 Start of the Competition ?Chapter 640: Chapter 582: Start of the Competition Chapter 640: Chapter 582: Start of the Competition The strategy may be somewhat devious, yet it¡¯s genuinely useful. It only took advantage of Dean Xia¡¯s fondness for his own. The little girl laughed mischievously, ¡°My plan is worth a cup of milk tea and a few pieces of bread, right? I hang around here often and heard them mention Dean Xia, so I thought of it. You can decide for yourself. If you don¡¯t want your Father Xia to be the first to be penalized, then act bravely according to this little brat¡¯s plan.¡± The kid was really taking herself as a strategist, spending her free days at this bakery, gathering all kinds of information. Quite diligent, indeed. ¡°I know everything. The first floor of the Tri-Bo Hotel, especially this bakery, is a hub for gathering information. If you sit here for an hour, you would know which department was in emergency mode today, which department admitted which patients, anyone would tell you,¡± Sisi said with a proud expression. Good job, Yang Ping gave a thumbs up. ¡°Professor Yang, don¡¯t underestimate Sisi. He is pretty shrewd. When I used red for my signage before, not many customers came in. This kid told me to change it to light blue and since then, more customers have been coming in, and the popularity has soared,¡± said Yushuilian¡¯s husband. ¡°Look like, I underestimated you,¡± Yang Ping took a sip of his milk tea. Sisi held her head high in pride: ¡°Have you noticed that none of the chairs in the public areas of the hospital are red? I didn¡¯t know this before either. I later found out that red can make people restless, while the hospital needs everyone to be relaxed and calm, so only blue has this effect.¡± ¡°Where did you learn all this?¡± ¡°From the internet, from books.¡± Yang Ping never had to pay for meals here, as Mr. and Mrs. Yushuilian always refused to take his money. Initially, he insisted on paying. But later he thought, if they don¡¯t want to take the money, then let it be. So the couple would feel better this way. Moreover, they prepare milk tea and pastries every night and deliver them to the doctors and nurses on duty, regardless of the weather. Having had the milk tea and bread, and after hearing the young girl¡¯s words, his mind felt a lot lighter. If Dean Xia were left to do as he pleases, Professor Zhang wouldn¡¯t show any mercy, and just whistle to penalize him from the field. ¡ª For the sake of the basketball game, everyone used their off-work hours to practice frequently until past 10 p.m. On the bright and sunny Saturday, the basketball match finally got underway A large banner was put up on the basketball court, and several tables were set up outside the court with the scoreboard standing as well. Professor Zhang, wearing a baseball cap and with a whistle around his neck, was giving instructions to the referees. As the chief referee, he even went down to blow the whistle personally. Of course, he was only doing so for the matches in which Dean Xia was participating. This time, it was a clash of the titans. Sanbo Hospital had a large ground with excellent sports facilities, so there were several basketball courts both indoors and outdoors, and they were all very professional. Given the good weather, it felt more lively to play outdoors. Gradually, the spectator seats surrounding the court filled up with doctors, nurses, their families, patients, patient¡¯s families, and a large group of graduate students, standardized training students, interns, and trainees. Some students from Nandu Medical University also came here to enjoy the basketball game, creating a lively atmosphere. The logistics staff were moving mineral water, Wong Lo Kat, and Red Bull near the court. The atmosphere was quite enthusiastic! The first match was between the Comprehensive Surgery Department and the Administration Department. The Comprehensive Surgery Department and the Surgical Research Institute were under the same unit with two different names. But in Sanbo Hospital, people preferred to call it Comprehensive Surgery Department. There was still some time, so everyone warmed up and built up the atmosphere. Dean Xia made his appearance, with his tall and robust stature. He was wearing protective gear on his elbow, wrist, knee, and ankle. He twisted his waist and stretched his body. Someone passed him a ball, and he dribbled it while warming up, then pretended to attack, making a three-step layup, and slam dunk! Beautiful, the entire audience applauded enthusiastically. The macho man raised his arms and jogged around the court in response to the audience. Basketball was Dean Xia¡¯s favorite sport. He often played it with the doctors in the indoor basketball court of the Tri-Bo Hotel. Over here, Zhang Lin was also fully protected. Little Five threw him a ball. He focused, extended his hand, caught the ball, then demonstrated a layup, his dribbling technique was superb. The interns cheered, ¡°mighty Teacher Zhang!¡± The layup was beautiful! Damn, he left the ground, letting go of the ball, but it went nowhere to be seen. Song Zimo, just finishing his warm-up, caught sight of Zhang Lin¡¯s missed basketball shot. He raced forward to snag the loose ball, dribbling it, spinning, and then slam dunking it! Again, a round of enthusiastic applause erupted! Both sides had a stalemate during the warm-up, neither showing less spirit than the other. ¡°Song Zimo, I love you!¡± A group of female interns unfolded their banners. They weren¡¯t just displaying banners, they were collectively shouting at Song Zimo, despite Tang Fei being present at the scene. That¡¯s what you get with idol worshippers! Finally, it¡¯s time for the serious players to make their appearance ¨C Professor Yang from the Comprehensive Surgery Department. With calm steps and a confident smile on his face, Yang Ping arrived fashionably late. ¡°Professor Yang! Go for it!¡± Surprisingly, his fans were mostly male, with few faint female voices mixed in. They were all young doctors from the hospital, waving banners and shouting excitedly. The game hadn¡¯t even started, and the atmosphere was already electrified. Yang Ping waved back at his fans. Playing basketball wasn¡¯t really his forte. Song Zimo threw the ball to him, asking him to give a performance. Performances were for showing off, like slam dunks, and other flashy moves. Back in school, he had excelled at long-range shooting. Why not try a three-pointer? With an arching shot, he scores ¨C Three points! Lucky shot! ¡ª Li Jun¡¯s biochemical results from this morning indicated hyperkalemia. Li Guodong contacted the dialysis department for an emergency dialysis operation. High potassium in the blood could easily lead to cardiac arrest, a very dangerous condition. Following their usual procedure, the nurse took Li Jun¡¯s case report and accompanied Qin Xiaowei to the dialysis department to arrange for the procedure. Once they had handed over their charge, the nurse returned to her department. Qin Xiaowei bought some fruit and sat them on the nurse¡¯s station for everyone to enjoy. As Li Jun was undergoing dialysis, he couldn¡¯t stay inside to keep him company. Instead, he decided to take a walk through the hospital. Hearing about the ongoing basketball game, he thought he would take a look and have something interesting to report back to Ajun. Recentlty, Ajun¡¯s mood had improved significantly, and he hadn¡¯t brought up suicide again. After circling the basketball court where more spectators than he¡¯d imagined were present, he found a spot near the gym. He started doing push-ups and other exercises. People had recently recommended a rock cliff to him as being an excellent site for freehand climbing. Once Ajun¡¯s stitches were removed, he planned to inspect it personally. If he could conquer the cliff, he would certainly gain a lot more followers and receive more gifts. Then, raising money for Ajun¡¯s treatment wouldn¡¯t be an issue. No one was at the gym, all were watching the basketball game. He set his phone to ring mode and placed it next to him, then started doing push-ups. Physical training was crucial before climbing, and even if there wasn¡¯t much time, he would have to squeeze in some exercises when he could. As a professional climber, he was well aware of the dangers of freehand climbing outdoors. Adequate preparation was essential. From time to time, he could hear cheers from the basketball court. It sounded like the game hadn¡¯t truly started. Dialysis tended to be a long process. Qin Xiaowei did more than a hundred push-ups and then checked the time. There was still time to spare. PS: Performing surgeries every day can be dull, so it¡¯s nice to insert some scenes from the doctor¡¯s daily life to lighten the mood. Interweaving it with the development of the patients¡¯ stories makes it even better! Chapter 641 - 641 583 External Aid ?Chapter 641: Chapter 583: External Aid Chapter 641: Chapter 583: External Aid Li Jun has completed dialysis and has been transferred back to the ward. Upon receiving the call, Qin Xiaowei ceased his workout and rushed to the ward. He was somewhat weary as he had to both care for Ajun and strategize for the release of new content during this time. It isn¡¯t easy to build a fanbase in the live streaming industry. Without novel and enticing content, it¡¯s hard to stand out. Qin Xiaowei, a rock climbing coach, has identified the industry trend and self-positioned within outdoor extreme sports. Less people are engaged in this field, which would comparatively make it easier for him to gain prominence. Barehand rock climbing in this sport is ranked among the top three most dangerous extreme sports alongside wingsuit flying and death-defying bungee jumping. Without sufficient thrills, it¡¯s hard to attract the audience. For instance, the project involving barehand tower climbing has been successful in accumulating a substantial follower base. It is believed that through a continuous hard work and showcasing a thrilling barehand rock climbing performance after gathering an ample number of fans, he¡¯s destined to spring to fame in one fell swoop. In fact, video platforms have also noticed the potential value of this genre. They are planning to collaborate with Qin Xiaowei on barehand rock climbing projects to broaden the influence of their platform. The decision to film the entire process live with a drone has been made. This is the opportunity that Qin Xiaowei has been longing for over the years. ¡ª ¡°Today, just over eight hundred milliliters was filtered, there was one fluctuation in blood oxygen during the process, which was alleviated after oxygen inhalation,¡± the doctor from the dialysis room reported to Li Guodong. Under normal circumstances, nurses from the ward would be responsible for transferring patients to and fro the dialysis room. Because of Ajun¡¯s fluctuating blood oxygen level during dialysis, the physician personally escorted Ajun back to the ward out of caution. ¡°The fluctuation lasted for about five minutes. You¡¯ll need to continue monitoring.¡± Having finished the handover, the doctor from the dialysis room left. Li Guodong instructed the nurse to connect Ajun to an electrocardiogram monitor for continuous cardiac monitoring and also to administrate oxygen at a low flow rate. He dared not leave should any complications arise. The standardized training student on duty, with limited experience, would not be able to handle any sudden changes in Ajun¡¯s condition. Upon rushing back to the ward and hearing about the fluctuation in Ajun¡¯s blood oxygen level during dialysis, Qin Xiaowei became extremely anxious. ¡°Ajun, are you alright?¡± Ajun did not respond but reached out his hand, which Qin Xiaowei held. As fluctuations in blood oxygen levels had occurred before during dialysis, Qin Xiaowei wasn¡¯t too worried. He forgot to mention to the doctor that Ajun has once experienced chest pain and a decrease in blood oxygen during dialysis, which had also been alleviated by oxygen inhalation. After observing for around ten minutes in the ward, seeing the oxygen level stay normal without any decrease, and carefully auscultating the heart and lungs without finding any issues, did Li Guodong finally feel relieved to leave the ward. For better observation, Li Guodong instructed the nurse to move the patient to bed number one. From bed one to three, all are reserved for emergency patients, and are closest to the nurses¡¯ station, which would be advantageous in case of an emergency. ¡ª The basketball match has officially started, and both sides are evenly matched. The administrative department players have formidable strengths, and it¡¯s not just Dean Xia who contributes to their position. Dean Sun and other deputy deans, as well as Director Zhao from the Medical Affairs Department and Director Zhou from the Scientific and Educational Department, are all regulars on the hospital basketball court, despite their protruding bellies. There¡¯s no need to mention those young administrators who are formidable basketball players within the hospital. The recruiting standards for these administrators are different from those of doctors. While professional skills are the primary criterion for doctors, these young men are selected for their comprehensive qualities, including proficiency in basketball and cultural and artistic talents, all of which are additional merits. Therefore, these administrators excel in sports and cultural activities, and have been renowned athletes since their school days. Ten or so imposing figures sit on the sidelines, ready to replace players at any time. Compared to them, the Comprehensive Surgery Department team is quite weak. They only have a few people who are capable of playing basketball and don¡¯t even have a reserve team, because those in their training program who could play have all been snatched away by the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department. Director Gao is the head medical officer for the game and he¡¯s brought a few young doctors. They¡¯ve prepared stretchers and first aid kits, ready for emergency. Xiong Sihai from the Emergency Department, dressed in a jersey, is watching the game from the sidelines, learning from others¡¯ experiences and drawing lessons from them. Professor Zhang looks quite animated with a baseball cap on, running back and forth with the players, scanning the field with his eagle eyes, and holding a whistle, ready to blow it any time. He particularly monitors Dean Xia closely. Since he has been appointed as the chief referee this year, he intends to rectify the rough manner of play. Two commentators are seated in the audience stand, their voices echoing from the broadcast system. In all respects, the game has a grand and official air. With the scores tied at the moment, the administrative department is currently leading by one point. The Comprehensive Surgery Department is dressed in blue jerseys while the administrative department is in red. ¡°O¡¯Neal (Dean Xia) gets the ball, good job, bypassing the player ¡ª a layup ¡ª very domineering ¡ª the defender falls ¡ª ¡± ¡°Wow! Slam dunk! Scored!¡± A shrill whistle! ¡°It appears the referee does not endorse this basket, notice the referee¡¯s gesture ¡ª charging the defender while holding the ball, it¡¯s a pity, the referees this year seem very strict!¡± ¡°This is definitely not good for the red team.¡± It was Zhang Lin who fell, having beaten Dean Xia to the best defensive position, only to be knocked down by the dean¡¯s gigantic figure. Zhang Lin immediately got back up, relatively unscathed. He strictly guarded Dean Xia, but due to the disparity in height and strength, he may not be able to keep this up much longer. Yang Ping immediately patted Zhang Lin, signaling him to step away, he would guard Dean Xia himself. ¡°A subtle shift in the game¡¯s offensive and defensive play, with the young Professor Yang from the blue team now defending Dean O¡¯Neal. As a renowned and talented professor of Sanbo, one of the youngest ever, we wonder if his basketball skills are as aggressive as his surgical ones. Let¡¯s wait and see!¡± ¡°Rukawa Kaede of the blue team gets the ball, excellent, he¡¯s going to do a jump shot, oh, wait, he hasn¡¯t jumped yet.¡± ¡°He¡¯s organizing the offense. The red team¡¯s defense is tight, with O¡¯Neal controlling the area under the basket.¡± Chapter 642 - 642 583 External Aid_2 ?Chapter 642: Chapter 583: External Aid_2 Chapter 642: Chapter 583: External Aid_2 ¡°He sees the opening, takes a jump shot, scores!¡± ¡°The girls out there are going crazy, it¡¯s getting out of hand, guards, call the guards, don¡¯t let the girls invade the court.¡± Song Zimo suddenly jumps and shoots under the opponent¡¯s intense defense, scoring. The girls¡¯ screams outside the court drown everything, and the situation is dangerously out of control. Dean Xia, looking at Yang Ping who keeps marking him, has received the ball several times, but dared not charge, indeed he¡¯s afraid his tank-like charge might hurt Yang Ping. ¡°Why are you always focusing on me?¡± Dean Xia grumpily says. Yang Ping doesn¡¯t say a word, he just sticks to him like a shadow. Yang Ping doesn¡¯t care anymore, if he doesn¡¯t control him, they can¡¯t play this game. Perhaps he is indeed worried about hurting Yang Ping, he wants to charge several times, but then gives up. ¡°The Blue Team¡¯s defense is very successful, Mr. O¡¯Neal seems rather quiet, not pulling off any overpowering moves!¡± ¡°Oh, no ¡ª¡ª he¡¯s not performing an overpowering offence.¡± ¡°It¡¯s Professor Yang¡¯s ball, he decisively takes a shot, he¡¯s going for a three-pointer, is he aiming for a fixed-point shot? Good, he shoots, the ball spins around the basket, it¡¯s still spinning, what¡¯s up, it¡¯s still spinning!¡± ¡°Rukawa Kaede! He arrives, like a flash of lightning, he pushes the ball into the basket, scores.¡± ¡°It¡¯s peculiar, just now O¡¯Neal from the Red Team did not interfere at all, allowing the Blue Team to aim and shoot without concern.¡± ¡°It seems O¡¯Neal is running out of stamina.¡± Liang Fatty starts limping and his stamina can¡¯t keep up with the others, he¡¯s a bit of a drag on the court now. ¡°Fatty, what¡¯s up?¡± Yang Ping sees him in pain. ¡°Gout attack!¡± Fatty grimaces in pain. ¡°Unexpected incident on the Blue Team¡¯s anesthesiology expert Professor Liang Ruohua, did he twist his ankle? The Blue Team requests a timeout to substitute.¡± ¡°Professor Liang sits on the ground, is he getting ready to have a smoke before continuing to fight?¡± ¡°Take Fatty away!¡± Song Zimo calls out, two assistants from Comprehensive Surgery Department, two interns run over. ¡°Where¡¯s Li Guodong? Where¡¯s Li Guodong?¡± ¡°He¡¯s in the ward, he can¡¯t get away!¡± Besides Li Guodong, no one else can be substituted, Xu Zhiliang just got off court to rest. If it really won¡¯t work, let Xu Zhiliang go back on the court, there¡¯s a manpower crunch. With the support of two people, Professor Zhang ran over: ¡°Fatty, how are you, are you alright?¡± Director Gao, who serves as the court doctor, also follows. Fatty wipes off his sweat: ¡°I¡¯m fine! Old Gao, give me a cortisone shot.¡± Dean Xia can¡¯t bear to look and instructs those young men who came up to replace to play more gently. ¡°Change a player, don¡¯t force yourself!¡± Professor Zhang suggests. Fatty shakes his head: ¡°It¡¯s gout, not an injury. Just administer a cortisone shot for pain relief, hurry up, don¡¯t waste time.¡± Director Gao immediately instructs a young doctor: ¡°Go get the medicine, one vial of Nalbuphine, Dexamethasone, and Saline, prepare the medication, get ready for the cortisone!¡± Everyone helps Fatty sit back down. Anyway, there¡¯s no rush, everyone takes a break, waits for this side to get ready before starting again. Dean Xia also comes over to check on Fatty, Fatty waves him off, saying it¡¯s not a big deal. ¡°cigarette, give me a cigarette, let me have a puff!¡± At this moment Fatty hasn¡¯t forgotten to smoke, indeed, his intern stuffed a cigarette into his mouth, lit it, and he took a puff, waiting for Director Gao to give him the cortisone shot. The host on the stage begins to jest. ¡°Professor Liang is indeed addicted to cigarettes, he¡¯s really smoking, so composed, everyone is waiting for him to finish his smoke before they start the game again, what a heartwarming and humanized scene, that¡¯s what we are in Sanbo.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s that? Carrying a gigantic backpack, it¡¯s the biggest backpack I¡¯ve ever seen.¡± ¡°A foreigner? Could this be the Blue Team¡¯s foreign aid.¡± ¡°Professor! Professor! Professor¡ª-¡± Robert finally squeezed in after a lot of difficulty and finally saw Yang Ping. ¡°Radish Head?¡± ¡°Oh, Professor, I¡¯ve missed you.¡± Robert tightly grasped Yang Ping¡¯s hand. Upon seeing Robert, Zhang Lin looked as though he¡¯d seen a savior: ¡°Quick, quick, get changed and join the game.¡± According to the rules of the game, doctors specializing in each department can play, but the number can¡¯t exceed two. ¡°You play basketball?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t know that Robert had this talent. Robert put down his huge backpack: ¡°Harvard basketball star, participated in the NBA draft. Just the other day, I was ordered by Professor Zhang to come and help. The place is bustling, there¡¯s a sea of people, shoulder to shoulder.¡± ¡°Change your clothes quickly! Take him to get changed.¡± Song Zimo heard that Robert could play, it was the perfect opportunity to replace Fatty. Robert stripped off his coat and trousers in front of everyone, revealing a set of blue basketball uniform and basketball shoes underneath, ready to hit the court at any moment. ¡°The situation has taken a subtle turn, that foreign player, he¡¯s truly a professional, the referee is now checking his identity, and there seem to be no issues.¡± ¡°This shift isn¡¯t subtle at all, judging from the scenario, the foreign player has a certain prowess.¡± ¡°The game continues.¡± Fatty, no longer needing to put on a brave front, was carried off the court. After the pause, the game resumed immediately. ¡°This foreign player¡¯s jersey number is 23, O¡¯Neal has a match now. Judging from their physique, they¡¯re closely matched.¡± ¡°Foreign player receives the ball, wow, dribbling, spinning, penetrating, attacking, layup, dunk...¡± ¡°It¡¯s exciting, this foreign player is truly a champion,¡± ¡ª Regarding Li Jun¡¯s condition, Li Guodong never dared to relax. He didn¡¯t dare to go to the court, he just stayed in the ward, checking on Li Jun every few minutes. ¡°Dr. Li, Dr. Li¡ª¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°The patient in bed 1 says he has chest pain, the blood oxygen has dropped again.¡± The nurse hurried over, Li Guodong sprung up like a spring, rushing to the ward. Li Jun¡¯s face color was not good, breathing a bit heavily, Qin Xiaowei constantly touched his chest, comforting him. Chest pain, unstable blood oxygen, Li Guodong stooped down to auscultate the heart and lungs, there were no symptoms of heart failure; it must be a pulmonary embolism. The worst fear for an orthopedic doctor is a pulmonary embolism, a life-threatening pulmonary embolism is very difficult to save, highly aggressive. ¡°Emergency CT scan of the chest, quick! Call for an urgent consult from Respiratory!¡± Now, in the ward, Li Guodong is the backbone, he made a decisive decision, delegating tasks to several standardized training students. ¡°You go to the court and report to Professor Yang, tell him that Li Jun is suspected of having a pulmonary embolism, we are now pushing to do an emergency CT.¡± As an intern did not have much clinical work capability, he could only assist with running errands at this time, unlike the standardized training students who had some clinical work capabilities. Li Guodong personally pushed Li Jun to the CT room for an emergency lung scan. The hospital¡¯s resident in Respiratory Medicine rushed to the CT room directly, reading the images together with the radiologist. Indeed, it was a pulmonary embolism! A branch of the pulmonary artery was partially blocked with a clot, which, like a blizzard, was rushing to the trunk of the pulmonary artery ready to quickly block the main stream. After viewing the CT images, the respiratory doctor made the decision immediately: ¡°To save a life, we can only take the risk, immediately interventional thrombolysis is necessary! And we must be quick!¡± Moved from the CT table to the stretcher, Ajun gasped, as if he would stop breathing at any moment, the oxygen level in his blood had now dropped to eighty percent. He grabbed Qin Xiaowei¡¯s hand, his face pale, he wanted to say something, but could not speak. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid, Ajun, don¡¯t be afraid, I¡¯m here!¡± Qin Xiaowei clutched Ajun¡¯s hand tightly, very decisive. ¡°We agree to the emergency intervention.¡± Because Ajun had experienced pulmonary embolism once before during hemodialysis, that time it was relatively mild, and oxygen administration relieved it. But the doctor said that if it was a fatal pulmonary embolism and without emergency intervention for thrombolysis, it would be hard to save him. Not many hospitals have the capacity for emergency rapid intervention and thrombolysis. With the agreement from the patient and the family. Li Guodong immediately made the decision not to wait, but to send him for interventional thrombolysis right away. He immediately called for help from the Intervention Department, contacting the surgical operator, and reporting the medical condition. They didn¡¯t dare to waste a single second here, pushing Li Jun towards the Intervention Department. A resident doctor, who could be so calm and decisive, was very rare. Li Guodong, in Comprehensive Surgery, had learned a lot from Yang Ping, including calmness and decisiveness. ¡ª Chapter 643 - 643 584 Affectionate and Righteous ?Chapter 643: Chapter 584: Affectionate and Righteous Chapter 643: Chapter 584: Affectionate and Righteous When Yang Ping arrived at the intervention surgery room, Qin Xiaowei sat on a bench outside, hunched over, hands buried in his hair. When he heard footsteps, Qin Xiaowei raised head. Seeing Yang Ping was like seeing hope. He stood up immediately: ¡°Professor Yang, Ajun is being rescued inside.¡± Yang Ping patted his shoulder: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll go in and see.¡± Ajun had previously suffered from a pulmonary embolism, but the symptoms were mild. At the time, the doctor said he was lucky. If luck was not on his side and a fatal pulmonary embolism occurred, the chances of successful rescue would be very small.¡± Qin Xiaowei was both anxious and tired, his face covered in oily sweat and shiny. He was right, the chances of successfully rescuing from a fatal pulmonary embolism are very low. It usually only takes two hours from onset to death. The clot in a pulmonary embolism comes from a vein, usually from the vein in the lower extremities. The biggest danger of a clot is blocking blood vessels. If it blocks peripheral parts, it can cause vein reflux problems. Once the clot dislodges, it flows back to the heart with the venous blood, then from the heart into the pulmonary artery. The artery branches into smaller parts, at some point the clot can¡¯t pass, it will block the pulmonary artery or the branch blood vessels. When the blood vessels are blocked, a chain reaction occurs. The sequential obstruction of the pulmonary artery causes a sudden increase in pulmonary pressure and a sharp drop in cardiac output. This dramatic drop in cardiac output can cause circulatory failure, particularly acute right heart failure, leading to shock and insufficient blood supply to vital organs, such as cerebral blood vessels and coronary arteries, which can then cause fainting, even death. A large amount of small clots can stimulate blood vessels to cause vagus nerve excitement, and stimulate platelets to release serotonin, thromboxane A2, etc. The nerve reflex will lead to spasm of the coronary artery, pulmonary artery, bronchial artery, pulmonary hypertension, right heart failure, and stubborn hypoxemia. Having consoled Qin Xiaowei, Yang Ping entered the intervention surgery room with Song Zimo, leaving Xu Zhiliang, Takahashi, Robert, and the others outside. The intervention physician moved quickly, and the angiographic image of the pulmonary artery had already appeared on the screen. The chief surgeon was Director Ji. Director Ji and Director Guan were the two aces of the intervention department. Director Guan, the department head, had profound expertise in cardiovascular intervention. Director Ji, on the other hand, was versatile, performing almost all interventions surgery with extreme proficiency. ¡°It¡¯s progressing very quickly. The main pulmonary artery is obstructed by the clot, I will first crush it, then use the thrombus ablation device to melt it, the remaining clots will be dealt with local drug thrombolysis.¡± ¡°Look, after I cleared this area, it¡¯s like snowing again, becoming thicker instantly. I¡¯ll have to crush it a bit more.¡± ¡°This doesn¡¯t look good!¡± Director Ji had worked with Yang Ping before, so they were quite familiar with each other. ¡°The diameter of pulmonary artery is normal, there shouldn¡¯t be any spasm. It shows that the vagus nerve is not excited, there¡¯s hope.¡± Although Yang Ping had undergone a lot of intervention surgery training in the system operating room, he did not use it often in normal circumstances. ¡°Exactly, you doctors from your department discovered it early and acted quickly. He was lucky to have made it to the operating table on time.¡± Director Ji was pleased with Li Guodong¡¯s performance. Li Guodong, standing aside said: ¡°These are the basic requests Professor Yang usually have of us.¡± It may seem like he was sucking up at this minute, but Li Guodong certainly did well this time. A few minutes of delay might lead to a completely different outcome. Rescue is truly a race against time; seizing the opportunity could save a life, but missing the opportunity would lead to an irreversible situation. Director Ji performed the surgery while speaking, crushing the large clots, then melting the remains with a thrombus ablation device. Finally, for the remaining clot, he injected alteplase into it using a catheter. The surgery result was very good. With the timely elimination of the clot, coagulation function did not collapse completely; it was as though the snow had stopped, and no more snow accumulated on the wall of the blood vessels, naturally maintaining its smoothness. After observing for several minutes and seeing no problems, Director Ji asked the doctor below the stage. ¡°What¡¯s the oxygen saturation?¡± Director Ji asked the doctor below the stage. ¡°Eighty percent.¡± The anesthesiologist below the stage replied. This wasn¡¯t acceptable. This was with mechanical ventilation, pumping high flow of oxygen input. High flow oxygen ventilation cannot be prolonged as it can cause oxygen toxicity. ¡°Connect the ECMO, quickly!¡± As the blood oxygen level was not increasing, it was necessary to resort to ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation). If the body remains in a state of low oxygen for a prolonged period, major organs, such as the brain, can suffer from oxygen deficiency. Only the ICU has ECMO. Director Ji, being experienced, saw the CT images of Li Jun and knew instantly it was extremely dangerous. He contacted the ICU in advance and had an ECMO placed on standby in the operation room. It was now time to deploy it. Without ECMO, this young man basically stood no chance. After connecting to the ECMO, Li Jun¡¯s blood oxygen started increasing, and it rose to one hundred percent. The Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) device replaced Li Jun¡¯s lungs, conducting artificial lung circulation. ¡°Send him to the ICU!¡± Director Ji left the tidying up work to the doctors below and took off his gloves and surgical gown. ¡°Let¡¯s go explain the situation to the family together.¡± Director Ji invited Yang Ping to meet with the family. When the two came out of the intervention surgery room, Qin Xiaowei immediately stood up and anxiously asked: ¡°Professor Yang, how is it?¡± Yang Ping calmly replied: ¡°We¡¯ve temporarily rescued him, but due to pulmonary infarction, he has developed persistent hypoxemia. He will need a special device to replace the function of his lungs to help him stick through the critical period.¡± Upon hearing there was still hope, Qin Xiaowei did not hesitate: ¡°Professor Yang, I agree. I¡¯ll sign the consent!¡± Before the surgery, Li Jun had written a letter of authorization for Qin Xiaowei, granting him full authority to make medical decisions during his hospital stay at Sanbo Hospital. Chapter 644 - 644 584 Affectionate and Righteous_2 ?Chapter 644: Chapter 584: Affectionate and Righteous_2 Chapter 644: Chapter 584: Affectionate and Righteous_2 ¡°The cost is very high, and it¡¯s not covered by medical insurance. The machine alone costs fifty thousand to turn on, with follow-up maintenance costing at least twenty thousand per day. Plus the cost of other ICU treatments, daily costs will exceed fifty thousand. We don¡¯t know how long this will continue for, and there¡¯s no guarantee that we can save him in the end.¡± Yang Ping explained to Qin Xiaowei. ¡°So you¡¯re saying, the costs are high and there is a good chance that we may end up with nothing, are you willing to do this?¡± Director Ji added bluntly. Many times, emotions are one thing, but reality is another. The doctors have to tell the family the current situation, and let them make their own choice. Sometimes, when facing such situations, families have to weigh the pros and cons: Continuous injection of large sums of money might still not save the person; yet if they choose to give up, they¡¯ll face the emotional burden; if they choose to carry on, they might be in debt for the rest of their lives. ¡°The hope is very slim!¡± Director Ji said in a heavy tone. ¡°I understand, help Ajun get on this machine, whatever the cost, I will raise the money, please!¡± Qin Xiaowei didn¡¯t hesitate at all. He knelt heavily on the ground. ¡°Please save him, I¡¯ll raise the money, I promise. No matter how much it costs. Professor Yang!¡± Qin Xiaowei¡¯s voice was hoarse and his face was covered with sweat. He hadn¡¯t realized Ajun¡¯s situation was this severe. The previous doctors hadn¡¯t warned him that a fatal pulmonary embolism is almost impossible to treat. Ajun still has a slim chance, he certainly won¡¯t give up now. ¡°Don¡¯t do that, get up and talk.¡± Yang Ping helped him up. Qin Xiaowei took out a thick stack of money from his belt bag, his trembling hand pulling it open, ¡°I will go pay now.¡± Then he unfolded a document, ¡°Look, this is a contract. I just need to sign it, and there will be a million dollars as a prepayment, look, you can call this company and check, this is real.¡± Yang Ping held his hand, ¡°Xiaowei, calm down, we¡¯ve already put Ajun on the machine, we¡¯ll do our best.¡± Qin Xiaowei nodded, ¡°Thank you, I beg of you, please save Ajun.¡± Li Jun was wheeled out of the operating room, already in a coma. Qin Xiaowei rushed up, grabbed Li Jun¡¯s hand. His face was still streaming with tears, ¡°Ajun, don¡¯t be afraid, I¡¯m here with you, don¡¯t be scared, you¡¯ll be alright.¡± It seemed as though Li Jun understood what Qin Xiaowei was saying, tears welled up in his eyes. The stretcher was pushed all the way to the ICU. Qin Xiaowei was stopped outside, and he sat down in the family waiting area, feeling very tired, but forcing himself to stay alert. In his mind, he began to come up with various ways to raise the money. He had saved a little money, thinking it would be enough for a kidney transplant. But, as the saying goes, ¡°man proposes, God disposes.¡± The little money he currently had was just a drop in the ocean. Borrow money from friends? However, he quickly dismissed the idea. The good friends he has wouldn¡¯t be able to help with such a big sum. Anyone else, it wouldn¡¯t make a difference asking them. It¡¯s not thousands or tens of thousands we¡¯re talking about, but hundreds of thousands. It¡¯s unlikely they¡¯ll be able to help. Qin Xiaowei was holding a contract in his hand. He carefully opened it, read it again, and then put it back into his bag. At this point, the ICU doctor came out, calling for Li Jun¡¯s family. In the meeting room, several consent forms were laid out in front of him. The doctor detailed Li Jun¡¯s condition, but Qin Xiaowei wasn¡¯t really listening ¨C he was too preoccupied with just signing the forms. ¡°Is there anything you don¡¯t understand?¡± The doctor asked. Qin Xiaowei was somehow lost: ¡°How is Ajun? Can I see him?¡± The doctor shook his head, ¡°With the support of the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation machine, Li Jun¡¯s vital signs are currently stable. You can¡¯t visit him now, I will let you know when you can.¡± Having said that, the doctor stood up to leave. Then Qin Xiaowei seemed to remember something, ¡°Doctor!¡± The doctor paused, turning around, ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°If he can hear you, please tell Ajun that I¡¯m right outside. Tell him not to be afraid, I have a plan.¡± Qin Xiaowei requested. The doctor nodded, ¡°If he wakes up, I will tell him exactly what you said. Keep your phone on, and don¡¯t go too far from the hospital. We will inform you immediately if anything changes.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be nearby.¡± Qin Xiaowei said, reassuring the doctor. After the doctor left, Qin Xiaowei sat down in the back row of the family waiting area, took out his phone, and dialed a number. He was the only person in the the family waiting area of the ICU. The person on the other line spoke calmly, ¡°Xiaowei, how¡¯s it going? Have you made a decision? I have already told you, the cliff you chose is not going to work. We need to go big to stir up excitement. You know more than anyone how the Angel Falls Climbing scene in Point Break thrilled the audience. Our client has chosen a cliff just like that one, so it¡¯s sure to be a huge hit. With your skills and ample preparation, you¡¯ll have nothing to worry about. In this world there¡¯s nothing free, and hundreds of thousands of dollars are not easy to come by, right, brother? Once this becomes a hit, your worth will increase exponentially.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve thought it over, I agree with the terms of the agreement.¡± Qin Xiaowei said calmly. ¡°Then come to the company at your earliest convenience. I have to be honest with you, we can¡¯t make these huge deals, we¡¯re only acting on behalf of bigger companies. Once you sign the document, the million-dollar prepayment will be immediately transferred to your account, and when the job is done, the remaining five hundred thousand will be wired to you in full. Six hundred thousand is more money than most people can ever dream of making in their whole life. I¡¯d love to take up this opportunity myself, but I can¡¯t ¨C they specifically requested you.¡± Chapter 645 - 645 584 Thoughtful and Righteous_3 ?Chapter 645: Chapter 584: Thoughtful and Righteous_3 Chapter 645: Chapter 584: Thoughtful and Righteous_3 ¡°Also, brother, we will buy a ten-million-level personal insurance for you. I¡¯m not cursing you, it¡¯s industry rules, to make you worry-free,¡± The other party was very enthusiastic. ¡°I am busy these days¡ª¡± ¡°No problem, tell me your location and I will come to have you sign the document. Alright Xiaowei? I want to thank you. If they had not chosen you, we wouldn¡¯t have had the opportunity to cooperate with a big company. I¡¯m also benefiting from you, making some money out of this.¡± The other party¡¯s tone became even more enthused when they heard Qin Xiaowei¡¯s agreement. With the support of the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation device, Li Jun¡¯s vital signs stabilized. His life was at least temporarily preserved, but when he would be able to wean off the device remained uncertain. When Yang Ping came out of the ICU, he saw Qin Xiaowei still sitting in the family waiting area. Yang Ping greeted him, telling him that Li Jun was in stable condition and he would not be needed by the ICU doctors at the moment, so he could go and have some food. The uncompleted basketball game in the afternoon would need to be finished. Resuscitation was an everyday part of a doctor¡¯s life. In Sanbo Hospital, there were daily cases of resuscitation within the buildings. Even while intense basketball games were being played, a department somewhere might be conducting urgent resuscitation efforts. ¡ª The following day, when Yang Ping went to the ICU to see Li Jun, Qin Xiaowei, was lying on one of the waiting room chairs and quickly sat up. ¡°Did you sleep here all night?¡± Song Zimo asked, surprised. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m afraid that if Ajun¡¯s condition changes and the doctors can¡¯t find me quickly.¡± The young man rubbed his bloodshot eyes, looking somewhat shy. He was genuinely afraid that if the doctors could not find him, they would give up on the rescue. Yang Ping led everyone into the ICU; Li Jun¡¯s vital signs were stable. The extracorporeal membrane oxygenation device was set up next to him, making its particular sounds. Blood was drawn from Li Jun¡¯s body, oxygenated through artificial machinery, and returned to his body, supplying oxygen to his organs. ¡°For now, he is stable, but we are not sure if he could be weaned off. His blood clotting mechanism is already disrupted due to long term use of anticoagulants, which cause him to be prone to blood clots,¡± The ICU director accompanied Yang Ping. ¡°Yes, it happened once before. Luckily, it was a mild case and did not cause significant problems,¡± Yang Ping was conversing with the ICU director. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Takahashi, Robert, and August were gathered around Li Jun¡¯s bed. Song Zimo was changing Li Jun¡¯s dressing and checking the surgical incision. Many ICU doctors and nurses came to watch. They had heard about the foreigners coming for training in Yang Ping¡¯s department, and were quite curious. Aside from admiration, it was still admiration. At such a young age, these foreigners crossed oceans to learn from him. ¡°In this case, he should have had a kidney transplant earlier. Otherwise, even if he gets through this crisis, his future is still like a time bomb,¡± The ICU director suggested that with a kidney transplant, he would not have to use dialysis so frequently and would not need to use anticoagulants so regularly, hence his blood clotting function could be restored to normal. ¡°He has never found a kidney source,¡± Yang Ping responded casually, but he did not mention that Qin Xiaowei had successfully matched as a donor. ¡°His cousin is very loyal. He deposited another three hundred thousand this morning. Seems determined to save him, in such cases, many families symbolically hold on for a few days before giving up,¡± The ICU director had seen much life and death. Many biological parents and siblings ended up giving up eventually, but a cousin showing this much determination was unusual. Qin Xiaowei had deposited three hundred thousand? Yang Ping was also a little surprised. Could it be that he had really signed that contract and received one million? Though Yang Ping did not know what kind of contract it was, he could see that this young man was genuinely loyal and caring. PS: If this were a chapter, it would definitely be a lengthy one. This chapter has over four thousand words! It¡¯s equivalent to two chapters! Chapter 646 - 646 585 Three Kingdoms Kill ?Chapter 646: Chapter 585: Three Kingdoms Kill Chapter 646: Chapter 585: Three Kingdoms Kill Li Jun¡¯s head moved slightly, the ICU director said: ¡°He should be waking up soon, but even when he wakes up, sedating him might be a better option.¡± The attending doctor saw that Li Jun showed signs of waking up, checked his pupils and various reflexes, then comforted Li Jun: ¡°Your cousin is outside waiting for you. Don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t be scared, you¡¯ll get better.¡± Li Jun¡¯s head moved more vigorously, his hands started to fumble, his feet kicked randomly, he started to get restive. ¡°Restrain him, don¡¯t let him yank out all the tubes.¡± The ICU director himself went up to hold Li Jun down, calling for the nurses to bring restraints. What on earth caused him to become restless all of a sudden? Robert and Takahashi were quick to react. The two each took one side, subduing Li Jun¡¯s upper limbs. Another ICU doctor and Song Zimo helped control the lower limbs, while the nurse got out restraints, ready to tie down Li Jun. ¡°Sedate him, give him more sedative! Be swift with your hands!¡± the ICU director shouted. A doctor fetched some medicine from the nearby emergency trolley to strengthen the sedative. Yang Ping stopped them from executing the order, ¡°Don¡¯t rush to sedate him, let his cousin come in and talk with him for a while.¡± A doctor immediately went out to call Qin Xiaowei, who was just right outside in the family waiting area. The doctor had him put on an isolation gown, a mask, and a cap, then brought him into the ICU ward. ¡°Li Jun is a bit restive, go talk to him,¡± Yang Ping instructed Qin Xiaowei. Seeing Li Jun¡¯s limbs restrained, his body still tossing and turning as if in great pain, Qin Xiaowei felt as if his heart was being twisted. Everyone made some room, Qin Xiaowei stroked Li Jun¡¯s hair, and whispered in his ear: ¡°Ajun, this is Xiaowei-brother, don¡¯t be scared, it¡¯s alright, I¡¯m right here.¡± Qin Xiaowei¡¯s words acted like a strong sedative. Li Jun writhed a couple more times, then ceased his restlessness and stopped struggling. Everyone cautiously let go of their grip. Li Jun stopped moving, his heart rate on the monitor gradually returned to normal. ¡°Ajun, listen to me. I¡¯m here, things will surely get better, you¡¯ve to listen to the doctor,¡± Qin Xiaowei held Li Jun¡¯s hand. Li Jun, gripped it tightly in return, as one would a lifesaver, and refused to let go. In the ICU, family members can only have short visits under special circumstances. They absolutely cannot stay in the ward. ¡°Ajun, be good, I have to leave as visitors are not allowed to stay here. I¡¯m right outside, and will be here immediately if something happens. I¡¯m here all the time so don¡¯t be scared, alright? You¡¯ll definitely get better, with the doctors around, and me as well.¡± Qin Xiaowei patted Li Jun¡¯s head, as if soothing a raging lion. Gradually, Li Jun let go of Qin Xiaowei¡¯s hand. As he stood up, Qin Xiaowei felt very distressed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he has been a little restless. Over sedating him doesn¡¯t help his recovery, which is why I had you come in and see him,¡± Yang Ping explained. Sometimes, a patient¡¯s psychological comfort is very important too. Now that the situation had stabilized, the doctor in charge of the ward couldn¡¯t let Qin Xiaowei stay too long. So, he ushered him out. Qin Xiaowei constantly looked back as he was led out of the ICU. ¡°His arteriovenous fistula in the left upper arm has occluded, with a blood clot forming over a length of several centimeters. There¡¯s no way to dissolve or remove the clot, and his upper limb is essentially exhausted. I¡¯ve temporarily placed a catheter in his right femoral vein to meet his short-term dialysis needs, to get us past this urgent crisis. In a few days, I¡¯ll create an arteriovenous fistula in his left lower limb for him...¡± The ICU director was very proficient in the basic techniques of dialysis. For the time being, Li Jun could only undergo dialysis by the bedside. The ICU had a specific dialysis machine for bedside use, which was very convenient. Just as the ICU director was speaking, a patient in another room needed emergency attention. He immediately went over to supervise the rescue operation. It was a constant state in the ICU, where all the patients were critically ill, and any one of them could be at risk of death at any time. That¡¯s why the ICU had the highest mortality rate in the world. Yang Ping took another look at the monitoring data and checked Li Jun¡¯s pupils, wondering when he could be taken off life support. After leaving the ICU, Qin Xiaowei was eating something in the family waiting area. Embarrassed when people noticed him, he quickly put his food away. ¡°Thank you, Professor Yang! I have paid three hundred thousand in, and can pay more in a few days.¡± Qin Xiaowei bowed in gratitude, adopting a very humble stance. Yang Ping comforted him and told him to take care of his own health. People naturally have a fondness for kindness, and because of this, Yang Ping had added respect for the dutiful Qin Xiaowei. ¡ª¡ª August arrived at Sanbo Hospital promptly. Using his fluent Chinese, he made his way around by asking directions, then reported to the office of medical education. The sight of a German speaking Chinese so fluently left Director Zhou speechless. The world changed so swiftly that he felt outmoded even before retirement. Why was it that every foreigner these days spoke better Chinese than he did? Just like how Takahashi and Robert, who had registered and began their official courses, were. Initially, Director Zhou was going to make a bilingual form for foreign medical interns. Now, that seemed unnecessary. August sat in the office of medical education, read aloud every word on the intern¡¯s form under his breath, then signed it and handed over a passport-sized photo with both hands. A staff went out with the photo and came back a few minutes later with August¡¯s intern ID, next was the matter of getting a white gown. ¡°Are you from Munich, Germany?¡± Director Zhou was very curious. August nodded: ¡°Yes, Oktoberfest! Bayern!¡± ¡°Oh¡ª Got it, got it!¡± Director Zhou mimicked foreigners¡¯ flat-toned Chinese. But August¡¯s Chinese was very standard, completely opposite of the awkward flat-tones. So much so that it seemed like Director Zhou was the foreigner, and August the Chinese. ¡°Bayern?¡± The staff at the medical education department was starry-eyed. ¡°I¡¯m regularly with Bayern¡¯s football players, I¡¯m their friend!¡± August announced. Chapter 647 - 647 585 Three Kingdoms Kill_2 ?Chapter 647: Chapter 585 Three Kingdoms Kill_2 Chapter 647: Chapter 585 Three Kingdoms Kill_2 Director Zhou tentatively asked, ¡°So, you can get their autographed jerseys?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a piece of cake, I can get a dozen of them with no problem.¡± For August, this was simply too easy. August did not write his various titles in his further study materials, and Director Zhou and the staff member, who are not from an orthopedic background, didn¡¯t know how high his level was in Europe. ¡°In that case, Dr. Ao, we¡¯ll chat when we have a chance.¡± Director Zhou said proudly. Being the head of the Medical Education Office was interesting, having international trainees, probably not many hospitals in China could do this. Under the guidance of the staff member from the Medical Education Office, August found his dormitory, a three-person room, the other two members were Robert and Takahashi. The staff member knocked on the door of the dormitory, Takahashi opened the door, Robert was taking a shower, they had just returned from basketball training. When he saw Takahashi, August pictured the classic image of a Japanese person in his mind. He instinctively took a half step back, feeling a surge of disgust. The dormitory building is one of several large buildings of Sanbo Hospital, right behind the sports field. It was originally built at the establishment of the hospital to solve everyone¡¯s housing problem. But now, with the hospital¡¯s development, early employees have all moved to surrounding buildings, and this building has become a dormitory. Young hospital staff who have not yet bought a house can apply for a dorm room in the hospital, which is half the market price, a great deal, and there are housing types from two rooms and a living room to four rooms and a living room. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s trainees, interns, standard training students, and graduate students, all student dormitories are set up here, and the trainee¡¯s dormitories are generally three-person dormitories. The staff member said a few words and then left. The three often chatted on the forum, but meeting August face to face was the first time. ¡°Affiliated Hospital of Tokyo University, Takahashi!¡± Takahashi extended his hand. August was disgusted by Takahashi¡¯s hand, and on the spur of the moment, he used a Chinese-style fist salute: ¡°Harald Orthopedic Hospital in Munich, August.¡± At this point, Robert finished his shower and came out from the bathroom, saw August, and knew that the German had arrived. ¡°A pleasure to meet you, my name is Little Robert from the New York Special Orthopedic Hospital.¡± Robert was very cultured and tried to speak in idioms and poetry as much as possible to show that he was different from others. ¡°That¡¯s your room!¡± Robert pointed to the room. So far, the three giants of the orthopedics field from Europe, America, and Japan have gathered in the Sanbo Hospital dormitory. ¡ª¡ª At seven o¡¯clock in the morning, Yang Ping arrived at work. As soon as he entered the office, he saw a magical scene. Robert, Takahashi, and August, with trainee badges hanging on their chests, were almost standing upright in front of Zhang Lin, receiving Zhang Lin¡¯s lecture. ¡°Regardless of which hospital you come from, regardless of your previous level, when you come here, your identity is only one ¨C trainee! I am the Educational Secretary of this department, Zhang Lin, you can call me Teacher Zhang, during the training period, if you have any problems, you can come to me, I hope you all¡ª.¡± The words of this generation¡¯s top-tier king will be read out every time a new trainee arrives. Changing shifts and ward rounds, the same old routine. Cui Shukai hasn¡¯t been discharged yet, his father has gone back to work, and his mother is staying here to accompany him. His lumbar muscle recovery training has ended, and he is now just like a normal child. This was the kid with the 176-degree C-shaped spine discussed on the forum. During the ward round, when August saw Cui Shukai in person, he couldn¡¯t believe it. The German examined Cui Shukai¡¯s spine with a sense of surprise, pressing one spinous process after another, then comparing whether the bilateral scapulae and iliac crests were symmetrical, asking Xiao Cui to bend down to see if he could touch his own shoes. Finally, he took a long breath and felt like he was an ignorant person, he didn¡¯t even know this technology existed. He¡¯s here for three months to learn scoliosis correction with Yang Ping, traditional surgery Yang¡¯s osteotomy and external fixation technique. With mastery of these two techniques, all scoliosis patients can be treated, suppressing Milton in one fell swoop, making that guy submit both in mind and soul, bowing to him. The decade-long tug-of-war with that Brit, Milton, once drove August to despair, a balance was always maintained in a seesaw game, even the chairmanship of the European Spine Surgery Association took turns. This time, he can definitely beat Milton and show him the gap. Quite a few patients in the ward were there to get their external spine fixtures removed, and each orthopedic correction was a great success, nearly perfect. Seeing it with his own eyes, there could be no mistake. August finally gained direct clinical knowledge on the technique for the external spine fixture. ¡ª The department finished surgery ahead of schedule that afternoon. In the office, August met with Yang Ping in private. ¡°Respected Professor Yang, hello! It is my honour to learn from you. I¡¯ve brought a small gift for you upon our second meeting.¡± What could the German¡¯s small gift be? Germany doesn¡¯t seem to have any famous tea, right? Yang Ping was quite puzzled. ¡°Professor Yang, I am here on behalf of the Duke Foundation to invite you to join. The Duke Foundation is a low-profile but powerful foundation. It funds medical research worldwide. If Professor Yang is interested, the doors of the Duke Foundation are always open to you.¡± On this trip, besides furthering his studies, August was also carrying out this mission. The Duke Foundation isn¡¯t well-known in the public. It is a small branch of another secretive foundation, which is backed by substantial capital and can contend with the Rockefeller Foundation. ¡°The Duke Foundation¡¯s project funding usually starts at tens of millions of euros. My research project on spinal cord damage is funded by the Duke Foundation. If Professor Yang agrees, the external spinal fixation project can join the Duke Foundation for promotion in Europe. More importantly, some economically disadvantaged patients can receive free treatment. Furthermore, the Duke Foundation never claims ownership of the research results. In other words, they provide the funds, but the results are still yours. It¡¯s genuinely a family charitable foundation. In Germany, the best machines and workers in the world will produce the new products of Professor Yang, and impoverished children can benefit from your technology for free. This will benefit humanity.¡± The Duke has said that he spared no expenses if the technology was indeed miraculous. Neither the Japanese nor the Americans could possibly compete with his play, the German was very confident. Yang Ping had never mentioned the Duke Foundation before, but he somewhat trusted August, the honest German. Besides, if you simply want to obtain core technology, there would be no need for such an approach. In fact, it¡¯s only a clinical trial base, as long as the conditions are suitable, giving one spot or even ten isn¡¯t a problem. But as for August, he was determined to get it. The Germans sure have an excellent move. ¡°Thank you, Mr. August, your suggestion is excellent. If so, my external spinal fixation can reach the world, allowing more people to use it. But I need some time to think it over.¡± ¡°Thank you for your trust, take your time, Professor Yang. You can visit Europe to inspect a few projects funded by the Duke Foundation. You will understand that we are the most reliable.¡± As long as Yang Ping doesn¡¯t refuse on the spot, August believes the chances are high. The Japanese were very diligent, pushing the medication cart back and forth in the hallway, his peripheral vision staring at Yang Ping¡¯s office. The door was closed for a full half-hour. A half-hour is enough to discuss some sort of collaboration. Unlike the Americans who didn¡¯t seem to care much, as being the top in the world of orthopedics, their advantages in participating in this clinical trial were more evident than anyone else¡¯s. Moreover, in terms of relationship with Yang Ping, they were in no way inferior to Takahashi. They had shared hardships together in Yemen, forming a staunch friendship amidst the sounds of artillery. Furthermore, in the crisis of the professor¡¯s favored company, the American was the protagonist, others were at most followers. If there was a spot, if not New York Special Orthopedic Hospital, who else could it be? A full forty-five minutes, no, an hour. The door opened! August came out of Yang Ping¡¯s office with a gloomy look on his face, seemingly quite disappointed. The cunning Japanese were only good at petty tricks, but when it comes to real strategic tactics, you have to look at me, August. August returned to the doctor¡¯s office. Chapter 648 - 648 586 Another Knife Attach One ?Chapter 648: Chapter 586: Another Knife Attach One Chapter 648: Chapter 586: Another Knife Attach One The Duke Fund has an official website with versions in Chinese, English, and German. If there is no commercial interest involved, and it¡¯s purely a charity fund, Yang Ping is willing to cooperate. Scientific research is a costly activity, and the more channels for funding, the better. In Europe and America, large financial groups often fund scientific research. The projects funded by charitable foundations are mostly public welfare projects, such as in the health field. For authoritative figures in the medical field like August, having close contact with these funds is perfectly reasonable. Yang Ping browses through the information on the official website. The official website is indeed very simple. Besides an introduction to the fund, there are addresses, telephone numbers, and other contact information, as well as an entrance to apply for the fund. He doesn¡¯t find any valuable information. For a charitable foundation, it seems that having this information on the official website is enough. The external spinal fixation frame is making strides worldwide, and Europe is a crucial part of this progress. When he has time, Yang Ping decides to make a trip to Europe to investigate the fund. Putting this matter aside, Yang Ping opens his WeChat, there are many new messages. Xiao Su hasn¡¯t messaged him yet. It¡¯s almost time to get off work. She and Zhou Can are checking the instruments. Xiao Su checks every piece of instrument for tomorrow¡¯s surgery to prevent any errors. Among many unchecked WeChat messages, several are from Ning Qi: [Are you busy? My brother has recovered well and is preparing to return to China. I want to invite you to dinner.] [Or, I¡¯ll visit you at your department one day and bring you some cookies?] [I heard that you¡¯re planning new research?] Since Ning Yu recovered very well after surgery, Ning Qi is naturally happy. She has tried several times to invite Yang Ping to eat, but couldn¡¯t find a suitable time. This time, she needs to find a moment to thank Yang Ping. After several interactions, Yang Ping thinks this Miss Ning is nice, and he¡¯s already considering her a good friend. She was the first to donate to his research fund, and she was quite generous. Several times she has tried to invite him to eat, but couldn¡¯t make it. He needs to give her some face this time. When Xiao Su comes down, they will decide together a time for dinner. [Once Ning Yu returns, bring him for a follow-up check. Thanks for the cookies, they were very delicious!] Yang Ping sends a WeChat message. When Ning Yu returns, he needs to review the latest results before he can relax. [The cookies were handmade by me] As soon as Yang Ping sends his message, the response is immediate. The speed is extremely fast. Isn¡¯t the CEO of a big company supposed to be in meetings all day? How does she have time to chat on her mobile? [You made them yourself?] Yang Ping has forgotten about this. The other party seems a bit angry, sending a crying emoji. Well, he did forget about it, but he does remember that they were delicious. He checks other WeChat messages, including one from Su Nanchen. Regarding the external spinal fixation surgery, Nandu Affiliated Hospital One plans to invite Yang Ping to perform several demonstration surgeries. Su Nanchen asks Yang Ping to confirm the time so that Hospital One can send out an inter-hospital consultation invitation. Yang Ping thinks, he has basketball on Saturday and Sunday, and can¡¯t make time. He may only find time these few days to perform the surgery. Su Nanchen suggests that it would be better to bring the entire surgical team for demonstration, as it would be more standard that way. Bringing a whole team over? Isn¡¯t that a bit too dramatic? ¡ª Up to now, the three international trainees seem to get along well. August¡¯s enduring dislike for the Japanese makes it hard for him to warm up to Takahashi. Even when Takahashi always tries to talk to him, he just replies perfunctorily, which makes Takahashi feel quite awkward. Are all Germans this strict and serious? Yang Ping, in the name of the department, has invited all three trainees for meals. There¡¯s nothing to say about Robert and Takahashi. When he goes to the United States or Japan, they have been very enthusiastic. It¡¯s a matter of courtesy to invite them to a meal. So, it isn¡¯t fair to exclude August, who was also invited to a meal, to avoid the German feeling left out or discriminated against at Sanbo Hospital. To his surprise, this dinner has become their crowning glory. As if the dinner has become some sort of unofficial ceremony, only the trainees invited to this dinner by Professor Yang would have the opportunity to be personally taught by him. So far, there have only been three people in the world, and in all of Europe, only him ¨C August! Indeed, today Professor Yang discussed a case of spiral spine with me. His proposed plan is amazing. Unfortunately, I can only digest a part of it for now. It will take some time to fully comprehend it.] [When I was helping to transfer a patient, I seemed to have sprained my waist. I believe it¡¯s just a lumbar strain and not serious. When the nurse called for help to transfer the patient, the American and the Japanese were quick to react. They ran out immediately. Of course, I couldn¡¯t lag behind, and rushed to catch up. The dignity of a German cannot be violated.] [Takahashi taught me how to send WeChat red packets. He told me that the amount doesn¡¯t have to be large, just a few or a few tens of yuan for everyone to snatch. I knew he was afraid I would surpass him, so I sent several red packets of two hundred each. The doctors and nurses smiled like flowers when they saw me, waving and saying hello. I was very welcomed by them, unlike Takahashi. Fortunately, I didn¡¯t fall for his trick.] [That¡¯s all for today, I¡¯m really happy!] August puts his diary back into the cabinet and locks it, then exits his room. Chapter 649 - 649 586 Another Knife Attach One_2 ?Chapter 649: Chapter 586: Another Knife Attach One_2 Chapter 649: Chapter 586: Another Knife Attach One_2 ¡°My brother is treating us tonight, let¡¯s all go together!¡± Robert proudly told his roommates. Both August and Takahashi were envious that Robert had a brother in Sanbo Hospital ¨C that brother was Director Gao. In his quest to learn Chinese, he called Director Gao incessantly, chatting endlessly, which caused Director Gao¡¯s wife to suspiciously wonder if her husband was up to no good outside. Left with no choice, Director Gao had to use the speakerphone each time. Once his wife confirmed the caller was a man, she would be reassured. But in no time, Director Gao¡¯s wife had a new suspicion. Why was Director Gao chatting with a man all the time? This man would often say, ¡°Brother, I miss you, have you been busy lately?¡± This left Director Gao both amused and at a loss, it took a lot of explaining to convince his wife. The three were waiting for Old Gao¡¯s call. They gathered around the table, sharing their new insights from the day¡¯s study. However, the topic of the available spots for the clinical training camp was strictly avoided. Each of them knew that besides the advanced study, each of them harbored a mission for this program. The single spot in the international clinical research base offered by Yang Ping made them extremely nervous. These top-tier hospitals¡¯ emphasis on new technology was not comparable to ordinary hospitals. Similar to global economic trends, small merchants barely paid any attention, but top-tier businessmen were keen on every signal. They kept a finger on the pulse of information, just like a snake lurking in the grass. The spinal external fixation technology represents a brand new development. If they managed to participate in the clinical experiment phase, they would be at the forefront of technological advancement, regardless if the technology was theirs or not. If they reacted too slowly, and others took the initiative, they would naturally fall behind in this regard. Therefore, to acquire this cutting-edge knowledge, they were all making every effort. They followed their group¡¯s doctors ¨C receiving patients, taking medical histories, performing preoperative examinations, preparing for surgeries, conducting surgeries, and supervising postoperative recovery. They left no stone unturned. When it came to original surgical techniques, actually learning from the originators is the best way to grasp the techniques, assimilating their experience. Advanced training was practical learning, which couldn¡¯t be compared with reading books or papers. Like learning to drive with a coach is vastly different from learning by reading a car driving manual. When their conversation was about to end, Director Gao¡¯s phone call came in. ¡ª Li Jun was still on ECMO support in the ICU. Although the pulmonary embolism was treated in time, saving his life, the disease was vicious. Large-scale pulmonary infarction was inevitable. Besides, Li Jun also had uremia. The intertwinement of various diseases could trigger a chain reaction of multi-organ failure at any time. His condition was not optimistic. After paying at the payment window in the lobby, Qin Xiaowei saw someone waving at him from the entrance of the hall, ¡°Brother Xiaowei!¡± It was his friend, Lu Qilong, known as Along in the climbing circle. At forty years old, Along was Qin Xiaowei¡¯s senior in the climbing community. He currently operates a video company focusing on extreme outdoor sports. A certain video platform approached him as they knew he was a veteran in the climbing circle. They needed him to help find a free-climbing expert. The platform wanted to produce a live program, resembling the free climbing scenes in Point Break, hoping the thrilling show would attract more viewers. Actually, the free climbing circle was small, everyone knew each other. Qin Xiaowei was widely recognized as the top performer in the circle, both in terms of technique and fitness. The two found a corner to sit in the hall. There were hardly anyone in the hall at night, Qin Xiaowei dared not go too far, even leaving the hospital felt risky. Along brought two bottles of drinks. They chatted while sipping. ¡°Like I said, big companies are reliable. If they promise to prepay one million, one million it is. You need to start training as soon as possible. When are you going to check out the site? We¡¯ve checked out the place, and everything¡¯s fine. But you need to inspect the climbing route personally.¡± Along, with his ponytail, was very casual with Qin Xiaowei, as they were good friends. ¡°I didn¡¯t know we had cliffs like that in Nandu Province.¡± Qin Xiaowei thought that such a daunting cliff should already be known to people in their circle. ¡°No one knows about these undeveloped cliffs. It took me and the boss a long time to find it. This is a great opportunity. Don¡¯t worry. We¡¯ve already started scouring the site.¡± The boss Along referred to was another major shareholder of the company. ¡°Scouring the site¡± generally meant fully inspecting the cliff, checking if it had suitable grasp points and if they were firm enough. ¡°I can¡¯t make the time for now. I¡¯ll let you know when I can.¡± Qin Xiaowei had no time right now. At least not until Ajun becomes stable. At the moment, with Ajun¡¯s life at stake, he had neither the time nor the mood for anything else. ¡°Alright, let me know when you¡¯re free. To be honest, I owe you one too, brother. I get to make some money from this as well. Xiaowei, in our line of work, we shouldn¡¯t live hand-to-mouth, didn¡¯t we climb even when we were broke? How about we go out for a meal together? Have a few drinks?¡± Along invited Qin Xiaowei. Qin Xiaowei shook his head. ¡°No thanks!¡± ¡°Yeah, you should rest and train when you have some free time. I gotta go.¡± Along bid farewell to Qin Xiaowei. Qin Xiaowei sat alone in a corner of the hall. He leaned back in his seat for a short rest, then headed to the family waiting area in the ICU. He had been spending the nights there in a chair for the past few days. ¡ª Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, Spinal Surgery Department. ¡°Prepare the cases, Professor Yang from Sanbo Hospital is coming for surgery demonstration on Friday.¡± Professor Fan tapped on the desk, and Ou Lichun moved all the selected patients¡¯ medical records for Professor Fan¡¯s review. There were many professors and associate professors at the Affiliated Hospital One. Advanced study doctors like him were only used as resident doctors, doing the most basic jobs like looking after patients and writing case reports. However, due to his special connection, he was introduced by Su Nanchen. Therefore, Professor Fan paid more attention to Ou Lichun. If he made a few minor mistakes in his work, Professor Fan would take it lightly and not go off on him, which was not a luxury that other advanced study doctors could afford. Professor Fan examined the medical records himself, page by page: ¡°Be more diligent, go over the case records multiple times. Check if you¡¯ve missed anything in the preoperative assessment. Professor Yang is meticulous. If there are any loopholes, being scolded isn¡¯t going to be great. Professor Yang was personally invited by Su himself, and he was personally involved in securing this cooperation project. There should be no mistakes on our patients. Understood?¡± Professor Fan was the leading professor of the spinal surgery group at the Affiliated Hospital One. For this preparation of the clinical trial cases, he also contributed several. ¡°I¡¯ve gone through them several times!¡± Ou Lichun was completely respectful and filled with reverence before Professor Fan. ¡°After going through them several times, and yet it¡¯s like this. Rewrite the specialist examination for this case record, rewrite the case history for this one, rewrite the preoperative assessment for this one ¡ª¡± Professor Fan was very displeased after going through the files. He was somewhat angry. Ou Lichun was startled and hurriedly wrote down the problems in his notebook. ¡°Where¡¯s Dr. Luo?¡± Dr. Luo was the main doctor in Professor Fan¡¯s group, a doctorate holder. ¡°He just went to the ward to check on the patients.¡± Ou Lichun was trembling with fear. PS: Currently editing! Chapter 650 - 650 587 ?Chapter 650: Chapter 587 Chapter 650: Chapter 587 Ou Lichun and Yang Ping were university classmates, both for their undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Upon graduation, Ou Lichun went to a tertiary-level hospital in a lesser-known city. As a master¡¯s degree holder, this was already a decent outcome in the overly competitive medical field. Back then, Ou Lichun dreamt of furthering his skills in spinal surgery at the Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, but due to its national ranking and scarce fellowship positions, there was no chance for him. Thanks to Yang Ping¡¯s help, Ou Lichun¡¯s dream came true, and he was accepted to train at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. He cherished this opportunity greatly, arriving at the department before seven in the morning and only leaving after ten at night, working earnestly. Ou Lichun was a year older than Yang Ping. Both of them pursued postgraduate studies after their undergraduate degrees. During their postgraduate years, they both obtained their medical practice licenses with their undergraduate qualifications. Thus, two years after postgraduation, both of them were promoted to attending physicians. Ou Lichun became an attending physician at the age of 28. His promotion was smooth and without delay, paving a promising future ahead. Right after his promotion to attending physician, he was offered a coveted assignment to pursue further training. It seemed his career was on a roll. Yet, his colleague Yang Ping had now become an associate professor, an associate chief physician. The speed of promotion was nothing short of rocket-like. None of their fellow students, neither from undergraduate nor postgraduate, had achieved such fast advancement. If he didn¡¯t know that this Professor Yang was Yang Ping, Ou Lichun wouldn¡¯t have believed such a young professor even existed. Compared to him, Ou Lichun was still being scolded over a single case report. Comparisons are indeed odious. But Ou Lichun thought it was fortunate to have such a classmate. After all, he had made it possible to train at the Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Ou Lichun held his peace, not bragging about Yang Ping being his classmate. ¡°This Professor Yang is quite remarkable; apparently, he managed to develop this spinal fixation frame in just a few months.¡± ¡°He won the Golden Knife Award last year.¡± ¡°I heard he was exceptionally promoted to become an associate chief physician and associate professor.¡± ¡°Really? Could his family background have been manufactured by power and influence? Who knows when his facade might crumble?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fairly sure, the technology in the spinal fixation frame is extremely sophisticated and could win the national invention award.¡± ¡°Do you know Professor Yang well?¡± ¡°Not really, we just had dinner together.¡± As everybody chatted while working, they all seemed quite familiar with Yang Ping. In particular, one Doctoral candidate, Dr. Zeng, appeared to have a close relationship with Yang Ping. Dr. Zeng was in his doctorate, studying under Professor Fan¡¯s medical team, just like Ou Lichun. These doctoral candidates also held the position of resident physicians in the medical team. While Dr. Zeng and Ou Lichun were peers, Dr. Zeng often bossed Ou Lichun around because he was a doctoral candidate. Ou Lichun remained silent during the conversation, typing away on the case report, which had to be edited completely by today to satisfy Professor Fan tomorrow. Whenever Professor Fan was present, Dr. Zeng pretended to be busy revising case reports. But as soon as the professor left, he instantly pushed all the work onto Ou Lichun, chit-chatting leisurely to the side. Ou Lichun was already swamped, and now also had to edit case reports for Dr. Zeng. This time, Ou Lichun decided to ignore him, saying, ¡°We each write our own.¡± Picking up guts, are you disobeying now? Ou Lichun ignored him and kept typing. Dr. Zeng was furious. He nodded his head, thinking to himself, ¡°we¡¯ll see.¡± One by one, the professors and associate professors of the spinal surgery department all returned to the medical office. Suddenly, the doctors at the doorway stood up. Before Ou Lichun could figure out what was going on, someone pulled him up: Dean Su had arrived. All the doctors in the office stood up unanimously. Academician, national orthopedics chair, Dean of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, primary professor, chief physician Professor Su entered the doctor¡¯s office, accompanied by Professor Zhou. Professor Su appeared very elegant. His fit and uniform body was encapsulated in a well-fitted white gown, and he wore a constant smile, looking confident and successful. Everyone both admired and feared him; Professor Su¡¯s presence exerted an aura of authority without even raising his voice. He kindly greeted everyone, ¡°You¡¯ve all worked hard, sit down, please sit down!¡± Professor Zhou guided Professor Su to his seat; only then did everyone dare sit down. At this moment, the doctors¡¯ office was filled with dozens of professors, associate professors, doctoral and master¡¯s students altogether. Curtains drawn, projector switched on, after a few brief opening words from Professor Zhou, each medical team began to present their cases. These cases were all clinical trials for the spinal fixation frame. ¡ª- As interns, Robert, Takahashi, and August not only met the criteria, but they also excelled. August arrived at the department promptly at six to review all the medical records of the patients with spinal curvature. Then, he studied their imaging pictures. The technical manual was so battered from August¡¯s use, its edges were smoothed, dog-eared. Especially the core technique¡ªthe osteotomy; August asked Yang Ping numerous questions almost every day. In the laboratory, which was also the training room, there were 3D models of the spine for each clinical trial case. August studied the osteotomy on these models, vertebra by vertebra. He noted down anything he was not clear about to ask Yang Ping in the afternoon. August himself volunteered to manage patients, just like a resident physician who was responsible for the entire treatment process of the patient. Given his competent command of Chinese, Yang Ping agreed. The Germans believed that only by personally experiencing every workflow detail from the bottom could one fully master the technique. Chapter 651 - 651 587_2 ?Chapter 651: Chapter 587_2 Chapter 651: Chapter 587_2 Everyone had a long day at work. Before signing off, they took a short break and chatted. Cui Xubing took a leave to check his son out of the hospital. He had settled the bills, packed everything with his wife, and planned to stay at the Tri-Bo Hotel for one night before taking the high-speed rail home the next morning. Before they left, Old Cui and his wife carried a banner, looking for Professor Yang with their son. The banner read: Miraculous healing hands! These words were Old Cui¡¯s own thinking and handwriting, he had it made into a banner according to his design. Head Nurse Cai guided them, ¡°The professor just entered his office.¡± Old Cui was delighted. After all, his son was the first patient to benefit from Professor Yang¡¯s new technique. The world¡¯s first. No matter what, being the world¡¯s first was worth boasting about. Old Cui found Professor Yang in his office, just as he opened the door. ¡°Bow!¡± Old Cui instructed. Xiao Cui stood up straight and bowed in gratitude in front of Professor Yang. ¡°Lower, lower, even lower!¡± Old Cui kept instructing, feeling that his son¡¯s bow was not low enough. His son¡¯s situation had been a burden for the past few years. Now, that burden was finally lifted. Afterwards, August and Robert took turns taking photos with the Chinese banner, fascinated by it. Then, Robert also pulled Takahashi in, and the three took a group photo. ¡°Teacher Zhang, does this banner symbolize a medal?¡± August asked Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin nodded solemnly, ¡°This is a medal awarded by the patients. I hope when you return to your country, you can also earn such medals. It¡¯s the highest honor for a doctor. The more medals you have, the more respect you receive from patients.¡± August quietly committed this to memory. A medal awarded by patients was indeed the highest honor. Robert, who had been silent by the side, sent the photo of the banner to his assistant Barel. ¡°Make a banner like this and hang it in my office ¨C no, make ten ¨C twenty!¡± ¡ª Li Jun was still in the ICU, not breathing on his own, and had not regained consciousness. After a brief recovery of consciousness last time, he had fallen back into a coma. Every day¡¯s medical expenses amounted to sixty to seventy thousand, out of which thirty to forty thousand had to be paid out-of-pocket. There was no other choice, everything related to ECMO had to be self-funded. Without this machine to sustain his life, Li Jun¡¯s heart and breathing would have stopped long ago. Professor Yang came to see Li Jun twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Upon seeing Professor Yang, the ICU director shook his head, ¡°It seems he won¡¯t be able to hang on for much longer. His coagulation function is too disordered. Despite increasing the dosage of anticoagulant, his digestive tract bled last night. Fortunately, the bleeding wasn¡¯t severe. Upon lowering the dosage of anticoagulant, blood clots formed during hemodialysis. I have never seen such a difficult patient. If conditions permitted, a kidney transplant would be the way out, it would prevent the use of anticoagulants. But under his current condition, how could we carry out a transplant? The family insists on rescuing him.¡± Professor Yang remained silent, staring at Li Jun¡¯s monitoring screen for a long while before he finally spoke. ¡°Can we find a balance between the two?¡± The ICU director nodded, ¡°I¡¯ll try. I am trying to look for this balance, and I hope I can find it.¡± If they managed to find this balance, it could at least buy some time. If there¡¯s hope for him to regain consciousness and the conditions permit, they could immediately perform a kidney transplant. This way, he could get past this critical point. ¡°Yesterday, the patient in the next ward was declared brain dead and is currently being kept alive for 24 days by ECMO. It still doesn¡¯t look promising. Even with a machine to keep him alive, he won¡¯t be able to hang on for much longer.¡± The ICU director sighed. Looking at the most recent chest x-ray, compared to the previous CT, Li Jun seemed to have hope of regaining consciousness. The key was to find a balance between coagulation and anticoagulation. Otherwise, the coagulation system could easily collapse, resulting in either internal organ bleeding or organ embolism. In such a case, the entire organ system would go into sequential collapse, also known as multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. If they could find a balance and stabilize the coagulation system, preventing fatal internal organ bleeding and no longer worsening lung embolism, there would be hope of getting through the critical period. The ICU director walked Professor Yang out. As Professor Yang reached the door and it opened, he heard a commotion from the family waiting area, followed by some shoving. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s an organ donation coordinator. They were trying to persuade the family of last night¡¯s patient, who was declared brain dead, to donate their organs. The family scolded and slapped them. Security just managed it, why are they back already?¡± The ICU director wondered, following Professor Yang out. It wasn¡¯t uncommon to see organ donation coordinators around the ICU and Emergency Department. Their work was easily misunderstood. Patients were in critical condition but not yet dead, and they were urging the family to donate organs. In Chinese traditional culture, most of the time they ended up either being scolded or beaten. They were seen by family members as vultures, eyeing the organs while the person was alive. In fact, organ donation coordinators were a relatively new profession. As of January 1, 2015, China completely phased out the use of organs from executed prisoners, making voluntary donation from citizens the only legal source of transplants. Huang Jiefu, the chairman of the China Organ Donation and Transplant Committee, said at that time, ¡°This is the first, and the most critical, step towards fairness.¡± However, in 2015, only 25,959 people had voluntarily registered for organ donation. This meant that due to tradition and awareness, the majority of people did not approve of organ donation. Therefore, the sources for organ transplants were extremely limited, and many people couldn¡¯t find donors. The ICU Director raised his voice, ¡°Stop arguing! If you carry on, I will call security. If you have something to discuss, take it outside. Don¡¯t argue here.¡± One female family member grabbed the organ donation coordinator by the hair while another was cursing, ¡°The person isn¡¯t even dead yet and you¡¯re already eyeing their organs. Have you no humanity?¡± The coordinator was still rather nai?ve, coming back for more despite having been slapped. The Director of ICU grabbed the family member¡¯s hand, ¡°Enough, this is his job. He¡¯s trying to do a good thing, save other people¡¯s lives. If you¡¯re unwilling, just say no, there¡¯s no need for violence.¡± The woman let go, allowing the coordinator to escape. ¡°Why are you back here? Wasn¡¯t being slapped once enough? Now go.¡± After helping him get out of the situation, the ICU director ensured the coordinator left quickly and smoothly. Upon seeing Professor Yang coming out, Qin Xiaowei immediately came over. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± ¡°I just had a look, the condition is still very critical. He could be in danger at any moment. We¡¯re doing everything we can.¡± Professor Yang informed Qin Xiaowei of the newest developments. Qin Xiaowei nodded. ¡°I heard from the doctors about Ajun¡¯s condition. It would¡¯ve been better if I had donated my kidney to him earlier. If I had, we wouldn¡¯t be in such a mess right now.¡± Qin Xiaowei seemed to blame himself. It had been decided that the Fly-Knife surgery would be performed at Branch One on Friday. It wasn¡¯t appropriate, or necessary, to bring the entire team. Assistant Song Zimo and equipment nurse Xiao Su should be enough. Upon hearing that Professor Yang was going to perform the Fly-Knife Surgery at Branch One, Robert and August persuaded him passionately to let them join. To them, their internship wasn¡¯t just about learning new techniques, but also about experiencing Chinese medical culture, which meant entering the circle of Chinese people. When Takahashi heard about the two of them accompanying the professor for the Fly-Knife Surgery, he felt he would miss out if he didn¡¯t go. So, he insisted on going too. Well, that¡¯s fine. It wouldn¡¯t hurt to have extra hands to carry the patient. Branch One would be performing this kind of surgery for the first time, and they would likely not be familiar with the positioning of the patient. Letting these guys serve as positioning masters would allow them to experience Chinese Fly-Knife Culture. Professor Yang agreed. Chapter 652 - 652 588 Welcome to Guide Work in Attached ?Chapter 652: Chapter 588: Welcome to Guide Work in Attached Hospital One Chapter 652: Chapter 588: Welcome to Guide Work in Attached Hospital One It¡¯s Friday, at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. It¡¯s the second time that Yang Ping has come to the hospital. The first time he came, he performed a multiligament reconstruction surgery on Luo Jin¡¯s knee. Luo Jin¡¯s recovery has been going well, so well that he has already gone to Europe to play soccer. He recently contacted Yang Ping via WeChat to report on his recent condition. Yang Ping sincerely wishes that this soccer prodigy could fly higher and higher. The team set off in two vehicles, with Yang Ping and Xiao Su in one car, while Song Zimo¡¯s car carried the three ¡°big shots¡±. These three were very excited, non-stop talking in the car, having the chance to accompany the professors for surgery outside is their way to truly enter the professor¡¯s circle. Originally, Su Nanchen intended to drive to pick up Yang Ping, but was firmly declined by Yang Ping. If it was before, it wouldn¡¯t matter, but with their current relationship, having the older cousin as the driver felt inappropriate. After everyone parked their cars, they walked to the main entrance of the hospital where Su Nanchen had been waiting for some time. Recently, everyone has been busy, and apart from the opportunity to meet up for surgeries at Old Cheng¡¯s, there hasn¡¯t been much time to meet. Young Master Su always presented himself with charm and grace. In the entire Hospital attached to Nandu, many female doctors and nurses regarded him as their dream lover. Unfortunately, his fiancee is a young PhD adviser who embodies both intelligence and beauty, leaving no room for hope for others. Su Nanchen and Lin Lan are planning their wedding. Following their pace, Yang Ping and Xiao Su need to start making their own preparations. ¡°Today, we¡¯ve canceled all elective surgeries to observe your demonstration surgery,¡± said Su Nanchen, unable to hide his excitement. Nurse Su, who was following behind, just smiled when she saw her brother, as a way of greeting. ¡°Hello, Nurse Su!¡± Su Nanchen responded cooperatively. ¡°Hello, Dr. Su!¡± Su Yixuan responded formally. Today, I am here to assist Professor Yang with surgery. I¡¯m not the little sister of the Su family. Her proud younger sister has always been reluctant to stay at the affiliated hospital, unwilling to live under the wings of her parents. Now she comes to the hospital in this new capacity. Song Zimo greeted Su Nanchen, whose work as Yang Ping¡¯s assistant was very familiar to Su Nanchen. He doesn¡¯t speak much, a bit aloof. Su Nanchen didn¡¯t really have a good impression of him, but after seeing his performance at the Golden Knife Award, he saw him in a different light. This arrogant and cool guy, his abilities are at an exceedingly high level. How high? Even if Yang Ping hadn¡¯t competed, this guy could have swept the Golden Knife Award. When he saw Robert, Takahashi and August follow, Su Nanchen was a bit surprised. Su Nanchen, having completed his advanced studies in the United States, during which time he spent at New York Specialty Surgery Hospital, would of course recognize Robert. He had met Takahashi at academic conferences, and August was a top international spine surgeon he had also met at an academic conference. However, seeing these three big shots appear together, following Yang Ping¡¯s team, he was unable to understand the situation. Seeing the three big shots approaching, Su Nanchen asked, ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± ¡°A few interns from my department have come to assist with positioning the patient,¡± Yang Ping said casually, knowing he couldn¡¯t lie to his older cousin. Interns? These big shots are your interns? Even though the older cousin had seen and learned much, he was still stunned, unable to sort out the relationships here right away. At this moment, the few big shots were looking around curiously, like students. ¡°Follow the group later, don¡¯t run around, be smart.¡± Song Zimo instructed the interns. The way he spoke was like a teacher instructing students managing their first practical activities: don¡¯t fall behind, maintain discipline. ¡°Professor Robert?¡± When they approached, Su Nanchen was completely certain. This was indeed Robert. Robert was taken aback. There were too many interns at New York Specialty Surgery Hospital, he didn¡¯t immediately recognize the familiar face appearing suddenly. ¡°Su?¡± Eventually, Robert remembered Su Nanchen. ¡°You¡¯re here?¡± Robert scanned Su Nanchen. Su Nanchen asked, ¡°And you?¡± ¡°This is my teacher. I¡¯m accompanying him to broaden my horizons,¡± Robert said with pride. Here, the term ¡®teacher¡¯ denotes one¡¯s academic advisor. It¡¯s not unusual for a student to accompany their advisor to broaden their horizons. But Robert, the academic leader of Sports Medicine at New York Specialty Surgery Hospital, is here to broaden his horizons? Although Nandu Affiliated Hospital One is a top hospital in the country, does it really hold such prestige on a global level? Interns, Robert¡¯s words had confirmed the identity of the interns. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t joking, these big shots really are his interns. For multiligament reconstructions of the shoulder and knee, Yang¡¯s pioneering surgical technique is world-class. It seems not too far-fetched that Robert came to learn from him. As for August and Takahashi, Su Nanchen no longer greeted them. It¡¯s not that they don¡¯t recognize Su Nanchen, but rather, they aren¡¯t familiar with him. ¡°Thank you all for coming, follow me!¡± Su Nanchen led the way. Everyone followed behind him, first to the Spine Center ward, where Yang Ping wanted to personally see the patients. This is his habit before ¡®flying the knife¡¯. Today, five surgeries are planned, and the new technique will be demonstrated for the entire department to learn. This new technique of pinning and supporting does not involve much technical skill, the percutaneous pedicle screws, this is the work which the professor of the affiliated hospital is doing every day. The core technique is in the osteotomy, and although computer assistance makes this a simple operation, surgeons need not only to be able to perform the operation but also to understand the underlying principles. Only in this way can various problems in clinical practice be dealt with. So, observing Yang Ping¡¯s chief surgery will be very beneficial, otherwise, it would be like drawing a gourd without understanding the soul of the technique. Su Nanchen walked side by side with Yang Ping. Su Nanchen, in his early thirties, graduated from an eight-year program at Xiehe, which allowed him to be promoted to the rank of associate professor at such a young age. He recently obtained the qualification of a master¡¯s graduate advisor. Chapter 653 - 653 588 Welcome to Guide Work in Attached ?Chapter 653: Chapter 588: Welcome to Guide Work in Attached Hospital One ¨C Part 2 Chapter 653: Chapter 588: Welcome to Guide Work in Attached Hospital One ¨C Part 2 This is an extraordinary achievement that can only be attained by academic overachievers who work incredibly hard. With Yang Ping getting promoted to associate chief physician and associate professor before he hits thirty and currently applying to become a master¡¯s degree supervisor at Nandu Medical University, he is sure to get the position if nothing unexpected happens, using his research topic on spinal external fixation frames. He is also on track for an early doctoral graduation; the spinal external fixation frame technology for the treatment of scoliosis is a revolution from the basic theory to surgery, offering much hope for his early graduation. He must be a genius! That nearly slipped out of Su Nanchen¡¯s mouth. ¡°Professor¡ªYang, please!¡± Yang Ping and his party arrived at the doctor¡¯s office of the Spine Center at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. The doctor¡¯s office was spacious with many people, around three or four dozen ¡ª no more, no less. These professors, associate professors, doctoral advisors, master¡¯s advisors, doctors, and masters, the majority of them didn¡¯t know Yang Ping. Having mentioned Professor Yang in many meetings, seeing his face for the first time today, many people almost ran out of breath. His age seems to be similar to that of a master¡¯s student, if not, then someone who started their master¡¯s immediately after graduation. There¡¯s no shortage of masters and doctoral students present who are older than him, right? Could he be good at hiding his age? Because typically during consultations, only professional titles are introduced, not age. On the Golden Knife Award stage, Yang Ping did not reveal his age, leading everyone to speculate that he must be at least thirty-five or six. But he appears so young now. If it weren¡¯t for the calmness revealed between his brows, many people would mistake him for a young student. ¡°Welcome, Professor Yang from Sanbo Hospital!¡± As introduced by Su Nanchen, the crowd applauded. ¡°The instrument nurse of Professor Yang¡ª Nurse Su!¡± ¡°Assistant to Professor Yang¡ª Dr. Song!¡± As for the several other big shots and training doctors, they didn¡¯t bother with introductions ¡ª selectively ignored them, mainly because it would be difficult to introduce them. Why does this assistant look so arrogant? Coming to our Nandu Affiliated Hospital One and still carrying an air of arrogance? An instrument nurse? Carrying a knife with an assistant is one thing, but to bring an instrument nurse too ¡ª isn¡¯t that a bit too much? Is our prestigious Nandu Affiliated Hospital One¡¯s nurse not good enough for you? Some people started to grumble internally. Certainly, some have helpers and even anesthesiologists but very few bring an instrument nurse. The key point is that this instrument nurse is so beautiful, tall and slender, with perfect curves. Do you bring such a gorgeous woman with you everywhere you go? Is this instrument nurse here for professional reasons? Apart from Professor Zou, who is quite close to Professor Su, others don¡¯t really know Xiao Su, and they certainly don¡¯t expect her to be the Dean¡¯s daughter. As the director of the Spine Center, Professor Zou shook hands with each team member. He recognizes Xiao Su, but he didn¡¯t say anything. Seeing August, Professor Zou was stunned. August is a spine surgery celebrity in Europe, one of the top three in the worldwide spine surgery field. August, is the instructor under whom Professor Zou studied in Europe. Even if it¡¯s generally difficult to distinguish foreigners, Professor Zou wouldn¡¯t mistake his own teacher. ¡°Mr. August? Hello, you are in China?¡± August nodded slightly, maintaining the arrogance typical of European people. Could it be that August and Professor Yang have a friendship and August was invited to give a lecture at Sanbo, and then just happened to come along to help guide the surgery? Wow this son-in-law of the big boss really has some pull, even able to invite August. Upon seeing that August only nodded perfunctorily and did not say anything else, Professor Zou didn¡¯t say much either in front of everyone. ¡°Dean Su is in a meeting, he will go directly to the operating room later to observe. Should we check on the patient first?¡± For August, his own teacher, he wanted to ask warmly, but August obviously had no interest in interacting with him. Professor Zou felt a little strange. Anyway, he could not figure out the thoughts of foreigners. In the field of scoliotic deformation, August is considered a new generation of talented surgeons after the two CD masters. He has an outstanding record in various fields of spine surgery, and his improved spine osteotomy method is currently the most advanced osteotomy method in the world. Back then, Yang¡¯s osteotomy had not yet become famous. However, his relationship with another big shot in Europe, Milton, is not harmonious. Whenever they meet, they end up quarrelling ¨C a fact well-known in the European orthopaedic community. Professor Zou glanced at August ¨C the ¡°big shot¡± was patently disinterested in engaging with Professor Zou, and left without a backward glance to follow Yang Ping¡¯s group. Xiao Su was escorted by a nurse to the operating room, while Yang Ping began seeing patients under the guidance of Su Nanchen. The three giants kept silent, silently following Yang Ping. It¡¯s the first time the resident physicians accompany their supervisor out on public duty, they wouldn¡¯t dare to interrupt. Old Zhang¡¯s rules for resident physicians were often remembered. No matter which hospital you come from, what level of professionalism you possess...¡± For every case, Yang Ping questions the patients about their medical history, conducts a physical examination, and re-reviews their imaging data. Dozens of doctors surrounded Yang Ping, their queue extending into the corridor. The deformities of the five patients ranged in severity, a requirement of the clinical trial to ensure a diverse sample and prevent unrepresentative data. In addition to examining the spine itself, Yang Ping also examined the skin of the patients¡¯ backs for localized skin infections like boils. If such an infection were present, surgery would need to be postponed. Percutaneous fixation can easily introduce an infection deep into the body, leading to infection, or in severe cases, osteomyelitis. Orthopedic surgery fears infection the most. For example, in artificial joint replacement surgery, some dedicated professors will remove the patient¡¯s clothes and with a magnifying glass, inspect the entire body for local skin infections. Because the bacteria invading from local infections can travel through the bloodstream, normally the immune system eliminates the bacteria when their numbers are low, but after major surgery, the immune system weakens. If bacteria spread to the surrounding area of an artificial joint, since artificial joints are inanimate and capable of killing bacteria, the bacteria can settle and multiply, leading to infection. Postoperative infection of artificial joints is disastrous. Despite the development of various antibacterial artificial joints, the focus is more on aesthetics than practicality. To prevent infections, serious attitudes and strict measures are required. Nandu Affiliated Hospital One has strictly screened these cases, so they present no such issues. After examining the patients, Yang Ping took off his gloves and said: ¡°Take the patients away now!¡±. ¡ª The operation room in Nandu Affiliated Hospital One was buzzing with activity today. The teaching room was packed. First of all, the technology of external fixation of the spine is indeed advanced and somewhat like black technology. Secondly, the scope of this clinical trial is very large, involving several top hospitals such as Xiehe, 301, Magic City Sixth Hospital, and Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. These doctors, whether professors or doctoral students, are good at research and naturally very interested in such large-scale clinical trials. Most of these top-notch hospital doctors are passionate about technology. ¡°Mr. August, I am¡ª¡± August was the mentor of Professor Zou during his further studies in Germany. Professor Zou stayed and studied with him for a year and now that he has come to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, he can¡¯t just say a few words. Since he has already come to Sanbo Hospital, Professor Zou must invite his mentor to give a lecture and have a meal, reminiscing about his teacher-student bond. Remembering the Chinese greetings he just used to August, which he may not have understood, Professor Zou took the opportunity to speak in English, but before he could finish... August made a pause gesture, then quickly caught up with Yang Ping¡¯s team. Was he really not willing to engage? Professor Zou was full of questions, but now was not the time to ponder these issues, he¡¯d leave it for later. There must be a reason, perhaps Germans are meticulous and do not like to discuss personal relationships while working. Su Nanchen and Yang Ping have changed their clothes and come to the operating room. Professor Zou stopped getting distracted and promptly followed suit. The operating room received the patients quickly. The patients were already lying on the operating table and the anesthesiologists began administering the anesthesia. The instrument package was placed on the instrument table, and Xiao Su was already sitting in the operating room waiting. As soon as she heard that the team from Sanbo Hospital had arrived, the head nurse of the operating room arrived immediately. The head nurse of the operating room was an old subordinate of Xiao Su¡¯s mother, and she naturally recognized Xiao Su. From the list of the ¡°knife-skilled¡± team, she saw the name Su Yixuan and knew that this was the daughter of the dean of the hospital. The head nurse knew a little bit about the story of the young lady of the Su family. Dean Su and his spouse once wanted to keep their daughter at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, but the young lady disagreed and went to Sanbo Hospital on her own. The head nurse had just rushed to the operating room when the director of the nursing department, Xiao Su¡¯s mother, also arrived in the operating room. Seeing Xiao Su sitting in the operating room, Mother Su was both surprised and happy, but she soon calmed down, greeting her in a very official tone, ¡°Hello, Nurse Su. Welcome to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One for guidance in our work!¡± Xiao Su stood up, lightly shook hands with the director of the nursing department, ¡°Director Chen, don¡¯t mention it. We can learn from each other!(¡± The head nurse of the operating room was taken aback. are this mother-daughter duo related by blood? Their conversation? It doesn¡¯t seem like a mother-daughter relationship at all. Chapter 654 - 654 589 Professor Sus Calculation ?Chapter 654: Chapter 589: Professor Su¡¯s Calculation Chapter 654: Chapter 589: Professor Su¡¯s Calculation Mrs. Su occasionally visits the operating room to inspect the work, where the nurses are under the management of the Nursing Department, and the anesthesiologists are under the management of the Medical Department. Thus, all the nurses in the operating room, including the head nurse, are her subordinates. Today, Mrs. Su is somewhat taking advantage of her role as a supervisor to visit her daughter and son-in-law at work. After all, it¡¯s not easy to witness their work in a hospital different from hers. Especially her beloved daughter, who chose to work in Sanbo Hospital rather than staying in the same hospital after graduation, is currently back performing minimally invasive surgery. Mrs. Su is immensely curious about her role as an instrument nurse. Would she be as outstanding as she was during her youth? ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± Yang Ping is having a low conversation with Su Nanchen on the other side, not noticing the entry of Mrs. Su when she takes the initiative to greet him. Upon hearing his name, Yang Ping quickly raises his head. Even with a mask and hat on, he immediately recognizes his mother-in-law. He suddenly realizes that this is his parents-in-law¡¯s domain. ¡°Welcome to our hospital for guidance. If there are any shortcomings in our operating room, please be understanding,¡± Mrs. Su greets warmly as the director of the nursing department. ¡°Director Chen, you¡¯re being courteous, we are also here to learn from this hospital,¡± Yang Ping responds, acting as the representative of the visiting professor for minimally invasive surgery. Su Nanchen stands aside in silence, keeping his work and personal matters separate. At this time, Dean Su, accompanied by Professor Zou, enters the operating room, reuniting the family in the surgical suite. ¡°Director Chen is here, too!¡± Professor Su spots the towering figure of Mrs. Su. ¡°Hello, Dean Su!¡± The room is crowded. The director of the nursing department makes way for the dean. The dean nods slightly in greeting. All in the operating room straighten up to greet the dean: ¡°Hello, Dean Su!¡± Professor Su nods slightly: ¡°Hello, everyone!¡± He then reaches out to shake Yang Ping¡¯s hand: ¡°Professor Yang, thank you for your hard work!¡± Yang Ping shakes his hand politely: ¡°Thank you, Dean Su, for the honor! And thank you for providing me with this opportunity.¡± Dean Su shakes hands with each member of Yang Ping¡¯s team, expressing his gratitude. No one can tell that they are family. When he sees August, Dean Su is taken aback for a moment. Seeing Takahashi and Robert, he seems to understand what¡¯s going on. During his time in Japan, Professor Su had learned about the relationship between Takahashi and Yang Ping. He surmised that Takahashi¡¯s presence likely meant he was there to learn and refine his skills. He doesn¡¯t familiarly know the other two foreigners, Robert and August. However, Professor Su not only knows August but is also very familiar with him. Could it be that August is also here to learn the spinal external fixator technique from Yang Ping? It¡¯s not impossible. As a spinal surgery specialist, Professor Su understands the value of Yang Ping¡¯s new technique¡ªit¡¯s a cutting-edge surgical innovation internationally. Therefore, with Dean Su¡¯s intelligence, he refrains from asking unnecessary questions at this time. No matter who these three are, as they are here with Yang Ping today, they are part of Yang Ping¡¯s team, which negates the need for further considerations. The first patient for surgery is a fourteen-year-old male adolescent with a Cobb angle of 83 degrees for scoliosis. The patient has been anesthetized, and they begin to position him. Since this is the first time this type of surgery is taking place at this hospital. The doctors and nurses here only know about the procedure from the manual ¡°Guidance on Spinal External Fixing Frame for the Treatment of Scoliosis¡±. Yang Ping decides to take the lead in positioning the patient. Bringing these three robust international trainees today serves this exact purpose. They often participate in transferring and positioning patients in the department and are familiar with this task. Song Zimo goes to wash his hands and instructs the three heavyweights before leaving the room: ¡°Be quick!¡± August, Robert and Takahashi start to position the patient. Their cooperation is smooth, there¡¯s no need for anyone else to intervene. They gently flip the patient from the supine position to the prone position. Takahashi holds the patient¡¯s head with both hands, providing slight traction to protect the cervical spine. August places his hands on the patient¡¯s iliac crests, using the pelvis as a pivot, lifts the patient off the operating table. This fourteen-year-old adolescent has the same height and weight as an adult. Usually, it would be difficult for a patient to be lifted off the operating table without the combined effort of two doctors. But the German has good physical strength. He lifts the patient single-handedly. Robert takes this opportunity to slide the positioning pads under the patient. The successful positioning of the prone patient is beautifully completed. August respectfully comes before Yang Ping: ¡°Professor, the patient has been positioned. Can you please verify?¡± Professor Zou is dumbfounded by August¡¯s fluent Chinese. Having been with his mentor for a year, he never knew his mentor could speak such fluent Chinese. He never heard him utter a single Chinese word before. And his mentor, a renowned European spinal surgeon, is actually doing the work of positioning the patient. This kind of work is usually done by junior doctors. Could it be that the European great master is so down-to-earth and accessible? But his humble posture in front of Yang Ping, is that because of cultural differences? Anyone with a normal judgment capacity can see that it¡¯s a sign of respect to Yang Ping. Moreover, the word ¡°qualified¡± in his speech, is clearly asking Yang Ping: ¡°Are you satisfied with the position I set for you?¡± Is this really August? Recalling August¡¯s performance beforehand, Professor Zou wondered if he had mistaken the person. Professor Su also expressed his doubts, but he didn¡¯t bother about these for now. Not only Professor Zou, but also other professors from the Spine Surgery Department of Attached Hospital One, who knew August, initially found his presence questionable, and now they had even more doubts. Yang Ping pointed at the patient: ¡°The position pads should be a little lower, keep the spine¡¯s natural curvature as much as possible. I¡¯ve said this many times, it¡¯s not the same as traditional open surgery. Why can¡¯t you people remember?¡± ¡°Understood!¡± August signalled his colleagues to continue adjusting the position. After adjusting the position, August came to Yang Ping again: ¡°Professor, please check again!¡± Yang Ping nodded satisfactorily, and August, like a student being praised by a teacher, was very pleased. The more Professor Zou observed, the less he understood what was going on. The other professors were also surprised. If they weren¡¯t mistaken, and this person was actually August, how come he was so respectful in front of Yang Ping? What¡¯s going on? Xiao Su started setting up the instruments after washing her hands, Song Zimo sterilized the area, and Yang Ping went to wash his hands in preparation to get on stage. The surgery began, and the operating room couldn¡¯t hold too many people, so everyone gradually moved to the teaching room to observe the surgery. ¡°Professor Yang, thank you for your efforts, we will retreat for now.¡± Professor Su said his greetings and left the operating room with Professor Zou. Mrs.Su planned to stay a little longer to observe her daughter¡¯s movements on the operating table. Xiao Su¡¯s nimble hands sorted the instruments quickly. Mrs.Su nodded slightly; it seemed her genes had not been lost. The bystanders left, leaving Su Nanchen and the three big shots. ¡ª Teaching Room of the Attached Operating Room One. Professor Zou accompanied Dean Su, watching his expression. Dean Su hadn¡¯t mentioned anything about August and it wasn¡¯t appropriate for Professor Zou to ask. He could only plan to meet with August later to understand what exactly had happened. Out of the five surgeries, the first two didn¡¯t use surgical robots but the last three did. Everyone had already witnessed Yang Ping¡¯s surgery during the Golden Knife Award. So today the turnout was particularly high, apart from fearing Dean Su¡¯s majesty, the majority were very eager to watch these surgeries. The Champion of Golden Knife Award represented the peak surgical abilities of young doctors nationwide. The teaching room was packed, even the corners were filled with masters and doctoral students. ¡°Data for the second batch of osteotomy is prepared by Professor He. Since his lab is too busy, it¡¯s been segmented.¡± Professor Zou reported on the progress of the clinical experiment. All data models for osteotomy were offered by Nandu Medical University¡¯s Digital Medical Laboratory, including support for data provided for Xiehe, 301, and Magic City Sixth Hospital. Without the blessing of supercomputing, the lab¡¯s computing power was insufficient, and data could only be produced in batches. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, let Professor He take his time.¡± The clinical trial was in no rush. For Yang Ping¡¯s external spinal fixation device, Dean Su had many plans revolving around this new technology. His son-in-law was still young and had lots to learn. As the elder of the family, Dean Su naturally had to worry about him. When he first suggested this research topic, Dean Su felt that success would be difficult, and even if Yang Ping managed to pull through, it would likely take more than three years. This kind of original innovation was extremely challenging. But to his surprise, the entire experiment was completed in just three months, a pace of research that left Dean Su dumbfounded. Therefore, many plans that weren¡¯t originally scheduled now had to be moved up. ¡°Professor Yang¡¯s research ability is terrifying, he succeeded in completing the project in just a few months. I heard that the next step is to prepare for the project of cloning muscles.¡± Professor Zou, whose own level was also quite high, was finding it harder and harder to comprehend his son-in-law. The surgery continued, with everyone focusing intently and observing every step. Many professors who led groups were eager to try, hoping to perform a few cases. With this new technology, whoever performed it first would have an academic advantage. Even if they were not the originators, there was a difference between following soon after or waiting in line. If they were to release papers as part of the first wave, there was no doubt it would be different than doing so after the technology had been widely dispersed. The academic value of the latter would be greatly reduced. Considering Yang Ping¡¯s next project, Dean Su planned to help him apply for the Outstanding Youth Science Fund. Although the fund didn¡¯t amount to much, receiving its support was a bridge to becoming an academician in the future. Furthermore, for the external spinal fixation technology, Dean Su was considering helping Yang Ping apply for the National Science and Technology Progress Award. Young people didn¡¯t understand this aspect well and needed someone to guide them. These factors were crucial for promoting an academician in the future. Dean Su, having experienced the selection of academicians, had a clear idea. His son-in-law was extremely talented, and as long as he continued developing steadily, becoming an academician was inevitable. To make the path smoother, his son-in-law¡¯s talent and his own connections needed to be combined. Therefore, for his son-in-law, Dean Su always had a plan and was constantly strategising. Chapter 655 - 655 590 Trio of Porters ?Chapter 655: Chapter 590: Trio of Porters Chapter 655: Chapter 590: Trio of Porters Professor Su usually maintains a composed facade, but secretly, he cherishes his son-in-law. When Ruixing was being targeted by the giant corporation, Old Su got angry and launched a ruthless counterattack against them. I might not be so hard on them if it was directed at me, but if it¡¯s directed at my son-in-law, I will ensure they get their just desserts. This is Professor Su¡¯s logic. ¡°With the success of the spinal external fixation frame, there¡¯s a good chance that Professor Yang¡¯s next project application will be Outstanding Young Talent,¡± It¡¯s no wonder that Professor Zou is Professor Su¡¯s proud student, as their ideas align. ¡®Outstanding Young Talent¡¯ refers to the recipients of the National Science Fund for Outstanding Young Scholars. Only about 200 people are selected across the country each year. The program aims to foster promising young talents in the field of cutting-edge technology worldwide, creating a group of excellent academic leaders. Outstanding Young Talent selections occur once a year, with research funding ranging from a minimum of 800,000 yuan to a maximum of 1 million yuan. The funding is available for four years. The minimum requirement for participating in the Outstanding Young Talent scheme is holding a senior professional title or possessing a doctoral degree. Yang Ping hasn¡¯t completed his Ph.D. yet, so this is a hurdle. Thus, the primary task is to graduate Yang Ping with his doctorate ahead of schedule. Once he receives his doctoral degree, he¡¯ll have a solid chance at becoming an Outstanding Young Talent. After carefully evaluating the situation, Professor Su estimated a 90% probability of success. If Yang Ping¡¯s spinal external fixation frame can win the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and combined with his numerous top-tier journal papers, then he would have a 100% chance of becoming an Outstanding Young Talent. Professor Su knew the process thoroughly. ¡ª The surgeries proceeded swiftly. After the first one was finished, the second one began preparations. In each surgery, whether positioning the patient or preparing for the surgery, August worked extremely hard. Whether or not it was the typical German efficiency, it earned him considerable brownie points. Anyone unaware of the circumstances would think that the hospital had hired a foreigner to act as a porter, specifically for transporting patients. A few doctoral students gathered, discussing in hushed tones. ¡°Did you hear that the foreigner is Europe¡¯s top spine specialist, August?¡± ¡°How is that possible? He probably just looks similar. Anyway, all Europeans look the same to me if they have comparable heights and builds.¡± ¡°Are you delusional? August, acting as your porter, carrying patients?¡± ¡°Yeah, he was just admonished by Professor Yang because he didn¡¯t position the patient properly. If it were really August, is there a chance that he would let Professor Yang scold him? Probably the other way round, right?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t think too much, I just asked my boss. It¡¯s not August, just a lookalike. August is the president of the European Spine Surgery Association, so it¡¯s impossible for him to come to China to work as a porter.¡± ¡°True, didn¡¯t Professor Zou study in Germany? He mentioned August was his tutor. If it¡¯s him, wouldn¡¯t they interact?¡± ¡°My boss also studied in Germany and worked with August; he said it¡¯s not him.¡± The doctoral students huddled at the back of the classroom, whispering amongst themselves. Most professors from the Spinal Surgery Department at the hospital frequently attend international conferences. Apart from Professor Zou, many others had completed training programs in Germany as well, so several of them know August. For orthopedic doctors, unless they have achieved a certain level, they wouldn¡¯t have the chance to go abroad. Once they reach that level, they start sub-specializing and tend to stick to their circles. It¡¯s not surprising for spinal surgeons to not know prominent trauma orthopedics and sports medicine doctors.¡± So, some of these doctors recognized August but no one recognized Takahashi and Robert. Lin Hao, one of Robert¡¯s students, was not present. He works in the Department of Sports Medicine and had not had the chance to meet Robert. Ou Lichun and Dr. Zeng huddled together in a corner, observing. Dr. Zeng was boasting to a fellow doctor about having shared a table with Professor Yang for a meal. In reality, it occurred during an academic conference at Sanbo Hospital where everyone sat around a table for a buffet lunch. They didn¡¯t exchange a single word nor did they share a bond of any sort. But this didn¡¯t stop Dr. Zeng from bragging about having shared a table with Yang Ping. ¡°Why don¡¯t you greet Professor Yang when the surgery is over?¡± Someone who was sick of Dr. Zeng¡¯s boastful behavior challenged him. Dr. Zeng, stubbornly responded: ¡°I¡¯ll greet him later, just you watch!¡± He wondered if Professor Yang would refuse his greeting or handshake. Wouldn¡¯t a professor be expected to have good manners? Actually, respected professors usually don¡¯t refuse greetings from others. Sometimes at academic conferences, many doctors seek to have photos taken with well-known professors, and these usually aren¡¯t denied. Taking a photo with a well-known professor is akin to brushing with the red carpet in the entertainment circle. Some people display these photos with professors on their office desks, purposely leading others to believe they share a master-student relationship to enhance their image. Whenever the professor¡¯s stories come up in casual conversations, they would chime in with more details, portraying themselves as insiders. Contrary to Dr. Zeng, Ou Lichun refrained from showing off and only found Dr. Zeng amusing. I¡¯ve been classmates with Professor Yang for eight years, but have I ever bragged about it? I often have meals with Professor Yang, but have I ever come off as arrogant because of it? Have I ever told anyone about the time when Professor Yang and I sneaked out of campus past midnight for some food and gaming? Ou Lichun thought to himself, I have never mentioned it. ¡ª Mrs. Su watched an entire surgery before she left, feeling proud that her daughter¡¯s skills as a scrub nurse have reached her level in her prime. Well, strictly speaking, her daughter has already surpassed her in skills, but Mrs. Su liked to think of them as equals. It appears that her daughter¡¯s relationship with Yang Ping wasn¡¯t just due to physical attraction, but also because of their abilities. ¡°The scrub nurse today is really outstanding, should we invite her to give our nurses a lesson?¡±said the head nurse in the operating room, seizing the opportunity to suggest. The Director of Nursing, striding away, responded: ¡°She is indeed excellent but there¡¯s no need for a lesson. She¡¯s probably quite busy with her work.¡± The third surgery was a robotic surgery. The surgical team moved to the Tianji robotic operation room under the leadership of Su Nanchen. Professor Su hasn¡¯t seen Yang Ping perform robot surgery yet. This morning, he put off all other work to watch Yang Ping¡¯s operation wholeheartedly. While the team settled into the new location, the patient was still on the way. The three heavyweights stood side by side about one and a half meters from the operating table, like soldiers eagerly awaiting orders from their superiors. The operating room door swung open, and the patient on the stretcher was wheeled in. Before the doctor from the affiliated hospital could react, the three heavyweights had already sprung into action, stabilizing the stretcher, cooperating together to smoothly transfer the patient onto the operating table. There are two camera setups in the operating room¡ªone set on the surgical lights, aimed directly at the surgical field, and another set in the four corners of the ceiling, filming the entire operating room. The impressive display of the three-person team, led by August, was displayed in real-time on the screen. August¡¯s expression was somewhat comical, because every time he exerted effort, he would puff up his cheeks. Once the patient was bedded, the three-man team retreated to a safe distance of one and a half meters from the operating table, ensuring they didn¡¯t disturb the operation. Turns out, these three came just to help move the patient onto the operating table. Everyone finally understood. Any doubts regarding August¡¯s identity were dismissed. How could the comical mover possibly be the arrogant and impressive spine surgeon who presented at the international academic conference? While people can look similar, their temperament cannot be imitated. ¡ª The robotic surgery began. The murmuring lessened, the Dean was present, and no one dared to be bold. This time, Su Nanchen got on stage as an additional assistant. First step, percutaneous pedicle screw placement. The robotic arm, under Yang Ping¡¯s control, performed excellently. Song Zimo installed a guide needle onto the robotic arm, which then quickly made a small incision with the scalpel. The robotic arm quickly navigated and percutaneously inserted the guide needle into the pedicle of the spine, reaching halfway into the vertebra. The robotic arm was incredibly fast, and the cooperation between Song Zimo and the robotic arm was very practiced. It was like digging holes to plant beans. Each needle took only a few seconds, and in just a couple of minutes, two densely packed rows of guide needles were inserted into the bony canals of the pedicles. Professor Su and Dr. Zeng were nervous watching the rapid pace¡ªif a single needle went awry, it could damage nerves or blood vessels and cause major trouble. Professor Su was about to step in to remind Yang Ping to slow down¡ªthere was no need to rush for the sake of demonstrating the procedure. But before he could, all the guide needles had already been inserted. The robot was now carving pathways and inserting pedicle screws. The robotic arm was like the king of surgery with a soul, striking wherever it pointed, both quickly and accurately. If everyone were standing next to the robot at this time, they would undoubtedly hear the friction sound of the robotic arm moving at near-limit speed. The surgical robot can be played like this? The young doctors were hit with a wave of deja vu, similar to playing video games. A serious surgery was treated by the young doctors as if they were watching a game. Moreover, the layout on the big screen only added to the game-like feel, with the 3D image of the spine on the right side of navigation screen, and the video of the robotic arm¡¯s operation on the left. A navigational line passes through the pedicle, then the image of the pedicle screw appears, moving straight along the navigational line without deviating, maintaining sub-millimeter precision, and stopping automatically when it reaches the predetermined depth. This demonstrative sequence continued. Some young doctors even itching to try, getting a mixup sense that they would be even better at this ¡°game¡± than their mentors since they had a gaming background. The 3D image of the spine on the screen revolved 360 degrees, showing the positions of every screw. Step two, bone cutting. With the help of the robot, bone cutting could also be done precisely under minimally invasive procedures. Inside the small incision, the noisy ultrasonic knife began to work. The advantages of high technology were fully demonstrated. The ultrasonic knife was effective only on bone tissue and not soft tissues such as nerves and blood vessels. This characteristic, combined with accurate navigational equipment, virtually ensured error-free operation. Each vertebra was cut at various locations, and the responsible vertebrae were all cut within about ten minutes. Lastly, Song Zimo installed the external fixation frame. The whole surgery carried a strong gaming analogy, with the top-tier experts seeming like they were playing a game. Everyone was waiting for the game-time-out box to pop up at the end of the surgery, only to be jolted into realization; this wasn¡¯t a game, it was a robot operation. The young person was able to operate the robot so fluently. Professor Su heaved a sigh of relief, thankful that no problem had arisen given the fast pace. With time, he found his son-in-law increasingly unpredictable; he appeared even more talented than the previous time. Yang Ping walked away from the console and stood by, observing Song Zimo¡¯s work. With a quick eye and a swift hand, August immediately brought over a stool for Yang Ping to sit down, then respectfully gestured for Yang Ping to sit before obediently retreating back to the three-person group. The scene was too jarring! It looked like a tutor sitting down with three students standing behind him and a photographer in front of him yelling, ¡°Cheese!¡± Sitting on the stool, Yang Ping waited for Song Zimo to finish up, completely unaware of the three people standing behind him in a line. PS: Because I didn¡¯t update for a long time before, I haven¡¯t had a recommended slot for a while and have been naked running. Now that I¡¯ve resumed updating, I got the editor¡¯s recommendation on the mobile client of Starting Point today. Today I updated two chapters of over three thousand words each. It¡¯s considered a mini explosion, right? Please give me some monthly tickets and recommendations, thank you! Chapter 656 - 656 591 What Exactly Happened ?Chapter 656: Chapter 591: What Exactly Happened? Chapter 656: Chapter 591: What Exactly Happened? The original plan was to perform two surgeries in the morning, have a working lunch at noon, and complete three surgeries in the afternoon. However, time wasn¡¯t managed well, by around eleven in the morning, all five surgeries were completed. Lunch was scheduled for twelve o¡¯clock, and there was still an hour to go before mealtime, so they used this hour entirely for post-operative interaction. Young Professor Yang, as expected of the Golden Knife Award champion, had all the doctors in the room admiring his skills. Especially the three robotic surgeries, where man and machine merged as one, which gave the senior doctors the feeling of watching a video game. Compared to Professor Yang, they felt like amateurs. Seeing is truly believing. Only when one sees, can one truly feel the impact. It is said that Han Han prided himself on his excellent billiards skills and believed he could put up a fight against Pan Xiaoting. However, when he actually played a few rounds with Pan Xiaoting, Han Han only managed to serve. In the end, Han Han spoke a famous quote: ¡°Don¡¯t use your hobby to challenge others¡¯ livelihoods!¡± Now, the few senior chiefs felt the same, as if Professor Yang was the only one truly earning a living by doing this, and they themselves were mere amateurs. In the teaching room, sighs and praises intertwined. Everyone was still reminiscing about the surgeries that had just taken place. The young doctors hoped they could have a chance to manipulate this remote-control toy and achieve a state of mastery similar to their all-night gaming sessions in the past. After completing the surgeries, Yang Ping, along with his team led by Su Nanchen, arrived at the teaching room to meet everyone and answer their questions. The department heads were quite calm, slightly nodded their heads, and then proceeded with handshakes. Professor Su smiled and shook hands with Yang Ping, indicating that Yang Ping didn¡¯t need to worry about his presence and could freely interact with everyone. The young Ph.D.¡¯s and Master¡¯s were a bit uncontrollable, pushing each other eagerly to extend their hands. This was indeed their idol, a young man who earned the title of a professor and was renowned for performing surgeries all over. This was the life every young doctor dreamed of. Professor Su was usually quite tolerant towards his students, and since it was time for free interaction, he let them go all out. While August, Robert, and Takahashi were chatting with Song Zimo, Professor Zou took the opportunity to join them. ¡°Professor August, I am Zou, your student!¡± August looked around, then, pulling Professor Zou aside, they left the teaching room and went outside. ¡°Teacher, don¡¯t you recognize me?¡± Professor Zou asked directly. At that moment, August regained his aura as a top spine surgeon in Europe, nodding his head, ¡°Zou, of course, I remember.¡± ¡°Are you in China for a lecture?¡± Having confirmed the identity of his teacher, Professor Zou was very excited. August shook his head: ¡°Zou, I am in China for further study this time, learning from Professor Yang. If there is anything else, we can talk about it later. During my study period, I don¡¯t want any distractions, please understand why I can¡¯t talk too much now, we have our rules.¡± After briefly explaining the situation, August seemed very anxious and couldn¡¯t stay for long. Except for his fluent Chinese, this man was none other than August, in both demeanor and aura. ¡°Alright, please don¡¯t talk to me, and don¡¯t greet me either, my current status is a trainee doctor under Professor Yang.¡± Saying that, August escaped from the teaching room like a student sneaking out of class. Moreover, his expression and aura were as if he¡¯d been sealed away, completely losing the demeanor of a world-class professor that he had when he was conversing just a moment ago. Professor Zou stood in place, watching August¡¯s frantic figure retreating, feeling a strange sense of disorientation. Seeing his mentor¡¯s earnest and hardworking appearance in treating patients, Professor Zou felt a pang of heartache. What had caused his once proud and invincible mentor to become like this? Moreover, Professor Zou decided to keep this a secret. If everyone knew that this was the real Professor August, the gold plating he had done in Europe might lose its luster. ¡°Boss, did they say that the foreigner is Professor August?¡± Professor Zou¡¯s doctorate heard everyone discussing and specifically ran out to verify it with his mentor. Professor Zou glared at his doctoral student: ¡°You believe such words too? That August would help you carry patients?¡± The doctoral student wished to slap himself. With such intelligence, he was verifying the rumor with his mentor, after all, would August, the renowned Spinal God of Europe, help him carry patients like a student? Being scolded by his mentor, the doctoral student blushed up to his neck and left in dismay. Yang Ping was still answering the doctors¡¯ questions. The new technology, from theory to practice, was entirely novel, and many people had questions. Yang Ping patiently answered them all. Su Nanchen returned to Professor Su¡¯s side, sat down, and voluntarily disclosed some information: the European Spinal Surgery Guru, August, the American Sports Medicine Guru, Robert, and the Japanese Trauma Orthopedics Great, Takahashi, were all Yang Ping¡¯s trainees. This clarified August¡¯s identity without a doubt. Professor Su paused for a moment of thought. Since he was Yang Ping¡¯s trainee, he should be treated as such, without making a fuss or giving any extra attention, otherwise, it would be overdoing it. A person¡¯s true value is like a fish in water, it transforms into a dragon once it meets the wind and cloud. Professor Su glanced over at Yang Ping and smiled approvingly. With his astute academic judgement, he concluded that this man would definitely make significant achievements in the future. Professor Zou returned to the teaching room, with a feeling of loneliness in his heart. When he had some free time, he resolved to secretly pay a visit to his mentor. Everyone surrounded Yang Ping, asking questions endlessly. Some team leaders were strong-minded initially, but as time went on, they couldn¡¯t sit still and also joined in the barrage of questions. This was a golden opportunity to communicate face-to-face with Professor Yang and clarify some doubts. If these young doctors and masters understood the new technology, while the head doctors were still dazed and confused, it would be so awkward. Time was limited, so the head doctors too began to drop their grandeur and compete with the younger people for a chance to ask questions. An hour passed by swiftly. The fast food was brought into the teaching room, as it was routine to have fast food at an academic meeting at noon. Everyone automatically divided into zones. The front row was left for the dean, the head doctors, and Professor Yang. The composition of the remainder was determined by their own relationships. For example, a medical team sat together facilitating chat and discussion. ¡°Dr. Zeng, didn¡¯t you say you knew Professor Yang and have eaten with him at the same table? How come I didn¡¯t see him chatting with you privately?¡± A doctoral student asked Dr. Zeng. Dr. Zeng ate his food silently, regretting his past exaggerations. When Yang Ping received the Golden Knife Award, Dr. Zeng began to boast that Yang Ping was his friend. They had eaten together several times and Dr. Zeng even described some of Yang Ping¡¯s personal experiences with great detail. All of this was spiced up public information. Dr. Zeng assumed that since Yang Ping was at Sanbo Hospital and had nothing to do with their hospital, no one would verify the truth with Yang Ping, allowing his tall tales to grow taller. He hadn¡¯t expected that Yang Ping would actually come to their hospital to perform spine surgeries. The risk of social death was pervasive. Dr.Zeng quickly finished his meal, trying to find an excuse to leave. At this moment, Su Nanchen came over, found Ou Lichun sitting across from Dr. Zeng, and said, ¡°Doctor Ou! Professor Yang invited you to eat with him.¡± Dr. Zeng raised his head to look at Ou Lichun, who he often bullied. Professor Yang invited him over for lunch? Could they possibly know each other? Ou Lichun didn¡¯t say anything, picked up his lunch box, followed Nanchen over, and saw Yang Ping smiling and waving at him. Then, Ou Lichun was seated next to Yang Ping by Nanchen. Moreover, the two people sat down and started whispering, as if they were very familiar with each other. He had often boasted about his good relationship with Professor Yang in front of Ou Lichun. This was a social death scene! Dr. Zeng wished he would explode on the spot. Chapter 657 - 657 592 The Number One Free Climber ?Chapter 657: Chapter 592: The Number One Free Climber Chapter 657: Chapter 592: The Number One Free Climber Yang Ping finished the high-stakes surgery at the affiliated hospital and then played basketball for two days over the weekend. On Monday, he was extremely busy with surgeries in his department. Thanks to the help of his two assistants, Yang Ping was able to devote some energy to the preparation of his stem cell muscle cultivation project. Li Jun didn¡¯t wake up, and Qin Xiaowei stayed every day in the family waiting area of the ICU. Every time he saw Yang Ping, Qin Xiaowei would come over to ask about Li Jun¡¯s condition. The ICU at one point wondered if Li Jun had brain death, but after examination, it was verified that he did not have brain death. Therefore, theoretically, there was a chance for him to awaken. However, in reality, this chance was very slim. Huge medical costs were piling up, and to maintain Li Jun¡¯s life, the expenses would continue to increase. As the self-financed part was too large, Qin Xiaowei began to realize that the one million he had received would eventually run out. To save Ajun, he would still need money. He wanted to get the remaining five hundred thousand as quickly as possible. Since Li Jun didn¡¯t wake up, and the presence at his bedside was of no assistance, Qin Xiaowei put all the rest of the money into Li Jun¡¯s hospital account. Then he told the ICU doctor that he would be leaving temporarily for a few days to raise more funds. He emphasized again and again that he would not give up. If medical expenses became tight, he requested that they call him immediately. Later Qin Xiaowei signed a document stating that if Li Jun¡¯s condition changed, the ICU would do its utmost to rescue him. The doctors could make decisions without waiting for Qin Xiaowei to give his signature. The ICU doctors believed that he hadn¡¯t given up on the patient because, typically, no one would still be depositing hundreds of thousands into the account if they are planning to abandon the treatment. Most would quietly leave and then turn off their cell phone. After leaving the ICU, Qin Xiaowei lingered in front of Yang Ping¡¯s office for a long while before mustering the courage to knock and enter. ¡°Qin Xiaowei?¡± Yang Ping was surprised. Qin Xiaowei sat down, ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯m going to be away for a few days to fundraise for Ajun¡¯s medical treatment. I will be back in about three days. I swear I will not give up on Ajun, I won¡¯t! If there are any changes in his condition, please do your utmost to rescue him, and then give me a call. My phone is always on.¡± Qin Xiaowei was afraid that if he was away and there was a change in his friend¡¯s condition, the hospital would possibly give up on Ajun. Though he had already signed some consent papers at the ICU, Qin Xiaowei still felt it was important to clarify this with Yang Ping before leaving, as he had great trust in Yang Ping. Yang Ping didn¡¯t know what he was going to do and decided it was inappropriate to ask. He could only promise that he would put maximum effort into rescuing Li Jun if his condition became critical. As for what Qin Xiaowei was going to do, and how he would fundraise, Yang Ping was unable to interfere. This was beyond a doctor¡¯s responsibility. Qin Xiaowei was a grown man and was capable of making his own judgments. This time Qin Xiaowei left for three days to scout the free-climbing rock wall. Free climbing is a tremendously dangerous sport. In addition to requiring technique and physical strength, it also requires thorough and scientific preparations. After signing the contract, Qin Xiaowei hadn¡¯t checked out the rock wall he was going to free-climb. ¡ª In the northwestern part of Nandu Province, there lay a mountain area. Qin Xiaowei stood at the base of the cliff, craning his neck up at this rock precipice. It was indeed a great place for climbing, more suitable than any rock wall he had ever seen before. Over nine hundred meters tall, with sharp, vertical cliffs rising to ninety degrees. Bare of vegetation, incredibly steep and daunting. It was hard to imagine such a rock formation existing inside this big mountain. ¡°It¡¯s all granite, with excellent rock quality. We¡¯ve swept it once. There are no bushes, no loose rocks. It¡¯s very suitable for free climbing. If I were younger, I would be willing to try.¡± Along, with his hands on his hips, handed a pair of binoculars to Qin Xiaowei. Qin Xiaowei took the binoculars, observed the rock wall thoroughly from top to bottom, from left to right. Indeed, the entire rock wall was devoid of any bushes or weeds, and the quality of the rocks looked very good to the naked eye. Not far away, they had set up a tent as a temporary base and a preparation center for the climb. The two men returned to the tent to drink water and rest. This free-climbing event was a collaboration between an outdoor sports brand and a video platform. The outdoor brand was advertising, while the video platform was gathering a large audience. Along¡¯s company was one of the few that specialized in managing outdoor extreme sports videos and was thus highly valued by both parties. So the two parties commissioned Along to find someone for the free-climbing event. In this circle, no one was more suitable than Qin Xiaowei. With skills, physical strength, and age, Qin Xiaowei was the top choice. For such a new rock wall which had never been climbed, they needed to open up routes, and the layout of these routes was crucial. First, they used drones to monitor the entire rock wall in real-time and mapped out several routes; then Qin Xiaowei had to personally test climb each route. During the trial climb, there were safety ropes for protection, making it relatively safe. But for the actual climb, there were no safety ropes, not even the use of pitons was allowed. It was purely a free climb. To free climb this type of new rock wall, some people would prepare for many years. While Qin Xiaowei and Along were resting, they heard rustling sounds. A slightly obese middle-aged man was being helped along until they reached the tent. ¡°Boss Zhou is here!¡± Along tapped Qin Xiaowei, and they both stood up to welcome Boss Zhou. Boss Zhou was the owner of the renowned outdoor sports brand ¡°Ground Warriors¡±. A local person from Nandu, he had been engaged in outdoor sports apparel and equipment businesses for over twenty years. ¡°Brother Xiaowei!¡± Shaking off the hands that were holding him, Boss Zhou steadied himself and shook Qin Xiaowei¡¯s hand. ¡°Boss Zhou!¡± This was Qin Xiaowei¡¯s first meeting with him. ¡°Brother Xiaowei, I¡¯ve admired you for a long time. Today, I finally meet you in person. You are the number one free climber in the country. I¡¯ve seen your videos; they are fantastic!¡± Boss Zhou spoke with a look of admiration on his face. Qin Xiaowei appeared somewhat shy and merely said, ¡°Those are just exaggerations from people within the circle.¡± ¡°Brother Xiaowei has climbed many rock walls up and down our country. As for ones that are over nine hundred meters like this one, Xiaowei has climbed those too.¡± Along added to the conversation. Of course, he wasn¡¯t exaggerating; Qin Xiaowei was indeed very capable. ¡°Brother Xiaowei, this one is very challenging. Unfortunately, netizens have high expectations nowadays, and they won¡¯t buy anything less than real. Once this is accomplished, you¡¯ll be our company¡¯s spokesperson, and there will be many more opportunities for cooperation in the future.¡± As Boss Zhou spoke, he took the binoculars and looked up at the rock wall. His whole body broke out in goosebumps. ¡°Brother Xiaowei has no issues, but the preparation time seems a bit rushed. Could we have a bit more time?¡± Qin Xiaowei was not good at networking, so Along tried to negotiate for him since they were all brothers within the same circle. Boss Zhou shook his head and sighed, ¡°I wish I had more time to give, but the circumstances don¡¯t allow it. The company¡¯s stock price has been falling continuously. If I don¡¯t come up with some measures to stimulate it, I might as well jump off this cliff.¡± ¡°I¡¯m begging you all!¡± Boss Zhou bowed with a pitiful look on his face. Along wanted to continue bargaining, but Qin Xiaowei pulled at his sleeves, indicating that he should not argue any further. That¡¯s because Qin Xiaowei was also desperately in need of this money. Chapter 658 - 658 593 Silhouette ?Chapter 658: Chapter 593: Silhouette Chapter 658: Chapter 593: Silhouette Three days later, Yang Ping saw Qin Xiaowei again at the entrance of the ICU. His skin was noticeably darker, with signs of sun exposure, his bandages had been completely replaced, his hair cut even shorter, making him look more energetic. He was still wearing a fanny pack. Li Jun was still unconscious, showing signs of agitation only when he was admitted to the ICU, indicating he might wake up. Since then, there was no movement. The daily cost of ECMO was over twenty thousand, the bedside blood filter machine cost seven to eight thousand a day, plus various expensive imported medicines, as well as various kinds of tests, etc. The daily cost to maintain Li Jun¡¯s life was seventy or eighty thousand. If any of these life-saving treatments were stopped, Li Jun¡¯s life would collapse. His life was being stubbornly sustained by expensive drugs and machines. Each time Yang Ping came to make rounds, the director of the ICU would accompany him, holding great respect for the young professor. ¡°Li Jun has severe anemia, which is renal anemia. We are keeping his hemoglobin concentration and red cell count stable with blood transfusions. However, this is not a long term solution. To increase hemoglobin and red cells, we have been administering Evrenzo (Roxadustat) through his gastric tube. We did an EEG yesterday, and the results show that his brain waves are indeed present and functioning well, all cranial nerve reflexes including his pupillary reflexes exist.¡± In theory, he should be able to wake up. ¡°As long as the brain waves are normal and the cranial nerve reflexes exist, this means that there is no necrosis of the brain tissue, and anatomically, there is no evidence that he cannot wake up.¡± Using the light from his flashlight, Yang Ping examined the pupils, which showed a sensitive pupillary reflex. The nurse was turning Li Jun over, providing full-body skin care, checking the skin condition of bony prominences, and changing the protection pads at these bony sites to prevent the formation of bedsores. Bedridden patients can easily develop bedsores if their care is not thorough. The director of the ICU spoke with emotion, ¡°There¡¯s still hope, albeit small. Even if he wakes up, he still faces the issue of whether he can be taken off the ECMO machine. These two life and death decisions must be made. We have had cases here where patients have successfully come off the ECMO machine after over three months, but the cost is enormous. The out-of-pocket expense alone is over two million. Even if his family has the will, the money is an issue.¡± As a doctor, the ICU director knows well how many people are defeated by money issues. It¡¯s basically a gamble betting on a slim chance of survival, which costs a fortune. Ordinary families will drain their resources, selling their homes, everything they have, only to end up losing both their money and the patient¡¯s life, which is something no one can accept. Many problems ultimately become financial issues. ¡°How is the patient next door doing? Are they still hanging in there?¡± Yang Ping asked. The director of the ICU gave a wry smile, ¡°How could they be? They were brain dead a few days ago. The patient had more hope than Li Jun, and was also sustained by ECMO. After more than twenty days, the family couldn¡¯t afford it any longer, so the family members signed a waiver.¡± Yang Ping remained silent. After seeing Li Jun, Yang Ping left the ICU. Qin Xiaowei was talking to the attending doctor Dr. An. He was leaving for an extended period of time. Qin Xiaowei instructed Dr. An to call him as soon as Li Jun woke up. He also left an emergency backup phone number, which belonged to his friend Along. Before the official climb, he had to complete dozens of rope climbs to choose the best route, study the difficult points in the route, and design strategies in advance. He also had to undergo various professional trainings, including physical training and so on, just like the intensive training of athletes before a big competition. This kind of high-risk outdoor extreme sport is very professional. It¡¯s not about rushing ahead with a hot head full of passion. Every detail must be in place for a successful climb. ¡ª¡ª August had mastered the principles of spinal scoliosis correction surgery and had a deep understanding of the techniques. As a renowned figure in spinal surgery, his understanding of the spine was incomparable to that of a general doctor. The technique that Yang Ping used was based on the Ilizarov principle to correct spinal scoliosis. The difficulty was to have a thorough understanding of spinal deformity and then to know where the tension osteogenesis would help correct the deformity. August mastered these core principles bit by bit, asking Yang Ping whenever he had questions. In order to have a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the cases, he changed the dressings every day himself, and personally turned the knobs of the spinal fixators. Now, the work that August was doing in Sanbo Hospital was all like a resident physician¡¯s work, and he enjoyed it immensely. ¡°Where¡¯s my pen again?¡± In the doctor¡¯s office, August, with his visiting physician¡¯s badge hanging around his neck, sat down for a short rest. He took a pen from his chest pocket to record something, but found it missing. Meanwhile, Robert was sitting by the office desk, triumphantly counting his pens. There were more than a dozen of them, blue and black pens, surgical marking pens, everything you could think of. The two pen cases were slowly filling up. Robert had stuck a label with his name on each pen, this was his declaration of ownership. August asked in frustration, ¡°Robert, did you take my pen?¡± Robert guarded his pens with both hands, ¡°These were all picked up when I consulted with Teacher Zhang in other departments. Every pen has my name on it.¡± For doctors, these pens were quite a valuable asset. How could they let others take them away? No matter how many pens they had, doctors always seemed to lose them. It wasn¡¯t worth ruining the roommate relationship for a pen. Takahashi handed August a pen, ¡°Use this one for now, I have more.¡± August took the pen, his dislike for the Japanese man lessened a bit. ¡°Dr. Ao! The professor is looking for you, he asked you to go to his office.¡± The young doctors all called them Dr. Ao, Dr. Luo, Dr. Gao. Chapter 659 - 659 593 Back Figure_2 ?Chapter 659: Chapter 593 Back Figure_2 Chapter 659: Chapter 593 Back Figure_2 ¡°The professor wants to see me?¡± August temporarily put aside his resentment towards a pen, tidied up his white gown, braced himself, and made his way to Yang Ping¡¯s office. The door was slightly ajar. He gently pushed it open, poked his head in, and softly asked: ¡°Professor, you wanted to see me?¡± ¡°Come in!¡± Yang Ping was studying a surgery plan and wanted to discuss it with him. August walked in, stood erect with his hands glued to the seams of his pants, leaning slightly forward. The corner of his eyes was fixed on the Professor¡¯s pot of tea. He knew that if the Professor poured a cup of tea from that pot for a student, it meant that the student was accepted by him¡ªthis was said to be a tradition. So far, Dr. Ao had not been served that cup of tea. Yang Ping pushed the 3D model of the spine to the center of his desk: ¡°Dr. Ao, if we use an external spinal fixation frame to treat this case, how would you suggest we perform the osteotomy? This is your patient.¡± This model was taken from the Duke¡¯s precious son¡¯s spiral spine, so August was slightly excited. Is this a test? August was confident. He had been intensively studying the new technique lately. He had been assisting with surgeries during the day and changing dressings before his shift ended. He returned to his dormitory to take notes and reflect on the day¡¯s work. ¡°Professor, look!¡± August took out his pen: ¡°Each vertebra needs to be cut, and the cut should preferably stay at the posterior column to maintain spinal stability and make full use of the tension osteogenesis. I would start from this vertebra¡ª¡± August used his pen to demonstrate, elaborately explaining the specific location, direction, and depth of each osteotomy. The osteotomy site was going to be the area of tension, which not only required the consideration of corrective surgery but also the tolerance to spinal cord deformation. Indeed, he was an expert in orthopedic spine surgery and understood the osteotomy of the new technique in great depth. The promotion of this new technique in Europe depended on the doctor before him, Dr. Ao. Yang Ping commended him and then made several adjustments to the osteotomy sites. These adjustments would simplify the surgery, an issue August had previously struggled to understand. He always knew something was wrong, but didn¡¯t know how to make the necessary adjustments. After Yang Ping¡¯s suggestions, the clever August finally understood the inner workings of it. ¡°Professor, when can I invite you to Germany for surgery on this patient?¡± August seized the opportunity to extend an invitation. Yang Ping did not refuse, instead, he asked: ¡°The patient¡¯s cardiopulmonary function isn¡¯t very good, is it?¡± ¡°Due to severe spinal deformity, the thoracic cavity is extremely narrow, causing serious twisting and compression on the heart and lungs. The cardiopulmonary function is very poor, and if other complications arise, it may endanger his life due to insufficient compensation of the cardiopulmonary function. That¡¯s why my friend hopes to arrange surgery for his son as soon as possible.¡± August knew of the Professor¡¯s temperament ¡ª if the patient didn¡¯t get surgery quickly, he might not survive. Will the Professor step in or not? After some contemplation, Yang Ping nodded: ¡°I¡¯ll come to Germany with you after my current work is finished.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll take a look at the project funded by the Duke¡¯s foundation while we¡¯re there. I assure you, it is a very decent foundation.¡± August swallowed hard, as if his throat were dry. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go have a look.¡± ¡°And also review a spinal cord injury research project, to see if our hospital meets the standards as a clinical research base. For this stage three clinical trial, the Duke¡¯s foundation has contributed a hundred million Euros. Patients from all over the world can enjoy free treatment in Germany. Professor! Your every spinal fixator is benefiting humanity.¡± August played his trump card. The Duke was generous for his son¡¯s sake and had signed an agreement with Harald¡¯s Orthopedic Hospital in Munich. If the stage three clinical trial was successful, the Duke would provide a hundred million euros in funding. This was a significant amount of money, no matter where you were. ¡°We might as well¡ª¡± Yang Ping lightly patted August¡¯s shoulder. August was disappointed. He had not received that cup of tea by the end of his conversation with the Professor. August had to change a few patients¡¯ dressings before leaving work, so he pushed the trolley with the medical supplies, put on a mask and hat, and prepared to change the dressings. Out in the hallway, he saw Professor Zou from First Affiliated Hospital, standing at the door with a bag of fruit in his hand. ¡°Professor¡ª¡± Professor Zou waved his hand. August looked back, gestured for Professor Zou to leave, and then pushed the medicine trolley into the ward. Watching his mentor¡¯s back as he pushed the medicine trolley, Professor Zou felt a wave of sadness surge from within him, even stronger than the last time. My mentor, my mentor! His demeanor resembled that of a standardized training student, pushing a trolley to change patients¡¯ dressings. Tears nearly sprung to Professor Zou¡¯s eyes. He was close enough now to greet Yang Ping, so he went to Yang Ping¡¯s office. Seeing Professor Zou with a bag of fruit, Yang Ping was surprised by his unexpected visit. ¡°I am passing by and thought I would come in to check on things. Good day, Professor Yang!¡± Professor Zou put down the fruit, took out a tissue, wiped his sweat, his eyes misty with moisture. ¡°Professor Zou, what¡¯s going on?¡± Yang Ping noticed that he seemed off. Professor Zou sighed briefly: ¡°August is my mentor, please take care of him! I wanted to visit him just now.¡± No wonder he was carrying a bag of fruit. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Of course, we¡¯ll certainly look after him. Since you¡¯re here, why don¡¯t we get together for dinner later?¡± ¡°No need, I just wanted to see my mentor. I have other plans for tonight.¡± Professor Zou did indeed have some social engagements that evening, plus his impromptu visit and hurriedly arranged meal wasn¡¯t fitting. ¡°Li Guodong!¡± Li Guodong happened to be passing by the entrance to Yang Ping¡¯s office when he heard the call and stopped. Chapter 660 - 660 593 Back Figure_3 ?Chapter 660: Chapter 593 Back Figure_3 Chapter 660: Chapter 593 Back Figure_3 ¡°Call Dr. Ao for me,¡± Yang Ping instructed. Professor Zou shook his head, ¡°Never mind, I am leaving now. My mentor said during his study period, he doesn¡¯t want me to disturb him. I just wanted to come and see if there is anything I can help with.¡± With your expression and demeanor, it¡¯s as if this place is a juvenile delinquent center, and you are the parent of a child who¡¯s under instruction. Yang Ping muttered to himself. ¡°Don¡¯t tell him that I¡¯ve been here, please, take care of things. My mentor was very kind to me when I was in Germany,¡± Professor Zou implored emotionally. Yang Ping found it unusual that he came without meeting. ¡°Give these fruits to him,¡± he said. After saying this, Professor Zou prepared to leave. Aren¡¯t you just like a parent visiting their child at a correction center? This is not how one visits a mentor. ¡°That¡¯s it then! Please!¡± While his mentor was still changing dressings, Professor Zou quickly left, it was clear that his mentor did not want to see him. What? Left a bag of fruit here and just left. Yang Ping wanted to catch up with Professor Zou, but he¡¯s already disappeared. ¡ª In the office, Yang Ping took several sips of tea. He was reflecting on the orthopedic technique of external fixation for spinal curves. In the System Space, he revisited a number of specialized orthopedic books and journals. A large proportion of patients with spinal scoliosis are adolescents, in their growth and development stage. Can we take advantage of the characteristics of adolescents? Can we find a better method? Any treatment method is developmental. For example, in the treatment of gastric ulcers, initially, surgery was carried out ¨C partial stomach removal, then it transitioned to selective vagotomy. Later, with the progress in the studies of H. pylori and gastric acid secretion, there was no need for surgery. Direct triple or quadruple drug therapies could lead to resolutions. This is how treatment methods improved, no single treatment can be the ultimate cure. Yang Ping analyzed the evolution of orthopedics, especially adolescent orthopedics, and then analyzed current cutting-edge techniques, discovering an important piece of information: can epiphyseal arrest and stimulation techniques be applied in spinal scoliosis correction? Now, epiphyseal arrest techniques have already been sporadically used in the simple pediatric cases of spinal scoliosis. The traditional orthopedic surgery revolves around osteotomy, hence the correction of skeletal deformities often require osteotomies. However, for adolescents and children, a population still in the growth and development stage, their bones are still growing. The lengthening of long limb bones mainly relies on the growth plate at both ends of the bones, the epiphyseal plate. The growth plate, essayed as a stack of different levels of maturing chondrocytes, forms an organized structure. Matured chondrocytes turn into osteocytes, undergoing matrix mineralization to form cancellous bone, adding to the ends of the long bones. In this way, the long bones continue to grow. Under normal circumstances, such growth of the growth plate is balanced, hence we do not display any sideway deformities during growth. In case of certain conditions like trauma, infection, tumors, radiation, metabolism, developmental abnormalities etc. which damage the growth mechanism of the growth plate, disrupt the balance and inhibit or stimulate the growth, leading an accelerated, decelerated or even stagnant growth ¨C limbs display length imbalances or curvatures. In cases where the bone bends due to an imbalanced epiphyseal plate growth, it can be corrected by temporarily arresting one side of the growth plate that shows relative faster growth, letting the slower side catch up. Doctors often achieve epiphyseal arrest by placing a small steel plate and two screws across the growth plate on the convex side of the deformity. In this way, the concave side grows faster than the convex side, correcting the curvature. Though it sounds simple, implementing this technique in spine correction requires solving some significant issues. Firstly, thorough research has to be conducted on the growth mechanism of the spine, precisely adjust every epiphyseal plate, regulate from all three axis. Secondly, the mastering of epiphyseal stimulation technique is necessary, because at the moment, only epiphyseal arrest technique exists, there is no technique for epiphyseal stimulation. If this technique is broken through, then there will be two complementary surgeries in spine correction theory. The two compensate each other¡¯s shortcomings, making spine correction very effortless. For example, in pediatric spine correction, just minimally invasively insert a few screws. Chapter 661 - 661 594 Strange Renal Bone Disease ?Chapter 661: Chapter 594: Strange Renal Bone Disease Chapter 661: Chapter 594: Strange Renal Bone Disease Please wait, I am currently editing, don¡¯t read just yet! In the space lab, Yang Ping used experimental subjects to observe the onset process of teratoma, tracking how these cells developed into various organs in the human body. Instances of teeth and hair could be seen. There was also an article about this research on the top international journal CELL, where a research team from University of California treated teratoma as an ideal model for studying the human development process. Great minds indeed think alike. Teratoma, as a tumor, contains various different tissues, including bone, brain, hair, and muscle. Teratoma formation is often due to the uncontrollable differentiation of a large amount of stem cells. This could occur in all types of tissues within an organism. Although teratoma is usually considered an unwanted by-product in stem cell research, in this study, the researchers found an opportunity to use teratoma as a model for studying human development. It¡¯s possible beings, as biological accidents, have the cellular capacity to assemble the tissues and organs of the body. Therefore, this uncontrolled stem cell growth is valuable for research purposes. The lab in the system space was very quiet, with only Yang Ping being present. His assistants were mechanical arms that resembled mechanical snakes, with various pieces of equipment neatly arranged therein. Yang Ping took some tissue from the experimental subject he bought from the mall and observed it under an electron microscope. However the cells differentiate into muscle, and how the body regulates their differentiation, involves too much information. This level of complexity far surpasses the technology of the spinal fixation device. Scientific research is a lonely and laborious pursuit. Without intense interest and a steadfast heart in the face of loneliness, adaptation can be challenging. Here, cut off from the outside world, there was no internet access. The only substitute was the system library, which allowed access to various books and journals at any time. Yang Ping felt like a prisoner trapped within this space. All the equipment present in this lab represented the pinnacle of modern technology, including electron microscopes, the gene sequencing machine, and others. Not only was Yang Ping observing the changes in the structures of the cells, but he was also sequencing genes in the hope of deciphering the mechanism behind organ formation. His goal was to cultivate these type of cells externally. This was an arduous task. In reality, this kind of work would be assigned to members of a research group such as doctoral or master¡¯s students. However, in this case, mechanical arms served in place of the doctoral and master¡¯s students. All Yang Ping had to do was assign the tasks, and the mechanical arms would diligently complete them. Unfortunately, after a while in this space, mental fatigue would set in. Yang Ping would have to go outside for a while before being able to continue, otherwise he would have to stay inside until the experiment was successful. Moreover, once he left, time within this space would stop. The next time he entered, he could resume from where he left off. ¡ª Sanbo Hospital¡¯s dormitory for visiting scholars. August locked himself in his room, writing an email to the Duke. Foreigners are fond of such things as emails. ¡°Dear Sir, I¡¯ve been in China for nine days, and have seen firsthand the novel effects of Professor Yang¡¯s new technology. It can be applied to almost any spinal deformity and is incredibly safe. Gradual and mild correction allows ample adaptation time for soft tissues. Therefore, to save the young Duke, there is no better alternative than this technology. Just yesterday, Professor Yang discussed the young Duke¡¯s condition with me and agreed to go to Germany for surgery. The current obstacle we¡¯re facing is that the new equipment has not yet been legally authorized for use in Germany. Therefore, we at Harald Orthopaedic Hospital must secure a clinical trial site so the new equipment can obtain its legal status as soon as possible¡ª¡± After writing and revising the email several times, August sent it. August emerged from his room. Robert and Takahashi were watching television in the living room. Watching TV served as a way to learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture, so they made a point to watch for an hour every day. ¡°Knock, Knock, Knock!¡± Someone was at the door. Since August was free, he went to open the door. It was a Chinese doctor from the next room. He mysteriously told August that a woman in the intern dorm had lost her underwear. August turned to look at Takahashi. ¡ª The next afternoon, Yang Ping went to the ICU to check on Li Jun, accompanied by Song Zimo. Because Li Jun was in the ICU, Yang Ping had to visit at least once a day. Sanbo Hospital had three ICUs: the general ICU, the trauma ICU, and the CCU. The CCU was an intensive care ward for cardiac patients. Qin Xiaowei had been gone for several days without making an appearance, but as Dr. An said, he called every day to inquire about Li Jun¡¯s condition. ¡°We carried out another electroencephalogram on him, and his brain waves are now much more active than before.¡± With the head of the ICU out for a consult, Dr. An accompanied Yang Ping, giving him the most recent updates on Li Jun¡¯s condition. An increase in brainwave activity often suggests that the patient is nearing consciousness. Dr. An ordered someone to bring over the brainwave chart for Yang Ping to see. Indeed, there was a marked increase in brainwave activity. Upon a careful analysis of the brainwave chart, Yang Ping concluded that Li Jun should soon regain consciousness. It seemed that Li Jun was lucky. If he regained consciousness, he would have crossed one of the two ¡°Ghost Gates¡±. The remaining ¡°Ghost Gate¡± was to be weaned off the ECMO machine. ¡°We¡¯ve been administering Evrenzo (Roxadustat) to him through a gastric tube to manage his renal anemia, and there has been an upward trend in his red blood cell count and hemoglobin content. We¡¯re still trying to find the appropriate dose of the anticoagulant. Even if we manage to find it now, he¡¯ll still have to face this problem in the future.¡± Dr. An checked whether ECMO¡¯s various conduits were unobstructed, and whether the parameter settings were reasonable. ¡°The head of the renal transplantation center, Director Liu, has already come by!¡± Dr. An relayed this new piece of information. Yang Ping was startled. Before leaving, Qin Xiaowei had spoken to him, revealing that his departure was in preparation for free solo climbing, an extremely dangerous activity. Although Qin was confident, he had planned for the worst-case scenario in case anything went wrong. In the case of an accident, he would donate one of his kidneys to Li Jun and the other to someone else in need. If he returned safely and Li Jun¡¯s condition stabilized to the point where a kidney transplant operation was feasible, he wanted to donate one of his kidneys to Li Jun as soon as possible. Director Liu¡¯s visit was likely to assess Li Jun¡¯s condition. At present, with his life hanging in the balance, a kidney transplant operation was out of the question. ¡°The doctors from the kidney transplant department said that his cousin¡¯s kidneys are a good match. If he can make it through this, a kidney transplant could be a good thing,¡± Song Zimo voiced his opinion on the side. Dr. An nodded, his confidence boosted slightly. After attending to Li Jun, Yang Ping unconsciously glanced into the next room, which now housed an exceptionally rotund individual who easily filled the entire bed. This reminded Yang Ping of a past patient, Wei Danian. Yang Ping still remembers this patient¡¯s name, as he had a rare genetic disorder that often led to lactic acidosis. Yang Ping had then contacted the genetics lab at Nandu Medical University and determined through genetic sequencing that a mutation in ATP5F1D gene, which regulates mitochondrial function, was causing the problem with lactic acid metabolism. Though there was no immediate solution, Dr. Jin at the time had helped him develop a calendar to predict the onset of the episodes, to aid in risk avoidance. ¡°What¡¯s the patient¡¯s name? What¡¯s his condition?¡± Yang Ping pointed to the next room and curiously asked Dr. An. ¡°Wei Danian, lactic acidosis! I believe you diagnosed him last time?¡± It¡¯s him again? Four hundred kilos Wei Danian. Yang Ping thought this guy was incredibly lucky. With a 50% survival rate each time, he always seemed to beat the odds, as if every coin toss always landed in his favor. ¡°Is he conscious? I¡¯d like to talk to him,¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°Yes, he¡¯s conscious. We¡¯re planning to transfer him to Endocrinology tomorrow.¡± Dr. An lead Yang Ping to the ward. Yang Ping had to see Wei Danian. This patient had helped several doctors, including himself, get their names on top-tier medical journals like the ¡®New England Journal of Medicine¡¯. And Wei Danian¡¯s name was even used to denote the disease. ¡°Wei Danian!¡± Yang Ping called out his name. The four hundred kilogram man squinted at Yang Ping, not recognizing him for a while. Wei didn¡¯t recognize Yang Ping in his mask and cap. ¡°Dr. Yang, the one who performed surgery on your fractured leg,¡± Yang Ping reminded him. After thinking for a few seconds, Wei chuckled, ¡°You¡¯re Dr. Yang, the one who operated on me and set my bones. What a coincidence to see you here!¡± Of course you¡¯d see me here. I work here. What¡¯s so strange about that? Wei Danian seemed to have gained more weight. His eyes, which used to be wide open, were now barely a slit. His neck, which used to be distinguishable from his shoulders, had now blended into one. If something wasn¡¯t done about his weight, it would be a significant problem in the future. ¡°I only remember Dr. Jin. Almost forgot about you, Dr. Yang. Please, have a seat, make yourself at home!¡± Wei Danian tried to get out of bed to welcome the guests. Frightened, Dr. An quickly stopped him, ¡°Don¡¯t move!¡± ¡°No need, we¡¯re fine standing.¡± Yang Ping noticed Wei Danian¡¯s confused state, as if he thought he was at home. They chatted with Wei Danian for a while. This time, Wei Danian insisted on going on a vacation. His parents checked the life calendar given by Dr. Jin and discovered numerous red zones indicating high risk days right around the corner. Going on a vacation would be a death wish. But one couldn¡¯t always count on being lucky. Persuaded by his parents, Wei Danian begrudgingly canceled his vacation plans and checked into the Endocrinology department, waiting for the inevitable. As expected, he had an episode while hospitalized and had to be rushed to the ICU. Wei Danian¡¯s family lived directly across from the hospital. Their flat was on the ground floor, near the gate of the community facing the hospital. There was only one reason for this: to ensure an ambulance could reach them quickly. Thanks to the life calendar, Wei Danian¡¯s parents have learned to admit him to the hospital during the high-risk days. Just in case there was an episode, having doctors and nurses around meant higher chances of survival. They couldn¡¯t always gamble on luck. As they were leaving the ICU, they ran into Wei Danian¡¯s parents in the family waiting area. Wei Danian¡¯s father, also quite overweight, recognized Yang Ping. He was very grateful to Yang, feeling if it were not for Yang¡¯s help with genetic sequencing and understanding the cause of lactic acidosis, and later, Dr. Jin giving them a life calendar, his son might be in danger again. Now, thanks to the calendar, whenever high-risk days are near, he simply checks into the hospital and waits for an episode to occur. ¡ª Returning from the ICU, Yang Ping went to attend a hospital-wide case discussion. The meeting, arranged by the medical department at the internal medicine building, occurs once a week and covers various complex cases from across the hospital. A brainstorming session to benefit from collective wisdom, it¡¯s an old tradition at Sanbo Hospital. When Yang Ping arrived, many people were already there. Professor Zhang Zongshun was among those present, along with several departmental heads and a horde of Ph.D. and Master¡¯s students. Yang Ping arrived slightly late and couldn¡¯t find a seat, but Professor Zhang saw him and waved him over. He had kept a seat for him. The cases under discussion were quite interesting. One was a patient from the ENT department who had previously gotten a dental implant. He had been in constant pain around the left side of his nose. The screw fixing his tooth had disappeared into thin air. Upon getting an x-ray, they discovered the screw had moved into his nasal cavity. No one could understand how a screw could possibly go from the jaw to the nasal cavity. Nephrology had a patient, also with uremia, who had started undergoing dialysis due to kidney failure seven years ago. Over time, he started experiencing severe bone pain all over his body. This led to joint deformities, blurred vision, falling teeth, and subcutaneous nodules, among other symptoms. He had a history of bilateral nephrolithiasis for over a decade, had eight stone removals, and ultimately ended up on dialysis due to renal failure caused by kidney stones. Several people in his family also had kidney stones, one of whom had died young. Physical examination suggested the patient had low vision, with missing central and lateral incisors. Multiple hard nodules had appeared under the skin of his limbs, accompanied by pigmentation. His nails were deformed, and there was swelling and deformity in the interphalangeal joints of both his hands and feet. His ankles, elbows, and knees were all affected. On closer examination, it was clear that there were corneal calcium deposits in his right eye. CT scans showed bilateral nephrocalcinosis. X-rays revealed extensive destruction of the phalanges, with dense epiphyses and calcification of the soft tissues at the ends of the fingers and toes. The nephrology department was considering renal osteodystrophy, which is why they invited specialists from orthopedics and comprehensive surgery to participate in the discussion. Chapter 662 - 662 595 Surface Warrior ?Chapter 662: Chapter 595: Surface Warrior Chapter 662: Chapter 595: Surface Warrior In a manner similar to a movie playing on a large screen, the cases discussed by each department were briefly reviewed, getting everyone on the same page. Then, the cases were discussed in detail one by one, in order. The experts sitting in the front row were a bunch of die-hards, known for their strictness in academics, which put the young doctors behind under considerable pressure. A weekly hospital-wide discussion was proposed by them. For some complicated cases, they were put forward for discussion. In principle, all departments should send representatives to participate. Departments related to the case could make remarks, whereas unrelated ones could listen and broaden their horizons. These discussions were particularly favored by internal medicine doctors compared to surgeons. The competence of a surgeon is mainly determined during surgery. They are not particularly interested in discussions. However, internal medicine doctors are different. They tend to enjoy reasoning through complex diseases, treating the greater difficulties as a measure of their capability. A surgeon, after seeing the diagnosis, will simply say: Surgery! Internal medicine doctors face diseases with elaborate arguments, from basics to clinical, from textbooks to cutting-edge papers. Although internal medicine and surgery are two sides of the same coin, they somehow began to look down on each other. Internists think that surgeons only know how to operate and can¡¯t even read an ECG. Surgeons think that internists can¡¯t cure any diseases and are not as straightforward as surgeons who operate decisively. Therefore, these case discussions involving both internal medicine and surgery are quite interesting. Especially when it comes to areas of overlap between internal medicine and surgery, such as tumors. A surgeon would say: Stop your chatter, just remove the tumor with a broad lymphadenectomy. How can it be cured without surgery? Internal medicine doctors would retort: All you know is to cut! Cut out all the organs of the body? No rush, let¡¯s treat it slowly, with chemotherapy, radiation, see which one the tumor is sensitive to, first try one, then targeted therapy, and finally biological therapy, immunotherapy to assist. The experts organized these mixed discussions to avoid the inflexibility of thinking. The communication between internal medicine and surgery broadened the thinking on many complicated diseases. A female patient, 64 years old, suffering from an Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) disorder, with a foreign body in the left sinus. The diagnosis was clear, and they weren¡¯t concerned with how the screw from the dental implant ¡°smuggled¡± itself over there. The proposed treatment plan is to cooperate with the Department of Neurosurgery to remove the screw. A patient from the Department of Urological Surgery, a 36-year-old male, with continuous erection. This occurred after a fever a week ago, and various drugs were ineffective. Only through epidural anesthesia could the erection be eliminated. As soon as the anesthesia wore off, the erection tendency returned. In order to avoid causing corporal necrosis, the Anesthesia Department was asked to install an epidural anesthesia pump to keep it anesthetized. This case was purely an attempt by the Department of Urological Surgery to establish their presence. They had already diagnosed it themselves. Discussing it here was merely to share their diagnostic and treatment process with everyone else. There are relatively fewer complicated cases in surgery compared to internal medicine, so such cases are presented to bolster the profile of the surgical team. ¡°Director Zha, tell us your opinion.¡± Director Lu of the Urological Surgery singled out Director Zha of the Nephrology Department. Even though both were specialized in ¡°plumbing¡±, urological surgery was more proficient when it came to male functions. The Nephrology Department mainly focused on the medical treatment of renal diseases, such as uremia and the like. Playing to their own strengths to compensate for their deficiencies was a tactic favored by both internal medicine and surgery. Director Zha pondered for a moment: ¡°Has he taken any medication recently?¡± ¡°No!¡± ¡°Have you checked the androgen levels?¡± ¡°They¡¯re normal!¡± ¡°What about his blood count? Have you considered sickle cell disease?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve looked into that and ruled it out!¡± ¡°Are there any blood clots on the penis?¡± ¡°No!¡± Director Zha was a bit puzzled, then thought and said, ¡°Do you have an MRI of the spine? Can we consider spinal cord injury, such as tumor invasion?¡± Director Lu, who had been confident all along, suddenly lost his energy: his case had been cracked! It was indeed a spinal cord tumor that caused excessive excitation in the central nervous system. There is a famous saying in diagnosis: Common diseases presenting unusual symptoms are far more common than rare diseases. Actually, making a diagnosis is like solving a case. It¡¯s a process of logical inference: weed out the false and retain the true, peel back the layers, and gradually uncover the truth, step by step. The Nephrology Department also brought out their case: a 48-year-old male, suspecting renal osteodystrophy. Fifteen years ago, he had bilateral kidney stones, had undergone stone removal eight times, and the stones continued to grow after removal. Seven years ago, due to kidney stones causing kidney failure, he underwent dialysis. Later, he felt pain all over his bones, gradually developing symptoms like joint deformation, blurred vision, tooth loss, and subcutaneous nodules. There were also several similar cases of kidney stones in the family, one of whom died of uremia at the age of ten due to renal calculi. Physical examination suggested that the patient¡¯s vision had decreased, multiple teeth had fallen out, there were multiple hard nodules under the skin of the limbs, fingernails and toenails were deformed, the interdigital joints of both hands and feet, both ankle joints, knee joints, elbow joints, and shoulder joints were all swollen and deformed. Slit lamp examination revealed peripheral corneal calcification in the left eye. Abdominal CT showed bilateral renal calcinosis. X-rays revealed extensive destruction of the phalanges, high density at the ends of the epiphysis, finger soft tissue calcification, and deformed toenails. Both Director Lu and Director Zha were doctors, academics, and were enthusiastic about such technical competitions. Behind closed doors, they could pound the table. But outside the door, they were all good brothers. ¡°Does anyone have any opinions, Director Lu? What are the thoughts of your department?¡± One of the old internists in the expert group deliberately stirred things up. Chapter 663 - 663 595 Surface Warrior_2 ?Chapter 663: Chapter 595: Surface Warrior_2 Chapter 663: Chapter 595: Surface Warrior_2 Director Lu looked at the case displayed on the screen. Who could figure out what this disease was, constantly performing surgeries, the best debaters were never the ones holding the scalpel. After a while, Director Lu didn¡¯t make heads or tails of it. Director Zha¡¯s case was indeed a tricky one. The research paper was already written by the graduate students and was prepared to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine based on the individual case. If you surgeons can figure it out, I¡¯ll let you take my position as director! Director Zha sneered internally. ¡°Does anyone have any suggestions? Let¡¯s hear them!¡± The veteran internal medicine expert rose to address the room. If even the head of the urological surgery department can¡¯t figure this out, how are we supposed to know, at least urological surgery and nephrology have some sort of correlation. ¡°Orthopedics?¡± The senior expert¡¯s gaze circled and landed on Yang Ping, who was seated behind Professor Zhang: ¡°Professor Yang of comprehensive surgery, what say you?¡± This kind of on the spot questioning, if the answer wasn¡¯t clear, it would be a loss of face. The fellow surgeons felt it was unfair for Professor Yang. Yang Ping had been paying attention to this case because it was indeed interesting. Director Zha, a doctorate, who had previously spent a year as a visiting scholar in the United States, was indeed impressive. ¡°Professor Yang, what¡¯s your opinion?¡± Yang Ping stood up, this situation was not created by me to break your defense. ¡°The skin biopsy shows a large amount of calcium salt deposition. If you use a polarized light microscope, you could probably see a large amount of diamond-like crystal deposition¡ªcalcium oxalate crystal. We should consider primary hyperoxaluria, especially with further genetic testing, the AGXT gene might carry a heterozygous mutation.¡± A rare disease with a one to three in a million probability and they had kept it a secret for so long, all for this moment of showing off at the hospital-wide meeting, and he broke it in a few words? Surgeons score one for the team. Director Zha¡¯s smile instantly disappeared. How did that happen? Yang Ping checked the time, there were other things to do in the department, and there were still several doctors from his department here. ¡ª¡ª¡ª Almost two weeks had passed already. The list of international clinical experimental bases for new spinal orthopedic techniques will be announced soon, and there¡¯s only one slot. Tokyo University Hospital had the most extensive preparation, and the status of the top brother of New York Special Surgery Hospital was most favorable for promoting new techniques to the world. Meanwhile the German offer was the most enticing with their Duke Foundation funding, casually dishing out one hundred million Euros at a time, as long as it¡¯s legitimate and reasonable, the more the better. In the comprehensive surgery meeting room, everyone gathered around the conference table. August, Robert, and Takahashi all looked extremely tense. The experimental base collaboration was crucial for them, although their reasons were different. Yang Ping didn¡¯t speak, he exchanged glances with Song Zimo who took an agreement out of his bag. I have other stuff to do, just hurry up and pull out the agreement for them to sign, Yang Ping urged internally. No rush, usually you¡¯re the one showing off and I¡¯m the one supporting you, this time you can support my showing off, Song Zimo was unhurried. ¡°Dr. Robert!¡± As expected, it¡¯s me, Robert sighed with relief, having successfully completed this mission. ¡°Congratulations to the New York Special Surgery Hospital on becoming our clinical experimental base. Please review the agreement.¡± Song Zimo handed over the agreement. Robert took the agreement, started reading it line by line, unable to suppress his smile. The Japanese and German representatives looked quite disappointed. After shaking hands with the Americans to express congratulations, they could only vie again next year. After reading, Robert signed the contract, kept it safe, and looked ecstatic. Song Zimo slowly pulled out another agreement from his bag: ¡°Dr. Takahashi, given the extensive preparation of Tokyo University Hospital, we have added an extra base for you, congratulations!¡± Takahashi had mixed feelings of loss and gain. August¡¯s heart was sour. He felt like an exam candidate who had underestimated his scores and found out that the actual scores were much lower. Song Zimo calmly said, ¡°Congratulations to the both of you!¡± ¡°But Mr. August, don¡¯t lose heart, because of your sincerity, we¡¯ve decided to add another spot. Congratulations to Harald Orthopedic Hospital for becoming the third base.¡± Slowly pulling the agreement out of his bag, Song Zimo pushed it in front of August. August couldn¡¯t believe it, he hadn¡¯t been left out, and had finally secured the base. The overseas deployment of the external spinal fixator has been completed, and any new techniques to be launched in the future will also be spread globally through these three bases. ¡ª¡ª Yang Ping is getting ready to go to Europe, with August instructing Markus to prepare diligently. A helical spine model is placed on the desk, and Yang Ping gazes at it, deep in thought. This is a challenging scoliosis correction, due to the three-dimensional helical nature, the correction needs to be considered from three different angles, making the factors even more complex. Considerations include the lungs in the chest, the stomach and the internal organs in the abdominal cavity, as they have adapted to the deformed space that the spiral spine has formed over the past twenty years. Now in trying to correct it, potential postoperative complications need to be considered. At present, Nandu University¡¯s Digital Medical Laboratory can only model simple spinal corrections and fails to take into account the impact caused by concurrent chest and abdominal organ complications. Moreover, machines lack imagination, thus they are unable to creatively solve problems. In other words, the computer can only solve problems within the existing framework and is unable to find creative solutions. Along with the adjustment of the spine, all the soft tissues must be considered; which ones can tolerate tension and which ones can¡¯t. The ones that can tolerate tension need to be loosened in advance. All these elements have to be taken into account. If this spinal deformation correction is successful, the external spinal fixator will invisibly be pushed to the pinnacle of the world. To achieve the best correction, it is necessary to obtain thin slice scans of all organs from the neck to the chest and abdomen, then redefine the morphological positions of the organs and all their surrounding adhesions. In this way, changes in the position of all organs during the process of correction can be demonstrated, and the range of stretch of their adhesions measured. Therefore, this spinal correction is no longer simply about considering changes in the shape of the spinal cord; there are many accompanying changes in numerous organs that must be considered. Otherwise, unpredictable complications may arise. Yang Ping constructs these images in his mind, then tries to simulate spinal corrections. As the organs undergo changes in conjunction with the spinal corrections, complications may arise even though the correction process is slow. For instance, whether the aorta will rupture, or whether, due to alterations in external pressures, the heart will breach a certain threshold and acute heart failure will ensue. This is the reason why all top-level doctors around the world, including August, dare not perform the surgery. The deeper the doctor¡¯s understanding, the more they know about the terrifying consequences. The patient¡¯s heart function is rated level four, which is the worst level basically rendering them unable to perform any activity. Even when they are resting, whether sitting or lying down, they may experience significant discomfort such as panting and difficulty breathing. During the correction process, the disturbance to heart function must be considered. ¡°Dr. Ao¡ª¡± Yang Ping pushes open the door. August, having received the contract, seems much more relaxed as he trots inside. ¡°Have your patient undergo the most detailed thin-layer CT scans, starting from the base of the skull and all the way down to the coccyx. The thoracic and abdominal areas are particularly important. I need to know the morphological location and status of all organs, then combine it with an MRI that marries both anatomy and functionality.¡± Yang Ping instructs August. Upon hearing the professor caring about his case, August eagerly agrees. This means the professor is preparing for the trip to Germany. ¡ª Inside the doctor¡¯s office, an intern, who is a fan of Qin Xiaowei, is showing his phone to a few other people. ¡°Brother Xiaowei is going to free climb a nine-hundred-meter cliff! Look, it¡¯s as if the cliff were cut by a knife, it¡¯s so dangerous, it looks like the Chief, which was climbed by Alex Honnold, definitely dangerous rock.¡± ¡°He has even signed an organ donation agreement, he is fully prepared this time.¡± ¡°I heard the insurance companies dare not cover this, in the end, the sponsor promised a huge compensation if anything happens.¡± ¡°The climbs before were not as momentous as this one. This is close to making the trending list, it will be live-streamed online.¡± ¡°I heard that they are not using drones for filming, it¡¯s a filming team following him, all the cameramen are professional rock climbers. They hang on ropes, following Brother Xiaowei the whole time to capture the moment, it¡¯s so thrilling, my heart is pounding just thinking about it.¡± ¡°There will be no rescue if he falls. Is there any protection under him?¡± ¡°There is no protection at all, no bolts can be driven into the rockface, no mats can be placed on the ground, and Brother Xiaowei refuses to wear a parachute. He says wearing a parachute pack reduces body flexibility.¡± Yang Ping sees a few interns huddled together. The intern, looking up to see Yang Ping, is glued to his spot. Yang Ping says: ¡°Let me take a look!¡± The intern hands over his phone. It¡¯s the promotional video for the free-climb, a montage of videos from ¡°Point Break¡± and ¡°Free Solo¡±, and a close-up of the sheer cliff that Qin Xiaowei is preparing to climb. Indeed, staring at this perilous climb stirs up nerves, let alone undertaking the climb. The Hollywood blockbuster-style promotional video ends with these big words: Ground Warrior! For such outdoor extreme sports, Yang Ping can only express his respect! They are challenging the impossible in their own unique way. Chapter 664 - 664 596 Encirclement ?Chapter 664: Chapter 596: Encirclement Chapter 664: Chapter 596: Encirclement Li Jun finally woke up, but his lung condition made it impossible to detach from the machine. He had survived the first challenge, the second one seemed even tougher. Yang Ping arrived at the ICU, and Dr. An accompanied him at the bedside: ¡°He woke up last night, but was a bit groggy, but he was responsive this morning when we called his name.¡± The young man was lucky. In fact, it was his ¡°cousin¡¯s¡± perseverance that saved him. From admission into the ICU to waking up, the ECMO cost alone amounted to hundreds of thousands, not to mention the expensive imported lifesaving drugs. They must have depleted their one million by now. Sometimes, money can prolong life, an irrefutable fact. ¡°Did he ask about anything?¡± Yang Ping asked Dr. An. Dr. An shook his head, ¡°He just woke up, he doesn¡¯t know anything.¡± Thinking about Qin Xiaowei¡¯s freehand rock climbing, Yang Ping still hoped that this young man would be safe and complete the climb smoothly. ¡°His cousin was very happy to know that he woke up, but he can¡¯t come now, as he seems to have some training to carry out.¡± Dr. An has also kept in touch with Qin Xiaowei. After visiting Li Jun, Yang Ping had to go to the operating room for a surgery. Usually he found time in the afternoon to check on Li Jun, but this morning, he got the news that Li Jun woke up, so he came to visit right after his shift. Arriving in the operating room, the operation had started. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were taking turns as the chief surgeon, with Little Five Zhang Lin as their assistant, and August also present on stage. ¡°Dr. Song, what book were you and Dr. Xu reading yesterday?¡± August noticed that each of them had a photocopied thread-bound book, which they read daily and often looked through before and after each surgery. ¡°That is our department¡¯s Sunflower Manual!¡± Zhang Lin said. August was curious: ¡°Sunflower Manual?¡± ¡°Yes, only they have it in our department now, we don¡¯t even have it.¡± Zhang Lin explained to the research doctors. Actually, that book was not really a book, but a collection of Yang Ping¡¯s hand-drawn anatomical diagrams and array of surgical techniques. It was a comprehensive summary of Yang Ping¡¯s anatomical and surgical experiences, almost like a textbook. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were studying this hand-drawn textbook daily, whereas Little Five Zhang Lin¡¯s knowledge and experience hadn¡¯t reached this stage, so it was difficult for them to understand. Neither was it any classified material. Regarding the research doctors, Yang Ping felt that their philosophies hadn¡¯t fully caught up yet, so they weren¡¯t suitable to read his manuscript. When they have more understanding of his theories and philosophies, they¡¯d find it easier to accept the manuscript. ¡°Dr. Ao, do you want to read this book too?¡± Zhang Lin teased him. ¡°Can I?¡± August asked tentatively. When Takahashi came for his research previously, this ¡°Manual¡± hadn¡¯t been released yet, so all three of them hadn¡¯t come across this book. ¡°To practice magic arts, you must endure the pain of self-castration!¡± Zhang Lin guided him accordingly. August either mulled over the phrase, his Chinese may be highly proficient, but he¡¯s still a foreigner after all, and didn¡¯t understand its implications immediately. Robert and Takahashi were temporarily on break, so they were resting under the stage. When they heard about Professor Yang¡¯s ¡°Sunflower Manual¡±, their interest piqued immediately. ¡°This book contains Professor Yang¡¯s hand-drawn diagrams, will be published as a book in the future, and the basic knowledge I teach you daily is from this book. For example, the anatomical diagrams and surgical diagrams of the spine are from this book. The contents are too complex, I thought you might not be able to digest it all at once, so we didn¡¯t give you a copy yet.¡± Song Zimo didn¡¯t want August to be misled by Zhang Lin. If the German got pedantic and went researching ¡°To practice magic arts, you must endure the pain of self-castration¡± online. If he were to take a blade to his testicles in the dormitory one day, that would be international news. So there was such a manual, these three research doctors only heard about it for the first time, so they made up their minds to get one. ¡ª After Yang Ping performed a demonstration surgery at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, the hospital was the first to start phase II clinical trials. At the same time, the Orthopedics Department of Hospital 301 was also busily preparing for the clinical trials. In the Department of Orthopedics meeting room of Hospital 301. Professor Qin Shi, wearing a military uniform shirt with a white gown over it, looked spirited. All the doctors in the official hospital staff of Hospital 301 dressed the same, giving off a different kind of aura. There are only four leading hospitals in the treatment of spinal scoliosis nationwide: Xiehe, 301, Nanjing Drum Tower, Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Following closely were other hospitals like 304, 306, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Beijing Children¡¯s Hospital which were also considered as secondary hospitals. All other hospitals fell under the tertiary category. The educational videos on the surgical treatment of scoliosis using spinal external fixator were played repeatedly, and everyone had also received guidance materials on the new technology. A child with a Cobb angle of 176 degrees astonishingly managed to gradually correct the shape successfully using the Illizarov theory. Those present undoubtedly thought about how great it¡¯d be if the Illizarov theory for limb correction could be applied to the spine, but the problems to be solved were too many, almost unachievable. But in just a few months¡¯ time, this young Golden Knife Award winner solved this problem. The new technology not only was launched but also successfully completed phase I clinical trials. If they showed everyone animal experiment monkeys, some would certainly have doubts, but now they had actual successful cases, which was undeniable. This kind of innovation was not just an improvement in surgical technique, but it was a revolution in the whole surgical system, completely different from traditional operations in terms of theoretical basis. Although it involved osteotomy, the method and purpose of osteotomy were completely different. Although it involved correction, the theoretical basis and method of correction were also completely different. A few months ago, Hospital 301 attempted to bring in Yang Ping, but Yang Ping had no intention to leave Sanbo, and Sanbo Hospital also played double games, so Professor Qin felt they could wait. Chapter 665 - 665 596 Ambush_2 ?Chapter 665: Chapter 596 Ambush_2 Chapter 665: Chapter 596 Ambush_2 But now it seems, this matter cannot be put off any longer. This young man must be poached. If he had been poached earlier, the research would be credited to our hospital. This is a world-class medical achievement. It¡¯s just that it is still in the clinical experiment stage, so people don¡¯t feel its powerful impact. But once it truly enters clinical application, it will absolutely cause a sensation in the field of spinal surgery. Moreover, the way this kid operates, it¡¯s only a matter of time before he creates even bigger waves. As everyone else continued in their group study, Professor Qin Shi temporarily left the meeting room and went to Dean Liu¡¯s office. Dean Liu put down the work in his hands: ¡°Professor Qin, I have considered your proposal with Commissioner Qiao, and we think it¡¯s excellent.¡± Professor Qin suggested to Dean Liu that they should restart the plan to recruit Yang Ping, and that there could be no more delay. Technically, this would not be a restart, as 301 had just put the recruitment plan on hold. This suggestion of Qin Shi was stimulated by the new spinal technology, so he immediately proposed to Dean Liu to expedite the recruitment plan. After repeated consideration, Dean Liu felt it was time to speed up. His reasons were both professional and personal. Professionally, because he had been given a directive from higher-ups. Mission must be accomplished. On a personal level, it was quite simple. If the hospital could continue to release significant technological innovations during his tenure, he would certainly benefit as the dean. For instance, if the hospital produced an academician in his thirties, or published world-class medical achievements, of course, it would be credited to him as well. 301 has already established a branch in Hainan. Dean Liu wouldn¡¯t mind adding a branch in Nandu Province as well, which conforms to the current strategic planning of the hospital, and higher-ups would support it too. ¡°Professor Qin, do you have any specific ideas?¡± Dean Liu was eager to hear Professor Qin¡¯s suggestions, as he is the one who would carry out the plan. Qin Shi paused before saying: ¡°Our first trip to Sanbo was just to extend an olive branch. This time, we can¡¯t adopt the same strategy of direct confrontation. We need to use a maneuver strategy in the name of scientific research cooperation. We should offer him a certain number of beds here, provide a legitimate position, assign a team to him, and then invite him to do surgeries from time to time. Once he knows our advantages, he will naturally agree.¡± Dean Liu felt this plan was feasible: ¡°Let¡¯s do it this way. As long as he¡¯s willing, we can negotiate many things. If he is used to the climate in the south, he can continue to work there, just change his affiliation. If he prefers freedom, we won¡¯t restrict him. You all still perform surgeries every day, don¡¯t you? Do you remember the 16-character directive from the higher up? Mission must be accomplished; be unconstrained; patiently mobilize; and respond flexibly. So, let¡¯s follow your maneuver strategy and take it step by step. I guess it will take no less than three rounds to convince this young man.¡± Dean Liu also had a final trump card in mind, if all else fails ¡ª purchases Sanbo Hospital and turn it into a branch of 301, and naturally resolve the situation. However, that would be the final move. First maneuver, then conclude. All¡¯s well that ends well. After plotting with Dean Liu, Professor Qin returned to his office where his beloved daughter, Qin Peiling, had been waiting for a long time. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Professor Qin didn¡¯t like being disturbed during work hours. Qin Peiling instantly stood up straight: ¡°I request to be sent to Sanbo Hospital as an instrument nurse for the new technology training.¡± Qin Shi was a little confused. After her visit to Sanbo Hospital, she seemed to be yearning to go again. Her task during the last visit was to ¡°turn¡± Yang Ping¡¯s girlfriend. But it now seemed, it was as if she had been ¡°turned¡± by her ¡°opponent¡±? ¡ª The basketball game was still going strong. The Comprehensive Surgery Department was this year¡¯s dark horse, their strength greatly enhanced because of their foreign aid. However, due to their inability to field a full team, claiming the championship still seemed a tall order. As traditional powerhouses, the Administration and Emergency departments were still going strong. Dean Xia was almost sent off a few times by Professor Zhang¡¯s whistle, greatly dampening his enthusiasm on the court. Without the so-called King¡¯s Ball tactic, the Administrative team¡¯s strength was slightly reduced. Dean Xia wasn¡¯t happy about it. Every single year, no basketball competition had left him feeling as frustrated as this year did. He had the strength but no outlet to showcase it. He was so mad he could bite something, but there was nothing he could do about it. Unexpectedly, this Professor Zhang Zongshun, didn¡¯t give any face at all. After all, he is also a dean. Without saying too much, don¡¯t you think he could avoid idle threats of punishment? In front of all the hospital staff, the dean is left with no dignity at all. The recent issues surrounding the hospital are mixed and numerous; the centralized procurement of consumables, zero mark-up on medicines, medical insurance flight checks, etc. As the dean of a provincially-ranked Sanbo Hospital, Dean Xia clearly understands that all these policies ultimately have one goal: to save money for the people and for the country. China has a large population. Naturally, any figure multiplied by over a billion people becomes an astronomical number, making many things difficult to move around or change. Being a dean is not easy. He has various internal and external challenges he needs to deal with. Luckily, several vice deans are quite supportive, and the leadership team is relatively united. It¡¯s not like other hospitals where there is constant infighting, creating a toxic atmosphere. ¡°Dean Xia!¡± Dean Sun knocked on the door and came in. ¡°Old Sun, sit down!¡± Dean Xia suggested. Just as Dean Sun was getting settled and about to put down the tea he was holding, Director Han and Director Zhao from the Medical Affairs Department also came in. The four sat around the coffee table. Dean Xia frowned: ¡°Just received a call from Hospital 301. They want to hire Yang Ping as a part-time professor, saying it¡¯s for better clinical trial cooperation. They also want to arrange for Yang Ping to practice at multiple locations. Their reason is good; It would make it easier for Yang Ping to guide the surgery later.¡± ¡°Hehe.¡± Director Zhao chuckled twice: ¡°A few months ago, a force parachuted into our hospital to stir things up for a few days, but achieved nothing. They were quiet afterwards, so why are they resorting to this trick now? As for the demonstration surgery, it¡¯s just a few procedures. Should they hire a part-time professor and arrange for a multi-point practice? I think they¡¯re just trying to infiltrate.¡± Dean Sun tilted his head slightly in thought and said: ¡°We have to look at it this way. If this is the behavior of Hospital 301, we can play Tai Chi with them and they can do nothing about us. However, if this is directed by a higher level, we can only cooperate and cooperate well to reap some benefits.¡± ¡°We should still wait and see. Even if they want to poach people again, Yang Ping must agree, right? If he doesn¡¯t agree, then no one can do anything about it. If he agrees, we can¡¯t retain him anyway.¡± The clear logic behind Director Han¡¯s words is that everything depends on Yang Ping¡¯s own thinking. However, considering Yang Ping¡¯s current development trajectory, he has made great achievements in just a few months, which suggests that the environment at Sanbo is more conducive to his work. If he were to change places at this point, it would disrupt his growth. ¡°We¡¯re all just guessing right now. What if they¡¯re just looking to collaborate purely on clinical trials? When the time comes, we¡¯ll confront the soldiers and hold back the water. If Yang Ping is unwilling to go, how can they force him to?¡± Director Zhao felt that everyone was worrying unnecessarily. Dean Xia rubbed his tea cup: ¡°I¡¯ve heard rumors that Hospital 301 has plans to set up branches outside Beijing in recent years. They¡¯ve already built a branch in Hainan. Somehow I have a vague feeling that they¡¯re trying to encircle us, waiting for the right time to swallow us up.¡± ¡°Old Xia, you¡¯re dreaming in broad daylight. They¡¯re going to acquire our hospital just for Xiao Yang? That won¡¯t happen, that¡¯s simply too ruthless. If it really happens that way, wouldn¡¯t that be an upgrade for our hospital? Wouldn¡¯t that mean no need to worry about funding? Wouldn¡¯t there be a guard at the door? As the director of medical affairs, wouldn¡¯t I have to spar with medical troublemakers? This is a good thing.¡± Director Zhao took a sip of tea. Dean Xia only had this sort of feeling because Hospital 301 once sent a team to poach from us. The motivation behind such a grand gesture is definitely not that simple. Moreover, at the time, Dean Xia was instructed by the Provincial Hall to cooperate! Sanbo Hospital, after being self-operated for so many years, finally took shape. Its dream is about to be realized. They really didn¡¯t want to become someone else¡¯s branch. As for Yang Ping, he also poured his heart into his work. He wasn¡¯t sure whether moving to another place would provide the same kind of environment and delay a future genius. So, the daydream mentioned by Director Zhao is not really a good dream to Dean Xia. ¡°I called everyone today to discuss this issue. I wanted to give everyone a heads-up. Everyone should keep this confidential and consider it carefully. Although the probability is low, if this day comes, during the negotiations, we should strive for some initiative, rather than being right on the edge.¡± Everyone then understood the real purpose of Dean Xia¡¯s call. He must have heard something from his superiors or from the Provincial Hall, and that¡¯s why he¡¯s talking like this. Chapter 666 - 666 597 Top Student ?Chapter 666: Chapter 597: Top Student Chapter 666: Chapter 597: Top Student PS: Still editing, please do not read for now. After the meeting, Dean Xia had a personal favor to ask of Yang Ping. A classmate of his had immigrated to Canada and had been suffering from back pain lately. The family doctor at the clinic always prescribed analgesics. Unable to bear it, the classmate wanted to see a specialist. After waiting for three months, he finally saw one. The specialist was very thorough in the examination, and then recommended bed rest and prescribed more painkillers. The classmate wished to book an appointment with an expert similar to those back in his home country. The family doctor said a letter of referral was necessary, and it would take at least a month to get a response, followed by a waiting time of at least half a year. The classmate decided it would be easier to simply fly back to their home country to see a doctor. Medical treatment in Europe and America is far more expensive than in China. This is not merely in terms of costs, but encompasses various aspects. For example, in China, you could see a specialist of your choice by waiting and paying a small amount. In Europe and America, if you want to save money, you¡¯ll have to wait. The wait involves getting a referral letter from your personal doctor to the specialist hospital. Upon receiving the letter, the hospital will prioritize patients based on the number of people at the time and then reply in writing. These letters are physically written on paper, and then delivered by mail. Back-and-forth mailing, plus the wait time in line, may take as little as a few months and as long as a year. Just as an example, our healthcare system in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is similar to those in Europe and America. In the public healthcare system, if you want to get a knee MRI, waiting two to three years is normal. Impatient individuals can resort to private healthcare providers, but consultation and examination fees are extremely high. For patients who are not particularly wealthy and have high-end health insurance, this procedure is considered a luxury. Therefore, many Hong Kong residents needing an MRI prefer to go to Pengcheng because it¡¯s cheaper and saves time. They can drive there and back in one day instead of waiting two to three years. Dean Xia met with his old classmate as scheduled, then led him to see Yang Ping in the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s ward, introducing him to the young professor. The old classmate was moved to tears. Back in Canada, he had never had the chance to seek direct medical attention from a doctor in a ward. Getting an appointment involved writing letters and waiting for months. Moreover, the doctor he finally met was often not the one he wished to see. After examining him, Yang Ping suggested a lumbar MRI. Under the guidance of Dean Xia, the old classmate had the MRI and returned to the ward. Even before the report was out, Yang Ping started reading the scans. The final lumbar disc had already herniated, hanging loose in the spinal canal, compressing the left nerve root. Conservative treatment would be of little significance; microsurgery was recommended. After a few days post-surgery, the patient would be able to walk. Even without Dean Xia leading him, if the old classmate had tried on his own, it would have taken a few days, but it would have eventually been arranged. The old classmate agreed on the spot to stay at Sanbo Hospital for surgery, even if he had to pay out of pocket. After solving the old classmate¡¯s problem, Dean Xia took Yang Ping to his office and chatted for another half hour. He asked about his well-being, what help he needed at work, whether he had bumps and bruises from playing basketball, and whether he needed anything else. Such a talented individual, whom he had gone through great lengths to recruit and had just started to produce results, and now 301 was trying to poach him. Regardless, Dean Xia was not pleased. ¡ª Harald Hospital, Munich, Germany. August had been missing for almost two weeks. Now he suddenly sent a message instructing Markus to conduct a comprehensive preoperative assessment for the young duke. In the whole department, only Markus knew that August had gone to China. This was the department¡¯s top secret, which Markus had not divulged to anyone. The young PhD from the University of Go?ttingen ¨C the young duke, was a regular patient at the hospital. He visited the Go?ttingen Hospital almost every month for a comprehensive medical check-up to evaluate how much longer his precarious heart could endure. Every six months, he visited Harald Orthopedics Hospital for an assessment of his spine. But it was just an assessment, no one dared to take on his spinal issues. The young duke didn¡¯t only have spinal problems; he had heart issues too. The spinal issue was the triggering factor. His heart, limited by the narrow, constricted space, was under constant pressure, which, over time, resulted in chronic heart failure. So, besides the spiraled spine being an obstacle to surgery, the precarious heart was also an obstacle. No one dared to plan an operation on his spine! If the spinal problem is not solved, the heart problem will never be solved. Even a heart transplant wouldn¡¯t work, so it was a problem with no solution. The young duke had already resigned to his fate, for this highly-intelligent scholar had a clear understanding of life and death. The sudden notice took Markus a bit off guard. The notice from August was for a comprehensive examination, and Markus knew that these tests were for evaluating suitability for a surgery. Were they planning to operate? Could it be that August¡¯s trip was to prepare for a surgery? Did he go to China? That young doctor from a Chinese city, as August¡¯s assistant, Markus naturally knew what was going on. He even helped August set up WeChat. As the closest assistant, he knew why August had gone and promised to keep it a secret. The young duke was flown to Munich by helicopter, curled up in a wheelchair, being pushed around, his highly intelligent mind... Harald is a specialized orthopedics hospital, and Munich also has a professional imaging center which is better for the Duke to get a thorough checkup. Germany has some of the world¡¯s best medical equipment, because the movements of the heartbeat and lungs during respiration cause many artifacts in MRI images. When the first X-ray machine in the world made its appearance, the miraculous machine that could peer into the human body was hailed as a divine instrument. People would meet up at the hospital to take an X-ray picture as if it had no side effects. During his visit to Germany, Li Hongzhang of the Great Qing Empire had a bullet in his body. When the Chancellor Bismarck found out, he invited Li Hongzhang to experience the miraculous X-ray at a Berlin hospital. The bullet lodged below his left eye was clearly visible in the X-ray image. It is said that Li Hongzhang was the first person in China to have an X-ray taken. The young duke was wheeled into the CT room. Although he was used to this state, it did not mean he did not want to change. With a deteriorating heart, even an elderly person who was eight or nine years old would be in better condition than him. Sitting in his wheelchair, he would often feel short of breath, and taking big breaths didn¡¯t help. His heart was crushed, trapped between rocks, leaving no room for maneuver. The myocardium was already fatigued and even fibrotic in this diseased environment. The duke had over forty children, with twenty-six sons. He was the son the duke cherished the most, but their relationship as father and son was not good. ¡°Mr. August has found a new treatment method for you; he has already gone to invite the doctor.¡± ¡°Even August is at a loss, I have seen all the doctors in Europe and North America. Is there any new technology?¡± The doctor always liked to use some encouraging words. ¡°No, this time it¡¯s true. Professor August has never been away this long, almost two weeks, and he hasn¡¯t returned yet. His letter says that there have been more than forty successful cases. The new technology is very mature.¡± Markus spoke excitedly; this was exactly what August had said in his letter. The young duke had heard such proclamations since he was a child. Each time new information came, he found that the new technology was still in the experimental stage, far from application, and it was not as miraculous as claimed. But he still accepted the arrangements of August¡¯s team. From his childhood, August had been his doctor. ¡°The purpose of the professor¡¯s trip this time is to observe and learn new technologies.¡± The young duke was moved on the CT scanner¡¯s moving bed. He was only able to curl up and not lie flat. Image after image was taken sequentially to create a 3D image of the spine surrounded by neighboring organs, one that slowly appeared on the screen. All kinds of fasciae and adhesions were clearly displayed. The heart and some parts of the lungs were already in a sunken state. ¡ª The image was transmitted to Sanbo Hospital. Yang Ping had officially started to intervene in this case, with the 3D image displayed on the screen. The spiral 3D space of the spine, grade 4 heart function, and deformed heart; in the process of orthopedics, whether it could withstand, especially if the heart would suddenly stop, the precarious grade 4 heart function was like a ticking time bomb. For a conventional operation, they would have to give up. But gradual orthopedic surgery with external fixation frames could maximize safety, and they could try. ¡°Before orthopedics, use thoracoscopy and abdomenoscopy to loosen the thoracoabdominal organs. Look, these are scar-like adhesions. They don¡¯t have a certain extension. During orthopedics, they will create a hanging phenomenon. The pulling effect causes the organ displacement, forming a hernia. The heart is prone to arrhythmia under this effect.¡± Yang Ping pointed to the image of the heart area with a pen and said. August nodded. He had not yet considered this step, as the difficulty of spinal orthopedics was already challenging. Heart failure, the second hurdle, had not yet been analyzed, let alone what was behind. Takahashi was listening on the side. Robert¡¯s main purpose this time was to further study sports medicine; the spine was just a sidetrack. So, for the spine, among the three of them, August was the star student. PS: Chapter 667 - 667 598 The Treasure Book ?Chapter 667: Chapter 598: The Treasure Book Chapter 667: Chapter 598: The Treasure Book Visiting Scholar Dormitory. Robert bought a deck of cards and invited August and Takahashi to join in a word-chain game. However, Takahashi had to pack up. He would fly back to Japan on Monday after working on Sunday. August was busy writing in his diary, recording his daily learning, and sending emails to instruct Markus on how to prepare for the Little Duke¡¯s surgery. Once ready, August and Yang Ping would fly to Germany to operate on the Little Duke. The three classmates formed a deep friendship during their studies, but there was a shadow in August¡¯s heart, and he always kept an appropriate distance from the Japanese. Particularly, after recent incidents in the dormitory involving a female student who had her underwear stolen, August¡¯s prejudices against Takahashi increased. In his eyes, all Japanese men were sleazy and liked to steal underwear, and Takahashi did look a bit sleazy. This made August not feel much affection for this classmate. Takahashi didn¡¯t understand why his roommate was always lukewarm towards him, as if there was a barrier, even though he hadn¡¯t offended him. Since no one was playing the game with Robert, he played the word-chain game alone, and enjoyed it immensely. At Robert¡¯s request, Barel ran to Chinatown and ordered twenty banners, with ten hanging in the office of the New York Special Surgery Hospital, and ten in the Long Island clinic office, making them identical to the photos. This made Robert very happy. When he finished his studies and returned to the United States, he would enjoy looking at these banners. After finishing his letter, August moved out the spinal model of the Little Duke from his room, which he borrowed from the department. The coffee table was divided into two halves, with August occupying one half and Robert being forced to occupy the other half. The model was placed on the coffee table, and August studied it alone, digesting the knowledge that Professor Yang had explained. Did orthopedics affect the organs in such detail? August turned out the hand-drawn sketches he had brought from the department that day and examined each surgical detail. These sketches were drawn by Yang Ping during his explanation. Pre-surgical laparoscopic loosening was commonly used by August in scoliosis correction surgery, but it was limited to anterior loosening of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae and did not target the organs, while thoracic surgeons and general surgeons didn¡¯t have much understanding of the internal organ displacement caused by scoliosis and didn¡¯t know how to loosen it. During scoliosis surgery, the collaboration between spinal surgeons and thoracic and general surgeons was loose and practically nonexistent. However, Professor Yang¡¯s overall consideration was truly a global concept. ¡°Guys, should we try to get a copy of the professor¡¯s treatise?¡± Takahashi, who is packing some stuff, remembered he had one more thing to do. If he could get a copy of this treatise, he would be able to systematically study Professor Yang¡¯s medical knowledge. The two Russian underlings of Professor Yang, who gnawed at that book all day, and with Professor Yang¡¯s personal guidance, were surprisingly on par with the three of them present. Therefore, the three classmates were eager to attain the professor¡¯s treatise. ¡°The professor said that now is not the time, because the knowledge we have is not enough, and the existing knowledge is likely to conflict with the content of the treatise. For example, this spinal correction, my current knowledge conflicts with the professor¡¯s knowledge, and I¡¯m a bit confused,¡± said August who is very meticulous and is currently just focused on absorbing and digesting the immediate knowledge. ¡°I have borrowed and looked at the treatise. First of all, our relevant anatomical knowledge is not enough. The anatomy in the treatise is very detailed. For example, the concept of tension points on the spine has been proposed. These tension points are the osteotomy basis for correcting with Ilizarov¡¯s theory, and August just mentioned the displacement of internal organs. There are concepts of accompanying displacement during surgery, that is, the law of internal organs accompanying the displacement during the process of spinal correction,¡± said Robert mysteriously. ¡°Is there such a thing?¡± August was initially indifferent to the treatise, but now he was very curious. Robert nodded and said, ¡°If you don¡¯t believe it, you can take a look tomorrow.¡± If these concepts are true, it would mean that what he¡¯s currently touching is 1+1=2, and the treatise contains the complete Peano axioms. ¡ª After Li Jun woke up, he slowly came to consciousness. It seemed that the hypoxic period was short and he was rescued in time, without any brain sequelae. His cousin left him a letter. Dr. An delivered the letter to Li Jun as Qin Xiaowei requested. After reading the letter, Li Jun was silent. He probably knew what his cousin was going to do. Even though he woke up, he still couldn¡¯t unhook the ECMO. His lungs were still a white patch, and it was still unknown when he could get off the machine. Survival was the first hurdle, and withdrawal from life support was the second. Director Liu of the Kidney Transplant Center occasionally checked on the condition of Li Jun. As long as Li Jun remained on ECMO, kidney transplant was out of the question. Before he left, Qin Xiaowei had signed the kidney donation agreement for the transplant. He originally planned to complete the kidney transplant surgery before the free climbing, but the sponsor could not wait and did not give him the time he needed. So, the kidney transplant had to be postponed until after the mission was complete. Furthermore, Qin Xiaowei had spoken with Director Liu; in case of an accident during the climb, one of his kidneys would be reserved for Li Jun. If both kidneys were intact, the other one could be given to someone in need. There were just too many people waiting for a kidney transplant. No one wished for anything to happen to Qin Xiaowei, but as doctors, they always considered things from a medical perspective. Director Liu seriously told Qin Xiaowei that should an accident occur, such as falling from a high place, his kidneys might suffer from bruises or strains, rendering them unsuitable for a transplant. This was a very serious issue to consider. If the goal was truly to save his cousin, Director Liu recommended for Qin Xiaowei to cancel his free climbing, or to postpone it. However, it was only after Director Liu had visited the ICU several times to check on Li Jun that he fully understood why Qin Xiaowei insisted on taking the risk to climb. If Li Jun did not successfully get out of the ICU, he wouldn¡¯t even have the chance for a kidney transplant. The marketing of the ¡®ground warrior¡¯ was successful; despite his climb not yet commencing, the news had already spread, making headlines everywhere. Qin Xiaowei had already practiced climbing more than ten times with the use of ropes, selecting the route meticulously. From how to overcome the critical points in the route, to allocating physical strength for the full trip and deciding on rest-stops, he didn¡¯t overlook a single detail ¨C including how to handle urination during the climb and the replenishment of water. Even these details could prove fatal, such as the problem of urination which was a critical weakness for female climbers. Every day, video platforms would track and release reports on his preparation progress, piquing netizens¡¯ anticipation. When this anticipation had accumulated to a certain degree, the real free climbing would begin. At this point, everyone hoped for Qin Xiaowei to successfully climb. ¡°Xiaowei, how are your preparations coming along? The anticipation of netizens forms a parabola, it will decline once it peaks.¡± Boss Zhou was a bit impatient, sitting on the sidelines. Qin Xiaowei was busily studying his climbing route map, not paying attention to Boss Zhou. After a few minutes, Qin Xiaowei finally spoke: ¡°If I can climb successfully, ¡®Ground Warriors¡¯ will make a name for itself overnight. If I fall, ¡®Ground Warriors¡¯ would be condemned by netizens nationwide, accused of using human life to gain popularity. Even if your stocks rise, they will eventually plummet.¡± Freehand rock climbing required tremendous mental strength and a cool head. Rushing things might have already resulted in Qin Xiaowei¡¯s dismissal. ¡°Xiaowei, how is it going? When will it begin?¡± Along also asked. Qin Xiaowei pointed to the route map and said: ¡°This difficult point is entirely smooth rock, sections that can only just fit half a foot. I haven¡¯t fully grasped it yet and need further study. Over here, the distance from one rock point to another exceeds my arm¡¯s length. I¡¯ll have to hang upside down, hook my foot and turn my body around, then coil my body to reach the rock point with my hands. It¡¯s very dangerous. For this long crevice, I need to take more rounds to figure it out. Boss Zhou, give me some more time, I guarantee the entire process will be thrilling, making ¡®Ground Warriors¡¯ an instant hit.¡± The usually quiet young man was now making very sensible points. If he was unprepared and fell, he¡¯d be smashed to pieces. Boss Zhou would not only have to cover the compensation, but would also face the wrath of netizens, who are known to turn on a dime. If he were to pull off a successful and thrilling free climb, the video would trend online for quite a while, and, of course, so would the ¡®Ground Warriors¡¯ brand. After all, if an accident were to occur, the brand wouldn¡¯t mean a thing. ¡°Alright then, go along with your own plan. I am a businessman ¨C I care about the results, as long as the branding is successful,¡± Boss Zhou agreed with Qin Xiaowei¡¯s opinion. As long as Qin Xiaowei didn¡¯t give up halfway and was willing to take it slowly, Boss Zhou could accept it. After all, the situation had already kicked off and popularity was on the rise, even the company¡¯s stocks saw a glimmer of recovery. People like Qin Xiaowei, who dedicated their lives to extreme outdoor sports, had particularly clear minds. Even a slight slip might cost them their lives. Therefore, he wasn¡¯t rushed. He would only start when he was completely sure and never relied on luck. His love for climbing drove him to devote all his energy to the sport. Moreover, if he got into an accident, Li Jun probably wouldn¡¯t survive either, so Qin Xiaowei must succeed. While Along and Boss Zhou were chatting, Qin Xiaowei began to review his climbing process, researching those difficult points, hoping that he could come up with some strategies to overcome them. PS: I¡¯ve been busy all day today, I promised to update more but I couldn¡¯t manage it. I only updated a little bit; when I have more free time, I will update more. Thanks for your understanding! During the last recommendation, I gained many subscriptions and average orders, thank you all! I reiterate my pledge to you all: the story will not be abandoned, it will not end abruptly. I will finish the whole story according to the outline at a comfortable pace. Chapter 668 - 668 599 Harald ?Chapter 668: Chapter 599 Harald Chapter 668: Chapter 599 Harald Harald Orthopedic Hospital in Munich, Germany. The Little Duke holds a special status, his family being one of the top financiers of several major medical colleges in Germany. For such a major surgery, it would be necessary to discuss it with the top figures in these hospitals¡¯ orthopedic departments. Furthermore, the clinical trial of the spinal external fixation frame would rely on these bigwigs¡¯ votes to pass. To go to Munich to discuss the Little Duke¡¯s surgery? Has August lost his mind? Everyone just unanimously supported him as the leading figure in European spinal surgery. Has he become dizzy with success, lost and unsure of his direction? Among these experts is August¡¯s teacher, Professor William of the Charite? Musculoskeletal Surgery Center. They are all too familiar with the Duke¡¯s condition, having discussed it countless times together. Since the notification was issued in the name of the German Spine Surgery Association, they could only comply. Experts from the Charite? Musculoskeletal Surgery Center, Heidelberg University Hospital, Dresden University Hospital, and other top-tier hospitals arrived. These were the powerful figures in the orthopedic field in Germany, also the backbones behind August in his competition with the British for the Spinal Surgery Association. However, when these professors gathered around the conference table, August was nowhere to be seen and only Markus was present. ¡°Markus, where is Professor August?¡± Professor Lloyd of Heidelberg University Hospital drummed his fingers on the table, clearly unhappy. ¡°Yeah, where is August?¡± Professor Rambo from Dresden University Hospital also expressed dissatisfaction. Markus didn¡¯t answer directly. Before leaving, August had repeatedly told him to keep his itinerary secret. ¡°Professor August has left the country and he requested that his itinerary be kept confidential. He will explain to you when he returns,¡± Markus could only respond as such. ¡°Then why were we called here?¡± The professors were quite irritated, sparking heated discussion amongst each other. ¡°Professor August plans to invite a foreign professor to perform the surgery on the Little Duke, using the latest orthopedic technology. This technology is currently in the clinical trial stage. Prof. August is trying to win the clinical trial base for this technology for Harald Orthopedic Hospital. Whether we can get quick approval from the German Ministry of Health will rely on your support. Professor August asked me to show everybody the approval documents in advance, to save time.¡± Markus, unable to placate these bigwigs, chose his words carefully, fearing he might offend any of them. Germany is the birthplace of western medicine and Germans, especially those in the medical field, are quite arrogant. They look down on even the Americans, not to mention anyone else. August¡¯s goal with this approach was not only to save time but also to knock down a few big guns, who always thought that without their support, August would be nothing and certainly wouldn¡¯t be able to compete with the British. ¡°He¡¯s becoming more and more unreasonable, leaving us here in the dark, disappearing without a trace.¡± Professor Lloyd of Heidelberg University, with his signature wavy blonde hair, looked like a lion. ¡°Alright, since we¡¯re here, let¡¯s see what August is up to. I¡¯ll preside over this meeting. Tell everyone about this new technology.¡± Professor William from Charite? Hospital, as August¡¯s teacher, naturally backed his student. Furthermore, August had already reported some matters to him privately. ¡°Markus, you explain it to everyone.¡± Professor William was still able to control the situation. After all, Charite? Medical College and Hospital is the most powerful force in the German medical field. ¡°This new technology is called External Spinal Fixator for treatment of scoliosis¡ª¡± A gasp of surprise echoed around the room. The External Spinal Fixator? The subject immediately captivated everyone. Some of these big shots had previously considered this area, but due to the high difficulty level and the belief that success was impossible, they had given up. And now someone was actually researching this? ¡°This technology has already passed animal trials and the first phase of clinical trials. The second phase of clinical trials is currently underway. We are participating in the third phase of clinical trials. Here you can see the data that Professor August sent over, as it is still in clinical trial, please do not take photos or share this. This is the first clinical case involving a Cobb¡¯s angle of 176 degrees¡ª¡± Markus paused strategically at this crucial moment, leaving everyone in suspense. Professor Vandennon adjusted his glasses, his temper flaring somewhat as Markus suddenly stopped for a pause. This patient with a 176-degree abnormity signifies an extremely severe case. They were now curious as to how the surgery was performed. ¡°Markus¡ª¡± Professor Lloyd, known for his fiery temper, was on the verge of losing it, rushing up to punch someone. ¡°Don¡¯t stop. This is August¡¯s shortcoming, you shouldn¡¯t learn it, just continue¡ª¡± Professor William sternly commanded. ¡°Look, these are the preoperative full-spine anteroposterior and lateral images, as well as the CT three-dimensional reconstruction image. These are the postoperative orthopedic images. Take a good look, everyone. How do you find the corrective procedure? Not a single spinal segment was fused, every single intervertebral disc was retained, resembling the nearest to a normal spine.¡± Markus then presented a dozen more cases. ¡°Slow down, slow down!¡± Professor William reminded. At the gathering was Germany¡¯s strongest force in Orthopedics, some professors frowned, some supported their cheeks, some slightly lifted their heads, their eyes shut in thought. ¡°Are these cases real?¡± Professor William asked on behalf of everyone. Markus nodded, ¡°Certainly, many of these cases were witnessed first-hand by August himself, such as this 176-degree case.¡± Nobody doubted the honesty of August, moreover, no one would gamble with the reputation of Harald Orthopedic Hospital or endanger the prestige of Charite? Hospital. ¡°I want to take a closer look at this case. How long did it take? I can¡¯t believe the Ilizarov method could be applied this way. And their osteotomy process, I need more details?¡± Professor Lloyd had once shown interest in the external spinal fixation frame but gave up prematurely for he believed it was impossible. ¡°The entire process took three months. Here are the images in two weeks, one month, two months, and three months post-surgery, where the spine gradually straightened ¡ª it¡¯s very fascinating.¡± Markus was boastful, after all, August was his mentor, and he was both proud and impressed by him. In August¡¯s response letter, he wrote that he was the first spinal surgery student of this great professor. ¡°My goodness, from 176 degrees to this? Were there any nerve function impairments?¡± Professor Rambo was extremely concerned with this issue, he wanted to see the postoperative situation of the patient. Markus played the preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative videos of Xiao Cui, who, after the surgery, was able to bend down to tie shoe laces. Her gait was normal and her spinal shape was excellent, most importantly, her maximum mobility was preserved. ¡°Do you have any images of the heart and lungs?¡± Professor Lloyd eagerly plunged into more details. Markus cooperated and showed the pre- and post-operative images of the heart and lungs, which were unharmed, hence not at risk during the corrective process. They were in an ideal position after the surgery, allowing good function to be demonstrated. ¡°Can the lens be zoomed in a bit? I want to see that external fixation frame!¡± Another professor leaned forward. ¡°Right, do we have detailed data on that external fixation frame? How did they assemble it?¡± Out of everyone, Lloyd was the most active as he had had this idea before, which was quashed by its difficulty. Afterward, he never thought of pursuing it again. The images of the delicate and unique external fixation frame zoomed in, it was extremely appealing. This brought upon a wave of sighs, expressing admiration. No wonder, August was so arrogant. He kept everyone in suspense, while he could unabashedly claim: I¡¯m going abroad for a trip that¡¯s to remain confidential. He used his new technique to quell everyone and he succeeded. ¡°Where did August find this technique? I¡¯ve never seen it before, and it¡¯s not mentioned in the latest papers.¡± Lloyd¡¯s temper seemed to have mellowed substantially. ¡°That will be explained personally by Professor August,¡± Markus replied bureaucratically. Markus added, ¡°However, you can trust that this new technique will spread from Harald to all of Europe and even cross the English Channel.¡± The last sentence was music to the people in German Orthopedics. They¡¯ve always been contemptuous of the troublemaker, Milton. ¡°What everyone needs to do is to make sure you cast your precious vote when the time comes.¡± Chapter 669 - 669 600 Friends ?Chapter 669: Chapter 600 Friends Chapter 669: Chapter 600 Friends The Germans were both curious and skeptical about this new technology. Often, something too advanced proves to be its own stumbling block. The development of new technology usually undergoes an iterative process, from inception, to development and maturity, tending to ascend spirally. That process is not led by an individual, but by a group of people or several generations. So, any new technology has a trajectory, but it seems that this new technology didn¡¯t have a rational one. It just suddenly appeared and went straight for clinical trials. This left the audience puzzled, with a lot of unanswered questions in their minds. However, given the forty successful cases that they knew about, there was no room for skepticism. No matter how medical science evolves, it is still a practical science. The effectiveness is in the practice. The technology proven to be safe and effective. Miraculously, a 176-degree scoliosis was gradually corrected to normal within three months with the use of the external fixation frame. Professors Lloyd, Rambo, and William carefully analyzed the process of osteotomy elongation and found that almost every step required a new theory to support it, from the distribution of the osteotomy to the design of the external fixation frame. The entire technology architecture was precise and mature. This clearly could not be achieved by one generation. ¡°Gentlemen, how much do you know about the application of Ilizarov¡¯s theory to spine deformity correction?¡± Professor William felt that he had hardly seen any articles on this subject. The cutting-edge research barely entered animal experiment stage, which, unsurprisingly, resulted in failure. Given the high complexity of the technology, Ilizarov¡¯s theory has been stuck in limb orthopedics and had not yet touched upon the spine. This remained unexplored even as a conceptual technology. ¡°Even the Russian Ilizarov Trauma Repair and Orthopedic Science Reconstruction Center, renowned for its cutting-edge research, has not really entered the spine. There were animal experiments, but because of various reasons, they failed. Essentially, they haven¡¯t even scratched the surface, let alone other research teams.¡± Professor Lloyd couldn¡¯t think of any progress this technology has made in the field of the spine. Professor Rambo pinched the bridge of his nose, ¡°I¡¯ve also never seen any significant breakthroughs in this field in any paper. Now, it¡¯s right in front of us.¡± ¡°Markus, can you tell us about the origins of the technology?¡± Lloyd wanted to trace the source. Markus just shook his head, ¡°Mr. August said it was confidential.¡± Confidential again. Did they invite us here today just to demonstrate this new technology, without telling us anything? Soon, Markus added, ¡°But I can tell you all, the inventor of the new technology is Mr. August¡¯s mentor.¡± Mentor? Who? Who could possibly be August¡¯s mentor? As much as these guys always belittle August, they had to admit that August was one of the best spine surgeons in the world. The number of people who might serve as a mentor to August could be counted on one hand. The only one from their group was Professor William since August had completed his training under him. And regarding the two seniors from the United States and France who were titled ¡°CD¡±, they don¡¯t have the knowledge about the spinal external fixation frame technology. So, who could it be? Everyone racked their brain for the top-notch names in spinal surgery who had the ability to mentor August, and surprisingly, they failed to think of a single person they know or recognize. How could that be possible? Everyone looked towards Professor William who coughed a few times, ¡°Alright, no need to look at me. I¡¯m at a loss, too. Let¡¯s resume our discussion on the cases. We will only find out what this cunning fellow is up to when he gets back,¡± said Professor William. What was supposed to be a meeting turned into a platform for August to demonstrate this technology. ¡°The young duke¡¯s problem is not only the spine but the spine is the primary hurdle. We also have to consider the issue of his heart. It has no potential for compensation. Any mishap would be devastating for his heart.¡± Leading the discussion, Professor William transferred the topic back to the case itself. ¡°Yes, even if the deformity can be corrected, the issue of the heart is insurmountable. During the correction process, various unexpected complications can arise. We don¡¯t know where or when a landmine will explode. It¡¯s better to give up on the surgery. Even though the new technology can solve the problem of the spine, it can¡¯t solve the problems with the heart.¡± Lloyd was initially opposed to the proposition of this case, considering it insolvable. Once the external pressure is removed, the circulatory system¡¯s load changes, and the heart that has no potential will be forced to wait for its end. ¡°We are not dealing with an isolated problem, but a human engineering problem.¡± Rambo stood on the same side as Lloyd. Teams funded by the Duke Foundation are spread all over the world, yet not one was able to untangle this knot. As for August¡¯s mysterious mentor, they scoffed! What does he have that allows him to surpass so many teams all by himself. ¡ª Sanbo Hospital Comprehensive Surgery Department. Yang Ping was making arrangements to go to Germany. Given the current development state, she will frequently go abroad for surgeries. August, Takahashi, and Robert sat in Yang Ping¡¯s office. The full set of manga that Takahashi had ordered had already been shipped from Japan. Everyone was engrossed in the manga, which, besides the usual exaggerated plots and character depictions, often showed clear inspirations from the real-life stories of Yang Ping and Sanbo Hospital. As for who was really running the show behind the scenes, that was a mystery. ¡°Professor Yang, there¡¯s someone outside looking for you. She says she¡¯s your friend, Ning Qi.¡± A nurse reported at the door. Ning Qi, Yang Ping had arranged to meet with her for Ning Yu¡¯s follow-up. ¡°Professor Yang ¡ª¡± Ning Qi wore a white dress, her tall figure curvaceous, her black hair draped behind her, exhibiting a poised and elegant demeanor. Contrasting with her usual professional persona, Ning Qi now looked like a primary school teacher, graceful and dignified. Behind her stood Ning Yu, her hair completely grown out about two or three centimetres long. Although she no longer had her wavy long hair, her artistic demeanor remained. In Ning Qi¡¯s hands were cookies that she baked herself. ¡°May I come in?¡± ¡°Retreat!¡± Robert pulled at the clothing of his two companions. The three kept their eyes on Ning Qi while quietly exiting the office. Placing the cookies on the desk, Ning Qi elegantly bowed slightly. ¡°Thank you, Professor Yang! This is just a small token of my gratitude.¡± This box of cookies was the result of several days and many failed attempts by Ning Qi. The female CEO usually had guards and drivers when she went out, several maids at home, and even her coffee was prepared by a secretary at the office. For several days, Ning Qi avoided the office and stayed in her villa baking cookies. She completed every step herself without any interference from the cooks, even nearly burning her fingers in the process. The maids initially thought she was making them for her younger brother, but when Ning Yu reached for the most successful batch of cookies, he was met with a slap from his elder sister. The brother could only eat the cookies she deemed reject ones. Of course, the rejects weren¡¯t burnt or blackened, but the quality just wasn¡¯t as good as the ones in the box now. From morning till night, with nearly burnt fingers and over several days, she finally produced this box of superb cookies. Early this morning, she didn¡¯t let anyone touch it. She carried it herself and placed it on her thigh during the car ride all the way to the Sanbo Hospital. ¡°Professor Yang, I heard you¡¯re planning to go to Germany soon. I¡¯ve arranged a private jet for you. You can leave at any time.¡± Ning Qi owned a large Airbus private jet that was usually parked at the Nandu airport. This private plane was typically for Ning Qi¡¯s exclusive use. ¡°That¡¯s not necessary, I¡¯m fine with taking a commercial flight.¡± To Yang Ping, a private jet seemed over the top. He wasn¡¯t accustomed to such extravagance, even from a close friend. Ning Qi disagreed, ¡°No, if you consider me a friend, from now on, I¡¯ll arrange the private jet whenever you travel for surgery or meetings. Besides, you have traveled to Japan to perform surgery on Ning Yu. You deserve the best. Besides, time is your most precious commodity. A private jet can save a lot of time. It¡¯s better than leaving it idly in the airport.¡± In Yang Ping¡¯s heart, Ning Qi was already a good friend. She was the very first to fund his research. ¡°Fine then.¡± Yang Ping found it hard to refuse the goodwill from Ning Qi. Having a private jet would save a lot of time. That made sense given how valuable his time really was. Yang Ping took Ning Yu to the clinic for a simple examination. Nothing abnormal was found. He asked Ning Yu some post-surgery questions about his lifestyle, which were all very good. Then he arranged for a head MRI scan to check for any signs of tumor reoccurrence. Meanwhile, Robert and the other two doctors huddled together, whispering among themselves in the doctor¡¯s consulting room. ¡°Who was that girl?¡± August asked, showing an unusual interest in gossip. Takahashi was familiar with Ning Qi. ¡°She¡¯s a powerful CEO! A friend of the professor.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t Su the professor¡¯s friend in the operating room?¡± August rubbed his chin, not quite understanding. ¡°She is the professor¡¯s girlfriend, while Ning Qi is just a good friend. Understand?¡± Robert gave August a look. The word ¡®friend¡¯ had quite a complex meaning; it often differed according to the context. ¡°People say that professor Yang and Su are dating, but now Ning Qi too? That¡¯s really puzzling.¡± Although August was fluent in Chinese, he wasn¡¯t as fluent as Robert and Takahashi and often got confused, especially when it came to the labyrinth of semantics. ¡°Professor Yang and Su are dating. Ning Qi is just a friend but not dating. Understand?¡± Robert was getting impatient with August¡¯s slow comprehension. ¡°If they are already friends, how could they not date? And if they are not dating, how are they friends?¡± The German, strong in his logic, questioned back. Takahashi tried to explain further, ¡°This friend is different from that friend. One is his girlfriend, and the other is just a friend.¡± ¡°Let me put it this way, do you understand? In the future, Su will marry the professor and have children; Ning Qi will not marry the professor or have his children, they¡¯re just ordinary friends.¡± Robert¡¯s hand rested on August¡¯s shoulder. If he still didn¡¯t understand after this explanation, then his talent for Chinese was really lacking. August finally nodded affirmatively, ¡°I understand, I understand it all!¡± Su was the friend who was to be married, his lover, while Ning Qi was just a friend to hang out with. Seeing August¡¯s strange smile, Robert wondered, did the German really comprehend? Chapter 670 - 670 601 Repairing the plank road in the open ?Chapter 670: Chapter 601: Repairing the plank road in the open, secretly cross Chencang Chapter 670: Chapter 601: Repairing the plank road in the open, secretly cross Chencang Ning Yu¡¯s various reimaging pictures, including PET-CT, are displayed on the electronic screen. Yang Ping leaned forward slightly, using his elbows to support his body, focusing intently on each image. Ning Qi, sitting elegantly on the sofa opposite Yang Ping¡¯s desk, was quite nervous. Her biggest fear was the recurrence of the tumor. Ning Yu, sitting next to her sister, seemed calm. After going through life and death, she saw things more openly. After about ten minutes, Yang Ping sat back, saying: ¡°Ning Yu¡¯s tumor is a brain stem glioma. It¡¯s focal, not diffuse, and pathological grading places it at a level 1, indicating low malignancy. However, its growth location is extremely dangerous and the tumor is multifocal. Each lesion is in a perilous position, which made the surgery particularly challenging. At that time, the surgical removal was very thorough, the neural nuclei were well-preserved, and there were no residual sequelae. Looking at this follow-up image, there is no sign of recurrence momentarily. Have a follow-up check every six months and don¡¯t worry too much.¡± ¡°Thank you, Professor Yang.¡± Ning Yu was very appreciative for his lifesaving efforts and bowed in gratitude. Yang Ping waved his hand: ¡°That¡¯s what we¡¯re supposed to do.¡± Indeed, it is a doctor¡¯s daily duty and divine mission to treat and save lives. This was the first time Ning Yu met her chief surgeon. She was unconscious for a long time before and after the surgery in Japan when Yang Ping had already returned to China. She had not seen him until now, this talented young doctor her sister often spoke of. Upon meeting him today, she found indeed he was exceptional. As an artist, her sense of intuition was particularly strong and she could tell her sister held high regard for this doctor friend. ¡°Come to me for every check-up in the future,¡± Yang Ping reminded the siblings. Yang respected Ning Qi as a friend. As a woman in her thirties managing such a big group was very impressive. According to Director Zhu, Anning Group had undergone significant reforms under Ning Qi¡¯s influence and the development was becoming better and better. This gentle and beautiful lady was no mere figurehead but a real authoritarian CEO. She was strategic and firm in her decisions. Upon taking over Anning Group, she swiftly took control of the situation and gradually implemented reform. In the process, she staunchly struck down the old forces who opposed her while ensuring the company evolved, driving out chaotic human-centered management, and genuinely promoting modern corporate management. ¡°I will often have to trouble you, Professor Yang. I have arranged the private jet for your trip to Germany. If you don¡¯t mind, let our company arrange your future travels. After all, you are a contracted expert signed under Anning Insurance, a subsidiary of our group. We should provide excellent service to you without taking up too much of your time.¡± Ning Qi extended her fair hand to shake hands with Yang Ping. In the corner of the doctor¡¯s office. Three interns seemed to be discussing something. ¡ª¡ª¡ª Professor Qin Shi from 301, dressed in a military uniform, his hair combed back, looked neat and efficient. He came to Sanbo Hospital with his assistant. This was his second visit to Sanbo Hospital. Contrasting with his first visit, an army operation, this visit could be described as going it alone. He initially thought the first operation could achieve its aim, but Yang Ping was unmoved. This forced Professor Qin Shi to rethink and redeploy his 16-character introduction strategy. In addition to discussing cooperation with Yang Ping, he also had a mission to explore Sanbo Hospital for Dean Liu Xingguo and Commissioner Qiao Nan. Dean Liu¡¯s ultimate plan was to acquire Sanbo Hospital and let Sanbo become 301¡¯s branch in Nandu. Combined with the branch in Hainan, it formed a triangular layout. Dean Liu was a wise leader. He was determined to attract Yang Ping and would adjust his methods in accordance with the specific situation, steadily pushing forward. Under the guidance of Director Han, Professor Qin Shi met with Yang Ping in the administrative office of Sanbo Hospital. Professor Qin, in his neat military uniform, appeared efficient and exuded a military air. Without any superfluous greetings, he took a document from his assistant: ¡°Professor Yang, we invite you to serve as our adjunct professor of orthopedics. This is the agreement. We will provide you with a team and 10 hospital beds, you can come regularly for surgeries and rounds. This can help us cultivate our team, and at the same time, our clinical experiments and cooperation can be better carried out.¡± Professor Qin Shi was straight to the point, very consistent with his military demeanor. This type of cooperation has many benefits for Yang Ping, so Director Han was relieved. As long as the development was beneficial to Yang Ping, there was no harm in setting a higher and farther vision and let nature take its course. Yang Ping was deeply touched by the enthusiasm of 301. While ten beds might not seem much, in a special hospital like 301, adding ten beds required extensive approval. Giving an adjunct professor ten beds and a team could be unprecedented. This type of collaboration would not affect Yang Ping¡¯s current work but extend his influence. It would be equivalent to establishing a base for Yang Ping in 301, it was feasible! However, Yang Ping still sought the opinion of Director Han. Although he had absolute autonomy now, Yang Ping still wanted to hear Director Han¡¯s opinion. He passed the cooperation agreement to Director Han. Director Han knew Yang Ping was showing respect for him, so he helped to examine the agreement carefully and said, ¡°I believe this agreement is wholehearted. The status of 301 is of great benefit to the promotion of external spinal devices.¡± Director Han candidly stated his thoughts to Yang Ping. When dealing with Qin Shi, a straight man, one had better be straightforward without beating around the bush. Since Director Han had no objections, Yang Ping also agreed to the agreement: ¡°Thank you for your kind invitation, Professor Qin. I agree with this form of collaboration.¡± ¡°Please sign here, the agreement will take effect immediately. We will discuss privately to confirm the time you come to 301 every month in the future. Also, Director Han, later I would like to discuss with Dean Xia whether we can launch some hospital-level cooperation. If possible, Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao will personally come to Sanbo to discuss with Dean Xia. ¡± Professor Qin Shi, acting on behalf of Dean Liu, contacted Dean Xia to explore the ideas of the leadership of Sanbo Hospital. If it really comes to acquiring Sanbo Hospital in the end, Dean Liu expects it to take three years to complete the plan. Repair the walkway overtly and make secret preparations. Start with cooperation, gradually deepen the cooperation, and then, in the end, merge the two into a single hospital. This is much milder than sudden acquisitions, which will not cause aversion and will not lead to conflicts after the acquisition. This major project cannot be completed in two or three months. A real acquisition involves many issues, such as the status of existing staff, whether the leadership will be replaced, how much autonomy the branch has, and so on. Therefore, Dean Liu was not anxious. As long as it could be completed within three years, it would allow Yang Ping time to continue to grow in Sanbo Hospital. ¡°Dean Xia left for a meeting at the Provincial Hall this morning. He should be back soon. We can wait for him. I believe Dean Xia should be interested in the cooperation.¡± Director Han invites Professor Qin Shi for a tea in the office, while he guides him around and introduces the developmental accomplishments of the hospital. With another surgery to perform, Yang Ping could not stay any longer and bid goodbye to Professor Qin Shi. Watching the young man¡¯s figure, Professor Qin Shi was puzzled. Why did Yang Ping disagreed during the first recruitment, preferring to stay in Sanbo Hospital for development? The original terms were extremely high, including recruiting his entire team. For any other personnel, this is an exceptional opportunity that one could hardly find even if they were to use a lantern to help search. Chapter 671 - 671 602 Talent Scout ?Chapter 671: Chapter 602: Talent Scout Chapter 671: Chapter 602: Talent Scout Setting up a ¡°branch¡± in the 301 aligns with Yang Ping¡¯s idea. It would facilitate the rapid promotion of new technologies, thus allowing more individuals to benefit from them. This aligns not only with his initial intent of being a doctor but also with the system¡¯s reward mechanism, achieving two objectives at once. The system rewards new technologies with points, the most critical factor being the magnitude of the technology¡¯s contribution to medical science. Where is this contribution reflected? It¡¯s manifested in how much medical advancement can be directly or indirectly advanced, and how many people can be directly or indirectly treated. Yang Ping¡¯s next research topic¡ªcloning muscle, requires a tremendous amount of points for support. Therefore, he readily accepted Professor Qin¡¯s invitation. He doesn¡¯t mind flying to Beijing often to promote the new technology as soon as possible. Professor Qin Shi, dressed in his neat military uniform, his assistant carrying his document bag, toured Sanbo Hospital accompanied by Director Han. If the previous tour was rather brisk, this one was very thorough. He was examining Sanbo Hospital up close to prepare for a future possible acquisition. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s most significant advantage is its expansive space, which provides immense room for development. The current accommodation provided for Yang Ping is an independent eight-story building, a luxury that other hospitals could not afford. Moreover, Sanbo Hospital has a flexible system. Yang Ping¡¯s Comprehensive Surgery Department, an innovative composite of research and clinical practice, is a rarity among other hospitals in the country. Yang Ping¡¯s Comprehensive Surgery Department also has a great degree of autonomy in financial and personnel matters. In terms of professional rankings, Sanbo Hospital has always given Yang Ping the green light. His exceptional promotions to deputy chief physician and associate professor were rare for a person under thirty in the nation. Additionally, the foresight and courage shown in identifying and nurturing such a promising individual are precious. Professor Qin Shi and the 301 began to take notice of Yang Ping when his talents began to emerge. His winning the Golden Knife Award and his remote surgery for astronauts in the United States drew attention from upper-level authorities, and consequently from the 301. However, when Director Han and Dean Xia of Sanbo Hospital discovered Yang Ping, he was still a wild seedling. Professor Qin Shi inevitably held Director Han and Dean Xia of Sanbo Hospital in higher esteem. Just observing the eight-story building from the outside wasn¡¯t enough, Director Han took Professor Qin Shi into the Comprehensive Surgery Department to visit the laboratory. The laboratory spans three stories and is equipped with very advanced equipment, with several machines worth over ten million. Upon further examination, it was discovered that Sanbo Hospital is supported by a corresponding charity foundation. This charity foundation has a fund specifically for supporting Yang Ping¡¯s research. The largest contributor is the Anning Group, demonstrating how versatile and dynamic the sources of research funding can be. Standing in front of the eight-story comprehensive surgical building, Professor Qin Shi furrowed his brows. Yang Ping agreeing to his invitation was definitely giving him, and the 301, a lot of face. With the current conditions, Yang Ping did not necessarily require those ten beds. ¡°The research fund account currently holds several hundred million, and there are also several hundred million waiting to be deposited,¡± Director Han explained without concealing anything, revealing all details to Professor Qin. Professor Qin didn¡¯t say anything for a long time, his face looking slightly flushed. In the investigation into Yang Ping, much emphasis was on his family and educational background. But Professor Qin Shi had no idea about the research fund specifically serving him. Professor Qin rubbed his temples. Things were far off from what he had imagined. He had to revise all his plans. If he really wanted to bring in Yang Ping, he would need to match or exceed the conditions of Sanbo Hospital, which wouldn¡¯t be easy. At this point, Professor Qin felt quite uncomfortable, he had severely underestimated Sanbo Hospital. ¡°Professor Qin¡ª¡± Director Han called out. Professor Qin Shi was a little slow to respond. Director Han had to call his name several times before he finally responded, ¡°I¡¯d very much like to know why these companies are willing to generously fund Professor Yang¡¯s research. As far as we know, Professor Yang has not yet received any research awards. His spinal external fixator is still underway and in clinical trials.¡± While some scientists can attract large donations, there¡¯s precedent in the country. However, it¡¯s usually after they¡¯ve made a name for themselves. Yang Ping hasn¡¯t made a name for himself in research yet. So how did he manage to attract such a high amount of donations? To attract donations exceeding one hundred million, one would at least need to be an academician, and even then, not many can pull such significant research funds. ¡°You¡¯d have to ask the bosses themselves. Even I can¡¯t answer that,¡± Director Han didn¡¯t want to delve deeper. Professor Qin Shi fell into deep thought. If he wanted to successfully bring Yang Ping onboard, he had to become a talent spotter. How could he achieve this, like Director Han and Dean Xia did? Professor Qin Shi had no idea. Ten beds and one team were far from being enough. ¡ª¡ª¡ª Upon hearing that Yang Ping and August were going to Germany, Robert and Takahashi requested to accompany them. As foreign students of Yang Ping¡¯s, they wouldn¡¯t want to miss such a highly complex spiral spinal surgery. Besides, being seen with their professor often was a good way to maintain their visibility in front of him. Although they are now renowned international doctors, they still can¡¯t compare to their professor. They may count as world-famous boxing champions at most. However, with their professor, it felt like joining a secret superhero alliance, which operates on a different dimension. Takahashi postponed his return to Japan. Since their passports allowed them visa-free travel to Germany, it was an excellent opportunity for brownie points with the professor. ¡°Professor, the Germans must be very unfamiliar with this type of surgery, right? Positioning the patient before surgery is a big challenge.¡± Robert, instigated by Takahashi, went to persuade Yang Ping. Yang Ping replied indifferently, ¡°They have specialized positioners. I will instruct them myself.¡± ¡°Professor, how could you assume the task of positioning the patient personally?¡± Robert shook his head. ¡°August is able to do it as well,¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°He won¡¯t be enough by himself, ¡± Robert shook his head again. Yang Ping looked at Robert, wondering what he was trying to say, to which Robert touched his red nose: ¡°What I meant to say is, we¡¯re just sitting idle. If you take us to Germany, your workload will be considerably reduced. For instance, you won¡¯t have to worry about positioning or maneuvering the patient. We¡¯re more professional than anyone else in this. Plus, we can also assist during the surgery. We¡¯re all-rounders.¡± Robert flexed his pectoral muscles while talking. Turns out they just wanted to tag along for the ride. Well, that could be helpful, considering Kori¡¯s busy and Song Zimo can¡¯t leave. Bringing them along could certainly be of some help, especially Robert with his large physique. ¡°Get ready. Once Dr. Ao notifies that they are prepared on their end, we¡¯ll depart.¡± ¡°Yes, Professor!¡± Robert walked out of the office, gesturing success to Takahashi who was waiting outside. The two hugged in celebration. Chapter 672 - 672 603 Falling at the Finish Line ?Chapter 672: Chapter 603: Falling at the Finish Line Chapter 672: Chapter 603: Falling at the Finish Line PS: I¡¯m getting off work late today so I¡¯ll revise the draft tomorrow morning. Let¡¯s post the draft now just to mark my spot, this chapter will have four thousand words after the revision tomorrow morning. Like always, Yang Ping finished his shift and was ready to make his rounds. A few interns were chattering excitedly. Apparently, Qin Xiaowei¡¯s long-planned free climb was finally underway. ¡°There are no bolt hangers on the rock wall. Except for a bag of chalk, he didn¡¯t bring anything else. He didn¡¯t even bring a parachute. A real free climb, how thrilling!¡± ¡°It¡¯s started! Began around five in the morning, probably won¡¯t reach the top till seven in the evening.¡± ¡°Look at him, climbing like a gecko.¡± ¡°They say he can do two hundred pull-ups with one hand, even does pull-ups hanging from one finger. I wonder if that¡¯s true.¡± ¡°He¡¯s really going to hit the big time with this. There are already millions watching the video and the number¡¯s still rising, they say it can reach ten million.¡± ¡°He has already climbed three hundred meters, there¡¯s no turning back.¡± ¡°He¡¯s only got one-centimeter protrusions to hold onto and stand on. It¡¯s all completely supported by his fingertips and toes.¡± ¡°Heard the sponsors invited our hospital¡¯s emergency department to provide medical support with a helicopter. Talk about throwing money around.¡± ¡°With this kind of popularity, they¡¯re sure to spare no expense.¡± Out of curiosity, Yang Ping took out his phone. Without even having to search, the top trending news was about this. Yang Ping clicked on the video. The scene was as breathtaking and suffocating as a Hollywood blockbuster. On the nine-hundred-meter rock wall, Qin Xiaowei, wearing only shorts and bare-chested, with a bag of chalk around his waist, was climbing upwards. The filming covered both close and far views. The close-ups should be the result of the photography team climbing the rock wall with him, tracking his movements. True enough, without any protection, Qin Xiaowei¡¯s hands were gripping any possible protrusion like a pair of pliers. His feet also held onto the rock wall as strong as nails. His body moved in perfect harmony, like a gecko climbing a wall. He steadily moved upwards, getting farther and farther from the ground. Below was a rocky canyon, with a stream flowing through it. From above to below, left to right, from every direction the full range of Qin Xiaowei¡¯s free climbing was on display. Occasionally panoramic shots were interspersed where the lone climber, in the face of this daunting vertical face, was pushing upwards. His rhythm seemed well managed, where to rest, where to replenish his water, how to distribute his energy, everything planned very meticulously. The absolutely straight and steep rock wall, climbing without any safety measures, challenging human limits, the video was intimidating, hard to look at, letting everyone¡¯s heart rise to their throats just by watching through a screen. At one particularly difficult point, Qin Xiaowei held onto the rock point, but there was nothing to support his feet. He had to climb using only his arms, just like doing pull-ups, repeating this action several times so that his body could rise to a height where he could find support for his feet. Yang Ping watched for about ten minutes, his heart in his throat. Any failure in one of those pull-up moves, and he would¡¯ve fallen. Yang Ping called Xiong Sihai in the Emergency Department. Xiong Sihai confirmed that the emergency department had dispatched a helicopter and that a doctor and a nurse on board were there to provide medical protection. All of this was organized by Qin Xiaowei¡¯s contractual company. Yang Ping didn¡¯t watch the video for long. After making his rounds, he went to the Operating Room to perform surgery. Around five in the afternoon, Yang Ping finished the day¡¯s surgeries. Many interns and standardized training students had gathered in the doctor¡¯s office, watching the video on their phones. Qin Xiaowei was just more than a hundred meters from the finish, having already climbed eight hundred meters. He was faced with the final challenge, the next rock point was too far. Extending his arms was not enough, he had to utilize the length of his body to reach the next rock point. According to the interns, the sun was scorching at the location, and the temperature was high. Qin Xiaowei already seemed fatigued, it was uncertain if he could overcome this hurdle. The netizens were gripped in suspense. Since Qin Xiaowei is a family member of a patient in the department, everyone was familiar with him, so many people put their less urgent work on hold to watch the live climbing broadcast. Even August, Robert, and Takahashi gathered to watch. After training himself over and over again, Qin Xiaowei swung his body like an ape, his body almost horizontal, and hooked the rock point with his foot. After confirming he had a steady hold, he let go of his arms, his whole body suspended by his toes. Then, using his toes¡¯ grip, he reached for the next rock point. Qin Xiaowei¡¯s body was hanging by his toes. When he didn¡¯t move for two minutes, everyone¡¯s hearts rose to their throats thinking he couldn¡¯t hold on any longer. He began to move, trying to grab the next rock point by swinging his body. After four attempts, under the attention of countless netizens, he finally grabbed the rock point, secured his hands, and relieved his lower body. Using both hands for support, the soles of his feet push against the protruding rock points. He rested a few more minutes then climbed upwards again, another hundred-meters-more to go. Climbing about twenty meters more, Qin Xiaowei hugged the protrusion of the rock with both hands, and relied on the friction of toe-pushes. His body arched as he climbed a few steps, rested, then repeated the strenuous process. At this point, the audience wished they could give him a hand. Finally, under the attention of thousands, Qin Xiaowei, without any slipups, managed to climb the rock wall. ¡ª¡ª However, about ten minutes later, the interns began to stir. Qin Xiaowei collapsed at the medical station after reaching the peak. He was being airlifted back now, the reason was unknown. The news caused a huge stir online, wondering what exactly had happened. Yang Ping called Xiong Sihai to inquire about Qin Xiaowei¡¯s condition. The initial diagnosis was heatstroke, he was now unconscious and being flown back via helicopter. At this moment, Yang Ping suddenly remembered that he should check on Li Jun. He arrived at the ICU where doctors were busy preparing to receive the patient being airlifted back. If he wasn¡¯t mistaken, that would be Qin Xiaowei, and his room was set up right next to Li Jun¡¯s. Chapter 673 - 673 604 Orthopedics as a Lifesaver ?Chapter 673: Chapter 604: Orthopedics as a Lifesaver Chapter 673: Chapter 604: Orthopedics as a Lifesaver The helicopter landed on the roof of the Sanbo Hospital, and the emergency department quickly sent Qin Xiaowei to the ICU and promptly connected him to the artificial liver. Qin Xiaowei¡¯s organ failure was caused by heat stroke. Various tests indicated severe liver failure. Both his ALT and AST had skyrocketed to over ten thousand, signifying substantial hepatocyte necrosis. The severity of Qin Xiaowei¡¯s condition was alarming. Heat stroke is the most dangerous type of heat-related illness. Heat stroke, in layman¡¯s terms, occurs when the body is unable to dissipate heat effectively due to various reasons. Excess heat builds up within the body, leading to a rise in body temperature and subsequently a host of problems. Just like a mobile phone malfunctioning or even exploding due to inadequate heat dissipation, the human body too can ¡°malfunction¡± or ¡°shut down¡± if the accumulated heat isn¡¯t dissipated. Based on the severity of the condition, heat stroke can be classified into three types: prodromal heat stroke, mild heat stroke, and severe heat stroke. Severe heat stroke can be further divided into heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke ¨C the most severe type of heat stroke. Without immediate treatment, the mortality rate is 80 percent. The immediate first-aid for heat stroke is cooling. Move the patient to a cool, ventilated place ¨C an air-conditioned environment is better. Then, quickly bring down the body temperature by removing excess clothing to promote heat dissipation. Cold water, preferably iced, is the readiest means of cooling ¨C pour it over the patient to cool them down faster. Once in the hospital however, the primary treatment objective is to manage any complications to save the patient¡¯s life while preventing and mitigating organ damage and loss of organ function. Qin Xiaowei had already been cooled on the scene, and the quick transfer to the hospital via helicopter offered a glimmer of hope for his recovery. After receiving a call from Dr. An, Yang Ping arrived at the ICU with Xu Zhiliang trailing after him. Xu Zhiliang, having a background in emergency medicine, thought he might be able to help in the ICU. Qin Xiaowei was placed in the room next to Li Jun¡¯s, but Li Jun was oblivious to this. ¡°The primary issue is liver failure. He¡¯s currently in a deep coma, connected to an artificial liver and ventilator-assisted breathing. His heart function is relatively stable for now, but if he develops severe heart failure, we¡¯ll need to put him on ECMO,¡± explained Dr. An, who was also Qin Xiaowei¡¯s physician. It was quite a poignant feeling for Yang Ping to see both individuals critically ill in the ICU. Everyone was initially worried about Qin Xiaowei falling during his free climb, but no one expected him to experience heat stroke once he reached the top. ¡°He must have started showing symptoms of heat stroke during his climb. His robust constitution and sheer determination probably helped him finish the last leg,¡± Xu Zhiliang remarked, having noticed something amiss while watching the climbing video. Had he given up then, he might not have made it to the ICU now. Qin Xiaowei doesn¡¯t have any family. His contract work unit is paying for his medical expenses, and Dr. An has to update them about his condition. Having gleaned an understanding of Qin Xiaowei¡¯s condition, Yang Ping, realizing he couldn¡¯t do much to help, bid the ICU doctors goodbye and returned to his department. ¡ª¡ª Ward in the Harald Orthopedics Hospital. A nurse¡¯s cry for help, followed by the sound of doctors running. ¡°Gothenburg!¡± The doctor checks his breathing, heartbeat, and pupils while calling out his name. Gothenburg is the name of the young Duke, his surname being von, a name affixed to German nobility. Looking like he was gasping for breath, the young Duke¡¯s face was pale, his body ice-cold. His blood pressure had plunged to a shock level, his lungs filled with rales, and his heartbeat faint. Apart from the various tests the young Duke had undertaken, his condition hadn¡¯t changed dramatically. He had told a nurse in his ward that he hoped to return to Go?ttingen after his check-ups were completed, as he had to take classes for his students. Despite the efforts to stimulate his heart and increase his urine output, there was no response! ECMO! The doctor unhesitatingly decided on the intervention. As soon as the ward filled with various medical apparatus, and as soon as the ECMO was connected to stabilize his life, he was rushed to the ICU for more aggressive resuscitation. Before leaving Harald, the notable orthopedics experts had already started hurrying back. After the rapid pitter-patter of dress shoes, the ICU door burst open, and everyone rushed into the ward to gather around the bed. The young Duke had severe heart failure; his heart could no longer sustain basic circulatory needs. The orthopedic experts felt helpless ¨C this had already exceeded their area of expertise. They had just begun to grasp the technology of external spinal fixation and were eagerly waiting for August¡¯s return to perform surgery on the young Duke. But then, this unforeseen incident happened. Cardiac surgery and cardiology experts from the Charite? hospital were rushing to the Harald Orthopedics Hospital via a chartered plane. A cardiologist claimed helplessness. The heart was squeezed into a tiny crevice, and surgical intervention was the only means to fix this problem. However, software operation on hardware problems was unlikely to yield results. Constantine, the accompanying cardiac surgeon, let his pen glide over the image before saying solemnly: ¡°His heart muscle is fatigued, due to it being compressed in such a small space. If we can widen that space to allow his heart to beat freely, he might be able to sustain himself for a while. Without widening that space, he can only rely on an ECMO to sustain life briefly. Then, he would wait for a heart transplant. But such a deformed, crevice-like space would certainly hinder the completion of a heart transplant.¡± Constantine, as a thoracic surgeon, had a knowledge structure that did not allow him to conceive a novel surgical procedure to solve this crisis. His strategy was to rely on the ECMO to maintain cardiopulmonary function while trying to buy some time to figure out a new approach. Soon enough, the old Duke, leaning on his cane, stood by the bedside, watching his son, who was at death¡¯s door. He knew this day would come, but he didn¡¯t expect it to be so soon. It was too sudden and still unfathomable. His good friend August was absent, and he felt as if his support was lost. ¡°Poor child. August just found a doctor who can treat his spine.¡± The old Duke pulled out a handkerchief to wipe away his tears. ¡°Yes, sir, we also looked forward to new technology as a solution for his problems, but unfortunately, it arrived unanticipatedly. The new technological orthopedics will take three months¨C¡± Professor William remarked regretfully. The new technology could not be used. ¡°Where is Markus?¡± Professor Lloyd recalled the confident young man, possibly capable of coming up with a clever solution. ¡°He is on the phone with August!¡± Someone saw Markus hiding in a corner, phoning. ¡ª- ¡°Professor¨C¡± Chasing after Yang Ping, August was huffing and puffing as he cried out for the professor and managed to keep the elevator doors from closing at the last moment. ¡°Calm down, Dr. Ao. What happened?¡± Song Zimo stabilized August. ¡°The young Duke is not doing well. His heart failure worsened suddenly. They are keeping him alive using ECMO¡±, Dr. Ao managed to gasp out. What kind of days have these been, always hearing about ECMO? ¡°Not so fast, calm down and tell us.¡± Yang Ping and Song Zimo left the elevator and started walking back to their office. August followed them, thoroughly explaining the young Duke¡¯s condition to Yang Ping. ¡°Do you have the medical records?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± A case file was pulled up from the email. Yang Ping read through the materials. His heart was already swollen, stuck in a confined space, forming a vicious cycle. If swift actions weren¡¯t taken, the young Duke would quickly lose his heart due to ischemic myocardium. Yang Ping tapped his fingers on the desk a few times, slightly thought about it, and then resolutely said: all the ribs in the left precordial region must be removed to reduce the pressure on the heart. Then the area where the ribs were removed should be replaced with an artificial titanium mesh, providing artificial support for a new space. Only then, the heart could be saved. Yang Ping casually grabbed a piece of paper and sketched the structure of a titanium mesh. ¡°Like this, print it out using a 3D printer. The mesh connects to the sternum and the remaining ribs. This way, we can buy some time until we get there. They can¡¯t use the spinal external fixation rack now, they can only do traditional orthopedic surgery.¡± Surgery at this time is crucial for saving his life. As Qin Xiaowei is being treated in the ICU, there¡¯s nothing Yang Ping can do to help right now. He needs to get to Germany as soon as possible. The Germans have not dealt with this type of case before, and any mistake could cost the patient their life. The plan made by Yang Ping in a few minutes, even includes the drawings for the temporary titanium mesh. ¡°Tell them, if they want to save the young Duke, do as I instructed. Any hesitation could delay the opportunity. Book the earliest available flight.¡± The fastest flight still leaves tomorrow, and the journey will take more than ten hours. ¡°Charter a plane!¡± August didn¡¯t care about the cost, but unfortunately, this wasn¡¯t Europe; otherwise, the Duke¡¯s luxurious private jet would take off at any time. ¡°Didn¡¯t Ning Qi already prepare a private jet? It can take off anytime.¡± Song Zimo reminded Yang Ping. Yes, this is when the advantage of a private plane comes into play. Every second counts when it comes to saving people. Yang Ping pulled out his phone and dialed Ning Qi: I need to go to Germany immediately, when can your plane take off? Anytime! Chapter 674 - 674 605 Where Others Stop ?Chapter 674: Chapter 605: Where Others Stop Chapter 674: Chapter 605: Where Others Stop The so-called titanium mesh is actually not a mesh, to be accurate, it is a raised plate made of titanium alloy ¡ª there are no meshed holes on it but it does have rib-like protrusions on the surface. Besides the titanium plate, there are also screws used to fix it. Because the blueprint was incredibly detailed, the engineers in Harald Orthopedic Hospital¡¯s 3D printing laboratory were quickly able to print out this titanium plate and matching screws based on the blueprint. As one of the world-class orthopedic hospitals, this lab often uses titanium to print various internal fixations. The titanium plate is sent to the sterilization room for sterilization, and then it is packaged and delivered to the operating room. To Constantin, the procedure of surgically removing the rib and installing the titanium plate was not a difficult task. It¡¯s like copying an article isn¡¯t difficult, writing one is. This cardiac surgeon is prepared to perform an emergency surgery for the young duke; to remove the rib, install the titanium plate and use it as a shield to provide an artificial space where the human heart can freely beat. With the support of ECMO, surgery is no longer a contraindication, so Constantin decides to put this idea into action. The young duke is taken to the operating room where Constantin is set to perform a creative surgery on him. In order to relieve the pressure on the heart by reducing the ribs, Constantin decided to remove all the anterior ribs, leaving only five centimeters of the posterior ribs for the fixation of the titanium plate. He carefully carries out the procedure according to this plan and removes the ribs successfully. Then, he sites the titanium plate properly, forming a spacious space for the heart, in the same way a protective cover would. The artificial titanium mesh mimicking a regular chest cage has one side fixed to the sternum and the other side fixed to the remnants of the ribs. The artificial space is very relaxed, the heart is free, and the vicious circle will terminate. Constantin is pleased with the surgery. The silver shield adds a hint of science fiction to the young duke¡¯s uniform presence. ¡°Close the chest!¡± But Constantin almost immediately encounters a problem. The skin cannot cover the titanium plate. He tried to adjust the skin, but it could only cover a part of the titanium plate, leaving the majority exposed. Because before the ribs were cut off, the skin was just able to accommodate the narrow chest cavity. Now that the titanium plate expands to a regular chest cavity, there is nowhere near enough skin. As a cardiac surgeon, he never had to worry about skin coverage. That is a job for trauma orthopedics. Constantin, standing by the operating table, looks at the exposed titanium and suddenly recalls ¨C isn¡¯t this an orthopedics hospital? Why is there still a fear of skin coverage issue? ¡°May I ask for the assistance of a trauma orthopedic surgeon? Covering exposed titanium is needed.¡± Constantin asks that of the patrol nurse, who then puts his surgery on halt. In less than ten minutes, the trauma orthopedic surgeon arrives in the operating room. After carefully asking the cardiac surgeon on the problems faced, the surgeon finds out that the issue is resolving skin defects. This task is right up his alley for the trauma orthopedic surgeon. Whether it is skin grafting or flap construction, it is a routine procedure for them. The trauma orthopedic surgeon examines the deficiency- different flaps could be used to cover and repair this area. The philosophy behind skin flap surgery is to break the east wall to repair the west wall. The damage is generally quite significant. If this is the final surgery, then it wouldn¡¯t be a problem. However, if it¡¯s temporary, that would require consideration. If you break down the east wall to repair the west wall, but decide to rebuild most of walls soon after, weighing the pros and cons of whether or not to tear down the east wall is necessary. The trauma orthopedic surgeon recalled hearing that this is a temporary surgery, used just to alleviate the heart pressure issue. ¡°What¡¯s the subsequent treatment plan?¡± the trauma orthopedic surgeon asks. What¡¯s next? Heart replacement? Maybe not so soon. This method wasn¡¯t proposed by Constantin, he was merely a cardiac surgeon. The operating room falls into silence, every pair of eyes looking around. ¡°Mr. August said that he and his mentor are already aboard a plane, the next step is to perform spinal scoliosis correction surgery with ECMO.¡± Markus barrels along with another piece of awe-inspiring news on the quiet stage. To perform spinal correction with ECMO in play requires immense courage. Just who is this mentor? He truly does have a unique mindset. ¡°Is there skin coverage required for this procedure?¡± Constantin asks Markus. ¡°The small holes on the top are used to sew the skin, as long as the surrounding area is sewn, the central part can be left exposed.¡± Markus guided on behalf of the leading surgeon. Fortunately, they hadn¡¯t rushed to prepare. Otherwise, the skin flap transferred from the back would have to be disassembled. Even if this wouldn¡¯t affect the blood circulation of the skin flap, it would still cause issues during the operation. The skin is then sewn onto the titanium plate, covering only the surrounding areas. ¡ª¡ª Ning Qi¡¯s private plane is an Airbus ACJ350, under the management of Nandu Airlines. It¡¯s one of the few planes of its kind in the world, with only a handful in China. The 270 square meter cabin of the plane is incredibly luxurious and spacious, replete with meeting rooms, kitchen, dining room, bedroom, and a leisure and entertainment area. The purser on the plane knows that today¡¯s flight is to take President Ning¡¯s best friend, Professor Yang, to Germany. President Ning himself had ordered that in order for Professor Yang to rest well and ensure good sleep, the luxurious master bedroom would be opened for Professor Yang¡¯s use and the other bedrooms would be left for his assistants to use. The purser knows that the master bedroom is a private space reserved for President Ning and it is never opened to anyone else. This time, however, President Ning has broken the rule for Professor Yang, which showed how much President Ning respected him. The comfort of the master bedroom is incomparable to any other room. It holds a king-sized bed and a walk-in wardrobe, with underfloor heating installed in the changing room. On the wall opposite the bed, there is a giant television. Through the changing room is the master bathroom. It also has a heated marble floor, a marble sink, and a towel warmer, with a large shower area. It¡¯s a ten-hour flight and there¡¯s major surgery to be performed after landing. Yang Ping needs to rest well on the plane. So, Ning Qi specifically instructs the purser to open his master bedroom to Professor Yang and requested that no other passengers are allowed to enter the master bedroom. Consequently, the flight attendant hangs a temporary notice in the master bedroom: Reserved for Professor Yang. Others, keep out. Due to the critical situation, Yang Ping didn¡¯t bring Robert and Takahashi with him, only August came with him. So, the only one who had to keep out was August. August had thought that only people like dukes would have such luxurious private planes, but he didn¡¯t expect that his professor¡¯s friend also had one. It turns out his Chinese mentor is not only extraordinarily skilled in medicine, but also his social circle is exceptional; he is a man of substance. Yang Ping and August rest in the private theater while making use of the multimedia system to review the young duke¡¯s medical imaging files. ¡°Professor Yang, this is your favorite Longjing tea.¡± The flight attendant serves two cups of fragrant tea. Yang Ping¡¯s favorite drink is tea; he is not interested in other beverages. This must also have been instructed by President Ning. ¡°This friend of yours is quite thoughtful.¡± August follows his example to taste the tea. He continues to ponder the implications of the word ¡°friend¡±. The two of them review the case file of the young duke. Overwhelmed by sleep, Yang Ping decides to take a shower and rest, as there is still a major operation to be done after landing. The flight attendant leads Yang Ping to the master bedroom. August stops. It seems that on this plane, the only place where August can¡¯t go is here. Chapter 675 - 675 606 The Art of Preserving Youthfulness ?Chapter 675: Chapter 606: The Art of Preserving Youthfulness Chapter 675: Chapter 606: The Art of Preserving Youthfulness Ten hours of flying, and Yang Ping slept for about eight hours on the plane. August marveled at the professor¡¯s high-quality sleep. He could fall asleep at any time and place and guarantee the quality of his sleep. It was said that when the professor was in trauma orthopedics, he could sleep through all-night surgeries, and during breaks between surgeries. He could sit on a stool and close his eyes to sleep, thus accumulating some sleep time throughout the night. The king-sized bed in the plane¡¯s primary bedroom was indeed comfortable, allowing Yang Ping¡¯s eight hours of sleep to be of high quality. By the time the plane was about to land, it was already past six o¡¯clock in Germany. Yang Ping woke up, refreshed himself, and joined August in the plane¡¯s dining room for a delicious breakfast. Of course, no matter how delicious the breakfast, it could not be without two round boiled eggs, an essential part of the professor¡¯s daily breakfast. At seven o¡¯clock, the plane landed at Munich Airport, where Markus and the duke¡¯s butler, who had been waiting for a while, picked up Yang Ping and August and brought them to Harald Orthopedic Hospital. August asked Yang Ping if he needed more rest. Having rested well on the plane, Yang Ping declined and expressed his desire to see the patient as soon as possible. So, led by Markus, Yang Ping and August went straight to the VIP ward. Hearing that August¡¯s mentor had arrived, a large team of experts came out of the doctor¡¯s office to greet them. But according to the doorman, August had taken his mentor to the little duke¡¯s ward. They went straight to the ward. True doctors at heart, their act garnered the admiration of these dedicated German experts. Headed by Professor William, the group came to the little duke¡¯s ward. By then, the young Yang Ping was already standing by the bedside, bent over auscultating the heart and lungs. This is August¡¯s mentor? So young? Do Chinese people have secrets to staying youthful? The group of German bigwigs, surprised by the young face, held back from asking about his age. Yang Ping, having flown ten hours across Eurasia, met the young prince of this ducal family. He lay in the hospital bed, connected to various tubes, with ECMO supporting his life. The piece of titanium was exposed but sealed by sterile medical tape to prevent infection around the edge of the skin. Yang Ping¡¯s stethoscope was pressed on the titanium plate, sealed by medical tape, he was listening to the heartbeat through the titanium. With August standing to the side, his posture was extremely deferent. With the way things were looking, there was no doubt the young Asian man who was bending over to auscultate was August¡¯s mentor. If not already familiar, it would be difficult for anyone to believe that the low-profile German standing here was August, considering how starkly different this reputation was from his usual image. Upon seeing that the other side of the bed was already brimming with people, August acted as if he had seen nothing, as Yang Ping¡¯s examination was not yet over. The little duke not only had pressure on his heart, but his lungs were also under pressure, as were his major arteries and veins. The entire circulatory system was under a high load, which was why doctors had predicted he would not live past thirty. Under this high load, the heart was aging prematurely. Yang Ping looked up, as August took the patient¡¯s records from Markus and respectfully handed them over to him, a gesture to the German medical elites that it was his mentor standing here. Yang Ping was already very familiar with the little duke¡¯s medical history, but he still went through the records again. If there was no emergency orthopedics, the heart wouldn¡¯t be able to survive. If emergency orthopedics were performed, all pressure would be relieved, circulation would return to normal, and the heart might endure for some time while waiting for a possible heart transplant. ¡°Arrange for emergency surgery, check if all the instruments are ready before the surgery, it doesn¡¯t matter who assists.¡± Yang Ping said after he finished reading the medical record. He was speaking in Chinese. He had always spoken Chinese when abroad, as only Chinese could accurately express his message. ¡°Understood, Markus has already checked the instruments, and there¡¯s no problem. I will personally re-check soon. Thank you for your trust, professor. I will do my best to assist.¡± August responded in fluent Chinese. In a German hospital ward, the two communicated in Chinese, leaving the experts crowded on the side unable to understand, all looking at each other in confusion. The Germans had good discipline as they watched silently for half an hour while the examination was conducted. ¡°Professor William, hello. Hello, everyone! This is my mentor, Professor Yang Ping from China.¡± It was at this moment that August introduced Yang Ping. Yang Ping greeted everyone with a Chinese-style nod. Such is this case, he looked for half an hour and simply said, ¡°Arrange an emergency surgery!¡± It left the spine surgeons who had participated in discussions about the little duke¡¯s condition for more than ten years utterly dumbfounded. ¡°Let¡¯s go to the office to discuss his condition.¡± Yang Ping washed his hands in the sink in the ward. This wasn¡¯t a teaching ward round; there was no need for everyone to stand around the bed to discuss the condition. A few dozen experts followed him to the doctor¡¯s office, all eager to see what kind of hallowed figure August¡¯s mentor was to take the spine realignment surgery so lightly. Having the realignment procedure while on ECMO and dealing with a spiral spine had been deemed too risky and impossible to perform. The doctor¡¯s office in the VIP ward was very spacious. August chaired the meeting, and the top dog who had returned was sitting next to Yang Ping, asserting with a commanding presence, ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, please allow Doctor Markus to introduce Mr. Gothenburg¡¯s medical condition.¡± The return of the senior doctor enhanced Markus¡¯ confidence, and his voice even appeared more booming than usual. Looking around at all the bigwigs present, Markus started reporting the case. From the main complaint, present illness history, past medical history, personal history, family history, to physical examination, auxiliary examination, final diagnosis, surgery indications, scheduled surgery, Markus detailed the case history. Chapter 676 - 676 606 The Art of Preserving Youthfulness_2 ?Chapter 676: Chapter 606: The Art of Preserving Youthfulness_2 Chapter 676: Chapter 606: The Art of Preserving Youthfulness_2 Unlike other doctors, Markus had met Yang Ping in Malaysia and seen his surgery, hence he held great respect for his teacher¡¯s teacher. ¡°We are all very familiar with this case. We have been responsible for it for more than twenty years, and have discussed it countless times. We eventually agreed to forgo surgery due to its impossibility. We have been waiting for medical advancements to possibly provide a solution. Finally, we have reached this moment. During my recent studies abroad with my tutor, I acquired a lot. I, too, previously believed that this case could not be operated on. However, after my studies, I learned that not only can this case undergo surgery, but it can also be performed as an emergency procedure under the support of ECMO, completely relieving the load on the circulatory system and allowing the heart to sustain for some more time.¡± As an authoritative figure in orthopedics, August exuded a powerful aura. Germans are known for their discipline. Despite some having more experience and harboring private discontent towards August, they all respected him as the head of orthopedics, especially during formal occasions. As Yang Ping was publicly acknowledged as August¡¯s tutor, no one would question his qualifications due to his age. What concerned everyone was how to perform the surgery successfully. ¡°The risk of this surgery is too high. Apart from spinal correction, the entire thoracic cavity must be corrected. We need to understand the details of the surgery and discuss its feasibility.¡± Professor William didn¡¯t deny the surgical plan. He believed that just because he couldn¡¯t carry it out, doesn¡¯t mean others also couldn¡¯t. August was not a mindless person, his choice to follow this young man was not without reason. Given that August himself had not performed surgery in more than a decade and was willing to let a Chinese person take the lead, there must be some rationale behind it. The logic of the Germans was fully displayed at this moment. ¡°Professor, could you please explain to everyone?¡± August asked Yang Ping. His previously powerful aura disappeared in an instant, smoothly transitioning between two different temperaments. ¡°This is a case of helical spine. Correcting it in three-dimensional space is indeed very difficult, but not impossible. The surgery will be somewhat complex. Osteotomy needs to be done from both the front and back. An artificial prosthesis is required for the thoracic cavity. Dr. Ao, please display the surgical diagram.¡± Yang Ping spoke in Chinese, while August translated his words into German. Following the directive, August connected his portable hard drive to the computer, displaying Yang Ping¡¯s hand-drawn diagrams on the screen one by one. Each Chinese term on the hand-drawn diagram was annotated with a German translation by August. The dozens of images astonished the orthopedic doctors, cardiac surgeons, cardiologists, and pulmonologists when they reached the seventh one. These beautiful and detailed anatomical drawings amazed everyone. The experts who frequently viewed anatomical atlas could tell the high quality of these drawings, which could be used in teaching medical courses. The orthopedic surgeons focused on each step of the spinal correction. The osteotomy design was simply marvelous. The anteroposterior combination had clear steps, causing minimum damage while attempting to correct the spine to normal. During the correction process, the spinal deformation was also analyzed clearly. The spinal deformation and osteotomy would be combined to minimize the spinal deformation. The preoperative thorascope and laparoscope loosening were master strokes. In short, the spinal surgery standard showcased in this diagram made everyone present feel inferior. Cardiac surgeon Constantin was amazed by the profound understanding of the heart displayed in the drawings. It explains what pathological and pathophysiological changes the heart, which has been under long-term pressure, would undergo. It also shows how the heart¡¯s structure and function would change after relieving pressure, and various postoperative coping measures. Things that Constantin had never understood before now became clear to him. The design of the artificial chest cavity can not only ensure the volume of the cavity but also consider skin soft tissue coverage. The assembly method of the artificial chest cavity, which is implanted in a disassembled state and then assembled, is focused on protecting the soft tissue¡¯s blood supply. Almost every detail was taken into account, leaving no room for mistakes. The cardiologists had never seen a surgeon with such deep understanding of heart physiology, especially how a diseased heart that has been under long-term pressure would react to sudden decompression, and how the new problems that arise would be solved. Respiratory physicians were concerned about the lung issues. After seeing these drawings, they could completely understand the state of the patient¡¯s lungs, how they ended up in their current state, and what the future holds for them. Everything was clear at a glance. Yang Ping didn¡¯t need to explain much. The drawings had already said it all. Admiring glances were frequently cast. Regardless of how competent the surgery capabilities of this professor were, his in-depth research of the entire condition of the young duke was admirable. Normally, such understanding would require a large number of similar cases. However, this rare case was, to their knowledge, the only reported case in the world. It appeared that this young professor had done research on a single case. But how could his research possibly surpass that of the more experienced doctors present? Everyone stared at the drawing without making a sound, each trying to comprehend the knowledge portrayed in the illustration. ¡°Could we take a picture?¡± Professor Lloyd asked. ¡°Of course, and you¡¯ll be able to copy these drawings after the meeting,¡± responded August, pleased with their interest. ¡°Were you the chief surgeon for the ¡®Folding Man¡¯? I¡¯ve seen a bone-cutting technique like this in a paper, is it the one known as ¡®Yang¡¯s Bone Cutting¡¯?¡± Professor Rambo once read a paper published by a Chinese doctor that postulated the same principle of bone cutting, and the case about the ¡®Folding Man¡¯ surgery, as presented in the paper, was incredibly complex. It seemed as if a light bulb had gone off for the rest of the orthopedic surgeons, they all recognized that paper. ¡°Yang?¡± August nodded. ¡°That case was one of the professor¡¯s earlier ones. Most of the cases he handled were those that others had given up on. He no longer practices traditional surgery unless it¡¯s an emergency. You should all be familiar with his masterpiece, the ¡®Spinal Fixation Frame¡¯. If it¡¯s not an emergency, he¡¯ll utilize his new techniques, and the outcomes are usually marvelous.¡± This brought them back to the subject of the ¡®Spinal Fixation Frame¡¯. They were just beginning to grasp the concept behind this procedure, a miraculous piece of innovation, all masterminded by this young man. ¡°The successful doctor who handled the ¡®Triple J Surgery¡¯ case I lectured about is Professor Yang,¡± August added while the iron was hot. Everyone sighed in awe. As orthopedic surgeons, just mastering any one of these techniques would be enough to earn the admiration of their peers, let alone mastering all of them. ¡°Alright, enough bragging, let¡¯s get back to business.¡± Yang Ping quickly reminded August. Immediately, August stops boasting about his mentor¡¯s impressive academic achievements, gave a few coughs, and obediently returned to the matter at hand: ¡°Everyone, do you all have any opinions on the surgery?¡± It seemed as though most of the challenges everyone was concerned about were addressed in the drawings, they even covered surgical positioning. According to the drawings, everything had been thoroughly thought out. ¡°With such severe malformation, regardless of positioning, the surgery is extremely challenging, especially if you are planning on joint bone-cutting before and after,¡± Constantin¡¯s own experiences affirmed this belief, he had put quite a lot of effort into removing the ribs. Yes, such malformations could make even the most simple operations complex, let alone complicated procedures. When everyone returned to discussing the surgical operation, they realized that implementing the techniques alluded to in the drawings might prove incredibly challenging. Even the most perfect surgical plan ultimately relies on a doctor¡¯s hands to execute it. ¡°That¡¯s why no one dares to perform this surgery. It¡¯s difficult in theory and even more so in practice. It¡¯s considered the crown jewel of orthopedic surgery.¡± August agreed. ¡°For instance, with a thoracic cavity so malformed, you would need to complete the loosening of the anterior soft tissue structures of the spine under a thoracoscope. The heart is all squeezed together, so I¡¯m afraid it wouldn¡¯t be possible to perform the operation?¡± Professor Rambo believed that loosening to such an extent would be challenging to achieve. ¡°When you try to release the large blood vessels under a microscope, the operation possesses a high risk. Once you enter these narrow spaces, it is challenging to achieve ideal spatial positioning. In this case, loosening can be fraught with danger.¡± Constantin had been seriously contemplating these issues. Germany¡¯s top experts have a profound understanding of such issues, indeed, these are significant problems. There is still one major problem that no one dares mention out of politeness. What¡¯s Professor Yang¡¯s age? Is he aging so gracefully, or is he really that young? Chapter 677 - 677 607 Eighty Percent Confidence ?Chapter 677: Chapter 607: Eighty Percent Confidence Chapter 677: Chapter 607: Eighty Percent Confidence The Harald orthopedic hospital in Munich, with its red roof and white walls, stands simply yet elegantly. The green of the pointed rooftops and bell tower spires contrasts the red, eliminating the feeling of restlessness that red can evoke, and giving an ambivalent implication of both energy and tranquility. The windows in the doctors¡¯ office are open, with sunlight filtering in obliquely, but not inhibiting the clarity of the screens. At this moment, several top professors in the field of spinal surgery in Germany are engrossed in the hand-drawn diagrams, which can express more effectively than any language and whose anatomical accuracy surpasses any anatomical atlas they have seen before. Once the dozens of images are presented, the playback begins again slowly, making the details of the entire surgery extremely clear. Some professors also ask Markus to replay the images for them to scrutinize closely, and take photos of any missed images. Resembling works of art, these exquisite diagrams leave a deep impression. Explaining everything with images has become Professor Yang¡¯s usual method. Professor Yang is a man of few words. He sits by the conference table in silence, lightly tapping the table with his fingers, producing no sound and of course no hint of opera music, only some popular songs. ¡°Professor Yang, how confident are you about this surgery?¡± Professor Rambo couldn¡¯t help but ask. Upon hearing August¡¯s translation, Yang Ping seriously replied, ¡°Eighty percent!¡± Eighty percent, that is, an 80% success rate. For such a highly difficult and risky surgery, these odds are extraordinarily high, or as the Chinese would say, it¡¯s a sure thing. An 80% success rate? Again, everyone is taken aback, exchanging glances. Just a moment ago, they believed that emergency orthopedic surgery was a desperate measure, a gamble in a crisis, but now it appears the odds are quite favorable. Actually, whenever asked about his confidence in a surgery, Yang Ping finds it to be a little tricky. Saying it¡¯s too high is inappropriate, as it might come off as reckless boasting; saying it¡¯s too low might scare people, making it seem as if he doesn¡¯t take life seriously. Thus, stating 80% is the most appropriate. It puts patients at ease and avoids coming across as overconfident. Most German bigwigs thought they had misheard and that Yang Ping must, in fact, be 8% confident. Therefore, Professor William asked on behalf of everyone, ¡°August, what did Professor Yang just say his likelihood of success was?¡± ¡°Eighty percent!¡± August reiterated, deliberately articulating clearly. ¡°Eighty percent?¡± ¡°Yes, eighty percent!¡± Professor William gasped in surprise. The German spinal surgery sector seemed to have been collectively plunged into an ice age. Even if Professor Yang had stated 50% confidence, taken a gamble on luck, these bigwigs wouldn¡¯t be put to shame so much. All the big shots had been striving tirelessly for more than ten years, some even for over twenty. They have also received strong support from peers in other European countries and North America, and yet they are still helpless with this case, let alone having any confidence. Now this seemingly young Chinese doctor claims he is 80% sure. These words are like an avalanche from the Alps, leaving everyone icy cold, speechless for a long time. ¡°Looking at the surgical diagrams, the spine undergoes a large three-dimensional correction. It changes from curved to straight on the X and Y axes, and there is a considerable rotation on the Z-axis. This could put a lot of tension and compression on the spine, not only damaging the fragile spinal cord, but also causing blood vessels to twist and cause thrombosis, leading to ischemic spinal cord injury.¡± Professor Lloyd, the first one to thaw out, voiced his concern. August¡¯s interpretation was very timely. Yang Ping answered, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. I¡¯ve done extensive research in this area. The correlation rule between spinal cord deformation and blood circulation during spinal correction is already clear to me. My methods of loosening and osteotomy abide by these rules, reducing the negative impact to a minimum. The spinal cord injury you¡¯re worried about won¡¯t happen.¡± The Chinese professor really has remained calm and didn¡¯t say much. The mere mention of ¡®80%¡¯ casually had already been a blow to the top doctors. Now, he speaks with such confidence and indifference that there wouldn¡¯t be any spinal cord injury. Despite a decade or more of research in the field of spinal surgery in the United States and Europe, no method has been found to predict spinal cord injury except for relying on somatosensory evoked potential monitoring. But somatosensory evoked potential monitoring is often a case of hindsight. By the time abnormal signals are detected, sometimes the spinal cord has already been damaged. Professor Lloyd has this illusion, feeling as if he¡¯s not conversing with a colleague from the same world. There¡¯s one more person with whom Professor Lloyd feels this way, and that¡¯s Manstein from Charite? Medical School. This godlike guy is a renowned surgeon in trauma, tumor, neurology, cardiac, hepatobiliary, and plastic surgery fields, and more importantly, a Nobel laureate in medicine. When talking with him, his eyes always give a sense of looking down on everything, as if no matter how difficult the problem others think it is, he always says, ¡°Oh, this is easy.¡± Now Lloyd feels that this Chinese man¡¯s eyes do not belittle everything but instead seem to disregard it all. If these two were to converse, what a peculiar scene it would be¡ªLloyd suddenly had this whimsical thought. ¡°I assume Professor Yang has spent quite a bit of time researching this artificial thorax to have designed it so ingeniously?¡± Constantin was most interested in several diagrams of the heart and chest. Chapter 678 - 678 607 Eighty Percent Confidence_2 ?Chapter 678: Chapter 607: Eighty Percent Confidence_2 Chapter 678: Chapter 607: Eighty Percent Confidence_2 Because the design of the artificial thoracic cage is very subtle, it is combined with a skin expander. After implantation, it first acquires a certain space to relieve the pressure on the heart, then gradually expands with respiration progressively until it reaches the volume of a normal thoracic cage. During this process, the skin also expands accordingly, solving the problem of insufficient skin coverage. However, this is not enough. In order to protect the vasculature, the artificial thoracic cage is implanted in a loose manner, without disrupting the blood supply. The skin is incised, the rib periosteum is cut open, then stripped underneath. Each rib is removed one by one, to then implant the artificial rib, and suture the periosteum to encase it. Subsequently, the artificial ribs are interconnected, connected to the sternum, and the residual posterior ribs. This sophisticated prosthesis takes three to five years to design, at the least. Constantine concluded that the Chinese professor must have accumulated three to five years of experience in this area. ¡°My original plan didn¡¯t involve doing this, it was to use new technology, combine a fixation frame with Ilizarov principles, to correct the spine and thoracic cage simultaneously. However, due to the patient¡¯s emergency, the correction had to be done urgently, while the fatal flaw of the new technology is the slow correction process. Therefore, we had no choice but to use a backup plan. These methods were conceived of just a week ago, some even decided before boarding the plane,¡± Yang Ping still spoke in his calm tone. Constantine didn¡¯t know how to proceed with his questions. As a cardiovascular surgeon, having participated in the design of an artificial heart, he understood very well the technical content and difficulty in developing such a thoracic prosthesis. Two exchanges of questions brought the atmosphere in the room down to freezing point again. The people around felt the temperature suddenly drop, asking questions seemed to have become a heavy burden. ¡°The father of Gothenburg has been waiting outside for a long time, he wishes to meet with the visiting Chinese professor.¡± A doctor walked in and whispered into August¡¯s ear. As soon as August and Yang Ping landed, they rushed directly to the ward, followed by a pre-surgery discussion, and forgot to meet with the Duke. Leaving the bigwigs in the office staring blankly, August took his mentor to the meeting room next to the doctors¡¯ office to meet the old Duke. The old Duke handed his cane to the butler, leaned across the long table, and briskly shook Yang Ping¡¯s hand, ¡°Honored professor, I¡¯m counting on you, thank you!¡± Ever since August told the Duke the thrilling news, the Duke had been eager to meet the Chinese doctor who was now standing in front of him, looking so young. Yang Ping looked at this old man, it was hard to tell, this thin old man was the head of one of Europe¡¯s super financial groups, he looked like a retired college professor. ¡°Don¡¯t mention it, it¡¯s our duty to heal the sick and save lives,¡± Yang Ping humbly replied, it was their vocation. Yang Ping always liked to use this phrase in response to patients¡¯ or their families¡¯ gratitude. ¡°Mr. Manstein predicted that my poor child would not live past thirty. Over the years, his condition has developed exactly as Manstein predicted. As he said, the heart finally collapsed. This has happened twice, and both times it was a close call. This time, I fear there might not be any way out, but God is merciful and led us to you,¡± the old Duke sat down, tears flowing with age, wiping his tears from time to time with his handkerchief. ¡°My friend, you don¡¯t need to be too heartbroken, seated in front of you is the world¡¯s top-notch doctor. Being heartbroken will only make you lose your decision-making ability. Let us discuss together how to help your child overcome this difficult time. We need your support and confidence right now,¡± August comforted his friend. ¡°I will do everything I can to support you, I entrust my child to you. Bring out the agreement for signing, friend. Everything is God¡¯s arrangement. In any case, I beseech you, honorable Chinese professor, on behalf of my entire family, save him,¡± the old Duke was a little incoherent, reaching out to grab his cane with shaking hands. ¡°I will do my utmost,¡± Yang Ping replied with certainty. The old Duke nodded, ¡°Please forgive me, I am a little out of sorts, for I love this child so much. He lost his mother when he was a teenager, I have failed in my duties as a father. I once thought I could help him, but I haven¡¯t been able to. Watching him gasp for breath in his wheelchair, I feel as if my heart is being ripped apart. If I could, I would be willing to endure the suffering instead. Now, his life depends on a few tubes, it¡¯s so pitiful¨C¡± ¡°My friend, take care of yourself, stay alert, and there are many decisions we need to make together. For example, signing for the emergency surgery right now,¡± August solemnly reminded his friend to stay in shape. Seeing his friend in good condition, August, who knew him very well, had Marcus bring the documents for the signature, and let the friend sign it in person. The old Duke put away his handkerchief, regaining his composure, and began to carefully review the document before signing his name with earnestness. ¡°Mr. Manstein should be here by now, but he¡¯s on vacation in Iceland.¡± After having mentioned Manstein¡¯s name multiple times, August introduced to his mentor this legendary figure. This eccentric scientist who currently focused meticulously on the research on the connection of the spinal cord and nervous bundles, specifically, the process of reconnecting them after their dissection, achieving functional restoration. No one knows why he has such a fascination for this field, as he has abandoned all other research to concentrate on this one. Not only is Manstein a member of the German Academy of Sciences, but he is also a member of many European academies, including the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He¡¯s a legend in Europe. However, this man has a flaw, his fondness of sensuality, leading to disarray in his private life. He is presumably now on a beach in Iceland, holding a model. ¡°It was he who opined that the heart would age prematurely under constant pressure, and determined through calculations, that the young Duke may exhaust his heart¡¯s potential before he turns thirty, facing endangerment of life. Moreover, he predicted that spinal correction could lead to high-level paralysis, resulting in respiratory paralysis. Palliative treatment involves thoracic correction to create space for the heart, but he could not ascertain if the heart would stop beating due to overuse once the pressure is reduced, therefore he has not laid out further plans,¡± August elaborated about this legendary figure after the old Duke left. ¡°Later, he proposed to conduct thoracic correction as well as replace the original heart with an artificial one to avoid possible postoperative exhaustion. Then, a heterologous heart transplantation would be carried out. However, given his obsession with the research on spinal nerve injury connection, he didn¡¯t propose a concrete surgical plan after coming up with these suggestions,¡± August knew, that man tends to forget things easily. He might very well forget a promise he made today by tomorrow. Yang Ping had heard of this highly respected figure from Charite? Hospital and some gossip concerning him. After dabbling in various specialties, he wrote a ton of books, published numerous papers, and casually won a Nobel Prize. He¡¯s a legend in the medical community. ¡ª¡ª After the medical orders for the emergency surgery were issued, both the ward and operating room became busy. August stayed with Yang Ping in the office for a break. They didn¡¯t have to enter the operating room till the patient was being moved in. The other professors also quietly stayed with Yang Ping, waiting for the patient to be moved into the operating room. The entire office was hushed, no one spoke, nor whispered amongst themselves. To ensure surgical safety, the ECMO team was also brought into the operating room to assist the anesthesiologist with managing the patient¡¯s vitals. All the customized equipment had been sterilized, packed, and were ready in the operating room. The level of care that German doctors put into their equipment surpasses that of doctors from any other country. For a single surgery, they often prepare several sets of equipment. Sometimes a surgery might only require a few pieces of equipment, but they would prepare dozens, even hundreds of pieces, just to be prepared. ¡°Markus, make sure the scrub nurse prepares two sets,¡± being afraid that Markus might forget, August reminded him again. ¡°Two sets have been prepared, don¡¯t worry,¡± Markus was reliable. With the speed August operated at when in China, a single scrub nurse probably couldn¡¯t keep up unless it was his own specialist scrub nurse. Two should be able to keep pace with the professor. Chapter 679 - 679 608 Escape from Underwater ?Chapter 679: Chapter 608: Escape from Underwater Chapter 679: Chapter 608: Escape from Underwater The young Duke of Gothenburg had already been taken to the operating room, and Yang Ping was about to make his way there as well. The bigwigs present think of something highly important. Today¡¯s pre-operative discussion, as it was an imprompteau meeting, one vital person was not present, it seems he falls off the radar whenever he goes on vacation, making it impossible to contact him. That would be the legendary figure of Charite? Hospital, Professor Mainshtan. Although half of Germany¡¯s Nobel Prize winners in Medicine and Physiology come from Charite? Medical School and Hospital, the Nobel Prize isn¡¯t a rarity. However, this professor stands out due to his arrogant nature and his ongoing achievements in multiple fields. ¡°Professor Manstein once proposed the classic phenomenon of consumption about Gothenburg¡¯s condition, I think Professor Yang needs to have a listen.¡± Professor Lloyd is not trying to provoke, but as a team member, reminding others is his duty. Professor Yang¡¯s surgical plan does not mention the phenomenon of consumption, perhaps he was unaware of such a deadly risk. ¡°Please, be quick about it, we¡¯re running short on time!¡± August urged, since the young Duke had already entered the operating room; August needed to get Yang Ping there rapidly. Professor Lloyd cleared his throat, ¡°The so-called phenomenon of consumption, Gothenburg¡¯s heart and large blood vessels have been under pressure for a while. Due to the heart being compressed, both its contractions and its expansions are inadequate, and the compression of the blood vessels leads to insufficient blood return to the heart. The output pressure becomes too considerable, gradually the heart becomes adapted to this low consumption status, but now suddenly relieving the pressure, the heart is liberated, and it can contract and expand as it pleases. The returned blood volume suddenly increases, consequently, the output load increases further. Initially, the pitiful reserve capacity is rapidly consumed under this high consumption state, and the heart could enter a stage of fatigue-induced arrest.¡± This legendary figure¡¯s prediction of the condition is much more profound than all the VIPs present, as he can understand the illness holistically from different perspectives. To be able to propose a consumption phenomenon suggests he has grasped the essence of this case, whereas others have not. Indeed, the Duke of Gothenburg¡¯s heart will traverse a deadly path if the pressure isn¡¯t reduced, and it remains a deadly path even when it¡¯s reduced. It¡¯s like being starved to death when not eating, but being bursting to death when eating. It¡¯s just like that. Yang Ping had already contemplated this possibility, thus he designed the gradually expanding artificial thoracic prosthetics. These intricate prosthetics are not only meant for skin expansion. More importantly, it¡¯s devised for overcoming the heart¡¯s consumption phenomenon. The space formed by the artificial thoracic prosthetic doesn¡¯t expand all at once but enlarges bit by bit, hence the compression of the heart is relieved gradually. This gradual expansion gives the heart a period to adjust. Moreover, the rate of this pressure reduction process needs to be just right, neither too quick nor too slow. Just how quick or slow it should be is what countless trial and error research would provide data for. Therefore, Professor Mainshtan raised the question, but he can¡¯t solve the problem, but Yang Ping can. ¡°My designed thoracic prosthetics can avoid the consumption phenomenon, the impact of all consumption phenomena on the surgery can be dismissed.¡± Yang Ping tried to simplify the problem as much as possible. The patient is currently lying on the operating table waiting for his life to be saved, there is no time for further in-depth academic communication. Lloyd glanced at Professor William, then looked at the others. Could the death cycle¡ªconsumption phenomenon, predicted by Professor Mainshtan, be avoided under his care? Even Mainshtan himself hasn¡¯t found a solution to avoid it, can he? ¡°Should we try to contact Professor Mainshtan again?¡± Someone suggested. Although Mainshtan isn¡¯t the chief physician of the young Duke¡¯s medical team, he¡¯s an important consultant. ¡°No need!¡± August decided. Why would they contact him now? The patient is already lying on the operating table. With a mentor backing him, August also turned down this formidable character with confidence. August is the person in charge of the young Duke¡¯s medical care, since August has spoken, thus the matter is resolved, and no one raises it again. However, everyone¡¯s still a bit uneasy. While this young Chinese professor indeed seems capable, Mainshtan is a Nobel Prize winner. The difficulties he outlined, can they actually be resolved so easily by a Chinese man? ¡ª In the operating room, Markus has already arrived in advance. Along with junior doctors and a positioning technician, he helps position the young Duke. The Duke can¡¯t lie prone or supine and can only barely lie on his side. Performing spinal orthopedic surgery in a lateral position is extremely difficult for the doctors, especially in the bone-cutting stage where there is absolutely no space and sense of positioning. No one would perform a spinal orthopedic surgery in a lateral position. Besides, performing endoscopic surgery in the abdominal and thoracic cavities in a lateral position is also extremely difficult. After general anesthesia, the young Duke was put in a lateral position with the help of a special positioning fixture. Even the anesthesiologist frowned. For this deformed patient, whether it¡¯s front, back, or side access surgery, the operation would be extremely challenging. Just looking at the situation was giving people a headache, creating a feeling of not knowing where to start. Two instrument nurses were prepared, as well as two patrolling nurses, all were experienced nurses in their forties. The anesthesiologist is August¡¯s personal anesthetist. The first assistant was August himself, and the second assistant was Markus. It could be said that August had prepared the strongest team in Harald to assist Yang Ping. Chapter 680 - 680 608 Escape from Underwater_2 ?Chapter 680: Chapter 608: Escape from Underwater_2 Chapter 680: Chapter 608: Escape from Underwater_2 Music, Markus thought of August¡¯s instructions. The guzheng version of High Mountain Flowing Waters, which August had specifically brought from China, was loaded into the CD player. After a quick adjustment, he instructed the patrolling nurse to begin playing the music once the chief surgeon completed the preoperative verification. The Harald Orthopedic Hospital in Munich has a history of over a hundred years and is one of the world¡¯s leading orthopedic specialist hospitals. At this moment, they were initiating the operation. They had never thought that the little duke would be on the operating table so quickly. August and Yang Ping, donned with sterile caps and masks, wearing blue scrub gowns, walked into the operating room. Yang Ping stood in front of the light box, performing the final film reading before the operation. This was a habit. Regardless of how familiar he was with the case, Yang Ping always insisted on performing a final reading of the films in the operating room. The operating room was very spacious. Several instrument tables were spread out in an L-shape, and even with numerous equipment and devices such as ECMO, navigation equipment, it didn¡¯t appear crowded. The tall and robust German nursetransitioned freely in the operating room. August was by Yang Ping¡¯s side, but the moment he faced someone else, he immediately regained his habitual majesty, issuing orders in the operating room. This was his territory, where he held absolute authority. With patient positioning done correctly, everyone scrubbed in, disinfected, and covered the surgical area. The operation unfolded naturally. ¡ª Surprisingly, they performed the operation in a lateral position, which everyone had not expected. But upon further thought, it seemed that aside from the lateral position, there was no other suitable positioning because the little duke¡¯s deformed body could not assume any position other than lateral. The meeting room in the operating suite was filled with people. A dozen high-ranking doctors huddled at the front, shadows of anxiety clouding their minds, giving them a suffocating feeling. A lateral position, severe body deformation, how would the surgery proceed? As if the surgery had no space or time to unfold, this feeling filled them with unease, restlessness, and heaviness. After the preoperative verification, the music of High Mountain Flowing Waters began, and Yang Ping started the surgery. He cut into the skin and fascia in the center of the patient¡¯s lower back, then separated the muscles from both sides of the spine using an electric knife. He was in no hurry. His first step was to perform posterior surgery, implanting the pedicle screws. Although navigation assistance was available, implanting screws in this spiral spine was still a high-risk operation. When everyone originally thought implanting screws in the lateral position would be extremely difficult, they saw Yang Ping sitting on a stool, facing the little duke¡¯s lower back, Markus idle on the opposite side, and August assisting Yang Ping on the same side. An automatic retractor was used for exposure of the surgical field. Even the high-definition camera found it a bit challenging to see the lateral position surgery clearly. However, Yang Ping kept repeating the steps: creating an opening, implanting the guide needle. Tens of guide needles were implanted before everyone could react. Under the guidance device, their positioning was very good and then the same operations were repeated: creating an opening, screwing in the screws. Within just a few minutes, tens of screws were successfully implanted. This set of instruments was designed by Yang Ping and manufactured with the help of Markus. Once the screws were in, Yang Ping connected them with a temporary external fixation frame, locking all the joints, then began the posterior osteotomy. The ultrasonic bone cutter began to work amid noise. Osteotomy was usually a high-risk task, but it was surprisingly easy in Yang Ping¡¯s hands. The nature of the entire operation seemed to have changed, and the atmosphere on the scene went from highly tense to relaxed, because, watching him, everyone felt like they were performing a minor operation. It wasn¡¯t as terrifying as they thought. The primary steps of the posterior approach were complete. Now, the anterior release began. The lateral position made switching between the front and back of the surgery effortless, with no need to change the patient¡¯s position. The surgery was so swift that the two instrument nurses found it difficult to keep up with the rhythm. Yang Ping and August moved to the other side. They connected thoracoscopy, laparoscopy, and all kinds of circuitry and tubing. With the support of ECMO, Yang Ping instructed the anesthesiologist to alternatively collapse the lungs on both sides, making room for the operation. When the thoracoscope was inserted into the chest cavity, the narrow space inside was filled with no visible workspace. Something filled the area around the lens, there was no visual operating space at all. Yang Ping¡¯s separating forceps pushed the tissue forward bit by bit until it reached the anterior side of the thoracic spine. Yang Ping handed the forceps to August. His job was to hold this forceps, block the surrounding tissue, and create a small gap to perform the surgery. This gap was barely sufficient. Watching the surgery on the screen, Professor Lloyd couldn¡¯t help but feel numb in his scalp, because this kind of surgery was like a magician escaping underwater. This magic trick involved immobilizing a person¡¯s limbs, locking them in an iron cage, and then sinking the person and the cage underwater. All watched with bated breath as the magician achieved an impossible escape, a sense of suffocation, desperation, and stimulation exactly like now. This malformed chest, there was hardly any gap to manipulate the thoracoscope and tools in the chest cavity. Yet Yang Ping boldly created a near-gap space with a pair of dissecting forceps, and another electric knife under magnifying view began to separate and loosen the soft tissue in front of the thoracic spine. After loosening, a long endoscopic ultrasonic osteotome was extended into the sheath tube. What was he doing? Professors Lloyd, William, and Rambo all widened their eyes simultaneously. He was using the endoscopic ultrasonic osteotome to cut bones from the front. Could it be? He used a temporary external fixator to stabilize the spine, cut the bone from the posterior approach, and cut the bone minimally invasively under endoscopic guidance from the anterior approach. After the bone was cut by the combined anterior and posterior approaches, the spine was corrected using the external fixator, and finally the rod-screw system was locked, the temporary external fixator was removed, and the surgery was completed! Sure enough, the ultrasonic osteotome was used to cut the vertebrae from the front under thoracoscope. As the ultrasonic osteotome vibrated, a wedge-shaped cut was made on the vertebrae, and then the excess bone was bitten off and removed. The irritable Professor Lloyd slapped his thigh, this was genius! To use an external fixator in this way. In this way, the bone could be cut corresponding to the spine¡¯s stability without worrying about the interference of the spine¡¯s own gravity on the cut, simplifying the entire surgery. And he can actually use the thoracoscope in such a narrow space. Even Constantin, a cardiac surgeon, might feel inferior. What was next? Cut the ribs! Yes, he guessed right, this surgery was really interesting, almost impossible, suffocating, yet it looked so relaxed. One by one, the ribs were separated, cut off, and removed, then artificial ribs were inserted. Twenty-four ribs in twelve pairs, except for a few centimeters left for securing the artificial ribs, all the rest were cut off and removed. The procedure was delicate and clear, after each rib¡¯s periosteum was opened, it was completely peeled off, revealing a shiny rib. Artificial ribs were placed into the periosteum, and then sutured. When replacing the titanium plate in the anterior chest area, August held the heart, because the patient was in a lateral position, there was nothing obstructing the heart, it could roll out of the chest cavity due to gravity. After every few ribs were cutoff, a few artificial ribs were placed, until all twenty-four ribs were completely replaced. Twenty-four artificial ribs, connected to the remaining ribs before and after, were then bridged to each other to form a sturdy artificial chest. This was really daring? The patient¡¯s life depended on ECMO, and he still dared to perform this kind of surgery. All the big names watching the demonstration video were stunned. The Chinese professor had guts, but he had superb surgical skills to realize such daring plans. Just that thoracoscopic soft tissue loosening and bone cutting, probably no one present could do it. After the surgery on the thoracic spine and chest had finished, Yang Ping focused on the lumbar surgery, using laparoscopy, and just as with the thoracic spine, endoscopically relaxing and cutting the bone. After the anterior and posterior combined bone sections were completed, and the chest had finished being replaced with the prosthesis, the surgery had reached this point with not much blood loss. Besides the inevitable blood loss from the cancellous bone during osteotomy, other bleeding was minimal. Preparations complete, Yang Ping, along with August, returned to the lumbar and dorsal surgical area. He carefully adjusted the external fixator, rearranged the severed vertebrae, and one hand watched the screen of the somatosensory evoked potential monitor while adjusting the external fixator with the other hand, being extremely careful. Gradually, bit by bit, the spine was adjusted. ¡°Rod in!¡± Yang Ping began to install the fixation rod, then locked it, and removed the temporary external fixator from the spine. ¡°Fluoroscopy!¡± Navigation equipment can reconstruct a three-dimensional image of the spine, he was very satisfied. Chapter 681 - 681 609 What Kind of Look is That in Your Eyes ?Chapter 681: Chapter 609: What Kind of Look is That in Your Eyes? Chapter 681: Chapter 609: What Kind of Look is That in Your Eyes? The melodious tones of the guzheng, playing the traditional piece ¡®High Mountain Flowing Waters,¡¯ filled the operating room, uplifting everyone¡¯s spirits. August and Markus sutured the skin with concentration, while the spine¡¯s 3D reconstruction remained visible on the navigation screen. The helical spine had been corrected in the opposite anti-helical direction. Articulated joints were securely fixed, with anterior locking plates and posterior pedicle screw systems providing strong stabilization, all in anticipation of future bone fusion. The skeletal shape formed by the titanium prosthetic ribs was particularly conspicuous. The anterior and posterior of the first to seventh prosthetic ribs connected to the remaining ribs at the sternum and spinal ends. The connecting points had a microporous coating, similar to prosthetic joints, and were expected to form biological fixes with the ribs. The eighth to twelfth ribs, including the tenth and twelfth floating ribs, remained connected to the remaining ribs at the posterior but were interconnected at the anterior, forming a single entity. ¡°There may be some bleeding from the marrow post-surgery. We¡¯ll need to keep monitoring the red cell count, hematocrit, and hemoglobin, and administer a transfusion if necessary,¡± Professor Yang gave August some standard postoperative instructions. ¡°We have 12 units of red cells available for a transfusion, so we¡¯re prepared.¡± August spoke as he stitched up the long incision on the Duke¡¯s back. Meanwhile, a few tiny incisions on the chest and abdomen, including the 3cm incision used for the anterior plate implant, also needed suturing. The anesthesiologist sat bewildered at the head of the patient. Was the surgery already over? He had prepared to utilize his lifetime of experience to tackle this operation and had anticipated the worst. But the surgery was seemingly complete before he could even employ his expertise. Having witnessed many scoliosis surgeries, the anesthesiologist was not only impressed by the completion of the surgery but also by the aesthetics of the on-screen images. The surgery had taken just over two hours. It was speedy for a procedure that had been prepared for over twenty years. The two scrub nurses appreciated the complexity of the surgery. They both felt that despite pushing their cognitive and physical limits, they were still struggling to keep pace. It was exhausting! The helical spine had been straightened and the Duke¡¯s body realigned. The distorted state of his back had disappeared, revealing a normally curved lumbar area. The anterior chest wall still appeared similar to its original state, contradicting the normal appearance of the back. However, over time, the chest wall would gradually expand. By blowing up balloons, the Duke could not only exercise his lung functions, tapping into the potential of previously underutilized lung tissue, but also use the power of the respirator to induce a slight expansion of the artificial thorax. Gradually, it would normalize. Genius! Lloyd, known for his temper, spat out this word in German. The surgery was not an emergency procedure but a mature plan developed over several years and many solved problems. Having every detail meticulously considered suggests innumerable rounds of research, and it was not something that could be realized in an emergency state. Could it be that August had been a disciple of this Chinese professor for over a decade, secretly studying the Duke¡¯s condition alongside him? This seemed like the only logical explanation. However, if that were true, the Chinese professor seemed surprisingly young. The Duke was not yet awake, as the anaesthetic dosage might have been slightly high. From the intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring device, no abnormal wave patterns appeared during the surgery. Still, Professor Yang thought that the most reliable postoperative tests would come from examining limb sensation and muscle strength. Professor Yang waited for the Duke to come out of anesthesia, which put enormous pressure on the anesthesiologist. The metaphorical mountain that had plagued the Duke for over twenty years was removed today. As the operating room doors opened, the old Duke, leaning on his cane, appeared. August stood at the entrance and said nothing; he only opened his arms to embrace his friend. ¡°The surgery went smoothly. He¡¯s doing well.¡± ¡°Oh! Thank God! And thanks to Professor Yang and you!¡± The old Duke was so moved that he shed tears of joy. The negative emotions that had welled up in his heart for over twenty years were suddenly dispelled. For over twenty years, he had been trying to use financial resources to make a change, yet his efforts had been in vain. ¡°Thank you!¡± The old Duke held on tightly for a long time. Without August¡¯s recommendation, his son would not have been saved by this Chinese doctor. ¡°Where is the Chinese professor? I want to thank him personally!¡± ¡°He¡¯s still in the operating room. When he comes out, don¡¯t embrace him; he doesn¡¯t like men hugging him. Shake his hand firmly and hold it a bit longer.¡± ¡°I know, in the Chinese way.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Once the Duke woke from anesthesia and was ready for examination, Professor Yang personally checked his limb sensations and muscle strength. Everything seemed normal. He can be taken back to his ward now! Professor Yang took off his gloves and threw them into the trash. The navigation screen showed the images of the spine and thorax. If a person is imaginative, can put that imagination into practice, they have infinite creativity. The mentor before him was such a man. To August, the mentor was still so young, and his achievements would undoubtedly surpass those of Manstein. Therefore, in August¡¯s heart, Professor Yang had become a symbol of faith. ¡°Ensure he wears a custom brace post-surgery for approximately three months.¡± The engineers in Harald Orthopedic Hospital¡¯s brace room would measure the size and create a satisfactory brace for the Duke¡¯s spine within 24 hours post-surgery. For a severely malformed spine like this, some parts of the osteotomy involved severing an entire vertebra. Therefore, the stability was poor. Despite the combined anterior and posterior fixation, considering the Duke¡¯s long-term wheelchair use and poor bone quality, there might be a risk of screw loosening. The brace protection is thus more secure. Chapter 682 - 682 609 What is that look in your eyes_2 ?Chapter 682: Chapter 609 What is that look in your eyes_2 Chapter 682: Chapter 609 What is that look in your eyes_2 After the bone cutting site fused, the entire spine achieved stability on its own, only then could the support be removed. ¡ª Each surgery is like a magic show. A dozen or so of Germany¡¯s orthopedic experts, watched as the Chinese professor successfully performed a seemingly impossible surgery. The difficulties and dangers everyone worried about beforehand were nonexistent. It¡¯s like a magician being tied up and sunk underwater, the audience holding their breath, fearing that they would witness the magician fail to escape and drown. However, the magician does manage to escape, with the audience left in suspense, while they remain composed. If the surgery had been completed amid many setbacks and difficulties, everyone would have been able to accept it. Yet, it was finished smoothly and without ripples. They were left feeling hollow, after more than ten years of hard work, discussions, and waiting; the issue had been resolved in just over two hours. There¡¯s definitely no issue with the orthopedic correction, it has exceeded expectations ¨C it could be considered perfect. Now, the concern would be the sensation and muscle strength in the limbs, and whether there is spinal cord damage. Whether it¡¯s Professor William, Professor Lloyd, Professor Rambo, or any other professors. They all felt a sense of emptiness. For many years, they had often gathered to discuss the Duke¡¯s condition, and they gathered today, expecting to experience an earth-shattering, epoch-making surgery. But nothing happened. It was as routine as their everyday surgeries, plain and uneventful. ¡°Shall we return to the ward?¡± Professor Lloyd suggested, everyone¡¯s heads were still buzzing. Truth be told, because the patient was in a lateral position, the camera¡¯s view of the surgical area wasn¡¯t great, and they didn¡¯t get a clear view of how the surgery was completed. Additionally, when the thoracoscopy and laparoscopy were performed to decompress the bone cutting area, the anatomy under the scope was different from what they usually knew, and all they could see was a vast area obscured by various tissues. When performing minimally invasive surgery under the microscope, if bleeding causes the lens to only see red, it¡¯s called a ¡°red blindness¡±. This situation with no operating space and surrounded by unknown tissues obstructing the view is sometimes referred to as white blindness. In short, the experts didn¡¯t fully understand the whole process, they only saw the electric knife and ultrasonic bone knife operating inside, but they didn¡¯t know what the target was or what was being done in detail. If the experts present were to do it, even if their laparoscopic skills were very proficient, they would have difficulty completing the operation just witnessed. As Professor Yang moved back and forth in front of and behind the patient, adjusting the spine after bone-cutting, no one understood how this was done. This kind of adjustment is very demanding on the chief surgeon¡¯s senses, especially spatial imagination. With so many screws, they can¡¯t just tighten all the screws in order. Instead, the screws are gradually tightened a little bit at a time, in a particular sequence. This isn¡¯t done randomly. In this way, while the adjustment is successful, all the screws are tightened. The technical details of this surgery, like Microsoft¡¯s windows system, seem simple on the surface, just graphical operation. But behind this simplicity lays the combination of tens of millions, if not billions of lines of programming language. ¡°The patient¡¯s postoperative limb sensation and muscle strength are normal, and the patient has already been sent back to the ward!¡± Professor William reported the latest information obtained. That indicates that the surgery has been successful. Whether there will be spinal cord and nerve injuries in the second phase remains to be seen, but at least for now, it is successful. No one else present could achieve what has been done at this point. Correcting the spiral spine, several bone cuts were fully cut, and then the vertebrae were rotated along the axis to correct the axial rotation deformity. This is the most dangerous procedure and the step that has stumped all the doctors. Usually, for scoliosis correction, whether it¡¯s the left-right curvature of idiopathic scoliosis or the anterior-posterior folding of ankylosing spondylitis, the correction mainly occurs within a single plane. Even if there are operations within a three-dimensional space, they are minor. Only in the case of a full cut, for rotation and alignment, does it become most terrifying. Like a casual walk around the neighborhood, it is incomparable to a real marathon. ¡°In just over two hours, in a mere two hours, he has solved a problem we haven¡¯t been able to resolve for more than ten years.¡± Professor Lloyd laughed bitterly. Professor William didn¡¯t say anything. Professor Rambo looked unhappy. He blamed Lloyd inwardly, there was no need to keep bringing up the obvious, what everyone already knew. ¡°August must have known this Chinese professor for a while. They¡¯ve probably been collaborating in secret for many years because of some reason.¡± Professor William speculated. Back when he was at Charite? Hospital, August completed his specialist training under William. Now recognizing another as his mentor, William did feel a bit discomfited. But the Germans don¡¯t take these personal matters to heart, and it wasn¡¯t a big deal ¨C this pang of jealousy was fleeting. ¡°I checked. This Chinese professor¡¯s papers are concentrated in the past year, which means he isn¡¯t as old as we thought.¡± Lloyd always wanted to figure out the person¡¯s age. Just like how Chinese people are inaccurate in judging the age of foreigners based on their appearance, foreigners are also inaccurate in judging the age of the Chinese. Regardless, he should be in his forties, right? Him achieving so much in his forties is already exceptional. Professor Lloyd speculated. ¡°What about Manstein? Any contact?¡± Professor William asked. Manstein has a good relationship with Lloyd and they usually stay in touch. ¡°No, I heard he is on vacation in Iceland. I wonder what his reaction would be when he returns and hears that the Duke has successfully had surgery?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. He is an imaginative character, always surprising others. This time, let¡¯s give him a surprise.¡± Chapter 683 - 683 609 Whats with that look in your eyes_3 ?Chapter 683: Chapter 609: What¡¯s with that look in your eyes?_3 Chapter 683: Chapter 609: What¡¯s with that look in your eyes?_3 ¡°From a deep study of the disease, to the formulation of the surgical plan, to the design of the instruments, everything is very mature. I am sure that for the little Duke, he must have had a team behind him studying for a long time. No one would be indifferent to one billion Euros, just like you and me.¡± The operation on the Duke¡¯s son had been rewarded with one billion Euros from the Duke¡¯s foundation fund. ¡°Leaving aside everything else, just consider this artificial thoracic cage, designed to be movable, it does not expand during normal breathing. It needs to be expanded by inflating a balloon, expand by a maximum of one millimeter a day, and the expansion is irreparable. This kind of design isn¡¯t something that can be done in a short amount of time.¡± Lloyd had carefully analyzed each detail of Yang Ping¡¯s surgical plan. ¡°Moreover, his external spinal fixation frame really is an innovative lead in technology. If it weren¡¯t for an emergency, Gothenburg wouldn¡¯t need to need fusion by using the external fixation frame technology. Why was this man unknown before and only had a few articles on top journals?¡± Lloyd felt that a person like this should have a high reputation in the industry. How could he not know of him? It appears that August has more connections than them, being able to be the chairman of the Orthopedic Association is well-deserved recognition. ¡°Shall we go back to the ward?¡± Lloyd suggested. Because everyone sitting here seemed to have no intention of leaving. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go back to the ward and check on Gothenburg.¡± Germany¡¯s strongest forces in orthopedics, a dozen big names stood up as someone did. They all headed to the VIP ward, where Gothenburg was already lying on the bed in the emergency ward with the ECMO machine running steadily, substituting for his cardiopulmonary functions, circulating his blood throughout the body, nurturing every cell. Gothenburg had successfully completed surgery in just under three hours. The old Duke stood by the bedside, leaning on his cane. In fact, his body wasn¡¯t in a bad condition, he didn¡¯t need the cane. It was probably some sort of prop for people like him. At this moment, the head of Europe¡¯s largest financial group was a bit disbelieving, thinking he was dreaming. This period was full of twists and turns. First, August brought him the good news that a Chinese doctor could treat Gothenburg¡¯s illness, but after August went to China and everyone was delightedly awaiting the arrival of the Chinese doctor to treat Gothenburg with a new technique, Gothenburg had an accident. His heart totally collapsed, rendering the new technique useless and hope was shattered once again. Unexpectedly, through traditional surgery, the Chinese doctor was still able to complete the operation. This kind of alternating sorrow and joy was extremely brutal to one¡¯s spirit. The old Duke was looking bewildered and exhausted now, somewhat unable to accept the reality before him. ¡°He¡¯s alright now. If everything goes smoothly, he can remove the support in three months, and like a normal person, stand up and walk. Plus, by that time his sunken chest will have expanded, and he¡¯ll have a real man¡¯s chest.¡± Seeing his friend¡¯s bewildered eyes, August thought he must have been overtaken by joy, his excitment hadn¡¯t yet subsided. ¡°August, we have something to confirm with you.¡± Professor William personally came to invite August. Only Professor William could summon August in his current state. August followed Professor William to the Orthopedic conference room. Sitting straight were a dozen big names, giving August a shock. What did this mean? The door was closed. ¡°Please, sit!¡± Professor William was very polite. August carefully sat down, ¡°Gentlemen?¡± ¡°We have a very private question to ask you. About Professor Yang, you must answer truthfully.¡± Professer William was very serious. ¡°?¡± August didn¡¯t know what happened, the atmoshpere was so serious. After a while, encouraged by everyone¡¯s gaze, Professor William asked: ¡°How old is your mentor?¡± With such a grand set-up, August was expecting these men wanted to destroy him on behalf of Germany, and let out a sigh of relief, saying: ¡°Twenty-eight!¡± Twenty-eight? All the big names in the room were instantly petrified. ¡°I thought he was at least forty?¡± Professor Lloyd¡¯s hoarse voice. Forty? My mentor is young and handsome, how could he possibly look forty? What kind of vision do you have? If August was not well-mannered, he would have started swearing. Chapter 684 - 684 610 He Only Speaks Chinese ?Chapter 684: Chapter 610: He Only Speaks Chinese Chapter 684: Chapter 610: He Only Speaks Chinese To have such accomplishments before the age of thirty, what an incredible talent. Lloyd thought that Professor Yang had some secret to youthful looks, appearing so young, but he was actually only in his twenties. The hearts of the petrified professors were filled with mixed feelings. A man under thirty, August¡¯s mentor, had solved a problem they had tried to solve for over a decade. No matter how one looked at it, they could not feel good about it. ¡°Is there anything else?¡± August looked at these colleagues, who looked as stiff as sculptures, and asked. Professor Yang on the other side was still waiting for him. ¡°Are you sure he is twenty-eight? I¡¯m sorry, though, we shouldn¡¯t ask such a private question.¡± Professor William¡¯s eyes seemed vacant. August nodded: ¡°Yes, absolutely sure.¡± ¡°Okay! If there¡¯s nothing else, you can go.¡± Professor William waved stiffly, indicating that August could leave. August left the meeting room in disbelief, the group of professors sat upright, just for this issue? They just wanted to ask Professor Yang¡¯s age, one that didn¡¯t seem to fit their style. Yang Ping was still by the bedside of the young duke, checking on the negative pressure drainage that had been placed before and after. The tubes were unobstructed, and the bloody fluid drained was not much, just a few milliliters, indicating that the bleeding was not heavy. The bone cut surface was tightly compressed, so the bleeding wasn¡¯t much, because in this type of surgery, the main source of bleeding is the cutting surface. The ECMO machine worked well, after a few days they could try to slowly wean off the ECMO bloodstream. ¡°Professor, do you want to take a break?¡± August asked respectfully. Yang Ping came to Harald¡¯s Orthopedics Hospital immediately after arriving, taking no time to rest. However, rest on the plane was better, and this kind of surgery, which might be a great challenge consuming mental and physical strength for others, wasn¡¯t a big deal for him. ¡°It¡¯s okay, just wait for them to finish the brace and bring it to me to see.¡± Yang Ping wasn¡¯t very tired. ¡°Once they are done, I will let them bring it to you, allowing you to see for yourself. Don¡¯t worry, let¡¯s go to the office and sit for a while.¡± August still persuaded Yang Ping to rest in his own office and have some tea. He had prepared some tea leaves and tea sets, all brought from China. The old Duke looked tired while the butler persuaded him to take a rest. He noticed that Professor Yang was still standing and hadn¡¯t sat down. He was very grateful to the Chinese professor and wanted to find time to talk with him about the Duke¡¯s Foundation. The Duke¡¯s Foundation would continue to support Professor Yang¡¯s research. But this wasn¡¯t the right time to talk about it, right after the surgery. It would make people feel as if the surgery was carried out with strong ulterior motives. It would be better to discuss this later, as August and the Chinese professor would stay in touch anyway. ¡°Thank you, I¡¯m very grateful!¡± The old Duke once again bowed in thanks, and Yang Ping slightly bent over in return. ¡°If nothing unexpected happens, and everything goes smoothly, he should be able to stand and walk in three months. Of course, he will still need physiotherapists to help him walk, increase his lower body muscle strength and strengthen his back muscles. He must also be careful with spine vascular embolism within five weeks after the surgery. The possibility is very small, but it must be taken seriously. As for nonunion of the cut bones, the probability is very small, and even if it happens, there are still ways to fix it in a second operation. Regarding the heart issues, I¡¯ve given a schedule for the expansion of the artificial rib cage. As long as he follows the schedule, he will surely be able to get through the critical period. Given the current state of his heart, he could last two or three more years. But with this kind of heart function, it¡¯s better to consider a heart transplant as soon as possible.¡± Yang Ping instructed August while also speaking to the old Duke. ¡°Gothenburg¡¯s disease should be caused by some sort of genetic mutation. This spiral spinal deformity is different from the other deformities we are familiar with. Dr. Ao, when you have time, you should do some research to understand it.¡± What Yang Ping said was all in Chinese, and only August and Markus could understand. Only after listening did August translate these for the old Duke and the others. Although the Duke did not understand Chinese, he felt that it was the most beautiful language in the world at this moment because the one who spoke in Chinese had solved the biggest problem of his life. ¡°Can he get married and have children in the future?¡± Right after asking, the Duke felt it was inappropriate to ask this question at this time, and seemed somewhat impatient. But he could not take back the question. Yang Ping thought for a while: ¡°Of course, but it¡¯s best to carry out sexual activities after a heart transplant because his current heart function is too poor and might not be able to support male orgasm. Even if it can, it would be very dangerous.¡± The great families in Europe actually take birth very seriously and also hope for many children to continue their lineage. In addition, they usually indulged in consanguineous marriages in the past to prevent their bloodline from being diluted. Yang Ping was not sure if the Duke¡¯s family had any cases of consanguineous marriage, but this spiral spine was certainly due to a gene problem, and it was very difficult for common pathogenic factors to create such a standardized spiral spine. ¡°Thank you!¡± Hearing that he can still get married and have children, the old Duke¡¯s expectation for his son grew once more. After monitoring for about half an hour and making sure there were no problems, Yang Ping followed August back to his office. The office had only August and Yang Ping. He didn¡¯t know when August had arranged a set of teapot and teacups made of purple clay. The whole setup looked legitimate, he washed the cups, arranged them, and poured the tea. August¡¯s movements were very proficient, as if he was an old tea enthusiast. Chapter 685 - 685 610 He Only Speaks Chinese_2 ?Chapter 685: Chapter 610: He Only Speaks Chinese_2 Chapter 685: Chapter 610: He Only Speaks Chinese_2 ¡°West Lake Longjing tea, brewed in a Yixing zisha teapot, I wonder how it would taste made with German mineral water, Professor, would you care to try?¡± August was experienced in his manners, treating Yang Ping with a cup of tea as a Chinese director would treat a friend. The tea was presented to Yang Ping with both hands. Yang Ping took a small sip. It wasn¡¯t bad. His knowledge of tea wasn¡¯t very high, he was just used to drinking it. He wasn¡¯t interested in other beverages such as coffee. To be able to distinguish tea with closed eyes was not a possibility for him. ¡°The taste is quite good!¡± Yang Ping set down his teacup. As August poured more tea for Yang Ping, he said: ¡°The elder Duke intends to have the Duke Foundation collaborate with you. Do not hesitate to accept. And he once promised that if any doctor could cure his son¡¯s illness, he would give out one billion euros for the doctor¡¯s research fund. Unfortunately, no one has achieved this.¡± ¡°Has the Duke Foundation funded many projects?¡± Yang Ping was a little interested in this foundation. According to August, it had funded many projects in Europe and America, some even leading to Nobel Prizes. ¡°In Germany, apart from the government-funded Max Planck Society, the Duke Foundation is the largest private supporter of scientific research. While the Max Planck Society, a research organization funded by the German government, only supports research within Germany. The Duke Foundation funds research all over the world.¡± August explained the foundation¡¯s basic situation. Yang Ping was very familiar with the Max Planck Society, one of the top three global research giants. The top three global research giants were the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Harvard University followed by the Max Planck Society. The Max Planck Society of Germany, established in 1948, and known previously as the Royal William Society, is the largest institution in Germany focused on basic scientific research. It is also the largest, most prestigious, and most effective government-supported autonomous scientific organization internationally. The Max Planck Society had eighty-six institutes and twenty thousand staff members, half of whom were foreign researchers. Its research areas included physics, engineering, biomedicine, basic science, and more. It was highly committed to cutting-edge and internationally advanced basic research work. Over thirty Nobel laureates have come from institutions belonging to the society. Yang Ping was not familiar with the Duke Foundation; he had only heard August mention it. ¡°The Duke Foundation was established later and primarily funds medical research. So, it cannot compete with the government-backed Max Planck Society, but in the field of medical research it is only rivaled by the Rockefeller Foundation in the United States. The Duke Foundation funds many radical medical research projects, so it tends to keep a low profile. For example, they funded Manstein¡¯s research on reconnection after spinal cord severance. Do you know why he¡¯s preparing for this?¡± August asked, attempting to provide as much detail as possible out of fear that Yang Ping would dismiss the foundation. ¡°Why is he preparing?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t guess. ¡°He is preparing for the head transplant surgery,¡± August said after a sip of tea. ¡°Manstein¡¯s lifelong wish is to successfully carry out a head transplant surgery. This type of surgery has been attempted in animals and humans, but all have ultimately failed. While the surgery can connect the head¡¯s blood vessels to the body, it can¡¯t connect the spinal cord and nerves. Therefore, post-operative animals can survive with blood flow but cannot control their bodies. They are essentially patients with extremely high-level paralysis, including respiratory machines and myocardium. This means that animals who have undergone head transplants rely on machines to maintain circulation and breathing and thus cannot survive long.¡± Such a crazy fellow, really taking a road less traveled. ¡°Because of ethical disputes and the high degree of difficulty, it¡¯s tough for this experimental procedure to acquire substantial funding support. But the Duke Foundation is very interested in such imaginative medical projects and is incredibly generous, having already provided a total of five hundred million Euros to Manstein.¡± Five hundred million Euros, that was a tremendous amount of funding. ¡°Other projects funded by the foundation include stem cell organ culture, artificial hearts, nano-medical robots, precision cancer treatment, and many more. Many have already achieved substantial results.¡± August was extremely familiar with the foundation and its projects. If that¡¯s the case, the value of this foundation is substantial and couldn¡¯t be measured merely in one billion euros. As Yang Ping listened, he was also calculating. Yang Ping was currently working on a project cloning organs. Most of the information he had collected was from published papers. Many cutting-edge studies were not at the stage of publishing papers, so he won¡¯t be able to find relevant papers. If he could take an in-depth look at every project funded by the Duke Foundation, it might hugely benefits his research project. Doing research while standing on the shoulders of giants is the quickest way to advance. This would prevent him from needing to reinvent the wheel and spare him from unnecessary trial and error. Basically, the more information he had, the clearer the research direction for his project will become. Yang Ping¡¯s fingers gently tapped on the tea table, weighing his options. ¡°I¡¯m very interested in this foundation, and not just the one billion euros dedicated to research. I¡¯m interested in the projects they¡¯ve funded, like the research they¡¯ve done in the field of stem cells.¡± Yang Ping stated his ideas directly. August nodded, ¡°If the professor is interested, I will speak with the old duke afterwards to arrange for you to investigate any project that piques your curiosity. The old duke will surely help unconditionally.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s do that then. I cannot investigate every project. If possible, please list the projects he is funding so I can choose some to investigate . If you could also provide updates on the progress of the projects, that would be best.¡± Yang Ping knew that some research institutions¡¯ sensitive topics, without the proper connections, are not likely to be open for investigation. The power of connections works everywhere around the world. It just shows up in different forms and carries different weights. August poured another cup of tea for Yang Ping, ¡°Then it¡¯s settled. I¡¯ll arrange it.¡± If the professor agreed to cooperate with the Duke¡¯s fund, he might gain some benefits. If he could work with the professor on some topics, it would be incredibly difficult to enter the inner circle of a genius like the professor. Fortunately, he felt he was getting closer to this goal. The big shots in the Meeting Room seemed to have finished their meeting. Hearing that Professor Yang and August were having tea in the office, Professor Lloyd came over to see if Professor Yang had some time to chat with everyone. August¡¯s office was quite large and the door was open. As soon as Professor Lloyd approached the door, he could hear the two men inside drinking tea and chatting in an incomprehensible Chinese. Professor Lloyd felt like an intruder and tactfully returned to the Meeting Room. ¡°How did it go?¡± Professor Rambo asked, everyone waiting for Lloyd¡¯s response. ¡°Not very convenient, we can talk during lunch.¡± Lloyd was envious that August could converse fluently in Chinese. Whether it¡¯s the surgery for the young duke or the topic of spinal fixation frames, everyone had many questions they wanted to discuss face-to-face with Professor Yang. Because they didn¡¯t know how long Professor Yang would stay here, maybe he would fly back to China after lunch, no one wanted to miss out. And quite a few were curious to take a closer look at this miraculous individual who, even in his twenties, has such incredible skills. Not only is he an amazing surgeon, but also equally impressive at research. ¡°Is he busy?¡± Professor Rambo asked again. Professor Lloyd organized his blond hair with his hand, ¡°He¡¯s chatting with August, in Chinese.¡± Rambo immediately felt a sour taste in his mouth. ¡°Doesn¡¯t Professor Yang know English?¡± Professor Rambo always liked to pry deeper. ¡°He might only know Chinese, you see he used Chinese the whole time.¡± Lloyd speculated. ¡°How does August know Chinese?¡± Professor Rambo was puzzled. As far as he knew, August never mentioned that he could speak Chinese. He only knew that August was proficient in English, Spanish, and French. Who knows? Professor Lloyd was somewhat vexed now. Such a genius was standing right in front of him, even a few sentences would require August to act as an interpreter. At this time, Markus came to the Meeting Room to arrange lunch for everyone. ¡°Markus, can Professor Yang speak English?¡± Professor Lloyd seized Markus and asked eagerly. Markus pondered, ¡°According to August, Professor Yang only understands Chinese.¡± ¡°Then how did he write his English papers?¡± Lloyd wouldn¡¯t let it go. Markus shook his head, ¡°I don¡¯t know, perhaps someone translates them for him?¡± Chapter 686 - 686 611 The Troubles of the Rich ?Chapter 686: Chapter 611: The Troubles of the Rich Chapter 686: Chapter 611: The Troubles of the Rich PS: I¡¯m very busy today, so I¡¯ll post the draft first and make revisions tomorrow morning. There was still some time before lunch, so August led Yang Ping on a tour of Harald Orthopedic Hospital, with a dozen heavyweights in tow. The hospital¡¯s spinal surgery center is divided into four departments, receiving twenty thousand patients a year, with August serving both as the center¡¯s director and the hospital¡¯s president. Besides spinal surgery, trauma orthopedics, joint surgery, sports medicine, pediatric neuro-orthopedics, and rehabilitation are also world-class. The rehabilitation department has a team of top-class rehabilitation doctors and over 200 million dollars¡¯ worth of cutting-edge rehabilitation equipment. Many stars from Bayern Munich football team have undergone surgery and rehabilitation here. During Yang Ping¡¯s visit, he heard that a player was preparing to come for rehabilitation. No wonder August bragged at Sanbo Hospital about getting a bunch of autographed jerseys from football stars. The spinal pain rehabilitation department, an offshoot of the rehabilitation department, uses brand new concepts to treat spinal pain, with remarkable results. In front of his mentor, August was far from modest, claiming that he played a very important role in the hospital¡¯s development, practically single-handedly establishing the spinal center, and under his management, the whole hospital thrives and has become world-class. ¡°Professor, in the future if you have any new techniques, you must think of cooperating with us first. We will definitely make everything picture perfect.¡± August patted his chest and promised. ¡°For the clinical trials of the spinal external fixation frame, we will create a separate area in the spinal center. I will personally be in charge of the operation of this area.¡± After the hospital tour, August introduced his plan. Chiefs of the various departments gradually joined the accompanying team. However, since Yang Ping and August were always conversing in Chinese, these accompanying experts didn¡¯t get a chance to get a word in, and could only follow the team quietly, occasionally whispering to each other. When it was about time, August took Yang Ping to have lunch at a hotel near the hospital. ¡ª The luncheon was simple but grand, featuring a German buffet, and Markus had fully booked the buffet restaurant in the hotel per August¡¯s request. All sorts of German delicacies were on display, such as coal-roasted pig¡¯s trotters, crunchy but not dry, chewy, full-flavored pork, with a fragrant aroma. Paired with mustard or hot sauce, it was excellent. Munich white sausages, made of minced veal and pickled pork mixed together, supplemented with seasoning such as parsley, nutmeg, cardamom, scallions, ginger, lemon, and onion, and served with sweet mustard sauce, had a unique flavor. In addition to these two signature traditional dishes, there were also apple crisps, Black Forest cakes, a wide variety of fruits, all kinds of bread, a wide array of grilled meats. All chief-level doctors from Harald Orthopaedic Hospital were basically there. Doctors¡¯ ranks in Germany are divided into chief doctor, mid-level doctor, ordinary specialist, and assistant doctor. There are no ranks as deputy chief doctor or associate doctor, and the rank of assistant doctor¡¯s equivalent to our resident doctors. Yang Ping, as August¡¯s mentor, these chiefs all wanted to meet him. Everyone wanted to chat with Professor Yang Ping a bit, so Yang Ping felt like he was in the spotlight. No matter where he went, those chiefs would intentionally or unintentionally move closer, then surround him, hoping to find a chance to strike up a conversation. However, Chinese became a barrier in communication and naturally, at the banquet, Chinese became a high-end and upmarket term. Markus, who was in his thirties, was usually a little-known figure at these banquets, but his ability to speak Chinese made him skyrocket in value and even those high-ranking officials had to give him a second look. The more this happened, the more smug Markus became. From time to time, he would utter a sentence in Chinese while chatting with his compatriots. When the other party looked baffled, Markus would apologize, ¡°I didn¡¯t switch over in time.¡± The piano solo continued uninterrupted, reflecting the vibe of Bavaria. The old butler with a Mediterranean hairstyle was accompanied by the duke, weaving in and out among the crowd. Normally, the old duke would never attend such ordinary banquets. The old duke found August and Yang Ping and bowed to Yang Ping: ¡°Respected Professor, I wonder if you could spare some time amidst your busy schedule to visit my castle. I¡¯m very eager to enjoy the cellar-aged red wine with you.¡± August acted as the translator on the side. The guests invited to the Duke¡¯s castle are either old friends with deep personal connections, European political figures and merchants, or prestigious academic giants. ¡°Is it far?¡± Yang Ping asked August. ¡°It¡¯s in a small town in Bavaria. It¡¯s a two-hour drive.¡± August hoped his mentor would stay. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t have time, maybe next time.¡± The round trip would take four hours, plus the time spent visiting, it would take six or seven hours in total. He had many surgeries at home and could not stay out for too long. ¡°It¡¯s a pity, let¡¯s make a date for next time. The wine in the cellar will always be waiting for you.¡± The Duke hadn¡¯t expected Professor Yang to decline. As the head of a large European financial group, his influence in Europe was significant. Furthermore, his family was an old European nobility, which later divided into two branches, one remained in Europe and the other went to the United States. The branch that remained in Europe was currently being led by the Duke, controlling many industries in Germany and Europe, whereas the branch in the United States was growing rapidly. His family was involved in many American corporations, such as General Motors, Boeing, IBM, Pfizer, Pacific Railroad, and so on. Rich people, more or less, all dream of immortality, although that¡¯s impossible, prolonging life is plausible. Therefore, the Duke wouldn¡¯t pass up the opportunity to befriend a genius doctor. Generously funding Manstein was not only about charity and promoting scientific development, but also about having a brilliant doctor who could save his life when it mattered. Manstein¡¯s research success could save his life. Failing to invite the Chinese professor left the Duke somewhat disappointed. However, as the leader of the financial group, he clearly wouldn¡¯t let such a matter bother him. He knew that with August¡¯s relationship with the Chinese professor, one day, the Chinese professor would become a guest of his. The Duke took a symbolic tour of the banquet hall with the butler, then left the restaurant. His visit was solely for Yang Ping. ¡°The Duke also has a surgery waiting for him¡ªa heart bypass surgery, with Manstein as the main surgeon!¡± August told Yang Ping after the Duke had left. ¡°Manstein knows how to do a heart bypass too?¡± Yang Ping felt this jack of all trades was truly worthy of the title. August nodded: ¡°Together with Professor Goran from Italy, they¡¯ve the highest success rates for heart bypass surgeries in Europe. Before meeting you, Professor, I thought Manstein was the most gifted genius in the world.¡± This compliment was greatly comforting, considering that Manstein was a Nobel Prize laureate. ¡°Yet, they are facing a tough problem. The Duke¡¯s coronary arteries have some sort of diffuse disease far down the line. The arteries are extremely thin, and arteriosclerosis has almost solidified them. They are now confronted with the problem of finding where to place the ¡®bridge.¡¯ They are working together to solve this issue.¡± As a friend of the Duke, August knew that the Duke had been worried about this. Rich people, the likes of the Duke, could genuinely be called the ultra-wealthy. Their worries are not about money, but health. Therefore, they wouldn¡¯t mind spending money for their health. Suddenly remembering that Yang Ping¡¯s department at Sanbo Hospital was called Comprehensive Surgery, and was involved in research across the entire field of surgery, August asked: ¡°Do you, Professor, have any experience in the field of cardiology?¡± ¡°I have done some research!¡± Yang Ping replied without hesitation. Indeed, he had studied in every specialty. Otherwise, he would not have been able to develop good solutions for these surgeries involving severely deformed spines and serious heart and lung problems. In the system space anatomy training, he was extremely familiar with the anatomy of every part of the body and had done a run-through of basic surgeries in all departments. August was not surprised. Yang Ping had mastery of thoracoscopy and laparoscopy, which was much higher than that of thoracic and general surgeons. Like Manstein, the Professor was multi-talented and it was not surprising at all. Chapter 687 - 687 612 Reacquaintance ?Chapter 687: Chapter 612: Reacquaintance Chapter 687: Chapter 612: Reacquaintance After lunch, everyone still had a lot of work to do, so they all cherished this opportunity. Apart from Lloyd asking Yang Ping some questions, other professors also vied with each other to ask a lot of questions about today¡¯s surgery or the technology of the external spinal fixator. As for questioning, unless there are special circumstances, as long as time permits, Yang Ping usually doesn¡¯t turn down any questions. These are all top doctors in the field of spinal surgery, as long as they face some key issues and explain them, most of them can quickly grasp the basic situation of the surgery. Yang Ping spent some time explaining the difficult points of the external spine fixation technology, the new technology will take Germany as the center and spread to the whole of Europe. The luncheon lasted for an hour and a half and ended, everyone felt a bit unsatisfied as there were still a lot of questions that had not been answered. Moreover, since there were too many people and there was a need for translations, everyone didn¡¯t have much time to communicate with Yang Ping, and some doctors didn¡¯t get the chance to ask their questions at all. In the afternoon, Yang Ping visited the little duke in the ward. The drainage was still not much, so Yang Ping was now relieved about the bleeding issue. As for whether the blood vessels of the spine were occluded, it couldn¡¯t be determined for now. In theory, the possibility was not great, but the human body was extremely complex, and no one could guarantee that complications would not occur after the surgery. Yang Ping instructed August to tell the little duke¡¯s medical team that they must carefully monitor any neurological symptoms and report any problems immediately. As for heart-related issues, Yang Ping was not worried. Out of safety consideration, Yang Ping suggested that August arrange a heart specialist to follow up with the little duke for a while. As a bone specialty hospital, whether it was the Cardiac Surgery Department or the Internal Medicine Department, the technical strength was weak. The two professors from Charite? Hospital agreed to send doctors over to treat the patients since they couldn¡¯t stay for a long period of time. After ensuring all aspects were covered, Yang Ping felt relieved and prepared to return to China, while August would go to China to continue his studies a few days later; he wanted to stay until the little duke¡¯s condition stabilized. After applying for a flight route, Yang Ping flew back to China that night. ¡ª At seven-thirty in the morning, the building of the Comprehensive Surgery Department stood tall. Two security guards patrolled the lobby on the first floor and the door to Professor Zhang¡¯s office was already open. The professor started diagnosing patients at eight o¡¯clock, so he usually arrived at the office before seven-thirty to make a cup of tea and to prepare for the day. Yang Ping arrived at the department, and the doctor¡¯s office was already full of people. The conscientious graduate students, standardized training students, and interns were working hard, the charge nurses were checking patients¡¯ latest examination results on the computer, and the interns were moving stacks of patient files, then focusing on sticking lab test orders. Although electronic medical records were convenient, paper-based medical records were still legally recognized, so these paper-based medical records need to be printed out for signatures at any time. The interns stick lab test orders on the medical records like stacking tiles, then record the abnormal data on it. A nurse threw a stack of charge orders on the desk, and the intern picked out the patients from their own medical team, then passed them to the teaching doctor. Everyone was busy working and chatting, but the chat usually didn¡¯t impact their work. Everyone greeted Yang Ping after seeing him return to work. ¡°Good morning, Professor!¡± ¡°Good morning, Professor!¡± ¡°Good morning, Professor!¡± Yang Ping responded by nodding his head. He returned to his familiar office, opened a window, turned on the air conditioner, brewed a pot of tea, took a few sips, then leaned back in his chair to rest. It was such a comfortable thing to perform surgeries and conduct research in the system space. If it weren¡¯t for flying knife, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t really like flying around. For the second-phase clinical trial cases of the external spinal fixator, they were all handed over to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. Without special circumstances, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t intervene. Song Zimo sat on the sofa opposite, reporting on the happenings of the day. In fact, there wasn¡¯t much to report, most of the patients who came in and out had scoliosis. ¡°Li Jun is still connected to ECMO, Qin Xiaowei is currently being maintained by an artificial liver, there is almost no hope for his liver, almost all of his liver cells have died.¡± ¡°What about the other organs?¡± ¡°No abnormalities have been found in other organs yet. Organ failure is primarily in the liver, and its rescue is very timely, preventing the sequential reaction of multiple organ failure, so no other organ failure has been found.¡± ¡°Is the cause still considered to be heatstroke disease?¡± ¡°Yes, ICU has discussed it, they believe it is acute liver failure caused by heatstroke.¡± Song Zimo reported on each event one by one, there were actually quite a lot happening in the department even though Yang Ping wasn¡¯t away for long. ¡ª Dean Liu¡¯s office at 301 Hospital. After listening to Qin Shi¡¯s report, Liu Xingguo furrowed his eyebrows. It seemed that the former comprehensive plan might not work. If 301 Hospital takes over Sanbo Hospital, many things definitely can¡¯t remain as flexible as they are now. Dean Liu twirled the red and blue pencil in his hand, and after careful thought, he said: ¡°Let¡¯s gather more information, then compile the materials, and I¡¯ll report it. Whether we¡¯re trying to bring in Yang Ping or take over Sanbo Hospital, it may backfire. We may not only fail to improve Yang Ping¡¯s current working environment but might create many new problems. Whether it¡¯s bringing him in or taking over, as long as he becomes one of us, we naturally have to manage him according to our rules. Can Yang Ping adapt? Our superior¡¯s intention is to protect the talent. If we handle it improperly, it may have a negative impact on the development of the talent. I can¡¯t bear this responsibility.¡± Professor Qin Shi sat on the sofa with a troubled expression: ¡°Yes, the autonomy he wants, we may not be able to give, and probably no other hospital can give. This model has Xia Changjiang¡¯s personal characteristics, even in Sanbo Hospital, if Xia Changjiang and Han Jiangong retire, and new people take over, this set may not be preserved.¡± ¡°Yes, this is a series of issues, not a single issue. For example, where should Yang Ping¡¯s fund be placed? What will happen to his instrument company? What role does his private hospital play? These are all issues we need to consider. We have our own discipline, and we can¡¯t break the rules of the whole system for one person. This is impossible. So let¡¯s reassess this issue, and when it becomes mature, we¡¯ll submit a report to describe the actual situation.¡± Commissioner Qiao Nan also had lots of issues to consider. Previously, people thought of it relatively simply, that is, to bring Yang Ping into a top national platform, which is extremely important for the development of an excellent doctor in the future. For example, on the platform of the 301 Hospital, he could get more research funds, see more cases, get more learning opportunities, and achieve a higher status. This process is to relocate an excellent doctor from a general lower-level hospital to the top upper-level hospital. Looking at it now, it doesn¡¯t seem to be the case at all. Comparing 301 to the current Sanbo Hospital, it seems that Yang Ping has a wider space in Sanbo. ¡°If no one has any objections, we will continue to investigate the situation. I will write a report. How to proceed with the next step, let the superiors decide, I have no good solution.¡± Dean Liu was calm and composed. ¡°I have a thought?¡± Professor Qin Shi suggested. ¡°Let me listen.¡± Dean Liu was interested. Professor Qin Shi said:¡± How about proposing Sanbo to be promoted directly to a departmental hospital? In this way, resources will naturally be more tilted.¡± ¡°Now this is not the problem, resources are not the core, freedom is the core; however, being promoted to be departmental is better than us acquiring. Let¡¯s not be hasty, I¡¯ll think about it some more, I need to reconsider this matter.¡± Dean Liu said with a thoughtful look. Chapter 688 - 688 613 Induction Material ?Chapter 688: Chapter 613: Induction Material Chapter 688: Chapter 613: Induction Material Beijing Union Medical College Hospital. Professor Liang sat in his office chair, with his glasses on the table in front of him. He was listening to Professor Hu Guolin report on the arrangements for the second phase of the clinical trial of the external spinal fixation frame. ¡°Very good, invite Yang Ping to demonstrate the surgery when necessary. After all, it is a new technology, which we have only mastered theoretically. Observing a few surgeries would be better. Also, 301 Hospital has taken action and provided Yang Ping with 10 beds and a supporting team, regularly inviting him to perform surgeries at 301. This form of cooperation works. We can imitate it. We have more case resources, especially unique cases than 301. We should also provide Yang Ping with 10 beds and equip him with a team to assist him. This team will be led by Song Yun, and we will select a few experienced doctorate holders. Young people working together will feel more comfortable.¡± Professor Liang leaned back in his chair, squinted slightly, and pinched the bridge of his nose. Professor Hu Guolin suggested, ¡°301 Hospital provides 10 beds. Can we increase the number of beds, ideally double it? It would be much easier for us to increase the number of beds.¡± Professor Liang slowly shook his head. ¡°No need to increase. We should not engage in this kind of hostile competition, which would eventually lead us all to an awkward situation. Our aim to get Yang Ping into our Hospital on a cooperative basis is the same as 301¡¯s: love for talent, respect for talent. I have to admit that this young man is a rare genius. None of the young people I have met can compare with him. Take this external spinal fixation frame for example. The animal experimental data was so good that I once suspected some manipulation. But after verification, I found there was no problem. Unexpectedly, he developed this new technology in just a few months.¡± ¡°I heard that 301 will take further action. It seems that their intention is not simply to cooperate.¡± Professor Hu Guolin expressed some concern. Professor Liang smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, if Yang Ping were to change places, it would be better for him to come here than to go to 301; our environment here is more suited to him. But I¡¯ve been thinking for a long time, neither coming to us nor going to 301 would be the best thing for him. It will rather limit his development. I am still contemplating what would be the best for him. Let¡¯s first bring him into our care group. I have met with Qin Shi and Liu Xingguo to discuss this, and they will handle this.¡± ¡°I also spent some time at Sanbo Hospital and have some understanding of Yang Ping¡¯s character. This young man usually doesn¡¯t talk much. He seems very profound. He doesn¡¯t participate much in hospital meetings, always sending his assistant in his place. He only cares about his patients and their conditions. He doesn¡¯t seem to be interested in anything else. This makes other people find it hard to get along with him.¡± Professor Hu Guolin concluded. Professor Liang disagreed with Professor Hu, ¡°Well, he¡¯s a genius. Moreover, every genius has some unique personality traits. His uniqueness makes him a genius. If he were like everyone else, he wouldn¡¯t be a genius. Sanbo Hospital is very good at tolerating this. We can¡¯t be that tolerant.¡± ¡°I agree with that. The dean of Sanbo Hospital also has a unique personality. He and Han Jiangong granted Yang Ping full surgery privileges. For a young doctor who has only been working for a few years and has not undergone other specialized training, the privileges would not be granted to him in other hospitals. What if his patient died?¡± Professor Hu Guolin has always been puzzled as to why Sanbo Hospital is so bold. At the time, there was a case of scoliosis correction surgery with concurrent cardiopulmonary malformation adhesions, and Yang Ping was actually allowed to perform the scoliosis correction and cardiopulmonary surgery at the same time. This kind of cross-disciplinary surgery would never happen in other hospitals. If anyone proposed such an idea, he would certainly be ridiculed. ¡°That¡¯s why he stayed at Sanbo. Being honest, I was also initially set on bringing him in, but I gave up on that idea later. As long as he doesn¡¯t go abroad and can stay in the country, I am content. If he were to be truly introduced to our hospital, I can protect him in the field of orthopedics, but who would protect him outside of my field? The tree that stands tall catches the strongest wind. His character is suitable for academics, but he easily offends people. At Sanbo, he has the protection of Xia Changjiang, so he is able to create impressive results. If he came to our hospital, the foundation would be troubled. How could everyone agree to give so much funding to him alone for research? How could the upper ranks agree? Who among the hospital¡¯s leadership would dare to advance this kind of initiative like Xia Changjiang? If there were any problems, Xia Changjiang would be completely in the wrong.¡± Professor Liang greatly admired Dean Xia. ¡°Yes, indeed. When the foundation was established, Xia Changjiang went through a lot of effort. I heard he was running every day between the Provincial Hall, Civil Affairs, and Provincial Government, lobbying various top-ranking officials to sign.¡± Professor Hu Guolin was familiar with this matter. ¡°This young man will have a great future, and he¡¯s capable of making a big impact. Sanbo Hospital is a hospital directly under the Provincial Hall. Still, it¡¯s a bit weak, a bit mismatched with his capabilities. I¡¯m wondering if we can push for an upgrade at Sanbo. How exactly to upgrade it, I haven¡¯t thought that through. I need to discuss this with a few old leaders.¡± Professor Liang seemed to be deep in thought. ¡°Last time, there was an issue with Hans¡¯s company that nearly ruined the external spinal fixation frame. Sanbo Hospital alone couldn¡¯t handle such a thing.¡± Professor Hu Guolin was still frightened by the memory. The color on Professor Liang¡¯s face changed, ¡°Humph! It¡¯s just a company, even if it¡¯s a multinational giant, what can they do? Their actions were in opposition to our entire medical field. It would¡¯ve been courteous not to kick them out. Luckily, they surrendered after adjustments. How would it matter even if they got kicked out? There would be someone to fill the void in the market.¡± ¡°What I meant was, this incident exposed the problem that you¡¯re worried about. Sanbo Hospital is too vulnerable and mismatched with Yang Ping¡¯s abilities. This was just one external spinal fixation frame. In the future, if he makes something even more valuable and threatens someone else¡¯s interests, he will be in trouble. This time we were fortunate that you intervened promptly. We may not be so lucky next time.¡± Professor Hu Guolin expressed his concern. Professor Liang nodded, ¡°Yes, which is why I am thinking of how to upgrade Sanbo to make the platform bigger and stronger so that he can have more freedom.¡± ¡°Old Liang, there¡¯s one more thing,¡± Professor Hu seemed quite troubled. ¡°What is it?¡± asked Professor Liang. Professor Hu gathered his thoughts before speaking, ¡°Our hospital has requested to visit the MIT Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, but we were denied by them. Zhang Chunquan said that the project is currently closed to outside visitors and he can do nothing about it. I heard that they have established inducible pluripotent stem cells and made the most breakthrough progress in the mechanism of stem cell regeneration and differentiation. That brings them a step closer to cloning complete organs. The greatest contributor to this project is actually Zhang Chunquan.¡± Professor Liang slowly asked, ¡°Zhang Chunquan has taken American citizenship, hasn¡¯t he?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± answered Professor Hu in a low voice. Professor Liang was silent, feeling a sharp pain in his heart. ¡ª Before his shift, Yang Ping had some time, and he was not to be disturbed. He was conducting experiments in the lab within the system space. He used the teratoma test body purchased from the system mall to observe how teratomas grow and develop, observing their cell division and differentiation at each stage under the electron microscope, and then photographing them. Yang Ping also extracted bodily fluids from the surrounding environment of the teratoma¡¯s growth to research whether there exist any kind of inducing substances. The aim was to find out how the human body regulated and induced the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. This was a massive task, but the instantaneous rule of the system space made time extremely cheap. However, there was a psychological limit to how long one could stay in the system space. Yang Ping¡¯s current psychological limit was increasing, and he was staying longer and longer. Yang Ping tried to stay until his maximum limit each time he experimented, exiting only then to rest for a while in the real world before going in again when he found a quiet moment. The relief period set by the system space was like a man¡¯s refractory period. After staying in the space for a while, he needed to come out, rest, survive the refractory period, and then repeat the cycle. During this period of research, he achieved some minor breakthroughs. He found that some inducing substances existed in the surrounding environment of the teratoma. Different types of differentiated tissues from the teratoma had different substances surrounding them, whereas the same types of tissues had the same substances. The strangest thing was that these substances were precisely distributed within the range of certain tissue cells, beyond which these substances would automatically decompose and vanish. Yang Ping inferred that these substances could possibly act as inducing substances. His next task was to analyze these biochemical substances. Chapter 689 - 689 614 Group Formation ?Chapter 689: Chapter 614: Group Formation Chapter 689: Chapter 614: Group Formation After performing the surgery, Yang Ping took a rest in the changing room. For surgeons, the changing room is a temporary haven. Sitting quietly for a while can dispel the fatigue of surgery and provide a chance to reflect on the successes and failures of the operation. For hobbyists like Fatty, finding a secluded space with some like-minded friends, smoking a Soft Zhonghua cigarette, can make one feel entirely relaxed, with a euphoric sensation akin to transcendence. Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang, all clad in their surgical scrubs, rested, leaning against the bench in a line. Robert followed the three smokers to their secret base to enjoy the ¡®soft Zhonghua.¡¯ The junior doctors have already changed and escorted the patient back to their ward. August had taken a week off while Takahashi had gone on a two-week short-term intensive training course, having mastered the spinal fixation technology, was now back in Japan. The phase 2 clinical trials at Xiehe Hospital, 301, Mo Sixth, and Nandu Affiliated Hospital One were underway. The phase 3 clinical trials in the U.S., Europe, and Japan were progressing at a swift pace and would soon be fully launched. Given the current situation, as long as the spinal fixation technique does not fail during clinical trials, its rapid global spread is inevitable. Furthermore, this technology has opened up a new area of study in the treatment of spinal deformities. It¡¯s a brand-new technique with no alternatives. Once fully deployed, there would be no reason for anyone anywhere to object to using this new technology unless the local medical infrastructure is relatively undeveloped and doctors haven¡¯t kept up with technological advances. At Ruixing company, production of the external spinal fixator, from the mold to processes, assembly line, and worker training, is all complete. They are ready to operate at full capacity and start mass production. Regarding the new project ¨C cultivating muscle using stem cells, Yang Ping has already started the experiment at the system lab and achieved some breakthroughs. Everything in reality is also adequately prepared to get started. ¡°All equipment, save for the cryogenic electron microscope that we¡¯re borrowing from Nandu Medical University, are in place.¡± Song Zimo had been coordinating and preparing all aspects. Both Dean Xia and Director Han had also been helping in the background. Song Zimo was not just Yang Ping¡¯s assistant in clinical work he was also his trusted aid in research. Now that Xu Zhiliang had shared the workload, the burden on Song Zimo was significantly lighter. A cryogenic electron microscope is an essential high-end instrument for structural biology. The new project that Yang Ping was about to undertake involved structural analysis of inducer proteins and required a cryogenic electron microscope. This high-end equipment is currently monopolized by the U.S. and Japan. There is no corresponding product domestically, nor even counterfeit ones. It can only be imported from abroad at substantial costs. The cryogenic electron microscope is costly, ranging from tens of millions to billions. Currently, there are 27 of these microscopes in the country. Southern University of Science and Technology in Pengcheng, Nandu Province, owns a cryogenic electron microscopy center, which plans to install six microscopes. Two are currently operational, and once all six are installed, the center will become one of the three largest cryogenic electron microscopy centers worldwide. If they borrowed the microscope from Southern University of Science and Technology, there would need to make appointments and spend a significant amount of time commuting. Luckily, Nandu Medical University also has a cryo-electron microscope, and their laboratory fully supports Yang Ping¡¯s project by prioritizing their team members in terms of usage. Now that this big plan has found its footing, the entire project¡¯s apparatus can be considered complete, and the project can be started in reality. ¡°Everyone, keep an eye out for suitable talents in stem cell research who may join us as the director of our lab, or we could openly recruit?¡± Having someone dedicated to managing the lab would lighten the workload significantly for everyone. Furthermore, with the initiation of the new project, research staff specializing in stem cells are needed. So, bringing in talent in this regard is very important now. Yang Ping discussed this with Su Nanchen and asked Lin Lan to help scout for talent, but they couldn¡¯t find a suitable candidate in a short time. Well-qualified professionals were either overseas and didn¡¯t want to return, or they were affiliated with top-tier universities. Why would they be willing to join a hospital laboratory? The platform was too small. ¡°Do you remember our Chinese translator when we were in Japan, Tang Shun?¡± Song Zimo still remembered this man. ¡°I remember. What about him?¡± Yang Ping also had a deep impression of him as he used to be Takahashi¡¯s Chinese tutor. Song Zimo said, ¡°He is involved in stem cell research. His mentor at Tokyo University came from the frontier medical research institute¡¯s stem cell biology department at Kyoto University. Currently, in the field of stem cell research, this Japanese professor and another professor from the University of California, San Francisco, are ranked first in the world.¡± Hearing this, Yang Ping immediately said, ¡°In that case, find a way to contact him. Could we get him to join us?¡± Song Zimo smiled and said, ¡°I want to discuss this with you. Tang Shun is about to graduate from his PhD. Attracting such talent may not be easy, he has many opportunities. Not only does the stem cell lab at Tokyo University want to keep him, but the lab at the University of California, San Francisco, has also offered him an olive branch. These are all world-leading labs. To tell the truth, compared to them, our hospital¡¯s lab is just a small platform.¡± While Song Zimo was right, it seemed unlikely that such a person would condescend to a tiny lab in a hospital. However, to establish the new project team, it was essential to bring in professionals from the biology field. Those like Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, for example, could carry out structural protein analysis since they are definitely more proficient. ¡°Not necessarily. It is best ¡ª Professor ¡ª if you contact him personally. There is still a chance.¡± Xu Zhiliang had stayed silent, before suddenly speaking. Little Five introduced him to a girlfriend. When he first saw that the girl was beautiful and had good family conditions and a job, Xu Zhiliang thought he had no chance. But to his surprise, they fell in love at first sight. So, some things are not definite! The key is whether they catch each other¡¯s eye. Hearing Xu Zhiliang say this, Song Zimo felt he should also try: ¡°But things are not absolute, even though our laboratory is currently a college laboratory, the funds we are able to mobilize are unthought of by ordinary laboratories.¡± ¡°We will keep this person in mind for now, and try to contact him through Takahashi. I will find an opportunity to communicate with him face to face.¡± Yang Ping decided to give it a try. If it doesn¡¯t work, then so be it. Anyway, having a face-to-face chat doesn¡¯t cause any harm. ¡°I almost forgot, Xiao Guoqiang is getting a check-up in the rehabilitation department this afternoon. I have arranged to meet him there, shall we go together?¡± Song Zimo remembered that he had scheduled to see Xiao Guoqiang after the surgery in the rehabilitation department today. He was so engrossed in the conversation that he forgot about it. Xiao Guoqiang is the firefighting hero Qiangzi, a patient from Yang Ping¡¯s previous five-segment replantation case. He has been regularly checking back in the rehabilitation department, now with check-ups every three months. Yang Ping hadn¡¯t seen him in a long time and planned to see how his recovery was going. The three of them had rested enough and changed their clothes to go to the rehabilitation department. Qiangzi was waiting for Song Zimo in the rehabilitation room of the rehabilitation outpatient clinic with his wife. His wife is a primary school teacher, now with a slightly protruding belly. When Qiangzi was hospitalized, this beautiful primary school teacher would bring flowers to Qiangzi every day to express her admiration for the hero. Gradually, they naturally fell in love. When Qiangzi got married, he even invited the doctors and nurses from his ward to the wedding banquet. Seeing that Yang Ping had also come, Qiangzi was very happy and quickly shook hands with him. Xiao Guoqiang must have waited for a long time, Yang Ping did not waste any time and immediately checked on him. Xiao Guoqiang¡¯s injured upper limb was shortened compared to the other limb, and the function of the fingers was not as good as normal ones. However, the thumb could complete the palm function, which is the most important and core function for the hand. Many hand movements are based on the palm function of the thumb. The flexion and extension activities of each finger are very good, the adduction and abduction are also good, indicating that the flexor and extensor muscles of the forearm have recovered well. The muscles of the hand, including the thenar muscles, hypothenar muscles, interosseous muscles, and lumbricalis, have all recovered well. The feeling of the fingers, especially the fingertips, has recovered, but it is not as sensitive as normal fingers. Through these checks, the three nerves of Xiao Guoqiang: the median nerve, the ulnar nerve, and the radial nerve, have all recovered well. The most difficult recovery after limb replantation is the nerves. It is already very good to have recovered to this extent. Not to mention multi-segment replantation, even simple replantation cannot demand complete functional recovery. It is good enough if it passes, and Qiangzi is obviously higher than the passing line in many regards. The basic function of the upper limb is completely preserved. ¡°I can write, hold things, and play with my phone with this hand.¡± Xiao Guoqiang was very satisfied with this hand of his. ¡°Hmm, the recovery is very good, how about your work now, is it still going smoothly?¡± Yang Ping ended the check-up. ¡°I was transferred from the frontline to work in logistics.¡± Qiangzi was somewhat disappointed about being transferred. However, having been so severely injured, he could not possibly still work on the front line. It would be neither physically nor emotionally suitable. ¡°His X-ray for his check-up showed that the fracture healed well with good shape. I suggest that he remove the steel plate and steel nail later.¡± Song Zimo had seen his follow-up X-ray. Yang Ping also agreed: ¡°Multi-segment fractures, removing them too early can easily cause re-fracture. Let¡¯s remove them two years after the surgery. The steel plate and steel nails currently inside do not affect movement.¡± After seeing Xiao Guoqiang, Yang Ping planned to finish work but received a call from Professor Zhang, inviting him to the trauma orthopedics department to see a patient. This patient was under discussion by the whole hospital. The patient¡¯s limbs were necrotic, seriously facing amputation, but the cause had not been found for several days. Chapter 690 - 690 615 Mysteriously Necrotic ?Chapter 690: Chapter 615: Mysteriously Necrotic Chapter 690: Chapter 615: Mysteriously Necrotic PS: Very busy tonight, so no time to edit. As per usual practice, first draft published, will edit tomorrow. Please excuse any oversights. Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang all rushed back to the Trauma Orthopedics department in the main surgical building. Surgeons are accustomed to brisk and rapid actions. Upon their arrival at the office of the Trauma Orthopedics doctors, several directors were already seated by a computer, studying case notes and information. A handful of younger doctors were assisting by serving the senior doctors who came for the consultation with tea and water. Professor Zhang and Director Tan were already discussing the case privately. Seeing Yang Ping enter, they both immediately greeted him. ¡°Wait for another ten minutes, you go and see the patient first,¡± Professor Zhang suggested, glancing at the time. It is mandatory to review the case files before a consultation and to question the history and conduct a physical examination at the bedside. This is common practice. The clinical means standing by the bedside, interacting with patients. Before seeing the patient, Yang Ping also reviewed the case files and picked up on some keywords. Unknown cause of limb necrosis and ulceration, most notable on the right hand and the right hip, accompanied by headaches and whole body pain, frequent cold sweat, no past illnesses or history of trauma, no recent infections, no obvious cause, the sudden appearance of symptoms, that¡¯s pretty much it. After reviewing the case, Yang Ping then proceed to see this twenty-something year old young man in the ward. Despite being behind a mask, the stench of tissue necrosis hit him. The patient was housed in a single isolation negative-pressure room. Before an accurate diagnosis could be made, they had to consider some special bacterial infections. To prevent cross-infections, he could only be kept in an isolation ward. The right lower limb was significantly swollen, almost triple the size of a normal limb. Most of the right hip was necrotic, the large rough bone was exposed. This was because the large rough bone was a protrusion, very superficial, so once the skin and fascia were necrotic, it was easy for bone exposure to occur. The right upper limb was also swollen, albeit not to the drastic degree of the lower limb. Except for a small part that still had its normal color, most of the right hand was a dark color, the color of necrotic flesh. The limbs on the left side were somewhat better than those on the right. The left lower limb was also almost twice the size of a normal limb. Dead grey areas were evident necrotic areas. Scattered necrotic areas were also noticeable in the left upper limb. In order to allow the consulting doctors to see what the condition of the necrotic parts was like, all the necrotic areas of the four limbs were exposed. Two standardized training students were on standby by the bedside, ready to assist the consulting doctors with the wound examination at any time. When Yang Ping was inquiring about the medical history, he learned that this patient was transferred from Shipo People¡¯s Hospital. Seven days ago, the patient felt pain all over his body for no clear reason and broke out in a cold sweat, to a degree where he could hardly bear it, so he went to Shipo People¡¯s Hospital for treatment. The emergency department had been unable to pinpoint the cause and could only administer pain relief and rehydration therapies, meanwhile bullying him to the General Surgery. The next day, the patient¡¯s limbs began to swell to varying extents. Some places had blisters and then limbs started broad ulceration and necrosis, beginning from the right hip and right hand. The General Surgery was as if engulfed in fog, unable to get a clear picture of the situation. Since the necrotic areas were on the limbs, they transferred him to the Orthopedics. Director Miao of Orthopedics felt that something was off, but he was also unable to clarify the situation. Hence, he sought help from Director Han who also couldn¡¯t determine what was going on based on the medical records but knew that the case was complicated. Out of caution, Director Han asked Miao to swiftly send the patient to Sanbo Hospital via ambulance. The patient was admitted to the Trauma Orthopedics and under the care of Director Tan. The patient was kept at the Trauma Orthopedics for three days, but the cause of illness wasn¡¯t identified. The necrosis continued, to prevent necrotic tissue toxins from entering the bloodstream and leading to toxic shock, Director Tan, determinedly proposed timely surgical debridement. The right hand and right lower limb were to receive a partial amputation, with life preservation as the utmost priority. On the cause of illness, Director Tan considered necrotizing fasciitis or something caused by some special type of insect bite. In any case, the immediate priority is to remove these necrotic tissues. After Yang Ping finished examining the patient and washing his hands, he went to the doctors¡¯ office. Most of the directors had arrived, and those who couldn¡¯t attend had sent stand-ins for the meeting. Everyone settled down in the doctors¡¯ office, and Director Zhao from the Medical Affairs Office also rushed over. Director Zhao hosted the case discussion. He opened with a few official lines and then the supervising doctor reported the case. After the case report, all the experts present had furrowed brows. The case appeared to be without head or tail, no clues, a young man without a history of trauma or signs of infection suddenly had necrotic, ulcerating limbs. ¡°Everyone can express their thoughts freely. Initially, I considered the possibility of necrotizing fasciitis for this case, but bacterial culture of the necrotic tissues did not support this idea. The initial bacterial cultures from Shipo People¡¯s Hospital were all normal skin parasites. Our samples yielded few deep cultures that could cultivate bacteria. We found that the necrosis was not limited to the skin and fascia, but had spread to the bone. The patient¡¯s blood level of lactic acid was not high, nor was there increased red blood cell distribution width. The necrosis of the right hip had reached the bone, the large rough bone is exposed. The MRI also showed some cases where the necrotic tissue has invaded the bone.¡± Director Tan supplemented some information and presented his view. ¡°Have there been any recent contacts with drugs or chemical substances, is there any consideration given to severe exfoliative dermatitis, is there a history of gout, and has the patient taken allopurinol,¡± The director of endocrinology thought of exfoliative dermatitis first. However, this patient¡¯s necrosis is spreading towards deeper tissues, not confined to the skin. Trauma? Infection? Allergic reaction? Blood clot? Insect or mosquito bite? Trauma can be excluded. If there had been crush injuries, the patient certainly would have known. A widespread blood clot, color doppler and blood D-dimer tests don¡¯t support such a diagnosis. Allergic reaction, it was hard to determine. The patient himself could hardly recall what he ate or came into contact with. The exact allergen is unknown to him. For example, there have been cases where online bought face masks have caused severe exfoliative dermatitis. Infection, Director Tan just mentioned that many examinations do not support it. Insect or mosquito bites, this is possible, but causing such severe necrosis in the limbs is very rare, especially since the most severe necrosis occurred on the right hip. The necrosis has rapidly deepened to the bone, affecting the entire layer, making it seem possible that the right hip and right hand were bitten. Due to the necrosis and ulceration, finding the wounds left by insect bites has become very difficult. For symptomatic treatment, he can presently only receive amputation. Necrotic tissues must be completely cleaned up in order to prevent toxins in the tissue from entering school and causing toxic shock. Exactly what caused the limb necrosis, with the necrosis of the right hand and right hip most severe and continuing to develop? This is surely a tricky medical conundrum that leaves everyone at a loss for any concrete answers. There was silence, with no one breaking it initially. Professor Zhang was the oldest, most experienced expert among those present. She has seen and experienced more than anyone else there. ¡°Limb necrosis is often caused by internal or external factors. Internal ones like blood clot have already been ruled out. External ones can be anything from physical, chemical, to biological factors, etc. When diagnosing illnesses, encountering a challenging and complicated case is exactly when this kind of investigative thinking is needed.¡± Seeing that no one else was voicing their thoughts, Professor Zhang started with her opinion, aiming to stimulate divergent thinking among the group. Chapter 691 - 691 616 The Almighty Pathology Tissue Section ?Chapter 691: Chapter 616: The Almighty Pathology Tissue Section Chapter 691: Chapter 616: The Almighty Pathology Tissue Section PS: I¡¯ve been busy these past few days and haven¡¯t revised the draft, so I¡¯ll just post it as is. The draft is readable anyway, although it¡¯s a bit rough. My apologies! Why is the necrosis most obvious in his right hand and right hip? Everyone was pondering this question, He¡¯s right-handed, not left-handed. The right hand and the right hip are connected, but while the hand is exposed, the hip is generally covered by pants. They shouldn¡¯t be on the same exposure level. There¡¯s a possibility that this could happen when the pathogen is held in the right hand and then put in the pocket of the right-hand side pants. This way, the right hand and the right hip are exposed on the same level. Could it be? An answer emerged in Yang Ping¡¯s mind. ¡°Have the necrotic tissues been sampled for pathology tests?¡± Yang Ping thinks that pathology is a magical method. Although these cells have necrotised, under a microscope, one can see exactly how they died. ¡°We did take pathology samples, but the results are not out yet. Director Guan is away in a meeting and will only be back tomorrow. The pathologist is inexperienced, uncertain, and dare not issue a report.¡± Director Tan is very experienced. Taking pathology samples is a mandatory procedure. How could he make such a basic mistake? However, as orthopedic surgeons, they don¡¯t know how to interpret pathology slides. Otherwise, Director Tan would have personally gone to the pathology department to examine the pathology slides. ¡°Shall we go and see?¡± Yang Ping suggested to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. After all, the surgery was over and they had plenty of time. The two generals nodded. ¡°How about continuing the discussion while we go and check out the pathology department?¡± Yang Ping had some ideas, but was currently unsure. So, he decided to go examine the pathology slides. If he could confirm his deductions, then nothing could go wrong. ¡°You think?¡± Song Zimo asked. Yang Ping made a ¡°shush¡± gesture, indicating everyone to keep quiet. Xu Zhiliang seemed to understand something and brightened up. ¡°I¡¯m not sure yet. Let¡¯s go to the pathology department first and then come back here to verify,¡± Yang Ping said to the two of them. ¡°You guys go and check it out,¡± Professor Zhang allowed. Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang took a momentary leave. The pathology department was in another building, which housed all the auxiliary departments like radiology, pathology, laboratory, ECG, etc. The trio didn¡¯t waste time and rushed off to the pathology department. Doctors have a natural interest in unusual diseases. The pathology department does not work night shifts and was about to close for the day. Dr. Wen, the last one to leave, was preparing to switch off the lights and lock the door when he saw the trio rushing over. Caught off guard, Dr. Wen blocked the entrance. On closer inspection, he said, ¡°Professor Yang? Dr. Song? Dr. Xu?¡± ¡°What brings you here?¡± Dr. Wen was quite surprised. ¡°Sorry to keep you from leaving work. We want to see a patient¡¯s pathology slides?¡± Yang Ping hurriedly said, feeling slightly awkward about delaying Dr. Wen¡¯s departure. ¡°Oh!¡± Right away, Dr. Wen turned on the lights and welcomed the giants of Sanbo Hospital into his office. Hearing someone wanted to see the patient¡¯s pathology slides, Dr. Wen also became interested. He usually enjoyed fiddling with the pathology slides alone. Pathology is a quiet and undervalued department. There¡¯s no money and it¡¯s lonely. Pathologists are even more lonesome, spending all day looking at tissue sections under the microscope. ¡°Whose patient is it?¡± Dr. Wen turned on all the lights. ¡°Orthopedic trauma, Zhang Tiejun!¡± Yang Ping reported the name. Xu Zhiliang handed over a small note with the name and hospital number written on it. ¡°Zhang Tiejun?¡± Dr. Wen¡¯s interest was piqued. He promptly picked out Zhang Tiejun¡¯s case slides from the storage box and carefully placed them under the microscope. ¡°Professor Yang, Director Guan said that not only can you read pathology slides, but your skill level is also very high. I didn¡¯t believe it. In China, I¡¯ve never encountered a surgeon who reads pathology slides. You¡¯re here for this patient. What does this slide show?¡± Dr. Wen sat down confidently, like a examiner, waiting to see Yang Ping¡¯s response. He had already identified the case but was waiting for Director Guan¡¯s return the next day to issue the report. The case was so rare that he had to wait for the director¡¯s signature before he could release it. ¡°Have a look?¡± Yang Ping asked. Dr. Wen pointed to the slide: ¡°Have a look?¡± It was like the prelude to a street brawl: ¡°Show me your moves.¡± If they wanted to look, then why not. The system space included countless slides which weren¡¯t of any value. They had looked at so many already, this was basic knowledge. Dr. Wen sat cross-legged on one side. He had been working for so long, yet he had never had this much fun. ¡°Old Wen, how about we make a bet?¡± Xu Zhiliang put his arm around him. Song Zimo joined in from the other side: ¡°Yes! Do you already have an idea?¡± ¡°Bet what? I tell you, for this case slide, if Professor Yang can diagnose it, I will run around the hospital three times bare-chested?¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you say naked? Are you unsure?¡± Naked? Dr. Wen was a little scared. Professor Yang¡¯s reputation in Sanbo Hospital was godlike. If he really could diagnose it, would he still have any dignity left? It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t trust his own diagnosis, but rather that he was worried about Dr. Yang. The man was somewhat unfathomable, too godly! ¡°Oh, going bare-chested is already my limit, let¡¯s leave it at that.¡± ¡°Fine!¡± ¡°And if I lose?¡± Chapter 692 - 692 617 The Truth Revealed ?Chapter 692: Chapter 617: The Truth Revealed Chapter 692: Chapter 617: The Truth Revealed ¡°Professor Yang, what do you think is the pathological diagnosis?¡± Dr. Wen was not ready to give up yet. It took him a whole day of research to be confident about the diagnosis. How could a surgeon like him figure it out so quickly? It had been no more than ten or so minutes at most. But from what Yang Ping had just said, it was clear that he already knew the diagnosis. To get to the bottom of it, Dr. Wen felt compelled to ask. ¡°It is consistent with the pathological manifestation of high-dose radiation injury,¡± Yang Ping answered with certainty. Dr. Wen¡¯s heart clenched, his insides turning icy cold. He dreaded the thought of running three laps around the hospital in his underwear tomorrow, ruining his gentlemanly image that he had always maintained in the pathology department. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang looked up simultaneously. They hadn¡¯t figured out exactly what it was yet, but from the look on Dr. Wen¡¯s face, they knew Yang Ping¡¯s diagnosis was right. ¡°Tomorrow at noon, three laps around the hospital. A gentleman¡¯s word is his bond, even if it means outrunning a team of horses,¡± Dr. Wen gritted his teeth and said. ¡°Wearing briefs!¡± ¡°And preferably with cartoons!¡± Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang reminded him. ¡°I know, I, Wen Ruzheng, always keep my word,¡± Dr. Wen avoided direct eye contact, feeling lonely and pained at this moment. It was not about running around the hospital in his underwear, but about the blow to his professional dignity. ¡°We need to investigate the patient¡¯s history further. If it¡¯s true, we don¡¯t know where the radiation source is. It¡¯s lethal,¡± Yang Ping expressed his worries about the radiation source. The possibility of the source still being on the patient was almost zero. If it were still on him, he would probably have died already. Moreover, those around him, such as his girlfriend, would definitely fall ill and it wouldn¡¯t be just him. Dr. Wen was deeply ashamed. That¡¯s right, how could he have overlooked the danger posed by the radiation source and waited for Director Han to return before issuing the report? It wasn¡¯t that he lacked a sense of responsibility, but that he had completely neglected this. Given the gravity of the situation, they could not afford to waste any more time and immediately returned to the Trauma and Orthopedics office. The meeting had not adjourned yet. Director Tan was preparing for emergency surgery that evening to clean and remove the necrotic tissues from the limbs to prevent further severe infection and toxins from entering the bloodstream. Professor Zhang and several heads of departments were in conversation. On seeing Yang Ping return, he asked: ¡°Xiao Yang, have you discovered anything?¡± Yang Ping glanced at Dr. Wen, indicating that he should answer. Feeling a bit nervous, Dr. Wen said, ¡°From the pathology slides, it seems consistent with the pathological manifestation of very high-dose radiation injury.¡± Yang Ping supplemented, ¡°We speculate that the patient might have picked up a radiation source and kept it in his pants pocket on his right. We need to investigate his history further. If he really picked up a radiation source, where is that radiation source now?¡± Radiation source? The expression on Professor Zhang¡¯s face immediately turned solemn, ¡°We need to confirm this immediately.¡± Director Tan and the others also became pale. This was a serious matter. Where was the radiation source? Was it still on the patient? If it were indeed severe radiation injury, the patient¡¯s condition would be even more complicated as the internal organs might also begin to show signs of damage. ¡°I¡¯ll ask for more information about his history. In the meantime, alert the nurse station to keep everyone from approaching Zhang Tiejun¡¯s ward,¡± Professor Zhang, without hesitation, immediately stood. Yang Ping wanted to accompany Professor Zhang to the ward, but he absolutely disagreed: ¡°All of you, just stay here. Let¡¯s determine the situation after I get more information.¡± Professor Zhang didn¡¯t allow anyone else to go with him; instead, he went to inquire about the patient history alone. If it really was radiation damage caused by a radiation source and the source was still on him, it might harm everyone else. Being eighty, he had nothing to fear. Reaching the ward, Professor Zhang asked the two training students to leave and return to the doctor¡¯s office. He also called Zhang Tiejun¡¯s girlfriend out and asked her to take a break in the rest room. After asking everyone not involved to leave, Professor Zhang began to question, ¡°Zhang Tiejun, I need you to recall carefully if you picked up any metal objects before falling sick? Especially if the object was shiny and beautiful. This is very important to your treatment. Because we think your limb necrosis is due to radiation damage.¡± At Professor Zhang¡¯s sudden questioning, Zhang Tiejun¡¯s face showed expressions of uncertainty and recollection. He said, ¡°Now that you bring it up, I remember picking up a shiny bracelet many days ago under a bridge in a pile of rocks.¡± ¡°Where is that object now? On you?¡± ¡°No. It was in my pants pocket at the time, but later, I found that the pocket was torn and I lost it somewhere. I didn¡¯t care about it, so I forgot about it. Now when you ask, I recall it.¡± ¡°Which pocket did you put it in?¡± ¡°The right side, I think.¡± ¡°When did this happen?¡± His forehead breaking into a sweat, Zhang Tiejun said, ¡°It should be on the morning of the day I fell sick. I was jogging on the bridge and saw something shiny underneath. Curious, I went under the bridge and found it quite difficult to reach the shiny object. I had to struggle a great deal, and my shoes were all muddy. I almost fell into the river. It turned out to be a bracelet. I thought it was something valuable like a diamond, so I picked it up quickly, washed it in the river, and put it in my pants pocket.¡± Professor Zhang drew a sharp breath, was it really a radiation injury caused by a radiation source? There are nearly two thousand lost radiation sources in our country that haven¡¯t been found. Most of these are in the form of attractive metallic items, posing as a potential killer. So, don¡¯t pick up any unidentified metal items in the wild, especially the pretty ones. After taking the patient¡¯s history, Professor Zhang let Zhang Tiejun rest, preparing for emergency debridement surgery. He immediately made phone calls to Dean Xia, Director Han, and Director Zhao at the Medical Service Department. Director Zhao took this matter very seriously and promptly reported it to the G City Police Department on behalf of the hospital. Professor Zhang returned to his office and told everyone, ¡°I¡¯ve confirmed it, this is a radioactive injury. The radioactive source is no longer on his body. It fell off in Shipo County, and I have already reported this to the Medical Service Department.¡± If it¡¯s a radioactive injury, then the problem is quite complicated; we need help from doctors specializing in treating radiation injuries, or transfer the patient to a specialized hospital. The 307 Hospital in Beijing currently has the most experience in treating this type of case. Dean Xia, Director Zhao, and Director Han lived nearby and they quickly arrived at the department. This group of old colleagues used to live in the hospital dormitories, and then gradually bought homes nearby. The orthopedics office suddenly became lively with everyone discussing vigorously. ¡°The patient is currently running a high fever, what¡¯s our next step?¡± Director Tan asked for Director Han¡¯s opinion. ¡°The necrotic tissue definitely needs to be removed, or else there¡¯ll be risks during transport. We¡¯ll stick to the original plan and perform emergency surgery tonight to remove the necrotic tissue. If limb amputation is necessary, then we¡¯ll amputate,¡± Director Han asserted decisively. ¡°I¡¯ll get in touch with 307 Hospital in Beijing, and we¡¯ll send the patient there tomorrow morning by helicopter,¡± Director Zhao was in charge of coordinating the transfer. ¡°What did the police say?¡± Dean Xia needed to follow up on the handling of the radioactive source, as Sanbo Hospital was the one that discovered it. ¡°They have already reported to the Provincial Hall. The nearest local police will be here soon. The provincial police and radiation experts will arrive shortly. They will need to consult Zhang Tiejun about his activities that day to establish the possible range where the radioactive source could have fallen. Then, the Shipo police will seal off the suspected area, with radiation technicians responsible for retrieval,¡± Director Zhao reported, clearly very busy. Just as they were discussing the police, they arrived. The first to arrive were local law enforcement, who briefly met with Director Zhao and then, accompanied by Director Tan, went to get further details and investigate the day¡¯s activities. This was certainly a major public safety incident, and everyone was extremely tense. Reportedly, the Provincial Hall had already reported the matter to the Provincial Government, and provincial radiation safety experts equipped with recovery detectors had been sent by helicopter to Shipo. Leaders from the Provincial Department, the Public Security Department, and the Emergency Management Department were also urgently en route to the frontline. The police were here to gather information to support the search for the radioactive source. Apparently, there would be three waves of police officers arriving one after another. Now that the diagnosis was clear, there wasn¡¯t much point in the heads of the various departments staying here. It was a rare case, probably unique in their medical careers. Professor Zhang, aware of the awkward stance of the department heads, suggested: ¡°The diagnosis is clear. Everyone can take a break. We all still have work to do tomorrow.¡± Grasping this opportunity, the department heads each returned home, but not before shaking hands with Professor Zhang. Professor Zhang¡¯s previous insistence on not allowing everyone into the ward had greatly impressed the department chiefs. Doctor Wen, seeing such a fuss was made, felt terribly ashamed. If not for Yang Ping¡¯s visit to the Pathology Department to look at the tissue sections, he would have waited till tomorrow to report, delaying the matter even more, potentially putting more people at risk. Dean Xia, Director Han, and Director Zhao were constantly on the phone. After the police had finished questioning everyone and reported back to their higher-ups, they came to the doctor¡¯s office for a rest. They dared not leave, as they were waiting for the next group of officers to arrive and may need to send in additional information at any moment. ¡°The area under that bridge is already sealed off. The police there have started a carpet search. I just reported the range of activities we collected, and they will evacuate and secure the area tonight. The provincial experts took a detection robot with them,¡± the police officer updated everyone. After Dean Xia finished his call, he said: ¡°I have reported the patient¡¯s condition. We will proceed with the emergency surgery tonight as planned, and we¡¯ll transport him to 307 Hospital by helicopter tomorrow morning. The province is directly involved.¡± ¡°Old Zhang, Xiao Yang, why aren¡¯t you going home to rest? You should leave; we¡¯re here handling this,¡± Dean Xia said once he finally had a moment to chat. He looked around and said, ¡°Everyone who¡¯s not involved in tonight¡¯s surgery, go home. We¡¯ll all be busy tomorrow.¡± ¡°The experts at 307 Hospital also suggest performing emergency surgery first and then transferring the patient to their hospital,¡± Director Han said after putting down the phone. ¡°How did we figure out the diagnosis just now?¡± Director Han refocused on the matter at hand, given that the patient wasn¡¯t diagnosed until today after multiple department-wide consultations over the course of three days, and nothing about this was mentioned in his medical history before. ¡°The pathological diagnosis aligns with the symptoms of high dosage radiation exposure. Additional questioning of the patient¡¯s history revealed that he had picked up a metal bracelet before falling ill,¡± Professor Zhang answered. ¡°This kind of serious radioactive injury is extremely rare, who examined the tissue samples?¡± Director Han was very concerned about this. ¡°It was Dr. Wen from Pathology. Wen, come here,¡± Professor Zhang had thought all along that Doctor Wen was the one who examined the tissue sections. Doctor Wen turned red from embarrassment, his voice changed as he confessed, ¡°I did find it, but I didn¡¯t dare to report it. I was planning to wait until Professor Guan returns tomorrow before reporting it. It was Professor Yang who noticed and reminded me to report it promptly.¡± Being both honest and reserved, Dr. Wen spoke honestly if he had something to say and kept quiet if he didn¡¯t. Yang Ping? Him again! Both Professor Zhang and Director Han were already used to it. PS: This case was adapted from the Song Xuewen case from Jilin in the 1990s. Interweaving this case mainly serves as a warning to remind everyone of a safety precaution: do not pick up metal items in the wild. Currently, more than 2000 radioactive sources have been reported lost and not found. Because last time¡¯s recommendation got a good result, today it will be promoted again in the popular select recommendation on Starting Point Client. That¡¯s if the result is still good, there may be more big promotions to come. I humbly ask everyone to vote¡ªmonthly votes, recommendation votes, use them up! Chapter 693 - 693 618 The Gentleman ?Chapter 693: Chapter 618: The Gentleman Chapter 693: Chapter 618: The Gentleman That evening, the provincial leaders personally oversaw the operations. The Shipo police and armed police were deployed, promptly blockading the area along Zhang Tiejun¡¯s route of activity and evacuating and screening the people involved. County Chief Wu of Shipo County was a capable person. Upon receiving the notification, he personally took action. Even before the leaders from the province arrived, he had already begun to coordinate efforts and strategically deploy resources to block off the area and carry out evacuation based on the information provided. When it comes to matters of life and death, no one dared to slack off. A slight oversight could lead to a disaster, not only jeopardizing their positions, but also possibly translating to a new job ¨C operating a sewing machine in prison. The area was split into grids for searching. The armed police and local police didn¡¯t even have time to put on their protective suits, and the small county town couldn¡¯t possibly source enough radiation protection suits all of a sudden. In order to find the radiation source as quickly as possible, they went into action lightly equipped and without any protection. Before setting out, they were briefed on some knowledge about radiation sources. In case they found one, they were to seal and guard it on the spot, keep a distance from the source, change the guards regularly, temporarily put on limited protective suits, and wait for experts to arrive for recovery. Distance protection is the simplest, yet also effective. A helicopter urgently transported the first batch of experts and equipment to Shipo County¡¯s county seat. Without even having a drink of water, they started to use the advantage of their equipment and began a carpet-style search. One team after another materialized as the second and third batches of experts and equipment arrived. After painstakingly searching and only finding objects like gold rings, keychains, screws, metal buttons, and pull rings, around 3 am, the radiation safety experts finally located the radiation source in a drain by a road with the help of detection equipment. They recovered it to a specialized sealed container. That way, the troublesome radiation source was completely controlled. The households on that street might also have been exposed to radiation damage and were taken to the hospital for inspection. As it turned out, the so-called ¡°bracelet¡± was actually a finely structured metal segment. It looked like a broken chain, because the metal material was very shiny and had a good texture. It was very beautiful and easy to mistake for valuable metal jewelry. However, no one could have imagined that the matchstick-sized object attached to it contained the extremely hazardous radioactive material Iridium-192! This kind of radioactive material is usually used for industrial inspections and is stored in a professional container. No one knew when or how it ended up outside and was picked up by Zhang Tiejun under the bridge. It was this beautiful ¡°bracelet of terror¡± that subjected Zhang Tiejun to radiation exposure thousands of times higher than the safety limit for a few hours. Fortunately, when he picked up the metal piece that day, the source slipped out of his pocket. This broken pocket saved Zhang Tiejun. Otherwise, prolonged exposure would have certainly led to his death, with no chance to receive treatment. When Zhang Tiejun carried the radiation source, he did not have close, prolonged contact with other people, and the place where it fell wasn¡¯t a densely populated area, thus avoiding an even greater disaster. When the radiation source was found, everyone from the province to the county breathed a sigh of relief ¨C this was a major public safety event. After undergoing emergency surgery that night, Zhang Tiejun had his right hand amputated from the wrist, a large amount of necrotic tissue was removed from his right hip area, and varied amounts of necrotic tissue were removed from multiple areas on his left upper and lower limb. The following morning, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s helicopter was not used. For the sake of time, the province sent a medical airplane to transport Zhang Tiejun to Beijing¡¯s 307 Hospital for continued treatment. Because the necrosis was progressive, Zhang Tiejun still had many surgeries ahead of him. Also, his organs were also likely to become necrotic soon. So, there were many challenges ahead for this young man. ¡ª¡ª¡ª The next day at noon, a significant and unusual event occurred at Sanbo Hospital. Doctor Wen of the Pathology department was seen running around the hospital in his underwear, attracting the attention of many doctors, nurses, patients, patients¡¯ families, and bystanders. Unconcerned about anyone else, Doctor Wen completed his warm-up exercises and then started running around the hospital from the east gate. Three laps, and not a single one less. He comforted himself with the spirit of Ah Q, reasoning that his swimming trunks weren¡¯t much different from his underwear. There was nothing to be shy about. Moreover, he had a bit of muscle, which had a certain aesthetic appeal. Upon hearing the news, people gradually flocked to see, especially the younger forces at the hospital¨Cgraduate students, standardized training students, and interns. Usually, they spent all day in the hospital working with not much in the way of entertainment. At lunchtime, upon hearing about this strange event, anyone with spare time left their meals uneaten and began searching for the running man. The crowd of onlookers grew larger, with people both young and old, male and female. However, there were mostly young men, while women generally watched from a distance. Many people ran along, some recorded videos with their mobile phones and posted them on their moments, while others egged him on. Doctor Wen¡¯s actions were not only to fulfill his bet¡¯s punishment, but also an act of self-reproach. Having made a definite diagnosis, he failed to realize that it was a public safety incident and even figured on waiting until the next day to report it. So, he used this method to remind himself not to repeat such mistakes in the future. There was also another reason, his shame at being outranked by a novice in the diagnosis of pathological sections. He was using this event to remember his humiliation and motivate himself to do better. If it weren¡¯t for me, Wen Ruzheng, the pathology department of Sanbo Hospital would have regressed three years. He was determined to win this round back eventually. ¡°Keep going!¡± ¡°Nice muscles.¡± ¡°Surprisingly, he doesn¡¯t have a beer belly, but neither does he have abs.¡± ¡°Who is that? Someone from the pathology department?¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why is he suddenly running half-naked?¡± ¡°Did something happen to him?¡± ¡°Hard to say!¡± It was noon, everyone¡¯s time to eat and rest. Although many people gathered in the operation room, even more people went to the hospital canteen to eat. Sanbo Hospital had thousands of employees and spectators couldn¡¯t resist a good spectacle. Step by step, the owners and employees of the stores around the hospital and passers-by also joined the crowd of onlookers. When the news of someone running around the hospital in his underwear reached the ears of Director Zhao in the hospital¡¯s medical department, he began to think this person was crazy. The constant looking at pathology sections must have damaged his brain. Performing such indecent and uncivilized acts. Director Zhao grabbed the phone and roared into the receiver: ¡°Old Guan, what¡¯s going on with your colleague Wen Ruzheng? In broad daylight, I hear he¡¯s running around the hospital in his underwear? He¡¯s making a spectacle of himself. Is he mad? If he really is, send him to the psychiatric ward for a few injections. Go get him for me and if you can¡¯t, he can just quit his job tomorrow. We don¡¯t have such nutcases in Sanbo¡ªI¡¯ll go get him myself. Where is he now?¡± Director Zhao originally wanted the head of pathology department, Guan, to settle the matter, but eventually decided to do it himself if Old Guan couldn¡¯t. ¡°He¡¯s now at the north gate, with a cheerleading squad.¡± The secretary reported, he has been following the situation closely, gathering information to spice up his moment story. Bloody annoying. There are such lunatics, Director Zhao clenches his chest. Dean Xia has been quite unconventional in hiring talents in recent years, all sorts of strange creatures have been recruited. That Xu Zhiliang, not to mention his stuttering, devours eight large steamed buns per meal, always falls asleep during meetings. Criticised numerous times, he remains as unyielding as a dead pig who isn¡¯t afraid of boiling water. Now he¡¯s been recruited by Yang Ping, becoming even more fearless. This Wen Ruzheng, not a normal character either, these PhDs really have been studying to the point of madness. ¡°Do you know why? Why he suddenly went for an underwear parade?¡± The secretary almost sprayed his meal, ¡®underwear parade¡¯, Director Zhao is quite trendy with the phrases. ¡°Not quite sure, I¡¯m still asking the doctors from Pathology.¡± The secretary lifted his smartphone. Dumbasses! Sanbo is going to be a laughing stock in the healthcare industry, an honourable Sanbo doctor, a PhD, running around the hospital in his underwear, Sanbo is about to become internet famous. ¡°Take me there now, where is he now?¡± Director Zhao decided to take matters into his own hands, not even able to tame these rascals. Doctor Wen is running around the hospital in a counter-clockwise direction, having already passed the north and west gates, soon to reach the south one. The enthusiastic onlookers haven¡¯t diminished, with folks like a fishmonger wearing a chef¡¯s hat, even carrying a knife in his hand. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang didn¡¯t expect him to really go through with it. The two rushed up to stop Doctor Wen. Xu Zhiliang cursed: ¡°Still not¡ªashamed enough, you¡ªthink¡ªthink¡ªthink¡ªyou¡¯re all trendy and hip in your undies, right?¡± Doctor Wen stiffened his neck: ¡°I, Wen Ruzheng, stand upright with my conscience clear¡ª¡ª¡± ¡°I let you stand upright with your conscience clear, I let you stand upright with your conscience clear¡ª¡ª¡± Director Zhao jumped out from somewhere, smacking Doctor Wen with a white gown. ¡°Put this on, to my office!¡± Director Zhao threw the white gown at Doctor Wen, kicking him hard on the ass, leaving a foot print on the underwear. Doctor Wen put on the white coat gloomily, half of his chest was exposed, buttons not properly fastened. He looked just like a pork butcher, following behind Director Zhao. ¡°Disperse, disperse. All of you just standing here watching instead of working, if you don¡¯t get back to work, I¡¯ll dock your salary.¡± Director Zhao was really angry, cursing at a few familiar young doctors from Sanbo Hospital. Doctor Wen, like a defeated pup, was dragged back to the medical office by Director Zhao. Once in the office, Director Zhao had the door closed by the secretary. He slapped his hand onto the desk. ¡°Wen Ruzheng, have all those pathology sections you¡¯ve looked at made you nuts? What kind of place is this hospital? What is your role here? You run around the hospital in your underwear, trying to get famous, right? If you dare, strip naked and run three laps.¡± Director Zhao stopped to take a sip of tea after his tirade. The tea was still piping hot, causing Director Zhao to grimace. ¡°I made a bet with someone, a gentleman¡¯s honor is at stake here.¡± Doctor Wen responded calmly, a mere run won¡¯t get a tenured man fired. ¡°Who did you make a bet with?¡± ¡°Yang Ping!¡± ¡°Yang Ping?¡± ¡°It¡¯s about yesterday¡¯s pathology section for the radiation source injury case. I bet that Yang Ping would not be able to make a diagnosis, but he did. And so today, I ran in my underwear.¡± ¡°Are you out of your mind? You could bet with anyone else but him. What kind of person is Yang Ping, can he even be considered a person?¡± Doctor Wen and the few secretaries turned their gaze to him. Feeling that what he just said was inappropriate, Director Zhao quickly added a sentence to avoid misunderstanding. ¡°He¡¯s simply an alien.¡± What kind of idiot would bet with Yang Ping? It serves him right, even if he had to run naked, not just in underwear. Half of Director Zhao¡¯s rage vanished. ¡°Today, Old Guan called and said that you can diagnose from this tissue section, good for you!¡± Director Zhao raised his thumb. ¡°If it¡¯s not based on clinical evidence, just from the tissue section alone, Old Guan also said he couldn¡¯t do it. Wen Ruzheng, you are really talented, just a little stubborn. Do you take every bet seriously, even when jokingly made? If I told you to eat shit, would you?¡± Doctor Wen still remained calm, like stubborn Kong Yiji. ¡°A gentleman¡¯s word, like a fast horse, cannot be chased back easily. That¡¯s why I didn¡¯t bet on eating shit, just about semi-naked running. This is something I knew I could do. I always consider whether I can fulfil what I agree to, never promising what I can¡¯t achieve.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re justified?¡± ¡°You asked me just now, I just expressed my genuine thoughts.¡± ¡°Director Zhao!¡± At this point, the secretary wanted to throw in a word. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Someone has phoned 12345 to complain about the underwear running, they are still asking for our response.¡± ¡°The person who complained must have been bored. Which eye of his saw it was underwear? Can¡¯t one wear a smaller size of sports shorts?¡± Director Zhao was so annoyed, he couldn¡¯t stand those who would complain at the drop of a hat. Chapter 694 - 694 619 Liver and Kidney Exchange ?Chapter 694: Chapter 619: Liver and Kidney Exchange Chapter 694: Chapter 619: Liver and Kidney Exchange ¡°Wen Ruzheng is also stubborn, he really ran around the hospital in his underwear and was violently kicked and scolded by Director Zhao in his office.¡± ¡°This guy was able to diagnose based on pathological tissue sections without clinical history. He¡¯s really impressive. Such cases are really rare. In the decade since Sanbo Hospital was founded, we probably have encountered only this one. It shows that he is quite the researcher.¡± ¡°He always says, ¡®without Wen Ruzheng, the pathology department of Sanbo Hospital would be three years behind.''¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t Director Guan beat him up for that?¡± ¡°Director Guan said, ¡®The kid¡¯s telling the truth. Since he joined the Pathology Department of Sanbo Hospital, the department¡¯s skill level has advanced more than three years.''¡± ¡°Old Guan plans to let him take over.¡± Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang were just finished with a surgery and were heading to the Intensive Care Unit to visit Li Jun and Qin Xiaowei, their cousins. They chatted along the way. When they reached the ICU, the family waiting area was packed with people. It was very noisy. Yang Ping paid it no mind, as it was a common occurrence at the ICU entrance. Last time, an organ donation coordinator was pushed around by a patient¡¯s family. The ICU ¡ª the Intensive Care Unit ¡ª is a field between life and death. This place treats all sorts of critically ill patients and houses the strongest monitor and rescue facilities in the entire hospital. In essence, this is the last line of defense for life. Most of the patients here are suffering from failure of a major organ or multiple organs and need various medications and machinery to sustain their lives. The ICU doctors strive to reverse the disease and save or extend the patients¡¯ lives as much as possible. A heavy door separates life from death. The patients inside are connected to various devices and tubes, their frail vital signs flashing on the monitors. The families outside agonize over whether to sign the consent form for the next stage of lifesaving intervention. In ¡°Life Matters¡± there is a passage: To choose or to give up is a choice every loved one faced, and making this choice is often very difficult. Because many people think: Once you¡¯re in ICU, there¡¯s a high probability that you can¡¯t get out, and in the end, it¡¯s a waste of money and effort. In reality, there¡¯s a high probability that one could come out alive. According to the statistics from Sanbo Hospital last year: Only 3.72% of patients were declared dead by the doctors in ICU due to severe deterioration; whereas the vast majority of patients successfully recovered and transferred out of the ICU, which is 86.68%. So what about the remaining 9.60% of patients? Due to various reasons, relatives chose to give up further treatment in the ICU, such as lack of funds to continue treatment, transferring back to local hospitals for various reasons, or because the patient is too old and they choose to return home in fear of dying in a strange place, and so on. From an intuition point of view, the ICU is the place with the highest mortality rate in the world. That is because the death rate of 3-4% is distributed over such a small area. Li Jun, who has just come off the machines, looks much better than before. Yang Ping greeted him. From his voice, Li Jun recognized Yang Ping, who was wearing a mask. Perhaps those engaged in music have keen hearing. ¡°Why do I feel restless?¡± Li Jun asked Dr. An. Dr. An exchanged looks with Yang Ping. Li Jun didn¡¯t know about the accident involving his cousin. Dr. An was considering whether to tell him. He hadn¡¯t figured out how to break the news and decided to keep it hidden for now. ¡°You just came off the machine. Your heart is under a lot of strain. You will experience feelings of restlessness.¡± Dr. An explained. ¡°What about my cousin? Hasn¡¯t he been here recently?¡± Li Jun has asked this question many times. Dr. An comforted him, ¡°He¡¯s been a bit busy recently. The few times he came, he left in a hurry.¡± Li Jun was silent at this point, his eyes looked unfocused, then his eyes seemed to wetten slowly. Everyone arrived at the doctor¡¯s office in the ICU, had a drink of water, and sat for a while. Dr. An said, ¡°Qin Xiaowei¡¯s liver is now completely hopeless. He can only rely on an artificial liver for now and hope for a liver transplant in the future.¡± ¡°Qin Xiaowei¡¯s kidneys have already been successfully matched with Li Jun, so Li Jun¡¯s liver should also be able to successfully match with Qin Xiaowei¡¯s liver. They can exchange liver and kidneys.¡± Song Zimo thought this was just right. Humans have two kidneys. As long as both are healthy, removing one isn¡¯t detrimental to one¡¯s health. And liver transplants are often not a complete liver transplant, but can be a partial liver transplant. Dr. An said, ¡°Director Liu, who is responsible for kidney transplants, and Director Li, who is responsible for liver transplants, have been here. They also raised this idea. We¡¯re thinking about how to communicate with Li Jun.¡± Both are wolves of the same pack. These two cousins really have shared fates! The ICU is a place where human nature is exposed. Until the worst of times, one can never know the beauty and ugliness of human nature. ¡°A few days ago, a patient¡¯s wife turned off her phone and never came back. A few days later, the patient¡¯s old father came and said his wife had quietly left.¡± ¡°You should have seen a big family at the door when you came in. They are the children of the patient in bed six. The old man has six children, four sons and two daughters. It¡¯s rare for them to get together, and instead of figuring out how to save the old man, who was still alive, the children were arguing about the inheritance right at the door.¡± Dr. An couldn¡¯t help but laugh, he was just bringing them a bill to pay. The eldest one said that since the old man usually treated the youngest son well, the youngest son should pay. The youngest son said that since the eldest brother is the firstborn, he should pay! The second son and the third son said they couldn¡¯t afford it. The two daughters said they are daughters and this matter should be handled by the sons. In the end, no one signed the consent form nor paid the bill. Four sons and two daughters contributed less than other families with just one child. The Director of the ICU was more blunt, saying that it would be better to raise a dog, because a dog would at least bark when the owner is in danger. ¡°Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun ¡ª don¡¯t they have relatives?¡± Xu Zhiliang asked. Dr. An shook his head, ¡°At least they never talked about it, but there is this company that keeps coming to understand their condition, helps pay for the medical expenses, and even told us to pass a message to Qin Xiaowei that the money has been transferred to his card.¡± ¡°Money at the cost of life!¡± Song Zimo felt a bit saddened. Qin Xiaowei currently relies on an artificial liver to sustain his life, but this also is not an ultimate solution. The problem has to be resolved by a liver transplant. The artificial liver and the treatment concept of hemodialysis are the same. They are replacement therapies and modes of blood purification treatment. The difference is that while hemodialysis substitutes for the kidney¡¯s function, the artificial liver substitutes for the liver¡¯s function. The artificial liver employs artificial high-tech materials to mimic human liver structure and build a type of blood filter. This filter replaces the poisonous plasma of the patient with healthy plasma, removing harmful toxins from the body, and thereby reducing the damage from toxins to other organs such as the heart, brain, and kidneys, and keeping essential life organs functioning normally. Just like in hemodialysis, it takes the patient¡¯s blood out of the body, and discarded patient¡¯s plasma is separated from the blood through a membrane plasma separation method. Then an equal amount of frozen fresh plasma or human serum albumin is added as a replacement fluid. This way, all kinds of metabolic toxins and pathogenic factors in a patient¡¯s body can be eliminated, thus achieving the therapeutic purpose. ¡°Alright, we must leave. Let us know if there are any updates, and do find an opportunity to have a good chat with Li Jun.¡± Yang Ping stood up to leave. ¡°I¡¯m considering how to talk to him. Director Liu said that due to Li Jun¡¯s health condition, to perform a simultaneous liver resection and kidney transplant would pose a significant risk. We don¡¯t know what Li Jun¡¯s thoughts are.¡± Dr. An saw Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang out. Chapter 695 - 695 620 The Show Tour ?Chapter 695: Chapter 620: The ¡°Show¡± Tour Chapter 695: Chapter 620: The ¡°Show¡± Tour Friday afternoon. August sent a message that he was planning to return to China to continue his studies. The Little Duke¡¯s post-surgery condition has been extremely stable, with no signs of infection and no complications from spinal or nerve damage. His heart is truly stabilizing, and the residual function still supports the body¡¯s circulation. Now, the Little Duke has successfully come off ECMO support. This means that the Little Duke will have time to wait for a heart transplant to prolong his life. Charite Medical College quickly initiated a project to use the Little Duke¡¯s surgery as a research topic. William, Lloyd, and Constantin brought together a group of doctors and basic medical researchers to systematically study Yang Ping¡¯s surgery, in hopes of obtaining something valuable. The Germans said, this surgery was a treasure trove, and they would dig deep. Benefiting from the strength demonstrated by this surgery, the phase III clinical trial of the spinal external fixation frame in the German Ministry of Health has entered the approval process. The passing of it was certain. August needed to return to China as soon as possible, master the new technology, and then carry out clinical trials. The Duke Foundation will establish a special charity project to financially support children and teenagers with spinal malformations. This project will first be implemented in China. Robert seemed a bit lonely and anxious for August to return quickly. Whether in the Department of Comprehensive Surgery or the Center for Sports Medicine, intricate and severe shoulder and knee injuries keep coming in from time to time. Most of these patients have no savior. After arriving at the hospital and being examined by the doctor, they are told: Try going to Yang Ping at Sanbo Hospital. Maybe there is some hope. Thus, patients are referred to Sanbo Hospital. These doctors also only know of Yang Ping through their papers. ¡°Professor, how about we collaborate on a project? Let¡¯s research knee cartilage regeneration. Aren¡¯t you working on a project to cultivate organs with stem cells? If stem cells can cultivate cartilage, in the future, whether it is knee cartilage damage or osteoarthritis, we can try culturing artificial cartilage to transplant through surgery. I¡¯ll handle the specific work. You just need to provide technical guidance.¡± Robert was interested in initiating a project with Yang Ping. In the clinical trial of the spinal external fixation frame, he¡¯s just getting projects for the Special Surgery Hospital¡¯s Orthopedics Department in New York. This is not his specialty. Robert was keen on having his own project with the professor. Yang Ping agreed that this project would indeed make a great extension of his own research topic. Robert, like a student who¡¯s just finished his homework and has been granted free time by his parents, clenched his fists in excitement. Yang Ping remembered that there was an anti-corruption education meeting he had to attend ¨C not for anyone else, but just to hear Director Wu confess in person. It¡¯s been a while since he saw the old director. Now that he was coming to Sanbo Hospital to ¡°perform¡±, as a former subordinate who received much care from the old director, he should at least show some support. Why was the meeting scheduled for Friday afternoon? Because generally, everyone has time then. On Saturdays and Sundays, the hospital is closed. Only emergency surgeries are performed, not elective ones. The heads of each department usually wouldn¡¯t schedule a lot of surgeries on Friday, if possible, to avoid running late. Everyone tends to rush home to spend the rare weekend with their family. Some directors also use the weekend to rush to other clinics¡ªto perform surgeries in lower-level hospitals. After all, for surgeons, these gigs bring in substantial income. For senior directors who are qualified and have the opportunity for such gigs, this income is much more than their salary, and could even be their main income. However, not everyone is qualified or has the opportunity to make such visits. There aren¡¯t many doctors who have a certain level of reputation or network of connections for these gigs and are at least an associate physician in a provincial hospital or university-affiliated hospital. Generally, these doctors are at least in their forties, and it¡¯s indispensable to have doctorate degrees and study abroad experience. These doctors, if translated into other industries, would be at least at the level of a provincial hall officer in the administrative industry; they would be well-known special-grade teachers in top-ranking schools across the province in the teaching industry; they would definitely be executives of several large state-owned or private enterprises in the business field. For example, Director Ding in the Orthopedics Department is a major player in this external service. His network for such gigs is quite large within Nandu Province. Many people wouldn¡¯t attend this kind of meeting in Sanbo Hospital¡¯s administrative meeting room if it weren¡¯t for Dean Xia¡¯s presence. This meeting was an anti-corruption education tour organized by the Provincial Health Department. It was organized by the Discipline Inspection Department of the Provincial Hall, which brought in several people involved in typical cases to ¡°perform¡± in each major hospital. They used their own cases to warn everyone not to stretch out their hands; those who do will definitely be caught. Yang Ping came to the meeting room alone and found a seat near the back. He rarely attended meetings, and even if he did, he preferred to sit in the back where it was more convenient to slip away or make small movements. Aside from the people from the Provincial Hall¡¯s Discipline Inspection Department on stage, Yang Ping didn¡¯t see any people involved in the case who would come forward to share. He thought that these people must be wearing prison uniforms, shaving their heads, lowering their heads and having signs hanging on their chests. The Discipline Inspection Department¡¯s leader was a woman in her forties, with short hair, looking very competent. She was talking to Dean Xia, with the other people chatting with each other. The attendees filed in one by one. Director Ding came in while on the phone: ¡°Pick up the patient on time, you start with disinfection and bedsheeting, I¡¯ll be there in two hours ¡ª¡± He was heading to a town hospital that night for a gig. Director Ding was pretty busy, belonging to one of those people with a strong financial mindset, and thus, he had quite a lot of patients on a regular basis. At Sanbo Hospital, his surgeries also had a characteristic: no matter what the surgery, he always used the most expensive materials. When his junior doctors scheduled surgeries and ordered equipment, they didn¡¯t even need to discuss with him. Picking the most expensive option was always right, as Director Ding loved the idea of ¡®getting what you pay for¡¯. Director Ding scanned the conference room, seeking out Director Han, then took a seat beside him, primarily to establish his obedience and discipline in front of Director Han. Back in the days of the Sino-Japanese friendship academic conferences, Director Han would conduct equipping drills before meetings, training all the members of orthopedics; Director Ding thus narrowly escaped being kicked out by Director Han, fortunately putting the brakes on right at the edge of the cliff. Once everyone had nearly arrived, the imposing figure of Dean Xia moved to the front of the podium to deliver an opening speech, highlighting the importance of the conference. Then, the female supervisor led a recap of some typical medical industry cases from the past two years, particularly the cases of Xie and Wu, hoping to serve as a warning to all. Yang Ping also had a copy of the study material, which included case information about Xie and Wu. It was shocking to him that Dean Xie was so capable, maintaining no fewer than twelve mistresses of all ages from their twenties to their forties. Each one received an apartment, a luxury car, and hundreds of thousands in spending money each year. Seriously, he had money and energy to spare! No wonder the hospital was left destitute, even deducting the doctors¡¯ night shift fees, with the shift funds being used to fund his mistresses. Like a vast net of heaven and earth, with its meshes wide yet letting nothing through, this guy got what he deserved. Yang Ping flipped through the study material again. Dean Xie had gained a fortune through purchasing equipment, hospital infrastructure construction, and medical supplies procurement. Even sugar saline solution used daily by the hospital became a tool for wealth accumulation due to its enormous annual consumption rate. Back in the day, the so-called department director competition put people in position at the highest bidder. If you didn¡¯t pay, then sorry, please step down. Of course, with experts like Dean Xie, there were a hundred justifications to let the non-paying department directors to step down. If you were young, he would claim you lacked experience and needed more training; if you were older, he¡¯d claim that it was time for younger people to step up; if your technique was good, he¡¯d say you lacked managerial abilities; and if you had good management skills, he would say you were corrupted by greed, treating the department like a business, you¡¯ve lost your original intention to serve patients. It¡¯s a pity Old Xie played himself right into confinement. Director Wu was no better, he gained promotion by secretly giving gratifications to Dean Xie. He accidentally befriended Jiang Baicheng, a notable figure in the political and business spheres, and almost became the vice president. If he¡¯d continued on this trajectory, he would have been the next Dean Xie. Luckily, Jiang¡¯s family discovered the truth in time to prevent another Dean Xie from emerging. The conference room suddenly fell quiet as the disciplinary official concluded her speech, and a man with a shaved head stepped onto the stage, certainly looking the part of a guilty party. Yang Ping¡¯s eyesight was superb, and he immediately recognized, wasn¡¯t that Old Director Wu? Director Wu, is that you? Yang Ping seemed to want to go up and ask. His formerly thinning hair had been replaced by a shaved head, his voice was husky, and unless you knew him well, you wouldn¡¯t dare to recognize him. No matter what, it¡¯s always best not to break the law. Director Wu, with his raspy voice on stage, tearfully expressed with rich emotions, recounting his journey and fall from grace, losing his initial rectitude, straying from the right path, and acting against the law and discipline, eventually receiving punishment by law. He wasn¡¯t wearing a prison uniform but a shirt and trousers. His style of dress hadn¡¯t changed at all, with the shirt always appearing somewhat untucked, one side laxly hanging out, bulging. Following Director Wu came Dean Xie. Dean Xie wasn¡¯t able to realize his wish of gardening in Australia. Like a shriveled old man, he intermittently read off a script on the stage. It¡¯s clear he didn¡¯t have the passionate performance of Director Wu, it was more like he was doing an assignment. Yang Ping heard from his former department colleagues that Director Wu¡¯s right-hand man, Director Fu, had made great contributions to this case. Director Fu confessed much clearer than anyone else, anyways everything bad was instigated by Director Wu. However, Director Fu didn¡¯t get a good end either, he¡¯s now in prison, not even having the chance to come out and report. At least Dean Xie and Director Wu are still able to get out, get some air, hold some talks. ¡°Should we go up and spit on them?¡± Little Five and Zhang Lin sneaked in, sitting next to Yang Ping to join in the spectacle. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°Forget it, they have already been punished by law. There¡¯s no meaning in beating a dead horse.¡± Yet, Little Five viewed it differently: ¡°I¡¯m not as magnanimous as you, I¡¯ll call out their names and spit on them later to vent.¡± Zhang Lin spurred him on from the side: ¡°Right, I¡¯ll join you. The opportunity knocks but once.¡± Chapter 696 - 696 621 Recruiting Talents ?Chapter 696: Chapter 621: Recruiting Talents Chapter 696: Chapter 621: Recruiting Talents After Dean Xie finished his speech, he started sobbing into the microphone. The disciplinary official waved her hand, and two plainclothes police officers who had been standing at the back of the stage immediately came forward to escort Dean Xie and Director Wu back to the backstage. The disciplinary officials summarized the educational implications of the case to everyone, hoping that everyone would take heed. Then Dean Xia made the concluding speech, and the meeting ended in an orderly manner, with everyone beginning to leave. Little Five and Zhang Lin had already stationed themselves near the backstage exit. Anyone backstage would either leave through the main entrance or the back door. Obviously, the touring group wouldn¡¯t have Director Wu and Dean Xie exit through the main entrance. Little Five felt that they were in a position of petty vengeance. Given the opportunity, it was necessary to spit at the culprits, and if they had the chance to slap them, that would be even more satisfying. Spitting and slapping at these parasites probably wouldn¡¯t have any serious consequences. Zhang Lin was Little Five¡¯s good buddy, a loyal member of the Comprehensive Surgery Department. At this moment, for Little Five¡¯s sake or for their respected Professor Yang, the feeling of resentment had to be vented. Someone as refined as Professor Yang probably wouldn¡¯t stoop to spitting and slapping. But Zhang Lin would. Having been detained for five days in the past, he didn¡¯t feel any psychological pressure to do such things. The meeting ended, and everyone shuffled out of the conference room through several doors. The touring group packed up their stuff, preparing to leave Sanbo Hospital under the escort of Dean Xia, Dean Sun, and Director Zhao. They had to rush to the next hospital tomorrow. Director Wu and Dean Xie followed everyone out of the conference room¡¯s side door, their eyes blank. Just as they came out, two people rushed up unexpectedly and landed a couple of resounding slaps on their faces, followed by two spits landing right on Wu Siwen¡¯s face. The plainclothes police reacted quickly, blocking the ¡°assailants¡± as the third slap was about to come down. The touring group was plunged into chaos instantly as the plainclothes police and other staff shielded Director Wu and Dean Xie. The scattering doctors and nurses immediately surrounded the scene when they saw what was happening. ¡°Wu Siwen, do you recognize me? I¡¯m Lu Xiaowu. You also have your day, huh?¡± Even with the plainclothes police blocking him, Little Five tried to kick Wu one more time. The undercover police were experienced, this wasn¡¯t their first time dealing with such a situation. During their lecture tour at the People¡¯s Hospital in their home city, eggs were commonly thrown, and one senior physician poured a bucket of shit on Dean Xie, causing the lecture to be suspended midway. There was also a nurse who beat Wu Siwen with her shoe. This nurse had just joined orthopedics. She was pretty, and Wu Siwen tried to hit on her. When she resisted, he reported her to the hospital administration, finding excuses to make her life difficult. So, as long as no one was hurt, they couldn¡¯t really get mad at the public for expressing their anger. Wu Siwen¡¯s eye was sealed shut by a glob of spit, completely unable to see clearly. He was disoriented after receiving two slaps, his head buzzing, feeling like a gong, cymbal, and a large metal plate clanging in his ears all at once. Dean Xie was scared and hastily crouched into a ball, not daring to utter a word, squatting down on the spot, as frightened as a mouse. The people around also didn¡¯t know what was happening. Suddenly, a few more spit landed on Director Wu¡¯s body, then Dean Xie¡¯s body also got covered with spit. Two plainclothes officers and several disciplinary officials shielded the two ¡°lecturers¡± with their bodies. They had human rights too and couldn¡¯t be beaten randomly. But since the others had no intention of beating anymore, only spitting, nothing could be done to prevent it. Again, several spits like lightning hit Director Wu¡¯s face. Everyone could see clearly then among the attackers was a tall foreigner with a red nose. This foreigner was the most energetic one. The range of his spit was long, and he had plenty of ammunition. The security guards of Sanbo Hospital arrived in time. Some of them stopped the few people, some dispersed the on-looking crowd, and some pressed the elevator buttons to help them retreat quickly. Little Five kept cursing nonstop, with Zhang Lin chiming in. Fatty, who had come for backup, was still challenging the plainclothes police. The burly foreigner was also cursing: despicable, worse than dogs and pigs, devoid of conscience, deserve to be cut into a thousand pieces, unfilial, may your kids be born without assholes, and so on. The scene was somewhat comical. Things like spitting and slapping didn¡¯t cause much harm; they were mainly intended to insult. Finally, the security guards escorted the two ¡°lecturers¡± to the elevator entrance. They entered the elevator, and the whole matter finally calmed down. Wu Siwen was indeed despicable in his actions. During the emergency surgery at the time, he had agreed to let Yang Ping operate. That guy had thought it through early. He gave silent approval with his eyes but didn¡¯t say it out loud. That way, he could advance or retreat whenever he wanted. If the surgery was successful, the credit would go to him, Wu Siwen. If the surgery failed, he could argue convincingly that Yang Ping performed surgery without permission and didn¡¯t follow the arrangements of his superiors, letting Yang Ping take the blame. In that life and death moment, how could a young doctor, whose sole intention was to save lives, consider all these tricks and traps? ¡°Disperse¡ªdisperse!¡± The security guard said with a smile, also patting Little Five and Zhang Lin¡¯s shoulders, as if to say, well done, brother. Fatty and Robert were raring for a fight, still cursing at the elevator entrance. ¡°Brothers, how did you know to come and support us?¡± The appearance of Fatty and Robert made Little Five quite grateful. Because beforehand, Little Five had only called Zhang Lin and hadn¡¯t said anything to Fatty and Robert, especially since Robert didn¡¯t know anything about the situation. ¡°I didn¡¯t know what was happening. Seeing you cursing them and spitting, I just joined in with the cursing and spitting. Your enemies are my enemies.¡± As it turns out, Robert and Fatty had come to the meeting room to play with Zhang Lin Xiaowu and saw what was happening. Damn, this guy, no idea what¡¯s happening, just jumping into the fray. Confused as if being underneath a confusion tree and nibbling on some confusion fruit. Despite muddled state, he took action so decisively, so ferociously, and so without regard for himself, demonstrating the international spirit. Little Five looked at the closed elevator doors, feeling gratified. Sometimes, people are like this, they have to vent their pent-up frustrations, or else they¡¯ll continually feel frustrated. He brought it upon himself. He got what he deserved! Yang Ping cursed inwardly, these two pests were nothing more than insignificant bugs in his eyes. ¡ª Comprehensive Surgery Department building. From Yang Ping¡¯s office, one enjoys a great view of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s sports field. The banner for the basketball game is still hanging since the matches are usually held every Saturday and Sunday, hence it stayed up for quite a while. Currently, four teams have reached the semi-finals: Administration, Emergency, Hepatobiliary Surgery, and Comprehensive Surgery. The first three are seasoned strong teams, while Comprehensive Surgery is the dark horse that surprisingly made it to the semi-finals. They have skilled players but lack a full team, making substitutions difficult. Thankfully, a foreign aid joined, making things better. Robert is a fantastic exchange student, all around the world; not only do he His energy in playing basketball but also did not hesitate to join when his colleagues in Comprehensive Surgery got into a ¡°street fight¡±. ¡°Thanks for yesterday, bro.¡± Little Five squatted and lightly punched Robert. Robert, squatting on the ground, studying human knee joints of a skeleton model, responded: ¡°Family doesn¡¯t need to thank each other.¡± Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang sat on the couch while Zhang Lin was making tea. ¡°Takahashi pushed Tang Shun¡¯s WeChat contact to me. I talked to him once, and he didn¡¯t refuse. He said he wanted to speak to you face-to-face.¡± Song Zimo leaned back to rest on the couch. As long as he is not refusing, there is hope. Yang Ping hopes to arrange a meeting as soon as possible: ¡°When? Is he coming here, or should I go to Japan?¡± It doesn¡¯t matter whether Tang Shun comes or he travels to Japan. The issue is to conduct the meeting as soon as possible. Yang Ping¡¯s team needs such a talent. Even though he can complete the current project alone, there will always be additional work in future research. In scientific research, you need a team, you can¡¯t work alone. It is crucial for Yang Ping to build a superior team. All the achievements obtained in the System Laboratory must be repeated in the real world, which requires a great team. Furthermore, extension research also needs a team for implementation. Like the spinal external fixator, without Xiehe¡¯s laboratory in Guilin¡¯s full cooperation, the initial series of experiments would not have been completed as quickly. If Xiehe¡¯s team had not helped, he might still be working on a scoliosis experimental monkey model. ¡°He said that he will visit Sanbo when he has time and have a field inspection. From the conversation, I vaguely felt that he is kin we sensitive to money, and he may ask for a higher salary.¡± Song Zimo warned Yang Ping. Doctoral student of the professor from Tokyo University, which ranks first in the world, such talent is hard to find; it¡¯s normal to expect a higher salary. ¡°Tell him that the salary will not be low.¡± Yang Ping is not afraid to talk about salary, he¡¯s only worried about him refusing to come if he finds the platform too small. ¡°I will continue to talk to him about the timing. When it¡¯s confirmed, I will let you know. What other talents do you need?¡± Song Zimo is now Yang Ping¡¯s steward, handling various things. ¡°High-end talent in 3D bioprinting technology!¡± Although Yang Ping is now going to start with the technical route of cultivating muscle from stem cells, he still wants to prepare for the talent of two technical routes. Just in case one path is blocked, at least he won¡¯t be caught unprepared. ¡°This kind of talent is hard to find. I can post a notice on the forum, asking everyone to help find it.¡± Song Zimo thinks that the forum is a magical place. Last time when the giants suppressed Ruixing, the United States, Europe, and Japan responded, it was decided by the forum and chat. At this moment, Robert stood up: ¡°I can help find someone in the United States.¡± ¡°As soon as possible!¡± Yang Ping hopes that the talent team can be built as soon as possible. Chapter 697 - 697 622 Patients with Metal Allergy ?Chapter 697: Chapter 622: Patients with Metal Allergy Chapter 697: Chapter 622: Patients with Metal Allergy Before the morning handover, August appeared in the doctor¡¯s office, having finished his leave and rejoined the team. For August, the air in China was so sweet and fresh, possessing a strange sort of luxury. The people here were intelligent and spoke so pleasingly. The food outside offered a variety of choices, and with three months of residency, he could have a different meal every day. August¡¯s return ended Robert¡¯s loneliness. At least there was someone to talk to in the dorm, which was better than always watching TV alone. Although this guy always liked to place a spine model on the coffee table and mumbled to himself, sometimes obstructing Robert¡¯s view of the TV, it was better than watching TV alone while eating spicy sticks. August divided the vacation gifts he brought into two portions, one to be sent to the nurse¡¯s station, and the other to be placed in the doctor¡¯s office. The gift pack contained a lot of German snacks, such as chocolates, gummy bears, and various biscuits. In reality though, when it comes to food, no other country is as rich as China. A single province can have plentiful specialties. Germany is famous for a few things like dark beer, but it¡¯s not possible to bring a few crates of dark beer on a plane, so he could only bring some candies and biscuits. Besides candies and biscuits, there were also some small gifts. This guy had some sense; he brought a few bottles of daisy hand cream for the head nurse and the nurses. Old man but he was considerate in such a warm way. Nurses often wash their hands, especially in winter, it can easily cause the skin to dry. Hand cream is a necessity. For the doctors in the department, the old man was also very generous, gifting everyone a Montblanc pen. It was estimated that when he disembarked the plane and went through customs, they probably thought he was carrying goods for an online store. They were actually accustomed to using simple gel pens, and not used to fountain pens. But for the sake of pretentiousness, they all silently clipped the fountain pen onto the pocket of their white gowns, and some even clipped it into the pocket of their surgical clothing. Having some pretentiousness sometimes, was necessary. ¡°Could ordinary people recognize this brand? This one has a six-pointed star.¡± Zhang Lin, after clipping the pen, puffed out his chest, feeling as if he had ascended several levels. Little Five¡¯s words were a bit demoralizing: ¡°Ordinary people won¡¯t pay attention to your pen, even if they do, they can¡¯t recognize the brand.¡± Doctors and nurses were busy all day and no one would care about the brand of pen you use. To verify Little Five¡¯s words, Zhang Lin grabbed his pen and ran to the nurse¡¯s station. ¡°Do you recognize this pen?¡± Zhang Lin grabbed a nurse and asked, but not a single one recognized it, which made Zhang Lin very disappointed. So he thought of a plan, found a small infusion sticker, wrote ¡°Montblanc¡± on it, and then wrapped it around the end of the pen cap and reattached it to the pocket on his chest. ¡°Can you see this word?¡± Zhang Lin puffed out his chest and asked Little Five. Little Five looked left and right: ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Is it clear?¡± ¡°Clear!¡± Zhang Lin was finally satisfied. ¡°Does pediatrics have a request for our consultation today?¡± ¡°Yes, one with Amniotic Band Syndrome.¡± ¡°Let me handle this consultation.¡± Zhang Lin went to the whiteboard to find the consultation order, picked out the pediatric order, then glanced at the pen on his chest ¨C Montblanc, really invigorating. In the stack of orders, one consultation order named Yang Ping, Zhang Lin holding the consultation order: ¡°Is this for the professor?¡± ¡°The professor knows, he¡¯ll go over after finishing the surgery this afternoon.¡± Song Zimo took over the consultation order. When Yang Ping came in, everyone was eating August¡¯s snacks, especially Fatty Liang, who was eating gummy bears. Instead of eating them one by one like everyone else, he ripped open the bag and poured the whole bag into his mouth, which made Yang Ping feel nauseated. Seeing all the doctors had changed to the same pen, Yang Ping noticed the detail and found it amusing. Song Zimo stepped forward, clipped a pen onto Yang Ping¡¯s pocket: ¡°From today, we will all be uniform. Yours is a limited edition.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t use a fountain pen!¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t know this was a gift from August. Song Zimo clipped the pen and straightened out Yang Ping¡¯s white gown: ¡°You don¡¯t have to use it, just hang it. It¡¯s a department symbol.¡± ¡ª The surgeries for the day were scheduled pretty close together; after finishing surgery in the afternoon, Yang Ping went for consultation. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Dr. Luo and Dr. Ao all followed Yang Ping. During working hours, these guys shadowed Yang Ping like phantoms. According to the consultation form, the patient is a man in his seventies with severe bone arthritis in both knees. The proposed treatment plan from the orthopedics department was a bilateral artificial knee joint replacement. However, the elderly gentleman is allergic to many types of metal. To be cautious, the orthopedics department tested for allergies to titanium, chromium, cobalt, nickel, and molybdenum. The patient was allergic to all of them, so a joint replacement was ruled out. But his sons and daughters, who were very filial, wanted the doctor to find a solution. They desired for their father to be able to go out and see the world in his golden years. Director Chang from the orthopedics department sent a junior doctor to ask for Dr. Yang Ping from the Comprehensive Surgery Department. When Yang arrived, Director Chang also came down to the surgery room, still within the department. ¡°Dr. Yang is personally consulting?¡± Director Chang shook hands. The obvious answer was, if the consultation form requested him personally to consult, wouldn¡¯t he do it personally? ¡°Of course! Let¡¯s look at the X-rays first.¡± Yang said, smiling. Surgeons tend to be straightforward and don¡¯t waste time. Director Chang had Dr. Yang take a seat, and the doctor responsible for the patient¡¯s care immediately came over to adjust the X-ray images. The television screen used for professional image reading was a vertical rectangular screen. The patient¡¯s X-ray appeared on the screen, very clear. Both knee joints were inwardly malformed with significant narrowing of the medial joint space, increased intercondylar spurs, and evident bone growth around the joint. These were typical signs of bilateral knee osteoarthritis. Knee osteoarthritis is a knee disease characterized by degeneration of the knee cartilage and secondary bone growth. The main symptom is knee pain, which worsens when standing and walking but can be somewhat relieved by rest. Knee osteoarthritis comes in two forms: secondary and primary. The secondary type usually has a clear cause, such as a fracture within the joint. After the fracture heals abnormally, it leads to an uneven joint surface, resulting in premature wear and degeneration of the cartilage. As for the primary type, it is common in the elderly. It can be understood as such: with the increase in age, knee cartilage becomes like car tires¡ªit wears out. Once the cartilage wears out, it causes a series of symptoms. With this kind of disease, knee pain is usually caused by cartilage degeneration, while bone growth rarely causes pain unless the increased bone growth causes a collision during joint movement. Some television advertisements often use bone growth as a scare tactic, promoting all kinds of medications for treating bone growth. For older people, regardless of who they are, if they go and have an X-ray taken, bone growth will be found in the lumbar spine and knee joints. This means that all elderly people become targets of these scare tactics. Nowadays, when elderly people seek medical treatment, they are aware of their own condition: ¡°Doctor, I have bone growth, so my back hurts, and so do my knee joints, so please prescribe some medication for reducing bone growth.¡± Their stubborn belief in bone growth is completely due to the brainwashing propaganda of media doctors. In actuality, most cases of bone growth do not require treatment. It is a manifestation of degeneration. For instance, most instances of knee pain aren¡¯t caused by bone growth, but by cartilage degeneration. If bone growth really does cause pressure on lumbar nerves or knee joint collisions, a few pills won¡¯t resolve the issue; surgical intervention would be required at this point. The doctors who advertise medical products on TV contribute so much to medicine, that it leaves doctors everywhere else in the world embarrassed. If you pay a bit of attention, you¡¯ll see that many of the world¡¯s medical challenges have already been conquered by these people. However, they hide among the masses and scoff at worldly things like the Nobel Prize. If they paid mind to it, surely, all of the world¡¯s Nobel Prizes in Medicine would wind up in their hands. Of course, while they have no interest in the Nobel Prize, there is something they are interested in¡ªthe money in the pockets of the elderly. Director Han knew that when Dr. Yang arrived, he, himself, was merely a symbolic figure, so he stayed calm. ¡°The patient is allergic to titanium, chromium, cobalt, nickel, and molybdenum; I¡¯m afraid performing an artificial joint replacement might not be feasible. I was hoping you might have a solution,¡± Director Chang said with a hint of difficulty. All artificial knees currently on the market definitely contain these metals, and even custom-made artificial joints can¡¯t avoid these components. Generally, the treatment for such a disease is standardised. Director Chang inviting Dr. Yang for consultation is merely to satisfy the family¡¯s wish without expecting any new treatment methods. ¡°Do his ankles hurt on both sides as well?¡± Dr. Yang noticed a record in the medical history. He then adjusted the X-ray images of the ankles on both sides. All showed signs of osteoarthritis, but nothing too severe. ¡°Was the initial plan to replace the ankle joints too?¡± Dr. Yang asked. Director Chang shook his head: ¡°The initial plan was to take a more conservative approach in treating the ankle joints.¡± At present, the artificial replacement of ankle joints is not mature. Mature replacement techniques are only available for the hip and knee joints. ¡°Shall we go see the patient?¡± They all went together to the ward to see the patient. The patient was a man in his seventies, slim and frail, with a kind face. That fragility, in an elderly person, gave a healthy impression. There were several family members present, all his children. As the doctors arrived, they all greeted them politely. After Dr. Yang went over the medical history and performed a physical examination of the knees, he found that there was a significant rubbing sound when the joints were moved. The pressing pain in the medial condyle area was also evident, indicating the primary source of the pain was the cartilage defect from there. At this severe stage, aside from an artificial joint replacement, there wouldn¡¯t be any other effective methods. Upon further examination of the muscle and nerve functions, he found that although there was muscle atrophy, it could be restored through exercise. This wasn¡¯t much of an issue. As the sensation in the skin was normal, it suggested there were no issues with the nerves. Chapter 698 - 698 623 Hand it Over to Us ?Chapter 698: Chapter 623: Hand it Over to Us Chapter 698: Chapter 623: Hand it Over to Us Having left the ward, Yang Ping washed his hands back in his office. Everyone sat down to discuss the treatment plan. In fact, there are certain methods for patients with metal allergies undergoing joint replacement. If simplified, the problem is easy: in severe metal allergies, conservative treatment is chosen. For bilateral knee osteoarthritis at this severe stage, conservative treatment is equivalent to giving up treatment, which goes against Yang Ping¡¯s commitment to giving his all. Before seeing the patient, he would scan through the medical records; after seeing the patient, he would review the records again. This is a routine in consultation. By reviewing old knowledge, new understandings can be gained. Occasionally, reviewing records can lead to unexpected discoveries. In the past, Yang Ping was a junior doctor, now as a senior doctor, he needs to give his juniors the chance to think. Though he could exercise with countless cases in the system space, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang only had the real cases for practice, so Yang Ping refrained from voicing his thoughts prematurely. ¡°Metal allergy, the non-allergic reactions are more severe.¡± Yang Ping reviewed the medical records while saying with slightly narrowed eyes. Director Chang, standing to one side with one hand resting on the back of Yang Ping¡¯s chair, said, ¡°Exactly. Since his family told us about his history of metal allergies, we were cautious and tested him for all the metals involved in prosthetics. The reactions were all strongly positive. We¡¯ve never seen a patient who is allergic to all these metals.¡± Patients with metal allergies are already rare, let alone those allergic to several metals simultaneously. Director Chang meant to imply: It isn¡¯t our incompetence, but rather the patient¡¯s complicated condition. Anyone would be helpless. To reinforce his point, Director Chang continued, ¡°We also considered using gold joint prosthetics, but given this strong allergic reaction, we worried too.¡± A golden joint, is not actually made of gold but refers to the specific process used in making the prosthesis, where a physical vapour (TiNbN) is deposited onto a cobalt-chrome-molybdenum substrate, followed by high-precision polishing. TiNbN can effectively reduce the release of cobalt-chrome-molybdenum metal ions, has better bio-compatibility, and can prevent metal allergies, providing a more reliable solution for patients with metal allergies. Its bonding strength, durability, wear-resistance, bio-compatibility, fatigue-resistance, and safety all surpass those of ordinary artificial knee joints. Because the surface of the prosthesis is golden in color, it¡¯s colloquially known as ¡®golden joint¡¯ by doctors. This type of prosthesis could be used in patients with metal allergies, but for patients with such serious allergic reactions, they dare not use it since once the surgery is completed, there is no turning back. Although TiNbN can reduce the release of cobalt-chrome-molybdenum metal ions, it cannot completely stop the release of metal ions. As long as the metal ions can be released, there¡¯s a possibility of an allergic reaction. If an allergy-caused loosening of the prosthesis and severe inflammatory reaction in the surrounding soft tissues occurs, leading to a non-healing surgical incision, it would result in disastrous consequences. Holding off one more surgery doesn¡¯t matter much to Director Chang, but if a disastrous operation is performed, Director Chang would probably have trouble sleeping and eating. So, the ¡®golden joint¡¯ is ruled out mercilessly! As the chief surgeon of the Joint Surgery Department, Director Chang is also experienced. He has probably thought of every possible method. ¡°If there were a fully ceramic knee prosthesis, it would be nice,¡± Xu Zhiliang said regretfully. Ceramic artificial joints are most commonly used in hip replacements. Whether it¡¯s ceramic on ceramic, or ceramic on highly cross-linked polyethylene, the low friction factor usually means ceramic prosthetics are considered high-end. But the use of ceramic prosthetics in knee replacements is very rare. To say nothing of the knee, even in hips, it¡¯s hard to get a ceramic prosthesis because the stem of the prosthesis is still metal. The ceramics are usually alumina or zirconia, or a combination. Alumina has been used in artificial joints for over forty years, and zirconia for over thirty. Ceramics are hard, smooth, wear-resistant, and cause low attrition, making them good materials for artificial joints. However, the downside is their brittleness; in case of damage, they easily shatter, although the likelihood of implanted ceramics shattering is now extremely low. The best medical implant ceramics on today¡¯s market are made by Germany¡¯s CeramTec, almost all artificial joint manufacturers, whether from the United States, the United Kingdom or China, all purchase their ceramic blanks for artificial joint manufacturing. No other country can produce qualified ceramics of this kind. CeramTec¡¯s medical implants hold a whopping 95% of the global market, an unequivocal monopoly. ¡°There are definitely no fully ceramic knee joint prosthetics on the market right now, even those that use ceramic on highly cross-linked polyethylene. The tibial end is still a metal brace,¡± Song Zimo responded to Xu Zhiliang¡¯s regret. Due to the different modes of motion between the knee and hip joints, ceramics are more commonly used in the hips than the knees. The hip joint is a ball-and-socket joint, where the head of the femur rotates within the acetabulum. However, the knee joint is a complex, primarily flexing joint, its movement involving flexing, rotating, and minute inward and outward shifts. These minute shifts can lead to the joint surfaces colliding, which ceramics cannot withstand, as it goes right to their weak point ¨C their brittleness. Even slight damage from these collisions can cause the ceramics to crack. Though the use of implanted ceramics is improving, no fully ceramic knee joints are available on the market yet. ¡°We¡¯ve considered ceramics, but there are no fully ceramic knee joints available on the market. Any other ideas?¡± Director Chang asked nonchalantly, implying he¡¯s considered everything and there are no loopholes. Professor Yang, you must find a solution within this framework. Every way to consider it, Director Chang has already done so. Director Han has been quite satisfied with the Trauma Orthopedics and Sports Medicine departments recently but less so with the Spinal and Joint departments. Director Chang was a bit discontent. After all, he performed surgeries every day, and Director Chang wasn¡¯t lacking in competency. He wondered what else could be brought to the table. Yang Ping had kept silent throughout, allowing others to express their opinions freely. If a non-metal bone joint is needed, Germany is the place to look. The Germans are sitting right next to him. A few phone calls from them and the ceramic joint could be brought in. But even if it is available, it can¡¯t be used. This would involve certain medical regulations, not to mention that there are no mature products currently available. This approach will not work. Yang Ping looked at the X-ray over and over again, contemplating. ¡°Professor, I¡¯m familiar with CeramTec and Linger. I can inquire if they have such products,¡± August said, understanding Yang Ping¡¯s line of thinking. Robert remained silent. He knew that even the major joint manufacturers in the United States used ceramic blanks from CeramTec. It¡¯s impossible to have surpassed CeramTec¡¯s research and development speed. Whether it¡¯s Director Chang or the orthopedic doctors, they couldn¡¯t help but admire this. Having a foreigner offer to call and inquire about CeramTec products seems very impressive. ¡°Go ahead and ask!¡± agreed Yang Ping. There¡¯s no harm in asking, and it¡¯s a chance to update themselves on the latest developments in ceramic artificial joints. Professor Zhang has a famous saying: ¡°If you can¡¯t buy a plane ticket, figure out another way to get to Beijing¡±. Now Yang Ping is trying to figure out his own way to go to Beijing. He certainly can¡¯t walk there, can he? ¡°How about we take over this patient? We can take our time to find a solution,¡± he suggested. Yang Ping was not trying to lure patients away from the orthopedics department. This was not an issue. If the patient were transferred to the Comprehensive Surgery Department, it would be much easier to deal with many things, like communicating with the family, discussing treatment plans. Consulting from another department only offers advice in the end. Director Chang liked the idea. The patient could have been discharged after a consultation. It was merely the family¡¯s insistence on trying their best. At Sanbo Hospital, the highest ceiling was the Comprehensive Surgery Department. If the Comprehensive Surgery Department can¡¯t fix it, then it is not Director Chang¡¯s incompetence. ¡°Alright. When do we transfer?¡± Director Chang asked readily. Yang Ping replied decisively, ¡°We¡¯ll transfer right now! I¡¯ll go and communicate with the family.¡± The patient¡¯s daughter had been lurking outside the doctors¡¯ office several times, waiting for their response. If all else fails, they could get a discharge tomorrow. Song Zimo went to call the patient¡¯s children, while Xu Zhiliang made some arrangements with the chairs in the meeting room. In the meeting room, Yang Ping met the patient¡¯s daughter and two sons. The daughter was the patient¡¯s eldest child and naturally acted as the representative. It seemed that the lady did not mind being the representative. ¡°Who are these two gentlemen?¡± The lady seemed uneasy to see the two foreigners sitting nearby. Yang Ping explained to her, ¡°They are two visiting doctors in our department. Don¡¯t mind them, they are here to learn from me.¡± The woman glanced at the two foreigners before she finally sat down with ease. ¡°What do you think of this arrangement? Today we transfer to our Comprehensive Surgery Department. We will need to conduct additional tests. Both knee and ankle joints will need to undergo an MRI. I need to understand the condition of the cartilage in the patient¡¯s larger joints. After these tests, I¡¯ll have a clearer picture of whether we can solve your problem or not. If we can¡¯t, we¡¯ll discharge from our department. If there¡¯s a solution, I¡¯ll discuss it with you in detail.¡± ¡°Based on the current examination reports, I¡¯m not sure if we can help the patient.¡± Yang Ping supplemented the details. The patient¡¯s daughter readily agreed and hesitated, ¡°Of course, we are not in a hurry today. The purpose of coming to the hospital is to help my father solve the joint pain problem. If it can be solved, it¡¯s better. If not, there is no way. Professor Yang, I know about your reputation. You have recently developed a very magical device for treating spinal curvature, haven¡¯t you?¡± Did the general public know about this spinal external fixator? Yang Ping nodded affirmatively. The patient¡¯s daughter said, ¡°There¡¯s a child in our class with scoliosis who has been trying to schedule a surgery with you for a long time, but hasn¡¯t managed to do so yet. They are saying they¡¯ll have to wait for the third batch.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your last name, teacher?¡± Yang Ping asked with a smile. The woman, who was about forty years old, said, ¡°My surname is Wu. I teach at the Affiliated High School of the Normal University.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you, Teacher Wu. Let¡¯s proceed with the arrangement then. We will immediately arrange for a specialist. Whether or not a plan can be proposed depends on the results of tomorrow¡¯s examination,¡± Yang Ping said, seeing that they had no objections. Teacher Wu was very easy-going, ¡°You are the experts, we will cooperate fully. Professor Yang, you also don¡¯t need to worry about the cost, we three siblings will share it equally, we are willing to pay any amount. My father has worked hard for us his entire life. Now that we have settled down, it¡¯s time to repay him.¡± The patient¡¯s two sons on the side kept nodding their heads, echoing their sister¡¯s opinion. It seemed that when they were young, they had often been disciplined by their sister. After the meeting was over, Song Zimo started making calls to have the on-duty doctors in the ward receive the patient. Meanwhile, he and Xu Zhiliang were thinking about what plan Yang Ping might come up with. Since he had proposed a department transfer, he must have had some level of confidence. Chapter 699 - 699 624 De-feathering the Immortal ?Chapter 699: Chapter 624: De-feathering the Immortal Chapter 699: Chapter 624: De-feathering the Immortal Although patients with metal allergies are relatively rare, Yang Ping has already encountered two cases at Sanbo Hospital. When he first arrived at Sanbo Hospital, Yang Ping encountered a case of a fourteen-year-old boy who had to undergo surgery for an old fracture of the scaphoid bone on his left side. Two metal screws were inserted, and after the surgery, the boy exhibited multiple symptoms of synovitis in various joints. The diagnosis was eventually ¡°metal ion reactive arthritis¡±. After the two screws were removed, the symptoms of synovitis in various joints began to decrease gradually. Technically the two screws in the boy¡¯s body, which didn¡¯t involve metal-on-metal or metal-on-other materials friction, released very few ions. However, allergic reactions are not dose-dependent. Even a trace amount could trigger an allergic reaction. For example, for people allergic to penicillin, some patients, if they even get a whiff of penicillin, could get anaphylactic shock. Now this old Sir Wu, allergic to so many metals, this unique case can be written up and published in an article. When Zhang Lin and Little Five heard that the patient transferred had a metal allergy, they immediately checked his medical history in advance. The patient had been allergic to metals for many years which surprised them; they regarded the case as a treasure trove. Such unique case reports likely would not interest Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang; they were involved in significant research with the Professor. On the other hand, Zhang Lin and Little Five could use this case to write an article as first authors, then select a good journal for publication. Usually, when the department publishes papers, their names always follow; thus, the two strived to make a difference. Relying solely on the monographs they had studied was not enough to establish an academic position, which is why they were attempting to work on these case reports. They, in essence, needed to pick the stuff that Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang weren¡¯t interested in writing about. After dinner, Yang Ping and Xiao Su went to play tennis. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, August, and Robert all went to the hospital¡¯s library to read books and look up material. The Sanbo Hospital library was impressive, with virtually no shortage of medical monographs or journals. Moreover, it was open from 8 o¡¯clock in the morning to 10 o¡¯clock at night, with no break in between, making it extremely convenient for reading and researching. It also operated as usual on Saturdays and Sundays. The four ran into Director Gao in the library, who was engrossed in a book and would occasionally take notes. Song Zimo often ran into Director Gao in the library. Seeing him immersed in reading, he didn¡¯t greet him. At first, Song Zimo disliked Director Gao, deeming him thick-skinned and believed that he only pretended to be diligent in his studies. The director¡¯s ardent attention towards Professor Yang also irritated him somewhat. But later, he realized that Gao was sincere in his dedication to learning. The four remained in the library until it closed. Song Zimo had reviewed a copious amount of material in an attempt to understand how to manage severe knee arthritis in metal allergy patients. However, there were very few papers on this aspect, probably because most doctors would abandon joint arthroplasty when facing patients with severe metal ion allergies. ¡ª¡ª¡ª The MRI scan for old Sir Wu was scheduled for the following afternoon. Yang Ping made time to personally participate in the MRI examination. He specialized in understanding joint cartilage MRI and standard joint MRI. During the examination, both the parameter settings and the technical application differed greatly. Some special techniques were needed for observing and evaluating the cartilage, and sometimes even quantitative evaluation was required. To tailor the treatment to each patient, familiarity with the patient¡¯s condition, comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of relevant medical information, and rich experience in treating such diseases are indispensable. Old Du in the Radiology Department, real name Du Haibin, was a chief physician in his thirties. He was somewhat overweight, particularly his beer belly, and mature, giving off the air of a director, which led everyone to affectionately call him Old Du. Upon hearing that Yang Ping was coming to the MRI room, Old Du immediately dropped all his work; he had been wanting to establish a connection with Yang Ping. Everyone in the hospital knew about Yang Ping¡¯s fame, and there were many rumors about him. It was said that Director Gao was an adjunct trainee in the Comprehensive Surgery Department, who was Yang Ping¡¯s disciple. After learning some valuable skills, he had made the Sports Medicine Centre very popular, rivaling the Sports Medicine Center of the Affiliated First Hospital. Duan Bald of the Gamma Knife Department had also learned some skills from Yang Ping. The Sanbo stock guru, who lost money year after year, had transformed into a uterine fibroid specialist. His fame was on the rise, and it was said that the city¡¯s gamma-knife surgeries below three thousand were no longer performed. Every hospital with a Gamma Knife facility begged Duan Bald to join them, and the Gamma Knife company also highly valued Duan Bald, using him as a gold medal chief surgeon for promotion, helping him schedule surgeries everywhere. Stutter Xu from the Emergency Department, ever since joining the Comprehensive Surgery Department, had made significant strides in his professional skills. He started to perform surgeries for scoliosis and even got a beautiful civil servant girlfriend. Old Du was intrigued and had been waiting for a while in the MRI room. From time to time, Old Du would go out and ask the nurse, ¡°Has the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s patient arrived yet?¡± ¡°They¡¯re here!¡± The nurse was quite busy and pointed at the old man sitting in a wheelchair in the hall. Not far away, Professor Yang and his team were walking towards them. Old Du quickly went forward to greet them. From a distance, he extended his hand, ¡°Welcome.¡± ¡°Iron Du, are you working in the MRI room today?¡± Song Zimo asked. ¡°Today¡¯s my day off. But I heard that Professor Yang was coming to the MRI room, so I specifically came over to see if I could help.¡± Old Du was actually off today, but given such opportunities are rare, he decided to show up despite his day off. If he could learn even a little from Yang Ping like Duan Bald, maybe he could also be asked to read film. In actual fact, medical science covers a wide range, anything, if studied deeply in a small field, could enable one to become an expert. A Radiology expert specialized in the CT imaging of lung nodules; he had examined more than a hundred thousand CT scans of various lung nodules and published hundreds of papers. Patients with lung nodules from all over the country ran to him to read their film, and he could diagnose with confidence. Some who suspected of having lung cancer and needed surgery, the expert took a quick look, confirming that there was no need for surgery, assuredly it was not lung cancer. Chapter 700 - 700 624 De-feathering the Immortal Part 2 ?Chapter 700: Chapter 624: De-feathering the Immortal, Part 2 Chapter 700: Chapter 624: De-feathering the Immortal, Part 2 Engaged in conversation, they arrived at the doctor¡¯s operating room in the Magnetic Resonance Room. As the host, Old Du arranged seats for everyone, then went outside to greet the nurses, asking them to arrange for the patients in the Comprehensive Surgery Department to have an MRI checkup. Since he has a good reputation, the nurses were quite cooperative and discreetly adjusted the order of patients. The patients had already completed pre-examination taboo screening and signed the consent form. The nurse once again checked for any metal objects on their bodies. Once confirmed there weren¡¯t any, two interns were asked to help the patient into the examination room, leaving the wheelchair outside. Because wheelchairs contain metal parts, if left in the examination room, the metals may be attracted by the magnetic field and fly around once the machine is turned on. As the patient entered the examination room, Dr. Ao and Dr. Luo immediately came from the operation room to assist in moving the patient onto the machine. Although an MRI does not produce ionizing radiation, it fears magnetic metals. Hence for an MRI scan, not only can there be no magnetic metals inside the body, all magnetic metals on the body must also be completely removed to prevent them from being displaced by the powerful magnetic field, posing a danger. Song Zimo signaled, and Dr. Ao and Dr. Luo exited the room. With the examination room¡¯s door now closed, Old Du remotely engaged the machine to operate from behind the glass window, gently moving the patient into the scanning dark hole. ¡°Professor Yang?¡± Smiling, Old Du made use of the free time to chat and foster relationships. But Yang Ping was engrossed in awaiting the scanning images and didn¡¯t hear Old Du speak. A somewhat embarrassed Old Du had to tell Song Zimo instead: ¡°Young Master Song, if you have any special patients in the future that require personal attention, just let me know. I¡¯ll be available whenever needed.¡± This wasn¡¯t just polite talk; Old Du truly intended to be available as needed. Old Du analyzed Duan Bald¡¯s success story and gleaned many insights from it. The Philips 3.0 light-speed MRI scan is exceptionally fast, with scanning speed for different body parts several times to dozens of times faster than a regular MRI scan. As the scanning gradually finished and the patient was moved out, Old Du shut down the machine. The examination room¡¯s door was opened, and Dr. Ao and Dr. Luo promptly rushed in to help the patients. If even these foreigners are working this hard, what excuse does Du Haibin have to be idle? Old Du immediately followed to help with the patient¡¯s transfer. Yang Ping closely examined the MRI images, which matched his initial diagnosis: the bilateral lateral femoral condyles cartilages were intact, the medial femoral condyles were bald and the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments were fine. The lateral meniscus was intact, but the medial meniscus showed signs of degenerative tear, though it was still a few millimeters from the periphery, and synovitis was slightly present. The cartilage on the distal tibia and talus of both ankles showed some wear, but the quality of the cartilaginous tissue surrounding a large area was excellent. The intelligent Song Zimo began to have a vague outline in his mind. He pondered the treatment plan for this case; he even daydreamed about it yesterday and got up with a heated head in the morning. Yang Ping attached great importance to the patient¡¯s bilateral knees and ankle cartilages, personally redoing the MRI, and also applied some new methods for quantitative evaluation of the cartilage. Also, he paid significant attention to the force line of the patient¡¯s lower limbs. If joint replacement was to be performed, paying attention to the force line of lower limbs before surgery is routine preparation. However, being so particular about the joint cartilage seemed unnecessary. During knee replacement surgery, all joint cartilage is removed, considering it before surgery is generally meaningless. ¡°Are you planning to perform osteotomy on the lateral fibula? Using Academician Zhang Yingze¡¯s theory of uneven settlement, perform an osteotomy on the fibula? Let the tibial plateau undergo uniform settlement and shift the weight-bearing point inward?¡± Song Zimo finally understood Yang Ping¡¯s intention, he wanted to perform a knee-saving surgery. Academician Zhang Yingze¡¯s theory suggests that osteoporosis in elderly people can cause differential or uneven settlement of the human skeleton, which plays a crucial role in the development and progression of degenerative knee joint disease. The tibial plateau is a major part of the knee joint. Differential settlement of the medial and lateral tibial plateau often leads to the medial side settling faster, increasing weight-bearing on the medial side, thus applying pressure on the medial cartilage beyond its load-bearing limit. Consequently, if subjected to prolonged pressure, the cartilage degenerates, thereby causing knee osteoarthritis. It¡¯s like a car; if the internal weight-bearing is always higher than the external side, the internal tires naturally wear out faster. Differential settlements, also known as uneven settlements, are a type of mechanical phenomenon that occurs due to the influence of gravity and are common in nature. For example, if the foundation of a building collapses, causing the house to tilt to one side, this is an uneven settlement phenomenon. Human bones are also affected by gravity, resulting in uneven settlements. When bones become porous, the porous parts may have microfractures due to body weight pressure. Overtime, these microfractures can cause the bone to sink and deform the joints. This phenomenon is most noticeable and typical in the spine and proximal end of the tibia, which are the bones most subject to concentrated stress. The internal side of the tibial plateau bears two-thirds of the body¡¯s weight, the external side bears one-third, and the external side is supported by the fibula, which almost never undergoes bone degeneration. It¡¯s as if there¡¯s a pillar supporting the external side of the knee joint, but none on the internal side. Therefore, when the internal plateau¡¯s bone density decreases and uneven sinking occurs, its height drops below the external plateau, causing uneven distribution of pressure. This accelerates the wear of the internal cartilage, leading to osteoarthritis. With Song Zimo¡¯s explanation, Xu Zhiliang immediately understood. Yang Ping nodded slightly: ¡°Although this patient is in the late stage of osteoarthritis, from his medical history, physical examination, and MRI results, his synovitis symptoms are not severe, and pain is mainly concentrated in the medial compartment. If accurately managed, a unicompartmental replacement can be performed.¡± A unicompartmental replacement is when not the entire knee joint is replaced, but only part of it, usually the inside part. ¡°However, a unicompartmental replacement cannot escape the metal content, so only the knee can be preserved. To preserve the knee, we have to apply Academician Zhang¡¯s theory,¡± he added. Indeed, he¡¯s a smart guy, thinking of this isn¡¯t a big deal, but thinking of it in this case indicates that Song Zimo has a very deep and broad understanding of knee osteoarthritis. ¡°But if the medial condyle cartilage is completely lost, even if you perform a fibular osteotomy to correct the varus deformity and move the weight-bearing point internally, it still won¡¯t work because the key weight-bearing point still lacks cartilage?¡± Xu Zhiliang raised a new question. This is why no doctor wants to preserve the knee in this case ¨C the case isn¡¯t suitable for Academician Zhang¡¯s theory. ¡°Perform an autologous cartilage transplant after the fibular osteotomy?¡± Song Zimo tentatively asked. ¡°Redo the MRI to determine the distribution of the cartilage wear? Because after the fibular osteotomy, the tibial plateau will evenly sink on both sides, so the stress will move externally. This requires determining whether the lateral condyle cartilage can withstand this change, and a new stress point needs to be found on the medial condyle for the cartilage transplant?¡± Song Zimo pursued his point. ¡°Also, arthritis already exists in his bilateral ankle joints, causing chronic pain for many years that can¡¯t be cured. Do you plan to transplant the ankle joint¡¯s cartilage to the knee joint, then fuse the ankle joint?¡± Song Zimo finally understood the whole plan, every theory, every surgery; everyone knows, but no one thought to flexibly combine them and apply to this case. This requires integration of all knowledge, and every step needs to be calculated accurately; otherwise, it will backfire. Song Zimo couldn¡¯t help but sigh. He treats every case as a research subject, striving for excellence, even for cases others have given up on. He racks his brain to utilize all available techniques to complete the surgeries. If Academician Zhang¡¯s knee-preserving surgery could be combined with autologous cartilage transplantation, and adjusting the force on the foot during ankle fusion to adjust the force line of the lower limb, then the problems of four joints can be solved at once. Song Zimo felt absolutely thrilled. He couldn¡¯t figure it out yesterday, feeling something was not quite right, but today it all clicked into place. Xu Zhiliang was still pondering over Song Zimo¡¯s words. ¡°Prepare for surgery the day after tomorrow, and talk with the patient¡¯s family tomorrow,¡± Yang Ping finalized the surgical plan. After careful evaluation, this plan is feasible and quite promising. ¡°Professor Yang, the MRI technique you just used to quantitatively evaluate the joint cartilage, could you teach me? If everyone in the Comprehensive Surgery Department is like you, we¡¯ll all be out of work. I just don¡¯t understand why you¡¯re so familiar with MRIs?¡± Old Du asked, leaning on his round belly. Yang Ping modestly said, ¡°We¡¯re just amateurs compared to you professionals. We¡¯ve only read a few books and papers. Come, let¡¯s study together.¡± He¡¯s really pulling out the feathers of a god! Old Du leaned over and almost rolled off his chair. Chapter 701 - 701 625 Harmonious Happiness ?Chapter 701: Chapter 625: Harmonious Happiness Chapter 701: Chapter 625: Harmonious Happiness ¡°The next morning. Teacher Wu, with her two younger brothers, waited in the patient¡¯s family resting room of the Comprehensive Surgery Department for Yang Ping¡¯s reply. She was a little nervous, uncertain if Professor Yang had a solution. Her father had suffered so much in his life. For his three children, he had relied on hard labor to earn money, ensuring that all three of them could go to college. During her high school years, her father would send living allowances to her every month punctually, regardless of weather conditions, never with a delay. The monthly allowance was always no less than what others received. Every time he delivered the allowance, he would meet her in a pavilion in a park far from school. He would hand over the money, reminding her that studying was arduous, but this was also the time for growth. She should not be too frugal and should speak up if she encountered any difficulties. The only way to make a difference was to study well, she should never believe what others said about studying as useless. However, she should not put too much pressure on herself. Studying well, regardless of whether she could get into college, would benefit her in the future. Every time, her father never mentioned his own hardships, instead, he always shared some interesting things, as if his life contained no suffering but only joy and hope. Sometimes he would bring some food. He would take the lunch box back after watching her finish eating. Sometimes he would also bring some chicken legs, claiming that a client had bought it for him seeing his hard work of moving goods. As he was already full, he brought them to her. But she knew that it was her father who bought them. Whatever others could afford to eat, he wanted his daughter to taste it too. Sometimes he would give her extra money for buying nice clothes and dresses, repeatedly telling her that the purpose of earning money was to spend it. She shouldn¡¯t treat herself unfairly, it was normal to dress well and it didn¡¯t mean luxury or waste at all. When she went to college, she could have relied on student loans to complete her studies. However, her father told her that he had the tuition prepared and did not let her apply for a loan. During her years in college, her father would call her every week just for a chat, telling her to take one step at a time and avoid being poisoned by the messed-up thoughts in society, living her own life well. She understood her father¡¯s concerns at that time. He feared that she might go astray due to being inferior due to financial difficulties. As these thoughts came up, Teacher Wu¡¯s eyes became wet. She hoped her father could live happily and healthily in his old age. She wanted to take her father traveling. ¡°Sister?¡± Her second brother noticed something unusual about her. ¡°Dad will be fine. If needed, we can push him around in a wheelchair.¡± The youngest brother also noticed the change in her mood. At this moment, a doctor came over and called them to the meeting room. Professor Yang would like to speak with them about the condition. When she heard from Yang Ping that it¡¯s possible to proceed with the knee preservation surgery, Teacher Wu was very excited, which meant their father could stand up and walk again, and could also enjoy the beautiful scenery of their motherland in the future. ¡ª Old Sir Wu was lying on the operation bed, ready to receive anesthesia from Liang Fatty. Fatty was amazed at Old Sir Wu¡¯s muscular physique, which was no less than those of fitness coaches in gyms. Coupled with his dark-colored skin, it presented an image of strength and healthiness, which was not in line with his age of seventy-four. Old Sir Wu spoke with a Chongqing accent. Liang Fatty, who graduated from Huaxi Medical University, could understand the Sichuan dialect. ¡°Old Sir, do you also work out? It takes at least ten years to develop muscles like these, right?¡± In order to lose weight, Fatty had been running and working out at the gym whenever he had time. Old Sir Wu did not understand the expression ¡®work out¡¯, but he understood that Fatty was inquiring about his muscles. So, he extended three fingers: ¡°I¡¯ve been a mover for over thirty years. Every day, I either carry goods on a pole or pull a handcart. When carrying the goods, I have to climb hills.¡± It turned out that these muscles were authentic, shaped by labor. ¡°Don¡¯t just look at these muscles, Old Sir managed to raise three college graduates with just a carrying pole.¡± Little Five added from the side. Liang Fatty didn¡¯t expect Old Sir Wu to be such a tough guy: ¡°Scholars could rise from beneath a rod!¡± However, hitting children with a carrying pole was too harsh and could cause problems. Zhang Lin explained: ¡°It looks like you were not spared from being beaten up when you were a kid, Fatty. Old Sir¡¯s pole is not for hitting people, but for making a living. He managed to send three kids to college solely by carrying goods on a pole.¡± Liang Fatty couldn¡¯t help but feel respect. ¡°Without studying, life doesn¡¯t get better. You have to study, studying is the only way out.¡± Old Sir Wu expressed his philosophy C in the Chongqing dialect. Truly a great father. Little Five and Zhang Lin¡¯s children are still young, otherwise, they really wanted to learn some parenting tips from Old Sir Wu. While chatting, Liang Fatty finished lumbar puncture and placed the catheter, then started to administer the medication. Old Sir Wu felt a warmth in his lower limbs, slowly losing sensation, as if the legs weren¡¯t his. Hand washing, disinfection, and draping were completed, and the surgery begun systematically. The entire operation was performed using minimally invasive techniques. Firstly, an arthroscopic examination was conducted on both knee joints to reconfirm the suitability of the pre-set surgical plan. The arthroscope was used to explore both knees, which completely aligned with the preoperative radiological examination. The probe could feel the hard, yellow subchondral bone in the medial condylar area where the cartilage was missing. This was the origin of the pain, without the protective and buffering layer of cartilage, the subchondral bone was directly subjected to friction and pressure. The pain stimuli were unbearable for the nerve, thus causing the pain. The cartilage of the lateral condyle was relatively healthy, only suffering minor wear and tear. There was synovial hyperplasia, but no obvious symptoms of synovitis. Professor Yang ran a brief cleaning on both knee joints, switched the arthroscope to the ankle joint, and inspected it, aligning with the preoperative diagnosis. All operations were performed under arthroscopy, and a cylindrical cartilage was collected using a harvester from the distal end of the tibia and the top of the talus. Some cancellous bone was adhered to underneath the cartilage. This easy-to-heal cartilage-bone structure always produces the most reliable bone-to-bone healing. The cylindrical cartilage was inserted piece by piece into the pre-drilled holes in the medial condyle of the femur in the knee joint. Slowly, it assembled into the normal shape of the condyle part, even the curvature looked perfect. After all the ankle joint cartilage was harvested, the remaining cartilage was ground down to expose the cancellous bone. The tibiotalar joint was fused together. As metals couldn¡¯t be used, Professor Yang used synthetic bone grafts to bind both ends, and then inserted two absorbable screws to successfully complete the fusion of the ankle joint. The opposite side was operated on the same way. The cartilage of the ankle joint was transplanted to the knee joint and then the ankle joint was fused. Joints fusion, also known as arthrodesis, ¡°welds¡± together the skeletal integrity of a joint. To achieve that, all cartilage must be removed to allow the bones to make direct contact, which can then lead to fusion. Since metal can¡¯t be used, the force of steel plates and screws can¡¯t be applied. Bone grafts are used to link the two ends of the joint, then secured with absorbable screws. However, the strength of absorbable screws is not enough to provide compression. After the ankle joint is fused, both lower limbs can still walk; it¡¯s the compromise made under constraints. In cases where osteoarthritis occurs in the ankle joint resulting in long-term chronic pain, joint fusion is a reliable method. Conveniently, the cartilage from the ankle joint could be transplanted to the knee joint to address shortcomings. The problems of four joints were solved at once. At the end, the fibula was cut at the top third of both sides, removing 3 cm of the fibula, causing the lateral knee joint to lose its functional pillar. This allows for even subduction of the tibial platform. It¡¯s like a house that tilts because the foundation on one side collapses. Now by artificially collapsing the other side of the foundation, the house is balanced again. For knee osteoarthritis patients, if Academician Zhang Yingze¡¯s uneven subduction theory is done right, it will yield great results. Academician Zhang Yingze¡¯s theory of uneven subduction has paved the way for preserving the natural knee during surgery, and in practice, it has helped to save many knees. Professor Yang combined Academician Zhang¡¯s knee preservation surgery with autologous cartilage transplantation and successfully solved Old sir Wu¡¯s problem. After the surgery was completed, Old Sir Wu was wheeled out of the operating room with his three children waiting outside. They had agreed that they would take turns caring for their father during his hospital stay. Letting a nurse attend to him didn¡¯t seem reassuring enough for such a critical operation. ¡°Dad, are you okay? Does it hurt?¡± The daughter tenderly touched her father¡¯s forehead, her two brothers following suit. Old Sir Wu laughed and said, ¡°I didn¡¯t know they were operating on my leg, I was dreaming that I was pulling a cart uphill. Before I could pull the cart up, the doctor woke me and told me the operation was done.¡± This operation was a combined spinal-epidural anesthesia, commonly known as ¡°half anesthesia¡±, and sedatives were used for sleep. So the patient wakes up clear-headed and alert unlike general anesthesia, where waking up can sometimes be confusing. His words provoked a burst of laughter from his children. Seems like Old Sir Wu was an optimistic and interesting man with a positive mindset. ¡°That hill was quite steep then, wasn¡¯t it? How come it took you so long to pull?¡± the daughter joked. Old Sir Wu answered, ¡°Not very long, just felt like my legs lacked strength, couldn¡¯t pull it up, so frustrating!¡± ¡°Your lower limbs were anesthetized, of course, you didn¡¯t have the strength. Do you want me to give you some more medicine so you can sleep and pull your cart up the hill?¡± Liang Fatty joined in on the banter. ¡°No¡ª¡± Old Sir Wu shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t shake your head, lie still.¡± Liang Fatty held down his head. ¡°You all have things to do, I can manage on my own. There¡¯s no need to accompany me here, it¡¯ll only hold you up, especially since my second child came from so far away.¡± ¡°No matter how far away, it¡¯s just these few days. Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ve all arranged for our leaves accordingly.¡± His children reassured their father, and the family mood was harmonious. Chapter 702 - 702 626 We Want to Build a World-Class ?Chapter 702: Chapter 626: We Want to Build a World-Class Laboratory Chapter 702: Chapter 626: We Want to Build a World-Class Laboratory Old Sir Wu¡¯s knee preservation surgery has inspired extensive imaginative ideas from Robert and Director Gao. In the future, it may be possible to use cultivation techniques or 3D printing technology to manufacture qualified knee joint cartilage, and then carry out cartilage replacement, similar to a joint replacement surgery, replacing all worn-out and scrapped joint cartilages. Like replacing the tires on a car, the elderly can have youthful joints. After all, artificial joints solve the problem of pain, but can¡¯t compare with normal human knee joints in terms of functionality. Currently, many teams are conducting research in this area, but they are all in the initial stages. Both cultivated and 3D printed cartilage are far from real cartilage, and therefore are basically ineffective. Strictly speaking, real cartilage has not yet been cultivated or printed. Robert and Director Gao, these two international brothers, are around the computer, still watching the surgical video. This cylindrical cartilage transplantation surgery is one they often perform. However, in Professor Yang¡¯s surgery, the transplanted cartilage not only reconstructs the shape of the medial condyle, but also predicts the new stress point after the osteotomy. The stress point will move with the force line, which relates to some kind of geometry knowledge. The key is to transplant the limited cartilage to the new stress point of the medial condyle. Director Gao learned a new trick. He pulls out the USB stick, then hangs it around his neck, which is convenient. He can download surgical materials at any time, then go home to study in detail, and if he doesn¡¯t understand something, he can ask Yang Ping for advice. In this way, he can master Yang Ping¡¯s techniques one by one. With the USB drive around Director Gao¡¯s neck, he and Robert together, knocked on Yang Ping¡¯s office door, peeked in, and then thickly said: ¡°Professor Yang, we still have some misunderstandings about this knee preservation surgery. Can we take a few minutes of your time to talk about it¡ªI¡¯ll treat you to dinner tonight, we can find a place nearby.¡± Yang Ping has always had a good impression of Director Gao¡¯s enthusiasm. He also wants to spread his techniques, so he always patiently explains Director Gao¡¯s questions. Come over! Yang Ping beckons, then turns the computer screen around so everyone can clearly see it. The computer screen displays an X-ray of the knee joint. It shows some lines and triangles. Director Gao shares his doubts: ¡°After cutting the fibula, the inner and outer sides of the tibial plateau obtain uniform subsidence, which is a common operation in knee preservation surgery. You added cartilage transplantation to this surgery. According to our video analysis, your cartilage transplantation is very precise. It almost reshaped the new stress point of the medial condyle. We don¡¯t understand how you determine this stress point. Because under this condition, the medial condyle has been deformed and lost its previous curvature, so finding a new stress point is not easy?¡± Yang Ping pointed to the lines and triangles on the computer picture: ¡°Look, this is the line connecting the centers of the medial and lateral condyles, this is the force line, this is the perpendicular line of the force line and connecting line, and this is the stress point. I¡¯m very familiar with these anatomical structures, so I don¡¯t need to rely on auxiliary instruments. If you are going to perform this surgery, you can use the guides for knee joint replacement to help with positioning.¡± A word from the master solves the mystery! Because Yang Ping is proficient at this surgery, he doesn¡¯t need auxiliary equipment, and he can quickly find those points and lines. If others don¡¯t understand the trick and try to follow the video to perform the operation, they won¡¯t find the stress point. They will haphazardly place the grafts, which will be ineffective. Not to mention, as a result of uneven forces, the transplanted cartilage would quickly wear out, and they would eventually conclude that the surgery was ineffective. If the various guides used in knee joint replacements are flexibly applied to this surgery, to guide the search for the force line and the various points and lines, the problem will be much easier to solve. Director Gao and Robert finally understood, and the two brothers nodded at the same time. If it wasn¡¯t for their thick skins, asking Professor Yang non-stop, they might not know when they would figure out the answer on their own. While Yang Ping was discussing knee preservation surgery with Director Gao and Robert, Song Zimo came over and said: ¡°Professor! Tang Shun will be back in China in a few days, he will come to Sanbo Hospital to see you.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good, help me set up a meeting. I will talk to him.¡± Yang Ping is very concerned about the team. ¡ª Dean Xia, accompanied by Director Han, Dean Sun, and others, took a big tour around the hospital, then threw a stick onto the ground: ¡°This spot is the best, how about building a lab here?¡± When the hospital was established, this place was not in the city center, so the government was generous and gave such a large piece of land. If it were now, the government would not agree. Dean Sun was visibly surprised: ¡°Use this land to build a lab?¡± A hospital alone needs such a large lab? Even university labs are not so generous, right? All the current buildings of Sanbo Hospital were left when the hospital was established. There has not been any infrastructure built since then. Dean Xia said the hospital had enough buildings, and the money should be used to train doctors and improve their benefits and treatment. Now the proposal to build infrastructure, to construct a laboratory, clearly contradicts Old Xia¡¯s consistent philosophy. First Vice Dean, Dean Sun, doesn¡¯t know why Dean Xia has this plan, dragging everyone around the hospital on a tour, just to discuss this matter? Among the colleagues present, only Director Han strongly agreed with this. The rest, even if they agreed on the surface, seemed extremely reluctant. This was what Dean Xia expected, he nodded his head with great ambition: ¡°We can¡¯t be without a good laboratory! You all only see the present, without looking ten years, twenty years, fifty years ahead. We need not only to build a laboratory, but to build a world-class one, to plant a phoenix tree to attract the phoenix. We currently have a golden phoenix in our hospital, but no phoenix tree. Sooner or later, it will not stay. I won¡¯t conceal from you that I¡¯m building this laboratory for Yang Ping. Initially, I thought that the eight-story building was sufficient. Later, I found out that the laboratory must be newly built. For example, a cryo-electron microscope needs a separate building, and the foundations need to meet specific standards. So no matter how the building is renovated, it cannot meet the standard. Let¡¯s earmark this land first, and we can discuss the matter slowly. Plant the phoenix tree well, keep the golden phoenix, and I tell you, in the future, many phoenix will nest in our Sanbo Hospital.¡± But where will the money come from? Dean Sun is worried about this too. This is not a problem that can be solved with a little money. World-class laboratories are always calculated in billions. This might be too ambitious. Dean Xia stared at the distant sky, then gathered his thoughts: ¡°I have figured out the money issue. There are many ways. We can ask for it from the Overseas Chinese Foundation; I¡¯ll do the lobbying. We can also negotiate with the hospital¡¯s pharmaceutical equipment suppliers to delay the payment of goods for several years. Finally, if all else fails, we can use the hospital¡¯s savings.¡± ¡°Delay the payment of goods for several years? Is this appropriate?¡± Dean Sun is very worried, and the other associate deans also look worried. ¡°There¡¯s nothing inappropriate, if they¡¯re unwilling, they can opt out of being our suppliers. If they want to continue, they need to cooperate with our strategy. Old Sun, we¡¯ve worked together for so long, and we often argue about many things, but for this one, you have to support me. Think about it, our Professor Yang did not go to Xiehe, he did not go to 301, he only stayed with us. If we don¡¯t create a good platform for him, it will ruin his future. He¡¯s a talent that is hard to come by in five hundred years, he cannot be wasted. Since he has ended up at Sanbo, this is our great fortune. Think about it, isn¡¯t that the case? I, Old Xia, may not have other skills, but I can see people and situations farther than any of you. Listen to me, you won¡¯t be wrong, let¡¯s get this laboratory up and running¨C¡± A talent that appears only once every five hundred years, Dean Xia believes this is a conservative estimate, and the number could be even bigger. Dean Xia is taking great strides, and Dean Sun feels out of sync, feeling an intense pain. ¡°We are all medical professionals, and a great talent like Yang Ping will be able to attract many talents in the future. Not long ago, Yang Ping came to me for a chat and recommended a Japanese doctoral student who had studied abroad. This student graduated from Tokyo University and is currently a leading figure in the field of stem cell research. If such a talent truly comes to join Sanbo, we cannot let them conduct just any experiment, running all over the place, today to Nandu Medical University, tomorrow to Nandu University of Technology, the day after tomorrow to Nandu Institute of Technology, right? If you guys trust in me, Xia Changjiang, I will lead you to achieve a remarkable feat!¡± Dean Xia¡¯s voice carried a sense of determination. When Dean Xia first assumed the position of dean, he also made such a statement, but he only said he wanted Sanbo Hospital to become a model hospital in Nandu Province, without mentioning achieving a remarkable feat. Dean Sun broke out in a cold sweat. Old Xia was being too forward-thinking. Spending hundreds of millions to build a laboratory, it¡¯s estimated that employees would not agree. Since the upper management will not agree, then Old Xia can only raise funds by himself, which is certainly not an easy task. ¡ª Below the comprehensive surgery building of Sanbo Hospital. Tang Shun stood with his Japanese girlfriend, looking up at this building. This Japanese student at Tokyo University had the wish to return home after graduation, yet she was not very satisfied with the several places she had seen. Tang Shun was not familiar with Sanbo Hospital, but he was familiar with Yang Ping. During his few days acting as a translator at Tokyo University Affiliated Hospital, Tang Shun had seen the arrogant professors of Tokyo University humbled by Yang Ping, an experience still fresh in his memory. Tang Shun could also never forget his student Takahashi, who wanted to study in China so badly that she would stay up late and work tirelessly to learn Chinese. All of this was because of this enigmatic man¨CYang Ping. Recently, Tang Shun had also paid attention to Yang Ping¡¯s work. He learned from Takahashi that in just a few months, Yang Ping had developed the new technology of a spinal external fixation frame. Tang Shun was not an orthopedic doctor, but it did not prevent him from looking up a large amount of literature to understand the content of this technology. Under the leadership of Fujiwara Masao, the people of Tokyo University Affiliated Hospital prepared well to compete for the qualification for the third-phase clinical experiment. These people were leading figures in the orthopedics field in Japan, and even the world, and there was no question about their intelligence. Although he found Japan somewhat annoying emotionally, he could not question that as a developed country, many of Japan¡¯s technologies were leading the world. Piecing together all these aspects, it can be simply deduced that Yang Ping¡¯s spinal external fixation frame technology is a world-class new technology. Tang Shun straightened his clothes, walked into the entrance with his girlfriend, and explained his purpose to the receptionist nurse. In less than ten minutes, the elevator door opened, and a few young people walked out. Leading them was Yang Ping, who had an innate commanding presence. Chapter 703 - 703 627 A Blank Piece of Paper ?Chapter 703: Chapter 627: A Blank Piece of Paper Chapter 703: Chapter 627: A Blank Piece of Paper The strong self-confidence that radiated from Yang Ping was like a unique label that Tang Shun immediately recognized. Even back in Tokyo, Yang Ping¡¯s self-assured aura stupefied the Japanese, leaving them as drained as someone who had suffered severe dehydration. To this day, medical students at Tokyo University still share stories about Yang Ping, who has even been the subject of a comic book. Accompanying Yang Ping were Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, both of whom Tang Shun knew very well. During their time in Japan, Tang Shun had served as their personal translator for several days and they¡¯d now become friends. Following behind them were two foreigners, Robert, the younger man with the red nose, and August, who was slightly older. Before leaving his home country, Takahashi had introduced these two bigwigs, who were studying under Yang Ping, to Tang Shun. Of course, visiting Sanbo was Takahashi¡¯s suggestion as he believed joining Yang Ping¡¯s team promised a bright future. Tang Shun, who had a firm grasp of this fact, held two criteria in regard to career: firstly, it should be fulfilling one¡¯s dreams, and secondly, it should bring in a substantial income. Any career that lacks either one of the two aspects is incomplete. ¡°Dr. Tang, hello!¡± Yang Ping extended a hand. When he shook Yang Ping¡¯s hand, the typically self-confident Tang Shun found himself a bit unnerved. He hadn¡¯t expected to be received by Yang Ping himself, the man who¡¯d made Takahashi and his group of Tokyo elites respect him thoroughly. Why would such a man even bother to spend his energy to personally receive them? Regardless, Tang Shun¡¯s nervousness proved to be unnecessary. Except for his self-confidence, Yang Ping didn¡¯t convey any overbearing temperament. Rather, he provided a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. ¡°This is¡ª¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t dare assume the identity of the girl beside Tang Shun. Relationships can be complex these days. ¡°This is my girlfriend. You can call her Qianxia.¡± Tang Shun casually introduced. Suzuki Chinatsu, a first-year undergraduate at Tokyo University, politely bowed: ¡°Nice to meet you.¡± ¡ª In Yang Ping¡¯s office at the Comprehensive Surgery Department. Once everyone had taken a seat, Yang Ping made tea for the group. The aroma of Longjing tea filled the office. Tang Fei accompanied Tang Shun¡¯s Japanese girlfriend, Qianxia, for a tour of the hospital. The young student from Tokyo University said farewell to Tang Shun in her sweet, soft voice before leaving to tour Sanbo Hospital with Tang Fei. After exchanging a few pleasantries, Yang Ping got straight to the point. ¡°Dr. Tang, we are currently initiating a new project ¡ª stem cell cultivation of muscles. Our hope is to unlock the vast potential of organ cloning with this research. We would like to invite you to join our team.¡± Song Zimo has already discussed with him numerous times over WeChat. So, there¡¯s no need for lengthy introductions. ¡°I¡¯m interested to know Professor Yang¡¯s views about this project?¡± Tang Shun sip his tea leisurely. Robert and August blew a few breaths into their cups, swallowed the tea after it had cooled down to a lukewarm temperature, and then stared at the empty cups. They waited for Xu Zhiliang to refill their cups. ¡°Here are some key details about our project. You can take a look.¡± Yang Ping said as Song Zimo passed the documents to Tang Shun. Tang Shun flipped through the pages, ¡°Two technical routes to be run, simultaneously. This would require significant resources and funding. It doesn¡¯t seem practical.¡± Yang Ping merely shook his head, ¡°Our least concern is money. There are dedicated foundations providing funds for our research. The existing funds already exceed one billion RMB. And this is just the beginning. Firms you¡¯re quite familiar with such as the Anning Group, the Guo Shi family from Southeast Asia etcetera, are our financial backers.¡± Tang Shun was astonished how a hospital laboratory could have such vast funding for scientific research. But he soon calmed down, realizing that the Anning Group was a newly emerging financial group, and the Guo Shi Group did not have a tradition of supporting medical research. Continuous funding could be in question. Tang Shun had witnessed many initiatives that start vigorously but eventually wither away. Many businesses promise a certain level of funding initially but fail to provide further funds after the first tranche is delivered. Either the sponsors lose interest or the sponsoring company encounters financial difficulties or even goes bankrupt. In China, the tradition of corporate sponsoring of scientific research institutions is lacking, thus longevity of the sponsorship is often questionable. ¡°I¡¯m concerned about the long-term stability of the project funding.¡± Tang Shun openly expressed his apprehension. Academics are usually straightforward, the conversations are direct to save time and improve communication efficiency. ¡°I understand your concerns. What are your thoughts on the Duke Foundation?¡± The Duke Foundation? The discreet and low-key European aristocratic foundation, has funded numerous projects, including those of Nobel laureate, Mr. Manstein, who was also a recipient of the Foundation¡¯s funding. Tang Shun was taken aback that the Duke Foundation would also be providing him with funding. ¡°One billion euros will be credited to your account soon. Afterward, you may discuss the Duke Foundation in detail with Mr. August.¡± Yang Ping stated calmly. Tang Shun was inwardly moved at the thought of having one billion RMB, along with a promised subsequent one billion euros in his account. Such financial resources could indeed fully support this large-scale project. He hadn¡¯t expected that even a hospital laboratory could raise such an astronomical sum. Tang Shun had initially thought, only laboratories from prestigious universities like Tokyo University or renowned institutions in the United States would possess such fundraising abilities. ¡°If Dr. Tang is still worried about the funding, I can tell you that, in the future, our laboratory will have the biggest supporter in the world. Nobody can compare.¡± Yang Ping teased cryptically. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Tang Shun was puzzled. ¡°Our country! I¡¯m not a man typically influenced by sentiments. But, today, I want to discuss it with Dr. Tang. If the conditions are equal, I would hope that you choose us. Even though we¡¯re only a laboratory within a hospital, we aspire to build it into a national-level laboratory and a world-class laboratory. Given our country¡¯s economic strength, focus on technological advancements, and our capabilities, I believe this is attainable.¡± Chapter 704 - 704 627 - A Blank Piece of Paper_2 ?Chapter 704: Chapter 627 ¨C A Blank Piece of Paper_2 Chapter 704: Chapter 627 ¨C A Blank Piece of Paper_2 ¡°Our first project, the development of a new spinal exterior fixation brace, was achieved through a partnership with Xiehe Hospital and Nandu Medical University. We successfully completed the experimental work within a few months. Currently, phase three of our clinical experiments are being carried out simultaneously in Europe, America, and Japan. Without exaggerating, this project is one of global importance. In this field, we are undisputedly ahead of Europe, America, and Japan.¡± When it was his time to feel proud, Yang Ping did not put on a false modesty. Tang Shun was, of course, familiar with the new technology of the spine brace, something that Japanese scientists dreamed of achieving. Yet, Yang Ping had accomplished it. Tang Shun carefully examined Yang Ping¡¯s exterior spinal fixation brace and found it to have an incredibly high technological component, with many challenges across the medical and engineering sectors that had been successfully overcome. The spinal orthotic device, a collaboration between Tokyo University¡¯s biomechanics lab and its affiliate hospitals, involved dozens of years, a team of over one hundred people, but still showed no progress. Tang Shun thought that Yang Ping¡¯s team must have also taken a long time, but he was surprised to hear that it only took them a few months. Tang Shun was very curious, how many people were involved in the team that achieved these results within a few months. ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯d like to know how many people are on the team researching the spinal exterior fixation brace.¡± Tang Shun figured that the core team must have been over a hundred people. The amount of trial and error involved would have been a massive undertaking, and a project like this would likely require the cooperation of several universities and hospitals. ¡°Actually, this technology is just a minor work of ours. There are only three of us in the core team!¡± Yang Ping stated leisurely. Tang Shun was shook inside at this moment. A spinal exterior fixation brace, a technology of world-class significance, only had three core members? Just Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang? Tang Shun believed him, because someone like Yang Ping neither needed to brag nor to inflate his achievements. Tang Shun had always admired Musk, he had read Musk¡¯s biography ¡°Iron Man of Silicon Valley¡± and had a vivid memory of Musk¡¯s rocket team. These ten or so slackers, running around in sandals, developed advanced rockets. Seeing Yang Ping now, Tang Shun was reminded of Musk and felt elation in his heart. ¡°Could I tour your lab?¡± Tang Shun was somewhat eager. ¡°Of course you can, our lab is upstairs. It¡¯s very convenient.¡± Yang Ping knew that he was interested. Everyone rode the elevator to the lab. The stem cell laboratory occupied an entire floor with some graduate students busily working in the lab, others playing table tennis in another room, and still others drinking coffee while reading magazines. The team members in the lab were casually dressed, many in T-shirts and shorts, appearing very relaxed. This scene reminded Tang Shun once again of a familiar feeling, like a snapshot he¡¯d seen before: a group of people in T-shirts, jeans, and sandals taking a group photo against a rocket in the background. This rocket team, embodying the spirit of the Silicon Valley internet companies, dared to explore, continued to learn from their mistakes, were not afraid of failure, and ultimately completed the research and development of a new type of rocket. ¡°We have recreational rooms here. You can come here to listen to music, exercise, have tea or coffee, no one will supervise you, and no one will demand that you must go to work, you can schedule your own work...¡± Yang Ping introduced the style of work in his lab. Tang Shun nodded. He liked this kind of relaxed and inclusive work atmosphere. He didn¡¯t like the austere atmosphere of the Tokyo University laboratory at all. ¡°Regarding equipment, we are lacking a cryogenic electron microscope and often have to borrow equipment from Nandu Medical University. But we plan to buy our own, which will save time for experiments.¡± As the group moved through the corridor, Yang Ping talked about the equipment in the lab. Lacking a special cryogenic electron microscope is common. Even at Tokyo University, the cryogenic electron microscope is not privately owned by a particular project team, but is shared amongst everyone and used in turns. ¡°If we would proceed with 3D printing, where would we start from, Professor Yang?¡± Tang Shun was exhilarated. He found the place to his liking. ¡°Both routes are very difficult. The 3D printing route is more controllable. For instance, cultivating muscles with stem cells, the method of cultivation may not yield the precise structure desired, such as needing a thicker artery at a specific site to connect with the recipient area. 3D printing readily achieves this kind of customization but it requires incredibly detailed anatomical research of the target organ. To complete true 3D printing, the collection of anatomical data is massive. It¡¯s estimated it would require a supercomputer to handle such heavy calculations and printing. The nerves, arteries, veins, and lymphatic structures of a single muscle, added together, might equal the circumference of the Earth. The lack of detailed anatomical data is also why 3D printing cannot complete even the simple printing of cartilage ¨C without precise replication of detailed anatomy, it is like an airplane, merely a model, without the capability to duplicate its internal engine, it can¡¯t fly.¡± ¡°3D printing is much simpler at the biological stage than the cultivation technology. It just needs to cultivate a large number of various live cells and uses these live cells as raw materials to print organs, without the need to unlock the complex regulation of human organ formation. However, the whole cultivation process is more massive, completing organ construction at the biological level from beginning to end requires greater investment in the research of human gene expression and regulation. Which is better is still unknown. I initially thought that cultivation was better, then I thought that 3D printing was better, and later, there was no clear winner, it depended on which route would achieve a breakthrough first.¡± Yang Ping briefly expressed his understanding. That¡¯s how scientific research is. Sometimes, when several routes are pursued in parallel, the one that achieves a breakthrough first naturally gets the advantage. Tang Shun agreed with Yang Ping¡¯s understanding. The complexity of an organ is beyond imagination. This is why a tree can easily produce an apple, but humans cannot replicate an apple. The two routes solve problems in different ways, one understands the information contained in the seed, the other understands the information contained in the apple. Tang Shun greatly admired the principle of reductionism, that is, reducing things to their fundamental essence. To cultivate muscles with stem cells, if one truly wants to succeed, one must start from scratch. Other research achievements can only be referenced, and can absolutely not be built upon for research. If you want to print muscles, you must conduct the most thorough and perfect research on the anatomy of muscles. Lay a new foundation, build a new house. ¡°My laboratory is collaborating with Nandu Medical University and Nandu University of Technology. We plan to use the cryo-electron microscope from Nandu Medical University and the supercomputer from Nandu University of Technology to perform single-layer cell sectioning of muscles, then use the electron microscope to scan them, creating a detailed 3D image of the entire muscle to gain a refined understanding of its anatomy,¡± Yang Ping revealed this plan. To scan single-layer cell sections of muscles is a massive and intricate undertaking generating colossal amounts of data. Tang Shun paused, as this was the first time he had heard of someone attempting such an extensive task. Specialization has made everyone ¡°lazy¡±. They always prefer to borrow, using things directly from outside their specialty. Therefore, those engaged in stem cell research will never truly study the anatomy of the target organ, and those who study anatomy will not study the organ¡¯s structure from the perspective of cultivating organs with stem cells. Yang Ping wants to start from scratch with multiple disciplines, which aligns with his own thinking. But can it be supported by manpower and financial resources? Considering these issues might be looking too far ahead. It seems this cause already meets his first requirement. What about the second requirement? Remuneration? Tang Shun is very sensitive about money. He does not want to do scientific research while earning a meager salary or worry about making ends meet while not wanting to conduct scientific research. ¡°I would like to know, if I stay, what will my remuneration be like?¡± Tang Shun was very straightforward. Yang Ping didn¡¯t speak neither did anyone else in the party. Tang Shun smiled, ¡°Was I too direct?¡± ¡°No, you were frank. As for remuneration, I don¡¯t think we need to discuss it. We are prepared, right Song Zimo?¡± Yang Ping also smiled. Song Zimo handed over a clipboard with only one blank piece of paper and a pen attached to it. A blank piece of paper, what does this mean? Tang Shun didn¡¯t understand. Yang Ping casually said, ¡°You write your remuneration and all other requirements on this paper, and I will make it happen!¡± Chapter 705 - 705 628 Marriage Alliance ?Chapter 705: Chapter 628: Marriage Alliance Chapter 705: Chapter 628: Marriage Alliance After finishing the lab tour, everyone returned to Yang Ping¡¯s office for tea. For people in the southern region, drinking tea is a social ritual. Many significant decisions can be made over several cups of tea. Everyone sat in silence, waiting for Tang Shun to write his compensation demands on a piece of paper. Tang Shun fell silent, staring at the blank paper and lost in thought. After returning to China, he had been in contact with several institutions, but none of them discussed compensation by asking him to fill in a blank paper. It was as if the big boss was giving him a blank cheque to fill any number he wanted. Professor Yang, generous indeed! Teacher Tang, I¡¯m patriotic at heart, thus materialistic gains don¡¯t matter to me very much. Tang Shun began to write on the paper: one, two, three, four, five, six¡ª ¡°Actually, I¡¯m not very interested in materialistic comforts. These are just my basic needs. Only when these basic needs are met can I enjoy doing research.¡± Tang Shun checked the written paper several times before handing it over to Yang Ping. ¡°One, a fully paid house, about 140 square meters,¡± ¡°Two, a car worth about 600,000 yuan,¡± ¡°Three, an annual salary of two million yuan,¡± ¡°Four, I want my professional title to be directly recognized as a Professor and Doctoral Advisor,¡± ¡°Five, I need a fixed position,¡± ¡°Six, the first and second points can be converted into relocation expenses, not less than eight million RMB. Everything mentioned above related to money is denominated in RMB.¡± Yang Ping read Tang Shun¡¯s requirements word by word. Once agreed, he must deliver, so he couldn¡¯t be careless. Tang Shun¡¯s basic requirements are indeed basic. No matter whether he stays in the United States or in Japan, none of them would offer less than this. One shouldn¡¯t expect others to live in poverty, only then can you attract all kinds of talents with tolerance. The fact that he included a permanent position among his requirements shows that Tang Shun is a pragmatic person. He understands: the end of the universe is a fixed position. ¡°The first and second terms can be converted into relocation expenses, there¡¯s no issue with any term. Just one thing, for the last one, you have two options: Join the Nandu Medical University or our Hospital¡¯s team. Pick whichever. This project is in collaboration with Nandu Medical University. Even if you join their team, the location and nature of work will remain the same. You will be working in our lab on the topic of stem cell cultivation for muscle production,¡± Yang Ping thought these weren¡¯t issues at all. Yang Ping had reported the matter of recruiting Tang Shun to Dean Xia, who agreed readily and expressed that he would discuss with Nandu Medical University on how to arrange this recruitment. Although Sanbo Hospital is not directly affiliated with Nandu Medical University, they have close cooperation. Moreover, Yang Ping¡¯s research has a close collaboration with Nandu Medical University. Whether the talent is introduced from the hospital channel or through Nandu Medical University, thorough consideration is necessary. Because talent introduction is not a one-shot deal, the long-term development of the talent after the introduction should also be considered. ¡°Can you make decisions on behalf of Nandu Medical University?¡± Tang Shun hadn¡¯t considered this. If he could join Nandu Medical University and meet his salary expectations, while being able to research stem cells alongside Yang Ping, it would be almost perfect. After all, if one plans to develop in China, many practical issues should be considered, such as academic prospects and other conditions. ¡°We can decide this matter.¡± Yang Ping was confident because Dean Xia had provided him with all the information. ¡°If I can choose, I would choose to be part of Nandu Medical University¡¯s team!¡± Tang Shun answered affirmatively. As a fundamental medical researcher, his identity would fit better with Nandu Medical University, it would also pave a better way for his future development. Although ideals are desirable, it always good to have a fallback plan in case things go contrary. All issues were settled, and they had drunk a few cups of tea. Xu Zhiliang interposed, ¡°Do you have any dependents who need employment?¡± Tang Shun shook his head, not at the moment. ¡°Working with Professor Yang is an honor. In that case, it¡¯s settled. I need to return to Japan and sort out graduation formalities.¡± Tang Shun was rather satisfied, it was rare to meet such straightforward people. He really wanted to return to China, but he had not found the right institution or collaborators yet. According to Chinese customs, it is necessary to sit down for a meal and strengthen relationships. Tang Shun didn¡¯t mind, after all, he had returned to China for work matters. Now that everything was settled, he had time to spare. Tang Shun¡¯s Japanese girlfriend had also completed her tour of Sanbo Hospital and was brought back by Tang Fei. ¡ª Principal Ruo and Professor Su were sitting in the office of the Nandu Medical University, drinking tea. Both of them were undergraduate classmates, hence they had a close relationship. After graduating from their undergraduate studies, during their Masters and Doctorate stage, Principal Ruo chose basic medical research, and Professor Su chose clinical medicine. Basic medical research generally requires research jobs, teaching at colleges, and doing research in laboratories, not medical practice, and not treating and saving patients; whereas clinical medicine means being a practitioner, treating and saving patients. The recent election of Professor Su as a new academician, boosted the spirits of the entire Nandu Medical University. It had been a while since Nandu Medical University had a new academician, and being an academician reflected the scientific research strength of a university. ¡°Turning Sanbo Hospital into a directly affiliated hospital of Nandu Medical University not only involves matchmaking from the province but is also beneficial for Xia Changjiang, as it¡¯s a win-win situation,¡± Principal Ruo said with a smiling face. Sanbo Hospital had always wanted to ally with a higher institution. Although they used to be affiliated with Nandu Medical University, it was not a direct relationship. With Sanbo Hospital¡¯s aggressive growth in recent years, Nandu Medical University also intended to bring it into its system. The senior officials of Nandu Province also had the intention of matchmaking. They hoped to create a super medical system in Nandu Province, that would compete with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing. Chapter 706 - 706 628 Marriage Alliance_2 ?Chapter 706: Chapter 628: Marriage Alliance_2 Chapter 706: Chapter 628: Marriage Alliance_2 The Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College are part of the same institution. They directly administer six hospitals, including Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Fuwai Hospital, Cancer Hospital, Plastic Surgery Hospital, Blood Diseases Hospital, and Skin Diseases Hospital. Each of these is among the top in the country. In total, this system is home to over twenty academicians and over forty Outstanding Young Talents. Nandu Medical University still has a long way to go if it wants to rival the Peking Union. Apart from creating a super medical system, the merger of Nandu Medical University and Sanbo Hospital is also a measure taken by Nandu Province to prevent Sanbo Hospital from being acquired by Hospital 301. Once integrated into Nandu Medical University system, it will be much more complex to be acquired due to numerous factors. Therefore, incorporating Sanbo Hospital into Nandu Medical University system is beneficial in every aspect. It aligns with the provincial government¡¯s intentions and meets the needs of both Nandu Medical University and Sanbo Hospital. Yang Ping, the rising young star at Sanbo Hospital, currently conducts stage three clinical trials on external spinal fixators in Europe, America, and Japan. This is a remarkable research project. A university¡¯s rise to global prominence does not depend on empty words but rather on its academic influence. Developed countries have very stringent controls on clinical trials. There has been no precedent for Chinese drugs or medical devices undergoing clinical trials in the United States, let alone simultaneous trials in Europe, America, and Japan. It is truly groundbreaking. If Sanbo Hospital could be incorporated as a directly-affiliated hospital, the academic achievements of Sanbo Hospital in the future would be branded with the seal of Nandu Medical University. ¡°It¡¯s not only feasible but needs to be done as soon as possible to prevent any mishaps,¡± Professor Su had suggested the incorporation of Sanbo into Nandu Medical University system quite some time ago. ¡°Elder Xiang called me yesterday. He had read Yang Ping¡¯s new project proposal and couldn¡¯t stop praising it. He said the youngster¡¯s future is immeasurable, and the project could get the green light all the way. It¡¯s rare to receive such high praise from the Old Academician. You see, I received another report from Xia Changjiang. Yang Ping¡¯s lab wants to recruit a doctor who returned from studying in Japan. This doctor listed six conditions for the job. Xia Changjiang asked whether we should recruit him or their hospital should. He also asked me to reply quickly, or they would proceed with the recruitment,¡± Principal Ruo handed the report to Professor Su. After reading, Professor Su laughed: ¡°Young people are straightforward, listing their conditions clearly.¡± ¡°I am quite familiar with Tang Shun, he is a talent. His mentor used to be a professor at Kyoto University, who was then poached by Tokyo University. The Japanese professor¡¯s stem cell research ranks first in the world, and he is a Nobel laureate. Tang Shun also wanted to return to China, but he ran into a brick wall at several universities. Mainly because he was too direct, talking about money and benefits upfront, which put people off. This time, he found Sanbo Hospital, meeting the right person. I heard Yang Ping agreed immediately,¡± Principal Ruo had done a simple investigation of Tang Shun. Nandu Medical University¡¯s alumni are all around the world. Investigating someone in the medical circle is as easy as making a few phone calls. ¡°Xia Changjiang is currying favor with you. Hurry up and settle this matter. I guess he sensed some danger and doesn¡¯t want to become someone else¡¯s branch campus. Thus, he wanted to join Nandu Medical University that can safeguard their autonomy while being backed by a university. Why wouldn¡¯t they want that? If they became someone else¡¯s branch campus, they might not be as free,¡± Professor Su analyzed deeply. Principal Ruo nodded: ¡°Exactly, otherwise, for a person like Tang Shun, why would they discuss whether we should introduce him or they should? Simply they should introduce him and that¡¯s it. After thinking about it, I think it¡¯s more appropriate for Nandu Medical University to make the recruitment. According to Xia Changjiang, the person will belong to Nandu Medical University, but work in the Sanbo Hospital lab. We pay the money to recruit people, to work for them? Xia Changjiang is really calculating.¡± ¡°Old Ruo, seeing this trend, wouldn¡¯t Nandu Medical University and Sanbo become one family eventually?¡± Professor Su was overjoyed, as the development of the event was exactly as he foresaw. If Yang Ping wasn¡¯t willing to leave Sanbo, then the best way was to incorporate Sanbo into the system of Nandu Medical University, giving him a larger platform. ¡°If it weren¡¯t for considering that we¡¯ll be one family in the future, I wouldn¡¯t do such a stupid thing. Spend a huge sum to poach talent for others? Yang Ping has already agreed to Tang Shun, I could only agree too. An eight million yuan relocation fee, two million yuan annual salary, exceptional promotion to professorship, and of course staff establishment. It¡¯s basic. Didn¡¯t we offer Lin Lan a 900,000 yuan annual salary, 2.2 million yuan relocation fee when we recruited her, and directly promoted her to professorship, principal investigator? Tang Shun has an article as the first author on both the Science and Nature journals.¡± Principal Ruo highly values talent. ¡°Old Su, you have a sharp eye. When you first mentioned Yang Ping to me, he didn¡¯t seem to stand out as much. I was curious and wondered if you had a hidden agenda. But now, this young man has continuously made significant breakthroughs. Aside from his articles in top-tier journals, his external spinal fixation technology is globally remarkable. If not for his limited years of experience, this would qualify as an academician-level accomplishment.¡± Professor Su just laughed: ¡°The external spinal fixation technology? He whipped that up in just a few months. That¡¯s just a small thing. The real game changer is his cultivation of muscle with stem cells. His concept of intricate anatomy was praised by Elder Xiang who called me after a few days of research. He said this young man understands the anatomy of muscles at the cellular, tissue, and organ levels, using single-layer cell slices to map the complex structure of muscle fibers, including blood vessels, nerves, and lymph vessels. This lays the foundation for the targeted cultivation or 3D printing of muscles. His research has unlimited potential in the future.¡± Principal Ruo was quite worried: ¡°Isn¡¯t the young man biting off more than he can chew? The topic is massive!¡± Professor Su shook his head: ¡°Aim high and far? That¡¯s because you are not familiar with him. If you knew him well, you would not think so. The technical difficulty of external spinal fixation technology is very high. Many people around the world are researching it but give up due to the difficulty. Even in Russia, the birthplace of Ilizarov technology, Ilizarov Hospital has made no progress in researching this technology. Yang Ping, in just a few months, with just a few people in his department, has achieved results. This level of ability can be described as terrifying. I have a hunch that in the field of stem cell cultivation of muscles, this young man will make a shocking move. Let me tell you, not only us are coveting Yang Ping for Sanbo Hospital. If you are interested, act swiftly. If you¡¯re slow, he¡¯ll be taken by someone else.¡± It is well known that Professor Su loves talent, but it¡¯s rare for him to be so keen on a young person. Not only did he strongly advise Nandu Medical University to ally with Sanbo Hospital, but he also strongly suggested Nandu Medical University to nominate Yang Ping as an Outstanding Young Talent. ¡°I have been thinking these days, the timing is ripe. I have to have a good chat with Xia Changjiang, to fight for Yang Ping to be recognized as an Outstanding Young Talent. Elder Xiang said he would take the lead.¡± Principal Ruo took a sip of tea and said thoughtfully. If he fights for Yang Ping¡¯s eligibility as an Outstanding Young Talent, it would be more reasonable for Elder Xiang to take responsibility. After all, Principal Ruo has to avoid any appearance of favoritism. ¡°But Elder Xiang hasn¡¯t met Yang Ping yet?¡± Professor Su suddenly thought of this. Old Academician and Yang Ping never met before. Principal Ruo said: ¡°The Old Academician only cares about results, not the person. He said that he had looked at Yang Ping¡¯s academic achievements and believed that he could fight for him. Identifying talent through their achievements is the Old Academician¡¯s consistent principle. So whether they have met before or not doesn¡¯t matter.¡± The Old Academician truly has integrity. ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate the Old Academician for not meeting Yang Ping, he could have been paying attention to the young man for a while. Yang Ping collaborates closely with the Digital Human lab of Nandu Medical University. The Professor He from that lab is a student of the Old Academician, wouldn¡¯t he know about Yang Ping¡¯s situation?¡± Principal Ruo reassures Professor Su not to worry too much about this. Professor Su thought it made sense. Yang Ping frequently interacts with the Digital Human Laboratory of Nandu Medical University, providing a lot of data for Professor He to construct the functional human being in a digital form. ¡°I¡¯ll arrange a meeting with Xia Changjiang, and then we can all discuss together? How does that sound?¡± Principal Ruo proposed. Of course, Professor Su agreed. They were all old friends, and a good discussion sitting around the same table, making plans together, could prevent Sanbo Hospital, right on their doorstep, from being taken by others. Chapter 707 - 707 629 Detailed Dissection ?Chapter 707: Chapter 629: Detailed Dissection Chapter 707: Chapter 629: Detailed Dissection After settling the matter of recruiting Tang Shun, Yang Ping felt much more relaxed. In this way, with a member focused on basic research, many tasks can be carried out much more easily in the Stem Cell Laboratory. Yang Ping¡¯s experiments in the system space laboratory are ongoing, and he takes advantage of the suitable times to continue his work almost daily. Yang Ping continues to collect the inducers for stem cell directional differentiation, discerning and recording each one with a cryo-electron microscope. He then further verifies them with reverse experiments. Much of this work is trial and error in nature. Without strong interest as a supportive drive, it would be challenging to make such tedious work exciting. For some repetitive tasks, such as slicing muscle into single-cell layers, Yang Ping delegates this work to robotic arms. The robotic arms, lacking subjective initiative, perform tasks according to Yang¡¯s arrangements and serve as excellent laborers. Muscle cells, also known as muscle fibers, are long, columnar, multinucleate cells, ranging from 1-40mm in length and 10-100¦Ìm in diameter. A single muscle cell contains dozens or even hundreds of nuclei. How these muscle cells organize into muscle tissue, how nerves, blood vessels, and lymph vessels weave within the structure, how many layers these structures are divided into, what types of cells make up each layer, and how these cells connect with each other. This is what Yang Ping currently aims to comprehend during his meticulous anatomical study of muscles. In the system laboratory, besides the very affordable time, the robotic arms also serve as cheap labor, as their numbers can be increased as needed. All the photomicrograph and electron micrograph images of the slices are stored in a computer. Then, they are used to reconstruct a detailed 3D anatomical model of an entire muscle tissue. These fundamental tasks are extremely tedious, but they are also especially important. No steps can be carelessly missed. When a muscle tissue is sliced into single-cell layers, just considering muscle cells alone, the saggital and coronal sections can yield more than twenty thousand slices. However, considering blood vessels, nerves, and lymph vessels, the three sections can result in millions of slices. Yang Ping has discovered a very good method for creating single cell-layer muscle slices through numerous slicing trials. He summarized this method and applied it to actual experiments to reduce trial and error time. In scientific research, much time is wasted on trial and error, but it¡¯s a necessary step in the process. The reason why some senior companies in various technology industries can form monopolies, such as world pharmaceutical giants, is that their scientific research databases include countless data on both successes and failures. It¡¯s possible that the drugs that emerging companies invest heavily in developing were already found to be errors by these larger companies decades ago. Therefore, for these types of companies, the longer their operation time and the greater the number of experiments conducted, the more valuable their data becomes, whether successful or not. These data are considered to be their core secrets. Some other companies, such as some high-end steel manufacturers, keep recipes of materials, which are data accumulated over decades or even centuries of trial and error. These cannot be surpassed in a short period of time. Therefore, in high-tech industries such as materials, chemical industry, pharmaceuticals, etc., it¡¯s challenging for the followers to surpass the pioneers unless there is a technological revolution and a change in the track. Otherwise, the possibility of overtaking on curves does not exist. After coming out of the system space, Yang Ping relies on his memory to write down the method he arranged for creating single cell-layer muscle slices. Then, after some organization, he sees these as valuable assets after countless trial and error verifications. The current team responsible for making single cell-layer muscle slices is the Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory. Having already accumulated rich experience when constructing a digital human, they were able to conduct muscle slicing smoothly. In the project to complete a digital human, a young man¡¯s body was selected out of 20 donated bodies. Using a grinding technique at the sub-millimeter level, the body was sliced from head to toe into slices less than 0.2mm thick, totaling up to 8972 slices. Over twenty researchers worked around the clock to process more than 200,000 images, each with a resolution of 4040*5880, using these images to construct a digital human. The difference is, the muscle slices currently need to be made into single-cell layers, which requires high technology, and more images need to be processed, with hundreds of thousands of slices just for one direction. Moreover, each image needs to be distinguished at the cellular level. If it is a known cell, it needs to be clear to which category it belongs; if it is an unknown cell, it needs to be identified. The task of directing stem cells to grow into muscle cells is completed by the Stem Cell Laboratory of Sanbo Hospital. Not only do they need to differentiate into muscle cells, but they also have to differentiate into cells that make up nerves, blood vessels, and lymph vessels. All types of cells involved in a muscle tissue must be directionally grown. After these two tasks are completed, the next steps begin to diverge into two routes: one is biological 3D printing technology, and the other is gene expression regulation technology. The biological 3D printing technology is in the charge of the Sharp Medical company¡¯s laboratory, and the gene expression regulation is the responsibility of the Genetics Laboratory at Nandu Medical University. The whole process requires multiple units to cooperate and divide the tasks, and if it weren¡¯t for the joint efforts of Sanbo Hospital and Nandu Medical University, it would take a year or more to contact and coordinate the cooperating units. Chen Zhi at Sharp Medical is a Master¡¯s graduate in Bioengineering. This outstanding graduate student is studying for his Ph.D. at Nandu Polytechnic in his spare time. He has a unique talent for the development of medical instruments and devices. Under Huang Jiacai¡¯s instruction, he is currently organizing a team to develop a new type of biological 3D printer. The existing biological printers in the world cannot print a piece of authentic muscle. The muscle currently printed in the United States is merely a stack of muscle cells with partial functionality. It doesn¡¯t have nerves or blood vessels, and the connections between the cells aren¡¯t simulated authentically. Each link in the process is fundamentally researched, making it extremely difficult and requiring huge human, material, and financial resources. But, it is the only way to truly succeed. ¡ª ¡°Professor, can I participate in any projects?¡± Robert has been paying attention to this matter for a long time. Yang Ping has his own considerations. He definitely can¡¯t allow Robert to participate in core projects. Good relations do not warrant sharing details that could potentially form the basis of national technological expertise in the future. Currently, the United States strictly maintains confidentiality with many advanced biotechnologies, including stem cell research projects, and refuses to allow foreigners to observe. For example, the technology of directional differentiation of stem cells, the inducers needed, the proteins they actually contain, and how to match them are all top secrets of the laboratory. It¡¯s like the technology used in the aviation industry for manufacturing engines; it is absolutely not for sale or disclosure. However, Robert can participate in the subsidiary projects. ¡°Analyze the structure of articular cartilage, make single-cell slices, and then reconstruct the 3-dimensional anatomical structure of the cartilage.¡± Yang Ping assigns a task to Robert. ¡°What about me?¡± August also wants to participate. ¡°You work on the detailed structure analysis of the intervertebral disc.¡± Yang also assigns a task to August. These projects are peripheral research for Yang Ping¡¯s main topic. He does not have the capacity to divert attention to them for now, so delegating them is beneficial. It not only maintains international top-level scientific research connections, but also doesn¡¯t lose control over the core technology of the project. It¡¯s like building an airplane: he focuses his energy on building the engine, and others can be assigned as necessary, rather than researching and manufacturing everything himself. Whether it is the research on cartilage or intervertebral disc, both would be massive breakthroughs if successful. Both Robert and August are more than willing to undertake these tasks. They believe that under Professor Yang¡¯s guidance, they will be able to succeed. Chapter 708 - 708 630 Im Hosting ?Chapter 708: Chapter 630: I¡¯m Hosting Chapter 708: Chapter 630: I¡¯m Hosting The study of Academician Xiang from Nandu Medical University. On the academician¡¯s desk, to the right, is Yang Ping¡¯s project plan and research guidance for the cultivation of muscle stem cells, while to the left is a pile of thick monographs, with him continuing to pull out new monographs from the bookshelf for perusal. After going through a pile of monographs, the old academician starts reading papers on his computer. He has been in his study for almost eight hours today, with his meals brought in by his spouse. This has continued for several days, causing his spouse to worry. ¡°You need to move around a bit, otherwise you risk developing deep vein thrombosis.¡± Unable to bear it anymore, his spouse gently reminds him from the doorway. However, the old academician doesn¡¯t hear his spouse¡¯s reminder at all and continues to read papers, occasionally taking notes. ¡°Whose project plan is this that you¡¯ve been reading for several days? You¡¯ve been at it for eight hours straight today again. You need to move around.¡± For the sake of her husband¡¯s health, the old academician¡¯s spouse has no choice but to be rough, removing the pencil from Academician Xiang¡¯s hand. ¡°Ah, another eight hours huh? I forgot, yes, I should move around.¡± The old academician starts to move around the room, albeit reluctantly, at his wife¡¯s insistence. ¡°Whose project plan is this that you¡¯ve been reading for days?¡± His wife is very curious. The old academician instantly perks up at the mention of the project plan, ¡°It¡¯s a project plan from a young man at Sanbo Hospital. This young man is amazing. After studying his project plan for a few days, I found him to be way more extraordinary than I initially thought.¡± ¡°Is he that young surgeon that Professor He frequently talks about?¡± The old academician¡¯s wife also knows about this. Every time Professor He comes to visit his mentor, he speaks of this person. In fact, Professor He often discusses Yang Ping¡¯s methods and data with Academician Xiang, which is how the latter remembers Yang Ping. Where a single accomplishment would have been surprising enough, now there are several accomplishments from this Yang Ping, which amazes the old academician. The methods and data Yang Ping gave to Professor He are truly precious anatomical data. At the time, the old academician didn¡¯t pay much attention to them, but after carefully studying them one by one, he realized each one could be considered a heavyweight scientific accomplishment. Especially this recent topic on the cultivation of muscle stem cells. While Professor He is not particularly knowledgeable about the field of stem cells, he is an academician when it comes to the field of anatomy. When he saw that the project plan mentioned a detailed anatomy of muscle tissues, the old academician became excited. He had always wanted to propose the same concept, but he felt it was immature and refrained from speaking of it. He was surprised to see that this young man not only proposed this concept but also acted on it. Constructing a detailed anatomy from the cellular level requires courage and patience. Looking at a single-cell tissue section, many cells will be severed. These cells need to be evaluated in relation to several tissue sections, before being restored. It¡¯s a highly complex project. Yet, the young man not only started the project but also came up with effective methods. ¡°I won¡¯t be home for dinner tonight.¡± The old academician notified his wife. His wife was surprised again, as her husband rarely dined out in decades. Why was he planning to have dinner out? Did he have some engagement? ¡°This young man Yang is set to visit Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory today. I informed Professor He in advance that once Yang arrives, he should notify me, and we can all have dinner together.¡± Indeed, the old academician planned to have dinner with Professor He and Yang Ping. ¡°So, you haven¡¯t met this Yang in person, and you recommended him to Principal Ruo? You even had him exceptionally promoted to associate professor?¡± His wife thought the two men were close; she was surprised they hadn¡¯t even met. The old academician was displeased, ¡°His exceptional promotion to associate professor was strongly endorsed by me in front of Xiao Ruo, and I also lobbied the evaluation committee members. That was because his academic achievements were sufficient for him to be an associate professor. Whether or not I¡¯ve met him has nothing to do with it.¡± ¡°Please come home early after dinner.¡± His wife reminded him. Just then, the old academician¡¯s phone rang. It was Professor He. The old academician learned that Yang Ping would soon arrive. ¡°I should get there early to await his arrival. Young people are tight on time, unlike us old folks who have plenty of leisure time.¡± The old academician looked excited. ¡ª Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory, Professor He¡¯s office. Due to the irregular arrangement of cells, achieving a true single-cell layer is impossible. However, it is possible to obtain many intact single-cell layers, and by integrating multiple tissue sections, a detailed anatomy can be constructed. Professor He had read the experimental guidance countless times, each time finding it hard to believe. There are few teams nationwide conducting the Digital Human project, and in terms of experience, their team is undoubtedly the richest. Theoretically, no one could surpass Professor He at single-cell level tissue sections in micrometers. The Digital Human they initially produced was world-class. Yet, the methodologies outlined in this experimental guidance are significantly more advanced than his own. They easily produce qualified tissue sections and also make developing three-dimensional digital muscles from tissue sections easier. He took the lead in this experimental guidance. Where did these methods come from? If they were borrowed from others, it would be impossible for Professor He not to know of their existence. There¡¯s only one possibility. Did Professor Yang come up with this himself? ¡°His ability to abstract theory from limited experience is remarkable. You are lucky to collaborate with him. Regardless of whether the topic is successful or not, you will have the opportunity to learn the methods of constructing a detailed human anatomy and push the Digital Human to a new frontier,¡± Elder Academician Xiang said slowly to Professor He. He arrived at Professor He¡¯s lab before Yang Ping. Elder Xiang has been very curious since Professor He mentioned Yang Ping. So, he carefully studied the data and methods Yang Ping provided and found them very unconventional. The given data and methods were extremely advanced. He began to take notice of this young man, and then he reviewed his Spinal External Fixation Project, the latest stem cell project, and the Old Academician was extremely excited. With his sharp academic vision, he discovered that this young man is a real scientific research genius. Not only is he skilled in surgery, but he¡¯s also excellent in scientific research. This is a rare talent. So when he received a call from Professor He, he rushed over, eager to meet Yang Ping. ¡°His approach is very clear. To clone an organ, regardless of directional cultivation or 3D printing, the prerequisite is to understand the intricate anatomy of the organ; otherwise, every method would be unsuccessful. Besides, you noticed that if the organ is actually cloned, do you know what the biggest obstacle would be during application?¡± Academician Xiang sees more than others when it comes to this project proposal and experimental guidance, he could see many deeper things. ¡°You mean he set nerve research as a separate project?¡± Professor He faintly understood what his teacher was saying. ¡°Exactly, no matter the method, if the muscle is replicated by us, then the biggest problem faced when transplanted into the human body is the issue of nerve connection. The blood vessel problem is easy to solve. Once it¡¯s joined together, it will circulate with blood. Nerves, on the other hand, are different. They don¡¯t just join at the cut-off point; instead, they grow from proximal to distal. Because of this, nerves must be studied more thoroughly. When cloning muscles in the future, we don¡¯t need to replicate the entire nerve at the original nerve site. Instead, we replicate the nerve sheath, arranging a layer of nerve growth-inducing substances on the inner sheath of the nerve. Thus, when the muscle is transplanted, the nerve sheath is connected with the human body¡¯s nerve. Guided by the inducer substances, the nerve grows along the sheath until it reaches the end,¡± Elder Xiang explained. Professor He always wondered why it was designed like this. Now he finally understood: ¡°He bypassed the difficult task of nerve repair and took a new path?¡± ¡°Not just a new path, he opened a second one!¡± The elder academician said unhurriedly. Today, he was going to teach his doctoral student a lesson. ¡°Is there another way of thinking?¡± Professor He was puzzled as it wasn¡¯t mentioned. Old Academician was quite proud. ¡°That¡¯s because you are not responsible for this project, so it isn¡¯t brought up in your proposal. If I am not mistaken, the one responsible for the development of biological 3D printing technology must also research biological connection technology.¡± ¡°Biological connection technology?¡± Professor He was even more confused. ¡°There¡¯s another approach. That is, using stem cells to cultivate the cells at each layer of the nerve, and then use micro 3D printing technology to connect the nerve¡¯s original cells. However, this requires the micro printing of the 3D printing technology to be excellent. You wait and ask him later. He will surely have this project,¡± Elder Academician said getting more excited. Cannot reconnect after the nerve breaks because it does not heal. If they can repair it at the cellular level and restore it, naturally, this is a preferred method. But the difficulty is much greater than the previous approach. ¡°Why hasn¡¯t Xiao Yang arrived yet?¡± The old academician was a bit anxious. Professor He said: ¡°There¡¯s a bit of traffic.¡± ¡°Did you decide on the location?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s decided!¡± ¡°Today. I am treating.¡± ¡°How can that be?¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay; it¡¯s decided, I will treat.¡± Chapter 709 - 709 631 The Young Are To Be Feared ?Chapter 709: Chapter 631: The Young Are To Be Feared Chapter 709: Chapter 631: The Young Are To Be Feared Academician Xiang and Professor He waited for more than an hour before Yang Ping arrived. Traffic jams can sometimes be very time-consuming. During peak hours of commuting, the downtown area is always like this, the car can only move slowly with patience. ¡°Professor Yang has arrived!¡± Upon seeing Yang Ping walk into the office, Professor He immediately stood up to greet him. ¡°Professor Yang! Hello!¡± The old academician followed suit, immediately shook Yang Ping¡¯s hand, and warmly greeted him. Academician Xiang? The old academician had never met Yang Ping, but Yang Ping had seen the old academician many times. As far as Yang Ping was concerned, the old academician was a familiar face. The old academician has a very good relationship with the orthopedic community and is often invited to attend the annual orthopedic conference of Nandu Province. Yang Ping had listened many times while sitting under the stage and had even taken a picture with the old academician before. Taking a photo with a celebrity at an academic conference is similar to an actor walking the red carpet for exposure. Both are done to gain some attention. So, Yang Ping recognized Academician Xiang as soon as he laid his eyes on him. How could he let the old academician clal him ¡°Professor Yang¡±? Yang Ping hurriedly helped the old academician to sit down: ¡°Elder Xiang, just call me Xiao Yang. If you call me Professor Yang, my legs will start shaking.¡± Professor He originally wanted to make an introduction, but his mentor was so excited that he shook Yang Ping¡¯s hand without waiting for He to introduce him. Since everyone knew each other, they skipped the introduction. ¡°Professor Yang is indeed Professor Yang. In academia, age does not determine rank. Indeed, heroes come from the youth, very good, very good.¡± This was the first time Elder Xiang had met Yang Ping, and he matched the image he had in mind: serious, confident, cheerful, and even a little humorous. He liked such young people. Yang Ping stood in front of the old professors, letting the old academician size him up, just like a grandfather sizing up his grandson. The more the old academician looked at him, the more satisfied he seemed. ¡°Don¡¯t stand! Sit! Talk, sitting down will keep your legs from shaking unnaturally!¡± This name, Yang Ping, the old academician had heard it countless times from Professor He¡¯s mouth, and then countless times from Professor Su¡¯s mouth. The Yang Ping that he himself took the initiative to recommend for promotion to associate professor regardless of his young age. Today, Academician Xiang finally met him in person. It was like meeting a long-lost relative. You can imagine just how happy he was. ¡°We were just discussing your research design ¨C the cultivation of stem cells into muscles. Why incorporate the study of neural injury repair? It seems a bit irrelevant, doesn¡¯t it?¡± Academician Xiang did not hide his attention to Yang Ping. They quickly switched to discussing his research within a few sentences. ¡°Because if the cloning of muscles is successful and the muscles are transplanted into the human body, a muscle without neural control will just be a piece of dead meat, without function and hence, no value. It is therefore essential to research neural damage alongside this, so that in the future, muscles can be truly applied to the human body.¡± This was Yang Ping¡¯s simple idea. Since it was a large project, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to include one more piece. Just put it all in one package. ¡°So you intend to cook everything in one pot? Your research project should be going in two directions, right? There is a study of microscopic printing biological connections in the 3D printing direction, isn¡¯t there?¡± Elder Xiang wanted to confirm his guess. After all, the bet he had with Professor He was still unconfirmed. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°This is a crucial part of the study of nerve injury repair. In my opinion, it is only through repair at the cellular level that we may really mend nerve damage. All the other approaches are mere temporary solutions.¡± This cuts to the chase, only an expert like the old academician who has dedicated his life to clinical anatomy can clearly see this point. At times, it takes extremely good judgment to predict the future trends of technological developments and to decide the correct path to take. ¡°See, I told you so! Whether it involves repair at the cellular level, that is what I refer to as biological connection.¡± The academician was full of joy at his victory. Professor He was deeply impressed by his mentor¡¯s insights while simultaneously feeling that his own vision was narrow and severely limited by his specialized knowledge. The three stages of surgery: removal, repair, and reconstruction. The essence of repair lies in restoration, returning to the original structure and function. As the nerves are made up of cells, nerve damage fundamentally boils down to individual cell damage or loss. If we want the restoration to be like the original, it is impossible to rely on natural abilities alone. Artificial technology, on the other hand, would enable this to come true. The artificial technology would involve removing the damaged cells one by one, and then replacing the missing cells one by one. The types of cells and their interconnections would also remain the same as before. It¡¯s like repairing a damaged wall ¨C you would need to find bricks that are exactly the same. If nerve damage can truly be repaired at the cellular level, then that would be worthy of a Nobel Prize. Regardless of whether the young man could achieve this or not, the fact that he dared to think about it and act upon it, coming up with an effective plan, is admirable. As for whether or not he can succeed in the future... All he could do was to keep climbing without worrying about the height! In the history of world science and technology, there are numerous examples of failure. Successes are still the minority. Nevertheless, failed cases provide valuable lessons for successors. Failure is the mother of success, without failures, there could never be later successes. However, Academician Xiang believed that Yang Ping¡¯s general direction was correct. Even if he couldn¡¯t achieve complete success, he would still be able to achieve partial success. For such a project, even a small breakthrough could definitely make a global impact. He was indeed a formidable young man! ¡°Let¡¯s go and have dinner together. Let¡¯s talk while we eat. I¡¯ll treat.¡± Academician Xiang was seldom this happy, let alone having a meal outside. ¡°Elder Xiang seldom eats out, he is doing this today, all for you.¡± Professor He joyfully told Yang Ping. Yang Ping felt genuinely flattered. The nonagenarian academician waited here for him and even invited him to dinner. This precious care towards young people was truly special. Academician Xiang was about to get up. After sitting for a long time, his knee joints were not that flexible. Yang Ping quickly moved to support him, ¡°Elder Xiang, how about letting me treat instead? I have wanted to meet Elder Xiang for a long time, but I was afraid that I would disturb your tranquillity, so I never dared to mention it to Professor He.¡± With Yang Ping¡¯s support, Academician Xiang stood up and moved around a bit, which made his knee joints more flexible. ¡°As I said, I will be treating for dinner. I don¡¯t want to hear any further objections. Let¡¯s go! Professor He, take us to the place you¡¯ve booked. Is it of a decent standard? Don¡¯t worry about my money, I have my pension and subsidies.¡± Academician Xiang had asked Professor He to help him book the restaurant. All he needed to do was to pay. He even carried a document bag with him, and he was sure he had brought enough money. ¡°Why are you also calling me Professor He? Shouldn¡¯t you call me Xiao He?¡± Professor He knew that his mentor often made these light-hearted jokes. ¡°Since everyone is a professor, why should I call you Xiao Yang or Xiao He? Doesn¡¯t that sound right? Both professors, do you want to have a bit of liquor?¡± Today, the old academician was on a high and even proposed to drink some liquor. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we will know when to stop. When it¡¯s time, Professor He will arrange for a driver to drop you off.¡± The old academician had everything arranged clearly. Today, the tutor was genuinely happy. Normally, he would only drink some liquor when there was a reason to celebrate, such as when the digital human research was successful. Today, having met Yang Ping and having had such a delightful chat, he even suggested having some wine. ¡°Sure! Let¡¯s have a little bit of wine.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to dampen the old academician¡¯s spirits. ¡°Does your wife approve?¡± Professor He started to worry. The old academician was quite manly, ¡°Do I need her approval to have a little drink? But I did mention it to her, so don¡¯t worry.¡± Chapter 710 - 710 632 Will You Gamble ?Chapter 710: Chapter 632: Will You Gamble? Chapter 710: Chapter 632: Will You Gamble? The dinner lasted a whole five hours, but the old academician was still not satisfied. When leaving, Academician Xiang was reluctant to say goodbye to Yang Ping. Yang Ping wanted to find a designated driver to go home, but the old academician wouldn¡¯t allow it. He insisted that Professor He arrange for an old driver from the logistics department of Nandu Medical University to drive Yang Ping home. When old Academician Xiang walked Yang Ping to the car, he was still discussing the upgrade issues of Digital Human with Yang Ping, and finally urged Yang Ping to visit Professor He at home when he was free. Yang Ping hit it off with old Academician Xiang and they became friends despite their age difference. After bidding farewell to the old academician, Yang Ping reflected a lot on his way home. He was very moved to be valued by old Academician Xiang. The older generation of experts, it started with Professor Zhang Zongshun, to Academician Feng Tiancheng and Professor Liang from Xiehe hospital, then to old Academician Xiang. They were such genuine people, with few selfish thoughts ¨C there was so much to learn from them. When Academician Feng Tiancheng discovered that his own tumor was incurable, with only a slim chance of a successful surgery, he still insisted on having the surgery to provide young people with experience, and even specified in his will to perform an autopsy after his death to collect pathological data. Thinking about all these, Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but feel a wave of emotions. In the system space, Yang Ping actually stored a huge amount of data related to dissection, but he couldn¡¯t pull it all out at once. He could only teach them the methods bit by bit along with the progress of the topic, letting them accumulate data by themselves. That is to say, he gives them the method instead of directly providing the data. If he gave some data directly, it would make people feel that such data was fabricated out of thin air and unfounded. Of course, if some data can be explained by real reasons, Yang Ping will directly bring out the data. In a word, when the results of the system laboratory need to be presented, they must be presented in a reasonable way, which is Yang Ping¡¯s saying of realization. For example, the spinal external fixator, the whole experiment process was completed in reality, all data was made in reality, not a single data was made up, so the whole process went logically, which is the typical realization of the achievements of the system laboratory. For the stem cell project, Yang Ping adopted a similar method, but because the topic was too large, in order to start in reality as soon as possible, Yang Ping didn¡¯t wait until the whole topic was completed in the system laboratory to start the experiment in reality, but presented the results of each stage in reality as they were completed. In this way, the whole experiment process will also be under his own control, avoiding trial and error and advancing directly along the correct route, thus ensuring success and minimizing time consumption. Returning from Nandu Medical University, Yang Ping had more confidence in the progress of the project. With the support of Nandu Medical University, the project time would be greatly reduced. Just like the spinal external fixator in the beginning, without the full support of Xiehe, providing laboratories, animal models, and a large number of doctors as frontline researchers, it wouldn¡¯t have been accomplished so quickly. Just imagine having a complete set of airplane blueprints still requires qualified engineers, workers, factories, and raw materials to manufacture the airplane. The results Yang Ping got in the system laboratory are these ¡°blueprints¡±. He needs manpower, material resources and financial resources to turn them into reality. When Yang Ping returned, it was already twelve o¡¯clock at night. Xiao Su hadn¡¯t gone to bed yet; she had been waiting for Yang Ping. She had fallen asleep on the coffee table in the living room in her pajamas. When Yang Ping came in, she rubbed her sleepy eyes and said, ¡°You¡¯re home!¡± Then she went to prepare clean pajamas for Yang Ping and asked him to take a shower and rest as soon as possible. Yang Ping hugged Xiao Su and kissed her on the forehead. As a surgeon at the third-class teaching hospital and being busy with surgery and research, there is little time to spend with the family, so having an understanding wife is very important. Xiao Su is an instrument nurse who can see Yang Ping in the operating room every day. The two can be said to be together in a different way. ¡°Did you drink today?¡± Xiao Su asked with concern. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°A little bit. I had dinner with old Academician Xiang. The old man was happy and wanted to drink a little. So I accompanied him. We didn¡¯t even finish a bottle of wine for the whole table.¡± ¡°That¡¯s okay, I just wanted to ask. He hardly ever attends dinner functions; you¡¯re quite privileged to have had dinner with him.¡± Xiao Su reached out and touched Yang Ping¡¯s nose. Xiao Su is very familiar with the people and affairs of Nandu Medical University. ¡°Go take a shower, and get some rest early. You still have so many surgeries tomorrow.¡± Xiao Su said to Yang Ping with infinite tenderness. She not only prepared his pajamas, but also squeezed his toothpaste for him. Mrs. Su¡¯s recent pressure for marriage has relaxed a lot because she knows Yang Ping is busy with his project. Professor Su came up with a good idea for the new era. He suggested that Yang Ping and Xiao Su choose a day to go to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get a marriage certificate. As for the wedding, it can be held when there¡¯s more time in the future. So, Yang Ping and Xiao Su were considering which day they should go to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get a marriage license. ¡ª¡ª The next day, after performing surgeries all day, Yang Ping went to participate in the case discussion with Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun. Li Jun¡¯s vital signs stabilised after he was taken off the machine. He was transferred to respiratory medicine. He spent almost two million in the ICU, but finally his life was saved. Qin Xiaowei was still in the ICU, but his vital signs were relatively stable. However, due to severe liver failure, he could only rely on artificial liver to maintain life while waiting for subsequent liver transplant to save his life. Upon learning about Qin Xiaowei¡¯s condition, Li Jun immediately offered to donate part of his liver. This kind of two-way organ transplantation is not very common, so the organ transplantation center attaches great importance to it. The surgeries of both are urgent and dangerous at the moment. Li Jun, because of his blood clotting disorder, if he doesn¡¯t proceed with the kidney transplant soon, he might face another pulmonary embolism, and he might not be so lucky next time. The effect of Qin Xiaowei¡¯s artificial liver is not very satisfactory. If it continues for too long, he fears it might trigger a chain reaction, affecting the function of other organs. But the contradictory problem is that both of them, one still in the ICU and the other just out of the ICU, will find it hard to withstand the impact of the surgery. Both Director Liu of Kidney Transplantation and Director Li of Liver Transplantation regard these two cases highly, hoping to complete the surgeries at the optimum time. This optimum time is hard to wait for. If they wait for both of them to be in the best physical condition, that¡¯s impossible. The longer they wait, the worse the conditions get. Both of them have no family members and are alone. They make their own decisions. The organs donated by the two of them have passed ethical evaluation, and the matching has been successful. In this case, there is little external interference, and what¡¯s left is deciding the timing of the surgery. Speaking of it, these two are also unfortunate. According to Dr. An, when Li Jun was seven, his mother abandoned him and his father to elope with another man, and she stole the money at home. Later, when Li Jun was ten, his father died in an accident on the construction site. Li Jun lived with his relatives until he was fifteen when he started to work for a living. Qin Xiaowei was not better off. He grew up in an orphanage since he was a child, and he started making his own way in the world in his early teens. Luckily, Qin Xiaowei raised the money and did not give up on Li Jun, allowing the ICU doctors to save Li Jun¡¯s life. If Qin Xiaowei hadn¡¯t insisted at that time, Li Jun would definitely not have survived today. Li Jun is now willing to risk undergoing surgery to donate part of his liver to save Qin Xiaowei. But there are many difficulties for the transplants. Director Liu and Director Li have to consider all kinds of factors. Director Liu and Director Li are in a dilemma. If they perform the surgery now, it poses a great risk to the doctors. If they don¡¯t do the surgery now, the patients face even greater risks in the future, and they could be facing danger at any time. Should they take a gamble at this crossroad? If they succeed, both will be fine, but if there are any problems, even if only one of them encounters a problem, it would be disastrous. If they don¡¯t gamble, both of them won¡¯t have many days left. Director Liu and Director Zhao really can¡¯t make up their minds. Therefore, they called everyone to discuss and decide. Chapter 711 - 711 633 A Case Discussion Full of Controversy ?Chapter 711: Chapter 633: A Case Discussion Full of Controversy Chapter 711: Chapter 633: A Case Discussion Full of Controversy The case discussion was held in the meeting room of the Organ Transplantation Center. By the time Yang Ping arrived, the meeting room was already full. He found a chair in an inconspicuous corner and sat down. He scanned the room, a lot of unfamiliar faces met his gaze. Undeniably, the unfamiliar faces were experts from other institutions. Yang Ping knew most of the Sanbo directors and experts level who could participate in such meetings. When he got the call from the medical office, they mentioned inviting external experts, but he didn¡¯t expect so many. It probably had to do with the efforts of that ¡®Surface Warrior¡¯ campaign. Currently, Sanbo Hospital is qualified to perform kidney, liver, pancreas, and small intestine transplants. Any organ transplantation must be endorsed by the Ministry of Health. At present, Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, Fuer, and Provincial People¡¯s Hospital hold the highest qualifications for organ transplantation. They not only have qualifications for kidney, liver, pancreas, and small intestine transplants, but also heart and lung transplants. The liver and kidney transplants for Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun fall within the qualifications of Sanbo Hospital and both of them are willing to have their operations at Sanbo. Thus, even if external experts were brought in, they would only be participating in the case discussion. For large-scale case discussions, Director Zhao from the Medical Affairs Department must attend. He would preside over the meeting and also coordinate various aspects. Currently, Qin Xiaowei is a celebrity. After successfully completing the climbing challenge, not only his number of fans skyrocketed, but he topped the trending topics list for a long time. The stock of the outdoor sports brand ¡®Surface Warrior¡¯ directly doubled and continued to rise. In response to the high social attention garnered by such a patient, the hospital naturally takes it seriously. Not that other patients aren¡¯t taken seriously, but other patients simply don¡¯t attract as much pomp and circumstance as this. Whether such ceremony is a good or bad thing is open to debate. If the primary treating hospital lacks technical strength and the patient cannot be transferred, facing treatment difficulties, the consultation of experts from outside the hospital can be very helpful, making up for the primary hospital¡¯s deficiencies. That¡¯s a good thing. In contrast, if the hospital has sufficient technical capabilities and the treatment is going extremely smoothly, too many external expert consultations can just add to the confusion. Doctors face pressure from all sides¡ªthe more grandiose the situation, the more cautious everyone becomes. Thus, sometimes this level of attention can be a bad thing. For example, a certain wealthy patient was admitted to the ICU of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. After careful treatment, he was successfully transferred out of ICU. His family, believing that such a high-profile rich person shouldn¡¯t receive the same treatment as ordinary people (which they deemed to lack prestige), invited over thirty experts from both domestic and international fields for multiple rounds of consultations. In the end, everyone had different opinions and no one dared to take responsibility. The family was confused, sometimes they would listen to one expert and then another. Finally, they decided to follow the advice of an American expert and had the surgery done in the United States, but unfortunately, didn¡¯t survive the procedure. Sometimes in treating illnesses, one expert is enough. Too many experts and it can easily lead to mishaps. It¡¯s like going to war ¨C one commander is sufficient. However, with a dozen commanders, one advocating attack, another defense, and yet another retreat, you hardly get into attack formation before receiving orders to retreat. Halfway through the retreat, another order arrives commanding you to attack. The troops are simply run ragged and are unable to fight effectively. Yang Ping had seen too many of such cases. Sometimes, if the family insists on inviting the experts, the hospital has no choice. The ¡®Surface Warrior¡¯, acting on behalf of Qin Xiaowei¡¯s company, invited over thirty experts from Beijing, Shanghai, Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, Huaxi Hospital, and more. They did so to show their concern for Qin Xiaowei. The large oval table in the meeting room was surrounded by people. The scale of this consultation was quite large. ¡°¡®Surface Warrior¡¯ invited over thirty experts. More than ten of them haven¡¯t arrived yet; we have only about twenty who have made it here for this batch,¡± a director sitting nearby whispered to Yang Ping. Yang Ping nodded in gratitude for this piece of information. Director Zhao began the discussion of the case with his baritone voice. After a formal introduction, he handed over the floor to the attending physician to report the case. The case materials of Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun were projected on the screen, with everyone listening to the case report attentively. Director Liu and Director Li briefly talked about their next steps and the difficulties they were facing, hoping for assistance from the experts. ¡°There¡¯s no way this surgery can be performed. The risk is far too high. Given their current conditions, any small complication could be fatal. Surgery is not a gamble. Whoever decides to perform this surgery is simply looking for trouble. If it were up to me, I definitely wouldn¡¯t do it.¡± A professor from Beijing stated his views blatantly. ¡°Looking for trouble? It isn¡¯t that severe. If doctors don¡¯t take risks, what kind of doctors are they? Isn¡¯t every surgery risky? Performing a surgery is like dancing on the edge of a knife, we seek benefits within the risks. If we refuse all risky cases, what happens to the patients? We certainly can¡¯t just do the safe surgeries; there is no such thing as a completely safe surgery. Are the patients with high-risk conditions just supposed to wait to die?¡± A professor from Shanghai won¡¯t budge. The case discussion commenced explosively with the disagreements between the professors from Beijing and Shanghai. The academic world has its factions too, practitioners rarely bow to each other. During academic conferences, they argue heatedly, occasionally going so far as to roll up their sleeves as if ready to fight. It can be quite entertaining. This cocktail of factions has resulted in many academic brawls at conferences. So, they are unapologetically combative, their metaphorical swords clashing at the first sight of each other. ¡°We¡¯ve all seen cases where surgeries have been deemed successful, but the patient has died. Do you think some doctors don¡¯t experience this often enough?¡±a Beijing professor sneered, his sarcasm not lost on anyone. The Shanghai professor retorted, ¡°It¡¯s as if some people claim that organ transplants have a hundred percent success rate. I¡¯ve never seen anyone who often walks by the river and yet never gets their shoes wet.¡± Seeing that the argument was escalating, a professor from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One quickly stepped in to defuse the situation. ¡°The cases of these two patients present quite a dilemma. The risks of operating are high, but if we don¡¯t proceed, we might lose the opportunity to do so later. Take Qin Xiaowei, the effect of the artificial liver has not been good, and if we don¡¯t proceed with the transplant, it could trigger a chain reaction leading to multi-organ failure and ensuing kidney failure. Not only would he be in danger, he wouldn¡¯t be able to donate his kidney to Li Jun. For Li Jun, if we lose the arteriovenous fistula created for him, there would be no place for a new one. How then could he receive dialysis? We can¡¯t afford not to act, but there are high risks involved. That¡¯s why we¡¯ve called upon all of you, the top experts, to discuss some plan of action that could potentially be beneficial for both patients. The silver lining here is that both are willing to undergo surgery and their financial conditions are good enough to withstand the expenses.¡± This professor had visited Sanbo Hospital a few times before and had a good relationship with the Sanbo Hospital, so he stepped into maintaining order. With its own distinct academic community not inferior to Beijing and Shanghai, Nandu Medical University always occupied one corner of the national academic triangle. And if the west was included, they formed one side of an academic quadrilateral. With the professor from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One moderating the atmosphere, the professors from Beijing and Shanghai reluctantly stifled their altercation. Actually, having arguments at an academic conference is not a bad thing, it¡¯s quite the opposite. It shows that everyone can express themselves freely. In the past, when Yang Ping worked at the Municipal People¡¯s Hospital, it was quite calm during the case discussion. As soon as Director Wu spoke, everyone either remained silent or praised him enthusiastically. Yang Ping clearly remembered a case discussion, a fifty-year-old male patient with an incomplete fracture of the left femoral neck, and no displacement. The standard treatment involved placing three hollow screws to fix the problem, which was everyone¡¯s initial idea. But Director Wu wanted to give the patient a total hip replacement surgery, even wanting to use the latest ceramic artificial joint. The cost of the joint alone amounted to hundreds of thousands. As soon as Director Wu opened his mouth, Director Fu was the first to agree: ¡°Director Wu¡¯s ideas are insightful and enlightening, showing our need to enhance our learning. We lack the selfless concept of serving patients. That¡¯s why we are limited to thinking about a few screws.¡± At that time, a doctor disagreed: for such a young patient, a Garden type I patient, it was absolutely unacceptable to replace the joint. We should first focus on internal fixation of the fracture. If that failed, then we could consider joint replacement. The failure rate of this approach is very low and the success rate is close to 100 percent. Even if we did not perform surgery and chose to treat the fracture conservatively, the success rate would still be very high. Not long after, the doctor was cruelly eliminated from his position because he did not comply. Gradually, the case discussion sessions at the hospital became very peaceful. After Director Wu spoke, everyone would either express their agreement or remain silent. So, witnessing such contentious case discussions today, filled with tension and heated debates, proved that these were true experts, engaging in genuine discussions. ¡°Everyone is entitled to express their opinions freely. Discussions involve debates. Professors, do you have any other ideas or opinions? Feel free to express them.¡± Director Zhao did not want it to end; instead, he encouraged the two of them to continue the debate. There wasn¡¯t a clear winner yet; the quarrel had only just begun. Chapter 712 - 712 634 Comprehensive Surgery Department ?Chapter 712: Chapter 634: Comprehensive Surgery Department? Chapter 712: Chapter 634: Comprehensive Surgery Department? Everyone was watching closely as the professors from Beijing and Shanghai made their speeches. There were two professors both from Beijing and Shanghai, evenly matched in number. ¡°Actually, I think this surgery should be performed, it¡¯s worth the risk. As long as postoperative infections are avoided and rejection reactions are well controlled, I think it¡¯s not large issue. We doctors are supposed to solve the patients¡¯ problems. What¡¯s the point of sitting here discussing it if we can¡¯t solve the problem? After all the discussion, do we just say: ¡®Send them home¡¯ in the end?¡± One of the Shanghai professors spoke calmly, as if a teacher was gently chastising a student. This upset the Beijing professors. They believed that a doctor needs to know when to act or when not to act, sending the patient home sounded like an admission of incapability. Another Beijing professor couldn¡¯t hold it anymore, he immediately retorted: ¡°Doctors should know when to act or when not to act. Medicine is not omnipotent; many things we cannot accomplish should be faced objectively and scientifically. You can¡¯t force things. Just like some late-stage cancer patients. Not bothering them, treating the symptoms may allow them to live for a few more years. Some doctors just won¡¯t let it go, and bother patients with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, then surgery to remove the tumor. In the end, the patient has spent all their money and they still couldn¡¯t be saved. We need to stay clear-headed and not overly mythologize medical skills.¡± Did you just imply that we are unethical and just playing around with patients? ¡°We can perform all these kinds of surgeries too. Are there any new techniques here? You take messing around as competence? Everybody can mess around.¡± The Beijing professor retorted with a sneer. The conservatives and the advocates for surgery began to argue again. Director Zhao sipped his mineral water with a smile, letting them express their views freely, making the discussion looked like it should in a genuine case discussion with dozens of experts. ¡°Take notes, take notes!¡± Director Zhao immediately urged the doctor in charge of taking notes to step up his efforts. All the discussion content, especially the speech of the big-name experts from Beijing and Shanghai, had to be recorded down. Such wonderful points! ¡°The opinions of the professors are all valid; one side is more concerned about the immediate safety of the patients and is more conservative; the other side pays more attention to the long-term benefits for the patients and is more proactive. So, by integrating the opinions of both sides, we can take advantage of both, ensuring the patient¡¯s immediate safety while successfully completing the surgery?¡± The professor from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One stepped in once more to play the peacemaker. Director Zhao was quite dissatisfied. Just as the fire was starting to rage, you came and extinguished it. ¡°Qin Xiaowei can rely on an artificial liver for the surgery, and Li Jun can simply reconnect to ECMO after the surgery. As long as postoperative infections can be avoided and there are not intense rejection reactions, I¡¯d say the surgery is successful. I think it¡¯s worthwhile to take this risk for their lifelong benefits,¡± said the Shanghai professor once more, calmly. Everyone here has studied the field extensively, and the Beijing professors did not feel it was right to belittle them: ¡°Explain the situation clearly to the patients. At present, both of them are on the verge of collapse at any time. If the surgery is to be performed now, both of them must be prepared to rely on ECMO to save their lives.¡± As the debate was winding down, the professor from Huaxi thought it was time to speak up: ¡°The main problem with Qin Xiaowei is his liver. If a timely liver transplant is performed to solve the liver problem and prevent the triggering of multiple organ failure, the overall condition will improve. Every organ transplant patient has to face the risks of postoperative infection and rejection reaction, so these are not issues. For Li Jun, the main issue is that if a timely kidney transplant is not performed, suitable sites for fistulas will no longer be found, and his coagulation function is also disordered, which can easily lead to bleeding or thrombosis. A timely kidney transplant can solve these problems. So, I still support the surgery.¡± It seemed that the surgery advocates were gaining the upper hand, which naturally displeased the Beijing professors. The directors from Sanbo, Director Liu and Director Li, naturally liked the professors who advocated surgery. They both advocated proactive surgery, and originally had everything planned. However, the plans were disrupted by the interference of Earth Warriors Company, who brought in so many experts. If the experts all agreed to give up on surgery, it wouldn¡¯t be good for them to insist on it. If anything went wrong, they would attract a lot of criticism. Now that the surgery advocates were gaining the upper hand, the two directors naturally felt relieved. ¡°Professor Yang, are you here?¡± Director Zhao called for Yang Ping. ¡°Here!¡± Yang Ping raised his hand and answered. ¡°Why are you sitting so far away? Come over here and say a few words,¡± Director Zhao waved him over. This was the backbone of Sanbo Hospital. With so many external experts present, this talent must be brought to the forefront to show the strength of Sanbo Hospital. An assistant brought a chair over, placing it by Director Zhao for Yang Ping to sit on. Yang Ping reluctantly took a seat. All these experts were specialized in organ transplant, and didn¡¯t recognize the Bone Surgery¡¯s Golden Knife Award champion. They were astonished by such a young professor. Director Zhao introduced him, ¡°This is our Professor Yang from the Comprehensive Surgery Department. He recently developed a spinal external fixator technology for scoliosis treatment. Phase three of the clinical trials are being conducted in the United States, Germany, and Japan. Tokyo University Hospital has been eagerly trying to take over these clinical trials. They¡¯ve sent people and written letters, it¡¯s been a bit annoying. Sorry, I digressed. Professor Yang, why don¡¯t you say a few words?¡± Comprehensive Surgery Department? The professors couldn¡¯t quite grasp it. What does this Comprehensive Surgery Department do? What kind of surgeries do they perform? A professor from Beijing couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Director Zhao, we¡¯ve never heard of this Comprehensive Surgery Department before. What kind of surgeries do they perform?¡± A professor from Shanghai had the same question. Considering the status of their own hospitals, they assumed they were on top nationwide. He had never heard of a Comprehensive Surgery Department. For once, the professors from both sides agreed and asked together. ¡°Ah. Well, this is our hospital¡¯s specialty. The Comprehensive Surgery Department has surgical rights for all aspects of surgery. Their patients are not categorized by specialization, they can perform any kind of surgery. Of course, they currently do not have the authority to perform high-threshold procedures such as organ transplants, but we intend to help them gain that authority in the future.¡± ¡°Haha¡ª¡± A professor from Beijing laughed. It was the first time he had heard of such a department, it sounded like something you would only find in a town hospital. They only needed one surgeon, to perform craniotomies or hematoma removals, orthopedic suture repairs, appendectomies, or closed drainage if they could manage it. It was laughable to him that Sanbo Hospital, a prominent provincial hospital, had such a comedic department. ¡°What kind of surgeries can they perform currently?¡± the curious professor from Beijing asked. That was the reaction Director Zhao was looking for. He puffed himself up, cleared his throat, and responded in his capacity as Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Director of Medical Services, ¡°Due to limited conditions, we do not have a wide variety of surgeries available. We have performed some brainstem tumor excisions, scoliosis correction surgeries, and occasionally cardiac malformation surgeries where the heart is cut out, brought to the operating table for the removal of tumors and correction of deformities, and then placed back. Since I don¡¯t fully understand it, my explanation may not be accurate.¡± The professors from Beijing and Shanghai were just at each other¡¯s throats, and now they exchanged glances like long-lost brothers. The casually mentioned surgeries, weren¡¯t they all top-tier procedures within their respective specialties? Brainstem tumors? That was the apex surgery in neurosurgery! Scoliosis corrections? The most difficult and risky surgery in spinal surgery, nothing else compares. And that heart surgery mentioned earlier, it included several top-tier cardiac surgeries. What kind of place was this Sanbo Hospital? Not just the professors from Beijing and Shanghai, but all the professors who initially found it amusing, now felt not the slightest trace of humor. These surgeries were all top-tier procedures, all performed by this young man? Cross-specialty surgeries, and they are all top-tier surgeries? ¡°Professor Yang, could you please share your thoughts?¡± Director Zhao promptly stopped everyone from changing the subject, making them swallow all their curiosity. Chapter 713 - 713 635 Flawless Blood Transplant ?Chapter 713: Chapter 635: Flawless Blood Transplant Chapter 713: Chapter 635: Flawless Blood Transplant In such a setting, the director of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s medical services could not afford to brag. If he were to really brag, he would make himself the laughing stock of the medical world. Besides, as a provincial hospital, there was no need to brag. So, about ten experts remained somewhat skeptical, really curious to hear what Professor Yang had to say about organ transplantation. ¡°Professor Yang, could you share your thoughts?¡± Director Zhao encouraged him once again, nudging Yang Ping to speak to boost the hospital¡¯s reputation. No matter if they were professors from Beijing or Shanghai, it was clear they did not regard Sanbo Hospital highly, at least in regards to today¡¯s case. Both Director Li and Director Liu were incapable of persuading these experts. In front of these experts, Director Li and Director Liu were just amateurs. Yang Ping cleared his throat. He wasn¡¯t one to put up airs, but Director Zhao had put him on the spot and for the sake of Sanbo Hospital, he had to step up. If he didn¡¯t have anything substantial to say, people might think Sanbo Hospital was all talk and no substance. ¡°In reality, the concerns everyone has about this patient indeed exist. However, they can be completely avoided. For example, we can shorten surgery time to around two hours, decrease exposure, and thereby reduce the risk of infection. To prevent ischemic organ damage, we can immediately place the organ function after the surgery using the ischemia-free technique. When these methods are combined, risks are minimal. The surgery has to be performed, so to say that it is highly risky isn¡¯t true. This is standard surgery, standard perioperative management.¡± Yang Ping finished, speaking calmly and without rush. ¡°A surgery time reduced to two hours? Are you sure you¡¯re talking about performing liver and kidney transplants simultaneously? That¡¯s absurd!¡± The professors from Beijing, who were against the surgery from the start, were now even more exasperated since this young professor had just mentioned controlling the surgery time to two hours. This was pure nonsense to them. The professors from Shanghai agreed. A stand-alone liver transplant typically takes 4-6 hours. In the best-circumstances, with a wealth of experience, it might be shortened to about three hours. That¡¯s just for liver transplantation. The patient also required a kidney transplant. Even with two teams of surgeons, it would be impossible to complete both surgeries in two hours. Again, this was pure nonsense. Individuals skilled in their craft despise those who don¡¯t know what they¡¯re talking about, yet act as if they do. He even dared to mention performing ischemia-free transplants, acting as though he knew a great deal about it. Theory is theory, practice is practice. Reading about a procedure ten thousand times does not equate to performing it once. ¡°Professor Yang, have you performed liver and kidney transplants before?¡± The professor from Shanghai asked without any pretense. It seemed that this amateur had stepped into his territory, and he was ready for a stringent counterattack. A polite way to ask would¡¯ve been, ¡°Professor Yang, how many liver and kidney transplants do you perform each year?¡± However, using such an aggressive approach made it clear that he was also upset. ¡°I haven¡¯t yet, but I have performed an autologous heart transplant to remove a tumour and correct a cardiac malformation,¡± Yang Ping replied honestly. He wasn¡¯t one to lie. He only spoke the truth. An autologous heart transplant, especially one with a malformed heart, does count as a heart transplant and shares similarities with allograft heart surgery. However, performing liver and kidney transplants is another matter altogether. Yang Ping had not performed these, yet still dared to talk about it. Yang Ping hated such settings because they called for many explanations. Many things were simply hard to explain. Even though he had practiced various surgeries in the simulation lab¡ªincluding liver and kidney transplants, in fact, any kind of surgery¡ªhe had never performed them in the real world. ¡°Professor Wang, your words are a bit disrespectful, don¡¯t you think? What do you mean by ¡®talking nonsense¡¯? ¡± Director Zhao became agitated. Arguing was fine, but using words like ¡®talking nonsense¡¯ was disrespectful to Sanbo Hospital. Professor Wang from Beijing, with his notoriously bad temper and pride, having spent a long time at the top of the organ transplantation field, often resorted to the phrase ¡®talking nonsense¡¯ almost involuntarily. Forget about Sanbo Hospital, even those professors in Shanghai still get rebuked by him, ¡°Never even having done a single liver or kidney transplant but bluffing in front of us isn¡¯t nonsense? You¡¯re saying this surgery can be done in two hours, can you do it? No-ischemia transplant, you think no-ischemia transplantation is that easy to use?¡± Professor Wang from Beijing grumbled angrily. Unusually, the professors from Shanghai backed up the professor from Beijing: ¡°Young people can talk without aches, if all you say is true, then we all don¡¯t need to sit here discussing.¡± As organ transplant specialists, they would quarrel against each other, but when someone challenged their own professional authority, they presented a united front. Originally, he was just stating the harsh truth, but considering his own standards, he momentarily didn¡¯t consider the environment of this discussion. He didn¡¯t expect to invite a group attack, something Yang Ping hadn¡¯t anticipated. Yang Ping also felt awkward. If he rambled on recklessly now, he wouldn¡¯t be responsible for the patient. If he spoke seriously and stirred up public wrath, it would also be worth noting that if he showed any sign of weakness, he¡¯s declaring to the world that he¡¯s a person who speaks mindlessly. He cannot bear this kind of reputation casually. ¡°Experts, I¡¯m not talking nonsense, purely from a surgical point of view, liver and kidney transplants mainly test one¡¯s ability to perform vascular anastomosis and the knowledge of liver and kidney anatomy. I believe that the surgery can be completed in about two hours. To reduce the probability of complications, we must use no-ischemia transplant technology. If these two surgical conditions are met, although the condition of these two patients is very poor, they will not face much risk.¡± Whatever Professor Yang says goes, Director Zhao straightened his back. Ever since Yang Ping joined Sanbo Hospital, every time he spoke it sounded like he was bragging, but he never fell short, not even once. At this point, Professor Yao from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One spoke again: ¡°I think Professor Yang¡¯s opinion is very good. No-ischemia transplant is not widely used yet, but it is very suitable for these two patients. It allows organ transplantation to gain complete function immediately, reversing the condition and moving in a positive direction whilst avoiding possible complications. If necessary, we can provide you with the extracorporeal multi-organ repair system (Life-X). This system can create near-physiological perfusion pressure, temperature, oxygenation, and nutritional support for ex vivo organs. It can ensure that the organ maintains vitality throughout the process from excision to transplant without interrupting blood supply.¡± This extracorporeal multi-organ repair system was invented by the Organ Transplant Center of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. This technology was also first put forth by them, but at present, only Nandu Affiliated Hospital One is using it and the paper was even published in the journal Science. Unexpectedly, Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital was familiar with his technology. Professor Yao suddenly felt a sense of camaraderie, so he spoke a little more. ¡°The effectiveness of this new object remains to be tested over time. It should not be used on complex patients.¡± Professor Wang from Beijing is used to having his way. Just now, Yang Ping made the surgery he opposed sound so straightforward, and now Professor Yao firmly supports Yang Ping, so naturally, Professor Wang was unhappy. ¡°Yes, one must be cautious with immature technology. Medical skills are sometimes a double-edged sword.¡± Professor Pei from Shanghai and Professor Wang from Beijing joined forces, putting down Professor Yao¡¯s remarks. ¡°These complex patients are the most suitable for no-ischemia technology. No-ischemia transplantation technology is the future of organ transplant. We have already accumulated dozens of cases. I think it¡¯s very mature.¡± Yang Ping remained steadfastly supportive of his own opinion. Yang Ping also researched these two cases. The two patients would be at great risk if using conventional technology, but the risk would be nearly minimized if they could use no-ischemia technology. And Nandu Affiliated Hospital One has dozens of experiences of no-ischemia liver transplants, and this new technology is also applied to kidney transplants. So after researching, Yang Ping believes that if he can use the no-ischemia transplant technology of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, this problem would be perfectly solved. After Yang Ping¡¯s words were spoken, Professor Wang from Beijing and Professor Pei from Shanghai widened their eyes in disbelief. Surgery is no child¡¯s play and can¡¯t be gambled on, else the two senior professors would definitely say: ¡°Since you¡¯re so skilled, why don¡¯t you give it a try?¡± While these established professors could curse at each other during meetings, but whatever happens, they will never say such words that disregard life. The meeting was momentarily in a deadlock, and continuing the discussion would only incite new arguments. ¡°Everyone free to say what you want, say anything and everything. Speak confidently, Sanbo Hospital is very accommodating. In academic discussions, we can fight behind closed doors. Once you get out of this meeting room, you can drink and chat happily, right? Now that Professor Yang mentioned shortening the surgery time and using no-ischemia transplant technology, is it feasible?¡± Director Zhao asked with a very serious demeanor, emphasizing each word. With so many professors, if they didn¡¯t discuss and reach a conclusion today, the consultation fee paid by the Earth¡¯s bravest would be wasted. Chapter 714 - 714 636 I Want to Learn ?Chapter 714: Chapter 636: I Want to Learn Chapter 714: Chapter 636: I Want to Learn Taking a consultation fee from someone else¡¯s company, you always have to provide something in return. Anyway, the discussion has already begun, so there is no need to worry about saving face. ¡°Bloodless transplant technology is not yet mature, liver transplantation at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One has only been done in a few dozen cases, and renal transplantation is still in single digits. You could say the technique is unique to one institution. It cannot be used casually, whether the technology works or not is still to be verified by cases and time.¡± Director Wang¡¯s words were quite polite. If this were their home field, they would have started criticising the bloodless transplant technology harshly, tearing it to shreds. Using your institution¡¯s techniques on such complex cases must be a joke. Professor Pei from Shanghai was also cold towards this technology, opposing it as well. At academic conferences, they viewed the innovative transplantation techniques of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One as full of problems. Now they had the opportunity to criticise it again. Professor Yao of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One just smiled: ¡°Whether the new technology works or not is not up to me to decide. The paper has been published in the journal Science, let the data speak.¡± The journal Science is highly prestigious, a top-tier journal. ¡°I won¡¯t comment on the data for now. In short, it is my opinion that immature technologies should be used sparingly.¡± The professor from Huaxi also sided with the mainstream opinion. The focus of the discussion shifted back to the new technology. Just after a debate on whether to perform surgery, the question of how to perform the operation, whether to use traditional techniques or the bloodless technique, was another point of serious disagreement. ¡°This surgery... are you sure the bloodless technique will work?¡± Director Zhao softly asked Yang Ping, who was by his side. Yang Ping nodded honestly, ¡°At least eighty percent sure.¡± Sure enough, it was Yang¡¯s eighty percent. Director Zhao already knew Yang Ping¡¯s modus operandi. It was said that for Feng Tiancheng¡¯s operation, he also claimed to be eighty percent sure. Eighty percent in his words meant there was basically no problem. With Yang Ping supporting, Director Zhao was completely confident. If Directors Liu and Li also supported Yang Ping¡¯s opinion, this patient would use the bloodless transplant technology. Sanbo hospital¡¯s organ transplant centre had been lukewarm for the past few years, trailing the rest in the province. It was a good opportunity to score some points. Bloodless transplant technology? Such cutting-edge technology, they hadn¡¯t used before, had no experience, and had no relevant equipment. Directors Liu and Li felt itching to try. Yang Ping made sense, if the bloodless transplant technology could indeed be applied, it would naturally be a good thing, but the two of them didn¡¯t know how. This was unique to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. At Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, there were only dozens of cases so far, all of which were the works of Professor Yao. Professor Yao of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One was originally the proud student of a big shot in organ transplantation at Xiehe Hospital in Beijing. After many years of painstaking research, Professor Yao invented this bloodless transplantation technology. Currently, it is only used at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One and has not been promoted to a wider audience. ¡°If you are willing to use bloodless technology, we are willing to provide support.¡± Professor Yao was very proactive. This patient was indeed a suitable candidate for using bloodless transplant technology. Professor Yang really was impressive, pinpointing the issue and proposing a solution. To his surprise, Professor Yang was quite familiar with his unique technology, the bloodless transplant. If he didn¡¯t know a little about Yang Ping, he might have thought that he had hundreds or thousands of organ transplantation experiences. Without such experience, it would be impossible to speak like this. At this time, Directors Liu and Li were also eager to try. If they had the support from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, of course, it would be great. They could act as assistants and let Professor Yao be the chief surgeon. They would also get recognition for being guided by Professor Yao from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, Directors Liu and Li completed the first bloodless liver transplantation and kidney transplantation in their hospital. Directors Liu and Li pondered Yang Ping¡¯s words. This guy dared to handle cardiac malformations when managing scoliosis. It is said that in Saudi Arabia, he was endorsed by an internationally renowned cardiac surgeon and performed a challenging cardiac surgery. He removed the heart, excised the tumor and corrected the malformation, then transplanted it back. Could it be that he is really capable of performing liver transplantation, kidney transplantation? Director Liu sobered up, not sure about it, just wondering in his heart, it should not be. How could there be such a genius who can perform any kind of surgery? Wait a minute! The surgery of Director Feng in Shanghai was performed by Yang Ping. That was a neurosurgery, which also won the Golden Knife Award, there can be no falsehood. ¡°What if we use bloodless technology, and Professors Yang and Yao support us, how does that sound?¡± Director Li asked tentatively. Professor Yao immediately responded: ¡°Of course, we are ready to provide all necessary support at any time.¡± ¡°Absolutely, I will participate in your surgery.¡± Yang Ping agreed readily. The Comprehensive Surgery Department is like the special forces of Sanbo. They should rise to the challenge during such times. Besides, since he has the confidence, how could he ignore it? Wasn¡¯t this the reason why the Medical Affairs department sought him? Professor Wang from Beijing and Professor Pei from Shanghai looked at each other, a question arose in their minds: Is Sanbo Hospital really going to let this young man participate in organ transplantation? Isn¡¯t this a joke? Other experts who came to the conference originally wanted to say a few words, but under the current situation, the direction of the conference seemed to have drifted off, making it difficult to speak. Having received affirmative replies from Yang Ping and Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, Directors Liu and Li felt at ease. Regardless of whether Yang Ping can actually perform the operation, one thing is certain, all the seemingly exaggerated claims he made in the past have become real. This type of organ transplant surgery really tests one¡¯s ability to dissect organs and suture blood vessels. An infant¡¯s ankle is a piece of cake in comparison to suturing liver and kidney blood vessels. Therefore, with his participation, it might indeed be of great help. Chapter 715 - 715 636 I Want to Learn-2 ?Chapter 715: Chapter 636 I Want to Learn-2 Chapter 715: Chapter 636 I Want to Learn-2 Besides, he¡¯s always working abroad and for all we know, he may have done many organ transfers. Why else would an expert from Cleveland, United States vouch for him? Believe Americans are fools? ¡°Professor Yao, we¡¯ll need your assistance with two devices,¡± said Yang Ping to Professor Yao. Professor Yao immediately nodded, ¡°No problem. I¡¯ll make a call to have our side prepare. I¡¯ll be there to help with operating the devices.¡± The tone of Director Liu, Director Li, Yang Ping, and Professor Yao from Fu Yi insinuated that the surgery was finalised with the bloodless transplant. Professor Wang and Professor Pei were utterly confused. As dignified leaders of the transplant field, they were there for the discussion and deserved to at least be acknowledged. Their decision blatantly disregarded the professors from Beijing and Shanghai, treating them as mascots. It was indeed embarrassing to hold a meeting with numerous experts across the country. Professor Wang coughed a few times, clearly irritated. ¡°If your hospital¡¯s plan is already decided, why did you invite us to discuss? You could have just done it by yourselves,¡± he said. The professor from Shanghai was also annoyed, feeling disrespected by the lack of acknowledgment for their authority. In such discussions, if one remains level-headed, outside experts¡¯ opinions could only serve as references; they shouldn¡¯t lead the decisions. The hospital would still be responsible if anything goes wrong with the patient. This isn¡¯t to say that foreign experts are irresponsible, but a quick two-hour consultation won¡¯t make them responsible. If local experts don¡¯t have the capability, things are straightforward; they strictly follow external experts¡¯ instructions. But now, Sanbo Hospital possesses the power, and their views differ from those of the foreign experts¡¯. If they don¡¯t retain their autonomy, it¡¯s easy for the diagnosis and treatment to become chaotic and problematic. Director Liu has made up his mind to follow Yang Ping, whose history has proven his ability to create miracles every time. He wrote a note for Director Li to review, and then passed it to Director Zhao. After reading the note, Director Zhao decided to support their views. He agreed, passed it back to Director Liu, who immediately lit up obtaining Zhao¡¯s approval: ¡°Professors Wang and Pei, sorry for the inconvenience. As our opinions vary and some are even contradictory, we need to make a judgment based on a combination of all views. The two of you have given us valuable suggestions, but in the end, we have to make our own decisions. We have decided to use bloodless technology for liver and kidney transplants. We ask Professor Yang and Professor Yao for technical support and invite everyone to observe the surgery, guide our work.¡± Director Li concurred, ¡°Yes, this was our initial plan, so after considering various opinions, we have decided to stick to our original plan.¡± Usually, wherever Professors Wang from Beijing and Li from Shanghai are consulted, their opinions are as authoritative as decrees from the nation¡¯s transplantation authorities. They aren¡¯t usually dismissed in such a way. Inviting them for consultation only to disregard their views, what was the point of inviting them? Originally, Director Zhao planned to make a decision after the meeting in his hospital. However, seeing the complexity of the situation and after consulting with Yang Ping, he decided on the spot: cutting the Gordian knot, thwarting the meddling thoughts of the experts from Beijing and Shanghai. If it were an ordinary day, Professor Wang would undoubtedly take his leave. But today, he wanted to see how tough Sanbo Hospital could be. To think a hospital who had not even stepped outside Nandu province, could speak so assertively. ¡°Alright, when is the surgery? I¡¯d like to observe and learn too. A bidirectional transplantation using bloodless technology, controlling the surgery time within two hours. Ah, the speed at which new people and new technology progress is indeed ¡®a day of thousands of miles.¡¯ ¡± Professor Wang¡¯s tone was slightly mocking. Professor Pei also had the interest, repeating Yang Ping¡¯s claims that were practically impossible to achieve. Since they wouldn¡¯t give face, he would do the same. Would he sit down to observe? In his heart, Director Zhao was secretly very pleased. He had been worried that these professors might just leave after the meeting. Now that they proposed to observe, well, he would provide great food and drink for them and show them the strength of Sanbo Hospital. ¡°Professor Yang, are you really eighty percent sure?¡± Director Zhao gently confirmed again. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°As of now, my confidence is a bit higher.¡± With that, Old Zhao was fearless. However, he pretended to be hesitant: ¡°Fellow experts, we might have to call off the observation. Our surgery is scheduled for tomorrow at the earliest and we wouldn¡¯t want to delay your time.¡± Indeed, those who brag without reflection are the most detested in academics. Professor Wang promptly waved his hand, ¡°That won¡¯t delay us. Just arrange a space and a meal for us, surely Director Zhao wouldn¡¯t reject my request to learn.¡± Director Zhao feigned difficulty, ¡°Well, if that is the case, any expert willing to stay back and guide our work will have a hotel and meal arranged immediately.¡± The two patients already had their pre-surgery preparations done; they were only awaiting a final plan. With a plan decided now and the experts wanting to observe, they decided to commence the surgery soon to satisfy the experts¡¯ curiosity. Director Zhao had already calculated. Although Yang Ping didn¡¯t have the qualifications for organ transplantation, Directors Li and Liu did. As long as they were involved, the specific procedure could be flexible. ¡°Arrange for the Tri-Bo Hotel to accommodate the experts with good booze and meat. I might need them to boast for us in the future,¡± Director Zhao reminded his secretary. Back at the office of the medical affairs department. ¡°Director Zhao, can Yang Ping really perform this surgery?¡± the secretary asked in both disbelief and uncertainty. Director Zhao was confident, ¡°You¡¯ve been working in the medical affairs department for an oblivious purpose. Do we not know the ability of Yang Ping? Isn¡¯t it clearly mentioned in the international consultation invitations? Do you think foreigners are fools to let him practice on their patients?¡± ¡°I was just wondering, this guy Yang Ping, does he have a lot of secret operation bases abroad? Performs all kinds of surgeries, especially in Southeast Asia, where he frequently travels. I suspect he has done many organ transplants,¡± Director Zhao said, looking serious. ¡°Really?¡± the secretary was half-skeptical again. Director Zhao looked profound, ¡°What do you know? That anglophile Li Zehui, who performs heart transplants, made one visit to our hospital then soon after, he invited Yang Ping to Saudi Arabia for surgery, a heart surgery. If Yang Ping has never performed heart surgery before, why would Li Zehui invite him, not you, not even me? So, Professor Yang¡¯s regular trips abroad, who knows how many surgeries he has performed.¡± ¡°You mean he performs illegal surgeries?¡± The secretary started to imagine things; this was a plot seen in comics, novels, and movies, where some top surgeons regularly perform black-market surgeries. Suddenly, the secretary found Yang Ping truly mysterious. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean that, you mustn¡¯t say such things. Your mouth is asking for trouble,¡± Director Zhao didn¡¯t expect this young man to have such a vivid imagination. He even thought of black-market surgery scenarios. Chapter 716 - 716 637 Face is not given by others ?Chapter 716: Chapter 637: Face is not given by others Chapter 716: Chapter 637: Face is not given by others With the backing of the Comprehensive Surgery Department, Director Liu and Director Li were quite bold, scheduling the surgery for the very next day. It wasn¡¯t just the staff of the Medical Affairs Department who were speculative, now even Director Liu and Director Li hypothesized that Professor Yang, often performing surgeries abroad, must have completed many liver and kidney transplants. Otherwise, why would he agree to assist and provide them cover? Moreover, word from the Medical Affairs Department was that the surgeries Professor Yang performed in Saudi Arabia were cardiac surgeries, including tumor removal, abnormality correction, and autologous heart transplant. These three major surgeries earned him a special surgical license from the Saudi Ministry of Health and saw him assisted by world-class cardiac surgery experts. The astute Director Liu and Director Li fully trusted Professor Yang, believing in his strength and capabilities. Having been promoted so young to the position of associate chief physician and associate professor, he surely wouldn¡¯t risk his future recklessly. If he were not fully confident, how could Professor Yang possibly step up, casually agree to assist, when the operation had nothing to do with him? For Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun, the sooner the surgery, the better, to shift their conditions from a vicious cycle to a virtuous cycle. Once embarked on a vicious cycle too far, even the best medical skills sometimes cannot bring them back. Director Liu and Director Li were very decisive, preferring to act swiftly or not at all. Any hesitation could lead to a mishap. Li Jun and Qin Xiaowei each lay in adjacent operating rooms. The basic procedure was as follows: remove a kidney from Qin Xiaowei and transplant it to Li Jun; take a portion of Li Jun¡¯s liver and transplant it to Qin Xiaowei. The human body typically has two kidneys, but only one healthy kidney is needed to function. Therefore, losing a kidney does not cause considerable harm to the human body. The only risk is for the person with a single kidney. If it should fail, there is no backup, whereas a person with two kidneys has the other as a backup if one fails. Although the human body has only one liver, the liver has a potent regenerative ability. For instance, if half of Li Jun¡¯s liver is removed for Qin Xiaowei, the remaining half in Li Jun can regenerate, slowly growing back to its original size. Similarly, the half of the liver transplanted to Qin Xiaowei could also gradually grow to the size of a normal liver. This is why it¡¯s possible to transplant part of a liver. The two external multi-organ repair machines arranged by Professor Yao from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One were delivered a day early, and he himself arrived at Sanbo Hospital early in the day. However, Professor Yao was puzzled; from the previous day to now, no one from Sanbo Hospital had asked him to perform a surgery. The consultation invitation from the Medical Affairs Department was for an assistant role during the surgery. Neither Director Liu nor Director Li specified his exact role. Professor Yao pioneered the ischemia-free transplant technique. He has completed over seventy-four liver transplants, five kidney transplants, and one heart transplant. These cases were all from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, and no other hospital has a case so far. Under normal circumstances, wouldn¡¯t they ask him to lead the surgery? Why is there no movement? This is unusual! ¡°Professor Yao, hello, thank you for your hard work today!¡± Professor Yang, Director Liu, Director Li, and Director Zhao of the Medical Affairs Department took turns shaking hands with Professor Yao, being extremely courteous. However, no one has mentioned why they have invited him and his machines today. If others don¡¯t explicitly say it, asking too much would be inappropriate. It¡¯s not like he could innocently scrub in and assume the position of the chief surgeon. ¡°How is the surgery arranged today? Is it one team or two teams?¡± Professor Yao asked indirectly. Actually, for this kind of surgery, there certainly are two teams, precisely speaking, four teams, two for liver and kidney extraction, and two for recipient region preparation. ¡°Professor Yang, how is it arranged?¡± Director Liu asked Yang Ping. In fact, last night, after the meeting ended, Directors Liu and Li, together with Yang Ping, had held a discussion for several hours. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°With so many people watching, we should finish the battle within two hours. I suppose I¡¯ll be the chief surgeon!¡± Professor Yao nearly choked, could it be that Professor Yang really knows how to perform this surgery? Not just theoretically proficient? He thought Yang Ping was just visiting the operating room today, at most participating theoretically, with the actual operation carried out by him leading Directors Liu and Li. Now Yang Ping is taking action? It appears Sanbo Hospital already has arrangements: Directors Liu and Li will assist on the stage, nominally as chief surgeons but practically as first assistants, helping Yang Ping by providing the required credentials; while Yang Ping is the nominal first assistant, he is the actual chief surgeon. Professor Yao felt slightly presumptuous. No wonder from the previous day to now, everyone had been exceptionally polite, yet no one mentioned the surgery arrangement. It had been rumoured that the Comprehensive Surgery Department of Sanbo Hospital dared to undertake all kinds of surgeries. It seems the rumor was true. ¡°Professor Yao, bloodless transplantation is your unique skill, I¡¯m not very familiar with it, so you¡¯ll have to offer your guidance later.¡± Yang Ping said to Professor Yao. This clearly tells him: I¡¯m the chief surgeon today! Professor Yao didn¡¯t know how to feel about this ¨C his curiosity now probably exceeded that of Professor Wang and Professor Pei. The bloodless transplant technique that he had pioneered was still in its infancy, and only a few cases had been accumulated so far. It hadn¡¯t been widely promoted yet, and Yang Ping hadn¡¯t studied with him. Could he really perform it? Where did he learn it from? Could it be from just his papers and the patent information concerning the machine? Ah! Professor Yao sighed in his heart. It turned out that they invited him here to help operate the machine and maintain the bloodless state of the organ extraction. ¡ª Professor Wang and Professor Li had a good rest the night before and were pleased with the accommodation and meals arranged by Sanbo Hospital. Director Li and Director Liu started working early in the morning. Director Liu went to the operating room while Director Li went to Tri-Bo Hotel to pick up the professors. There were eight professors left following the two big shots. The others either had no interest in watching or really had other commitments and had left Sanbo. As leading figures in liver and kidney transplantation, Sanbo Hospital held the two in high regard and did not slight them in the slightest. However, Sanbo Hospital refused to yield the initiative in surgical planning, no matter what. Any expert opinion was merely used for reference. The eight professors were escorted by Director Liu to the teaching room of the operating room. A few flexible doctorates and masters were arranged to accompany the guests, showing the experts great respect. In the teaching room, tea, coffee, snacks, sunflower seeds, peanuts, every refreshment was available. Waitstaff were specially arranged to take of these experts. After Director Zhao finished his work, he personally accompanied the experts to observe. Deans Xia and Sun also made a special appearance in the operating room on behalf of the hospital leadership to shake hands with the big shots. Professor Wang and Professor Pei sat together, sharing a rare moment of harmony. The two professors were about the same age, in their early fifties and in the golden age of their academic achievements. Sanbo Hospital was quite bold, getting straight to the point. ¡°This young man¡¯s papers are all about orthopedics, yet they¡¯re all published in top-tier journals. The spinal external fixation frame is indeed undergoing phase three clinical trials in the United States.¡± Professor Pei had briefly looked up this information last night. He could check things like the status of phase three clinical trials on the US FDA¡¯s website, as this information was publicly available. Professor Wang had also looked this up, and nodded slightly. This person must be capable, or else they would not have created a comprehensive surgery department just for him. However, no matter how brilliant, it was impossible to perform well in an unfamiliar field, let alone dominate all fields of surgery. Throughout the history of surgery, such characters were few. If you are the number one in the world for heart bypass surgery, it doesn¡¯t necessarily mean that you can perform hemorrhoidectomy successfully. There are profound differences between professions, especially in clinical medicine. ¡°It should be Professor Yao Qingxiang who will be performing the surgery, right? Didn¡¯t we conclude yesterday that we will be using the bloodless transplant technique? Apart from Professor Yao Qingxiang from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, who else has experience in bloodless transplantation?¡± Professor Wang guessed. After listening, Professor Pei realized that this indeed made sense: ¡°So it¡¯s been Professor Yao Qingxiang¡¯s scheme all along? Invite us to watch his performance? He¡¯s been in the spotlight these past few years.¡± ¡°But is it necessary? Even if he invites us to observe his new technique, we would still give face.¡± Professor Pei again felt that something was off. Professor Wang scoffed, ¡°Who knows what¡¯s going on with this act.¡± ¡°So, Professor Yang is not going on stage?¡± Professor Pei was still holding out some hope. Professor Wang shook his head, ¡°Do you think surgery is child¡¯s play? Some things should just be taken as a joke. Yang Ping was bragging yesterday in front of a dozen national experts. The director of their medical department had to back him up, otherwise what can they do? Didn¡¯t you see our facial expressions when we didn¡¯t give them an out and decided to stay to watch? Director Zhao was dodging left and right, his face was as red as a pig¡¯s liver.¡± ¡°Haha¡ªDid we go too far in embarrassing them?¡± Professor Pei suddenly realized, recalling the events of yesterday, Director Zhao indeed seemed to have been dodging left and right, his face also looked terrible. ¡°Respect is earned, not given, can we bluff about such matters? Sanbo Hospital should take this as a lesson.¡± Professor Wang said sternly. Professor Pei agreed: ¡°Well said, respect is not given by others.¡± As the two men chatted, they surprisingly found that they could get along so well. They couldn¡¯t believe it themselves. They had been talking for so long and neither of them had banged the table or used foul language. Professor Wang and Professor Pei exchanged smiles, finding the situation awkward. At the same time, they were thinking: Why am I even talking to him!? Chapter 717 - 717 638 Am I a Pirated Version ?Chapter 717: Chapter 638: Am I a Pirated Version? Chapter 717: Chapter 638: Am I a Pirated Version? PS: Today is too busy, I¡¯ll post this now, and revise it tomorrow morning, thank you all! After the anesthesia, the patient¡¯s body was positioned properly. Directors Liu and Li each took charge of one side of the surgery, and they led their junior doctors in sterilizing their hands, disinfecting and covering the patient. Aside from the surgical team, there were no extra personnel in the operating room. Any misconducting doctors trying to sneak in were promptly ejected by the patrolling nurse. The sterility requirement for organ transplant surgeries is very high, thus, these two operating rooms were both class 100 operating rooms, the highest level in the hospital. Yang Ping, with Professor Yao, was sterilizing his hands. While doing so, he remembers to comfort the person who holds the rights: ¡°Professor Yao, today I will be using your ischemia-free transplantation technology, I thank you greatly. I might be needing extra guidance down the line, as they are not very familiar with this.¡± Professor Yao nods awkwardly, ¡®they¡¯ are not familiar, but are ¡®you¡¯? Your first time using this technology would require a lot of practice. He would observe as he walked. If indeed this guy was not familiar, he would step in himself. After all, it¡¯s his own innovation; he couldn¡¯t let its reputation be tarnished. The theory is only theory, practice is practice, they shouldn¡¯t be confused. As this new technology debuts outside of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, its originator must safeguard its reputation. Everyone in the room was watching closely. ¡°If you notice any mistakes or deficiencies in my work, please point them out at any time. You can replace me if necessary.¡± Yang Ping emphasized again, showing respect to the original innovator. Alright, let¡¯s see you make a splash! Professor Yao followed to sterilize his hands. Being the first person to perform organ transplant surgery in South China, he was calculating in his mind, first, observing the skill level of Professor Yang. Typically, one can gauge the surgeon¡¯s skill level from the first few steps of the operation. If all else fails, he would step in to salvage the surgery. Yang Ping claimed he would be performing the surgery, so Directors Liu and Li dared not make a move. After covering the patient, they put on their surgical gowns and stood by the operating table, waiting. The surgery officially started after Yang Ping and Professor Yao got dressed in their surgical gowns and began their pre-surgery check. ¡ª The surgery hadn¡¯t officially begun. The display screen was split in half, one camera focused on the surgical area, which was currently just a sterile green drape. The other camera was pointed towards the operating room where the surgical team was taking their positions. The teaching room of the operating room was in an unrestricted zone, close to the resting area of doctors and nurses. It was now filled with people. In addition to the eight external experts, Director Zhao from the medical department was present, as well as a deputy attending physician from the organ transplant center, and available doctors, masters, and standard training residents, etc. from each department. Professor Wang, Professor Pei, and Director Zhao sat in the first row. The desk in front of them was filled with tea and snacks. Professor Wang, feeling a bit bored, grabbed some sunflower seeds and peanuts to snack on. Director Zhao had to take a call. He excused himself from the professors and had to step out for a bit. He instructed the deputy attending physician from the organ transplant center to attend to the experts. ¡°I was wondering, Yao Qingxiang is the one who performs the surgery. Look at that, he¡¯s sterilizing his hands and getting ready to step up there.¡± Professor Wang picked up a cup of freshly poured tea, took a sip and pondered, Director Zhao was next to him just now, so it wasn¡¯t convenient for him to provide any commentary. Now that Director Zhao had stepped out, he could freely offer his thoughts. ¡°Something¡¯s not right, how come Professor Yang has walked into the chief surgeon¡¯s spot? Yao Qingxiang is messing with the machine¡¯s pipelines. I wonder if Yao Qingxiang is only responsible for operating the machine, and is maintaining the non-ischemic organ.¡± Professor Pei noticed that the positions around the operating table were becoming clear. Professor Yao was tinkering with the pipelines of the extracorporeal multiple organ repair machine. When an organ is detached from the donor, this machine can be connected to the organ to maintain blood and oxygen supply, preventing ischemia. This way, the organ would never be ischemic throughout the whole process, and the entire transplant would happen with heat. Therefore, the organ stays alive, which leads to the most desirable results post-transplant, with the fewest complications. ¡°No way, he¡¯s really the chief surgeon? Sanbo Hospital does have guts. I never thought they would mess around with this kind of surgery.¡± Professor Wang took a closer look, Yang Ping was indeed in the chief surgeon¡¯s position. The positions of the surgical team, including the chief surgeon, first assistant, and second assistant, have to follow a certain arrangement and mustn¡¯t be changed thoughtlessly. So, at the start of a surgery, as long as the team isn¡¯t completely new, they would have a very ordered arrangement. This is similar to playing basketball or soccer, where everyone has their own roles and positions on the team. Professor Wang suddenly lost half of his interest. If Yao Qingxiang was the chief surgeon, then it would be a normal surgical demonstration. A simple kidney or liver transplant by Yao Qingxiang could be completed in three hours without any problem. If he were to perform both a kidney and liver transplant, five to six hours of operation time would be normal. If the assistants don¡¯t cooperate well, the operation could take even longer. ¡°Handsome!¡± Professor Wang beckoned a doctor who was in charge of hospitality. The doctor immediately ran over to see what the big shot needed. ¡°Where¡¯s your restroom?¡± Perhaps the big shot had a stomachache and had been holding it in for a while. Seeing that the surgery had not started yet, he decided to relieve himself at the restroom. The doctor immediately guided the big shot to the restroom and returned to the teaching room after ensuring he was looked after. ¡ª Now that the pre-surgery check was completed, the surgery could begin. ¡°Shall I start?¡± Yang Ping confirmed again. ¡°Start!¡± Director Liu nodded, this was his first time performing surgery with Yang Ping and he was anxious. Yang Ping made a sleek arc-shaped incision in Li Jun¡¯s right side abdomen with the scalpel in his hand. It was only five or six centimeters long, half the length of the ten centimeters that Director Liu usually made for kidney transplants. The incision was neither too deep nor too shallow, just enough to cut through the skin and subcutaneous tissue. Yang Ping switched the scalpel with an electric knife, sliced open the deep fascia of the abdomen, revealing the bright red muscle. Yang Ping lightly touched the muscle with his finger, while cutting it open with the electric knife, then reaching in, pushing aside the peritoneum, and locating the kidney outside the peritoneum, following it to the kidney¡¯s arteries, veins and ureter. Having found Li Jun¡¯s right kidney, Yang Ping helped Director Liu and the second assistant adjust the retractors, bringing the entire kidney and the connecting blood vessels and ureter into view. ¡°Kidney retrieval! Professor Yao, please prepare the machine.¡± Yang Ping finished the first step and started the second step. Only a few minutes passed, and Li Jun¡¯s kidney was exposed. The scrub nurse hadn¡¯t even gotten a chance to hand over the hemostatic gauze yet. As soon as the surgery started, Yang Ping wasted no time and told Director Liu, who had not yet gotten over the shock, ¡°Kidney retrieval!¡± Director Liu assisted in the kidney retrieval, and Yang Ping took him to another operating room, changing gloves. Director Liu was still in a daze when, a few minutes later, Yang Ping removed Qin Xiaowei¡¯s kidney and handed it to Professor Yao to be placed in the organ washing machine slot, connecting various tubes to ensure perfusion of the organ. Yang Ping, Director Liu, the second assistant and Professor Yao, all holding the live kidney, moved to Li Jun¡¯s side. Yang Ping worked swiftly, immediately severing the blood vessels and ureter of Li Jun¡¯s failing kidney, removing the organ. Then he connected Qin Xiaowei¡¯s kidney, suturing Qin Xiaowei¡¯s renal arteries and veins onto Li Jun¡¯s internal and external iliac arteries and veins. Even baby blood vessels could be connected, this larger vessel was very easy. Yang Ping¡¯s suture on the blood vessel was like a precise machine, steady and fast, with completely symmetrical stitch and sideline, very beautiful. After anastomosing the blood vessels, he opened them up, there was not a single leak at the anastomosis, no need for reinforcement stitches, the blood supply to the kidney was very good. Then he sutured Qin Xiaowei¡¯s ureter into the top of Li Jun¡¯s bladder and inserted a stent into the ureter for the anastomosis opening to prevent narrowing of the tube. The entire process took only half an hour, and the kidney transplant was completed! Professor Yao was a bit behind, this was his technique, but this person was much more proficient than himself, and handled several details far better than he. Impossible! It made no sense! Could it be that I¡¯m the imposter, and he¡¯s the originator? Professor Yao collected himself, it felt like a dream, half an hour. It was impossible for him to complete it in under two hours, three was the usual time. ¡ª ¡°Which should we do first, liver transplant or kidney transplant?¡± Professor Wang came out of the restroom, his stomach now feeling much better, he took a sip of tea to warm his stomach. ¡°Shall we do the liver transplant first?¡± Professor Pei didn¡¯t respond, so Professor Wang made his own judgment. ¡°The kidney transplant is done!¡± Professor Pei was out of sync, responding to Professor Wang¡¯s words. Professor Wang checked his watch. He¡¯d just been to the restroom, and all in all, hadn¡¯t taken a half-hour break. How could the kidney transplant be done so fast? ¡°Pei! This is not funny.¡± Professor Wang thought Professor Pei was joking; clearly, this joke had no punchline. Professor Pei hit his forehead a few times and sighed, ¡°It¡¯s really done, I¡¯ve been doing organ transplants for twenty years, never seen anyone with such fast hands. You didn¡¯t see it just now, the skills in anastomosing blood vessels and the ureter were extremely high-level. Anyway, I can¡¯t match that level.¡± Either way, Professor Pei couldn¡¯t find any suitable words to describe it. Seeing Professor Pei¡¯s off-state, as if he¡¯d been punched and knocked out, Professor Wang turned to ask a professor from Huaxi Hospital, ¡°The kidney transplant is done?¡± ¡°It¡¯s done! Watch, don¡¯t talk, otherwise, you¡¯ll miss the entire liver transplant.¡± The Huaxi Hospital professor seemed fixated on the screen. Damn it! That¡¯s what Professor Wang said in his heart. Being a professor himself, he could only curse in his heart, while his eyes were fixed on the screen as if they were stuck. Chapter 718 - 718 639 Teaching Surgery ?Chapter 718: Chapter 639: Teaching Surgery Chapter 718: Chapter 639: Teaching Surgery Professor Wang stared intently at the screen, the kidney transplant had been completed, and the liver transplant was now underway. Director Li had replaced the first assistant. Director Li specialized in liver transplants, while Director Liu was a kidney transplant expert. Yang Ping moved incredibly quickly, without any wasted or redundant actions. The entire surgical procedure was seamlessly clear. This level of proficiency was the ultimate mastery, obtainable only through countless surgeries honed. Professor Wang took a deep breath and whispered to Professor Pei at his side, ¡°He really can perform kidney and liver transplants! He really can! Without performing at least two thousand surgeries, one couldn¡¯t reach this level.¡± ¡°Yes, he is indeed better than us in this aspect. However, he hasn¡¯t performed any organ transplants before and lacks the qualifications. How could that be possible?¡± Professor Pei responded in disbelief. Yang Ping¡¯s surgery continued. He was treating the recipient¡¯s liver area, dissecting the donor¡¯s liver, connecting the machine, harvesting the liver, removing the recipient¡¯s liver, transplanting the donor¡¯s liver. The entire process had a clear rhythm, without any pause or disorder. Especially when watching Yang Ping suture blood vessels, it was a pleasure to the eyes, and was nearly like an art form. ¡°Watching this surgery is pure enjoyment!¡± Professor Wang had never seen such a smooth operation before, and his own surgeries were far from this level. Those who value expertise respect the mastery of their craft. Now he had truly accepted Yang Ping¡¯s exceptional skills. Regardless of whether Professor Yang was certified, the fact was right here: His surgery was absolutely top-notch. About fifty minutes later, the liver transplant was also completed. Together with the thirty-minute kidney transplant, the entire operation took a little more than eighty minutes. It ended forty minutes shorter than the boasted two hours. If the phrase ¡°terribly shocking¡± was available in Professor Wang¡¯s vocabulary, he would definitely use it right now to describe the situation. Not only Professor Wang and Professor Pei, but all experts present were utterly stunned. Anyone would be dazed by such a blitzkrieg. ¡°How was it?¡± Director Zhao, who had returned to his seat, asked softly. Professor Wang and Professor Pei answered simultaneously. Professor Wang took a sip of tea and said, ¡°Director Zhao, you¡¯ve hidden a tiger under the guise of a lame pig. Professor Yang is definitely not inexperienced in kidney and liver transplants. Without a case load of two thousand surgeries, this level of skill cannot be achieved. You¡¯ve kept him well-hidden.¡± Professor Wang was a bigwig of the Organ Transplant Centre at Beijing University, and Professor Pei was a high-level figure of Renji Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Both were top organ transplant centres in the country. Professor Wang and Professor Pei admitted they were inferior to Yang Ping, and the gap was substantial. ¡°It is true that Professor Yang has not performed any organ transplants in our hospital, but as for whether he has done so overseas, we cannot confirm. You¡¯ve both witnessed today¡¯s surgery. We intend to help Professor Yang apply for organ transplant qualifications. Do you think he meets the standard?¡± Director Zhao finally broached the main topic. Professor Wang and Professor Pei hesitated. According to the qualification process, Professor Yang needed to undergo a year-long training at designated places and then an assessment. But speaking of actual skill level, his technique was meant to train others. To be honest, training other experts ongoing would be possible too. ¡°Our Comprehensive Surgery Department plans to grant Professor Yang the authority to perform all surgical procedures. The hospital has already opened up permissions for those that it can approve. The remaining ones are all complex surgeries like organ transplants, which we have hesitated to authorize. Today¡¯s surgery was a borderline case, with the qualifications of Director Liu and Director Li serving as a protection. We were wondering if we could trouble both senior professors to jointly recommend a special route to grant Yang Ping a qualification. If either of you still have doubts, you can conduct any inspection you see fit,¡± Director Zhao was persistent. Professor Wang waved his hand: ¡°There¡¯s no need for further inspections.¡± Just now Professor Wang had seen the entire liver transplant, while Professor Pei had watched both the liver and kidney transplants in their entirety. The surgical skill level was on complete display, what more was there to inspect? Achieving this level of proficiency was not something one could fake. However, granting exceptional certification for liver and kidney transplants required some serious consideration. ¡ª After the surgery was over, the gauze remained clean, producing very little blood during the surgery. With Yang Ping¡¯s precise dissection techniques, he was able to fully avoid handling blood vessels unnecessarily. If it wasn¡¯t possible to avoid handling a small blood vessel, he would ligate or coagulate it in advance, which resulted in almost no blood loss and a clean operative field. Director Liu and Director Li were almost faint. In order to keep up with the rhythm, they were highly focused during the entire process. The operation was a huge mental and physical exertion. The surgery began, and I was a bit apprehensive, after all, I had never seen Yang Ping perform a liver-kidney transplant. Now that the surgery is over, I firmly believe that Yang Ping is indeed a deity. ¡°Professor Yang, please visit us more often to perform surgeries and guide us,¡± Director Liu earnestly said. Just now, if Director Liu could learn half of the skill that Yang Ping demonstrated, he believes he could dominate the organ transplantation field. Originally, Director Liu wanted to study in the United States, but now he feels like he was missing what was right under his nose. A deity was in his very hospital, and yet he planned to go to the United States to learn. ¡°Yeah, Professor Yang, please do more surgeries here. Don¡¯t worry about qualifications, you can use our names, we will take responsibility for any issues,¡± Director Li also pleaded. ¡°Doing a few surgeries here and there is no problem, but too many is not ok, qualifications are necessary,¡± Yang Ping did not want to always live on the edge, it¡¯s risky and not fun. As Yang Ping prepared to take off his surgical gown, Director Liu and Director Li both rushed to help. Professor Yao still stood by the machine, with no plans to remove his gown and step down. He looked empty, like a wooden figurine, his eyes devoid of spirit. The one most impacted was actually Professor Yao. Using his technology and his machine, someone else had completed the teaching case. And the key point is that he himself was included among those taught. Just now, Professor Yao closely observed the surgery. On the foundation of Professor Yao¡¯s original work, Yang Ping had made several improvements, which evidently surpassed Professor Yao¡¯s techniques. And these details were actually what Professor Yao had been pondering over for many years but had not cracked. Today, he had found all the answers here. Could it be that he unintentionally copied his version? No, this technique was indeed his original creation, which took ten years to perfect. Perhaps at the same time, Professor Yang had also thought of the bloodless transplant technique, but had not published any articles. But that doesn¡¯t sound right, hadn¡¯t his comprehensive surgery department yet started organ transplants? The more he thought, the more confused his mind became, even basic logic seemed hard to clarify. While dazed, Yang Ping urged Professor Yao to take off his surgical gown, and then told Professor Yao that there were a few places in the machine that could be improved, like making the tubes more convenient. Professor Yao, unable to undress after several attempts, had to rely on Yang Ping¡¯s help to take off his surgical gown. Improving the surgical details was one thing, but now you know the machine better than me and you¡¯re helping me improve it. I¡¯ve never seen such bullying of an original creator! ¡°Professor Yang, have you also researched this technology? I want to clarify, this no-blood-loss transplant technology truly is my original idea. I didn¡¯t refer to any books or research papers, I started from scratch.¡± Professor Yao declared to Yang Ping in a pitiful way. ¡°I had not researched it before, I learned it after reading your papers and patent materials. I felt guilty using your technique, so I took the time to research it and found several areas for improvement. Let¡¯s consider this my tuition to you, how about that?¡± Yang Ping joked with Professor Yao. Professor Yao waved his hand, ¡°I don¡¯t dare to accept, as long as I am not infringing on your rights, that¡¯s all that matters. You scared me, can I make a copy of your surgical video?¡± ¡°Sure, you can copy as much as you want. Do you have a disc? I¡¯ll get you one,¡± Yang Ping readily declared. The technique was his in the first place, what¡¯s wrong with copying the surgical video. Professor Yao was surprised at Yang Ping¡¯s readiness, ¡°I have a disc, it¡¯s in the locker in the changing room, I will go get it to copy later.¡± Professor Yao planned to copy the surgical video and take it back to study carefully. This was indeed a teaching surgery! Chapter 719 - 719 640 ?Chapter 719: Chapter 640 Chapter 719: Chapter 640 The surgeries on Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun were finally completed, and they were transferred to ICU care afterwards. If all goes well, there should be no complications. After leaving Sanbo Hospital, Professor Wang and Professor Pei called Director Zhao, expressing their willingness to vouch for Yang Ping¡¯s qualifications for organ transplantation. Professor Yao also wants to endorse Yang Ping¡¯s qualifications, considering he is the chief expert on liver and kidney transplantation qualification evaluation in Nandu Province. Professor Yao also invited Yang Ping to perform organ transplants at his hospital, to learn the improved technique of bloodless transplant. If Yang Ping is not granted surgical qualifications, it would cause many inconveniences. The praised genius who appears once in hundreds of years is not hollow words, he really can perform all surgical operations, even organ transplants. Professor Yao¡¯s new technique was so well-understood by Yang Ping just by reading the papers and patent information that he exceeded even the creator¡¯s understanding. And without witnessing it himself, Professor Yao would never believe or know that his new technique could be performed to such an extent. Robert and Augusta once again witnessed the extent of their mentor¡¯s prowess, who actually crossed boundaries to perform organ transplants, swiftly and adeptly at that. They are increasingly realizing the weight of the title ¡°Comprehensive Surgery Department¡±. Regarding organ transplantation surgery, Yang Ping had previously trained in the system. Considering the condition of Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun, he again purchased training packages for reinforcement, coupled with a massive number of cases in system space and an enhanced effect, so it would be strange if his level wasn¡¯t high. After completing the surgeries for Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun, Yang Ping felt relieved. They should be fine from now on, and Yang Ping wondered if Qin Xiaowei would go rock climbing again. Either way, Qin Xiaowei is now synonymous with extreme sports in China. During his hospital stay, people never stopped sending flowers to the hospital. ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯ll need your guidance in the future. I¡¯m sorry to impose, but we¡¯ll need to perform at least five operations using the improved bloodless transplantation technique together. I will contact Director Zhao as soon as possible to discuss your surgical qualifications,¡± Professor Yao texted on WeChat. After reading Yao¡¯s WeChat message, Yang Ping laughed. The improved version of the bloodless transplant technique is just the beginning. ¡°I¡¯ll help you extend this technique worldwide.¡± he thought. Furthermore, Yang Ping plans to improve Professor Yao¡¯s machine. It was too rudimentary in its current form. After improvement, it could be used for preserving and activating organs cultured from stem cells. ¡°Would you mind if I introduce your new technique to the American Cleveland Medical Center?¡± Yang Ping replied to Professor Yao. At that moment, Professor Yao was researching his own machine. After completing the surgery at Sanbo Hospital, he dismantled the machine into parts and was still studying it. Mind? ¡°If you can introduce me to the American Cleveland Medical Center, I would be forever grateful. The American Cleveland Medical Center is the Mecca of global cardiology. Professor Yao nearly trembled as he typed his reply: Agreed! A thousand times agreed. He hadn¡¯t expected that loaning two machines would bring such a grand return. However, would the American Cleveland Medical Center take young Professor Yang¡¯s word? Now, Professor Yao dare not doubt it recklessly. After all, Yang Ping boldly delivered on his ¡°bluffs¡± that lasted two hours, especially the inhuman ninety-minute one. ¡°Since you agree, send me an email address,¡± Yang Ping texted Professor Yao on WeChat. An email address was sent immediately. Yang Ping, in order to help Professor Yao promote his new technology, delivers on his words with his actions. He immediately wrote an email to Li Zehui, detailing the bloodless transplantation technology and highly recommending it. Li Zehui is a cardiac surgery specialist at the American Cleveland Medical Center, a world-class cardiac surgeon. If he approves and promotes this technology, then Professor Yao¡¯s new technology could really go global. ¡°Keep an eye out for emails from the American Cleveland Medical Center,¡± Yang Ping left a brief message before putting away his phone. There are two envelopes on the desk, each marked with the logos of Xiehe and 301. These are their invitations. Xiehe and 301 both invited Yang Ping to give regular lectures and perform surgeries. Yang Ping looked at the two invitations. Where should he go first? It makes sense to start with Professor Liang¡¯s place. Professor Liang gave Yang Ping ten beds and even arranged for Song Yun to lead a team to assist Yang Ping. Originally, Xiehe had prepared forty-five beds for Yang Ping. However, to avoid outbidding with 301, they also offered only ten beds. Ten beds are quite a lot considering that, typically, the number of beds assigned to lead professors at Xiehe is in single digits. Yang Ping picked up his phone again to arrange a monthly schedule with Professor Liang. ¡ª After sending away the visiting experts, Director Zhao of the medical department was all smiles, as another special surgical qualification has been added to the Comprehensive Surgery department. Seeing the puzzled look on experts¡¯ faces, Director Zhao couldn¡¯t help but feel elated. He was very efficient as the director of the medical department. These were experts from all over the country, especially Professor Wang from Beijing and Professor Pei from Shanghai, who usually adopt a superior attitude. This time, they were outsmarted. Without knowing Yang Ping and his formidable skills, no one else would believe there¡¯s such a genius who can perform organ transplant surgeries, shocking the two experts into wanting to cry. Especially Professor Wang, with his temperament, he¡¯d likely suffer from insomnia for at least three days. ¡°Do you think there really is a black market for surgeries abroad?¡± Director Zhao asked as he stroked his chin. The clerk answered uncertainly, ¡°That¡¯s what they say on the Internet. There¡¯s a top plastic surgeon in Russia who often travels around the world to perform plastic surgeries. Some of his clients are even globally wanted criminals who want to undergo plastic surgeries to evade pursuit. This doctor charges at least a million dollars for a single surgery. He only uses his own proprietary surgical tools. So, clients who want him to perform a surgery must first transfer the payment in full to his Eastern European account, then secretly transport the surgical tools to the destination, and finally pick him up there. I heard that there¡¯s a team serving him in Eastern Europe. And there¡¯s a Polish organ transplant doctor who has a secret base in Eastern Europe¡ª¡± ¡°Is that a story from a street-side novel?¡± Director Zhao, disbelieving, interrupted his rambling. The clerk didn¡¯t give up and continued, ¡°Have you watched the second part of ¡®S.P.L.¡¯?¡± Director Zhao shook his head. The clerk added with a touch of mystery in his voice. ¡°The wealthy man who went to Thailand to get a black-market surgery to change his heart.¡± ¡°Let me tell you, you better keep your mouth shut and stop spreading rumors. These are plots from movies and novels, don¡¯t go around spreading them. If it spreads and tarnishes Professor Yang¡¯s reputation, if I hear you spout a single word carelessly, pack your belongings and leave immediately.¡± Director Zhao was angry, what on earth are the young people filling their heads with, reading all that useless stuff. The clerk immediately shut up, feeling wronged. He only spoke because he was asked. ¡°Make sure the arrangements for Professor Yang to give regular lectures and perform surgeries at Xiehe and 301 are done properly without any legal loopholes,¡± Director Zhao commanded the clerk. The clerk nodded and immediately threw himself back into his work. PS: The bloodless organ transplantation technology was pioneered by Professor He Xiaoshun of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. This technology is a world-first and will certainly have a promising future. All organ transplants in the future should ideally be heat transplants without blood loss. Salute to Professor He Xiaoshun and his team! Chapter 720 - 720 641 Marriage Alliance ?Chapter 720: Chapter 641: Marriage Alliance Chapter 720: Chapter 641: Marriage Alliance For three consecutive days after the surgery, Yang Ping visited Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun in the ICU three times a day. Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun were conscious, their vital signs were stable, and the dynamic monitoring of their liver and kidney functions were good, indicating that the surgery was highly successful. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang now have to work hard again to learn about organ transplantation to keep up with Yang Ping¡¯s pace. To increase their efficiency, Yang Ping provided them with a tutorial on organ transplantation. This tutorial, printed on A4 paper, was added by Song Zimo to his collection of valuable materials. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang internalized Yang Ping¡¯s manuscript and then extended their reading to other specialized books and papers. This is a fixed mode of learning new surgery techniques. If it weren¡¯t for these straight-A personalities, it would really be challenging to keep up with Yang Ping¡¯s rhythm. Those with slightly lower intelligence would probably find it draining. As for treating scoliosis with external spinal fixation, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang have already started writing the paper and plan to submit it to the ¡°Science¡± journal. This technique completely overturns the traditional principles of treating scoliosis. It uses new, safe, and progressive methods to correct spinal deformities, indicating a revolutionary breakthrough globally. Heavyweight papers should be published in heavyweight journals. At four and a half in the afternoon, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were busy revising the paper. After making one round of revisions, Song Zimo took a break, then said to Xu Zhiliang, ¡°In regards to the rank of authors, the professor is first, I¡¯m second, you¡¯re third, followed by Little Five, Zhang Lin, Li Guodong, and then the doctors from Xiehe Hospital. Is that ok?¡± Xu Zhiliang had no objections at all. After all, Song Zimo had contributed more than he had, so it was natural for him to be ranked second. If he were able to rank third on a paper in the ¡°Science¡± journal, Xu Zhiliang would feel exhilarated¡ªit¡¯s the kind of thing people can¡¯t sleep over. ¡°On average, it takes about 138 days from submission to acceptance in Science, and the acceptance rate is only 25.7%. If we successfully publish this paper, won¡¯t our professor be promoted directly to tenured, and we graduate early? And even possibly become doctoral advisors? Won¡¯t our positions as deputy chief physicians and associate professors also be secured?¡± Xu Zhiliang could not contain his excitement. Song Zimo nodded and said, ¡°I think everything you¡¯ve mentioned should be feasible. It¡¯s rare for clinical physicians to publish papers in Science or Nature because it¡¯s harder than for those in basic medicine.¡± The two of them took a break and then continued revising the paper. Only when they deemed it perfect would they hand it over to Yang Ping. Zhang Lin and Little Five had already completed a draft of their book, ¡°Surgical Hook Techniques¡±. They were also using their spare time to revise the draft. Furthermore, they were not content with just that. They were planning to design some new hooks. They bought almost all the available hooks on the market from equipment suppliers for research, then downloaded and printed all the patent information about hooks from the patent library. They studied them day in and day out. As members of the Comprehensive Surgery Department, they couldn¡¯t lag behind others. They too had their own dreams. In addition to this, Little Five and Zhang Lin were also preparing for exams, planning to take the doctoral exams. Without a doctoral degree, they would feel inferior in this kind of hospital and department. The two people had a strong sense of urgency and were determined to pass the doctoral exams at all costs. Yang Ping did some experiments in the system space. The inducing substances for stem cell differentiation had been almost completely screened by him. He had selected dozens of proteins, and now he had to conduct reverse verification, using these proteins to induce stem cell differentiation and observing whether they could successfully induce them into target cells. Not long after he had rested, he received a call from the hospital administration, asking him to attend a meeting. It must be something significant; otherwise, they usually wouldn¡¯t ask Yang Ping. Putting his work aside, Yang Ping went to the meeting room in the administration building. Department heads from other divisions had already arrived, but Dean Xia had not yet arrived. Everyone was discussing what the focal point of the meeting might be. A girl from the hospital administration showed Yang Ping to a seat next to Director Han. Upon sitting, he chatted with Director Han. Director Han intentionally kept it mysterious, saying that there was some important news to announce but he couldn¡¯t reveal it just yet. At this moment, Dean Xia and several deputy deans arrived at the meeting room, and everyone quieted down. Dean Xia went straight to the point as soon as he sat down, his voice resonating like a large bell, ¡°Department heads, I called you here today because there is a significant matter that we need to discuss. A significant decision for Sanbo Hospital needs to be made collectively. The issue is that the province authorities are contemplating integrating us into Nandu Medical University to become one of their affiliated hospitals. Not just in name, but a genuinely direct-affiliated hospital. I wonder what thoughts you all might have?¡± Becoming a directly affiliated hospital of Nandu Medical University, it will henceforth be referred to as the Nandu Medical University¡¯s Sanbo Hospital. This is absolutely great news! Once a hospital develops to a certain extent, it hopes to be associated with a medical university to enhance its research capabilities. In recent years, Nandu Province Engineering University added a medical college, and the Nandu Provincial People¡¯s Hospital immediately allied with Nandu Engineering University, becoming the first affiliated hospital of Nandu Engineering University¡¯s medical school. This move is to improve the scientific research level of the hospital. In simple terms, it¡¯s to elevate its prestige and upgrade its platform. Now that Nandu Medical University is actively recruiting Sanbo Hospital, the vast majority of the staff members agree. Which top domestic hospital is not affiliated with a medical university? What will this change mean for the status of the staff? Especially the directors of various departments, will there be changes? Will Nandu Medical University reshuffle personnel and appoint people from other affiliated hospitals to our positions? This is the foremost worry for all the directors, as personal interests are always the prime concern. Therefore, upon hearing this news, there was immediate discussion and worry about personnel changes amongst those present. Xiong Shihai from the Emergency Department was the first to raise a question: ¡°Dean Xia, this is a good thing, but I want to ask, after the change, how will the status of our hospital staff be affected? Will there be any personnel adjustments?¡± Dean Xia nodded: ¡°That¡¯s a good question, and it¡¯s the reason I¡¯ve called you all here today. After the hospital becomes affiliated with Nandu Medical University, we will keep everything as it is for fifteen years. We won¡¯t interfere with any personnel affairs. Moreover, for these fifteen years, Nandu Medical University will only provide support, not exploit us!¡± ¡°Is there such a good thing?¡± One director seemed skeptical. ¡°Have any support without any exploitation, why are they doing this? Where in the world do pies fall from the sky?¡± Dean Xia knew everyone would have doubts: ¡°You all trust me, Xia Changjiang, right? If there were even the slightest harm to your interests, or to the hospital¡¯s interests, I would definitely not do it. I have been carefully evaluating this for a while now, and I believe there are no pitfalls here. It¡¯s a good thing. After the change, all of you directors will still be directors. I will still be the dean. If there are any changes, I will be the first to lead you all in smashing their school, even destroying the principal¡¯s home. The principal is my classmate. I know his address. If this dean isn¡¯t worried, then what are you all worried about?¡± Everyone laughed at this. The prestige of Dean Xia in the hearts of everyone was unquestionable. ¡°As long as this doesn¡¯t harm the hospital¡¯s interests or the interests of everyone here, who would disagree?¡± said Director Guan from the Interventional Department. Dean Xia continued explaining to everyone: ¡°Nandu Medical University values our growth potential. Our hospital has been developing vigorously recently, especially the Comprehensive Surgery Department. This department leads our hospital. I hope none of you have objections to that?¡± Everyone shook their heads. Who could object to that? The director of the Comprehensive Surgery Department, Yang Ping, was young and had won the national Golden Knife Award for Sanbo Hospital. He even conducted a clinical trial of an external spinal fixation frame in the United States, which greatly accelerated the development of the entire Orthopedics Department. Even Xiehe Hospital sent people to learn from us. If the Comprehensive Surgery Department isn¡¯t the leading department, then who dares to claim that title? ¡°If the Comprehensive Surgery Department isn¡¯t leading, then who dares to claim to be?¡± Director Gao was the first to applaud, and everyone followed suit. ¡°Excellent! Nandu Medical University and Nandu Affiliated Hospital One have also been developing rapidly in recent years. But if they want to compete with Xiehe Hospital in Beijing, they are a bit lacking. Thus, they want to strengthen their affiliated hospitals. The provincial government has the same idea. I have always wanted to improve the level of our hospital. Look, the Nandu Provincial People¡¯s Hospital reached out to Nandu Engineering University for backing and even established the Nandu Academy of Medical Sciences. The progress they have made in scientific research in recent years is evident to all, particularly their treatment of cardiovascular diseases, which is at the forefront of the country. Therefore, I have been considering this issue. Since Nandu Medical University wants to form an alliance, why shouldn¡¯t we go with the flow?¡± As long as it doesn¡¯t harm the interests of the hospital or everyone here, it¡¯s a good thing. Don¡¯t let the opportunity slip by only to be exploited later. ¡°After we join the Nandu Medical University, the relationship with our supportive Overseas Chinese Foundation will remain unchanged. Everyone¡¯s position will remain the same. After the change, our hospital will be under the ministry, not the province, thus advancing our status. Moreover, research funding will multiply and pour in.¡± ¡°Without joining Nandu Medical University, our hospital might have been swallowed up by a Beijing hospital. The provincial government, Dean Xia, and Nandu Medical University didn¡¯t want that to happen. That¡¯s why they are attracting us with such favorable terms,¡± Chapter 721 - 721 642 Inducing Protein Spectrum ?Chapter 721: Chapter 642: Inducing Protein Spectrum Chapter 721: Chapter 642: Inducing Protein Spectrum The issue of Nandu Medical University merging with Sanbo Hospital was proposed in a meeting the day before where everyone from the hospital committee to the department directors unanimously agreed. Unexpectedly, the very next day, Nandu Medical University sent people to visit Sanbo Hospital for further discussions. It appeared as if they were aiming for a quickie marriage. Indeed, it seemed like a whirlwind romance. On the third day, the hospital¡¯s signboard at the entrance was covered with a red silk cloth. Could it be that it had been swiftly changed to ¡°Nandu Medical University Affiliated Sanbo Hospital¡±? If an actual merger were to occur, it would be all about negotiating the terms of the contract. It was expected that Dean Xia, a clever man, would have been studying the terms for quite some time. Seeking everyone¡¯s opinion was merely a final touch to the decision. Since everyone agreed unanimously, the only thing left was to sign the papers. On the fourth day, Sanbo Hospital held a low-key unveiling ceremony, where the signboard ¡°Sanbo Hospital¡± was replaced with ¡°Nandu Medical University Affiliated Sanbo Hospital¡±. Only the leadership of Nandu Medical University and Sanbo Hospital attended the unveiling ceremony. Even the older academicians from Nandu and no reporters were present. Besides the change of the sign, there didn¡¯t seem to be any other changes, and everyone carried on as usual. However, the speed of the change was a bit too fast for such a significant event. How could it happen so quickly? Yang Ping didn¡¯t bother about these matters. As a doctor, his job was to perform surgeries and conduct his research well. As for other matters, they were handled by others. Dean Xia was there to handle any major crises. All the clinical experiment data from the first phase of the Comprehensive Surgery Department had been collected and processed, and all surgeries for the second and third phase of clinical experiments had been completed. Some data from the second phase had already been collected. With the complete phase one clinical experiment data, it was entirely acceptable to publish articles and reasonably add phase two and three articles later. For such a significant topic, other teams would feel obliged to publish more than a dozen articles to justify their efforts. However, Yang Ping¡¯s team planned to publish only three articles, which showed considerable restraint. Moreover, they intended to submit all three to ¡°Science¡±. Only Yang Ping¡¯s team had such fearless courage. One topic, three ¡°Science¡± articles. After a day of surgeries, Yang Ping returned to his office to drink tea and relax. The way he worked was essential. For example, for the scoliosis surgery, if he did not improve or optimize it, he would be the only one capable of performing such complex surgeries. He would only be able to perform a limited number despite working from dawn till dusk. By summarizing the operation and developing an easy-to-learn system, not only the doctors at Sanbo like Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, but also those at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, Xiehe, 301, and Magic City Sixth Hospital, are all now performing these surgeries. This was a stark improvement compared to Yang Ping exhausting himself alone. Therefore, it was not a matter of an individual¡¯s exceptional skills, but rather the ability to groom a group of talented people that determined greatness. An individual¡¯s capability to perform surgeries and cure people was very limited. If everyone can master these surgeries, it would be a genuine way to cure and save people. Song Zimo entered by knocking, handing over the painstakingly written paper: ¡°Professor, the paper is written, please take a look.¡± How important it is to have a good assistant! Otherwise, who would find the time to drink tea! Yang Ping leisurely picked up the paper. Not bad, it was completed so quickly. Young Master Song, I am not exploiting you, I am training you. I only asked you to write the paper; I didn¡¯t ask you to walk the dog, wash the car, or pick up children. Of course, I don¡¯t have children, nor do I keep a dog. Well, it is well-written, worthy of a doctoral thesis published in The Lancet. The full English paper was very particular about word choices, however, to show off his expertise, Yang Ping pointed out a few inappropriate places and made some adjustments with a red pen. ¡°Send it off as soon as possible!¡± Yang Ping handed the paper to Song Zimo. ¡°Nandu Medical University is going to help you apply for Outstanding Young Talent, but the strict criterion for Outstanding Young Talent is to have a doctoral degree. With this paper, you should be able to graduate early with your doctorate.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if I¡¯m an Outstanding Young Talent or not, nor does it matter if I can graduate early with a doctorate. The key point is to get the paper out as soon as possible so our mature surgical technique can be promoted.¡± The popularization of surgical techniques, if clinical experiments were small-batch productions, then the publication of articles was assembly line production. Yang Ping certainly wanted to establish his own assembly line as soon as possible. The best way to promote a new technique is to publish it in such top-tier journals with many readers, and credibility. ¡°The average review process takes more than a hundred days; it¡¯s not that fast!¡± Song Zimo was very familiar with this process. ¡°That¡¯s too slow! You have to push them.¡± Yang Ping took a sip of tea. ¡°I urge them?¡± Big boss, are you kidding me? The reviewers for ¡°Science¡± are the top experts from all over the world. There are more than twenty in the field of biology. Who should I urge? Can I even urge anyone? ¡°Urge¡ªurge who?¡± Song Zimo doubted if he heard it right. ¡°I don¡¯t know who can be urged, just urge whoever you can.¡± Yang Ping also didn¡¯t know who Song Zimo should urge. In any case, he felt that over a hundred days were too slow. After leaving with Song Zimo, Yang Ping rested for a while, then entered the system lab again to conduct some experiments. He started reverse verification of the captured proteins. Following previous research results, he induced stem cell differentiation in set body fluid and temperature environments using the formulated inducive protein. His spacious lab was bustling with mechanical hands, helping Yang Ping complete various tasks. Various incubators started their busy work. It would have been great if time could be fast-forwarded in system space, but sadly, the perception of time was consistent with the outside world. That is to say, if an experiment outside takes three months, it would also take three months inside. The difference is that the three months inside do not take up real time. Stem cell division and differentiation need time to wait. To save time, Yang Ping had to use the hands of the machines repeatedly to open new experimental areas and start several experiments at the same time. The entire laboratory kept expanding. It¡¯s already as big as several football fields. Yang Ping stood in the center of the lab and was awestruck when he looked around. He was proud of himself, having such a large laboratory at his service. He roamed around the gigantic lab. He had to check how many generations of stem cells have divided here and what cells have been differentiated; where did the stem cell differentiation fail, and why, so the experiment can be stopped. Although countless mechanical hands helped with the work, the thinking process was all down to Yang Ping alone. The entire lab was filled only with the sound of the machines working, nothing else. The previous robotic female voice hardly says anything now. Yang Ping wondered if he would start stuttering like Xu Zhiliang if he stayed here for too long. Well, if he stutters, he stutters. After all, he¡¯s found a girlfriend. All that¡¯s left is to get the marriage license. Oh, he almost forgot, he still needs to pick a good day to get the license with Xiao Su. His future father-in-law suggested going to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get the license first, and arrange the wedding banquet later whenever they¡¯re free. What a wonderful father-in-law! Thinking back to his days of befriending Su Nanchen without knowing he was Su Yixuan¡¯s brother, there was one time in Liquan Hospital after a satisfying meal with Boss Cheng, Su Nanchen, and Dean Cai, that crazy Dean Cai suggested they go somewhere nice to relax during the day. Luckily, neither he nor Su Nanchen were into that kind of thing, or it would have been social suicide for them. This vast lab seems a bit hard to handle. Yang Ping kept walking back and forth inside it, even running around sometimes. After an unknown period, he finally completed the reverse verification experiment. He eliminated about ten proteins, re-tested the remaining proteins, and screened them like a sieve. The remaining proteins would no longer be problematic since they¡¯re the protein spectrum of the inducive protein. When he left the system space, Yang Ping felt his tongue wasn¡¯t very nimble when he talked. Nothing from the system space could be brought out, not even files or materials. Yang Ping could only rely on his memory to take out information. Yang Ping quickly wrote down the inducive protein from memory, one by one. At this moment, Xu Zhiliang knocked and came in. ¡°Pro¡ªpro¡ªfessor!¡± This guy; sometimes he can speak a bunch of words clearly, but sometimes he stutters after only a few words. His symptoms were highly unstable. ¡°You better not come in; I want to rest for a bit.¡± Yang Ping cleared his throat and tried to untie his tongue. He could speak, but for the time being, he mustn¡¯t talk to Xu Zhiliang. He was afraid that his unsmooth tongue would be infected by Xu Zhiliang, and he would start stuttering too. ¡°Ok¡ªok¡ªok¡ª¡± Chapter 722 - 722 643 Do I have to recite everything without ?Chapter 722: Chapter 643: Do I have to recite everything without missing a word? Chapter 722: Chapter 643: Do I have to recite everything without missing a word? Song Zimo checked his paper several times over, made sure there were no issues, and submitted it to the ¡°Science¡± journal. The average review period was more than a hundred days. What followed was a long wait. Even if it was accepted, there would be multiple rounds of revisions during this period. Inducing factors for stem cell differentiation were listed by Yang Ping in a chart. Most of them were proteins, while a few were other substances, such as vitamins. In the process of stem cells differentiating into target cells, the inducing factors added at each stage were different, and the types and proportions of these inducing factors had strict requirements. Therefore, they firstly had to divide the process of stem cell differentiation into different stages. Each stage corresponded to a ¡°recipe¡±, only then would it ensure the successful differentiation of stem cells into the cells they wanted. Of course, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t directly give these results to his team. He summarized them into an experimental method, and then handed this experimental method over to his team, allowing them to verify these inducing factors. By using this experimental method, the team was able to save a lot of time and progress linearly, rapidly approaching their target. The successful drawing of the map of inducing factors marked the success of Yang Ping¡¯s first stage of experiments. Although the experiment was indeed arduous, the constant interest and sense of achievement stimulated Yang Ping to push forward towards his goals. In terms of collaboration with Xiehe and 301 hospitals, Yang Ping had made a response. He decided to set aside four days per month to go to Xiehe and 301, each hospital would be allocated two days, starting from Xiehe. Yang Ping had never been to Xiehe before, so in order to get familiar with the environment, he decided to take a look at Xiehe in advance. Now, with the help of Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, Yang Ping could leave at any time without having to worry about the normal operation of the department. Yang Ping picked a Saturday, and took a flight to Beijing. Song Yun was the one who picked him up from the airport. Song Yun¡¯s attitude towards Yang Ping was no longer that of a colleague¡¯s friendship, but more of a student¡¯s mindset. Under the command of Professor Liang, Song Yun had once studied with Yang Ping at Sanbo Hospital for a short period of time, learning about the surgery of scoliosis correction. However, just as Song Yun had barely grasped Yang Ping¡¯s surgical methods through hard study, not long after, Yang Ping introduced a new technique to treat scoliosis with an external spinal fixation frame, leaving Song Yun struggling to keep up with Yang Ping¡¯s pace of technological advancement. Song Yun picked up Yang Ping at the airport and then drove him back to the internal guest house of Peking Union Medical College Hospital. ¡°Professor Yang, please guide me more frequently in the future. If I make mistakes, you must point them out strictly,¡± Song Yun said during the drive back to Xiehe, seizing the opportunity to chat with Yang Ping and close the gap between them. Many people wanted the opportunity to learn from Yang Ping but did not get it. Having this valuable opportunity, Song Yun was naturally serious and respectful. Now, if Yang Ping showed false humility, it would seem counterproductive. So he didn¡¯t show any false modesty, and instead, he asked directly, ¡°Have you gone through the surgical guidance for treating scoliosis with an external spinal fixation frame?¡± ¡°Yes, I have!¡± answered Song Yun confidently. Song Yun had carefully read the surgical manual several times. ¡°The manual isn¡¯t meant to be skimmed through, it has to be memorized by heart,¡± Yang Ping corrected Song Yun¡¯s understanding. Memorize it by heart? Song Yun was unable to do that for the time being. ¡°I¡ªwill memorize it,¡± Song Yun pledged through gritted teeth. He didn¡¯t expect Yang Ping¡¯s demands to be so high. Memorizing the laboratory guide of several hundred thousand words was quite challenging. While Professor Liang had instructed him to take good care of Song Yun, Yang Ping would do his duties diligently. In contrast, Song Zimo, who always handed his drafts to Yang Ping, could recite each one proficiently. These manuscripts were Yang Ping¡¯s summaries of surgeries in the system space, extremely valuable, even more so than any specialized thesis, and he hoped that Song Zimo could remember and understand every word. In fact, Song Zimo was capable of doing so. This surgical manual was also the crystallization of Yang Ping¡¯s surgical experience. If one could remember it completely, he or she could fundamentally master the treatment of spinal curvature, from principles to surgery. Making a recitation may seem like a foolish method, but it is indeed the simplest and most effective method. Of course, Yang Ping didn¡¯t demand a word-for-word recitation from them. What he expected was that they could reiterate the entire content of the book accurately and in their own words. Unexpectedly, while still on the way to Xiehe Hospital, Professor Yang set such strict requirements. ¡°Later, I will give you a set of spinal anatomy diagrams which you must also memorize with your eyes closed,¡± Yang Ping stated straightforwardly. Song Yun agreed, foreseeing a tough road of tutelage ahead. ¡°How has Professor Liang been recently?¡± Yang Ping was very concerned about Professor Liang. A look of difficulty crossed Song Yun¡¯s face, hesitating for a moment before saying, ¡°Professor Liang is ill. He took a few days off but asked me not to tell you about his illness. I thought about it and decided to tell you anyway.¡± He¡¯s ill! I must go see him. The day before they left, Yang Ping had spoken to Professor Liang on the phone. The professor didn¡¯t mention his illness, only stated that he had to attend a meeting and that Song Yun and Hu Guolin would accompany Yang Ping. However, from his voice, it could be told that he sounded weak. ¡°Where is Professor Liang now? Can you take me to see him?¡± Yang Ping was worried about Professor Liang¡¯s health. Song Yun, who was equally worried said ¡°I¡¯ll take you to be settled at the guesthouse first, and then go to Old Liang¡¯s home. These past few days, he¡¯s stayed at home without going out at all. Professor Hu said that he fell ill because he was upset about something related to Zhang Chunquan.¡± ¡°Zhang Chunquan?¡± Yang Ping did not recognize this name. Song Yun explained: ¡°It¡¯s a long story. Zhang Chunquan was a favored student of Professor Liang. He went to the United States for further studies a decade ago, and he never returned. He works at Massachusetts General Hospital and has remarkable abilities. Three years ago, he joined the stem cell project at MIT¡¯s Whitehead Laboratory. This laboratory¡¯s stem cell project is quite formidable. As of now, they¡¯ve mastered ten inducing factors, two of which were discovered by Zhang Chunquan. These two factors can induce the formation of cartilage, and they are truly mature inducing factors.¡± Song Yun emphasized the last sentence because the quality of inducing factors can vary. Some can induce the formation of cartilage, but the quality is extremely poor. Researchers claim these as inducing factors, but they¡¯re not truly mature. This is like how both a musket and a missile can be classified as weapons, but their quality greatly differs. Stem cell research has been on the rise in recent years, so there are various research outcomes. However, high-quality outcomes are relatively scarce. ¡°Peking Union Medical College has had no breakthroughs in stem cell research, so they intended to invite Zhang Chunquan to join. The college asked Professor Liang to contact Zhang. They say that Professor Liang wrote more than ten thousand words in an email, and Zhang only replied with a few words. Essentially, he said that he¡¯s doing well in the United States, has grown accustomed to it, has no plans of returning, and asked Professor Liang not to bring up this matter in the future¡ª¡± Song Yun grew more and more incensed as he spoke. ¡°Everyone has their own ambitions and cannot be forced.¡± Yang Ping consoled Song Yun. ¡°Perhaps it might be best if you took me to see Professor Liang directly.¡± Yang Ping was convinced that Professor Liang must have suffered a tremendous mental blow. He didn¡¯t want to delay and decided to visit the professor as soon as possible to exchange a few words with him. ¡°Surely, there¡¯s nothing inconvenient about that. If Professor Liang hadn¡¯t fallen ill, he would¡¯ve wanted to see you right away.¡± Song Yun knew what Professor Liang was thinking. Even though he said not to tell Yang Ping about his illness, deep down, he was yearning to see him. The car meandered along the streets of Beijing. ¡°Professor Yang, when you mention recitation, do we need to know the entire contents word for word?¡± Song Yun asked tentatively. It was almost impossible to recite hundreds of thousands of words from the surgery manual word for word. ¡°No, you just need to accurately and completely retell the entire content in your own words.¡± Yang Ping reassured him. Song Yun breathed a sigh of relief, and felt much more relaxed. In this way, he found it should be possible to accomplish with hard work. Chapter 723 - 723 644 Cook More Rice ?Chapter 723: Chapter 644 Cook More Rice Chapter 723: Chapter 644 Cook More Rice Song Yun¡¯s car turned off the bustling Wangfujing and onto Shuaifu Garden Road. What came into view was the classical architecture with green tiles, flying eaves, and colorful painted beams; this was the old building of the Xiehe. Amidst the lively urban setting, this venerable edifice stood out with its dignity and steadiness. It stood mature, detached from worldly affairs, and proud yet not complacent. Rigorous, meticulous, diligent, dedicated, generation after generation of the Xiehe people have left a legacy as pure and profound as the old building. ¡°Would you like to rest in the hospital guesthouse first?¡± Song Yun decelerated the car and moved on slowly. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°No, if it¡¯s possible, I¡¯d like to see Professor Liang first.¡± Song Yun immediately called Director Hu Guolin, telling him Yang Ping¡¯s intentions. Director Hu agreed happily, urging Song Yun to take Yang Ping to Professor Liang¡¯s house as soon as possible, as Yang Ping¡¯s visit might lighten Professor Liang¡¯s illness slightly. ¡°We are heading to Professor Liang¡¯s house now.¡± Song Yun quickly picked up speed, rushing toward the community where Professor Liang resided. Director Hu was already waiting at the entrance to the community. These days, whenever he found time, he would go to Professor Liang¡¯s home. He was in Professor Liang¡¯s house when Song Yun called him. This was an old community near Xiehe. The gatekeeper ¨C an elder gentleman ¨C knew Director Hu. Upon meeting Yang Ping and Song Yun, Director Hu led them to park, and then guided them up the stairs to Professor Liang¡¯s home. The door was opened by Professor Liang¡¯s wife, Teacher Luo, who was the chief physician for cardiology at Xiehe. ¡°Teacher Luo, this is Yang Ping from Nandu Province. He¡¯s come to see Professor Liang,¡± Director Hu introduced. The hospitable Teacher Luo quickly brought out slippers: ¡°Please come in, Xiao Yang.¡± Although this was her first time meeting Yang Ping, she had heard his name countless times. ¡°This is a small token of the southern specialties.¡± Yang Ping hastily offered his gift. All their luggage was in Song Yun¡¯s car, and Yang Ping only carried a small gift of southern specialties as a token of respect for meeting them. ¡°You¡¯re too kind.¡± Teacher Luo gladly accepted the gift with a smile, inviting everyone into the living room, making everyone comfortable, and then served tea. Professor Liang¡¯s house wasn¡¯t large, about seventy to eighty square meters. Small and large bookshelves could be seen everywhere. There were several bookshelves in the living room, and many books stacked on top of the TV cabinet as well. Books were the most common sight in their house. ¡°He has been locking himself in the room without eating much for three days. He also had a fever yesterday,¡± said Teacher Luo with evident concern, pointing to a bedroom door before knocking softly. ¡°Old Liang, Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital is here!¡± As soon as the words fell, a sound of rustling came from the room. Soon, the door was opened. Professor Liang, struggling a little, staggered into the living room: ¡°Xiao Yang, I¡¯ve been a bit under the weather these days, why did you come here?¡± ¡°I heard you were unwell, so I had to come and see you.¡± Yang Ping quickly offered his support. Professor Liang stretched out a hand to Yang Ping: ¡°Sit! The house is a bit cramped.¡± Yang Ping, Hu Guolin, and Song Yun all helped Professor Liang to sit on the sofa. Director Hu knew Professor Liang was suffering emotionally. Now that Yang Ping had appeared, it lifted his spirits. If Yang Ping kept him company and had a good chat, it might make him feel much better emotionally. This was also why Director Hu had asked Yang Ping to visit Professor Liang. ¡°How¡¯s the preparation for the paper on the spinal external fixation frame?¡± Sitting on the sofa, looking weak, Professor Liang took a sip of the hot tea brought by Teacher Luo and inquired. Yang Ping answered respectfully, ¡°I¡¯ve already submitted it to ¡®Science¡¯.¡± ¡°Good, very good. That¡¯s the kind of confidence we need to compete on the world stage. We Chinese are not inferior to anyone. But of course, confidence alone isn¡¯t enough, we also need strength.¡± Upon finishing, Professor Liang covered his mouth with a handkerchief and coughed lightly. ¡°Have you started any new projects lately? Start a new project as quickly as possible. People tend to become indolent if they procrastinate.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve started one, it¡¯s about cultivating muscle from stem cells,¡± Yang Ping answered. ¡°Oh¡ª¡± It seemed that Professor Liang was very interested in this project, but at the same time, it also made him feel a pang of worry. When this topic came up, Director Hu wanted to steer the conversation elsewhere, but Professor Liang insisted on discussing it, and Yang Ping discreetly hinted that it didn¡¯t matter. ¡°Indeed, our country has initiated a considerable number of stem cell projects, but the quality of the results is not high. Many technologies are advanced by others. The United States and Japan are currently leading. Xiehe Hospital¡¯s stem cell project has been stalled for a while. We originally wanted to learn the American technology, but they wouldn¡¯t let us learn. Afterwards, we changed our strategy to attract talent, but unfortunately, we couldn¡¯t find suitable talent. It seems we must abandon our illusions and take it step by step ourselves.¡± Professor Liang took several sips of hot tea, sweating profusely, while Teacher Luo passed him a towel. ¡°Today, let¡¯s have dinner at home. Let Teacher Luo prepare a few dishes,¡± Professor Liang instructed his wife. Knowing that the old professor was deeply troubled by this matter, Yang Ping didn¡¯t hold back: ¡°Old Liang, actually, I have some ideas on stem cell research. The first step is to capture inducible factors. I¡¯ve read publicly published papers and can reverse engineer their methods from the results reported in these papers. Those methods are not something special, efficiency is too low. I have a better set of methods.¡± If it were someone else saying this, Professor Liang would definitely dismiss it as a comforting tale intended for children. But when said by Yang Ping, it carries a different weight. Professor Liang had a vivid memory of Yang Ping¡¯s research capabilities; he had completed the spinal external fixation project from initiation to clinical application in just a few months. ¡°I have an analysis report on current stem cell research here. Old Liang, if you¡¯re interested you can take a look at it.¡± Yang Ping took out a report from the bag he carried with him. This was his analysis of the leading-edge results, and the articles were selected from top-tier journals, so the analysis report was representative. A critical part of the analysis report was a reverse-engineering of experimental methods. Reverse engineering requires excellent logical reasoning abilities, to deduce methods based on conclusions and publicly available information. As Professor Liang flipped through the report page by page, he found that the analysis techniques inside were a perfect combination of logical reasoning and stem cell knowledge. After reading each page, he glanced at Yang Ping. As he read, his complexion improved, and he quickly read through more than a dozen pages before temporarily putting the report down. ¡°Yang, what can I say about you? If you had spoken up about this report earlier, I wouldn¡¯t have embarrassed myself so much. Worse, the embarrassment was all for naught,¡± Professor Liang said, laughing. Yang Ping then took out an experimental report from his bag and handed it to Professor Liang: ¡°This is my experimental method. Take a look.¡± Professor Liang quickly read through more than a dozen pages, then stared at Yang Ping in silence for a few seconds before lowering his head to continue reading the report. There were two reports: one was an analysis of existing methods, the other proposed new methods. One of them involved cultivating cartilage from stem cells, a technology with which Professor Liang was very familiar. Yang Ping¡¯s proposed method felt to him like a new window had been opened in his mind, revealing everything clearly. ¡°Did you come up with all of this on your own?¡± Professor Liang asked in disbelief. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve already kick-started my project. If everything goes smoothly, I should be able to capture a few inducible factors soon.¡± Yang Ping merely said ¡®a few¡¯ very conservatively. ¡°Very good, very good! Go prepare some food for lunch, cook some extra rice and a few more dishes.¡± Looking as if he¡¯d had a shot of adrenaline, Professor Liang stopped sweating, and his voice regained its vigour. Teacher Luo was smiling and content. Having gone three days without eating much, his stomach must have been growling. If only this Yang had come a little earlier, he wouldn¡¯t have had to lay in bed for three days. ¡°Yang, come here. Explain this method to me in detail¡ªHu Guolin, Song Yun, don¡¯t just stand around, go to the kitchen and help with the vegetables.¡± Grabbing the experimental plan, Professor Liang started reading again and asked Yang Ping to sit beside him. Chapter 724 - 724 645 What is the Level of the Golden Knife ?Chapter 724: Chapter 645: What is the Level of the Golden Knife Award? Chapter 724: Chapter 645: What is the Level of the Golden Knife Award? As expected, Professor Liang¡¯s heart was refreshed after reading the information brought by Yang Ping. His face was rosy and he seemed invigorated, no longer coughing. He ate a full five bowls of rice at noon and consumed nearly half a duck. Those present were all familiar juniors, so his eating habits were no secret and he did not need to maintain formalities at home. Professor Liang¡¯s appetite, among the elderly, should be one of the highest. Yang Ping suspected that they had never fully satisfied his hunger when entertaining him in the past. Wasn¡¯t it mentioned that he had a viral acute upper respiratory infection? Could the virus have been killed this quickly? Professor Hu Guolin and Song Yun were completely puzzled, but Professor Liang¡¯s wife understood her husband¡¯s temperament, so she was not surprised. After lunch, Professor Liang said to his wife, ¡°Later, please take my temperature for me. If it¡¯s normal, I consider going back to work in the hospital.¡± ¡°It¡¯s Saturday today, why not take a break and recuperate a bit?¡± Teacher Luo was still a little worried. Professor Liang retorted stubbornly, ¡°Five bowls of rice, half a duck, have you ever seen a patient who can eat this much?¡± ¡°Fine, you can go. Guolin, keep an eye on him,¡± Teacher Luo reluctantly agreed, but she was still worried and instructed Professor Hu Guolin to take care of him, as he had been bedridden for three days. ¡°Have there been any special patients these past few days?¡± He had been bedridden for a few days and just regained his strength today, naturally he was concerned about the patients in his department. ¡°There is a special case, a chordoma, invading the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lumbar vertebrae. It was decided in the case discussion to operate: posterior-anterior-posterior approach, total vertebrectomy of the three vertebrae, tumor removal, implantation of 3D printed titanium alloy artificial vertebrae, and posterior pedicle screw system fixation. The surgery is massive, with high risk, probably taking more than twenty hours. We still haven¡¯t scheduled the surgery, we are waiting for you to supervise.¡± Professor Liang has already handed over the position of Department Director to Professor Hu Guolin, but he still insists on making ward rounds and performing surgeries. As soon as Professor Liang heard, he knew, ¡°This is a world-class surgery. There are very few in the country who can perform total vertebrectomy surgery, let alone tumor resection and vertebral reconstruction. Perhaps only three or four hospitals in the country can do it. Such cases are rare. Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Huaxi Hospital have done it, albeit only for two vertebrae, taking about fifteen hours.¡± ¡°Exactly, so we have to be fully prepared before we dare to start. The patient came to us because of our top-tier reputation.¡± Professor Hu was also very meticulous and only scheduled the surgery after thorough preparation. As soon as Yang Ping heard about the surgery, he immediately became excited. These were the kind of operations that were truly interesting. The anatomical structure of the vertebra is extremely complex, made even more so by the invasion of the tumor. Within, there is the spinal cord, and the outside is entwined with various crisscrossing blood vessels. In front, there are the aorta and the inferior vena cava. To simultaneously cut away three full vertebrae along with a tumor and then perform reconstruction is no small feat. This surgery is a colossal project. ¡°Let¡¯s go. Let¡¯s visit the ward.¡± Upon hearing about this case, Professor Liang was as if injected with an adrenaline shot. He didn¡¯t even need his usual post-meal rest. ¡ª Professor Liang, Professor Hu, Song Yun, and Yang Ping walked to Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The distance from Professor Liang¡¯s home to Peking Union Medical College Hospital was not far, and walking served as his post-meal stroll. That earlier viral acute upper respiratory infection was a passing cloud. When everyone arrived at the Orthopedics Department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital and saw the spirited Professor Liang, they were puzzled. Wasn¡¯t he supposed to be sick? He did not look ill at all? Everyone had just completed their professional training, and the doctors¡¯ office was bustling. Everyone was busy. Seeing Professor Liang and Director Hu, everyone greeted them respectfully. A few doctors recognized Yang Ping and, upon recognizing him, became very excited. They ran over to chat with Yang Ping. These doctors had all participated in the animal experiment in Guilin, and their names were even listed in Yang Ping¡¯s published papers. ¡°Director Hu, bring us the medical record of the patient you mentioned, and let us discuss it in small groups,¡± Professor Liang sat down and ordered Professor Hu Guolin. Song Yun immediately went to fetch the medical record. He then opened the computer and projected the patient¡¯s medical information onto the screen. Seeing now that Professor Liang was about to review this case, everyone put down their work to listen attentively. The younger individuals all held notebooks. The spirit of learning at Xiehe was indeed good. Jing Yunsong, male, 48 years old, was admitted to the hospital for waist and back pain accompanied by numbness and pain in the anterolateral part of the right thigh for seven months. Physical examination: tenderness was found at the second, third and fourth lumbar vertebrae and there was decreased sensation in part of his thigh¡¯s lateral skin. Additional examination: an MRI scan of the lumbar spine showed occupative lesions of the second, third and fourth lumbar vertebrae, suggestive of chordoma. The tumor of the second lumbar vertebra has grown into the spinal canal and is significantly compressing the spinal cord and nerve roots, causing damage to the cauda equina and conus medullaris; The tumor of the third lumbar vertebra has grown into the abdominal cavity, forming a huge soft tissue mass, which is adherent to the anterior aorta and inferior vena cava; The tumor of the fourth lumbar vertebra, by contrast, has invaded a much smaller area. After Song Yun reported the case, everyone began to ponder. Chordoma is a rare malignant tumor that occurs in the base of the skull, vertebrae, and sacrum, with an incidence rate of about 0.8 per million per year. Without effective treatment, the five-year survival rate is only about 30%, which is extremely low. Chordomas are not sensitive to traditional radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Of the three weapons ¨C surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy ¨C only surgery remains, so surgical treatment is the main treatment for chordoma. The chordoma is extremely prone to recurrence after surgery. Once it recurs, it often damages the spinal cord nerves, leading the patient to suffer from urinary incontinence, paralysis of the lower extremities or even death. Therefore, whether the tumor can be completely removed during the first surgery is the key to the treatment of chordoma. For Jing Yunsong, out of his five lumbar vertebrae, three are affected by the tumor. Essentially, the tumor has invaded three-fifths of his entire lumbar spine. To completely remove the tumor, all three vertebrae must be removed, there is no other option. The structure of the lumbar vertebra is very complex, with spinal nerves inside and the abdominal aorta and inferior vena cava in front, surrounded by numerous blood vessels, muscles, etc. Moreover, the shape of the vertebrae is a complex irregular one. To completely remove the vertebrae, all normal structures around the vertebrae must be protected. Then they can be safely separated from the vertebrae for removal. Therefore, complete en bloc vertebrectomy is also the most difficult and technically demanding surgery in the field of spine surgery. Jing Yunsong¡¯s tumor involves long and wide segments of the lumbar spine. The tumor grows invasively in all directions, forming a mixed state intertwined with surrounding tissues. In this state of confusion between friend and foe, the difficulty of surgery is further compounded by the need to remove the tumor and protect the already damaged spinal nerve. After removing the vertebrae and tumor, the spine, which serves as the axial bone of the human body, will be missing three sections. It will be like a building without a load-bearing wall. Therefore, it is not enough to just remove the vertebrae, the removed vertebrae must also be reconstructed. Traditional titanium mesh and other supports cannot substitute for the load-bearing function of the vertebrae, it¡¯s a must to use 3D printing technology to manufacture personalized three-section vertebrae to rebuild the human ¡°load-bearing wall¡±. Mr. Jing visited the top hospitals across the country. This time he came to Xiehe out of its reputation, hoping to get the best treatment. ¡°Surgery is the only treatment method, and everyone agrees on this point. There¡¯s no question about the surgical method either. All three vertebrae along with the tumor will be removed, and then a 3D printed artificial vertebra will be implanted. Lastly, it will be fixed together with the normal vertebrae above and below using pedicle screws. The surgery is very difficult. We did two vertebrae last time, and it took us fifteen hours. Huaxi has also done one case,¡± Professor Hu organized the case and repeated everyone¡¯s discussion. Xiehe is the ultimate destination for patients in Chinese hospitals. Once the patients come here, they no longer have the thoughts of transferring to other hospitals. This is the final stop for medical treatment. If the treatment is not effective here, the only option left is to go home and live well. The doctors familiar with Yang Ping had an idea in their mind: If Yang Ping were to perform this surgery, would he be able to do it? How long would it take? What exactly is the standard of the Golden Knife Award? What exactly is the standard of the top surgeons in the country? Chapter 725 - 725 646 Ceiling ?Chapter 725: Chapter 646: Ceiling Chapter 725: Chapter 646: Ceiling There were a lot of people, and everyone was very eager to learn. Professor Liang could always teach everyone a lot, so everyone liked to listen to his lectures. Professor Liang¡¯s achievements in the field of spinal surgery are outstanding, and he is not only a leader nationally but has also made world-class academic contributions, making Xiehe Hospital¡¯s spinal surgery known worldwide. Therefore, the high reputation of Xiehe Hospital has been built up by generations of hardworking people. After Song Yun finished presenting the case and everyone had enough time to think, Professor Liang started speaking. ¡°Complete Vertebrectomy, also known as complete removal of the vertebral body, is a complex procedure, and currently there are only a dozen or so articles on it internationally, and even fewer hospitals can perform it.¡± ¡°Due to the complexity of spinal anatomy, the proximity to the spinal nerves, major blood vessels, and vital organs, the difficulty and risk of surgical resection is extremely high. Previously, these cases were treated with subtotal resections, which lead to incomplete tumour removal and high recurrence rates. Recurrent tumours are difficult to manage and the treatment outcomes for these tumours are very poor.¡± ¡°In the 1990s, Professor Tomita from Kanazawa University in Japan proposed the posterior approach total vertebrectomy, which is now the complete vertebral body removal surgery. With this technique, not only for this type of tumour, but also for all complex spinal tumours, the surgical outcomes have improved. With this case, I want to ask everyone, what is the specific procedure for vertebral body resection? Song Yun, can you tell me what you think?¡± Professor Liang wanted to use this case as an opportunity to teach everyone about the high-risk, high difficulty vertebral body resection, so that they can fully understand the associated knowledge in the context of a real case. Song Yun graduated from Xiehe¡¯s eight-year program, excelling both in basic knowledge and learning ability. The admission score for Xiehe¡¯s eight-year program is on par with that of Tsinghua University, but due to the smaller intake, it¡¯s even more competitive than Tsinghua University. This high-standard, stringent and demanding training develops exceptional talents who are the elite in their field. Just think about Su Nanchen¡¯s admission to Xiehe¡¯s eight-year program with the top science score in the province. Song Yun, calm and composed, answered in a clear and organized manner: ¡°Dr Tomita¡¯s surgical approach is also the current mainstream approach, which involves performing the surgery from the posterior route, using a wire saw to split the vertebral body into two parts: the vertebral body and the processes, carefully isolating all structures around the vertebra.¡± ¡°Given this patient¡¯s specific situation, where the tumour invades the major blood vessels upfront and adheres to them, a simple posterior approach cannot solve the issue. A combined anterior approach is necessary to remove the tumour.¡± ¡°The choice of the anterior approach should also take into account the growth pattern of the tumour. A lateral anterior approach cannot fully strip the aorta and inferior vena cava, so it is best to choose the anterolateral approach, which will facilitate the treatment of the aorta and inferior vena cava, while also protecting the internal and external iliac veins.¡± ¡°The treatment of segmental arteries should be meticulous, and we must be very careful to prevent the nerves within the psoas major, that attaches to the vertebral body, from being injured during separation.¡± Song Yun briefly explained the surgical process and precautions, indicating that he has a very thorough understanding of the surgery to be able to summarize it in such a way. ¡°Very good! Not only have you read the relevant papers, but you also have some surgical experience and your understanding of the precautions is very accurate.¡± Professor Liang praised. While Professor Liang sets high standards, he is never stingy with his praise for students. He believes that criticism alone is not enough. Students should also receive timely praise and encouragement. ¡°So, when the vertebra in this operation needs to be cut from the pedicle, we need a special tool. Why is this tool special? What is special about it? Raise your hand to answer.¡± Professor Liang continued his questions, as this case had already been discussed, he wanted to check whether the young doctors had mastered it. Many people in the meeting room raised their hands, everyone was very active, and the atmosphere was lively. Professor Liang randomly pointed to a young doctor, who had a promising appearance and temperament, and answered with great confidence: ¡°The complex structure of the vertebra necessitates the use of a special guide to get the saw wire under the pedicle root. Since the direction of the saw wire cannot follow the standard route as with long bones, a special redirector is also needed to change the direction of the saw wire, allowing it to go around the pedicle root and effectively cut it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s hard to buy these special tools on the market. Hospitals that can carry out this type of surgery either bring the tools back from abroad when they go to learn, or they adapt existing tools to accommodate this type of surgery.¡± ¡°For this patient¡¯s surgery, we need to redesign the tools. Looking at the 3D reconstruction of the spine and the tumor, normally the wire saw is inserted between the laminae, exits through the intervetebral foramen, and uses a redirector to cut the pedicle root. Now, there is an occupying lesion in the spinal canal and no gap to thread the wire saw. Forcing it may cause the tumour to disperse, leading to tumour haemorrhage. The tools need to be altered to accommodate this unique situation.¡± The reputation of Chinese hospitals is well deserved, with each medical professional being elite among the elites, and they all carry a certain quality: confidence and composure. Yang Ping listened to their speeches quietly, pondering their unique insights and shortcomings. ¡°Very good! Every case should be treated as a classic. This is being responsible for the patient and ourselves. A case can teach us a lot. Who is responsible for the 3D printing?¡± Professor Liang spoke with confidence. Chapter 726 - 726 646 Ceiling_2 ?Chapter 726: Chapter 646: Ceiling_2 Chapter 726: Chapter 646: Ceiling_2 ¡°Me!¡± A young doctor raised his hand. The doctor immediately went to the computer and projected the model of the 3D artificial spine onto the screen. Due to the significance of 3D printing technology, almost every doctor in Xiehe Orthopedics is proficient in this technology, which they take as a fundamental skill to train. The 3D printed artificial spinal prosthesis was projected onto the screen, rotating 360 degrees. ¡°This is the 3D artificial spinal prosthesis we designed to replace the three vertebrae that will be removed during the surgery. To effectively reconstruct the vertebrae, we tailor-designed it according to the patient¡¯s anatomical structure and biomechanical characteristics. This is the top and bottom of the prosthesis, perfectly fitting the connection surfaces of the normal vertebrae above and below. These are the purposely designed screw implantation holes, which can connect the artificial vertebrae with the posterior rod system, forming a unique truss structure. The truss structure combined with the porous design of the titanium alloy we used endows the artificial vertebrae with sufficient biomechanical strength. After the surgery, the patient can get out of bed and start rehabilitation training as soon as possible, achieving a life and work like a normal person.¡± Yang Ping thought the design of this artificial vertebra was excellent, in complete accordance with biological and biomechanical requirements. The designer must have undergone related systematic training. Having combed through it all, the preparation for the whole surgery seems thorough and without any omission. ¡°I have a question!¡± A young doctor raised his hand to ask a question from the crowd where there were no seats. Because there were so many people, some had seats while many young doctors were standing. ¡°Go ahead!¡± Professor Hu Guolin asked him to stand out. A doctor in his early thirties stated aloud, ¡°The preparation for the surgery that was just mentioned is all based on the assumption that everything goes smoothly. But what if it doesn¡¯t? What if in extreme situations the aorta or inferior vena cava ruptures while being peeled off? Specifically, what if large-scale tearing happens?¡± This doctor walked up to the podium with his chest held out and continued confidently: ¡°Look here, the tumor adheres to large blood vessels for up to 10 centimeters. In this situation, the aorta and inferior vena cava are very likely to tear. Even if they don¡¯t and the tumor and large blood vessels are successfully separated, can these large blood vessels still function? Is there a safety risk like an aortic dissection, a ticking time bomb? I saw an article mentioning a case about an abdominal tumor specialty. The tumor was adhered to the abdominal large blood vessels, and the doctor successfully separated the tumor and the large blood vessels. The surgical process went smoothly, but the patient suddenly died on the fifth day after the surgery. Autopsies later determined the cause of death to be an aortic aneurysm. The aorta was invaded by the tumor; the vessel wall had changed, providing groundwork for the onset of an aortic aneurysm. The patient developed an aortic aneurysm after the surgery; a large-scale aortic tear led to the patient¡¯s shock due to internal bleeding and death. Have we considered how to act in the worst-case scenario? Rely on blood transfusion?¡± This young doctor spoke critically, his tone sharp as if questioning his colleagues, questioning Professor Liang and Director Hu in the front row. Yang Ping noticed that the Xiehe¡¯s doctors, almost none of them stooped or hunched, all holding their heads high and chests out, standing straight. Even at his age, Professor Liang, whether sitting, standing, or walking, holds his head high and his chest out, looking alert and energetic. ¡°Very Good!¡± Professor Liang applauded the questioner, and everyone followed suit with applause. ¡°What do I always tell you as doctors to be like?¡± Everyone replied together: ¡°Do your best and prepare for the worst!¡± ¡°Correct! We strive towards the best goals, but we also prepare for the worst. Who can answer this doctor¡¯s question?¡± Professor Liang was very satisfied with the doctor¡¯s question. People in academia must have a spirit of inquiry and not follow others blindly, lacking the ability of independent thinking. Director Hu stood up: ¡°Let me answer. We have already considered this situation and have even measured the vascular wall on the imaging pictures. Indeed, there is a high risk involved with the vessel wall. For this, we have an artificial blood vessel prepared and have invited vascular surgeons for assistance. We will check the vascular condition during the surgery and, if necessary, preemptively implant the artificial blood vessel to prevent the worst-case scenario that this doctor mentioned.¡± The questioner was very satisfied, as the director¡¯s considerations were indeed thorough. ¡°Are you satisfied with my answer? You must have left the case discussion early because this issue was mentioned last.¡± There was no accusation from Director Hu, but he politely informed the questioner. Indeed, the doctor, who was part of the medical team on duty, had temporarily left for an emergency surgery. Yang Ping sat in the first row, with the screen displaying the enhanced three-dimensional reconstruction of the tumor. Seeing the extent of the tumor¡¯s invasion, filling up the spinal canal, invading the spinal cord and nerve roots, adhered to the anterior side and the inferior vena cava, the difficulty of removal was indeed very high. Especially since the wall of the vena cava is thin, a slight mistake during the separation process would cause the wall to rupture. The tumor, intertwined with the spinal cord nerves inside the spinal canal, could easily damage nerves. The surgery was undeniably world-class. Preemptively implanting an artificial blood vessel was a very clever move that minimized the risk of rupture during and after surgery. There was another issue, not fatal, but poorly handled it could easily lead to the spread of the tumor. The tumors on vertebrae L2 and L3 had already invaded the pedicles on both sides. In this case, using a wire saw to saw off the pedicles would inevitably damage the tumor body, causing the tumor cells to spread. To reduce the chances of spreading, meticulous operation was the only solution. If the vertebra is not bisected but instead removed as a whole piece, this problem could be avoided. However, with no precedent in the world for this kind of complete vertebra excision, the complexity was overwhelming and it was virtually impossible to achieve. Yang Ping was contemplating this issue in his mind, striving to perfectly handle each step. ¡°Does anyone have any other questions?¡± Director Hu asked everyone as the discussion couldn¡¯t go on indefinitely. It would never end even if it went on for days and nights. ¡°Just now, it was mentioned that the tumor and pedicles are intertwined, how can we insert the wire saw without damaging the tumor body and reducing the spread of the tumor?¡± A doctor was also contemplating this issue and raised it. ¡°To remove the vertebra, it must be bisected. It¡¯s impossible to remove it as a whole. Thus, this problem can¡¯t be avoided. We can only peel the tumor off the pedicles, insert the saw after peeling, and improve our tools by adding a protective cover during insertion, which will minimize the risk of spreading,¡± Director Hu introduced the solution. The person raising the question nodded in satisfaction. This was already the best method; taking out the entire vertebra at once was simply not feasible. ¡°Any other questions? We¡¯re short on time; further questions can be discussed privately.¡± When nobody raised their hand, Director Hu said to Professor Liang, ¡°Shall we go see the patient?¡± Professor Liang nodded and said to Yang Ping, ¡°Let¡¯s go see the patient together.¡± Professor Liang didn¡¯t give Yang Ping a chance to speak. After all, it was Yang Ping¡¯s first time at Xiehe. Professor Liang didn¡¯t treat him as a student but as a fellow professor, as the conference was of an educational nature. Together with Song Yun, everyone arrived at the ward. Jing Yunsong, a chubby man with a notably swollen abdomen, was chatting with his fellow ward mates. Seeing the professors coming to make rounds, he immediately returned to his bed. Upon such visits, most patients are usually baffled and unclear about the situation, but Jing Yunsong was very relaxed, likely due to his experiences at various hospitals. ¡°Professor Liang, it¡¯s nice to finally meet you,¡± Jing Yunsong recognized Professor Liang. Prior to his arrival at Xiehe, Jing Yunsong had scoured the profiles of all orthopedic doctors on the hospital¡¯s website. ¡°We¡¯re preparing to perform surgery on you. The operation is quite complex and carries a high risk, so we wanted to come and see you again,¡± Professor Liang kindly said. Jing Yunsong chuckled, ¡°If it¡¯s not complex or challenging, I wouldn¡¯t have come to Xiehe. I¡¯ve heard that when other hospitals encounter difficult cases, they usually suggest transferring to a higher-level hospital. But Xiehe doesn¡¯t have that kind of talk because it is the highest-level hospital in all of China. If you won¡¯t perform the surgery, then my only option is to travel the world.¡± It was rare to encounter patients who remained so relaxed, regardless of whether the ease was genuine or feigned, the fact that he could confront it with optimism was a good thing. ¡°Professor Liang, I heard Xiehe performs the most surgeries of this kind in all of China. That¡¯s why I came. Whether it¡¯s possible or not, now that I¡¯m here, there¡¯s no other place for me to go. There¡¯s a saying, ¡®the King of Hell wants a soul at the third watch, but Xiehe can hold him off until the fifth watch.¡¯ I find the saying amusing,¡± the patient was quite humorous. It is very rare for a tumor patient to be so optimistic. Chapter 727 - 727 647 Not in the Same Dimension ?Chapter 727: Chapter 647: Not in the Same Dimension Chapter 727: Chapter 647: Not in the Same Dimension Professor Liang carefully inquired about the patient¡¯s medical history and personally examined him before feeling reassured. This was his practice of many years. He would personally handle all the challenging cases in his department. Before performing a surgery, he would always personally inquire about the patient¡¯s history and carry out the physical examination. He could not bring himself to start the surgery just based on an image, without having met the patient. After the examination, Professor Liang put his percussion hammer back into the pocket of his white gown and said, ¡°Mr. Jing, your surgery is quite a big project. We need to prepare thoroughly, so there¡¯s no need to rush.¡± Jing Yunsong sat cross-legged on the hospital bed: ¡°No rush, take your time to research. I tried the best hospitals in the whole of China and decided that coming here was the most reliable.¡± Professor Liang patted his shoulder, ¡°Rest well. Once we schedule the surgery, we¡¯ll notify you¡ªit¡¯s usually on Monday.¡± After meeting the patient, dozens of doctors regally moved from the ward to the doctor¡¯s office. The preoperative preparation had been very thorough. The 3D printed spinal implant was designed and could theoretically be printed and sent for sterilization today. The vascular surgery backup was also confirmed. Professor Hu Guolin was careful, striving for perfection. Back in the doctor¡¯s office, Professor Liang wondered: ¡°How do you plan to handle hemostasis? Removing three whole vertebrae will involve a lot of bleeding.¡± Professor Hu Guolin was undoubtedly well-prepared. He said confidently: ¡°We are preparing from three aspects. We have a tumor vascular angiography image for reference; we will ligate each supplying blood vessel of the tumor one by one; we will ask an interventionist to pre-embolize the main supplying blood vessels of the tumor before surgery; if necessary, we will temporarily and selectively block the aorta or the inferior vena cava during surgery.¡± Listening to Professor Hu¡¯s words, Professor Liang nodded satisfactorily. Indeed, he had made sure nothing was left out in preparing for this surgery. But Professor Liang felt that something was still lacking. After mentally reviewing the surgical procedure, he realized that when using a wire saw to cut off the vertebral arch base¡ªthe tumor had already enveloped the vertebral arch base¡ªimplanting the wire saw would inevitably damage the tumor, causing the tumor cells to leak out and create a risk of spreading. Professor Hu had thought about this and decided to use a specially designed guide device for bone perforation, in order to guide the wire saw under the vertebral arch base. This was the best solution. Professor Liang couldn¡¯t think of a better method at the moment. Of course, if it was possible to peel off the tumor along with the periosteum from the vertebral arch base, and then implant the wire saw, that would be more perfect. However, this operation only exists theoretically and is impossible to perform during surgery. Moreover, it is likely to be damaged during separation, increasing the risk of spread. Professor Liang felt that Professor Hu¡¯s treatment was already at its limit, so he turned to Yang Ping and asked, ¡°What do you think about this case? Particularly about preventing tumor spread, do you have any good methods?¡± Xiehe Hospital meticulously handled this case. Even if just few hospitals in the country could complete such a complicated surgery ¡ª simultaneous resection of three entire vertebrae and complicated chordomas. The only area that could be improved was the step of severing the base of the vertebral arch. Using a special guide to get close to the bone would still puncture the tumor, leading to the risk of spread. Yang Ping frankly said, ¡°The surgery plan is very detailed and almost flawless. However, when it comes to implanting the wire saw, I think it would be best to first completely peel off the tumor at the vertebral arch base and intervertebral foramen, along with the pseudomembrane of the tumor and periosteum, even a bit of the bone cortex, and then implant the wire saw. This way, we can boldly cut off the vertebral arch base without worrying about the risk of tumor spread.¡± Professor Liang said to Song Yun, ¡°Zoom in on the 3D reconstruction image.¡± After re-examining the images, Professor Liang furrowed his brows. This method is the best as it can minimize the risk of tumor spread as much as possible. But the surgical difficulty is the highest, it¡¯s impossible to implement, and the vertebral foramen, the pathway for nerve roots, might be injured if not careful, risking nerve damage. Peeling the tumor in such a narrow and complex space with an intact pseudomembrane, along with the periosteum and a layer of sebaceous secretions, is an impossible task. Professor Liang shook his head, ¡°Theoretically, this is the best method, but it¡¯s impossible in reality.¡± ¡°Moreover, I think, the entire surgery should focus on the tumor, operate outside the pseudomembrane. Wherever bone is encountered, besides the vertebral arch base, other places can be ignored, and taken out together with the vertebra. In other places, the pseudomembrane should take along a few millimeters of normal tissue surrounding it. This way, the tumor will be most completely removed.¡± Yang Ping pointed at the 3D image on the screen. At this, Professor Liang glanced at Yang Ping, thinking Yang Ping might have not heard what he said. Now this tumor is extremely complicated. Even operating on the vertebral arch base according to Yang¡¯s approach is impossible, let alone removing the entire tumor according to this logic. ¡°The ideal is great, but the reality is hard. How can such precise operations be possible? It¡¯d be fine if the surgical field was flat and wide, but here the anatomy is extremely complicated, especially the bone space is extremely narrow, full of dead corners.¡± Occasionally, Professor Liang made amusing remarks. ¡°The difficulty is high, but it can be done.¡± Yang Ping confidently stated. Among the dozens of doctors nearby, those who heard the conversation between Professor Liang and Yang Ping were all stunned. This kind of operation isn¡¯t something they hadn¡¯t thought of, but something they dared not think about because it was simply impossible. Could the level of the Golden Knife Award in the country achieve such a miraculous operation? ¡°Have you¡ªused this method in spinal tumors before? What was the result?¡± Professor Liang now dared not readily question Yang Ping¡¯s words. After all, this young man couldn¡¯t be treated ordinarily. So, while interacting with him, one had to adjust their thinking to something a bit more imaginative. In other words, one had to open their mind, and not just a bit, but a lot, otherwise, he would easily end up baffling them. Indeed, while everyone else discusses achievable things, his ideas tended to be incredibly challenging and seemingly impossible. ¡°I use it regularly, for spinal tumors, I generally adopt this method.¡± Yang Ping was telling the truth. Regardless of the complexity or obscurity of the spinal tumors, he always meticulously separates them along the pseudocapsule, taking with it a few millimeters of surrounding healthy tissue, without ever rupturing a tiny hole. Even with the high-risk tumor at the base of the skull of Academician Feng Tiancheng, it was completely excised in this manner. Used often? Professor Liang was momentarily at a loss for words, as were the doctors present. Young man, you have thoroughly baffled us. Professor Liang was momentarily at a loss for words and managed to squeeze out a few words, ¡°Often¡ªused? The intervertebral foramen and the spinal pedicle are full of blind spots. How do you operate?¡± ¡°I use a laser knife to cut. However, you need to be extremely familiar with the anatomy of this area. Also, be very adept at distinguishing between the tumor, its pseudocapsule, and the normal tissue. Strong spatial location abilities are also necessary. Remember these images on the screen.¡±Yang Ping liked this kind of straightforward interaction, where the conversation was purely academic, without the need to take into account the other person¡¯s emotions. ¡°If the anatomical space is larger, we use navigation equipment, but in such narrow complex spaces, the equipment is useless. You can see it, but you can¡¯t operate.¡± Professor Hu Guolin seemed rather helpless. ¡°There¡¯s no need for navigation!¡± Yang Ping definitively stated. This time, it was Professor Hu Guolin¡¯s turn to be speechless. ¡°Have you performed many cases like this?¡± The doctor who had just displayed a critical temperament asked. ¡°Every spinal tumor operation I perform follows this procedure,¡± Yang Ping responded to him. The critic was also left speechless and had nothing to say. The atmosphere became somewhat awkward. Professor Liang stroked his chin, his brow furrowed, signalling the others to temporarily hold their questions so that he could think things through. Clearly, this young man was on a completely different plane from them. With a sigh, Professor Liang suggested, ¡°Why don¡¯t you teach us your method? If it¡¯s convenient, it would be best if you could perform this surgery and demonstrate it to us.¡± Asking more questions was pointless. On one hand, Yang Ping regularly performed the surgery as a routine operation, while on the other hand, they had never been able to execute it and thought it impossible. Discussing any further was meaningless. It would be better for Yang Ping to demonstrate his miraculous operation. Professor Liang clearly trusted Yang Ping. ¡°I am willing!¡± Yang Ping answered readily. Since Professor Liang trusted him so much, there was no point in hedging. Chapter 728 - 728 648 No Leak Excision ?Chapter 728: Chapter 648: No Leak Excision Chapter 728: Chapter 648: No Leak Excision Hearing that Professor Liang has invited Yang Ping to be the Chief Surgeon for the surgery, the junior doctors were stirred up with excitement. They had wanted to see up-close, the standard of the Gold Knife Award winner for a long time. This surgery, which was estimated to last for twenty hours, was extremely high in terms of surgical difficulty and even risk. It would absolutely be a feast for their eyes. ¡°Letting Professor Yang be the Chief Surgeon of this operation, don¡¯t we all agree?¡± Director Hu shouted out loud. ¡°Agreed!¡± The entire crowd approved almost unanimously. Especially those Doctors who knew Yang Ping well were immensely excited. They previously admired Yang Ping¡¯s research capacity, and now they would experience his surgical skills. The complete removal of three vertebrae, is a type of surgery that even in Xiehe Hospital, only Professor Liang and Director Hu could take lead. Other professors would find it quite challenging. Let¡¯s not even discuss the young doctors. ¡°Professor Yang, when do you think we should arrange the surgery?¡± Professor Liang smiled, hoping to use this operation to establish Yang Ping¡¯s prestige at Xiehe, which would help him undertake future work and give Professor Liang a chance to help Yang Ping secure some resources. Since Yang Ping claimed he routinely performed this sort of operation, he should naturally be quite confident, but it wouldn¡¯t hurt to double-check. ¡°Are you confident?¡± Professor Liang softly asked Yang Ping. ¡°Routine surgery, I¡¯m confident!¡± Yang Ping responded with ease. Fortunately, Professor Liang was familiar with Yang Ping, otherwise his confident response would have sent shock waves. ¡°I¡¯m on a tight schedule here; when can the surgery be arranged?¡± Yang Ping felt the sooner, the better. ¡°Director Hu, can we arrange it for tomorrow?¡± Professor Liang believed if the surgical preparations were thorough, then it should be arranged as soon as possible. ¡°No problem, I¡¯ll inform the operating room to add one more surgery. Tomorrow is the exchange meeting with the dual-city spinal center in the United States. The conference will include demonstrations of spinal tumor surgeries. Because this operation is expected to take a very long time, I hadn¡¯t previously planned to include it in the demonstrations.¡± Director Hu had not considered this operation when selecting demonstration surgeries. An operation estimated to last twenty hours was not quite suited for demonstrations. Professor Liang thought that made sense: ¡°Why don¡¯t we queue it up right after tomorrow¡¯s demonstration surgeries, how¡¯s that?¡± Yang Ping believed that as long as the surgical preparations were thorough, the exact timing for tomorrow didn¡¯t really matter. ¡°Arrange it whenever you like. It¡¯s also okay to schedule it as a demonstration surgery.¡± Yang Ping appeared calm and composed. Young people are certainly bold. This type of surgery would take twenty hours. Perhaps, it¡¯s better to forget about it as a demonstration surgery. Director Hu shook his head. ¡°Xiao Yang, could you explain further the theory of the non-leakage resection technique you just proposed?¡± Professor Liang was very interested. ¡°I proposed a concept for tumor surgery, and around this idea, I¡¯ve set up a complete surgical system.¡± Yang Ping saw this as an opportunity to promote his technique. A good thing should be shared amongst all, benefitting more patients. How does this guy always have something new? It¡¯s as if he has a magical pouch from which he pulls out one treasure after another. If it wasn¡¯t for the chance encounter with this spinal tumor patient, who would have known about his non-leakage resection technique? Seeing Yang Ping next to him, Professor Liang felt very gratified. ¡°Since we¡¯re all gathered here, why don¡¯t you explain to everyone your non-leakage resection technique. It may be a bit tiring, but for dinner, whether it¡¯s Fengze Garden, Quanjude, or Donglaishun, you can pick whichever you prefer.¡± When Professor Liang learned about Yang Ping¡¯s systematic technique, there was no way he let it slip by. ¡°Then let me¨C actually, you¡¯re being too polite¨C let¡¯s settle on this then! I do eat a good amount of meat.¡± Xiao Yang graciously accepts the offer. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I will treat you tonight; Director Hu will take care of the bill. Even packaging the leftovers isn¡¯t an issue.¡± Professor Liang answers with a slight smile. For this dinner, Xiao Yang steps onto the stage, with dozens of eager physicians looking at him below, all elites in the field. Skipping the self-introduction, he directly delivers substantial content: ¡°I gave this technology a name, called ¡®no-leakage resection¡¯, which is essentially an upgrade for the no-tumor technique. It¡¯s just a fancy name. For complex spinal tumors, conducting a real extratumoral operation to ensure no tumor cell leakage and completely removing the tumor are both extremely tough.¡± ¡°Because the vertebrae is a ring-shaped structure, with the spinal cord and cauda equina set right in the middle, to cut a whole piece of vertebrae, we must break the ring-shaped structure and extract the vertebra from the spinal cord or cauda equina. With complex tumors, the tumor has already enveloped and invaded the vertebral arch, breaking the ring-shaped structure and cutting off the vertebral arch, often inevitably leading us into the tumor.¡± ¡°However, we know that there are natural barriers to tumor spread, such as for spinal tumors: the anterior and posterior longitudinal ligaments, the perimem of the vertebral canal, the yellow ligament, the vertebral plate, the spinous process membrane, interspinal ligaments, cartilage endplates, fibrous rings, all these natural barriers we should be very familiar with and adept at using during surgery.¡± ¡°Each vertebra represents a compartment surrounded by a few of these barriers, seemingly providing convenient conditions for extensive surgical resection.¡± ¡°However, the vertebrae is a ring-shaped structure housing the spinal cord, with important blood vessels and organs close by, and the complex anatomical relationships between the spine, spinal cord, major blood vessels, and internal organs hinder extensive surgical resection. For example, the aforementioned vertebral arch osteotomy is often hard to perform extratumorally, so we can think differently.¡± ¡°Breaking the ring-shaped structure doesn¡¯t necessarily have to happen at the vertebral arch. Wherever the bone is normal and not affected by the tumor, we will break there. For instance, for this patient¡¯s lumbar 2, the whole vertebral arch is infiltrated. What then? There¡¯s a good portion of the posterior vertebral plate. Isn¡¯t it OK to cut the bone from here? The diameter of the spinal cord is only about 1.2 centimetres. If we have a 1.5-centimetre opening, that is enough to carry out the procedure.¡± ¡°The bone can be cut from the vertebral arch, but this requires a higher level of surgical skill: first isolate the tumor, then perform the osteotomy. Those without great surgical technique should not attempt this lightly.¡± ¡°How to completely resect the tumor without leakage requires a well-thought-out sequence. We must thoroughly study the tumor before the operation, know where to start, what paths to take, and where the operation should end. It¡¯s like wrestling, to throw someone down, you must first know where to grab, where to trip, and finally, how to take down the center of balance.¡± ¡°For this patient, I¡¯ve just conducted some research. According to the principles of no-leakage resection, I will divide the surgery into twenty-one steps. By following these twenty-one steps consecutively, a complete resection can be achieved.¡± Xiao Yang is explaining over the 3D images shown on the screen, telling everyone how to resect. Everyone listens and thinks, simulating the surgical process in their minds, especially Professor Liang and Director Hu who have vast surgical experience. As soon as they start simulating in their minds, they can immediately understand the subtleties of the operation. Indeed, resecting in this way is much easier, and the tumor can be fully removed. ¡°He has updated his ideas and then innovated his technique under new concepts, not merely repeatedly improving the technique.¡± Professor Hu Guolin feels that he has gained a lot from listening. ¡°Yes, let him lead tomorrow¡¯s surgery. Indeed, to fully remove the tumor, the sequence is very important.¡± Professor Liang highly appreciates Xiao Yang¡¯s no-leakage resection. ¡°Order is important, but understanding the boundaries of the tumor, including natural boundaries and membranes, etc., is vital. Combining all these aspects gives us the full scope of the tumor, and by working around it, we can remove the tumor step by step.¡± ¡°It¡¯s like demolishing a house, you can¡¯t just destroy it randomly, there¡¯s a method to it. You have to know where to start and where to finish, ensuring safety while quickly tearing down the house.¡± ¡°Add this operation to the demonstrations tomorrow and let the Americans see our no-leakage resection. What was the name of their leader?¡± ¡°Chene!¡± ¡°Right, didn¡¯t he have eyes on the top of his head? Tomorrow, let Xiao Yang help him reposition those eyes.¡± ¡°A surgery that takes twenty hours?¡± ¡°That would be if you were performing it. It won¡¯t take that long if Xiao Yang does it. Don¡¯t worry. Even if it took twenty hours, the Americans wouldn¡¯t complain. They think they¡¯re quite amazing after having performed several full spondylectomy operations.¡± Professor Liang and Director Hu are having a quiet conversation. Chapter 729 - 729 649 Forty-two Pictures ?Chapter 729: Chapter 649: Forty-two Pictures Chapter 729: Chapter 649: Forty-two Pictures These doctors seated in the audience are virtuosos in their fields, so Yang Ping speeds up the pace of the lecture. There¡¯s a large white board on the podium. Yang Ping simply tells Song Yun to turn off the projector, pulls all the curtains of the meeting room open, abandons the use of the projector, and resorts to the white board for teaching. For every step he introduces, Yang quickly sketches on the board; his accelerated sketching pace is astounding. The quality of the sketches further astonishes everyone. One black marker, using two ends of varying thickness, can produce extraordinarily accurate and beautiful sketches, which are much more detailed and aesthetically pleasing than those found in textbooks. After each segment, Yang Ping erases the sketch and starts drawing a new one. Sketching seems to be effortless for him. These illustrations demonstrate the principles of surgery, anatomical basics, and the procedures of each step. Even the detailed placement of staples is depicted, let alone the operations of other instruments ¨C like how to use a laser knife and bone knife to dissect the tumor from the vertebral arch root, how to cut off the vertebral arch root, and how to use specially crafted instruments to prop open the vertebral lamina. Doctors in the audience are all taking photos of the sketches with their phones, afraid of missing out on a single one. Professor Liang and Director Hu cannot help but pull out their phones to take pictures, but they still can¡¯t keep up with the pace of the sketching. Did this young man get into medical school as an art student? Was he an art student whose potential was wasted in medical school? Impossible. How could a medical university admit an art student? His sketching ability is second to none in the medical field; even if he hadn¡¯t become a doctor, he could have led a decent life with his drawing skills. Moreover, with his rapid sketching, he could make a living just by setting up a stall at the entrance of a tourist spot to showcase his human body sketching talent. His earnings would probably not be any less than a doctor¡¯s. As far as possible, whatever can be visualized is presented instead of verbalized gibberish. By illustrating 42 sketches and accompanying them with explanations, Yang Ping demonstrates his ¡°leak-free resection¡± technique using Jing Yunsong¡¯s case. The illustrations demonstrate clearly how the boundary of this tumor is formed, how to identify the boundary during the surgery, how to remove the tumor together with three vertebrae in one go along with surrounding normal tissue, how to reconstruct the functions of the spine, and how to manage the aorta and inferior vena cava. After taking photos of the final sketch, Professor Liang could not help but feel a little tense. He asked Director Hu sitting beside him: ¡°Guolin, you didn¡¯t provide Jing Yunsong¡¯s case data to Yang Ping in advance, did you?¡± Director Hu shook his head: ¡°No. I don¡¯t know if Song Yun told him.¡± ¡°Call Song Yun over and ask him!¡± Professor Liang urgently needed to clarify this. Since Yang Ping had abandoned the projector, Song Yun wasn¡¯t needed to assist anymore and had joined the crowd in taking photos. Director Hu waved to call Song Yun over, whispered a few words in his ear, then turned to Professor Liang: ¡°Song Yun didn¡¯t inform him about Jing¡¯s case either. Song Yun just picked him up from the airport and took him directly to your home. After lunch, they came here. His luggage is still in Song Yun¡¯s car.¡± So, Yang Ping had seen Jing Yunsong¡¯s case data for the first time. Does that mean that all those forty-two sketches were improvisations, drawn on the spot? Upon reflection, Professor Liang felt increasingly uneasy. His scalp was tingling, not just tense. To be able to produce such high-quality sketches instantly and rapidly, one not only needs outstanding drawing skills but also exceptional anatomical knowledge, which can¡¯t be developed overnight. He truly is a genuinely rare genius! ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Director Hu didn¡¯t understand why Professor Liang was asking these questions. After the inquiries, Professor Liang appears somewhat bewildered, lost in thought, as if relying on something. ¡°Nothing serious, just asking casually. Tomorrow, this surgery is not only going to be a demonstration surgery but also the first one. If this surgery takes up too much time, we¡¯ll cancel the later ones. Tomorrow, you will be the first assistant, with Song Yun as the second assistant. Carefully observe how he isolates the tumor and strive to learn the technique of leak-free resection,¡± Professor Liang¡¯s tone was firm and indisputable. Director Hu vaguely understood why Professor Liang had made such a decision, so he didn¡¯t inquire further. When Yang Ping finished with his lecture and erased the last sketch, the whole room went quiet. There were no applause, nor discussions. Everyone was immersed in thoughts, with some flipping through their phones to look at the pictures they had taken. It was then that Professor Liang started clapping his hands. Only then did everyone remember to applaud, beginning with sporadic claps that gradually turned into thunderous applause. Song Yun thought of his loss to Yang Ping in the Golden Knife Award competition, and he was convinced this was a genuine disruptive breakthrough. ¡°Yang Ping doesn¡¯t spend much time at Xiehe Hospital, only two days per month. So, let¡¯s study diligently as his techniques are very precious. The 42 sketches just now, to be honest, even if we invited the head of our medical school¡¯s anatomical teaching and research department, he wouldn¡¯t be able to sketch at this level. I understood the surgical method he just proposed, it is ahead of the current total vertebra resection techniques in Europe and America and Japan. It is entirely a third system independent of those two techniques, avoiding all their disadvantages, and incorporating all their advantages. If that Professor Chene wants to watch Yang¡¯s surgery or has someone study it tomorrow, tell him¡ªChinese people have priority. We will first cater to our own people¡¯s needs for advanced studies before considering foreigners. Humph!¡± Professor Liang snorted. There were reasons for his displeasure towards Professor Chene. Professor Chene from Minnesota Twin Cities Spine Surgery Center in the United States, who developed a new way of removing spinal tumors ¨C an improved version of total vertebra resection technique in Europe and America made Director Hu very interested when he visited Twin Cities Spine Surgery Center. He expressed a strong desire to send people for advanced studies. However, Professor Chene said that due to the requirement for aseptic management in operating rooms, there are limited slots for advanced studies. They would prioritize other American doctors before considering Chinese doctors. Furthermore, he suggested that Chinese doctors should focus more on basic surgeries, rather than being overly keen on such advanced surgeries. Latterly, Xiehe Hospital hoped to visit the stem cell project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology¡¯s Whit Family Biological Laboratory through Zhang Chunquan¡¯s mediation but was rejected due to the need for confidentiality. These incidents, when added together, made Professor Liang very unhappy. ¡°Understood!¡± Director Hu knew about the grudge Professor Liang held. Professors of Professor Liang¡¯s generation have many independently innovative techniques. Xiehe¡¯s Spine Surgery could secure a place in the world due to the efforts of professors like Liang, adding many Chinese elements to the development of global spine surgery. Compared to Professor Liang, Director Hu felt ashamed as he hasn¡¯t innovated anything of his own and has merely followed others. He made a silent vow to achieve great results in the future. ¡°We cannot be isolated; we must be open and exchange techniques with the rest of the world. The purpose of exchange is progress, to draw on the strengths of others and ultimately to develop our own things. Therefore, learning must be grounded in independence and autonomy. We mustn¡¯t lose our capacity for independent thinking,¡± Professor Liang advised Director Hu. ¡°I¡¯ll remember that!¡± said Director Hu, his face burning with resolve. Chapter 730 - 730 650 Chenes Cooperation ?Chapter 730: Chapter 650: Chene¡¯s Cooperation Chapter 730: Chapter 650: Chene¡¯s Cooperation On Sunday, Professor Chene and his team from Twin Cities Spine Center in the United States arrived at Xiehe Hospital. The visiting team included Chene himself and a total of five people, which is quite a large team for regular exchanges. Professor Chene has a stellar reputation in the field of spinal tumors and particularly in total vertebral resections. He has amassed a wealth of experience and stands as a representative figure of the Europe and America techniques. Chene embodies both the typical virtues and flaws of an American. He is energetic, daringly innovative, yet arrogant and selfish at his core. Chene had made modifications to the procedure of a total vertebral resection, making his new surgical method the best in the world. Professor Hu greatly admired Chene¡¯s surgical style, so he proposed to send someone to Twin Cities Spine Center for further studies and to learn Chene¡¯s new technique. However, the arrogant and selfish Chene rejected Director Hu¡¯s proposal, saying that he must prioritize the training needs of Americans first. But this time, Chene surprisingly arrived with a willingness to cooperate. In the meeting room of the Xiehe Orthopedics department, Chene met Professor Hu and the doctors from Xiehe. Yang Ping, who was regarded as a part-time doctor of Xiehe, also participated in this academic exchange. The surgery was scheduled to start at nine, but everyone met in the meeting room at seven to exchange recent academic achievements and surgical experiences. That is to say, both teams chatted, and some doctors gave brief speeches. ¡°Professor Hu, I am very honored to meet you again. How are you?¡± Chene shook Director Hu¡¯s hand. Although Professor Hu didn¡¯t like Chene as a person, it had no impact on the academic exchanges between the two teams. Everyone sat down for salon-style exchange, followed by observation of surgical demonstrations. ¡°Professor Chene, we are very well, welcome to China.¡± Director Hu reciprocated with courteous greetings. The exchanges were conducted in English. ¡°I have brought good news. I have designed a set of new instruments around my new procedure. You wanted to learn the new procedure, didn¡¯t you? This is an opportunity. We can have full cooperation. Medicine has no boundaries, and we must share new technologies.¡± Chene was enthusiastic. On this trip to China, he brought his new instruments, hoping to cooperate with Xiehe and conduct clinical trials in China. This could utilize the massive data in China to improve the instruments and reduce the approval time of the FDA. ¡°New instruments?¡± Professor Hu hadn¡¯t heard about it before. Professor Chene beckoned, and his assistant took out a set of graphic materials from his bag. Chene handed it over to Director Hu, ¡°Take a look. I have kept your wish to engage in further studies in mind. If we can establish cooperation this time, we can provide many opportunities for Xiehe¡¯s staff to further their studies. I will personally teach the new procedure of total vertebral resection.¡± Since when has Chene become so generous? And since when did he acquire such noble international spirit? Director Hu, with his suspicions, went through the graphic materials carefully. ¡°Professor Hu, if we cooperate, our advanced technology and your abundant case resources combined can produce astonishing achievements,¡± said Chene. ¡°We will be responsible for training you in the new procedure. You will use the new instruments to perform surgeries. You will be the first in Asia to use this set of instruments.¡± ¡°This is an honor everyone desires,¡± said Chene proudly. Director Hu was a very calm and collected person. He had no interest in becoming the first in Asia to use any new technology. Despite it being a popular way for many professors to gain fame domestically, Director Hu didn¡¯t fancy this method. He didn¡¯t not want to fall into the trap of gaining academic capital by becoming the first person in Asia to use a certain foreign new instrument. Director Hu handed the materials to Yang Ping, who was sitting next to him, after reading through them. Yang Ping accepted them and simply flipped through the pages. This set of instruments was immature, posing many safety risks. Without improvements, it wouldn¡¯t even be granted an FDA clinical trial license in the United States. However, this was a common tactic employed by countries in Europe and America. They would conduct clinical trials using immature medical instruments in developing countries, accumulate data, then make improvements until the instruments became mature enough for use in their own countries. Most of them do so under the guise of imparting advanced technology, allowing everyone to believe they were doing good deeds. ¡°So?¡± asked Professor Liang, who was sitting next to Yang Ping. Professor Liang had already retired. He attended such academic conferences only as an audience member and no longer led them. ¡°This set of instruments is extremely immature and poses lots of safety risks. It¡¯s unlikely to obtain a license for clinical trials in the United States in the short term,¡± Yang Ping shared his thoughts with Professor Liang. Professor Liang grunted in an irritated manner. Director Hu also heard Yang Ping¡¯s words because they were speaking in Chinese, which Chene didn¡¯t understand. Hearing Yang Ping¡¯s words, Director Hu was utterly convinced. He felt that there was something wrong with the set of instruments right from the start and that it was very immature. He was worried about making an erroneous judgment, so he asked Yang Ping to take another look. ¡°Chene, why doesn¡¯t this set of instruments have FDA certification?¡± Director Hu returned the materials to Chene and asked in English. Chene nonchalantly replied, ¡°This is a new instrument and hasn¡¯t obtained certification yet. The period for gaining approval for clinical trials in the United States is too long, hence bringing them to China makes more sense.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Chene. Just like in the United States, the approval process is also very strict in China,¡± Director Hu coldly replied. Chene was somewhat displeased, ¡°Didn¡¯t you want to learn our most advanced tumor surgery method? If we cooperate, we can provide you with many further studies opportunities. What¡¯s more, we are embarking on a great journey. Conducting clinical trials in China can accelerate the progression of applying the instruments, allowing many patients worldwide to benefit from the new technology sooner. Professor Hu, you can also publish many papers because of this cooperation, becoming the pioneer of new technologies in China.¡± ¡°Chene, your instrument has many defects and doesn¡¯t meet the standards for clinical trials at all. You may be unfamiliar with China. We are also very strict with the management of these Class III instruments. Your instruments can¡¯t even pass my scrutiny, let alone pass the review,¡± said Director Hu, neither servile nor overbearing, his tone very resolute. Don¡¯t talk about how your new technology is not required now, even if we desperately wanted to learn your new technology, we wouldn¡¯t exchange it for this. Chene initially thought the cooperation could be easily agreed upon. little did he expect to be met with a cold reception. ¡°We can provide some funds, and won¡¯t limit the number of papers you publish as the first author. Professor Hu, it¡¯s in consideration of our friendship that I brought the sincerity of cooperating. Honestly, there¡¯s a long queue waiting to cooperate with us,¡± Chene said arrogantly. It¡¯s as if cooperating with you is a privilege, and you better appreciate it! Director Hu smiled slightly, ¡°Oh¡ªWell, then it¡¯s rather simple. Please disregard us and seek cooperation with those who are in line. We¡¯re not interested in this project, and we certainly don¡¯t want to stand in line.¡± ¡°I believe you didn¡¯t actually understand these materials. They contain the essence of all my new technologies. It isn¡¯t an exaggeration to say that only a few can comprehend them, as most lack the knowledge and experience in this area.¡± Chene was resorting to rogue logic. Both parties were ready. They would take turns to give lectures. Each person only had ten minutes, after which a bell would ring to signal the end. Song Yun asked Director Hu if they could start? Chene waved his hand to signal them to wait. He still wanted to have an in-depth chat with Director Hu. Chapter 731 - 731 651 The Virtue of Modesty ?Chapter 731: Chapter 651: The Virtue of Modesty Chapter 731: Chapter 651: The Virtue of Modesty ¡°Professor Hu, I think you need to revisit this information and don¡¯t make impulsive decisions. The funds for the experiment will be provided by the American medical equipment company I¡¯m collaborating with. They don¡¯t mind increasing their funding as long as we have enough cases.¡± Chene was acting like triumph was within his grasp. He firmly believed that his cooperation terms could not be refused. Director Hu sneered inwardly: Just as Professor Liang advised, the foundation of any cooperation is equality and self-sufficiency. You are bringing immature technology to negotiate cooperation, simply treating us as your lab rats. Who are you fooling? ¡°Let¡¯s not discuss this.¡± Director Hu repeated his refusal. ¡°Professor Hu¡ª¡± Chene tried to convince Director Hu. Director Hu waived his hand: ¡°Chene, how about we get through the conference first, and then we revisit the cooperation proposal after the meeting?¡± Chene nodded, satisfied. There was a glimmer of hope for this negotiation. Chinese people are subtle and tactful. They may seem to refuse even when they are eager for cooperation. ¡°Let¡¯s start!¡± Director Hu gestures, indicating to Song Yun that the meeting can begin. Generally, for these salon-style meetings, junior doctors start speaking first, each with ten minutes of speaking time. The theme of this session was spinal cord tumors. There are two attending doctors and two resident physicians among the four doctors in Chene¡¯s team. In the United States, doctors are only classified into two types: resident doctors¨C who are receiving the training, and do not qualify for independent medical practice; and attending doctors, who are trained and have the right to practice independently and are responsible for all their medical activities. Once you are considered an attending doctor, the title is for life. The two resident physicians in Chene¡¯s team are still in their training period, coming along to gain exposure. The two attending doctors are experienced experts in spinal cord tumor treatment. On Xiehe Hospital¡¯s team, the young doctors who took the stage to give speeches include deputy chief physicians and attending physicians. Director Hu tried to give everyone a chance to speak and gain experience. At the same time, Jing Yunsong was done with the preoperative preparation and was ready to be moved to the operating room. The 3D-printed artificial spine prosthetic was already sterilized and delivered to the operating room, ready to use. Professor Liang specifically arranged for Yang Ping to be the chief surgeon to suppress Chene¡¯s arrogance, and importantly, to establish academic confidence among young people. He hopes that in the future everyone can be academically independent, self-sufficient and maintain the ability to think independently. Having academic confidence is very important, especially for a great country! In the front row of the meeting room, Chene and Director Hu are sitting together, whereas Yang Ping and Professor Liang are sitting together. Every so often, Professor Liang and Yang Ping would lower their heads to chat, both with smiles on their faces. ¡°Chene must have invested a lot of time and effort in this technology. Compared to the total vertebrae resection done in the past, he has indeed improved the technology and it has significant advantages over traditional surgery.¡± Yang Ping made an objective judgement. Professor Liang was very familiar with Chene: ¡°They dissected fifty corpses, researched eighty monkey models with spinal cord tumors, and accumulated experiences from hundreds of total spine resections before perfecting the surgery. I admire the energy he put into spinal cord tumors, and his professionalism, but I¡¯m disgusted by his character. He¡¯s arrogant, selfish and self-serving, a classic American personality.¡± Professor Liang then told Yang Ping about being refused for a training program. At that time, it was fairly easy to get a place in the training program. Chene was just trying to maintain his academic advantage and didn¡¯t want Chinese doctors to learn his new technology too quickly, so he intentionally refused Director Hu¡¯s application. ¡°Westerners worship power, and respect strength. Therefore, I asked you to be the leading surgeon today, to show off your Chinese methods. Now normally, Chene looks down on everyone from his lofty position, but you¡¯re going to help him come back down to earth today. At the same time, we are going to help our doctors establish academic confidence.¡± Professor Liang said with emotion. Yang Ping agreed wholeheartedly with Professor Liang. It is quite straightforward dealing with Americans, as they ignore superficial matters. The only thing useful to them is power! Among the foreigners Yang Ping has interacted with, most are Americans. For example, Robert, he is very easy-going. Dr. Woodhead aka Wu Zi from the Twin Cities Spine Center, where Chene works, is also Yang Ping¡¯s friend. He is currently studying Chinese fervently. A hardworking and humble child, he just lacks language talent and has been stuck on the fourth level for a while now. The whole forum is worried about him. Regardless, Yang Ping generally finds these Americans modest and humble ¨C a rare virtue. Yang Ping believed deep down, Chene too bore this humble characteristic. The first speaker was Song Yun. As a representative of Xiehe¡¯s young doctors, he delivered an eloquent speech in flawless English, with a captivating PPT presentation, elaborating on the application of 3D printing technology in spinal cord tumor treatment. Chene was in a great mood. He was sure Director Hu would agree to his cooperation proposal after the meeting. He just observed that Chinese often beat around the bush. To demonstrate the advancement of his technology, he planned to spend extra time explaining his new technology at the conference. ¡°Professor Hu, can I have 30 minutes? The new technology and devices I have brought this time would be hard to explain thoroughly in just ten minutes.¡± Exceeding the allotted speaking time without prior authorization is rude. Hence, Chene asked Director Hu for permission in advance. Director Hu calculated the time. There would be just enough time to accommodate Chene¡¯s request. With Chene so enthusiastic, Director Hu decided to concede to his request. The surgery wouldn¡¯t start until nine o¡¯clock, they still had over an hour. ¡°No problem. For your new technology, you can extend your presentation to thirty minutes.¡± ¡°Great, thank you!¡± Chene was overjoyed. Americans are inherently exhibitionist, each with potential to be a president, and Chene was no exception. He planned to capture the heart of his audience with his passionate voice and sterling speech, thereby cementing the superiority of American technology! Chene had visited many hospitals in China and was always invited as an authoritative figure. Honestly, his new medical device could select any partner for cooperation. His top choice was Xiehe but if they really didn¡¯t want to, he had plenty of other options, no one would refuse such a lucrative offer. Even one line, ¡°The first doctor in Asia to use new technology from Minnesota¡¯s Twin Cities Spine Center¡±, could make one the authority in their domain. His self-confidence wasn¡¯t baseless, indeed, the offer was tempting. Naturally, Chene still hopes the cooperator could be Xiehe, as it is the best hospital in China, not only with abundant case resources but also beneficial for the expansion of his new technology in China. Starting from Song Yun, doctors from both China and the USA took turns presenting their speeches with each having ten minutes. The time was very well managed demonstrating their discipline. Chene was the second-to-last speaker, while Director Hu was last. Thirty minutes! Chene was brimming with confidence! Chapter 732 - 732 652 Is one surgical nurse enough ?Chapter 732: Chapter 652: Is one surgical nurse enough? Chapter 732: Chapter 652: Is one surgical nurse enough? Everyone else, including Director Hu, only had ten minutes for their speech, while Chene had thirty minutes. When it was Chene¡¯s turn, he utilized all thirty minutes to thoroughly explain his new technology and tools. Moreover, he brought samples of the artificial spinal prosthesis. He held up the prosthesis samples and walked around the meeting room, delivering an impassioned speech in a loud voice. However, his speech did not have the explosive effect he desired in front of the doctors from Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The applause was just customary, routine. What was going on? Chene was quite puzzled. But it wasn¡¯t hard to understand. The day before Chene¡¯s lecture, Peking Union Medical College Hospital¡¯s doctors had already heard Professor Yang Ping explain the complete vertebral resection surgery. Professor Yang Ping¡¯s lecture was too dazzling, so everyone was quite calm when they heard Chene¡¯s talk immediately after. If it wasn¡¯t for Professor Yang Ping¡¯s lecture, Chene¡¯s lecture certainly would have caused a sensation by now. Finally, Director Hu presented his speech. After that, it was time to observe a demonstration surgery. Chene was a flamboyant person, so he decided to watch the surgery first and then critique Peking Union Medical College Hospital¡¯s surgical technique in order to showcase his advanced skills and attract everyone¡¯s attention. The giant electronic screen in the meeting room started to introduce the cases. For the section on surgical methods, the part about complete vertebral resection was highlighted in bold font: Chinese Complete Vertebrae Resection. Chinese Complete Vertebrae Resection, what does that mean? Could it be that Chinese doctors have also invented a new type of complete vertebrae resection surgery? Let¡¯s wait and see. Chene calmed his mind and prepared to watch the surgery. ¡ª The operating room at Peking Union Medical College Hospital was already filled with anticipation, especially the nurses. They knew quite early on that Peking Union Medical College Hospital had invited a young visiting professor from Sanbo Hospital in Nandu. Song Yun was assigned to be the visiting professor¡¯s assistant. Who was this person? A visiting professor, who was so important that Peking Union Medical College Hospital was willing to offer ten bed spaces to attract him? In the history of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, no such thing had ever happened: inviting an expert from an outside hospital to become a temporary director, providing bed spaces, and providing a team. Moreover, someone as outstanding as Song Yun was only his assistant. In the eyes of the young people of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Song Yun was a genius, an idol, someone who was promoted to associate chief physician in his early thirties and possessed the ability to lead a team. To coordinate the surgery smoothly, the operating room of Peking Union Medical College Hospital also assembled an elite team. The circulating nurse was Yu Yanwen, the leader of the orthopedics team in Peking Union Medical College Hospital¡¯s operating room, and the surgical instrument nurse was Qiu Ruo, a nursing graduate student at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. In other hospitals, there were very few nursing graduate students, but at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, they could be found. With her clever hands and outstanding professional skills, Qiu Ruo was selected by the head nurse to assist Professor Yang Ping in the surgery. When Director Hu notified the operating room that the surgical demonstration plan had been changed temporarily and that Professor Yang Ping, who had come from Sanbo Hospital, would be the chief surgeon, everyone was very surprised. This Professor Yang Ping, who was said to be quite young, what kind of amazing person was he to have the ability to parachute in and be the chief surgeon at Peking Union Medical College Hospital? The head nurse and other nurses saw the surgery arrangement: Director Hu was the first assistant, and Song Yun was the second assistant. Director Hu was actually the first assistant. The nurse who had initially scheduled the surgery thought she had made a mistake. She only confirmed there was no mistake after making a few phone calls. Graduate student Qiu Ruo had graduated from Nandu Medical University. She had a very good undergraduate classmate who was working at Sanbo Hospital named Su Yixuan. They used to be dorm mates and best friends. Hearing that Professor Yang was also from Sanbo Hospital, she inquired Su Yixuan curiously about who Professor Yang was and why Peking Union Medical College Hospital valued him so much. However, her old classmate could not provide any valuable information, only mentioning that Yang Ping was an orthopedic doctor who had won the Golden Knife Award. Winning the Golden Knife Award was indeed impressive, but it would not be enough for Peking Union Medical College Hospital to treat him with such importance. Peking Union Medical College Hospital itself had won the Golden Knife Award multiple times and was not particularly impressed with it. ¡°Everyone make sure to coordinate well during the surgery. There cannot be any mistake!¡± Head Nurse Xin of the operating room at Peking Union Medical College Hospital also came in early over the weekend to remind the surgical instrument nurse and the circulating nurse. After all, Professor Liang had personally called her, and she, of course, had to come personally to command and supervise. In addition to the head nurse of the operating room, Professor Lu Donglai, the head of the medical affairs department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, also hurried over from his home on his day off after hearing that Yang Ping was going to demonstrate surgery on Sunday. This young man was someone Professor Liang had strongly recommended. Professor Lu was curious to see what special talents he had that were worthy of Professor Liang¡¯s strenuous efforts. Director Lu felt that Peking Union Medical College Hospital never lacked talents. Even the previous Golden Knife Award did not elicit any intention to recruit. Only Yang Ping caught Professor Liang¡¯s attention and resulted in massive investment. In order to make room for Yang Ping to do experiments, Professor Liang had postponed his own research. Moreover, he had visited Sanbo Hospital in Nandu several times just for this young man. To secure these ten beds, Professor Liang had to take a hard line with the dean; there was absolutely no room for negotiation. Professor Yang Ping, Director Hu, and Song Yun were still in the changing room putting on their medical wear. Dr. Kong Weiquan, who was in charge of the patient¡¯s bedside care, along with two other doctors, had already escorted the patient into the operating room. ¡°Everyone, be on your toes. Professor Yang¡¯s surgeries are exceptionally swift. You need to keep up with the pace.¡± Dr. Kong was reminding everyone, primarily the patrolling nurses. Qiu Ruo, known for her speedy responsiveness and quick actions, was not in a hurry. When Director Hu had instructed Head Nurse Xin to assign a nurse that was particularly quick-witted and fast-acting, he had suggested having two instrument nurses on the stage if necessary. That¡¯s when Xin chose Qiu Ruo. Though young, she responded faster and moved quicker than any of the veteran nurses. ¡°Should we add another nurse to the stage?¡± Dr. Kong asked, a sense of urgency in his voice. Normally, Dr. Kong would never dare to question the head nurse¡¯s arrangements. However, considering this was a special occasion and he had experienced Professor Yang¡¯s surgery during a short-term study at Sanbo Hospital led by Director Hu, he voiced his concerns. Head Nurse Xin was not too pleased. She didn¡¯t appreciate a young doctor directing her schedule and responded, ¡°Aren¡¯t there enough people on stage already? It¡¯s a spinal tumor, how fast can it be?¡± ¡°No, what I mean is that one instrument nurse may not be able to keep up with the speed of Professor Yang¡¯s surgery,¡± Dr. Kong clarified. ¡°Fine, let¡¯s see how it goes!¡± Head Nurse Xin seemed disgruntled. As the lead nurse in the best hospital operating room in the nation, did she not know how quick a surgery could be? Or whether her team could keep up with the pace? The anesthesiologist, silent throughout the exchange, began administering general anesthesia to the patient. Everyone else was carrying out their respective duties in an orderly manner. ¡°Why hasn¡¯t the professor arrived yet?¡± the patrolling nurse Yu Yanwen asked. Speaking of the devil, Professor Yang Ping walked into the surgical suite wearing a green surgical gown from Peking Union Medical College Hospital, accompanied by Director Hu and Song Yun. He had on a blue sterile cap and a mask. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± The few doctors greeted Professor Yang Ping with utmost respect, and received a nod and a smile in return. What a grand entrance that was? Whether it was Director Hu and Song Yun, or the other doctors, their respect for Professor Yang Ping was sincere and evident in their demeanor. In the medical profession, especially in surgery, respect is earned only through true expertise. Professor Yang Ping stood in front of the light screen, examining Jing Yunsong¡¯s imaging scans, while Director Hu and Song Yun took their positions on either side of him. The other doctors gathered around quickly. ¡°We¡¯ll begin from the rear, separating the tumor and the vertebrae three hundred and sixty degrees. Today, I¡¯ll be showing you how to separate vertebral arch root tumors. So, for lumbar 3, I¡¯ll demonstrate how to separate the vertebral arch root tumor, and I won¡¯t be performing the separation on lumbar 2 and lumbar 4, I¡¯ll directly make an incision on the normal bone site. To save time and speed up the surgery, I¡¯ll have Director Hu and Dr. Song assist me during the process.¡± As Professor Yang Ping explained the crucial points of the surgery, the rest of the team listened attentively. The instrument nurse, Qiu Ruo, found herself stealing extra glances at Professor Yang Ping, he carried an impressive stature and a charisma that made him stand out among men. Especially when he had walked into the operating room just now, the confidence, the radiating aura, it was even more captivating than the entrance of a male lead in a medical drama series. After looking over the patient¡¯s imaging scans, Director Hu introduced to Professor Yang the members of today¡¯s surgical team: the anesthesiologist, the instrument nurse, and the patrolling nurse. Professor Yang greeted them with a polite nod. However, he was concerned that only one instrument nurse was assigned, unlike the usual setup of having two at external hospitals he worked in. ¡°Director Hu, if possible, it would be best to have two instrument nurses available.¡± Professor Yang didn¡¯t want to end up needing additional help in the middle of surgery and therefore preferred to address the matter upfront. ¡°Two?¡± Director Hu seemed taken aback. ¡°Professor Yang, rest assured, Nurse Qiu is very fast. If need be, I can have another nurse join during the surgery, it won¡¯t affect the procedure.¡± It wasn¡¯t that Head Nurse Xin wouldn¡¯t allow for two nurses. The truth was, they were short-staffed. On a Sunday, with some staff on leave and others performing emergency surgeries, it wasn¡¯t easy to juggle the personnel. ¡°Alright then. I appreciate everyone¡¯s hard work,¡± Professor Yang responded graciously. ¡°This is Head Nurse Xin from our operating room.¡± Director Hu introduced the operating room head nurse to Professor Yang. When they had first entered, Nurse Xin had momentarily stepped out, which is why he hadn¡¯t introduced her earlier. ¡°Head Nurse Xin, thank you for taking the trouble to arrange this on a Sunday,¡± Professor Yang greeted with utmost politeness. ¡°It¡¯s our duty, it¡¯s our duty!¡± Head Nurse Xin found the young man to have a commanding presence, but noted that he was polite nonetheless. Chapter 733 - 733 653 Take It Slow ?Chapter 733: Chapter 653: Take It Slow Chapter 733: Chapter 653: Take It Slow After the anesthesia, Jing Yunsong was naked, lying prone on the spine frame. The G-arm X-ray machine was on standby, but it would only be used when inserting the pedicle screws. Director Hu, along with Song Yun and Kong Weiquan, began to sterilize and prep the operation site, while Qiu Ruo took her position, the instrument table was already set, and she began to arrange the instruments with her dexterous hands. Patrolling Nurse was examining the fluids on the infusion stand, and Head Nurse sat in the corner, ready to provide necessary support at any time. The other two Doctors stood by the G-arm machine so that they could stay and assist by moving the G-arm machine occasionally, participating in the surgery was also an honor. The aseptic packed artificial spinal prosthesis, ready to use, was put separately on a second trolley, and it could be opened for use at any time. Yang Ping was putting on his surgical gown and gloves in a spacious corner while wearing protective goggles, and then stood aside, waiting for Director Hu to finish sterilizing and draping. Once everything was prepared, Yang Ping stepped onto the surgery platform, standing in the Chief Surgeon¡¯s position. After a serious preoperative double-check, Qiu Ruo handed him the surgical knife. Yang Ping took the surgical knife, drew a vertical line on Jing Yunsong¡¯s back, cutting through the skin and subcutaneous tissue in one go, and fat granules immediately popped out as the skin split open. Most of the entire operation was done with the laser knife, the surgical knife was only used for skin incisions, Yang Ping returned the surgical knife to the instrument nurse. Qiu Ruo was stunned for a moment, then she took the surgical knife with a curved tray, and put it on the ground with forceps. The starting move was a bit hurried, Qiu Ruo was not at all prepared for Yang Ping¡¯s manner of incising the skin in a single stroke. Who incises the skin like that? Normally, the skin is slowly opened along the incision line, then gradually deepened, cut open many times before the skin can be fully incised, forming the entire surgical incision. The surgical knife had just been handed over, and within three seconds, the skin incision was completed, Qiu Ruo didn¡¯t have time to react. However, Qiu Ruo learned from this incident, she would not be careless anymore. The young professor was indeed very fast, and carelessness could lead to loss of rhythm. The laser knife moved very quickly in Yang Ping¡¯s hands, first hemostasis, then the fascia of the back was incised, exposing the muscles of the back. The instruments currently in use were relatively few, and the instrument changes were not very frequent, so Qiu Ruo could handle them easily. Yang Ping began from the midline, using forceps and a laser knife to separate the muscles from the spinous process, stripping the muscles from the spinous process and lamina on both sides and pushing them to the sides. The process was both quick and steady, with almost no blood visible in the surgical area. To be able to so cleanly strip the soft tissue from the lamina through the posterior approach and without bleeding, this surgical skill was truly extraordinary. The lamina is actually a complex structure with an uneven surface. When the laser knife was separating it, there was barely any pause ¨C a sign of great expertise. It was as if the muscles, tendons, and ligaments were glued to the surface of the bone, and now Yang Ping was carefully lifting them up. The lamina, spinous process, transverse process, superior and inferior articular processes, these complex protruded structures, weren¡¯t obstacles for Yang Ping at all. When the muscles were separated from the spinous process and lamina, they were still attached to the intact periosteum, making the anatomy layer very clear. ¡°The preoperative image showed that only the lamina of L2 was intact, not invaded by the tumor. I¡¯ll start from there,¡± While explaining to his assistants, Yang Ping continued with the operation. The prior explanation allowed the assistants to understand the intention of the Chief Surgeon. The energy of the laser knife was raised to a level capable of cutting bone. With the concentrated laser gradually cutting, a square piece of the normal lamina was removed from behind, and then taken out. As the annular vertebra was opened from the back, if the entire tumor could be separated along its border, this bone piece could also be removed together with the tumor. The posterior side of L2 was easily separated and completed. Next would be the posterior side of L3, Yang Ping would demonstrate dividing the tumor at the pedicle and intervertebral foramen. ¡ª- Seeing how efficiently Yang Ping started the surgery left Professor Chene incapable of acceptance. As a world-leading expert in spinal tumors, he could clearly understand the level of the surgery being demonstrated. Firstly, this method of separation was very innovative. The excellent use of the laser knife given its advantage was more advanced in concept than what Chene was using. Secondly, the Chief Surgeon was very familiar with the anatomy of the spine and the tumor. He knew where the natural boundaries of the tumor were located and therefore he was always separating along the tumor¡¯s boundary, maintaining some distance to the nearby normal tissue. Moreover, the level of the Chief Surgeon¡¯s surgical operation was indeed superb. For example, when separating soft tissues from the spinous process and lamina, the entire periosteum remained intact. After the separation, the operative lamina appeared completely smooth, with no soft tissue adhesion at all. A tumor is not like a potato in the mud, with clear and natural boundaries between it and the surrounding environment. Tumors grow aggressively into surrounding tissue, intertwining with it until the boundaries become blurred, making it difficult to decipher the transitioning boundary and capsule. However, the Chief Surgeon was able to easily find it, suggesting that he had cultivated extensive research in this type of tumor and was familiar with its boundaries. Lastly, there was almost no blood throughout the surgery. Tightly watching the surgical operation on the big screen, Chene felt high tension, not because of other reasons, but from some oppressive force that made him out of breath. ¡ª Vascular clamp! Vascular clamp with thread! Suture needle! Thread scissors! Toothed forceps! As the surgery continues, the number of tools required increases, and the rate at which instruments are being swapped out gets higher and higher. Yang Ping throws himself completely into the surgery, not thinking about whether others can keep up with his pace. He has reached out for a while, but no instruments have been passed to him. Yang Ping looks back, and the instrument nurse with timid eyes looks at him, belatedly placing the instrument into his hand. Because Xiao Su is an instrument nurse, Yang Ping has always been especially kind to instrument nurses. Some professors perform surgeries rashly, often losing their temper at assistants and nurses, but Yang Ping never does this. Yang Ping immediately realizes his speed is too fast, the nurse couldn¡¯t keep up with the rhythm. Slowing down a little is acceptable, it won¡¯t affect the surgery¡ª so he decides to slow down. Yang Ping notices Director Hu and Song Yun are also struggling to keep up with the pace. Slow down then! Yang Ping takes the instrument passed by Qiu Ruo, then deliberately slows down his pace. Qiu Ruo hadn¡¯t been able to keep up with the speed just now. Usually, she¡¯s very quick in both response and action, never finding herself unable to keep up. However, Professor Yang¡¯s speed is indeed too fast, beyond Qiu Ruo¡¯s comprehension. She had never seen anyone perform surgery so fast. And this is spinal tumor removal, shouldn¡¯t it be done carefully? Some professors take it one step at a time, but Professor Yang is going at high speed throughout. After Qiu Ruo completely lost her rhythm just now, she was afraid of being scolded. However, from Yang Ping¡¯s gaze, she didn¡¯t feel criticised but comforted. When he later slowed down, he was clearly accommodating her. Qiu Ruo¡¯s heart warmed, she didn¡¯t expect Professor Yang to be so considerate. Even though Yang Ping deliberately slowed his pace, his speed was still quite fast. Head Nurse Xin watched the entire scene on the side. This young professor¡¯s surgery speed was unbelievably fast, Qiu Ruo couldn¡¯t keep up at all. If it weren¡¯t for him being considerate, she would have had to arrange for a replacement instrument nurse on standby, which would have been rather embarrassing. Luckily, this young man was considerate, and could slow down his pace to match that of the nurses on stage. Head Nurse Xin felt very grateful. If an additional nurse had to be added, she would have to admit she made an error in arrangement. Both the doctor and Professor Yang had warned her about this beforehand, but she had rejected their advice. If this were brought up by Professor Liang, she¡¯d inevitably get scolded. Qiu Ruo felt inadequate in her work and looked at Head Nurse Xin, who didn¡¯t say anything. This put her heart at ease. ¡ª As the surgery progresses, Professor Chene¡¯s attention becomes increasingly focused. This surgery technique, both in concept and operation, is more advanced than his own method. How could this be possible? They were just asking to learn my new technique, how could they surpass me so easily? The Chinese-style full vertebrae removal technique completely surpasses my own, truly achieving removal along the boundary! Chene faintly feels that the surgeon is currently only circling the vertebrae from the posterior approach and separating the tumor. Later, from the anterior approach, three vertebrae along with the tumor will be removed all at once, not in three parts like he does. Watching this, Chene is almost certain that the chief surgeon¡¯s goal is to remove the tumor and three vertebrae all at once from the anterior approach. A posterior approach to circle, then separate, and then an anterior approach to remove the tumor, followed by posterior fixation. In just three steps, this complex tumor is removed clearly and in its entirety. Isn¡¯t this hard to achieve? No, it¡¯s not just hard, it¡¯s nearly impossible. ¡°Professor Hu! Is the plan to circle from the posterior approach, separate from the posterior, and then separate and extract the entire tumor and three vertebrae all at once from the anterior approach?¡± Chene can¡¯t help but ask Professor Hu beside him. Professor Hu nods his head: ¡°Watch carefully, you¡¯ll learn a lot.¡± Chapter 734 - 734 654 Yes I see ?Chapter 734: Chapter 654 Yes, I see! Chapter 734: Chapter 654 Yes, I see! At the L3 vertebra, Yang Ping started to demonstrate the technique to separate the tumor from the pedicle and intervertebral foramen. The separation still starts from the spinous process, as spinal tumors seldom invade here. Starting from the normal tissue and separating in a scientific order is the principle of no-leak resection. With the progress of separation, from the spinous process to the lamina, when separating the area near the pedicle and intervertebral foramen, even a layer of bone cortex is separated. Only a laser knife can easily separate the bone cortex. Ordinary scalpel cannot do this, to separate the bone cortex with ordinary instruments, a sharp osteotome is the only option. Not only the bone cortex, but also the dura mater and outer membrane of nerves are carried with the separation near the dural sac and nerve roots, these irrelevant tissue layers are all treated as the pseudocapsule of the tumor, and the whole layer is opened without damage in this way. Yang Ping has adjusted his surgical speed several times to match the pace of Qiu Ruo, the scrub nurse, and his assistant Song Yun. Surgery is a team effort, and rash advances can cause problems. Qiu Ruo understood that the young professor slowed down several times to accommodate her, and she was very touched. Where are there any surgical operations where the main surgeon accommodates the scrub nurse? But now it is like this, it is clear that the main surgeon is accommodating her. She feels like a pampered princess, feeling very sweet in her heart. She is also more focused, hoping to be as quick as possible. After the cortex was lifted, the laser knife easily completed the osteotomy at the lamina portion. This fantastic method was used to separate both sides of the pedicle. ¡°This is because the periosteum is invaded, but the cortex is still ok. We can¡¯t start with a soft tissue as a pseudocapsule, so we can only use this extreme method, which is called subcortical separation. When there is no laser knife, a sharp osteotome can also complete the separation, but it is difficult. Using a laser knife to separate is much easier.¡± While performing the surgery, Yang Ping was explaining it to Song Yun. Subcortical separation, Song Yun heard of this separation method for the first time, but now for this vertebra, if subcortical separation is not used, tumor cells will definitely leak. Once subcortical separation is adopted, the problem is easily solved. It is indeed a creative idea. ¡°The method of surgery is very important, it¡¯s like racing without limiting the means of transportation, no matter how good you are at running, you can¡¯t outrun a race car.¡± Yang Ping used an analogy to explain: If there is no concept and method for subcortical separation, and we still linger on the habitual thinking of using soft tissue as a pseudocapsule, now the tumor of L3 will definitely rupture and leak. The two sides of the pedicle of L3 were successfully severed and the round was completed. No matter what method is used for total vertebrae excision, a round must be opened. It¡¯s like a closed iron ring on a pillar, either breaking the pillar or breaking the iron ring to take it out. Obviously we can¡¯t break the patient¡¯s spinal cord and nerves, so we can only break the ring of the vertebra. The range of invasion of the L4 tumor is much less, the pedicle is not invaded, and the conventional separation method can be used to cut off the pedicle on both sides. In this way, the separation of the tumor from the posterior approach and the steps to open the circles of the three vertebrae from the posterior approach are all completed. This step took about an hour, and this was to accommodate the assistants and nurses by slowing down the pace. Actually, the doctors and nurses of Xiehe are of very high quality, absolutely first class in the world. It¡¯s just that Yang Ping is too strong! ¡°Does anyone want to rest for a while?¡± Of course, Yang Ping wants to complete the surgery in one go, but he wonders about the views of others. If they can¡¯t keep up, it would be better to rest for a while. ¡°No problem, we can continue!¡± The one who responded first was Qiu Ruo. If she rested, she would feel even sorrier, as she had already received special care from Professor Yang. ¡°Professor Yang, do you need an additional scrub nurse?¡± Head Nurse Xin took the initiative to make the request. Head Nurse Xin graduated from Xiehe Medical University and has been working at Xiehe ever since. She had met all kinds of professors, but never had she met someone like Yang Ping. The surgery was performed at a stupendous speed, and he did an exceptionally good job. This kind of surgical skill can really be described as a unique skill! ¡°No need, Nurse Qiu is cooperating well. It¡¯s rare to have such good cooperation the first time. Xiehe really lives up to its reputation.¡± Yang Ping gave a lot of face to the scrub nurse and Xiehe today. He was an anomaly and couldn¡¯t demand others to be an anomaly too. Yang Ping still had self-awareness. Listening to this, Qiu Ruo felt warm in her heart and was very grateful. ¡ª Chene¡¯s eyes never left the screen, he was concentrating on every detail of the surgery. Three vertebrae, the posterior approach only took an hour. His usual posterior separation is much rougher than this, this kind of tumor takes at least five hours to complete a posterior separation, but now, the chief surgeon of Xiehe completed the separation in an hour. With such a fast speed, how about the quality? Any serious expert would be able to see the godlike quality of this surgery. Chene¡¯s self-esteem was seriously hit, no, it was seriously crushed. The mineral water bottle in Chene¡¯s hand was squeezed and kneaded, there was no normal place left. He had many questions to ask Director Hu, but Director Hu kept staring at the screen, his eyes never moved, so Chene didn¡¯t dare to speak. ¡°Where¡¯s the restroom?¡± Chene¡¯s bladder was getting uncomfortably full. He couldn¡¯t hold it in any longer and asked Director Hu. ¡°Focus on what you¡¯re seeing! If you have a question, ask after the operation!¡± Director Hu responded in the same fashion. ¡°Yes, I see!¡± Chene sat up straight again, trying to endure it a bit longer. The bladder could reabsorb some urine, he would wait a bit longer and see. Professor Lu Donglai, originally from the Oncology Surgery Department, finally understood why Professor Liang valued Yang Ping so much after witnessing this level of surgery. When it came to spotting talent, no one would dare dispute that Old Liang had the best eye for it in Xiehe Hospital. Zhang Chunquan, who had once been an average student, was chosen by him. Although he had now moved to the United States, his abilities were definitely world-class. Zhang Chunquan was the leading contributor to the stem cell project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology¡¯s Whitehead Lab, and rumor had it he might even be in contention for a Nobel patent in the future. ¡°Old Liang, your student¡¯s surgical skills are a bit exaggerated. I always say, people you have an eye on can¡¯t be wrong. That¡¯s why I, Lu Donglai, didn¡¯t hesitate to sign the contract.¡± Professor Lu made it sound as if it were true. Professor Liang didn¡¯t fall for his flattering words: ¡°Of course you didn¡¯t hesitate because you signed blindly under my coercion. And you couldn¡¯t sleep well for three days after signing, could you? Can you sleep soundly tonight?¡± Professor Lu responded to Professor Liang¡¯s ridicule calmly: ¡°After signing, I indeed didn¡¯t sleep well for a few days, I was too excited!¡± Thicker-skinned than a city wall, only Lu Donglai could be this in Xiehe Hospital. Currently, in the matter of recruiting Yang Ping, Professor Liang deserved most of the credit, followed closely by Lu Donglai. In a while, it could very well be Lu Donglai who takes first place and Professor Liang settles in second. ¡ª Following the completion of the posterior surgery, temporary closure of the posterior surgical site was needed. Special gauze was stuffed into precise sites, the incisions were temporarily closed with skin staples, and then covered with sterile medical film. The patient was then turned over to assume a supine position. Their body was re-disinfected, fitted with a fresh set of sheets, and prepared for anterior surgery. The tumor at L2 and L3 extended forward into the abdominal cavity, adhering to the abdominal aorta and inferior vena cava. The wall of the large blood vessels was already denatured. After examining it, Yang Ping feared neglecting it could lead to a high risk of aortic dissection in the future. So, he had Song Yun call for vascular surgery support to preemptively insert an artificial blood vessel. If it was Sanbo Hospital, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t need to call for vascular surgery support at all. He would insert the artificial blood vessel by himself. At Sanbo Hospital, he had complete surgical privileges, a special treatment likely unrivaled by any other surgeon in the country. But it wasn¡¯t the same at Xiehe Hospital. His privileges were limited to his home field¡ªorthopedics. Even separating the aorta from the abdominal cavity was pushing the boundaries. If Director Hu were operating, this step would also need the cooperation of general and vascular surgery. If it was an emergency life-saving situation, Yang Ping would make an exception. But it wasn¡¯t an emergency moment now, and he had to follow medical protocols. Yang Ping always believed that doctors should be rational, not emotional. Director Zuo Ruiting from Xiehe Hospital¡¯s Vascular Surgery Department came over with two assistants to provide support. He usually had to treat many emergency surgeries involving aortic dissection, so he basically didn¡¯t have the concept of weekends. As he often said, he¡¯d look at the bustling scene of Wangfujing Pedestrian Street near Xiehe Hospital from his window; he seldom went there to stroll around, and sometimes, he¡¯d just peek at it through his window. Briefly looking at the imaging pictures, Director Zuo and his assistants were more than willing to collaborate with Orthopedics: ¡°The patient is going to need an artificial blood vessel. Otherwise, there¡¯s a high chance of developing aortic dissection and tear post-surgery. We¡¯d had a similar case not long ago. The patient had abdominal tumors that adhered to the aorta. Three months post-surgery from an outside hospital, the patient developed an aortic dissection; it tore down more than twenty centimeters from top to bottom. Fortunately, the patient was brought here in time and we saved them.¡± Director Zuo was very experienced, having saved many patients with aortic dissection. He often snatched people back from the brink of death. ¡°Scrub in!¡± Director Zuo was a hearty person; with one command, he and his two assistants went to scrub in for the surgery. Just as all surgeons did, he relished the operations. ¡ª Yang Ping temporarily stepped aside, tucking his hands inside the chest pocket of his gown to rest. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± While Director Zuo was scrubbing in and the operation was temporarily paused, Qiu Ruo called to him quietly. Yang Ping turned to look at Qiu Ruo when he heard the nurse¡¯s voice. She was smiling at him: ¡°Thank you!¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome!¡± ¡°You¡ªare these instruments I¡¯ve prepared correct? The ones you¡¯ll need shortly.¡± Yang Ping took a look. Yes, these were indeed the instruments. In fact, Qiu Ruo was an excellent instrument nurse, worthy of being a graduate student at Xiehe Hospital, but she still wasn¡¯t quite at the level of Xiao Su from his home hospital. ¡°Yes, these are the right instruments. Keep your pace steady, no need to rush.¡± ¡°Okay, thank you!¡± She didn¡¯t expect this well-known professor would actually respond to her and chat with her for a bit. She thought Professor Yang would only respond with a perfunctory ¡®hmm¡¯. Chapter 735 - 735 655 Shall we continue discussing ?Chapter 735: Chapter 655: Shall we continue discussing cooperation? Chapter 735: Chapter 655: Shall we continue discussing cooperation? Director Zuo, along with his two assistants, swiftly completed the placement of the artificial blood vessel. ¡°You are Professor Yang from the South, aren¡¯t you?¡± Director Zuo inquired as he undressed from his surgical gown after completing the surgery. ¡°Nice to meet you, Director Zuo!¡± Yang Ping greeted politely. Director Zuo smiled and said, ¡°Heroes can be young. You¡¯re the winner of the Golden Knife Award in orthopedics this year, aren¡¯t you?¡± Yang Ping nodded. Song Yun immediately introduced Director Zuo, ¡°Our Director Zuo was also a Golden Knife Award champion in major vascular surgery.¡± Xiehe Hospital has produced many Golden Knife Award champions in various fields such as orthopedics, vascular surgery, and general surgery. While the Golden Knife Awards are not ubiquitous, they are not a rare occurrence either. It was no easy feat for Director Zuo to bring back the Golden Knife Award in major vascular surgery from Anzhen Hospital and Fuwai Hospital. After all, these two hospitals have always tightened their grasp on the Golden Knife Awards in the cardiac and major vascular surgery categories, and it has never fallen into the hands of a third hospital. Similar goes to the major vascular surgery category, no one except Director Zuo has ever won the Golden Knife Award, breaking the unbeatable record of Anzhen and Fuwai. ¡°No need to mention it, I was already 42 when I won the award, and you¡¯re not even 30 yet, it¡¯s not a fair comparison,¡± Director Zuo waved off. He wanted to chat more with Yang Ping, after all, they hold the Golden Knife Award in common, proving themselves as superlative surgeons and lots of topics could be shared. Unfortunately, Director Zuo¡¯s assistant received a phone call. They had to immediately attend to an emergency surgery: a pregnant woman had been admitted to the emergency department with aortic dissection, her blood vessels bulging like a balloon, ready to rupture at any moment, an urgent operation was required. Without even having time to say goodbye, Director Zuo quickly exited with his assistants. Yang Ping resumed the operation, everyone took a short break and returned to their focused states. With the protection of the artificial blood vessel, even if an aortic dissection occurs in the future, there would be no cause for alarm. Essentially, this dangerous potentiality was being eliminated in advance. Yang Ping then began to separate the tumor. Although the separation on the rear side was not quite 360 degrees, the majority of it was completed, leaving only the front side yet to be separated. Most of the tumor¡¯s blood supply came from the front side, making hemostasis more challenging in this area. Furthermore, the tumor was adhered to the abdominal aorta and inferior vena cava, making their separation exceedingly difficult. This step was extremely dangerous and severely tested the surgeon¡¯s skill and dexterity. The doctors in the meeting room were eagerly awaiting to see how this expert would separate the tumor here, whether he would accidentally cut open a large blood vessel or rupture the tumor¡¯s pseudo-capsule, resulting in incomplete, leaky removal of the tumor. Because the pseudo-capsule of the tumor in this area is part of the large blood vessel wall, successful separation is much more challenging than in the posterior path. Chene¡¯s bladder was no longer so distended, presumably due to the reabsorption and the fact that Chene had stopped drinking water. Throughout the operation, Director Hu ignored him. He observed the surgery alone while the other American doctors were engrossed in observing, occasionally exchanging words with the Chinese doctors beside them. Chene also wished to engage in some discussion and ask a few details about the operation. He was very interested in this Chinese-style total vertebrae resection, but Director Hu¡¯s answers discouraged him from asking further. ¡°After the 360-degree separation, we are down to the last step. First, we need to ligate the tumor¡¯s blood vessels. Only after all the blood vessels of the tumor are ligated and the surgical field is absolutely clear, can subsequent separation be carried out calmly.¡± At each critical step, Yang Ping would inform Song Yun. He ligated the segmental arteries around the second, third and fourth lumbar vertebrae, and then one by one, he began to ligate the blood vessels supplying the tumor. Each blood vessel seemed to be known to him beforehand; none were missed, none were mishandled, and the operation was still performed with the same efficiency. Song Yun couldn¡¯t understand how Yang Ping could be so familiar with the anatomy of this tumor. If he remembered these blood vessels based on angiographic images, then Yang Ping¡¯s ability to apply imaging pictures to actual surgical operations was too strong. As Yang Ping continuously requested for vascular clamps, Song Yun followed suit by ligating blood vessels non-stop and tirelessly. The blood vessels supplying the tumor were ligated one by one. None were missed or mistaken. This radical method of hemostasis was highly effective. The entire surgical field was very clean, almost unrealistically clean. Only surgeries on the limbs using a tourniquet and preoperative exsanguination could achieve such a surgical field. The clean and clear surgical field made the tumor separation incredibly smooth. When it reached the area where the tumor adhered to the large blood vessels, the laser knife was used to dissect with extreme precision. ¡°Still the same principle, start from the normal tissue and proceed step by step!¡± At this point, to prevent tumor leakage, it was necessary to peel off the intact outer layer of the large blood vessels, which constituted part of the tumor¡¯s pseudo-capsule. The aorta¡¯s outer layer was gradually lifted under the precise dissection of the laser knife, neither too thick nor too thin, preserving the integrity of the outer layer. ¡°Therefore, it is very important to insert an artificial blood vessel in advance during this surgery. If not, any rupture can cause massive bleeding. The temporary blockage of the aorta can only stop the bleeding for a short time and cannot prevent rupture. Even if there is no rupture and we successfully peel off the outer membrane, the remaining blood vessel wall is unhealthy and can easily form a dissection.¡± Shortly after, the tumor separated from the aorta, followed by the inferior vena cava. Yang Ping carefully checked if there were any remaining tissue adhesions around the tumor and the vertebrae. Everything was perfect. There were no connections within a 360-degree view. Yang Ping carefully removed the entire tumor and three vertebrae from the anterior abdominal cavity and placed them in the nurse¡¯s metal basin. The removal of the tumor and three vertebrae was a great success! Now the surgery had proceeded into the third hour, which included the time taken to insert the artificial blood vessel. After washing the surgical area and confirming that there were no overlooked bleeding points, they proceeded to the placement of the drainage tube. The stitching up of the incision was handed over to Song Yun. With these two steps of the surgery completed, the only remaining step was the posterior fixation ¡ª supporting the spine using pedicle screw system and artificial spinal prosthesis scaffolding. After the incision was stitched up and covered with a sterile dressing, the patient was laid back down in the prone position to proceed with the posterior fixation. Compared to the previous steps, this stage was relatively simple. After placing the artificial spine, they used the pedicle screw system for connection and fixation. This artificial scaffolding replaced the three removed vertebrae, continuing to support the central axis of the human body. The entire surgery was completed in four hours. The operation that had been originally planned to take twenty hours, was completed in four. All the doctors in the conference room were shocked beyond belief. The four-hour surgery didn¡¯t feel long at all to them, leaving them wanting more. The director, a veteran in dealing with all sorts of tricky situations, continually regretted his earlier hesitation in signing off on the procedure; he shouldn¡¯t have vacillated so much. Professor Liang sported a faint smile, for the trauma he suffered due to the Zhang Chunquan incident had been cured by Yang Ping. Chene felt as if his self-esteem had been tossed onto the ground and crushed into a pancake. ¡°Chene, you were saying something?¡± Professor Hu noticed that Chene had been restless throughout, wanting to ask a question. ¡°Where is the restroom?¡± Chene finally plucked up the courage to ask. Director Hu gestured, ¡°Out the back door, then turn left!¡± Finally, the doctors of Xiehe Hospital had the opportunity to witness the level of skill worthy of the Golden Knife Award ¡ª the top nationwide. Four hours, one perfect surgery, that said it all. ¡°Can Professor Yang¡¯s team increase their quota?¡± A chief physician asked Director Hu quietly. Director Hu shook his head, ¡°His team is mostly composed of young doctors, under forty, with most under thirty-five. They have enough team members.¡± The chief physician resignedly returned to his seat. ¡°Professor Hu, for the second surgery, will it still be a demonstration of the Chinese-style complete vertebrae removal? Can I observe in the operating room?¡± With an empty bladder, Chene felt a lot more at ease, and thus, a lot bolder. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. We only had one demonstration surgery scheduled for today. According to our operating room management rules, you won¡¯t be able to enter the operating room now.¡± Director Hu apologized. Chene was deeply disappointed, then asked, ¡°Can we exchange doctors for further study? Will there be any more complete vertebrae removal surgeries in the next few days? Can I stay here to watch?¡± Director Hu apologised again, ¡°Our training is done in stages. Priority is given to Chinese doctors. We do not currently accept foreign doctors.¡± Chene awkwardly blushed, ¡°How much longer do I need to wait?¡± ¡°There are many doctors in China. I can¡¯t determine the exact time for now. If you have any requests, please wait for our notice.¡± Director Hu, feeling completely relaxed, had never felt so comfortable before. Chene reluctantly nodded, ¡°Alright.¡± ¡°If you have some time later, we can continue discussing the cooperation?¡± Director Hu reminded Chene. Chene stammered, ¡°The...cooperation...we were a bit rushed... there are still many issues left unresolved.¡± In comparison to the Chinese-style complete vertebrae removal, Chene¡¯s surgical method seemed a bit outdated and crude. He secretly called over an assistant to take his equipment box off the podium, no longer planning to continue his explanation afterwards. Despite feeling extremely frustrated, Chene didn¡¯t dare to express it. He was silently complaining: Medical skills should have no borders, these Chinese people were narrow-minded, making foreign people wait until all the Chinese doctors had finished learning. He wondered when his turn would finally come. Chapter 736 - 736 656 Im in Love ?Chapter 736: Chapter 656: I¡¯m in Love Chapter 736: Chapter 656: I¡¯m in Love The surgery ended, with an estimated duration of twenty hours, was successfully completed in four hours. Song Yun was solely focused on the surgery and had no concept of how much time had passed. When he saw the timer on the wall panel indicating a little past noon, he himself found it hard to believe. ¡°What time is it now?¡± he asked the patrolling nurse. For this type of surgery, over fifteen hours was the usual timeframe, now at four hours, he questioned whether there was a malfunction in the timer. The patrolling nurse glanced at the panel: ¡°Isn¡¯t it 1:30?¡± He asked. ¡°Is that clock working?¡± Song Yun inquired, unable to put his mind at ease. ¡°It¡¯s 1:30.¡± The patrolling nurse also seemed uncertain, and specifically went over to the computer to check the time displayed there. The anesthesiologist was quietly aiding Jing Yunsong with recovery from general anesthesia. The doctor maintained his usual reticent style, working without unnecessary chatter, having virtually no presence as if the operation had proceeded without an anesthesiologist. ¡°You guys go to eat, I¡¯ll keep an eye on him.¡± This was the second sentence uttered by the anesthesiologist. He asked the surgeons, including Yang Ping, to go have lunch, as the meal had been delivered to the operating room¡¯s rest area. So far, during the four-hour surgery, the anesthesiologist had only spoken two sentences and hadn¡¯t engaged in idle chat with anyone. Everyone else seemed aware that he wasn¡¯t a man of many words and, as such, they refrained from striking conversation with him. Instrument nurse Qiu Ruo tidied up the instruments and sent them to the disinfection room for cleaning. The Patrolling nurse sorted the operating room¡¯s bill of materials, sat down to check the surgical nursing records, and called for the cleaning staff to prepare for the cleanup of the operating room. The operating room, pre and post-surgery, was incredibly tidy without a trace of disorder. It was truly indicative of a top-tier Chinese hospital¡¯s standards. Head Nurse Xin had never seen a surgery performed so swiftly. The chordoma had invaded three vertebrae, and to perform a full resection on all three in merely four hours was something unseen in her medical career. In the aftermath of the surgery, she was at a loss, unsure of what the next step was. ¡°Dr. Song, please escort Professor Yang to have lunch.¡± Head Nurse Xin found herself filling the silence with this suggestion. While a meal had been prepared for the surgery room personnel, those in the meeting room were provided with fast food. As the surgery was originally expected to last for over ten hours, even the dinner prepared was in the form of fast food. The surgery ending in four hours completely disrupted Xiehe Hospital¡¯s plans. Dr. Kong stayed behind to monitor the patient¡¯s recovery while Song Yun accompanied Yang Ping to the rest area for lunch. There were already many doctors having lunch in the lounge, all of them surgeons handling emergency procedures. They utilized this break to chat and relax before immersing themselves back into the intense surgical procedures. Upon reaching the lounge, Yang Ping took off his mask and accepted the cup of water that Song Yun offered him. After four hours without water, he was quite thirsty and had to down three cups of water before his thirst was quenched. The two of them found a spot and sat down to eat. Qiu Ruo had already finished cleaning the instruments and also came to the lounge to have her lunch. This beautiful nursing postgraduate, with her refined features, radiated intelligent beauty. Even the scrubs couldn¡¯t mask her excellent figure. When she saw Yang Ping, who had removed his mask, she was simply taken by the charm that exuded from his handsome, refined, and extraordinary demeanor, seemingly more enchanting than during the operation. ¡°Hello, Professor Yang!¡± Qiu Ruo greeted Yang Ping. Yang Ping responded with a polite smile as a reciprocation of the greeting. ¡°Thank you!¡± Qiu Ruo expressed gratitude for Yang Ping¡¯s understanding during the operation. ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± Yang Ping continued with his meal. ¡ª In the Orthopedics meeting room, everyone was now starting to have lunch as well. A couple of doctoral students, carrying boxes, began to distribute fast food meals and bottled water to the attendees. Professor Chene, who had been feeling frustrated, picked up a meal box and started to eat. He thought the Chinese were too narrow-minded, too stingy, even studying in exchange required a queue, moreover, he did not admit that he needed advanced training, but defined his learning need as studying in exchange. How could a four-hour surgery possibly be completed in four hours? He knew in his heart that Chinese technology was much more advanced than his own, but he couldn¡¯t admit it out loud, so he pondered how to get his hands on this technology. New technology like Yang Ping¡¯s wasn¡¯t something that could be mastered just by watching a demonstration and video once, one must understand the underlying supporting theory, otherwise even following a video to perform surgery would not achieve good results. The more Chene thought about it, the worse he felt, his appetite was poor, he only ate a few bites of a chicken leg and could not swallow anything else. Just like a certain rich man in the village, his neighbor was a poor man whom the rich man had always despised. But with the poor man¡¯s efforts, one day, he was actually living a wealthy life, even better than the rich man. The rich man was very uncomfortable, not because he became poorer ¨C his life was still wealthy; it was because the poor man became rich, who could now sit on an equal footing with him and have his quality of life. This was exactly Chene¡¯s feelings of discomfort, as if ants were crawling in his heart. ¡°Professor Hu!¡± Chene said to Director Hu after he finished his meal. ¡°You may be misunderstanding. I mean we ought to exchange doctors for study, not send doctors to your training. We have all created new technologies. New technologies will have flaws. The essence of your new technology is still different from European and American technology. It¡¯s better to let us help you evaluate this new technology, then we can discuss exchanging the two new technologies ¨C each can learn from the other,¡± Chene said brazenly. He was very aware that some people in China held an ideological trend of believing that Western technology was definitely more advanced than China¡¯s. Regardless of what task was at hand, they always hoped for approval from the West. ¡°Exchange study? Professor Chene, we are not planning on involving this technology in any exchange studies for the time being. If you wish to apply for advanced training, you may join the queue. If it is for exchanging studies, there is, unfortunately, no opportunity to queue at this time,¡± Director Hu unreservedly said. Chene was getting more and more frustrated, he did not expect Director Hu to be so unyielding. ¡°Professor Hu, don¡¯t you want our approval of your new technology? Recognition from North America or Europe is very important. It¡¯s beneficial for your promotion, for you to publish papers, and for you to win international awards. Your technology does show some backwardness. Don¡¯t be fooled by the speed of surgery. The effect of the surgery is the most important. Pursuing speed is very naive. Some of the demonstrated techniques are ones that we have already discarded. Continuing to use them is very dangerous. As a colleague, it is my duty to remind you.¡± Chene¡¯s face was actually very thick, lying comes without any psychological pressure. ¡°Practice is the only standard to test truth. We can evaluate whether the technology works ourselves ¨C you don¡¯t need to worry. You should be more concerned about your new technology. We don¡¯t care if our new technology is the best in the world for now, but it is definitely the best technology Chinese doctors can master.¡± Director Hu was completely ignoring Chene¡¯s set-up. Chene saw Director Hu was hard-set, it was very infuriating, but he was not able to vent his anger. ¡ª After finishing her lunch, Qiu Ruo took out her phone and sneaked a WeChat to Su Yixuan. She had a crush on Professor Yang and was hoping to gain all the information about him from her good friend. [Is Professor Yang from your hospital married?] [He has a girlfriend] [I asked if he is married?] [No!] [Alright, I¡¯m going to tell you a secret: I¡¯m in love!] [?] [What should I do if I find myself falling in love with Professor Yang from your hospital at first sight? I feel like I¡¯m in love when I see him.] [Give it up, he has a girlfriend. He won¡¯t like your type, you won¡¯t be able to handle him.] [Are you so sure? Just you wait and see, I¡¯ll make him fall for me.] [You¡¯ll be socially dead!] [Are you jealous? Really, he¡¯s my Prince Charming.] Qiu Ruo, as a nursing graduate student, is currently a nurse at Xiehe Hospital. As a nurse, she¡¯s the elite among elites, also comes from a good family background, not to mention her excellent appearance and figure. Like Xiao Su, she enjoys sports and fitness and maintains a devilish figure. A girl like this actually has very high standards when choosing a partner. Now looking at Yang Ping, it¡¯s as if she¡¯s found her own Prince Charming, who¡¯s unmarried, this must be the Prince Charming bestowed to her by Heaven. Fine, just wait for your social demise. Chapter 737 - 737 657 The Suit Mobster ?Chapter 737: Chapter 657: The Suit Mobster Chapter 737: Chapter 657: The Suit Mobster Qiu:[The confidence in his eyes is invincible. I like this kind of man.] [I heard he¡¯s not even thirty.] [Also, he¡¯s really handsome, the more you look at him, the better he looks. His temperament is very refined and steady. His height and physique are amazing. Intelligent, refined, healthy, highly educated, a surgeon, and even a Golden Knife Award winner. He fulfills all my fantasies of a boyfriend.] [If you want to advise me, we might as well stop being friends. If you don¡¯t want to end our friendship, please remain silent. I finally met my prince. Cheer for me, encourage me, help me.] Su: [???!!!] The team that Xiehe Hospital built for Yang Ping included Qiu Ruo, who served as a surgical nurse and was one of the team members. Song Yun set up a WeChat group for the team, making it easier for everyone to communicate. Qiu Ruo spent a long time looking at the group members, wanting to add Yang Ping, but she restrained herself. She was a cunning girl who wouldn¡¯t be so blunt. ¡°Qiu Ruo, you can listen to today¡¯s academic exchange meeting in orthopedics. It¡¯ll be a good learning opportunity,¡± Head Nurse Xin instructed Qiu Ruo. Qiu Ruo was intelligent, diligent, and loved the nursing profession. The head nurse valued and favored her. Qiu Ruo intended to pursue a doctorate in nursing at Xiehe. Her future was bright, and she certainly had the potential to become the director of the Nursing Department. The orthopedics meeting room was already filled with people. According to the original meeting schedule, it was still time for the surgical demonstration. Because the surgery ended ahead of schedule, the agenda had to be modified. Director Hu used the remaining time for everyone to discuss the demonstrated surgery. Qiu Ruo already knew that several professors from the world-famous American Twin Cities Spine Surgery Center, including Professor Chene, a world-class specialist in spinal tumors, had been invited to the conference. As a surgical nurse, attending such an academic conference would be greatly beneficial. Although the conference room was packed, the vast majority were males. There were only a few females. Following the principle of ladies¡¯ first, many men would give up their seats, and thus, it was not difficult for Qiu Ruo to find a spot. Moreover, the doctors all knew the nurses from the operating room and gave way to them. Especially considering the operating room¡¯s belle¡ªQiu Ruo. After the patient safely returned to the ward, Yang Ping, Song Yun, and Kong Weiquan returned to the ward. After seeing the postoperative patient, they all came to the meeting room. Professor Liang gestured for Yang Ping to sit by him, and the seat between him and Professor Lu had been vacated. ¡°This is our hospital¡¯s Medical Director, Professor Lu Donglai!¡± Professor Liang introduced. Yang Ping quickly shook hands with him. He had never seen Professor Lu before. This was the first time. ¡°A superior potential!¡± praised Professor Lu. ¡°Professor Lu, you flatter me!¡± Yang Ping courteously responded, then sat down between Professors Liang and Lu. Although Yang Ping was not socially anxious, he indeed did not like socializing. He would avoid it as much as possible, believing it was often meaningless. ¡°Yang, would you like to communicate with the Americans? There¡¯s still time. The Americans won¡¯t leave until tonight,¡± offered Professor Liang. It¡¯s anticipated that Chene is itching for a battle. If there would be a discussion, it wouldn¡¯t lack a lively argument. ¡°No problem!¡± How could Yang Ping possibly falter? He didn¡¯t like socializing, but he didn¡¯t mind academic exchanges. Hearing Yang Ping¡¯s affirmative response, Professor Liang immediately passed the message to Director Hu. At this point, the number of conference attendees wasn¡¯t decreasing but rather was increasing. Everyone had just finished lunch and was full of energy. At Director Hu¡¯s instruction, Song Yun went onto the platform and said to everyone, ¡°We just finished our surgery. Everyone has seen the new procedure of the Chinese-style total vertebrectomy. The reason we name it the ¡®Chinese-style¡¯ is that it¡¯s significantly different from Europe, America, and Japan¡¯s technological trajectories. Not only is our surgical efficiency and quality superior to existing methods, it also stands alone in its method. If anyone has any questions about this surgery, please ask Chief Surgeon, Professor Yang Ping.¡± At this point he gestured towards Yang Ping. Young Professor Yang, with his steady stride, walked to the stage, ready to accept any inquiries from the participants. Professor Chene was the first to stand up. Song Yun handed the microphone over to him. Of course, he couldn¡¯t communicate in Chinese, so he had to use English. ¡°Professor Yang, the new operation you just performed... I have carefully watched the entire process, and some of the techniques you used were ones that we tried ten years ago. We discarded them because they were too risky and ineffective, so you picking up these discarded techniques was very surprising. For example, the dissection under the bone structure. That technique was applied by us ten years ago, where we stripped away the diseased bone along with the surrounding normal bone tissue. But it was hard to accurately identify the boundary of the normal bone and diseased bone. There was no practical significance in using this labor-intensive technique of separation, so we cut the entire vertebra. I would like to ask if you have been to the United States for advanced studies or have learned related American procedures?¡± Americans are always direct and don¡¯t beat around the bush. It was clear what he meant: ¡®your technique doesn¡¯t appear to be new, but rather it seems like you¡¯re salvaging our discarded techniques.¡¯ The American-style of questioning directly caused many attendees to feel uncomfortable. Professor Liang furrowed his eyebrows. Chene really was lacking in character. Of course, a few people were starting to question from their hearts: Was Yang Ping¡¯s technique something the Americans discarded? Yang Ping was cool and collected. He looked at the American professor in front of him, took a few steps forward to close the distance with Chene, and said in fluent English: Chapter 738 - 738 657 The Suit Mobster_2 ?Chapter 738: Chapter 657: The Suit Mobster_2 Chapter 738: Chapter 657: The Suit Mobster_2 ¡°Mr. Chene, I really admire your straight forward communication style. Firstly, I have indeed been to the United States.¡± Chene seemed to have grasped a very valuable piece of information, ¡°I thought so, because inventing a procedure would be very difficult.¡± Yang Ping ignored him and continued, ¡°However, I didn¡¯t go to the United States to study. I have never studied in the United States or any other country. I went to the United States mainly to teach. I taught American doctors how to perform surgeries. As such, I have established deep friendships with many American doctors.¡± Wu Zi from Spine Center in your city is one of my friends. Nonetheless,Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t casually bring up such things. ¡°Secondly, you¡¯ve claimed that my new technique was discarded by you guys ten years ago, which surprises me. Because If you had mastered this technique ten years ago, when I had just started attending university, I¡¯m curious, Professor Chene, ten years ago, what surgical instruments did you use for the sub-osteal stripping?¡± Chene was taken aback. Any lie is bound to crumble when it comes to the details. Which tool did he use? Chene, being a top professor, knew that Yang Ping was deliberately trying to catch him in a lie publicly. An unintended slip of the tongue could lead to a great embarrassment. Should he answer with an osteotome? Can osteotome do such work? Or should he answer with a laser knife? Was the laser knife applied in such surgeries back then? Chene thought for a while before responding, ¡°A laser knife!¡± His answer was correct. ¡°So, Professor Chene, you should know which company¡¯s laser knife that was? What energy level was required to perform the sub-osteal stripping?¡± Yang Ping continued his line of questioning. Consecutive questioning is most lethal. If the first query is handled, it doesn¡¯t mean the next one can also be dealt with. Eventually, one will falter at a point. If he refuses to answer, he would be admitting to his own lies. If he claims to have forgotten, no one would believe him. A surgeon, not knowing the brand or the energy level of the laser knife they¡¯ve practiced with? That would be equivalent to frequently performing joint replacement procedures but not knowing the brand of the prosthetics used. It¡¯s like saying you¡¯ve served in the military but have no idea what kind of firearm you were assigned. Chene hadn¡¯t anticipated such a line of questioning from Yang Ping. He thought, being a U.S professor, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t possibly question him carelessly. Even if there were some doubts, out of respect or other reasons, he wouldn¡¯t put him on the spot. But Yang Ping was unsparing, treating him with no special regards, sticking to facts only. ¡°The brand¡ª the energy level¡ª it was ten years ago; I¡¯ve forgotten about it. I don¡¯t have much of an impression on discarded technology.¡± Sweating a little, Chene responded vaguely. He didn¡¯t dare say anything rashly for fear of causing laughter if he got it wrong. Being ambiguous like this mostly prevented major problems. In the past, regardless of which hospital he was in, he was considered an absolute authority there. If other hospitals had any new technologies, they would eagerly ask him for feedback, hoping to gain approval. Unlike today where he is standing here so comfortably, being questioned by others. ¡°Professor Chene, I think you might be mistaken. If you really had such a great technology ten years ago, then why have you chosen to cut through the tumor to carry out the pedicle sectioning in your current new technology, rather than using the sub-osteal separation technique to achieve clean margins?¡± Yang Ping approached Chene. Chene couldn¡¯t look Yang Ping in the eyes, ¡°Perhaps, there¡¯s a misunderstanding here. Maybe I have made a mistake.¡± Good! Director Hu internally let out a sigh of relief. He had long disapproved of this arrogant man. Qiu Ruo sat at the back, watching Yang Ping corner Chene, so confident, so calm, so composed. The great American professor stood befuddled in front of Yang Ping. Qiu Ruo was so shocked that she almost fell off her chair. Words couldn¡¯t describe the admiration she felt for Yang Ping. Noticing Qiu Ruo¡¯s distinct unease, her friend, a nurse from the other operating room, saw her fixated on the young professor on stage and teased her, ¡°You haven¡¯t taken your eyes off him. Are you interested in him?¡± ¡°Am I supposed to watch you instead of the lecturer while attending a lecture? Aren¡¯t you supposed to look at the speaker during a lecture?¡± Qiu Ruo indignantly replied but her gaze never strayed away. This left the nurse with nothing to say. Professor Yang and Mr. Chene were at the forefront of research on spinal tumor surgery. The unyielding Mr. Chene fired off numerous questions, turning the whole seminar into a battle between himself and Professor Yang, which was within the expectations of Professor Liang and Director Hu. Chene was tenacious. Each time he was rebutted, he always provoked another question. ¡°Professor Yang, your surgery took four hours, which is quite fast, but it involves compromising on many steps. I don¡¯t understand why you lessen the quality of the surgery for speed. Isn¡¯t the goal of surgery effectiveness and not speed?¡± ¡°Mr. Chene, I usually don¡¯t pay attention to the duration of the surgery; my focus is to steadily perform the surgery at my own pace. This surgery went slower than usual. Generally, similar surgeries don¡¯t go beyond four hours, so the question of speed is irrelevant. Regarding your point about omitting surgical steps, you are referring to the penetrating surgical method. Those steps are not skipped; they are simply unnecessary. For instance, one could separate the tissue under the periosteum and there is no need to deal with the muscular blood vessels at the rear.¡± Four hours, even less than his usual surgery time, Chene was rebutted again and sat back down, deflated. Not only did Yang Ping need to build confidence among the audience, but he also had to correct their attitudes, discouraging them from thinking they were inferior or doubting their own advancements to be somebody else¡¯s rejected technologies. We shouldn¡¯t be blindly arrogant, but we also mustn¡¯t have an inferiority complex. ¡°Professor Yang, does your judgement on tumor boundaries rely on experience or is it backed by theory? If it is the former, I think it is rather hasty.¡± Chene really was shameless. Yang Ping calmly replied, ¡°Our judgement is backed by robust theoretical support. We¡¯ll publicize this new theory in the form of a paper later on, so I won¡¯t elaborate further here.¡± Chene had hoped to get some valuable information out of him this way, but it appeared to be impossible. In the face-off between Yang Ping and Chene, Qiu Ruo¡¯s eyes were glued to Yang Ping, not drifting away for a moment. The professor from Minneapolis in the United States, who acted high and mighty wherever he went, now sat dejectedly in front of this man after being rebutted and fell silent in his seat. Although Yang Ping spoke gently, his words were incredibly powerful. He was a true suave killer! So domineering! Completely smitten! Qiu Ruo took out her phone and sent another WeChat message to Xiao Su. [Can¡¯t believe Professor Yang is such a suave killer. He looks so refined, but doesn¡¯t mince words at academic conferences. So dreamy! A man should be assertive, not weak.] [Can you please stop sending me these messages? Let¡¯s chat about something else.] [Are you getting jealous? Isn¡¯t he from your hospital? Should we compare? Even though I lost to you at tennis, I think I might beat you at life.] [Pathetic!] [Okay, calm down, we¡¯re best friends. I understand how you feel, but stop raining on my parade, okay? You¡¯ll find your prince someday, just wait. I¡¯m not trying to upset you. I¡¯m just excited and sharing my secrets. I think he¡¯s interested in me. I can¡¯t confirm if it¡¯s love at first sight, but I definitely feel a good vibe. You know what? During the surgery, when I couldn¡¯t keep up, he didn¡¯t scold me. He quietly slowed down for me and he stood up for me to the head nurse. Such a warm feeling.] [Poor thing, you¡¯re so invested that I¡¯ll let you dream a little. Waking you up will be cruel.] [Great things always start from a dream, and the same goes for great love. I told you as a good friend to not rain on my parade. I¡¯m only sharing this with you. If you¡¯re not going to support me, who will?] [Go for it!] I bet you¡¯re going to embarrass yourself in front of me, but never mind, we¡¯re friends. There¡¯s no harm in doing that once before me. [Thanks, I¡¯ll definitely try my best!] Now that¡¯s what best friends are for! Chapter 739 - 739 658 What a Coincidence ?Chapter 739: Chapter 658: What a Coincidence! Chapter 739: Chapter 658: What a Coincidence! No matter from which angle Chene asked his questions, they were all easily dispelled by Yang Ping. In front of Yang Ping, Chene was completely outmatched. This knowledgeable American professor found that the Chinese professor on the stage was like an alien being, he knew everything about spinal tumors, no matter what was mentioned. It seemed that he had read all the books and papers, and performed countless surgeries for spinal tumors. Standing on the podium of the academic conference, he was undefeatable. There was no choice but to concede. While the pragmatic Americans are proud, under the guidance of utilitarianism, they also have a good quality: willing to concede defeat when defeated and bow their heads in time. ¡°I have nothing to say now, I just look forward to seeing Professor Yang¡¯s paper soon.¡± Chene was dripping sweat and had lost his desire to ask any more questions. ¡°Please be patient, we will submit the paper at the earliest possible speed.¡± Yang Ping moved away from Chene and back to the center of the podium. Thus, the debate between Yang Ping and Chene ended with Chene¡¯s surrender. The remaining time was left for everyone to have a free discussion. Yang Ping needed a rest as well. He returned to his seat and sipped some water. If one of his own had any questions, there would be plenty of opportunities in the future. This Sino-US debate significantly boosted the confidence of all the doctors present, especially the younger ones. Content with lunch, Yang Ping and Chene debated, followed by a free exchange among everyone. It was once again time for supper. Many fast-food items had already been ordered for dinner and it¡¯s too late to cancel them. Wasting is not an option. After all, everyone is a doctor, who wouldn¡¯t mind having an extra fast-food meal. They had fast-food in the meeting room in the evening again. Neither Professor Liang nor Professor Lu went home for dinner. They joined everyone for dinner in the meeting room. During dinner, doctors who found seats were unmoving. Those who didn¡¯t sat or squatted, finishing their meals however they considered most comfortable. Professor Lu, with his head down eating fervently, noticed Professor Liang leave for a while, not sure whether he went to the bathroom or called his wife. As soon as he noticed Professor Liang¡¯s absence, he immediately put down his sticks and said: ¡°Professor Yang, if you encounter any difficulties here at Xiehe, please feel free to tell me. Our medical office is here to provide logistical support to you doctors, and to solve problems.¡± ¡°Are you used to living in the guest house? The conditions are a bit poor, but it¡¯s inside the hospital, convenient, and safe.¡± ¡°Are the ten beds I assigned you enough? If not, I will apply for more for you.¡± ¡°Is the team satisfactory? If not, please voice your concerns, don¡¯t be polite. If there is anyone in the team who is disobedient or resists work arrangements, please inform me directly and I¡¯ll deal with it.¡± With this tone, anyone uninformed would think those ten beds were secured by Professor Lu, with no involvement of Professor Liang. ¡°The allocation of beds at Xiehe is extremely tense. Sometimes it¡¯s wishful thinking for a group leader to add one more bed. So, for your ten beds, I really struggled. Fortunately, the higher-ups are also understanding.¡± ¡°Special talents deserve special treatment!¡± ¡°If you have any needs in work and life, please tell me directly. Professor Liang is old, let¡¯s not worry him with these matters.¡± Professor Liang called his wife in the hallway outside, telling her he had eaten at the conference dinner and would not be coming home for dinner. After the call, Professor Liang returned to the meeting room. As soon as Professor Lu Donglai saw Professor Liang was back, he stopped chatting with Yang Ping and continued eating. After the meal, Chene came over and exchanged contact information with Yang Ping. By contact information, he meant email addresses. People in Europe and America liked this form of contact. He then invited Yang Ping to give a lecture at the Minnesota Twin City Spinal Surgery Center in the United States. ¡°This is our official invitation to you to give a lecture, not to exchange ideas, but to lecture!¡± Chene repeatedly emphasized that it was for a lecture, not an exchange, fearing that Yang Ping might refuse. ¡°We can coordinate via email when free.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t decline, nor did he accept. After dinner, everyone chatted for a bit longer before the meeting was dismissed. Director Hu arranged for a special car to take the American team to the airport. ¡ª Yang Ping¡¯s accommodation was arranged at the guesthouse inside Peking Union Medical College Hospital, on the sixth floor of the East Campus Building. Director Hu specifically assigned him a permanent room, with the cost covered by the hospital. Dinner was early, and Yang Ping had come primarily to scout, without any specific work tasks. Jing Yunsong¡¯s surgery was just a coincidence. After the conference, Song Yun held a feast. He led a group of young doctors, dozens of Ph.D. holders, all young elites among the doctors, all of whom had graduated from Peking Union Medical College after an 8-year program. Having already eaten dinner, Da Dong seemed inappropriate for another meal. So Song Yun took Yang Ping and everyone for a walk around Peking Union Medical College, then to Wangfujing for a late-night snack. Neither Professor Liang nor Director Hu attended, it was an event for the young people. These young people now idolize Yang Ping, particularly Song Yun, who became a die-hard fan of Yang Ping. Everyone sat around the late-night snack table. ¡°We¡¯re a bit casual tonight. During your time at Xiehe, we will take turns inviting you for meals. We¡¯ll start with Wangfujing, and first from Da Dong in Wangfujing. How about that? Tomorrow we will treat you to Da Dong.¡± Song Yun proposed to take turns paying for the meals on behalf of everyone. No one disagreed and they all spoke out in agreement, even competing to pay themselves. Actually, the young doctors at Peking Union Medical College work hard and aren¡¯t highly paid. Compared to some wealthier district hospitals, their income is significantly lower. Among the lot, Song Yun, who had already been promoted to associate professor, was slightly better off. But even that income, in Beijing, didn¡¯t account for much. So these doctors, especially those just graduated, were under some financial pressure inviting Yang Ping on a rotation basis, but they were willing. ¡°Don¡¯t bother!¡± Yang Ping knew everyone was trying to show respect to him. ¡°No, no, no. Are you afraid we don¡¯t have the money? We can afford a meal. Just listen to Song Yun, you just need to eat.¡± Kong Weiquan was displeased hearing Yang Ping decline so politely. ¡°Exactly, exactly, as we decided, while you are in Beijing, you listen to our arrangements.¡± The other Ph.D. holders chimed in. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª?¡± A pleasant voice of a young girl came from not far away. Yang Ping immediately turned his head to see a tall beauty waving at him. ¡°Qiu Ruo? What are you doing here?¡± Song Yun instantly recognized the beauty as Qiu Ruo. ¡°We¡¯re here for a late-night snack!¡± Qiu Ruo was quite surprised by the chance encounter. ¡°This is Qiu Ruo, a nurse from our operating room. She assisted in today¡¯s surgery.¡± Song Yun immediately introduced her. ¡°Oh! Qiu Ruo, hello.¡± Because everyone was wearing masks during the operation, Yang Ping hadn¡¯t paid attention to what Qiu Ruo looked like, and it was also their first collaboration. He wouldn¡¯t be able to recognize her if they bumped into each other on the street. ¡°What a coincidence? You guys are here too?¡± Qiu Ruo was quite taken aback. Seeing a colleague, especially one as beautiful a nurse as Qiu Ruo, Song Yun had to invite her to join their late-night snack: ¡°What are you waiting for? Have you ordered? Come join us.¡± ¡°Well, we won¡¯t be client then.¡± Chapter 740 - 740 659 The First Lesson of The Team Starting ?Chapter 740: Chapter 659: The First Lesson of The Team: Starting with Eating Lobster! Chapter 740: Chapter 659: The First Lesson of The Team: Starting with Eating Lobster! The table was quite large, accommodating more than a dozen people without feeling cramped. There was plenty of space between everyone, such that simply cutting down the distance a bit could fit two more chairs. Qiu Ruo happened to stand next to Yang Ping, so Kong Weiquan, who was sitting next to Yang Ping, moved his chair to the side. Following his lead, everyone else moved their chairs as well, creating enough space for two more. Qiu Ruo sat down next to Yang Ping, followed by Yu Yanwen. Everyone gathered around the table, over a dozen people in all. Aside from Qiu Ruo and Yu Yanwen, who were women, everyone else was male. ¡°Next time Professor Yang comes, I¡¯m still hosting. We¡¯re going to eat at Da Dong and no one should compete with me for the bill. Your turns to pay can be postponed to later,¡± Song Yun said after ordering dishes. ¡°Would you like some beer?¡± the waiter asked. Song Yun looked at Yang Ping, who shook his head. In reality, all these scholarship students didn¡¯t drink alcohol. Today¡¯s midnight snack featured spicy crayfish, but since no one drank alcohol, the beverage accompanying it was some ice-cold Beibingyang soda, a combination with a distinct Beijing flavor. ¡°Ice-cold Beibingyang soda,¡± Song Yun decided after some consideration. Everyone started waiting for the dishes to be served. Wangfujing Street was bustling in the evening, living up to its reputation as one of the liveliest areas in Beijing. ¡°Professor Yang, you completely schooled Chene today. When I took him to the airport, he kept inquiring about you,¡± Song Yun reminisced about the exciting debate between Yang Ping and Chene that had occurred earlier in the day. He continued, ¡°I¡¯m planning to start a project to research new dyes for bone tumors, in combination with virtual reality and sensor technology. Doing so would allow for a precise determination of tumor boundaries. If the research succeeds, we could wear VR glasses during surgery to see tumors appearing in red, normal tissues in blue, and the bordering area in yellow. Contact between the laser knife and the red or yellow areas would trigger an alarm, while contact with the blue area would not. I¡¯ve had this idea for a while, but upon seeing that Americans¡¯ research has not made substantial progress, I¡¯ve felt discouraged. Professor Yang, for whatever reason, after attending your class today, my confidence soared and I want to proceed with the project.¡± ¡°Your idea is excellent, and it¡¯s actually a project I¡¯ve also been wanting to conduct. However, given my current workload and commitment to other projects, I haven¡¯t been able to find the time. I think you should restart this project,¡± Yang Ping encouraged Song Yun. Song Yun was passionate at heart. Today¡¯s lecture given by Yang Ping had inexplicably boosted his intellectual confidence significantly. ¡°Brother Song, remember to include me in your project,¡± Kong Weiquan said cheerfully. Having participated in the animal experiments on spinal fixation frames, he had long considered himself a part of Yang Ping¡¯s team. ¡°Professor Yang, you only come by four days a month, which is too little. Can you come by for a week each month?¡± ¡°Yes, we can learn so much more with you around.¡± ¡°The surgery today was completed by just the four of you. Many of the basic surgical skills you display need to be taught to us. Your performance seemed nearly magical.¡± ¡°Yes, start with teaching us the basics.¡± Everyone pitched in one after another, turning a midnight snack into a talk about learning. That¡¯s the typical Xiehe Hospital spirit for you. ¡°Professor Yang, since everyone¡¯s here today, why don¡¯t you train us following your approach? If we make mistakes, please feel free to criticize us without considering our feelings. We would truly appreciate that. During my time at Sanbo Hospital, I truly admired Song Zimo. You were so strict with him, making him practice arthroscopy until he could peel two layers off a grape skin, and carve a knee joint model out of an olive pit.¡± ¡°Who cares about face when it comes to learning? I¡¯m absolutely shameless when it comes to studying. Professor Yang, feel free to yell at me. I promise I won¡¯t jump off a building,¡± Kong Weiquan said. ¡°Thank you all for regarding me so highly. Song Yun and Kong Weiquan are familiar with my frankness and directness. If something doesn¡¯t go well in the future, feel free to give me your candid feedback,¡± Yang Ping said, appreciating the friendly atmosphere where no one beat around the bush. Qiu Ruo sat quietly next to Yang Ping, attentively listening to the conversation. Her facial features were delicate and harmonious, with a high but natural-looking nose, a mixed race charm, and a perfect figure. It was unclear if she meant to spray perfume, but a faint, enchanting scent wafted from her. Even the diners in the restaurant, who were there only for their late-night snacks, couldn¡¯t help stealing glances at her. All of these doctors were young elites among orthopedic surgeons nationwide. Each one of them had scored high grades to enter the eight-year program at Xiehe. They were competitive and often had heated arguments about academic issues. But when facing Yang Ping, they all showed their admiration as his students. Recalling Chene¡¯s dejected look in front of Yang Ping, Qiu Ruo felt more and more fond of him. However, Yang Ping didn¡¯t seem to pay much attention to Qiu Ruo. But Qiu Ruo wasn¡¯t in a hurry; this was only their first real meeting after all. The crayfish and various side dishes were served one by one, while two cases of Beibingyang soda were also brought over. Everyone started to dig in. ¡°Professor Yang, thank you for the surgery today,¡± Qiu Ruo murmured to Yang Ping. Yang Ping smiled, ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± Qiu Ruo just touched on the subject and stopped talking after that. ¡°Professor Yang, come! Try this, see what¡¯s different between the lobster in Beijing and the ones from your southern region.¡± Song Yun put on his gloves and served the first piece to Yang Ping as a show of respect. ¡°Ladies first, right?¡± Yang Ping noticed two ladies beside him. Song Yun was a real gentleman: ¡°Since Professor Yang says ladies first, Qiu Ruo, Yu Yanwen, why don¡¯t you two start?¡± These overachievers were quite polite. If it were Fatty, Zhang Lin, and Little Five, they would have already started fighting over food, forget about manners. ¡°No, no, Professor Yang is the guest!¡± Yu Yanwen was a bit embarrassed. Qiu Ruo immediately said, ¡°Then I¡¯ll start.¡± She picked up a small lobster with her gloved hand, gently removed the head and tail, and peeled off the shell, then put the lobster meat into Yang Ping¡¯s bowl. ¡°This way, we prioritize ladies and guests, no need to fret over it anymore.¡± Everyone laughed at Qiu Ruo¡¯s solution, all eyes on Yang Ping. Since Qiu Ruo had shelled one for him, Yang Ping didn¡¯t think much of it, picked up the lobster meat with his chopsticks and ate it, thus, everyone officially started eating. ¡°Everybody, eat up! There¡¯s plenty tonight. Professor Yang, why are you not diving in?¡± Song Yun started eating the lobster, but noticed Yang Ping hadn¡¯t put on gloves yet. Yang Ping smiled, ¡°I don¡¯t eat lobsters with my hands.¡± Indeed, he didn¡¯t like to eat small lobsters directly with his hands. Even if he wore gloves, it would still feel greasy. He always used chopsticks to indirectly peel the lobsters. Not directly with the hands? Then with what? Everyone was very curious. This Professor Yang simply did things his own way, even eating a lobster was different. They saw Yang Ping pick up a small lobster with chopsticks, place it on the plate, and then with a chopstick in each hand, the two chopsticks worked together. No one clearly saw what he did, but the lobster was quickly decapitated, tail removed, and shelled by the two chopsticks, with the shell and head left on one side, and the intact meat on the other side, all in just two seconds. Song Yun and everyone else were dumbstruck. They hadn¡¯t seen someone eat small lobsters this way, so cleanly and intact with just two chopsticks. ¡°Professor Yang, looks like, our training should start with learning how to shell a lobster with chopsticks.¡± Song Yun finally commented after a short pause. After witnessing this, all the doctors could only think: What the f*ck! They couldn¡¯t find the right words to express their amazement. They hadn¡¯t seen someone peel a small lobster this way, and do it so quickly and neatly. Was this a surgical procedure or eating a small lobster? Qiu Ruo, on the other hand, was as if watching a magic show. No, she actually took this scene as a magic trick. ¡°Professor Yang, could you show us a slow-motion version?¡± Kong Weiquan also wanted to learn the technique. Immediately, Song Yun announced, ¡°Our team¡¯s first lesson: Deshelling a Lobster with Chopsticks. Professor Yang will now demonstrate it again. Everyone, pay close attention and practice when you get home. There¡¯ll be a test next time Professor Yang visits.¡± When Yang Ping started peeling the second one, all the doctors took off their gloves and took out their phones. This was worth a tutorial video! Chapter 741 - 741 660 The Return of the Ultimate Skill ?Chapter 741: Chapter 660: The Return of the Ultimate Skill Chapter 741: Chapter 660: The Return of the Ultimate Skill PS: Still not fixed yet. The trick of peeling a lobster with only two chopsticks is something the doctors certainly won¡¯t be able to learn on the spot. Everyone took videos of the teaching, to study it slowly later. Yang Ping demonstrated slowly the trick of peeling a lobster and also explained the key points in detail. The key to this technique lies in two points: familiarity with the anatomy of the lobster and the level of skill in using chopsticks. Everyone was listening attentively just like being in a class, quietly jotting down these key points. Some decided to buy a few big lobsters tomorrow to study their anatomy. There were also people who started to try it with chopsticks, but due to a lack of knowledge in anatomy and unqualified chopstick skills, the lobster slid back and forth under the chopsticks. Let aside peeling the lobster, they couldn¡¯t even complete the task of removing the lobster¡¯s head and tail. ¡°This is a unique skill, since it¡¯s a unique skill, it¡¯s high-end technology and requires standardized training.¡± Yang Ping told everyone not to rush and take it slowly. ¡°Starting from tomorrow, practice peeling a lobster for an hour when you get home from work. Next time Professor Yang returns, there will be a test.¡± Song Yun officially announced. The first lesson, indeed, begins with peeling a lobster. Qiu Ruo and Yu Yanwen were watching as if it was a magic trick, looking dumbfounded. During the whole supper, Yang Ping was peeling the lobster with chopsticks, keeping his hands clean. This supper couldn¡¯t last too long, everybody had to go to work at six o¡¯clock the next morning. The young doctors at Xiehe are very hardworking. They start their work at the hospital at six in the morning, and it¡¯s common for them to get off work after nine in the evening. They hardly have any days off throughout the year. This kind of experience is a huge test both mentally and physically. One day, when they grow up and become experts, there will be endless surgeries. Anyway, this kind of life is never-ending. Now that everyone has come out to have supper with Yang Ping, this shows great respect for Yang Ping. Normally, even though Wangfujing is just a stone¡¯s throw away, they simply don¡¯t have any free time to take a stroll around. At the end of the supper, Kong Weiquan received a phone call, looking quite nervous. Could it be that the department needed assistance? After Kong Weiquan answered the call, he said, ¡°It¡¯s Old Xiao. His son has a high fever. His wife brought their son to our Emergency Department. His son fell at the hospital entrance and broke his right forearm. Old Xiao is busy in surgery and cannot leave. He is asking for our help to check on his son. Old Xiao is a professor of trauma orthopedics. It¡¯s quite a situation when his son¡¯s bone gets fractured and yet he couldn¡¯t even attend to his son. ¡°What are we waiting for? Let¡¯s go quickly to the emergency room.¡± Song Yun promptly paid the bill using the QR payment. Everyone hurriedly set off to the Emergency Department. Once they reached the Emergency Department, they asked a nurse where Old Xiao¡¯s son was. The nurse told them that Old Xiao¡¯s son was waiting in line in the waiting area. Song Yun was a bit irritated, why was Old Xiao¡¯s son still waiting in line? Kong Weiquan immediately went to find Old Xiao¡¯s wife in the waiting area. As soon as he recognized her, he quickly called them to a consultation room. ¡°Sister-in-law, why are you still in line?¡± Kong Weiquan was also a bit dissatisfied that the emergency nurses hadn¡¯t taken proper care of their own people. ¡°It¡¯s alright. Just now an emergency nurse directly took me to the examination room, but people waiting in line complained about it, so I¡¯ve decided to queue up. I don¡¯t want to put them in a difficult position, it was me who requested this.¡± Old Xiao¡¯s wife was quite understanding. The doctors on duty in several wards were so busy they were about to collapse. The wards were also in no condition to take in another patient. Hence, Old Xiao had no choice but to call Song Yun and Kong Weiquan back to help. Old Xiao¡¯s son was just six years old, he had a fever which had his face all flushed. His right arm was temporarily stabilized with a splint and suspended in front of his chest. ¡°What¡¯s the situation? Let me see.¡± Upon examination, Song Yun realized that it was a comminuted fracture of the ulna and radius. ¡°Quickly take an x-ray. Sister-in-law, Xuanxuan has a dual fracture of the ulna and radius.¡± Song Yun took Old Xiao¡¯s wife and son to radiology. After a brief exchange with the doctor on duty, they assisted in taking an x-ray. When the film came out, it was indeed a dual fracture of the ulna and the radius. The comminution and displacement were obvious. ¡°Prepare for surgery? Let me inform Brother Xiao.¡± Song Yun picked up the phone. Finally getting through, the voice of the circulating nurse on the other side said, ¡°Old Xiao is too busy now, he doesn¡¯t have the time to answer the phone, let Song Yun handle it.¡± A simple one might be handled with a technique. However, in this complex situation, aside from surgery, there is no other solution. This kind of fracture requires the use of elastic intramedullary nails, which are not even readily available. Yang Ping looked at the film, ¡°Prepare for local anesthesia, I will perform a manual reduction. Do we have a small splint? A splint would be best. If not, apply a tubular plaster cast.¡± The emergency room was not short of splints. They were usually used for temporary stabilization and are available in all kinds. ¡°Manual reduction?¡± Song Yun asked. This kind of fracture could be manually reduced? In his concept, it was impossible to manually reduce this kind of fracture. Old Xiao¡¯s wife when hearing that surgery might not be necessary, asked, ¡°Can it be done?¡± ¡°It¡¯s very quick. We¡¯ll do a local anesthesia, fix it in a few minutes, and then he can go home to sleep.¡± Everyone returned to the Emergency Department. All were familiar with the Emergency Department as they had interned there. A doctor found a forearm splint. Yang Ping briefly compared it on the healthy limb and found it to be very suitable. Normally, everyone used plaster for such tasks and these small splints didn¡¯t see much use. However, they were kept on hand in case of emergencies. Yang Ping asked Song Yun to assist, hold traction for a while, then push, press, knead a few times before applying the splint. This only took a few minutes time. Everyone thought it would be unbelievable if this could actually work. Xuanxuan was brought to Radiology again for a follow-up X-ray. Upon examining the X-ray, the ulna and radius were indeed totally anatomically reduced. ¡°Alright, nothing¡¯s wrong now. Take a bottle of Ibuprofen oral suspension home for pain relief.¡± Old Xiao¡¯s wife who was just in a hurry before was a bit stunned. Just like that, it¡¯s fixed? Such mastery in performing surgeries, yet also proficient in the traditional technique of manual reduction. Just who is this person? He somewhat resembles the invincible war god from online fiction novels. ¡°This... we can go home now?¡± Old Xiao¡¯s wife was somewhat incredulous. Chapter 742 - 742 661 The Hand Behind the Scenes ?Chapter 742: Chapter 661: The Hand Behind the Scenes Chapter 742: Chapter 661: The Hand Behind the Scenes This time, treatment Professor Xiao¡¯s wife and child received at Xiehe Hospital was even more prestigious than that afforded to a VIP. The child¡¯s right forearm had double fractures. Yang Ping helped to set it right, and the child received the most cutting-edge treatment. The wife had a skin abrasion on her right knee. Several Ph.D. holders cleaned the wound, before it was stitched by a senior chief cosmetic surgeon to ensure the wound closed neatly. The surgeon even used a head-mounted microscope. Mrs. Xiao had supported her husband¡¯s work tirelessly for many years, taking on the chores and child-rearing single-handedly. Today was arguably her most glorious moment as a doctor¡¯s family member. Since Professor Xiao¡¯s wife had a wound on her right knee and could not drive, several Ph.D. holders drove her and her child home in multiple cars. After everything was sorted out, everyone resumed their respective homes to rest. Yang Ping returned to the dormitory to rest as well. The next day, Yang Ping taught the team members about surgery related to spinal fixators and, by the way, explained the anatomy of the spine. He only had three days to visit Xiehe Hospital this time. It was considered as an initial field survey and the real work would start next time. On Monday afternoon, Yang Ping returned to Sanbo Hospital. The pitiful Ph.D. holders were practicing how to peel lobster with chopsticks every day at home, rehearsing the key techniques explained by Yang Ping, and studying the video. This was the unique technique Yang Ping taught them, and there was going to be a test everyone would have to pass. ¡ª Dean Liu Xingguo¡¯s office at Hospital 301. Dean Liu Xingguo, Professor Qin Shi, and Commissioner Qiao Nan were looking concerned. Dean Liu closed a document on his desk: ¡°I have revised the acquisition plan countless times and was finally satisfied with it. I was preparing to submit it when Sanbo Hospital was absorbed by Nandu Medical University as a directly affiliated hospital. How were their actions so swift? There wasn¡¯t any news before this and it took us a long time to find out.¡± Professor Qin Shi frowned: ¡°Yes, Nandu Medical University¡¯s assimilation of Sanbo Hospital, such a big move, surprisingly didn¡¯t make any fuss. Even Nandu Province news did not cover it. I somehow feel that this is a clear confrontation against our acquisition proposal.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t just feel, it¡¯s indeed against our acquisition. If Sanbo Hospital was independent, our takeover plan could have been executed smoothly, but the moment Sanbo Hospital joins the Nandu system, our interference will appear unjustified. Even our superiors would have difficulty assisting us without adequate reasons.¡± Commissioner Qiao Nan speculated that some powerful individual must be maneuvering behind the scenes, orchestrating all this and leading the acquisition plan of 301 to completely fall apart. Liu Xingguo, leaning on his desk with his hands crossed, pondered for a moment before speaking: ¡°The mastermind behind Nandu Medical University certainly has some skills. They must have known our plans beforehand. However, why would they want to compete with us for Sanbo Hospital?¡± ¡°Whatever you have your eyes set on, others may desire the same.¡± Qiao Nan pointed out bluntly. Professor Qin Shi revealed the latest intel: ¡°I heard that several academicians were involved in promoting the restructuring. Without a strong power backing, this would not have been possible.¡± ¡°What to do? Is the mission given by our superiors to be scrapped? How are we to answer to this?¡± Qiao Nan lamented while leaning on the couch and sipping his tea. Back then, they had considered various factors, but no one expected Nandu Medical University to act so swiftly. It was unheard of for a hospital to be restructured so quickly. Professor Qin Shi was also at a loss: ¡°We can¡¯t really force the allocation, can we?¡± Dean Liu waved his hand: ¡°Forceful allocation is impossible. Think about it, any other ideas? Since the method of talent introduction isn¡¯t working ¡ª that guy never intended to join us. It¡¯s our fault for not collecting accurate information beforehand.¡± Back then, they knew nothing about this, had underestimated Yang Ping, as well as Sanbo Hospital, and more so the Nandu Medical University, which had sprang out of nowhere. If they would have known the situation would evolve like this, they would have swiftly made the acquisitions back then, avoiding the present predicament. Dean Liu Xingguo grew more uneasy the more he analyzed: ¡°I have been thinking, and I am sure that Nandu Medical University didn¡¯t just come out of nowhere. It must have been eying Sanbo Hospital all along, waiting for the opportune moment.¡± ¡°Who do you think this puppeteer might be?¡± Dean Liu Xingguo queried. Such manoeuvres would be quite hard to pull off without someone puppeteering behind the scenes. ¡°The academicians at Nandu Medical University are all academic oriented. Even if they intended to promote this, they definitely wouldn¡¯t scheme it so meticulously. Contemplate for a moment, such significant news neither reported by the newspapers nor the internet clearly indicates an intention to keep a low profile in fear of alarming us,¡± speculated Commissioner Qiao Nan. Even Professor Qin Shi was unable to figure out: ¡°Who could it be and what is their purpose? We either drop this mission, or if we decide to continue, we must figure out who¡¯s pulling the strings on this matter.¡± ¡°I need to think about it. The leaders asked for updates on the progress a few days ago, and I am nowhere close to giving a response now.¡± Dean Liu Xingguo really felt like he had bitten off more than he could chew this time. He had even boasted in front of the executives that not only would he successfully carry out the acquisition but also comply with the sixteen-character guideline given by the leaders. Now that Sanbo had been made an affiliate hospital of Nandu Medical University, how was he to explain himself? Chapter 743 - 743 662 ?Chapter 743: Chapter 662 Chapter 743: Chapter 662 Yang Ping was on duty quite early that day, arriving at the department a little past six in the morning. The young doctors from Xiehe Hospital, as well as those from Sanbo Hospital, arrived for duty at six. Though there¡¯s no strict mandate that they do so, the majority of young doctors arrived before six-thirty, their busy day starting shortly after. They need to review all the test results of the patients they manage, specifically the new ones. Any abnormal results need to be analyzed, and if it¡¯s something outside their field of expertise, they would need to arrange a consultation. Next, they would adjust medical orders based on the patients¡¯ conditions, order various new tests, monitor the condition of patients who underwent surgery for signs of post-operative changes ¨C whether there is any inflammation around the operation site, or any abnormal volumes of drainage. For those who haven¡¯t had surgery yet, they need to schedule it. After all this, they would participate in the morning handover rounds of their department, and then the rest of their day would be occupied by surgeries. Post-surgery in the afternoon, they would have to make further rounds, change dressings, write up case histories ¨C a stack of jobs awaited. Typically, their workday ended past nine in the evening, enabling them to finally head back to the dormitory. Working as a doctor, especially in big hospitals, is very demanding. Those not physically fit enough are often eliminated halfway. The heavy workload and the round-the-clock commitments are enough to knock down a significant number of them. The department was buzzing with activity as early as six in the morning. While Zhang Lin and Little Five were resident physicians, their roles at the moment were more like attending doctors¡¯. They were responsible for instructing the resident physicians in their department. On the other hand, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, despite their official title as attending doctors, were practically fulfilling the role of assistant chief physicians. They were tasked with leading teams and independently performing various surgeries. When Yang Ping arrived at his office, he sat down and brewed himself a cup of tea. At this time, everyone was busy and wouldn¡¯t disturb him, so he utilized this opportunity to think about stuff and to perform some experiments within the system space. However, after just three days of not meeting, his assistants, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang needed to catch-up with him and to update him about what had been going on in the department over the last few days. ¡°Have you heard about the fad in Xiehe of using chopsticks to peel lobsters? They offered you a professorship with an enviable salary, but look at you, here you¡¯re teaching people how to peel lobsters!¡± Song Zimo ribbed Yang Ping for neglecting his work. ¡°Professor, you ¡ª never ¡ª took the time ¡ª to teach us ¡ª how to ¡ª peel lobsters.¡± Xu Zhiliang¡¯s stutter was as stuttery as always. ¡°For lobster peeling, you guys need personal instructions? Each time we go out to eat lobster, that¡¯s a lesson for you. Even Zhang Lin and Little Five can peel a few. I don¡¯t even need to mention you guys.¡± Yang Ping took a sip of his tea. ¡°If they¡¯re interested in your exceptional skills, they probably won¡¯t have to learn surgery for a while. Your unique techniques are enough for them to learn for several years ¡ª¡± Song Zimo was worried those doctorates at Xiehe Hospital wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up. ¡°Robert says he can get Yu Shuilian a powered prosthesis ¨C it¡¯s an experimental product from Boston, US and very mature,¡± Song Zimo reported a new development in the department, which also counted as such things go. Yang Ping had always wanted to find a powered brace for Yu Shuilian but couldn¡¯t find a suitable product, as most were not mature enough. Robert¡¯s competence was extraordinary. Despite his playboy image, he boasted widespread connections and impressive work capabilities and frequently accomplished unexpected feats. In Chinese terms, Robert was both personable and competent. Back in Yemen, he had flown a medical plane through stumbling blocks to support Yang Ping. ¡°Just let him keep figuring it out, he¡¯ll feel uncomfortable if he doesn¡¯t busy himself with such things.¡± Yang Ping couldn¡¯t be bothered about such things. Song Zimo continued his report: ¡°The surgeries scheduled this week for Old Cheng¡¯s side have all been handled by Old Xu and me. No particularly special patients.¡± ¡°The progress report for the new research topic is on your office desk. Have a look when you¡¯re free.¡± ¡°Malaysia is asking for you to go there again for a surgery. It¡¯s a large-scale plastic surgery which requires your help with the skeletal portion. You can have a look at the medical records for specific details.¡± ¡°Plastic surgery? I like to perform all kinds of surgeries, but the ones I¡¯m least fond of are plastic cosmetic surgeries. Moreover, why would they need me for a large-scale plastic surgery?¡± Yang Ping wasn¡¯t thrilled about this invitation. Song Zimo added, ¡°You¡¯d better check the medical record when you have time. I¡¯ve sent it to your email.¡± ¡°There weren¡¯t any special cases in the department in the last few days. Zhang Lin and Little Five are planning on publishing a book and they would like your help writing the preface. They asked me to check in with you.¡± Song Zimo reported another matter. ¡°Publishing a book? What book?¡± ¡°Laparoscopic Surgery, I¡¯ve seen the manuscript, it¡¯s quite good. If this book really gets published, it would be the first specialty book on laparoscopic surgery in the country.¡± ¡°This¡ª these two¡ª fellows¡ª have found the ¡ª right direction.¡± After Song Zimo finished his work report, it was almost time to hand over the shift. ¡ª At around six in the evening, on the first floor of the Tri-Bo Hotel, the Waterlily Bread Store. August, Robert, and Director Gao sat at a corner table, enjoying bread and milk tea. During their period of study, Robert and August often visited this bakery when they were tired. They would have a bite and chat to unwind. This time, Robert had also invited his good friend Director Gao to the bakery, saying he wanted to treat him to something flavorful and spicy. Director Gao was puzzled. What could one eat in a bakery that was flavorful? And what could one drink that was spicy? Turns out, the bakery had introduced a new type of bread made with chili peppers, paired with fruit-flavored milk tea. And that¡¯s what he meant by ¡®flavorful¡¯ and ¡®spicy¡¯. ¡°I heard that Professor Yang was once considering getting Ms. Yu a powered prosthesis?¡± Robert inquired Director Gao about some details. Director Gao often studied in the Comprehensive Surgery Department, so he was very familiar with their stories. He told Robert: ¡°Professor Yang did indeed have that idea, and this matter has always been managed by Takahashi, but so far, we haven¡¯t found a suitable powered prosthesis.¡± Robert was quite disdainful, ¡°What can Takahashi do? This matter should have been left to me. Boston¡¯s powered prosthetics laboratory in the United States has a powered prosthesis that is very suitable for Ms. Yu. It just needs customized fitting. Wearing that kind of powered prosthesis, she can walk like a normal person. Once fully charged, it can last for six hours. If power is used conservatively, it can even last a day given one charge. It should meet the daily needs, right? I¡¯ll contact the Boston company.¡± This company¡¯s powered prosthetics laboratory had cooperated with Robert, and Robert had invested a lot of money in it. ¡°Yes, that lewd guy can¡¯t accomplish anything. After so long, he still hasn¡¯t found a suitable powered prosthesis. He¡¯s wasting resources.¡± August grumbled. ¡°More than enough capacity to screw up, but not enough to succeed!¡± Robert added. Anyway, both of them looked down upon the Japanese a bit. Robert and August both spoke Chinese very well, especially Robert. When he suddenly started speaking, it could really surprise people. How could a foreigner speak Chinese so well? Robert was not just talking for fun, he was serious. What Takahashi couldn¡¯t do, he could. ¡°Boss Yu!¡± Robert waved his hand. Yu Shuilian, leaning on her two crutches, came over to Robert. After training, Yu Shuilian could now tuck the two crutches under her armpits and walk solely by supporting her body with the crutches. She had a juggler¡¯s style. Not only could she walk, but she was also quite nimble. ¡°I¡¯ll get you a powered support. Once you put it on, you can walk just like a normal person. How about it?¡± Robert proposed his idea. Yu Shuilian always had a smile on her face. She shook her head, ¡°No, no, no, I heard that those things cost hundreds of thousands at the cheapest, and millions at the most expensive. I can walk with these two crutches.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want your money. It¡¯s free. I¡¯m not lying to you. You can walk normally with this powered prosthesis. It¡¯s rechargeable and one charge can last for six hours.¡± Robert explained to Yu Shuilian. ¡°It¡¯s free? That makes me feel uneasy. I can¡¯t accept that.¡± Yu Shuilian had received a lot of help from Yang Ping. She knew that these two foreigners were Professor Yang¡¯s trainees. If they were helping her, it must be because of Professor Yang. Robert continued to explain, ¡°Free just means no charge. The powered prosthesis is for you to use and in return you give us your feedback, just like a free trial product. We are not giving you the prosthesis, but cooperating with you. This is known by Professor Yang, so don¡¯t worry.¡± Yu Shuilian also knew that Yang Ping had always had this intention but hadn¡¯t found a suitable product yet. Takahashi had even measured some of Yu Shuilian¡¯s data for this, such as the measurement of the amputation site, the size and shape of the residual limb, which muscles remained and how strong those muscles were. Yu Shuilian listened, intending to discuss it with Professor Yang when he came to buy bread. If it was Yang¡¯s intention, she would accept. Chapter 744 - 744 663 Mysterious Invitation ?Chapter 744: Chapter 663: Mysterious Invitation Chapter 744: Chapter 663: Mysterious Invitation After a day full of surgeries, Yang Ping took the time in the afternoon to look over the Southeast Asian plastic surgery case mentioned by Song Zimo. Yang Ping was genuinely disinterested in cosmetic surgery, as its purpose was not treatment or saving lives, which was contrary to his interests. Looking through the case, it turns out that it involved a wealthy Italian girl who was to have plastic surgery. This female patient had been previously disfigured in a car accident and burn, and now needed reconstructive cosmetic surgery. The operation was massive, requiring surgery to virtually the entire body¡ªamounting to the creation of a synthetic beauty. The surgery team was made up of world-class plastic surgeons. Because this surgery was planned to take place in Singapore, perhaps due to a recommendation by Doctor Lin from Singapore, they invited Yang Ping to oversee the orthopedic section of the operation. Orthopedic surgery included lengthening the lower limbs to increase the patient¡¯s height, adjusting leg rotation in or out, fixing overly large angles, adjusting the pelvis; releasing muscles and tendons affected by scar contraction adhesion, recreating various joint functions, and carving and smoothing various bony contours. The paper invitation letter revealed that the surgery would invite a mysterious, world-leading Russian plastic surgery expert to perform most of the surgeries, with the other participants being plastic surgery experts from South Korea, France, and Canada. The lineup was tremendous, and the commission offered was equally high. The details of other experts¡¯ commissions were not disclosed, but the commission given to Yang Ping was eight million US dollars. Not so surprisingly, this is how an Italian tycoon spends money. The treatment objective for this case was not actually cosmetic surgery for a typical person. Instead, it aimed to offer reconstructive surgery for burn and car accident victims, which in many cases involve not only appearance modification but also functional restoration. No wonder Yang Ping was invited to participate in the operation. It was stated in the invitation that this surgery was also supported by several large biotechnology companies, including orthopedic device companies, stem cell biotech companies, and bioengineering technology companies. One of these companies was tasked with providing sufficient skin tissue for reconstructive use. If this was the case, Yang Ping was longing to observe the operation. With such a grand lineup, Yang Ping was curious to know more. Especially that legendary Russian plastic surgeon, who tops the blacklist of underground plastic surgery. What level was he on? What new techniques did he have? Yang Ping had always thought this Russian plastic surgeon was a character from pulp fiction, having never expected that such a person actually existed. However, it was still uncertain whether the person was the same one as rumored. Yang Ping immediately phoned Doctor Lin of Singapore. He said that he knew about the rumors of the operation, but he was not the one who recommended Yang Ping. According to Doctor Lin, the operation was not to take place in Singapore but on a cruise ship in international waters. About that Russian plastic surgeon, Doctor Lin had also heard, but had never met him. Given his position in the world, Doctor Lin was not influential enough to enter this circle. If it was not Doctor Lin who recommended him, then who was it? This cryptic invitation for a surgery taking place on a cruise ship in international waters, coupled with a mysterious vibe, seemed like a criminal activity. Yang Ping did not have such an adventurous curiosity and decided to turn down the operation. Eight million dollars or not, he was not interested even if an extra zero was added to it. Yang Ping put away the invitation, placed the envelope in the drawer, and replied by email that the operation was outside his area of expertise and he declined the invitation! ¡ª Huang Jiacai walked into Yang Ping¡¯s office carrying a box. Thanks to the great help of Professor Su and Professor Liang, Ruixing company quickly secured its place in the market now as a strong force in domestic equipment. Huang Jiacai¡¯s strategic and tactical approach was unerring, almost all the instruments were equipped with their own intellectual property rights. This left the international giants at a stalemate. Meanwhile, the absence of patent fees has caused a rise in the profitability of the products. Soon, phase three clinical trials would be complete, and the spinal external fixators would be ready for the market. Huang Jiacai utilized a patent-free strategy to dominate the market, mainly because Yang Ping had already prepared the second and third generation technologies for the spinal external fixators. This approach allowed the rapid propagation of the free technology. Once the new technology becomes mainstream, the second-generation technology will be able to keep up. Innovation must be swift. Constant innovation that leaves competitors struggling to keep pace is the royal road to success. Ruixing, with ordinary orthopedic devices as its foundation and the spinal external fixator as its ace product line, is about to launch a formidable offense. Moreover, Ruixing is far from satisfied with the domestic market. While stabilizing its position in China, Ruixing plans to enter European, Southeast Asian, and North American markets. Though market expansion hasn¡¯t started yet, Huang Jiacai has already begun laying the groundwork; large quantities of devices have started to apply for admission certificates in these regions. ¡°Professor!¡± Huang Jiacai was standing and talking with a suitcase in hand. Yang Ping asked him to sit down and talk. Huang Jiacai put down his suitcase, poured a cup of tea for Yang Ping, and then for himself. ¡°These are some documents on our company¡¯s products. As per your instructions, I¡¯ve brought them all. We plan to apply for admission certificates for these devices in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia in preparation for future overseas expansion.¡± In Huang Jiacai¡¯s view, going abroad was crucial. If foreign companies could enter the Chinese market and make a profit, why couldn¡¯t Chinese enterprises venture out? Staying domestic wasn¡¯t fulfilling enough. Yang Ping was actually not interested in business affairs, but Huang Jiacai still reported on the company¡¯s operation progress every month. As Huang Jiacai reported, Yang Ping listened quietly, with Huang Jiacai continually refilling his tea. ¡°Our rapid expansion creates a considerable capital shortage. However, President Ning of Anning Group has specifically sought me out and expressed willingness to invest. She doesn¡¯t want many shares and only plans to invest for dividends, not taking part in management. If we agree, she can invest at least 30 billion yuan in total.¡± Yang Ping had already given Huang Jiacai full authority to manage affairs, but for matters of this magnitude, Huang Jiacai still sought Yang Ping¡¯s opinion. Yang Ping didn¡¯t reply, and simply drank his tea. No disagreement meant silent consent. Huang Jiacai continued, ¡°I find this proposal feasible. Anning Group¡¯s financial capacity is unparalleled among domestic private enterprises. If they were to support us, we would have no financing worries. Additionally, in the face of fierce competition, we could fight freely. I¡¯ll settle this matter.¡± ¡°We will open the intellectual property rights of the first-generation spinal external fixator to the world for free and start charging starting with the second generation. The giant international companies might not dare to take action in the Chinese market anymore, but there will definitely be obstacles in the foreign markets. However, we¡¯ve already met with them and indicated that if they cause trouble for us abroad, we will not hesitate to strike back and we¡¯ll make them fall flat in the Chinese market.¡± ¡°Starting now, I plan to set up branches in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. We will hire some Chinese people with local study abroad backgrounds and recruit some local industry elites to prepare for overseas expansion.¡± The base of Ruixing now lies in China, but there already exists a consciousness for ¡®going out to sea¡¯, and they are actively preparing. This proves that Huang Jiacai has great foresight. ¡°For these matters, just proceed according to your plans. Pay special attention to the biological 3D printer, as it is the pinnacle of biological industry equipment in the future. Moreover, it is the core equipment of my new research topic.¡± What Yang Ping cared about the most was this matter. Huang Jiacai is a reliable problem-solver: ¡°I have already set up a research team, and we have been offering high salaries to recruit top talents in this field globally. We have also purchased several top-of-the-line devices on the market for research purposes.¡± ¡°If Anning Group enters the game, the progression of many things will be much faster.¡± Huang Jiacai understood that to move fast, they needed more money, more talents, and he was fully capable of controlling the current pace of the company¡¯s development. Chapter 745 - 745 664 The Protagonist of Street Stall ?Chapter 745: Chapter 664: The Protagonist of Street Stall Literature Chapter 745: Chapter 664: The Protagonist of Street Stall Literature Having sent off Huang Jiacai, Yang Ping took out the invitation again and called Robert and August to his office. These two, one in Europe and the other in the United States, he wondered what they would make of this invitation. August and Robert sat on the sofa in front of Yang Ping¡¯s office desk. Yang Ping passed the envelope in his hand to Robert, ¡°Can you both help me examine this invitation? It mentions a Russian plastic surgery specialist. Rumor has it that he¡¯s the highest paid surgeon in the black market. He charges millions, tens of millions, even up to a billion US dollars per surgery. Does this person really exist?¡± Robert pulled the invitation from the envelope. It was a straightforward bilingual invitation in Chinese and English, nothing special. However, a logo inside the envelope immediately caught Robert¡¯s attention, a circular pattern evolved from a single snake stick. It¡¯s an invitation from the Canadian Langnaife Company, no doubt about it. Robert himself was a contracted doctor with this company, but only a B-class contract. The company is a low-key secretive medical technology firm, with extensive and in-depth collaborations with top-tier doctors worldwide. The doctors contracted with them are divided into B-class and A-class contracts, with the former being ordinary contracts, and the latter being core contracts. Even B-class contracts are only eligible for world-class doctors, whereas A-class contracts are extremely rare, for instance, the legendary top expert from Germany, Schalit, is rumored to be under an A-class contract with the company. If it¡¯s an invitation from this company, the Russian plastic surgeon mentioned must be the famous Professor Ivan. ¡°The chief surgeon they mentioned here is indeed the legendary Russian plastic surgery specialist known as Dr. Ivan. His real life story has been adapted into many street literature, and it¡¯s been made more and more mythical over time,¡± Robert was somewhat familiar with him. Turns out it was not all romance novels creating fictions out of thin air, the stories were originally based on the actual experiences of this professor. Yang Ping had never imagined that Dr. Ivan was a real person. ¡°Does there really exist such thing as black market surgery in the world?¡± Yang Ping was confused as to how surgical operations, which are part of medical practices, could possibly be conducted on the black market. Robert passed the envelope to August and nodded, ¡°Ordinary surgeries couldn¡¯t make it to the black market. However, two types of surgeries indeed exist in the black market, one being plastic surgery and the other organ transplant. These surgeries are carried out in the dark due to various reasons. For instance, some criminals seek plastic surgery in order to evade pursuit; they wouldn¡¯t be able to undergo these surgeries openly. And organ transplants might involve illegal organ trafficking, which also needs to be done in the dark.¡± ¡°But the surgery they¡¯re inviting you for is definitely not one of those black-market surgeries. If I¡¯m not mistaken, this surgery is a super-large scale operation organized by the Langnaife Company. Only this company can ensure its success because they can mobilize top-notch medical resources worldwide. This surgery might involve techniques not approved by any country¡¯s laws, therefore, they¡¯ve found an unusual way to perform surgery on a medical ship in international waters. This approach mainly avoids legal issues and is a usual tactic by Langnaife.¡± ¡°These medical ships are extremely expensive to build, costing tens of billions of US dollars. With its operating rooms, equipment and medical teams, it eclipses even the top hospitals on land. Despite being a B-class contracted doctor with this company, which is mystery to most due to its secretive nature, powerful, and criticized for supposedly getting involved in black-market surgeries, it has chosen to appear in the identity of an integrator of medical black technologies this year.¡± Indeed, Robert has seen the world, and Yang Ping had never even heard of the existence of this company. ¡°So that means, this Russian doctor isn¡¯t just a fictional character from a novel but actually exists?¡± Yang Ping was quite interested in this doctor. ¡°Exactly! He does really exist. He is a Chief Plastic Surgery Specialist with Langnaife Company under an A-class contract. Codenamed Ivan, he has an entire medical team including doctors, nurses, bodyguards, and logistics support staff. The company also provides strong support for him. His story is so incredible that many street literature works love to use him as the main character to satisfy the readers¡¯ curiosity.¡± ¡°Langnaife, how come I¡¯ve never heard of this company?¡± Yang Ping pondered deeply, hearing about this company for the first time. August picked up the conversation and said: ¡°Ironically, they also issued me a B contract. To be precise, Langnaife is more of a medical organization with the guise of a company. I know Professor Manstein from Charite is one of them and also holds an A-level contract. The existence of this organization aims ultimate towards longevity, akin to Emperor Qin Shi Huang¡¯s personal alchemist. But in reality, much of their work is to extend the lives of the world¡¯s top magnates. They attract top medical talents to join, collaborate, and pool resources. Their organizational capabilities are incredibly strong. For instance, the daughter of this Italian tycoon, if placed in an ordinary hospital, the outcome might be unsatisfactory. But if Langnaife can have Professor Ivan perform plastic surgery and invite you to do orthopedic adjustments, while using top-tier skin cultivated through world-leading tissue engineering, the chances of a successful operation will be significant. In short, they can integrate the most potent medical resources in the world, with astonishing efficiency. Think about it, an operation can easily cost hundreds of millions, or even billions of U.S. dollars ¨C how could it not be efficient?¡± So, Langnaife Company isn¡¯t some illegal organization, but a provider of high-end medical services? Yang Ping thought it might be some kind of black market surgery, performing operations on medical ships in international waters like some gambling vessels. His intuition about this company wasn¡¯t very good. ¡°Langnaife seizes profits through exorbitant service fees and then subsidizes various medical research projects. The Duke Foundation is one of its shareholders, as far as I know. In short, this company is quite old-fashioned and has a bit of a secret organization style. ¡± August provided whatever information he had. ¡°How do they know about me, and what do they want me for? I am not one of their contracted doctors.¡± Yang Ping found it very strange. Robert chuckled, ¡°Their attention to the world¡¯s top medical talents exceeds that of any other organization or individual. Not being a contracted doctor does not prevent them from inviting you. Contracted doctors usually start with the first invitation. Doctors invited by this company receive incredibly high commissions, and it has a good reputation within the industry. There will be no legal risks. For example, A-level doctors can enjoy various robust assistance they provide. Imagine, many of the world¡¯s top tycoons are their members. While these members enjoy top-tier medical services, they also have to fulfill some obligations, providing various kinds of support to the company¡¯s contracted doctors.¡± ¡°For instance, if a contracted doctor gets embroiled into a legal risk in a certain country, no matter the cause, the members will provide unlimited support to help the doctor out of the predicament.¡± Yang Ping, listening all this, felt like he was in a novel, was this what they talked about as the global omnipotent black card in the legends of roadside stall culture? Through Robert and August¡¯s explanations, Yang Ping more or less understood the background of this invitation. At this point, he was even less interested in accepting it. Yang Ping was just a simple doctor, and this was cosmetic surgery, not life-saving. Besides, who knew who would be the subject of the plastic surgery. Once on the sea, he wouldn¡¯t be in control. They talk about some Italian tycoon¡¯s daughter, is it really so? Besides, this company seemed a bit like a secret organization. As a good socialist youth, he didn¡¯t want to join these unidentified organizations, even if they are academic. ¡°Ordinary people can¡¯t get such an invitation, professor. Don¡¯t you want to give it a try? Rest assured, it¡¯s safe. Because their Asian division headquarters is in Singapore, the invitation was sent out from there. ¡± Robert had a penchant for novelty. It would be a pity not to participate in such a large-scale operation, especially when Dr. Ivan would be the chief surgeon. The protagonist in roadside stall literature, often leads people to various speculations. Although Robert is a contracted doctor of Langnaife, he has never met Dr. Ivan. ¡°I really have no interest. Somehow, it feels a bit like I¡¯m boarding a pirate ship.¡± Yang Ping explained. He just wants to be a simple, ordinary doctor, and it¡¯s best to have fewer encounters with unusual things. Chapter 746 - 746 665 - The greater the ability the larger ?Chapter 746: Chapter 665 ¨C The greater the ability, the larger the world! Chapter 746: Chapter 665 ¨C The greater the ability, the larger the world! Although Yang Ping was not interested in this surgery, he wanted to discuss the matter with Director Han. Invitation in hand, he went to Director Han¡¯s office. Director Han, knowing that he had already returned from Xiehe Hospital, wanted to chat with him over tea, as they didn¡¯t get many chances to meet often now. Yang Ping handed the invitation to Director Han, who only gave it a quick glance and put the matter aside: ¡°Let¡¯s not rush. Let¡¯s have a few cups of tea and chat.¡± West Lake Longjing was naturally Director Han¡¯s favorite tea. The scent of the tea wafted all around the office. After a few cups of tea between the mentor and his doctoral student, Director Han began to speak with serious emphasis: ¡°The greater the capability, the larger the world! You are not an ordinary person, but a medical genius. As your abilities improve, your world will expand further, and becoming so large that we can¡¯t reach your realm. Therefore, there are some things for which I cannot give you any guidance. However, there is one principle that I strongly agree with you: do your own duty!¡± ¡°Do you know why Dean Xia and I have never interfered with your work and only provided assistance and support? It is because, you have now reached a level where your ideas and actions surpass our ability to judge. If we interfere with your work, it would be like shackling you.¡± ¡°For example, if you want to perform a surgery that others believe you have never done before, they would consider it reckless and against medical norms and would try to prevent it. This is the thought process and judgement of ordinary people. What an extraordinary person, like yourself, is capable of doing and how they think is beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. We are also ordinary people and hence cannot make judgments. However, some facts have proven that many of the surgeries you have never performed before are not only successful but also extremely well done. That¡¯s why we don¡¯t make judgments. Whatever you want to do, we will support.¡± Director Han took the envelope and handed it back to Yang Ping, ¡°This invitation letter, you have to judge for yourself. In the future, many things would have to be judged by you. Genius is lonely, but no matter what, Dean Xia, Sanbo Hospital, and I will always be your strong backing. This is your home. Let¡¯s drink tea!¡± The greater the ability, the larger the world! Yang Ping repeatedly pondered over this sentence, yes, the greater the ability, the larger the world becomes. Drink tea! Yang Ping took a sip of his tea, the aroma penetrated into his heart, very soothing. ¡°During this visit to Xiehe, I visited Professor Liang, and even managed to get a meal at his place.¡± Yang Ping briefly introduced his trip to Beijing. Director Han refilled Yang Ping¡¯s tea, ¡°Honestly, the old generation has one thing in common¡ªpurity! This characteristic is increasingly rare nowadays. I can tell from Professor Liang¡¯s attitude towards you. He loves talent and cherishes it. Originally, he wanted to poach you to Xiehe. But after visiting Sanbo Hospital, he realized that Xiehe was not the best choice for you. So even if you stay in Sanbo, he is happy. His wishes are simple. As long as you don¡¯t go abroad, he is content.¡± ¡°You probably don¡¯t know. In order to make way for your spinal external fixation frame, he forcibly stopped his own experiment. At that time, his experiment was in a critical period. Those experimental monkeys for scoliosis were originally prepared for his own experiment, and all were given to your experiment. To create an experimental monkey for scoliosis takes at least a year, some take two years, three years, and some take even longer.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t know about this at the time, and was deeply moved when he found out later. ¡°You know about Professor Liang¡¯s student, Zhang Chunquan, right?¡± Director Han asked. Yang Ping nodded, he knew and was very familiar with the story. ¡°This has broken the old man¡¯s heart. The current breakthrough in stem cell research in the United States, he contributed half, and the other half can be attributed to his mentor. But concerning the restrictions on Chinese visits, he contributes seventy percent.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t quite understand this. Director Han continued: ¡°At that time, his American mentor had no intention of restricting Chinese teams from visiting. Americans thought that China was far behind in the field of stem cell research and a visit would cause no harm, as they would not be competitors in the future. But Zhang Chunquan knew Chinese research very well. He knew that once the Chinese visited, they could easily grasp the technology and then compete academically with the United States. Therefore, he strongly advised his mentor to restrict Chinese visits to prevent a technology leak.¡± Yang Ping gasped, no wonder Professor Liang was so heartbroken and bedridden for three days. ¡°This is something Professor Liang would definitely not tell you because it¡¯s too painful. One of my classmates working in America told me about it.¡± Director Han continued to chat as he made tea. Indeed, neither Professor Liang nor Director Hu had mentioned this to Yang Ping. ¡°I only knew that Professor Liang was very hurt and fell ill because of it, and did not know these details.¡± Yang Ping picked up his teacup with both hands to receive the tea from Director Han. ¡°It¡¯s not a big deal. It¡¯s human nature. As long as we work hard, there will be a day when talents from all over the world will flock to us. This is also a reflection of ¡®the greater the ability, the larger the world¡¯. If his abilities improve, his choices will naturally increase. Let¡¯s drink tea!¡± Old Han said cheerfully. Drink tea! The greater the ability, the larger the world! Yang Ping savored this sentence once again. During the chat, Professor Yao from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One¡¯s Organ Transplant Center called, asking when Yang Ping would have time to come to Affiliated One for surgical guidance, specifically on ischemia-free transplantation techniques. The technique of ischemia-free transplantation was Professor Yao¡¯s innovation, and now Professor Yao is having him guide the surgery. Such an honor! Yang Ping was unable to confirm a time at the moment and could only tell Professor Yao that he would let him know once he confirmed his schedule. ¡ª Professor Yao, not too old, only forty-two, had just become the director of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One¡¯s Organ Transplant Center. At forty-two, this is the golden age for doctors, from thirty-five to fifty-five, these twenty years are the golden ages for doctors. Professor Yao went through the email again, there was no mistake, this was an email from Professor Li Zehui of the American Cleveland Medical Center. The email also mentioned that the official paper invitation was already sent, telling Professor Yao to keep an eye out for it. Unexpectedly, Professor Yang was not exaggerating, he had really helped contact the Cleveland Medical Center. The Cleveland Medical Center, which is the sanctuary of cardiac surgery, and the world-famous cardiac surgeon Professor Li Zehui, actually replied personally, inviting him to give a lecture. Professor Yao paced back and forth in his office, unable to contain his excitement. After publishing his paper for so long, no one had invited him to give a lecture, and now the Cleveland Medical Center invited him. Going to give a lecture at the Cleveland Medical Center, as a cardiac surgeon, he knew what that meant. This meant soaring to the skies! This meant that the world¡¯s top heart center recognized his technology! This means he was going to step onto the world stage! Oh my, why was he so excited, he couldn¡¯t contain himself! Professor Yao clenched his fists tightly. All thanks to Professor Yang¡¯s help, it was stated clearly by Professor Li Zehui in his letter: ¡°On behalf of the Cleveland Medical Center, I invite you¡ªdue to the recommendation of my respected Chinese mentor, Professor Yang Ping.¡± The email even contained both Chinese and English versions, showing great sincerity! Wait, Professor Yao looked at the email again, scrutinizing every single word and Chinese character! That¡¯s right! My respected Chinese mentor, Professor Yang Ping? What kind of relationship was that? If the email were only in English, one might assume it was an ambiguous term, but there was also the Chinese translation ¨C how could it be a mentorship? No matter how you look at it, it doesn¡¯t fit into this kind of relationship. Professor Yang is so young, Li Zehui had already been famous for such a long time, much older than Professor Yang, how could Professor Yang possibly be his mentor? Besides, Yang Ping had only recently been promoted to associate professor at Nandu Medical University, not even being a master¡¯s thesis advisor, and Li Zehui had always been educated in the United States, he couldn¡¯t possibly be a student of Yang Ping and their specialties don¡¯t even match. Although Yang Ping was impressive, he couldn¡¯t possibly be Li Zehui¡¯s mentor¡ª at most they were friends. Probably a mistranslation in English caused the error. Professor Yao picked up his mobile phone and saw Yang Ping¡¯s reply. He was looking forward to Yang Ping coming to Affiliated One for the surgery, to teach him the enhanced version of ischemia-free transplantation techniques. When he receives the official invitation, Professor Yao decided to arrange the time with Professor Li and give a lecture in the sanctuary of global cardiac surgery. Chapter 747 - 747 666 Urging for Manuscript Review ?Chapter 747: Chapter 666: Urging for Manuscript Review Chapter 747: Chapter 666: Urging for Manuscript Review The adviser and the PhD student drank one cup of tea after another, and their conversation topics grew increasingly more diverse. ¡°When will your external spinal brace paper be published? As soon as it¡¯s published, I¡¯ll help you apply for early graduation. Nandu Medical University is part of us now, so it¡¯s easier to negotiate.¡± Director Han rarely took time to sit down and chat with Yang Ping. Yang Ping has completed all the doctoral courses, which means he has systematically completed his doctoral training. The achievement of the external spinal brace is world-class, with the paper published in top-tier journals. If he follows the routine and graduates only after three years, it¡¯s simply a waste of talent. ¡°I¡¯ve only been in this program for a year? Don¡¯t you think graduation would be too soon?¡± Yang Ping joked. Director Han said on purpose, ¡°Fine, if you think it¡¯s too soon, let¡¯s complete the whole three years, maybe even extend it!¡± It¡¯s very common for PhD students to extend their graduation time. Many advisers hold their PhD students back, prolonging their stay year after year, rendering their graduation seemingly impossible. Graduating after only a year is something many PhD students wouldn¡¯t even dare to dream about. ¡°No, no. Let me graduate early. That way, the next time we have tea, I¡¯ll be braver in taking your tea leaves. At present, I dare not take any of your West Lake Longjing tea for fear you won¡¯t let me graduate.¡± Yang Ping quickly rephrased his words. Director Han gave his tea canister on the table a look, quickly put it away, and locked it in the drawer before feeling relieved. ¡°Stop dreaming about this canister of Longjing tea. It¡¯s priceless. It¡¯s already generous enough for me to let you drink it. Last time, Old Zhao was so eager to get it that I had to hide this canister and gave him another one. Now, he keeps coming here for tea, but I never let him have any of this.¡± I mean, if my graduation wasn¡¯t in your hands, I wouldn¡¯t hesitate to snatch it now. ¡°My paper has been submitted, but the review period may be a bit long. I heard it could take more than a hundred days; achieving the goal of graduating within a year is difficult.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t seem anxious. His phone vibrated again. It was Professor Yao from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Old Yao just wouldn¡¯t leave him alone. [I¡¯ll figure out a way to solve your qualification for organ transplant surgery. Could you please confirm your arrival date at the First Affiliated Hospital as soon as possible? Thanks!] Old Yao texted.. There¡¯s no helping it. He is from the First Affiliated Hospital after all. Yang Ping could only confirm a specific date. [Either this Saturday or Sunday is fine.] Professor Yao responded promptly, [Okay, let it be Saturday!] ¡°Nandu Medical University is waiting for your doctorate degree to apply for the Outstanding Young Talent for you. You have to push it. Urge them to expedite the review,¡± Director Han added, replenishing the tea pot. I¡¯ve heard of urging for updates, but not urging for reviews. ¡°How to urge?¡± Without even thinking, Director Han suggested, ¡°Send them razor blades!¡± You¡¯re impressive, I must say! ¡°I must go back and ask August. Only after knowing who¡¯s reviewing the medical submissions for Science Journal can I know where to send the blades.¡± Yang Ping finished his last cup of tea, bid Director Han goodbye. ¡ª When he returned to the Comprehensive Surgery Department, August, Robert, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang were still discussing the case ¨C not the medical case, but how to peel shrimp with chopsticks. I don¡¯t know why these two foreigners also took an interest in this skill, clamoring for Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang to teach them. They were clumsy even with using chopsticks, yet they wished to learn to peel shrimp with them. Yang Ping took a seat on the chair to the side and waved. ¡°Dr. Ao!¡± Upon hearing this, August hurried over eagerly, ¡°Professor, how may I help you? Dr. Au is at your service even if you need me to climb a mountain of knives or descend into a sea of fires!¡± ¡°It¡¯s not as serious as that. No need to climb a mountain of knives or descend into a sea of fires. I¡¯m planning on graduating early, and to do that I need one thing: the publication of my external spinal brace paper. We submitted that paper to Science. I heard that they take an average of over a hundred days to review, which is too slow. Could you help me urge them? Today, my adviser told me that if my paper gets published, I should immediately graduate early. He even suggested that I should send the reviewers razor blades!¡± Yang Ping explained his predicament clearly. Dr. Ao pondered for a while after hearing this. ¡°So you submitted to Science, not Spine?¡± Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Yes, to Science magazine.¡± Dr. Ao thought again, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me earlier? There¡¯s been a misunderstanding. Manstein from Charite? Hospital is the main reviewer for medical and biological articles for Science, but if it involves the spine, he sometimes passes it to me for help, though this is not always the case.¡± ¡°Is it you?¡± ¡°Dr. Au, are you a reviewer of the Science?¡± Yang Ping¡¯s eyes widened. August nodded, ¡°There are only thirty-one reviewers. More than ten of them specialize in medical and biological fields, many of whom are Nobel laureates. Manstein is the main reviewer in those areas. Luckily, I also happen to be one of the reviewers.¡± ¡°Where are you staying right now?¡± Yang Ping asked with a mischievous smile. August was nonplussed, ¡°In the hospital dormitory, of course!¡± ¡°Fine. Dr. Au, I have no choice but to send a box of razor blades to you tonight. You figure out what to do with it.¡± Song Zimo patted August on the shoulder. ¡°No, Professor¡ªThe manuscript hasn¡¯t arrived at my hands yet. Otherwise, I would have known. That Manstein! His reviewing speed is as slow as a turtle¡¯s.¡± August wore a face of grievances. Robert immediately suggested a solution to August, ¡°Then you should send him the blades!¡± ¡°Dangerous goods cannot be sent across the border!¡± After a grand roundabout, it turned out that the reviewer was right here with us. What a twist! If it were any other time, August definitely wouldn¡¯t dare rush Manstein. Even if he got scolded by him, he wouldn¡¯t dare to backtalk. Now, it appeared that it was time for August to stand tall and speak out. ¡°Professor, leave this to me. I¡¯ve been putting up with that guy for a long time. The manuscript is surely with him now. With his speed, it wouldn¡¯t be until next spring. I know him well. I can find a way to get him to review it sooner, but you have to teach me how to peel shrimp with chopsticks.¡± ¡°What does that have to do with you expediting the review?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t understand. August gave a mysterious smile, ¡°Of course, it does. Once you teach me, I¡¯ll make a trip back to Germany. I assure you he will expedite the review.¡± ¡°Okay! Zimo, you teach Dr. Au how to use chopsticks to eat noodles first.¡± ¡°I have to teach him how to use chopsticks to eat noodles? Forget it, it would be better to teach him surgery.¡± Song Zimo shook his head. Robert jumped in to encourage Song Zimo, ¡°Nothing is difficult for a willing heart. Don¡¯t worry, we can learn.¡± Song Zimo gave an awkward smile, ¡°Sure, you can learn, but I worry that... Well, perhaps we should just patiently wait for Manstein to review the manuscript? At least, we still have hope by next spring.¡± ¡°Who are you looking down on? Learn to peel shrimp with chopsticks in three months? No, in one month! Learn how to use chopsticks in one week!¡± August protested indignantly. ¡°One week? Are you sure you can learn how to use chopsticks in one week? Then I will only teach you for one week,¡± Song Zimo stated. Chapter 748 - 748 667 One Of Us ?Chapter 748: Chapter 667: One Of Us Chapter 748: Chapter 667: One Of Us In the following days, August and Robert began practicing with chopsticks. In their eyes, using chopsticks was a secret to performing successful surgeries. They even thought of it as some sort of undisclosed advanced skill Yang Ping had. They felt their surgeries were always far behind Yang Ping¡¯s, and the source of it, they believed, was the chopsticks. Therefore, they tried their utmost during their training. Moreover, August had another arduous task ¨C to persuade Manstein to review papers early. Manstein was a stubborn and eccentric individual who only trusted himself, making it hard for him to be convinced. He would not play into August¡¯s hands. Robert was very helpful. He had begun preparations for a custom dynamic brace for Yu Shuilian. Based on Robert¡¯s suggestions, Boston Dynamics was making a custom dynamic brace for Yu Shuilian. What Takahashi couldn¡¯t accomplish, Robert succeeded in doing, scoring additional points for himself in the process. Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun were getting ready to be discharged from the hospital. In the afternoon, after completing a surgery, Yang Ping came to the Organ Transplant Center to visit them. Just then, Professor Yao from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One also came to visit Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun. They were the first patients to undergo the enhanced vascular preservation transplant surgery, so Professor Yao planned to follow up on them. When Yang Ping arrived at the Organ Transplant Center, as Professor Yao, Director Liu, and Director Li were discussing the cases of Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun, they immediately accompanied Yang Ping to the ward when he walked in. Professor Yao followed Yang Ping, showing great respect. This young man, who managed to receive an invitation to lecture at Cleveland Medical Center, held tremendous power. The four arrived at the ward to see Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun packing their belongings. Their various bags were sorted, ready for their discharge. Their spirits were high, Li Jun could now avoid dialysis, his complexion was healthier, it wasn¡¯t pale anymore, instead, slightly rosy. Qin Xiaowei was a little thinner than before, but he was still radiant. Having suffered from illness, he no longer held his previous sharpness, instead, he appeared more peaceful. In the future, he wouldn¡¯t have to worry much about his livelihood. After this incident, he became a highly sought-after spokesperson for extreme sports. Not only was he offered a huge sum to become a brand ambassador for Champions League, but many other companies also wanted him for their advertisements. Becoming famous had seemingly made money-making easy for him. Seeing Li Jun and Qin Xiaowei safe and sound gave Yang Ping a sense of accomplishment. For a doctor, there wasn¡¯t any greater sense of achievement than saving a person¡¯s life. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun greeted together. Li Jun, who usually wasn¡¯t good with words and only used to smile, took the initiative to greet this time. They weren¡¯t highly educated but they knew how to be grateful. As a token of his gratitude, Qin Xiaowei donated two million to Yang Ping¡¯s Research Fund. ¡°You¡¯re looking quite well. After you¡¯re discharged, take care of yourselves. You can¡¯t be reckless as before, moderate exercise is the best way,¡± Yang Ping said while observing Qin Xiaowei. ¡°What are your plans for the future?¡± Yang Ping asked them. Li Jun remained his usual smiling self and didn¡¯t speak. Qin Xiaowei said, ¡°He¡¯s going back to playing guitar and singing at the bar. As for me, if I can¡¯t rock climb, I would still like to continue with work related to extreme sports.¡± ¡°Stay in touch with us for regular check-ups. Quit smoking and drinking, don¡¯t stay up late. In short, be disciplined in order to stay healthy.¡± Yang Ping advised them. Boss Zhou and Along of Champions League came to accompany Qin Xiaowei and Li Jun during their discharge. They brought a few employees to help with their belongings. Seeing the doctors making rounds, they waited in the corridor. Boss Zhou couldn¡¯t stop smiling. Qin Xiaowei¡¯s rock climbing event brought significant fame to their company. Their stocks also surged and remained on a high, resulting in a fortune for Along. ¡°We¡¯re conducting a study regarding the post-operation quality of life in organ transplantation patients. We¡¯re studying if these patients can partake in physical activities, whether it is good or harmful, and which activities are suitable for them. Qin Xiaowei, I suggest you stay in touch with our doctors. You could contribute to improving the quality of life for organ transplantation patients.¡± Professor Yao thought Qin Xiaowei¡¯s participation in the study would be very suitable, since he liked exercising. Professor Yao¡¯s research team had been working on improving the quality of life for organ transplant recipients. All right, Professor Yao, you can arrange it when the time comes. I will cooperate fully. We both live in this city and I can go to the hospital for check-ups anytime,¡± We said optimistically, he loved sports. Yang Ping gave Qin Xiaowei further instructions before returning to the doctor¡¯s office. Professor Yao took advantage of a brief spare moment and discreetly said, ¡°Professor Yang, I received the invitation from Cleveland Medical Center to lecture. I¡¯m very grateful for your recommendation.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome!¡± Yang Ping felt that Professor Yao¡¯s technique should be shared with the world. Now, when facing Yang Ping, Professor Yao found it hard to see him as a young professor, but more as a mentor. Without Yang Ping¡¯s recommendation, Professor Yao may have never had the opportunity to lecture at the Cleveland Medical Center. After receiving the invitation, Professor Yao, being cautious, did not immediately ask Yang Ping to come to Affiliated One and share the enhanced vascular preservation transplant technique. Instead, he spoke to Professor Zhou from Orthopedics about Yang Ping¡¯s situation, knowing that Yang Ping was closely associated with Orthopedics. Professor Zhou said that Yang Ping was a friendly colleague and that there was no need for formalities. Since Professor Zhou was this confident, Professor Yao took this opportunity during the patient¡¯s visit to have a private conversation with Yang Ping, requesting him to teach him the enhanced vascular preservation transplant technique as soon as possible. If he were to go to the Cleveland Center and give a lecture, he would definitely deliver the enhanced version. The original version was not as mature. The upgraded version was far more advanced than the original, and there were some details that Yang Ping had to personally teach. Professor Yao hoped to grasp the technique as fast as possible. ¡°When is it convenient for you to come to Affiliated One and guide me through the surgery?¡± Professor Yao asked, very seriously and respectfully. ¡°You let me know when it¡¯s convenient for you and I can come to help anytime.¡± Yang Ping was very courteous towards the people from Affiliated One, as it was his father-in-law¡¯s territory. Moreover, the enhanced vascular preservation transplant technique should ideally be taught first to Professor Yao, as he was the original innovator. Organ transplants often had to be performed as emergency procedures because as soon as a suitable donor was found, it had to be performed immediately, hence it couldn¡¯t be scheduled. ¡°Then I¡¯ll have to trouble Professor Yang. Whenever we have a surgery, I¡¯ll give you a call?¡± Professor Yao was surprised at how readily Yang Ping agreed. Professor Zhou was right, this young professor was a colleague indeed. However, Professor Yao was yet to realize the deeper implications of being a colleague. ¡°When we have a surgery on this side, you can also come and observe. We can work together,¡± Director Liu invited Professor Yao. ¡°Fine, we can learn together.¡± ¡°I now have a patient with a rare blood type undergoing dialysis. I fear we may have to perform ABO incompatible transplant. Would you like to spare some time to have a look, Professor Yang?¡± Professor Yao was worrying about this particular case. Chapter 749 - 749 668 Getting a Certificate ?Chapter 749: Chapter 668: Getting a Certificate Chapter 749: Chapter 668: Getting a Certificate Speaking of the case, Yang Ping was very interested. ¡°Send me the information and I will take time to visit.¡± Upon hearing Yang Ping¡¯s agreement, Professor Yao was delighted. With Professor Yang co-researching this case, it was highly likely they could find a solution. The Nandu Medical University-affiliated hospital is one of the few domestic hospitals that has mastered the technique of organ transplant between different blood types. Professor Yao had previously handled several such cases, though the majority were liver and kidney transplants. There was no precedent for heart transplants yet, hence they were still exploring. The key technique in organ transplantation between different blood types was the ¡°three-step blood washing method.¡± The first step was double-membrane filtration of plasma: helping the patient filter out clotting factors and some antibodies in the blood by filtration. The second step was to use special drugs to clear the corresponding antibodies in the patient¡¯s blood: since blood antibodies are produced by human B lymphocytes, these are killed off with drugs, thus significantly reducing the antibody content in the patient¡¯s blood plasma in a short time. The third step was whole plasma replacement for the patient, using approximately 3500 milliliters of plasma corresponding to the transplanted organ. Professor Yao had not only mastered these techniques but was also highly proficient at them. However, the current case might require an even more advanced technique than the three-step blood washing method. Yang Ping looked at the schedule and realized it was tight. ¡°The patient has a dilated cardiomyopathy with myocardium so thin it¡¯s like a piece of paper. I¡¯m afraid he can¡¯t wait much longer?¡± Professor Yao was quite anxious. Upon hearing the urgency of the case, Yang Ping said, ¡°Send the medical records to my email as soon as possible. I¡¯ll squeeze in some time tomorrow morning to see it.¡± ¡°Should I come to pick you up tomorrow morning?¡± Professor Yao asked as he was leaving. Yang Ping shook his head and said, ¡°No need, I¡¯ll go myself.¡± ¡ª In the evening, Yang Ping and Xiao Su went to the supermarket in their community to buy a few grocery items. Usually, when shopping, Yang Ping played the role of a load carrier, following behind Xiao Su. Unless there were special circumstances, they usually ate at home. Xiao Su, no stranger to hard work, would cook several dishes, even for just the two of them. Each dish was small in size, but she always diversified her cooking. While Xiao Su was busy washing and cooking, Yang Ping would be in his study room, checking out the medical records sent by Professor Yao on his computer. The patient, a 45-year-old male with dilated cardiomyopathy, had a left ventricular diameter, as indicated by a cardiac ultrasound, expanded to 76 mm. The ventricular diameter of a normal person is around 45 mm, and in addition, the patient¡¯s heart volume was more than twice the size of a normal person¡¯s. His heart was functioning terribly, with left ventricular ejection fraction dropped to 28%, while in a normal person, it is at least 50%. With such a terrible heart function, indeed the myocardium was thin as a piece of paper and couldn¡¯t be sustained for much longer. The patient had been hospitalized and was actively undergoing heart failure treatment. However, his body¡¯s circulatory system was fluctuating, his internal environment was disordered, and he needed dopamine and norepinephrine to maintain his blood pressure. Professor Yao had already installed an intra-aortic balloon pump for the patient to assist the left ventricle in order to barely maintain some functionality. ¡°Dinner¡¯s ready!¡± Xiao Su called out from the study room, pulling Yang Ping out of his thoughts. Their meals might be simple, but Xiao Su never compromised. She prepared three dishes and a soup, and she was an excellent cook. By now, Yang Ping had gotten used to her meals, and he would feel uncomfortable if he didn¡¯t eat them for a few days. ¡°Yesterday when I went home, my mom solemnly handed me our household register. I asked her what she was doing, and my mother said that since I¡¯m grown up now, I need to manage the household register myself.¡± Xiao Su said while they were eating. Is there such a rule that when a daughter grows up, she needs to manage her own household register? At the time, Xiao Su asked her dad, who said he hadn¡¯t heard of such a rule? Her dad replied, ¡°This is a rule at home. Your mom makes the rules at home. She told you to manage it, so you should.¡± ¡°After thinking about it later, was this a gentle way of urging me to get married? To push me into marriage?¡± The two had been trying to pick a date to get their marriage certificate but kept forgetting about this important matter due to their busy schedules. According to Professor Su and Mrs. Su¡¯s opinions, the two were busy with work and their careers, so they should get the certificate first and then make up the wedding later. All traditional hassles could be avoided. However, Yang Ping felt it wasn¡¯t fair to Xiao Su to just simply get a certificate. But it would be better to get the certificate earlier to give Su a sense of security, and the wedding could be made up for later. Yang Ping was usually busy with work, surgery, and research, and Xiao Su never complained, being very understanding. She had indeed found the right person. However, being together every day at work could also be considered as being in each other¡¯s company Being a doctor is a unique profession, one where misunderstanding can lead to conflicts, especially for doctors in big hospitals¡ªthey are swamped with work. For example, in the big hospitals like Xiehe, for the first five years of employment, one should not even think about dating. The job requires their presence in the hospital daily from six in the morning till nine at night, 365 days a year. Who could endure such a boyfriend or girlfriend? Being busy in their youth, and then, when they grow older and become experts, they are still busy. Many senior surgeons operate everyday from morning till night, non-stop. Upon hearing Xiao Su¡¯s words, Yang Ping gently puts down his chopsticks and gazes at Xiao Su with affection: ¡°How about we get married tomorrow?¡± Xiao Su looks at Yang Ping who devotes his days to surgical research. Is this a proposal? She nods, ¡°We should take one hour off tomorrow morning to get our wedding certificate!¡± ¡°I just feel guilty. Getting married is a big deal, and we are accomplishing it so simply,¡± Yang Ping shares his thoughts. Shouldn¡¯t there at least be a room full of roses? A marriage proposal ceremony? Aren¡¯t ceremonies important? Xiao Su laughs and replies: ¡°Ceremonies are superficial. They are just a comfort for the heart and a sign of hope. We don¡¯t need them. I am truly uninterested in them. We will take an hour off tomorrow and receive our wedding certificate.¡± ¡°Hmm! I will definitely give you a unique wedding ceremony in the future.¡± ¡°Hmm! I don¡¯t care about these things.¡± Yang Ping took Xiao Su¡¯s hand, and they shared a beautiful moment. ¡ª The next day, after their shifts, they both took time off, drove to the Civil Affairs Bureau and collected their marriage certificate. Hand in hand, they emerged from the Civil Affairs Bureau holding their bright red wedding certificate. ¡°Husband!¡± ¡°Wife!¡± They both laughed, holding hands and walked toward the parking lot, got in the car and headed back to the hospital. While they were still in the car, Yang Ping received a phone call from Director Zhou of the Scientific Education Department. His new topic¡ªcultivating muscles using stem cells¡ªhad received approval from the national authority. Yang Ping had started researching the topic long before, using his own grant money. Sanbo Hospital had also helped him apply for national funds. Although they weren¡¯t substantial, they were still meaningful. For example, every year the hospital and department appraisals include the number of national-level projects. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t concerned about these, but the hospital, department, and team needed them. ¡°It¡¯s a coincidence. The day we obtained our marriage certificate, our new project also received national approval,¡± said Yang Ping with a smile. Xiao Su had higher expectations of her husband: ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that you would give me a special wedding? You should get a major award for this project.¡± ¡°A Nobel? How about that?¡± Yang Ping teased. Xiao Su responded seriously, ¡°You said it, so it¡¯s going to happen. You will present me a Nobel Prize at our wedding.¡± Xiao Su believed that, given her husband¡¯s abilities, aiming for a Nobel Prize in the future wasn¡¯t far-fetched. They both felt sweet happiness during the journey. They were not just boyfriend and girlfriend anymore, but a real husband and wife. Before, they were driving without a license. Now, with their wedding certificate, they felt an entirely different sense of confirmation. ¡°We¡ªshould tour around then have a meal somewhere to celebrate my good fortune in finding such a great wife and your luck in finding such a good husband.¡± ¡°Vanity! I¡¯d rather cook at home. The hygiene conditions outside aren¡¯t good and it¡¯s not healthy; we should eat out less,¡± Xiao Su disagreed. ¡°I forgot. I have to go to the hospital today. Professor Yao has a special patient and wants me to take a look,¡± Yang Ping recalled his arrangement with Professor Yao from yesterday. ¡°You should go as fast as you can. Drop me off at the hospital and then head straight to see the patient. Did you arrange everything with the department? Will you be back for dinner tonight?¡± Xiao Su asked with concern. ¡°Hmm, I will definitely be back. Today is a special day, after all.¡± Chapter 750 - 750 669 Cross-Blood Type Heart Transplant ?Chapter 750: Chapter 669: Cross-Blood Type Heart Transplant Chapter 750: Chapter 669: Cross-Blood Type Heart Transplant Yang Ping dropped off his wife at the entrance of Sanbo Hospital and then drove to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. He is quite familiar with Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. After parking his car, he called Professor Yao, who immediately came downstairs to greet Yang Ping. The organ transplant center at Nandu Affiliated Hospital has a high reputation because of Professor Yao¡¯s ischemia-free transplant techniques. Professor Yao took Yang Ping to the doctors¡¯ office. Most doctors there were not familiar with Yang Ping, unlike those in Orthopedics, who all knew Professor Yang. ¡°This is Professor Yang from Sanbo Hospital!¡± Professor Yao introduced Yang Ping to several chief physicians. The chief doctors merely nodded in acknowledgment. They had never seen a professor so young and assumed he was not much of a notable figure. Professor Yao asked the attending doctor to bring over the patient file. Yang Ping read through the details meticulously, not overlooking a single detail. Xu Jiujang, Male, 45 years old, diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy. It started three years ago when Mr. Xu experienced palpitations, shortness of breath, and a sense of low oxygen after even slight physical activity. He was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy at a local university-affiliated hospital. Despite three years of standard treatment for heart failure, his condition did not improve. Four months ago, Mr. Xu¡¯s illness started to deteriorate. He frequently suffered from chest tightness, palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, and was unable to lie down or eat. This left Mr. Xu feeling desperate, knowing his days were numbered. But with his child still in high school, he can¡¯t give up. In order to seek a ray of hope, Mr. Xu, after making inquiries from multiple sources, came to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One to see Professor Yao, who conducted a series of tests on him. The cardiac ultrasound showed that the diameter of the left ventricle had enlarged to 76 millimeters, compared to the typical 45 millimeters diameter found in healthy people¡¯s left ventricles. His heart was also more than double the volume of a normal person and its function was extremely poor. His left ventricular ejection fraction had fallen to 28%, and a normal value should be at least 50%. His heart was in a precarious state. After being admitted to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, Professor Yao actively treated his heart failure, but Mr. Xu¡¯s circulatory problems fluctuated, and he had significant internal disorders. He needed to be administered dopamine and epinephrine to maintain his blood pressure. To relieve the condition and wait for a heart transplant opportunity, Professor Yao installed an intra-aortic balloon pump device to aid the left ventricle for Mr. Xu. Yang Ping was already familiar with Mr. Xu¡¯s basic condition, and reviewing it again made it even more familiar. ¡°A heart transplant only has one opportunity, so I bothered you to come over and discuss. I¡¯ve done an ABO incompatible heart transplant once before. It involved an O type donor transplanted to an A type patient, because O type blood can be ¡°compatible¡± with A type blood. Plus, with the use of new drugs, the risk of rejection was relatively manageable, so we dared to try then. Now, the patient has B type blood, and the possible donor has A type blood, two completely incompatible blood types. With heart transplants, we dare not try.¡± ¡°If the patient were a toddler who has not fully developed his immune system, we might attempt a cross-blood type transplant surgery, possibly ¡°tricking¡± the immune system. But for adults whose immune systems are mature, it¡¯s impossible to try.¡± Professor Yao spoke very politely, expressing his difficulties and concerns. At present, applying the renal transplantation cross blood matting technique into heart transplantation seems a bit rough and unsuitable. Yang Ping admired Professor Yao, whose ischemia-free transplant technology is world-class. Although it still needs some time to be fully polished, he was surprised that Professor Yao did not get angry but instead respected him and put himself in a learning position. Professor Yao indeed carried a grandmaster¡¯s demeanor. Yang Ping decided to share some of his expertise with Professor Yao without reservation. The ABO blood type is a basic principle for organ transplantation matching. If the blood types are incompatible, the transplant recipient will have a strong immune rejection reaction post-surgery. If a cross-blood type transplant is to be done, either a thorough washout of antibodies is required, or a powerful suppression of the immune system is needed. This ensures there is no severe immune rejection response, enabling the transplanted organ to safely join the host body. The chief physicians around him didn¡¯t understand why Professor Yao was showing so much respect to this young man. Yang Ping thought for a moment and then said: ¡°Professor Yao, in this case, we would indeed have to use a blood-cleansing method, but a more advanced one is required. Currently, there is a new method. A research team from the University of Toronto, Canada, used two enzymes FpGalNAcdeacetylase and FpGalactosaminidase and supporting technology to clean blood type antibodies. They were able to completely wash out AB blood type antibodies, turning the organ into a universal donor. I suggest using this technology.¡± Ordinary blood washing techniques are already incapable of handling such high-level difficulty. Only new techniques can be deployed. ¡°I¡¯ve also read the paper on this, but it¡¯s still experimental technology. It¡¯s unclear whether the technology has matured. And obtaining these two enzymes and related technologies seems unlikely.¡± Professor Yao showed signs of reluctance. The application of this cutting-edge technology seemed unrealistic. The acquisition of these enzymes was a difficult task, to begin with. ¡°For this patient to be saved now, there are only two paths. One is to obtain a heart from a suitable blood type donor. The other is to acquire the method from the University of Toronto. Which option do you think is more likely? The former relies entirely on luck, similar to winning a lottery of 5 million. The latter, on the other hand, is attainable with effort. If Professor Yao is willing to give it a shot, I can help reach out to the team at the University of Toronto. You could also try inviting Professor Li Zehui from the Cleveland Medical Center and his senior fellow, Dodge. They are all influential figures in North American cardiac surgery and would surely be able to help contact the University of Toronto.¡± Yang Ping suggested to Professor Yao to take a bold step. Yang Ping had calculated, and without a heart transplant, this organ patient had no chance. Of course, there was another method ¨C to perform an artificial heart transplant, gain some buffer time, and then wait for a heart transplant. However, the cost of an artificial heart suitable for this patient is not something ordinary people can afford. Additionally, even with waiting, there would still be no chance to get a same-blood-type heart. After contemplating, Professor Yao decided to take Yang Ping¡¯s advice and take a bold step. ¡°Once again, I have to trouble you, Professor Yang, to help me contact the team at the University of Toronto?¡± Ever since lending Yang Ping a machine for his surgery and getting to know him, Professor Yao felt as though he had hitched himself onto a lucky star. ¡°Very well, I will send an email right away. You, meanwhile, make time to fly over there and be sure to learn their technology. Although I am also familiar with their techniques, you have to get their two blood washing enzymes. It would take quite a long time to prepare these blood washing enzymes.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s words reassured Professor Yao that his recommendation of a new technology was not based on a single thesis. Indeed, Yang Ping was very familiar with this new technology. When he was reading papers in the System Laboratory, he would always use the interesting findings for experiments. The chief doctors standing aside, listening to Yang Ping and Professor Yao discussing the case, were puzzled. The team from the University of Toronto, the contact he promised to make, and Professor Li Zehui and Dodge from the Cleveland clinic seemed to be his sworn brothers. He talked as if sending an email would guarantee their help. And he said these words with seeming confidence. The chance to learn the latest blood-antibody washing technique from the University of Toronto and access the two most advanced enzymes had Professor Yao quite excited. Just for this, he would be able to leap forward several steps in the field of organ transplantation. Chapter 751 - 751 670 Do Americans also use WeChat ?Chapter 751: Chapter 670: Do Americans also use WeChat? Chapter 751: Chapter 670: Do Americans also use WeChat? Heart transplant surgery is unpredictable, we never know when a suitable donor will become available. Therefore, the sooner Professor Yao learns the new blood type antibody washing technology, the better. ¡°I¡¯ll send a WeChat message to Li Zehui to expedite contact with the University of Toronto in Canada. We can¡¯t afford to lose more time.¡± Looking at the time, it was night in the United States, Yang Ping sent a message to Li Zehui on WeChat. To stay in close contact with Yang Ping, Robert, Takahashi, August, Li Zehui, and others have all become adept at using WeChat, and they are using the Chinese version. After Chinese, WeChat has become a standard for Yang Ping¡¯s foreign friends. Without mastering Chinese or becoming proficient in WeChat, it¡¯s impossible to enter Yang Ping¡¯s circle of friends. However, it¡¯s better to use email to transfer medical records. Li Zehui promptly responded on WeChat: [I am in close contact with the research team at the University of Toronto. My team is currently conducting clinical experiments on this technology. If you need to learn the new blood type antibody washing technology, you can come directly to Cleveland Medical Center, where our team is the only one in the world currently mastering this new technology.] This is good news. Yang Ping immediately told Li Zehui, [My friend, Professor Yao from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, also known as the creator of the bloodless transplant, Professor Yao, hopes to learn the new cross-blood type heart transplant technology as soon as possible.] Li Zehui sent an OK gesture: [Have him come to the Cleveland Medical Center in the United States to see me anytime. Have him schedule a time with me. I will pick him up at the airport and arrange everything.] With Li Zehui¡¯s definite response, Yang Ping told Professor Yao, ¡°Professor Li said that they are currently using a new technique from the University of Toronto for cross-blood type transplantation and they are the only organ transplant team in the world that currently has access to this technique. You don¡¯t need to go to Canada, you can go directly to Cleveland to find him. I¡¯ll send you his phone number. You can call him directly to set up a time. He will personally pick you up from the airport and arrange your study.¡± Professor Yao did not expect Yang Ping to have Li Zehui¡¯s WeChat and arranged everything for him so quickly. The surrounding chief physicians were completely stunned. This young doctor actually had the WeChat contact of Li Zehui, a top heart surgeon from Cleveland. Is it real or fake? Americans also use WeChat? I thought Americans don¡¯t use WeChat? And if they do have WeChat, do they use the English version or the Chinese version? ¡°When are you available?¡± Yang Ping asked Professor Yao. Professor Yao was still excited: ¡°Is it at any time? No need to schedule in advance?¡± ¡°No need, anytime is fine!¡± Yang Ping said casually. Since it¡¯s anytime, the sooner, the better. ¡°I will apply for a visa as soon as possible and go over there!¡± Professor Yao did not expect that this big matter would be resolved by Yang Ping with a few words on WeChat. In Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, applying for a brief study at this world-class medical center, even just for a few days, requires a lot of paperwork and a long wait. American Cleveland Medical Center is like the palace of world cardiac surgery. ¡°Professor Yang, will Professor Li really come to pick me up from the airport?¡± Professor Yao asked increduously, pointing at himself.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already told him you¡¯re my friend. He will pick you up personally and arrange everything for you. You don¡¯t have to worry about anything. Get your U.S visa sorted quickly. The sooner the better,¡± Yang Ping said, seeing that Professor Yao was still hesitating. Professor Yao was getting more and more excited. He couldn¡¯t believe that Li Zehui himself would pick him up and arrange everything for him in Cleveland. How could he not be excited about such treatment. This is like someone wanting to go to Europe to learn football, asks a friend for help and expects to get a club tour, but the friend says: ¡°Why don¡¯t you just learn football from Messi? I¡¯ll give you his number and you arrange the time with him. He will pick you up from the airport and arrange everything for you in Europe.¡± Anybody would be overwhelmed with this kind of treatment, how could they not be excited. ¡°During your visit to Cleveland, you can introduce your bloodless transplant technique and give a brief lecture,¡± Yang Ping reminded Professor Yao. ¡°Yes, yes, definitely!¡± Professor Yao was overwhelmed with excitement. But he hasn¡¯t prepared himself yet. To give a lecture at such a prestigious hospital requires more time, and he¡¯d rather postpone it until he¡¯s more prepared. ¡°I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s not enough time. This time, I¡¯m going there to learn about ABO-incompatible heart transplantation. I¡¯ll give the lecture next time.¡± He wasn¡¯t prepared and didn¡¯t feel confident yet. Plus, he wanted to familiarize himself with the people and environment in America first. Professor Yao did not expect that by attending a consultation at Sanbo Hospital and lending them a machine, he would meet some beneficial contacts and assimilate into the top tier. The whole process was somewhat unrealistic! The good news came so abruptly that it was a bit hard to accept. By now, there were a dozen doctors crowded around him, including chief physicians, deputy chief physicians, and young doctors. Everyone overheard the conversation between Yang Ping and Professor Yao and had the same reaction. If they hadn¡¯t known that Professor Yao was the head of their department and the academic leader, they would have thought these two were fools trying to act superior with their lofty words. Such a conversation could easily be taken as a joke in unfamiliar environments. In fact, if Professor Yao hadn¡¯t already known Yang Ping, he would find it hard to believe that Yang Ping could personally get in touch with world-class cardiac surgery experts through WeChat. ¡°I will start preparing for the visa tomorrow. Thank you, Professor Yang!¡± Professor Yao said gratefully. Yang Ping thought this was a small matter: ¡°You¡¯re too polite, it¡¯s not a big deal at all. Just a matter of a few words, not worth mentioning.¡± If this is not a big deal, what constitutes a big deal? The American Cleveland Medical Center, the world¡¯s number one heart center. Li Zehui and Dodge are the leading figures of young generation in cardiac surgery in the world right now. For a doctor, being recommended to lecture there or having the opportunity to learn new techniques at any time is definitely a significant academic event. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± Professor Yao initially wanted to ask Yang Ping how he came to know Li Zehui but swallowed his words back, considering it impolite. He had asked Professor Zou about Yang Ping and learned about the respect he commands within the Comprehensive Surgery Department at Sanbo Hospital, where two top Orthopedics experts from America and Europe practically treated him like a standardized training student, turning to him for help all the time. This demonstrates that Professor Yang is extremely capable. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Yang Ping asked him when he seemed hesitant. Professor Yao quickly shifted the topic: ¡°Oh, Professor Yang, could you guide me for the surgery?¡± Upon hearing this, the other doctors were perplexed. To which hospital¡¯s professor was Professor Yao asking for guidance? Anzhen or Fuwai? In fact, doctors specialized in cardiothoracic surgery and organ transplantation often know next to nothing about their counterparts in orthopedics. Unless those counterparts are part of their own hospital, they generally know very little about them. Younger doctors can sometimes get cross-specialty news from daily gossip, but senior doctors are usually uninterested in anything outside their specialty. ¡°No problem, we¡¯ll touch base when the time comes. Shall we go see the patient together?¡± Yang Ping suggested. Professor Yao felt immediately reassured: ¡°Let¡¯s go and see the patient.¡± Ever since returning from Sanbo Hospital, he felt as if he was dreaming. Professor Yao shook his head and, accompanied by Yang Ping, headed for the ward. A group of doctors trailed behind, murmuring among themselves, wondering who this young man really was? Chapter 752 - 752 671 Young Peoples Excitement Threshold is ?Chapter 752: Chapter 671: Young People¡¯s Excitement Threshold is Too High Chapter 752: Chapter 671: Young People¡¯s Excitement Threshold is Too High In the ward, Mr. Xu Jiujang was lying on the bed in a semi-reclined position, a position that helped to relieve the burden on his heart. If it weren¡¯t for the intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation device assisting his left ventricle, attempting to assume this half-reclining position would have been extremely strenuous for him. Dr. Yang Ping meticulously questioned Mr. Xu about his medical history, performed a thorough physical examination, and completed auscultation of various areas of his heart. If it weren¡¯t for the heart ultrasound and chest X-ray, no one would know that his heart was doubled in size, or that both sides of his lungs were being compressed by the enlarged heart, severely affecting his respiratory function. This man in his forties understood that his life was nearing its end. Originally, he intended to forgo treatment to avoid placing any financial burden on his family. However, with his child still in high school, he felt a duty to continue living. In his own words, he felt a responsibility to see his child grow into an adult, and failing to do so would mean he hadn¡¯t fulfilled his life¡¯s mission. For this reason, Mr. Xu sought out Professor Yao and requested a few extra years to see his child graduate from university. Given Mr. Xu¡¯s state, Professor Yao saw no other option besides a heart transplant. However, the transplant was urgent, and there wasn¡¯t much time to wait. Organ donors for heart transplants are already scarce, and it would be even harder to find a donor of the same blood type for a patient like Mr. Xu, who was in dire need of a transplant. Currently, a twenty-year-old guy in the ICU of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One had been declared brain-dead. His family was, however, still having difficulty accepting the situation and hoped for some prolonged efforts at resuscitation. According to the young man¡¯s wishes prior to his passing, his organs would be donated once his family came to terms with the reality. Again, if that were to happen, there was a possibility that Mr. Xu could receive the heart needed for his transplant. Unfortunately, Mr. Xu had type B blood, while the young man had type A. If a transplant were to be performed, they would only be able to do a cross-blood type transplant. However, though Professor Yao admitted to this kind of cross-blood type heart transplant, he hadn¡¯t performed any previously. The only similar procedures he had conducted were cross-blood transplant operations for infants, and he had transplanted hearts from type O blood donors to recipients of different blood types. Upon seeing the visiting doctors, Mr. Xu realized that Professor Yao was studying his condition and thus, cooperated fully. ¡°Thank you all for your hard work!¡± The fact that Mr. Xu found it laborious to utter a single sentence indicated that the oxygen carried by the blood pumped out from his heart was insufficient to allow him to comfortably finish a full sentence. His heart function had deteriorated to its extreme and was teetering on the edge of collapse. ¡°This is Professor Yang from Sanbo Hospital. I invited him here to discuss how we can conduct the heart transplant as soon as possible. There is a potential donor with type A blood. Under normal circumstances, a transplant wouldn¡¯t be viable for you. However, as your surgery is urgent, we¡¯re exploring the possibility of a cross-blood type transplant. Professor Yang¡¯s understanding and experience in this area is greater than mine,¡± Professor Yao honestly explained to Mr. Xu. Mr. Xu didn¡¯t understand what cross-blood type transplant meant. But coming to the hospital, he decided to leave everything up to the professionals and fully cooperate with whatever treatment was deemed best. Hence, he said, ¡°I will follow your advice. I trust you.¡± Trust and cooperation from the patient make ongoing procedures much easier to perform. Dr. Yang Ping held his hand, ¡°That¡¯s the spirit. Trust between us is essential to a smooth treatment process. Cross-blood type heart transplant is viable; it just requires intricate technical skills. We need to be fully prepared. I¡¯ve discussed this with Professor Yao ¨C we decided to adopt the most advanced heart transplant technique internationally available for cross-blood type transplant.¡± Hearing that there was hope, Mr. Xu was overjoyed. His worst fear was the doctors declaring their helplessness. As long as there was a solution, even if it posed a risk, it was worth it to him. ¡°Three years ago, when I was diagnosed with this disease, I knew my days were numbered. I¡¯ve managed to struggle through these years but I think that¡¯s coming to an end. My child is still in high school and I haven¡¯t fulfilled my duty in this world yet. I can¡¯t just let go without remorse. After weighing the options, I decided to fight a few more years, sorry for troubling you,¡± Mr. Xu grew teary as he spoke. Dr. Yang tried to comfort him, ¡°Don¡¯t be so upset. We¡¯ve found a solution, right? And we have a potential donor too. Now, we just need to prepare for the cross-blood type transplant. Although it¡¯s risky, we¡¯ll do our best to minimize the risk. Rest assured, we¡¯ll give our all.¡± Mr. Xu nodded, feeling embarrassed for shedding tears in front of the doctors. But he couldn¡¯t help it ¨C every time he thought about his daughter, he¡¯d well up. Mr. Xu¡¯s wife, who had been standing quietly at his bedside, handed him a tissue to wipe his tears and chided him lightly, ¡°Look at you, a grown man crying, and making the doctors laugh. Zhenzhen just called, rooting for you. She said her dad surely could make it.¡± Just then, Dr. Yang noticed Mr. Xu¡¯s wife for the first time. The dark-skinned woman stood strong, holding back her tears, and tried to wear a smile. After checking on the patient, back in the doctor¡¯s office, Dr. Yang said to Professor Yao, ¡°You should head to the United States as soon as possible to observe their surgical procedure. Gain access to the two types of antibody washing enzymes. The sooner we conduct this surgery, the better.¡± On one hand, Mr. Xu¡¯s life was at constant risk, and on the other hand, the moment the family of the brain-dead young man decided to give up, Mr. Xu had to undergo surgery immediately. Both situations were unpredictable. Not wanting to waste any time, Professor Yao decided to apply for an urgent visa to the United States the very next day. ¡ª Yang Ping did not stay at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One for lunch, rushing back to Sanbo Hospital before noon. Even on the day of their marriage registration, Yang Ping and Su Yixuan stuck to their normal work schedules, having lunch together in the hospital cafeteria at noon. In the afternoon, just after Su Yixuan began her regular shift and Yang Ping returned to his office, Director Zhou of the Office of Science and Education came rushing in enthusiastically with his aides, waving to Yang Ping from afar. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± He stormed into the office and immediately instructed his aide to bring out some files. ¡°Professor Yang, look, Outstanding Young Talent from the National Nature Fund, it was granted exceptionally to you. Normally, you have to complete a doctoral degree to apply for Outstanding Young Talent, but this time your luck was extraordinarily good. Your application went through Nandu Medical University, and it was all-green all the way. It¡¯s been approved exceptionally, and according to the approval documents, as long as you complete your Doctorate within a year from the date of approval, it¡¯s valid.¡± Director Zhou was even happier than when his own project was accepted. ¡°Be careful, be careful, don¡¯t wrinkle it.¡± Director Zhou instructed his aide to carefully protect the documents. Back in the day, Director Zhou, Dean Xia, and Director Han were the backbone of Sanbo Hospital. Director Han¡¯s clinical work, Dean Xia¡¯s management, and Director Zhou¡¯s research were the driving forces behind Sanbo Hospital¡¯s foundation. Director Zhou, too, was a veteran Doctor, but his clinical skills were so poor, he often made blunders. However, he was excellent at research topics and writing papers, so Dean Xia decided to remove him from clinical work and made him responsible for the hospital¡¯s research. Once reassigned, Director Zhou flourished, making Sanbo Hospital¡¯s research vibrant and prosperous. It was rumored that many directors¡¯ papers were ghostwritten by Director Zhou, and many directors¡¯ research proposals were also prepared by him. His biggest flaw, however, was an unyielding fascination with Europe and America. ¡°Outstanding Young Talent! Very good! If our Sanbo Hospital could produce an Academician before we old people retire, we would wake up laughing from our dreams.¡± Director Zhou was very familiar with the ins and outs of scientific research. After all, Outstanding Young Talent is a stepping stone towards becoming an Academician. However, Director Zhou couldn¡¯t understand how Yang Ping, as a newcomer, managed to have his application for Outstanding Young Talent approved so easily, especially without any hold-ups and basically without any effort. After the documents were submitted, it just went straight through. Such smooth approval was rarely seen, especially because Sanbo Hospital wasn¡¯t a top national hospital. Director Zhou knew very well that there¡¯s a lot of tricks to getting a research application approved, it¡¯s not just about the value of your research proposal. Bottom line is, every profession has its own tricks of the trade. Yang Ping didn¡¯t really care about these things. To be honest, Song Zimo was the one who organized the research data, while he just did the revision and signing. The rest of the application procedures were handled by the Office of Science and Education at both the hospital and Nandu Medical University. As for the funding for this research, Yang Ping wasn¡¯t worried at all. Whether or not the application was approved didn¡¯t matter to him, it wouldn¡¯t affect his research. Therefore, he had completely forgotten about this amidst all his recent busyness. Seeing Director Zhou so happy, Yang Ping didn¡¯t react much. ¡°Why do I see no enthusiasm in you? Outstanding Young Talent! Outstanding Young Talent! That¡¯s huge, man!¡± Director Zhou waved the papers. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t excited initially, and he couldn¡¯t feign enthusiasm either. He took the papers, flipped through them and said, ¡°Yes, it¡¯s the Outstanding Young Talent, I get it. Thank you!¡± ¡°Ah, I don¡¯t know what to say to you. If it were anyone else, especially someone under thirty who got the Outstanding Young Talent, they¡¯d be over the moon, unable to sleep for three days. Why do you look so indifferent, are you overtired?¡± Director Zhou simply couldn¡¯t understand why Yang Ping was so unresponsive. The younger generation has a high excitement threshold; it isn¡¯t as low as that of us old people. Well, anyhow, I am happy, that¡¯s enough. Director Zhou reconciled himself to the situation. Chapter 753 - 753 672 ?Chapter 753: Chapter 672 Chapter 753: Chapter 672 Outstanding Young Talent, a title denoting recipients of the National Outstanding Young Scientist Fund, is known as the cradle of Academicians. Although in Nandu Medical University, such a top-class medical school, there are dozens of holders of this title. But under the age of thirty, the only national Outstanding Young Talent is Yang Ping. Moreover, at Sanbo Hospital, Yang Ping¡¯s achievement is a zero-breakthrough, bearing significant symbolic meaning. Receiving this news, Director Han was the first to call Yang Ping: ¡°Congratulations, congratulations!¡± Yang Ping was taken aback for a moment. Nobody has mentioned the news of their marriage certificate, even the two parents were preparing to make a congratulatory call in the evening. He was also planning to inform his mentor, Old Han, by phone in the evening. How could Old Han know so quickly? Yang Ping temporarily planned not to inform anyone about the news of the marriage except their parents and Director Han. He just wanted to keep the marriage low-key and not to bother everyone. It seemed more appropriate to inform everyone about the wedding later. ¡°You, nabbing the Outstanding Young Talent title so fast. You¡¯ve had your eyes on my tea leaves for a long time now, I¡¯ll let you take them this time. Wait, I¡¯ll deliver them to you.¡± Old Han reluctantly parted with his precious West Lake Longjing, which he only allows Yang Ping to drink on regular occasions, refusing any requests to take some away. It turned out to be congratulations for the Outstanding Young Talent award. Just as Director Han hung up, Dean Xia¡¯s call came in, his congratulations almost made his eardrums hurt. ¡°You in surgery? If not, hurry to my office for a chat. No, you wait, I¡¯m coming to your office, wait for me, wait for me!¡± Dean Xia hastily hung up. Yang Ping was still reacting, how can he let an elder come to him? But intending to call back, the other party simply wouldn¡¯t answer. As Dean Xia hurried to Yang Ping¡¯s office, his assistant urged him, ¡°Dean Xia, there¡¯s a meeting about to start, right?¡± Dean Xia didn¡¯t even turn his head, just waved his hand, ¡°Let Dean Sun preside, I won¡¯t be going, I have a stomach ache.¡± Indeed, his joy was a bit over the top, and his stomach felt uncomfortable. Soon, Dean Xia, Director Han appeared at Yang Ping¡¯s office, coupled with Director Zhou, the three elders of Sanbo Hospital gathered. The officer at the science and education department tactfully slipped out to chat with the young doctors from the Comprehensive Surgery Department. This is the first National Outstanding Young Talent in the history of Sanbo Hospital. ¡°Tea leaves, I didn¡¯t keep a single piece for myself. I brought them all, treating this as your reward.¡± Director Han put the exquisite West Lake Longjing tea on the desk. Dean Xia¡¯s big hand grabbed the tea can: ¡°You all sit down, I will brew the tea as a reward.¡± Director Han¡¯s tea leaves, the Dean brewing tea himself, so what should I, the director of the science and education department, do? Why not, I¡¯ll wash the cups. Without saying another word, Director Zhou started to boil water and wash the cups. ¡°Let me do it, let me do it!¡± Yang Ping rushed to make the tea, how could he let the elders do it. Dean Xia got angry: ¡°You, now just sit tight, let us old ones do it, unless you don¡¯t give us that respect. You really can do it, landing the Outstanding Young Talent award so easily.¡± Yang Ping had no choice, but to obediently sit down, waiting for their tea. Dean Xia washing the teapot, Director Zhou washing the cups, and Director Han scooping the tea leaves. ¡°I say, if this continues, Xiao Yang will have a very high chance to ascend to the rank of Academician.¡± ¡°Afterall, the Outstanding Young Talent is the cradle of Academicians.¡± ¡°Just aim for ascending without questioning the height, Xiao Yang, you just do your research wholeheartedly, leave everything else to us. Academicians or something, those are things that will naturally happen. They¡¯re not the goal, they¡¯re the by-products.¡± ¡°Put more tea leaves, this is too little.¡± Dean Xia was not satisfied with the amount of tea leaves Director Han scooped out, he thought it was too little. ¡°Enough, enough.¡± Director Han closed the tea can. Director Zhou disinfected the cups with boiling water. Everyone sat around the tea table waiting for the tea, Dean Xia rubbed his hands: ¡°Are you free tonight? I am inviting, this is a private gathering, not on public funds.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do tonight!¡± Yang Ping was quite straightforward, the same when dealing with Dean Xia. Dean Xia didn¡¯t mind, ¡°Then another day, whenever you¡¯re free let me know, I insist on treating everyone to dinner. It¡¯ll be us three old guys plus the members of your department¡¯s project team, getting together for a casual meal. Again, it¡¯s a personal gathering, no public funds involved. You can pick the place.¡± Director Han chimed in, ¡°Since it¡¯s a private invite, then we don¡¯t need to be polite by cutting him some slack.¡± ¡°Okay, it¡¯s settled then. Xiao Yang, let me know the timing, I¡¯m not even scared of the dinner bill.¡± Someone knocked on the door, and Director Zhou, who was closest to it, opened it. ¡°How come everyone is here?¡± Professor Zhang saw the lively scene in the office. ¡°Come, come, join us.¡± Dean Xia quickly offered Professor Zhang a seat. ¡°I almost forgot about you.¡± ¡°I heard Xiao Yang¡¯s Outstanding Young Talent award just got granted?¡± Professor Zhang came specifically because of this news. ¡°Yeah, we got the approved document today and everyone¡¯s celebrating. Come, let¡¯s drink to it.¡± Dean Xia started heating the kettle. They drank tea until six o¡¯clock, and then finally disbanded. Soon after, Professor Liang from Xiehe Hospital, Professor Hong from Mo Sixth, Professor Qin from 301, Professor Su from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, and Academician Xiang from Nandu Medical University called one after another to congratulate. The phone was ringing non-stop. In the evening, Yang Ping and Xiao Su cooked dinner together, commemorating their wedding day, and they made nine dishes in total. The nine exquisite dishes they prepared were like a ceremony of sorts for the two of them. Both of them shopped from the market together, with Yang Ping in charge of washing the vegetables, and Su Yixuan preparing the dishes. They cooperated and crafted a table full of exquisite food. Each dish wasn¡¯t much in quantity, but it was very carefully prepared. After dinner, they called both sides of the family to share the good news¡ª their marriage certificate was in hand. Upon hearing this news, Professor Su and Mrs. Su felt as though a huge rock had been lifted from their chests. If they hadn¡¯t gotten the certificate, the matter would still be hanging in the air. Now that they were officially married, they felt reassured. Their daughter was in good hands and they were genuinely thrilled for her. As for the wedding, it was merely ceremonial; they could hold it whenever they wish. The most important part was already taken care of. ¡°Strike while the iron is hot and have the baby soon, you¡¯ll need to have one sooner or later, better sooner than later. We will assist with childcare. We assure you, it won¡¯t interfere with your work or career,¡± coaxed Mrs. Su, grabbing the opportunity to push for a grandchild. Professor Su advised Yang Ping to take their parents¡¯ opinion as reference and to organize schedules according to their convenience. No matter what, parents will always be understanding and supportive. Yang Ping¡¯s parents, hearing that their son was married, were thrilled. They were extremely pleased with their daughter-in-law. When they heard about the future wedding ceremony, his father advised Yang Ping to manage these matters well and not to wrong Xiao Su in any way, emphasizing the completion of all formalities. ¡°Hurry up and have the baby, you¡¯re going to have one sooner or later, better sooner than later. This won¡¯t interrupt your work and career,¡± encourages Yang¡¯s mother, persistently urging them to have a baby. Yang Ping and Xiao Su are dumbfounded. Both the mothers had the same tune, as if they had coordinated beforehand. They¡¯ve been urged to speed up the wedding, now they¡¯re urged to speed up a baby! At this moment, Yang Ping¡¯s phone rang. It was a call from Director Ji of the Interventional Department. A patient in critical surgery for acute myocardial infarction in the Interventional Department had repeatedly stopped breathing and lost their heartbeat on the operating table. He hoped Yang Ping could come help. This was because Director Ji knew that Yang Ping was very familiar with anatomy, especially some variant anatomical structures, and that Yang Ping had great talent in this area. He had worked with Yang Ping in interventional surgeries, so he wanted to ask Yang Ping to help, and to discuss rescue efforts together. ¡°Go ahead, come back early. I¡¯ll wait for you!¡± Chapter 754 - 754 673 Devil Level ?Chapter 754: Chapter 673: Devil Level Chapter 754: Chapter 673: Devil Level Yang Ping rushed to the operating room of the Intervention Department, changed into his surgical scrubs, put on a sterile cap and mask, and hurled himself into the operating room. The surgery was underway. Directors Ji and Guan from the Intervention Department were already on stage, suggesting the complexity of this operation. Director Guan was the chief surgeon and Director Ji the assistant. Several young doctorate holders stood by the operating table, unable to help. All they could do was watch, helpless. Defibrillate! Director Guan immediately stopped. The patient had experienced a sudden cardiac arrest, with ventricular fibrillation waves densely appearing on the monitor screen. The anesthesiologist and nurse immediately started electric defibrillation for the patient. After several rounds of defibrillation, with the strong electrical stimulation, the patient¡¯s heartbeat returned. Perhaps due to the impact of the electric shock, the patient screamed after coming round. Outside the operating room, someone was frantically pounding on and kicking the door. Clearly, several people were striking the door simultaneously. ¡°Xiao Yu, explain to the family what¡¯s happening,¡± Director Guan ordered his doctoral student, Dr. Yu. Director Ji added, ¡°Don¡¯t open the door. Exit through the changing room.¡± The experienced directors knew that once the door was opened, confused relatives might rush in, causing chaos and refusing to leave. Their patient would then certainly not be able to be saved. They didn¡¯t understand the perilous nature of the surgery; hearing their relative screaming, they might even think the doctors were mistreating the patient. With the return of the heartbeat, Directors Guan and Ji resumed the operation. ¡°Professor Yang, scrub in!¡± Director Ji was relieved to see Yang Ping had arrived. ¡°Chronic total occlusion of the coronary artery, complete blockage of the left coronary artery trunk, both bifurcations ¨C the anterior descending artery and the circumflex artery ¨C are completely blocked with severe calcification. The right coronary artery is 90% blocked. We are trying to perform a rotational atherectomy, but the calcified occlusion is as hard as rock. The condition is extremely dangerous and complicated, which is why we need your help,¡± Director Ji hastily outlined the case. Director Guan specializes in cardiovascular interventional treatments, while Director Ji is an expert in all forms of interventional treatments, including cranial and tumor-related ones. Compared to Director Ji, Director Guan is more advanced in cardiovascular intervention, as this is his sole focus. So, Director Guan was chosen as the chief surgeon for this operation. Indeed, Director Guan¡¯s back was soaked in sweat. This case, involving severe coronary occlusion combined with hard-as-rock calcification, and not just blockage in the main artery, but complete blockage at two branches, was devilishly complex. Coronary arteries supply blood to the heart and sprawl across its surface, highly reminiscent of a tree crown. They are like fuel pipes supplying gasoline to a car engine. Once blocked, the heart loses power. As such, when these left and right fuel lines, i.e., coronary arteries, and their branches undergo atherosclerotic or spasmodic changes, narrowing or blocking of the vascular lumen can occur. When the coronary artery lumen stenosis exceeds 50%-70%, coronary circulation disorders occur, causing myocardial blood supply to be insufficient and leading to evident clinical symptoms, such as angina pectoris, owing to an imbalance between myocardial oxygen supply and demand. When the coronary artery lumen is completely blocked, myocardial ischemia, hypoxia, and necrosis occur, causing myocardial infarction. Typically at this point, interventional treatment is necessary, and a stent has to be implanted to clear the blood vessel. This patient had severe blockage combined with severe calcification. The blockage was as hard as rock. Ordinary equipment couldn¡¯t clear the blood vessels so a special rotational atherectomy device was used to gradually wear away these ¡°rocks¡±, clear the coronary arteries, and then place and expand the stent. But the problem was the bifurcation lesions, where both the main branch and a side branch were blocked near the fork. Because the lesion was at the ¡°crossroads¡± of the heart¡¯s blood vessels, the surgical techniques were particularly complex. Postoperative re-stenosis rates were particularly high. When multiple stents needed to be implanted, if the ends of the stents weren¡¯t well aligned, patients could easily experience a re-narrowing of the blood vessels and the formation of blood clots. Under these circumstances, if a stent was merely implanted in the main branch, the plaque shift caused by the stent¡¯s pressure may result in a new blockage in the branch vessel, exacerbating the situation. However, if stents were implanted in both the main and branch vessels, due to the occlusion sites being quite close to each other, there could be an interference between the two stents. As of now, medical technology couldn¡¯t have the stents tailored in advance to fit these bifurcations without causing an interference. Therefore, the difficulty of treating bifurcation lesions lay in needing to not only implant stents to clear the blood vessels but also ensure that the stents didn¡¯t interfere with each other and cause new blockages. The procedure of interventional treatment for coronary bifurcation lesions needed to resolve the current problem without introducing new complications, which was an enormous challenge due to its exceptionally high level of operational difficulty. The rock-hard stiffness, coupled with the complex branching, doubled the difficulty. ¡°We must use CCTV technology!¡± Director Guan added. This is a double stent technique, summarized as ¡°CCTV¡±: C crush series of stent surgery: classical crush, DK-crush, mini-crush, step-crush; C culotte series stent surgery: classical and modified culotte stent surgery; T series stent surgery: classical and modified T stent surgery, V series stent surgery: classical and SKS stent surgery. For these types of patients, who are completely blocked, the blood vessels must be unclogged as soon as possible so that the ischemic myocardium receives blood supply. Even a glimmer of hope can be regained. Otherwise, if too much time elapses, a large area of the myocardium will necrose. Even if unclogging is successful, it will be in vain. Yang Ping quickly scrubbed his hands, put on a lead apron, and then with the help of the circulating nurse, dressed in surgical gowns, and wore sterile gloves. ¡°Professor Yang, Director Ji said you are very skilled. Can you confidently unclog these blockages quickly?¡± Director Guan asked without hesitation. Yang Ping only took a glance. Even though he doesn¡¯t pay much attention to intervention in his quotidien duties, he has been trained in the system space as a basic technique. When he was in the United States, he used intervention technology to rescue astronauts. This is not a difficult task for him. Once the surgical technique reaches a certain level, it is applicable to any situation. ¡°It¡¯s not a big problem!¡± Yang Ping answered decisively. If it is not a big problem in Professor Yang¡¯s words, then there is no problem. The patient¡¯s heart has stopped beating again! Defibrillation! Defibrillation! Defibrillation! If this patient can be resuscitated today or not, Director Guan has no idea. This is the most difficult and dangerous patient he¡¯s ever dealt with. He dares not be too adventurous with the rotary instrument for fear of rupturing the blood vessels. Bang bang bang! The sound of fist fights and kicks echoing from outside the operating room is incessant, However, ever since Dean Xia implemented the hospital¡¯s security plan, the doors of these operating rooms have all been replaced with explosion-proof ones, no matter how hard they are kicked. The anesthesiologist and nurse started defibrillating the patient again, and Director Guan shouted: ¡°Xiao Yu! What¡¯s going on?¡± Dr. Yu had gone out to explain it to the family, but it apparently had no effect. ¡°Do not open the door! Prioritize resuscitation!¡± Director Ji warns the other doctors not to carelessly open the door and let the family rush in, which would ruin everything. After several defibrillations, the patient¡¯s EKG shows normal QRS waves again. Director Guan promptly makes room for Yang Ping to move in. Letting Yang Ping lead is a strategy to speed up the process. ¡°Do you need to use intravascular ultrasound again?¡± Director Guan reminded Yang Ping. ¡°No need!¡± Yang Ping thinks it would be a waste of time to look again. He took the equipment. The miniature ¡°diamond drill¡± began to rotate against hard calcified lesions. Compared with Director Guan, he is clearly more radical, more exaggerated. Observing Yang Ping¡¯s exaggerated operations, Director Guan¡¯s heart thumped in his chest. ¡°It¡¯s okay, he¡¯s confident!¡± Director Ji comforted Director Guan. The rotating head always targets the calcified lesions and does not contact the vessel wall. Under bold and aggressive operations, extensive rotations were made, and the first obstruction was slowly cleared. Immediately afterward, Yang Ping started tackling another blockage. This operation is undoubtedly akin to racing in a busy downtown area and it is in line with Yang Ping¡¯s usual style. Director Guan¡¯s throat was dry, he kept swallowing. He was afraid that Yang Ping would grind through the vessel wall. Director Ji seemed very calm and said, ¡°Greater skill comes with more courage, don¡¯t worry.¡± Chapter 755 - 755 674 The Patriarchs Reward Meal ?Chapter 755: Chapter 674: The Patriarch¡¯s Reward Meal Chapter 755: Chapter 674: The Patriarch¡¯s Reward Meal Outside the door of the intervention surgery room, several relatives were besieging Dr. Yu. ¡°Why is the door closed during surgery? What are you hiding from us?¡± ¡°I think I heard a scream just now, is it because we didn¡¯t give a red envelope, you didn¡¯t use anesthesia?¡± ¡°We can¡¯t see anything, you could be stealing organs without us knowing.¡± Seven or eight relatives, speaking in turns, completely drowned out Dr. Yu¡¯s explanations. Dr. Yu had no choice but to raise his voice and continue to explain. ¡°There are aseptic requirements in the operating room, and relatives are prohibited from entering. This is a rule in operating rooms all over the world¡ª¡± ¡°In the United States, relatives can enter the operating room as they please!¡± The patient¡¯s son-in-law, a middle-aged man with glasses, said loudly, as if he had just returned from the United States, pointing around authoritatively. Luckily, Dr. Yu had been to the United States, otherwise, he would have been intimidated by such a confident appearance. ¡°Yeah, why aren¡¯t we allowed to watch the surgery?¡± ¡°Why are there screams inside?¡± The patient¡¯s wife¡¯s index finger already pointed at Dr. Yu¡¯s nose. Probably someone had noticed the commotion here, a few security guards were already standing by the side. One of them stepped forward to separate Dr. Yu and the relatives: ¡°Discuss matters calmly, everyone be civilized.¡± ¡°A rescue is in progress inside. The patient has local anesthesia, there have been several instances of cardiac arrest, and the patient was rescued by defibrillation. The patient screamed in discomfort because the rescue was urgent, and there was no time for any other anesthesia.¡± Dr. Yu continued to explain patiently. ¡°What? He had a cardiac arrest because of you?¡± ¡°If you can¡¯t handle it, don¡¯t take the job.¡± The relatives became excited again at the mention of cardiac arrest. ¡°It wasn¡¯t us who caused the cardiac arrest, the patient has acute myocardial infarction, his heartbeat could stop at any time¡ª¡± Dr. Yu could hardly explain any further. Protected by security, he had no choice but to return to the operating room through a side door, closing it securely as well. ¡ª The right coronary artery is blocked by ninety percent with severe calcification; the left coronary artery is completely blocked, and the bifurcations of the anterior descending branch and the circumflex branch are completely closed along with severe calcification. On the fluoroscopy screen, the first blockage, right coronary artery obstruction, was successfully opened. The artery was wide and transitioned smoothly from front to back. The blood immediately circulated through this channel, irrigating the myocardial cells in its path, saving them from a death sentence. Quickly saving the myocardium is the key to the success of such surgery. Director Guan took a deep breath, he specialized in performing minimally invasive cardiovascular procedures, and never dared to operate so boldly within the tiny coronary arteries as Professor Yang did. In just a few minutes, Professor Yang successfully drilled through the hard calcification. The young man indeed had a set of skilled hands. The grinding head of the over 100cm long guidewire was controlled with precision, carrying out accurate drilling without causing any damage to the blood vessel wall. Professor Yang continued with the left coronary artery obstruction. Each movement during the surgery was extremely proficient, and there was no sign that he was merely an amateur interventional doctor. Outside, the pounding and kicking on the door hadn¡¯t stopped. No matter how the door was battered, everyone inside ignored it. ¡°When will it end?¡± Director Guan furrowed his brow. ¡°Old Ji, stay with Professor Yang, I¡¯ll go out and take a look.¡± Director Guan decided to take it upon himself to investigate. At this time, Dr. Yu had already returned to the operating room, looking defeated. Director Guan asked, ¡°What happened? Wasn¡¯t the situation handled well? Why is there still knocking at the door?¡± ¡°These people can¡¯t be reasoned with, let¡¯s just perform the surgery first!¡± Dr. Yu looked helpless. Seeing this, Director Guan dropped the idea of going out, deciding to focus on finishing the surgery first. The drilling head in Professor Yang¡¯s hand was invincible, like a piercing arrow, leaving everything in its wake in disarray. Director Guan had barely prepared himself when the left main coronary artery blockage was quickly penetrated, followed immediately by the two bifurcations. These two sites were particularly difficult to handle. However, the grinding head in Professor Yang¡¯s hand didn¡¯t slow down in the slightest. It was obedient and went wherever it was directed, working with extreme precision. Director Guan watched in awe and with racing heart. Director Guan couldn¡¯t help but feel awe. This young surgeon really had a knack for it. Although he had never formally studied interventional surgery, he had only assisted Old Ji in performing a few interventional surgeries. His manual skills were really amazing. This level of skill in coronary artery drilling, in the entire field of intervention medicine in the country, was simply unparalleled. No matter how much he practiced, he would probably never reach this level even after twenty more years. As Director Guan expressed his amazement, two branch points were secured. Then there was a swapping of various instruments, six stents were implanted into the blocked coronary artery, two branch points used a double stent technique. The stents were implanted in a proximal to distal order, with each stent fitting perfectly into its position. In particular, the placement of the double stents at the branch points were flawless, they lined up neatly without interfering with each other at all. As Yang Ping saw the clear imaging of the stents and the smooth blood flow in the coronary artery on the fluoroscopy, he withdrew the guide wire and applied pressure to the puncture point with a gauze. Director Guan and Director Ji looked at the fluoroscopy screen, then at the electrocardiogram monitor, and took a long breath simultaneously. The patient was extremely complicated, it was difficult to rescue him. But today, Professor Yang brought him back from the brink. Rescue was a matter of seconds, a matter of life and death. ¡°Open the door, I¡¯ll go out and explain to the patient.¡± Director Guan breathed a sigh of relief, no doctor wants his patient to slip away, sometimes it¡¯s just unavoidable, and there¡¯s nothing he can do. Dr. Yu went out to call the family members, while Director Guan went to the doctor¡¯s office to wait for them. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°Why are you closing the door?¡± ¡°How is my husband?¡± ¡°Dad, Dad!¡± ¡°¡ª¡± ¡°Shut up, everyone, are you here for treatment or not?¡± Director Guan shouted. At Sanbo Hospital, because Dean Xia is tough, the doctors have a strong backbone in whatever they do, so called righteousness. Under Director Guan¡¯s roar, the family members who had crowded in stopped in their tracks. ¡°Patient has been rescued, come over, I¡¯ll tell you about his condition.¡± Director Guan pointed to the angiogram of the heart on the electronic screen, and the family members gathered around. ¡°What relation are you to the patient?¡± Director Guan asked the family member who was standing in front. The patient¡¯s son responded in a displeased tone, ¡°I am his eldest son.¡± Director Guan said to the patient¡¯s son, ¡°Your father has chronic total occlusion of the coronary arteries, complete occlusion of the left main coronary artery, two branch points complete occlusion and severe calcification, right main coronary artery 90% occlusion and severe calcification. This kind of occlusion caused an acute myocardial infarction and the condition is extremely critical. It was basically a one in a million chance for him to survive. When he was brought to the hospital, he was already hanging by a thread. We just performed an emergency rescue operation to save his life. He had several cardiac arrests during the operation, yet we managed to rescue him. The screaming you heard was because the patient was under local anesthesia. After being rescued, he felt discomfort and started to cry out. In such a situation, saving lives is the top priority and is a matter of seconds. We didn¡¯t have time to use general anesthesia. We were trying to save him while you all were pounding and kicking the door. Family members are not allowed in the operating room, every operating room in the world is like that, not just ours. If you all had rushed in without understanding the situation how are we supposed to operate? How are we supposed to rescue him? If we had let you in to make a commotion, your father wouldn¡¯t be saved.¡± The patient¡¯s son lowered his head and listened to Director Guan¡¯s explanation in silence. ¡°In the United States, it¡¯s much more humane. They wouldn¡¯t be this brutal, they¡¯d let family members see the operation ¡ª ¡± The patient¡¯s son-in-law tried to bring up the United States. Director Guan was really a bit angry: ¡°I spent three years studying in the United States, and you¡¯re going to tell me about the United States? Please, tell me which hospital in the United States allows family members to enter the operating room. Tell me!¡± Afterwards, Director Guan repeated this sentence in English. The patient¡¯s son-in-law¡¯s face turned red, he didn¡¯t have anything to say. He had never been to the United States, he didn¡¯t know anything about hospitals in the United States, he was just blabbering about what he had heard on the internet. ¡°Anyway, we don¡¯t understand, whatever you say goes.¡± The patient¡¯s wife threw in a sentence out of nowhere. Although these words were slightly offensive, Director Guan was used to such scenes and didn¡¯t take it to heart. As long as the patient was fine, everything was fine. ¡°Doctors and patients are comrades in the same trench, we are not enemies, our common enemy is disease, understand? No doctor intentionally performs a bad surgery, we are more anxious than you, understand? You have to trust us. If the door wasn¡¯t sturdy enough, given your momentum just now and if you all had rushed in, can you tell me how are we going to save people?¡± Director Guan suppressed his anger and patiently said. The patient¡¯s son felt guilty and since his father was rescued, he didn¡¯t say anything. The other family members seemed to have something to say, but didn¡¯t know what to say. ¡°A total of six stents were implanted, the blood flow is now smooth, but he is not out of the woods yet. After the operation, he will be transferred to our Cardiovascular Department¡¯s ICU for further treatment. Now that the surgery is over, please make up the fees,¡± Director Guan said in a gentle tone. Since it was an emergency surgery, not a single penny was required, the surgery was performed regardless. ¡°How much is it going to cost?¡± The patient¡¯s wife immediately raised her voice. ¡°The moment you open your mouth, it¡¯s about money!¡± The patient¡¯s wife added another sentence. Chapter 756 - 756 675 A Silk Banner the Honor of a Doctor ?Chapter 756: Chapter 675: A Silk Banner, the Honor of a Doctor. Chapter 756: Chapter 675: A Silk Banner, the Honor of a Doctor. On the fluoroscope screen, the angiograph image of the unblocked coronary artery was stunningly beautiful. Director Ji remained fixated on the screen. In his view, if he were to perform surgery, he would never dare to undertake such an aggressive atherectomy. If he ever did, he was almost certain to puncture the blood vessel within a minute. Therefore, he had to proceed slowly and carefully. It was not just Director Ji who wouldn¡¯t dare to carry out the atherectomy this way. Most likely, no interventionist would dare to do such, except for Yang Ping. Director Ji understood that Yang Ping could condense hours of coronary atherectomy into half an hour. This was not due to luck, but rather it was supported by Yang Ping¡¯s extremely sophisticated control skills. At this moment, Director Guan had returned to the operating room, seemingly having successfully pacified the group of family members. At least, there were no longer sounds of doors being kicked and hammered from outside. The patient lay on the operating table, needed to be observed for a while to ensure that the coronary artery would not occlude again, before being sent to the CCU for monitoring. Director Guan also stood in front of the fluoroscope screen, quietly studying the final image on the screen, calculating the operation time, recalling the exaggerated atherectomy process. His heart pounded and sweat started to drip, even after the operation. Throughout his more than 20-year career in intervention, Director Guan had performed many difficult operations. Coronary atherectomy was one such operation that was difficult, especially the atherectomy of fork locations. Placing a stent after atherectomy was like the crown jewel of cardiovascular interventional surgery. Aside from Yang Ping, Director Guan had never seen anyone else who dared to perform a safe atherectomy this way. If it were not for the perfect result, any interventionist would think Yang Ping¡¯s approach was reckless, crude, and potentially lethal operations. ¡°This method can¡¯t be replicated. Generally, you should still go through the process and atherectomize slowly.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t forget to remind Directors Guan and Ji. Indeed, he could speed up many operations with wanton disregard, but others couldn¡¯t. That¡¯s because he had honed his skills through countless cases. Few people had the same level of practice. For today¡¯s operation, if someone were to imitate his fast atherectomy technique, they might puncture the coronary artery. The consequences would be fatal. Luckily, Doctors Guan and Ji both understood this. They maintained a clear mind; even if they had a hundred times the courage, they wouldn¡¯t dare to imitate Yang Ping¡¯s seemingly inhuman operation. ¡°You worked hard, Professor Yang. Do you want to go out for some late-night snacks?¡± Director Ji offered to treat him. Yang Ping, being in a hurry to return, had to refuse the kindness of Director Ji: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you guys are also busy. Let¡¯s catch up another time.¡± Director Ji had a good impression of this young man. Everyone in Sanbo Hospital greatly acknowledged Yang Ping. His talent was one thing but the main thing was that he was down-to-earth and never acted superior. He was always ready to help when needed for rescuing patients. Everyone sincerely wished this young man to achieve greater success, which would also allow them to ride on his coattails. When Yang Ping said they would get together next time, it must have meant he was busy tonight and couldn¡¯t join for late-night snacks. Director Ji did not insist further. ¡°Then let¡¯s meet another time.¡± Director Ji helped Yang Ping remove his surgical gown. After removing his surgical gown, Yang Ping took off the heavy lead suit. The surgical suit underneath was soaked with sweat. Before leaving, Yang Ping checked the patient¡¯s electrocardiogram again and used a stethoscope to listen to the patient¡¯s heart. For this patient, the fact that the coronary arteries were unblocked in the shortest time, restoring blood supply to the myocardium and ultimately protecting the myocardium to the maximum extent, surely meant that he would be fine after a few days of monitoring postoperatively. When Yang Ping returned home, Xiao Su had some late-night snacks ready for him. Today had been a fulfilling day with a wedding consultation during the day and saving an intervention department patient at night. ¡ª The next morning, in the Comprehensive Surgery Department doctor¡¯s office. Everyone was busy with their own work. Zhang Lin hung up a new pennant on the office¡¯s wall of pennants. There were so many that they were stacked on top of each other. Of course, some of these pennants were given to Yang Ping, and some were given to the department, but all were sent by the patients out of heartfelt gratitude. August and Robert both carried a pair of chopsticks and a small bag of soybeans with them. Whenever they had time, they would scatter the soybeans on their desks and then pick them up one by one with the chopsticks and put them into the small cloth bag. The doctors in the department knew they were practicing their chopstick skills and didn¡¯t find it strange. They had a daily competition of picking up soybeans; the one who lost had to get in line for food at the cafeteria. It¡¯s difficult only until one sets his mind; they had only been training for a few days, and yet they had already managed to pick up the soybeans with chopsticks, albeit not very successfully yet. ¡°This is my office in Long Island. Look at it, isn¡¯t it splendid?¡± Robert showed a photo on his phone, which his assistant had sent him. August was deeply shocked by the photo. It was indeed magnificent, with the walls of the office adorned with Chinese-style pennants. Could this guy be so exceptional that he had so many pennants? But he hadn¡¯t gone back yet, so how could someone have given him a pennant? ¡°People frequently give pennants to me and to Professor Yang. I aspire to be just like the Professor. My office has this many pennants, and about twenty of them were made by me, the rest were given by patients. All of the pennants are written in Chinese.¡± Robert couldn¡¯t hide his pride. ¡°You¡¯ve been studying here all along? People have sent you pennants? And they¡¯re in Chinese too?¡± August was full of questions. ¡°That¡¯s what you don¡¯t understand, August. Now, I require that patients who come in for appointments bring a pennant to get priority treatment. When I return to the United States after finishing my training, my first patients will undoubtedly be those who have brought pennants,¡± Robert raised his head proudly. ¡°How would patients know to bring this kind of pennant?¡± August was still left confused. Robert had to explain: ¡°I have announced both on the clinic¡¯s official website and at the entrance that bringing a pennant ensures priority treatment. I even provided a template for the pennant next to the notice. Aug, you should try out this method when you return to Germany. I assure you, your office wall will be covered in pennants within three months.¡± ¡°Is this really okay?¡± August was doubtful. Robert confidently responded: ¡°Yes, it¡¯s easy to form new habits when guided properly. Following my method, within a year, they¡¯ll develop a good habit where they will bring pennants voluntarily. And what¡¯s more, they¡¯ll know to bring the pennants in a traditional Chinese style.¡± August thought that Robert¡¯s method seemed doable. His ingenuity was commendable. ¡°Can I see the picture again? Maybe you could send it to me via WeChat?¡± August was interested. Robert didn¡¯t hesitate to share. He instantly sent the photos to August. As August examined the pennants on the wall and compared them with the photo on WeChat, he thought they shared a resemblance and had a strong Chinese-style look. But something still seemed off, even though he couldn¡¯t pinpoint what it was. ¡°Could I have a copy of your pennant template? I don¡¯t want to have to make my version.¡± August was too lazy to make his template. Robert accordingly sent August the template and detailed parameters. The template was the work of his assistant Barel who spent a week designing it, and it was designed entirely based on the photos Robert had given him. Pennants; the honor of a doctor. The more pennants a doctor has, the more popular they are. Both August and Robert heard Yang Ping say this, and both remembered his words. They both wanted to follow in the professor¡¯s footsteps, to become the most liked doctors. Robert¡¯s technique was viable and good, thought August. Chapter 757 - 757 676 Skin Ex-Vivo Proliferation Technology ?Chapter 757: Chapter 676: Skin Ex-Vivo Proliferation Technology Chapter 757: Chapter 676: Skin Ex-Vivo Proliferation Technology ¡°One day, I will make this banner culture popular in North America.¡± Robert¡¯s usual confidence was evident. August was puzzling over these banners, always feeling something strange about them, but couldn¡¯t figure out what was wrong. So he set aside the issue for the moment and sent the banner template to his assistant ¡ª Dr. Marcus. ¡°Make a banner exactly like this and hang it in my office!¡± August issued an order to Marcus. As for Robert¡¯s recommended method, tying the banner to priority access for medical consultations, August hasn¡¯t decided yet whether to take such a radical step. ¡°Are we to persuade the Professor to take up the surgery invitation from Langnaife Company, since he doesn¡¯t seem interested?¡± Having arranged his private affairs, August began to focus on more important matters. The surgery organized by Langnaife Company has already become talk of the town. They are going to use an advanced Skin Extracorporeal Proliferation technology. This technology was developed by Professor Manstein but, the genius having shifted his focus to spinal cord injury repair, he lost interest in it. Langnaife Company funded another team to continue the research on this project and achieved great success. After receiving this new technology from Langnaife, plastic surgery master, Ivan, made technological improvements from the perspective of plastic surgery, which allowed control over the thickness and discoloration of the skin, thus achieving mature application in the field of plastic surgery. This technology solves the requirement for skin in certain surgical procedures. It takes a small piece of skin from the body and places it in a special external culture medium. The piece of skin can grow around, continuously expanding to many times its original size, up to a hundred times larger. In the past, when treating patients with burn injuries or skin defects, autologous skin transplantation was performed, and skin was taken from other parts of the patient¡¯s body ¨C akin to taking from one place to fill another. If the skin demand was small, this technique was manageable. But if the skin needed was very large, for example for a patient with extensive burn scars, traditional methods were powerless. The new method can nearly provide an unlimited supply of autologous skin, making surgery easier. ¡°We must persuade him. This is a great opportunity. Professor Manstein can expand his connections and it will be immensely helpful for his future career. If he gains Langnaife¡¯s support, he can walk sideways in the academic circles of Europe and America. If they knew his true level, they would treat him like a god, not just sending an invitation to probe his interest.¡± Robert was also of this view. August was peeking around the corner of Yang Ping¡¯s office door and upon seeing that Yang was free, both he and Robert entered his office. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± Yang Ping looked at the two grinning men. August gestured for Robert to speak, as he was better with words. Robert cleared his throat, ¡°Professor, we¡¯ve come to suggest that you participate in the surgery that Langnaife invited you to. It is confirmed that this surgery will conduct widespread scar treatment for the patient and adopt the most advanced skin extracorporeal proliferation technology. Taking a small area of healthy skin from the patient, it multiplies it in artificial cultivation, expanding its area several dozen times, even a hundred-fold, before re-transplanting back onto the patient to replace the original scar. Between all this, some stem cell technology is involved. I believe you should look into it, Professor. Of course, understanding this technology isn¡¯t the most important part; more importantly, you can acquire connections with Langnaife, which will be hugely beneficial for your future research. They have several Nobel laureates under contract.¡± Yang Ping had also heard of the Skin Extracorporeal Proliferation technology. Our country also has teams researching it, such as the burn treatment team at Shanghai Changhai Hospital. They could use a small piece of the patient¡¯s skin to multiply it externally into thin and transparent skin cell layers. Through 2-3 weeks of external cultivation, the patient¡¯s own skin cells can rapidly multiply between 4,000 to 10,000 times, constantly providing a source of skin for patients. However, the skin that this team cultivates is a transparent autologous skin cell membrane, not a full-thickness skin. It can be used in the repair of burn wounds, but it is temporarily unusable in plastic surgery. If Langnaife¡¯s technology has nurtured full-thickness skin or medium-thickness skin including the cuticle and dermis, then it is undoubtedly a breakthrough. ¡°About this technology, I have read Professor Manstein¡¯s paper. At that time, the technology was in the experimental stage and was not suitable for clinical application. There have been no related papers published since then. Has Langnaife made a breakthrough that it can now be used clinically?¡± Yang Ping was relatively interested in this technology, as a pure technophile, he was always curious about new technology. ¡°Exactly, the team sponsored by Langnaife has made a breakthrough and it can be used clinically. However, because it¡¯s too expensive ¨C each square centimeter costs about 600,000 dollars ¨C it¡¯s too expensive to popularize, and can only be used by the rich for the time being.¡± August quickly added. ¡°This is very common in the medical field. For instance, in recent years, the wealthy have been trendily opting for the ¡°life-extending needle¡±, which costs anywhere from tens of thousands to millions. In reality, it¡¯s merely stem cell injection treatment from a lab.¡± Robert chimed in. ¡°David Rockefeller, third-generation heir of the American Rockefeller family was the world¡¯s first successful heart transplant patient. He lived to be 102 years old, and over his lifetime, he spent 2 billion dollars successfully changing his heart six times.¡± August continued. Yang Ping¡¯s fingers were rhythmically tapping the office desk, but there was no sound. He refused the surgery because he was disgusted by the dark history of Langnaife. They had been criticized for alleged organ smuggling, although they later clarified that they were not involved. If the surgery is indeed, as described in the invitation, a plastic surgery procedure for a patient with post-burn and post-trauma sequelae and does not involve organ transplantation, and if the skin extracorporeal proliferation technology has indeed reached the stage of clinical application, Yang Ping still had some interest. At least it implies that the company stands out in medical research. The more you know about cutting-edge research results, the better. In the field of skin grafting, this skin extracorporeal proliferation technology can be said to be the world¡¯s top and most mature technology until there is a breakthrough in stem cell cultivation or skin printing technology. Given that Manstein is interested in this company, it must have something unique. Moreover, Ruixing¡¯s progress in Biological 3D printers is currently very slow. This cutting-edge technology requires deep accumulation, and it won¡¯t be surpassed in a short time. Yang Ping¡¯s area of expertise is medicine, and he¡¯s not good at fields beyond that. Hence, he can¡¯t help much with Ruixing¡¯s 3D printer. If they could lean on the strength of Langnaife, the progress of Ruixing¡¯s research could be sped up. ¡°So, should I participate in this surgery?¡± Yang Ping felt he needed to meet this mysterious company and mythical people like Ivan. ¡°Of course, not only should you go, but also take us with you.¡± Robert said. ¡°Why?¡± Yang Ping saw that Robert seemed quite excited. ¡°You need an assistant who¡¯s familiar with Langnaife.¡± Robert immediately justified. ¡°No, two!¡± August corrected. PS: I apologize again for not being able to update for a while due to my busy work schedule. Now that things are better, I am back to updating! Thank you, everyone! Chapter 758 - 758 677 Ivan ?Chapter 758: Chapter 677: Ivan Chapter 758: Chapter 677: Ivan However, Yang Ping immediately negated his thoughts. He was very interested in this case from Langnaife Company, but as a surgeon, he had an extraordinary sensitivity to safety. Unfamiliar non-public medical organizations and a surgery performed on a hospital ship in international waters could easily lead to ambiguous traps. ¡°I¡¯ll think it over!¡± Yang Ping lightly tapped his fingers on the desk, he must remain cautious. The skin expansion technique is merely a mature ¡°induction formula¡± they have mastered. The ¡°induction formula¡± regarding stem cells is Yang Ping¡¯s main research topic at the moment. Yang Ping has already glimpsed the way through it, why not try his induction theory using this technology. The theory summarized from the experiment is verified through reverse experimentation. The brilliance of Langnaife¡¯s new technology is not in cultivating stem cells into scattered skin cells, but in treating the entire patch of skin as an organ, and conducting overall expansion. This induction technology is a step ahead of other stem cell cultivation technologies. Most other stem cell researchers are stuck at cultivating countless individual target cells, using these cells as ¡°ink¡± in combination with special scaffolds, to print out the three-dimensional shape of an organ. But it only looks like the organ in shape not substance. Another approach, some teams use gene editing technology to cultivate organs in pigs and other animals, after gene editing, they prevent rejection between these organs and human organs, and then transplant them to humans. For example, the team at the University of Maryland in the USA has successfully transplanted a pig heart into a human being. This approach is more manageable than 3D organ printing, after all, it¡¯s easier to cultivate an organ than to print one. It¡¯s easier to cultivate an apple from a seed than to assemble an apple using artificial technology. Because of the skin expansion technique, Yang Ping¡¯s scale is tipping towards natural cultivation, rather than 3D printing. Scientific experiments are just like this: constantly correcting one¡¯s own path in the process of exploration. If skin expansion technique is cracked and its secret revealed, then wouldn¡¯t it be possible to cultivate organs such as the liver, kidney, and heart using the same technique outside the body? Take the liver for example, a small piece of liver tissue can induce an entire liver, what a tempting prospect. Clearly, neither Manstein nor other scientists at Langnaife company have unlocked the secret of organ-level induction. They just made some breakthroughs in experience and managed to expand the simplest skin. If they had genuinely discovered the secret, Manstein would not have abandoned this topic but continued to support spinal injury repair research with this technology. Yang Ping decided to go to the System Space Laboratory and use experimental models to study this issue and eventually uncover the mystery of skin expansion outside the body. This is more challenging than cultivating skin cells with stem cells because it not only involves cultivating cells but also the spatial building of cells and the real connection between cells. Hearing that Yang Ping changed his mind, both August and Robert were quite disappointed. Based on their knowledge, the skin expansion technique outside the body can undoubtedly be called a model for stem cell clinical application, but surprisingly, Professor Yang remained indifferent. ¡°Professor?¡± Robert hadn¡¯t given up, and August also hoped Yang Ping would change his mind. They genuinely wanted Yang Ping to participate in this surgery. It would not only allow Yang Ping to gain strong support from Langnaife but also help him expand his network in the world¡¯s top academic circles. Yang Ping just waved his hand without saying a word. Disappointed, Robert and August had no choice but to leave Yang Ping¡¯s head office. In the doctors¡¯ office, an intern was answering the phone: ¡°Doctor Wan, our department¡¯s Doctor Wan who is responsible for consultations? Oh, Doctor Wan Baolong.¡± The intern hung up the phone and then turned to the group of young doctors who were buried in work and said: ¡°The Neurology Department just called and said that the patient that our department¡¯s Doctor Wan was supposed to see has completed the required X-ray exams as per the request. They hope that Doctor Wan could spare some time to help look at the X-ray. Who is Doctor Wan?¡± This intern wasn¡¯t new here and was quite familiar with the Comprehensive Surgery Department, but he had never heard of any Doctor Wan. Doctor Wan? Comprehensive Surgery Department has Dr. Song, Dr. Xu, Dr. Zhang, Dr. Lu You could even say they have five doctors. But they don¡¯t have Doctor Wan nor do they have a doctor named Wan Baolong. ¡°Could there have been a mistake? Maybe it¡¯s a doctor from Orthopedics?¡± Someone asked skeptically. Another standardized training student who had just transferred from Orthopedics said: ¡°They don¡¯t have a doctor named Wan Baolong either.¡± ¡°No mistake! They spoke very clearly, Doctor Wan Baolong!¡± The person who had answered the phone was sure that he hadn¡¯t misheard. Doctor Wan Baolong? At that moment, Zhang Lin walked in and began looking for his pen: ¡°Have you seen my pen? It has an IV sticker on it where the brand is written.¡± It was a Montblanc brought from Germany by August. How can it disappear all of a sudden? At that moment, the phone rang again. After the intern answered the phone, he looked at Zhang Lin in confusion and said: ¡°Teacher Zhang, a female doctor from the Neurology Department said that Doctor Wan Baolong¡¯s pen was left in their office, remember to pick it up when you go there.¡± The well-known Zhang Lin, the director of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Intelligence Department, was now being called Wan Baolong? The doctors in the office immediately figured out what was going on, and some couldn¡¯t help but laugh. When Zhang Lin visited another department for a consultation, he would sign the consult note with flair which would be tough to decipher if you were not used to it. Probably after the consultation, his Montblanc was left there, and the clever female doctor from the Neurology Department recognized Doctor Wan Baolong from the IV sticker on the pen. Chapter 759 - 759 677 Ivan_2 ?Chapter 759: Chapter 677: Ivan_2 Chapter 759: Chapter 677: Ivan_2 ¡ª In Auckland, New Zealand, inside a villa. A assistant in a white gown carefully removes a piece of skin from the cultivator. The skin, which has expanded from 1 square centimeter to approximately 200 square centimeters, is placed on a tray by the assistant and brought to Professor Ivan. Professor Ivan, in his fifties, has deep and insightful eyes. His cheeks, chin, and the area around his mouth are all covered in thick stubble, evidencing several days without shaving. If this continues, he will surely grow a typical Russian beard. Professor Ivan moved from Russia to New Zealand many years ago and has resided on this island nation ever since, apart from traveling for surgeries. With Professor Ivan¡¯s wealth and professional capabilities, he could have moved to almost any immigrant-accepting country in the world. However, after many years of field research and comparison, he chose New Zealand. The United States was too boisterous; he liked tranquility. Canada was too cold; even Vancouver¡¯s mild climate left him unable to withstand the depressive rainy seasons. He had already grown weary of Europe, where the constant power struggles and debates made it hard to find peace. Australia was dry and lacked water; Singapore was quite good, but it was too small. Only this remote island nation¡ªNew Zealand¡ªdeeply attracted Professor Ivan. After several trips there, he decided to settle in this solitary land. He bought a piece of land in the suburbs of Auckland and built a villa there. In addition to the residential building, there was also his laboratory, and even his doomsday bunker. This so-called doomsday bunker was purely to satisfy his ultimate pursuit of safety; it now served as a wine cellar. The tray was placed securely on Professor Ivan¡¯s desk. He nodded slightly and his gloved fingers gently touched the skin. He observed it carefully in the natural light coming from the window: ¡°It still lacks a lot. It is fully qualified for replacing scars on other parts of the body, but for facial plastic surgery, it still hasn¡¯t met the requirements.¡± ¡°Professor Manstein did not make any progress on this topic for years and later focused on spinal cord injury research, disregarding this one. When Langnaife Company took over this topic, even though it enhanced it to its fullest extent, they eventually hit a ceiling. While they¡¯ve made huge breakthroughs in expanding the size, they have managed to consistently maintain the complete structure of the dermis and epidermis, but the texture is never satisfactory, especially compared to facial skin. While it¡¯s completely unproblematic to transplant into common areas, there is some difference if transplanted onto the face. However, it has improved a lot compared to before; it is currently the best choice in the world. As doctors, if we can¡¯t choose perfection, we can only choose the best because in most cases, the option for perfection is lacking.¡± ¡°How is the preparation for the surgery going?¡± Professor Ivan took off his gloves, letting the assistant put the skin back into the cultivator. There were many such cultivators displayed in the laboratory. As the assistant carefully put the skin back into the cultivator, he said, ¡°The surgery in Singapore is ready, and our equipment has arrived in Singapore. Professor Manstein will be involved in this surgery, but he is only the theoretical team leader. You are the actual chief surgeon.¡± There was a human body diagram hanging on the wall. Professor Ivan stood up, stood in front of the picture, and used a pencil in his hand to indicate the diagram: ¡°This surgery is a massive project. Severe burns have caused large areas of scars all over the body. These hyperplastic scars need to be excised, and then transplanted and covered with the skin we cultivated. As you can see, the nose and ear lobes need to be reconstructed. The 3D printed cartilage from the University of Alberta can barely fulfill the mission. As for the orthopedics of the pelvis and joints, we will have to ask that Chinese doctor for help. I¡¯ve seen his papers and cases. He is proficient in orthopedic correction surgery. If one were to judge based on his papers, he should be the world¡¯s number one in this field at the moment, unsurpassed by anyone.¡± ¡°I have never heard of this Doctor Yang before?¡± the assistant asked curiously. Professor Ivan shook his head, ¡°That¡¯s because you never venture beyond the field of plastic surgery. If you have spare time, I suggest you read broadly, from basic medicine to clinical medicine, all fields, all specialties. They often go hand in hand and can learn from each other. You must learn every day, only learning can keep you invigorated.¡± ¡°Yes, Professor Ivan, I will remember.¡± In the assistant¡¯s heart, Professor Ivan is a mentor, a true mentor. ¡°This Chinese doctor, I¡¯ve never met him, but I have read all his papers. He couldn¡¯t write the essence in his papers if he didn¡¯t have a large number of successful cases. Chinese people are naturally intelligent and with a large amount of cases, they can easily cultivate doctors with superb medical skills. Unfortunately, Chinese doctors always lack a bit of imaginative spark, but this young doctor is different, he has a precious spark of imagination.¡± Professor Ivan¡¯s tone was calm and slow. ¡°Professor Ivan, you¡¯re always able to see things that others cannot!¡± The assistant admired sincerely. ¡°The spark of imagination, in fact, lies in the issue between 1% of inspiration and 99% of perspiration. 1% of inspiration is the most important, even more important than that 99% of perspiration. If one day, the Chinese get a 1% of inspiration, their technology will surge dramatically. When I was twenty, during the time of the Soviet Union, I studied at the First Medical University of Shchyonov. At that time, I saw Chinese students, they were very intelligent and diligent, my impression of Chinese people is profound, intelligent, diligent, and patient.¡± Professor Ivan seemed to be lost in thought, as if he was brought back to his younger years, for a moment, then he resumed his usual poise. ¡°You see, this pelvic deformity and bilateral hip joint deformity resulting from the comminuted pelvic fracture caused by a car accident, if you want to perform surgery to correct it, you need to do complex pelvic osteotomy. This makes orthopedic surgeons daunted, but this Chinese doctor can accomplish it. He successfully operated on patients with spinal fold, this requires wisdom, courage, and superb surgical skills.¡± ¡°I studied this case for three years, the only thing I was not sure about was the texture of the facial skin and the orthopedic correction. The skin cultivated in our lab still has a difference in texture with facial skin, and this softer skin is very less tolerant to ultraviolet rays, according to our experimental data, under the exposure to ultraviolet rays, it tends to produce pigment deposits and risks of skin cancer are considerably increased.¡± ¡°However, for this Miss Italy, this is already the best choice, she can later walk on the street with a normal person¡¯s face.¡± The assistant looked at his mentor with admiring eyes. This genius master of plastic surgery was about to recreate a beauty. Yet he was not satisfied, his pursuit of details was almost obsessive. He applied stem cell cultivation technology and mature bio 3D printing technology to plastic surgery, making the shaping of some bones and cartilage contours incredibly easy. The use of ex vivo skin expansion technology made skin shaping a breeze. ¡°I always ask you to have a broad understanding of medicine, such as cartilage 3D printing technology. It hasn¡¯t progressed much in joint surgery, yet we apply it to the formation of the nose and ear cartilage, the effect is very good. Because we use it for form, not function, while joint surgery needs function.¡± Professor Ivan wrote something on the drawing with a pencil, then took a few steps back to observe the drawing carefully. He had been continuously perfecting his surgical plan over the years. He was going to use his medical skills to create a man-made beauty and bring her back to the stage. ¡°I heard the Chinese doctor declined the invitation for this surgery?¡± Professor Ivan always maintained an even pace when speaking, neither fast nor slow, like a composed preacher. The assistant respectfully responded, ¡°Yes, Langnaife sent him an invitation, but he declined.¡± ¡°Perhaps, he looks down on Langnaife, or doesn¡¯t know about Langnaife. But he must at least be interested in this case, such a genius must be an individual with a strong interest in medicine. At the same time, he might be a bit interested in our skin expansion technology. This is the world¡¯s currently mature organ cloning technology that is genuinely applied to the clinic. You have to believe, geniuses have one thing in common ¨C an extreme passion for a certain field, while not caring about unrelated things.¡± ¡°It seems, I should take a trip to China personally.¡± Professor Ivan looked out the window. The scenery outside the window was picturesque, with a blue sky and white clouds. Chapter 760 - 760 678 Small Experiment ?Chapter 760: Chapter 678: Small Experiment Chapter 760: Chapter 678: Small Experiment Yang Ping refused Langnaife¡¯s surgical invitation, leaving Robert and August quite upset. However, they worshipped Yang Ping as a god. The god-like professor must have his own plans, having no interest in Langnaife and its high-end technology. The two men quickly put this matter behind them and went to Yu Shuilian¡¯s bakery for a few cups of coffee and some bread. They also showed Shuilian how to use the braces shipped from Boston Dynamics. Robert had used his personal resources to customize these braces for her. Once Shuilian put on the braces, the remnants of her body could sit stably in the comfortable base. Then, the two props under her armpits shared the weight, supporting her entire body which fused with the brace. As long as Shuilian wanted to walk, her brain¡¯s electric signals would be picked up by the brace. This intention would cause subtle changes in the bioelectric signals of the upper limbs and body, which the brace could also collect. The computer chip would determine from the collected information that the wearer wishes to walk, and the brace would immediately respond, taking a step forward. The longer the brace is used, the better it coordinates with the user, as the brace is always collecting data to optimize its calculations. Once the advanced powered brace technology matures, it will be a boon for paralysis patients. This breakthrough is a result of the combined application of brain-computer interface technology, bioelectric technology, and robotics. In a corner of the bakery, two foreigners sit together, whispering quietly. The doctors and nurses purchasing bread have grown accustomed to these two, aware they are fellows from the Comprehensive Surgery Department and, as the rumor goes, two top international orthopedic surgeons. ¡°Have you noticed that the professor often shuts his office door for a rest?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not rest, that¡¯s quiet contemplation. All geniuses are like that, they like being alone.¡± ¡°Before each major surgery, he also retreats to the changing room to rest his mind.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve also noticed this detail about the professor, so now I also spend a few minutes in the changing room before each major surgery.¡± ¡°What do you think about when you¡¯re resting your mind? The details of the surgery?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m wondering what Chinese food I haven¡¯t tried yet.¡± ¡ª The following morning. In the Comprehensive Surgery Department Director¡¯s office, Yang Ping is leisurely drinking tea. In the system space laboratory, after several months of hard work, Yang Ping has finally unlocked a secret to skin expansion in vitro. According to his induction theory, he has explored the induction formula for skin expansion technology, which is more advanced and complete than the formulas of Manstein and Langnaife. Since Yang Ping has mastered several core principles of induction theory, he conducts experiments guided by these principles to figure out the specific sub formulas. When Yang Ping was in high school, his math teacher forcefully recommended Euclid¡¯s ¡°Elements¡± to the students. The teacher highly praised the book, considering it the forefather of scientific history. With only twenty-three definitions, five axioms, and five postulates, the book established an entire geometric system. Back then, every student in the class had a copy of ¡°Elements,¡± their math grades outshining those of other classes. In each major and minor exam, everyone scored high, with perfect scores everywhere. In recent years, Yang Ping has been reading the popular internet book ¡°Principles of Everything¡±. After studying it several times, he found that its thinking model was similar to that of the ¡°Elements.¡± Both look through the phenomena and see the essence, analyzing things and firmly capturing the basic principles behind them. Making use of these principles to understand objects, build theories, guide practice, and finally achieve great innovation. Following this mode of thinking, Yang Ping discovered the basic principles of stem cell differentiation: 1, the induction is carried out by some special substances, which can be proteins or other factors; 2, various different inducing substances form the inducing formula in different quantities, which are extremely precise; 3, different directions and periods of differentiation call for different induction formulas; 4, factors besides inducing substances, such as temperature and internal environment, affect the process; 5, there is an inherent logical relationship in the induction formula that can turn on and off genetic information in cells, which forms the basis of differentiation; 6, the induction formulae present similarities during both embryonic development and teratoma formation. Guided by these basic principles, Yang Ping further discovered the basic logic of the induction formula. With the guidance of this basic logic, doing experiments was as natural as fish swimming in water. Song Zimo knocked on the director¡¯s office door, bringing Tang Shun to report in. Having finally sorted out his PhD graduation at Tokyo University, Tang Shun officially reported to Sanbo Hospital¡¯s stem cell laboratory as the lab director. The graduating affairs wouldn¡¯t have taken that long to handle, but Teacher Tang had too many girlfriends in Japan. From undergraduate, to master¡¯s, to doctorate, and even those already working, he had covered all bases. Before parting, he had to spend time comforting each girlfriend. After taking care of all of them, Teacher Tang was finally able to return to China at ease. With permission, Song Zimo pushed open the door, the tea on the table was steaming and fragrant. The esteemed professor was half-closing his eyes, his fingers gently tapping the table in rhythm. ¡°Doctor Tang!¡± Yang Ping immediately stood up, holding Tang Shun¡¯s hand. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Tang Shun appeared very excited. His decision to come to Sanbo was well thought out and filled with anticipation. ¡°Sit and have some tea!¡± Yang Ping invited everyone to sit down, and Song Zimo began to pour tea. It was still early, and with Xu Zhiliang in charge of the shift, everyone could sit down and have a good chat. ¡°Doctor Tang plans to start work formally today,¡± Song Zimo straightforwardly announced. Tang Shun arrived at Sanbo Hospital the night before and hurried to meet with Yang Ping the next day, hoping to start work as soon as possible. ¡°Let¡¯s arrange it!¡± Yang Ping, without any redundancy, took a piece of A4 paper from the drawer and handed it to Tang Shun. ¡°It¡¯s great that you¡¯re here, this is a new experiment idea of mine ¨C skin expansion technique outside the body, you try it out in the experiment.¡± Tang Shun accepted the A4 paper, which contained densely written information. After quickly reading it, he said: ¡°Manstein¡¯s skin expansion technique outside the body? Where did you get this induction formula?¡± Tang Shun was quite puzzled. Because the formula was not disclosed in the paper published by Manstein, such an induction formula, like a prescription for Chinese medicine, only tells the main ingredients, but doesn¡¯t tell the key information such as dosage, and thus cannot be used. ¡°This is my own induction formula, which might be better than Manstein¡¯s. Let¡¯s do a small experiment in our own stem cell laboratory, and see if it works. If it does, our next step may be clearer,¡± said Yang Ping. What Yang Ping said casually left Tang Shun speechless. His formula is better than Manstein¡¯s? And this cutting-edge stem cell technology is just a ¡°small experiment¡± in his eyes? You¡¯ll know if it works by giving it a try. No one can judge exactly what the result will be before doing an experiment. But from the knowledge that Tang Shun has, this ¡°induction formula¡± is very scientific and absolutely not arbitrary. He had discovered some of the induction factors, but had not published any papers yet, and several of the induction factors were ones he had never seen before. That means the induction factors in this formula are already ahead of his research, Tang Shun immediately judged. ¡°Professor, are you suggesting we can actually achieve skin expansion outside the body?¡± Song Zimo was very surprised. These past few days, Robert and August have been discussing this skin expansion technology, which Song Zimo also understood. Yang Ping had not done any related research before, but suddenly presented this paper. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Usually I¡¯m too busy, and don¡¯t have time to do many things. These days, Robert and August have mentioned the skin expansion technology. Now that Tang Shun has joined, the stem cell laboratory can operate normally. Fish to ask. We should try this little experiment and remember to invite Robert and August to participate.¡± Randomly, Yang Ping also instructed Song Zimo: ¡°You go and see if there are any patients with large area scar from burns in the burn department. Take one over, then remove a piece of skin 1 square centimeter from him, use this induction formula for skin expansion outside the body, and see if we can expand the skin with a normal quality.¡± ¡°If the skin expansion goes well, we will strive to get the muscle expansion method in the next step. Cultivating an organ using the cell¡¯s own genetic information is easier than using 3D printing to print an organ. Of course, if we have enough funds, we should not give up on 3D printing. Until the end, no one can know who is right.¡± Tang Shun found a kindred spirit and spoke enthusiastically. ¡°Complex organs, such as the heart, liver, and kidney, require cultivation techniques, while simple organs, such as cartilage, bone, and tendons, are more advantageous for 3D printing. The two paths each have their advantages and disadvantages, just like petrol and diesel cars. Big trucks use diesel, and small cars use petrol. These two don¡¯t contradict each other, they can coexist, it¡¯s not about having one without the other.¡± Song Zimo also agreed with Tang Shun¡¯s view: ¡°For example, cartilage printing for plastic surgery can precisely print any shape you want. Cultivation can¡¯t do that.¡± Tang Shun immediately said: ¡°Actually, cultivation can also do that, by introducing a shaping mold. However, it¡¯s not as timely as 3D printing. So, both paths can progress side by side. At least in the short term, it¡¯s hard for 3D printing to print complex organs.¡± ¡°Now that you¡¯re in charge of the stem cell laboratory, I¡¯m relieved. Let¡¯s start with this little experiment of skin expansion outside the body. You¡¯re in charge of the stem cell laboratory in the future, and you have the power to independently recruit people, apply for funds, and purchase equipment. We have ample funds, you can rest assured. Dr. Song, take Dr. Tang to complete the entry procedures.¡± Yang Ping was very happy that his stem cell laboratory finally had the right person. Tang Shun read the A4 paper again, and his years of research in the field of stem cells told him that this so-called ¡°small experiment¡± was actually the world¡¯s most advanced technology currently. Cell induction differentiation has been promoted to spatial configuration, not scattered individual cells. In the past, after Manstein had intuitively figured out the induction formula for the skin expansion technique outside the body, he was not able to grasp the principle behind it. Later, the genius turned to research on spinal cord injuries and gave up this project. PS: Apologies for the long break! However, as long as I have time, I will keep updating. I¡¯m never going to leave it unfinished. Please give me an upvote for encouragement! Chapter 761 - 761 679 Not a single piece of good skin ?Chapter 761: Chapter 679: Not a single piece of good skin Chapter 761: Chapter 679: Not a single piece of good skin Tang Shun began his work that day, getting accustomed to the environment and equipment, and planning to assemble a team. Currently, all the researchers in the Sanbo Stem Cell Laboratory are clinical masters and doctors in progress, which can only be described as a loosely amateur team. Tang Shun is looking to recruit and build a high-standard research team. There is no shortage of funds and he can hire independently, so this is not a hard task. However, Professor Yang is eager to start the experiment and hopes that the experiment of skin expansion in vitro can be carried out as soon as possible. Since there is an existing induction formula, if success is not demanded in the experiment, but only required to be done according to the method on the A4 paper, it is not a problem for these young masters and doctors to team up and carry out this experiment. Tang Shun decided immediately to conduct a three-day short-term training for these guys in the lab, and then start the experiment immediately to try whether this induction formula could expand the skin in vitro. The suitable cultivator is in the lab, and the method of extracting the inducing factor is introduced on the A4 paper. The only question is whether the method is feasible. As for the research subject, Song Zimo has already sent someone to the burns department to get a patient, and it will be ready soon. Tang Shun called a young master over, ¡°What topics have you worked on before?¡± The young master thought for a while and said, ¡°I haven¡¯t done any big topics. I recently followed Professor Yang, Dr. Song, and Dr. Xu to do a project on treating scoliosis with external spinal fixation.¡± Tang Shun was taken aback. He had done a detailed understanding of the project on treating scoliosis with external spinal fixation before, which is a world-class topic. Could it be that Professor Yang made this topic with these guys in the lab? ¡°Did you guys make the external spinal fixation?¡± Tang Shun couldn¡¯t believe it. Given the scientific research experience of these guys, he couldn¡¯t imagine that this world-class topic came from them. Even if Professor Yang is very strong, how can he come up with a world-class topic without a strong team under his hand? Just like a good general, he must have a strong army. It¡¯s hard to associate these young people with a strong army. ¡°Professor Yang designed the project plan, and Dr. Song and Dr. Xu led us to do the experiment. The animal experiment was conducted in Guilin.¡± The young master gave a detailed account. Tang Shun glanced at the lab; there are only a dozen young people in the whole lab, and these guys don¡¯t look like they are doing serious experiments, with some of them even wearing slippers. Out of these dozen people, there are those who come to help temporarily, and there are less than ten people who often work in the lab. Did Professor Yang, on the basis of this rudimentary team, come up with a world-class topic? Why not let these people do another experiment on ¡°skin expansion technology in vitro¡±? ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± Tang Shun asked. The young master answered, ¡°My name is Li Guodong.¡± ¡°Do you usually do experiments here regularly?¡± ¡°No, I have to be on duty in the Comprehensive Surgery Department as well. I come to do experiments whenever I have time.¡± Tang Shun straightened up, no wonder Professor Yang said that it starts from zero in the stem cell lab, everything is left to him. ¡°Can you see the extraction of the inducing factor here? Will you?¡± Tang Shun showed the A4 paper to Li Guodong. Li Guodong took a look: ¡°Oh, there¡¯s a method to this; we¡¯ve extracted a lot of factors, although they are all extracted in the Genetics Laboratory of Nandu Medical University, but I also know the method.¡± Tang Shun was stunned again, ¡°You know how to extract?¡± ¡°I know, I¡¯ve done it a few times.¡± Tang Shun thought he had misheard; each of these inducing factors could be a paper published in a top-tier journal, and they had extracted many kinds? ¡ª After the surgery, around five in the afternoon, Zhang Lin and Little Five arrived at the Burns Department. As two heavyweight figures in the Comprehensive Surgery Department, Zhang Lin and Little Five¡¯s status in Sanbo is rising. As they were passing by, the calls of ¡°Teacher Zhang! Teacher Five!¡± were incessant. The scale of the Burns Department in Sanbo Hospital is not large because there are not many burn patients in the whole city, unlike some places with developed fireworks manufacturing industries, where the Burns Department can build several floors. Professor Yang has already spoken to Director Chi of the Burns Department, hoping to recommend a patient, who has over three years of scar formation after the burns, the larger the area of the scar, the better. In Nandu Province, the strongest Burns Department is in Nandu Red Cross Hospital, not Sanbo Hospital. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Burns Department is just a marginal department. But even the Gamma Knife, a small department that survives on a single device, has developed in a decent way. Director Chi also has an idea, and today Professor Yang took the initiative to call him for patients. Director Chi had a flash of inspiration, could it be that there is some new technology in the Comprehensive Surgery Department, Yang Ping, who started in orthopedics, has an intersecting field with the Burns Department, which is either skin grafting or flap, and they want a scar patient. Could there be some new skin grafting technology? Considering the current runaway success of Gao Yuan in the Sports Medicine Department; and Duan Bald, who started by stock trading, has grown into a well-known ¡°Uterine Fibroids Master¡±, charging a starting fee of three thousand for each flight and five thousand for the normal price. Director Chi refuses to accept or resign. In Sanbo Hospital, this thickest thigh, if the name is Gao can cling, the name Duan can cling, and the name Chi can also cling! As soon as Director Chi put down the phone, he immediately screened through the dozens of patients in the department personally and picked out a patient who met Professor Yang¡¯s requirements. This patient has formed scars all over the body after burns, and there is no good skin at all, all are scars, even the scalp is all scarred. Zhang Lin and Little Five, as envoys, now came to the burns department to see the patient. The two of them strolled to the Burns Department doctor¡¯s office, a group of standardized training students respectfully greeted them, ¡°Teacher Zhang, Teacher Five!¡± Little Five¡¯s real name is Lu Xiaowu, but most people call him Teacher Five. As time passed, everyone almost forgot his real surname, only remembering that he was called Teacher Five. The inpatient director of the Burns Department also ran over. He used to call Zhang Lin Zhang Dazui, now he also calls him Teacher Zhang, times have changed. It¡¯s said that ¡°Surgical Hook Science¡±, co-authored by Teacher Zhang and Teacher Five, is being organized for publication, which will fill the gap in the subdivision field of surgery. ¡°Teacher Zhang! Teacher Five!¡± ¡°Hmm! We¡¯re here to see the patient.¡± ¡°Here¡¯s the medical record. You can take a look first. This patient has been scarred all over his body for three years after the burn. There¡¯s no good spot all over his body. He can¡¯t even find a normal scalp. If he wants to have a skin graft surgery, he doesn¡¯t have a place to get skin. Our director recommended him to go to the affiliated hospital of the Army Medical University.¡± The inpatient director explained. ¡°Teacher Zhang! Teacher Five!¡± At this time, Director Chi personally came out to greet them. Oh¡ªDirector Chi! Director Chi¡¯s addressing as teacher made Little Five a bit uncomfortable. But Zhang Lin, having a thicker skin, was very enjoying it. ¡°Director Chi, you¡¯re too kind.¡± Zhang Lin casually flicked his hair, held Director Chi¡¯s hand, and dealt with him as if he was at the director¡¯s level. ¡°Please have a seat, teachers. The instructions of Professor Yang are commands to us. I have already prepared the patient. This patient was about to go to the affiliated hospital of the Army Medical University. However, Professor Yang asked me to keep the patient here, saying that he might have a way. So I talked with the patient for a full two hours, and now the patient is willing to stay.¡± Chapter 762 - 762 680 Big Topic ?Chapter 762: Chapter 680: Big Topic Chapter 762: Chapter 680: Big Topic Indeed, the Comprehensive Surgery Department has come up with something new. Director Chi¡¯s guess was right; this new thing is skin grafting technology. He personally took Zhang Lin and Little Five to see the patients ¨C the patients he personally selected. In the corridor of the burn unit, there is a special smell, this is the smell emitted from patients¡¯ wound exudates during their dressing changes. Wound dressing change in the Burns Department is the most difficult among all surgical departments, without a doubt. Especially for patients with extensive burns, often several doctors and nurses are working in cooperation, and it takes one to two hours to change the dressing once. Of course, the fees for dressing changes in the burn unit are also the highest. The cost varies from a dozen to several dozen yuan for each surgical dressing change in a regular department. While in the burn unit, surgical dressing changes could cost hundreds or even over a thousand yuan. The patient was lying down resting. Even while resting, he was wearing a mask and hat; he didn¡¯t want anyone to see that his body was full of scars. The body-wide scars not only changed his appearance, but also brought a lot of functional problems, such as scar contracture in the joints, which limited the movement of nearly all his joints. The body-wide scars caused him to lose normal skin heat dissipation ability; his risk of heatstroke in the summer was many times higher than others¡¯. Sometimes the scars also cause pain and itching. This patient, whose surname is Sun, is only thirty years old. He used to be a junior high school teacher. There was once a fire in the senior high school dormitory, and more than a dozen students were trapped inside and couldn¡¯t get out. He repeatedly went in and out of the fire scene to rescue the students. The students were rescued, but he himself suffered severe burns. At that time, the Education Department took his injury very seriously and sent him to the best hospital in the local province. The burns were healed, but the residual body-wide scars were beyond the provincial hospitals¡¯ abilities to handle. The Director of the Burn Department at the time also agreed with Director Chi¡¯s judgment: if the scalp is intact, there is still a solution. Scalp can be repeatedly harvested without forming scars. It¡¯s like cutting leeks, wave after wave. Using the scalp as the donor source for skin grafts, though multiple surgeries, can resolve most of the scar replacement problem. But Teacher Sun¡¯s scalp is now all scarred. The only preserved skin is in his perineal area. The skin in this area cannot be harvested repeatedly like the scalp, so its use is limited, and the doctors are temporarily out of solutions. A boss from Nandu Province, who invested in an enterprise in Teacher Sun¡¯s hometown, heard of Sun¡¯s deeds and was greatly touched. So he contacted Teacher Sun¡¯s school, hoping to help Sun with his medical treatment. This boss heard that a fire rescue hero who had his arm broken into five sections was cured in Sanbo Hospital, so he arranged for Teacher Sun to go to Sanbo Hospital. Unexpectedly, the burn department at Sanbo Hospital was not very prestigious and couldn¡¯t come up with a good solution. They recommended that Teacher Sun go to the First Affiliated Hospital of the Army Medical University or Changhai Hospital in Shanghai. The boss who was helping Teacher Sun immediately contacted Changhai Hospital in Shanghai through his connections. They also weren¡¯t very confident, and suggested that Teacher Sun go and have a look first. Now, hearing from Director Chi that the Comprehensive Surgery Department might have a solution, Teacher Sun was very happy and willing to stay. When the patient heard that the doctors from the Comprehensive Surgery Department had arrived for a consultation, he shook off his hesitation and took off his mask and hat. Zhang Lin and Little Five conducted a detailed physical check-up on Teacher Sun. This patient indeed had scars all over his body; throughout his entire body, except for the perineal area, there wasn¡¯t a patch of good skin, all were covered with scars. His auricle had contracted due to burn scars, making his hearing very poor. Zhang Lin saw that Teacher Sun¡¯s perineal skin was very intact and heaved a sigh of relief, because Song Zimo¡¯s guidance for him was: as long as a patient has a patch of normal skin, even only one square centimeter, then the patient still has hope. The technology of skin expansion in vitro requires seed.. a patch of intact skin is the seed. ¡°How was it?¡± Teacher Sun dressed himself and asked with worry. Without hesitation, Zhang Lin said confidently, ¡°We are all set!¡± He had never seen Professor Yang use patients for non-robust experiments before. ¡ª Looking at the induction formula on the A4 paper, Tang Shun pondered for a long time. If this induction formula is Yang Ping¡¯s ¡°hypothesis¡±, it couldn¡¯t possibly be successful after one experiment. Even after many experiments, and ultimate failure, the conclusion of many topics is still possible. Many topics end in failure. To come up with such an induction formula, to achieve Professor Yang¡¯s goal, to expand a one square centimeter piece of skin to a few hundred square centimeters, or even larger, is a tall order. Such a topic, an international top-notch team, even if they¡¯re lucky, wouldn¡¯t be able to complete the task within three to five years. Professor Mainstein¡¯s team also took a full three years to come up with the induction formula. This formula was purchased by Langnaife Company for further research, which led to the effect we see today. It¡¯s impossible for Professor Yang to get this induction formula, so the chances are high that he was inspired by Professor Manstein and created his own formula. ¡ª Zhang Lin and Little Five had Teacher Sun sign a bunch of papers ¨C informed consent for the experiment, ethics informed consent, etc. Then they resected a spindle-shaped piece of intact skin from the perineal area, soaked it in preservation solution, and sent it to the stem cell laboratory. In the several large cultivators as well, the liquid configuration of the inducing factor was already filled. This isn¡¯t a small experiment, but a large topic that can touch the threshold of a Nobel Prize. Tang Shun didn¡¯t think that these few people could complete such an advanced topic, but out of his adoration for Professor Yang, he figured that it wouldn¡¯t matter if they tried and failed, so he was willing to give it a go. There are thousands and thousands of factors in the human body, it¡¯s very difficult to figure out which one is the inducing factor and how they combine with each other. That¡¯s why there¡¯s been no breakthrough developments in stem cell technology. He could recite the information on the A4 paper by heart now. If this experiment were to be conducted at Tokyo University, he would start by organizing twenty-three doctoral students, plus thirty-four master¡¯s students. They wouldn¡¯t dare to start the experiment until they had revised the research proposal countless times. But here they were, casually starting an experiment with just an A4 paper and a few casual team members, laughing and chattering. He really didn¡¯t understand Professor Yang. The mind of a genius is indeed different. ¡°Hello, Dr. Tang!¡± Several doctoral and master¡¯s students, even brought a bag of steamed buns, came in. Some people were eating buns and opening their laptops to start working at the same time. This made Tang Shun feel uncomfortable, but he didn¡¯t say anything. After all, he had just arrived, and these people were temporary research staff. They just helped out in their spare time. Their main profession was being surgeons. Chapter 763 - 763 681 Playing House ?Chapter 763: Chapter 681: Playing House Chapter 763: Chapter 681: Playing House Such a serious and significant topic, and here were a dozen or so amateur students conducting the experiment as if it was child¡¯s play. However, Tang Shun didn¡¯t dare to make hasty judgments, after all, it was his first time witnessing such a relaxed and free-spirited experimental team. Moreover, the technology for treating scoliosis with spinal fixation braces was developed by Professor Yang¡¯s amateur team. Tang Shun carefully examined the work they¡¯d already completed. Surprisingly, there didn¡¯t seem to be any mistakes. Although they were casual in their approach, they carried out their tasks without errors or delays. The task of extracting inducers was accomplished with ease, indicating their technique was indeed innovative and advanced. This intrigued Tang Shun greatly, so he decided not to interfere with this experiment and see what happens. If such a major experiment could be successfully completed by these few individuals, it would imply that the design of the experiment and the methods used were indeed advanced. It¡¯s like a cutting-edge rocket that requires thousands of people working together in a stringent environment to construct. If something in the process doesn¡¯t meet the requirements or if the team¡¯s qualifications decrease, even the slightest error would cause the rocket not to launch. But if a similarly advanced rocket could be quickly constructed and successfully launched by a dozen students in ordinary circumstances, then... When comparing the two, the latter¡¯s design or manufacturing method will undoubtedly surpass the former¡¯s. The smaller the effort required to achieve the same goal, the greater the tolerance for errors, and thus the better the method. After Zhang Lin and Little Five placed the skin in the cultivator, the remaining work was left to the graduate students led by Li Guodong. As per the experiment¡¯s requirements, they needed to record measurements of the skin¡¯s area and thickness every day. As for measuring the area of the skin, they had a specialized measuring application on their smartphones, which was quite convenient. Tang Shun didn¡¯t need to handle these tasks himself. He pulled out his smartphone and began sending WeChat messages to his numerous Japanese girlfriends one by one. Tang Shun enjoyed using WeChat, and his girlfriends, eager to please him, naturally followed suit. After all, these girlfriends were all concerned about him. Several of them even argued about coming to China and working with him, while others clamored to settle down in China and start a family with him. After Zhang Lin and Little Five had finished their work, they sat down to chat with Tang Shun. When Tang Shun was in Japan, he served as a translator for Yang Ping¡¯s team, so he was already known quite well by Yang Ping¡¯s team members. Zhang Lin and Little Five also saw him as a brother. ¡°Doctor Tang ¡ª ¡± Tang Shun looked towards the voice and saw Yang Ping at the entrance, accompanied by Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Tang Shun immediately stood up. He had great respect for Yang Ping. While in Japan, he had spent a few days translating and had witnessed firsthand how the Japanese idolized Yang Ping. His story is still circulating among medical students at Tokyo University. ¡°I came to check on things. Are you still adjusting to working here? The conditions are a bit simple, but they¡¯ll gradually improve. Much of the experimental equipment will be put in place step by step. Whatever you need, you can apply for it yourself. You have full autonomy. There¡¯s no need to ask my permission. Our foundation has a list of researchers that can directly apply for funding. I¡¯ve taken the liberty of adding your name to it.¡± Yang Ping chatted with Tang Shun in an easy-going manner. The foundation¡¯s principle is quite simple: as long as the funds are used for scientific research and don¡¯t exceed the budget, they are immediately approved. But every penny spent must be transparent and traceable, and subject to their supervision. The foundation could investigate the whereabouts of the money at any time. So, while the foundation was quite generous and liberal, it also monitored rigorously, maintaining openness and transparency in all matters. ¡°I¡¯m quite used to it, very used to it. I took a walk around the hospital and it¡¯s quite lively.¡± Tang Shun found the environment quite agreeable. ¡°Putting aside other things, the culinary scene around here is quite plentiful, with a variety of cuisines available.¡± ¡°If...you like...playing sports, the hospital has...indoor and outdoor...sports courts.¡± Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang also got along well with Tang Shun. They had already become quite familiar with each other when they were in Japan. Not only was Tang Shun intelligent, but his emotional intelligence was also high, making him easy to get along with, so everyone liked him very much. ¡°Professor Yang, I want to ask, have you ever conducted an experiment using this formula before?¡± Tang Shun was curious about the origin of the formula. Because he had noticed that Yang Ping was extraordinarily confident in this induction formula. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°This is a formula I recently came up with. It¡¯s never been tested. Aren¡¯t you currently testing it? Let¡¯s sit down and talk!¡± So it¡¯s never been experimented with before? That means the success rate will be quite low. Tang Shun obtained his Ph.D. in a top-tier lab in Japan, constantly dealing with stem cells. To derive a clear induction formula requires years of experimental accumulation. Yang Ping sat down and said slowly: ¡°I read Professor Mainshtan¡¯s paper. He only mentioned the experimental process but didn¡¯t provide detailed data about the key induction formula. Coincidentally, August and Robert recently mentioned the technique of skin expansion in vitro, so I took the time to seriously think about this problem. In fact, whether it¡¯s skin induction, muscle induction, or cartilage induction, the induction formulas have inherent logic. I made a hypothesis about this inherent logic, then used the hypothesis to derive the current formula for skin expansion in vitro. Give me a piece of paper, and I¡¯ll draw a diagram for you.¡± Song Zimo immediately handed over a sheet of A4 paper, Yang Ping wrote down several dozen inducers, then drew the connections between them, proceeding to explain the functions of these inducers, how they combine, and what functions their combinations could achieve. Tang Shun took the A4 paper and was greatly startled after reading it. This surgeon¡¯s understanding of stem cell differentiation and induction surpassed his own despite his Ph.D. from Tokyo University. The principles on that paper, which even his advisor hadn¡¯t been able to figure out for years, now lay clear and concise before his eyes. The diagram outlined the entire induction principle flawlessly, leaving no room for criticism. In his mind, Tang Shun organized his own knowledge a little. If he were to infer based on Yang Ping¡¯s hypothesis, his previous experiments completely fit this theory. ¡°I¡¯m a surgeon, not a professional stem cell researcher. You look at this hypothesis and see if it can be used. If it¡¯s useful, take it, if it¡¯s not, discard it.¡± Yang Ping spoke very casually. Tang Shun immediately clutched the A4 paper: ¡°Useful! Useful! Useful!¡± Discard it? This was a gem! Tang Shun planned to thoroughly study it, summarizing his experimental results over the past few years, both his successes and failures, using this hypothesis. ¡°If skin expansion is successful, we¡¯ll continue to research stem cell cultivation of muscle following this train of thought,¡± Yang Ping went back to the topic at hand. Tang Shun nodded: ¡°If skin expansion is successful, the thought process represented by this diagram will be correct. If we research muscle cultivation following this train of thought, the overall direction won¡¯t be wrong, and the probability of success will be quite substantial.¡± ¡°The structure of muscle is much more complex than skin. For skin regeneration, all you need is two layers, the dermis and the epidermis. But for muscles, besides the muscle fibers that make up the muscle, there are also auxiliary structures such as blood vessels and nerves, so the workload of the experiment is immense. Most of the time, I have surgeries to perform and the same goes for Dr. Song and Dr. Xu, so the lab work is going to be tough on you,¡± Yang Ping wholly entrusted the lab to Tang Shun. Tang Shun was still engrossed in the content on the A4 paper. So far, Tang Shun had received two A4 papers from Yang Ping. Both of these papers had provided him with profound insights. In the coming days, Tang Shun decided to observe whether the skin could really expand. If it could, he would understand why a dozen students, who conducted experiments as if they were playing house, could achieve world-class results. Because the method they used might indeed be the most advanced, most efficient, and most error-resistant. Chapter 764 - 764 681 Success at First Attempt ?Chapter 764: Chapter 681: Success at First Attempt Chapter 764: Chapter 681: Success at First Attempt Next, Tang Shun kept a close eye on the skin in the cultivator, to see what would happen. A few days later, the skin immersed in the culture fluid astonishingly started to grow, its size noticeably increasing day by day. The more it grew, the faster it expanded. Originally, it was only 1 square centimeter in size, but within a few days, it had grown to dozens of times its original size. According to this rate of expansion, it could grow a thousand times larger within two weeks. The experiment¡¯s results exceeded Tang Shun¡¯s expectations. Its success on the first trial was absolutely miraculous, indicating that Professor Yang¡¯s hypothesis truly had cracked some sort of foundational theory regarding induced growth. Tang Shun took out the two sheets of A4 paper again. These sheets were no longer just pieces of paper; they were invaluable treasures, with each word on them seemingly shimmering with light. Returning home had indeed been the right choice. Tang Shun perked up and, with utmost caution, unfolded the two sheets of paper for a thorough re-reading. With each reading, he gained a deeper understanding. ¡°Guodong!¡± Tang Shun waved him over. Li Guodong immediately ceased his work and approached the newly appointed laboratory director. Tang Shun could hardly contain his excitement: ¡°I plan to cut a small piece from the skin specimen to prepare a single-cell tissue section for studying the fine structure of the skin¡¯s sagittal, coronal, and horizontal planes, down to the cellular level. Do we have suitable experimental conditions for this?¡± Li Guodong replied without hesitation: ¡°The process can be done at Nandu University¡¯s Digital Medical Laboratory. They¡¯re currently working on a project to digitally model muscle on a cellular level. If we send the skin specimen to them, they can produce a model within three days. If we rush them, they can have results within twenty-four hours. This type of research is easy for them, and the modeling they use is highly accurate.¡± So quickly? Within three days? Wasn¡¯t it said that the scientific research conditions in our country were lacking? How can they be so good? Tang Shun was incredulous, asking: ¡°Are the conditions really that good?¡± Li Guodong replied enthusiastically: ¡°Actually, the hardware conditions in some domestic laboratories aren¡¯t bad. What is lacking is the cultural environment, as our dean often says. Everyone wants to make money, so things become very turbulent. Not many people are calm enough to focus on scientific research, and the bureaucratization of scientific research management has led to complex interpersonal relationships in the scientific community. This complexity has become a cultural obstacle.¡± ¡°These things will gradually change; it¡¯s a process.¡± Tang Shun¡¯s view of the world seemed rather positive; he was full of hope. Li Guodong enjoyed chatting with this bright graduate from Tokyo University and continued: ¡°Dr. Tang, Professor Yang has a dedicated research fund. No matter how much money you need, approval is very simple, almost instantly transferred. But every penny spent must be publicly displayed on the research website and subject to the supervision and audit of a third party. Those of us helping here are all paid by the research fund, so everyone likes to help with experiments. Not only can you learn, but you also can make money. The academic atmosphere here is good and everyone is equal. You can freely express any opinions. It¡¯s okay to argue about academic issues. In any case, the interpersonal relationships here are simple, you won¡¯t have to worry about handling them poorly. Finish work responsibly during work hours, spend your off hours freely; there¡¯s no need to deal with any interpersonal relationships. I like the atmosphere here very much. I plan to do my PhD here and want to work here afterwards.¡± Ti Guodong said, quite happily. ¡°It was the academic atmosphere that brought me back. Do you have time? Could you help cut a piece and send it to the Digital Medical Laboratory at Nandu Medical University? I¡¯m eager to know the anatomical structure of the skin specimen.¡± Tang Shun was anxious to understand the microscopic arrangement of the skin. Li Guodong had it down pat: ¡°I¡¯ll cut the specimen right now and send it off to the laboratory at Nandu Medical University, which is a collaborating unit with us. We can send it at any time during working hours; if it¡¯s after hours, a brief call to the Dean¡¯s office will suffice and they can send a special transport vehicle. Very convenient.¡± ¡°That convenient?¡± Tang Shun did not expect the hospital to have a special car for specimen delivery. Li Guodong was obviously proud: ¡°I¡¯ll tell you, those of us doing research at Sanbo Hospital are highly regarded. You made the right decision coming here. See, even the Dean doesn¡¯t bother us unless necessary.¡± ¡°Dean Xia, over here!¡± Speak of the devil and he shall appear. No sooner had Li Guodong finished speaking than Dean Xia appeared at the doorway, accompanied by Director Han, Dean Sun, Director Zhao, and Director Zhou. Just moments earlier, Li Guodong¡¯s bragging had been overheard by these senior officials. ¡°Guodong, if you don¡¯t want to bother with me, that¡¯s fine, but don¡¯t go around saying it. Don¡¯t you know that makes me lose face?¡± Dean Xia laughed heartily, playfully slapping Li Guodong¡¯s shoulder, giving him a playful pinch that made Li Guodong scream in pain. The other leaders also burst into laughter as Han who kept a stern face blurted: ¡°Li Guodong, with your physique, you¡¯re going to be an orthopedic doctor? You cried out after just one squeeze. Isn¡¯t that embarrassing?¡± As Dean Xia let go, Li Guodong, his face flushed, immediately fled from Dean Xia¡¯s grasp and quickly went to serve tea and pour water. ¡°Dean Xia!¡± Tang Shun politely shook hands with Dean Xia. ¡°Sit down, sit down. I came to check in; I hope I¡¯m not interrupting your work?¡± Dean Xia gestured dismissively. ¡°Not at all, I was just chatting with Dr. Li,¡± Tang Shun replied casually. Since his first day here, Tang Shun had already met with Dean Xia, Director Zhao, and Director Zhou; this was the second time they had met. The leaders chatted in the lab for about ten minutes before leaving. No sooner said than done, Li Guodong donned his gloves, took out the piece of skin, and cut off a small part. He carefully placed the piece into a protective box filled with a special liquid to keep the skin from drying out or deteriorating. Then he made a call, called for transport from the administrative department of the hospital, and personally delivered the skin sample. Before he checked out for the day, images of the skin tissue section had been sent over. This left Tang Shun a bit readjusted as this was nothing short of a researcher¡¯s dream, three planes of structure analyses completed within a few hours. Tang Shun didn¡¯t even think of leaving, he immediately opened his laptop. The enlarged skin was indistinguishable from normal skin, with a complete epidermis and dermis layer. In medical terms, it was also called a full-thickness skin graft, and these grafts were of the highest quality. At present, no one worldwide, except for the Manstein team, has been able to accomplish this. Other teams merely base their research on Manstein¡¯s work. Chapter 765 - 765 683 No Need to Go Anywhere ?Chapter 765: Chapter 683: No Need to Go Anywhere Chapter 765: Chapter 683: No Need to Go Anywhere Tang Shun¡¯s arrival enabled Sanbo¡¯s stem cell lab to start operating normally. The troika of Yang Ping¡¯s new project ¡ª Sanbo¡¯s Stem Cell Laboratory, Nandu Medical University¡¯s Digital Medical Laboratory, and Nandu Medical University¡¯s Genetic Laboratory, kicked off officially. The mission of Sanbo¡¯s Stem Cell Lab was to find the inducers of stem cell differentiation, to match induction formulas, decode induction modes; Nandu Medical University¡¯s Digital Medical Lab aimed to study the microanatomy of the target organs and establish digital models; the Genetic Lab focused on how these inducers impact the genetic information in stem cells, how to turn on and off certain signals, and how to utilize these information points to control the differentiation direction. These three combined, they formed a complete research system, as long as the three major difficulties are overcome, whether it¡¯s for organ cloning or 3D organ printing, research can go smoothly. In the system space laboratory, Yang Ping began to study the induction formula for muscles. Which inducers are responsible for turning on and off certain genetic information points requires a lot of trial and error. All kinds of ideal experimental models and tools can be obtained instantaneously in the system laboratory. However, points must be budgeted wisely, can¡¯t be wasted. In any case, the principle is to maintain a virtuous cycle and absolutely avoid a vicious one. Yang Ping opened the system panel, browsed all the items in the store, checked the experimental equipment, consumables, specimens, etc., calculated whether they were enough. This original crude 1.0 system, its responsibility is to charge for providing resources, everything else has to be done by Yang Ping himself. Based on Yang Ping¡¯s years of reading online novels, most systems are of type ¡®Anointing of Knowledge¡¯, where all sorts of technology and knowledge come as a powerful stream of information pouring into the host¡¯s brain. This system, however, isn¡¯t so. It provided space, time, and resources, didn¡¯t care about anything else, success or failure is all up to Yang Ping. Moreover, everything is charged, openly and fairly, if there¡¯s a point short, then the task can¡¯t be completed. Yang Ping checked the specimens, embryos, teratomas, various types of tumors, dozens of types of specimens, they were already sufficient. The experimental equipment, all sorts of optical microscopes, electron microscopes, none were missing. The size of the system lab has expanded much more than before, with the help of mechanical hands, all sorts of experiment proceeded orderly. The microanatomy of the muscles had already finished the model setup. The genetic sequencing of the muscle cells was also completed, stem cells¡¯ inducers for muscle cell differentiation were also selected. The biggest problem now is, what inducers and induction modes control the spatial configuration of the stem cells differentiating into muscles, how to switch on or off certain cellular signal nodes in this process. This problem still hasn¡¯t been figured out, despite countless experiments conducted, there¡¯s yet to be a breakthrough. Yang Ping carefully summarized previous lessons and then readjusted the experiment. He designed the next step of the experiment, then handed it over to these mechanical hands to complete the experiment. If it wasn¡¯t for these cheap mechanical hands helping, Yang Ping would not have made such progress so quickly, even if he worked himself to the bone in the system space lab. Once the experimental work was arranged, Yang Ping laid on the floor of the lab and slept, waiting for the experimental results, and adjusted the next step based on those results. A fertilized egg eventually develops into a human body, countless types of cells interact in complex configurations to ultimately build a complete human body. How to construct, this genetic information is hidden in a tiny fertilized egg. Similarly, how a stem cell differentiates into a piece of muscle doesn¡¯t need external forces to help. What the external forces do is to figure out how to activate the relevant information hidden in the stem cell. Once correctly activated, it will automatically complete its mission. Yang Ping felt that his overall direction was correct. ¡ª Teacher Sun has transferred from the burn unit to the comprehensive surgery department, as long as there¡¯s hope, Teacher Sun is willing to stay. If we talk about the level of burn units, undoubtedly the best are from Southwestern Hospital and Changhai Hospital, but Teacher Sun not only needed to deal with scars but also required plastic surgery. If we¡¯re talking about plastic surgery, that would be at Beijing¡¯s Xiehe Hospital Eight Great Sites and Shanghai¡¯s Jiaotong University Ninth Hospital. If you want to get the best treatment, then the best burn unit and plastic surgery need to collaborate. Of course, this is only a dream. Teacher Sun¡¯s requirements are not high, just need to replace all the scars on his body with normal skin, he would be content. As for his ugly appearance, he already accepted his scarred body, so there¡¯s nothing to be afraid of concerning his ugly appearance. After moving to the comprehensive surgery department, settling down and then Teacher Sun sat down to watch some TV. Teacher Sun¡¯s ward is a single room, so he doesn¡¯t have to wear a hat and wrap himself up so tightly every day. Of the dozen students that Teacher Sun saved back then, some are now in college and those who didn¡¯t go to college have already entered society. These students didn¡¯t forget about the life-saving grace of their teacher, every year they will go to visit the teacher. This time they heard the teacher is going to have surgery, students who just started working also pitched in to raise some money. Those who have been working for a while only recently started their job, moreover, they are working at factories. However, they still tried their best and managed to raise tens of thousands yuan. These students planned to accompany Teacher Sun until the surgery¡¯s finished. Of course, Teacher Sun wouldn¡¯t want their money, the medical fees have already been paid by Boss Liao from Nandu Province, he didn¡¯t need to worry about medical fees. Boss Liao is a local from G City in Nandu. Teacher Sun transferred departments, and he brought a bag of fruit to visit, at the same time he asked the supervisor doctor how much the medical fees were and paid them upfront. Boss Liao is a person who knows the meaning of gratitude. When he was a child, he fell into a river and nearly drowned, it was an unknown passerby who saved him. Afterwards, Boss Liao¡¯s family never found out who saved him. After saving Boss Liao, the benefactor quietly left. Subsequently, Boss Liao grew up to be a businessman, accumulated quite a fortune, so whenever he heard about these heroes who acted bravely for a righteous cause, he was very grateful. This time he went to Teacher Sun¡¯s hometown for investment. When he heard about Teacher Sun¡¯s situation, he immediately paid a visit. After verifying from multiple sources, he voluntarily extended his helping hand, willing to help Teacher Sun contact hospitals for treatment. ¡°Boss Liao, look, you¡¯ve spent again. I¡¯m so sorry,¡± Teacher Sun felt a bit embarrassed when he saw the enthusiastic Boss Liao. Boss put down the fruit in the ward and said: ¡°Just passing by, came by to see after returning from the factory. I asked some friends from here, they all said ¡ª if Professor Yang says he can do it, then he¡¯s sure. You just recover with peace of mind here, don¡¯t need to think about anything. I¡¯ve inquired, the doctors here are familiar with Professor Yang, they said, Professor Yang either does not take the case. As long as he takes it, don¡¯t need to go anywhere else, just stay here.¡± Boss Liao initially planned to ask someone to connect with the Changhai Hospital in Shanghai, looks like there¡¯s no need for it now. If it was only one person who said so, it might not be believable. But if all the doctors say so, then there¡¯s no doubt about Professor Yang. Later, Boss Liao inquired again. Not until he inquired that he found out, it was quite shocking. This Professor Yang is not ordinary at all. A firefighting hero¡¯s arm was broken into five parts, Professor Yang took care of it, now it¡¯s fine. There¡¯s also someone who was run over by a truck, had only half a body left, was also pulled back from the Ghost Gate. A young man¡¯s head and leg were folded together, he also straightened them. For this, Boss Liao specifically went to see at the Shuilian bakery, it truly was a half-man, but the prosthesis was quite advanced, with prosthesis on he could even walk. Hearing is believing, seeing is verifying! So Boss Liao decided, no need to go anywhere else, just stay here! ¡°Teacher Sun, you can rest assured, I have already inquired clearly. This Professor Yang is amazing, very skilled. If he says there¡¯s a way to help you get new skin, then there¡¯s definitely a way.¡± Boss Liao sat down and chatted with Teacher Sun. Chapter 766 - 766 684 Is this my skin ?Chapter 766: Chapter 684: Is this my skin? Chapter 766: Chapter 684: Is this my skin? Boss Liao washed two apples, one for himself and one for Teacher Sun. ¡°I¡¯ve always admired heroes like you who¡¯re brave enough to help others. If it hadn¡¯t been for a hero who saved me when I was a child, I wouldn¡¯t be sitting here today. Yet till now, I have no clue who saved me. Teacher Sun, considering the huge fire, if I had been too scared to get in there, how did you muster such courage?¡± Boss Liao chatted as he ate his apple. Teacher Sun smiled faintly: ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say hero, it was a dire situation and I didn¡¯t think much. I knew there were over ten students trapped inside. If I didn¡¯t get in there, we would have lost all those children.¡± ¡°My students have to come, some of them will be here by tomorrow.¡± Teacher Sun thought of his students. Some of these students had done well academically, made it to premier universities, while others, not so good, started working right after high school. No matter what they had done after graduation, these students had kept in touch with Teacher Sun. Every Chinese New Year, they would come together with gifts to pay him a visit. ¡°Let them come, they should.¡± Boss Liao stated. At that moment, there was a knock at the door. When Teacher Sun and Boss Liao looked over, it was Professor Yang standing at the doorway. Yang Ping had seen Teacher Sun many times, he had not only enquired repeatedly about his medical history but had also conducted multiple physical examinations, contributing to developing the surgical plan. ¡°The small skin sample that was taken from your body has grown to two square meters, enough for the surgery. Would you like to come take a look at it when you have time?¡± Yang Ping came in and spoke to Teacher Sun. ¡°A piece of skin the size of a fingernail can grow to two square meters?¡± Teacher Sun was surprised. Could technology really be this advanced now? At the same time, Teacher Sun was intensely curious about this piece of skin, and when Yang Ping offered him a chance to see it, he certainly couldn¡¯t pass it up. ¡°You are the first patient to receive our new technique, so you¡¯ll be involved in the entire process, fully experiencing it. Wait for our arrangements, then you can visit the lab and see that piece of skin.¡± Yang Ping said. Teacher Sun understood, Doctor Zhang Lin had told him that such a new technique couldn¡¯t be done no matter how much money was spent. ¡ª In simple words, Teacher Sun¡¯s surgical plan was skin replacement. To remove all the scars from his body and replace them with normal skin. In the burn department, this is a routine operation. Scars lack elasticity and tend to contract, leading to the limitation of joint movement. Scars cannot withstand friction, and are prone to breaking and forming ulcers in areas of constant friction. Scars lack sweat glands, which severely hampers body heat dissipation. Of course, the serious cosmetic disfigurement caused by the scar is also a reason for the surgery. After a body tissue is injured, a very small number of tissues can be repaired by the original tissue, like bone healing after a fracture, which is repaired entirely by the bone tissue. This form of repair is the most ideal. However, most tissue injuries are repaired by a small quantity of the original tissue and mostly scar tissue, like skin wound repair. In a skin grafting surgery, there has to be a donor area ¡ª the place supplying the skin material. If the area isn¡¯t large, skin can be taken from a healthy part ¡ª robbing Peter to pay Paul. For extreme cases like Teacher Sun with scars all over the body, the scalp is typically used as the material source. Since the scalp has good blood supply, it recovers quickly after a thin skin graft, turning back to normal. Thus, after the scalp recovers, it can be cut again, just like cutting leek. After the leek grows tall, a part of it is cut off. As long as its roots are unharmed, it will grow tall again to be cut, and this can be repeated indefinitely. In this manner, the limited scalp becomes an infinite source of skin material. There¡¯s no such excellent material source elsewhere on the body, except for the scalp. Other parts of the skin do not have as good blood supply as the scalp, don¡¯t recover as quickly as it does, and cannot completely return to normal like the scalp, hence can¡¯t reach the leek-cutting effect. Beyond a skin graft, it would be even better if cosmetic surgery could be added to Teacher Sun¡¯s operation, to reshape the burned mouth, nose, and ears, making it perfect. Plastic surgery and the Burn Department have a very close connection, many plastic surgeons start their career in the burn department before transitioning. Director Chi from the Burn Department was throwing himself fully into this one. He went to the Comprehensive Surgery Department to help take care of patients and prepare for the surgery. After all, his experience was rich, when compared with the youngsters in the Comprehensive Surgery Department, he was much more seasoned. In short, Director Chi intended to walk completely down the path laid out by Gao Yuan. ¡°How much area does the skin graft cover now?¡± Director Chi asked Zhang Lin. ¡°At least two square meters. I haven¡¯t measured it yet today,¡± Zhang Lin said proudly. Director Chi was extremely excited to hear that the stem cell lab had successfully expanded the skin. With this technology, Sanbo¡¯s burn department could make a name for itself. Since the experiment began, Director Chi had never visited the lab. After Tang Shun took over as director, he introduced advanced management methods to the lab. Apart from the lab researchers, other personnel had to seek approval to enter. This ensured that the experiment would not be interrupted and that technology wouldn¡¯t be leaked. The surface area of a typical human skin is only 1.5-2 square meters. This huge skin graft is enough for surgery and if expanded for a few more days, there will still be plenty left over. Director Chi was eager to see this miraculous skin patch in the lab, so he asked Zhang Lin, ¡°Can I go into the lab and see the skin graft?¡± ¡°That¡¯s up to Doctor Tang. It should be fine. You¡¯re the director of the hospital and the patient is yours. You¡¯re considered one of the lab members too,¡± Zhang Lin said, not daring to make the decision himself. Hearing that he¡¯s considered one of the lab members, Director Chi straightened up immediately. He went to a computer and, like a resident physician, started to examine Teacher Sun¡¯s preoperative examination in detail. ¡ª August, Robert, Director Chi, Teacher Sun, and Yang Ping arrived at the stem cell lab together. Tang Shun was conducting an experiment with a few graduate students. They were laughing and chatting, not at all rigid or serious. It was clear that Tang Shun had adapted to this relaxed lab atmosphere and approved of it. It was warmer in the south, so Tang Shun didn¡¯t bother with formal wear. Instead, he wore a T-shirt, shorts, and sandals, which was much more comfortable. Tang Shun asked Li Guodong to open the transparent cultivator, put on gloves, and carefully lift out the skin graft, spreading it out on a nearby platform. August and Robert¡¯s mouths dropped open in surprise. In just two weeks, a 1 square centimetre piece of skin had expanded to two square meters. No wonder Professor Yang had no interest in Langnaife¡¯s surgery. Turns out he had already mastered the technique of in vitro skin expansion. And the quality of the expanded skin was not at all inferior to Langnaife¡¯s technique. August and Robert knew that Manstein¡¯s induction formula was confidential. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t have gotten it, so this must be Professor Yang¡¯s own formula. These past weeks, August and Robert had been shadowing Yang Pian and hadn¡¯t seen him conduct any experiments in this area. It now seemed like he picked an induction formula at random and succeeded in the experiment on the first try. This kind of miracle was hard for everyone, including Tang Shun, to accept. Tang Shun was considered an international top talent, but even he had never seen an experiment that could succeed in one go. The only explanation was that Professor Yang had conducted similar experiments before and the induction formula was now proven after numerous trials. However, Tang Shun calculated the time and realized that with Professor Yang being so young and having had the external spinal fixation technique before, it was not possible to produce so many world-class achievements in such a short time. A medical genius! That was the only way to explain it. Teacher Sun couldn¡¯t believe that this piece of skin, the size of a fingernail cut from the perineal area, had expanded to two square meters. Laid out on the platform, its size was visually striking. Is this my skin? Can all my scars be removed in the future and replaced with this skin? Teacher Sun was so overwhelmed that tears started to well up in her eyes. ¡°If you took a piece of scalp with hair and expanded it like this, wouldn¡¯t you get a piece of skin full of hair? You could transplant it onto people with baldness. The result would be better than hair transplantation,¡± Zhang Lin said on the side. ¡°For someone like Duan Bald who doesn¡¯t have a single hair, I suppose you wouldn¡¯t be able to expand anything,¡± Little Five added. Looking at the skin graft, Tang Shun said, ¡°You¡¯re right. One achievement can lead to many more. With future improvements to the induction formula, even completely bald scalps could be induced to grow hair follicles and hair.¡± ¡°Once this technology is introduced, take me as your first experiment and shift my hairline forward,¡± Zhang Lin said, touching his forehead. Yang Ping laughed and said, ¡°The further back your hairline, the more scholarly you look. Especially for someone like Teacher Zhang who tutors students, without this kind of hairline, you won¡¯t have the right atmosphere.¡± That seemed to make sense. Zhang Lin touched his forehead again. Chapter 767 - 767 685 Sudden Visit ?Chapter 767: Chapter 685: Sudden Visit Chapter 767: Chapter 685: Sudden Visit ¡°What hair is transplanted onto the head during hair transplant surgery?¡± Everyone showed great interest when the hair transplant surgery was brought up. A standardized training student who had a hairstyle similar to the hospital director was naturally very interested in this surgery, and couldn¡¯t resist taking part in the lively discussion. The surrounding standardized training students, masters, and doctoral students couldn¡¯t help but touch their own heads, a sense of urgency spontaneously arising. ¡°In general, the hair follicles from hairier areas are transplanted onto the head.¡± Taken up by some daring female student. The scene fell silent. After a while, another timid female student shyly asked: ¡°In that case... would the transplanted hair become curly?¡± Chuckles echoed. Someone burst out laughing, unable to contain their amusement. Zhang Lin coughed a few times. As a teaching assistant at this time, he felt obligated to remove the students¡¯ blind spots on this particular matter. ¡°In terms of what hair is used in skin grafting operations, it should be made clear that it¡¯s the residual hair that is used, not hair from other parts of the body. It¡¯s common to extract small amounts of hair from the occipital and temporal regions and transplant them to required areas. Hair follicles from the occipital and temporal areas usually don¡¯t contain androgen receptors, so they aren¡¯t affected by dihydrotestosterone, and usually do not experience atrophy or hair loss. Thus, transplanting hair follicles from the occipital and temporal areas to areas needing hair transplantation will usually retain their original characteristics and have permanent effects. You don¡¯t need to worry about future hair loss due to the impact of dihydrotestosterone.¡± After Teacher Zhang finished speaking, he turned to Little Five and asked, ¡°Is there anything to add?¡± Little Five patted Teacher Zhang¡¯s shoulder: ¡°Very nice, nothing to add.¡± Having won the envious eyes of the students, Teacher Zhang wisely shut up. It was not the time for teaching, but for visiting the lab, and it wasn¡¯t his turn to shine. Everyone gathered around this piece of skin and were discussing animatedly, as if they were visiting a rare treasure. The lab has never been as bustling as it was today, with more doctors and masters from the hospital arriving steadily. They were astonished to see a one-square-cm piece of skin grown in vitro into two square meters of skin. Even though their specialties differed, they all understood the basic knowledge. Skin grafting is the most common surgery performed in burn units. With this new technology, patients with skin defects no longer need to worry about the source of the skin. There are three levels to surgical operations: Excision, repair, and reconstruction. Excision: The most common type is appendectomy, which involves cutting out the diseased organ or tissue. Repair: Most trauma surgeries, such as lacerations, tendon ruptures, fractures, aim to stitch the skin together, reconnect tendons, and reset fractures. The purpose is to repair the damaged tissue, restoring it to its original state, or as close as possible. Reconstruction: This is the pinnacle of surgery, such as organ transplants, which replace an organ and restore its function. Artificial joint replacement also falls under reconstruction surgery. When the original joint no longer functions, it¡¯s replaced with an artificial one, restoring joint function. Teacher Sun¡¯s surgery also falls under reconstruction surgery as it aims to restore normal skin across the body. About two square meters of skin was spread out on the platform. The visitors fell silent, silently staring at the skin. Moreover, Tang Shun allowed the visitors to wear gloves and feel the thickness and texture of the skin close-up. Director Chi of the Burns Unit was the first to step forward, expressing his wish to touch the piece of skin. August and Robert were also eager to try, they were very curious about the thickness of the skin. The skin¡¯s thickness directly determines its quality. The best quality is full-thickness skin grafts, which include the complete epidermis and dermis, followed by split-thickness skin grafts, which include the epidermis and part of the dermis. The worst quality are blade-thickness skin grafts, which only include the epidermis. However, even the worst quality blade-thickness grafts are exponentially better than scar tissue. Augusta and Robert acted quickly, putting on the gloves they had prepared earlier. The two were like tailors encountering the world¡¯s most beautiful fabric, carefully touching it a few times, then lifting a corner to feel the thickness of the skin between their thumb and forefinger. They seemed ready to lick it with their tongues or even take a bite with their teeth at any moment. Director Chi finally managed to find his spot. As his fingers excitedly stroked the skin, he understood the significance of this skin graft for a burn specialist. No matter the size of the burn in the future, early wound coverage now had the best option, and these skin grafts could often be lifesaving. But for Yang Ping, a piece of skin was merely an appetizer. In the future, he planned to continue researching this technology and clone real organs. ¡ª A business car drove along the roads of G City. Dr. Ivan was visiting China for the first time, but his accompanying assistant was a Sinophile and could speak Chinese. The capability of Langnaife covered a vast range, no, it was the capability covering the range of money. A team dispatched by Langnaife was responsible for Dr. Ivan¡¯s activities in China, so Dr. Ivan had no worries and his assistant only needed to focus on carrying the bag. This Russian man had long wanted to visit China, but never found the time or opportunity. He was an excellent student at the First Medical University in the Soviet era. His father was a famous Russian neurosurgeon who had visited China and this city before and often spoke to Ivan about the fraternal friendship between the two countries. Times have changed, and almost seventy years have passed. There have been earth-shattering changes here. ¡°Doctor, we¡¯ve found the hospital you¡¯re looking for, it¡¯s in this city. Today, it¡¯s called the first hospital affiliated with Nandu Medical University,¡± said an employee dispatched by Langnaife. Dr. Ivan nodded, acknowledging his father¡¯s last wish. His father had always wanted to revisit China during his lifetime, but he was never able to fulfill this wish due to health reasons. ¡°That was in the 1950s. My father came to this city as a medical expert. He had a favorite Chinese student here,¡± Dr. Ivan murmured to himself. ¡°Should we contact this hospital?¡± the somber employee asked. Dr. Ivan waved his hand: ¡°No need for that now, let¡¯s take care of what we¡¯re here for first. Later, I¡¯ll take the time to visit that hospital. Is the old hospital building still there?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s gone!¡± The employee answered. Dr. Ivan bowed his head and took a deep breath, feeling a sense of sadness. At last, the business car entered Sanbo Hospital and came to a stop. The assistant opened the car door. Dr. Ivan stepped out of the car and looked up at the twin buildings of Sanbo Hospital. ¡°Twin buildings? That¡¯s really nice!¡± Dr. Ivan grinned. ¡°Dr. Ivan, China is full of vitality.¡± ¡°Yes, compared to them, we always lack a certain kind of wisdom in critical moments. To be honest, I love China, but at the same time, I don¡¯t.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°I love it because China is vast, profound, and full of vitality; I don¡¯t love it because Chinese is too difficult to learn.¡± Unlike most Russians, Ivan bore the image of a wise scholar instead of the ruggedness typical of his compatriots. With his tall stature and Russian-style beard, and the slow pace of his speech, he resembled more of a preacher than a doctor. This made people associate him more easily with a pastor. ¡°Shall we go in and take a look?¡± suggested the assistant. ¡°Of course!¡± Dr. Ivan nodded slightly, knowing that one of the best surgeons in the world was hidden here. However, he was not sure whether his surprise visit would allow him to meet the legendary doctor. Chapter 768 - 768 686 The Second Technical Route ?Chapter 768: Chapter 686 The Second Technical Route Chapter 768: Chapter 686 The Second Technical Route Ivan left a few bodyguards outside and entered Sanbo Hospital himself with his assistant Pavel. In Ivan¡¯s mind, Sanbo was not a common hospital, it housed some of the world¡¯s top surgeons, so, for him, Sanbo Hospital had a sense of mystery. Ivan¡¯s team had confirmed numerous times that Professor Yang would perform surgery at the Comprehensive Surgery Department in Sanbo Hospital today, so Ivan decided to try his luck. Even if he couldn¡¯t meet him today, Ivan didn¡¯t rush, he could wait, he had adequate time to wait. For the plastic surgery he was about to take on, concerning bone reshaping, apart from Professor Yang, Ivan couldn¡¯t think of a second more appropriate choice. Of course, if he lowered the quality of the operation, choices would naturally increase, but Ivan was obsessed with surgery, he absolutely didn¡¯t want to reduce the quality of the operation. As an ordinary visitor, Ivan arrived at the first floor lobby of the Comprehensive Surgery Department. Dressed in a fashionable floral shirt and sporting a white-grizzled Russian-style goatee, he attracted attention. ¡°Sir! May I ask who you are looking for?¡± The lobby security walked over and asked nonchalantly. For the security staff of the Comprehensive Surgery Department, seeing foreigners was nothing new. In the ward, two stalwart foreigners were helping patients every day. The security had a slight suspicion that there might be some new additions to the international team. Ivan¡¯s assistant quickly said in Chinese, ¡°We¡¯re looking for Professor Yang? Could you help us get in touch, we came from out of town, specifically to seek treatment from Professor Yang.¡± Coming in from a foreign country was indeed from out of town, the security guard closely examined the two of them, they had clear spirits, they didn¡¯t look like patients. ¡°Do you have an appointment?¡± the security guard asked. Pavel immediately explained, ¡°We don¡¯t know Professor Yang, we just came to seek treatment upon hearing about his reputation. Could you tell us how we can meet Professor Yang? Just mention a Russian from New Zealand named Ivan.¡± The security guard thought about it and decided that since he was a patient, he can definitely help by getting in touch. Professor Yang has always valued his patients greatly, he walked over to the front desk to call the duty doctor of the Comprehensive Surgery Department, asking the duty doctor to inform Professor Yang that a patient was looking for him ¨C a Russian named Ivan from New Zealand. After making the call, the security guard asked Ivan and his assistant to wait in the lobby. The security guard was only responsible for making phone contact. Whether or not Professor Yang had the time to meet for diagnosis, it was ultimately up to Professor Yang. Ivan was a bit excited, he had only known Yang Ping through his papers before, today he might have the chance to meet him in person. ¡ª Yang Ping was still in the stem cell lab, visiting the skin graft with everyone else. The Comprehensive Surgery Department duty doctor called and mentioned that a Russian patient was looking for Professor Yang. Yang Ping thought about it, he didn¡¯t recall scheduling any appointments with a Russian patient. There were often such patients, they would just show up without an appointment, then deceive the duty doctor or nurse saying they had made an appointment with a certain professor hoping to get notified. ¡°He said, he is a Russian from New Zealand ¨C Ivan.¡± the duty doctor added. Ivan? A Russian from New Zealand. Yang Ping said out loud, he had no memory of such a person. Robert furrowed his eyebrows, a Russian named Ivan from New Zealand. This was the name commonly used by the world-renowned plastic surgery master Dr. Ivan. Could it be that plastic surgery master? Has he come to China? Had Professor Yang refused their invitation, so Ivan had personally come to China to invite Yang, this didn¡¯t fit Ivan¡¯s style. ¡°Professor? This person might be Dr. Ivan, the master of plastic surgery!¡± Robert wasn¡¯t entirely sure. After all, for someone like Ivan to suddenly show up here, it was utterly incredulous. At last, Yang Ping remembered, Ivan! The Ivan from popular novels? The world¡¯s greatest master of plastic surgery, Ivan? ¡°Bring him to the lab.¡± Yang ordered the on-duty doctor. No matter if he was the same Ivan or not, now that he had come to see him, he would meet and find out. He had the time anyway. ¡ª ¡°I¡¯ll go up myself.¡± Ivan stood at the elevator entrance, led by a standardized training student. But soon Ivan changed his mind, because he saw the Chinese signage at the elevator entrance and immediately headached: ¡°Pavel, you better come up with me.¡± Under the guidance of the standardized training student, they rode the elevator to the Stem Cell Laboratory. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± The standardized training student respectfully said. ¡°This is the Russian patient who wants to see you.¡± Everyone stopped discussing the skin graft and turned their heads toward the door. The man with the Russian-style goatee was standing at the door, bowing slightly with a smile, ¡°Esteemed Professor Yang!¡± Of course, he spoke in Russian, requiring the assistance of a translator to convert it to Chinese. Seeing the Russian man, most people immediately envisioned an Italian fashion master in their minds. ¡°Ivan from Russia, living in New Zealand, is pleased to meet Professor Yang,¡± he had said. As a specialist in plastic surgery, his understanding of temperament surpassed that of ordinary people. Ivan instantly recognizes Professor Yang among the crowd. Temperament is a feature that one cannot disguise. Confident, proud, and composed! These characteristics radiated from him. Apart from Professor Yang, Ivan couldn¡¯t think of anyone else who possessed them. Professor Ivan had no doubt about his judgment and extended his hand towards Yang Ping. ¡°It¡¯s wonderful finally to meet you in person, Professor Yang, I¡¯m tremendously excited,¡± he said. Before this, Ivan had only known Yang Ping through his papers. He was surprised by how approachable Yang Ping seemed, and how easily he had managed to meet him. ¡°Dr. Ivan?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°Yes, I am Ivan, a plastic surgeon. Please forgive me for pretending to be a patient to meet you!¡± Ivan apologized. At this point, everyone immediately thought of a preaching pastor upon hearing Ivan¡¯s speech rate and tonality. He is Dr. Ivan, a master of plastic surgery. Robert had met Ivan before and was almost certain at this point, especially due to Ivan¡¯s unique way of speaking. ¡°He¡¯s the Russian plastic surgeon, Ivan,¡± Robert quietly said in Chinese to Professor Yang. He did not want a stranger to get close to Professor Yang¡¯s experimental results just by a few words. August had met this master plastic surgeon in Germany and also confirmed Robert¡¯s judgment. ¡°We were just reviewing our experimental results. Dr. Ivan, would you please help us verify the quality of this skin patch? This is skin cultivated using our in vitro skin expansion technology,¡± Professor Yang said, keeping it brief. Ivan hadn¡¯t expected the first meeting to be that straightforward, which took him by surprise. Perhaps out of professional instinct, his gaze quickly fell on the skin patch, then he squinted slightly, ¡°Professor Yang, may I really take a look at it?¡± August and Robert gave up their positions, the crowd enlarged a bit, and Ivan walked slowly towards the skin patch, his eyes sparkling with delight. He didn¡¯t even wear gloves, he simply used his fingers to gently pinch the corner of the skin patch, feeling it carefully. After a long pause, the corners of Ivan¡¯s mouth quivered a few times. This was the goal he had been pursuing for years but couldn¡¯t achieve. The quality of this skin patch was superior to the one he had cultivated. It could be a material for facial plastic surgery, with the post-operative effect being almost indistinguishable from normal facial skin. ¡°Is this the skin patch cultivated using your in vitro expansion technology? Has it developed on top of Professor Mainshtan¡¯s achievements?¡± Ivan believed that all the skin in vitro expansion technologies in the world should come from Professor Mainshtan¡¯s technology. ¡°No, this is our formula, Professor Yang¡¯s formula, it has nothing to do with Professor Mainshtan¡¯s technology,¡± said Tang Shun, chief of the laboratory, to this unfamiliar foreigner. A formula that is not from Professor Mainshtan? Is there a second technical route in this world? Ivan had never heard of a second route. He looked down again, gazing at the skin patch in his hand, as if he had finally found the treasure he had been hunting for. ¡°The thickness, elasticity, and color of the skin are impeccable. How does it resist UV rays?¡± Ivan asked, looking concerned. ¡°Judging from the micro-structure of the skin, its resistance should be excellent, but we haven¡¯t had time for an experiment yet. We¡¯ll start it soon,¡± Tang Shun explained. As the director of the stem cell lab, he quickly got into his role. At this time and in this situation, he should be the one explaining, not letting Professor Yang explain. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard there¡¯s another technical route in the world!¡± Ivan was unsure. Tang Shun replied with a smile: ¡°Neither have I!¡± Ivan reluctantly put down the skin patch, then carefully smoothed it. Creating a new technical path is not easy. But the quality of the skin patch here now, relying on Professor Mainshtan¡¯s formula, definitely couldn¡¯t achieve this. Others in the lab had no idea about Ivan¡¯s identity. They could only watch the bustling scene as an overseas visit to Professor Yang wasn¡¯t anything unusual. Some standardized training students were even thrilled, wondering whether another international friend was joining the team of the Comprehensive Surgery Department for further study. That would mean they¡¯d have one more helping hand in their day-to-day work. Now, August and Robert were working very hard, bearing any burden without complaint and setting a good example for trainees. Therefore, these graduate students, and trainees too believed that as long as someone is a foreigner, he would definitely work hard and even outperform the others. ¡°Incredible!¡± said Ivan, feeling a little dazed. He picked up a corner of the skin patch again, very carefully, observing closely, ¡°Is the distribution and growth of hair follicles controllable?¡± Because Ivan noticed that the distribution and development of these hair follicles were not naturally formed, but were controlled. Chapter 769 - 769 687 The Super Weapon of Plastic Surgery ?Chapter 769: Chapter 687: The Super Weapon of Plastic Surgery Chapter 769: Chapter 687: The Super Weapon of Plastic Surgery ¡°You can control the presence or density of hair follicles, as well as the thickness of the dermis or epidermis.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s answer sounded like a casual response to a common question. Dr. Ivan put down the skin graft in his hand and took a deep breath. He wasn¡¯t sure if this was true. If it was true, then no matter what, Professor Manstein¡¯s formula couldn¡¯t do this. Now, Professor Yang¡¯s formula was a completely new induction formula, and a more advanced one at that. Being able to control the presence and density of hair follicles, as well as the thickness of dermis or epidermis, was like giving a plastic surgeon a powerful nuclear weapon. If you only considered covering the wound and didn¡¯t worry about the aesthetic effect, regardless of hair follicles or the thickness of dermis and epidermis, a layer of skin would suffice. But if you considered the aesthetic effects, skin transplant durability and the skin¡¯s sweat production ability after the graft was crucial. ¡°Is this true?¡± The question posed by Dr. Ivan seemed a bit naive. ¡°If you¡¯re interested, you¡¯re welcome to follow our progress of the experiment. There will be many surprises,¡± Yang Ping said calmly. Apart from experts like Ivan who frequently performed advanced skin grafting surgeries, no one could recognize that the density of the hair follicles in the skin sample was controlled by the formula. Even Tang Shun couldn¡¯t tell, because he wasn¡¯t a surgeon, and his basic understanding of skin grafts was limited. It was Tang Shun¡¯s first interaction with this formula. Although Yang Ping provided him with experiment data on how to change the formula to control the thickness of the dermis or epidermis and the distribution of hair follicles, Tang Shun didn¡¯t believe that these effects could so easily be achieved, let alone through one experiment. To successfully expand a skin graft, if you started from scratch, even with Manstein¡¯s abilities, it would take three to five years. If you wanted to control the thickness of the dermis and epidermis and the distribution of the hair follicles, you would need another three to five years. Everything went smoothly, and it would take that much time. Importantly, whether the experiment would be successful was filled with uncertainties since many labs ultimately failed. Tang Shun¡¯s questioning gaze fell on Yang Ping, questioning whether or not this was true. To Tang Shun¡¯s question, Yang Ping nodded in affirmation: ¡°Adjusting the formula can spawn countless new formulas. Differences in components and changes in ratio will affect the growth of skin grafts, it¡¯s a complex and fascinating process, one you can take your time to verify.¡± This technology was a small part of Yang Ping¡¯s research topic. In the future, they wanted to cultivate muscle and other organs. The difficulty of cultivating muscle greatly exceeded that of skin grafting, as muscles¡¯ demands for collateral structures like blood vessels, nerves and others far exceeded any other organs. Receiving an affirmative response, Tang Shun felt filled with the desire for exploration. He was going to complete this experiment and see what miraculous things would happen. At this time, Dr. Ivan was finding it challenging to adjust. Everything felt surreal. Just a moment ago he was worrying about whether he could meet Yang Ping, and now Yang Ping was standing in front of him. The fact that such important research results were being openly displayed to him on their first meeting. At this point, Dr. Ivan felt as though Yang Ping was living in a higher world. Everything ordinary in this world appeared to be priceless treasures in the common world. For instance, the skin graft he held was something Ivan could only dream of acquiring, but for Professor Yang, it was as ordinary as a cabbage, available for average students to observe, and even a stranger foreigner could easily come into contact with it. ¡°I don¡¯t know what Dr. Ivan wants from me, but I need to perform a surgery soon.¡± Yang Ping had a surgery scheduled and hadn¡¯t planned to allocate time for Ivan. This time, Ivan was slightly confused. Meeting Yang Ping had been relatively easy, but now Yang Ping wasn¡¯t setting aside any time for him¡ªthere was no intention of having a proper conversation¡ªeven knowing who he was. Dr. Ivan was both thrilled and disappointed, emotions swirling complexly. ¡°Ah¡ªProfessor Yang, may I use your skin grafting technology in the future?¡± Present communication with Ivan was a bit difficult for him to handle, so he straightforwardly brought up the most critical issue, fearing he might not get another chance to speak. ¡°Of course, you can contact Dr. Tang about it. Technology is meant to be applied. This is Dr. Tang Shun, the director of the lab. The project is now under his supervision.¡± Yang Ping easily answered and introduced Tang Shun to Ivan. Only when technology is widely used and benefits people does it have value. If Ivan used this technology, it would rapidly spread worldwide. Ivan, an internationally renowned plastic surgeon who easily commanded tens of millions in surgery fees, was also shocked by Yang Ping¡¯s generosity. But what he didn¡¯t realize was that it wasn¡¯t Yang Ping¡¯s generosity, but that Yang Ping¡¯s mindset had significantly differed from ordinary people. Many things already appeared ordinary to him, like Ivan¡¯s arrival¡ªnothing more than a common occurrence. ¡°Nice to meet you, I¡¯m Tang Shun!¡± Tang Shun extended his hand to Ivan. The Comprehensive Surgery Department called to say the anesthesia for the patient had begun. Yang Ping bid Dr. Ivan farewell, then hurriedly left with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. Dr. Ivan was left in a daze, but he didn¡¯t mind the feeling. Everything happened so casually and quickly¡ªmeeting, bidding farewell, and leaving. Ivan¡¯s assistant clearly felt slighted. This was Dr. Ivan, a renowned master of plastic surgery, whose surgery fees could exceed 100 million. For instance, the surgery fee for the Italian ¡°princess¡± exceeded 100 million American dollars. The assistant imagined there would be a grand meeting, but within a few short minutes, Professor Yang had to leave for surgery. This kind of cold treatment was unbearable for Ivan¡¯s assistant. Usually, wherever Ivan went, there were always people behind and ahead of him. Being treated like a passerby was very uncomfortable. ¡°Dr. Ivan?¡± His assistant was at a loss, having never experienced such a situation. Should they stay and continue discussing the skin graft with these students, or should they leave? The assistant felt confused and somewhat humiliated. Dr. Ivan, however, didn¡¯t think much of it, waving it off: ¡°I like it here!¡± Hearing Dr. Ivan say this, the assistant spoke no more. After all, he was just an assistant and should not seize authority from his superior. ¡°Doctor Tang? Maybe we could sit down and talk sometime?¡± Dr. Ivan had now pulled himself together. Professor Yang had said they could use his technology, but he hadn¡¯t specified any conditions. To be further clear about the direction of things, communication with the head of the lab was necessary. A thought flashed through Tang Shun¡¯s mind. Hadn¡¯t Professor Yang said that he was the head of the lab with full autonomy? That gave him a lot of room to operate. ¡°His surgical commission broke the billion-mark. You decide,¡± Robert whispered into Tang Shun¡¯s ear, as a friendly reminder. ¡°Just remember, never look down on someone,¡± August also kindly reminded him from the other side. Teacher Tang immediately understood: ¡°Dr. Ivan, there¡¯s no rush. First, you need to fully understand our technology, then we can sit down and have a discussion.¡± Professor Yang left the scene, and everyone else could continue observing the skin graft. Among the crowd, Dr. Ivan had noticed Teacher Sun ¨C a man covered in scars. Due to professional habit, he started picturing the man¡¯s medical condition and surgery plan after just a glance at the facial scar that Teacher Sun revealed. ¡°Dr. Tang, may I ask if that gentleman, needs plastic surgery?¡± Dr. Ivan asked Tang Shun, with his gaze lingering on Teacher Sun, who was curiously observing other equipment in the lab. ¡°Yes, he¡¯s Professor Yang¡¯s patient. The raw material for this skin graft was taken from him.¡± Tang Shun felt this was not a secret. After all, this person had been confirmed as Ivan by both Robert and August. ¡°Is Professor Yang planning to use this skin graft for his plastic surgery?¡± Ivan asked curiously if Professor Yang performed plastic surgery. If so, he would do everything he could to stay and observe this operation. Considering how easy-going Professor Yang was the first time they met, he probably wouldn¡¯t refuse a request to observe the operation. ¡°Yes, this skin graft will soon be used on him.¡± Tang Shun sat down and invited Ivan to do the same. Ivan took his gaze off Teacher Sun and sat down too. The others continued discussing the skin graft while Robert and August rushed to the operating room to help. Tang Shun and Ivan sat down to continue their conversation, Tang aiming to make Ivan a client of his lab. This was the real Ivan. Both Robert and August had reminded him that Ivan was a big client. Teacher Tang always loved big clients. ¡°Is Professor Yang also interested in plastic surgery?¡± Ivan felt this was a big leap as plastic surgery and other surgeries are completely different disciplines. Tang Shun shook his head: ¡°Plastic surgery is not Professor Yang¡¯s main focus, and he has no interest in it. However, this patient is special and it just so happens Professor Yang¡¯s skin expansion technology suits him.¡± If needed, Ivan was willing to perform the surgery on this patient for free, considering it a ¡®meet and greet¡¯ gift to befriend Professor Yang. Of course, Ivan wouldn¡¯t rashly propose this now, as it would seem too impulsive and reckless. Befriending people should be a gradual process. If he could make friends with a person like Professor Yang and get hold of his skin expansion technology, Ivan would control the superweapon of plastic surgery. Of course, Ivan was not motivated by money anymore. His wealth could last him multiple lifetimes. For people like Ivan, the obsessive pursuit of technology was the greatest motivation for work. Director Chi of the burn department was pretending to observe the laboratory, looking for an opportunity to get in touch with this big shot in the world of plastic surgery. Being in a field closely related to plastic surgery, Director Chi of the Burn Department had heard tales about this Russian plastic surgery master. He hadn¡¯t expected to meet this big shot here and now. Despite everyone¡¯s apparent unshaken belief in the identity of Ivan, Director Chi still harbored doubts. Was this man really Ivan? After all, it was slightly unbelievable when a legendary figure suddenly appeared before him. It was like having a popular celebrity sit in front of you in a noodle shop ¨C you always doubted their authenticity. Facing this situation, Director Chi was a bit lost and decided to consult Director Gao from the Sports Medicine Center on how to handle this matter. PS: During this period, quite a few of my colleagues in the department fell sick. Some were even transferred to support the emergency department, fever clinics, respiratory departments, and other frontline departments fighting the outbreak. Most of those who could work were persevering despite being ill, and our department was severely understaffed. As a result, even I have been extremely busy, working round-the-clock ¡ª to the point that my ward has been notified to start accommodating respiratory patients. Consequently, I¡¯ve been even busier, with updates coming in perpetually. I hope that once we¡¯ll be busy for a while, and then spring will come with flowers blooming. I¡¯d like to remind everyone here: If you are currently sick, or recovering, do remember, at least for one month after recovery, don¡¯t stay up late, avoid vigorous exercise, and no sexual activity ¡ª just rest. This way, you can best avoid viral pneumonia and viral myocarditis to the greatest extent. If you have persistent fever or coughing, it¡¯s best to get a chest CT to understand if you have pneumonia; if you have symptoms such as chest tightness, palpitations, and general weakness, go to the hospital to check troponin and myocardial enzymes. In short, we¡¯re disparaging our enemy strategically, but taking our enemy seriously tactically. Chapter 770 - 770 688 Study Hard and Make Steady Progress ?Chapter 770: Chapter 688 Study Hard, and Make Steady Progress Everyday Chapter 770: Chapter 688 Study Hard, and Make Steady Progress Everyday ¡°Doctor Tang ¡ª¡± Ivan wanted to discuss the authorization to use the skin expansion technology, but Tang Shun interrupted him: ¡°Mr. Ivan, you should first understand this technology.¡± Value, only when value is fully exposed, can price be more easily accepted. Tang Shun was a scholar, but he was not a typical scholar. His entire academic career was financially independent, and he even saved several million. He was a highly-educated talent whose intellectual, emotional, and financial intelligence were all up to par. At this moment, he needed to judge again whether this person who had suddenly barged into the laboratory was the legendary Ivan. Of course, he didn¡¯t know anything about Ivan, but Professor Yang did, as did August and Robert. The world is vast, yet sometimes also very small, and circles are always limited in size. If this person really had ample funds, Tang Shun felt that there was plenty of room for maneuvering, so he was not in a hurry, he could take his time. The bigger the fish, the more patience it required, and once hooked, it needed to be reeled in slowly. ¡°I suggest Dr. Ivan stay and delve into this technology. It will bring you a lot of surprises.¡± Tang Shun now had no doubt about Yang Ping¡¯s words, and he had no doubt that what was written on Yang Ping¡¯s A4 paper could be achieved. Ivan felt that Dr. Tang¡¯s words made sense, and he himself was perhaps too anxious. So the two of them shifted their discussion to the skin expansion technology itself. As a top international professor and doctor, Tang Shun¡¯s professionalism in stem cell research was world-class, which further enhanced Ivan¡¯s confidence in this technology. The two chatted for a full hour in the lab discussing technical issues. ¡ª When it came to plastic surgery, Yang Ping honestly had no interest as his practice was all about healing and saving lives. To achieve an ideal result in plastic surgery, in addition to surgical skills, a deep aesthetic sense was also needed. Complex procedures were by no means as simple as double eyelid surgery or breast augmentation. For example, with facial reconstruction for burn victims, a master-level doctor like Ivan can make the result indistinguishable from reality, almost unrecognizable as once burned. Ordinary plastic surgeons, at best, could only make their patients look slightly less unattractive. This was about skill level! Although Yang Ping had a foundation in painting, it was medical painting, realistic painting. If it weren¡¯t for testing the skin expansion technology, he was reluctant to perform plastic surgeries. Yang Ping was operating with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. ¡°Is this man ¡ª really ¡ª Ivan?¡± Xu Zhiliang was the first to speak. ¡°Yes, he is Ivan. I¡¯ve seen him before.¡± August was very certain. Due to the connection with Manstein, August had once dined with Ivan. Although they hadn¡¯t met many times, having once met, he wouldn¡¯t forget. Robert shrugged: ¡°Wasn¡¯t the professor vexed about operations in plastic surgery? Isn¡¯t he coveting our skin expansion technology? Let him have a go, assist Teacher Sun¡¯s surgery, and everything will be verified.¡± ¡°Letting him ¡ª assist ¡ª the surgery, the medical license ¡ª wouldn¡¯t be easy to resolve,¡± Xu Zhiliang worried. ¡°He has never needed any medical license. All his surgeries worldwide were strictly speaking, unlicensed. He is royalty among Middle Eastern billionaires, riding donkeys into the mountains of Afghanistan, performing surgeries on medical ships, never in need of a practicing medical license,¡± August responded. ¡°This can be easily managed. Either let Director Chi from the Burn Department or Director Lan of the Plastic Surgery Department accompany him on stage.¡± Song Zimo thought this was not a problem. ¡°Can he ¡ª agree ¡ª to free surgery?¡± Xu Zhiliang was always concerned about practical issues. ¡°Rest assured, with the professor¡¯s charm, he would willingly humble himself,¡± Robert replied. Humble himself? The entire room chuckled, nearly spewing their breakfasts. ¡°You don¡¯t quote classical poems when you speak now?¡± Song Zimo asked with a smile. ¡°To be appreciated by both the refined and the vulgar, to be appreciated by both the refined and the vulgar!¡± Robert was absolutely confident in his Chinese. When it came to proficiency in Chinese, among the international scholars who had been to Sanbo Hospital, Robert and Takahashi were top-tier. Takahashi had solidly learned Chinese to a high level of proficiency while Robert had even started improvising. He had memorized all kinds of Tang poetry, Song lyrics, Yuan songs, idioms, slang, and riddles. The key was that he dared to speak and use them! ¡°Do you know what ¡®humble oneself¡¯ means?¡± Song Zimo asked Robert back. Robert proudly said, ¡°Of course I do. In China, when a man marries a woman, it¡¯s called humbling oneself. I use this term to describe our Professor¡¯s charm.¡± ¡°Impressive!¡± Song Zimo had to admit. ¡°Let¡¯s do it this way, let Ivan perform the surgery. I guess he must also have this in mind. Teacher Sun is still in the lab, Ivan should know by now that the skin sample is from Teacher Sun and it will be used for Teacher Sun¡¯s surgery in the future.¡± Song Zimo made a decision on the matter. Such things should not bother the professor. ¡°Professor¡ªlet Tang Shun¡ªcommunicate with him, Tang Shun won¡¯t ask for a lion¡¯s share right off the bat, will he?¡± Xu Zhiliang thought of another thing. Everyone saw Tang Shun as particularly crafty, unlike a typical scholar, with a keen sense of financial gain. Song Zimo smiled easily: ¡°A man who can handle eighteen girlfriends at the same time, you doubt his communication skills? You doubt his emotional intelligence? Ivan would be like a fish on the chopping block in his hands.¡± Everyone fell silent. Liang Fatty, sitting cross-legged, felt his heart bleeding. Eighteen, they supposedly all got along well and many clamored to come to China and have his child. Eighteen! And he hadn¡¯t even managed to keep one. ¡°Sigh!¡± Doctor Fatty heaved a grief-stricken sigh. He had been pursuing a flight attendant for a long time and despite exhausting all his skills, he was still shunned. Several months had passed and he was still unable to move on from his heartbreak. Hearing this sigh, everyone just shook their heads, unable to offer any help. Once Yang Ping completed the critical steps of the surgery, he handed over the task of closing the incision to Song Zimo, and turned to Liang Fatty, saying: ¡°Fatty, starting tomorrow, you¡¯ll be transferred to the lab to become Tang Shun¡¯s assistant.¡± Fatty was jolted awake from his misery: ¡°To the lab? I¡¯m an anesthesiologist¡ª¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s correct, to the lab, to complete a brand new research project with Tang Shun.¡± ¡°For how long?¡± ¡°That depends on your performance.¡± Fatty was puzzled as to what mistake he had committed to be sent off by the Professor to do odd jobs in the lab for that guy. ¡°Professor, is this¡ª¡± ¡°Pack up your things, report there tomorrow. Quit making excuses, after three months with Tang Shun, you are going to experience an emotional spring.¡± Song Zimo cut off Fatty mid-sentence. Fatty scratched his head but still couldn¡¯t figure out what mistake he had made that warranted Professor kicking him to the laboratory. Smoking in the bathroom was a long-standing habit, the cleaning lady had mentioned it a few times, but it was always just talk. Also, he had recently given a few counterfeit Zhonghua cigarettes to Director Zhao of the Medical Services Department, surely no one had caught on to that? Even if they had, it wouldn¡¯t have triggered a job transfer. There hadn¡¯t been any mistakes in his work recently. What was going on? Was it because he was sitting cross-legged incorrectly? But he¡¯d always sat like that. Liang Fatty thought about it from every angle, but couldn¡¯t figure out why he was being ¡°exiled¡±. A clinical anesthesiologist being sent to do odd jobs in a lab, what was that about? And why was this happening all of a sudden, without any warning signs? After the surgery was over. Fatty had no choice but to seek out Song Zimo in the changing room: ¡°Young Master Song, what on earth is going on, can you please enlighten me?¡± As Song Zimo changed his clothes, he asked, ¡°Do you want a pretty, virtuous, and intelligent wife in the future?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Liang Fatty answered decisively. ¡°That settles it then, pack up your things, report to the lab tomorrow. Tang Shun is in need of a personal assistant, your job is simple, just help him brew tea, wipe tables, and chat with him when he¡¯s free.¡± ¡°I¡¯m supposed to help that kid make tea?¡± Fatty grew more upset the more he thought about it. Song Zimo, having changed his clothes, walked away without giving Liang Fatty another glance. ¡°Little Five?¡± ¡°Teacher Zhang?¡± Fatty had no choice but to seek help from Little Five and Zhang Lin. The two shook their heads and gave his shoulder a pat: ¡°Study hard, keep making progress.¡± Chapter 771 - 771 689 The True God-Level Man ?Chapter 771: Chapter 689: The True God-Level Man Chapter 771: Chapter 689: The True God-Level Man Dr. Ivan returned to his hotel. ¡°Doctor, these guys are too arrogant, they didn¡¯t take us seriously at all.¡± As soon as he sat down, his assistant Pavel expressed discontent, releasing the emotions he had bottled up in an attempt to defend Dr. Ivan¡¯s honor. An unknown hospital, a young doctor, acted as if meeting Ivan was like meeting an ordinary person, not setting aside any dedicated time for Ivan. It should be known that wherever Ivan goes, he receives grand receptions; he is a god in the realm of plastic surgery. Countless wealthy and influential figures seek Ivan¡¯s favor, hoping to be treated under his skilled hands. Ivan waved his hand dismissively: ¡°Don¡¯t worry about those trivialities. We were able to meet Professor Yang without an appointment, had a short talk, and he hurried off. That in itself is an ordinary event. In Professor Yang¡¯s eyes, I am just an ordinary doctor, not the renowned Dr. Ivan. You should understand your identity, Pavel. I have decided to stay in China for a while, postponing other matters.¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to stay a while?¡± Pavel truly didn¡¯t understand Dr. Ivan¡¯s intentions. They were snubbed today, yet he still wanted to stay. Ivan smiled calmly: ¡°Not only am I going to stay, I will stay for an extended period. I wish to have a thorough exchange with Professor Yang. His new technique is just too brilliant. You don¡¯t understand the value of this technology.¡± In the past, he only knew Yang Ping through papers. Now, he was meeting him in person for the first time. After meeting in person, the feeling became even stronger. Yang Ping¡¯s thinking was above his own. Pavel poured red wine into the tall glass on the coffee table. Ivan picked up the glass and took a gentle sip: ¡°Pavel, you are young, you still lack the insight to see the complete picture. This Professor Yang is a god, a god-like figure.¡± Pavel is Ivan¡¯s assistant, also his student, and once a student of Xie Dongnov Medical University, hence there are few reservations when they talk. ¡°But, Doctor, how can there be a surgeon more skilled than you?¡± Pavel¡¯s voice took on an edge of incredulity, showing his disbelief. In his heart, Ivan was godlike, and nobody could surpass him. ¡°It¡¯s a fact. Although I haven¡¯t seen him performing surgery yet, our interactions so far have only lasted about ten minutes. However, my intuition tells me his demeanor exudes an aura of divinity, a true deity¡¯s aura. I am merely a mortal who is respected as a deity, whereas his aura is truly divine. I have never met anyone like him.¡± Ivan was still reminiscing over the short, uneventful meeting, but it was unforgettable. Decades of professional studies on human appearance and temperament allow Ivan to perceive a person¡¯s inner quality better than anybody else. ¡°Pavel, let go of your emotions, I am just a regular person who has been idolized. Today, you saw this man with me, he is the real godlike figure. Now, I have the opportunity to be friends with a godlike figure, do you think I would let this opportunity slip away?¡± ¡°Among the people you saw today, there were two European faces, one of them was a friend of Professor Mainshtan, the leading figure in European spine surgery, Mr. August.¡± Ivan lowered his wine glass and spoke leisurely. Pavel was taken aback: ¡°But you didn¡¯t greet him?¡± August, even if not a spinal specialist, Pavel knew this big name. ¡°No, one should not greet in such circumstance. At that moment, August appeared more like a student than a top scholar. In front of a godlike figure, any brilliance would pale into insignificance. August was no longer the leader, and I was no longer the omnipotent Ivan, do you understand now?¡± ¡°If you carefully read his papers, each of them is groundbreaking.¡± Dr. Ivan spoke excitedly; the so-called ¡°snubbing¡± didn¡¯t bother him at all. He was glad he met Yang Ping so smoothly. Pavel nodded, still not quite understanding. But since his teacher thought so, it must be right. He just couldn¡¯t understand why Dr. Ivan regarded this ordinary young doctor, who was easy to schedule a meeting with, as a godlike figure. His teacher Dr. Ivan couldn¡¯t be met casually, even some celebrities might not necessarily be able to meet Ivan. Seeing Pavel¡¯s reluctant expression, Dr. Ivan shook his head in a bit of disappointment: ¡°Young man, you still have much to learn. I¡¯ve told you, as plastic surgeons, our perception of people must delve into their inner character, touching the deepest part of their qualities. Your performance today was disappointing.¡± ¡°Doctor?¡± Pavel wanted to defend himself. ¡°Let¡¯s go to Nandu Medical University Affiliated Hospital One in the afternoon.¡± Waving his hand, Ivan changed the topic. Ivan¡¯s father had always remembered this hospital. In the 1950s, Ivan¡¯s father had briefly provided technical support here. After lunch, Ivan and Pavel, escorted by bodyguards, arrived at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. With his father¡¯s old photo in hand, Ivan found an old building. Only this old building remained in Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. This red brick old building, preserved as a historical site, now existed as a memorial, while the other buildings had been demolished and replaced by skyscrapers. ¡°It¡¯s here!¡± Professor Ivan stopped in his tracks in front of the red brick building. Groups of young students bustled around. Everything had changed, only this old building remained, the place his father had always yearned for. In those years, his father, serving as a Soviet expert, was dispatched here and never forgot this hospital. ¡°According to my father, in that era, the entire hospital was made up of buildings like this one. The Chinese, fervently and passionately, were building their country. And indeed, after a few decades, this hospital, this city, the broad roads, beautiful skyscrapers, and numerous vehicles, they have accomplished it. My father always cared for this place, now he can rest in peace. This place is in good hands.¡± Professor Ivan stood in front of the red brick building. The assistant listened by his side, being of the younger generation, he had little concept of that historical era. Ivan remembered the Soviet Union, but for Pavel who was born in Russia, the Soviet Union only existed in the history books. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting a patchwork of light on the ground. Dr. Ivan made a few rounds around the red brick building, fulfilling a long-cherished wish on behalf of his father. ¡°Let¡¯s go back to the hotel, I need some rest. Tomorrow, I am going to Sanbo Hospital.¡± Chapter 772 - 772 690 Eyelashes are the Soul of the Eyes ?Chapter 772: Chapter 690: Eyelashes are the Soul of the Eyes Chapter 772: Chapter 690: Eyelashes are the Soul of the Eyes The next morning, around seven, Ivan was waiting at the entrance of the Comprehensive Surgical Ward. This time he wasn¡¯t dressed as flashy as before, just wearing a simple white shirt. Possibly to align with Chinese customs, he had shaved off his Russian-style beard, which made him look much younger. After his relaxed meeting with Yang Ping yesterday, after about ten minutes of conversation, he was even more convinced of his judgment ¨C Yang Ping was indeed an unquestionably world-class doctor. Moreover, Ivan was extremely interested in Yang Ping¡¯s skin expansion technique, almost to the point of obsession. This trip to China was unexpectedly fruitful, and he was determined to acquire this technique regardless of the price. The entrance to the ward was a spacious elevator area, with several elevators going up and down. As it was also the rush hour, people were constantly hurrying out of the elevators and into the ward. Ivan stood by the entrance, keeping a certain distance from both the entrance and the elevator to avoid hindering people¡¯s movements. He looked like a ¡°greeter¡±; he would always smile at those who walked by. Except for those who toured the laboratory yesterday, most people didn¡¯t know who he was. They could only politely nod at him, then wonder, who¡¯s this foreigner? Could he be here for internship? Ever since Robert and August became interns at the Comprehensive Surgery Department, everyone had become accustomed to having foreign interns. ¡°Have you heard that he¡¯s the Russian plastic surgery expert, Dr. Ivan?¡± ¡°Is it true?¡± ¡°I searched for him online yesterday, couldn¡¯t find a photo, but found a lot of stories about him.¡± ¡°Yeah, a lot of stories are said to be made up, just like novel plots.¡± ¡°These things are probably half true, half false.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a rumor online that an American fugitive suddenly disappeared under FBI surveillance, and the FBI suspects the person went to Ivan for plastic surgery.¡± ¡°Yeah, there¡¯s also a story that he went deep into Afghanistan¡¯s mountains to perform plastic surgeries.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a rumor that he created a beauty pageant winner in Europe ¨C a totally artificial beauty.¡± Before the morning class, everyone was busy working and discussing. The rumors quickly spread. Some people had heard about Ivan yesterday and searched for him on their phones and computers, uncovering many rumors about him. They were indistinguishable between truth and fiction, some revealed to be plots from cheap novels. But the more elusive and enigmatic these rumors were, the more people¡¯s interests were piqued. Some curious people once again went to the entrance of the ward to take a closer look at this legendary figure, to see if he really was as extraordinary as they said. As Yang Ping stepped out of the elevator, he saw Ivan. Ivan bowed joyfully: ¡°Good morning, Professor Yang!¡± ¡°Dr. Ivan?¡± Yang Ping was quite surprised. He didn¡¯t expect him to be here so early. ¡°If you have time, may I¨C could I talk to you? Of course, I don¡¯t want to interrupt your work. When you¡¯re free...I can wait. As for the patient with the full-body scars, I could offer some suggestions.¡± Ivan¡¯s tone was sincere. His words were slightly disjointed and chaotic, but he hit the nail on the head. When it came to plastic surgery, Ivan had tremendous confidence. He believed that no one in the world surpassed his skills. Some so-called top experts, in Ivan¡¯s view, were on par with his students. Moreover, many of the top plastic surgeons at large in the world had covertly learned surgical techniques from him. ¡°Of course, you can. Rest in our meeting room after this. After the shift change, we¡¯ll discuss this case together.¡± Yang Ping was very straightforward. The world¡¯s greatest plastic surgeon giving advice on Teacher Sun¡¯s surgery, Yang Ping was absolutely in favor. He was always a realistic young man. Plastic surgery was his biggest weakness. As long as Ivan was genuinely Ivan, his advice would be incredibly valuable. Anything that benefitted the patient was a good thing. Ivan was quite taken aback by how smoothly things went. Yang Ping placed him in the meeting room, provided him with a glass of water to drink, and told him to rest there. After the routine morning shift change, Yang Ping asked Li Guodong to bring up Teacher Sun¡¯s surgery for separate discussion, with invited participation from Dr. Ivan. Everyone was immediately buzzing. Dr. Ivan, the world¡¯s greatest plastic surgeon, was participating in their department¡¯s discussion. But then they thought about it, weren¡¯t all their case discussions attended by world-class experts every day? It was just that the many legends surrounding Ivan were arousing the excitement of the young doctors. Immediately, people started to spread the news through various WeChat groups. Anyone who received the message, no matter which department they belonged to, came to join the spectacle. Particularly the heads of the Plastic Surgery and Burn Departments, who dropped everything and rushed towards the Comprehensive Surgery Department with their doctors. Anyone who saw these two teams on the way would have doubts, as it seemed like they were amassing forces for a fight. ¡°Hurry up, it¡¯s starting!¡± Someone shouted, and the two teams bolted towards the Comprehensive Surgery Department. Soon, the doctors¡¯ office in the Comprehensive Surgery Department was packed, a turn of events Yang Ping had not anticipated. Yang Ping had invited Dr. Ivan to the doctors¡¯ office. Upon seeing the situation, he obviously felt somewhat intimidated. Yes, he was one of the world¡¯s best plastic surgeons, and wherever he went, he was used to being in the limelight. But now, Dr. Ivan was clearly a bit stage-struck, mostly because this was Professor Yang¡¯s territory. ¡°Dr. Ivan?¡± August felt it was time to greet him. ¡°Mr. August!¡± Dr. Ivan shook his hand, saying in fluent and authentic English, ¡°I haven¡¯t seen you since we parted ways in Berlin.¡± After a simple greeting, Dr. Ivan sat down next to Yang Ping and carefully asked, ¡°I only speak English and Russian, not Chinese. Will that be a problem?¡± ¡°No problem, you can just speak English.¡± Yang Ping nodded his head, encouraging him. ¡°Alright!¡± Ivan broke a sweat on his forehead. The projector displayed the case information on the screen, and Li Guodong began to present the case in English. After the case presentation, Yang Ping spoke directly: ¡°Dr. Ivan, we would like to hear your thoughts.¡± ¡°Everyone, sorry, I can¡¯t speak Chinese. I hope you don¡¯t mind if I use English.¡± Dr. Ivan bowed, then sat back down and began to share his thoughts in his characteristic preacher-like tone. ¡°If we can use the skin grafts that you¡¯ve cultivated, I can help him become an attractive man. Removing the full-body scarring and administering fresh skin grafts is a basic surgery. The difficulty lies in reconstructing his face ¡ª his lips, nose, ears, eyebrows, eyelids, and even eyelashes. Eyes without eyelashes lack expressiveness. The entire facial features need to be rebuilt on this wreckage. Besides the appearance, the facial muscles need to be readjusted as well to restore his ability to smile and display various expressions. This is challenging, but doable. Adjusting the facial muscles is a cutting-edge plastic surgery technique. Recreating his hair and scalp is a challenging issue. Because his present scalp is a scar, there¡¯s no place to find skin or a hair follicle. If any remaining follicles could be found under the scarred scalp, I believe Professor Yang¡¯s technique could solve this problem. The contours of the lower jaw need to be reshaped to fit the new facial features. The forging of these features need harmonious and dynamic, everything should come to life naturally. I don¡¯t know if what I am proposing is good enough. This is my preliminary idea upon viewing the images. If I could examine this patient, I could propose a more complete plan for your reference¡ª¡± Within his field, Ivan had absolute self-confidence. But turning to look at Yang Ping, he hoped to receive his assessment. Yang Ping led the applause. If it wasn¡¯t for a top world-class plastic surgeon like Ivan, they wouldn¡¯t even consider the reconstruction of the facial features in Teacher Sun¡¯s case, let alone the reconstruction of eyelashes. The most they would hope for was to make the face less unsightly. Indeed, he was a world-class plastic surgeon. Each of the procedures in these proposals was something that most plastic surgeons wouldn¡¯t dare to consider. The surrounding doctors all felt a surge of curiosity. Could this surgery really be performed in such a way? Having listened to Ivan¡¯s rough plan, Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Let¡¯s go and take a look at the patient later.¡± Going all out in treating a patient and handing over fields that you aren¡¯t adept at to those who are advantageously is the best you can do, as long as it benefits the patient. ¡°Are you willing to let me participate in this surgery?¡± Ivan was very surprised, not expecting Yang Ping to be so frank. Yang Ping nodded again: ¡°Plastic surgery is your forte. You are far more qualified to undertake this surgery than me.¡± Ivan was a bit excited, not expecting things to go so smoothly. In his experience, many world-class masters, even though they had secretly learned his techniques and were of lower skill level comparatively, were unwilling to openly admit to a gap and would certainly not easily hand over their patients. Because doing so could affect a world-class doctor¡¯s reputation, which is more valuable than gold. ¡°Do you really plan to recreate his eyelashes?¡± Robert frowned. Teacher Sun¡¯s eyelids were scarred and contracted, unable to close, and he had completely lost his eyelashes. His corneas were exposed to the air for extended periods due to the rapid evaporation of his tears, causing the corneas to dry up. If the integrity of the corneas was compromised, it could easily lead to bacterial infections, resulting in exposure keratitis. Therefore, Teacher Sun always carried eye drops with him. Chapter 773 - 773 691 Marketing ?Chapter 773: Chapter 691: Marketing Chapter 773: Chapter 691: Marketing The plan of the master of plastic surgery even considered the eyelashes. Though he only spoke a few words, Yang Ping already knew that this Ivan was undoubtedly a world-class top plastic surgeon. ¡°Could I meet this patient? He will need to remove all of his clothes, completely bare, and I will also need to take photos of him.¡± Dr. Ivan requested. Every plastic surgery patient must go through this procedure before a surgery plan can be drawn up. Ivan needs to observe the entire body from different angles because any part of the body that undergoes plastic surgery must remain harmonious with the rest of the body. It wouldn¡¯t be appropriate to call Teacher Sun into the doctor¡¯s office and have him undressed in front of so many people. Song Zimo immediately instructed Little Five to communicate with Teacher Sun. Quietly slipping from the meeting venue, Little Five returned about ten minutes later and gave Song Zimo an OK gesture. Such an examination certainly couldn¡¯t be conducted with three layers of people all around. Song Zimo selected a few core members from the surgical team and accompanied Dr. Ivan to the examination. Scars covered his entire body, making it a distressing sight that was hard to adjust to. Dr. Ivan rolled up his sleeves, walked to the bedside, and took out a magnifying glass from his pocket. Little Five offered him gloves, but he refused to wear them, as he needed to use his bare hands to feel the hardness of the scars and the degree to which they had adhered to the surrounding tissue. Song Zimo had given Ivan a simple introduction to how Teacher Sun had been burned. For this heroic figure, Dr. Ivan expressed a great deal of respect. Dr. Ivan took photos of Teacher Sun from various angles. He needed these photos and videos to formulate a detailed surgical plan. Yang Ping observed carefully from the side. This Russian master really was meticulous, not forgetting to capture a series of photos for every detail. On finishing his signature examination, Dr. Ivan apologized to Teacher Sun, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for doing this. It is all for the sake of a perfect surgery.¡± Teacher Sun didn¡¯t feel embarrassed. Coming to the hospital and allowing a doctor to examine him was natural and reasonable. Back in the doctor¡¯s office, Dr. Ivan hesitated a few times before proposing to Yang Ping, ¡°Professor Yang, I request to be the chief surgeon for this hero because plastic surgery is my specialty, and I can do my best.¡± In the field of plastic surgery, Dr.Ivan had absolute confidence. No one could surpass him. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Then I¡¯ll leave it to you!¡± Leaving professional matters to the professionals was something Yang Ping was more than happy about. He was aware that his biggest weakness in surgical operations was plastic surgery. He never considered himself someone with an artistic sense. Dr. Ivan liked the straightforwardness. He said, ¡°The surgery will be done in phases. The first step is to replace the scars with healthy skin, the second step is to reconstruct the facial features, the third step is to fill in the contours of various parts of the body, and this step is difficult. I might need to transplant muscles to certain areas. The fourth step, if he cooperates, my body shape consultant will provide him with some training. As for the specific surgical plan, please give me a week¡¯s time, and I will come up with a very detailed plan.¡± Plastic surgery was not like other surgeries. It did not have any urgency. Sufficient time could be used to refine the surgical plan, making it more perfect. Hearing the conversation between Yang Ping and Ivan, the doctors who were onlooking grew incredibly excited knowing that Dr. Ivan would be the chief surgeon. The doctors who had never heard Dr. Ivan¡¯s legend, under the instigation of others, did not forget to pull out their cell phones and hurriedly search to understand the stories of this legendary figure. These stories were hard to verify for truthfulness. Even the rumors on the internet about whether Ivan was the genuine Ivan were questionable. Yet, these legends only added to Ivan¡¯s mysterious allure. Director Chi of the Burn Department and Director Lan of the Plastic Surgery Department were also squeezed in the crowd, quietly conversing with each other. ¡°He¡¯s really coming to perform surgery? You know this Dr. Ivan, right?¡± Director Chi asked, he also learned about Ivan from the internet. All kinds of information is mixed on the internet, and Director Chi was also curious. Director Lan nodded, ¡°When I was training at the Eight Great Sites of Xiehe, my teacher mentioned him. Let¡¯s put it this way, my teacher¡¯s mentor during his time training in the United States was a world-renowned plastic surgery expert. And this expert was said to be Ivan¡¯s actual student. Because of Ivan¡¯s unconventional life, many of his students couldn¡¯t publicly acknowledge their relationship with him.¡± Director Lan¡¯s information came from legitimate sources and was very reliable. So when he heard that Ivan was coming to Sanbo, Director Lan was very excited. However, he was puzzled. Ivan, who usually wouldn¡¯t even go to top American hospitals, suddenly came to China. Seemingly, the young Professor Yang had extraordinary abilities to be able to invite such people to Sanbo to lecture and perform surgeries. If Director Lan knew that Professor Yang had not invited this ¡°legendary figure,¡± but rather the ¡°legendary figure¡± came on his own, Director Lan would probably be so surprised that he wouldn¡¯t be able to walk straight for several days. ¡°You said there really is someone named Ivan. Why do I see a lot of stories online claiming that his story was made up by street literature?¡± Director Chi was getting more and more curious. ¡°His story is more exciting than street literature. The real story, some street literature may not dare to write. My teacher once said, his plastic surgery technology came from an expert in the Soviet Union. This expert allegedly served special departments, confidentially researched plastic surgery techniques, and achieved some special objectives.¡± Director Lan said quietly. ¡°For example, current cosmetic surgery rarely involves skeletal shaping technology. Even the bone grinding technology is limited to the mandibular angle, the chin part as well as the cheekbones. But in the Soviet Union era, to achieve some special purposes, they were already able to use this technique to change facial contours. Of course, this technique is now very common. But at that time, it was top-notch technology. Ivan¡¯s teacher expanded this technology and combined it with the Ilizarov technique, making facial contour adjustment more mature. Ivan further promoted his teacher¡¯s technique. The adjustment of facial contours becomes fanciful, and it can also realize the adjustment of the whole body¡¯s skeleton to a certain extent. This is the top technology in world plastic surgery. Only four doctors in the world can complete these techniques, and the other three all learned from Ivan.¡± The Director of the burn department was a bit puzzled, ¡°Isn¡¯t skeletal shaping very common? Our spinal deviations, limbs orthopedics, these are all orthopedics, but this is the orthopedic doctor¡¯s job.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not the same. These orthopedic surgeries aim to restore function. But plastic surgery, without impairing function, aims to alter appearances, for example, facial contouring. Ordinary doctors can only grind bones, while Ivan can design a face to be as desired.¡± Director Lan, as an expert in plastic surgery, had deeper insights into this circle. Director Lan is a smart man, the sort who wouldn¡¯t get up early if there was no benefit involved. At this moment, he was calculating in his heart, whether he could, through Yang Ping, greet Ivan, let him help with an outpatient consultation, guide the surgery, and finally let himself hang the title ¡ª a direct disciple of Dr. Ivan, which would skyrocket his position in plastic surgery. Director Lan understood a truth, whether technology could be learned is one thing, being able to pull up relationships is what really matters. To network, to mingle, Director Lan had his ways. Plastic surgery, sometimes, it¡¯s not about the technique, but about marketing. In terms of technology, The Eight Great Sites of Xiehe is unquestionably top-tier. But in terms of income, a legitimate Xiehe Eight Great Sites cannot compete with any small plastic surgery hospitals that do business by renting spaces. What sets them apart is marketing. It¡¯s inappropriate to mention medical business and marketing together, but indeed it is. Actually, Director Lan is a really smart person. After he got back from the training at The Eight Great Sites of Xiehe, he witnessed that such upscale plastic surgery had fewer patients than small hospitals that advertised everywhere. So he reflected on it, investigated several industry ¡°giants¡± who were powerful and booming, peeked into their methods, and then spent three months writing a revitalization report for Sanbo Hospital and handed it to Dean Xia. After reading it, Dean Xia said: ¡°You¡¯re a genius!¡± Director Lan was overjoyed, his heart pounding, thinking that Dean Xia would wave his hand and give funds, policies, talents. But Dean Xia crossed out every page of the report, saying: ¡°This kind of unique talent you have wasting away at Sanbo Hospital, look at this, what kind of stuff is this ¡ª expanding external propaganda, investing heavily in advertising fees, a one-year payback, profit in two years, three years ¡ª the surgery name needs to be classy, attractive, preferably with a South Korean style ¡ª the same drugs or surgeries offer civilian and high-end packaging, the high-end ones use English to introduce, the price is dozens to hundreds of times that of the civilian grade ¡ª you feel I¡¯ve been in this position for too long, right?¡± The report that crystallized three months of hard work was directly thrown away by Dean Xia, scaring Director Lan to never dare to mention it again. Now that Dr. Ivan has come to Sanbo, Director Lan¡¯s ambition ignited again. This time his approach was different. He wanted to follow a truly international path. Of course, the two words ¡®marketing¡¯ could not be mentioned again, but essentially, it was still marketing. The word ¡®marketing¡¯ had taken deep root in Director Lan¡¯s mind. PS: Starting today, regular updates can be made! As mentioned before, after being busy, it¡¯s time for the warm spring and blooming flowers. This is now becoming a reality. Thank you! Really, thank you to all the friends who are still reading this book. Once again, I will not abandon it halfway! Absolutely never!!!! Chapter 774 - 774 692 Scroll Painting ?Chapter 774: Chapter 692: Scroll Painting Chapter 774: Chapter 692: Scroll Painting Director Lan felt that he, a prestigious PhD who had been trained at Xiehe Hospital and Shanghai Jiaotong University Ninth Hospital, had now suffered a pathetic fate where the ward barely had any patients and few patients even showed up at the outpatient department daily. After some introspection, Director Lan decided to use his connections and adopt an undercover approach to investigate the largest private plastic surgery hospital in Southern China ¡ª a cosmetic and plastic surgery hospital under the Ruixing Medical Group. This hospital didn¡¯t even own its building but rented it from someone else. However, the number of surgeries they performed was astonishing, with an annual turnover in the hundreds of millions. They conducted various types of surgeries such as liposuction, breast augmentation, eyelid surgery, rhinoplasty, abdominoplasty, and more, which were booming. Non-surgical procedures such as botulinum toxins injections, hyaluronic acid injections, hair removal, skin tightening, and fat reduction were also extremely popular. For three whole months, Director Lan studied this hospital thoroughly with the attitude and approach of a PhD doing a research project. He was confident that he had mastered the true essence of its operations and had been holding back a desire to make big waves. However, when he presented a revitalization plan for the department that was worthy of being a research project proposal, he was berated harshly by Dean Xia. After being scolded awake by Dean Xia, he went back and reflected deeply once more. As a result, he had an epiphany: he believed that Dean Xia had scolded him and discarded his report because he was too pedantic, including in his report things that were considered unprofessional and expecting the dean to approve of them. Director Lan learned his lesson this time. He understood another truth: some things should be done, not said, or should be done in one way and talked about in another way. With these theoretical understandings sorted out, Director Lan felt that he was about to make a major move. He would take full advantage of Dr. Ivan¡¯s presence to launch a nationwide sensational marketing campaign, stomping hard on those so-called successful hospitals in the industry. After the meeting, Dr. Ivan, led by Zhang Lin, went to the Medical Affairs Department to register as a visiting scholar. For Dr. Ivan to stay and participate in surgeries, he needed to have proper procedures in place. The most suitable status at the moment was as a short-term visiting scholar, as was the case when Robert studied at Sanbo Hospital for two weeks. Doctors who came to join the commotion each returned to their own home after the meeting. Many came with the intention of seeing a star, after all, who would not want to see the likes of Dr. Ivan, whose reputation was renowned online. When Yang Ping returned to the director¡¯s office, just as he was about to sit down and have a cup of tea, Director Lan from the Plastic Surgery Department followed him in, stammering wanting to say something, but too embarrassed to do so. Director Lan¡¯s situation was known by the entire hospital. Yang Ping didn¡¯t have a good impression of him. His promotion of marketing theories that viewed medicine as commerce disgusted Yang Ping. This guy even publically criticised in the hospital that most of the directors lacked market concepts and management awareness and means. He hoped that the hospital leadership would allow the department directors to take MBA President classes to learn business knowledge. He claimed that doing so could ensure that the hospital¡¯s income would multiply several times. Astonishingly, his views had a group of confirmed supporters, forming a minor force within the hospital, dubbed, the ¡°marketing faction¡±. ¡°Professor Yang, do you have a moment to chat?¡± Director Lan tentatively asked. Despite Yang Ping disliking him, they were after all colleagues, it would be no big deal just to let him talk. ¡°Director Lan, please have a seat. Would you like some tea?¡±, Yang Ping put down his teacup. Director Lan shook his head: ¡°No need to trouble yourself, I¡¯ll just pour myself a glass of water.¡± ¡°Professor Yang, you truly are an up-and-coming talent, even able to invite Dr. Ivan. From what I know, he is someone whom even Mayo can¡¯t invite. The hospital has been wanting to develop the field of plastic surgery for a few years now but hasn¡¯t made any headway. I just had an immature idea. If Dr. Ivan could spare some time to help us hold a special consultation and guide our surgeries, our business is sure to reach another level.¡± Director Lan finally expressed his thoughts. Yang Ping thought for a moment before saying: ¡°I¡¯m afraid I might not be able to help with that. I¡¯m not very familiar with Dr. Ivan. Let¡¯s wait until we¡¯re more acquainted.¡± This was a refusal of Director Lan¡¯s request. Treating medicine as marketing had crossed the line of medical ethics, and Yang Ping was very disgusted with this. Doctors are doctors, they are not businessmen. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± Just as Director Lan wanted to continue arguing, he changed his mind. He immediately realized it wasn¡¯t because Professor Yang actually knew Dr. Ivan well nor was he unfamiliar. Otherwise, why would Dr. Ivan, who Mayo could not attract, appear at Sanbo? Director Lan thought that maybe Professor Yang considered Ivan as a guest and asking him to conduct consultations or give lectures on top of being at Sanbo was already a great honor. Nevertheless, Director Lan believed that he would have to take the initiative to seize any opportunity to talk to Dr. Ivan about his proposal. There are some things that can be accomplished as long as one has a thick enough face, which already counts as half of the success. ¡°Thank you, Professor Yang!¡± Not wanting to take up more of Yang Ping¡¯s time, Director Lan then excused himself. Thank me? Yang Ping was puzzled, perplexed. What had he even said for them to be thanking him? Of course, it wasn¡¯t that he couldn¡¯t do them this favor. Director Lan was currently the leading figure of the hospital¡¯s marketing faction. Yang Ping suspected him of having ill intentions, especially as he seemed to be getting immersed in them of late. He was worried that Director Lan would create a fuss around his relationship with Ivan just to exploit it for marketing the plastic surgery department. So, Yang Ping was in no rush, needing to carefully ponder how he could best aid them. Under the guidance of Zhang Lin, Ivan had gone to the medical office to process the paperwork for his international visiting scholar status, scheduled for two weeks. This period was more than enough for him to complete the first phase of Teacher Sun¡¯s surgery. ¡ª The next morning, Dr. Ivan returned to the department. It was still around seven in the morning, and there was still some time before their shift. Everyone was engrossed in their work. This time, he came carrying a large painting roll. The painting was quite large and seemed rather heavy. As soon as he entered the office, Ivan had Little Five Zhang Lin help him unroll it. When the painting was unrolled, it was too big for just Little Five Zhang Lin to handle. So, they called upon two interns to assist, with each of the four individuals holding a corner, they fully expanded the painting. It was splendid! This was a life-size anatomical drawing, and it was even in color. Everyone was attracted by the painting and immediately gathered around it. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, August, and Robert also came to see what was going on. Ivan watched the doctors around him, feeling a bit of excitement. He could not speak Chinese, so he could only converse with everyone in English. ¡°This is a life-sized anatomical drawing, I always make one of the surgical subject before every surgery,¡± he explained. Not just one painting, Ivan had brought a dozen of them. Under his instruction, everyone unrolled each one. These drawings were a combination of full-body and partial anatomy, including front, back, left, right, and 45-degree angle views from front and back. They also had detailed diagrams of each body part, with every surgical step represented graphically. Specifically, for the skin grafting procedure, the shape, size, and thickness of the skin flap were accompanied by detailed data. ¡°To describe a surgery, the best way is to draw!¡± Dr. Ivan said with a justified pride, in this world, perhaps no one else could possess such illustrative capability like him. ¡°Awesome!¡± Robert exclaimed in Chinese and then gave a thumbs up, prompting everyone else to join in. Although Ivan could not understand what Robert had said, he knew it was something full of admiration and astonishment. ¡°Thank you! I¡¯ve enjoyed drawing since I was a child and have received professional training. I just never thought that after becoming a plastic surgeon, drawing would provide me with such great assistance.¡± Ivan, ever the gentleman, bowed slightly in acknowledgment to everyone. ¡°What was that forceful and compelling word you used just now, what does it mean?¡± August, unclear about Robert¡¯s speaking, inquired in a low voice. August knew Chinese well, but he was not proficient in slang words. ¡°Genitalia of cattle!¡± Robert repeated his phrase in English. It meant ¡®you are great!¡¯ ¡®Super great!¡¯ August immediately took note of it in his heart. It was so important to have a good companion when learning Chinese. Chapter 775 - 775 693 Tricks ?Chapter 775: Chapter 693: Tricks Chapter 775: Chapter 693: Tricks ¡°You are the second most impressive person I¡¯ve ever met,¡± Augusta held his thumb up in front of Ivan, of course, he said it in English. Ivan frowned, unexpected that this gentleman from European upper-class society could use such contrasting, uncouth language amidst a public crowd. Ivan didn¡¯t know Augusta well, but he had met him a few times and had dinner with him. He was aware of Augusta¡¯s status and educational background, so he couldn¡¯t believe those obscene words could come from his mouth. ¡°I mean, you are the second-best doctor I¡¯ve ever met in terms of your medical illustrations,¡± Augusta stated, noticing Ivan¡¯s displeasure, guessing he misunderstood his compliment. Care must be taken when using slang, especially those just learned. Dr. Ivan¡¯s frown softened, feeling quite surprised. Speaking of plastic surgery and medical drawing, he had always considered himself unbeatable, yet now he was the second-best. It intrigued him who could possibly be the first. ¡°I¡¯m curious, who¡¯s the best?¡± Ivan inquired. ¡°Of course, it¡¯s our Professor Yang!¡± exclaimed Augusta. ¡°With regards to medical drawing, even if Professor Yang dared to claim that he¡¯s the second, no one would dare to say they were the first,¡± Robert chimed in. At that moment, Yang Ping just happened to arrive at the doctor¡¯s office in his white gown. Seeing everyone crowded around a drawing, his curiosity was piqued. But everyone¡¯s eyes were on him. ¡°Why are you all looking at me? Dr. Ivan, is this your work?¡± Yang Ping was amused by their strange behaviour of staring at him instead of the drawing. Yang Ping carefully studied the unrolled drawing. The level of drawing was absolutely world-class, a level few could reach. Of course, he himself was one who could achieve this level. Perhaps drawing is closely related to medicine, and the eccentric system he learned from even had drawing training, turning him into a medical drawing expert. Unfortunately, the system only trained him in realistic techniques. If there had been more styles, maybe he would now have more artistic cells. The system probably thought that only realistic painting is useful in medical drawing, so it directly eliminated other styles. ¡°Professor Yang, this is my surgical design. What do you think?¡± Ivan asked out of respect. He knew Yang Ping was from the orthopedics department and his papers were on orthopedics. Nobody is rival of him in orthopedics deformity, yet he probably never dabbled in plastic surgery and couldn¡¯t provide any valuable advice. Plastic surgery is an independent specialty that requires dedicated systematic learning and practice. It is impossible for an orthopedic doctor to achieve success across different specialties, at most they would have some theoretical knowledge. Yang Ping was amazed at the scroll. Ivan also used a realistic technique. In medical drawing, if you don¡¯t do it realistically, who would want to create something impressionistic that nobody understands? ¡°Before a major surgery, I also prefer to use drawings to express the surgical plan. Compared to text, drawings are particularly straightforward.¡± Yang Ping felt he had found a kindred spirit. Expressing surgical plans through drawings not only requires a high level of drawing skill but also the ability to draw quickly. Otherwise, it would be useless if the drawing took days to complete. ¡°Drawing is used more especially in our plastic surgery department. Some things that cannot be expressed with text can be made crystal clear with a picture. Like this piece of skin graft, thousands of words in text might not be able to explain it clearly, but a picture can easily demonstrate the surgery. I have looked at the pre-operative tests of this patient, and there are no contraindications. The surgery can be arranged anytime if there are no other problems, and I will do my best.¡± Dr. Ivan put away the scroll, afraid of delaying everyone¡¯s work. ¡°Then let¡¯s arrange it for tomorrow!¡± Yang Ping decided on the surgery time. Zhang Lin immediately responded. This patient was referred by his consultation, and their medical team was responsible. ¡°Professor Yang, the director of plastic surgery, Director Lan is looking for you. He¡¯s waiting outside.¡± An intern told Yang Ping. Early in the morning, before the shift change, Yang Ping immediately went out and saw that Director Lan was standing in the corridor. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Director Lan immediately came forward, lowering his voice to say: ¡°Can I talk to you for a moment?¡± Yang Ping led him to his office, Director Lan immediately said: ¡°Professor Yang, Teacher Sun¡¯s surgery, can I be Dr. Ivan¡¯s assistant? I am specialized in plastic surgery, so I think I would be more suitable as his assistant.¡± In fact, Yang Ping also thought this way, but he hadn¡¯t expected that Director Lan would be more anxious than him, hurrying over early in the morning to volunteer for the job. ¡°I was just about to call you. How about you and Director Chi go on stage? Director Chi as first assistant, you as second assistant?¡± Yang Ping arranged it this way for his own reasons. The first phase of the surgery was skin grafting, a specialized surgery for the burn department. The patient was transferred from the burn department. Director Lan was a little anxious and requested: ¡°Could I be the first assistant for a few minutes?¡± ¡°A few minutes?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t understand what Director Lan was up to. Director Lan said with some embarrassment: ¡°Professor Yang, let me be frank, I specifically informed the Publicity Department, they will send someone to take photos and videos that day. Such an historic moment must be recorded. I have no other intentions, I just want to share the limelight of this surgery, to promote our department. Let me be clear, it¡¯s not marketing, it¡¯s reasonable and legitimate promotion, all for the sake of the patients. You see, our current level is much better than those wild plastic surgery hospitals that rent buildings to start their businesses, but patients are unaware of this and all go to those hospitals. If our promotional level could go up a notch, we might be able to attract more patients here, benefitting more patients in the process. Don¡¯t you think so?¡± This guy indeed planned to use Ivan¡¯s reputation to make something happen. Yang Ping was slightly displeased. However, they were colleagues in the same hospital. Even if he does not agree with his view, as long as he does not violate the law and the conscience of being a doctor, there is no harm in helping him. ¡°Rest assured, I know my own limits. Dean Xia is overseeing things; I won¡¯t do anything out of line,¡± Director Lan nearly pleaded. ¡°Besides, with Ivan¡¯s visit, I really want to learn from him. Such a well-known expert, how could I let him go without gaining something? I am being truthful. In this industry, if you don¡¯t show some uniqueness, people don¡¯t recognize you. No matter how good Xiehe Hospital and Eight Great Sites are, their annual surgery number probably can¡¯t match private hospitals that constantly advertise. It¡¯s the simple fact that the more patients we have, the more people we can serve with our techniques,¡± Director Lan almost pleaded. Yang Ping gestured for him to stop: ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear your theories, nor do I have the time to listen. Whatever you want to do, I don¡¯t care, but be sure to know your limits.¡± ¡°Okay! So, it¡¯s settled. A few minutes as first assistant, I want a shot,¡± Director Lan requested again. Yang Ping thought for a moment: ¡°You specialize in plastic surgery, which makes you even more professional than Director Chi. So, you will be the first assistant, Director Chi will be the second. Today you should interact with Ivan, the surgery is scheduled for tomorrow.¡± ¡°Great! I should tell you, Professor Yang, I am not like what the hospital rumors say. I just want to use other people¡¯s concepts to...¡± Director Lan wanted to say something to clear his name. His reputation was well-known around the hospital. Chapter 776 - 776 694 Replication ?Chapter 776: Chapter 694: Replication Chapter 776: Chapter 694: Replication PS: I am still revising, check again tomorrow morning. Yang Ping¡¯s drawing is getting faster and faster. Due to his frequent practice, he could practically draw a human anatomy diagram with his eyes shut. Any skill related task, as long as one is not dim-witted and is committed to learning, investing a large amount of time, there is nothing one cannot learn. Not only is Yang Ping not dim-witted, but his mind is also very effective. The system generously provides him with an enormous amount of study time, allowing him to refine any skill to a proficient level. After drawing fourteen diagrams in a continuous sequence with a whiteboard marker, Yang Ping said: ¡°That¡¯s all for today. Members of Teacher Sun¡¯s surgical team should take some time to learn from Dr. Ivan and engage in some advance planning discussions. The rest of you are free to do as you wish. Dr. Ivan, do you have anything to add?¡± Dr. Ivan slowly twisted his stiff neck and shook his head: ¡°No more.¡± Song Zimo took note of Ivan¡¯s facial expression, immediately understanding that the professor¡¯s unintended act had once again hurt a colleague¡¯s feelings. He sighed inwardly, knowing that this would not be the first time, nor the last. Recalling how many times he had been hammered by the professor, finally leading to his current calmness. Song Zimo fully believed that the professor had absolutely no malicious intent. He simply wanted to help Ivan complete his surgical interpretation within fifteen minutes, and the drawings on the whiteboard were merely routine standards. ¡°You can sit down now since the shift has ended.¡± The considerate August helped his Russian comrade to sit and rest while Robert brought over a cup of warm water. Everyone present was experienced and knew what was going on. ¡°Thank you!¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome. Long live friendship.¡± Ivan¡¯s throat felt parched. It was the first time he¡¯d ever met someone who had a higher rank in medical illustration than him. From his childhood, he had undergone strict training in professional painting, during his medical studies, he had received rigorous medical illustration training under the guidance of his teacher. He was far superior to many professional medical illustrators. In terms of medical illustration, he was professional and top tier. At this time, Director Chi from the burn department also arrived. Song Zimo had already notified him to join Director Lan on stage as an assistant. Director Chi didn¡¯t have much interest in Ivan, he was here for Yang Ping. He was determined to learn Yang Ping¡¯s skin augmentation technique, and he had no interest in Ivan or anything related to cosmetic surgery. Thus, when Director Lan was discussing with him about assisting, he immediately agreed without hesitation. It didn¡¯t matter to him what role he plays in assisting, whether he¡¯ll have to go first or last. His idols were Director Gao and Duan bald, and he hoped that Yang Ping would teach him the skin grafting technique. Teacher Sun¡¯s surgical team was put together temporarily. The chief surgeon and the assistants needed to have sufficient communication, so Ivan, Director Lan, Director Chi, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang needed to sit down and communicate well in order to cooperate smoothly during the surgery. The patient¡¯s body position during the surgery, the order of the grafting, post-operative bandaging etc., were all the key points of the communication, especially post-operative bandaging. Ivan had his own methods. Bandaging after a full body graft requires careful skills. It needs to apply pressure to ensure that the skin graft adheres to the base to receive its nutritional supply, while also not affecting functions such as breathing. The time spent on communicating lasted a full three hours. The photographer arranged by Director Lan also took photos for three straight hours from different angles, capturing high-definition pictures displaying Director Lan and Dr. Ivan seriously discussing the surgery and receiving personal guidance from Dr. Ivan. These photos were precious assets. Once Ivan leaves China, these photos would serve as evidence proving that Director Lan was Dr. Ivan¡¯s personal disciple. Of course, this was only the first step in Director Lan¡¯s plan. He was playing a long game. ¡ª Yang Ping sat in his office, recalling Ivan¡¯s surgical plan in his mind. Indeed, his aesthetic sense was very high, and every detail of the surgery was guided by both medical knowledge and aesthetics. Yan Ping lacked aesthetic proficiency. Which isn¡¯t surprising, as he typically thought about how to rescue patients from death or how to alleviate their pain, not about how to make people look more attractive. As he recalled the details, he drew them on A4 paper, duplicating Ivan¡¯s drawings. During this morning¡¯s shift handover, he merely used his own style to express Ivan¡¯s surgery on the whiteboard. Now, he wanted to completely reproduce Ivan¡¯s drawings, in order to learn from Ivan¡¯s strong points. Only by learning from each other can one progress, learning has always been an open process, and being closed off can only lead to regression. After Ivan finished communicating with his assistants, he was led to Yan Ping¡¯s office by the enthusiastic August and Robert. ¡°Professor, you work so swiftly, you¡¯ve drawn another dozen or so diagrams?¡± Robert picked up the drawings. Ivan also picked up a sheet, wasn¡¯t this a miniaturized version of his schematic? On closer inspection, it was indeed a miniaturized version of his schematic. Every detail, every annotation, was exactly the same. This meant that based on this morning¡¯s memory, Yang Ping was able to completely duplicate his fourteen drawings. How could this be possible? Chapter 777 - 777 695 Its Really Upsetting ?Chapter 777: Chapter 695: It¡¯s Really Upsetting Chapter 777: Chapter 695: It¡¯s Really Upsetting After making sufficient preoperative preparations, Teacher Sun was wheeled into the operating room at eight o¡¯clock the next day. This is Dr. Ivan¡¯s first surgery in China, and it¡¯s also his first time performing a surgical procedure without his own scrub clothes and slippers, not using his own exclusive surgical instruments, and even without his personal operating room nurse. Of course, this is something Ivan is willing to do, as he needs help from Yang Ping in hoping for Yang Ping to participate in his surgery and perform the orthopedic correction part. The case for which he is to be the chief surgeon soon, if the orthopedic correction part is to be done at its best, only Yang Ping can be called in as the chief surgeon. At the same time, Ivan hoped to learn Yang Ping¡¯s orthopedic correction techniques and also hoped to acquire Yang Ping¡¯s skin expansion technology. In short, for Ivan, if a voluntary surgery can be exchanged for these precious things, he is very willing. Ivan put on the scrub suit of Sanbo Hospital, and Yang Ping accompanied him to the operating room. By then, many people had already come to the operating room. In addition to the doctors from the Comprehensive Surgery Department, Directors Lan and Chi were also in place early. A surgery performed by a top world master is naturally a spectacle that many people want to witness, but to maintain strict sterile conditions the number of people allowed in the operating room is limited, and most people can only watch via video in the teaching room. Of course, the anesthesiologist is Liang Fatty. For this world-class master surgeons, the only one in Sanbo Hospital who could handle the case is Liang Fatty who often travels with Yang Ping. Even when facing world master Ivan, Liang Fatty¡¯s eternal cross-legged posture does not change, does not deviate, and as always, he wears pants ten centimeters above the ankle, capris, which is his favorite. This time the surgical nurse is Zhou Can, the patrolling nurse is Xiao Su, the first assistant is Director Lan, the second assistant is Director Chi, and Yang Ping and Song Zimo are also on stage. Song Zimo is the third assistant, and Yang Ping purely serves as the stand, he wears the surgical gown and watches the surgery from the side. After Teacher Sun was put under general anesthesia, Dr. Ivan personally positioned the body and sterilized and laid the covers. Today, without his own assistant, Ivan had to personally handle every detail. He is a perfectionist, or in terms of surgery, he is obsessive-compulsive, a maniac. Teacher Sun¡¯s X-ray, photos from various angles are hung on the viewing light, and various parameters are marked on the photos. The electronic screen specifically used for displaying medical records and image photos in the operating room was also pulled to the best angle. The control panel of the screen was sealed with a transparent sterile protective film, and during the operation, Ivan could operate the screen at any time to call up any picture he wanted to see. After Ivan sterilized, he began to lay the covers. After laying the last large cover, he personally smoothed out a wrinkle in a sterile cover, not allowing a single wrinkle to exist, making Directors Lan and Chi sweat from watching. The first step of the surgery is to replace the facial scars with normal skin. Ivan intends to completely cut off the entire facial scarred skin, and then replace it with a piece of normal healthy skin in the same piece. This requires superb skills, the complete separation of a whole piece of facial skin requires very high knife skills; the size of the transplant skin graft should be just right to fit the face; after suturing, in order to enable the skin graft to obtain sufficient nutrition from the soft tissue bed, the skin graft and the bed must fit perfectly. Some places use pressure dressing, and some places require stacked pressure, this kind of dressing technique is also very complex and skillful. In short, letting Ivan, a top world-class master to do this surgery, the details of the surgery will be very complex. The theoretical deduction of the operation is one thing, and the time operation in the operation is another thing. Therefore, facing such complex surgery, Directors Lan and Chi feel immense pressure. After preoperative checks are completed, Dr. Ivan once again inspects the sterile covers. Seeing no annoying wrinkles, he accepts the scalpel from surgical nurse Zhou Can. Ivan stared at Teacher Sun¡¯s face for about tens of seconds, then began to cut the skin with the sharp scalpel, beginning from the hairline of the forehead. Of course, this was the theoretical hairline, not the actual hairline, in fact, Teacher Sun, due to the formation of a large number of scars, no longer has any hair, let alone a normal hairline. From the midpoint of the forehead hairline, in a clockwise direction, to the front of the right ear, continue downward along the contour of the ear to the face, to the junction of the lower jaw and neck, to the midpoint of the lower jaw neck junction line. If the entire face is viewed as a clock, the starting point can be regarded as the 12 o¡¯clock direction, and the midpoint of the lower jaw and the neck junction can be considered the 6 o¡¯clock direction. Ivan¡¯s knife continues slowly, without pause or repetition, crossing the 6 o¡¯clock direction and continuing to the front of the left ear, then along the side hairline back to the midpoint of the forehead hairline. The whole face is encircled by this round. At this time, the assistant should help lift the corner of the skin, also the scarred skin at the 12 o¡¯clock position, at the forehead¡¯s midpoint, and then hand this lifted corner to Ivan. Director Lan obviously could not keep up with Ivan¡¯s rhythm. The difference in surgical level between him and Ivan is not a bit, but the difference between a world champion and a city-level athlete, a world of difference. If he were to compare his boxing level, it would probably be equivalent to the difference between prime Tyson and a main player of the Nandu Province G City boxing team. ¡°Do not rush, be gentle and precise, you absolutely cannot make a mistake, not even a small mistake.¡± Ivan said slowly, in a tone of a preacher. Because Director Lan is lean and tall, he is somewhat used to hunching back when performing surgery. ¡°Don¡¯t hunch your back; frankly speaking, I feel uncomfortable seeing any irregular movements during surgery.¡± Ivan said to Director Lan, but the operation didn¡¯t stop. He held onto a corner of the skin himself and the sharp scalpel began to peel off the scarred skin, cutting between the scar and the tissue bed. This kind of scar is completely different from normal skin. Between normal skin and the subcutaneous tissue, and between the subcutaneous tissue and the deep fascia exist natural anatomical gaps, so the anatomical layers are distinct, but the scar will adhere widely, and the adhesions eradicate these natural anatomical layers. Therefore, there is only a theoretical layer between these scars and the base, not a natural anatomical layer. However, Ivan knows where their theoretical layers are, where the base needs to be thinner, where the base needs to be thicker, he knows them all by heart. Director Lan couldn¡¯t participate much and essentially became a close-up observer. So, with the sharpness of the scalpel for stripping, Ivan coagulated the blood while stripping, and an entire piece of scarred facial skin was completely cut off by Ivan. The complete facial skin not only included the forehead, both sides of the face, the jaw, but surprisingly also included the upper and lower eyelids, nose, upper and lower lips, even narrow strips of skin inside the nostrils were included, there was no absence anywhere, and no cuts anywhere. Teacher Sun¡¯s entire facial skin was peeled off, exposing the bloody soft tissue base, and the entire face became bloody. Whether it was Director Lan and Director Chi at the operating table, or spectators watching the video in the teaching room, the sight of this world-leading cosmetic surgery technique left them deeply stunned. It was like changing an entire piece of facial skin, tearing off one part and putting on another, like the skin masks on TV. Probably in this world, apart from Ivan, no one could replace the entire facial skin in one piece like this. World-leading plastic surgery techniques are indeed shocking! ¡°Sir, as I said, don¡¯t hunch over, it would make me uncomfortable and affect my mood.¡± Ivan saw Director Lan hunching over again and said a bit angrily. ¡°Sorry, Dr. Ivan, Director Lan didn¡¯t do it on purpose. He¡¯s always like this, his spine is already fixed, in other words, his thoracic spine is a bit protruded,¡± Director Chi hurriedly explained. Dr. Ivan had already mentioned this twice. Director Lan felt very embarrassed. He was 1.84 meters tall and was rather thin. He had a slight hunchback since high school. Now, even if he wanted to stand straight, he couldn¡¯t. Still, Director Lan tried to puff out his chest consciously. He felt very wronged inside. Was this Russian man obsessed with it? Why was he always dissatisfied with his hump? ¡°All right, I forgive you! Any splicing facial graft will leave scars, even the faintest scars are unacceptable to people. The unavoidable scars can only be left in hidden places,¡± said Dr. Ivan. He usually didn¡¯t talk during surgery, but today was different. His assistant was an absolute beginner, so he had to make sure the beginner understood the meaning of each step, otherwise, it could easily lead to mistakes. If it wasn¡¯t for needing something from Professor Yang, Ivan would absolutely not tolerate such a beginner assistant. ¡°Bring me the head-mounted microscope!¡± Ivan raised his head, moving it out of the surgical area, and Xu Zhiliang beneath the table helped Ivan put on the head-mounted microscope. With the microscope on, Ivan stopped paying attention to Director Lan¡¯s hump and started to completely stop the bleeding on the exposed face using bipolar electrocoagulation. Any bleeding point could possibly form a blood clot. The blood clot could separate the transplanted skin flap from the tissue base, and the toxins produced by the blood clot could severely affect the blood supply to the skin flap, so the bleeding of the skin graft base must be completely stopped. After he finished stopping the bleeding, Ivan put down the bipolar electrocoagulation. He let Xu Zhiliang help him take off the microscope. ¡°We have completed the first step of facial skin grafting. Next, we¡¯ll create a perfectly fitting skin flap. It¡¯s extremely difficult to create a complete skin flap in one go. This requires superior technique. Don¡¯t move around. Let me finish everything,¡± Ivan explained the next step of the operation again. ¡°My god, it¡¯s you again! The two awful moles on your forehead bother me. Both are on the left side, it¡¯s so annoying!¡± When Ivan took off the microscope, he noticed the two moles on Director Lan¡¯s forehead. Upon hearing Ivan¡¯s complaint, Director Chi immediately turned to look at Director Lan beside him. Sure enough, there were two moles on his forehead, both on the left side, and there was nothing on the right side of the forehead. Director Lan was criticized by Ivan again and didn¡¯t know whether to laugh or cry. The first criticism said he was hunchbacked, which was acceptable because at least it could be classified as irregular operating posture. But now, there were two moles on the left side of his forehead. Was this wrong? Was this also wrong? Yang Ping sat beside them to rest. Seeing Ivan act this way, she almost laughed. Poor obsessive-compulsive disorder patient! Yang Ping was very curious, did his assistant not have any moles on the face, or were the moles symmetrical? ¡°Remember! The spacing of the instruments should be equal!¡± While Ivan was waiting for the skin flap to be brought to the operating table, he saw the instruments that Zhou Can had arranged, immediately walked over, adjusted the spacing of the instruments, and arranged them in a straight line with equal distances in between. For Ivan, it was so cruel not to have his own assistant, not to have his own surgical nurse, not to wear his own scrubs, not to wear his own slippers. In order to obtain Yang Ping¡¯s technique, Dr. Ivan had to make great sacrifices. Chapter 778 - 778 696 Im Sorry Its My Fault ?Chapter 778: Chapter 696: I¡¯m Sorry, It¡¯s My Fault! Chapter 778: Chapter 696: I¡¯m Sorry, It¡¯s My Fault! ¡°Can I take out the skin graft now?¡± Li Guodong asked as he stood by the sterile case that stored the skin grafts, ready to provide grafts of various sizes for the surgery. ¡°Okay! Bring it out, in a rectangle, 30 by 40 cm, and put it on a flat surface.¡± Dr. Ivan specified the area of the skin graft required. Xu Zhiliang helped him open the sterile case. Li Guodong, with sterile gloves on, measured with a sterile ruler and then cut a 30 by 40 cm skin graft with scissors and gave it to Song Zimo. Song Zimo comfortably laid out the skin graft on a sterile table, cushioned by a smooth, flat slab underneath. ¡°I need a short break!¡± Dr. Ivan was slightly tired, not from the surgery, but from seeing the two moles on his assistant¡¯s forehead. He didn¡¯t want to look at the despicable moles on his assistant¡¯s forehead, which were bothering him. If this assistant were a member of his team, he would absolutely not tolerate this. He would insist that the assistant remove these loathsome moles, no compromises allowed. Yang Ping grabbed the scalpel and started trimming the skin graft. The rounded knife trimmed the edges, while the scalpel cut out some necessary holes. ¡°Professor?¡± Song Zimo didn¡¯t know what Yang Ping was doing. ¡°Look, is it alright?¡± Yang Ping finished trimming and tossed the excess material into a curved dish. Song Zimo really couldn¡¯t tell whether it¡¯s alright or not; after all, he had never seen Yang Ping perform a plastic surgery before. ¡°Move aside, I¡¯ll trim the graft.¡± Dr. Ivan rested for a few minutes and opened his eyes. Song Zimo handed the graft, along with the slab underneath, to Dr. Ivan, who saw that it had already been trimmed and was no longer an original rectangular piece. ¡°Who told you to trim the graft?¡± Dr. Ivan was slightly irritated but promptly realized he was being too harsh. He slowly said, ¡°Get another 30 by 40 cm rectangle piece of skin graft. You guys are so extravagant, wasting such a nice piece of graft.¡± The skill required for this graft trimming was very high, extremely high. Perhaps only Dr. Ivan could accomplish it. He had to adjust an entire piece of graft to perfectly fit over the now skinless face, whether it was the craft¡¯s facial, forehead, eyelids, upper and lower lips, or nasal septum. Every part had to fit together seamlessly without any overlaps or gaps. Any misalignment would lead to a severe problem. ¡°Let¡¯s give it a try! I think it should work.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to waste materials. Dr. Ivan held the graft in his hand and looked at it, then at Teacher Sun¡¯s skinless face. After a full three minutes, he made a judgment. This was not a casual job, this graft was really suitable. Although it seemed visually perfect, common sense told Ivan this wasn¡¯t possible. No matter how much time was given, it wouldn¡¯t be possible to trim such an accurate piece of skin graft. For the first time, Ivan doubted his own judgment. He questioned the accuracy of his judgment as there was no way this piece of graft could possibly fit. The graft, which perfectly molded to the entire face, was complex. Apart from Ivan, no one else could have managed it. This was because ensuring the surrounding contour of the graft was seamless, while making sure all the various shaped holes fit perfectly, was incredibly difficult. Nonetheless, Ivan decided to give it a try. Whether it worked or not, it was worth a shot. Ivan carefully lifted the skin graft from the plate and then attached it to the exposed face. Its fit was just right, without any excess or shortage, even the thickness of the graft was perfectly suitable. How is this possible? Ivan didn¡¯t believe it was true, as he¡¯d always believed that only he had such exceptional abilities. ¡°Dr. Ivan, is it a good fit? I fear we might lose time, I just thought I¡¯d help a little in trimming it up. If it¡¯s not okay, you can just create a new graft. We have enough skin, so we don¡¯t have to worry about wasting.¡± Yang Ping thought Ivan was dissatisfied. ¡°It fits very well, let¡¯s use this one.¡± Ivan nodded and said with a bitter smile that even if he¡¯d done the trimming himself, the result wouldn¡¯t be any better. Was it sheer luck or did Yang Ping truly possess skills on par with his? Ivan didn¡¯t dare to think about it. But the reality was right in front of him, the casually trimmed graft was perfect, the tension of the skin was just right, and there was not a bit of excess. Even the perpetually critical Ivan found the facial graft satisfying and the discomfort induced by the two moles on the assistant¡¯s forehead vanished entirely. Well, the surgery must continue. Ivan stopped overthinking and carried on with the surgery. Next, Ivan was to suture the facial skin. He would personally complete each stitch, achieving perfection in every one. Suturing in plastic surgery is indeed a skilled task. Plastic surgeons often use cosmetic suturing to minimize scarring. Ivan meticulously performed each stitch, applying different cosmetic suturing techniques to different areas. Many of the suturing techniques were either his innovations or his own adaptations. Director Lan was totally dazzled watching from the side. The majority of suturing techniques were completely new to him. As the chief physician of the plastic surgery department, Director Lan felt utterly ignorant at this moment. Once the suturing was finished, it was time for the final step: dressing the wound. Dressing is another technical task. Sterile elastic bandages and regular bandages were used together, wrapped and redirected in various ways to pressurize the areas that needed it. The pressure was evenly distributed perpendicular to the skin graft, thereby allowing the graft to adhere well to the base without causing slippage. Slippage could not only result in poor blood circulation in the skin graft but could also cause misalignment. The skin graft for the skin grafting operation has no blood vessel connections to the base tissues. Its blood supply relies on the exudation from the base. Therefore, poor adhesion could result in the inability of the exudate to reach or seep into the skin graft, hence the need for post-operative pressure application. However, for the skin graft on the eyelid, the method of applying pressure through dressing cannot be used, as it would cause pressure on the eyeball. Therefore, a special type of mound dressing is needed to apply pressure to the skin graft without exerting any pressure on the eyeball. Director Lan sighed. The complexity of just this dressing technique was enough for him to study for a long time, let alone the many complicated suturing techniques he had just witnessed, or the ability to coordinate the entire surgical procedure. For example, the skin graft implanted in the eyelid required a mound dressing for pressure application. Therefore, sutures needed to be left in place for bundling. In order to hide the tiny scars from the sutures, Ivan placed the lower suturing point in the area where double eyelid surgery would be performed in the future, and used a horizontal suture. The pressure anchor point for the upper part was set in the future eyebrow transplantation area. This way, there would be no traces of any scars left after all the surgeries were done. A world master is indeed a world master! Those who paid him millions to tens of millions of US dollars to perform surgery on them definitely got their money¡¯s worth. Value for money. The face of Teacher Sun would surely be restored to normal under Ivan¡¯s skillful hands, making it difficult for anyone to tell that he had ever undergone plastic surgery. After the facial dressing was finished, Ivan tied a nice finishing knot. Director Lan¡¯s scissors clicked once, cutting off the excess end of the bandage. ¡°Symmetry!¡± Ivan said sternly. He took the scissors himself, trimmed the excess bandage end left just now, and made the two ends of the bandage appear absolutely symmetrical to the naked eye. ¡°The facial plastic surgery is only the first step. Most of the future surgeries will revolve around facial plastic surgery. In the second step, we need to fill some parts of the face with fat to make it look full and three-dimensional. In the third step, we need to shape the nasolabial fold, form double eyelids, and implant eyelashes. Only in the fourth step will we transplant the scalp and hair. In the fifth step, we need to adjust the facial muscles to make his expressions appear normal. I will be the chief surgeon for these surgeries, and when the last surgery is over, you will definitely be in awe of a doctor¡¯s miraculous hands,¡± Ivan said with a sense of achievement. ¡°Let¡¯s take a break. Next, we¡¯re going to replace all the scars on his body with normal skin. Compared to facial skin grafting, this step is very simple. It¡¯s just skin grafting, while facial skin grafting is equivalent to giving him a new normal face,¡± Ivan said slowly. In keeping with his tone of speaking, Ivan never rushed his surgeries. He followed the principle that slow and steady produces fine work. His movements were not fast, but they appeared very stable because there were no repeated or unnecessary movements throughout the surgery. Thus, even though his movements seemed slow, the surgery took a very short time. ¡°Damn, your left face is larger than the right?¡± Ivan looked up at his assistant again, feeling distressed once more. Although Director Lan was wearing a mask, Ivan was still able to judge the asymmetry between the left and right sides of his face from the visible part of his skin. ¡°I had torticollis as a child, which resulted in facial asymmetry. I¡¯m sorry, so very sorry,¡± Director Lan explained apologetically. Ivan was also helpless: ¡°I¡¯m sorry, it¡¯s my problem, not yours. I can¡¯t tolerate imperfection, asymmetry or carelessness. I didn¡¯t mean to. But you really make me uncomfortable.¡± ¡°Is the skin graft still okay?¡± Yang Ping reminded him, helping to divert his attention. Looking at the patient¡¯s face, which had already been dressed, and remembering that perfect piece of skin graft, Ivan felt instantly healed. ¡°Perfect! It¡¯s like a great medicine.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sir, could you please not stand opposite me, could you swap places with the second assistant? That way, I¡¯ll feel a bit better.¡± Ivan glanced at the second assistant, Director Chi. At least he didn¡¯t have a mole on his forehead, there was no noticeable asymmetry between the two sides of his face and ears, and he wasn¡¯t hunchbacked. Chapter 779 - 779 697 This is also a ruthless person ?Chapter 779: Chapter 697: This is also a ruthless person Chapter 779: Chapter 697: This is also a ruthless person ¡°After a break, the operation continued. The skin grafting surgeries on other parts of the body seemed much simpler, requiring adjusting positions and preparing surgical drapes multiple times. Aside from the scalp, Ivan replaced all of Teacher Sun¡¯s scarred skin at once, including the fingers and toes. The operation was massive and lasted for seven hours, finally ending at three in the afternoon. There were several reasons to delay the scalp surgery. During facial skin transplantation, the surrounding skin needs to be sutured firmly in place. If the scalp were included in this transplantation, it would be impossible to secure the face skin. Secondly, the scalp needs to be regrown, yielding a piece of skin that contains hair follicles. After the surgery, Teacher Sun looked like a mummy, his body tightly wrapped in bandages. The process of wrapping the bandages was sophisticated, with a systematic method. Director Lan had been fully immersed during the operation, without any distractions, but he did not grasp Ivan¡¯s bandaging method. Once Ivan had taken off his surgical gown, he finally had a chance to ask a pressing question. ¡°Professor Yang, may I ask a question?¡± Ivan asked. ¡°Go ahead, ask as many as you want.¡± Yang Ping knew what he wanted to ask ¨C how he managed to shape skin perfectly at once. This level of skill was world-class; it wasn¡¯t something that just anybody could do. ¡°Have you studied plastic surgery? How can you achieve a perfect fit on the face with a single trimming?¡± Ivan asked directly. The highest skill in skin graft preparation is to shape face skin perfectly at once. This skill could not possibly be self-taught, as there were many tricks involved. Ivan¡¯s old teacher had masterful cutting skills, needing only a sharp scalpel and scissors to control the skin thickness and shape at will. The teacher passed this skill onto Ivan, who then spent a full ten years truly mastering it. In response to Ivan¡¯s question, Yang Ping dodged: ¡°I didn¡¯t learn from anyone, just attended some paper-cutting classes in middle school.¡± This answer was half true, half deceptive. In fact, Yang Ping¡¯s skin grafting technique was derived from paper-cutting art. The Chinese folk art of paper-cutting was extraordinary. Yang Ping drew inspiration from traditional paper-cutting art. After mastering it, he combined it with skin graft preparation, and after countless practices, he naturally gained mastery of it. ¡°Paper cutting?¡± Ivan was puzzled, as he was unfamiliar with this art form. ¡°Yes, paper cutting! It¡¯s a Chinese folk art.¡± Yang Ping nodded in confirmation. ¡°But how are you able to be so accurate simply by estimating? Even though I¡¯m not familiar with paper-cutting, I know that such formidable estimation skills in surgery cannot simply be the result of a folk art. They must be honed over time.¡± ¡°Estimation comes with practice. Many surgeries demand high precision, such as spine correction-surgery, how to cut the bone, how much to cut, we relied on machines initially, but after accumulating enough surgeries, direct estimation can be even more accurate than machines.¡± Yang Ping felt that this Russian was quite persistent, and continued to dodge. Ivan had no choice but to believe. If he didn¡¯t believe what Yang Ping said, then what? could a doctor who doesn¡¯t perform plastic surgery cut the face skin perfectly on his first try at a world-class level? Besides himself, Ivan could not think of a second person capable of doing this. This is why Ivan could use a variety of techniques such as skin grafting, bone grinding, 3D cartilage printing technology, fat and muscle filling to perform a ¡°face transplant¡± surgery. To achieve the same surgical results as Ivan, other surgeons would have to resort to the ¡°allogeneic facial transplantation¡± technique, but due to graft rejection and the lack of donors, the technique is currently difficult to apply. Teacher Sun, who looked like a mummy, was transferred to a trolley and soon returned to the ward from the operating room. ¡°This gentleman¡¯s surgery will require many procedures, and I will be the chief surgeon throughout. Professor Yang mentioned before that I could provide help to the Department of Plastic Surgery. Now I have some free time and will stay in China for a while. Professor Yang, you can arrange it.¡± Ivan kept Yang Ping¡¯s words in mind. Ivan was quite clear about the principle of equivalent exchange. If he wanted to acquire Yang Ping¡¯s orthopedic corrective surgery technique and the skill of skin expansion outside the body, he had to sincerely give back. Yang Ping called over Director Lan who was a bit nervous. He didn¡¯t dare to approach Ivan. ¡°Dr. Ivan, this is Director Lan from our Department of Plastic Surgery. he will be responsible for the arrangements. He is very eager to learn from you during this time, and we hope you can take him as a student.¡± Ivan frowned, ¡°My God, not you again. Can we change to someone else? I feel extremely uncomfortable seeing him. If he takes off his mask, and I see his asymmetric face every day, with those two moles on one side of his forehead, I would be very distressed. Professor Yang, you cannot understand this anguish.¡± Ivan held his forehead and refused to look at Director Lan directly. ¡°Dr. Ivan, I can always wear a mask to cover my face completely, and then have these two moles removed.¡± Director Lan wore a resigned look upon hearing Yang Ping fighting for his opportunity. ¡°No, even if the two moles are removed, the incision would linger for at least 5 days, and the scar would persist for several months. You have already made a deep impression on me that I cannot erase.¡± Ivan continued to turn his head, refusing to look at Director Lan. ¡°I have a way, Dr. Ivan, I promise to make you feel comfortable seeing me. I promise.¡± Of course, Director Lan wouldn¡¯t give up on this golden opportunity. ¡°If you can make me comfortable, I¡¯d be willing to help you. If you can¡¯t, I really can¡¯t do anything.¡± Ivan couldn¡¯t reject Yang Ping, but neither could he overcome his psychological distress. Director Lan patted Song Zimo¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Can I have a word?¡± Song Zimo was bewildered as Director Lan took him to the empty operating room next door. ¡°Get some local anesthesia and a wound cleaning kit, help me remove these two moles, and then cut two incisions mirrored on the right side of the forehead. Remember! The incisions must be symmetrical to the midline of the forehead, and the depth, direction and length of the incisions must also be symmetrical. Do it now and use cosmetic sutures.¡± Director Lan was in a hurry¡ªhe didn¡¯t know how long Ivan was going to stay, and he needed to seize every opportunity he got. ¡°Are you sure you want to do it now?¡± ¡°Yes, right now!¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°Sure!¡± Song Zimo was speechless. In order to make the forehead symmetrical, Director Lan was willing to remove two moles and even create two mirrored incisions on the opposite side. This man sure was relentless. After rummaging around a bit with the help of Liang Fatty, Director Lan quickly placed a 10ml lidocaine, a 10ml saline water and a wound cleaning kit in front of Song Zimo. ¡°Find someone to assist you, and get started.¡± Director Lan lay on the operating table himself, ready to face whatever was coming. ¡°Should we just... should we perform a pathology test after we remove them?¡± Song Zimo asked out of habit. ¡°Forget it, these are moles that I¡¯ve had since I was young. Hurry up and start. Once you cover the incisions with dressings, make them symmetrical to the forehead midline.¡± For his goal, Director Lan had risked it all. Who could blame him for dealing with such a strange character? Chapter 780 - 780 698 The Most Expensive Registration ?Chapter 780: Chapter 698: The Most Expensive Registration Chapter 780: Chapter 698: The Most Expensive Registration When Director Lan appeared in Ivan¡¯s sight again, Ivan raised his eyebrows. He saw two symmetrical patches on his forehead, and his face revealed a wry smile. The patches couldn¡¯t hide the asymmetrical image ingrained in his memory. Director Lan tore off the patches, revealing symmetrical incisions on his forehead ¨C making Ivan feel much more comfortable. He really is a tough man! Seeing these symmetrical incisions, Yang Ping understood a bit of Director Lan¡¯s determination. He admired his spirit and identified him as a man of action. He has deliberately scarred his own forehead. I can¡¯t refuse to help him. ¡°Dr. Ivan, do you feel better now?¡± Yang Ping asked Ivan with a smile. Ivan nodded, ¡°Dr. Lan, I accept your arrangement. I¡¯m probably going to stay here for a month. If you are willing, I¡¯ll share some basic knowledge of plastic surgery with you. You can use the pretext of studying with me or being directly supervised by me. Moreover, I can help with outpatient services, but only under one condition ¨C I will only see two patients per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This cannot exceed in any circumstances, and I will be on duty only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, meaning only three days a week. All patients must have appointments, I won¡¯t accept any walk-ins. If you agree, you can arrange my work now; otherwise, I can only say I¡¯m sorry.¡± To exchange skills with Yang Ping, Ivan had made big concessions. After his moment of fame, he had never worked outpatient services in any hospital because he didn¡¯t need to do that. If his patients lined up for surgery, it would be a very long line. Without hesitation, Director Lan gave a firm nod. In this way, the deal was done. Seeing two patients a day, six patients a week, and only a few more than twenty patients a month, Director Lan calculated in his heart. As long as Ivan agrees to be physically present in the outpatient department, whether folk actually see patients or not is of no importance. Director Lan immediately called his department assistant to contact the Publicity Department, with the news being released on the hospital¡¯s official website and WeChat public account for public appointment scheduling. ¡ª Dr. Ivan undertakes an outpatient service in Sanbo Hospital, Dr. Ivan is supervising Director Lan Shijun at Sanbo Hospital, Dr. Ivan will lead Director Lan Shijun to complete a ¡°face swap¡± surgery at Sanbo Hospital. The power of online communication is terrifying. As soon as the news was out, it immediately caused a sensation. ¡°Ninety-nine percent burns all over the body, face severely traumatized by burns, successfully had a face swap at Sanbo Hospital.¡± ¡°Free reception for second plastic surgery patients, whether dissatisfied with the previous surgery or failure of plastic surgery, here you can get a perfect solution.¡± ¡°The world¡¯s first Ivan comes to China, free consultation.¡± ¡°The world¡¯s leading plastic surgery master receives disciples in China¡ª¡± Ordinary people may not know about Ivan, but a simple search can easily reveal that he is the top plastic surgeon in the world, bar none. As the news spread, regardless of whether they were able to register online, many people immediately rushed to Sanbo Hospital. Hotels near Sanbo Hospital quickly filled up. There were no vacancies, no available rooms. Patients from around the country were anxious, hoping to be diagnosed by the master. Some hoped to become an artificial beauty, making a living off their looks from there on. Some had failed breast augmentation, one big and one small, needed to redo it. Some had face and nose discordance after nasal augmentation and needed to redo the rhinoplasty. Some thought their lips were not sexy enough, and needed to be fuller and sexier. Some were dissatisfied with their buttocks. Some wanted liposuction by name. Some, holding the photos of popular stars, hoped to have an exactly similar face. Others needed to reshape private parts. Anyway, the demands were diverse, but they had a common characteristic ¨C they hoped that the master could wield the scalpel to change their lives. But there were only two quotas a day, more than twenty quotas a month, which were booked instantly, yet people refused to believe it. They spontaneously queued up in front of the plastic surgery clinic at Sanbo Hospital, forming a line extending all the way out of the hospital. Director Lan had to call someone to put up a notice board, providing details, asking everyone to go back and not wait in vain. Most of those in line were women, but there were also a few men. They toppled the sign in the clinic, barged into the office, questioned Ivan as to why he didn¡¯t have a heart for patient service, why he only saw two patients a day. They wondered if he had lost his conscience, questioned his medical ethics, and contrasted him to Chinese doctors who could see hundreds of patients a day without eating or drinking. Others directly offered cash, asking, ¡®how much?¡¯ Some even claimed that if an extra appointment wasn¡¯t added, they would complain, all the way up to the Health Bureau. Some people in the crowd were already dialing the mayor¡¯s hotline to report the issue. People have already come, how could you refuse to see them? It¡¯s impossible. Ivan had never experienced such a scene, he thought Chinese patients were just too passionate, like vodka, hard to accept. He had no choice but to tell Director Lan to cancel his outpatients, refusing to leave the office. Refuse to see patients? That¡¯s corruption! It¡¯s utter corruption! The situation was out of control for a moment. Yang Ping found it embarrassing too. He originally wanted Ivan to help out in the outpatient department, but he didn¡¯t expect it to become like this. How could there be so many people needing plastic surgery? It¡¯s just registration for medical treatment, but it¡¯s also fiercely contested. What was even more embarrassing was that Dean Xia also found himself in a fix. Various phones were buzzing non-stop throughout the day, lobbying for quotas. Dean Xia had never imagined there would be so many people with plastic surgery needs. Only over twenty quotas! How to distribute it? And the appointments have already been made. The most troublesome part was that the Russian man didn¡¯t abide, he just followed the appointment order. Originally we could see more than twenty people, but now the office has been smashed, this voluntary clinic can no longer go on. The free appointments that were originally released were going from a few thousand to a whopping million with no market, but the price kept increasing. It was said that such an appointment now is more suitable than any precious gift. The wife of a director wanted to get a ticket, hoping to look a bit younger. Isn¡¯t it? Director Kong of the Overseas Chinese Building brought a box of tea leaves, and knocked on Yang Ping¡¯s door. It seems that the big shots of the Overseas Chinese Building didn¡¯t become big shots without reasons, their insight exceeds others, they can grasp the crux of the matter. ¡°Director Guan, please sit down!¡± It has been a long time since he last saw Director Guan. ¡°Oh my! Professor Yang, I haven¡¯t visited you in a long time. Now that you have set up your own business, you don¡¯t visit us either.¡± Director Guan sat down. ¡°This is top-grade West Lake Longjing tea. It only produces a few dozen pounds a year. I can¡¯t appreciate it, so I brought it to you. It would be a waste to leave it with me.¡± ¡°Look at you, being so polite. If you want to visit, just visit, no need to bring anything.¡± Director Kong looked around the office environment before sitting down. ¡°I heard you had a Russian friend coming over for an exchange recently?¡± ¡°Yes, he is a plastic surgery specialist.¡± ¡°Oh! No wonder, even my brother knows about it. He called me up asking if I could arrange an appointment with the professor. I told him to line up himself. Then he mentioned that it was for an important leader¡¯s wife who wanted the professor¡¯s consultation. I told him no matter how important it is, it can¡¯t be discussed, how can I just ask someone for a favor.¡± Director Kong said with a dignified expression. When it comes to being worldly-wise, multifaceted and smooth, this guy is really invincible. Now Director Tian is running the Orthopedics Department in the Overseas Chinese Building as the director, and has risen to become the third-generation bigwig. Reportedly, Director Tian¡¯s brother was brought to G City by Director Tian. He used to work in G City, but since Director Tian went to the Overseas Chinese Building, with the help of Yang Ping, the Orthopedics Department of the Overseas Chinese Building has risen to equal ranks with the Surgical and Internal Medicine Departments. Director Tian¡¯s brother is now also a contractor for a Range Rover. ¡°Dr. Ivan has now refused to host outpatient services, and the appointments have ceased. Yesterday, his clinic was attacked.¡± Yang Ping had to tell the truth. In truth, what Yang Ping loathed the most was this type of privilege operation, Chapter 781 - 781 699 The Most Successful Marketing ?Chapter 781: Chapter 699: The Most Successful Marketing Chapter 781: Chapter 699: The Most Successful Marketing PS: Still undergoing revision¡ª Actually, Yang Ping really detests these matters. Since Ivan doesn¡¯t want to make additions, let¡¯s just follow Ivan¡¯s lead. Plus, Ivan has his own reasons. For plastic surgery patients, it takes much more time to familiarize oneself with their condition and create a preliminary surgery plan, which means more time is spent examining the patients and communicating with them. ¡°Professor Yang, how could I dare to ask you to add more appointments? That would be too much trouble for you. I just came here today to ask a question. Isn¡¯t Ivan suspending his services? Do the appointments that have already been given out still count?¡± Director Kong is a very shrewd man. He knows Yang Ping¡¯s character well, so he would absolutely not force him to do something against his will. He has his ways. ¡°Of course, the already given out appointments still count. Once the chaos of scrambling for appointments is over, our plastic surgery department will either reopen, or we might stop openly scheduling appointments and directly start to arrange scheduled visits for these dozen or so patients.¡± Yang Ping said with complete confidence. Upon hearing Yang Ping¡¯s words, Director Kong felt as if he had just taken a heart stabilizing pill: ¡°As long as you say so, I now know what to do.¡± As long as the already given out appointments still count, Director Kong has a clear strategy. He has received a list of people who managed to successfully grab the appointments, and his next step is to find these people for a talk, to buy their appointments privately and then give them as gifts. Most of these people are just ordinary individuals, not rich people. If they could exchange their appointments for cash, why wouldn¡¯t they? Sometimes, having firsthand information is incredibly crucial and makes tasks much more manageable. Also, Director Kong believes that as long as Ivan doesn¡¯t add more appointments, the value of those he has will only increase, making the leaders happier, and making him appear to be better connected. Therefore, while everyone is going to great lengths to secure additional appointments, Director Kong has secretly begun buying those that are already given out for high prices. Who would have thought that an appointment with Ivan would become such a precious gift in high society? Just as Director Kong leaves, Dean Xia is seen hurrying over. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± Dean Xia came in a rush, answering phone calls as he walked. He finally put down his phone once he arrived in Yang Ping¡¯s office. ¡°You can just call me Xiao Yang.¡± Yang Ping modestly said. Dean Xia waved his hand: ¡°No, no, no, a professor is a professor. Look, I nearly had my phone explode because of the matter of adding more appointments in the plastic surgery department. I¡¯m not here for anything else. I just came to let you know that I have turned away everyone who wanted to get an appointment from me. You should just do it as you please, not be disrupted or under any pressure.¡± Just as Yang Ping was about to open his mouth to thank him, Dean Xia interrupted him: ¡°No need to say anything. I understand the situation. Your Russian expert is your friend. We can¡¯t let him be looked down on.¡± Dean Xia drank all his tea in one go and, in a great hurry, left again. ¡ª In the office of Director Lan of the Plastic Surgery Department. Director Lan, sitting cross-legged, is humming a song with a smile on his face. ¡°Director, should we think of a way to add more appointments? If this continues, there will be trouble.¡± Director Lan¡¯s assistant, Xiao Zhou, is quite worried. All these patients are crowded around the plastic surgery office. People are arguing, complaining, posting about it on their moments, even calling the mayor¡¯s hotline. It¡¯s absolute chaos and becoming lively. ¡°Add more appointments for what? We can¡¯t add any more, no matter who comes asking. If they have the guts, they can scramble for the appointments themselves. Don¡¯t you understand the concept of scarcity marketing? The harder it is to get, the more on demand it becomes. This rush will last longer. If we start adding appointments, they will lose their high value. Ivan¡¯s a world-class doctor who¡¯s unreachable to even the richest people around the world. How can we just casually give more appointments? It¡¯s their rarity that makes them precious. Xiao Zhou, just you watch; soon, our department will trend on social media because of this.¡± ¡°But, so many people are cursing us, saying we¡¯re bureaucratic, we¡¯re selfish, we¡¯re ignoring patients¡¯ needs¡ª¡± Xiao Zhou becomes more anxious as he goes on. There¡¯s currently a cacophony of criticism online. ¡°Let them curse. The more controversy, the hotter the topic becomes. It¡¯s all just hype. Don¡¯t you understand? Do you think those celebrities who reveal disgusting scandals do it for fun? It¡¯s all to attract attention. It doesn¡¯t matter whether it¡¯s praise or criticism, as long as they successfully attract attention, they win. Am I afraid of them cursing us? The harsher the criticism, the better the effect.¡± Director Lan snorts. ¡°I heard that the hospital leaders¡¯ phones have been ringing off the hook with those asking for additional appointments? Dean Xia has already gone to visit Yang Ping in Comprehensive Surgery. He¡¯s probably going to add appointments.¡± Xiao Zhou is still worried. ¡°Relax, don¡¯t you know Yang Ping¡¯s personality? How could he add appointments just because of some phone calls? And how could Dean Xia use his authority to demand additional appointments? If that were the case, that¡¯s not Dean Xia¡¯s way, and Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t stay in Sanbo Hospital. You relax; they absolutely won¡¯t add appointments. Do you think a top-class world expert is someone they can casually mess with? These people are arrogant. They will give in to no one. Let¡¯s just wait for these few appointments to skyrocket in price, wait for us to trend, and once our reputation goes up, and we reveal a few classic cases, especially Teacher Sun¡¯s case, our department just needs to wait and perform surgeries from morning till night.¡± ¡°We should focus our promotion on the three major points: public hospital, world-class, and the only one in China.¡± ¡°Won¡¯t people think we¡¯re bragging?¡± ¡°That¡¯s precisely what we want, to brag so confidently that we don¡¯t even turn a hair. That¡¯s the real skill.¡± ¡°Director, how come these private hospitals are willing to pay to help train your medical commissioners? How come their teams are willing to take the trouble to help you?¡± ¡°This, you don¡¯t understand. It¡¯s called a circle of mutual benefit. I¡¯ve spoken to them. Hanging up Ivan¡¯s banner, no one but me can do that. Anyone else doing that would not dare, nor is allowed to do. Boss Yunjian is smart, I¡¯ve talked to him. They¡¯ll help us gain popularity, then we¡¯ll establish partnerships with them. Surgeries we can¡¯t finish can be transferred to them. And surgeries of theirs that are too difficult or botched can be given to us to clean up. It¡¯s a win-win, and we all make money.¡± ¡°Director, you are really amazing.¡± ¡°This is called operation. If you need to make money, you have to know how to operate.¡± Chapter 782 - 782 700 Skin Patch Three-Dimensional Forming ?Chapter 782: Chapter 700: Skin Patch Three-Dimensional Forming Technology Chapter 782: Chapter 700: Skin Patch Three-Dimensional Forming Technology On the first day after the surgery, in the comprehensive surgical ward, Yang Ping was leading everyone on their ward rounds. Teacher Sun was wrapped in bandages from head to toe, except for his eyes and mouth. Of course, his excretory outlets weren¡¯t covered either. The bandages didn¡¯t need to be changed for a full 12 days, after which they could finally be removed. For these 12 days, Teacher Sun could only urinate via a catheter, defecate bedridden aided by a bedpan, and meals were manually fed. If necessary, a gastric tube might be used to grind and liquify the food, which would then be directly pumped into his stomach. All eating, drinking, urinating, and defecating occurred while he was in bed. This was what they called ¡°absolute bed rest¡±. Absolute bed rest required lying in bed every single moment. Even a brief period of leaving the bed would break the rule of absolute bed rest. The grafted skin needed 10-12 days to establish a blood supply with the dermis. During this period, the skin graft required pressure to maintain its nutrition. After 10-12 days, new blood vessels would have formed between the graft and dermis, enabling the grafted skin to survive without external pressure. Thus, at this point, the pressure dressing could be removed. Once these 12 days were up, Teacher Sun could finally emerge from this cocoon and transform into a butterfly. In the ward, Teacher Sun¡¯s students were very enthusiastic. They took turns caring for him, feeding him porridge and water, dealing with his excretions, and during spare time, shared stories about their learning experiences or work life with Teacher Sun. ¡°Teacher Sun, how are you feeling? Are you in pain?¡± Yang Ping asked out of concern. Teacher Sun, moving his lips in a very small range, mumbled, ¡°I¡¯ve been skinned alive. How could I possibly not feel pain?¡± His way of describing things, ¡®being skinned alive¡¯, was vivid. To everyone¡¯s surprise, Teacher Sun was quite humorous, and his words elicited a round of laughter. ¡°Didn¡¯t you notice, our ward is a pain-free ward, there¡¯s even a sign on the wall to prove it. If we let you shout out in pain, wouldn¡¯t that be detrimental to our reputation?¡± Yang Ping teased along with his words. Quickly, Teacher Sun replied, ¡°Is it really that serious? In that case, even if I were in pain, I would endure it and not ask the doctor or nurse for a pain-killing injection. I wouldn¡¯t want to tarnish your reputation.¡± Being a teacher, he certainly had a way with words, still being able to crack jokes with the doctors despite his mummified state. ¡°You¡¯ve got it wrong again. If you had to scream before a nurse came to administer your painkiller, it would mean that our pain management plan has failed. An excellent pain management plan not only provides medication as needed, but also administers it at regular times and dosages. The goal isn¡¯t to relieve the pain after it has occurred, but to administer the medication in advance to prevent the pain from occurring in the first place.¡± Yang Ping took the opportunity to explain the concept of pain management to him. In the past, pain wasn¡¯t considered important, but now it¡¯s considered a priority. Body temperature, heart rate, pulse, and breathing rate used to be the four vital signs, but now pain has been added as the fifth vital sign. So now many places are promoting pain-free wards, implementing new pain management principles and plans. However, most pain-free wards are more for show and don¡¯t really meet the required standards. It¡¯s just like the promotional pictures for beef noodles ¨C the image is only for reference. ¡°Thank you everyone, thank you, Professor Yang, thank you, Doctor Ivan!¡± Teacher Sun expressed his gratitude. Lying in his bed, he felt very excited. He desperately hoped that the 12 days would pass quickly. He was really looking forward to seeing his whole new self after the skin graft. Teacher Sun knew that without the influence of Yang Ping, there was no chance that this world-class plastic surgeon would have performed his operation. He heard that Doctor Ivan charged millions of US dollars per operation. ¡°You should rest well. For the next operation, Dr. Ivan will give you a hair transplant, a double eyelid surgery, an eyelash implant. Now, I want to ask you about your hair. You can choose from thick, sparse, bald, or any other hairstyle you desire,¡± He inquired. ¡°Can hairstyles be customized?¡± He asked cariously. ¡°You can think of it that way.¡± ¡°In that case, there¡¯s no need to choose, just go for thick. Since I¡¯ve gotten this far, there¡¯s no need to be modest.¡± ¡°Good! We have already started cultivating the scalp with hair and the eyelid skin with eyelashes in the laboratory. By the time of the surgery, they should be ready to use.¡± After chatting with Teacher Sun for a while and finishing up the rounds, Yang Ping took everyone to the lab to check on the progress of the new skin graft cultivation. When Teacher Sun was undergoing the skin grafting operation, some hair follicles were taken from the remaining hair on his head. These valuable hair follicles, like seeds, were preserved and then implanted into the skin graft in the lab. Then this section of skin was expanded. The eyelash cultivation followed the same procedure. If it weren¡¯t for the support of the technology of skin expansion, it would be impossible to obtain such a large amount and high-quality skin grafts for Teacher Sun¡¯s operation. Furthermore, obtaining hair follicle-containing skin grafts would be even more impossible. After completing the rounds, everyone reconvened in the lab. Liang Fatty was there assisting in the lab, acting as Tang Shun¡¯s assistant, mainly doing odd jobs and chit-chatting. Tang Shun was in the process of putting a tiny piece of skin into the cultivator. Seeing Yang Ping and everyone coing in, he immediately finished what he was doing. ¡°How is it?¡± Yang Ping asked him. Tang Shun nodded in satisfaction: ¡°I have implanted hair follicles into the skin according to the experimental plan, infusing nine follicles each time. They are very closely spaced. With our amplification technology, it can replicate at the density I have pre-set.¡± Having had the experience from the first time, Tang Shun had no doubt the experiment would succeed. ¡°So this new amplification technology constantly duplicates the original material? If the skin has no hair, the large-distanced skin patch produced after the amplification will also have no hair; but if it has hair or hair follicles, the amplified skin will also have hair or hair follicles, and the density would be the same as the original skin?¡± Ivan asked after listening to their conversation. Tang Shun answered quite confidently: ¡°Exactly, it¡¯s amazing, isn¡¯t it? This principle is completely different from Professor Manstein¡¯s technology. To be more precise, he amplifies, while we multiply.¡± Ivan took a deep breath, mulling over the word ¡°replicate¡± repeatedly in his mind. This really is true replication, and the innovation in this technology is significant. ¡°So, as long as there is a hair follicle, you guys can replicate a piece of skin with hair?¡± Ivan asked persistently. Tang Shun knew that Yang Ping had no intention of hiding anything, so he gave a straightforward answer: ¡°That¡¯s correct.¡± ¡°How can a single hair follicle control density? Multiple hair follicles inherently have density, replication only needs to duplicate the existing density, a single hair follicle doesn¡¯t have density, how is the density replicated?¡± Ivan did not understand the technique. ¡°It¡¯s quite simple. If there is only one hair follicle, there¡¯s no reference for the replication of density, it has randomness. We allow it to multiply, and the replicated skin patch will have unevenly distributed hair. We can cut out skin patches according to the density requirement and use this skin patch as the skin source for subsequent cultivation.¡± Tang Shun explained clearly. ¡°Clever!¡± Ivan had to admire their approach to solving problems; it was full of intellectual sparks. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Ivan noticed that the medium for the skin patch attachment in this cycle of cultivation was not flat but spherical. On closer inspection, it was shaped like a head. On an even closer look, the medium for attachment was modeled after Teacher Sun¡¯s head. ¡°Why is this?¡± Ivan pointed at the head-model medium. Tang Shun knew that this new technology would seem puzzling to Ivan in every way, hence he had to explain again: ¡°Your next surgery involves a scalp graft, doesn¡¯t it? Using a medium like this, the skin patch will grow along the model, eventually forming a shape like a ¡®headgear¡¯. During the surgery, you just have to place the ¡®headgear¡¯ on the head, evenly make perforations, slightly stretch the surgical area, and use negative pressure suction with VSD. Isn¡¯t that a perfect scalp graft?¡± ¡°Incredibly good! Plus, it looks very comfortable.¡± Ivan gave a thumbs up after hearing the explanation. The rewards from this trip to China truly are great ¨C much greater than expected. ¡°So, you imply that for complex parts such as hands and feet, this prefabricated skin graft method can be used?¡± Ivan was very excited. In the past when he conducted plastic surgery, he often used 3D printing technology to assist. For instance, during rhinoplasty, he would use 3D printing technology to create the cartilage he wanted and then implant it into the patient to achieve the desired result. However, skin grafting cannot be done this way. For some three-dimensional parts, the method of patching together to shape the wrapping three-dimensional shape is adopted. For a face which can be formed in one go, it¡¯s because the face is generally rather flat. If it¡¯s a head which is spherical, it cannot be shaped in one go. This principle is just like not being able to cut out a pair of gloves with a piece of paper without using cutting and stitching techniques, even if a facial mask can be cut out. This skin patch shaping technology is the truly three-dimensional shaping technology. The discussion here was about technology. On the other side, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, August, and Robert were surrounding Liang Fatty, learning about his recent insights from following Tang Shun¡¯s studies. Chapter 783 - 783 701 3D Skin Grafting ?Chapter 783: Chapter 701: 3D Skin Grafting Chapter 783: Chapter 701: 3D Skin Grafting PS: Still editing! ¡°Brother Fat, you¡¯ve been here for quite some days, any insights from your learning?¡± Song Zimo asked. Learning insights? Fatty scratched his head, since coming to the laboratory to help Tang Shun with odds and ends, he had also gotten to understand Tang Shun. This guy had more than a dozen girlfriends, each of them utterly devoted to him. The key point was that all these girlfriends knew that he was dating more than a dozen girls at the same time, and yet they were still okay with being with him. He had seen playboys before, but never such a brazen playboy. Liang Fatty felt like his eyes had been opened. As a longtime singleton without a girlfriend, he felt quite ashamed. Despite both being men, how could he be such a failure? Upon reflection, as a man who had not yet solved the problem of food and clothing, Liang Fatty decided to learn from the wealthy. He also understood Professor Yang¡¯s good intentions when assigning him to the laboratory. He wanted him to learn from Tang Shun and find a girlfriend as soon as possible, not to let down the professor¡¯s good intentions. ¡°Fatty, to be honest with you, I¡¯m an expert in this regard myself, I can also teach you. My requirements are not high, as long as you treat me to all the delicious food in China, I guarantee you¡¯ll get to marry that flight attendant.¡± Robert said very sincerely. Fatty scorned: ¡°Your requirement is not high? Do you know how much money and time it would take to try all the food in China? Moreover, your experience is not suitable for me. Different nations have different conditions; don¡¯t try to mechanically copy everything.¡± August, unable to get a word in edgewise, picked up a piece of paper from the office desk and read: ¡°Nourishing things subtly, stealthily entering the night with the wind.¡± There were a dozen repetitions of this poem on the paper. Liang Fatty tried to snatch the sheet, but August handed it to Xu Zhiliang, Xu Zhiliang handed it to Song Zimo, and everyone was puzzled why Fatty was so anxious about this paper. There was nothing on it except this poem, repeated over and over, just this one line. ¡°Could this be the insights you¡¯ve gleaned over these days?¡± Robert asked with a suspicious look. Liang Fatty was taken aback, could it be that love has no cultural differences? It¡¯s universal, his recent summary of insights, written down in a poem, was seen through by this guy. ¡°You¡¯re saying this is the insight he got from learning from Tang Shun?¡± August had no clue about this poem. Robert nodded: ¡°It¡¯s a pity but also a matter for celebration. It seems some cabbage is about to be snatched by a pig.¡± Hearing Robert¡¯s words, August was completely baffled. The conversation was about love and then suddenly about cabbage and pigs, he simply couldn¡¯t keep up with the pace. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang didn¡¯t understand what was going on either. The two of them looked at each other, and Liang Fatty laughed: ¡°To be able to understand this, you must have at least three girlfriends.¡± Robert could understand, surprisingly Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang couldn¡¯t. The two of them looked unconvinced. Liang Fatty scoffed: ¡°You can¡¯t deny it. There¡¯s a saying ¡®everyone has their specialty, and the outsider sees but a fraction of it¡¯.¡± ¡ª As they were chatting around Fatty, Yang Ping continued to show Ivan around the laboratory. The way these skin slices were cultivated fascinated Ivan. Who said Chinese people lacked creativity? Sparks were everywhere here. ¡°This method of 3D modeling skin can be applied in many areas, like the treatment of degloving injuries to the hand?¡± Ivan felt as if he¡¯d discovered a treasure. ¡°You¡¯ll see if you stay here a little longer. We¡¯re extending the use of 3D modeling to all surgeries that require it, first creating a model for the graft recipient area, then using the skin¡¯s crawling growth on the model for shaping. For instance, for a degloving injury to the hand, we cultivate a glove-shaped skin graft that fits the injured hand perfectly, put it right on, then use a specially designed vacuum sealed dressing to gently adhere the graft to the wound bed, it¡¯s so easy.¡± Yang Ping shared his idea with Ivan. Since inviting Ivan to operate, Yang Ping had also managed to learn from his techniques. Giving him some valuable insights was a way to make a fair exchange. Ivan stared at the cultivator for a long time, his eyes not leaving it. This man had a wild imagination and was capable of actualizing it. ¡°I¡¯m really interested to learn your paper-cutting technique,¡± Ivan felt more and more respect for Yang Ping. No wonder August and Robert were following him around like students. There was so much to learn here. ¡°Did you study painting in the past?¡± Ivan felt there was endless mystery about him. ¡°I just dabble, self-taught, don¡¯t take it seriously.¡± Self-taught? Just a dabble? Chapter 784 - 784 702 ?Chapter 784: Chapter 702 Chapter 784: Chapter 702 Skin is of crucial importance to plastic surgery. Consider for a moment, in the future, being able to transplant the skin from any part of the body in whole pieces, and being able to shape it as desired, even in a three-dimensional shape. This kind of freestyle skin grafting could easily solve some very complex problems. Dr. Ivan was extremely excited, a feeling he hadn¡¯t had in a long time. The last time he felt this way was when he was learning some unprecedented techniques with his mentor. His mentor, from the former Soviet Union, was a pioneer in plastic surgery and had participated in many audacious and magical experiments, such as face transplant surgery, including heterologous whole-face transplants and autologous facial reshaping. He even performed targeted facial shaping, which entailed altering someone¡¯s appearance to resemble a certain individual. At that time, Ivan was extremely excited, feeling as if a new world had opened before his eyes. Now Ivan had these wonderful feelings again. He envisaged the entire laboratory being full of skin sheets cultivated through in vitro proliferation technology¡ªmask-like, glove-like, sock-like, in all manners of shapes, everything that should be available. Just like selling clothes in a clothing store, each skin sheet was fitted on a shape mold, ready to be used in surgery whenever needed. ¡°Professor Yang, you are a world changer. It is a great honor to know you. If you had any interest in plastic surgery, I¡¯m afraid no one could outperform you.¡± Ivan couldn¡¯t help but sigh. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°I have absolutely no interest in plastic surgery, even the slightest, as I lack artistic cells. I don¡¯t really know how to sculpt gorgeous faces and bodies.¡± ¡°That¡¯s okay. Your energy should be devoted to more crucial fields. You should concentrate on lifesaving and injury healing. Cosmetic plastic surgery is not a necessity for people, it¡¯s just a pursuit of higher quality of life. But even though it¡¯s not necessary or obligatory, I still love it. You could even say I have an almost obsessive interest. Since childhood, I¡¯ve enjoyed pursuing beauty and creating it with my hands.¡± Ivan spoke with a kind of sentimentality. With regard to the nearly obsessive interest, Yang Ping agreed. Without such extraordinary drive, it would be difficult to stay committed for long. ¡°But you really don¡¯t intend to participate in that Italian girl¡¯s surgery?¡± Ivan thought it was necessary to ask at this point. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°As I said, I have no interest in plastic surgery, let alone any interest in Langnaife organization. As you said, plastic surgeries are not necessary or obligatory. So I¡¯m not interested in surgeries which are not a necessity.¡± ¡°You only wish to save lives and treat injuries?¡± Ivan finally got it. Yang Ping confirmed it implicitly. ¡°I always thought you might have misunderstood something about Langnaife or the identity of the Italian girl.¡± Ivan had always thought so. Yang Ping smiled slightly: ¡°That is part of the reason, but not the main one. I¡¯m just a doctor, I have no interest whatsoever in these messy organizations.¡± Apparently, Yang Ping was sincerely uninterested. Ivan didn¡¯t feel it was appropriate to continue the conversation, so he changed the subject: ¡°Regarding the art of papercutting you spoke of, could you teach me when you have time? I really want to know how this art form can allow you to precisely shape facial skin in one go.¡± ¡°I can teach you, but I didn¡¯t say the art was magical. If it is magical, it is only in my case.¡± Yang Ping had only casually used it as a shield at the time. Meanwhile, while Yang Ping and Ivan were chatting, things started to get noisy on the other end. ¡°Fatty, what do you think this poem means?¡± Robert kept on pestering. Fatty, swaying his head: ¡°I recently follow the master. I¡¯ve absorbed some knowledge and had some understanding. The relationship between men and women is a profound subject. Since it is a learning matter, it needs to be cultivated in a standardized way. I¡¯m telling you, although I have not yet graduated, but I promise that once I¡¯ve graduated, all of you will be my juniors. Look, these are my study notes.¡± Fatty opened his drawer, revealing a thick notebook. He really did take notes. August grabbed the notebook and handed it to Song Zimo. Song Zimo opened it: ¡°The Girl Savvy Handbook!¡± This was simply mind-boggling, there was even a handbook for this. ¡°Don¡¯t just flip through it, it¡¯s private, personal privacy, can you respect privacy?¡± Liang Fatty tried to get his handbook, but Song Zimo had already begun reading it aloud. Song Zimo originally wanted to read it aloud, but seeing Yang Ping, Ivan, and Tang Shun coming over, he gave it up. ¡°Study hard and make progress every day, and aim to graduate with excellent results.¡± Song Zimo returned the book to Liang Fatty and patted his shoulder. ¡ª In the ward, Teacher Sun was lying in bed. The air bed was very comfortable. Some students were helping him turn over, some were feeding him juice through a straw, and others were chatting with him about current affairs. Since Teacher Sun could urinate by himself in bed, the catheter had also been removed. As much as possible, it¡¯s better to remove such things, otherwise it could easily cause urinary tract infections. Boss Liao, the boss who sponsored Teacher Sun¡¯s surgery, was also in the ward. He spoke Standard Chinese with a local accent: ¡°Old Sun, you¡¯re in luck. I heard that this Russian guy is no ordinary character, he¡¯s one of the world¡¯s top plastic surgery experts. His appearance fee alone can cost millions of US dollars, and he¡¯s in such demand that despite having the money, one might not necessarily be able to schedule him.¡± ¡°Why would this Ivan agree to operate on Teacher Sun for free?¡± A student asked. Boss Liao, who knew the inside story, replied: ¡°He did it out of respect for Professor Yang. Although Professor Yang is young, he is a genius. I didn¡¯t know this before, but recently I did some inquiries around and realized how astounding he is. Those two foreigners beside him, do you know who they are?¡± ¡°The blonde and the red-nosed one?¡± A student asked. Boss Liao said mysteriously: ¡°Those two, one is a German and the other an American, are both big shots in European and American surgery, and they both came here for further study.¡± ¡°Further study?¡± The university students among Teacher Sun¡¯s apprentices immediately became curious. They had never heard of experts from Europe and America coming to China to study medicine or engineering. If they were here for further study, it should be for Chinese medicine. ¡°They must be foreign experts, right?¡± A student didn¡¯t believe it. Seeing the students¡¯ curious eyes, Boss Liao spoke with satisfaction: ¡°Experts? Who dares call themselves experts here? Mere bricklayers, more like. Have you ever seen any experts who help move patients around daily? Haven¡¯t you seen the blond and the red-nosed one helping to move patients around every day, sweating profusely?¡± It seemed that way indeed. The students recalled that every time they did rounds, the two foreigners were extremely respectful, which had led them to believe that the foreign experts were unpretentious and low-key. ¡°Although Professor Yang is young, he is a deputy chief physician, and I heard he is about to be promoted to chief physician out of turn. I heard from my friends in the medical field that he might soon become a doctoral supervisor. Can you imagine how awkward it would be if the doctoral students he enrolls turn out to be his former classmates?¡± Boss Liao spoke as if he were telling a story. ¡°I heard that Professor Yang has won awards for his surgery. There is an award in the medical field, what was it¡ªyes, the Dragon Slayer Award! Professor Yang won the gold one. He beat a bunch of top-notch experts from top-notch hospitals and successfully seized the gold award.¡± Boss Liao said, though he didn¡¯t know where he got the information. The students expressed their doubts: ¡°I don¡¯t think the awards in the medical field would be named something like the Dragon Slayer Award. They wouldn¡¯t choose such a domineering name, would they?¡± Chapter 785 - 785 703 You are Just a Rough Draft Now ?Chapter 785: Chapter 703: You are Just a Rough Draft Now Chapter 785: Chapter 703: You are Just a Rough Draft Now Over two weeks, Ivan had seen twelve patients. For the remaining two weeks, Ivan stopped making periodical visits and turned to operating on these twelve patients. The queue numbers for these twelve slots reportedly caused an uproar in the millions, but they were priceless. A queue number in the millions, such an event had never before occurred in the history of ticket-touting. However, the ticket touts who could handle this kind of situation were not the usual groups. The small-scale touts simply couldn¡¯t take on this type of business; forcibly trying to would only get their teeth knocked out. In the end, ordinary people absolutely couldn¡¯t get these slots, even if an ordinary person were able to seize a slot, they couldn¡¯t retain it for long. Teacher Sun had undergone surgery for twelve days already. Ivan decided to personally remove the pressure dressings and bandages. The ward was packed with people, three layers deep inside and outside. Director Lan arrived with a camera crew, waiting in the wings to take photos and record videos at any moment. Of course, at such a crucial time, how could Director Lan miss out? He volunteered to assist Ivan in removing the bandages. Firstly, they had to cut and remove the sutures, there were over a thousand sutures across his body, removing them required great patience. Ivan carefully unwrapped the gauze, avoiding any abrupt movements that might tear off the skin grafts. Therefore, he unwrapped a little, observed for a while, and then continued to unwrap. Those surrounding them held their breath; as the bandages were removed, Teacher Sun¡¯s entire body gradually emerged, especially when his face was revealed at the end. The people around were wide-eyed at the sight of his completely different face. His skin was slightly hollow in places due to compression, and he temporarily lacked eyebrows. But except for these things, his face bore no significant differences from a normal one. Compared to Teacher Sun¡¯s previous scarred and deformed face, it was far more attractive. With time, as the skin naturally fills out, along with the growth of eyebrows and eyelashes, his face would return to normal. ¡°Help him sit up!¡± Ivan and Director Lan helped Teacher Sun sit up with everyone¡¯s assistance. Since Teacher Sun had been bedridden for twelve days, suddenly getting up could cause dizziness due to postural hypotension. Therefore, they let him sit for a while to adapt. Perhaps out of anticipation, or due to excitement, Teacher Sun disregarded his dizziness. ¡°I¡¯m okay, quickly help me up, the mirror, let me see the mirror.¡± There was a mirror in the bathroom. Everyone helped him into the bathroom slowly. He saw his new self in the mirror, his completely unfamiliar face. Is this really me? Apart from the lack of eyebrows and eyelashes and the hollow areas where the skin had been compressed, he was almost perfectly normal. At this point, Teacher Sun was already very satisfied. He could now go out normally. ¡°Can I touch it?¡± Teacher Sun was beyond excited. Director Lan told him, ¡°Yes, but don¡¯t rub or scratch your skin, it¡¯s not fully stable yet.¡± Teacher Sun¡¯s trembling hand gently touched his face, unable to hold back tears. For so many years, he was afraid to go out, and even when he did, he hid his face with utmost care, fearing even to see his own face. ¡°This is just the beginning. We still have to give you eyebrows and eyelashes, replace the skin on your scalp, and even give you a nice head of hair. After that, your face will be completely normal. This is still the first phase of the surgery, and it¡¯s far from our anticipated goal.¡± Even better looking afterward? Teacher Sun couldn¡¯t even imagine it. Only having heard that Ivan was a world-class plastic surgery specialist before, he didn¡¯t really feel anything. But seeing his own face now, he was finally experiencing firsthand what world-class plastic surgery meant. Due to his sudden adaptation to standing up and his excitement, Teacher Sun¡¯s legs quivered. He walked over and sat down by the bed. Looking closely at his own hands and feet, they¡¯re all covered with healthy skin. Some of his fingers, however, were in a state of contraction due to being immobile for a long period of time, leading to tendon contractures that had to be cut. During the second phase of the surgery, he would require a tendon transfer to restore the normal functioning of his hands. Looking at the scars on his body, all of them had been replaced with healthy skin. ¡°Don¡¯t get excited, you¡¯re just a rough work at the moment. The good stuff comes later when Dr. Ivan turns you into a handsome man,¡± Yang Ping teased Teacher Sun. ¡°The rough work is already good enough!¡± exclaimed Teacher Sun with some confusion. Director Lan and Director Chi were astonished by the postoperative effect. Even in its current rough state, it far surpassed the ultimate result of similar surgeries in their field. Especially the face, which was perfectly formed in one go, showed almost no signs of flaws. It was only twelve days post-operation and the subcutaneous fat had not yet normalized, making the skin appear less plump. But in a month, once the subcutaneous fat filled in, the face would look full. After adding eyebrows, eyelashes, replacing the scalp, and having nice hair, a handsome face would emerge. The final step of facial muscle training would ensure natural facial expressions without stiffness. The surrounding doctors, whether senior or young, were all astonished. Top world-class technology was right before their eyes, leaving them wildly amazed. ¡ª ¡°Dean Xia is looking for you!¡± Song Zimo whispered in Yang Ping¡¯s ear. He quietly left the ward as there was nothing to do there for now. Currently, if Dean Xia had any matter, he wouldn¡¯t notify Yang Ping to come to his office, he would either call or come directly. When Yang Ping returned to the doctors¡¯ office, Dean Xia was already there, chatting with Director Zhao of the medical department. ¡°Professor Yang, let¡¯s have a chat in your office,¡± said Dean Xia as soon as Yang Ping entered, getting up without any pretense. Yang Ping opened his office and invited the two leaders to sit down. ¡°Professor Yang, there¡¯s a problem!¡± Dean Xia got straight to the point, then signaled Director Zhao to speak. Director Zhao coughed a few times and said, ¡°A notice was issued stating that Dr. Ivan has been practicing medicine illegally at Sanbo Hospital. As a foreigner, Ivan hadn¡¯t obtained any practice licenses, but he was conducting outpatient services, and performing surgeries at Sanbo. Many people have reported it, and we¡¯ve been ordered to self-inspect and rectify the situation. Soon, an investigation team from above will arrive at our hospital.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Professor Yang. This is a minor issue, and I can handle it. I just need some time,¡± Dean Xia said apologetically. ¡°I¡¯m thinking, there are only two possible reasons for this. We may have given out too few numbers, causing many people who didn¡¯t get a slot to report it out of jealousy, making it so that nobody can get surgery from Ivan. The second possibility is maybe someone from above asked Dean Xia for a number but was rejected. Now, they are holding a grudge and are causing trouble. I¡¯m just guessing, the first possibility is most likely,¡± Director Zhao shared his views. Dean Xia straightened out his dense hair and said, ¡°When foreign experts come for academic exchanges, sometimes, they might not go through the necessary procedures and would help with outpatient services or even give instructions during surgeries. The management in this regard isn¡¯t clear, many people prefer to take a shortcut, letting local doctors undertake the responsibility and nominally act as the chief surgeon while foreign experts practically control the operation. All of us know the level of the experts we invite hence there¡¯s usually no problem. But if scrutinized, it is indeed a violation of the rules and law. No one usually looks into it but now that someone reported it, no matter what the reason is, we definitely have to stop the surgeries and participate in the investigation. There¡¯s no choice.¡± Now, even Xia Changjiang was helpless. He already planned to go to the provincial leaders for understanding. ¡°No problem, I¡¯ll go and talk with Ivan. We won¡¯t have any issues here and will cooperate with the investigation,¡± said Yang Ping sincerely. He didn¡¯t want to trouble the leaders. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. This happened because of my error,¡± Dean Xia said with great shame. Yang Ping took it lightly, saying it was no big deal. ¡°We always act like this, so we didn¡¯t pay much attention. Now that someone reported it and there¡¯s an investigation, we¡¯ll cooperate.¡± ¡°I heard that the surgery needs to be done in stages and only the first stage was completed. What should we do?¡± asked Director Zhao worriedly. Yang Ping thought for a moment, ¡°You guys don¡¯t need to worry about this, I have a plan, and will arrange it well.¡± If worst comes to worst, he would go on stage himself and finish the rest of the surgeries. But before that, he would need to have a serious discussion with Ivan to incorporate his experience. Even though he had practiced many plastic surgeries in the system operation room, he had self-studied based on theory. As Ivan, a world-class plastic surgery expert, definitely had unique insights. ¡°Then we¡¯ll leave it at that. If there are any changes, we¡¯ll keep each other updated?¡± Dean Xia, who was in a hurry, was about to leave with Director Zhao. This sudden incident indeed left Dean Xia in an awkward position. Chapter 786 - 786 704 Last-minute Effort ?Chapter 786: Chapter 704: Last-minute Effort Chapter 786: Chapter 704: Last-minute Effort Suspend Ivan¡¯s surgery and prepare for an investigation. In the face of such a situation, Yang Ping called together his colleagues to discuss the next steps. In democratic departments, whenever an issue arises, everyone naturally needs to come together to discuss a solution. Ivan, August, and Robert also sat and listened. Upon hearing this news, Song Zimo was furious: ¡°The management for foreign doctors flying in for surgeries is extremely unclear. Usually, it¡¯s the hospital managing the risks; why suddenly stop our surgery now? This isn¡¯t exclusive to our hospital and we haven¡¯t messed up anything.¡± Flying doctors, whether domestic or international, is a gray area in our country, bordering on legality. The hospitals where the surgeons ¡°fly¡± to perform surgeries are often not their designated practicing location. By strict medical regulations, there are suspicions of illegal medical practices, but everyone tacitly accepts this situation. Medical resources in our country are unfairly distributed. Not every patient can seek treatment in developed areas, so doctors working cross-regionally help alleviate this imbalance to a certain extent. ¡°Did it happen because of the patient trouble that happened during Ivan¡¯s consultation some time ago?¡± Little Five asked. Zhang Lin stroked his chin: ¡°It¡¯s highly probable. I heard there were numerous complaints. The complainers must be the ones causing the fuss. Why would others have time to complain? These people are jealous because they can¡¯t have what they want, so they don¡¯t want others to have it either.¡± ¡°So, how about the second phase of the surgery?¡± Xu Zhiliang was quite worried, as the patient¡¯s surgery was carried out in stages, and they had just finished phase one. ¡°No surgery can stump Professor Yang. He just doesn¡¯t like performing plastic surgeries, not that he can¡¯t do them. Any problem related to surgeries is not a problem in his eyes.¡± Song Zimo muttered. Yang Ping was somewhat surprised. This kind of flattery was quite comfortable, yet he wondered how this young man knew he was capable of executing plastic surgeries without having seen him do it before. However, what Song Zimo said was correct: how could surgery-related problems stump Professor Yang? ¡°Are you suggesting that the professor perform the surgery himself?¡± Xu Zhiliang asked. Song Zimo nodded: ¡°The original plan was to have the professor operate when the patients were transferred here, but Dr. Ivan¡¯s sudden appearance changed his mind. The professor dislikes plastic surgery the most.¡± Xu Zhiliang thought about it and it seemed to be true. When Teacher Sun was transferred from the burn department, the professor intended to perform the surgery using a new skin expansion technology for grafting. ¡°The next surgeries ¨Cscalp transplantation, eyebrow and eyelash transplantation, reshaping of the auricle and nostril, I should be able to handle them with no problems,¡± Yang Ping casually said. Ivan didn¡¯t know what everyone was saying. August translated for him and then said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the professor is ready to personally perform the follow-up surgeries himself.¡± Personally perform the surgeries? Is he capable? If it¡¯s about scalp transplantation and eyebrow transplantation, with the aid of the ex vivo skin expansion technology, there won¡¯t be any major problems. It¡¯s just skin grafting, which is simple. Eyelash transplantation isn¡¯t a problem either, but the most difficult part is the formation of ear and nostril, which even seasoned plastic surgeons can¡¯t perfect, let alone doctors from other specialties. Ivan was very dissatisfied with this arrangement. Having others proceed would lower the surgery quality, something he could never tolerate. ¡°Oh no, we can¡¯t do that. Although the patient is already in a good condition by ordinary standards, our goal is to pursue perfection, and not merely settle for being better than before. Our comparison is against a normal person. We want to ensure there is no difference between the two.¡± Ivan understood that Yang Ping was unrivaled in orthopedic surgeries and demonstrated extreme proficiency in other surgical fields as well. However, this is the field of plastic surgery, his own domain, nobody could perform better than him. August had also quietly revealed to him what exactly had happened. ¡°Can we have Teacher Sun transferred to any other country you deem convenient. I¡¯ll take care over the rest. I don¡¯t need a medical license to practice in countries outside of Russia, and I will take care of all the expenses, alright?¡± Ivan insisted on performing the surgery himself. This was his patient, and he needed to be responsible till the end, without reducing the quality of the operation. ¡°Dr. Ivan, I understand your concerns, but rest assured. If you have time, you can share some of the key points of plastic surgery with me. Just because I don¡¯t want to perform it, doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t. Trust me, I will not compromise the patient¡¯s plastic surgery outcome. And remember, I can also shape a face in one go.¡± Yang Ping comforted Ivan, knowing of his obsession. Hearing this, Ivan¡¯s firm resistance was somewhat shaken. Shaping a face in one go may sound simple, but it tests a plastic surgeon¡¯s skills. Just by looking at the face, one must be able to cut out a complete face, then attach it without adding too much or too little. It¡¯s extremely difficult, especially the cuts around the eyes, nose, and lips are extremely hard to handle. It¡¯s like piling up ten eggs in a row, one on top of another, without toppling. It may sound simple but there are few in the world who can actually do it. ¡°Plastic surgery is very complicated. Apart from the surgery itself, it also involves aesthetics. I believe in your surgical talent, but I can¡¯t believe you can achieve the effects I can.¡± Ivan spoke frankly. ¡°Dr. Ivan, rest assured. If you¡¯re willing, you can share your experience in plastic surgery with me. I can assure you that I will be proficient in the follow-up surgeries, just like how I can cut out that face in one go.¡± Yang Ping confidently replied. Considering that the patient belonged to Yang Ping and he was just a guest, Ivan refrained from insisting further. Even if he was suffering inside, he had to endure. His principle was to be responsible for his patients from beginning to end. Even if other doctors performed a minor part of the surgery midway, it would cause him immense distress. ¡°Fine, I accept. I have a draft of a book on my laptop. It contains my plastic surgery experience. I will ask someone to fetch it as a gift for you, to thank you for providing me with the magical ex vivo skin expansion technology.¡± Ivan had to accept Yang Ping¡¯s proposal. Seeing that Ivan relented, Yang Ping said: ¡°Thank you. Since it¡¯s still a draft, I will delete it after I finished reading, in respect of your copyrights.¡± Even though Yang Ping could access any medical books in the system library, unpublished drafts were not available. ¡°You can keep the draft. The book will be publicly published later, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s the right time now.¡± ¡°Robert, why are you so quiet today?¡± Song Zimo suddenly noticed that the normally lively Robert hadn¡¯t said a word all day. Robert furrowed his brows and thought for a while: ¡°Professor, can I say that you are cramming at the last minute?¡± Professor Yang had never performed a plastic surgery before and now he was stepping in at the last minute, also cramming Ivan¡¯s plastic surgery techniques. This put Robert in a predicament; he knew how talented Professor Yang was and how easily he transitioned between different types of surgeries. But this was a plastic surgery, and the gap seemed a little broad¡ªfearing it would be a hard nut to crack. But Robert firmly believed that Professor Yang could complete the surgery without compromising the effects of plastic surgery because in Robert¡¯s eyes, Yang Ping never did anything he wasn¡¯t confident about. All the seemingly impossible surgeries were always successfully completed. So Robert had been internally conflicted for a while, wondering where Professor Yang drew his confidence from. ¡°Cramming at the last minute doesn¡¯t bode well for the success of the exam and the future!¡± Chapter 787 - 787 705 Hair Transplantation ?Chapter 787: Chapter 705: Hair Transplantation Chapter 787: Chapter 705: Hair Transplantation PS: Still editing!!! With that settled, the upcoming surgery would be led by Yang Ping. The transplantation of eyebrows and eyelashes is commonplace for plastic surgeons, especially with dedicated instruments for hair transplantation, which makes the operation not particularly difficult. However, achieving Ivan¡¯s level of skill is almost impossible. No matter which part of the body, the key to successful plastic surgery is to look natural and harmonious, breathing life into the human body, rather than creating isolated rigid body parts. For example, in the eyes of ordinary doctors, eyebrows and eyelashes are just hair. All they need to do is follow the surgical standards, and they are done. But in Ivan¡¯s eyes, eyebrows and eyelashes can project unique charm, complementing the eyes and facial features. They can be seductive, elegant, noble, dignified, wise, or handsome. The tricky part lies here, not as simple as planting some hair. As for reshaping the ears and nostrils after burn injuries, the surgical technique itself is quite challenging, and the aesthetic requirements are high. For example, with ear reshaping, it needs to meet aesthetic standards and at the same time has to be able to effectively collect sound waves. The core of facial plastic surgery lies in the reshaping of the facial features. The highest realm of facial reshaping is to sculpt a living soul, which requires extensive experience. Clearly Yang Ping lacks this, hence Dr. Ivan¡¯s concern. The lab-grown skin grafts have met the standard, with the scalp covering the entire model, and thick hair has already begun to show black spots. Skin grafts for eyebrows and eyelashes also expanded to a sufficient area, and the amount of hair perfectly meets the needs of the surgery. In ordinary eyebrow and eyelash transplantation surgery, hair from the back of the head serves as the transplant material. The hair from the back of the head can be used for hair transplantation. This part of the hair is not subjected to androgen, so it is permanent after transplantation and will not fall out. If the hair from the top of the head, which may fall out like in baldness, is used as eyebrows or eyelashes, it might fall off as well. Of course, this method of using hair to replace eyebrows or eyelashes requires frequent trimming, otherwise, it will be long, for it is essentially hair. In Teacher Sun¡¯s special case, there is very little hair on the back of his head, insufficient for eyebrow and eyelash transplantation. It provides no material for hair transplantation either. Ever since Yang Ping mastered the technology of in vitro skin expansion, this problem has been resolved. Yang Ping can take residual hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes from Teacher Sun, use them as seeds, cultivate them with a little skin, have them grow exponentially, and eventually cultivate a large number of qualified hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes. Finding a large number of qualified hair, eyebrow, and eyelash follicles is nearly impossible, but under a microscope, finding a few is feasible. As long as seeds are available, the lab can utilize them to cultivate a large number of similar follicles. This is the advantage of this in vitro expansion technology. Hair transplantation, eyebrow transplantation, eyelash transplantation, all belong to hair transplantation. The founder of hair transplantation was a doctor from an island country, named OKUDA. He performed a skin grafting process on a patient with burn injuries on the back of the head. During the skin grafting, the skin graft carried hair follicles. At the time, the doctor didn¡¯t expect hair transplantation, he was simply doing a routine skin grafting process. However, afterward, new hair started to grow on the new skin patch. Upon discovering this strange phenomenon, Doctor OKUDA began to explore this topic. He concluded that hair can be transplanted. As long as the hair follicles are transplanted, new hair will grow. It¡¯s just like planting trees. You transplant the roots along with the soil nearby to a new location, and the trees can survive. After OKUDA¡¯s pioneering work, other physicians took up the relay. Another Japanese doctor, HajimeTamuna, had the same brilliant idea. He thought that if hair can be transplanted, then pubic hair can also be transplanted. This unconventional doctor took women suffering from a lack of pubic hair as test subjects and successfully transplanted hair follicles into their pubic areas. They survived and relieved the patients of their hairless distress. Dr. HajimeTamuna had a strong spirit of scientific research. He made a comprehensive record of this surgery and the whole process, but his achievements were unfortunately overlooked. Not until 1959, an American beautician named Orentreich reported on his punch grafting technique, did hair transplantation truly begin to develop as a technology. As adipose tissue started growing, the skin grafts on Teacher Sun¡¯s body began to look rounded. The texture of Teacher Sun¡¯s skin returned to normal. All of these grafts were of excellent quality full-thickness skin, cut to the required shape and size. All interfaces between grafts were discreetly located so there were no visible scars on the surface. Chapter 788 - 788 706 Turns Out Were in the Same Line of ?Chapter 788: Chapter 706: Turns Out, We¡¯re in the Same Line of Work Chapter 788: Chapter 706: Turns Out, We¡¯re in the Same Line of Work PS: Still in revision Teacher Sun¡¯s second-stage surgery still utilizes general anesthesia. If it were just hair transplantation, local anesthesia would suffice, but considering the need to remodel the nasal and auricle, general anesthesia is more suitable. Liang Fatty returns to the operating room to administer anesthesia for Teacher Sun; he has been busy helping Tang Shun in the laboratory recently, returning to the department when special surgeries are required. As Professor Yang¡¯s personal anesthesiologist, no one can challenge Liang Fatty¡¯s position. Cropped trousers, crossed legs, Liang Fatty¡¯s signature. After the anesthesia, Liang Fatty waits for the surgery to start with his legs crossed. ¡°Young Master Song, I need your help later,¡± Liang Fatty greets Song Zimo. Song Zimo is currently sterilizing Teacher Sun and has no time to deal with him, instead, he responds, ¡°Can¡¯t this matter be discussed now?¡± ¡°We can talk about it in the changing room after the surgery.¡± Liang Fatty did not want to bother Song Zimo. He crossed his legs and began to go through his notebook. Song Zimo ignored him and continued to sterilize and prepare the surgical drapes. After this was done, Yang Ping began to take the stage. Many people are skeptical about Professor Yang performing plastic surgery. The majority of them do not believe it, thinking that Professor Yang simply has idle hands and wants to try something new. Director Lan is an expert in plastic surgery and understands the broad gap between general surgery and plastic surgery. So he had no confidence in Yang Ping¡¯s plastic surgery. If Yang Ping, who had never engaged with plastic surgery, successfully completes this operation, Director Lan feels he might as well have wasted his twenty years of experience in plastic surgery. Director Chi from the Burn Department came purely to watch the excitement. He was interested in skin grafting and hair transplantation has nothing to do with his department. August is a strict person who doesn¡¯t dare to believe or deny things without logic. As for Professor Yang being the chief surgeon for a plastic surgery operation, he is agnostic. Robert is different. He is a fan of Yang Ping. Yang Ping is his medical faith. Since he is a believer, there is no need for a rational reason. He believes that the operation will be successful, without any doubt. As for the hospital, if other departments performed cross-disciplinary surgeries, they would definitely be put to a stop if Director Zhao from the Medical Affairs Department were aware of this. It is suicidal to perform cross-departmental surgery. However, the Comprehensive Surgery Department is a special case. Within the scope of Sanbo Hospital, the Comprehensive Surgery Department has all surgical rights. Whether it¡¯s plastic surgery or heart surgery, Director Zhao won¡¯t ask any questions. The Comprehensive Surgery Department is like a separate court within the hospital, possessing full autonomy, as if it is an independent kingdom. Diagnosis, personnel, and finance are all independent. There is no need for the hospital¡¯s related departments to approve any surgical procedures or research topics they undertake. The surgery begins, and Yang Ping starts to use the ARTAS hair transplant robot to collect hair. Without the aid of machinery, hair transplantation is a laborious process¡ªextract follicles, plant follicles, and repeat this process countless times. Manually extracting hair follicles is quite tiring. About 350 to 450 strands need to be collected for eyebrow transplantation, a similar amount is needed for eyelash transplantation. With the help of the ARTAS hair transplant robot, the work is significantly simplified. The tedious work of extracting hair is entrusted to the machine. The ARTAS hair transplant robot consists of three parts: the drilling needle, hair fixing device, and main computer. The drilling needle is made up of two sets of needles; the inner ring needle is a 1.0mm sharp needle, responsible for cutting through the tough epidermis; the outer ring needle is a 1.2mm blunt needle, responsible for bluntly separating the subcutaneous tissues to avoid damaging the follicles. During the operation, the hair fixing device is used to fix the scalp in the hair donation area. The structure is like a grid, making it easy for the main computer to analyze and scan for hair. The drilling needle takes on the work of extracting hair follicles: the inner ring needle cuts the skin and the outer ring needle extracts the hair follicle, working closely together. This hair transplant machine is a system that combines mechanical systems with artificial intelligence. It can use an imaging system to find various hair follicle units on the skin, then determine the angle, direction, orientation, density, and distribution of the hair, and finally lock in the accurate positions of each hair follicle on the scalp. If this process is broken down into steps¡ª3D modeling, determining the coordinates of the hair follicles in the donation area, automatically extracting hair follicles, making evenly distributed holes in the receiving area, and finally manually implanting the follicles. In a hair transplant surgery, the machine can only help to extract the hair follicles, the final implantation of the follicles still requires a doctor to operate. At the start of the surgery, the first step is to transplant the eyebrows and eyelashes. Yang Ping uses the machine to collect hair. The source of hair is the cultivated skin. Now, when transplanting the eyebrows, this hair was originally extracted from the remaining eyebrow skin along with the hair follicles. Through expansion technology, it has turned into a large number of eyebrow hairs. Yang Ping is very proficient in using the machine, which astounded Ivan and Director Lan. Is this a person who has never performed plastic surgery? After collecting the eyebrows and when it¡¯s time to implant them, Yang Ping¡¯s speed is simply frightening. The eyebrow implant pen is like a hole punching machine, swiftly completing one side of the eyebrow, and then swishing again, finishing the other side. The machine has also collected the eyelashes well. Yang Ping then transplants the eyelashes with the same speed. Given that the area for eyebrow transplantation is relatively broad while the area for eyelash transplantation is in a narrow strip, so the speed should be much slower. But Yang Ping used the same speed. With a swoosh, it seemed like the eyebrow transplant pen was just a plaything in his hand, as he randomly jabbed at it. After a series of operations, the eyelashes were transplanted. ¡°Could you help me take a look?¡± Yang Ping asked Ivan to come over. After all, Ivan has a better aesthetic sense than him. Asking him to take a look can prevent this obsessive-compulsive man from feeling uncomfortable all day. If someone else took over midway through his operation, and they did not meet his requirements, Ivan would probably feel uncomfortable for a long time. ¡°Let me take a look!¡± Ivan carefully examined the eyebrows and eyelashes under the microscope. They were very beautiful and looked very comfortable. Whether it was the point of transplantation, the direction, or the contour, there were no flaws¡ªit fully met his requirements. The distribution of the eyelashes under the microscope was very regular, and there was not even a tiny bit of disorder. Professor Yang¡¯s operations just now were not rough and wild. It just seemed that way because it was too fast. The proficiency displayed is not characteristic of a novice. Without a lot of surgical experience, there is no way to achieve this. Ivan felt that Yang Ping had intentionally deceived him. Professor Yang must have performed plastic surgery and done a lot of it. But why did Professor Yang say he hadn¡¯t? Ivan is puzzled and thinks hard, finally finding a reasonable explanation. That is, Professor Yang¡¯s plastic surgeries were conducted in secret¡ªsimilar to him with numerous surgeries performed off the books. With this understanding, Ivan feels relieved, and this explanation also feels right. First step, begin. Chapter 789 - 789 707 He Comes from the Marvel World ?Chapter 789: Chapter 707: He Comes from the Marvel World Chapter 789: Chapter 707: He Comes from the Marvel World The only way to explain it would be if he, like himself, frequently performed secret surgeries. Otherwise, where would the multitude of surgeries come from? Upon having this thought, Ivan was once again confounded. If Professor Yang was also involved in black-market surgeries, why would he show no interest in the Italian¡¯s surgery, which would offer a commission of no less than one million dollars? In any case, these matters were full of contradictions. Ivan found it somewhat mind-boggling, so he temporarily set the question aside and continued paying attention to the surgery. Yang Ping began shaping the auricle. Due to severe burns, the skin of the ear had scarred and contracted, resulting in a noticeable deformation of the auricle. Now, he needed to reshape the auricle, restoring its normal appearance and the ability to collect sound waves. Typically, auricle shaping needs to be performed over two stages. The first stage involves repairing the remaining ear, completing the formation of the earlobe, subcutaneously adding a tissue expander to the skin around the ear and injecting it with fluids. The second stage involves carrying out complete auricle shaping, using costal cartilage as the material and carving it into a support structure for the auricle, which is then implanted under the skin and wrapped in the fascia. After the auricle stands upright, skin grafting is performed on the back of the ear. The entire process consists of numerous steps and consumes a substantial amount of time. But Teacher Sun¡¯s case was different ¨C his auricular deformation was caused by scarring contraction from burns. So, Ivan created a new surgical method that involved reconstructing and reshaping the existing auricular cartilage and then grafting skin onto it. Although this surgery only required one phase, it demanded exceptionally high operative ability. This technique had several challenge points. First, modifying the shape of the auricle on the cartilage was highly difficult. For instance, certain parts needed to be curved more, others had to be straightened, some places needed to be lengthened, and others to be shortened. Holistic consideration of the auricular cartilage was necessary. Second, when cutting and loosening the scar on the auricle, one must simultaneously maintain a layer of vascularized soft tissue adhering to the cartilage. This required immense skill with the scalpel. It was imperative not to leave the tissue too thick while preserving the intact vascular network. Such skill with the scalpel was basically the pinnacle of plastic surgery, exceeding even the demand of controlling skin graft thickness in surgery with a scalpel. The final point was that bandaging was also extremely important. It not only applied pressure to the skin graft but also served to fix and adjust the shape of the auricle. In other words, the design of the gauze bandage for the bandaging process was very delicate ¨C it was absolutely a technical task. The sharp scalpel in Yang Ping¡¯s hand was very nimble. The scar was completely cut off, and the soft tissue, which was to act as a base for the skin graft, was left on the auricular cartilage. Yang Ping made very proficient adjustments to the auricle. After executing a series of procedures including straightening, bending, lengthening, and shortening, he tried to reshape the auricle and was quite satisfied. In the subsequent skin grafting and gauze twisting, Yang Ping¡¯s movements were smooth and seasoned, as though he had performed this type of surgery for several decades. The shaping of the auricle was easily completed. Naturally, the formation of the nostrils was even more straightforward. The difficulty of forming the nostrils lay in creating naturally symmetrical shapes. Any improper handling could compromise the appearance of the entire face. Teacher Sun now looked like a completely different person, almost indistinguishable from a normal one. Of course, next came the need to train his facial expressions. This training was very meticulous. Apart from training the expression muscles, it was also necessary to fine-tune the tension of the facial skin; some areas needed to be relaxed and made more elastic while others had to be tightened. Only then would the expressions appear natural; otherwise, they¡¯d look very stiff. For instance, some middle-aged and older people in pursuit of youth undergo face-lifting surgeries. The so-called face lift is a facial tightening procedure that tightens the slack skin and fascia of the face, removes the excess skin and fascia after the tightening, and does indeed have the effect of ¡°rejuvenating and revitalizing¡±. However, this kind of surgery has a major flaw in that it severely compromises facial expressions. Every surgery reduces facial expressions by about 15%, which results in postoperative stiffness and unnatural expressions. To Ivan, treating facial expressions was also an integral part of surgery, and moreover, Ivan was an expert in this area, possessing remarkably sophisticated technical details. ¡°What do you think, Dr. Ivan? Is it up to standard?¡± Having completed the surgery, Yang Ping asked Ivan to once again check the process. ¡°Perfect score!¡± Ivan had observed the entire surgery just now and was left speechless. The outcome of this surgery was on par with his own expertise. Large question marks appeared again in Ivan¡¯s mind. This procedure of forming in one surgery originated from his teacher at that time. After he had improved it himself, this advanced technique emerged. He didn¡¯t teach this technique to many people, so why was Yang Ping able to do it so beautifully? Read his book? It¡¯s impossible to become proficient right after reading a book; such a person doesn¡¯t exist. Could it be that Yang Ping studied with a few of his students? Unlikely. Ivan knew the skill level of his few students, which was far from aligning with Yang Ping¡¯s. Could he have studied with his teacher? That was also unlikely, completely incongruent in terms of age. Director Lan, standing by, was also dumbfounded. He had been working at Sanbo Hospital for twenty years, and he had been the Head of the Plastic Surgery Department for almost six or seven years. He had never known that the Comprehensive Surgery Department of Sanbo Hospital had such a high level of plastic surgery expertise. ¡°If just judging from surgical style, you and I were taught by the same person.¡± Ivan couldn¡¯t help mentioning his suspicions. When it comes to plastic surgery, every surgeon has their own style. This style carries a sense of inheritance and personal characteristics. It¡¯s like football. Brazil has Brazilian styles, England has English styles, and of course, China also has its own unique style, even the team¡¯s diet is different. The formation of surgical style requires the refinement of many cases. It¡¯s something on the soul level of the surgery, and it¡¯s impossible to acquire the same surgical style by reading a book and following the procedure. ¡°Really? Our styles are quite similar. Perhaps our aesthetic sensibilities are similar too,¡± Yang Ping explained. He certainly couldn¡¯t admit that he achieved his level of skill by merely reading Ivan¡¯s book since this might upset Ivan. ¡°Ivan, he has read your book before, so what¡¯s yours becomes his, it¡¯s that simple,¡± Song Zimo directly blurted out. Song Zimo was fully aware of Yang Ping¡¯s knack. An extraordinary genius who mastered all aspects of surgery to perfection after a single reading. This wasn¡¯t the first time something like this happened. Ivan had yet to react. Song Zimo continued: ¡°You don¡¯t need to find it strange. Some things that can¡¯t be figured out are like your mathematics compared to Gauss, your surgery skills compared to Professor Yang. Just accept the reality with eyes closed, thinking too much could burn out your brain.¡± Is this some kind of joke? Reading my book once, he can easily pull off the surgery, and do it so beautifully. Then what is my strict training of many years? ¡°Brother, I would suggest you to just watch closely. Don¡¯t overthink it. We are ordinary people, he is half-man, half-god. If you insist on asking why according to common sense, ten psychologists will not be enough to help you through.¡± Robert understood Ivan¡¯s distress. ¡°I was almost trapped in it, too. Luckily, I¡¯m smart enough to think in a different way. You should too, or else, you will get stuck and that will ruin your life. Take care, brother,¡± Robert said, patting Ivan¡¯s shoulder, who looked somewhat dull. August chuckled bitterly: ¡°He¡¯s right, don¡¯t get stuck in it. Take care, brother. You still have many years to live.¡± Chapter 790 - 790 708 Competing with the Dragon King for ?Chapter 790: Chapter 708: Competing with the Dragon King for Treasures Chapter 790: Chapter 708: Competing with the Dragon King for Treasures The surgery concluded, and the patient was moved back to the ward. August and Robert sat with Ivan in the changing room for a rest, all three of them forming a line on a long bench. Dr. Ivan was clearly still confused, or perhaps he was already mired in his thoughts. Merely by reading his book, someone was capable of performing surgery so flawlessly, at a level comparable to his own. His skills were far from ordinary; they represented the peak within his profession. Could the world¡¯s top level of expertise be so easily attained? No matter how Dr. Ivan thought about it, he couldn¡¯t comprehend it. Even a cross-disciplinary heavy-hitter like Manstein needed time to achieve success. It took time to make strides in a new field. ¡°Are you still pondering over the same problem?¡± August, noticing Ivan¡¯s bewildered look, was worried. Ivan nodded, ¡°How is it possible? He merely read my book, yet he can perform as well as I do? How can that possibly be?¡± August shook his head helplessly, ¡°He¡¯s not just performing as well as you, he could do better than you. As Robert said, you¡¯re human, and he¡¯s half-human, half-god. You can¡¯t compare. The gap between you and him is like¡ªyes, it¡¯s like the gap between Tyson and the Hulk.¡± The gap between Tyson and the Hulk¡ªthis was Takahashi¡¯s statement, which August felt was most appropriate to use here for explanation. Tyson was already the world¡¯s strongest, but how did his strength matter? He couldn¡¯t possibly compare to the Hulk. This was not about effort; the gap was determined by natural talent. Dr. Ivan muttered to himself, repeating August¡¯s words, then recalled his encounters with Professor Yang in recent times. At their first meeting, Professor Yang readily agreed to share the technology of in-vitro skin expansion. It was a very generous offer considering they had just met. The second time, during a morning handover, Professor Yang drew medical illustrations on the whiteboard that were comparable to his own. The third time was when he managed to shape a skin graft at once, the size fitted perfectly. The fourth time was today¡¯s surgery. Even though it was just the shaping of an ear and nostrils, his expertise was clearly visible¡ªincredibly high! You could only wonder how far he would outshine him if only Professor Yang was interested in plastic surgery. ¡°If Professor Yang wasn¡¯t interested in plastic surgery, how could he have devoted so much effort to developing skin expansion technology?¡± Ivan couldn¡¯t help asking. August had no choice but to tell the truth: ¡°Devote effort? To him, how could in-vitro skin expansion technology be a big effort? He achieved this result effortlessly; it hardly took much time. His main focus is not on this.¡± ¡°You¡¯re saying this topic is not his primary research field?¡± Ivan didn¡¯t believe it. This in-vitro skin expansion technology couldn¡¯t possibly be successful without sustained research over five to ten years. Even a genius like Manstein took several years, and Professor Yang¡¯s technology which was completely different and relatively more advanced, was even more complex. ¡°The Professor originally planned to have me facilitate learning Manstein¡¯s research technology, but later he found it too cumbersome. Therefore, he simply started anew to study in-vitro skin expansion technology. In less than a month, he came up with this new technology, and then taught it to Tang Shun, who had just returned from Japan. In Professor¡¯s eyes, this technology is barely worth a nickel, so he didn¡¯t hesitate to give it to you when you needed it. Because to him, it¡¯s just a nickel, giving it to you meant nothing.¡± A nickel, this comparison stings. Dr. Ivan felt a chill in his heart. So the technology he¡¯d been striving for was only worth a nickel. He couldn¡¯t help but reveal a forced smile on his face. ¡°Ivan? Are you alright? You don¡¯t need to take it to heart. What I meant to say was¡ª¡± August felt he¡¯d gone too far. Ivan hadn¡¯t been prepared enough to accept some things. Robert said to Ivan sternly, ¡°He¡¯s being too exaggerated. To Professor Yang, how could this technology worth only a nickel? I really hate when others use such hyperbole to create a shocking effect.¡± That unreliable August, describing such precious technology as worth only fifty cents, if that¡¯s true, many technologies in the world are only worth fifty cents. Ivan felt relieved and then looked at Robert expectantly, waiting for him to requote. Robert thought for a while: ¡°Ivan, this kind of technology can¡¯t be this cheap in the professor¡¯s mind, it¡¯s at least worth¡ª¡± ¡°How much is it worth?¡± Ivan asked urgently. ¡°Ten dollars!¡± Robert held up a finger. Ten dollars? Is there any difference from fifty cents? Ivan was disappointed again, ten dollars and fifty cents, there was no significant difference in essence. ¡°Ivan, don¡¯t be discouraged. There is a saying in China, ¡®a beggar compares treasures with the Dragon King¡¯. Do you know what it means?¡± Robert¡¯s Chinese was getting deeper. Ivan shook his head: No. ¡°The Dragon King is the god with the most treasures, and the beggar has nothing. The Dragon King casually takes out something he thinks is worthless, and it might be a priceless treasure that the beggar can¡¯t get in his lifetime. Do you understand what I mean?¡± Robert asked. After Robert¡¯s explanation, Ivan was a bit clear: ¡°Are you saying that Professor Yang is the one who owns the most treasures, and I¡¯m the beggar?¡± ¡°Not just you, we all are. It¡¯s just a metaphor, I didn¡¯t mean to insult you at all. I just wanted to tell you the truth, that when the beggar meets the Dragon King, he doesn¡¯t have to compare the treasures, or think about why the Dragon King has so many treasures. The smartest thing to do is to befriend the Dragon King, work for him, even sweeping the floor is fine, and then naturally get a few treasures for free.¡± Robert advised Ivan. Ivan is a smart guy, he thought about what Robert said, and then had a sudden realization. ¡°You really are a philosopher!¡± Ivan couldn¡¯t help but praise Robert, this American really has deep thoughts. ¡°Listen to him, old fellow, I¡¯m doing the same now. Now the question is, if you want to join us and become one of us, you must show some sincerity.¡± August patted Ivan on the shoulder. ¡°Sincerity? I am very sincere, I came here because I admire the professor, and then my book was given to Professor Yang even though it was still a draft.¡± Ivan felt he was full of sincerity. August shook his head: ¡°Far from enough.¡± ¡°So what should I do?¡± Ivan was very puzzled. Robert said mysteriously: ¡°You must present a token of your sincerity.¡± Robert really didn¡¯t know how to translate ¡®token of sincerity¡¯ into English, so he used ¡®blood oath¡¯ as a substitute. ¡°Blood oath?¡± Ivan was even more confused. August leaned in: ¡°Don¡¯t be frightened, it¡¯s just a token of sincerity, a gift to show your commitment. The gift must have enough weight. This is how it is, the professor has a paper about treating scoliosis with spinal external fixation technique, which is to be submitted to the Science magazine. Professor Manstein is the reviewer. My point is if you want to stay and work for the Dragon King, you should persuade that stubborn fellow to review the paper early and let the paper pass. I¡¯ve already talked to Manstein, but he didn¡¯t budge, so I found Charite? to help but he still wouldn¡¯t budge, although he seems a bit flexible now. If you act as a lobbyist this time, he will definitely change his mind and review the paper early.¡± ¡°Is this really important? It¡¯s just a paper? With Professor Yang¡¯s current technology, would he care about this manuscript?¡± Ivan didn¡¯t understand. ¡°It¡¯s important, very important. If Professor Yang¡¯s paper is published early, he can graduate with his doctorate early.¡± August emphasized the importance and urgency of the matter. Ivan was utterly confused now, Professor Yang hasn¡¯t graduated with his doctorate yet? He is still a student? And then he is also a professor? And then¡ª Oh gosh, it¡¯s so frustrating and messy, gives a headache. Chapter 791 - 791 709 Experimental Results ?Chapter 791: Chapter 709: Experimental Results Chapter 791: Chapter 709: Experimental Results Ivan felt that Robert and August made good points, and decided to follow their advice. ¡°If you manage to outsmart Manstein, we can recommend you to a WeChat group,¡± August said leisurely. The WeChat group originated from an online forum established by John Ansen, a Mayo neurosurgeon, which was dedicated to studying the medical skills of Yang Ping. This forum gathered many top surgeons worldwide. Later, in order to improve real-time communication, a WeChat group was established under the active promotion of Robert and Takahashi. This way, communication became more convenient and more Chinese-oriented. ¡°WeChat group?¡± Ivan had never used WeChat and didn¡¯t know what it was. August showed his cell phone and explained, ¡°It¡¯s a social networking app from China, almost everyone in China uses it. Oh, I forgot, you don¡¯t even have WeChat. You¡¯re really behind the times. Tell me, are you really eager to learn Professor Yang¡¯s new technology?¡± ¡°I came to China from New Zealand in order to learn about Professor Yang¡¯s skeletal orthopedic techniques. The unexpected discovery of his miraculous skin expansion technique has made me yearn for his groundbreaking technologies,¡± Ivan did not hide his excitement. Sighing, August said, ¡°If you¡¯re truly interested in these technologies, and perhaps more, there are three obstacles you must overcome: Chinese language, WeChat, and Chinese food. We¡¯ve successfully cleared these hurdles and that¡¯s why we¡¯re where we are today.¡± ¡°Chinese language?¡± Ivan trembled at the thought. In Ivan¡¯s eyes, Chinese was the most difficult language to learn in the world. He had previously tried and failed to learn it. ¡°Chinese food, no problem. WeChat is just a tool. But Chinese, it¡¯s really too hard, and those quirky Chinese characters give me a headache.¡± Ivan rubbed his forehead. Robert disagreed with Ivan: ¡°Trust me, Chinese is easier than English, and it gets easier as you progress. Once you¡¯ve mastered those thousands of Chinese characters and mastered some basic phrases, reading will be a breeze. Even completely new words can be understood, which is impossible in English.¡± ¡°Listen to him, Ivan. Many of our colleagues are learning Chinese, and it¡¯s not as hard as you imagine. Plus, think about this ¨C if you learn Chinese well, you can communicate with Professor Yang without any obstacles. That¡¯s crucial. If you truly want to acquire Professor Yang¡¯s technology, it is the necessary route. Don¡¯t just be satisfied that Professor Yang has agreed to let you use his new technology. That¡¯s just a beginning. You have to learn Chinese in order to master the technology,¡± August advised Ivan. ¡°Our WeChat group is full of industry leaders. We don¡¯t usually actively recruit members, but considering you¡¯re talented, it would be a shame if you didn¡¯t join. You should think about whether you want to advance or stay in place,¡± Robert said as he stood up, ready to return to the operating room. August followed him. Ivan immediately stood up: ¡°Gentlemen, don¡¯t misunderstand me. These are not problems. I will write a letter to Manstein tonight and start learning Chinese as soon as possible.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right! Remember, when I¡¯m free, I¡¯ll help you download WeChat. Also, you need to go to the bank to open an account and deposit money,¡± Robert said. Downloading WeChat made sense, but why would he need to go to the bank to open an account and deposit money? Ivan was puzzled. ¡°Why do I need to go to the bank to open an account? Is it to pay the membership fee?¡± ¡°Just do as we say, we won¡¯t harm you. Take it easy, Ivan, you¡¯ll need time to learn a lot of things,¡± August knew Ivan had many doubts. The fucking WeChat app. I¡¯ll have to help him add friends. If he doesn¡¯t send red packets, it¡¯ll be very impolite,¡± Robert secretly grumbled. ¡ª After finishing a day¡¯s surgery, Yang Ping found solitude in his office as usual, leaning back in his chair and squinting restfully. He shut his office door to avoid disturbances, reclined in his boss chair, and closed his eyes. It was quite a comfortable moment. Yang Ping successfully implemented his theories in expanding skin in vitro, which significantly boosted his confidence. If the skin could be expanded, wouldn¡¯t the muscle be expandable as well? Basically, they were the same because they both mimic the cell division during a human embryo development phase, except that the demand for skin division is simpler. This was fundamentally similar to the cloning technology. Present-day cloning normally involves an entire animal, while Yang Ping aimed to clone a partial human body. The inherent factor served as the basis for changes, and the external factor was the condition for changes. Skin being capable of expansion was determined by its innate characteristic. The skin has a partial regenerative ability during a specific phase, such as healing a wound or restoring skin deficiency. A small portion of skin healing is self-repair by the skin itself, while the majority of it is scar healing. Yang Ping sat in the laboratory in system space pondering while he had enough points to support him to perform a large-scale experiment. To unlock the mystery of directed cell division, there are two paths. One is to observe the original cell repair mechanism during wound healing, where the mystery of cell division is hidden. Another is to observe the cell division during the development from a fertilized egg into an embryo. The former involves relatively fewer data, while the latter involves a considerable amount of data and a longer observation period. Nevertheless, no matter which step the experiment is at, the data obtained from the latter can serve as the foundational data for the entire medical field. If both are performed simultaneously, the differences can be compared to identify how the internal codes of cells are activated at different periods. Yang Ping started several observation projects based on this idea. There was no concern about time or hands in the system space laboratory. As long as he had enough points to support the large-scale experiment, hands were only mechanically added at will, and time was irrelevant to mention. According to the experiment¡¯s requirements, Yang Ping created all sorts of wounds on the experimental body, then dynamically recorded the microscopic process of wound healing using various microscopes. Once he stepped out of the laboratory, there were knocks on the door. Yang Ping opened the door knowing that Xiao Su had finished her shift. Xiao Su¡¯s face was slightly red, and she looked a bit shy: ¡°Let¡¯s go home early today. I have something to discuss with you.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± Yang Ping found it strange. ¡°I can¡¯t talk about it here.¡± Xiao Su spoke softly. ¡°Could you give me a hint?¡± Yang Ping pressed on. ¡°It seems like our experiment has yielded results!¡± Xiao Su spoke in a barely audible voice. What experiment? Yang Ping suddenly understood: ¡°Are you saying that our experiment for the sake of our country¡¯s everlasting future ¨C has born fruit?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Chapter 792 - 792 710 Education Begins with Fertilized Egg ?Chapter 792: Chapter 710: Education Begins with Fertilized Egg Chapter 792: Chapter 710: Education Begins with Fertilized Egg On the way home, Yang Ping was overflowing with excitement. He hadn¡¯t anticipated happiness would come this quickly. He felt unprepared. They bought some groceries at the supermarket in their community. Once home, Yang Ping helped Xiao Su to carefully sit down on the sofa. Xiao Su was bemused. She had just become pregnant; surely, there was no need for such caution. ¡°Can you repeat the news you told me earlier?¡± Yang Ping wanted to confirm it, as he was too excited and needed to be sure again. Xiao Su looked at Yang Ping¡¯s innocent expression and laughed softly: ¡°I¡¯ve already had a blood test and checked my HCG level. In a few days, I plan to have a surface ultrasound.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t believe we hit the jackpot. We¡¯re quite efficient.¡± Yang Ping murmured. ¡°Given how often you ¡®visit¡¯, it¡¯s hardly surprising. You¡¯re always QD on weekdays and sometimes you even go Tid or Qid on weekends. It would be surprising if we hadn¡¯t ¡®hit the jackpot¡¯.¡± Xiao Su pouted playfully, her cheeks flushed. Thinking of their baby, Yang Ping felt a pang of concern: ¡°Starting from tomorrow, no more work. Stay home and rest.¡± Xiao Su widened her eyes: ¡°You¡¯ve never rotated in obstetrics, have you? It¡¯s too early for me to rest!¡± ¡°I see.¡± Yang Ping realized he¡¯d gotten overly excited and was being overly cautious. ¡°We haven¡¯t held our wedding ceremony yet, we need to hurry it up.¡± Yang Ping remembered a significant detail. They had only registered for marriage but hadn¡¯t held the wedding yet. ¡°Why are you rushing? We can talk about the wedding when we have time. However, we do need to find time to visit your hometown. It won¡¯t be as convenient in the future.¡± Xiao Su knew how busy Yang Ping had been with his research. The wedding could wait, but they hadn¡¯t visited his hometown together yet. ¡°Once I¡¯ve had the ultrasound, I¡¯ll call and tell our mothers the good news.¡± Xiao Su was already planning in her head. Yang Ping could imagine how happy his mother would be upon hearing this news. She¡¯d always been urging him to marry, worried that he wouldn¡¯t be able to find a wife. Now, not only had he found a wife, but they were also going to have a grandchild. How could she not be happy? ¡°I still think we should hold the wedding ceremony ¡ª-¡± Yang Ping always felt guilty towards Xiao Su. He had spent most of his time on surgeries and research and almost forgot this important event. Xiao Su noticed Yang Ping¡¯s guilt. She held his face, swayed it a bit: ¡°Trust me, I don¡¯t care about these things. You shouldn¡¯t waste time on such worldly things. Every day of yours should be spent on something valuable. You are not ordinary, you are a real genius. Do everything according to your plan, don¡¯t be entangled by worldly matters. Understand?¡± Upon hearing this, Yang Ping was deeply moved. His wife understood him best. ¡°Weren¡¯t you saying that whether we have a son or daughter, we should let them become a surgeon? Let¡¯s start with prenatal education.¡± Xiao Su said to a still dazed Yang Ping. Yang Ping stared at Xiao Su¡¯s belly: ¡°Let¡¯s start now. I¡¯ll explain anatomy to him before we sleep tonight, to familiarize him with anatomy.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it a bit early? Prenatal education doesn¡¯t start this early.¡± ¡°Education should start from the fertilized egg!¡± ¡ª Meanwhile within the WeChat group, the conversation had heated up. Since everyone had learned how to use WeChat and formed a group, moving the previous forum discussions to the WeChat group, communication had become easier, and it also helped in practicing their Chinese. Everyone¡¯s proficiency in Chinese was now generally passable, so communication in Chinese was not a challenge. ¡°Is the latest case about plastic surgery?¡± ¡°Is the professor taking interest in plastic surgery now?¡± ¡°Of course not, the initial plan was for Ivan to be the chief surgeon, but he faced legal issues and could not perform the surgery. So the professor had to step in. If it wasn¡¯t for this case, I wouldn¡¯t have known that the professor could perform plastic surgery this well.¡± ¡°Ivan? Is it that Ivan?¡± ¡°Yes, that Ivan. The Russian from New Zealand, the Soviet student.¡± Ivan had another identifier ¨C Soviet student, as he spent a significant part of his student life during the Soviet Union era. In the medical field, particularly within medical academia, many doctors were familiar with Ivan. He was a legendary figure with unparalleled plastic surgery skills and his origins were shrouded in mystique. Ivan had a notable reputation in the medical field and was considered the highest-earning surgeon. ¡°What is Ivan doing in China?¡± ¡°He invited Professor Yang to jointly perform a surgery on the Italian princess.¡± ¡°Excuse me for asking, how are the professor¡¯s skills in plastic surgery?¡± Someone asked in the group, everyone was curious. Professor Yang never performs plastic surgery, so what was his skill level? ¡°I¡¯m not sure about the level of skill, but right now Ivan is depressed because Professor Yang was able to perform his signature face replacement surgery, and was able to achieve the same result.¡± ¡°???¡± ¡°!!!¡± Technically, real face replacement surgery is called heterologous facial transplantation, just like organ transplantation, where one person¡¯s entire face is transplanted onto another person. Ivan¡¯s technique was not heterologous transplantation, but he used various existing plastic surgery techniques to completely change a person¡¯s appearance, giving them a new face. That¡¯s why it was called face replacement surgery in the industry. His mastery in bone grinding, skin changing and facial plastic surgery, along with their combination, could produce a completely new face in just one surgery session. This face replacement surgery was only possible for Ivan, so when Professor Yang also achieved the same result, everyone was shocked. ¡°Wait...you¡¯re saying Professor Yang can also do Ivan¡¯s face replacement surgery?¡± ¡°I saw it with my own eyes. The legendary single operation molding was also replicated by Professor Yang.¡± There were no plastic surgeons in the group, only doctors from orthopedics, neurosurgery, oncology, spine surgery, heart surgery. But everyone understood the complexity of the face replacement technique. After a short silence in the group, someone asked: ¡°I heard the professor used a new technique this time ¡ª Ex-vivo skin expansion?¡± Any case involving Professor Yang aroused strong interest among the doctors, regardless of their specialty, as they hoped to learn something useful from it. The new technique in the plastic surgery case ¡ªex-vivo skin expansion was a revolutionary technology, the beginning of organ cloning technology. If skin can be cloned, in the future other organs might also be cloned. It¡¯s just a matter of time. ¡°What was the initial raw material for the ex-vivo expansion, Rob?¡± Woodhead asked in the group. ¡°As long as there are a certain number of skin cells, they can be cultured. The starting material for this case was a one square centimeter piece of skin, which was expanded to over one square meter.¡± Robert said proudly. ¡°So, as long as there are skin cells, they can be exponentially multiplied?¡± ¡°Yes, if the skin contains hair follicles, the hair follicles can also be expanded in this process.¡± ¡°Cool!¡± Woodhead gave a thumbs up. ¡°Wu Zi, I think you can pass HSK Level 4.¡± Robert said, surprised by Wu Zi¡¯s use of such a colloquial term. ¡°Thanks, Rob. Your study materials, especially the colloquial vocabulary list, were very helpful.¡± ¡°No need to thank me, it was Takahashi who gave it to me.¡± ¡°Actually, it wasn¡¯t mine either. It was presented to me by Teacher Tang.¡± Takahashi confessed, with a shy emoticon. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that those were your compilations?¡± Robert asked. Takahashi didn¡¯t reply anymore. When Teacher Tang hadn¡¯t joined Sanbo yet, Takahashi had always claimed that the study materials were his own compilations. Chapter 793 - 793 711 Intangible Plastic Surgery Technology ?Chapter 793: Chapter 711: Intangible Plastic Surgery Technology Chapter 793: Chapter 711: Intangible Plastic Surgery Technology Teacher Sun recovered very well after the surgery, with abundant blood circulation in his head. The scalp could take on its own life in a matter of days. A few days later, Teacher Sun stood in front of the large mirror in the ward¡¯s bathroom, carefully observing himself, not missing any detail. It was hard to believe that this unfamiliar face was his own, which made Teacher Sun have a surreal feeling. ¡°The skin of the face has all been transplanted, so it can¡¯t achieve normal expressive ability, making the face seem rigid. In the future, we will need to train the expression muscles and adjust the elasticity of the skin according to the changes in the expression muscles. This way, the skin can finely follow the movements of the expression muscles and restore the best expressive ability,¡± said Ivan standing next to him. Song Zimo translated what Ivan said for Teacher Sun. Teacher Sun didn¡¯t understand these, but only knew that the surgery was very successful¡ªit was an incredible feat, and knew he had successfully changed his face. The final expression adjustment technology is the highest technology in plastic surgery. This is another technology in which Ivan leads the world. Apart from him, no one can freely restore and adjust expressions. The formation of expression, from the consciousness of expression to the contraction of expression muscles, then to the expressive changes of the skin, is a tight system. The majority of plastic surgeons in the world are blank in this area. The few doctors who have mastered this technology implement the technique extensively. However, only Ivan can adjust at whim. This includes a wealth of surgical experience, research on the anatomy and physiology of facial expressions, and a large amount of case data collection, none of which can be lacking. Also, based on a large amount of data, establishing a computer model can greatly aid in the precision of facial expression adjustment. For example, after a face-lift, the skin loses its normal coordination with the expression muscles. Subsequent muscle contractions do not correspondingly affect the skin, which could lead to deformation or loss. This would lead to a loss in expressive ability. To restore expressive ability, one must comprehensively understand the corresponding actions of facial skin and muscle contractions. Regarding this, Ivan has done a lot of research. He knows how to exercise muscles, how to adjust skin, and let the skin naturally and delicately cooperate with the muscles when participating in facial expressions. ¡°Are you saying that my face can still become expressive?¡± Teacher Sun gently tapped on his face, like a woman putting on moisturizer. Ivan nodded, ¡°Not only can your expressions become richer, but expressions, like a second face, also have thousands of models to fit with your current facial contours and personality. I need to pick one pattern for you. Your character is gentle, full of love, so the expressions should match this spiritual connotation and should not reveal any elements of fierceness, lasciviousness, or hypocrisy.¡± Even Song Zimo was surprised, he had never heard of this kind of plastic surgery technique before. Ivan¡¯s recognition as world number one was well-deserved. ¡°Why do I feel that this face is so youthful, it looks like it¡¯s only in its early twenties?¡± Teacher Sun touched his face again and spoke to the mirror. Teacher Sun¡¯s original age was over thirty. With the new face, from the texture of the skin alone, he seemed to be in his twenties. The people standing around him took a closer look and indeed, he seemed much younger. They hadn¡¯t noticed this before, but now that they looked closely, he really looked very young. ¡°This involves advanced technology in plastic surgery¡ªage setting. Aging not only causes the surface skin to lose elasticity and luster, but the deep bones and muscles also change due to aging. People of different age groups have different characteristics. Your real age is over thirty, so setting your face to look like your twenties is very easy. The difference in appearance between these two age groups is minimal. Aging in your face mainly appears as the nasolabial fold deepens slightly, the middle of the face, the eyes, and the areas around the lips sink backward a little. We only need to address these points to achieve the goal,¡± Ivan gave a very professional explanation. Director Lan, the plastic surgeon standing by his side, was hearing for the first time about the technique of adjusting expressions and using rejuvenation as a precision target in plastic surgery. ¡°Can you help me also change my face? Make it look like it¡¯s in my twenties?¡± Boss Liao, who was standing nearby, asked enviously. He hadn¡¯t expected the surgical outcome to be so good. It was simply a technology of rejuvenating. ¡°Of course, but there is a prerequisite,¡± Ivan shrugged. ¡°What prerequisite?¡± Boss Liao asked anxiously. Ivan thought for a moment and then said very seriously, ¡°If you want to change from over fifty years old to your twenties, there is a lot of work that needs to be done. Compared to a person in their twenties, your face would have deepened grooves. For instance, the nasolabial fold and tear trough would be noticeably deepened, the forehead area would move backward, the middle of the face would become flat, the chin would begin to protrude, the cheeks would droop, the eyes would become smaller, and the outer corners would droop. The nose would become long and wide, with the tip drooping. The lips would thin and move downward.¡± ¡°This means your aging is prevalent, from your bones¨Cmuscles¨Cskin, a combination of gravity, bone absorption, tissue elasticity reduction, and fat relocation have resulted in your current facial state. We need to reverse these signs of aging to restore youth, so the workload is immense and requires meticulous attention to detail. According to my pricing, the cost of this surgery would exceed fifty million US dollars, and this is just the base price.¡± The facial skeleton is the basic framework of one¡¯s appearance, supporting and fixing the facial muscles, ligaments, and other soft tissues. When the shape of the skeleton changes, the flesh attached to it naturally changes position too. To advance his understanding of skeletal plastic surgery, Ivan came to China from New Zealand to visit Yang Ping, hoping to learn from Yang Ping¡¯s bone reshaping skills to make deep-level plastic surgery more precise. Fifty million US dollars! This made even Boss Liao sweat and discouraged, the cost was indeed too high. ¡°However, at Sanbo Hospital, if you are a patient of Professor Yang, I can perform the surgery for free. Unfortunately, due to legal reasons, I am temporarily unable to perform surgeries,¡± Ivan added. Upon hearing Ivan¡¯s words, Boss Liao¡¯s hopes were immediately rekindled; who doesn¡¯t want to look younger? ¡°Teacher Sun, if you were to undergo facial recognition now, you would definitely fail.¡± a doctor suddenly commented. ¡°Of course, I will need to get a new identity card once my facial reconstruction is complete,¡± answered Song Zimo. Zhang Lin immediately asked, ¡°Teacher Sun, how would you prove you are yourself when you renew your identity card?¡± The photo on the previous ID card looked entirely different from his current appearance, and even his fingerprints had been altered. He couldn¡¯t use his previous ID card or any other document to prove his identity. If even an identity card couldn¡¯t prove his identity, would other proof be useful? ¡°Right, it¡¯s a great conundrum. How do I prove that I am I? Who can prove that I am I?¡± Teacher Sun quipped. Everyone discussed this problem at length. Song Zimo returned to the doctor¡¯s office with Ivan, and everyone else followed. ¡°Dr. Ivan, the facial expression sculpting technique you spoke of earlier, is as powerful as you say it can provide tens of thousands of expression models for selection and then shape expressions according to the selected model?¡± Song Zimo was extremely interested in this new concept of facial expression sculpting. Ivan thought for a moment before replying, ¡°The plastic surgery techniques that you guys know of, such as breast augmentation, rhinoplasty, modification of facial contours, they are all material-based. Facial expression sculpting, however, is a combination of both, material and non-material, making it extremely challenging. For instance, to shape a person¡¯s unique smile from both surgical and expression muscle training perspectives, don¡¯t you think it¡¯s challenging? Currently, I am the only one in the world who has fully mastered this technique. Unfortunately, I am not able to perform any surgeries at the moment. In my lab back in New Zealand, I have stored up to 24,000 basic expression models, and the number is increasing.¡± Just by listening to Ivan speak, one could grasp the complexity of this technology. ¡°Non-material plastic surgery technology; this is the first time I¡¯ve heard of such a term,¡± said August. As surgeons, they deal with the human body, the material aspect, every day. What is this non-material technology they¡¯re referring to? Does it involve a non-material aspect in surgical operations? But on reflection, it makes sense. For instance, a person¡¯s smile is a physical reaction coordinated by consciousness¨Cexpression muscle¨Cskin, and yet, it contains non-material elements. ¡°Too profound. I don¡¯t understand. It¡¯s overloading my brain!¡± August simply gave up on this idea. ¡°To put it in simpler terms, it¡¯s about grasping both the physical and spiritual aspects with equal importance,¡± Robert chimed in. Everyone looked at Robert in unison. Honestly, without having attended high school in China, one couldn¡¯t possibly articulate such authentic Chinese phrases. Chapter 794 - 794 712 Investigation Team ?Chapter 794: Chapter 712: Investigation Team Chapter 794: Chapter 712: Investigation Team The facial expression shaping that follows is a plastic surgery technique far more difficult than face transplant surgery. This is an area of expertise unknown to most plastic surgeons. Even amongst those few who have encountered it, only some rough, simple, and localized techniques have been grasped, leaving a lack of comprehensive knowledge. What is facial expression shaping? Take orthognathic surgery¡¯s aesthetics of smile, for example, which involves facial expression shaping. The smile is an incredibly significant factor in facial aesthetics. As orthognathic operations can alter the smile, surgeons pay particular attention to this dynamic expression. Many elements influence the portrayal of a smile, such as: how straight the teeth are, their protrusion and degree of incline, the extent of gum exposure, the curvature of the smile, and whether the teeth shown on both sides are symmetrical. Evaluations of the smile can then be made upon these aspects, and a surgical plan with the objective of esthetics of smile can be designed. Only a handful of top-tier plastic surgery hospitals such as Xiehe Eight Great Sites and Shanghai Ninth Hospital have managed to perfect the aesthetics of smile. Although Yang Ping has no interest in plastic surgery, he can¡¯t suppress his curiosity concerning new fields. He uses his spare time to research plastic surgery techniques, especially since he currently has access to one of the world¡¯s most acclaimed plastic surgeons as a technical resource. For Yang Ping, anyone¡¯s surgical methods can be easily mastered. His approach is like a grand dharma of stellar absorptions, where he gleans valuable lessons from various sources, learning from all the exceptional techniques, to then modify and innovate with them. Ivan¡¯s book has been thoroughly read by Yang Ping ¨C the techniques mentioned in it are well-mastered by him. Using this as a foundation, Yang Ping has made significant advancements and innovations. Of course, Yang Ping¡¯s spare time ¨C a concept with no ceiling. The Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s doctors¡¯ office. Everyone, including Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Director Lan, August, and Robert, convened, deeply interested in the expression shaping concept ¨C a new idea proposed by Ivan. ¡°What specifically makes expression shaping so difficult?¡± someone inquired. Ivan contemplated for a moment, then asked, ¡°Have you guys seen the animated movie ¡®The Legend of the String Demon¡¯? If you have, I can offer a better explanation for this amazing technique.¡± Some had seen it, some hadn¡¯t, Song Zimo said: ¡°I have seen it!¡± Ivan nodded and explained: ¡°It is a well-made stop-motion animation. To craft its character¡¯s various expressions, Laika Company used superior facial expression techniques. They used 4429 dedicated eyebrow expressions and 23187 face molds. Coupled with movements, it created 48 million different combinations of expressions and manners for Kubo. You should now understand how detailed and nuanced the science of facial expressions is.¡± ¡°Facial expression shaping can¡¯t truly be manipulated at will, as facial skeletal contours can only be altered, not torn down and rebuilt. So to some extent, facial expression shaping is restricted by the basic conditions of the subject. However, this isn¡¯t a problem, as we have plenty of work to do on top of these basic conditions. For instance, with smiles, we can mold sweet, nai?ve, and numerous flirts.¡± ¡°Regrettably, facial expressions are also influenced by individuals¡¯ deep-seated emotions. Even if we mold a naive smile, after a while, the expression will revert to its original form.¡± Their understanding seemed somewhat vague, as if Ivan was talking about some kind of metaphysics. Robert had an epiphany, ¡°Does the face come from the heart?¡± Song Zimo couldn¡¯t help but give him a thumbs-up. This guy definitely has a knack for Chinese. He always manages to find the right words. ¡°So, are you saying that if one¡¯s appearance is sleazy, they¡¯ll never have a chance to turn over a new leaf?¡± Zhang Lin asked. The crowd turned their attention to Zhang Lin. Did Teacher Zhang look sleazy? Or was he asking this question on behalf of himself? ¡°If someone only looks sleazy, this can definitely be changed. However, if their soul is sleazy, even though plastic surgery can alter their appearance, it won¡¯t last long. The soul is the source of one¡¯s disposition. If there¡¯s an issue at the source, surgery can¡¯t solve it. This is why, in my man-made beauty project, apart from the surgical part, there is also a component dedicated to shaping character, which aims to transform someone from within. I suggest you start with your inner-self and reject sleaziness!¡± said Ivan slowly, then sternly looked at Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin immediately shook his head, avoiding Ivan¡¯s gaze, ¡°No, I was just asking casually. With a face like mine, there¡¯s absolutely no need for plastic surgery.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry ¨C your face ¨C it¡¯s just a leftover issue from your time in university ¨C your computer hard drive data,¡± Xu Zhiliang whispered to Zhang Lin. As if struck in a vulnerable spot, Zhang Lin¡¯s face flushed and neck thickened, but he had no retort. ¡ª The scandal of Sanbo Hospital illegally using foreign doctors for surgeries continues to escalate, with issues multiplying, and has already extended to creating assorted surgical departments without proper permissions and the construction of large laboratories mismatched with the level of the hospital. A team of experts has already been stationed in Sanbo Hospital to investigate the incident. All experts in the team are well-known surgical professors from outside the province. The team leader is a hepatobiliary surgery expert, and the deputy team leader is a plastic surgery expert. Dean Xia has gone to the provincial hall several times to explain the situation, but it hasn¡¯t helped. The investigation persists, as do the evaluations and necessary rectifications. There is no place exempt from the law. Members of the expert group are lodged in the Tri-Bo Hotel. Dean Xia arrived at the hospital early, as did Dean Sun and several deputy deans, Director Zhao of the Medical Affairs Department, and Director Zhou of the Science and Education Department. They all await the arrival of the expert group. ¡°Old Xia, restrain yourself for now. We can¡¯t afford to let anyone catch us displaying a bad attitude.¡± Dean Sun tries to soothe Dean Xia, knowing of Xia¡¯s temperament. Although Dean Xia does have a temper at times, he knows where to draw the line and when to concede. Since a whistle-blower reported the issue and authorities sent in investigators, the investigation is a commonplace affair. However, Old Xia worries about affecting Yang Ping¡¯s mood, Xiehe Hospital being a young person with strong self-esteem, lacking the temperance of societal experiences. ¡°Rest assured, I know how to handle this. We¡¯ll avoid alerting Yang Ping for now. If they need to speak with him, we will handle it. Let¡¯s explain this to the investigation team clearly,¡± Dean Xia speaks calmly. ¡°Our issues under investigation are not just one, but three: illegal usage of foreign experts, unlawful establishment of comprehensive surgery, and unrestrained construction of laboratories not fitted with our hospital¡¯s capacity,¡± Dean Sun delicately explains. Dean Xia is surprisingly calm, ¡°We¡¯ve been open and transparent in conducting our affairs; there¡¯s nothing we cannot subject to investigation. I only ask for one thing, don¡¯t target Yang Ping. I, Old Xia, can plead for mercy and admit to any wrongdoing. Besides, we did not make any mistakes in these matters.¡± ¡°But Professor Yang is on the interview list of the investigation team,¡± Dean Sun frowns. Some matters are beyond their control. Dean Xia decisively responds, ¡°Even if his name is on the list, we can¡¯t let him know, I¡¯ll handle it. Is a hospital dean apologizing not enough? Especially since we haven¡¯t done anything wrong.¡± ¡°Some things can¡¯t be scrutinized too closely. If scrutinized, many loopholes appear. For example, Professor Yang¡¯s surgical permissions, we collectively vouched for him, and the hospital then authorized him. But strictly speaking, it really is noncompliant. No hospital in the entire country has a precedent for this. Not to mention, his surgery for scoliosis, he has not been trained in any specialized training base, he does not possess the surgical qualifications in this area, but he¡¯s been performing it all along, and those cross-disciplinary surgeries are even hard to justify,¡± Dean Sun is extremely worried, as none of the matters under investigation can bear close scrutiny. Dean Xia ponders for a moment and says, ¡°In any case, the principle is to actively cooperate with the investigation above, but we absolutely cannot let it affect Professor Yang¡¯s work. Let all matters stop at our level.¡± Voices speaking in the hallway can be heard, signaling the arrival of the investigation team. They all have stern expressions and, under the guidance of the office director, they enter the small meeting room of the hospital. ¡°Dean Xia!¡± Professor Li, the team leader, greeted Dean Xia with a smile and a handshake. Professor Li is a well-known hepatobiliary surgery professor from another province who conducts himself steadily. ¡°Welcome experts to guide the work!¡± Dean Xia greets with apparent enthusiasm. They all take turns shaking hands and greeting one another, then sit around the office table. A total of fifteen experts have arrived, making an impressive lineup, including one nursing expert. ¡°Everyone¡¯s time is precious, let¡¯s cut to the chase, we should fetch the case files of recent cases involving foreign experts!¡± Professor Li gets straight to the point. Chapter 795 - 795 713 The Incomprehensible Department ?Chapter 795: Chapter 713: The Incomprehensible Department Chapter 795: Chapter 713: The Incomprehensible Department The small meeting room in the administration department served as the temporary office of the investigation team. The electronic medical records were extremely convenient to access. A few computers were placed on the office desk and connected to the hospital¡¯s local network. Subsequently, the electronic medical record system was logged into, and a dozen experts were studying the medical records in earnest. Whether it was the violation of inviting foreign experts to participate in diagnosis and treatment activities, or the violation of setting up a Comprehensive Surgery Department, the investigation should start from the medical records. Most experts were surgeons from different specializations, along with a few medical experts and nursing experts. Frequent involvement in hospital inspections has made these experts familiar with the process, hence making the work seamless. After a while, Professor Li looked up, ¡°I just went over this plastic surgery case. As for the case evaluation, Director Wang is qualified to comment. I shall only discuss the procedure which was indeed illegal. Dr. Ivan, practicing medicine in your hospital¡¯s Plastic Surgery Department and performing surgeries as the chief surgeon without any formalities is unequivocally unlicensed medical practice.¡± In reality, Professor Li understood that this wasn¡¯t much of a matter, because he had performed such deeds himself. Sometimes, in the name of convenience, foreign medical experts were invited to instruct surgeries, and local surgeons were listed as the chief surgeons. However, today is different. Today, he is the head of the inspection team and everything must be done according to the rules. ¡°Indeed, we accept the need for rectification. The responsibility for this matter rests on me, as I approved it.¡± Dean Xia responded calmly, deciding to downplay the situation. If investigated rigorously, it can be proved illegal, but all these years, such operational methods have been accepted tacitly amongst peers. For instance, conducting surgeries by doctors from higher-level hospitals in lower-level ones is technically illegal as those hospitals are not within their practice range. In addition, renowned professors visiting other cities to perform surgeries for a few thousand dollars of labor fees, is also tacitly accepted by peers. If they were paid according to the set consultation fee, which would be a couple of hundred dollars, not many experts would be willing to sacrifice their weekends and gladly risk traveling to other cities to perform surgeries. ¡°We are all peers. Let me be honest with you: It is challenging to ensure if Ivan is the real Ivan. To my knowledge, Ivan¡¯s surgery fees are incredibly high, amounting to millions of US dollars is common. And many top US hospitals have to pay him lots of money and cater to his whims to have him perform surgeries, so how could he possibly volunteer at Sanbo Hospital? There¡¯s a high probability that your Ivan is fraudulent.¡± Professor Wang, the Plastic Surgery expert, shared his thoughts casually while going through medical records. ¡°Thankfully, no medical incidents occurred. Otherwise, how would you handle it? Your audacity leaves me speechless. In the future, never involve yourself in such activities.¡± Professor Li added. ¡°Isn¡¯t Yang Ping the champion of Orthopedics in the current Golden Knife Award?¡± An Orthopedic expert asked, who from the investigation team was familiar with Yang Ping. Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries during the competition left a deep and lasting impression on him. ¡°Yes, he is.¡± Dean Sun answered. The Orthopedic expert¡¯s gaze immediately left the computer screen, ¡°Why did he participate in plastic surgery? This case, underwent two surgeries. The first time, the chief surgeon was Director Lan, and the second time it should be Ivan but after the notice suspending Ivan¡¯s practice and surgery permissions was issued, the subsequent chief surgeon was Yang Ping. At that point, Ivan must have stopped participating in the surgeries. I find it hard to comprehend that Yang Ping, an Orthopedics doctor, performed Plastic Surgery?¡±¡± While this expert is a fan of Yang Ping, he also had questions. ¡°The situation was a bit unique. In our hospital, Yang Ping is not just an Orthopedics doctor. He has the authority to perform any surgery.¡± ¡°Any surgery?¡± The nursing expert nearby couldn¡¯t help but laugh, but she quickly realised her behaviour was inappropriate, immediately covered her mouth, and suppressed her laughter. ¡°Comprehensive Surgery Department? What does that mean?¡± Professor Wang asked curiously. This so-called Comprehensive Surgery Department was something that the experts could not understand. Dean Sun patiently explained, ¡°It implies an amalgamation of various surgical specializations.¡± ¡°Now, only county or township level hospitals have this kind of setup, don¡¯t they? Not differentiating between surgical departments and just having a general surgery department where any surgery is performed. Sanbo is a tertiary hospital, how do you have such a department and what kind of surgeries do you normally perform?¡± Professor Wang continued to grill. Professor Wang¡¯s career journey had been very inspirational. His college entrance exam results were quite poor and despite his father being the Dean of a Provincial Hospital, he could do little to help. Consequently, he ended up with an associate degree from a less known Medical University. However, this didn¡¯t deter Professor Wang¡¯s ambition to rise. For some reason, probably because Professor Wang was a late bloomer or had higher talent, he unexpectedly excelled in college, triumphing from the rear. His associate degree was transformed into a bachelor¡¯s degree through a professional upgrade program. Subsequently, he smoothly entered the master¡¯s program at the Provincial Medical University, and then continued onto the doctoral program. With a doctorate, he joined the Provincial Hospital where his father was, then went abroad for further studies, and on return, became part of a key youth talent training program. Hence, his career climbed pretty quickly, and he is currently the Department Director of Plastic Surgery in the hospital. ¡± They probably perform minor surgeries usually. In terms of cranial surgery, I guess they just operate on scalp tumors or similar minor issues, nothing too significant.¡± Another expert from the investigation team commented. The tone of Dean Sun was very gentle: ¡°On the contrary, the general surgeries that other specialties can¡¯t handle are referred to the Comprehensive Surgery Department.¡± ¡°Complex cases?¡± That expert was highly curious, ¡°They surely aren¡¯t performing craniotomies, right?¡± The Neurosurgery expert in the investigation team chimed in, ¡°When I do surgery in lower-level hospitals, some smaller ones do it that way. The entire surgery department is just one department with a few surgeons, and they do all types of surgeries like appendectomies, the removal of urinary tract stones, craniotomies to clear out hematoma, etc. They do it all, but they can only perform simple and common surgeries, so they are a jack of all trades but master of none.¡± The Neurosurgery expert¡¯s words held a tinge of mockery. It was a natural sense of superiority held by doctors from higher-level hospitals towards their counterparts from lower-level ones. In reality, higher and lower-level hospitals have different specializations, and there shouldn¡¯t be any chains of contempt. For example, during an emergency rescue of acute heart failure, the mixed surgery doctors of lower-level hospitals who are capable of everything may be able to conduct the rescue smoothly. But when the professors of higher-level hospitals encounter acute heart failure, many of them are completely clueless. Apart from supplying oxygen, setting up cardiac monitoring, and hanging fluids, they can¡¯t do much else. The rest can only be worked upon by waiting for a consultation from a respective specialist. ¡°Our Comprehensive Surgery Department is a bit unique. They do not perform normal surgeries. For example, in Neurosurgery, operations like brain stem tumor surgeries which the Neurosurgery Department can¡¯t handle are transferred to the Comprehensive Surgery Department.¡± Dean Sun answered patiently. Dean Xia sat with a solemn expression beside him, remaining silent the entire time. Dean Sun immediately said, ¡°Dean Xia, don¡¯t you have a meeting to attend? I can handle things here.¡± Dean Xia nodded, ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll take my leave.¡± ¡°No worries, go ahead with your work.¡± The congenial Investigation Team Leader, Professor Li, told Dean Xia. He had done his homework beforehand and knew that Dean Xia was very competent, hence he held him in high regard and didn¡¯t dare to be overly commanding around him. After the departure of Dean Xia, Dean Sun and the others stayed behind to cooperate with the work of the investigation team. ¡°Pull out all the surgery cases of Dr. Yang.¡± Professor Wang scratched his nose, it was his first time hearing about a Comprehensive Surgery Department. Even if some hospitals set up such a Comprehensive Surgery Department, it essentially equates to a VIP ¨C Very Important Persons¡¯ department, which accepts all surgical patients, and executes centralized management. The actual surgeries, however, are performed by experts from each department. Namely, this type of comprehensive VIP ward generally has a dedicated team of nurses, a dedicated team of resident doctors, but the chief surgeons are still the senior doctors of each specialty. ¡°What about Dr. Yang¡¯s work history?¡± The nursing expert on the investigation team made a request. Chapter 796 - 796 714 Sometimes Mayo Also Has to Learn From ?Chapter 796: Chapter 714: Sometimes, Mayo Also Has to Learn From Us Chapter 796: Chapter 714: Sometimes, Mayo Also Has to Learn From Us Dean Sun immediately had a colleague from the Human Resources Office bring out Yang Ping¡¯s CV. After one of the experts had read it, it was handed over to Professor Li. Professor Li, with a furrowed brow, passed the file to Professor Wang. After Professor Wang finished reading it, the file circulated among the experts, before returning to Professor Li in the end. After a moment of contemplation, Professor Li said with a stern expression, ¡°Everyone, after obtaining his master¡¯s degree, Yang Ping worked at People¡¯s Hospital in G City, after promotion to attending physician, he was transferred to Sanbo Hospital not too long after, less than two years later, you opened up a Comprehensive Surgery Department for him. I just watched one of his surgeries, he dares to do anything. Scoliosis correction, tumors of the upper cervical spine and brainstem, he even participated in organ transplantation. What can I say about you? There are serious management flaws, no wonder there have been complaints. This is a huge problem. How did you vet this? How did you authorize this? A doctor under thirty, no matter how gifted, should not be like this. Modern medicine is becoming more and more specialized, it¡¯s already quite impressive for a doctor to achieve something in one specific field throughout his life. How is it possible to cross specializations like this? Ridiculous!¡± As Dean Xia wasn¡¯t present, Professor Li was even more unguarded in his blunt criticism. ¡°This orthopedic case¡¯s surgery, honestly, without a decade or more of surgical experience, without training for over a year in top hospitals in Europe and America, there¡¯s no way he could do it. But he actually dared to do it? And you allowed it? This is pure audacity.¡± Followed Professor Li¡¯s tone, Professor Wang also expressed his opinion. He emphasized the experience of studying in Europe and America, because he himself had once spent a year studying at the renowned Mayo Clinic in the U.S., under an internationally renowned master of plastic surgery. This experience, which he took pride in, he would always bring it up when giving lectures. ¡°Professor Yang is not an ordinary person, he is a genius. We set up the Comprehensive Surgery Department for him in our hospital in order to provide him with a relaxed and free development environment. As for the authorization, our hospital conducted a thorough investigation, and it was discussed and approved by a team of experts and administrative leaders. His special surgical privileges are only within our hospital.¡± Dean Sun responded calmly to all the questions raised by the investigation team. ¡°Your authorizations? Do you have the authority to authorize scoliosis correction? Organ transplantation? The country has its own regulations, the industry has its regulations. These all have their own established admission systems. You can authorize? Can you take responsibility if there is a medical accident? Where are you placing people¡¯s health?!¡± Professor Wang said sharply, somewhat emotional. It would have been fine if Sanbo Hospital outright admitted its mistakes, but they even dared to argue with their own absurd explanations. Professor Wang was irritated, feeling that the hospital did not take the investigation team seriously. Dean Sun stated facts, not expecting it to cause Professor Wang¡¯s dissatisfaction, so he immediately clarified: ¡°I apologize if we may have shortcomings in certain areas, but truly, Professor Yang is an extraordinary surgical genius. So far, there have not been any medical accidents. On the contrary, Professor Yang has saved many patients. And those surgeries you mentioned just now, they were all conducted by Professor Yang after receiving approval from his peers. For surgeries such as correction of scoliosis, Experts like Professor Zhang Zongshun from our hospital, a towering figure in Orthopedics in our country, and the renowned Professor Han Jianguo both supervise him on-site. As for organ transplantation surgeries, our hospital possesses the necessary qualifications for it, and several professors from our transplantation center were present during Professor Yang¡¯s operation. Even Professor Yao from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One was there. Professor Yang¡¯s skills have also been recognized by Professor Yao. As for the authorization, we did not do this recklessly. There is an entire procedure and system in place. It was because Yang Ping truly is a medical genius that we had such special treatment.¡± ¡°Genius? Look at the country, or even the entire world. Aren¡¯t there many big hospitals incapable of producing a genius? Currently, which big hospital has set up a Comprehensive Surgery Department, allowing a doctor to perform surgeries from head to toe? Isn¡¯t that a joke? The American Mayo Clinic? Do they have it? No, even Mayo doesn¡¯t have it, are you more capable than Mayo?¡± Professor Wang mentioned the Mayo Clinic again because having studied in Mayo was his honor. What even the Mayo Clinic couldn¡¯t achieve, how could Sanbo Hospital do it? Are you more capable than the Mayo Clinic? Professor Wang¡¯s logic was clear, and all the experts present agreed with his logic. A professor from Orthopedics wanted to say something about Yang Ping¡¯s performance at the Golden Knife Award, but seeing the attitude of the two group leaders, he discarded the idea, thinking it best not to offend anyone. Dean Sun, Director Zhao, and Director Zhou knew that Professor Wang was not easy to deal with. Still, since he was the Deputy Head of the investigation team, they could only cooperate. Disputing with him would be considered as talking back. ¡°Defending him, we understand. Everyone here is in the same profession, so we can understand the sentiment. Provincial hospitals like yours should let doctors study more, go abroad, don¡¯t limit themselves within the country. Moreover, they should study at the world¡¯s top hospitals and learn from international masters as much as possible. Only then can you master the world¡¯s most advanced medical techniques. They have mastered the world¡¯s most advanced techniques, right?¡± Professor Wang changed his tone to give advice as if he was telling the leaders of Sanbo how to cultivate doctors. ¡°Professor Wang, you are right. Actually, we have sent many of our young doctors abroad to further their studies. Our doctors can be found in the United States¡¯ Mayo Clinic, Hopkins, the Special Surgery Hospital in New York, and Tokyo University¡¯s affiliated hospital in Japan. Furthermore, we also have joint training programs with these institutions.¡± Dean Sun introduced the current doctor training situation at Sanbo. ¡°Oh¡ªthat¡¯s excellent, it should be like this.¡± Professor Wang dragged the sound out. Oh. Unexpectedly, this hospital¡¯s doctors also conducted further studies at the world¡¯s top hospitals, which instantly weakened his sense of superiority. ¡°Even though Mayo Clinic doesn¡¯t dare to establish a Comprehensive Surgery Department, or even such a physician role, you dare to?¡± Professor Wang returned to this topic. ¡°Professor Wang, it¡¯s indeed accurate that the American Mayo Clinic doesn¡¯t have anything like this, but just because they haven¡¯t done it, doesn¡¯t mean we can¡¯t do it, right?¡± Dean Sun¡¯s tone remained gentle throughout. ¡°They are at the world¡¯s top level, how can we surpass them? Therefore, we must learn from them. If everybody did it your way, wouldn¡¯t there be constant medical accidents? How can you act so naive? One medical accident and you¡¯re all finished. If we do start investigating, for the scoliosis correction surgery, where did Yang Ping get training? How many surgeries did he follow? How many years of rotations? Who were his supervising doctors? How can he perform surgeries without any study experience? Lives are at stake. This isn¡¯t shoe or pot repair, this is surgical operation.¡± Professor Wang was quite upset in his heart. As deputy head of the investigation team, he felt that these people were not looking up to him in the slightest. ¡°Even Mayo Clinic has something to learn from us!¡± The Director of Medical Affairs, Director Zhao, suddenly interjected. All the experts in the room concurrently turned their heads in surprise to look at Director Zhao, who sat there calmly. Chapter 797 - 797 715 Three Bulls Gather ?Chapter 797: Chapter 715: Three Bulls Gather Chapter 797: Chapter 715: Three Bulls Gather Mayo sometimes needs to learn from your Sanbo Hospital? That¡¯s some serious audacity you have! I¡¯ve seen braggarts, but I haven¡¯t seen anyone boast this much; I¡¯ve seen people boast, but never in such a situation. Listening to Director Zhao¡¯s words, Professor Wang felt increasingly that Sanbo Hospital was unreasonable and arrogant. The Mayo Clinic was where Professor Wang¡¯s faith resided, how could he possibly allow anyone to belittle it so easily? ¡°Mayo needs to learn from you? I am curious to know, how would they learn from you?¡± Professor Wang chuckled, his words carrying a hint of ridicule. Just as Director Zhao was about to speak, Professor Li promptly changed the subject: ¡°Let¡¯s continue reviewing the medical records!¡± Professor Li felt that Director Zhao was only joking, so it was not necessary to take it seriously. Even if he was boasting, there was no need to expose him, it was better to save face. But at this moment, Professor Wang did not wish to let it go. The Mayo Clinic, that was his faith, how could he swallow this grievance? You may criticize him, but speaking ill of Mayo, Professor Wang would be the first one to object. ¡°Don¡¯t rush, I¡¯d really like to hear what Director Zhao has to say. In this way, we can also learn something,¡± Professor Wang insinuated. Professor Li was helpless and could only let them argue. Director Zhao calmly commented, ¡°Indeed, some doctors from Mayo Clinic have applied to come study at our hospital, they are even waiting in line to pass the Chinese Level Four exam.¡± As the Director of Medical Affairs at Sanbo Hospital, Old Zhao possessed absolute confidence whenever dealing with any hospital, including Mayo, a world top-class hospital. This confidence wasn¡¯t put on for show, but from the heart, accumulated from numerous international consultation invitations and numerous international study application forms. Snort! The nursing expert chuckled again. She found the Director of Medical Affairs delightful, treating a joke so seriously, she was amused by him, deeming him a typical case of delusion. Director Zhao took offense at the expert¡¯s attitude and carried on: ¡°Foreign doctors coming for further study in our Comprehensive Surgery Department for more than three months are required to pass Chinese Level Four.¡± ¡°In our Comprehensive Surgery Department, there are currently two foreign doctors studying, one from Germany and one from the United States,¡± added Director Zhou of the Education Department. ¡°Do they speak Chinese?¡± The nursing expert asked out of curiosity. She completely forgot about her duty and was intrigued by this unusual topic. ¡°Not only can they speak it, they probably speak it better than you,¡± Director Zhao also replied without shying away. Hearing Director Zhao¡¯s words, Professor Wang found them increasingly outrageous. In Professor Wang¡¯s mind, a preconceived notion had already formed: the United States was the most powerful in the world, how could anyone surpass the United States? American doctors coming to China for further study was implausible, unless they were studying Traditional Chinese Medicine. Ever since he returned from studying abroad, Professor Wang revered the United States. Each time he lectured his students, he would often insert a few English words, emphasizing the superiority of the United States in public occasions. Now someone was belittling the United States in front of him, wasn¡¯t this infringing upon his dignity? ¡°In that case, let¡¯s go to Comprehensive Surgery and take a look. They are the department in the complaint and Professor Yang is the person involved,¡± Professor Wang managed to suppress his anger and spoke with official niceties. Director Zhao almost blew his top, but years of experience taught him to control his emotions: ¡°Isn¡¯t that improper?¡± Avoid meeting with Yang Ping, have the hospital authorities handle everything. This was a result of prior communication, also a special consideration Sun Dean had strenuously argued for. However, now Professor Wang wants to change it just like that. ¡°Nothing wrong with going to take a look. After all, the department and person implicated in the complaint is the Comprehensive Surgery and Professor Yang respectively,¡± Professor Li chose this time to support Professor Wang. When Sanbo Hospital initially put forth this special request, the Head, Professor Li, had agreed verbally. Now that Professor Wang suggested engaging with Comprehensive Surgery and Yang Ping, as the group leader with the responsibility of investigation, he had to show support or he would be suspected of favoritism by the other team members. Orthopedic Professor Luo from the investigation committee also wanted to meet the legendary Yang Ping, after all, he was the youngest winner of the Golden Knife Award, naturally he agreed. ¡°Yeah, how can we sidestep the departments and individuals involved?¡± The nursing expert immediately agreed, fearing that everyone would change their minds. The other experts present didn¡¯t have much of their own opinions; they were just following Professor Li and Professor Wang¡¯s directions. Since the two group leaders suggested going, then off they went. Hence, the next agenda for the investigation team was to investigate the Comprehensive Surgery Department. ¡ª Yang Ping knew, the investigation team had arrived at Sanbo Hospital. The reason he had not been informed was because Dean Xia was protecting him, not wanting him to be disturbed by these incidents. However, since someone had already filed a complaint, he would need to face the investigation team sooner or later. So, he quietly waited for the hospital¡¯s notice. Yang Ping was notified by Dean Sun that the investigatory group had decided to visit the Comprehensive Surgery Department at short notice and asked him to be prepared. The investigation team was going to the Comprehensive Surgery Department! As soon as the news spread, Dean Xia and Director Han immediately rushed to the Comprehensive Surgery Department to assist Yang Ping in handling the investigation team. At this point, the surgeon¡¯s office in the Comprehensive Surgery Department was bustling with activity. Whether it was young or experienced medical staff, they had experienced countless inspections and were all battle-hardened with rich experience. August and Robert were very excited because they had never experienced such a Chinese-style inspection, so they were eagerly anticipating it. On the other hand, Dr. Ivan being a temporary and implicated personnel, was a bit flustered and did not know what to do. He did not know what this inspection meant but knew that he might cause trouble for Professor Yang. ¡°Everybody, don¡¯t panic, take your positions, interns stand here, research students and standardized training students come here, apprentices stand over there¡ª¡± Zhang Lin was directing everyone to line up for inspection. ¡°Should we hang a banner welcoming the experts to guide our work?¡± Robert asked Zhang Lin excitedly. Zhang Lin waved his hand, ¡°It¡¯s too late for that, just write a few big characters on the whiteboard to show our intent.¡± Song Zimo immediately wrote those characters on the whiteboard. He exhibited a touch of calligraphy skills, a result of practicing calligraphy from a young age. ¡°Can I¡ª Can I¡ª Avoid ¡ª it?¡± Xu Zhiliang dreaded these inspections and meetings the most. Every time the department sent him to the hospital administrative building for a meeting, he always fell asleep. The hospital leaders tried calling him out a few times, but he remained unbothered. Left with no other choice, the leaders directly requested: Please replace him with someone else. Little Five told Xu Zhiliang: ¡°Our Comprehensive Surgery Department cannot be without you. Just stand around and don¡¯t say anything.¡± Dean Xia and Director Han just arrived at the doctors¡¯ office and ran into Yang Ping. Shortly after, the massive inspection group and its accompanying personnel appeared at the doorway of the doctor¡¯s office. These surprise inspections gave Professor Wang a great thrill. He enjoyed seeing people panicking during inspections. Professor Li and Professor Wang surveyed their surroundings. Dean Sun immediately introduced Yang Ping: ¡°Here is the head of our Comprehensive Surgery Department, Professor Yang Ping!¡± The steady Professor Li greeted him with a handshake, praising him for his youthful accomplishments. Is this Professor Yang Ping? Professor Wang could hardly believe his eyes. So young! If it weren¡¯t for Dean Sun¡¯s introduction just now, he would have mistaken him for a graduate student. ¡°Welcome!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s greeting to the experts seemed plain and simple. However, Song Zimo was the star of the inspection, brimming with enthusiasm: ¡°We welcome the experts towards improving our work!¡± ¡°An impressive soldier and a sturdy horse indeed!¡± Professor Li complimented as he looked at the line-up of doctors from the Comprehensive Surgery Department. ¡°Dean Sun, introduce us to the doctors from your Comprehensive Surgery Department.¡± Professor Wang said, savoring the feeling of examining others. Dean Sun had no choice but to introduce the backbone members of the Comprehensive Surgery Department one by one: Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, Little Five¡ª When it got to Robert, August, and Ivan, the three foreigners especially stood out. Dean Sun said: ¡°Doctors, could you introduce yourselves?¡± ¡°I am a visiting doctor named Robert! Just call me Xiao Luo, welcome experts to guide our work!¡± Robert was very proactive and enthusiastic. There indeed were several foreigners. As soon as everyone walked in, they noticed these foreigners. Robert, a visiting doctor? Indeed, a visiting doctor. ¡°Which country and hospital are you from?¡± Professor Wang, whose English wasn¡¯t very good, asked. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, please speak in Chinese. Our department has a rule that the working language is Chinese!¡± Robert shrugged with his red nose. Professor Wang¡¯s old face turned red and he had no choice but to ask again in Chinese. ¡°I come from the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States.¡± Robert fluently replied in Chinese. The orthopedics expert, Professor Luo from the inspection group, was immediately startled: The New York Special Surgery Hospital? Professor Luo had once studied at that hospital. Robert, a household name, is the chairman of the North American Society for Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy. Upon seeing Robert, Professor Luo recognized him immediately, it indeed was him. When Professor Luo was studying, his subject was traumatology, so he never had direct dealings with Robert. However, he had seen him. Now on closer inspection, it indeed was him. ¡°From the Harald Orthopedics Hospital in Germany, my name is August!¡± When it was August¡¯s turn, he simply introduced himself all at once. August? Before Professor Luo could recover from the shock, he was thrown for another loop. August was a top player in European spine surgery, a name that rang a bell. Professor Luo, being a man of experience who had attended several conferences in Europe and America, recognized August. He had once seen August delivering a speech from a distance. His memory was a bit fuzzy, but that distinct voice was exactly the same. These two were big shots! How could they possibly be here for a visit? What a joke! Professor Luo felt a bit unstable, his mind thrown into chaos. There were too many people in the inspection group and too many doctors in the Comprehensive Surgery Department, so it was not possible for everyone to shake hands. Hence, everyone just did a simple introduction. ¡°And this is?¡± Professor Wang, looking at the two real-life big shots, felt a bit timid, his knees beginning to go soft. ¡°From New Zealand, a Russian named Ivan! A plastic surgeon who is currently a freelance practitioner.¡± When it was Ivan¡¯s turn to introduce himself, Robert did it for him. ¡°He¡¯s just here to learn, not an official visiting student, but he will work hard.¡± Robert explained. Ivan? Professor Wang knew of this legendary figure named Ivan, but now standing in front of him, he wasn¡¯t sure if it was true or not. Chapter 798 - 798 716 The Guy Who Fishes in Troubled Waters ?Chapter 798: Chapter 716: The Guy Who Fishes in Troubled Waters Chapter 798: Chapter 716: The Guy Who Fishes in Troubled Waters Professor Luo had met Robert and August before. These top-level experts were usually out of reach, opportunities to even take a photo with them were rare. Now standing in front of him, Professor Luo felt strange, unable to describe this peculiar feeling. ¡°Let¡¯s go over the details of the plastic surgery case,¡± he proposed. With a professional tone, Professor Wang managed to gain control of the situation, for this case was indeed the cause of the investigation. Everyone then moved to the conference room of the Comprehensive Surgery Department. They sat around the conference table to start the investigation process. The medical records were fetched. Professor Li just glanced at them symbolically before handing them over to Professor Wang. As a hepatobiliary surgery specialist, Professor Li was unfamiliar with plastic surgery, so it made sense for Professor Wang to handle the technical details. Professor Wang was willing to take up this substantial guidance role. He flipped through the paper medical records, his brow furrowing as he read. To his surprise, there were many contents and professional terminologies in the surgery records that he had never heard of before. Was he falling behind or were the surgery records unprofessionally written? Professor Wang was uncertain. ¡°Why didn¡¯t this case involve scalp grafting?¡± Professor Wang asked, looking up. Typically, surgeons use the scalp and repeat the process over and over. But in this case, the graft skin was grown in a laboratory. What a peculiar procedure. ¡°We used in-vitro skin expansion technique, expanding the skin from the patient¡¯s perineum to obtain a large amount of high-quality skin grafts, which were then used to replace all the scars on the patient¡¯s body,¡± Song Zimo responded. With a silent look, Yang Ping was sitting on the side. He wasn¡¯t pleased to attend such a meeting, but he was there for the sake of the hospital. In-vitro skin expansion? Professor Wang had heard of it and had seen some papers on it. But because the technology was still in the experimental stage, he didn¡¯t know much about it. Could this Comprehensive Surgery Department possibly master such a technique? Unconvinced, Professor Wang continued to examine the medical records. As he read, the case grew increasingly familiar to him. A teacher, burdened with saving a student who had suffered from full body burns, only the perineum had normal skin. This patient seemed to have consulted him before. Recalling carefully, Professor Wang finally remembered. Indeed, this patient was from his province and had sought his advice. Professor Wang had intended to use the scalp skin as raw material and to skin graft using the same repeated process, but he couldn¡¯t find any normal skin on the patient¡¯s head, which was completely scarred. Consequently, he gave up and decided to recommend the patient to Changhai Hospital. But unexpectedly, this patient came to Sanbo. What a small world. While carefully going through the medical records, Professor Wang saw that not only did the patient undergo skin grafting, but also facial and body hair transplantation as well as reshaping of facial features. Besides some difficult professional terms, Professor Wang generally understood the case. After reading the textual records, he was very interested in going through the photos. The plastic surgery case records had their own special features, lots of photos were used to illustrate the problems. These photos must have been photoshopped for promotion, the results were too good. Even at Mayo, America¡¯s top plastic surgery center, this level of work would not be possible. The patient after the plastic surgery looked completely normal without any traces visible in the photo. ¡°Are these photos real?¡± Professor Wang couldn¡¯t help but ask. Relying on his expertise, such perfection should not be achievable. Professor Wang was now certain that this Ivan was a fraud, a mere opportunist. Sanbo Hospital was just using this case for promotion, and with this realization, all feelings of inferiority vanished. The immense spiritual power gifted by Mayo was revitalized. ¡°Shall we visit the patient?¡± proposed Professor Wang, very cautiously. Song Zimo replied somewhat hesitantly: ¡°Upon receiving the inspection notice today, the patient went to a friend¡¯s house. He won¡¯t be back for at least two hours.¡± ¡°What a coincidence, he stepped out at this time. Let¡¯s discuss this case for now. Can the patient return today?¡± Professor Wang was determined to see the patient. Professor Li knew there might be something fishy. Given Professor Wang¡¯s persistence, and knowing that he was backed by the power behind the scenes, he also kept quiet. Setting everything else aside, the ability to rise from a technical student to a doctor and enter a Provincial Hospital demonstrates no ordinary prowess. Frankly speaking, Professor Li doesn¡¯t really agree with people like Professor Wang. Many hospitals are bogged down by people like him, which gradually lowers their standards and turns them into stagnant ponds. ¡°I am on my way. I will definitely be back in two hours,¡± said Song Zimo. Professor Wang chuckled inwardly, eager to see how Song was going to try and placate him. Today, he was not prepared to let anything slide; he insisted on seeing the patient. ¡°Should we proceed?¡± Professor Wang asked for Professor Li¡¯s opinion. Professor Li nodded: ¡°Let¡¯s begin.¡± Emboldened by Professor Li¡¯s approval, Professor Wang began to speak: ¡°I have just carefully reviewed the medical records. Originally, I wanted to see the patient, but unfortunately, the patient is currently out. Thus, let¡¯s discuss based on the medical records. After all, your complaints originated from this case; it¡¯s an unavoidable topic.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve read through the case, and many professional terms are new to me. Now I¡¯d like to ask if Dr. Ivan could answer some inquiries?¡± Professor Wang specifically named Ivan. He was sure this guy was an imposter; now any Russian can be called Ivan. Just like how anyone on the street could claim to be an heir to the Rothschild family. ¡°He doesn¡¯t understand Chinese, can I answer for him?¡± Song Zimo asked sincerely. Professor Wang shook his head: ¡°Aren¡¯t his two friends not proficient in Chinese? Get someone to translate. The first point of the complaint is that you illegally invited a foreign doctor as the chief surgeon. After all, Dr. Ivan is one of the parties involved, it would be better if he could communicate.¡± ¡°Alright, I will translate,¡± Song Zimo conceded. Robert immediately volunteered by raising his hand, ¡°Let me do it, his accent is too heavy.¡± ¡°Ex-vivo skin expansion technique? You took skin from the perineal area and expanded it externally to more than a square meter?¡± Professor Wang asked skeptically. He hadn¡¯t seen such technique at Mayo. At most, a thin transparent piece of skin is grown, of very poor quality. From the surgery record, however, this seems to suggest a full-thickness skin graft with epidermal and dermal layers. Is it even possible? ¡°Could you explain this to me? I haven¡¯t heard of this technique during my time at Mayo in the United States.¡± His implication was clear: are you better than Mayo? Professor Luo of Orthopedics from the investigation team was sweating at Professor Wang¡¯s malicious inquiry. He was uncertain whether Ivan was a fraud, but Robert and August sitting here were real people. Especially Robert with his noticeable red nose, which was very recognizable. There was no way to mistakedly identify him. Seeing as Professor Luo and Professor Wang were considered experts in several fields, he couldn¡¯t give them a gentle reminder not to be too arrogant because it was easy to cause trouble when dealing with these top experts. ¡°Ex-vivo skin expansion technology is challenging; thus, the patent rights belong to a certain medical company. Mayo, therefore, doesn¡¯t have the technology yet and that¡¯s not surprising. Currently, only two technologies in the world can do this, and only Professor Mainshtan and Professor Yang have successfully performed them,¡± Ivan answered with an evangelistic tone. Robert helped to translate. ¡°Mayo is the top-ranked hospital in America, and even they haven¡¯t mastered this magical technique?¡± Professor Wang questioned incredulously. Ivan nodded: ¡°They are at least five to ten years behind me in terms of plastic surgery. Many of their new techniques come from my training. However, I am reluctant to assist them due to various reasons.¡± That¡¯s a ludicrous claim. Professor Wang replied bluntly, ¡°You¡¯re trying to tell me that Leighton Brennan of Mayo¡¯s Plastic Surgery, a world-class expert, is lagging behind you, Mr. Ivan?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, Leighton Brennan does not have a natural talent for plastic surgery. I have taught him some techniques, but he did not master them. For instance, he has never succeeded in resecting a uniform thickness of skin graft with a scalpel; he could only use a skin harvesting tool. Among my students, his talent is simply too mediocre. Although he works hard, perseverance cannot always substitute for natural talent,¡± Ivan said regretfully. Professor Wang was incredulous, Leighton Brennan, the top plastic surgery expert in the United States, was rated so low in this charlatan¡¯s mouth. This guy must be a conman of unknown origin. Chapter 799 - 799 717 I Have Something to Say ?Chapter 799: Chapter 717 I Have Something to Say Chapter 799: Chapter 717 I Have Something to Say Anyone who hears Ivan¡¯s words would think they were nonsense. Professor Wang was even more certain that this Ivan was an imposter, so he didn¡¯t feel any pressure. This kind of thing happens a lot these days¡ªa foreigner hired for appearances. ¡°A non-transplant facial replacement surgery? What kind of surgery is this? I¡¯ve never heard of it.¡± Professor Wang had heard of allograft facial transplant operations, with several cases reported worldwide. Ever since 2005, when French doctors first performed face swapping surgery, there have been sporadic reports of cases, for example, a few years ago, the New York University Medical Center in the United States performed a complex face swapping surgery for a severe facial burn patient. Of course, Professor Wang had never performed this type of operation. As for this non-transplant allograft facial replacement surgery, a strange term, how can it be a face change if it doesn¡¯t involve transplantation? It¡¯s an extravagant term merely to attract publicity. It¡¯s astonishing that such non-standard terms can be officially written into surgical records. ¡°What? Can¡¯t explain it?¡± Seeing that no one responded, Professor Wang was even more certain that there was something fishy about this case. Ivan thought for a long time before he said: ¡°How can I explain this to you? Strictly speaking, this face replacement technique can be called ¡®facial simulation reconstruction¡¯, it doesn¡¯t involve allograft facial transplantation but completely uses autologous tissues for reconstruction. The technique is extremely complex, if you want to understand it, at least read through a dozen thick books, then personally follow my operations for at least dozens of cases, orelse, even if I explain it, you wouldn¡¯t comprehend.¡± When Robert translated Ivan¡¯s words, he ended with the idiom ¨C playing the lute to a cow. Professor Wang was on the verge of slamming the table after hearing it. They dared to say he didn¡¯t understand, dared to play the lute to a cow? Absurd! Professor Li sat on the side, couldn¡¯t help but laugh inwardly, but still kept a serious face. Li actually disliked Professor Wang greatly, he loathed those who used unconventional operations to gain a foothold in the provincial hospital. Many hospitals originally had very good technical skills and enjoyed strong reputations, but gradually declined because of the excess of such people, which significantly weakens the hospital¡¯s strength. At this moment, seeing Professor Wang being deflated, Professor Li didn¡¯t say anything, after all, everyone here was an expert, and academic issues should be solved academically. ¡°Doctor Ivan is a bit exaggerated, I once studied at the Mayo Clinic, and I have personally seen surgeries performed by Leighton Brennan. But I have never heard of this technology. Is this a surgical procedure you invented yourself? Only you can perform this surgery?¡± Professor Wang¡¯s tone was clearly mocking. Ivan, unhurriedly and leisurely said: ¡°Correct, this is a technology I¡¯ve invented. Before, only I in the world could do it. But now, maybe Professor Yang can do it as well. Thus, in the whole world, only two people can perform this surgery. It is extremely complex and highly difficult. Any mistake in any step, or any defect in the surgical quality could lead to failure. But once the operation is successful, it benefits the patient for life. Unlike allograft facial transplantation, it does not need to worry about rejection and does not require anti-rejection drugs.¡± ¡°The Mayo Clinic can¡¯t perform your unique surgery?¡± Professor Wang asked indignantly. Ivan nodded: ¡°Leighton Brennan¡¯s talent is far from enough. He studied this technology under me, but he could always only complete a few partial surgeries and can¡¯t complete the whole system of surgeries. If Mayo can¡¯t complete this operation, who else can?¡± Professor Wang didn¡¯t expect Ivan to shamelessly boast, saying that Brennan couldn¡¯t do this surgery, but Yang Ping could. This was simply a joke. It seemed necessary to thoroughly investigate this Comprehensive Surgery Department, and thoroughly investigate Yang Ping. Such an unprofessional case report, filled with unfamiliar medical terms he¡¯d never seen before, was like a medical history written by a layman. Even the photos were suspected of being edited. Sanbo Hospital was in big trouble. ¡°Let¡¯s set aside this case for now. Has the patient returned yet? Hopefully not today.¡± Professor Wang knew that there is no point arguing now. This history can definitely be pinned as unqualified as it is full of loopholes. Now only needed the patient to return, to expose their fraud on the spot. After that, the nature of this matter would escalate to see how they would explain. Without acting recklessly, they wouldn¡¯t invite trouble; but these people even had a set of explanations. Absurd! ¡°She is on her way here, and she should be here in about an hour. If you definitely want to see the patient, I am afraid you will have to wait a bit longer,¡± Song Zimo explained. Professor Wang scoffed, ¡°No hurry; we have plenty of time. We must see the patient today. Whether Dr. Ivan has practiced medicine illegally in our country cannot be determined yet, as the chief surgeon listed in the operation record is a doctor from Sanbo Hospital, not Ivan. But one thing is for sure, your operation technique was extremely unregulated. Next, I want to ask if the Comprehensive Surgery Department has the authority over the whole surgical sector. Establishing a comprehensive surgery department without regulation and conferring surgical rights at random is the second subject of the complaint.¡± Dr. Yang Ping rested on the side, with his eyes closed in meditation, while Dr. Song Zimo was the main focus of the investigation. ¡°Correct, we do have entire surgical authority. It was granted by the hospital following standard procedures. There is no abuse of authority. The records of the internal expert group discussions and hospital committee meetings still exist.¡± Dr. Song Zimo said with a clear train of thought. Dean Sun quickly chimed in, ¡°Right, everything is in compliance with our hospital¡¯s procedures.¡± ¡°This decision was made after discussions with the whole hospital, strictly following relevant procedures.¡± Director Zhao from the Medical Affairs Department also explained. ¡°Your hospital¡¯s procedures? Do you think you can authorize any surgery at will? Look here, let¡¯s not mention anything else, what about scoliosis surgery? Can you carry it out casually? It¡¯s a high-risk surgery.¡± Professor Wang stated sternly. Now that Sanbo Hospital had such a bad attitude, he was not going to show any respect. Is it so hard to admit one¡¯s mistake? Why all these meaningless explanations? Dean Xia and Director Han sat at the conference table without making a sound. Dean Xia had a stern face with mood swings, and Director Han tapped his thigh lightly, appearing rather relaxed, almost as if the whole thing was a performance for his viewing pleasure. ¡°We ¡ª ¡± Dr. Song Zimo was about to speak when Professor Wang interrupted him. ¡°Why are you always the one answering the questions? Where is Dr. Yang Ping? I¡¯m not happy with Dr. Yang Ping¡¯s silence. He is obviously sitting there, but he keeps quiet, letting his subordinate doctors speak. What¡¯s the illusion of grandeur he¡¯s trying to maintain? Moreover, looking at Yang Ping, he seems so self-confident, just sitting there, even slightly squinting his eyes at times, as if he doesn¡¯t take the investigation team seriously at all. Normally, whenever I participate in any panel of experts, no matter where I go, everyone else would be nodding and bowing their heads, being extremely compliant. I¡¯ve never seen such self-importance. It¡¯s as if he lacks the bitter experience of society. So what if he is a Golden Knife Award champion? What¡¯s so great about that? Back in my day, I was poor at academics, but I still managed to work in a provincial hospital. Those high-achieving students are still job hunting everywhere. Who exactly is Yang Ping trying to impress with his attitude? ¡°Do not let him always speak. Director Wang would like the person involved to speak.¡± The nursing expert spoke up. Professor Li tried to mediate, ¡°They are all part of the same team. It¡¯s all the same.¡± Professor Li did not want to offend Xia Changjiang, let alone this kind of investigation, going through the motions would be enough, there was no need for insistence. Professor Luo from Orthopedics, an upright person, felt that Professor Wang did not need to be so literal. We are all in academia. Professor Luo understood that some people were reticent and simply did not want to deal with such a scene, it was only natural that members with better articulate skills would take the lead. Besides, Yang Ping was, after all, the orthopedic champion of the Golden Knife Award, so Professor Luo held him in high respect, thus he was slightly unsatisfied with Professor Wang¡¯s attitude. ¡°As a concerned party, it¡¯s inappropriate for you to keep silent all the time.¡± Another expert added fuel to the fire in an official tone. ¡°Our Professor Yang is not good at expressing himself and is not used to such situations. Really sorry about that.¡± Dr. Song Zimo continued to explain with a smile, maintaining his composure. ¡°Not used to it? Don¡¯t you communicate with your patients regularly? Communication skills are also essential for doctors.¡± Professor Wang had set aside all restraints and used his authority as the deputy head of the investigation team. Zhang Lin had been holding his back anger the entire time. At this moment, he straightened out his chest and spoke with the official tone of his mentor: ¡°Let me say a few words!¡± Who is this? The gaze of Professor Wang and other experts followed. ¡°Our Teacher Zhang from the Comprehensive Surgery Department!¡± Robert introduced. Zhang Lin cleared his throat: ¡°Let me say something, Professor Yang¡¯s energy and time are concentrated on surgery and research. We handle these trivial matters. This is a common practice in our department. I hope the experts can understand. Also, there is no need to raise your voices for an investigation. We are here to accept the investigation, not to be scolded. We respect the experts of the investigation team, and we ask that the experts also respect us. There is no need to be so condescending. We should exchange views calmly. Besides, Professor Wang is the vice leader, and Dr. Song is our department¡¯s Deputy Director. Isn¡¯t this diplomatic equivalence? Don¡¯t we have the right to refute the questions concerning our complaints?¡± ¡°Who are you? Did we just ask you any questions?¡± Professor Wang hadn¡¯t expected this blunderer to pop up from nowhere without considering the situation. Chapter 800 - 800 718 Youve Chosen the Right Place to Study ?Chapter 800: Chapter 718: You¡¯ve Chosen the Right Place to Study Chapter 800: Chapter 718: You¡¯ve Chosen the Right Place to Study Teacher Zhang¡¯s official tone left the crowd wide-eyed. The experts on the scene thought this person was some kind of authority figure, but he seemed too young to be so and they couldn¡¯t figure out his identity. Dean Xia, Director Han, Dean Sun, and Director Zhao were also taken aback. They turned their heads to look at Zhang Lin, this young man was showing off in such a situation, acting more like a leader than the actual leaders. How could Zhang Lin miss this opportunity? After completing his speech with the confidence of a king, he took a sip of his tea and calmly waited for a response. His aura was that of a seasoned executive. Xu Zhiliang watched this swaggering performance of Zhang Lin. He found himself tilting his head in thought as he didn¡¯t expect the ¡°swagger king¡± to not only show off but make it meaningful. In the face of Teacher Zhang¡¯s aura, Professor Wang was lost for words for a moment because Zhang Lin¡¯s statements took a moral high ground. ¡°Our Comprehensive Surgery Department is at the forefront of technology in Sanbo Hospital. We frequently use new techniques, so our case and operation records may contain new terms. This doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯re not standardized. The effectiveness of a surgery is what matters most. Ivan is a top international expert. Many of the operations were innovated by him. To put it bluntly, the surgeries in your plastic surgery textbooks are years behind his. So, when you call his surgery unstandardized, what is the standard? Why does he need this standard? He is setting future standards. If we follow your logic, then this patient¡¯s surgery should not have been operated on. By standard guidelines, this surgery couldn¡¯t have been performed at all. What is our role as doctors? To serve patients. As long as we have the patients¡¯ best interest at heart, we¡¯re willing to break conventional practices and take risks to adopt new technologies. We¡¯re just doctors, so what is the relevance of reputation? As long as it benefits the patient, we will give it our best shot. Therefore, we have no remorse and we can stand any investigation. We believe that the people know better.¡± Zhang Lin¡¯s speech was full of rhythm, passion, and emotion. Xu Zhiliang, who was standing next to him, felt a chill run down his spine. He didn¡¯t expect Teacher Zhang to render everyone speechless with his masterful use of rhetoric. Especially the last sentence, which made everyone respect him even more. The younger students all looked towards him. Teacher Zhang, my idol! How noble! ¡°Ah, if others misunderstand us, we don¡¯t mind. However, as our colleagues, you should not misunderstand us. If even our comrades cannot understand us and treat us this way, it makes us feel very lonely and sad.¡± Zhang Lin exclaimed, seemingly on the verge of tears. Enough, any more acting would be over the top! Yang Ping watched Zhang Lin¡¯s performance, and was stunned to see him genuinely squeezing out two tears. ¡°Teacher Zhang¡¯s words are absolutely correct, absolutely correct!¡± Director Zhao applauded first. Dean Sun was in an awkward predicament whether to follow suit or not. Dean Sun felt pained. This was not the time to engage in a battle of wits. Proceeding in this manner would almost put them at odds with the investigation team. The investigation team represented authority. When dealing with such investigations, regardless of whether the other party is right or wrong, they must believe the investigation team is always correct. They must not question, counter-question or argue. Only then will they get a pass. But the current situation wasn¡¯t looking so much in their favor. ¡°Since we¡¯re on the topic of surgical results, I might as well say a few words. Are you sure these photos are accurate? Even in Beijing or Shanghai, not to mention the United States, no one could achieve such results for this kind of patient. Aren¡¯t these photos fabricated?¡± Professor Wang didn¡¯t hold back either. There was no need for euphemisms now. Years ago, Professor Wang¡¯s grandfather was a top official in the provincial health system and his father was the head of their hospital. His uncle was also a key member of the health system and his cousins held important positions in the same system. Within his province, who dared to offend him? Wherever he went, everyone humored him, complimented him, and flattered him. Moreover, he was about to become vice president. Today, as an expert visiting Sanbo Hospital, he didn¡¯t get the respect he expected. Could he swallow this? ¡°Don¡¯t think everyone resorts to academic fraud. We never make false operations. Whether the photo is fake or not, won¡¯t the truth be clear when we see the patient?¡± Zhang Lin wiped away his tears, showing no courtesy, his tone changed completely. He felt that Song Zimo was being too courteous. Dealing with this sort of person needed no pleasantries, and a direct approach was needed. This person was trying to attain a sense of superiority but unfortunately, he was in the wrong place. The Comprehensive Surgery Department was not a place tolerating such nonsense. With Teacher Zhang around, no one dares to get out of line. Even if you are Professor Wang just look at Takahashi, Robert, August ¨C these international experts; everyone is respectful and obedient. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Professor Wang¡¯s face instantly changed. Because the academic accomplishments that have propelled Professor Wang¡¯s career aren¡¯t his own. Regardless they were claimed or purchased, most are fraudulent. He had advanced from a vocational degree to a bachelor¡¯s degree and onto a master¡¯s degree with many shady dealings along the way. Others may not know, but he is fully aware that he¡¯s a mediocre student disguised as a top student. Over time, he started believing that he¡¯s indeed a top student. Zhang Lin¡¯s words seemed to hit a nerve, rendering him extremely sensitive. In fact, Zhang Lin didn¡¯t know the specifics. Except for the people in his own hospital, everyone outside thought he was a genuine top student. ¡°You illegally hired Doctor Ivan for medical consultations and surgeries. Is this a fact?¡± Professor Wang could barely contain his anger. Zhang Lin didn¡¯t back down: ¡°Does your hospital not carry out such practices? By your logic, every time you perform a flying knife surgery elsewhere, it¡¯s illegal practice. Are all the places where you performed flying knife surgeries your practicing locations? Have you followed standard fees? Is it true you only charge two hundred for a flying knife surgery? Any issue needs to be considered in its actual context, detached from actual situations it becomes meaningless, and double standards are even more foolish.¡± Chapter 801 - 801 718 Youve Chosen the Right Place to ?Chapter 801: Chapter 718 You¡¯ve Chosen the Right Place to Advance Your Studies_2 Chapter 801: Chapter 718 You¡¯ve Chosen the Right Place to Advance Your Studies_2 At the meeting, only two voices prevailed, while everyone else remained silent. Seeing that Dean Xia did not speak up, Dean Sun also had to abandon treatment. The situation was beyond repair, and when the time came, the investigation team could write whatever conclusions they wished with a stroke of a pen. ¡°Don¡¯t bring up other matters; we are investigating this particular incident right now. Why have you been complained about specifically, when others have not?¡± ¡°Then tomorrow, I¡¯ll go and lodge a complaint at your Health Department. Do you dare to initiate an investigation?¡± ¡°Your Comprehensive Surgery Department, allowing a surgeon to perform all kinds of surgeries, is that reasonable? Who granted you the authority, who gave you the audacity?¡± ¡°We granted it to ourselves, is that illegal? If the law does not forbid it, it¡¯s permissible. We have all the necessary licenses, we have all the required processes, why must you be the ones to assess? If we carry out a surgery that you have never performed, how can you assess it?¡± Zhang Lin retorted with a series of questions. ¡°Nonsense and sophistry!¡± ¡°We serve our patients wholeheartedly, fearing neither ghosts nor evil spirits!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s not get agitated. We are conducting an investigation, and you have the right to defend yourselves. But let¡¯s communicate calmly. This matter is actually quite easy to handle. We will review whether the case record matches the actual condition of the patient. Won¡¯t we know once we see the patient together? As for whether the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s full scope of practice is justified, won¡¯t we understand by looking at their surgery success rates?¡± Professor Li interjected, attempting to defuse the tense atmosphere and prevent the argument from getting out of hand. ¡°Let me say a few words. I won¡¯t comment on the first two matters; the three complaints you¡¯re facing do seem quite unreasonable, and it¡¯s no surprise that there have been complaints. Was it really necessary to spend so much money building a laboratory? Our hospital¡¯s revenue last year was several times yours, yet we didn¡¯t invest in such a luxurious lab. Isn¡¯t that just for show? Who needs such a big lab for experiments? In the end, isn¡¯t it just a pile of scrap iron? You really have many other areas where money needs to be spent; why not save a bit and allocate funds where they¡¯re most needed? For example, your nursing department¡¯s office, to be honest, is far behind ours. The office computers are still those from ten years ago, even the dean¡¯s office doesn¡¯t look the part, with such old sofas.¡± The nursing expert spoke seriously, and as a member of the expert group, it was important for her to assert her authority. Actually, being part of such an expert group and conducting inspections elsewhere can be a very satisfying experience. ¡°The patient is back!¡± The door was gently nudged open just a crack, and then a young doctor darted in; it was Li Guodong, and he brought good news. ¡°The patient is back? ¡ª Let¡¯s see the patient,¡± Professor Wang expressed in amazement. Professor Wang had believed that this patient would never return, thinking that saying he would was just a stalling tactic; he never expected him to actually come back. For a Plastic Surgery patient, it¡¯s essential to see the person, and preferably to know what they looked like before and after the surgery. Since it¡¯s already after the surgery, we can only check the post-operative appearance. Anyway, the post-operative status couldn¡¯t possibly be as perfect as the photos in the case record, virtually indistinguishable from a normal person. ¡°Bring the patient in!¡± Song Zimo instructed Li Guodong. Everyone eagerly waited, looking towards the door for the patient to enter. Dean Xia and Director Han had remained silent, letting these young people handle the situation, and also because it wasn¡¯t convenient for them to intervene directly. As the patient was brought in, everyone craned their necks to get a close look. This is a patient after severe burn reconstruction surgery? Impossible. Apart from a slight stiffness in facial expression, there was no visible difference from a normal person. How could that be? Even though most were not Plastic Surgeons, they still had basic knowledge ¨C while they might not have eaten pork before, they had certainly seen pigs run. Professor Wang asked the patient to stand in front of him and scrutinized closely. How could it be possible? There was really no difference from the photograph. Could it be? Could it be that the photoshopped image was not from after the surgery, but from before? Professor Wang had a keen memory of this special case, as he had been consulted previously. Now, seeing the patient looking completely normal after the surgery, he was certain it couldn¡¯t be the same person he remembered. Professor Wang could make a conclusive judgment. If so, and the patient had been a normal person all along with the surgery being fictitious, Sanbo was in for a big event. Many experts stood up and walked over to observe the patient, marveling and even asking privately about some surgical details, curious to know how it was achieved. According to the medical record, the patient had suffered severe burns all over the body, covered in scars, with only the perineal area having a patch of healthy skin. The features were severely deformed and the scalp was also scarred. Yet, after the surgery, the patient had returned to a normal appearance. Initially, everyone had doubted the authenticity of the photos, but now with the patient standing before them, it was indeed the case. ¡°Please, take a seat! May I ask you a few questions?¡± Professor Wang regained his smile and spoke kindly. Li Guodong brought over a chair, asking Teacher Sun to sit next to Professor Wang, who began to question the patient in front of everyone: ¡°First, I need to verify your identity information. Sorry for the inconvenience, but since we¡¯re conducting an investigation, we must be thorough.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°My name is Sun Zeming!¡± ¡°Your ID number?¡± ¡°¡ª¡± ¡°When and where were you burned? Can you describe the detailed process of your treatment?¡± Professor Wang believed this patient was a fraud; he didn¡¯t believe in the patient¡¯s story, so he asked in detail. The patient could bring someone else to feign compliance with the investigation. In many cases, Professor Wang knew more about what was happening than anyone else. But medical history can¡¯t be faked. Let him speak first, then verify the details again, and the truth will quickly become clear. Teacher Sun recounted his medical history, narrating it like a story, clearly detailing the long process of seeking medical care: which year, which month, where he went, and whom he saw, with no confusion on any detail. Chapter 802 - 802 718 Youve Chosen the Right Place to ?Chapter 802: Chapter 718 You¡¯ve Chosen the Right Place to Advance Your Studies_3 Chapter 802: Chapter 718 You¡¯ve Chosen the Right Place to Advance Your Studies_3 Professor Wang personally recorded the medical history and would inquire further at key points, such as which professor the patient had consulted at the time and what their name was. The circle of plastic surgery is just that small; he knew all these visited professors and could easily verify the truth with a few questions. ¡°You¡¯re Professor Wang, aren¡¯t you?¡± Teacher Sun suddenly recognized Professor Wang. Professor Wang frowned, ¡°You know me?¡± ¡°I visited you last year; have you forgotten? You said there was no scalp available for surgery and suggested I try Shanghai Changhai, where they were doing something with stem cell technology. Don¡¯t you remember? I¡¯m Sun Zeming. I consulted with you twice, and you even took photos,¡± Teacher Sun recognized Professor Wang. Sun Zeming, was this really the patient he had seen before, now looking like a normal person? Impossible! ¡°I didn¡¯t go to Changhai in the end but came here through a referral. Look at me now, completely normal. I¡¯ve had a full skin transplant, my face is changed too. Take a look. Next, I¡¯ll be reconstructing my expressions; it¡¯ll be even better in the future. Oh my, Professor Wang, as a plastic surgery expert, how could you not know about Sanbo Hospital? Professor Yang from Sanbo Hospital and Professor Ivan from Russia are incredibly skilled. You must be here for further study, to learn diligently, to catch up and narrow the gap,¡± said Teacher Sun excitedly, his face beaming with joy. He was used to being observed by students, and seeing this scene, with everyone crowding around him with questions and taking notes, he thought it was yet another group of doctors here for further education. Professor Wang coughed a few times to cover his embarrassment. He didn¡¯t respond to Teacher Sun¡¯s comments and continued his questioning. Over the past few days, Teacher Sun was too excited and began to chatter incessantly: ¡°Professor Wang, you really found the right place. You need to study here, from Professor Yang and Professor Ivan. Haven¡¯t you seen their surgeries? They are truly miraculous. This face transplant, look at it, isn¡¯t it incredible? I could never have dreamed of such an outcome. I heard that because of this, Professor Yang was even complained about. Can you believe such injustice?¡± Professor Wang coughed a few more times. ¡°Professor Wang, as peers, you should help each other out, you should support Professor Yang. I don¡¯t know which bunch of bastards, lacking skills themselves, sneak around sabotaging others. I despise such people the most,¡± said Teacher Sun. Instantly, Professor Wang¡¯s face turned beet red, as red as the roots of his ears. The words of Teacher Sun were like knives, piercing through him. Seeing Professor Wang¡¯s expression, Professor Li was unsure of what had happened but the situation was obviously awkward. He was at a loss for what to do, so he surreptitiously gestured to Professor Luo to change seats, to move next to him while everyone else was focused on the conversation between Professor Wang and the patient. ¡°Old Luo, you¡¯re in orthopedics and have also been to the United States for further study. Is that American really from the Special Surgical Hospital in New York?¡± Professor Li felt it necessary to understand the situation clearly. Simple-minded Professor Luo nodded: ¡°Little Robert, Director of Sports Medicine at the Special Surgical Hospital in New York, Chairman of the North American Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Association. I¡¯ve seen him a few times; it is truly him. The other is August, the top European expert on the spine. I¡¯ve attended his lectures.¡± Professor Li took a deep breath, feeling a chill down his spine. It seemed the Comprehensive Surgery Department was a miraculous place. Fortunately, he had always been kind, not offending anyone. ¡°What do you think of Yang Ping?¡± Professor Li whispered. In a low voice, Professor Luo said, ¡°I don¡¯t know about other things, but no one in Orthopedics can match his surgical skills. The surgeries that won him the Golden Knife Award were nothing short of marvelous craftsmanship. And about the new spinal correction technique he invented, I¡¯ve heard that even Xiehe Hospital invited him to give lectures.¡± ¡°Is this information reliable?¡± ¡°Reliable!¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t you say so earlier?¡± ¡°I thought you all knew.¡± Almost causing a huge blunder, Professor Li, though he looked down on people like Professor Wang, had no intention of causing harm. After some thought, he immediately said, ¡°Professor Wang, we¡¯ve seen the patient; let¡¯s move on to discuss other matters.¡± At this moment, as the group leader, he needed to step in to change the situation; it couldn¡¯t continue this way. PS: Over four thousand words, equivalent to two chapters. Thank you, everyone! Chapter 803 - 803 719 Showing Skills Depends on Competing ?Chapter 803: Chapter 719: Showing Skills Depends on Competing for Superiority Chapter 803: Chapter 719: Showing Skills Depends on Competing for Superiority Hearing Teacher Sun¡¯s words, Professor Wang felt as if he had been struck by lightning, his thoughts in disarray. The patient before him was definitely a former patient of his; otherwise, how could he know the details of the past consultation? Moreover, judging from the voice and behavior, there was no doubt in his mind. But why had there been such a big change? Could it be that the surgery¡¯s effects were really that remarkable? Was it truly performed by Ivan? As a plastic surgeon, Professor Wang was very familiar with the legend of Ivan, though he had never met him in person. Unable to help himself, Professor Wang turned his head to glance at Ivan. If that were really Ivan, he would be a demigod, right? Could the words he had just spoken all be true? But how could Sanbo Hospital possibly have engaged someone like him? It was said that many top hospitals in the United States couldn¡¯t secure Ivan¡¯s services. Seeing Professor Wang¡¯s lack of response, Professor Li, in his capacity as group leader, reminded him again, ¡°We are pressed for time, and we have already reviewed the case. Let¡¯s discuss the legality of Ivan¡¯s surgical procedure.¡± Only then did Professor Wang come to his senses. He stopped asking questions and returned to the conference table, while Teacher Sun was taken back to the ward by Li Guodong. The meeting continued. Taking charge, Professor Li said, ¡°Regarding the issue of Sanbo Hospital illegally inviting a foreign doctor to consult and perform surgery, we now have a clear understanding of the facts. Firstly, the results of the surgery are very good, as we have just seen the case, so there is no need for further explanation from me. Thus, we only need to verify the legality of the procedure. I have reviewed the surgery records, and the chief surgeon listed for both operations is a Sanbo Hospital doctor with surgical qualifications, which suggests there are no major issues. The procedure is entirely legal. Sometimes our hospital also invites professors from Beijing to perform surgeries to simplify paperwork¡ªwe often operate in the same manner. There is nothing unreasonable about this. Therefore, I believe the allegation of Sanbo Hospital illegally inviting a foreign doctor for consultations and surgery is unfounded. What are your opinions?¡± Professor Wang wasn¡¯t particularly skilled, but he knew how to read the room. He knew better than to challenge authority. Hearing Professor Li¡¯s words and realizing Professor Li might know something, he immediately made a 180-degree turn, ¡°Hmm... um, Professor Li is right, I agree,¡± Professor Wang answered awkwardly. With both group leaders setting the tone, there was no need for further discussion. The other members expressed their agreement, albeit through trivial commentary. ¡°Moving on to the second issue, the authorization of the Comprehensive Surgery Department, this is an internal matter of Sanbo Hospital. Normally, it wouldn¡¯t be our place to interfere. However, since we have received a complaint and are here on behalf of your Provincial Hall to investigate, we need to examine the surgeries you have performed in the past. Professor Yang, please go ahead and present them, since you are the one directly involved,¡± Professor Li spoke flawlessly. ¡°Right, I agree with Professor Wang¡¯s opinion, internal matters, internal matters,¡± Professor Wang echoed. Professor Wang sat restlessly, stealing glances at Ivan several times. If that was really the great Ivan, he feared discussing professional knowledge. With his limited expertise, he was afraid of embarrassing himself. ¡°Professor Yang, please introduce it to the experts,¡± finally Dean Xia spoke. Yang Ping stood up, bowed slightly to everyone, and spoke with confidence and conviction: ¡°Our Comprehensive Surgery Department is a research-oriented department, a base combining scientific research with clinical practice. Currently, no other hospital in the country or abroad has a similar department. Therefore, many things cannot be compared with others. As a research department, our surgical techniques often cross disciplines. For example, spinal deformities involve the heart and lung, and tumors of the upper cervical spine often involve the brain stem. Therefore, we need full surgical authority across Surgery to carry out our work normally. The surgeries we perform are the most advanced, both in concept and technique, often surpassing what is taught in textbooks, making it difficult to use external evaluation for authorization.¡± ¡°Take this plastic surgery case, for instance; the reconstructive techniques used on the facial features are something Professor Wang has probably never heard of. That¡¯s no surprise, as these techniques are Dr. Ivan¡¯s cutting-edge technology, not expected to become widespread without a decade of time. Consequently, the hospital has considered our specific situation. To avoid stifling our growth, they¡¯ve adopted special measures, granting us complete surgical authority across Surgery.¡± ¡°Our hospital also handles special cases in a special way,¡± said Song Zimo. ¡°As for the surgeries we conduct, they currently cover a wide range, including scoliosis correction, treatment of severe and complex traumas, upper cervical and brainstem tumors, and of course, the complex plastic surgeries that we¡¯ve only recently begun. Every type of surgery has its own innovative techniques that we¡¯ve developed. These have all undergone rigorous academic evaluation and the papers have been published in top international journals. If you¡¯re interested, you can visit our teaching room later, where we have journals featuring our published papers on display.¡± Following this, Song Zimo began distributing departmental brochures to everyone. The experts were blown away by the published journals, each one representing the pinnacle of its field. For them, producing just one paper for their entire hospital was a challenge, yet the Comprehensive Surgery Department seemed to churn them out effortlessly. Professor Wang¡¯s hands trembled as he held the brochure, pretending to be calm, secretly praying for the meeting to end quickly, fearing Dr. Ivan might pose a question that would expose his ignorance. ¡°May I say a few words?¡± The voice came from a corner, it was that of an elderly man ¨C Professor Zhang Zongshun. ¡°It¡¯s Professor Zhang Zongshun, the leading authority of orthopedics in the country and formerly from Mo Sixth,¡± Professor Luo immediately introduced to Professor Li to prevent another misunderstanding. Professor Li nodded, and Professor Wang also leaned in, hoping to glean some inside information. Dean Xia, Director Han, Director Zhao, and others hadn¡¯t realized that Professor Zhang was also sitting in the meeting room, as they hadn¡¯t paid him any attention and had no idea when he had arrived. ¡°I am very familiar with Dr. Yang Ping¡¯s situation,¡± began Professor Zhang. ¡°I was the one who pushed for his surgical authorization. As for the complaint against him, I was extremely shocked when I heard. I won¡¯t comment on whether the issue was compliant and legal ¨C that¡¯s for your investigative team to assess. I just want to say a few words. We are academics, each person¡¯s energy should be put into our work, not the majority of it into managing interpersonal relations. If that¡¯s the case, it¡¯s truly meaningless and science can¡¯t progress. What does a good academic environment look like? If everyone does their job well, there¡¯s no need to spend time and energy on interpersonal relations. Strength should be shown through one¡¯s work. As for young people like Yang Ping, all he thinks about daily is medical skill. When it comes to medical expertise, I¡¯ve yet to see someone surpass him. If it¡¯s about fighting with others, he¡¯s no match. I believe our academic environment will only get better, and I¡¯m full of hope for that. I don¡¯t know if you all feel the same.¡± Professor Zhang¡¯s voice was loud and clear as he spoke. As soon as he finished speaking, a round of applause filled the meeting room. ¡°I still have to see patients, so I¡¯ll be leaving first. You all continue. An old man like me is just saying a few words, don¡¯t mind me too much,¡± said Professor Zhang as he got up and left the meeting room. What wonderful words ¨C to show one¡¯s ability through actions! Professor Li was deeply moved, feeling a surge of the passion from his youth. Professor Wang felt a heat in his ears; those words seemed almost like a scolding, yet he had no choice but to listen. Professor Li glanced at Professor Wang, feeling a surge of emotion. ¡°Regarding the issue of surgical privileges, I think that¡¯s an internal matter for Sanbo Hospital,¡± Professor Li said. ¡°The authorization went through rigorous procedures with nothing untoward. If there are no objections, let¡¯s move on to the third item, the issue of setting up a laboratory improperly. We should visit the laboratory to see if its resources match up with the hospital¡¯s. Without investigation, there¡¯s no right to speak. After the investigation, everyone can give their comments.¡± Professor Li did not want to dwell on the issue. ¡°Dean Sun, please arrange it. Dean Xia is busy, so you go ahead, and we will take a look at the laboratory to understand the situation better,¡± said Professor Li, not wanting to make a spectacle. Everyone stood up and headed toward the laboratory. Chapter 804 - 804 720 Kicking Special Steel ?Chapter 804: Chapter 720: Kicking Special Steel Chapter 804: Chapter 720: Kicking Special Steel On his way to the laboratory, Professor Li mulled over Old Zhang¡¯s words and felt his ears grow increasingly hot. It was obvious that the complaint against the Comprehensive Surgery Department was someone stirring trouble, yet he had pretended to be deaf and mute, playing it safe. That Professor Wang was even more pretentious, intentionally making things difficult. Actually, the matter was very simple. There were no procedural issues to begin with, since everyone was following the same protocol, which implied tacit approval. Furthermore, with so many successful cases, his performance in the Golden Knife Award, and several foreign doctors coming to observe, it was undeniable that Yang Ping was a genius. How could such a genius be treated like an ordinary person? Such a simple issue had been unnecessarily complicated, and they even made that good-for-nothing Professor Wang the deputy head of the investigation team because he was a plastic surgery expert, which effectively put the power in his hands. Old Zhang¡¯s words had cleared up a lot for Professor Li. Hope had to be created by everyone, and in fact, many issues were stirred up by the likes of a rat dropping like Professor Wang. ¡°Professor Li! Professor Li! Professor Li!¡± Professor Wang caught up with Professor Li at a fast pace, wanting to whisper something to him. Although Professor Wang had been at a loss for words during the exchange at the meeting and had been pressured to the point of not being able to raise his head on stage, he had quickly come to his senses after the meeting. As the deputy leader of the investigation team, he thought he had the upper hand, no matter how capable or talented the others were¡ªthey were still in his grasp. Professor Wang planned to discuss with Professor Li, deciding to put the so-called genius in his place. Having a somewhat prominent figure in the world of plastic surgery being confronted by a youngster at Sanbo Hospital, and word getting out, it would reflect badly on him. ¡°Hmm¡ª¡± Professor Li maintained a stern face and did not plan to entertain him or give him the opportunity to whisper. The investigation team arrived at the Stem Cell Laboratory, where the laboratory director, Tang Shun, was in charge of receiving them. ¡°Our laboratory director, Mr. Tang Shun, just graduated from Tokyo University with his doctorate!¡± Dean Sun introduced. Professor Li shook hands with Tang Shun, no further introduction needed, as the mere mention of Tokyo University was enough for many to recognize Tang Shun¡¯s importance. The other experts in the investigation team found it hard to believe that the director of this hospital¡¯s laboratory was actually a doctorate holder from Tokyo University. Under the watchful eyes of the hospital leadership and the investigation team experts, Tang Shun confidently began to introduce the basic situation of the laboratory. ¡°Our laboratory¡¯s equipment is currently world-class, and we are building our talent team. The research topics are progressing well, with the first phase having been successful. Look, this is the result of our phase one topic, the Skin Expansion Technology, which has already been successfully applied clinically.¡± Tang Shun showed everyone the skin samples floating in the transparent cultivator, to their amazement. ¡°How much is your annual research funding?¡± Professor Wang, having listened to so much, felt it was all airy talk. It wasn¡¯t that Tang Shun intended to be vague, but giving the actual figures would shock people, so he tended to gloss over them. ¡°Our hospital had a research budget of fifty million last year, and we didn¡¯t even build a laboratory like this,¡± a nursing expert blurted out. A hospital with an annual research budget of fifty million is already very impressive. Although it doesn¡¯t rank at the top nationwide, it is definitely a top provincial hospital. ¡°Yes, our hospital had a little over fifty million last year, and we couldn¡¯t manage such a large laboratory either. You all have the courage. May I ask how much your annual research funding is?¡± Professor Wang asked with a sting in his voice. Having looked around the laboratory, although he didn¡¯t recognize some equipment, the few large items he did know added up to seventy to eighty million. How could Sanbo Hospital have so much funding given its scale? Tang Shun wasn¡¯t sure whether to speak or not. His eyes swept over Yang Ping¡¯s face, and Yang Ping merely narrowed his eyes slightly. Tang Shun immediately understood Yang Ping¡¯s meaning¡ªspeak candidly! ¡°Our research funding has already been spent to the amount of two billion, with even greater investments needed for the future,¡± Tang Shun said truthfully. Two billion? In the medical circle, making such a claim was asking for trouble. West China Hospital ranked first in the nation for research funding, with an average annual budget for the whole hospital of slightly over two billion. Yet here was a single project claiming to have spent two billion already. Everyone was stunned to the point of dizziness, even Professor Li doubted if he had heard correctly. ¡°Two billion?¡ª¡± Both Professor Wang and the nursing expert asked simultaneously. ¡°Which project did you apply for that gave you so much? Tell us about it,¡± Professor Wang continued to inquire, as the nursing expert covered her mouth to hide her smile. Dean Sun was also embarrassed. Having someone like Yang Ping at Sanbo Hospital, who was bound to be questioned no matter what he said, even Sun Zeming himself would not believe such an extravagant research budget if he had not experienced it personally. Dean Sun had no choice but to step forward and explain, ¡°The figure might seem large, but it is not exaggerated in the slightest. Calculating research funding in billions is nothing extraordinary. What¡¯s more impressive is that our Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s research funding comes entirely from societal donations, without taking a single penny from the state.¡± ¡°You¡¯re questioning us? I¡¯m going to drive you mad, a knife is a knife, might as well hold my head high and take it.¡± Budget in the billions? All funded by social sponsorship? There¡¯s no such thunderous news, one thunderclap isn¡¯t over, and now another strikes right above us.¡± ¡°Over a billion in research funds? All self-raised?¡± Professor Li couldn¡¯t resist asking, while the other experts instructed their curiosity.¡± Dean Sun once again confirmed, ¡°To be honest, our Professor Yang has his own special research foundation, the funds from these donating enterprises are earmarked donations, designated directly for Professor Yang¡¯s use. Not to mention anything else, just one domestic enterprise has poured in several billion. Our accounts are regularly audited by the state and third parties, with no issues whatsoever.¡± Professor Li really felt dizzy, as if in a dream. Earmarked donations? How much ability, how much charm do you need to have such qualifications? With such a large investment, what effect could it possibly have? Professor Wang still wanted to ask questions, but Director Zhou from the Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Department of Science and Education didn¡¯t give him the chance, snatching away the topic: ¡°The big project needs to be kept confidential, so I won¡¯t go into detail, but phase one of the project¡ªSkin Expansion Technology outside the body, has already successfully used a patient¡¯s skin cells, expanding them by several thousand times, and the clinical application has been very successful. Today, the skin grafts used on the burn reconstruction case Sun Zeming that everyone saw come from this laboratory.¡± ¡°This project has only been successfully executed by two teams in the world thus far, one is Professor Mainshtan from Charite? Medical College in Germany, the other is us. Both teams have completely different technical routes, but our technical route is even more superior,¡± Tang Shun added. ¡°Guodong, bring out the remaining skin pieces for everyone to see,¡± Tang Shun instructed. Professor Wang¡¯s heart still didn¡¯t give up. With all your greatness, don¡¯t I still investigate you? He wanted to say more. Professor Li lifted his foot and kicked Professor Wang¡¯s heel hard, almost breaking his Achilles tendon, then glared at him with a clear message: Stop it now! You¡¯ve become accustomed to stumbling around successfully, but today¡¯s not the day to mess around. This isn¡¯t the place for you. What you¡¯ve kicked today isn¡¯t just a metal plate, it¡¯s special steel! In such a formal setting, would the dignified hospital dean dare to make such boasts? Who can self-raise funds in the billions? Professor Wang felt resentful, but he understood. Professor Li was hinting at him to not cause any more trouble. Li Guodong immediately got to work, scooping out the skin pieces from the cultivator and laying them on a specialized platform. Professor Wang, curious, reached out to touch it. Is this really human skin? Not pigskin? ¡°Wear gloves!¡± Zhang Lin reminded Professor Wang, in a stern tone. Interns often make this kind of mistake, touching with their bare hands, and are frequently reprimanded by Teacher Zhang. ¡°Oh oh oh!¡± Professor Wang¡¯s face turned red, he immediately put on gloves, cautiously felt it, and it indeed was human skin. ¡°Our recent topic, the technology of treating scoliosis with external spinal braces, also came from the Comprehensive Surgery Department, very successful, and the paper has been accepted by the journal Science,¡± Director Zhou continued to introduce. At this moment, the entire investigation group felt uncomfortable, a hospital¡¯s project actually got accepted by the journal Science. What else is there to investigate? It¡¯s time to beat a retreat, and moreover, this so-called complaint was trouble looking for a place to happen. ¡°We¡¯ve already thoroughly investigated three projects, and it¡¯s getting late, let¡¯s have a meeting, discuss a bit, write a report to submit. I have other matters, I won¡¯t be staying for lunch here, what about you?¡± Professor Li said to the investigation team members. ¡°Let¡¯s have a simple meal before discussing further,¡± Dean Sun persisted. ¡°No need, I have matters at home, I dare not stay for a long time, we¡¯ll gather again next time,¡± Professor Li declined politely. Who would dare to eat here still? Not even daring to drink a bottle of mineral water. If the team leader is not eating here, unless the other members are fools, who would stay and eat? ¡°I also have matters, let¡¯s hurry up¡ª¡± ¡°Yes, let¡¯s hurry.¡± Chapter 805 - 805 721 Surgery Quit Drinking ?Chapter 805: Chapter 721: Surgery, Quit Drinking? Chapter 805: Chapter 721: Surgery, Quit Drinking? The storm stirred up by the investigation team finally passed. This was just a minor episode¡ªProfessor Wang, that clown, was like a speck of dust in Yang Ping¡¯s eyes, slightly irritating to look at, but incapable of causing any substantial interference. Following the commotion, Dean Xia thoroughly investigated the situation. Some people who failed to secure a spot for plastic surgery were discontented, and among these patients were some with significant influence. Thus, they ran to make accusations, their intentions crystal clear: if they couldn¡¯t get an appointment, no one else should either. Luckily, the issue was resolved. Otherwise, Dean Xia might have run off to the province to pick a fight with the leaders of the Health Department. Xia Changjiang was the type to take such actions and had the courage to do so. Now, in his eyes, Yang Ping was dearer than his own son, and anyone who dared touch a hair on Yang Ping would have Xia Changjiang fight them to the death. Of course, there was also Han Jiangong, who held Yang Ping in equal regard as his own son¡ªif it came to fighting for him, these two elders would probably join forces without blinking an eye. Since the investigation concluded without issues, Ivan¡¯s plan continued to move forward, and he would perform the main surgery for those who had already secured a spot for plastic surgery. In Ivan¡¯s words, he intended to honor the contract, claiming to be a person who upholds the spirit of the agreement. These patients had already scheduled their surgeries with Ivan during his outpatient service, and he was set to fulfill his obligations. Under Director Lan¡¯s dedicated management, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Plastic Surgery Department gained rapid fame. Now, the entire plastic surgery community knows that Ivan is working at Sanbo, bringing along an apprentice and personally teaching him surgery. In China, this is called ¡°direct transmission¡±! A direct disciple of Ivan is counted on one¡¯s fingers around the world. This, along with Teacher Sun¡¯s plastic surgery case studies, was packaged and released on the internet, trending continuously at the top of search rankings. And this massive advertising expense didn¡¯t cost Director Lan a penny¡ªit was all funded by the owners of private plastic surgery hospitals in the city. Because Director Lan had spoken with these entrepreneurs, explaining that in the plastic surgery field, the South lacks top-tier leading hospitals like Xiehe¡¯s Eight Great Sites and Shanghai¡¯s Ninth Hospital, resulting in the South¡¯s failure to gain recognition within the plastic surgery community. If this event could make Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Plastic Surgery Department an overnight sensation, then Sanbo Hospital would become a hub for funneling patients. Once the funneling succeeded, the entire G City could share the traffic, establishing a brand for plastic surgery. Under this big brand, why worry about not making money? Director Lan threw an operation plan on the table in front of the owners. The owners, who had never seen such a professional plan, were pumped with excitement by the plan which Director Lan created with the dedication and methodology of a doctoral topic. They agreed on the spot to invest money. A public hospital¡¯s plastic surgery department can only grow so much, and Xiehe¡¯s Eight Great Sites and Shanghai¡¯s Ninth Hospital represent the highest domestic standards, their scope is also limited. Should Sanbo Hospital truly become the hub for patients, a significant amount of them would need to be distributed elsewhere. And to whom would they go? To these private hospitals, of course. Hence, in the end, it would be these private hospitals that stood to gain immensely from the collaboration. Director Lan¡¯s brand is Sanbo¡¯s brand, and Sanbo¡¯s brand is G City¡¯s brand. They would happily cooperate and earn money together. As a result, these owners decided to band together and vowed to transform G City into a center for plastic surgery, creating a cluster effect that could attract international patients, much like South Korea does. After all, businessmen do have a vision! Everyone in the world hustles for the sake of profit; as long as the rationale is clear and someone takes the lead, they¡¯re willing to cooperate, especially if there¡¯s money to be made from the partnership. Director Lan has spent his life pursuing the application of marketing within the medical industry, and this time he finally seized the opportunity to demonstrate his ambition. His reasoning is simple: he can do better than those high school dropout bosses. ¡ª Yang Ping¡¯s research project was progressing smoothly. The vast scientific research resources and ample opportunities for trial and error in the System Space Laboratory allowed the experiments to advance bit by bit. He had managed to culture muscle cells and some associated structure cells using stem cells, but so far he could not get the cells to construct spatial structures on their own. In other words, muscle cells, nerve cells, blood vessel cells, and the like were all individual, unable to build spatial structures and form real organs. Most experimental teams currently rely on biological 3D printers and micro-scaffold technology to conduct 3D assembly of stem cells, but this construction is always rough, passive, and non-physiological. Yang Ping regarded this route as a secondary one. He preferred the autonomous cultivation route, firmly believing in the possibility of achieving three-dimensional cell construction through cultivation. Sharp Medical¡¯s laboratory was pouring a significant amount of manpower and funds into researching biological 3D printing technology, starting from the most basic elements like control software, 3D print heads, micro-scaffolds, and other core technologies, each researched and developed in-house. Core technologies must be developed internally. No matter how difficult, it is essential to research bit by bit. Huang Jiacai had an ambitious blueprint for the company. He was not content with merely making a small profit from medical equipment sales¡ªhe aimed to build a great company with cutting-edge core technologies. He believed the company had all the necessary conditions¡ªtiming, location, and human support. Especially with a genius like Yang Ping as the pillar, Huang Jiacai considered his goals within reach. Thus, he reinvested the profits from orthopedic equipment sales into research, creating a virtuous cycle. Orthopedic consumables¡ªbroad surgical equipment¡ªcutting-edge core medical technologies, this was Huang Jiacai¡¯s three-tier rocket model. He planned to secure orthopedics consumables as a solid base, continue to launch new technologies, secure intellectual property rights, then expand markets towards Southeast Asia, Europe, North America, and beyond. After that, he aimed to venture into interventional medicine, neurology, cardiovascular departments, developing implantable consumables, and ultimately positioning in areas like biological 3D printing, new medical materials, and artificial organs. Thanks to Yang Ping¡¯s new technology, Sharp Medical¡¯s orthopedic implants were booming, with many products leading the industry, creating an unshakable and incomparable position¡ªfor example, the spinal external fixator, a new device established on entirely new medical concepts. All other companies could only follow, and that is the power of innovation. The success of Yang Ping¡¯s skin expansion technology outside the body, and the biological agent that induces skin expansion, would naturally become a new product of Sharpness Company. This new product will be widely used in burn departments, plastic surgery departments, and trauma surgery departments. This novel biological agent will be handled by Ivan¡¯s team for clinical trials worldwide, and once the clinical trials are approved, it will quickly go to market. ¡ª In the Stem Cell Laboratory, everyone was busy with their tasks. Li Guodong was drafting the instructions for the inducing agent, while several graduate students were busy compiling the final data. This seemingly small workshop-style research method, relaxed and free, would continuously produce world-class scientific research results. Liang Fatty was studying a thick notebook whose cover had been blacked out and replaced with a new title ¡ª ¡°Intensive Research on the Topic of Love.¡± Yang Ping handed several A4 papers to Tang Shun, ¡°These are suggestions for the next steps of the topic¡ªsee if there¡¯s anything of reference value?¡± The few A4 papers were a combination of text and illustrations, resembling a primary school student¡¯s mind map. Yet it was these A4 papers that Tang Shun followed in his experiments, and he actually quickly cultivated high-quality skin grafts. Tang Shun treasured the A4 papers as if they were a treasure. These weren¡¯t mere suggestions but an experimental bible. He quickly scanned through them; the pages described how to cultivate high-quality muscle cells, nerve fibers, and cells that make up blood vessels. It outlined a complete set of induction methods, and the final result could be assembled into a piece of irregular muscle. That is, although these cells were loose and lacked the capacity to shape space, they already had this rudimentary form, and such control over research direction is absolutely a world-class genius. This was the Einstein of the medical world! Tang Shun looked up, ¡°Is this your masterpiece from the past few days?¡± ¡°Yes! If this experiment is successful, our next step is to solve the spatial construction of the cells, and the last step is to build the ancillary structures. Once that¡¯s achieved, the topic can be declared a success. How¡¯s your recruitment going?¡± Yang Ping said rather matter-of-factly. Tang Shun passed over a list of personnel, ¡°This is the list of people I plan to recruit. They¡¯re all willing to come back and visit when they have the time.¡± Yang Ping looked over the names, all of whom were truly top-notch students. Many were college entrance examination champions who went to Tsinghua or Peking University and then studied in the United States. Now with Tang Shun extending the olive branch, several were considering returning to China. ¡°Professor, I have a suggestion. No matter where the researchers we recruit come from or how many there are, I want to maintain our current small workshop-style research method. This method feels relaxed and free, which is very suitable for the essence of scientific research. In my opinion, innovative work needs to be like this, relaxed but rigorous, free but not lazy.¡± Tang Shun really liked the current research atmosphere. ¡°You are the director; you decide.¡± Yang Ping had no intention of interfering with the laboratory. He preferred to delegate authority and let people develop freely. While talking with Tang Shun, Song Zimo called the laboratory from the emergency department. Li Guodong answered the phone. The emergency department asked for a consultation with the Comprehensive Surgery Department regarding a suspected drunk driver causing a commotion, who kept insisting he hadn¡¯t drunk any alcohol, and that the police were framing him, claiming the hospital and police were colluding to fabricate evidence. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had already rushed over. Now the emergency department was so brazen as to request a consultation with the Comprehensive Surgery Department for a drunk case? Getting drunk¡ªwhat does that have to do with Comprehensive Surgery Department? Were they supposed to perform surgery to cure alcoholism? Li Guodong had never heard of such an outrageous consultation and was quite dissatisfied. For drunkenness, a shot of naloxone would solve any problem. Was there any need to call Professor Yang for a consultation? Yang Ping stood up to leave, headed to the emergency department to see what was going on. Li Guodong followed behind, quickly considering the possible reasons for the consultation. Did the drunk sustain nerve damage from lying on the ground for a long time? Or possible limb necrosis requiring amputation? Did the drunk go mad and start slashing people, necessitating the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s involvement in emergency surgery? A sudden case of drunkenness¡ª Before he knew it, he had arrived at the chaotic emergency department lobby. From a distance, Director Xiong was waving his giant hands in greeting. Yang Ping noticed that doctors from several departments had already come for the consultation. ¡°You¡¯ve even requested Professor Yang from Comprehensive Surgery Department to come over. Is there some kind of new alcoholism surgery now?¡± joked a deputy chief physician from the Department of Gastroenterology. ¡°It seems there is such surgery indeed,¡± said a doctor from the psychiatric department. ¡°That¡¯s the old rule, aren¡¯t we? When you come across a tough case, invite Comprehensive Surgery Department first. Even if we just stand here, we feel more at ease,¡± Director Xiong said helplessly. Chapter 806 - 806 722 The Drunkard Who Doesnt Drink Alcohol ?Chapter 806: Chapter 722: The Drunkard Who Doesn¡¯t Drink Alcohol Chapter 806: Chapter 722: The Drunkard Who Doesn¡¯t Drink Alcohol Yang Ping had just met with Director Xiong. Before Director Xiong could formally describe the situation, Director Zhao from the Medical Services Office hurried over. ¡°How¡¯s the situation?¡± Director Zhao asked in a hushed tone. ¡°Police from the 110, traffic police, and our hospital security are all inside. The patient¡¯s emotions are very agitated at the moment, and he¡¯s shouting about committing suicide.¡± Director Xiong checked to ensure there were no outsiders around before speaking to Director Zhao. Director Zhao glanced at the emergency room¡¯s firmly closed door. At this point, he could only rely on the police for help; there was nothing he himself could do. He then looked at Yang Ping and felt a lot more reassured. ¡°Is the temporary emergency room set up?¡± Director Zhao was very concerned about this. This drunkard was causing chaos in the emergency room, so work there definitely couldn¡¯t proceed normally. However, since the emergency department is a lifeline, work couldn¡¯t stop, thus a temporary space had to be immediately opened up to serve as an emergency room. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s already set up. The equipment has also been moved, and we have already arranged the patient routing,¡± Director Xiong said efficiently. ¡°He¡¯s still not sober? Acting crazy because of the alcohol?¡± Director Zhao wondered aloud. Director Xiong shook his head: ¡°The patient¡¯s blood alcohol concentration is very high, but he¡¯s lucid, which is really strange.¡± ¡°He¡¯s lucid and still going on a drunken rampage?¡± Director Zhao couldn¡¯t understand that. ¡°The patient was caught drunk driving by traffic police and was brought in for blood alcohol testing. The results showed a concentration of 102mg/100ml. However, the guy claims he didn¡¯t drink at all, says the traffic police set him up, that the hospital set him up. He grabbed a saline bottle, smashed it, and threatened his own neck with the broken glass, demanding justice from everyone, while the police inside are trying to pacify him,¡± Director Xiong had already briefed Director Zhao over the phone, and was now giving a simple face-to-face report. ¡°He has the nerve to justify drunk driving? Lawless. He doesn¡¯t care about someone else¡¯s life, not even his own,¡± said Director Zhao, quite angry. Angry as he was, with a patient whose nerves in his brain were in disarray and potentially ready to slit his throat in the hospital, that would be very troubling, so Director Zhao was anxious as well. Looking at Yang Ping beside him, however, he felt much more at ease. The carotid arteries run along either side of the neck; if those were truly slashed, immediate rescue would be necessary, but with Yang Ping here, dying wouldn¡¯t be so easy. ¡°That¡¯s why, fearing something might really happen, I followed your instructions and directly requested Professor Yang to come over,¡± Director Xiong then explained the reason for inviting Yang Ping for a consult. It turned out someone had gotten drunk and was threatening suicide. Director Xiong was worried that if the patient really succeeded in slitting his throat, having Yang Ping join the rescue effort would greatly increase the success rate. While they were talking, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang also hurried over from the department. ¡°Professor Yang, I didn¡¯t notify you in advance, but I¡¯ve temporarily pulled your two top people as well. If there¡¯s really a need for emergency treatment, I¡¯m afraid others might not follow your lead as well,¡± Director Zhao said steadily to Yang Ping. Bringing Yang Ping to the emergency department was Director Zhao¡¯s arrangement, in case the patient really did attempt suicide and Yang Ping was the chief surgeon in the emergency surgery, the patient probably wouldn¡¯t have it so easy to lose his life. ¡°Quite the coincidence. Last time, this traffic officer caught this patient drunk driving, confiscated his driver¡¯s license for six months, and fined him; this time he was caught by the same officer, again for drunk driving, and is facing revocation of his driver¡¯s license and detention. I heard the patient and the traffic officer were classmates in middle school; the patient was a school bully back then and often bullied the officer, so now the patient suspects the officer of abusing their authority for personal vengeance,¡± Director Xiong knew quite a lot, all of which Officer Wang from the Police Station had told him. ¡°Grudges from middle school, personal vengeance? Was there any issue with the blood samples or the test?¡± Director Zhao didn¡¯t care about these convoluted personal relationships; he was only concerned that the hospital didn¡¯t make any procedural mistakes, because in case anything went wrong, the process had to withstand close scrutiny. ¡°No problem at all; blood was drawn twice from different limbs, two lab technicians separately processed the samples on machines, and both results were the same,¡± Director Xiong affirmed with confidence. Director Zhao frowned deeply, looking again at the emergency room¡¯s blast-resistant door, wondering what was happening inside. The situation was more complex than expected, involving grudges from school days. Directors Zhao and Xiong, Professor Yang, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, as well as several department heads who had come for the consultation, were all standing in the corridor, waiting patiently. As the head of the Medical Services Office, dealing with such troublesome issues every day required a strong mental fortitude. And so, Director Zhao could patiently wait outside in silence, as entering the emergency room could potentially add to the chaos. ¡°Where¡¯s the patient¡¯s family? Are they here?¡± Director Zhao asked. Director Xiong replied, ¡°His wife is still on her way.¡± ¡°Do they have children?¡± ¡°They have a daughter, she just started elementary school.¡± ¡°He has a family to look after, how can he be so thoughtless, threatening suicide at the drop of a hat? Does he think he has the right to? I¡¯m going to take a look inside.¡± Director Zhao had some ideas in mind; after more than a decade as head of the Medical Services Office, he had his methods for psychological intervention. Director Xiong rang the doorbell, and the door slowly cracked open a bit; Officer Wang peeked his head out, then promptly came out at Director Xiong¡¯s wave. Officer Wang was a police officer stationed at Sanbo Hospital from the local police station and was very familiar with Director Xiong. ¡°What¡¯s the situation inside?¡± asked Director Zhao. Officer Wang wore a look of worry and frustration: ¡°We¡¯re still trying to persuade him. This man is really stubborn, won¡¯t listen to reason. He¡¯s adamant that the traffic police and the hospital have conspired against him, insists he didn¡¯t drink at all, and says we¡¯re picking on the honest man. He¡¯s threatening that if he doesn¡¯t get answers, there will be bloodshed.¡± ¡°He knows his literature, mentioning bloodshed in five steps. Wasn¡¯t he a school bully in middle school? I¡¯ve never seen an honest man be a school bully before. I¡¯ll go in and see him for myself. What¡¯s his name?¡± Director Zhao sounded impatient. ¡°Wang Dapeng!¡± replied Director Xiong. Chapter 807 - 807 722 The Drunkard Who Doesnt Drink ?Chapter 807: Chapter 722: The Drunkard Who Doesn¡¯t Drink Alcohol_2 Chapter 807: Chapter 722: The Drunkard Who Doesn¡¯t Drink Alcohol_2 At this moment, a tall middle-aged woman was escorted in by the security. Her face was full of anger. Upon seeing Officer Wang, she immediately exclaimed, ¡°I am Wang Dapeng¡¯s wife; he definitely didn¡¯t drink. Officer, there must be a misunderstanding. I know my husband very well; we¡¯ve been married for ten years, and he¡¯s never touched a drop of alcohol. How could he possibly be drinking? There must be some mistake here.¡± ¡°Have you been bothered by something recently, maybe drinking in secret to cope?¡± Officer Wang asked. The woman shook her head emphatically, ¡°Impossible! I know him better than anyone; he wouldn¡¯t drink in secret. Did you say he wanted to commit suicide? How embarrassing is that? Let me go see him.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t go in for now; the police are trying to talk him down,¡± Officer Wang worried that if Wang Dapeng¡¯s wife entered and said something wrong, it might provoke the patient. The woman disdainfully retorted, ¡°Talk him down? Let him try to commit suicide in front of me.¡± The woman, fierce in nature, didn¡¯t care for anything and, pushing away Officer Wang¡¯s hand, barged into the resuscitation room. There, the robust and brawny Wang Dapeng was crouching in a corner, holding a sharp piece of glass to his neck. The sharp point had already pierced his skin, a trickle of fresh red blood seeping out. He was shouting, ¡°Hu Xiaoliang, don¡¯t think I¡¯m scared of you just because you¡¯re a cop now. You arrested me for drunk driving last time; I let it go. But this time, you¡¯re doing it again, slapping a DUI charge on me¡ªit¡¯s just too much. If you don¡¯t give me an explanation today, I¡¯m capable of anything.¡± ¡°Stay calm, there might be a misunderstanding. Put the glass down first, and then we can talk, alright?¡± another police officer persuaded. ¡°Why don¡¯t you go ahead and cut yourself? Do it! Why aren¡¯t you cutting? A real man, aren¡¯t you ashamed?¡± Wang Dapeng¡¯s wife yelled loudly. Caught off-guard, Wang Dapeng focused his eyes and saw it was his wife. Her suddenly appearing formidable demeanor deflated immediately, and the glass in his hand clattered to the floor. The woman strode forward, seized the collar of Wang Dapeng¡¯s neck like catching a chick, and forcefully pulled the imposing figure of Wang Dapeng out from the corner. Indeed, there was the smell of alcohol on Wang Dapeng; how could it be? The woman was extremely puzzled in her heart. ¡°Hu Xiaoliang, I know all about the issues you had with Wang Dapeng back in high school. Back then, none of us knew any better. Now you¡¯re a police officer, and he¡¯s also settled down with a family. There¡¯s no need to settle old scores over such trivial matters. Last time I was with him the whole time, he didn¡¯t drink any alcohol at all, yet you charged him with a DUI and confiscated his license for half a year. We tolerated it, and let that slide, but this time you¡¯ve done it again. Don¡¯t think we¡¯re easy to bully. I¡¯m not afraid of you. There¡¯s always somewhere to report you guys. Let me tell you, this isn¡¯t over yet!¡± Wang Dapeng¡¯s wife bravely challenged, facing the traffic officer Hu Xiaoliang without flinching. Hu Xiaoliang was completely baffled. Settling personal scores? He had already forgotten about the old affair. Catching Wang Dapeng twice was purely coincidental. Driving under the influence and drunk driving, the evidence was ironclad. How could a blood test be wrong? Wang Dapeng¡¯s threat of suicide was nothing more than a desperation tactic to make them let him off the hook. But how could it be possible? Wang Dapeng¡¯s wife still hadn¡¯t let go of the grip on his collar: ¡°What¡¯s this about committing suicide, you coward? Haven¡¯t you been wronged, they didn¡¯t do anything to you, did they?¡± ¡°No!¡± Wang Dapeng replied, his tone slightly timid. ¡°You can¡¯t leave! We haven¡¯t sorted things out yet. You think you can just walk away from a DUI? Detention is mandatory for drunk driving,¡± Hu Xiaoliang was equally stubborn. ¡°The blood tests taken twice just now both showed your blood alcohol concentration to be over 102mg/100ml, irrefutable evidence. How could you think of just walking away? I¡¯m not afraid of your commotion, did you think that making a scene would get you off the hook? It¡¯s too naive!¡± Hu Xiaoliang said sternly. Hu Xiaoliang was indeed not acting out of personal vendetta; it was purely coincidental that he caught Wang Dapeng twice. If he were to back down now, he might really be presumed to be settling old scores. Wang Dapeng raised his thick eyebrows: ¡°Don¡¯t I know myself if I¡¯ve had a drink? Let me tell you, Hu Xiaoliang, don¡¯t provoke me.¡± Wang Dapeng¡¯s wife absolutely believed in him; he definitely hadn¡¯t drunk. There must be something fishy about the situation, perhaps even a set-up by Hu Xiaoliang, but for the moment she was at a loss to figure it out. But one thing she could be certain of was that her husband definitely hadn¡¯t been drinking, because he never drank. The doors to the emergency room were fully open, and Wang Dapeng was being pulled by his wife, ready to leave the place. Letting him go like this was impossible. Several police officers quietly surrounded him, intending to take control of Wang Dapeng. But Wang Dapeng was burly, and his wife was also a fierce character, so they didn¡¯t dare to act rashly to prevent a possible overreaction. After a silent exchange of glances, the police officers dispersed. With the cooperation of a few security guards, they enclosed Wang Dapeng, ready to subdue him at any moment. Yang Ping and the others, seeing the crowd coming out, immediately stepped back a few meters for safety. ¡°Is it possible that he really hasn¡¯t drunk any alcohol?¡± Upon hearing the earlier conversation, Yang Ping suddenly posed the question to Director Xiong. Director Zhao, Director Xiong, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and several consulting directors all turned their heads to look at Yang Ping: ¡°Do you believe what he said?¡± Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Believe the patient¡¯s own statement!¡± Believing the patient¡¯s own statement is a medical principle; when a patient says they feel unwell, you first have to assume it¡¯s true and then identify it through scientific means. If you arbitrarily assume the patient¡¯s statement is false, you block the path to the truth. ¡°Are there really drunkards in this world who don¡¯t drink?¡± Officer Wang joked. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Indeed, there is a strange disease called Auto-brewery Syndrome. It doesn¡¯t require drinking alcohol; just by consuming high-carbohydrate foods, these can ferment in the patient¡¯s intestinal tract, and then they break down into large amounts of alcohol. The alcohol is absorbed into the blood through the intestinal tract, just the same as if the patient had drunk alcohol, meaning the patient¡¯s intestines act like a little brewery.¡± Auto-brewery Syndrome? Director Xiong¡¯s eyes lit up. That was a legendary condition, and in over twenty years in the emergency department, he had never encountered a single case. When this statement came from Yang Ping, everyone paid special attention. If this disease really existed, and if Wang Dapeng had it, the penalty might need to be reconsidered. Low-probability events aren¡¯t guaranteed not to happen. ¡°How do we diagnose it?¡± Director Xiong had only heard of the condition and didn¡¯t know much about it. ¡°It¡¯s very difficult to make a diagnosis with medical examinations; it can only be diagnosed indirectly through an experiment. He must be monitored continuously for 24 hours, absolutely forbidden from eating or drinking anything with alcohol. After his blood alcohol level returns to normal, then feed him some high-carbohydrate foods, like sweet potatoes, potatoes and such. Two hours later, measure his blood alcohol level every hour. If the blood alcohol concentration rises again, Auto-brewery Syndrome can be diagnosed.¡± Yang Ping believed Wang Dapeng¡¯s statement; whether true or not, he had to first treat it as true and then scientifically verify it. Woken by Yang Ping¡¯s words, Director Xiong felt they made a lot of sense. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to the traffic police about this suggestion and find a room for him to stay in, have someone guard him for 24 hours and monitor his blood alcohol level as you suggested.¡± Director Xiong was quite curious and wanted to probe into the matter himself. Encountering the legendary Auto-brewery Syndrome was like bumping into a myth. PS: I went out for a study exchange in March, and shortly after coming back, I was sent away again for a period of time in April. Now that I am back, I will continue updating! Sometimes my work schedule is so hectic that I can¡¯t update as usual, for which I am truly sorry! I bow in apology!!! Chapter 808 - 808 723 Pay Attention to Standard Academic ?Chapter 808: Chapter 723 Pay Attention to Standard Academic Terminology Chapter 808: Chapter 723 Pay Attention to Standard Academic Terminology Director Zhou and Director Xiong immediately communicated with the traffic police, conveying the hospital¡¯s opinion to Hu Xiaoliang. Hu Xiaoliang agreed at once; he didn¡¯t want to be misunderstood as using public power for personal grudges. Consequently, he reported to his superiors right away. Considering the special circumstances of the case, they accepted the proposal and directly arranged for Hu Xiaoliang to guard Wang Dapeng until the truth became clear. For such special observation, an independent single room was required; the emergency department was definitely not suitable. The observation wards in the emergency department were extremely tight, and the doctors and nurses were too busy to bother with these ¡°trivial matters.¡± Thus, under Director Zhao¡¯s coordination, a luxury ward in the VIP area of the Overseas Chinese Building was arranged, provided free of charge to Wang Dapeng for testing. With these arrangements, the incident was temporarily calmed, and the emergency department resumed normal order. Directors Zhao and Xiong personally took Wang Dapeng and Hu Xiaoliang to the VIP ward. Looking at the ward that was comparable to a five-star hotel, they were dazzled and had their eyes opened to such opulence, realizing that being sick and hospitalized could be this luxurious. Wang Dapeng just rued his lack of education in his younger years, not having kept up with the pace of society¡¯s development, and was still a small-time foreman to this day. After graduating from middle school, he had followed a well-known local thug into the underworld, starting by watching materials for others, and eventually branching out on his own as a foreman. He had practically watched his former boss grow from sand digging to becoming a renowned real estate developer and secretly admired him, wishing to make a name for himself and command the wind and rain like his boss. To his dismay, not long after he became a foreman, an anti-gang campaign swept through, with his boss arrested. Those who had gathered around the boss were either arrested or scattered like birds and beasts, and Wang Dapeng¡¯s dreams were shattered in an instant. As a small-time foreman, business was not easy in those times. The Land Rover he drove was nearly a piece of junk. He would take on some projects, often unable to collect payments, perpetually chasing after debts and being chased for debts himself. ¡°Aren¡¯t you a better scholar than me? How come? Have you never stayed in this kind of luxury ward?¡± Wang Dapeng taunted Hu Xiaoliang. Hu Xiaoliang was unfazed, ¡°Why would I stay in a ward if I¡¯m healthy and not in disaster?¡± ¡°Wait until you become a bureau chief or department head, then naturally you¡¯ll have the chance. But the way you are now, aiming for such positions might be even harder than ascending to the heavens,¡± Wang Dapeng remarked maliciously. Hu Xiaoliang didn¡¯t take the bait, ¡°Aren¡¯t you the boss driving a Land Rover who¡¯s never experienced this kind of scene?¡± Hit where it hurt, Wang Dapeng was momentarily lost for words. After all, everyone was just an ordinary person, struggling for daily meals; there was no need for anyone to mock anyone else. The nurse arranged the ward for the two men, went over some ward precautions, and then left Hu Xiaoliang and Wang Dapeng alone in the ward. ¡°Hu Xiaoliang, now that there¡¯s no one else around, tell me the truth, are you deliberately targeting me? I might have picked on you during our school days, but I was young and ignorant then. If you still hold a grudge, I¡¯m willing to apologize. Please don¡¯t make it hard for me. My family depends on me to make a living. I¡¯m begging you to let me go, okay? Don¡¯t be fooled by my driving a Land Rover; you can see this Land Rover is practically secondhand. It¡¯s noisy all over except the horn, and I even got it as a settlement for a contract,¡± pleaded Wang Dapeng. Wang Dapeng truly hadn¡¯t been drinking, but being caught by Hu Xiaoliang twice, he knew in his heart that Hu Xiaoliang was set on framing him. Hu Xiaoliang was also angry, ¡°I enforce the law impartially. Let me tell you, don¡¯t try to be dishonest with me. I¡¯m not afraid, don¡¯t think I¡¯ll let you go just because you¡¯re being dishonest. With your blood alcohol level, you might just drop dead any day, even talking about supporting a family? If you truly cared for your family, you wouldn¡¯t drink in the first place.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re cursing me, right? Don¡¯t think I¡¯m scared of you just because you wear that uniform. Push me too far, and see if I don¡¯t -¡± Wang Dapeng swallowed his next words back down. ¡°You¡¯re going to chop me up?¡± waited Hu Xiaoliang. ¡°You think I don¡¯t dare?¡± ¡°Try me?¡± For some reason, maybe because they were grown adults, less prone to rash behavior, the two men locked eyes, then both shook their heads with a bitter smile. ¡°Hu Xiaoliang, my dear brother, I really haven¡¯t been drinking. These days, I¡¯m really busy trying to collect debts and workers are chasing me for their wages. If you detain me for another ten days or more, it¡¯ll lead to a collapse, a major incident will happen,¡± Wang Dapeng softened his tone, pouring out his woes. Hu Xiaoliang also calmed down, ¡°Wang Dapeng, to be honest with you, my catching you twice was purely coincidental; I really wasn¡¯t out to get you. I¡¯ve forgotten about those old school squabbles long ago. You say you didn¡¯t drink, just stay here quietly for a day, cooperate with the doctors and nurses, and the whole truth will come out. If you truly haven¡¯t had a drink, you could probably get off lightly, no need for detention. But if you have indeed drunk and driven under the influence, calling me ¡®grandpa¡¯ wouldn¡¯t help.¡± Wang Dapeng nodded and sighed, ¡°To tell you the truth, I used to have a high tolerance for alcohol, but ten years ago, I drink-drove on the highway, had an accident, and nearly lost my life. I laid in the ICU for two weeks and had no idea how much blood was transfused into me; more than a dozen steel plates were inserted into my body before I got my life back. Since then, I haven¡¯t touched a drop of alcohol for ten years, not even eating beer duck. You say I was drink-driving?¡± ¡°But why do I really feel a bit dizzy?¡± Wang Dapeng rubbed his temples. ¡ª Twenty-four hours later, Wang Dapeng¡¯s blood test showed the alcohol was cleared, and his levels were back to normal. The hospital arranged for high-starch foods like Chinese yam for Wang Dapeng to eat. After eating, they would take his blood for alcohol concentration tests three, four, five hours later¡ªimplementing dynamic monitoring. Dynamic monitoring revealed that Wang Dapeng¡¯s blood alcohol level kept rising, despite not drinking, reaching a concentration beyond 100mg/100ml. He hadn¡¯t drunk any alcohol, a fact corroborated by surveillance footage and eyewitness testimony from Hu Xiaoliang. Every blood test was taken from different limbs, using different machines for testing. The diagnostic experiments confirmed Yang Ping¡¯s speculation; Wang Dapeng was suffering from the rare auto-brewery syndrome. Such patients were indeed walking dissertations. Of course, the Comprehensive Surgery Department wasn¡¯t interested in such case reports, but the brothers in the emergency department were eagerly awaiting material to write papers on. Comprehensive Surgery Department, Doctor¡¯s Office. Everyone gathered together to discuss this rare case. As surgeons, Robert, August, and Ivan marveled at the breadth of Yang Ping¡¯s knowledge; he seemed to know everything related to medicine, seemingly a walking encyclopedia. ¡°I¡¯m quite ashamed to admit that I have no idea what auto-brewery syndrome is,¡± Robert said elegantly. As an orthopedic surgeon, he was not familiar with these internal medicine diseases. ¡°Auto-brewery syndrome, also known as gut fermentation syndrome, is where the patient¡¯s intestinal tract can use starchy foods to ferment alcohol endogenously, producing alcohol. It¡¯s not surprising that surgeons wouldn¡¯t be aware of it,¡± Yang Ping educated them. The meticulous German pulled out a draft he had prepared earlier: ¡°Regarding this condition, the earliest mentions are in Japanese literature from the 1970s. Subsequently, reports of the syndrome have appeared from around the world, but to date, there are only a few case reports, making it a very rare disease. The pathogenesis involves dysbiosis of the body¡¯s intestinal microflora. A proliferation of yeast and other microorganisms ferment ingested carbohydrates into alcohol, which is then absorbed through the intestinal tract into the bloodstream, raising blood alcohol levels. The main culprit is a fungus in the intestines¡ªbrewer¡¯s yeast.¡± ¡°So, how do you treat it?¡± Ivan was very interested as well. Song Zimo took over: ¡°Since the main culprit is the fungus¡ªbrewer¡¯s yeast¡ªin the intestines, traditional treatments include a low-carbohydrate diet and antifungal medications. Of course, there¡¯s also a more innovative treatment for patients who don¡¯t respond well to traditional methods¡ªfecal microbiota transplant therapy.¡± ¡°Fecal transplant?¡± Robert frowned as if assailed by a foul smell. ¡°To be precise, it involves the transplantation of a mixture of foreign intestinal content and microflora,¡± Yang Ping explained leisurely. ¡°Professor, is there really such a crude treatment? Transplanting someone else¡¯s feces into a patient¡¯s intestines? Is it really a direct transplant of feces?¡± Robert inquired. ¡°Treatment methods are only classified as effective or not, there¡¯s no distinction as elegant or crude,¡± Yang Ping corrected Robert¡¯s prejudice. ¡°Much ado about nothing; the probiotics in yogurt are also extracted from human feces, and you still drink it, don¡¯t you? Some yogurts even market this as a selling point, claiming the probiotics are extracted from the intestinal bacteria of centenarians. How else are they extracted, if not from feces?¡± Song Zimo used a familiar example to explain the concept of gut microflora. Pfft! Li Guodong, who was holding a bottle of yogurt to satiate his hunger, glanced at the label, which clearly read ¡°Intestinal Probioitics.¡± Were these beneficial bacteria extracted from feces? At that moment, Li Guodong felt a churn in his stomach and an immediate gag reflex. He set down his yogurt silently, his face turning dead cold¡ªhis yogurt contained ingredients extracted from feces. Seeing the look on Li Guodong¡¯s face and the yogurt in his hand, Yang Ping said gravely, ¡°The extraction from feces is entirely different from feces itself. If processed correctly, the extraction is merely pure bacteria.¡± ¡°Like the recycled water on airplanes; the water you drink might have been purified from toilet water. It¡¯s the same principle,¡± Song Zimo reassured Li Guodong. Li Guodong looked at the yogurt: ¡°What if the process isn¡¯t standardized?¡± ¡°That¡¯s another matter!¡± Yang Ping said nonchalantly. ¡°Professor, but what you mentioned earlier is not the transplantation of bacteria extracted from foreign feces, but the direct transplantation of feces itself,¡± Robert pressed earnestly. August spoke in a very academic tone, ¡°Please be mindful to use proper academic terminology. It¡¯s not feces transplantation, but the transplantation of a mixture of foreign intestinal contents and microflora.¡± ¡°Will it pass ethical review?¡± Xu Zhiliang could always view issues from novel perspectives. ¡°It should be fine, right?¡± Song Zimo wasn¡¯t certain. Chapter 809 - 809 724 Yellow Dragon Decoction ?Chapter 809: Chapter 724: Yellow Dragon Decoction Chapter 809: Chapter 724: Yellow Dragon Decoction ¡°Don¡¯t be nervous, this method is only used when traditional treatments are ineffective. If the traditional methods work, there¡¯s naturally no need for such a crude approach,¡± Little Five reassured everyone. ¡°Unfortunately, this might be his only choice,¡± Yang Ping said with regret. The people surrounding Yang Ping were confused, so he had no choice but to move the mouse and pull up Wang Dapeng¡¯s case record, highlighting the allergy history section, which listed a string of drug names that nearly included every antifungal drug. Antifungal medication must be used to treat this condition because the microorganisms fermenting in the intestinal tract are fungi. Everyone was stunned, and Xu Zhiliang, with his characteristic stutter, said, ¡°Wh-what do you mean? Must we use¡ªfecal matter and a mixed community of microbes transplanted as a whole?¡± ¡°Professor, time is so precious, do you think I¡¯m just talking for fun?¡± Song Zimo said, knowing Yang Ping¡¯s style, once he delved into the case, he would automatically go through a series of thoughts in his mind, including diagnosis, data, prognosis, and so on. ¡°A fecal transplant, really?¡± Robert covered his reddening nose. ¡°Please use the proper academic terms!¡± August reminded him again, as he hated casual and imprecise people the most. ¡°Is surgery needed? How do we prevent infection? The intestinal tract is a huge bacterial reservoir,¡± Zhang Lin¡¯s thinking also began to diverge. Opening the abdominal cavity and incising the intestines to place feces into the intestinal lumen is an extremely risky operation, and the consequences of an infection are unimaginable, considering that the intestinal tract is a huge bacterial reservoir with the number of bacteria accounting for 90% of the total bacterial population in the human body. ¡°How foolish must one be, to use incision techniques to transplant feces? The correct approach is¡ªto purify the feces into fecal water and then instill it into the intestinal tract,¡± Xu Zhiliang got into the swing of the discussion and even started to speak without stuttering. ¡°If you administer fecal water via a gastric tube, won¡¯t the stomach acid kill most bacteria? Can the few bacteria that make it to the intestines continue to function?¡± Zhang Lin refused to appear weak. Xu Zhiliang glanced at him, ¡°The purified fecal water is not transplanted from top to bottom but from bottom to top¡ªby enema. One can use a colonoscopy to assist. Teacher Zhang, you¡¯ve really opened my eyes. Is this a new enema method you invented? Administered through a gastric tube?¡± Zhang Lin blushed, having desperately opened his mind just enough to keep up with the discussion, he hadn¡¯t expected to get the direction wrong. ¡°Administering through a gastric tube, that¡¯s a bit of an extreme idea, isn¡¯t it?¡± said Li Guodong, who had just quieted his churning stomach, only to have it stirred up again by Zhang Lin¡¯s suggestion. ¡°What¡¯s with gastric tube administration, there are even direct oral methods. In the history of traditional Chinese medicine, Ge Hong¡¯s Yellow Dragon Decoction, which includes feces as a main ingredient was used to treat food poisoning and severe diarrhea; it is consumed directly, surprised or not?¡± Zhang Lin said confidently and without a change of expression. August, Robert, and Ivan all looked toward Yang Ping at the same time, hoping for a reasonable explanation. Could traditional Chinese medicine really have such intense treatment methods? ¡°In fact, such practices existed, and because of the use of feces as medicine, modern people have a deep misunderstanding of traditional Chinese medicine, considering it pseudoscience and absurd to use feces for treatment, nothing could be more ignorant,¡± he said. ¡°However, later research on intestinal bacterial communities changed people¡¯s perspective. In 1958, Dr. Ben Eiseman, a surgeon at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in the United States, treated four severe pseudomembranous colitis patients. He tried every method he could think of¡ªantibiotics, corticosteroids, probiotics, etc.¡ªbut the patients¡¯ conditions did not improve and even worsened, leading to shock. In desperation, Dr. Ben Eiseman thought of using feces for treatment. With just an attempt in mind, he used the feces of the patients¡¯ family members to make fecal water and performed an enema on the patients. The treatment results were astonishing, with three patients recovering and being discharged within a few days,¡± he said. ¡°You have to know that Ge Hong¡¯s Yellow Dragon Decoction was used to treat diarrhea over sixteen hundred years ago, meaning sixteen hundred years ago, the Chinese had already mastered a method similar to adjusting the intestinal bacterial community, albeit empirically. Many treatments or prescriptions in traditional Chinese medicine are often considered pseudoscience and are subjected to ridicule because modern science has not yet fully revealed the level of traditional Chinese medicine. For example, using feces for treatment seems absurd, but in fact, it is full of scientific principles. It is only today, more than a thousand years later, that we understand feces can also treat diseases,¡± he explained patiently to everyone. Upon hearing this, August, Robert, and Ivan developed a solemn respect for Chinese culture, recognizing its advancement even under ancient technological conditions. Meanwhile, contemporary Western medicine was still using such barbaric methods as bloodletting. ¡°Of course, we mustn¡¯t dwell in the past, we must look forward, and modern medicine is the mainstream, but we must maintain awe and respect for tradition, and not slander or malign it casually,¡± Yang Ping said slowly. ¡°A salute to five thousand years of civilization!¡± Robert stood up straight, maintaining an upright posture. August and Ivan also straightened up, maintaining an upright posture. ¡ª After staying in the VIP ward for 48 hours, Wang Dapeng felt very comfortable. If possible, he thought he wouldn¡¯t mind staying for another ten days or half a month. After the blood test results came out, both Wang Dapeng and Hu Xiaoliang were stunned; neither of them could have imagined such an outcome. In the world, there truly exists a disease that can get you drunk without drinking alcohol. If it wasn¡¯t for Hu Xiaoliang¡¯s past experience of frequently drinking alcohol while mixing with society and his strong tolerance for alcohol, he might have been in a tipsy state every other day. It was precisely because of his high alcohol tolerance that the high blood alcohol concentration didn¡¯t affect him much, and he mistook it for fatigue caused by running around. This result completely dispelled the misunderstanding between the two. At that time, Wang Dapeng was convinced that Hu Xiaoliang remembered the grudges from their middle school days and that taking him in for drunk driving twice was just personal revenge. On the other hand, Hu Xiaoliang insisted that Wang Dapeng was looking for trouble and seeking an excuse to evade legal punishment. Now the two stood there, dumbstruck. ¡°Auto-brewery syndrome?¡± Laypeople, and even doctors, few had ever heard of this disease, let alone seen it. ¡°Your intestines, your very own intestines, are like a tiny brewery, producing alcohol which you then absorb. So, you don¡¯t need to drink alcohol; just eating food containing starch will get you drunk the same way,¡± Little Five patiently explained while looking at the test report. Since the issue was raised by the Comprehensive Surgery Department, it was natural for them to take charge of the follow-up. Little Five, representing the Comprehensive Surgery Department, oversaw Wang Dapeng¡¯s diagnosis and treatment. Because the test report contained professional jargon, Wang Dapeng didn¡¯t understand it. He just flipped through it superficially, pretending. ¡°Are you saying I can brew alcohol myself? Make my alcohol and drink it?¡± Wang Dapeng asked in amazement. Little Five nodded, and Zhang Lin, who had come with him, also nodded. Wang Dapeng was pleasantly surprised, ¡°I actually have such a special ability? But the feces I pass every day don¡¯t seem special, and it¡¯s not like they¡¯re lees?¡± Little Five solemnly said, ¡°It¡¯s a disease, and if not treated, you might not be able to drive in the future. Plus, you¡¯re always in danger. Who knows when you might suffer from alcohol poisoning.¡± ¡°No wonder sometimes I feel dizzy, as if drunk. I thought it was fatigue from working on construction sites.¡± After thinking it over, Wang Dapeng realized the doctor was right; he did often feel dizzy, but he never thought it was a state of inebriation. ¡°But I don¡¯t actually get completely wasted, just dizzy. With so much alcohol, shouldn¡¯t I have collapsed?¡± Wang Dapeng asked, puzzled. ¡°Because your liver contains a high level of the enzyme that breaks down alcohol¡ªaldehyde dehydrogenase¡ªit¡¯s difficult for you to reach a deep state of intoxication,¡± Little Five explained. ¡°That¡¯s it! Back when I was involved with gangs, I used to drink baijiu like water, often knocking everyone under the table while I was fine. Turns out I have a natural talent?¡± Wang Dapeng suddenly understood. Little Five continued, ¡°You could say your talent was extraordinary in the past, but no matter how strong your tolerance is, it¡¯s just that¡ªstrength. If the concentration of alcohol in your blood rises higher and exceeds your tolerance, you¡¯ll still suffer from alcohol poisoning, which can sometimes be fatal.¡± ¡°Therefore, treatment is a must,¡± Zhang Lin emphasized. Wang Dapeng thought for a moment, ¡°How do you treat it? It¡¯s not too much trouble, is it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s usually simple and could involve medication, but you¡¯re allergic to antifungal drugs, having suffered from severe exfoliative dermatitis, so we have to resort to special methods,¡± Little Five put away the test report. Wang Dapeng sighed, ¡°I¡¯ve been allergic to several medications for fungal infections before, almost killed by exfoliative dermatitis.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why we need to use a special method, simply put, a stool transplant. We transplant someone else¡¯s feces into your intestines. The feces contain a large number of bacteria, which can help you establish a normal bacterial group. Your problem right now is an abnormal intestinal bacterial group,¡± Little Five explained slowly and clearly. ¡°Put someone else¡¯s poop into my stomach???¡± Wang Dapeng¡¯s eyes widened in shock. Chapter 810 - 810 725 International Advanced Methods ?Chapter 810: Chapter 725 International Advanced Methods Chapter 810: Chapter 725 International Advanced Methods After a wave of nausea, Wang Dapeng¡¯s stomach and intestines started to churn like turbulent rivers, having never seen such doctors who treat illness with feces. ¡°Doctor, you¡¯re not making an international joke with me, are you?¡± Wang Dapeng was quite angry; he thought the doctor was purposely playing a trick on him. Unfazed by Wang Dapeng¡¯s emotional fluctuations, Xiao Wu said in a very academic tone, ¡°This is not an international joke but an internationally advanced method. The reason you can ferment alcohol in your own intestinal tract is that there has been a problem with your microbial flora.¡± ¡°To put it simply, the human intestinal tract is a huge bacterial library, harboring about 100 trillion bacteria, with over 400 known species so far. Countless bacteria form a balanced ecosystem in the intestines.¡± ¡°Now, the ecology of your bowel bacteria has been disrupted, which is why the yeast has multiplied. We need to use someone else¡¯s stool to rebuild the microbial ecology of your intestinal tract. We could have used traditional methods, but you are allergic to antifungal medications and have the potential to develop life-threatening exfoliative dermatitis, so we have no choice but to opt for this cutting-edge method.¡± ¡°Mr. Wang Dapeng, medicine is a very serious and earnest matter,¡± Zhang Lin chimed in from the side. Opportunities to represent the Comprehensive Surgery Department were rare, and now was one. Therefore, both masters had to seize the chance to exhibit their extraordinary talents and show their remarkable academic prowess with utmost seriousness. Wang Dapeng looked at the doctors in front of him, who didn¡¯t seem to be joking at all, and thought for a moment, ¡°Doctor, I can¡¯t accept this. You say transplanting other things is acceptable, but transplanting someone¡¯s feces, what kind of thing is that? I¡¯ll feel disgusted every time I think about it for the rest of my life, and it will be a lifelong joke.¡± ¡°We¡¯re not asking you to eat feces, but to transplant it into your intestines, which naturally contain feces anyway,¡± Hu Xiaoliang interjected. Wang Dapeng turned and glared at his arch-nemesis, ¡°What¡¯s the difference from eating? Both end up in the stomach, one with taste and one without.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be nervous. I was merely using colloquial language to explain the treatment method, just so that you would understand. In fact, the formal name of this treatment is¡ªheterologous intestinal content and mixed flora transplantation, which has already been applied in our clinical practice.¡± Xiao Wu spoke in clear and standard Mandarin before writing the full name of the treatment method on paper. Wang Dapeng read each word carefully, and the anxiety he had been holding onto subsided, ¡°You scared me for a moment. I thought you were really going to treat with feces, but it¡¯s actually food residue and mixed flora.¡± Xiao Wu and Zhang Lin exchanged glances as if they understood something, deciding not to correct the void of words but to focus on introducing the necessity, feasibility, and effectiveness of this method. The communication transitioned smoothly; sometimes, what so-called communication challenges existed could vanish from a different angle. ¡°Doctor, had you explained it this way earlier, I would have understood. Instead, you talked about treating with feces; if it really were feces, I wouldn¡¯t go through with the treatment even if you killed me.¡± At this moment, Wang Dapeng felt relaxed, thinking that the young doctors still lacked experience. They couldn¡¯t even speak clearly and almost made him reject such an advanced treatment. Food residue and mixed flora sounded like high-level medical terms. Immediately, Wang Dapeng became anxious again. Such an upscale treatment method would probably not be cheap. As a small construction foreman, he was someone who roamed without medical insurance, and every hospital visit made him extremely nervous. ¡°About the cost¡ªhow much would that be?¡± Wang Dapeng asked hesitantly. ¡°Around five thousand,¡± Xiao Wu answered. After pondering for a moment, Wang Dapeng cautiously inquired, ¡°Does this include the cost of materials?¡± By ¡°materials,¡± he referred to food residue and mixed flora. Wang Dapeng knew that sometimes materials could be more expensive than the surgery itself, so it was better to clarify. ¡°Yes, it includes the cost of materials. If you have a relative, such as your wife or children, act as the providers of the food residue, you could save a few hundred yuan. However, the provider must be in good health and meet the criteria. The specific plan will be communicated to you later by a doctor from the Department of Gastroenterology. You don¡¯t have any underlying diseases, do you? Like high blood pressure or diabetes?¡± Xiao Wu had found the right way to communicate with Wang Dapeng, so he was very careful with his words. Wang Dapeng hesitated for a moment, then said, ¡°I don¡¯t have any¡ªI mean, I don¡¯t know¡ªI don¡¯t usually get a health check.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t get regular check-ups?¡± Hu Xiaoliang asked incredulously, surprised that someone who drives a Land Rover had no sense of health awareness. Wang Dapeng disdainfully responded, ¡°Health check-ups are a waste of money. What¡¯s the use? If a check-up reveals some illness, serious diseases can¡¯t be cured, minor diseases don¡¯t need treatment¡ªI¡¯m just paying to be scared.¡± Hu Xiaoliang pondered for a while, feeling that there was both sense and nonsense in his words. Five thousand yuan indeed wasn¡¯t much and was even somewhat surprising. In Wang Dapeng¡¯s experience, he imagined that staying in such big hospitals would cost at least several thousand yuan. ¡°Really only five thousand yuan?¡± Wang Dapeng sought confirmation again. Xiao Wu and Zhang Lin nodded, ¡°Roughly. There might be some fluctuations, but they won¡¯t be significant.¡± Five thousand yuan! Wang Dapeng felt he could afford it. Now the key issues of concern for him were the effectiveness and safety of the treatment. When it came to treating his condition, cost was always the first concern for Wang Dapeng, followed by other things. ¡°Are you confident?¡± ¡°We¡¯re confident, but we can¡¯t guarantee it 100%.¡± ¡°Is the risk high?¡± ¡°Every procedure has its risks, but this treatment method has a very low risk.¡± ¡°Does it require surgery?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s done directly with the assistance of a colonoscopy.¡± After some discussion, it was inexpensive, had low risk, and the effects were predictable. Wang Dapeng thought it was feasible and agreed. ¡ª Wang Dapeng¡¯s case was diagnosed by the Comprehensive Surgery Department, but the subsequent treatment wasn¡¯t their responsibility. Instead, it was handled by the Department of Gastroenterology, where a doctor named Chen Feiyu was conducting a fecal transplant project. He had set up a laboratory to study the intestinal microbiota. When the Comprehensive Surgery Department referred the case to him, he was overjoyed. Such rare cases were highly sought after. ¡°Teacher Zhang, Teacher Wu, thank you both for your support,¡± Dr. Chen said with a clasped fist. As for Zhang Lin and Little Five, their reputations at Sanbo Hospital were well-known to everyone. Each time they were involved, it signified the formidable strength of the Comprehensive Surgery Department. To thank the Comprehensive Surgery Department, Dr. Chen decided to give a special gift. He took out a stack of forms and offered them to Zhang Lin: ¡°Teacher Zhang, these are our laboratory¡¯s volunteer application forms. There are a few spots left for your department¡¯s standardized training students and graduate students, but they have to pass a physical examination.¡± ¡°What is this?¡± Zhang Lin asked as he opened the application form. ¡°Fecal donation volunteer application form!¡± Little Five glanced at it. ¡°Donate once, get three hundred yuan in compensation, no more than 22 times a month,¡± Dr. Chen said proudly. Little Five couldn¡¯t help but laugh and cry: ¡°Do you have a large demand for feces?¡± ¡°Very large! We are currently conducting research on intestinal microbiota, which covers a wide range, and we have a substantial need for qualified feces. This is an internal quota, specially reserved to thank your department, and I brought them out just for you. Please keep it quiet. Just come to our laboratory and defecate once a day, and you can earn three hundred yuan. Such an excellent job is highly sought after by many students,¡± Dr. Chen earnestly and seriously advised the two. Such an opportunity, once made public, would lead to fierce competition for quotas. These standardized training students and graduate students generally had meager incomes, hardly enough to make ends meet. If they had the chance to secure a steady source of extra income, there would certainly be a rush. Good thing! Securing benefits for students was the best way for teachers to establish authority, so Zhang Lin took a few application forms. Such a good thing! Zhang Lin himself felt a little tempted, itching inside. ¡ª Office of the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s Doctors. Zhang Lin sat behind his desk, with a stack of application forms laid out, and a group of people queued up in front of him waiting to get the forms. ¡°Ages 18 to 35, in good health, without any contagious diseases, daily bowel movements must be solid; after signing up, participate in a physical examination, and we will select the best from the volunteers who pass the examination,¡± Zhang Lin announced the conditions for fecal donors. ¡°Price is three hundred yuan per donation, up to 22 times a month, holy shit, 6600 yuan a month.¡± ¡°More than six thousand yuan a month, that¡¯s an annual income of eighty thousand.¡± ¡°Not everyone will be qualified.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear it¡¯s a competitive selection?¡± ¡°The quota won¡¯t be internally fixed, right? The recruitment should be fair, just, and open, right? There won¡¯t be any backdoor deals, right?¡± ¡°Hard to say!¡± Everyone discussed animatedly, whispering amongst themselves, each person eagerly hoping to be selected. The thought of such an effortless and steady source of side income excited everyone. ¡°Can the age limit be relaxed?¡± Robert asked, coming forward, with August also eager to try. All eyes turned to Robert and August, scrutinizing as if with blades, when a student grumbled fiercely, ¡°Go change dressings and write up the case histories. Still want to snatch our jobs?¡± Chapter 811 - 811 726 The Sacred A4 Paper ?Chapter 811: Chapter 726: The Sacred A4 Paper Chapter 811: Chapter 726: The Sacred A4 Paper Feeling the piercing stares all around him, August gracefully stepped back a few paces. He didn¡¯t intend to compete for work with these spirited young men; he just wanted to join in the fun and gather some material to post on his moments. Being able to moonlight and earn money while undergoing training in China was something worth showing off. Unfortunately, the age limit was 18 to 35 years old. ¡°Professor Yang is looking for you,¡± Song Zimo gestured to August. The German immediately jogged over, and Song Zimo said, ¡°The professor invites you for tea.¡± Being invited by Professor Yang for tea was the highest honor, and without being one of the ¡°insiders¡± of the professor, one had no business going to the office to drink tea. August straightened his white gown and puffed out his chest, finally, the day had come. Because he had secured Manstein, Professor Yang¡¯s paper submitted to the journal Science was reviewed ahead of time by Manstein, and with his strong recommendation, the article was granted early publication. ¡°Professor!¡± August was a little excited, clumsily pushed open the door, then squeezed through the crack into the director¡¯s office. ¡°Sit!¡± Yang Ping poured a cup of tea and slid it in front of him. August was a bit nervous, didn¡¯t think, and gulped down the cup of tea, feeling a sharp pain in his throat. Boiling water! ¡°Are you alright?¡± Yang Ping¡¯s heart skipped a beat, as if he could feel a sharp pain in his own throat. Yang Ping didn¡¯t expect August to act so quickly and couldn¡¯t warn him in time, but luckily, the mucous membranes of the mouth and throat have a strong self-healing ability, so he should be fine in a few days. After a moment, August caught his breath, ¡°Good tea!¡± ¡°Slow down, drink it like this!¡± Yang Ping demonstrated how to sip tea gently, little by little. ¡°I¡¯ll remember that,¡± August took out his notebook and made a note. ¡°Not everything needs to be written down,¡± Yang Ping waved his hand. But August was adamant, ¡°No, it must be done this way.¡± Because August believed that any knowledge imparted by Yang Ping might relate to medical skills, such as the previously taught technique of peeling lobster with chopsticks, which, once mastered, made many of August¡¯s surgical operations much easier. ¡°I received an email from Professor Manstein; my paper has been granted early publication,¡± Yang Ping acknowledged, understanding that August played the biggest part in this success. August beamed with pride, ¡°I made him stay up all night to finish your paper, and then¡ªthen¡ªit was permitted for publication.¡± August knew Manstein¡¯s temperament well; pleading was useless, but reverse psychology was very effective. So, August didn¡¯t explicitly seek out Manstein, which would have been futile. Instead, he approached several friends at Charlotte Hospital, had each read Yang Ping¡¯s paper, and then complained in front of Manstein that they couldn¡¯t understand the article and hinted it had been submitted to Science. The professors indicated that even the Science journal¡¯s reviewers wouldn¡¯t understand it, so they had no expectations for its publication. As expected, Manstein took the bait. The entire Charlotte Medical School couldn¡¯t understand a paper from a young Chinese researcher, so he had to personally take on the task to see this extraordinary paper for himself. Indeed, the reverse psychology worked, and after Manstein read Yang Ping¡¯s article ahead of time, he was greatly surprised. In the end, he told the complaining professors: ¡°Your ideas are outdated, of course, you can¡¯t understand this paper.¡± Applying the Ilizarov technique to the correction of scoliosis was a crazy idea, but this young man from China had done it. ¡°Thank you!¡± Yang Ping expressed his gratitude. August immediately stood up, patting his chest in a very Chinese manner, ¡°Germany is my territory; wherever you need me, just say the word.¡± ¡°Sit down, let¡¯s talk,¡± Yang Ping gestured. August sat down, sitting upright and proper. ¡°I¡¯ve asked you here because I¡¯d like to collaborate with you on a scientific research project,¡± Yang Ping pulled out a sheet of A4 Paper. A project? August¡¯s eyes gleamed; the A4 paper covered with pencil sketches and text was the symbolic way Professor Yang introduced his new ideas. Whoever received such an A4 paper was a sign that he had gained Professor Yang¡¯s approval, that Yang intended to share something substantial with him. August had heard from Robert: it was a symbol of receiving the true teachings. ¡°I plan to upgrade the scoliosis correction technique from version 2.0 to 3.0, with the new version being suitable for minors,¡± Yang Ping explained slowly. ¡°A new method?¡± August came to China with the primary goal of learning Yang Ping¡¯s spinal surgery techniques, and now hearing that the scoliosis correction technology was about to be upgraded, he was thrilled. Yang Ping¡¯s scoliosis correction technique currently comes in two versions. The most primitive 1.0 version is the Yang-style osteotomy correction surgery, which is still the traditional osteotomy correction technique, just with optimized improvements to the surgical method. The 2.0 version, on the other hand, is the use of an external fixation frame to treat scoliosis, which has already been a conceptual innovation, creatively applying Ilizarov¡¯s distraction osteogenesis technique to spinal correction and achieving tremendous success. Now, what exactly is this miraculous 3.0 version? August simply couldn¡¯t recall. ¡°We let the curved spine automatically correct itself during the growth process. You should know what I¡¯m talking about now, right?¡± Yang Ping guided patiently. Touching his hair uncertainly, August said, ¡°Hemiepiphyseal arrest?¡± Impossible. Such a technique has already been widely applied to correct childhood limb deformities, such as bowlegs and knock-knees. But when it comes to spinal correction, it¡¯s only applicable to simple spinal curvature, and more complex scoliosis cannot be corrected. As a top expert in spinal surgery, August, of course, knew this technique and was even researching it. The principle of this technology is to block growth on the convex side of the spine, allowing the concave side to continue growing, and gradually, the curved spine would straighten. However, this technique is currently only applicable to simple scoliosis, and for patients younger than 5 years old, with the degree of the curvature not being too severe. ¡°Exactly, that¡¯s the method. However, we need to elevate this technique; using the physis blocking and stimulating technology to achieve three-dimensional control of bone development, utilizing this control to allow three-dimensional correction during the spine¡¯s development,¡± Yang Ping said as he took a spine model from his desk and placed it in front of August. ¡°If we could decrypt the key points of spinal growth, and then insert some special implants at these points to either stimulate or block growth, our targets could be achieved.¡± ¡°This would require a large amount of experimentation to gather data.¡± August was somewhat dejected; obtaining such data was no easy task, potentially requiring generations of extensive experimentation before success could be realized. ¡°Through reasoning and calculations, I seem to have grasped some critical data.¡± Yang Ping said casually. ¡°Do you have any new tricks up your sleeve?¡± August perked up, eager, because Professor Yang¡¯s solutions were always very mature. ¡°I¡¯ve recently been studying a lot of books and papers on growth and development theory, conducting systematic research on spinal development. Through calculation, I have obtained data on blocking points, durations, and methods. These need to be continuously verified by experiment, and I don¡¯t have the time to conduct these experiments myself. You, along with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, can go study it,¡± Yang Ping suggested. Finally, at last, August had the opportunity. He fumbled with the spine model with trembling hands, overwhelmed with excitement. ¡°Go and talk to Song Zimo. You¡¯re an expert in the area of the spine; most suited to this project.¡± Yang Ping passed the A4 paper to August. ¡°Alright, I will immediately!¡± August¡¯s voice was hoarse, his hands slightly shaking, already forgetting the scorching that his throat had just undergone. With the spinal model before him, August imagined in his mind the spine growing and developing towards the predetermined target, naturally correcting itself under the influence of physis blocking or stimulating technology. ¡°I need to focus on the project of cultivating organs with stem cells; I don¡¯t have the time to research these minor topics. It¡¯s up to you guys to take over,¡± Yang Ping advised August. Indeed, if he were to replicate all the technologies obtained from the System Laboratory by himself, it would consume a substantial amount of real-time. Outsourcing is the best method, of course, the outsourced party must be qualified. ¡°Professor, rest assured, leave this to me. We can sign a contract; the main contribution will undoubtedly be yours; I am merely conducting research under your guidance,¡± August volunteered proactively. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Get Xiehe Hospital involved as well; a three-way cooperation would be better.¡± ¡°I will comply with all instructions,¡± August responded respectfully. What Yang Ping saw as a ¡°minor topic¡± was, for August, the pursuit of a lifetime. For a doctor, making a breakthrough in a certain area in their lifetime is an extraordinary honor, even if just as a member of the breakthrough team. Like if you were to research mechanics alongside Newton; or, for example, if you had researched alternating current with Tesla back in the day. As he walked out of the office, August pinched himself hard and then clutched the sacred A4 paper tightly. In the office, everyone was still bustling, eagerly signing up as experimental volunteers, filling in the application forms, and starting to prepare for medical examinations. The red telephone in the office rang. This red telephone was the direct line to the Trauma Emergency Center, its distinctive jarring ring already causing everyone¡¯s hairs to stand on end. ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡± Everyone¡¯s gaze instantly focused on it. ¡°Hello?¡± The call was answered by Zhang Lin. Chapter 812 - 812 727 Dangerous Head and Neck Separation ?Chapter 812: Chapter 727: Dangerous Head and Neck Separation Chapter 812: Chapter 727: Dangerous Head and Neck Separation ¡°Old Xu, you take over.¡± While listening to the phone call, Zhang Lin looked at Xu Zhiliang, seeking support; clearly, the situation on the other end of the line had exceeded Zhang Lin¡¯s decision-making abilities. In the emergency scene, on the brink of life and death, one judgment was tied to a life, and Zhang Lin dared not act rashly, dared not carelessly utter a word. Xu Zhiliang took over the phone with calm composure, and as soon as he heard it was a rescue situation, he instantly transformed, speaking without a single stutter. The emergency doctor on the other end was also well-trained, speaking clearly and calmly: ¡°Car accident, seventeen-year-old male, trapped in a deformed car, preliminary diagnosis: atlanto-occipital dislocation, disconnection between the skull and the cervical spine, no bony or ligamentous connections, only muscle and skin holding them together, hands and feet can still move, considering the spinal cord may not be severely damaged, the space inside the car is too small to fit a cervical collar, the rescue team is ready to cut the vehicle, what should I do?¡± Facing such a case, the emergency doctor lacked experience; he had to seek assistance from surgeons skilled in cervical spine operations. Atlanto-occipital dislocation, a fatal injury, is essentially the head losing its true connection with the cervical spine, with the remaining muscle and skin connection being meaningless. For an emergency doctor, many never encounter it in their whole lives because patients with such injuries are often labeled black at the scene, leaving no chance for resuscitation. ¡°Listen carefully, throughout the entire cutting process, you can only rely on manually maintaining fixation and traction of the head and cervical spine, there absolutely must not be any secondary injury, absolutely not! Once the spinal cord is damaged, heartbeat and respiration will stop,¡± Xu Zhiliang said confidently and steadily. He enunciated clearly, without any stutter, making one doubt whether his usual speech impediment was an act. ¡°Understood!¡± the emergency doctor responded, taking a deep breath. ¡°Do you need us to come over?¡± Xu Zhiliang asked. The other party firmly refused, ¡°There¡¯s no time, the patient is actively bleeding heavily, rescue will commence immediately; I will try to manually stabilize the head and cervical spine.¡± Aside from manual stabilization, there was no second option. On the other end of the phone was Dr. Lv, who was very familiar with the surgeons of Comprehensive Surgery, often collaborating with them, but he had never encountered such a case in his career; this was the first time and possibly the last, he was uncertain if he could handle it well. ¡°There must be no rotation, keeping the head and cervical spine¡¯s axis aligned; maintain proper traction, too much or too little are both extremely dangerous; everything can only rely on your sense of touch; both hands must be very stable, when moving¡ª¡± Xu Zhiliang didn¡¯t continue. That¡¯s because if Dr. Lv could succeed in getting the patient onto a stretcher alive, they would face a similarly tricky problem: how to stabilize the cervical spine for transport. It was impossible to rely on manual support indefinitely; it was a choice made when there were no other options, and even short-term stabilization was extremely dangerous, not to mention long-term stabilization, yet a cervical collar couldn¡¯t provide adequate stability. Without reliable stabilization, any slight motion during transport might be fatal. ¡°How long will the cutting take?¡± Xu Zhiliang asked. ¡°We¡¯re preparing to start now, it¡¯s expected to take at least one hour,¡± Dr. Lv breathed rather heavily. ¡°Can you wait for us to arrive before starting the cutting and rescue?¡± Song Zimo reminded from the side. Xu Zhiliang shook his head, ¡°We can¡¯t wait, the patient has active, severe bleeding.¡± ¡°Are there vital signs?¡± Song Zimo inquired with doubt. ¡°He¡¯s still conscious!¡± Xu Zhiliang nodded. It was extremely rare, and indeed fortunate; such cases of atlanto-occipital dislocation usually result in instant death, leaving no opportunity for resuscitation¡ªyet now the patient was conscious. ¡°The patient is stuck in the back seat, Dr. Lv saw abnormal movement of the patient¡¯s head, he reached out and felt something was wrong, suspecting that the upper cervical spine was nearly separated from the skull, with only the skin and muscles holding them together, no bony or ligamentous connections,¡± Xu Zhiliang sat down next to the phone, his brow furrowed. ¡°I wonder if Dr. Lv can handle it?¡± Song Zimo expressed his concern. Xu Zhiliang had his origins in emergency medicine and was very familiar with Dr. Lv, ¡°It should be possible; this person is quite composed and meticulous in his work.¡± ¡°A surviving traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation?¡± August said, his eyes widening in surprise; he couldn¡¯t believe it was true. After all, at the scene of a car accident, a surviving patient with an atlanto-occipital dislocation is incredibly rare; doctors had only seen such cases in the literature. The spine skeletal model was placed on the square table in the office, and Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and August gathered around the model, beginning to study it, with Robert also joining in the bustle. ¡°The life of this patient is in Dr. Lv¡¯s hands; I hope he can hold it steady. Whatever comes next, whether it¡¯s a cervical collar or a halo vest, will not offer reliable fixation,¡± Song Zimo expressed his concern. Xu Zhiliang had also thought of this; it wasn¡¯t just any cervical spine injury, but an atlanto-occipital dislocation. Even slightly poor fixation could be fatal due to minute movements. ¡°He¡¯ll die right there at the scene!¡± August said frankly. How to ensure that the patient wouldn¡¯t experience any dislocation of the joint or injury to the cervical medulla during transport was a serious issue, a very serious issue. ¡°For such patients, the ordinary cervical collar is useless; it cannot provide reliable fixation,¡± August said, his brows furrowed. ¡°Unless we can customize a fitting brace on-site, or create a perfect head-neck-chest plaster cast there.¡± Song Zimo, looking at the spine model and pondering, suddenly had a flash of inspiration. ¡°Can we have the brace department go to the accident scene to customize a protective brace? By rapidly forming it on-site, it could conform and fix the patient¡¯s head and upper body temporarily to protect them?¡± Song Zimo suggested. ¡°Good idea, we would need to move the brace department¡¯s equipment to the accident scene,¡± Xu Zhiliang was awakened by Song Zimo¡¯s suggestion. In critical moments, creative thinking is really needed, breaking the mold of conventional thought. ¡°Should we call Old Wei from the brace department and go?¡± Xu Zhiliang stood up, ¡°Zhang Lin, let Old Wei bring all their stuff and contact the emergency department to dispatch a vehicle.¡± ¡°You all go quickly, I¡¯ll immediately report to the professor and wait for you at home!¡± Song Zimo prepared to split efforts with Xu Zhiliang. Old Wei of the brace department was in his fifties and held a specialized diploma. He used to be a plaster technician in the Orthopedics plaster room, skilled at casting plasters and creating braces. His craftsmanship was exceptional. Later, when the hospital established a dedicated brace department, Old Wei¡¯s plaster room was upgraded to the brace department, becoming an independent section. Moving the entire workshop to the accident scene was something Old Wei had never experienced before. When he received the call from Zhang Lin, he put out the cigarette in his hand. ¡°Check the equipment and materials, load them up, and go to the rescue scene to create braces.¡± Upon hearing that the task was to make a brace on-site, Old Wei¡¯s eyes sparkled with excitement. He had been working with plaster and braces for half his life, and he felt he was the best in the world at it, unmatched by anyone. Furthermore, hearing that this was a life-saving effort, Old Wei was even more thrilled. Working in the hospital for half his life and dealing with plasters and braces every day, he had never thought that these things could actually save lives. ¡°Bring a bucket of water!¡± Old Wei directed his two apprentices while they were moving things. ¡°The constant temperature box needs a power source; where can we get power at the rescue scene?¡± one apprentice asked. Old Wei cursed, ¡°My BYD Tang can supply power, what¡¯s there to be afraid of?¡± ¡°Move faster!¡± Old Wei urged his two apprentices. PS: Dear readers, thank you for waiting. Through hard work over this period, we¡¯ve managed to expand from a two-person team to a three-person team, so I¡¯ll have more time for writing. Thank you all for your unwavering support, let¡¯s continue! Chapter 813 - 813 728 Craftsmanship ?Chapter 813: Chapter 728 Craftsmanship Chapter 813: Chapter 728 Craftsmanship The cutting machine carefully dismembered the car, trying to avoid causing too much vibration or accidentally releasing tension by sudden disassembly, which could lead to incidents. Dr. Lv leaned close to the car window, using it as a fulcrum for both upper limbs, steadying the patient¡¯s head with both hands, ensuring the head and cervical spine remained aligned without any rotation. Then, he gently applied traction to keep the head in position. To maintain the gesture, Dr. Lv¡¯s body was in an awkward and strenuous position. ¡°I can take over for a bit,¡± Dr. Zhou from the emergency department offered, knowing how tough and exhausting the task was. Dr. Lv shook his head, ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯ll say something if it really becomes unbearable.¡± The job required experience; Dr. Lv had found his rhythm, and switching personnel mid-way could easily lead to errors. ¡°Dad, I¡¯m going to be late for the exam¡ª¡± the boy said weakly. ¡°Beibei, don¡¯t talk, hang in there,¡± the father, whose lower half was completely trapped in the deformed car, pleaded. It was a family of three; the mother wasn¡¯t trapped and was successfully rescued and already sent to the hospital. The father and son were stuck in the deformed vehicle and could only hope for rescue by dismembering the car carefully. ¡°Hemoglobin 52 grams!¡± The nurse reported the latest result. One of the ambulances equipped by Sanbo Hospital was a mobile testing vehicle that could conduct simple blood routines, biochemical, liver and kidney functions tests to detect problems early. Such low hemoglobin indicated that some part of the body out of sight was actively bleeding, and the boy could die from excessive blood loss at any time. Comminuted pelvic fracture? A thought flashed through Dr. Lv¡¯s mind; if it was a comminuted pelvic fracture combined with traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation, he wasn¡¯t sure if the patient could survive this ordeal. After all, as an emergency doctor, Dr. Lv had seen too much life and death. ¡°Dad, I can¡¯t hold on any longer, I really want to sleep,¡± the boy said, exhausted from the blood loss. ¡°Kid, hang in there,¡± the father urged without being able to turn his head, feeling extremely anxious. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re here, just don¡¯t move around,¡± Dr. Lv comforted the boy, trying to stabilize the patient¡¯s emotions. While the cutting was underway, Dr. Lv¡¯s arms were already extremely sore and numb, but he still clenched his teeth. He knew the life he was holding in his hands; the boy¡¯s life and death were in his own hands. ¡°I¡¯ll take over for a bit,¡± Dr. Zhou requested again. Dr. Lv still shook his head. Even with Dr. Zhou¡¯s experience, there was no extra space now to switch two people without errors; Dr. Lv had no choice but to grit his teeth and keep going until the end. ¡°Be careful! We¡¯re going to pry this side open with force,¡± said the rescuer, keeping in communication with Dr. Lv so he could prepare in advance. A change in space might occur when a metal part was completely cut off, leading to sudden changes in the forces on the head and neck, which could cause shearing or strain. Dr. Lv struggled to feel his limbs through the numbness and soreness, searching for that slight sense of autonomy to keep his brain in control of the extremities, maintain the position, and be ready to adjust his grip at any moment to cope with any unexpected incidents. ¡ª Director Wei¡¯s car arrived at the scene. ¡°Where? Where?¡± Guided by the emergency doctor, Director Wei approached the sedan being cut open. ¡°He¡¯s trapped inside! Suspected traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation. Later, after we get him out, we need a custom-fitted support from you,¡± Dr. Lv informed. Director Wei, without any chit-chat, gestured, ¡°Set lines, boil water, get ready to work.¡± ¡°Boiling water¡± referred to a thermostatic water tank that could keep water temperatures between 40-60 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, his pliable materials could soften and then be used to make a custom-fitted orthotic to immobilize the head, neck, and chest, preventing them from moving freely. The requirements for the support due to traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation were very high. Director Wei prepared to personally take on the task, utilizing his life¡¯s work. Originally a plaster technician, Director Wei¡¯s interest shifted as casting patients dwindled over time and he lacked a sense of achievement. He went on to study orthotics, blending ancient plaster techniques with modern supports to create many fixation methods and tools. In the orthopedic external fixation device field, Director Wei was considered an expert, having dedicated most of his life to this area of study. Today, he was excited to apply his expertise in saving a life. ¡°Get a power strip from my car and boil some water!¡± The two apprentices had never seen such a scene before and were at a loss, prompting Director Wei to grow irritated, ¡°What are you dazed for, boil the water, and get ready to start working.¡± Only then did the apprentices snap to attention, starting their tasks by pulling a power strip from the vehicle, filling the water tank, and fetching some polymer materials. Everything was ready, but the rescue cutting was still not complete. Director Wei stood on tiptoes, craning his neck to look inside. He observed the casualty from different angles, hoping to acquire some data by visual estimation. After circling the sedan over ten times, Director Wei began cutting material on the spot. ¡ª ¡°Dad, I¡¯m going to be late for the exam¡ª¡± The boy¡¯s voice grew fainter, so soft it was inaudible unless one listened closely. His father, nearly in tears with urgency, said, ¡°Beibei, it¡¯s okay. Let¡¯s not worry about that now, just hang in there, hang on.¡± Finally, the rear seat area was dismantled. Abruptly, a sharp metal edge somewhere sliced through Dr. Lv¡¯s arm, severing the skin and the small artery and vein beneath, spouting blood. Dr. Lv, completely ignoring the wound on his arm, firmly stabilized the patient¡¯s head and neck while Dr. Zhou took out some bandages, intending to dress Dr. Lv¡¯s wound. ¡°Don¡¯t touch it!¡± barked Dr. Lv. At this moment, no one could afford to move his hand carelessly; a single slip could mean the difference between life and death. ¡°Slow down, slow down! Get the stretcher!¡± Dr. Lv instructed everyone. The team cooperated smoothly, carefully moving the patient out, laying them flat, and then gently transferring them to the stretcher. Director Wei lifted a piece of cut polymer material from the water tank. The material was somewhat translucent and dripping wet. He skillfully and gently slid the material behind the head and neck, then wrapped it around both sides. With the palms of his hands, Director Wei swiftly and gently massaged the soft material into place, allowing it to take on the optimal shape. The apprentice wanted to lend a hand but was stopped by Director Wei: ¡°Don¡¯t move!¡± Normally, he would be glad for the apprentice to be more hands-on, but at that moment, he wanted to do it himself. A traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation was no joke¡ªany small movement could be fatal. ¡°Don¡¯t fidget, watch my technique. Try to use the thenar and hypothenar eminences, be gentle, be even, this material requires high technical skill,¡± Director Wei said as he worked. He wasn¡¯t exaggerating; usually, a small discrepancy wouldn¡¯t matter much, but right now, any small error could cost a life. The splint¡¯s effectiveness depended on how well it conformed to the body¡ªthe closer the fit, the better the effect, yet on the chest it couldn¡¯t restrict breathing, so achieving the perfect balance was crucial. This was like tailoring a fitted garment directly on a person¡¯s body on the spot, requiring considerable skill. The splint material changed from soft to hard with a time limit of about ten to twenty minutes, and the entire process had to be completed within this window to avoid the difficulty of redoing it. Ordinary patients could simply start over, but there was no such opportunity with this kind of casualty. Director Wei was like a skilled sculptor, with the simple repetitive motions of smoothing the material between his hands, the splint gradually took shape. Soon, an elegant and well-fitted splint magically appeared before everyone. ¡°Success!¡± Director Wei released his hands, smiling contentedly at his handiwork, and then gently flicked the outer shell of the splint with his finger. ¡°Can he be moved onto the vehicle now?¡± Dr. Lv asked worriedly. Director Wei nodded and pulled out a cigarette, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, onto the vehicle, just be careful, that¡¯s all.¡± They all carefully lifted the boy onto the ambulance, with Dr. Lv checking the patient¡¯s limb reflexes and breathing a sigh of relief. ¡°Don¡¯t think our craft lacks technical skill. From now on, pay more attention. See, today our craft saved a life,¡± Director Wei proudly lectured his apprentices. Usually, the two apprentices were lackadaisical, always feeling that making casts and splints was a dead end and were eager to find another job. This annoyed Director Wei, so he took the opportunity of today¡¯s successful case to give the apprentices a good lesson. PS: Updates will resume daily in mid-August once the real three shifts begin. Currently, it¡¯s a pseudo three-shift schedule. Chapter 814 - 814 729 Hanging by a Thread ?Chapter 814: Chapter 729: Hanging by a Thread Chapter 814: Chapter 729: Hanging by a Thread Comprehensive Surgery Department office. On the professional imaging electronic screen, the head and neck CT scan images of the injured child appeared on the display, with the cross-sectional pictures switching one by one, followed by the three-dimensional reconstructed images rotating 360 degrees, making the entire skull and cervical spine distinctly clear. Traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation! It was confirmed. The atlas had a bone cyst, which due to trauma caused a comminuted fracture. Luckily, the fracture spread outward instead of encroaching into the vertebral canal. This was the reason the boy did not die on the spot from spinal cord injury. However, since his successful rescue from the scene, his limb muscle strength had remained at level one. This indicated that spinal cord damage was present, but if the injury did not worsen, there might be a possibility of recovery after the surgery. With limb muscle strength at level one, the muscles in the thoracic and abdominal area would be nearly the same, and many muscles in the thorax are respiratory muscles. Without the function of these respiratory muscles, breathing would be impossible. Following the rescue from the trapped vehicle, Dr. Lv immediately performed a tracheostomy on the injured child, connecting him to a manual respirator to sustain breathing. In addition to the traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation, the injured child also had multiple fractures throughout his body, including a comminuted pelvic fracture, resulting in a significant amount of blood loss. Looking at the images on the screen, Yang Ping took a sharp breath¡ªthe survival rate for traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation combined with atlas fracture at the scene was slim to none, and even if he was lucky to survive, any minor error during the rescue operation, transfer to the hospital, or at any link in between, could have led to the injured child¡¯s breathing and heartbeat stopping. ¡°Atlanto-occipital fixation is no longer very possible, we can only bypass the atlas and perform occipito-C2 fixation,¡± August suggested. There are not many precedents to refer to for such surgery, which are already extremely rare, and with the atlas also having a comminuted fracture, there are even fewer references available. The doctors would have to rely on their subjective initiative. Yang Ping didn¡¯t speak, just silently observed the image pictures, thinking about the methods and details of the surgery. As a doctor, one must be more diligent than in any other profession¡ªlife is singular and fleeting. ¡°The patient is already on the emergency operating table, undergoing fixation with an external pelvic fixator, and internal pelvic vascular interventional embolization to stop the bleeding,¡± Song Zimo kept abreast of the rescue efforts and briefed Yang Ping. The principle of trauma emergency care is to put life first, with everything else taking a back seat. For such patients, the first step is to control bleeding to stabilize the volume of blood circulation, which is a standard procedure. And for comminuted pelvic fractures with a high volume of blood loss, using an external fixation frame to stabilize the pelvis in an emergency; if blood pressure remains unstable after stabilizing the pelvic volume, emergency interventional embolization is needed to arrest the bleeding. If even interventional embolization cannot control the hemorrhage, then the last resort¡ªpacking hemostasis¡ªcomes into play, using a large amount of gauze to pack the retroperitoneal space, relying on the pressure from the gauze packing to compress the bleeding vessels and stop the hemorrhage. ¡°Let¡¯s go have a look in the Emergency Department!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s surgical plan was clear in his mind as he and the others hurried to the Emergency Department. The conditions of the surgery rooms in the Emergency Department were good, and this particular room was a hybrid operating room, capable of both interventional surgeries and open surgeries. Hybrid operating room, although this term isn¡¯t exactly accurate¡ªa ¡®composite operating room¡¯ would be more fitting. Essentially, it combines 3D imaging technologies of DSA, CT, MRI, and other equipment with the surgical cleanroom technology of a surgical suite, allowing for both minimally invasive interventional surgeries and traditional open surgeries, thus addressing a variety of complex surgeries, reducing surgical risk, and saving surgery time. It¡¯s simply the integration of imaging monitoring and surgical operation functionalities into one unit. In the emergency operating room, Dr. Zhong from the Trauma Orthopedics had already fitted the patient with an external pelvic fixator, while Director Ji from the Intervention Department was performing an emergency interventional vascular embolization on the patient. The Intervention Department¡¯s top experts, Director Guan specialized in cardiovascular interventional surgeries, while Director Ji was an all-rounder, capable of handling trauma hemostasis, tumor embolization, and more. This combination of specialization and versatility, paired with seamless cooperation, led to the rapid development of Sanbo¡¯s Intervention Department. The two experts also had a good private relationship, which contributed to the tradition at Sanbo Hospital¡ªsince its establishment, the hospital had fostered a spirit of unity. Rather than engaging in internal conflict, any problems were laid out on the table for discussion and collaborative solutions. Yang Ping, donning a lead apron, entered the operating room, where Director Ji was engaged in battle, with Director Guan observing by the side. Director Guan knew that this kind of trauma hemostasis was Director Ji¡¯s forte, and as someone from outside this specialty, he should not casually speak out of turn, let alone intervene¡ªso he merely stood by quietly, observing the proceedings. Yang Ping tiptoed into the operating room; he walked around the operating table to the head side of the patient, carefully lifted the cloth covering the head, and saw the support device in front of him, as pristine as a piece of art. Director Wei indeed did not disappoint¡ªhis skills honed over thirty years proved vital. The support device he fashioned by hand at the emergency scene had functioned excellently, safeguarding the patient¡¯s safe return to Sanbo Hospital. ¡°Limb muscle strength is at level one,¡± Dr. Lv came up and reported. Yang Ping nodded; the fact that there was still level one muscle strength in the limbs meant there was hope for recovery. ¡°This support device is alright, isn¡¯t it?¡± Director Wei was also wandering around the operating room; he rarely had the chance to be there and seemed a little uncomfortable, his sterile cap not quite properly in place. Yang Ping said with a smile, ¡°Without your support structure, we wouldn¡¯t have much left to do. Your device is truly a lifesaver.¡± Like a child, Director Wei touched his sterile cap, ¡°The thing might be a bit rough around the edges, but as long as it doesn¡¯t hinder your real work, that¡¯s what counts.¡± ¡°Blood pressure stabilized, it¡¯s stable!¡± The anesthesiologist, staring at the monitor screen, exclaimed excitedly. Director Ji¡¯s forehead was covered in sweat; he turned his head and moved out of the surgical area. The patrolling nurse hadn¡¯t yet had the chance to help him wipe it away when Director Guan took out a stack of tissues and had already wiped the sweat from Director Ji¡¯s forehead. Succeeding in arterial embolization not only requires high technical skill but also carries risks, possibly leading to ischemic necrosis of the embolized limb. Of course, limb necrosis is better than dying on the spot, so some methods are only used after weighing the risks and benefits. Since the blood pressure was stabilized, it indicated that the interventional embolization was successful. ¡°Old Ji, your embolization technique is impressive,¡± Director Guan admired sincerely. Director Ji shook his head, ¡°Without Professor Yang¡¯s progress in anatomical research in this area, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to reach this level. I¡¯m just borrowing the concept, applying what Professor Yang has achieved.¡± Successful embolization is predicated on a thorough familiarity with the systemic vascular anatomy and a strong ability to interpret angiographic images; all of these rely on basic research and clinical experience. ¡°Professor Yang, when did you get here?¡± It was only then that Director Ji noticed Yang Ping standing behind him. ¡°Just arrived.¡± Yang Ping was focused on the blood pressure reading on the screen. ¡°Should we perform the cervical spine fixation now or as a second-stage surgery?¡± Director Ji was preparing to finish up. Yang Ping shifted his gaze from the screen, ¡°After you finish here, transfer the injured to the trauma ICU. We¡¯ll proceed with the second-stage surgery once hemodynamics are stable. Director Wei, is that okay?¡± Because the second-stage operation would require waiting many days, stabilizing the injured person¡¯s cervical spine during this short period presented a big challenge. If the stabilization wasn¡¯t reliable, a single oversight could be fatal. For instance, during nursing care shifts, not only does the cervical spine fixation need to be extremely reliable, but also the group of nurses responsible for shifting must coordinate flawlessly. Otherwise, the slightest twist of the cervical spine could have unimaginable consequences. Director Ji and Director Guan had never dealt with Director Wei from the support structure department, so they were not familiar with him, but as colleagues of twenty years, they recognized each other. To operate now or postpone the surgery¡ªthat was the dilemma. Immediate surgery could ensure reliable stabilization of the head and neck, but the injured, having just been snatched from the clutches of death, could not withstand another surgical strike. Moreover, to fix the head and neck, it would be necessary to customize special fixation devices, which obviously couldn¡¯t be delivered to the operating table right away. Postponing the surgery, which meant a second-stage operation, would allow the injured person¡¯s body to recover to some extent. Particularly after stabilization of hemodynamic parameters, surgery would be much safer, but during the waiting period, cervical spine protection requirements would be extremely strict, with no room for error. So, Director Wei was key to the treatment plan¡ªdid he have the confidence to ensure that the injured person¡¯s cervical spine wouldn¡¯t have any issues over those days? ¡°Of course!¡± Director Wei said decisively. He decided to personally oversee the trauma ICU, taking charge of the injured person¡¯s head and neck fixation and assisting with nursing and transfers. With Director Wei¡¯s firm answer, Yang Ping was reassured. He had great confidence in Director Wei¡¯s skills. ¡°Then we¡¯ll schedule a second-stage surgery. We¡¯ll transfer to the trauma ICU after emergency surgery is over,¡± Yang Ping decided on the spot. Director Wei had never felt such immense pressure before. During the wait before the second-stage surgery, the boy¡¯s life would hang on his support structure. ¡°Old Wei, you have a heavy responsibility. This child¡¯s life is literally hanging by a thread, and that thread is in your hands,¡± Robert joked, having appeared at some point. ¡°Relax, take a deep breath¡ªthe people will support you!¡± August encouraged Director Wei. ¡°My palms are sweating right now.¡± Director Wei was slightly nervous, but he quickly regained his composure, reminding himself: No need to fear; when it comes to casting plaster and making support structures, if Old Wei can¡¯t handle it, who can? ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll pick a few experienced nurses to care for this patient. I will be at the bedside 24 hours a day. I refuse to believe we can¡¯t get through this,¡± Director Wei said confidently. He had never been so prominently in the spotlight in his life. At this moment, he could not afford any mistakes. Chapter 815 - 815 730 The Unbearable Separation in Life ?Chapter 815: Chapter 730: The Unbearable Separation in Life Chapter 815: Chapter 730: The Unbearable Separation in Life After the bleeding was successfully stopped, the boy had passed the first hurdle of Ghost Gate. Next, he was to be transferred to the trauma ICU for continued treatment, and once his condition stabilized, he would undergo a second phase of surgery. The content of the second surgery was extensive, not only stabilizing the head and neck but also operating on pelvic fractures and multiple fractures throughout the body. ¡°Get ready to transfer the bed, everyone take your positions!¡± Song Zimo directed everyone to start moving the boy from the operating table to the transport gurney. Due to weakened muscle strength, the boy had to rely on a ventilator to assist his breathing. A cannula inserted through a tracheotomy was connected to the ventilator, emitting rhythmic hissing sounds. ¡°1, 2, 3, lift!¡± Following Song Zimo¡¯s command, everyone worked together to successfully move the boy onto the gurney. Normally, transferring a patient after routine surgery usually required only two or three people, but this time was different. To move the patient safely, seven experienced and strong doctors teamed up for the task. Because the cervical spinal cord begins at the plane of the atlanto-occipital joint near the medullary respiratory center, any carelessness could potentially cause secondary spinal cord damage, and the outcome of such damage would be respiratory arrest. ¡°Is the blood oxygen dropping?¡± the anesthesiologist immediately alerted. On the monitor screen, blood oxygen saturation had been dropping from 100%, down to 80%. Just one transfer had caused this critical fluctuation. Everyone¡¯s gaze turned to Yang Ping, hoping to receive some sort of rescue directive from him. Yang Ping looked at the numbers on the guard screen for a moment before speaking, ¡°No matter how cautious we are, it is impossible to ensure there is no rotation or translation of the cervical spine. Even the slightest movement can disrupt the already edematous cervical cord, affecting the respiratory center and causing a drop in blood oxygen. This is a transient fluctuation; let¡¯s observe for a bit before we proceed.¡± The blood oxygen saturation maintained at 80% for less than 30 seconds before starting to rise again, climbing to above 95%. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. If the blood oxygen saturation had not risen but continued to fall, it would have indicated a fatal secondary injury to the cervical cord, and the boy likely would not have had a chance to survive. Fortunately, the blood oxygen saturation returned to normal, which was due to the good fixation of the scaffold and the professional cooperation of everyone during the transfer. Yang Ping approached the transport gurney and touched the scaffold. Director Wei quickly followed, looking at Yang Ping worriedly, as the recent fluctuation of blood oxygen indicated the cervical spine was still unstable, hinting at some interference with the respiratory center. Director Wei also extended his hand to touch the surface of the scaffold, determining if it was fitting properly, especially at the bends, and whether it was smooth, exploring along the edges of the scaffold to check if there were any gaps between it and the skin that were too wide. After some examination, Director Wei said in confusion, ¡°The fixation is very reliable; what¡¯s going on?¡± Yang Ping said indifferently, ¡°The scaffold is practically perfect; it¡¯s not an issue with the scaffold. Any external fixation is an elastic fixation and cannot be absolutely stable. Minor movements are fine as long as they are within a safe range. Don¡¯t worry; now we can send him to the ICU. If there is another fluctuation in blood oxygen, we¡¯ll stop, rest, stabilize, then continue the transfer.¡± Director Wei¡¯s hanging heart was reassured. He had confidence in his own scaffold, having dedicated his life to this one task and believing he had achieved the pinnacle of perfection. About fifteen minutes after the blood oxygen stabilized, the group began pushing the gurney to transport the boy to the trauma ICU. ¡ª Comprehensive Surgery Department doctor¡¯s office. It was already time to clock out, but doctors¡¯ lives never really had a concept of ¡°normal working hours.¡± Scattered empty lunch boxes were placed on the desktop; whether it was vegetables or rice, they had been completely devoured without a trace left behind. Xiao Su and Tang Fei helped clean up the desktop, while Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, August, Robert, and others discussed the case anew. ¡°The spinal cord shows edema but isn¡¯t severed, which means it¡¯s just a contusion. The limbs currently have a muscle strength of level one. As long as the surgery is timely, there is a great chance of recovery. Trauma-induced atlanto-occipital dislocation¡ªI¡¯ve performed similar surgeries, but only a few of them. There are not many reported cases of similar surgeries in Europe, and for this casualty, the atlas has comminuted fractures, which is a case I have never encountered before.¡± August was a top-notch spinal surgery expert. Experience was extremely important, and he wiped the corners of his mouth with a tissue as he spoke. External trauma that leads to the disconnection of the joint between the head and the cervical spine causes the head and neck to lose their reliable bone and ligament connections, with only soft tissue maintaining the connection. While such injuries were not uncommon, the cases doctors got to see were very rare. Among cases of cervical spinal injuries resulting in death, about one-third are due to dislocations of the atlanto-occipital joint. Dislocations here are very unstable, and the vast majority of these patients either die on the spot from injuries or during transport due to further misplacement of the atlanto-occipital joint, which compresses or pulls on the spinal cord¡¯s life center, causing respiratory arrest and death. Hence, the cases that actually get to see a doctor are extremely rare, even on a global scale. ¡°The atlas vertebra, this term comes from the Titan Atlas in Greek mythology, who carries the Earth on his shoulders. Just as Atlas carries the Earth, the atlas vertebra carries the entire head. The joint formed between the atlas and the head¡ªacondylar joint¡ªis the only junction between the head and the cervical spine. Our large heads rely on this small joint to connect to the cervical spine and the torso¡ª¡± August pointed to the slowly rotating head and neck CT three-dimensional reconstruction image on the screen, eloquently explaining. ¡°Without Atlas, who would take up the burden of the Earth? Without the atlas, I don¡¯t know how to accommodate this head?¡± August shrugged. Robert said helplessly, ¡°The separation of the atlanto-occipital joint is an unbearable separation in life!¡± ¡°We can only custom-make a prosthesis, with the prosthesis bearing the skull¡¯s occipital portion at the top and connecting to the axis vertebra below, while also simulating the atlas¡ªthat is, to mold an artificial atlas, atlanto-occipital joint, and atlantoaxial joint,¡± Song Zimo voiced his opinion. This idea was bold, easy to speak of, but extremely difficult to execute. ¡°Isolated dislocations of the atlanto-occipital joint have a few cases, but for cases combined with comminuted fractures of the atlas, there is currently no precedent in the world to follow,¡± August stated with disappointment. ¡°Logically, this case should not appear before us, but it has. We have to do something, right?¡± After a long silence, Xu Zhiliang joined in the discussion. Yet Zhang Lin and Little Five remained silent, not because they did not want to take part in the discussion, but because it was too sophisticated for them; they had no means to intervene and could only learn as bystanders. ¡°If we use a custom-made prosthesis, the comminuted atlas needs to be removed. Completely resecting the atlas is a difficult task, with unpredictable bleeding occurring during surgery. What is even more challenging is that the surgery requires the patient to be in a prone position and then switched to a supine position midway. The change of position makes it very difficult to stabilize the head and cervical spine. It is impossible to use a support to fix it during surgery, and traditional cranial traction and various scaffolds are powerless,¡± August added new worries. Indeed, how to allow the patient to freely change positions without damaging the spinal cord during surgery was another significant challenge. ¡°Using the prosthesis for fixation is a good plan, but if an atlas prosthesis is used to complete the surgery, how can we achieve a stable, long-term fixation between the skull¡¯s occipital part and the prosthesis, and between the prosthesis and the axis vertebra? Of course, we don¡¯t have to think so far ahead. After all, as long as we can complete the surgery, no matter how stable it is, it would be a victory in medicine.¡± August had once participated in an academic exchange between Europe and the United States, where an American doctor tried to complete the surgery using this method, but ultimately, due to the loosening of the screws, the connection between the patient¡¯s occipital part of the head and the cervical spine loosened, leading to respiratory failure. ¡°This method can be improved. The artificial atlas could use a titanium mesh-like structure. The mesh structure undertakes the mission of temporary fixation, while the mesh is filled with the patient¡¯s own bone, such as rib or iliac bone, or the patient¡¯s existing comminuted atlas, to allow the patient¡¯s own bone to achieve bony fusion with the upper occipital part and the lower axis vertebra, thus killing two birds with one stone,¡± Yang Ping suggested, leaning back in his chair. Sometimes, when faced with a difficult problem, innovative thinking is necessary to find a solution. Because they are challenging problems since existing knowledge doesn¡¯t offer a solution, it requires you to use your imagination and propose a brand-new plan. ¡°A hollow cage-like structure filled with autologous bone, allowing the prosthesis to undertake both the temporary fixation and head-neck fusion tasks?¡± August said in surprise. ¡°Exactly!¡± Yang Ping affirmed. ¡°Aneurysmal Bone Cyst is currently only a radiological diagnosis; a pathology slice examination must be done during surgery to determine the nature of the atlas tumor. If it is malignant, we not only can¡¯t use the atlas as donor bone; we also face more trouble,¡± Xu Zhiliang brought up a new issue. Yang Ping said approvingly, ¡°Your thinking is very rigorous! Whether it¡¯s an Aneurysmal Bone Cyst cannot be confirmed now; we must conduct a pathological examination during surgery. Regardless, our current surgical goal is only to achieve head-neck stabilization, survival is our only objective at the moment.¡± ¡°An imaginative solution, what can I do?¡± Robert asked, mimicking the gesture of snapping his fingers. After a brief thought, Yang Ping said, ¡°You can do many things, but I¡¯ve decided to entrust you with the most important, core task. I hope you are up to it.¡± Robert excitedly patted his chest, ¡°Rest assured, trust me.¡± ¡°From today on, you¡¯ll join the trauma ICU nursing team. They need a member who is well-versed in orthopedics and physically robust, as turning the patient in nursing care is too crucial. The slightest carelessness could cause dislocation of the head and neck,¡± Yang Ping said very seriously. Robert¡¯s eyebrows tightened, then relaxed in an instant, ¡°Professor¡ªI promise¡ªto complete the task¡ªmay I make a request?¡± ¡°Please speak!¡± Yang Ping answered with ease. ¡°During the task, can my working meals be arranged for two?¡± ¡°No problem, not only will you have double portions, but we¡¯ll also add a chicken leg!¡± ¡°This is a daunting and sacred mission, the most critical and core part of the entire treatment plan. There must be no mistakes. As a brother, I¡¯d love to fight alongside you, but the situation won¡¯t allow it. I¡¯ll secretly cheer for you in my heart. Believe in yourself, you can do it, keep going,¡± August encouraged his roommate. ¡°The nursing team also needs an expert in spinal surgery. If needed, I can push through the difficulty for you,¡± Yang Ping gave August another assignment. August stood up straight, swallowed, ¡°Professor, I don¡¯t want to cause you trouble.¡± ¡°No worries! You¡¯ve moved me, I¡¯ll do my utmost to fight for it,¡± Yang Ping said nonchalantly. Chapter 816 - 816 731 What Good Comrades ?Chapter 816: Chapter 731: What Good Comrades! Chapter 816: Chapter 731: What Good Comrades! For Orthopedics, if it were just a simple case of traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation, Tan Boyun would try his best to manage it. However, with the concurrent atlantal burst fracture, he had no confidence in the surgery and had to seek help from the Comprehensive Surgery Department. Although Tan Boyun was prideful, he was also very honest. In the face of life, he never harbored any self-interest; he admitted that he lacked experience in this area, dared not attempt it, and hoped that Yang Ping could be the chief surgeon for this surgery. After finishing his morning rounds, Yang Ping visited the boy in the Trauma ICU. The high school senior named Lu Jiangbei was lying in the ICU bed, connected to various tubes and relying on a ventilator to assist his breathing. The Trauma ICU has a total of twenty beds, and now, it was packed full, with not a single bed available. This illustrates how busy the Trauma Emergency Center at Sanbo Hospital is; it has become the leading center in the south, complementing the Trauma Emergency Center of Magic City Sixth Hospital, creating a national dual force. Male nurses, usually only seen in operating rooms and emergency departments, could be observed here, several of them, each with a robust build. The central working area in the Trauma ICU is an oval work island; within the oval marble island surrounded by a ring, dozens of computers are busy, and looking up, one sees a circle of high-definition LCD screens, which are connected to cameras for seamless 24-hour monitoring of each ward, every patient. Doctors and nurses, wearing sterile hats and masks and dressed in blue scrubs, are constantly busy, with every word, every action revolving around the patients they are in charge of. After passing through three doors, Yang Ping arrived at the ICU, followed by Tan Boyun, Dr. Lv from Emergency, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and several young masters and doctoral students. The chief physician of Lu Jiangbei was a young doctoral student, his eyes full of admiration as he watched Yang Ping enter. ¡°Good morning, Professor Yang!¡± The chief physician greeted him politely, and after greeting, there were no more words to waste, as any more would be a waste of time. The young doctoral student quickly pulled out a plastic case file from a stack, opened it, held it in his hands, and then led Yang Ping¡¯s team into the ward, introducing the case status as they walked. The pace was quick, as was the speech, but it did not hinder communication; everyone had already adapted to this speed. ¡°Current diagnosis: traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation, atlantal burst fracture, atlantal bone cyst, fracture of the left 2nd to 11th ribs, bilateral pulmonary contusion, bilateral traumatic wet lungs, pneumohemothorax, comminuted pelvic fracture, epidural hematoma¡ª, hemoglobin has been stabilized around 65, we will continue the blood transfusion today, and it should be able to reach over 70; severe bilateral traumatic wet lungs, now unable to disconnect from the ventilator; can only continue with machine-assisted breathing; the temperature of the left lower limb is two degrees lower than that of the right, but there are no obvious signs of ischemic necrosis at present; the subdural bleeding is very small, only 12 milliliters, and has not continued to increase; consciousness is clear, we used sedatives last night; muscle strength in the limbs is still maintained at level 1¡ª¡± From the hallway to the bedside in the ward, the young doctor had quickly finished his briefing. He looked a bit tired, but that did not affect his continued work. Yang Ping stood by the bed, and little by little, other doctors and nurses drew closer. A litany of diagnoses could be headache-inducing, indicating the characteristics of a high-energy trauma patient, with car accidents and falls from heights being typical high-energy injuries. Lu Jiangbei lay in the hospital bed, seemingly aware of someone approaching, and opened his eyes. He had undergone a tracheostomy, and the inserted tube connected to the ventilator. Besides that, he was linked with many other tubes: closed thoracic drainage tubes, urinary catheters, several infusion tubes. An external fixation frame for his pelvis was exposed outside the body, while a head-neck-chest brace tightly protected his already separated head and neck. ¡°Blood pressure and oxygen saturation are relatively stable, occasionally fluctuating but quickly stabilizing. Thanks to the perfect brace and everyone¡¯s perfect cooperation during each turn,¡± August said, dressed in blue scrubs that seemed a bit too small, giving a tight appearance. Next to him, Robert¡¯s clothes were even more ill-fitting, looking as if an adult had forcibly worn a child¡¯s clothing, even his navel was exposed, invoking much concern that a little movement might cause the clothes to burst into pieces. ¡°Sorry, we don¡¯t have scrubs that big. The storeroom said they have extra-large sizes, but they haven¡¯t been delivered yet,¡± the Head Nurse apologized, as she¡¯d never expected the nursing team to have such towering members. It had been rash, only considering adding more food and not clothing. Song Zimo felt guilty. August was managing, but for Robert to work in such attire required great perseverance and courage. ¡°Later, I will get a set for you from the operating room. You should be able to make do with my scrubs,¡± Song Zimo consoled Robert. ¡°Thankfully, we have Dr. Luo¡¯s help. With him, each time we turn the patient, it becomes much easier,¡± the Head Nurse expressed her gratitude to Robert. Yang Ping nodded and cast an approving look at Robert, who felt a supreme honor, exuding a ¡®If not me, who?¡¯ attitude. ¡°Dr. Ao has also been a great help to us; this is a completely new case for us, lacking experience, but Dr. Ao taught us hands-on and even gave us lessons,¡± the Head Nurse didn¡¯t leave anyone out. Yang Ping¡¯s gaze shifted to August, who puffed out his chest, aspiring not to be outdone by the American as a visiting scholar. ¡°Both of you, thank you for your hard work!¡± Yang Ping offered his sincere thanks. Robert and August stood proudly, their chests puffed out, and they said in unison, ¡°Serve the people!¡± Such good comrades, not picky about their work, diligent and responsible, always maintaining a high level of enthusiasm for work, thought the Head Nurse, especially with their physique, such a find would be rare even with a lantern. Yang Ping was stunned for a moment, then immediately returned to the matter at hand, ¡°Is he conscious now?¡± ¡°He should be conscious now!¡± the attending doctor answered. Yang Ping leaned over and gently patted Lu Jiangbei¡¯s face, calling his name, and then told him, ¡°Blink your eyes if you can hear me speaking.¡± Lu Jiangbei¡¯s eyes blinked a few times, he should have been able to hear Yang Ping speaking, feeling the desire to say something, but unable to voice it. From his eyes, it was evident that Lu Jiangbei had a strong desire to live; Yang Ping¡¯s hand gently pressed on his forehead, ¡°Rest assured, we can cure you.¡± Lu Jiangbei¡¯s eyes blinked several times in response. ¡°At the scene, he could still speak initially, but now he can only blink¡ª¡± Dr. Lv from the emergency department was also among the crowd, feeling very guilty and wondering if his on-site handling was not timely or proper. Yang Ping smiled and said, ¡°If the injury on-site or during transport had caused secondary damage, he wouldn¡¯t have had the chance to survive at all. This phenomenon is quite normal; the nerve symptoms show dynamic progression. The cervical spinal cord contusion can lead to swelling of the spinal cord, the swelling causes internal compression, and trauma-induced bleeding, especially from a fracture of the atlas bone, fills the vertebral canal, and due to external compression, both pressures increase gradually, which is why the paralysis intensified. We should operate as soon as possible to give the spinal cord a chance to recover.¡± Dr. Lv felt much more reassured after hearing Yang Ping say this. ¡°As long as the hemoglobin exceeds 70, arrange the surgery, prepare enough blood products before the surgery, and prepare autologous blood transfusion equipment.¡± As long as overall conditions permit, Yang Ping hoped to perform the surgery as soon as possible. ¡ª Ruixing Medical¡¯s 3D printing laboratory. This laboratory¡¯s system is connected to the Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory system, and the internal fixation data, processed by the digital medical laboratory, is transmitted to the host here. The top-notch 3D printer started working. Using medical-grade titanium alloy as the raw material, the implant for securing Lu Jiangbei¡¯s head and neck gradually took shape. Inside the transparent work chamber, the one-piece implant appeared. Chief Engineer Chen Zhi, dressed in a white work gown, stood in front of the transparent work chamber, staring at the implant inside. The metallic implant looked like a work of art, with an exquisitely intricate, hollow mesh structure all around. The chamber door opened, and Chen Zhi, wearing white gloves, carefully removed the implant. He held it in his hands, inspected it to ensure there were no flaws, and then placed it back inside the chamber. This mesh-structured artificial atlas is only part of the equipment; surrounding it were the necessary screws and various corresponding tools. All the design came from Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory. Based on Yang Ping¡¯s requirements and relying on digital human technology, they used Lu Jiangbei¡¯s CT data to continually simulate and adjust the fixation, refining data until the final product was achieved. After being printed by the 3D printer, all the equipment would be sterilized¡ªall of this controlled by the powerful and intelligent ¡°Ruixing Brain.¡± Ruixing Medical¡¯s equipment had gained a foothold in the domestic market and was beginning to expand abroad. In its product lineup, Ruixing started with orthopedic consumables and expanded to cardiovascular, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, interventional medicine, and other fields. Huang Jiacai had already established several institutes and laboratories, recruiting a large number of top talents¡ªessentially all doctors from top universities, including researchers who had worked for years in major laboratories. This boss, with only a high school education, had an extraordinary vision and breadth of mind. ¡°How beautiful!¡± the assistant exclaimed. ¡°How much would the surgery cost?¡± the assistant was curious. Chen Zhi shook his head, ¡°This project is currently free of charge. We¡¯re not making any money from it.¡± ¡°Not making money?¡± the assistant didn¡¯t quite understand. ¡°All of our laboratories are not making money at the moment,¡± Chen Zhi answered. The assistant looked concerned, ¡°If we don¡¯t make money, how much are we losing every day from these laboratories?¡± Inside the transparent work chamber, one screw after another was manufactured. Chen Zhi smiled and said, ¡°You paid money to go to primary school, secondary school, and university, why didn¡¯t you feel like you were losing money then?¡± The assistant suddenly understood; although they were different matters, the principle seemed to have something in common. Chapter 817 - 817 732 Sitting through the Surgery ?Chapter 817: Chapter 732: Sitting through the Surgery Chapter 817: Chapter 732: Sitting through the Surgery After multiple blood transfusions, Lu Jiangbei¡¯s hemoglobin had risen to 70 grams per liter and had not fallen again, indicating that her hemodynamics had stabilized. Next, the team began preparing for Lu Jiangbei¡¯s surgery. The implant for fixing the headrest to the upper cervical spine had been successfully printed by a 3D printer, and the details of the surgery had been finalized. But there was an unresolved issue¡ªhow to safely change positions during the operation. Lu Jiangbei¡¯s surgery required anterior-posterior fixation, and both approaches were naturally needed for completion: the anterior approach requiring a supine position and the posterior approach needing a prone position. Due to the lack of reliable fixation, switching between these two positions presented many difficulties, and with Lu Jiangbei having multiple rib and pelvic fractures, the prone position was simply not achievable. Another preoperative discussion about this issue began. August and Robert, who had been temporarily borrowed by the trauma ICU, had returned to the team. Lu Jiangbei had managed to wait for surgery in a stable condition, largely thanks to their contributions. In the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s meeting room, a high-definition screen was displaying an animation simulating the positional changes during surgery. For this surgery, changing from a supine to a prone position during the operation was very dangerous. Some surgeons skilled in upper cervical spine procedures had encountered this fatal issue before. After completing the posterior surgery, the patient had died unexpectedly during the turning process, which instilled fear in many spinal surgeons regarding the turning process in upper cervical spine operations. To avoid turning, some experts boldly used an anterior approach through the mouth¡ªgoing in through the oral cavity, cutting the pharyngeal posterior wall, exposing the upper cervical spine, and implementing solid anterior fixation. Unfortunately, this patient had not only a traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation but also a comminuted atlas fracture. Fragments of bone were at constant risk of invading the vertebral canal, necessitating a combined anterior-posterior approach to thoroughly resect the atlas, then implement combined fixation. ¡°I also lack experience in this area. For past cases that needed combined anterior-posterior fixation, I have always relied on turning to solve the problem, but this case is indeed tricky,¡± admitted August, shrugging his shoulders habitually, indicating he had no immediate solution. ¡°Is turning really that difficult?¡± a graduate student, bold as a novice, voiced his doubt. This student, having participated in several discussions, was filled with questions about why everyone was so cautious and careful about turning during surgery, to the point of holding special discussions. No one mocked him, for he was a student after all. The fact that he raised questions showed he was deeply thinking. ¡°This case must use a combined anterior-posterior approach. If we follow the conventional surgical method, completing the first half of the surgery in a prone position and the second half in a supine position, we could resect the fragmented atlas and achieve solid fixation. However, during the process of changing positions, we are unable to use external supports for fixation, and conventional head fixators cannot provide enough stability, which means we cannot ensure that there won¡¯t be any accidents during turning. The estimated risk of intraoperative death related to turning is fifty percent, and we doctors are not gamblers, so we must resolve this issue before surgery,¡± Yang Ping patiently explained to the student. The graduate student seemed to grasp the concept, nodding, then writing down notes in his notebook ¡°Actually, we could use an improved scaffold for fixation and redesign the existing head fixators, extending the fixation points back to the cervical spine. This way, the fixation pins of the scaffold would be distributed across both the head and the cervical spine, securing the head using the skull and the cervical spine using the vertebral laminae. We could even look for fixation points on the scapula or the clavicle to create a solid fixation scaffold. Of course, the design of the scaffold must leave ample space for surgical operations,¡± said Xu Zhiliang fluently. Song Zimo nodded in agreement with the idea, but there was one obstacle he could not bypass: ¡°Lu Jiangbei has multiple rib fractures and comminuted pelvic fractures. The anterior side of the pelvis still has an external fixation scaffold that must be retained during surgery. Think about it, even if we could use a special scaffold to fix the head and cervical spine, how could she possibly be in a prone position? Can the thorax provide support? Wouldn¡¯t the pelvic external fixation scaffold obstruct the prone position?¡± ¡°What about a lateral position? Could using a lateral position solve the problem?¡± Zhang Lin proposed boldly. Song Zimo shook his head: ¡°The lateral position not only makes it very difficult to perform the surgery through the mouth, but even the posterior approach would be challenging. Besides, like the prone position, it¡¯s impractical due to the rib fractures and the pelvic external fixation frame.¡± What a headache, I didn¡¯t expect this surgery to get stuck on the patient¡¯s position. August touched his head, Robert kept silent, and the discussion had reached a dead end, with this not working and that not working either. ¡°Could we just perform the surgery with the patient sitting up?¡± Yang Ping had been listening intently to everyone¡¯s speeches and now began to speak. Everyone turned with a surprised look¡ªsitting position? ¡°Although surgery is a bit difficult in the sitting position, it is at least feasible. It perfectly avoids the complications brought about by rib fractures and pelvic fractures, and there¡¯s no need to turn the patient during the operation. If we use the sitting position, we can expose the area above the shoulders out of the operating table, fixed by an external fixator.¡± ¡°That¡¯s an excellent surgical position!¡± August exclaimed, having never considered sitting position in his past surgeries, even when using anterior and posterior combined fixation, always resorting to changing positions. ¡°The advantages of this position are obvious. There¡¯s no need to change the patient¡¯s position during the surgery, and due to gravity, the blood and irrigation fluid in the surgical area can be cleared more easily. Venous return and cerebrospinal fluid drainage also become easier.¡± Dr. Song had no reason not to support Yang Ping, experience told him that whatever Yang Ping proposed was feasible. ¡°It also has advantages in terms of anesthesia. I can approach the patient¡¯s face more easily, assess whether the airway is secure, if the endotracheal tube remains in place, and better monitor cranial nerves. And in case of a cardiac arrest, compressions are more convenient. If cardiac arrest occurs in the prone position, it would be much more problematic.¡± Liang Fatty felt indeed this position was more favorable for anesthesia. August sighed, ¡°Although the idea is good, the surgical operation will become difficult, and sitting position surgery might encounter many problems, such as unusual venous air embolism, intraoperative hypotension, symptomatic pneumocephalus, acute subdural hematoma, peripheral nerve damage, laryngeal or tongue edema, and aggravated limb paralysis. That¡¯s why many neurosurgeons hate this position.¡± But Yang Ping was fully confident, ¡°Compared to the fifty percent uncontrollability during turning over, the problems with this position are controllable. For example, intraoperative hypotension, Dr. Liang should have a way to avoid it.¡± Liang Fatty, sitting cross-legged, said, ¡°Intraoperative blood pressure control is my specialty, don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°Venous air embolism, our surgical maneuvers are gentle, and we try not to damage the veins,¡± Yang Ping proposed a solution for each issue. Perform the surgery sitting up! For this case, theoretically speaking, sitting position indeed seemed like the best choice. As a master of spinal surgery, August had performed countless surgeries as the chief surgeon, but he had never used the sitting position to complete this type of anterior and posterior combined approach surgery. He was eager to see how Yang Ping would accomplish this surgery. ¡°So, is this issue resolved?¡± Yang Ping wanted to know if there were any more concerns from the group. Dr. Song muttered to himself, as everyone was discussing how to turn the patient over, how to change positions, while Yang Ping wanted to perform the surgery with the patient sitting up. Dr. Song felt that he was always a beat behind; why couldn¡¯t he keep up with the pace? Chapter 818 - 818 733 Another Roadblock ?Chapter 818: Chapter 733 Another Roadblock Chapter 818: Chapter 733 Another Roadblock The challenges faced by the surgery were perfectly resolved, and Yang Ping planned to personally meet with Lu Jiangbei¡¯s family to sign the informed consent for the surgery. This was no ordinary surgery; as Chief Surgeon, he had to communicate face-to-face with the patient¡¯s family, making sure they fully understood the risks and details of the procedure. Additionally, Doctor Zhou, the attending physician, and Director Pan from the Trauma ICU were also present. In the Trauma ICU meeting room, Yang Ping met Lu Jiangbei¡¯s mother, who was wheeled in by a relative. At the time, all three family members were trapped in their car. Fortunately, the mother¡¯s injuries were relatively minor, not requiring surgery; however, she was also hospitalized and now had to adopt the dual role of both family member and patient. ¡°Your husband is out of danger, but your child¡¯s injuries are extremely severe, particularly the traumatic atlantoaxial dislocation combined with a comminuted fracture of the atlas. He now has high-level paraplegia, and whether he can recover after the surgery is uncertain, but we will do our utmost.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s tone was very calm; when dealing with patients and illness, he always seemed very rational, which sometimes made him appear to lack a bit of warmth. ¡°Can he still take the College Entrance Examination?¡± the mother blurted out. She knew that it was highly inappropriate to discuss this issue at the moment, that she should be more concerned about her child¡¯s injuries. But somehow, the words about the exam had become so ingrained in her mind she couldn¡¯t help but voice them out; it was not indifference but an almost instinctive reaction. Over the years, all her energy revolved around a few words¡ªher child¡¯s College Entrance Examination, which had almost become the ultimate goal of her life. ¡°We will not discuss that issue now. Right now, we are only discussing the surgery. Without it, it¡¯s still uncertain whether he can survive,¡± said Yang Ping in still even tones. He was a doctor, and he didn¡¯t concern himself with the life destiny of his patients, only their immediate physical well-being. The mother hesitated slightly, knowing that even if he could take the exam, a lot of time would be lost. Every minute of the senior year was precious and could translate into crucial points for the score. Thinking that all her years of hard work might be for nothing, she felt a lot of reluctance. ¡°Doctor, he is a good student, please, help us. Make sure he doesn¡¯t miss too much study time,¡± the mother¡¯s eyes wandered as she made a final plea. She herself didn¡¯t want to dwell on this issue at such a time, but she couldn¡¯t let it go. Yang Ping had to remind her again, ¡°My responsibility is to ensure that your child survives and then lives a better life. Nothing is more important than being alive.¡± Indeed, nothing was more important than being alive. The mother¡¯s gaze became vacant as she repeated this phrase in her mind. ¡°Traumatic atlantoaxial dislocation, comminuted atlas fracture, high-level paraplegia¡ªthe mortality rate is very high. Most casualties die at the scene of the accident. His being able to make it to the hospital and onto the operating table is an immense fortune, so we must cherish it. We must strive to keep him alive, you understand? Only if he is alive is there everything, and if he is not, then everything is meaningless! You must understand, this is the Trauma ICU; leaving here alive is the ultimate goal of every patient, to be alive! That trumps everything.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s words struck deep into the mother¡¯s heart, and she gathered her distracted gaze, touching the corner of her eye, ¡°Yes, being alive is more important than anything.¡± ¡°Can we start discussing now?¡± Yang Ping took the medical records from the attending physician. The mother nodded, struggling to adjust her emotions; at this moment, aside from life and death, everything else seemed insignificant. ¡ª Lu Jiangbei had a fever with the temperature spiking as high as 42 degrees Celsius! Early the next morning, Yang Ping received a call from the Trauma ICU, which was made by Director Pan. The sudden high fever was undeniably terrible news for the surgery, which had been scheduled and now had to be postponed. Yang Ping hurried to the Trauma ICU where Lu Jiangbei was in bed, being physically cooled down with ice packs and ice blankets already in use. ¡°We¡¯ve just checked the bedside chest X-rays, and there is an infection appearing in both lungs.¡± Doctor Zhou, the attending physician, looked somewhat anxious; the surgery could have proceeded now, but with the sudden fever, it had to be delayed. ¡°Let¡¯s look at the X-rays!¡± Song Zimo suggested. Doctor Zhou pulled up the chest images on the bedside electronic screen, which clearly showed that there was a significant infection in both lungs. ¡°He was fine during the day yesterday, and then he started having a fever in the middle of the night¡ªI should have checked the chest X-rays earlier.¡± Doctor Zhou felt ashamed, thinking he had not taken sufficient care of the patient and had inconvenienced everyone. Yang Ping finished looking at the chest X-ray and said, ¡°The condition of the patient is always changing, especially in these patients, it can vary from moment to moment, it¡¯s not possible to do a chest X-ray every day.¡± ¡°Should we send for further examination with a chest CT in the CT room?¡± Lu Jiangbei only had a bedside chest X-ray done. To fully understand the state of the lung infection, a further chest CT scan was necessary, but in the current situation, it was best to move her as little as possible. After thinking it over, Yang Ping said, ¡°Forget it, try not to move her. Treat empirically with antibiotics and take sputum samples for bacterial culture and sensitivity tests.¡± The surgery would definitely have to be postponed. A severe lung infection could lead to reduced lung function. Although Lu Jiangbei was now assisted by a ventilator for breathing, it only helped with ventilation, not with gas exchange. Ventilation refers to the exchange of gases between the lungs and the outside world, while gas exchange is between the alveoli and the capillaries. A serious lung infection damages not only ventilation but also gas exchange. If a lung infection gets out of control, it could lead to respiratory failure, and ultimately, reliance on ECMO to support breathing, at which point the chances of survival are slim. ¡°According to the color of the phlegm, it¡¯s very likely to be Staphylococcus aureus, so we¡¯ll start with empirical medication,¡± Director Pan decided on the spot. As the director of the trauma ICU, frequently dealing with infections, Director Pan handled these situations with ease, but she also felt pressure given that this happened close to the surgery. That night, Lu Jiangbei developed a fever. Director Pan rushed to the hospital herself to investigate the cause. Typically, infections following trauma come from several sources: wound infection, infection at the site of internal bleeding, lung infection, urinary tract infection, and so on. After investigating these causes, they confirmed the infection came from the lungs. Whether viral or bacterial, and if bacterial, which bacteria was causing the infection, typically required bacterial culture. However, this process took too long and could delay treatment. Therefore, before the results of the bacterial culture were available, it was necessary to use empirical medication based on the color, texture, and viscosity of the phlegm, among other factors, to identify the microorganism involved. Medicine is an evidence-based science, but at its root, it is also an experiential one. No matter what, it cannot escape the reliance on experience. ¡°Suctioning needs to be done more diligently, using a fiber optic bronchoscope to suction,¡± Director Pan instructed the nurse who was performing the suction. Lu Jiangbei now had muscle strength of grade one in her limbs and torso, or just slightly above grade one, so her respiratory muscles lacked strength, and even breathing was difficult, let alone coughing to expel sputum. The ventilator could only assist with breathing and couldn¡¯t help with expectorating sputum, and the accumulation of sputum could easily lead to infection. Ordinary suction catheters only reach as far as the main bronchus, whereas a fiber optic bronchoscope can go into the tertiary and quaternary bronchi, or even deeper. Therefore, suctioning under the guidance of a bronchoscope is much better than ordinary suction. The fiber optic bronchoscope is a technique from the Department of Pulmonary Medicine, usually operated by pulmonary doctors. Many doctors at Sanbo, influenced by the Comprehensive Surgery Department, began to delve into peripheral and interdisciplinary specialties, developing composite technical capabilities. Dr. Zhou had mastered the basic techniques of various specialties, such as the fiber optic bronchoscope of pulmonary medicine, gastroscopes of gastroenterology, dialysis of nephrology, and closed thoracic drainage of thoracic surgery, among others. These techniques were originally scattered among different specialties. If there was a need, a consult would be arranged to invite a specialist to operate. Now, with composite doctors like Dr. Zhou, it was no longer necessary to go through the hassle, as he could perform the procedures himself. Dr. Zhou began suctioning under the bronchoscope, taking several samples to send to the laboratory for bacterial culture. ¡°Professor, do we continue the special assignment in the ICU?¡± August, who had returned to the Comprehensive Surgery Department, volunteered proactively. Robert wished he could punch the German, August, who was only responsible for the head during repositioning, while Robert, who was in charge of the trunk, exerted the most effort. Despite both wearing small-sized clothes, August¡¯s remained intact, while the underarms of Robert¡¯s had split open. Hearing that Robert had volunteered, the Head Nurse, even before Yang Ping could speak, said happily, ¡°The clothes have been prepared for you, it¡¯ll be trouble, but we¡¯ll need your help again.¡± The ICU had been at full capacity during this time, with the female nurses running off their feet and the few male nurses also stretched to their limits. If August and Robert were willing to continue helping, it would be a godsend. The care for Lu Jiangbei was the most difficult among the patients, requiring several people to work together even for a simple repositioning, without allowing for the slightest relaxation. During the few days August and Robert worked in the ICU, the overly large clothes didn¡¯t arrive. Later, after they reverted to the Comprehensive Surgery Department, the clothes arrived too late to be of use. But now, with Lu Jiangbei¡¯s fever and the surgery delayed, those few sets of extra-large clothes could finally be put to good use. Chapter 819 - 819 734 Super Bacteria ?Chapter 819: Chapter 734: Super Bacteria Chapter 819: Chapter 734: Super Bacteria Even with antibiotic use based on experience, Lu Jiangbei¡¯s high fever persisted, fluctuating up and down, solely reliant on antipyretic drugs and physical cooling methods to suppress the temperature. This indicated that the lung infection was not under control, rendering the empirically prescribed antibiotics ineffective. Three days later, the results from the sputum culture were ready. Yang Ping opened his computer screen to display the test results: MRSA, a few English letters that stood out prominently. MRSA¡ªMethicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, one of the superbugs. These so-called superbugs exhibit resistance to almost all antibiotics due to genetic mutations, rendering them virtually invulnerable and impervious to the antibacterial effects of antibiotics. Because of their high resistance, doctors have almost no weapons to use against these bacteria, making treatment very difficult. To combat MRSA, the only option is vancomycin. The antibiotic sensitivity test also showed that besides vancomycin, all other listed antibiotics were resistant. ¡®Such a troublesome little bugger,¡¯ cursed Yang Ping internally! The entire treatment process was extraordinarily arduous and fraught with setbacks. Any mistake could lead to wasted efforts. Director Pan didn¡¯t want to make this phone call, but there was no choice. Reality was reality, and it was exactly the feared circumstance; nearly all clinical doctors felt horrified when facing a superbug. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already seen the report and am on my way now. Let¡¯s meet up and discuss.¡± The brief exchange had concluded when Yang Ping once again rushed to the Trauma ICU. Since it was not in the same building, traveling back and forth also took some time. By the time Yang Ping arrived, the temporary workers in the ICU, August and Robert, were already at the door to welcome him. After swiping his card to open the door, Yang Ping headed straight for the Doctor¡¯s Office. By then, the office was packed with people: Director Pan, Doctor Zhou, the Head Nurse, as well as colleagues from the respiratory department, hospital infection department, laboratory department, and blood transfusion department. The appearance of a superbug had everyone on high alert. MRSA infection itself is not a contagious disease; however, as long as there is an infection by the pathogen, cross-contamination is possible. If such a superbug spreads due to cross-contamination, the consequences could be severe. When Yang Ping entered, everyone stood up as a sign of respect and Director Pan personally ushered Yang Ping into a seat. ¡°The patient has been moved to an isolation ward, and the follow-up chest X-rays show an increasing area of infection,¡± announced Director Pan as he sat down, the first to speak. The respiratory department director took a sip of water: ¡°What should we do now?¡± ¡°What else can we do? Administer vancomycin! Xiao Zhou, use my user ID to order vancomycin, and administer it right away.¡± Director Pan cursed inwardly, although not at anyone in particular but at the bacteria. It had been a long time since he had dealt with such an unfortunate situation, and this time, he was hit. Vancomycin, a novel antibiotic, is referred to as the ¡®nuclear bomb¡¯ within antibiotics. As a last-resort medication, it¡¯s not used unless absolutely necessary. It¡¯s the doctors¡¯ final weapon against infections. The pioneering antibiotic was penicillin, which was hailed as a ¡®miracle drug¡¯ in its day. Since the advent of penicillin, humanity entered the age of antibiotics. Many bacterial infections, untreatable in the pre-antibiotic era, were effortlessly cured by penicillin, which was soon followed by various other antibiotics in clinical medicine. If bacteria are the shield, then antibiotics are the spear. There is naturally a struggle between the spear and the shield. Bacteria are clever, they won¡¯t simply resign themselves to death. To survive, they devise ways to dodge the onslaught of antibiotics. As the use of drugs has prolonged, bacteria have accumulated a wealth of experience in combating antibiotics. They pass these experiences down through generations, constantly refining their strategies and rendering some antibiotics ineffective. This is how ¡®drug-resistant bacteria¡¯ have emerged. These bacteria use various methods to neutralize the effects of antibiotics and ensure their survival. The principle of survival of the fittest applies just as well to the world of bacteria. Drug-resistant bacteria survive and reproduce, while those lacking resistance perish from antibiotics, eventually becoming extinct. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is among the elite of these drug-resistant bacteria and has earned the crown of a superbug. Against this backdrop, scientists, striving to combat drug-resistant bacteria, had to invent new weapons, and so in 1972, the ¡®king of antibiotics¡¯¡ªvancomycin¡ªwas finally introduced into clinical use. Vancomycin has been described as the nuclear weapon amongst antibiotics. Since its clinical introduction, it has been invincible, with no bacteria able to withstand it. For 16 years, it held an unbeatable track record¡ªno resistant strains were reported. However, in 1988, vancomycin¡¯s pristine record was broken; that year saw the emergence of the first vancomycin-resistant strain, which was Enterococcus. Since then, vancomycin began to struggle. In 2002, the first vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) surfaced. While this bacteria is currently very rare, an infection with VRSA is often fatal. Fortunately, the strain Lu Jiangbei was infected with was MRSA, not VRSA. Even so, the MRSA was enough to be fatal to Lu Jiangbei, considering he was not just a patient with a lung infection. His entire body, including his limbs and torso, was paralyzed, with fractures in the pelvis and elsewhere due to severe blood loss, leading to severe anemia. His immune system was close to collapse. If the lung infection could not be controlled in time, and a certain threshold was breached, respiratory failure would strike out of nowhere, and in the end, he¡¯d have no choice but to slowly succumb while supported by ECMO. Dr. Zhou left the meeting table at the verbal order of Director Pan and headed for the computer to enter the medical order. Once the decision was made, he didn¡¯t want to waste a single second. Chapter 820 - 820 734 Super Bacteria_2 ?Chapter 820: Chapter 734: Super Bacteria_2 Chapter 820: Chapter 734: Super Bacteria_2 ¡°We have no other choice,¡± the head of the respiratory department nodded in agreement. Facing such a superbug, vancomycin became the only option. There was no controversy, no need for discussion. ¡°Blood transfusion department, can you be more efficient and provide more blood? If hemoglobin doesn¡¯t rise, the immune system will eventually collapse,¡± Director Pan was straightforward, without any nonsense. Now with Yang Ping present, the blood transfusion department was somewhat intimidated, which would make them more cooperative, making Director Pan¡¯s tone even more incisive. Director Yuan from the blood transfusion department was clearly troubled: ¡°It¡¯s not that we don¡¯t want to give, but the blood bank is really short on blood. This patient has already received transfusions up to 70 and above. Asking for a lot more is difficult. However, we will try our best.¡± Director Pan was very angry: ¡°Don¡¯t always stick to rules and regulations; consider the specific situation.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no way around it, it¡¯s not just your department that needs blood. Department of Gastroenterology, General Surgery Department, Obstetrics, and Gynecology¡ªI can¡¯t even count them all. Which department isn¡¯t pressuring us daily? Director Fang of General Surgery argued with me over the phone yesterday. Arguing is useless; I can¡¯t just conjure up blood. If I could, you could take my blood right now,¡± Director Yuan said, extending his arm. ¡°Old Pan, let¡¯s try to understand each other. Today, with Professor Yang here, I promise to prioritize your department as much as possible, to meet your needs. But I really can¡¯t guarantee the full amount. You¡¯ve already taken more than 10 units of red blood cells before. Now you¡¯re asking for another 10 units. What can I do? Take 6 units first, and we¡¯ll discuss the rest later.¡± ¡°Six units?¡± Director Pan scoffed disdainfully. Indeed, Lu Jiangbei urgently needed more transfusions to increase her hemoglobin and boost her immune system. Moreover, if surgery were needed, a hemoglobin level of just over 70 would not be sufficient. ¡°Eight units!¡± Director Pan argued with justification. Director Yuan adamantly refused: ¡°It¡¯s impossible. There was a patient with a ruptured spleen in the General Surgery Department yesterday, also waiting for a blood supply.¡± Director Yuan was also in a difficult position, resources were limited, everyone was eagerly waiting for the blood he had. What could he do but strictly control it? ¡°Let¡¯s go for 10 units,¡± Yang Ping finally spoke up. Given Lu Jiangbei¡¯s situation, a few units of red blood cells simply wouldn¡¯t suffice. Director Yuan had just been vigorously arguing with Director Pan, and found himself at a loss for words, slowly saying, ¡°Okay, 10 units.¡± The debate seemed to be coming to an end. The head of the hospital infection control department rubbed his forehead; it was his turn to speak. The hospital infection control department was a group of people disliked by others in the hospital. Their job was to identify loopholes in hospital infection control and rectify them in time. Such a fault-finding mode of operation was bound to be unpopular. ¡°We will investigate as we ought to, looking into the cause of this infection. I hope it won¡¯t interfere with everyone¡¯s work. Remember to wash your hands, guys. We¡¯ll be closely monitoring the trauma ICU these days,¡± the head of the hospital infection control department said with evident lack of confidence, very humbly. ¡°Hmm!¡± Director Pan grunted deeply. ¡ª Due to a significant change in her condition, Lu Jiangbei¡¯s mother was once again brought into the meeting room of the trauma ICU. Over the past few days, Doctor Zhou from the ICU had already spoken with her several times. She could have delegated the medical decision-making for her family to a relative, like her brother or sister, to sign on their behalf, but she did not feel reassured and thought she could handle it, so she took on the role of the family member herself. Her brother and sister took turns accompanying and taking care of her. ¡°When is the surgery?¡± the middle-aged mother asked. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°He can¡¯t undergo surgery yet. Let Dr. Zhou explain it to you.¡± ¡°Lu Jiangbei has been running a high fever these past few days, and it has been confirmed as a lung infection. The bacterial culture results have come out, and it is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as one of the superbugs. We have now started him on a super antibiotic¡ªvancomycin, but we can¡¯t ensure it will suppress the infection. His life is at risk at any time; he could stop breathing at any moment. You must be mentally prepared.¡± Doctor Zhou, as the attending physician, led the conversation while Yang Ping and Director Pan sat beside her. ¡°Is this the consent form for illness notification? If respiratory failure occurs, do we need to use ECMO? The cost of ECMO is very high, and a large part of it is out-of-pocket.¡± Doctor Zhou handed over several pages of the informed consent form. Be mentally prepared! Upon hearing the last few words and looking at the informed consent forms, the middle-aged mother¡¯s head went blank with a buzzing sound. During the previous meetings, whenever the doctors talked about life-threatening risks, she always brushed it off as something far removed from her. But this time was different, for some reason, the pressure of death came crashing down on her like a boulder, making it hard for her to breathe, because she knew that not long ago, a patient with respiratory failure had passed away here. She had witnessed their relatives crying in the hallway. ¡°He was already in danger, and now there¡¯s a new risk. If the lung infection can¡¯t be controlled, respiratory failure will occur, and after that¡ªdeath will follow,¡± Doctor Zhou continued. The mother¡¯s gaze was vacant; at this moment, her mind no longer held any thought of the ¡°College Entrance Examination.¡± She had completely forgotten its existence, as the thought of death occupied her entire mind. ¡°Doctor, please help, save him¡ª¡± After a while, the mother squeezed out these few words in a pleading tone. ¡°We will do our best, but many things are beyond our control,¡± Director Pan added. The mother was heartbroken and nodded mechanically, ¡°Can I go in and see my child?¡± Director Pan took over the conversation, ¡°He is now infected with a superbug; it¡¯s not suitable for visitation. If you want to visit, you can do so from the outside visiting corridor, through the glass.¡± Sometimes it¡¯s really hard to say; with the current situation, where he could die from respiratory failure at any moment, Director Pan, who had seen many partings between life and death, could only guide. Under Director Pan¡¯s arrangement, Lu Jiangbei¡¯s mother, sitting in a wheelchair, saw her son through the glass. He lay on the bed, connected to various tubes, with most of his upper body obscured by supports; she could hardly see his face. Unable to hold back, the mother lowered her head, covered her eyes, and began to cry loudly. Her mind was a mess, filled with regret. The sight of all the supporting machinery and tubes made her truly realize that her child might be taken away from her forever. She had always been critical of her child from a young age, compared him with other children, and never really considered his feelings. She constantly pressured him with studies and university entrance exams, leaving no room for anything else. Whenever his grades slipped, he would face her wrath; and every time his grades improved, she would coldly say he needed to work harder¡ªsuch results would not be enough to get into a top-ranked 211 or 985 university. The more she thought about it, the more guilt Lu Jiangbei¡¯s mother felt, believing she had never truly cared for her child. If he could survive, no matter whether he got into university or what career he chose, as long as he was healthy and alive, she would accept everything, just as long as he was alright. ¡°Doctor, please save him, save him at any cost,¡± the mother repeated this sentence. ¡°We¡¯re doing everything we can. We¡¯ve started the vancomycin, and we¡¯ll see how things go in a few days. If the vancomycin is also ineffective¡ª¡± Director Pan did not finish his sentence. Chapter 821 - 821 735 World-Class Monographs ?Chapter 821: Chapter 735 World-Class Monographs Chapter 821: Chapter 735 World-Class Monographs Due to a lung infection, Lu Jiangbei¡¯s surgery had to be postponed, and Yang Ping could only wait for the treatment results before deciding on the next steps. If the lung infection could not be controlled, Lu Jiangbei would definitely experience respiratory failure, and then surgery would only hasten death, serving no purpose. The surgery could be performed perfectly, but if the patient died, that would be the biggest joke in the surgical field, and Yang Ping certainly didn¡¯t want that to happen. During the morning shift change, Yang Ping noticed an extra person in the team of doctors. He didn¡¯t pay much attention and simply lowered his head to ask Song Zimo beside him, ¡°Who¡¯s that? A new visiting trainee?¡± Song Zimo said in surprise, ¡°That¡¯s Ivan. You actually forgot about him? He¡¯s been in the Plastic Surgery Department for several days, and today he¡¯s back to attend the shift change meeting.¡± Ivan had been out of sight for several days, and Yang Ping had almost forgotten about him. Just like the interns and standardized training students who come and go in the department, sometimes they really do slip one¡¯s mind. Ivan had also been busy these past few days. During his previous clinical visits, he acquired some patients, and then due to the investigation scandal, the surgeries for these patients were suspended. After the scandal blew over, Ivan had to fulfill his promises and personally complete these surgeries. Ivan personally performing surgeries created a limited number of slots, inadvertently setting off a ¡®hunger marketing¡¯ strategy. People flocked in, gathering every day near the outpatient services of the Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Plastic Surgery Department, sharpening their wits to get inside information, hoping to secure a chance at surgery done by Ivan as the chief surgeon. Even Ivan was shocked. There was such a massive market for plastic surgery in China, and some people seemed to be indifferent to the cost, especially some young women. In this period, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s parking lot was filled with various luxury cars, and most of the car owners were young and beautiful women whose sole purpose in coming to Sanbo was to inquire about plastic surgery. If they couldn¡¯t have Ivan as the chief surgeon, they¡¯d settle for the next best thing. Director Lan was hailed as Ivan¡¯s only direct disciple in China, and his fame soared, almost obscuring all other plastic surgeons. Always an advocate of ¡°marketing¡±, Director Lan has now achieved his goal. Next, he planned to slowly process these patients, ensuring that each surgery was done well. Previously, he was anxious. With such a high bar set, if the actual performance couldn¡¯t keep up, he would eventually be reduced to fraud and deception. Now he felt more at ease since Ivan seemed willing to teach him techniques and even actively offered to help him improve his surgical skills. But Ivan had one condition. He hoped that Director Lan would help him build a strong friendship with Yang Ping. Ivan needed a bridge at Sanbo, and that bridge was Director Lan. It was a mutually beneficial deal, and with time, place, and harmony on their side, Director Lan felt like he was the pig that had caught the wind. After the shift change, taking advantage of a small break in Yang Ping¡¯s schedule, Zhang Lin and Little Five handed over their revised manuscript drafts for Yang Ping to review, hoping he would provide guidance, and they had already invited him several times to write the preface for their book. ¡°Surgical Hook Science,¡± the work filled a void in the study of hook science. It was said to be the world¡¯s first monograph specifically discussing surgical hooks. After checking the literature, Yang Ping found that it was indeed the world¡¯s first monograph on hook science. ¡°The world¡¯s first surgical hook monograph!¡± It seemed the book was positioned very high. Yang Ping put away the manuscript, deciding to have a proper look at it when he had time, as it was the world¡¯s first and should not be taken lightly. Yang Ping continued to read the introduction: ¡°The world¡¯s first medical monograph using three-dimensional fold-out illustrations!¡± ¡°The world¡¯s first medical monograph with an audiobook in the author¡¯s original voice!¡± He looked at the patents claimed to be world-firsts inside: Convex point high-friction hooks? What was that? After scrutinizing the pictures and explanations, Yang Ping realized they were just hooks with many added bumps to increase friction. Color psychological suggestion hooks? What was that about? On a glance, Yang realized these were hooks in various colors, with the audacious claim that psychologists had chosen the colors to reduce surgeons¡¯ fatigue¡ª Too much, these two guys were overstepping, Yang Ping closed the manuscript, planning to call them in for a talking-to. But he immediately dismissed the idea, these things were indeed being used globally for the first time. No fault there, it wasn¡¯t bragging or lying. Impressive! Yang Ping could only give this evaluation to Teacher Zhang and Teacher Lu. The hue they had cast was neither illegal nor faulty. So many world-firsts, it really was a world-class monograph! ¡ª The renowned power of the antibiotic ¡®nuclear bomb¡¯ wasn¡¯t in vain: under the suppression of Vancomycin, Lu Jiangbei¡¯s temperature gradually dropped, and the infected area in her lungs began to shrink. It was a sign that the dark clouds were about to disperse; looking at the temperature curve on the nursing record sheet, which showed a consistent downward trend, it finally stabilized below 37 degrees Celsius. And the repeat chest films showed that the area of lung infection had begun to shrink indicating the infection was very well-controlled. Director Pan and Doctor Zhou, in front of the computer screen with the test results, were quite excited. After so long a struggle, the fever was finally subsiding. Moreover, several patients in the ICU with tracheostomies did not suffer a second case of MRSA infection. The dawn of victory was beginning to emerge. These past few days, Yang Ping spent most of his time with Lu Jiangbei, making at least three trips a day to the ICU, personally involved in the treatment. Seeing these results, he felt a lot more relieved; this child was savable. ¡°The phlegm is much less.¡± Doctor Zhou finished the fiber optic bronchoscope suction and began to put away the equipment. The head nurse was in the midst of preparing to turn Lu Jiangbei, with August and Robert sandwiched in the crowd, along with two male nurses and several younger nurses. Turning a patient with a spinal fracture required axial rotation, the body had to be rolled as one complete unit without any twisting. This requirement was even more rigorous for patients with atlantoaxial dislocation; the slightest carelessness could lead to a cessation of breathing, without even a chance for resuscitation. The cooperation in turning her over was seamless; Robert was the powerhouse of the group. He held his breath, cheeks turning crimson, his already red nose even redder; his broad and hairy arms were particularly strong. August carefully gripped the patient¡¯s head with both hands, his expression solemn. ¡°1, 2, 3¡ª¡± August was still the commander-in-chief of the entire team. Following the commander¡¯s signal, everyone flipped Lu Jiangbei an entire ninety degrees, temporarily relieving his back from the pressure of the bed surface. Such bedridden patients needed to be turned frequently to prevent bedsores; once bedsores occurred, it could lead to infections and increased energy expenditure. So, no one dared to relax even in the slightest; they absolutely couldn¡¯t afford any more complications. Without Robert¡¯s strength, it would have been much harder for the others to turn the patient. The head nurse saw it all. ¡°Professor Yang, could we borrow Dr. Luo and Dr. Ao for a few more days?¡± The head nurse seized the opportunity to speak. She knew that with Lu Jiangbei¡¯s lung infection under control, surgery would soon be scheduled. As soon as surgery was arranged, Robert and August would complete their special assignment and would return to the Comprehensive Surgery Department. But such strapping ¡°nurses¡± were hard to come by; every extra day they could stay would lighten the ward nurses¡¯ burden. Robert alone might be able to handle turning some of the ordinary patients. ¡°You¡¯d have to see what kind of salary you can offer if you want to keep Professor Yang,¡± retorted Director Pan, jokingly dismissing the head nurse¡¯s idea. The head nurse wanted to argue, but Director Pan changed the subject. ¡°The temperature has been stable for three days now, and the infected part of the lung is absorbed. Do you think we should continue to stabilize for a few more days, or go ahead with surgery?¡± ¡°Schedule the surgery, schedule it for tomorrow,¡± Yang Ping did not want to wait any longer. If the cervical spinal cord was compressed for too long, the probability of recovery after surgery decreased. When the overall condition of the body allowed, surgery had to be done as quickly as possible. Chapter 822 - 822 736 Bone Tissue Can Also Be Made into ?Chapter 822: Chapter 736 Bone Tissue Can Also Be Made into Frozen Tissue Sections Chapter 822: Chapter 736 Bone Tissue Can Also Be Made into Frozen Tissue Sections After several twists and turns, Lu Jiangbei¡¯s surgery finally began. Even August had never seen a surgery like this, where the anterior and posterior procedures were completed in a seated position. He was very eager to see how the surgery would be performed. Although Robert specialized in sports medicine, many things in orthopedics, and even in general surgery, are interconnected. He was also very interested in this surgery and wanted to know how the anterior and posterior approaches could be completed simultaneously while the patient sat. Ivan was purely there for the excitement. His interest had always been in plastic surgery, and his purpose this time included bone contouring techniques, with an additional target now¡ªskin culture technology. After the morning handover, the surgery began. Lu Jiangbei first laid in a supine position on the operating table, where he would be fitted with an external fixator to temporarily stabilize his head and cervical spine. Standard hand-washing, disinfection, and draping were carried out. The support scaffold used for the surgery was opened and placed on the operating table. Yang Ping had to fit this kind of scaffold. With its protection, his head, cervical spine, and body were firmly fixed to the operating table. After securing everything properly, the motorized operating table was adjusted to resemble a lounge chair. The patient sat on the operating table with the buttocks as the pivot point. The slightly inclined backrest snug against the back, and then the area above the shoulders was left completely free for the surgery. Although the fixed scaffold did interfere with the surgery, it was ultimately an open-frame structure, allowing a great deal of operational space. The seated position was now ready, and the mouth was kept open with the help of a mouth gag. Disinfection and draping were done once again. The surgical light shone into the mouth, illuminating the back of the pharynx. Yang Ping took a look inside, then asked the patrolling nurse to turn off the surgical light. He planned to use endoscopic assistance to complete the surgery, borrowing the ENT endoscopic system for this procedure. August opened his eyes wide: Endoscopic-assisted transoral approach, using such a method for surgery, the professor always does what others cannot. Calling him a demigod was no exaggeration. Under the open surgery approach, a very difficult operation seemed much easier with endoscopic assistance. On the high-definition screen, the camera¡¯s image was transmitted in real-time to the screen and then Yang Ping operated while watching the screen. The back of the pharynx was incised, revealing the anterior aspect of the upper cervical spine. Then, bit by bit, it was separated. Going up, one could clearly see the base of the skull, and between the occipital bone and the atlas, as well as between the atlas and the axis, all the ligament structures were torn, displaying a horse-tail shaped tear. This was the result of some kind of stretching or twisting force that had torn all the ligaments. Then, after all the ligaments had torn, the force came to an abrupt halt. That is, the violence stopped when the ligaments tore and did not spread or extend any further. How fortunate he was that only the ligaments were torn by the violence, stopping right there without extending further. Just a little more unresolved force, and if it had continued, the atlanto-occipital and atlantoaxial joints under twisting or stretching forces would have inevitably damaged the spinal cord. That¡¯s why most patients with such injuries die on the spot. And for this boy, after the violence tore the ligaments, it stopped; he was like a car out of control heading towards a cliff that stopped at the edge due to the friction with the ground. The images captured by the endoscope were very clear. August was amazed by the boy¡¯s luck, while Robert was racking his brains finally came up with the phrase, ¡°It¡¯s like his ancestral grave is belching bluish smoke.¡± Everyone turned their heads to look at the startlingly articulate Robert. After three days, one must look at him with new eyes; his Chinese had reached such a level. The astonishment wasn¡¯t over yet; Robert added another line, ¡°Belching smoke isn¡¯t enough, probably need to spout flames, too.¡± Under the assistance of the endoscope, Yang Ping had fully exposed the upper section of the cervical vertebrae and the anterior half of the occipital region, the atlas was indeed shattered and beyond the possibility of fixation, so he meticulously removed the anterior arch of the atlas bit by bit. After dealing with the fragmented bone and soft tissue on the anterior side and, for safety¡¯s sake, temporarily discarding the whole bone mass of the atlas, the bone cyst on the atlas was located on the upper side block of the left atlas. Before the nature of the tumor was confirmed, Yang Ping could only treat it as a malignant tumor, operating with extreme caution to prevent the spread of tumor cells. This is the tumor-free technology of oncological surgery, aimed at preventing intraoperative contamination of surrounding tissues by tumor cells, and preventing the cells from spreading like seeds. A small piece of soft gauze was stuffed in and then spread out, encircling the targeted area of the surgery. Then a long-handle, pointed bone-biting forceps was inserted, the jaws of the forceps opened, and it nibbled away at the bone bit by bit. With each bite, the removed bone matter was taken out securely, without a single piece of debris scattering. The procedure was steady, precise, nimble, and effortless; the fragmented bone was removed, followed by a larger piece of bone tissue. ¡°Bring up another person, set up a new instrument table, and open this piece of bone tissue. The cyst is inside. The bone tissue is to be sent for postoperative paraffin tissue section, and the cyst fluid and the scraped material from the cyst wall can be used for a frozen section. We¡¯ll wait for the results from the section to decide whether to repurpose the atlas,¡± Yang Ping said as he extracted the bone piece. The patrolling nurse had already set up a sterile instrument table specially, and Yang Ping placed the bone-biting forceps and the bone piece together on the sterile table before changing his gloves. Zhang Lin and Little Five began scrubbing their hands and stepped up to the operating table. Soft tissues are suitable for frozen sections, which usually yield results within half an hour, hence intraoperative pathological examinations are done with frozen sections. However, paraffin sections take several days, so they are not suitable for intraoperative use, but for postoperative pathology. For tumor surgery, intraoperative frozen sections can clarify the nature of the tumor. The surgical approaches for benign and malignant tumors are completely different, so surgeons often need to rely on the results of pathological examinations to make decisions about the next steps in the surgical plan. ¡°Ask Wen Ruzheng to look at it! Call him,¡± Yang Ping ordered. Wen Ruzheng, a doctor with a doctorate in the Pathology Department of Sanbo Hospital, was well-known in the hospital. He had once lost a bet to Yang Ping and ran around the hospital in only his underwear. Because of that streaking incident, Doctor Wen¡¯s reputation had soared; everyone knew about him. The quality of a frozen section can greatly test a doctor¡¯s skill, so to reduce the possibility of any error, Yang Ping had specifically chosen Doctor Wen himself. Doctor Wen¡¯s professional skill was outstanding, and he had a keen interest in intricate details. After losing to Yang Ping, he became even more committed, and it was said he had recently been involved in some research. Robert, who had already fully assimilated himself into the Comprehensive Surgery Department, took out his phone and called Doctor Wen as soon as Yang Ping finished speaking. August watched this socially adept patient, who acted like a longstanding employee of Sanbo Hospital and even had the phone number of a pathology department doctor. ¡°Professor, Doctor Wen says he can also do a frozen section on bone tissue; just send it over without hesitation and he will get you results within half an hour,¡± Robert reported after ending the call. ¡°He can perform a frozen section on bone tissue?¡± Xu Zhiliang wondered what kind of trick Wen Ruzheng was up to. Song Zimo said, ¡°He¡¯s been secretive lately, always asking for bones in the operating room for his research; could it be that he¡¯s studying frozen sections on bone tissue?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s what¡¯s happening, and I¡¯ve heard he¡¯s been collecting samples of bone tumors during surgeries, not missing a single one.¡± Upon hearing that this guy could perform frozen sections on bone tissue, Yang Ping thought it would be great if it were true, as it would allow for a more accurate determination of the tumor¡¯s nature during surgery. But he was worried that this young man might just be boasting. ¡°Ask him if he¡¯s just boasting. This matter is crucial to human life; if he¡¯s bluffing, it won¡¯t just be a simple matter of streaking,¡± Song Zimo instructed Robert to make the call, and he would speak. ¡°Old Wen, it¡¯s me, Song Zimo!¡± Once the call connected, Wen Ruzheng¡¯s voice came through, ¡°Has the specimen arrived yet? Damn, you doubt my skill? Song Zimo, let me tell you, I, Wen Ruzheng, am a gentleman who neither boasts nor lies, I...¡± Chapter 823 - 823 737 Still Microscopic Surgery ?Chapter 823: Chapter 737: Still Microscopic Surgery? Chapter 823: Chapter 737: Still Microscopic Surgery? Doctor Wen spat out a string of nos, and Song Zimo couldn¡¯t get a word in. Even Xu Zhiliang seemed extremely impatient, he turned around and gestured for Robert to aim the phone at him. ¡°You, you, his mother¡¯s, just, one word, success, rate, high, not high?¡± Hearing this Xu-style speech, Zhang Lin¡¯s neck broke into a sweat. He was part of Xu Zhiliang¡¯s group, a subordinate doctor to Xu Zhiliang, and had to deal with this mode of communication almost every day. Whenever he encountered such a stutter, not only did Zhang Lin not dare to contradict him, but he also had to listen respectfully and earnestly from start to finish, not missing a word. Wen Ruzheng¡¯s voice came from the phone, ¡°Very, very, very high, almost the same as a, a, a regular frozen tissue section.¡± His mother¡¯s, actually daring to mimic him, Xu Zhiliang was so annoyed he itched. ¡°Tell him, if there¡¯s any mishap, this time he won¡¯t be allowed to wear even underpants when he streaks,¡± Yang Ping said to the phone. The stuttering voice of Wen Ruzheng inside ceased immediately, and after a while, he said softly, ¡°Is Professor Yang there?¡± ¡°Here!¡± Yang Ping responded himself. ¡°Hurry up and send the specimen down, rest assured, the technique is mature, I, Wen Ruzheng, a man of integrity, won¡¯t¡ª¡± Doctor Wen spoke with a serious tone. Robert cut off the call promptly, and everyone in the operating room wanted to laugh, but out of respect for Xu Zhiliang, they all held back. ¡°Li Guodong, personally take the specimen to the Pathology department, don¡¯t come back immediately, wait for the results before returning,¡± Yang Ping instructed Li Guodong to be in charge of the specimen. The piece of bone was placed into a sterile specimen bag, and Li Guodong, wearing gloves, carefully labeled the bag and held it in his hand. He left the operating room and headed to the Pathology department. After the bone piece had been sent off, August suddenly noticed something. Yang Ping¡¯s bone-nibbling forceps went in and out effortlessly, but he was actually removing the bone around the cyst, ultimately extracting the cyst and the surrounding bone intact. How did he do that? How is it possible to completely resect a cyst with just a pair of bone-nibbling forceps without the aid of any intraoperative imaging, such as a C-arm X-ray or CT-scan monitoring? If this were a malignant tumor, then this surgical technique would undoubtedly be a true no-tumor technique, a perfect achievement in complete resection. August walked around the operating table¡¯s yellow no-cross line several times and then lingered near the instrument table. He was eager to see what was special about those long-handled, pointed bone-nibbling forceps. He even suspected they might have some sort of smart detection equipment on them. Although he was at a distance, August could still clearly see the bone-nibbling forceps. They were just an ordinary pair of long-handled, pointed bone-nibbling forceps, not showing anything special apart from being particularly suited for microscopic procedures. How did Professor Yang manage to completely resect the bone cyst without damaging the cyst wall or letting its fluid leak out? Despite the surgery appearing calm and undisturbed, August racked his brains wondering why, but couldn¡¯t figure it out no matter what. Most of the anterior transoral surgery had been completed. The remaining steps involved filling bone into the artificial atlas within the internal fixation device, which comprised a front arch, back arch, and two side pieces, trying to mimic the mechanical structure of a normal atlas. The internal fixation device spanned the atlas, using the occipital condyles and the axis as to rely on fixed head and neck. This fixation was temporary, and ultimately the hope was that the filled bone would heal together with the skull base and the axis, effectively performing a bony weld on the head and neck. Bony welding, in spinal surgery, is ¡°fusion,¡± which is one of the basic goals of spinal surgery. The underlying logic of spinal surgery is also its basic objective: decompression, stabilization, alignment. All surgeries revolve around these three goals. Clearing hematoma and removed crushed atlas represent decompression by relieving existing or potential compression on the spinal cord. Implanting an internal fixation device equates to reshaping the spinal stability. This stability is temporary, and ultimately, it is necessary to rely on the healing of bone to bone to create permanent stability. Restoring the dislocated atlas-occipital joint and atlas-axis joint to the correct positions to maintain the normal anatomical alignment of the head and neck is termed as orthopedic correction. In the eyes of those young standardized training students and graduate students, the surgery seemed smooth and uneventful, but August knew the true difficulty of some surgeries, especially the complete resection of the cyst that had just been performed, which required very high surgical skills. Yang Ping stopped the surgery, waiting for Doctor Wen¡¯s frozen section pathology results. The current diagnosis of ¡°bone cyst¡± was only an imaging diagnosis; whether it was truly a ¡°bone cyst¡± or some other tumor needed to be confirmed through pathological examination. If the pathology examination turned out to be benign, the bony tissue of the atlas other than the cyst could be recycled as bone graft material; if the examination revealed malignancy, the bony tissue of the atlas must be discarded, and Yang Ping would have to look for another ¡°supplier,¡± such as removing part of a rib or iliac bone. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of bony tissue being used for frozen sections; is this guy up to the task?¡± Zhang Lin was a bit skeptical. Song Zimo had great faith in Doctor Wen: ¡°This person may be a little quirky and traditional, but his level of expertise is unquestionable. If he says it can be done, he must be confident.¡± ¡°To prepare a pathology slice from bony tissue or calcified tissue, it needs to be decalcified first and then the acid removed; not to mention the following steps, decalcification alone requires at least 24 hours. And he¡¯s going to produce results in half an hour?¡± muttered Zhang Lin. ¡°He wouldn¡¯t dare take on this delicate task if he didn¡¯t have the right tools for the job,¡± grumbled Robert, joining the conversation. After considering for a moment, August said, ¡°His decalcification method must be a new one; we¡¯ve also been attempting frozen sections on bone tissue using 0.5% sodium hydroxide to remove the acid, which can be completed in a few minutes. I presume he has mastered this technique too.¡± In tumor surgery in Europe and America, it is the chief surgeon who is responsible for examining frozen section slides during surgery, not a pathology department doctor. For instance, when August performs vertebral tumor surgery, if a frozen tissue section is needed after the tumor¡¯s resection on the operating table, the pathology lab is located nearby the operating room, with some even next door. His assistant would prepare the frozen section, then August would remove his surgical gown and step into the pathology lab to examine the frozen section, confirming the pathological diagnosis before re-scrubbing and dressing to return to the operating table and continue with the surgery. In Europe and America, learning to interpret pathology slides is a fundamental skill for surgeons performing tumor resections. Indeed, in less than half an hour, the operating room phone rang; it was Doctor Wen on the line. His tone was serious and formal, lacking his usual banter. Doctor Wen reported the detailed pathology results verbally. Soon afterward, the electronic report and the paper report also became available. To facilitate Yang Ping¡¯s work, Doctor Wen captured microscopic images of the pathology slides, uploaded them to the computer so that Yang Ping could also see the images of the frozen section in the operating room. On the high-definition electronic screen in the operating room, the images of the frozen section pathology were displayed. Yang Ping walked over for a closer look. The bony tissue in the frozen section was very clear, and the results were consistent with Doctor Wen¡¯s report. This was indeed a bone cyst, benign, not malignant. Therefore, the bone quality of the atlas could be recycled. This meant there was no need to harvest rib or iliac bone for grafting. Zhang Lin and Little Five began to process the removed part of the atlas. They trimmed the large piece of bone into a columnar shape, then embedded it into the mesh of the internal fixation device, which was planted in between the skull base and the axis. Screws were used to secure the internal fixation, with the bone graft snug against the skull base above and the axis below, like a pillar wedged in front of the skull base and the cervical spine. With that, the anterior approach of the surgery was concluded. Yang Ping began the posterior approach surgery. Due to the seated position, the area above the shoulders was fully exposed on the operating table, making the posterior surgery more convenient and safer without the need for repositioning. Conducting the posterior surgery in a sitting position required extensive experience, as it presented numerous inconveniences for the surgeon. The backrest was adjusted to nearly ninety degrees, and the posterior surgery began. ¡°In a seated position, exposure from the posterior approach is very difficult¡ª¡± August began to have difficulties. ¡°Hook up another set of intervertebral foramen endoscope!¡± instructed Yang Ping to the patrolling nurse Zhou Can below the operating table. ¡°Endoscopic surgery again? How is that possible?¡± Inside, August thought hard but couldn¡¯t fathom how an intervertebral foramen endoscope might be of use in this kind of open surgery. Chapter 824 - 824 738 Decoration Ceremony ?Chapter 824: Chapter 738: Decoration? Ceremony? Chapter 824: Chapter 738: Decoration? Ceremony? A set of foraminotomy scopes, a set of arthroscopes, and two sets of laparoscopic equipment were connected properly and ready for use in surgery at any moment. This was neither an arthroscopic surgery nor a foraminotomy surgery, but rather a craniovertebral junction surgery. Yet, Yang Ping had brought in two sets of laparoscopic equipment. Not only did August not understand, but so too were Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang puzzled. During the preoperative discussion, it had only been mentioned that the anterior approach through the mouth required endoscopic assistance, after all, the mouth and pharynx had natural cavities with a certain operating space suitable for endoscopic or laparoscopic manipulation. Regarding posterior surgery, however, there was no mention of using laparoscopy. There was no natural cavity from the posterior approach, not even a potential one. How could a lens be inserted? How could surgery be performed under the scope? Yang Ping didn¡¯t notice everyone¡¯s confusion; he simply started the surgery on his own. Performing the posterior surgery in a sitting position posed great challenges, both in terms of surgical field visibility and operative space, particularly since the front pathway had already fixed the skull base and cervical spine, preventing the opening of the space between vertebrae plates by flexing the neck. These disadvantages were further magnified, but Yang Ping had his own methods. He combined the arthroscope and the foraminotomy scope, two types of endoscopic systems, to serve as his tools for obtaining a field of view. He intended to perform a laparoscopic surgery within an open surgery, abandoning the inertia of using direct vision with the naked eye, and relying on the thinking of laparoscopic surgery, he planned to complete the posterior surgery with a well-practiced hand-eye coordination. Yang Ping personally adjusted the focus and exposure for both the arthroscope and the foraminotomy scope, and then the surgery began. He made a vertical incision on the back of the neck and occipital area. This was completely the routine of open surgery! August was puzzled and couldn¡¯t help feeling somewhat disappointed. He had thought Yang Ping would use minimally invasive surgery to tackle the posterior approach. But then, upon reflection, he realized that at this moment, the minimally invasive method clearly was impractical. How could it possibly be done with minimally invasive techniques? Under laparoscopic minimally invasive conditions, how could such large internal fixation devices be implanted? How could bone grafting be done? How could screws be driven? These operations had to be performed in an open space, and all the instruments were traditional ones. No matter how skilled a doctor is, they are human, not divine. Every operation must be completed within the limits of human capability. The skin, subcutaneous tissue, fascia, and muscle were cut layer by layer, all the way to the skull base and cervical spine¡¯s vertebrae plate, and then the soft tissues on both sides of the skin and the vertebrae plate were prised apart, below the base of the skull and against the vertebrae plate. ¡°Set up the screens symmetrically, with the arthroscope on the right side and the foraminotomy scope on the left side. Get the hooks ready,¡± Yang Ping instructed. The two hook-holding experts would normally take their places promptly without needing Yang Ping to speak up, but the sudden appearance of the laparoscopic equipment also stunned the hook-holding experts for a moment as they racked their brains, trying to understand what was going on. The Instrumental Nurse, Xiao Su, immediately pointed with her hemostat to the positions of the hook-holding assistants. The two experts then snapped out of their surprise and hurriedly headed to the front line. August was still pondering the issue. Since it was open surgery, what was the use of the arthroscope and foraminotomy scope? Decoration? Does surgery need decoration? Or was it some sort of ritual by the professor? If it were his free time, August would definitely persist in asking until he got an answer, but as it was during surgery, he couldn¡¯t ask. He could only continue to observe the operation. At this point, the two hook-holding experts came into action. They positioned themselves on each side, each holding a hook firmly, steadily drawing open the incision to reveal the surgical area. These were not ordinary hook wielders; they were world-class hook-holding experts. Their upcoming monumental work, ¡°Surgical Hook Science,¡± would be a groundbreaking textbook, filling a void in such specialized literature. Most importantly, it would feature an array of hooks in all shapes and varieties, many of which were the first of their kind in the world. The two hook-holding experts were calm and composed, breathing steadily, their hooks not trembling in the slightest. This was not something an ordinary person could achieve. To attain this level of proficiency, the two experts had invested immense effort. They trained their arm strength every day and also practiced their breathing to coordinate it with their movements. To become a hook-holding expert, however, this was not nearly enough. They delved into the study of anatomy; with each hook placement, they had to be familiar with the local anatomy of the location and also understand the characteristics of those tissues. They studied the science of vision to discover the best methods for maximizing visibility with the hooks. Thus, the masterpieces of the two great experts were imbued with their painstaking efforts, covering a profound depth and breadth¡ªSurgical Hook Anatomy, Surgical Hook Visiology, and Surgical Hook Positioning¡ª With two surgical hooks revealing the surgical area, Yang Ping inserted the arthroscope and the foraminotomy endoscope into the operative field, one above the other, the foraminotomy endoscope on top, the arthroscope on the bottom; two screens immediately displayed the images of the operative area, with the left showing the upper part and the right showing the lower part. Yang Ping adjusted the two scopes, and each of the two hook experts used their other hand to steady a scope, leaving them with no free hand¡ªone holding a hook, the other holding a scope. Looking at this setup, were these two endoscopes really about to come into play? August racked his brain at full speed, wondering what was being planned. It was supposed to be an open surgery, yet two scopes were inserted inside, as if setting up for minimally invasive surgery. The incision was clearly open, so why insert two scopes? Could it be that the scopes were merely for show? Or part of some ritual? August turned his head to look at Robert, hoping this guy could provide an explanation, but he seemed just as confused. Never mind, how could a sports medicine doctor understand the spine better than he did? August gave up on seeking Robert¡¯s guidance. He was going to ask, but seeing Yang Ping so intently focused, he didn¡¯t dare to disturb, not even Song Zimo, so August continued to observe. After all, at least the professor was currently lucid, all actions rational. Keep watching, and the answer would come. The next steps in the procedure had everyone¡¯s eyes widen in amazement. For conventional open surgery, due to exposure and operational difficulties, an endoscope was used for assistance. Yang Ping didn¡¯t need to look at the surgical area but instead at the images on the screens, employing hand-eye coordination techniques to complete this cranial base upper cervical spine surgery. Damn! Robert couldn¡¯t find the right words and resorted to this unrefined and rough expression to describe his feelings. Damn! At a loss for words, August could only follow Robert¡¯s lead. It was simply brilliant. Who knew surgery could be done this way, using endoscopes like this? The hand-eye coordination technique for endoscopic operation was simply at the pinnacle of perfection. With the aid of the endoscope, the difficulties of surgical field visibility and operative space were effortlessly resolved. Every corner that the camera lens could see became clearly visible, countless times better than the human eye. Yang Ping alternated his gaze between the left and right screens, because the left displayed the upper half of the operative field, while the right showed the lower half. Only by combining these two parts could he see the complete operative area. Guided by this split real-time imaging, Yang Ping began his skillful hand-eye coordination operation under the endoscope. The resection of the posterior arch of the atlas, the posterior halves of the lateral masses, the clearance of hematoma within the vertebral canal, incision of the spinal cord¡¯s dura mater, and removal of the subdural hematoma were all performed to decompress the spinal cord sufficiently. Every step of what would typically be an open surgery was, today, completed under the scope. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, serving as assistants, were naturally sidelined, becoming close-range observers on the platform. They couldn¡¯t achieve such proficient hand-eye coordination and rely solely on the screens to assist in the entire surgery. Hence, the surgery became a solo performance by Yang Ping. At that moment, the two hook experts concentrated intently, maintaining the entire surgical field with two ordinary hooks, like sculptures, while both scopes remained just as still. The further August watched, the more he realized that this method of surgery greatly improved precision over direct-eye surgery because the camera magnified the operative site many times, and the entire field of surgery was visible under the scope, with no blind spots. There was no need to adjust the hooks or positioning to get a view of any corner. Again, August was stumped. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t operating under a single screen but under two split screens offering divided views. In addition to high-level hand-eye coordination skills, he also had to mentally combine the two screens into one. The difficulty of synchronizing hand-eye-brain for this task was beyond August¡¯s description. Chapter 825 - 825 739 The Ultimate Realm of Hand-Eye ?Chapter 825: Chapter 739: The Ultimate Realm of Hand-Eye Separation Chapter 825: Chapter 739: The Ultimate Realm of Hand-Eye Separation After the hematoma was cleared, the bone at the base of the skull was roughened, along with roughening the surface of the bone of the posterior arch of the atlas. This facilitated the healing process with the implanted bone grafts. Now it was Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang¡¯s turn to handle the atlantal bone graft. They trimmed the bone graft and filled the titanium mesh structure of the artificial atlas with it and crushed bones. Yang Ping irrigated the surgical area under the microscope, achieved hemostasis again, and then implanted the internal fixator between the posterior cranial base and posterior arch of the atlas. By applying pressure above and below and implanting screws, the bone graft and crushed bones within the titanium mesh structure firmly supported the cranial base and atlas vertebra, serving as an auxiliary load-bearing column among the connecting columns of the cranial base and atlas. The construction was completed, and in the future, along with the anterior bone columns, they would become the support for the head. This once unsteady head was finally securely positioned on the spine. ¡°Call it a day!¡± Yang Ping shifted his gaze away from the screen, and Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang stepped forward to begin the final part of the procedure: closing the surgical incision. ¡°Actually, it¡¯s nothing special. It¡¯s just extending the range of endoscopic surgery. The anterior approach through the mouth is also completed under the scope. If the anterior approach can be done under the scope, why not the posterior? Theoretically, all surgeries can be completed under endoscopic guidance.¡± Seeing the surprised looks on everyone¡¯s faces, Yang Ping quickly offered an explanation. Before the surgery, Yang Ping had forgotten to inform everyone that the posterior approach was also planned to be done under the scope, and he certainly didn¡¯t mention the use of two scopes to complete the procedure. Now, as he mentioned it so casually, the confusion on everyone¡¯s faces couldn¡¯t possibly dissipate in an instant. ¡°Sorry, I forgot to tell everyone before the surgery,¡± Yang Ping apologized to the crowd. But the apology didn¡¯t do much good, as everyone still looked at Yang Ping with expectant and perplexed eyes, and even Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang didn¡¯t intend to immediately close the incision. ¡°Why are you all staring at me? Is there a problem?¡± Yang Ping sat down to rest. ¡°Professor, you have to give some explanation, right? You just used two screens to complete an unfamiliar cranial base-upper cervical spine surgery throughout the entire procedure under split endoscopic vision!¡± Song Zimo had to state it plainly. No wonder these fellows were gazing at him so expectantly. Yang Ping suddenly realized that what might be a very common surgery for him¡ªusing two endoscopes almost reflexively¡ªcould be considered technical innovation, a sophisticated new procedure, to others. Perhaps too engrossed in the work, he went through the entire procedure without explaining it. ¡°I guess I¡¯m a bit rough around the edges as a professor,¡± Yang Ping thought to himself as he gathered his thoughts and said: ¡°For cranial base-upper cervical spine anterior approach surgeries through the mouth, using an endoscope for assistance makes the operation much easier and, under the endoscope¡¯s view, provides a larger working space and a higher safety factor.¡± Yang Ping was careful with his terminology, using ¡®endoscope¡¯ when appropriate and ¡®laparoscope¡¯ when needed, never mixing them up. There is a difference between endoscopes and laparoscopes. An endoscope is used to enter the body through natural passages, such as gastroscope, colonoscope, and urological surgeries involving ureteroscopy and cystoscopy. These are all endoscopes. Take the gastroscope, for instance. It enters the body through the mouth, then passes through the pharynx and esophagus before finally reaching the stomach. From the entrance to the entire pathway, these are all natural passages. Laparoscopes, on the other hand, require creating an artificial hole in the body to serve as the entry point for the camera and instruments. For example, a laparoscope needs one or several small incisions on the abdomen to insert the camera and instruments, same with arthroscopy which requires puncturing a hole for entry. ¡°Most cranial base-upper cervical spine surgeries can be resolved through the anterior oral approach only. Therefore, everyone can train in endoscopic surgery through the mouth in the future, making cranial base-upper cervical spine anterior approach surgeries under endoscopic assistance a routine procedure.¡± ¡°And completing posterior open surgery under the scope is not difficult either. Today¡¯s use of two sets of endoscopic equipment to perform the surgery does indeed demand high coordination of hands, eyes, and brain. If you encounter various reasons leading to poor visual exposure and insufficient working space in future surgeries of this kind, you can try to complete the surgery under the scope. Of course, don¡¯t imitate my use of two split screens. You should use a wide-angle camera, placed in the proper position, where a single camera and one set of equipment can get the job done. If you don¡¯t use a wide-angle lens, you can also use two cameras and then integrate the images of the surgical area with a computer to display them on one screen. This all requires further designing of the equipment.¡± ¡°Actually, open surgeries under a microscope have had precedents, such as the reattachment surgery for severed fingers in microsurgery. Using the traditional microscope, staring intently through the eyepiece, can cause significant eye fatigue. However, using a microscope equipped with a high-definition camera allows the surgical field to be transmitted to a screen. The operator doesn¡¯t have to focus on the tiny field of view through the microscope and can just look at the screen, using hand-eye coordination techniques, which makes the entire procedure much more relaxed.¡± ¡°Of course, to achieve this, one needs to be trained in hand-eye coordination, mastering the hand-eye coordination techniques.¡± ¡°Professor, could you train us so that we too could perform microscopy-assisted surgeries at will, like you just did? Even better, all surgeries could potentially be performed endoscopically whenever necessary.¡± August got excited. He could imagine the scene: if he mastered this technique, someday, at a European spinal surgery conference, while demonstrating this microscopic operation, while others struggled with exposure, August could complete the surgery entirely under the microscope, whether it was via an anterior transoral approach or a standard posterior approach. What would that Englishman Milton think then? He would surely be astounded. The damned old chap would probably dislocate his temporomandibular joint. I bet, August thought proudly. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were in the midst of closing the incision, while Yang Ping began to take off his surgical gown. ¡°If you¡¯re interested, I can train you tomorrow in performing open surgery under the scope. Actually, like today¡¯s surgery, if there were an appropriate surgical robot, with its assistance, the surgery would be even easier. It¡¯s a pity that existing surgical robots are not capable of this kind of operation. Da Vinci¡¯s robotic arms are very flexible and have the potential for such surgeries, but it lacks orthopedic surgical tools. Of course, at its current level, it¡¯s not feasible for it to handle all orthopedic tools, so it¡¯s limited to chest, abdominal, urological, and gynecological surgeries. The Tianji robot, though it can perform orthopedic surgeries, doesn¡¯t have sufficiently flexible arms and can only carry out simple orthopedic procedures or certain steps in surgery, like pin placement. It doesn¡¯t have the capability to conduct full operations autonomously and is only an assistant.¡± In Yang Ping¡¯s mind, he envisioned a surgical robot with extremely flexible arms that could switch between arms of different thickness to suit various scenarios, and could also be fitted with various orthopedic power tools. That would be marvelous. Sharp Medical was also researching surgical robots, but breakthroughs would take some time to materialize. With such a robot, no matter what position the patient was in, the surgery would be effortless, and doctors wouldn¡¯t be so passive. The future of the surgical field is inevitably going to be dominated by surgical robots; they overcome all the shortcomings of surgeons and broaden both the operational space and visual field. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang completed the closure of the surgical incision; Zhang Lin and Little Five, the two hook-pulling masters, could finally rest, their arms likely incredibly sore. From the start of the hook placement to its removal, the two masters hadn¡¯t moved a muscle throughout, fully living up to the title of hook-pulling wizards. ¡°When is your book going to be published? You have revised the manuscript many times, haven¡¯t you?¡± Yang Ping asked Zhang Lin and Little Five. Zhang Lin couldn¡¯t help but sigh, ¡°After all, it¡¯s a world-class work. Insisting on a rigorous academic attitude, we have decided to revise it a few more times, striving for perfection.¡± Little Five was also very serious, ¡°It¡¯s a global pioneering monograph. There are some details that still need to be deliberated. For instance, whether to briefly mention or elaborate in detail about the training methods for the hook-pulling technique, we have not reached a consensus.¡± ¡°If we elaborate, we will inevitably reveal some secret training methods, but to gloss over it would be against the scholarly conscience.¡± Zhang Lin was filled with worry. ¡°It¡¯s tough!¡± Little Five looked genuinely troubled. With such solemn tones, neither of them seemed to be posturing¡ªthey truly cared for this monograph. It was their passion, their dream. Chapter 826 - 826 740 Mentally Ill ?Chapter 826: Chapter 740: Mentally Ill Chapter 826: Chapter 740: Mentally Ill This high school student, despite numerous twists and turns, had successfully completed the surgery. As long as there were no postoperative complications, his neuropathic symptoms would somewhat improve to a certain degree. ¡°Li Guodong, how did Wen Ruzheng decalcify and acid-remove?¡± Song Zimo asked Li Guodong, who had returned. Now that the surgery was over, he had time to ponder the bone tissue frozen section. Li Guodong was a bit embarrassed, ¡°He closed the door and worked alone inside, not allowing me to peek. I waited outside, saw nothing.¡± This guy was so full of himself, not even letting our people watch, shrouding a pathology slice in mystery, Song Zimo cursed. Producing bone tissue frozen sections was a major breakthrough; previously, the decalcification and acid removal process for bone tissue was long, especially acid removal, which took at least 24 hours. Therefore, unlike soft tissues, it wasn¡¯t possible to make frozen sections, which are a common means for rapid intraoperative pathological diagnosis. Thus, for most bone tumors, a preoperative biopsy or other methods are used to extract specimens for pathological examination, to determine the diagnosis before formulating a surgical plan. However, the specimen quality obtained from biopsies could never be as high as that obtained from tumor resections. If Doctor Wen¡¯s bone tissue frozen sections had no quality difference from ordinary paraffin sections, then bone tumors could undergo intraoperative frozen pathology in the future. ¡°Zhang Lin, Little Five, Li Guodong, you guys take the patient to the ICU. Let¡¯s go to the Pathology department to check out Wen Ruzheng¡¯s frozen section?¡± Yang Ping quickly arranged the tasks. Now, Lu Jiangbei¡¯s cranial base and upper cervical spine fixation were very stable, the front and back combined fixation added reliability, and turning and transferring her could be done with confidence, no need to tread on thin ice like before the surgery. So, it would be no problem for these few to escort the patient. ¡°How good is Wen Ruzheng¡¯s level? I still need his help to look at pathology slices,¡± Liang Fatty, who was performing the anesthesia recovery, asked. Liang Fatty had a friend who was looking for a pathology expert to review a tissue section, and he knew Wen Ruzheng was highly skilled. However, since he was an anesthesiologist, not as deeply versed in clinical matters as doctors, he thought to consult his colleagues. ¡°Now, Director Guan and Director Shi of Pathology both don¡¯t take external jobs anymore. I don¡¯t know whom to approach to review a pathology slide,¡± Liang Fatty continued, the suction catheter in his hand never stopped, inserted through the nostril, passing the throat to enter the trachea for suction. The pharynx was just the surgical area and still had sutures. Liang Fatty¡¯s skilled technique allowed the suction catheter to smoothly avoid the surgical area and enter the trachea along the other side. ¡°Why aren¡¯t Director Guan and Director Shi willing to review slices anymore?¡± Zhou Can asked. Zhang Lin said, ¡°Isn¡¯t it because of the previous 500 yuan incident?¡± ¡°500 yuan incident? What¡¯s that about?¡± Zhou Can asked curiously. ¡°Previously, Director Shi had a friend bring a patient¡¯s family to him for help in reviewing a pathology slide; Director Shi helped and was given a 500 yuan gratuity, which he accepted. Normally, when Director Shi privately reviewed slides from other hospitals or went out on consultations, he would charge a 500 yuan fee. But this time, the patient¡¯s family turned around and filed a complaint with the hospital¡¯s discipline committee, accusing Director Shi of taking a red packet under the table and demanding a refund. This hurt Director Shi deeply, and since then, he has refused to help with reviewing any slides, nor does he go out for consultations. He only reviews slides as part of his regular hospital work. He turns down anyone for external slide reviews, and last time he outright refused a county hospital asking for a consultation. Likely influenced by the incident, Director Guan also now rejects any personal requests and absolutely won¡¯t review outside slides or go out for consultations.¡± Zhang Lin was an ace in intelligence, keeping all the ins and outs of hospital affairs at his fingertips. ¡°You could look for Wen Ruzheng; his expertise is definitely not in question. It¡¯s said that he¡¯s even better than the two directors, but he also charges a 500 yuan consultation fee,¡± Zhang Lin advised Liang Fatty. Having finished the suction, Liang Fatty responded, ¡°When would I go see him? Both Director Guan and Director Shi have already refused private cases; how would he dare to charge? Isn¡¯t he afraid of being sued?¡± ¡°Sued? Sued for what? Whoever consults Wen Ruzheng for a pathology slice outside of work, he has a whole process set up. He requires the patient to sign and fingerprint a document. That¡¯s not all; he also takes a video with a declaration stating that the consultation fee is given voluntarily. Only after completing this entire procedure does he review the tissue sections. There was a standardized training student in our department who introduced someone to him for a pathology slide review, and they had to go through this process. Unless it¡¯s hospital staff themselves, everyone else must follow this procedure,¡± Zhang Lin explained confidently. However, 500 probably won¡¯t cut it now. I heard he¡¯s raised his prices. He said inflation is serious, and he¡¯s now charging 600 yuan per case, same rate for everyone, no bargaining,¡± Zhang Lin added. ¡°The old man Wen¡ªnow¡ªis really something, even raising his prices? He¡¯s not afraid¡ªof others suing him¡ªfor taking red packets, pretty bold of him,¡± Xu Zhiliang was aware that Wen Ruzheng had a side business but was surprised to hear of the price increase. ¡°What¡¯s there to fear? A man who¡¯s not even afraid of running naked wouldn¡¯t be afraid of getting sued. He says knowledge has a price, a gentleman loves wealth, in its proper way, and he calls it a ¡®consultation fee.¡¯ He¡¯s looked into every legal statute and health care regulation. His agreements and statements were all drafted by a lawyer, reportedly a high school classmate from China University of Political Science and Law, a Doctor who made them foolproof,¡± Zhang Lin said, as an insider. ¡°A Master!¡± Song Zimo couldn¡¯t help but admire. ¡°That¡¯s not all. Aside from immediate family members and hospital staff, he refuses any consultations about pathology outside of work. Anyone who comes to him for pathology slides or seeks pathology consultation, no matter who they are, must go through his charging process. I heard his uncle tried to get him to look at a pathology slice for an acquaintance, and he flatly refused, telling his uncle to either follow the paid consultation process or visit Sanbo Hospital¡¯s outpatient service and follow the standard medical procedure. But with the regular medical procedure, there¡¯s no guarantee he¡¯d be the one to look at the pathology slice¡ªit could be a colleague. If you specifically ask for him, sorry, that¡¯s a paid consultation. His uncle was so angry that smoke came out of his seven orifices. He accused him of being money-grubbing and not recognizing family ties. Wen Ruzheng just responded with one line that left his uncle speechless: ¡®I¡¯ve studied medicine for over a decade; why should I consult for him for free?''¡± ¡°Impressive!¡± Everyone in the operating room couldn¡¯t help but show their admiration; he was truly exceptional. Yang Ping knew that even though Doctor Wen was eccentric, he really was talented¡ªa pathology fanatic. Last time when there was radiation damage, he had made an accurate diagnosis based solely on the pathology slide of the damaged tissue. Truth be told, his expertise was far beyond that of Director Guan and Director Shi. ¡°Do you think Doctor Wen is crazy?¡± a standardized training student chimed in. ¡°The man is highly intelligent and has personality, what do you mean¡ª¡®crazy?''¡± Xu Zhiliang said, itching to curse the standardized training student¡¯s entire family as crazy. Wen Ruzheng had a good relationship with Xu Zhiliang, and there was also a Doctor in Spinal Surgery named Wen Zhong; the three of them were privately referred to by Sanbo Hospital staff as the ¡°Three Brain Damaged,¡± akin to the ¡°Three Tough Guys.¡± ¡°Three Brain Damaged¡± was also a resounding title. This earnest standardized training student had the nerve to say they were brain damaged; wasn¡¯t this the pot calling the kettle black? Truly asking for a scolding! ¡°That one¡ªwhat¡¯s your name¡ªget out all the medical records this afternoon. I¡¯ll inspect them!¡± Xu Zhiliang directed at the standardized training student. The student immediately broke into a sweat. As a standardized training student, his greatest fear was a medical record inspection, and he couldn¡¯t figure out why Teacher Xu would suddenly decide to inspect the medical records. PS: Regarding the surgeries in the previous chapters, I would like to clarify here: The surgery on the cranio-cervical junction is extremely dangerous, and very few hospitals and surgeons can perform it. The surgery described in these chapters definitely exists in reality. Director Wang Chao, a specialist in cranio-cervical junction surgery at Beijing Hospital No. 3, not only pioneered new surgical techniques but also invented new instruments, greatly enhancing the safety and effectiveness of cranio-cervical junction surgeries. Without exaggeration, he represents the global leading edge in this field. Professor Yin Qingshui from the Southern Theater Command General Hospital is also a top specialist in this area. He originated the transoral anterior decompression of the atlas-axis with immediate repositioning with a steel plate internal fixation technique, entering through the mouth and cutting through the pharyngeal posterior wall to perform upper cervical spine surgery, a technique he pioneered. The majority of surgical techniques described in this novel are those actually used in real surgery, with only a few being exaggerated renditions of experimental techniques. Thank you all! Updates will continue! Chapter 827 - 827 741 History Always Repeats Itself ?Chapter 827: Chapter 741: History Always Repeats Itself Chapter 827: Chapter 741: History Always Repeats Itself Yang Ping, along with Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, August, and Robert, arrived at the Pathology department. Pushing open the door, Wen Ruzheng¡¯s signature hairstyle caught their eyes. It was still that kind of short hair, with all strands equally long, clearly a self-done haircut with a trimmer. Wen Ruzheng was engrossed in examining a pathology slide. ¡°Old Wen¡ª¡± Xu Zhiliang gave him a pat, startling him. Seeing so many people, Doctor Wen was first shocked, then immediately stood up to invite Yang Ping to sit down. Xu Zhiliang was discontented, ¡°You only have eyes for the Professor, are we not guests?¡± ¡°Forget about it, find a place to sit yourself, the water dispenser is over there, and there are disposable cups underneath.¡± The Pathology department was very quiet, everyone buried in their work. Actually, the Pathology department was considered a tranquil segment of the hospital, no night shifts required, and only occasionally staying late for frozen pathology. But these situations were rare throughout the year; after all, who would handle tumor surgery as an emergency surgery? Even without night shifts, the work in the Pathology department can hardly be called relaxing; staring at the microscope at tissue sections every day until one¡¯s head spins and brain swells. Only someone odd like Wen Ruzheng could be obsessed with viewing pathology slides as if he were addicted to gaming, sitting all day beneath the microscope without feeling bored. ¡°I¡¯ve come to check out your bone tissue frozen sections,¡± Yang Ping stated his purpose. In front of others, Wen Ru always seemed arrogant and principled, but in front of Yang Ping, he always seemed to lack confidence, stemming from the psychological shadow of that ¡°streaking¡± incident. It wasn¡¯t the ¡°streaking¡± that caused the psychological shadow, but rather Yang Ping, as a surgeon, demonstrated such exceptional pathology knowledge that he outclassed Wen Ruzheng. How arrogantly Wen Ruzheng once claimed: Without me, Wen Ruzheng, Sanbo¡¯s pathology level would regress three years. But after that radiation injury pathology diagnosis, Wen Ruzheng had studied all day, while Yang Ping only took minutes to identify the result. Yang Ping even scolded Wen Ruzheng for not reporting earlier, nearly causing a fatal mistake. Since that incident, Wen Ruzheng had developed a psychological shadow of Yang Ping. ¡°Drink some water!¡± Wen Ruzheng offered a cup of water with both hands, then took out a frozen slide from the constant temperature refrigeration cabinet and placed it on the microscope stage. Yang Ping peered into the microscope, scrutinizing the frozen tissue section, which was of very high quality and showed little difference from the usual paraffin-embedded sections. ¡°Do you have any more frozen bone tissue sections?¡± Yang Ping wanted to examine a few more. If all were of such quality, it could become routine to prepare frozen sections of bone tissue. Additionally, frozen pathology could then be utilized during the surgery of bone tumors to improve diagnostic accuracy. Wen Ruzheng took out several more slides from the freezer where the frozen sections were stored, placed them under the microscope, and fixed them. Yang Ping looked over each one, finding them all to be of exceptional quality. It seems this was not just a lucky fluke; the fellow had put in considerable effort and conducted extensive research. ¡°Professor, what do you think?¡± asked Wen Ruzheng, waiting nearby with concern. Yang Ping took another sip of water, ¡°The quality of the sections is very high, this method is feasible and can be widely applied.¡± ¡°The decalcification solution of nitric acid and the deacidification solution of sodium hydroxide, the concentrations of both solutions can still be improved. The dye you¡¯re using is hematoxylin?¡± Yang Ping directly queried Wen Ruzheng. Wen Ruzheng¡¯s heart skipped a beat, wondering if Professor Yang also knew this method, and then nodded, ¡°Yes, I use hematoxylin to stain. Sections prepared with this method have strong affinity for hematoxylin, and the effect is very stable.¡± ¡°The staining agent can also be further refined. The two points you just mentioned plus this one, all three issues could be improved. Once you do that, you could send your paper straight to a top international journal,¡± Yang Ping suggested. Wen Ruzheng glanced around the room and didn¡¯t see Li Guodong, thinking perhaps Li had secretly watched the entire process. Doctor Wen immediately dismissed the idea; it was not possible, as he had closed the door at that time, and Li Guodong couldn¡¯t have seen anything. Even if Li had watched, he wouldn¡¯t have understood. But how did Professor Yang know all these details? Wen Ruzheng braced himself and asked, ¡°Professor Yang, how did you know how I deacidified the sections?¡± The conventional deacidification procedure was not like this. As a surgeon, how could Yang Ping have the time to research pathology? ¡°If you want results within half an hour, what else would you use if not sodium hydroxide for deacidification?¡± Yang Ping questioned him. Wen Ruzheng felt embarrassed, his semi-divine status wasn¡¯t just for show. History always repeats itself. In the past, he would spend an entire day researching while Yang Ping only needed a few minutes. Now, it seemed history might be repeating itself. Not only did Professor Yang know that sodium hydroxide was used for deacidification, but he also knew the current bottleneck was the concentration of sodium hydroxide, which Wen Ruzheng was trying to optimize in hopes of finding the best concentration. Moreover, Wen Ruzheng wasn¡¯t satisfied with the method for decalcification. He was looking for a way to make a breakthrough. ¡°Could we chat privately when you¡¯re free?¡± Wen Ruzheng asked, uncharacteristically ingratiating. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°When you¡¯re free, come to my office, and we can research it together.¡± Doctor Wen felt a secret joy, could it be that Professor Yang had some good ideas? History had proven that this guy¡¯s foundation in pathology was unfathomably deep, and Doctor Wen decided to take the time to discuss it thoroughly with Doctor Yang. Of course, he absolutely must not bet with him again. It wasn¡¯t that he dared not run around the hospital without underwear three times but rather¡ªa gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall. Yang Ping also examined the frozen tissue sections. There really wasn¡¯t much to see in the pathology department, so after a bit of conversation, a few sips of mineral water, they all returned. Liang Fatty, who had followed the group, stayed behind with a favor to ask Doctor Wen: ¡°Doctor Wen, help me out. I have an acquaintance who had a mole removal surgery in a local hospital, and the pathology report indicated melanoma. They said further amputation surgery is needed. He¡¯s worried about the hospital¡¯s capabilities down there, afraid they might bungle the amputation. After asking around, they said you, Wen Ruzheng, are Nandu Province¡¯s leading young expert, so he wants you to take a look at the tissue section.¡± Doctor Wen pulled out folded paper from his white gown and handed it to Liang Fatty, ¡°Take a look at the consultation process and costs. If you agree, bring the tissue section and the person after work hours. Remember, it must be after work hours. If it¡¯s the patient himself, bring his ID card. If it¡¯s a relative, bring both the patient¡¯s and their own ID cards.¡± ¡°Why so complicated? Can¡¯t we just handle it privately without all this fuss?¡± Liang Fatty unfolded the paper, which had many boxes and stipulations. Doctor Wen patted Liang Fatty on the shoulder, ¡°It¡¯s a dangerous world, and we can¡¯t help but follow the rules. The process is mandatory, and fees will be charged; it¡¯s called fee-paying consultation, and what¡¯s paid is the consultation fee.¡± ¡°Alright, shall I book an appointment with you in advance?¡± Liang Fatty realized it was futile to argue. ¡°Mhm!¡± Wen Ruzheng replied succinctly. ¡°Next time I¡¯ll bring you a pack of Soft Zhonghua, the real deal,¡± Liang Fatty promised. Doctor Wen looked disdainful, ¡°Cut it out, your Soft Zhonghua real? I compared the tobacco from what I buy at specialty stores to yours, and looked at the tobacco under the microscope. They are clearly different. Trying to fool me?¡± ¡°You¡ªYou¡ªAs for tobacco, different batches definitely vary. You don¡¯t understand,¡± Liang Fatty said, immensely embarrassed, trying to cover it up. ¡°Don¡¯t mess with me. To verify your cigarettes, I made dozens of tissue sections and spent days looking through the microscope. You doubt my appraisal skills?¡± Wen Ruzheng was unapologetic. Liang Fatty looked around and whispered, ¡°Lower your voice, don¡¯t ruin my reputation. I¡¯m not in the cigarette business, and I don¡¯t know the deal with these cigarettes.¡± Wen Ruzheng glared, ¡°You¡¯re not in the cigarette business, and you charged me money?¡± ¡°Brother Wen, Brother Wen¡ª¡± Liang Fatty wrapped his arm around Wen Ruzheng¡¯s shoulder. Wen Ruzheng didn¡¯t pursue it further, ¡°But on another note, those Soft Zhonghuas of yours suit my taste quite well, actually better than the real thing. Next time, get me more, let¡¯s say ten packs. I¡¯ll pay you. That¡¯s separate from this matter, different things on their own terms.¡± ¡°Fair enough!¡± Liang Fatty gave a thumbs up. ¡°Brother Fat, I heard you got a girlfriend? I also heard you have a new little Japanese guy who has a dozen girlfriends. Did you learn some tricks from him?¡± Wen Ruzheng stared at Liang Fatty. Fatty spoke in a low voice, ¡°What little Japanese guy? He¡¯s a fake Japanese, actually one of our own guys. Let¡¯s have a meal together when you¡¯re free, get acquainted with him.¡± ¡°I¡¯m asking you one thing¡ªare his methods effective or not?¡± ¡°Why are you asking me this?¡± Chapter 828 - 828 742 Stay Calm You Need to Learn to Stay ?Chapter 828: Chapter 742: Stay Calm, You Need to Learn to Stay Calm! Chapter 828: Chapter 742: Stay Calm, You Need to Learn to Stay Calm! ¡°Does it work or not?¡± ¡°It works!¡± ¡°Good, let¡¯s step aside for a talk.¡± Wen Ru extended an invitation for a private chat with Liang Fatty. There were several colleagues still in the office, and even though they were engrossed in discerning the pathology slices under the microscopes, the office was, after all, an office. Even speaking in hushed tones couldn¡¯t prevent words from leaking out. The two stood up and moved to the resting room, which was momentarily unoccupied. Among Sanbo Hospital¡¯s three renowned ¡°brain celebrities,¡± currently, only Xu Zhiliang had a girlfriend, while the other two were still bachelors. In truth, Wen Ru already had someone in his heart, a female doctor from the hospital¡¯s tumor department. However, he didn¡¯t know how to make a move and recently heard that the doctor had a suitor, a young civil servant at the level of a section chief. Facing such a perilous romantic landscape, Wen Ru felt compelled to take action to save himself. According to Sanbo Hospital legend, once Fatty Liang obtained a certain secret tome, his love luck blossomed instantly, and his love story with a flight attendant began. As the two entered the resting room, all the colleagues who had been looking down at the tissue sections raised their heads, then exchanged glances, all turning their eyes towards the resting room. After a moment, everyone tacitly understood and immediately began a discussion about a special case. ¡°I heard Doctor Wen is pursuing a female doctor in the tumor department?¡± someone broached the topic in line with the crowd¡¯s interest. Someone immediately chimed in, ¡°Yes, her name is Zhang Huijie. I heard he even wrote her a love letter, and Zhang Lin knows what it says.¡± ¡°What does it say?¡± Everyone quickly gathered around. ¡°I want to cut your heart into slices, then place them under a microscope and spend a lifetime slowly understanding them¡ª¡± the person in the know shared the contents of the letter. Horror! Chills ran down everyone¡¯s spines! Some thought this sounded less like a love letter and more like a terrifying micro-novel. ¡°Do you know? The female doctor replied to the letter.¡± ¡°What did she say?¡± ¡°The tumor department¡¯s female doctor replied: ¡®The time spent reading slides is too long, and the professional level needs improvement.''¡± The doctors from the pathology department dug into Wen Ru¡¯s romantic life like storytelling, and as the conversation continued, it ended up having the effect of a horror movie. At that moment, the door to the resting room opened, and Wen Ru and Liang Fatty emerged. Doctor Wen¡¯s face bore a smile, radiant like twin peach blossoms. ¡ª Lu Jiangbei was incredibly fortunate; according to Robert, she was the kind who¡¯d have dragons and phoenixes soaring from her ancestral graves. An on-site atlantoaxial dislocation with comminuted fracture of the atlas, yet she was still alive; from the scene to the hospital, to the operating room, the various transfers were handled with great care by Director Wei¡¯s splint, preventing any mishap; then encountering Yang Ping as the chief surgeon. Truth be told, nationwide there were only a handful of surgeons daring to perform such surgery, and those able to do it well were even fewer, leaving not many at all. Every successful step from the site to the operating room was a highly improbable event. If success missed even once, the outcome would have been death. But she had been lucky at every turn, a stroke of fortune amid misfortune. After the surgery, Lu Jiangbei¡¯s limb muscle strength began to slowly recover, reaching level five, which is normal strength, implying nearly no significant disability post-surgery. With level five muscle strength, breathing independently wasn¡¯t an issue. She quickly weaned off the ventilator, and the lung infection was wholly controlled without relapse. Two weeks after surgery, she was transferred from the trauma ICU back to the Comprehensive Surgery Department. The next step for Lu Jiangbei was a third surgery¡ªto manage the pelvic fractures. Although the treatment was cumbersome, it ultimately saved a life. After a day busy with surgeries, it was time to clock out. Yang Ping and the surgeons of the Comprehensive Surgery Department were discussing cases, and Professor Zhang Zongshun also joined in. They reviewed all of today¡¯s surgeries and then briefly discussed tomorrow¡¯s surgeries before focusing on Lu Jiangbei¡¯s treatment. Professor Zhang Zongshun was particularly interested in Lu Jiangbei¡¯s case. He often visited the ward to see her and frequently discussed the development of cranial base-upper cervical surgery with Yang Ping. After all, in his time, that type of surgery was a spinal surgeon¡¯s nightmare¡ªa fifty-fifty chance of survival was considered the pinnacle of success. After discussing the cases, Professor Zhang strode up and down the ward corridor with his hands behind his back. The interns, standardized training students, and graduate students immediately grew tense, everyone scrutinizing whether their white gown¡¯s buttons were aligned, collars correctly turned out, if there were remnants of green vegetables on their teeth, or if their chests were held high. A doctor ready to change a patient¡¯s dressing decided to delay, fearing Professor Zhang might suddenly appear at his side, a situation laden with pressure. The old gentleman strolled around a few laps. Zhang Lin and Xiaowu were busy focusing on revisions, and Fatty Liang was also busy with something recently, making it hard to even gather a team to play a game. Professor Zhang, realizing everyone was busy and it was hard to gather a team at the moment, decided to head back to the Tri-Bo Club to practice his tai chi push hands. His tai chi contest with Su Butong had been challenged for some time. Although they had yet to battle, neither had slackened in their preparations, each secretly competing, rigorously training, hoping to emerge victorious in a decisive battle. Su Butong¡¯s skills were not to be underestimated. Rumor had it he regularly trained in the gym and his muscular body was the real deal. For the battle preparations, he also hired a professional coach for daily practical training. Zhang Zongshun was no different; nearly monopolizing the Tri-Bo Hotel Club¡¯s fighting area, with several professional coaches taking turns to provide hands-on guidance for his combat techniques. Dean Xia was anxious and on edge, worried about an eighty-year-old engaging in such rough activities every day. A slight mishap could lead to broken arms or legs. It had happened before, and this stubborn old man was not easy to stop. Chapter 829 - 829 742 Stay Calm You Need to Learn to Stay ?Chapter 829: Chapter 742: Stay Calm, You Need to Learn to Stay Calm!_2 Chapter 829: Chapter 742: Stay Calm, You Need to Learn to Stay Calm!_2 The retired staff from the big hospitals in the city also contributed to the hype, pushing the scheduled fight between the two to unprecedented levels of excitement. Zhang Zongshun and Su Butong had held a grudge for quite a while, neither conceding defeat in Tai Chi. During the grand battle in the park, Su Butong suffered several compressed vertebral fractures in his thoracic and lumbar spine, while Zhang Zongshun sustained a fracture between the trochanters of the femur. Zhang Zongshun underwent surgery, while Su Butong lay in bed for a full month and a half. It was a tie, both sides bearing equal burdens. However, neither man admitted to a draw. Su Butong claimed that since Zhang Zongshun had undergone surgery, and he had not, only receiving conservative treatment, he was the winner. But Zhang Zongshun disagreed, arguing that although he had surgery, he was on his feet the next day, even going downstairs to buy a pack of cigarettes. Su Butong, on the other hand, lay in bed for a month and a half, totally dependent on others for his care, making him the true victor, in his view. After two years of recovery, they decided to fight once again, this time with a resolve not just to determine the victor but also potentially life and death. ¡°Professor¡ªProfessor¡ª¡± August ran down the hallway, calling out. Everyone in the ward immediately stopped their work, their nerves instantly on edge as the nurse closest to the resuscitation equipment hurriedly rolled out the crash cart and defibrillator. ¡°Which ward? Which patient?¡± The on-duty doctor appeared in the hallway, his lips and surroundings covered in breadcrumbs, his Adam¡¯s apple moving vigorously up and down, clearly swallowing food. His eagle-like eyes swept the corridor, trying to determine which patient needed rescue. ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡± The on-duty doctor grabbed the nearest nurse and asked, the nurse¡¯s face showing a sudden shock. Doctors from the office came pouring out, and nurses from various positions also stopped their work instantly, ready for action. August hadn¡¯t anticipated drawing such a crowd. Standing at the door, Yang Ping asked August, ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡± ¡°Professor, your¡ªpaper¡ªhas been¡ªpublished¡ª!¡± August was out of breath, struggling to speak as he had just returned from the Trauma ICU, where the Head Nurse had insistently pulled him to train the nurses on how to care for Spinal Surgery patients, leaving him to squeeze time out of his busy schedule to help. In the midst of the training, he learned that Yang Ping¡¯s paper had been published in Science. Anxious, August immediately stopped teaching and ran all the way from the Trauma ICU to the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡ªit wasn¡¯t the same building, no wonder he was seriously worn out. The tense nerves of the people relaxed at once. Damn, who has such poor manners, running and shouting for no reason, nearly gave me a heart attack. The on-duty doctor, having been scared for nothing, swallowed saliva to moisten his dry throat; he had nearly choked and needed the Heimlich maneuver from his colleague Haim. The rescue cart and defibrillator that had been rolled out into the hallway were returned to their places as everyone resumed their posts. ¡°What¡¯s the rush!¡± Yang Ping scolded sternly. There was an unwritten rule in the hospital: doctors and nurses must not run or shout unless necessary because doing so implied ¡°rescue.¡± During a rescue, every second counts, and all colleagues who receive the alert will stop what they¡¯re doing and rush to the scene to provide emergency care as quickly as possible¡ªthis is a professional reflex. Standing alone in front of Yang Ping, August had an innocent look on his face. ¡°From now on, don¡¯t run in the corridor, don¡¯t shout, stay calm, you need to learn to stay calm,¡± Yang Ping said, softening his tone. August acknowledged with a nod, took a moment to even out his breathing, and followed Yang Ping to the Director¡¯s office. ¡°Calm, I¡¯m calm, Professor¡ªyour paper has been published in the journal Science.¡± ¡°I know, didn¡¯t you tell me already?¡± Yang Ping thought it was a big deal. August explained excitedly, ¡°Yeah, last time Manstein only said they had accepted the paper for publication and mentioned it would be published ahead of schedule, but who knew it would be so fast? It¡¯s been published in this issue, the complimentary copies are already on their way.¡± It¡¯s not just for top-tier journals like Science, even regular journals require scheduling, which takes several months at the least. Now, to be published in this current issue¡ªwhat on earth had happened? Even August couldn¡¯t understand. This was highly irregular; there simply wasn¡¯t enough time for such a prompt publication. Nature, Science, Cell, the world¡¯s premier journals, do not play such childlike games. ¡°So soon?¡± Yang Ping had not received any message either. ¡°Yes, just that quick. I¡¯ve been trying to contact Manstein, but I haven¡¯t received a reply. He only sent me a message saying it¡¯s been published, then said nothing else. What is this old man playing at, always so unpredictable. Could Baker have had too much to drink?¡± August was as excited as a child, as if he, not Yang Ping, was the one who had the paper published. ¡°I¡¯ve confirmed it; I called my friends at the journal, and they¡¯ve indeed published it,¡± August assured that this was no prank. ¡°Thank you, that¡¯s great news. Remember, next time don¡¯t run like that, don¡¯t shout¡ªyou¡¯ll get yourself beaten up if you keep this up!¡± Yang Ping instructed. August nodded his head. As a doctor, he also understood the consequences of his recent departure from propriety, mainly because he was too excited and threw caution to the wind. ¡°Have you checked if you¡¯ve received an email from the journal?¡± August reminded Yang Ping. Yang Ping opened his computer and accessed his inbox where there really was a new email, sent about 18 hours ago. Opening the email, he saw it was indeed from the editors of Science, notifying him that his paper had been published. The email included various official electronic documents and stated that printed copies and official documents were already on their way. The email¡¯s received date was clearly 18 hours prior, but the date signed on the email was a month ago. What was happening? Why was an email from a month ago only sent to me yesterday? Yang Ping also couldn¡¯t figure out what was going on. It was like some recruitment exams where the information is only posted online after the exam is over, but the announcement is dated a month earlier. It gives the illusion that the message was sent a month ago, but you just didn¡¯t see it. But whatever, the paper¡¯s been published, and I can now graduate from my PhD program earlier. ¡ª This explosive news spread through the Hospital like an informational atom bomb. The whole Hospital was abuzz¡ªit was Science, genuine Science. For a clinical doctor to publish a serious paper in Science was an extremely difficult task, extremely so. When the news reached the hospital leadership, Director Zhou from the Department of Science and Education confirmed the news¡¯s authenticity and then immediately formally reported it to Dean Xia. Dean Xia began to pace around his office desk, thinking about the celebration. This was a big event that called for grand recognition! Once the printed documents arrived, immediate action would be taken. Hastily making banners might seem outdated, but Dean Xia thought it was the most splendid way to express the achievement. One giant banner for each of the two buildings. Furthermore, the usually reserved Dean Xia decided to personally write the banners. Proud of his calligraphy skills, he was confident that his writing would be more beautiful than others. It wasn¡¯t enough to hang banners on the inpatient building; the Hospital¡¯s website would also feature a ¡°banner,¡± which should remain for at least three months¡ªno, six months. Actually, better make it a year. Plus, he needed to make a trip to the provincial government to dig for some funding¡ªa significant amount. Right now, Dean Xia¡¯s mood was like that of a parent whose child had just been crowned as the provincial top scorer in the College Entrance Examination and had received admission to Tsinghua University. Impressive, right? Definitely! However, after several more rounds of thought, apart from the last action about securing the funds, Dean Xia dismissed his previous ideas, constantly reminding himself: be low-key, low-key, you must stay low-key. But how to stay low-key? It¡¯s impossible, this is Science we¡¯re talking about! Dean Xia excitedly dialed Director Han¡¯s number and invited him to visit the Comprehensive Surgery Department to discuss a big event with Yang Ping. Chapter 830 - 830 743 Ten Chapters ?Chapter 830: Chapter 743: Ten Chapters? Chapter 830: Chapter 743: Ten Chapters? Comprehensive Surgery Department Director¡¯s office. Yang Ping, Director Han, and Dean Xia gathered around the coffee table as the teapot began to boil. Dean Xia took over the show, picking up the teapot and pouring tea for Yang Ping while chuckling, ¡°Professor Yang! I¡¯ve been so excited that I haven¡¯t slept for three days. Without sleeping pills today, I definitely couldn¡¯t make it. My brain is full of ¡®Science¡¯ journals fluttering around, unable to chase them away; dense ¡®Science¡¯ journals are buzzing like mosquitoes, flying all over, covering the sky. Now my head hurts.¡± Director Han took out a small pillbox from his pocket and placed it on the coffee table, ¡°Alprazolam, do you want to take a few? I took two the other night¡ªstill didn¡¯t work, had to get up in the middle of the night to sing Beijing opera, now my throat hurts.¡± Dean Xia poured the tea, sat down, and rubbed his temples, ¡°We will immediately handle your early graduation from the doctoral program, and then there are many things to do¡ªpromote you exceptionally to chief physician, master¡¯s supervisor, doctoral supervisor, oh, and apply for Outstanding Young Talent. I know you¡¯re not interested in these things, but as an academic, these are like clothes. Clothes should be a bit prettier, a bit higher grade, it never hurts, right? Society still judges by appearances, anyway. You don¡¯t have to worry about it, leave it to us.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid of becoming too famous. Fame is a measure of credibility¡ªthe greater the fame, the higher the credibility. The more patients seeking you out, the more lives your medical skills can benefit,¡± Director Han said as he took a pill and swallowed it with some mineral water. ¡°Why are you taking sleeping pills in broad daylight?¡± Dean Xia reminded Director Han, thinking he got the medication time wrong. Director Han after swallowing a piece of Alprazolam, ¡°Just for calmness. The excitement hasn¡¯t subsided, and my heart keeps racing. Taking one Alprazolam settles the nerves.¡± Sedatives and sleep aids work similarly, sometimes it¡¯s just a matter of dosage. Alprazolam can provide sedation as well as induce sleep. ¡°Give me one too, then.¡± Dean Xia also felt his heart racing. Director Han was not stingy, he gave one to Dean Xia, who also tossed it into his mouth and chased it with mineral water. ¡°Professor Yang, that was a loud bang you made, strive to publish another top-tier journal article within three years¡ª¡¯Nature,¡¯ ¡®Science,¡¯ ¡®Cell,¡¯ pick one of these three. The paper is extremely important,¡± Dean Xia, with a clinical background himself, knew the significance of papers. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°Forget it, I really have no interest in publishing another one.¡± Dean Xia and Director Han exchanged glances, wondering if a high IQ necessarily meant low EQ. Why couldn¡¯t this kid understand their point? Director Han immediately advised, ¡°Papers are the main way to establish academic status. If we doctors can¡¯t turn our achievements into papers, the knowledge will only spread in a small circle. Only by turning them into papers can the knowledge be disseminated nationwide and worldwide.¡± Yang Ping said nothing, just sipped his tea. ¡°To become renowned, one must publish multiple papers, especially high-quality papers.¡± Dean Xia moved from the sofa across to sit next to Director Han, flanking Yang Ping from both sides. ¡°Yes, strive to make a splash with one in three years,¡± Director Han reiterated his earnest hope. ¡°If you were to publish another one, you would not only raise your academic status but also elevate the academic standing of the entire hospital. If you think big, you would raise the academic level of Nandu Province and win some respect for Chinese medicine,¡± Dean Xia, skilled in ideological work from his experience as a dean, always aimed high. With the iron hot, Director Han added, ¡°Take it a step further, set a standard for doctors worldwide, a banner declaring war on diseases.¡± Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°I¡¯m not interested in your goal of another paper within three years.¡± This kid! So stubborn. Dean Xia and Director Han could only shake their heads inwardly. ¡°Professor Yang, let¡¯s not talk about this for now, as if we¡¯ve never mentioned it. Tell us your thoughts,¡± Director Han suggested, taking a step back to move forward. Dean Xia supported, ¡°Right, share your thoughts, and we¡¯ll do our best to facilitate.¡± Yang Ping took another sip of tea and leisurely said, ¡°To raise the academic level of the hospital, Nandu Province, Chinese doctors, and to establish a standard for doctors around the world, I think, publishing one paper is certainly not enough. I¡¯m not interested in just one; if I¡¯m to publish, then I should publish ten. I plan to submit two additional papers to ¡®Science,¡¯ three to ¡®Nature,¡¯ and four to ¡®Cell.¡¯ These papers have been planned, and I can submit them within the year¡ª¡± Ten papers? That number is truly frightening. If it had come from anyone else¡¯s mouth, Dean Xia would have slapped them to sobriety, to open their eyes wide to this real world. But these words came from Yang Ping, and Dean Xia had no grounds to object, for every boast this young man had made, no matter how grand, had been fulfilled. Dean Xia and Director Han exchanged glances once more, sighing that old people like them thought too small; it was the young people who had grand visions. This was like always urging someone: Work hard, try to get a raise, aim for a monthly salary of three thousand eight hundred, but they were already earning a hundred thousand a month. Yang Ping stood up, retrieved a stack of manuscript pages from the safe in his desk, and passed them over. Director Han immediately caught them, handling them with extreme care to avoid the papers getting stained by the tea on the table. Director Han looked at them one by one, and Dean Xia leaned in to look as well. Several articles, all on recent research results, covering skin expansion technology, stem cell technology, 3D printing technology, microscopic dissection, and more¡ªall cutting-edge technologies. Chapter 831 - 831 743 Ten Chapters_2 ?Chapter 831: Chapter 743: Ten Chapters?_2 Chapter 831: Chapter 743: Ten Chapters?_2 Moreover, with Director Han¡¯s professional eye, all these achievements are heavyweight and certainly have the strength to make a run at the world¡¯s top journals. Dean Xia took the manuscript and browsed through it again, not expecting that the young man had done so much work recently. Young men are just full of vigorous energy. ¡°Take care of your health, and make sure not to stay up late,¡± Dean Xia instructed. ¡°Balance work with rest,¡± Director Han also admonished. Director Han leaned against the sofa, tilting his head back, rhythmically tapping his thigh to the tune of Beijing opera: ¡°Old Xia, we probably don¡¯t have enough sleeping pills. Lately, there has been no peace, and my heart starts pounding again.¡± ¡°Oh my goodness, if you said three or two papers, I could accept that, but you¡¯re talking about ten papers, my heart is pounding too,¡± Dean Xia rested against the sofa as well, not knowing how to continue the conversation. Global top three journals ¨C ten papers, anyone hearing this would shiver. This kid is really blowing his own horn, and it¡¯s quite exaggerated. If the following nine papers really get accepted, he wouldn¡¯t be able to keep a low profile even if he wanted to. Dean Xia¡¯s ambitions surged, and he wanted to slam his hand down, but then he saw the steaming teapot on the coffee table and stopped his hand a few centimeters from the desktop. Sanbo Hospital is currently experiencing an unstoppable momentum in its development. There¡¯s no need to mention orthopedics, the Trauma Emergency Center has firmly established itself as the leader in the south, on par with Magic City Sixth Hospital as the top two nationwide. The Sports Medicine Centre is simply leapfrogging in its development, keeping pace with Nandu Affiliated Hospital One¡¯s Sports Medicine, and is hot on the heels of Dido Medical University Third Hospital. The Spinal Surgery and Joint Surgery departments are lagging far behind, not progressing as swiftly, but they are being pushed forward by the Comprehensive Surgery Department. Just the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s spinal deformity correction has won the academic high ground for Spinal Surgery. And for Joint Surgery, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s own design of 3D-printed artificial joints has also pushed the Joint Surgery department to a world-class level. It¡¯s just that these two departments lack leading talents like Gao Yuan, so their progress is a bit slow. However, Dean Xia is not in a hurry; a large number of young doctors have been sent in batches for training at the world¡¯s top hospitals. When they come back to shoulder the responsibility, Sanbo Hospital will enter a period of comprehensive development rocketing forward. All this is because of the young man in front of them. ¡ª While everyone was immersed in excitement, Liang Fatty had no time to share in the joy with them. His flight attendant girlfriend called, saying she suddenly experienced abdominal pain and was in the emergency department at Fuer. The doctors said she needed emergency surgery, and frightened by the prospect of surgery, she immediately called Liang Fatty for help. Acute appendicitis is a surgical emergency, requiring urgent surgery. Any delay in treatment can be life-threatening. Liang Fatty didn¡¯t dare waste a moment and drove to the emergency department at Fuer. Before setting off, he called Xiong Shihai from the emergency department to ask for a favor and alert Fuer¡¯s emergency department staff to take good care of his girlfriend. Xiong Shihai had a significant status in the city¡¯s emergency medicine field, not so much for his professional skills but for his standout appearance and his prowess in drinking, making all city emergency department directors his brothers. Then, Liang Fatty, having classmates in the Anesthesia Department at Fuer, also reached out to them to smooth things over. When the peers in Fuer¡¯s emergency department heard that this beautiful woman was a friend of a Comprehensive Surgery doctor from Sanbo Hospital, they immediately gave the case their utmost attention. The Comprehensive Surgery at Sanbo Hospital was somewhat known in the medical community, and even those with minimal knowledge were aware that the team had once won the Golden Knife Award. So-called utmost attention meant just a few extra looks and a few more words, but medically, the treatment would remain unchanged. By the time Liang Fatty arrived, his classmate was already waiting for him at the emergency department. The classmate directly took him to see the Director Yang of the emergency department, who did not dare to be negligent. It was a case fervently emphasized by Xiong Shihai and involved a key figure from Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Comprehensive Surgery; it deserved full attention. Director Yang phoned in Doctor Wang, the chief medical officer, and also summoned an associate chief physician from General Surgery. Everyone proceeded to the observation ward in a grand manner. Flight Attendant Liao Yiyi lay on the bed receiving IV fluids, accompanied by another girl. Seeing Liang Fatty, Liao Yiyi looked as if she had seen her savior. She attempted to get up, ¡°I don¡¯t want to have surgery.¡± Liang Fatty, taking the central position, gently pushed down on Liao Yiyi¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Lie down, it¡¯s alright, I¡¯m here.¡± The proudest and most confident moment for a doctor, was exactly then. ¡°Dr. Liang, your friend has acute appendicitis and needs emergency surgery now. We cannot wait any longer,¡± Doctor Wang explained and then respectfully presented the medical records. ¡°We need to operate as quickly as possible, and we¡¯ll have our best doctor as the chief surgeon.¡± The general surgery doctor also had great respect for Liang Fatty. The standardized training students and graduate students gathered around needless to say; they looked at Liang Fatty with unlimited admiration. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Comprehensive Surgery Department, that was the elite of elites, the team that had beaten the top hospitals in the country to win the Golden Knife Award. It was said that the person before them had won the Best Anesthesia Award at the time. Liang Fatty took over the medical records, puffed out his chest like a senior doctor, and flipped through them page by page, ¡°Is the appendix necrotic and perforated? It hasn¡¯t caused any significant peritonitis, has it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s already perforated and necrotic, with an abscess formed around it, and there¡¯s severe intestinal adhesion. It¡¯s estimated that the onset has been quite some time,¡± reported the general surgery doctor. Liang Fatty¡¯s tone was scolding yet affectionate, ¡°How long have you been in pain? Why did you endure it by yourself, and not call me?¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s expression was pained, and her complexion was somewhat pale, ¡°I thought¡ªI was having menstrual cramps, is surgery really necessary?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to have surgery, surgery leaves scars.¡± Tears streamed down Liao Yiyi¡¯s face. ¡°You can have laparoscopic surgery, ah. It won¡¯t leave any noticeable scars. Don¡¯t worry, just a few small marks the size of little fingers, you can¡¯t see them,¡± the general surgery doctor quickly explained. ¡°She has a bit of a scarring constitution,¡± the emergency department doctor added. Bearing the pain, Liao Yiyi said, ¡°Can¡¯t it be done without leaving any scars at all?¡± Not leaving any scars at all? The general surgery doctor frowned, clearly troubled, ¡°I¡¯m afraid that¡¯s not possible! Even minimally invasive surgery will leave scars, but they are very small. After the surgery, if you use some scar-removal medication, there won¡¯t be any issues.¡± Liao Yiyi looked towards Liang Fatty, who pulled up the blanket and tucked Liao Yiyi in, saying, ¡°I¡¯ll think of a way, don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m here.¡± ¡°We can perform the appendectomy via colonoscopy without leaving any mark,¡± Liang Fatty told everyone. Not leaving any mark at all! Liao Yiyi was so touched she almost cried. She was afraid of surgery, afraid of scars. ¡°Dr. Liang, an appendectomy via colonoscopy is a procedure we also perform, but her appendix is already necrotic and perforated, and an abscess has formed with intestinal adhesion that makes it infeasible to operate through the colonoscope,¡± the general surgery doctor denied this surgical approach. ¡°So¡ªwhat do we¡ªdo?¡± The hope that had just ignited in Liao Yiyi was extinguished again. The intense pain caused sweat to bead on her forehead, her complexion even paler. Liang Fatty pulled out a tissue to help her wipe the sweat from her forehead, consoling her: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I am here.¡± Liang Fatty sent a WeChat message to Yang Ping: Professor! Acute appendicitis, it¡¯s now perforated and necrotic with an abscess and adhesion around it. Is appendectomy via colonoscopy possible? Flight Attendant Liao Yiyi, currently at Fuer, please help, it¡¯s urgent!!!¡± After sending the WeChat message, Liang Fatty also made a call to Yang Ping, ¡°Professor, I sent you a WeChat.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll check it out.¡± Yang Ping hung up the call, then replied with two words: Possible! Liang Fatty breathed a sigh of relief and immediately said to the doctors at Fuer, ¡°Let¡¯s transfer her back to Sanbo; it will be more convenient for her care there. Sorry for the trouble.¡± ¡°Shall we help arrange an ambulance to take her there?¡± Director Yang was quite enthusiastic. ¡°Thank you, I really appreciate it. I¡¯ll thank you properly later,¡± Liang Fatty shook hands with everyone one by one. ¡°Dr. Liang, you¡¯re too polite. I will arrange it right away. Doctor Wang, take a nurse with you in the ambulance to take her, and make sure the ride is smooth,¡± said Director Yang. After arranging the medical escort, Director Yang immediately started calling to arrange the ambulance. Hearing their conversation, Liao Yiyi suddenly felt more at ease. It was as if her pain also decreased a lot. She was willing to leave everything in Liang Fatty¡¯s hands to sort out. Once everything was arranged, Director Yang immediately called for a cart, preparing to transfer the patient to Sanbo Hospital. ¡°We haven¡¯t paid the fees yet?¡± asked the girl accompanying Liao Yiyi. Director Yang gave a grand gesture, ¡°Don¡¯t delay the time, get her over there quickly. We¡¯ll talk about the fees later.¡± Chapter 832 - 832 744 Riding the Auspicious Multicolored ?Chapter 832: Chapter 744: Riding the Auspicious Multicolored Clouds Chapter 832: Chapter 744: Riding the Auspicious Multicolored Clouds The ambulance and medical staff were all arranged, and the nurse began recording Liao Yiyi¡¯s vital signs to facilitate the handover to the accompanying medical team. Liao Yiyi curled up on the hospital bed, her expression one of extreme pain, her complexion growing paler and more unsightly, devoid of any color, ¡°Director, blood pressure 76/50 mmHg,¡± the nurse immediately reported. How could the blood pressure drop so low all of a sudden¡ªshock! Director Yang became instantly alert, acute appendicitis, and it had been hours since the onset before she came in, and then she had waited several more hours in the emergency department. The patient had been reluctant to sign the consent form, and her family over the phone said they wanted to inquire if other hospitals could treat her without surgery, asking around and thus wasting too much time. ¡°It hurts so much!¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s face was ashen. Liang Fatty immediately grabbed her hand, ¡°Don¡¯t be scared; we¡¯ll get to the surgery as soon as possible, and everything will be fine after that.¡± Liao Yiyi nodded weakly, sweat beading on her forehead. Noises began to emerge from outside the door, a middle-aged couple, and a young man appeared at the entrance¡ªthe couple were Liao Yiyi¡¯s parents, and the young man was her suitor, Zhang Zikun, a bona fide scion of wealth. ¡°Yiyi, Yiyi, Yiyi!¡± ¡°Over here, over here!¡± Usually, their daughter lived in the dormitory of Nandu Airlines, not with them. Upon hearing that she was ill and required surgery, the parents had rushed over and immediately notified Zhang Zikun. Zhang Zikun¡¯s father and Liao Yiyi¡¯s father were former colleagues. Later, the former went into business and became a billionaire. ¡°Yiyi, there¡¯s no other way; we have to proceed with the surgery. Zi Kun and I have asked around everywhere, even in Beijing and Shanghai. In this situation, the best we could hope for is puncture with minimally invasive surgery, but even that is not guaranteed to work; surgery might still be necessary.¡± ¡°Yeah, my dad asked his friends in Beijing about all the top experts in this field, and they said we could only attempt minimally invasive puncture and that it might not even be feasible.¡± Zhang Zikun was average-looking, but he was clothed in designer brands from head to toe. The watch on his wrist alone must have been worth several hundred thousand. ¡°I am going to Sanbo Hospital for surgery; they might be able to treat me without making an incision or a puncture. They¡¯re about to transport me there now,¡± Liao Yiyi said with much difficulty. ¡°Her blood pressure is too low now; we must operate immediately. It will take another hour on the road, so we need to hurry,¡± Director Yang reminded Liao Yiyi¡¯s parents, urging them not to dither and waste more time. ¡°It¡¯s rush hour now; the traffic is jammed. It won¡¯t be quick,¡± said the girl accompanying Liao Yiyi. She was Liao Yiyi¡¯s best friend who had just checked the traffic on her phone. The main routes were all in red, and the area around Fuer was particularly congested, which was common during rush hour. ¡°Her blood pressure is currently too low, and it¡¯s already a sign of shock. A prolonged trip could endanger her life.¡± The situation had changed, causing Director Yang a great deal of concern. ¡°Dr. Liang, what do you think? Should we just perform the surgery here? I can arrange it right now, and we could have her on the operating table within half an hour,¡± Director Yang sought Liang Fatty¡¯s opinion. If the condition were stable, transferring to another hospital would be feasible, but with such low blood pressure, a transfer could be life-threatening. ¡°What do we do?¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s mother was at a loss and panicked. Liao Yiyi¡¯s father was equally distraught, unable to provide an answer; even Zhang Zikun couldn¡¯t come up with a good idea. Liang Fatty immediately called Yang Ping again, ¡°Professor, she¡¯s in shock with very low blood pressure and in very poor spirits. The return journey is also impeded, and a transfer would be dangerous¡ª¡± ¡°Have you set off yet?¡± Yang Ping asked. Liang Fatty was also somewhat flustered but tried to sound calm, ¡°We haven¡¯t departed yet.¡± ¡°Then that makes it easier. You just wait at Fuer Emergency Department. I¡¯ll have a helicopter sent to pick you up. The emergency department¡¯s roof can accommodate a helicopter, so get them to prepare. We can be there in about ten minutes, and the round trip would take only about half an hour. Keep your phone lines open; I will Send Song Zimo with a nurse over.¡± A helicopter! My professor, oh my professor, my dear professor. After hanging up the phone, Liang Fatty suppressed his excitement and calmly said, ¡°Director Yang, I¡¯ve arranged for an emergency helicopter to come over. It will be here on your rooftop in a bit more than ten minutes. Our operating room is ready and can receive the patient at any time.¡± Fuer had a helipad but no helicopter; now that one was coming to evacuate the patient, the traffic issue was completely resolved. It would take half an hour to get on the operating table here, and about the same time for the helicopter to come to pick her up. It was truly lavish of Sanbo Hospital to send a helicopter for an appendicitis case, Director Yang couldn¡¯t help but feel envious. ¡°An emergency helicopter?¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s best friend¡¯s mouth formed an O shape in shock at the display of Dr. Liang¡¯s capabilities. It felt like a scene out of an idol drama, summoning a helicopter for a patient. She couldn¡¯t help but feel envious, nothing but envious. ¡°Thank you so much... Dr. Liang,¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s father, who had been completely flustered and confused, now seemed to have found a pillar of support. ¡°Are you guys at Sanbo up to the task?¡± Zhang Zikun asked with a hint of unpleasantness in his voice. ¡°Yes!¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s mother also inquired. Director Yang responded without mincing words, ¡°If they can¡¯t handle it, then there¡¯s nowhere else that can. They are top-notch, world-class.¡± Moved to tears by the news of the helicopter coming for her, Liao Yiyi felt an overwhelming sense of security with Liang Fatty, as if he had come on a magical cloud. She urged her parents with faint breath and closed eyes, ¡°Dad¡ªMom¡ªlisten to Dr. Liang.¡± Indeed, the helicopter was fast, and in about ten minutes, Liang Fatty¡¯s phone rang: the helicopter was already on the rooftop. Director Yang personally led the doctors and nurses, using a gurney to bring Liao Yiyi up to the helipad on the rooftop. ¡°Get her on the stretcher, quickly, gently, carefully.¡± Song Zimo shook hands with Liang Fatty and Director Yang, directing everyone to transfer Liao Yiyi onto the aircraft. ¡°All aboard, let¡¯s go together.¡± This emergency helicopter could carry more than a dozen people, so it was easy to take Liao Yiyi¡¯s parents and that Zhang Zikun in one trip. ¡°Captain, keep the flight steady, the passenger up there is Dr. Liang¡¯s relative,¡± Song Zimo greeted the pilot. The pilot gave an OK sign with his hand. The attending deputy physician from Fuer General Surgery, upon learning that the patient was being airlifted to Sanbo Hospital, immediately asked for leave and arranged for a substitute. He then called a friend at Sanbo Hospital, planning to observe the surgery himself, curious as to how it would be done. An appendicitis that could be resected endoscopically through the colon was truly amazing. ¡ª The operating room was already prepared, with personnel and equipment all in place, just waiting for Liao Yiyi to be brought to the operating table. Hearing that Comprehensive Surgery Department was about to perform a complex endoscopic colon-appendix resection surgery for complicated appendicitis, Director Fang of General Surgery Department, along with a big group of colleagues, hurried to Comprehensive Surgery Department. They, too, were experienced. To watch Yang Ping¡¯s surgery, they had to move quickly and arrive before the preparation of the surgical table began. Otherwise, it was easy to reach the operating room only to find the surgery had already ended. Director Gao from the Sports Medicine Center had suffered this misfortune before; stepping away to the restroom midway, he returned to find the surgery finished, without having seen anything. Although the patient had not yet arrived, the team from General Surgery sprinted forward and took over the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s operating room. With the high speed and direct route of the helicopter, it quickly returned to Sanbo. The waiting doctors and nurses took Liao Yiyi from the helipad directly to the operating room. Yang Ping had been waiting for a long time. As soon as Liao Yiyi was transferred onto the surgical bed, he ordered his colleagues from the ultrasound room, who were already on standby, ¡°Do an abdominal ultrasound to see the distribution of the abscess and the condition of the intestinal adhesion.¡± ¡°Her consciousness is a bit poor now. Dr. Liang, you handle the anesthesia personally, Xu Zhiliang, scrub in and prepare for disinfection, Song Zimo, go outside to get her parents¡¯ signatures,¡± Yang Ping delegated the tasks. ¡°Liang Jing¡ª¡± Liao Yiyi murmured drowsily. Liang Fatty, distressed, held her hand: ¡°I¡¯m here, don¡¯t be afraid, everything will be alright, oh!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t go¡ª¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s voice was very faint, she was in a somnolent state. The ultrasound probe glided over the abdomen as Yang Ping fixed his gaze on the images displayed on the ultrasound screen. He needed to understand the extent of the abscess and the specific condition of the intestinal adhesion to proceed with the surgery. Appendicitis of this kind, resected endoscopically through the colon, was incredibly challenging, bordering on impossible. ¡°Professor Yang, this seems quite difficult. Look, the area of the abscess is so large, and the range of the intestinal adhesion is also quite extensive. Attempting the endoscopic procedure through the colon might be¡ª¡± The ultrasound doctor cautioned Yang Ping, his words subtle, implying the possibility of abandoning this surgical approach. Everyone was colleagues, and if someone spotted a ¡°pitfall,¡± they would, of course, point it out. Liang Fatty was a bit anxious: ¡°Professor?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, I¡¯m going to scrub in now. You start the anesthesia, prepare the table,¡± Yang Ping seemed to have a plan in mind. ¡ª In the operating room¡¯s family waiting area, the meeting room. Liao Yiyi¡¯s parents, Zhang Zikun, and Liao Yiyi¡¯s best friend Yu Yihan sat in a row. ¡°This surgery is a minimally invasive procedure that doesn¡¯t require making incisions or punctures in the body. The endoscope and instruments enter through the anus and then travel upwards, reaching the colon. The appendix has an opening inside the colon, right here. We will make an incision at this location, right at this spot¡ª¡± Song Zimo, referencing an anatomy diagram, spoke to the family to briefly introduce the surgical method and list some surgical risks. ¡°Enter through the anus?¡± Yu Yihan asked a question. Zhang Zikun¡¯s face looked very displeased: ¡°Is there such a way to perform surgery? I¡¯ve never seen anything like it before.¡± ¡°How many surgeries have you seen?¡± Song Zimo didn¡¯t indulge him. ¡°You tell me, why must the endoscope and instruments enter through the anus?¡± Zhang Zikun was filled with indignation. ¡°The situation is urgent, they¡¯re waiting inside for a signature to start, I don¡¯t have time to explain to you. If you insist on an explanation, go read through all the monographs and papers about minimally invasive General Surgery at Nandu Medical University¡¯s library first, then come find me, and I¡¯ll explain it to you thoroughly,¡± Song Zimo¡¯s tone was calm. ¡°Little Zhang, why are you fussing over this? I will sign,¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s father was understanding. ¡°Doctor, you¡¯re confident, right?¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s mother asked. ¡°Every surgery has risks. It¡¯s like a plane flying in the sky; it might fall, but the likelihood is very low. If we can¡¯t handle this surgery, probably no one can. Professor Yang is very busy. There¡¯s a long line of people waiting for his surgeries, you can ask around. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that the patient is a friend of Dr. Liang¡¯s, Professor Yang wouldn¡¯t even have the time to be the chief surgeon for this one,¡± Song Zimo was straightforward. ¡°Sign it, just sign it!¡± After skimming through it briefly, Liao Yiyi¡¯s father immediately signed his name. Zhang Zikun sat on the side, feeling bitter. This guy had actually made a phone call and summoned a helicopter. What kind of influence did he have? Yu Yihan, meanwhile, was full of envy. She had searched for Yang Ping on Baidu and found lots of stuff, though all of it related to cases; such as the ¡°Folding man,¡± the ¡°Half-man,¡± things about five-part reattachments¡ªand the Golden Knife Award. Turns out the team of Dr. Liang was so remarkable. After the signing, Song Zimo returned to the operating room and the surgery immediately commenced. Chapter 833 - 833 745 Clearing the field for this kind of ?Chapter 833: Chapter 745: Clearing the field for this kind of surgery? Blatantly bullying! Chapter 833: Chapter 745: Clearing the field for this kind of surgery? Blatantly bullying! Song Zimo returned to the operating room with the medical record, as the various consent forms had already been signed. Xu Zhiliang washed his hands and came back. After some thought, Yang Ping said, ¡°Don¡¯t go on stage. Let Tang Fei bring a female standardized training student to wash up and prepare for surgery. First position the body, then wash, sterilize, and drape. Tang Fei! You start the surgery and send the endoscope to the cecum. After that, notify me. We have to study the patient¡¯s surface ultrasound in the next room.¡± Tang Fei immediately told her female standardized training student to get ready. As soon as the anesthesia was complete, they would begin their tasks. Inserting the endoscope from the anus to the cecum is a basic colonoscopy operation, not very difficult. As a surgeon from the Comprehensive Surgery Department, this was no problem for Tang Fei. Zhang Lin understood immediately, ¡°Prepare to begin the surgery. Everyone, please leave. Today¡¯s surgery has very strict sterility requirements, and operating room observation is strictly forbidden. I repeat, no one is allowed in the operating room. You can only watch the video in the Teaching Room. Anyone found lingering will be permanently banned from entry.¡± The General Surgery Department doctors had already taken their places, eagerly waiting for the surgical table to be set. Now with Zhang Lin suddenly ordering a clearance, everyone looked at one another, none willing to leave. Director Fang also wanted to stay and said to Zhang Lin, ¡°Little Zhang, how about we keep just a few people?¡± The endoscopic appendectomy via the cecum was a relatively new surgery. Director Fang had not performed many and wanted to learn more. This particular case involved a necrotic, perforated appendix with abscess formation and intestinal adhesions, a scenario nearly impossible to operate on using an endoscope through the cecum. However, Professor Yang insisted on this surgical approach, and Director Fang was very keen to observe the entire procedure. ¡°No! Everyone except for the surgical team must clear out!¡± Zhang Lin¡¯s response was icy, leaving no room for negotiation. Upon hearing Zhang Lin¡¯s tone, Director Fang knew better than to say anything else. He was aware of Zhang Lin¡¯s temperament; the young man was now very assertive and could turn hostile in an instant. If his instructions weren¡¯t followed, he would curse someone out right there and then. Rather than facing an awkward situation later, it was better to take the initiative. Director Fang gestured with his hands, ¡°Everyone, please leave. Follow the arrangements and adhere to the sterile protocol.¡± So, very reluctantly, the General Surgery doctors left the operating room and moved to the Teaching Room. ¡°Thank you, brothers, for moving. The surgery has high sterility demands, there¡¯s no helping it. I can¡¯t be inside either,¡± Little Five soothed the surgeons¡¯ emotions. With that, only Liang Fatty, Tang Fei, Zhou Can, Xiao Su, and the female standardized training student brought by Tang Fei remained in the operating room. Liang Fatty was irreplaceable for administering anesthesia; Zhou Can, being in charge of rounds, couldn¡¯t leave; Xiao Su, as the instrumental nurse, obviously had to be in the operating room; Tang Fei and the training student were preparing sterilization and draping and had to perform the first step of the surgery, making them participants in the operation. After ushering everyone out of the operating room, Zhang Lin and Little Five stood like door gods, guarding the entrance on either side. Everyone moved to the operating room¡¯s Teaching Room, which had many seats to accommodate a sizeable audience. Moreover, it featured a large high-definition screen, typically used for observing and teaching surgeries. ¡°Sorry, please understand that the surgery requires strict asepsis, so the observation must be done from here,¡± Song Zimo apologized again from the stage. Director Fang of the General Surgery Department was quite puzzled. Acute appendicitis, a category three incision surgery, was typically infection-prone. The sterility requirements were so strict? From this display, it seemed stricter than a joint replacement, where people weren¡¯t usually driven out so forcefully. It was a clear case of bullying! Surgical operations can be divided into three categories based on whether the incision is contaminated with bacteria or is infected: Category one incision: A clean wound, most commonly found in thyroid surgeries, closed fractures, etc., where there is no wound or local infection on the surgery site. By disinfecting the local skin on the body surface, sterility can basically be achieved. Category two incision: A contaminated wound, typically referring to stomach and intestinal tract or bile duct surgeries within the abdominal cavity, such as gallbladder, pancreas, small intestine, stomach and duodenum surgeries; as well as fresh wounds like cuts that are bacteria-contaminated but where the bacteria haven¡¯t yet rapidly and massively multiplied, temporarily not forming an infection. Category three incision: An infected wound, generally abscesses or infected diseases, most of which require open drainage to timely empty purulent secretions and control infection, such as purulent appendicitis, abscess incisions, intestinal perforation, acute and chronic osteomyelitis surgeries. Acute appendicitis, with an infected and purulent surgery site, thus classified as an infection surgery. In these categories of surgeries, operating rooms also maintain strict distinctions, avoiding mixing, and not performing appendicitis surgeries in the same room as closed fracture surgeries, which could lead to cross-infection. In terms of operating room aseptic management policies, distinctions are also made. For instance, with appendicitis surgeries, several additional observers wouldn¡¯t be a big concern for the operating room staff, who wouldn¡¯t fuss over chasing people out. However, for joint replacement surgeries, if the number of observers exceeds the limit, the operating room staff will certainly drive people out and strictly limit the number of people present. Director Fang felt unhappy inside, but as a director, he could not show it. Having brought a group of doctors over to observe and being herded out like sheep was definitely a hit to his pride, and the excuse given was incredibly weak. Was Professor Yang trying to keep the surgery confidential? Not allowing them to learn? If they weren¡¯t allowed to learn but could watch the video, which showed the endoscopic procedure, then the endoscope work would be the main part of the surgery. As for sterilization and draping, placing the lens there was hardly worth watching. Recently, Director Fang had also been studying ETA and ERAT. ETA is endoscopic appendectomy via the cecum, while ERAT stands for Endoscopic Retrograde Appendicitis Therapy. Chapter 834 - 834 745 Clearing the Field for This Kind of ?Chapter 834: Chapter 745: Clearing the Field for This Kind of Surgery? That¡¯s Blatantly Bullying!_2 Chapter 834: Chapter 745: Clearing the Field for This Kind of Surgery? That¡¯s Blatantly Bullying!_2 The appendix, this little fellow, is a ¡°small tail¡± on the colon, located between the human body¡¯s cecum and colon, a tube-like organ with a closed end and an opening near the cecum to the proximal side. The so-called blind tube is much like a super narrow dead-end street. Given that it is an extremely narrow dead-end, it is prone to traffic jams, such as fecaliths, food, foreign bodies, or hyperplasia of lymphoid cells, which can easily get into this dead-end and then become stuck and unable to get out, leading to infection and triggering appendicitis. The incidence of appendicitis is actually quite high, reaching up to 10% in Western countries, while in China, the incidence is between 4%-8.5%, accounting for 20%-30% of patients with acute abdomen conditions. In ancient times, if one developed appendicitis, it essentially meant a fight for life. With good luck and strong immunity, one could survive the infection; but with weak immunity failing to control the infection, there was no hope. Later, with the surgical procedure to remove the appendix, appendicitis was no longer to be feared. The traditional method of surgery was to make an incision and cut out the appendix, also known as an appendectomy, a procedure that has been around for over 100 years. Subsequently, with the development of laparoscopic minimally invasive technology, laparoscopic appendectomy was introduced. With this technique, there is no need to leave a scar on the abdomen, but there are still a few small scars left, after all, it is necessary to make holes in the abdomen. More recently, some brand-new surgical techniques have been developed, like transgastric appendectomy and transvaginal appendectomy. Whether through the stomach or the vagina, a small incision is made internally as an entry and exit point for instruments and the camera. Through this small opening, the camera and instruments enter the abdominal cavity, and then directly reach the appendix area to perform the surgery. These techniques leave no external scars, but there are internal scars, and they damage the stomach and vagina. With the advancement of surgical technology, a new technique has evolved¡ªthe endoscopic transcecal appendectomy. This method requires no incisions, internal or external. The camera and instruments are inserted through the anus, ascend retrograde through the anal canal, pass the rectum, reach the cecum, find the opening of the appendix, make an incision around the opening, and then remove the appendix. This is the miraculous endoscopic transcecal appendectomy, suitable for those who are extremely concerned about aesthetics. The endoscopic antegrade appendiceal cavity treatment technique, also known as appendix-preserving surgery, involves treating appendicitis without removing the appendix. Previously, it was thought the appendix was a useless organ and that removing it would not affect anything. Modern research suggests the appendix is useful¡ªit is an immune organ, with specific functions similar to those of the mesenteric lymph node cluster and the tonsils. It can kill a portion of bacterial microbes and can also pass their genetic information to lymph cells, enabling the body to develop immunity to these microbes and enhance the body¡¯s immune function. In addition, it can also store a large number of probiotics, helping to prevent intestinal flora imbalance and reducing the incidence of intestinal inflammation; it can also improve digestive function and prevent indigestion. So, once the appendix has problems, surgeons nowadays do not simply cut it out; they also consider preserving it. Of course, if the appendix is already necrotic and perforated, there is no way to preserve it. But if the appendix has not necrotized or perforated, instruments can enter through the internal opening of the appendix, remove the obstructing materials such as fecaliths, then irrigate the appendiceal cavity, insert a drain, and remove the drain after a few days post-surgery¡ªthe appendicitis is also cured. Director Fang also likes to delve into business matters. Now, with new technologies in General Surgery, he is always keen to study them, such as Da Vinci robotic surgery. Given that he has conducted many such surgeries at Sanbo Hospital, it is not surprising that he would research cutting-edge procedures like ETA and ERAT. ¡°Director Fang, let¡¯s analyze the surface ultrasound. Doctor Song, bring up the ultrasound images,¡± said Yang Ping as he sat down beside Director Fang and called up the images. The internal systems at Sanbo Hospital are interconnected, allowing the operating room to access any image picture at any time. Analyze the surface ultrasound? Director Fang was puzzled. What was there to see in the ultrasound? Besides, surgeons usually don¡¯t read ultrasounds; they typically look at ultrasound reports. ¡°Actually, laparoscopic surgery would be more convenient for today¡¯s operation. However, due to the patient¡¯s scar constitution and high aesthetic demands, even the few small scars from laparoscopy are unacceptable. This forced us to use the endoscopic transcecal operation, which has limited operating space and can only be carried out near the appendix. If a large abscess forms, resulting in intestinal adhesion, it is not suitable for this kind of surgery,¡± Yang Ping explained to Director Fang. The more Director Fang listened, the more confused he became. If it was unsuitable, that would be a relative contraindication, so why still use this method? Besides, with such a severe condition, why bother with fancy techniques? The best choice would be to operate immediately to save the patient¡¯s life, at most using laparoscopic procedures, which would already be showing off skills. ¡°With this patient¡¯s large abscess and intestinal adhesions, the difficulty of an endoscopic transcecal procedure is very high, Professor Yang. Let¡¯s switch to laparoscopy instead,¡± said Director Fang. Director Fang had just heard a reminder from the ultrasound physician and now reiterated the caution. Being colleagues, reminding each other to avoid pitfalls was not just a duty but also a matter of integrity. Yang Ping was highly skilled and often seemed magical, which Director Fang knew, but this was surgery, and the patient lying on the operating table could afford no jokes. If time was wasted, it would be too late for regrets if a life was lost. Walking by the river often, how can one not wet their shoes? If one harbors a mentality to show off, it¡¯s extremely dangerous. ¡°It¡¯s not a big deal. Although it¡¯s difficult, it¡¯s not like there¡¯s no solution.¡± Yang Ping was very calm. ¡ª Family waiting area. Liao Yiyi¡¯s parents were anxious and uneasy, since their child was on the operating table, it¡¯s natural for parents to worry. ¡°Old Liao, do you think Yiyi will be okay?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Xiao Liang is there, didn¡¯t you hear what Yu Yihan said? The team at Sanbo Integrated Surgery is world-class. Just look at Xiao Liang, one phone call and he can summon a medical helicopter.¡± The couple also felt very guilty, a mix of regret and worry. At first, out of heartache for their daughter, they inquired everywhere whether surgery could be avoided, delaying a lot of time and aggravating the illness. Now, she¡¯s in shock, and they heard that she could be in danger of losing her life at any moment. ¡°Xiao Zhang, what did your dad¡¯s friend say?¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s mother asked Zhang Zikun. Zhang Zikun had just called his dad¡¯s friend, the head of the General Surgery Department at one of Beijing¡¯s top hospitals. Hearing about acute appendicitis with necrosis, perforation, a large amount of abscess formation around it, and intestinal adhesion, the director blew up on the phone: ¡°Nonsense, the person is in shock and in imminent danger of losing their life. Either go for surgery directly or, if skilled in laparoscopy, use a laparoscope; never heard of doing this kind of surgery through an endoscope via the cecum, thinking they¡¯re some kind of demi-god, not realizing the depth of the situation¡ª¡± ¡°They said she¡¯s already in shock, human life is of paramount importance, lifesaving is crucial; either go for surgery or make an incision. That nonsense about doing surgery through the anus, that¡¯s utter crap and could cost someone their life.¡± Zhang Zikun said indignantly. Could cost someone their life? ¡°Oh my!¡ª¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s mother threw back her head, leaning against the chair back, her body limp like mud, and she actually began crying. Liao Yiyi¡¯s father, however, was much calmer, ¡°Keep it down, why cry? What kind of expert is he, he hasn¡¯t even seen the patient face to face. A few words over the phone, and you believe him? Isn¡¯t Xiao Liang inside? What¡¯s there to worry about?¡± Upon hearing the name Xiao Liang, Zhang Zikun got annoyed, ¡°Could an expert speak without sense?¡± ¡°Alright, Xiao Zhang, have a seat, let¡¯s just wait and see, it¡¯s only been ten to twenty minutes.¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s father was quite displeased with Zhang Zikun. But his heart also began to pound; previously at Fuer, the doctor had said that Yiyi was already in shock and needed immediate surgery to save her life, even suggesting they hurry to move her up the surgery schedule. However, since the medical helicopter would possibly enable a quicker transfer, they had hurriedly moved to this hospital. ¡°Yu Yihan, check the time, what time is it?¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s father also became nervous. Human life is of paramount importance, it¡¯s not a joke. Whether or not to proceed with surgery was now irrelevant, as long as they could perform the surgery and their daughter was alright. ¡°It¡¯s only been eighteen minutes. Uncle, Auntie, don¡¯t be anxious.¡± Yu Yihan, on the other hand, was not worried. As a young girl, having seen Dr. Liang¡¯s powerful presence, combined with the whirring arrival of the helicopter, Yu Yihan had complete faith in Dr. Liang. This time was truly torturous, each minute felt like an hour, passing so slowly. ¡°Old Liao, it¡¯s been so long, why haven¡¯t they come out yet? Could something have gone wrong?¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s mother stared at the operating room entrance. Liao Yiyi¡¯s father said, ¡°Don¡¯t talk nonsense!¡± Chapter 835 - 835 746 The intestines are soft and the cecum ?Chapter 835: Chapter 746: The intestines are soft, and the cecum is also soft. Chapter 835: Chapter 746: The intestines are soft, and the cecum is also soft. The operating room was prepped as Liang Fatty had already completed the anesthesia. Liao Yiyi assumed a left lateral position, and by the time they were at Fuer, the nurses had already prepped the bowels for surgery, so they could proceed directly with the operation. Tang Fei, accompanied by the standardized training student, disinfected and laid out the drapes, then donned her surgical gown and took her place at the operating table. She introduced the endoscope through the anus, gently advancing it in a retrograde fashion through the anal canal, the rectum, descending colon, transverse colon, ascending colon, until the camera finally reached its destination¡ªthe terminal ileum where the appendix communicated with the cecum. Tang Fei located the internal opening of the appendix at this site, fixed the camera in position, and halted her manipulation, waiting for Yang Ping to take the stage. What had preceded was just surgical preparation; the true operation would start from this point, and that¡¯s when the camera was turned on. Therefore, the entire surgical video consisted solely of endoscopic footage from within the intestinal tract and abdominal cavity, with no additional content. Yang Ping scrubbed in, and Tang Fei as his assistant helped secure the camera. The doctors in the teaching room were watching the live video on the high-definition screen. The endoscopic ultrasonic scalpel began its work, making a small incision around the appendix fossa and extending in from this opening to start searching for and separating the appendix and its mesoappendix. Without any hesitation, the ultrasonic scalpel dissected the appendix and its mesentery from the surrounding tissue; the appendix was already mostly necrotic and had perforated. The ultrasonic scalpel served both as a dissection and a cutting tool, its dual functions interchanging with adept use, quickly and intact separating out the appendicular artery and vein. An absorbable vascular clamp was placed on the appendicular artery, and the ultrasonic scalpel made a precise cut. Finally, along the inner wall of the cecum at the edge of the appendix fossa, the appendix was decisively and completely resected and then removed. Each instrument under the scope was incredibly more dexterous than the surgeon¡¯s fingers, operating with complete control, achieving what was intended and executed. Just now, as the separating instrument gently teased the appendix, one could almost see the appendix and the surrounding organs adjacent to it in a 360-degree view, offering an excellent operative field. Adhesions, once thought of as formidable as tigers, posed no threat to Yang Ping, for his instruments consistently worked through the loose interspaces, moving with ease as if in their natural element. The appendectomy itself was simple, however, performing it endoscopically through the cecum was extremely difficult. Furthermore, the appendix¡¯s adhesions, surrounding abscess formation, and intestinal tract adhesions made this operation extraordinarily complex and challenging. Undertaking such a complicated case of acute appendicitis with this novel technique was something no one else dared to do, whether it was managing instrument manipulation, field of vision, or operational space, it seemed impossible. The appendix, once completely removed, was bagged and sent off to the pathology department for examination. According to medical routine, any organ or tissue excised from the human body must be sent for pathological examination. After the removal of the appendix, a small incision remained at the site of the original opening on the cecum. Using this incision, Yang Ping¡¯s instruments reentered the abdominal cavity to begin clearing out pus. The endoscopic suction device alternated between suction and irrigation, starting a thorough, no-dead-angle carpet suction and irrigation. This was actually the most challenging step of the surgery, even more so than the appendectomy, due to the restrictions posed by the operational space and field of vision. Because the instruments entered through the incision on the inner wall of the cecum, they couldn¡¯t perform as freely as in open or laparoscopic surgeries, resulting in inevitable blind spots in visibility and manipulation. Moreover, these blind spots were significant, making it fundamentally impossible to thoroughly manage the abscess and adhesions, which is why others dared not use this technique. Director Fang watched the high-definition screen intently, not daring to blink, afraid to miss the most critical steps. ¡°I want to see how you manage the abscess and intestinal adhesions; the angle of the instruments is an objective difficulty, which you can¡¯t simply overcome with proficiency.¡± That¡¯s what Director Fang thought. The following operation, however, completely shattered Director Fang¡¯s expectations. The suction device under the scope functioned both as a blunt dissection tool and as a suction/irrigation tool; mysteriously, the bowel, under the gentle operation of the instruments, slowly revealed itself entirely within the visual field without a trace left hidden. The suction device thoroughly irrigated and suctioned the area around the abscess, even expanding the cleanup to the surrounding normal areas; to Director Fang¡¯s surprise, at the end, the entire field of vision became clear and clean, free from any impurity. ¡°How could this be?¡± ¡°How could his camera and instruments have no blind spots?¡± While Director Fang was puzzling over this, the handling of the intestinal adhesions seemed just as magical; it was as though blind spots didn¡¯t exist, with the bowel seemingly moving under the field of vision one section at a time, and the adhesions gently being dissected by the ultrasonic scalpel. Director Fang didn¡¯t even see the ultrasonic scalpel using any energy; it was used as a purely mechanical separating forceps throughout, effortlessly parting all present adhesions. What followed was an orderly and thorough irrigation, leaving the entire abdominal cavity spotlessly clean. The bowel, which seemed jumbled initially, was completely counterbalanced after the procedure. Perfect! A most satisfying and exhilarating sight to behold. Any surgeon watching this operation would instantly feel that the postoperative outcome was sure to be excellent. It was only relatively recently that Director Fang had started performing appendectomies using an endoscopic approach through the cecum, with only three cases under his belt and greatly lacking in experience. This surgical approach was new nationwide, with many hospitals only just starting to perform it. Whether in Beijing or Shanghai, this innovative surgical approach had only recently been initiated, with few cases accumulated, and some having just achieved their initial successes. As for Fuer claiming to perform this kind of surgery, it was likely just a way to save face. Whether they had truly embarked on it remained an open question. The small incision on the inner wall of the cecum, the remnant of the appendectomy, was meticulously stitched closed and sealed tight. The instruments were withdrawn¡ªa procedure as smooth and silky as their insertion, rapidly shuttling out through a safe interval. Just as the instruments had retreated into the ascending colon, the video ended, and the screen went dark. The surgeons from the General Surgery Department felt as though they had just watched a blockbuster movie, hungry for more, exchanging puzzled glances with their colleagues, hoping for answers. Because what they saw differed from what they had initially imagined. This kind of surgery was supposed to be slow and cautious. However, Yang Ping¡¯s operation was distinctly swift. What they couldn¡¯t comprehend was how Yang Ping managed to overcome both visual and operational blind spots; after all, he was using the same endoscopic system as the hospital, so having no blind spots seemed impossible. From the perspective of a surgeon, it¡¯s easy to think of this kind of objective blind spot, but today¡¯s surgery obviously didn¡¯t have any. Everyone looked at Director Fang, and he, knowing what they wanted to ask, blushed slightly, ¡°I don¡¯t know either; ask Professor Yang when he¡¯s free.¡± An endoscopic appendectomy through the cecum, dealing with extensive abscesses and adhesive intestinal tubes, was actually done faster and more effortlessly than an open surgery I would do. This kind of blow made Director Fang completely forget the humiliation of ¡°herding sheep.¡± ¡°Tang Fei, you come and withdraw the scope and equipment.¡± Yang Ping pushed the equipment to the ascending colon, stopped operating, and handed over the remaining work to Tang Fei and the standardized training student, then he took off his surgical gown and returned to the teaching room. ¡°Professor Yang, how could your scope see the entire abdominal cavity, and the equipment could handle targets throughout the abdominal cavity?¡± Director Fang couldn¡¯t help but ask when he saw Yang Ping enter the teaching room. Yang Ping said with a smile, ¡°Director Fang, the intestinal tube is soft, and the cecum is naturally soft as well.¡± ¡°Professor¡ª¡± Yang Ping was interrupted mid-sentence by Song Zimo¡¯s call at the door; he had to leave. ¡°Let¡¯s talk some other time.¡± Yang Ping stood up and left. What does it mean? The intestinal tube is soft, and the cecum is naturally soft too? Any doctor knows that the intestinal tube is definitely soft, and the cecum, being a part of the intestinal tube, is definitely soft too. Is there a problem? Director Fang scratched his head, looking at the surgery made his head hurt. ¡°Director, what did Professor Yang just say?¡± A General Surgery doctor asked. Director Fang said irritably, ¡°The intestinal tube is soft, the cecum is naturally soft too.¡± The questioning doctor was baffled; what did Director Fang¡¯s words mean? Director Fang¡¯s phone vibrated. His old classmate from Fuer wanted to come observe the surgery and learn, as it was new technology, and using new technology to perform such a complex appendectomy was exciting just to think about. ¡°The traffic is terrible, I¡¯m not even halfway there. Is parking convenient at your hospital?¡± Fuer¡¯s doctor spoke anxiously. Director Fang sighed, ¡°Don¡¯t come, turn back.¡± Fuer¡¯s doctor was bemused, ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡ª¡± Remembering his old classmate¡¯s anguished tone, the epiphany came instantly. Could the patient have died? Not even getting a chance for surgery, ah, what a regret, what a pity, Fuer¡¯s doctor thought, lamenting he hadn¡¯t persuaded the family to have the surgery earlier, potentially saving a life so easily lost. ¡°Well¡ªI¡¯ll head back then, we¡¯ll catch up another time.¡± Fuer¡¯s doctor felt bitter and distressed inside. Director Fang hung up, a cold sneer in his heart: He really doesn¡¯t know the situation here; while he¡¯s making his way, they¡¯re already starting to clean the operating room, and he¡¯s driving over to watch a surgery? He¡¯s seen nothing of the world yet. ¡°Director, what did that sentence just now mean?¡± The General Surgery doctor beside him had thought for a long time and still didn¡¯t understand. Director Fang stared at the doctor, ¡°You better ponder it slowly, learn to use your brain, expand your thinking, understand? Don¡¯t ask about everything.¡± The doctor could only nod. Liang Fatty administered the anesthesia dosage with great precision, and not long after the surgery, Liao Yiyi began to awaken from the anesthesia. The first thing she saw was Liang Fatty. ¡°The surgery is finished, there won¡¯t be any scars,¡± Liang Fatty said, wiping her tears. Liao Yiyi was somewhat dazed, but she understood Liang Fatty¡¯s words, nodding her head as she reached out her hand aimlessly and grabbed Liang Fatty¡¯s hand, feeling immediately reassured. ¡ª The Family Waiting Area. Just as Liao Yiyi¡¯s parents were anxiously and uneasily waiting, the doors of the operating room finally opened, and Liao Yiyi was wheeled out. ¡°Yiyi, how are you!¡± The anxious parents immediately rushed over, holding onto the handrails of the gurney. ¡°Everything went smoothly; the surgery was perfect. There was neither a cut nor hole made; there won¡¯t be a single scar,¡± declared Liang Fatty with pride. Liao Yiyi¡¯s parents were overjoyed by this news, feeling a sense of relief after a close call. Now, seeing their awake daughter, all they wanted to do was cry. ¡°Xiao Liang, I really thank you this time,¡± said Liao Yiyi¡¯s father, grasping Liang Fatty¡¯s hand, unable to let go for a long while. ¡°Yiyi, can you hear mom and dad talking?¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s mother asked, touching her daughter¡¯s face. Liao Yiyi nodded, but speaking was very difficult for her, having just undergone surgery. ¡°Dr. Liang, thank you so much,¡± Yu Yihan also expressed gratitude on behalf of Liao Yiyi. Everybody took Liao Yiyi to the ward, where Head Nurse Cai had already arranged a suite room in their department, personally receiving Liao Yiyi with the nurses. ¡°Dr. Liang, I heard you¡¯re a relative, so I prepared the room in advance. You can stay in this suite,¡± Head Nurse Cai said, helping to push the gurney as well. Some patients passing by in the corridor also curiously wondered who was important enough to stay in this suite room. In Comprehensive Surgery, not just anyone could stay in this suite room; money was not enough, only with Professor Yang¡¯s consent was it possible. The success of the surgery, the enthusiasm of the doctors and nurses, and the luxury of the suite room left Liao Yiyi¡¯s parents very much gratified. Chapter 836 - 836 747 Dr. Liangs Ward Rounds ?Chapter 836: Chapter 747 Dr. Liang¡¯s Ward Rounds Chapter 836: Chapter 747 Dr. Liang¡¯s Ward Rounds Liao Yiyi recovered very well after surgery; she began to pass gas the next day, and now her spirits are also very good. She had never figured out how the surgery was performed without even a tiny hole on her abdomen, so she was very curious about it. Her best friend Yu Yihan covered her mouth and snickered, ¡°Later, ask your Dr. Liang, huh?¡± ¡°What ¡®your Dr. Liang¡¯?¡± Liao Yiyi reclined on the bed, her pretty face slightly flushed. Yu Yihan laughed, ¡°Since he¡¯s not ¡®your Dr. Liang,¡¯ then I¡¯m relieved. A doctor from Huaxi Hospital, a young expert from a provincial hospital, a member of a world-class surgical team, the best anesthesiologist, a man who can call a helicopter with one phone call¡ªI¡¯ve realized, I really like him.¡± ¡°You dare¡ª¡± Liao Yiyi blurted out but immediately felt she had given herself away. Yu Yihan was covering her mouth and laughing again. Yu Yihan and Liao Yiyi were both flight attendants for Nandu Airlines, serving the same flight, and with similar personalities, they naturally became good friends. As for Liang Fatty pursuing Liao Yiyi, Yu Yihan was aware of it, but Liao Yiyi had many options, and Liang Fatty was just one of the many suitors. Lacking any stand-out qualities, he naturally didn¡¯t catch Liao Yiyi¡¯s eye. This time, suddenly coming down with appendicitis, Liao Yiyi felt very fearful and helpless, so she called Dr. Liang. Lying in the emergency department of Fuer, Liao Yiyi felt a sufficient sense of security from the moment she saw Dr. Liang, and the appearance of the helicopter was like something out of a fairy tale, fulfilling her deep-seated Prince Charming fantasy. Yu Yihan pointed at Liao Yiyi¡¯s heart, ¡°Is it because you¡¯re heartstruck?¡± ¡°Yiyi, but honestly, I think Dr. Liang is quite good. He¡¯s a real young talent. Even though he doesn¡¯t have a lot of money, being a doctor is like a golden rice bowl¡ªit¡¯s not about being filthy rich, but you¡¯ll definitely have no worries about food and clothing. Plus, he¡¯s the kind of person who is completely focused on his work; he will definitely be wholeheartedly good to you. Look how great he is¡ªa doctoral degree, a provincial expert, high status, and he knows how to make money. No time to spend it, no time to skirt around. Isn¡¯t that the best husband material? I¡¯m not saying that Zhang Zikun is unreliable. He might be rich, but it¡¯s not dependable. Money can¡¯t buy everything, and it¡¯s not yours anyway. Plus, have you realized how great it is to have a doctor as a husband? It feels so secure. If it weren¡¯t for Dr. Liang, instead of just getting a cut on the abdomen, you might¡¯ve ended up barbecued. I should find out if there are any unmarried men in his department. I¡¯ve made up my mind; my future husband has to be a doctor.¡± Yu Yihan sat by the bed, chatting with Liao Yiyi. Hearing her best friend say this, Liao Yiyi felt very sweet inside. ¡ª When getting off work in the evening, Liang Fatty thought about visiting Liao Yiyi in the ward, so he called Zhang Lin beforehand. ¡°Dr. Liang is coming for rounds!¡± Upon receiving the call, Zhang Lin immediately informed everyone. Everyone immediately put down their work, straightened their clothes, and followed Liang Fatty, much like during the head of department¡¯s rounds. In their pristine white gowns, they formed a long triangle moving towards Liao Yiyi¡¯s ward. Nearly all of the doctors, graduate students, and standardized training students were part of it, with August and Robert also mixed into the crowd. The momentum was such that patients couldn¡¯t help but feel awed, something even TV dramas couldn¡¯t replicate in classic doctor scenes. ¡°Dr. Liang is making rounds, get ready.¡± Zhang Lin led the way as the procession marched forward mightily. The door to the ward was pushed open, and Liang Fatty, followed by a dozen doctors, entered orderly, each taking their place in accordance with their rank and position. Liang Fatty stood to the right of Liao Yiyi, which is the central position for ward rounds. Zhang Lin, with the Physician in Charge, stood on the left side, with August and Robert as junior doctors also following Zhang Lin on the left, while the head of the bed was surrounded by nurses, graduate students, and standardized training students. Liao Yiyi and Yu Yihan were overwhelmed by this powerful presence, a palpable pressure descending upon them. ¡°Patient Liao Yiyi, female,¡ª¡± Li Guodong, as the physician in charge, began to report the medical history. Throughout the report, Liang Fatty¡¯s expression was very serious, nodding from time to time as a sign of affirmation to the reporter. After the medical history was reported, Liang Fatty extended his right hand, and someone respectfully handed him the medical chart with both hands. Liang Fatty carefully reviewed the medical chart, page by page, ¡°Hmm, very good. Appendicitis as complex and dangerous as this is not very common clinically. Both the surgery and the anesthesia involved great speciality. I hope everyone will be more dedicated, and consult more literature and monographs¡ª-¡± Next, Liang Fatty spoke at length, touching upon articles in international journals, occasionally interspersing his Mandarin with fluent English. Robert and August, with the humility of students, would also use English to ask Liang Fatty for clarification on certain points from time to time. Of course, Liang Fatty handled it with ease and, when a junior doctor couldn¡¯t answer a question accurately, he did not hesitate to criticize them harshly. Academic matters are to be taken seriously after all. ¡°How does it feel, not too painful, right?¡± Liang Fatty said gently. Liao Yiyi shook her head, ¡°It¡¯s okay, not so painful anymore.¡± Then Liang Fatty pressed gently on Liao Yiyi¡¯s forehead, and the nurse immediately said, ¡°She just had her temperature taken, ear temperature 36.2 degrees Celsius, no fever.¡± ¡°Good!¡± Liang Fatty nodded. ¡°Are you getting used to staying in the ward? Let the nurses know if you have any requests.¡± Liang Fatty showed great concern. Liao Yiyi nodded, feeling the meticulous care she was receiving. ¡ª At this moment, Liao Yiyi¡¯s parents were in the hallway, facing the wall with doctor profiles. ¡°Old Liao, look, this Xiao Liang is a doctor from Huaxi, see, all these surgeries were anesthetized by him.¡± ¡°Of course, on the operating table, the anesthesiologist is responsible for the patient¡¯s life safety. Half the credit for a successful surgery goes to the anesthesiologist.¡± ¡°Really? Oh my, this patient is all bent out of shape, and they can still do surgery to fix him straight. Makes my head spin just looking at it. This one, half his body gone, and they still managed to save him. They¡¯re like living Bodhisattvas¡ª¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s mother said upon seeing some of the typical surgeries showcased in the pictorial introduction. ¡°This team has won the Golden Knife Award before; that¡¯s the nation¡¯s top award for surgery,¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s father also heard that from Yu Yihan. ¡°Just now I saw two foreigners following them, didn¡¯t I?¡± ¡°They are here for advanced studies. I heard one is American and the other German.¡± ¡°Why would they come to China for training? Isn¡¯t it usually us going there?¡± ¡°This team is world-class, brings honor to the Chinese people.¡± ¡°It must be hard to get accepted as a doctor at Huaxi, right?¡± ¡°Of course, Huaxi is a top-tier medical university, very tough to get into, only the best students can.¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s parents were chatting softly in front of the publicity board. ¡°This Dr. Liang, he¡¯s Professor Yang¡¯s anesthesiologist, which is quite impressive. For major surgeries led by Professor Yang, only he is trusted to administer the anesthesia; others just can¡¯t manage it. Look, all these surgeries, the anesthesia was all done by Dr. Liang. Not long ago, there was a patient with burns all over his body, his face completely destroyed, he got a new face right here.¡± A patient, just strolling in the hallway, joined in on the curiosity. ¡°A face transplant surgery?¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s mother said in amazement. The patient nodded, ¡°Yes, that patient is still in the plastic surgery ward, hasn¡¯t been discharged yet.¡± ¡°The anesthesia for the face transplant surgery was also performed by Dr. Liang,¡± said the patient. ¡°Why does it always have to be him who provides the anesthesia?¡± Liao Yiyi¡¯s mother asked eagerly. ¡°Other doctors just aren¡¯t up to the task. Look at what kind of surgeries these are, one small mistake and you might not come back from the operating table, you need a top-notch anesthesiologist. Just yesterday, a young girl had an acute appendicitis, heard she even went into shock, probably would have been less fortunate in another hospital, but luckily they airlifted her here, that girl really was lucky.¡± The patient went on chatting with them, not knowing they were Liao Yiyi¡¯s parents. Chapter 837 - 837 748 Smash Smash it hard ?Chapter 837: Chapter 748: Smash! Smash it hard! Chapter 837: Chapter 748: Smash! Smash it hard! Liao Yiyi¡¯s surgery was very successful, and Yang Ping did not pay too much attention to this case. After all, it was just appendicitis; although he had been creative, it was still just appendicitis. Yang Ping sat in his office, organizing the papers in his hand, and found that two more could be finalized with a bit more revision, so he decided to simply add two more, aiming to submit a total of eleven papers. The three top-tier journals¡ªCell, Nature, Science, or CNS¡ªpublishing an article in them signifies that the academic level has reached the world¡¯s top. More importantly, Yang Ping needed to rely on these papers to accumulate System Points. The stem cell research being conducted in the System Laboratory had entered a critical phase, and the speed at which points were being consumed was incredibly fast. If he did not find a way to accumulate points, sooner or later he would run out, and the experiment would have to be suspended. The quality of these papers was more than sufficient for publication in CNS; he might even secure a cover article. Yang Ping had poured over the articles in CNS countless times and knew them by heart. Stem cell research was still ongoing, relentlessly; the microscopic dissection of muscle had been fully decoded, and the muscle cells cultivated from stem cells were also very mature. The current technical challenge to overcome was to use cells to build a piece of real, complete muscle. Both biological 3D printing and cultivation technology required overcoming significant challenges. The current biological 3D printing technology merely stacks cells into the shape of an organ and relies on a biological scaffold to maintain this three-dimensional form, resulting in a ¡°printed organ¡± where there is no biological connection between cells¡ªmerely simple stacking¡ªand completely lacking the attached structures it should have, such as nerve vessels. To break through the bottleneck of biological 3D printing technology, the cells cultivated must be of the same quality as human muscle cells, and secondly, it is necessary to design an entirely new biological 3D printer. This printer must be able to shape not just the form of an organ using cells but also all the microscopic structures and create biological connections between the cells. This kind of biological 3D printer represents a completely different level of technology than existing products, and the difficulty is immense. Ex vivo organ cultivation technology faces similar problems. Organs cultivated using animal parasitic techniques are also merely accumulations of cells, and the connections between cells are problematic, lacking attached structures as well. To solve this problem, one must decipher the genetic information related to these cells, understand how they differentiate automatically, how they develop and grow, and how cells self-connect to form three-dimensional spatial structures, ultimately transforming stem cells into a complex organ. Is it easier to cultivate an apple detached from an apple tree, or to artificially create an apple? Yang Ping was still unsure which of the two technological paths was superior or which would reach the shore first. Currently, Yang Ping was working on experiments in both directions. Once a wrong path is chosen on the Tech Tree, it¡¯s difficult to turn back, but Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to choose one over the other; he wanted both technological paths, lighting up both branches of the Tech Tree. When the time came, he would choose whichever grew better. Designing a biological 3D printer was clearly his weak spot, but it wasn¡¯t unfeasible; at least any equipment in the System Laboratory could be purchased with points and obtained instantly, and then he could carry out the ultimate dissection and research. The library in the system also had all relevant books, providing the possibility of designing a new generation of biological 3D printers. Cultivating organs ex vivo, a process that does not involve non-biological technology, was Yang Ping¡¯s strength, but deciphering genetic coding was a very difficult task. Deciphering is not just knowing what gene fragments there are, but also understanding their functions and how they¡¯re expressed. Yang Ping checked the points in the System Space; they had dropped to just over eight million. Continuing the experiment this way would be difficult, and it wouldn¡¯t last much longer. To gain points, Yang Ping had no choice but to tirelessly publish papers. The rules of the system are as follows: earn points based on actions in the real world, such as performing surgeries, improving surgical techniques, inventing new techniques, creating new theories¡ª And following this order, performing surgeries yielded the fewest points, while creating new theories offered the most. The reason is simple: no matter how well you perform an existing technique, its effectiveness has a ceiling; but if you can invent a new technique to address the shortcomings of the current one, the surgical effect will undoubtedly improve significantly. For example, in the treatment of the cranial base and upper cervical spine, previously, no matter how highly skilled the doctors were, it was difficult to achieve good results. Either the patient died or got paralyzed, and only a few successful cases were enough to classify the surgeon as top. Later, thanks to the doctors¡¯ efforts and the continuous improvement of surgical techniques, this type of surgery has become very mature. Basically, there are no longer instances of death or paralysis. This is the huge benefit that innovation brings to humanity. Even the best horse can¡¯t match the speed of an airplane. Even the best vision can¡¯t compare to radar detection. This is why the system rewards innovation. The system also believes that if Yang Ping has innovative achievements, these must be recognized by the rules of reality. If you don¡¯t publish a paper or if the journal you publish in is of low prestige, the points you receive will be low. If you publish in a top-tier journal and gain global recognition, the points will be very high. To earn a substantial number of points and push his research topics forward, the fastest way for Yang Ping is to bomb these top journals with his papers. This time he decided to smash 11 papers on them, to burst out a large number of points, just like farming gold coins in a video game. No, 12 papers. As Yang Ping thought, he took out another manuscript from his drawer. This manuscript needed significant revisions, and he decided to do a good job on it. Smash! Smash them hard! For the points, Yang Ping had no choice but to hit CNS, since they are the world¡¯s top and have the most gold coins. ¡ª Liang Fatty knocked on the door and entered Yang Ping¡¯s office. Yang Ping asked him what¡¯s the matter. Fatty closed the door and said with difficulty, ¡°Professor, I need a favor. Don¡¯t charge Liao Yiyi for the emergency helicopter service; I¡¯ll cover that expense. Is that okay?¡± ¡°Just this?¡± Yang Ping asked Fatty. Liang Fatty hesitated again, ¡°Professor, one more favor, could you talk to them and get a discounted price?¡± After all, this expense would be tens of thousands, and for a penny-pincher like Liang Fatty, it was like cutting his own flesh. ¡°Anything else?¡± Yang Ping asked. Liang Fatty thought for a moment. ¡°That¡¯s all.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to pay for it; the helicopter service is free for you this time. Dr. Liang has that much influence. No need to do ward rounds in the next few days; I won¡¯t be doing them. Cover for me and visit Liao Yiyi more often,¡± Yang Ping said with a smile. Free? How could that be? The emergency helicopter belonged to the hospital, not personally to Professor Yang. How could it be free just like that? Liang Fatty was completely baffled. Yang Ping explained, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Boss Huang has already paid the fee for you. As I said, Dr. Liang has that much influence. Go do your rounds now. We, as doctors, must have a sense of responsibility¡ªcheck on the patients more often throughout the day, communicate more with them, and regard them as family, understand?¡± Liang Fatty immediately understood, quickly left the office, and said, ¡°Thank you, Professor, thank you!¡± Chapter 838 - 838 749 Madly in Love with CNS ?Chapter 838: Chapter 749 Madly in Love with CNS Chapter 838: Chapter 749 Madly in Love with CNS Yang Ping¡¯s paper was successfully published in the journal Science, and Dean Xia started to get busy again. As the dean, he needed to be a facilitator for talent, and being a facilitator wasn¡¯t just about shouting slogans, it required action. He ran around to Nandu Medical University, to the Provincial Hall, and also to various old classmates¡¯ homes. These few days had been quite fruitful, with Yang Ping¡¯s doctorate graduation advanced, the professional titles of chief physician and professor essentially confirmed, just waiting for the procedures to be completed. The position of doctoral supervisor was also almost certainly within reach, after all, with so many top medical journal papers, plus this super-weighty paper in Science, becoming a doctoral supervisor for a clinical doctor was assured. However, applying for the National Outstanding Young Talent Fund was not so easy, with only 300 slots available nationwide each year, covering 67 subdivided scientific categories and 8 major categories, resulting in only about 30-40 slots for medicine. The Outstanding Youth (Outstanding Young Talent) is second only to the academicians of the Two Academies in terms of high-end talent within the country, serving as an authoritative measure of the innovative potential and academic level of young scholars, and the competition is intense¡ªnearly all academicians under the age of 50 have once received support from it, saying it¡¯s a step towards becoming an academician is not an exaggeration. This year, Nandu Medical University had only three nomination spots, two of which had already been decided upon. These two individuals were young scholars who had studied abroad in Europe and America and had been promised a recommendation for the National Outstanding Young Talent during their introduction, so these two spots were not subject for debate. With one spot remaining, Yang Ping had to compete with others, his competitor also a talented young prodigy, a mere 38 years old, already with two CNS papers published. This young talent was also the son-in-law of a vice principal at Nandu Medical University, so Principal Ruo found it very difficult. In the end, only one of them could be recommended. Ultimately, whom to choose? If eligibility criteria were met, it would have to be decided by a vote at a meeting. The running around these past few days also left Dean Xia feeling somewhat tired, his energy was not what it used to be as his age caught up to him. For example, playing basketball, in previous years, the ¡°leaders¡¯ team¡± led by Dean Xia had always been lively and could compete with young people, but this year he was clearly not up to the task, not even managing to win a trophy. Dean Xia sat alone in his office, sipping tea and pacing back and forth, when Director Han knocked on the door, and he eagerly welcomed Director Han inside. As they sat down, Dean Xia broadly outlined his efforts of the past few days, with joys and concerns alike. His current biggest worry was about the Outstanding Youth. In fact, it wasn¡¯t that he had to apply this year; if necessary, a delay of a year or two would be acceptable, but Dean Xia was determined not to give up the effort. He had decided that sooner was better than later; now that the criteria were met, why postpone? ¡°Everything else is basically settled. The Outstanding Youth is difficult to secure. Nandu Medical University has only one slot left, and it¡¯s probably going to be a battle between two, with Xiao Yang¡¯s competitor being Vice Principal Ding¡¯s son-in-law Guan Ruyan. This young man is truly remarkable; having returned from studying in Germany, he has published two CNS papers, spearheaded five national research projects, and published 32 SCI papers,¡± Dean Xia said with a worried look. Director Han had heard of this young man too, and on paper, his academic achievements far surpassed Yang Ping, who had only one national-level project and other projects which could only be considered self-funded. ¡°Is there a way to apply apart from Nandu Medical University, from our hospital as an independent entity?¡± Director Han suggested. Since an institution has only three slots, competing for this one would clearly not give Yang Ping the upper hand. His statistics were visibly less impressive than the young man¡¯s, but if imone could bypass Nandu Medical University and apply through Sanbo Hospital as an independent entity, then there would be no need to vie for the nomination spot. Dean Xia shook his head: ¡°We have to go this route; we still don¡¯t have the clout to recommend independently. We can only join the Nandu system as a whole to compete.¡± So, they had no choice but to vie for this spot. The National Science Foundation pays great attention to the research foundation and accumulation of applicants¡ªwhat constitutes research foundation, how many past topics you had and their respective levels. In this respect, Yang Ping was clearly at a disadvantage. However, from another angle, achieving such accomplishments before the age of thirty was quite extraordinary. ¡°Have you visited Old Su? What was his opinion?¡± Director Han asked with concern. Dean Xia replied, ¡°I¡¯ve already met with Old Su. He shares my sentiment that earlier is better, and he has a very firm stance. He¡¯s determined to secure this slot. Although Yang¡¯s quantitative stats may fall short of Guan Ruyan¡¯s, their quality far exceeds his. The most recent paper was just published, and although the citation count is still unknown, the citation figures for the previous papers were quite high.¡± In academic competition, achievements are key. But, when achievements are comparable, connections become incredibly important. In the academic jianghu, where there are people, there are power dynamics¡ªit¡¯s an objective reality. Vice Principal Ding Decheng of Nandu Medical University¡ªif it comes down to voting¡ªprofessors who have good relations with him and are eligible to vote would undoubtedly choose Guan Ruyan, which is a natural human response. Similarly, professors who have a good personal relationship with Professor Su would vote for Yang Ping. And this is just for securing the nomination spot. Connections are also incredibly important after receiving a nomination. Once nominated, one must go through preliminary review, re-examination, committee review, and decision-making stages. The decisive committee review consists of a vote by expert judges, who include former Outstanding Youth recipients, academicians, and others. For instance, Professor Su, as a newly elected academician, could be invited to serve as a judge. While relatives or judges from one¡¯s own institution must abstain, he has his own connections. Chapter 839 - 839 749 Madly in Love with CNS_2 ?Chapter 839: Chapter 749 Madly in Love with CNS_2 Chapter 839: Chapter 749 Madly in Love with CNS_2 This object requires not just hard power, but also soft power. ¡ª Yang Ping now only cares about his research topic, and doesn¡¯t pay attention to anything else. Outstanding Young Talent, doctoral advisor, full professor, chief physician¡ªhe doesn¡¯t care about any of it; currently, the only thing on his mind is his research topic. The architecture between cells, evolving from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, represents the greatest challenge of the current topic, and Yang Ping must solve this problem, so he is constantly thinking about it. In order to solve this problem, one needs not only knowledge of biology but also physics and chemistry, because guiding the cells into a three-dimensional structure is incredibly complex. Artificial replication of a complete tissue or organ is a structure coordinated by the interaction between cells and substrates, as well as between cells themselves. How can a body develop from a fertilized egg, with cells differentiating in preset directions and then constructing set structures? These cells don¡¯t have eyes, yet the cells that make up blood vessels can automatically construct tubular blood vessels, those that make up peripheral nerves can automatically create cord-like nerves, and those that make up the liver can automatically build a liver. Who exactly is guiding them, and how? The points in the system space are like battery power, and while it still has charge, Yang Ping frantically looks through various materials, hoping to integrate this knowledge and unravel the mysteries. Currently, there are several methods for culturing or printing organs outside the body: hydrogels, solid scaffolds, magnetic levitation, and the carriers created by these methods for cell three-structure are very uneven, with inconsistent pore sizes, making it difficult to understand how cells interact with the structure. Even when given identical external conditions like energy and temperature, there are many microscopic states that cannot be replicated. Some scientists have created microenvironments identical to those in the human body to observe the state of the cells inside, yielding more observations. Yang Ping has done this very well. He can completely replicate a microenvironment identical to the human body, but still hasn¡¯t achieved the desired three-dimensional structure. Yang Ping has pioneered a research approach of his own, creating three experimental models using normal stem cells, teratoma cells, and tumor cells. In the human body, normal stem cells have the full capability to construct space, which is why a fertilized egg can develop into a complete human body. Teratomas have partial spatial construction abilities¡ªfor instance, they can form incomplete tissues like hair, bone, skin, or nerve tissues. On the other hand, tumor cells can be said to completely lack the ability to construct space; they can only grow into spherical shapes or shapes that adapt to the surrounding spatial environment, which is a purposeless growth mode without any capability for spatial construction. In the vast system laboratory, countless flexible robotic arms help with various physical tasks. And the system screens, functioning like a giant computer, help collect and process various laboratory data, which can then be retrieved on the screens at any time. However, no physical objects can be taken out of the system space, and all information must rely on memory to be brought out. This has developed Yang Ping¡¯s extraordinary memory. Moreover, each time Yang Ping brings out some information, his memory enhances slightly. All in all, his memory is now much stronger than before, and he can recall entire books with almost no errors, not to mention entire papers. After countless entries and exits in the system, Yang Ping has forged a strong psychological endurance. If Robinson could live for 28 years on a deserted island, he can stay in the space for a long time, until the experiments yield results. But the points don¡¯t allow that. Points are the one shortcoming of this system. Currently, the points continue to decline and are now just over a million, which is insufficient to sustain the experiment, forcing Yang Ping to suspend his research temporarily. The experiment is suspended at the final crucial stage; now, he is just waiting for a dozen papers to hit the jackpot with points, then he¡¯ll give one more push and continue the experiments. The real-world experiments have already started to unfold in an orderly manner according to Yang Ping¡¯s plan. At Nandu University¡¯s Stem Cell Laboratory, Lin Lan has fully replicated the outcomes of the system laboratory, and stem cell cultivation has become very mature, with the differentiation induction of various cells like skin cells, muscle cells, nerve cells, and blood vessels cells being very advanced. This mentor under 30 was indeed a genius. With Yang Ping¡¯s experimental blueprint, she quickly mastered the key points and achieved the experimental goal. What puzzled this genius was why Yang Ping, a surgeon, possessed god-like foresight in scientific research. The entire experiment took no detours and was completely direct. In the field of scientific research, such a scenario is very rare, unless one is particularly lucky. Most experiments involve many detours and failures before succeeding. Nandu University¡¯s Digital Medical Laboratory, using a supercomputer, constructed an anatomical model, and the microscopic dissection of muscle had been fully delineated, down to the cellular level, where the biological connections between cells were also clearly defined. ¡ª To save time, Yang Ping generally completed the work of writing and revising papers in the system space as well. He wouldn¡¯t do in real space what could be completed in the system space, where the most valuable resource was points and the least valuable was time. Only after he was satisfied with all 12 papers did he leave the space, where everything at that moment froze until he reentered, picking up from that frozen moment. Relying on memory, Yang Ping edited the papers on the computer, reproducing the versions he had modified in his mind. Having finished revising the papers, Yang Ping called Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang into his office and handed over the 12 papers for them to check, finally checking for any typographical errors and the like. More eyes on the task made it easier to spot subtle errors. When Song Zimo saw the 12 papers, he was extremely surprised. How could one complete the writing and revision of papers in such a short time? He spent every day performing surgeries with Yang Ping, and even if he didn¡¯t sleep or eat at night, there was limited time. It just couldn¡¯t be this fast. It could only be said that for Yang Ping, writing these papers was like writing a short essay. Song Zimo divided the papers into two sets, kept one for himself, and handed the other to Xu Zhiliang to start checking on site for any typographical errors, citation mistakes, etc. ¡°Are you planning to send them all out at once? All to CNS?¡± Song Zimo asked, puzzled. ¡°If we¡¯re not sending them out, what are we holding onto them for? Hurry up and check several more times, and if there are no issues, send them all out at once,¡± Yang Ping urged. All 12 papers at once? Xu Zhiliang couldn¡¯t help but shiver at the thought. As a doctor, he was well-acquainted with medical journals, and CNS was a dream from start to finish. No one in the history of the three top journals had ever been so bold, not even Manstein. It was possible for a top institution to burst a few papers out at once, but no one had heard of a single person submitting 12 papers at one time. Even the nine papers by the young genius Cao Yuan were not submitted all at once; they were the accumulation of several years. ¡°Send¡ªall¡ªout at once?¡± Xu Zhiliang also dared not be certain. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Send them all out at once.¡± They were definitely all going out, to be evenly distributed across the three major CNS journals. Wasn¡¯t this just showing off? Wasn¡¯t this a deliberate disdain for the authority of the top journals? Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang checked each word carefully, because whether it was the topic or the writing of the paper, they were the main participants, so they checked quickly and found no issues. ¡°If there are no issues, let¡¯s send them out,¡± Yang Ping pointed to his computer. Song Zimo scanned through the 12 articles one more time, sending each to the corresponding journal submission email. 12 papers, never before had there been such a batch submission, but indeed, it felt exhilarating to submit this way. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang understood that whether it was the value of the scientific findings or the quality of the writing, they held absolute strength to impact CNS. Only, they didn¡¯t understand when the professor had fallen for CNS so madly, using such an almost barbaric method of submission. This clearly didn¡¯t align with the professor¡¯s usual rational and calm demeanor. Would those CNS journal editors and top dogs be scared off by such barbarism? Chapter 840 - 840 750 Hemisphere Brain ?Chapter 840: Chapter 750: Hemisphere Brain Chapter 840: Chapter 750: Hemisphere Brain Liao Yiyi recovered very well; there was no incision on her body, and the surgery truly left no scars, which made her naturally very happy. During her hospital stay, the nutrition meals arranged by Liang Fatty were different every meal and suited Liao Yiyi¡¯s taste perfectly. The thing girls fear most is pain. Although it was a minimally invasive surgery without even a tiny external cut, there was still a small stitched incision inside the appendix, which was somewhat uncomfortable. Anesthesiologists are best at pain management, and Liang Fatty personally devised a pain relief plan, ensuring that Liao Yiyi felt no pain throughout the entire post-operative period. During these days, Liang Fatty also arranged for Liao Yiyi¡¯s parents to undergo a full-body health check-up, accompanying them throughout the process without the need for queuing, and the doctors and nurses were warm and polite. It¡¯s inevitable for some issues to emerge during a middle-aged health examination, such as high blood pressure or high blood sugar. These were issues they had encountered in previous check-ups, where they¡¯d been hastily prescribed medication. They wanted to ask the doctors more questions, but the doctors would only give brief explanations due to their busy schedules, not having the time for lengthy discussions with the patients. This time was different; Liang Fatty arranged for the best corresponding internal medicine professors from Sanbo Hospital to personally examine them and provide optimal advice. The internal medicine professors spent a whole hour explaining the abnormalities found in the check-ups to the couple. Hearing the patient explanations from the doctors, the couple felt especially reassured. Naturally, their impression of Liang Fatty became very positive¡ªthey even felt that without a doctor son-in-law like him, they wouldn¡¯t feel secure in the future. There was no need to mention Liao Yiyi; after this incident, Liang Fatty¡¯s heroic image was indelibly etched in her heart. Now, Liao Yiyi felt that among her many suitors, no one could compare to Liang Fatty. He was highly educated, a doctor, and an outstanding expert. All other pursuers immediately seemed lackluster in comparison. For example, Zhang Zikun became just a vulgar, boorish rich second generation with no substance. Compared to Dr. Liang, he appeared ignorant and unmotivated, a decadent youth with no dreams or aspirations. Her young colleagues from Nandu Airlines also seemed insignificant in front of Liang Fatty. When her life was in danger, when she needed help the most, not one of them could offer assistance. But Liang Fatty was different. He was there just in time, composed and confident. Liao Yiyi¡¯s deep memory was clear on how Liang Fatty took her hand to comfort her, giving her a strong sense of security; how he received special care from Fuer; and how the helicopter appeared at the most critical moment. Liang Fatty was the most important person in Liao Yiyi¡¯s life, the Prince Charming of her fairytale dreams. Liang Fatty sat by the bed, peeling an apple, then used a fruit knife to cut the apple into very small pieces. ¡°The intestinal motility might not have fully recovered after the surgery, so you need to eat slowly and chew well, no rush,¡± Liang Fatty said as he handed the small pieces of apple to Liao Yiyi. Her best friend Yu Yihan left the ward tactfully, giving them space to be alone. After eating a few pieces of apple, Liao Yiyi said, ¡°I have no scars on my body. How was the surgery done? How could you remove the appendix and take it out?¡± Liang Fatty didn¡¯t know how to answer: ¡°Didn¡¯t Yu Yihan tell you?¡± ¡°She said she was waiting outside and didn¡¯t see the surgery. She also doesn¡¯t know. She said you were involved in the surgery the whole time, so I should ask you,¡± said Liao Yiyi earnestly. Liang Fatty was somewhat troubled. How was the surgery done? How could he describe it? After thinking for a moment, he said, ¡°This question is a bit complicated. How about this, after you are discharged, I¡¯ll explain it to you slowly.¡± ¡°Then you must tell me.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll definitely tell you in the future.¡± ¡ª Yang Ping had submitted 12 articles, and all that was left was to wait for news. The surgeries he performed during this time all resulted in good recoveries for the patients. Teacher Sun from Plastic Surgery had always been working on facial muscle reanimation in Plastic Surgery. Facial muscle reanimation is the pinnacle of Plastic Surgery technique, involving not only training the facial muscles but also multiple subtle plastic surgeries, such as partial release or tightening of the facial muscles. These treatments refined the facial muscles from rough to fine, improving them bit by bit, requiring extraordinary patience and skill. Director Lan of Plastic Surgery learned a lot following Ivan. Many of the things were completely new to Director Lan. High school student Lu Jiangbei had her muscle strength recover to level five after surgery and didn¡¯t experience any infections. She would soon complete the remaining surgeries, such as the one for her pelvic fracture. The construction supervisor Wang Dapeng, who underwent a fecal transplant at the Department of Gastroenterology, had already finished his treatment. However, there were small hiccups during the process¡ªhis wife¡¯s fecal sample was not suitable, and in the end, they had to use a volunteer student¡¯s fecal sample. Of course, he had always refused the distasteful fecal transplant, but he readily accepted a heterologous intestinal contents and mixed microbial flora transplant, and he would tell everyone that he used an internationally advanced method to cure his bizarre illness. Now, the Comprehensive Surgery Department had completely stepped out of the shadow of Orthopedics. The department admitted inpatients of various specialties, like brain tumors, scoliosis, congenital heart defects, etc. This department had fully become an unusual existence. Many other hospitals knew about the existence of such a department at Sanbo Hospital, so if they had patients they couldn¡¯t solve, they would send them to Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Comprehensive Surgery Department to try their luck. The busiest place was the outpatient clinic on the first floor of the Comprehensive Surgery Department. Previously, only Professor Zhang Zongshun saw patients there, but since Professor Zhang specialized in Orthopedics, he clearly couldn¡¯t handle the variety of outpatient cases. Dean Xia transferred all the old surgical experts from the expert team to the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s outpatient clinic. These formidable old experts had been among the top in the nation. After retiring, they were hired by Sanbo Hospital to help establish academic teams. The expert team at Sanbo was also formed in this way. To facilitate the management of the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s outpatient services, Professor Zhang Zongshun was honorably promoted to director of the department, leading a group of senior experts as he embarked on the second career of his life. Of course, the century battle between Zhang Zongshun and Su Butong also made these senior experts quite nervous. They were Professor Zhang¡¯s support team, always surrounding him during club trainings, cheering him on, passing him water, and wiping his sweat. How could Sanbo ever lose to Fuer? ¡ª The activity in Yang Ping¡¯s international WeChat group had picked up again, as they were discussing cases. Everyone¡¯s Chinese proficiency had improved very quickly, even Woodhead, who was considered a lost cause, had managed to pass the Chinese Level 4. It¡¯s said that to celebrate, he sent continuous red packets in the group for an entire day and night, resulting in WeChat¡¯s official platform flagging it as suspicious activity and freezing the funds in his Wallet, prohibiting the sending of red packets and transfers. Of course, Woodhead made a direct call across the ocean, and lodged a complaint in fluent Chinese with the customer service, but whether the ban has been lifted yet is unknown. [Is Professor very busy lately?] Director John Ansen of the Mayo Clinic Department of Neurosurgery was the first to break the ice. [Always busy.] Robert, as the Professor¡¯s close aide, was always ready to provide intel. [Recently encountered a bizarre case that I have no idea how to approach.] John Ansen introduced the point at hand. [How bizarre?] August asked. Although everyone had different specialties, medicine is interconnected, and they were all curious about weird cases, a curiosity shared by all doctors. John Ansen, not one for many words, went straight to posting pictures. Several head CT images were uploaded into the WeChat group with the ease of a seasoned WeChat user. The group was ready for some casual chatter, but the sight of the CT images immediately silenced them. It was a CT image showing only half a cerebral hemisphere; the left side of the cranial cavity was empty, a dark void, with only the right brain present. [Is he alive?] [Indistinguishable from a normal person, if not for a head CT, you would never believe he only has one cerebral hemisphere.] [Has he never had a head CT before, I mean in the past?] [This is his first head CT in his life, he detests the thing.] [Why the CT this time?] [Unfortunately, he has developed an intracranial tumor, presenting symptoms of increased intracranial pressure.] [Hmm, I see the mass in the images, does it require surgery?] [Half a cerebral hemisphere is completely unfamiliar territory to me in terms of anatomy, and the tumor is likely situated at the midbrain of the hemisphere. Hence, I can only consult with the Professor here in the group.] Professor had become an honorary title for Yang Ping among them, and they had established an unwritten rule: in front of Yang Ping, none of them could claim the title of Professor¡ªit was exclusively reserved for Yang Ping when they addressed him. [Let me see¡ª] [Any history of previous surgeries or trauma?] [None!] The Professor finally responded. Then, a complete medical history revealing the patient¡¯s personal information began to appear in the group. Yang Ping zoomed in on the CT images on his phone. The skull was normal, with no history of surgeries or trauma, unlike those patients who had lost half of their brain due to surgery or trauma. This was a case of congenital malformation, which meant that the anatomical structures were abnormal, and the neural networks completely different. Surgery on such a patient would require a thorough understanding of the anatomy and functional mapping of the half brain; otherwise, the surgery would likely damage vital structures, leading to death or severe disability, which was also why John Ansen hesitated to operate. [He¡¯s actually alive? Just like a normal person? Unbelievable.] [I too find it, unbelievable.] Chapter 841 - 841 751 Bride Price and Dowry ?Chapter 841: Chapter 751: Bride Price and Dowry Chapter 841: Chapter 751: Bride Price and Dowry John Ansen¡¯s case exploded in the group, a person with only half a brain actually lived just fine. Such a hemispheric brain was a rarity to others, but not to John Ansen. Though he had never seen a person with a congenitally hemispheric brain, he had seen people who had undergone surgery to remove half of their brain. There is a type of surgery called hemispherectomy, which is suitable for children with intractable epilepsy. By surgically removing all or part of the diseased hemisphere, while typically preserving the basal ganglia and thalamus, this disconnects the diseased hemisphere from the healthy one. This can cure intractable epilepsy and relieve the patient¡¯s suffering. Why would patients require such a brutal and crude surgical method to solve the problem of intractable epilepsy in children? Because severe intractable epilepsy in children can lead to hundreds of seizures a day, that¡¯s about every few minutes, with sudden falls, loss of consciousness, convulsions, and frothing at the mouth during each episode. No one can endure such high-frequency attacks, so for these patients, even at the risk of their lives, their families are willing to opt for surgery. Since its invention in the 1950s, this type of surgery has saved a large number of children with intractable epilepsy. Although the classic hemispherectomy is no longer practiced in many hospitals, the revised version is still an effective method for treating intractable epilepsy. The modified surgery not only improves the outcomes but also avoids serious complications. John Ansen had conducted extensive research on the postoperative condition of these patients. He selected 10 patients who were almost indistinguishable from normal people and conducted MRI scans on their brains. He discovered that the remaining half of the brain was capable of self-adaptive reconstruction, forming new and abnormally strong connections between different functional areas, with functional regions taking on multiple roles. These people, with only half a brain, relied solely on one hemisphere to achieve the basic functions of a complete brain, thus ensuring their normal living capabilities, including language, vision, motion, emotions, and cognitive functions of the brain. It was like an orchestra, where if half of its members were gone, the remaining half, after training, could still perform the original music by taking on multiple roles, such as a horn player also having to drum. These patients who lived well told John Ansen that, like muscles, the brain is an organ that can be reshaped. Muscles can become stronger through exercise; similarly, the brain can also improve its functions through exercise. Yang Ping imported the CT images from the group into the computer and then studied them on a specialized electronic screen. The CT image of the hemispheric brain was displayed on the screen, and Yang Ping analyzed it carefully. This kind of congenitally hemispheric brain was different from one formed later in life. A hemispheric brain formed later was originally a complete and normal brain with just the other half removed, so at least anatomically, it was known, and functionally, it was also easier to study. However, with this congenital hemispheric brain, theoretically, its structure and functional anatomy were unknown and could not be assumed based on just one half of a normal brain, which was the difficulty of the surgery. By this time, Xiao Su had finished work and came to the office to find Yang Ping. She also leaned over to look at the images. ¡°Half a brain?¡± She also had never seen such an unusual case. ¡°Move aside a bit, I want to sit closer so that the baby can also see this case, with only half a brain.¡± Xiao Su leaned over, squeezing past Yang Ping. She said seriously, ¡°Tell the baby about this case; you need to be serious and solemn, no laughing allowed.¡± It was truly starting from the cradle, or rather, from the baby in the womb. Yang Ping had no choice but to face the screen and begin to explain the case in an earnest manner. After he finished, Xiao Su nodded, satisfied. ¡°Mom said there are a lot of free-range eggs and asked brother-in-law to bring some for me to eat,¡± Xiao Su said. Yang Ping¡¯s mother was overjoyed to hear that her daughter-in-law was pregnant; she not only started storing home-raised eggs but also expanded the breeding varieties and numbers actively. Yang Ping¡¯s father even started a large vegetable garden, claiming to grow organic vegetables. The two of them planned to continuously provide healthy vegetables and chicken, duck, and fish for their daughter-in-law during her pregnancy. ¡°Did you just call mom and dad?¡± Yang Ping felt that Xiao Su¡¯s frequency of calling home was even higher than his, and each time she seemed to enjoy the conversations with his mother immensely. Xiao Su chuckled, ¡°I call them every now and then. They set up a large vegetable garden, saying that they want to provide us with organic vegetables, which is good. It makes the elders happy to do what they like.¡± ¡°I will also call them later to chat,¡± Yang Ping felt it had been quite a while since he last called. ¡°What do you mean ¡®later¡¯? You have time now, call now,¡± Xiao Su insisted, urging Yang Ping. All right, now it is. Yang Ping dialed his mother¡¯s number, and a booming voice came through, ¡°Pingping, are you off work yet?¡± ¡°Still in the office?¡± ¡°Where¡¯s Xiao Su? Aren¡¯t you with her? Whenever you¡¯re free you should stay by her side, you hear? Take on more household chores, don¡¯t let Xiao Su do them. If you dare to be a male chauvinist, not taking good care of Xiao Su, I¡¯ll deal with you when I get back.¡± Yang Ping frowned while Xiao Su laughed beside him. His mother rattled off a whole list of things like a machine gun. ¡°Your dad says he misses you, and he wants you guys to come home for the New Year.¡± ¡°Why are you saying I miss him? It¡¯s you who always misses¡ª,¡± Yang Ping¡¯s father¡¯s voice came through the phone. There was still plenty of time until the New Year, but they needed to find time to take Xiao Su for a visit. ¡°I asked your brother-in-law to bring some things for you. He is going to Nandu Provincial City for work. Nothing special, just some vegetables and fruits your dad grew and a few free-range eggs. He says these organic vegetables are not available in the city, they are safe and nutritious.¡± ¡°Why is it always me who said¨C¡± ¡°Don¡¯t interrupt.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s sister and brother-in-law were both rural primary school teachers, and her brother-in-law was young and promising, even serving as a vice principal. ¡°Don¡¯t bring too much.¡± ¡°There¡¯s not much, just some greens, chili peppers, loofah, eggplants, beans, and a few watermelons¡ª¡± ¡°You should come over and play for a few days too. Where¡¯s your sister? Isn¡¯t she coming?¡± ¡°We won¡¯t be coming. You¡¯re so busy with work.¡± ¡°The house is busy too. Recently, there have been especially many patients; I can¡¯t leave.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s father interjected. ¡°When I¡¯m talking to my son, don¡¯t keep interrupting. Can¡¯t you wait and speak later?¡± ¡°Your brother-in-law is going on this trip with his school colleagues for official business. They have a car and it¡¯s on the way, so he¡¯s bringing you some stuff.¡± This time, Yang Ping¡¯s brother-in-law came to Nandu Provincial City with the principal to find successful businessmen who originated from their hometown and raise funds to improve the school¡¯s teaching conditions. ¡°Pingping, the vegetables and eggs your brother-in-law brought, some are in gift boxes. Those are for your in-laws. Since you live close to them, you should visit often, keep them company. If there are any physical chores at the elderly¡¯s house, you must help out. Be filial and polite, got it? Are you listening? Remember it.¡± Yang Ping could only respond with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m listening, taking notes in a notebook. You¡¯re packaging vegetables and eggs in gift boxes?¡± ¡°Yes, I had your brother-in-law go to a supermarket in the city to buy special boxes. City folks are particular, and we need to be too.¡± ¡°And¡ª¡± Mom¡¯s voice suddenly jammed like a machine gun¡¯s. ¡°Fine, your turn to say something since you keep interrupting.¡± Dad finally got his chance, ¡°I¡¯ll just say a few words. You have to take care of your health outside. Health is the capital of revolution; without good health, you can¡¯t do anything. Also, society has become colorful in this economic era, but as doctors, we must have a conscience. No matter where we are, we need to be honest and can¡¯t do heartless things. It¡¯s okay to earn less money; it won¡¯t starve us. I¡¯m not well-educated, and my words may sound harsh and repetitive, but don¡¯t take it to heart.¡± ¡°You read a lot of books. How can you say you¡¯re uneducated?¡± ¡°What¡¯s my little education in front of a Doctor?¡± Their conversation carried over the phone. After hanging up, Yang Ping felt a warm sensation in his heart. Beside him, Xiao Su was also smiling, her dimples showing. ¡ª The application for the Outstanding Young Talent award had already started to unfold, and for the final spot, there could only be one choice between two. Regardless of whether it was Dean Xia from Sanbo or Vice Chancellor Ding Decheng from Nandu Medical University, neither was willing to step back, which meant Yang Ping and Guan Ruyan had to compete for this one position. Principal Ruo was the current principal of Nandu Medical University, but he would be retiring in two years. The most likely candidate for succession was this same Principal Ding, who was also a hot contender for academician status; at that time, he and Su Qingyun were considered the most likely from the Nandu system to become academicians. However, Su Qingyun was successfully elected academician, whereas Ding Decheng was not, something that he had always remembered sourly, believing that Principal Ruo had directed resources towards Su Qingyun, causing his own failure. Therefore, for this son-in-law¡¯s application for Outstanding Young Talent, he was determined to win, especially since the son-in-law¡¯s credentials were outstanding, the pride of the entire Nandu system. Principal Ding had only one daughter, and this son-in-law was also his student, so he treated him like his own son. Having already fallen a step behind Su Qingyun, there was no way he would allow his son-in-law to lose to Yang Ping. Sometimes, life is like a chess game, one step ahead leads to steps ahead; one step behind leads to steps behind. ¡ª Professor Su was sitting in the study looking through materials; Mrs. Su was by his side. ¡°Old Su, now that Xiao Yang has graduated early with his doctorate and has also published a paper in ¡®Science¡¯, is there a good chance for Outstanding Young Talent?¡± In his heart, Professor Su had already planned to help Yang Ping apply for the Outstanding Young Talent award. Logically, with the value of Yang Ping¡¯s current paper, securing the award shouldn¡¯t be a problem, but unfortunately, there was only one spot available this time, and they had to compete with a very strong opponent. Guan Ruyan had returned from studying in Germany, had already published two papers in CNS, and had 32 SCI papers. He had led five national-level scientific research projects¡ªhis achievements dazzling. Seeing that Professor Su did not speak, Mrs. Su said, ¡°Old Su, this ¡®Science¡¯ paper is Xiao Yang¡¯s dowry. We should also present a decent trousseau.¡± Professor Su nodded slightly and said with humor, ¡°With such a substantial dowry, our trousseau can¡¯t be shabby.¡± Comparing the two young men, Yang Ping excelled in academic quality, while Guan Ruyan had a clear massive advantage in quantity. What to do about this? People always have their biases, and Professor Su thought to himself: Yang Ping is so gifted and so diligent. As an elder, not to mention using my resources to help him, I must at least protect him; he absolutely should not get buried in obscurity. Now, with this spot available, should he compete for it or not? Definitely compete! Yang Ping met the criteria, so why shouldn¡¯t he compete? Why should he give way to others? It made no sense. PS: Regarding the last chapter¡ª¡±Hemisphere of the Brain¡±, I made some amendments today because I might have sent the wrong draft last night, not the final version. When you have time, you may want to go back and reread it. Sorry for that! Thank you! Chapter 842 - 842 752 The Strongest Doctor on Earth ?Chapter 842: Chapter 752: The Strongest Doctor on Earth Chapter 842: Chapter 752: The Strongest Doctor on Earth Dr. Ivan was about to return to his country. The purpose of Dr. Ivan¡¯s visit to China was to invite Yang Ping to participate in a surgery. He thought he would only need a few days and then he could go back, but he ended up staying in China for much longer than expected, and his visa was soon to expire, so he was preparing to return to New Zealand. At that time, Dr. Ivan believed that Yang Ping was only skilled in orthopedic surgery. After coming to China, he learned that Yang Ping was a rare all-rounder surgeon. In the whole world, Ivan had only seen one other all-rounder surgeon before, and that was Manstein from Germany. The omnipotent Manstein was like a godlike figure. Ivan never expected to find a second god in this world. His trip to China also yielded an unexpected gain: Skin Expansion Technology. He had previously used Manstein¡¯s Skin Expansion Technology, which could be applied in Plastic Surgery, but it hardly met Ivan¡¯s standards, as Manstein¡¯s skin differed significantly in texture and color. During his time at Sanbo Hospital, Dr. Ivan reached an agreement with Tang Shun, the director of Sanbo Stem Cell Laboratory, to pay an annual technology licensing fee of 30 million US dollars. In return, Tang Shun would help Ivan establish a laboratory in New Zealand, specifically for skin expansion. He had achieved his unexpected objective, but not his initial one, as Yang Ping had refused Dr. Ivan¡¯s surgery invitation. Before leaving China, Dr. Ivan decided to have a serious talk with Yang Ping, hoping he would join the surgery and even more so that he would join Langnaife, a dream place for a medical genius. In Yang Ping¡¯s office, Dr. Ivan began his persuasion, with Robert acting as the interpreter. Firstly, he didn¡¯t dive straight into the main topic but instead brought out a case file, the detailed information of the ¡°Princess of Sicily, Italy.¡± Initially, he had invited Yang Ping to participate in the orthopedic part of the surgery, so he only sent a portion of the information to Yang Ping. Now, he presented the complete case file. This case required many plastic surgeries, but at its core was a face transplant, a true face-changing technology¡ªan allogeneic full facial transplant. ¡°Professor¡ª¡± Dr. Ivan pointed at the picture. ¡°It¡¯s missing too many things, not just the skin. The missing tissues or organs include ears, nose, lips, teeth, upper and lower eyelids, half of the lower jawbone, parts of the cheekbone, a significant amount of facial muscle¡ªresorting to skin grafting combined with ear and nose reconstruction technology to rebuild the facial features is no longer possible. We need to choose an entire face with all the missing tissues and organs and then transplant it all at once.¡± The world¡¯s best doctor at full face transplants was Dr. Ivan, whose patients could hardly be told they had undergone surgery post-operatively. Yang Ping squinted his eyes and stared at the picture on the screen. Such a full face transplant required the connection of many blood vessels and indeed presented difficulties. At least, none of the full face transplants documented in the literature so far were half as complex as this case. Allogeneic facial transplant, that is, a real face-changing surgery, and for allogeneic full face transplants, there are currently more than 40 cases reported in the world, each with significant difficulty and high risk. ¡°If we attempt a one-time overall transplant, the number of organs and tissues involved is a bit much. The blood vessels to be connected are not only numerous but also complex,¡± Yang Ping evaluated. ¡°Many countries¡¯ laws prohibit one-time multiple organ transplants. The number of transplanted organs involved in her surgery is too many. To avoid legal risks, we can only perform the surgery on a medical ship in international waters.¡± Dr. Ivan explained why he chose this mysterious method of operation. Yang Ping had always been resistant to such secretive methods. ¡°If the Professor could take part in this surgery, what a perfect thing it would be. This is the most difficult full facial transplant in the world; together, we will create a miracle, giving the desperate a brand new, beautiful face¡ªthis will be a sensational event in the history of surgery.¡± Ivan promptly switched to this topic. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°I¡¯m not accustomed to this method of operation. You should find someone else who is more skilled. Full face transplants are your forte, and as for pelvic osteotomy¡ªmany orthopedic surgeons can do it.¡± ¡°No, we want perfection. No one can match your level of perfection. Ivan never delivers subpar results, only the best,¡± Dr. Ivan said with a hint of urgency. Yang Ping still shook his head, uninterested in the matter, ¡°Dr. Ivan, I never engage in things outside my interests.¡± This so-called Langnaife, and some Caduceus organization, all secretive, like some kind of mafia. There were baseless rumors that they were involved in organ smuggling, which once severely damaged Langnaife Company¡¯s reputation. However, later they invited reporters aboard their medical ship to show the world the entire surgical process and all the legal documentation, which finally quelled the situation. It seems that the company has a particular fondness for organ transplants and stem cell research. Later on, they utilized stem cell technology to cultivate human organs in pigs, achieving a breakthrough, though the technology wasn¡¯t very mature. ¡°They broadly fund medical and biological research all over the world, and by joining them, you would obtain endless research funds,¡± Ivan persisted. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°I am not short of money.¡± ¡°If you join them, you could go international, establishing widespread cooperation with top hospitals worldwide and academic exchange with all the top doctors and scientists.¡± ¡°I have social anxiety.¡± ¡°Several researchers they¡¯ve funded have already won the Nobel Prize, and the strongest doctor on Earth, Manstein, is also one of their core members.¡± ¡°The strongest on Earth¡ªwho coined that?¡± Ivan was at a loss for words, unable to find a reason to convince this guy, who seemed to lack nothing and was uninterested in such vast resources. In his mind, Yang Ping scoffed, considering maybe if it could burst gold coins, but without gold coins, there was no point in discussing. Moreover, being invited to join an organization with a dark history, he could get his back slashed and never know what hit him. He used to think about joining when he saw how great the company was, but on second thought, with the current widespread campaign against fraud, how could he possibly go out to international waters with someone he¡¯d known for just a few days? Ridiculous. The strongest on Earth¡ªin our hearts, that¡¯s clearly the Professor, Robert was indignant about this phrase. ¡ª The WeChat group started discussing it again, still about John Ansen¡¯s case. [We are using fMRI (functional MRI) to study the anatomy of this hemispherical brain, hoping to clarify the position of the various neural nuclei,] John Ansen said. [It¡¯s either the hemisphere of a complete brain or a complete hemispherical brain.] Yang Ping chimed in. [I don¡¯t understand what you mean.] Woodhead was puzzled. [The former means the sparrow, though deformed into half a sparrow, still has all its organs intact, like it¡¯s been flattened; The latter means it¡¯s just half a sparrow, with only half the internal organs, as if the sparrow has been split in two, it¡¯s just half.] It¡¯s still Robert who has high proficiency in Chinese, even Takahashi couldn¡¯t compare. [First, clearly study the anatomy of the hemispherical brain before considering surgery.] Chapter 843 - 843 753 Donate a School Directly ?Chapter 843: Chapter 753 Donate a School Directly Chapter 843: Chapter 753 Donate a School Directly Ivan had to leave China because his visa expired and returned to New Zealand. Director Lan of the Plastic Surgery Department utilized Ivan¡¯s momentum to place a super-sized advertisement for Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Plastic Surgery Department, attracting an overwhelming number of people seeking plastic surgery. In marketing, he had been successful. Compared to the steady progress of Sports Medicine, Plastic Surgery was practically becoming rich overnight. However, Director Lan was worried about the situation because a mismatch between abilities and circumstances might result in a flash in the pan or numerous emerging problems. Still, since Director Lan dared to promote and create momentum, he had his confidence, which lay in the Comprehensive Surgery Department. With Yang Ping to back him up, he feared nothing. ¡ª Yang Ping¡¯s brother-in-law had arrived in Nandu, G City, and used navigation to find Yang Ping¡¯s community. Since it would surely be inconvenient to bring colleagues to Yang Ping¡¯s home, the brother-in-law had booked a hotel, settled his colleagues there, and then drove alone to deliver some items to Yang Ping. When Yang Ping received his brother-in-law¡¯s call, he and Xiao Su went downstairs to meet him. Seeing his brother-in-law at the door, Yang Ping was both happy and excited. His sister and brother-in-law were from the same township but different villages and had studied together at Normal University. During Yang Ping¡¯s university days, they visited the school many times and always gave him some money. After graduating from university, when Yang Ping wanted to become a graduate student, his sister and brother-in-law supported him vigorously. Over the years, as Yang Ping studied and worked away from home, his brother-in-law helped out with any family matters. The brother-in-law took charge of building their house, and both he and Yang Ping¡¯s sister contributed money and effort without a word of complaint. At the time Yang Ping graduated as a graduate student, his sister and brother-in-law raised some money and sought connections, hoping to help him find a good job. However, they struggled due to their rural background and lack of significant connections. After a long time and some money spent without result, Yang Ping came here to take an exam and entered the City People¡¯s Hospital. Therefore, Yang Ping¡¯s family had a particularly harmonious relationship, treating the brother-in-law like a brother. The brother-in-law, in his thirties, appeared shrewd and capable. Upon seeing Yang Ping, he was also very moved and hugged him by the shoulders. ¡°Kid, not bad. I heard you¡¯ve graduated as a Doctor and now you¡¯ve been promoted to Professor?¡± To the brother-in-law¡¯s eyes, his little brother-in-law was no longer the green youngster he used to be but a professor at a big hospital. ¡°Not at all, Principal Li is too kind. This is Xiao Su,¡± joked Yang Ping, before introducing Xiao Su. The brother-in-law had heard from their parents that Yang Ping had found a partner, so he already knew about Xiao Su, and the parents couldn¡¯t stop praising her. But this was his first meeting with Xiao Su. ¡°Hello, brother-in-law!¡± Xiao Su¡¯s words were always sweet. ¡°I was saying that our mother keeps talking about Xiao Su all day, she¡¯s like a fairy descended to earth,¡± the brother-in-law complimented. The young woman merely smiled with her lips pursed, revealing two beautiful dimples. ¡°Where¡¯s your colleague?¡± ¡°In the hotel. Get in the car, let¡¯s drive in, and we can deliver the items to your house together.¡± The brother-in-law opened the car door for Yang Ping to enter, asking him to lead the way so they could deliver the items to his house, but it seemed there wasn¡¯t much room to sit. Glancing into the car, Yang Ping saw it was far from a few items¡ªthe car was packed full, and the trunk was obviously not even worth mentioning. Yang Ping suspected the other teachers must have had a hard journey, undoubtedly not in a single car. ¡°We came in two cars. This car is specially for delivering local products to you. Mom made me promise a thousand times not to let anyone sit in this car and to keep my colleagues away from these items, they mustn¡¯t get mixed up with the school stuff. You see, I don¡¯t even dare turn the engine off¡ª¡± the brother-in-law explained with a laugh. Aside from various vegetables and many eggs, there were also lots of country chickens, freshly slaughtered, plucked, gutted, and vacuum-sealed, with boxes of ice keeping them neat and clean. ¡°These can¡¯t be found in the city. Now it¡¯s popular to eat authentic country stuff, and these country chickens are treasures. The Bureau of Education¡¯s leaders like to go to the countryside to eat them. Mom stayed up all night to slaughter and process these. She was afraid they wouldn¡¯t be fresh if killed too early and insisted on rushing them over to be refrigerated as needed,¡± urged the brother-in-law, worried about spoilage. Yang Ping asked Xiao Su to go back home, while he squeezed into the car to drive into the community and help the brother-in-law carry the items upstairs, chatting as they moved things. ¡°Tonight I¡¯ll invite your colleagues to eat out. Tomorrow, we brothers will eat at home and try Xiao Su¡¯s cooking.¡± ¡°Are you free tonight?¡± ¡°Principal Li is inspecting work, he¡¯ll definitely have time. Let¡¯s settle it, I¡¯ll host dinner for your colleagues tonight. Seafood is okay, right?¡± ¡°No problem. Those few are staying at the hotel. Our old principal has come as well, along with a few other teachers.¡± ¡°I heard you¡¯re here to fundraise, trying to collect money for the school expansion?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not really an expansion. The old principal wants to reinforce the school and add some educational equipment. Educational resources are shrinking toward towns, and many rural schools will be closed, so our funds are a bit tight. It¡¯s more convenient for the nearby kids to attend our school, so the old principal still wants to keep it. He¡¯s been running around for over a year. The school will remain, but the funds will be very limited, so we have to figure things out ourselves. That¡¯s why I, the new Vice-Principal, must step in and lead everyone in seeking alms.¡± ¡°How much is the budget shortfall?¡± ¡°Almost about three hundred thousand.¡± ¡°Count me in.¡± Yang Ping volunteered, The brother-in-law shook his head: ¡°I appreciate your sentiment, but don¡¯t overburden yourself. We¡¯ve already drafted a list before coming over, including several factory owners here. The old principal said we shouldn¡¯t randomly expand the fundraising scope but just approach these few owners. However much we can raise is what we¡¯ll work with; we¡¯ll take it one step at a time.¡± Chapter 844 - 844 753 Donate a School Directly_2 ?Chapter 844: Chapter 753 Donate a School Directly_2 Chapter 844: Chapter 753 Donate a School Directly_2 Yang Ping didn¡¯t say much at the moment but reminded his brother-in-law, ¡°Anyway, once you¡¯re done with the fundraising, let me know. Before you leave, I¡¯ll treat you and your colleagues to a meal.¡± The brother-in-law felt that one meal was acceptable, ¡°No need to be so polite, treating us tonight is enough.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t do. It¡¯s settled then, before you leave, I must treat you to a meal, remember that,¡± Yang Ping insisted. Since it was a rare visit, and his brother-in-law was being so polite, he agreed. The two were drenched in sweat by the time they had moved everything upstairs. Xiao Su was constantly pouring water for them and helping her brother-in-law wash his hands and face. ¡°You should stay at our house these few days, brother-in-law, instead of a hotel. A hotel is never as good as one¡¯s own home,¡± Xiao Su suggested. ¡°I need to stay with them because it¡¯s more convenient, considering the business we need to run daily and the discussions we need to have in the evenings,¡± the brother-in-law gently declined. ¡°Evening matters can be discussed over the phone. Don¡¯t stay in a hotel, I¡¯ve already prepared the room for you,¡± Xiao Su insisted earnestly. The brother-in-law actually had his own thoughts. His brother-in-law was beyond reproach, but he wasn¡¯t single; he had a family. He needed to consider his brother-in-law¡¯s partner¡¯s feelings. City daughters-in-law, while not exactly despising rural relatives, mostly preferred not to stay at their homes¡ªit really wasn¡¯t convenient. Moreover, when the couple had to work, having him stay over would definitely require them to spend time entertaining him, arranging everything from washing up to breakfast to dinner, severely disrupting their normal lives. ¡°Brother-in-law, listen to Xiao Su, stay here for these few days and don¡¯t refuse. It won¡¯t affect your business at all,¡± Xiao Su said. Patting his brother-in-law on the shoulder, Yang Ping knew what the brother-in-law was thinking. But how could he possibly stay elsewhere on his first visit? This wasn¡¯t just any relative; this was his brother-in-law, who had been very good to him and his family. Yang Ping treated him like his own brother. Seeing how insistent the young couple was, and that they had truly prepared everything, and considering that his brother-in-law¡¯s house was quite large with bedrooms that had private bathrooms, making it convenient, the brother-in-law agreed to stay. ¡°You¡¯re putting yourselves out, it¡¯s so embarrassing since you¡¯re also busy with work,¡± the brother-in-law said politely. Xiao Su replied, ¡°Brother-in-law, you¡¯re being too formal. Yang Ping often speaks highly of how good my sister and brother-in-law are to us. It¡¯s rare for you to come to Nandu, so don¡¯t be so courteous.¡± Although the brother-in-law was a learned man, he could tell that this girl was educated and well-mannered, so he felt at ease staying there. That evening, Yang Ping hosted a dinner for the brother-in-law and his colleagues at an extremely high-end restaurant, and everyone envied Vice Principal Li for having such a wonderful young brother-in-law, who was a doctor in a big coastal city despite his young age. ¡ª The next day, Xiao Su personally made breakfast at home, and after Yang Ping and Xiao Su had breakfast with her brother-in-law, he went off to run the business with his colleagues. During these days, following Xiao Su¡¯s arrangements, her brother-in-law had breakfast and dinner at home, while having lunch outside with his colleagues. After several days of visiting, the brother-in-law had seen all the bosses on the list. ¡°How did it go? Brother-in-law, have the funds come through?¡± Yang Ping asked with concern. The brother-in-law furrowed his brows, ¡°We¡¯ve only managed to raise one hundred and fifty thousand, less than half. We¡¯ll take it step by step; this year we can reinforce part of it, and we will figure out the rest next year. The bosses are also tight on funds. Over the past few years, they¡¯ve donated quite a bit for road constructions, bridge building, archway erections, new constructions at the township hospital, model engineering projects, and so on. The county and town governments have made several visits, and they¡¯ve already donated several times. This time, they¡¯re really just making a token contribution through gritted teeth.¡± So, only about one hundred and fifty thousand was raised. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, brother-in-law. I have a friend who is also a boss, and when he heard you were coming to raise funds, he wanted to contribute as well. I¡¯m going to treat you and your colleagues to a meal tomorrow, and he¡¯ll come over. It¡¯s no problem for him to give some money,¡± Yang Ping reassured him. ¡°Really? Would that be appropriate?¡± The brother-in-law felt hesitant about Yang Ping¡¯s friend contributing money, even though he was a boss, but he wasn¡¯t a local. Yang Ping nodded slightly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he¡¯s my best friend. There¡¯s nothing inappropriate about it.¡± Thus, the following evening, which was the night before the brother-in-law and his colleagues were scheduled to leave Nandu, Boss Cheng hosted a meal for the brother-in-law and his colleagues, and of course, the standard certainly wouldn¡¯t be low¡ªit was the best hotel in town. At the dinner table, Yang Ping introduced, ¡°This is my friend, Boss Cheng, a kind-hearted businessman who loves charity work. He heard that you¡¯re raising funds and wanted to learn about the school¡¯s situation to see if he could help.¡± Everyone had been worried about this issue, but upon hearing that a boss was willing to help, hope was reignited immediately. ¡°I really like children. Tell me how much more money you need, and I¡¯ll see if I can help,¡± Boss Cheng offered, personally pouring tea for everyone. The brother-in-law and his colleagues were overwhelmed by the favor, a boss offering money and being so polite, and especially the old principal, who had seldom visited big cities, was a bit at a loss amidst the luxury of the hotel and the courteous boss. So the brother-in-law brought out the plan, explaining why the school needed a loan, how much money was needed, and where it would be used, ¡°Look, Boss Cheng, this is our plan¡ªroughly, we¡¯re still short of two hundred thousand to solve the problem.¡± After finishing, the brother-in-law also pulled out the local government¡¯s introduction letter and other documents. Boss Cheng listened to the brother-in-law¡¯s explanation, ¡°Brother-in-law, two hundred thousand?¡± ¡°Two hundred thousand?¡± Boss Cheng merely asked casually, but the brother-in-law, quick-witted, immediately replied, ¡°We¡¯ve already raised one hundred and fifty thousand. Being able to raise another hundred and fifty thousand would be enough.¡± Boss Cheng refilled the brother-in-law¡¯s tea, ¡°Brother-in-law, here¡¯s what I think. Instead of reinforcing your building, why not just forego the reinforcement? Reinforcing again and again, it¡¯s going to be the same thing in the end.¡± Chapter 845 - 845 753 Donate a School Directly_3 ?Chapter 845: Chapter 753 Donate a School Directly_3 Chapter 845: Chapter 753 Donate a School Directly_3 The old principal was a bit startled, ¡°That won¡¯t do, you can cut other projects, but not this one.¡± ¡°Your school¡¯s territory is rather large, so how about building a new teaching building right here? Look at this area. We¡¯ll rebuild it according to the standards of our Nandu schools, complete with a library, science museum, and indoor gymnasium. How does that sound?¡± The brother-in-law didn¡¯t know how to respond. Was Boss Cheng joking? Building a building is in the million-level. Where would that much money come from when they haven¡¯t even raised over three hundred thousand? To raise millions? Had he overstepped by asking too much, and Boss Cheng was now talking in sarcasm? The brother-in-law had no choice but to look towards Yang Ping, who simply smiled, ¡°Brother-in-law, just listen to Boss Cheng¡¯s proposal. Boss Cheng is an expert in this field.¡± ¡°This playground won¡¯t do, there should be a grass football field in the middle, a running track around it, several basketball courts on this side, and on the other side badminton courts, table tennis courts, swimming pools. Yes, every year there are students who drown, so if you build a swimming pool, the children will have a proper place to swim. Here, dig a swimming pool and set up mobile classrooms and dormitories. Create a fund to attract teachers from other schools to come and fly in for classes.¡± Everyone exchanged glances, not understanding. Was Boss Cheng boasting again? What did he mean by fly in for classes? Boss Cheng, originally a doctor, seemed to have tweaked the term ¡°flying knives¡± into a new term¡ªflying classes. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s like the teachers from the city, for example, those from the Provincial City, take time out of their rest days to come to your school to teach for a day and then go back. You pay them per visit, say, three to five thousand yuan for each time.¡± ¡°Oh, I see.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s proceed with this plan. I¡¯ll send someone to your school to get a feel for the lay of the land and come up with a good design. We¡¯ll aim to start construction as soon as possible.¡± Money, though, they haven¡¯t even gathered three hundred thousand, let alone so much. Time for drinks and food, I guess. After speaking, Boss Cheng seemed to be calculating something in his mind and after a while said, ¡°Brother-in-law, how about I start with a donation of five million? If it¡¯s not enough, I¡¯ll contribute more later. Anyway, I¡¯ll take care of everything to the end.¡± Was it a bluff or was it real? Five million? The brother-in-law and principal were stunned, their heads buzzing from Old Cheng¡¯s declaration. ¡°Brother-in-law, you don¡¯t need to run around for the school anymore. Leave it to Old Cheng to take care of it. You can trust him to handle things. You just have to say one thing, the plan that Old Cheng just mentioned, is it a go or not?¡± ¡°To add, there are no strings attached, it¡¯s a completely unconditional charitable donation, so you can rest assured.¡± ¡°Yes! Thank you, I thank you on behalf of all the children.¡± The old principal, tears streaming down his face, immediately stood up and took Boss Cheng¡¯s hand. ¡°Don¡¯t mention it, we¡¯re all family here. I heard Professor Yang¡¯s hometown was raising funds, and Yang Ping and I have a very solid relationship. If not now, when should I contribute money? It¡¯s for the children, after all. Give me your school¡¯s account, and I¡¯ll instruct my staff to transfer the money.¡± ¡°Wait! Boss Cheng, don¡¯t transfer the money yet.¡± The brother-in-law gestured with his hands, such a large sum of money coming into the school¡¯s account wasn¡¯t necessarily a good thing. The old principal thought the same, fearing that such an influx of money might bring trouble. Boss Cheng was a sharp man; he could see what the others were worried about, but he was also puzzled¡ªdidn¡¯t these people want to skim a little off the top? After a low-voice discussion, they were too embarrassed to mention their concerns. The brother-in-law had no choice but to speak to Yang Ping, who thought it made sense, and said to Old Cheng, ¡°Old Cheng, since you¡¯re willing to go all the way, don¡¯t transfer the money. Regarding the new teaching building, gym, science museum, and the playground, you take it upon yourself to handle it. Contract the construction team to build and furnish it directly, then hand it over to them as a whole. How about that?¡± Old Cheng was shrewd too and instantly understood, greatly admiring the idea. If that money was transferred into the school¡¯s account, things would become very complicated, with all sorts of troublemakers potentially reaching out their hands. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s do that. When are you heading back? I¡¯ll send someone with you to check out the site and work on the design.¡± Chapter 846 - 846 754 Four-Wheeled Cars and Two-Wheeled ?Chapter 846: Chapter 754: Four-Wheeled Cars and Two-Wheeled Motorcycles Chapter 846: Chapter 754: Four-Wheeled Cars and Two-Wheeled Motorcycles My brother-in-law only intended to raise over three hundred thousand on his trip to Nandu. Little did he know how capable his little brother-in-law is, how vast his network, and how nice the big bosses he knows are. Within the span of a single meal, a donation for an entire school was secured. My brother-in-law didn¡¯t pry further but guessed that Yang Ping must have saved the life of this boss. Otherwise, why would he be so generous? Regardless, my little brother-in-law has truly transcended beyond a fresh graduate; he is now a distinguished expert. The next day, my brother-in-law and his colleagues left Nandu, still in a daze on the road, finding it hard to believe that all of this was real. After seeing off my brother-in-law, Yang Ping dove back into his intense work schedule. As a doctor, he¡¯s simply too busy, and working in another province, he hardly has time to look after his parents. Fortunately, with his sister and brother-in-law taking care of them back home, Yang Ping can focus on his work without distractions. The Comprehensive Surgery Department is seeing an increasing number of patients, with an immense surgery workload. Now, adding an anesthesiologist and a few nurses, Three operating rooms are running simultaneously from morning to evening just to meet the department¡¯s demands. The development at Li Quan Hospital is also astonishingly swift. The one hundred and twenty beds have been long filled, and Boss Cheng is now considering expanding the hospital. After integrating the hospital into the entire Ruixing Medical map, Boss Cheng once considered renaming it, since Li Quan contains his own name and carries a personal touch, but Yang Ping liked the name as is and the renaming idea was shelved. Even though Li Quan Hospital was incorporated into the Ruixing group, Old Cheng still calls the shots, acting as the de facto manager of the hospital. As a high-end hospital following the management model of foreign private hospitals, Old Cheng spares no expense in doctor training. Boss Cheng has boldly recruited a batch of young Ph.D.s and had them sign long-term contracts for Yang Ping to personally train. There are also some doctors who need to go abroad to burnish their credentials and Boss Cheng, in his characteristic generosity, used Yang Ping¡¯s connections to send doctors to train at the world¡¯s top hospitals, such as the Special Surgical Hospital in New York. The high fees also endow Li Quan Hospital with extraordinary profitability. The initial annual revenue target of one billion was easily surpassed, and it seems the current ten billion target will likely be reached soon. Originally, Boss Cheng aimed to establish Li Quan Hospital as a specialized orthopedic center, but as it developed, this initial purpose couldn¡¯t keep up with its needs, prompting its transformation into a high-end comprehensive hospital. To support the development of Li Quan Hospital, the group recently purchased a plot of land, planning to invest thirty billion in building their own hospital, saying farewell to renting premises. The number of beds will jump from one hundred and twenty to four hundred and eighty. Boss Cheng often reflects that if it weren¡¯t for the guidance of a reclusive master, he wouldn¡¯t have achieved such spectacular success and might still be circling around those dozens of beds. Back when Old Cheng went to the Taoist temple to inquire about his future, the sage sat calmly with closed eyes in meditation, silent and inscrutable, stretching out a finger and pointed towards the door¡ªan expanse of cottonwoods. At the time, Old Cheng was in the dark, unable to comprehend the meaning. It wasn¡¯t until he met Yang Ping that he had his epiphany. The master, truly a master! That grove of cottonwoods signified the noble person ¡°Yang Ping.¡± ¡ª More than ten surgeries back to back until almost seven in the evening before finishing work. After work, Yang Ping checked his phone for any replies to his papers in his email inbox, but alas, there were none. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t worried for now; getting a few out of the dozen papers accepted shouldn¡¯t be too hard. He had that much confidence. As long as several papers are accepted, the system will reward tens of millions of points, and his experiments can continue. Finding no new emails, Yang Ping browsed the library in the system for a while. With not many points to spare, he dared not squander them recklessly. After scanning through several hundred books, he exited the space. At this moment, the international WeChat group began to liven up again, and it seemed someone was spamming the chat. [@Oreo, what are you posting that¡¯s causing constant notifications?] John Ansen was trying to use this time to discuss a halfway brain case with the professor, but August kept spamming, which was quite annoying. On closer inspection, it appeared to be some advertisement. Maybe his phone was infected with a virus. [@Oreo, is your phone infected with a virus?] John Ansen asked. [@John Ansen, your phone just caught a virus, your whole family¡¯s phones caught viruses.]August teased John Ansen. [@Oreo???]John Ansen didn¡¯t understand what that meant. [What¡¯s this thing?]Woodhead also asked. [Stop chatting and help me bargain quickly, I¡¯m buying a microwave-steam-oven combo on Pinduoduo. Please be generous and give it a chop.]August urged everyone. This guy wanted to whip up some self-service gourmet food in the dorm, eyeing a microwave-steam-oven combo, and Robert had recommended Pinduoduo for its low prices. He was just about to send a link for everyone to help slash the price, but since John Ansen always seemed to interrupt with cases, August had no choice but to flood the chat, one message after another. [If you don¡¯t understand, look at the instructions, dear group members. Let¡¯s show some international loving spirit and give August¡¯s item a slash, he¡¯s eager to place the order.]Robert helped by sending out instructions. After all, there were many newbies among them who needed guidance. Takahashi was an old hand and went straight in to give August¡¯s item a chop. [Wu Zi?]Robert called out. [I¡¯m still looking at the instructions.]Woodhead sent a sweating emoji. [Ah, no wonder your Chinese Level 4 is always so challenging¡ª]Robert sympathized; having studied Chinese for so long and still not knowing how to use Pinduoduo was asking for it. [Can you let me speak first? Can you stop posting for a moment?]John Ansen had something important to say. But August was having none of it. For every message John Ansen sent, he sent several more. [Once I¡¯ve chopped, I¡¯ll immediately stand aside.] He was practically forcing others to help with the chopping, so everyone had no choice but to read the instructions carefully and follow the steps. Making everyone sweat, it took a good while before they could help him with a chop, and only then was the matter resolved. [John, how¡¯s the research progress, figured out the anatomy yet?]Robert asked. [It¡¯s not that quick, I¡¯ve applied all the fMRI techniques I¡¯ve got, and I¡¯m still in the middle of image analysis.] John Ansen usually reminded people to call him John Ansen, but this time he couldn¡¯t be bothered to correct them anymore; let them call him whatever, it was better than being called Da Lang, and these guys might give him an ugly nickname at any moment. [How do you usually study brain anatomy? I mean the best method, why aren¡¯t you using that?]Finally, August stopped flooding the chat. August, being a spinal surgeon, naturally didn¡¯t know the techniques of neurosurgeons. Medicine advances quickly, and different fields can be worlds apart; it seemed that apart from professors, perhaps only Manstein ranged over multiple disciplines. John Ansen: [Normally, the best method is to slice the brain into countless ultra-thin tissue sections and then examine each cell under a microscope one by one. It¡¯s very tedious, but it¡¯s the best and most reliable.] Robert: [It seems like this method is indeed not applicable to this case.] John Ansen: [Using fMRI to study the brain we are experienced. Not long ago, in a topic we collaborated on with the Neurology Department, we achieved success in lie detection using fMRI. A lot of the technology from that can be applied to this research.] [However, we can preliminarily confirm that this hemisphere does not possess the structure of a complete brain, but it¡¯s also not a normal half of a brain. The anatomy has its own peculiarities, so the study will take a long time.] Yang Ping replied: [This kind of situation is the most troublesome, but actually, you could take a shortcut¡ª as long as you figure out the location of each neural nucleus, you don¡¯t need to understand their functions. Knowing the positions of the neural nuclei, you can find safe intervals and thus start surgery. Of course, understanding the functions that the tumor invades in the nuclei is still necessary, this way we can predict the worst outcome before surgery and weigh the risks.] John Ansen sent a frowning emoji: [Professor, things seem not that simple, my experience is all with complete brain surgeries and this half-brain is completely foreign to me. I have never conducted surgery on this type of brain, just like a fresh medical graduate who is very familiar with brain anatomy, but he can¡¯t perform the main surgery.] Robert: [John, you were once a four-wheel racecar driver, now you¡¯re competing on a two-wheeled motorcycle. Isn¡¯t the experience of driving four wheels useful?] John Ansen: [But, I don¡¯t currently know where the throttle, brakes, and steering wheel are on this motorcycle. One day I eventually find out, but having never touched them before, let alone knowing how to operate them, I wouldn¡¯t dare to take it to the racetrack.] It seemed like all the logic was correct, but also not correct. Chapter 847 - 847 755 The Ruthless Approach ?Chapter 847: Chapter 755: The Ruthless Approach Chapter 847: Chapter 755: The Ruthless Approach Rochester, Minnesota, United States, Meeting Room of the Mayo Clinic Department of Neurosurgery. In the Mayo Clinic Department of Neurosurgery, there are not many cases that require such a solemn discussion, either they are difficult cases, or they are cases of VIP patients from those four wards on the top floor. The case to be discussed now is a difficult case¡ªthe congenital cerebral hemisphere disorder which Mayo Clinic has encountered for the first time. The results of the fMRI study of cerebral hemisphere anatomy had been obtained, so it was necessary for everyone to have a serious discussion on whether surgery was feasible and, if so, what kind of surgical approach should be used. Anatomy images of the cerebral hemispheres had been transmitted to the doctors¡¯ hands a few days ago, and they had all been deliberating on the treatment plan for this case in the past few days; now, everyone was prepared. On the high-definition screen, the imagery of the cerebral hemisphere was slowly sequentially played. Each doctor also had a tablet in hand, and everyone was fully engaged, sometimes staring at the images on the screen and sometimes looking down at the images on their own tablets. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to ask our brain anatomy expert, Dr. Heller, to introduce us to the anatomy of this special brain. As everyone knows, Dr. Heller is one of the world¡¯s leading experts in brain anatomy, and his research on the anatomy of the brain far surpasses ours. Many of us have sought Dr. Heller¡¯s help with brain anatomy issues. The fMRI-based lie detection project, familiar to everyone, is a cooperation among our Neurology Department, Neurosurgery, and Mayo Medical School, and Dr. Heller was involved in the topic and helped us achieve great success. Please welcome Dr. Heller,¡± John Ansen applauded, and everyone else joined in. Dr. Heller, in fact, was not old, being a few months shy of thirty. He stood up, with a somewhat shy look, like a bashful young man. He pointed his electronic pen at the screen and began introducing the cerebral hemisphere anatomy: ¡°This is Patient D¡¯s brain anatomy fMRI image. I have dissected one thousand four hundred and seventeen brains, among which there are twelve living cerebral hemispheres and fourteen cerebral hemispheres dissected post-mortem for pathological anatomy. Nobody understands the brain better than I do, but I¡¯m shocked that this cerebral hemisphere is completely different from the others. It is congenital, and I have never encountered a congenital case before. Its brain anatomy is somewhere between complete and halfway, very unique. The arrangement of its neural nuclei is chaotic to us, chaos stemming from our ignorance of it. The arrangements of its brainstem, diencephalon, and cerebellum are also confined within the cerebral hemisphere and are chaotic as well.¡± ¡°Due to some sort of genetic defect, this strange brain never crossed the midline of the cranial cavity from fetus to present, it has always been confined to half the cranial space. The number of neural nuclei in it differs from a normal brain, with more than half the usual count. In our study, we found that among these nuclei, some are healthy, some are underdeveloped, and some have degenerated, leaving only a faint trace. The healthy and underdeveloped neural nuclei together take on the brain¡¯s functions.¡± ¡°This is the red area, the neural nuclei that I have marked, with an arrangement I have never seen before, completely different from the fixed neural nuclei in our brains, without even a similarity. Look, here¡¯s the tumor.¡± ¡°It¡¯s tucked away like a well-behaved baby, wrapped by this nearly spherical cluster of neural nuclei. Why it grew like this, I have no idea.¡± ¡°As for this nearly spherical guy, I regret to inform you that I haven¡¯t figured out its function. Although Doctor John Ansen entrusted me to determine its function as much as possible, I have not succeeded, or cannot do so in the short term. Judging from the symptoms provided by Doctor John Ansen, it at least is responsible for cognition, even pressure brings severe cognitive impairment. I don¡¯t know what would happen if it were damaged because it is obviously much more fragile than a normal brain.¡± ¡°Studying the function of all neural nuclei needs a long time, but Doctor John Ansen¡¯s suggestion is a good one. We are not anatomists, I don¡¯t need to use it to smash the Nobel Prize committee, I just need to know the location of the neural nuclei, then find a safe interval, and that would be enough. This task has been accomplished.¡± ¡°These red circles are the neural nuclei, these green lines are the safe intervals. The intervals seem almost potential; the neural nuclei are very crowded, and the tumor is wrapped by this strange neural nucleus, it acts like an armor protecting the tumor. Here¡¯s a flaw, a flaw in the armor, very small, seemingly unconnected to that safe path.¡± ¡°Now I have to tell Doctor John Ansen, regretfully¡ªthat¡¯s all I can help you with. If you asked me what would happen if this armor were harmed, I could only tell you, it would turn him into an idiot.¡± ¡°That¡¯s all I have to say. If there¡¯s anything you don¡¯t understand, I suggest you should go back to school and complain to your anatomy teacher.¡± Loud laughter and applause followed, and the bashful young man returned to his seat. Doctor John Ansen was next, his brows furrowed all this while, for he indeed faced a dilemma. ¡°Gentlemen, as you can see from my expression, I really am facing a dilemma. Hell, who has ever seen such a brain? As you have heard, the surgery is such a difficult thing,¡± Chapter 848 - 848 755 The Ruthless Approach _2 ?Chapter 848: Chapter 755: The Ruthless Approach _2 Chapter 848: Chapter 755: The Ruthless Approach _2 ¡°How do we remove it? Craniotomy? From where? Through the top of the skull? From one side of the temporal region? Or the forehead? Endoscopic surgery through the nose? All impossible, no matter what, we can¡¯t bypass this armor,¡± Song Zimo had just said, ¡°The consequences of compression are so severe that we can¡¯t bear the consequences of cutting into it. This is not just the brain; the dislocated brainstem is also here, composed of neural nuclei. Who can distinguish which is the brainstem and which is the brain? There¡¯s no way. Trial resection? Or like defusing a bomb, closing our eyes, praying while snipping a wire, which might explode or might not?¡± Dr. Heller raised his hand, interrupting John Ansen¡¯s speech, ¡°The conclusion would be the former ¡ª explosion, not the latter, that everything would be fine. According to the fMRI results, this area is highly active, probably a mix of brainstem and brain tissue. They should be in their own places, unrelated, but improper development within the hemisphere space has caused them to be disordered.¡± ¡°The supraorbital keyhole technique! If we drill through the skull at the eyebrow, we would only have to pass through very little brain tissue.¡± A top neurosurgeon said loudly because he had been contemplating this problem for a long time and was waiting for today to say this. John Ansen nodded, ¡°Good, the supraorbital keyhole technique. Sadly, the dense, active neural nuclei in the brain tissue you¡¯d be drilling through, as mentioned by Dr. Heller, are likely the brainstem. We absolutely cannot take that risk. Blindness is the great enemy of surgery.¡± ¡°How could the brainstem possibly be here? It¡¯s not possible.¡± The surgeon refused to believe it. Dr. Heller replied seriously, ¡°On what basis do you say it¡¯s not possible?¡± Of course, this surgeon had no basis, he was just deducing from the normal anatomy of the brain that the brainstem couldn¡¯t be located here. ¡°I don¡¯t want to believe it either, but according to our analysis, it¡¯s very likely that the brainstem is present here because all of the neural nuclei in the hemisphere structure are abnormal, you can¡¯t use normal reasoning to deduce the abnormal.¡± The surgeon who proposed this hypothesis fell silent; indeed, his suggestion was a gamble. ¡°Don¡¯t limit ourselves to surgical operations, I think stereotactic radiosurgery might be an option.¡± An older neurosurgeon, probably in his fifties or sixties with white hair, suggested. At the Mayo Clinic, neurosurgeons are versatile, they must master a variety of skills; open brain surgery is just a basic skill, besides that, there are endoscopic treatments, interventional treatments, stereotactic treatments, etc. ¡°That¡¯s a good idea, stereotactic radiosurgery.¡± ¡°I think the Edge knife is the best method, and the only choice.¡± The white-haired doctor added. The Edge knife represents the most advanced stereotactic radiosurgery system in the world, officially called the EDGE Radiosurgery Suite, developed by the American company Varian, and is considered to be the most effective non-invasive tumor removal technology to date. John Ansen spoke slowly, ¡°I also think the Edge knife might be the only choice, I don¡¯t know if anyone else has a better method.¡± In fact, John Ansen had thought for a long time and felt that conventional surgery was not feasible, leaving the Edge knife as the only option. The room fell silent for a long time as everyone shook their heads one after another. All possible approaches for cranial surgery had already been considered; this was the only way. ¡ª- Comprehensive Surgery Department Director¡¯s office. The hemisphere¡¯s fMRI brain imaging was displayed on the electronic screen; the Americans¡¯ research capabilities are strong indeed, having discerned the locations of the various nuclei so quickly and clearly marked them. Next to Yang Ping was a drawing board on which he had sketched the hemisphere¡¯s anatomy on a sheet of white paper. Then, Yang Ping leaned back in his chair to rest with his eyes closed. Sometimes, before challenging surgeries, Yang Ping would also rest in the changing room with his eyes closed; a habit that Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Robert, August, and Takahashi also learned. When faced with high-risk major surgeries, they would likewise lean back in the chairs of the changing room and mentally rehearse the surgery steps for one last time before the operation, checking for any blind spots or loopholes in their thinking. They found this habit beneficial and all adopted it, almost becoming a signature move for these individuals. Of course, when Yang Ping closed his eyes to rest, he was not previsualizing surgical steps in his mind, but rather reading books in the system space, simulating surgeries, or conducting experiments. According to Yang Ping¡¯s lifestyle, the system space was most stable and conducive to learning early in the morning, before dressing for surgery, and before sleeping at night, allowing him the longest duration of stay. At this moment, Yang Ping was contemplating the surgery in the system space. Using his artistic skills and memory, he replicated the patient¡¯s fMRI brain image and covered it with drawings and diagrams, sketching dozens of lines with arrows, each representing a potential surgical approach. If we don¡¯t cut out the eyeball and try to enter through the inner and outer canthus or the sides, it won¡¯t work. Using the keyhole technique from above the eyebrow is also not feasible. All approaches surrounding the orbit have one problem in common: they can¡¯t directly enter the gap, so they would still harm this ¡°shield,¡± with very high risk, potentially leading to death or severe disability. Dozens of arrows, one by one, get crossed out, leaving only one. This approach enters directly through the left orbit. To enter through the left orbit, for ease of operation, it is necessary to sever the blood vessels to the eyeball and other connections, keeping only the optic nerve connected to the eyeball. Then, the eyeball is moved aside, and the layers of the orbit are cut open to reach the only gap in the ¡°protective shield¡± of the tumor. Entering through here, one can completely resect the tumor. Chapter 849 - 849 755 The Ruthless Approach _3 ?Chapter 849: Chapter 755: The Ruthless Approach _3 Chapter 849: Chapter 755: The Ruthless Approach _3 Discarding the removed eyeball would truly be a pity, if it could be replanted, that would be better, but replanting is extremely difficult. If there is enough length of the optic nerve after it has been freed, allowing the eyeball to move out of the way without obstructing the surgery, it is possible to replant. However, there are difficulties with replanting. Once the eyeball is back in its socket, there is no space to perform vascular anastomosis. Yang Ping had thought this through carefully. He designed a special window on the lateral side of the outer canthus, which could be used to anastomose the veins and arteries of the eyeball during replantation, thus avoiding the sacrifice of an eyeball, which would be such a pity otherwise. ¡ª The WeChat group had been active these past few days. John Ansen sent the fMRI images to the group, as well as the results of everyone¡¯s discussions. [Professor, our conclusion is to abandon surgery and use stereotactic radiosurgery¡ªGamma Knife treatment. Because there is no approach to directly reach the tumor, and forcibly cutting through the brain tissue that¡¯s blocking it is very dangerous, it might result in death or severe disability.] [Is the effect of the Gamma Knife as good as surgical operation?] [Definitely not as good as surgery, but at least it¡¯s safe.] [Actually, there is another approach, although it¡¯s a bit cruel, I¡¯m not sure if you can handle it.] [There¡¯s another approach?] John Ansen thought he had considered all possible approaches. How could he have missed one? Could there be a new approach? Yang Ping: [Remove the left eyeball, enter through the orbit, reach the gap in the brain tissue surrounding the tumor, enter through the gap, and resect the tumor.] Remove an eyeball? John Ansen immediately began to mentally simulate the approach, considering which anatomical structures it would pass and which areas it could expose. After completing the simulation, John Ansen had to admit: A stroke of genius! Indeed, removing the eyeball to enter through the orbit was the safest route, sacrificing an eyeball to save a life ¡ª from a surgical standpoint, it was worth it. John Ansen: [I see now, sacrificing an eyeball for life, brilliant!] Yang Ping: [When removing the eyeball, cut off the arteries, veins, and other connections, while preserving the connection of the optic nerve. Through careful freeing, it should be possible to gain enough length to move the eyeball, lifting it out of the socket to clear space for the operation, and after the surgery, the eyeball could be replanted in the orbit.] John Ansen: Replanting? [How would you anastomose the blood vessels and other connected tissues?] Yang Ping: [Open a special window on the lateral side of the outer canthus specifically for anastomosing blood vessels.] An ingenious and superb idea! [¡ª] John Ansen didn¡¯t know what to say; the brand-new approach seemed crazy and brutal, but it was indeed the only way. The Professor¡¯s thinking didn¡¯t stop there¡ªhe also considered the replantation of the eyeball, creating a special window for anastomosing blood vessels, which was another imaginative operation. But John Ansen immediately fell silent, pondering how to implement such a novel and sophisticated operation? [But¡ªwe¡¯ve never performed such surgery before, nothing similar either; completing the tumor resection through such a small gap will probably be very difficult.] [Also, I don¡¯t know if ophthalmologists have ever performed eyeball replantation surgery; I need to ask.] Yang Ping: [Consider it like performing keyhole surgery through the orbit.] [The key point of the subsequent ophthalmology operation is actually the vascular anastomosis; the crucial window must be properly created to facilitate microsurgery.] In Professor¡¯s view, everything seems quite easy. The Professor spoke so lightly, yet John Ansen couldn¡¯t achieve it. [Professor¡ªcould you help?] [How can I assist?] [Could you help by performing international surgery remotely?] Yang Ping didn¡¯t respond right away. John Ansen was anxious, not wanting to miss such a learning opportunity, so he sent an emoji of a clasped hands gesture. [Professor, please help!] [Alright, I¡¯ll reluctantly do you the favor.] The others in the group had been lurking because the case was related to Neurosurgery, and they had nothing to add, but now they finally had the chance to speak up. Robert: [In the future, we can¡¯t always trouble the Professor to fly over for surgeries; we could also have patients come over to undergo a surgery.] August: [If Professor going out for surgery is called ¡®performing surgery remotely,¡¯ what do you call it when a patient travels a long distance to come to him for surgery?] A tough question! The group went silent again. Chapter 850 - 850 756 One Chinese Character One Hundred US ?Chapter 850: Chapter 756: One Chinese Character, One Hundred US Dollars. Chapter 850: Chapter 756: One Chinese Character, One Hundred US Dollars. Mayo Clinic Department of Neurosurgery, another case discussion. When John Ansen threw out Yang Ping¡¯s surgical plan, everyone was shocked, with no other expression. To remove an eyeball and go in through the orbit, what an incredible idea. Yet, when everyone calmed down and carefully considered this approach, they unanimously discovered that it indeed was a brilliant pathway, easily resolving the current predicament. Afterward, they all wondered, why hadn¡¯t we thought of this solution? Even if it meant losing an eye, it was still better than losing a life. Moreover, this plan could allow for the original reimplantation of the eye, meaning there was no need to lose the eye to complete the surgery. ¡°Why didn¡¯t we think of this plan, with the eye¡¯s projection position being the tumor¡¯s safe window? Why didn¡¯t it occur to us?¡± a muscular neurosurgeon exclaimed. This doctor often worked out, and his scrubs could not conceal his muscular form, especially his unusually stout upper arms. John Ansen leaned back in his chair, twirling a pencil in his hand: ¡°When House Ear Institute hadn¡¯t come up with the labyrinthine approach to resect acoustic neuromas, why didn¡¯t so many doctors think of it? The labyrinth is right there, something everyone must master during anatomy studies.¡± The muscular doctor shrugged his shoulders, acknowledging this point. ¡°Dr. John Ansen, only you could have come up with such a genius surgical plan,¡± a senior doctor with white hair sincerely praised. John Ansen shook his head: ¡°It¡¯s not my plan, but my mentor¡¯s.¡± John Ansen was very particular about his word choice, now using the term mentor instead of teacher. ¡°Your mentor?¡± A colleague of twenty years was apparently unaware of such a mentor in John Ansen¡¯s life. ¡°For this surgery, I would like to invite my mentor to be the chief surgeon,¡± John Ansen announced to everyone. A surgeon who could propose such a fantastic surgical plan and also perform eye reimplantation, and who was John Ansen¡¯s mentor, would undoubtedly be highly skilled. ¡°That¡¯s a good idea; however, we¡¯re curious to know who this venerable mentor is?¡± Some began to scour their minds for top experts in neurosurgery. Could it be Professor Harding from Johns Hopkins Hospital? John Ansen had completed his specialty training under him. Or perhaps it was Sam or Manstein from Germany. Germany is a country of geniuses; Sam is a world-renowned figure in neurosurgery at eighty years old, and Manstein is an all-round master in various surgical fields, top-notch worldwide. ¡°He is a Chinese doctor named Yang Ping,¡± John Ansen said slowly. Everyone was unfamiliar with the name Yang Ping: ¡°A Chinese doctor? Yang Ping? Sorry, how have we never heard of him?¡± ¡°No, you don¡¯t need to have heard of him. Soon, you will see his surgery; trust me, just one surgery, and you will remember him, remember him firmly.¡± John Ansen was full of confidence. ¡°For eye reimplantation, do we need to communicate with ophthalmology and then invite them for the collaborative surgery?¡± John Ansen gestured with his hand: ¡°My mentor said it¡¯s not necessary.¡± ¡°Why?¡± the white-haired doctor asked. ¡°He has decided to complete the eye reimplantation himself,¡± John Ansen said easily. The doctors were all confused for the first time by John Ansen. In previous case discussions, no matter how difficult the cases were, at least everyone could understand. On this basis, they would debate. Now, the things John Ansen was talking about were a bit beyond their comprehension. Neurosurgeons performing eye surgeries, and not just any eye surgery, but a highly complex one¡ªeye transplantation, even self-enucleation reimplantations, that was considered a highly difficult eye surgery as well. ¡°Eye reimplantation? It doesn¡¯t seem possible to reconnect the blood vessels, right? The blood supply vessels originally enter the eyeball from the bottom of the orbital socket. After cutting off the blood vessels and removing the eyeball, when putting it back, the eyeball itself occupies space; how can the blood vessels be anastomosed?¡± Asked another tall and thin doctor, curiously. ¡°It¡¯s quite simple. Make an incision from the lateral canthus and create a window in the lateral wall of the bony orbit to allow for vascular anastomosis,¡± said John Ansen calmly and confidently, addressing everyone¡¯s doubts. The doctors visualized such a surgery in their minds, and indeed, it seemed feasible. ¡°Can Chinese neurosurgeons perform eye surgeries?¡± asked the muscular doctor. He thought American neurosurgeons were very versatile, capable of performing surgeries, endoscopic surgeries, interventional surgeries, and even radiotherapy without any issue. They even read their pathology slices themselves. However, as versatile as they were, American neurosurgeons were not qualified to perform eye surgeries. ¡°American neurosurgeons can¡¯t perform eye surgeries; they don¡¯t have such skills,¡± said a white-haired doctor, curious as well. ¡°That¡¯s in the United States. My mentor is a Chinese doctor, and likewise, American doctors don¡¯t perform orthopedic surgeries either. What¡¯s so strange about that?¡± John Ansen said disdainfully. If he told them that his mentor could perform orthopedic surgeries, they would be so shocked their temporomandibular joints might dislocate. ¡°In fact, I think the skills we neurosurgeons have mastered are far from enough. The eyes and ears are so close to our brains, yet they are absent from our concepts. Therefore, we should master ophthalmology and otolaryngology surgeries to expand our thinking. For instance, the commonly used transotic approach to remove intracranial tumors wasn¡¯t invented by neurosurgeons; it was the brainchild of doctors at the House Ear Institute, initially only for the resection of acoustic neuromas.¡± ¡°Excessive specialization can lead to the isolation of certain fields, and a degree of integration can eliminate this isolation.¡± John Ansen believed that the reason why Professor Yang could think of the transorbital approach was that he excelled in almost all surgical operations. His knowledge had no boundaries; different fields were interwoven and integrated. Chinese doctors, John Ansen¡¯s mentor. For most Americans, America is the world, and many have little understanding of China. Coupled with the influence of American media, many Americans have a strange perception of China. They either think China is very backward, still without proper shoes, or they believe China is on track to overtake, or has even already far surpassed, the United States. Now that John Ansen mentioned his mentor was a Chinese doctor, these doctors couldn¡¯t help but add a touch of mystery to their view of China. ¡ª Yang Ping decided to fly to the United States to be the chief surgeon for this hemisphere brain surgery, accompanied by Robert. Before leaving, Robert called his junior to arrange for his pick-up. [Barel, I¡¯ll be returning to the United States in a few days, exact timing to be confirmed.] Robert summoned his assistant Barel on WeChat. Ever since Robert got hooked on WeChat, he had made it mandatory for his whole team to learn it, as work communications were to be conducted through WeChat from then on. [My lord Robert, finally I hear from you. You¡¯ve been in China for so long without sending me a message,] Barel felt as if his superior had disappeared for ages. [You don¡¯t speak Chinese, what¡¯s there to talk about?] [I¡¯m trying hard. To practice speaking, I now go to Chinatown whenever I have the time.] [How¡¯s the pennant matter going?] [Have a look. I sent you a photo last time. I only ordered twenty myself, but these were all given by patients. I told them¡ªbooking your surgery is like having a priority ticket. Of course, I was clever not to force any patient, otherwise, they would report us to the medical association. I just let everyone know that if they could present such a pennant, they could have their appointment moved up. Your office can no longer contain them. Taking my own initiative, I¡¯ve hung them in the hallway.] [You¡¯re a smart guy. This time I am only accompanying my mentor to perform surgery in the United States. You handle the airport pick-up; you know what to do.] [I understand! Welcome banners and a qipao flash mob, right?] [Not just that. How¡¯s the Chinese language training going?] [Everyone is very enthusiastic. Your method is spot-on. Learn a Chinese character, get a hundred US dollars as a reward. Everyone¡¯s rushing to learn Chinese. One guy decided to seize the opportunity to change his car; he¡¯s got his eye on a Porsche Cayenne.] Chapter 851 - 851 757 The Magical Pencil ?Chapter 851: Chapter 757: The Magical Pencil Chapter 851: Chapter 757: The Magical Pencil International surgery had become routine for Yang Ping since his first trip to Malaysia to operate on Guo Jingyao, and later visits to the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Though not exactly globetrotting, he was an experienced veteran of cross-border surgery. Without delay, Yang Ping made arrangements for his work back home. John Ansen was also proactive in perfecting the pre-surgery preparations. The surgery required moving the eyeball, which risked losing an eye, and it was necessary to communicate with the patient to reach a consensus. This type of surgery was not listed in the American neurosurgery guidelines. There was a risk of losing function in a healthy organ under extreme circumstances. It required not only technical review but also theoretical verification, all of which John Ansen had prepared thoroughly. This was the second time he was visiting the United States. Accompanied by Robert, the plan was to first fly from Nandu to New York, and then from New York to Rochester, Minnesota. New York was Robert¡¯s stronghold, and everything was well arranged, with Barrett naturally responsible for picking them up at the airport. Just stepping off the plane in New York and walking through the gate, Yang Ping saw a red banner in Chinese: Welcome Professor Yang to the United States for guidance! In addition to the banner, there were more than a dozen young girls from Asia and Europe and America wearing qipaos performing a quick flash mob dance at the airport as a welcome ceremony. Yang Ping was both amused and dismayed. It was the same setup during his last visit to the United States when he toured Robert¡¯s clinic, which was decorated to resemble Chinese New Year, complete with ¡°Fu¡± characters and Chinese knots. Robert had a flair for ostentatious things, and Yang Ping didn¡¯t feel it was his place to comment much. ¡°Welcome to the United States!¡± Barrett¡¯s Chinese had improved a lot. Robert was very confident, surely the professor must feel at home at this moment. After resting in New York, they flew to Rochester, Minnesota, the next day¡ªthe headquarters of the Mayo Clinic. John Ansen, wanting to show proper respect, brought his assistant and secretary along to pick them up at the airport. Immediately after landing, Yang Ping grabbed a simple meal and then got straight to work. Yang Ping¡¯s arrival caused quite a stir at the Mayo Clinic, for neurosurgery, it was akin to an earthquake. In Mayo¡¯s history, no Chinese had ever led a main surgery. All the Chinese they had seen were either doctors coming for advanced studies or patients coming for treatment. Now this Chinese was invited by Doctor John Ansen to lead the surgery. To put it accurately, Mayo lacked confidence in this surgery and couldn¡¯t handle it, so they invited this Chinese doctor to help and guide the operation. Accompanied by John Ansen, Yang Ping met with the patient Denton and was quickly surrounded by the neurosurgeons. Americans, like the Chinese, really enjoyed a spectacle, so specialists, resident doctors, and even intern doctors who hadn¡¯t completed their residency training all crowded around Yang Ping, three layers deep. Any concern for protecting the patient¡¯s privacy was tossed aside by these doctors. The software engineer appeared normal, and after a brief conversation with him, Yang Ping confirmed that the patient had no issues with cognition or language. Denton had played on the university baseball team, and after graduation became a software engineer at a game company, where he was a lead programmer for a major game. His wife worked at the post office, and they had two children after marriage. After conversing with him, Yang Ping decided to perform a physical examination, which naturally included inspection, palpation, percussion, auscultation, and various specialized tests. After examination, Denton¡¯s skin sensations and muscle strength were found to be normal, and there were no issues with his movement coordination. Although modern advanced instrument equipment can aid in diagnosis, some examinations seemed less necessary now. For example, heart examinations now have surface ultrasound, making percussion for the size and borders of the heart seem redundant and a waste of time. But as a doctor, especially a primary care physician, the stronger the hands-on diagnostic ability, the more likely early signs of disease can be detected. For instance, with the patient¡¯s percussion, a light tap on his already shaved head immediately told Yang Ping that one side of the skull was solid, while the other side was hollow, using principles similar to those for selecting watermelons, relying solely on the sound for judgment. If any primary care doctor had noticed this anomaly from the beginning, they would have performed a surface ultrasound sooner and not waited until now, when neurological symptoms appeared, to do their first head CT. Although skilled hands-on diagnosis is very limited, it can be extremely useful at special times. After seeing the patient, Yang Ping returned to the doctor¡¯s office and again began to review the patient¡¯s case files, especially the imaging data, because previously John Ansen had sent pictures over WeChat, which were informal. Wherever Yang Ping went, the group of doctors that surrounded him followed; these people are at the pinnacle of neurosurgery in the United States. They formed several circles just to see what John Ansen¡¯s mentor was like. Everyone had reserved opinions about this Chinese doctor. Now that they saw Yang Ping, so young and yet able to be John Ansen¡¯s mentor, their curiosity about him surely doubled. ¡°The most difficult aspects of this case are two-fold. First, because the brain is a malformed hemisphere, the distribution and function of all nerve nuclei are different from a normal brain. For a normal brain, a tumour in this location wouldn¡¯t require such an elaborate approach. Second, the tumour is surrounded by nerve nuclei and is densely interwoven with blood vessels. Entering from an area outside of this gap is likely to damage the nerve nuclei or blood vessels.¡± ¡°The projection of the gap is exactly where the eye is located, so entering through here is best, but the eye is blocking access. To achieve our objective, we must move it aside.¡± Any surgical approach must meet two conditions: exposure and safety. That means it must be possible to reveal the site of the lesion, otherwise the approach is pointless. Furthermore, during the process of exposing the lesion, the safer, the better, so as not to harm blood vessels, nerves, or other organs. For example, if after surgery, the tumour has been resected but the patient dies or suffers severe cognitive impairment, then the surgery is a failure. John Ansen was eager to learn, his notebook already open, beginning to record the key points of Yang Ping¡¯s explanation. ¡°Pencil?¡± Yang Ping extended his hand. Robert, acting as an attendant, of course knew the professor¡¯s habits. Pencils and A4 paper were already prepared and passed over. ¡°If the eye cannot be replanted, the surgery is still worth it, but we will do our utmost to ensure that the eye can be replanted. After freeing the optic nerve, it¡¯s better if the length of the nerve is sufficient for us to move the eye aside.¡± As he spoke, a clear anatomical illustration of the skull quickly took shape on the A4 paper, under the swift sketching of the pencil. The doctors crowded around Yang Ping nearly didn¡¯t react in time, jostling each other to get a close look at the drawing. Everyone was stunned, never having seen such a beautiful and clear three-dimensional anatomical illustration of the skull before. The pencil twirled in Yang Ping¡¯s hand like an acrobat. ¡°If the length of the freed optic nerve isn¡¯t sufficient, do we need to cut and then replant the optic nerve? If we do, whether the nerve can successfully recover is an unknown,¡± the doctor with white hair asked. Yang Ping stopped the twirling of the pencil in his hand, ¡°Actually, we have a second option. Even if we can¡¯t move the eye aside, we don¡¯t have to sever the optic nerve. We just need to slice the eyeball, remove partial or all of the aqueous humor to cause the eye to collapse, thus creating the operating space.¡± Is that even a viable approach? Have you consulted with an ophthalmologist? The white-haired doctor was momentarily speechless; he hadn¡¯t expected Yang Ping to suggest such an alternative method, almost godlike. ¡°Both methods can¡¯t take too long. For an eyeball from which the blood supply has been cut, even with ice protection, the time shouldn¡¯t be too long. Also, the loss of aqueous humor over a lengthy period can lead to irreversible damage to vision.¡± One stack of A4 paper, one sheet after another being pulled out, with the pencil sketching away, a few drawings were already completed. ¡°Look, this is the operational illustration for moving the eyeball, this is the illustration for the incision at the base of the eye socket, this is the tumor excision illustration¡ª¡± Is that pencil magic? How can you draw so quickly and yet so finely and beautifully? The circle of doctors around tightened, with Robert using his sturdy body to protect Yang Ping from these inexperienced people bumping into him. Chapter 852 - 852 758 Neurosurgery belongs to Orthopedics ?Chapter 852: Chapter 758: Neurosurgery belongs to Orthopedics Chapter 852: Chapter 758: Neurosurgery belongs to Orthopedics Yang Ping continued discussing the case with John Ansen, his pencil never stopping. It was as if he activated fast motion mode, the pencil moved very quickly, and soon, over a dozen anatomical diagrams illustrating the steps of the surgery were completed. All doctors looked on in amazement, even John Ansen was dazzled by the level of drawing proficiency. With just a pencil and a stack of white paper, he created so many exquisite anatomy diagrams in just a few minutes. The surgery hadn¡¯t even started yet, and his mastery of medical illustration had already won over most of the Mayo Clinic doctors, who were crowding around each other, hoping to get a clearer view, some reaching out, hoping to get one of the hand-drawn diagrams for a closer examination. John Ansen had no doubts about the feasibility of the surgery; back when he was in Shanghai, that had been a surgery no other doctor in the world could handle, yet Yang Ping did it with ease. At the time, the patient suffered cardiac arrest multiple times during the procedure, but Yang Ping seemed to have anticipated it and calmly conducted the rescue. After successfully reviving the patient, he continued with the surgery, his courage and masterful surgical skills completely conquering John Ansen. Now John Ansen worried whether the eye replanting surgery required the assistance of an ophthalmologist, and the experts at Mayo Clinic suggested having one present. ¡°Do we need assistance from an ophthalmologist?¡± John Ansen asked tentatively. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°If it¡¯s not required by law or procedure, let¡¯s avoid it if possible, they probably don¡¯t have experience with this kind of surgery either.¡± Mayo¡¯s ophthalmology was very strong, but they had never performed an eye transplantation surgery; they had only done similar surgeries in animal experiments. Real human surgery was limited to just a few dozen cases of artificial bionic eye transplants, which greatly differed from genuine eye transplantation. With Yang Ping¡¯s affirmation, John Ansen no longer dwelled on the issue. In John Ansen¡¯s eyes, Yang Ping was like a god. So, whatever Yang Ping said went unquestioned; in front of Yang Ping, John Ansen lost his ability to doubt. After all the details of the surgery were settled, John Ansen scheduled the operation for the next day. In the remaining time, John Ansen, as the host, took Yang Ping to tour the Mayo Clinic, which was Yang Ping¡¯s first visit to the institution. After Yang Ping and John Ansen left their seats, the dozen pencil-drawn diagrams they left on the desk, like the works of a top-tier artist, were eagerly snatched up by the surrounding doctors. They had never seen such beautifully hand-drawn anatomical diagrams before; although just black and white sketches, they were so lifelike and three-dimensional. Skulls, muscles, blood vessels, nerves, brain tissues, eyes, ears, noses, and so on, each was beautifully crafted, truly collectible art. The entire surgical process was laid out in just a dozen diagrams, more vivid and straightforward than a verbal description. Those who managed to grab one were smug, and those who didn¡¯t were very disappointed. Some even tore a diagram in half in their eagerness to secure one, completely losing the decorum and poise expected of a world-class hospital. It wasn¡¯t hard to understand, as these hand-drawn diagrams were unsurpassed at Mayo Clinic and beyond the skills of any neurosurgeon, with such beauty and speed. John Ansen guided Yang Ping and Robert through each building and floor. Mayo Clinic or Mayo Clinic Medical Center was the previous Chinese translation; the new and accurate translation is ¡°Mayo Clinic International¡±. ¡°Mayo¡± implies skilled and compassionate healing, while ¡°Clinic¡± suggests protection and assistance. The term ¡°Mayo Clinic International¡± embodies the idea that compassionate and virtuous healers provide skilled treatment and help to patients. The one who chose this name must have a deep understanding of Chinese culture, either Chinese or an American like Robert. This hospital, ranked number one in the United States, has a history of nearly 160 years. Besides Rochester, Minnesota, Mayo Clinic has branches in Florida and Arizona. Rochester, Minnesota, a small town of just over 100,000 people located in the cold and remote northern United States, would be equivalent to an 18th-tier small county in China. Yet, because of Mayo Clinic¡¯s presence, its airport boasts a runway capable of accommodating the Airbus A380 superjumbo jet, as political figures and wealthy individuals from around the world like to seek medical care there. In the hearts of doctors worldwide, Mayo Clinic is a holy place. Unlike my country, the top hospitals in the United States are mostly private, and Mayo Clinic is not a public hospital but a private one. It initially grew from a clinic, which is why its English name still includes the word ¡°clinic.¡± This private hospital is unique in its management model; it operates under a board of directors system. However, the board is not government-led or dominated by a consortium but is run by the hospital¡¯s doctors. That is, the doctor group at Mayo Clinic are the true decision-makers, deciding who sits on the board through voting and also determining the major policies of the hospital through voting. As a private hospital, Mayo Clinic follows a salary sharing system. Every doctor has a fixed salary irrespective of the number of patients seen, prescriptions made, surgeries performed, or tests completed. This decouples doctors¡¯ income from treatment fees, ensuring their decisions are independent and pure, free from external influences like money. You might wonder, with shared salaries at Mayo Clinic, would it foster a group of slackers? After all, salaries are fixed regardless of the amount of work done, so everyone could just coast along. Without a strong work ethic, Mayo Clinic might soon close down. Yet under this system, not only did Mayo Clinic not close, but it has also exceeded $15 billion in annual revenue, becoming the hospital with the highest annual income and profitability in the world. Of course, Mayo Clinic receives significant social donations every year, which also form part of the hospital¡¯s income. Thus, Mayo Clinic¡¯s income comprises two parts: business income and social donations. It receives no government funding, and the donations it receives each year are just a few hundred million dollars, a small fraction compared to the $15 billion revenue, showing that donations are a very low proportion of the hospital¡¯s income. So, never think that Mayo can survive on donations alone; a few hundred million dollars in contributions are almost negligible. Also, don¡¯t assume that Mayo is always doing charity. Where does this annual income of 15 billion US dollars come from? It all comes from patients, mostly income from medical services, such as surgery fees. The cost of medical care at the Mayo Clinic is extremely high. For surgical inpatients, expenses above one million US dollars are quite normal. For departments with high technical thresholds like neurosurgery and cardiac surgery, just the surgery fees amount to several hundred thousand US dollars. The total cost of hospitalization can be two to three million US dollars, which is considered normal. If it involves complex, high-difficulty major surgeries and an ICU stay, then don¡¯t be surprised if the bill reaches tens of millions of dollars. Without high-end insurance, an ordinary person stepping into Mayo means bankruptcy. However, high-end medical insurance is not affordable for everyone; it¡¯s exclusive to the wealthy. There are also some ordinary Chinese citizens who come to Mayo in admiration of its reputation. Generally, they sell their houses to raise funds and prepare fully before they can come to Mayo for a once-in-a-lifetime experience of world-class medical services. As they chatted, they arrived at the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, which is one of several departments ranked first in the entire United States. ¡°They were the first in the world to isolate glucocorticoids and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1950. They were also the first to isolate thyroid hormones, the second hormone ever isolated in human history; the relationship between insulin and diabetes was their discovery, and likewise, they were the first to treat diabetes with insulin¡ªthese are their masterpieces,¡± John Ansen introduced this prestigious department. It turned out they were the pioneers in insulin therapy for diabetes, making it no longer a terminal illness. Medicine progresses step by step through such passionate innovations. In ancient times, diseases like tuberculosis, diabetes, and tetanus were terminal illnesses, and appendicitis and dystocia were equally life-threatening. After visiting so many departments and both consultation and inpatient rooms, Yang Ping noticed many differences from back home. Nurses wore uniforms of deep red or dark blue-green with short sleeves, without caps. Doctors seeing patients all wore suits and ties; female doctors wore suits or dress suits. He didn¡¯t see any doctor wearing a white gown while seeing patients, nor any doctors in T-shirts, collarless shirts, jeans, or shorts. Here, all medical appointments were made in advance; there were no walk-in registrations, which means without paying for an appointment, it was impossible to see a doctor. After the tour of all departments, John Ansen took Yang Ping to visit the operating room. As an expert invited to guide the surgery, Yang Ping¡¯s visit was unhindered. Finally, John Ansen led Yang Ping to visit the Fisch Family Sculpture Garden on the west side of the Gonda Building, where the Mayo brothers¡¯ bronze statues were located. The correct understanding of the name of the sculpture garden should be: This sculpture garden is named after Fisch, in commemoration of the Mayo family. The sculpture garden was constructed with a donation from the Fisch couple to commemorate Old Mayo, the founder of the Mayo Clinic, and the Mayo brothers, who greatly expanded its prestige. In front of the Mayo brothers¡¯ bronze statues, John Ansen invited Yang Ping to take a photo together. ¡ª Meanwhile, in the Mayo Clinic Department of Neurosurgery¡¯s Doctor¡¯s Office. ¡°How can Dr. John Ansen¡¯s mentor be so young? He looks like he¡¯s in his twenties,¡± someone expressed their doubt. The muscular doctor said, ¡°Asians, especially those from China, appear younger than people of the same age. To be John Ansen¡¯s mentor, he must be around fifty, although he looks to be in his twenties.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s youthfulness was also a surprise during his time performing surgeries in Germany, where Europeans had thought he knew the secret to eternal youth. Now, Americans couldn¡¯t believe that Yang Ping, who was not even thirty, could be John Ansen¡¯s mentor. The American medical training system is completely different from our country¡¯s; one cannot directly enter medical school after high school. Instead, one must graduate from an undergraduate degree in science or biology to apply for medical school. With four years of undergraduate studies and four years of medical school, totaling eight years, all doctors must have at least eight years of education before graduating with an MD degree. Some people work for years after their undergraduate studies before applying to medical school, which makes them older. Thus, doctors under thirty are almost nonexistent in America. ¡°Fifty years old? But he looks so young?¡± The gray-haired doctor was quite vexed¡ªhe was also over fifty but appeared so much older. It¡¯s the same everywhere; envy can be killer. ¡°You can deduce that he must be over fifty based on his clinical experience, which exceeds John Ansen¡¯s,¡± the muscular doctor said, relying entirely on his imagination, and everyone believed what he said. ¡°Why haven¡¯t we heard of him before?¡± another tall, thin doctor asked. Encouraged by the attention from the others, the muscular doctor was quite proactive, ¡°Many Chinese doctors specialize in surgery without publishing papers, appearing low-key and mysterious.¡± ¡°I just found some of his papers, including in the journal Science and others. Each one is in a top-tier journal, but it seems all his papers are related to orthopedics,¡± one doctor expressed a different view. ¡°Oh! Is that so?¡± the muscular doctor felt a bit embarrassed. ¡°Why would he write orthopedic papers? Could it be that in China, neurosurgery is a branch of orthopedics?¡± asked another doctor, holding half of an anatomy diagram. Different countries have different sub-specializations within professions. For instance, in America, spinal surgery is a branch of neurosurgery, whereas in our country, it is a branch of orthopedics. ¡°That¡¯s right, their spinal surgery belongs to orthopedics, and brain surgery might also fall under orthopedics,¡± the muscular doctor said, nodding to show off his knowledge. With that explanation, everyone finally understood. Chapter 853 - 853 759 The Suspended Upper Limbs ?Chapter 853: Chapter 759: The Suspended Upper Limbs Chapter 853: Chapter 759: The Suspended Upper Limbs The news of Yang Ping¡¯s arrival in the United States had already been communicated to everyone by Robert. Woodhead and Griffin, both formal members of the WeChat group, naturally knew about this. Li Zehui, who was applying to join the WeChat group, and Massimo, who had also received notices from Robert, dropped their work immediately and rushed to Mayo in Rochester, Minnesota. Woodhead, who was at the Twin Cities Spine Center in Minnesota, closest to Mayo, was the first to arrive at Mayo. Right after him came Griffin, who worked at the Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. This tumor surgery expert was adept at surgical operations for various tumors and was also familiar with interventions, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, biotherapy, and radiotherapy for tumors. Griffin, who was always silent in the group, actually spoke Chinese very fluently. He had passed the HSK Level 4 Test. This man of action and few words had made such fast progress, making Woodhead feel inferior. Li Zehui from the Cleveland Medical Center in Ohio and Massimo from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, were not behind the formal members, arriving at Mayo in good time. The surgery was scheduled for the next day, so there was plenty of time. After lunch, everyone gathered in the hotel for an informal teatime and held a small internal medical academic salon to discuss some difficult cases. They enjoyed the conversation immensely, delving into discussions about cutting-edge medical technologies. Of course, what they most looked forward to was hearing Yang Ping¡¯s opinions, as he was their mentor. Meanwhile, Li Zehui and Massimo took the opportunity to formally submit their Chinese membership applications. Robert interviewed them on behalf of the organization. If their applications and interviews were satisfactory, they would undergo a three-month probationary period. If they performed well during this time, the WeChat group would vote on whether to accept them as formal members. ¡ª The next day, the surgery began as scheduled. The WeChat members also stayed at Mayo to observe the surgery. Without having obtained qualification for advanced training, they would have had little chance to watch Yang Ping perform surgery up close, so they cherished this opportunity dearly. It can be said that they treasured the chance to observe more than any other doctor. So, they arrived early and took their places in the Operating Room Teaching Room, led by a person arranged by John Ansen. Although Mayo¡¯s comprehensive strength is ranked first in the United States, the strength of many individual specialties is not as good as other top hospitals. For instance, in the field of tumor research and treatment, the Anderson Cancer Center is ranked first in the United States; for the heart specialty, the Cleveland Medical Center has long been at the top of the list; and for Johns Hopkins, there is little to choose between their comprehensive strength and Mayo¡¯s. Johns Hopkins Hospital has created numerous firsts in the history of medicine, including the first heart bypass operation, the first corrective surgery for Tetralogy of Fallot in a newborn, the first complete sex reassignment surgery, and so on. In clinical medicine, many operations that are now considered routine¡ªfor instance, CPR, kidney dialysis, and the use of sterile rubber gloves during surgical operations¡ªoriginated from Hopkins. One by one, people began entering the Teaching Room, and soon the room was packed. The doctors from Mayo Clinic¡¯s Department of Neurosurgery found several unfamiliar faces sitting in the Teaching Room, which aroused their curiosity. The white-haired doctor and a muscular doctor sat next to these few people. The muscular doctor could not help but ask where they were from since he was certain they were not from Mayo. This top member shook hands with each of them. ¡°Hello, Griffin from Anderson Cancer Center.¡± ¡°Woodhead, Twin Cities Spine.¡± ¡°Massimo, Johns Hopkins.¡± ¡°Li Zehui, Cleveland Medical Center.¡± None of these individuals was a person to be taken lightly. As fellow neurosurgeons, why didn¡¯t he recognize them? That was impossible. The muscle man from the elites had no choice but to scout out more information, and the answer he got¡ªthey were not neurosurgeons at all, but rather specialists in tumor, spine, interventional, and heart fields. ¡°Are you interested in this surgery?¡± the muscular doctor asked curiously. Griffin didn¡¯t bother to answer such a trivial question; he also had no interest in chatting with the muscular man. By now, Griffin felt he and the muscular man were not doctors of the same caliber, especially since he would soon be joining a mysterious world-class medical club. Woodhead nodded, ¡°The Chinese doctor performing the surgery is our mentor, so we are here to learn.¡± Their mentor? The muscular man was utterly confused. These top-tier professionals from various fields all regarded Yang Ping as their mentor and called themselves his students. It would take anyone a moment to wrap their head around that. At that moment, the muscular man¡¯s curiosity transformed into a strange awe. ¡°Who are they?¡± The white-haired doctor asked the muscular man. With a hint of uncertainty, the muscular man replied, ¡°They are all students of the Chinese doctor.¡± ¡ª The surgery officially began, with the entire procedure being performed under a microscope. This was not just a claim, but the reality of removing an eyeball to enter through the orbit. The approach to the surgery was a bit unusual; the first step was to make a small incision on the outer side of the eye¡¯s outer corner, then to create a small window on the bone wall. After that, the separation and displacement of the eyeball began, with the sharp surgical knife circumferentially cutting the conjunctiva at the edge of the cornea, then descending to separate the conjunctiva and subconjunctival tissue down to below the equator of the eye. The connections between the eyeball and the orbit consist of blood vessels, nerves, and muscles, with nerves being the structures that must be preserved, while blood vessels and muscles can be cut. Because blood vessels can be anastomosed after cutting, and the same applies to muscles. But nerves are different; once severed, they cannot rely on repair of the cut ends to recover function. Once nerves are cut, the distal portion is rendered useless, and the nerve fibers inside will ultimately dissolve and disappear, leaving only an empty tube. The proximal nerve fibers, like sprouting vines, grow into the distal side, following the old nerve¡¯s tubular pathway unceasingly forward until they finally reach the peripheral site, which is the area innervated by the nerve. This poses a problem, as some of these nerves make mistakes during growth, some are lazy and stop growing after a certain distance, hence the number of nerves reaching their destination will definitely be reduced. If the distance required for growth is too long, it is very likely that none of the nerve fibers will reach their destination in the end. Therefore, trauma orthopedic surgeons are not afraid of cutting blood vessels; as long as bleeding is controlled promptly and the vessels are anastomosed during surgery, there will be no long-term consequences. However, what they most fear is nerve rupture. If a nerve is severed at a high level, that is, far from its peripheral end, then severe permanent disabilities will inevitably result postoperatively. At the wrist, there is a nerve called the median nerve, located around the middle of the wrist and rather superficial. Many patients who attempt to cut their wrists, due to a lack of professional knowledge, fail to sever the radial artery but instead cut through the median nerve, leaving behind hand impairments that they deeply regret afterwards. Eye transplantation is currently in the experimental stage, with only a few clinical cases reported, and the outcomes have been less than satisfactory. The reason for this lies here, as even with nerves properly connected, the quantity that grows through is insufficient to restore vision. The surgery continued, with further separation of the four rectus muscles of the eye. At the insertion points of these muscles, an 8-shaped suture with fine thread was used before cutting the muscles. The medial rectus was left with approximately 0.5mm of tendon stump, which was sutured for eyeball traction. Then, starting from the upper inner side, the optic nerve was separated and continuously dissected deeper to achieve a generous length. Using the suture thread tied to the stump of the medial rectus as a traction line, the eyeball was gently maneuvered to see how much it could be displaced. Finally, the most challenging step, one by one, the branches of the ophthalmic artery were dissected and protected from damage. Then, following them, their distribution trunk¡ªthe ophthalmic artery¡ªwas located and cut, with tiny non-damaging threads used for marking. This part of the procedure involving separation and cutting of the vessels had to be conducted collaboratively through the access from the orbit and through the window at the lateral orbit. The ophthalmologists from Mayo watched the procedure intently from above. Even for them, such a surgery was unusual, but having just observed Yang Ping¡¯s handling of the ophthalmic artery, they had to admit that this Chinese doctor was indeed a world-class ophthalmologist. The knowledge Chinese Doctors have of eye anatomy had already surpassed that of any ophthalmologist at Mayo, with the entire surgical process not losing a single drop of blood. Moreover, his level of operation under the microscope was extremely high, conducted throughout while suspending both arms in the air, without the need to rest them on the operating table for support. ¡°Use ice gauze to protect the eyeball!¡± Yang Ping instructed his assistant, who at this time was not John Ansen, but an ophthalmologist. The ophthalmologist carefully wrapped the eyeball with sterile ice saline-soaked gauze. Yang Ping noticed that every piece of gauze at Mayo had a QR code, allowing the tracing of the gauze through scanning. The American management system was indeed well-established. In the teaching room at that moment. The live video stream continuously showed the procedures within the surgical field, with a high-definition screen in the upper right corner displaying a larger thumbnail video that captured the entire upper limbs of the Chief Surgeon and the assistant. The Chief Surgeon was conducting the entire microscopic operation without touching the ground with his upper limbs? How could the speed of the suspended operation be so fast? Every doctor was thoroughly impressed by such suspended handling, as the level of operation under the microscope is something every neurosurgeon aspires to achieve in a lifetime. Without significant abilities in microscopic operation, one simply cannot become a neurosurgeon. If any other doctors were to perform it, their elbows would have to be propped on the operating table, which would be the only way to guarantee stability and avoid tremor under the microscope. A suspended operation may be feasible for a short time, but it is incredibly difficult to maintain for a longer duration. Moreover, in a suspended operation, the movements are generally slower and lack the ability to be quick and agile. Yet Yang Ping was performing a suspended operation, and the surgery still to come also involved suspended maneuvers. This wasn¡¯t Yang Ping showing off or boasting; for him, operating with his arms suspended under the microscope was very stable, so why should he find it necessary to rest his elbows on the operating table? It would be redundant. ¡°All his maneuvers just now were conducted with his arms suspended?¡± the white-haired doctor asked in surprise. The muscular man took it lightly, ¡°The procedures so far have been rough, not a big deal. Later, when entering the more precise intracranial operation, sustaining the arms suspended for a long time won¡¯t be possible.¡± ¡°But the separation of the ophthalmic artery and the optic nerve just now are also considered precise procedures, especially the separation of the ophthalmic artery and its branches?¡± the white-haired doctor had watched very clearly. Members of the WeChat group sat together, discussing the surgery in low voices in Chinese. ¡°The professor is becoming more and more impressive, his hands are so steady even when operating suspended.¡± ¡°Yeah, any support would only slow him down and make him feel less agile.¡± Chapter 854 - 854 760 Temporary Suspension of Surgery ?Chapter 854: Chapter 760 Temporary Suspension of Surgery Chapter 854: Chapter 760 Temporary Suspension of Surgery The length of the freed optic nerve was sufficient, and the eyeball connected to the optic nerve was moved aside. The empty orbit thus became the best doorway to safety, directly behind it were the tumor and its ¡°shield.¡± The ¡°shield¡± was the important brain tissue enveloping the tumor. Here they left a gap, which was the optimal point of attack. Entering through this gap, one could avoid damaging the surrounding critical brain tissue and likewise avoid harming the dense network of blood vessels. The surgery required strategy. Faced with a ¡°Maginot Line,¡± was it better to mount a frontal assault or to circumvent it with a surprise flank attack? The latter was clearly the more astute choice. Despite the great risk of moving aside an eyeball, entering through the orbit sidestepped the dangerous areas. Compared with other approaches, it minimized the risk of death and disability. In a sense, it was the only path to success. Yang Ping didn¡¯t hesitate, decisively making incisions layer by layer from there, all the way to the cranial cavity. The gap behind it appeared clearly in his field of vision, and through this gap, he could remove the tumor in one fell swoop. When the video showed the moment the ¡°gap¡± was exposed. The doctors at Mayo gasped in admiration at such a clever approach. The gap, right behind the doorway to safety¡ªthrough the gap one could almost see the blood vessels on the surface of the tumor! It took tremendous courage and innovation to move aside a healthy eyeball in order to achieve surgical success, something no one had thought of before, nor had the audacity to consider. ¡°They¡¯re really just behind there?¡± John Ansen exclaimed. Yang Ping¡¯s tone remained very calm, ¡°Both MRI and CT have shown this, but you just didn¡¯t notice it.¡± In fact, every neurosurgeon at Mayo Clinic had reviewed the patient¡¯s MRI and CT images, and they indeed clearly showed the details. However, the power of fixed mindsets is frightening, leading them to selectively overlook the orbit as an approach. Such an entry point was never mentioned in textbooks, and all their plans and attempts were confined within a set boundary. From the doorway to safety to the tumor, the distance was quite far, and the operation space was unlike the usual¡ªit was almost a tunnel. Therefore, to resect the tumor through this tunnel, the length of the surgical instruments used had to be much longer than ordinary tools. The longer the distance below the grip point of the instrument in the hand, the less stable the tip of the instrument became. This posed a certain difficulty for operations under the microscope, especially those involving both arms being held aloft. Even if one switched to a stable mode with both elbows supported, the difficulty was extremely high under these conditions. ¡°Do you need support for your elbows?¡± John Ansen asked. By now, the first assistant surgeon had been replaced by John Ansen, who himself was an ophthalmologist. He was concerned that the difficulty of the operation couldn¡¯t be met with arms held aloft. ¡°No need! Support would detract from the flexibility of my hands,¡± replied Yang Ping. His tone was always so calm, and although it seemed icy, it conveyed his rationality and confidence. John Ansen stopped speaking because his every judgment was based on a line of thinking entirely different from Yang Ping¡¯s. The long-handle microscopic instruments had already reached deep into the skull, and the dissection of the tumor began at the gap using a laser knife. This contact laser knife not only offered high precision but also, unlike conventional mechanical knives, didn¡¯t cause mechanical compression and traction injuries to the nervous tissue during cutting. It also didn¡¯t create electrical interference with intraoperative electrophysiological monitoring like the high-frequency current from electrocoagulation hemostasis equipment. Therefore, Yang Ping, as the Chief Surgeon in neurosurgery, was very fond of using this tool. With the location being so deep, the tumor¡¯s blood supply exceptionally plentiful, and the operational space within the tunnel limited, the surgery was destined to be fraught with difficulties. John Ansen¡¯s task as an assistant was only to handle the retractors; Yang Ping accomplished the entire operation on his own. To minimize the ischemic time for the eyeball, Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to waste time. John Ansen would only slow down his pace; Yang Ping¡¯s solo efficiency was the highest. The contact laser knife could change the temperature of the tissue by adjusting the power density, changing the exposure time, replacing different shaped knife heads, and altering the way the knife head contacted the tissue. This controlled the shape and scope of the cuts, with a cutting precision of 0.1¨C0.2 mm and no obvious alterations in the surrounding tissue. Yang Ping maximized the advantages of the laser knife while minimizing the disadvantages of thermal damage. The tiny knife head would appear between blood vessels every time it was operated, severing and coagulating them, which is why up to this point, there had been no bleeding observed in the surgical area. Yang Ping reached out for the instrument he wanted, but it did not come. He paused and turned to look at the Instrumental Nurse. The nurse looked perplexed. ¡°I need another round knife head laser knife!¡± Yang Ping reminded her. He realized that the Instrumental Nurse was just a unfamiliar American girl and suddenly came to his senses, so he reminded her. Now, holding a microscopic forceps in his left hand and a sharp knife head laser knife in his right, Yang Ping found that using this same laser knife for both cutting and hemostasis slowed him down. Therefore, he wanted to switch the microscopic forceps in his left hand to a round knife head laser knife so he could cut with his right hand and coagulate with his left, coordinating the two to separate the tissues and increase speed. ¡°OK!¡± The Instrumental Nurse responded, verbally brisk, but inwardly she was very flustered. Her sluggishness was just the accumulation of the past moments; she had been trying very hard but couldn¡¯t keep up with the pace. In that moment just now, her tense nerves finally snapped, and she couldn¡¯t keep up with the rhythm any longer. Yet Yang Ping had already been considerate of the nurse¡¯s pace, having performed the earlier part of the surgery quite slowly. Of course, this was slow only relative to his usual speed, while in everyone else¡¯s eyes, he was already moving very fast. Chapter 855 - 855 760 Temporary Suspension of Surgery_2 ?Chapter 855: Chapter 760 Temporary Suspension of Surgery_2 Chapter 855: Chapter 760 Temporary Suspension of Surgery_2 Now, reducing the ischemic time of the eyeball is a priority, so we must speed up, but the Instrumental Nurse¡¯s pace finally collapses as if a speeding car¡¯s engine burns out. ¡°I¡ªI¡ª¡± In her panic, after responding with ¡°OK,¡± the Instrumental Nurse completely loses her rhythm. She doesn¡¯t know what to do next; her mind goes blank, and her hands are uncertain which instrument to reach for. John Ansen sees this and feels incredibly embarrassed¡ªthis is the Mayo, the number one ranked hospital in the United States. ¡°It¡¯s alright, don¡¯t be nervous, take a break.¡± Yang Ping halts his actions, comforting the nurse; he has always treated the nurses with kindness. Following Yang Ping¡¯s lead, John Ansen also offers encouragement to the nurse, ¡°Maybe you¡¯re just too tired. Take a break.¡± At that moment, Yang Ping remembers something and says to John Ansen, ¡°I forgot to tell you something important yesterday. If possible, my surgeries are best performed with two skilled instrumental nurses, which is the standard for my main surgeries.¡± There had only been one Instrumental Nurse, and even with slowing down, he feels very sorry for the poor American girl. Two Instrumental Nurses? After hearing this, John Ansen is unsure what to do or why Yang Ping would make such a statement, but observing the exhausted Instrumental Nurse, he understands the meaning of Yang Ping¡¯s words is straightforward¡ªhe needs two nurses. The Instrumental Nurse next to him nods earnestly, ¡°Yes, it would be better to have another nurse up here.¡± She strongly agrees with Yang Ping¡¯s suggestion because she really can¡¯t continue in her current state. She has been maintaining by sheer tension in her nerves, mobilizing all of her body¡¯s potential; this is not a normal way to work and is bound to collapse sooner or later. John Ansen calls the Patrolling Nurse over, ¡°Get Daisy up here!¡± Daisy is also an Operating Room Neurosurgery specialty nurse who has more seniority than the current Instrumental Nurse. Daisy and the Instrumental Nurse on stage are two of Mayo Clinic¡¯s most outstanding Neurosurgery nurses. The Anesthesiologist, who had been silent at the sidelines, looks once again at the monitoring device¡¯s screen, and at that moment, feels immense pressure. ¡°John Ansen? Do we really need to increase the staff?¡± the Anesthesiologist offers proactively. Because surgery is a serious and sacred affair, no oversights are allowed. Rather than passively discovering shortcomings, it¡¯s better to actively raise concerns. John Ansen¡¯s gaze shifts to Yang Ping, as he, too, is unsure if two Anesthesiologists are needed. Yang Ping shakes his head, ¡°Not necessary, one is enough.¡± Only then does the Anesthesiologist relax, but his tension is obviously greater than before, and his focus sharpens even more. ¡°I will tell you what instruments to hand over for this step and what to prepare for the next. You two need to cooperate; one prepares, the other delivers. Don¡¯t mess up the rhythm. We need to reduce the ischemic time for the eyeball as much as possible, so I have to speed up. Take a deep breath, and let¡¯s continue,¡± Yang Ping encourages the Instrumental Nurses. After several deep breaths, the Instrumental Nurse regains her composure. As the surgery continues, Daisy starts scrubbing in. ¡ª What¡¯s going on? Why has the video paused? Could it be that the surgery has encountered a problem? The sudden pause of the video in the Teaching Room has a succession of doctors observing the surgery simultaneously pelted with a series of questions. This surgery was difficult to begin with, the peculiar anatomy of the hemisphere making the outcomes even more unpredictable. In the eyes of these doctors, every step of Yang Ping¡¯s unconventional surgical approach is fraught with traps and risks. ¡°It must be a break to adjust their surgical position. The surgical site is deep, and using long-handled surgical instruments, you definitely can¡¯t go without elbow support,¡± muscled guy immediately knows what¡¯s happening. The muscled guy is a technical expert from the Mayo Clinic Department of Neurosurgery, known as the King of Micro-operations. During the specialty training phase for neurosurgeons, this high-caliber Harvard medical student, who sees the operation under a microscope as the lifeblood of neurological surgery, crazily trained on microscopic techniques, refining every single movement¡ªhence he was called the ¡°King of Micro-manipulation.¡± Even when he sweated in the gym, it was merely to maintain a strong body, to enhance the balance and endurance of his hands, using his homemade resistance training method, day in and day out for ten years. As the King of Micro-manipulation, he understood deeply that under the current circumstances, it was impossible to complete the surgery with his arms suspended in the air. However, the recent suspended operation was already very impressive. From the maneuvers under the microscope, Muscle Man judged that John Ansen¡¯s mentor was indeed a world-class master. The gray-haired doctor had his own opinion, believing that even with adjusted posture, the operation shouldn¡¯t take this long. He wondered if there had been some unexpected issue during the procedure. The other Mayo doctors quietly sat in the second row with Muscle Man and the gray-haired man, waiting patiently to continue. It was quite normal for high-difficulty surgeries to encounter slight mishaps, which they had all experienced plenty of times before. Only Robert knew what was really happening in the operating room, guessing that it must be the instrumental nurse getting stuck, and now they needed to adjust the rhythm. Robert was most familiar with his own professor; the problem couldn¡¯t possibly be with him. To date, he had never seen his mentor make a mistake. ¡°Is the surgery running into difficulties?¡± Woodhead asked. Clearly, you¡¯re not familiar with the professor, Robert thought, shaking his head disdainfully, ¡°This surgery is nothing to the professor.¡± ¡°Nothing? What do you mean by that?¡± Woodhead was very puzzled. ¡°Your Level Four is not passed without reason,¡± Robert replied helplessly. Nothing? Woodhead mulled over these words in his mind, but still couldn¡¯t grasp their meaning. After all, this surgery must at least be considered a surgery for the professor; how could it possibly be ¡®nothing¡¯? ¡°Why is the video paused?¡± Woodhead continued to ask. Since there are no difficulties, just continue with the surgery. ¡°The professor is waiting for another instrumental nurse to come on stage. Whenever he operates outside his home department, he always works with two instrumental nurses; otherwise, the instrumental nurse definitely can¡¯t keep up with the pace,¡± Robert confidently shared his own speculation. Massimo turned his head and asked, ¡°The professor originated from orthopedics, so does neurosurgery also fall within his hobbies?¡± Robert nodded, ¡°The professor was initially an orthopedics doctor, but he can perform all kinds of surgeries at a top-level. Look, this eye-replanting surgery is originally an ophthalmology procedure, but isn¡¯t the professor able to perform it just the same? He definitely does it better than any ophthalmologist at Mayo.¡± Massimo fell into silence. Back when Yang Ping helped resolve a crisis for NASA in Houston and was leaving the city, Massimo went to the airport to see him off. Before parting, Massimo asked Yang Ping if he had done multiple interventional surgeries. Yang Ping simply replied: ¡°I rarely perform interventional surgeries.¡± At that moment, Massimo felt totally bewildered. Seldom performing interventional surgeries, yet his skills were far superior to Massimo¡¯s. It was then that Massimo came to recognize Yang Ping as his mentor. Although he had not yet received Yang Ping¡¯s acknowledgment and hadn¡¯t formally joined the WeChat group, in Massimo¡¯s heart, Yang Ping had long been his mentor. Muscle Man, hearing these American men chatting in Chinese, found it strange, feeling as though they seemed to know some inside story. He asked Robert if he knew what was actually happening in the operating room. Robert honestly told him, ¡°Your instrumental nurse can¡¯t keep up the pace; we¡¯re now waiting for the second instrumental nurse to scrub in.¡± ¡°Two instrumental nurses?¡± Muscle Man, listening from the back row, found Robert¡¯s exaggerated words inconceivable. How fast must the chief surgeon work to leave the instrumental nurse unable to keep up, considering the instrumental nurse¡¯s job is merely to hand over instruments? Moreover, brain tumor surgeries are generally risky operations where, relatively speaking, slower procedures are the norm. Operations under the microscope should be even slower. ¡°That¡¯s right, two instrumental nurses. Whether or not the two nurses can keep up with the pace will depend on the professional skills of your Mayo instrumental nurses,¡± Robert stated unreservedly; he was that straightforward. The surrounding Mayo men also felt perplexed upon hearing this. Mayo was a world-class hospital, and they had never witnessed such a thing before. One chief surgeon, assisted by two instrumental nurses? Chapter 856 - 856 761 Micro Manipulation God ?Chapter 856: 761 Micro Manipulation God Chapter 856: 761 Micro Manipulation God In the operating room, Yang Ping instructed two instrumental nurses on how to cooperate: one was to specifically prepare the instruments for the next step, placing the required instruments for the next step in the most priority position. Yang Ping would inform her in advance to be ready, and she must listen attentively. The other nurse was responsible for delivering instruments, taking the needed instruments from the priority position and delivering them as quickly as possible. With the two working together in this way, the speed could be increased. Once everything was ready, Yang Ping began to enter the cranium through the operation window in the eye socket, using the safety window to separate the tumor. The round laser knife and the pointed laser knife had different power levels, one suitable for coagulating blood vessels and the other for cutting. They performed to their maximum potential in Yang Ping¡¯s hands. When the round knife in the left hand was not activated with energy, it acted as a cold-mode auxiliary tool to the right hand¡¯s laser knife for stripping. It was like the tip of a pair of tweezers, capable of scraping, blocking, and separating, while the right hand¡¯s knife head was always sharp with energy for a Ruixing separation. When a small artery was exposed, the right hand¡¯s knife head cut through the artery, and instantly, the left hand¡¯s knife head, energized, took over, coagulating the cut blood vessel: proximal end first, then distal, even the sequence was so perfect, making the whole operation very delicate. At this speed, small arteries had no time to bleed before being sealed by the laser knife¡¯s hemostatic function. John Ansen¡¯s neck began to sweat from watching, such skill, such precision, such stability required how many surgeries to attain. Even if John Ansen¡¯s current volume of surgeries were increased tenfold, he would not be able to reach this level of proficiency. John Ansen kept dripping ice-salt water into the surgical area to reduce the thermal damage from the laser knife. Although this type of contact laser knife caused very minimal thermal damage, it was still present. Using ice-salt water continuously during the surgery could eliminate thermal injury and also contract the arteries to some extent, serving as a hemostatic. However, the dripping of ice-salt water had to be intermittent so as not to interfere with the chief surgeon¡¯s operation. ¡°Continue, don¡¯t stop with the ice-salt water.¡± Yang Ping commanded John Ansen, his tone still calm as ever. John Ansen had no choice but to follow the order, keeping the impact of ice-salt water on the surgical area uninterrupted, which did not affect Yang Ping¡¯s operation in the slightest, as if his operation could not be disturbed by anything. Yang Ping seemed to be familiar with the boundaries of the tumor; his operations were always carried out in the space between the tumor and brain tissue, which theoretically exists but is actually very hard to find. John Ansen focused intently on the surgery, not understanding how Yang Ping could be so clear about the tumor boundaries. For any tumor surgery, if the doctor can clearly discern the tumor boundaries during the operation, the safety and effect of the surgery would increase manifold. Yet in most cases, let alone find the exact boundaries of a malignant tumor, the boundaries of some benign tumors also can¡¯t be discerned during surgery. Soon, the tumor was removed, and Yang Ping tossed it into a curved plate. Up to now, whether it was the surgical area or the surface of the tumor, there was surprisingly no blood to be seen, and this was a vascular-rich tumor. Yang Ping waited for about five minutes, there was no bleeding in the surgical area, and there wasn¡¯t even a need to repeat the hemostasis step; he simply rinsed the surgical area with ice-salt water, and the cavity left by the original position of the tumor was clean. ¡°Let¡¯s replant the eyeball!¡± Yang Ping decided against taking a mid-surgery break. The two ophthalmic instrument nurses who were on standby immediately scrubbed in to join the procedure. Taking a lesson from before, the ophthalmologist made no hesitation, promptly prepared two instrumental nurses, and to err on the side of caution, he called two colleagues over as a reserve team. In case additional assistance was needed, the reserve team could step in at any moment. It seems the ophthalmologist had obviously developed a fear of falling behind in speed. The assistant shifted from John Ansen to the ophthalmologist¡ªClaus, a distinguished doctor who graduated from Harvard. Claus¡¯s specialty training was completed at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, where he was researching eyeball transplantation and had conducted numerous animal experiments with both exciting and disappointing results. After removing and replanting the eyes of mice, allowing them some time to recover, the mice¡¯s pupils could react to light, indicating that some of the newly grown nerve axons had reached the brain¡¯s visual center after the replanting. This was an exciting outcome; even if a few nerves grew into the brain¡¯s visual center, it made the concept theoretically viable. When otologists were researching artificial electronic cochleae, they thought thousands of electrodes stimulating thousands of nerves were necessary to produce acceptable hearing, but later practice proved that only 16 electrodes stimulating auditory nerves were enough to help patients regain hearing. Furthermore, a patient with half of their brain could use that half to carry out all normal brain functions. Many facts convinced Claus that even with relatively scarce input data or weak signals, the brain could make the most of that information to fulfill its tasks. So theoretically, as long as a sufficient number of optic nerves could grow into the visual center, it was possible to restore sight. The eye has over a million retinal ganglion cells forming the retinal layer of the eyeball, with each cell connected to the brain by a nerve fiber known as an axon. However, after all of them are severed, no one knows just how many connections need to be restored to meet the standard. In order to recover as many connections as possible, microsurgical vascular anastomosis techniques become key before any new medical breakthroughs. Although the patient¡¯s optic nerve wasn¡¯t severed, only the blood vessels were, the anastomosis of the eye¡¯s arteries and veins still tests the operating technique under the microscope. He wanted to see what a real eye replanting surgery was like. Claus perked up, ¡°Shall we begin?¡± John Ansen didn¡¯t ask again if elbow support was necessary. When performing vascular anastomosis under a long-handled microscope, it was absolutely impossible to operate with arms suspended in mid-air, so there was no need to remind Yang Ping. He would surely choose elbow support. But once more, to John Ansen¡¯s surprise and also to Claus¡¯s surprise. Yang Ping said nothing and began anastomosing the eye¡¯s arteries and veins with his arms hanging in the air through the tiny window. His arms were steadier than Da Vinci¡¯s robotic arms, with not the slightest shake or tremor. Claus followed with his assistant¡¯s eyepiece, clearly seeing under his view, the instrument¡¯s tip performing the most skilled micro-manipulations. Whether it was the anastomosis of the eye¡¯s arteries or veins, there were no difficulties. Each stitch was not only accurately placed in one attempt but also maintained a consistent rhythm throughout, with even spacing between stitches and edges. It looked as precise as a machine, yet exhibited the artistry of hand-sewn craftsmanship. This was not a person but a superhuman surgical machine, this was Claus¡¯s assessment of Yang Ping. John Ansen watched intently through the second assistant¡¯s eyepiece. This was his first time operating with Yang Ping, watching his surgery from such close proximity. The skill level of his mentor was godlike, naturally evoking a sense of inexplicable admiration and awe in him. No wonder Robert was willing to follow around his mentor, enduring all hardships without complaint. No wonder they spared no effort in learning Chinese, it was all to follow their mentor, to be able to communicate face-to-face with him. Soon the eye¡¯s arteries and accompanying veins were anastomosed, and several muscles were also joined. The eyeball returned to its place. ¡°Is it over?¡± Claus asked. It seemed like it was only a short while ago that he had said, ¡°Shall we begin?¡± Now he was asking, ¡°Is it over?¡± Yang Ping nodded and carefully placed the instruments in the curved plate. ¡°Postoperative routine includes the use of morphine to prevent spasms of the small arteries, an absolute ban on smoking. Other than that, there are no special requirements; just follow the routine postoperative care for small blood vessel anastomosis.¡± ¡ª The video frame also stayed on the last moment of the surgery, with the eyeball completely repositioned. A group of proud Mayo men had never seen such ¡°clean-freak¡± surgery; from start to finish, there was hardly any bleeding. Perhaps this was the legendary bloodless surgery. The king of micro-maneuvers, muscular Ming Ge, sat in his seat, stunned. He just witnessed what true micro-maneuvers were. Whether it was the resection of tumors or the anastomosis of blood vessels, the operation was godlike. This level of micro-maneuvering was something he had always strived for but could never achieve. The white-haired Theodore understood the mindset of muscular Ming Ge at that moment and said, ¡°You¡¯re the king of micro-maneuvers, but he is the god of micro-maneuvers. No wonder he is John Ansen¡¯s mentor. The Chinese, they truly are capable of anything.¡± ¡°Yes, it seems like they can accomplish anything.¡± ¡°With such a vast country, with so many people, among them are many of extreme intelligence.¡± ¡°No wonder he could operate with his arms suspended earlier. The second half of the surgery must have been completed with elbow support,¡± Ming Ge no longer needed to wonder; the latter part of the surgery was surely done with elbow support. The video started to replay the eye transplant surgery, but a small window also began playing alongside the main video. This small window had remained off until now and was only supplementary. This video wasn¡¯t from the microscope¡¯s view but was shot from the camera on top of the Surgical Light, which allowed viewing the entire upper body of the surgery members. ¡°His arms were suspended the entire time?¡± exclaimed white-haired Theodore in surprise. Ming Ge¡¯s eyes widened as he watched the video. There must have been a mistake; the video in the small window and the main video couldn¡¯t possibly be in sync. How could such a procedure be completed with the arms continuously suspended? Chapter 857 - 857 762 Distinguished Expert ?Chapter 857: Chapter 762: Distinguished Expert Chapter 857: Chapter 762: Distinguished Expert The patient had to wait a full three hours before he woke up and was taken to the Ward. When his wife heard that the surgery was successful, she excitedly made the sign of the cross on her chest over and over again. In the Doctor¡¯s Office at Mayo, the doctors were so swamped by Yang Ping that there was barely room to breathe. In truth, to conquer these proud Mayo men was simple, all it took was one surgery they could not achieve themselves. The ophthalmologists enthusiastically invited Yang Ping to visit their eyeball transplant animal experiment project, which is currently ongoing in the laboratories of the Mayo Medical School. It is a joint research project between Mayo and the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. So far, eyeball transplantation is still at the animal experiment stage all around the world. The endeavor began with animal experiments in the 19th century and had since proceeded with great vigor, but had always been at a standstill without significant breakthroughs. In 1977, a team from the American National Eye Institute came to a cautious conclusion after extensive research: full eyeball transplantation cannot be successful! This is because there are three insurmountable barriers¡ªimmune rejection, lack of nerve function, and insufficient blood supply. Of course, that was just an outdated judgment. Before the moon landing, many people believed it was impossible, yet eventually, that dream was realized despite all the difficulties. Immune rejection is a challenge all heterogeneous organ transplants must confront. With the development of immunosuppressive drugs, this problem could be solved. Lack of nerve function was the biggest hurdle, but the doctors had already made some breakthroughs. They had identified two special genes in the retinal ganglion cells of mice, genes that affect the in vitro survival time and the post-repair growth distance of vision nerve cells. So, they deleted these two genes from the mouse retinal ganglion cells. After removing them, the growth ability of the mice¡¯s optic nerve enhanced by 10%, resulting in longer survival times and greater growth distances. The final issue, insufficient blood supply, could be resolved through the sophisticated techniques of microsurgery. Therefore, after seeing Yang Ping¡¯s outstanding skills in microsurgery, Claus believed that with Yang Ping¡¯s help, they would definitely be able to solve the problem of insufficient blood supply. Thus, all three major challenges could be met with solutions. Upon hearing ¡°special genes,¡± Yang Ping was highly interested in the topic. His own research was currently stuck on ¡°three-dimensional cellular construction guidance genes.¡± He speculated that certain special genes must exist within stem cells, which under certain conditions could not only guide stem cell differentiation but also direct three-dimensional cellular construction. And these genes responsible for guiding three-dimensional cellular construction were named by Yang Ping as ¡°three-dimensional cellular construction guidance genes.¡± The retinal ganglion cells of mice were extremely prone to death in vitro, and even the few surviving axons could not grow long distances. The ophthalmologists at Mayo sought to understand the reasons behind this from a gene decoding perspective. It seemed they were on the right track when they found two special genes. These two special genes were like a lock that secured the survival ability of the retinal ganglion cells. So, they deleted these genes, effectively unlocking them, hence enhancing their abilities to survive and grow. However, these two genes might not be the only special genes that existed. The ophthalmologists would need to continue their efforts, searching for special genes until they completely unraveled the mysteries within. This approach coincided with Yang Ping¡¯s approach. He was very eager to learn how they identified these two special genes, hoping to gain some insight from their methods. Thus, Yang Ping gladly accepted Claus¡¯s invitation to visit the laboratory at the Mayo Medical School, which was located in Rochester Town along with the Mayo Clinic. Yang Ping planned to return to China the next day, so time was of the essence. Without much delay, he went to observe the animal experiments on eyeball transplantation. ¡°Respected Professor Yang, we need your help. If you can assist us in anastomosing the eye artery, the mouse eyeballs will surely get sufficient blood supply, greatly increasing the chances of a successful experiment,¡± Claus stated plainly. The arteries in a mouse¡¯s eye are incredibly small, and no matter how they tried to anastomose in past experiments, it led to varying degrees of blood vessel stenosis, either resulting in occlusion and failure or severely affecting the volume of blood flow. As Yang Ping toured the facility, he said, ¡°I need to know the details of your experiment, so I can understand how to assist you, like whether the blood supply issue is really only affected by the quality of the vascular anastomosis.¡± Claus explained to Yang Ping, ¡°After retinal ganglion cells are isolated from the body, they die swiftly, even with a blood supply. This is a hindrance to our progress in heterologous transplantation.¡± ¡°Ten years ago, we observed a strange phenomenon starting with the BAX gene, which coordinates cell death. We found that mice lacking the BAK gene retained their retinal ganglion cells for years after the optic nerve had been severed, while mice with the BAK gene lost all retinal ganglion cells within three weeks after cutting the optic nerve.¡± ¡°Thus, we began researching how gene expression affects the survival of nerve cells. We know that the BAK gene is just one of the influencing factors. We must continue to identify other genes and then develop drugs that block the expression of these genes, enabling retinal ganglion cells to survive well after being separated from the body.¡± ¡°Survival alone isn¡¯t enough; we must also ensure that the axons of the surviving retinal ganglion cells are capable of growing long distances, all the way to the visual centers in the brain. Fortunately, we have made some progress and can use drugs to promote the growth of the nerve axons.¡± ¡°Now, if we can achieve high-quality vascular anastomosis, I believe that the experiments will be a success.¡± Claus was full of confidence, attributing their previous lack of success to poor quality in anastomosing the eye arteries. ¡°My time here is limited, so please make the arrangements quickly. I¡¯m willing to help you,¡± Yang Ping promptly agreed. This would be the perfect opportunity to understand in detail how they were identifying the special genes, which could be of great value to his work. ¡ª In the Mayo Clinic Department of Neurosurgery, John Ansen led the call to the Mayo higher-ups, proposing to invite Yang Ping to serve as a distinguished expert at Mayo. There was no such position at Mayo before, but with the unanimous support from the entire Department of Neurosurgery, the Dean of Mayo and the executives promptly held a meeting to discuss the proposal and decided to create this special position. Mayo was willing to pay an annual compensation of three million US Dollars to invite Yang Ping as a guest distinguished expert. He would only need to come to Mayo a few times a year to provide surgical guidance. Moreover, Yang Ping¡¯s surgical credentials at Mayo would be endorsed by the Mayo Clinic Department of Neurosurgery and the state medical board would be applied for by the Mayo Clinic. Chapter 858 - 858 763 The Shining New Star ?Chapter 858: Chapter 763: The Shining New Star Chapter 858: Chapter 763: The Shining New Star Claus sought Yang Ping¡¯s assistance and was therefore very open with him, detailing the entire experimental process. The breakthrough in Mayo¡¯s eye transplantation animal experiments confirmed Yang Ping¡¯s belief that gene control must lie behind cell behavior, with genes orchestrating everything. The astute Mayo Doctor discovered differences between two types of mice and traced the problems back to those differences. In his experiments, Yang Ping used normal stem cells, tumor cells, and teratoma cells to establish three models, hoping to find the differences between them and identify the genetic variations that might be the key to unlocking the mysteries. Once the gene segments were identified, and methods to activate or block them were found, the problem would naturally be solved. Yang Ping helped them perform ten syngeneic heterotopic eye transplantation surgeries on mice, ensuring high-quality vascular and nerve anastomosis to maximize the success of the experiment. The arteriole of a mouse¡¯s eye is quite small, and the anastomosis technique under American microscopes clearly falls behind that of China, which is recognized as the birthplace of limb reattachment. Therefore, previously, they often had to discard a large number of animal models due to issues with the quality of the vascular and nerve anastomosis. Even so, they had to continue using mice as models because they had identified gene segments that affect the survival and axonal growth of retinal ganglion cells in mice. It had taken ten years to find these gene segments, and their discovery was partly due to luck. Changing the type of experimental animal would mean having to search for similar gene segments again, and even if the team were prepared to spend another decade, success was still highly uncertain. Sometimes, the success of scientific research has multiple causes¡ªwith diligence, persistence, inspiration, luck, and more all playing a part. Compared with the already identified genetic segments, the quality of the vascular and nerve anastomosis in eyeballs is something that can be improved, a minor flaw. Now, Claus¡¯s team has found a shortcut by directly having Yang Ping perform eye transplantation surgeries on mice to create experimental models. The few models they once considered to be of high quality pale in comparison to the models now made by Yang Ping, which were only crudely made. The patient with hemisphere brain surgery had a very stable postoperative recovery, all thanks to Yang Ping¡¯s exquisite surgical skills. John Ansen used the surgical video as a teaching tool for neurosurgery. They broke the video¡¯s procedures down into several hundred standard movements, then used a computer to analyze and refine them, finally extracting some standardized movements for training each doctor. In the United States, Yang Ping did not stay for long. He declined invitations from Woodhead and Griffin and didn¡¯t even have time to visit Robert¡¯s base at Long Island Clinic. The day after completing the surgery, Yang Ping and Robert flew back to China from the United States. ¡ª By now, a week had passed since Yang Ping¡¯s paper submission. In Berlin, Germany, at Manstein¡¯s Villa. The German Professor had already consumed dozens of cups of coffee. He stretched languidly and walked to the window, pulled back the curtains, opened the window, and was greeted by a rush of fresh air. ¡°This damn guy, making me stay up until morning,¡± Manstein cursed, then took a deep breath as the first light of dawn was visible in the distance. The Professor had indeed pulled an all-nighter, staying awake from five in the afternoon until now without so much as a wink of sleep. It was all because of a Chinese young man named Yang Ping and his damn papers. As Professor Manstein had reviewed Yang Ping¡¯s manuscript last time, he opened his mailbox, recognized the familiar name, and out of curiosity clicked on the email, which led him to pull an all-nighter. While reading the paper, the German Professor simultaneously checked references, interspersed with drinking coffee and bathroom breaks, not realizing that he had stayed up until the next morning. This genius German Professor had never seen such imaginative research; the Skin Expansion Technology within had shattered his understanding. Professor Mainshtan keenly predicted that this seemingly modest paper would mark the dawn of a new era. When it came to Skin Expansion Technology, Professor Mainshtan had the most authority, as it was his original invention. Yet, now he felt like he had merely coined a catchy medical term for someone else¡¯s use. His own technology wasn¡¯t true expansion technology, but Yang Ping¡¯s was the real deal. Apart from borrowing the term ¡°expansion technology,¡± Yang Ping¡¯s approach was entirely different from Mainshtan¡¯s, from theory to experiment. Mainshtan¡¯s Skin Expansion Technology involved taking epidermal cells and dermal cells and culturing them externally. After the cells divided, their numbers increased exponentially, but essentially, they were still scattered cultures. All Mainshtan did was add cell paving technology to the scattered cells, allowing epidermal cells to form one layer, and dermal cells another, creating a semblance of a skin layer containing both dermis and epidermis. Yang Ping¡¯s Skin Expansion Technology, on the other hand, was completely different; it was a somatic cell replication technique, using a small piece of human skin and expanding it through continuous replication to form a large area of skin. This was not mere stem cell differentiation induction but a breakthrough in cell division and construction. The ability to activate, switch on, and off certain gene expressions in skin cells had been mastered. Replicate! Clone! What a marvelous technology, though now it appeared only in the simple context of skin. No one can say for sure, perhaps one day this technique could be extended to any organ. For example, patients with end-stage liver failure who still have living liver cells could use these cells to replicate a whole liver. This is a great beginning. Unable to contain his excitement, Mainshtan immediately dialed the editor of Science, Lewis, and exclaimed with fervor, ¡°Lewis, listen to me, after I finish you only need to answer YES. The three articles you sent me must be published as soon as possible, in this issue. I guarantee they will make your journal shine; they will make you the most visionary editor in the history of Science.¡± ¡°But¡ªmy Professor, it¡¯s already been typeset. Changes now, just aren¡¯t feasible,¡± Lewis said with reluctance. ¡°I told you, you just need to answer YES. You will thank me later. No matter what it takes, even if you have to add a few pages, they must be published in this issue. To delay would be self-harm,¡± Mainshtan was unyielding. Lewis, who was far away in the United States, had never seen Mainshtan so animated. He did not doubt Mainshtan¡¯s judgement, as this rare genius¡¯s ability to assess was far beyond his own. But to publish three articles at once, and to give one a cover story, what an exceptional honor. The journal Science had never made such a historical decision. ¡°But¡ª¡± Lewis tried to explain further. Mainshtan¡¯s tone was mixed with anger: ¡°Too many buts will render you mediocre, Lewis. Listen, a new star will soon rise, its dazzling light will make us seem dim. If possible, let¡¯s be the closest witnesses,¡± Mainshtan hung up. No one understood the value of these papers better than Mainshtan. This genius acutely sensed that the three papers were just a prelude, hiding a huge surprise. Typically, young people who could easily obtain such research results wouldn¡¯t be satisfied with mere skin expansion. This was just the first door they had opened. Or rather, it wasn¡¯t even a door, just a knock. Mainshtan pondered: The realization of this kind of Skin Expansion Technology must have cracked some key foundational technology, which just hadn¡¯t been reflected in the paper. This young man would likely next move towards cloning organs, using somatic cell replication to create complete organs, and he would usher in a brand-new era. No, perhaps his experiments had already begun. In ten or twenty years, it might indeed be possible to clone organs. Mainshtan stood by the bedside, the morning light glittering, the horizon bathed in gold. He downed the coffee in his cup in one gulp. The world sure is vast, and today¡¯s sunrise truly dazzling. Chapter 859 - 859 764 Medical Freak ?Chapter 859: Chapter 764 Medical Freak Chapter 859: Chapter 764 Medical Freak After Yang Ping returned to his country, John Ansen reported to him daily on the condition of the patient with the hemispheric brain illness. The patient had recovered well after surgery and would soon be discharged from the hospital. During his time away, Yang Ping hadn¡¯t paid attention to the responses to his submissions. Now that he was back, he wanted to see if there was any good news, so he opened his email and found a new message from Germany. The email was not an official response from Science journal but rather a personal message from Professor Mainshtan. ¡°Dear Professor Yang Ping: I have read all three papers, and please forgive my presumptuousness and impulsiveness. This is not the official response of Science journal to your manuscript, but rather my personal reply, representing only my personal opinion. The innovation in your paper is shocking; it will usher in the era of somatic cell cloned organs. Although this is just a beginning, I believe that if we continue down this path, in ten, twenty, or thirty years, we will surely make breakthroughs in organ cloning. Given the significant implications of the papers, I have recommended all three to the editor-in-chief for publication at the fastest pace, and preferably one should be a cover article. I hope we have the opportunity to meet in the future, and before that, I request to keep in touch via email. Professor Mainshtan from Sharit Medical College, Germany.¡± Does this mean the three papers submitted to Science have been ¡®awarded¡¯? It appears that Mainshtan¡¯s reputation is well deserved; he indeed is a genius, as he was able to discern the academic value of the paper and even foresee the future direction of the paper¡¯s core academic achievements. It is said that Mainshtan is now obsessed with head transplantation surgery. Of course, he is different from other doctors who claim to perform head transplants. He is not merely conducting simple head transplants; he is preparing thoroughly for the surgery. The biggest challenge in head transplantation is the treatment of nerve connections. If this issue cannot be resolved, a head transplantation would not succeed; it would be nothing but a farce. Professor Mainshtan¡¯s latest research topic involves studying nerve restorative repair. He is attempting to use a certain technique to repair severed nerves at the injury site, restoring the nerves¡¯ anatomy there and thus recovering their function. Nerves are considered irreparable, a view that has become a consensus and common knowledge. They can only rely on the regrowth of nerve cell axons, which must grow all the way to the targeted area. All doctors and scientists study ways to promote the growth of these axons. However, Mainshtan is trying to challenge this conclusion. He aims to conduct restorative repair on nerves, hoping to achieve this goal through a technique akin to cellular biological soldering. It is said that his animal experiments have made some progress. If Mainshtan¡¯s research is successful, then all patients with spinal cord injuries and paraplegia, as well as those with peripheral nerve damage, could recover normally. Of course, Mainshtan¡¯s head transplantation would also be bound to succeed. Head transplantation? Nerve restorative repair without injury? When Yang Ping thought about the things August had mentioned, he felt that Mainshtan was a medical oddity. His ideas were so crazy and unorthodox¡ªan interesting friend to make. So, Yang Ping responded to Professor Mainshtan with an email, indicating he was open to keeping in touch. ¡ª Dean Xia was highly efficient. The procedures for Yang Ping¡¯s early Ph.D. graduation, promotion to chief physician, and appointment as a doctoral supervisor were all completed. The doctor¡¯s introduction on the Comprehensive Surgery Department wall at Sanbo Hospital, as well as on the official website, were updated simultaneously. The competition for the Outstanding Young Talent quota was also reaching a climax. Nandu Medical University Meeting Room was buzzing with non-stop arguments over the allocation of the Outstanding Young Talent position, creating an incredibly tense atmosphere. Currently, there¡¯s only one slot available across the entire Nandu system, and who should get it¡ªYang Ping or Guan Ruyan¡ªwas the subject of an unending debate among the professors. After all, both candidates qualified, Yang Ping had greater potential, but Guan Ruyan¡¯s academic achievements were more plentiful. Professor Su and Vice Principal Ding had to recuse themselves from such meetings due to relationships with the parties concerned, but inevitably, their influence would affect the opinions of the meeting attendees, thus naturally dividing the members into three groups. One group had close personal ties with Professor Su, another was connected to Vice Principal Ding¡¯s network, and the third group could express their opinions objectively without influence from personal relationships. ¡°Guan Ruyan holds a doctorate from Heidelberg University in Germany and is a scholar who returned after studying in Germany. He has already published two papers in CNS and thirty-two in SCI journals, has chaired five national research projects¡ªtherefore, I think there¡¯s no dispute over this slot. Who else has such achievements?¡± spoke Shi Qingxian, the head of the Nandu Medical University¡¯s Science and Technology Department. Deputy Dean of the Affiliated First Hospital, Professor Zhou, cleared his throat, ¡°Professor Guan¡¯s scholarly contributions are indeed abundant; he¡¯s a rare talent, and he, by all rights, should get the slot. But I think that treating the allocation of this slot so casually would violate the principles of fairness and justice. Other competitors should also have a chance. Take, for instance, Professor Yang from Sanbo Hospital¡ªeven though he¡¯s young, he already has a CNS paper and ten SCI articles. Though he cannot match Guan Ruyan¡¯s quantity, his single CNS paper has been cited far more times than the sum of citations of Guan Ruyan¡¯s two CNS papers¡ªnot to mention that all of Professor Yang¡¯s SCI papers are on top-tier journals, which are clearly of higher quality than Guan Ruyan¡¯s. One excels in quantity, the other in quality. I believe Yang Ping has the edge and fully deserves the slot.¡± These two made their positions crystal clear and unequivocal. ¡°With all due respect, Sanbo Hospital was not previously affiliated with Nandu Medical University. It has only recently become part of the Nandu system. It seems a bit premature for them to take one of our slots. Perhaps we can discuss this again in a few years. Our own young people at Nandu Medical University should have priority,¡± Professor Gu Dehan stated succinctly. Professor He, the director of the Digital Medical Laboratory, disagreed with this viewpoint: ¡°Regardless of timing, Sanbo Hospital is now undeniably an affiliated hospital of Nandu Medical University. If we treat them differently because of this, it could harm the unity of the entire Nandu system. I believe we should treat everyone equally and have a fair competition.¡± Principal Ruo had remained silent throughout the discussion. Known for his integrity, he didn¡¯t want to influence others or sway the outcome with his speech. Personally, Principal Ruo leaned toward Yang Ping. He believed this young man had an unlimited future and that some encouragement could further stimulate his confidence and passion. Principal Ruo also worried that one day Yang Ping might leave the country, and thus, wished to provide these incentives as soon as possible to retain such talent. While Guan Ruyan was also impressive, your compared to Yang Ping, he seemed to lack quite a bit. Principal Ruo was well aware that Yang Ping, not yet thirty, already had a CNS paper and ten SCI papers in top-tier journals¡ªa remarkable academic record for his age. Everyone spoke passionately, each with their own reasons, and the number of supporters for both sides was nearly equal, so the discussion seemed unlikely to reach any outcome. ¡°How about this,¡± said Principal Ruo, ¡°everyone is now familiar with the two candidates, right? If not, look over the materials at hand, or ask around to get more information. We need to finalize the list by the end of this month and submit it next month; therefore, everyone should think carefully. We¡¯ll meet again next week to vote and decide based on the number of votes.¡± ¡°I agree!¡± Professor Shi Qingxian raised his hand in support. As a newly added affiliate, Sanbo Hospital would certainly struggle to win against the main campus of Nandu Medical University. With one week to go, he could lobby the attendees, and securing the votes of the experts from the main campus would almost guarantee a win, since they were the majority. Since the debate was endless with no clear inclination, they had no choice but to proceed in this way. Professor Zhou also agreed to decide the slot through voting. Professor Zhou wasn¡¯t overly concerned. By pulling in a few representatives from the affiliated hospitals and leveraging alumni relationships to secure a few more professors from the main campus, it was still uncertain whose hands the outcome would fall into. Chapter 860 - 860 765 The Creator of the Useless Ones ?Chapter 860: Chapter 765: The Creator of the Useless Ones Chapter 860: Chapter 765: The Creator of the Useless Ones The peer review by experts for the ¡°Science¡± Journal typically involves two colleagues. According to regulations, the editor Lewis also passed the article to another expert¡ªProfessor Fukunaga Kunzan from the University of Tokyo in Japan, one of the top three world-renowned experts in the stem cell field. The three papers involving skin expansion technology were essentially research within the stem cell or cloning field. Under the normal review process, Professor Fukunaga wouldn¡¯t have seen these three papers so soon, as there were many other manuscripts queued up before Yang Ping¡¯s. Professor Fukunaga was always meticulous and would review each submission in order, taking his time. After Yang Ping¡¯s three papers received a strong recommendation from Manstein, Lewis had to send an urgent email to expedite Professor Fukunaga¡¯s review to strictly adhere to the process, and he attached Manstein¡¯s review comments to the urgent email as well. Professor Fukunaga Kunzan¡¯s life was very regular; after work, he never engaged in any social events but instead stayed at home reading books or journal papers. His house in Tokyo wasn¡¯t very large, only just over ninety square meters, and of that space, nearly thirty square meters was taken up by his study. It was clear that Professor Fukunaga was a book lover, with reading occupying a major part of his life. After dinner, he habitually checked his email to see if there were any new messages. Professor Fukunaga maintained close communication with several leading stem cell laboratories worldwide, and that communication was predominantly via email, an essential part of his daily work. The strikingly labeled urgent email caught his eye; he immediately opened it to find an urgent review request from ¡°Science¡± Journal. It seemed the authors had chosen single-blind review, allowing Professor Fukunaga to see the authors¡¯ names on the three papers, among them a familiar Chinese name¡ªTang Shun, featured prominently as a principal researcher. Professor Fukunaga had a graduate student also named Tang Shun, and he suspected this person was his student. His eyes moved to the affiliation of the authors¡ªChina Sanybo Hospital affiliated with Nandu Medical University. Yes, that hospital. His doctoral student worked there. At the time, Professor Fukunaga had repeatedly tried to persuade Tang Shun to stay at the University of Tokyo, but Tang Shun was determined to return to his home country. When Tang Shun told his mentor about his workplace, Professor Fukunaga was furious. A talented stem cell doctor could, if not stay at the University of Tokyo, go to the United States; if he had to return to China, the best choice would have been the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the laboratory of a well-known medical university. Yet, this young man had chosen a hospital, a hospital whose name Professor Fukunaga had never even heard of before. Professor Fukunaga did not understand Tang Shun¡¯s decision at all, believing that it was impossible to achieve anything notable as a basic medicine researcher at a hospital and that he was giving up his future. Tang Shun struggled to explain, knowing that no matter what he said, Professor Fukunaga wouldn¡¯t change his mind. But Tang Shun was very sure about his choice. He bid farewell to his teacher and returned to China. He had called Professor Fukunaga, who was still angry and didn¡¯t want to take his call. Thus, mentor and student temporarily lost contact over this matter. This time, when Yang Ping submitted the paper, the single-blind review was Tang Shun¡¯s idea; he knew the papers would eventually reach Professor Fukunaga. Seeing his student¡¯s name, Professor Fukunaga was very interested. He read through the three papers thoroughly, and of course, just like Manstein, he spent an entire night on them. After reading, Professor Fukunaga leaned back in his chair, unsettled for a long time. The accomplishments of these three papers far exceeded his own, achieving what he had always wanted to do but had not yet realized¡ªcloning organs from somatic cells, specifically using mature somatic cells for cloning. Even though the organ was only skin, with a relatively simple structure consisting of just two layers of different thicknesses¡ªdermis and epidermis¡ªthey indeed managed to clone using somatic cells. This was a great beginning, one that would open a new era of cloning, a significance in the history of science comparable to the cloning of sheep. Ignoring some of the rules about reviewing, Professor Fukunaga excitedly grabbed his phone and dialed Tang Shun¡¯s number. ¡°Tang Shun-kun¡ª¡± The Japanese professor added the honorific -kun due to his excitement. ¡°Professor Fukunaga!¡± Tang Shun was also delighted to receive a call from his teacher and hadn¡¯t expected him to reach out proactively. After calming his breathing, Professor Fukunaga spoke, ¡°Congratulations on the breakthrough in cloning technology; it¡¯s incredible. To directly use skin as the expansion origin, followed by cloning-style expansion, this marks the true beginning of local cloning technology¡ªthe advent of actual human local cloning. It¡¯s a great start.¡± However, the papers made no mention of the genetic code behind this expansion technology¡ªwhy the skin can be expanded, the principles behind the added inducing factors, the function of each factor, how they were obtained¡ªall of this was not disclosed in the paper. Are the authors only aware of the outcomes without knowing the principles, or are they intentionally keeping secrets? If someone wanted to replicate the experiment, for the time being, they would have to acquire the inducing factors just like the originators. ¡°Thank you, Professor Fukunaga. I am just an assistant,¡± Tang Shun replied. Tang Shun wasn¡¯t being modest; indeed, he was just an assistant doing experiments as per Yang Ping¡¯s A4 paper instructions. To his surprise, the experiments succeeded on the first attempt. Even as an assistant, that was quite an achievement. It must be why Tang Shun chose to go to China Sanybo Hospital. It hadn¡¯t been long since he returned to his country, less than three months¡ªyet, he had already made such a remarkable accomplishment. Professor Fukunaga, curious, asked, ¡°I find it strange that I¡¯ve never heard of Professor Yang Ping¡¯s name before?¡± Because the name Yang Ping was listed first as the author. ¡°He is my current mentor, a genius doctor whose talent goes beyond anyone¡¯s imagination.¡± Tang Shun could only introduce Yang Ping that way. Professor Fukunaga then eagerly wanted to replicate Yang Ping¡¯s experiment, ¡°If I want to replicate this experiment, do I need you to provide the inducer factor?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s correct, because for certain reasons, we temporarily cannot disclose the method of obtaining and the specific formula of the inducer factor. Any team that needs to replicate the experiment, we can provide the inducing bioagent for free.¡± Tang Shun also knew that only if an experiment could be replicated by others, it would be recognized. However, the specific details of the inducer factor were crucial and involved the next step of the experiment. For the safety of the subsequent experiments, they had to be kept secret. ¡°Tang Shun, I am so excited, well, how can I obtain your inducer factor, or should I make a trip to China?¡± Professor Fukunaga was eager to start the experiment right now. Over the phone, Tang Shun told the Japanese professor to be patient, ¡°Professor Fukunaga, you don¡¯t need to come in person, I¡¯ll send it over to you, or Miss Fukunaga Yasuko could make the trip as well.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll send Yasuko to make the trip, thank you, Tang Shun.¡± Fukunaga Yasuko, Tang Shun¡¯s senior sister, a young professor at Tokyo University, the daughter of Professor Fukunaga, and Tang Shun¡¯s number one girlfriend on WeChat. Of course, she was already in her early thirties but had always been single. ¡ª The prestigious journal Science, founded in 1880 with an investment of $10,000 by the great inventor Edison, became, 14 years later or in 1894, the official publication of the largest American scientific society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, published weekly, with a total of 51 issues a year and a global circulation of more than 1.5 million copies. The UK¡¯s Nature is a commercial journal, whereas the United States¡¯ Science is an academic journal. Of course, this distinction isn¡¯t important, as both are top-tier journals. In Washington, D.C., USA, the headquarters of Science, the lights were burning bright. Editor-in-chief Lewis adopted Manstein¡¯s suggestion. He was working overtime to re-layout the next issue of the journal, which meant all the work had to be redone, a massive undertaking. The colleagues in the editorial department grumbled. Those who had been working for a short time and those who had been there for over twenty years had never experienced such a thing, to publish three articles by the same person in one issue, not to mention giving one the cover story, and even more preposterous was the rush to republish, reworking an issue that had already been laid out. ¡°Boss, what exactly happened? I¡¯ve already applied for leave, and this is trampling on workers¡¯ rights,¡± someone reluctantly pounded on their keyboard. Then, many started to protest, objecting to this inhumane overtime. Lewis walked among the rows, knowing he couldn¡¯t silence these guys. So he coldly declared, ¡°This is the work of that terrible German, Manstein. If needed, I can post his phone number and email address up on the glass door, and you¡¯re welcome to question him at any time.¡± When they heard that it was all Manstein¡¯s idea, even the loudest protestor gave up the struggle, ¡°Alright, we give up.¡± And miraculously, all their followers also shut their mouths and dutifully worked overtime on their keyboards, reformatting the content of the journal. Because Manstein was almost a godlike figure in their hearts, and this guy was unpredictable, both in thought and behavior. With such people, it was best to keep one¡¯s distance. Even if these people genuinely filed a labor complaint or lawsuit, they believed Manstein had a hundred legal ways to make the complainers regret it, not only gaining nothing but also losing their jobs. Once, Manstein faced a barrage of ¡°righteous people¡± from the Western world because of ethical issues with his experiments. Whether in Europe or the United States, Manstein didn¡¯t need any lawyer or assistant, single-handedly dealing with all challengers through multiple rounds of paper battles and live debates. In the end, not only did these people lose face, but they also left the entire world with an impression¡ªthat all these guys were nothing but ignoramuses decked in finery, utterly clueless. Therefore, there was a saying in the academic world: ¡°If you don¡¯t want to become a universally recognized ignoramus, don¡¯t mess with Manstein.¡± Manstein thus earned a domineering nickname¡ªThe Ignoramus Maker. Chapter 861 - 861 766 Supersaturated Attack ?Chapter 861: Chapter 766: Supersaturated Attack Chapter 861: Chapter 766: Supersaturated Attack The reformatting of the Science journal was finally settled, and Manstein was very pleased with the efficiency of his old friend Lewis. This kind of rush job was indeed too hasty and prone to errors in formatting, but in order to have the paper published as quickly as possible, to reflect its scientific value and historical significance, Manstein had no choice but to go through with it. Now that it was all done without any major issues, Manstein could breathe a sigh of relief. He picked up the phone and dialed August¡¯s mobile number. He now had a higher regard for August because it was August who recommended Yang Ping¡¯s first CNS paper to Manstein. It was because of this paper that Manstein remembered Yang Ping, leading to that impulsive click which otherwise would not have made him see those three historic papers so soon. ¡°Mr. August!¡± The usually proud Manstein had never before addressed August with the title ¡°Mr.,¡± opting instead to call him by his name. ¡°Has Professor Yang Ping submitted three articles to Science again?¡± Manstein asked deliberately. August confirmed, ¡°Yes! He recently submitted three papers to Science. Have these three papers come into your hands again?¡± Manstein¡¯s voice rang out loud and confident, ¡°Yes, your friend is quite a troublesome fellow. Can¡¯t he submit one at a time? Submitting three at once made me pull an all-nighter, owing favors to the Americans, and incurring the resentment of the editorial team. But at last, I managed to get everything settled. Tell him, your troublesome friend, that his three papers will be published in the upcoming issue, one of them as the cover article. This friend is truly a character, three papers at once, I have never seen such boldness.¡± August spoke in an even tone, ¡°Sir, I¡¯m very grateful for your enthusiasm, but I must correct two points. First, Professor Yang is not my friend, but my mentor. Second, he did not submit a total of three papers this time, but twelve. He only sent three to Science, four to Nature, and five to Cell. My mentor always acts like this; in such matters, he particularly likes saturation attacks.¡± ¡°Twelve papers?¡± Manstein exclaimed in surprise, then silence fell on the call. He was completely flabbergasted. Twelve papers submitted to CNS at once? Three papers were already astonishing, but now that number was twelve. Even Manstein¡¯s super brain felt a bit dizzy. The genius¡¯s brain felt as if its CPU power was clearly insufficient. ¡°Are you sure? Twelve papers?¡± Although Manstein heard it clearly, he still wanted to confirm. ¡°Yes, twelve papers.¡± August replied bluntly, repeating it in both German and English. ¡°Well then! CNS is going to suffer the strongest firepower in history.¡± Manstein fell silent again. The genius¡¯s brain CPU seemed to be squeaking. After a long silence, Manstein managed to squeeze out a sentence: ¡°What a troublesome fellow indeed. Alright, tell him if they come my way, they¡¯ll receive the same treatment as the first three. However, I can¡¯t be sure about the brains at Cell and Nature, what portion is actual brain tissue and what¡¯s just tofu. In my view, Lewis is still somewhat truthful, passing on papers he doesn¡¯t understand to me to try, but some are different, especially the Brits. You know they¡¯re the best at pretense. It¡¯s very possible the papers will be outright rejected by them and not even make it to peer review.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, leave it to me. As long as I¡¯m aware of it, and the papers are legitimate, I won¡¯t let them dismiss it so carelessly.¡± Manstein, serving as a reviewer for the medical categories of all three CNS journals, was probably the only one in the world to hold this honor. The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility; Manstein wouldn¡¯t let the shine of gold be obscured. ¡°You said it yourself; I¡¯m not asking for your help, I don¡¯t owe you any favors this time,¡± August stated right away for clarification. ¡°My old friend,¡± Manstein spoke slowly, ¡°but you can¡¯t go back on your promise from last time.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± August affirmed unwaveringly. No one knew what kind of deal was struck between the two Germans. ¡ª In truth, Professor Yang Ping had no interest in ¡°Outstanding Young Talent¡±; for him, even millions in research funds were insufficient to fill the gaps. Now with specialized funding support, he had no concerns about research funds. Hence, if possible, Yang Ping hoped all his topics would be self-funded to save time on various reviews and conserve national funds, leaving the limited resources for those in need. However, Dean Xia and Director Han were highly enthusiastic, and the ¡°Outstanding Young Talent¡± title was crucial for the development of Sanbo Hospital. Yang Ping could not let the elders¡¯ enthusiasm turn cold, so he, too, had to participate actively. Thus, Yang Ping took time out of his busy schedule to attend the Outstanding Young Talent quota voting meeting at Nandu Medical University. This meeting required the presence of the candidates, who also had to make speeches ¡ª essentially lobbying for themselves. Between the Medical University and its affiliated hospitals, the management operates in a hierarchical relationship, but in reality, there¡¯s not much interaction. Everyone is busy with their tasks, so it¡¯s rare for them to gather together. Today was different. The bigwigs from Nandu Medical University¡¯s headquarters and several affiliated hospitals were gathered around a rectangular conference table. On the surface, they were polite and even-tempered, but beneath that, they were all brimming with competitive energy. Principal Ruo could see that the last meeting¡¯s three factions had shifted to two today, with the middle power being divided between the two sides. It was a real case of ¡°the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each displaying their own abilities.¡± Professor Yang Ping had just completed two surgeries before he set out, so he didn¡¯t arrive particularly early. When he reached the venue, it was already full. With the staff¡¯s guidance, he found his seat, directly opposite the well-known Guan Ruyan. Guan Ruyan¡¯s face soured upon seeing Yang Ping, a hint of hostility evident in his eyes, but Yang Ping didn¡¯t care and simply ignored him. Everyone was engaged in the realm of academia, where fair competition was the norm. There was no need for such overt hostility. Professor Zhou¡¯s gaze swept over Yang Ping¡¯s face, pausing briefly as if to reassure Yang Ping not to worry, as they had his back. When it came to networking, Vice Principal Ding was far inferior to Professor Su. The newly inducted Academician Su Qingyun was not only academically competent but also skilled in managing various relationships, with virtually no weaknesses. He was well-connected, not just within Nandu Medical University, but nationwide. But still, Nandu Medical University¡¯s headquarters was Vice Principal Ding¡¯s turf, and while Professor Su could be considered a ¡°mighty dragon,¡± Vice Principal Ding was definitely the ¡°local snake.¡± ¡°Has everyone arrived? We have six minutes left; our meeting will start on time,¡± Principal Ruo announced as he scanned the room, mentally counting the attendees. It was unusual for all the experts to arrive on time without any tardiness or absences. The two most representative experts were obvious to any discerning person ¡ª Professor Zhou was representing Professor Su, and the head of Nandu Medical University¡¯s Science and Technology Department, Shi Qingxian, represented Vice Principal Ding. Professor Zhou appeared more composed, while Professor Shi¡¯s expression was clearly troubled. In recent days, several of Professor Shi¡¯s prospective contacts had tactfully declined, refusing to meet with him. This suggested they might have joined the opposing camp. Professor Shi surmised that apart from the covert support of Su Qingyun, Yang Ping also had the help of many others. The eager involvement of Xia Changjiang and Han Jiangong from Sanbo Hospital was obvious; they were actively rallying support. There were also complications within Nandu Medical University itself. Professor He from the Digital Medical Laboratory was almost openly supporting Yang Ping. While Lin Lan from the Genetics Laboratory had to avoid involvement due to suspected familial ties, she held influence at the university, and undoubtedly, her circle in genetics was siding with the opposition. The most troublesome was Academician Xiang, who likely was also aiding from the shadows. Several professors from the headquarters who initially promised to support Guan Ruyan had suddenly changed allegiance in recent days, all of them being students of Academician Xiang. Academician Xiang, an Old Academician, held great esteem at Nandu Medical University. Vice Principal Ding and Professor Shi had thought they were evenly matched, but in just a few days, what seemed an even struggle had turned into being overwhelmed by numbers. Chapter 862 - 862 767 Caught Off Guard ?Chapter 862: Chapter 767 Caught Off Guard Chapter 862: Chapter 767 Caught Off Guard When we set off, Dean Xia and Old Han gave strict instructions to Yang Ping that the speech draft must be carefully prepared, and its importance could not be overemphasized, as it was a showcase of one¡¯s high-quality academic achievements aimed at conquering the audience with quality rather than quantity. Yang Ping remembered these words and mentally drafted a few lines, thinking that all he needed to do was talk about his academic achievements. He didn¡¯t need fancy language, for academic matters are simply about the substance. Principal Ruo glanced at the electronic clock on the wall, saw that the time had come, and cleared his throat, ¡°The purpose of today¡¯s meeting is clear to everyone, so I won¡¯t repeat it. This year, Nandu Medical University¡¯s system has only one Outstanding Young Talent spot, but there are two young talents who meet the criteria. What shall we do? The only fair and open way is to vote, and the one with the most votes gets the spot. This is a good thing, it shows that Nandu Medical University is full of talents. I won¡¯t say any more than necessary. Let¡¯s have the two young talents give their speeches, talking about their academic achievements to let us understand why they are more suited for Outstanding Young Talent. Don¡¯t be shy. We Easterners are reserved and modest and don¡¯t like to compete on stage, but this mindset is incorrect. Fair competition is a good thing. Alright, I¡¯ll leave the time for you.¡± After a round of warm applause from the audience, the first to take the stage was Guan Ruyan, a young man indeed handsome and exceedingly confident. He opened his laptop, took the microphone from the staff, and began his presentation with the PPT after the staff had connected his computer. ¡°Distinguished teachers, hello, my name is Guan Ruyan. Fifteen years ago, I graduated with a bachelor¡¯s degree from Nandu Medical University and was directly admitted to Nandu as a graduate student. During my time as a graduate student, I was sent to Heidelberg University in Germany. Over five years at Heidelberg, I successfully obtained both Master¡¯s and Doctoral degrees. After graduation, I stayed in Germany to work at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, focusing on tumor gene research. I returned to China seven years ago and since then have led five national-level scientific research projects, published 32 papers indexed by SCI, including two in CNS journals.¡± Such dazzling academic achievements and returning as a doctor from overseas, Guan is indeed the future star of Nandu Medical University. Director Shi took the lead in applauding, and everyone followed suit. Professor Guan bowed gracefully to the audience, waiting for the room to quiet down before continuing his speech. ¡°This was during my studies in Germany¡ª¡± The PPT displayed photo after photo. ¡°This is my mentor, Professor Franz Enlard from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Germany, who is also a hot candidate for the Nobel in recent years. Professor Enlard is a top expert in the field of tumor gene research worldwide. His mentor is none other than the renowned Professor Mainshtan from the Charite? Medical School. Enlard was one of the few students in whom Professor Mainshtan took great pride. A little insider information here: in fact, Enlard and Mainshtan are not far apart in age because Mainshtan rose to fame very young, so he became a doctoral supervisor at a young age. Many of his students are about the same age as he, with some even older.¡± ¡°This is a photograph of me working with my mentor. Professor Enlard is kind and affable. He has given lectures at our school and has a very high opinion of it. In the future, we might have opportunities for cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine.¡± ¡°Here is Professor Mainshtan supervising the research of Professor Enlard, who had already won the Nobel Prize at the time.¡± Professor Guan handled his impressive resume well, highlighting the key points without seeming boastful. ¡°During my time in Germany, my mentor, Professor Enlard, repeatedly asked me to stay in Germany, but I refused him. I have a Chinese heart, and I had to return to my motherland. From the day I left China, I reminded myself that I must study hard and return to serve my country after achieving something. And so, I came back.¡± ¡°In truth, I know that this session¡¯s Outstanding Young Talent spot is not meant for me, but that¡¯s not important. As long as I have the opportunity to serve my country, I will be content. Thank you, everyone.¡± When Guan Ruyan said these last words, his eyes couldn¡¯t help but show a hint of sorrow and resignation. What was the meaning behind such words? How could the Outstanding Young Talent spot have nothing to do with him? The voting hadn¡¯t even started yet. Wasn¡¯t this hinting at something? Principal Ruo felt uncomfortable upon hearing Guan Ruyan¡¯s last sentence and found it strange for him to end his speech that way. Director Shi Qingxian¡¯s face showed a slight smile; he was very pleased with Guan Ruyan¡¯s performance. The introduction could be said to be perfect. Professor Zhou listened to the speech and told himself that the more he listened, the more something seemed off, although he couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on it, so he frowned in thought. Next, there was a ten-minute break to let everyone digest Guan Ruyan¡¯s speech or ask any questions if they had them. After ten minutes, it would be Yang Ping¡¯s turn to speak. At this moment, Principal Ruo¡¯s assistant quietly entered the meeting room from the back door. He bowed and whispered a few words in Principal Ruo¡¯s ear, causing Principal Ruo to turn pale with anger. After scanning the entire room with a severe look, he followed his assistant out of the meeting room temporarily. It turned out that someone had been secretly filming and live-streaming the internal university meeting. The live broadcast was not only shared on social media platforms but was also being streamed on the campus network. ¡°What on earth is happening?¡± Principal Ruo demanded, holding back his rage. ¡°We only just found out about it ourselves. The internet is in chaos, especially on the school¡¯s network; it¡¯s ablaze with activity. An anonymous article surfaced online, implying that Yang Ping is related to an academician and therefore the school rigged the selection process, earmarking the spot for him. The truly qualified talent, Guan Ruyan, is being sidelined and victimized. The article is intentionally ambiguous, and with today¡¯s meeting being secretly live-streamed and Guan Ruyan¡¯s speech, it seems almost like a coordinated attack. Now, our whole school is discussing this matter, and its impact is spreading outwards like a tsunami. The PR department is in a frenzy, unsure whether to pause the meeting¡ª¡± Chapter 863 - 863 767 Caught Off Guard_2 ?Chapter 863: Chapter 767 Caught Off Guard_2 Chapter 863: Chapter 767 Caught Off Guard_2 Who is secretly live-streaming? And who wrote the article? Principal Ruo, with teeth itching in anger, recalled Guan Ruyan¡¯s speech and immediately understood what was happening, this was a premeditated move to play the emotional card, the whole incident was planned, deliberately creating public opinion, thoroughly fastening the moral noose around the neck of Nandu Medical University. However, in reality, even though Principal Ruo personally favored Yang Ping, he had never helped him, and both candidates met the qualifications, competing on the same stage, completely in line with the principle of fairness. As for the resources behind each of them, this was simply unavoidable. It was now very clear, if the spot was given to Yang Ping, that would mean Nandu Medical University engaged in backdoor manipulation, essentially sidelining the returnee student Guan Ruyan. Who could bear such an accusation? How vicious! If the person behind this was discovered, they would certainly be expelled. Competition is competition, lobbying is lobbying, everything has to follow the rules, but this kind of manipulation had completely broken the bottom line, it was slander and vilification. Principal Ruo¡¯s fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white. This was a big event, and if not handled well, the entire Nandu Medical University could be sucked into a whirlpool of public opinion. Ding Decheng? Principal Ruo didn¡¯t have a high opinion of Ding Decheng, who liked to pull strings and suppress others; several matters had been quelled by Principal Ruo. But as the Vice Principal, would Ding Decheng stoop so low? ¡°The live-stream is still on, there must be hidden cameras, or they¡¯re hidden somewhere. Should we suspend the meeting to search for them?¡± the assistant suggested, having already made contact with all departments and awaiting the Principal¡¯s command. This was indeed a surprise attack. Principal Ruo took a moment to compose himself and gestured, ¡°No need, let the meeting continue as normal. If we pause the live-stream, people will think even more that the school is rigging things. What are we afraid of if we are acting in the open? Make sure everything¡¯s prepared on your end, and no one is to take action without my order. Now we must respond to agitation with calm. I will go in and start the meeting, and keep in touch at all times.¡± After instructing his assistant, Principal Ruo immediately returned to the Meeting Room. Fifteen minutes had passed, and Yang Ping hadn¡¯t yet spoken. At this moment, Principal Ruo realized that the more he panicked, the more he fell into the opponent¡¯s trap. Initially, there was no conspiracy, so the best course of action was to continue honestly and openly, without making any reactive adjustments. Because the meeting was being live-streamed, everyone pretended to be unaware, but from their faces, it was clear they had received the news. After all, everyone had cell phones and could receive external updates at any moment. Professor Zhou also received the message and glanced at Director Shi Qingxian. Shi Qingxian was looking this way, and upon eye contact with Professor Zhou, he immediately looked away. All the calculations didn¡¯t account for this move; to engage in this kind of unscrupulous smearing and vilification, putting the whole school on the grill. Only by choosing Yang Ping would it be considered manipulation, and only the selection of Guan Ruyan would be seen as fair and just. Lobbying for votes from one another is normal, but this kind of slander is a dirty trick, and Professor Zhou hadn¡¯t anticipated this at all. Now, it was too late to make any adjustments unless the meeting was called off. ¡°It¡¯s now Professor Yang Ping¡¯s turn to speak!¡± The host was none other than Director Shi Qingxian, who promptly invited Yang Ping to the stage when it was time. Yang Ping stood on the stage, having prepared nothing, empty-handed without a notebook or a USB flash drive. He felt there was no need to make it so complex for just a meeting; a few key points would suffice. ¡°Professor Yang, where is your PPT?¡± The staff responsible for the computer noticed Yang Ping hadn¡¯t brought a computer, nor did he seem to intend to use a USB flash drive. ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t prepare that. I¡¯ll just say a few things off the cuff.¡± Yang Ping took the microphone handed to him by Director Shi. A few professors nearly laughed out loud, hearing that this guy was a surgery fanatic, but to think it was true¡ªDirector Shi Qingxian thought to himself, has he become silly from all the surgeries? To come to such a meeting without any PPT, just to ¡®say a few things¡¯? Guan Ruyan breathed a sigh of relief, smiling as he watched Yang Ping on the stage. Without a PPT, how would he present? ¡°Damn it!¡± Principal Ruo¡¯s heart cried out in dismay, ¡°How can this kid be so unprepared? What am I going to do now? The conference is being broadcast live. Isn¡¯t he just throwing himself onto the swordsman¡¯s blade? It¡¯s neither the time nor the place to remind him, and even if I did, it wouldn¡¯t be of any use.¡± ¡°Ah, this kid, he¡¯s a genius, but he¡¯s too much of a genius, not even preparing a PPT, just coming to the conference with his mouth.¡± Professor Zhou was also stunned, ¡°Impossible, isn¡¯t it? He didn¡¯t even prepare a PPT? When I asked him if he was ready, didn¡¯t he confidently claim he was ¡®very good¡¯? This is what he calls being prepared?¡± It¡¯s over! Well, maybe next year, we can talk about it next year. After all, he¡¯s still young. Professor Zhou could only console himself, regretting that everyone¡¯s recent efforts of alliance-building had been in vain. Professor Yang Ping glanced at the professors present and spoke in a loud, clear voice, ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, I¡¯ll just say a few words. As for academic achievements, actually, there¡¯s not much to brag about. Up to this point, I have four papers in CNS, all published in ¡®Science.¡¯ One of them is already well-known, and the other three have appeared in the latest issue. You can look them up; among these three, one is even a cover article. That¡¯s all I¡¯ll say. As for other achievements that aren¡¯t worth mentioning, I¡¯ll refrain from discussing them more.¡± After finishing, Yang Ping handed the microphone to a staff member and returned to his seat. Four CNS papers, three of them published in the same issue, and one even a cover article¡ªsuch unbelievable academic achievements. After hearing this, everyone was so incredulous that some even laughed out loud, taking it as a joke. Even Principal Ruo and Professor Zhou couldn¡¯t believe it. They wondered if the kid was under some duress, spouting madness. But Yang Ping remained calm and unruffled, completely disregarding other people¡¯s reactions. The live-streamed conference continued, with some of the onlookers being from the academic circles. Hearing of four CNS papers, they were sure it was all bluff and bluster. Principal Ruo immediately used his phone to beckon an assistant from outside the door, ¡°Did you just hear that?¡± ¡°I heard it,¡± the assistant nodded. ¡°Check it, quickly, check it!¡± Principal Ruo urged. The assistant immediately used the computer in the meeting room to go online and check. For an assistant with a doctoral background like himself, verifying the truth of Yang Ping¡¯s claims was immediately doable through many means. Within less than ten minutes, the assistant had finished checking and reported back, ¡°It is indeed as he said, only published in the very recent issue, so it¡¯s unknown to most people. What¡¯s more, ¡®Science¡¯ issued an open letter specifically for those few articles, with Professor Mainshtan himself writing the paper introductions.¡± This? It was utterly unexpected! Principal Ruo pulled out a tissue to wipe the sweat from his forehead. What sort of path was this kid taking, four papers, three all at once? As if ¡®Science¡¯ were his personal magazine. Whether it was the online audience or the professors in attendance, all immediately began trying to verify the facts. It was incontrovertibly true. On the official website of ¡®Science,¡¯ not only were the articles introduced, but two red lanterns were also added to celebrate, with the paper recommendations indeed written by the renowned Professor Mainshtan himself. The internet exploded with activity. Wasn¡¯t there talk about behind-the-scenes manipulation? Who wrote the articles? Slander and defamation should lead to jail! Dig deeper!!! The professors present were also disoriented. If it hadn¡¯t been verified by everyone to be true, no one would have believed it. ¡°Director Shi, check it again. After confirming, immediately release the good news on the school¡¯s official website and hang two red lanterns,¡± said Principal Ruo, so excited he was almost speaking incoherently. Never in the history of Nandu Medical University had there been such a dominant academic achievement, three papers hitting the spot at once, one even a cover article. Perhaps not even in the history of ¡®Science¡¯ itself. The value of the papers must have been immense to deserve such an honor. The entire meeting room was overturned by the news. While people started off restrained, once they saw the principal so excited, they too dispensed with reservations and began to discuss. What¡¯s the point in voting now? With four ¡®Science¡¯ papers, if you don¡¯t give the ¡®Outstanding Young Talent¡¯ award, the nation¡¯s saliva would drown Nandu Medical University. The two CNS papers by Guan Ruyan were actually quite different: one was a proper research article, while the other was merely a case report. In the face of absolute power, all scheming is just dross! Guan Ruyan was dumbstruck, as if frightened into idiocy. Chapter 864 - 864 768 Twisting and Bizarre ?Chapter 864: Chapter 768: Twisting and Bizarre Chapter 864: Chapter 768: Twisting and Bizarre Nandu Medical University Affiliated First Hospital, Dean¡¯s office. Professor Su had just completed a challenging spinal deformity correction surgery and returned to his office. Since his phone was locked in the office, he was unaware of the meeting¡¯s outcome. He wanted to take out his phone and check the result of the meeting. Before he could retrieve his phone, Nanchen hurried over, eager to tell Professor Su about Yang Ping¡¯s news. Nanchen had just finished a surgery when a postdoctoral researcher sent him a WeChat message detailing the entire situation, which he had verified from multiple sources. By now, Yang Ping¡¯s bid for the Outstanding Young Talent award was common knowledge throughout the Nandu system. The live-streamed meeting and deliberately slanderous articles had propelled the matter into the eye of the storm. Not only were employees and students within the Nandu system focused on this issue, but even broader medical circles and society at large had begun to take notice. The hidden manipulator behind the scenes had intended to tarnish Yang Ping¡¯s reputation to achieve their own agenda, but unexpectedly, the online operation had turned into a feature story on Yang Ping¡¯s legendary tale instead. Professor Su, who had been busy with surgery, had not yet had the chance to learn about the twists and turns of the Outstanding Young Talent voting incident. Since Nanchen was about to tell him, he had no interest in checking the messages on his phone. ¡°Today, early in the morning, an anonymous paper appeared on Nandu Medical University¡¯s campus network. I don¡¯t know if it emerged last night or this morning, but it caused an uproar by dawn. The paper claimed that Yang Ping was related to an academician, leading Nandu Medical University to rig the process and reserve the Outstanding Young Talent spot for Yang Ping, casting the returning scholar Guan Ruyan as a victim of the rigged selection,¡± Nanchen said. Nanchen initially wanted to start with the outcome but decided to let Professor Su experience the twists in the story, so he began from the start. ¡°The article caused a sensation. It was rapidly shared on social media platforms, with everyone expressing their outrage and demanding that Nandu Medical University thoroughly investigate the insider dealings and vindicate Guan Ruyan.¡± Upon hearing this, Professor Su¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly, but he said nothing, revealing little on his face. ¡°Continue¡ª¡± Seeing Nanchen pause, Professor Su urged him to proceed. ¡°That¡¯s not all; even stranger would be the meeting being surreptitiously filmed and broadcast live on the campus network and social media. Guan Ruyan¡¯s speech subtly implied he was a victim of the selection manipulation. He portrayed himself as magnanimous, stating that the Outstanding Young Talent title wasn¡¯t important, and that he would be satisfied as long as he could serve the country. This statement pushed public anger to its peak. Such a promising talent, unconcerned with having the award taken from him, focused solely on scholarship¡ªit¡¯s not hard to imagine what the experts at the scene thought when they heard this. Voting for Yang Ping would mean a rigged process, leaving them no choice but to vote for Guan Ruyan. It was a cunning and ruthless act of moral blackmail, using the tactics of online hatred to their extreme.¡± Nanchen paused again and sighed. Professor Su, without needing to check his phone, knew what had happened and waved his hand dismissively, saying, ¡°No matter, we can discuss it next year. Yang Ping is still young. However, this behavior is highly dishonorable.¡± Given that Yang Ping¡¯s academic achievements were superior to Guan Ruyan¡¯s in quality, and with many people willing to support him, his success seemed almost certain. Yet, he had not anticipated such a despicable turn of events. Professor Su picked up his teacup, took a sip, and even chewed the tea leaves in his mouth. ¡°Have you contacted Xiao Yang, by the way? Spend more time chatting with him these days, give him some comfort. There will be other opportunities,¡± Professor Su reminded Nanchen. ¡°I haven¡¯t finished yet,¡± Nanchen said, smiling as he continued. ¡°Yang Ping is quite indifferent in appearance, nonchalant, paying little heed to this meeting. Do you know? Guan Ruyan¡¯s presentation slides were elaborate. When it was Yang Ping¡¯s turn to speak, he had nothing. Empty-handed, he stood on stage and only said a few words.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t blame him; it¡¯s just his nature. Busy with surgeries and research, he probably didn¡¯t have time for these things,¡± Professor Su defended his son-in-law. Nanchen continued, ¡°Yang Ping¡¯s speech was just a few plain sentences, devoid of any flowery language. He said¡ªmy academic achievements are modest¡ªI have 4 CNS papers published in ¡®Science,¡¯ one of which you all know of already, and the other three in the latest issue, which is already published. Everyone can search for them. Among these three papers, one is even a cover article.¡± ¡°Four? Didn¡¯t he only have one ¡®Science¡¯ paper? Boasting without drafting, not considering the occasion ¨C that doesn¡¯t sound like him,¡± Professor Su couldn¡¯t believe Yang Ping would make such a statement. ¡°You don¡¯t believe it? I have the video,¡± Nanchen took out his phone to show the video to Professor Su. Nanchen said, ¡°As soon as he said this, everyone laughed at him. It was broadcast live. Who knows how many viewers there were, but his boasting became a big joke.¡± ¡°Impossible! He never boasts. Either what he said is true, or something is wrong with this video, it has been tampered with,¡± Professor Su asserted conclusively. Of course, Yang Ping couldn¡¯t have been telling the truth, which meant the video must have been manipulated to vilify him purposely. With slander, defamation, and now vilification against Yang Ping, Professor Su¡¯s eyes narrowed again, pained by the thought of his son-in-law being ridiculed and shamed by so many. Seeing his father¡¯s expression, Nanchen couldn¡¯t help but feel satisfied; this was the effect he had hoped for. ¡°Professor Su, the strangest thing happened. The video is fine; Yang Ping¡¯s words were all true. In the latest issue of ¡®Science,¡¯ Yang Ping published 3 papers at once, one of which was a cover story. The official website of ¡®Science¡¯ specifically issued an open letter to explain the situation, while Manstein introduced the papers,¡± Nanchen revealed. Chapter 865 - 865 768 Twisting and Bizarre_2 ?Chapter 865: Chapter 768: Twisting and Bizarre_2 Chapter 865: Chapter 768: Twisting and Bizarre_2 ¡°Three papers? Is the news accurate? Could it be a miscommunication?¡± Professor Su was relatively calm, as it was quite unlikely for three papers to be published in the same issue of Science; things that defy common sense require more thought. Su Nanchen smiled and said, ¡°I didn¡¯t believe it at first either, but I just specifically checked through several channels, and even called the current director of the Department of Science and Education to verify it. It¡¯s absolutely true. The meeting on the Nandu side has already ended, and the Outstanding Young Talent award has, of course, been given to Yang Ping. Everyone is still in shock, trying to figure out what happened. The online crowd is fuming, saying they were almost deceived, almost wronged a true talent, and now they are demanding that Nandu Medical University thoroughly investigate who the slanderous article was written by.¡± For three papers to be published in the same issue of Science, Professor Su took a deep breath. He knew that Yang Ping was extremely talented, but he hadn¡¯t expected him to be this talented. He knew that Yang Ping would publish several CNS articles in the future, but he didn¡¯t expect it to happen so quickly, with three papers published in Science all at once, plus one previous article, making it four papers in a short period of time. Not to mention a single person, even a university publishing three Science articles at once is hardly possible. Such academic achievements are simply a dimensionality reduction to others, leaving no chance to retaliate. Su Nanchen then organized what he had just said and relayed it to Professor Su, detail for detail. Professor Su couldn¡¯t help but sigh inwardly; in the past, he was wholeheartedly thinking of ways to use his connections to help his son-in-law, but now it seems that all of that was superfluous. With this kind of strength, he could ignore anyone¡¯s schemes. It¡¯s just that such a heavy ¡°dowry gift¡±... it¡¯s estimated that the Su Family wouldn¡¯t be able to provide an equivalent ¡°dowry.¡± Oh well, young people wouldn¡¯t care about these things. Clearly, Professor Su hadn¡¯t snapped out of it yet, not fully digesting the good news. Three papers in Science at once; with such academic achievements, he might really become the youngest academician in the future. A father-in-law and son-in-law both as academicians would become a fine story in the academic circles. ¡°He recently suggested that I work on the 3D printing of transparent articular cartilage, advising me to bring along Robert from the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States, to start a project in this area. He said he could give me some advice. The Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory is currently working on microscopic dissection and a new generation of digital humans, and Sharp Medical is researching biological 3D printing technology and a new generation of biological 3D printers. He suggested that I get involved in the microscopic dissection research of cartilage, and try using 3D printing technology to print transparent articular cartilage for transplantation. I have accepted his suggestion and joined this research plan, so I am preparing to apply for a new topic¡ªbiological 3D printing of transparent articular cartilage transplantation research,¡± Su Nanchen discussed his current academic ideas with his father. After thinking for a moment, Professor Su agreed immediately, ¡°Xiao Yang has an extremely keen sense of scientific research, he is the person I have seen with the strongest strategic vision in scientific research. Therefore, you should take his suggestions very seriously. Your new topic should be this, and make sure to keep in touch with Xiao Yang at all times.¡± At this moment, the operating room called, and there was another surgery for the correction of scoliosis that required Professor Su to supervise. Picking up his phone, Professor Su checked WeChat. Professor Zhou had sent many messages, largely echoing what Su Nanchen had just said. ¡ª At Vice Chancellor Ding Decheng¡¯s home. Vice Principal Ding sat on the couch, his face turning red and then white, his expression fluctuating, while Guan Ruyan stood by, not daring to speak. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Dad, I was wrong,¡± Guan Ruyan said timidly. Ding Decheng slammed his hand down, and the teacup shattered on the ground into several pieces, ¡°Do you realize how reprehensible this matter is? Your actions have crossed the line! There must be a bottom line in how you conduct yourself and your affairs. You are a doctor, a professor, a senior intellectual, not a thug on the street¡ª¡± Ding Decheng was almost pointing at Guan Ruyan¡¯s nose as he scolded, scolding him for a full half hour, scolding until he was out of breath. Guan Ruyan stepped forward, gently patting Principal Ding¡¯s back, then poured him another glass of water. After taking a sip and catching his breath, Principal Ding said: ¡°Although you cannot be considered a prodigy, you are still talented and have unlimited potential for the future. Can¡¯t you survive without this Outstanding Young Talent award? We should strive for it, but not in the way you are doing it. You were able to apply as a master¡¯s graduate student to Nandu Medical University because you are excellent; otherwise, Xinyu wouldn¡¯t have fallen for you. How can you be so foolish?¡± Guan Ruyan was tall and handsome, with good academic performance and a wide range of interests, an active member of the university, and adept at communicating with females. He was the pursuit of many female students, and Principal Ding¡¯s only daughter, Ding Xinyu, fell deeply in love with Guan Ruyan and took the initiative to chase him. At that time, Guan Ruyan already had a girlfriend, who was the head of a regional hospital. Back then, Ding Decheng was already a doctoral supervisor and also the head of the Department of Science and Education at Nandu Medical University. After weighing the pros and cons, Guan Ruyan decisively broke up with his girlfriend and got together with Ding Xinyu, which later proved to be the right decision. With Ding Decheng¡¯s support, he had a smooth and swiftly advancing career. Without Principal Ding, Guan Ruyan would probably just have been an ordinary graduate student, at best a doctor in a regional hospital. ¡°I spared no effort to send you to Germany, and I also arranged for Xiao Lu to accompany you, always ready to help you. Others may not know, but don¡¯t you realize yourself that the two CNS papers were written by Xiao Lu for you? Of your 32 SCI papers and the topics you¡¯ve dealt with, how many have you actually done yourself? Don¡¯t you understand that in your heart? Now you are a professor, a master¡¯s mentor, a future star of Nandu Medical University. All this has come with great difficulty, and you cannot afford to slip up. Being good enough is fine, sometimes being too excessive can backfire.¡± ¡°The last time you were nominated to be the director of the Oncology Research Institute, Principal Ruo suppressed it, and I had nothing to say. Why? Because, truly, for such an important position, you are not up to the task. If I let you become the director and something goes wrong, I would be the laughing stock, the one people point their spines at.¡± ¡°Look, this paper here, did you write this yourself? Is this the work of someone who studied in Germany? I know you sometimes want to show off, but you need to be more cautious. Don¡¯t get carried away, but stay humble and low-key, do you understand? I always keep Xiao Lu by your side precisely to prevent any trouble.¡± Gradually, Principal Ding¡¯s tone softened. He has always treated Guan Ruyan like his own son. ¡°This matter?¡± Guan Ruyan cautiously inquired. ¡°We¡¯ll definitely have to find a way to settle this issue. Principal Ruo won¡¯t let it go. Even if he can¡¯t prove anything, he¡¯ll blame me. Let me think about it. If there¡¯s really no way, I¡¯ll cover for you. Be wise and remember, never let success go to your head. What you have achieved today wasn¡¯t easy; cherish it, be self-aware. As long as you don¡¯t make a mess, no one can do anything to you, understand?¡± ¡°Dad?¡± Guan Ruyan helped Principal Ding massage his shoulders. ¡°I will eventually grow old. If it weren¡¯t for this incident, serving another term or two as principal would have been no problem. If I could serve another couple of terms, I could help push you further up, and then I could retire in peace. But this time¡ªlet¡¯s forget it. There will be many more opportunities in the future. This time it was also bad luck that you encountered Yang Ping. That young man is also a real talent, one we have to admit defeat to. I am no match for Su Qingyun, and you are no match for Yang Ping. Su Qingyun isn¡¯t someone who doesn¡¯t engage in conspiracy; he just disdains it. I tell you, if it hadn¡¯t been Yang Ping who got the spot, and had you managed to manipulate your way to success, I guarantee all you have would be ruined, and even your current position wouldn¡¯t be safe. If he resorts to schemes and plots, you¡¯re just a babe in the woods,¡± Principal Ding said earnestly. ¡°Can we ask Xiao Lu to take the fall?¡± Guan Ruyan tentatively asked. ¡°No, we owe him too much. Your CNS papers should have been his, and your professorship should have been his. Although I¡¯ve been supporting his education, helping him go abroad, and arranging a job for him when he returned, he has always been grateful, never bearing a grudge. But we can¡¯t do this, we can¡¯t ruin him. If it really comes down to it, let me take the responsibility. I¡¯ll go and make an apology to Principal Ruo.¡± ¡°Also, as long as I am here, Xiao Lu will always be there to help you. You will need his help with many things in the future. Even if you decide to publish papers on your own, let him review them. Do you understand? You must treat him well, as if he were a brother.¡± Principal Ding admonished Guan Ruyan. Chapter 866 - 866 769 Headache ?Chapter 866: Chapter 769: Headache Chapter 866: Chapter 769: Headache In fact, some things that look perfect on the surface have a completely different story behind them. Guan Ruyan was the rising star of Nandu Medical University, his dazzling academic achievements far surpassing those of his peers. Tall, handsome, and eloquent, with an exceptional image and temperament, he had authored two CNS papers and thirty-two SCI papers. As a young graduate who had studied abroad, he was once referred to online as ¡°the Most Handsome Professor,¡± and his entire life story could have been crafted into an inspirational novel. But reality is cruel, and nobody knew that this was just a facade, all a crafted image. Even Principal Ruo had no idea that Guan Ruyan was nothing but a gilded impostor. He had always thought of Guan Ruyan as a talented young man, which is why the competition for the Outstanding Young Talent award was such a difficult decision for him. It must be said that Guan Ruyan was a top talent, exploiting the value of women to the utmost. He climbed the ladder of success by stepping on one woman after another. During his undergraduate years, he had a girlfriend who was his high school classmate. This girl gave up on attending university and started working right after high school graduation to pay for his education, scrimping and saving every penny for Guan Ruyan. Later on, Guan Ruyan met another girl, the daughter of a regional hospital dean, who loved him so intensely she insisted on marrying no one but him. Without hesitation, Guan Ruyan dumped his girlfriend¡ªwho had supported his studies¡ªand hooked up with the dean¡¯s daughter, at a time when his high school sweetheart was already pregnant. The dean also had considerable influence; intent on securing a bright future for his daughter and son-in-law, he spent a lot of effort helping them secure a position directly into a master¡¯s graduate program. During his master¡¯s, Guan Ruyan met Ding Xinyu, the daughter of Principal Ding. Likewise, Guan Ruyan used his charm, making Ding Xinyu fall hopelessly in love with him and pursue him feverishly. At that time, Principal Ding was not yet a principal, but the head of the Science and Technology Department at Nandu Medical University. However, Guan Ruyan shrewdly recognized that Professor Ding¡¯s resources were far more substantial than those of a regional hospital dean. Therefore, he decisively broke up with his undergraduate girlfriend and accepted Ding Xinyu¡¯s courtship. His undergraduate girlfriend tried to commit suicide several times because of this and eventually became mentally unstable, leading her to take a break from school. Meanwhile, Guan Ruyan broke off the relationship very cleanly and decisively, showcasing his machismo with an iron heart unmatched by others. When his undergraduate girlfriend was hospitalized, he never once visited her or even made a comforting phone call. Before Professor Ding, Guan Ruyan behaved even more dutifully than a son, trying his best to ingratiate himself. To show his sincerity during his master¡¯s program, he married Ding Xinyu with a certificate. Once the deed was done, seeing Guan Ruyan as promising, both intellectually and emotionally intelligent, and considering him a moldable talent, Professor Ding came to regard him like a son, nurturing him carefully. To brighten his future, he even managed to replace another candidate with Guan Ruyan for a government-sponsored study-abroad position, and to ensure a smooth study experience overseas, he carefully arranged a study companion for him. This study companion was named Lu Xiaolu, a truly talented young man with extraordinary gifts, who had been the object of Professor Ding¡¯s private charity aid from high school and had continued receiving support through his university years, enabling Lu Xiaolu to pursue graduate studies and study abroad. Out of gratitude to Principal Ding, Lu Xiaolu fully accepted his arrangements, dedicating all of his accomplishments to Guan Ruyan. After returning to China, he continuously worked as Guan Ruyan¡¯s assistant. Nearly all of Guan Ruyan¡¯s papers were written by Lu Xiaolu, as were the project proposals and experiments he conducted on his behalf. Of course, Guan Ruyan was listed as the first author on all the papers. Apart from Guan Ruyan himself, only Principal Ding, Lu Xiaolu, and Ding Xinyu knew the truth. As Guan Ruyan¡¯s assistant, it was only logical for Lu Xiaolu to carry out the experiments, which is why, for many years, no one saw through the ruse. Guan Ruyan probably thought rather highly of himself and became somewhat conceited. Hence, lost in arrogance, he attempted to author a paper on his own and submit it. Probably because of his previous glittering academic record, a top domestic journal accepted his article without hesitation. It was this paper that almost turned into a farce. Principal Ruo couldn¡¯t believe that Guan Ruyan had written this article himself. It¡¯s not that Guan Ruyan couldn¡¯t write a paper¡ªhe could, and could write it decently¡ªbut it definitely didn¡¯t match the level of someone with two CNS and thirty-two SCI papers to his name. The paper he wrote in his moment of pride was vastly different compared to his previous works and nearly gave the game away¡ªfortunately, in the end, Lu Xiaolu took the blame, claiming the paper was published by his student without Guan Ruyan¡¯s permission, and thus the matter was finally settled, with Lu Xiaolu receiving a disciplinary action. Of course, everyone accepted this explanation; after all, such a distinguished young talent couldn¡¯t possibly have written such a subpar paper. If it weren¡¯t for Yang Ping suddenly coming onto the scene, Guan Ruyan would have easily won the Outstanding Young Talent award and continued his meteoric rise. ¡ª For Guan Ruyan, the Outstanding Young Talent award was extremely important, it being a critical step in his ascension. But for Yang Ping, it was neither here nor there. He simply didn¡¯t want to dismiss the earnestness of the senior who had recommended him. The research funding came from a dedicated foundation, and he didn¡¯t need any of it. If the Outstanding Young Talent funding could be left for those who needed it, that would be even better. Even the reason the four papers in ¡°Science¡± caused such a stir for Yang Ping was not because ¡°Science¡± was that impressive, but because it could help him accumulate a large number of system points, which were what truly mattered to Yang Ping. The papers were just a side story, surgery was the main theme of life. Yang Ping continued his routine of handing over shifts, making ward rounds, and performing surgeries; every day, three operating rooms would run concurrently, with Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang each acting as chief surgeon. The Comprehensive Surgery Department had gained some scale, but Yang Ping had no intention of expanding it further. Three operating rooms were enough, as the department¡¯s goal was to handle surgeries that others couldn¡¯t, not to compete with others for any and all surgeries and expand just for the sake of claiming territory. Yang Ping had no interest in that. His goal was to build the Comprehensive Surgery Department into a unit that combined clinical work with scientific research, into a research-oriented department. Anyway, these papers were like a depth charge, creating huge waves around Yang Ping; everyone had yet to regain their composure from the shock of the papers. In the past few days, Xiao Su was also incredibly excited; her husband had silently produced three ¡°Science¡± papers, filling her with boundless admiration. She thought Yang Ping was like a god descended to earth, the most incredible man in the world. She knew Yang Ping was talented, but she never imagined he was this extraordinary. One ¡°Science¡± paper was enough to make Yang Ping¡¯s phone overheat, now with four ¡°Science¡± papers, his phone was on the verge of exploding at any moment. A phone call with Professor Liang from Xiehe Hospital lasted a whole hour; the old professor rambled on excitedly like a child, flitting from topic to topic, becoming more and more animated until finally saying, ¡°My phone¡¯s battery is almost dead. If you have any difficulties, speak up at any time, don¡¯t bottle them up.¡± Professor Qin from 301 Hospital, who rarely made calls, also called, and they talked for half an hour before hanging up. The young people from Xiehe, represented by Song Yun; and Wen Rentao from Magic City Sixth Hospital, along with former classmates¡ª Many called to congratulate him, none of them could have expected Yang Ping to publish so many ¡°Science¡± papers all at once. While Yang Ping¡¯s former classmates were still anxious over paper publications and professional titles, Yang Ping already held posts as chief physician, professor, and doctoral advisor, with some even asking to reserve a spot as his doctoral student in advance. His good friend Ning Qi, the gorgeous CEO, inexplicably found out about Yang Ping¡¯s papers too, and was eager to join the excitement. Not only did she insist on talking over the phone without hanging up, but she also visited Sanbo accompanied by Dean Xia, leveraging her status as the largest donor to the Sanbo fund, just to have a legitimate reason to see Yang Ping and shake his hand. Boss Cheng had his private restaurant ready, with a dinner arranged, saying it was time for the brothers to get together properly. He brought along Huang Jiacai, and Su Nanchen as well. With his elder cousin being involved, Yang Ping could not refuse, otherwise, he would not have bothered with that guy. After a few drinks, Dean Cai from Licheng Hospital couldn¡¯t tell north from south and excitedly said, ¡°There are a few S-levels over at the club, does Professor Yang want to go and relax?¡± Boss Cheng almost slapped him across the face, but Dean Cai, shivering, said, ¡°They really do play a mean game. I heard they¡¯ve competed in national tennis competitions. Maybe Professor Yang would like to play a match.¡± ¡°Professor Yang is too busy, how could he have time to play tennis,¡± Boss Cheng said sternly. Lucky you reacted quickly. You and your big mouth, Boss Cheng cursed Dean Cai inwardly. Dean Cai broke into a cold sweat, narrowly avoiding giving himself a slap in the face. Yu Shuilian¡¯s bakery at the hospital put out an advertisement, offering free items for a week to celebrate Professor Yang¡¯s published papers. Dean Xia could no longer keep a low profile. He hung banners across the hospital, and the official website even put up a festive version to celebrate the publication of three ¡°Science¡± papers at once. It was probably the first time in history this had happened anywhere in the world. With just the three papers, it¡¯s already like this; Yang Ping didn¡¯t dare to think about what kind of big event the next nine papers might trigger. He wasn¡¯t sure whether Dean Xia and Director Han could handle it, considering their ages. Headache! Yang Ping sat in his office chair, leaning against the backrest to rest, with a bottle of essential balm on the desk. Chapter 867 - 867 770 New School Sci-Fi Works ?Chapter 867: Chapter 770: New School Sci-Fi Works Chapter 867: Chapter 770: New School Sci-Fi Works Manstein actually didn¡¯t like Britannia, he always felt that the weather was gloomy and humid here, and the people were insincere and mean-spirited. Compared to this little island, the weather in Germany seemed brighter and fresher, and the people were more sincere and generous. If it were not for those few articles, Manstein would not have been willing to come to such a terrible place. In the past few days, Manstein had refreshed his email many times daily, ¡°Nature¡± and ¡°Cell¡± had been delayed in sending over his papers, perhaps the editor-in-chief had already blocked them, or perhaps had pushed them onto others. Communicating over the phone or via email was really inconvenient for such matters, so Manstein decided to make a personal visit. Because of the unique review system of ¡°Nature,¡± Manstein decided to come to London first, and then go to North America afterward. ¡°Nature¡¯s¡± headquarters was located along the Thames River in London, Manstein had no leisure to stroll by the river. He entered the glass door of ¡°Nature¡± headquarters and headed straight for Dr. Jeff¡¯s office. At that moment, Dr. Jeff was drinking coffee and listening to music; his door was open because he knew that Manstein was coming today. Jeff saw Manstein from a distance as he approached, immediately went out to greet him, and took hold of Manstein¡¯s old document bag. ¡°Dear Professor Mainshtan, I was just about to go downstairs to meet you, but you arrived a full half-hour early.¡± Germans were always very punctual, but Manstein, eager to resolve his issues more quickly, didn¡¯t care about being on time. ¡°Have you seen the four papers recently submitted by this Chinese name?¡± Manstein sat down without any superfluous words, picked up a pen and paper from the desk, and briskly wrote down a Chinese name. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I haven¡¯t seen them. Whether other editors have, I¡¯ll have to ask.¡± Jeff immediately picked up the phone and instructed his assistant to inquire about the matter, making it clear to every editor, including those on leave, that everyone should be asked. After giving work instructions, Jeff brought Mainshtan a cup of hand-ground coffee: ¡°Have a cup of hot coffee first, to ward off the dampness. Sit down and wait for the results slowly.¡± Mainshtan tasted the coffee, not saying a word, quietly waiting for the results of the inquiry. Jeff was completely confused about the purpose of Professor Mainshtan¡¯s visit. Could it really just be to inquire about a few articles? That could easily be done over the phone or through email. Since Mainshtan didn¡¯t speak, Jeff didn¡¯t either, not knowing where to start, creating a very awkward atmosphere. The efficiency of the British was still decent. As the two awkwardly drank their silent coffee, in about half an hour, the phone in Jeff¡¯s office rang. Jeff picked up the phone, listened to his assistant¡¯s report, and then put down the handset: ¡°Professor Mainshtan, you¡¯re right, there is such a Chinese name. Four articles have been submitted, and the submitting institution is a hospital named Sanbo.¡± ¡°That¡¯s him!¡± Mainshtan nodded. ¡°Unfortunately, our editors just said that they completely failed to understand these articles. The articles were filled with a large number of new terms and concepts, names, and concepts that had never appeared in previous academic journals or works, which made them incomprehensible, to tell whether the papers contained genuine substance or were just attracting attention with nonsensical gibberish. Moreover, the articles seemed obscure and difficult to comprehend due to the novel terms and didn¡¯t seem particularly interesting. Therefore, the opinion of my editors is¡ªthis is an obscure and difficult to understand new genre of science fiction, and it is recommended to submit to science fiction magazines.¡± ¡°So, they were blocked by you?¡± Mainshtan asked. Jeff nodded: ¡°Yes, to sum up in one sentence¡ªthe four articles have been directly blocked. Of course, the reply to the author has not yet been sent because the editor responsible ate something wrong these past few days, has had continuous diarrhea, and even needs to lean on the wall to walk.¡± People have always believed that ¡°Nature,¡± being one of the three top journals, has a strict review system, but this is merely a one-sided fantasy. In reality, ¡°Nature¡± practices a very ¡°person-driven¡± review system. Whether an article is published or not is entirely up to the subjective judgment of the editor-in-chief or the editor. Other top journals have strict editorial boards with rigorous editorial discussions. At ¡°Nature,¡± such organizations and systems do not exist. Other top journals have professional peer reviews, and the opinions of these reviews often carry decisive weight. But ¡°Nature¡± is different. Their peer reviews are outsourced, and expert opinions are only taken for reference. Papers strongly recommended for publication by experts are directly blocked, while papers considered unpublishable by experts are immediately published. Such incidents are a common occurrence at ¡°Nature.¡± But Nature became one of the three top legendary journals, the oldest of its kind, by relying on its unique and highly individual peer review system. In the history of Nature, there was an excellent editor, Maddox, who, based on his personal judgment, had endorsed many outstanding articles. In the fifties and sixties, the astronomer Hoyle submitted several articles to Nature, discussing the function of prehistoric stone circles and the nature of the universe. At the time, many scholars deemed these views unreliable, mere bizarre speculation. Yet, editor Maddox found them very interesting and decided to publish them directly. In 1977, the same astronomer submitted a paper to Nature proposing an outlandish idea ¨C ¡°Earth life originated from interstellar bacteria.¡± The maverick Maddox published it without peer review, with a very personal reason ¨C ¡°Review experts are unable to effectively determine whether this hypothesis is reasonable!¡± That implied that only he, Maddox, was qualified to judge whether this hypothesis was reasonable. Then there was the archaeologist Leakey, who in 1971 submitted an article ¡°Human Originated from Africa.¡± Later, feeling the evidence insufficient, he asked to withdraw the manuscript, intending to publish when he had gathered enough proof. Editor Maddox persuaded Leakey not to retract the article and to publish it directly instead. So-called ¡®without peer review¡¯ doesn¡¯t mean the editors don¡¯t read the manuscript; it simply means the manuscript isn¡¯t reviewed by experts outside of the editorial team nor does it go through rigorous discussions by the editorial board. The decision to publish the paper is made solely by editors based on their intuition, upholding Nature¡¯s complete independence. Even further back, in 1953, the famed paper by Watson and Crick ¨C ¡°The Structure of Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid,¡± proposing the now-famous DNA double helix model, was unexpectedly published in this very manner, without peer review. From submission to publication, it only took 23 days. The editor, after reading the paper, believed that no peer expert would accept this hypothesis, so he published it directly. Jeff explained to Manstein with a somewhat troubled expression, ¡°You know, our review system is quite different. We don¡¯t do editorial boards, we don¡¯t do peer reviews, the decision to publish a paper is solely based on our editor¡¯s brain, and that¡¯s a tradition we¡¯re proud of.¡± Manstein exhaled a sigh of relief, ¡°Doctor Jeff, you should thank that colleague who clung to the wall, for if he hadn¡¯t eaten something wrong, you would have missed the chance to be the most outstanding editor in the history of Nature. Bring all those articles here, let me have a look.¡± Jeff opened his computer, pulled up the articles, then turned the screen toward Manstein. ¡°No, sorry, sir, I haven¡¯t looked at these papers yet. I am the editor; I should have a look first. You don¡¯t mind, do you?¡± Jeff then swiveled the screen back toward himself. Manstein lifted his coffee, ¡°Historic moments, who goes first and who goes next, it¡¯s very important. You understand history.¡± ¡°Thank you. You must have something significant in mind, coming to London through the damp fog,¡± Jeff said with a wily smile. The editor read slowly and carefully, word by word. Manstein was not in a hurry, calmly waiting. ¡°The most important concept in the paper ¨C Microscopic Dissection, outlining human anatomy, organs, or tissues based on cells and the connections between them, seems very interesting. However, the experiments based on this theme are somewhat bizarre. On the basis of Microscopic Dissection, they aim to construct a new generation of Digital Humans using Digital Cells. Moreover, they claim to have successfully built a piece of Digital Muscle. They also mention the future development of a Biological 3D Printer based on Microscopic Dissection, using Biological 3D Printing Technology to print organs with Microscopic Dissection structures ¨C ¡± Jeff evaluated in English with a London accent, modulating his tone. ¡°Do you understand it? Or maybe give some specific opinions.¡± Manstein said. Jeff waved his hand dismissively, ¡°No, not time to draw conclusions yet. Professor Mainshtan, your esteemed opinion?¡± Manstein didn¡¯t have time for this cunning man¡¯s runarounds. ¡°Four papers. The Microscopic Dissection discussed will usher in a brand-new era for the field. I can be the referee, hoping to publish them all at once in your journal, as swiftly as possible.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± Jeff asked. Manstein nodded, ¡°Absolutely certain!¡± Doctor Jeff straightened up, and with a serious tone, he declared loudly, ¡°These four papers, I¡¯ve just read them, and I find them incredibly intriguing. Considering that peer experts might not understand, I¡¯ve decided to publish them all at once in our upcoming issue.¡± Manstein gave a thumbs up. In a lowered voice, Doctor Jeff leaned in, ¡°Sir, you have to understand, these four papers are not associated with you. First, I was the first to read the papers, and it was solely my independent decision. Secondly, you came today for coffee and didn¡¯t give me any advice. Lastly, just now, I didn¡¯t ask you for your opinion on the papers, and you didn¡¯t provide any, and as for being a referee, that¡¯s not happening. It¡¯s all my decision, I¡¯m the referee, and I will take responsibility for everything.¡± After finishing, the Brit gave a sly smile. ¡°Alright, I didn¡¯t say anything. History will remember, this affair is your own doing, nothing to do with me. I¡¯m clear on that,¡± Manstein raised his coffee. ¡°To friendship, cheers!¡± ¡°To friendship, cheers!¡± Chapter 868 - 868 771 An Old Friends Steak ?Chapter 868: Chapter 771: An Old Friend¡¯s Steak Chapter 868: Chapter 771: An Old Friend¡¯s Steak Although Jeff did not understand what the paper was actually about, the strong recommendation from Manstein convinced him that these articles must be groundbreaking. He didn¡¯t want to share the honor with Manstein, and moreover, Manstein already had plenty of accolades and wouldn¡¯t care about missing just a little more. Back then, Brin Bull had a discerning eye. A short paper of only two pages¡ªabout the DNA double helix structure model¡ªbecame the most famous article in the history of ¡°Nature¡±, and Brin Bull¡¯s name was etched in history because of it. At that time, Brin Bull did not eschew peer review, but his way of doing it was unique; he had his own method of judgement. The paper on the DNA double helix structure model, recommended by Bragg, the director of the Cavendish Physics Laboratory and Nobel Prize laureate, was proof enough of the paper¡¯s value. Brin Bull immediately decided that while the paper¡¯s content might be hypothetical, it would mark the beginning of an era, and thus he did not hesitate to expedite the publication of this ¡°hypothesis¡±. Now, Manstein flew across the English Channel from Germany for just these four papers, and though Dr. Jeff only vaguely understood the concept of ¡°microscopic dissection¡± mentioned in them, it did not prevent him from using his editorial power to expedite their publication. That¡¯s how it was with ¡°Nature¡±: the editor¡¯s brain decided everything! With a history spanning over 150 years, ¡°Nature¡¯s¡± review process had never failed. ¡ª- Having dealt with ¡°Nature¡±, Manstein did not linger, immediately setting off for Massachusetts in the United States¡ªhe was determined not to let a single paper by Yang Ping go unpublished. By then, Manstein didn¡¯t know the specifics of the five papers Yang Ping had submitted to the ¡°Cell¡± Journal, only that he had sent five to them. Manstein was full of energy and, with his leather document bag, he slept a bit on the plane, and upon arrival in Massachusetts, Ruben Kyle, the editor-in-chief of ¡°Cell¡±, personally picked him up from the airport. Ruben Kyle was a geneticist, a Doctor from Harvard University, and a member of the United States Academy of Sciences; he was an outstanding editor. Manstein had won the Nobel Prize twice. He was a scholar who commanded respect from everyone in academia, and there was hardly any top medical journal editor who did not know him. Both times his Nobel-winning work was published in ¡°Cell¡±. When it came to personal relationships, Ruben Kyle of ¡°Cell¡± had the deepest connection with Manstein. The plane was delayed, and by the time it landed, it was late night; Ruben Kyle had been waiting at the airport for a full two hours. Over the phone, Ruben Kyle only knew Manstein was rushing over for urgent matters, not the specifics. Perhaps it was a breakthrough in head transplants involving some ethical issues, making it inappropriate to discuss over the phone, lest it give rise to problems, which is why he hurried to meet. If that was indeed the case, it implied Manstein had made a breakthrough in nerve repair, and thus, he might make history by winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the third time¡ªa historic miracle. ¡°My old friend, you should take it easy; there¡¯s no need to rush like this,¡± said Ruben Kyle as he warmly embraced Manstein. ¡°No, some things can wait until next year, but some can¡¯t wait until tomorrow. No need to go back to your headquarters; let¡¯s find a place to sit down, I need something to eat and a cup of coffee,¡± Manstein¡¯s stomach was already growling. ¡°The usual place? You know it¡¯s very quiet there, convenient for talking.¡± Ruben Kyle could almost conclude that Manstein had indeed made a breakthrough in nerve repair. Two old friends got in the car, Ruben Kyle¡¯s vehicle entered a rather secluded part of the suburbs and arrived at a cafe owned by his old friend. He parked the car and led Manstein straight to a private room on the second floor¡ªwhenever Manstein visited the United States, he and Ruben Kyle would catch up here. The two settled down, and steaming coffee was served, followed by steak, sausages, and bread. ¡°Old friend, your expression has betrayed you. Has your experiment made progress? Have you achieved a breakthrough in nerve repair? If that¡¯s the case, then the experiments with monkeys must have succeeded as well. Using monkeys for experiments surely faces substantial ethical pressure,¡± said Ruben Kyle excitedly. After wolfing down his food, Manstein shook his head, ¡°Not that fast. I have other business in the United States. This Chinese name has submitted five papers to your journal. I want you to publish them as quickly as possible¡ªby any means necessary, and quickly! You know what I mean.¡± In academia, sometimes every second counts. If someone else is researching the same topic and making the same progress, the one to publish first will go down in history, and the later publications will naturally be obscured¡ªsuch is the harsh reality. After speaking, Manstein took out a card with Yang Ping¡¯s name in Pinyin and the English name of Sanbo Hospital on it. Ruben Kyle took the card, furrowing his brow slightly. He vaguely remembered the articles and was unsure whether they could be published. After several rounds of discussion, the articles were temporarily withheld. Because the topic of the articles was very novel, one could say it opened up a brand-new field and proposed a line of thought that had never been suggested before. However, this topic was merely a hypothesis at this point, lacking experimental data for support. ¡°I¡¯ve seen these five papers at the editorial board¡¯s discussion meeting. They are about different levels and aspects of the same theme. The general idea is that human cells contain certain three-dimensional guiding gene fragments. These fragments can direct the precise spatial construction of cells, ultimately forming a complete organ. From a fertilized egg to a human body, the dividing cells rely on this type of gene as the architect to build the three-dimensional structure of the human body. Currently, this is just a hypothesis, but the author says that experimental data supporting it will be available soon. This hypothesis is imaginative, but it lacks experimental support,¡± Ruben Kyle remembered the articles quite vividly. ¡°What about the opinions of the expert reviewers?¡± Manstein continued to ask as he ordered two more steaks. Ruben Kyle shook his head, ¡°The expert reviewers unanimously considered it baseless speculation and recommended against publishing it. Our editorial board¡¯s opinion aligned with theirs. Moreover, the author had no prior achievements in this field, and the laboratory he worked at was not famed either. After several discussions, we still felt publishing was inappropriate, but I haven¡¯t rejected the paper outright¡ªI need to think about it.¡± ¡°The fact that you¡¯re hesitating and haven¡¯t directly rejected it shows you¡¯re a smart man, fitting the honors you¡¯ve received,¡± Manstein remarked, having finished off two more steaks before taking a break. He paused and continued: ¡°Actually, I think these papers are more suitable for ¡®Nature.¡¯ The structure of the DNA double helix back in the day was a similar hypothesis, where the author confidently stated it would match with experimental data. Brin Bull didn¡¯t overlook it because it was just a hypothesis¡ªhe decided on his own to publish it directly. After a tiresome journey, crossing the ocean, I¡¯m merely here to tell you a little secret¡ªthat young Chinese Professor Yang Ping has already published four papers in ¡®Science,¡¯ and ¡®Nature¡¯ is about to publish four more. If your ¡®Cell¡¯ doesn¡¯t publish these five papers in time, they might well be scooped up by ¡®Nature¡¯ and ¡®Science,¡¯ who are eagerly waiting for the meat to fall from your mouth. The number of Nobel Prize-worthy papers published by the big three journals has been dwindling. Of course, the existence of a journal has nothing to do with the Nobel Prize, but one can¡¯t ignore the possibility that some unseen index may have started to decline,¡± Manstein said, sipping his hot coffee to dispel the dampness he had caught from London. ¡°Is this the purpose of your trip?¡± Ruben Kyle asked incredulously, finding it hard to believe that this genius professor had come to the United States for this reason alone. Manstein nodded in affirmation, ¡°Exactly, old friend. Your steak is excellent; I like it! For this steak, the effort is never in vain for me.¡± ¡°There¡¯s truly nothing else?¡± Ruben Kyle asked, suspicious. Manstein packed up his leather document bag and said lazily: ¡°I¡¯ve finished what I came to do. I think I should buy the next flight back to Germany. I¡¯m very busy. Give it some thought¡ªI hope you seize this opportunity. Not necessarily to get ahead but at least not to fall behind.¡± ¡°Are you leaving now?¡± Ruben Kyle knew his old friend was eccentric, but he didn¡¯t expect him to leave just after sitting down for a while. ¡°Take me to the airport. I need to buy the next flight. I can sleep at the airport while waiting for the plane. My advice to you¡ªbetter start soon. Lewis and Jeff are waiting for me to add more to their plate, but this is what I¡¯m leaving for you. No one else should think of extending their neck to snatch it away, and not for anything else¡ªjust because your steak suits my taste perfectly.¡± Ruben Kyle thought his old friend was joking and didn¡¯t expect him to actually be leaving now. Chapter 869 - 869 772 Thirteen Consecutive Strikes ?Chapter 869: Chapter 772: Thirteen Consecutive Strikes Chapter 869: Chapter 772: Thirteen Consecutive Strikes Manstein was still at the airport and hadn¡¯t left the United States when Ruben Kyle made his decision¡ªhe decided to take the advice of a good friend to heart, not willing to fall behind the other two brothers, he decided to publish all five of Yang Ping¡¯s papers in one go and give one a cover spot, naturally, it had to be rushed to appear in the upcoming issue, otherwise, he would be a step too slow. Having received his old friend¡¯s reply, Manstein rested for a while at the airport, contentedly boarded the plane, and left the United States, concluding his special trip of the past few days. Back in Germany, Manstein dialed August¡¯s number once again. ¡°Mr. August, please pay attention to the upcoming issues of Nature and Cell, I guarantee you will go crazy, I absolutely guarantee it.¡± After saying just that, Manstein hung up the phone, and no matter how August tried to call him back, he refused to answer, and eventually, the phone was outright switched off. These past days had been too hectic, tirelessly traveling between various locations, and now Manstein needed to rest well. It was this very August, because of whose recommendation, Manstein stayed up all night, relentlessly traveling between London and Massachusetts, and so the genius professor decided to punish this alumnus harshly. At this moment, it was midnight in China, and August, receiving the abrupt call, savoring Manstein¡¯s odd tone, followed by the incessant disconnection of his calls, and finally being met with the phone turning off. What on earth was this guy up to? August spent a sleepless night, mulling over Manstein¡¯s mysterious call, thinking until his head overheated, a state that persisted until dawn. ¡ª Yang Ping¡¯s life was seriously troubled by the publication of four Science papers; if it were not for his desperate need for points, he would not have launched such a super-saturated strike at CNS. Early in the morning, Yang Ping checked his email, and although four had already been accepted, he still had high hopes for the remaining nine papers; with points, the more, the merrier. A few prominent overseas emails caught his eye¡ªacceptance responses from Nature and Cell, which mentioned all the papers had been accepted. Yang Ping hadn¡¯t expected that the three major CNS journals would be so generous to accept them all without exception, each rushed to publication, and both journals clearly agreeing to provide the cover spot. It seemed the world still had those who recognized the merit, but it was strange that the three journals were so synchronized, not missing a single paper. Everything seemed too perfect, as if an invisible hand was controlling everything behind the scenes. The four papers had caused an impact akin to a tsunami, and while the aftermath had yet to subside and everyone was immersed in a celebratory atmosphere, the publication of nine papers at once in Nature and Cell would shake the Earth like an asteroid collision. Yang Ping leaned back in his chair, pondering his next steps, wondering if he should tell his friends and family. His wife was still pregnant; would such a big announcement upset her? Could Dean Xia and Director Han withstand such a shock? And there were his in-laws, alas¡ª Yang Ping finally understood that at any given time, one would have worries; ¡°poor as only having money¡± wasn¡¯t just whining, but a genuine expression of helplessness. After work in the evening, Xiao Su prepared dinner to celebrate the publication of Yang Ping¡¯s four papers in Science, having specially added a few dishes for the past few days. Looking at the dishes on the table, Yang Ping didn¡¯t move his chopsticks, which Xiao Su found strange. Seeing him so preoccupied, she couldn¡¯t help but ask: ¡°Husband, are you alright?¡± Xiao Su reached out and touched Yang Ping¡¯s forehead, which wasn¡¯t hot. Yang Ping slowly said, ¡°Wife, brace yourself, I have something to tell you, but let¡¯s agree beforehand that no matter what you hear, don¡¯t get too excited, try to stay calm, okay?¡± Xiao Su felt a bit baffled, but seeing Yang Ping¡¯s serious demeanor, she could only nod her head, wondering what it could be. Although she didn¡¯t know what it was, her heart was already in turmoil, as if she were drumming inside. Her husband, the closest person to her, was now so solemn, about to reveal something significant, and by all appearances, it didn¡¯t look like any good news. ¡°It¡¯s okay, husband, just say it, your wife can handle a big deal,¡± Xiao Su said earnestly. Yang Ping thought for a moment and said, ¡°You know, I have published four papers in Science, of which three were published at the same time, plus one cover paper.¡± ¡°I know¡ªI¡¯m so excited, my heart is still thumping,¡± Xiao Su pressed her hand against her chest where her heart was. Yang Ping pondered for a moment, ¡°Now I have to tell you that your husband has not only published four papers in Science; he has also published four papers in Nature, all four at once, one of which is the cover story; and at the same time, five papers in Cell, also published all at once, one of which is the cover story.¡± Having said that, Yang Ping waited for Xiao Su¡¯s reaction. ¡°Husband, are you saying¡ªyou¡¯ve just published nine more papers, four in the same issue of Nature and five in the same issue of Cell, and there are cover articles too?¡± Xiao Su¡¯s big, round, and black eyes widened even further. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Xiao Su was stunned for a full minute, then hugged Yang Ping and shook him vigorously. ¡°Husband, aren¡¯t you a bit too fierce?¡± Yang Ping gently patted her back, ¡°Husband was a bit too eager, and it came off a bit fierce. I didn¡¯t scare you, did I?¡± Xiao Su shook her head, a bit incoherently, ¡°Not scared, just my heart is thumping wildly, like it¡¯s about to jump out.¡± ¡°Stay calm, you must stay calm, and keep your heartbeat steady,¡± Yang Ping soothed Xiao Su¡¯s emotions. Xiao Su let go of Yang Ping, and sat down to take deep breaths repeatedly: ¡°I¡¯ll learn to stay calm, I must learn to stay calm, and keep my heartbeat steady. It¡¯s impossible not to be calm as your wife.¡± Thirteen CNS papers¡ªwhat kind of monstrous academic achievements are these? It¡¯s probably unprecedented in history. And they were published in groups of three, four, and five, all in the same issue at once¡ªas if he owned CNS and it was his personal whiteboard. ¡°How should I tell my parents about this? My head is hurting right now.¡± ¡°And how should I tell others? Professor Zhang, Old Han, Dean Xia?¡± Yang Ping massaged his temples. ¡°Let¡¯s not say anything for now; let them find out on their own. That might be much better.¡± Xiao Su also felt that the recent few CNS papers were shocking enough. Now, to suddenly pull out nine papers, a 13-hit combo, this kind of excessive excitement and stimulation might not be good for the elderly. Mom and dad would probably be okay, but grandpa is over eighty, and definitely cannot afford to get overly excited. ¡ª The system¡¯s reward was very timely, granting forty million points for the four papers that have been published. With this, experiments could be started again. The four CNS papers brought Yang Ping this huge amount of points. Each paper was worth tens of millions; this high income was incomparable to earning points through surgery. It was like making money. Before, he would earn tens of thousands at a time, and only with hard work, he could barely earn a million or so in a year. Now, a single deal brought in tens of millions. The experiments had restarted; the system was that straightforward and brutal. If you had points, you were the boss; without points, you stepped aside, unable to use any functions. Of course, the reading function was still available, so in this sense, the system was still somewhat kindhearted. Yang Ping entered the System Laboratory. The System panel¡¯s plain and simple style gave Yang Ping a warm feeling. This style seemed old-fashioned, but it resonated with a strong sense of stability, as if the simpler it was, the more stable it became, evoking the feeling it would never crash. But Yang Ping liked this style. Without any flashy decorations, it gave a solid, technical aura. In the laboratory, Yang Ping began to compare genes between normal stem cells, teratoma-forming cells, and tumor cells. This comparison was very time-consuming and sometimes involved a bit of luck, but to guarantee a hundred percent success, Yang Ping could only perform a comprehensive comparison of their genes. Fortunately, the System panel was equivalent to a computer with unlimited computing power, able to assist in some of the calculations. Naturally, this comparison could be left to the ¡°System host¡± to handle. Even in real-life experiments, this kind of gene comparison was done by computers. If it were left to human effort, who knows how long it would take. Thus, the System Laboratory still had a huge advantage when it came to tools. Apart from purchasing various instruments and equipment with points for instant use, the System panel was equivalent to a supercomputer, helping to process various data. Yang Ping decided to spend most of his points before coming out, hoping to find the genetic fragment differences between them. Chapter 870 - 870 773 Paper Cant Wrap Fire ?Chapter 870: Chapter 773: Paper Can¡¯t Wrap Fire Chapter 870: Chapter 773: Paper Can¡¯t Wrap Fire Paper can¡¯t cover fire! The true experts engaged in academia almost keep an eye on the top journals in their field every day. The moment a new issue is released, they immediately start reading, seizing the information they desire. This is how they keep up with the leading-edge research worldwide, lest they fall behind. Such top journals had always been amongst the main reading materials on Professor Su¡¯s bookshelf. Nowadays, many international journals are printed and mailed in the country of sale, and thanks to the developed logistics industry, a new issue of a journal can be delivered to readers within a few days. Because there was an article by Yang Ping in ¡°Science¡±, Professor Su paid extra attention to this issue. He took a ¡°Science¡± magazine that still smelled of fresh ink from the shelf. The cover featured the title of Yang Ping¡¯s paper on skin expansion technology. He found Yang Ping¡¯s paper and read it carefully, sincerely admiring its profound medical value after finishing. The young genius capable of publishing four papers in ¡°Science¡± was his own son-in-law, and Professor Su, who always cherished talent, had been so excited these few days that he could hardly sleep. Even his father, who was over eighty, was so pleased that he couldn¡¯t stop smiling all day. ¡°Cell¡±, ¡°Nature¡±, and ¡°Science¡± were placed within reach. After finishing ¡°Science¡±, Professor Su naturally took the latest issues of ¡°Cell¡± and ¡°Nature¡±, browsed through the contents at a glance, and was completely stunned. Five papers in ¡°Cell¡±, four in ¡°Nature¡±, all cover articles, all by a single author¡ªhis son-in-law Yang Ping. Nine CNS papers, plus the previous four, a total of thirteen papers published in a burst in a short period. This outburst was like the mightiest volcanic eruption on Earth. What was going on? Professor Su¡¯s hands were trembling a bit. Even he, as experienced as he was, had never seen anything like it. It had happened in history but never crossed his mind. Was this guy even a normal human? He calmed down and wanted to call Yang Ping but figured he might be in the middle of surgery. However, he paused, feeling as if Yang Ping was a stranger at this moment. Professor Su thought for a moment and dialed his daughter¡¯s phone. After the call connected, he didn¡¯t know what to say. ¡°Dad?¡± Xiao Su asked on the phone. Professor Su coughed a few times, ¡°I was just reading the latest issue of ¡®Cell¡¯, ¡®Nature¡¯, ¡®Science¡¯. Did Xiao Yang publish another nine papers without telling me?¡± There was a hint of reproach for the younger generation in Professor Su¡¯s tone. Xiao Su¡¯s careless voice replied, ¡°It¡¯s just that we were worried you and grandfather couldn¡¯t handle the shock. You¡¯re fine, but grandfather is old, he can¡¯t get too excited.¡± ¡°Nonsense, such a big event must be communicated in time¡ª¡± Professor Su¡¯s heart was pounding excitedly as he spoke. For a scholar, this was far more thrilling than seeing one¡¯s bank account suddenly increase by billions.¡± ¡°Dad, are you okay?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine, just that my heart is beating hard. Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s just happiness. Remember, don¡¯t tell your grandparents. Keep this a secret. Your grandfather waking up at three in the morning to practice Tai Chi is all due to the excess excitement from this.¡± Immediately, Professor Su dialed Su Nanchen¡¯s phone: ¡°Hide this issue of ¡®Cell¡¯ and ¡®Nature¡¯. Don¡¯t take them home for your grandfather to see. If he asks, just make up an excuse.¡± Professor Su and Mrs. Su usually lived in the community near the hospital, staying at the villa on Shuangsha Island on Saturdays and Sundays. Professor Su¡¯s parents stayed at the Shuangsha Island villa most of the time. ¡°What happened?¡± In Su Nanchen¡¯s house, many medical journals were also subscribed, so the study was like a small library, not lacking in any heavyweight domestic and international journals. Su Butong didn¡¯t miss a single issue of the top Neurosurgery journals, and he would also browse through the three top comprehensive journals, diligent studying any he found interesting. For a family steeped in bookish tradition, reading was a custom. ¡°Just take a look at ¡®Cell¡¯ and ¡®Nature¡¯ yourself. Your good buddy Yang Ping has caused a sensation.¡± Professor Su hung up the phone. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Mrs. Su saw Professor Su leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, as if he had encountered some difficult problem. Professor Su waved his hand, ¡°Do we still have sleeping pills at home? Give me two tonight.¡± ¡°What on earth happened?¡± Mrs. Su had never seen Professor Su so distraught. Professor Su slowly opened his eyes, pointing at the journals on his desk, ¡°Take a look for yourself, our excellent son-in-law¡ª¡± ¡ª Of the nine papers following Yang Ping¡¯s, except for Xiao Su, he hadn¡¯t told anyone. Wen Ruzheng from the Pathology department was the first to know. Wen Ruzheng, who usually disliked posting on moments, caused a stir by sharing the news in various hospital groups, which immediately sparked all kinds of discussions. Of course, everyone¡¯s first reaction was to think Wen Ruzheng had messed up somehow, deliberately posting nonsensical stuff amidst the hype. Four CNS papers were already hard to believe, and now there were nine more, totaling thirteen¡ªto suddenly release such news, few people believed it. Director Zhou of the Department of Science and Education, after seeing this message, felt that Wen Ruzheng shouldn¡¯t be spreading rumors at this time. He prepared to issue a notice to dispel the rumors. As the head of the science and technology department, he must act cautiously. Before issuing the notice, Director Zhou specifically did some verification. To his surprise, when he looked into it, he was startled. The news was true, indeed nine articles¡ªauthentic and verified nine articles. The author was Yang Ping, and the institution was Sanbo Hospital in Nandu, China. As one of the old guards of Sanbo Hospital and well-versed in scientific publication, Director Zhou was very professional. He printed out a document, quickly packed up his things, and then rushed to Dean Xia¡¯s office. On the way, he also made urgent calls to Director Han, Director Zhao, and Dean Sun, telling them to meet at Dean Xia¡¯s office for an important discussion. Being on the same floor in the administration building, Director Zhou found himself walking unsteadily, feeling almost like he was having a stroke, with his legs not obeying his commands. With an excited heart, he hurried to Dean Xia¡¯s office, where Dean Xia was pacing back and forth. ¡°Old Zhou, what¡¯s the rush? I have to step out soon,¡± Dean Xia asked. Director Zhou put the printed document on Dean Xia¡¯s desk: ¡°Old Xia, take a look for yourself, another nine CNS top-level journal papers, ¡®Cell¡¯ with five articles, ¡®Nature¡¯ with four, all with cover stories. What on earth is this? Anyway, my heart can¡¯t take it any longer¡ªit¡¯s pounding nonstop.¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why are you so agitated?¡± Dean Xia picked up the printouts and glanced over them. Good heavens! Who plays their cards like this? This is directly pushing Sanbo Hospital¡¯s scientific research strength to the apex of the world, nine more, another nine! ¡°Is there some kind of misunderstanding?¡± Dean Xia steadied himself and asked with concern. Director Zhou shook his head: ¡°It has been verified. How could there be a misunderstanding? Are there two Sanbo Hospitals in Nandu? Two Yang Pings in Sanbo Hospital?¡± Dean Xia¡¯s head spun and he supported himself on his desk: ¡°Let me sit down and catch my breath. How come I haven¡¯t heard about this? He hasn¡¯t said a word.¡± At that time, Director Han, Dean Sun, and Director Zhao also arrived at the dean¡¯s office, seeing the strange expressions on Dean Xia and Director Zhou¡¯s faces, they couldn¡¯t quite grasp what they were feeling. ¡°Old Han, Old Zhao, Old Sun, you came just in time. Take a look for yourselves. Those with heart problems, beware, judge the risk for yourselves,¡± Dean Xia pointed to the stack of printed documents on his desk. ¡°What is this all about, why the secrecy?¡± Old Han picked up the document, glanced at the peculiar expressions of the other two as if they were possessed. After reading the materials, Old Han also became petrified, standing still, his hands trembling. Next to him, Director Zhao also saw what was on the materials. ¡°Old Han, can it be? This isn¡¯t real, is it?¡± With a slap, Director Zhao gave himself a smack on the cheek: ¡°It¡¯s real, a total of 13 CNS papers. Is this what humans can achieve?¡± It¡¯s said that the most articles by Chinese authors in CNS¡¯s history was 14, and that was accumulated over many years. Furthermore, some of the top experts holding a few CNS papers, those who are arrogant, are only at a pace of one paper per year. And there hasn¡¯t been a case like this where someone published 13 papers in such a short duration, let alone simultaneously becoming the cover story for all three major journals¡ªunprecedented and unparalleled! Moreover, all of Yang Ping¡¯s articles are based on mechanistic research, which in the field of biomedical research, is generally acknowledged to be much more difficult to publish than structural research. Structure-based researchers sometimes can publish one paper in one or two years, but those researching mechanisms may not produce a publication in ten years. This kid now has his entire body of research as original medical principles research; this is utterly astonishing. Dean Xia gestured dismissively, took out a pill, and popped it into his mouth, speaking unclearly: ¡°Change the banner and the official website¡¯s numbers¡ªtell the office to cancel my meeting at the Provincial Hall; I need to take a breather.¡± ¡ª The Comprehensive Surgery outpatient department is now extremely busy, with the old experts led by Zhang Zongshun completely exhausted. They are the slowest group of people in Sanbo Hospital to get the message, mainly because they are too busy, don¡¯t have time to check their phones, and many of them don¡¯t care about the messy news in the group. Professor Cao Zhenshan, an old expert from the Cardiac Surgery Department, was originally a professor of cardiac surgery at Fuwai Hospital. Professor Zhang Zongshun convinced him to come to Sanbo Hospital. After attempting life in the south for a few months, Professor Cao found it agreeable and decided to stay and contribute his expertise. ¡°Old Zhang, this can¡¯t go on like this. Look, today I saw almost a hundred patients, eighty percent of which are not complicated cases and could be resolved in a regular outpatient setting. This is a waste of medical resources. Our Comprehensive Surgery Department is meant for complex cases. Look, people with colds are squeezing in here,¡± Professor Cao complained. Professor Zhang was also considering this issue: ¡°I¡¯m discussing this problem with Professor Yang. Should we cancel the outpatient registration and adopt a referral system? Henceforth, all our outpatient patients must be referred to us by peers from other hospitals.¡± After a bout of griping, Professor Cao said, ¡°But there really was a complicated case today, a 14-year-old child with severe hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. He has been to several hospitals in Nandu Province, all of which recommended Emperor¡¯s Capital Fuwai Hospital or Anzhen Hospital. The family is from Nandu Province, and after hearing that our Comprehensive Surgery is formidable, they came to try their luck. I haven¡¯t responded to the patient yet, told them I would get back to them tomorrow morning. I wonder if Professor Yang can handle it.¡± ¡°In theory, there¡¯s no problem at all; there¡¯s nothing that Professor Yang can¡¯t handle when it comes to surgeries. But I have to ask him personally, or perhaps you could ask him directly. Just ask in our Comprehensive Surgery WeChat group,¡± Professor Zhang personally thought there wouldn¡¯t be a problem. Professor Cao¡¯s concerns were not unfounded; treating hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy involves either medication or surgery. Medication generally does not yield satisfactory results, and surgical treatment requires stopping the heart and using extracorporeal circulation. Such surgery involves significant trauma and high difficulty, and inexperienced doctors can struggle to find the precise balance between how much to cut. Moreover, this case was extremely serious, and the risk was too high. Professor Cao believed that only Fuwai and Anzhen could handle it; other hospitals simply weren¡¯t capable. ¡°What are these guys posting now?¡± Professor Zhang focused on WeChat on his phone. ¡°Divine powers unleash once more, a burst of nine CNS articles¡ª The news nowadays is all clickbait titles that shock the reader, but the content is nothing.¡± Professor Zhang complained. Chapter 871 - 871 774 The World Changes So Fast ?Chapter 871: Chapter 774 The World Changes So Fast Chapter 871: Chapter 774 The World Changes So Fast Professor Zhang curiously clicked on the link. The article was about Yang Ping, saying that he had just published four CNS papers, and now with renewed effort, he had published nine CNS papers at once, two of which were cover stories. Professor Zhang jumped in shock. If it were not for his regular Tai Chi practice keeping him in robust health, he would have fainted on the spot. To confirm whether the information was true, Professor Zhang directly dialed Yang Ping, who calmly confirmed with a simple ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Director Cao, you send the case to the major department group yourself, and ask Yang Ping. I need to sit down and have a cup of tea, my chest feels so tight.¡± Professor Cao saw that Zhang Zongshun looked unwell and immediately asked, ¡°Are you alright?¡± ¡°Xiao Qin, come over here, check Professor Zhang¡¯s blood pressure for me twice.¡± Professor Cao called for Xiao Qin, the outpatient nurse, to come help. Professor Zhang shook his head, ¡°I¡¯m fine, just got scared. You go ahead and send the case in the group promptly, don¡¯t delay the child¡¯s medical condition.¡± ¡°Scared by what?¡± Professor Cao asked. Professor Zhang said, ¡°I¡¯ll tell you later, you go ahead and deal with sending the case.¡± Originally, many of these elderly experts were not adept with smartphones, but thanks to Professor Zhang¡¯s several training sessions, aside from a few who were particularly clumsy, most of them had become quite proficient. So, Professor Cao sent the case information in the group and also sent it to Yang Ping separately, asking whether he would accept the patient. Yang Ping didn¡¯t even hesitate and promptly replied: admit for surgery. Professor Cao immediately called the child¡¯s father, instructing him to bring the child at 8:30 the next morning to receive the hospitalization notice. The case was a 14-year-old girl named Teng Xinmei, a second-year junior high student, suffering from hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, a disease typically characterized by thickening of the ventricular muscle, often linked to genetics. Due to the thickening, it leads to reduced compliance of the left ventricle, insufficient filling, and weak contraction, among other issues, causing a series of symptoms, and can easily result in sudden death. Without treatment, the patient would either die suddenly or develop chronic heart failure, which is also fatal in the end. In terms of treatment, medication can only temporarily alleviate symptoms, and can¡¯t fundamentally solve the ¡°obstruction.¡± To address the ¡°obstruction¡± fundamentally, surgery is required. If surgery is to be done, it requires an incision of about 20 centimeters in the sternum area, and the surgery must be performed under cardiac arrest and extracorporeal circulation. Surgery is demanding, with significant trauma, difficulty, limited surgical field of view, high risk, and slow recovery. Most patients are deterred upon hearing this. For a severe case of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy like Teng Xinmei¡¯s, Professor Cao originally thought Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t accept it, as after all, the Comprehensive Surgery Department, being a cross-specialty department, was not clearly known to him for their skill in cardiac surgery, unlike Professor Zhang who had a direct understanding of it. Surprisingly, Yang Ping said it was no problem and agreed to hospitalize the patient. ¡°Old Zhang, I¡¯ve sent the case. Professor Yang says he will admit her for surgery. Has Professor Yang Ping done a surgery like this before? This is no joke.¡± Professor Cao¡¯s concern was not unfounded as the specialty of cardiac surgery is exceedingly complex and many surgeries are difficult for general provincial hospitals to perform. Only Beijing¡¯s Fuwai and Anzhen could manage it. Although he was a genius, could such a young man really handle the surgery? He remained skeptical. ¡°Rest assured, if I¡¯m not worried, why should you worry?¡± Professor Zhang believed Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t have a problem. Seeing that Professor Zhang¡¯s complexion had eased, Professor Cao asked, ¡°Old Zhang, are you okay? What scared you earlier?¡± ¡°Take a look at the messages in the hospital¡¯s main group. It¡¯s already caused quite the stir. Just short of us not being aware,¡± said Professor Zhang. ¡°Exactly what happened?¡± Professor Cao squinted at his phone. After looking, he stared at Professor Zhang: ¡°Are you kidding? How is that possible? Nine papers? And published all at once?¡± Professor Cao was an old expert at Fuwai, a man who had seen much of the world. He had seen students with a few CNS papers, but never someone who published like this. ¡°I didn¡¯t believe it either, but it¡¯s true. I¡¯ve confirmed it. I hear the hospital is now changing the banners and the announcement on the official website, from four to thirteen papers,¡± said Professor Zhang slowly. Professor Cao sighed, ¡°The world changes so fast. I remember after our country¡¯s first CNS paper, it took over 20 years to get the second one. Although CNS articles from our country have been increasing, to my recollection, getting published in CNS is extremely difficult. Many universities celebrated their first breakthroughs exuberantly. Now you¡¯re telling me 13 papers at once, with batches of four and five, has CNS become cheap? Turned into a common commodity? I¡¯ve never seen a journal published like that before.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that CNS has become a common commodity,¡± Professor Zhang Zongshun sipped his tea, ¡°it¡¯s that the new generation surpasses the old one. Young people nowadays are more impressive than we were. This is good, it gives us hope.¡± ¡°Yes, look at these young people, vibrant and invigorating to watch,¡± Professor Cao nodded slightly. ¡ª Teng Xinmei¡¯s family were farmers from the mountain area of Nandu Province, residents of North Bridge County. Teng Xinmei had been suffering from difficulty breathing after exertion, which had been worsening over the last few years and was accompanied by pain in the heart area. She could only squat down to catch her breath after running a short distance in physical education class, not to mention farming work, which she simply couldn¡¯t manage. Her father Teng Shaokui initially thought his daughter was just being lazy, which angered him greatly. How could a girl in the countryside be like this, sick and weak? He scolded her fiercely, which frightened her into not daring to share her discomfort with him anymore. Thus, it was not until junior high that Teng Xinmei, who had grown up and become more sensible, realized something was off. Wondering why she¡¯d be out of breath just from climbing stairs and sometimes feel so weak all over, dizzy, as if suffering from some chronic disease. Chapter 872 - 872 774 The World Changes So Fast_2 ?Chapter 872: Chapter 774 The World Changes So Fast_2 Chapter 872: Chapter 774 The World Changes So Fast_2 A routine health check-up in junior high revealed a problem. After listening with his stethoscope, the doctor said, ¡°There¡¯s an issue with your heart. I¡¯ll write you a referral and have your parents take you to a big hospital for a check-up. You should really go to a hospital in the Provincial City. The hospitals in our town or county definitely won¡¯t suffice. Make sure you go, don¡¯t delay.¡± The doctor repeatedly urged the child and the homeroom teacher to take this seriously and to remember to inform the parents. The homeroom teacher, taking initiative, not only passed on the doctor¡¯s message but also printed out a notice which he personally delivered to Teng Xinmei¡¯s home, giving it to her parents. Her father, Teng Shaokui, seeing the teacher so concerned, felt his daughter might indeed have a real problem and wasn¡¯t just being lazy about doing farm work, so he took it seriously. ¡°What sickness? I think she¡¯s just being lazy and wants to shirk her duties,¡± Teng Xinmei¡¯s mother, Zeng Cuiling, grumbled on and on. Squatting at the doorway and taking a few puffs of his water pipe, Teng Shaokui said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid she might really be ill. She¡¯s already fourteen. When I have a chance, I¡¯ll take her for a check-up. We can¡¯t neglect the child¡¯s health.¡± ¡°During the busy farming season, who has time for check-ups, and even at hospitals in the Provincial City? Do you think it¡¯s free?¡± Zeng Cuiling was unwilling. ¡°A few days¡¯ delay in farm work won¡¯t matter, but we can¡¯t neglect the child,¡± Teng Shaokui said, puffing on his water pipe. He felt a mix of fear and regret. Despite Teng Xinmei¡¯s frail health, she was obedient and studied hard, always scoring well. The homeroom teacher had visited several times, insisting she continue her education beyond middle school, as she could certainly get into a good university. Yet, given their financial situation at home, there was no money for high school. The consensus in the village was to find work after middle school graduation, and Zeng Cuiling thought the same. ¡°How much money do you even have in your wallet? Don¡¯t you know your own finances, and yet you want to go to a big hospital in the Provincial City?¡± Zeng Cuiling was very angry. With no choice but to grin and bear it, Teng Shaokui said apologetically, ¡°Our daughter is old enough now. After graduating from junior high, she can go out and work to earn money. Seeing a doctor won¡¯t cost much.¡± ¡°You¡¯re daydreaming. It won¡¯t cost much? You¡¯re always cooped up in the mountains and have no idea. In those big city hospitals, money flows like water. Even selling this ramshackle house wouldn¡¯t cover a day¡¯s medical expenses. My second brother fell at work and fractured his spine; it cost him over a hundred thousand in the Provincial City, and he still can¡¯t do any heavy lifting now. We can¡¯t go. We can go to the town hospital, or at most to the county one.¡± Teng Shaokui, getting angry, shouted, ¡°Money, money, money, that¡¯s all you think about! Whose child is this, ours! Are you even her mother? I¡¯ll decide on this. We¡¯re going to the Provincial City. The doctors already said we need to go to a big hospital and not delay.¡± ¡°Da Kui, are you going against me today?¡± Zeng Cuiling had never seen Teng Shaokui lash out at her like this; usually, even if she berated him right to his face, he would keep silent. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m going against you! What about it? I¡¯ve decided. Help me pack some clothes; I¡¯m taking the child to the Provincial City,¡± Teng Shaokui stood up, knocked his pipe forcefully against the door frame, snapping the bamboo shaft in two. Zeng Cuiling was first startled, then collapsed to the ground: ¡°You, Teng Shaokui, are a tyrant. My life is so miserable, having married into your Teng family¡ª¡± Teng Xinmei and her younger brother, witnessing this scene, hid in the inner room, not daring to come out. But this behavior from their mom was nothing new to them. When the father went inside, Teng Xinmei timidly approached and said to him, ¡°Dad, let¡¯s not go see the doctor. I¡¯m fine.¡± ¡°What do you know, girl? Don¡¯t listen to her. Dad is making preparations; we¡¯ll head to the Provincial City in a few days.¡± And so, Teng Shaokui took his daughter to the Provincial City, but once there, he was at a loss for which hospital was best. Although Teng Shaokui had spent most of his life in the hills, he had worked on construction sites and had some experience. Clinging to the money hidden inside his clothes, he asked his way to the provincial government, and from there, he inquired at the Security Room by the government building about which hospital was good for treating serious conditions. He figured the security at the provincial government wouldn¡¯t lie to him. It was more reliable than asking random people on the street. The security staff at the provincial government was very helpful, not only saying where to seek medical treatment but also advising on where to find affordable lodging, along with some other tips. The security pointed out several hospitals, saying Nandu Affiliated Hospital One and Fuer were among the top, and then mentioned that Sanbo Hospital was also strong, particularly the Comprehensive Surgery Department, which was capable of treating serious illnesses. An acquaintance with a severely bent spine had been straightened out there and was now doing well. Thus, Teng Shaokui brought his daughter to Sanbo Hospital, to the Comprehensive Surgery Department. ¡ª The next morning, the father and daughter arrived at the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s outpatient clinic. The clinic hadn¡¯t opened yet, so they waited outside. Professor Cao, upon arriving for work, saw the father and daughter: ¡°You¡¯re here. Come on in. I¡¯ve already discussed with the inpatient department colleagues. You definitely need surgery, which carries a fairly high risk, and you¡¯ll need to stay in the hospital for about two weeks.¡± ¡°Can it be cured, Professor?¡± asked Teng Shaokui tentatively. Professor Cao nodded, ¡°It was discovered a bit late, but at this age, it¡¯s still manageable. If everything goes smoothly, she can study, work, get married, and live a normal life in the future.¡± Hearing that it could be cured, Teng Shaokui felt much more relieved. Then, timidly, he asked, ¡°How much will the entire surgery and hospital stay cost?¡± Professor Cao thought for a moment, ¡°That¡¯s difficult to say. It¡¯s not like buying something with a fixed price. Your case is serious. Radiofrequency ablation won¡¯t be sufficient; you¡¯ll need open-heart surgery, which will roughly cost a hundred thousand. The New Rural Cooperative Medical system can cover part of it, but the reimbursement rate is quite low. You can inquire with our medical insurance department for specifics.¡± A hundred thousand! Teng Shaokui had only brought a little over ten thousand, which was all the savings the family had. Chapter 873 - 873 774 The World Changes So Fast_3 ?Chapter 873: Chapter 774 The World Changes So Fast_3 Chapter 873: Chapter 774 The World Changes So Fast_3 ¡°Fellow villager, are you okay? This illness can¡¯t be delayed any longer¡ªthe more you delay, the worse the effect becomes. Eventually, it leads to chronic heart failure, and you can only rely on a heart transplant. Moreover, delaying increases the risk of sudden death,¡± Professor Cao said. Teng Shaokui bravely responded, ¡°Can I pay ten thousand first and then gather the rest?¡± No matter how much money is involved, the illness definitely needs treatment. ¡°Alright, discuss the cost with the doctor in the ward later. I¡¯ll write you a hospital admission notice now. Go to the service window in the lobby to handle the admission, and don¡¯t listen to anyone who isn¡¯t staff, especially those who suggest going to other hospitals¡ªthey¡¯re all scammers. Take care of your money; there might be thieves in the lobby,¡± Professor Cao instructed while writing the notice. Teng Xinmei followed her father, staying silent the whole time. Once they stepped out of the consulting room, Xinmei sensibly took her father¡¯s hand, ¡°Dad, let¡¯s go back. We won¡¯t get treatment, it¡¯s too much money.¡± A hundred thousand yuan¡ªXinmei knew her family didn¡¯t have that much money. Even the ten thousand yuan was the result of scrimping and saving. They couldn¡¯t possibly borrow enough, she understood that much at her young age. ¡°It¡¯s okay, we have medical insurance, right? Medical insurance will reimburse a lot,¡± Teng Shaokui consoled his daughter. He had to find a way to treat her illness, no matter what. He couldn¡¯t allow his daughter¡¯s life to be delayed over a hundred thousand yuan. He could sense from the doctor¡¯s tone that they had already waited too long. Teng Shaokui, who originally felt guilt, was even more heartbroken upon hearing his daughter be so sensible. They hadn¡¯t bought medical insurance. Last year when the village secretary urged them to buy it, his wife argued with him, accusing the secretary of only knowing how to make money. She questioned the use of medical insurance, and so they didn¡¯t buy it. Those were just comforting words from her father. Xinmei knew this as she hung her head, teardrops welling up in her eyes. Pushing through the crowd with his daughter, they queued for a long time. Eventually, they completed the hospital admission, paid the ten thousand yuan, and then went to the Tri-Bo Hotel to pack their things and prepare for the hospital stay. It was strange at the Tri-Bo Hotel, the rooms were divided into three tiers: high-, middle-, and low-grade. The upper floors were expensive, costing several times more than those outside, but the cheaper rooms downstairs were very affordable, with the cheapest costing only tens of yuan per night. The rooms were tiny, just enough for a bed and a table, even the washrooms and bathrooms were communal at the end of the hallway. This was Dean Xia¡¯s idea. To accommodate the patient¡¯s families, he had arranged for these lodgings, stating that it¡¯s hard for the common people and having a place to stay at the hospital makes things much easier. The father and daughter stayed in a budget room, which just fit a bunk bed; the folding table could be tucked into the wall. Besides the shared bathroom and washroom, there was also a communal kitchen where they could cook, and a laundry room for washing clothes by hand, with space on the rooftop to dry them. For the father and daughter, having a cheap place to stay was more than they could ask for. The size of the room didn¡¯t matter to them. Xinmei was visiting the Provincial City for the first time, and Teng Shaokui bought her two chicken legs for breakfast. Xinmei had been silent, her head bowed. Teng Shaokui knew she was worried about the money, and he reassured her, ¡°Can a living person die of being bloated with waste? Don¡¯t worry, Dad has plenty of ways. Don¡¯t think me useless. See, I¡¯ve already paid ten thousand. Medical insurance can cover a lot of the rest.¡± ¡°We haven¡¯t bought medical insurance in years,¡± Xinmei said with a hoarse voice, referring to the previous year when the village secretary came and was scolded away. His little white lie exposed, Teng Shaokui still remained calm, letting out a sigh, ¡°We can purchase it retroactively. Even if we haven¡¯t bought insurance, there¡¯s no fear. It¡¯s only ninety thousand yuan, right? How big of a deal is that? Boss Li, whom I used to work with on the construction site, calls me every year wanting me to work with him. He¡¯s currently working on a highway construction that¡¯s short-staffed. They pay five hundred yuan a day, and it¡¯s no problem to get an advance of several tens of thousands from him. Add a little more that we can gather elsewhere, and the problem¡¯s solved. Then, I¡¯ll work for Boss Li for two or three years, and everything will be sorted out. Child, as long as your body is healthy, nothing is scary. I¡¯ve been foolish for not taking this seriously before¡ª¡± Without saying a word, Xinmei kept sobbing. After a while, she looked up and said, ¡°Dad, I¡¯ll write a promissory note for you and Mom. I¡¯ll pay back this money later. I¡¯ll go to work after finishing middle school and use the money I earn to pay it off.¡± ¡°What do you know, girl? Talking about paying back money... If you don¡¯t watch out, I might smack you. Let me tell you, you have to study hard. Don¡¯t listen to your mother; she may have long hair, but short insights. What¡¯s the use of going to work after middle school? Without education, you won¡¯t get far. Nowadays, you must finish high school, go to university; you understand? Don¡¯t end up like your father, spending his whole life confined to this ravine without hope. You have to get out. The teacher says you have a good chance of making it to university. Don¡¯t let your mind wander, okay? Be assured, your dad has plenty of ways. Look at me, I¡¯m strong, and I have plenty of energy¡ª¡± ¡°Don¡¯t listen to the nonsense from people in the village¡ªsaying girls¡¯ education is useless, saying rural people without connections can¡¯t find jobs even if they¡¯re educated, saying it¡¯s pointless to study¡ªthat¡¯s all rubbish. I¡¯m telling you, even in manual labor, being educated makes a difference. At the construction site, the uneducated do the heavy lifting, while the educated work in air-conditioning and draw plans. Who says a girl¡¯s education is worthless? Look, you saw many female doctors in the hospital, how impressive they are. You can come work in the Provincial City one day. The people here, go back a few generations, and how many aren¡¯t from some rural ravine? Those people in the village just lack insight. Don¡¯t listen to their nonsense. If you decide not to study because of them, I¡¯ll break your legs.¡± Hope shone in Xinmei¡¯s eyes, but then she said helplessly, ¡°Mom won¡¯t let me go to high school¡ª¡± ¡°Since when did she make the decisions?¡± Teng Shaokui said angrily. Xinmei looked at her father, and Teng Shaokui, reading the doubt in her expression about his authority at home, reassured her, ¡°Why are you looking at me like that? I don¡¯t say much usually, just to avoid arguing with your mom. But when it gets serious, a slap from me would keep her bedridden for three days¡ªdon¡¯t worry about that. I¡¯ll have the final say on this issue. And as for your mom, don¡¯t be hard on her. Despite her lack of education and experience, she¡¯s worked hard for the family, being frugal and cutting corners. There are some things you should not take to heart, understand?¡± Xinmei nodded, ¡°I know, Dad!¡± ¡°Pack up our things, let¡¯s get to the hospital.¡± Teng Shaokui¡¯s hearty voice urged his daughter along. Chapter 874 - 874 775 Myocardial Reduction Surgery ?Chapter 874: Chapter 775 Myocardial Reduction Surgery Chapter 874: Chapter 775 Myocardial Reduction Surgery Teng Shaokui entered the Comprehensive Surgery Department ward with his daughter, carrying heavy and light luggage; the ward was a three-person room, quite spacious, with curtains separating the beds. The enthusiastic nurse measured Xinmei¡¯s heart rate, took her blood pressure, and so on. As this was the young girl¡¯s first time in such a big hospital, she was very curious, peeking around everywhere, but the thought of spending a hundred thousand yuan made her feel uneasy. ¡°Do you need an accompanying bed?¡± asked the nurse after she finished. In the ward, there were only patient beds. If family members were accompanying, they could get a foldable accompanying bed. During the day, these could be folded up for centralized management, and at night, you could bring one and unfold it into a bed. Teng Shaokui asked the nurse, ¡°There¡¯s a charge for that, right?¡± ¡°Thirty yuan a night,¡± the nurse replied. Teng Shaokui looked around the room. There was a chair next to each bed perfect for sitting up to sleep on. Besides, the hospital had a garden and a lobby, both of which had plenty of benches suitable for sleeping on. He could save that thirty yuan. Teng Shaokui waved his hand: ¡°Never mind, we don¡¯t need it.¡± But Teng Shaokui immediately felt this was inappropriate, afraid it would cause Xinmei discomfort, and quickly changed his mind: ¡°We¡¯ll take one.¡± Teng Shaokui understood that if he appeared too frugal, his thoughtful daughter would worry even more and feel more distressed. As for the shortfall in the surgery funds, Teng Shaokui was also anxious, racking his brains to figure out where to scrounge up the money, but he knew he couldn¡¯t let this anxiety show on his face and add to his daughter¡¯s mental burden. Once they settled down, Teng Shaokui felt a lot more at ease. A hospital recommended by the provincial government¡¯s security could not be wrong. The attending doctor was Li Guodong, who was on duty that day. Li Guodong asked in detail about the medical history, conducted a series of examinations, carefully read through the outpatient test reports, and took meticulous notes. There was no doubt about Teng Xinmei¡¯s diagnosis: hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. The evidence from the outpatient tests was very conclusive, mainly the echocardiogram, which showed severe asymmetric hypertrophy of the left ventricle and the interventricular septum, and a significant systolic murmur could be heard over the heart¡¯s aortic valve auscultation area. Chief complaint, clinical examination, and adjuvant tests¡ªall combined, the diagnosis was crystal clear. Teng Shaokui let Xinmei rest in the ward while he followed Dr. Li out and went to the doctor¡¯s office. ¡°Dr. Li¡ª¡± Teng Shaokui wasn¡¯t sure how to start. Dr. Li spoke gently: ¡°Just speak whatever¡¯s on your mind, I¡¯m your daughter¡¯s attending doctor. If there¡¯s anything you don¡¯t understand, feel free to come to me at any time.¡± Teng Shaokui mustered his courage: ¡°Dr. Li, the outpatient specialist said the surgery would cost a hundred thousand, is that paid all at once before the surgery?¡± Dr. Li gestured for Teng Shaokui to sit: ¡°The hundred thousand is only an approximate total cost, not just the surgery fee, but the entire cost during hospitalization. In principle, it should be paid in full before surgery.¡± ¡°This is the thing¡ª¡± Teng Shaokui¡¯s face turned a bit red: ¡°Dr. Li, I won¡¯t hide it from you, I¡¯ve only prepared ten thousand yuan, and I don¡¯t have medical insurance. I know it¡¯s definitely not enough, what I mean is, can the surgery still be scheduled normally while I pay in installments? I¡¯m afraid I won¡¯t be able to pay the full hundred thousand before the surgery.¡± As he spoke, Teng Shaokui took out his ID card from his pocket and showed it to Dr. Li: ¡°Dr. Li, this is my ID card, you can check it.¡± Moreover, Teng Shaokui took out a property deed: ¡°This is the deed for my country house. I know it¡¯s not worth much, but it¡¯s some kind of guarantee.¡± While speaking, Teng Shaokui occasionally glanced at the office door, worried that his daughter might follow him in. ¡°Well, put these things away for now,¡± Dr. Li said, somewhat embarrassed. But this patient¡¯s family member seemed quite honest, volunteering that there was a shortfall in funds. As a doctor, he felt sympathy for the patient, but after all, this was about money, which he couldn¡¯t decide on his own. ¡°Uncle Teng, let¡¯s do this: don¡¯t worry for the time being. I¡¯ll try my best to arrange the surgery for you. I¡¯ll report your situation to the leadership, and you should also actively look for ways to raise the funds as soon as possible. We¡¯ll keep in touch, okay?¡± Dr. Li could only reply like this to Teng Shaokui for now. ¡°Okay, uh, Dr. Li, please don¡¯t mention the financial issues to my girl. She¡¯s grown up and knows too much already, I¡¯m afraid it would burden her mind,¡± Teng Shaokui said awkwardly. Dr. Li nodded: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, she¡¯s still a minor. When it comes to financial matters, I¡¯ll only discuss them with you.¡± ¡°Thank you, Dr. Li, I should be getting back,¡± Teng Shaokui said, very grateful to the doctor. ¡ª The 13 CNS papers had caused a huge stir, and the buzz had not yet subsided, but Yang Ping didn¡¯t care anymore and settled down to focus on his work as usual. As the Department Director, Yang Ping paid attention to new patients admitted to his department every day. Before he left work each afternoon, he would review the computer and jot down the bed numbers of new patients, then follow the list to conduct his own rounds. Interacting with patients more was a basic principle for Yang Ping. Only through such interactions could he obtain firsthand data about their illnesses¡ªmuch of which could not be reflected by instrumental examinations. After making his rounds, Yang Ping paid particular attention to Teng Xinmei¡¯s case, not only because Professor Cao had reviewed her medical records beforehand but also because this case was indeed tricky. Both the left ventricle and the interventricular septum were very thickened, with obstruction of the left ventricular outflow tract and reduced left ventricular compliance. The heart can be seen as a four-chamber pump, with these four chambers being the left ventricle, right ventricle, left atrium, and right atrium, connected to several tubes. The left ventricle connects to the aorta, the right atrium connects to the vena cava, the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery, and the left atrium to the pulmonary vein, forming two major circulations. Blood pumped out by the right ventricle through the pulmonary artery reaches the lungs, where it picks up oxygen, and the blood returns to the left atrium. This constitutes the minor circulation, also known as the pulmonary circulation. Chapter 875 - 875 775 Myocardial Reduction Surgery_2 ?Chapter 875: Chapter 775 Myocardial Reduction Surgery_2 Chapter 875: Chapter 775 Myocardial Reduction Surgery_2 The small circulation allows the blood to obtain oxygen, and the oxygenated blood flows from the left atrium to the left ventricle. Then it is pumped out from the left ventricle into the aorta, travels through the arteries to the whole body, transports oxygen to all the cells, and after completing its task, the blood is collected through the veins to the vena cava and finally returns to the right atrium. At this point, the blood is lacking oxygen, so it flows from the right atrium to the right ventricle and begins the small circulation again to obtain oxygen¡ªthus cycling back and forth, life continues unceasingly. The heart relies on its rhythmic contraction and relaxation, pumping out and receiving blood, to achieve a continuous cycle. There are active valves between each chamber to ensure that the blood flows in one direction only. Hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy can be understood as the heart becoming ¡°fat,¡± especially the valves between the two ventricles are most prone to thickening. Heart thickening brings about a series of problems, such as causing narrowing of the chamber passages, especially during systole when the thickened interventricular septum bulges into the left ventricle, and the forward movement of the mitral valve approaching the protruding septum exacerbates the obstruction of the outflow tract. As a result, the heart pump is obstructed, and the blood irrigating the whole body is insufficient, leading to symptoms of ischemia and hypoxemia. Moreover, when the left ventricle is thickened, there is insufficient space after relaxation, and the collected blood is also insufficient. Now, because of the blockage, not all of it can be sent out, which further reduces the blood¡¯s oxygen level. The surgical approach is to ¡°slim down¡± the thickened heart, which can be regarded as a myocardial weight loss surgery. Opening the chest cavity, cutting through the heart, and slicing off a layer of the thickened myocardium from the inside makes it thinner, thereby clearing the obstructed pathways and enlarging the narrowed spaces. In such cases, where both the left ventricle and interventricular septum are severely thickened, there is a high possibility of insufficient resection during the surgery. If the resection is not enough, it leads to poor surgical outcomes, and even if symptoms are temporarily relieved, they may recur after a few years, necessitating another surgery. Not removing enough tissue is unacceptable, but removing too much is also problematic, as excessive resection can easily cause complications such as conduction block and septal perforation. There is a very high possibility that a permanent pacemaker will be needed to assist the heart¡¯s normal beating for life. It¡¯s like when a person is dieting¡ªif the weight loss isn¡¯t enough, he is still ¡°Fatty¡±; but if he loses too much weight, he becomes skin and bones, with no energy to walk, relying on others to push him in a wheelchair. For such cases, traditional surgical methods definitely won¡¯t work well, and the risks are high. Therefore, Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to continue with traditional surgery. Since he had the conditions, why not try a better method? He should make full use of the system space to conduct extensive exploration and create some new methods. So Yang Ping started to review a large number of papers and monographs on this subject. Although he had read many papers and monographs before, this time the review was targeted, and the effect would be different. Based on the incidence rate, it is estimated that there are more than 2 million people in the country with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, but fewer than 1,000 patients undergo surgery annually due to the high difficulty and risk of the surgery, as well as the low number of doctors capable of performing it and the low number of patients willing to undergo it. Why is traditional surgery difficult? Because conventional surgery requires opening the chest cavity and entering through the aorta, approaching the ventricle through an incision in the aorta, it is like trying to glimpse a leopard through a tube, unable to see the full view of the thickened part. Thus, the surgery suffers from a seriously insufficient field of vision and operational space. Yang Ping considered that if he could invent a precise power instrument that enters the heart from the apex, then under surface ultrasound guidance, the entire left ventricle would be completely visible, and the instrument could perform any kind of cutting, free from the limitations of the operational field of vision and space. Indeed, some doctors had already invented transapical ablation surgery by piercing through the myocardium for ablation procedures. If minimally invasive surgery is to be performed by entering through the heart apex, several issues must be considered: how should the power resection instrument be designed? How to remove the thickened myocardium? After resection, how to extract the removed myocardial tissue? Otherwise, these myocardial tissues would run around with the blood flow, becoming embolism agents. If they reach the brain, they can cause cerebral infarction. Another very important issue is the manufacturing material of the instrument. Because the surgery must be guided and monitored by surface ultrasound, metallic instruments would cause image artifacts in the ultrasound, and a large number of artifacts would make the image unclear, rendering the surgery impossible. If it were an ordinary person trying to solve these problems, it would be impossible without several years. But Yang Ping had the support of the system space; he could experiment at any time. Moreover, such small-scale experiments were completely affordable for the current Yang Ping in terms of points. Entering through the heart¡¯s apex, then removing the thickened myocardium and bringing it out of the body¡ªfollowing this train of thought. No sooner said than done, Yang Ping entered the system space and began designing a rotary cutting system, utilizing a rotary cutter blade to remove the myocardium, and then extracting it from the body. After Yang Ping drew the blueprints, in reality, he would need to find a factory to manufacture them, which would take a lot of time. In the system space, all he needed to do was input the blueprints into the system panel, and the system would act as a factory, directly outputting the instruments, of course, precisely according to his blueprints. Yang Ping used the laboratory to begin simulating the surgery. In the beginning, it didn¡¯t work at all; the metal instruments seriously interfered with the ultrasound images, making it impossible to complete the surgery. So Yang Ping improved the material of the instruments, using an anti-interference coating, which solved the problem of image disturbance, but the rotary cutting wasn¡¯t precise enough. Yang Ping then improved the blade, and once he was satisfied with the blade, he discovered a new problem. The removed myocardium created debris, and this debris could leak into the ventricular blood, circulating with the blood throughout the body. These emboli are potential danger branches, and it¡¯s uncertain where they would cause embolism. Chapter 876 - 876 775 Myocardial Reduction Surgery_3 ?Chapter 876: Chapter 775 Myocardial Reduction Surgery_3 Chapter 876: Chapter 775 Myocardial Reduction Surgery_3 Yang Ping didn¡¯t give up; he continued to refine the surgical instruments¡ªsurgery¡ªimprovement¡ªanother surgery¡ªfurther improvement¡ª until he was satisfied with the surgical instruments. On an experimental subject with severe hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, he successfully removed 30g of myocardium, all taken out of the body without causing any debris, and the experimental subject also recovered well postoperatively. Unfortunately, real objects in the System space couldn¡¯t be brought out; otherwise, he would have directly used them. To solve this, he memorized the final set of complete blueprints in his brain. Once out of the System space, he hand-drew them and handed them over to Sharpeness Company to manufacture. Realizing his ideas with the fastest speed was also the reason why Yang Ping needed his own medical equipment company. ¡ª Professor Cao had doubts about whether Yang Ping could perform the ¡°myocardial weight reduction¡± surgery, so he paid extra attention to Teng Xinmei¡¯s treatment plan. This patient was one he had personally admitted, and he couldn¡¯t allow any complications. Clinical medicine is completely a practical science, especially surgery, which requires consistent and rigorous training to master cutting-edge techniques. A young man like Yang Ping, without specialized training, couldn¡¯t be related to the surgery, even if he published a hundred papers in CNS. But Professor Zhang Zongshun said that Yang Ping would definitely succeed, and Sanbo Hospital also unconditionally supported Yang Ping¡¯s cross-disciplinary actions. Therefore, Professor Cao couldn¡¯t openly comment, but it was essential to secretly follow up on the case to intervene in time should any troubling signs emerge. ¡°Professor Yang, how is it, how do you plan on performing this myocardial weight reduction surgery? It doesn¡¯t seem too straightforward.¡± Professor Cao approached Yang Ping for a chat, sitting down with him. He visited the ward daily, keeping a constant eye on the treatment progress. Yang Ping understood that it was reasonable for Professor Cao, a former expert from Emperor¡¯s Capital Fuwai, representing the national top level, to harbor some doubts. ¡°Open surgery is indeed not easy to perform; I am planning to take a minimally invasive approach,¡± Yang Ping replied truthfully, unable to ignore the old professor¡¯s concerns. ¡°Minimally invasive? Radiofrequency ablation or chemical ablation? That¡¯s unlikely to be adequate, right?¡± As a top expert, Professor Cao was well aware that neither radiofrequency ablation nor chemical ablation would work for such severe cases. If these two methods were used, it would be akin to skimming over the patient¡¯s issues. If that were the case, he would rather refer the patient to the Emperor¡¯s Capital Fuwai Hospital to avoid delaying the child¡¯s treatment. Otherwise, if the money was spent and the illness remained unimproved, Professor Cao couldn¡¯t explain himself. Radiofrequency ablation and chemical ablation were relatively new methods. With radiofrequency ablation, a few hospitals could perform it under electrocardiogram monitoring, using electrophysiology to ablate the thickened myocardium through radiofrequency, aiming to restore it to normal thickness. Chemical ablation, commonly known as alcohol ablation, mainly used anhydrous alcohol. By performing coronary angiography to locate the blood vessels supplying the thickened myocardium, anhydrous alcohol was injected into those vessels to ablate and necrose the hypertrophic myocardium. Gradually, the surrounding myocardium thinned out, returning to a normal state. This method was akin to ¡°dieting¡± the hypertrophic myocardium to achieve a ¡°weight loss¡± effect. Both methods had common drawbacks: the effects were uncertain, and the amount of reduction couldn¡¯t be precisely controlled. ¡°Professor Yang, please be cautious. With the case being so severe, the two minimally invasive methods might not work. The left ventricle and interventricular septum are thickened, several times that of normal individuals. Look, the ventricular outflow tract pressure gradient is as high as 190 mmHg, extremely dangerous, and there¡¯s always the possibility of sudden death. It hasn¡¯t been easy for this child to get to this point.¡± Professor Cao solemnly cautioned, for when it came to technical expertise, there were no niceties to be spared, and as an elder, he felt responsible to warn Yang Ping. Yang Ping knew what Professor Cao was worried about, so he explained, ¡°The new method I plan to use is not radiofrequency ablation or chemical ablation, but transapical myocardial coring technique, which involves a mechanical resection with a dynamic blade, entering through the apex of the heart, directly removing the hypertrophic myocardium from inside and then taking it out of the body, thus thinning the myocardium.¡± ¡°Transapical myocardial coring technique? I¡¯ve never heard of it. Which country¡¯s technology is it?¡± It was the first time Professor Cao heard of this technique, and he was a big shot at Fuwai with disciples now leading the field of cardiac surgery nationwide. ¡°Professor Cao, to be honest, this is a technique I created myself,¡± Yang Ping disclosed candidly. Professor Cao felt a tremor in his heart upon hearing this: ¡°Your own creation of a new technique? Has it been clinically tested?¡± ¡°Not yet, but we can start with animal experiments before surgery. When the time comes, Professor Cao, you can come to evaluate. If it meets the criteria, we could then proceed with human surgery,¡± Yang Ping hoped to persuade Professor Cao. Professor Cao was certainly not approving of Yang Ping¡¯s approach: ¡°Professor Yang, isn¡¯t that inappropriate? Both of us are surgeons; we ought to know that a clinical technique, especially a surgical procedure, must go through extensive experimentation to mature. This case involves heart surgery, how can we be so rash as to allow an entirely new surgical approach to enter clinical practice right away?¡± Indeed, from a conventional standpoint, Professor Cao¡¯s point was entirely valid. ¡°Professor Cao, this technique has actually undergone clinical evaluation. Firstly, entering from the apex is completely problem-free; radiofrequency ablation already makes an entrance from the apex. As for the coring technique, it comes down to two issues: controlling the amount of resection so as not to perforate the heart, which can be avoided under the guidance of surface ultrasound, and ensuring that the resected myocardial tissue is completely removed from the body without leaving debris that could form an embolus. If these issues are resolved, wouldn¡¯t that be an excellent technique?¡± Professor Cao pondered, theorizing was one thing, but practice was practice, and theory was theory. If everything from theory could be achieved, that would be too good to be true. ¡°If it really is the first case, you must test it on animals before surgery, and call me to have a look then,¡± Professor Cao decided, determining that he must oversee this surgery. ¡°Rest assured, Professor Cao, the instruments will arrive tomorrow. We plan to experiment with pigs. Only after you give the nod will I apply it clinically. We still need your approval on the ethics committee side,¡± Yang Ping said confidently. ¡°Hmm!¡± Professor Cao gave his provisional approval. Leaving the Comprehensive Surgery Department, Professor Cao put aside concerns about offending anyone. For safety¡¯s sake, he decided to invite one of his students from Fuwai Hospital, a department head in cardiac surgery, who was extremely skilled in operating on hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. Officially, it was to observe Yang Ping¡¯s new technique; in reality, it was Professor Cao¡¯s backup plan. Chapter 877 - 877 776 Go Buy Ten Pigs ?Chapter 877: Chapter 776 Go Buy Ten Pigs Chapter 877: Chapter 776 Go Buy Ten Pigs Early in the morning, during the shift change. Teng Xinmei, being a key case, attracted everyone¡¯s attention, so the discussion lingered a little longer. ¡°With both the left ventricle and interventricular septum so hypertrophic, the surgery is quite difficult and tricky to perform.¡± Song Zimo had already adapted to the spectrum of diseases at the Comprehensive Surgery Department and successfully transformed from an orthopedic surgeon to a comprehensive surgeon. As one of only two leaders of the medical teams in the Comprehensive Surgery Department, Xu Zhiliang wasn¡¯t to be outdone and immediately spoke up: ¡°The main issues are the severely limited visual field and space. Is it feasible to enter the left ventricle from the aorta and perform radiofrequency ablation and alcohol ablation?¡± Song Zimo rejected the idea: ¡°Definitely not. With such severity, neither radiofrequency ablation nor alcohol ablation can be thorough. Besides, these two methods lack precision. If overdone, they could easily cause conduction block, and in the end, we might have no choice but to install a permanent pacemaker.¡± ¡°Indeed, that¡¯s troublesome!¡± Xu Zhiliang agreed. These two generals of the Comprehensive Surgery Department, now in both surgery and theory, would be invincible in any other hospital. With single-stage spinal deformity correction surgeries, they were already second to none in the industry. Intelligent and diligent, trained by a top system, and with ample case practice, they possessed all the conditions for becoming outstanding surgeons, hence their rapid growth. ¡°Existing surgical methods definitely can¡¯t achieve complete resection. I¡¯m planning to use a new technique for this surgery,¡± Yang Ping announced his opinion. ¡°New technique?¡± Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang looked over in surprise. The professor had recently been obsessed with new things; it seemed that he grew tired of all the conventional surgeries and could only find satisfaction by pioneering innovations to counteract occupational fatigue. ¡°This method I have is entirely new, both in the approach and the instruments used. I can¡¯t explain in detail right now. Manager Huang from Ruixing is expected to deliver the tools in the next couple of days. Once we have the tools, I¡¯ll fill everyone in. Song Zimo, contact the Nandu Medical University Animal Department to purchase ten experimental pigs. I¡¯ll speak with Dean Xia about allocating a room from the hospital¡¯s spare building for us to use as a temporary laboratory for surgery. Once the instruments arrive, we¡¯ll test them on pigs, and if all goes well, we¡¯ll move directly into clinical practice,¡± Yang Ping instructed everyone. If new technologies were to follow the normal procedures, they would certainly take a long time, which is an inefficient use of time. In the future, Yang Ping planned to trial all new procedures on pigs first, and if successful, move straight to clinical trials. As for the new surgical method, Yang Ping was confident, having conducted extensive testing in the system space. The animal trials were merely a formality to provide a basis for clinical trials. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll contact them immediately. Last time I heard Professor He mention that they had just received a shipment of experimental pigs from Baoding ¡ª a full range of high-quality breeds.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t just get any experimental pigs. We require ten SPF pigs, and make sure when you select them, you use surface ultrasound to examine the heart. Try to find those whose heart size closely matches that of Teng Xinmei¡¯s,¡± Yang Ping instructed Song Zimo. ¡°Dr. Song, let me do it,¡± Li Guodong volunteered proactively. Li Guodong was in charge of this case and wanted to be involved in the entire treatment process. Tenaciously eager to learn, he hoped to continue his doctoral studies and remain at Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Comprehensive Surgery Department. As experimental subjects, pigs are very similar to humans in several aspects such as tissue and organ morphology, physiological regulatory mechanisms, behavior patterns, and genetic controls. Moreover, the size of a pig¡¯s heart and the frequency of its heartbeats are very close to those of humans; thus, using pigs for experiments has strong persuasive power, both in scientific research and clinical practice, and the reproducibility is fairly good. ¡°Dr. Liang, will there be any issue with anesthetizing the pigs?¡± Yang Ping asked Liang Fatty, as he would be responsible for the anesthesia during the experiments. Although the Comprehensive Surgery Department had introduced two anesthesiologists, Liang Fatty remained Yang Ping¡¯s preferred anesthesiologist. ¡°I¡¯ve anesthetized monkeys, rabbits, and mice before; pigs will definitely not be a problem,¡± Liang Fatty said with ease. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to Dean Xia today to get the room sorted out. We¡¯ll make do with it for this experiment, but afterwards, we should renovate it into a proper laminar flow operating room to use as a surgical lab, and we need to soundproof it well. Otherwise, the noise from the pigs during experiments could be disruptive.¡± ¡°Will we use it often in the future?¡± Xu Zhiliang asked. ¡°Of course, any new surgical technique or device will first be tried on pigs,¡± Yang Ping answered. ¡°Professor, should I go buy the pigs today?¡± Li Guodong felt it would be best to acquire them early to start the experiments sooner. Song Zimo gave Li Guodong the day off for this task: ¡°Guodong, you don¡¯t have surgery today. Your job for today is to get those ten pigs.¡± ¡°Once purchased, where will they be kept?¡± Li Guodong wondered. Song Zimo was well-versed: ¡°They only sell to the South Capital Medical University System and deliver to your door. Go and make your selection, place the order, and arrange the delivery time and location with them. They will deliver on time. Do you know how to pick them out?¡± ¡°Get SPF experimental pigs. Should I take an ultrasound scanner to measure the hearts according to Teng Xinmei¡¯s heart size?¡± It was Li Guodong¡¯s first time buying pigs. Song Zimo instructed him: ¡°They have a portable ultrasound machine there, just know how to use it, we don¡¯t need to bring our own.¡± Thus, the tasks were settled in the morning meeting: Li Guodong would purchase ten experimental pigs, and as soon as the new instruments arrived, they would immediately commence animal testing. Chapter 878 - 878 776 Go Buy Ten Pigs_2 ?Chapter 878: Chapter 776 Go Buy Ten Pigs_2 Chapter 878: Chapter 776 Go Buy Ten Pigs_2 After finishing his shift, Li Guodong didn¡¯t have to participate in any surgeries. He took two standardized training students and rode in the hospital¡¯s dedicated vehicle to Nandu Medical University to buy a pig, which was a serious task that demanded perfection. The purchased pig had not only to be the right breed but its heart size also had to be roughly similar to that of Teng Xinmei¡¯s heart. ¡ª Wandering around the hospital to familiarize himself with the environment, Teng Shaokui found a relatively secluded spot and pulled up Boss Li¡¯s number on his phone. Boss Li was also from North Bridge County, from a township next to Teng Shaokui¡¯s. He was a small-time contractor¡ªthe quite small kind¡ªwith about a dozen workers under him, and he himself also had to participate in the labor. It had been five years since Teng Shaokui had worked at a construction site with Boss Li. Teng Shaokui was strong, able to do the work of several men, and he also had a robust constitution, never missing work due to illness. He was honest and hardworking, taking on any dirty or exhausting task without complaint or grievance, just like an ox, which earned him significant appreciation from Boss Li. Moreover, there was a time when Boss Li had taken on a small project where the payment for wages was delayed, causing the workers to strike and refuse to work. Yet, without their labor, Boss Li couldn¡¯t collect the payment due from his clients, leaving him frantically trying to resolve the situation. But the workers wouldn¡¯t budge, and they all walked away. At that moment, Teng Shaokui didn¡¯t leave. He and Boss Li continued to work together until the installment payment from the clients was received, at which point the workers were called back to resume the project. So, all things considered, Teng Shaokui and Boss Li shared some bond, which is why Teng Shaokui felt there was a chance of borrowing the money. The house Teng Shaokui lived in now was built with the money he had earned on the construction site at that time. Later, for various reasons, Teng Shaokui returned to his hometown. He had heard that Boss Li was now in Guizhou, working on the construction of a highway and in desperate need of workers. However, that news was from two years ago, and he didn¡¯t know whether the highway was completed or if workers were still needed. He dialed the number, but the call wouldn¡¯t go through, and it always showed as ¡°busy.¡± After trying for a full hour, still no luck, Teng Shaokui felt a chill in his heart; Boss Li was his greatest hope, the person most likely to lend him the money. There was little chance of borrowing from anyone else, including relatives and friends. With Boss Li¡¯s phone currently unreachable, Teng Shaokui sat in the hospital garden¡¯s gazebo, evaluating each number in his phone¡¯s contact list, feeling extremely blocked and uncomfortable. On his side of the family, no one really had much money, and most wouldn¡¯t lend any; those who might lend would perhaps give three to five thousand at most, which was already being as benevolent and righteous as one could expect. As for his wife¡¯s relatives, having his wife ask to borrow money was out of the question if they wanted her to get treated; it simply wasn¡¯t going to happen. What a predicament! Even if the doctors were willing to go ahead with the surgery, they could only help delay for a few days; eventually, they would need to be paid back. Money! Where could he find the money? People won¡¯t die from being stopped up with feces and urine, but they can indeed be killed by a lack of money. With nowhere else to turn, Teng Shaokui aimlessly wandered the hospital. After several rounds, he returned to the quiet spot and started flipping through his phone contact list again, trying Boss Li¡¯s number once more. Finnaly, the call connected, but the voice on the other end was a stranger who claimed to not know Boss Li, then hung up with a string of curses. With this lead gone, Shaokui¡¯s panic began to set in. He wandered the hospital, lost and utterly without direction. Desperation can lead one to drastic measures, and he even considered some ridiculous ideas. He had heard that contact numbers for selling kidneys could be found in hospital bathrooms, so he really went into the bathrooms, one by one, and even took note of the phone numbers scribbled on the back of the toilet doors. But then he thought about it: these things were unreliable. All alone, with his daughter still in the hospital, what if he got scammed, lost a kidney, and didn¡¯t get any money, or even worse, lost his life? What would become of his daughter, his family? Teng Shaokui discarded this absurd idea, and only when it was dark did he finally return to the ward. Rushing back to the ward, Xinmei saw her father¡¯s complexion wasn¡¯t great: ¡°Dad, are you okay?¡± Teng Shaokui answered, ¡°I¡¯m fine, just a bit of diarrhea from the change in water and food. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll get better on my own.¡± ¡°Dad, be careful, it¡¯s cold with the air conditioning on at night, make sure you cover yourself with the blanket and don¡¯t drink water randomly outside,¡± Xinmei cautioned her father like an adult. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m as tough as iron, it¡¯s nothing serious,¡± Teng Shaokui nodded and said, his mind constantly calculating. The surgery issue, Doctor had agreed to arrange it as soon as possible, but that was just a verbal agreement, without money, if they conducted the surgery and the patient absconded, wouldn¡¯t the hospital suffer a huge loss? Teng Shaokui understood this much. So, he had to find a way to get the money, later ask a few more people, find Boss Li¡¯s new number, and hope to get in touch. Then, relatives and friends, ask each one, borrow as much as possible, regarding the wife, whether it¡¯s feasible or not, lay out the situation clearly, try as much as possible, without holding out too much hope. The house at home, see if it can be mortgaged, apply for a loan at the credit union, there are also some tea oil, rapeseed oil, and a store of rice grain at home, everything like pigs, chickens, and ducks, sell them all, anyway the daughter¡¯s illness must be treated. Bankrupt the family, sell everything in sight, the illness must be cured, Teng Shaokui is that stubborn. ¡ª Li Guodong had already purchased ten pigs upon arriving at Nandu Medical University, the animal department there was responsible for delivering them to the door, Li Guodong had set the time and place with them, and came back to report to Yang Ping. ¡°Professor, I measured with the surface ultrasound machine, the hearts are about the same size as Teng Xinmei¡¯s heart, the people there said they are pigs from the Tianpeng Project, the best experimental pigs nationwide, they asked if we¡¯ll often need more? If we do, we can contact them anytime, all their pigs are now quality guaranteed, top breeds from the Tianpeng Project,¡± Li Guodong excitedly reported. ¡°Not bad, once the surgical instruments arrive, we¡¯ll start work, I¡¯ve already got the room, you take a few students to set it up, you¡¯ll mainly command, for moving stuff we have colleagues from the Logistics Department, just set it up like an operating room, go to the warehouse and pick an old operating bed, anyway you know, the things from the operating room, the patients¡¯ surgeries can wait, delay it a little, wait for my notice,¡± Yang Ping instructed Li Guodong. Li Guodong was very adaptable, knowing what to do, he took a few students to arrange the laboratory. Ruixing was swift in action, Huang Jiahui had delivered the equipment, although she had now been promoted to manager of Ruixing¡¯s South China Region, she personally delivered the equipment for Yang Ping¡¯s surgery and was personally on site. Having one¡¯s own medical device company is beneficial, no need to ask others, draw a design, and a few days later, the device is delivered into the hands, fully packaged and sterilized. ¡°Professor, there are five sets in total, all sterilized, these are power Rotary Cutters.¡± Yang Ping took out a power Rotary Cutter, opened the packaging, tore open the inner wrap and the sealed film, very good, he only designed the instrument drawing and didn¡¯t design the actual process, all these had to be done by the engineers. ¡°Professor, look, there¡¯s a polymer material coating on this,¡± Huang Jiahui introduced. Yang Ping gently touched the surface of the instrument, ¡°With these coatings, the instrument is like wearing an invisible cloak, it won¡¯t disrupt the echogenicity of the esophageal surface ultrasound and won¡¯t create artifacts in the ultrasound image.¡± ¡°Engineer Chen has already done a lot of testing, under the ultrasound there are absolutely no artifacts, and the instrument¡¯s coating can be used about two thousand times without any wear. Engineer Chen made a total of 9, with three different diameters and angles, based on different sizes and angles of the cutter heads,¡± Huang Jiahui explained. Yang Ping was very satisfied with the instruments and put them away, ¡°Manager Huang, tell Engineer Chen, I¡¯m very satisfied.¡± Jiahui was very pleased, ¡°Engineer Chen also said, based on your surgical approach, he wants to design an ion knife for intracardiac surgery for you to use, it would be better to use an ion knife for such surgeries in the future.¡± ¡°Performing myocardial ablation with a low-temperature ion knife in blood, while the heart is still beating, without stopping the circulation and not going on extracorporeal circulation, can produce bubbles. Bubbles can cause air embolism, and if we use an ion knife, it might be quite difficult to remove the bubbles. Tell Engineer Chen, when he has time, he can also design an endoscope for use in intracardiac surgery and see how it can eliminate the effects of ¡®red-out¡¯,¡± Yang Ping also had many ideas but was not an engineer after all; some details had to be handled by engineers. Jiahui was also very familiar with engineering technology, ¡°Engineer Chen said he would find a way to eliminate the bubbles, but there wasn¡¯t enough time, and it would take a very long time to technically achieve it, at least over a year.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no rush, let him research it slowly, we will do the animal experiment tomorrow, when the time comes, you can come over and help,¡± Yang Ping directed. Jiahui packed up the equipment, ¡°Dr. Song has already told me, I will be there on time.¡± Chapter 879 - 879 777 Diamond Set Menu ?Chapter 879: Chapter 777: Diamond Set Menu Chapter 879: Chapter 777: Diamond Set Menu At the time, Sanbo Hospital was a newly built hospital, and because land wasn¡¯t as valuable as it is now, the government allocated a large and fairly square-shaped piece of land. Besides the main building for internal and surgical wards, the rest of the buildings were no taller than eight stories. The so-called spare building was constructed in excess during the housing boom and was left unused, intended for future needs. The spare building was also an eight-story structure, situated in a secluded corner of the hospital and had been left abandoned and unused. Yang Ping wanted a room to serve as a surgery laboratory for future experiments with new surgical techniques and devices on animals. Dean Xia waved his hand magnanimously and said, ¡°Take the entire building for yourself. I¡¯ll have the Logistics Department find a designer for you. You can directly communicate with the designer and make all the decisions about the design and renovation of the building.¡± Asking for an entire building might seem extravagant, but Yang Ping thought that other departments would also need it in the future, so he happily accepted it. ¡°I want to bring ten pigs to our hospital for simulated surgeries. That won¡¯t be a problem, will it?¡± Yang Ping asked Dean Xia. The disturbing possibility of a hospital filled with the piercing screams of pigs would leave any Dean at a loss, so Yang Ping informed him beforehand. Dean Xia still displayed his generous spirit, ¡°You can even start a pig farm in the hospital, I¡¯ll even help you get the licenses from the business and livestock departments.¡± Yang Ping was speechless, perhaps only Sanbo¡¯s Dean Xia would allow him to raise pigs. With this building at their disposal, Comprehensive Surgery could ¡®separate¡¯ its research from its clinical operations in the future. As the department developed, the number of laboratories would certainly increase. It was not feasible to have them cramped in the same building as the wards. Therefore, Comprehensive Surgery¡¯s experiments could move to this new building, dedicating one building to clinical work and another entirely to research. Li Guodong had the responsibility to communicate with Nandu Medical University¡¯s Animal Department to ensure the smooth progression of the experiments. Buying ten pigs at once qualified as a large customer; the Animal Department at Nandu Medical University offered a comprehensive service package, which included delivery and a professional team to help with the entire experiment, all for a fee, of course. The representative recommended purchasing their ¡°diamond package,¡± making the process more convenient. Thus, Li Guodong generously bought the ¡°diamond package¡± service from Nandu Medical University¡¯s Animal Department. With the word spreading that Sanbo Hospital would regularly conduct animal surgery experiments, they were keen to establish a long-term partnership with the Comprehensive Surgery Department; thus, they attached great importance to the quality of their service. The hospital buzzed with the news that ten pigs were being used for surgeries. After the recent events with the paper incident, everyone felt the need to refresh their perception of the Comprehensive Surgery Department. While the aftermath of the paper incident was yet to die down, the arrival of ten pigs at the hospital was the latest spectacle no one wanted to miss. Everything was ready, and the experiment on heart muscle rotary cutting surgery with the pigs commenced as scheduled. The scene was bustling; the entire department of Comprehensive Surgery ceased operations. Except for those on duty, everyone participated in the surgery experiment, with many doctors, PhDs, Masters, and standardized training students from inside the hospital coming to gawk. Outsiders like Director Gao from Comprehensive Surgery would not miss such a significant opportunity and arrived early at the spare building¡¯s entrance. The director of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Department of Thoracic Surgery, along with several other doctors, also came to observe. Comprehensive Surgery was well-known as the birthplace of cutting-edge technology at Sanbo Hospital, and everyone wanted to learn something authentic. Robert and August assisted Li Guodong and others with the final preparations for the laboratory, adding and supplementing some equipment. Dean Xia, Director Han, and Director Zhao were all very busy, but curiosity gets the better of everyone, and they took time out of their hectic schedules to come and observe. It was indeed a rarity to conduct ten consecutive heart surgeries on pigs! The capabilities of Nandu Medical University¡¯s Animal Department were quite impressive; they brought ten uniform experimental pigs on a specialized truck. In addition to the truck, there was a van and a minibus. The van transported an eight-person technical support team: two veterinarians, two breeders, two laboratory technicians, and two security guards. The minibus was loaded with a cargo of equipment, various tools, instruments, and drugs. The comprehensive ¡°diamond package¡± selected by Comprehensive Surgery deserved a lavish accompanying team. As long as you pay for the relevant package, you don¡¯t have to worry about a thing; the eight-person team takes care of everything, even the anesthesia is handled by the veterinarians, leaving the customer to focus on their work. Each pig was placed inside a ventilated iron box; there were ten boxes in total. They carried each iron box one by one into the prep room, where a so-called ¡°restraint cloth¡± had already been laid inside each box. The technician opened the lid of the metal box, and the veterinarian opened his toolkit, deftly selecting a size 14 needle for the metal animal syringe. He drew an anesthetic and injected it into the pig¡¯s butt inside the box¡ªit was done swiftly, and the pig quickly became drowsy, completing the pre-anesthesia sedation. Four people skillfully lifted the ¡°restraining cloth¡± by the handles on both sides, and the pig inside the box was directly lifted out. It turned out this ¡°restraining cloth¡± was made of thick canvas with four holes, each hole perfectly aligning with a pig¡¯s legs. As they hoisted it up, the pig¡¯s legs slid into the holes naturally, and thus the pig was wrapped and secured in the cloth, transferred from the iron box to the operating table. By the time the pig was moved onto the operating table, it was completely out of it. The four people quickly secured the experimental pig, and the veterinarian began intubation, followed by connection to the anesthesia machine for further general anesthesia. Liang Fatty supervised the veterinarian¡¯s drug usage. Although there were some differences between pigs and humans regarding anesthesia, Liang Fatty¡¯s knowledge about anesthetic drugs was much more specialized than that of the veterinarian. The pig was exceptionally clean; it was apparent that meticulous cleaning had been done before delivery. ¡°Rest assured, we even performed intestinal cleaning yesterday, and we¡¯ve thoroughly prepared for the preoperative fasting and water deprivation,¡± said the veterinarian proudly. ¡°After the surgery, our caregivers will manage them for you, so you won¡¯t have to worry about anything,¡± commented a caregiver. Not to be outdone, the technician added, ¡°After you complete the surgery, we can recycle and deal with these pigs. We¡¯ll also take care of the cleaning so rest assured, not a single piece of pig feces will be left behind.¡± The security guard who accompanied them said, ¡°We¡¯ll take care of the safety aspect. The pig won¡¯t hurt anyone, and when you need to do any measurements, we¡¯ll be holding the restraining hoop ready. If there¡¯s any unusual movement, we¡¯ll hold it down for you right away.¡± The deluxe package really is different. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang completed the hand washing and disinfection according to the surgical procedure. The instrument nurse on the operating table was Zhou Can, and Huang Jiahui handed the rotary cutter and its accompanying instruments, which had been prepared under the table, to Zhou Can. The entire experiment was conducted following the regular surgical procedure. Since this was an experiment, although the aseptic requirements weren¡¯t as strict, they still needed to be managed. Otherwise, a postoperative infection could affect the observations. Sanbo Hospital had never seen anything like this before¡ªbringing in ten pigs at once for surgery. The area around the operating tables was crowded with people, and Zhang Lin Xiaowu maintained order, asking everyone to keep their distance from the operating tables. Actually, Yang Ping had never done anything like this before either. The animal experiments for the spinal external fixation frame used monkeys, and at that time, the experiments were conducted in Guilin, completed by the doctoral students from Xiehe. It was also Yang Ping¡¯s first time doing surgeries directly at Sanbo Hospital. ¡ª It was heard that the backup building was bustling with activity. Professor Zhang Zongshun, Professor Cao, and Director Xin from Fuwai Hospital, concerned that they wouldn¡¯t be able to get in due to the crowd, hastily made their way there. ¡°Professor Cao, what does the Comprehensive Surgery Department mean?¡± Director Xin didn¡¯t quite understand what this department specialized in. Professor Cao explained, ¡°That¡¯s a unique department that performs all kinds of surgical operations, especially the ones that nobody else can do. You can think of it as a clinical surgical research and development department, similar to an all-terrain special forces unit in the military.¡± ¡°There¡¯s such a department?¡± Director Xin was astounded. This was an eye-opener for him. Professor Cao sighed, ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve also never seen a department like this one. It feels a bit peculiar, like it doesn¡¯t quite fit in, yet they¡¯re capable of handling everything. The myocardial hypertrophy case I told you about, Professor Yang here plans to use a new method. He calls it myocardial rotary ablation surgery. I invited you to provide oversight. If it truly is an advanced technique, you can learn from it too. But if it¡¯s just frivolous nonsense, then the patient can be handed over to you for surgery.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Director Xin grasped his teacher¡¯s intention, which made his task clear. Professor Zhang, Professor Cao, and Professor Xin arrived at the surgical laboratory, accompanied by Song Zimo. Director Xin was intimidated by the lineup; ten pigs were contained within the room, accompanied by veterinarians and technicians. Professor Xin Weicong from Fuwai Hospital, deputized by Professor Cao, participated in the animal experiment as an ¡°observer¡± and had the best vantage point. Director Xin was a top expert in cardiac surgery and was familiar with all types of surgeries for myocardial hypertrophy: modified Morrow¡¯s operation through the thoracoscope, radiofrequency ablation, chemical ablation, and so on. However, he was unaware of any myocardial rotary ablation surgery performed via the apex of the heart. Presumably, the youth had seen the latest techniques in European and American countries and was eager to replicate them. But having known all the major heart centers in the world, Director Xin had never heard of such a procedure. Could it be an obsolete technique that hadn¡¯t been published or widely circulated? He pondered. If it were obsolete, Professor Yang wouldn¡¯t be naive enough to pick it up. It¡¯d be foolish to doubt the intelligence of someone who could publish 13 papers in CNS. Director Xin¡¯s involvement was spurred not only by his teacher¡¯s invitation but also by the recent medical community buzz about ¡°Brother 13¡ä¡ä¡ªthe young man who published 13 CNS papers in three months, including several in a single issue. He was also curious about this distinguished individual. Knowing that Director Xin was brought in as an ¡°observer¡± by Professor Cao, Yang Ping took the matter very seriously and instructed Zhang Lin to arrange for the best viewing spot. Chapter 880 - 880 778 This is How You Cut a Pineapple ?Chapter 880: Chapter 778: This is How You Cut a Pineapple Chapter 880: Chapter 778: This is How You Cut a Pineapple Under the watchful eyes of the audience, Yang Ping began performing surgery on the pig, with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang serving as assistants. The Ultrasonography Department dispatched a doctor to operate the ultrasound machine, as the surgery needed to be conducted under the monitoring of esophageal echocardiography. Traditional surgery requires opening the chest and using an electric saw to cut a long incision of at least 15 to 20 centimeters along the sternum, then prying open the chest cavity, cutting into the thick aorta, and entering the left ventricle through the aorta. The procedure of the surgery requires cardiac arrest and the use of extracorporeal circulation. Yang Ping¡¯s new technique did not require such drastic measures; it only necessitated making a small 5-centimeter incision between the ribs on the left side of the chest. Using this small opening to enter the chest cavity, a puncture was made at the heart apex to insert the electric rotary cutter. In human bodies, surgery on other cavity structures can typically be done with an endoscope; however, this is not possible with the heart, which is full of blood. In the presence of blood, the endoscope sees nothing but red and cannot provide a clear visual field. To ensure that the rotary cutter entering the left ventricle operated under ¡°visible¡± conditions, it was necessary for the esophageal echocardiography to come into play. Its probe is inserted through the mouth and into the esophagus, from where it can observe the heart from behind. Because it is closer to the heart and there is no bone obstruction compared to trans-thoracic ultrasound imaging, the image quality is clearer. From the chest wall, the heart is farther and obstructed by the ribs, naturally resulting in comparatively poorer image quality. Inserting instruments through the heart apex leaves virtually no dead angles for the interventricular septum or the left ventricle, and having ¡°free visuals¡± and ¡°free operation¡± are extremely important for surgical operations. The electric rotary cutter was now in position and started to operate, working similarly to the power shaving equipment used in arthroscopic surgery. It could be operated by a handle, which was very convenient. The thickened interventricular septum was sucked onto the cutter head, and the rotary blade commenced resection. Professors such as Cao and department directors like Xin and Xiang, who specialized in cardiac surgery, were watching the surgery intently to learn. Meanwhile, many other students were gathered around, watching for the spectacle of the ten pigs and the bustling scene. During resection, avoiding air bubbles and debris is critical. The cardiovascular system is a closed conduit system; debris or large amounts of air bubbles produced inside the heart can become emboli. These emboli can travel through the bloodstream, entering the aorta from the left ventricle and then into the systemic circulation, which is the larger circulation system. The arterial blood vessels branch into finer vessels, eventually connecting to the capillaries and then to the veins. Embolisms will travel with the flow of blood, and eventually, they will encounter an artery smaller than their own diameter. At this point, the embolism will block the vessel, causing ischemia in the region supplied by that blood vessel. These areas, deprived of blood, will soon become infarcted. If the blockage occurs in a vital organ, it¡¯s extremely dangerous, such as in the case of an acute cerebral infarction. ¡ª Watching the images on the ultrasound monitoring screen, Department Director Xin stroked his chin, finding the surgery quite interesting. No matter what conditions might arise postoperatively, at least for now, the interventricular septum was being thinned. This cutting method not only had good effects but was also very precise in the resection, and the surgical approach was minimally invasive. What puzzled Department Director Xin¡ªYang Ping¡¯s operation was incredibly skillful, and didn¡¯t at all resemble someone performing a new technique and using new equipment for the first time. Common sense dictated that the first time a new surgery was conducted, it should be done cautiously, slowly, step by step. However, Yang Ping was not the case; his operations were extremely adept. Director Xin leaned in a bit closer and glanced at the electric rotary cutter in Yang Ping¡¯s hand. How could this be a product of recent innovation? A mature instrument like this, from the initial thought to drawing the blueprints, then to multiple prototypes and improvements, would require three to four years to develop a mature product. This new surgery must be the result of years of effort, certainly not a short-term achievement, Director Xin concluded. Entering the left ventricle from the apex to resect the thickened interventricular septum is much more convenient than from the aorta. One is a roundabout flanking move; the other is a direct assault. If this were a battle, the former would achieve a surprise effect, but surgery is another matter entirely. A direct assault is much more straightforward than a roundabout flanking move. Being straightforward means more freedom in terms of visibility and space. ¡°Freedom of view¡± and ¡°freedom of operation¡± are the foundation of surgical operations. What a good method, the more Director Xin thought about it, the more brilliant he found it to be. He just didn¡¯t know what the postoperative situation would be like or if there would be embolism caused by debris. ¡°Continuing to cut may cause a conduction block, but to demonstrate the effect of the rotary cutter, I¡¯ll cut a bit more,¡± Yang Ping gave the audience a heads-up in advance, especially to Professors Cao Zhenshan and Xin Weicong. Since it was the first surgery, Yang Ping needed to demonstrate the immense power of the electric rotary cutter, so he cut out a whole 50g of myocardium from the interventricular septum and left ventricle, which would not be necessary in a typical surgery. Moreover, since the experimental pig¡¯s heart was normal, not hypertrophied, cutting out so much myocardium indeed resulted in a conduction block in pig number one. In order to gather more experimental data, Yang Ping did not give up on this experimental pig. He installed a permanent pacemaker to maintain the pig¡¯s normal heart rhythm. With the first surgery complete, following the regular surgery procedure, Yang Ping sutured the tiny puncture in the apex of the heart and then the 5 cm incision in the chest. Pig number one left the operating room with a respirator and entered a temporary observation room. Pig number two has already been anesthetized by the seller¡¯s team and moved to the operating table. Some had already started chatting with Huang Jiahui down in the audience to understand the structure, principles, and operating method of the device, and Director Xin also took note of this young lady. After watching the surgery, he wanted to take a closer look at this rotary cutter as well. Professor Xin moved a bit closer to the operating table, and he asked the instrumental nurse to show him the myocardium that was cut out as he wanted to see what the resected myocardium actually looked like. Zhou Can gently grasped the myocardium with vascular clamps, lifting it for Professor Xin to see. This piece of myocardium was intact and slightly curled. If the blade is sharp enough, theoretically, it should not produce any debris. Professor Xin had been concerned about metal instruments interfering with the surface ultrasound of the esophagus, but now it seemed there was no issue. The ultrasound images showed no pseudo-images caused by metal, very clear indeed. The surgery went quickly because of the improvements in the surgical technique and the innovation of the tools. It became relatively simple compared to open-heart surgery, and basically, there would not be any problems as long as one didn¡¯t shave the myocardium too thin or puncture through it. Later on, the pace quickened even more. The support team prepared another room as a prep area, sedating the pigs in advance. As soon as the surgery here was finished, the next pig was immediately brought over. With this almost assembly-line operation, the surgery was concluded in about five hours. By the end, Professor Xin had forgotten his role as an ¡°observer.¡± With such a surgery, what was there to observe? He was now thinking about how to acquire a rotary cutter to try it out himself. ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± Professor Cao asked Director Xin who was next to him, but when he turned his head, he realized his student had disappeared. Upon looking again, he saw that Director Xin was already asking Yang Ping for the rotary cutter, saying he also wanted to try the surgery. It seemed that Sanbo Hospital was able to open a Comprehensive Surgery Department for this young man; his capabilities were truly impressive. Not just anyone had the strength to publish 13 CNS papers. Thirteen papers, no less! Not to mention becoming an Outstanding Young Talent, he would soon be promoted to an academician, right? It was really baffling how young people nowadays could be so remarkable. ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± Professor Zhang Zongshun asked Professor Cao. At this moment, Professor Cao was engrossed with Huang Jiahui, listening to Jiahui explain the principles and methods of using the instruments. The principle was very simple, akin to cutting the core of a pineapple, but utilizing such a simple principle to create such a precision-powered instrument required a lot of effort. Everyone then went to see the pigs that had undergone surgery. The medication dosage controlled by Liang Fatty was very good; three pigs had already been extubated and were walking around in the temporary pigsty as if nothing had happened. ¡ª Teng Shaokui was anxious; the girl in the bed next to his daughter had been admitted a day later, and her surgery was already done, while Xinmei¡¯s surgery hadn¡¯t even started. Ah¡ªhow could they schedule surgery without the funds in place? Even a fool understood that running away after surgery would mean someone had to foot the bill. At this point, Teng Shaokui was extremely anxious, burning with impatience. Fortunately, he had finally gotten hold of Boss Li¡¯s latest phone number. He found an opportunity to slip away and dialed Boss Li¡¯s phone. After a few rings, the call was answered, and the voice indeed belonged to Boss Li. ¡°Boss Li¡ªI¡¯m Da Kui, Da Kui!¡± The person on the other end probably hadn¡¯t expected Teng Shaokui to call him and took a long time to reply, ¡°Oh, Da Kui, where are you now?¡± ¡°I¡¯m still at my hometown, and what about you, still in Guizhou building the highway?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ve been in the provincial city for over a year now.¡± ¡°The provincial city?¡± Knowing that they were in the same city reignited Teng Shaokui¡¯s hopes, and he was incredibly excited, out of sorts. ¡°I¡ªam also in the provincial city now,¡± Teng Shaokui said excitedly. ¡°You are too? Where?¡± ¡°Sanbo Hospital!¡± ¡°Sanbo Hospital? There aren¡¯t any engineering projects over there, are there?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a long story!¡± ¡°I¡¯m busy right now; I¡¯ll come to Sanbo Hospital to find you tonight. Wait for my call, you big brother, also in the provincial city.¡± After laughing heartily, the person on the other end hung up the call. Teng Shaokui didn¡¯t dare to bring up borrowing money for the time being; after so many years without contact, asking to borrow money right away might scare the person off. Although he had been so fixated on borrowing money from Boss Li and had finally made contact, Teng Shaokui was suddenly hesitant. Asking to borrow money was a very difficult task. But without asking, who else could he turn to? He had asked around among relatives and at most could gather twenty thousand yuan, which was still just a verbal promise. As for his wife, there was no point. After laying out the situation, Zeng Cuiling immediately let loose a tirade of criticism. Zeng Cuiling berated Teng Shaokui for lacking sense, wondering if he was out of his mind to spend one hundred thousand yuan on surgery. Xinmei was fine now; she would soon graduate from middle school and go out to work, she should earn her own money for treatment, or let her future husband or his family pay for it. Teng Shaokui could only hang up the phone, feeling completely alone and helpless. PS: The prototype of the new surgical technique in this case is the apex cardiomyotomy by Professor Wei Xiang, Director of the Cardiac Surgery Department at Tongji Hospital affiliated with Huazhong University of Science and Technology. This surgical technique and the corresponding instruments were completely independently innovated by Professor Wei, representing a world-leading technology. Many cardiovascular surgery experts from Europe and America, after observing Professor Wei¡¯s surgery, also marveled¡ªsuch surgery can actually be performed this way, far more advanced than their own methods. Salute to Professor Wei Xiang! Chapter 881 - 881 779 Human Sentiments ?Chapter 881: Chapter 779 Human Sentiments Chapter 881: Chapter 779 Human Sentiments These pigs needed to be observed for many days after surgery in order to obtain experimental data. Every day they had to undergo a variety of tests such as heart surface ultrasound, brain MRI, lung CT, and even angiography to see if any debris had formed that could lead to embolism in important organs. To monitor the condition of the heart, they also had to perform a 24-hour dynamic electrocardiogram to dynamically observe cardiac electrical activity and understand if the surgery might interfere with the electrocardiogram. Blood was drawn for various tests, such as coagulation functions, to see if blood clots formed after myocardial resection, as blood clots also have the potential to embolize. Professor Xin decided to stay a few more days to observe the postoperative condition of these pigs and follow up on Teng Xinmei¡¯s surgery. He was eager to learn this surgery and then promote it. After so many years in the field and having eaten his fair share of pineapples, it was astonishing to him that cutting out the core of a pineapple could be related to thickened myocardium surgery. Using the principle of coring a pineapple, he could design such a rotary cutter. Yang Ping was very satisfied with this rotary cutter; he truly experienced the value of innovation. After becoming very skilled in surgery, following the traditional procedures was no longer meaningful; innovation was the only way forward. Just wait a bit longer; if these pigs don¡¯t show any problems, Yang Ping was ready to operate on Teng Xinmei. A few days after surgery, she could be discharged and return home. ¡ª Boss Li did not go back on his word and indeed showed up at Sanbo Hospital in the evening to invite Teng Shaokui to dinner. Upon arriving at Sanbo Hospital, he thought Teng Shaokui would be working at the hospital or a construction site nearby. It was only when they met that he learned of Teng Shaokui¡¯s daughter¡¯s illness and her need for surgery. Boss Li bought over two hundred yuan worth of fruit near the hospital and insisted on visiting Teng Shaokui¡¯s daughter in the hospital. Then Boss Li treated him to dinner, and the two of them ordered a few dishes and several bottles of beer at a food stall near the hospital to catch up on old times. After all, Teng Shaokui had helped Boss Li before, and Boss Li had never forgotten that. Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have rushed to Sanbo Hospital for the meeting today. ¡°Da Kui, how come your girl is so seriously ill? She needs surgery, but this hospital is very impressive. People from the provincial city all know that there¡¯s a young professor inside who is extremely skilled at performing surgeries,¡± Boss Li expressed in surprise. Teng Shaokui sighed and said, ¡°Yes, we didn¡¯t go to the hospital earlier and wasted a lot of time, but the specialist said it¡¯s not too late for surgery now. Any later might have been too late, risking sudden death or leaving the condition untreatable.¡± Boss Li filled Teng Shaokui¡¯s glass to the brim with alcohol, ¡°It¡¯s serious then, you¡¯ve got to treat her. She¡¯s your child; you have a responsibility. You can¡¯t delay her treatment.¡± After clinking glasses with Boss Li, Teng Shaokui said, ¡°That¡¯s what I think too, so I¡¯ve been stressed out recently. The surgery costs one hundred thousand yuan. Where can I find that much money? Without money, we can¡¯t schedule the surgery. I¡¯ve asked all the relatives I could, and I could only secure twenty thousand. Selling all the chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep at home isn¡¯t worth much, at most another ten thousand yuan, but it¡¯s not possible to sell them so quickly. I wonder if we can mortgage the house and get some money from the credit union, but my wife is so upset she disagrees with signing, and without her agreement, the loan can¡¯t be processed, ah.¡± Hearing Teng Shaokui speak like this, Boss Li fell silent for a moment before saying, ¡°Let¡¯s drink first; it¡¯s been years since we¡¯ve met.¡± ¡°How have you been? You must be wealthy by now, right?¡± Teng Shaokui asked tentatively. Boss Li shook his head, ¡°As you know, a few years back, I was working on the highway in Guizhou when a worker suffered heatstroke. We couldn¡¯t save him at the hospital, and I had to pay two hundred thousand yuan. The family was relentless, and I couldn¡¯t continue working there. I had to come to the provincial city to look for work anew.¡± ¡°Look at these clothes I¡¯m wearing; you can tell what my situation is. Don¡¯t even think about getting rich for the time being. I work in moving services now. I¡¯ve gathered a dozen guys to help people move. Business isn¡¯t easy these days; money is hard to make,¡± Boss Li said. In reality, although he referred to himself as a boss, he was just a small contractor leading a dozen men on construction sites. When luck was good, he could make some money, but if he worked on slow-paying or long-delayed payment projects, it was hard for him to earn anything. Looking at Boss Li¡¯s haggard face, his blue coarse work clothes, and his hands thick with calluses, Teng Shaokui knew Boss Li was having a tough time too. He had always wanted to ask Boss Li for money, but now he didn¡¯t know how to broach the subject. ¡°The girl¡¯s illness can¡¯t be delayed, can it?¡± Boss Li asked. Teng Shaokui shook his head, ¡°The specialist said it can¡¯t be dragged on anymore. She could die suddenly if we delay further, sigh, otherwise I wouldn¡¯t be so worried.¡± Boss Li thought for a while without speaking, just drinking and eating. Teng Shaokui had been wanting to say something, but each time the words reached his lips, he swallowed them back down. Thus, the two men just drank and ate, reminiscing about the times they worked together on construction sites. ¡°Brother Da Kui, you¡¯re a loyal person. When everyone else left, only you stayed and worked with me. If you hadn¡¯t stayed, we wouldn¡¯t have made it until the contractor paid us. Without that money, the job would have completely fallen through,¡± Boss Li burped, slightly tipsy. ¡°What loyalty? You¡¯re the one who brought me into this, gave me a job, let me earn money. At that time, if I had just left with the others, turned against you, and pressured you, I couldn¡¯t have done it; my conscience wouldn¡¯t allow it,¡± Teng Shaokui said with a heavy heart, having had a few extra drinks himself. Boss Li said, ¡°People like you are rare these days. In the jianghu outside, how many have a conscience? They only care about money, not people. If you don¡¯t mind, come move with me to the Provincial City. We can¡¯t do any other work. The only thing left is manual labor.¡± ¡°Okay! That... Boss Li?¡± Teng Shaokui, fearing the gathering would end without him having spoken up, wanted to ask for a loan again. ¡°Hmm, Da Kui!¡± Again, Teng Shaokui swallowed his words. Boss Li squinted at Teng Shaokui: ¡°Da Kui, just say whatever it is you want to say. Even if you don¡¯t, I know what you¡¯re thinking. We haven¡¯t seen each other for years, and now you¡¯re contacting me. You know my situation. I haven¡¯t made money these past years, and any hard-earned cash I once made has been spent. My wife has uremia, you know that. She needs dialysis every other day and is waiting for a kidney transplant. Plus, I have two kids to educate, so I¡¯m really under pressure. I¡¯ve thought about getting a divorce and remarrying, which might make life a bit easier. But how can I do that? She gave birth to two kids for me, and now when she¡¯s sick, I just abandon her? I couldn¡¯t do that. So, I have to honestly earn money. I¡¯ve been over a year in the Provincial City, and recently, after scrapping together what I could, I bought a small four-wheeled truck. Renting other people¡¯s trucks wasn¡¯t worthwhile; moving is already such low profit.¡± ¡°I know, big brother, it¡¯s okay, I was just looking to see if there was any work, nothing more. Don¡¯t overthink it,¡± Teng Shaokui knew asking for money was hopeless; Boss Li¡¯s roundabout way of speaking had made it clear. Boss Li spoke slantwise, ¡°Da Kui, don¡¯t say it¡¯s nothing. You¡¯ve been hesitating, wanting to speak but then not speaking. Don¡¯t you think I know what¡¯s on your mind?¡± Teng Shaokui let out a long sigh: ¡°Old Li, I wanted to ask you for money, but hearing about your situation, I couldn¡¯t bring myself to ask. Don¡¯t take it the wrong way. I¡¯m not capable enough. Given my current situation, I always think about scraping together a bit so as not to delay my daughter¡¯s treatment.¡± Boss Li reached for his wallet, pulled out all the money inside, and placed it on the table: ¡°Here¡¯s a thousand, what I had left after paying out wages today, and I haven¡¯t deposited it yet. Take it for now. I, Li Tangsheng, may not have any great skills, but I know what loyalty is. I remember those who have been good to me. Teng Shaokui, if you weren¡¯t desperate, you wouldn¡¯t be going in circles looking to borrow money from someone you haven¡¯t seen in years. I¡¯m right, aren¡¯t I? Where will you get a hundred thousand yuan? Mortgage your house? Your wife would chop you with a kitchen knife. I¡¯m not saying your wife¡ªI won¡¯t go on.¡± ¡°A hundred thousand yuan, where do you think you¡¯ll get it from?¡± ¡°How could you possibly turn a blind eye to your daughter and leave her to fend for herself?¡± ¡°Take these two thousand for now. I¡¯ll try to help you put together the rest. If we really can¡¯t come up with it, I¡¯ll sell the new four-wheeled truck I just bought. It should sell for several tens of thousands. Worse comes to worst, I¡¯ll rent someone else¡¯s truck again.¡± Teng Shaokui thought he was speaking drunk: ¡°Old Li, you¡¯ve had too much to drink. Let¡¯s not talk about this.¡± Boss Li said, ¡°Relax, I¡¯m not drunk. Give me your card number. There¡¯s no other way, I can only sell the small truck.¡± ¡°How could that be okay?¡± ¡°If the small truck can save a life, what¡¯s not okay about it? Brother Da Kui, do you know? If it hadn¡¯t been for you helping me convince those people to delay the payment and continuing to work with me, and giving me the wages you¡¯d earned to help me out in a pinch, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to wait for that payment. That was also life-saving money. Maybe you don¡¯t know, but my wife was in the hospital at that time, waiting for money to pay the medical bills. You also saved me once. Let¡¯s not talk about it anymore; consider this as me returning the favor from back then.¡± Chapter 882 - 882 780 The Worries of the Old Academician ?Chapter 882: Chapter 780: The Worries of the Old Academician Chapter 882: Chapter 780: The Worries of the Old Academician Postoperative stability was remarkable in all 10 pigs; even the one fitted with a heart pacemaker was lively and bouncing around. The daily examination indicators for these pigs also showed no significant abnormalities, suggesting that the surgical technique certainly had no issues. This technique was merely an innovation in approach and tools; the underlying theory remained unchanged, so it was possible to roughly predict whether it was safe or not. Professor Cao and Director Xin hadn¡¯t been idle these past few days, either; they had spent every day in the ¡°pigsty¡± on the first floor of the spare building, closely observing the doctors and students from the Comprehensive Surgery Department as they collected data on the pigs. Sometimes, when it was time for surface ultrasound, they would even step in and conduct it themselves to personally monitor the state of the heart through the ultrasound. Director Xiang of the Cardiac Surgery Department at Sanbo Hospital also had the intention to follow in Director Gao¡¯s footsteps. He would find time every day to come to the ¡°pigsty¡± to help collect postoperative data. Initially, he couldn¡¯t let go of his pride to work alongside the students. After some reflection, he bravely put himself in the shoes of a student. After all, what did face matter? If one could ascend the pyramid of their professional field in the future, respect would come naturally. The doctors and masters from Sanbo Hospital also made occasional appearances to join in the buzz and experience the scholarly atmosphere. As the saying goes, ¡°first come, first served.¡± Affiliated to Nandu Medical University, Professor Su sent three doctors directly to Sanbo Hospital to learn from Yang Ping and commanded them to thoroughly master the new technique. Therefore, the ¡°pigsty¡± on the first floor of the spare building became an academic tourism hotspot, with the ten pigs turning into celebrities. The postoperative observations were almost complete, and Yang Ping was preparing to perform surgery on Teng Xinmei. However, at 14 years old, she was underage, and the application of new techniques was generally restricted to adults over 18. To apply the new technique to Teng Xinmei, Yang Ping had to apply for ethical approval. Song Zimo drafted an ethical application and submitted it to the hospital¡¯s ethics committee for approval. Of course, at Sanbo Hospital, given Yang Ping¡¯s current status and barring any special issues, it was certain to be approved. Regarding the cost issue, Li Guodong had also spoken with Teng Shaokui, and they could arrange the surgery soon, suggesting Teng Shaokui figure out a way. If he truly faced difficulties and qualified as a person in extreme poverty, the village could issue a certificate, and Li Guodong would help apply for aid funds based on the certificate. However, according to Teng Shaokui¡¯s own account, his family did not qualify as extremely impoverished, making the hope for aid funds slim. When the fund was initially established, the review process was quite lenient, leading to many cases of people exploiting this. For instance, one patient, who drove a Mercedes and owned two houses in the provincial city, somehow managed to acquire a full set of substantiating documents and successfully applied for the assistance fund from Sanbo Hospital. After discovering this, Dean Xia immediately conducted a retrospective investigation on the distributed funds and found that it was not an isolated case; there were many such instances of exploitation. Some individuals even profited from using the status of extremely impoverished households to stay in Sanbo Hospital. These people seemed like professional teams, well-practiced in the process, applying for Sanbo¡¯s aid fund and setting up various donations. Yet the patients, often clueless, hardly ever received any of the money. Those in true need of aid found it challenging to apply for funds due to various reasons, such as low educational levels and a lack of knowledge on how to go through the application process. Enraged, Dean Xia immediately revised the application procedure and tightened the distribution of funds. Now, in the case of Teng Shaokui, even if the foundation sent someone to investigate their village, his newly built house and his failure to purchase agricultural insurance meant he could not be considered under the bracket of extreme poverty. After parting ways following the meal, Boss Li did not make a phone call the next day, and Teng Shaokui felt uneasy about inquiring. He knew one shouldn¡¯t take words spoken at the dining table too seriously, but he was still grateful to Boss Li, who had spontaneously lent him two thousand yuan. Those who were willing to lend money were benefactors, after all; everyone had their own difficulties to face. Left with no other choice, Teng Shaokui had to find another way, even if it meant getting into a fight with his wife to put up their house as collateral for a loan. Hence, Teng Shaokui started contacting the credit cooperative in his village to inquire about the loan procedures, hoping to gather the funds as quickly as possible. ¡ª Office of the Principal of Nandu Medical University. The paper hurricane created by Yang Ping was inevitably heading towards Nandu Medical University. Principal Ruo sat at his desk, looking at a few journals, with Academician Xiang sitting opposite him, sporting a serious expression. ¡°We should just nominate him for academician. Such academic achievements are hard to find a second one.¡± Academician Xiang held his teacup and slowly said. Principal Ruo nodded, ¡°That¡¯s what I thought as well, but I¡¯m wondering if we should wait. To publish so many CNS papers at once seems a bit impossible, and these dozen or so papers are spread across four major topics. It¡¯s hard to believe that so many outcomes were achieved all at once.¡± ¡°Are you concerned?¡±¡ª Academician Xiang inquired. Principal Ruo stroked his chin, pondered for a moment, and said, ¡°Yes, it¡¯s just common sense that even with high talent, one needs time. It¡¯s very concerning to see so many heavyweight research results burst forth in such a short period. Elder Xiang, to be frank with you, I¡¯m worried there might be falsification in the experiments. Of course, I¡¯m discussing the matter itself, I have no suspicion or conjecture about Yang Ping personally, and I¡¯m also looking to protect young talents. Xiao Yang is undoubtedly a genius, but these academic achievements are too extraordinary. I can¡¯t help but give it extra thought. Should there be any act of fraud, it would ruin him. If not, all the better. Shouldn¡¯t we wait and allow these papers¡¯ experiments to be widely replicated and scrutinized before proceeding? There¡¯s no rush for the nomination. If everything is without issue and can withstand scrutiny, the timing should not be a problem, and he won¡¯t mind either.¡± Academician Xiang put down his teacup and after a thoughtful moment said, ¡°You¡¯re right, we should wait and see how things unfold. A tall tree catches the wind, and with Yang Ping so young, achieving such success, he¡¯s bound to attract some controversy. We must be cautious in dealing with certain matters and must absolutely protect such a rare talent. He is the strongest in the scientific field but also the most vulnerable in other aspects. Within our moderate environment, a person like Yang Ping is an outlier, and we need to take good care of him.¡± ¡°Just in case¡ªI¡¯m just saying just in case¡ªIf there¡¯s any fraud found in these papers, we can¡¯t just write him off. Punishment aside, we definitely need to properly educate him and guide him back on the right path. We absolutely can¡¯t destroy him. Do you understand what I mean? He is a genius, an exceptionally rare one.¡± ¡°Academician Xiang, I understand your heart. If there happens to be academic fraud, even just associated with it, he¡¯s likely to face devastating consequences. Should that indeed be the case, I will handle it objectively while also trying to offer help and guidance, to treat his ailment and rescue him.¡± ¡°How about Guan Ruyan? Have you talked to him? Done some ideological work, offered some comfort? He still has opportunities next year.¡± Academician Xiang was also quite concerned about Guan Ruyan, in fact, about all the young talents at Nandu Medical University. I have spoken to him, and he seems to be in a decent state. There shouldn¡¯t be big problems,¡± Principal Ruo said. ¡°Xiao Ruo, I have something to say, and I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s appropriate to mention it, so just take it as a private chat, don¡¯t take it too seriously. I think Guan Ruyan¡¯s state is quite unstable. I had an in-depth meeting with him once, and somehow I feel that many issues are not as deeply understood by him as they are by his assistant, Lu Xiaolu.¡± Academician Xiang expressed his puzzlement. Lu Xiaolu? I¡¯ve talked to him a few times, but he doesn¡¯t seem to measure up to Guan Ruyan. Besides, there was that incident before, where he used Guan Ruyan¡¯s name to publish papers.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a feeling I have because I have visited their laboratory several times, chatted with them informally, and off the record, and I find Lu Xiaolu to be a very insightful person.¡± ¡°Really? I always felt that he¡¯s quite submissive and follows the rules very strictly.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a feeling I¡¯m sharing with you, nothing more.¡± The 13 CNS papers swept through the medical community like a hurricane, and after an initial excitement, Principal Ruo and Academician Xiang couldn¡¯t help but contemplate and prepare more than others. ¡°About the first paper¡ªexternal fixation devices for treating scoliosis, from animal experiments to clinical surgeries, things went very smoothly. There are already several hundred cases domestically and some conducted simultaneously abroad. There will definitely be no problems with that. As for the other 12 papers, covering three major topics, one of which was in cooperation with our Digital Medical Laboratory, with Professor He as the second author, I was personally involved, so there shouldn¡¯t be an issue¡ªXiao Ruo, you think there won¡¯t be any problems with these dozen or so papers, right?¡± Academician Xiang was highly concerned; it would be disastrous if there were any issues, given that this young man was such a rare talent! ¡°There shouldn¡¯t be any, but to publish so many papers and achieve so much all at once is completely nonsensical and hard to believe based on timing alone. I¡¯m just being extra careful, Academician Xiang, rest assured, there won¡¯t be any problems. Even if there are, they would be due to the young man¡¯s rashness, leading to minor issues. I know how to handle it and will not generalize from a single aspect,¡± assured Principal Ruo, comforting Academician Xiang. Only then did Academician Xiang feel relieved. ¡°Whatever happens, anything at all, you must inform me first.¡± Academician Xiang reminded before leaving. ¡°You can count on me, Elder. Don¡¯t worry about it. There won¡¯t be any issues, but even if there are, as I¡¯ve said, I won¡¯t generalize. I¡¯ll definitely inform you first,¡± Principal Ruo promised. Chapter 883 - 883 781 Lost to a Bottle of Lao Gan Ma ?Chapter 883: Chapter 781: Lost to a Bottle of Lao Gan Ma Chapter 883: Chapter 781: Lost to a Bottle of Lao Gan Ma The experimental pig had no issues post-surgery, and the ethics approval was also granted; Yang Ping decided to arrange Teng Xinmei¡¯s surgery. However, Teng Xinmei had only paid ten thousand yuan. Li Guodong did not require her to pay the full hundred thousand before arranging the surgery. With only ten thousand paid, he helped her schedule the surgery and merely reminded Teng Shaokui verbally to promptly make up the hospitalization fees after the surgery. Of course, such a situation is quite unlikely in a general hospital, because without medical insurance or third-party payment, there would be trouble for the attending doctor if the patient refused to pay after surgery. As is customary, if the arrears cannot be recovered, they will surely be deducted from the department, taken out of the department¡¯s bonus pool, with the department director and the attending doctor sharing the responsibility, and the attending doctor bearing most of the burden. Hence, the average doctor dares not proceed in this manner. But Comprehensive Surgery Department at Sanbo Hospital is an exception. It is financially robust, so even if someone runs away, the doctors¡¯ pay won¡¯t be docked, giving Li Guodong the confidence and capital to do good deeds. Teng Shaokui is an honest man, extremely grateful that the hospital would arrange the surgery despite the insufficient funds, and he never considered absconding without paying after the surgery. Therefore, he still tried every means to raise funds, and the twenty thousand from his relatives had already been received. Teng Shaokui is a decent person ordinarily, so these relatives, despite not having much money, still lent twenty thousand. There had been no word from Boss Li since the day he drank, and Teng Shaokui did not plan to ask, to avoid embarrassing others. The surgery for Teng Xinmei started as scheduled, and Director Xin remained at Sanbo Hospital just for this surgery; he was a bit excited. It wasn¡¯t that the surgery was particularly difficult to perform; if he were to do it now, he could. But this surgery was brand new, and it¡¯s no exaggeration to say that the new technique offered a new option for patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, and it was the best option at that. The previous options were either radiofrequency ablation or alcohol ablation, or open heart surgery ¡ª even with thoracoscopic surgery, it still meant entering the thoracic cavity with an endoscope; once inside, the heart would still be accessed through the aorta. Compared with these methods, the myocardial rotary cutting technique is the most advanced. With the foundation of ten animal experiments, Director Xin was not so worried about Teng Xinmei¡¯s surgery. With this type of surgery, as long as there were no mistakes in resection¡ªneither cutting too thin nor causing perforation, and no debris forming an embolism¡ªthe safety of the surgery was guaranteed. In addition to Director Xin, Professor Cao, Director Xiang of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department, and several doctors from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One also came to observe and learn on the day of the surgery. The surgery was exactly the same as the animal experiments: after making a 5-centimeter incision on the left chest, the equipment entered the thoracic cavity through this incision, penetrated the heart at the apex, and then performed the rotary cutting. Under surface ultrasound monitoring, about 20 grams of hypertrophied myocardial tissue were cut out, and then the surgery was concluded. Immediately postoperative, the left ventricular outflow tract obstruction was completely relieved, with the pressure gradient reduced to 18mmHg. The left ventricle, after the resection of the hypertrophied myocardium, had its space greatly expanded, resolving compliance issues very well. The left ventricle could accommodate more blood during diastole and then forcefully eject it into the aorta, restoring the ejection fraction to normal. Two hours after the surgery, Teng Xinmei had her tracheal intubation removed and was walking normally on the second day postoperative. This kind of minimally invasive surgery had a much faster recovery than traditional surgeries; she was expected to be discharged in about a week, and could engage in appropriate exercise after leaving the hospital. The new technology caused less trauma, had better effects, faster recovery, and higher safety. If it were a conventional surgery, normal walking wouldn¡¯t be possible before two weeks, let alone participating in physical activities, and the surgical outcomes wouldn¡¯t be as good either. Director Xin, unexpectedly called to observe this time, learned this new technology by chance. Carrying a set of rotary cutters, he left Sanbo Hospital contentedly and made a call to his subordinates at the airport, instructing them to wait on preparing patients for surgery until he returned. He wanted to use the new technology. ¡ª Teng Shaokui had already decided to take out a loan to pay the hospitalization fees when Boss Li called to say he had transferred the money. About half an hour later, Teng Shaokui received a hundred thousand yuan from Boss Li, the full amount. On the phone, the other party said, ¡°Get the child¡¯s surgery done quickly. I found some buyers yesterday, and it wasn¡¯t until today that I sealed the deal and received the money. Let me know when the surgery is done. I¡¯ll come to see the girl when I have time. I¡¯m also moving, rather busy, so I won¡¯t chat with you anymore.¡± Before Teng Shaokui could even express his thanks, the caller had hung up. Seeing the message about the money received on his phone, Teng Shaokui calmed his emotions for a long time; a hundred thousand yuan was no small amount. He had only helped Boss Li once when he was in trouble, and had not expected him to remember it. With the hundred thousand yuan, Teng Shaokui went to pay Xinmei¡¯s hospitalization fees and found that the total bill was about sixty thousand. So, he paid fifty thousand and temporarily kept the remaining fifty thousand in the card. If the actual discharge cost was around sixty thousand, he would transfer the remaining fifty thousand back to Boss Li. With this matter finally settled and his daughter not being delayed, Teng Shaokui was overjoyed. He planned that once Xinmei was discharged, he would help Boss Li with the move, using his own salary to repay the debt. Teng Shaokui walked with Xinmei in the hospital¡¯s garden. ¡°Dad, did you borrow that much money from Boss Li?¡± Teng Shaokui patted his chest, ¡°I told you dad has a way, you don¡¯t have to worry about anything. Boss Li lent your dad a hundred thousand, and I promised him that once you¡¯re discharged, I¡¯ll go work in the provincial city, help people move.¡± Xinmei knew that moving was also hard labor, and feeling somewhat distressed, she said, ¡°Dad, I will work hard, I will definitely get admitted to a university in the provincial city. By then, I¡¯ll buy a house there for you to live in.¡± Teng Shaokui said happily, ¡°That¡¯s the spirit! Study hard and don¡¯t let your mind wander. As long as you put all your energy into studying, you¡¯ll certainly get into university. I reckon I¡¯ll be working in the provincial city for a good few years, waiting for you to join me. By then, dad will take you to school and help you move.¡± Xinmei nodded, though there was a touch of sadness in her eyes, because her mother hadn¡¯t called at all during her hospital stay. A father knows his daughter best. Teng Shaokui knew what was on his daughter¡¯s mind and said, ¡°Your mom has also called a few times to ask about you. When she heard I hadn¡¯t been able to borrow the money, she said she was going to mortgage our house to take out a loan. So don¡¯t be upset with your mom; she cares about you a lot.¡± Xinmei hung her head in silence before saying, ¡°Dad, don¡¯t worry, how could I possibly blame mom?¡± Filled with aspirations for the future, Teng Shaokui decided to move properly in the provincial city and earn a good income: ¡°In a few days when you¡¯re discharged, I¡¯ll send you back, finish the farm work and then immediately come to the provincial city. When you¡¯re at home by yourself, take care of your little brother. Boss Li is short on staff right now and needs a strong man like me.¡± Xinmei agreed, ¡°I know, dad. I¡¯m not short of breath anymore, I can help mom with the work now.¡± ¡°Take it easy, don¡¯t do any heavy labor. Every year during the busy farming season, dad will come back. Once I start working in the provincial city, we won¡¯t plant as many fields, so there won¡¯t be as much to do.¡± The father and daughter chatted happily in the garden. ¡ª The bomb-like impact of the 13 papers not only failed to subside but continued to produce ever-stronger shockwaves. Online and offline alike, heated discussions were incessant. Yang Ping remained firmly at the top of the academic hot search rankings, both domestically and abroad. [Professor mighty!] [Professor mighty!] [Professor mighty!] ¡ª In the WeChat group, everyone typed a string of ¡°Professor mighty!¡± [13 papers, and several are published in the same issue. I truly suspect that the CNS editor-in-chief is the professor¡¯s distant cousin.] [How did the professor manage it?] [This side has sparked intense reflection, reviewing the entire educational system, wondering why the professor is not from the United States but from China?] [In any case, it¡¯s very chaotic right now, and there are also people suggesting that there¡¯s definitely some conspiracy. ¡®Cell¡¯ and ¡®Science¡¯ have already been investigated by some radical academic groups, suspecting that the editors might have accepted bribes from the professor, claiming the need to maintain academic freedom, and that they must investigate thoroughly.] [Ignore those brainless fellows; our legal team is ready to fight back.] [Didn¡¯t those academic groups issue a statement yesterday, withdrawing their inquiry against ¡®Cell¡¯ and ¡®Science¡¯?] [They were so assertive yesterday, so why rescind the accusations?] [Because Manstein wrote an article specifically about this matter, stating the professor¡¯s papers have such a high level of scientific content that those who haven¡¯t received graduate education or have been through a pseudo-graduate education would find it difficult to understand, leading to misinterpretation. If anyone indeed misunderstands the papers, he¡¯s willing to personally visit the United States to clarify any doubts, and he specifically named the core members of that academic group, praising their enthusiasm. To uphold academic freedom, Manstein decided to join the battle in the United States alongside these groups.] [Of course, no one wants to be thought of as uneducated, so these radical academic leaders claim that, to maintain academic freedom, they are withdrawing the allegations.] [Talk about two-faced¡ªall talk and no action.] [Sigh, there¡¯s a lot of online reflection happening over here, not just limited to the education field, but the nutrition field is also engaging in serious reflection.] [Nutrition field? What does the professor¡¯s paper have to do with nutrition?] [Yes, nutritionists are reflecting on dietary structure, suggesting that the United States¡¯ homogeneous diet, as opposed to China¡¯s rich variety of foods, might be detrimental to the brain over time, hindering the emergence of top talent like the professor.] [A well-known nutrition expert recently published an article claiming to have cracked the code behind Chinese people¡¯s high IQs. She discovered that Chinese households hide a mysterious and unique food¡ª¡¯Lao Gan Ma.¡¯ Through research, she found that this spicy food increases cerebral blood flow and enhances neural activity, which is why Chinese may have a higher IQ than Americans and produce talents like the professor. In the end, her conclusion¡ªthey lost to a bottle of ¡®Lao Gan Ma.¡¯] Chapter 884 - 884 782 The Long-awaited Emergency ?Chapter 884: Chapter 782: The Long-awaited Emergency Chapter 884: Chapter 782: The Long-awaited Emergency It seems that the reflection on strange phenomena is not just happening in China, but also abroad. Humanity shares common traits. Yang Ping looked at their chat in the group with a bitter smile. He didn¡¯t want to be famous, but he now had become very well known. He didn¡¯t want to become an internet celebrity, but the name Professor Yang had already become the hottest topic online. If Yang Ping were to start live-streaming sales now, he probably wouldn¡¯t lose out to those top-tier internet celebrities. After all, when it came to medical-related goods, such as health products, Yang Ping¡¯s explanations were very professional. The halo of having published 13 CNS papers was more effective than any advertisement. In fact, big companies had already invited Yang Ping to appear in live-streaming sales. Several domestic and international health product companies offered him sky-high commissions, tempting Yang Ping with the prospect that he might earn more in one sales session than he would in several lifetimes as a doctor, asking him why he should work so hard. Yang Ping just smiled at these invitations. He had no doubt that using his fame for live-streaming sales could earn a lot of money, and it would be countless times easier than being a doctor and doing scientific research. The chat in the WeChat group was very relaxed and free, where everyone went from discussing recent sensational gossip to starting academic discussions seamlessly. Soon after, a video and related materials about Yang Ping¡¯s apex myocardial resection technique were posted in the group. Li Zehui, as an informal member, had already joined the chat. He was a cardiac surgery expert from the Cleveland Medical Center, so he was more interested in this new surgery than anyone else and was the first doctor abroad to come in contact with Yang Ping¡¯s new technique. Yang Ping didn¡¯t have time to pay attention to the WeChat group¡¯s chat. He went home with Xiao Su after work, and they cooked dinner together. As time passed, Xiao Su¡¯s belly slowly grew larger. Fortunately, Yang Ping rarely had to perform emergency surgeries now and could take care of Xiao Su after work. Mrs. Su wanted to come over to help personally, but Xiao Su refused her, saying that now was not the time, and they would talk about it when it was closer to the birth. Xiao Su did some simple fitness exercises in the room, while Yang Ping read and studied in the study. They started to rest around 10:30 PM. When there were no emergency surgeries, Yang Ping rarely stayed up past 11 PM. Ensuring adequate sleep was crucial for maintaining his health. ¡ª In Nandu Provincial City, even deep into the night, many people had not yet gone to sleep. Guo Peihua was one of them. He was a programmer, and a successful one at that, working for a large internet company with an annual salary of over a million. He had one bad habit: staying up late. Not only did he stay up late, but he also liked to smoke and drink, consuming at least two packs of cigarettes a day. Because of his high position in the company, Guo Peihua could often work from home. It was normal for him to go to bed at two or three in the morning. He enjoyed this lifestyle ¨C the peace of late-night hours spent typing at the keyboard and coding was, to him, a pleasure of life. Being young, the thirty-year-old Guo Peihua believed he was too young to experience any health problems. When the company¡¯s health examination revealed high blood pressure, with systolic pressure soaring to 180mmHg and diastolic pressure above 110mmHg. The doctor urged him to visit the cardiovascular department to find out the cause. Whether it was primary or secondary hypertension, it needed treatment. But Guo Peihua just laughed it off, mocking the doctor for being inexperienced. His grandfather and father both had high blood pressure with no issues. His father was still able to work, and his grandfather lived to ninety. Could high blood pressure really be that terrible? Moreover, Guo Peihua liked to surf the internet, digging into articles with novel perspectives about the world. He particularly enjoyed conspiracy theories, firmly believing in those circulated online. He was convinced that the diagnosis of high blood pressure was flawed and fell for conspiracy theories crafted to attract attention, believing them to be concocted by evil capitals to make people spend a lifetime taking their antihypertensive drugs for profit. Feeling energetic and experiencing no discomfort, Guo Peihua was even more convinced these ideas were baseless. That day, like usual, he called a few friends to go out for late-night food. Barbecue, beer, and boasting made for days more blissful than a demigod¡¯s. He started work around one in the morning, with recent deadlines for a new game development being tight. With a cigarette in his right hand and coffee in his left, Guo Peihua¡¯s workday truly began. About half an hour later, Guo Peihua felt a deep, unreachable pain in his back that was uncomfortable. He took a break, bore the pain, thinking it was his cervical spondylosis acting up. He¡¯d experienced neck and shoulder or back pain before when it flared up. Guo Peihua massaged himself with a massager. Though he earned a million annually, he wasn¡¯t married yet. He didn¡¯t want to be tied down to a family so early. With his salary, he could travel whenever he wished. As for personal needs, in modern society, money made them easy to address, and it allowed him flexibility in resolving them¡ªa lifestyle Guo Peihua relished. The massager was ineffective, so Guo Peihua took two diclofenac sodium pills since he often self-studied medical knowledge and kept common medications at home. The two nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were useless. He originally wanted to consult a high school friend who was a doctor but then thought the matter was trivial¡ªno point in asking, as they would only say it¡¯s cervical spondylosis and prescribe the same treatment. He lay in his own specialized work chair to rest, activating its massage feature. The chair was a massage chair worth over ten thousand yuan. Chapter 885 - 885 782 Long Lost Emergency_2 ?Chapter 885: 782 Chapter Long Lost Emergency_2 Chapter 885: 782 Chapter Long Lost Emergency_2 Without warning, a ripping pain erupted in his back; Guo Peihua felt a fierce heartbeat, and the entire chest and abdomen seemed to be pulsating, as if a rabbit was struggling to break free. He had never experienced such pain¡ªit was excruciating, intensely so! Enduring the pain, he called his high-school classmate, a qualified doctor¡ªfinally getting through, ¡°My back¡ªit¡¯s a tearing pain¡ªI can¡¯t stand it, what medicine should I take?¡± The high-school classmate, being a legitimate doctor, was frightened by Guo Peihua¡¯s description and hastily said, ¡°Call 120 immediately, it¡¯s a matter of life and death, hurry!¡± The classmate, taking precautions in case Guo Peihua would faint or some other mishap would occur, immediately called 120 himself, knowing Guo Peihua¡¯s address. In the dead of night, the 120 ambulance raced through, its siren howling into the sky¡ªit had to be faster than death itself. ¡ª A bit past two in the morning. Yang Ping¡¯s phone rang; it had been a long time since he had received a call at this hour, and his professional instinct snapped him awake instantly. On the other end was Professor Cao Zhenshan, ¡°Professor Yang, it¡¯s a full aortic dissection, tearing from the ascending aorta to the iliac artery, can you do the main surgery?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± As Yang Ping dressed while on the phone, and by the time the call was finished, he was already at the door. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll have the patient transferred to our hospital right away.¡± ¡°I¡¯m on my way!¡± This kind of aortic dissection, tearing from the ascending aorta right through to the iliac artery, required replacing the entire aorta along with the iliac artery. It¡¯s a top-tier surgery in the major vascular surgery field, and the situation was urgent¡ªa true race against time! Xiao Su waved her husband off at the door. She knew that¡¯s how it was for surgeons; from the day she chose him, she was prepared for such realities. Yang Ping didn¡¯t have time for tender goodbyes with his wife and hurried to the hospital. He was running, sprinting through the community in the dead of night alone. ¡°Hey, stop! Stop! Stop!¡± The night watchman, spotting someone running, mistook him for a fleeing criminal and gave chase while shouting and alerting his colleagues over the walkie-talkie. Yang Ping had no choice but to halt and wave as he looked back, ¡°I¡¯m a doctor from Sanbo Hospital across the street! Rushing to an emergency!¡± The security guard slowed down, relieved, gestured that he could proceed, and Yang Ping continued his dash, crossing the sky bridge all the way to the emergency department. ¡°Quick, to the emergency department, notify Old Xu, Zhang Lin Xiaowu¡ªfull aortic dissection, it¡¯s an emergency surgery!¡± Yang Ping called Song Zimo while running. It takes a golden combination for surgeries like these to maximize the success rate. ¡ª The lights in the emergency department are always on, 24 hours a day. Professor Cao Zhenshan, in his seventies, was on the phone when he saw Yang Ping and gestured before continuing with the call, ¡°I know, Professor Yang has arrived, the patient is on the way to our hospital, leave it to us.¡± He was speaking to Professor Xin from Fuwai Hospital in Beijing, who had just returned not long ago and had received this emergency call. Director Ouyang Songhua from the cardiovascular surgery department at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, a student of his, had just come back from an academic conference abroad. He hadn¡¯t even settled down at home when their emergency department received a terrifying case¡ªa full aortic dissection putting the patient¡¯s life on the line, requiring an emergency full aortic replacement. This type of surgery could only be expertly performed by Director Xin, and Ouyang Songhua had never conducted such a risky major surgery and couldn¡¯t take the lead. Professor Xin Weicong of Fuwai Hospital could be regarded as the leading figure in China¡¯s major vascular surgery, a branch of cardiovascular surgery, specializing in surgeries of the aorta and the inferior and superior vena cava. In the past, faced with such situations, he used to fly across the country with his team, rushing to save people on site, but most patients couldn¡¯t wait that long, thus they had to gamble with their lives. Only about 2% of such patients could be saved, with 92% beyond rescue¡ªmost never made it to the hospital. Across the country, Professor Xin Weicong, always on call to save lives, ensured that those who could make it to Beijing got treated at their hospital; for those too critically ill to transfer, doctors would fly to save them on-site. For 20 years, Professor Xin led his team nationwide, ¡°putting out fires¡± this way. Still, only about 2% of patients with aortic dissection managed to get surgery and survive. This disease, those with no chance of survival far outnumber those who are saved. At this moment, there were no other choices, either Director Ouyang Songhua took the lead in the main surgery, but even if the patient could make it to the operating table, Director Ouyang Songhua had no experience in the procedure and literally couldn¡¯t save the patient. So the only option was for Professor Xin to lead the team to perform an emergency surgery at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, but the patient was in such critical condition that they couldn¡¯t wait that long before the ¡°vascular balloon¡± would burst. In desperation, Professor Xin thought of Yang Ping. He tried to get Professor Cao to ask if Yang Ping could perform this surgery. If he could, that would be great. If not, the only option was to gamble with the patient¡¯s life, hoping for the 2% chance. Professor Cao Zhenshan had no more doubts and got straight to the point when asking Yang Ping, ¡°Can you do it?¡± Yes! That meant it was absolutely doable! He had already accepted this concept. Professor Cao hung up the phone: ¡°The patient is still on the way. Nandu Affiliated Hospital One has performed an emergency CT scan, come and take a look,¡± said Professor Cao, who didn¡¯t feel his age of over seventy years at all. He remained energetic. It wasn¡¯t that his body could truly outlast that of the young, but the decades of professional experience forged an indomitable spirit in life-saving situations, regardless of how tired he was, he had to be energetic. The emergency department¡¯s electronic screen lit up. This computer was connected to the network, specifically for receiving examination data transmitted from other hospitals. The CT scan images of the entire thoracoabdominal region appeared on the screen, starting from the ascending aorta, crossing the aortic arch, and going down to the descending aorta, then to the abdominal aorta, and further to the iliac arteries, continuing downward, all the way to the femoral arteries on both sides¡ªcompletely torn. A huge, long, oval-shaped black balloon was filling the chest and abdominal cavities, pushing the neighboring organs to one side. This ¡°balloon,¡± a metaphor for life, could explode at any moment. Once it burst, almost all the blood would spill into the thoracoabdominal cavity, and the patient would die instantly. The horrific dissection of the aorta was something Yang Ping had never seen in reality before. Yang Ping and everyone around him took a deep breath, chills running down their spines, uncertain if the patient would make it to the hospital alive. With less than a 2% chance, it was unknown if he had the fortune to survive. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, Little Five, Liang Fatty¡ªYang Ping¡¯s entire team was in place, sitting right beside him at this moment. The extracorporeal circulation team from Sanbo Hospital also arrived in time. This surgery had to be performed with the heart stopped, under extracorporeal circulation. ¡°Professor Yang, no problem, right?¡± Professor Cao Zhenshan asked, swallowing his saliva. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°No problem. Let the cardiovascular team get all the instruments and artificial blood vessels ready. I¡¯ll lead the main surgery.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s response was very confident, and utterly calm and rational. ¡°Director Xin¡¯s call!¡± Professor Cao Zhenshan¡¯s phone rang again, then he spoke for a while before handing the phone to Yang Ping. ¡°Rest assured, Professor Xin, as long as the patient arrives alive on the operating table, I won¡¯t let him slip away,¡± Yang Ping said briefly, encouragingly, then outlined the key points on how the operation would be performed. After listening to him, Professor Xin knew that Yang Ping was a true expert, possessing extensive experience in major vascular surgery. Without hundreds of surgeries under one¡¯s belt, one simply couldn¡¯t make such an assertion. After finishing the call with Professor Xin, Yang Ping returned the phone to Professor Cao. Professor Xin reminded Professor Cao on the phone, ¡°Let Professor Yang take the lead. Follow all of Professor Yang¡¯s arrangements, and don¡¯t allow Songhua to be the chief surgeon.¡± Ouyang Songhua, the Department Director of Major Vascular Surgery at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, was deemed by Director Xin as lacking the capability for such an operation. The emergency department was usually crowded, now there were even more people, but the ambulance hadn¡¯t arrived yet. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t anxious. He had long passed the state of being anxious. He sat in front of the electronic screen, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the desktop. ¡°Once the patient arrives, take him straight to the operating table; no need for angiography, just open the chest and abdomen, and replace the vessels!¡± Yang Ping instructed Song Zimo, instructing Director Xiang of the cardiac surgery team. They had just been busy learning the myocardial resection technique with Professor Yang, and they had just enthusiastically completed surgeries on ten pigs. Without any time to buffer, such a critical patient arrived. Director Xiang¡¯s spirits were uplifted; he had never done such a surgery before. ¡°Guo Peihua, male, 30 years old¡ª¡± More data had already been transmitted from Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, but the patient still hadn¡¯t arrived. Chapter 886 - 886 783 The Ceiling of Aortic Dissection ?Chapter 886: Chapter 783: The Ceiling of Aortic Dissection Chapter 886: Chapter 783: The Ceiling of Aortic Dissection Emergency doctors generally have an impatient nature, and those who work in Major Vascular Surgery are especially so. In the Cardiac Surgery Department, Director Xiang would occasionally urge his doctors to check the entrance to see if the ambulance had arrived yet, while Professor Cao constantly checked his watch. Judging from the angiography images, the patient¡¯s aorta was like a balloon with extremely thin vessel walls, ready to burst and spill blood at any moment. Once the ¡°vascular balloon¡± exploded, the patient would die instantly on the spot, with no second possibility. However, Yang Ping seemed very calm, sitting in front of the electronic screen, even closing his eyes to rest, as if he wasn¡¯t in any hurry. In fact, the devilish training in the system space not only improved Yang Ping¡¯s medical skills but also changed his temperament. After experiencing so much, one becomes accustomed. Being anxious or not has no influence on the outcome of events. ¡°We should have prepared such a long artificial blood vessel, right? This is the angiography from the emergency at the affiliated first, it has already reached the iliac artery below, and above, the brachiocephalic trunk and the left carotid artery are involved. You have to prepare an artificial blood vessel reaching up to the internal and external carotid arteries and down to the femoral artery,¡± Yang Ping said calmly, pointing at the electronic screen. The Director of the Cardiovascular Surgery Department, Director Xiang, nodded slightly, ¡°It¡¯s already prepared, and the length is sufficient.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s extreme calmness could infect the people around him. With a calm heart, the mind naturally cools, and some of the more impatient doctors began to settle down as well. ¡°As soon as the patient arrives, directly onto the operating table. Aside from drawing blood, don¡¯t do any other checks, get straight onto the table for thoracotomy and laparotomy, first blocking the aorta at the base, then immediately establish extracorporeal circulation and stop the heart,¡± Yang Ping began discussing the surgery plan with everyone so that they could be familiar with it in advance. ¡°How do we know the extent of the vascular tear before surgery?¡± Director Xiang asked, puzzled. The vascular tear is dynamic, definitely likely to worsen en route. If no more angiography is done, how can we understand the latest extent of the vascular tear? Professor Cao shared this doubt and was also waiting for Yang Ping¡¯s answer. ¡°After opening the chest and blocking the aorta, the patient will be a lot safer. I will do the exploration; following the vascular tear upwards and downwards until it is normal,¡± Yang Ping said, his tone rational and confident. Logically, to determine the new range of the vascular tear, interventional angiography would be faster and more intuitive than exploration. But angiography requires time, and anyhow, ten to twenty minutes will be delayed. If the ¡°vascular balloon¡± explodes within these ten to twenty minutes, there will be no chance for surgery afterward. If the step of angiography is skipped, and the chest is opened directly, starting with blocking the aorta, and while establishing extracorporeal circulation at the same time, immediate exploration of the vessel is conducted. This increases the doctors¡¯ burden of operation and also occupies the time for blocking the aorta. The time after aortic blockage must be reserved for artificial blood vessel replacement. Because the surgery to complete the artificial blood vessel replacement must be done within 30 minutes. Exploration is not only difficult but also time-consuming, not leaving enough 30 minutes for artificial blood vessel replacement. ¡°The vessel is too long, estimated to exceed 100 centimeters, are you sure there¡¯s enough time for blood vessel replacement?¡± Professor Cao asked, his experience told him that it was far from enough. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the time, there¡¯s enough! Do as I say,¡± Yang Ping said firmly. If one were to add up the time spent on surgeries in the system space, no one in the world could surpass Yang Ping, so in his eyes, everyone is ¡°inexperienced.¡± Professor Cao said no more, because with the minimally invasive myocardial excision surgery, he also thought it was unlikely at the time, but not only did Yang Ping achieve it, he did it extremely skillfully, and the effect of the surgery far exceeded Professor Cao¡¯s expectations. Having had the experience of the last surgery, Professor Cao no longer doubted this young man¡¯s words, his confidence was genuine, not without basis. ¡°Shall I assist you later?¡± Director Xiang offered voluntarily. Without hesitation, Yang Ping rejected, ¡°No, you¡¯re too slow with your movements. Let Song Zimo be the assistant; he¡¯s used to my pace. Xu Zhiliang will be the second assistant, Zhang Lin Xiaowu will handle retraction, you¡ªyou can observe from below.¡± Awkward! Director Xiang stroked the back of his head, at a loss for words. In rescue surgery, there¡¯s no room for even a bit of carelessness. As long as the conditions allow it, Yang Ping must have his ¡°dream team¡± in the operating room. If it were a scheduled surgery, he might take Director Xiang for a ¡°ride¡± in the OR. ¡°Let¡¯s listen to Professor Yang, this surgery is too complex, he needs to work with skilled assistants,¡± Professor Cao Zhenshan tried to smooth things over. As a distinguished expert at Sanbo Hospital and a specialist in Cardiovascular Surgery, Professor Cao Zhenshan could be considered part of the cardiovascular surgery team and a mentor, naturally familiar with the cardiac surgeons, which is why he was very familiar with Director Xiang. ¡°That is¡ªI¡¯m the backup. Arrange whenever needed, ready to get on the table at any time,¡± Director Xiang pretended to be gracious, but still felt humiliated inside. At that moment, Director Zhao, the chief on duty, arrived in the office and announced loudly, ¡°Full rescue effort, green channel!¡± ¡ª Finally, with the sharp sound of an alarm, an ambulance appeared at the emergency department entrance. The ambulance¡¯s rear doors opened, and a stretcher carrying a patient was pulled out, which was then quickly turned into a flatbed. Doctors and nurses pushed the flatbed towards the emergency department in a rush. Among the doctors pushing the flatbed was Director Ouyang Songhua, who personally delivered the patient because his condition was so special. ¡°Into the operating room, fast, into the operating room,¡± an emergency department doctor who was receiving the patient grabbed the flatbed and guided it toward the ready operating room, while the nurses immediately completed blood drawing during the move for crossmatching. Chapter 887 - 887 783 The Ceiling of Aortic Dissection_2 ?Chapter 887: Chapter 783: The Ceiling of Aortic Dissection_2 Chapter 887: Chapter 783: The Ceiling of Aortic Dissection_2 This kind of emergency surgery, if in a hospital without experience, would definitely be chaotic, with no idea of what to do, at most offering some basic first-aid measures amidst the panic. Hospitals capable of performing aortic dissection surgeries are few, and those that can perform such severe aortic dissection surgeries are just Anzhen and Fuwai, the two giants of cardiovascular surgery in China. Director Xin of Fuwai, with more than twenty years of experience in major vascular surgery, has many patients who, in order to be swiftly rescued in case of a second episode, choose to live and work near the hospital closest to Director Xin for the sake of relying on his skills to save their lives in an emergency. Pingche pushed the patient into the operating room, where Yang Ping and the team were already prepared. Transferring to the bed, administering anesthesia, sterilization, laying the drape¡ªnot a second to waste, Yang Ping immediately opened the chest, his movements so swift that Professor Cao was left in awe. Fifty years in medicine, and he had never seen such surgical speed, fast yet orderly, rapidly progressing. How many surgeries would it take to become this skilled? Thoracotomy and laparotomy revealed the aorta, swollen with blood like a giant balloon, automatically exposing itself. The walls of the blood vessels were thin, the ¡°balloon¡± throbbed with the heartbeat, ever at risk of exploding. Yang Ping immediately blocked the aorta temporarily, collaborated with the extracorporeal circulation team, stopped the heart, and initiated extracorporeal circulation. To save time, to fight for every extra moment for the rescue, Yang Ping proceeded to explore further. A long incision extended from the chest down to the abdomen, and upwards to the neck, continuing down past the groin area of both thighs. The extent of the vascular tear had reached down to the arteries below the groin and up to the carotid arteries, a veritable ceiling for aortic tears. The range of the tear had surpassed the angiography images, indicating it was continuing to tear during transfer. Professor Cao, as a seasoned expert, had never witnessed such extensive tearing, almost holding his heart in his hand as he watched the surgery. The movements were so fast that Professor Cao felt dizzy, the entire aorta was opened from top to bottom, and the artificial blood vessel was gently placed in it, followed by hundreds, perhaps thousands of stitches, none of which could leak blood. Yang Ping¡¯s hands were incredibly fast and incredibly steady, like a finely-tuned machine, precise and stable. Professor Cao dared not even breathe heavily on the side, the urgency of the surgery was simply the pinnacle of major vascular surgery, not only fast but also very thorough in stopping bleeding, with most of it proactively tackled rather passive, so much so that by the end of the surgery, there was no need for additional hemostasis. ¡°Marfan Syndrome!¡± Yang Ping gently placed the needle holder in the nurse¡¯s curved plate and declared. ¡°Severe vascular calcification,¡± Yang Ping added. ¡°Is it finished?¡± Professor Cao looked at the electronic clock on the wall. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°The chest and abdomen can be closed now.¡± Still under two hours, such surgery would usually take at least 6 hours, even when Xin Weicong was in his best condition, it was six hours. Director Ouyang Songhua observed the entire surgery, his thoughts syncing with the pace of the operation, too afraid to speak. Now that the surgery was over, he still did not dare to speak. ¡°It seems that properties near the hospital are going to increase in value now!¡± Professor Cao joked. Zhang Lin didn¡¯t understand what Professor Cao meant, wondering how discussing real estate came up during surgery, the expert¡¯s train of thought seemed too erratic. ¡°When he wakes up, tell him to rent or buy property near the hospital, and it would be best to choose a workplace near Sanbo Hospital as well,¡± Professor Cao suggested. Song Zimo looked at Zhang Lin¡¯s puzzled face, ¡°In a few years, there might be a recurrence. In the South China region, only the professor can save him. Living near Sanbo Hospital is like buying a life insurance policy.¡± So that was it! ¡°No wonder Wang Changxin bought another property near the hospital. He wants to live in the same community as the professor. That man is clever.¡± ¡°How is he doing now, has anyone called to follow up, and is there a regular X-ray check-up?¡± ¡°He¡¯s still in Africa, said he¡¯s been very busy lately, mining more and more gold.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t they say it was a discarded mine sold to him after others were done with it?¡± ¡°Yes, it was discarded by others, due to inaccurate surveys previously. The original owner had hired Japanese to survey it, and after surveying, they reported very little gold, making mining costs high and valueless. The original owner deceived Wang Changxin, saying it was a rich vein, while he shifted investments elsewhere, thus selling the mine to him at half price.¡± ¡°Old Wang turned his luck around, from singing on the sky bridge, that rendition of ¡®Boundless Sea and Sky¡¯ really brought tears to the eyes.¡± ¡°I heard that some of the beggars who used to sing with him are now in Africa, working for him.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± ¡°Not long ago, one of them came back and asked me to help arrange a health check-up. He said he was one of Wang Changxin¡¯s brothers, a guitarist from the sky bridge band. I asked him what he was doing now, and he said he was following Wang Changxin in opening a gold mine in Africa, and had already made a fortune.¡± As Yang Ping took a moment to rest, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were closing the chest and abdomen, the atmosphere suddenly relaxed, and conversation lightened the mood. Professor Cao couldn¡¯t help but smile wryly. These young people were indeed bold with talent; that instance was truly frightening, yet they were casually chatting away. Chapter 888 - 888 783 The Ceiling of Aortic Dissection_3 ?Chapter 888: Chapter 783: The Ceiling of Aortic Dissection_3 Chapter 888: Chapter 783: The Ceiling of Aortic Dissection_3 Director Ouyang Songhua was also taken aback. ¡°What¡¯s the blood pressure? Fatty!¡± ¡°95/64mmHg.¡± ¡°After the surgery, send him to CCU!¡± ¡°The bed has already been arranged; it¡¯s waiting right outside the operating room.¡± After the surgery, Guo Peihua was taken to the CCU for monitoring and treatment. Since the Cardiac Surgery Department at Sanbo Hospital had not yet been fully developed and there was no ICU specialized for cardiac surgery, he had to be transferred to the CCU for coronary diseases, which at least had more specialized doctors compared to a general ICU or Trauma ICU. ¡ª Guo Peihua¡¯s phone had turned on automatically in the morning. His parents had been trying to reach him all along because Today was his birthday. Yet there he lay in the CCU of Sanbo Hospital, connected to a ventilator and various tubes all over his body. His belongings, including his phone, were sealed in a plastic bag and temporarily kept by a nurse. Guo Peihua was a homebody with few friends. The high school classmate who had called 120 for him had visited the hospital early in the morning, but didn¡¯t get to see Guo Peihua himself. After having a talk with Doctor Ruan, who was in charge, to understand Guo¡¯s condition, he breathed a sigh of relief. Indeed, the medical student¡¯s judgment was correct¡ªit was indeed a tear in the aortic dissection. Fortunately, he got to the operating table in time. If it hadn¡¯t been for the med student¡¯s professional intuition in calling 120, Guo Peihua would have been in trouble by now. The pain was making him sweat profusely, and he was on the verge of fainting. When the emergency medics reached his doorstep and received no response to their knocks, their only option was to seek help from the on-duty security guard. The guard, a kind-hearted man from Shandong, had no hesitation in breaking the door down because he thought it was a matter of life and death, and there was no time to wait for a locksmith or firefighter. The nurse noticed the phone kept vibrating. As per usual practice, the patient had no family to accompany him, so the nurses would ordinarily contact family members using the numbers on the phone. Since he had just been admitted to the CCU and there hadn¡¯t been time to inform the family, the incoming call was timely. The nurse immediately summoned Doctor Ruan, who answered the phone, identified himself, and then informed the caller of Guo Peihua¡¯s condition. After hearing the explanation, the person on the other side cursed, ¡°Scammers! How did scammers get the phone?¡± Doctor Ruan, feeling helpless, called back using the same number, but the call was disconnected right away. After several attempts, the other side finally picked up again, saying, ¡°Stop doing these immoral things. You¡¯re young, why choose to be a scammer? There are so many better things to do than cheating old people. Not long ago, someone called us saying my son was in a car accident and that we needed to transfer money right away. We nearly fell for it. The bank clerk stopped us at the very last moment. And now what? Something about blood vessels tearing and having just undergone surgery, lying in an ICU¡ªwill this ever end?¡± ¡°This kid, he must have gotten drunk again last night and lost his phone,¡± they discussed amongst themselves over the phone. It was not uncommon for Guo Peihua to sleep through an entire day, especially after drinking heavily, and during such times, he wouldn¡¯t answer any calls. This wasn¡¯t the first incident of its kind, and sometimes it was days before they could contact him, so his parents were familiar with their son¡¯s habits and concluded that this was another scam. At his company, Guo Peihua¡¯s presence was infrequent since he worked from home most of the time and rarely punched in at the office, showing up only a few times a month. Therefore, whether he showed up for work or not, it was of little concern to others. His high school classmate, who had managed to make it to the hospital, didn¡¯t think of notifying Guo Peihua¡¯s family either. This classmate knew Guo Peihua was a homebody living alone, which is why he had casually called 120 for him, but had not thought about following up with a call to the family. In Guo Peihua¡¯s case, had he been the target of foul play, it was likely that it would have taken a month before his body was discovered. Doctor Ruan had no choice but to seek advice from the Department Director. Director Kang was a doctorate holder and a complete bookworm. He couldn¡¯t understand why merely calling back was such a difficult task. When he tried calling himself, all he got was a busy signal, likely indicating he¡¯d been blocked. So, Director Kang used the department¡¯s landline to call again and, pressing the speakerphone button, the call connected. Kang glanced at Doctor Ruan¡ª¡±See, it went through, didn¡¯t it?¡± As the call connected, Director Kang immediately introduced himself and explained the situation. The conversation was cut short with a curse and an immediate blocking. Doctors and nurses gathered around Director Kang, whose face turned red. He hung up the phone, ¡°Get back to work, you all seem quite idle.¡± PS: This chapter necessitates a mention of Professor Sun Lizhong from Anzhen Hospital¡ªthe best individual globally in terms of the results of aortic dissection surgery. Professor Sun used to work at Fuwai before being transferred to Anzhen. At a global-level academic conference, the host introduced Professor Sun as ¡°the best individual globally in the results of aortic dissection surgery. Pay attention, the whole world!¡± That year, Professor Sun led a team of over twenty Chinese delegates to an academic conference in Japan. The Japanese organizers only allotted a lunchtime slot for his lecture, clearly underestimating him. So Professor Sun spontaneously changed his presentation topic to discuss just two cases¡ªone involving an aortic arch replacement with the heart still beating, and one involving a complete aortic replacement. After his lecture, the Japanese audience was left in stunned silence, not daring to ask questions, as no Japanese doctor was capable of performing these two kinds of surgeries; they simply weren¡¯t on the same level. After the lecture, Professor Sun¡¯s treatment at the conference skyrocketed from ¡®ordinary participant¡¯ to ¡®super VIP¡¯¡ªa true story! Chapter 889 - 889 784 We Will Definitely Get Him ?Chapter 889: Chapter 784 We Will Definitely Get Him Chapter 889: Chapter 784 We Will Definitely Get Him After Yang Ping finished the surgery, it was almost dawn. If it had been in the past, he would have definitely slept for two hours in the department, but now, with Xiao Su pregnant, he didn¡¯t dare to rest in the department and so he went home to rest. He quietly opened the door and slept on the sofa for a couple of hours. The next day, he went to work on time at seven and, after the handover, Director Wan Quanzhen from the Human Resources Office came to talk to Yang Ping. Director Wan spoke with concern, ¡°Professor Yang, since Xiao Su is currently pregnant, although it¡¯s not yet time for her maternity leave, the hospital has considered that both of you are very busy with work. So, I suggest that Xiao Su start her leave now, with full pay and bonuses distributed according to the average for nurses in the Comprehensive Surgery Department.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already discussed this with the hospital leadership and the head nurse of your Comprehensive Surgery Department, and no one will have any objections to it. When Xiao Su is ready to give birth, the hospital will select a few nannies and maternal caretakers to assist you¡ªthat is the hospital¡¯s goodwill gesture.¡± Yang Ping considered it for a moment and thought that the suggestion for Xiao Su to rest was very good. He had long wanted Xiao Su to take a break, after all, the Comprehensive Surgery Department had surgeries from morning until evening every day, which was indeed very tiring. With Xiao Su continuing to work, he had been worried, and allowing her to rest would also alleviate his concerns, enabling him to devote himself fully to his work. The nannies and maternal caretakers were acceptable as well. Director Wan¡¯s visit to the Comprehensive Surgery Department today wasn¡¯t only for this matter; she also had another important task, which was to plan to equip Yang Ping with a support team on behalf of Dean Xia. Director Wan continued, ¡°I hope you don¡¯t mind sparing a bit more time. There¡¯s another thing: we plan to provide you with a support team, which includes a driver, a secretary, and security personnel. Let us know if you have any suitable candidates; otherwise, we can help you choose.¡± Setting up a support team seemed a bit unnecessary to Yang Ping, who found it overly extravagant. Knowing that Yang Ping might be unaccustomed to such treatment, Director Wan added, ¡°Dean Xia said that the support team must be arranged, and whether you use it or not is up to you, Professor Yang. Anyway, the team will be prepared for you and ready to use at any time. This is the special treatment our hospital gives to special talent, and you, Professor Yang, deserve this treatment.¡± ¡°Think about it, if you have a support team to provide assistance, you can free up more time to help cure patients, isn¡¯t that great? If you spend time on trivial daily matters, wouldn¡¯t that be a waste?¡± Yang Ping conceded that Director Wan had a point. He was a straightforward person and didn¡¯t like beating around the bush and wasting time, so he agreed. ¡°I have a candidate for the driver. I will provide you with his information later.¡± Yang Ping thought of Sisi¡¯s dad who had previously been a motor transport soldier in the military with good driving skills and impeccable character. Yang Ping had already arranged for him to drive at Li Quan Hospital, but if the hospital was going to set up a team for him, he would transfer him back. ¡°Alright, when the time comes, please provide the information for this person to me. Do you have any other recommendations?¡± Director Wan noted down Yang Ping¡¯s words. Yang Ping thought for a moment, ¡°I don¡¯t have any suitable candidates for the moment.¡± After speaking, Yang Ping was ready to say farewell to Director Wan and go to the operating room for surgery. But Director Wan had more to say, expressing awkwardly, ¡°I¡¯m sorry to take up more of your time. Do you have any relatives who need job placement? Regardless of their qualifications, we can find an appropriate position for them, or if any of your relatives are willing to open a small store or something similar in the hospital, they can also let us know at any time and we can arrange it.¡± Yang Ping shook his head as he genuinely had no need for such arrangements; his sister and brother-in-law had their own jobs and business and didn¡¯t require his concern. However, he thought of Sisi again. Since he was arranging for Sisi¡¯s dad to become a driver, perhaps a job for the child¡¯s mom could be arranged. But then he reconsidered, realizing that Sisi¡¯s mom was already doing quite well in the Comprehensive Surgery Department, having both a job and the ability to care for Sisi, and so he didn¡¯t bring it up. In the end, Director Wan said, ¡°Whether it¡¯s work or life, if you have any needs, just say so directly. Don¡¯t be shy, Sanbo Hospital is your home, and we are all family here, easy to talk to.¡± Yang Ping was very grateful for the hospital¡¯s sincerity; these things might not be necessary, but they reflected the hospital¡¯s care. After talking with Director Wan, Yang Ping hurried to the operating room for surgery. After completing the morning surgeries and having the surgical meals, he lay down for a while in the resting room of the operating room at noon, and continued with surgeries in the afternoon. After the surgeries, Yang Ping visited Guo Peihua in the CCU. Guo Peihua¡¯s vital signs were stable and steady after the surgery, and the CCU doctors considered whether to remove his tube. Yang Ping instructed them to wait until the next day to do it. Director Xin from Fuwai Hospital, after hearing about Yang Ping¡¯s surgery from Professor Cao, specially called Yang Ping and chatted for a full hour. Director Xin had a profound expertise in cardiovascular surgery, especially aortic dissection surgery, which he used to think only he could perform well. He didn¡¯t expect Yang Ping to be so formidable, completing such a severe aortic dissection in just two hours¡ªa rate that could be called miraculous. During the hour that Director Xin and Yang Ping talked, they discussed the patient¡¯s surgery and similar surgeries. He also urged Yang Ping to take good care of Ouyang Songhua, who had once been Director Xin¡¯s doctoral student. Even if Director Xin hadn¡¯t mentioned it, Yang Ping would have guided the doctors from the attached hospital diligently; he wouldn¡¯t dare to be negligent. After work, Yang Ping and Xiao Su had been planning to go home for dinner, but Tang Shun was treating everyone to a meal. Tang Shun¡¯s girlfriend, Fukunaga Yasuko, had come all the way from Japan to Sanbo Hospital to retrieve a skin expansion induction factor for her father. Chapter 890 - 890 784 We Will Definitely Get Him_2 ?Chapter 890: Chapter 784 We Will Definitely Get Him_2 Chapter 890: Chapter 784 We Will Definitely Get Him_2 Of course, she had another more important purpose; she and her lover had been separated for several months, and she couldn¡¯t bear the separation any longer. Yang Ping had also heard about Tang Shun¡¯s private life, but as long as it wasn¡¯t illegal and didn¡¯t disturb others, Yang Ping was completely tolerant of these matters, as they were personal issues that did not affect work. This Fukunaga Yasuko, according to Liang Fatty, was the ¡°number one¡± among Tang Shun¡¯s many Japanese girlfriends, with an extraordinary status. The WeChat group became active at this time, with everyone still discussing the 13 papers, when Song Zimo dropped the aortic dissection case information into it, everyone¡¯s attention instantly focused on the case, especially the newly added group member Li Zehui, who had just joined and was very excited to come across cases related to cardiovascular surgery. ¡ª At this very moment, on the other side of the Pacific, in a small town in the United States. Inside a six-story building, around a classical round table sat more than a dozen white people, who had come together to discuss the topic of Yang Ping. ¡°This is all the intelligence on him, take a look, he¡¯s the same Chinese doctor who recently published 13 CNS papers,¡± the middle-aged man with a hawk-like nose said as he lifted a thick folder and waved it in the air. Such documents were laid out in front of each member, and as the other members also began to flip through them, anyone whose personal details appeared in such a meeting certainly wasn¡¯t ordinary. They had actually been studying these documents for a long time, but only now were they laid out on the table for discussion. ¡°He¡¯s very young, and hasn¡¯t been researching for long, yet he has achieved breakthroughs in several fields at the same time. Although these fields are interrelated, I believe that even the world¡¯s best teams, assigning one team per topic, would take over ten years to achieve these targets under optimal conditions,¡± the man with the hawk-like nose continued. A skinny tall man leaning back in his chair said, ¡°Li Gaoyang, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s that miraculous. We¡¯ve already made significant progress with skin expansion technology; he¡¯s merely a follower, and a follower is nothing to rave about.¡± ¡°No, sir, you should look more carefully. His approach is completely different. He uses the skin directly for expansion, replicating skin with skin, rather than manufacturing skin from stem cells, nor creating stem cells from skin. And the skin he replicates includes both the epidermis and the dermis, whereas our technology can only synthesize a thin layer before using a special technique to fuse the two layers into one,¡± the man with the hawk-like nose gestured as he explained. ¡°Microscopic dissection, isn¡¯t that the very foundation of our Functional Digital Human Project? We¡¯ve already completed half of a functional human, while he has only made a piece of digital muscle,¡± another fat man with his elbows on the table said in a booming voice. The man with the hawk-like nose extended a finger and waved it: ¡°No, completely different. Our goals are aligned¡ªwe¡¯re both aiming for functional humans, but he¡¯s using living digital cells, while we¡¯re achieving it directly on a macroscopic level, meaning our digital humans don¡¯t have digital cells as a base unit, which is a world of difference.¡± ¡°Three-dimensional 3D gene induction, this hypothesis is very imaginative, it¡¯s the thinking of a genius, no less significant than the double helix structure of nucleic acids. If it¡¯s as he says, aiming at this class of genes, then organ cloning is within reach,¡± a muscular man with wavy hair interjected. ¡°You¡¯re a wise man, we¡¯re on the same page. Today, we¡¯re gathered here to tell you¡ªI mean, we need such talents, very eagerly. Since Manstein and Mendoza, no such talent has appeared. I¡¯d wager he¡¯s the Tesla of the medicine world. What I¡¯m saying is, I must have him work for us, at all costs,¡± the man with the hawk-like nose declared resolutely. The tall skinny man chuckled: ¡°This young man has already declined Langnaife¡¯s invitation, he didn¡¯t even give it a second thought.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because he doesn¡¯t know our strength, he doesn¡¯t realize Langnaife is just a small company under our control. If he knew the truth, knew that we could give him everything he desires, he would surely be eager to join us,¡± the man with the hawk-like nose confidently spread his arms wide. ¡°No, you¡¯re being too confident. In fact, he has already refused. He might say, ¡®Stay away from me, American.¡¯ We haven¡¯t even fully recruited Manstein.¡± Fatty made an exaggerated gesture. The man with a hawk nose clearly stood by his opinion, ¡°Manstein will sooner or later come under our command. Look, Mendoza is also one of ours, isn¡¯t he? He is in no way inferior to Manstein.¡± At this point, an older man with deep-set eyes slowly spoke, a cane resting by his chair. ¡°I agree with Li Gaoyang¡¯s view. He can always see the future from a sprouting seedling and judge whether it can grow into a towering tree. Dr. Menzaduo is Li Gaoyang¡¯s masterpiece. Everyone has seen this genius¡¯s achievements. He has almost single-handedly shouldered our future.¡± ¡°Some say that those who control oil control the world, and others say that those who control food control the world. I want to tell you that whoever can take control of human health will be the king of the future world. We need more scientists like Dr. Menzaduo for our plan to succeed.¡± ¡°The future of organ transplantation must be autologous transplantation, and moreover, factory-customized autologous organ transplants. We have invested hundreds of billions of US dollars and progress is still slow. Yet this young man has given us hope for a breakthrough. He has already cloned skin and then successfully used it in surgery; he aims to complete the Digital Human project, comprised of living digital cells. This is the real functional human; he wants to use 3D technology to print any tissue or organ he wants. He plans to cultivate hearts in a box, just like growing mushrooms. This is exactly what we want to do.¡± While the old man spoke, everyone listened intently, not a single person interjected. ¡°But he¡¯s Chinese, China¡ªwe have difficulty getting involved,¡± Fatty shrugged his shoulders. The man with the hawk nose confidently said, ¡°That¡¯s not a problem. How many Chinese can come to study in the United States and then stay here to work and live?¡± The tall and thin man fiddled with the documents in his hand: ¡°We control most of the patents for drugs and medical devices in the world; behind almost all pharmaceutical giants stands us. Is there anything we can¡¯t do?¡± ¡°The Chinese are a bit different. They are unique, and their way of thinking is different from ours,¡± Fatty still shook his head. ¡°No matter what he thinks, we must get him, and we certainly can get him. We need these scientists in order to advance our cause,¡± the man with the hawk nose said emphatically. ¡°That¡¯s the right idea. Li Gaoyang, you take care of this matter. Next, I want to know how our progress is,¡± the elderly man asked. Li Gaoyang answered, ¡°The Functional Digital Human project is halfway done. At this rate, we can complete the whole functional digital human in three years. The mapping of the disease spectrum for various countries is also nearing its end, and the new anti-tumor drug research has completed the first phase of clinical trials.¡± ¡°We control most of the patents for drugs and medical devices in the world; behind almost all pharmaceutical giants stands us. Is there anything we can¡¯t do?¡± the tall and thin man fiddled with the documents in his hand. ¡°The Chinese are a bit different. They are unique, and their way of thinking is different from ours,¡± Fatty still shook his head. ¡°No matter what he thinks, we must get him, and we certainly can get him. We need these scientists in order to advance our cause,¡± the man with the hawk nose said emphatically. ¡°That¡¯s the right idea. Li Gaoyang, you take care of this matter. Next, I want to know how our progress is,¡± the elderly man asked. Li Gaoyang answered, ¡°The Functional Digital Human project is halfway done. At this rate, we can complete the whole functional digital human in three years. The mapping of the disease spectrum for various countries is also nearing its end, and the new anti-tumor drug research has completed the first phase of clinical trials.¡± Chapter 891 - 891 785 The Meeting in Beijing ?Chapter 891: Chapter 785: The Meeting in Beijing Chapter 891: Chapter 785: The Meeting in Beijing The next day, Guo Peihua had his endotracheal tube removed. He vaguely heard many voices by his ear, so he struggled to open his eyes, and all around him were unfamiliar faces. Lying in bed, he looked around, unaware of where he was, his mind blank, recalling only fragmented memories and surreal images. Guo Peihua could only remember that he was in extreme pain, as if his body was being ripped apart, and then he knew nothing, as though he had plunged into endless darkness. Where was he now? ¡°He¡¯s awake!¡± Director Kang was leading a group of doctors on a teaching round. He auscultated Guo¡¯s heart, then used a small flashlight to check the pupillary light reflex of both eyes when suddenly Guo Peihua awoke, opening his eyes. Director Kang had to stop the examination, put away the flashlight, straightened up, nodded, and said, ¡°Very good, both pupils are equal and round, the light reflex is sensitive, the heartbeat is strong and rhythmic, no murmurs heard in any auscultation area, listen for yourselves.¡± The dozen or so graduate students, standardized training students, and interns standing behind conscientiously formed a line, each taking turns to pick up a stethoscope and listen to Guo Peihua¡¯s heart. Guo Peihua did not refuse; he lay there like a newborn baby, innocent and curious, his eyes turning to watch the world around him. He wasn¡¯t sure whether what he was seeing was real or illusion, as he felt like he had been dreaming this whole time, but the feeling had been clearer than when dreaming. He was walking alone in a dark tunnel, surrounded by an abyss of darkness, with space continuously twisting and writhing. A distant light loomed ahead and a face appeared out of the void, a voice echoing in his ears¡ª¡±Go back, go back.¡± So he ran towards the light as hard as he could, kept running without stopping. He was tired, wanting to give up, but he gritted his teeth and persevered, not knowing how long he ran until the light grew brighter, engulfing his entire body with such intensity that he couldn¡¯t open his eyes. But he didn¡¯t give up, and when he forced his eyes open, he saw these faces before him. The auscultations by the graduate students, standardized training students, and interns were awkward; they searched for the areas using methods from the textbooks, the males were clearly more rough, not bothered about whether they found the correct area, quickly completing the task and pretending to nod in understanding: ¡°Yes, the rhythm is regular, no murmur.¡± The females were more cautious, using anatomical landmarks to locate intercostal spaces and counting them one by one, taking a while to find the auscultation area and then listening over and over again. After a long time, the dozen or so had finished auscultating. Director Kang gave immediate feedback, ¡°Cardiac auscultation is a basic skill in cardiovascular surgery. Go back and study your books. I noticed that no one during auscultation checked the temperature of their stethoscope before pressing its cold surface against the patient¡¯s chest. I¡¯ve repeatedly stressed that medicine has warmth, humanistic care¡ªfour words that should always be engraved in your minds.¡± ¡°Where am I?¡± Guo Peihua asked timidly. ¡°In the hospital, we are doctors, you¡¯ve just had surgery not long ago, but you¡¯re fine now, rest well,¡± Director Kang said, holding his hand and speaking gently. ¡°Hospital?¡± Guo Peihua couldn¡¯t believe it. ¡°Yes, in the hospital, do you feel the warmth of my hand?¡± Director Kang guided Guo Peihua. Guo Peihua nodded, ¡°I feel it.¡± Director Kang smiled and said, ¡°That¡¯s human body temperature.¡± Guo Peihua¡¯s face showed a reassured expression. Director Kang helped him pull up his blanket and tucked Guo Peihua¡¯s exposed hands back under it. His fear gradually subsided, Guo Peihua looked around again and regained some cognitive ability, finally confirming that this was the human world. ¡ª In the Meeting Room of the 301 Hospital. Today¡¯s case discussion was very special, gathering the nation¡¯s top cardiovascular surgery experts. Besides experts from the 301 itself, Fuwai, and Anzhen, there were also several from other hospitals specializing in cardiovascular surgery. Of course, in a case discussion hosted by 301, the leading roles in cardiovascular specialties undoubtedly belonged to Fuwai and Anzhen. In the field of cardiovascular medicine, they held a class of their own, with all others being in a different category, including 301 itself. Fuwai and Anzhen divided cardiovascular surgery into many sub-specialties. Within each sub-specialty, both hospitals had their advantages, so after many years of competition, no clear winner had emerged. When New China was founded, Beijing¡¯s hospitals took a brilliant stroke towards specialization. It was due to the policy direction at the time that today there are hospitals that stand proud in Asia and hold sway across the world. Even ordinary people can name them: Temple of Heaven for neurosurgery, Jishuitan for orthopedics, Anzhen Fuwai for cardiology, Tongren for ophthalmology, and so on. The meeting was chaired by Commissioner Qiao. The attendees all had serious expressions, staring intently at the image pictures projected on the screen without blinking. ¡°Professor Xu, what¡¯s your opinion?¡± Commissioner Qiao directly called on Professor Xu Yongzhong. Professor Xu Yongzhong was an expert from Anzhen, known as the top person in Asia for heart bypass surgery, unparalleled in both surgical skill and volume of surgeries. Professor Xu, holding the case materials in his hand, pondered before saying steadily, ¡°The coronary artery and its branches are severely blocked, and intervention with a scaffold is no way possible. The only method is heart bypass surgery. After repeated calculations, nine grafts are needed to achieve a stable and satisfactory effect.¡± Chapter 892 - 892 785 The Meeting in Beijing_2 ?Chapter 892: Chapter 785: The Meeting in Beijing_2 Chapter 892: Chapter 785: The Meeting in Beijing_2 Nine bridges? Commissioner Qiao took a deep breath, turned his head, and asked, ¡°Professor Chai, what¡¯s your opinion?¡± Professor Chai Shijin, Director of Fuwai Cardiovascular Intervention Center, the world¡¯s largest center of its kind with the highest annual number of surgeries globally, was renowned for his expertise in cardiovascular intervention. Professor Chai shook his head helplessly, ¡°The coronary artery and its branches are severely blocked. The stents I placed can only serve as a temporary measure and will quickly become blocked again. I agree with Professor Xu¡¯s viewpoint; the only option left is coronary bypass surgery.¡± The objective fact couldn¡¯t be changed; this case could no longer rely on intervention and stent placement, leaving coronary bypass as the only sliver of hope for survival. ¡°Does anyone else have any other opinions?¡± Commissioner Qiao asked the other experts, who remained silent, shaking their heads. The two heavyweights had made the situation crystal clear; it was that simple and straightforward. Under normal circumstances, everyone could have taken the opportunity to elaborate at length, but at such a serious meeting today, not a word more was allowed. ¡°Nine vessels!¡± Dean Liu, who had stayed silent until now, felt immense pressure. As someone with a clinical background, he was all too aware of what nine vessels entailed. There were probably only a handful of people in the world who could perform such surgery, and of those present, only Professor Xu was capable. The case discussion had already been held several times. Given the clarity of the situation, it was no longer viable to wait. With the stents still functioning, it was imperative to perform the surgery as soon as possible to avoid emergency complications. ¡°If no one has any objections, then the diagnosis and treatment plan are very clear. We must proceed with coronary bypass. Professor Xu, are you confident in performing the surgery?¡± Dean Liu asked bluntly. Professor Xu hesitated for a moment, ¡°I am confident, but my right thumb suffered a traumatic avulsion fracture five days ago, which may slightly affect my performance during the operation.¡± Professor Xu was an athletic individual who had recently injured his right thumb while playing basketball. The injury resulted in an avulsion fracture at the base of the distal phalanx of his thumb. This would not significantly affect most surgeries; at most, he would just endure some pain. However, coronary bypass involves precise operations such as harvesting blood vessels and vascular anastomosis under a microscope. Every move must be flawless, as there is no room for error. Dean Liu furrowed his brows tightly. Surgery was the only choice, but now the chief surgeon¡¯s finger was fractured, and it was the thumb, which would inevitably cast uncertainty and a shadow over the operation. If another doctor, such as an expert from Fuwai or Professor Xu¡¯s most accomplished disciple, were to take over as the chief surgeon, neither would suffice. Regardless of the surgical difficulty or the number of surgeries performed, Professor Xu was acclaimed as the best in Asia, and even worldwide, he faced few rivals. Replacing the surgeon at this point would necessitate extreme caution. ¡°Professor Xu, could you overcome the issue? The surgery can¡¯t be delayed. Perhaps using local blockade to alleviate the pain might help?¡± Dean Liu suggested. Professor Xu nodded, ¡°That¡¯s possible, I can manage.¡± Director Xin was also present at the meeting, but his expertise lay in aortic dissection surgery. Therefore, he had remained silent until now. Upon hearing about Professor Xu¡¯s injury, Director Xin said, ¡°If it doesn¡¯t work out, you shouldn¡¯t push yourself too hard. Could we have Professor Zhong Zuochen take over as the chief surgeon, or get Chu Shilin to do it?¡± Professor Zhong was a professor from Fuwai, specializing in coronary bypass. Though a first-rate expert, he was still slightly inferior to Professor Xu. Chu Shilin was Professor Xu¡¯s senior disciple and was now already an associate chief physician. He had thoroughly learned from Professor Xu and had performed a very high number of surgeries. However, compared to his mentor, he was still relatively inexperienced. ¡°No! They have never built that many bridges; I have built up to nine at most.¡± Professor Xu was very determined; even with an injury, he believed he was better than the others. Surgery of such cutting-edge nature completely differed based on whether the surgeon had experience or not, especially since the patient was very special. ¡°Is there any better method?¡± Dean Liu found himself at a difficult juncture. ¡°Here¡¯s an idea: we prepare several plans, ensuring that Professor Xu is in the best condition to perform the surgery. Additionally, we¡¯ll select a backup team. In case Professor Xu isn¡¯t in a good state during the surgery, the backup team will step in to ensure foolproof results. Before the surgery, we¡¯ll conduct a rehearsal of the nine-vessel surgery to make sure the backup team is fully prepared and ready to come out victorious.¡± Commissioner Qiao spoke up. ¡°I can recommend someone, a young person, who is, bluntly speaking, superior to me in cardiovascular surgery¡ªat least in aortic dissection surgery,¡± Professor Xin suddenly interjected. Who? Almost everyone asked at the same time. Aortic dissection surgery expertise surpasses Professor Xin? Although Professor Xin is low-key and humble, he is the world¡¯s number one in aortic dissection surgery. ¡°This person everyone here probably has heard about lately, his name is Yang Ping, the director of the Comprehensive Surgery Department at Sanbo Hospital,¡± Professor Xin said slowly. Yang Ping? Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao are certainly familiar with him; in the minds of both leaders from the 301 Hospital, this name is more than familiar, it is resounding. The 301 Hospital had tried to recruit him twice by sending people to Sanbo Hospital. For him, the 301 Hospital is currently planning to acquire Sanbo Hospital to turn it into the Southern Medical Clinical Center. ¡°Isn¡¯t he an orthopedics specialist?¡± Dean Liu asked. Professor Xin said, ¡°To be precise, he started in orthopedics but now does a variety of surgeries including heart, skull, spine, liver and gall, among others. He primarily focuses on clinical work in medical research and is currently the director of the Comprehensive Surgery Department at Sanbo Hospital.¡± ¡°I know, but does Comprehensive Surgery also deal with heart surgeries?¡± Dean Liu was a bit curious. Professor Xin nodded in reply, ¡°Yes, just a few days ago he performed an aortic dissection surgery over one hundred centimeters long, from the carotid artery down to the femoral artery, and the rescue surgery only took two hours.¡± ¡°Two hours?¡± Professor Xu was very surprised. In terms of aortic dissection surgery expertise, Director Xin is second to none; no one can surpass him. Even if it were Director Xin himself, it would probably take six hours, yet this person only took two. ¡°That¡¯s why we need to prepare a reserve team, and I think it would be best to include Yang Ping,¡± Professor Xin recommended strongly. ¡°That¡¯s a great idea, I forgot about that. He¡¯s already one of us, and the youngest one at that,¡± Dean Liu agreed with Professor Xin¡¯s recommendation. As soon as Commissioner Qiao heard the name Yang Ping, he felt a bit of a headache. That guy didn¡¯t play by the usual rules, but the intention from above was clear: they wanted to involve him in the 301 Hospital. However, he just didn¡¯t want to join, and now they had no choice but to attempt acquiring the whole of Sanbo for him. But the management at Sanbo was full of clever people. Superficially, they cooperated fully, while behind the scenes, they played their own games. They had long since joined the Nandu Medical University system, becoming one of its affiliated hospitals. Now, acquiring it involved a wide range of issues. Qin Shi from Orthopedics had visited Sanbo Hospital twice, only to return empty-handed. However, since his daughter had returned from Sanbo, she had been so distracted that she made a fuss about wanting to work there. Now Qin Shi would complain to Commissioner Qiao whenever he saw him, saying that he was sent on a fool¡¯s errand. Not only did he not accomplish his task, but he almost lost his daughter. She didn¡¯t talk about making friends anymore and rejected everybody else, insisting on finding someone similar to Yang Ping. However, where could one find such a person? ¡°You all should be aware of the 13 CNS papers recently, right?¡± Professor Xin asked the group. ¡°Yes, we know. Sanbo Hospital from Nandu Province has become famous far and wide. 13 CNS papers have directly elevated their research level to the top nationwide. Ha, interesting! Which other hospital in the country has achieved such a feat?¡± ¡°They simultaneously published several papers, each with a cover article. I heard that all three journals were published on an expedited basis; some without even going through the layout process ¨C they were in such a rush to publish his papers, afraid that he might withdraw them.¡± ¡°It¡¯s said that even Manstein from Germany wrote an introduction for him.¡± Such serious case discussions rarely diverged off-topic, but as the meeting veered off its intended course, everyone followed suit. ¡°Are you saying he can perform nine bypasses?¡± Director Xu asked in amazement. Director Xin couldn¡¯t guarantee it 100% since he had never seen Yang Ping operate. One couldn¡¯t make jokes in such a setting. ¡°Give him a chance to test himself; letting him show his skills during the reserve team selection will make everything crystal clear,¡± replied Professor Xin with flexibility. Having thought about it, Dean Liu said to Director Xu, ¡°How about we count him in?¡± After hearing Dean Liu say this, and having heard Professor Xin admitting his inferiority in aortic dissection surgery to Yang Ping, Director Xu recognized the high regard in which Yang Ping was held. It wasn¡¯t just a casual statement, it was Professor Xin acknowledging that Yang Ping was the world number one. Chapter 893 - 893 786 Entering the Capital ?Chapter 893: Chapter 786: Entering the Capital Chapter 893: Chapter 786: Entering the Capital After waking up, Guo Peihua kept telling the doctors and nurses about his out-of-body experience. He wanted to tell the nurse, who was drawing his blood and was too busy to listen to his nonsense. But Guo Peihua didn¡¯t care whether the nurse wanted to listen or not and vividly described his bizarre experiences while he was unconscious: the dark abyss, voices whispering in his ear, and a distant glimmer of light, and so on. ¡°Really, don¡¯t disbelieve me, my soul really left my body. During the rescue in the operating room, I felt myself floating up, suspended in mid-air, clearly seeing the doctors performing surgery on me.¡± Being materialists, the medical staff couldn¡¯t possibly believe his story, deeming it hallucinations or abnormal brain cell activity. Once the nurse finished drawing blood, she looked at Guo Peihua expressionlessly, turned off the IV line valve, and said to another nurse, ¡°Let¡¯s get the doctor to sedate him; he¡¯s a bit agitated.¡± Guo Peihua was scared into silence; he didn¡¯t want to go back to sleep in a stupor. Since the nurse didn¡¯t believe him, Guo Peihua became anxious. He tried to tell the doctors, but how could he find them while lying in bed, restrained by straps? Fortunately, Doctor Ruan came by to make his rounds, checking Guo Peihua¡¯s consciousness and auscultating his heart. Guo Peihua seized the opportunity to speak to Doctor Ruan as well. He spoke with such conviction that it seemed true. ¡°Doctor Ruan, listen to me, it¡¯s absolutely true. I felt surrounded by dark void and oppressive darkness. The space kept twisting and pulsating. I was so scared, I ran aimlessly in one direction. Then, a face appeared and a voice whispered in my ear¡ª¡¯Go back, child, hurry back.¡¯ ¡°I later realized that the face was my deceased grandfather¡¯s; no wonder it seemed so familiar.¡± Doctor Ruan laughed and asked, ¡°Did your grandfather speak Mandarin, or was it in a dialect?¡± After thinking for a moment, Guo Peihua said, ¡°Dialect, right, he spoke in a dialect.¡± ¡°So I turned and ran in the opposite direction, and I heard the voice shouting again¡ª¡¯Run, child, don¡¯t stop, just keep running in that direction.¡¯ Finally, I saw a glimmer of light. I was exhausted, almost collapsing from fatigue, but I clenched my teeth and continued running. The light became brighter and brighter until it enveloped me, so bright that I couldn¡¯t open my eyes. I struggled to shield my eyes from the light and saw a huge door ahead of me. I kept walking, fighting through the pain and entering the doorway, facing the blinding light as I slowly opened my heavy eyelids.¡± ¡°And then you saw us?¡± Doctor Ruan followed up his story. Guo Peihua nodded, ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°That was Director Kang¡¯s flashlight stimulating you. The light from the flashlight stimulated your retinal cells, producing the sensation of light in your cerebral cortex, which is why you saw light,¡± Doctor Ruan explained steadily. Guo Peihua was momentarily at a loss for words. After thinking it over, he seemed to remember something more and continued, ¡°But what about my grandfather¡¯s face?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have any memory of your grandfather in your brain?¡± Doctor Ruan retorted. Guo Peihua nodded but still seemed hung up on the matter, murmuring to himself, ¡°This is really strange. I reckon if not for that face guiding me, if I hadn¡¯t run for my life, I definitely wouldn¡¯t have made it back.¡± Seeing him still not getting it, Doctor Ruan said, ¡°If the paramedics hadn¡¯t come for you, could you have run back by yourself? If Professor Yang hadn¡¯t performed the surgery on you, could you have made it back on your own?¡± Guo Peihua was once again at a loss. He thought about it and realized that it made sense. Suddenly, as if he had found new evidence, he said, ¡°I had never seen Professor Yang before, right? The first time I saw Professor Yang, he looked familiar because I was floating above the operating room, watching him perform surgery on me. His face, I saw it clearly. So when Professor Yang first came for the rounds, I immediately recognized¡ª¡± ¡°During surgery, everyone wears sterile caps and masks, covering up completely. Could you, floating up there, really see Professor Yang¡¯s face clearly? And remember it?¡± ¡°Could you recognize him again during his rounds, even with a mask on?¡± Doctor Ruan pressed Guo Peihua further. ¡°Oh, they wear hats and masks during surgery?¡± Guo Peihua fell silent again, deep in thought, trying to figure out how to convince Doctor Ruan. After all, Doctor Ruan was willing to listen to him, unlike the other doctors and nurses who wouldn¡¯t listen at all. ¡°No worries, keep thinking about it. It¡¯s best to write it down in a notebook,¡± Doctor Ruan suggested, not having the time for endless idle conversation. Guo Peihua grabbed Doctor Ruan¡¯s hand, ¡°Don¡¯t go, I haven¡¯t finished talking.¡± Just then, Yang Ping came to make his rounds, accompanied by Liang Fatty and Director Xiang from the Thoracic Surgery Department. Doctor Ruan stayed behind to accompany Yang Ping during the rounds. ¡°Vital signs are stable; blood pressure and oxygen levels are normal; hemoglobin is already above 100; postoperative CTA has been rechecked,¡± Doctor Ruan reported the latest status. Yang Ping listened to the heart sounds, which were normal, and said, ¡°I¡¯ve already seen the postoperative CTA, Very Good. How¡¯s the mental state?¡± Doctor Ruan laughed, ¡°He¡¯s very spirited and a bit excited, grabbing me every day to talk about paranormal events. He claims his soul left his body and that he traversed a fourth dimension, then ran back on his own.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t me who ran back on my own; it was my grandfather guiding me that I was able to return,¡± Guo Peihua corrected. Doctor Ruan proposed, ¡°He can be transferred out of CCU and back to the Comprehensive Surgery Department, right?¡± Everyone left the Ward and sat down in the Doctor¡¯s Office. ¡°Transfer him back to our Comprehensive Surgery Department. Before transferring, please have someone from the psychology department come over and assess him,¡± Yang Ping instructed Doctor Ruan. Chapter 894 - 894 786 Entering the Capital_2 ?Chapter 894: Chapter 786: Entering the Capital_2 Chapter 894: Chapter 786: Entering the Capital_2 ¡°Actually, this kind of situation is not uncommon. From a scientific perspective, some brain cells may become abnormally active after the patient becomes comatose or anesthetized, or abnormal connections may occur between certain brain cells. These abnormally active or connected brain cells can produce various hallucinations.¡± Liang Fatty had quite the experience with this, having conducted several investigations after anesthesia. Indeed, some patients experienced such situations post-surgery, especially after using certain anesthetics. ¡°You¡¯re saying¡ªcould what he said be true, and not just nonsense?¡± Doctor Ruan was very curious. He wasn¡¯t very specialized in anesthesia. Liang Fatty nodded, ¡°Some anesthetics provide pleasant experiences, even causing patients to dream sweet dreams, like the short-acting intravenous general anesthetic we often use¡ªpropofol, commonly known as ¡®milk,¡¯ which brings pleasant dreams and a sense of pleasure and relaxation to patients. If you¡¯re interested, you could head to the outpatient endoscopic room and see for yourself, since endoscopies of the stomach and intestines are performed there, many using propofol for general anesthesia. You could carry out a survey to investigate the experiences that these patients recall after waking up from under the anesthetic. I did a research survey on this topic in my second year of my Master¡¯s degree.¡± ¡°Is that really possible?¡± Doctor Ruan became interested in Guo Peihua¡¯s description. Liang Fatty said, ¡°During propofol anesthesia, a few people even experience sexual hallucinations. Back when I was doing my Master¡¯s, a female patient in the hospital¡¯s endoscopy outpatient clinic woke up accusing a doctor of sexual assault. But the doctor at the time was very cautious, and for any reason, he never stayed alone with female patients. A nurse was always present throughout the entire treatment process, so he was able to prove his innocence in the end.¡± Doctor Ruan gained some knowledge this time. It seems that a patient¡¯s ¡°nonsense babbling¡± could also have some science behind it. Seeing Doctor Ruan¡¯s keen interest, Liang Fatty elaborated a bit further, ¡°Some teams, noticing this feature of propofol, whimsically thought of using the drug to treat depression. The anesthesiology team at Magic City Sixth Hospital started researching to decipher the neural mechanisms behind the euphoria caused by propofol, thereby exploring the potential of propofol as an old drug with new uses for treating depression.¡± ¡°And in the United States, a psychiatric team has already begun clinical research, using propofol to treat volunteers with depression and has achieved very good results.¡± ¡°But propofol is addictive, so research needs to be done with considerable caution.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just that propofol is more typical. It doesn¡¯t rule out that other anesthetics might cause various similar reactions, so what Guo Peihua described, it might not necessarily be nonsense; it could really have been his experience at that time. However, people tend to involuntarily exaggerate such things.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get a brain MRI diffusion and then consult the Neurology Department. After that, have a psychological assessment done. If everything¡¯s alright, transfer him back to the Comprehensive Surgery Department.¡± Yang Ping thought it was better to be cautious. ¡°I¡¯ll arrange it today,¡± ordered Doctor Ruan. ¡ª Guo Peihua had been stable for many days after surgery, and Yang Ping was quite relieved. After work, he wanted to go to the market to buy some groceries and then cook a few dishes in the evening. Yang Ping could cook and was actually quite good at it, but he rarely had the opportunity to show off his skills because Xiao Su was an excellent cook. Now that Xiao Su was pregnant, he had the perfect opportunity to showcase his culinary talents. Beijing acted fast; the notification had already been sent to Sanbo Hospital. Upon seeing the urgent notice, Dean Xia rushed to the Comprehensive Surgery Department to personally inform Yang Ping. Yang Ping had just closed the door to his office when Dean Xia hurried in. The document was clear; he had to immediately depart to Beijing to participate in the case discussion and treatment planning, yet it contained no details of the case and required confidentiality. ¡°Please bear with us. Go grab something to eat, prepare to leave promptly. I¡¯ll have the hospital office book your flight and arrange a car to take you there. Once you arrive, someone will be there to meet you,¡± Dean Xia instructed. It must be an emergency for such a hasty call to action. But Yang Ping was worried about Xiao Su, alone at home without any care, and with this trip to Beijing, he didn¡¯t know how many days it would take. So, Yang Ping took Xiao Su home, then explained the situation to his in-laws. Professor Su understood immediately and arranged for Mrs. Su to look after Xiao Su, reassuring Yang Ping that he could head to Beijing with peace of mind. Having made all these arrangements, Yang Ping stopped by Yu Shuilian¡¯s bakery to eat something, packed his luggage, bid farewell to Xiao Su, and took the hospital car to the airport. Owing to confidentiality, he didn¡¯t inform his friends in Beijing. If he had, led by Song Yun from Xiehe, his brothers would surely have made time to pick him up from the airport, despite their busy schedules. Yang Ping would take a few days every month to give lectures, make ward rounds, and perform surgeries at Xiehe Hospital. Even in such a short time, he had established a good relationship with the young doctors at Xiehe. Indeed, the quality of the doctors there was very high, ranking among the top in China. This group of young doctors was composed entirely of eight-year doctoral program graduates, each of them academic prodigies who could have attended universities like Tsinghua and Peking University based on their college entrance exam scores. Under Yang Ping¡¯s guidance, these young people were growing rapidly. With him standing at the operating table, they could fully engage in surgeries. For instance, Song Yun had already accumulated rich experience in dealing with spinal deformities and had mastered the Yang-style Osteotomy technique. The huge shock caused by the 13 CNS papers had the doctors at Xiehe discussing animatedly. Song Yun and everyone else had been eagerly anticipating Yang Ping¡¯s visit this month, hoping he would lead them in surgeries and then share some advice on writing papers. However, this time, no information about Yang Ping¡¯s trip to Beijing had leaked out. By the time he disembarked from the airplane, it was already past midnight. The ones there to pick him up were Director Zhou Min from the Medical Services Office of Hospital 301 and a military driver. Director Zhou Min had previously accompanied a group of officers from 301 to Sanbo Hospital and knew Yang Ping, so it was convenient for him to come and pick him up, also showing a level of importance. Once Yang Ping disembarked, as soon as he got into the car, Director Zhou said, ¡°Professor Yang, long time no see. Your fame has really grown recently.¡± ¡°Fame is fleeting, everyone will forget about it after a while,¡± Yang Ping replied, now speaking quite directly. Director Zhou smiled; it was rare to see such groundedness in a young person. ¡°13 CNS papers, you¡¯ve set a Guinness record for CNS. We were all shocked when we heard the news. Thirteen papers, and several of them published in the same issue no less. Our entire hospital couldn¡¯t match that number in ten years. How can your fighting power be so formidable?¡± Director Zhou continued to talk about Yang Ping¡¯s papers. Since Director Zhou didn¡¯t mention the case, Yang Ping didn¡¯t ask and remained silent. ¡°Several of the academy members in our hospital can¡¯t stop praising you. Many of them didn¡¯t know you before, but now all of them are familiar with your name, Yang Ping¡ª it¡¯s resounding like thunder.¡± Director Zhou Min, unconcerned whether Yang Ping reciprocated the conversation, kept talking to avoid an awkward silence. At that moment, Director Zhou¡¯s phone rang. ¡°Received, rest assured, he¡¯s already in the car, we¡¯re heading to the hospital now, it will be about forty more minutes.¡± ¡°All right, I¡¯ll make sure he¡¯s taken care of, won¡¯t let him go hungry and will ensure he gets good rest. I¡¯ll take him to the hospital first thing in the morning.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I remember everything. You should get some rest too.¡± As soon as Director Zhou Min finished the call with Commissioner Qiao, he immediately received another call from Dean Liu, and then repeated what he had just said. ¡°Rest assured, rest assured, everything is arranged, hot meals, all hot meals. Tonight Xiao Wu and I will follow the whole way, we¡¯ll sleep in the room next to his, don¡¯t worry, go to bed early.¡± After hanging up the phone, Director Zhou Min gave a wry smile and said, ¡°Commissioner Qiao and Dean Liu, look, they¡¯re still calling at this hour, worried about me, afraid that I won¡¯t take good care of you.¡± Perhaps worn out from the flight, Yang Ping seemed to have fallen asleep, leaning against the back of his seat. Director Zhou Min didn¡¯t want to disturb him further, so he stopped talking, quietly turned up the temperature of the rear AC, and took out a blanket to cover Yang Ping. Then, looking at the time, he made another call: ¡°Tell Old Fang to hold off on cooking for now, wait for my call to notify him. If he starts too early and it gets cold, it won¡¯t taste good later.¡± The black sedan sped through the night, and Director Zhou Min, leaning back in his seat, began to rest as well. Chapter 895 - 895 787 Thats Underestimating Too Much ?Chapter 895: Chapter 787: That¡¯s Underestimating Too Much Chapter 895: Chapter 787: That¡¯s Underestimating Too Much About an hour or so later, the sedan arrived at a guesthouse. The driver parked the car, and Director Zhou carefully woke up Yang Ping, who wasn¡¯t fully asleep but just resting with his eyes closed. Yang Ping had been performing surgeries all day long and then, without any rest, took a night flight to Beijing. Although he managed to get some sleep on the plane, it wasn¡¯t enough, so he took the opportunity to close his eyes for a while. ¡°Professor Yang, why don¡¯t you eat something to warm up your stomach, and then we can rest?¡± Director Zhou suggested kindly. Yang Ping nodded and glanced out of the window. The driver opened the car door, and Director Zhou accompanied Yang Ping into the guesthouse. This guesthouse wasn¡¯t a regular hotel; there was a paramilitary sentry post at the entrance, and Yang Ping understood this must be an internal guesthouse for the military, not accommodating outsiders. It was obvious that the front desk clerk had been waiting for Director Zhou; upon seeing him, she immediately greeted him, ¡°Director Zhou, please, this way¡ª¡± The clerk led Director Zhou and Yang Ping to a small dining room in the back courtyard and served them tea. The guesthouse had a small dining room, likely used for private meals, as there was no main hall, only private rooms. The chefs timed their preparation perfectly, just as Director Zhou and Yang Ping sat down and sipped their tea to warm up their stomachs, the server began to bring out dishes. Hot tea, hot meals, hot dishes, and hot soup¡ªit was indeed very comfortable to eat and substantially more filling than the snacks on the airplane. Director Zhou and driver Xiao Wu were also hungry, so they joined Yang Ping for a late-night snack to satisfy their hunger. As Director Zhou served soup to Yang Ping, he said, ¡°Please make do with the accommodations tonight, and get some rest here. It¡¯s not as luxurious as a five-star hotel, but it¡¯s relatively quiet and free of the miscellaneous crowd.¡± Yang Ping surveyed the surroundings; they were not luxurious, but there was a sense of simple neatness, and the food prepared by the chef tasted very good as well. ¡°The chefs at this guesthouse are not ordinary at all, their skills are well-known and have been passed down for generations,¡± praised Director Zhou. Yang Ping could tell, the chef¡¯s skills were indeed extraordinary, evidencing a high level of culinary skill typical for internal dining facilities. Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao had repeatedly instructed to pay extra attention to Yang Ping, telling Director Zhou to accompany him with Xiao Wu throughout his stay to make him feel the warmth of 301. Just for him, 301 was planning to acquire Sanbo Hospital; even if the acquisition involved many aspects, Dean Liu was prepared to overcome any difficulty. Not to mention acquisition, if they had to build a hospital just for him now, the higher-ups would definitely agree. With 13 CNS papers, Yang Ping, who was already regarded as a genius, was now considered a genius among geniuses. The higher-ups¡¯ intent was very clear: they wanted Yang Ping to join 301 in a manner that he liked and could accept, and this intention became even more apparent after he published 13 CNS papers. Really hungry, Yang Ping couldn¡¯t be bothered with manners and downed eight or nine bowls of rice before he felt satiated. Youths really do have a good appetite, Director Zhou couldn¡¯t help but remark. After eating, Yang Ping rested on the third floor of the guesthouse, while Director Zhou stayed in the next room. The guesthouse was indeed quiet, seemingly having put a lot of effort into soundproofing, which allowed Yang Ping to sleep soundly for several hours. The next morning, after breakfast, Director Zhou took Yang Ping to 301. They briefly toured the hospital and then went to meet Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao. When Director Zhou brought Yang Ping to Dean Liu¡¯s office, Commissioner Qiao had already arrived early and was waiting with Dean Liu for Yang Ping. ¡°Indeed, a young hero is outstanding in both talent and appearance!¡± Both Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao were very excited, shaking hands with Yang Ping in turn. Commissioner Qiao checked his wristwatch, ¡°The meeting will start in a while, no rush. Let¡¯s sit for a bit. Has Director Zhou discussed the situation with you?¡± Director Zhou immediately said, ¡°Professor Yang has come a long way, and I didn¡¯t want to disturb him, so we haven¡¯t discussed it yet.¡± In the office were only four people, and as it was Dean Liu¡¯s office, regular access was restricted and any emergencies would be signaled by knocking and announcing before entering. Dean Liu handed a case file to Yang Ping, then went to pour him some tea. With a serious tone, Commissioner Qiao said, ¡°Our meritorious Old Academician, Academician Meng Jinzhong, who has made immense contributions to national defense, has fallen ill due to overwork, and his heart is in trouble ¨C myocardial infarction. He has already undergone several interventional scaffold installations. This time a scaffold was installed again, but it¡¯s not enough. Experts from Anzhen Fuwai have discussed it several times and unanimously agree that he needs a coronary bypass, and furthermore, nine bypass grafts, a procedure of high complexity. Professor Xu Yongzhong has performed such surgeries with nine grafts before, but recently suffered a thumb avulsion fracture, which could affect the operation. After much deliberation, we must form a reserve team, and Professor Xin Weicong recommended you. It is only now that we knew you also specialize in heart surgeries.¡± Commissioner Qiao briefly introduced the situation, and Dean Liu in his military uniform contrasted Commissioner Qiao¡¯s genteel appearance with his own more imposing and upright figure. ¡°You¡¯ve had a tough journey, Professor Yang. Professor Xin highly recommended you at the meeting. Do you have the confidence to complete the task?¡± Yang Ping thought he was coming to be the chief surgeon, but it turned out he was on the reserve team. If there were no problems with him being the chief surgeon, then being on the reserve team would certainly be no issue. He affirmed confidently, ¡°No problem.¡± ¡°Good, just waiting for those words. With you participating in the surgery, I can rest easy. I¡¯ve been worrying these past few days¡ªXu Yongzhong breaking a bone at this time. How could I not worry about this situation? This isn¡¯t just an ordinary surgery, even a slight hiccup could lead to a big event.¡± ¡°Professor Yang, you¡¯ve recently become the hottest figure in our medical circle. All of us old academicians want to meet you¡ª13 CNS papers, you¡¯ve truly brought honor to us. I don¡¯t think anyone in the world has published papers like that before.¡± ¡°After the meeting, Professor Yang, do allow us old academicians to meet you. They¡¯ve been pestering me every day, asking when they can see you. Now when I see them, I take a detour.¡± Dean Liu passed a cup of tea to Yang Ping, who accepted it with just a smile, as it wasn¡¯t appropriate to say anything at this time. This kid just knows how to smile, Dean Liu thought happily, while also sighing inwardly. If he had been successful in recruiting Yang Ping to 301 at the time, those 13 papers would belong to 301. Then Dean Liu would not be in his current position, standing even prouder. Commissioner Qiao glanced at the time and, noting it was almost time, drank his tea and said, ¡°Old Liu, it¡¯s about time to start the meeting. Shall we have a good chat afterward?¡± Everyone headed to the meeting room together. The other experts had already arrived. When they saw Yang Ping enter, they couldn¡¯t help but curiously crane their necks to look because, apart from Director Xin recognizing Yang Ping, the other experts had never met him. It was only during this period that they became familiar with Yang Ping¡¯s name. After all, Yang Ping¡¯s previous achievements were concentrated in orthopedics, so the experts in the cardiac surgery field definitely weren¡¯t familiar with Yang Ping. ¡°Professor Yang, please take a seat,¡± Commissioner Qiao personally guided Yang Ping to his seat. Such a young man, capable of performing coronary bypass, and nine at that? Professor Xu couldn¡¯t help but wonder. If performing nine bypasses were so easy, he wouldn¡¯t have needed to invest so much effort into studying and training for surgery. Over the past twenty years, Professor Xu had studied coronary bypass daily, dreaming about it. As the chief surgeon, he had conducted 20,000 heart surgeries, constantly innovating the procedure and creating more than thirty invention patents, achieving today¡¯s surgical level with a success rate of over 98%. He once performed 9 coronary artery bypass grafting surgeries in one day, with a record of 9 grafts in a single surgery, and the fastest graft taking only 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Director Xu had created many records in coronary bypass that to this date, no one has broken. How could such a young man, just a few years out of school, master such cutting-edge surgery? Surely he was oversimplifying the complexity of coronary bypass. Perhaps Director Xin had other reasons, seizing this opportunity for promotion. But promotion shouldn¡¯t come at such a time, with such surgery¡ªit¡¯s truly baffling. Perhaps it¡¯s the matter of the 13 papers that made Director Xin take notice. Yes, someone who could publish papers like that must be a genius, but publishing papers and performing surgery are separate matters. Treating surgery too simply might be a mistake. Yang Ping bowed slightly to everyone and then sat down, for they were all his seniors, and it was proper to show respect. The case discussions had already been conducted intensively several times, and there were no doubts about the diagnosis and treatment plan. Now it was just about perfecting the surgical plan. If Director Xu¡¯s hand hadn¡¯t fractured, the surgery plan would¡¯ve been directly handed over to him. Now, due to this small accident, there was a hiccup that could interfere with the entire operation. Commissioner Qiao checked the time again, and the meeting started punctually. ¡°Experts, we have already discussed this multiple times together. Now that the diagnosis and treatment plan has been confirmed, the only option is surgery. Professor Xu Yongzhong will be the chief surgeon, with Professor Chu Shilin as the assistant. However, there¡¯s a slight mishap with Professor Xu¡ªhis right thumb has a distal phalanx avulsion fracture, and it¡¯s still badly swollen and hard to bend,¡± Commissioner Qiao began his speech. Professor Xu raised his right hand to show everyone his thumb¡ªindeed, the swelling was severe and bending was difficult. All being surgeons, they understood the impact such an injury could have on surgical capabilities¡ªit would noticeably affect the right hand¡¯s grip, potentially hindering powerful maneuvers or precise operations. ¡°To ensure the surgery goes off without a hitch, we¡¯ve decided to establish a backup team. That is, if Professor Xu¡¯s surgery is significantly impacted by his thumb fracture, then the backup chief surgeon will take over. Coronary bypass isn¡¯t just any surgery, no room for negligence. We have several candidates for backup chief surgeon, including Professor Chu Shilin, Professor Zhong Zuochen, and Professor Yang Ping. We must determine beforehand who will step in first, and I¡¯d like to hear the opinions of all the experts here, as well as Professor Xu¡¯s opinion,¡± announced Commissioner Qiao. After listening, Professor Xu pondered. Logically, it should be his student¡ªProfessor Chu Shilin¡ªserving as the backup chief surgeon. Professor Xu had personally trained him and knew his capabilities intimately. Although his number of surgeries couldn¡¯t compare to Xu¡¯s, and he hadn¡¯t performed a nine-bypass procedure, he was still better than Zhong Zuochen, not to mention incomparable to Yang Ping. If coronary bypass were so simple that one could master it so easily and excel, it would negate his twenty years of hard work. However, Professor Xu couldn¡¯t just decide that directly; he wanted to use a fairer method to determine the choice. ¡°How about this? I have several coronary bypass surgeries scheduled for tomorrow. Let Professor Zhong, Professor Yang, and Professor Chu each do one or two, so we all have a clear idea. We can see the quality of the operations, which will be quite evident,¡± proposed Professor Xu. Although the surgery was urgent, it wasn¡¯t so critical that it couldn¡¯t wait another day or two¡ªthe biochemical indicators were slightly off and needed adjustment. This method sounded good. After all, anyone sitting at this table was a national-level expert, capable of stepping up to the operating table and performing several surgeries without any issue. Professors Zhong and Chu had at least thousands of surgeries worth of experience. As for Professor Yang, that was uncertain. Since Director Xin had so confidently recommended him, and no one from 301¡ªDean Liu, Commissioner Qiao, Director Zhou, and Professor Dai Yuansheng of the Cardiac Surgery Department¡ªhad objected, they might as well see the true skill on the operating table. Whoever was capable should take the lead. There¡¯s no argument about that, right? ¡°What do you think about this method?¡± Commissioner Qiao asked. Everyone nodded in agreement, believing it to be the best approach. All experts could tell at a glance whether someone was competent or not. Professor Xu¡¯s expertise was the highest¡ªthis was universally acknowledged. But between Professors Chu and Zhong, it wasn¡¯t clear who was better. Professor Zhong had more surgical experience, but Professor Chu, being Professor Xu¡¯s senior disciple, was naturally not lacking in skills. As for Professor Yang, not much was known. Thirteen papers were one thing, but coronary artery bypass grafting was another, and everyone was acutely aware of this, particularly at such a critical juncture. Yang Ping leafed through the case files in his hands and then looked at the image picture on the projector. Chapter 896 - 896 788 Burning the Last of Life ?Chapter 896: Chapter 788: Burning the Last of Life Chapter 896: Chapter 788: Burning the Last of Life All the experts were already very familiar with the case, except for Yang Ping, who still wanted to delve deeper into the case files. During the discussion, he discreetly gestured for the doctor controlling the computer to display the imaging data, especially the Coronary CTA, and replay the projection slowly. Currently, actually no one was paying attention to the things on the projection, so Yang Ping did not really disturb anyone. ¡°Professor Yang, what do you think of Professor Xu¡¯s suggestion?¡± Commissioner Qiao specifically asked Yang Ping. Logically, Yang Ping was a newcomer, and it was only because of Professor Xin¡¯s recommendation that he joined this medical team; Commissioner Qiao should not be singling him out for special attention. But considering Yang Ping was a talent they were eagerly trying to recruit, Commissioner Qiao took this opportunity to give him special consideration. Yang Ping was concentrating on the case data when Commissioner Qiao asked him this. He immediately replied very comfortably, ¡°It¡¯s fine, anything works, I have no problem here.¡± Actually, this was a genuine response in his natural state, without any hint of carelessness or showing off, but it caused Professor Xu to feel offended. What does ¡°anything works¡± mean? This attitude clearly seemed careless. For a young person, such an answer sounded a bit too arrogant. ¡°Experts, does anyone else have any comments?¡± Commissioner Qiao asked the others. In this type of cardiac surgery case discussion, it was basically up to Anzhen Fuwai to decide. The others were just a backdrop. Since the chief surgeon decided this way, unless it was something extremely inappropriate, the other experts would definitely have no objections, so everyone expressed their agreement. Actually, they all felt that this was the best choice. If Director Xu directly arranged for Chu Shilin to be the backup chief surgeon, Director Zhong from Fuwai would definitely be discontent. Why would I, Zhong Zuochen, be inferior to your student? After all, Anzhen Fuwai was on an equal footing. If it was arranged for Zhong Zuochen, Director Xu would not feel at ease. I trust my student, know him through and through; we perform surgery together every day, and even if the chief surgeon changed mid-surgery, he would still be familiar with my methods. But this was a special case involving a national hero, someone who was a hero to the entire nation. It was not just Director Xu¡¯s case alone; even he would find it hard to take charge. As for Yang Ping, recommended by Director Xin, and seemingly still strongly supported by 301¡ªwhatever the reason, he was already sitting at this table. Therefore, Director Xu¡¯s method was the best and most reliable. There¡¯s no proof in words alone; if time allowed, it would be best for everyone to truly compete with real skills, and the capable one would take the lead. This backup team was not superfluous or just for show. In case something really happened, it would mean having to step up as the chief surgeon on the operating table, the seriousness of which goes without saying¡ªeveryone knew that. ¡°I think this is the best method, no time like the present, let¡¯s decide on this, how about that?¡± Director Dai from the Cardiac Surgery Department of 301 finally spoke up. ¡°Then this afternoon we¡¯ll meet again with the various departments for a pre-surgery discussion. If all the indicators are qualified, we¡¯ll proceed with the surgery the day after tomorrow,¡± Dean Liu established the matter right then and there. If they delayed any further, and the illness continued to deteriorate, they might lose the opportunity for surgery altogether. ¡°Yes, these experts have been very busy and took time out of their schedules to come for the consultation, especially Professor Xu, with several surgeries each day, almost operating until after eleven o¡¯clock at night,¡± Commissioner Qiao expressed his gratitude to the experts. This was true indeed. Director Xu¡¯s surgical operations typically lasted until after eleven o¡¯clock; he was genuinely overwhelmed with work, and thankfully, a group of students under him had grown up; otherwise, he really might die of exhaustion on the operating table. In the medical industry, the Matthew effect is actually very pronounced. Whether it¡¯s the doctors or the hospitals, the more skilled you become in a certain specialty, the more patients you will have, and the more patients you have, the more formidable you¡¯ll become. For example, heart surgery would be infeasible in lower-level hospitals, including the vast majority of provincial hospitals, as there were hardly any patients. In today¡¯s information society, when patients need to undergo heart surgery, they would not choose any hospital as casually as they might for a circumcision, quickly picking some private hospital on the street to spend thirty to fifty thousand for a Korean-style or Caesar supremium surgery; nor would they just go to any regular hospital¡¯s outpatient clinic to spend a couple of thousand for a basic circumcision. If it was heart surgery, patients would surely think it over carefully and would not just choose any hospital. In the end, they would select only the most capable hospital. ¡°Professor Xu, please arrange it on your side, see how to allocate it. Let the three experts demonstrate the surgeries tomorrow, and I¡¯ll also go and observe and learn. Director Dai from our Cardiothoracic Department will join the learning as well,¡± Commissioner Qiao summarized the meeting. Dai Yuansheng, the Director of Cardiac Surgery at 301, although also a first-class expert, was still somewhat less distinguished than the professors from Anzhen Fuwai. Hence in several meetings, although he was the host, he still did not speak much and appeared reticent. Surgical operation is a battle of true skill, where one survives based on ability. With Professor Xu Yongzhong there, Dai had hardly any opportunity to speak. The concept of Professor Xu¡¯s twenty thousand surgeries¡ªover twenty years, that¡¯s a thousand surgeries a year, averaging nearly three a day, and we¡¯re talking about heart surgeries here. When it comes to coronary bypass, it¡¯s not just Dai Yuansheng alone but everyone present who are but juniors to Professor Xu. The tendency was simply overwhelming. If it weren¡¯t for situations like a finger fracture, there would be no need for any backup team. ¡°I will certainly go and learn!¡± Director Dai answered rather passively. The patient was in 301, but it was Professor from Anzhen doing the surgery. Speaking of which, it was somewhat an issue of his own insufficient strength; otherwise, it would not have come to this. Had it just been an ordinary person, it wouldn¡¯t matter as much; but this was Elder Academician Meng, a national-level figure who attracted nationwide attention. The highest official inquired personally about his condition and, despite being incredibly busy, still made a visit to the hospital. ¡°I¡¯ll arrange it then; the operations will start exactly at eight o¡¯clock tomorrow morning. How about two surgeries per person? It¡¯s also no problem to arrange a bit more,¡± Professor Xu said. In his field of expertise, he was the strongest, so he spoke with great confidence. Commissioner Qiao said, ¡°Two each is good; too many can lead to fatigue, and they still have to participate in the surgery the day after tomorrow.¡± Once the matter was determined, it had to be carried out without fail. ¡°Let¡¯s go see Elder Meng together. Let¡¯s not stay too long, a maximum of fifteen minutes,¡± Commissioner Qiao said with a heavy heart. Elder Academician Meng was very weak now, and other than doctors and nurses, he did not want anyone else to disturb him. Even relatives visiting were only allowed one minute¡ªjust a quick look and that was it. He said his time was running out and he couldn¡¯t afford to waste any more time. The meeting was adjourned, and Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao led everyone to the ward to visit Elder Academician Meng. Although visiting him daily was a medical necessity, Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao still didn¡¯t want to occupy too much of the old academician¡¯s time in case it caused him to become anxious or upset. ¡ª In a ward of the 301 Hospital¡¯s South Building. Elder Academician Meng lay in bed, his body connected to various tubes and wires, looking emaciated. His myocardium was only relying on a stent urgently implanted to prop open his blood vessels, maintaining a limited blood supply. If coronary bypass surgery wasn¡¯t performed, the blockage in his last blood-supplying vessel would lead to a massive myocardial infarction, ultimately resulting in cardiac arrest. By the bedside, assorted monitoring equipment beeped away, with data flickering on the guard screens. Doctors and nurses took shifts around the clock, vigilant and ready, with ECMO also prepared at hand, to make the final efforts when necessary. Professor Nan Yingshu from the heart critical care center led his team, sitting in the ward. He checked various test results from time to time, hoping that the indicators could stabilize. Surgery was imminent and nothing could go wrong. By Elder Meng¡¯s side were also his spouse and his student, Dr. Liu Zhida. To help him rest better, the doctors suggested sedating Academician Meng. This would help him avoid pain and wait for the surgery peacefully. But the old academician consistently refused sedation, insisting on keeping his mind clear. At this moment, Elder Academician Meng attempted to lift his hand but failed after several tries. Knowing that he needed something, a nurse promptly leaned in and asked softly, ¡°Elder Meng, what do you need? Tell us.¡± Elder Academician Meng preferred to be addressed as ¡®teacher¡¯ rather than any other title. As a professor in the field of national defense science and technology, he had made tremendous contributions to several key projects for the country, many of which were pioneering and foundational. He had also nurtured many top talents who were now contributing to the field of defense science and technology. ¡°My¡ªcomputer¡ªdata¡ªcopied out¡ªhave they been?¡± the old academician struggled to say with his hand flailing weakly, his words coming out in fits and starts. His student, who had been by his side all along, Dr. Liu Zhida, held his teacher¡¯s hand firmly: ¡°They have been copied, everything has been copied.¡± This was the third time the old academician asked about the data in his computer. Those files contained precious experimental data, and he knew his days were numbered and was afraid the data might be lost or damaged, causing losses to the nation. ¡°Remember¡ªconfidentiality,¡± Elder Academician Meng said, holding his student¡¯s hand, instructing him. Dr. Liu¡¯s eyes filled with tears: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Teacher Meng.¡± After speaking, Elder Meng took a few labored breaths and lay back to rest, too weak to speak further. Barely ten minutes into the silence, the old academician¡¯s fingers began to move again. Dr. Liu Zhida and the nurse immediately leaned in closer. His lips moved a few times without making a sound, as he was struggling to breathe and speaking was very strenuous. ¡°Zhida¡ªZhida¡ª!¡± ¡°I¡¯m here, Teacher Meng,¡± said Liu Zhida, holding his teacher¡¯s hand. After catching his breath, Teacher Meng continued, ¡°Bring the notebook¡ªwrite it down¡ª¡± Liu Zhida quickly pulled out the notebook he always carried and squatted beside Academician Meng¡¯s bed to start taking notes. ¡°The experiment¡ªchange¡ªthe material¡ªratio¡ªremember¡ª¡± It took great effort for Academician Meng to finish speaking, while Liu Zhida recorded it with a heavy heart, unable to stop his tears. Since his teacher fell ill, every word he spoke was about his research, never about himself. He lived a life not for fame or wealth, silently dedicating himself where the country needed him most. Even now, bedridden, his thoughts were still centered on his research topics. The recent experiment had failed, and Elder Academician Meng had been contemplating the reason for the failure, now thoroughly summarizing his thoughts. Each word he uttered cost him great effort, but Dr. Liu Zhida couldn¡¯t stop him; he knew his teacher had to speak, even if he had to pause to take several breaths between words, he had to get his message across. The waveforms on the electrocardiogram monitoring screen began to get denser, and the heart rate started to increase. The attending doctor immediately went to comfort Elder Meng. ¡°Teacher Meng, rest for a while, it¡¯s not urgent!¡± Elder Academician Meng wasn¡¯t listening at all, he kept speaking word by word, while Dr. Liu began using a voice recorder and taking notes in the notebook so that the information could complement each other, reducing any inaccuracy. In this laborious manner, Elder Meng articulated his analysis of the experimental errors one word at a time, pausing to catch his breath when he could no longer speak. After the most recent failed experiment, Elder Meng had been pondering the reasons. He¡¯d begun to form some ideas but hadn¡¯t managed to write them down before he was hospitalized. After the stent insertion eased his condition, he knew he didn¡¯t have much time left and was determined to communicate his thoughts. With each word Dr. Liu wrote, his heart bled. It was clear his teacher was burning the last of his life. In this way, speaking for a few minutes, resting for a while, then speaking for a few more, with intermittent pauses, Dr. Liu Zhida filled several pages of notes. For others, speaking is an effortless act, but for Elder Meng, it was exceedingly difficult. When Yang Ping and the others arrived at the ward, Elder Meng was lying in bed with an oxygen mask on his face. Even so, the heart rate on the electrocardiogram monitor remained high. The attending doctor and nurse wanted to report, but Dean Liu made a shushing gesture, indicating to keep their voices down. ¡°He¡¯s just rested, his blood sugar is much better today, and his electrolytes have also stabilized. Surgery should be possible the day after tomorrow,¡± said Professor Nan Yingshu from the cardiac critical care center in a low voice. Dean Liu also spoke softly, ¡°If everything is stable, we are planning to schedule the surgery for the day after tomorrow.¡± Chapter 897 - 897 789 Do not have surgery for now ?Chapter 897: Chapter 789: Do not have surgery for now Chapter 897: Chapter 789: Do not have surgery for now Elder Meng struggled to get up by himself as nobody moved to assist him. Doctors, nurses, Elder Academician Meng¡¯s spouse, and Dr. Liu Zhida immediately went to support Elder Meng, allowing him to rise slowly. A nurse swiftly placed a pillow behind his lower back because the change in position suddenly increased the heart¡¯s burden, causing Elder Meng to gasp for air incessantly. The heart rate on the electrocardiogram monitoring screen also sped up significantly. Director Nan Yingshu closely observed the data, ready to intervene with rescue measures at any sign of anomaly. Fortunately, there was only an increase in heart rate without any obvious arrhythmia. ¡°Increase the oxygen flow a bit,¡± Director Nan instructed the nurse. The nurse immediately increased the oxygen flow to cope with the recent increase in heart rate. ¡°Paper¡ªPen¡ª¡± Although Elder Meng¡¯s speech was weak and intermittent, one could detect his determination. Dr. Liu Zhida quickly handed him a clipboard and pen, helping him to hold it steady. Elder Meng leaned against the headboard, eyes closed, gasping, with an expression of intense pain on his face. It took a full five minutes for Elder Meng to catch his breath slightly. While wearing an oxygen mask, with his spouse and the nurse supporting him and Dr. Liu stabilizing the clipboard, Elder Meng began drawing. His hand shook continuously as he held the pen, and despite fighting to control it, he simply couldn¡¯t. If it were just text, he could dictate, but drawing couldn¡¯t be conveyed in words. Even a forced verbal description could easily distort the truth, and even a single detail off could cause the entire experiment to fail again. Elder Meng had to draw the figure himself while sitting up. This drawing was critically important, containing key technical details of the entire experiment. He had just figured out the results before falling ill. After being admitted to the hospital, for a time, he couldn¡¯t recall the details of the diagram, but now that it had come back to him, he had to capture it on paper promptly. Seeing Elder Meng in such agony, his spouse held back tears and implored him: ¡°Rest for a while, please!¡± Elder Meng didn¡¯t speak; he needed every bit of energy for the drawing since his memory had been affected after falling ill. He had pondered over this image for so long, and he had finally remembered it. To Elder Meng, as long as he could get the drawing down, nothing else mattered. The entire ward fell silent, save for the various medical devices¡¯ noises. Everyone maintained their posture to make Elder Meng¡¯s drawing as comfortable as possible. The trembling pen slowly and laboriously moved across the paper, turning what should have been straight lines into jagged ones. Elder Meng paused, pen in hand: ¡°Zhida¡ªCan you¡ªunderstand¡ªthis?¡± Dr. Liu Zhida nodded: ¡°I understand.¡± Assured that Dr. Liu could understand him, Elder Meng resumed drawing. The farther he went, the more difficult it became, but he didn¡¯t give up, afraid that if he did, he might never get another chance to complete the diagram. After a while, Elder Meng stopped to catch his breath. ¡°My¡ªglasses¡ªhelp me¡ªput them on,¡± Elder Meng¡¯s vision was blurry. His spouse gently reminded him, ¡°You¡¯re wearing them.¡± ¡°Oh¡ª¡± Elder Meng didn¡¯t say more; as his breathing eased, he began to draw again. Professor Yang and all the doctors were deeply moved by this scene, remaining in respectful silence, their eyes moist with tears. Dean Liu signaled, indicating that it was time for everyone to leave if they didn¡¯t have any other issues. They shouldn¡¯t stay too long so as not to disturb the Old Academician¡¯s work. As everyone left the ward, Elder Meng continued drawing, wearing his oxygen mask, seeming to use every last ounce of energy to finish the diagram. Once outside the ward, everyone sat down in the office on the same floor. For at least ten minutes, no one spoke; they just sat in silence. The reason was that everyone¡¯s eyes were wet, and their voices hoarse; they didn¡¯t want to be the first to break the silence, revealing their intense waves of emotion. After a long while, Dean Liu adjusted his mood and said: ¡°Everyone has seen the state of the Old Academician just now. The authority has instructed us to spare no effort!¡± Commissioner Qiao took a deep breath: ¡°I hope we can do something for him.¡± Professor Xu didn¡¯t speak; it was just his luck to have a thumb fracture at this time, when he had to perform a procedure requiring the placement of nine bridges on an incessantly beating heart, with each bridge needing to be flawless. Elder Meng¡¯s coronary arteries were already arteriosclerotic, and a mere slip during the bypass could easily tear the blood vessels. The difficulty of the task was indeed overwhelming! Moreover, he had the added obstacle of a fractured thumb, something he¡¯d have to deal with in the operating room. Director Xu, always confident in coronary bypass, felt a massive pressure. But there was no one more suitable than himself, so come what may, he had to fulfill the mission. ¡°The coagulation function has just recovered today, electrolytes have also stabilized. It was high potassium before, but it¡¯s come down today. Director Nan said that with another day to stabilize, we should be able to operate. We need to seize this opportunity and quickly complete the surgery. Director Xu, it¡¯s a tough task for you to arrange the reserve team tomorrow,¡± Commissioner Qiao reminded. The closer it got to the surgery, the more Director Xu felt the importance of the reserve team. Should his injury severely affect the surgery, the backup chief surgeon must really be ready to step in. It was not just talk. ¡°Yes! Surgery is scheduled for eight o¡¯clock tomorrow morning¡ªtwo operations per person. I will arrange everything today so that tomorrow morning, the three experts will gather in our cardiothoracic surgery¡¯s large office. We will have someone accompany you to change and wash up in the operating room. I hope Professor Zhong and Professor Yang can find time to come to Anzhen this afternoon to get familiar with our environment,¡± Director Xu replied. ¡°I¡¯ll visit Anzhen this afternoon. Thanks for your hard work, Old Xu,¡± Professor Zhong greeted Professor Xu. Chapter 898 - 898 789 Do not have surgery for now_2 ?Chapter 898: Chapter 789: Do not have surgery for now_2 Chapter 898: Chapter 789: Do not have surgery for now_2 ¡°Professor Yang, shall we make a trip this afternoon?¡± Director Zhou Min thought it would also be a good idea to accompany Professor Yang in the afternoon. Yang Ping nodded. ¡°No problem, I should get familiar with the operating room environment anyway.¡± With that, everything was set: they would familiarize themselves with Anzhen Hospital in the afternoon, and tomorrow, during the surgery, they would demonstrate the technique and decide who would be the backup chief surgeon. ¡ª Elder Meng stopped drawing halfway through when his pen suddenly halted, unable to recall the latter part of the diagram. He had no choice but to put his pen down. ¡°Zhida¡ª keep it safe¡ª it¡¯s not finished yet¡ª I will finish it later,¡± Elder Meng instructed his student. Liu Zhida carefully put away the paper and the clipboard, being extra careful not to crease them, as they were his teacher¡¯s painstaking work. Elder Meng¡¯s spouse and the nurse helped him lay down slowly to rest, but as he lay in bed, he refused to rest. His mind was constantly active, using nearly all of his heart¡¯s limited energy on cerebral thoughts, racing against the Grim Reaper, determined to remember the diagram in his final moments. On the paper attached to the clipboard was only half a drawing, made entirely of jagged lines, but Liu Zhida could understand it. This half was the key step reflecting on the previous experiment, a pivotal reason behind the failures. However, with only half completed, the rest remained a mystery to Zhida. Moreover, such technical drawings can¡¯t be accurately conveyed through words; they have to be illustrated. As soon as he laid down, the Old Academician wanted to speak again, and Liu Zhida immediately leaned in to listen. ¡°Zhida¡ª there¡¯s still¡ª half¡ª I¡ª can¡¯t remember.¡± After speaking to his student, the Old Academician wanted to speak with his spouse, who was gently stroking his sweaty forehead. The effort of drawing that half had already taken a massive toll on his energy. The Old Academician tightly held his spouse¡¯s hand, cautioning: ¡°For now¡ª no¡ª surgery¡ª definitely¡ª not! I haven¡¯t¡ª finished drawing.¡± He had to complete the other half of the diagram, the culmination of years of dedication in the laboratory, finally pinpointing the reason for past failures. Now at the crucial moment, he couldn¡¯t afford any more mistakes; otherwise, it might mean many more years of going in circles. If he were to undergo surgery, he might never wake up again, and the Old Academician absolutely refused to leave the diagram unfinished. In his heart, that half-completed diagram was more important than his own life. His spouse understood what Elder Meng meant ¡ª he had half a diagram yet to be completed and worried that he might never have another chance. ¡°Alright, alright, let¡¯s not have the surgery for now,¡± his spouse nodded, comforting him. But Elder Meng still wasn¡¯t reassured. He took a few breaths and said, ¡°Tell¡ª the doctor¡ª now¡ª say it now!¡± Understanding Elder Meng, the spouse dutifully conveyed his wishes to Director Nan Yingshu nearby, ¡°Director Nan, let¡¯s not proceed with the surgery for now; Teacher Meng still has unfinished work.¡± The spouse spoke loudly and clearly, making sure Elder Meng could hear it. But after speaking, the spouse could no longer hold back the tears, which gushed forth uncontrollably. Turning away and stepping aside, the spouse pulled out a handkerchief to cover their nose and mouth before quickly finding a secluded corner to sit down and cry, trying to suppress the sobs. All the doctors and nurses present couldn¡¯t help but shed tears upon witnessing this scene. If they didn¡¯t operate, there was no hope of survival. From beginning to end, the Old Academician thought not of himself but of his research topic and the country¡¯s defense foundations. Fifty years ago, it was the same, and fifty years later, it remains the same! A quote from a poem: ¡°The rapids of Jian River run fast and wide as clouds in the wind; the general never takes off his golden armor, even at night.¡± ¡ª Yang Ping went back to the guesthouse to rest. Director Zhou Min stayed with him throughout, a task personally entrusted by Dean Liu that Zhou Min dared not neglect. The scene of the Old Academician struggling to draw kept replaying in Yang Ping¡¯s mind, filling him with a heavy feeling. He profoundly understood what it meant to be noble, pure, moral, above petty interests, and of benefit to the people. Throughout all the political education classes from childhood to adulthood, emphasizing ¡°serving the people,¡± ¡°contributing to the country,¡± ¡°studying for the rise of China,¡± and so on. Yang Ping always found these to be empty, mundane slogans. But today, he experienced a genuine sense of patriotism, a simple spirit that was so very close to him. Today¡¯s peace and happiness are by no means to be taken for granted. It is only because of such dedicated, unsung individuals that we enjoy our lives so freely. The general impatience and materialism of society make people forget¡ªwe always have clear skies because someone has been holding an umbrella overhead all this time. ¡°Director Zhou, let¡¯s go to Anzhen earlier this afternoon so I can familiarize myself with the patient I¡¯ll be operating on tomorrow,¡± Yang Ping said, gathering his thoughts, feeling compelled to do something for the Old Academician. ¡°After we have lunch, let¡¯s go. I¡¯ll give Xiao Wu a call,¡± Director Zhou Min was all too willing to assist. After arriving in Beijing, Yang Ping hadn¡¯t sent any messages to Xiao Su on WeChat, nor had he contacted anyone else. He understood the importance of organizational discipline at critical times. With his mother-in-law looking after Xiao Su, Yang Ping was quite at ease. After lunch, not bothering to rest, Yang Ping headed with Director Zhou Min to Anzhen Hospital to familiarize himself with the environments. Director Zhou Min had a quality that made it easy for one to feel comfortable and familiar around him. He had only interacted with Yang Ping a couple of times, but to Yang Ping, it felt as though they had known each other for much longer. Similarly, during the previous visit to Sanbo, the political commissar, Zhang Zhenglong, had also given off this impression¡ªextremely kind and amiable, like an old friend with whom conversation was always a breath of fresh air. Chapter 899 - 899 789 Dont Have Surgery Temporarily_3 ?Chapter 899: Chapter 789 Don¡¯t Have Surgery Temporarily_3 Chapter 899: Chapter 789 Don¡¯t Have Surgery Temporarily_3 Professor Xu arranged for a doctoral student to receive Yang Ping, taking him and Director Zhou Min around Anzhen Hospital for a tour, with the Operating room as the focus, to familiarize himself with the equipment and instruments, and then to meet and chat with the anesthesia team for a few moments. Although the plan was to perform Coronary artery bypass grafting on a beating heart, it was also possible that the plan would change during surgery, so Yang Ping also made contact with the extracorporeal circulation team. Perhaps because Yang Ping¡¯s responses at the 301 meeting had left a poor first impression on Professor Xu, by the time he arrived at Anzhen, the younger doctors below him were not very friendly towards Yang Ping. Of course, this unfriendliness was not expressed openly on their faces, but one could tell from their eyes. Yang Ping probably felt that these people saw him as a beneficiary of nepotism, perhaps taking this opportunity to make a name for himself and gather some career credentials or something of the sort. Yang Ping didn¡¯t mind what they thought; as long as it did not affect his work, it was fine. Yang Ping had also familiarized himself extensively with the two cases arranged by Anzhen Hospital. He did not only review the cases several times and have face-to-face discussions with the physicians in charge, but also visited the wards, inquired about the medical history, and examined the patients. It wasn¡¯t until after five in the afternoon that Yang Ping and Zhou Min finally returned to the guest house. At dinner, to their surprise, Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao joined them. They had been busy during the day and had no time, but seized the evening to come and see Yang Ping, joining him for dinner to show their concern. There had been two attempts by 301 to bring Yang Ping to Sanbo Hospital, but Yang Ping was reluctant. Now, taking advantage of this opportunity, Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao were keen to build rapport with Yang Ping. The higher-ups had instructed that Yang Ping must be brought into 301 and that he must be brought in using a method he liked and could accept. Although the instructions were straightforward, implementing them was quite difficult. In the end, after much deliberation, Dean Liu had only one solution ¨C to acquire Sanbo Hospital, making it a clinical medical center in the south, providing them with whatever they needed in terms of policy, personnel, and funds. And also the autonomy that Xia Changjiang valued the most ¨C Dean Liu had decided¡ªgive it to him! Dean Liu also let Xia Changjiang remain as dean, leaving the original Sanbo Hospital leadership team unchanged, and they would be in complete control. That should suffice. During his visit to 301 Hospital, Yang Ping had not met Professor Qin Shi, likely due to disciplinary reasons. He only had contact with the medical team members, and for the time being, it seemed he could not interact with unrelated personnel. As expected, around six o¡¯clock in the evening, Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao hurried to the guest house. Commissioner Qiao even brought some tea leaves¡ªfine West Lake Longjing¡ªas he had heard Yang Ping liked to drink it. ¡°Professor Yang, I didn¡¯t know you also did cardiac surgery; I thought you had always been in orthopedics, my mistake,¡± Dean Liu said to Yang Ping at the dinner table. Yang Ping laughed and said, ¡°I¡¯ve only recently started researching cardiac surgery, jack of all trades, master of none.¡± ¡°To be excessively modest is to be arrogant, Professor Xin Weicong highly recommends you, saying you perform aortic dissection surgeries even better than he does, and Professor Xin speaks his mind,¡± Commissioner Qiao said as he brewed tea. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t refute it; indeed, any more modesty would be false modesty. ¡°Your range of expertise is not common, publishing 13 CNS papers in one go. Oh, and remember you must do me this favor; I just finished work and ran into an old academician from the Spinal Surgery Department who asked me when she could see Yang Ping. Ah, I saw her from afar and intended to take a detour, but I was just too slow.¡± Dean Liu helped Yang Ping wash the tea cup and tableware with boiling water. ¡°This is the custom of you southern people; we northerners don¡¯t have this practice.¡± Director Zhou Min followed, ¡°Do you think scalding with such hot water can kill any bacteria?¡± Commissioner Qiao then said, ¡°You don¡¯t understand; this is a ritual, a courtesy, just like how young people now take out their phones to snap photos before eating and post them on moments.¡± PS: As I write this, I am reminded of a saying: There always exist noble people, pure people, moral people, people who are free from low-level tastes, people who are beneficial to the public¡ªthey are the backbone of our Chinese nation! Chapter 900 - 900 790 This Has Already Become a Metaphysical ?Chapter 900: Chapter 790 This Has Already Become a Metaphysical Problem Chapter 900: Chapter 790 This Has Already Become a Metaphysical Problem They chatted over dinner and continued their conversation over tea. Yang Ping talked with Dean Liu of 301, Commissioner Qiao, and Director Zhou for a long time. However, Yang Ping wasn¡¯t very good at chatting, only occasionally keeping up with the conversation, but Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao didn¡¯t mind at all, still chatting and laughing with Yang Ping. Geniuses are definitely different, surely too proud or ungifted in socializing, which is understandable. Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao had their own plans in mind; the two partners had agreed that they would make sure to secure Yang Ping¡¯s arrival while they were in charge. Yang Ping was not yet thirty years old, and he had several decades of his academic golden age ahead of him. In other words, as long as they brought in Yang Ping, he could lead by example, and the future development of 301 for the next few decades would be leaps and bounds. Perhaps, Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao would become the most outstanding deans in the history of 301. Fulfilling the tasks assigned by superiors splendidly and adding a substantial achievement to their merit, a win-win situation, how wonderful. The dinner with Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao was more than just a casual meal; aside from showing warmth, they took the opportunity while Yang Ping was in Beijing to subtly ¡°brainwash¡± him and plant some ideas in his mind. ¡°Local hospitals aren¡¯t that easy to manage now, with an unfriendly medical environment and tense doctor-patient relations that prevent doctors from practicing medicine in peace. Fortunately, we don¡¯t have these issues in our military hospitals, so the comrades working in localities really have it tough. I have great respect; I couldn¡¯t handle it myself,¡± said Commissioner Qiao, steering the conversation towards this topic, intentionally or otherwise. ¡°Yes, slowly but surely. Actually, the mainstream is good; I guess things will improve in another twenty years or so,¡± said Director Zhou Min with a worried look on his face. Dean Liu then said, ¡°You guys are too anxious, always exaggerating these negative aspects. I think the doctor-patient relationship is harmonious. What medical disturbances are you talking about? Nonsense. Professor Yang, right?¡± Yang Ping simply smiled. Dean Liu continued, ¡°Your Sanbo Hospital is really great, with an academic environment that is relaxed and free. Dean Xia is highly capable, managing the hospital to new heights; I want to learn from that. I greatly admire your Dean Xia. Now we have opened a branch in Hainan, and we wanted Dean Xia to serve as the dean, to replicate another Sanbo Hospital, but he refused. I said, as long as you agree to come as the dean, we would not interfere with the Hainan branch at all. It will be completely managed like your hospital: funding when needed, providing personnel, policy support, with the same treatment as our main hospital, but the autonomy would be entirely under your leadership team¡¯s control. Yet he still refused, saying he didn¡¯t want to leave Sanbo Hospital.¡± ¡°Yes, finding a thousand soldiers is easy, but securing a commander is hard. A dean with management skills like Dean Xia¡¯s is rare; given a larger platform, he¡¯ll surely create even more impressive achievements,¡± Commissioner Qiao said in full agreement. ¡°Platforms are very important, very important! Would Professor Xu have become the leading figure in coronary bypass surgery in Asia if he weren¡¯t at Anzhen? Would Professor Xin have become the world¡¯s foremost authority on aortic dissection surgery if he weren¡¯t at Fuwai? The platform is extremely important!¡± Director Zhou Min said excitedly. Commissioner Qiao topped up Yang Ping¡¯s tea. ¡°Drink up. Don¡¯t mind us; we just like to shoot the breeze when we get together. That¡¯s what you folks from the south call it, right ¨C blowing water?¡± ¡°Actually, there was a professor at Anzhen before who was no less skilled than Director Xu when he was younger. He later went to Shandong Provincial Hospital. Without the big platform of Anzhen, how could he have made achievements in cardiology like Professor Xu? The magnitude of the cases are not even on the same level, right? Anzhen¡¯s Cardiac Surgery Department caters to the whole country, to the whole world. Shandong Provincial Hospital can only serve Shandong Province, right?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the principle!¡± ¡°So you see, Professor Yang, you chose the right platform. Sanbo is an excellent one. What do you say¡ªwould cooperation between us and Sanbo be a powerful alliance?¡± ¡°That¡¯s an interesting idea. If we cooperated, with Professor Yang¡¯s expertise and our nationwide patient base, it would definitely be a powerful combination.¡± These few people were amusing, acting as if it were all real. Yang Ping just sat there like he was listening to a tale, listening to their back-and-forth. ¡ª Early the next morning, at seven o¡¯clock, Yang Ping arrived at Anzhen Hospital accompanied by Director Zhou. He not only familiarized himself again with the two surgical cases, but also reviewed other cases; he found that his cases only required two or three bridges, while the other two specialists needed four or five. Just as Yang Ping had expected, Anzhen considered him a golden connection. Yang Ping reviewed the cases on the computer. Among them, one required eight bridges, which was Director Xu¡¯s own routine surgery for today, not a demonstration case. Since it was about showcasing skills, the most challenging one should be chosen. Yang Ping took the initiative to find Director Xu and requested the surgery involving eight bridges for himself, not for any other reason but hoping to do something for the Old Academician. ¡°You want to lay eight bridges?¡± Director Xu was quite surprised when he heard Yang Ping¡¯s request; wasn¡¯t his arrangement good enough? Why insist on picking the case with the highest difficulty? Wasn¡¯t this like shooting oneself in the foot? ¡°This surgery is very difficult; it wasn¡¯t scheduled as a demonstration surgery. It¡¯s my routine surgery for today,¡± Director Xu said, essentially refusing. Yang Ping still argued, ¡°Professor Xu, if you believe in me, please let me have this case. I want to challenge something with even higher difficulty.¡± Director Xu was taken aback. We aren¡¯t close; why should I trust you? If you want to challenge yourself, do it back home, not here. Chapter 901 - 901 790 This Has Already Become a Metaphysical ?Chapter 901: Chapter 790 This Has Already Become a Metaphysical Problem_2 Chapter 901: Chapter 790 This Has Already Become a Metaphysical Problem_2 Seeing Director Xu¡¯s expression, Yang Ping realized that this conversation was going nowhere. He threw out a casual remark, ¡°Actually, there¡¯s nothing difficult about doing eight bypasses. What¡¯s the big deal about anastomosing a couple more blood vessels?¡± How can young people talk like that? Eight bypasses are no big deal? Who are you looking down on? So disrespectful. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± Director Xu stopped Yang Ping, ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll have Doctor Chu switch the case for you. You¡¯ll be the chief surgeon for the eight bypasses, and I¡¯ll be your assistant.¡± ¡°Doctor Chu, give this eight-bridge case to Professor Yang. I¡¯ll assist him on stage,¡± Director Xu arranged right in front of Yang Ping. After making the arrangements, he didn¡¯t forget to look at Yang Ping, as if saying, It¡¯s not that I¡¯m trying to make things difficult for you, you chose this yourself, without realizing how deep the waters are. Chu Shilin hustled over to verify with Professor Xu. After confirming, he smirked at Yang Ping disdainfully. Even he, Chu Shilin, wouldn¡¯t dare to take on this case. Yet Yang Ping had audaciously taken it upon himself, as if Anzhen were some place to ¡°gild oneself.¡± He really had forgotten his purpose. Clearly, they all already regarded Yang Ping as someone who came to Anzhen just to gild his credentials. And since Director Zhou Min had been consistently accompanying Yang Ping, everyone was sure this judgment was correct. ¡°So, should I set it up?¡± Chu Shilin asked with a smile. Yang Ping replied casually, ¡°Go ahead, thank you.¡± Professor Zhong had also arrived by then. Gradually, experts from Anzhen, Fuwai, 301, Xiehe, and other hospitals turned up. As judges observing the surgery, they had to be present at the scene. Director Xin was not only sweating for Yang Ping when he heard that he had suddenly picked a case involving eight bypasses, but also that it was the most difficult case. Finding a suitable moment, Director Xin approached Yang Ping privately and said, ¡°Professor Yang, why did you change the case all of a sudden? This case is very tricky. Even Old Xu wouldn¡¯t dare use it for a demonstration. Quickly switch it; I¡¯ll go talk to Old Xu.¡± Yang Ping smiled faintly and shook his head, ¡°Old Academician is doing nine bridges. This is just eight. Isn¡¯t this about selecting a chief surgeon? Wouldn¡¯t it be better to make it more realistic?¡± Professor Xin, a straightforward man, anxiously said, ¡°The demonstration is just to show the basic skills. With simple surgery, one can display their skills. If it gets too complicated and one can¡¯t perform well, it¡¯s easy to be at a disadvantage.¡± ¡°Professor Xin, thank you, but don¡¯t worry. It¡¯s just eight bridges. There¡¯s no real difference in connecting a few more or less, just ten to twenty minutes more,¡± Yang Ping said with great ease. Oh, my! Professor Xin was startled by Yang Ping¡¯s nonchalance, ¡°You make it sound easy, just ten to twenty more minutes?¡± Do you mean that setting up one bridge only takes a few minutes, on par with Director Xu¡¯s skill level? When it comes to vascular anastomosis, that¡¯s Yang Ping¡¯s fundamental skill. If the conversation continued, Xin might have been even more dumbfounded. Because it was a large office, despite the low volume of Director Xin and Yang Ping¡¯s conversation, other doctors around overheard it, casting contemptuous glances at Yang Ping. These were all academic elites, mostly prideful and aloof. They naturally disdained Yang Ping¡¯s naive claims. Yang Ping never cared about controversies. He saw no need to waste his time and energy on such matters. The experts greeted each other briefly and then, led by Anzhen¡¯s doctors, headed to a meeting room where they used 5G technology for the live broadcast. As Anzhen often held various meetings or trainings, it frequently performed surgeries for display, so it had a sophisticated live broadcast system. Many hospitals now had 5G live systems. Whether it was China Mobile, China Telecom, or China Unicom, they were all eager to support the promotion of 5G technology by participating in these live broadcast meetings. For heart surgeries like this one, unless one was on the operating stage, nothing could be seen from the side. Therefore, Director Xin didn¡¯t go to the operating room but stayed in the meeting room with everyone else to watch the surgery. Director Ming Jiantai from Anzhen was responsible for hosting in the meeting room. In addition to the experts, there were also doctors, graduate students, and visiting physicians from Anzhen Hospital itself. Director Zhou Min stood up, looked around, and beckoned to Professor Xin, indicating that he should come sit in the front, where seats were still available. Professor Xin preferred sitting in the back, but as Director Zhou had specially invited him, he reluctantly sat in the front seat beside him, joining Director Dai Yuansheng from 301¡¯s Cardiac Surgery Department. ¡°This young man applied for an eight-bypass case at the last minute. Today¡¯s case was initially supposed to be led by Director Xu, not for the selection. He insisted on taking it. Did you discuss this with me?¡± Director Zhou Min wanted to know if Director Xin had been consulted since Yang Ping had been recommended by Director Xin; they must have communicated privately. Director Xin was puzzled: ¡°No, I didn¡¯t know about it. Just now, I was even considering suggesting a switch. The selection surgery is just to evaluate basic skills, but he wouldn¡¯t agree.¡± ¡°This young fellow, confidence is a good thing, but¡ªsigh!¡± Director Zhou Min couldn¡¯t help but sigh. Director Xu had said that this surgery was difficult for him as well, and since Yang Ping wanted to give it a try, he let him, but Director Xu never actually thought he could succeed. So when he said he would go up on stage, he actually planned to be the chief surgeon himself. Having performed so many surgeries and honed his skills over the years, he had reached this level of expertise. Yang Ping, a child with barely any experience in surgeries, let alone being the chief surgeon of any. Director Xu had seen such arrogant youngsters before¡ªafter coming back from Cleveland Medical Center, they thought they could manage any surgery with their high spirits and pride. Once on stage, they felt they were geniuses, but after operating for a while, they realized they were just talented. As they continued, sweat started forming on their forehead, they thought they were just ordinary. Pushing on with a stiff upper lip, their hands began to tremble, they couldn¡¯t go on and had to admit: ¡°Director Xu, perhaps you should take over.¡± At that moment, the so-called genius thought he was nothing. ¡°Let¡¯s just wait and see. He must have some reason for his confidence; I think he is very sure of himself,¡± said Director Xin. He had some understanding of Yang Ping, so he didn¡¯t jump to conclusions. He had learned his lesson from the last time when they had the case with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, where he thought Yang Ping was just a novice, but he turned out to be a top-tier expert. Later, the case with aortic dissection, wasn¡¯t it the same? He said there would be no problem, and indeed there wasn¡¯t. He completed the surgery much faster than Director Xin. Normally, neither of those surgeries could be explained. Yang Ping had graduated not so many years ago, how many aortic dissections could he possibly be exposed to, how many surgeries could he have done to perform so well? Director Xin thought more and more mysteriously? Unexplainable, truly unexplainable. If Yang Ping really managed the coronary bypass as well, it would be even more inexplicable. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, just watch, Professor Yang guarantees success! What are eight bridges?¡± Director Xin¡¯s tone suddenly changed. Upon seeing Director Xin¡¯s confidence, Director Zhou Min and Director Dai Yuansheng were puzzled, and Director Zhou asked, ¡°How can you be so sure he can handle it? Have you seen him perform such a surgery?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t seen it!¡± Director Xin admitted honestly. You haven¡¯t seen it? If you haven¡¯t seen it, why recommend him? Are you setting him up for a fall? Director Zhou Min suddenly felt uneasy. Xin Weicong, what are you up to, making such a big fuss when you haven¡¯t even seen Yang Ping perform heart bypass surgery. ¡°You haven¡¯t seen it? You recommend him to come to Beijing for the conference and also suggest him as the backup chief surgeon? Why? On what grounds?¡± Director Zhou Min was almost ready to curse; he wondered if he should ask Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao how to handle this matter. ¡°I can¡¯t explain it to you clearly. If you really want an explanation, it has reached the realm of metaphysics,¡± replied Director Xin. Metaphysics, you talk to me about metaphysics for such a serious matter? Director Zhou Min would like to cut a piece from Professor Xin Weicong right now. Such a serious issue and he babbles about metaphysics. ¡°Why are you so nervous? Just focus on the surgery. If I say you can relax, then relax, understand? Didn¡¯t we ask Professor Yang during the meeting if he could do it?¡± ¡°Yes, we asked.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t he answer¡ªno problem?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s the answer he gave.¡± ¡°Then that settles it. If he says there¡¯s no problem, then there¡¯s no problem. Even if there is a problem, it will be fine. It¡¯s as simple as that.¡± Director Zhou Min stared at Professor Xin Weicong, puzzled by such logic, which indeed sounded like metaphysics. With this metaphysical mindset, Director Xin was very calm. The experience from two incidents showed that as long as Yang Ping said there was no problem, then there definitely wouldn¡¯t be any. As for the reason, he didn¡¯t need to understand right now; this metaphysical approach seemed to work very well. Chapter 902 - 902 791 Stomping to the Rhythm of the ?Chapter 902: Chapter 791: Stomping to the Rhythm of the Heartbeat Chapter 902: Chapter 791: Stomping to the Rhythm of the Heartbeat All the experts were seated, and the doctors, graduate students, and visiting physicians from Anzhen Hospital who could squeeze some free time after dealing with their matters, started to arrive one after another. Actually, surgery demonstrations like this are a common occurrence at Anzhen Hospital. Ordinarily, as the hospital¡¯s doctors, graduate students, and visiting physicians, they would not be so enthusiastic. But today, these doctors were obviously very eager. The meeting room was packed with people. There were not enough chairs, so many plastic stools were brought in, and still, there weren¡¯t enough, and people ended up standing at the back of the room to watch. Some hadn¡¯t had breakfast, rushing to the meeting room while eating; others came with empty stomachs. With a surgery to observe, who cared about breakfast? These doctors were all here for Yang Ping, a prodigy who had published 13 CNS papers. Now he was demonstrating a surgery, and not just any surgery but the pinnacle of cardiac procedures¡ªcoronary bypass. Opportunities like this were rare. Additionally, because of today¡¯s surgery demonstration, several leading doctors who normally led the surgical teams had taken a break from surgery, and, as a result, their team members also had the day off, enabling them to attend and observe the procedure. To say that the entire Cardiac Surgery Department at Anzhen was present wasn¡¯t an exaggeration. Was Yang Ping as skilled in surgery as he was in scientific research? What level was his surgery really at? Everyone was very curious. After all, research can rely on talent, but surgery? No matter how talented, surgery requires time and cases for refinement. It was like a math teacher getting the chance to see Shing-Tung Yau taking the College Entrance Examination in mathematics. He is a ¡°Math Emperor¡±; but can he really solve such examination questions? ¡°The surgery has already started!¡± A graduate student reminded everyone. The somewhat noisy meeting room fell silent immediately as everyone began to observe the surgery. However, the image on the screen was just from a camera in a corner of the operating room, not the one mounted on the surgical light. The surgery hadn¡¯t truly begun yet. On the screen, the patients for Professor Zhong and Professor Chu were already undergoing prep and draping, while Yang Ping¡¯s patient was still being intubated, and apparently, there was a minor anesthesia issue causing a delay. The experts had come with a mission and clearly couldn¡¯t relax. Later, they would have to assess the surgeries of the three professors participating in the selection. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, I have to participate in surgery today, so Director Ming Jiantai will accompany you all, my apologies, my apologies!¡± Professor Xu¡¯s voice came through from the operating room via the communication system. Director Ming Jiantai stood up to greet everyone. Today, he would be hosting the observation meeting on behalf of Director Xu. Director Ming Jiantai was also a student of Professor Xu and a top figure in cardiac surgery in the country. His skill in coronary bypass surgery was among the top five. ¡°I¡¯m not sure about the situation in the other two operating rooms, but we¡¯ve faced a slight difficulty with the anesthesia, intubating the trachea wasn¡¯t very smooth¡ª¡± Professor Xu transmitted another message from the operating room. No wonder the other two surgeries had already begun with the prep and draping, while this one was still waiting to start. The progress in the other two operating rooms was about the same, with the sterilization, draping, and pre-surgery checks completed, and skin incision begun, so the screen had switched to the surgical field view from the camera on the surgical light. Meanwhile, in Yang Ping¡¯s case, the anesthesiologist was trying to intubate the trachea using a fiber optic bronchoscope. There were three screens for observation, with simultaneous surgery start times for the three surgeons to save time. Otherwise, if all six surgeries took their turn, everyone would have to stay until the evening, which was clearly impossible. Finally, the anesthesia was successful, and both Yang Ping and Director Xu began scrubbing in. Yang Ping¡¯s first surgery was on a patient who required eight bypass grafts. Anzhen¡¯s doctors began the sterilization and draping, as Director Xu, accompanied by Yang Ping who had finished scrubbing, entered the operating room to put on surgical gowns. Yang Ping was the chief surgeon, with Director Xu as the assistant surgeon, and the rest of the assistants were two associate professors from Anzhen. Everyone took their positions, and once the surgical light was adjusted, the screen switched to the view of the surgical field. This case was challenging because the patient had diffuse distal coronary artery disease, a complex coronary heart condition. Their coronary arteries were like a bunch of spider legs, extremely thin, afflicted with atherosclerosis, solid instead of hollow, leaving no scope for grafting. This was the situation Elder Academician Meng found himself in¡ªwith diffuse disease at the distal ends of the coronary arteries. This case, elsewhere in China or even abroad, was basically deemed intractable; there was simply no way to perform the bypass, let alone several. Director Xu had chosen this case for himself today because it bore similarities to that of Elder Academician Meng¡¯s. He wanted to warm up in advance. It was unexpected that Yang Ping would be operating on this case. Since Director Xu was at the operating table, he could take over at any time. This case required the use of a surgical technique he had pioneered¡ªend-to-side anastomosis for diffusely diseased coronary vessels, allowing veins to arterialized which could not be achieved through any other method. Director Xu¡¯s new technique had already accumulated hundreds of surgeries. Thus, Director Xu never actually considered letting Yang Ping complete this case. ¡°This case has diffuse disease at the distal ends of the coronary artery, and the conventional method simply won¡¯t work. Let me take over,¡± Director Xu suggested exchanging places with Yang Ping. Yang Ping said indifferently, ¡°I know¡ªto block the venous blood flow in the heart, connecting it to the bridge vessel. This reverses the blood flow direction, allowing oxygen-rich arterial blood to supply the myocardial cells via capillaries. Since the venous walls are thin, we must precisely control the flow of blood entering the bridge vessel through the surgery¡ª¡± Professor Xu paused, surprised: ¡°Have you done it before?¡± ¡°Otherwise, how would I dare to stand at this operating table? The operating room is a serious and sacred place; I understand that. Director Xu, with a world-leading technique like yours, how could I not master it? Let me give it a try,¡± Yang Ping was confident. Chapter 903 - 903 791 Stomping to the Rhythm of the ?Chapter 903: Chapter 791: Stomping to the Rhythm of the Heartbeat_2 Chapter 903: Chapter 791: Stomping to the Rhythm of the Heartbeat_2 ¡°Okay, you give it a try. Don¡¯t use your eyes; just let go, Professor Xu will always be watching.¡± The patrolling nurse was preparing to equip everyone with head-mounted microscopes, but Yang Ping said there was no need for microscopes: ¡°Prepare the thoracoscope and its instruments!¡± Yang Ping turned his head to look below, and the thoracoscope downstairs wasn¡¯t ready yet. ¡°Performing with a thoracoscope?¡± The patrolling nurse looked at Professor Xu in surprise, to confirm if this was for real. Professor Xu was also completely baffled: ¡°Thoracoscope?¡± Common coronary artery bypass grafting could be performed with a thoracoscope, but this case required vascular anastomosis with a vein, and since veins have thin walls and the heart beats violently, the long-arm instruments of the thoracoscope are hard to control and fundamentally incapable of such delicate operations. Any mistake would tear the vessels apart. Moreover, bypassing a constantly beating heart required a stabilizer to secure the heart. Otherwise, locating and anastomosing blood vessels on such a vigorously beating heart would be extremely difficult. With a thoracoscope, it was impossible to place a stabilizer, so it was unlikely to be feasible. ¡°Professor Yang, you¡¯re using a thoracoscope?¡± Professor Xu couldn¡¯t believe it. Yang Ping firmly said, ¡°Yes, surgery under thoracoscopy. Isn¡¯t it written in the surgery informed consent? I¡¯ve also discussed it with the patient.¡± Although it was written in the surgery informed consent, that was just to cover all bases by including all possible surgical methods. ¡°Hurry up and prepare, don¡¯t waste time,¡± ordered Yang Ping to the patrolling nurse. Professor Xu did not stop him; the patrolling nurse had to comply. Professor Xu didn¡¯t intervene because he was on the stage and wanted to see how Yang Ping would proceed, as he was, after all, the author of 13 CNS papers and was unlikely to act recklessly. Furthermore, Yang Ping had just said¡ªthe operating room is solemn and sacred. The thoracoscope was ready, the various lines were connected, and pre-surgery checks were completed. Yang Ping started the surgery by creating a small hole in the patient¡¯s chest, inserting the scope and instruments. The operation began with harvesting the internal mammary artery under the scope. The movements with thoracoscopic instruments were so fast that they surpassed anything seen by doctors, including Professor Xu. It was much faster than open chest surgery by experts in coronary bypass. Since the internal mammary artery is extremely delicate and fragile, with a diameter of only about 2 millimeters, it must be harvested without causing damage. Therefore, even open chest surgeries are usually performed slowly; the slow pace helps ensure stability and precision, as determined by human limitations. However, to Yang Ping¡¯s eyes, a 2-millimeter blood vessel was considered large. Replanting a child¡¯s severed finger involved what he considered truly small vessels. Director Xu was startled by the sudden quick movements; he had just intended to remind Yang Ping to slow down¡ªthis was heart surgery. But the internal mammary artery had already been harvested and was handed over to Professor Xu. Since a thoracoscope was used for the surgery, and the two assistant surgeons were busy holding the scope, Professor Xu, the main assistant, had nothing to do. Professor Xu placed the harvested internal mammary artery on a wet gauze, carefully inspected it, and was finally reassured by its very high quality. In the brief moment Director Xu examined the internal mammary artery, the radial artery had already been delivered to his hands. Due to the special circumstances of this patient, who needed multiple bypasses, solely harvesting the internal mammary artery was clearly insufficient. Another vessel was needed for the bypass graft, such as the great saphenous vein, but the patient had severe varicose veins, so the radial artery was chosen. With the bypass grafts harvested, the next step was to cut open the pericardium and locate the target on the beating heart¡ªthe coronary artery and its branches. However, in this case, the coronary artery was already atherosclerotic, making it difficult to perform the bypass, so the cardiac vein also had to be located. The thoracoscopic instruments were like slim, agile hands, quickly cutting open the pericardium and finding the target vessels. Next came the most challenging part¡ªvascular anastomosis on the beating heart under thoracoscopy. Performing vascular anastomosis on a beating heart under a scope is extremely difficult because there is no stabilization of the heart, which beats violently. At this time, the vessels that need to be anastomosed are also undulating with the heartbeat. What¡¯s sought in vascular anastomosis is stability, which means preventing movement of the vessels and keeping the hands steady, a direct contradiction to the heart¡¯s beating. Under the scope, this contradiction is magnified. Thus, at this moment, neither the surgeon¡¯s hand nor the instrument could remain immobile; they had to move with the rhythm of the vessel¡¯s movement, maintaining dynamic stability during the motion. Only then could the vessels be properly anastomosed. Failure to maintain dynamic stability would result in tearing the vessels or uneven anastomosis, falling short of requirements. The first stitch began, then the second, and the third¡ª The thoracoscopic instruments were still swift and smooth, the needle tip almost stepping to the rhythm of the heartbeat, moving along with the moving vessels, achieving true relative motionlessness with them. In this relative stillness, one blood vessel after another was sutured perfectly, both stitch and edge spacing were impeccable, and each stitch was placed accurately on the first attempt, without any trial stitches or unnecessary motions. Professor Xu simply crossed his arms over the protective bag on his chest and stood to the side, watching the thoracoscope¡¯s display screen. Having performed coronary artery bypass grafting himself for twenty years, today he truly felt his eyes had been opened. Coronary artery bypass grafting could actually be done like this, with the surgeon¡¯s needle tip completing the operation in time with the patient¡¯s heartbeat. The shock brought by the surgery, to Professor Xu, was far more intense than 13 papers. Because coronary artery bypass grafting was Professor Xu¡¯s forte, he was the best in Asia. The realization that there were higher skies and people beyond people hit him deeply. Professor Xu wondered how Yang Ping could move so swiftly under the microscope and how he managed to time each needle stroke with the patient¡¯s beating heart to keep the needle tip relatively still. Professor Xu admitted to himself that even with more surgical experience, he could perform the procedure using a thoracoscope, but he would never be able to do it so swiftly and smoothly. How many surgeries would it take to hone such skills? But Yang Ping was so young; how could he possibly have amassed such a volume of surgeries? Could this be natural talent? It seemed the gap of talent could hardly be bridged by mere effort. Professor Xu stood motionless in front of the screen, engrossed in this display of genius at work. ¡ª By now, the meeting room was in an uproar, as people jostled each other, those at the back fighting to get to the front to see, creating a bit of chaos in the conference. Completing vascular anastomosis on eight vessels under the thoracoscope, even switching between arteries and veins, all while operating on a constantly beating heart, the movements fast and smooth. Again, this shock was more intense than 13 papers. This was a face-to-face shock, like watching a war movie, where no matter how realistic the 3D experience is, it can¡¯t compare to the visceral impact of actual, blood-soaked battle scenes. Professor Xin Weicong exhaled, having been worried as he saw Yang Ping¡¯s swift movements; he had been so anxious he felt his heartbeat in his throat. Now that the surgery was nearing its end, he let out a sigh of relief. When he said ¡°All is well!¡± it really was. Yang Ping quickly finished the surgery and immediately moved to another operating room to begin the next procedure, also using a thoracoscope. By the time Yang Ping¡¯s second operation concluded, Professor Zhong and Professor Chu were still performing vascular anastomosis. Professor Xin thought that it wasn¡¯t a matter of who was in line for the lead surgeon position but rather whether the Old Academician¡¯s position as the chief surgeon should be handed directly to Yang Ping. ¡°I¡¯m not in cardiac surgery, what level do you think Professor Yang¡¯s skill is at?¡± Professor Zhou Min had an internal medicine background and didn¡¯t know much about surgery; he had simply watched the procedure for the excitement of it. However, judging by the cheers from the audience, Director Zhou knew the surgery must be impressive, though to what extent, he didn¡¯t know. Professor Xin stated frankly, ¡°His skills surpass those of Professor Xu¡ª¡± ¡°His skills in aortic dissection surgery surpass yours, and his coronary artery bypass grafting surpasses Professor Xu¡¯s? Aren¡¯t you the world¡¯s number one? Isn¡¯t Old Xu the best in Asia? How come both of your number one spots are now¡ª¡± Director Zhou Min, caught up in the moment, realized his choice of words was improper and held back the last two words ¡°completely overshadowed¡±. ¡°Our first place status is true enough, but that was before encountering Professor Yang. He is a specialist at topping the leaderboard, a slayer of those in first place,¡± Professor Xin said without any hint of embarrassment, with complete confidence. PS: Professor Gu Chengxiong from Anzhen Hospital is the first person in Asia for coronary artery bypass grafting! The new technique of ¡°distal anastomosis for diffuse coronary artery disease¡± pioneered by Professor Gu is used in many complex coronary heart disease patients and is a world-leading technology. The ¡°Gu¡¯s Surgery¡± is also included in the European cardiovascular surgery textbook ¡°ARTERY BYPASS¡±, for cardiac surgeons all around the world to learn. Additionally: Certain details from the previous chapters have been slightly corrected. Thank you everyone! Chapter 904 - 904 792 Racing with the Grim Reaper ?Chapter 904: 792 Chapter: Racing with the Grim Reaper Chapter 904: 792 Chapter: Racing with the Grim Reaper After completing two surgeries, Professor Zhong and Professor Chu¡¯s first surgery was still in the process of vascular anastomosis. After making rounds to the other two operating rooms, Professor Xu returned and, after some thought, said to Yang Ping, ¡°When the time comes, you¡¯ll take the lead as the chief surgeon, and I¡¯ll be your assistant. I¡¯ll talk to them¡ªif it can also be done using thoracoscopy, the trauma would be lesser, and postoperative recovery faster.¡± It now seemed that in both surgical skills and speed, Yang Ping was superior to himself. Director Xu understood the principle that capable individuals should assume leadership. He decided that after the meeting, he would personally make a trip to 301 Hospital to meet with Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao and recommend Yang Ping as the chief surgeon. Meanwhile, the meeting room was already bustling with excitement. No one had the mind to watch the two other experts¡¯ surgeries; everyone was still discussing Yang Ping¡¯s surgery, even the graduate students who had just entered clinical practice didn¡¯t forget to offer a few comments. ¡°The speed is too fast!¡± ¡°And it was under thoracoscopy.¡± ¡°No wonder he was able to publish 13 CNS papers; his surgeries are also so immaculate.¡± ¡°Even faster than Professor Xu.¡± ¡°Yes, Professor Xu is the first in Asia, Yang God is probably the first in the world.¡± These graduate students, some pursuing a master¡¯s and some a doctorate, clustered together to discuss Yang Ping¡¯s surgery. They hadn¡¯t visited Europe and America to know the standard there; they could only speculate like this. At this moment, a doctor who had been working for many years said, ¡°I¡¯ve been to the Cleveland Medical Center in the United States. The level of coronary bypass there is not like this; Yang God definitely deserves to be ranked first.¡± ¡°Yeah, the procedure he used just now is also an innovative technique developed by Professor Xu, and he performed it faster than Professor Xu, and what¡¯s more, with thoracoscopy, whereas Professor Xu can only perform it with open chest surgery.¡± ¡°I heard that he was previously in orthopedics, and it hasn¡¯t been long since he switched to cardiac surgery.¡± ¡°Not switching fields, their hospital specifically created a Comprehensive Surgery Department for him; he can perform any surgery he¡¯s interested in. I have a classmate working at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, who knows Yang God well. They say Yang God¡¯s research funding is all donated by the community; he doesn¡¯t need to apply for research funds at all.¡± ¡°Comprehensive Surgery Department? He can perform any surgery?¡± ¡°Yes, from what my classmate told me, he has two top students under him, like his apprentices, who now perform surgeries at a nationwide first-class level. I guess they probably do coronary bypass better than Professors Zhong and Chu.¡± ¡°Wow, even his subordinates are that amazing?¡± ¡°Not to mention subordinates, the director of their department¡¯s laboratory is a doctor from Tokyo University, and a doctoral student of a world-renowned stem cell researcher.¡± ¡°Are you talking about Tang Shun?¡± ¡°Do you know him?¡± ¡°Not personally. A senior from Capital Medical University once studied in Japan and said he knew Tang Shun, said he had a lot of Japanese girlfriends, like mature women, young girls, and so on, all sorts of types, a true player.¡± ¡°Wow¡ªplayboy!¡± ¡°Apparently, his many girlfriends know each other and are aware that he¡¯s dating multiple girls at once, but they still get along well. I heard they have dinner together at the end of the year, haha, not sure if it¡¯s true. They say his number one girlfriend is a female professor from Tokyo University.¡± ¡°My God¡ª¡± The conversation drifted off-topic, but an associate professor corrected the course in time: ¡°Directly nominated for academician with the publication of 13 papers this time, you think?¡± ¡°Definitely, even before he had this many papers, I heard he was nailed down for Outstanding Young Talent. Now with 13 papers, a direct nomination for academician wouldn¡¯t be too much.¡± ¡°With such formidable surgical skills, put him in any hospital, and he¡¯d be a top director.¡± ¡°If I study under him for a few years, wouldn¡¯t I become very impressive too?¡± ¡°Apply for his doctorate program, right, aren¡¯t you taking the doctorate entrance exam next year? Apply directly to his program.¡± ¡°Does anyone know him well enough to help make connections?¡± The experts were now chatting freely on their own as well, paying no attention to the subsequent surgeries. The competition was over, there was nothing to watch; it was no longer a question of who would be the standby chief surgeon, but rather, the chief surgeon was undoubtedly Yang Ping. After receiving a phone call, Director Zhou Min said, ¡°Professor Xin, Director Xu has asked us to join him in his office for a meeting about something.¡± Professor Xin knew it was probably the matter of recommending Yang Ping for chief surgeon; what else could it be. At that moment, a young doctor came over, sent by Professor Xu to lead everyone to another office to discuss matters. Following Professor Xu¡¯s recommendation, it was only logical that Elder Academician Meng¡¯s surgery would be led by Yang Ping as the chief surgeon. When Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao heard the news, they were quite surprised¡ªhow was this young man so skilled in everything, even heart surgery? Elder Academician Meng kept trying to recall the unfinished half of the drawing, but he just couldn¡¯t remember it. With surgery scheduled for tomorrow, Elder Academician Meng stubbornly refused to undergo the operation, causing great anxiety for both Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao. They took turns trying to persuade him, but the elder academician wouldn¡¯t listen, determined to recall the other half of the drawing while his mind was still clear. At this time, he had already put his own life and death aside. Alas! Dr. Liu Zhida understood his teacher¡¯s thoughts, so he refrained from saying more, to avoid disturbing his teacher¡¯s focus. Several times, the elder academician felt he was about to recall the drawing. The doctors and nurses helped him up, but despite wracking his brains, he still couldn¡¯t remember the latter half. The entire day went by with the elder academician attempting to recollect the second half of the drawing. He even requested the doctors to administer stimulating injections, such as hormonal drugs, so he could stay clear-headed and think during the night. Of course, Director Nan couldn¡¯t indulge him. Once stimulant hormones were used, they could indeed have a stimulating effect on the brain, but they would also accelerate the deterioration of the illness. However, to appease Elder Meng, Director Nan had no choice but to have the nurse prepare a set of energy injections, falsely claiming it was the best kind of stimulant. The Cardiac Surgery Department had already confirmed that the operation for the Old Academician was scheduled for tomorrow. Once it was on the schedule, they could continue their persuasion efforts at that time; they could only handle it this way temporarily. Dean Liu instructed that they must seize the opportunity for timely surgery and absolutely could not miss their chance. Everyone planned to try to persuade the Old Academician again the next morning, hoping they could convince him. Thus, Elder Meng¡¯s condition temporarily stabilized. During the middle of the night, suddenly, Elder Meng struggled to get up, with the night duty doctor, nurses, and Dr. Liu Zhida all gathering around. ¡°I want¡ªto get up,¡ªI remember¡ªsomething!¡± Elder Meng was extremely excited, but his speech was still wheezy and fragmented, gasping for air. ¡°Paper¡ªpen¡ª¡± Elder Meng said tremblingly, urging Dr. Liu Zhida to quickly get paper and a pen. Dr. Liu Zhida immediately took out a clipboard and pen from his bag and handed it to Elder Meng. Clipped to the board was the unfinished drawing from last time. Dr. Liu helped Elder Meng steady the drafting pencil, as he was so excited that he failed to grip it several times. The nurse turned on the bedside lamp, adjusted the lighting, and with the pillow supporting him and an oxygen mask on his face, Elder Meng regulated his breathing and began to draw line by line, continuing from where he left off last time. Perhaps out of excitement, a brightness appeared on Elder Meng¡¯s face that had never been seen before. The tip of the pencil trembled as it moved, very slowly, but he persisted. The doctors and nurses supported him, Dr. Liu steadied the clipboard, and Elder Meng, gasping for breath, drew for a while and then stopped for a while. As time ticked by second by second, Elder Meng continued to draw laboriously, one hour, two hours passed this way. As he drew, Elder Meng paused again, gasping heavily, with beads of sweat the size of soybeans forming on his forehead. ¡°Elder Meng?¡± The night duty doctor sensed something was wrong. Elder Meng seemed to be in great pain, his breathing deeper and more rapid than before, his forehead covered in sweat, and his expression exceedingly agonized. ¡°Unbutton¡ªmy shirt!¡± Elder Meng said laboriously. The duty doctor realized something was amiss¡ªangina? ¡°Elder Meng, where do you feel discomfort?¡± the nurse asked. Elder Meng, clenching his teeth, shook his head, pretending all was well, and continued to draw. His hand trembled even more severely, and the sweat on his forehead increased. His tightly closed lips were also quivering. While assisting Elder Meng, the duty doctor immediately turned to look at the monitor screen¡¯s ECG waveform¡ªindeed, there was a clear sign of myocardial ischemia. Angina¡ªthe coronary arteries that were stented had become occluded again. ¡°Quick¡ªnotify Director Nan, it¡¯s an acute myocardial infarction!¡± The duty doctor shouted. ¡°Don¡¯t move!¡± Elder Meng managed to say four words through gritted teeth, then continued drawing, completely ignoring the anxiety of the doctors and nurses. Hearing the duty doctor¡¯s report, Director Nan Yingshu immediately realized this was another coronary occlusion because these arteries were already atherosclerotic; maintaining them open with stents was a temporary measure, inevitably they would clog up again, and now they had. An emergency consultation¡ªquickly! Director Nan lived next door; he instantly rushed to the ward, while simultaneously calling Dean Liu, Commissioner Qiao, Director Zhou, and others. Dean Liu, Commissioner Qiao, Director Zhou Min, Director Dai from 301 Cardiac Surgery, Director Zhang from 301 Cardiac Internal Department, and the various directors from Anzhen Fuwai all rushed to the 301 Hospital immediately. Yang Ping was also urgently notified from the guesthouse to head to the hospital for the rescue. One after another, sedans parked in the 301¡¯s parking lot, and as the experts got out of their cars, they all ran, some sprinting towards the ward, others heading straight for the operating room. ¡°Arrange for surgery immediately, take him to the operating room,¡± Director Nan decided decisively. This sort of acute myocardial infarction required urgent rescue, literally a race against the reaper. Every second counted; if a large area of the myocardium suffered ischemic necrosis, it would be hopeless. Elder Meng waved his hand: ¡°Not yet¡ªfinished drawing.¡± The severe pain in his chest soaked his clothes through, but Elder Meng, with his strong will, continued to complete the final parts of the drawing. In the middle of the night, the ward was surrounded by doctors and nurses, as Elder Meng, disregarding everything, continued his drawing. Only after the last stroke of the drawing was Elder Meng¡¯s strength finally spent, and suddenly, he leaned back against the head of the bed, gasping for breath. Surgery, surgery. The entire operating room was on the highest alert, doctors and nurses were in place, and Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao had also arrived. Quick, quick, quick. Yang Ping and Professor Xu had already scrubbed up; to save time, Yang Ping still chose to perform the bypass under thoracoscopy. Under normal circumstances, open surgery is faster and safer, and thoracoscopic surgery is not suitable for emergencies. But for Yang Ping, open heart surgery requires thoracotomy, while thoracoscopic surgery could be completed by just making a few punctures, definitely faster. Everyone moved quickly; Elder Meng was transferred to the operating table, the anesthesiologist intubated, and Yang Ping immediately inserted the thoracoscope, while Director Xu harvested the great saphenous vein; both worked simultaneously. In haste, Yang Ping located the coronary artery and the middle cardiac vein, then began constructing the bypass. The first graft was positioned, directly re-establishing blood flow, building one graft after another in succession. In one go, nine grafts were placed, saving the dying myocardium with the utmost speed. My goodness, each graft took just two or three minutes, even under thoracoscopy. The entire surgery was completed in one hour. Looking at the ECG on the monitor, Professor Xu heaved a sigh of relief. Such a speed in saving lives was truly unprecedented. Chapter 905 - 905 793 Lets Form a Group ?Chapter 905: Chapter 793 Let¡¯s Form a Group Chapter 905: Chapter 793 Let¡¯s Form a Group The meeting room was in complete disarray when an elder academician from 301 ¨C Academician Ding Shizhi had quietly slipped away. Academician Ding was over eighty years old, a professor in the Cardiac Surgery Department at 301, and he had withdrawn to a secondary position, no longer performing surgeries but still providing technical guidance to his juniors. Therefore, he had long stopped attending these conferences so as not to interfere with the work of the young people. But out of curiosity, Elder Ding brought a small telescope and sneakily went to observe the surgery in the meeting room. When he arrived, the room was already packed with people who were so focused on the surgery that nobody noticed him. He found a spot near the door, stood watching the surgery through his small telescope for a while, and then quietly left. Although the competition had been decided, all the doctors who were observing the surgery, including several experts, stayed until the surgeries performed by Professor Zhong and Professor Chu were completed before they dispersed. Of course, the waiting time afterward was essentially spent in idle chat, as everyone openly conversed with one another. Because the rescue had been timely, starting from the onset of symptoms, it hadn¡¯t exceeded six hours, and the speed of Yang Ping¡¯s surgery was very fast. As a result, the ischemic myocardium quickly regained perfusion of blood without showing any obvious signs of myocardial infarction. The day after the surgery at around nine in the morning, Elder Academician Meng smoothly had his tracheal tube removed, and his first words upon waking were, ¡°Zhida¡ª Zhida!¡± As his myocardial blood supply was now sufficient, he didn¡¯t have to struggle to speak, appearing much more relaxed than before the surgery. Dr. Liu Zhida immediately leaned in close as everyone helped the elderly academician sit up. ¡°Quick¡ª, bring me paper and a pen, I¡¯ve remembered something!¡± said the academician excitedly. ¡°Teacher, haven¡¯t you already finished drawing the diagram?¡± Dr. Liu Zhida, fearing his teacher wouldn¡¯t believe him, specifically showed the diagram to Elder Meng. Upon closer examination, it was indeed that same diagram; he had forgotten he had drawn it before the surgery, as he had been preoccupied with it, so it was the first thing he thought to do upon waking. ¡°Teacher, you¡¯ve already had your surgery, and it was very successful. Rest assured, now everything is fine; you had already finished drawing before the surgery,¡± explained Dr. Liu Zhida. Elder Academician Meng thought for a moment. His reaction wasn¡¯t so quick, unable to piece together the events from before and after the surgery, but the diagram was indeed real. Gradually, bit by bit, Elder Meng remembered some things. The diagram had indeed been completed, and with that realization, he felt at ease in his heart. ¡°Lie down and rest, the doctors said you still need to rest some more,¡± said his wife tenderly. Director Nan Yingshu added, ¡°You¡¯ve just had your surgery, you need a good rest, don¡¯t worry about anything else now.¡± ¡°Teacher, don¡¯t worry, the diagram has been completed,¡± Dr. Liu Zhida also comforted his mentor. Elder Academician Meng didn¡¯t lie down to rest, but instead leaned against the head of the bed and thought for a moment before speaking, ¡°Zhida, make a note, there might be steps in the experiment that need to be improved¡ª¡± Dr. Liu Zhida had no choice but to get his notebook and voice recorder; the teacher was always like this, always thinking about research topics regardless of the situation. ¡ª The day after the surgery, Yang Ping visited Elder Academician Meng accompanied by Director Zhou Min, along with Professors Xu, Xin, Zhong, Chu, and Dai. ¡°Professor Yang, I didn¡¯t expect that you could perform such a complex coronary bypass using thoracoscopy on an emergency basis. In the future, please guide us more,¡± Professor Xu sincerely said. Yang Ping responded modestly, ¡°I am still using your surgical method, Professor Xu. It¡¯s just that I¡¯m a bit younger, so my hands are a bit more flexible.¡± Professor Xu candidly responded, ¡°Holding 13 CNS papers in hand, you still say it¡¯s just a bit more flexible with your hands. Your level should be that of a master. Both your theoretical knowledge and surgical skills are of a master¡¯s level. As for theory, we ordinary people might struggle to produce even one CNS paper in a lifetime, whereas you directly published 13. In terms of surgery, frankly, even if you gave me another ten years, I might be able to perform the surgery using thoracoscopy, but I definitely could not do it as quickly as you.¡± Professor Xu was speaking the truth¡ªtalent is undoubtedly a factor that must be acknowledged. ¡°Professor Yang, are you interested in becoming a visiting professor at Anzhen?¡± Professor Xu extended an invitation. ¡°I am willing to learn from each other!¡± Yang Ping essentially accepted, which would allow him to spread his cardiac surgical techniques at the fastest possible rate. ¡°You can¡¯t neglect us, we also need Professor Yang as a visiting professor,¡± Director Xin didn¡¯t want to fall behind. ¡°The same, learn from each other!¡± Yang Ping agreed again. To tell the truth, if it weren¡¯t for Professor Xu¡¯s innovative surgical methods, no matter how well the surgery was performed, or how skilled the operative techniques were, cases like these could not be saved. Therefore, Professor Xu¡¯s new surgical methods had saved many patients¡¯ lives. That¡¯s also the reason Yang Ping was now focused on innovation. Practically all surgeries in the system space had been performed on a large number of cases by Yang Ping, reaching a high level of proficiency. It was meaningless to stay in the same place, which is why he had started to concentrate on innovation. Chatting along, they arrived at the elderly academician¡¯s ward, where Elder Meng was already sitting by his bed, working. Seeing the doctors come in for the rounds, he paused his work. Director Nan Yingshu introduced, ¡°This is Professor Yang. Don¡¯t be fooled by his youth; he was your chief surgeon. He was the one racing against the Grim Reaper, forcefully pulling you back from the brink.¡± Then, Director Nan introduced Director Xu and the other professors in turn. Elder Meng wanted to shake hands with everyone to express his gratitude, and he humorously said: ¡°No wonder, I went to see Marx, and Marx said ¨C ¡®You haven¡¯t completed your tasks, why the rush? Someone has got a hold on you over there, we can¡¯t let you go just yet, hurry back¡¯ ¨C so it was Professor Yang who held on and wouldn¡¯t let go!¡± Chapter 906 - 906 793 Lets Form a Group Part 2 ?Chapter 906: Chapter 793 Let¡¯s Form a Group Part 2 Chapter 906: Chapter 793 Let¡¯s Form a Group Part 2 ¡°Thank you, Professor Yang, and thank you to all the professors. Without you, I wouldn¡¯t be able to sit here and continue my work. From now on, I must cherish this body of mine and do more to be worthy of everyone¡¯s hard work,¡± the humor of the Old Academician induced laughter from everyone. Clearly, Yang Ping had become the main attraction during the rounds, with other experts gathering around him. After asking Elder Academician Meng some questions and conducting a physical examination, Yang Ping confirmed that the recovery after the surgery was going well. With the quality of these blood vessel anastomoses, barring any other issues, there was virtually no usage limit, and Yang Ping was extremely reassured about his own surgery. The advantage of coronary bypass over interventional stent implantation lies in the fact that it lasts much longer. High-quality bypass surgery also doesn¡¯t require long-term anticoagulant medication, and many patients that stents can¡¯t handle, a coronary bypass can. ¡ª After completing the surgery and ensuring that Elder Academician Meng¡¯s recovery was steady, Yang Ping prepared to take his leave from Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao. Upon entering Dean Liu¡¯s office, he was taken aback; several elderly professors in military uniforms were already seated inside. Seeing Yang Ping, Dean Liu immediately came over to welcome him in. ¡°Isn¡¯t this Professor Yang? Professor Yang is here, isn¡¯t he? Quick, quick, quick! Professor Yang, if you hadn¡¯t shown up, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to face the other professors. Let me introduce you. This is Academician Ding Shizhi, this is Academician Ye Daxian¡ª¡± It turned out they were several elder academicians from the 301 Hospital, which probably has the most academicians nationwide, with only Xiehe able to compare. The elder academicians immediately stood up, all staring at Yang Ping, this young man being the same one who recently published 13 papers and was also the chief surgeon in Academician Meng¡¯s surgery? Everyone found it hard to connect such high medical achievements with such youth. All the academicians were lovers of talent, and they took turns shaking hands with Yang Ping, making him feel quite embarrassed. ¡°Have a seat and chat, you¡¯re not in a rush, are you?¡± Academician Ding Shizhi asked with concern. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°I¡¯m not in a rush.¡± Sitting down, Yang Ping was observed once more by the academicians, their faces showing appreciative smiles. As the most senior among them, Academician Ding Shizhi said to Dean Liu, ¡°Indeed, heroes emerge from the youth¡ª¡± and he nodded repeatedly. Academician Ye Daxian remarked, ¡°You¡¯ve published 13 CNS papers in three months, young man. You¡¯ve set a world record. I think you¡¯re about to become our country¡¯s youngest academician. We¡¯ll all recommend you and vote for you.¡± Another academician commented, ¡°I heard you often perform cross-disciplinary surgeries, and you do them very well. You¡¯re from orthopedics, yet you perform coronary bypass surgeries better than at Anzhen Hospital? You have great talent.¡± Another academician added, ¡°It seems I¡¯ve led a sheltered life; I¡¯ve never seen cross-disciplinary surgery done in such an impressive way in the surgery field.¡± The academicians had long wanted to meet this ¡®incredible¡¯ person, and today they finally saw him in person. It was hard to believe someone so young could have already made such accomplishments, looking just like a recent graduate. Surrounded by everyone, Yang Ping responded with a shy smile, and seeing his modest demeanor, the academicians felt even more pleased. ¡°How is it at Sanbo Hospital? Are you enjoying your work?¡± Academician Ding Shizhi asked with care. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Very good, I¡¯m very happy!¡± ¡°Well, if you¡¯re not happy, come to us. We¡¯re ready to offer you a special recruitment. You can come in the morning and start working in the afternoon. If he doesn¡¯t treat you well, I¡¯ll scold him for you,¡± Academician Ding Shizhi said, nodding toward Dean Liu. ¡°How dare I not treat him well? You see, before meeting Professor Yang, when I saw the professors, my heart was drumming and I didn¡¯t dare to lift my head. Now that the professors have seen Professor Yang, I don¡¯t have to be on tenterhooks anymore. I haven¡¯t broken my promise, have I?¡± Dean Liu laughed heartily. ¡°How is Elder Meng¡¯s surgery? He should be recovering well after the surgery, right?¡± Academician Ding asked. Yang Ping replied, ¡°It should be good. The blood vessel grafts are very clear, and there are no problems now.¡± Sitting on the sofa, Academician Ding said, ¡°My heart isn¡¯t doing too well either. Sometimes I experience angina, and now I often take nitroglycerin to alleviate it. Dean Zhang from Cardiology suggested I get a stent, but I don¡¯t think I need a stent. Whenever you¡¯re free, Professor Yang, just perform bypass surgery on me directly. The long-term effect of bypass surgery is much better, and if the quality of the grafts is high, I can also avoid the hassle of taking anticoagulants every day.¡± ¡°Should we quickly arrange it?¡± Professor Yang Ping said with a smile. Academician Ding took it very seriously. ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯m serious, not joking. So, I¡¯ll get hospitalized today, and if the preoperative examination is fine, will I undergo the bypass tomorrow?¡± Hearing their conversation, Dean Liu was a bit confused. It was as if they were treating the coronary bypass like a minor outpatient procedure, ready to proceed with it today and undergo the bypass tomorrow. ¡°I¡¯m serious too. If it¡¯s convenient, would it trouble you, Professor Yang, to stay a couple more days? I¡¯ll arrange the hospitalization right now¡ªtruly. Schedule the surgery for tomorrow? Where¡¯s Dai Yuansheng? Get him over here to help me with the hospital admission.¡± Academician Ding started making calls, phoning his wife at home right then and there to have her prepare clothes and daily necessities since he was going to be hospitalized for heart bypass surgery. This call startled his wife; there had been no prior discussion, and now all of a sudden it was about a coronary bypass, upsetting news for anyone to receive on such short notice. ¡°Oh my, esteemed leader, I¡¯m serious. Right now, Professor Yang Ping is at 301 Hospital and he¡¯s available, so I might as well have the surgery done. Sooner or later it must be done, and it¡¯s better early than late, better a major one than a minor one to thoroughly solve the problem. I¡¯ll tell my daughter that I plan to be hospitalized for surgery tomorrow. I¡¯ll sign for myself; there¡¯s no need for her to intervene. Just informing her is enough,¡± Academician Ding Shizhi instructed his wife. Academician Ding Shizhi was not one to act on a whim. He had personally witnessed Professor Yang Ping handle even the surgery for Elder Academician Meng, and it had been a success. Moreover, he had seen the surgery, a thoracoscopic bypass performed swiftly and expertly, practically like magic. Naturally, he had a lot of faith in Professor Yang and wanted to take this chance to have his surgery done, rather than waiting and inviting more complications. Coronary heart disease, occasional angina, and particularly a left main stem narrowing significant enough for surgical criteria is like a ticking time bomb. It¡¯s better to disarm that bomb now rather than scrambling to perform a last-minute rescue when it explodes. After the call to his wife, Academician Ding phoned Director Dai Yuansheng from the cardiac surgery department to help him arrange hospitalization. Dean Liu didn¡¯t expect Academician Ding to be so earnest about this¡ªthat was way too hasty, wasn¡¯t it? ¡°Old Ding, are you sure about this¡ªwhy not think it over and discuss it with your family? There will be plenty of opportunities to have Professor Yang perform the surgery later,¡± Dean Liu advised. ¡°Indecision leads to chaos. What is there to think over? Think too much and the surgery will never get done. We¡¯re all doctors here; shouldn¡¯t we understand this simple truth? I¡¯m in charge of my own affairs¡ªwhat¡¯s there to discuss? Hospitalization! Surgery! It¡¯s just that I feel sorry to trouble Professor Yang.¡± ¡°One surgery must be done, and so must a second. Why don¡¯t we form a group¡ªI need my coronary heart disease treated too. I have a blockage in the left main. It¡¯s better to have the bypass now rather than waiting to get stents later,¡± said Academician Ye Daxian, also wanting to undergo surgery. Everything was thrown into chaos! Dean Liu felt today¡¯s meeting had spiraled out of control. It was supposed to be a simple meeting, but somehow it ended up with two academicians deciding they needed hospitalization for surgery, both quite determined about it. What to do? ¡°Indecision leads to chaos.¡± Influenced by Academician Ding Shizhi, Academician Ye Daxian, too, began contacting his family to arrange for surgery. These days, the incidence of coronary heart disease among the elderly seems quite high. Dean Liu quickly called for Commissioner Qiao, Director Zhou Min, and Director Dai Yuansheng to come together to solve the issue. Surely they couldn¡¯t let the two elder academicians arrange their surgeries so rashly. The decision wouldn¡¯t be good for them or for Professor Yang Ping. If something were to go wrong, Dean Liu couldn¡¯t bear the responsibility. Director Dai Yuansheng hadn¡¯t been performing surgeries these past few days as he would be following up on the postoperative treatment of the elder academicians. Commissioner Qiao, Director Zhou Min, and Director Dai Yuansheng, thinking there was an emergency, rushed over. Dean Liu took the opportunity to step aside and brief them on the situation while the academicians were chatting inside. ¡°Is this for real?¡± asked Commissioner Qiao, also stunned by the situation as a heart bypass was no trivial procedure. ¡°Old Ding asked me to help him arrange his hospitalization. Should I arrange it or not?¡± Director Dai Yuansheng was also dragging his feet. ¡°My head hurts. You know what Old Ding is like¡ªonce he has made up his mind, no nine oxen can pull him back. Can this really be put off? Start the arrangements, and we¡¯ll take it step by step. I need to think this through and then discuss it with their families.¡± As Dean Liu and the others entered, they found the room filled with laughter and cheerful conversation. ¡°Dean Liu, we¡¯re not disrupting your work by sitting here, are we? Otherwise, let¡¯s find a quieter place to continue chatting. Professor Yang, I¡¯ll immediately bring over the images from my last coronary CT angiography for you to see. Dai Yuansheng, here¡¯s my medical card. Help me with the hospital admission. Act quickly; don¡¯t waste time. Finish the blood work for the preoperative exam as soon as possible.¡± ¡°Me too, Dai Yuansheng. Put me after Old Ding; I¡¯ll bring in my medical card later,¡± Academician Ye Daxian also reminded Director Dai. Chapter 907 - 907 794 Gathering a Crowd to Build a Bridge ?Chapter 907: Chapter 794: Gathering a Crowd to Build a Bridge Chapter 907: Chapter 794: Gathering a Crowd to Build a Bridge The two Academicians were not joking around; they completed the hospitalization procedures at the fastest speed and then lay on the hospital beds, urging the nurses to quickly draw blood and arrange the preoperative examination. Moreover, both Academicians had not eaten breakfast and were still fasting¡ªit seemed they had come prepared, rather than on a whim. Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao rushed to the ward to work on the two Academicians¡¯ mindset, they spoke at length, but to no avail. After much persuasion, Academician Ding, running out of patience, directly retorted, ¡°What are you implying? You don¡¯t want me to have the surgery promptly? You don¡¯t want me to get rid of the ticking time bomb in my heart?¡± This counter-question left Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao speechless¡ªthey feared any further discussion would indeed lead to misunderstandings. The bosses¡¯ children of the two Academicians also rushed to the hospital to urge them not to be so hasty, that there would be plenty of time for thorough examinations and well-arranged procedures. Academician Ye, who had a better temperament, explained a plethora of reasons to his family and ultimately convinced them. Academician Ding had no patience to reason and directly asked his daughter, ¡°Do I have coronary heart disease? Have I been diagnosed?¡± The daughter replied, ¡°Yes, it¡¯s been diagnosed!¡± ¡°Is the left main artery blocked by more than 50%?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Is the left main artery prone to sudden death?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Is there an indication for surgery? Either a bypass or a stent?¡± ¡°Yes, doctors have long suggested a stent, but you were considering the long-term effects and have been wanting a bypass.¡± ¡°Now that there is a doctor with the world¡¯s top heart bypass skills, why shouldn¡¯t I have the surgery quickly, why waiting, am I supposed to wait for sudden death?¡± ¡°¡ª¡± Academician Ding¡¯s daughter was at a loss for words and gave up. To urge any further would be unfilial and akin to sentencing her father to death. So everyone was left without options but to proceed with the card by the two Academicians, the only hope being that the preoperative checks would reveal some contraindications to delay the two hasty surgeries. Unfortunately, the preoperative examinations of the two senior Academicians did not reveal any contraindications. After the checks, Academician Ding said to Director Dai with a chuckle, ¡°Were you hoping to find something so that you could say¡ª¡¯Ah, surgery contraindication, no choice but to wait and treat before proceeding.''¡± Academician Ye angrily said, ¡°Young people today are more and more timid. I can¡¯t understand it. Our surgeries are necessary, we¡¯ve met the best doctors, why wait, what¡¯s the purpose of waiting? Will coronary heart disease cure itself?¡± ¡°Yeah, these young people, when it comes to performing surgery on patients, are they hesitant? Without even seeing the patient themselves, just looking at the images they dare to make a decision¡ªsurgery! Yet when it comes to themselves, they become indecisive and timid.¡± ¡°Exactly, it¡¯s a sure thing, what¡¯s there to fear? We are all surgeons, believe in science, huh? Have the surgery early, feel at ease sooner.¡± The two senior Academicians¡¯ conversation among themselves made Director Dai and the other doctors nearby feel ashamed; the words of the Academicians seemed to make a lot of sense. The surgeries for the two senior Academicians were quickly arranged, and then came the headache-inducing news for Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao, the hospital¡¯s leaders. Somehow, the news had leaked that the two Academicians had been hastily admitted for cardiac bypass surgery in order to have Professor Yang as the chief surgeon. Several old staff members from the 301 heard and came inquiring, hoping to catch the same lucky break. Even worse, several old cadres who were in the hospital for physical examinations joined the bustle, hoping to undergo surgery as well. Since Academician Ding himself was from the cardiac surgery department and now actively sought surgery from Yang Ping, the exemplary power was immense. Those old cadres understood what that implied. Dean Liu calculated quickly¡ªthere were five or six people demanding to be admitted for surgery, and he could not afford to offend any of them. Wasn¡¯t this putting Professor Yang on the spot? ¡°Professor Yang, what should we do about this? I really need to explain properly, I truly had no prior knowledge, I had no idea they would demand emergency surgery so suddenly. Now so many people are piling up, this is getting¡ª¡± Dean Liu himself was at a loss, having seen many situations in his years as a dean, yet never had he encountered anything like this and felt at a loss about dealing with it. Commissioner Qiao¡¯s skills in ideological work were also failing now, as several senior experts and old cadres would not listen to him at all. They just wanted to quickly get the surgery done, seeing that Academician Ding trusted him so much. If this young man had no issues, Academician Ding, a cardiac surgeon, wouldn¡¯t hand over his surgery carelessly. Dean Liu was anxious, but Yang Ping was not¡ªhe would merely have to delay his return by a day: ¡°No worries, I can just postpone my return by a day. Whether it¡¯s one surgery or several, let¡¯s ensure the preoperative examination is thorough. If there are contraindications, it¡¯s straightforward, we¡¯ll exclude them. For those without contraindications, let¡¯s arrange together.¡± Young people, fearless as inexperienced calves unconcerned by tigers¡ªwhat if something unexpected occurred? Dean Liu always felt something was not quite right about being so rushed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s just a few surgeries. We can do them all using thoracoscopy, which disturbs the internal environment very little and has minimal trauma, with a quick recovery, so there¡¯s no need for too much concern,¡± Yang Ping reassured Dean Liu. Meaning, treat it as a minor surgery. Then, Dean Liu received another phone call and his expression darkened. After hanging up, he said, ¡°Professor Yang, I shouldn¡¯t have arranged this meeting. Now, several more people are clamoring for hospitalization and surgery, and the number has risen to 11.¡± ¡°Look, 11 people have already been admitted to cardiac surgery; they are either our senior experts or old cadres. What should we do? I¡¯ve just told Dai Yuansheng, we can¡¯t accept any more, absolutely no more admissions, and for surgeries, we¡¯ll schedule for another time.¡± Chapter 908 - 908 794 Gathering a Crowd to Build a Bridge_2 ?Chapter 908: Chapter 794: Gathering a Crowd to Build a Bridge_2 Chapter 908: Chapter 794: Gathering a Crowd to Build a Bridge_2 Dean Liu now dared not do anything else and personally came to handle the matter. Several academicians, along with some elderly cadres, gathering to build a bridge, whatever the case, it was a big event. No matter how Dean Liu and Commissioner Qiao tried to persuade them, these elders remained stubborn, insisting that surgery be arranged as quickly as possible. Some even confidently claimed they were experiencing chest pains day and night, at high risk of sudden death, arguing that if the surgery wasn¡¯t performed promptly, there could be life-threatening hazards at any moment. Others said their conditions were severe, with high surgical difficulties and poor physical states, so only minimally invasive surgery would do, which meant they could only trouble Professor Yang. In such situations, Dean Liu had no choice but to ask Yang Ping to stay and slowly perform the surgeries with precision. Thus, the eleven surgeries were scheduled over two days by Director Dai, and Yang Ping had no option but to stay. However, five or six surgeries a day were quite easy for Yang Ping, given his speed. Having completed his mission in Beijing, Yang Ping also called Xiao Su and told him everything was fine and that he would return in three more days. He called Song Zimo as well, inquiring about the department¡¯s situation. Song Zimo said that Dr. Liao Ruicheng from Massachusetts Institute of Technology had been visiting Nandu Medical University for a few days and had been eager to meet Yang Ping. Dr. Liao Ruicheng, a distinguished alumnus of Nandu Medical University, was now the director of a key stem cell research project in the United States and an academician of the American Academy of Sciences. Yang Ping was aware of him. In two days, Yang Ping completed the eleven surgeries, all through thoracoscopic minimally invasive procedures, addressing the ¡°heart concerns¡± of the old academicians and cadres. The few old academicians and cadres could not stop praising Yang Ping, all asking Dean Liu when he would bring Yang Ping on board. Dean Liu now had another headache, guessing he would have to take a detour when encountering these heavyweights in the future. Now, the academicians were uniting to nominate Yang Ping for an academician role, believing it a pity if such medical achievements were not recognized with such an honor. On the third day, after Yang Ping finished his rounds, Elder Academician Meng had recovered remarkably well from surgery, already getting out of bed and moving freely. The other eleven surgeries performed on the veteran experts and cadres were also recovering very well, which allowed Yang Ping to fly back to Nandu with peace of mind. ¡ª Returning to Sanbo Hospital, Yang Ping hurried to work early the next morning. Song Zimo said, ¡°Dr. Liao Ruicheng from Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been visiting Nandu Medical University these past few days and has requested to meet you. However, you were not at the hospital, and Dr. Liao has been waiting. Nandu Medical University instructed us to inform them immediately upon your return; Dr. Liao seems determined to see you.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s meet then, when?¡± Yang Ping felt that since it was a guest from Nandu Medical University, there was no harm in meeting. Song Zimo smiled, ¡°They have already arrived at Sanbo Hospital and are currently at the Department of Science and Education. They should be here at the department shortly.¡± ¡°That quick?¡± Yang Ping expressed, surprised. Song Zimo said, ¡°I relayed the news of your return to Director Zhou yesterday, and he probably notified them right then. Dr. Liao, eager as ever, came early this morning. In the past few days, Dr. Liao made several trips here looking to visit the Stem Cell Laboratory. Zhang Lin refused, which really infuriated Director Zhou. Zhang Lin¡¯s position was¡ª¡¯Without Professor Yang¡¯s return, the laboratory will not accept any visitor!''¡± Yang Ping nodded, ¡°That¡¯s correct, the Stem Cell Laboratory is currently at a crucial stage of experimentation, some information needs to remain confidential and should not be made public, so any visitation was refused. This was my directive before leaving, and without my return, no outsiders were to be given access.¡± Zhang Lin was not only responsible for the department¡¯s clinical practice management but also for overseeing lab visitation and learning. Yang Ping approved of Zhang Lin¡¯s actions. Some things are simply a matter of principle, where personal feelings and face don¡¯t apply. Indeed, just after finishing his handover, Yang Ping received a call. It was Director Zhou on the phone, briefly mentioning Dr. Liao¡¯s visit. Yang Ping responded that he was already in his department and ready to meet at any time. Yang Ping asked Xu Zhiliang to lead the doctors to conduct surgery, while Song Zimo and Zhang Lin stayed to accompany him as they awaited the visitors. About ten to twenty minutes later, Dr. Liao arrived at the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s office, accompanied by Dean Xia, Dean Sun, Director Zhou, and a vice chancellor from Nandu Medical University. For others, an academician from the American Academy of Sciences was an important figure, but for Yang Ping, it wasn¡¯t anything out of the ordinary. A meeting was merely a formality, after all, since the visitor was a guest of Nandu Medical University and also an alumnus. ¡°Professor Yang, it is an honor to meet you¡ª¡± Dr. Liao, dressed in a shirt, tie, and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, looked refined and elegant. Yang Ping shook hands with Dr. Liao, ¡°Hello, it is an honor to meet you. Please have a seat!¡± ¡°I have read your articles in the United States, Professor Yang. They are truly remarkable. The world of medicine has not seen anything this exciting for a long time. Professor Yang is a shining light among our compatriots!¡± Dr. Liao perhaps spoke English regularly and thus spoke Chinese a bit less fluently. ¡°You flatter me, Dr. Liao, I simply got carried away and published a few articles,¡± Yang Ping demurred with a wave of his hand. ¡°Having finally met you today, Professor Yang, I must say I did not expect that you were a surgeon. I always thought you must be an expert in basic medical science or biology.¡± ¡°That is why I consider it just a hobby.¡± ¡°No, no, no, in front of Professor Yang, we are the amateurs.¡± In the Comprehensive Surgery Department¡¯s doctor¡¯s office, everyone sat down and chatted amicably. Dr. Liao was not familiar with Sanbo Hospital, but he knew Nandu Medical University very well, having graduated from there. ¡°We at Stanford have also been conducting some research work in the stem cell field, although not as groundbreaking as Professor Yang¡¯s achievements. We do have some cutting-edge technologies. If Professor Yang is interested, we could explore collaboration. Although I have left my homeland and have been working in the United States, I have always wanted to do something for my alma mater,¡± Dr. Liao said with emotion. Dr. Liao was now the director of the Stem Cell Institute at Stanford, and he was keen to establish a collaboration with Nandu Medical University. ¡°I am very grateful to Dr. Liao. Our Stem Cell Laboratory has just been established. Both our team and research results are still very weak, and our research topics are quite limited. We are not yet ready to work with top international laboratories, but we will certainly have opportunities in the future,¡± Yang Ping replied diplomatically. In terms of scientific research, Yang Ping¡¯s principle was¡ªmaintain independence and self-reliance. Therefore, any external collaboration had to be selected very carefully, prioritizing his own interests and finding partners that were complementary. In simple terms, the other party must possess the resources and technology that he wanted. The so-called collaboration was an exchange of resources and technology. Now, in the field of stem cells, Yang Ping was arguably ahead of the curve. He was well aware of the progress being made in other laboratories around the world, and he felt no immediate need to collaborate. Moreover, it was a critical moment for his experiments, and many aspects were not suitable for disclosure. Collaborating now risked leaking secrets. Yang Ping was blunt in this regard; the so-called noble spirit of sharing was nonsense to him. Either there was a value exchange, or the matter was genuinely trivial and occasionally shared by others to seem noble. If his findings were to be prematurely leaked and someone else filed patents on them, it could lead to them charging him patent fees and limiting his own development, which would be troublesome. This kind of situation was all too common in the world. So, it¡¯s fine to be noble at times, but before you do so, you need to firmly hold the initiative in your own hands. Dr. Liao did not expect to be turned down so tactfully by Yang Ping. ¡°Professor Yang is being modest. But this is a virtue of ours as Easterners, which I greatly admire. Your laboratory is already world-class, Professor Yang. I wonder if it would be possible for me to visit and learn from it?¡± Dr. Liao¡¯s purpose for this visit was twofold: to establish contact with Yang Ping in the hope of forging some sort of collaboration, and to tour Yang Ping¡¯s laboratory with the hope of gaining some valuable information. ¡°Dr. Zhang must have already told you, our laboratory currently has some issues and is undergoing rectification. It is not convenient for visitors.¡± Yang Ping declined once again with tact. When Yang Ping was working on skin expansion technology, he did not consider it significant, so it was no problem for anyone to come and visit. However, the experiments being done in the laboratory now were different and crucial steps that were absolutely confidential, and hence not open for visitation. Of course, even if a visit occurred, not much could be discerned, but still, it was better to be cautious. Chapter 909 - 909 795 Start Your Own Journal ?Chapter 909: Chapter 795: Start Your Own Journal Chapter 909: Chapter 795: Start Your Own Journal The invitations for cooperation and visits to Yang Ping¡¯s Laboratory were both subtly declined. Dr. Liao was quite disappointed, and upon seeing Dr. Liao¡¯s disheartened expression, both Director Zhou and Vice Principal Rong of Nandu Medical University felt that Yang Ping was a bit excessive. The man was an alumnus, and also a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, offering cooperation to help Nandu Medical University. How could Yang Ping carelessly reject others? Didn¡¯t it seem a bit arrogant? Director Zhou, having spent a few years in the United States for his studies, had a profound understanding of American research capabilities. Stanford¡¯s Stem Cells Institute is a world-class laboratory that generally doesn¡¯t easily collaborate with other teams, especially not with Chinese universities or hospitals. With Dr. Liao facilitating this rare opportunity, it was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Director Zhou looked at Dean Xia¡¯s face, hoping he would say something, but Dean Xia seemed to make no indication, tacitly accepting Yang Ping¡¯s refusal. Vice Principal Rong saw that no one from Sanbo Hospital had spoken up, what more could he say. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± Director Zhou wanted to give a private reminder. Dean Xia kicked Director Zhou¡¯s shoe lightly, then made a gesture with his eyes, suggesting not to interfere, for Yang Ping had his own plans. Only Dean Xia understood clearly that refusing was normal; Yang Ping was a powerhouse with 13 CNS papers, and such a talent would also be top-tier in the United States. What would a membership in the United States National Academy of Sciences mean to him? Why should we mortals trouble our heads with the affairs of geniuses? ¡°Professor Yang, may I visit your skin expansion experiment? We plan to replicate your experiment, but the specific formula for the inducer was not discussed in your paper?¡± Dr. Liao asked, looking for another approach. This time, Yang Ping readily agreed, ¡°Dr. Zhang, contact Director Tang to provide Dr. Liao with a complete set of inducers.¡± Dr. Liao had thought he could obtain the formula, but Yang Ping only provided a ready-made biological agent, and selectively ignored the request for a visit. The refusal to provide the formula for the inducers suggested that Professor Yang was a shrewd man; Dr. Liao came to understand him better through their interactions. Yang Ping had good reason to be extra cautious with his technology. Whether it¡¯s the Americans or the Japanese, they are actually more cunning than we imagine. There have been times when we¡¯ve had some advanced technologies, and under the guise of exchange and cooperation, they took all the materials, later claiming our technology was outdated. Yet, these ¡°outdated¡± technologies would quietly become theirs. These people sometimes take a condescending approach, offering to review your work, but during the review process, they extract technology, because many scientists believe that Europe and America must be more advanced. Therefore, they often lack confidence in their own technology and aren¡¯t very protective of it. Zhang Lin immediately took note and started contacting Tang Shun on the spot to prepare a set of inducers as a gift for Professor Liao. After talking to Yang Ping for a while without obtaining anything substantial, Dr. Liao toured the comprehensive surgical ward, followed by visits to several other laboratories in the hospital where Dean Xia introduced him to future lab plans. In fact, Dr. Liao¡¯s primary mission in coming back was to establish contact with Yang Ping in hopes of enticing him into cooperation and then luring him to the United States. So the ultimate goal was talent scouting. The Americans actually put a lot of thought into it, searching high and low until they found Professor Liao, whom they felt was most suitable. As a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences with sufficiently high status and influential power, and as an alumnus of Nandu Medical University, he had a connection making it convenient to approach Yang Ping, and it was all quite justifiable. However, after probing, Yang Ping had no plans to cooperate at all and was very cool in response. Even visits were denied, clearly indicating his real thoughts on collaboration. The others who had interactions with Professor Liao were different. They would have no doubts upon hearing the word ¡°Stanford,¡± and all would be in admiration, but Yang Ping¡¯s recent cold response made things difficult. Dr. Liao knew his own laboratory was behind Yang Ping¡¯s and hoped to exploit the authoritative advantages of Western technology. He insinuated that Yang Ping was on the wrong path in certain areas, to see if he could shake his confidence and lead him onto the path of cooperation. As he was leaving, Dr. Liao said: ¡°Professor Yang, actually, the microscopic dissection you mentioned in your paper was brought up by Stanford¡¯s Professor Weber a few years ago, but he later found that it wasn¡¯t viable and changed research directions. Now they are far ahead in the field of Digital Human. I can offer a small favor by introducing you to visit their lab. Science knows no borders, and I¡¯m sure they will agree.¡± Dr. Liao brought up Professor Weber, a Nobel Prize winner. The implication was clear: your technology is outdated, let us help you figure out what¡¯s what. Yang Ping smiled lightly, ¡°The concept of microscopic dissection proposed by Professor Weber before is fundamentally different from mine. He never really understood what microscopic dissection is, so naturally, he couldn¡¯t propose the correct concept. It¡¯s normal for him to hit a dead end when running on the wrong path.¡± Questioning Professor Weber¡¯s understanding of microscopic dissection? Was this young person really challenging a Nobel Prize winner? ¡°He is a Nobel Prize laureate,¡± Dr. Liao reminded. Yang Ping laughed again, ¡°Winning the Nobel Prize doesn¡¯t directly relate to whether he understands microscopic dissection, just as my proficiency in surgery has no direct correlation with being adept at regulating blood sugar for diabetes.¡± Before departing, in the doctor¡¯s office, the two scholars began another debate, and others could only watch. Chapter 910 - 910 795 Start Your Own Journal_2 ?Chapter 910: Chapter 795: Start Your Own Journal_2 Chapter 910: Chapter 795: Start Your Own Journal_2 A god who holds 13 CNS papers, a member of the American Academy of Sciences, it seems difficult for others to keep up with the pace of the debate. ¡°I can introduce you to meet Professor Weber in person and listen to his insights on the research of Digital Human technology,¡± Dr. Liao continued to insist. If Yang Ping didn¡¯t dispel his idea soon, the conversation would likely go on. ¡°I¡¯ve read all of Professor Weber¡¯s papers,¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°I respect the contributions he has made, but many of his ideas in the past decade are clearly outdated, and even his peak accomplishments were not as earth-shattering as imagined.¡± Dr. Liao genuinely admired such a confident young man, even if not asked to do so by anyone, he liked this young person. Calling him arrogant or proud would be a misunderstanding of the mentality of a genius; which genius isn¡¯t proud? Continuing the conversation would not lead to any results, only a waste of time. Thus, Dr. Liao¡¯s visit to Sanbo concluded hastily, but this was only the beginning, he would come again later. ¡ª After Dr. Liao left, Dean Xia took the opportunity to have a heart-to-heart with Yang Ping, calling over Dean Sun and Director Han to drink tea in Yang Ping¡¯s office. Normally, it was difficult for them to get together, but now, having sent off the visiting group, they all happened to be free to have tea and chat. Dean Xia had already implemented the Human Resources Office¡¯s previous suggestion of forming a logistics group; he had recruited Sisi¡¯s dad into Sanbo Hospital, and the rest of the staff were personally appointed by him. The logistics were undergoing pre-job training and would soon get into their roles. Not long ago, due to Yang Ping¡¯s paper, Dean Xia was called to report to the Provincial Hall. The leaders were very pleased and instructed him on the spot that such talents must be well managed, setting a hard target for Dean Xia¡ªno less than 5 CNS papers a year. Of course, Dean Xia kept this to himself. After returning, he only discussed it with Director Han and Dean Sun and hadn¡¯t told anyone else, certainly not Yang Ping. Genius cannot be controlled; how could one set such rigid targets? The leaders were well-intentioned and supportive of Sanbo Hospital, but their approach was obviously incorrect. Dean Xia could not refute them to their face, so he humored them with a chuckle. For a genius like Yang Ping, Dean Xia had his own method, which was to ¡°govern by doing nothing.¡± Just provide him with a free, relaxed, comfortable, and fair environment. There was no need to manage anything else; as long as he didn¡¯t break the law, let him do as he pleases. Ever since Yang Ping set up the Comprehensive Surgery Department, Dean Xia had not given him a single directive, let alone issue rigid targets. Dean Xia was very clear in his mind that he was nothing in front of Yang Ping when it came to clinical and research work. How to guide Yang Ping¡¯s work? How to evaluate and review his work? Therefore, ¡°governing by doing nothing¡± was the best way, letting him experiment according to his own ideas, anything goes. Now that the leaders demanded 5 CNS papers a year, Dean Xia could not agree. He would proceed in his own way. As for explaining to the leaders, that could be done slowly over time. It was normal for leaders to be well-intentioned but not to understand such a talented individual. ¡°Professor Yang, let us know if you need anything, we fully support you. We don¡¯t understand the technical stuff, so we¡¯ll just be your logistics soldiers,¡± Dean Xia would always say these words. Director Han and Dean Sun nodded: ¡°Whenever we are free, we should get together for tea. If you have any issues, bring them up; if not, we can just chat.¡± ¡°Professor Yang, your 13 papers have left us all dizzy. We¡¯re still trying to catch our breath. You truly elevated the academic level of the hospital, the academic level of Nandu Province, and the academic level of Chinese Doctors. Next time you want to publish, give us a heads-up. Old folks like us have weak hearts, we can¡¯t handle the shock,¡± Dean Xia joked. Yang Ping waved his hand: ¡°I won¡¯t publish anymore.¡± Dean Xia, Director Han, and Dean Sun were stunned for a moment, not understanding what he meant. Had the joke not been right? Yang Ping slowly said: ¡°This is what I¡¯m planning. To enhance the academic level of the hospital, the academic level of Nandu Province, and the academic level of Chinese Doctors, simply publishing in CNS won¡¯t suffice. I think we should start a journal, a world-leading journal. I haven¡¯t decided on the name yet¡ªwhether to call it Medicine, Chinese Medicine, or China Medicine.¡± ? Dean Xia and Director Han looked at each other; the young man was so ambitious, wanting to start a journal, and a world-class one at that? Ah, we old folks think too small; it¡¯s the young people who think big. ¡°I fully support this. Let me know how much funding you need, and draw up a budget. A journal will require quite a few people, right? You can utilize any of the doctors from the hospital at will.¡± Upon hearing that Yang Ping wanted to start a journal, Dean Xia became as excited as if he had been injected with adrenaline. However, Dean Xia didn¡¯t really understand whether starting a journal was feasible, how much manpower, material resources, and funds would be needed; in any case, he supported whatever Yang Ping decided to do. ¡°Old Sun, support him to the fullest in terms of personnel, finances, and materials. You coordinate with Professor Yang on this,¡± Dean Xia instructed Dean Sun on the spot. Dean Sun immediately took notes in his notebook. This was a big event, not just idle tea-time chatter, and specific action was necessary. ¡°I only have this idea right now. Funding is not an issue, as the foundation will cover it; as for the talent team, relying on young doctors alone won¡¯t be enough for such a big journal. We must have the support of a group of top international doctors to bolster such a heavyweight journal.¡± As for the talent team, Yang Ping had already made plans. There was a WeChat group on his phone that was more than enough to support this journal. When it came to starting a journal, the excitement that had yet to dissipate inside Director Han gathered again. He pondered for a moment, his brows furrowing: ¡°For us, the biggest difficulty in starting a journal isn¡¯t money or personnel, it¡¯s that the ISSN is extremely hard to obtain. Many have run their legs off trying to secure one for their journal.¡± After saying this, Director Han thought for a bit before adding, ¡°And the name you¡¯ve chosen is really grand. Medicine? Chinese Medicine? Chinese Medical Science? These are all very significant names.¡± Dean Xia almost slammed his hand down in agreement but, seeing the boiling hot water on the coffee table, his hand stopped a few centimeters above the desktop and then drew back. ¡°What¡¯s so difficult about it, it¡¯s just about making the rounds. What¡¯s there to fear? Old Han, the two of us, along with Old Zhang, who has connections in the medical field, I don¡¯t believe we can¡¯t secure a journal number. I¡¯ll tell you, my stomach problems have almost cleared up. I¡¯ll drink them under the table.¡± Dean Xia was brimming with confidence and high-spirited. He had never been scared before, even with his stomach issues. Now, who is there to fear? It¡¯s just drinking and building relationships, no big deal. ¡°Let¡¯s not bother Old Zhang. An eighty-year-old man helping us chase an ISSN? Let¡¯s just the two of us do it,¡± Director Han said with a hint of sadness. They would need to make rounds at the Medical Association and the News and Publication Bureau¡ªit really was troublesome. If only there were a member of the medical academy to help, Dean Xia began to consider how to break the situation open. ¡°Isn¡¯t Old Su already an academician?¡± Director Han suddenly remembered. Dean Xia came to a realization: ¡°That¡¯s right, Old Su is an academician.¡± ¡°And Professor Liang from Xiehe, isn¡¯t he also an academician?¡± ¡°Yes, and there¡¯s Professor Liang, also an academician.¡± ¡°And¡ª¡± ¡°Hey, when you think about it, we actually have quite a broad network. What¡¯s an ISSN to us!¡± Counting on their fingers, Dean Xia and Director Han suddenly realized that Sanbo Hospital actually had a super wide network. With Professor Liang and Professor Su, one from the north and one from the south, both heavyweight academicians, securing an ISSN number ought to be a piece of cake. ¡°Xiao Yang, let¡¯s do it!¡± Dean Xia made a special trip to Yang Ping¡¯s desk and slammed his palm down with force. ¡°Xiao Yang, let¡¯s do it!¡± echoed Director Han. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Of all the things said today, those are the words I like to hear the most.¡± ¡°Which words?¡± ¡°Xiao Yang! From now on, just call me Xiao Yang. Don¡¯t keep calling me Professor Yang.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t do!¡± Dean Xia pondered internally. Indeed, even though obtaining an ISSN might be a bit complicated, it was achievable. However, the names Yang Ping had just proposed for the journal were quite ambitious. It was uncertain whether they could secure one. Yang Ping was so young, and Sanbo Hospital was relatively new. Securing an ISSN for a journal with such a prestigious name indeed seemed unlikely. But still, they would give it their all! Chapter 911 - 911 796 Rebuilding from the Ruins ?Chapter 911: Chapter 796: Rebuilding from the Ruins Chapter 911: Chapter 796: Rebuilding from the Ruins The establishment of the medical journal was not a whim of Yang Ping¡¯s, but a long-considered decision. It¡¯s a fact that our medical science lags behind Europe and America in the field of basic research, where originality is scarce. But we are catching up, after all; they have been developing for over two hundred years, and some things can¡¯t be achieved overnight. However, in the clinical field, especially in surgical operations, we are not behind but rather ahead. Chinese people have agile minds and hands, and they grasp skillful techniques better than others, which is generally acknowledged. For instance, in the Olympic Games, we are second to none in skill-based events. Additionally, with our large population and comparatively fewer doctors, each doctor, on average, performs many more surgeries than their foreign counterparts. Particularly in top-tier hospitals in China, patients from all over the country converge, which to European and American doctors would represent a vast volume of surgeries. Therefore, many of our surgeons are among the best in the world. Yang Ping¡¯s intention in founding this journal is to encourage everyone to dare to think, dare to do, and dare to innovate. He also aims to change some of the bad practices inherent in journals and create a truly respectable medical journal. At present, whether it¡¯s medical or other scientific journals, the top journals are in Europe and America, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom. This is because science and technology in Europe and America are unequivocally advanced, so naturally, the journals that record such information are based there. But now, with the development of Chinese science and technology, we should gradually establish some quality journals to foster a refreshing academic atmosphere and build a good platform for scholarly exchange. If there comes a day when scholars worldwide are eager to learn Chinese and scramble to publish papers in Chinese journals the same way we are eager to publish in English now, that will be the true sign of our scientific strength. After talking for almost an hour with Dean Xia, Director Han, and Director Sun, and seeing off the leaders, Yang Ping headed to the operating room for surgery. Nowadays, Yang Ping only steps in as the chief surgeon for special surgeries. For general surgeries, it¡¯s Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang who take the lead. Yang Ping must give the many real cases to them to foster their growth. Even the most talented surgeons need a multitude of cases to feed their growth. Of course, for some highly complex surgeries, Yang Ping keeps a close watch even if he steps back from the lead role, ready to intervene if necessary. For the doctors in his department, Yang Ping has no intention of letting them follow his interdisciplinary path, as it might waste their time and energy, possibly achieving nothing in the end. After ensuring they are proficient in surgeries of various specialties, Yang Ping plans to determine a specialty for each based on their talent and interest. Concentration in one field is the way to achieve great results. After all, he¡¯s not the same; he¡¯s an exception. Even as such, Yang Ping has no plans to be a jack-of-all-trades but instead focuses on key and difficult areas, breaking through them one by one. Yang Ping made a round in the operating room, where everything was progressing smoothly. He then returned to the changing room to sit and rest for a while before entering the system space to continue his experiments. ¡ª Teng Xinmei had been discharged from the hospital, recovering very well. At checkout, the total bill was over sixty thousand; Teng Shaokui returned the excess five thousand to Boss Li, expressing his gratitude with tears and deciding to work diligently for Boss Li, using his strength to help the moving company succeed. Hoping that the young girl would live a safe and peaceful life after having been freed from the torment of her illness, Yang Ping wished her well. In recent days, Yang Ping has been in constant WeChat contact with experts from 301, Anzhen, and Fuwai. When Yang Ping was in Beijing, these experts had all added him on WeChat. Whichever experts had WeChat added him, including Old Academics and senior officials. They had created several groups for easier contact, and Yang Ping was also a member of these groups. The patients who had undergone coronary bypass surgery in 301 were recovering well, according to reports, with Old Academician Ding even throwing away his glyceryl trinitrate tablets, ready to embark on a new life. Professor Xin from Fuwai recommended another expert, Professor Chen Yueliang, to join the WeChat group. Professor Chen specializes in surgical operations for congenital heart disease in children, but recently he encountered a tough case. Professor Chen brought this challenging case to the department meeting for discussion, but no one could offer a feasible solution. Director Chen then sent the case details to top experts in Europe and America, who were his mentors when he studied abroad. Even they said that there was no method for a radical cure at present and that another palliative surgery would not be effective. Yet this patient had already had three palliative surgeries performed by Director Chen, with the most recent one not even a year ago. Just because European and American experts are at a loss doesn¡¯t mean Chinese doctors are too. Director Chen didn¡¯t want to give up on his little patient. So, he thought it over and over again, brought it up for discussion, and theoretically, he knew what needed to be done. But if he didn¡¯t dare to switch the aorta and pulmonary artery during the first surgery, how could he dare to do it now, when the difficulty had increased by so much compared to before? At this time, Professor Xin said, ¡°You should ask Professor Yang from Sanbo, see if he has any solutions or if he could perform such a surgery.¡± At that moment, Professor Chen joined the WeChat group and reached out to Yang Ping. Yang Ping asked Director Chen to send the case files to his QQ email, saying he would take a look at them. Soon, Yang Ping received the case files. Indeed, it was a severe congenital malformation¡ªthe aorta and pulmonary artery were transposed, and there was a hole between the left and right ventricles. At six months, three years, and last year, the child underwent three surgeries. After these three surgeries, the left and right ventricles were completely connected, turning what were rooms with dividing walls into one large room, while the aorta and pulmonary artery remained reversed. If it weren¡¯t for the previous three palliative surgeries, I¡¯m afraid the child would not have survived until now. If the case had initially been meant for radical treatment, in addition to repairing the defect in the interventricular septum, it would have been necessary to switch the aorta and pulmonary artery from their roots. Such a surgery had no precedent in the world, and its difficulty and risk were extremely high¡ªit¡¯s no wonder that back then Director Chen only performed palliative surgeries and did not attempt radical treatment, because there was simply no such surgical method in the world at that time. Palliative surgery is out of the question now, as the two ventricles have been connected into one large chamber. How can it be palliated any further? If the child¡¯s life is to be saved, the only option now is to attempt radical surgery¡ªswitching the aorta and pulmonary artery to their correct anatomical positions and then reconstructing the interventricular septum. The difficulty of the surgery is immense, and the risk is extremely high, akin to rebuilding a house from ruins. The world still does not have a precedent for it. The surgery would be a major one, and it¡¯s estimated that the heart would receive over a thousand stitches. ¡°Bring the child to me for surgery¡ª¡± ¡ª The child¡¯s parents were probably very anxious; after Yang Ping believed that a radical cure was possible, they rushed to Sanbo Hospital from Beijing the next day to find Yang Ping. At the arranged time in the afternoon, the parents brought the child to meet with Yang Ping. The child, named Mai Zijing, came from a family of academics. His father held a Ph.D. from Harbin Institute of Technology, and his mother held a master¡¯s degree from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. Both parents rose from the countryside through the college entrance examination driven by their studies. His father, Mai Jifu, worked as an engineer at a world-leading telecommunications technology company in Pengcheng, earning millions annually, while his mother had passed the civil service exam in Pengcheng and had stable employment. Their family was thus well-off. Mai Jifu¡¯s hair was almost entirely white¡ªa testament to the hard work and effort he had put into his studies. His wife, An Yinghui, also had a few strands of white hair visible. The couple had fought through a multitude of hardships to get to where they were today, starting from being children in the countryside. ¡°Professor Yang, please take a look, here are the child¡¯s medical records, I brought everything. We appreciate your help,¡± said Mai Jifu humbly. An Yinghui stood quietly to the side with the child, letting her husband take the lead in the conversation. Yang Ping carefully reviewed all the records, then took them to the clinic in the ward for a thorough examination. His initial assessment wasn¡¯t much different from what he expected: congenital heart disease. The original condition was transposed aorta and pulmonary artery with a defect in the interventricular septum. In order to alleviate the symptoms, the doctor had performed three surgeries to gradually turn the two ventricles into one chamber. Director Chen had already done his best; otherwise, the child might not have lived to be eight years old. Director Chen¡¯s capabilities were also top-notch, but due to the rarity of such malformations, with no precedent for the surgery in the world, he could not perform radical treatment¡ªonly alleviating the symptoms through surgeries and buying time for the child in the hope that medical advancements would eventually offer a better solution to fully address the problem. ¡°Without the doctor¡¯s three previous surgeries, it would have been difficult for the little friend to hold on until now. We should be grateful to this doctor, who single-handedly brought the child safely to the present day because there is no known cure for this disease in the world. We¡¯re also attempting this for the first time. The risk is significant¡ªare you willing to take this risk with the doctors?¡± Yang Ping spoke privately with the child¡¯s father. Mai Jifu, being an educated man, understood the situation well. The risk was definitely high, and he nodded, saying, ¡°We are willing to take the risk. The doctors in the capital said before that if the child cannot undergo complete surgery, it would be hard for him to get over this hurdle.¡± ¡°It¡¯s good that you understand. The success rate of the surgery is only eighty percent.¡± Eighty percent, that was Yang Ping¡¯s usual way of speaking. Chapter 912 - 912 797 Walking Case Report ?Chapter 912: Chapter 797 Walking Case Report Chapter 912: Chapter 797 Walking Case Report Hearing Yang Ping say there was an eighty percent chance of success, Mai Jifu was so moved that he nearly cried. He had visited several major hospitals, where doctors didn¡¯t dare to perform such surgery, saying they had never done it. Even Professor Chen from Fuwai didn¡¯t have a good solution, but now the child really couldn¡¯t hold on any longer; radical surgery was necessary. Professor Chen sought out his mentor, Academician Wang, who specialized in pediatric congenital heart defects. After calling a consultation with everyone, Academician Wang felt that the surgery must be performed, but the risk was very high. All the structures of the heart needed to be reconstructed during the surgery, and it was possible that the patient might not survive the operating table. The success rate of the surgery was at most sixty percent, and it could take over twenty hours. At most sixty percent, this was just in terms of completing the surgery well; it didn¡¯t include the post-surgery probability of the heart starting to beat again. If considering the likelihood of the heart restarting after cardiac arrest, this sixty percent becomes an unknown. Because the surgery would be so lengthy, the duration of cardiac arrest would also be very long, longer than any previous cases. That is to say, even if the surgery went smoothly, whether the heart could restart was a question, and even Academician Wang had no certainty; it was all up to luck. However, at most sixty percent¡ªwhether the heart could restart depended on luck¡ªwas already the most hopeful thing Mai Jifu had heard. Just moments ago, he had been anxious and insecure; now that Yang Ping said eighty percent, how could he not be overjoyed? Looking at the excited Mai Jifu, Yang Ping felt it was necessary to objectively outline the specifics of the surgery: ¡°The surgery is very difficult and high-risk, but it¡¯s not entirely hopeless. I think there¡¯s an eighty percent chance of success; we can take the risk. The surgery will take a long time, about ten hours.¡± ¡°Ten hours?¡± This number excited Mai Jifu once again; it seemed that Director Chen was indeed responsible, helping him find a good doctor. Seeing Mai Jifu¡¯s expression, Yang Ping thought he was alarmed by the ten-hour estimate and explained, ¡°Don¡¯t be too nervous, this is only an estimated time. To reduce the duration of the heart arrest, we¡¯ll try to shorten the surgery time as much as possible.¡± With this, would the heart restart not be a major issue? Mai Jifu was now very familiar with this surgery, and concepts like the heart not stopping were also crystal clear to him. Since there was an eighty percent chance of success, Professor Yang must have performed many such surgeries, but Mai Jifu was too embarrassed to ask directly, not wanting to seem distrustful of the expert. So he asked indirectly, ¡°No wonder Director Chen recommended you. It must be because of Professor Yang¡¯s extensive experience in this area. You must have handled many such cases.¡± Without a second thought, Yang Ping said, ¡°I have never encountered a case like your son¡¯s. This kind of surgery should be the first of its kind in the world.¡± The first of its kind in the world, never encountered before? The confidence he just felt was immediately doused with cold water, and a strange expression surfaced on Mai Jifu¡¯s face as he tried hard to hide his disappointment. Yang Ping smiled, ¡°Although I haven¡¯t performed this exact surgery on a child like your son, I¡¯ve handled many cases that were more difficult, more high-risk, and so far, none have failed.¡± So that was the story. The confidence Mai Jifu had just lost was instantly revived. The roller coaster of emotions was too unsettling, like starting off hot and wearing shorts, then suddenly a cold front hits and you quickly put on a coat, only to be immediately hit by a 40-degree heat wave just after putting it on. Hearing Yang Ping say this, Mai Jifu quickly responded, ¡°I¡¯m willing to take the risk, willing!¡± These past years, Mai Jifu had either been taking his child to receive treatment or on the road doing just that. The child¡¯s life had cycled through surgery¡ªtake medicine¡ªsurgery¡ªtake medicine, without a single day of relief, and the entire family was shrouded in gloom, everyone with a sorrowful face. Fortunately, the couple had good financial conditions; they had already spent over two million on treatment. Of course, for their current financial status, two million wasn¡¯t much¡ªhis income after tax exceeded that amount in a year. Had it not been for such favorable economic conditions, the family would have been overwhelmed long ago. Now with Professor Yang claiming there was an eighty percent chance of success, and that the surgery would only take ten hours, there was nothing left to say; they should proceed directly to the operating table. ¡°If there are no issues, let¡¯s proceed with the hospital admittance,¡± Yang Ping said to Mai Jifu, who had no objections. Actually, it was that simple: admittance for surgery, there was no need for lengthy talks. Mai Jifu had never been so happy; he nodded eagerly, ¡°I¡¯ll go take care of the admittance now; how do I proceed with the admittance process?¡± ¡°Go to the doctors¡¯ office. I¡¯ll have a doctor go with you to handle the procedures directly. There¡¯s no need for the child to come along; I¡¯ll have the nurses arrange a bed for him, and you¡¯ll just go take care of the paperwork,¡± Yang Ping briefly instructed, and with that, the matter was settled. True to the top cardiac surgeon recommended by Director Chen from Beijing, his way of handling things was effortless, casually setting the surgery in motion with just a few words. When Mai Jifu first came to the General Surgery Department, he had seen several signboards at the door: General Surgery, Surgical Research Institute, Clinical Experimental Base for New Surgical Technologies¡ª Mai Jifu, though not a medical student, knew that the signboard of the Surgical Research Institute wasn¡¯t hung without significant expertise behind it. Exiting the meeting room, An Yinghui saw her husband¡¯s face showing an unprecedented ease, even his usually furrowed brows were relaxed. She discreetly asked her husband, ¡°What did Professor Yang say?¡± Mai Jifu couldn¡¯t contain his excitement, ¡°Professor Yang said we can be admitted for surgery right away, there¡¯s an eighty percent chance.¡± ¡°Has he done this kind of surgery before?¡± An Yinghui asked eagerly. Mai Jifu whispered, ¡°He hasn¡¯t worked on a case exactly like Zijing¡¯s, but he has done more difficult ones, and so far, the success rate is 100%.¡± Chapter 913 - 913 797 Walking Case Report_2 ?Chapter 913: Chapter 797 Walking Case Report_2 Chapter 913: Chapter 797 Walking Case Report_2 An Yinghui almost cried too, as after so many years of hard work, there was finally hope. ¡ª Mai Jifu completed the hospital admission procedures, and the nurses had already arranged the ward. The family settled in to wait for the surgery. Professor Yang Ping was in his office reviewing Mai Zijing¡¯s case file, and Song Zimo, who had just completed the laparoscopic training, heard about a patient from Cardiac Surgery Department and was very interested. ¡°When was this patient admitted, and what¡¯s the situation?¡± Song Zimo asked curiously. Professor Yang pointed at the screen, ¡°The patient was referred from Fuwai. Take a look at the details yourself!¡± Song Zimo immediately went through the case file, ¡°What happened here? The interventricular septum is completely absent, the aorta and pulmonary artery are reversed? The interatrial septum, tricuspid valve, and mitral valve are all malformed¡ªhow are we going to handle this?¡± ¡°They came to us for surgery, what else can we do?¡± Professor Yang said, without much patience. ¡°Is surgery even possible?¡± Song Zimo had a very strong foundation in cardiac surgery, but he had never seen such a surgery mentioned in textbooks. Professor Yang pulled up a drawing board on the computer, used the mouse to sketch out Mai Zijing¡¯s heart, and said, ¡°Total cavity reconstruction plus switching the aorta and pulmonary artery around!¡± Total cavity reconstruction plus switching the aorta and pulmonary artery around? After thinking for a moment, Song Zimo roughly grasped Professor Yang¡¯s idea: ¡°Reconstruct an interventricular septum, correct the deformities of the mitral valve, tricuspid valve, and interatrial septum, and then cut off the two major arteries and swap their positions for anastomosis?¡± Professor Yang nodded. Song Zimo was stunned, ¡°That¡¯s a massive project, like rebuilding a house from ruins. The number of stitches for the heart alone must be over a thousand, right? How long will the surgery take?¡± Professor Yang tapped the desk a few times and nodded slightly, ¡°Legend has it that the surgery time could exceed twenty hours.¡± Song Zimo was extremely surprised, ¡°Over twenty hours? Professor, if it takes you over twenty hours, what kind of surgery is this? If someone else did it, wouldn¡¯t it take days and nights?¡± Song Zimo had assisted Professor Yang in many surgeries for a long time, but none had ever taken over twenty hours. Seeing Song Zimo¡¯s inexperienced demeanor, Professor Yang said, ¡°That¡¯s just a legend. If I take charge, I estimate we could finish within five to six hours.¡± ¡°Professor is truly formidable!¡± Song Zimo gave a thumbs up. At that moment, Xu Zhiliang knocked and came in. Seeing that Song Zimo was also there, he relayed a message, ¡°Infection control¡ªThey did their routine check¡ªvia camera¡ªmonitoring, and saw you¡ªwearing your white gown open, with your hands in your pockets. They¡ªasked me to tell you, during teaching rounds¡ªdon¡¯t be like that. Now several students¡ªalso¡ªcopy you, hands in their trouser pockets, white gown flapping open, looking all imposing!¡± Normally, Xu Zhiliang wouldn¡¯t like to speak such a lengthy piece, finding it troublesome, but he had no choice when it came to matters concerning a good brother. ¡°Ah, it¡¯s just habit. Don¡¯t mind them. Come over here, take a look at this case from Cardiac Surgery. Aren¡¯t you very fond of cardiac surgery? Take a look.¡± Professor Yang said to Song Zimo, ¡°You¡¯ve watched too many TV dramas. In TV dramas, surgeons are often portrayed with their white gowns open to look cool.¡± Song Zimo hastily defended himself, ¡°Professor, do I even need to rely on a white gown to look cool? Wherever I stand, I naturally draw attention.¡± ¡°Alright, just be careful next time. During teaching rounds, don¡¯t wear it open. These students are really good at imitating. Indeed, several of them like walking around with their white gowns open, making sure it flaps as they walk.¡± ¡°Professor, if they want to imitate, that has nothing to do with me. But speaking of imitation, now August and Robert, before every major surgery, sit in the changing room for a few minutes, leaning back in their chairs and closing their eyes to rest, claiming to review the procedure in their minds. Old Xu, it seems you have this habit too.¡± ¡°Me? It seems like I do¡ªthat¡¯s also you, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Yeah, me too, all learned from the professor. Speaking of the case, Professor, this case is quite rare, right?¡± Professor Yang Ping said earnestly, ¡°The first case in the world!¡± ¡°The first case in the world?¡± ¡°A walking case report!¡± ¡°This one is mine, Old Xu, don¡¯t fight me for it.¡± ¡°Last time¡ªthat¡ªyou¡ªgave it to me¡ªbut I have¡ªone less than you.¡± ¡ª After settling down, Mai Jifu made a call to Director Chen at Fuwai to share the good news that he had arrived at Sanbo Hospital and met with Professor Yang. Professor Yang didn¡¯t say much, just that the patient would be admitted for surgery, which would take about ten hours, with an eighty percent chance of success. Just a few simple sentences, unexpectedly frightened Director Chen. An eighty percent chance, ten hours of surgery¡ªcould there be a misunderstanding? Professor Chen immediately asked in the WeChat group whether what Professor Yang said was true, an eighty percent chance? Ten hours of surgery? [Professor Yang, Mai Zijing¡¯s father has already called me, and he¡¯s very grateful for your help. There are two things I didn¡¯t quite catch and would like to ask here. Does the surgery require ten hours? Is there an eighty percent chance of success?] Yang Ping thought it over, fearing that Professor Chen was worried about this surgery. Ten hours and an eighty percent chance was what he had told the patient¡¯s family¡ªit¡¯s definitely necessary to be more conservative during family discussions and not to make full promises. It¡¯s possible that Director Chen misunderstood, worrying about the risk of surgery and asking out of caution. [Director Chen, actually, the surgery should take about five to six hours to complete, and as for the success rate, there should be no major issues.] This time, Yang Ping¡¯s information to Director Chen was more accurate, closer to the reality than the information provided to the patient¡¯s family. Director Chen in Beijing was now speechless. He originally wanted to verify whether the family had misunderstood, how the surgery could possibly have such a high success rate and be as short as ten hours. Either the family had heard wrong, or Professor Yang had a misunderstanding about the surgery. Director Chen thought it would be better to clarify things. Now, Professor Yang was saying it would take about five to six hours, with basically no major issues. [Professor Yang, have you done this kind of surgery before?] Director Chen asked outright¡ªtechnical people tend to think more straightforwardly, being direct is often better. [Haven¡¯t done it before! It¡¯s also my first time!] After sending that reply, Yang Ping didn¡¯t respond further because Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had come in one after another to discuss the case, and Yang Ping put the WeChat conversation aside for the time being. Seeing that Yang Ping had not replied for a while, Director Chen began to grow anxious. It was also his first time doing this kind of surgery¡ªhow could it be so quick? Impossible. If the surgery time couldn¡¯t be that short, then the cardiac arrest time must be very long, so whether the heart could be restarted postoperatively was completely uncertain. Given the uncertainty, how could the success rate be so high? Talking to the patient in such a way, if there was any mishap, the family might not understand, and disputes could easily arise. Generally speaking, doctors tend to be conservative in their estimates, allowing themselves some margin. Of course, unprofessional doctors are an exception¡ªthey always beat their chests, guaranteeing one hundred percent success. The other doctors in the group did not feel it appropriate to question openly in the group, so they discussed it over the phone with each other. Director Chen called his mentor, Academician Wang, who asked, ¡°Are you familiar with Professor Yang Ping? Have you ever performed surgery together?¡± Director Chen could only answer truthfully, ¡°Xin Weicong recommended him, so there definitely shouldn¡¯t be an issue. I don¡¯t know much about him, only that he has recently published 13 CNS articles. According to Xin Weicong, he does aortic dissections better than him and coronary artery bypass grafting better than Professor Xu from Anzhen.¡± Director Chen had not been present at the last surgery by the old academician, being a specialist in pediatric congenital heart disease, and of course, he wasn¡¯t on the invitation list, so he had not seen Yang Ping perform surgery. Academician Wang did not affirm or deny this matter, only saying, ¡°Still, handle it with caution, communicate more with Professor Yang. There must be some misunderstanding. You must not let Professor Yang operate under a misconception. The patient comes recommended by us. For the patient¡¯s sake, and for Professor Yang¡¯s, you must keep on top of this.¡± After hanging up, Director Chen felt uneasy, mainly because the surgery time was too short; it just wasn¡¯t possible¡ªthere had to be a misunderstanding. At this point, Yang Ping finally replied on WeChat: [I have done cases more difficult than Mai Zijing¡¯s. When I have time, I¡¯ll show everyone.] He had done even more challenging cases? [Professor Yang, I¡¯ll find time to come and learn.] [You are welcome, let¡¯s learn from each other.] Chapter 914 - 914 798 Actually Saw the Patient Only Once ?Chapter 914: Chapter 798: Actually Saw the Patient Only Once Chapter 914: Chapter 798: Actually Saw the Patient Only Once Because Yang Ping had indeed performed surgeries more difficult than Mai Zijing¡¯s in the past, not just one, he didn¡¯t feel as if facing a great enemy and appeared very relaxed, treating Mai Zijing¡¯s case as a common one. This, instead, made Mai Jifu and An Yinghui feel uneasy amidst their excitement, their hearts always fluctuating wildly. In the past, when they took their son for treatment, no matter which hospital or which expert, it was always a matter of great urgency; the expert would visit several times a day, incessantly asking questions, continuously examining, and ceaselessly discussing the condition, to ultimately come up with no good solutions. But now, Professor Yang was acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary, only seeing Mai Zijing once and then never visiting again, which made the couple very nervous. Song Zimo was a competent assistant, leading the Physician in Charge to perfect the preoperative preparations, and scheduling a time with the extracorporeal circulation team. The surgery must induce cardiac arrest because it involves opening the heart to rebuild the interior, while the aorta and pulmonary artery must be cut and then swapped in position for re-anastomosis, so it¡¯s impossible to perform the surgery without stopping the heart. Coronary bypass, however, is performed on the heart wall and doesn¡¯t require opening the heart, so it can be done without stopping it. It¡¯s like a house that needs to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch; the people living inside must temporarily move out to leave it empty. In contrast, if you¡¯re just installing pipes within the walls, the residents can continue to live inside without much disruption. In the past, coronary bypass also required cardiac arrest because performing vascular anastomosis on a beating heart was extremely difficult. Later, as doctors¡¯ skills improved, devices that could stabilize the movement of the heart were developed, making it possible to perform vascular anastomosis on a beating heart, so it wasn¡¯t necessary to stop the heart anymore. That¡¯s why sometimes you can arrest the heart, and other times you can¡¯t. Mai Zijing¡¯s surgery, besides being tremendously difficult and high-risk, presented a significant challenge due to the lengthy surgery time. The heart must be perfused with arresting solution, and under hypothermic protection, the arrest time isn¡¯t unlimited¡ªgenerally 3-4 hours. Although there have been cases where the heart resumed beating after 10 hours, that was venturing into the realm of luck. Surgery is only a matter of luck when there¡¯s no other option; if it can be controlled, it should be as much as possible. Therefore, Yang Ping aimed to reduce the surgery time as much as possible to increase the probability of the heart resuming beating after arrest. In medicine, many things boil down to probabilities, and increasing or decreasing those probabilities is an unceasing pursuit for doctors. Because this was a world¡¯s first, no one wanted to miss such a precious opportunity; several experts from Anzhen and Fuwai flew to Sanbo Hospital, including Director Xin, Director Chen, and Academician Wang, the mentor of Director Chen, came to Sanbo Hospital too. Surgical Research Institute, what a big signboard! Seeing the sign at the entrance to the Department of General Surgery, Academician Wang could not help but smile, noting that few hospitals in the country dared to hang such a sign. At the Department of General Surgery on the first floor, Academician Wang met Professor Cao Zhenshan, a colleague of several decades. Curious about how his old colleague was doing after retiring to the south, he took the opportunity to visit. The group of experts from Fuwai coming to Sanbo Hospital was a private matter, not official, so they had not informed the Hospital, with even Yang Ping being unaware. The experts felt there was no need for pomp and ceremony, as they were there to observe a surgery, not to supervise work; a humble visit was better. They had a bite to eat at Waterlily Bread Store arranged by Professor Cao. The Waterlily Bread Store offered a hodgepodge of ten items including tea, coffee, milk tea, bread, steak, fried rice, sweet soups, and such, covering most mainstream snacks. Her small store had been frequented by many domestic and international medical magnates. Robert, August, and Takahashi, who came to Sanbo for further training, didn¡¯t need to be mentioned¡ªthey were there every other day. Ever since Yu Shuilian got her powered orthotic device, she no longer needed to walk with her hands on the ground. Wearing the orthotic, which was covered by trousers and shoes outside, one couldn¡¯t tell she was only ¡°half-man¡±. A large poster at the entrance introduced Yu Shuilian¡¯s story. She was now very confident and never shied away from others referring to her as ¡°Half-Man¡±. Next to the bread shop, there was a breakfast store run by a couple whose daughter was studying abroad. They also planned to go abroad, so were not keen on continuing the business in China and sold the shop to Yu Shuilian and her husband. The space was larger than the current Waterlily Bread Store, and Yu Shuilian planned to remodel it into a place for doctors to casually chat and discuss cases. Having finished their snacks, the experts were then informed by Professor Cao via phone call about the experts from Fuwai and Anzhen coming to observe the surgery, after which he proceeded to take them to the Department of General Surgery. At that time, Yang Ping was still at the operating table, and the on-duty doctor was busy, so Professor Cao and the visiting experts were left to move freely. The on-duty doctor and students moved stools for the guests to sit and brewed a few cups of tea with disposable cups. With the permission of the on-duty doctor, Professor Chen met his old patient, Mai Zijing, whom he had operated on three times, and felt inadequate for the fourth surgery. When hearing that Yang Ping had only seen the patient once, Academician Wang could hardly contain his anger; his displeasure was evident on his face. Are young people nowadays so irresponsible? With such a difficult and high-risk surgery, the world¡¯s first of its kind, a brand-new procedure, not to review the patient repeatedly but only once, how can this be acceptable? Chapter 915 - 915 798 Only Saw the Patient Once_2 ?Chapter 915: Chapter 798: Only Saw the Patient Once_2 Chapter 915: Chapter 798: Only Saw the Patient Once_2 Seeing the disheartened Academician Wang, Professor Cao was well aware of the situation and explained on behalf of Yang Ping, ¡°Perhaps this case is nothing significant to Professor Yang?¡± ¡°Nothing significant?¡± Academician Wang couldn¡¯t believe such a statement. If Yang Ping were his student, with that kind of attitude, Academician Wang wouldn¡¯t rest until he had fiercely criticized him. He had only seen the patient once, what an attitude. Academician Wang¡¯s anger was not without reason. As an expert from an older generation, he disliked many of the professional habits of the younger generation, such as over-reliance on diagnostic equipment and neglect of physical examination. Many cardiac surgeons couldn¡¯t even properly auscultate heart murmurs. Older generation doctors, whether in cardiovascular medicine or surgery, were extremely meticulous in auscultating heart murmurs. Just one listen with a stethoscope allowed them to accurately differentiate various sounds, identifying problems and likely causes in the heart with great precision. Current cardiac surgeons, some of them didn¡¯t even want to wear stethoscopes. When a patient arrived, they first looked at echocardiograms, CTs, and other imaging data. However, young doctors had their reasons: ¡°I don¡¯t really need to spend time practicing auscultation. Basic proficiency is enough, times have changed. Nowadays, various advanced examination methods instantly reveal any heart issues, far more accurately than physical examinations. Why spend time practicing them?¡± Regarding the number of patient visits, during Academician Wang¡¯s era, multiple pre-surgery visits were required, repeatedly examining and questioning. But current doctors had their reasons too. Back in Academician Wang¡¯s day, there weren¡¯t as many patients, so of course, there was time for such thoroughness. Nowadays, with several surgeries per day, sometimes over ten, there just isn¡¯t time to see patients that frequently. Thus, there is indeed a generational gap among doctors. Professor Cao described the situation of the comprehensive surgery department to Academician Wang, ¡°Our comprehensive surgery department is quite impressive. The surgeries completed here are the most difficult across various specialties, currently including procedures such as spinal scoliosis correction, upper cervical spine surgery, brainstem tumor removal, heart surgeries, and more.¡± Academician Wang frowned. This was too mixed; it was the first time he had heard of a hospital having such a specialty. ¡°Weicong knows about it. At the last total aortic replacement emergency rescue surgery, from the carotid artery to the femoral artery, the tearing was very severe. Professor Yang finished the surgery in just two hours. I was there, and I have never seen such speed in surgery in my entire life. How can there be such quick hands in the world?¡± ¡°If you hadn¡¯t said it yourself, I would hardly believe it.¡± ¡°I heard that Professor Yang had already carried out many heart surgeries before I arrived.¡± ¡°Who was his mentor?¡± After hearing so much praise for Yang Ping, Academician Wang suddenly asked. Under whose mentorship? Professor Cao was at a loss for words now because he didn¡¯t know, and he had never considered this matter before, only now beginning to think about it hastily. Previously, Yang Ping was in orthopedics, mentored by Han Jiangong, who specialized in trauma orthopedics, then¡ª That¡¯s not right. By that logic, Yang Ping is an orthopedics doctor. So where did he learn cardiac surgery, and under whom? ¡°Who is this student? I¡¯ve never heard of him before, only recently did you mention him,¡± Academician Wang found this question very intriguing, curious who was lucky enough to have such a talented student. Based on age, Yang Ping should belong to the generation of Academician Wang¡¯s grand-students. However, being in such a tight-knit community, how could such an outstanding individual have never come up before, seemingly appearing out of nowhere? Thinking it over, Professor Cao really couldn¡¯t find the answer. ¡°That¡ªI don¡¯t know. I only know he is Han Jiangong¡¯s doctoral student,¡± Professor Cao had no choice but to respond this way. Academician Wang pondered for a moment. ¡°Han Jiangong? Which hospital?¡± Academician Wang, thoroughly familiar with figures in cardiac surgery nationwide, had never heard of such a person. Professor Cao replied, ¡°He is from Sanbo Hospital, previously at Shanghai¡¯s Sixth Hospital, specializing in orthopedics. Of course, you wouldn¡¯t recognize him.¡± How could someone from orthopedics produce such an outstanding cardiac surgeon? If that were true, wouldn¡¯t that be a slap in the face to us in cardiac surgery? ¡°An orthopedics mentor producing a cardiac surgeon?¡± Academician Wang was very intrigued by this issue and determined to thoroughly investigate. Professor Cao couldn¡¯t explain clearly either because he only knew the outcome, not the process. Why Professor Yang was so exceptional was something he had never considered. ¡°I haven¡¯t been here long myself, and I¡¯m not clear on the specifics. Perhaps he discovered a talent for cardiac surgery and went abroad for further training,¡± Professor Cao responded vaguely. But then again, he realized that was not quite right; Yang didn¡¯t only perform cardiac surgeries but also brain and spine surgeries, indeed, the most challenging surgeries. ¡ª Mai Zijing¡¯s case information was sent to an international group, involving a total cardiac chamber reconstruction plus a transposition of the aorta and pulmonary artery¡ªsurgical procedures and a case never heard of before. Unable to stay seated any longer, Cardiac Surgeon Li Zehui bought a plane ticket for a spontaneous learning trip. His educational exchange visa allowed him the convenience of setting off for China whenever he wished, whereas his senior, Dodge, wasn¡¯t so fortunate and could only watch enviously as Li Zehui left, instructing him to bring back video recordings. Arriving at Sanbo Hospital, Li Zehui also stopped by Yu Shuilian¡¯s Bakery for some pastries before heading to the Sanbo Hotel to check in. This time, his role was that of a student observing surgeries, not as an expert attending a conference; thus, he was alone, simply carrying a travel bag. Chapter 916 - 916 798 Only Saw the Patient Once_3 ?Chapter 916: Chapter 798: Only Saw the Patient Once_3 Chapter 916: Chapter 798: Only Saw the Patient Once_3 Although he grew up in the United States and had always communicated in English, he had also attended Chinese language training classes since childhood. While not very fluent, he was competent, and recently he had specifically practiced spoken Chinese at the language training classes, improving quickly, and now he was able to speak very fluently. He had reserved a room at the Sanbo Hotel and had just arrived at the Department of Comprehensive Surgery, where he happened to run into Director Xin, Director Chen, and Academician Wang. Li Zehui was an internationally renowned cardiac surgery expert who often lectured at Fuwai Anzhen; they couldn¡¯t possibly not recognize him, and they were very familiar. ¡°Professor Li?¡± With a keen eye, Xin Weicong was the first to spot Professor Li Zehui. On closer inspection, indeed, it was Professor Li Zehui from the Cleveland Medical Center, unmistakably. The world is truly small to have an encounter like this here. ¡°What an honor¡ª¡± Professor Li shook hands with everyone, one by one. It turned out that Professor Li also spoke English when he was in China, but now he spoke Chinese fluently, without mixing in a single English word. ¡°What brings you here?¡± Director Xin Weicong asked in surprise. Without beating around the bush, Professor Li said, ¡°I¡¯m here to study a surgery, there is a very special case here, the first of its kind in the world.¡± He was referring to Mai Zijing, as their goal turned out to be the same. ¡°You¡¯re familiar with Professor Yang as well? The world really is small, running into Professor Li right here,¡± Director Xin Weicong said with a bit of surprise. Professor Li, with his Western way of thinking, simply stated, ¡°Professor Yang Ping is my mentor, of course we know each other well.¡± Yang Ping was his mentor? As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was stunned, especially Elderly Academician Wang who thought he might have misheard. ¡°He is your mentor?¡± Professor Xin Weicong couldn¡¯t believe it. Professor Li nodded, ¡°Yes, Professor Yang is my mentor. I often receive guidance on surgeries from him and have benefited immensely. He should still be at the operating table right now.¡± The Cleveland Medical Center is considered a temple in the world of cardiac specialties. Professor Li and Dodge were considered rising stars at Cleveland. The fact that Professor Li was actually a student of Yang Ping was hard for people to accept, as the esteemed status of Cleveland suddenly seemed to crumble in the minds of the professors present. The fact that the youthful Yang Ping was indeed the mentor to forty-something Li Zehui seemed to mess with the generational order, and Elderly Academician Wang shook his head inwardly. He observed secretly that Li Zehui, a top medical doctor from around the world, had also come alone to Sanbo Hospital, without anyone to receive him, casually taking a disposable cup to drink water, and he seemed very accustomed to it, just like a student, completely lacking the air of a big-name Professor he had when lecturing at Fuwai. At that moment, Yang Ping finished the surgery and returned to the ward, finding so many doctors waiting for him. ¡°Professor Yang, let me introduce everyone, this is our Elderly Academician Wang¡ª¡± ¡°Welcome to guide our work!¡± Yang Ping shook hands. Who dares to guide you? Song Zimo muttered to himself. Upon seeing Li Zehui, Li Zehui immediately grasped Yang Ping¡¯s hand excitedly, ¡°Professor, you¡¯re still so handsome. It¡¯s been several months since we¡¯ve seen each other. Dodge almost cried when his visa got blocked.¡± Everyone sat down, and naturally, there was no idle chatter as they discussed the case. Academician Wang asked, ¡°Professor Yang, when do you plan to schedule the surgery?¡± Yang Ping casually replied, ¡°Tomorrow, it¡¯s set for the first slot tomorrow.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve seen the patient, right?¡± ¡°I have.¡± Academician Wang couldn¡¯t very well say that it wasn¡¯t good that Yang Ping had only seen the patient once since Yang Ping wasn¡¯t his student, and he knew that inwardly; besides, this wasn¡¯t Fuwai. ¡°Professor Yang, maybe you should see the patient a few more times, it might be better to be cautious with this case,¡± Academician Wang advised. Yang Ping was unconcerned, ¡°I will see the patient again before the surgery, there is no big issue, we can proceed with scheduling the surgery as normal.¡± Chapter 917 - 917 799 Hurry up there are more customers ?Chapter 917: Chapter 799 Hurry up, there are more customers waiting Chapter 917: Chapter 799 Hurry up, there are more customers waiting It wasn¡¯t that Academician Wang doubted the person recommended by Professor Xin, with coronary bypass skills surpassing those of Professor Xu, and aortic dissection surgery surpassing Professor Xin himself, capable of publishing 13 CNS articles¡ªthere was no doubt about the level of expertise. However, this case was extremely rare and highly difficult and risky, and Yang Ping had not taken it seriously enough, which worried the old academician about young people being overconfident and running into trouble. After all, he was still a young man, high-spirited and proud, prone to underestimating challenges; experience needed to accumulate over time, and talent could not replace experience. ¡°Your surgical plan, let¡¯s hear it,¡± Academician Wang asked. Yang Ping asked Song Zimo to bring him a piece of paper and a pen. He sketched the surgical plan on the paper and said, ¡°Cut both the aorta and pulmonary artery, exchange and anastomose them, then reconstruct the interventricular septum, and correct the mitral valve, tricuspid valve, and interatrial septum. If correction encounters difficulties, replacement might be an option¡ª¡± ¡°What about cardiac arrest and resuscitation?¡± Academician Wang stared at Yang Ping¡¯s surgical sketch. ¡°Keep the surgery under six hours, resuscitation won¡¯t be a problem,¡± Yang Ping appeared confident and relaxed. Academician Wang nodded slightly, not in approval of Yang Ping¡¯s surgical plan, but at the drawing itself; the contours of the heart and major vessels were outlined almost in one stroke without any hesitation, and after the outlines were completed, the pencil miraculously added details, thereby presenting a three-dimensional heart illustration on the paper. After decades in medicine and authoring over a dozen specialized texts featuring the best medical illustrators, Academician Wang had never seen such exquisite medical illustration. After savoring the artistic impact of the hand-drawn illustration, Academician Wang started to ponder Yang Ping¡¯s surgical plan, which seemed flawless. ¡°Caution drives the boat of a thousand years, especially for us surgeons, with our surgical knives tied to life and death,¡± Academician Wang exclaimed. Yang Ping knew what Academician Wang was worried about: ¡°I¡¯ve handled tougher cases than this, severe congenital heart defects, and worst-case scenarios involving mirror men.¡± ¡°Congenital heart defects in a mirror man?¡± Academician Wang was quite surprised. Mirror man, due to the reversed anatomical structure of the heart compared to the normal, challenges doctors who deal with typical anatomy every day; Academician Wang had only heard of such cases but had never seen one. ¡°Exactly, it was my case, and I was at my wit¡¯s end, so I could only ask Professor Yang to step in as chief surgeon,¡± Li Zehui confirmed from the side. At this point, a competent assistant brought a laptop, pulled up all the information on this case, including the surgical video, and Academician Wang was very interested. He leaned in and watched carefully, from the medical records and image illustrations to the surgical video. After watching, Academician Wang took a deep breath, ¡°Young man, you are truly remarkable. I must admit, if I were to perform this surgery, it would take me over twenty hours to complete, and I might not even dare to undertake it.¡± No wonder Professor Yang¡¯s heart surgeries were so formidable, having tackled such highly specialized surgeries early on and even then able to assist Li Zehui in surgery. Ah, Academician Wang sighed internally; the new waves of the Yangtze River drive on those ahead of them, always uneasy about the young, it seems the younger generation surpasses the old. The attendees included veteran specialists in cardiac surgery, with Li Zehui coming from afar. That evening, Yang Ping asked Little Five to book a private room at Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish on behalf of the specialists from Fuwai and Anzhen and Li Zehui as a courtesy of the host. Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish Restaurant was thriving, with its signature grilled fish establishing a unique reputation, making it a suitable venue for hosting dinners around the area. Upon hearing that the Comprehensive Surgery had reserved a private room, Uncle Er immediately got involved personally, selecting the ingredients and cooking himself. Uncle Er¡¯s chronic lumbar disk herniation had troubled him for over a decade, but after Yang Ping performed a foraminotomy on him, there had been no recurrence. As someone advancing in age with various ailments, having Yang Ping as a support gave Uncle Er a much greater sense of security Hearing that a mine owner had purchased a residence in the community near the hospital, Uncle Er also considered buying a property there for his retirement, given its proximity to the hospital for convenience. There was one private room in the grilled fish restaurant specifically reserved for Yang Ping; even if he didn¡¯t come, the room was never rented out to strangers. The restaurant¡¯s sign at the entrance now featured a clean fish skeleton, which was actually the remains of a grilled fish Yang Ping had left behind, preserved by Uncle Er who had it photographed by a photographer to make the sign. With everyone being specialists, discussions about various cases were inevitable during the meal, as doctors gathered together and their most common topic was always the medical cases. What projects Anzhen was currently working on, any unique cases Fuwai had recently, the progress of cardiac surgery development in Cleveland in the United States¡ªall were topics for discussion. Exchange promotes progress, isolation causes regression, and it is very important for peers to exchange ideas. Through these discussions, it was discovered that Cleveland was currently studying a project¡ªusing a patient¡¯s stem cells to grow human hearts in pigs and then transplanting them back into patients. However, they had only done two clinical trials, with the second patient dying six weeks post-operation. Anzhen was researching a ¡°transplant vascular wall¡± technology for coronary bypass, which had reached the animal experimentation stage; if successful, it would enhance the effects of coronary bypass surgery. Fuwai was also exploring the application of stem cells in cardiac surgery, although there had been no significant breakthroughs so far. ¡ª After dinner, Yang Ping checked his phone. There were currently many groups on WeChat, including international ones. Song Yun had his Union Group, Su Nanchen had also set up one with some young doctors from Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1, and now Director Xin had created a Cardiac Surgery Group, which not only included specialists from Anzhen and Fuwai, but also a few doctors from the cardiac surgery departments at Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 and Sanbo Hospital. Chapter 918 - 918 799 Hurry up there are more customers ?Chapter 918: Chapter 799 Hurry up, there are more customers waiting_2 Chapter 918: Chapter 799 Hurry up, there are more customers waiting_2 Without needing to say, being well situated, Little Five swiftly climbed the ranks under the guidance of Yang Ping and secured the runner-up position for the Golden Knife Award. Sports medicine had always been one of Yang Ping¡¯s primary areas of expertise. He passed on his entire knowledge to Little Five, who had significantly improved. Over at Xiehe, Yang Ping regularly conducted lectures, rounds, and surgeries, which greatly accelerated the growth of younger medical professionals like Song Yun. They already had a solid foundation, Xiehe had a high volume of cases, and the training Yang Ping provided often combined theory with practice. Through this period of mentorship, Song Yun had become a top-tier orthopedic expert, especially distinguished in the surgery of spinal scoliosis, surpassing all his seniors at Xiehe. The Union Group was buzzing when Song Yun, who mastered the art of peeling lobsters with chopsticks first, posted a video showcasing his proficient skills. Other doctors were not as adept. They either peeled very slowly or didn¡¯t clean it properly, with some not able to peel at all. The video Song Yun posted showed incredibly fast movements with the chopsticks working in perfect coordination, handling the lobster with precise force, efficiently beheading and tailing it, and cleanly removing the shell in one fluid motion. Actually, peeling lobsters and performing surgeries are completely unrelated, but Yang Ping simply used this minor task to show them that mastering high-level skills requires a painstaking process, approaching gradually and finally reaching the peak. [Senior Brother Song is amazing. I eat lobsters every day and still haven¡¯t learned it. I¡¯ve even gained ten pounds. My chopstick skills in removing heads and tails are still clumsy. I¡¯ve never seen Senior Brother Song go out for a night snack. How did he learn?] [You¡¯re so impatient. Who told you that you need to eat lobsters to learn? I think you¡¯re just going there to eat lobsters.] [Lu Xiaobao, I remember when we used grapes to practice endoscopy, and by the time you were done, only one grape was left.] [It¡¯s him alright. Doing experiments with him, we¡¯d end up with one less rabbit and got scolded together. Later that night, he dragged me to a small store near the school to eat braised rabbit meat.] [Lu Xiaobao, do you go eating lobster every day? No wonder the night snack store¡¯s owner asked me if Doctor Lu is interested in his daughter. He seemed quite pleased.] [His daughter is a second-year master¡¯s student at Capital Medical University.] [Haha, is she that pretty, delicate girl who sometimes helps out at the store?] [Yes, that¡¯s her. The owner really hopes to have a son-in-law from Xiehe. He asked me to mention, if you like his daughter, Lu Xiaobao, don¡¯t be afraid. Be bold. The owner has a courtyard in Beijing, and she¡¯s his only daughter.] [Is that true?] Song Yun: [Those going to Guilin tomorrow, remember the time and place to assemble. This time, each of you has ten surgeries on spinal scoliosis using monkey models which are highly challenging. Take this seriously, cherish the models, and just like normal surgeries, stick strictly to the procedure. Performance in this practical will be graded, and paralysis or death of post-op experimental monkeys will result in a score reset.] The chat was immediately interrupted by Song Yun¡¯s announcement. They were now using Yang Ping¡¯s innovative training model, which began with theoretical knowledge, followed by basic operational training, then performing surgeries on models, and later on animals. After veterinary surgeries, they assisted in surgeries, accumulated a sufficient number of cases, and finally performed main surgeries under the guidance of Yang Ping. ¡ª The international group was also very lively. [Professor seems to be quite interested in cardiac surgery these days, posting several cardiac surgery cases.] [There are all kinds of surgeries here, so you¡¯d better learn Chinese quickly; otherwise, if one day the Professor wants to focus on one specialty, you¡¯re all done for.] [Little Five, didn¡¯t you pass Chinese Level 4? Why haven¡¯t you come over for further training?] [Not yet. I thought I passed last time, but I missed by one point.] [You¡¯ve already sent out red packets, and you still didn¡¯t pass?] [Missed by one point again?] [Radish Head, how¡¯s your further training going?] [Did you call him Radish Head? Please call me Brother Robert!] [Sorry, Brother Robert.] [I want to go back, but every time I think about going back, I encounter new surgical techniques. What should I do?] [Oreo?] [Should you casually call him Oreo? Please call him Big Brother August.] [You see Li Zehui, he¡¯s still new but has already come to Sanbo Hospital and speaks fluent Chinese.] [He has an advantage, being of Chinese descent.] [I passed Level 4 in primary school.] ¡°August, aren¡¯t you going back for the European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting this time?¡± ¡°How could I not go back?¡± In previous European Spinal Surgery meetings, it was always Milton versus August, with neither gaining the upper hand. This time, August was determined to show Milton what he was capable of and, using a Chinese phrase¡ªslap him in the face. In the past few months, August had learned many new spinal surgery techniques and took on a project¡ªaccurate epiphyseal blocking technique for correcting spinal curvature. He decided to return to Germany, to be the chief surgeon in some cases, and then present them at the conference, aiming to astonish all European spinal surgeons. As for his old rival, the British Milton, sorry, but the moment to slap him in the face was coming soon. Then, Li Zehui posted a photo in the group. Judging by the background, it seemed to be a selfie taken while eating a beef steak at the Waterlily Bread Store. Next, Robert posted a group photo of three people, also at the Waterlily Bread Store, which had become a popular check-in spot for Sanbo Hospital. ¡ª After resting for the night, the surgery proceeded normally the next day. Mai Zijing was wheeled into the operating room, and as the doors closed, Mai Zijing¡¯s parents trembled at the doorway. After all, it was a heart-opening surgery; they longed for their child to have the opportunity to undergo the surgery, but when it actually came time for the surgery, they started to fear, truly afraid that their child wouldn¡¯t come off the operating table. Professor Yang said there was an eighty percent chance of success, but even with eighty percent, there was still a twenty percent chance of failure. Mai Zijing lay on the operating table while Liang Fatty chatted with him about the ¡°Eat Chicken¡± game, which seemed to relax Mai Zijing tremendously. Liang Fatty chatted while preparing the anesthesia, quietly advancing the general anesthesia through the intravenous catheter. Mai Zijing slowly fell asleep. Fatty then proceeded with the intubation and connected the anesthesia machine. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang washed their hands in advance, ready to sterilize and lay out the drapes. Academician Wang, Professor Cao, Director Xin, Professor Chen, Li Zehui gathered to watch, when Director Xin received a call¡ªhis doctoral student, Xia Shu, had just arrived at Sanbo Hospital, was at the entrance of the general surgery operating room, and hoped to come in to observe the surgery. ¡°This kid, how did he get here?¡± Professor Xin was quite annoyed; wasn¡¯t this guy supposed to be on duty today? Xia Shu was an admirer of Yang Ping. He had come voluntarily to learn surgery, fearing his mentor would not agree, so he acted first and reported later. After swapping shifts with someone and to save money, he had taken a late-night high-speed train to Sanbo Hospital. Director Xin immediately left the operating room, bringing Xia Shu inside: ¡°How come you are here, weren¡¯t you on duty today?¡± ¡°I swapped shifts with someone else, and also wanted to come watch,¡± Xia Shu said shyly. ¡°Did you arrange your work?¡± ¡°Everything¡¯s arranged.¡± ¡°Whose student is this, very eager to learn,¡± said Academician Wang, panting as he praised Xia Shu. Director Xin said, ¡°He is my doctoral student.¡± Nowadays, a mentor might supervise several doctoral and master¡¯s students, and sometimes it was really hard to tell whose student was whose. Before the surgery even started, Xia Shu began recording in his notebook, sketching and writing, even drawing diagrams of the surgical positions, and frequently asking nearby doctors about the patient¡¯s condition. Professor Xin, worried he might disturb others, pulled him aside and explained the patient¡¯s condition in detail, informing him that he could check the patient¡¯s medical records after the surgery. ¡°I¡¯ve already seen the medical records,¡± Xia Shu said. Director Xin was surprised: ¡°You¡¯ve seen them?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve just brought out a Fuwai work badge, went downstairs, and told the on-duty doctors that I am your doctoral student and came with you, and they let me see the medical records,¡± Xia Shu said as he continued to record. Director Xin didn¡¯t know whether to laugh or cry, thinking to himself that the kid was pretty capable, even knowing to use his name. Zhang Lin and Little Five were arranging the surgical position. ¡°Everybody, move quickly; there are more surgeries lined up after this one.¡± Song Zimo finished washing his hands and urged Zhang Lin and Little Five as he and Xu Zhiliang disinfected. Upon hearing that there were more surgeries lined up, Academician Wang¡¯s curiosity was piqued again, impressed by the young ones taking it all in stride. Chapter 919 - 919 800 One-Stroke Flow ?Chapter 919: Chapter 800 One-Stroke Flow Chapter 919: Chapter 800 One-Stroke Flow No matter the surgery, the initial steps are the same: anesthesia, positioning, sterilization, and draping; only then does the actual surgery begin. It is inappropriate for non-surgical personnel to gather in the operating room, as it not only violates the aseptic principle but also hinders the activities of the surgical team, so Professor Cao suggested, ¡°Shall we go to the teaching room?¡± Consequently, everyone moved to the well-prepared teaching room. The general surgery teaching room is quite impressive, because, now and in the future, doctors from all over the world will sit here to observe surgeries. Therefore, Dean Xia would not tolerate this place, a gathering spot for the world¡¯s medical elite, being anything average; he made some clever modifications to the teaching room. The electronic screen is definitely the best on the market, and both wired and 5G networks are used, although the 5G network is usually the primary choice. In case of 5G failure, the backup wired network can take over. The simple plastic chairs were replaced with sofas designed with ergonomics in mind, and small screens were mounted around the walls to allow those crowded in the back to watch the surgeries with ease and calm. Beverages are indispensable; coffee, tea, mineral water, and various juices. Following Professor Zhang Zongshun¡¯s suggestion, a first aid kit was also prepared in the teaching room, equipped with some common emergency drugs. As Professor Zhang explained, based on his personal experience, watching Yang Ping perform surgery was like driving a world-class domestic car or watching ¡°Fast & Furious¡± in the city center. In order to appear more thoughtful, Dean Xia had no choice but to command the modification team to put up a sign reminding observers to be mindful of their physical condition. Li Zehui once watched Yang Ping perform surgery in this teaching room, back when it still had plastic chairs. Professor Li remembered clearly, it was a patient with spinal scoliosis who also had a cardiac malformation. Normally, the surgery should have required cooperation between the Spinal Surgery and Cardiac Surgery Departments, but Professor Yang managed to complete the heart surgery as well. Indeed, it was incidental, but this incidentally performed surgery made Professor Li feel ashamed; it was more impressive than what he, a specialist in cardiac surgery, could achieve. Later, when Professor Li encountered difficulties while performing charity surgeries in Saudi Arabia, he thought of Yang Ping and invited him to fly to Saudi Arabia to perform the surgery. The surgery in Saudi Arabia once again changed Professor Li¡¯s view of Yang Ping. When cardiac surgeons around the world were at a loss, Professor Yang handled it with ease, an experience Li Zehui would never forget. At that time, all the honors and pride he held as a cardiac surgeon from the prestigious Cleveland were shattered. He had never imagined that there could be a cardiac surgeon in the world as skilled as that. In fact, it¡¯s the same for everyone; people generally don¡¯t believe in things that go beyond common sense. However, when they see such things with their own eyes, they almost worship the other person like a deity. If someone told you there was an individual who could single-handedly challenge an NBA team in basketball, you definitely wouldn¡¯t believe it. Anyone who believed it would be considered a fool. Even if that person was close to you, even if their capabilities, professional status, and stature were high, you wouldn¡¯t believe it because it¡¯s just not possible, absolutely not. Only when you have seen this person¡¯s miraculous ability with your own eyes will you believe it, and you will also think this person is a god. How could such people exist in the world? Therefore, every doctor who acknowledges Yang Ping¡¯s surgical skills has certainly seen him perform surgery; otherwise, they would never believe it. The surgery had started, and the screen showed the first step: opening the chest and cutting the skin. Yang Ping¡¯s approach was clearly not the conventional large, open thoracostomy; he planned to use a minimally invasive approach, making two incisions in the intercostal space on the left side of the chest, one for total cardiac reconstruction and the other for switching the aorta and pulmonary artery. The skin-cutting technique was Yang Ping¡¯s usual One-Stroke Flow, from the start to the end of the incision, requiring only a smooth, continuous single stroke without a second or corrective cut. This single stroke not only determined the length of the incision but also its depth. Unless there were important nerve vessels that needed protection, the incision was precisely made through the subcutaneous fat layer, neither too much nor too little. Two incisions, just a decisive stroke each, with absolutely no hesitation. The One-Stroke Flow is not only Yang Ping¡¯s surgical hallmark but also the signature of Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, whom he personally trained. As the knife glided, the electric knife immediately followed, precisely cauterizing each tiny bleeding point, the whole action performed seamlessly and in one go. Academician Wang¡¯s heart skipped a beat, then he turned to look at Director Xin: ¡°Such solid foundational skills? The skin cutting was done in one stroke?¡± Having spent over forty years in medical practice, Academician Wang had never seen such a confident method of cutting skin. Li Zehui explained beside him, ¡°This is the legendary One-Stroke Flow, probably only seen here.¡± ¡°One-Stroke Flow?¡± ¡°It means cutting the skin in one go, without needing to divide or correct the cut.¡± Academician Wang nodded, understanding the novel term, but then he couldn¡¯t help asking, ¡°What if there are important blood vessels or nerves?¡± ¡°Then the surgical knife will definitely be positioned right above the nerve vessels, precisely on top, without harming the nerve vessels,¡± Li Zehui acted as the commentator. At this moment, Professor Xin smiled and reminded, ¡°Watching this young man¡¯s surgery, you must pay full attention. If you are not careful, you might miss important steps. And if you¡¯re even less attentive, the surgery might be finished.¡± No sooner had he spoken than what Professor Xin feared happened: just a few moments of casual conversation, and the chest cavity was already open. Chapter 920 - 920 800 One-Stroke Flow_2 ?Chapter 920: Chapter 800 One-Stroke Flow_2 Chapter 920: Chapter 800 One-Stroke Flow_2 Academician Wang dared not be distracted any longer and had to fully concentrate on observing the surgery, which indeed was progressing rapidly, so rapidly that it resembled the fast-forwarding of a video and caused everyone to be on tenterhooks. This child had already undergone three surgeries, and it hadn¡¯t been long since the third. Adhesions around the heart were severe, making exposure extremely difficult. At the time Academician Wang was discussing this case, everyone had focused specifically on the issue of exposure. Moreover, in many similar cases with adhesions after multiple surgeries, it was impossible to expose the heart or locate the heart and major blood vessels. There had been such an incident before, in a case where Director Chen was the chief surgeon. After two hours on stage, they couldn¡¯t expose the heart. The scalpel could only probe forward bit by bit, and finally, Academician Wang had to personally take the stage and spent three hours before finally exposing the heart and major blood vessels. This case was more troublesome than past adhesion cases, a nightmare for surgeons. To expose the heart in this case would certainly be a fierce and dangerous battle; that¡¯s what Academician Wang thought, and so did Professor Xin. But Li Zehui did not think so. The previous case had much worse adhesions, yet the professor¡¯s scalpel moved as if it were enchanted, effortlessly. Before he could ponder how to complete the surgery through such a small minimally invasive incision, Slow down! Academician Wang almost cried out, so absorbed was he. Because on the screen, the round scalpel had already been exchanged for a sharp one, and the sharp one moved very fast, with no intent of exploring while dissecting. In these severely adherent areas, speed was deadly because you didn¡¯t know what was beneath the blade; a moment¡¯s inattention might cut through the heart, sever blood vessels, or sever the heart¡¯s conduction bundle, leading to fatal consequences. Heart surgery, each step was a dance on the tip of a blade, how could it be like this. Academician Wang was so frightened he almost instinctively covered his eyes. His heart was pounding furiously: too bold, young man! In the midst of this terrifying suspense, the heart was exposed, then the pericardium was smoothly opened, and the heart lay bare within view. Moreover, the opening of the pericardium was done with a single cut, not by gradually slicing little by little. This incision unexpectedly opened the adherent pericardium completely without harming the myocardium a bit, then the adhesions between the pericardium and the heart were gently and swiftly separated by the sharp scalpel. The anticipated fierce battle to expose the heart turned out to be incredibly smooth, and the so-called potential fierce battle was silkily resolved by him. One-Stroke Flow! Academician Wang silently repeated this new term. The vibrant heart was pulsating right before his eyes, the rhythm of life. Yang Ping¡¯s hand gently reached in, grasped the small heart, and then lifted it. ¡°Professor, now I can see the heart and not stutter,¡± said Xu Zhiliang¡¯s voice. ¡°Does the heart also have the function to cure stuttering?¡± Yang Ping was quite surprised. ¡°This is another CNS paper, a study on the correlation between cardiac visuals and the recovery from stuttering. Perhaps a new method to cure stuttering can be found.¡± ¡°Look, I¡¯m not stuttering at all right now, it¡¯s truly amazing; I want to stutter, but I simply can¡¯t.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because the pulsating heart brings you a shock of life, you should consider specializing in cardiac surgery in the future, it seems your talent lies there.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t we develop across all fields like you do?¡± asked Song Zimo. ¡°No.¡± ¡°Then later I¡¯ll just work on trauma emergency surgeries. That¡¯s somewhat broad, covering the whole body.¡± ¡°Prepare for extracorporeal circulation!¡± The chief surgeon did not hesitate at all, moving forward step by step. The screen relayed the sounds of beginning the preparations for extracorporeal circulation and cardiac arrest. Soon, extracorporeal circulation was established, followed by the injection of arresting solution, artificially inducing cardiac arrest. Alright, the house has now been cut off from water and electricity, and the people inside have been moved out. Now, they had to tear down the house, and inside re-plan the partitions to restore the normal left and right ventricles, then fix the other skewedly collapsed partitions; it was a massive engineering task. The surgery appeared less serious and cautious, progressing amidst casual conversation, and seemed extremely relaxed. The heart had already been opened; the left and right ventricles, which had merged into one large chamber, now needed a wall built between them, and on that wall, a one-way door had to be installed. There are three levels in surgical operations¡ªresection, repair, reconstruction. Regardless of the specialty, reconstruction surgeries are the most challenging. Resection only requires removing the targeted organs and tissues, and repair just tries to mend to restore the original state or something close to it, while reconstruction indeed attempts to recreate certain anatomic tissues through surgery, and while simulating anatomy, it must also simulate function. The surgical engineering was immense, most tangibly reflected in the number of stitches on the heart¡ªover a thousand. And there could not be a single substandard stitch, no area where bleeding occurred; when the heart contracted, the powerful force would start at the substandard and weak stitch, tearing the already sewn parts, causing the surgery to fail. The speed of suturing on the screen stunned Academician Wang; had he not seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed that a person¡¯s suturing could be so skilled. So many surgeries were required to achieve such speed, not just fast but also good, each stitch flawless. Now, the entire surgical scene was constantly suturing, at a fast pace. ¡ª Outside the operating room, Mai Zijing¡¯s parents were tightly anxious, nearly suffocating. On the blue plastic chairs, Mai Jifu embraced his wife; with each passing second, it felt like a hammer striking his heart: this surgery would either be the beginning of happiness or a final farewell. Chapter 921 - 921 800 One-Stroke Flow_3 ?Chapter 921: Chapter 800 One-Stroke Flow_3 Chapter 921: Chapter 800 One-Stroke Flow_3 They had no idea how the surgery was progressing, or whether there were any difficulties. Such waiting was extremely agonizing. The surgery had already been underway for over three hours. Xiao Su had just come to deliver Yang Ping¡¯s lunch, as her home was close to the hospital. Xiao Su, currently not working, brought meals to Yang Ping every day, also taking the opportunity to get some exercise and improve her circulation. When the nurse from the operating room opened the door to take the meals Xiao Su brought, Mai Jifu seized the chance to ask anxiously, ¡°Nurse, how is Mai Zijing¡¯s surgery going?¡± The nurse glanced at Mai Jifu, ¡°Are you his father?¡± Mai Jifu nodded. ¡°The surgery is going smoothly, and it¡¯s still in progress. Professor Yang is the chief surgeon. Don¡¯t worry, try not to be so nervous. There¡¯s a television over there you can watch. We¡¯ll notify you when it¡¯s done.¡± Hearing that the surgery was progressing smoothly, Mai Jifu and his wife felt a slight sense of relief. The door to the operating room closed again, and Xiao Su sat down in the family waiting area, comforting the couple, ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much. Professor Yang has handled even more difficult cases than this one, with children younger than your son. Relax and watch some television.¡± The operating room¡¯s TV was a digital one, offering not only regular movies and TV series but also containing some videos promoting classic cases from the General Surgery Department. Xiao Su pulled up these videos on the touch-controlled screen to play for the couple, hoping it might alleviate some of their anxiety. Five-segment reattachment, Half-Man, Folding Man, and congenital heart defects of Mirror Man from Yemen, and other surgical procedure introductions played on the video. Indeed, this tactic proved effective, as Mai Jifu and his wife became much calmer. Mai Jifu¡¯s wife, An Yinghui, also started chatting with Xiao Su, who kept assuring her of how proficient Professor Yang, the chief surgeon, was and that he would give it his all. ¡°Man proposes, God disposes,¡± Mai Jifu thought to himself, which somewhat settled his heart. ¡ª After more than three hours, the surgery for total cardiac chamber reconstruction was nearing completion with fast, rhythmic stitching that amazed Academician Wang. He was grateful he had personally come to Sanbo Hospital; otherwise, he would have missed one of the top surgeries in the world. In just over three hours, the total chamber reconstruction had been completed. If he had been performing the surgery, it would probably take ten hours. Such stitching speed and quality, he feared, could not be found in another in the world, which is why it was no surprise that he could complete the entire surgery within six hours. It was also no wonder he didn¡¯t need to pay too much attention to this case, because in his hands, it really was just a routine case. This wasn¡¯t making light of something heavy; for him, it was genuinely light. Throughout the surgery, there was no sign of tension or pressure; the entire process was very relaxed, as if performing an operation that couldn¡¯t be more ordinary. One could even often hear the chief surgeon and his assistant chatting. The entire surgery progressed step by step without any ineffective or repetitive movements. This was the sign of utmost proficiency. Even the stitches left behind were a source of aesthetic pleasure. Academician Wang reflected that a person capable of leading the world in the field of cardiac surgery was emerging. The next step was the switching of the aorta and pulmonary artery, which, compared to the total cardiac chamber reconstruction, was clearer. The aorta and pulmonary artery were severed from their roots, switched places, and then reconnected. The demands for stitching major blood vessels were extremely high, because the aorta and pulmonary artery are directly connected to the heart, which generates considerable pressure during contraction and ejection of blood. If the stitch quality was substandard, the anastomosed site would burst open. Therefore, when operating on the heart, not one stitch could be taken for granted. ¡°Do you have Professor Yang¡¯s WeChat?¡± Academician Wang couldn¡¯t help asking. Professor Xin nodded, ¡°I¡¯ve always maintained contact with him through WeChat.¡± ¡°Make sure to share his WeChat with me, too. I should also add him. The young man is a genius in cardiac surgery; we need to make an effort to snatch him up,¡± said Academician Wang before immediately returning his attention to the surgical video. Watching surgeries like this was indeed uncomfortable with age; the heart needed to be strong, and watching Yang Ping¡¯s surgery was like watching ¡°Fast and Furious¡± in the city center, too fast and with high-risk maneuvers, hence the suspense throughout. ¡ª ¡°Zhou Can, have you checked the medication in the emergency kit in the demonstration room today?¡± ¡°We conduct regular checks every week, following the same protocols as for the emergency carts in the department.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good then!¡± ¡°Why are you asking that?¡± ¡°Today, among the specialists observing the surgery, there¡¯s an old man. I¡¯m worried that his heart might have issues watching Professor¡¯s surgery.¡± ¡°Really? The Academician Grandpa from Fuwai?¡± ¡°Yes, sigh, in the future we should perhaps restrict those over 65 from observing. We could check IDs at the entrance.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s voice was serious, ¡°Be serious!¡± ¡°The broadcast isn¡¯t turned off¡ª¡± a lowered voice said. The room fell silent, as the symbol for a broadcast showed a crossed-out sign on the screen. Academician Wang frowned, a bunch of kids. Chapter 922 - 922 801 Precious Boxed Meal ?Chapter 922: Chapter 801 Precious Boxed Meal Chapter 922: Chapter 801 Precious Boxed Meal After over four hours, Yang Ping completed the final stitch and began the process of reviving the heart. The camera mounted on the surgical light was aimed directly at the heart, which lay quietly in the chest cavity, while everyone watched the small organ, uncertain whether it could beat again. When the extracorporeal circulation tubes were removed, the heart began to thud and beat. The experts in the demonstration room cheered exuberantly. What followed was the final hemostasis phase; due to the extracorporeal circulation, anticoagulant drugs needed to be used, and Mai Zijing¡¯s clotting function was very poor, with a much stronger tendency to bleed than a normal person. Thus, after the circulation in the cardiovascular system was restored, places that had been stitched might leak blood, and areas that had not bled before might now start bleeding. Song Zimo¡¯s vascular clamps held a wad of gauze, ready to apply pressure to any bleeding sites, creating time for Yang Ping to perform bipolar electrocoagulation. Yang Ping held the vascular clamps in his left hand and the bipolar electrocoagulation device in his right, and began to perform the hemostasis. As the bleeding points seeped out as red dots, varying in speed due to different vessel sizes, the red dots appeared in a different order. Song Zimo coordinated exceptionally well, pressing the gauze against the tiny red dots while Yang Ping¡¯s bipolar electrocoagulation precisely grasped the small vascular ends for coagulation. With each stream of blue smoke drawn into the suction tube, the red dots were obliterated before they could spread. The movements were too fast and incredibly precise, preventing any red dots from blossoming into pools of blood¡ªall were destroyed before they could spread, maintaining a clean chest cavity. And all the heart¡¯s anastomosed areas, including the circle where the two major vessels were joined, showed no signs of leaking. Academician Wang, staring at the screen, gasped in amazement¡ªit seemed impossible to see that after suturing had been completed, the anastomosed parts required no additional stitches for hemostasis. Based on his more than forty years of experience, this seemed impossible. Even with less challenging cases, they used to spend three or four hours on hemostasis. Now, in less than an hour, hemostasis was complete, the entire surgical field was clean, and it hardly seemed like heart surgery was being performed. The hemostasis technique Yang had just demonstrated was something Academician Wang, having seen nearly all of the world¡¯s top experts¡¯ operations and with over forty years of experience in cardiac surgery himself, had never seen performed with such precision and speed. The oozing red dots had no chance to spread¡ªthey were extinguished rapidly, and even the smaller dots that were last in line barely managed to spread into tiny patches, without forming any significant issue. Academician Wang finally understood why even a world-class expert like Li Zehui regarded him with such reverence as a mentor, and why Professor Xin held him in such high esteem¡ªYang was a once-in-a-millennium prodigy. Moreover, being so young, his prospects were boundless. If Fuwai¡¯s Cardiac Surgery Department could have such a young talent, it would immediately take the top spot in the world. ¡°Weicong!¡± Academician Wang ran a hand through his hair, attempting to clear his mind. ¡°Is there any way to recruit Professor Yang to Fuwai? We could offer him his own ward,¡± said Academician Wang, then, realizing that it was inappropriate to discuss this in such a public setting, was relieved that everyone was focused on the surgery and no one heard him. No sooner had the words left his lips, Professor Wang remembered that Yang Ping was an author of 13 CNS publications, so he changed his words to, ¡°Let¡¯s make him a chief director.¡± Professor Xin turned his head to sweep a glance over the demonstration room, then said, ¡°We¡¯ll discuss this later.¡± Academician Wang also realized that discussing this topic here and now was inappropriate, and that he had been too hasty. With such a level of surgical skill in a young person, unmatched by anyone in the world today, if he could be brought to Fuwai, the hospital would become the pinnacle of the pyramid, peerless in surgery. Almost all heart surgeries, no matter how difficult or risky, could be attempted. After waiting for a full half-hour with no significant bleeding points, Yang Ping began to prepare for chest closure. Compared to the nearly half-meter-long median sternotomy, the two left intercostal incisions were much less invasive, each only about a dozen centimeters, totaling little more than twenty centimeters in length, and the entry through the intercostal spaces without splitting the sternum greatly reduced the trauma to the patient. The placement of the drainage tube was followed by chest closure, and the surgery concluded without any suspense. The broadcast symbol with a crossed box on the screen was now back to normal, and some voices could be heard. ¡°Transfer to the CCU for observation for a few days. Call the ward to send the next case, and we¡¯ll do the next one after lunch.¡± Then the screen went off, and no further sound came from it. They didn¡¯t even have a cardiac surgery ICU and still dared to perform such an operation; truly, their skill was great and their bravery was unmatched. Now, Academician Wang no longer questioned Yang Ping¡¯s work attitude because Yang¡¯s issue wasn¡¯t a lack of dedication or responsibility, but rather that his skill level was so high he simply did not need to allocate much energy and time to these patients. ¡°How was it?¡± Director Xin Weicong asked with a smile. Academician Wang gave a thumbs up: ¡°Had I not seen it with my own eyes, no matter what you said, I wouldn¡¯t have believed it.¡± Professor Xin said, ¡°That¡¯s why I insisted you come to see for yourself. His original specialty was orthopedics. He only started performing cardiac surgeries in the past year or so. Talent is something you just can¡¯t explain.¡± At that moment, several graduate students and standardized training students began distributing boxed meals to everyone as it was almost two o¡¯clock¡ªthe time for lunch. Whether experts or students, each received a boxed meal. ¡°Everyone must be hungry, eat quickly. I¡¯ll tell you, the general surgery department¡¯s boxed meal is quite precious, hard to come by. It¡¯s my first time having it,¡± Professor Cao said as he passed a boxed meal to Academician Wang. Academician Wang was puzzled by Professor Cao¡¯s remark: ¡°What¡¯s so precious about this boxed meal?¡± Professor Cao chuckled, ¡°With Professor Yang¡¯s surgical speed, there¡¯s rarely a chance to wait around for a boxed meal during observation surgeries. Today is special; it took five hours from start to finish, so you see, getting a boxed meal is pretty rare, isn¡¯t it?¡± Now understanding, Academician Wang opened his boxed meal and started eating. In the meeting room, everyone was eating their boxed meals, some even squatting on the floor. This was an instructional room, after all; there was no need for formalities. Once done, they simply wiped their mouths and tossed the trash into a large bin. At this time, Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang, along with other surgical team members, also arrived at the instructional room and picked up their boxed meals to eat. Yang Ping, carrying his boxed meal, greeted Academician Wang, who was nearby. Everyone offered their seats to Yang Ping, but he insisted that they all remain seated, while Song Zimo brought a plastic stool for Yang Ping. ¡°My apologies for the simple meal at noon,¡± Yang Ping said politely. Academician Wang responded unconcernedly, ¡°I¡¯ve heard that your simple meal is quite a rarity, not something just anyone can enjoy. I¡¯m lucky to have stumbled upon it.¡± Surgeons are known for eating quickly, wolfing down their food, and leaving no leftovers from their boxed meals. Academician Wang had a good appetite as well and cleaned his boxed meal right up. The other surgery was still in the process of anesthesia. Yang Ping chatted with Academician Wang for a while, as it wasn¡¯t often they had such honored company. ¡°You chat after you¡¯re finished with your work; attend to your tasks, don¡¯t mind me,¡± Academician Wang said generously. ¡°Elder Wang, shall I pour you a cup of tea?¡± Xin Weicong offered as he stood up. Academician Wang waved a hand dismissively, ¡°I¡¯ll do it myself, I¡¯ll do it myself¡ª¡± PS: I¡¯m very busy today, so this is all for now. I¡¯ll try to post more tomorrow. Chapter 923 - 923 802 Too Late ?Chapter 923: Chapter 802 Too Late Chapter 923: Chapter 802 Too Late Academician Wang insisted on pouring the tea himself, and while doing so, he purposefully glanced at the prominently marked emergency kit in the corner of the room. It shouldn¡¯t go without saying that watching the surgery had been more heart-stopping than watching a thrilling ¡°Fast and Furious¡± movie in the theater, with his heart pounding. As an expert in cardiac surgery, he felt the presence of the emergency kit was very necessary. The next surgery wasn¡¯t a heart surgery, so it wouldn¡¯t be appropriate for Academician Wang to stay and watch. After chatting for a while in the demonstration room with Professor Cao, Director Xin, and Director Chen, he left the operating room. Professor Cao took Academician Wang on a few more tours around Sanbo Hospital. Director Zhao from the Medical Services Office, upon hearing of Academician Wang¡¯s visit, made a special trip to shake hands and greet him, showing his respect for Wang. ¡°Our hospital¡¯s strategy is now very clear, to lead by key points. Professor Yang¡¯s general surgery department is the point, and the entire hospital is the surface. We hope that general surgery can drive the development of the whole hospital.¡± Now, whenever Professor Cao spoke, he proudly referred to ¡°Sanbo Hospital¡± as ¡°our hospital¡± each time he said it. ¡°At present, our Trauma Emergency Center has already become as renowned as Shanghai¡¯s Sixth Hospital Trauma Emergency Center, with only two of such stature in the nation¡ªvery strong. The Sports Medicine Center is quickly catching up to Peking Union Medical College Hospital¡¯s Third Hospital, and strengths in spine and joints are also prominent. Professor Yang¡¯s new spinal correction technique has even drawn learners from Xiehe.¡± As Professor Cao took Academician Wang on the tour, these details were shared on the go. ¡°Our Stem Cell Laboratory is directed by a doctoral graduate from Tokyo University, a top expert in stem cells and a student of Professor Fukunaga.¡± ¡°Many of the hospital¡¯s department heads are young experts in their forties.¡± Academician Wang listened and continually nodded in affirmation. After touring the hospital, Professor Cao brought them to Sanbo Hotel to rest for a while as Academician Wang was busy and had to rush back for another appointment. He needed to go back immediately to meet with the dean to discuss the recruitment of Yang Ping, having decided to offer Yang a chief director position. If Yang was brought in, Fuwai would instantly enter the world-class arena. Although Fuwai was already a top cardiovascular specialist hospital in China, it wasn¡¯t quite at the world¡¯s pinnacle, at least not on par with the Cleveland Medical Center. By bringing in Yang Ping, Fuwai would see both theory and surgical practice improved in an instant. If word got out that Li Ze was Yang Ping¡¯s student, then Fuwai would solidly occupy the apex of the heart surgery discipline. Academician Wang shared this idea with Professor Cao and Director Xin, but Professor Cao shook his head, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t bother, people from Xiehe and the 301 Military Hospital have already come in several waves to recruit Professor Yang, who hasn¡¯t accepted their offers to this day. That chief director position won¡¯t attract him.¡± No appeal coming from Fuwai¡¯s chief director? That symbolized the highest academic position in Chinese heart surgery, yet it held no appeal? Was his thinking really that outdated? Had the world changed that quickly? It seemed like he hadn¡¯t left the medical field¡ªcontinuously working in clinical settings, attending conferences, and sometimes performing surgeries. Academician Wang began to question his own views, finding it hard to believe that a young doctor, not yet thirty, would be indifferent to the chief position he¡¯d offered in Fuwai¡¯s cardiovascular surgery department¡ªa position that was quite generous. ¡°We are late to the game. You may not know, but he is already a visiting professor at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. There, he has 45 beds and leads a team. At Sanbo Hospital, he can have whatever he wants. Why would he be interested in our chief director offer?¡± Academician Wang felt utterly disconnected from the world and let out a long sigh in his heart. Yet, he really wanted to bring this young man to Fuwai. With such immense potential, who wouldn¡¯t value talent? ¡°Maybe he has an affinity for heart surgery. Shall we try persuading him again?¡± Academician Wang wasn¡¯t ready to give up. Professor Cao still shook his head: ¡°You don¡¯t understand Professor Yang or Sanbo Hospital. If he liked heart surgery that much, why wouldn¡¯t he just start his own group instead of going to Fuwai? Old Wang, let me tell you, this young man is not like the others. Wherever he is, that place is top-notch. Does he need to cling to a top hospital?¡± ¡°Creating a top specialty is not that easy; it requires time to evolve and the accumulation of several generations¡¯ work. When it comes to heart surgery, what hospital has more resources than Fuwai? Not to mention anything else, at this hospital, could he apply for a research grant as easily as he could at Fuwai? We have over a billion in research funds annually.¡± Academician Wang really hoped to bring Yang Ping over. This time, Professor Cao laughed unfriendly, ¡°Old Wang, I can tell you with certainty, from my experience working here, that it¡¯s futile to try to recruit Professor Yang. And even if we could, it wouldn¡¯t be our turn. A billion in research funding is indeed a lot, but you probably don¡¯t know, one of his projects is funded with more than a billion.¡± This left Professor Wang at a loss for words. A single project with more than a billion in funding? What kind of scale was that? Did China have such doctors? Academician Wang was well aware of the recent distribution of research funding in China¡ªamong the hospitals that topped the list for research funds, there was no mention of Sanbo Hospital. Where did they get this much money? ¡°No way? In the recent national scientific research funding allocations, I didn¡¯t see Sanbo in the lead. Where did they get these billions?¡± Academician Wang couldn¡¯t make sense of it. Professor Cao had to explain, ¡°Professor Yang doesn¡¯t need to apply for national funds for his research. Some enthusiastic entrepreneurs have voluntarily set up research funds specifically to support his research, with Anning Group alone having already provided funding of ten billion.¡± Chapter 924 - 924 802 Too Late_2 ?Chapter 924: Chapter 802 Too Late_2 Chapter 924: Chapter 802 Too Late_2 ¡°Anning Group?¡± Academician Wang was surprised. Anyone from China would know about Anning Group, the true giant among private enterprises. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s said that this one billion is just the first phase of funding,¡± Professor Cao didn¡¯t know about it before, but he eventually learned. It took Academician Wang a long time to overcome his shock. Sanbo truly lacked nothing, not technology, not research funding, and with Professor Yang receiving firm institutional support, how could one possibly poach talent from them? Usually, if a person is unsatisfied at their workplace, it¡¯s either due to unmet material needs or unmet spiritual needs. If neither is lacking and they are completely satisfied, poaching becomes very difficult. Looking at it this way, coming to discuss recruitment now really was wishful thinking. If only Yang had been still studying, pursuing his Master¡¯s or Doctorate¡ªit would have been so much better. But there were no ifs in life. ¡°Let¡¯s do this, I¡¯ll talk with Professor Yang and see if we can follow Xiehe¡¯s example. We at Fuwai will provide several dozen beds, assemble a team, ask him to practice at multiple locations, give regular lectures, make ward rounds, perform surgeries, and train the younger generation. I¡¯ll talk it over with a few old friends; there should be hope,¡± Professor Cao said wistfully. From the sound of it, that seemed to be the only option. Academician Wang felt deep regret that such a talent was not part of Fuwai. ¡°What about your student? I haven¡¯t seen him around,¡± Academician Wang suddenly noticed someone was missing. Professor Xin looked around and then called his student¡¯s phone. The student was already in the CCU of Sanbo Hospital, monitoring Mai Zijing¡¯s condition post-surgery. He had just helped transport the patient, all the way to the CCU. ¡°What¡¯s this student¡¯s name?¡± Academician Wang inquired. Director Xin answered, ¡°Xia Shu, he¡¯s my doctoral student.¡± With so many doctoral students, others didn¡¯t come; only he did, indicating a high level of enthusiasm for learning. ¡°This young man is quite good, very dedicated to research,¡± Professor Xin said with satisfaction. Academician Wang immediately suggested, ¡°Weicong, there¡¯s no time to lose. Go talk to Professor Yang and see if we can have Xia Shu stay here to study cardiac surgery under Professor Yang. As for the visiting professor matter, we can discuss that later.¡± ¡°He still has shifts to cover; he had to swap shifts with someone to come over,¡± Professor Xin said, feeling troubled, because shift work was a collective responsibility of the medical teams, and it would be difficult to suddenly pull someone out. ¡°He won¡¯t need to do shifts anymore. We¡¯ll find a replacement or rearrange the schedule. If Professor Yang agrees, let him stay,¡± Academician Wang insisted. ¡ª Mai Zijing¡¯s parents were told the surgery went very smoothly, and seeing their child post-surgery, their emotion was beyond words. It was like living a dream. Not long ago, they were still running around worrying about their son¡¯s condition, and the doctors in Beijing were still debating whether to perform surgery without making a final decision. Now that the surgery was already done, and the child was well, how could they not be moved? An Yinghui wiped away her tears all the while, and Mai Jifu¡¯s eyes were also red. At that moment, Yang Ping was like a living Bodhisattva in his heart. ¡°Where is Professor Yang?¡± Mai Jifu wanted to thank him in person. The physician in charge of transferring the patient said, ¡°He¡¯s having lunch in the operating room.¡± Mai Jifu truly appreciated Professor Yang¡¯s dedication and immediately decided to express his gratitude properly. Mai Zijing was taken to the CCU for postoperative observation. Director Kang had already familiarized himself with the case beforehand. The CCU had been taking over many comprehensive surgical cases, such as Guo Peihua, who constantly claimed his spirit had left his body. Director Kang still assigned Doctor Ruan to manage this patient, because recently Doctor Ruan had overseen patients from the general surgery department, and in order to adapt to the needs of his work, he had read many books on the subject. The difference between the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit and the Coronary Heart Disease ICU is significant, but still less so than with the general ICU, considering that they are all part of the cardiovascular specialty. ¡°It seems the hospital will soon establish a dedicated Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit, right?¡± Director Kang asked. The physician in charge was Doctor Qi Chengxiang, a graduate student in general surgery and a class below Li Guodong. Doctor Qi nodded and said, ¡°Given the current pace of development, it¡¯s only a matter of time.¡± Director Kang felt somewhat disheartened, knowing that if a specialized Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit were established, Professor Yang¡¯s patients would no longer be placed here, and this area would merely be a temporary transition. For a doctor, the greatest sense of achievement comes from saving patients with high difficulty and high risk, such as Guo Peihua before and Mai Zijing now. If suddenly there were no such patients, Director Kang would feel deeply disappointed. It¡¯s like someone who relies on coffee every day for stimulation suddenly being cut off from their coffee¡ªextremely uncomfortable. These ¡°good days¡± were probably not going to last, which left Director Kang feeling somewhat melancholic. Post-surgery observation for Mai Zijing¡¯s case carried fears of bleeding or rupturing at the suture site. Should such a problem arise, emergency surgery to open the chest and rectify the issue would be required, making blood pressure monitoring critically important. Secondly, there was concern for arrhythmia or sudden cardiac arrest. ¡ª Li Zehui was extremely busy with work, with many surgeries scheduled, and he had to buy a ticket back to the United States right after finishing a surgery. At this time, Li Zehui was very grateful that his parents had made him learn Chinese from a young age, allowing him to communicate in Chinese without any barriers. He had passed the Chinese Proficiency Test Level Six and was currently the only one in the international group who had done so, while Robert and Takahashi were still preparing for it and likely wouldn¡¯t pass in the short term. This was Li Zehui¡¯s second visit to Sanbo Hospital, and he would often come back here after this. For reasons unknown to him, he felt a natural affinity towards Sanbo Hospital, as if he were returning to his own school¡ªperhaps because every time he came to Sanbo Hospital, he was able to learn something new. Any place where one can learn new knowledge feels like a school to people. In the general surgery ward study room, Li Zehui organized his materials and sat down to slowly digest and absorb the day¡¯s surgery. The difficulty of the entire surgery was self-evident. If it were up to Li Zehui to perform it, he wouldn¡¯t be able to complete it in less than twenty hours, and moreover, he might not even dare to attempt it. The courage needed to face challenges is often greater in medicine than in other fields, because doctors get only one chance¡ªit¡¯s either success or failure. The consequence of failure is the loss of a patient¡¯s life, which is a huge cost. Hence, before taking risks, doctors often think it over repeatedly, wrestling with the decision sleeplessly, as Academician Wang and Professor Chen had done this time. Without taking risks, the child had no hope, but with risks, the child might not survive the surgery. If Yang Ping were not the best choice available, Academician Wang would certainly have stepped up to the operating table himself. He was unconcerned about his reputation¡ªcompared to a child¡¯s life, it paled into insignificance. Li Zehui checked the time, noting that there was still a while before his flight. He had plenty of time to get to the airport, so he decided to stay a bit longer. Yang Ping was still on the operating table, and just as Li Zehui had come in haste, he would also leave in haste. A few on-call doctors with students glanced into the study room, then left. They were simply curious and wanted to see what the top surgeon from Cleveland looked like. Li Zehui would study the materials for a while, then head to the Sanbo Hotel. He wanted to book a long-term room to make future visits to Sanbo Hospital more convenient, and to have a place to stay when he could spare the time to come for further studies. However, Sanbo Hospital did not allow bookings for such long periods, and reserving a room also required proof or recommendation from Sanbo Hospital, such as a hospitalization certificate for the relatives of inpatients, to prevent the hotel rooms from being overbooked by outsiders. Unable to secure a long-term room and needing to catch his flight, Li Zehui couldn¡¯t spend much more time on it. He planned to secure a long-term room at a nearby hotel during his next visit. August and Robert were still in the operating room, and with no one to accompany him, he walked around the hospital to familiarize himself with the surroundings, then packed his belongings, checked out of the hotel room, and headed for Nandu Airport to catch his plane. Chapter 925 - 925 803 Fontan Surgery ?Chapter 925: Chapter 803 Fontan Surgery Chapter 925: Chapter 803 Fontan Surgery In a room at the Sanbo Hotel, Xia Shu found his mentor and senior mentor, as everyone gathered ready to head back to Beijing. ¡°Xia Shu, we are planning to assign you to Sanbo Hospital for a few months to learn heart surgery under Professor Yang. Are you willing?¡± Professor Xin asked for Xia Shu¡¯s opinion. Xia Shu was a doctoral student mentored by Professor Xin. After graduation, it had been difficult for him to stay at Fuwai due to the limited positions available, so he had continued his post-doctoral research work at Fuwai, waiting for another opportunity to find work or possibly stay at Fuwai. When his mentor asked if he was willing to come to Sanbo Hospital for further training, he certainly was not. He had just decided to work at Sanbo Hospital, having already inquired at the Human Resources Department and finding that he met the current hiring criteria. As a Doctor of Heart Surgery from Anzhen and Fuwai, which are as prestigious as Xiehe and the First Medical, he was in high demand, representing the highest level of technical expertise. ¡°Professor Xin, I want to work here!¡± Xia Shu directly expressed his thoughts. ¡°Work? You want to work here? Your postdoctoral research isn¡¯t even finished, and we were preparing to send you to the United States as a visiting scholar,¡± Director Xin was very surprised by Xia Shu¡¯s thoughts. ¡°Can you explain your thoughts?¡± Academician Wang wasn¡¯t as shocked; he was eager to hear what this unique student was thinking. Xia Shu was honest, ¡°I¡¯ve read Professor Yang¡¯s papers and now having seen his surgeries, I am certain he is the best heart surgeon in the world. I don¡¯t need to go anywhere else; I just want to work here now and learn under Professor Yang for five or eight years, and then I will become one of the top heart surgeons in the world.¡± No one had seen such an honest student boldly declaring in front of his mentor and senior mentor that an outsider was the best heart surgeon in the world and that he could become one of the world¡¯s top heart surgeons. Professor Xin was a bit anxious inside; this fellow¡¯s words were somewhat offensive to the senior mentor. Academician Wang showed no displeasure at all; in fact, he appreciated this student¡¯s confidence, considering Yang Ping to be top in the field. ¡°Not even the United States?¡± Academician Wang deliberately asked. Xia Shu shook his head, ¡°Nowhere.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t want to stay at Fuwai either?¡± Academician Wang asked again. Xia Shu emphatically replied, ¡°I won¡¯t stay at Fuwai.¡± ¡°You need to think this through. Your chances of staying at Fuwai after returning from the United States are great. The cardiology department at Sanbo Hospital isn¡¯t yet independent; it only has a Thoracic Surgery Department, which basically means it¡¯s starting from scratch,¡± Academician Wang said, half-closing his eyes. Xia Shu calmly stated, ¡°That¡¯s only for now. In a few years, the cardiology department here will become world-class. It¡¯s precisely because their cardiology department is just starting out that there¡¯s a place for me to apply my skills. Fuwai has too many talents, but Sanbo is different; they lack cardiology talent. I am a doctoral graduate from the eight-year program at Xiehe, which meets their priority recruitment criteria. I¡¯ve made up my mind; I will stay and work here.¡± ¡°A blank canvas is best for painting,¡± Xia Shu added. ¡°You have a great vision, and I support your thoughts. Let¡¯s proceed with your plan. Weicong, this is good news. Prepare for it. Old Cao, could you please help by recommending him to Sanbo Hospital?¡± Academician Wang said happily. Xia Shu, by seniority, was already Academician Wang¡¯s grand-student. It was rare for young people to have such insight, and having a student from his lineage learning cardiac techniques under Professor Yang was a good thing. Since they could not bring in Professor Yang, learning his techniques was the next best thing. ¡°I¡¯d be glad to recommend him; no problem at all. Xia Shu is a doctoral graduate from the eight-year program at Xiehe, and in our hospital, unless there are special circumstances, graduates from the eight-year program are given priority in recruitment without any need for additional procedures,¡± Professor Cao was quite familiar with the recruitment process at Sanbo. Academician Wang thought for a moment and said, ¡°Weicong, I have an idea. We have many doctoral students, including those from the eight-year program. Check if there are any willing to come to Sanbo Hospital. If there are more students like Xia Shu, send several here. It solves the employment issue and allows young people to learn top-level skills. Even if they aren¡¯t from the eight-year program, encourage them to participate in the recruitment.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Professor Xin was a bit puzzled by Academician Wang¡¯s sudden proposal. Academician Wang took a deep breath and said, ¡°Xia Shu has foresight. The cardiology department at Sanbo Hospital will definitely become world-class. If he can shadow Professor Yang for five to eight years, he¡¯ll quickly grow into one of the top heart surgeons in the world. If I weren¡¯t old, perhaps I¡¯d want to study here for a few years myself. The world is for the young, learn well and learn boldly.¡± ¡°I admit to having a personal interest; it would be better to have more students here. I hope my students can learn the best techniques and hope that this batch of people come from Fuwai,¡± Now understanding Academician Wang¡¯s intentions, Professor Xin said, ¡°I¡¯ll handle it. Xia Shu, when we get back, we¡¯ll start working on this. Prepare your resume.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already submitted my resume,¡± Xia Shu was quick to act. Professor Xin had not expected the student to be so eager, ¡°Then, Professor Cao, please help with the recommendation.¡± Professor Cao readily agreed, indicating it was no problem. Academician Wang checked the time and asked Professor Chen to book flights to return. Professor Cao said, ¡°Professor Yang is still in surgery. He¡¯s reached out to me to invite you to dinner tonight and will take you to the airport tomorrow.¡± ¡°Why make it so complicated? Professor Yang is so busy. Let¡¯s keep it simple and avoid any hassle. We¡¯ll rest a bit, then head over to that bakery to grab something to eat and head back. Yue Liang, make sure you book the tickets.¡± Chapter 926 - 926 803 Fontan Surgery_2 ?Chapter 926: Chapter 803 Fontan Surgery_2 Chapter 926: Chapter 803 Fontan Surgery_2 ¡°I was just about to book,¡± said Director Chen as he searched for flights on his phone. Academician Wang was extremely pleased with the trip, feeling a sense of fulfillment. At that moment, Xia Shu took a heart model out of his bag, placed it on the coffee table, and studied it. He examined the model pondering over the surgeries he had seen that day, not letting even this small amount of time go to waste. ¡°Do you carry a model with you?¡± Academician Wang asked with curiosity. Xia Shu said, ¡°This model is something I always carry with me, no matter where I go.¡± ¡°Let me see, your model is quite exquisite,¡± he commented. Academician Wang picked up the model to fiddle with it and felt a flood of emotions as he looked at the heart model. The heart¡ªas the pump that powers human life¡ªhad been the field where Academician Wang had been working for more than forty years, still striving in his research. A heart, four chambers, connected to five blood vessels. The left atrium connects to the pulmonary vein; the left ventricle connects to the aorta; the right atrium connects to the superior and inferior vena cavae; the right ventricle connects to the pulmonary artery. This pump and conduit system circulates blood throughout the body, then recovers it, over and over again, until the moment of death. The pulmonary artery delivers blood to the lungs, the pulmonary vein recollects the blood from the lungs to the heart, the aorta pumps the heart¡¯s blood to the entire body, the superior vena cava recollects the blood from the body above the heart back to the heart, and the inferior vena cava does the same for the blood below the plane of the heart. The left and right sides of the heart are isolated from one another, completely separated by the interventricular septum and the interatrial septum. Between the left atrium and ventricle, separation and connection occur intermittently; this is accomplished by the one-way open mitral valve¡ªwhich allows the blood to flow unidirectionally from the atrium to the ventricle without backflow. Similarly, the valve between the right atrium and ventricle¡ªthe tricuspid valve¡ªis alike, and the roots of the aorta and pulmonary artery have similar valves to perform the same one-way valve function. The whole heart constitutes the systemic and pulmonary circulation loops. Oxygen-rich blood in the left ventricle is sent out through the aorta with each heartbeat, reaching all parts of the body, then going through various capillaries, entering various veins and finally being collected by the superior and inferior vena cavae, returning to the right atrium. Due to the consumption of oxygen by cells and tissues all over the body, the blood that flows back to the right atrium contains very little oxygen. What to do? It needs to be re-oxygenated, a task accomplished by the pulmonary circulation. In the right atrium, with little oxygen content, the one-way open tricuspid valve opens, the blood enters the right ventricle and is pumped into the pulmonary artery with each heartbeat. It then undergoes gas exchange in the lungs, acquires oxygen, becomes oxygen-rich blood again, and is returned to the left atrium through the pulmonary veins. The blood goes from the left atrium through the one-way open valve into the left ventricle, and the next cycle begins. Of course, when the heart beats, all of these tasks are carried out simultaneously. Academician Wang held the heart for a long time, reminiscing about these basic principles. He had spent his entire life devoted to this field. After studying the heart model, he closed his eyes to rest, seemingly deep in thought, looking worried. Xia Shu could not ask for the model back as it was taken from him. Professors Cao, Xin, and Chen watched Academician Wang¡¯s expression, unsure of the meaning behind his actions and could only sit beside him. Studying the model, frowning, studying the model again, heaving a few sighs¡ªthis repeated for a full half-hour. ¡°Yue Liang!¡± Academician Wang called Professor Chen Yueliang over, and from his expression, he seemed to have something important to say. ¡°Come sit! All of you, come sit over here.¡± Academician Wang asked Professor Cao and Professor Xin to come over and sit down. ¡°I¡¯d like to say a few words,¡± Academician Wang said. Everyone kept quiet, not speaking, and Academician Wang began with a sigh, ¡°Just now, seeing this model really moved me, because when I first started working, I too carried a heart model in my bag. I¡¯ve been practicing medicine for over forty years, saved countless lives, and inevitably have some regrets. When we started the Fontan surgery, due to lack of experience, some infants on the operating table didn¡¯t make it to the second stage, some didn¡¯t survive to the third stage, and those who did make it past the third stage, after living a few more years, still passed away.¡± Director Xin wasn¡¯t sure what deep meaning Academician Wang had in bringing this up at the moment. Which surgeon pioneering in innovative work didn¡¯t have regrets? ¡°Teacher, now our post-Fontan surgery survival rates and longevity are the highest in Asia, and this is all thanks to your hard work back then.¡± Academician Wang waved his hand dismissively, ¡°It¡¯s nothing. What I wanted to say is, Weicong, do you remember a patient of mine named Song Hanhui?¡± ¡°I remember, Teacher. You operated on him, and now he must be in his twenties,¡± Director Xin recalled the patient. Academician Wang said in a somber voice, ¡°He came back for a check-up recently, and the kid is not doing well. He probably won¡¯t last much longer. If the surgery had been more exquisite back then, it wouldn¡¯t have come to this.¡± ¡°Technology always progresses slowly. Besides, Fontan surgery is meant to be palliative, not curative. It¡¯s not your fault.¡± Academician Wang waved his hand again, ¡°At the time, if the capability wasn¡¯t there, it simply wasn¡¯t there. Those of us in medicine must always be honest with reality.¡± Everyone still didn¡¯t understand Academician Wang¡¯s point and waited quietly for him to continue. ¡°My point is, I¡¯ve always been ruminating on the fact that, as a palliative surgery, Fontan allows patients to experience symptom relief after the third stage, achieving the goals of improved quality of life and extended lifespan. However, it is just palliation, not radical treatment. I¡¯ve been mulling over whether, after the palliative surgery, these patients could undergo another operation in adulthood¡ªthat is, a fourth surgery, total heart reversal, and reconstruction!¡± This was an extremely bold idea; Academician Wang had always had it on his mind but had never turned it into reality because such a surgery was incredibly difficult, beyond human capability, as he reckoned. Academician Wang spent most of his medical career researching congenital heart disease, accumulating extensive experience in the field and was among the first in the country to perform Fontan surgery, saving countless lives. ¡°I¡¯ve always had this idea myself, but my ability is limited. Today, after seeing Professor Yang¡¯s surgery, I suddenly had a thought. We could refer this patient to Sanbo Hospital or invite Professor Yang to come to Fuwai with us to study this case together and see if we can achieve a total heart reversal and reconstruction!¡± This would be an extraordinarily difficult surgery. If they were to proceed, the complexity of this procedure could be several times more challenging than Mai Zijing¡¯s, potentially ranking as the most difficult heart surgery in the world today. ¡°There¡¯s no better solution, and I think we should give it a try,¡± agreed Professor Xin. Then Professor Chen also voiced his agreement. ¡°Yue Liang, just recently you had an infant case scheduled for Fontan surgery, but due to poorly developed major vessels and fragile blood vessels, the surgical difficulty increased. You were prepared to have me as the chief surgeon. I think we should let Professor Yang perform the surgery instead, and we can take the opportunity to learn.¡± The two cases Academician Wang mentioned were regrets in his medical career; in one case, the lack of refined skills and surgery quality at the time now left the patient in dire straits. And in the other case, an earlier failure of Fontan surgery with similar vascular underdevelopment now presented the same kind of case again. ¡°I¡¯ll go contact the patient¡¯s family,¡± Director Chen took note. Academician Wang thought for a moment and then said, ¡°Contact the family about the infant, but I¡¯ll personally contact Song Hanhui.¡± With the matter settled, Academician Wang felt much lighter. They rested for a while at the Sanbo Hotel before hurrying to the airport. When Yang Ping finished the surgery, he learned from Professor Cao that Academician Wang, Professor Xin, and Director Chen had already left, as they had a great deal of work to do and couldn¡¯t stay long. Professor Cao mentioned Xia Shu to Yang Ping, expressing the hope that Xia Shu could stay in the general surgery department and learn from Yang Ping for a few years. A doctorate from Xiehe, with an eight-year program¡ªnothing could be better. Yang Ping had a penchant for such proactively learning doctors. Yang Ping agreed immediately, suggesting that Xia Shu come in for an interview and, if there were no issues, be directly hired. Chapter 927 - 927 804 A genius is either mad crazy or both ?Chapter 927: Chapter 804: A genius is either mad, crazy, or both! Chapter 927: Chapter 804: A genius is either mad, crazy, or both! After the surgery, Mai Zijing¡¯s blood pressure stabilized, and his heart rhythm was regular; Mai Jifu and his wife were extremely emotional. They had truly encountered a lifesaver, and now their family could finally lead a normal life. Mai Jifu pondered how to express his gratitude to the doctors. A pennant was definitely in order, but what else to give? After much thought and remembering the pledge he had signed upon admission not to give red packets, he still felt a red packet would be more suitable. So he surreptitiously made his way to the director¡¯s office and gave Yang Ping a red packet containing twenty thousand Yuan as a token of his appreciation. However, not long after he had given it, Head Nurse Cai handed him a billing statement; the twenty thousand had already been deposited into Mai Zijing¡¯s hospital account. But Mai Jifu was not disheartened; he always wanted to do something more. He wandered around the Comprehensive Surgery Ward, looking for things he could help purchase. As for money, spending tens of thousands was not a big concern for him. So he asked a parent from the bed next to his, who was a straight talker, ¡°You don¡¯t have to keep thinking about giving things, it¡¯s unnecessary. The doctors don¡¯t need it. If you really want to show your appreciation, go buy a fruit basket to deliver. That¡¯s enough if the intention is there. Choose the fruits yourself, pick some fresh ones.¡± Mai Jifu felt this might be too simple, yet he later thought that some things are inherently simple and that he was overcomplicating matters. ¡°Just give a fruit basket!¡± Mai Jifu decided. However, Mai Jifu didn¡¯t buy from the fruit shop. He put in some effort, asking around among friends until he finally found a wholesaler who dealt in fruits. With the wholesaler¡¯s help, he purchased several types of high-quality, fresh fruits to assemble a fruit basket, which he and his wife personally carried from the car to the ward. By giving the fruit basket, Mai Jifu felt peace of mind at having conveyed his sentiment. As a doctorate student from Xiehe¡¯s eight-year program, and with a recommendation from Professor Cao, Xia Shu was quickly accepted by Sanbo Hospital. The hospital was now in urgent need of such eight-year program doctors ¡ª young and highly moldable. Academician Wang was also impatient. He urged Xia Shu to start as soon as possible, saying that each day delayed was a day less of knowledge and many surgeries missed. With Academician Wang¡¯s assistance, Xia Shu¡¯s procedures at Fuwai were swiftly completed, and she arrived at Sanbo Hospital to start her job in about three days, eager to join the Comprehensive Surgery Department. At that time, Academician Wang regarded two surgeries as unfeasible. One of them involved an infant with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, only a month old, in need of a Fontan Surgery. Academician Wang personally sent the case information to Yang Ping, clearly stating that he was willing but not able to perform the surgery, and hoped to refer the case to Yang Ping. Upon reviewing the case information, Yang Ping thought that if it weren¡¯t for a reduction in the vascular wall¡¯s elastic fibers and a deficiency in collagen fibers, such surgery would be nothing out of the ordinary for Academician Wang. Professor Chen had also handled many such cases before, but the issue of vascular development was a major obstacle for the surgery. The child had unexplained deficiencies in vascular collagen and elastic fibers, especially in the major vessels, leading to severe fragility. Undertaking a complex Fontan Surgery under these conditions was highly risky. Even a slight tremor of the hand during suturing or a wrong angle while guiding the needle could slice through the vessel walls. Even if the anastomosis was forcibly completed, even a slight compromise in the quality of the sutures could lead to the high-pressure blood tearing open the needle holes. A few days later, at the weekly routine case discussion meeting, this case was brought up as a difficult and complicated case. ¡°HLHS, hypoplastic left heart syndrome?¡± Song Zimo blurted out. Any properly trained cardiac surgeon could make a preliminary diagnosis from the images. ¡°Correct, it¡¯s HLHS. The infant is only a month old with severe hypoplasia of the left ventricle; an interatrial septum defect, a patent ductus arteriosus¡ªa series of congenital heart defects,¡± Yang Ping confirmed Song Zimo¡¯s diagnosis. ¡°The Fontan Surgery is needed?¡± Xu Zhiliang opined. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Besides the Fontan Surgery, there is no other option. The left ventricle is too small to fulfill the requirements of the systemic circulation. Without the surgery, the child might not survive much longer.¡± ¡°What about a heart transplant? Since this heart is failing and there¡¯s no way to cure it, why not consider a transplant?¡± Li Guodong¡¯s knowledge may have been superficial, but he was still bold enough to ask. Song Zimo helplessly replied, ¡°Where do we find a heart to transplant into him? Unlike the liver and kidney, which can be taken from living donors, hearts can only be harvested from deceased donors. Where do we find a recently deceased infant of just a few months old? The ones who can provide hearts for such children are mostly brainless neonates or infants who die during childbirth; it¡¯s virtually impossible to find one in reality.¡± ¡°There¡¯s only one option for this Fontan Surgery, no other alternatives.¡± ¡°The Fontan Surgery?¡± For Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, this was just a piece of simple foundational knowledge, but for the orthopedic graduate student Li Guodong, it was indeed a bit challenging. However, he had recently been fervently reading papers and monographs from various specialties, so he was quite familiar with the Fontan Surgery. ¡°Couldn¡¯t just Fuwai perform this surgery, why was it referred to us?¡± Zhang Lin said with the air of a top-tier hospital¡¯s instructing physician. Yes, the Fontan Surgery could be done at both Fuwai and Anzhen, so why was it being referred to us? Everyone was puzzled. ¡°This child¡¯s blood vessels are congenitally underdeveloped, particularly the five major vessels. There¡¯s a deficiency in elastic fibers and collagenous tissues, making them much more fragile than normal. The Fontan Surgery requires a grand shuffling of major vessels, demanding meticulous skills in vascular anastomosis. Moreover, a one-month-old¡¯s heart is roughly the size of a walnut, making it extremely difficult to operate on fragile vessels. Fuwai, with their extensive experience, is being very cautious. Inexperienced surgeons would go straight to the operating table, open the chest, and cut the aorta, ready to perform the translocation anastomosis only to realize that normal suturing is impossible, with no way to proceed.¡± Song Zimo explained to everyone. Chapter 928 - 928 804 A Genius Is Either Mad Crazy or Both_2 ?Chapter 928: Chapter 804: A Genius Is Either Mad, Crazy, or Both!_2 Chapter 928: Chapter 804: A Genius Is Either Mad, Crazy, or Both!_2 In general surgery, one cannot get by without a broad and deep knowledge base, so even Zhang Lin and Little Five are now desperately reading and studying. ¡°Is it really that terrifying?¡± Little Five found it hard to imagine what it was like during surgery. At this moment, Yang Ping spoke up, ¡°It¡¯s exactly that terrifying! If these blood vessels are cut and anastomosed without extremely superior vascular anastomosis skills, just one stitch causing uneven stress distribution or a blood leak can lead to a tear under the high pressure of the blood flow, and the patient will immediately suffer massive bleeding and die.¡± ¡°Has Director He performed a Fontan Surgery?¡± Yang Ping turned his head to ask Director He Xiangjun, who had been silent. Director He was also a Doctor in cardiac surgery, and he had studied for his doctorate at the Cardiac Surgery Department of Nandu Provincial People¡¯s Hospital, which ranked among the top five cardiac institutions in the country. However, Anzhen and Fuwai were in a league of their own. The rest could only be considered second-tier; there was no denying it, reality was stark, and to surpass the cardiovascular specialists at Anzhen and Fuwai, those ranked third and below had a long way to go. As Academician Wang had said, establishing a specialty required the efforts of several generations. The cardiac surgery field is probably the most challenging to advance in, which is why many provincial hospitals¡¯ cardiac surgery departments could only perform routine surgeries, and of course, these standard operations, as long as they involve the heart, were top-notch. Therefore, Sanbo Hospital was relatively the most outdated, especially in cardiac surgery, which didn¡¯t even have a dedicated cardiac surgery department but was referred to as the Thoracic Surgery Department, combining heart, lung, esophagus, and trachea surgeries. Director He, somewhat embarrassed, admitted, ¡°I haven¡¯t performed it personally, only assisted my mentor with it. Such cases are rare and are generally only carried out in Beijing.¡± ¡°Right, the hospitals where Fontan Surgery can be developed are extremely rare. Performing this surgery well isn¡¯t just about mimicking others; it involves many factors. Thus, a good Fontan Surgery not only tests a doctor¡¯s surgical skills but also their cognitive abilities. Song Zimo, why don¡¯t you give everyone an overview of the history of Fontan Surgery? I plan to handle this patient here to let everyone familiarize themselves with Fontan Surgery first.¡± ¡°For any surgery, I always insist that everyone must be familiar with its history. Only by understanding its origins can you grasp its background, the challenges it faced, and how it developed step by step. Only then can you truly understand the essence of the surgery. Understanding the essence is necessary to perform the surgery well. We surgeons cannot be content just being simple operators.¡± ¡°Learning about Fontan Surgery, we need to study all of it: its past, present, and future, its pros and cons¡ª¡± Doctor Li Guodong ceaselessly took notes, as if every word from Professor Yang were golden rules. He recorded everything, then planned to research and comprehend it in his own time. At this moment, Song Zimo walked onto the podium, hands in his pockets, his white gown open and flaring out at the sides, making him look exceptionally dashing. He didn¡¯t use a PowerPoint presentation and had not prepared anything, relying entirely on his regular accumulation of knowledge to teach this class. ¡°Fontan Surgery¡ªthe stroke of genius in cardiac surgery, the last lifesaving straw for children with congenital heart disease!¡± Song Zimo wrote this statement on the blackboard as a summary of Fontan Surgery; indeed, if all cardiac surgery techniques were listed and evaluated for brilliance, Fontan Surgery was unparalleled for its bold imagination and meticulous thought. ¡°Talking about Fontan Surgery, we have to mention the French doctor, Francis Fontan¡ªthe inventor of Fontan Surgery, who lived a long life, dying at the age of 89.¡± ¡°In April 1968, a 39-year-old Dr. Fontan encountered a special case, a 12-year-old girl, who was breathless even when talking. When she was six months old, her face and limbs had turned blue. At six years old, she had developed exercise-induced dyspnea and clubbed fingers. As she grew up, her cyanosis and breathing difficulties worsened dramatically, her heartbeat was very fast, and her red blood cell count and hematocrit were far above normal levels. We know this abnormal increase is a compensatory phenomenon.¡± ¡°Fontan performed a cardiac catheterization and angiography on this little girl, discovering that the valve between the right atrium and right ventricle was completely closed. We know this valve should act as a one-way valve allowing blood to flow from the atrium to the ventricle and not vice versa. However, now this valve was completely impermeable.¡± ¡°Tricuspid valve atresia?¡± someone exclaimed. ¡°Exactly! Tricuspid valve atresia!¡± Song Zimo confirmed. ¡°At that time, the only treatment for this condition was a heart transplant, and the prognosis was very poor.¡± ¡°Was there heart transplantation at that time?¡± a student curiously asked. Song Zimo, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a stylus, wrote on the electronic blackboard, ¡°In December 1967, Doctor Christian Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa, successfully performed the first human heart transplant, and Dr. Fontan in France saw this patient in April 1968, only four months later.¡± ¡°Wow¡ªjust four months later, they were aware of heart transplantation. The spread of technology is so fast.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why it¡¯s crucial for doctors to have the most advanced technologies. Journals and textbooks are outdated, so we need to keep in close contact with global peers to capture important information in real-time.¡± A female student sneakily raised her phone to take a photo of the podium, while another girl turned to look at her. Chapter 929 - 929 804 A Genius Is Either Mad Crazy or Both_3 ?Chapter 929: Chapter 804: A Genius Is Either Mad, Crazy, or Both!_3 Chapter 929: Chapter 804: A Genius Is Either Mad, Crazy, or Both!_3 ¡°Are you snapping the blackboard, or are you taking photos of Senior Brother Song?¡± ¡°I¡¯m photographing the blackboard, of course.¡± ¡°Then why are you aiming at Senior Brother Song?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take photos of whatever I please.¡± The girls nearby silently also lifted their phones. ¡°If the tricuspid valve is completely obstructed, wouldn¡¯t the cardiovascular circulation be interrupted by the blockage of the valve? How then can the patient still live until 12 years old?¡± ¡°Survival always has its reasons. Since there is no gate, there must be a hole somewhere else. Therefore, such patients usually have either a patent ductus arteriosus or a ventricular septal defect, using these abnormal pathways to complete the circulatory route.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± ¡°To treat this case, Dr. Fontan summarized his experience and invented an almost crazy surgical procedure¡ªdirectly connecting the superior and inferior vena cava to the pulmonary artery, completely abandoning the right ventricle.¡± ¡°His thinking was very clear; since the tricuspid valve was closed, blocking the normal pulmonary circulation, we know that the pulmonary artery connects to the right ventricle, and the tricuspid valve closure prevents blood from the right atrium from entering the right ventricle. At this juncture, the circulation is forcibly interrupted; with no blood from the right atrium returning to the right ventricle, how is blood supposed to be ejected from the right ventricle into the pulmonary artery to acquire oxygen?¡± ¡°Alright, Dr. Fontan declared¡ªlet go of the right ventricle. We let the heart handle only systemic circulation and find another way to achieve pulmonary circulation.¡± ¡°With what method? Directly connecting the superior and inferior vena cava to the pulmonary artery. Previously, it was superior vena cava¡ªinferior vena cava¡ªright atrium¡ªright ventricle¡ªaorta. Now, I bypass the obstructed area and go directly from superior vena cava¡ªinferior vena cava to pulmonary artery.¡± ¡°Without the heart¡¯s beating, how does blood enter the pulmonary artery? Blood relies on the heart¡¯s pump action, whether entering the aorta or pulmonary artery. Now, without a pump, how does the blood flow in?¡± A student truly couldn¡¯t grasp it. ¡°It shows you¡¯re thinking about the problem!¡± Song Zimo, chest puffed out, walked between the rows; his white gown swung open like a trench coat. His tall stature of 1.86 meters, paired with a handsome face, left the female students sitting there absolutely captivated. Under the guise of studying, the girls were able to brazenly take photos of Song Zimo with their phones. ¡°At that time, every cardiac surgery department in the world thought this¡ªpulmonary circulation must rely on the right ventricle pumping blood to the pulmonary artery under the heart¡¯s beating. Without the heart¡¯s pumping action, blood simply couldn¡¯t enter the pulmonary artery. Otherwise, what¡¯s the point of having a right ventricle and right atrium? Hence, this plan seemed impossible to work.¡± ¡°But a genius is a genius; a genius is either mad, or a fanatic, or both!¡± When saying this, Song Zimo¡¯s gaze fell on Yang Ping, lingered for a moment, and then he continued. ¡°Dr. Fontan¡¯s thinking was completely different from others.¡± ¡°Dr. Fontan was very confident that this plan would work, and at that point, Dr. Fontan introduced a middle school physics concept: pressure difference!¡± ¡°We know that water flows through pipes with pressure, and blood being a liquid, of course, has pressure when flowing through blood vessels. Systemic circulation needs to pump blood to the entire body, which has high pressure and belongs to high pressure circulation, while pulmonary circulation only pumps blood to the lungs, which is low pressure circulation. So, systemic circulation and pulmonary circulation have a pressure difference, and this pressure difference ensures that blood returning from the superior and inferior vena cava will definitely flow toward the pulmonary artery.¡± ¡°The foundation of Dr. Fontan¡¯s theory was this middle school physics concept.¡± ¡°Moreover, as we just mentioned, these patients often have perforated septa between the right and left atria. Once Dr. Fontan created this vascular shortcut, the direct entry of blood into the pulmonary artery would just perfectly separate the blood flow of the right and left atria, thus avoiding mixing.¡± ¡°Why did this little girl have cyanosis? Because of hypoxia. And why hypoxia? Because of a faulty circulation, which caused oxygen-rich blood to mix with oxygen-poor blood.¡± ¡°Dr. Fontan¡¯s surgery went from concept to being prepared to be performed on a little girl without even conducting animal experiments. But the genius firmly believed in his own correctness. He overcame all opposition, conducted the surgery on the little girl, and it was very successful.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t he just buy ten pigs to experiment first, and then use it on humans? He couldn¡¯t have been unable to afford pigs, right?¡± A female student asked Song Zimo. ¡°He couldn¡¯t find any pigs with tricuspid atresia!¡± A male student debated with the female student. The girl was unyielding: ¡°Why does it have to be pigs with tricuspid atresia?¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t buy pigs with tricuspid atresia, how can you simulate this case?¡± ¡°You all are victims of fixed thinking. Even normal pigs can undergo the shortcut procedure. If the pigs can live normally after the shortcut, then the surgery is a success. If they can¡¯t survive, then the surgery has failed.¡± The male and female students formed two opposing sides for the debate, their thinking as lively as a quarrel. The male voices were loud, the female voices piercing. Zhang Lin looked at Yang Ping, ready to intervene, but seeing the smile on Yang Ping¡¯s face, he immediately abandoned the thought and sat back down in his chair. Chapter 930 - 930 805 Does This Look Like a Department Case ?Chapter 930: Chapter 805: Does This Look Like a Department Case Discussion? Chapter 930: Chapter 805: Does This Look Like a Department Case Discussion? The girl mentioned this, and the boy was clearly at a disadvantage. It seemed to make sense, even a normal healthy pig could undergo such a shunt. Why didn¡¯t the great Dr. Fontan use pigs for experiments and instead applied the brand-new surgery method directly to patients? This question seemed difficult to answer. Since the girl was already 12 years old and the surgery didn¡¯t appear to be an emergency lifesaving procedure, there was completely enough time to prepare. ¡°Because Dr. Fontan was a genius, not something our minds could speculate on. Let¡¯s have Professor Yang answer this question,¡± he said. ¡°Me?¡± Yang Ping was completely caught off guard by Song Zimo¡¯s sudden challenge. Before Yang Ping could reflect, applause filled the room. Professor Yang was considered an absolute genius in everyone¡¯s eyes. Only a genius could understand another genius. Why didn¡¯t Dr. Fontan buy pigs for animal experiments? Yang Ping stood up, while Song Zimo and everyone else looked at him, awaiting his response. ¡°Because he was extremely confident in his approach and felt there was absolutely no need to waste time on this. In his eyes, every wasted minute meant a minute of danger for the little girl¡ª¡± Song Zimo immediately applauded, ¡°Such confidence is only found in very few people. In fact, just by thinking about the actions of these geniuses in medical history, many of my questions are answered. Alright, let¡¯s continue¡ª¡± Yang Ping sat down again, thinking this kid was just teasing him. A doctoral student raised his hand, ¡°You just mentioned the pressure difference; there is a pressure difference between systemic circulation and pulmonary circulation, as the pressure in the systemic circulation is greater than that in the pulmonary circulation. This ensures that the blood returning through the inferior vena cava can flow towards the pulmonary artery under this pressure gradient and make the shunt successful. I really want to know, just hypothetically, if the pulmonary artery has high pressure causing this pressure difference to not exist, can this surgery still be performed?¡± Song Zimo answered the question: ¡°Very good, the condition you mentioned is a contraindication for the Fontan procedure. The foundation of the Fontan surgery lies here. If the pulmonary artery has high pressure, causing this pressure difference to not exist, and blood cannot flow in the intended direction, this surgery cannot achieve its purpose. Yet, we can tackle this difficulty, how?¡± Another graduate student raised his hand, it was a male student, attempting to reclaim the respect he had lost in front of the girl. ¡°Generally, this situation is caused by either a narrowing of the pulmonary artery or incomplete opening of the pulmonary valve. We could expand the pulmonary artery or perform valve replacement, relieving the high pressure in the pulmonary artery, and forming a pressure gradient, giving this surgery a new foundation to exist on. If the high pulmonary artery pressure is caused by other reasons, we¡¯ll address those issues. If it cannot be resolved, we must abandon this surgical approach.¡± ¡°Very well said,¡± Song Zimo approved. ¡°The surgical method created by Dr. Fontan initially aimed at treating the closure of the tricuspid valve, but it goes beyond that. It can treat many types of congenital heart diseases, giving hope to countless patients with inoperable cardiac malformations who cannot wait for a heart transplant. Unfortunately, this method is only palliative and cannot cure the disease.¡± ¡°The Fontan surgery we just discussed is just a prototype. Over time, Fontan surgery has evolved into a system of procedures, far more complex than the initial form, but these procedures all adhere to Dr. Fontan¡¯s original principle: the heart solely handles systemic circulation, and pulmonary circulation is managed by a shunt between the inferior vena cava and the pulmonary artery; oxygen-rich arterial blood and oxygen-poor venous blood must not mix and must be kept separate.¡± ¡°So, how is the surgery for this case performed? By following the standard surgical procedure, in three steps!¡± Song Zimo wrote down one, two, three on the electronic blackboard. This case¡¯s Fontan surgery, compared to the original form by its founder, was much more complex with many more factors to consider. While lecturing, Song Zimo noticed that the back door of the lecture hall gradually filled up with people, as there were no more seats. They squeezed into any available space at the back row to stand. Since everyone was facing the lectern, no one noticed the late arrivals, but Song Zimo, as the speaker, faced the entire lecture hall and clearly saw who came in at the back. Li Zehui, he just landed back from the United States, saw this case from a WeChat group, then decided to purchase another ticket to return to China. If it weren¡¯t for his academic exchange visa allowing multiple entries to China, returning wouldn¡¯t have been so convenient for Li Zehui. Meanwhile, his senior was still stuck with visa issues. If his senior had known about these cases, he would have collapsed from grief. Following that, Song Zimo saw Xia Shuling leading Academician Wang, Professor Chen, and Director Xin back to Sanbo Hospital. They heard about today¡¯s comprehensive surgery discussion on this case, so they hurriedly came to Sanbo Hospital. What started as a departmental case discussion in general surgery had unintentionally turned into a conference of top cardiac surgery experts. ¡°Actually, regarding the treatment of this case through Fontan surgery, we have a distinguished senior in the audience who is more qualified to speak than I am. He is the first doctor in our country to carry out Fontan surgery and a leading expert in pediatric congenital heart diseases in China,¡± Song Zimo decided to invite Academician Wang to discuss Fontan surgery and let everyone witness the academician¡¯s grace. Academician Wang was actually standing in the back. He realized Song Zimo was referring to him and hurriedly waved his hand, feeling somewhat embarrassed. If there were an award for the most humble academician of the year, it would undoubtedly go to Academician Wang. He didn¡¯t see himself as an academician, but merely as an ordinary doctor attending the lecture. Chapter 931 - 931 805 Does This Look Like a Department Case ?Chapter 931: Chapter 805: Does This Look Like a Department Case Discussion? _2 Chapter 931: Chapter 805: Does This Look Like a Department Case Discussion? _2 At that moment, Yang Ping also looked back and saw Academician Wang, so he hurriedly called Little Five over to arrange seats for the guests. ¡°Please welcome Professor Wang from our Beijing, Fuwai Hospital!¡± Song Zimo applauded and then walked down from the lectern to shake hands with Academician Wang. Everyone was caught off guard. Holy crap, there was an academician among them sitting in on the lecture; everyone¡¯s gaze followed Song Zimo¡¯s gaze and saw an old professor shaking hands with Song Zimo. Some recognized him, but most did not. Actually, the circle of doctors is quite small; even nationally renowned experts are only known among doctors in the same field. After all, they attend academic conferences together and often see experts on the podium. If a doctor rarely attends academic conferences, even if they are in the same specialty, they wouldn¡¯t recognize the industry giants. Academician Wang was approachable; he didn¡¯t put on any airs at all. Holding the microphone like an ordinary teacher, he walked up to the lectern and then Yang Ping came forward to shake his hand. ¡°This is an academician?¡± How is there an academician mixed in listening to the lecture? The atmosphere in the venue was stirred up. General surgery really could be puzzling. It was just a case discussion within the department; why would an academician attend? ¡°Everyone, please be quiet for a moment. I¡¯d like to say a few words. I just got off the plane, sorry, the flight was delayed, so I¡¯m late. I specifically came over to join your case discussion; this case, in fact, is my patient,¡± said the academician, pointing at the image on the electronic screen. ¡°Just now, Dr. Song said I was one of the earliest in the country to perform Fontan surgery, which is true. Not only Fontan surgery, but I also pioneered many surgeries for congenital heart disease. I¡¯ve edited several editions of guidelines in this area; the latest edition is edited by Professor Chen Yueliang. In fact, we were at Sanbo Hospital a few days ago, and after we returned to Beijing, hearing that you were going to discuss this case, we flew back.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve talked quite a bit off-topic, let¡¯s get back to the point.¡± ¡°Many wonder why this case wasn¡¯t done at our Fuwai but was moved to be done at Sanbo Hospital; the reason is simple. If we were to perform the surgery, the success rate wouldn¡¯t be high; if Professor Yang did it, the success rate would be much higher. It¡¯s that simple.¡± ¡°Everyone here is a doctor, even though some are intern doctors, you are practically a doctor. Not to hide anything from you, I had two similar cases before that I couldn¡¯t save. Apart from Fontan surgery itself, the difficult point of these cases is that there are issues with the development of blood vessels. The vessel walls lack collagen fibers, and there¡¯s a deficiency in elastic fibers. What the exact cause is, we have yet to find out, but it¡¯s suspected to be associated with cardiac malformation. But no matter what, it adds significant difficulty to the surgery, not just a little.¡± ¡°The failed two cases: one died on the operating table; opening the thoracic cavity, when cutting off the blood vessels for anastomosis, it was impossible to suture; the blood vessel walls tore easily, and even though we finally completed the surgery, when we removed the extracorporeal circulation and the heart restarted beating and bleeding started, we simply couldn¡¯t stop the bleeding. Why? Here a stitch, there another tore; finally, we helplessly watched the child pass away, powerless to do anything.¡± ¡°You young people don¡¯t have this kind of feeling. When you reach our age, having been doctors for so long, memories like this accumulate. Truly, at that time, you feel completely helpless, helpless, and hopeless. As a surgeon, as a cardiac surgeon, when you see blood spurting everywhere and you can¡¯t stop it, what kind of feeling is that?¡± ¡°The second case, which occurred 10 years later, we learned from the past. During the surgery, we included an artificial blood vessel for support. There were no issues on the operating table for this case, but on the third day post-surgery, the patient died in the intensive care unit. At that time, we performed an emergency rescue surgery, opened the thoracic cavity, and it was full of blood, spurting because the major vascular and artificial blood vessel¡¯s suture site had torn.¡± ¡°Later, with the family¡¯s consent, we performed an autopsy to find the cause¡ªthe vascular anastomosis did not meet the requirements. This case, without new fundamental theories emerging, would be impossible to operate, why?¡± ¡°Because, for the surgery to succeed, your suturing has to hold for at least 5¡ªto 7 days. But in reality, it¡¯s extremely difficult, virtually impossible. Do you know why?¡± ¡°Because suturing such fragile blood vessels is like suturing soap bubbles and expecting the soap bubbles not to burst. Once these brittle vessels are cut and re-sutured, the demands on suturing are beyond human capability. It¡¯s like a very thin paper bag: when it¡¯s whole, it can carry water without leaking, even very heavy water, because the stress is evenly distributed.¡± ¡°When you cut the paper bag in half and you stitch it back together, then try to carry water without leaking, it¡¯s very difficult. To carry very heavy water is even more difficult. Why? Because the stress concentrates at the sutures, especially since it¡¯s impossible to evenly distribute the stress at the suture site. With too much stress carried by a single stitch, the paper bag starts to tear from that point.¡± ¡°I wonder if everyone understands what I¡¯m saying?¡± asked Academician Wang. Academician Wang paused. ¡°Professor Wang, are you saying that if someone could achieve theoretically perfect suturing, distributing the stress evenly across every stitch at the anastomosis, then the surgery might be successful?¡± a student asked. ¡°Exactly! This student is paying very good attention. That¡¯s exactly what I mean. Although this doesn¡¯t guarantee a 100% successful surgery, it maximizes the probability of success,¡± he affirmed. ¡°Why then, after five to seven days, is it considered safe?¡± Graduate students, standardized training students, and intern students who initially dared not speak now became lively in their thinking, emboldened to voice their thoughts when someone else had taken the lead. Chapter 932 - 932 805 Does This Look Like a Department Case ?Chapter 932: Chapter 805 Does This Look Like a Department Case Discussion?_3 Chapter 932: Chapter 805 Does This Look Like a Department Case Discussion?_3 ¡°Think about it for a moment, why does the problem significantly diminish after the critical period of five to seven days has passed?¡± A graduate student raised their hand. ¡°Because the anastomosis at the end of the blood vessel would have healed, it¡¯s no longer a weakness, and stress won¡¯t be concentrated there.¡± ¡°Exactly, students from Sanbo Hospital ask very bold questions. This is how we should learn¡ªdaring to ask, good at questioning. How can you improve if you¡¯re afraid to even ask? I really like this academic atmosphere, look at all these young doctors and students, discussing with one another. Our hospital is somewhat rigid; only the senior doctors speak, and they tend to stick to their own specialties. As soon as I speak, everyone loses the ability to question and they all just agree.¡± ¡°Let me tell you, there is no authority in academia. Don¡¯t look at me as an Academician; there is still so much I don¡¯t understand. I don¡¯t consider myself an authority¡ªthere is no authority in academia. Just now, we talked about Fontan Surgery. Dr. Fontan, who invented it, was only in his thirties and a junior doctor back then. The authorities at that time said, ¡®This is simply not doable, it¡¯s just a pipe dream, an idle fancy.¡± ¡°If there were authority in academia, it would be over. Dr. Fontan would have obeyed the authorities, and if they said no, then no it would be. What then of the surgeries, and would we still have the Fontan Surgery we¡¯re discussing today? The advancement of academia begins with questioning the so-called authority.¡± ¡°Every time I review papers for my doctoral students, after making the corrections, they say, ¡®Okay, teacher, I¡¯ll revise according to your directions.¡± ¡°I think to myself, that¡¯s it, my students lack the ability to question, there¡¯s been a problem with my teaching. I want to correct your paper, so why don¡¯t you have any arguments or objections? Where is your own opinion?¡± ¡°Just now, I saw a few male and female students arguing loudly over issues related to pigs, but it was all academic debate, and that¡¯s very good. Academia should be about debate¡ªthe more you argue, the clearer things become. Don¡¯t be afraid of debate. The correct things will gradually be recognized through debate, while incorrect ones will naturally die out.¡± Academician Wang finished speaking and paused. Yang Ping was the first to applaud. Academician Wang was truly down-to-earth, not showing any airs expected of an academician. Among the academicians Yang Ping knew, Academician Wang was the least pretentious, Academician Liang from Xiehe Hospital was the most upright, speaking and acting with integrity. As for his father-in-law, Academician Su, he seemed to always carry an air of nobility, always graceful at any time¡ªhow should I put it¡ªin a way that¡¯s not quite common, he exudes an aristocratic quality. How well said, science should first have the capacity for questioning¡ªscience progresses through questioning. Thus, there is no authority in science; the existence of authority is an obstacle to progress. ¡°Being inspired by this atmosphere, I¡¯ll say a bit more. Now, let me tell you about the three steps of Fontan Surgery in layman¡¯s terms. After I¡¯m done, it would be best for Professor Li Zehui to provide a supplement, to supplement with some of the latest research on Fontan Surgery worldwide. By the way, Professor Li Zehui is a top cardiac surgery expert from the American Cleveland Medical Center, with significant contributions in areas such as congenital heart disease, coronary bypass, valve treatment, and heart transplants.¡± ¡°Wow!¡± The whole audience turned to look back, as the renowned global authority shyly waved at everyone, standing at the back just like the rest, listening to the lecture. The young students were thrilled. All the big names were present¡ªwas this a department case discussion or what? PS: There¡¯s another chapter coming up. Today, the editor-in-chief¡¯s recommendation appeared on the QiDian app. It¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve had a recommendation; it must be a reward for recently returning to a regular update schedule. Thank you all for your support over the years. If you have any monthly or recommendation tickets, please throw them my way. Thank you! Chapter 933 - 933 806 Innovation Begins with Boldness and ?Chapter 933: Chapter 806 Innovation Begins with Boldness and Absurdity Chapter 933: Chapter 806 Innovation Begins with Boldness and Absurdity Academician Wang began to lecture everyone on Fontan Surgery. ¡°Explaining it in three steps seems a bit complicated, so I¡¯ll use a reverse narrative to explain it. Let¡¯s start with the result, which is the target to be achieved in three steps. Why can¡¯t we achieve it in one step? Because after the heart is modified, there¡¯s an adaptation process. If done in one step, the heart can¡¯t handle it and severe complications would occur. We can only proceed step by step, allowing the heart to gradually adapt.¡± ¡°Look at this case, the Left Ventricle is very small, poorly developed, what do we do? We abandon this Left Ventricle, discard it, and don¡¯t use it. Isn¡¯t there another Right Ventricle in the heart? It can pump blood too. So we connect the Aorta to the Right Ventricle, letting it take over the role of the Left Ventricle. Originally, the Right Ventricle is connected to the Pulmonary Artery, which is the driving force of pulmonary circulation. Since the Right Ventricle is given to the Aorta, what about pulmonary circulation? The essence of Fontan Surgery is right here. Didn¡¯t I mention before? The core of this surgery is the direct anastomosis of the Pulmonary Artery with the Superior and Inferior Vena Cava, bypassing the heart as the power source, and letting the pressure difference between them provide the driving force. Finally, we break down the wall between the left and right atriums, turning them into one chamber. These three points are the results we want, achieved in three steps.¡± ¡°After the surgery, what does the heart look like?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s take a look!¡± Academician Wang drew a diagram on the electronic blackboard: ¡°My drawing skills are not as high as Professor Yang¡¯s, but make do with it.¡± Actually, as far as Medical Illustrations are concerned, Academician Wang was already at a very high level. ¡°The systemic circulation becomes like this ¡ª the oxygen-rich arterial blood returns to the Left Atrium from the Pulmonary Vein, then passes through the surgically created opening between the two atriums into the Right Atrium, and then enters the Right Ventricle. With the heartbeat, it¡¯s pumped through the Aorta to the whole body, and finally, is collected back by the Superior and Inferior Vena Cavas. ¡°What about the pulmonary circulation? It goes like this ¡ª the oxygen-poor blood directly enters the Pulmonary Artery from the Superior and Inferior Vena Cavas, undergoes gas exchange in the lungs, becomes oxygen-rich blood, and returns to the Left Atrium through the Pulmonary Vein. Look, a man-made circulation has been successfully established, achieving the target: the separation of oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood. The heart only handles systemic circulation. This transformation is like using factory-defective parts to reassemble and achieve normal function. ¡°Compare this with the normal systemic and pulmonary circulation, isn¡¯t it interesting? Such an imaginative method.¡± Next, Academician Wang detailed the specific methods and stages of the surgery. The first stage is generally completed within a month, the second at six months, and the third between one and one and a half years old. ¡°In the first step, we have to enlarge the Aorta because it¡¯s connected to the Left Ventricle. Since the Left Ventricle is poorly developed, the Aorta often is too, being very narrow. We need to enlarge the Aorta, then cut off the Pulmonary Artery that¡¯s connected to the Right Ventricle and connect the Aorta to the Right Ventricle instead. This way, the Right Ventricle takes over the systemic circulation from the Left Ventricle. What about the abandoned pulmonary circulation? We create a temporary shunt between the Pulmonary Artery and the Aorta. So actually, at this stage, the circulation is still chaotic, and the oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood is mixed. It¡¯s not the final goal yet, but as the first step, it can ensure the child survives until the second surgery is performed. Of course, during this step, we also need to open the septum between the left and right atriums.¡± ¡°Once the heart adapts, we proceed with the second step at six months old. Before, we had built a temporary bridge between the Aorta and Pulmonary Artery. Now we remove it, and connect the Superior Vena Cava to the Pulmonary Artery. This way, the Pulmonary Artery receives the oxygen-poor venous blood, moving a step closer to the target. However, the blood from the Inferior Vena Cava will still enter the Right Atrium, the Left Atrium, and the Right Ventricle, which acts as the Left Ventricle. So after the second step, the venous and arterial blood will still mix.¡± ¡°At the age of one to one and a half years, we perform the last step, connecting the Inferior Vena Cava to the Pulmonary Artery. Look, have we now achieved the target we initially discussed?¡± Academician Wang, using simple and popular language, made the three steps of Fontan Surgery clear, and with the accompanying illustrations, the young students had fully understood. ¡°For the entire surgery and postoperative monitoring, we focus on monitoring the Pulmonary Artery pressure, because the entire surgery is based on the pressure difference between the Aorta and Pulmonary Artery. Therefore, if pulmonary hypertension occurs, the surgery¡¯s effect would collapse, and the patient would be in danger. So, if we find any problems, we need to operate to adjust the pressure in the Pulmonary Artery.¡± ¡°To summarize, our goal is ¡ª because the Left Ventricle is unusable, we change the Aorta, which originally connected to the Left Ventricle, to connect to the Right Ventricle, and we connect the Pulmonary Artery, which was connected to the Right Ventricle, with the Superior and Inferior Vena Cavas; and open the septum between the left and right atriums.¡± ¡°But to allow the heart to adapt, we go slowly, in three steps to achieve the target ¡ª first, change the connection of the Aorta to the Right Ventricle, at this point the Pulmonary Artery isn¡¯t connected to the Superior and Inferior Vena Cavas yet, so we temporarily create a pathway with the Aorta; then we connect the Aorta to the Superior Vena Cava; and finally, we connect the Aorta to the Inferior Vena Cava, and we are done!¡± ¡°Are there any questions or concerns regarding Fontan Surgery?¡± asked Academician Wang. A student raised a hand: ¡°Elder Wang, apart from a heart transplant, will there be new methods to radically treat this condition in the future?¡± Academician Wang said, ¡°I¡¯m not certain. With the current level of medical knowledge, there¡¯s no way to radically treat it other than a heart transplant, but this is only as far as we know now, within our current understanding. Wasn¡¯t there also no way to deal with Tricuspid Atresia before? Didn¡¯t Fontan Surgery become a lifesaving procedure? I think the next radical surgery might just come from among you.¡± Chapter 934 - 934 806 Innovation Starts with Boldness and ?Chapter 934: Chapter 806: Innovation Starts with Boldness and Absurdity_2 Chapter 934: Chapter 806: Innovation Starts with Boldness and Absurdity_2 After Academician Wang finished speaking, everyone fell silent, momentarily at a loss for questions. Not wanting to let the atmosphere cool down, Yang Ping said at this time, ¡°Let¡¯s brainstorm, everyone. Think of anything, no matter how absurd or outlandish. For instance, this case involves underdevelopment of the left ventricle, right? What if we could implant an expander in the left ventricle and gradually enlarge it to normal size? We could initially perform a Fontan Surgery as a temporary measure while implanting the expander in the left ventricle. Once the left ventricle has expanded, we could remove the Fontan Surgery and reposition the blood vessels to their correct places.¡± Academician Wang was immediately taken aback by Yang Ping¡¯s idea. Indeed, it was a notion that could be described as ¡°bold and preposterous¡± and something that nobody had yet considered. It had always been assumed that since the left ventricle was underdeveloped and small, it was unusable. Other than a heart transplant, the only option was Fontan Surgery, which is merely a palliative procedure that enables the deficient heart to function normally. No one had ever thought of a way to restore a developmentally impaired left ventricle to normal. Exactly! Could we create an expander to implant in the left ventricle and gradually enlarge it? Everyone was immediately energized by the topic thrown out by Yang Ping. Such truly genius thinking! The minds of geniuses are indeed distinct. Both Li Zehui and Professor Chen were astounded by this flight of fancy. A student began to speak: ¡°The left ventricle is naturally small, and artificially enlarging it might thin the myocardial wall, leading to weak contractions or even a rupture, right?¡± Seeing that such a viewpoint did not provoke laughter, many others grew bolder. ¡°Exactly, just as during skin expansion, the more you expand the expander, the thinner the skin becomes, turning it into something like a pancake. If you want to increase the area, the thickness will decrease.¡± Students are inherently active thinkers with rich imaginations. As their confidence grew, so did their boldness, and they dared to speak up, regardless of the feasibility of their ideas. ¡°Children are still growing, and so is the heart; it¡¯s not stretching something unchangeable. According to the Ilizarov Principle, tissue subjected to tension grows faster,¡± said Li Guodong excitedly. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t such a large expander placed in the left ventricle cause thrombosis?¡± a female student asked. ¡°We just mentioned that this case had already given up on using the left ventricle because it¡¯s too small to be functional. We could completely seal off the space between the left ventricle and left atrium, hence no blood in the left ventricle and thus no risk of thrombosis with the expander. Once the left ventricle develops, we can remove the expander, and reopen the sealed partition between the left atrium and ventricle,¡± another male student quickly responded. Yang Ping was very pleased internally; he relished this kind of atmosphere where everyone dared to speak up. How wonderful it was. Academician Wang too was surprised; these young minds¡¯ ideas were incredibly bold and innovative. If we were to implant an expander in the underdeveloped left ventricle, how would we implement the expansion? Normally, when we do skin expansion, there¡¯s a water bag implanted inside the skin expander with a tube leading out that is periodically filled with water to achieve gradual expansion. How would this work for the heart?¡± asked Li Guodong. ¡°Right, how could the expansion be achieved?¡± The young doctors scratched their heads. Indeed, how could the expansion be implemented? Surely we can¡¯t have a tube coming out of the heart like we do with skin. The idea was preposterous, but medical advances often begin by turning seemingly preposterous ideas into reality. ¡°Could we lead a small tube out through the blood vessels, similar to creating a fistula for dialysis, and inject water when needed, then seal it off afterward?¡± ¡°The blood vessel won¡¯t work, if there¡¯s a tube in the vessel, it would quickly form a thrombus, blocking the entire blood vessel. Besides, since the left ventricle is no longer part of the circulation, we can¡¯t guide it into the vessel,¡± said Song Zimo, joining the discussion. ¡°The left ventricle is out of the circulation; that makes things easier. Considering neurosurgery¡¯s ventricular drainage, let¡¯s fix a tube to the left ventricle directly, design a path leading out of it,¡± he added. ¡°It can¡¯t exit through the thorax; the thorax is under negative pressure. Even if buried under the skin, if the tunnel leaks air, when the skin is cut later, air would follow the tube, through the gap between the tube and tunnel, into the thorax, causing a pneumothorax,¡± Professor Chen also became excited. ¡°Considering a ventricular shunt, after leading the drainage tube from the left ventricle, it could be passed through the diaphragmatic hiatus into the abdominal cavity, then led out of the abdominal cavity to under the skin, and buried near the skin fold by the belly button. When needed, it could be cut open to inject water, and sewn shut when not needed, safe and convenient,¡± she continued. The discussion reached this point, and Academician Wang realized that the plan to implant an expander had begun to take shape: how to implant it, where the tubes would run, how the expansion would work, all had specific implementation plans. This comprehensive surgery department would indeed be a gathering place for geniuses in the future. Just now, Dr. Song¡¯s reference to a ventricular shunt had suddenly opened up new possibilities. ¡°After the left ventricle is expanded¡ªthe biggest issue is¡ªthe interval between the left ventricle and the left atrium¡ªthat is, the mitral valve¡ªhow to restore it¡ªI think that¡¯s the biggest¡ªproblem!¡± Xu Zhiliang spoke up. This guy actually used his manner of speech to pause at sensible points, although he spoke slowly, he somehow made it easy for everyone to understand clearly. Is reopening the mitral valve a difficulty? Song Zimo thought for a bit and said, ¡°It¡¯s not difficult; the valve is present and there¡¯s a basis for suturing. We could perform a mitral valve replacement surgery.¡± ¡°There¡¯s another issue¡ªwe know¡ªwe use Ilizarov theory for¡ªbone elongation¡ªthe limit in bone lengthening is the nerve¡ªthe nerve can only stretch to a certain extent¡ªbeyond that, it becomes unusable¡ªduring the expansion process¡ªcould there be a conduction block¡ªthat is, the cardiac conduction bundle might become unusable due to the stretching.¡± The discussion grew deeper, and Academician Wang sat down and listened attentively. ¡°This possibility could either exist or not; we could accumulate some data through animal experiments, then gradually collect data in clinical practice, and progressively optimize. It¡¯s certain that, if this possibility exists, there must be a critical threshold between becoming unusable and remaining normal.¡± ¡°I think this idea is really good; we could make it a research project, it holds great potential. Whether it succeeds or fails in the future, at least it explores a new path,¡± Academician Wang got excited; he was increasingly convinced by this proposal. Although it was preposterous and seemed impractical, many innovations start with ideas that are bold and preposterous, and many such innovations have made their way amidst absurdity and impracticality. PS: Two chapters, over eight thousand words, consider it a mini explosion! Thanks everyone, show some encouragement, smash some votes! Thank you!!! Chapter 935 - 935 807 Debut of the Ultimate Technique ?Chapter 935: Chapter 807: Debut of the Ultimate Technique Chapter 935: Chapter 807: Debut of the Ultimate Technique After a session of freestyle discussion, Professor Li Zehui then spoke about the latest treatment advancements for pediatric congenital heart disease. As a professor at Cleveland Medical Center and a rising star in the world of cardiac surgery, Professor Li Zehui¡¯s lessons naturally contained an abundance of practical information, discussing cutting-edge techniques that can¡¯t be found in textbooks. A departmental case discussion featuring academics, international top experts, and even those who had flown in specially for the event, undoubtedly provided the students with substantial knowledge and boosted their confidence. Director He Xiangjun from Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Department of Thoracic Surgery had been mostly silent throughout, perhaps because the longer one works, the less passion and curiosity one tends to have; he showed no interest in the topics discussed by the young graduate students. Yang Ping was about to become the chief surgeon for an infant case, so Academician Wang hoped Yang Ping could make a summary statement about the recent discussion. As the department director, it was expected of him, and Yang Ping slowly approached the podium to say: ¡°I have given a lot of thought to this case, and when I spoke about placing an expander in the underdeveloped left ventricle, I wasn¡¯t just saying it¡ªI actually want to establish a project to specifically study it, hoping to find a radical treatment for underdeveloped left ventricles. We already have a broad direction. The rest is to refine our project. I hope every doctor and student in the department can get involved. We must consider how the expander is designed, how it¡¯s implanted, how the pathways are brought out, and how exactly the expansion is to be carried out. We need to both increase the space in the left ventricle and ensure the thickness and contractile strength of the myocardial wall, allowing the left ventricle to beat normally and powerfully after complete expansion.¡± ¡°I¡¯m signing up!¡± Li Guodong said excitedly, raising his hand. Immediately, many people in the audience followed suit, raising their hands to sign up, showing high enthusiasm and a belief that they could make it work. ¡°Alright, after the meeting, Li Guodong will take the lead in establishing the team.¡± Furthermore, Elder Wang just mentioned his two failed cases. Failure is the mother of success; without Elder Wang¡¯s pioneering work providing experiences and lessons for successors, their success would not be possible.¡± ¡°Elder Wang left one thing unsaid, which I will add. This case not only demands extremely high suturing technique but also a very rapid suturing speed because it involves an infant who cannot withstand long durations of extracorporeal circulation. It is necessary to employ hypothermic circulatory arrest techniques, which typically allow for a duration of 45 minutes, and with special brain protection techniques, can only be extended up to 60 minutes. Therefore, all suturing must be completed within this time frame, which is quite challenging.¡± Academician Wang had deliberately not mentioned this aspect earlier, not wanting to dwell on the objective difficulties. Failure is failure and must be confronted head-on. In Yang Ping¡¯s summary, the case discussion concluded. Everyone looked forward to the surgery with great anticipation, hearing that the suturing involved would be the pinnacle of surgical technique. ¡ª Early the next morning, the infant was brought to Sanbo Hospital by his parents and admitted to the hospital. The little fellow had noticeable cyanosis on his lips, a symptom of lack of oxygen. In theory, a first surgery should have been completed within a month, but it was already a few days beyond that. Without surgery soon, the child was unlikely to live much longer. The baby¡¯s parents were also desperately seeking help, unwilling to give up, which is why they turned to Fuwai Hospital and found Professor Chen. Professor Chen is a top expert in pediatric congenital heart disease; aside from Academician Wang who had already semi-retired, it would not be an exaggeration to call Professor Chen the foremost authority on pediatric congenital heart disease surgeries in China. The baby¡¯s mother undid his clothes, and Yang Ping examined his entire condition before auscultating his heart and reviewing various tests brought from the other hospital. The indications for surgery were clear: there were no contraindications to surgery, so there was nothing much else to say¡ªsurgery! An earlier operation meant less risk and more hope. ¡°We¡¯ll complete the preoperative examinations today, and proceed with the surgery tomorrow,¡± said Yang Ping after the examination. Academician Wang greatly appreciated Yang Ping¡¯s decisiveness, his readiness to act without hesitation or let difficulties stand in the way. The baby¡¯s surgery was to be done in three steps. If the first stage went well, it indicated that Yang Ping¡¯s vascular sutures were satisfactory. Generally, this suggested that the second and third stages would likely go smoothly too, making the first operation most critical. Xia Shu quickly got into the groove¡ªperhaps he inherently enjoyed the working state of comprehensive surgery¡ªonce he started his shift, he utilized his specialty to assist the physician in charge with perioperative management for this infant. The surgery was scheduled to begin the next day. Yang Ping would be the chief surgeon, with Academician Wang and Professor Chen serving as assistants due to their experience with such surgery. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were also to be on the platform, albeit in peripheral roles. Professor Li Zehui, Director He Xiangjun, and Xia Shu would serve as observers, sitting in a corner of the operating room, ready to watch the procedure on the screen. Professor Cao did not attend this time; feeling his age, he thought it best to minimize his viewing of Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries. To prepare for any possible emergencies, Yang Ping chose a median sternotomy, which provided the most open and clear approach. Upon opening the thoracic cavity, the heart was exposed, a small organ not even the size of a walnut, with even smaller major blood vessels. Vascular anastomosis was Yang Ping¡¯s signature skill, his trick of the trade. It was this expertise using vascular anastomosis in limb reattachment that brought him recognition at Sanbo Hospital, raising his profile with each surgery. And what is the core technology in limb reattachments? It¡¯s vascular anastomosis. Are there blood vessels finer than those in an infant¡¯s fingers? The aorta, pulmonary artery, and their connections to the heart were also exposed. Yang Ping gently touched the thin blood vessels with his fingers, feeling that their elasticity was very poor. Chapter 936 - 936 807 Debut Special Technique_2 ?Chapter 936: Chapter 807: Debut Special Technique_2 Chapter 936: Chapter 807: Debut Special Technique_2 ¡°Prepare for extracorporeal circulation and cardiac arrest!¡± Connect the extracorporeal circulation, inject the cardiac arrest fluid, and cause the heart to stop. During the extracorporeal circulation process, gradually lower the infant¡¯s body temperature until the core temperature reaches 15¡ãC, then turn off the extracorporeal circulation machine and stop all blood circulation. This is DHCA¡ªdeep hypothermic circulatory arrest technique. Because infants cannot withstand long durations of extracorporeal circulation, this technique must be used. Under deep hypothermic circulatory arrest, the heart is arrested, and blood flow is paused, so it resembles ¡°death,¡± albeit a controlled, reversible ¡°death¡± that can be ¡°revived¡± under certain conditions. Those conditions stipulate that this state cannot last more than 45 minutes; revival is possible within 45 minutes, but past this duration, revival isn¡¯t possible, so the surgery must be completed within 45 minutes. ¡°Should we combine antegrade perfusion via the head and arm arch artery with retrograde perfusion through the superior vena cava for cerebral protection?¡± Academician Wang suggested. Adding this step to protect the brain could extend the time of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest to 60 minutes, creating more ample time for the surgery. ¡°No need, I will try to finish the surgery in 20 minutes,¡± Yang Ping said without hesitation. 20 minutes, what a joke, but now Academician Wang had no doubts. One could not apply ordinary thinking to this young man. Yang Ping began to quickly inspect the heart and the connected blood vessels. The aorta was very narrow, presenting severe stenosis, and now Yang Ping had to cut off the aorta and widen it to restore normal caliber. When the aorta was cut, and its severed end was exposed, Academician Wang took a deep breath. This mirrored two failed cases from years past; the vascular walls were as thin as paper and lacked elasticity. Perfect suturing couldn¡¯t ensure uniformity with each stitch, and if it wasn¡¯t uniform, weaknesses existed, focusing stress at these weak points and causing blood pressure to burst these fragile parts, tearing the vessel from these spots. In the first case years ago, seeing such blood vessels, Academician Wang felt disheartened; it seemed impossible to suture, and although he did his best, he couldn¡¯t achieve the desired uniformity. ¡°Do we need an artificial blood vessel?¡± Academician Wang asked. An artificial blood vessel was a good solution; it could bear the stress and protect the suture site, but it had a fatal flaw: infants grow over time, whereas the diameter of the artificial blood vessel doesn¡¯t change, making it unsuitable for minors, especially infants. This flaw required the removal of the artificial blood vessel after a certain period. ¡°Not necessary!¡± Yang Ping decided to use his sophisticated suturing skills to address the issue. Since the vessels could withstand the blood pressure before being cut, achieving ideal uniformity in suturing could still hope for success. Not only did the suturing need to be uniform, but the spacing and margins also needed careful design. He absolutely couldn¡¯t plan according to normal vessels; if the spacing and margins were incorrect, each stitch would bear too little force, and even perfect suturing would be in vain. In principle, the denser the suturing, the better, as this disperses the stress on each stitch to a minimum. However, the denser the stitches, the more punctures made, reducing the strength of the vessel. Thus, finding a balance between the two was essential. This kind of suturing wasn¡¯t just about the technique; many factors had to be considered. Academician Wang¡¯s two failed experiences made him extremely apprehensive. This surgery truly was like walking on the edge of a knife; not a single mistake could be afforded. Yang Ping was very careful but also swift in his movements; indeed, when one reaches a certain level of proficiency, speed and slowness are only relative. First, he ligated and cut off the arterial duct between the pulmonary artery and the aorta, then cut the pulmonary artery above the pulmonary valve, and used a patch to close the side opening of the pulmonary artery. He took a segment of a vein, Yang Ping opened up the vein and used it as a patch to enlarge the aorta¡¯s diameter; each of his stitches in and out was calculated precisely, each movement completed in one attempt, inserting the needle at a 90-degree angle to the suture face and then, with a sudden flick of his wrist, driving the needle tip swiftly through the vessel wall. If the puncture hole in the vessel wall were enlarged, its edges would appear even, causing minimal damage. Academician Wang noticed that during suturing, each of Yang Ping¡¯s sutures moved from in to out very smoothly, the vessel wall seemed still, without a trace of pulling. After enlarging the aorta¡¯s diameter, Yang Ping connected it to the recently severed base of the pulmonary artery from the right ventricle, effectively linking the aorta to the right ventricle. At this step, Academician Wang noticed, the diameter of the aorta matched perfectly with the residual pulmonary artery base of the right ventricle. Thus, when Yang Ping was enlarging the aorta¡¯s diameter, he had already considered keeping it consistent with the diameter of the adjoining pulmonary artery base. Such meticulous attention, absolutely airtight. The diameter of the anastomosis was just as precise, every stitch perfectly in place on the first attempt, with no need for repeats or reduced quality. After suturing, the diameter matched up perfectly and was very well sealed. The resection of the interatrial septum opened up the left and right atria into one large chamber. The next step was the most challenging, bridging the pulmonary artery to the aorta. This bridging wasn¡¯t a matter of directly connecting them, since the aorta had already been connected to the right ventricle; rather, it involved using an artificial blood vessel to temporarily link the pulmonary artery with the aorta. For this temporary bridge, Yang Ping chose a branch of the aorta¡ªthe anonyma artery, which is not nameless but actually called the anonyma artery. The heart was smaller than a walnut, the aorta also small, hence one could imagine that its branch, the anonyma artery, was very small. Yet, even if small, it was thicker than an infant¡¯s finger¡¯s blood vessels, and to Yang Ping, this was no challenge at all. Vascular anastomosis on small vessels tested steadiness of hands, especially when the arms are suspended in the air, but for Yang Ping, this was not an issue; indeed, it was his trademark skill. Suspended arm small vessel anastomosis, when performed at the Mayo Clinic, drove the doctors there crazy. As assistants, Academician Wang and Professor Chen tried to breathe evenly, and during critical maneuvers, they even held their breaths, and after relaxing, they made an effort to control their breaths to avoid taking deep inhalations or exhalations, so as not to disturb Yang Ping¡¯s operation. The bridging was completed with ultimate proficiency in vascular anastomosis technique, with 5 minutes still remaining out of the 20 minutes, that is, using just 15 minutes, Yang Ping completed the entire suturing, thanks to his unparalleled vascular anastomosis prowess. Academician Wang didn¡¯t know what to say, completely amazed by the speed of the surgery. ¡°Restore body temperature!¡± Warming needed to be done gradually, slowly restored; it couldn¡¯t be too rapid. After repositioning, the extracorporeal circulation technician restored the extracorporeal circulation, making the blood flow again in the baby¡¯s body. Then it was time to remove the extracorporeal circulation and restart the heart. Once cardiac function resumed, the true self-circulation centered on the heart began. This step was the most thrilling; the scene from those years was still etched in Academician Wang¡¯s mind¡ªwhen the heart started beating, soon after, bleeding points emerged one after another, followed by spurts of blood, and eventually, jets of blood filled the entire thoracic cavity, complete chaos ensued; in the urgency, it was simply impossible to stop the bleeding, and the more stitching they attempted, the worse the blood vessels got, ultimately resorting to blocking major vessels to stem the blood flow, but this was futile, a temporary block could not last forever. ¡°I am starting to restart the heart, let¡¯s see how the sutures hold,¡± Yang Ping announced. Academician Wang and Professor Chen watched the heart, holding their breaths, the heart began to beat, they felt nervous, wondering if it would spray blood everywhere like before, ultimately causing all sutures to come undone. One minute, two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, five minutes¡ªstill no sign of bleeding, not even one bleeding point, let alone spurting or jetting blood. ¡°Let¡¯s observe for another ten minutes, if there are no issues, we can close the chest.¡± Yang Ping put down the instruments in his hands. ¡°Song Zimo, finish up!¡± ¡°Right!¡± Having been somewhat marginalized, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang immediately perked up; they too had been watching the operation on the screen in the operating room, which was also being broadcast live. ¡°Professor, it seems that your famed re-implantation technique for infant¡¯s severed fingers hasn¡¯t deteriorated,¡± Song Zimo said with a smile. Back then? It hasn¡¯t been that long, but it sounds like ancient history. ¡°This was my debut skill, can I just lose it?¡± Yang Ping vacated the chief surgeon¡¯s position, handing over the finishing tasks to his assistant. Meanwhile, seated beside the operating room screen, Li Zehui was also in shock, that the main steps of the surgery were completed in just 15 minutes without a single issue¡ªa unique skill indeed, unmatched anywhere in the world. Chapter 937 - 937 808 Just Hang Up a Sign ?Chapter 937: Chapter 808: Just Hang Up a Sign? Chapter 937: Chapter 808: Just Hang Up a Sign? ¡°Vascular anastomosis as a trump card, how could you possibly fumble on that.¡± Song Zimo, along with Xu Zhiliang, started closing the chest, while Yang Ping sat down indifferently to rest, chatting with Academician Wang and Professor Chen. Li Zehui, Director He, and Xia Shu also tried to move closer to this side. Although the surgery had already entered the chest-closing phase, as long as they hadn¡¯t removed their surgical gowns, everyone dared not get too close, maintaining at least a one-meter distance. You never know when an emergency might arise, and Yang Ping would have to step up as chief surgeon at any time. Professor Yang had even performed reattachment surgeries for amputated fingers in infants before? It¡¯s no wonder his vascular anastomosis skills were so high, Academician Wang felt Yang Ping was unfathomable. He seemed capable of anything, and could achieve excellence in everything. Having just witnessed Yang Ping¡¯s mastery of vascular anastomosis, Li Zehui was also full of admiration. As cardiac surgeons, they absolutely could not perform as many vascular anastomoses as those doctors specializing in reattachment surgeries for amputated fingers, making finger reattachment the surgery that best hones vascular anastomosis skills. Unfortunately, the training journey of a cardiac surgeon wouldn¡¯t include performing such reattachment surgeries. Director He was somewhat wary of Xia Shu¡¯s arrival, given that the doctor was a Ph.D. from the eight-year program at Xiehe, who also completed his clinical training at Xiehe Fuwai before taking a direct position in Sanbo Integrated Surgery. He couldn¡¯t help but be alert to the reasons behind this. Could it be that hospital leaders had some plans? Director He couldn¡¯t help but speculate. The y ounger and more elitist approach towards department directors with Ph.D.s was a strategic policy of Sanbo Hospital. Xia Shu had previously worked at Fuwai, and if he spent a few more years honing his skills in Integrated Surgery and then returned to Thoracic Surgery, would he take over his own position, He Xiangjun had to consider this possibility. Academician Wang hadn¡¯t expected the baby¡¯s surgery to go so smoothly, with no need for additional stitches after suturing. After the surgery ended, the infant was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit. Yang Ping decided to have him stay there for 5 days to get past the critical period before transferring him back to a general ward. Of course, if the major vascular remained underdeveloped and complications like aortic dissection developed in the future, that would be another story. At least for now, the surgery was a success. Another patient, Song Hanhui, was one of Academician Wang¡¯s Fontan surgery patients, who was an infant at the time. Academician Wang had performed the Fontan surgery on him, but due to the severity of Song Hanhui¡¯s cardiac malformations, the Fontan surgery only held up for 10 years, which is, as of now, when Song Hanhui was 11 years old, various severe complications had arisen. The only solution was a definitive one, which was to correct the heart malformations. Such cardiac malformations in this patient couldn¡¯t be found in textbooks or literature¡ªhis heart had eight malformations. In theory, if all eight malformations were corrected, the patient could continue to live. But sometimes, the gap between theory and reality is vast. Academician Wang knew it was theoretically feasible back then, but the realities of the day and the limits of his ability meant he couldn¡¯t perform full corrective operations, so he had to resort to the Fontan surgery as a palliative treatment, hoping to buy time until a method for full correction became available. Now at retirement age, he still couldn¡¯t manage it, and so couldn¡¯t help feeling regretful. This time, Professor Chen also brought Song Hanhui¡¯s case data, which was stored on a portable hard drive. After the surgery was over, everyone moved to Yang Ping¡¯s office to promptly discuss Song Hanhui¡¯s condition. The main theme of a doctor¡¯s work is to treat and save patients, so from morning until night, that was all they thought about, all that they did. Even though Academician Wang was retired, he was still preoccupied with this matter. ¡ª Yang Ping¡¯s office was quite spacious, not to express luxury, but rather because he often needed the office for case discussions and had to accommodate several people. Otherwise, if a case discussion came up spontaneously, going to the doctors¡¯ office would be too chaotic with everyone working, and using demonstration rooms or meeting rooms was just too troublesome. Upon connecting the portable hard drive, the case data was pulled up. A case that could leave Academician Wang with regrets surely wasn¡¯t ordinary. This heart with eight malformations had managed to function for 11 years, which spoke volumes about Academician Wang¡¯s superb medical skills. If not for Academician Wang¡¯s surgery, he wouldn¡¯t have survived past 2 years old, and most wouldn¡¯t have made it past 1 year old. Firstly, there was dextrocardia, similar to the previously-mentioned Mirror Man, where the heart that was normally on the left side was situated on the right. Then there were double outlet right ventricles, complete atrioventricular septal defect, severe subvalvular pulmonary stenosis, transposed great vessels, single atrium, severe atrioventricular valve regurgitation, and hepatic veins draining directly into the right atrium¡ªa total of eight different heart malformations. Each one of these malformations alone presented a formidable challenge for treatment; the complexity of a combination of all eight can only be imagined, requiring a complete reconstruction of the heart. Compared to him, Mai Zijing seemed like a minor sorcerer before a grand wizard. Under such circumstances, the Fontan surgery was the only option at the time, and Academician Wang had no choice but to proceed with it. The difficulty of reconstructing the heart was extremely high, since it¡¯s a precision active pump, each part had to ensure anatomical precision and functional perfection. The surgery entailed a lot of careful considerations and meticulous attention to detail. During the surgery, it was vital to be extremely cautious, to avoid damaging the cardiac conduction bundles, as postoperative conduction block could result. The ventricular outflow tract absolutely could not be narrowed; atrioventricular valves must not have regurgitation, pulmonary veins must not be obstructed, among other issues that needed to be avoided postoperatively. ¡°So, what do you think? Can it be done?¡± Academician Wang asked with concern. Chapter 938 - 938 808 Just Hang Up a Sign_2 ?Chapter 938: Chapter 808: Just Hang Up a Sign?_2 Chapter 938: Chapter 808: Just Hang Up a Sign?_2 Yang Ping did not answer immediately; instead, he slightly narrowed his eyes, tapping lightly on the desk with his fingers. A short while later, he asked, ¡°There are no other contraindications, right?¡± Professor Chen replied, ¡°We haven¡¯t found any for now.¡± ¡°Then we can proceed,¡± Yang Ping said without hesitation. All of them were surgeons, so of course, they had to inquire about any surgical contraindications. If absolute contraindications were present, no matter how skilled the surgery, it would be in vain. The primary goal was to perform the surgery correctly; only then should they focus on performing it well. This principle could not be violated. For instance, with Fontan Surgery, if the issue of pulmonary hypertension isn¡¯t addressed, no matter how beautifully done the procedure is, the result would be zero, or it might even be negative. ¡°Can it be done? A radical surgery?¡± Academician Wang had just picked up his teacup, but upon hearing what Yang Ping had said, he set the cup back down before reaching his mouth. ¡°Apart from radical surgery, there¡¯s no other way. We need to dismantle the original surgery completely and then reconstruct everything one by one. It¡¯s a large and complex undertaking that will take a long time,¡± Yang Ping said, pointing at the image on the screen. ¡°This case is much more difficult than Mai Zijing¡¯s. Everything needs to be rebuilt, and the surgical design must be very meticulous, fitting together seamlessly like a precision aircraft engine, where every component has to be precise and compatible with the others.¡± Li Zehui also joined the discussion; his recent back-to-back visits to Sanbo Hospital to observe two surgeries had been eye-opening. Some surgeries that he thought couldn¡¯t be done could actually be performed here; others that he believed should be done one way could, in this place, be done in another. Li Zehui¡¯s understanding and horizons of cardiac surgery were expanded. ¡°A flaw in one link could bring the whole thing crashing down; we must tread on thin ice with every step.¡± Professor Chen was still very apprehensive about this case. Yang Ping lightly tapped his fingers on the desk rhythmically without making a sound, ¡°Right, eight anomalies need to be corrected, all functions must be restored¡ªit¡¯s very difficult, but it¡¯s the only way. The diversion effect of the Fontan Surgery is already on the brink of collapse; only reconstruction offers a way out.¡± ¡°The major vascular positioning is anomalous, with the aorta anteriorly situated and the pulmonary artery behind. The valve orifices are severely narrowed, only as thick as a pencil lead, basically just a pinhole. With the condition of bicuspidization, we need to completely repair the septum. A single atrium needs to reconstruct the interatrial septum to form two atria, the interventricular septum needs patching, and we have to reconstruct the connection between the left ventricle and the aorta, which are currently too far apart. There should normally be two sets of atrioventricular valves, but now there¡¯s only one, which we need to separate into two ¡ª the mitral valve and the tricuspid valve, ensuring neither stenosis nor insufficiency. The pulmonary veins, vena cava, and hepatic veins must be separated above the atrium; the endocardial cushion defect also needs repair; the aorta must be widened; the pulmonary valve needs reformation, and the area below the pulmonary valve also needs to be expanded¡ª¡± Yang Ping explained, pointing at the various parts on the image with the eraser end of a pencil. Director He sat beside him, not daring to breathe a word, feeling tingles on his scalp just listening to the string of nouns and verbs. Now that Yang Ping was discussing making these things a reality, it seemed harder than reaching the heavens. ¡°It seems we need to carefully plan out the surgery. Professor Yang, can you see what else we can provide to help?¡± Academician Wang saw Yang Ping¡¯s confidence and decided to take the plunge. ¡°Xia Shu will take over this patient¡¯s care. Our young doctors lack experience. Also, it would be best if you could assign an experienced doctor from your cardiac surgery ICU to take charge of the postoperative management,¡± Yang Ping said straightforwardly. Sanbo Hospital does not have a dedicated cardiac surgery ICU; instead, they make do with a coronary heart disease ICU. This particular case is special and cannot be handled idly after the surgery. There are too many complex indicators to observe, so a doctor with experience in the cardiac surgery ICU must be arranged. ¡°Yue Liang, go arrange for the staff to be flown over as quickly as possible,¡± Academician Wang instructed Professor Chen. ¡°Is there anything else we can assist with?¡± Academician Wang asked, licking his dry lips slightly excited. Yang Ping thought momentarily and couldn¡¯t think of anything else they might need, so he said no. ¡°I will get someone to make a digital model. We can then use the digital model to simulate the preoperative pathological anatomy of the heart, the surgical process, and the postoperative effects. It would be more intuitive this way,¡± he remembered. ¡°Our general surgery starts off at a hellish level. I just glanced at the other cases, and there are almost no ¡®routine¡¯ surgeries,¡± Xia Shu lamented upon seeing this case. He had just started working, and it was at our general surgery department, the sense of immersion was very strong. Academician Wang also commented, ¡°This surgery is hellish level as well.¡± Yang Ping spoke with some difficulty, ¡°No choice; from the time the general surgery department was established until now, it¡¯s been nothing but hellish level cases every day. Tough luck! I¡¯m used to it.¡± Academician Wang showed a look of astonishment. The young man¡¯s remark, ¡®tough luck!¡¯, was said with such ease. Yet, Academician Wang liked this kind of confident young man. He wasn¡¯t just confident, but he had the skills to back it up; every one of the three surgeries he had recommended recently was hellish level. Using digital technology to simulate the current state of the heart, the surgical procedure, and the postoperative heart was merely a way to visually convey the entire surgical process to everyone. At Nandu Medical University¡¯s Digital Medical Laboratory, the new generation Digital Human project was progressing smoothly. To support the Digital Human project, Yang Ping planned to use research funds to purchase a supercomputer for them. Chapter 939 - 939 808 Just Hang Up a Sign_3 ?Chapter 939: Chapter 808: Just Hang Up a Sign?_3 Chapter 939: Chapter 808: Just Hang Up a Sign?_3 The construction of Digital Muscle had been completed, and Professor He¡¯s team had written a paper and submitted it to the ¡°Nature¡± Journal, of course, Yang Ping¡¯s name was also included, just not as the first author. Now, having this team create a 3D animation of surgery was a piece of cake. ¡°Professor Yang, why don¡¯t we collaborate to establish a Cardiovascular Surgery Research Institute?¡± Academician Wang suggested. With Yang Ping¡¯s surgical ability combined with Fuwai¡¯s foundation in a powerful alliance, the establishment of a Cardiac Surgery Research Institute was bound to be successful. The project proposed by Yang Ping for treating left ventricle hypoplasia with an expander could be quickly put on the schedule. ¡°Or, you establish an institute, and our two institutes collaborate.¡± Academician Wang worried that Yang Ping might not be willing to create a collaborative research institute, so he proposed an alternative collaboration, highlighting two independent, autonomous teams. The General Surgery already served as a Surgical Research Institute; opening a few specialized institutes was simple: just hang an additional sign out front, one team, multiple signs. Yang Ping felt that Academician Wang¡¯s proposition was excellent and agreed on the spot, ¡°We should collaborate when there is opportunity and initiate research on cardiovascular diseases.¡± ¡°Do you plan to establish a Cardiovascular Surgery Research Institute? Then you should start early, as it requires strong support from the hospital and university leadership, and approval from the Provincial Hall, with many documents and records to prepare. We can assist you. Many things can be modeled after us.¡± Academician Wang was quite surprised that Yang Ping had agreed so readily. Establishing a specialized research institute was difficult due to numerous conditions and a complicated process. However, Yang Ping replied breezily, ¡°No need to make it so troublesome, I¡¯ll just get someone to make a sign and hang it up at the entrance tomorrow.¡± Academician Wang was dumbfounded. What did he mean, establish an institute just by hanging a sign at the entrance? Seeing the astonishment on Academician Wang¡¯s face, Yang Ping explained with a smile, ¡°This institute will be an internal one, so there¡¯s no need for any procedures or approvals. I¡¯ll call Dean Xia right away, and the sign can be put up by tomorrow morning. If it¡¯s fast, it might even be done before the end of work today.¡± Isn¡¯t this a bit too frivolous? ¡°You¡¯re setting up an internal institute? Do you need our help?¡± Academician Wang didn¡¯t finish his thought; he felt that at the very least Yang Ping should aim for something affiliated with Nandu Medical University, or at least the city level. Of course, it would be better to have a provincial-level or national-level one. ¡°It doesn¡¯t need to be that complex, as long as we have a sign and can conduct research,¡± Yang Ping said calmly. He didn¡¯t need any particular status; a sign to legally conduct research and facilitate communication was all that was required. Everything should be simplified. Academician Wang looked on at Yang Ping, who was profoundly composed. Could this be the attitude of a genius? Not caring about the status as long as it didn¡¯t hinder work. But different levels bring in different resources, so why not aim for a higher-level institute? Academician Wang still wanted to persuade, but Yang Ping had already begun calling Dean Xia to discuss hanging up a sign for a Cardiac Surgery Research Institute. This would make it easier for patients to recognize and facilitate external communication, like the current cooperation with Fuwai. Dean Xia said, ¡°I¡¯ll hang all the signs for you, like the Brain Research Institute, the Scoliosis Research Institute, the Sports Medicine Research Institute, the Oncology Research Institute¡ª¡± Forget it, forget it! The entrance would be overly crowded with signs, and Yang Ping quickly declined. Chapter 940 - 940 809 The Hall in the Heart ?Chapter 940: Chapter 809: The Hall in the Heart Chapter 940: Chapter 809: The Hall in the Heart Indeed, just hanging a large sign with the words ¡°Surgical Research Institute¡± was not distinctive enough and didn¡¯t align with the general public¡¯s cognitive habits. Patients who arrived wouldn¡¯t know what was being done inside, and peers couldn¡¯t figure out the specifics either, unsure what kind of research was conducted there, given that Surgery encompasses a broad scope. After being reminded by Yang Ping, Dean Xia thought carefully and realized this was indeed the case, so he immediately called the Publicity Department, asking them to urgently send several signs to the General Surgery section. The signs were to be made of bronze and needed to be conspicuous; as for the style of the characters, Dean Xia decided to write them himself. Confident in his calligraphy, he then notified the Publicity Department to pick up the templates from the dean¡¯s office. Hearing that it was for General Surgery, the Publicity Department was highly efficient. They received the call in the morning, and the contractor had delivered the signs by the afternoon. Cardiovascular Surgery Research Institute, Brain Research Institute, Spinal Disease Research Institute, Sports Medicine Research Institute, Oncology Surgical Research Institute¡ª Dean Xia felt that with so much space on both sides of the entrance, hanging a few signs would be more than manageable. Professor Yang was still hesitating, being overly polite about such a simple matter. Finally, Dean Xia arranged for it without further delay. The workers began hanging the signs in front of the General Surgery entrance, under Dean Xia¡¯s direct supervision. ¡°A bit to the left, a bit to the right, a bit higher, too much, a bit lower, ah! Still not quite right, come down, come down quickly¡ª¡± Dean Xia, with his hands on his hips, instructed the workers on where to hang the signs, dissatisfied after several attempts, so he decided to do it himself. He climbed the ladder which creaked under his weight, causing the workers stabilizing the ladder to tremble in fear. Dean Sun and the office director beside him were anxiously shouting, ¡°Slow down, slow down!¡± Dean Xia, with his robust frame, climbed the ladder and started to hang the signs himself, one by one, until he was satisfied. As soon as the signs were hung, the monotonous walls suddenly appeared much more vibrant and colorful. Most importantly, within a single day, several institutes had emerged at Sanbo Hospital, creating an impressive presence unmatched by any across the country. With so many institutes, plus the Stem Cell Laboratory, the entrance to General Surgery suddenly looked much more prestigious. To the uninitiated, it might appear as if there were dozens of teams and thousands of people working inside. This should have been done earlier; it was only his outdated thinking. Dean Xia dusted his hands off, stood with his hands on his hips, and was greatly pleased with the result. ¡°Call Director Lan over to help check if the signs are straight?¡± Dean Xia instructed the office director, looking at the newly hung signs. Director Lan, the head of Plastic Surgery, had become hypercritical ever since he apprenticed under Ivan. If a floor tile was missing a corner, he would demand the Logistics staff replace it precisely with a matching one, causing the Logistics staff to scour for a tile with the exact color and pattern. Still, Director Lan was not satisfied, complaining about the colors, as the newly installed tile was brand new, whereas the other tiles had been there for over a decade and naturally differed in color. Because of this issue, Director Lan had complained to Dean Xia about the head of Logistics not fulfilling his duties and being negligent. Dean Xia, seeing the small symmetrical scars on Director Lan¡¯s forehead, was at a loss for words. There was no dealing with someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Thus, Dean Xia had no choice but to tell the head of Logistics, ¡°Just endure it a bit, let him vent, and it will be over.¡± The head of Logistics felt aggrieved. In any other hospital, he would have confronted Director Lan by now. But this was Sanbo Hospital, where clinical doctors were regarded highly, not to mention department directors. The Logistics Department really was there to serve, not just in word but in deed. If he offended a department director, it was possible that at the year-end department directors¡¯ meeting, Director Lan, together with a few others, might decide to dismiss him, and he would have only himself to blame. The head of Logistics had no choice but to arrange for a janitor to mix some dirty mud and spend days scrubbing and wiping to achieve the old tile effect. However, it was also beneficial as Director Lan¡¯s obsession turned into a selling point for his breast augmentation surgeries, renowned for their symmetry. The office director actually called Director Lan over, and from a distance, Lan glanced at the signs: ¡°They¡¯re straight!¡± If Director Lan said they were straight, then they were definitely straight. ¡°Do they look comfortable to you?¡± asked Dean Xia again. Director Lan took another look: ¡°Comfortable!¡± If Director Lan said they were comfortable, then they were indeed comfortable. Dean Xia felt relieved and told the workers they could finish up. ¡°My department of Plastic Surgery is running out of space, Dean Xia, you need to think of a solution for me.¡± Dean Xia returned to his office after hanging the signs, with Director Lan following behind him. Ever since he became an apprentice to Ivan, Director Lan had finally seen his ambitions realized. Waving the flag of being Ivan¡¯s only disciple in China, he could command whatever he wanted. Combining some marketing strategies of private hospitals, and with the support of several private hospital owners, patients continuously flocked to Sanbo to undergo cosmetic surgeries. The Plastic Surgery department at Sanbo Hospital had become extravagantly successful, turning into the central hub for plastic surgery patients in Nandu Province. Of course, Director Lan never forgot the private hospital owners who supported him. They were all in it together, redirecting some patients to the private hospitals while he and his department¡¯s doctors performed surgeries there. Everyone profited, the patients were happy, so why not? ¡°Director Lan, you¡¯ve been straying off path lately. It¡¯s still not too late to correct it.¡± Chapter 941 - 941 809 The Hall in the Heart_2 ?Chapter 941: Chapter 809: The Hall in the Heart_2 Chapter 941: Chapter 809: The Hall in the Heart_2 Dean Xia reminded everyone that he was well aware of Director Lan¡¯s marketing approach. Director Lan was puzzled why, despite having multiplied the income of the Plastic Surgery Department by who knows how many times, becoming the Hospital¡¯s most profitable department, Dean Xia was still not happy and accused him of deviating from the right path. In this day and age, who wasn¡¯t desperately trying to make money? Which Hospital wasn¡¯t after profit? Wasn¡¯t this approach correct? ¡°I¡¯ve heard you¡¯ve been getting quite close with those private hospitals?¡± Dean Xia asked. So that was the issue. Director Lan nodded, ¡°Yes, Dean, rest assured, put your mind completely at ease. Those hospitals aren¡¯t shady operations; they are legitimately licensed and legally run hospitals. Think about it, if they had any issues, they would¡¯ve been dealt with by now, would they still be openly operating in busy urban areas? The reason they¡¯re still up and running is because they operate legally. As long as it¡¯s legal, there¡¯s nothing irregular about it.¡± ¡°You really have a whole rationale for this? You know very well what kind of situation those hospitals are in, don¡¯t you? And it¡¯s their marketing methods you¡¯re using, right?¡± Dean Xia saw that Director Lan was still obstinate. ¡°Legal operation, legal income, that¡¯s how it is for everyone.¡± Director Lan was persistent, trying to convince Dean Xia. Director Lan believed that the path he was on was the right one, and the results were already showing; the patient count in his department had increased dramatically and the income kept doubling. It had been a struggle to achieve his ambition, how could he possibly give up this path now? ¡°I know, you¡¯ve been working hard recently, and the department¡¯s revenue has indeed increased several times, but still, I repeat, we are a hospital; it¡¯s okay and necessary to make money, otherwise we¡¯d all starve. Let¡¯s do things the right way, make honest money, the money we deserve, and avoid crooked ways. That¡¯s what I¡¯m saying.¡± ¡°Those people, especially the women who come for plastic surgery, casually fork out one or two hundred thousand without even blinking an eye, why can¡¯t I earn it? If I don¡¯t, someone else will take their money, at least our surgeries are safe.¡± Director Lan, discontented, said in a low voice. Dean Xia gave him a sharp look: ¡°You¡¯re still not convinced, are you?¡± Director Lan quickly conceded: ¡°Dean, I just don¡¯t get it, why can¡¯t we market ourselves? I¡¯m not stealing, robbing, or deceiving. You don¡¯t know about their¡ª¡± ¡°Enough, you are very capable and can achieve great things, and I absolutely trust that you can develop the department well, but¡ªI won¡¯t say more, think about it when you get back, and when you have time, we¡¯ll have a good chat. Just remember, keep your heart in the right place, understand?¡± Dean Xia was busy and didn¡¯t want to continue the conversation. ¡ª After work, Robert and August noticed something different about the main entrance; there were a few more plaques. The two of them stood at the door, looking at these plaques, wondering when they had been hung up, as they had not noticed before. Robert waved his hand, summoning the security guard at the entrance. He was very familiar with the security guard, as he often gave him a pack of cigarettes or a bottle of drink every now and again. ¡°Big Brother Robert¡ª¡± Before the security could ask what was the matter, seeing that Robert and August were staring at the plaques, he said, ¡°They were just hung up this afternoon, personally written by Dean Xia and hung up by him.¡± ¡°So, I can now say that I once underwent training at China¡¯s Sanbo Institute of Sports Medicine?¡± Robert, touching his red nose, was very satisfied. August also nodded, ¡°I can also say I studied at China¡¯s Sanbo Institute of Spinal Diseases.¡± Clearly, these plaques had a significant impact. Come on, let¡¯s take a photo! Robert and August took turns photographing themselves with the plaques at the entrance; of course, Robert¡¯s background was the plaque of the Sports Medicine Research Institute and August¡¯s was the Spinal Disease Research Institute. At that moment, Li Zehui also came out, saw their odd behavior, didn¡¯t understand the purpose, but followed suit anyway. They were veterans with experience; following veterans surely wasn¡¯t wrong. ¡°I¡¯ll take a shot too, in front of the Cardiovascular Surgery Institute¡¯s plaque.¡± Li Zehui handed his phone to Robert and stood in front of the plaque, also keeping a photo for himself. ¡°We are the first batch of international students of the institute,¡± Robert said with pride. ¡°Absolutely, I must be the first one from Europe, right?¡± August held his head high. ¡°Spine, heart, sports medicine, the three giants, rare to gather together. My treat, let¡¯s go to the nearby barbecue restaurant, come on,¡± said Robert, who was incredibly happy that day. ¡°Have some beer?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s drink.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s do it another day, the department is having a gathering today, hurry up, Teacher Wu is already waiting.¡± ¡°Let me check the address.¡± After saying this, the three of them looked solemnly at the brass plaques, then gazed upon the eight-story building, which, in their hearts, was a sanctified temple. ¡ª Song Hanhui¡¯s parents brought their child off the plane, took a taxi to Sanbo Hospital, and in accordance with Professor Chen¡¯s previous instructions, they checked into the Sanbo Hotel and had something to eat. In the afternoon, following the hotel staff¡¯s guidance, they found the General Surgery Department. Staring at the sign above the entrance of the General Surgery Department, Old Song said to his wife, Yao Xiurong, ¡°Look, this is the Cardiac Surgery Research Institute¡ªno wonder Professor Wang recommended that we come here.¡± ¡°Cardiovascular Surgery Research Institute¡ª,¡± Yao Xiurong read through a list of institutes. ¡°You mean to say this institute is even more formidable than Fuwai? Isn¡¯t Fuwai the best in China for heart surgery?¡± Yao Xiurong didn¡¯t understand these things. Old Song did understand, and he spoke with a disdainful tone, ¡°What do you know? Fuwai is only the best within the hospitals all over the country; this is an institute, and an institute is at least one level higher than a hospital. It¡¯s like the difference between a graduate student and a university student; however exceptional you are, you¡¯re the best among university students, but this here is about graduate students¡ªa completely different class.¡± ¡°What does that mean? Did we go to the wrong place before? Should we have come directly here in the past?¡± Yao Xiurong seemed to have grasped the idea. Old Song spoke as if he was well-informed, ¡°Not exactly. An advanced place like an institute isn¡¯t somewhere you can just turn up to whenever you wish; you need recommendations. Without Professor Wang from Fuwai and Professor Chen¡¯s recommendation, we wouldn¡¯t be able to come here.¡± In Old Song¡¯s eyes, a place that could be called an institute must be focused on the research of cutting-edge technology and be a key department of the nation. ¡°Oh!¡± ¡°You see, there are many research institutes in this building, look there¡¯s one for the brain, for the spine, for tumors¡ª¡± Seeing the words ¡®research institute,¡¯ Old Song felt especially reassured; Professor Wang was really pushing them upwards. The parents discussed amongst themselves; Song Hanhui didn¡¯t join in because he was very weak at the moment, speaking was difficult, and he needed to rest after taking a few steps. Upon entering, they saw several fully equipped security guards, a nurse asked about their situation, and then a guard even helped carry their belongings. An institute really is different! Old Song inquired and was told that they had to come at eight o¡¯clock the following morning to complete the hospitalization procedures with Professor Cao Zhenshan. Old Song understood that this was just an initial visit to get an idea of the situation. ¡°The head of your institute is Professor Yang, right?¡± Old Song asked. The security guard nodded, ¡°Right, Professor Yang is very impressive. He recently published 13 papers in CNS, world number one. Uncle, what¡¯s the situation with your child?¡± Now, even the security guards and cleaning aunties at Sanbo Hospital knew what CNS is, what kind of journal it is, what SCI is, and so on; they were well aware. Old Song didn¡¯t know what CNS was, but hearing the guard talking about it being the world¡¯s number one convinced him that it must be truly formidable¡ªotherwise, how could it dare to call itself an institute? ¡°The child was born with a heart malformation and underwent surgery before, but the situation hasn¡¯t been good recently, so we need another surgery.¡± Seeing the guard so hospitable, Old Song was also willing to chat with him. If it were anywhere else, Old Song wouldn¡¯t dare to strike up a conversation for fear of meeting a scammer, but here it was a hospital and a doctor recommended by Professor Wang, and it was an institute, so he felt completely at ease. ¡°You¡¯re talking about congenital heart defects, right? Just recently, Professor Yang performed a very difficult surgery and now the child is doing well. The patients here are all referred from other hospitals; the surgeries we perform here are the ones that others can¡¯t handle,¡± the guard explained. ¡°Is that so?¡± ¡°Of course, surgeons from the United States and Germany are here to learn.¡± Hearing what the guard said made Old Song feel even more secure¡ªafter all, this was an institute specializing in this research; what else was there to worry about? ¡ª Yang Ping and Academician Wang were leaving work to grab a meal together, as they happened to be exiting the General Surgery Department. When they got to the entrance, Yang Ping made a point of looking at the sign above. Dean Xia, oh, Dean Xia, I just asked for a little help hanging a sign, and you hung them all up. But looking at it now, it seems quite aesthetically pleasing. Not only is there no crowding, but it made the entrance look enriched, removing the monotony from before. Academician Wang, Professor Chen, and Professor Cao looked at the suddenly increased signs with surprise. How could the efficiency be so high? It had not been long since Yang Ping mentioned it, and the signs were already mounted. No wonder Professor Yang has stayed at Sanbo Hospital all this time¡ªwith that kind of treatment, it¡¯s doubtful that any other hospital could match it. Just then, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang emerged; they were going to dine with Yang Ping. Little Five had already booked the rooms. Chapter 942 - 942 810 Publish a Few CNS Exercise Papers ?Chapter 942: Chapter 810: Publish a Few CNS Exercise Papers Chapter 942: Chapter 810: Publish a Few CNS Exercise Papers Robert and August planned to return to their country, as department directors, it was not easy for them to be away for such a long period. ¡ª The next day, Old Song and his wife admitted their child to the hospital, settling into the general surgery ward in a two-person room. The bed next to theirs was reserved for an infant who was still in the CCU, but the parents still retained the bed space in the ward to rest while waiting for the infant to be transferred out of the CCU. Old Song, named Song Huosheng, was an auto mechanic in Shanghai. Now a skilled master, he commanded a high status in his field. Having missed university after high school, he had spent several years at an automotive school before starting as an apprentice. Being flexible and eager to learn, he loved reading and research, which greatly enhanced his skills, enabling him to guide many apprentices in his company. With skills at hand, Old Song had quite a decent life. Even now, with his son in the hospital and on leave, his salary was unaffected; whenever his apprentices faced dilemmas, they could only call him, and he was able to offer guidance through video calls. Often, a problem resolved swiftly with Old Song¡¯s involvement was the reason he still received his full salary and bonuses during his leave. After settling his son, the family sat in the ward resting, waiting for the attending doctor to inquire about the medical history. At that time, the infant¡¯s father, Wang Shaokang, was lying on the bed resting, and the mother, Gu Minhong, was playing with her phone. The couple visited the CCU once a day, only once, and even then, they had to watch through a glass from the hallway. So after each visit, they rested in the ward. Both husband and wife were fitness trainers, which explained why Wang Shaokang appeared so robust. Observing his neighboring patient¡¯s robust condition, and that he too was here for surgery, Old Song curiously asked, ¡°What¡¯s the situation with you? Are you here for surgery as well?¡± ¡°Congenital heart disease, the surgery was performed yesterday,¡± answered Gu Minhong, the infant¡¯s mother. Old Song nodded his head, feeling it was a pity that such a strong person also had congenital heart disease. Fortunately, he was already of age and had married. ¡°Professor Yang was the chief surgeon, right?¡± Old Song asked again. Gu Minhong responded, ¡°Yes, Professor Yang was the chief surgeon. We transferred here from Beijing.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± This also was a referred case, indicating that the institute¡¯s standard was absolutely top-notch. The young couple seemed not very keen on interacting, answering Old Song¡¯s questions briefly, sometimes not wanting to respond at all. Not wanting to be bothersome, Old Song decided not to engage further. After a while, Wang Shaokang, having rested enough, woke up, drank half a bottle of water, and probably due to his fitness training routine, felt uneasy not being active. He got up, sat for a while, then got off the bed, leaned his hands on the edge, and started doing high push-ups, effortlessly achieving sixty or seventy. Still not satisfied, he moved around the bed, lifted the end of it, and performed several squats with deep breaths ¨C again, dozens in one go. This alarmed Old Song; the man had just undergone heart surgery and was exerting himself vigorously. With a flushed face and spirited demeanor showing no signs of illness, he managed dozens of push-ups and squats in one breath, and drank water in a gust. Not only was Old Song shocked, but his wife was also dumbfounded, and even Song Hanhui curiously watched, amazed at the vigor shown just after heart surgery. Was the level of this institute so high that one could engage in physical activities right after surgery? Song Hanhui, initially fearful of surgeries, now felt no fear at all¡ªseeing a living example, the power of role models being infinite. ¡°You this?¡± Old Song wanted to ask, but the robust young man completely ignored him, pulling the curtain between the beds shut, unwilling to chat. Disheartened, Old Song swallowed his words. ¡ª Soon, a nurse entered, briefly inquired about the illness, then checked the temperature, heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure, and went over the inpatient care instructions. Then came the attending doctor, who turned out to be Xia Shu, whom Old Song recognized from several previous follow-up consultations at Fuwai. ¡°Dr. Xia, what brings you here?¡± Old Song was curious. Xia Shu said, ¡°I¡¯ve been transferred to work here now.¡± ¡°You also moved up here to study the heart?¡± Old Song inquired further. Xia Shu nodded affirmatively, ¡°Yes, I specifically came here to study the heart, and now I am your attending doctor. You can contact me anytime if there¡¯s an issue.¡± Indeed, it was a research institute; doctors from Fuwai coming here to study the heart. Xia Shu earnestly asked about the medical history, conducted a physical examination, and collected test data. Song Hanhui, already familiar with his medical history, almost knew it by heart and articulated it clearly without any need for his father¡¯s input. Finally, Yang Ping, Academician Wang, and Professor Chen arrived at the ward. Upon seeing Academician Wang, Old Song immediately stood up to greet him, almost dropping his phone in excitement. This man was his child¡¯s lifesaver. Song Hanhui had undergone surgery by Academician Wang when he was only a month old and had additional surgeries at six months and one year old. These three surgeries had sustained the child until age eleven. Without Academician Wang¡¯s dedicated effort, Song Hanhui would not have had the opportunity to wait for radical surgery. Old Song had once wanted his child to recognize Academician Wang as a godfather, which Academician Wang had declined. In Old Song¡¯s hometown, if the lifesaver was male, one would recognize him as a godfather; if female, one would recognize her as a godmother. ¡°Song Hanhui!¡± Chapter 943 - 943 810 Publish a Few CNS Exercise Papers_2 ?Chapter 943: Chapter 810: Publish a Few CNS Exercise Papers_2 Chapter 943: Chapter 810: Publish a Few CNS Exercise Papers_2 Academician Wang called out. Song Hanhui immediately jumped out of bed, gasping for air as he tried to greet Academician Wang. Academician Wang patted his head, ¡°Lie down, don¡¯t move around. Your lips are so purple, the oxygen deficiency is quite serious. You get winded with just a bit of movement, the symptoms of heart failure are very obvious. We need to perform surgery as soon as possible.¡± ¡°This is Professor Yang from our Cardiovascular Surgery Institute. He will be the chief surgeon for Hanhui¡¯s surgery. Don¡¯t be fooled by how young Professor Yang looks; he is one of the world¡¯s top heart surgeons,¡± Academician Wang introduced Yang Ping. Old Song was surprised at how young he looked, having initially thought he was just a student assisting with the surgery, even younger than Dr. Xia. He was a bit astonished. But since Academician Wang had said he was a top surgeon in the world, there could be no mistake about it. It was only that the doctor looked exceptionally young. ¡°It¡¯s our pleasure, Professor Yang, our pleasure!¡± Old Song immediately shook hands. Yang Ping asked about the medical history again, conducted a thorough examination, and reviewed the medical records brought from Fuwai Hospital. The child was much shorter than his peers, but relatively heavy-set. Old Song was also quite heavy, so there might be genetic factors at play. During auscultation, there were wet crackles in both lungs, which is a sign of pulmonary edema. It seemed that the symptoms of heart failure were indeed very severe, and the child¡¯s life could be in danger at any time. ¡°Did you have breakfast?¡± Yang Ping asked. After thinking, Old Song said, ¡°I did, but I ate very little, just two large meat buns, two steamed buns, one fried dough stick, a piece of cake, a doughnut, a cup of soy milk, and a bowl of tofu pudding¡ª¡± Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but feel both amused and exasperated. This is considered eating ¡®very little¡¯? What would eating ¡®a lot¡¯ look like? Academician Wang and Director Chen were also stunned. This was considered eating ¡®very little¡¯? ¡°You didn¡¯t eat much, indeed. Let¡¯s draw blood on an empty stomach tomorrow morning then. Some tests will be more accurate that way. Let¡¯s schedule the surgery the day after tomorrow,¡± Yang Ping thought. If Old Song had fasted, they could have drawn blood now and saved time. However, it was rare for someone with Congenital Heart Disease to have such a good appetite. Old Song nodded, ¡°The child didn¡¯t have much of an appetite today, so that¡¯s why he didn¡¯t eat much. If it¡¯s really not okay, let¡¯s draw blood tomorrow.¡± Academician Wang took Old Song to the doctors¡¯ office to discuss the surgery details away from the child. ¡°The surgery is very risky; I don¡¯t need to go into that, do I? You all need to be prepared mentally,¡± Academician Wang told Old Song. Old Song had thought things through thoroughly, ¡°I understand. Without surgery, he¡¯s certain to die; with surgery, there¡¯s a glimmer of hope. I¡¯ve been very grateful to Professor Wang all these years. I thought there was no hope this time until Professor Wang called me, suggesting we could give it a try. Some things are a matter of fate and can¡¯t be forced.¡± ¡°Let me tell you the details of the surgery.¡± Then Yang Ping discussed the details of the surgery with him. After listening, Old Song smiled wryly, ¡°I fix cars, so I don¡¯t quite understand all this medical talk, but I get the gist of it. The engine wasn¡¯t up to standard when it left the factory, and many components are defective. The crux is that this engine cannot be replaced, nor can the parts, which makes it very difficult to deal with. Professor Yang can now only try to repair these defective components, patch them up as much as possible, and ensure that they¡¯ll work to some extent. If it doesn¡¯t work out, the engine will be scrapped, and the car will be written off too. Is that the idea?¡± ¡°That¡¯s more or less the idea,¡± Academician Wang explained. Old Song said with acceptance, ¡°Do your best, that¡¯s all we can ask for!¡± With this, the surgery was set. Yang Ping planned to visit the Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory. It had been a long time since his last visit, and he wanted to see Professor He¡¯s team as well as to discuss modifications for Song Hanhui¡¯s 3D heart animation in person. ¡ª When Professor He heard that Yang Ping was coming, he was overjoyed and went directly to the parking lot to greet him. Yang Ping was his boss, after all. Professor He¡¯s project was just a small part of Yang Ping¡¯s larger research. And just this small part, if done well, was enough to promote Professor He to an Academician. Of course, He wasn¡¯t conducting research for the title but because he truly enjoyed working on the Digital Human. ¡°Professor Yang, why come in person? I could have had someone send it over.¡± Professor He took Yang Ping to the laboratory. ¡°I¡¯ve been busy lately, haven¡¯t visited you all for quite a while. The supercomputer deal has been finalized. My research fund will pay for it, and your side needs to interface with the foundation, to get the machine room ready in advance.¡± Yang Ping brought good news to Professor He. Only Professor Yang could handle such a significant matter like the acquisition of a supercomputer so casually. With the supercomputer, the research speed for the new-generation digital humans will increase substantially. Upon reaching the laboratory, Yang Ping sat down with Professor He next to him, surrounded by many doctorates and masters. Dr. Lei Xing, Professor He¡¯s doctorate student, made the 3D animations. With a move of the mouse, the 3D heart animation appeared on the screen, starting with its pre-surgery original state, having eight deformities. The heart beat rhythmically, blood circulated ceaselessly in cycles, followed by the evolution of the heart and its connected major vascular, gradually the eight deformities became normal, and so did the blood circulation. It was far more intuitive than describing the surgery with words¡ªit could show others what the patient¡¯s heart looked like now, what needed to be done in the surgery, and what the transformed heart would look like afterward, including how the blood circulation was corrected. Yang Ping pointed out some details that needed to be revised, and Dr. Lei quickly made the corrections on the spot. For them, making this was just like creating a small toy; the real big project was the new generation of digital humans. The laboratory had tens of thousands of models in its database. To create an animation, one simply needed to call up a skin-like surface, so Dr. Lei quickly made the adjustments according to Yang Ping¡¯s instructions. After seeing the completion of Yang Ping¡¯s 3D animations, Director He carefully mentioned, ¡°Our paper submitted to the Nature Journal has passed the review and has been accepted for publication!¡± This was the first time Director He announced this news, and upon hearing it, all the lab members were so joyous they nearly jumped for joy. Landing a CNS paper is a dream for many researchers. ¡°Editor-in-chief Jeff personally replied to the correspondence, and he said that from now on, all papers related to this topic are welcome for submission to Nature. He will take personal charge of the review process and will not delegate it to anyone else.¡± Professor He believed that it was because Yang Ping¡¯s name was among the authors of the paper that they received such special treatment. Their experiment was just a start; now with a Nature paper appearing so soon, by the time the experiments were complete, wouldn¡¯t they be able to publish several CNS papers? Jeff also said something that Professor He felt wasn¡¯t appropriate to disclose publicly. He would have to wait for a chance to speak with others in private. Jeff mentioned that any paper with Professor Yang¡¯s name on it would have the prerogative of direct publication in the Nature Journal. Jeff was aiming to become the most outstanding editor in history. He followed the tradition of his predecessors, starting a system where papers aren¡¯t reviewed, as long as they carried Yang Ping¡¯s name, they would be published¡ªgreen light all the way. ¡°You should submit several papers on this topic when the time comes, all to the three top-tier journals,¡± Yang Ping encouraged Director He. As a medical university, Xiehe, which publishes the most CNS papers nationwide, only has six or seven a year. Anhui Medical University has rapidly risen in recent years, ranking second after Xiehe, with about three or four papers a year¡ªand that¡¯s for the whole school. For other medical universities, managing to have one paper published a year or several papers over a few years is already quite impressive. As for hospitals, publishing one paper every few years would be the gold standard. If Professor He¡¯s team could publish several papers, as a team, they would certainly rank first nationally¡ªof course, excepting Professor Yang. Professor Yang was in a league of his own and shouldn¡¯t be compared with the rest. If several papers were published, Professor He could ride this topic to an academician position. ¡°We¡¯ll publish one paper when we create the digital heart, another when we do the brain, another for the spinal cord, and another one when we do the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and spleen¡ª¡± Dr. Lei¡¯s excitement rendered him almost incoherent. Following this team until his doctoral graduation meant reaching the pinnacle upon graduation. ¡°Do you think the three major journals are owned by your family?¡± Professor He felt that the young man was overly assertive. Yang Ping said, ¡°Don¡¯t rush. Just submitting a few papers on minor digital organs to make a point is enough for now. Keep the digital organs like the heart and brain for even better journals.¡± ¡°Better journals?¡± Professor He was puzzled; he couldn¡¯t think of any journals better than CNS. ¡°No hurry, just take it slow. After you publish a few CNS papers and get some practice, we¡¯ll talk,¡± Yang Ping said, about to get up and return to the hospital. What did that mean? Publishing CNS papers was just for practice? What was Professor Yang implying? Professor He was completely baffled. Chapter 944 - 944 811 A Powerful System ?Chapter 944: Chapter 811: A Powerful System Chapter 944: Chapter 811: A Powerful System Yang Ping planned to start his own journal, not just in thought, but he swiftly put it into action. A journal is the authority of academic discourse, and in any field, such authority is crucial. Yang Ping had to seize this authority, although pioneering this endeavor was extremely challenging and perhaps thankless, it was a necessity that someone undertook it. The 13 CNS papers that Yang Ping published this time were just the appetizer; the main event was yet to come, and he decided to publish subsequent results in his own journal. The soul of a journal lies in its papers; if the papers published in a journal are world-class, then the journal itself is world-class. World-class is never static, as reflected in the most audacious proverb in our country¡¯s history, ¡°Do princes and generals have special origins?¡± Following this doctrine¡ªdoes world-class have a special origin? Song Hanhui had already been hospitalized, and the date of the surgery had also been set, but no one had encountered such complex cardiac malformations before, and the surgery had to be customized. The Digital Lab of Nandu Medical University not only helped Yang Ping to create a 3D image of Song Hanhui¡¯s heart but also integrated it with VR technology. The day after Song Hanhui was admitted, Yang Ping decided to use VR technology to demonstrate the entire surgical process to familiarize everyone with it. The VR equipment was provided by Ruixing Medical. Although the application of VR in the field of medicine is very narrow, Ruixing Medical still does not forget to develop this branch on the tech tree. Maintaining a presence in certain areas is a basic requirement of the company¡¯s strategy. After the surgery in the afternoon, all the doctors gathered together, and of course, Academician Wang, Professor Chen, and Professor Xin participated, all wearing VR glasses. Each person saw an exceedingly clear and lifelike 3D image of a heart, so lifelike that it was almost deceptive. The heart was connected to five major blood vessels, the arteries kept branching out, becoming finer and finally breaking into innumerable capillary networks, then returning to the veins, which gradually merged and eventually formed into the major veins, returning to the heart. Whether it was the systemic circulation or the pulmonary circulation, it was clearly displayed before them. The beating heart emitted a rhythmic thumping sound, and to let everyone clearly see the workflow inside the heart and blood vessels, the heart and vessels slowly became translucent or semi-sectional, and after several minutes, the normal image was restored. This use of digital human technology as support for VR created an effect that ordinary medical VR companies could not compare to; currently, this was just a 3D model made using the digital human skin library. If Professor He¡¯s team completes the entire digital heart, the VR created then will not just be viewed through glasses but will fully simulate the tactile sensation of the heart and its physiological functions. It could also utilize VR technology for interaction, simulating a realistic heart surgery, mimicking almost all the surgical details; cutting open the heart could cause bleeding, cauterizing the vessel ends could stop bleeding, injecting virtual arresting solution could cause cardiac arrest, and the surgical knife could delicately feel the texture of tissues. After displaying the simulated images of the heart and blood vessels, the demonstration of the surgical process began; a surgical knife started operating on the heart, followed by various surgical instruments intervening, the entire surgical process was incredibly clear and realistic, even the gauze was simulated to a deceptive degree. The entire surgical process, including the removal of the original surgery, the reconstruction of the eight malformations, and the functional state achieved post-surgery, was demonstrated very clearly, which shows the importance of system support. Today¡¯s wars rely on system support, and so does medicine; the tremendous progress in medicine is definitely backed by advancements in technology and industry, such as the development of minimally invasive surgery, which necessarily relies on the development of endoscopes, in turn depending on advances in optical and electronic technologies. An excellent cardiac surgeon to fulfil his value also needs the support of the entire system¡ªinstruments, medicines, anesthesia techniques, extracorporeal circulation technologies, hypothermia technologies, intensive care technologies, among others. ¡°Which company¡¯s VR technology is this, and how come we have never used this company before?¡± After finishing the VR observation, Academician Wang removed his VR glasses and asked in confusion. Fuwai has also been exposed to VR technology, such as using VR to evaluate surgeries, even guiding surgeries intraoperatively, but Academician Wang clearly felt that the VR images produced by previous collaborative companies were not as clear and realistic as today¡¯s. Because ordinary companies engaging in medical VR applications are merely dabbling, at most considered a medical 3D animation company, they simply could not support this kind of digital human technology. And the digital medical laboratory at Nandu Medical University holds world-class digital human technology, using digital human technology to complete a 3D animation is akin to university students doing kindergarten math. The VR hardware currently held by Ruixing Medical is also world-class; world-class hardware combined with world-class software, no small company could possibly match this level. ¡°This is our own digital human technology; what was just demonstrated was merely the external appearance of the heart.¡± Yang Ping explained to Academician Wang. In fact, it would be more suitable to use the popular term ¡°skin¡± to explain, but Academician Wang might not understand what ¡°skin¡± is because digital human technology encompasses many things, among which the most crucial is digital cells, which are used to construct the entire organ. But the final digital organ presented to people must have a realistic appearance, this appearance is akin to the ¡°skin¡± of mobile apps, it is only responsible for simulating a realistic appearance of the organ and has nothing to do with the organ¡¯s digital physiological functions. Chapter 945 - 945 811 A Powerful System_2 ?Chapter 945: Chapter 811: A Powerful System_2 Chapter 945: Chapter 811: A Powerful System_2 ¡°It¡¯s so lifelike, just like a real heart itself, as if the actual heart is enlarged right in front of me. I can see the striations of the myocardium, the blood vessels that cover it, and that layer of moist fluid on the surface,¡± Academician Wang said, still not quite satisfied. Surprised by Academician Wang¡¯s reaction, Yang Ping said, ¡°In the future, you¡¯ll even be able to touch the heart. You will feel its softness, warmth, and elasticity, just as if you¡¯re holding a real heart in the palm of your hand.¡± ¡°If you need it, we can provide VR support in the future.¡± Yang Ping was never stingy with these technologies. ¡°Of course we need it. Which company¡¯s is this? How come I¡¯ve never heard of it? Weicong, Yue Liang, have you heard of it?¡± Xin Weicong and Chen Yueliang shook their heads. ¡°Manager Huang¡ª¡± Sitting in the corner, Huang Jiahui immediately stood up and handed out her business card to the big shots. Academician Wang saw the card, ¡°Ruixing Medical¡ªimpressive. This is the dark horse of domestic medical technology. Aren¡¯t you guys the giants in orthopedic consumables? Do you do medical VR too?¡± ¡°We also study VR technology and maintain a good standard. Orthopedic consumables were the initial products of our company. We have already expanded our product line and will soon launch artificial valves, pacemakers, coronary stents¡ª¡± Huang Jiahui briefly introduced. Academician Wang nodded in approval. The VR technology he had just seen was indeed much stronger than that of other companies. ¡°All these products are developed in combination with Digital Human Technology, and all have independent intellectual property rights. Professor Wang, if you need anything, feel free to contact us at any time,¡± Huang Jiahui tactfully said a few words at the right time and then retreated to her seat, but this company had already made a deep impression on Academician Wang. In fact, except for a very few people like Huang Jiacai, no one knew that Yang Ping was the major shareholder of Ruixing Medical, because he was a silent investor. The so-called silent investor doesn¡¯t show up on the commercial registration at all, there is a set of comprehensive and professional plans to ensure the investor¡¯s rights. The largest shareholder appearing in the commercial registration was Huang Jiacai, and not even Yang Ping¡¯s name was there. Yang Ping only wanted to be a pure doctor and had no interest in business, but he wanted to have a support system he could control, which is why he bought shares of the Ruixing Company and left it to Huang Jiacai to manage. The realization of a new technology, apart from medical factors, involves many other factors. Without a company one could control, even designing a simple medical device would require dependence on others. If someone with vision sees the value of this device and agrees to a partnership for development, then the device has a chance to become a reality. If you encounter a company without vision or awareness of intellectual property rights, which is unwilling to carry out R&D, the new device would simply gather dust on the shelf. Having a strong company of one¡¯s own is different. You can invest money and talent to develop a product at any time, and the money earned goes back into the next round of R&D, forming a virtuous cycle. Rather than depend on others, why not own a company and make it grow strong? And Huang Jiacai was a genius manager. He seized the opportunity to compete with the giants, rapidly expanded the market relying on the profitability of orthopedic consumables. He didn¡¯t waste a cent of the earnings; instead, he used it all to attract talent and invested in research and development. With good treatment and company atmosphere, Ruixing attracted a wealth of talent, establishing several major R&D centers in Shanghai, Nandu, and other western regions, from which a variety of devices with independent intellectual property rights emerged like bamboo shoots after a rain. After all, products are designed by people. As long as the talent and funding are in place, theoretically, any product can achieve a breakthrough. Thus, with the efforts of a large number of talents, Ruixing expanded its consumables to the Cardiac Surgery Department, Neurosurgery, and other areas, relying on consumables as a cash cow to amass a sizeable fund. With sufficient funds, Huang Jiacai began to venture into some fundamental fields like experimental equipment, large medical equipment, medical chips, VR technology, biological 3D printing, and more. Although it can¡¯t immediately launch competitive products, once the technology accumulates to a certain extent, it will naturally explode. ¡°Manager Huang, find some time to tell me about your company later, I am very interested,¡± said Academician Wang. Academician Wang was extremely interested, and since Professor Yang used their products, there must be something unique about them. It was said that the last Myocardial Rotary Knife was trial-produced by them; the rotary cutter worked very well, and there was nothing similar available overseas. ¡°About that Myocardial Rotary Knife, could you send us a few more? Last time I sneakily took one from Professor Yang, and it wasn¡¯t enough. Especially since the cutter head seems to be disposable and can¡¯t be reused. After I used it, everyone in the department was asking me for it. They all fell in love with this kind of minimally invasive surgery. If you send a few more to me, once we get proficient with it, we¡¯ll come to buy a batch from you,¡± said Professor Xin. Huang Jiahui immediately followed up, ¡°After the meeting, I will send you five rotary cutters and twenty-five cutter heads. Thank you, Professor Xin, for trying it.¡± ¡°Professor Yang, we have an academic conference next month, and we would like to invite you to give a lecture. The conference will host training sessions, and if your minimally invasive technology could be included in the training content, I think it would be beneficial. This kind of rotary knife is minimally invasive and safe, and surgeons from provincial hospitals across the country can easily learn it,¡± said someone. Yang Ping agreed immediately, ¡°No problem, Manager Huang, prepare some rotary knives to give to the participants.¡± The academic conference at Fuwai is nationwide, and their training sessions are the source of dissemination of cardiovascular surgery techniques across the country. Once the new rotary knife technology is promoted in the training session, the technique will quickly spread nationwide. ¡°Xiao Huang, remember to introduce your company¡¯s products to me after the meeting,¡± Academician Wang reminded. ¡°Manager Huang, be sure to give a good introduction of the products to the experts later.¡± Yang Ping gave a reminder, then continued to explain the surgery using VR. ¡ª Song Hanhui was admitted to the hospital for surgery on his third day, and his operation was scheduled first. Early in the morning, before seven o¡¯clock, the nurses started to measure his vital signs preoperatively, and to verify Song Hanhui¡¯s various information, before getting ready to take him to surgery. ¡°You haven¡¯t eaten anything since eight o¡¯clock last night, have you?¡± the nurse asked. Song Hanhui shook his head like a rattle-drum: ¡°No!¡± A moment later, Song Hanhui asked the nurse, ¡°What would happen if I ate something before surgery?¡± The nurse looked puzzled and asked, ¡°Did you eat anything?¡± Song Hanhui¡¯s gaze flitted around, ¡°No, I¡¯m just curious, just asking.¡± The nurse breathed a sigh of relief and explained, ¡°Before general anesthesia, you must fast for 12 hours and abstain from water for at least 4 hours. If you have eaten, your stomach isn¡¯t empty and there¡¯s food present. If you vomit during anesthesia, that food could be inhaled into your lungs and cause suffocation death. This is no laughing matter, it¡¯s life-threatening.¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t eat anything, did you?¡± the nurse interrogated again, because occasionally they encounter patients who despite being clearly instructed before surgery, still eat something, which leads to surgery delays. The reasons vary, such as feeling hungry, not hearing the instructions clearly, or thinking a little bit wouldn¡¯t matter. Song Hanhui looked at his father who was sitting beside him, obviously very afraid. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Are you okay?¡± Old Song felt something was off; the kid was clearly scared. Song Hanhui¡¯s head went down, and he mumbled, ¡°I ate two egg yolk pies¡ª.¡± This time it was the nurse¡¯s turn to be surprised. Eating before surgery was truly fatal, and here they were dealing with such a patient again, the kind of situation that frustrates doctors and nurses to no end. ¡°When did you eat them? I¡¯ve been watching all this time.¡± Old Song couldn¡¯t believe it; he had been on guard from the night before until the morning, and this little rascal didn¡¯t have a chance to eat, it was impossible. Song Hanhui timidly said, ¡°I ate them in the restroom this morning, I hid inside and ate.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t see you bring anything with you?¡± ¡°I¡ªI¡ªhid the egg yolk pies in my pants.¡± You little rascal, Old Song wanted to hit someone at that moment. Usually, it didn¡¯t matter how much he ate, but at such a critical time, when he was told not to eat on this particular occasion, he had to go against it. ¡°I was afraid of being hungry during the surgery, so¡ª¡± The small, chubby boy with a purple face and lips, now started to gasp due to nervousness. The nurse couldn¡¯t bring herself to criticize him and could only say helplessly, ¡°I¡¯ll talk to the doctor, let¡¯s postpone the surgery, and you will be notified. This absolutely cannot happen again, but I must praise the child for speaking up. Otherwise, it would have been very dangerous in the operating room.¡± Old Song was at a loss whether to scold or to hit; he was seething with anger. Old Song knew his child very well; he was greedy. That¡¯s why Old Song had to keep a sharp eye the whole day, not even blinking, especially guarding against him during the restroom trip in the morning. He had specifically checked whether his son had taken anything in his hands¡ªand they were empty, not carrying anything at all. It never occurred to him that the boy would hide it in his pants. After finding out about this, Yang Ping was helpless and could only postpone the surgery by a day. Academician Wang, Professor Chen, and Professor Xin had to delay their return to Beijing by a day, the entire plan disrupted by the little fatty. Chapter 946 - 946 812 Strategic Determination ?Chapter 946: Chapter 812: Strategic Determination Chapter 946: Chapter 812: Strategic Determination To ensure that Song Hanhui wouldn¡¯t secretly eat snacks again, the nurse cleared all the snacks from the bedside cabinet, sternly admonished Old Song to strictly instruct Song Hanhui to adhere to the fasting period, and categorically forbade him from sneaking any food or drinks¡ªnot even a sip of water. That evening, Yao Xiurong returned to the Sanbo Hotel to rest, leaving Old Song to stay behind with his son; therefore, the arduous task fell on Old Song¡¯s shoulders. Things were manageable during the day, but the real concern was the night, when a moment¡¯s inattention could lead to a slip-up. After the nurse finished cleaning up temporarily, Old Song meticulously searched again¡ªunder the pillow, inside the blanket, and though the pillow and blanket themselves couldn¡¯t be opened, Old Song felt through them with his hands and even checked under the bed multiple times before he could be reassured. Song Hanhui felt embarrassed and repeatedly promised not to sneak any more food, but what good were promises without strict supervision? His resolve could relax at any moment, leading to a repeat offense. Fatty had just made his promise when the muscular man in the neighboring bed found a piece of chocolate in the cabinet under the bathroom sink. This left Old Song speechless, with no choice but to prepare for a sleepless night watching over him. ¡°That was from the last time, I forgot to take it out,¡± Fatty defended himself with a flushed face. Of course, a day without snacks was very difficult, even if it was just for a short day. The night passed without incident, and Song Hanhui woke up at six o¡¯clock. He tossed and turned in bed, his mind filled with thoughts of snacks, but he tried hard to resist. This obsession with snacks once led his attending doctor to suspect he had diabetes. The symptoms of diabetes¡ªexcessive eating, drinking, and urination¡ªfit Fatty well, but his preoperative blood sugar levels were normal, and even an increased sugar tolerance test revealed no issues. ¡°Daddy, I¡¯m hungry!¡± Fatty said in a pitiful tone. ¡°If you¡¯re hungry, just endure it!¡± Old Song comforted his son. Old Song was about to use a belt to wrap around his son¡¯s stomach when the nurse came over to hang a bottle of liquid for Fatty. Old Song asked, and it turned out this liquid was a stomach acid-reducing medication so that being on an empty stomach wouldn¡¯t make him feel hungry. Making it to seven o¡¯clock, the nurse began taking preoperative vital sign measurements, and Fatty finally awaited his surgery. ¡°He is undergoing a standard Fontan surgery.¡± Academician Wang reminded, ¡ª Poor Fatty, lying on the operating table ready for anesthesia, kept asking when he could eat after the surgery was done. It seemed to him that surgery wasn¡¯t a big deal; the real concern was when he could eat. This triggered childhood memories for Dr. Liang. It seemed that people who can gain weight all share one thing in common¡ªthey always have a good appetite. No wonder stomach-reduction surgery for weight loss was becoming popular. Liang Fatty used to be quite troubled by his obesity, even reaching out to a classmate to contact the best doctor for ¡°stomach-reduction¡± surgery to decisively solve the problem through surgery. However, Fatty later committed to exercising and eventually saw effective results, which led him to abandon the idea of surgery. Dr. Liang told Song Hanhui that he could eat 6-8 hours post-surgery, to which Song Hanhui responded satisfyingly with his eyes closed, ¡°Proceed with the surgery!¡± ¡°How long will the surgery last?¡± Liang Fatty was also witnessing a professor perform this kind of surgery for the first time and couldn¡¯t make an accurate judgment on the surgery¡¯s duration, especially since Yang Ping was not in the operating room, having stepped out momentarily. The nearby Li Zehui, Academician Wang, Director Chen, and Director Xin looked at each other, unable to make a judgment about Yang Ping¡¯s surgery time based on their previous experiences, as it could greatly vary from the usual pace. ¡°Normally it takes over twenty hours, I don¡¯t know about Professor Yang¡ª¡± Professor Chen could only provide a standard time frame as a reference. Liang Fatty responded without hesitation, ¡°I understand now.¡± It usually took twenty hours, conservatively estimated, meaning the professor¡¯s surgery time should be around five to six hours. This helped Fatty plan the dosage and timing of the anesthetics. After administering the anesthesia and positioning the body, they proceeded with routine sterilization and covering; everyone followed standard steps, unruffled. Academician Wang noticed that in this operating room, regardless of the surgery, their expressions were always so composed, as if everyone was used to seeing all kinds of surgeries. The anesthesiologist always appeared carefree, sitting with his legs crossed in capri-style pants, while the patrolling nurse managed to keep the operating room in perfect order even while chatting. The team seemed very casual, but their coordination was, in fact, perfectly synchronized. Academician Wang and Professor Chen did not participate in the surgery; they merely observed from below. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were assisting. This surgery was extensive, and Academician Wang felt that assistants who had better coordination with Yang Ping should take the stage, rather than himself, who was already quite old. Wang understood that being an elderly surgeon was a major disadvantage as it meant both the brain¡¯s response time and the hands¡¯ dexterity were declining, which could only impede the surgery. Since Academician Wang actively chose to stay below, Professor Chen had no reason to go up either; he stayed alongside Academician Wang. Having spent a few days at Sanbo Hospital, Professor Chen had observed the surgeries performed by Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. Compared to them, Professor Chen, even at just over forty, had to categorize himself as ¡°aged.¡± The surgical skills of these two young men were formidable, especially Song Zimo, whose fundamental surgical skills and familiarity with anatomy seemed as though they came from some kind of specialized training. Yang Ping and his team indeed coordinated much more intuitively. Amid a few casual conversations, the surgery had already begun. The surgery was a massive undertaking; Yang Ping still chose the most spacious mid-sternal approach to open the chest, using a chest opener to widen the thoracic cavity. In the broad surgical field, the lungs and pericardium were exposed. Chapter 947 - 947 812 Strategic Determination_2 ?Chapter 947: Chapter 812 Strategic Determination_2 Chapter 947: Chapter 812 Strategic Determination_2 ¡°Previous surgeries had been performed three times, there¡¯s bound to be adhesion and anatomical fuzziness, pay attention!¡± Academician Wang¡¯s well-intentioned reminder that adhesion is the surgeon¡¯s worst enemy. The pericardium is the heart¡¯s outer garment, enclosing the heart. Yang Ping adjusted the direction of the electric knife in his hand, and as a wisp of light smoke drifted into the suction tube, followed by a sizzling sound, the pericardium was opened, decisively and completely in one go. A slight odor from the electrosurgery leaked out, which could be smelled even through the mask. Academician Wang¡¯s experience seemed to be of little help to Yang Ping; even in the presence of adhesions, the electrosurgery cut without mercy, without hesitation or second thoughts, achieving it in one attempt, yet it was just right, only cutting through the pericardium, stopping at the surface of the epicardium. The electrosurgery relies on thermal effect to cut, and its damage range is specific. If not handled with precision, it can lead to unnecessary collateral damage. So when using the electric knife for cutting, one must be familiar with its damage range. The thermal damage range of the electric knife decreases with distance, and it also has certain relationships with the type of target tissue. Very few people are capable of precise cutting with the electric knife because it is fundamentally not a precision cutting tool. The cheapest precision cutting tool is an ordinary scalpel, and the high-end ones include laser knives. Using such a crude instrument as an electric knife, Yang Ping still managed to open the pericardium without damaging the epicardium, indicating that he had mastered the electric knife to a certain extent. After opening the pericardium, Yang Ping replaced the electric knife with a regular scalpel because the flaws of the electrosurgery could potentially lead to serious consequences in the next steps. The heart¡¯s beating relies on a series of electrophysiological supports, and the ¡°wires¡± responsible for conducting the electrical signals¡ªconduction bundle¡ªare buried within the myocardium, invisible to the naked eye. If one inadvertently cuts through these conduction bundles while slicing through the myocardium, it would result in a conduction block. The consequences of a conduction block affect the heartbeat; without the transmission of electrical signals, the myocardium cannot contract and naturally cannot beat. At that point, to enable the heart to beat, one would have to install a permanent pacemaker. That is, the heart loses its ability to beat on its own and must rely on a pacemaker¡¯s assistance for life. If it were a normally anatomical heart, an experienced doctor could make approximate judgments about the direction of the conduction bundles based on normal anatomical knowledge, trying to avoid the conduction bundles as much as possible. But this is a malformed heart which has been through three surgeries already; major vessels have been transposed after the surgeries, so normal anatomical knowledge is not very useful. In order to avoid the conduction bundles as much as possible, Yang Ping used a finer scalpel for the incision and separation. Sharp separation is the most precise method of separation, and a scalpel is the best tool for sharp separation. Precision means a need for sharpness, and sharpness can be difficult to control. Therefore, using a scalpel in risky areas requires highly advanced surgical skills. Originally, a laser knife is more precise than a scalpel, but it also has thermal damage, albeit very slight, which Yang Ping cannot tolerate; even minor thermal damage theoretically could harm the conduction bundles. Yang Ping¡¯s scalpel delicately lifted the outer layer of the heart, the myocardium peeked out from the opened epicardium, revealing an extremely complex interior. The heart and the major vessels were originally malformed, and after three surgeries, the relationships between various structures had become intricately complex. Even Academician Wang himself frowned upon seeing the heart on the screen, indicating a tough bag of worms that would make anyone¡¯s scalp tingle. To strip away all previous surgeries and then reconstruct eight different structures is something any cardiac surgeon would fear, not knowing where to start. ¡°He¡¯s performing a standard Fontan Surgery!¡± Academician Wang reminded promptly. There was no need to say too much, just this one sentence was enough. It informed Yang Ping how the surgery had been done at the time, which areas had been incised, what had been done to them, and what state they might be in now. ¡°Prepare, extracorporeal circulation, cardiac arrest!¡± Yang Ping commanded. In fact, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s extracorporeal circulation team had little experience before because there were relatively few heart surgeries. However, since Yang Ping began performing heart surgeries, they have been getting more and more work, all of high quality, so their experience has been accumulating abundantly. Learning the ropes is a necessary path for any budding doctor. Soon, they initiated extracorporeal circulation, and cardiac arrest was induced. ¡°I¡¯m going to start dismantling the original surgery!¡± Yang Ping warned the assistants, getting them mentally prepared. ¡ª Family waiting area of the operating room. Song Hanhui¡¯s mother, Yao Xiurong, was restless, pacing back and forth, and occasionally wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. But Old Song was thick-skinned; his attitude was the complete opposite of his wife¡¯s. He was actually sitting in the family waiting area, humming a tune and bobbing his head as if there was no urgency at all. At this time, any normal parent would be as anxious as ants on a hot pan, unable to sit still or find peace of mind. Because their child might not make it off the operating table. ¡°How can you not be worried at all?¡± Yao Xiurong was discontented with Old Song¡¯s ¡°appalling¡± attitude, but she was powerless to change it; he was always like this, no matter what urgent situation they faced. ¡°What¡¯s the use of worrying, does it cure heart disease? Can concern solve problems? Aren¡¯t there doctors inside? We just wait,¡± retorted Old Song, thinking his wife was unproductively anxious, which sometimes could even be counterproductive. ¡°But you shouldn¡¯t be humming a song, at least.¡± Yao Xiurong complained, her heart in turmoil while Old Song was here humming tunes, acting as if it wasn¡¯t his son undergoing surgery inside. Old Song said disdainfully, ¡°If I don¡¯t hum, should I wail and beat the ground to be considered a qualified father? What good does my worrying do? Whether the surgery is successful or not has nothing to do with whether or not I worry. Instead, I need to maintain my composure, understand? If it weren¡¯t for my composure, would our son have found such a good doctor? Your relative kept saying going to South Korea for the surgery would cure him, and you kept pushing me to go. When I didn¡¯t agree, you accused me of being stingy, without using your brain to think. How many skilled doctors can there be in South Korea, a country as small as a mung bean, and even if they have any, how many surgeries can they perform in a year? Fixing chests and butts, maybe, but heart surgery? Are they up to it? I don¡¯t want to scold you, but you¡¯re always causing trouble. If it wasn¡¯t for my strategic determination, and my insistence on having Professor Wang from Fuwai take a look, how could we have had this opportunity to have the surgery done here?¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t humming a song; this is strategic determination, understand?¡± ¡°Now you¡¯re being arrogant?¡± Yao Xiurong didn¡¯t retort, because everything Old Song said made sense. It had indeed happened just like that¡ªa relative suggested they send their child to South Korea for the surgery, claiming their medical standards were higher, prompting Yao Xiurong to urgently push Old Song to take their child there. But after they went, the South Korean doctor suggested an immediate surgery, which Old Song firmly rejected. Going to South Korea was only to fulfill his wife¡¯s insistence to stop the nagging; he still believed in the skills of Chinese doctors. So Old Song inquired how many such surgeries were performed annually in South Korea, and they hemmed and hawed. Later, Old Song ignored his wife¡¯s outcry, staunchly refusing surgery in South Korea, and came back. To shut his wife¡¯s mouth for good, he found out that the South Korean doctor hardly had performed any cases of congenital heart disease¡ªa close call! ¡°Back when we bought our house in Shanghai, what did our relatives say? They said buying a house in Shanghai was a waste of money, too expensive. It¡¯s better to save the money and earn interest, then retire to our hometown, buy a house and live comfortably. It was me who, against all pressure, took out a loan to buy the house. After so many years of paying the mortgage, look how much the house has appreciated. That¡¯s called strategic vision. Stop blabbering all day; you need strategic determination and vision. You just have to follow my lead; this head of mine isn¡¯t too shabby,¡± said Old Song, pointing at his round head. ¡°Wife, don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t lose your composure, understand? Now we leave everything to the doctors and wait patiently. Whether it works or not is not for us to determine. Just keep quiet for a while, okay?¡± Old Song crossed his legs again and started humming a tune. ¡°How can I not be anxious? Should I knock on the door to ask? Or should you call Professor Wang to inquire about the situation inside?¡± Yao Xiurong worriedly asked. ¡°You¡¯re only making trouble. It hasn¡¯t been that long since they went in. Let¡¯s quietly wait and be ready to assist the doctors whenever necessary. Ready to sign whatever needs to be signed, understood?¡± Old Song chided. Yao Xiurong nodded, but her heart was still in turmoil. Chapter 948 - 948 813 I Dont Understand Cardiac Arrest ?Chapter 948: Chapter 813: I Don¡¯t Understand Cardiac Arrest? Chapter 948: Chapter 813: I Don¡¯t Understand Cardiac Arrest? This was a case of right heart, and any surgery on a right heart was more difficult than its normal counterpart, the left heart. It was similar to the habitual decision-making of surgeons regarding anatomy, like an experienced driver used to a left-hand drive vehicle and driving on the left suddenly entering a country with the opposite rules, where the steering wheel is on the right and traffic keeps to the left. It¡¯s difficult to adapt immediately, especially in a highly complex traffic situation. When the Fontan Surgery was performed, had it not been for Academician Wang¡¯s superb skills, the Fontan Surgery on a right heart would not have been so successful. The dismantling surgery was not that simple, either; the operation had to be meticulous, preserving the quality and integrity of the ¡°components¡± while dismantling. Reassembly and reconstruction still depended on these dismantled ¡°components,¡± not replacements. The connection between the pulmonary artery and the superior and inferior vena cava was the core of the Fontan Surgery, and now Yang Ping needed to sever this connection at the original suture site and restore the connection between the pulmonary artery and the right ventricle. The interatrial septum had been eliminated during the original surgery, and now it needed to be rebuilt. The previous surgical plans, which used the heart solely for systemic circulation, were now dismantled and discarded. The heart must return to its normal position and take on the dual tasks of systemic and pulmonary circulation, transitioning from the double-chamber structure formed after the last surgery back to a four-chamber structure. But this was far from enough; it was merely the dismantling of the previous surgery, laying the foundation for the restoration of the heart and major vascular to their original states. Dismantling the house was only the first step; it was the construction that followed which was the most complex task. Having dismantled the previous surgery, the ¡°components¡± inside were scattered, and the entire heart and major blood vessels were fragmented. Academician Wang stood up from his stool, aligning his line of sight with the screen for easier observation. It was only the first step of the surgery, and everyone couldn¡¯t help but start worrying. The current work was nothing more than tearing down a building; the subsequent restoration and reconstruction were the most difficult parts. The challenge of restoration lay not in starting from scratch but in relying on this pile of ruins to rebuild a complete structure. As some of the world¡¯s top cardiac surgery specialists, they had never performed such surgery, and even after contemplating it for a long time, they were at a loss, hardly believing that such surgery could be achieved. With every cut and snip, every stitch and thread, Yang Ping began reconstructing the heart. It was a daunting task, testing his technique as well as his confidence and patience. First, he corrected the deformities in the heart, and then the deformities in the major vessels. Yang Ping¡¯s surgical process was very clear, with large steps encompassing smaller ones, and he progress systematically. The interatrial septum had to be rebuilt; the original spacious chamber now had to be divided. This step required the construction of an airtight wall to prevent blood leakage, meaning that after rebuilding the interatrial septum, the blood from the left and right atria should not mix. If the rubble lacked necessary materials, a combination of autologous and artificial materials would be used. In any case, the goals must be achieved. Not only was there a defect in the septum of the atria, but the ventricular septum was also deficient. After reconstructing the wall between the atria, the wall between the ventricles had to be reconstructed as well. The area beneath the pulmonary valve was severely narrowed, an issue that Academician Wang had already addressed during the Fontan Surgery; otherwise, the Fontan would not have lasted for over a decade. The atrioventricular valve was incompetent, and this issue had to be resolved in the reconstruction. Normally, blood should flow from the atria to the ventricles without any backflow. The atrioventricular valve acted as a one-way valve, ensuring unidirectional blood flow, but incompetence would compromise this function, potentially causing blood to flow backward. At this time, the atrioventricular valve had to be repaired or replaced; it would be repaired if possible, or replaced if it could not be repaired. Fortunately, Yang Ping felt that the atrioventricular valve was repairable, even if the difficulty was relatively high. After repairing the atrioventricular valve, Yang Ping began to address the hepatic vein. The progression of the surgery was calm and orderly, swift but not chaotic. Song Hanhui¡¯s hepatic vein originally opened directly into the right atrium. Now, Yang Ping had to move it to connect with the inferior vena cava. There were two methods for this step: performing an end-to-side anastomosis of the hepatic vein directly to the inferior vena cava, which involved making a small incision in the wall of the inferior vena cava and then attaching the hepatic vein to this opening. The other method was to find a branching vein entering the inferior vena cava, where a sibling vein existed, and then cut this vein to anastomose it with the hepatic vein. In comparison, the latter method was much better, and Yang Ping opted for this approach; the original outlet of the hepatic vein in the right atrium also needed to be sealed off. Afterward, there would be the correction of the double outlet from the right ventricle, adjustments of the openings of the aorta and pulmonary artery, and so on¡ªthe surgery was extremely complex. Academician Wang kept his eyes on the screen. Yang Ping¡¯s surgery looked very comforting; instead of being disorderly and complicated, his hands turned it into something simple and organized, reflecting an almost transcendent sense of art in the entire procedure. Each step seemed to be the result of meticulous refinement, as if it contained some kind of distillation. Several graduate students also gathered in the teaching room to observe the surgery, but they were all squeezing in time to watch. Some had to leave halfway through, while others came in during the middle of the procedure. ¡ª After more than three hours into the surgery, Yao Xiurong couldn¡¯t wait any longer. She ran to the operating room door again, but the door was firmly closed, and she couldn¡¯t see anything. Thus, she wanted to raise her fists and pound on it a few times, but afraid her husband would scold her, she held back and didn¡¯t move. Chapter 949 - 949 813 I Dont Understand Cardiac Arrest_2 ?Chapter 949: Chapter 813: I Don¡¯t Understand Cardiac Arrest?_2 Chapter 949: Chapter 813: I Don¡¯t Understand Cardiac Arrest?_2 ¡°Willpower! You need to have willpower!¡± Old Song reminded his wife. Yao Xiurong paced in front of the operating room door. At that moment, a graduate student, who had just rushed back to the ward, hurried out, and another hurried in. ¡°How¡¯s the surgery going inside? Has the heart stopped beating?¡± ¡°It¡¯s been stopped for quite a while now. Hurry inside and take a look.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve just finished.¡± ¡°Move faster, if you don¡¯t hurry up, it¡¯ll be too late.¡± Yao Xiurong wanted to grab a graduate student to ask what was happening, but the one who came out had already entered the elevator, and the one who had gone in was already inside; the door was firmly shut. ¡°Cardiac arrest?¡± Yao Xiurong was taken aback. Cardiac arrest was the cessation of heartbeat¡ªin other words, wasn¡¯t the person gone? Yao Xiurong felt like she understood everything and couldn¡¯t hold back anymore; she began pounding on the door of the operating room, bang bang bang! Old Song pulled her away: ¡°What are you doing? Have you gone mad? This is an operating room, where your son is having surgery.¡± ¡°The heart has stopped beating, yet no one comes out to tell us how it¡¯s going. You just stand there, doing nothing. Don¡¯t you care at all? Do you have a heart of stone? Our son is inside there!¡± Yao Xiurong yelled. ¡°Did you even listen to what the doctor said before the surgery? This surgery requires the heart to be stopped before it can be performed; it¡¯s not the first time. The previous three surgeries were the same,¡± Old Song tried his best to explain. Yao Xiurong, frantic, couldn¡¯t tell east from west. Because of her anxiety, she never really listened during the pre-surgery talks: ¡°So you understand everything, do you? You know it all, and I know nothing, right? Don¡¯t I understand what cardiac arrest is?¡± Without thinking about anything else, Yao Xiurong kept knocking on the door forcefully. Soon, the door opened, and a nurse came out, wearing a mask and a sterile cap. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Don¡¯t knock like that. They¡¯re performing surgery inside, and you could disturb the doctors,¡± said the nurse. Old Song immediately apologized and pulled Yao Xiurong aside: ¡®I¡¯m sorry, so sorry!¡¯ Yao Xiurong shrugged off Old Song¡¯s hand: ¡°How is Song Hanhui doing inside? It¡¯s been over three hours, and there¡¯s been no sign of anything. We are his parents; we¡¯re really worried.¡± ¡°The surgery is still in progress inside, and everything is going smoothly,¡± the nurse explained. ¡°The heart has already stopped, and yet you say everything is going smoothly? Are you saying that the heart has indeed stopped beating?¡± Yao Xiurong pressed with an insistent tone. The young nurse was also disoriented by the sudden questioning: ¡°Yes, the heart is currently in a state of arrest¡ª¡± Yao Xiurong¡¯s head spun; the nurse quickly supported her: ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you? Are you okay?¡± ¡°How can the heart just stop¡ª¡± Yao Xiurong¡¯s complexion turned deathly pale as she fainted in the nurse¡¯s arms. The nurse finally understood the misunderstanding; every parent of a child with congenital heart disease knew what it was about, so how could she not? Worried about her child¡¯s surgery, Yao Xiurong had no appetite that morning and had skipped breakfast; now she was experiencing a hypoglycemic reaction from the stress. With experience, the nurse knew it was hypoglycemia just by looking at the symptoms and immediately called out: ¡°Someone come quickly, rescue!¡± This was the operating room, not a ward. Everyone was busy with surgeries, but when the nurse shouted, a doctor ran out. The nurse said, ¡°Quick, set up a bottle of glucose.¡± Old Song was really speechless. She knew she had hypoglycemia but still skipped breakfast, claiming anxiety for their child. Wasn¡¯t this just chaos? They were running a smooth operation inside, and now with her crying and causing a scene, the doctors and nurses had to divert staff to rescue a family member. If it hadn¡¯t been his own wife, Old Song really felt like giving her a kick. The intention might have been good, worrying about their child, but the end result? It was nothing but trouble. This wasn¡¯t the first time it happened. When their child had just started elementary school and was performing poorly academically, his wife and her parents discussed and tried to find a solution. Eventually, following a health product seller¡¯s advice, her parents bought a course of ¡°smart drugs¡± for twenty-eight thousand yuan. If the ¡°smart drugs¡± were simply made of flour, it wouldn¡¯t have been so bad, but they contained substances like stimulants¡ªcompletely harmful stuff. When Old Song found out, he adamantly refused to let their child take them. Consequently, his wife and her parents felt aggrieved, claiming that they spent their savings to buy the medicine for the child, and yet their efforts weren¡¯t appreciated. The sellers of the health products had claimed it was the latest product from abroad, not available to the average person. My goodness, they even believed what people selling health products were saying! As a result, this caused a dispute with his in-laws. They tried several times to secretly give the drugs to the child, but Old Song found out each time. They even accused Old Song of lacking compassion, of not understanding an elderly person¡¯s intentions, and taking their goodwill for granted. And isn¡¯t this situation the same? It¡¯s true she was anxious, but wasn¡¯t this anxiety only causing more trouble? Such instances hadn¡¯t been few. The doctors and nurses immediately began on-the-spot rescue efforts for Yao Xiurong, giving her a few sips of glucose and then oxygen through a nasal cannula. About ten minutes later, Yao Xiurong woke up, ¡°How¡¯s my child¡ª¡± ¡°The surgery is still underway; don¡¯t panic.¡± ¡°You¡¯re deceiving me. The heart has stopped beating; how can I not panic?¡± The nurse couldn¡¯t help but laugh and cry at the same time: ¡°Before the surgery, the doctor should have told you that it¡¯s necessary to intentionally cause cardiac arrest during this type of surgery, and then to restart the heart afterwards. It¡¯s a normal part of the procedure.¡± ¡°How can someone live with a stopped heart? You¡¯re treating me like a three-year-old child. If there¡¯s no heartbeat, can that still be considered living? Let me go in and have a look.¡± Yao Xiurong felt relentless, convinced that the doctors and nurses were deceiving her. Old Song shouted, ¡°What¡¯s all this commotion about? The surgery is going well, and you¡¯re causing a scene¡ªwould that make you happy?¡± ¡°What are you talking about? I¡¯m worried, and you¡¯re here humming songs without a care. Is that how a father should act?¡± Yao Xiurong was so infuriated by Old Song that she spat out blood. The child¡¯s heart had stopped, yet he showed no reaction and was spinning in circles, blindsided by the doctors and nurses. Old Song was so infuriated by Yao Xiurong that he almost spat out blood. Her mind was woefully ignorant; during the doctor¡¯s talk, she¡¯d just cried, not paying attention to a single word. Now, she still didn¡¯t understand the meaning of cardiac arrest. Old Song could have recited the general steps of the surgery by heart. The rage he felt during the ¡°smart drug¡± incident was flaring up again; Old Song nearly spewed out a mouthful of old blood. Fear not the godly opponent, but the pig teammate! And a pig teammate cultivated over a thousand years no less! ¡ª ¡°What¡¯s the situation outside?¡± Academician Wang asked. Although no sound could be heard from outside the operating room, he had just learned from the patrolling nurse that a family member had fainted at the door of the operating room and was being rescued. ¡°Is the family member okay?¡± Yang Ping knew of the incident as well and inquired. Because Xiao Su was on leave, the instrumental nurse was Zhou Can, and the patrolling nurse was the newly arrived nurse Wang Xiaowen. Wang Xiaowen said, ¡°Hypoglycemia. She just woke up after a few sips of glucose. She should be alright.¡± ¡°I heard she was banging on the operating room door, making a fuss to be let in,¡± Wang Xiaowen added. Song Zimo couldn¡¯t understand why the family member suddenly behaved so uncharacteristically: ¡°Why would she want to come in?¡± ¡°She says her child¡¯s heart has already stopped beating, and that we didn¡¯t inform her in time¡ª¡± ¡°How could this happen? Weren¡¯t they clearly informed during the pre-surgery talk? Cardiac arrest is a normal part of the procedure.¡± The pre-surgery talk had been conducted by Song Zimo himself: ¡°I did speak with them, and very explicitly at that. I emphasized it repeatedly and mentioned that there is a very small chance that the heart may not restart after the arrest, but that possibility is extremely slight. They all said they understood and then signed the consent forms.¡± ¡°Then how could there be a misunderstanding?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand either.¡± ¡°Earlier, the nurse clearly took care of informing them about the preoperative fasting orders, but they still violated the instructions and ate in secret. I heard that it was his mother who sneakily gave Song Hanhui the egg yolk pies; his father didn¡¯t know. She was afraid her child might be hungry and thought a little food wouldn¡¯t be an issue.¡± ¡°How do you know that?¡± ¡°Today, the infant in the next bed was being moved back to the regular ward. The infant¡¯s parents told the nurse in charge that his mom packed everything up to take away, and she sneakily tucked two egg yolk pies under the pillow before leaving.¡± Isn¡¯t that just harming someone? It¡¯s hard to say what to think about these parents. They seem to care for their child, but in reality, they¡¯re harming him. This was luckily discovered in advance. If it hadn¡¯t been detected and the child underwent anesthesia for surgery, causing vomiting and suffocation, an actual death by suffocation could have occurred. That would have been disastrous. ¡°The infant¡¯s parents told the nurse not to tell anyone, or else the child¡¯s father would definitely scold the mother,¡± said the graduate student. At these words, Liang Fatty immediately put down his cross-legged posture and checked the child¡¯s endotracheal tube and the monitoring data on the screen, ensuring the blood oxygen saturation was normal. Fatty couldn¡¯t help but sweat. ¡°Fatty, is everything alright?¡± Seeing Fatty¡¯s sudden movement, Yang Ping asked. Fatty, who had always been confident in his anesthetic work, couldn¡¯t speak with his usual assurance: ¡°For now, yes!¡± That¡¯s because he didn¡¯t know if the child had any food in his stomach. If there was food, it would be like a ticking time bomb. Academician Wang wanted to step out and scold Song Hanhui¡¯s parents, but it was a critical moment in the surgery, and he didn¡¯t want to miss it. Besides, Song Hanhui¡¯s mother was already fine, and Academician Wang didn¡¯t want to go out anymore. Chapter 950 - 950 814 High Mountain Flowing Waters ?Chapter 950: Chapter 814 High Mountain Flowing Waters Chapter 950: Chapter 814 High Mountain Flowing Waters Outside the operating room, no matter how the doctors and nurses explained, no matter how Old Song explained, Yao Xiurong was convinced that something had happened to her child and that the doctors and nurses were just hiding it from her. She insisted on checking it out herself, convinced that if they wouldn¡¯t let her in, there must be something fishy going on. And her reason was the phrase ¡°cardiac arrest¡±; she obsessively trapped herself in her own understanding and couldn¡¯t extricate herself. Oh¡ª Truth be told, Old Song admitted that, apart from this one thing, his wife was otherwise perfect¡ªwhether it was her appearance or her diligence in managing household affairs. Otherwise, Old Song would have divorced her long ago. The previous ¡°smart drugs¡± incident had caused a stir for half a year, exhausting Old Song. No matter how he explained, she always believed the health products salesman was right, arguing that they were a big company, hired celebrities for advertisements, and had a research team full of scientists, so there could be no problems. Unfortunately, the so-called ¡°smart drugs¡± tasted very good, and the child was greedy, so he always ate them secretly, which made Old Song guard against this issue every day. Later, Old Song found out that the so-called ¡°smart drugs¡± were just a kind of stimulant, which were extremely harmful to the body. If Old Song hadn¡¯t stopped it in time, the consequences would have been unimaginable if the usage had continued. The issue still hadn¡¯t concluded when Academician Wang had to personally intervene. The patient was his referral, and now that this had happened, Academician Wang felt extremely embarrassed. He came to the door of the operating room and severely reprimanded her. The presence of an academician was indeed different and immediately subdued Yao Xiurong; she mumbled in confusion, ¡°Are you sure everything is all right?¡± ¡°The child is fine; he is undergoing surgery right now. Even if there was nothing wrong, you would create problems. If you want the surgery to go smoothly, just stay here quietly. If you can¡¯t wait here, then go downstairs but don¡¯t disturb the surgery. Everything was going fine with the surgery until you interfered¡ªmaking trouble out of nothing!¡± Academician Wang was very harsh, not indulging her at all. Yao Xiurong stopped crying, ¡°I heard that my child¡¯s heartbeat had already stopped, so¡ª¡± ¡°The child has had several surgeries, were all the discussions during those surgeries not clear enough for you? Didn¡¯t you listen to them? This kind of surgery requires stopping the heart; otherwise, how can the surgery be performed? It¡¯s a necessary step of the surgery. We have this special technique to restart the heart after the surgery. Why are you so ignorant?¡± Academician Wang spoke very sharply, without sparing her feelings, otherwise speaking was pointless, as such people wouldn¡¯t understand. At that moment, Old Song explained on the side, ¡°It¡¯s just like when we repair cars. How can we fix the engine if it¡¯s not turned off? It¡¯s the same logic.¡± This time Yao Xiurong finally understood, ¡°What you all are saying is true, right? You¡¯re not hiding anything from me, are you?¡± ¡°Why would we need to hide anything from you? Is there any need for that? Making trouble for nothing! Making a fuss!¡± Academician Wang was really angry. Old Song didn¡¯t even know where to put his face, wished he could find a crack to crawl into. Doctors and nurses were busily helping with the surgery, while his wife was causing a scene¡ªit was truly absurd. ¡°Get up quickly, isn¡¯t this embarrassing enough?¡± Old Song immediately pulled his wife up and kept apologizing to Academician Wang. ¡°I¡¯m sorry! She doesn¡¯t understand and was making a fuss unnecessarily. We will wait patiently.¡± Yao Xiurong, possibly realizing her mistake, also nodded and apologized to Academician Wang and the doctors and nurses, then followed her husband to the waiting area. But she was genuinely anxious at the time. As a mother, hearing that her child¡¯s heart had stopped, how could she not be anxious? In her panic, crying was the only help she could offer. ¡ª The aorta was too far forward, and the pulmonary artery was to the back right, both vessels¡¯ entry points deviating significantly from their normal positions, which was entirely unworkable. Now, it was necessary to create new openings at the normal positions, channel arterial blood from the opening in the left ventricle into the aorta, and route venous blood from the opening in the right ventricle into the pulmonary artery. This step involved significant movements. If it failed, the entire cardiovascular system would lose its function, and there would be no way to remedy it. Thus at this step, the surgery could only move forward, not backward, exactly because once the incision was made, there was no turning back, which is why Academician Wang was so cautious and delayed in coming up with a reliable surgical plan. If the heart were compared to a car engine, it was now necessary to create new openings in the engine to connect the intake and exhaust pipes, which was no longer just a repair; it was essentially a fundamental modification of the engine. Li Zehui stood closer to the screen, staring intensely at it, knowing that if one step went wrong, the entire surgery would be rendered futile with no possibility of remedy. Professor Yang was indeed bold and skilled, something Li Zehui would never consider leading such a surgery himself. Professor Chen and Professor Xin also moved a bit closer. It could be said that this step was the most difficult and had the largest workload of the surgery. The placement of this opening needed to be very precise, and the suturing was extremely difficult, involving inserting the entire aorta into the new opening on the left ventricular wall. Then a dual suture inside and outside the ventricle had to be performed; after suturing, there could be no leakage, and the entire passage from the inside of the ventricle to the aorta must be smooth without any vortices or kicking flows. The suturing strength had to ensure it could safely survive the healing period. The same was required for the pulmonary artery. Regardless of the design for the new opening or the closure of the old one, Yang Ping appeared very skilled, as if he had practiced this kind of surgery thousands of times. The music in the operating room continuously played softly, looping the guzheng version of ¡°High Mountain Flowing Waters¡±. Under such a musical backdrop, Li Zehui, Professor Xin, and Professor Chen watched the screen displaying the surgery, entering into a state of artistic enjoyment. Chapter 951 - 951 814 High Mountain Flowing Waters_2 ?Chapter 951: Chapter 814 High Mountain Flowing Waters_2 Chapter 951: Chapter 814 High Mountain Flowing Waters_2 The surgery was incredibly swift but possessed a wonderful rhythm, and it exhibited such a high quality that one couldn¡¯t help but think of a phrase¡ªmasterful craftsmanship. The needle with the thread repeatedly went in and out, followed by constant knotting and snipping. In no time, the repositioning of the aorta and the pulmonary artery was complete. Within the chest cavity, the initially jumbled structures completely disappeared, replaced by a neatly organized new heart and major vessels, the beauty of reconstruction presented on the screen. Li Zehui remembered this piece of music; it seemed every time he saw Professor Yang perform surgery, it was this piece. He quietly asked the patrolling nurse, ¡°What is this music piece?¡± The nurse said, ¡°It¡¯s the guzheng version of ¡®High Mountain Flowing Water¡¯!¡± High Mountain Flowing Water! ¡ª Academician Wang returned to the operating room, still harboring lingering anger. If it hadn¡¯t been for Yang Ping¡¯s confidence, facing such a situation would have definitely affected the emotions of anyone on the operating table. ¡°It¡¯s nothing! Just a fuss, a misunderstanding. She heard somewhere that the child¡¯s heartbeat had stopped and thought something was wrong with the kid, crying hysterically. The child has undergone several operations, yet she didn¡¯t understand what cardiac arrest meant.¡± Academician Wang explained the situation to Yang Ping after returning to the operating room. Clearly, Yang Ping was not affected by the incident; he continued the surgery calmly, treating the drama as if it were a trivial joke during the operation. The young man¡¯s mental strength was truly admirable, Academician Wang couldn¡¯t help but praise. Academician Wang approached the screen to continue observing the surgery¡ªonly to find that the surgery had already ended. They were now preparing to restart the heart, and then it would be time for hemostasis. What did this mean? Wasn¡¯t there just the anastomosis of the aorta and the pulmonary artery? Their positions weren¡¯t correct and needed adjustment; that was already completed? That stage of the surgery was quite labor-intensive. Sitting down to watch the surgery, one wouldn¡¯t feel much, but stepping away for a moment, Academician Wang suddenly realized that Yang Ping¡¯s surgery was incredibly fast, unbelievably so. In just that short time, he had missed the most important step. Academician Wang asked Professor Chen, ¡°Is it finished?¡± Professor Chen nodded: ¡°It¡¯s finished!¡± Professor Wang couldn¡¯t help feeling a bit disappointed, but he could always watch the surgical video later at a slower pace, though it wouldn¡¯t compare to the live experience. They discontinued the extracorporeal circulation, the heart successfully restarted, and as per the usual steps, the final hemostasis was crucial, often taking a lot of time. After the restoration of blood flow, tiny bleeding spots appeared sporadically within the chest cavity, which were promptly eliminated by bipolar electrocoagulation. All anastomosed parts required no hemostasis, and even if there were some minor bleeding spots, they were due to abnormalities in coagulation function and could naturally stop bleeding after pressure for five minutes. Academician Wang had observed two of Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries, each one very clean, with the entire surgical field spotless, and almost no bleeding to be seen. ¡°Surface Ultrasound!¡± Yang Ping put down the instruments in his hands. This confidence radiating from him was something Academician Wang could hardly describe; it was like possessing a millennial cultivation, capable of dissolving any difficulty. In a typical heart surgery, intraoperative surface ultrasound is performed by a sonographer, while cardiac surgeons¡¯ knowledge of surface ultrasound is limited to the basics. But it¡¯s different in comprehensive surgery, where learning to perform and interpret surface ultrasounds is a mandatory part of the training. Song Zimo was preparing to remove his gloves and step down to conduct the surface ultrasound when Liang Fatty volunteered, ¡°Let me do it!¡± For Liang Fatty, surface ultrasound was a fundamental skill, and esophageal cardiac surface ultrasound was nothing to him; for any senior doctor in comprehensive surgery, including the young Li Guodong, it wasn¡¯t a problem. An anesthesiologist who can perform surface ultrasound? Academician Wang was surprised once again. Coming to Sanbo Hospital, he was constantly in a state of amazement. Liang Fatty wheeled over the ultrasound machine, his movements were very adept, and he quickly inserted the probe into the esophagus, reaching behind the heart. The ultrasound screen showed the heart beating, with the circulating red and blue blood. ¡°Interatrial septum, interventricular septum intact, no insufficiency observed in the mitral valve and tricuspid valve, no stenosis in the aorta and the pulmonary artery¡ª¡± Liang Fatty proficiently dictated his report. Academician Wang walked up beside Fatty, looking alternately at the surface ultrasound and at Liang Fatty, marveling at how adeptly the anesthesiologist performed the ultrasound. ¡°Do you anesthesiologists also train in surface ultrasound?¡± Driven by curiosity, Academician Wang couldn¡¯t resist asking. ¡°It¡¯s one of our basic subjects that we must master,¡± Liang Fatty explained while continuing the examination. Xia Shu felt immense pressure on the side. Did this mean she had to start from scratch to learn how to perform cardiac surface ultrasound? One had to not only perform but also interpret the ultrasound. In the past, these tasks were handled by sonographers, and many surgeries required the support of skilled ultrasound technicians on hand. Before surgery, esophageal surface ultrasound was used for diagnosis; after surgery, it was used to assess the effect of the procedure, and only after the assessment was deemed satisfactory did the chief surgeon dare to close the chest. Liang Fatty examined all the necessary parts thoroughly, with Yang Ping also standing beside him, carefully interpreting each ultrasound image himself. ¡°Excellent, that¡¯s a wrap!¡± Once Yang Ping confirmed the surface ultrasound was fine, Liang Fatty concluded his examination and removed the ultrasound probe. Professor Yang himself could read esophageal surface ultrasounds? Academician Wang found it hard to believe, as even as a representative of the older generation, he only had a rudimentary knowledge of surface ultrasound, far from the expertise of a specialist. The fact that such an important surgery did not require the assistance of a sonographer, and instead the surgeon completed the entire process himself, indicated that Professor Yang¡¯s level of expertise in surface ultrasound was extremely high. Next was closing the chest. ¡ª Outside the operating room, Yao Xiurong was pacing like an ant on a hot pan, ¡°Five or six hours, how come they haven¡¯t come out yet?¡± Chapter 952 - 952 814 High Mountain Flowing Waters_3 ?Chapter 952: Chapter 814 High Mountain Flowing Waters_3 Chapter 952: Chapter 814 High Mountain Flowing Waters_3 ¡°Just sit down. It¡¯s not unusual for this kind of surgery to last over twenty hours. What¡¯s five or six hours? Let¡¯s sit down and wait properly, okay?¡± Old Song had no other choice but to persuade his wife kindly. ¡°Over twenty hours? Won¡¯t Little Treasure starve?¡± Yao Xiurong was very worried. Old Song was at his wits¡¯ end: ¡°My dear wife, please, sit down. They will administer IV fluids during the surgery; he won¡¯t starve to death, rest assured, okay!¡± ¡°Old Song, are you sure nothing will happen to the child? There have never been cases where the heart didn¡¯t start beating again after cardiac arrest?¡± Yao Xiurong asked. Old Song certainly couldn¡¯t have a normal discussion with her and simply said, ¡°No, the records show a hundred percent success rate in reviving the heart. There has never been a case where it didn¡¯t restart after stopping during surgery.¡± Yao Xiurong covered her chest with her hand: ¡°Then I¡¯m relieved. You¡¯ve been talking for so long, how can Little Treasure hold on, my poor son!¡± At that moment, Yao Xiurong¡¯s tears began to flow. Old Song passed her a tissue: ¡°Sit down and rest properly. Stop fretting.¡± ¡°Are you saying I¡¯m fretting?¡± Yao Xiurong said angrily, a murderous aura rising. Old Song immediately changed his tune: ¡°I meant I¡¯m the one fretting. Don¡¯t misunderstand; I¡¯m talking about myself.¡± Finally, the doors opened and Song Hanhui was wheeled out. Yao Xiurong rushed forward like an arrow released from a bow: ¡°Little Treasure, how is he?¡± Old Song saw his wife take out a piece of chocolate from nowhere, holding it in her hand. He broke into a cold sweat and hurried over: ¡°He can¡¯t eat anything right now.¡± With tears streaming, Yao Xiurong said, ¡°I know, I¡¯ll give it to him when he¡¯s able to eat.¡± ¡°The patient can only eat six hours after the surgery. Remember not to feed him early on your own,¡± the anesthesiologist Liang Fatty emphasized loudly. Song Zimo said, ¡°First send him to the CCU; we¡¯ll observe him for a few days before deciding.¡± In the CCU, patients and family members are separated; even timely visits are only possible through a glass wall. ¡ª Academician Wang, Professor Chen, Professor Xin, and Li Zehui took a break in the changing room. Robert and August also rested in the changing room. They had just observed the surgery in the teaching room with the students, and even though they weren¡¯t specialists in cardiac surgery, they took the opportunity to learn as well. Li Zehui asked, ¡°What¡¯s the piece of music that was played during Professor Yang¡¯s surgery? It sounded pretty good. I¡¯ve noticed he plays this piece every time he operates.¡± Professor Xin thought for a moment and said, ¡°That is the famous Chinese classical piece ¡ª ¡®High Mountain Flowing Waters,¡¯ played on our national instrument, the guzheng.¡± High Mountain Flowing Waters, Li Zehui hadn¡¯t heard of this piece before. He continued to ask, ¡°Does this music have any deeper meaning? I find it to be very elegant, calming people¡¯s emotions, and making one feel peaceful.¡± Robert said leisurely, ¡°The essence of this music is ¡ª the music is sublime, but true connoisseurs are rare.¡± The music is sublime, but true connoisseurs are rare? Li Zehui pondered this phrase, seemingly still not understanding its meaning. Thinking to himself, Robert thought his face must be wasted, so he explained, ¡°The meaning of this piece is ¡ª I¡¯m just too profound, so there¡¯s nobody who can really understand me ¡ª¡± ¡°Why does he like this piece then? From what you¡¯re saying, the undertone of the piece should be melancholic,¡± August also didn¡¯t understand. Robert sighed softly: ¡°Professor Yang feels ¡®Lonely at the top, undefeated in his solitude¡¯!¡± At this, Academician Wang, Professor Xin, and Professor Chen all turned to look at Robert at the same time. PS: I will try to update by eleven o¡¯clock every night, thank you all! Chapter 953 - 953 815 His Hobby is Surgery ?Chapter 953: Chapter 815 His Hobby is Surgery Chapter 953: Chapter 815 His Hobby is Surgery The professors had a hard time believing that the words they had just heard came from a foreigner. ¡°What is this doctor¡¯s name?¡± Academician Wang, equally curious, seized Robert and asked. ¡°You can call me Xiao Luo!¡± Knowing that Academician Wang was a guest of Professor Yang and considering his senior age and prestigious title, Robert responded with utmost respect and politeness. ¡°Dr. Luo, how long have you been in China?¡± Academician Wang felt that this foreigner¡¯s Chinese was exceptionally proficient, achieving a certain level of mastery. Phrases like ¡°the higher-ups are cold and alone¡± or ¡°seeking defeat in solitude¡± are not commonly used even by Chinese people. Robert replied honestly, ¡°Only a few months.¡± A few months and speaking Chinese this well? Academician Wang could hardly believe it: ¡°Which hospital did you come from?¡± ¡°The New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States,¡± Robert answered. Academician Wang wasn¡¯t an orthopedic doctor, but he was well-aware of the hospital¡¯s reputation¡ªit was revered by orthopedists worldwide and ranked number one. ¡°Why are you here?¡± Academician Wang inquired. Without hiding anything, Robert stated: ¡°I¡¯m here for advanced studies at the Sanbo Institute of Sports Medicine; Professor Yang is my mentor.¡± Academician Wang was speechless. In cardiac surgery, Yang Ping was Li Zehui¡¯s mentor, and in sports medicine, he was this American doctor¡¯s mentor. And this was a doctor from New York Special Surgery Hospital, looking at his age, probably an expert, a world-class expert at that. Professor Yang was so outstanding that he bridged multiple disciplines and could even act as someone else¡¯s mentor. ¡°Your Chinese is really top-notch,¡± Academician Wang praised. ¡°Elder Wang is overpraising me. Chinese is actually quite easy to learn. Master a few thousand characters, familiarize yourself with some phrases, and the rest is just reading like mad. It¡¯s a bit more difficult than English in the beginning but gets easier as you progress. A few thousand characters allow you to read anything under the sky,¡± Robert said frankly. ¡°Why don¡¯t you come visit our capital, Beijing, sometime?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been there a few times before. I¡¯m very familiar with the Jishuitan and Beijing¡¯s Third Hospital, and I¡¯ve been invited to lecture on several occasions.¡± ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have any difficulties communicating in Chinese in daily life, right?¡± ¡°Look at what you¡¯re saying, I write several medical records a day, and so far, the medical records office hasn¡¯t had any trouble with me.¡± ¡°Impressive!¡± Academician Wang wanted to chat more with this interesting foreigner, but at that moment, a voice came from outside the door: ¡°Old Luo, Old August, where are you hiding? The 200-pound patient is waiting for a bed transfer.¡± ¡°Coming, coming, I just finished changing my clothes.¡± Robert immediately stood up: ¡°Old August, hurry up, bed transfer!¡± ¡°Goodbye, we¡¯ll talk next time. We¡¯ve got work to do.¡± Robert waved goodbye to Academician Wang. What was going on? Such big-name experts were being bossed around like standardized training students, Robert and August tightened their belts and immediately sprinted out. The professors looked at one another again, bewildered by the place where seemingly nothing made conventional sense, as though they had walked onto the wrong set. ¡°Wait for me!¡± Li Zehui quickly followed. ¡ª Song Hanhui was admitted to the CCU, and family members were not allowed direct contact with patients there. Even visitations could only be done by looking through a glass wall from afar. But Yao Xiurong could not contain her anxiety, repeatedly ringing the CCU¡¯s doorbell, begging each time she saw the duty doctor to let her in to see her son. After being refused by the doctors, she wouldn¡¯t wait long before pressing the doorbell again, presenting the same request repeatedly. The CCU doctors were extremely busy and didn¡¯t have time to indulge her, nor would they allow her to enter the CCU to visit the patient. Some principles cannot be compromised. To maintain the normal operating order of the CCU, whenever the doorbell rang, the nurse on duty would check the entrance camera, and upon seeing Yao Xiurong, the nurse would not hesitate to disconnect the bell, preventing it from ringing again. After a dozen attempts, Yao Xiurong eventually gave up the idea of going into the CCU. Because she couldn¡¯t reach the doctors or nurses, Yao Xiurong had no choice but to vent her frustration on Old Song, who was good-natured and didn¡¯t take her anger to heart, simply humming to himself. Yang Ping usually made personal visits to check on his patients in the CCU, coming once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Yao Xiurong, who had been waiting at the CCU entrance, rushed to Yang Ping the moment she saw him and grabbed his hand, hoping he would take her inside. Yang Ping calmly said, ¡°I can take you inside, but first, you must write a declaration and sign your fingerprint on it. The declaration must clearly state that because Song Hanhui¡¯s surgery has been very successful, you are not satisfied and insist on entering the CCU to disrupt the treatment, aiming to lower the treatment¡¯s effectiveness.¡± Yao Xiurong stared at Yang Ping, who looked utterly serious: ¡°Write just like that, sign, and leave your fingerprint. I¡¯ll hand it over to the chief doctor to be included in the medical records, and then I¡¯ll immediately take you inside. It¡¯s rare to see family members unsatisfied because the surgery went too well, unlike your case, where they are typically discontent with bad outcomes.¡± Seeing Yang Ping¡¯s solemn demeanor, nothing like jest, Yao Xiurong forced out an awkward smile. After glancing a few times, she dropped the subject, quickly dragged Old Song away, while he struggled to keep his laughter inside. Yang Ping disliked those who were unhelpful, especially when they did so under the guise of morality. Take Yao Xiurong, for instance. No one doubted she was genuinely anxious and cared deeply for her son, and her motives were certainly pure, but her actions resulted in extremely negative consequences. Chapter 954 - 954 815 His Hobby Is Surgery_2 ?Chapter 954: Chapter 815 His Hobby Is Surgery_2 Chapter 954: Chapter 815 His Hobby Is Surgery_2 ¡ª Academician Wang, Professor Xin, and Professor Chen had a very fruitful trip, as they not only resolved the surgeries for two of the most challenging patients but also witnessed the most top-tier surgeries. Finally, they even left a student to work here, achieving three objectives in one stroke. Xia Shu stayed to work in General Surgery, more precisely at the Cardiovascular Surgery Research Institute. He decided to start from scratch and step by step follow Yang Ping to learn new things. August was returning to Germany, and Robert was also heading back to the United States. They did not wish to go back so soon; they really wanted to stay by Yang Ping¡¯s side to learn for at least a year, but they were not students¡ªthey were already renowned experts with many matters awaiting their attention. The patients who had appointments for surgery with Robert were lined up for a full year and a half, whereas August had to rush back to prepare for the European Spine Academic Conference. Before the conference, August must complete a certain number of cases using the new techniques he learned; he planned to showcase the new technology at the conference, telling those Brits who the real king of Europe was. Before leaving, Robert and August found it hard to part with their fellow brothers in General Surgery. They hugged, wept together, and wouldn¡¯t go home unless they were drunk. They would miss the days here, pushing patients, writing medical records, and changing dressings. Without Robert and August, the doctors and nurses found it hard to adjust. There was a time when the two of them could handle patients of any weight for bed turnover, making it look so easy and carefree, as if it were a gentle breeze or drifting clouds. Whether it was 200 jin or 250 jin, to them, it was just a piece of cake. After their departure, the bed turnover task that once required just the two of them now needed a full four doctors to barely manage, making doctors and nurses inevitably miss the hardworking Brother Luo and Brother August¡ªif the two brothers had been there, they would never have let everyone suffer like this. Before Robert¡¯s departure, Director Gao also joined in the drinking, chatting away with his foreign brother. Naturally, when they were half-drunk, they would chat about women. Director Gao mentioned off-handedly that he found American girls, with their voluptuous, unrestrained appearance and entire bodies exuding a sporty vibe, quite pleasing as well. That brother was really loyal. Before he left, he sent Director Gao a very earnest WeChat message, telling him graphically that next time he went to the United States, he would definitely let Director Gao have a taste. As a result, Director Gao had to sleep on the couch for a month straight and still show up to work each day with panda eyes. After completing Song Hanhui¡¯s surgery, Yang Ping began to summarize the surgeries of this period, especially the heart surgeries, considering how to improve and simplify them. This was Yang Ping¡¯s consistent principle: To accomplish complex and dangerous tasks with simple and safe methods, which is beneficial for widespread adoption. A surgical technique can only save more lives if it becomes commonplace. Cleverly simplifying any technology is a herculean task. The simplicity of operating a Windows system is backed by the hard work of numerous programmers. A vast amount of back-end code is traded for front-end simplicity. In addition to surgeries, Yang Ping needed to continue his research projects. He needed to focus on the project of cloning organs, so he delegated some smaller projects to those around him to do, which reduced his pressure and made full use of resources. For example, the project of using 3D printing to treat osteoarthritis and cartilage injuries with transparent cartilage was assigned to Su Nanchen and Robert to complete. And the application of epiphyseal blockade technology in spinal scoliosis treatment was led by Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and August. Of course, these so-called smaller projects are only considered small compared to Yang Ping. For others, conquering even one in their lifetime is quite remarkable and would allow them to reach the pinnacle of medicine. Yang Ping¡¯s schedule was very packed. He had to go to Liquan Hospital for surgeries every week, but now Su Nanchen had mastered many new techniques, and for surgeries that were not particularly special, Yang Ping did not need to be on stage himself. Through the grooming at Liquan Hospital, Su Nanchen had been fed into the world¡¯s top-tier expert in Sports Medicine. For Su Nanchen, Yang Ping provided guidance generously, transferring nearly all of his knowledge related to Sports Medicine and the corresponding surgeries. With the development of Liquan Hospital leading to a large volume of surgeries, most of these were taught by Yang Ping and performed by Su Nanchen as the chief surgeon. Therefore, in the field of Sports Medicine, Su Nanchen had quietly risen to become a world-class expert, with a level that even surpassed Robert¡¯s. Yang Ping also had to go to Xiehe to lead his team once a month. Under Yang Ping¡¯s tireless mentorship, Song Yun had rapidly progressed, becoming an outstanding Spinal Surgeon. His surgical skill was much higher than that of the lead professors at Xiehe, and his expertise in spinal scoliosis surgery was improving by leaps and bounds. If including his experiences from the System Space, Yang Ping had more experience than any other doctor in the world and spent more time in surgery than any other doctor. All of his surgeries were tempered through rigorous challenges. Therefore, for Yang Ping, innovation was now his pursuit. ¡ª United States, inside a certain skyscraper. Li Gaoyang sat in his office, reviewing the unfavorable news Professor Liao had brought him from his visit to Nandu Medical University and Sanbo Hospital ¡ª Yang Ping had flatly and thoroughly refused to cooperate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology laboratory. This took Li Gaoyang by surprise. The MIT¡¯s Stem Cell Laboratory was an enormous temptation for anyone involved in stem cell research, an irresistible allure. Yet, Yang Ping remained unmoved. But then again, he was someone who could publish 13 CNS papers within three months, a world-class scientist. Arrogance was the norm for him; in his eyes, he was the best, and everyone else, including MIT, was second-rate. However, for Li Gaoyang, the more such talent there was, the more interested he became. If this roundabout approach to cooperation didn¡¯t work, then he would just get straight to the point and discuss terms. As far as Li Gaoyang was concerned, there were too many tactics at his disposal to even count. ¡°Is this his detailed information, including hobbies, more detailed than the last one?¡± Li Gaoyang Asked the silver-haired middle-aged man sitting opposite him. The man had silver hair but was not old, probably only in his mid-forties. Li Gaoyang flipped through the information at hand: ¡°Doesn¡¯t he have a favorite actress? American, European, South Korean, Japanese, Chinese, any kind would do. Isn¡¯t that impossible? As a man, he must have some actresses he fancies, right?¡± ¡°You should take a closer look at those pages about his big data. All his searches and browses are medical or medically related. Not once did he search for or browse female celebrities. We can¡¯t even find his preferences for women in the big data. As an intelligence expert, I¡¯ve never encountered such a person.¡± The silver-haired man was rather helpless. Li Gaoyang frowned: ¡°Could there be a problem with his orientation?¡± The silver-haired man shook his head: ¡°No, absolutely not. All intelligence indicates his orientation is very normal. He has a very beautiful and sexy wife, who is also pregnant.¡± ¡°What puzzles me is that he seems to rarely use his phone or computer for searches and browsing. He has never entered the major medical paper libraries to search. It¡¯s hard to believe that as a top scientist, he doesn¡¯t use the internet for research. How does he write his papers? Just by reading printed journals and remembering them in his head? Impossible. I even suspect that the intelligence we got is false.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t he have any other hobbies?¡± ¡°Of course he does¡ªpainting!¡± ¡°That¡¯s good. Does he like any famous works?¡± ¡°No, he likes medical painting, all his paintings are of human anatomy.¡± ¡°He¡¯s married, and his wife is very beautiful, from a medical family.¡± ¡°That makes things easier. We can invite his wife and child here for childbirth, and then naturally, they could obtain U.S. citizenship.¡± ¡°According to our intelligence, he has no interest in that. Apart from China, he doesn¡¯t want to go to any country, and he has no interest in the United States. The intelligence shows that he thinks American food tastes like dirt.¡± Li Gaoyang furrowed his brow: ¡°Doesn¡¯t he have any special hobbies?¡± ¡°Surgery is his hobby. Besides surgery, it¡¯s still surgery.¡± Chapter 955 - 955 816 A Complete Muscle ?Chapter 955: Chapter 816: A Complete Muscle Chapter 955: Chapter 816: A Complete Muscle ¡°Rolf, I think it would be best if you approached him directly to talk.¡± Even the silver-haired Rolf felt helpless, and with a hooked nose, Li Gaoyang realized this was a tough problem; the conventional approaches were no longer sufficient. ¡°I¡¯m only in charge of intelligence work, negotiations should be the responsibility of the Public Relations department. Your assignment has already exceeded my job scope, and I have the right to refuse it.¡± The silver-haired man was reluctant to tackle this hard nut to crack and half-jokingly refused. Li Gaoyang shook his head, ¡°No, you¡¯ll go together. You need to take responsibility for your intelligence. Aren¡¯t you the one who doubted the accuracy of the intelligence? This is the perfect opportunity to gain a deeper understanding face-to-face and use your professional perspective to determine how to find an opening. We must acquire this Chinese doctor; he is the second true genius following Manstein.¡± ¡°My intuition tells me he¡¯ll be even more difficult to deal with than Manstein.¡± The silver-haired man looked troubled. ¡°But we need him, no matter the cost. This is a resolution passed by the board of directors, not a private decision of mine. To publish 13 CNS papers within three months, each piece a groundbreaking work, it¡¯s been a long time since such a genius has emerged. In fact, ever since the first paper, we¡¯ve been paying attention, thinking it would require a long-term observation. However, we didn¡¯t expect him to demonstrate such extraordinary abilities in such a short time. According to our rules, the level of attention we pay to him must be elevated. Publishing nine papers at once, totaling thirteen, has compelled us to activate our highest priority watch and submit it directly to the board for discussion and resolution,¡± said Li Gaoyang very seriously. The silver-haired man understood that once a talent reached the board¡¯s highest priority designation, they must be recruited at all costs. ¡°I¡¯ll discuss with Santo from the Public Relations department and make a trip to China together. We need to plan carefully how to meet him. Give us some time for this,¡± he said. The silver-haired Rolf could no longer make excuses. Usually, he collected intelligence behind the scenes and had no interest in stepping into the limelight. But this Chinese doctor was different. The collected intelligence was very peculiar, so Rolf decided to meet him personally to see what was really going on. ¡ª Yang Ping continued experimenting in the System Space, hoping for a breakthrough. The changes to the rules of the System Space were not necessarily bad for Yang Ping. In the past, time in the System Space would stop once he exited, and only resume once he re-entered. Now, even when leaving the System Space, experiments within it could still progress normally. This meant that even while Yang Ping worked in the real world, his experiments in the System Space could continue according to his planned Experimental Plan. The sufficient points brought by 13 papers allowed Yang to add much Experimental Equipment to his System Space Laboratory, which was bustling with activity at this time. Countless instruments and devices were operating, Robotic Arms under the Host¡¯s control tirelessly busied themselves, and the System Panel served as a giant computer monitoring every step of the experiments. To speed up laboratory progress, Yang Ping had activated several hundred Cultivators, with cells inside each Cultivator dividing at every moment. Whenever Yang Ping had the time, he would enter the System Laboratory to check on the experiment¡¯s progress and analyze the data to determine if the Experimental Plan needed adjustments. He stared at the massive System Panel, switching between various screens, hoping to find something surprising. Suddenly, one of the screens began to flash with a faint green light, signaling an alert from the System Host. Seconds later, the System automatically captured the screen and zoomed in. The green light indicated that one Cultivator had achieved some Experimental Goal. Yang Ping immediately expanded the image to fill the entire panel. Upon a close look, it was a complete piece of Muscle with a three-dimensional form. Seeing this piece of Muscle, Yang Ping¡¯s excitement began to mount. Out of the several hundred Cultivation Periods, all the other Cultivators had shown scattered Cell Colonies, only this one had taken the form of Muscle. Could it be that the effort to Cultivate Muscle had succeeded? Yang Ping commanded the Host to zoom in on the Muscle, continuously magnifying it until even the Muscle Fibers and the Blood Vessels and Nerves between them were visible. During the magnification process, Yang Ping finally saw the structure of this Muscle clearly. Muscle Fibers were interwoven, with Blood Vessels and Nerves interspersed among them, every detail identical to the Digital Muscle constructed by Professor He. The microscopic dissection of the Digital Muscle came from a real dissection. This meant that this Muscle piece was not just a chaotic pile of Muscle Fibers but a genuine Muscle formed through orderly organization. These cells were no longer a disorderly collection of individuals but were arranged according to an intrinsic set of rules to form a three-dimensional spatial structure, already possessing the ability for self-organization. Had the Spatial Orientation Gene fragment begun to take effect? Otherwise, none of this could be explained. After much effort, utilizing ordinary Stem Cells, Teratoma Cells, and Tumor Cells as models for massive comparisons of gene fragments, a large number of potential gene fragments were identified and then various means employed to activate these fragments. After numerous adjustments to the Nutrient Solution and establishing hundreds of Cultivation Periods to simultaneously Cultivate Stem Cells, a glimmer of hope finally appeared. If this were the case, the Spatial Orientation Gene not only existed but was functioning precisely as Yang Ping hypothesized, guiding the cells to construct a three-dimensional space according to the pre-designed ¡°blueprint.¡± This was the real secret of Organ Cultivation. Chapter 956 - 956 816 A Complete Muscle_2 ?Chapter 956: 816 Chapter A Complete Muscle_2 Chapter 956: 816 Chapter A Complete Muscle_2 The cultivation of an individual organ from cells in an artificial container ex vitro marked a first for humanity, bearing epoch-making significance. Yang Ping suppressed his excitement and memorized the cultivation period number displayed on the screen. He hurried to the cultivator, put on his gloves, gently opened the transparent cover, and carefully took out a single piece of complete muscle, moist with nutrient solution. He cradled the muscle in his hand and carefully observed it. This was a piece of muscle obtained. Yang Ping had conducted a simple experiment such as electrical stimulation; under the stimulation, it could contract normally. Just like human muscles that cannot endure ischemia, this muscle could not be away from the nutrient solution for too long. Here, the nutrient solution acted like human blood, providing the muscle with sufficient oxygen and nutrients. If it were separated from the nutrient solution for too long, the muscle would necrotize due to ¡°lack of blood and oxygen.¡± Therefore, Yang Ping carefully returned it to the nutrient solution. He then duplicated the conditions of this cultivator into thirty cultivators to observe if the experiment could be replicated. The experiment was not only repeatable but also half of these thirty cultivators successfully grew muscle, while the other half failed, indicating that methods based on partial activations could not guarantee one hundred percent success, and carried a certain probability of failure. Morning had come, and Yang Ping left the system laboratory. According to the system¡¯s new rules, staying in the system space for a while could provide a rest more effective than actual sleep. Yang Ping looked at the ceiling, his heart surging uncontrollably with excitement. ¡°Honey, what¡¯s wrong?¡± Xiao Su looked at Yang Ping, whose eyes were sparkling, staring at the ceiling, and asked. Yang Ping tried to manage his emotions, ¡°It¡¯s nothing, just too excited.¡± ¡°You¡ªyou¡ªyou weren¡¯t dreaming, right?¡± ¡°I indeed had a dream just now!¡± ¡°Do you need help?¡± ¡°If you could help, please do.¡± ¡ª After finishing the surgeries in the morning, Yang Ping left the remaining surgeries for Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang to complete. At noon, Yang Ping rested for a while in his office, planning to use the valuable lunch break to further progress with his experiments. Since the system¡¯s rules had been changed, whatever he did in the system space technically gave his physical body a high-quality rest. This time, he intended to bring some crucial data from the system space laboratory out. After checking the data in the system laboratory, he memorized all the data in his mind, returned to the real world, and immediately recorded the memorized information on A4 paper, filling dozens of pages. Yang Ping had to hurry to replicate the experiment in reality to accelerate the progress of the project. After recording all the critical information, Yang Ping meticulously organized everything, then diagrammed the experimental plans. Once the diagrams were done, Yang Ping called Tang Shun, instructing him to come to the office with utmost speed. The laboratory director, who had just left the warmth of home shortly before, sprinted to Yang Ping¡¯s office after receiving the call. ¡°Professor?¡± Uncertain about why Yang Ping was so urgently summoning him, Tang Shun worried it might be about Fukunaga Yasuko; there were days, recently, when Tang Shun, to accompany Fukunaga Yasuko shopping, hadn¡¯t come to work. However, Tang Shun had taken leave in advance for this, and Yang Ping never bothered about such things. ¡°Professor? A few days ago¡ª¡± Tang Shun sat opposite Yang Ping, who continuously organized the documents in his hands without looking up, leaving Tang Shun no choice but to bring up the matter himself. Yang Ping hadn¡¯t listened to what Tang Shun had said. He tossed a stack of A4 paper to Tang Shun, ¡°Try according to this method. I have repeatedly verified and conducted rigorous logical reasoning. The spatial orientation gene definitely exists. If I am not mistaken, this segment is the spatial orientation gene segment that can govern the formation of muscle. This is the entire plan of the experiment. It also includes the formula of the nutrient solution, the methods to activate and deactivate the gene segments, and so forth. Take a close look and start the experiment as soon as possible.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s tone was definitive and left no room for doubt. Tang Shun took the thick stack of A4 paper. Professor Yang wasn¡¯t looking for him for this matter after all. I thought so, the Professor never cares about these matters. Why would he suddenly call him over to talk? Spatial orientation gene? Does it really exist? Is this the spatial orientation gene mentioned in Professor Yang¡¯s theory? In a daze, Tang Shun focused his attention and began to review the documents he had received. The further he read, the more excited Tang Shun became. His hands started trembling with excitement. The thick stack of A4 paper was covered on both sides with diagrams and densely filled with various annotations; the level of detail in the entire laboratory process was unbelievable. This did not seem like a plan for an experiment yet to be conducted, but rather a guide for an experiment that had already been conducted. Tang Shun stared at Yang Ping in astonishment. How could such a detailed experimental plan full of details be made solely based on logical reasoning? Could Professor Yang simulate the entire experiment in his brain? From ancient Greece to the present, many scholars have used this kind of ¡°brain experiment,¡± conducting thought experiments in the laboratory of their minds with rigorous logic. Because many experiments are impossible to conduct in reality, they can only be completed in the brain through logical reasoning. For example, the great scientist Einstein was adept at brain experiments, and while exploring the problem of gravity, Einstein conducted such experiments in his brain: Imagine you are in a sealed room and need to calculate the gravitational field inside. You might throw some objects around the room and then measure their speed to calculate gravity. But what if you are in an elevator moving upward or downward at high speed, or in a fast-moving rocket or airplane, doing the same speed measurements? How would you differentiate the effects of gravity and acceleration? The result is that there¡¯s no way to distinguish the differences in your environment. Therefore, Einstein concluded that gravity is a characteristic of spacetime itself¡ªits curvature, not a natural force. Does Professor Yang also excel at these brain experiments? However, the subjects of scientists¡¯ brain experiments are highly abstract topics. Yet the experiment detailed in the diagrams completely requires a vast amount of real equipment and instruments, many of which need trial and error, and are unsuitable for brain experiments. Could Professor Yang possess the most powerful brain experiment capabilities, allowing him to complete even such complex practice-oriented experiments using strict logic in his brain? How immense would such logical thinking ability need to be? Tang Shun dared not imagine. Every time Tang Shun received such A4 paper, he was never disappointed. Following the experimental methods described on the paper, he succeeded on the first attempt every time. This experiment plan is very detailed, and it looks promising this time as well. ¡°Get the experiment underway as soon as possible. Arrange the funding, equipment, and personnel yourself. The Research Fund has ample funds. Be mindful of keeping the data confidential and do not lose it carelessly. If there are no issues, you may go back,¡± commanded Yang Ping to Tang Shun. Carefully, Tang Shun tucked away the thick stack of A4 paper, his excitement indescribable. Without any delay, he returned to the laboratory and checked against the experimental plan to take stock of materials, calculate if the equipment, reagents, and various experimental instruments were sufficient, and then budget for the personnel and funds. Soon he listed an inventory and began filling out the funding application form online. The dedicated Research Fund was highly efficient; after applying online, the funds were quickly transferred to the registered account. In less than a week, Tang Shun initiated the experiment¡ªcultivating muscle from stem cells, aiming to cultivate a complete piece of muscle, not just muscle cells. If it were indeed possible to cultivate a piece of muscle, that would be of epoch-making significance. Tang Shun was extremely excited. He immersed himself in studying the experimental plan all day. Such detailed and precise experimental steps, the temperature, humidity, and pH of the cultivator, were clearly recorded, some data even precise to a decimal point. Why were they so precise? The configuration ratio of the nutrient solution. Why were the ratios of dozens of substances so precise? Could this also have been deduced? Tang Shun could not imagine that the brain¡¯s logical reasoning could construct such a complex thought experiment. If this experiment were to succeed on the first try¡ªthe whole field of biology and medicine would be propelled into a new era. Chapter 957 - 957 817 Big Brother Luos Clinic ?Chapter 957: Chapter 817: Big Brother Luo¡¯s Clinic Chapter 957: Chapter 817: Big Brother Luo¡¯s Clinic Tang Shun prepared to start 10 cultivators simultaneously. The experimental scale of these 10 cultivators would require about 100 million RMB in research funds, which was an astronomical figure for a medical project. However, Yang Ping felt that Tang Shun was too conservative¡ª10 cultivators would definitely not be enough, and more would inevitably need to be added later. Rather than making incremental additions, Yang Ping suggested that Tang Shun should start 100 cultivators at once. Given the current success rate, only a few dozen out of 100 cultivators would be successful. These successful ones would each require a specimen to be taken at every stage for tissue section observation, so the number of specimens used would also be substantial. But for 100 cultivators, the research funds needed would be 10 billion, and Professor Yang was confident in this. Since Professor Yang was so supportive, Tang Shun no longer penny-pinched. He immediately expanded the experimental scale to simultaneously start 100 cultivators. The current space of one floor in the stem cell laboratory was definitely not enough. To accommodate so many cultivators, the stem cell laboratory was expanded by an additional floor. Not to mention adding one floor, even adding an entire building, at Sanbo Hospital, was just a matter of one word from Yang Ping. As for the funding issue, it was not a problem at all. Yang Ping¡¯s dedicated research fund alone received donations of ten billion euros from the European Duke Fund, although this money was granted in installments, and several billion euros had already been received, not to mention that the Anning Group was also backing them. Even without these donations, with the current financial power of the Ruixing Group, coming up with the tens of billions was not an issue. Following Yang Ping¡¯s request, Tang Shun rolled out the entire experiment. Cell division occurred exponentially, and was very rapid. Soon, the stem cells in the cultivators began to show visible forms, very small, just the size of sesame seeds. Out of 100 cultivators, 39 successfully cultivated organs with distinct shapes, while the remaining 61 only grew scattered cell clusters. Tang Shun took one specimen from each successful sample every period for observation, and finally made tissue sections to examine under the microscope. Moreover, with the help of Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory¡¯s digital human technology, these specimens were compared and studied, making their structures very clear. It was confirmed that these were not clusters of loose cells but distinct organs with their own structure and shape. The sesame seeds slowly grew into mung beans, and the mung beans into peas; when the cultivated muscle reached the size of a pea, its muscular shape was visually identifiable. ¡°Doctor Tang, look, their shapes are full, and their surfaces are smooth, completely different from other cell clusters,¡± a researcher also noticed the difference. Excitedly staring at the muscle ¡°seedling¡± inside the transparent chamber, Tang Shun said, ¡°Even with the naked eye, you can tell this is not just a cluster of cells, but a piece of muscle, though it is still quite small, just beginning to sprout.¡± No matter how small, there is a big difference in appearance between a pile of bricks and a small house built from those bricks¡ª even the young researchers could identify it visually. When they heard Tang Shun say it was a piece of muscle, the researchers widened their eyes in disbelief. They couldn¡¯t believe that their laboratory could actually cultivate a piece of muscle, cultivating a separate organ ex-vivo, a concept that many of the world¡¯s top laboratories currently dared not even imagine. At most, they resorted to modifying genes and cultivating organs in animals for human transplants. For instance, cultivating genetically modified hearts in pigs, and then transplanting these hearts into humans. Several such surgeries had already been performed in the United States. Unfortunately, this method was not yet mature¡ªafter a heart transplant, the longest survival time recorded for patients was only a few months. Tang Shun carefully took out a formed muscle ¡°embryo¡± with tweezers, made it into a section, and placed it under a microscope for detailed observation. The structure was becoming clearer and clearer¡ªit really wasn¡¯t just a bunch of cells but muscle fashioned by cells, although small, it had the same structure as normal muscle, and incredibly, it even cultivated blood vessels and nerves weaving through it. Upon examination, this method of cultivating muscle alone resembled the structure of muscle in an embryo. Because this muscle relied on nutrient solution to provide oxygen and nutrients, its vascular system was not yet infused with blood, existing in a non-filled state. As a result, the vessels were not in their ideal tubular form but rather a flat potential cavity structure, confirming a physiological principle that structure adapts to function, and function, in turn, affects structure. After all, this was ex-vivo cultivation; all the oxygen and nutrients came from the nutrient solution. Later, once the muscle grew to a certain form, it would require a dedicated artificial heart-lung machine to help the muscle establish an artificial circulation system. This artificial circulation system would reserve various calibers of artery and vein interfaces, connecting by artificial conduits to the muscle¡¯s arteries and veins, forming an artificial circulation. Under the influence of artificial circulation, the flat vessels would gain filling tension and, after some time, gradually restore to their tubular structures, and the walls of the vessels would tend towards normal thickness and elasticity. Professor Yang¡¯s laboratory plans also addressed this point and provided specific guidelines. Professor Yang¡¯s experimental plan even predicted all the issues related to the experiment and provided solutions, which required a tremendously strong and rigorous logical thinking ability. Theoretically, the capability was beyond human brain¡¯s reach, but he had achieved it. Chapter 958 - 958 817 Big Brother Luos Clinic_2 ?Chapter 958: Chapter 817: Big Brother Luo¡¯s Clinic_2 Chapter 958: Chapter 817: Big Brother Luo¡¯s Clinic_2 Tang Shun was astounded. According to these calculations, the experimental equipment for cultivating muscle should not be the current devices, but instead a specially designed set of equipment should be developed to meet the needs of the experiment. As Tang Shun was contemplating this, Yang Ping called him to the office and handed him another piece of A4 paper. ¡°This is the blueprint of the experimental machine. Since this is our first experiment, we can only rely on existing machinery. For the next experiment, we¡¯ll need to use these specialized machines. Here¡¯s the complete set of blueprints, take a look, and then contact Ruixing Company, handing them over to their engineers for development and design.¡± With the blueprints in his hands, Tang Shun felt a profound gratitude, aware that he wasn¡¯t just holding a stack of paper, but priceless black technology. Following Professor Yang, it would take only a few years for him to become the world¡¯s top stem cell scientist, surpassing even his own mentor. ¡°Professor, is there anything else?¡± Tang Shun¡¯s trembling hands slid the A4 paper into his briefcase. After thinking for a moment, Yang Ping said, ¡°I want to start a medical journal. Let¡¯s all think of a name together; our target is a world-class journal, so the name must be world-class too. I plan to publish our final experimental results in our own journal.¡± To start his own journal? And a world-class one at that? Any groundbreaking endeavor seems as simple as playing a game for Professor Yang. Do you know how difficult it is to start a world-class medical journal? And to start one in Chinese, seeking recognition from scholars worldwide, is as hard as reaching for the sky. Up until now, it seems our country still doesn¡¯t have a journal that truly qualifies as world-class. ¡°Go on, you¡¯ve been working hard recently. The experiment was large in scale, and you must think of a name for the journal when you have a moment. Remember, this will be a world-class journal.¡± The professor always spoke with such confidence, leaving no room for doubt. Whatever he intended to do, he was sure to achieve. ¡ª Robert returned to the United States, and it took him several days to adjust. Seeing his clinic walls adorned with pennants gave him great satisfaction; this was exactly the effect he had wanted. However, the characters on all the pennants were the same, even down to the signatures of those who had presented them. Looking at the dozens of identical pennants, Robert furrowed his brow: ¡°Barrett, are all the pennants like this?¡± Exuberantly, Barrett reported his achievements: ¡°Yes, sir, I arranged for them to be made according to the template you provided. If I¡¯m not mistaken, these are now all over Chinatown, and many nearby clinics have voluntarily followed our lead. After all, our clinic is first-rate in America, so our clinic¡¯s layout and de?cor style have become benchmarks in the industry. Now, they have also started hanging pennants, and they¡¯re all the same, all this kind. Only these pennants are genuine.¡± Robert touched his red nose and felt he had been hasty; he had sent the template to Barrett and instructed him to follow it without altering any of the text, nor had he given any follow-up instructions to Barrett, so it wasn¡¯t Barrett¡¯s fault¡ªit was his own oversight due to being busy with work in China. Changing it now would certainly be too late, not to mention these kinds of pennants had already become a popular element. What¡¯s done is done. Better to leave it be. ¡°Barrett, you¡¯ve done well,¡± Robert praised his clever assistant. Feeling affirmed by Robert¡¯s praise, Barrett felt all his hard work over the period was worth it. He had made many trips to Chinatown to find a shop that could make these pennants. Eventually, he found a small advertising company willing to take the order. The owner asked if they were sure that all the pennants would be the same, even pointing out the small print. Barrett replied with feigned expertise¡ªof course, they were to be unchanged, not a word altered. The asking price was 500 US dollars per pennant, claiming that the materials had to be imported from China, so the price couldn¡¯t be too low. Barrett managed to haggle the price down to 400 US dollars each, saving the clinic a substantial amount of money. Now that the boss had finally returned, several sports stars¡¯ agents had contacted the clinic, hoping to schedule surgeries. There were NBA stars, boxers, Canadian skiers... the list went on. The boss had been staying in China and Barrett was freaking out, but now that the boss was back, every problem was getting solved. Barrett brought a cup of coffee for Robert, but Robert waved his hand and took out a tin of West Lake Longjing from the drawer, saying mysteriously, ¡°From now on, we¡¯re drinking this. Come, I¡¯ll teach you how to brew tea.¡± Robert taught Barrett hands-on how to brew tea, and then lectured him on the culture of tea. ¡°Also, sir, enthusiasm for learning Chinese is very high throughout the clinic. The task of promoting Chinese has been accomplished very well. Wherever there¡¯s text needed¡ªon our work clothes, scrub suits, nurse uniforms¡ªwe¡¯ve adopted bilingual English-Chinese. Especially our work clothes, we¡¯ve already switched to embroidered Chinese characters¡ª¡¯Big Brother Robert Clinic¡¯. Just as you instructed, I¡¯ve applied for a trademark registration for ¡®Big Brother Robert Clinic¡¯ and it¡¯s been approved,¡± Barrett reported on recent work progress. Robert gave a thumbs up: ¡°Very nice!¡± Barrett grew more and more excited: ¡°Do we need to replace our sign?¡± Without hesitation, Robert replied, ¡°Of course. Write ¡®Big Brother Robert Clinic¡¯ in Chinese on top and the original name in English below.¡± ¡°Got it. I¡¯ll go find someone in Chinatown to make the sign. I¡¯m all in for our clinic. I¡¯m now a regular there. There¡¯s an acupuncturist who purportedly can write calligraphy very well. I¡¯ve saved his number.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ll do the writing myself.¡± ¡°Boss, can you write with a brush?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll give it a try. I¡¯ve seen others write in China; it shouldn¡¯t be difficult. I wanted to learn, but there wasn¡¯t enough time.¡± ¡°Boss, will our patients recognize the Chinese characters on the sign? Won¡¯t it affect their recognition of our clinic?¡± ¡°If they can¡¯t even recognize these few Chinese characters, then they don¡¯t need to come see me, Robert, for treatment.¡± ¡°Boss¡ª¡± ¡°From now on, don¡¯t call me boss, and don¡¯t call me ¡®Mr. Robert¡¯. Tell everyone to call me ¡®Big Brother Robert¡¯, got it? ¡®Big Brother Robert¡¯!¡± ¡°Okay, Big Brother Robert!¡± ¡°Brother Barrett, you¡¯re a clever guy. I¡¯m very satisfied with the work you¡¯ve done while I was away.¡± ¡°Sir¡ªno, Big Brother Robert, I will keep up the hard work.¡± ¡°Barrett! Don¡¯t you think I¡¯m a genius? ¡®Big Brother Robert Clinic¡¯ isn¡¯t a name just anyone could come up with. It¡¯s the limit in the United States for clinic naming. If anyone tries to infringe on it, I¡¯ll never let it go.¡± ¡°You see, Big Brother Robert, this is the recent statistics on studying Chinese. They¡¯re waiting for you to come back to test them and then distribute bonuses according to the number of characters. This is Thor, the jerk; he¡¯s actually mastered over a thousand Chinese characters in a short time. According to your reward rules, he¡¯s due a hundred thousand US dollars, enough to change cars. And Jenny, she¡¯s also mastered nine hundred characters, and that was last month¡¯s figure.¡± Barrett was genuinely worried about the boss¡¯s money. Robert didn¡¯t care about the money at all: ¡°Set a time for an official test. Distribute bonuses according to the number of characters on the test paper, one hundred US dollars each, not a penny less.¡± ¡°Burlington from TIRR Hermann Memorial Hospital is threatening to overthrow you this time, claiming that you¡¯re just basking in your predecessors¡¯ glory. Their achievements are far above ours, they have amassed extensive experience in knee and shoulder sports injuries and created many advanced techniques,¡± Barrett reported on some recent industry news. The North American Sports Medicine Academic Conference was about to convene, a time for election and transition. Robert was the current president, but Burlington from TIRR Hermann Memorial Hospital had always been his arch-enemy. This man had achieved a great deal in sports medicine, especially in recent years, bringing a wealth of results and threatening to dethrone Robert and reform North American sports medicine. To Barrett¡¯s words, Robert just smiled lightly: ¡°Kid, don¡¯t be nervous; he doesn¡¯t have the ability yet. Starting tomorrow, I¡¯ll show you the real level of Big Brother Robert.¡± Chapter 959 - 959 818 Delivering the Prize on the Sly ?Chapter 959: Chapter 818: Delivering the Prize on the Sly Chapter 959: Chapter 818: Delivering the Prize on the Sly The muscle that grew in the cultivator had slowly transformed from the size of a pea to that of a potato. Tang Shun and all the researchers were practically living in the laboratory twenty-four hours a day, as they wanted to witness the thrilling moment in the history of medicine. When the laboratory was originally renovated, a rather spacious resting room had been planned, which, with floor bedding laid out, was sufficient for Tang Shun and the researchers to spend the night together. Even in the middle of the night, Tang Shun would sometimes wake up to check if there had been any changes in the ¡°muscle¡± inside the cultivator. This complete dedication to his work had caused Tang Shun to drift away from his dozen or so Japanese girlfriends. Teacher Tang hadn¡¯t opened WeChat to chat with his girlfriends for many days. This was an unintentional act on the part of Tang Shun, but it dealt a significant blow to his girlfriends. Worrying and suspicious, the Japanese girlfriends began to doubt whether Tang Shun was planning to abandon them, and each felt personally threatened. If Tang Shun didn¡¯t reply to their WeChat messages soon, his girlfriends might very well band together and come to China to search for him. However, Tang Shun had now pushed everything else to the back of his mind, completely absorbed in the experiment and constantly thinking about it. The plan for Yang Ping¡¯s laboratory was based entirely on utilizing the existing equipment for the initial experiment. They could only use the current equipment or instruments available on the market. In future repetitions of the experiment, specific equipment and instruments suitable for this kind of research would be essential. Furthermore, the initial experiment was focused only on achieving the targets without much consideration for other issues, tasks that naturally fell on Tang Shun¡¯s shoulders. There was actually a lot that Tang Shun had to think about, such as how to improve the cultivators, when to intervene with the experimental artificial heart-lung machine, how to connect the muscle¡¯s blood vessels, how to design the artificial heart-lung machine, precise control of the volume of muscle culture, how to stimulate and train muscle strength through artificial methods upon cultivation, and how to encourage nerves to mature, among others. Analysis of dozens of samples confirmed that the cultivated muscle had muscle fibers organized in the same way as normal human muscle, and it was even possible to develop blood vessels and nerves within it. This indicated that stem cells could still develop into a partial organ outside the human body and separate from the embryonic system. The gene fragments controlling the construction of organs had their precise missions. For example, the fragment Yang Ping discovered controlled cells to build a simple, separate piece of muscle with muscle belly in the middle, tendons at both ends, and blood vessels and nerves distributed inside. The dozens of successful samples were all of this simple muscle structure. If multiple muscle bellies or multi-headed muscles were to be cultivated, further research would be needed. Tests showed that the cultivated muscle had relatively weak strength, but if targeted strength training could be conducted, it could completely meet the requirements of the transplant site. Designing devices and instruments was a weak area for Yang Ping, as all his knowledge was primarily rooted in medicine. Thus, the drawings Yang Ping sketched for the devices and instruments were only a rough outline, and he couldn¡¯t design the details. These drawings served only to inform Ruixing¡¯s engineers what kind of equipment he wanted, leaving the rest of the work to them. Yang Ping usually didn¡¯t visit Ruixing Company much, but he came specifically for the experimental equipment this time. President Huang was no longer the small equipment sales manager of before but was now the boss of the largest domestic medical equipment R&D and manufacturing company¡ªthe Ruixing Group. Ruixing was developing very rapidly. With the support of domestic medical magnates, its orthopedic consumables brand had captured a large portion of the domestic market. In the north, there was the support of Professor Liang, in the south, Professor Su, in the west, Huaxi Professor Fu Shancheng, and in Shanghai, Professor Hong Zhigang. With the support of these professors, Ruixing¡¯s products were on par with, and even starting to surpass, the giants in the field. Ruixing did not disappoint. After gaining a significant market share and securing a large amount of funds, the company rapidly iterated its products, with each generation proving better than the last, not inferior to imported consumables and even exceeding some. Seizing the opportunity, Huang Jiacai decisively acquired several fairly good domestic manufacturers, filling in the gaps in the entire product line. After all the medical consumables were in place, Huang Jiacai started to venture into cutting-edge, high-tech fields, such as medical materials, biological 3D printers, artificial hearts, and so on. Ruixing¡¯s rapid development wasn¡¯t just owing to the collective support of the big names in domestic medicine but also because it was backed by several wealthy investors. That is to say, there was no lack of market or funds. The investors behind the scenes included industry giants such as Anning Group, Southeast Asian consortium Guo¡¯s Group, and the local tycoon Xinchang Mining. Xinchang Mining was growing vigorously, and it was said based on the speed of gold mining, the company could easily make tens of billions a year, with no issues in maintaining this for more than a decade. To aid Changxin Mining in developing these large mines, it was said that Anning Group and Guo¡¯s Group also invested in support, a case of mutual aid and powerful alliances. Old Wang had also transformed from a coal tycoon to a gold tycoon, elevating to a whole new level of affluence. ¡°Professor!¡± Huang Jiacai stood at the entrance with utmost respect. As soon as Yang Ping¡¯s car stopped, Huang immediately ran over to open the car door. ¡°No need to be so formal. Just show me around casually,¡± said Yang Ping, somewhat uncomfortable with the scenario. In fact, Huang Jiacai had already been quite low-key. In any other company¡¯s case, Huang Jiacai couldn¡¯t possibly be the only one standing there to receive him. Instead, it would be expected for him to lead all the company¡¯s executives to warmly welcome at the entrance, with a red carpet running from the parking spot all the way to the company hall. Chapter 960 - 960 818 Secretly Delivering Prizes_2 ?Chapter 960: Chapter 818 Secretly Delivering Prizes_2 Chapter 960: Chapter 818 Secretly Delivering Prizes_2 ¡°Please!¡± Under the guidance of Huang Jiacai, Yang Ping visited Ruixing¡¯s Institutes and Laboratories. The first-generation prototype of the Biological 3D Printer had been produced, but as it was the result of reverse engineering, it wasn¡¯t particularly impressive. However, the second-generation product was nearing completion with significant improvements over its predecessor, even incorporating some innovative technologies. The planned third-generation product was expected to achieve scaffold-free printing. Until then, all biological 3D printing had to rely on scaffolds to maintain the shape of organs, the only difference being the material of the scaffolds. Scaffold-free printing technology was the true essence of biological printing. It could not only print the shape of target organs using cells as the material but could also print the connections between cells, authentically simulating real organs at a microstructural level, rather than merely copying the shape of a gourd. If the third-generation product¡¯s functions were all realized, it would be possible to print organs with simple structures such as skin, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. After visiting the Institutes and Laboratories, Huang Jiacai took Yang Ping to see the company¡¯s cafeteria, dormitories, entertainment centers, etc., and finally returned to his office. Of course, Ruixing¡¯s employees had no clue that Yang Ping was the real boss. They always thought Huang Jiacai was the boss, so everyone was very curious about what kind of background this young man had to make the boss so respectfully accompany him. ¡°Professor, as you can see, we have established three major R&D centers nationwide. Next, we plan to establish R&D centers in Europe and North America, utilizing local talent to serve us. In the field of orthopedic consumables, we¡¯ve firmly secured our market share. We are gradually entering the market with consumables for other specialties. We have fully unfolded our range of consumable products, including surgical sutures. Currently, our key laboratories are three¡ª Biological 3D Printing Technology, Medical Materials, and Artificial Organs. The fourth laboratory, Biological Chip Laboratory, is being set up. Many investment companies have approached me hoping to invest and promote our IPO, but I have declined, not just now but also in the future. I have no plans for an IPO. Only this way we can firmly keep the company in our own hands.¡± Huang Jiacai, full of ambition, pointed to a map in his office as he introduced these to Yang Ping. ¡°Excellent!¡± At that moment, ¡°excellent¡± was all Yang Ping could say, as he seemed to find no other appropriate words. When it came to business matters, he was almost completely ignorant and had no interest. ¡°The specialized equipment needed for the Stem Cell Laboratory has been documented by Doctor Tang and sent over; we¡¯re expediting development on it,¡± said Huang Jiahui, who accompanied him. ¡°Just keep in touch with Doctor Tang about these things. The Biological 3D Printer technology must be prioritized in R&D. It¡¯s going to be as important in the biological field as photolithography machines are now, so we must take the lead,¡± Yang Ping instructed. ¡°Professor, our Biological 3D Printing Laboratory¡¯s R&D team has already expanded to over two thousand people, and we are setting up branch research institutions in Europe and North America,¡± Huang Jiacai knew that this was a strategic focus of the company. Consumables were merely cash cows whereas the real competition with international giants was in these future-oriented technologies. Falling behind in these technologies would mean that catching up later would be nearly impossible. ¡°Should we call Chen Zhi over?¡± Huang Jiahui suggested. Chen Zhi was Ruixing¡¯s Chief Engineer. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°Let¡¯s just sit down and have a cup of tea. He¡¯s so busy, why call him over for nothing?¡± Yang Ping knew that a technophile like Chen Zhi hated all kinds of social engagements. Letting him work unbothered was most important. ¡ª Commissioner Qiao from unit 301 came personally this time, with only one person accompanying him, a Deputy Director from the Provincial Hall, who was also an acquaintance of Dean Xia. They didn¡¯t come with good intentions; it was another ploy to poach talent. Dean Xia¡¯s mind raced, considering how to deal with Commissioner Qiao, who was said to be a master of political work, a type of person who was difficult to handle. ¡°Dean Xia, hello, hello, it¡¯s finally nice to meet you.¡± ¡°Commissioner Qiao, welcome, welcome.¡± Introduced by Director Ming from the Provincial Hall, everyone sat down and talked slowly. Although there were only two visitors, Dean Xia had to take time out of his schedule to deal with guests of such significance. ¡°Sanbo Hospital truly has a wealth of talent,¡± Commissioner Qiao said with a smile as he passed by. ¡°I just noticed that one building houses several institutes¡ªCardiovascular Surgery, Neurology, Spinal Surgery¡ªa single hospital with numerous institutes is rare nationwide. Sanbo Hospital is truly advancing by leaps and bounds.¡± ¡°Compared to your hospital, we are just a small one, merely trying to make a show,¡± Dean Xia humbly replied. ¡°Hospitals like ours, neither big nor small, are in an awkward position. We are labeled a Provincial Hospital, but we lack resources and can¡¯t retain talent, unlike your larger hospitals bustling with talent. We¡¯re content if we can just keep our current staff and ensure that several thousand employees can make a living. We don¡¯t expect to make rapid strides every day.¡± Are you trying to poach our staff? Isn¡¯t that bullying the smaller party? Won¡¯t you let us live in peace? ¡°Dean Xia, too modest. Our days aren¡¯t easy either. The tasks imposed by superiors are heavy, and many are mandatory,¡± Commissioner Qiao said in a conversational tone. ¡°Dean Xia, Commissioner Qiao is here on a special mission¡ª¡± After some small talk, Director Ming from the Health Department began speaking, introducing the main topic. Dean Xia was mentally prepared. He had lost count of their visits, but they came wave after wave, changing their tactics each time, but their purpose remained the same¡ªto poach talent! Yang Ping himself doesn¡¯t want to leave, so there¡¯s nothing any of you can do. You can¡¯t just kidnap him, right? Dean Xia had a strategy in mind and was thus unfazed¡ªresponding to unchanging tactics with flexibility. ¡°This time, I am here¡ª¡± Commissioner Qiao began. ¡°I am here to present Professor Yang with an award and prize. The surgery where he assisted the Old Academician as Chief Surgeon was extremely successful, and the superior leadership is very satisfied. They insisted on giving a reward. How to reward him? In addition to presenting the Award Certificate, they have also decided to present a Hongqi Sedan as a special award. Congratulations, congratulations!¡± Commissioner Qiao said cheerfully, then took out a document bag with both hands. It likely contained the award certificate. This time they¡¯re not here to poach talent? Just to present an award and prize? And they¡¯re giving away a sedan as an award? Dean Xia concealed his suspicion and pretended to be delighted, ¡°Congratulations, and there¡¯s a Hongqi Sedan, too?¡± ¡°Yes, transportation is certainly needed, especially for a professor like Yang. He needs a good vehicle,¡± Commissioner Qiao said. Dean Xia didn¡¯t understand why they would award a sedan. To be honest, he had never encountered such a precedent before. In a lower voice, Commissioner Qiao said, ¡°Dean Xia, this is no ordinary sedan. Its license plate will be recorded in the Public Security System. Moreover, the car comes with an alarm system, linked directly to the public security system. The upper levels greatly value talent like Professor Yang¡¯s¡ª¡± Dean Xia let out a sigh of relief, now understanding the situation. Upon further reflection, it indeed made sense. For a genius like Professor Yang, security is a top priority. Why hadn¡¯t he thought of this? ¡°I¡¯ll call Yang Ping over,¡± Dean Xia initially thought they were here to poach, so he didn¡¯t want to alarm Yang Ping. Commissioner Qiao gestured with his hands, ¡°No need. Young people are used to having freedom. If you call him over to accept the award, he¡¯ll feel uncomfortable. As the dean, you can accept on his behalf. I also don¡¯t want to disturb Professor Yang as I¡¯ve heard he¡¯s quite busy now. I don¡¯t want him to resent the disruption.¡± ¡°No need to meet him in person?¡± Dean Xia was surprised. Why were they being so unassuming this time? Commissioner Qiao said with a smile, ¡°We are just following your example. Young people, after all, should not feel burdened by such trifle matters.¡± This was also the direction from the leadership¡ªensure that the award and prize are delivered, but keep it low-key to avoid giving Yang the impression of red tape. That¡¯s why Commissioner Qiao didn¡¯t make a show of it. He simply had a local staff member accompany him and handled the matter succinctly. ¡°Here are the award certificate and the documents related to the vehicle. I have delivered them! There will be someone to follow up later!¡± Commissioner Qiao handed the elegant document bag to Dean Xia with both hands. Chapter 961 - 961 819 Does this car get a traffic fine and ?Chapter 961: Chapter 819: Does this car get a traffic fine and points deducted? Chapter 961: Chapter 819: Does this car get a traffic fine and points deducted? As Commissioner Qiao was about to leave, he clasped Dean Xia¡¯s hand, ¡°Let me be clear with you, although there will certainly be some changes in Sanbo Hospital¡¯s organizational relationships, no matter what the future holds, you will still be provided with a substantial amount of resources, and everything else will remain as usual. Absolutely no one will interfere with your work. You will still be the Dean of Sanbo Hospital and still the old leader of Yang Ping, because you understand him best.¡± ¡°We must take good care of young talents like Professor Yang Ping, provide excellent service, and absolutely prevent them from leaving. We have already lost too many young talents, and we should reflect on this. The leaders have said that it would be great if every leadership position had colleagues like you.¡± ¡°We all need to learn from you!¡± ¡°In the future, we will coordinate with you, and you will then communicate with Professor Yang. I think this method is better, thank you for your hard work.¡± ¡°About Professor Yang¡¯s security arrangements, it¡¯s not just a matter of a car. There will also be commissioners coming to coordinate, including arranging for security guards. As far as I know, these two guards are old friends of Professor Yang, which is really quite a coincidence.¡± Having said that, without waiting for Dean Xia to respond, Commissioner Qiao quickly took his leave. ¡°See Professor Yang while you¡¯re here, since you¡¯ve come all this way.¡± Dean Xia felt it wasn¡¯t quite appropriate for award presentation if Yang Ping wasn¡¯t present. Commissioner Qiao said squarely, ¡°No need to meet him, please communicate with him on our behalf. We are not as capable as you, and that¡¯s the truth.¡± Thus, Commissioner Qiao left Sanbo Hospital accompanied by Director Ming. After seeing off Commissioner Qiao and Director Ming, Dean Xia fell into deep thought in his office. He hadn¡¯t given it much thought before, but upon reflection, he realized that a heavyweight talent like Yang Ping had become a strategic asset to the country. Since he was identified as a strategic talent, the service surrounding him could not possibly be handled by Sanbo Hospital alone; Sanbo simply lacked the capacity. For example, the Hongqi Sedan gifted by the higher authorities could be matched by a Hongqi provided by Sanbo Hospital for Professor Yang, but they absolutely couldn¡¯t take this step¡ªoffering a custom version connected to the public security system. The higher-ups had been paying attention to Yang Ping for a while now. Recently, Yang Ping published 13 papers in CNS, causing a sensation in the international academic community, and he also performed surgery on Elder Academician Meng, achieving what was deemed impossible. This attention made Yang Ping even more valued and confirmed him as a strategic-level talent. Naturally, the benefits that came with this status needed to keep pace. The security of strategic-level talent has always been a vital issue. Some matters must be prepared in advance to ensure readiness rather than being hastily deployed when unavoidable. However, Yang Ping is a doctor, a scholar. The higher-level departments also considered these things should not be publicized too much, so their approach was very subtle. From a security perspective, the lower key, the better. From the hints dropped by Commissioner Qiao, Dean Xia surmised that the plan for 301 to acquire Sanbo Hospital might have been rejected, but what the new plan entailed, he didn¡¯t know. Dean Xia took the opportunity to call Yang Ping to his office, telling him about the award and that the leadership valued him highly, wanting to allocate a logistics team for him. He informed Yang Ping about everything in detail. However, Dean Xia intentionally withheld the news about the car award, wanting to surprise him. Yang Ping seemed quite indifferent. He thought that Dean Xia could make these decisions on his behalf, as he was very busy at the moment. ¡ª Before long, the Hongqi Sedan awarded to Yang Ping was delivered to Sanbo Hospital by representatives from the Provincial Public Security Department, Health Department, and a commissioner dispatched from the senior levels. The commissioner sent from above, Commissioner Qiu, would stay at Sanbo Hospital, where he would have an office in the Comprehensive Surgery department, with an exterior sign reading ¡°Security Room.¡± Certainly, only Dean Xia and Yang Ping himself were aware of Commissioner Qiu¡¯s true identity, and the manner of his employment was to be arranged by Dean Xia, hiring him as an ordinary guard for Sanbo Hospital and then assigning him from the security department to Comprehensive Surgery. The other two guards who had yet to take up their posts would also be hired in the same fashion, assigned to Yang Ping¡¯s side. ¡°Commissioner Qiu, it will be tough on you from now on.¡± Dean Xia shook Commissioner Qiu¡¯s hand. ¡°Just call me Xiao Qiu. I am quite an old acquaintance of Professor Yang. He will surely recognize me when we meet,¡± said Commissioner Qiu with a smile. An old acquaintance, huh? It seems that Xiao Yang¡¯s network is quite extensive. He seems to live a life going back and forth between two points, yet he seems to know everyone. Dean Xia called Yang Ping to come and take a look at the car, saying that the Hospital had arranged a sedan for him and asking him to come and see if it met his approval. Before Yang Ping arrived, Dean Xia indulged his curiosity, circling the Hongqi Sedan a few times. The car looked quite ordinary, but when Dean Xia tried the car door, it was heavy. Commissioner Qiu said it was a customized version with triple protection¡ªbulletproof, explosion-proof, and poison-proof. The car was also equipped with satellite navigation and a satellite phone. The license plate was also very ordinary, not featuring any consecutive eights or nines, but it was specially recorded within the public security system. Yang Ping was free and quite interested in seeing which car had been chosen for him, keen to discover just what kind of car Dean Xia had selected for him, all so secretive. When he arrived, Commissioner Qiu stretched out his hand from afar, ¡°Professor Yang, long time no see!¡± Yang Ping looked closely and recognized the man in his thirties, very fit and extremely familiar. ¡°Professor Yang, it seems you don¡¯t remember me?¡± Commissioner Qiu said with a smile. Chapter 962 - 962 819 Does This Car Get Fined and Points ?Chapter 962: Chapter 819: Does This Car Get Fined and Points Deducted? (Part 2) Chapter 962: Chapter 819: Does This Car Get Fined and Points Deducted? (Part 2) ¡°Manager Qiu?¡± Wasn¡¯t that the Manager Qiu he had met in Yemen? Wasn¡¯t he the manager of a security company? What was he doing here? ¡°You know each other?¡± Dean Xia was very curious. Yang Ping said with a smile, ¡°We met in Yemen. You could say our friendship was forged in fire and blood.¡± ¡°That¡¯s even better. From now on, Comrade Qiu will be the chief of security for your Comprehensive Surgery Department,¡± Dean Xia said. Yang Ping shook hands with Manager Qiu again, ¡°How¡¯s Dashun doing now?¡± Manager Qiu smiled, ¡°He recovered very well afterward.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s take a look at the car first, and then we can talk more in my office,¡± Dean Xia urged Yang Ping. Yang Ping sized up the car, touched the paint, and pulled open the car door to sit inside for a try. ¡°Dean Xia, are you sure this was bought by the hospital? Did you pick it out?¡± Yang Ping asked as he got out of the car. Dean Xia was so annoyed he almost cursed, ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± ¡°These windows must be several centimeters thick. Look at this car door; I bet it could withstand a blast. Since when does Hongqi make this kind of model? It¡¯s not a knockoff, is it?¡± Yang Ping was perplexed. How can you call a grand custom model a knockoff? Dean Xia had no choice but to come clean, whispering in his ear, ¡°You¡¯ve got a sharp eye, kid. This car is a reward from higher authorities to show the nation¡¯s appreciation of you. Bullet-proof, bomb-proof, poison-resistant, with satellite tracking and satellite phone onboard, direct link to the public security system, it¡¯s a special custom model.¡± ¡°You said it has satellite tracking, onboard satellite phone, so do they know everywhere I go? No way, no way, I definitely can¡¯t use this car,¡± Yang Ping knocked on the sedan¡¯s hood. Dean Xia got anxious, ¡°How can you not? This is a thoughtful gift from senior leadership.¡± ¡°Such an expensive reward? Which leader? What department?¡± Yang Ping asked. Dean Xia shook his head, ¡°Don¡¯t ask. If you must know, it¡¯s the senior leadership, the relevant department. Anyway, this is the treatment you deserve. Just accept it peacefully. I¡¯ve been giving it some serious thought these past days. With your current situation, you indeed need this level of benefits. Thirteen CNS papers. Your sole efforts have pushed us to the forefront of medical science research in the world. For the nation, you¡¯re now a heavy-weight strategic talent, so the upper echelons take you very seriously. They not only awarded you but gave you a car, and they¡¯ve dispatched Comrade Qiu here to assist you with your logistics¡ªthat¡¯s his responsibility from hereon.¡±¡± The car was indeed excellent; it was just a gasoline vehicle, not to Yang Ping¡¯s taste¡ªhe had been wanting a BYD electric car. ¡°You just said it has a direct link with the public security. Does it mean it can get traffic violation tickets and fines?¡± Yang Ping asked. Dean Xia looked helpless, ¡°I didn¡¯t ask about that.¡± Then, he immediately felt this guy was not taking things seriously, ¡°Professor Yang, please adjust your attitude. Let me make it clear to you, if this car is directly connected to the public security, then no matter which corner it¡¯s in, for any violation, even if you merely cross a solid line, it will get ticketed and fined.¡± Looking at the car, Yang Ping said with ill intent, ¡°Anyway, it¡¯s the hospital¡¯s car. It¡¯ll be the hospital¡¯s money that gets deducted.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll deduct it from your salary!¡± Dean Xia said fiercely. ¡°From your wife¡¯s salary!¡± Dean Xia added. You old man, that¡¯s just not ethical. ¡ª Anyway, let Dean Xia deal with these matters. Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to bother himself with such trivialities. He was very busy nowadays with daily surgeries, research projects, and working on establishing a journal. Setting up a Chinese journal was challenging, but Yang Ping wanted to give it a try. It was an attempt to fight for a say in academic discourse. As for the name of the journal? Yang Ping specifically called a meeting to discuss it. ¡°Chinese Medicine!¡± Li Guodong was very enthusiastic and the first to raise his hand. ¡°There is already a journal with that name. It¡¯s a duplicate.¡± ¡°Greater Chinese Medicine!¡± Li Guodong corrected immediately. What a grand name, Greater Chinese Medicine! Li Guodong had a full argument, ¡°The New England Journal of Medicine is the world number one medical journal with an impact factor over 74. If it can be called New England Medicine, by following its naming style, we can call ours Greater Chinese Medicine.¡± ¡°Why not call it New China Medicine!¡± Little Five came up with an even better name. ¡°Hmm, New China Medicine, I think that name sounds really good, very distinctive.¡± Somebody strongly agreed. ¡°I think¡ªsince it¡¯s¡ªa global journal¡ªit should just be¡ªcalled¡ªMedicine, look at¡ªNature¡ªScience¡ªCell, these three top¡ªjournals¡¯ names, they¡¯re so succinct, immediately suggest¡ªa global stature.¡± Xu Zhiliang felt they might as well call it Medicine¡ªsimple and clear, a grand name that signified global stature. Zhang Lin disagreed with all the above names: ¡°All these names seem imitative, lacking our Chinese uniqueness. I think it should be named¡ªHuaxia Medicine!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve thought about this name for a long time. It¡¯s resonant, has ethnic characteristics; what belongs to the nation belongs to the world.¡± Teacher Zhang spoke confidently. ¡°Great Medicine!¡± Song Zimo offered his suggestion, after mulling over it for a long time in his head, he couldn¡¯t think of any name more powerful than this one. ¡°Derived from the spirit of ¡®great doctors have utmost sincerity,¡¯ it aligns with traditional Chinese culture while matching modern global trends. Great Medicine¡ªhow majestic! The English translation would be¡ªGreat Medicine!¡± Song Zimo was very confident in the name he had proposed. ¡°Medical Path! Medicine Do!¡± Chapter 963 - 963 819 Does This Car Get Fined and Points ?Chapter 963: Chapter 819: Does This Car Get Fined and Points Deducted? (Part 3) Chapter 963: Chapter 819: Does This Car Get Fined and Points Deducted? (Part 3) Xia Shu gingerly proposed a name, thinking the one he came up with was very good and unique. ¡°Modern Medicine!¡± ¡°Biology and Medicine!¡± ¡°Seeking Medical Help!¡± Everyone racked their brains to come up with their own names; with so many options, Yang Ping found it hard to decide immediately, so he said, ¡°Think about it a bit more and see if there are any better names. We¡¯ll hold a vote to decide on the journal¡¯s name later.¡± ¡°Should we collect names from the entire hospital, or maybe even nationally and globally?¡± ¡°Dragon Medicine!¡± Zhang Lin exclaimed loudly, as if he had found the perfect name. Everyone turned to Teacher Zhang. This name did have a commanding presence, but it sounded almost like a game title, the kind that elementary or middle school students would like. ¡ª Xia Shu inquired about the doctors in the department, and learned that each one under Professor Yang was a top student. Song Zimo, with his eight-year program from Fudan University, had published his PhD thesis in The Lancet, and Xu Zhiliang had also been among the top scorers in his province during the college entrance examination; even the young Li Guodong was exceptionally bright. Not only had they all been top students, but they were also incredibly passionate about studying and dearly loved medicine. Xia Shu felt this was the perfect place for him. Xia Shu found that the doctors here, whether they were higher-up doctors or standardized training students and graduate students, had extremely solid basic knowledge. Any of them were particularly strong in medical illustration and were very skilled in anatomy. Doctors like Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, who led teams, might not speak about other skills, but their expertise in cardiac surgery was only higher, never lower than those leading teams in Fuwai. Moreover, these two could also perform neurosurgery and orthopedic surgeries; other surgeries, such as general surgery and urological surgery, were less frequent, but they seemed very proficient as well. The training room, resting room, demonstration room, and study room in the comprehensive surgery department were always bustling. Many standardized training students and graduate students practically lived in the department 24 hours a day, so after hours, the department was very lively. Everyone was eating, and Xia Shu noticed the high quality of the boxed meals in the dining room. He casually asked which takeaway it was, and a graduate student said, ¡°It¡¯s from the Waterlily Bread Store, five yuan each.¡± Five yuan each, including meat, eggs, and vegetables, plus a soup, this level of quantity and quality was extraordinarily good. Boxed meals for five yuan nowadays? Xia Shu also wanted to order this kind of takeaway in the future. The graduate student said, ¡°They don¡¯t offer delivery, only to our department¡¯s medical staff. If you need it, I can add your name for you. It¡¯s five yuan each, and you settle up at the end of the month.¡± ¡°Fresh ingredients, brand oils, it¡¯s made at home by Yu Shuilian and her husband. They are understaffed and can¡¯t deliver too far, so they only deliver to our department, as a special supply for us.¡± Such a benefit, Xia Shu, being new here, was unaware of all these intricacies. ¡°There¡¯s also supper available. Look, the weekly menu is hanging on the wall. You can order whatever you like, it¡¯s only five yuan per serving.¡± ¡°You guys lead quite the carefree life, huh?¡± Xia Shu sat down and chatted with everyone. The graduate student said, ¡°You must be from Fuwai, right? You¡¯ve come to the right place. We even get subsidies, which are deposited on time every month, more promptly than salaries. We are much better off compared to other hospitals.¡± ¡°Some classmates at another hospital live like pigs and dogs, exhausted to death, and can barely make ends meet each month.¡± A standardized training student complained bitterly. ¡°Really? How are the subsidies here?¡± Xia Shu knew that standardized training students and graduate students indeed had it tough, being at the very bottom of the medical team. ¡°Enough to eat, drink, have a girlfriend, and even save some money!¡± the graduate student answered satisfactorily. That being said, it was much better than when he had been studying for his PhD in Beijing, scrimping just to manage eating and drinking, with no money left to even think about having a girlfriend. Chapter 964 - 964 820 Security Room ?Chapter 964: Chapter 820 Security Room Chapter 964: Chapter 820 Security Room Dr. Xia was staring at the weekly menu on the wall, lost in thought, thinking about how the doctors and nurses¡¯ three meals a day also had a special offering, all for just a few yuan per meal. ¡°Dr. Xia, our little nurse sister forgot to add your name, but I have added it for you. Please scan the QR code here and follow the Waterlily Bread Store¡¯s official account; you can order meals a day in advance¡ª¡± Dr. Xia turned around to see it was the beautiful head nurse, truly a feast for the eyes. Dr. Xia always liked this type of capable and beautiful woman. The doctors here were academic overachievers, and the nurses were smart and quick-witted. Furthermore, the head nurse was young and beautiful. Dr. Xia felt very good about working here; the secretion of dopamine was a bit higher every day. ¡°Have you eaten?¡± Head Nurse Cai asked Dr. Xia. Dr. Xia shook his head, ¡°No problem, I was just a bit held up. I¡¯ll go to the cafeteria later.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t bother with the cafeteria. I haven¡¯t opened my packaged meal yet; I¡¯ll give it to you. I already ate pastries today and can¡¯t eat this meal.¡± The nurse dropped the line and left the dining room. ¡°The head nurse must be quite young, right?¡± After the head nurse walked away, Dr. Xia asked the adjacent graduate student. The graduate student responded, ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Is she married?¡± The graduate student was startled, then replied, ¡°She doesn¡¯t have a boyfriend yet. Are you married?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have a girlfriend yet,¡± Dr. Xia blurted out. Suddenly, many of the eating doctors and nurses raised their heads to look at Dr. Xia, who had a decent appearance, was a Ph.D., and a general surgeon at Sanbo Hospital. The head nurse had always wanted to find a doctor from the same hospital; here was one delivered to her doorstep. Head Nurse Cai was outstanding, formerly one of the first specialist nurses from Nandu Province to be sent for training in Hong Kong. She was studious, ambitious, young, and beautiful. She had always hoped to find a doctor as a partner, but unfortunately, the supply was short, and young, unmarried doctors were like rare treasures, those without girlfriends even harder to find. ¡°What are you all looking at me for?¡± Dr. Xia felt it odd that all these people were staring at him. After a while, the head nurse came in and handed Dr. Xia a boxed meal, ¡°Eat it while it¡¯s hot. You can order from the Waterlily¡¯s fast food tomorrow.¡± The boxed meal was put on the table; the head nurse came in a hurry and left in a hurry, not even waiting for Dr. Xia to thank her before she had already left the dining room. At this point, the others¡¯ gazes grew even more intense. Even the few doctors and nurses who had not looked up before were now raising their heads to look at Dr. Xia. He carefully inspected his chair before daring to sit down. Then, looking left and right, ¡°What are you all looking at me for? Did I do something wrong?¡± Dr. Xia didn¡¯t stand on ceremony, opening the boxed meal to start eating, but the burning gazes still awaited him. ¡°Brother, what¡¯s going on?¡± Dr. Xia quietly asked the graduate student across from him. ¡°It¡¯s like this. Every new member in our department must do three things: first, send a red packet in the group; second, treat the head nurse to Heytea; third, draw a one-to-one human anatomy diagram in the study room. You have already done the first. The third can¡¯t be done in a day; since the head nurse personally arranged the meal ordering for you, your urgent task now is to complete the second, treat the head nurse to Heytea.¡± ¡°Nobody told me this?¡± Dr. Xia looked surprised. ¡°I¡¯m telling you now,¡± the graduate student said sagely. ¡°Okay, should I buy it later?¡± Dr. Xia was a complete bookworm. The onlooking doctors and nurses didn¡¯t expect Dr. Xia to be so straightforward, so direct without any hint of evasiveness. The graduate student earnestly said, ¡°If you are sincere, it¡¯s best to directly invite her to the Heytea store near the hospital. She likes it fresh.¡± ¡°Have you all done it?¡± Dr. Xia asked. ¡°Of course!¡± the graduate student bluffed seriously. ¡°Oh, should I call her after work?¡± not understanding the custom here, Dr. Xia sought the graduate student¡¯s opinion. ¡°Calling her after work is too late. Send her a WeChat now; otherwise, if you suddenly invite her for Heytea after work, how would she have time? It shows a lack of sincerity,¡± the graduate student advised with good intent. ¡°Alright!¡± Dr. Xia reached for his phone. ¡°You send her the WeChat invite now,¡± another female graduate student instructed him. ¡°I¡¯ll send the WeChat now.¡± Dr. Xia actually started sending the WeChat: ¡°Head nurse, I¡¯d like to treat you to Heytea at the store next to the hospital after work today¡ª¡± The head nurse replied, ¡°Thanks, but no need! I¡¯m quite busy, no time to go!¡± Dr. Xia said disappointedly, ¡°You see, she said she¡¯s very busy and won¡¯t go.¡± ¡°Then send her another one tomorrow. There must be a day she¡¯ll be free. Who would directly say no to an invitation?¡± ¡°I understand. Thank you.¡± The others covered their mouths, wanting to laugh but holding it back. This Xiehe Hospital Ph.D. was quite amusing; it was unclear whether he was pretending to be naive or was genuinely naive, and everyone was very curious to see how his daily WeChat invitations to the head nurse for Heytea would turn out. ¡ª That afternoon, Yang Ping conducted his routine individual rounds, with Song Hanhui, the little Fatty, as the focus of this round. Song Hanhui¡¯s incision from the surgery had been sutured, and he was now being prepared for discharge. At that moment, the adorable little Fatty Song Hanhui¡¯s dining table was filled with delicacies from the Waterlily Bread Store, as he kept stuffing food into his mouth. His father looked on worriedly while his mother gazed at him with eyes full of love. The little Fatty¡¯s combat strength was staggering; in no time, he had almost cleared the table of food, leaving only a chicken leg. ¡°Do you want more?¡± his mother asked tenderly. The father discontentedly said, ¡°That¡¯s enough, too much is indigestible.¡± The little Fatty looked at his dad, then at his mom, and eyed the remaining chicken leg, swallowing his saliva, ¡°Just one more chicken leg, just this one.¡± Chapter 965 - 965 820 Security Room_2 ?Chapter 965: Chapter 820 Security Room_2 Chapter 965: Chapter 820 Security Room_2 In fact, there was only one chicken leg left on the table. ¡°Eat up, make sure you¡¯re full!¡± Mom said tenderly, stroking Fatty¡¯s chubby head. Mom was always the best, supporting Fatty and encouraging him not to give in to Dad¡¯s gaze, to act on his own will. With Mom¡¯s encouraging gaze, Fatty no longer cared about Dad¡¯s opinion, his pudgy little hands reaching for the chicken leg. Dad had no choice but to retreat, withdrawing his intimidating gaze, worry increasingly evident on his face. It wasn¡¯t a good sign, the boy was only eleven, already one meter forty in height and weighing nearly 170 pounds, round like a ball, his head also chubby, making him look even rounder. He had heart problems before, gasping for air even while eating, but he would keep eating. Old Song was terrified the child would choke, so every time he watched the kid eat, he couldn¡¯t help but worry. Now, after the heart surgery, eating didn¡¯t cause breathlessness anymore, and his appetite had clearly increased. Old Song worried that at this rate, Fatty would soon face many problems caused by obesity, like diabetes. Old Song¡¯s wife gave him a glance and took out a box of digestive tablets for children, comforting their son, ¡°It¡¯s okay, just have a few of these later.¡± Fatty nodded like a pecking chicken while eating. Professor Yang entered the ward and saw Fatty burping contentedly, his chubby cheeks flushed red, and his formerly purple lips now rosy and shiny, indication that the surgery was very successful. The postoperative esophageal surface ultrasound had also confirmed that the structures of the rebuilt heart were functioning well, with the whole circulatory system currently in good condition. ¡°Good afternoon, Professor Yang!¡± Old Song and his wife stood up respectfully to greet him, whereas Fatty kept gnawing on the slick chicken leg bone. Old Song quickly gestured, ¡°Professor Yang is making rounds; you better stop that now.¡± ¡°Mmm-mmm-mmm¡ª¡± Fatty made a sound that might be considered a response while his greasy, chubby hands held onto the chicken leg bone, his teeth fighting for the last bit of meat clinging to it. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I just came to see how the child was doing, preparing to be discharged, right? Remember to come back for regular follow-ups, look for Professor Cao at our outpatient clinic,¡± Professor Yang instructed. Old Song nodded, ¡°We¡¯ll remember, the doctors and nurses have already educated us, we¡¯re planning to be discharged tomorrow.¡± At this, Sisi stopped gnawing on the chicken leg and looked at her parents, ¡°Discharged tomorrow? Can we stay a few more days? The chicken legs here are really delicious!¡± Old Song almost spit out blood. ¡°If we can stay a few more days then let¡¯s do that, it¡¯s hard for the child to suddenly adapt to being discharged,¡± Old Song¡¯s wife actually wanted to stay longer. Professor Yang could only explain, ¡°Hospital beds are quite in demand right now, there are others waiting in line to be admitted.¡± On hearing this sad news, Fatty looked like he was about to cry, Old Song immediately said, ¡°How about Dad goes to the store and packs a few dozen chicken legs tomorrow, okay?¡± Fatty nodded in agreement. ¡°Lie down, let me listen to how your heart is beating.¡± Professor Yang wanted to prepare for auscultation and Fatty struggled to lie down. Professor Yang felt his abdomen, it was so distended from eating so much; anyone not in the know would think it was ascites or intestinal gas. ¡ª Qiu Zhiqiang was brought into Sanbo Hospital as a security guard, where he set up an office¡ªthe Security Room¡ªin the comprehensive surgery ward. The security staff at Sanbo Hospital were known for their high quality, all being ex-military, and skillful individuals. Once hired as security guards, not only was the job stable with good pay, the hospital also arranged suitable positions for their spouses. Hence, the security jobs at Sanbo Hospital were highly sought after. If you want to be a security team leader, you have to beat a few people. Now that Manager Qiu has joined the security department, he is also setting up a separate security room in the comprehensive surgery ward that won¡¯t be under the hospital security department¡¯s control. According to the rules of the security department, if Manager Qiu wants to do this, he needs to win against the security team leader. Dean Xia originally wanted to stop this, but Manager Qiu said that there was no need and they should just follow their rules. To Manager Qiu, this wasn¡¯t an issue at all. He was a special forces soldier, and having gone through gunfire and shrapnel over the years, how could he not handle a few hits? Several big and tall security guards were easily dealt with by him. Recognized as the fourth toughest man in Sanbo Hospital and leader of the reconnaissance security team, he never even got close to Manager Qiu. The security team leader acknowledged his defeat with a bow, ¡°I¡¯m totally convinced.¡± Thus, the comprehensive surgery ward¡¯s independent security room was successfully established, and Manager Qiu referred to himself as the director of the security room. The two guards also swiftly took their positions as security officers. These guards turned out to be the brothers Chen Dashun and Chen Ershun. When Yang Ping had gone to Yemen for a rescue, it was Chen Dashun he saved, no wonder Dean Xia mentioned the two were old acquaintances of Yang Ping. Seeing the person who saved his life, Dashun was extremely excited and hugged Yang Ping tightly, ¡°Thank you, thank you¡ª¡± Apart from thanking him, he couldn¡¯t think of other words, he knew at that time Yang Ping had risked his own life to come to Yemen for the main surgery, pulling him back from the brink of death. ¡°How are you recovering now?¡± Yang Ping asked. Chen Dashun flexed his strong muscles, ¡°I have fully recovered, I could kill a cow with my bare hands.¡± Chen Ershun smiled from the side. If it weren¡¯t for Professor Yang, his brother would have been gone by then; his life was owed to Professor Yang. The two brothers were martial arts experts. From a young age, they practiced martial arts and later trained in sanshou. After joining the army, they were further toughened and, over the past few years post-retirement, they had worked alongside Qiu Zhiqiang in an overseas security company. Dashun, Ershun, and Manager Qiu received a notice to serve as personal guards for an important individual. At first, they were reluctant, but as soon as they heard it was for Professor Yang, they immediately agreed. Yang Ping had no idea why they were assigned to him, nor did he understand the intricacies behind the decision. In any case, they were friends, which would make getting along easier, but assigning these guys as security for his department seemed like a misallocation of talent. After all, he was just a doctor, it seemed unnecessary to make such a fuss. Qiu Zhiqiang had vast experience in security work. After retiring from the special forces, he was specifically trained by the state for security work and had accumulated rich experience working overseas with Hua¡¯an Gold Shield. He was very dedicated, quickly familiarizing himself with the surroundings of the hospital, Yang Ping¡¯s community, Yang¡¯s usual commuting routes, and he improved the monitoring systems of the comprehensive surgery ward, installing hidden cameras in Yang¡¯s parking space and dedicated vehicle, among other things. The two security officers who were originally responsible for the security of the comprehensive surgery ward continued their jobs as usual, showing great respect for the three new security officers because they were particularly skilled fighters, reputedly even the toughest team leader couldn¡¯t get close to them. Yang Ping¡¯s three guards were also silent most of the time, anyway, if people didn¡¯t pay attention, they wouldn¡¯t feel their presence, perhaps this was also a talent. Of course, setting up a dedicated security room for the comprehensive surgery ward caused a lot of speculation within Sanbo Hospital. Some guessed that the recent incidents of violence against doctors had prompted Dean Xia to take action, as the surgeries performed in the comprehensive surgery ward were the ones others dared not attempt, or could not do, thereby attracting disputes more easily. Thus, Dean Xia added several security officers to protect the personal safety of the medical staff. Others boldly wondered if anything had gone wrong with one of the recent surgeries in the comprehensive surgery ward, leading to potential disputes¡ªhence Dean Xia¡¯s urgent reinforcement of security measures. Those curious individuals inquired but found that everything was normal in the comprehensive surgery ward, with no malicious medical disputes occurring. Dean Xia also responded to public opinion, using this as an excuse to push forward Yang Ping¡¯s security work. All in all, the addition of a few security officers caused some discussion, but soon it passed, as these individuals were like invisible, barely noticed by others. Sisi¡¯s father, as Yang Ping¡¯s driver, passed Qiu Zhiqiang¡¯s examination. Manager Qiu thought he was the most suitable driver, so he received specialized training. Sisi¡¯s father valued this job very much and secretly pledged to do it well. Chapter 966 - 966 821 Worlds Strongest Health Insurance ?Chapter 966: Chapter 821: World¡¯s Strongest Health Insurance Chapter 966: Chapter 821: World¡¯s Strongest Health Insurance Dean Xia¡¯s office. Director Ma from Nandu Medical University International Exchange Office personally visited Dean Xia with Mr. Logan, the representative of the American Ke¡¯s Foundation, because the famous Keshi Fund had contacted the International Exchange Office several times. They expressed great interest in Professor Yang Ping¡¯s research project and were willing to provide funding for his research to contribute to the cause of human medicine. Moreover, the amount of funding offered was one hundred million US dollars, and this was just the beginning. Nandu Medical University had never before received such a substantial research fund, so it attached great importance to it. ¡°This is Mr. Logan from the American Ke¡¯s Foundation!¡± Director Ma introduced. Mr. Logan shook hands with Dean Xia. After a polite handshake, Director Ma handed over a set of application documents. Principal Ruo had called to inform them, and Director Ma had personally brought someone over. So the procedure definitely had no issues, and this fund was probably not problematic either. However, Dean Xia was not very interested in money now. He would have been very pleased in the past, but since Professor Yang¡¯s research fund had stable support, he no longer worried about this matter. Moreover, Professor Yang is now a national strategic talent, and even the security level reached the Hongqi bulletproof car standard. Would there still be a lack of funds? What was called being wealthy and forceful? This is being wealthy and forceful! ¡°This foundation is very famous. It is a charity foundation of the American Ke¡¯s Consortium. The primary purpose of the foundation is to promote the advancement of global biology and medical technology. Its funding comes with no strings attached, completely free of charge, without any additional conditions, and supports targets all over the world,¡± Director Ma explained. Director Ma specialized in international exchange and cooperation and was very familiar with these matters. ¡°Indeed, a charity organization. It starts with one hundred million US dollars, purely for the welfare of people worldwide. I express my high respect for such a spirit, but we do not lack money now. It¡¯s better to leave the money for those who need it most,¡± said Dean Xia, waving his hand as a sign of refusal. Certainly, money wasn¡¯t needed now. Dean Xia was very clear-headed. It was not necessary nor appropriate to accept these kinds of so-called funds. There is no such thing as a free lunch, and Dean Xia understood this. ¡°They do not fund just anyone. They choose suitable people. The funding targets go through a rigorous assessment and are classified by levels. Recently, Professor Yang published thirteen papers in CNS, which caused a sensation internationally. Therefore, they turned their attention to him and initiated the offer to fund Professor Yang. They are solely motivated by charitable purposes and have no interest in any intellectual property rights of the research project,¡± Director Ma insisted, somewhat desperately, as such a huge amount of money was being dismissed by Xia Changjiang. ¡°We don¡¯t need this amount of money now. Why would I need their money when I have my own?¡± Dean Xia remarked in plain terms. Mr. Logan, who was proficient in Chinese, pretended not to understand and appeared quite puzzled as he looked at Director Ma. Director Ma translated for him, and he shrugged, ¡°We greatly admire Professor Yang, which is why we are willing to fund him unconditionally. Not only him, but we also pay attention to biomedical scientists worldwide. For those scientists with sufficient research capabilities, we provide financial assistance. We are a charitable organization. Please do not misunderstand; our funding comes with no demands, and the one hundred million US dollars is just the beginning.¡± Dean Xia did not want to offend Director Ma, as he meant well, but Dean Xia did not believe that Logan and the fund would unconditionally provide one hundred million. Accepting money weakens one¡¯s hands, accepting food weakens one¡¯s mouth; it¡¯s the simplest principle. ¡°Make sure Mr. Logan doesn¡¯t misunderstand either. We understand that it is an act of charity, and we highly respect this kind of profound benevolence. However, we don¡¯t need this small amount of money now. A hundred million won¡¯t do much for us, but it could do much for others, so let others have it,¡± Dean Xia instructed. Director Ma¡¯s eyes bulged in disbelief. Since when did Xia Changjiang become so wealthy and generous? He had heard that in the past, to obtain funding from higher authorities, Xia often went to the Provincial Hall to impudently block leaders. ¡°Translate that, stop dawdling,¡± Dean Xia urged. Director Ma had no choice but to translate as he was told. This time, it was Mr. Logan who looked astonished, ¡°One hundred million US dollars is a small amount? It doesn¡¯t do much? Then how much is enough? One billion?¡± It seemed that this foreigner would not give up until he reached the Yangtze River. Dean Xia became a bit impatient, so he shook his head, indicating that even one billion was a small amount. ¡°Ten billion?¡± Dean Xia still shook his head. Good grief, Director Ma didn¡¯t even want to continue translating. Had Xia Changjiang gone mad, shaking his head at so much money? ¡°One hundred billion?¡± Mr. Logan was very curious, persistent in getting a figure. Dean Xia didn¡¯t care what he said; he just shook his head, not wishing to offend Principal Ruo by not receiving them, but now he was just nodding to speed the guests on their way. Mr. Logan dared not ask any further, merely saying, ¡°Is that really the only reason?¡± ¡°Yes, small money won¡¯t solve our problems; it¡¯s a waste, so better give it to someone else,¡± Dean Xia said as he sipped his tea. Director Ma was furious internally, thinking think Xia Changjiang was playing with them. Dean Xia offered no explanation, as the foundation was indeed all about immense love, and he had to find a reason that matched it to refuse. ¡ª An office in a skyscraper in the United States. Li Gaoyang, Rolf, and Santo sat together discussing Yang Ping. To approach Yang Ping, they needed to build a bridge, and public relations expert Santo was a master in this field. Once the bridge was built, the rest was about conquering the target. For Santo, there was no target he could not conquer. Chapter 967 - 967 821 The Worlds Strongest Medical ?Chapter 967: Chapter 821: The World¡¯s Strongest Medical Insurance_2 Chapter 967: Chapter 821: The World¡¯s Strongest Medical Insurance_2 However, the news coming from China at this time left them not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Logan was Santo¡¯s subordinate, an outstanding public relations expert. He went to China as a representative of the Keshi Fund, but the usually successful Logan had hit a dead end, failing to even meet Professor Yang Ping before his one hundred million US dollars were turned down. Moreover, the reason for the rejection was very clear¡ªit was too little money, they were not interested. This sent several deep and calculating fellows into a daze, wondering just who this person was and what kind of team it was that never seemed to play by the rules. One hundred million US dollars is too little? Even the Keshi Fund wouldn¡¯t say that so casually. Which global scientist would say that one hundred million dollars in research funding was too little? And this was just the beginning. Receiving funding from the Keshi Fund is something global scientists dream of, yet it was rejected, leaving everyone unsure how to proceed next. ¡°Did they really say that?¡± The hawk-nosed Li Gaoyang asked. Santo nodded, ¡°They didn¡¯t raise any other issues, such as whether there were any strings attached, they just straight up said ten thousand US dollars was too small, that it couldn¡¯t solve the problem. They implied that they would consider it if the amount was higher.¡± ¡°Did Logan suggest increasing the funding amount?¡± Li Gaoyang asked again. Santo replied with a bitter smile, ¡°He didn¡¯t dare to officially increase the amount, he just tentatively probed the other party¡¯s psychological expectations, even reporting up to one hundred billion US dollars, but still they shook their head, saying it was too little.¡± One hundred billion is still not enough? How is that possible, that would mean we have no other expenses, spending it all on him, how is that possible. ¡°Are you sure this was their formal response?¡± Li Gaoyang asked doubtfully. Santo was very confident, ¡°Logan is an expert on China, he was in contact with the highest officials of Sanbo Hospital, introduced by an official from Nandu Medical University. Chinese officials usually act very cautiously, especially when making statements, they measure their words and prepare drafts for formal utterances. They would not joke in such a setting, and the statement wasn¡¯t funny at all.¡± The intelligence expert Rolf, who had been silent, spoke up, ¡°They¡¯re telling the truth, according to our intelligence analysis, Professor Yang Ping¡¯s current project requires a significant amount of funding. From the analysis of his papers, the estimated funds needed go up to trillions, and the cost of trial and error from start to goal is huge. The intelligence we¡¯ve collected shows that his initial investment exceeded one hundred million US dollars, and that¡¯s just a small start, so their statement that one hundred million US dollars is small change is an honest reply.¡± Li Gaoyang swallowed hard, his mind buzzing. He had never encountered the necessity for such a massive investment to bring in a scientist, and if they were to really fund his project, one hundred billion US dollars was no trifling sum. To get in touch with Professor Yang Ping, it seemed the cost would be enormous, and everything must be re-planned. ¡°Are you certain we need this much?¡± Li Gaoyang couldn¡¯t help questioning. The silver-haired Rolf also looked helpless, ¡°This is the result of our projections, based on the currently published results. To succeed, many trial and error paths are needed, so many that we didn¡¯t dare project any further. One hundred billion US dollars is just a conservative rough estimate, and it is likely not enough.¡± Li Gaoyang shivered, such an enormous appetite. ¡°Let¡¯s think it over carefully and tell Logan to stay silent for the time being.¡± ¡ª While Professor Yang Ping was performing surgery, he received an urgent call from President Zhu of Anning Group. Mr. Guo Jingyao from Malaysia had a heart problem and was now lying in the ICU of Yingge Hospital in Malaysia. Mr. Guo is not only a business friend of Miss Ning¡¯s family but also an important client of Anning Insurance under the Anning Group. Anning Insurance¡¯s first stop in expanding overseas is Southeast Asia, and the affluent Chinese community there is a key client base. Mr. Guo Jingyao is one of the first high-end clients of Anning Insurance, which carries a strong symbolic significance. Professor Yang Ping is the chief cooperating physician of Anning Medical Insurance. President Zhu contacted him immediately. Professor Yang stopped the surgery, and the patrolling nurse turned on the phone¡¯s speaker. ¡°Is the diagnosis clear?¡± Professor Yang asked. ¡°A complex coronary heart disease caused by diffuse distal coronary lesions. The coronary arteries are very fine, and also atheromatous with blood vessels solidified. The only option is a heart transplant. At the moment, he is still at Yingge Hospital. Dr. Li Fuwen of Cardiovascular Surgery at Singapore Central Hospital is in charge of the case and is reaching out to Cleveland Heart Center, which has determined that the patient needs a heart transplant urgently. Waiting for a transplant donor could take some time, and the situation is extremely critical.¡± President Zhu, who is Director Zhu, knows that Professor Yang¡¯s Surgical Research Institute is formidable and that Professor Yang is an invincible presence in the field of cardiac surgery. Therefore, as a representative of medical insurance, President Zhu immediately arranged to contact Professor Yang. Mr. Guo and his family strongly agree with President Zhu¡¯s opinion because the last time Mr. Guo experienced a sudden paralysis, they sought experts in spinal surgery and neurosurgery from all over the world. In the end, it was Professor Yang who made the diagnosis and resolved the issue with surgery. This incident made the Guo family trust Professor Yang greatly as well as Anning Insurance. ¡°Coronary bypass surgery could be done. You weigh the options, waiting there for a heart transplant or me flying out there for surgery, and whichever is quickest, we¡¯ll go with that method?¡± Of course, inviting Professor Yang to fly out for the surgery would be the fastest, and even if it were a heart transplant, it should be performed by Professor Yang. As a partner, President Zhu is well aware of Professor Yang¡¯s capabilities. ¡°We must have you fly out for the surgery. I¡¯ll send you the details shortly,¡± President Zhu said before hanging up. ¡°After this surgery, I need to fly to Malaysia. Mr. Guo, whose case we worked on last time, is having heart issues again and urgently requires surgery. Anning Group¡¯s private jet will take me there,¡± Professor Yang instructed his team. ¡°Are we all going?¡± Liang Fatty was very pleased. Anning Group¡¯s cases, just for flying out, meant at least tens of thousands of US dollars in hand, and for an anesthesiologist, the quick US dollar earnings count in hundreds of thousands. ¡°I¡¯ll bring an assistant,¡± Professor Yang decided to go on his own this time. But that was fine. Anning Group¡¯s cases meant that even if the professor went alone, Anning Group would still pay the department, which would then be distributed among the doctors and nurses according to proportion. Even if Anning Insurance sent a patient to general surgery, the same fees applied. This was considered a separate commission. Now that Professor Yang had a logistics team, the details of his flying knife procedures were managed by Manager Qiu, who was responsible for arranging travel arrangements. ¡°Professor Yang, if possible, I suggest patient transfer to Sanbo Hospital. The weather there isn¡¯t great right now and could affect the safety of the plane landing,¡± Manager Qiu suggested for safety reasons. Having entrusted his own safety to Manager Qiu, Professor Yang would definitely heed his advice. In fact, it wasn¡¯t only a matter of safety. As a doctor, Professor Yang¡¯s wish to treat patients was understandable, but as Professor Yang¡¯s safety officer, Manager Qiu¡¯s thoughts were different. He aimed to minimize travel abroad unless absolutely necessary. This situation presented another option for the patient: an emergency plane transfer to Sanbo Hospital. Although it would increase risks, it was a possible choice. For Professor Yang, it was necessary to reduce travel abroad in the future. Safety was the primary concern. He was not an ordinary person anymore but a strategic talent. President Zhu of Anning Insurance¡¯s Southeast Asia branch hurried to Yingge Hospital in Malaysia. ¡°Besides a heart transplant, there¡¯s a better option available ¨C coronary bypass. This type of surgery is only done in China. We must immediately transport the patient to China via a medical plane. Both options come with very high risk, but comparatively, this is the fastest and safest method,¡± Manager Qiu said to Mr. Guo¡¯s wife, son, and the attending doctor. Mr. Guo¡¯s family agreed right away, trusting the doctor recommended by Anning Insurance based on their previous experience. President Zhu ordered a commissioner from the company to get their signatures and process the necessary paperwork, then immediately arranged for an ambulance to take them to the airport, from where a private jet would transport them to China. Chapter 968 - 968 822 What on Earth is This Ridiculous Thing ?Chapter 968: Chapter 822 What on Earth is This Ridiculous Thing? Chapter 968: Chapter 822 What on Earth is This Ridiculous Thing? After Yang Ping finished the surgery, he asked his team to prepare for an additional emergency coronary bypass. Xia Shu became excited. Complex coronary disease with diffuse distal coronary lesions made coronary bypass surgery extremely difficult. Previously, such cases had no solution in the world until Director Xu from Anzhen invented the technique of venoarterialization for bypass. This type of case could then undergo bypass surgery. Fuwai also gradually started performing this surgery after learning the technique from Director Xu of Anzhen. Professor Yang, so young and having not been in cardiac surgery for long, had already mastered this top-tier technique, and was even performing better than Director Xu himself. Xia Shu was thinking about striving for an opportunity as a second or third assistant when Yang Ping asked: ¡°Xia Shu, do you have any problems being the first assistant?¡± Me, the first assistant? Xia Shu could hardly believe it. He had not been here long and now he had the chance to be the first assistant, and on such a major emergency surgery at that. His confidence was very low; after all, the tasks he performed at Fuwai were mere trivialities. How could it be his turn to be first assistant? Thus, he hesitated greatly. The opportunity was rare and he did not want to miss it, but he was also afraid that his lack of skills would delay the surgery. After weighing it over, Xia Shu finally decided to pass on the opportunity: ¡°I have never been a first assistant before. The surgical risk is too high; I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t handle it.¡± Dr. Song clapped him on the shoulder. ¡°How can a man just admit defeat so easily? Don¡¯t worry, the professor is here to guide you, be a little bold.¡± Yang Ping encouraged him: ¡°Your basic skills are okay, don¡¯t be afraid. I¡¯m here guiding you. If I let you be the first assistant, you should be the first assistant.¡± Xia Shu nodded, his heart pounding. There were so many opportunities here no wonder Dr. Song and Xu Zhiliang were so skilled. Compared to Dr. Song and Xu Zhiliang, Xia Shu, with a doctorate in cardiovascular surgery, felt inferior. He had seen Dr. Song and Xu Zhiliang skillfully performing coronary bypasses on rats. The heart of a rat was so small, Xia Shu tried to follow suit but couldn¡¯t manage it. ¡°Performing surgery is like going to war; you definitely need some battle experience. Battlefield experience is very important. I¡¯ll guide you through it slowly, don¡¯t worry too much. If you are free, follow Dr. Song and Dr. Xu to practice more. Now the conditions are much better; we have a dedicated operating laboratory. You can start practicing on a pig, then use a monkey, followed by a rabbit, and a rat. Think about it¡ªif you can even complete a coronary bypass on a rat¡¯s heart, how could you be afraid of not being able to do it on a human heart so much larger? Any surgery is all about practice making perfect!¡± Yang Ping patiently encouraged him. Encouraged by Yang Ping, Xia Shu felt a bit braver. Just like the demands of being the chief surgeon are completely different from those of an assistant, so too is the difference between being first assistant and other assistants. The first assistant needs to assist the chief surgeon in completing the surgery, and it is the necessary path to becoming the chief surgeon. According to the growth curve of surgery, many surgeries must be accumulated as a first assistant, gaining enough experience to possibly qualify for the chief surgeon position. ¡°Do you know the three major tasks required when joining the department?¡± Yang Ping asked. Dr. Song had recently been too busy participating in stem cell experiments, forgetting to tell Xia Shu, but it was not urgent; these were scheduled after three months. Xia Shu immediately said, ¡°I know, everyone has told me; I¡¯ll endeavor to complete them as soon as possible.¡± The three major departmental tasks: First, draw a life-sized full-view human anatomy diagram, with very detailed anatomical requirements; second; go to Nandu Medical University to dissect an actual cadaver, carefully dissecting every part; third, spend some time in the Trauma Emergency Center and perform trauma surgeries from head to toe. The graduate students had intentionally played a prank on Xia Shu, so they shifted the balcony flower, altering the content, trying to trick him into more interactions with the Head Nurse. Now that he knew, there was no need to repeat it; after all, it was a tradition in the department, and everyone knew it. ¡°You need to urgently complete these tasks thoroughly. Let¡¯s go review the patient¡¯s case files. As soon as the patient arrives, we¡¯ll be performing emergency surgery.¡± Yang Ping warned, as there was no more time to discuss other matters due to the urgency. The medical flight was equipped with a small medical team and the aircraft¡¯s facilities were equivalent to a small Intensive Care Unit. Relatively speaking, this kind of transfer was quite safe. It took over eight hours for Guo Jingyao to be safely delivered to China Sanbo Hospital. Upon arrival at the hospital, he was immediately taken to the general surgery operating room. In less than an hour, Yang Ping led his team to complete the surgery using the venoarterialization technique. He built five bridges for Guo Jingyao to resolve the myocardial blood supply issues, saving his life and avoiding a heart transplant. Meanwhile, several world-leading cardiovascular surgery hospitals contacted by Yingge Hospital, including Cleveland, had not yet produced a specific plan and could only passively wait for a heart transplant. If they had followed their advice, and the heart had not arrived, the patient would have long passed away. When Guo Jingyao¡¯s family and friends subsequently arrived at China Sanbo Hospital, Mr. Guo had already awakened from the surgery and was able to converse normally with his loved ones. Everything seemed like a dream. Just a dozen hours earlier, he was critically ill in the ICU but was now out of danger. His family and friends knew that a medical insurance from a Chinese company had saved Guo Jingyao¡¯s life, causing an immediate explosion of this news in Guo Jingyao¡¯s social circle. The most crucial part was that Guo Jingyao¡¯s type of surgery could only be performed in China, not even in the United States. This exclusivity made the spread of this information tremendously powerful. After understanding the situation, these family and friends were alarmed and immediately sought to contact Anning Insurance¡¯s Southeast Asia branch, hoping to purchase a high-end medical insurance similar to what Guo Jingyao had. In case of any health issues, they could be directly sent to Sanbo Surgical Research Institute for treatment, or invite them to lead the diagnosis. Chapter 969 - 969 822 What on Earth is This Ridiculous Thing ?Chapter 969: Chapter 822 What on Earth is This Ridiculous Thing? Part 2 Chapter 969: Chapter 822 What on Earth is This Ridiculous Thing? Part 2 The news spread rapidly from Guo Jingyao¡¯s close friends and relatives; the ethnic Chinese business community in Southeast Asia is vast. Hearing that purchasing Anning Medical Insurance grants access to these world-class hospital services, they rushed to buy, fearing they might not get this insurance or that they might encounter health problems before managing to secure it. Mr. Guo had a heart condition that even the best cardiac surgery hospitals in the United States had deemed inoperable, advising only a heart transplant. Yet Anning Insurance managed to secure a doctor who performed the procedure. These tycoons learned that the Chinese Surgical Research Institute cooperates exclusively with Anning Insurance, as no other insurance company offers this service. Only Anning Insurance provides this direct service, a unique offering. The amplification of reputation can be terrifying, especially for a giant tycoon like Guo Jingyao in Southeast Asia, whose influence surpasses any celebrity spokesperson. Anning Insurance couldn¡¯t promote this development on the internet, television, or newspapers quickly enough; their hotline was overwhelmed with calls, and their official website crashed at one point. Insurance agents in Southeast Asia were working past their capacity, serving various customers who approached through different channels. Since Anning¡¯s high-end international insurance is currently sold only in Southeast Asia, it can only be purchased there. Not only the Chinese tycoons in Southeast Asia but also Chinese magnates from all around the world rushed to Southeast Asia to buy this insurance. Soon, the news spread beyond the Chinese community, and many top-tier magnates from Europe and the United States, upon confirming the news, didn¡¯t hesitate to fly to Southeast Asia to purchase the insurance. The local agents didn¡¯t need to seek out clients; they just rented suites in hotels to conduct their business. Anning Insurance¡¯s premium medical insurance became known among this wealthy group as a ¡°lifesaving insurance,¡± with Guo Jingyao twice securing his safety through this policy. ¡ª Director Zhu decided to personally visit Boss Cheng at Liquan Hospital. Anning Insurance had now become a hallmark of high-end medical insurance worldwide, and he felt the need to rapidly expand their cooperation with Liquan Hospital. Anning Insurance had already signed a long-term strategic partnership with Liquan Hospital, establishing a direct billing relationship. Thus, customers who purchased Anning Insurance and sought treatment at Liquan Hospital didn¡¯t need to pay upfront; they could receive treatment and undergo surgery, with Anning Insurance settling the costs directly afterwards¡ª a smooth operation flow for premium insurance. Director Zhu planned to assist Liquan Hospital in opening a branch in Singapore, Singapore, gradually progressing to a global presence. The executives at Anning Group strongly supported Director Zhu¡¯s bold decision, allowing him to aggressively explore the market. They were also prepared to entrust him with expanding Anning Medical Insurance¡¯s international operations. Director Zhu, full of confidence and ambition, decided to take Anning Medical Insurance global and firmly secure its top position in the high-end medical insurance market. ¡°Boss Cheng!¡± ¡°President Zhu!¡± In Boss Cheng¡¯s office, the two old friends shook hands firmly. Years ago, they had been colleagues, and now, unexpectedly, they were business partners again, having both started their careers at the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital. Liquan Hospital had achieved world-class standards in both technology and management, and Anning Insurance had penetrated the high-end medical insurance market; their collaboration was a powerhouse union. ¡°Our facilities and amenities are among the best in the world. The new hospital area is about to be launched, and more importantly, our technical support comes from Professor Yang¡¯s original team. Director Zhu nodded in approval: ¡°Our business volume has increased very rapidly recently, almost explosively, and to keep up with this growth, I suggest you open branches in Singapore, Germany, and the United States. If funding is needed, Anning Group is willing to invest.¡± ¡°I was indeed thinking along these lines. High-end healthcare must go global, and it¡¯s uninteresting to always stay local. Germany is the heart of Europe, and we plan to establish our European branch in Frankfurt, Germany, a North American branch in Los Angeles, United States, and a Southeast Asian branch in Singapore.¡± ¡°Our insurance division has the same idea coincidentally; closely integrating insurance with hospitals is our greatest advantage.¡± Excited, Boss Cheng extended his hand, and Director Zhu placed his palm on the back of Cheng¡¯s hand. ¡°Brothers unite!¡± ¡°To the world!¡± ¡ª In Fuji Insurance¡¯s office building in Singapore. Ikuta Takashi sat sternly in his chair, his brows furrowed. In his rivalry with Anning Insurance, he had consistently been at a disadvantage, relentlessly outmaneuvered by Zhu Cheng. The media had extensively promoted Mr. Guo¡¯s rescue incident. The Guo family had publicly stated¡ªMr. Guo was critically ill, and top hospitals worldwide declared that only a heart transplant could save him. However, because he had purchased Anning Medical Insurance, the insurance company urgently flew Mr. Guo to China for emergency surgery. As a result, he received timely treatment, and his condition is now stable. He will soon reappear in public. Since this surgical method is exclusive to Chinese doctors, they expressed deep gratitude to Anning Insurance. This was not the first time they had saved Mr. Guo¡¯s life; he had previously suffered sudden paralysis, and despite consultations with world-leading experts, it was unresolved until Anning Insurance invited a Chinese doctor who quickly diagnosed and timely operated, preventing lifelong paralysis. Chapter 970 - 970 822 What on Earth is This Ridiculous ?Chapter 970: Chapter 822 What on Earth is This Ridiculous Thing?_3 Chapter 970: Chapter 822 What on Earth is This Ridiculous Thing?_3 In the end, the Guo Family publicly paid tribute to Chinese doctors and Anning Insurance. Who is this Mr. Guo? The richest man in Southeast Asia and also a figure of significance in the world. How could they speak recklessly? These people are all wealthy, money is not an issue at all, who values money more than life, they know better than anyone. Therefore, this event is simply a massive advertisement, sweeping across like a hurricane. Anning High-End Medical Insurance has become a hot commodity among the rich, a guarantee of life and health. Throughout the entire history of medical insurance, such a phenomenon has never occurred before. What on earth is this oddity? ¨C A bunch of tycoons rushing to purchase medical insurance! Many tycoons, in their rush to secure this medical resource, also sought out the bosses of Anning Group through various channels, expressing their desire to cooperate, for the Sanbo Surgical Research Institute¡¯s team only accepted cooperation with Anning Group and rejected all other insurance companies outright. This left Ning Qi, the ¡°domineering female CEO,¡± extremely surprised. Formerly difficult partners were now actively knocking on the door for cooperation, and with full sincerity. ¡°Mr. Ikuta!¡± Ikuta Takashi¡¯s subordinates bowed. ¡°What¡¯s the situation now?¡± Ikuta Takashi looked haggard. His subordinate replied awkwardly, ¡°The news outside is all about buying Anning Insurance. We¡¯re far behind. If this continues, our annual turnover won¡¯t even compare to the fraction of Anning¡¯s, and we will be quickly swept aside¡ª.¡± ¡°Enough, it¡¯s all because of that bastard Zhu Cheng.¡± Ikuta Takashi clenched his teeth. He had lost to Zhu Cheng in several confrontations and even considered some bottom-line tactics, but Zhu Cheng had thwarted them all. ¡°Did you find the person I asked you to look for?¡± Ikuta Takashi struggled to keep calm. ¡°Found him, he¡¯s very willing to cooperate with us.¡± The subordinate stood respectfully in front of Ikuta Takashi¡¯s desktop. ¡°Good, I want to go to China to meet this friend. I hear he is Zhu Cheng¡¯s old rival, once dealt Zhu Cheng a crushing defeat?¡± ¡°Yes, Mr. Ikuta. He said¡ªhe has the capability to destroy Zhu Cheng.¡± The subordinate maintained a forward-leaning stance, a respectful aspect of Japanese posture. ¡°Very well, I want to meet this Chinese friend personally. Arrange it.¡± ¡°There¡¯s also important news. Behind the rise of Anning Insurance, a key figure is Professor Yang Ping from China Sanbo Hospital. This young professor is a genius doctor who has published 13 top-tier papers in the last three months. It is because of his support that Anning Insurance has developed so rapidly. The most infuriating part is, he only collaborates with Anning Insurance, utterly disregarding invitations from other insurance companies, including ours. I suggest, our enemy is not just Zhu Cheng, but Professor Yang Ping is even more important¡ª¡± The subordinate obviously had a lot of intelligence on Anning Insurance. Ikuta Takashi lifted his head, pondered for a long time, and then spoke slowly: ¡°Your suggestion is good. I¡¯ve been aware of him for a while. Both Zhu Cheng and he are key figures in Anning. No need to rush. I¡¯ll meet with this Chinese friend first and then make detailed plans, deciding on a strategy afterward. Fuji absolutely cannot fail.¡± ¡°Hai!¡± The subordinate shouted loudly. Fuji Medical Insurance dominates the Southeast Asian market, starting from Southeast Asia and then expanding into the global market. This is not just about medical insurance, but the beginning of the entire company¡¯s massive plan. If they fall at the feet of Anning Group in the first step, then there is no talking about expanding into the global market. Therefore, Ikuta Takashi absolutely cannot allow himself to fail. Chapter 971 - 971 823 Five Steps and Five Hundred Steps ?Chapter 971: Chapter 823: Five Steps and Five Hundred Steps Chapter 971: Chapter 823: Five Steps and Five Hundred Steps Guo Jingyao was soon transferred from the CCU back to a regular ward, and though he could have been moved to the deluxe ward in the Overseas Chinese Building, he feared being too far from Professor Yang and preferred staying in a regular ward. However, the surgery department still arranged for him to be in the only suite. Having narrowly escaped death, he knew it was all thanks to Professor Yang¡¯s team, so he began making donations to Yang Ping¡¯s research fund, and of course, the sums he donated were not small. No amount of money could compare to his life because only if Professor Yang had sufficient research funds could he continue to develop new medical techniques and solve medical mysteries, ultimately benefiting himself as well. The wealthier one is, the more they value their health, especially the older wealthy individuals. Guo Jingyao instructed his son to walk around near the hospital to familiarize himself with the surroundings. He planned to acquire some properties near the hospital and increase his investments in China, deeply feeling that China was his greatest security. President Ning Qi of Anning Group, took time to visit her family business¡¯s partner Mr. Guo, and also to see Yang Ping. Each time she visited, she always brought a box of cookies she had made herself, and each time, she left her assistant and bodyguards downstairs, carrying the delicately crafted cookies by herself to the surgery department. Her beauty, height, and professional demeanor, along with her status as a tycoon company president at just over thirty, always attracted countless gazes. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± She smiled slightly, her smile as refreshing as a spring breeze. ¡°President Ning!¡± Yang Ping looked up and saw the poised female president at the door. ¡°These are some cookies I made, a small token.¡± ¡°You are too kind.¡± ¡°They aren¡¯t well made, and they haven¡¯t improved.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± She placed the cookies on the table and sat down to chat with Yang Ping for a while, sometimes discussing the follow-up condition of his brother, and at other times discussing other matters. Nevertheless, Ning Qi always had a smile on her face. Yang Ping was very busy, but Ning Qi knew how to maintain proper decorum, chatting for just over ten minutes before tactfully excusing herself. After sending off Ning Qi, Yang Ping went to the stem cell laboratory, where Tang Shun and his team were vigilantly posted, day and night. These successful muscle specimens had completed structural analysis and were starting the functional testing phase. Ruixing Company was also hurrying to design and manufacture experimental supporting equipment, such as an artificial heart-lung machine that simulates human circulatory functions. This artificial heart-lung machine was entirely different from those used clinically. Its main function was to perform complete perfusion for cloned organs, and the perfusing fluid was a synthetic nutrient solution mimicking blood. The machine¡¯s various pipelines needed to be able to connect arteries and veins of various sizes, then using the machine to establish a simulated circulation for the organs. Besides the artificial heart-lung machine, supporting equipment also included a neurostimulation device, which could stimulate the newly generated nerves in cloned organs, allowing them to function normally once connected to the human body. Cloning muscle tissue was only the first step; the entire experimental process was extremely complex. After functional testing, the cloned organs had to undergo genetic sequencing to check for any genetic mutations or defects. Finally, this piece of muscle had to be transplanted into a human body to test its survival time within a human. Of course, it wasn¡¯t possible to transplant directly into a human now, so experiments would be conducted on animals to test the organ¡¯s survival time after being integrated into a body. ¡°Professor, look, the tendons at both ends of this muscle are very intact. What we¡¯ve cultivated is a complete composite structure, not just a simple muscle fiber structure, it seems cultivation is advancing faster than biological 3D printing,¡± said Tang Shun, clad in a white coat and gloves, pulling out a piece of muscle, examining it, and then putting it back. Yang Ping, while observing the muscle in the transparent cultivator, said, ¡°Biological 3D printing technology is still limited by the development of physical technology, while cloning technology is not limited by physical technology. However, biological 3D printing technology has a lot to offer, especially for simple organs like skin, cartilage, bone, ligaments, tendons, etc. In the future, biological 3D printing will still have its uses, particularly in transparent cartilage, which has a relatively simple structure without intertwined nerve vessels, allowing for custom shaping that could address medical issues like osteoarthritis and cartilage damage.¡± ¡°Professor, you are really amazing, how can you succeed on your first experiment?¡± Tang Shun was always curious. Yang Ping casually replied, ¡°It¡¯s like playing chess¡ªyou can only see five moves ahead while I can see five hundred.¡± Tang Shun was momentarily speechless, realizing the simple truth. The gap between five and five hundred steps was indeed significant, but in reality, this gap was far greater than just between five and five hundred steps. ¡ª Ikuta Takashi met his long-awaited friend from China in a hotel room, which was uncomfortably dim for him. The curtains were barely pulled open a bit, allowing just a sliver of light in, which made the room seem less dark. ¡°Mr. Wang Ge, I have long heard of you!¡± The wheelchair slowly turned around, and Wang Ge reached out his hand, clasping it with Ikuta Takashi¡¯s. ¡°Please have a seat!¡± Next to the wheelchair, Wang Ge¡¯s younger brother, Wang Jian, invited the guest to sit down. Ikuta Takashi and his subordinate settled onto the chairs, and Ikuta Takashi wasn¡¯t one to beat around the bush: ¡°I traveled all the way from Malaysia especially to meet Mr. Wang, hoping you could help us handle our business opponent¡ªZhu Cheng! Please trust our sincerity,¡± Ikuta Takashi gestured. Chapter 972 - 972 823 Five Steps and Five Hundred Steps_2 ?Chapter 972: Chapter 823: Five Steps and Five Hundred Steps_2 Chapter 972: Chapter 823: Five Steps and Five Hundred Steps_2 Bird Tottori opened a black briefcase, revealing neat stacks of hundred-yen RMB bills. ¡°This is just a token of our first meeting, a small gesture, please Mr. Wang accept it with a smile,¡± Ikuta Takashi stood up and bowed deeply, showing his sincerity. Wang Ge simply gestured for his younger brother to put the money away. ¡°Mr. Ikuta, I must admire your ability to find me, yet I am merely a disabled person struggling with life, how could I possibly help you?¡± Wang Ge purposefully evaded. Ikuta Takashi knew this was just a test of his determination: ¡°Mr. Wang is too modest. Back when Zhu Cheng was a doctor, he was morally corrupt and had disregard for human life. It was Mr. Wang who fearlessly uncovered Zhu Cheng¡¯s monstrous nature and exposed his atrocities for all to see. As a result, Zhu Cheng faced severe punishment. Unfortunately, the scoundrel now finds himself in smooth waters, taking the position of the CEO of Anning Insurance¡¯s Southeast Asian subsidiary, with a yearly salary of ten million, surrounded by beauties and luxury cars, basking in wealth and glory, while you, sir, have fallen into such circumstances, it¡¯s truly¡ª¡± Wang Ge waved his hand, suppressing his anger: ¡°No need to say more. I want to know just how resolute you are in dealing with Zhu Cheng?¡± Whenever Ikuta Takashi mentioned Zhu Cheng¡¯s current situation, Wang Ge was so furious he felt like vomiting blood. Zhu Cheng had become a CEO with an annual salary over ten million, while he was reduced to this state. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. ¡°Mr. Wang, I can candidly say that to take him down, to see him ruined, we will spare no expense. That is our determination¡ªBut you should know, I have no personal grudges against Zhu Cheng. He¡¯s merely a business rival. So I must clarify, taking him down is just a means to an end; my ultimate goal is the total destruction of Anning Insurance¡¯s reputation. Simply defeating him has no value to me. Destroying Anning Insurance¡¯s reputation while taking him down¡ªthat is the result we desire.¡± Since Ikuta Takashi already had preliminary contact with Bird Tottori, he spoke directly about his true intentions. Wang Ge sneered: ¡°Very well, but let me also be clear: I can help you achieve your target, but my target is Zhu Cheng. I have no interest in Anning Insurance. If it¡¯s just about defeating a business rival for you, I¡¯m not interested, and you may leave.¡± ¡°No, Mr. Wang, it seems we have different targets, but actually, they align perfectly. We must destroy Zhu Cheng to have a chance at annihilating Anning Insurance. So essentially, our targets are the same. You can confidently pursue your own goals,¡± Ikuta Takashi said with conviction. ¡°Actually, achieving the target is not difficult. It just requires some time for planning and mobilizing a substantial amount of resources, especially media resources, which demands significant financial backing.¡± ¡°Do not worry about that. Our support is limitless. May I hear your thoughts, Mr. Wang?¡± Wang Ge adjusted the armrests of his wheelchair, sitting up straight. He seemed to have found his life¡¯s value and regained his fighting spirit. Wang Ge pondered for a moment and said: ¡°Do you know where Zhu Cheng¡¯s greatest weakness lies? And what is our biggest advantage?¡± Ikuta Takashi shook his head: ¡°I am slow-witted and haven¡¯t yet found his fatal weakness, nor do I understand what our advantage over Zhu Cheng could be.¡± A sly smile crossed Wang Ge¡¯s face: ¡°His biggest weakness is that he has a bottom line, and our greatest advantage is¡ªwe have no bottom line.¡± ¡°What do you mean by¡ª¡± Ikuta Takashi asked, puzzled. Bird Tottori immediately explained on the side: ¡°Mr. Wang means¡ªZhu Cheng has a conscience, morals that bind him, while I am without conscience, despicable and shameless.¡± Ikuta Takashi turned to look at Bird Tottori, his eyes wide open, wondering how he could speak so bluntly. It was the truth, certainly, but it shouldn¡¯t be said like that. ¡°My apologies, my apologies¡ª¡± Ikuta Takashi said this with a straight face, unblushing and unflinching. ¡°Your friend here is certainly more frank than you. To be honest, if you had found me earlier, you would not have had such a hard time being constantly suppressed by Zhu Cheng.¡± ¡°I am ashamed of my incompetence, but now that I¡¯ve seen the light, I hope for Mr. Wang¡¯s strong support,¡± Ikuta Takashi sighed. ¡°But how exactly do we do it? I¡¯m very interested to know.¡± Ikuta Takashi leaned forward eagerly; Mr. Wang really had a way of speaking to his heart. ¡°Do you know how I brought him to his knees back then? To tell you the truth, I had no personal feud with him. It was a sheer coincidence. I was a reporter who wanted to stand out. What should I do? Only manufacturing sensational news can highlight one¡¯s value. You think I didn¡¯t know the surgery he performed was a regular Colon Stenting Surgery? But I deliberately confused truth and fiction, pretending to be unaware. I wrote as if he left the patient¡¯s intestines out on purpose because they couldn¡¯t pay, making the false seem true. That way, I could stir up the audience¡¯s emotions. Once their emotions are stirred, who cares about right or wrong? And with the patient belonging to vulnerable groups, everyone sympathizes with the weak. We need to exploit this fact. So he became a rat crossing the street, everyone hating and ranting about him. Who would care to investigate the truth? To defeat your opponent, it¡¯s easy: smear Zhu Cheng thoroughly, and then, by association, smear Anning Insurance. The entire plan has to be meticulous; if you do it, do it so that your opponent is caught off guard and unable to fight back,¡± Wang Ge said through gritted teeth. Chapter 973 - 973 823 Five Steps and Five Hundred Steps_3 ?Chapter 973: Chapter 823: Five Steps and Five Hundred Steps_3 Chapter 973: Chapter 823: Five Steps and Five Hundred Steps_3 Bird Tottori was in a difficult position. ¡°But Zhu Cheng doesn¡¯t have any personal stains, it¡¯s hard to get a hold on him.¡± Ikuta Takashi gave his subordinate a disdainful look and said, ¡°If there isn¡¯t one, we¡¯ll create one. Fabricate it out of thin air, understand?¡± Wang Ge gave Ikuta Takashi a thumbs up. ¡°Exactly, if we say there is, there is¡ªthat¡¯s the real skill. Mr. Ikuta, it seems we are cut from the same cloth.¡± Ikuta Takashi shook hands with Wang Ge again. ¡°A match made in heaven! A match made in heaven!¡± ¡°Transfer six million RMB to Mr. Wang¡¯s account as preliminary funds. Three million is a token of our preliminary gratitude, and three million is for operational expenses. This is just our initial investment; we will add more funds as the event progresses. The entire matter is entrusted to Mr. Wang. No matter the cost, as long as the job can be done, we will certainly not treat you unfairly. We promise that the gratitude funds will be over ten million, and we will also invite Mr. Wang to be our company¡¯s lifetime consultant,¡± Ikuta Takashi instructed his subordinate and then turned to speak to Wang Ge. ¡°Also, Mr. Wang should have his own office. Tottori, handle this,¡± Ikuta Takashi sternly ordered his subordinate. Wang Ge nodded. ¡°We must act quickly.¡± ¡°By the way, about this doctor called Yang Ping, we want to take care of him too¡ªwhat do you think?¡± asked Ikuta Takashi. ¡°That¡¯s easy. He¡¯s just a doctor, powerless as a feather, not to be worried about. He is like a vegetable on the chopping board, just one compelling article could ruin him forever. I can take care of it for you in passing,¡± Wang Ge said with a cold laugh. ¡°He¡¯s not an ordinary doctor; he has published 13 papers in CNS, his medical skills are very high.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, no matter how skilled, he¡¯s still just a doctor. Just wait for my good news.¡± Back in the day, Wang Ge started his career by dealing with doctors, and Zhu Cheng was ruined by an article he wrote¡ªonly Zhu Cheng was inexplicably tenacious, refusing to give up even in death. Now, he was the CEO of an insurance company, with resources far beyond those of the past. If the Japanese hadn¡¯t come to him, Wang Ge would have thought he¡¯d never have another chance for revenge. ¡°May we succeed soon!¡± Ikuta Takashi and Wang Ge shook hands once again. After Ikuta Takashi left, Wang Ge¡¯s younger brother said with concern, ¡°Brother, is it too¡ªthat? They are Japanese.¡± ¡°What do you know? Tomorrow, push me to get a haircut and change clothes. Our opportunity has come, and from now on, if you follow your brother, I¡¯ll make someone of you.¡± ¡°But¡ª¡± Wang Jian didn¡¯t continue. ¡ª Although Director Han was the head of the Major Orthopedics Department, he basically didn¡¯t manage affairs anymore. Tan Boyun, the deputy head, took care of everything. Director Han had become a hands-off boss, contentedly drinking tea when free. As for mentoring doctoral students, he only mentored two¡ªYang Ping and Song Zimo¡ªand didn¡¯t plan to take on any more, to save himself from headaches. Originally, Director Han had the opportunity to enter politics, become a hospital dean, and even join the health administration system, but he had refused them all. He was an individualist, valuing his freedom. He was very satisfied with his current lifestyle, sometimes going to orthopedics to guide surgeries when interested and drinking tea or listening to Peking opera in the office when not. Whenever he went to an academic conference or the like, no matter where he went, others would always treat him with great respect. In the field of orthopedics, who wouldn¡¯t know this big shot, and his student was Yang Ping. Director Han had always held a decent position in the world of orthopedics and had good interpersonal relationships. Now, mentoring a doctoral student like Yang Ping put him in a unique position in the orthopedic community. No matter who he met or where he went, he was always seated in the first row of VIP seats, with big shots personally keeping him company. Director Han would also occasionally visit the Surgical Research Institute. Now that Yang Ping had fully matured, he no longer needed help, unlike when he first started, when he relied on Director Han¡¯s presence. In the past, for any high-risk major surgery, Director Han would be there to cheer on Yang Ping and to take responsibility, always ready to sign his own name on the surgery form. Yang Ping would perform the surgery, and if anything went wrong, Director Han was there to take the blame. It was because of this kind of support that Yang Ping was able to stand out so quickly; without those opportunities for surgery, all his skill would have been for naught. ¡°Professor Han!¡± ¡°Professor Han!¡± ¡°Professor Han!¡± All the way down the corridor, every doctor and nurse automatically made way, respectfully calling him ¡®Professor Han¡¯¡ªhe was a mentor figure to many. Director Han nodded and greeted everyone in return. He had come to see Yang Ping, partly to have tea. He and his disciple would have tea and chat every now and then. He also wanted to recommend someone to Yang Ping, Dr. Wen Zhong from Spinal Surgery. This person had always been eager to learn, but Director Qin of Spinal Surgery had always held him back. Both Spinal and Joint Surgery had been lacking suitable candidates for mentorship. Wen Zhong was quite skilled, and Director Han wanted to send him to the General Surgery Department to be mentored by Yang Ping. Wandering around the ward, Director Han saw Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang playing blind Go. Both of them were blindfolded, directing two graduate students to move the pieces, locked in a tight battle. Director Han gestured to the graduate students helping them to avoid interrupting, then sneakily took a piece from each side. As he walked on, Song Zimo said, ¡°Why am I missing a piece?¡± Shortly after, Xu Zhiliang also said, ¡°I¡¯m missing one over here too.¡± The graduate students said, ¡°You¡¯re not missing any!¡± Both of them said at the same time, ¡°Impossible, there definitely is one missing, or why would there be a gap here?¡± Director Han gestured again for the graduate students to replace the pieces, then stealthily walked away. Xia Shu didn¡¯t recognize Director Han, but seeing everyone greeting him respectfully, she followed suit and quietly asked someone, ¡°Who is that?¡± ¡°Professor Yang¡¯s mentor!¡± Professor Yang¡¯s mentor! Xia Shu immediately behaved more respectfully¡ªMaster! Mentor! Grandmaster! ¡°Teacher¡ª¡± Yang Ping respectfully welcomed Director Han into the room. Yang Ping used to call him Old Han or Director Han, but as his own status rose, he started addressing Director Han simply as ¡®teacher¡¯. Director Han nodded. Chapter 974 - 974 824 Theyre All Ruthless Characters ?Chapter 974: Chapter 824: They¡¯re All Ruthless Characters Chapter 974: Chapter 824: They¡¯re All Ruthless Characters Guo Jingyao, a magnate from Southeast Asia, inquired with doctors and nurses about houses for sale in the vicinity, and they pointed out several properties to him. The gentleman mentioned he wanted to buy a house near the hospital, but ended up purchasing an entire real estate project. Next to it, a property development had stalled due to the developer¡¯s lack of funding, leaving the building unfinished. The helpless residents who had already paid could only express their rights by hanging banners everywhere. After his son toured the property and found it satisfactory, he came back to discuss it with his father, who said they should just buy it, invest in it, and develop it well, and that was Mr. Guo¡¯s way of buying a house. The existence of a willing buyer for such an unfinished project delighted both parties, and they hurried to negotiate and sign a contract, fearing the buyer might have second thoughts. Guo Jingyao hadn¡¯t expected things to go so smoothly and, keen for good luck, he immediately signed the contract. He placed great importance on the development of this property since he himself would frequently stay there in the future. How could he not care? ¡ª August returned to Germany, ready to make a name for himself¡ªadopting the Yang-style surgical method for correcting spinal scoliosis, promoting external fixation frame technology for spine correction, and initiating research into the application of the Precise Epiphyseal Arrest Technique in spinal scoliosis correction. Sitting in his office after being away for several months, he realized, to his surprise, that he was somewhat uncomfortable adjusting back to life in Germany. ¡°Mr. August!¡± Assistant Markus updated him on the department¡¯s work over the past few months and the latest developments in European spinal surgery. August glanced at the few pennants on the wall. In stark contrast to the photos sent by the Luo brothers, whose office and even corridors were filled with pennants, his own office looked quite modest. He felt ashamed of his meager collection of pennants. ¡°Why are there only so few pennants? Didn¡¯t I ask you to think of something?¡± August was far from satisfied. Markus appeared helpless. ¡°I really tried my best. These were given by a few Chinese patients after I called for follow-ups. Other patients didn¡¯t understand the meaning, so instead, they sent cakes, resulting in us eating cake for several months.¡± As an honest young man, August knew the situation and couldn¡¯t say much else. The pennants were a complete loss to the Luo brothers. As August walked through the department, he realized that Markus was the only one proficient in Chinese. The others in the department had not taken the initiative to learn, with each person only casually memorizing a few or a dozen Chinese characters. Almost everyone complained it was difficult to learn Chinese, saying that it had taken them months of their spare time to learn just those few characters. Clearly, the initiative to learn Chinese was also a resounding failure, darkening August¡¯s mood even further. ¡°Mr. August, I¡¯m sorry to say, Chinese is just too difficult to learn. I supervise them daily, but they still can¡¯t grasp this ancient and complex language. Currently, I¡¯m the only one who has learned Chinese, and I have already mastered over four thousand characters with no barriers to speaking, listening, reading, and writing.¡± Markus was earnest; he had enrolled in a Chinese language course and studied for three hours every evening after work. After all this time, he had mastered four thousand characters and could communicate without any issues. ¡°You¡¯re doing well. I wish everyone were like you.¡± August took a deep breath, resolving to boost his team¡¯s morale; they needed to pick themselves up from where they had fallen. ¡°Markus, we need to take action. Starting tomorrow, hire an excellent Chinese teacher to come to the hospital and teach a two-hour Chinese class every evening. We¡¯ll have a short quiz every week and a major test monthly. Anyone failing the tests will be removed from our team. Starting tomorrow, the Chinese classes will be under military-style management; everyone must pass each lesson¡¯s content, and those who don¡¯t will have to stay for remedial lessons afterward,¡± August declared with typical German resolve. ¡°Three months¡ªthat¡¯s all I¡¯m giving you. I want everyone to master at least four thousand Chinese characters. Anyone not meeting this standard should leave Harald immediately. It¡¯s an order,¡± August said with a firm tone. ¡°I will contact a Chinese teacher tomorrow,¡± Markus responded, ready to take action. ¡°No, contact one today,¡± August ordered sternly. ¡°I want to see a neat lineup at tomorrow¡¯s Chinese class.¡± ¡°I¡¯m on it right away!¡± Markus knew Mr. August was serious this time; he had never seen August look so grim, so he didn¡¯t dare be sloppy. ¡°And about the pennants¡ª¡± August continued. Understanding August¡¯s goals and determination, Markus quickly suggested, ¡°I¡¯ll set up an automatic message on your appointment line. Every patient who books an appointment with you will hear a prompt¡ª¡¯Please present a pennant to Mr. August¡¯s office in exchange for a free appointment voucher.¡¯ For the pennant template and to mail the free voucher, please contact the pennant commissioner at Mr. August¡¯s office. This is currently the only way to schedule an appointment with Doctor August.¡± ¡°Good! You have three months. I want to see the entire office and the corridors filled with pennants,¡± August commanded, both strict and confident. ¡°Understood, Mr. August. Please trust us!¡± Markus replied decisively. ¡ª Xiao Su¡¯s routine prenatal checkup time arrived, and Yang Ping accompanied her to Sanbo Hospital. Both mother and child were very healthy. After word spread in Yang Ping¡¯s circle of friends that the professor¡¯s wife was pregnant, everyone started pondering what gifts to bring for the professor¡¯s son. Chapter 975 - 975 824 Theyre All Ruthless Characters_2 ?Chapter 975: Chapter 824: They¡¯re All Ruthless Characters_2 Chapter 975: Chapter 824: They¡¯re All Ruthless Characters_2 The due date is still far off, but friends are already getting restless, fearing they¡¯ll fall behind and miss out on everything when the time comes. Boss Cheng has already started making arrangements to buy organic formula from Germany, the kind that¡¯s high-end and customized. August directly said to Boss Cheng, ¡°You¡¯re going to Germany for formula? What¡¯s that supposed to mean, if it¡¯s not bullying? As if I can¡¯t buy it? I¡¯ll pick a few cows from the organic formula company¡¯s dairy farm and lock them in exclusively for Professor Yang¡¯s son¡¯s formula.¡± Boss Cheng said, ¡°You can¡¯t just be shameless like that. If you provide the formula, what should I provide?¡± Old August declared, ¡°That settles it, you just take care of the baby bottles.¡± Ivan from faraway New Zealand was closely monitoring the situation and chuckled when he heard the news. ¡°You¡¯re talking about formula? Since when do Germans have a say in that? I¡¯ll just buy the formula company and the dairy farm in New Zealand, and then what business is it of yours?¡± Hermes, the boss of Changxin Mining, said he runs a gold mine, so he should give something special for Professor Yang¡¯s happy occasion. Apart from the traditional gold bracelets and chains, he¡¯d craft a gold baby crib inlaid with diamonds. For the love of God, Yang Ping hurriedly intervened¡ªit¡¯s heavy metal at the end of the day, not suitable for babies; and diamonds, those granules, are you sure they are safe for infants? ¡°What if I wrap the gold and diamonds inside solid wood, would that be alright?¡± Yang Ping was rendered speechless in an instant. Huang Jiahui said she¡¯d take care of all the clothes, while Huang Jiacai had already had engineers start designing a baby carriage with medical-grade materials, 3D-printed components formed in one go, heaps of engineers, a top-tier flexible production line¡ªhow could they not handle a baby carriage? The news spread fast, and now the international groups are abuzz with talk about this big event. Takahashi was extremely anxious and had to speak up or he¡¯d be left out, ¡°Diapers, diapers, diapers¡ªI¡¯ll say it thrice because it¡¯s important. The diapers are mine.¡± When Robert heard that everyone was dividing up the baby¡¯s needs, he said, ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll take care of the little guy¡¯s extracurricular activities¡ªbasketball, soccer, boxing, you name it, I¡¯ve got it covered. Nobody should try to compete with me. I¡¯ll arrange the coaches. Just try to stop me, kiddo!¡± The brothers in the group were dumbfounded¡ªwho could possibly compete with him? All these sports stars around the world were his pals. Getting them to teach a class would just be a matter of minutes. Ning Qi, the formidable CEO of Anning Group, had long been in the know. She said she wanted to be the child¡¯s godmother. Yang Ping was at a loss for words¡ªbig sister, you¡¯re not even married, and you want to be a godmother? Ning Qi wasn¡¯t pleased. ¡°So I can¡¯t be a mom to your child because I¡¯m unmarried? Who says you have to be married to be a mother to your child?¡± Alright then, you folks are all tough cookies. ¡ª The experiment¡¯s progress was incredibly fast, moving forward step by step without any hiccups. The muscle function tests had been completed. The muscle fibers¡¯ contractions were normal, only the muscle strength wasn¡¯t enough yet. But after all, it was a cultured piece of muscle¡ªthese could be improved with technical means later on. Next, the plan was to transplant this piece of muscle onto a human body for testing, and only then did Doctor Tang realize they were dealing with real human muscle, necessitating direct human trials. But normally, the procedure should start with animal experiments before moving to human trials. However, this experiment had skipped straight to cultivating human muscle. This put Doctor Tang in a tough position. Was he supposed to go back and conduct animal experiments again? That couldn¡¯t be right. Finding the ¡°Spatial Orientation Gene¡± would be extremely difficult. Professor Yang might have been lucky to lock onto the segment that happened to be the spatial orientation gene. Switching species now would, surely, not bring the same luck. The only option was to apply for human trials, which would take an incredibly long time. Apart from the normal application process, they had to wait for the right case. But it was still faster than restarting the experiment with a different species. Tang Shun reported this intelligence to Yang Ping, who didn¡¯t want to waste time on this. After thinking it over, he said, ¡°Alright, prepare for the animal experiment first, using pigs. I¡¯ll deduce the pig gene segment and let you know.¡± Tang Shun came to Yang Ping to apply for human trials but, to save time, the professor decided to switch to using pigs for experiments. Could Professor Yang deduce gene segments through logical reasoning that quickly? Or did he have some formula to apply, keeping it a secret for now? Tang Shun didn¡¯t feel it was appropriate to pry. Logically, it would take several months to set up the human trials and find a case, but finding the spatial orientation gene in pig muscle would take years, even with exotic screening methods as a reference. Winning the top prize in the lottery once might seem impossible, there couldn¡¯t possibly be a second time. Yet, the next day, Yang Ping handed him a brand new piece of A4 paper that indeed contained the pig¡¯s spatial orientation gene, along with methods to activate and deactivate it. Unable to contain his curiosity, Tang Shun asked, ¡°Professor, how did you come to this conclusion?¡± ¡°Deduction and calculation!¡± Yang Ping answered. Deduction and calculation? There surely must be some formula-like method that could pinpoint specific genes, as this approach seemed to lock onto the spatial orientation gene. Tang Shun wanted to ask more, but then he thought if Yang Ping had wanted to share, he would have done so without being asked. Since he hadn¡¯t disclosed it, there were probably two reasons for his reticence. Secrecy or the theory was too profound, beyond his comprehension, rendering any explanation pointless. Clearly, the latter was more likely. Perhaps the theory was indeed too profound, beyond his understanding, just like Einstein¡¯s theory of relativity which was comprehensible to only a few in the world. ¡°We must prepare the paper immediately after the experiment concludes, so we need to hasten the preparations for our journal as well, including deciding on a name as soon as possible.¡± Yang Ping planned to publish the paper in his own journal, even if the first issue ended up containing only one article, he wouldn¡¯t change his plan. Dean Xia and Director Han¡¯s efforts in obtaining a publication number were already bearing fruit, and the journal registration would soon be settled. Dean Xia noticed that ever since Yang Ping got the Hongqi sedan, everything at Sanbo Hospital had been running incredibly smoothly. For instance, securing the publication number for the journal came with hardly any effort. Dean Xia, who had braced himself for a challenge, was surprised when all departments gave the green light. The influence of the Hongqi sedan was indeed formidable! Dean Xia had to admit. ¡°We¡¯ve collected a lot of potential names, but I still think Medicine or Medicine and Biology are more appropriate. Everyone¡¯s opinions are quite similar. I believe Medicine is the most suitable. It¡¯s succinct.¡± Tang Shun was the chairman of the preparatory committee for the journal. Of course, once the journal was officially established, a sign would be added at the main entrance: Medical Journal Editorial Department. ¡°Professor, are you sure you want to publish the journal in Chinese?¡± Tang Shun wanted to confirm again because, after all, English is the mainstream international language, and using only Chinese would surely affect the journal¡¯s impact. Yang Ping nodded firmly: ¡°Yes, in Chinese!¡± ¡°Do we need bilingual editions or dual language publications?¡± Dr. Tang¡¯s question was actually a suggestion. Yang Ping shook his head firmly: ¡°No need, just Chinese is fine. The purpose of the journal is to record and proclaim scientific research results to the world; it is merely a tool.¡± ¡°Understood! I¡¯ll arrange a vote to decide on the journal name at a convenient time.¡± Tang Shun was ready to take his leave. Yang Ping called him back: ¡°Dr. Tang, there¡¯s another thing. This weekend you have to attend a seminar. The Human Resources Department is preparing a love and relationships seminar for eligible young men and women of the hospital, and they want you to be the keynote speaker, to discuss how to love and choose a partner. It¡¯s a benefit provided by the Human Resources Department to the hospital.¡± ¡°Me? That doesn¡¯t seem quite appropriate,¡± Dr. Tang felt somewhat caught off guard. ¡°Absolutely appropriate, don¡¯t worry,¡± Yang Ping said casually. ¡°They are all people with genuine needs. Try to give them some practical advice.¡± ¡°I¡¯m really busy at the moment, I¡¯d need to prepare a speech,¡± Tang Shun tried to decline. Yang Ping was full of confidence in him: ¡°No problem, no need for a speech. Just share your experiences, a few tips will be enough to benefit them for life.¡± ¡°Professor?¡± Tang Shun still wanted to say something. Yang Ping patted his shoulder: ¡°Dr. Tang, we must be kind-hearted. Prepare yourself; I¡¯ve already promised the head of Human Resources. Remember to make some time for it, think of it as a way to give your brain a rest.¡± Professor, you really know how to utilize people. Indeed, I, Tang Shun, have some practical knowledge. But do you know that most of the single people in our hospital are female, not male? This doesn¡¯t quite match up. Chapter 976 - 976 825 How Could There Not Be Failures ?Chapter 976: Chapter 825 How Could There Not Be Failures Chapter 976: Chapter 825 How Could There Not Be Failures PS: This is still a draft, please don¡¯t read it yet, it¡¯s being revised! August¡¯s method really worked, the Germans¡¯ discipline, seriousness, and ambition were commendable. In the first Chinese language training class, everyone was present and every one of them studied diligently. The few who did not pass were kept back and received individual coaching from the teacher until twelve at night before they could go home. As the leading master of spinal surgery in continental Europe, August had more than enough appeal. No one wanted to leave Harald, to leave such an excellent department. It was like the allure of Peking Union Medical College Hospital to doctors and nurses in China. Not to mention Xiehe, everyone would use any necessary means to squeeze into even a Provincial Hospital, so why would they resign lightly? Likewise, August¡¯s Spinal Surgery department was the strongest in Europe, and both doctors and nurses were willing to stay there, not only to learn more professional knowledge but also for the sense of professional honor. Moreover, August had positioned the study of Chinese as a competition with the Americans. No one wanted to lose face; everyone was very engaged and earnest, fighting for honor. The Germans¡¯ seriousness unleashed boundless potential, and they had their own unique methods of learning. August requested Tang Shun for technical support, knowing well that Tang Shun was experienced in teaching Chinese. Tang Shun had long washed his hands of the matter and retreated from the world, but he decided to lend a hand to this very sincere friend. Taking into account the characteristics of Germans, Tang Shun scrapped his previous teaching methods, using a new method that combined graphic memory with the logic of character formation. He graded four thousand Chinese characters according to frequency of use into five levels, then taught them level by level until each was mastered. For these five levels of characters, Tang Shun created five huge mind maps, that is, he connected the characters using the intrinsic logic of character formation via mind maps. First, they learned pictograms, dispensing with all the details like stroke order and instead memorized and recognized each pictogram like a picture, which was very easy for Germans to accept. Then they progressed from pictograms to semantically extended radicals, ideograms, and phono-semantic compounds, especially the numerous phono-semantic characters. Once they mastered the patterns, learning one character could extend to a whole category of characters. Germans quite liked this method of learning through graphics and logic. In the end, for each Chinese character, they also found a German word with the closest meaning for explanation. After mastering characters, they moved on to words, again employing the logic of word formation, making the learning process very suitable for the precise German way of thinking, and so they enjoyed it and learned quickly. Upon learning that the Germans were working overtime to study Chinese, Robert on the other side of the Atlantic was not the least bit flustered. ¡°The Germans are really stupid!¡± Robert had no respect for the German methods. But his assistant Barel was very anxious, ¡°What should we do, big brother Robert?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Barel. When I tell everyone that they¡¯ll earn a hundred US dollars for each Chinese character, they will be very eager to learn. If I say two hundred US dollars for each character, everyone will certainly cancel all unnecessary activities. I¡¯ll raise the price to three hundred US dollars per character, and they¡¯ll surely learn day and night, forgetting about sleep and even dreaming about studying. Finally, if I tell you that anyone who passes the Chinese Level Four exam within six months will receive a million US dollars, and for the Level Six exam, two million US dollars, furthermore, the first to pass will get double the prize money, what would you do?¡± ¡°Is this really true, big brother Robert?¡± Barel said, excited. Robert declared generously, ¡°This reward system takes effect immediately, please issue a formal notice to everyone.¡± ¡°Sorry, big brother Robert, but including myself, starting from tomorrow no one will come to work. Can I take a half-year vacation?¡± Barel asked earnestly. Robert had to add one more condition, ¡°Of course, only if it¡¯s on the condition that regular work is guaranteed.¡± ¡°That¡¯s easy to do. I¡¯ll hire a capable person at my own expense to cover my job until I win the prize money, that¡¯s the plan.¡± Barel would not miss such an opportunity. ¡°Goodbye, sir, I need to go study Chinese now¡ª¡± ¡°Barel?¡± ¡ª In a villa in the suburbs, Wang Ge had already set up his own office. He would seize this excellent opportunity. After much thought, he had already come up with a preliminary plan. Firstly, he would start with the individual Zhu Cheng, smearing and destroying his reputation by judging him from a moral high ground. Then from this breach, he would leak a large amount of scandalous information about Anning Insurance. Lastly, he would implicate Yang Ping. Of course, all of this required careful planning, with the so-called scandals meticulously fabricated to appear as real as possible. Most importantly, it was critical to drive public emotion, connecting each link in the chain until it became a powerful trend, at which point no one would be able to save them. ¡°Mr. Wang, your plan is very good.¡± Ikuta Takashi thought this guy was truly dark, shameless, and despicable. Seeing the plan, he felt fortunate to have found such a capable person. ¡°If Mr. Ikuta trusts me, please try to visit here as seldom as possible to avoid unnecessary trouble.¡± In doing such things, Wang Ge still believed the more secretive, the better. Being too closely associated with Ikuta Takashi could easily cause complications. ¡°Certainly, not to interfere with Mr. Wang¡¯s work, we will try not to meet in the future. If you need assistance, contact us anytime.¡± Ikuta believed leaving the task to him was very reassuring. Chapter 977 - 977 825 How Could There Not Be Failed Cases_2 ?Chapter 977: Chapter 825 How Could There Not Be Failed Cases_2 Chapter 977: Chapter 825 How Could There Not Be Failed Cases_2 Wang Ge¡¯s brother Wang Jian had been collecting intelligence outside, which he then reported to Wang Ge. ¡°So far, Anning Insurance Industry hasn¡¯t had any negative news burst out, Zhu Cheng is a very upright person, and there haven¡¯t been any scandals associated with him. As for Yang Ping¡¯s surgery, there hasn¡¯t been any dispute heard of¡ª¡± Wang Ge listened quietly to the report, because if he could find some flames to fan, things could progress much faster. ¡°Zhu Cheng is currently highly valued by the Anning Group, having become the head of their entire international business. Yang Ping is also highly favored at Sanbo Hospital. Sanbo Hospital has recently set up a security room on their floor. This doctor is highly regarded by the leadership of Sanbo Hospital; it won¡¯t be easy,¡± Wang Jian reported. Wang Ge sneered, ¡°These are all superficial observations. Once something happens, the dean, to protect his own position, will certainly compromise and sacrifice the doctor as a pawn. So, don¡¯t think he is so valued by the hospital. No matter how valued, it¡¯s not as important as the dean¡¯s position. You say the hospital has set up a security room for him? That means there must be potential disputes, otherwise why suddenly set up a security room? It¡¯s not possible that there are no disputes at all. Do you think he is a miracle healer?¡± ¡°From what I¡¯ve found out, their department indeed performs high-difficulty, high-risk surgeries, but I really haven¡¯t discovered any dispute cases. Since they were established, there has not been a single failure case,¡± Wang Jian stated truthfully. Wang Ge didn¡¯t believe it, ¡°How is that possible? Is he a miracle doctor? If there weren¡¯t any disputes, why strengthen security recently? Go check again; there must be an issue.¡± Wang Ge knew this game well¡ªhow could a doctor have no failed cases? As long as there were failed cases, there would be disputes. Even the smallest spark, he could fan into a blaze. Upon hearing about the hospital setting up a security room and tightening security, Wang Ge¡¯s heart showed a hint of a smile. That was where the problem lay; there must have been signs of a dispute recently, which was why the hospital acted this way. Otherwise, why bother setting up a dedicated security room, why bother enhancing any security. ¡ª In the Ruixing Headquarters office of Huang Jiacai. Director Zhu, Boss Cheng, and Huang Jiacai were sitting together. ¡°Ikuta Takashi really did contact Wang Ge. He has now left the rental house and found an office in the suburbs,¡± Zhu Cheng said. Huang Jiacai nodded slightly, ¡°I knew he was capable of that. Keep monitoring his whereabouts, especially his interactions with the Japanese. Spare no effort in gathering evidence.¡± Zhu Cheng said, ¡°He¡¯s very cautious; it¡¯s hard for us to collect complete evidence. However, we have already obtained a recording of their conversation on that day. He has already moved, and we have located his new place, which we¡¯ll continue to keep under surveillance.¡± ¡°We must collect as much evidence as possible, don¡¯t be hampered by the means. Even if we don¡¯t have complete evidence, we can fabricate it,¡± Director Zhu said to his subordinate Xiao Zheng. Xiao Zheng was handpicked and cultivated by Director Zhu, extremely loyal to him. After Director Zhu became the president, Xiao Zheng became his right-hand man. ¡°?¡± Xiao Zheng shook his head. ¡°Because we have moral boundaries, and he has none. Therefore, in this struggle, we will always lose; it¡¯s impossible for us to win. To deal with such a person, we need to open our minds, to fight fire with fire, to be more ruthless and merciless than he is, and to stop at nothing. Moreover, as a traitor, a scumbag, such a person deserves to be executed by everyone.¡± Director Zhu, who had finally achieved his status today, couldn¡¯t possibly let himself be destroyed by that man again. Today¡¯s Director Zhu was no longer the Director Zhu of the past. In dealing with someone like Wang Ge, he had completely changed his approach and would not let himself be baselessly smeared and destroyed by his relentless tactics as before. ¡°I understand,¡± said Xiao Zheng. ¡°Old Zhu, do you know why you were smeared and destroyed by him in the past?¡± Huang Jiacai asked a pointed question. Director Zhu shook his head. Huang Jiacai said with a laugh, ¡°Because you had moral boundaries, and he had none. So, in this struggle, you¡¯d always lose; it¡¯s impossible for you to win. To deal with such a person, you need to free your mind, to fight fire with fire, to be more ruthless and venomous than he is, and to stop at nothing. Moreover, facing a traitor, a pariah, such a person deserves to be executed by everyone.¡± ¡°President Huang, what do you mean?¡± Director Zhu really wanted to know Huang Jiacai¡¯s thoughts. Huang Jiacai was holding an unlit cigar, which, of course, was never lit and used only for show. ¡°If there¡¯s no evidence, we can fabricate it. If I say he is guilty, he must be. I¡¯ve already sent people to monitor his movements. I¡¯ve wiretapped his phone, mobile, and email. Lately, he¡¯s been active, contacting many media outlets and secretly investigating the professor¡¯s patients. This guy¡¯s intentions are darker than you imagine.¡± ¡°Let me play you a recording,¡± he said. Huang Jiacai clapped his hands, and an assistant came in; he whispered a few words to the assistant. A middle-aged man carried in a briefcase and then opened it to reveal something like a tape recorder. A recording began to play; it was the very clear content of the meeting between Ikuta Takashi and Wang Ge. ¡°So, this time he¡¯s not messing around; he¡¯s preparing to meticulously plot a conspiracy that will put you and Anning Insurance in a dire situation. I believe he has the capability.¡± ¡°What do we do now?¡± ¡°Quite simple; if we continue to follow this, the scandal is sure to be quite valuable,¡± Huang Jiacai continued. ¡ª Yang Ping¡¯s laboratory work was progressing very quickly, possibly due to some kind of ¡°ripening agent¡± added within. Stem cells extracted from pigs were soon cultured into a piece of muscle tissue, and the success rate had significantly increased this time¡ªup from just under 50% to over 60%, and thanks to cost-sharing, hardly any money was spent. With the pig muscle available, it was now possible to conduct animal experiments. In the corner of the auxiliary building, animal experiments were conducted, and Nandu Medical University¡¯s animal department was ready to provide experimental pigs at any time. Moreover, Dean Xia had been extremely efficient in converting the third floor of this building into an animal laboratory, particularly with the soundproofing and air treatment measures, ensuring that the occasional pig squeal wouldn¡¯t disturb the neighborhood, and the smell of pig manure wouldn¡¯t spread too far. The scale of the laboratory also surprised Tang Shun; this kind of animal experiment was investing in 30 pigs at one time. ¡ª Xia Shu was feeling anxious. Yang Ping had also reminded him to hurry up and complete a few tasks for joining the department, but the head nurse was always too busy. Yet the graduate students said that bringing takeout bubble tea didn¡¯t count; he had to invite the head nurse to the store to sit and drink for it to count. Having no choice, Xia Shu had to send a WeChat message every day¡ªinviting the head nurse for bubble tea. The perseverance shown by Xia Shu finally moved the head nurse, and she agreed to his invitation. Chapter 978 - 978 826 I Will Personally Mentor This Doctor ?Chapter 978: Chapter 826: I Will Personally Mentor This Doctor Chapter 978: Chapter 826: I Will Personally Mentor This Doctor As the Department Director, Yang Ping found it necessary to show concern for new staff, so he took time out of his schedule to talk to Xia Shu and asked if he was adapting well to the work environment at Sanbo Hospital. Xia Shu believed he adapted very well and confidently said, ¡°Professor, regarding the three things for newbies you mentioned, first, sending out red packets in the group, I sent quite a few and everyone was very satisfied. Second, drawing the human anatomy diagram, I can finish that very soon and will trouble you, Professor, to see if it¡¯s acceptable. Third, inviting the Head Nurse for Heytea, I did that too, but she¡¯s still not satisfied, so I have to continue inviting.¡± Yang Ping was utterly baffled by his response, ¡°Did Song Zimo tell you about these three things?¡± Gratefully, Xia Shu said, ¡°It wasn¡¯t Dr. Song who said it. Before Dr. Song could tell me, everyone else did, and they were very enthusiastic. They also urged me to complete these three tasks as soon as possible.¡± ¡°Everyone told you? Oh¡ªXia Shu, you¡¯re still single, right?¡± Yang Ping, sensing something amiss, asked. Xia Shu nodded, ¡°When I was at Fuwai, I had no time for dating, so¡ªI¡¯m ashamed to say.¡± Yang Ping instantly understood what was going on and coughed a few times, saying, ¡°I see, I¡¯ll make time to review that anatomy diagram, and as for treating the Head Nurse to Heytea, you must do a good job of that. The Head Nurse works hard and looks after everyone attentively, especially the newly arrived doctors like you, so you must put in effort to frequently invite her for Heytea.¡± ¡°Right, I¡¯m inviting her every day now, just not sure how long it will take until the Head Nurse is satisfied,¡± Xia Shu expressed his dilemma. Yang Ping said seriously, ¡°Actually, this task is to train your patience, otherwise, why would such a strange task be set up? So, don¡¯t be hasty, you must be patient, insisting on inviting her every day, persistence is what matters.¡± Xia Shu earnestly replied, ¡°I understand!¡± ¡°Many people reflect on the Head Nurse being too strict, do you feel the same?¡± Yang Ping inquired. After thinking for a moment, Xia Shu responded, ¡°No, she¡¯s very lively and approachable.¡± ¡°Xia Shu, in a few days our hospital will be participating in a charity event outside, and each department is to send one doctor and one nurse. You¡¯re new here and should familiarize yourself with this environment. I¡¯ve decided to send you and the Head Nurse together, how does that sound?¡± ¡°I will follow the arrangements,¡± Xia Shu had no objections. Later, Yang Ping tasked Xia Shu with making use of the experimental pigs for some heart surgery after a recent animal experiment involving 20 experimental pigs, ensuring not to waste these pigs. Finally, Yang Ping instructed Xia Shu to go out for the charity event, to learn how to get along with colleagues, and to take good care of them. Xia Shu assured, ¡°Professor, rest assured, I¡¯ll take good care of my colleagues.¡± After Xia Shu left, Yang Ping immediately called Song Zimo, ¡°Change the list for the charity event, send Xia Shu and Head Nurse Cai.¡± Song Zimo was puzzled as to why the Professor suddenly proposed changing the list¡ªthe list had already been submitted. How could the Head Nurse have the time to go? ¡°Change it even if it has been reported?¡± ¡°Professor, what¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°It¡¯s rare that Xia Shu is single, and the Head Nurse is so dedicated to the department. We can¡¯t always keep her single, right?¡± ¡°Hahaha¡ªokay, okay!¡± Song Zimo promptly carried out the instructions, rushing to the administrative office to find the clerk to change the list. Xia Shu was in high spirits, feeling affirmed by the Professor and grateful for the many opportunities given. This truly was a great place. ¡°Dr. Xia, did you forget to order food on your phone?¡± the Head Nurse asked Xia Shu upon noticing him. Xia Shu slapped his forehead, too busy with surgery to remember to order food. ¡°No worries, I¡¯ve ordered for you. If you often forget, I can order for you from now on,¡± offered the Head Nurse kindly. ¡°Thank you, Head Nurse. How about we have Heytea after work?¡± Basking in the Head Nurse¡¯s kindness, Xia Shu felt refreshed. ¡°Sure!¡± ¡°Why is there a button missing from your white gown?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, it must have fallen off.¡± ¡°You, go and change, and give this one to me. I¡¯ll fix a button on it for you. Professor Zhang would scold you if he saw it.¡± ¡°Thank you, Head Nurse.¡± Doctors and nurses in the hallway covered their mouths, wanting to laugh but not daring to. ¡ª The experiment with 20 pigs was actually considered a large scale, and the staff from Nandu Medical University Animal Department were overwhelmingly busy. The remodeled animal experimental building had an astonishing capacity for experiments, now allowing for many surgeries to take place simultaneously rather than one at a time. However, to ensure there wouldn¡¯t be any sample bias, Yang Ping decided to conduct the surgeries on one pig at a time, entrusting Song Zimo to be the Chief Surgeon for each surgery and to control the anesthesia time for each pig as consistently as possible. By doing so, both the quality of surgery and anesthesia time would be closely matched, avoiding significant sample deviation. The young doctors in the department were thrilled, especially the Intern Doctors, Standardized Training Students, and Graduate Students. Once the experiments on the 20 pigs were done, they would be perfect material for them to practice on. With so many pigs, they were sure to get a chance to be the Chief Surgeon; the thought of leading a surgery filled them with a sense of achievement. They began planning which surgeries they would lead; many wanted to perform Muscle Transplant Surgery, taking muscle from the left side and transplanting it to the right and vice versa. Though Muscle Transplant Surgery wasn¡¯t major, it was still an Organ Transplant Surgery. Normally, they wouldn¡¯t even get the chance to stitch, and now they could actually play the role of Chief Surgeon in an organ transplant surgery. Who wouldn¡¯t be ecstatic? Chapter 979 - 979 826 I Will Personally Mentor This Doctor_2 ?Chapter 979: Chapter 826: I Will Personally Mentor This Doctor_2 Chapter 979: Chapter 826: I Will Personally Mentor This Doctor_2 Of course, before the animal experiments, these doctors had already undergone rigorous training and had been assessed on the entire surgical procedure, preventing students from recklessly wasting experimental materials. Song Zimo was to perform 20 surgeries in succession, a task that was extremely taxing. The staff employed an assembly-line approach, ensuring seamless transitions between surgeries. On average, Song Zimo spent just over ten minutes per pig, which meant that it took him over six hours to complete all the surgeries. Twenty pieces of muscle were transplanted onto the pigs. Such transplants were akin to autografts since the organs were cloned from their own pluripotent stem cells, thereby eliminating any risk of immune rejection and obviating the need for anti-rejection treatment. After the muscle transplant surgery, it was necessary to collect a large amount of experimental data. Therefore, the pigs were regularly captured for various checks, such as determining vital signs, drawing blood for tests, electromyography, and so on. In short, the more detailed the data collected, the better. When it comes to structure and function, muscle, as an organ, is much simpler than the heart, liver, kidneys, and the like, but it contains all the characteristics of an organ. Being able to clone a piece of muscle meant opening the door to clone organs individually. Following this technique, one could master the technology to clone organs such as the heart, liver, and kidneys in the future. The thought alone was exhilarating, so after completing the experiments, the interns, standardized training students, and graduate students took photos at the test site to immortalize the moment, so they could later say, ¡°Look, I was right there at the experiment site.¡± ¡ª Dean Xia took a stroll around the Surgical Research Institute, he was looking for Yang Ping. An elder leader from the Provincial Hall had asked Dean Xia for a favor, to see if it was possible to arrange for a visiting doctor to study and learn at Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute. Dean Xia found this request rather difficult, as Yang Ping disliked dealing with such relation-based issues. The elder leader had spoken earnestly, ¡°This is not a relative or friend of mine, it¡¯s not a personal relationship at all, but a surgeon from a remote mountainous area hospital in our province. Given the poor conditions in the remote mountain areas, this doctor, who has been working there for seven years since graduating from junior college, has been selflessly dedicated, wholly serving the people of the mountainous region, and has saved many patients. He has been awarded the medal for Good Doctor of the National People, and he has a wish, which is to have an opportunity to study at your institute.¡± Dean Xia was aware of this doctor¡ªDr. Li Min, a city dweller who had other opportunities to stay in the city, but he volunteered to go to the mountainous area to support the medical services, truly making him a role model for the times deserving of admiration, so Dean Xia agreed without hesitation. Upon returning, Dean Xia went looking for Yang Ping to discuss the matter. He first walked around the Surgical Research Institute, went to the Security Room to check in on the few ¡°guards,¡± greeting them and inquiring if they were adapting well to the work, while reminding them to report any work-related needs to the hospital at any time. Only then did he knock on Yang Ping¡¯s door. Yang Ping was studying a case. After Dean Xia explained the situation thoroughly, Yang Ping didn¡¯t hesitate to say, ¡°When does he report for duty? I¡¯ll personally mentor this Dr. Li!¡± Dean Xia was overjoyed inside, as this would allow him to give a good report to the elder leader. Dr. Li was from North Bridge County, which was even more mountainous than Nanqiao County and one of the poorest mountain areas in Nandu Province. The medical conditions were extremely poor and, compounded by inconvenient transportation and scattered neighboring villages and towns, seeking medical treatment was very inconvenient. The hospital in Guandu Town of North Bridge County was nestled in the mountains, where Dr. Li served as the town hospital doctor. Due to poor economic conditions and isolated transportation, this town hospital could hardly retain anyone. Even local doctors would leave within a few years to earn money through labor, with hardly anyone willing to stay contentedly. Dr. Li rooted himself there without regrets, staying for seven years, during which time he traveled to all the surrounding mountain villages, delivering medicine and medical care to the villagers. Under the guidance of the elderly director, he carried out various surgeries and saved many patients. This era needed such spirit; the leadership at the Provincial Hall wanted Dr. Li to receive the best advanced training. Where could he go? The Provincial Hall leadership asked Dr. Li, and he was free to choose anywhere; the organization was willing to make arrangements wherever he wished to go. Dr. Li stated his desire to undertake a one-year training at Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute, wondering if it was possible. After speaking, Dr. Li¡¯s face turned red, feeling he had asked for too much. After all, what was the Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute? It was a place for doctors and masters, how could they want someone with a junior college degree like him? But the leader had said, ¡°We will definitely fulfill your request; go back and wait for the news, and we will make the arrangements.¡± This led to Dean Xia seeking out Yang Ping. ¡ª Meanwhile, at Beiqiao County Guandu Town Hospital. This was essentially a health clinic, with just over a dozen doctors and nurses responsible for the entire town¡¯s medical and preventative care. Because it was a mountainous area and it was inconvenient to travel, nearby villagers all came here for medical treatment. Dr. Li Min was performing an appendectomy as the chief surgeon. Since his skilled assistant had resigned to work elsewhere, his current assistant was a newcomer, which made the procedure quite slow. ¡°Xiao Li, any difficulties with the surgery?¡± The elderly director asked from outside the operating room. The director could still perform some simple operations, but due to his age, his body couldn¡¯t handle more demanding tasks. ¡°It¡¯s fine. The appendix is already removed, and now I¡¯m doing the purse-string suture.¡± Through the door of the operating room, the elderly director called out loudly, ¡°Xiao Li, when you¡¯re done, come to my office.¡± After finishing the surgery, Li Min went to the director¡¯s office. The elderly director said, ¡°Sit down!¡± ¡°Xiao Li, this is a notice sent from the county. Let me see, it should be a direct order from the provincial hall, instructing you to go to the provincial city for further training. The hospital for the advancement, let me see, Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute.¡± The elderly director put on his reading glasses to look at the notice. ¡°Really?¡± Li Min had always dreamed of training there. Despite living in a mountainous area, he frequently kept up with medical trends through the internet and had always idolized Yang Ping from the Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute. He had watched Yang Ping¡¯s five limb reattachments on his cell phone and had been utterly in awe. Later, he followed Sanbo Hospital¡¯s official website and official account to keep abreast of the latest developments from Yang Ping and Sanbo Hospital. ¡°Xiao Li, the leaders have given us the discretion to set the duration of the training. I hope you will learn as much as you can. Go for three years, then come back. Look, the state provides salary and living expenses, along with subsidies. It¡¯s a rare opportunity,¡± the elderly director said, leaning back in his chair. Dr. Li said, troubled, ¡°How can I train for so long? What about our patients?¡± ¡°Lian Po can still eat. Do you really think I¡¯m completely out of commission? I can still manage, just more slowly,¡± the elderly director said with confidence. ¡°You¡¯re old¡ª¡± The director, despite being an old man, was originally from the gynecology and obstetrics field and could still perform various simple operations. Anyway, township hospitals had to be jacks-of-all-trades, but indeed, he was of retirement age. However, he had no choice but to keep working because there was no one else to take charge of the hospital. ¡°That settles it. Learn for at least three years, get the basic surgeries down, and prepare to head to the provincial city in a few days. I¡¯ll have Shanya¡¯s vehicle take you to the county to catch a bus,¡± the elderly director arranged. Shanya¡¯s vehicle was a second-hand Wuling, the only private car in the vicinity. ¡°There are three surgeries these next few days: a Caesarean section, ascites drainage, and debridement of necrotic lower limbs.¡± Some of the patients here were actually quite severe, like those discharged from the hospitals in the province or the county to be sent home for palliative care. For example, the patient needing ascites drainage had a late-stage abdominal tumor and was brought home from the provincial hospital to lie in bed, but his abdomen had become very swollen and needed treatment. The patient requiring debridement of necrotic lower limbs was also brought back from the county. After undergoing several amputations, the necrosis kept reoccurring, forcing further amputations higher up. Repeated a few times, the family had run out of patience, preferring not to send him back to the county hospital and instead bringing him here every few days for debridement. ¡°I¡¯ll do it! What¡¯s the matter with Aliang? After three months, he still can¡¯t get a handle on cutting thread and tying knots? It¡¯s a good opportunity for me to set him straight,¡± the elderly director said furiously. ¡°Such simple tasks of cutting thread and tying knots, why can¡¯t he get them right? So clumsy,¡± the elderly director muttered. ¡°You mustn¡¯t scold him, nowadays young people quit at the slightest criticism, they can¡¯t handle the pressure,¡± Li Min warned. ¡°I¡ªjust meant to talk to him. I¡¯ll teach him myself. Xiao Li, I don¡¯t know what I¡¯d do without you,¡± the elderly director sighed. ¡°Fourth Master Yuan took a fall and has been bedridden for a month, reportedly with a palm-sized pressure sore on his buttocks. The village secretary said they are dispatching someone to bring him here in a tricycle today. I¡¯ll check him and decide when to leave after that.¡± ¡°How come I haven¡¯t heard about it? Otherwise, you could have gone to his home and done skeletal traction; it would be better than just lying there,¡± Li Min suggested. ¡°Probably the elderly couple didn¡¯t want to worry their children living away.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll handle this. I think he can¡¯t just be treated with a few screws.¡± This kind of situation is usually a hip fracture. If it¡¯s possible to put in large screws, it might be manageable here, but if a more complicated procedure is necessary, it probably won¡¯t work. They would have to send him to the county hospital or go with conservative treatment. Chapter 980 - 980 827 Serious ?Chapter 980: Chapter 827: Serious! Chapter 980: Chapter 827: Serious! After the muscle transplantation of 20 pigs was completed, Yang Ping asked the team to collect experimental data while preparing for human clinical trials. In recent times, the head of the Cardiothoracic Surgery, He Xiangjun, had made a tough decision after repeated contemplation: he decided to temporarily delegate his department duties to the deputy head, wanting to free up his time and energy to study cardiac surgical operations with Yang Ping at the Surgical Research Institute. The arrival of Xia Shu put a lot of pressure on him. He once thought it was a prelude to changing the head of Thoracic Surgery. Xia Shu also had a doctorate and an eight-year education at Xiehe, having spent some time at Fuwai, an impressively educational background. Coupled with now working closely with Professor Yang, it was clear that Dean Xia was preparing to replace the head of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Lately, Yang Ping had even started involving him in sophisticated cardiac bypasses, and this way, in a few years, he would master various advanced cardiac surgical operations. Once Xia Shu completes his training, where would he be placed? It seems unlikely that he would always stay in the Surgical Research Institute. He would definitely be positioned in Thoracic Surgery to utilize his skills, which would put his own position in jeopardy. Instead of looking passive when that happens, why not take the initiative to improve himself now? Why couldn¡¯t he go and learn something from Professor Yang as well? Gao Yuan from the Sports Medicine Center was a successful example. He claimed to be a student of Yang Ping wherever he went and didn¡¯t feel ashamed of learning from a younger doctor. What¡¯s the worth of saving face when strength is what¡¯s truly important? Does Gao Yuan lack respectability now? At both national and international sports medicine conferences, he sits in the front row, highly respected, and has more face than anyone else. Director Gao was known as an extramural doctor of the Surgical Research Institute because he frequently came here for learning, lectures, case discussions, and surgical training, and he never missed out. If there were sports medicine surgeries here, he was certain to rush over, sometimes even assisting. Just like that, Yang Ping, face to face, hand-in-hand guided him, and he had already become a world-leading expert in sports medicine, on par with Robert. The actual level of his Sports Medicine Center could now be considered the best in the nation, though it lacked a bit in reputation compared to institutes like the Beijing Triple Hospitals due to its shorter history. However, whether in theory or in practice, it was superior. After learning the techniques from Yang Ping, Director Gao generously shared his knowledge with the young doctors in his department, also providing them with opportunities for hands-on experience, fostering a positive cycle that greatly enhanced the entire team¡¯s level and attracted an increasing number of patients. Since becoming sworn brothers with Robert, he had an extensive international exchange, often attending academic conferences in Europe and America, surpassing the fame of other established domestic experts. After visiting many world-class hospitals, he began to learn advanced management practices and returned to establish an advanced sports medicine model, naturally positioning his department ahead of other domestic hospitals. Director Gao¡¯s success was actually replicable because the door to the Surgical Research Institute was open. Anyone willing could come and learn at any time. Now, Director He regretted not coming to the Surgical Research Institute to learn sooner. Once a person had an epiphany, their potential could be unleashed to the fullest. Once a person had an epiphany, their potential could be unleashed to the fullest. Director He made sure his duties were well delegated, packed his belongings and conscientiously arrived at the Surgical Research Institute to register. ¡°Professor Yang, what about assisting in surgeries in your department? You can trust that I won¡¯t be a burden; I can handle anything from writing case records to changing bandages,¡± Director He patted his chest. Actually, for doctors from his own hospital, Yang Ping had always welcomed anyone as long as they did not disrupt the department¡¯s routine activities. They were free to come and go as they pleased. ¡°We¡¯re all colleagues here, no need for formalities, you are welcome anytime,¡± Yang Ping said. Director He immediately rolled up the sleeves of his white coat, looking to first review some sports medicine cases, changing a few prescriptions to show his goodwill. ¡°Teacher Zhang, got any sports medicine patients needing a change of medication? I¡¯m on it!¡± Director He called out to Zhang Lin. When Zhang Lin turned around and saw He Xiangjun, the head of Cardiothoracic Surgery, it was as if the sun had risen from the west ¨C a rather uncommon sight, as they hardly interacted. Today, he was rolling up his sleeves, ready to change medications. ¡ª Li Min from Guandu Town in North Bridge County quickly arrived at Sanbo Hospital. To show their respect, Dean Xia arranged a suite in the Sanbo Hotel as his accommodation and made meals at the hospital canteen free during his internship period. In short, all expenses related to his training at the hospital were waived, reflecting their genuine respect for Doctor Li. Li Min had completed his associate degree and had been working continuously since he was 21 years old. Now at 28, he was still a young man but with seven years of earlier work due to his earlier start from the associate program. Over these seven years, he had voluntarily committed himself to the mountain area, tirelessly and devotedly serving the patients like family, solving many problems for the mountain area¡¯s patients. Chapter 981 - 981 827 Serious_2 ?Chapter 981: Chapter 827: Serious!_2 Chapter 981: Chapter 827: Serious!_2 In the mountain area, patients all knew to seek out Dr. Li when they were ill, placing special trust in him. The Medical Teaching Department specially arranged for an official to accompany Dr. Li as he went through the formalities for further training, and Dean Xia personally took Dr. Li to meet Yang Ping. ¡°Professor Yang, this is the Dr. Li I mentioned,¡± Dean Xia introduced. Upon meeting his idol Yang Ping, Dr. Li was full of excitement. He had watched the live broadcast of the five-stage replantation on his phone, even though the signal was poor and it kept buffering, he watched the surgery until the end, only stopping when he had to because of duty calls. Since that time, Dr. Li had regarded Yang Ping as his idol. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± Dr. Li was both excited and noticeably shy. ¡°Dr. Li!¡± Yang Ping took his hand. He was very moved by Dr. Li¡¯s deeds, humble, down-to-earth, and deeply rooted in the remote mountainous region. ¡°During your training period, you¡¯ll follow me, and you won¡¯t have to be on duty,¡± Yang Ping said. Li Min was extremely excited. He hadn¡¯t expected to be able to learn directly from Professor Yang. He thought it would be enough just to come here to learn, and it would certainly not be possible to follow Professor Yang. He was ready to learn from other doctors in the department, so being able to follow Professor Yang himself was beyond his expectations. ¡°This¡ªthis¡ªProfessor Yang, may I?¡± Dr. Li¡¯s face turned red. Professor Yang was a doctor, a doctoral supervisor, a chief physician, a top academic expert, while he himself was a rural doctor. Li Min worried that his own background might be too weak, and he might not understand Professor Yang¡¯s profound knowledge, thus wasting Professor Yang¡¯s time. ¡°There¡¯s nothing you can¡¯t do, it¡¯s okay, if you don¡¯t understand anything, just ask. Don¡¯t be afraid,¡± Yang Ping encouraged him. Li Min nodded: ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll leave Dr. Li in your care, Professor Yang. If there¡¯s anything, Dr. Li, just tell Professor Yang, don¡¯t be shy. I¡¯ve got to go to a meeting,¡± Dean Xia said, ready to leave after seeing Dr. Li off. ¡°What sort of surgeries do you perform more frequently?¡± Yang Ping wanted to understand the situation in their mountainous region to provide targeted teaching. Li Min thought for a moment and said, ¡°It¡¯s quite varied, mostly simple surgeries, like appendectomy, cholecystectomy, wound debridement, cesarean sections, fractures, all kinds. I never went anywhere to learn, just learned to do some surgeries following our elderly director.¡± For some non-urgent major surgeries, patients generally have ample time to prepare and can go to big hospitals, but some emergency surgeries can¡¯t be transferred far away, so they are left to be done at the township hospitals. There were also some critically ill patients who had been given up on by big hospitals. To improve the quality of their lives, Dr. Li also performed some surgeries. In short, the surgeries were limited and very mixed. Having understood Li Min¡¯s work situation, Yang Ping also knew how to teach him and decided to patiently develop his skills. Furthermore, Yang Ping had a plan brewing in his mind: in the future, he would not only train doctorate and master¡¯s students from big cities but also provide free training to doctors from these remote regions, enabling them to master advanced medical skills to better serve the people in the remote mountainous areas. With healthcare resources in China being extremely unbalanced, Yang Ping hoped to reduce this imbalance through such a plan. No matter what Li Min¡¯s foundation was, Yang Ping felt that the most important thing was that he had a sincere heart to help others; that was enough. Everything else could be slowly improved. ¡°Later on, you download a software onto your phone. It¡¯s an anatomy learning app developed by the Nandu Medical University Digital Medical Laboratory. Get acquainted with anatomy using this software first, and then I¡¯ll take you to dissect a complete cadaver. In the end, you should be able to draw a detailed human anatomy diagram independently. After you complete your anatomy training, I¡¯ll take you to the Trauma Emergency Center to perform trauma surgeries from head to toe, and then take you to do other surgeries.¡± Yang Ping decided to teach him step by step, shaping him into an outstanding surgeon. ¡°This is the anatomy mnemonic I wrote. Take a look when you have the time and memorize it thoroughly,¡± Yang Ping handed him a set of printed materials. Li Min received the materials, which consisted of mnemonics for the anatomy of the entire body, with some explanatory notes. ¡°Come, let me introduce you to our teaching secretary. He will show you around the department and hospital environment,¡± Yang Ping said, taking Li Min and handing him over to Zhang Lin. A graduate student whispered on the side, ¡°Teacher Zhang, the new guy? Is he going to make tea for you?¡± Zhang Lin glared and lowered his voice: ¡°Be serious! You can¡¯t joke about this, Dr. Li is a good doctor of the people. In the future, everyone should help him out. Understand? Pass on my words. If anyone slacks even slightly, they¡¯ll be punished by transcribing medical records for three months.¡± ¡°Dr. Li, come, let me show you around,¡± Zhang Lin said, with great respect for Li Min. ¡ª In the Digital Medical Laboratory at Nandu Medical University, they quickly established the entire digital musculature after completing a piece of digital muscle. They then completed the establishment of digital skeletons, ligaments, and tendons, because the structures of these organs were relatively simple. For example, bone is made up of osteocytes and matrix, which is much simpler compared to other organs. Tendons and ligaments are also composed of fibrous tissue. These organs are most suitable for biological 3D printing, unlike organs like the heart, liver, and kidneys, which have complex structures and require the interweaving of nerve vessels within the tissue. The progress of a basic technology can drive the development of countless associated technologies. With the new type of digital human as a foundation, the next step in biological 3D printing technology can really shine. After establishing the digital organs¡ªskeleton, muscle, tendons, and ligaments¡ªthis signified that the scaffold of the digital human was now in place. Chapter 982 - 982 827 Serious_3 ?Chapter 982: Chapter 827: Serious!_3 Chapter 982: Chapter 827: Serious!_3 The computer room for the giant computer was being constructed, so Professor He still temporarily used the giant computer at Nandu Institute of Technology for modeling. In front of the screen, watching the spinning scaffold of the Digital Human, Professor He¡¯s heart was filled with mixed emotions. Ever since he started his master¡¯s degree, Professor He had been researching Digital Humans. He participated in Academician Xiang¡¯s first-generation Digital Human research. His subsequent doctoral studies and post-doctoral career were all centered on Digital Humans, which permeated his entire research career. Now, the plan for the new type of Digital Human had been partially realized, and if this continued, the completion of the entire new model of Digital Human was imminent. They would be the first team in the world to fully develop a Functional Digital Human. The first paper had already been published in Cell. They also attempted to publish articles in Science and Nature, and finally, the most critical results paper would be published in their own newly established journal, Medical. The next target was to create a Digital Heart, one that could beat in the Virtual Digital World. After establishing the heart, the next step would be to establish the entire blood circulation system of the Digital Human. The project was massive and extraordinarily challenging, but not a single person from Professor He¡¯s team left, even the PhDs who had graduated stayed on to continue their postdoctoral research. Elder Xiang¡¯s eyes became moist with excitement; he never thought he would see the realization of the Functional Digital Human in his lifetime. Once, in his view, this was an unfeasible plan that if ever realized, would be decades away. Once Functional Digital Humans are realized, it would mean that China¡¯s Digital Human program would be far ahead of the rest of the world. Academician Xiang and Professor He knew that without Yang Ping proposing the concept of Microscopic Dissection, and providing a massive amount of microscopic anatomical data, they could not have developed this new type of Digital Human. Yang Ping not only provided them with theoretical guidance but also supplied substantial data, which would have taken them decades to accumulate on their own. Scientific research often needs to go through a process of trial and error, the cost of which can sometimes be enormous. Many scientists might spend their entire lives in trial and error without finding the correct approach. Ruixing Company¡¯s Biological 3D Printing Equipment was also under development. Over two thousand researchers, through various channels, had bought nearly all the world¡¯s Biological 3D Printers to dissect and study them, performing reverse engineering to clone the first-generation prototype and then continuously refine it based on this foundation. Finally, the latest generation of technology began to have its own Innovative Technology, with the biggest advancement being the use of Matrix-free Printing Technology. However, this technology was still immature and remained at the theoretical stage, not yet practical. Chief Engineer Chen Zhi and his team of engineers were tackling this technical challenge, and once successful, this Biological 3D Printing Technology would be the most advanced in the world. All other existing Biological 3D Printing technologies in the world had to use a Matrix as a Scaffold to maintain the target shape, with cells embedded into the Scaffold. This is because these printers could only shape simple forms and could not simulate microscopic structures such as the connections between cells and tissues, which they were unable to model. Ultimately, this technology was merely imitating, capable of replicating forms externally, but unable to replicate internal structures. This is also why organs produced by current Biological 3D Printing cannot be used for transplants and are only suitable for simple functional scenarios like drug testing, as they are not real organs, but merely resemble them. Ruixing Medical¡¯s core research business was Biological 3D Printing Technology, the future high ground in the field of medicine. It served as the fundamental equipment, the Photolithography Machine in medical biotechnology. Chapter 983 - 983 828 Ex-Vivo Resection ?Chapter 983: Chapter 828 Ex-Vivo Resection Chapter 983: Chapter 828 Ex-Vivo Resection Sanbo Hospital was quick to act, and their journal¡¯s registration was already complete, with the name decided upon¡ªMedical. An additional sign at the main entrance now read: Medical Journal Editorial Department. The announcement of the journal¡¯s launch immediately garnered widespread support; die-hard fans in international groups did not need mentioning, as everyone eagerly expressed their intention to contribute their research papers to the first issue. Upon hearing the news, Manstein volunteered himself, hoping to be one of the journal¡¯s peer reviewers, but he was somewhat disappointed upon learning it was a Chinese journal. However, for a genius like Manstein, mastering a new language was a simple task, so he began studying Chinese, striving to become a peer reviewer. Simultaneously, Manstein decided to publish a paper in the journal to showcase his support, intending to write it himself without employing a translator. For the time being, the editorial staff of the journal was temporarily composed of individuals from the Surgical Research Institute¡ªafter all, during its formative days, simplicity was key; they planned to scout for more members and expand the team gradually. No need to elaborate on the widespread support from prominent professors across the country; more than a dozen medical academicians signed in support, and they encouraged their students to submit papers, not merely offering their verbal support. Following such trends, Medical, despite being a Chinese journal, was undoubtedly becoming a world-class international publication. August and Robert secretly competed over submissions, with both sides determined to outdo each other. Not only did August submit his own papers, but he also encouraged colleagues from Charite Medical College to submit theirs, acting as their translator. On Robert¡¯s side, a specific fund was established to assist Americans in submitting papers in Chinese to Medical. Yang Ping had not anticipated that before Medical had even officially released its first issue, it had already become a hot topic within the international medical community; they were extremely keen to see what kind of journal would be produced by the individual who had once published thirteen research papers at once. Moreover, the entire international medical community plunged into intense reflection. Why would a scholar like Yang Ping no longer wish to submit to journals such as Science, Nature, or Cell? Could it be that he had become disillusioned? Had these journals degraded to such an extent that a genius felt compelled to create his own? The academic community thus initiated a discussion on language. Online debates split into two factions. One argued that Chinese was too archaic and difficult to learn, featuring over three thousand frequently used characters, each character acting as a letter, which meant memorizing over three thousand ¡®letters¡¯ and their pronunciations coupled with several tones¡ªa truly mind-boggling task. Others believed Chinese to be initially challenging but easier over time. Once the over three thousand characters were mastered, it became much more straightforward, unlike English, which continuously expands its lexicon. Whenever a new entity emerged, a new word accompanied it, the volume of words becoming increasingly unmanageable. Moreover, not recognizing a word meant complete ignorance, creating knowledge barriers across languages¡ªcomputer science students couldn¡¯t understand medical texts, and even a university professor might not know how to describe a cube. Chinese didn¡¯t have this issue. A linguistic scientist stated that it would be fortunate for humanity if Chinese became the universal language of science, as it was the most stable language, capable of enduring vast spans of time and space. Even across significant time or spatial differences, Chinese remained an effective means of communication. If humanity ventured into the interstellar age, English would struggle to bear the responsibility, whereas Chinese possessed the fundamental elements of an interstellar language. It was just the establishment of a Chinese journal, yet it stirred such profound discussions. Nevertheless, Yang Ping wasn¡¯t bothered by all this; he organically proceeded with his plans, unwavering in his course of action. ¡ª At Wang Ge¡¯s villa office. After organizing the latest gathered data, Wang Jian handed it over to Wang Ge, who studied it carefully and said, ¡°These patients, I want to pay them a visit; arrange it.¡± One particular patient named Teng Xinmei caught Wang Ge¡¯s significant attention, to which Wang Jian said, ¡°This patient had excellent surgery results with absolutely no disputes.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no time to wait for disputes; if there are no disputes, we will create them!¡± Wang Ge said coldly. ¡°Zhu Cheng¡¯s matter is fine, but this Yang Ping requires some thought, this case, Teng Xinmei, arrange a time, I will personally pay a visit.¡± The new equipment was about to be used clinically, and Teng Xinmei was the first patient to undergo the experiment¡ªthere were many angles to explore here, and Wang Ge was an old hand. ¡°I asked you to find a few special cases; did you manage to find any?¡± Wang Ge asked Wang Jian. Wang Jian responded, ¡°I¡¯ve found them, everything is going according to plan.¡± Regarding the plan against Yang Ping, from the primary option to the backup plan, and then to the contingency plan, Wang Ge had it all clearly mapped out in his mind. After graduating as a graduate student, Yang Ping was dismissed from the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital for medical misconduct before arriving at Sanbo Hospital, where he embarked on a mystic medical journey without furthering his education in other hospitals, boldly performing complex and high-risk surgeries such as heart, brain, and spine surgeries¡ªthis was the practice of medicine without qualifications, with many new techniques hastily applied clinically. So, targeting Yang Ping merely required orchestrating these affairs and pushing a few willing patients and their families to the forefront, and everything would naturally fall into place. The key now was to create an incident, stir things up, because without it, the fire couldn¡¯t be fueled. Chapter 984 - 984 828 Ex-Vivo Resection_2 ?Chapter 984: Chapter 828 Ex-Vivo Resection_2 Chapter 984: Chapter 828 Ex-Vivo Resection_2 As for Zhu Cheng, first reheat some old news, dig up his past scandals to capture everyone¡¯s attention once again, and then move on to attack his private morals, like finding a girl to approach him, fabricate some false charges, and expose him for sexual harassment. Once his reputation is destroyed, expose his work-related scandals step by step. In the end, connect the two individuals, two incidents, and release a bombshell. Money talks. With a hefty sum of money as an incentive, Wang Ge contacted many media outlets, preparing to make a big splash. A few days later, Wang Ge arrived at Teng Xinmei¡¯s home. Xinmei had gone to school, her dad wasn¡¯t home, leaving only her mom, Zeng Cuiling, at home. Wang Ge was very cunning. He carried his press card and under the pretext of charity work, found the village secretary, who then led him to Teng Xinmei¡¯s house and left after showing them in. Zeng Cuiling was wary of the stranger¡¯s arrival, but since he was brought by the village secretary, she didn¡¯t say much. Wang Ge handed over his press card: ¡°We are reporters, here to learn about Teng Xinmei¡¯s condition after her surgery.¡± Zeng Cuiling took the press card with suspicion, eyeing the reporter in the wheelchair. Wang Ge gave Wang Jian a signal, and Wang Jian took out an envelope: ¡°Big sister, this is a little token of our concern. This two thousand yuan is Xinmei¡¯s consolation money, please accept it.¡± Zeng Cuiling kept saying no, but her hand took the money, and a smile appeared on her ever-taut face: ¡°You¡¯re looking for Xinmei for what reason?¡± ¡°No other reason, it¡¯s like this. Xinmei had surgery in the provincial city, right? Her chief surgeon is in big trouble, using so-called new techniques to experiment on patients. We¡¯re investigating a large number of victims, and Xinmei¡¯s name is on the list of victims. That¡¯s why we¡¯ve made a special trip to investigate. We¡¯re planning to sue the doctor. If patients have indeed suffered physical and psychological trauma due to the surgery, they could receive compensation ranging from at least three to four hundred thousand to over a million,¡± Wang Ge explained his reason for being there. Zeng Cuiling¡¯s eyes immediately lit up: ¡°Comrade reporter, please come inside and have some tea.¡± Zeng Cuiling quickly ushered Wang Ge into the house. Wang Ge looked around the house which seemed to be a newly built red-brick structure, rough inside and out, even the floor was cement, and various dried vegetables hung on the exterior walls. ¡°What did you say just now, comrade reporter?¡± Zeng Cuiling hadn¡¯t quite caught the earlier conversation. Wang Ge repeated himself, then said: ¡°If there are no major problems after the surgery, forget it. Getting involved with a lawsuit is quite troublesome, with evidence collection and such, but of course, that¡¯s all our work. You just need to cooperate. During this process, you will receive a lot of subsidies.¡± Could there be such a good deal? ¡°You said the chief surgeon is in trouble? Using live people for experiments, and our Xinmei was experimented upon?¡± Zeng Cuiling wanted to get to the bottom of it, though the exact details didn¡¯t matter; the potential money was what was important. ¡°Exactly!¡± said Wang Ge. ¡°No wonder our Xinmei¡¯s condition has worsened since the surgery, she¡¯s practically been wasted,¡± Zeng Cuiling complained. ¡°Really? Then you qualify to join the lawsuit. Don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t be afraid. We¡¯re here to support you. I know that ordinary people like you are powerless on their own. So we¡¯re here to fight for justice for you for free. We won¡¯t charge a penny, and we¡¯ll even provide subsidies. If you don¡¯t believe this, you can go to the police station and ask them to investigate our credentials,¡± Wang Ge assured her. ¡°Many patients, afraid of causing trouble, just have to bear it silently and watch unscrupulous professors get away with it. We¡¯re deeply saddened. Why not stand up for your rights? In a case like Xinmei¡¯s, you can get at least a million in compensation. Of course, we¡¯re not doing this for the money; it¡¯s for justice. In a society governed by law, in a world where justice should prevail, how can we allow such atrocious acts to go on? You know how much surgery costs? Eighty thousand yuan. How many years would it take for a farmer to save that much?¡± Wang Ge spoke with righteous indignation. Zeng Cuiling instantly felt a sense of solidarity: ¡°Yes, to treat our child, we¡¯ve gone deep into debt. I never imagined that the doctor was a beast in human clothing, experimenting on patients.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why we can¡¯t let him get away with it. We must seek justice.¡± ¡°You must help us.¡± ¡°Absolutely. Where is the child¡¯s father?¡± ¡°I make the decisions regarding the household.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great!¡± ¡°And the child?¡± ¡°She¡¯s still young, doesn¡¯t understand these matters. I¡¯ll decide for her.¡± ¡°Children are young, they don¡¯t understand, can be easily misled, so you need to explain the situation clearly to her. We absolutely cannot condone such abominable acts. Big sister! You¡¯re sensible and haven¡¯t bowed down to evil forces. We need your cooperation, and there will be many more inquiries to come. Remember, big sister, we cannot give in. Some things, if you hold firm, will eventually see the light of day,¡± Wang Ge told her earnestly. Zeng Cuiling nodded; how could she possibly give in with over a million in compensation at stake. ¡°Big sister, I can see you¡¯re not having an easy time. You¡¯ve been cheated out of so much for the treatment. I¡¯d like to offer a bit more for Xinmei to buy something to eat,¡± said Wang Ge. Wang Ge gestured to Wang Jian, who presented another large envelope; this time it contained twenty thousand yuan. Zeng Cuiling pinched the envelope, overjoyed, and immediately said, ¡°There truly are many good people in this world, thank you. If it weren¡¯t for you coming here, I would never have known that the doctor has a heart of stone, using patients as experiments. Now that you¡¯ve mentioned it, I remember Xinmei has been persistently complaining about chest pains, suffering bouts of acute pain, practically at death¡¯s door. Before the surgery, she was completely normal, ate well, slept well, worked well, just like any healthy person. Now, she often complains about chest pain with the slightest movement, she¡¯s totally disabled, it must be the surgery that caused it.¡± Chapter 985 - 985 828 Ex-Vivo Resection_3 ?Chapter 985: Chapter 828 Ex-Vivo Resection_3 Chapter 985: Chapter 828 Ex-Vivo Resection_3 ¡°Write this down, organize it,¡± Wang Ge instructed Wang Jian. Zeng Cuiling was very clear¡ªthe person couldn¡¯t be a scammer. They didn¡¯t mention anything about money and kept on bringing money to her. Moreover, it was the village secretary who brought them. Others even dared to have the police station check; where could you find such a brazen scammer, and which scammer brings money? Besides, the introduction letter clarified everything. The main attraction was, after all, the compensation of more than a million yuan. Such a draw could make her throw caution to the wind. ¡ª The head of the General Surgery Department at Sanbo Hospital, Director Fang, encountered a tough case. When there was a challenging case, they would seek help from Professor Yang of the Surgical Research Institute. Director Fang was an expert in Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery. He had come across a complex case of pancreatic cancer. The tumor had severely invaded the liver, spleen, stomach, gallbladder, small intestine, Inferior Vena Cava, among others¡ªa total of eight organs. Surgery was simply impossible. The patient had already been to many hospitals, unwilling to give up. Having heard about the high standards at Sanbo Hospital, they decided to check it out. The patient and the family approached Director Fang, who shook his head; he couldn¡¯t handle it. But then, he thought, ¡°Isn¡¯t Professor Yang from the Surgical Research Institute known for handling any kind of surgery? Let¡¯s ask him.¡± Director Fang spoke with Yang Ping, who, after looking at the CT-Scan images, understood why no doctor dared to operate. There was simply no way to do the surgery. ¡°Professor Yang, how about it?¡± Director Fang still wanted to retain the patient. The more challenging the patient, the more it demonstrated one¡¯s level of expertise. But since he wasn¡¯t skilled enough, he needed to ask for help from a true expert. Yang Ping thought for a while and then said, ¡°Surgery is possible. Will the patient be transferred to our side, or stay on yours?¡± As if I could handle it myself, I wouldn¡¯t be here bothering you, Director Fang thought, and immediately said, ¡°Of course, we need to trouble Professor Yang. Please, take it on your side.¡± ¡°How will the surgery be performed?¡± That was the question Director Fang really cared about. ¡°The only way is Ex-Vivo Resection! There is no other choice,¡± Yang Ping said with apparent difficulty. Ex-Vivo Resection? What kind of advanced surgical method was that? Director Fang had never heard or seen such a thing. From the name, how could one cut from outside the body? Perhaps Professor Yang was referring to some kind of particle beam knife. ¡°A Heavy Ion Knife? Bombarding the tumor from outside the body?¡± Director Fang wanted to clarify. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°No, it involves removing the stomach and small intestine, as well as the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and spleen from the abdominal cavity. Take the entire set out of the body, cut out the tumor externally, and then transplant back the usable organs!¡± So that¡¯s how it was! Such a complex and grand project, Director Fang thought, having never heard of this surgical method before. ¡°The surgery demands high technical skill, but it has advantages. It is specially suited for internal tumors that are difficult to excise. Often, a tumor that is hard to remove internally becomes much easier to cut after being taken outside the body. However, re-transplanting so many organs after the tumor excision makes it quite challenging,¡± Yang Ping explained to Director Fang. The difficulty wasn¡¯t just a bit high¡ªit was extremely, exceedingly high. ¡°Professor Yang, have you ever performed this kind of surgery?¡± Director Fang asked cautiously, but he quickly realized that it might not be an appropriate question. Yang Ping gave him a look: ¡°If you could only operate on things you¡¯ve done before, then, by now, my surgical case count would be zero, wouldn¡¯t it?¡± Thinking it over carefully, Director Fang realized the logic. When you perform your first surgery, you obviously haven¡¯t done it before. If you couldn¡¯t operate without prior experience, then there would never be a first surgery. And without a first surgery, where would the second or third surgeries come from? ¡°I mean, has this been done elsewhere in the world? It would be great to see some research papers and learn,¡± Director Fang smoothed things over. Yang Ping said indifferently, ¡°It¡¯s not any new technique. There¡¯s an American doctor who has done over twenty cases. He must be considered the doctor with the world¡¯s most cases, I suppose?¡± The most experienced doctor has only done twenty cases, and you¡¯re telling me it¡¯s not a new technique¡ªwhat would be considered new, then? ¡°This procedure really tests one¡¯s courage and expertise. Ordinary people can¡¯t handle it, either for lack of skill or lack of nerve,¡± Yang Ping spoke frankly to Director Fang because he knew Director Fang was a very straightforward person. ¡°I lack both skill and nerve. It¡¯s all up to you, Professor Yang. I¡¯ll just assist you during the surgery,¡± Director Fang said self-deprecatingly. Yang Ping said, ¡°When is the patient coming? It¡¯s better to operate sooner rather than later, or the spreading will get worse.¡± After thinking for a moment, Director Fang said, ¡°The patient is from a hospital down below. They referred them up to us; I¡¯ll have to ask.¡± Chapter 986 - 986 829 Cutting may be instantly gratifying ?Chapter 986: Chapter 829: Cutting may be instantly gratifying, but the regret afterward cuts deep into the intestines. Chapter 986: Chapter 829: Cutting may be instantly gratifying, but the regret afterward cuts deep into the intestines. After receiving Yang Ping¡¯s affirmative answer, Director Fang immediately contacted the patient and their family members, instructing them to hurry and be hospitalized for surgery, as the tumor had already spread, and the sooner the surgery was performed, the better. Yuan Yulin and his wife, Nie Shun¡¯e, were thrilled to hear that surgery was possible. The couple were migrant workers with a child in middle school, and they made a living with their night snack cart. Yuan Yulin was glad that his child worked hard at school and always ranked among the top of his class. Although he and his wife worked hard, they were quite satisfied with their lives, which had been decent in the recent years, thanks to the money they earned from the night snack cart. Unfortunately, Nie Shun¡¯e was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that had metastasized, a disease known as the king of cancers, leaving the couple feeling like they had been struck by a bolt of lightning. However, they still had to face reality afterwards. They packed up and moved between multiple hospitals, visited Beijing and Shanghai, where doctors all shook their heads: late stage, metastasized in many places, surgery was simply out of the question, only conservative treatment was possible, left to fate. Having no other choice, the couple returned to Nandu Provincial City, where life had to go on, and their child still had to attend university in the future. So Nie Shun¡¯e said, what¡¯s there to fear? Everyone has to die at some point. No need to seek treatment elsewhere; just continue living life as usual. Thus, they resumed selling night snacks. At this time, a kind-hearted person appeared, though it was unknown how they knew about their situation. They came to their home, suggesting they could try Sanbo Hospital, and even offered them consolation money. Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e refused to accept it, insisting they didn¡¯t want money they hadn¡¯t earned themselves, not even a single penny, not even donations. They wanted to bear their own burdens. They believed that one should live life freely and not owe anyone anything. Initially, Yuan Yulin thought this person might be a medical scalper, but after inquiring, learned that Sanbo Hospital had an excellent reputation, so he decided to follow the kind-hearted person¡¯s advice and visit Director Fang¡¯s outpatient clinic at Sanbo Hospital. After reviewing the images, Director Fang too shook his head, saying surgery was fundamentally impossible and only conservative treatment could be offered. Later, Yuan Yulin persisted, begging Director Fang to think of something. Director Fang, empathizing with the patient, recognizing that everyone has their struggles, offered to ask the Surgical Research Institute if there might be a way. Thus, Director Fang took the case to Yang Ping, to inquire how to handle it, and Yang Ping said that ex-vivo resection was the only option¡ªa path is still a path, and it was better than no path at all. When Yuan Yulin received Director Fang¡¯s call, he was busy preparing the ingredients for the night¡¯s snacks when he was told that surgery was possible and to go to Sanbo Hospital to complete the hospital admission procedures. Surgery was possible¡ªthat meant there was hope. Yuan Yulin was immensely excited and immediately shared the good news with his wife. He decided to close the cart for some time to accompany his wife during her illness, figuring that living a few more years was worth the effort; he was determined to do everything possible. Financially, Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e were prepared, having saved a little money over the years, with medical insurance and even a commercial insurance policy that covered the self-paid portion not reimbursed by medical insurance, so the financial pressure wasn¡¯t too great. Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e went to their child¡¯s school to give him enough living expenses, then planned to proceed with hospital admission. Of course, they didn¡¯t tell their child about the mother¡¯s illness. In fact, when Yuan Yulin first heard the unfortunate news, he secretly cried a river, but crying wouldn¡¯t change the facts. So, Yuan Yulin planned to take his wife on a trip to see the world and enjoy their last moments, but with a child to take care of, he couldn¡¯t just leave, and his wife wouldn¡¯t agree to such a plan anyway, as their savings were meant for their children¡¯s education. ¡°Many doctors from big hospitals have said surgery is not possible. Can Sanbo Hospital really do it? Might as well not bother and save the money; most of this disease is about scaring oneself to death,¡± Nie Shun¡¯e said. Nie Shun¡¯e was a strong and open-minded woman. Although she was devastated upon learning her unfortunate diagnosis, she was much more composed than her husband. She thought since their child was already in middle school, the savings from over the years should be enough for him to complete university. Given the circumstances, she had accepted reality and didn¡¯t want to spend too much on treatment. ¡°It will work! This doctor¡¯s skills are remarkable; I¡¯ve asked around,¡± Yuan Yulin encouraged his wife. ¡°Do you wonder how this kind-hearted person found out about our situation and not only gave us consolation money but also directed us where to get treatment?¡± Nie Shun¡¯e still found it miraculous that the kind-hearted person made it happen. Yuan Yulin said, ¡°Didn¡¯t they say they are from a charity organization, dedicated to providing free services to some patients in desperate situations? They also urged us to stay in touch, as they want to follow up on our treatment and be contacted with any issues, as they can help us.¡± ¡°Yeah, there are still more good people out there. If it weren¡¯t for this kind-hearted person, we wouldn¡¯t even know about such good doctors and hospitals,¡± Nie Shun¡¯e was immensely grateful to the charity organization. Without the assistance of the charity organization, they truly would have given up on treatment, but now they had reignited their hope. ¡°We need to really thank them in the future,¡± Yuan Yulin said. The couple would remember anyone¡¯s help in their hearts, never forgetting it. In fact, Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e were very kind. For many years, their night snack cart provided a limited amount of free food every night to help the homeless and penniless, a practice that many people in the area knew about and appreciated their charitable acts. Chapter 987 - 987 829 Cutting may be instantly gratifying ?Chapter 987: Chapter 829: Cutting may be instantly gratifying, but the regret afterward cuts deep into the intestines_2 Chapter 987: Chapter 829: Cutting may be instantly gratifying, but the regret afterward cuts deep into the intestines_2 The couple thought that perhaps what goes around comes around, which is why others came to help them and guide them in the direction of curing their illness. ¡ª This type of complex abdominal cavity tumor that needed ex-vivo resection was the best teaching case. Before the patient had even arrived, Yang Ping had begun to give them a lecture. This surgical method, which is quite cutting-edge, could actually be applied in many specialties, such as certain heart tumors which cannot be completely excised due to the fixed anatomical position and relationships of the heart. The whole heart and surrounding organs could be completely excised and then removed from the body. This way, the heart is completely isolated and can be placed on a sterile table at three hundred and sixty degrees in any orientation, making tumor excision very convenient¡ªcut as desired without any anatomical restrictions. After the tumor was excised, the heart was transplanted back into the human body, essentially amounting to another heart transplant surgery. The risk was definitely very high, but for tumor excision, it was indeed very convenient and made what was normally a difficult tumor excision much simpler. ¡°There was once a Japanese patient with a thoracic tumor; the professor just took out the heart and both lungs along with the major vascular and completely excised the tumor externally before replanting it,¡± Song Zimo recalled similar cases from the past as he looked at the patient¡¯s imaging. To excise the tumor by taking out the heart and lungs and then replanting them was a truly miraculous operation, a combination of exceptional skill and boldness. Xia Shu was utterly speechless, amazed that such unheard-of surgical operations existed in the world. Others, having spent a long time at the Surgical Research Institute, were accustomed to these practices, so their reactions were not as strong. ¡°This patient¡¯s case is actually a bit more difficult than that of the Japanese man because it involves too many organs, a total of eight,¡± Yang Ping pointed out on the screen. Song Zimo knew that only a godlike professor could be so bold. What other doctor would dare to do this? To take out so many organs and question whether the tumor was cleanly excised, not to mention the transplantation of eight potentially compromised organs, involved a massive amount of surgery and meticulous attention to detail. If one organ suffered ischemic necrosis, there would simply be no way to conclude the operation properly. ¡°Are such surgeries not very common in the world?¡± Xia Shu had certainly never seen one. Yang Ping thought for a moment and said, ¡°For this type of multiple organ abdominal extraction and replantation, a doctor at Mayo in the United States has performed it in over twenty cases, and all had good outcomes. One of the patients, suffering from pancreatic cancer, has survived for many years post-operation and is still alive and in good health.¡± ¡°Professor, what about that Japanese patient?¡± Xia Shu asked further. Yang Ping replied, ¡°He is still alive.¡± Xia Shu knew that a combined heart-lung transplant was already a major surgery; to use a heart-lung transplant as a step in excision of a tumor demonstrated incredible courage and skill. The professor was truly deserving of his title, no wonder all the doctors in the department called him ¡°Professor¡± without a surname. This title represented an unparalleled level of skill that no one could surpass. ¡°If in removing so many organs¡ªshould the tumor prove too difficult to excise and you also have to cut off part of these organs¡ªas well as the reserved blood vessels for anastomosis¡ªwhat happens if replantation is not possible?¡± Xu Zhiliang asked. ¡°Yeah, what if you can¡¯t fit them back in?¡± other doctors were also curious. ¡°That situation has happened; an Indian doctor went to Mayo in the United States for fellowship and spent three years learning oncological surgery with the doctor I just mentioned. Returning super confident, he then performed an ex-vivo resection on an Indian tycoon. It was also abdominal surgery involving four organs. Everything was removed smoothly, but in his enthusiasm during the ex-vivo surgery, he cut almost everything that could be cut, and when it came to replantation, he found that so little of some organs was left, and there were no blood vessels for transplantation¡ªthey couldn¡¯t be put back!¡± ¡°How similar to me, dismantling the anesthesia machine entirely, only to find I can¡¯t put it back together, with a heap of components on the floor. Oh, the desperation, my God, what to do then,¡± Liang Fatty could sympathize with that feeling. Before a joint surgery livestream with the Affiliated Hospital of the University of Tokyo at the Trauma Emergency Center, everyone had spent some time undergoing intensive training. In order to familiarize himself with the structure and principles of the anesthesia machine for more skilled operation, Liang Fatty had taken apart the entire anesthesia machine for study, only to later find he couldn¡¯t put it back together. At that time, he sat on the floor, not knowing what to do, his mind a complete blank. Eventually, it took him several days to put it back together, but then he found there were several spare, unused components. ¡°No way, that Indian doctor was so mysteriously confident; what happened next?¡± Song Zimo was very interested in this story. Yang Ping looked serious, as if he were lecturing on a professional subject, ¡°What else can we do? I had to call his mentor for help urgently. The mentor asked him¡ªdon¡¯t panic, let¡¯s take it one step at a time. First, let¡¯s handle the liver. Look for any remaining liver tissue and any blood vessels of an appropriate diameter, then tell me, and I will tell you how to perform the vascular anastomosis of the liver.¡± ¡°The Indian doctor searched back and forth over the operating table for a long time and replied to the mentor¡ªI haven¡¯t seen the liver.¡± This response was like thunderclap overhead. The mentor was stunned for a long time and finally thought, they couldn¡¯t possibly have cut away the entire liver in the process, could they? After all, the anatomical shape and relationships of all organs change after tumor invasion.¡± ¡°Could you search again?¡± ¡°I really didn¡¯t find it!¡± The mentor felt a chill in his heart. If there truly was no liver, how could the surgery be concluded now? Waiting for an allogeneic liver transplant would definitely be too late. It¡¯s impossible to look for a liver donor match on the operating table.¡± The Indian doctor probably felt a desire to die at that moment, sweating cold sweat all over. To showcase the skills he gained during his three years of study in the United States, he had been too confident and too eager for quick success, and now there was no liver to replant.¡± Once an organ is removed, it has a time limit; it must be replanted within a certain period, or else it will undergo ischemic necrosis.¡± Time ticked away second by second. What were they to do? ¡°What should we do now?¡± the Indian doctor asked with a trembling voice. The American mentor replied with a trembling voice, ¡°If it is confirmed that the liver can¡¯t be found, we can only replant the remaining organs. At least, that would create the conditions necessary for using an artificial liver after the surgery. We could use an artificial liver to sustain life for a while, and then wait for a liver transplant.¡± Without a liver, how could they replant the organs afterward? But he had never performed this kind of surgery. How could the remaining blood vessels be connected? They would need to ensure the artificial liver could function postoperatively.¡± With so many organs removed, it wasn¡¯t just a matter of putting them back; the remaining organ tissues had to be successfully transplanted and the circulation around the liver had to be normal, able to sustain life postoperatively using an artificial liver.¡± But the Indian doctor lacked the experience and did not know how to proceed. ¡°What eventually happened?¡± Xia Shu was incredibly engrossed. He hadn¡¯t expected the professor to be such a master storyteller. ¡°Unfortunately, the organs removed were not correctly replaced in time, and the patient was declared dead on the operating table,¡± ¡°In this kind of surgery, what you can see on the operating table accounts for only one-tenth of what¡¯s involved. Ninety percent of the skills are not visible from the front, so never assume that just mastering the visible techniques is enough to perform surgery independently.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure if this story is true, but I heard it from a doctor at Mayo while I was there using the removal of an eyeball to create a surgical approach, replanting it after the surgery. This oncologist was observing and, after telling me this story, he swore profusely.¡± Yang Ping ended the story in a calm tone. ¡°For this American mentor, this was truly an unforgettable student and an unforgettable phone call.¡± ¡°Cutting is fun at the moment, but the regret cuts deep afterward!¡± Everyone sighed deeply. ¡°When doing this surgery, we have a lot to consider, such as removing the tumor completely, which inevitably involves removing some organ tissues. How much to remove, how much it impacts function, how to arrange things during replantation, etc. We must avoid elementary mistakes. Why do you think I insist that you must master open spinal surgery before you learn foraminotomy? Because if something goes wrong in minimally invasive surgery and you don¡¯t have the ability to perform open surgery, how will you cope? It¡¯s not only about mastering front-end technology but also about mastering the supporting technology behind it.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s fingers silently and lightly tapped on the desktop. Chapter 988 - 988 830 Snatching Someone from the King of ?Chapter 988: Chapter 830: Snatching Someone from the King of Hell¡¯s Hands Chapter 988: Chapter 830: Snatching Someone from the King of Hell¡¯s Hands Through this story, Yang Ping shared the complexities and risks associated with ¡°ex-vivo resection,¡± especially complex ex-vivo resections. If one lacks advanced surgical skills, it¡¯s absolutely not advisable to recklessly proceed because it¡¯s definitely not as simple as just tumor excision combined with organ transplant. Even when it comes to the combination of tumor excision and multiple organ transplants, there are barely any doctors who can successfully perform it. Moreover, the difficulty is not just additive, so the doctors who can manage to perform such surgeries are extremely rare, let alone perform them well. ¡°What happened to that doctor from India afterward?¡± Zhang Lin was eager to know the outcome of this overly arrogant individual since he himself, who was accustomed to showing off, couldn¡¯t help but realize that showing off comes with risks and one must be cautious beforehand. ¡°I don¡¯t know, because the doctor from the United States who told the story used a swear word to end it, and I didn¡¯t ask.¡± This story was one Yang Ping heard at Mayo at the time from an American doctor, and unless it was uttered through clenched teeth, an American wouldn¡¯t normally use swear words to conclude a story at such an occasion. One can imagine that it¡¯s not a machine, but a living person. When the organs were removed from the abdomen, they couldn¡¯t be replanted, and the chief surgeon, facing a pile of organs on the sterile table, was absolutely helpless, a truly desperate scene. ¡°Our elder brother is truly heroic. A role model for us to learn from!¡± someone blurted out without knowing. ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened to that doctor from India, but I do know that his mentor from the United States thereafter refused to mentor doctors from India because the psychological trauma was too intense. Surgeons need to be bold, but the prerequisite for boldness is skillfulness. We must attain high skill levels to justify our boldness,¡± Yang Ping said. Yang Ping used this story to instill in the medical staff a reverence for life and for medical skill. ¡°Let us continue discussing this case, we need to handle every single detail meticulously. A long section of the Inferior Vena Cava has been invaded by the tumor, which is extremely fatal. After removing the tumor, we will need to rely on an artificial vascular transplantation to compensate for the potential deficits; a major portion of the pancreas must be resected, with vital postoperative blood sugar regulation; the gallbladder needs to be removed; part of the liver needs to be excised; part of the stomach has to be cut out; the small intestine also needs to be partially removed ¡ª only by doing so can the tumor be removed as cleanly as possible.¡± ¡°We have to precisely understand the extent of tumor invasion before surgery, and during the surgery, we also have to utilize certain techniques to mark the tumor tissue, to ensure the tumor is removed to the greatest extent possible.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not only about thorough excision, but also about protecting some of the body¡¯s natural barriers, which are very important. They can confine the tumor within a specific area if it recurs in the future, thus delaying or reducing the likelihood of recurrence. Of course, tumor-free techniques must also be used during the surgery.¡± ¡°So, even though it¡¯s a resection, it¡¯s not about blindly cutting away. Resection is a means, not an end,¡± Song Zimo said, staring at the images on the screen. ¡°Right, if the normal blood vessels available for anastomosis are damaged, and we are forced to alter the method of vascular anastomosis, then we face new problems. We have to consider the vessel¡¯s diameter, flow, and pressure, because the liver, unlike other organs, processes a large volume of the body¡¯s blood, a single issue could trigger a systemic effect. This is where the challenge and allure of reconstructive surgery lie,¡± he explained. ¡°Professor, you should¡ª already have a plan, right?¡± Xu Zhiliang asked, as the Professor never entered into a battle unprepared. ¡°Professor, please share the specific surgical plan with us, we are just randomly hammering away,¡± Song Zimo took over the conversation. Director Fang stared intensely at Yang Ping. The story was told, was it time to reveal the real deal? ¡°The surgical plan has been formulated, and the draft drawing is locked in my drawer. I will not disclose it just yet. This will be your assignment. Each of you must take some time to develop your own surgical plans, specifically detailing every aspect. Each person must submit a plan without copying from others. Dr. Li, you also need to present your own plan. Don¡¯t worry; whatever level your surgical plan might reach is acceptable.¡± Dr. Li nodded: ¡°I will certainly draw it carefully.¡± ¡°What about me?¡± Director Fang asked anxiously. Zhang Lin¡¯s hand rested on his shoulder: ¡°The Professor said everyone, do you think you should submit one?¡± Director Fang instantly broke into a grin, which meant he was one of them¡ªgood news. ¡°Alright, alright, I will also draw it properly.¡± ¡ª Dr. Li Min was incredibly diligent and valued this rare learning opportunity greatly because he knew his foundation was weak, so he worked even harder than others. Being a good doctor requires not only good ethics but also proficient medical skills, otherwise, even good intentions can lead to bad outcomes. He downloaded software to study anatomy, using 3D anatomical animations to memorize the anatomy of the entire body. Every night, he would recollect the knowledge he learned during the day in his mind. The environment greatly influences a person. The Surgical Research Institute was full of elite doctors, which significantly inspired Dr. Li Min to strive and improve. He had memorized not only system anatomy and local anatomy but also applied anatomy. Yang Ping would periodically check his learning progress. While Yang Ping offered him ample personal care, he was strict about his studies. He required that Dr. Li Min fully master anatomical knowledge and deeply engrave in his mind the 3D animated human body displayed by the mobile software, being able to clearly recall the anatomical structure of any given part. Chapter 989 - 989 830 Saving Someone from the King of Hell_2 ?Chapter 989: Chapter 830: Saving Someone from the King of Hell_2 Chapter 989: Chapter 830: Saving Someone from the King of Hell_2 Yang Ping also taught him how to draw, of course, what he taught was medical anatomy diagrams so that Li Min could quickly learn and master the use of drawing for professional medical expression. In short, Yang Ping tailored an education plan for him, focusing mostly on clinical practicality, and even the fundamental principles were taught as an application basis. As a college student, his knowledge reserve definitely wasn¡¯t just a little less than that of doctors and masters, but that didn¡¯t matter, Yang Ping had enough patience, because by teaching him, he could later instruct many doctors in remote mountain areas, allowing them to shine and improve the medical levels of those areas. Once familiar with the anatomy theory, the next step for Yang Ping was to guide him in dissecting a complete cadaver specimen, gaining practical anatomical knowledge through dissection, which when combined with the previous theoretical knowledge, would take his mastery of anatomy to a new level. Very few doctors have the chance to dissect a complete cadaver, and some never get the opportunity in their entire lives. After dissecting the cadaver, Yang Ping would take him to the Trauma Emergency Center to perform surgeries, and if he could perform trauma surgeries on various parts of the body several times, then he would have a basic framework for true live dissection. At this point, learning surgery from Yang Ping would be much easier, for dissection is the cornerstone of surgery; without skilled dissection, any superb surgical technique is castles in the air. While learning dissection, Yang Ping also personally trained Li Min in basic surgical skills, such as cutting, separating, suturing, knot-tying, and hemostasis. After all, the Surgical Research Institute had abundant resources, all kinds of cultivator equipment readily available, and even experimental pigs were in sufficient supply, with 20 left for everyone to practice on. Li Min was indeed hardworking and resilient, had ideas in his mind, so he was very dedicated, gradually learning from Yang Ping. Yang Ping also trained him in basic microscope and endoscope operations, and later they could donate some equipment to Li Min¡¯s hospital. Even in a township hospital, as long as there was basic equipment, performing minimally invasive surgeries like cholecystectomy and urological stone extraction was pretty good. ¡ª Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e had already arrived at Sanbo Hospital, where they completed their hospital admission and surgery procedures. Traveling back and forth to their home wasn¡¯t convenient, so Yuan Yulin rented a budget room at the Sanbo Hotel. Although the space was very small, it was enough for sleeping. This couple was very decisive. Before coming, they had already reviewed a lot of information and conducted surveys near Sanbo Hospital, inquiring both inside the hospital and around the neighborhood about the hospital¡¯s reputation. Speaking of Sanbo Hospital, especially the Surgical Research Institute, not a single person nearby had a bad word to say¡ªeveryone was thumbs-up. Even an old man selling sweet potatoes nearby said, ¡°The doctors here are amazing, especially Professor Yang, who published 13 papers in CNS all at once.¡± When Yuan Yulin asked what CNS was, the old man explained, ¡°You don¡¯t know, right? It¡¯s academic papers. How do intellectuals show off their abilities? That¡¯s how. This stuff is impressive, like a world gold medal in the world of scholars. Just think about what it means to get 13 gold medals all at once.¡± The old man kept talking while roasting sweet potatoes, his mouth spitting flecks with excitement. Yuan Yulin said, ¡°How much for a few sweet potatoes?¡± The old man wiped sweat from his brow and pointed at the sign erected on his cart: ¡°Twenty yuan each!¡± Twenty yuan each? Are you robbing me? The old man said disdainfully, ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that. Professor Yang from this hospital passes by here to and from work, and he always likes to buy my sweet potatoes. You must be new here and not know the situation. Everyone here, whether it¡¯s the doctors and nurses, or the patients and their families, they all scramble to buy them. And there are many doctors from far away who come here just to enjoy my sweet potatoes. Why? Because these are Professor Yang¡¯s favorite sweet potatoes.¡± ¡°Give me three!¡± A young man didn¡¯t haggle at all, just scanned the code, grabbed his goods, and left. Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e were stunned on the sidelines; sweet potatoes for twenty yuan each and still selling like hotcakes. This young man was Guo Peihua who, after being discharged from the hospital and feeling very well, sold his old house and bought one near the hospital to settle down. He also tried as much as possible to work from home and not travel far. He knew that as long as he was within a safe distance, Professor Yang would be able to save him. Guo Peihua often bought some fruits to visit the doctors and nurses at the Surgical Research Institute and sometimes helped them with anything he could manage. ¡°You¡¯re here for treatment, aren¡¯t you?¡± Guo Peihua asked. Yuan Yulin nodded his head, ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Which department are you visiting? Looking for Professor Yang from the Surgical Research Institute?¡± Guo Peihua said. ¡°How do you know?¡± ¡°I saw you in the ward today.¡± ¡°Yeah, we came here to find Professor Yang for surgery. I heard Professor Yang is very skilled.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve definitely come to the right place. I had my surgery done here. If I hadn¡¯t been lucky enough to be sent here, I would have been a goner. Professor Yang literally snatched my life back from the king of hell,¡± Guo Peihua said while picking out sweet potatoes. ¡°Is he that amazing?¡± Yuan Yulin asked curiously. ¡°Of course. Professor Yang, the head of the Surgical Research Institute here, is known for snatching people from the clutches of the king of hell. You¡¯ve met a savior. Not long ago, a super-rich guy from Southeast Asia had a heart attack. The American experts said there was nothing to do but wait for death. They flew him directly here for emergency surgery. Now he can stroll around the garden. I heard to make future visits convenient for treatment, this big boss bought the entire unfinished building nearby to develop.¡± ¡°If you wait here a little while, you¡¯ll see him. That old gentleman will be back soon to buy some sweet potatoes.¡± ¡°You mean that Southeast Asian tycoon comes here to buy sweet potatoes?¡± ¡°Pssh! There¡¯s a lot you don¡¯t know. You think these sweet potatoes can sell for such a high price just anywhere? This place is a prime spot. If other people try to sell here, the security and urban management come immediately. But when the old gentleman sells here, no one dares to touch him because Professor Yang passes by here, and he loves eating the old gentleman¡¯s sweet potatoes the most.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll tell you, don¡¯t be fooled by how run-down this place looks. There used to be a beggar singing for money here, and now he¡¯s a big boss with a gold mine overseas,¡± Guo Peihua said with animation. The old gentleman proudly stated, ¡°That beggar used to be right in my spot.¡± The talk of snatching lives from the king of hell filled Yuan Yulin and his wife with new confidence. They had almost given up hope and just wanted to try their best. ¡°What¡¯s your situation?¡± Yuan Yulin asked. ¡°My blood vessels burst like a balloon, nearly exploded inside my belly. Professor Yang snatched me right back from the king of hell. Let me tell you, as long as there¡¯s breath in a person, he can find a way. Many patients here were considered untreatable elsewhere, but they all got cured here at Sanbo.¡± ¡°Have you ever eaten at the Waterlily Bread Store on the first floor of Sanbo Hotel?¡± Guo Peihua asked them. ¡°Not yet!¡± The couple was very interested in what the young man had said. ¡°Go take a look, go take a look and buy something to eat, better if you sit for a while. The lady boss was in a car accident and was left as Half-Man, but she was also saved by Professor Yang. How can someone survive with only half a body? But she did, and now she can even walk,¡± Guo Peihua said earnestly. Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e were feeling very optimistic after listening to Guo Peihua. They decided they definitely needed to check out the bakery owner the next chance they got. ¡°Old man! Two sweet potatoes, please!¡± Yuan Yulin said immediately. The old man replied, ¡°You better believe it. Just stand here and watch. In a bit they¡¯ll be snatched up, and I can¡¯t keep up.¡± With Guo Peihua¡¯s encouragement, Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e felt more and more confident. They ate sweet potatoes on the sky bridge and then really went to the first floor of Sanbo Hotel to find the Waterlily Bread Store. They wanted to get a closer look at Half-Man. When they arrived at the bakery, Yu Shuilian and her husband were busy at work, and there was always a smile on her face¡ªshe didn¡¯t seem like someone who had gone through a catastrophe at all. The lady boss didn¡¯t seem like Half-Man at all; she could actually walk and work. Chapter 990 - 990 831 Professor Yang is Sun Wukong ?Chapter 990: Chapter 831 Professor Yang is Sun Wukong Chapter 990: Chapter 831 Professor Yang is Sun Wukong Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e ordered several snacks at the bakery and sat down to eat slowly and observe the surroundings. Especially Nie Shun¡¯e, her eyes were constantly fixed on Yu Shuilian, who was moving around. She simply couldn¡¯t understand how a person with only an upper body could walk back and forth. Yu Shuilian actually knew what she was thinking. Many customers who came here to eat were curious, so she never hid the fact that she was Half-Man; it was the reality, and she faced it very openly. While tidying up plates on a nearby table, Yu Shuilian smiled and told Nie Shun¡¯e, ¡°I¡¯ve got electric prostheses for my lower body, so I can move freely. They¡¯re covered by clothes and trousers, so you can¡¯t tell.¡± As she spoke, Yu Shuilian rolled up her trouser leg to show them, ¡°These are mechanical legs, powered by batteries, but they look a lot like real legs.¡± Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e were amazed, marveling at how advanced technology had become. ¡°Your surgery was performed by Professor Yang from the Surgical Research Institute here, right?¡± Nie Shun¡¯e asked casually. Yu Shuilian nodded, ¡°Not only did he perform the surgery, but this electric prosthesis was also a gift from his student in the United States. You simply can¡¯t buy it outside; it¡¯s a product of an American laboratory.¡± ¡°Professor Yang is a great philanthropist. He also helped set up this bakery. If not for him, we wouldn¡¯t have the life we have today,¡± Yu Shuilian¡¯s husband said as he brought over two pieces of toast. Although Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e hadn¡¯t met Professor Yang in person since arriving at Sanbo Hospital, they already had a clear image of him in their minds¡ªa highly skilled and benevolent doctor, with both artistry and medical ethics that put people at ease. ¡°It looks like you¡¯ve also come here for treatment, right?¡± Yu Shuilian noticed that Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s complexion wasn¡¯t very good, somewhat yellowish. In fact, those who came here to eat were either medical staff or patients and their relatives. She almost recognized all the staff, so those she didn¡¯t know were either patients or their relatives. ¡°Yes, we were also recommended to come and seek surgery from Professor Yang,¡± Nie Shun¡¯e responded, sounding very happy. Because she saw hope¡ªa tangible hope standing right before her. Yu Shuilian was like a beacon of light, giving many desperate patients a glimmer of hope, a courage to keep living, and now Nie Shun¡¯e had seen that light. After finishing their meal, Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e returned to the ward, where Yuan Yulin requested an accompany bed, intending to stay overnight at the hospital. ¡ª On the second day of admission, the couple finally met the deity-like Professor Yang everyone talked about, but he was so young. There were photos in the doctor introduction section on the wall, but Yuan Yulin thought these were pictures from the doctor¡¯s younger days, or that the photos had been beautified, a popular practice nowadays¡ªwho doesn¡¯t use beauty filters when taking pictures? However, seeing him in person, he was indeed so young, almost like a university student still in school. Youth aside, he had an aura of authority that made people instinctively trust him. Professor Yang¡¯s ward rounds were either a grand procession¡ªthat was usually in the morning¡ªor he came alone, like a solitary warrior, and that would be in the afternoon when the day¡¯s work was ending. It was morning now, so it was a grand procession. The physician in charge knocked and opened the door, and Professor Yang walked in with his team, everyone taking their place in an orderly manner. There were around twenty doctors gathered around the bed. Professor Yang stood at the prime position for the rounds, flanked by two senior colleagues accompanying him. The physician reported the medical history with impressively fluent, off-script delivery. Nie Shun¡¯e had vague, lingering upper abdominal pain for the last six months. She simply thought it was an upset stomach and that it would pass if she just endured a bit, not really taking the subtle abdominal pain seriously. Later on, her eyes and skin became a bit yellow, and she grew thin. Yuan Yulin felt something was off with his wife and took her to the hospital for a check-up, only to discover that she had cancer. Such news could shatter anyone, feeling like the sky had fallen, but thankfully they managed to pull through. Pancreatic cancer has a very poor prognosis and is highly malignant, with an extremely rapid progression, so the life expectancy of patients is very short. Because its onset is quite hidden, by the time it¡¯s discovered, it¡¯s usually in the late stages, and patients typically die not long after diagnosis. Thus, pancreatic cancer is known as the ¡®king of cancers,¡¯ with an even worse prognosis than liver cancer. For many malignant tumor patients, it¡¯s common practice to withhold the diagnosis to avoid placing immense psychological stress on them. Before the rounds, the physician in charge had already communicated with Yuan Yulin, who indicated that his wife was aware of her illness, so secrecy wasn¡¯t necessary. ¡°Don¡¯t be scared off by the word ¡®cancer¡¯. Some tumors can be cured, and some can have their survival period extended,¡± Leveraging this case, Yang Ping took the opportunity to educate everyone about malignant tumors and also provided Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e with some scientific understanding of the disease. Any tumor, tumor cells in themselves are not lethal. However, it¡¯s understood that tumor cells are of inferior quality. They don¡¯t perform the functions of normal cells, yet these inferior cells can divide and grow at an alarming rate, quickly occupying the space of normal cells and taking their place. Every organ is composed of cells. Therefore, the material basis of function lies in normal cells. If cells are surreptitiously replaced, then the foundation for function no longer exists, and that organ will fail. Organ failure, often multiple organ failure, is the primary cause of death for tumor patients. Chapter 991 - 991 831 Professor Yang is Sun Wukong_2 ?Chapter 991: Chapter 831: Professor Yang is Sun Wukong_2 Chapter 991: Chapter 831: Professor Yang is Sun Wukong_2 Firstly, a tumor¡¯s own blood vessels might rupture or it might destroy other blood vessels during its growth, leading to severe hemorrhaging, which in turn can cause the patient¡¯s death. Secondly, tumor cells may detach and enter the blood circulation, forming emboli. If these emboli cause blockages in critical organs, such as pulmonary embolism, they can lead to death. Thirdly, the growth of the tumor consumes a lot of nutrients, causing the patient to develop a cachexic condition which lowers the immune system and makes infections and other diseases more likely. Thus, the mechanism by which tumors impair health is through the over-replacement of normal cells with inferior ones. The process by which tumors impair health and lead to a patient¡¯s death can be likened to the collapse of a company. In a normal company, key positions are held by talented and capable individuals who manage their respective responsibilities and cooperate with each other, thus the company functions well. But one day, many foolish and incompetent individuals start joining the company. Despite their incompetence, these individuals are particularly good at usurping the positions of the capable ones, and they keep coming, eventually starting to take over various crucial positions. When they have not yet reached a critical mass, even though the company struggles, it can still manage to survive. However, if these detestable fools take over a significant number of key positions, firmly holding these roles yet lacking the capability to fulfill their duties and indulging only in frivolous activities, the company inevitably goes bankrupt. For the human body, this equates to organ failure, which leads to the patient¡¯s death. The current mainstream methods for treating tumors, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgical treatment, all aim to eliminate tumor cells. Surgical excision, for example, involves physically removing the tumor through surgery. These methods are akin to clearing out the incompetents from the company. If the tumor is still in its early stages and has not spread, it is relatively easy to completely eradicate it. However, once past the early stage, when it has metastasized, it is difficult to locate all the places where it may be hidden. These tumor cells are like seeds that take root and sprout everywhere. Theoretically, it is impossible to completely remove them with existing methods. It¡¯s like if criminals are concentrated in one area, they can be eliminated all at once, but if they are dispersed and hidden in society, it¡¯s much harder to single them out and destroy them. This is why malignant tumors are considered incurable diseases, as they cannot be completely eradicated; they are like wildfires that cannot be completely extinguished, regrowing with the slightest breeze. But not all malignant tumors are the same; for example, thyroid cancer has a very good prognosis because it is a ¡°lazy¡± cancer with a slow growth rate, much like a snail, making it relatively easy to cure completely. Even if it can¡¯t be cured, patients can live long lives with it. Some people grow old while the cancer still exists, but it doesn¡¯t affect them significantly. It¡¯s as if only one incompetent enters the company every few years, which doesn¡¯t cause significant problems within a short period. In surgical treatment of tumors, precise identification of targets is extremely important. If, like playing a video game, you could open a map and see every tumor cell¡¯s location, then execute them all, the tumor could be cured. Therefore, theoretically, as long as all tumor cells are completely eliminated and the organs¡¯ normal functions are preserved, it amounts to a cure. If not all can be eliminated, clearing the majority is sufficient as the remaining scattered cells will hardly cause immediate issues. Yang Ping provides education to patients and also gives lessons to doctors with case studies, telling them about the nature of the disease, not just its superficial symptoms. ¡ª Once people have confidence and hope, everything becomes much easier to handle. If they lose confidence and fall into despair, it is the worst case. Nie Shun¡¯e is now very confident, and she cooperates fully with the examinations. After completing the preoperative checks, the final consultation before the surgery begins. This surgery is very special, involving the transplantation of eight organs, so Yang Ping decides to personally conduct the preoperative consultation. Across a table sat Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e, a married couple. To Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e, having the surgery was a cause for joy because it meant hope and a chance to survive. ¡°This is a drawing, showing the organs in your abdominal cavity and the tumor. Red represents the tumor tissue, blue represents normal tissue, and yellow is where tumor and normal tissues mix. Of course, this is just a schematic; the actual situation is much more complicated. Look, here are the stomach, small intestine, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen, inferior vena cava¡ªthese are the kidneys¡ª¡± Using graphics was Yang Ping¡¯s forte. Many things are difficult to explain in words, but with an exquisite anatomy diagram, it becomes easy to understand. ¡°The blue ones are the good guys, the red ones are the bad guys, and the yellow ones are a mixture of both. Our goal is to eliminate or substantially reduce the bad guys. We must remove the red parts, and to ensure we cleanse the enemy thoroughly, we also need to remove the yellow parts. That¡¯s still not enough because even in areas that appear blue, I need to remove some parts. It looks aggressive, but it¡¯s this aggressiveness that ensures the tumor is removed to the greatest extent possible.¡± Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s eyes widened as they looked at this beautiful medical illustration, and the vivid analogies made it very easy for them to understand what Yang Ping was explaining. ¡°Removing them is not easy because the structure of the organs in the abdominal cavity is complex, and so are the relationships between them. Meanwhile, the tumor grows irregularly. It¡¯s like cleaning dust inside a computer case; if you just open the lid and clean from the window, you definitely can¡¯t clean it thoroughly, as you can¡¯t even reach or see many areas.¡± ¡°Therefore, we need to adopt a very bold and superb method of resection¡ªex-vivo resection! It¡¯s like taking out all the components from within the computer case. Once I have cleaned all the dust off outside, I¡¯ll put the components back into the computer case.¡± ¡°For you, I need to remove these eight organs, take them out of your body, completely detaching them from you. I will perform the tumor resection on the workbench, clean it thoroughly, and then reinstall them back into your body.¡± Ex-vivo resection sounded terrifying. Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e were very scared, having never heard of such an exaggerated surgical operation where all the organs in the abdomen would be removed and then reinstalled; just the thought of it was frightening. ¡°Professor Yang, if you take out so many things from the abdomen, will they all fit back in?¡± Nie Shun¡¯e worried about this because if they couldn¡¯t be put back, it would be troublesome. Her husband once tried to fix their child¡¯s model car, and after disassembling it, he could never put it back together, ending with a pile of components being thrown away. ¡°In ¡®Journey to the West¡¯, Sun Wukong fought demons by tossing his head in the air and flying around. Didn¡¯t it get put back in the end?¡± Yuan Yulin gave an example. ¡°But the demon¡¯s head was carried away by an eagle, and in the end, it wasn¡¯t put back on,¡± Nie Shun¡¯e also remembered this story. ¡°Professor Yang is Sun Wukong, not the demon,¡± Yuan Yulin argued. ¡°What you just mentioned is theoretically possible, but for me, this issue doesn¡¯t exist,¡± Yang Ping firmly stated. Most doctors wouldn¡¯t dare speak with such confidence, but Yang Ping was different, especially with such patients; he needed to instill confidence in them. Nie Shun¡¯e felt much more reassured as long as the organs could be put back. ¡°You see, the tumor and some organs have merged. To remove the tumor, we must take out parts of the organs, and to ensure that the tumor is completely removed, we must also take out some normal organs. The left kidney has lost its function, severely infiltrated by the tumor, and must be removed. A normal human body has two kidneys, here are your kidneys, one each on the left and right. However, a person only needs one kidney to function, so removing this kidney won¡¯t impact your body, except you lose the backup capability. Normally, if one kidney fails, the other can still function, but you will only have one kidney. If it fails, there¡¯s no recourse,¡± Yang Ping pointed out on the hand-drawn diagram. Nie Shun¡¯e thought for a moment, ¡°There is no other way if it¡¯s necessary. Professor Yang wouldn¡¯t plan this if it weren¡¯t necessary.¡± ¡°Right, all the resections are reluctant acts, they are necessary,¡± ¡°Stomach, small intestine, liver, pancreas, and spleen will all be partially removed. We currently estimate that the impact on functioning after the resection will be minimal, especially for the liver, which has good plasticity. But this is just a prediction; if postoperative dysfunction occurs in some organs, we must address it,¡± Yang Ping explained every detail to the couple, providing them with a full understanding of the surgery. This was a major operation, an extraordinarily large one that even involved removing an entire kidney and parts of other organs. ¡°Of course, there¡¯s only one purpose for all this, and that is to save your life, otherwise the tumor will continue to spread, and your life will soon be threatened.¡± Chapter 992 - 992 832 Not in the Same Dimension ?Chapter 992: Chapter 832: Not in the Same Dimension Chapter 992: Chapter 832: Not in the Same Dimension The surgery had been arranged, and naturally, Director Fang from the General Surgery Department wouldn¡¯t miss this opportunity. He volunteered to be the first assistant, and there was no room for negotiation. He did so because he had his reasons. The patient had come through his hands, and he was the attending physician¡ªhe had to be responsible for the patient. Moreover, compared to the youngsters from the Surgical Research Institute, he had deeper seniority at the hospital. Old Fang was also a man with ideas and ideals. He didn¡¯t want to bumble along without achievement; he wanted to become a world-class expert in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery. How would he do that? Of course, by closely following Professor Yang¡¯s lead. Director Fang saw the current situation very clearly; whoever could keep pace with Professor Yang would make a name for themselves. So, he now had to set a rule for the young ones: from now on, any patient he brought in, he would be the first assistant, and no one should challenge that. Although these young doctors were all academic wizards, some of them exceptionally skilled in surgeries, Old Fang was also the Director at Sanbo, his status and experience clear. He¡¯d mix with you all but also needed to secure his own space, and that space was the position of the first assistant. Of course, this face would still be given. After Director Fang candidly made this request, no one rebutted or competed with him for it. There were plenty of opportunities here; one could literally grab a handful just by reaching out. Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e now felt very secure in their hearts. Professor Yang was different from any other doctor they had seen before, very confident. This confidence didn¡¯t come from the kind of chest-thumping talk usually shown but from a strong inner strength that emanated an impressive aura, perhaps what¡¯s referred to as ¡°presence.¡± Moreover, Yuan Yulin and Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s thorough investigation also corroborated Professor Yang¡¯s capabilities. Southeast Asian tycoons buying properties near the hospital was well-known among locals; anyone casually queried could give a rough account. Regarding Professor Yang Ping, everyone who opened shops or set up stalls around knew him well¡ªthey all recognized him as a brilliant doctor famous for publishing 13 papers. And what most convinced the couple was that even the guards and cleaning ladies here knew about journals, knew about CNS and SCI journals. When a foreigner asked for directions, a guard even managed to spit out a few sentences in English¡ªa clearly different class. ¡ª After being discharged from the hospital, Guo Peihua made a decisive move. He immediately sold his original house and bought one near the hospital and tried to work from home as much as possible, keeping his activities close to the hospital. Since moving near the hospital, Guo would often stroll into the wards of the Surgical Research Institute, which was a good thing. Whenever doctors and nurses had minor issues with their computers, they would just call him to handle it, saving the trouble of calling colleagues from the IT department, who sometimes were too busy to respond quickly. ¡°Guo Peihua! Help with this computer, it¡¯s a bit lagging.¡± A standardized training student knocked on the computer a few times, as its speed was unsatisfactory and it was lagging severely. Guo Peihua was always delighted to receive such tasks. He was even more dedicated than the hospital¡¯s IT staff and would immediately rush over to fix the computer issue. ¡°You cram everything into the C drive; it¡¯s almost exploding. I¡¯ll fix it for you.¡± Guo Peihua fiddled around and resolved the problem, quickly returning the computer to the standardized training student, who now found it very handy to use. Having such an unofficial dedicated engineer in the department wasn¡¯t bad at all. The desktops of doctors¡¯ computers were often cluttered with all sorts of things. When using the computers, they only cared about functionality, never considering healthy usage practices. Sanbo Hospital was still okay; these computers were genuinely new. If it had been any other hospital, many clinical doctors would be using old machines handed down from administrative staff. Combined with a not-so-perfect HIS system, the old computers with the lousy system made no doctor¡¯s computer easy to use. The younger doctors were still okay, but if an older doctor encountered a lagging computer during outpatient hours, it could frustrate them enough to quite literally spurt out blood in anger. After helping the doctors fix their computer issues, Guo Peihua, having nothing else to do, made his rounds and then left. He left his phone number in the doctors¡¯ office, ready to help with any computer issues at any time. The head nurse held a notebook in the doctors¡¯ office to register names. Mr. Guo had developed such a huge property, using only the top of one building to develop his penthouse for personal use. The rest of the units still had to be sold; he couldn¡¯t possibly live in so many houses himself. Mr. Guo said he wanted to give every doctor and nurse from the Surgical Research Institute one unit each, but the hospital could definitely not accept this. Medical staff emphasized selfless dedication and couldn¡¯t possibly accept such large material gifts. So, Mr. Guo approached Dean Xia and said, ¡°Well then, how about this¡ªI want the naming rights for a community. I¡¯ll name it Sanbo Courtyard. Do you agree? I¡¯ll give a naming fee of several billion.¡± Dean Xia thought it over. This was a legitimate matter; As long as it was legitimate, it was manageable. Mr. Guo then said, ¡°Then, in addition, I¡¯ll offer all hospital staff an 80% market price for the properties, and a 50% discount for the staff of the Surgical Research Institute. That¡¯s not against the rules, right?¡± ¡°If I were to give you, Dean Xia, a personal benefit, that would be against the rules, but I¡¯m giving benefits to the hospital, and I¡¯m not gaining any personal benefits from it. This is my voluntary offer. Is it against the rules?¡± Dean Xia felt it indeed wasn¡¯t against the rules, so he signed the contract. Naming it was just naming¡ªlittle did he expect that the name ¡°Sanbo¡± would be so valuable. The hospital needed money for many purposes, and this sum could accomplish a lot. The head nurse went around to ask and register those who wanted to buy houses. Only a fool would not buy one. Chapter 993 - 993 832 Not in the Same Dimension_2 ?Chapter 993: Chapter 832: Not in the Same Dimension_2 Chapter 993: Chapter 832: Not in the Same Dimension_2 Dean Xia said that if there wasn¡¯t enough cash on hand, no worries, one could take a no-interest installment loan for 30% of the down payment from the hospital. The remaining funds would be loaned by Mr. Guo¡¯s company, also as interest-free installments, without affecting personal property rights. Who wouldn¡¯t want to buy such a house? There¡¯s no need to go through a bank loan¡ªit was basically just the hospital signing a name, the real estate company signing another, and then you just wait to move in and receive the deed. The most outrageous part was that the hospital staff buying homes not only got environmentally-friendly decor but were also given a full set of furniture and appliances, allowing them to move in straight away. A few of the young graduate students didn¡¯t have a penny to their names, but they were more excited than anyone, afraid of missing out on this amazing benefit. ¡°Me! Me! Me!¡± Everyone was scrambling. While others were eagerly signing up, Xia Shu quietly sat and waited for the head nurse to come to register his name. Xia Shu hadn¡¯t expected that he¡¯d be able to own his own home so soon after arriving here¡ªa home at half price, effectively with no down payment. Only a fool wouldn¡¯t buy. But the head nurse didn¡¯t ask Xia Shu at all, just ignored him, registered the others, and then prepared to leave the doctor¡¯s office. In a rush, Xia Shu caught up with her, ¡°Wait, I¡¯m also signing up! Why didn¡¯t you ask me?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already registered your name,¡± the head nurse said coldly. What does that mean? She registered me without asking? But maybe that¡¯s better, saves the hassle. In the doctor¡¯s office, everyone was heatedly discussing the matter of buying houses. A standardized training student from the Department of Gastroenterology came back, holding an envelope full of cash, and said happily, ¡°I just went to collect the volunteer research subsidy. This month I contributed twenty samples to the gastroenterology laboratory, six thousand dollars.¡± The training student took out a stack of hundred-dollar bills from the envelope and flicked them, making the other training students and graduate students green with envy. Six thousand dollars! You just need to contribute a qualified fecal sample to the gastroenterology laboratory every now and then, and the money¡¯s in your hand. Is there a cooler way to earn money in this world? ¡°Even shit is worth something!¡± one standardized training student said enviously. The student with the money immediately took offense, ¡°What are you saying, who¡¯s producing shit here? If you have the guts, go produce a three-hundred-dollar pile of shit yourself!¡± ¡ª Huang Jiacai, Boss Cheng, and Director Zhu had been keeping an eye on Wang Ge. Who he visited, what connections he used, they monitored it all. When analyzing the surveillance data, they discovered that a patient named Nie Shun¡¯e seemed to have some connection with Wang Ge. Upon checking, it turned out Nie Shun¡¯e had indeed been admitted to Sanbo Surgical Research Institute¡ªbig trouble. Thus, Boss Cheng came over in a hurry to warn Yang Ping, telling him not to touch this patient at all costs, as it could be a huge trap. Director Zhu, having a background in general surgery, asked around a bit: the patient had been to several hospitals; pancreatic cancer had metastasized widely, with severe adhesions, absolutely no chance for surgery; and now she was at Sanbo Hospital seeking surgery from Yang Ping. Clearly, this surgery was impossible, so it was obviously a trap. Boss Cheng went to the surgical institute, met Yang Ping in his office, and frantically recounted the situation to him. They didn¡¯t want to bother Yang Ping, but if they didn¡¯t make it clear, there was no stopping him. Yang Ping¡¯s passion for surgery could be described as fervent. ¡°Professor, you really shouldn¡¯t operate on Nie Shun¡¯e. If you do, there¡¯s no telling how it will end. It could be a huge trap,¡± Boss Cheng concluded. Yang Ping¡¯s fingers tapped silently, rhythmically on the desk. After listening, he simply said, ¡°How big of a trap could it be? Her condition is very real. If a surgery is needed, it¡¯s needed. I appreciate your concern.¡± Boss Cheng was bewildered. Had performing surgeries made him oblivious? These days, as a doctor, you have to protect yourself, avoid trouble and pitfalls¡ªthat¡¯s the basic rule. How could Professor Yang have no sense of safety at all? ¡°Professor! You need to consider this carefully. You know what kind of person Wang Ge is. This trap could be one he¡¯s set. You really shouldn¡¯t jump into it,¡± Boss Cheng was very anxious. But Yang Ping still didn¡¯t show much reaction, ¡°Even if he¡¯s setting a trap, how big can it be?¡± In Yang Ping¡¯s mind, Wang Ge was just a nuisance, not worth altering anything for. Why overrate him? ¡°I appreciate everyone¡¯s concern, but don¡¯t worry. Nothing bad will happen. We¡¯re not on the same level, not dealing with the same matters,¡± he reassured them. Despite all the persuasion, Yang Ping said not to worry about him. What did that mean? Sigh, could it be true that the higher the IQ, the lower the emotional intelligence? Yang Ping¡¯s personality was something Boss Cheng knew well; he was a very independent person. Since he couldn¡¯t dissuade him, he could only think of ways to clean up the aftermath. ¡°President Huang, the professor insisted on performing the surgery, and we couldn¡¯t change his mind, what do we do?¡± Boss Cheng almost cried. ¡°What did the professor say?¡± Huang Jiacai knew that the professor was no ordinary person and couldn¡¯t be treated like one. ¡°He said Wang Ge could dig as big a pit as he could, even said things like ¡®not on the same dimension, nor about the same issue¡¯¡ª¡± Boss Cheng recounted the conversation with the professor, and President Huang, being the smartest, grasped the professor¡¯s intentions. He just sighed, ¡°In the face of absolute power, all schemes are but clouds.¡± ¡°What, what did you say?¡± Boss Cheng was not fond of this enigmatic fellow. ¡°I mean, the professor meant that we don¡¯t need to worry about him. Come back first.¡± Huang Jiacai didn¡¯t bother to argue with Old Cheng. ¡°Not worry about the professor? What are you saying, I¡¯m telling you¡ª¡± The impatient President Huang hung up the phone. Now Boss Cheng was truly angry; he couldn¡¯t believe these words came from Huang Jiacai¡¯s mouth. Not to check on the professor? Are you trying to rebel, or abandon your benefactor, or simply save your own skin? Old Cheng cursed inwardly, swearing to cut ties. He was committed to following the professor, which was Old Cheng¡¯s bottom line, his basic principle of living and it would not shake in a hundred years. Boss Cheng stormed into Huang Jiacai¡¯s office and slammed his hand on the desk. If this were in a historical drama, Old Cheng would have turned against his brother by now, leading troops to execute the traitor. ¡°What are you ranting about, aren¡¯t you embarrassed by your hoarse voice?¡± Huang Jiacai looked disdainful. Boss Cheng gave no face: ¡°What do you mean by not checking on the professor? If we don¡¯t, who will? The professor¡¯s a scholar, essentially a bookworm who¡¯s all into surgeries but doesn¡¯t know about shady people like Wang Ge. He doesn¡¯t know the dangers in this world, nor the complexities of society. If we don¡¯t protect him, who will?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t act!¡± Boss Cheng snatched the Cuban cigar from Huang Jiacai¡¯s hand and threw it to the ground hard, stomping on it with his foot. Huang Jiacai hurriedly picked it up, blowing on it distressedly: ¡°All taken by you, leaving only this one, Cheng, don¡¯t be so ruthless.¡± ¡°Why are you so agitated? Can¡¯t you think about what the professor meant?¡± Huang Jiacai cherished this Cuban cigar. ¡°What did the professor mean?¡± Old Cheng asked. ¡°He and Wang Ge are simply not in the same dimension; he is not in the same dimension as any of us. Do you know what a dimensionality reduction is?¡± ¡°Dimensionality reduction?¡± ¡°The professor is not foolish; he is of high intelligence. His IQ is much higher than any of ours. Does he not know what kind of person Wang Ge is? Does he not know that Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s medical condition is very complex? Why isn¡¯t he afraid? In the face of absolute power, all schemes are but clouds. We just need to keep an eye on him, and he will be fine. Don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°When have I, Huang Jiacai, ever talked nonsense?¡± It seemed true, he did say the Japanese would go find Wang Ge, and they actually did. Anyway, this guy was indeed impressive, good at running companies and at scheming, just a bit pretentious, making himself appear unfathomable. ¡°Huang Jiacai, those are your words. If anything happens to the professor, I, Old Cheng, will be the first one not to let you off. You know my temperament; I dare to risk my life with you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re really anxious. Brother, don¡¯t worry, just trust me, Huang Jiacai, one word. Let¡¯s not create unnecessary complications. The professor is stronger than either of us imagine. We need to be good subordinates and not add to his troubles. Being able to keep up with the professor¡¯s pace is already a stroke of great fortune, a victory in life. Don¡¯t you get it? It¡¯d be a waste to explain anything too profound.¡± ¡°You¡ª¡± ¡°What about me? It¡¯s just this one cigar, nearly got crushed by you. Let¡¯s be humane here.¡± Huang Jiacai carefully smoothed out the cigar¡¯s wrinkles. Chapter 994 - 994 833 The Most Awesome Dean in the Country ?Chapter 994: Chapter 833: The Most Awesome Dean in the Country Chapter 994: Chapter 833: The Most Awesome Dean in the Country Surgery requires precise identification of tumor tissue; otherwise, even if all organs and tumors are removed, it¡¯s impossible to distinguish which parts are tumors, which are normal, and which are mixed tissues. Of course, with his extensive anatomical experience, Yang Ping could make judgments based on visual recognition and the touch of his fingers. If he combined this with the memory of enhanced CT and PET-CT images, his assessments were almost always accurate. But not every doctor is Yang Ping, and in his view, if he were the only one capable of performing the surgery, it would be his failure. Any surgical technique that is improved, simplified, and made widely available is a good method; otherwise, relying on one doctor¡¯s efforts will only allow so many surgeries to be performed, no matter how hard they work. The five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is below 8%, with 90% of patients dying within a year after surgery. To improve this rate and achieve a good prognosis, Yang Ping could only rely on his superior surgical skills for complete resection; there was no other way. The same task can be done at a high level or simply; it¡¯s a matter of technical sophistication. For example, a house built with trees and thatch by primitive people is still a house, just as skyscrapers of hundreds of floors are now. This is a matter of building technology levels. Surgery is the same: a crude resection of pancreatic cancer is still surgery. Yang Ping¡¯s approach, though, involved meticulous attention to detail in every aspect of the surgery, from strategy to tactics. Ex-vivo resection is a strategic part of the entire surgical plan, but there must also be tactics and decisions for every battle. The films Nie Shun¡¯e brought were of enhanced CT, which were actually sufficient for diagnosis. Enhanced CT is the best examination for the pancreas, allowing for localization, qualitative analysis, differential diagnosis, and staging. However, to further understand the illness, Yang Ping still arranged for a PEC-CT. At this point, it wasn¡¯t a matter of saving money; pursuing the best outcome was crucial, as trying to save money would be meaningless¡ªbetter not to spend at all. PEC-CT could evaluate the spread of the tumor and the overall condition of the body. According to the PEC-CT, the cancer had metastasized within the abdomen but not to organs such as the brain or lungs, suggesting hope if the surgery could be performed at a certain level. Treating disease is like this; you do what you can to the extent you can. The methods of tumor metastasis are only a few¡ªdirect infiltration, hematogenous spread, lymphatic spread, and implantation. Tumor cells are like seeds that take root wherever they spread, quickly producing a cluster of tumor cells. Eradicating a tumor is as difficult as removing roots from the ground, which is precisely the challenge with malignant tumors. If someone could eradicate it completely, they would have found the cure for cancer. Although Yang Ping couldn¡¯t eradicate the tumor, he aimed to cut it back as much as possible. To identify tumor tissue during surgery, Yang Ping planned to use indocyanine green for fluorescence staining. Treated tumor tissue appeared typical to the naked eye but emitted a green fluorescence under a special laparoscope or glasses, clearly distinguishing it from normal tissue. The method is critical; a good method can make work easier. Relying on sheer force to achieve goals is sometimes a reluctant choice. Indocyanine green needs to be injected into the bloodstream before surgery. Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s liver function was adequate, so the injection of indocyanine green would normally begin three days before surgery. Indocyanine green circulates in the blood, eventually binding with tumor cells, while normal cells do not interact with it. While contemplating, Yang Ping sketched by hand to refine his surgical plan, aiming to mentally simulate every detail. In the doctor¡¯s office, Song Zimo was gathering everyone¡¯s surgical plans. After collecting them, including his own, they were placed on the desk, awaiting Yang Ping¡¯s review. Yang Ping came out of the department head¡¯s office and entered the doctor¡¯s office where everyone was waiting. Song Zimo pulled up a chair for Yang Ping to sit. The table was piled with surgical plans, and Yang Ping reviewed them one by one; designing a surgical plan is the best way to train an individual¡¯s abilities. Mm, Yang Ping took his time looking through them. Song Zimo was consistently excellent, always doing things perfectly. He was a born perfectionist¡ªthere was no helping it. Xu Zhiliang was a natural scholar, always intent on thorough research, which made his and Song Zimo¡¯s surgery plans the most satisfying for Yang Ping. Xia Shu was new, a doctoral graduate from the Cardiac Surgery Department, and his expertise in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery was significantly weaker. But that weakness was only relative to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, who had been under Professor Yang¡¯s direct guidance with access to specialized internal materials that outsiders couldn¡¯t acquire¡ªa knowledge of anatomy powerful enough to conquer the world. Li Guodong was smart and motivated, already showing potential as a scholar. Although lacking in experience, his surgical plan was thorough and presentable. Zhang Lin and Little Five had been working hard too, managing to write very detailed plans and deserving recognition. It seemed that Teacher Zhang and Teacher Wu¡¯s aspirations extended beyond being simple heroes. Doctor Li Min, who had a junior college degree, proved that a low level of education doesn¡¯t necessarily mean low ability, but it does mean there¡¯s a gap in education that requires continual effort to close. His plan still fell short compared to Zhang Lin and Little Five¡¯s. However, Yang Ping didn¡¯t mind; Li Min was a special case, and Yang Ping had a different training plan for him. Chapter 995 - 995 833 The Most Awesome Dean in the Country_2 ?Chapter 995: Chapter 833: The Most Awesome Dean in the Country_2 Chapter 995: Chapter 833: The Most Awesome Dean in the Country_2 Whether Li Min is a piece of jade or a stone, Yang Ping can undoubtedly carve him into a work of art; that much is certainly achievable. After reviewing the surgery plans, everyone sat with bated breath, waiting for his corrections and critiques. Song Zimo was the most confident, thinking the professor would surely commend him. Xu Zhiliang, however, was not to be outdone, feeling that aside from oratory skills, he was no less competent than Song Zimo. Doctor Li Min was somewhat less assured, feeling anxious and uneasy. However, Yang Ping did not offer any immediate judgments. Instead, he left them with a remark, ¡°Leave these here with me, and after this surgery, everyone write up a new one to submit to me.¡± That¡¯s it? Some were disappointed, while others felt they had dodged a bullet. Song Zimo had thought he would receive the professor¡¯s praise, and Xu Zhiliang sought to validate whether he stood on equal footing with Song Zimo. Having lost to Song Zimo multiple times, he was reluctant to accept defeat. But with the professor¡¯s remark, all their hopes and plans vanished into thin air. All right, the true measure of their skills would be taken after the surgery. Zhang Lin and Little Five had dodged a bullet since their surgery plan would have definitely been criticized. Always dangling at the tail end of a train is quite distressing, but they had grown accustomed to it, accepting their current state. Better to be the tail of a phoenix than the head of a chicken. Don¡¯t make horizontal comparisons; make vertical ones. If you¡¯ve progressed beyond your past self today, that is the life philosophy of the two brothers. The surgery would still be a few days away. Besides the need to inject Indocyanine Green a few days in advance, prior approval for the surgery was required. For such a major surgery involving the removal of organs, the removal of a kidney was certain. Other organs, such as the pancreas, were less certain; they might also be removed during the surgery. Therefore, for this kind of major, potentially disabling, and highly destructive surgery, it was necessary to apply for signature and filing with the hospital¡¯s Medical Services Office. At that time, Director Zhao of the Medical Services Office and Director Zhou of the Department of Science and Education were discussing important matters. When Li Guodong approached Director Zhao with the application form, Director Zhao signed it quickly upon seeing it was Yang Ping¡¯s. As far as everyone at Sanbo Hospital was concerned, there hadn¡¯t been a surgery that Professor Yang couldn¡¯t perform since he started his career. ¡°Is Professor Yang in the office right now?¡± Director Zhao asked casually. Li Guodong nodded, ¡°He was just there a moment ago.¡± It¡¯s hard to say where a doctor might be at any given time; they might be in the outpatient clinic, the emergency room, or the operating room. In short, it¡¯s hard to find surgeons. Director Zhao picked up the phone and dialed Yang Ping¡¯s mobile directly, confirming he was still in the office. He hurried with Director Zhou to discuss matters with Yang Ping. Both the Medical Services Office and the Department of Science and Education had been extremely busy during that period. Director Zhou of the Department of Science and Education was really stressed. Ever since Yang Ping¡¯s 13 papers made a splash, the stack of applications for further study on his desk had grown mountain-high. These applications came from hospitals both domestic and international. In addition to doctors applying for further study, there were even applications for academic exchanges from several top-tier medical research laboratories worldwide. The Surgical Research Institute could only accommodate so many people; what was to be done? Director Zhou was at a loss and had to seek help from his old colleague, Director Zhao. Director Zhou had a tendency towards obsequiousness, always wanting to afford some special treatment to the foreigners coming to study, but after being severely reprimanded by Dean Xia and Director Han, his obsequiousness was temporarily suppressed. However, completely curing such a disposition is difficult. This time he was more cautious, afraid that his obsequiousness would surface unwittingly. He specifically sought out Director Zhao to help generate ideas. Director Zhao said that as the number of applicants for further study increased, it was like raising the water level for the boat to rise, and the current system for further study at the Surgical Research Institute was no longer appropriate. The two directors went to the Surgical Research Institute together. After Director Zhou briefed Yang Ping on the situation, Yang Ping also didn¡¯t have a clear solution. The overall principle was to select the best of the best. If selection was to occur, elimination was inevitable. So, what method to use? Yang Ping recalled, the College Entrance Examination was actually quite fair; despite the many criticisms of it, it was indeed the most equitable selection process. As long as no one could bypass the exam, plotting underhanded maneuvers would prove extremely difficult. Yang Ping suggested, ¡°Let¡¯s have an exam. We¡¯ll prepare the test papers here. Buy me a safe box. Seal the test papers and lock them in my safe box before the exam. When it¡¯s time for the exam, distribute the papers. Refer to the College Entrance Examination, and enforce a strict examination system.¡± ¡°Should we set up an interview?¡± Director Zhou asked. Director Zhao waved his hand, ¡°In principle, there should be an interview, but what about it? Interviews tend to go off track¡ª Forget it, if we really want to be strict, we¡¯ll only require a written exam.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s do that. Our Integrated Research Institute will set the questions, the Department of Science and Education will organize the exam, and the Medical Services Office will supervise it. During the exam, we¡¯ll have full coverage with surveillance cameras, the three of us will keep an eye on the monitors, and the exam will be broadcast live to the whole hospital, with the video archived permanently.¡± Yang Ping thought this was very straightforward. All three agreed with this approach, and Director Zhou from the Department of Science and Education immediately felt his chest puff up with pride. Thinking about how he had organized exams that had those foreigners scurrying to participate made him grin from ear to ear, remembering how he too had the chance to go abroad for further education through a series of exams. Standing tall felt so good, but the job of proctoring was given to Old Zhao, which clearly felt even better. ¡°Can we switch, with you guys organizing the exam and us supervising?¡± Director Zhou wanted to switch tasks with Director Zhao. Director Zhao glared at him, ¡°Advanced management training is the responsibility of your Department of Science and Education. We¡¯re just assisting. That¡¯s settled then, you organize the exam, and we supervise.¡± How could such a good job be handed over to you? Just think about the scene, with doctors from top hospitals around the world bending over their papers, working hard, while I, Old Zhao, walk through the examination hall, head held high and chest puffed out. What kind of presence would that be, what kind of feeling? You, Zhou, nodding and bowing, could you match my aura? Today, Yang Ping was especially busy. After sending off Director Zhao and Director Zhou, Dean Xia called about Bao Yulou¡¯s son. His knee had multiple ligament tears, and because he had clashed with Yang Ping, Yang Ping had been ignoring him. Late Bao Yulou, along with his wife and son, wrote an apology letter to the hospital and even posted the letter publicly on the hospital¡¯s official website. Bao Yulou also donated to the hospital to set up an emergency aid fund. Only after so much time had passed did Bao Yulou dare to cautiously ask Dean Xia: could he trouble Professor Yang to agree to perform the surgery on his son? Dean Xia immediately bristled, ¡°Are you implying that our Professor Yang is making things difficult for you?¡± Bao Yulou instantly felt that he had misspoken, ¡°A misunderstanding, a misunderstanding¡ª What I mean is, we understand the difficulty and risks involved with the surgery, and we would like to request Professor Yang¡¯s help to attempt it, willing to take on all risks.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll ask Professor Yang about it.¡± So, Dean Xia turned around and called Yang Ping. ¡°Professor Yang, if you say it¡¯s okay, I¡¯ll give them an affirmative response, but if you say no, I¡¯ll outright refuse them,¡± Dean Xia was clear-cut. ¡°Let them come.¡± It wasn¡¯t a deep-seated grudge, and since they were truly remorseful, Yang Ping was willing to give them a chance. Truth be told, this kind of knee injury, to regain athletic ability, especially if he wanted to play soccer again, used to be something only Yang Ping could do in the whole world. Now Su Nanchen, Gao Yuan, and Robert could lead the surgery too, but ultimately, Yang Ping was the original creator, the mentor. Bao Yulou didn¡¯t want his son to be crippled for life, hence he went to great lengths to entreat Yang Ping to operate. Having seen that Yang Ping had agreed, Dean Xia then replied to Bao Yulou, ¡°Since you¡¯re being so proactive, our Professor Yang will give it his best effort.¡± People like Dean Xia, who held the position of dean, knew that being obstinate about everything was not going to work. He had to be flexible on the outside and steadfast on the inside, to maneuver with ease among various relationships; otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t be able to hold onto his position as dean. Previously, when many leaders called asking for favors, Dean Xia simply said, ¡°Ah! Our little hospital isn¡¯t skillful enough, and our doctors are too timid to perform such a complicated surgery. Better to go to Beijing or Shanghai!¡± Even if he knew the excuse was absurd, the other party couldn¡¯t do anything about it¡ªthe concerns of medical issues, especially surgery, were particularly delicate. If the hospital itself said they couldn¡¯t do it, to insist they perform would be reckless and irresponsible. Now that Yang Ping had relented, Dean Xia could again say, ¡°Despite the surgery being difficult and risky, since you¡¯re so eager, our doctors can only do their best to try.¡± Dean Xia was already a tough character, having received awards at the People¡¯s Hall, and feared no one. With Yang Ping by his side, he felt even more formidable, sometimes to the point where he believed himself to be the most outstanding dean in the country. Chapter 996 - 996 834 Courage of the 13 Articles CNS ?Chapter 996: Chapter 834 Courage of the 13 Articles CNS Chapter 996: Chapter 834 Courage of the 13 Articles CNS This major surgery was given great importance by Director Fang, who began to contact his fellow alumni from the same mentor in order to obtain more learning materials. Considering an ex-vivo resection involving eight organs, let alone Director Fang, which doctor in the world has ever seen such a procedure? It¡¯s likely none have. If the General Surgery Department were to be further subdivided, it could be broken down into several specialties, such as Hepatobiliary Surgery, Pancreatic Surgery, Gastrointestinal Surgery, Thyroid Surgery, Breast Surgery, and so on. Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 is divided in this way, whereas Sanbo Hospital, being newer with Orthopedics as its leading department, did not have such rapid development in General Surgery, and for now, there is only one large General Surgery Department. In recent years, Dean Xia aimed to develop each department one by one, and General Surgery has certainly not been neglected. The department possesses cutting-edge equipment like the Da Vinci Robot, various brand-new endoscopes, and all sorts of unique surgical instruments. They had everything they needed, but simply accumulating hardware was pointless. In Nandu Province, where strong competitors abound, the obstacles to development were significant. The affiliated hospitals of the Nandu system dominated the regional medical landscape, firmly suppressing other hospitals; even the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital was a force to reckon with, particularly its Cardiovascular Specialist department which had become increasingly formidable in recent years. Generally, Traditional Chinese Medicine departments in most provinces are weaker, but Nandu Province is an exception, with a very strong traditional medicine presence. Not only do multiple affiliated hospitals of the Traditional Chinese Medicine University control their own territories, but the Provincial Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital is also a remarkable entity, being the strongest of its kind in the nation. As for municipal hospitals, no matter how much they struggle, they can only play second fiddle and have no power to share the spoils with the three major entities mentioned before¡ªusually picking up only the leftovers. Surviving in the cracks between these established powers was extremely difficult. That Sanbo Hospital had managed to develop to its current state in just over a decade was quite an achievement considering many newly established hospitals failed to survive the pressure from major competitors. Director Fang sent Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s CT and PET-CT images to his mentor¡¯s senior fellow, Professor Shi Guosheng, who is the Head of Pancreatic Surgery at Nandu Medical University Cancer Hospital. Nandu Medical University Cancer Hospital is ranked second in the nation for the Tumor Specialty, with Xiehe¡¯s Affiliated Tumor Hospital taking the first place, and Shanghai Fudan Tumor Hospital in third. These three have been known as the top three giants in the national tumor specialty, a ranking that seems to have been unchanged for many years. Director Fang and his mentor¡¯s senior fellow were both Ph.D. graduates from Nandu Medical University, having studied under the same mentor. In fact, the regional nature of medical studies is very strong. For example, in Nandu Province, most department directors and key personnel in hospitals are Nandu Medical University graduates. In Shanghai, hospitals are predominantly staffed by graduates from Fudan and Jiaotong University¡¯s medical schools, and in the west, no one competes with Huaxi. These medical universities are like ancient clans, each with its own territories. If you want to work medically in a certain area, you attend the medical university of that region. After analyzing Director Fang¡¯s CT and PET-CT images, Professor Shi couldn¡¯t help but express his doubts, ¡°Pancreatic cancer involving eight organs and daring to undergo ex-vivo resection?¡± Ex-vivo resection and in-situ resection refer to the same procedure, just different names. After graduating with his doctorate from Nandu Medical University, Professor Shi went to the United States to study at the Anderson Cancer Center. Several years later, he returned and was quickly promoted. Now, he is a top expert in pancreatic tumor surgery in the nation. Looking at the medical images, Professor Shi frowned. A liver autotransplant alone is considered the Mount Everest of Hepatobiliary Surgery, far more difficult than liver transplantation from a donor. There are only a few hospitals in the nation capable of handling ex-vivo liver resection + autotransplant, and now you¡¯re telling me about a procedure involving eight organs, suggesting ex-vivo resection and autotransplantation? That sounds like a joke. ¡°Are you sure the surgical approach is ex-vivo resection + autotransplant?¡± Professor Shi was skeptical. ¡°Absolutely, ex-vivo resection plus autotransplant, using indocyanine green fluorescence staining. The surgery has already been scheduled,¡± Director Fang affirmed with certainty, as he was going to be the chief assistant. ¡°Nonsense!¡± Academics have temperaments too, and in recent years, the scholarly community has been restlessly dealing with all sorts of bizarre figures popping up¡ªone after another. Some individuals have no bottom line, such as inflating a surgery that could be resolved with twenty thousand into one that costs hundreds of thousands under the pretense of using high-tech solutions, just to produce a paper. There are also those who, in the name of so-called academic innovation, disregard patient life and death, not considering whether some new methods are suitable before rushing into them. This damn operation involving eight organs¡ªwhat kind of surgery are they planning to do? ¡°Who¡¯s the hotshot chief surgeon at your hospital?¡± Professor Shi was clearly angry. Director Fang had intended to discuss and learn from his mentor¡¯s senior fellow but hadn¡¯t expected such a strong reaction. ¡°Professor Yang Ping,¡± Director Fang responded. Professor Shi fell silent at once. Yang Ping, with his earth-shattering 13 CNS papers, was someone he obviously knew about. Yang had just completed an application for the Outstanding Young Talent program, and Nandu Medical University was currently making arrangements for him to be nominated as an academician. If he succeeded, this man would become the youngest academician in history, while Professor Shi was still striving to achieve that status. ¡°He also deals with Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery? With tumors?¡± Director Shi was very curious. ¡°He does everything, depending on his mood,¡± Director Fang answered. Director Fang was indeed forthright, not mincing his words. Does everything? Depends on his mood? Oh, my goodness, that young man really is a genius, bursting out 13 CNS papers in a few months¡ªtruly a genius among geniuses. However, surgery is a practical discipline that requires steady, step-by-step progress; one mustn¡¯t rush. Has he been so eager for academic achievements recently that he¡¯s gotten to this point? Chapter 997 - 997 834 Part 13 The Courage of CNS_2 ?Chapter 997: Chapter 834, Part 13: The Courage of CNS_2 Chapter 997: Chapter 834, Part 13: The Courage of CNS_2 Being able to perform ex-vivo resection of tumors involving the liver and pancreas alone was rare, limited to possibly three individuals in the entire country, pushed to their limits, and Professor Shi was one of them. But an ex-vivo resection involving eight organs, particularly with multiple metastases from pancreatic cancer¡ªwho would dare to undertake it? Who could even do it? Anyone in the world facing such a case would definitely give up on surgery. ¡°Has Professor Yang ever gone abroad to train in this area?¡± Professor Shi inquired, wondering if Yang Ping had maybe gone to a top world hospital to witness multi-organ tumor resections and autotransplants and had come back wanting to try something new. ¡°Training? Does our Professor Yang even need training? From the time he graduated until now, he has never trained elsewhere, just tinkering on his own,¡± said Director Fang frankly. Professor Shi was baffled. Could surgery really be self-taught? Without learning, no matter how smart you are, you couldn¡¯t master it. Surgery isn¡¯t just a phrase, a formula; it¡¯s composed of countless details, each an accumulation of experiences. He hasn¡¯t trained anywhere, and now he¡¯s tinkering with top-tier surgery by himself? Professor Shi knew who Yang Ping was. He had thought Yang Ping must have trained at some top hospital because of his talent, which is why he performed well in surgeries. Today, hearing what Director Fang said, he started to feel apprehensive; that young man hadn¡¯t gone anywhere. ¡°When is the surgery happening? I want to go see it,¡± Professor Shi decided on the spot. As a renowned national professor, Professor Shi was very responsible, and being a revered figure in the Nandu Medical University system, he couldn¡¯t just overlook such a case; he had to see what was going on. Professor Shi kept studying the images sent by Director Fang, and the more he looked, the more concerned he became. After reviewing them, he felt a chill run down his spine and his hair stand on end. Not to mention anything else, the tumor invading the liver was entwined with various ducts around the hepatic portal. This one step alone would stump many surgeons, to say nothing of the seven other organs and numerous steps lined up after. If one actually removes all the organs, it would be impossible to replant them¡ªit couldn¡¯t be done! Professor Shi could imagine a mess of organs scattered across the operating table, the patient lying hollow in the abdomen, the chief surgeon¡¯s desperate sweat seeping from his forehead, instantly making Professor Shi feel like the temperature in his room had dropped sharply. ¡°I definitely need to go see the surgery that day, notify me in advance,¡± Professor Shi reiterated over the phone. He wasn¡¯t just going to watch; he planned on bringing a few doctors with him. A newborn calf isn¡¯t afraid of tigers. Having been in tumor surgery for twenty years and performed over ten thousand pancreatic cancer surgeries, even he wouldn¡¯t dare to consider such a procedure, but this young man actually dared to tackle it; his courage truly deserved thirteen CNS papers. ¡ª Ikuta Takashi was sitting smugly in his office, having received the latest news that Nie Shun¡¯e had been hospitalized and the surgery was scheduled. He hadn¡¯t expected things to progress so quickly. Wang Ge really was capable. Indeed, after pondering, Ikuta Takashi realized Yang Ping was quite significant. Had it not been for him performing surgery on Guo Jingyao, Anning Insurance wouldn¡¯t have received such positive social response. He had initially planned to topple Zhu Cheng first and deal with Yang Ping alongside, but now the plan against Yang Ping was progressing even faster. ¡°Mr. Wang said that it is an impossible surgery, but Yang Ping has already accepted the patient and decided to be the chief surgeon. Moreover, he plans to use what he calls ex-vivo resection,¡± Nitori maintained contact with Wang Ge, keeping abreast of developments. Ikuta Takashi nodded slightly: ¡°This case was meticulously chosen by us after a lot of effort. All the data has already been sent to Professor Maeda at Juntendo. Professor Maeda said that if one were to operate on this case, ex-vivo resection would be needed, but such a resection is impossible for this case. The end result will be just a pile of organs on the operating table with no way to close the procedure. Ha ha ha¡ª¡± Ikuta laughed uproariously, excessively, wildly. Though he wasn¡¯t familiar with surgeries, he could imagine the despair and helplessness of a surgeon looking at a heap of organs on the operating table, unable to return them to the abdominal cavity. ¡°Mr. Wang said the trap he designed is unsolvable. He originally thought Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t accept so easily¡ªunexpectedly, he has accepted it so rashly. It¡¯s utterly foolish,¡± Nitori said with a satisfied grin. Ikuta gave a wicked smile: ¡°Greed is human nature. Men lust after women, businessmen after money, scholars after academic achievements. A young person trying to reach the pinnacle of academia can lose their reason, naturally developing a gambler¡¯s mentality. If he wins, he will make his mark in medical history. If he loses¡ªhe hasn¡¯t considered the consequences of losing.¡± ¡°If he loses, Mr. Wang will use overwhelming media power to bury him, make him infamous, and remove him from the medical field forever¡ªa permanent solution,¡± Nitori stated confidently. Previously, when dealing with Anning Insurance, Ikuta Takashi had no leads. But since finding Wang Ge, things had almost changed overnight, and they were progressing toward their target every moment of every day. There are limits to human capability, and it¡¯s not possible to achieve beyond these limits. Juntendo¡¯s Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery department is world-class, and Professor Maeda is the best among the elite. He represents the limit of what a doctor can achieve. Could anyone surpass this limit? It¡¯s impossible. Were it just an ordinary case, failure would be acceptable. But for a case being monitored by Ikuta and Wang Ge, once it fails, the consequences are no longer for the doctor and the patient to decide. Chapter 998 - 998 834 Part 13 The Courage of CNS_3 ?Chapter 998: Chapter 834, Part 13: The Courage of CNS_3 Chapter 998: Chapter 834, Part 13: The Courage of CNS_3 ¡°That¡¯s good. After dealing with Yang Ping, we will focus all our energy on tackling Zhu Cheng. Once these two are out of the way, Anning Insurance¡¯s good days will come to an end.¡± Ikuta Takashi had never felt as confident as he did today. ¡°Transfer the second sum of money as soon as possible. Let Mr. Wang go all out and make a big move.¡± Dreaming of success, Ikuta Takashi thought that once he took care of Anning Insurance, he would quickly gain recognition from headquarters for his achievements, and his life would unfold like a golden road before him. ¡ª After completing surgery, Yang Ping spent the afternoon teaching Doctor Li Min how to draw anatomy diagrams, as anatomy to a surgeon is like a map to a general leading troops into battle. Yang Ping himself had dissected many cadavers in the System Space, so now when he closed his eyes, he had a complete human figure in his mind, inside and out, from top to bottom, and all the anatomy could be presented in his mind as three-dimensional images. This was the foundation of image-based thinking. It was not possible for Li Min to reach a very high level, but at the very least, whether it was system anatomy, regional anatomy, or various sectional anatomies, whenever a part was mentioned, there should be a simple sketch of it in his mind. If there was not even a trace of an image in the mind, it would be very difficult to learn anatomy well. Li Min had gotten quite familiar with the anatomy software. He drew rough sketches of various parts of the body with a pencil, and each time he finished one, he showed it to Yang Ping, who would help him identify errors and shortcomings. For the past few days, Yang Ping hadn¡¯t taught him anything else; he had only asked him to draw. This made Doctor Li Min quite puzzled, feeling as if he had come to learn drawing. From morning till evening, Li Min drew constantly. After finishing, Yang Ping would make corrections with a red pen and ask him to continue drawing, repeating the process over and over. Having been there for several days without being allowed to perform surgery himself, Yang Ping only took him to visit the Operating Room, to observe from below, saying it was to get familiar with the environment. The fellowship was supposed to last three years, but how could it possibly last three years? He would be more than satisfied if it lasted a full year, judging by how the Elderly Director was probably complaining of back pain every day now. Because time was short, Dr. Li wanted to make the most of every day, but Professor Yang¡¯s current focus was clearly on teaching him to draw¡ªdraw anatomy diagrams. He had never learned drawing before and did not have a talent for it; his sketches were as simple as a primary schooler¡¯s art homework. No matter what, Dr. Li did his utmost, knowing that Yang Ping had a reason for arranging things this way, so he didn¡¯t ask questions. Yang Ping asked Doctor Li Min to continue drawing in the study room while he went off by himself to make rounds in the ward. Guo Jingyao was now recovering very well. He was gleefully planning his property in the ward and asked Yang Ping if he wanted a penthouse¡ªthe kind on top of the building. He was thinking of giving Yang Ping one, with several ten-year contracts for Filipino maids included. While Yang Ping would gladly accept fruit baskets or pennants, he could not possibly accept such a large gift as a property. Nie Shun¡¯e was remarkably optimistic for a tumor patient and kept asking if she could work as before after the surgery. She planned to sell night snacks near the hospital after her surgery, noticing that the area had a good flow of people. The other patients were all quiet and trouble-free. With two strong assistants managing the department, Yang Ping was really at ease. After Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s surgery, Yang Ping still had to go to Xiehe Hospital for a few days. That was his branch, and every month he needed to teach, check wards, and perform surgeries there. Song Yun and a group of young doctors eagerly awaited his visit each month. Chapter 999 - 999 835 ?Chapter 999: Chapter 835 Chapter 999: Chapter 835 Nie Shun¡¯e finally got the chance for surgery, and as it was inevitable, she wanted to get it over with and go back to work. Their job wasn¡¯t even considered formal employment; they earned daily wages, and if they didn¡¯t work, they earned nothing. Their monthly expenses were not small, including rent, utilities, the child¡¯s living costs, and their own social security and medical insurance payments. Now ill and hospitalized, she could only eat into their savings, which worried Nie Shun¡¯e the most. In fact, she worried more about these issues than her own illness. The surgery was scheduled for the next day, Nie Shun¡¯e couldn¡¯t sleep at all. Suddenly, she felt there were many things she needed to tell her husband, though she hadn¡¯t touched the sleeping pill, Alprazolam, provided by the nurse lying on the bedside table. ¡°The upper part of the wardrobe is for your clothes, the middle for our child, and the bottom for mine. The winter clothes are in the storage box under the bed ¨C remember to air them before winter comes; Xiao Ce¡¯s school uniform has become too short for winter, remember to buy a new one two sizes larger than the current one in advance; no matter what, ensure Xiao Ce has enough pocket money, a child can¡¯t hold his head high without it; remember to have breakfast, if you find it troublesome, just buy a couple of buns from the roadside, never skip breakfast, your stomach is not good; Auntie still owes us twenty thousand, remember to remind her by the end of the year; don¡¯t press your older brother for the fifty thousand, they are having a tough time right now, definitely cannot pay, if we have some extra by the end of the year, try to help your brother out, he helped us a lot when we first started out; I often lose my temper and sometimes lash out at you, knowing it¡¯s my fault, don¡¯t take it to heart, you are a good husband, following you all these years, I¡¯ve felt very lucky¡ª¡± Nie Shun¡¯e spoke whatever came to mind, seeming to want to say everything she possibly could, fearing she might never have another chance after tonight. ¡°What are you talking about? Don¡¯t think too much, Professor Yang said it¡¯s going to be fine, he can clean it up for you; after you get better, we can sell night snacks near this hospital, and even ask Professor Yang to help us get a stall; they say Professor Yang is a good person.¡± Yuan Yulin comforted his wife, appearing relaxed on the surface, but tears were already streaming down his face. It was just that the ward lights were off, so no one could see each other. Over the years, his wife had stuck by him through thick and thin without enjoying any luxuries. Her words clearly sounded like she was giving final instructions. ¡°I know, what do I have to fear? I fear nothing, just in case, I am just saying, just in case¡ªI mean, just in case¡ªyou may have to find someone else in the future, but can you wait until after our child goes to university, ok?¡± ¡°Stop overthinking, take the sleeping pill if you can¡¯t sleep.¡± Groping for the lamp, Yuan Yulin turned it on to find the packet of sleeping pills, because they were in a two-person ward and the patient next door had been discharged in the evening. The new patient would only arrive tomorrow, so they could talk more freely without worrying about disturbing anyone. ¡°I¡¯ll take it in a bit¡ªremember what I said. If you do find someone, make sure it¡¯s only after our child goes to university, you hear me?¡± Nie Shun¡¯e repeated. Yuan Yulin¡¯s throat had already gone hoarse, but not wanting his wife to know, he remained silent. ¡°Are you listening to me?¡± ¡°You¡¯re overthinking, talking nonsense! Get some rest, you have surgery tomorrow,¡± Yuan Yulin handed the sleeping pills to his wife. Nie Shun¡¯e thought if there was anything else she needed to say, then threw the sleeping pill into her mouth. With the help of the sleeping pill, Nie Shun¡¯e slept for a couple of hours, waking up just after 3 a.m., washed up, and waited early in the ward for the nurse, using the time to give her husband more instructions. At around seven in the morning, nurses arrived in the ward for pre-surgery checks. Given Fatty¡¯s previous lesson of stealing food, the nurses were now very strict with the checks for pre-surgery fasting and fluid restrictions, confirming everything was in order. Only when they verified her vital signs were normal did they allow her to carry the urine bag onto the Pingche, pushing it towards the surgery room. In the surgeons¡¯ office, the shift was still changing. Checking the wards and then to surgery was a fixed procedure for surgeons, day after day, year after year, until they retired. The number of officially appointed doctors at the Surgical Research Institute was not high, comprising only a few, but there were many standardized training students, graduate students, and doctoral students, so the medical team appeared very large and professional. Dean Xia was doing his job well, wherever Yang Ping expanded his research, Dean Xia would hang a signboard there. Now, the signboards for Hepatobiliary Surgery Institute and Pancreatic Surgery Institute were already up on the walls, followed by an additional ¡°Oncology Surgical Research Institute¡± signboard, making the signs on both sides of the gate increasingly dense. To the left were the signs for clinical departments, to the right, non-clinical departments. Besides these clinical departments, there were also Medical Journal editorial offices, Stem Cell Research Laboratories, and more. To outsiders, these would absolutely appear to be part of an immense research organization. Although Nie Shun¡¯e was naturally resilient, as the Pingche entered the operating room and she was moved onto the operating table, she started to feel nervous. Surgery was about to begin, cutting open and removing all the organs, intestines out of her hollow belly, the very thought made her shiver. Can¡¯t waver! Nie Shun¡¯e reminded herself, recalling the early days when she arrived in Nandu Provincial City with her husband to forge a life, starting with a night snack cart. Wherever there are people, there¡¯s a world, and even running a street stall was not easy. As outsiders, they faced ostracism and expulsion, with daily confrontations, especially when their business prospered, conflicts arose frequently. Chapter 1000 - 1000 835 ?Chapter 1000: Chapter 835 Chapter 1000: Chapter 835 Was she intimidated back then? No. Clutching a kitchen knife in her hand, her husband holding a spatula, they stood back to back, facing the aggressive encirclement of their peers without flinching. Not afraid at all, they faced each adversary head-on, not stopping until they secured their ground. It was just a kitchen knife and a spatula that established the couple¡¯s standing in the world, and from then on, everything went smoothly, with no more disputes. Even later, despite the bumps and bruises of life, they managed to live relatively well. Now, lying on the operating table, not knowing if there was a tomorrow, Nie Shun¡¯e suddenly didn¡¯t know how to feel as the past played out in her mind like a movie, scene by scene, bringing tears to the corners of her eyes. Who doesn¡¯t have regrets in life? After so many years of struggle, it¡¯s a pity her child is still in middle school. If only she could see her graduate, get a job, or even start a family; she would have no regrets then. Even if the child were already in university, she would be much more at peace. But now, still in middle school¡ªthinking too much is useless. Don¡¯t flinch. The nurse began connecting the leads for the electrocardiogram monitoring, the cold sensation of the alcohol wipes came in waves, and the rustling sound of the medical records being flipped through was in the air¡ª ¡°Nie Shun¡¯e, female, 41 years old¡ª¡± the anesthesiologist and the nurse began the pre-surgery check once again. Gradually, the noise in the operating room increased. Liang Fatty started injecting Nie Shun¡¯e with a sedative through her vein, and she slowly began to lose consciousness. An icy laryngoscope pried open her mouth, and the endotracheal tube was slid in, passing through the throat into the trachea. The LCD screen in the operating room could display the patient¡¯s imaging data at any time, but Yang Ping still preferred to view traditional films on the viewer, making one final review of the films before the surgery. Had it been earlier, he would have definitely simulated the surgery in the system operating room, but now he wouldn¡¯t, and didn¡¯t need to do that. Now, a single simulated surgery would consume sixty percent of the system points, a kind of suicidal depletion. Hence, he couldn¡¯t afford such expenditure. Besides, Yang Ping shouldn¡¯t rely on the system in the long term. The system is just a tool. It¡¯s using the tool to improve oneself that matters, and he tried to minimize cramming at the last minute unless absolutely necessary. Director Fang arrived early with his senior fellow, along with several doctors, all of them rushing into the operating room. After brief introductions and greetings, everyone got into their respective roles. Doctors are simple creatures in the operating room, where communication is very straightforward, with surgery as the main focus. After shaking hands with Yang Ping, Director Shi also walked over to the viewer to begin reviewing the films. Everyone stood with their arms crossed in front of their chests, grouped together watching the films. Director Shi said, ¡°Eight organs, it¡¯s going to be a long surgery, probably lasting twenty to thirty hours. Your team seems a little thin. Do you need a hand?¡± Director Shi was also a rather pure academic, without many complications, and he offered to help voluntarily. ¡°No trouble, we have enough hands.¡± Yang Ping was just as straightforward. ¡°Should we start with the liver or the pancreas?¡± Director Shi inquired. ¡°You see, the tumor tissue is continuous and isn¡¯t easily distinguishable within the abdominal cavity, which can lead to contamination. So I¡¯m planning not to cut it out but instead remove all of these tumor tissues along with the eight organs at once, ensuring the integrity of the tumor and reducing contamination,¡± Yang Ping explained while standing in front of the viewer. Having all eight organs removed at once, Director Shi was so thunderstruck that he felt dizzy. Were young people really this audacious? In theory, there are two methods for ex-vivo resection. The first one is the step-by-step method, which involves two or more organs, removing and attaching each organ one by one. Once an organ is removed, there¡¯s a time limit before it undergoes necrosis. Even with protective solutions, the shorter the organ is ex-vivo, the better, so the step-by-step method is assured to accommodate this. The other method is to remove the tumor and the two organs altogether in one go. This method undoubtedly increases the time the organs are ex-vivo, enhancing the surgical risk; hence, it¡¯s only theoretical and not applicable in reality. However, the second method isn¡¯t completely without merit, as it has a significant advantage¡ªthat is, it doesn¡¯t divide the tumor, allowing for the removal of the tumor en bloc. This can reduce the risk of disseminating tumor cells and preserve certain connections between the organs. Since the patient had already arrived, everyone was eager to see how the young doctor would perform the surgery. In fact, this was Director Shi¡¯s first time seeing Yang Ping in person, as he¡¯d only heard of him before. The anesthesia administered by Liang Fatty was ready, and Fatty was currently getting along famously with the Flight Attendant, in high spirits which evidently hastened the anesthetization process. Song Zimo and the rest began to position the patient. Once the positioning was set, everyone began to scrub in. Doctors from the General Surgery Department, upon hearing of the tumor ex-vivo resection, all wanted to learn and thus came uninvited. The operating room was bustling with onlookers who maintained a conscious distance from the operating table and the instrument table to avoid contamination. Many young doctors from various departments had already started to pull strings behind the scenes, some approaching Song Zimo, others Xu Zhiliang, and some Zhang Lin alias Little Five, hoping to be transferred to the Surgical Research Institute for a few years. They realized the significant impact working at the Institute could have on their careers, acknowledging that ad hoc visits for learning would be non-systematic and limited to observation without hands-on opportunities. The hospital management also noticed this trend. With plans already in mind, Dean Xia decided to organize a comprehensive test for all doctors interested in joining the Institute. The test results would determine the ranking, and recruitment would be based on these rankings, with each department initially allocated just one spot. This was Dean Xia¡¯s training program. He planned to develop a group of top-notch backbone doctors within a few years. Essentially, this group would be the prospective Department Directors of the future. Thus, everyone was fervently preparing for the test, hoping to secure a position in the Institute of General Surgery¡ªeven many young Department Directors were actively preparing, while the older ones were reluctant to join the scramble with the younger crowd, feeling a bit inappropriate. Disinfection and draping were carried out in the usual procedure. Gathering around the operating table didn¡¯t afford much of a view, so people crowded around the screens, as watching the synchronized video of the operative field was much better than directly observing the operating table. Director Shi, being a top figure, and Director Fang, another bigwig of Sanbo Hospital, were at the center around which a tiered fan-shaped arrangement unfolded. At the forefront was an LCD screen, with those standing in the back rows bringing out footstools to stand on, providing a much broader view. Yang Ping, too, had scrubbed in and was up on stage, with the final pre-operation verification complete before making the incision. The patient was placed in a supine position, with an incision from the upper right towards the midline, slightly to the left, in the shape of an ¡®S.¡¯ This kind of incision is not found in textbooks, nor is there any precedent to refer to. It is entirely up to the chief surgeon to design it based on the specifics of the surgery. The design of the surgical incision must meet two basic conditions: exposure and safety. In other words, it should allow the exposure of the surgical targets while ensuring safety. This ¡®S¡¯-shaped incision would ensure good exposure of the eight organs for removal and facilitate autotransplantation when putting them back. Director Shi stood up and left the area in front of the screen to get a closer look at the operation at the operating table¡¯s side. He wanted to see up close how Yang Ping handled the surgery, which involved ex-vivo resection of eight organs¡ªa surgery far from ordinary. As for the vacated space, no one dared to squeeze forward, since Director Shi could return at any moment. Chapter 1001 - 1001 836 Is It Surgery or Magic ?Chapter 1001: Chapter 836: Is It Surgery or Magic? Chapter 1001: Chapter 836: Is It Surgery or Magic? Having performed surgeries for over twenty years, Director Shi had never seen such skin cutting before; this skill with the knife was not just good, it looked more like a performance than surgery. ¡°One-Stroke Flow!¡± Director Fang, who knew his stuff, promptly explained to his senior colleague. His senior had recently come to observe at the operating table, and naturally, Director Fang needed to accompany him. With Professor Yang¡¯s surgery underway, how could they proceed without a qualified commentator? Otherwise, his senior might end up confused, which would seriously affect his mood. Old Fang knew that Yang Ping¡¯s skin cutting technique had come to be called One-Stroke Flow, and it had become his trademark move, Even Yang Ping¡¯s two chief disciples, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, had now mastered the One-Stroke Flow, though not quite as skillfully; theirs could only be considered so-so at best. Even a so-so One-Stroke Flow is probably a rarity in the world. This technique might look easy, but it¡¯s extremely difficult to execute. People have varying thicknesses and resilience of skin in different areas; achieving just the right depth with a single cut, such that with each slice you can finely sense the tissue being touched, identify the layer reached, and then have these signals feedback to the brain to control the force of the cut is a huge challenge. ¡°One-Stroke Flow? Why haven¡¯t I heard of this type of incision before?¡± Director Shi had never come across such a novel term. Director Fang had no choice but to continue patiently explaining in detail, ¡°This is Professor Yang¡¯s signature skin cutting move. It means that no matter what the surgery is, the incision from the epidermis to the dermis, and then to the subcutaneous tissue, is all done in one go, without the need for a second cut, not too deep, not too shallow, not too long, not too short.¡± There¡¯s such a technique? Director Shi was thunderstruck, ¡°Bloody hell, it¡¯s just cutting skin, and you¡¯ve gone and created your own school.¡± ¡°The young ones are playful, but this is just the beginning. Just wait and you¡¯ll see what¡¯s called a miraculous surgery,¡± boasted Director Fang smugly. Shi Guosheng felt disgusted at how his junior brother could sink to such disgusting flattery, and even talk about ¡®miraculous surgery.¡¯ Just how excellent must one be to reach a ¡®miraculous¡¯ level? Yet here he was in front of him, saying he¡¯ll see for himself. If it weren¡¯t for his junior, he¡¯d have surely given him a piece of his mind for being so presumptuous. Since the optimal viewing angle for each step of the surgery differed, Director Shi had to adjust his position constantly. Fortunately, there was plenty of space around the operating table, so his movements didn¡¯t cause any interruptions. Wherever he moved, Director Fang followed, taking up the role of the commentator throughout the procedure. The abdominal cavity was now open, and the first task was to explore the cavity. Exploration didn¡¯t start with the pancreas but with the surrounding organs and peritoneal cavity to understand the approximate extent of the tumor¡¯s invasion. The search started from the periphery and gradually contracted towards the center, with the pancreatic tumor being examined last. Any preoperative imaging is, after all, indirect. The direct exploration during surgery was the true way to understand the tumor¡¯s condition, and it required an extensive range of exploration. They needed to check how far the tumor had invaded the liver; the condition of lymph node metastasis around the hepatic portal, the peritoneal arteries, and especially the lymph nodes near the aorta and the Treitz ligament; the location and course of the intestinal mesentery blood vessels, the right liver artery, and whether there were any tumor plantings in the peritoneum or pelvis, among other things. Finally, they explored the pancreatic tumor, with Yang Ping¡¯s movements extremely gentle to avoid damaging and dispersing the tumor tissue. As he explored, he swiftly laid down gauze, preparing for the subsequent steps of the surgery. Although exploration began from the periphery, separation would start from the center. As the tumor originated from the pancreas, anatomical separation began there. ¡°Tissue scissors!¡± The tools in Yang Ping¡¯s hands seemed to have a life of their own; the scissors cutting through smoothly, unimpeded, avoiding or preemptively clamping, ligating, and cutting any blood vessels that stood in the way. The peritoneal forceps clamped the peritoneum and connective tissues on the upper and lower edges of the pancreas, and the tail end of the forceps was passed to Song Zimo, who immediately flipped the pancreas and spleen to the right side¡ªrevealing up to the origin of the splenic artery on the upper edge and down to where the inferior mesenteric vein joins the splenic vein on the lower edge. When the pancreas was exposed, everyone was shocked because the pancreas was severely deformed by the tumor invasion to the point it was impossible to distinguish what was tumor and what was pancreas. Moreover, the pancreas and the tumor mass were severely adhered to the surrounding areas¡ªmany began to shake their heads. With such an unfavorable start, how could the surgery continue? ¡°Scalpel!¡± The scissors in his hand were swapped for a scalpel¡ªthe separation was upgraded. There are two methods of separation, beginning with blunt separation. As the name suggests, it involves the use of duller instruments to separate tissue, commonly employing the back of a knife handle, the tip of the scissors, the pointed end of vascular clamps, or fingers. Blunt separation must utilize natural boundaries and gaps within loose connective tissue, much like an explorer following existing roads. Blunt separation tears the connective tissues apart by pulling, but if there are no natural boundaries or gaps within the loose connective tissue, this method is rendered ineffective¡ªfor example, when a tumor is infiltrating an organ. How could blunt separation work then? Sharp separation is different; it uses tissue scissors and surgical knives to separate, opting for cutting over tearing the connections, which naturally provides more precision and less damage but requires higher skill and carries greater surgical risks. It¡¯s like the explorer having no more roads to follow and therefore must carve out a path. Tissue scissors are the basic tool for sharp separation, but a scalpel is even more precise. However, the risk increases proportionally, and few surgeons dare to use a scalpel for sharp separation due to the high risk of causing unintentional damage. Chapter 1002 - 1002 836 Is It Surgery or Magic_2 ?Chapter 1002: Chapter 836: Is It Surgery or Magic?_2 Chapter 1002: Chapter 836: Is It Surgery or Magic?_2 Faced with such a chaotic situation, Yang Ping felt that only the scalpel was the true master, the exclusive weapon of a master. Confronted with endless varieties of tissue without any clear boundaries, Yang Ping¡¯s scalpel started to display its mighty power. He cut along the tumor¡¯s margins, taking a portion of the surrounding normal tissue to ensure a thorough resection. At the confluence of the inferior mesenteric vein, two vascular clamps clamped down on the splenic vein both distally and proximally. Almost simultaneously secured, the handles of the clamps were swiftly transferred to Song Zimo¡¯s hands. Normally, this would have been the time to sever the splenic vein, but instead of cutting it, they left it intact, just shaking it slightly. Somehow, the unidentified blood vessels nearby had already been clamped and cut without knowing how. Before anyone knew it, the chief surgeon had clamps with thread in hand. With a swift motion into and out of the abdominal cavity, he had completed the stitching and tying off of blood vessels. The assistant¡¯s scissors flashed, removing the two vascular clamps from the abdominal cavity. Director Shi watched the operative field and felt decidedly dizzy. He moved his neck around, wondering if he had a cervical spine problem. Dizziness stemming from the cervical origin can manifest this way, but it didn¡¯t seem quite right. When he turned his head away from the surgery, the dizziness disappeared, but as soon as he focused back on the procedure, it returned. Low blood sugar? Unlikely; he had a plentiful breakfast. Could it be a fear of blood? The thought crossed Director Shi¡¯s mind momentarily. He had been performing surgeries for over twenty years; the mere suggestion of him fainting at the sight of blood would be laughable. After multiple attempts, Director Shi finally realized the cause of his dizziness. It turned out that the movements during surgery were just too fast, and the metallic instruments were somewhat reflective. The instruments¡¯ constant, dazzling motions left Director Shi feeling disoriented. How could anyone discern the details of the surgical steps? It was impossible to see clearly, akin to a magician performing magic. With a flick of the hand, a pigeon appears. Every movement seemed to materialize in such a manner. Take the clamps with thread, for example. He didn¡¯t see the knot tightening or releasing any clamp; it all just went in and came out, the clamps released, the knot tied. The movements appeared to be discontinuous, jumping from one to the next without any transition, as if cutting out intermediary steps. Thus, it felt like the actions were completed instantaneously. How did he manage that? It was as if the surgical showed the effect of a magic trick, with even a simple movement requiring scrutiny to understand how it was performed. I¡¯m here to watch surgery, not magic. Professor Shi Guosheng was genuinely annoyed. It didn¡¯t make any sense, this unreasonable approach to knot-tying. You just drop the clamps with the thread in there, pull them out, and, voila?, the knot is tied. The more Director Shi watched, the dizzier he got. He couldn¡¯t afford to pass out; after two decades of practicing surgery, collapsing from ¡°fear of blood¡± in the operating room of Sanbo Hospital would be an embarrassment too great to withstand in the world of surgery. Cautiousness was essential. Director Shi stepped back a few paces and closed his eyes to rest for a dozen seconds. ¡°Professor, I¡¯m feeling a bit dizzy!¡± At that moment, Xia Shu, assisting on the operating table, also felt something was amiss as he suddenly experienced dizziness and even a feeling of nausea. Could it be a faintness for blood? Xia Shu thought the same. He had never had such a problem, and to faint from it today would be a huge embarrassment ¨C not just for him, but for Fuwai as well. It seemed that surgeons sometimes think alike. ¡°I need to rest for a bit!¡± Xia Shu had no choice but to step out. Fortunately, he wasn¡¯t in a critical role ¨C just an unnumbered, unnecessary assistant. Meanwhile, Xu Zhiliang said while continuing the surgery, ¡°It¡¯s okay... it¡¯s just that the surgery... is too fast, it¡¯s dazzling the eyes. After you¡¯ve... done more surgeries... you¡¯ll get used to it. I was the same at the start... now it doesn¡¯t affect me at all.¡± Professor Shi Guosheng felt a little better knowing that it wasn¡¯t just him struggling, but also the physicians from his own team who felt dizzy and disoriented. After the discomfort subsided a bit, Director Shi didn¡¯t dare to look directly at the surgical field and decided to watch the synchronized video instead. Fortunately, respect for seniority prevailed, and his previous spot had been kept vacant, with no one taking it. However, in just that short interval, the surgery had already completed the ligation and division of the superior and inferior pancreaticoduodenal veins and the minor veins branching off to the portal vein and superior mesenteric vein. The pancreatic head, duodenum, stomach, and bile duct were in the process of being freed. Watching the video was a bit easier than watching the surgical field directly, at least there wasn¡¯t any glare to blind the eyes. But a new problem arose: the gleaming scalpel in the video looked terrifying. The scalpel was being used for sharp separation, and that kind of action in such a dangerous area was truly panic-inducing. Surgical videos actually offer a clearer and more comprehensive view than observing the surgical field directly, especially the details, which are presented more delicately. So every detail is revealed in full, and while Professor Shi Guosheng initially felt dizzy and disoriented, at this point, his heart clenched with each movement. The scalpel¡¯s operation in such treacherous territory would make anyone¡¯s heart tremble. In fact, watching surgery is most engaging for those with high levels of expertise. The more skilled you are, the more invested you become because you understand the dangers involved. This leads to an intense sense of immersion. On the other hand, novices, blissfully unaware, watch quite comfortably, lacking the understanding of what steps pose risks, and simply take in the spectacle. Of those present, Director Shi had the strongest sense of immersion, and because of that, he was also the most exhausted observer. Ah, there¡¯s an artery there, it¡¯s going to spurt and retract blood, slow down! Just when they were worried about the artery, they had already completed the exposure and separation of the artery, and with another breath, the artery was clamped, ligated, and cut. This level of surgical skill is something I¡¯ve truly never seen before. How many surgeries must one perform to achieve this? How familiar must one be with anatomy? And where did they train? To see such a high level of ability in a doctor under thirty, this is simply like they¡¯re cheating. Professor Shi Guosheng suddenly found himself at a loss for words, thinking this popular phrase was the only one that could express what he was witnessing. The scalpel glides effortlessly through the complicated crevices and crannies, without mistakenly cutting even a single small blood vessel or damaging any non-target tissue. The entire operative field is clean and tidy, a pleasure to watch. The fundamental skills of surgery are namely two aspects. outwardly expressed, which are dissection and hemostasis. Experts perform surgery with clear anatomical layers and thorough hemostasis, keeping the operating field neat and clean, with very little visible bleeding. The mesentery of the upper end of the jejunum and the hooked part have been cut. The spleen, pancreas, and duodenum can now be removed, but the tumor tissue is still attached to the liver and other organs, so Yang Ping has no immediate plans to remove them. Now, except for the arteries providing blood supply and the veins for return flow, no other tissues are connected to the body. Once these blood vessels are cut, the organs can be removed with the tumor, but other organs have yet to be separated, so Yang Ping intends to leave these blood vessels intact for now, providing normal blood supply. Instrument sales representative Huang Jiahui has come in to set up the table. What instruments are needed for this surgery? Staplers? Titanium clips? It seems like nothing else is really needed for the surgery, just these things. Director Shi feels like going over to take a look, but he fears missing a crucial step if he walks away. ¡°Go ask what instruments they are preparing,¡± Director Shi nudges his junior with his elbow. Reluctantly, Director Fang moves over and asks Huang Jiahui, ¡°What instruments are you preparing here?¡± ¡°Artificial blood vessels!¡± Huang Jiahui says while setting up the table. Artificial blood vessels? Director Fang doesn¡¯t want to waste too much time here. If it weren¡¯t for his senior ordering him, he wouldn¡¯t bother asking at all. After asking briefly, Director Fang immediately returns to his spot, his authoritative presence undisputed, as nobody dares to take the space he left. Seeing Director Fang return, Director Shi asks, ¡°What are those?¡± ¡°Artificial blood vessels!¡± ¡°What are the artificial blood vessels for?¡± ¡°That¡ª¡± Director Fang had not asked that. ¡°Go find out more.¡± Director Shi instructs. Director Fang feels extremely disgusted inside. He¡¯s now more engrossed in watching the surgery. You keep directing me to do other things, can¡¯t you stop? Even though we are fellow disciples, I have my aspirations too. ¡°She doesn¡¯t know either,¡± Director Fang carelessly replies to brush it off. How could the equipment vendor not know what their own instruments are used for? Director Shi finds this strange, but Director Fang casually says, ¡°That¡¯s how Professor Yang performs surgery, just like magic. The instrument suppliers simply deliver according to the list, what exactly it¡¯s used for, we¡¯ll only find out when it¡¯s opened on the table.¡± Fuck, even the literate can be vulgar at times, Director Shi exclaims ¡°fuck¡± under his breath, but in such a soft voice that, combined with the surrounding doctors focused on the surgery, nobody hears it. On the screen, the scalpel is separating the area around the hepatic portal, a place entwined with tumor and extremely complex and dangerous. But the scalpel moves as if playing, tracing almost against the blood vessels, inch by inch, winding its way through. Is this really surgery or magic? Can someone please explain this to me? How can you use a scalpel in such a place? And to wield it so exaggeratedly! Chapter 1003 - 1003 837 Am I not an assistant Why am I in ?Chapter 1003: 837 Chapter: Am I not an assistant? Why am I in the audience? Chapter 1003: 837 Chapter: Am I not an assistant? Why am I in the audience? The liver is very close to the pancreas, and they are neighbors, which makes it possible for pancreatic tumors to invade the liver in many different ways. Right now, the metastatic liver tumors are especially complex as they somehow grow around the hepatic portal artery, veins, and various other conduits. If the tumor needs to be removed, the blood vessels must be severed along with it, and these vessels must then be reconstructed. Of course, such intricate tumors cannot be excised internally, hence the existence of ex-vivo resection techniques. Now, Yang Ping views the liver and the tumor as one entity, without intending to separate them internally. The separation of the tumor will be handled externally. For now, Yang Ping¡¯s goal is to separate this ¡°organ+tumor¡± whole from the surrounding normal tissue. Even so, this task is not easily accomplished because the tumor ultimately encompasses the blood vessels and crawls towards the inferior vena cava. The scalpel is the best tool for sharp separation. Compared to the various modern ¡°knives,¡± such as laser knives, ultrasonic knives, and waterjet knives, the scalpel¡¯s efficiency, in the hands of an expert, remains unmatched. Moreover, it is the most accessible weapon available in any hospital. Currently, the video of the liver and tumor¡¯s anatomy is indescribable; it¡¯s impossible to recognize what this thing is. Yang Ping and the assistants are now wearing fluorescent navigation glasses. Through these glasses, the tumor tissues, stained with indocyanine green, emit a faint green fluorescence, while the normal tissues do not. So, the tumor-invaded tissues clearly demarcate from the normal ones into two distinct camps. The scalpel navigates between these two camps to ensure the thoroughness of the resection by extending beyond the dividing line to include some of the surrounding normal tissue. Remove first, then reconstruct¡ªthis is the inevitable choice in surgery. Once vital structures are involved, they are mercilessly eliminated, and these structures are reconstructed afterward. The scalpel now navigates through a dangerous area: the outlet for the blood outflow from the liver¡ªthis is the ¡°junction¡± where the three hepatic veins meet the inferior vena cava. All blood ¡°detoxified¡± by the liver must exit here and return to the inferior vena cava. These blood vessels are severely compromised, so they cannot be preserved. However, until the entire surgical target is removed from the body, Yang Ping temporarily maintains their presence, allowing them to ensure that the liver¡¯s blood circulation continues normally. If the entire surgical target is taken out of the body, these blood vessels will be cut at a normal section, and the blood vessels along with the tumor will be removed together. After the tumor is removed ex-vivo, these vessels must necessarily be reconstructed with transplanted vessels. Director Shi¡¯s heart endures immense pressure. If it weren¡¯t for the matter of those seven organs, if it were only this one organ, the liver and the tumor currently seen, it would still be a major surgery. This operation is called ex-vivo liver resection + autologous liver transplantation. Typically, liver transplantation usually refers to allogeneic transplantation, where the transplanted liver comes from another person. Now, the transplantation involves one¡¯s own liver, which might seem easier. On the contrary, autologous liver transplantation is much more difficult than standard allogeneic liver transplantation, and it is known as the Mount Everest of hepatobiliary surgery. Because autologous liver transplantation involves two challenges, first, after the patient¡¯s liver is removed, there¡¯s a liver-less period for the patient. During this time without a liver, the surgical team must ensure he stays alive. Secondly, after the liver is removed, it must be meticulously repaired before being reinserted, and this repair must be flawless. If the liver is repaired incorrectly, the patient lying on the operating table is certainly doomed. Allogeneic liver transplantation is different, utilizing someone else¡¯s liver. Although this liver might not function well, it¡¯s better than none. In case the new liver encounters problems and cannot be implanted, the patient faces no immediate life-threatening issue. Both scenarios are akin to changing the CPU in a functioning computer. With autologous liver transplantation, the original CPU is removed, repaired, and replaced without shutting down the computer, which must continue functioning normally. If the CPU repair fails, and it can¡¯t be reinstalled, the computer is effectively useless. For allogeneic liver transplantation, a new CPU is acquired to replace the original one. Even though the computer shouldn¡¯t shut down during this process, the computer still has its own CPU, making the operation less risky. If the new CPU is damaged accidentally, it doesn¡¯t matter much; the failed attempt can simply be tried again later since there is still an operational CPU inside. In this case, even if all steps of ex-vivo liver resection + autologous liver transplantation go smoothly, there are still complex reconstructions like the hepatic artery, common bile duct, portal vein, hepatic upper and lower inferior vena cava afterward¡ª If any step is not performed well, and the patient is replanted, such as if the blood vessels are not properly reconstructed causing massive bleeding, there¡¯s no rescue. If the common bile duct leaks, causing bile leakage, it again poses a life-threatening situation. Director Shi Guosheng is one of the few professors in the country who performs such surgeries, and so far, his accumulated cases are not numerous. Ex-vivo liver resection + autologous liver transplantation roughly takes him about a dozen hours or so. Recently, Pengcheng performed an ex-vivo liver resection + autologous liver transplantation, said to be the first in the medical history of Pengcheng, taking over twenty hours, illustrating the difficulty of such surgeries. This is merely ex-vivo liver resection + autologous liver transplantation, and the surgery Yang Ping is performing involves eight organs, the difficulty of which is like the Mount Everest upon Mount Everest, the tower reaching to the skies in general surgery. Chapter 1004 - 1004 837 Am I not an assistant Why am I in ?Chapter 1004: 837 Chapter: Am I not an assistant? Why am I in the audience?_2 Chapter 1004: 837 Chapter: Am I not an assistant? Why am I in the audience?_2 The surgery would definitely take a long time. Director Shi calculated with his fingers and couldn¡¯t help shivering. Would it really take several days and nights? A straightforward hepatectomy and autologous liver transplantation could clock up to over ten hours. Considering the resection and transplantation of these eight organs plus the clearing of various lymph nodes, it wouldn¡¯t be short of a hundred hours¡ªnearly five or six sleepless days and nights¡ªto complete the surgery. Even if some organs weren¡¯t as troublesome as the liver or pancreas, reducing the time, it would still take about two or three days. Previously, he hadn¡¯t calculated the time and had hurriedly come to observe the surgery. Now, figuring thus, he felt a sense of collapse. What kind of surgery lasted for several days and nights? Professor Shi couldn¡¯t help but turn his head to look at the few young people on the stage. Were these youngsters going to persevere through several days and nights? Impossible, right? Looking at his junior brother and the other doctors, they seemed to be enjoying the show. Had they not realized the issue with time? Were they still in the dark? Indeed, ignorance is bliss. Several days and nights. Even he, merely observing the surgery, was now frightened, let alone the surgeons standing at the operating table. The video of the surgery continued, upholding a principle to temporarily preserve the arteries and veins, gradually severing all other connections. The tumor, without being dissected, along with the eight organs, was to be removed as one ¡°major organ¡± entity. Were these people not aware of the surgery at all, as if looking through a peephole? ¡°Just their team? Are there no relief teams?¡± Director Shi Guosheng asked Director Fang. For such a major surgery, typically taking an extended time, several teams are needed to take turns, like running a relay race. Director Fang was suddenly asked and temporarily blanked out, ¡°Relay? What relay? Does Professor Yang need a relay team for the surgery?¡± Director Shi was dumbstruck at his junior brother¡¯s tone of speech. It was indeed the truth but easily sounded like a retort. If they were not close as senior and junior brothers, Director Shi would have scolded him again. Who talks like that? Yet, Director Shi was accustomed to him, knowing since university that this fellow was blunt to a fault, a simpleton then and still now, completely unchanged. When it came to the relay, suddenly something clicked in Director Fang¡¯s mind, sensing something amiss, yet he couldn¡¯t pinpoint what it was. He looked at the operating table, then at the audience below, then at the other people, and finally at himself. Why did the scene suddenly feel so bizarre? What was amiss? ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you?¡± Director Shi, noticing something odd in his junior brother¡¯s eyes, asked. Director Fang didn¡¯t respond, his eyes darting around. What was wrong? Damn it! Aren¡¯t I the first assistant? Why am I below the stage? Why are they all up there? Wasn¡¯t it agreed that I¡¯d be the first assistant? How come I¡¯m below the stage, why am I here¡ª Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, you two are being sneaky. Why are you guys standing on the stage? That¡¯s my spot. We agreed I¡¯d be the first assistant. How come no one reminded me today? This is messed up. I¡¯ve been so wrapped up accompanying my senior brother that I forgot I was supposed to be the first assistant. The surgery has already started, what now? Should I just swallow my own knocked-out tooth? No way. Director Fang immediately walked over to the operating table, first pretending to observe the surgery closely before casually dropping, ¡°Dr. Song, must be tough. How about I lend a hand for a bit?¡± Upon hearing Director Fang¡¯s voice, Song Zimo didn¡¯t immediately grasp what he meant. So, he responded, ¡°No worries, it¡¯s manageable.¡± Director Fang circled the operating table, growing more anxious by the second. How could he pass up such a golden opportunity? Not only could he learn a lot, but just being part of this surgery ¨C albeit as an assistant ¨C would provide bragging rights for a lifetime, beginning statements with ¡°we¡±... But now Song Zimo was the first assistant, performing admirably on the stage. Physically pulling him down would seem graceless. It wasn¡¯t that someone else snatched the opportunity; he foolishly hadn¡¯t scrubbed in, choosing instead to accompany his senior brother, possibly giving the younger ones the impression he was entertaining a guest and giving up his chance to be on stage¡ªa misunderstanding entirely his fault as he just realized he was offstage. If the surgery hadn¡¯t started yet, Old Fang would be direct and straightforward, ¡°do me a favor, I¡¯ll take over as the first assistant,¡± but now, with everyone on stage, emotionally and logically, it was not right to pull someone off, nor was it feasible to keep disturbing him, risking the safety of the surgery. Old Fang was still conscious of that. What to do now? Director Fang paced like an ant on a hot pan, desperate and restless. ¡°Professor! The situation is worse than we thought, isn¡¯t it?¡± Song Zimo saw that the anatomy inside was a complete mess; the textbooks¡¯ anatomy was practically useless here. ¡°Stay calm!¡± Yang Ping reminded him, his hands never stopping their work. Song Zimo looked up at the professor, and that confident gaze was almost divine, no wonder August said the professor was ¡°The Man from Earth.¡± ¡°I am calm.¡± Song Zimo perked up, following the professor¡¯s pace, but it wasn¡¯t anatomy at all¡ªclearly a tangled mess of dough, and it was just the hellish beginning, with many more difficult steps yet to come. ¡°Dr. Song, do you need a break? No worries, you can rest, and I¡¯ll cover for you for a while.¡± Director Fang finally seized the opportunity. ¡°No problem, we¡¯ve hardly started, and I¡¯m still full of energy,¡± Song Zimo replied. Director Fang sighed internally and wandered around a few more times. In just that short delay, the liver was almost completely separated, except for a few arteries and veins, almost freeing the liver¡ªnow working on separating it from the inferior vena cava¡ªa step high in difficulty that could cause massive bleeding with a slightest mistake. ¡°Sorry, guys, I got so busy today I forgot I was supposed to assist, having you all cover for me, I truly apologize.¡± Old Fang was really straightforward and honest to a fault. Unfortunately, at that moment, no one heard him, especially Song Zimo, as everyone was entirely focused on the operation. It¡¯s not that they pretended not to hear; they really didn¡¯t hear it. Tragic, really, that no one heard him¡ªit wouldn¡¯t be appropriate to repeat himself, as it would clearly disturb the ongoing operation. Old Fang had no choice but to stay by the operating table and watch, waiting for an opportunity to act. Before cutting the front of the hepatic artery, they separated the peritoneum and the loose connective tissue above the pancreatic head, isolating the hepatic artery, proper hepatic artery, and gastroduodenal artery. The gastroduodenal artery was also separated and lured further with silk thread to continue the separation process until a satisfactory length was achieved before proceeding upwards along the hepatic artery to where it joined the abdominal artery, starting the separation of the inferior vena cava in this direction. The lymph nodes at the upper edge of the pancreatic head were invaded by metastatic tumors, now part of ¡°the whole¡± awaiting final extraction in one go. The lymphatic and connective tissues on the right side of the gallbladder were incised at their normal locations. Yang Ping¡¯s hands sometimes cooperated, sometimes operated independently, one hand separating a blood vessel while the other hand worked on a different area; both hands performed separate tasks independently. This was some impressive maneuvering; casually observing, one wouldn¡¯t notice, but on a closer look, it was startling. It seemed as if two different people¡¯s hands were operating, damn, one person¡¯s two hands operating entirely independently. It was truly a divine performance; it was like two separate individuals performing the surgery, effectively doubling the speed. Things are supposed to make sense, but there¡¯s no making sense of this: how can one person¡¯s two hands operate independently, each doing its own thing? Yet, that was exactly what was happening. Now Director Shi Guosheng finally understood why there seemed to be two assistants up there; he wondered why the roles of first and second assistant were so blurred. These were two first assistants: one complemented his left hand, and the other his right. Those few retractors were being pulled excellently, revealing each step of the operation continuously, relieving the two hands in the middle of surgery to focus solely on the chief surgeon¡¯s tasks. Holy cow, is this even possible in surgery? Is this even a human? Director Shi Guosheng really couldn¡¯t comprehend it; being a top in the general surgery of tumors, now it felt like he hadn¡¯t seen anything before, everything was a shock. ¡°Left and Right Boko?¡± A general surgery doctor who was a fan of Yang Ping immediately recognized the technique being used. With both One-Stroke Flow and Left and Right Boko, a serious operation was turning into a scene from a martial arts novel. Chapter 1005 - 1005 838 Who Let You On Stage ?Chapter 1005: Chapter 838: Who Let You On Stage? Chapter 1005: Chapter 838: Who Let You On Stage? ¡°Left and Right Boko?¡± Director Shi couldn¡¯t help but ask. But Director Fang, who usually did the commentary, wasn¡¯t there, so a doctoral student from the General Surgery Department temporarily took over, explaining, ¡°It means each hand can operate independently.¡± ¡°Is there such a flashy operation?¡± Director Shi couldn¡¯t help but exclaim. As soon as he said it, Director Shi felt that his choice of words was inappropriate. Terms like ¡°flashy¡± should not be coming from a professor, a PhD supervisor, a chief physician, and a nationally renowned expert¡ªblame it all on the surgery, which was just too uncontrollably fascinating. ¡°Professor Yang is just that flashy, always performing miraculous surgeries,¡± the doctoral student affirmed the evaluation of being flashy. Currently, Director Fang was observing the surgery up close by the operating table, seizing every chance to ask, ¡°Dr. Song, do you need a break? Dr. Xu, do you need a break?¡± But they were like they had been injected with chicken blood, not a single one felt sleepy. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang felt that Director Fang was particularly considerate today, always caring about whether they needed to rest. What a great colleague! ¡°Ordering lunch! Call out your names! Everyone fills in their name, I¡¯ll come to collect it later.¡± A nurse came in with a notebook, placed it on a rack, and then went off to do other things. Now, there were several nurses in the operating room of the Surgical Research Institute. Previously, Xiao Su was the head nurse, but she¡¯s on leave now, and Zhou Can, acting as the substitute head nurse, was on duty today as the instrumental nurse. The conditions at the Surgical Research Institute were comparatively good. Whether doctors, nurses, or visitors, everyone, whether on the floor or off, could sign up for meals when it was time to eat. As soon as the graduate students heard they could sign up for a meal, they immediately turned their heads. The surgical meals at the Surgical Research Institute were said to be of very high quality, and everyone wanted to try it, even some grad students often came specifically to scrounge meals. A graduate student picked up the notebook and began to voluntarily help register names: ¡°Those who want lunch, raise your hands!¡± Everyone raised their hands. ¡°Don¡¯t you have a surgery this afternoon?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do the surgery after I eat.¡± ¡°Why are you getting two portions?¡± ¡°Hehe, my girlfriend is too busy in the gastroscopy room, asked me to bring one over to her later.¡± ¡°Director Fang, Director Shi, do you want one too?¡± Director Fang nodded, ¡°One for each.¡± Upon hearing about the meal orders, Director Fang had an idea. They would also need to eat later. They would definitely take turns eating, so while either Song Zimo or Xu Zhiliang was eating, he could just scrub in and take a spot as the first assistant. It just made sense. He who prepares wins, he who does not, fails¡ªDirector Fang began planning to eat first and make thorough preparations. Director Fang made up his mind, immediately found his own graduate students in General Surgery, and quietly instructed, ¡°Go buy something from Waterlily Bread Store for me; my stomach has been upset these few days, and I shouldn¡¯t eat regular food.¡± ¡°Now?¡± The graduate student still wanted to continue watching the surgery. ¡°Now, go and come back quick!¡± Director Fang ordered. Whether the graduate student was willing or not, there was no room for negotiation when it came to running errands for his mentor, so he immediately set out to temporarily buy bread, while Director Fang smirked inwardly, thrilled to have seized the chance. What remained was to seize the opportunity when it arose. Those who achieve great things do not sweat the small stuff, Director Fang was very pleased with his arrangements. The dissection had now reached the left kidney, which was clearly heavily invaded by the tumor and needed to be completely removed. Fortunately, a person can live normally with just one kidney, and a healthy solitary kidney does not affect the body. The entire dissection, except for some areas with clearly loose connective tissue using the knife handle for blunt separation, largely involved sharp separation with a scalpel because of significant adhesions due to the tumor. Thus, the operation alternately used the scalpel tip and handle, constantly swapping between the two. The dissection of the inferior vena cava was complete, following it downwards near the mid-line of the psoas major muscle, the scalpel incised longitudinally through the renal fascia, exposing the kidney sufficiently upwards, and continued downwards to the iliac vessels, then along the lateral edge of the kidney opened the perirenal fat to reach the renal capsule. At this point, the left kidney was only connected to the body by the vessels of the renal hilum, the rest already separated from the body. In the video, the speed of switching between scalpel tip and handle was very fast, almost without interval, so Director Shi was quite curious about how the surgical knife was being switched in Yang Ping¡¯s hands, and he moved closer to the operating table to observe. The surgical knife in Yang Ping¡¯s hands seemed like juggling, switching extremely fast. This wasn¡¯t just a surgeon using an instrument; it was playing with the instrument, switching from the knife to the handle in an instant. Youngsters really play fancy; if the surgical knife slipped, that would be dangerous. Upon closer inspection, Director Shi realized this was unlikely, as the instrument seemed as though it was part of Yang Ping¡¯s hand, very stably controlled. He estimated that even if someone tried to snatch it away now, they probably couldn¡¯t, let alone let the instrument slip from the hand. The kidney was now separated, with eight organs connected to the body only by their respective blood vessels, no other tissue joining them to the body. At that moment, the graduate student had already returned with bread and placed it in the resting room. Director Fang immediately made a temporary exit, bolted into the resting room and wolfed down the bread, then sighed with relief internally. With his own stomach full, now all that was left was waiting for their stomachs to grow hungry. They would definitely take turns stepping down to eat, and once someone came down, he would seize the opportunity to step up and firmly secure the position of the first assistant. Then, no one would think of displacing him. Chapter 1006 - 1006 838 Who Let You On Stage Part 2 ?Chapter 1006: Chapter 838: Who Let You On Stage? Part 2 Chapter 1006: Chapter 838: Who Let You On Stage? Part 2 ¡®When it¡¯s time for lunch, take Professor Shi to the resting room to eat, understand?¡¯ ¡± Director Fang instructed his graduate student, choosing not to accompany his mentor himself so as not to miss a great opportunity. The graduate student knew that his mentor had to participate in surgery, which was a major event, so he naturally had to take good care of his mentor¡¯s teacher. ¡°Open the artificial blood vessel!¡± Now, one could finally understand the purpose of the artificial blood vessels brought by the instrument merchant. It was like opening a blind box; not knowing the purpose of the instruments until the time of their use was no way to perform surgery. Hearing Yang Ping¡¯s voice, Director Shi¡¯s gaze immediately shifted from the screen to the operating table. Yang Ping was ready to adopt a relatively new method, which was the bloodless autograft. He wanted to learn from Professor Yao of Nandu Medical University Affiliated Hospital No. 1, the creator of bloodless heterogeneous organ transplantation. Now, Yang Ping was going to apply this technique to autologous organ transplants. Since autotransplantation could utilize the body¡¯s own blood circulation, if the organs removed from the body were connected to the patient¡¯s blood circulation system using artificial blood vessels, they could achieve good blood perfusion even away from the body, without the need for much additional equipment. Huang Jiahui opened the sterile packaging of the artificial blood vessels onto the operating table. These blood vessels were very long and coiled inside the sterile bags. Director Shi pondered how to use these artificial blood vessels. Even if a segment of the inferior vena cava had to be removed, such long vessels were unnecessary. Moreover, these artificial blood vessels were not only for the inferior vena cava, as there were various sizes and diameters available. Liver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen, stomach, small intestine, inferior vena cava, and a kidney on the left side¡ªeight organs were now ready to be detached from the body, along with the tumor as a whole. There were at least dozens of artificial blood vessels of various sizes laid out on the operating table, dazzling those who looked on. The blood vessels were inserted into the abdominal cavity one by one. Everyone finally understood; the artificial blood vessels were being used to bridge the blood supply to the organs. All the arteries and veins of the organs were severed and then bridged using artificial blood vessels, ensuring the organs received almost normal blood supply. However, the work involved in bridging the arteries and veins of eight organs was immense, and it was truly daunting to watch. ¡°What is this?¡± Unable to contain his curiosity, Director Shi asked, ¡°Bloodless autograft!¡± Bloodless autograft? Director Shi had only heard about Professor Yao at Nandu Medical University Affiliated Hospital No. 1 working on bloodless heterogeneous transplantation, but he had not heard of anyone applying it to autografts. ¡°How come I¡¯ve never heard of this technique?¡± Director Shi asked, his face red with embarrassment. In science, it was essential to be honest and inquire rather than pretend to know. ¡°Aren¡¯t you watching it now? Everything happens for the first time; what¡¯s so strange about that?¡± Director Fang replied. The number of artificial blood vessels increased because the organs had yet to be removed from the body, and the coiled vessels were visibly protruding from the abdominal cavity, creating a particularly impressive scene. ¡°Anesthesiologist, we¡¯re ready to take the big guy out!¡± Yang Ping called out. Liang Fatty immediately reported the vital signs, indicating that everything was fine, and they could proceed. At that moment, no one was watching the video; all eyes were fixed on the operating table, eager to see what was being removed, their anticipation palpable like waiting for a star to appear at a concert. It came out; it finally came out! After being separated for so long inside, everyone was eagerly waiting to see what had actually been removed. Woosh! A massive pile of material was removed from the abdominal cavity, too large for a standard sterile tray. The nurse had prepared an enormous metal sterile basin specially, barely managing to contain the mass of material. Wow! A simultaneous hush fell over the operating room. Whether they were young doctors or seasoned professionals, none had ever seen such a spectacular resection: eight organs, along with a tumor. Even the largest tumors they had seen before were single entities, never providing the visual impact of this one. However, due to the invasion of the tumor, the organs were no longer distinct; it was just a mass of human organs and tumor, still connected by connective tissue. How were they going to put such a massive collection back in? Everyone was filled with doubt. The group of removed items was connected by many artificial blood vessels, which supported the organs with blood supply from the patient. If not for these artificial blood vessels supplying blood, these organs would have to be placed in a specially made ice water protective solution to extend their survival time outside the body. At Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1, Professor Yao had developed ¡°bloodless¡± heterogeneous organ transplantation. After the organs were extracted, they were infused with a specially made artificial ¡°nutrient solution¡± through a machine to deliver oxygen and nutrients to the organs, extending their survival time and minimizing damage due to lack of blood. Yang Ping was now using ¡°bloodless¡± autograft, and since they were autologous organs, they could always be kept within a close range of the patient. Unlike heterogeneous organs, which require long-distance transport, since they were within a close range of the patient, it was entirely feasible to continue supplying blood using the patient¡¯s own body and keep the organs from being deprived of blood. Only because the distance for blood transportation was extended, perfusion of the organs was still somewhat lower than normal, but it was much better than ischemia, and these pipes didn¡¯t much interfere with the various manipulations of the removed organs. Next, he needed to completely excise the tumor from this mass of organs. Director Shi discovered a critical secret¡ªthe group of organs on the sterile table did not show obvious signs of bleeding. Could it be because the bridging by the artificial blood vessels resulted in too low perfusion, causing no bleeding? Yet the color of the organs and tissues was obviously very good; perfusion shouldn¡¯t be too low. Could it be that the hemostasis was done exceptionally well? That seemed unlikely. How could the hemostasis be done so perfectly? There would have to be some blood pooling on the operating table. ¡°Everyone, take turns to go eat lunch, and continue with the surgery,¡± Yang Ping directed everyone. This surgery was taking an unusually long time, probably the longest in the history of the Surgical Research Institute, and without a replacement team, everyone could only go one at a time to take their turn to eat lunch. Seeing this, Director Fang quickly went to scrub up. How could he miss such a valuable opportunity? He immediately left the operating room, hurried to scrub up and was ready to move in right away once Song Zimo stepped away from the operating table, planning to snatch the first assistant¡¯s position at lightning speed. Director Fang scrubbed up hastily without any hesitation; he¡¯d rather wait in the operating room with clean hands than miss his chance. Just when Director Fang had finished scrubbing, the door to the operating room opened, and Song Zimo came out. Director Fang nodded slightly to greet Song Zimo, then chuckled to himself, and immediately dashed to the operating room, ready to seize the first assistant¡¯s position at lightning speed. But¡ªjust then¡ª His senior brother had already dressed in the surgical gown and was standing at Song Zimo¡¯s former spot on the operating table. What happened? Had his senior brother skipped eating and quietly gone to scrub up? Why hadn¡¯t he noticed that before? He had considered everything but hadn¡¯t factored in his senior brother. Now that his senior brother was already at the table, it would be inappropriate to join them, which would mean occupying two spots. Even if he forced his way in, Zhang Lin, who was not an easy person, would definitely lose his temper. What should he do? ¡°Professor Shi, didn¡¯t you eat lunch yet? How could I bother you? Please go have your lunch; I can cover for a while,¡± Director Fang immediately said. Without turning back, Director Shi responded, ¡°I ate a bit too much this morning and haven¡¯t digested it yet. It¡¯s a good time to move around.¡± ¡°Shall we continue? I¡¯ll lend a hand; circulating, pass the fluorescent glasses,¡± Professor Shi quickly geared up, clearly not planning on eating lunch. With such a surgery, why bother about lunch? Skipping meals for surgeries was common, and his stomach was well accustomed to it. How to begin? It was a mess, not looking right at all, and many of the blood vessels connected to the artificial blood vessels also needed to be cut. Then what about the blood supply? Director Shi felt that if he were the chief surgeon, he wouldn¡¯t know where to start. ¡°Who is this?¡± Zhang Lin asked. Director Fang immediately answered for Professor Shi, ¡°Professor Shi Guosheng from Nandu Medical University Cancer Hospital.¡± ¡°Who told you to come up?¡± Zhang Lin was not polite, regardless of who he was. If he wasn¡¯t called up and he climbed up himself, that just wouldn¡¯t do. If there was no discipline in surgery and everyone messed up like this, vying for a position in surgery, it would all end in a brawl. Zhang Lin¡¯s question instantly made the atmosphere in the operating room tense¡ªon one side was the nationally renowned Professor Shi, on the other, the incredibly formidable Teacher Zhang. Chapter 1007 - 1007 839 Experience as Chief Surgeon ?Chapter 1007: Chapter 839: Experience as Chief Surgeon Chapter 1007: Chapter 839: Experience as Chief Surgeon Professor Shi had quite a temper, too; at his own hospital, sometimes the junior doctors were scolded so fiercely it was as if blood was spraying from their heads. A conflict was on the verge of erupting. ¡°Professor Yang asked him to come up on stage, right, Professor Yang!¡± In a moment of desperation, Director Fang immediately turned to Professor Yang for help. Zhang Lin was not one to recognize anyone when putting on airs; it was best not to provoke him or else one would become a victim of his grandstanding. If he were scolded here in the operating room, how could Old Fang ever establish himself at Sanbo Hospital? Several doctors from the General Surgery Department were watching. Yang Ping looked up, just having been introduced to Professor Shi from Nandu Medical University Cancer Hospital, and nodded, ¡°Yes, I just asked Director Shi to come up.¡± Once the boss spoke, the show-off had no response and had to give up his pretentious intentions. Director Fang breathed a sigh of relief. Zhang Lin was a well-known figure, and nobody dared to provoke him, not even the head of the Medical Services Office, let alone others. He was known for his abrupt changes in behavior, showing no consideration for others¡¯ feelings. Fang recalled an incident when a patient¡¯s relative had assaulteed his wife, and he, disregarding everything else, had fought back relentlessly, unstoppable by anyone. Eventually, the arrogant relative had no choice but to bow their head, apologize, and beg for mercy. Director Fang felt it was best to stay away from such people. ¡°There¡¯s not enough space for so many people on stage. You don¡¯t need to come up anymore. Crowding can contaminate the surgery,¡± Zhang Lin stated coldly. Indeed, that was the case. The operating table was only so big, and squeezing too many people was definitely not feasible. Any small movement, arm brushing against arm, could contaminate the surgical field and disturb others. Helpless, Director Fang, with his hands previously raised to his chest, reluctantly lowered them, enviously watching his senior colleague reveling on the stage. He regretted inviting his senior; he would have been better off alone. If it weren¡¯t for caring for his senior, he would have already been standing there as the first assistant. Director Shi adjusted his sterile gloves and immediately went into action as the first assistant. He picked up two vascular clamps, gently clipped some connective tissue, and lifted it to help the chief surgeon separate the tumor from the normal tissue. ¡°Come on, Professor Yang, continue!¡± Director Shi urged. Yang Ping picked up a scalpel and continued the surgery. ¡°Raise this vascular clamp a bit higher.¡± ¡°Oh! This way?¡± ¡°No, next to the hepatic portal vessels.¡± ¡°Is it this spot?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Let the other clamp loosen a bit, loosen it some more.¡± ¡°The clamp slipped off, wait a second.¡± As he adjusted the two vascular clamps, one was not handled properly and directly slipped from the soft tissue it was clamping. Director Shi had not served as an assistant for many years and now felt extremely unaccustomed; he lacked a cooperative spirit and had never coordinated with Yang Ping before, making him utterly confused and dizzy. Now, Yang Ping was preparing to separate a tumor in the hepatic portal area. The tumor, entangled with the vessels, meant that the vessels could not be saved. Both the vessels and the tumor needed to be resected, and during the resection, it was critical to manage hemostasis and to preserve and mark the remaining healthy vessels for subsequent vascular reconstruction. ¡°Don¡¯t let your hands tremble; I have a scalpel, a slight distraction can cause injury.¡± ¡°Oh, oh, oh¡ª¡± ¡°Stop shaking!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not¡ª¡± The more it was mentioned, the more Director Shi¡¯s hands trembled uncontrollably, making him break into a sweat. Given Yang Ping¡¯s rapid pace, and Director Shi¡¯s unfamiliarity with being an assistant¡ªmoreover typically using tissue scissors¡ªit was challenging for him with Yang holding a scalpel. Director Shi felt uneasy watching, unable to continue effectively. ¡°I guess I haven¡¯t recovered from a cold these past few days; my head feels swollen. Director Fang, you come!¡± Director Shi finally couldn¡¯t hold on anymore. Continuing this way was definitely going to cause a mishap. ¡°Alright!¡± Director Fang immediately responded. He had been waiting for such an opportunity, regretting that he had earlier lowered his hands, as now he had to re-scrub them. Without a moment¡¯s delay, Director Fang immediately prepared to go out and scrub. The door of the operating room opened, and Song Zimo came in with his hands raised; he had finished his meal, and now it was Xu Zhiliang¡¯s turn to eat. After scrubbing, Director Fang dressed and ascended to the platform: ¡°Dr. Song, take a breather, I¡¯ll take over as first assistant for a while.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Song Zimo, seeing Director Fang¡¯s eagerness, didn¡¯t say anything and yielded his place to him. Director Fang, filled with excitement, stepped into the position of first assistant, ready to perform impressively. Organs were laid out on a specialized sterile surgical table, Yang Ping continued to separate the tumor, Director Shi couldn¡¯t keep up with the pace, how could Director Fang possibly keep up? Human tissue lay flaccid on the sterile table, leaving Director Fang somewhat at a loss. He had always operated within the body; now facing these external organs, he was unexpectedly at a loss. Thus, his performance as an assistant was barely better than his senior¡¯s, primarily due to the fundamental skills gap. After all, those from the Surgical Research Institute were trained differently; they had a scientific system of basic skills training, with daily sessions of basic skills for one to two hours followed by extensive surgical training. Director Fang followed traditional surgical training. Traditional surgical training lacked a systematic and scientific training system; it was merely sporadic and discontinuous, with many hospitals not even engaging in fundamental skills training, just doctors attempting to explore on their own through self-training. Most learned by mimicking others on the operating table, learning through practice. This backward training method directly leads to a lack of basic skills training for surgeons. Many orthopedic surgeons could not fully identify the instruments specific to their specialty, often needing engineers from the manufacturers to guide them. Without the engineers present, they could not proceed with the surgery. Chapter 1008 - 1008 839 Experience as Chief Surgeon_2 ?Chapter 1008: Chapter 839: Experience as Chief Surgeon_2 Chapter 1008: Chapter 839: Experience as Chief Surgeon_2 Many neurosurgeons lacked formal training in microsurgery, and even those who underwent short-term training did so hastily. Only a few hospitals provided systematic and formal microsurgery training; most doctors briefly trained themselves before heading into the battlefield. The General Surgery Department lacked the basic Laparoscopic Training, making laparoscope a special skill for some doctors, rather than a basic skill that every surgeon in General Surgery should master. From school to hospital, there was no awareness of skill training, let alone departments specifically responsible for skill training and assessment. The so-called experienced surgeons mentoring newcomers hardly existed in reality. In some top-tier hospitals, the situation was much better. In ordinary hospitals, doctors grew wild, completely self-taught through trial and error. Thus, many doctors who graduated with a PhD a few years ago and had already become associate chief doctors, were still unable to suture and cut lines proficiently and according to standards. They had published numerous papers and performed many surgeries and could speak eloquently at academic conferences for an hour, but they still couldn¡¯t fully recognize their specialty¡¯s surgical instruments. ¡°We are preparing to resect the left hepatic lobe, Director Fang, please pick out the round ligament!¡± Yang Ping reminded Director Fang. But Director Fang was completely perplexed. With the heap of soft, collapsed stuff, where tumors and organs mixed together, he had no idea which was the liver or the round ligament. ¡°Professor Yang, I came to experience¡ª¡± Director Fang honestly admitted that he couldn¡¯t keep up with the pace. Upon hearing this, Yang Ping realized that Director Fang was here to experience life. Without any choice, Yang Ping had to slow down to accommodate Director Fang¡¯s pace. The patient had been brought in by Director Fang, and they had already communicated about the surgery beforehand, agreeing to let him assist. Everyone forgot this when the surgery started. Now that it was hard for him to step up, they had to look after him to some extent and let him have a taste, as the Surgical Research Institute couldn¡¯t break its promise. There was no rush. Yang Ping was planning to have lunch when Xu Zhiliang returned. Yang Ping said to Director Fang, ¡°Come on, Old Fang, try experiencing the chief surgeon¡¯s role.¡± Chief Surgeon? Director Fang shook his head. He dared not take the lead in such a surgery. His senior brother, a nationally renowned expert in pancreatic tumor surgery, wouldn¡¯t dare to claim that role. How could he, Old Fang, dare to be the chief surgeon? He knew his own limitations. Yang Ping stepped aside from the chief surgeon¡¯s position, ¡°Old Fang, come here, try this out. This is your patient, after all. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be your assistant.¡± Seeing that Yang Ping was serious and not joking, and hearing that Yang Ping would assist him, Director Fang felt a bit eager to try and hesitantly moved to the chief surgeon¡¯s position. If anything went wrong, he could always hand it over to Yang Ping. Using a scalpel was definitely out of the question for Director Fang, but trying with tissue scissors was still acceptable. Director Fang adjusted the tissue scissors in his hand, trying to find the right feel. Yang Ping gently lifted some tissue with his vascular clamps, while another set of tissue clamps pointed to a spot: ¡°Move slowly. Start cutting from here with the tip of the scissors, keep the opening and closing amplitude as small as possible, no rush.¡± Director Fang followed Yang Ping¡¯s guidance, cutting little by little. After all, he was an experienced doctor who had been working for over a decade and his level was good, though anyone would find it hard to keep pace with Yang Ping, who was superhuman. Under the guidance and protection of Yang Ping, Director Fang followed closely. Wherever Yang Ping lifted the tissue with his vascular clamps, he would cut, stopping immediately whenever Yang Ping blocked with his clamps. Whenever they were about to touch the blood vessels, Yang Ping would always use the tip of his vascular clamps to separate the blood vessels, then pass them to Director Fang for electrocoagulation or ligation. In this manner, Director Fang gradually progressed the surgery, and the speed was not bad. Could he really do it himself? Director Fang had never performed such a smooth operation, the surgical area was clean, and there was hardly any bleeding. Every step was prepared in advance by the assistant, who did the guidance and exposure work well; he only needed to follow the assistant¡¯s directions. The surgery felt almost divine, and Director Fang enjoyed it more and more. Director Shi watched enviously from below, thinking, ¡°My junior performs the surgery so smoothly; why couldn¡¯t I keep up with the pace earlier? It must be an issue of adaptation. I¡¯ll try again if another opportunity arises.¡± Director Fang grew more adept as the surgery progressed, feeling fantastic. The metastatic tumor had already merged with the left part of the liver. If he intended to completely remove the tumor, he had to perform a resection of the left hepatic lobe, which also meant cutting some blood vessels at the hepatic portal, thereby increasing the difficulty of the surgery. Wearing fluorescent glasses and focusing intently, Director Fang steadily advanced with the robust collaboration of Yang Ping, exuding a true professional demeanor. ¡°Xiao Chen, take a few pictures for me, from different angles, take several, and record a video, hurry!¡± Director Fang suddenly remembered about taking pictures and immediately instructed his graduate student to do so. Now that he was the chief surgeon, these photos would later serve to boast about this rare opportunity. Yang Ping gently lifted the tissue on both sides with two vascular clamps, creating a perfect spot in between for cutting with scissors, and Director Fang¡¯s scissors always cut shallowly, ensuring safety. Now, they were about to cut through the hepatic parenchyma to perform the hepatic lobectomy, and Director Fang grew more confident. Cutting through the hepatic parenchyma would sever some small blood vessels, but the assistant¡¯s vascular clamps were too formidable, giving these vessels no chance at all. As soon as the blood vessels were cut, the assistant¡¯s clamps would immediately secure the ends, allowing Director Fang to easily execute electrocoagulation by touching the tips of the clamps with the electric knife. Even slightly larger blood vessels were no issue; Director Fang would simply ligate them if necessary. Moreover, it seemed as if the assistant¡¯s vascular clamps were endlessly available, appearing timely without any hesitation. Yang Ping¡¯s vascular clamps held the already severed hepatic round ligament, lifting gently, while another clamp guided Director Fang forward. Using the hepatic round ligament as a landmark, Director Fang carefully cut through the anterior part of the left coronary ligament. Yang Ping pulled the left outer lobe of the liver aside, exposing the posterior part of the left coronary ligament to facilitate its resection by Director Fang, who carefully separated it under guidance, isolating the left triangular ligament area. Typically, Director Fang was experienced and confident in performing standard hepatic lobectomies. However, this case was unique and the tumor was particularly tricky. Now that Yang Ping had prepared everything, the surgery became almost foolproof for Director Fang; all he needed was not to mess up, just hold the scissors and cut vigorously. Many doctors from the General Surgery Department were watching the screen intently in the operating room. Director Fang puffed out his chest, exuding the aura of a significant figure. Everyone harbors a desire to impress, and Director Fang was no exception. The tissue scissors continued to isolate, and not only blood vessels, but also some small intrahepatic bile ducts were severed as the hepatic parenchyma was cut, their ends retracting. But there was no need to worry; the assistant was efficient, firmly clamping the ends with the vascular clamps. Whether they were blood vessels or intrahepatic bile ducts, none were overlooked. As the assistant lifted these ends, the suture was already handed to him, and all Director Fang needed to do was confidently tie the knots. Finally, the left hepatic lobe, along with the tumor invading it, was completely separated, the entire process clear and clean. ¡°Anesthesiologist, I¡¯m about to move the left hepatic lobe!¡± Director Fang announced loudly. At every critical juncture of the surgery, the chief surgeon must remind the anesthesiologist to report the vital signs, which also served as a declaration of Director Fang¡¯s status as the chief surgeon. The gaze of physicians, masters, doctors, and standardized training students from the General Surgery Department shifted from the screen to Director Fang, all holding him in high regard. Such a significant surgery was skilfully handled by Director Fang, so far without damaging a single blood vessel, leaving the surgical area spotless. When had Director Fang become so skilled, even mastering the Surgical Research Institute¡¯s ¡°bloodless surgery¡±? Truly, real skill is not outwardly shown. ¡°How about it? Director Fang, are you tired? Do you need to rest for a while?¡± By this time, Xu Zhiliang had finished eating, and it was Yang Ping¡¯s turn to have a meal. Yang Ping asked with concern. Director Fang was deeply engrossed: ¡°No need, keep going. I¡¯ll finish excising all the tumors then let you guys do the autotransplantation, giving you a breather too.¡± Chapter 1009 - 1009 840 Engineering in Surgery ?Chapter 1009: Chapter 840: Engineering in Surgery Chapter 1009: Chapter 840: Engineering in Surgery The junior brother dealt with the surgery on the operating table with ease, which made Director Shi itch to try his hand at surgery again, if the opportunity arose. Yang Ping paused the surgery to have lunch, and before leaving, he instructed Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, ¡°Let Director Fang rest, and Song Zimo, you guide Xu Zhiliang to slowly separate the section of the inferior vena cava.¡± The resection of the inferior vena cava and tumor was the easiest among the eight organs to be removed ex-vivo. To save on surgery time, Yang Ping had Song Zimo continue the operation to complete this step. Song Zimo understood the professor¡¯s words; without the professor¡¯s nanny-like assistance, it was impossible for Director Fang to handle such surgery. If they still let Director Fang be the chief surgeon, it would definitely be counterproductive and there¡¯d be no way to salvage the situation if things went awry. Once, a European climbed Mount Everest. He hired a local Nepalese team to assist him. To save trouble, the team carried him directly to the summit of Mount Everest, let him take photos and check in, then declared a successful climb. Later, the European led a team to climb again, deciding to act alone, believing he did not need the help of the Nepalese. However, they hadn¡¯t even reached the halfway point before the team was unable to progress and fell into a predicament. Had they not been rescued in time, the entire team likely would have been wiped out. Director Fang was in high spirits and said to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, ¡°Shall we continue?¡± ¡°Hold on, let me catch my breath,¡± Song Zimo said. Director Fang attempted to continue the separation on his own but didn¡¯t know where to start. It was like driving a car in a strange and complex city¡ªit had been stress-free with the navigation on, but now with the navigation off, the driver was suddenly lost. That was how Director Fang felt now, like a driver who had suddenly lost GPS. He didn¡¯t know how to proceed with the tissue scissors, and the mass of stuff in front of him was a complete mystery. Wasn¡¯t the anatomy clear just a moment ago? Why was it suddenly all a blur? Director Fang was momentarily confused. ¡°Let¡¯s hurry, and cut out the tumor,¡± Director Fang urged while searching for the scissors, as he rushed Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. Big shot, a trial pass has its expiration. You can¡¯t keep enjoying the perks without limits; you have to be decent. It was smooth sailing during the surgery because the professor was guiding you. People tend to have a significant drop in IQ when they get carried away, just like Director Fang now, feeling dizzy but self-satisfied. ¡°Song Zimo, come on, give me a hand, and we¡¯ll do this while waiting for Professor Yang,¡± Director Fang had completely lost himself. ¡°I dare not make a move,¡± Song Zimo said. ¡°Weren¡¯t you just assisting Professor Yang and doing it well? Don¡¯t be modest, hurry up,¡± Director Fang was insistent. The surgery felt so thrilling just now, but the thrill was too short-lived. People always yearn for the good times to last longer. ¡°We¡¯ve already removed the tumor from the liver. Now we need to cut out the one on the pancreas side. I think we should first remove the already resected left hepatic lobe and the tumor. That¡¯ll make it easier to cut out the pancreatic tumor. Let¡¯s get to work!¡± With the next steps of the surgery planned, Director Fang was inwardly delighted, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. ¡°You can¡¯t cut it off. The professor always advocates for removing tumors in one piece to prevent the spread of tumor cells to the greatest extent possible,¡± Song Zimo vetoed Director Fang¡¯s plan. ¡°Oh!¡± Director Fang responded, continuing to plan the surgery. The pile of organs was now ex-vivo, so there was no need for retraction hooks. Zhang Lin and Little Five had also stepped down from the operating table for a meal. Once Yang Ping returned, they would speed up the surgery together. ¡°Oh¡ª¡± Song Zimo didn¡¯t participate, and Director Fang didn¡¯t dare to act alone. Although he was somewhat headstrong at the moment, he still held to some basic principles. ¡°Director Fang, how about this? Let me try, and I¡¯ll complete the dissection of the section of the inferior vena cava. This part is relatively easy. After that, you can proceed with separating the pancreatic tumor,¡± Song Zimo suggested. That sounded good to Director Fang, who readily agreed. Director Fang and Song Zimo switched places, with Song Zimo taking the lead as the chief surgeon and Director Fang acting as the assistant. They began separating the tumor from the section of the inferior vena cava¡ªrelatively easy, but only in comparison. Director Fang acted as the assistant, and since Song Zimo didn¡¯t dare use the scalpel, he resorted to using tissue scissors to separate. He picked up tissue scissors and toothless clips and started the dissection¡ªlifting tissue, snipping and releasing, separating blood vessels, and ligating them. Song Zimo¡¯s effort climbed one level after another, while Director Fang gradually started to lose his composure, struggling to keep up with the pace and looking quite strained. Then, one of Director Fang¡¯s graduate students from below said, ¡°Director, there¡¯s a major rescue situation in the ward; the head of inpatient services is looking for you.¡± The moment Director Fang heard about a major rescue in the department, he immediately put down the surgical instruments. With no more mind for surgery, he hurriedly left the operating table, apologizing while removing his surgical gown, ¡°Dr. Song, I¡¯m sorry, I have to go back to the department.¡± He then asked the graduate student, ¡°Which bed? Weren¡¯t they all fine during the rounds this morning? How come there¡¯s suddenly a major rescue? Are you sure there¡¯s no mistake?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t ask, and he didn¡¯t elaborate,¡± the graduate student said with a red face. Director Fang was irritated: ¡°What¡¯s this? Why didn¡¯t you ask for details? Call now and find out.¡± Angry as he was, rescue situations were not to be delayed. Director Fang hastily took off his surgical gown and threw it into the collection bin, but he was fuming inside. The surgery was going on intensely, and suddenly there was a disruptive emergency. Moreover, the graduate student who took the call couldn¡¯t specify which bed or which patient was involved. If it weren¡¯t for being on someone else¡¯s turf, Director Fang would have started cursing by now. Chapter 1010 - 1010 840 Engineering in Surgery_2 ?Chapter 1010: Chapter 840: Engineering in Surgery_2 Chapter 1010: Chapter 840: Engineering in Surgery_2 ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Director Fang yelled at the graduate student. The graduate student scurried after him out of the operating room to the changing room, where Director Fang asked, ¡°Did you get it clear, which patient, which team? What¡¯s the exact situation?¡± ¡°Director, there was a wrong call. It was a patient from the Urology Department. I wonder how the head of Urology ended up dialing my phone. It¡¯s weird,¡± the graduate student scratched his head. Director Fang really wanted to kick him, questioning when he had become so confused or if it was done on purpose to undermine him. Director Fang stopped in his tracks and glared at the graduate student, ¡°What do you mean by this?¡± ¡°This¡ªthat¡ªDirector¡ªah, it¡¯s all my fault. I was too anxious and didn¡¯t get the situation clear¡ª¡± The truth was, the graduate student saw that Director Fang was becoming increasingly strained on the operating table. He suddenly realized that Director Fang¡¯s previously smooth surgeries weren¡¯t because of his own skill, but because Professor Yang wanted him to gain experience by deliberately collaborating and performing a nanny-like assist. However, perhaps Director Fang got too caught up in the moment on the operating table, temporarily losing awareness and insisting on continuing as chief surgeon. The graduate student, not wanting his mentor to be embarrassed in front of everyone, thought of a clumsy excuse to distract him. The graduate student knew that his mentor was harsh only in speech but kind-hearted, often helping him financially. Better to be scolded than to tell his mentor, ¡°You don¡¯t know your own limits. I didn¡¯t want you to be embarrassed in front of everyone, so I found an excuse to pull you out.¡± Director Fang personally called the head of the ward to confirm everything was alright, and only then did he feel relieved, perhaps frightened by the false alarm. Then he checked on several patients with complex conditions to reassure himself completely. ¡°What nerve did you get wrong today causing such a mix-up?¡± Since there was nothing wrong, Director Fang decided to return to the operating room. Along the way, Director Fang was muttering and cursing while the graduate student followed behind, nodding incessantly and smiling sheepishly no matter how much he was scolded. ¡°Your skin is really thick!¡± Director Fang finally had no choice but to shut up. In that short time, Yang Ping had finished eating and was already standing at the operating table, where there was completely no space for Director Fang, who complained internally: Even his meals are as quick as his surgeries. Zhang Lin and Little Five had also eaten quickly, so they were soon in position, and the surgery officially commenced. ¡°Stay sharp, let¡¯s speed it up,¡± Yang Ping commanded, as the team was all set, and they began accelerating the surgery. Yang Ping didn¡¯t use tissue scissors at all. He used a surgical knife throughout to separate the tissues, ensuring the sharpness of his knife by changing the blade every half an hour. Holding toothless clips in his left hand and a scalpel in his right, he firmly clamped the tissues and deftly sliced layer by layer. Whenever he encountered blood vessels, Yang Ping skillfully isolated and ligated them in advance, ensuring that there weren¡¯t any instances of bleeding due to accidental vessel damage. The pancreatic head, the duodenum, a portion of the stomach, a segment of the inferior vena cava, and part of the spleen, slowly separated from the mixed tumor. Under the guidance of fluorescent glasses, his surgical knife precisely continued to isolate the tumor from the healthy tissue. Moreover, in order to prevent contamination by tumor cells, Yang Ping always adhered to intraoperative tumor-free techniques, keeping the tumor and normal tissue separated by a clean piece of gauze once they were cut open. Director Fang stood before the screen, feeling completely delighted. The anger in his heart vanished instantly. Being so immersed, he might have had a moment of clarity¡ªit was good that he hadn¡¯t started the surgery himself, for even if he could manage, it would have been a messy affair with no graceful exit. The one time he experienced it himself, he was merely an assistant to Professor Yang, who completely led him through the surgery, preparing everything. He just moved the scissors foolishly, almost believing he was a top expert. Fortunately, he had stepped aside in time, otherwise it would have been truly embarrassing. At that moment, he felt grateful to his graduate student who had called him down from the operating table in time. Could it be that the student did it on purpose? Director Fang turned to look at his graduate student, who just then met his gaze and gave an awkward smile. Smart kid, a real talent. He had not doted on him in vain; the kid knew where his loyalties should lie at the crucial moment. On the screen, the scalpel kept moving smoothly, constantly alternating between separating tissues and cauterizing blood vessels, with a strong sense of rhythm. In the end, the tumor was completely excised along with a ring of normal soft tissue¡ªsuch incredible skill with the knife. The remaining organs might not be reusable; the liver had already lost its left lobe, and many blood vessels on the remaining right side were cut, with a long segment of the inferior vena cava missing. The left kidney was gone; there were many structures that needed rebuilding. What remained on the table now was a few scattered parts of organs, and there were no blood vessels available for anastomosis. Director Shi imagined himself as the chief surgeon and felt utterly desperate. How to replant these things? Under these circumstances, even a single autologous liver transplant could be immensely stressful, let alone such a collection of incomplete organs. Director Shi realized that if the resection included the blood vessels connected to the artificial blood vessel, the artificial blood vessel¡¯s connection point must be a healthy section of the blood vessel upstream, meaning it had been pre-planned. Everything was under Professor Yang¡¯s control, each step obviously well-designed, as there was no hesitation or delay; the entire surgery was like a huge, intricate engineering project, where parts and whole, earlier and later steps, were interlinked. The technical complexity of this surgery was really not ordinary. Director Shi, as a nationally renowned expert, couldn¡¯t help but have his perception refreshed after witnessing the surgery¡ªit was designed with such complexity and precision. Each step was like a gear, with numerous gears working together precisely without any flaws. Everything was planned in advance, cohesive and tight, without a single drop leaking. Truly impressive! Director Shi couldn¡¯t help but cast an admiring look at Yang Ping. Meanwhile, Director Fang was secretly relieved that he had stepped aside in time, as he would have been utterly flustered even just assisting, having no experience with this type of surgery. The upcoming reconstructive task was undoubtedly a vast and complicated engineering challenge. Reconstructing the liver¡¯s arteries, veins, and bile duct¡ªeach aspect was daunting. ¡°You¡¯ve removed so much of the inferior vena cava, aren¡¯t you inviting the cardiothoracic surgery team to look and help manage it?¡± Director Shi was deeply engrossed in the surgery but the deeper he delved, the more issues he considered. Director Fang said, ¡°Professor Yang handled it all by himself, why call for the cardiothoracic surgery team? The last time there was an aortic dissection over a meter long that the cardiothoracic surgery couldn¡¯t handle, it was Professor Yang who stepped in as the chief surgeon. The patient is now living well.¡± He really does all kinds of surgeries, depending on his mood¡ªit¡¯s not just talk, but the true portrayal of this young man. To ensure the assistant had enough energy, Yang Ping took a brief rest, and Director Fang paced back and forth next to the operating table, wanting to exchange a few words with Yang Ping. Chapter 1011 - 1011 841 Trouble Helping Me Lead the Way ?Chapter 1011: Chapter 841 Trouble Helping Me Lead the Way Chapter 1011: Chapter 841 Trouble Helping Me Lead the Way If this surgery were to be broken down into steps, it would be divided into four major parts: the resection of the eight organs and the tumor as a whole¡ªthe ex-vivo resection of the tumor¡ªthe reconstruction of the blood vessels and some structures¡ªthe transplantation of an artificial blood vessel into the inferior vena cava and the autotransplantation of the six organs. The patient¡¯s vital signs remained stable, and Yang Ping began to speed up the surgery, trying to reduce the duration as much as possible. The ¡°Golden Team¡± was in place, Xu Zhiliang took Zhang Lin to harvest the great saphenous vein from the lower limb, while Yang Ping started with Song Zimo and Little Five on the various vascular reconstruction surgeries and some structural reconstructions. Liang Fatty sat cross-legged, checking the data on the monitoring equipment from time to time, then making records and analyzing them mentally. Director Shi stood beside the sterile table observing the surgery, Director Fang switched back and forth between the LCD screen and the sterile table, and other doctors gathered in front of the LCD screen. This screen, mounted on the wall, was far from the operating table, minimizing any disturbance to the surgical staff, Xu Zhiliang harvested two very long segments of the great saphenous vein to use as material for vascular transplantation. He followed Yang Ping¡¯s instructions, cutting the veins into various lengths, soaking them in saline before taking them out, and laying them out neatly on wet saline-soaked gauze for later use. The excised human tissue needed to be kept moist, otherwise it would dry out and die. Director Shi was puzzled by Xu Zhiliang¡¯s actions. Professor Yang¡¯s team hadn¡¯t calculated the quantity of blood vessels needed or measured their lengths, so how could they have prematurely cut all the veins into various lengths? What if they were unsuitable? If unsuitable, those blood vessels would all go to waste. Director Shi himself had also performed ex-vivo resections and autotransplants for pancreatic tumors. Although he had not racked up a large number of cases, he was still ranked at the forefront nationally, so his experience could be considered extensive. It wasn¡¯t just him; other experts too would only decide after tumor resection whether vascular transplantation was needed. If so, they would calculate the number, diameter, and length of vessels required, roughly estimate the data, and report it to an assistant, who would process the blood vessels accordingly. Never like this, where an assistant directly cut the blood vessels into dozens of pieces. Could it be that Professor Yang had already considered these factors and made precise calculations before the surgery? It seemed impossible. Director Shi, holding onto his question, couldn¡¯t help asking Yang Ping, ¡°Professor Yang, had you completed the measurements for the quantity and length of blood vessels through preoperative images?¡± While performing the surgery, Yang Ping replied, ¡°It¡¯s like building a house; you need a blueprint beforehand, detailing what materials to use, their specifications, all planned in advance. Moreover, how much surplus material to prepare should also be included in the calculations. It¡¯s the same engineering concept I was talking about. Our surgeries, especially such major surgeries, must be informed by engineering principles to be successful. Otherwise, it is easy to make a mess by overlooking certain aspects.¡± Director Shi learned something new today about the application of engineering principles in surgery; he pondered over the words of Yang Ping and found them incredibly meaningful. In the future, he too would apply these principles of engineering to his surgeries to make them more rigorous and precise. Director Shi noted this core technique. Without the guidance of such engineering concepts, complex surgeries like this were very likely to fail. The left kidney had been resected and did not need transplantation; the gallbladder was removed, with no transplantation involved; an artificial blood vessel was used to replace the inferior vena cava; Yang Ping had already transplanted the blood vessels for the remaining five organs, and now it was time to put them back into the body and get them properly positioned. First, the transplantation of an artificial blood vessel into the inferior vena cava was completed to facilitate the subsequent surgeries. After completing the transplantation of an artificial blood vessel into the inferior vena cava, the five organs were returned to their correct positions. Once positioned, the suspensory ligaments and mesentery of the organs were first anastomosed to secure the organs within the body properly, preventing them from wandering and avoiding dangerous twists or herniations. With the organs secured, Yang Ping began to anastomose their arteriovenous blood vessels, as well as any nerves that were necessary and possible to join. First, vascular anastomosis was performed on the pancreas, followed by the reconstruction of the pancreatic duct, then the blood vessels of the liver were anastomosed, including the hepatic veins and the portal vein, and the biliary tract was reconstructed. These two steps in the reconstruction of functional pathways were incredibly important; if not done well, they could easily lead to bile leaks and pancreatic fistulas, causing chemical peritonitis and infections, which could trigger severe complications. Since the small intestine had been resected, the pancreatic duct needed to be connected to the jejunum. Yang Ping employed the Blumgart anastomosis, a modified technique for pancreatoenteric mucosal anastomosis, which required the surgeon to have a high level of skill with the fine details of duct anastomosis. For Yang Ping, who was proficient in anastomosing fine vessels, this was no challenge at all. Reconstructing the liver¡¯s biliary tract was also particularly tricky; in this patient, it was a biliary reconstruction near the hepatic portal that required forming the openings of several bile ducts before performing a Roux-en-Y biliary-intestinal anastomosis. In these autotransplants of the various organs, those of the pancreas and liver were the most difficult due to the need for complex vascular and functional duct reconstruction. Director Shi watched with keen interest, as every step represented the pinnacle of hepatobiliary surgery and pancreatic surgery. Now integrated into a single procedure, it was rare to see such complex reconstruction in typical circumstances. ¡°Professor Yang¡¯s general surgery skills are extraordinarily high, aren¡¯t they?¡± Director Shi mused, noticing that the gap between them was more than slight. Especially the concept of applying engineering principles to major surgery; in terms of philosophy, he was already far ahead of Shi, who was still at the level of making a rough plan before the surgery and taking one step at a time during the procedure, without any of the detailed engineering concepts in mind. Chapter 1012 - 1012 841 Trouble Helping Me Lead the Way_2 ?Chapter 1012: Chapter 841 Trouble Helping Me Lead the Way_2 Chapter 1012: Chapter 841 Trouble Helping Me Lead the Way_2 A major surgery consists of many smaller surgeries, and of course, each so-called small surgery is a major surgery in its own right. These surgeries are both independent, forming a module, and must be coordinated with other surgeries, with each module forming an organic whole. For such complex surgeries, doctors must have a basic knowledge of engineering, treating the entire surgery as a large project, with each step as a component module. The masterpiece in human surgical history¡ªFontan Surgery¡ªembodies this engineering thought. To achieve the goal, we need to consider many factors meticulously, rather than thinking about problems in a scattered and disorderly experiential way. ¡°Otherwise? I always say Professor Yang performs god-like surgeries, but you don¡¯t believe me.¡± Director Fang said triumphantly, after all, this God-like figure was from his own hospital, and he wanted to boast about it. Director Shi said unhappily, ¡°When have I ever not believed you?¡± The liver and pancreas had already completed autotransplantation, and now it was time to perform autotransplantation on the spleen. The spleen only requires the reconstruction of arteriovenous blood vessels, not functional pathways, so it is much easier than the liver and pancreas. But the spleen is a bit peculiar; its implantation can be confined to any location within the cavity or within a solid organ, such as the liver, pelvis, thoracic cavity, pericardium, subcutaneous tissue, etc. That is to say, if due to trauma or carelessness during surgery, a piece of splenic tissue scatters in these areas, it can survive like a seed. Therefore, to prevent this accidental splenic seeding, Yang Ping was very careful, treating it as carefully as a tumor, protecting the periphery of the surgery very stringently to avoid the detachment of tiny splenic tissue causing accidental implantation. Director Shi was sweating profusely, holding a piece of tissue in his hand and pressing it to his forehead from time to time. Director Fang was contemplating whether to try an autologous liver transplant next time. If he could successfully perform an autologous liver transplant, that would be impressive, as it¡¯s also a highly challenging surgery, and not many hospitals in the country could carry it out. Eat one bite at a time, perform surgeries one at a time. Moreover, if he were to perform a bloodless autologous liver transplant, that would be the second case in the world. In the Surgical Research Institute, being the world¡¯s first doesn¡¯t hold much value, but for Director Fang, being the world¡¯s second or even tenth was something he longed for. With this thought, Director Fang had an epiphany¡ªconstantly achieving the world¡¯s first in the Surgical Research Institute, with the recent minimally invasive spiral cutting technology for myocardium also being a world-first innovation. An audacious idea took root in Director Fang¡¯s mind. From now on, he would follow the pace of the Surgical Research Institute, focusing on their general surgeries. As long as they performed the first case, he would perform the second. For such mega surgeries, which he couldn¡¯t manage on his own, it didn¡¯t matter¡ªhe would scale down the surgeries, try to make them smaller. For instance, if Professor Yang tackled ex-vivo resection + autotransplantation of eight organs, he would do it with one organ. This way, he would always be the world¡¯s second, the world¡¯s second! Director Fang felt exhilarated just thinking about it and was happy with his enlightenment. From now on, he would adhere to this concept to achieve his ¡°academic strata leap¡± in life. ¡°Later, copy the surgical video and take it back!¡± Director Fang instructed his graduate student authoritatively, planning to copy all general surgery videos from the Surgical Research Institute for thorough study and then to have Professor Yang ¡°lead¡± him through surgeries. A few leads, and naturally, he would be well-versed. Thinking of this, Director Fang couldn¡¯t help but savor the thrill of having been led through a surgery just now, truly exhilarating. When could he be led through another? At this moment, Director Shi was also calculating similar plans in his heart to become the world¡¯s second. True to being brothers of the same mentor, they had the same idea in mind. Seizing an opportunity, Director Shi said, ¡°Professor Yang, when you have time, come to our cancer hospital to guide surgeries. We have many such patients over there.¡± Director Shi also addressed Director Fang¡¯s student, ¡°Copy one for me as well.¡± ¡°Can I copy a version of the surgical video to take back?¡± Director Shi, being from another hospital, felt it necessary to ask permission before copying someone else¡¯s materials. Yang Ping didn¡¯t mind this at all, as long as you¡¯re willing to learn. You¡¯re free to copy; the more people who copy, the better. ¡°Pay attention! Look at the prompt beside the host, and do not use your own USB drive. There are new USB drives in the drawer next to it¡ªfree of charge. Take any you need, but absolutely do not use your own USB drive to copy. If found, you will be banned from the operating room,¡± Zhang Lin reminded those who wanted to copy the surgical video. Those messy USB drives could carry viruses that might damage the computers in the operating room, creating more than just a little trouble. Autologous liver transplantation may claim the ceiling of hepatobiliary surgery, but now there¡¯s transplantation involving five organs, so for a five-story building, the original ceiling is just the ceiling of the first or second floor. Multi-organ transplantation within the abdominal cavity originated from cluster multi-organ transplantation, first pioneered by Professor Starzl, known as the father of modern organ transplantation, in 1960. Cluster multi-organ transplantation within the abdominal cavity refers to transplantation of three or more anatomically and functionally related organs, either intra-abdominal or extra-peritoneal, en-bloc and in a string of organ clusters. The basic surgical principle is that the entire block of multiple abdominal organs transplanted as a whole needs to have a common arterial blood supply and venous outflow. However, the surgery Yang Ping performed today was clearly larger than cluster multi-organ transplantation since the involved organs did not share blood supply through arteries and veins, nor were they completely functionally related. The surgery continued, steady and meticulous, the entire sequence carefully arranged, with engineering principles permeating every detail of this large-scale operation. In the end, even the remaining stomach was successfully transplanted. The entire operation went smoothly; like an old, dilapidated house being completely torn down, the materials sorted¡ªthose unusable discarded and those usable kept¡ªthen using the kept materials to build a new, solid and secure house. Now this new house was completed, and everyone was incredibly excited. Whether those who participated in the surgery on the stage or those who observed from below, everyone was thrilled. All the blood vessels were opened, checking that there were no leaks at the junctions. The transplanted organs were rosy, indicating good blood circulation, and the surgery was a great success. The patrolling nurse performed blood tests for routine blood work, biochemistry, and liver and kidney function, with no significant changes noted, indicating that all the organ functions were also doing well. Caught up in the moment, Director Fang said, ¡°Let¡¯s take a photo later to commemorate this historic moment. Dinner is on me tonight, pick any place you want¡ªany observer is welcome.¡± ¡°Oh, right, Professor Yang, I have a patient with liver cancer, the tumor has invaded the bile duct, hepatic veins, and portal vein, and it has grown in a tangled mass. It seems we must perform ex-vivo resection and autologous liver transplantation. I hope you can guide me¡ªoh, help guide me through it,¡± Director Fang said a bit excitedly, speaking his mind without reservation. That¡¯s the idea, but you can¡¯t say out loud in front of so many doctors that you need someone to lead you through a surgery¡ªit sounds too bad. ¡°I have a patient with pancreatic cancer, involving several organs. Definitely need to do ex-vivo resection and autologous transplantation, I¡¯d appreciate Professor Yang¡¯s guidance,¡± Director Shi seized the opportunity as well. Although already nationally renowned, there was still a lot of room for improvement. Today, having seen Professor Yang perform the surgery, both Director Shi and Director Fang¡¯s perspectives had completely opened up. What they had thought were very tough surgeries seemed not so daunting now. Moreover, once they mastered Professor Yang¡¯s ex-vivo resection techniques, many abdominal cavity tumor surgeries that seemed insurmountable before could be handled with confidence. PS: Regarding the details of the surgery, I¡¯m not sure if this way of writing is appropriate. I think writing too deeply and in too much detail might make it boring and hard to understand due to complexity. I believe that if I can simplify and restore the description of the surgery roughly so that it is understandable and interesting, that would be good enough. I¡¯d love to hear everyone¡¯s opinions, thank you! Chapter 1013 - 1013 842 European Spinal Surgery Annual ?Chapter 1013: Chapter 842 European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting Chapter 1013: Chapter 842 European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting After the inferior vena cava artificial vascular transplantation and the autotransplantation of five organs, Yang Ping stopped the surgery to observe the patient¡¯s condition for a while. Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s vital signs were stable, the transplanted organs appeared healthy in color, and he saw no obvious bleeding. Yang Ping still meticulously conducted a final inspection to prevent any missed bleeding points. Confidence is good, but it cannot replace rigorous work procedures, so he repeated the necessary procedures. The removed tumor was a large cluster that included parts of the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen, stomach, inferior vena cava, the entire duodenum, and the left kidney, along with the attached connective tissues. This large cluster, placed in a large metal sterile basin, was substantial in weight. These were prepared to be sent to the pathology department for pathological examination, as the ultimate gold standard for any tumor was still the pathological examination. After observing for a full half-hour with no evident bleeding and normal vital signs, ¡°Close the abdomen!¡± Yang Ping put the forceps he was holding into the curved plate, leaving the final task of closing the abdomen to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. ¡°How about you guys take a break, and let me and Old Fang close the abdomen?¡± Director Shi had always wanted to experience being on the operating table, but since the surgery had already ended, there was no chance until now. It was likely the first case of its kind in the world, and being directly involved on the table was not the same as merely observing from below. Being on the operating table made one a participant; being below made one an observer, a fundamental difference in roles. Director Fang immediately got the hint, ¡°Professor Yang, let us close the abdomen, you all have worked hard.¡± They¡¯re closing the abdomen? Usually, during surgeries, senior doctors like him delegate the task of closing the abdomen to junior doctors. If senior doctors were to actually close the abdomen, they might be rusty, Song Zimo hesitated, concerned that improper closure might lead to issues like incision dehiscence or future abdominal hernias. ¡°Thank you, Director Shi and Director Fang. That¡¯s very kind of you.¡± Yang Ping had already sat down on a nearby stool. Yang Ping consented, and Song Zimo acted accordingly, but he and Xu Zhiliang still stayed on the operating table to help by retracting and cutting sutures, essentially acting as supervisors. Directors Shi and Fang, being mentor and mentee, immediately scrubbed their hands and stepped up to the table. In fact, Director Shi was very meticulous when conducting surgeries, a cut above the average senior consultant, usually taking on the task of closing the abdomen himself in complex major surgeries. Professor Yang was greatly respected; high-skilled and humble, he remembered that Shi had not yet had the experience, and gave him the opportunity. Director Shi initially had a good impression of Professor Yang. ¡°Xiao Chen, take some photos for me, several of them, and make them clear,¡± Director Fang instructed his graduate student, who was clever enough to have already taken a good vantage point with phone ready. The graduate student¡¯s thoughts were quite simple: if his mentor prospered, so would he, so he protected and wholeheartedly supported his mentor. This time, Director Fang voluntarily took the first assistant¡¯s spot, letting his mentor handle the chief¡¯s role since he himself had already had the experience, and his mentor had not yet had that opportunity. ¡°Is it a continuous suture or interrupted suture inside?¡± Director Shi asked Yang Ping, and even for closing the abdomen, Director Shi was thorough, as surgery allowed no room for carelessness. Closure of the surgical incision was layered, sewn anatomically one layer at a time, and could not just combine several layers haphazardly. From the innermost peritoneum to the outer skin, including the fascial and muscle layers, whether to adhere to continuous suturing for convenience and speed or to opt for interrupted suturing, which was more cumbersome but secure with each stitch tied off independently, although more time-consuming, depended on the surgeon¡¯s preference. Should any single suture loosen in interrupted suturing, it did not affect the entire incision¡¯s integrity. ¡°Interrupted suturing!¡± Yang Ping answered. ¡°Are you using skin staples or silk sutures for the skin?¡± ¡°Non-damage nylon line!¡± Skin staplers were fast and elicited less tissue reaction, but resulted in coarser closure; silk sutures were manually sewn slower with more noticeable tissue reaction, yet provided finer closure; non-damage nylon lines were used for skin suturing, offering high-quality closure with minimal tissue reaction. Director Shi clarified the chief surgeon¡¯s intention before proceeding, though he guessed Yang Ping likely preferred manual suture over stapling as the recent stomach to jejunum anastomosis had been done manually, not with an anastomosis device, and Yang¡¯s manual suturing quality was evidently superior. Though closing the abdomen was a task typically performed by junior surgeons, Director Shi took it seriously and was meticulous. Director Fang, having not done this in a while, was somewhat rusty, but as an assistant, his role did not significantly impact the surgery. Director Shi also frequently operated at Sanbo Hospital, and whenever Director Fang encountered challenging cases of pancreatic cancer, he consulted Director Shi, inviting him to lead the surgery. This not only solved the problem but also offered his mentor a lucrative opportunity. Afterwards, the two mentors could sit down for a meal and chat, a prospect agreeable to both. The mentors coordinated well and quickly completed closing the abdomen. After closing the abdomen, they observed the patient for half an hour. Once the patient¡¯s vital signs remained stable, they transferred her to the ICU. Such major surgeries were prone to various complications postoperatively, and monitoring in the ICU was safer. That evening, Director Fang kept his promise, treating the doctors and nurses who participated and observed the surgery to dinner, and the location was left up to their choice. Several graduate students clamored to eat seafood. Chapter 1014 - 1014 842 European Spinal Surgery Annual ?Chapter 1014: Chapter 842: European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting_2 Chapter 1014: Chapter 842: European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting_2 But Director Fang¡¯s graduate student was a quick thinker. Seeing that there were quite a number of people in the team, he hurriedly suggested, ¡°Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish. Let¡¯s just go to Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish. It¡¯s close by, the environment is nice, and the dishes are delicious too.¡± With just those few words, the graduate student Xiao Chen had fixed the location for his mentor, then proceeded to call to reserve a private room. Although they chose to dine at Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish, they still set up several tables, and the expense was not small. Director Fang was in a good mood today and didn¡¯t mind spending the money; he had inadvertently found a passageway through the academic hierarchy¡ªthat was to remain forever the second-in-command at the Surgical Research Institute. In the midst of exchanging toasts with apple cider vinegar, Director Fang finalized a strategic partnership with the Surgical Research Institute. In this day and age, having a larger vision and setting sights higher were essential to make a significant impact¡ªchoice was more important than effort. The so-called strategic partnership was actually about the Surgical Research Institute providing technical support to the General Surgery Department. Director Fang had clearly positioned himself to wholeheartedly accept the support from Yang Ping. Although they were in the same hospital, different departments had autonomy. If a department director was not open to receiving help, Yang Ping could not intervene forcibly. Lik Yunshan, who had formally confirmed the support relationship and was willing to accept the help, Yang Ping would naturally give his all to help them enhance their skills. After dinner, Director Shi drove home by himself; Director Fang, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang followed Yang Ping to the ICU to check on the patient. For such a major surgery, Yang Ping felt more at ease checking in a couple more times. The results of the postoperative blood tests carried out by the on-duty doctor had already come out. There was mild anemia preoperatively, which had not obviously worsened, indicating that there was very little bleeding during the surgery. The levels of ALT and bilirubin were relatively high, which had also been present before the surgery. Pancreatic cancer had caused an obstruction in the bile duct system, leading to an increase in bilirubin in the blood; the tumor had invaded the liver, causing an increase in transaminase levels. The postoperative obstruction of the bile duct had been relieved, so there was an immediately noticeable effect; bilirubin levels were already somewhat lower than before the surgery, while transaminase levels were still about the same, as recovery of transaminase levels is not immediate even after liver resection. It requires the remaining liver to fully adapt before it can return to normal. The liver is an organ with a strong regenerative capacity. After part of it is removed, the remaining section can regenerate to grow to approximately the normal size and regain normal function. This is why liver transplants can be performed with live donors; a donor needs only to give a part of their liver to the recipient. The donor survives with the remaining part of the liver, and the recipient survives with the donated part. Both sections of the liver can continue growing through regenerative capacity, likely reaching the normal size. The kidney can also undergo live transplantation because humans have two kidneys but only need one to survive. Heart transplantation cannot be performed with live donors, as removal of the heart is incompatible with life; thus, hearts can only be donated by the deceased. After part of the stomach is removed, the remaining part can slowly expand to regain its original size. Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s kidney function showed no abnormalities; the function of the single kidney was good, and overall, the functions of the several organs involved in the surgical design were stable, without any significant fluctuations. The vital signs were also normal, and the blood oxygen saturation levels were very good. ¡°Professor Yang, is there anything we need to pay attention to tonight?¡± The on-duty doctor asked reverently. Yang Ping personally conducted the auscultation of the heart and lungs, felt the pulsation of the radial artery and the temperature of the limbs, and observed the amount and color of the urine output from the urine bag. He instructed the on-duty doctor to call him directly if anything arose. A doctor¡¯s phone is on 24/7, and being readily available to take calls is a basic skill for a doctor. The postoperative observation of this patient was very complex. In addition to monitoring the function of these organs, it was necessary to dynamically observe blood pressure and hemoglobin concentration. With so many blood vessels anastomosed in the abdominal cavity and the inferior vena cava having undergone an artificial blood vessel transplantation, any rupture of a blood vessel could cause massive internal bleeding, which could be life-threatening. ¡°How much blood did we prepare?¡± Yang Ping asked, not allowing any detail to be overlooked. The duty doctor thought for a moment, ¡°It¡¯s still the blood prepared before surgery; this patient had quite a lot prepared, six units of suspended red blood cells, and 1200 milliliters of plasma.¡± Yang Ping felt much more relieved hearing this number. Should there be major bleeding in the abdominal cavity, they would need immediate blood transfusion to buy time for the rescue surgery. All this blood was prepared before surgery and was not used during the operation. Now it¡¯s reserved for post-operation use. Sometimes the Blood Transfusion Department might cancel the reservation if it wasn¡¯t used during surgery, so it was better for Yang Ping to confirm. ¡°Professor Yang, with your patient, the Blood Transfusion Department will definitely comply. Normally, we have to beg and plead to get blood,¡± the duty doctor said enviously. Because this patient had blood prepared beforehand, the Blood Transfusion Department even took the initiative to call and say they would keep it for a few more days. Normally, they¡¯re never this proactive. In fact, the Blood Transfusion Department often catches flak from both ends. When blood resources are tight, various departments need blood, and they can¡¯t conjure blood; they can only manage with the resources available. Yang Ping glanced around the ward, and the duty doctor said, ¡°The artificial liver, bedside dialysis machine, and ECMO are all ready, don¡¯t worry! Our director personally made sure of it.¡± In critical moments, it¡¯s these high-tech devices that save lives. Many of modern medicine¡¯s essential life-saving devices are in the ICU, and you never see these in regular wards. After examining the patient, Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Director Fang sat in the ICU for a while, mainly to sit down, calm down, and think again if anything was overlooked. By the time he got home, it was already past eleven at night. Xiao Su and Mrs. Su hadn¡¯t gone to bed yet. Xiao Su was reading in the study, and Mrs. Su was talking on the phone with Professor Su in the living room. Professor Su was soon going to attend the European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting. Such academic conferences in North America and Europe generally have a large scale, equivalent to global academic meetings, with spinal surgeons from around the world attending. In recent years, as China¡¯s medical technology has advanced, Chinese doctors have increasingly appeared at these international conferences. For instance, Professor Su beat Japan to become the chair of the Asia-Pacific Orthopedics Association, marking an increase in our academic influence internationally. Yang Ping came back, and Xiao Su stopped reading. Besides reading academic books, she had also started reading various parenting books, proactively learning theoretical knowledge ahead of time. Mrs. Su had prepared some late-night snacks for Yang Ping. Because he had a large appetite after a hard day of surgery, Mrs. Su always worried that her son-in-law might not eat enough, so she prepared extra meals. Mrs. Su¡¯s cooking skills were excellent; she made various exquisite Southern-style dishes and snacks. Professor Su and Mrs. Su were very fond of their son-in-law, treating him exactly like their own son. So when a multinational company mercilessly attacked Yang Ping¡¯s new equipment, it enraged Professor Su, who was usually gentle and refined. Using his influence, Professor Su quickly organised a counterattack, helping Ruixing Company defeat the multinational company. The counterattack was on a grand scale; almost all the hospitals in China removed the multinational company¡¯s equipment, showcasing immense power. Yang Ping nodded and smiled at his mother-in-law who was on the phone, then started eating the late-night snacks while Xiao Su sat by his side. ¡°Xiao Yang just got off work. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m following him. I¡¯ll take care of my health. There¡¯s late-night snacks, they are hot, fresh, and today¡¯s surgery was in General Surgery; an ex-vivo resection + autologous transplantation of tumors in eight organs, I heard it¡¯s another world first, but I don¡¯t know the details. You talk to Xiao Yang.¡± Mrs. Su continued talking to Professor Su, then handed the phone to Yang Ping, ¡°Here, talk to your dad.¡± Since they were all surgeons, they naturally had a lot to talk about. Yang Ping talked with Professor Su for a long time, and Professor Su usually communicated with Yang Ping just like friends, which made Yang Ping feel very comfortable. Professor Su was going to Europe to attend the Spine Conference, but Yang Ping was not going this time; he did not have time to attend these conferences now. Originally, Yang Ping wanted to greet August and ask him to take good care of his father-in-law during the conference, but on second thought, he decided it was better not to, as it might seem unnecessary. Chapter 1015 - 1015 843 The Excellent Weight Loss ?Chapter 1015: Chapter 843 The Excellent Weight Loss Spokesperson Chapter 1015: Chapter 843 The Excellent Weight Loss Spokesperson The next morning, Yang Ping hurried to the ICU to make his rounds. Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s vital signs were very stable, and her blood pressure had risen slightly from last night¡¯s. Without any transfusions, her hemoglobin had also seen a slight increase, indicating no apparent internal bleeding. Various biochemical indicators were also good. Her blood sugar was a bit lower than last night¡¯s results but still much higher, indicating that the remaining pancreas was not compensating quickly enough. The transaminases had decreased a bit, and the bilirubin had dropped significantly, with no major changes in the other indicators. An insulin pump had been set up for Nie Shun¡¯e by the ICU doctors, temporarily using insulin to lower her blood sugar. The pancreas was still functioning, but compensation needed time, so the use of the insulin pump had to be gradually reduced. Otherwise, it would suppress the remaining pancreatic function and ultimately destroy the secretory function of the remaining pancreatic cells. Actually, what Yang Ping was most concerned about wasn¡¯t the quality of his surgery; that was certainly no problem, as it was within his control. His biggest worry was whether the remaining liver and pancreas could compensate enough to meet the physiological needs of the body, because no one could make an accurate prediction of this, which inherently involved uncontrollable factors. Based on the changes in blood test indicators, there didn¡¯t seem to be any major issues. However, considering the tumor¡¯s ex-vivo resection involving eight organs and autotransplantation of five organs, the scale of the surgery was vast and a significant shock to the body, so it was better for her to stay in the ICU a few more days. Surgery in itself is a shock to the body, and the bigger the surgery, the greater the shock. For example, in trauma surgery, there is the concept of a secondary hit: the injury is the first hit, and the surgery is the second hit to the body. Therefore, for severe polytrauma, in order to reduce the destructiveness of the secondary hit, trauma surgery has proposed the concept of staged treatment. For Yang Ping¡¯s patients, whether it¡¯s the general ICU, trauma ICU, or cardiovascular ICU, they are all very welcome, because there is not only a lot to learn but also good material for academic papers. For doctors to advance their professional titles, publishing papers is a must, and many doctors worry about this, giving rise to the ¡°paper industry¡± and an even larger ¡°title industry,¡± making many people wealthy and prosperous. The name of the Surgical Research Institute isn¡¯t for nothing; it¡¯s constantly studying surgical theory, surgical methods, and new instruments, continually replacing the old with the new, creating excellent conditions for writing papers. In fact, at the Surgical Research Institute, papers are just a byproduct. Because Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang followed Yang Ping, they were co-authors on several of the 13 CNS papers, and they also wrote many top journal papers themselves, so they were quickly able to advance their professional titles. The application for associate senior had already passed, and they were just waiting for their certificates. Zhang Lin and Little Five would have no trouble being promoted to attending doctors. After all, with the team¡¯s many research resources, they were in an advantageous position, and just a few high-impact papers would be enough for promotion, let alone having a solid monograph like Surgical Hook Science. Professional titles, unless one is a prodigy who moves laterally, are something the average person can¡¯t bypass. One must go with the flow; otherwise, they would be at a disadvantage. Therefore, it¡¯s best to adapt to things you can¡¯t change, because that¡¯s the only choice. Dr. Jin from Orthopedics was straightforward and honest about everything. It took him a long time to reluctantly put together a paper. Now that he had finally gathered enough papers, during the review for an Associate Senior Doctor, he lacked the basic respect for the relevant experts, so he remained an attending doctor up to now. ¡°Professor Yang, is it okay if we write a paper about this patient?¡± asked Dr. Meng from the ICU. In fact, ICU papers and surgical papers do not overlap; ICU mainly discusses aspects like postoperative patient monitoring, while surgery focuses on the treatment approach, so there¡¯s no crossing over. ¡°No problem, feel free to write,¡± Yang Ping said. Dr. Meng was very pleased to have Yang Ping¡¯s permission, as this was rare material. After checking on Nie Shun¡¯e, Yang Ping left the ICU. Outside in the family waiting room, he took a moment to discuss the patient¡¯s condition with her husband, who was much reassured to hear that his wife was stable. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. On the way back from the ICU, Yang Ping encountered Dr. Jin, who pulled Yang Ping aside to talk in a corner. ¡°Professor Yang, do you still need people on your team?¡± Dr. Jin asked directly, feeling that at over forty, he was too old to have brought it up with Yang Ping before. Dr. Jin was a person of great character and skill, just too honest for society, so honest that his social circle was limited to the hospital. Most of his classmates were already associate chief physicians, some were chief physicians, and many had become department directors. He was still an attending physician; in terms of skill, he was superior to most chief physicians. For a simple foreign body removal surgery, he could study all the related X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs in Sanbo Hospital, then build geometric models and use them in combination with the imaging to precisely locate the foreign body. To people like him, Yang Ping had great admiration. Since Dr. Jin was willing to come, Yang Ping was also willing to accept him. The Surgical Research Institute was understaffed, but Yang Ping had always followed the principle of preferring to have a vacancy than to make a wrong hire, so recruitment was always cautious. The Surgical Research Institute was busy with varied tasks, and it was uncertain whether Dr. Jin would like or adapt well to them. Over in Orthopedics, Department Director Han had already recommended Wen Zhong, who specialized in the spine and was also a good candidate. Dr. Jin specialized in trauma orthopedics. The Surgical Research Institute wasn¡¯t actually suited for ordinary people because of its varied tasks, which could easily scatter one¡¯s focus. However, for those with strong learning abilities, it wasn¡¯t a matter of being distracted but of having a broad exposure, allowing integration and extension across different specialties. Chapter 1016 - 1016 843 The Excellent Weight Loss ?Chapter 1016: Chapter 843 The Excellent Weight Loss Spokesperson_2 Chapter 1016: Chapter 843 The Excellent Weight Loss Spokesperson_2 ¡°Staff is short, not sure if you¡¯ll adapt?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t beat around the bush. ¡°When have I ever been unable to adapt? If you don¡¯t mind that I¡¯m an old attending physician, let me go over there and help out.¡± ¡°No problem.¡± Dr. Jin had given up any hope for a promotion in professional titles, although he did have connections. His mentor and classmates were his most significant connections, but he never reached out to them, always disdaining such maneuvers. Even though a single word from him would have resolved the issue, he chose not to speak up and buried himself in clinical practice instead. There were also colleagues who had introduced Dr. Jin to the owners of intermediary companies, but Dr. Jin remained indifferent, really not wanting to go that route. After chatting with Dr. Jin for a while and returning to the department, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had already gone to perform surgery. The brothers in the department had recently created a website for the Surgical Research Institute, featuring a forum mainly for patients with difficult cases to seek medical advice, broadcasting the Institute¡¯s strength to the entire world through the internet. The forum on the website had just opened and there weren¡¯t many people posting yet. After sitting for a bit, Director Fang, a strategic partner, called: ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯m consulting in the Department of Gastroenterology with a patient with pseudo-intestinal obstruction, but we can¡¯t find the cause. Could you help take a look?¡± Director Fang was a bundle of nerves now, turning to the Surgical Research Institute and Yang Ping whenever something was unclear, intent on moving from poverty to modest wealth. Yang Ping checked the time; going to the Operating Room later was fine. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang would call him if they ran into trouble anyway. It might be worth it to see what was going on. Old Fang did have some insight after all. Nie Shun¡¯e was his discovery. If not for his referral, she¡¯d still be seeking medical care everywhere. When Yang Ping left the Surgical Research Institute for the medical building, he saw many signs at the entrance and thought to laugh. With so many signs, the presence was indeed overwhelming, but somehow, the more he looked, the more he felt like laughing. Upon arriving at the Department of Gastroenterology, Director Fang hadn¡¯t left yet; he was chatting with Dr. Chen Feiyu in the office. Seeing Yang Ping, Director Fang immediately perked up: ¡°Professor Yang, come take a look, this case is quite interesting.¡± The chair was already prepared and Dr. Chen motioned for Yang Ping to sit down. Dr. Chen and Yang Ping were familiar with each other; for the Emergency Department¡¯s ¡°auto-brewery syndrome¡± patient, after Yang Ping¡¯s diagnosis, it was Dr. Chen who treated with fecal microbiota transplantation. Out of gratitude to Yang Ping for providing such a rare case, Dr. Chen returned the favor, allocating several fecal donation spots to the Surgical Research Institute. To this day, some graduate students enjoy this benefit, easily earning several thousand yuan in subsidies each month. Yang Ping sat down on the chair beside him, and Dr. Chen began describing the illness: ¡°Female, 25 years old, recurrent abdominal distention, abdominal pain, and diarrhea for 7 years, exacerbated for 3 months. Now, at least three times a day, sometimes seven or eight times. Diagnosed with pseudo-intestinal obstruction in several hospitals, symptomatic treatment relieves the abdominal distention and pain quite a bit, but the diarrhea remains unchanged, not improved at all. Over time, especially these past three months, the symptoms have been getting worse, particularly these last few days¡ªshe¡¯s practically bedridden. Right now, she can¡¯t even drink a sip of water without her stomach swelling painfully. After coming in, we gave her an enema, which eased her condition a bit, but as soon as she eats, it happens again. Currently, she can only rely on parenteral nutrition.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve done a colonoscopy, right?¡± Yang Ping asked. Dr. Chen smiled and nodded: ¡°Six colonoscopies, all without finding any abnormalities. We also did a colonoscopy in our outpatient department and didn¡¯t find anything.¡± Yang Ping flipped through the patient¡¯s case. A 25-year-old unmarried girl, nothing special in her medical history. After symptoms appeared, her food intake sharply decreased, especially in the past three months. Malnourishment led to a significant weight drop, over twenty pounds in three months. With a height of 1.65 meters, she now weighed only sixty pounds. Previous hospital diagnoses were all pseudo-intestinal obstruction. Intestinal obstruction means the intestinal tract, as a transport conduit, is not flowing smoothly. Medically, it refers to various causes leading to an inability of intestinal content to move and pass through the intestines. It is divided into mechanical, dynamic, and vascular types. Mechanical intestinal obstruction occurs when there are physical narrowing or blockages in the intestines. Dynamic intestinal obstruction is when there is no physical narrowing or blockages, but the motility needed to move food or residue through the intestines is insufficient or absent. The reason intestinal content can smoothly pass through the intestines is the force of peristalsis pushing it along, creating a compressive force from back to front that squeezes it out step by step. Then there is vascular intestinal obstruction, where the blood supply to the intestines is compromised, weakening or halting peristalsis. Every organ requires blood supply, and ischemia can lead to organ failure, similar to a car not being able to run without fuel. Pseudo-intestinal obstruction implies that the obstruction is not real, not fitting any of the three conditions mentioned¡ªno mechanical barrier, no dynamic impediment, and no vascular issues¡ªbut symptoms of intestinal obstruction are present. Having symptoms without a corresponding cause is the common trait in medical conditions named ¡°pseudo¡±. Complete blood count, biochemistry, liver and kidney function, and various tumor markers were all examined. Upon admission, there was electrolyte imbalance, such as hypokalemia, which has since been corrected, likely caused by inadequate food intake, diarrhea, and pseudo-intestinal obstruction. Chapter 1017 - 1017 843 The Excellent Weight Loss ?Chapter 1017: Chapter 843 The Excellent Weight Loss Spokesperson_3 Chapter 1017: Chapter 843 The Excellent Weight Loss Spokesperson_3 Hypokalemia itself can cause a reduction in muscle contraction strength, leading to intestinal paralysis, or insufficient peristaltic movement of the intestines, thus causing an intestinal obstruction, which belongs to a type of dynamic intestinal obstruction. There¡¯s a condition called periodic hypokalemic paralysis, which can also cause muscle weakness, typically more pronounced in the limbs, with the lower limbs more affected than the upper ones, and the symptoms improve after potassium supplementation. This patient doesn¡¯t show muscle weakness in the limbs, and after supplementing with potassium, they have been normal for several days now, with no alleviation of symptoms; Dr. Chen has ruled out this diagnosis. Surgeons, as compared to internal doctors, have a weaker point in diagnostics; internal doctors are more adept at diagnosis. In general, this situation could also be caused by intestinal adhesion, but Dr. Chen is currently baffled, as the patient has never had surgery before and has never had diseases like digestive system tuberculosis or peritonitis, which makes the possibility of intestinal adhesion exceedingly small. This case is indeed a bit strange, persistent abdominal distention and abdominal pain, pseudo-intestinal obstruction, Yang Ping recalls these keywords in his mind. ¡°During our outpatient colonoscopy, we took multiple samples of the intestinal mucosa for pathological examination and found no abnormalities. It¡¯s really odd.¡± Dr. Chen truly can¡¯t think of any other disease that would behave like this; he had considered some rare diseases, but ruled each one out. ¡°We have even conducted bacterial group analyses as part of our research, with our laboratory currently focusing on intestinal bacteria, so we pay special attention to this area.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s first take a look at the patient.¡± Yang Ping couldn¡¯t find any clues from the case history. ¡°What does the patient do for work?¡± Yang Ping asked further. Dr. Chen replied, ¡°Live-streaming sales.¡± It seems to be quite popular now. Yang Ping heard that Qin Xiaowei, who used to be a bare-handed rock climber, is now into live-streaming sales, selling products related to outdoor sports and is very successful, making a good deal of money. ¡°What product does she sell?¡± Yang Ping asked in detail. ¡°Weight loss products!¡± ¡°Weight loss products?¡± ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be related to this. She said she doesn¡¯t touch the product at all, let alone consume it. Moreover, she only got into the live-streaming sales of weight loss products in recent months. This girl is quite clever; she realized she was very thin, especially since she had lost weight rapidly in recent months, so she decided to use her condition to promote weight loss products. It just so happened that a boss noticed this trait in her and offered her the job to do live sales. She¡¯s probably articulate and affable, and with her ¡®bone sensation¡¯ look, her performance is very good,¡± Dr. Chen explained. The physician in charge immediately added, ¡°She said that after discovering this unique condition, she used her thinness to her advantage because she has a good appearance. While seeking medical attention, she interviewed with some weight loss product companies. However, she was spotted by a boss of one such company, who immediately decided to train her to become a host to sell their products.¡± ¡°They didn¡¯t even need to use special effects; they used her as the model directly, letting everyone see what ¡®bone sensation¡¯ looks like on camera.¡± ¡°It was also a stroke of luck. Originally, the boss had hired a few girls to demonstrate the weight loss process, aiming for a ¡®bone sensation¡¯ modeling effect. To achieve this, the boss had a fitness trainer train these girls and strictly limited their daily food intake, but the results were still unsatisfactory. In a panic that his boasts would fall through, the boss gave the girls laxatives, which maybe worked too well because one of them ended up dehydrated and had to be rescued in the hospital, costing the boss a lot of money.¡± ¡°Scared by the incident, the boss dared not do that again and could only look for an already suitable model.¡± ¡°After the shift to her, she didn¡¯t have to do anything, and she incredibly lost about 66 pounds in three months, instantly making the boss¡¯s products a hit. However, seeing her lose weight so rapidly, the boss was afraid something might go wrong and advised her to take some time off to recuperate.¡± ¡°In fact, she couldn¡¯t stand it anymore herself and wanted to see a doctor properly.¡± ¡°Now, even as she¡¯s hospitalized, there¡¯s a weight loss product boss looking to collaborate with her.¡± After the physician in charge finished speaking, Dr. Chen led the way: ¡°Let¡¯s go see the patient together.¡± Chapter 1018 - 1018 844 Switch Departments Quickly ?Chapter 1018: Chapter 844: Switch Departments Quickly! Chapter 1018: Chapter 844: Switch Departments Quickly! Dr. Chen led Yang Ping and Director Fang to the ward, where a 25-year-old young woman lay. She had a rather pleasant appearance but was extremely thin, especially around the collarbone area which had a downright skeletal feel¡ª the epitome of ¡°bony.¡± Her physique would make for a perfect live advertisement for selling weight loss products. This manufacturer truly had a knack for scouting talent, even managing to have this patient participate in live-streaming sales. The girl lay in bed with a large bag of nutrient solution hanging on the IV pole; she currently relied on parenteral nutrition to sustain life. Parenteral nutrition refers to the intake of nutrition not through the gastrointestinal tract but by direct infusion of nutrient solutions into the bloodstream for the body to use. By definition, enteral nutrition means that no matter the method, whether one eats on their own or receives nutrients through a nasal feeding tube into the stomach, the nutrients must pass through the intestinal tract and be absorbed there. Now the girl¡¯s intestinal tract had almost completely lost its motility function. No matter what was introduced, it would cause accumulation in the intestines; nutrients could not be absorbed, and waste could not be expelled from the body. Not to mention eating, even drinking a sip of water would cause abdominal distention and pain, so it was impossible to deliver anything further into her intestines. The only option was to supply nutrients to her body through parenteral nutrition, but it wasn¡¯t feasible for her to be connected to a nutrient bag 24 hours a day for the rest of her life. After a brief introduction by the physician in charge, Yang Ping performed some simple abdominal examinations on her. There was a clear accumulation of gas within the abdominal intestines, causing the abdomen to balloon out like a balloon. It felt very much like pressing on a balloon, and the bowel sounds were also absent upon auscultation. Back in the ward, the physician in charge said that the girl was quite pitiful. She had been sick for seven or eight years but had been unable to afford treatment due to her parents¡¯ death in a car accident. Also, the symptoms were not as severe back then; intermittent visits to the hospital for enemas managed the condition. However, her illness had worsened significantly in recent months, to the extent that she couldn¡¯t even drink water for the past two weeks. ¡°Is there a video of the colonoscopy?¡± Musing, Yang Ping¡¯s mind flickered through various case scenarios. Combining her medical history and physical examination, he began to grasp a thread of a clue. A mind map of diagnostic reasoning started to unfold in his mind. ¡°The endoscopy room will definitely have a video archive. I¡¯ll have someone copy it,¡± said Dr. Chen, sensing a breakthrough in Yang Ping¡¯s expression, and promptly sent a standardized training student to retrieve the video from the endoscopic room. Although Yang Ping was a surgeon, he had made astonishing contributions during several hospital-wide case discussions, diagnosing a few challenging cases. Therefore, even Dr. Chen, who usually scorned surgeons, had altered his opinion about them. Moreover, who was Yang Ping? Among the young doctors at Sanbo Hospital, he was secretly nicknamed ¡°Yang God¡± behind closed doors. Previously, in Dr. Chen¡¯s eyes, surgeons were merely craftsmen who performed surgery. ¡°Has a tissue section of the small intestine mucosa been taken for pathological examination?¡± Yang Ping inquired, and Dr. Chen nodded, affirming that not only had mucosal sections been taken but specimens had been collected from several different areas as well. Yang Ping then reviewed the report of the pathological diagnosis. The pathology slice had not been examined by Wen Ruzheng, which slightly disappointed Yang Ping, as the pathologist from the Pathology Department at Sanbo was indeed very skilled. Especially after ¡°running bare¡± once, Wen¡¯s skills had significantly improved. ¡°Without Wen Ruzheng, Sanbo¡¯s Pathology Department would regress three years.¡± That statement from Wen Ruzheng, who indeed had the expertise, was not an empty boast. His department director must be understanding; otherwise, such an arrogant fellow would have long been dismissed¡ª ¡°regress three years,¡± as if the director was just idling around, right? Unknowingly, a crowd of doctors had gathered around Yang Ping. Unlike surgery, where surgeons spend most of their time in the operating room, rendering them rarely seen in the ward, the surgery ward would be devoid of people except for the duty doctors sauntering with their interns. Internists didn¡¯t perform surgery and, aside from the high-ranking doctors who ran outpatient clinics periodically, most of them were piled up in the ward. Therefore, the doctor¡¯s office was usually cramped, especially with young doctors busy writing medical records, amid a clatter of keyboard typing. This challenging case piqued everyone¡¯s interest, and hearing that ¡°Yang God¡± had become involved, they quickly gathered around. ¡°Don¡¯t you all have work to do? Have you finished your cases, gathering around to watch the buzz?¡± Dr. Chen chided. The crowd scattered like birds and beasts, but when Dr. Chen lowered his head to converse with Yang Ping, they slowly started gathering again in twos and threes, like dead pigs not afraid of scalding water¡ª Yang God¡¯s allure was still very strong. The standardized training student returned from the endoscopic room with the copied video. Yang Ping wanted to examine the appearance of the intestinal mucosa through the video. Despite the reports indicating no problems, viewing the original footage was preferable. The same went for viewing pathology slices; for unusual pathologies, Yang Ping preferred to examine the slices himself. Pathology slices may be standardized, but in the end, the interpretation relies on human judgment. There¡¯s a natural disparity in expertise levels. In very rare instances, what is diagnosed as a malignant tumor in one hospital may not be considered such in another, causing unnecessary alarm for the patient. After watching the colonoscopy video, Yang Ping decided that he would personally review the pathology slice. The graduate student had already played the video. Yang Ping scrutinized it meticulously, not sparing any detail and occasionally pausing to zoom in and examine closely. After reviewing the video, Yang Ping noticed a slight atrophy of the villi in the small intestine. If not observed carefully, this minor atrophy would be undetectable¡ªor perhaps a typical doctor might not consider such slight atrophy as significant. In fact, for complex diseases, obtaining a diagnosis involves reverse logical reasoning for doctors, much like a police detective¡¯s thought process in solving a case. Doctors start from a patient¡¯s clinical symptoms and deduce the diagnosis, so reasoning also requires clues. Chapter 1019 - 1019 844 Hurry and Transfer Departments _2 ?Chapter 1019: Chapter 844 Hurry and Transfer Departments! _2 Chapter 1019: Chapter 844 Hurry and Transfer Departments! _2 Yang Ping thought he had grasped a clue, and Dr. Chen asked, ¡°Have you found something?¡± Yang Ping pointed to a clear, magnified shot on the video and said, ¡°Look, there¡¯s slight atrophy of the intestinal villi. Without any other cause, I suspect it¡¯s autoimmune enteritis affecting the smooth muscle of the intestines, but I¡¯m not sure at this point. Shall we take a look at the pathology slides?¡± Autoimmune enteritis affecting smooth muscle¡ªDr. Chen hadn¡¯t considered this condition, as all tests hadn¡¯t shown any significant abnormalities. After Yang Ping¡¯s suggestion, Dr. Chen went back to examine the colonoscopy video, indeed noticing mild atrophy of the villi in the small intestine. However, this wasn¡¯t particularly unusual or specific. The patient frequently experienced diarrhea and malabsorption of nutrients in the small intestine, indicating degeneration in its absorptive function, so it was normal for the villi to degenerate too, giving no specific indication. ¡°When there are no leads, even the weakest link must be magnified,¡± said Yang Ping. Usually, such minor villous atrophy in the small intestine would be disregarded, but now, in the absence of other leads, this clue had to be given significance and its value amplified. After watching the video, Yang Ping suggested they go to examine the pathology slides, and Director Fang and Dr. Chen followed along. Upon arriving at the Pathology Department, they happened to meet Director Guan. He had been sitting and reviewing pathology slides for too long and took the opportunity to rest, doing neck exercises in the corner. After Yang Ping explained their purpose, Director Guan said, ¡°For this case, you need to find Wen Ruzheng. He¡¯s even better at this than I am.¡± Director Guan then called for Wen Ruzheng, and a response came from the resting room. ¡°Right here, come on in.¡± Director Guan valued Wen Ruzheng highly, showered him with care, and was interested in grooming him to take over as director. The Pathology Department was not the most popular and was short of talent, so they cherished having a young person so dedicated to the specialty. Yang Ping pushed the door open to see Dr. Wen lifting dumbbells to work on his biceps, which explained the muscle he sported when running shirtless. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Seeing Yang Ping enter, Wen Ruzheng quickly set down the dumbbells. ¡°You seem to have a relaxing job if you have time to work out,¡± Yang Ping, alongside Dr. Chen and Director Fang, each found a seat. Wen Ruzheng replied, ¡°That¡¯s essential. If I have to run shirtless again, I might as well show off a fit physique. What brings Professor Yang to our remote corner today for an inspection?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got some work for you. There¡¯s a pathology slice from a patient that might have a slight issue. We¡¯ve come down to take a look. Dr. Wen, could you help us examine it?¡± Yang Ping explained the reason for their visit. Examining pathology slides was Wen Ruzheng¡¯s favorite thing. Excitement flashed in his eyes before turning into skepticism: ¡°It¡¯s not another bet, is it?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been working out well lately, so what are you afraid of? Now¡¯s your chance to show off the results of your recent training,¡± Yang Ping teased, mimicking the posture of someone making a bet. Wen Ruzheng quickly waved his hands dismissively: ¡°I¡¯m not quite there yet with my physique, Professor Yang. Maybe give me a little more time?¡± Dr. Chen and Director Fang laughed on the side, not expecting to see Wen Ruzheng hesitate. Normally, he was quite confident¡ªespecially in matters related to his specialty. It was said that at a national pathology academic conference, he, as an unknown young doctor, directly argued with a big shot, causing quite a scene and leaving the big shot embarrassed. ¡°Alright then, just let me know when you¡¯re ready. I¡¯ve been wanting to show off my muscles too, so you¡¯ve got to give me a chance,¡± Yang Ping said in a way that left Wen Ruzheng without a retort. ¡°Which patient?¡± Wen Ruzheng quickly got to the point. Dr. Chen immediately passed a slip of paper with the patient¡¯s name, hospital number, department, and bed number. Wen Ruzheng put on a white gown and casually asked an intern to fetch the pathology slides. The intern returned with a stack of slides, as the patient had undergone multiple sampling points in the intestinal tract with each sampling represented by a slide, resulting in a pile of pathology slides. ¡°Professor Yang, how about this¡ªwe each look at the slides separately, and afterwards, we write down our observations and diagnosis on paper. Then we compare them. Let¡¯s be clear, this isn¡¯t a bet, it¡¯s purely an academic exchange,¡± Wen Ruzheng suggested, taking a seat at the microscope and gesturing for Yang Ping to sit down too. Yang Ping chose a spot a few seats away, and they took turns looking at the slides, with the intern exchanging the slides in between. After both had finished examining, they wrote their microscopic findings and diagnoses on a piece of paper. Wen Ruzheng¡¯s face wore a faint smile, ¡°Damn, I should have bet with Professor Yang on this tissue section; with its difficulty, there are few people in the country who could figure it out. Professor Yang would definitely slip up since he¡¯s not a pathology specialist.¡± Back when he was pursuing his doctorate, some diseases had few pathology slices, and a single hospital didn¡¯t have enough to accumulate, so to increase the number of cases he reviewed, Wen would often travel everywhere. To understand the pathology slices of some special diseases, Dr. Wen went through various connections and traveled all over the country, visiting places like Xiehe and Huaxi Hospitals, becoming brothers in arms with the doctors in those pathology departments, all for the sake of examining more slices. For the pathology of this kind of disease, Wen had indeed spent a lot of effort, eventually surpassing even his mentor. ¡°So, any findings? It¡¯s just an ordinary small intestine mucosal slice, nothing special, right?¡± Wen said with a sly smile on his face. Yang Ping didn¡¯t speak and simply exchanged his written notes with Wen. ¡°Intestinal villi blunted and atrophied; increased single nuclear cells in the mucosa¡¯s own layer; increased lymphocytes in the deep crypt epithelium; decreased intraepithelial lymphocytes; increased apoptotic bodies in the crypt epithelium. Diagnosis: Consider autoimmune enteric leiomyositis, please correlate with clinical findings.¡± Good lord, he had figured it out; Wen was quite a character. Reading Yang Ping¡¯s report, which was nearly identical to his own and even more detailed, Wen cursed silently. He suddenly felt a chill down his spine, thankful that he hadn¡¯t taken a bet; otherwise, he would face the dreaded consequence of running naked. How does a surgeon have such a deep understanding of pathology? This defies all logic. Bringing along such a special pathology slice for examination, was this considered a challenge? Even if it were a challenge, today, I, Wen Ruzheng, managed a draw with you. Wen held his head high with pride, thinking, as long as I, Wen Ruzheng, am here, no one else should even think about challenging the pathology department. ¡°Pathological features are quite typical; it looks like there¡¯s no doubt about the diagnosis, it should be autoimmune enteric leiomyositis,¡± said Yang Ping. Wen nodded, aware that few pathologists could recognize the pathological manifestations of autoimmune enteric leiomyositis. ¡°Treatment?¡± Dr. Chen understood that if it were this disease, at its current stage, any conservative treatment would be futile. Conservative treatment could only provide symptomatic relief, relying on parenteral nutrition to sustain life. ¡°Modified multi-organ cluster transplantation within the abdominal cavity!¡± Yang Ping believed this was the only treatment method under the current medical conditions; otherwise, the patient would only be left lying in bed, depending on parenteral nutrition to sustain life. Modified abdominal organ cluster transplantation¡ªexcluding the liver, it involved the transplantation of a cluster of abdominal organs including the stomach, pancreas, duodenum, and small intestines, compared to a standalone small intestine transplantation. As it required the transplantation of several major digestive system organs, the impact on the patient¡¯s systemic pathology and physiology was immense, posing a great challenge to both the surgery and anesthesia team, recognized as the pinnacle and challenge of digestive surgery. Hearing about this surgical method, Dr. Chen from the Department of Gastroenterology fell silent. Although he was an internal doctor, he was aware of this surgery¡¯s difficulty. But Director Fang thought, if a simultaneous autologous transplantation of five organs including the liver was easily manageable, then what¡¯s the big deal with an allogeneic transplantation of these few organs? ¡°Director Chen, transfer to our General Surgery Department, immediately! We¡¯ll arrange the surgery,¡± said Director Fang on the spot. This Old Fang indeed was a real money-maker; he had just completed an eight-organ ex-vivo resection plus a five-organ autotransplant for pancreatic cancer, and now he stumbled upon such an extraordinary case. How excited Director Fang was, not even waiting for Director Chen to speak up; he started calling the doctors and nurses in his department to command and arrange the transfer of beds. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Director Chen, transfer now, immediately. Since the diagnosis is clear and the treatment plan is definite, requiring surgery, having the patient remain in your Department of Gastroenterology is like a ticking time bomb, prone to accidents. Lives are at stake, hurry up and make the transfer.¡± Director Fang was pulling Dr. Chen along. Chapter 1020 - 1020 845 Professor Y ?Chapter 1020: Chapter 845 Professor Y Chapter 1020: Chapter 845 Professor Y Under the urging of Director Fang, the Department of Gastroenterology quickly arranged a transfer surgery for this girl named Pan Doudou, and Dr. Chen truly admired Director Fang¡¯s righteousness. Transferring patients between departments sometimes involves disputes, especially if it concerns a patient who is troublesome without gratitude, likely to cause disputes, or exceeds medical insurance coverage. The accepting department would certainly hesitate, and whether the transfer could proceed would depend on the Department Director¡¯s approval. If the Department Director was easy to speak with, it was fine, but if not, sometimes the Medical Services Office needed to step in to coordinate for a smooth transfer. After the patient was transferred, Director Fang repeatedly requested Yang Ping to ensure that he would partake in the surgery when the time came. This surgery could not just be performed anytime; it had to wait for a suitable donor, as it involved allogeneic transplantation, removing parts of the patient¡¯s own stomach, pancreas, and small intestine, and then transplanting someone else¡¯s organs to fill the deficit. Thus, the surgery couldn¡¯t be rushed; if a suitable donor wasn¡¯t promptly found, the surgery couldn¡¯t proceed. Yang Ping just found time to summarize the ex-vivo tumor resection, a technique that greatly aids in the removal of some complex tumors, and could easily achieve the purpose which some conventional surgeries couldn¡¯t accomplish. The bloodless handling of the excised organ needs improvement. This time, the surgery involved using artificial blood vessels, an entirely makeshift method. It would be ideal to design a set of specialized equipment dedicated to connecting the human body and excised organ. This setup would not only allow monitoring of the organ perfusion but also enable blood pressurization to prevent insufficient perfusion due to long distances. The identification of tumors was another area needing improvement. Indocyanine green was used this time, but it was hoped that better markers could be found in the future. Precise excision is a must-pursue in future tumor surgeries, and much is possible with tumor marker technology. In short, Yang Ping always summarized the surgeries to improve or find innovative aspects. Returning to his own department, Yang Ping made a round in the operating room; Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were leading two groups of doctors performing surgeries, and there were no difficulties for the time being. The flight attendant was having a birthday and Liang Fatty was seeking Zhou Can¡¯s opinion on how to make an impression, including what gift to give. In the previous period, the Sports Medicine Center had too many patients and not enough staff, and Tang Fei had gone to help. Now that it has gotten better, Tang Fei has returned. Originally planning to specialize in sports medicine upon graduation, Tang Fei now, with the establishment of the Surgical Research Institute, had new ideas and planned to wait and see. Xiao Su, Tang Fei, and Zhou Can were close friends. Tang Fei and Zhou Can, having time after work, would often visit Yang Ping¡¯s house to chat with Xiao Su, and also to mooch meals. Upon seeing Yang Ping enter, Tang Fei said, ¡°Professor, you might as well go buy groceries early because this afternoon, we sisters are going to visit Xiao Su to chat.¡± ¡°It¡¯s only this early, I haven¡¯t even had lunch yet, and you are already thinking about dining.¡± Yang Ping walked around the operating table a few times, then turned on the screen to watch the surgery. Actually, Yang Ping didn¡¯t need to do the groceries; his mother-in-law arranged his daily life clearly. Tang Fei and Zhou Can, sweet-talkers, fostered a good relationship with Mrs. Su, making frequent visits to Yang Ping¡¯s house for meals. Song Zimo and Liang Fatty, waving the flag of bachelorhood, complained of a hard life, eating instant noodles daily, and worried about nutritional deficiencies, so they wanted to join in for the meals. Yang Ping sat in the operating room for a while, finding nothing special, then moved to the changing room to rest and browsed some books and conducted experiments in the System Space. It was almost time for another visit to Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Song Yun¡¯s group of young doctors had collected many patients, waiting for Yang Ping to perform teaching surgeries; they eagerly anticipated his monthly visits for ward rounds and surgeries. Moreover, Song Yun claimed he had improved his skills in peeling shrimps with chopsticks and wanted Yang Ping to see. On Nandu Medical University¡¯s side, Professor Su planned to invite Yang Ping to serve at Nandu Medical University as a resident point, offering 45 hospital beds and selecting a group of young doctors for Yang Ping to teach and train, hoping to emulate Sanbo Hospital by naming this department the ¡°Surgical Research Institute.¡± The City People¡¯s Hospital, his old employer, Dean Chen always asked when Yang Ping was free, wanting Yang Ping to come by and help the City People¡¯s Hospital. Liquan Hospital¡¯s Boss Cheng was truly lucky; more than a hundred high-end wards were fully occupied, with surgeries backed up. Fortunately, Su Nanchen was capable, otherwise, Yang Ping would have had to visit there every week. Recently, Boss Cheng again sought Yang Ping¡¯s help, and Yang Ping planned to assign Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang to help share the load. Fuwai, also affiliated with Peking Union Medical College, had reached a cooperation agreement with Sanbo Surgical Research Institute. After several phone rounds, they asked when Yang Ping was free to meet and discuss the details of the cooperation. Fuwai learned of Yang Ping¡¯s collaboration with Peking Union Medical College Hospital and easily found out about their collaborative methods. Handling everything personally was impossible; even multitasking wouldn¡¯t be enough. At Fuwai, Yang Ping planned to quickly bring out Xia Shu and then let him handle things independently. Where was Xia Shu, though? Just now he hadn¡¯t seen him. Oh, he had taken leave in the morning to drive the Head Nurse to look at a house. The Head Nurse, a long-time driver herself, insisted that she couldn¡¯t drive and needed someone to chauffeur her. Everyone was so busy; who had the time to be her driver? Unfortunately, it had to be Xia Shu, the newcomer with not many surgeries yet. Chapter 1021 - 1021 845 Professor Y_2 ?Chapter 1021: Chapter 845 Professor Y_2 Chapter 1021: Chapter 845 Professor Y_2 ¡ª After four in the afternoon, Nie Shun¡¯e had her tube removed, but since her intestines had been sutured, she couldn¡¯t eat normally yet and would need 7-10 days before she could resume a normal diet. She was required to fast for the first three days after surgery, sustaining herself on parenteral nutrition, then on the fourth day she would start on a liquid diet with things like milk rice soup, gradually transitioning to semi-liquids like thin porridge, and wouldn¡¯t be able to eat normally until the tenth day post-operation. When Nie Shun¡¯e woke up and heard that her surgery had been very successful, she was overjoyed. At this point, she wasn¡¯t demanding anything more than to live each additional day as it comes. She requested to make a phone call to her husband, which the doctors and nurses allowed. After getting through to her husband, Nie Shun¡¯e said: ¡°Send a basket of fruit to the doctors, quick!¡± The cost of a fruit basket was negligible; it was mostly about expressing gratitude. The burly man who was her husband didn¡¯t know much about such gestures but kept nodding in thanks to the doctors. It was only after his wife¡¯s reminder that he thought to buy a fruit basket to thank Professor Yang and the ICU medical staff. ¡°Also, don¡¯t forget to thank Director Fang, who is overseeing our stay at the hospital.¡± ¡°Alright, alright.¡± Yuan Yulin nodded at the other end of the phone. Nie Shun¡¯e thought for a moment, ¡°Also, tell the people from the charity organization that recommended us to seek treatment about our current situation when you have a chance. They previously instructed to keep them updated with information at all times. They are good people; we must not forget them.¡± Yuan Yulin had actually forgotten about this; indeed, at the time, a person from the charity had entrusted him to keep them updated with treatment information. ¡°Is there still enough money for the child¡¯s living expenses?¡± ¡°Yes, there is!¡± ¡°Make sure you eat, don¡¯t starve your stomach.¡± ¡°I know.¡± Having just been weaned off the tube and regained consciousness, Nie Shun¡¯e was still struggling to speak, her mind not entirely clear, so she could only say so much before handing the phone back to the nurse and adding, ¡°Thank you all.¡± ¡ª Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery Department at Juntendo Hospital, Tokyo University. Professor Sakurai sat in his office feeling very tired after performing surgeries for a full day as the department director. He was relaxing alone with a comic book to ease his mind. Juntendo Hospital holds a position in Japan comparable to Xiehe Hospital in China. In fact, it was Juntendo that helped establish the medical faculty at Tokyo University years ago. As a youthful and aspiring professional, Professor Sakurai, already in his forties, was the director of the Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery Department at Juntendo. The department led by him was world-class, and he had consistently kept the mortality rate of his surgeries below one percent, while the average mortality rate for similar surgeries in Japan was two to three percent¡ªplacing him at the very top worldwide. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Professor Sakurai quickly tucked the comic away and replaced it with a Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery textbook, adopting a formal posture. ¡°Come in!¡± The door opened and in came Doctor Murakami, Sakurai¡¯s colleague and friend. Murakami had recently been frequently consulting him about a case his classmate from the insurance company inquired about. This case was particularly classic, which piqued Doctor Murakami¡¯s interest, otherwise he wouldn¡¯t have been so invested. Murakami felt that Sakurai had the most authority to speak on this case since it involved ex-vivo resection of a tumor, and Sakurai was one of the world¡¯s most successful doctors in performing such surgeries. He had led over a dozen cases of ex-vivo liver cancer or pancreatic cancer resections and had also performed ex-vivo resection of the pancreas and duodenum, making him an undeniable leader in this pioneering field of surgery. In this domain, the only peer to Professor Sakurai was a doctor from the United States. ¡°Please, take a seat!¡± Sakurai was very polite to his colleague. ¡°Sorry to trouble you again. It¡¯s about that same case from last time. This is the latest information from my classmate. It seems the patient has undergone surgery, employing ex-vivo resection and autologous organ transplant, and is currently in stable postoperative condition. The surgery took just over eight hours,¡± Murakami directly updated on the latest patient status. ¡°Is it still the same case from last time? The one that involved eight organs? We saw the CT images together, ex-vivo resection? How is that possible? It¡¯s pure fantasy, and moreover, the surgery lasted eight hours? Mr. Murakami, could there be some misunderstanding? No doctor could possibly perform surgery on this case, even if someone took the risk, it wouldn¡¯t be successful. Even if she¡¯s the luckiest patient in the world and the surgery was a success, it would probably take over forty hours.¡± Mr. Murakami furrowed his brows, ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what I thought too, but that¡¯s the reply I got from my classmate. The patient is now in the ICU of the surgical hospital and has been extubated.¡± Sakurai felt this was a layman¡¯s joke, ¡°I¡¯m curious, why is your classmate¡¯s insurance company so interested in this particular case?¡± Mr. Murakami thought for a moment and said, ¡°I¡¯m not sure about that.¡± However, Professor Sakurai also thought the case was of great research value. From his experience, it would be impossible for any doctor to complete an ex-vivo resection, so there must be some false information here. ¡°Do you realize how difficult it is to perform an ex-vivo resection that involves the liver, gall, pancreas, spleen, stomach, small intestine, inferior vena cava, and left kidney? If we assume a doctor could perform the resection, do you know how long it would take? Combined autotransplantation of just the liver and pancreas is already top-tier surgery, and even the most skilled surgeons need over a dozen hours. Just think about it, these eight organs, if we were to do ex-vivo resection, would involve five requiring autotransplantation, plus tumor resection, artificial blood vessel transplantation for the inferior vena cava, and so on¡ª it would likely take forty hours,¡± Professor Sakurai analyzed for his colleague. Mr. Murakami was also a hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgeon¡ªhow could he not know? But Sakurai wanted to help him see reality. ¡°But he says it¡¯s true!¡± Mr. Murakami was very curious about the case and had heard that the surgery was successfully completed. He was eager to know how the surgery was performed, and if possible, he even wanted to go see the case for himself. ¡°Could medical science in China have advanced to such an extent that it has left us far behind?¡± Mr. Murakami said, puzzled. ¡°This can¡¯t be true. Do you think he is Professor Y from a manga?¡± Sakurai blurted out. The atmosphere suddenly became eerie as Mr. Murakami stared intently at Sakurai. Sakurai realized he had spoken too freely¡ªwhat a blunder. Could Murakami have found out that he too was a manga fan? ¡°Sakurai? Are you also following the manga¡ª ¡®The Godfather of Surgery¡¯?¡± Mr. Murakami asked. How embarrassing, thought Sakurai. The manga was popular among medical students and young doctors, and at over forty, he feared being discovered as a fan. He was the dignified head of the surgery department¡ªhe was supposed to maintain a serious image, wasn¡¯t he? ¡°Well¡ªwell¡ªit¡¯s just a recommendation from a student¡ªjust flipped through it a bit¡ª¡± Sakurai¡¯s face turned red. It was definitely awkward when his persona was shattered. It seemed Mr. Murakami had found a kindred spirit, ¡°Not to hide it from Mr. Sakurai, but I also read this manga. Professor Y is so impressive, rational with superb medical skills, he is my idol. The love story is also so moving; Miss Chiyoda loves him so much, but the professor knows nothing¡ªit¡¯s such a painful secret love.¡± ¡°Yes, Miss Chiyoda truly loves the professor the most. Only someone like her is worthy of a man like the professor. I really hope they end up together.¡± ¡°Miss Chiyoda has already rejected proposals from influential families because she only has the professor in her heart. She wants no one else but him.¡± ¡°What a beautiful love story.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not only popular here but also among the students at Tokyo University.¡± ¡°Do you have the latest issue?¡± ¡°I just got the newest one from someone at Tokyo University.¡± ¡°You¡¯re such a tease, lend it to me quickly.¡± ¡°What will happen to that young girl in the end?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know yet, but the professor must have a way, right? The cactus on her windowsill is still vivid green, which means life is stubbornly holding on.¡± ¡°I really hope the professor can save her, otherwise, I¡¯ll cry.¡± ¡°Me too!¡± ¡°Mr. Murakami, I¡¯m studying the professor¡¯s ultimate technique from the manga¡ªOne-Stroke Flow.¡± ¡°One-Stroke Flow is tough, I¡¯ve practiced a lot and still haven¡¯t gotten the hang of it.¡± ¡°Please remember to bring me the latest issue.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll bring it over tomorrow morning.¡± Chapter 1022 - 1022 846 How to Use a Knife in Crannies ?Chapter 1022: Chapter 846: How to Use a Knife in Crannies Chapter 1022: Chapter 846: How to Use a Knife in Crannies Several days later, Nie Shun¡¯e was transferred from the ICU back to the general ward. Her condition after the surgery was very stable, and she could now consume liquid diets like rice soup. The yellowish hue on her face was gradually fading, and the distended pain in her abdomen was gone. With standardized pain management, the pain from the surgery incision was basically bearable. Theoretically, a recurrence of the tumor was certain, but given that the tumor excision was so clean, there shouldn¡¯t be any major problems in the short term. For Nie Shun¡¯e, she was no longer concerned about the potential recurrence. If she could live one more day, that was all that mattered ¨C to make the most of each day she was alive. The ¡°Charity Organization¡± sent someone with a basket of flowers and nutritional supplements to visit Nie Shun¡¯e. They offered to help her apply for a charity assistance fund, which would be a substantial amount, possibly reaching one hundred thousand. Nie Shun¡¯e declined, saying her life was manageable, she could fend for herself, and she did not need help from others. Accepting help made one feel obliged and indebted, even if it was charity support, and Nie Shun¡¯e was used to solving her own problems. Yang Ping arrived at Beijing Xiehe Hospital, which was his assigned station. In his absence, the department with its forty-five beds was managed by Song Yun, who was effectively the acting director. Work at Xiehe comprised ward rounds, teaching, and supervising surgeries. Unnoticed until seen, during the ward round, Yang Ping counted the number of patients awaiting surgery, only to find that the team had taken on more than thirty new cases. Operating on so many patients in just a few days, the team must have been possessed by a drive to push their limits. Song Yun chuckled and said, ¡°Professor, my apologies!¡± ¡°How many tables?¡± Yang Ping asked, knowing that they wanted to maximize the number of surgeries completed in the few days. ¡°Two dedicated tables, one for me and one for Kong Weiquan, and you, Professor, need to supervise in rotation. There are also a few surgeries that you have to perform as the chief surgeon because we simply can¡¯t handle them,¡± Song Yun said with a smile. With so many patients, discussing their cases and performing pre-surgical discussions would take all day, and the discussions inevitably weaved in some teaching. Today, it would stretch into the evening. After completing the ward rounds, everyone gathered around the digital viewer to discuss the cases. The cases were manageable, except for one patient with a vertebral tumor, which nearly spanned across the spinal cord and had undergone surgery twice, which was very problematic. Yang Ping requested to see this most challenging case first. Turning on the digital viewer, the physician in charge brought up the images of the case. ¡°Professor, I admitted this patient from the outpatient department. They underwent surgery twice. The first surgery did not remove the tumor but just stabilized the spine. In the second surgery, the surgeon intended to excise the tumor, but upon opening during the operation, found it impossible to proceed and didn¡¯t know where to make the incisions. Therefore, the chief surgeon aborted the surgery, only taking a piece of the tumor tissue for pathological examination. Now the main issue for the patient is pain. They suffer from severe pain in the bilateral upper limbs, unbearable, and their muscle strength is diminishing with grade four on the left limb and only grade three on the right. Standing requires the support of family members or a cane, and currently, oral pain medication and cobalamin are utterly ineffective,¡± the physician in charge explained the situation of the case. Song Yun briefly summarized the history of the case. Numbness in both hands, unable to put weight on the left foot¡ªas if stepping on cotton, was excruciatingly painful. ¡°The tumor invades cervical 4, 5, 6, with presence both inside and outside the medulla,¡± Yang Ping commented while examining the images. ¡°Pathological specimens were taken during both surgeries, and the postoperative pathological diagnosis was hemangioblastoma.¡± While everyone was discussing the case, Director Zuo from Major Vascular Surgery and Director Wen from the Cardiac Surgery Department, accompanied by two students, came in carrying a basket of fruit. They had heard that Yang Ping had arrived and took the time to come and see him. Director Zuo knew Yang Ping from when he performed a vertebrae tumor surgery at Xiehe, demonstrating the en-bloc resection of the vertebral tumor with no leakage. Due to the tumor adhering to the aorta, separating it caused the aortic wall to thin, requiring an intraoperative implantation of an artificial blood vessel, which was performed by Director Zuo, giving them a chance to meet. The medical community can sometimes be very small; Yang Ping was known for his 13 CNS papers and his group coronary bypass surgeries at the 301 Hospital, which had become widely known in Beijing¡¯s cardiovascular surgery circles. Director Wen had a special case in hand, a little boy just over a month old, diagnosed with Kawasaki disease affecting the coronary arteries, needing a coronary bypass. Coronary artery bypass surgery itself is a high-level precision operation, with very few hospitals in the country capable of performing it, even fewer carrying out children¡¯s coronary bypasses, especially for such young patients, with no precedent to follow. Hearing about Yang Ping¡¯s research in cardiac surgery, Director Wen came looking for a discussion but didn¡¯t personally know him. Director Zuo, however, did. Cardiac surgery and major vascular surgery were essentially in the same category, collectively known as cardiovascular surgery, but at a large hospital like Xiehe, they were separated to strive for excellence. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have brought anything,¡± Song Yun said, taking the fruit basket while inviting the two directors to sit down. ¡°This is Director Wen from our Cardiac Surgery Department, and this is our Professor Yang,¡± Director Zuo facilitated the introduction for both of them. ¡°So young! It seems we really are getting old,¡± Director Wen said humorously upon seeing Yang Ping. ¡°Thank you, directors. What brings you to visit?¡± Yang Ping asked bluntly, aware that they must have had a reason to come bearing gifts. Chapter 1023 - 1023 846 How to Use a Knife in the Crannies_2 ?Chapter 1023: Chapter 846 How to Use a Knife in the Crannies_2 Chapter 1023: Chapter 846 How to Use a Knife in the Crannies_2 ¡°Am I disturbing you?¡± Director Zuo, seeing the images on the digital viewer, knew they had just been discussing a case and felt a bit apologetic for interrupting suddenly. ¡°Not at all, we were discussing a case, which can be done at any time,¡± Yang Ping said. Song Yun and Kong Weiquan had already served two cups of water to the directors, and the other doctors gathered around, eager to hear what the directors had to come to discuss. Director Wen wasted no time, ¡°I saw a child with Kawasaki Disease at the outpatient clinic, only a month old. Due to vasculitis, the opening of the left anterior descending branch of the coronary artery was already completely occluded. At present, the child is relying on collateral circulation from the remaining two coronary branches for blood supply. This condition could lead to a myocardial infarction at any time, so coronary bypass surgery is necessary to save the child¡¯s life. Considering the infant¡¯s young age and small size, the surgery must be performed on a beating heart. The coronary arteries of a one-month-old child are very fine, especially on a beating heart, which makes the surgery extremely difficult. There have been no such precedents before. The surgeries done in Shanghai, where they have more experience in such cases, involve the youngest patients being around 14 months old. We heard that you are very skilled at vascular anastomosis, so we came to see if there was a way,¡± he explained. Everyone was engaged in academic work, straightforward and direct, which made the exchange relaxed and not tiring at all. The diameter of the coronary artery of an infant one month old is about 1 millimeter, possibly even finer, and it¡¯s even more complicated if the child is premature. However, with the right microscope and sutures, there are no blood vessels that Yang Ping cannot handle¡ªit¡¯s his signature move. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡± Yang Ping felt there was no difficulty, as it was his area of expertise. With Yang Ping¡¯s confirmation, Director Wen was very pleased; that meant the surgery could proceed. He had always been worried about the difficulty of anastomosing such fine coronary arteries. ¡°The child needs to have the surgery on a beating heart,¡± Director Wen reminded Yang Ping. Since the surgeries Yang Ping performed, like reattaching fingers, involved anastomosing stationary blood vessels, it was quite different from anastomosing on a beating heart. Performing vascular anastomosis on a beating heart was more challenging, and Director Wen made sure to clarify this with Yang Ping to prevent any misunderstanding. ¡°No problem, just let me know when to do it. If you need help, just give me the word,¡± Yang Ping said briskly. ¡°That¡¯s great, the family is anxious, and the sooner the surgery is done, the better. Otherwise, the child could have a heart attack at any moment. We had planned to invite peers from Shanghai to join the surgery, but they also lack experience with such young patients and were not confident enough. If Professor Yang could provide technical support during the vascular anastomosis, our chances of a successful surgery would greatly increase. Thank you, Professor Yang.¡± Coronary bypass surgery was originally a treatment method for adults, and in recent years, it has been used to treat children with severe coronary artery disease resulting from Kawasaki Disease. However, not many hospitals in China offer this surgery. The most experienced center is the Shanghai Children¡¯s Medical Center. They were the first to establish a pediatric myocardial disease and heart failure diagnosis and treatment center in China. This center has a dedicated Kawasaki Disease diagnosis and treatment team comprised of cardiology, cardiac surgery, anesthesia, and radiology departments. They have successfully completed over ten pediatric coronary artery bypass surgeries to date, and intervention for pediatric coronary arteries has also been conducted in a few cases. ¡°We¡¯ll arrange the surgery for one of these coming days. We¡¯ll need Professor Yang¡¯s help then. We appreciate your time, Professor Yang.¡± Directors Wen and Zuo were very efficient, keeping their conversation concise, as everyone else was busy with their case discussions. Yang Ping and the others continued to discuss the case at hand¡ªwhether to operate on a patient with a vertebral tumor or not. The risks of surgery were high, no hospitals were currently willing to accept him, and if the surgery was not performed, the patient could still move his limbs a little. However, post-surgery there was a high possibility of high-level paralysis, completely immobilizing the limbs. In such a case, if complications like lung infections occurred, the patient likely wouldn¡¯t live much longer. ¡°If the tumor is removed, the spinal cord could be severed, right?¡± Kong Weiquan asked worriedly. This type of case was more trouble than it was worth, as few doctors were willing to stir up this hornet¡¯s nest. The likelihood of postoperative high-level paralysis was extremely high, and since the patient¡¯s condition could worsen with surgery, it essentially meant there was no cure¡ªto put it plainly, it was untreatable! ¡°Yes, look here at cervical level 4, it has already traversed the spinal cord. If we remove the tumor, there is a high risk of causing tetraplegia, and since hemangioblastomas tend to recur, even if we remove it now, it could likely come back later. But as doctors, all we can do is our best, right? We can¡¯t guarantee a complete cure, but we can try to find a way through surgery to alleviate his pain, at least to relieve it,¡± Yang Ping pondered how best to proceed with the patient¡¯s surgery. Song Yun said embarrassingly, ¡°It¡¯s all because I¡¯ve caused you trouble. During the outpatient service, I saw how much the patient was suffering, and other hospitals refused him, so I thought we should take him in. Even if we don¡¯t operate, we could at least provide symptomatic treatment to ease some of his pain.¡± Yang Ping consoled him, ¡°How can you say it¡¯s trouble? Aren¡¯t we always facing trouble? If Xiehe doesn¡¯t take him in, where else is this patient supposed to go? Nowhere else to turn, right? Let me think about it.¡± ¡°Have doctors suggested radiotherapy?¡± Song Yun added information. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°Absolutely not. Radiotherapy is the last thing we want because the part of the spinal cord that receives radiotherapy will swell. Once that happens, it will exacerbate his illness, causing even more severe neurological symptoms. If the swelling can go down on its own, that¡¯s good. Over time, the spinal cord function may be restored to its pre-radiotherapy state. But if the swelling doesn¡¯t subside, it could cause permanent high-level paralysis. So we have to be extremely cautious with spinal cord radiotherapy.¡± ¡°I¡¯m wondering if we could remove the tumor surrounding the nerve root, which could reduce the patient¡¯s pain since it¡¯s the tumor¡¯s irritation of the nerve root that¡¯s causing it,¡± Yang Ping reflected. ¡°The aim of surgery isn¡¯t necessarily to cure but could be to alleviate symptoms, extend life, improve the quality of life, and so on.¡± Song Yun understood Yang Ping¡¯s point, ¡°Shall we do a more detailed and precise localization of the source of the pain again?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s very significant for the surgery.¡± ¡°But¡ªlook, these several nerve roots are all involved by the tumor. How do we remove it? They¡¯re all in difficult-to-reach corners.¡± ¡°So what? This is Xiehe, the last resort for patients. Whether it seems possible or not, you have to make it possible. There¡¯s no turning back,¡± Song Yun said firmly. ¡°Should the internal fixation from the previous surgery be removed?¡± ¡°No, keep it! Removing it would destabilize the cervical spine, and we¡¯d have to fix it again. Let¡¯s not do the same work twice. Look at the C5 vertebral body; there are signs of a pathological compression fracture.¡± ¡°If we don¡¯t remove the internal fixation, it will obstruct the surgery. The exit point of the nerve roots is already a tricky spot, and with the internal fixation, it¡¯s impossible to make an incision,¡± Kong Weiquan had always been worried about this, getting a headache just looking at the tumors at those locations. As everyone was discussing the case, a fragrant breeze swept in, and a gorgeous figure appeared at the door of the doctor¡¯s office ¡ª Qiu Ruo, the beauty of the operating room, dressed particularly beautifully today, clearly having made a great effort. ¡°Our operating room beauty is treating us to a meal today.¡± Yang Ping, deep in thought about the surgical approach, didn¡¯t pay much attention to Qiu Ruo at the door, just responded with an acknowledgment. ¡°Let¡¯s have our meal first, then. After eating, we can discuss it further. This patient definitely needs surgery. Without it, the pain caused by the nerve roots will be unbearable, and he¡¯ll likely be writhing in pain in bed.¡± The nurse from the operating room, Qiu Ruo, looked forward to Yang Ping¡¯s visits to Xiehe every month with great anticipation. She had truly fallen for Yang Ping, hopelessly in love since the first time they met. She shared this with her best friend Xiao Su and, before Xiao Su could even speak, she told Xiao Su that no matter what, she was going to bravely pursue Yang Ping. He was her Prince Charming, fulfilling all her fantasies about a partner. If Xiao Su dared to stand in her way, she would cut ties with her, Xiao Su could only respond: You¡¯re going to be socially dead. Qiu Ruo retorted: Just wait and see, I will win him over. Chapter 1024 - 1024 847 Another Professor ?Chapter 1024: Chapter 847: Another Professor? Chapter 1024: Chapter 847: Another Professor? ¡°Lunch was courtesy of Qiu Ruo, who said it was to thank Yang Ping and that she would often trouble him in the future for professional advice.¡± ¡°To save time, lunch was brief. Qiu Ruo had intended to chat with Yang Ping during the meal, but soon realized he was a workaholic. The few words exchanged at the table concerned case discussions, completely oblivious to her deliberate grooming.¡± ¡°After lunch, everyone returned to the department to gather and discuss cases.¡± ¡°These case discussions weren¡¯t very formal. There was no need to sit upright; everyone gathered casually, speaking their minds without fear of misspeaking. The treatment plans for departmental patients were decided after such discussions.¡± ¡°Complete resection of the tumor is no longer realistic, but palliative treatment is possible by thoroughly removing the tumors that irritate the nerve roots, relieving their irritation and compression, and thus alleviating or reducing pain and improving the patient¡¯s quality of life.¡± ¡°For the patient with cervical hemangioblastoma, this was the final conclusion.¡± ¡°The tumor and cervical spinal cord were like milk poured into sand. Separating the milk from the sand would inevitably cause damage to the sand as well.¡± ¡°The overall direction of the surgery had been determined; how to handle the scalpel in the complex crannies of the vertebrae was a matter of technical skill.¡± ¡°The team led by Yang Ping at Xiehe was independent. Their ward¡¯s patients were admitted by the department¡¯s own doctors. Song Yun, a young associate chief physician, would usually see the outpatients. Kong Weiquan, as attending physician, sometimes saw outpatients as well, and the patients were generally admitted by the two of them, with Professor Liang sometimes taking in patients for them.¡± ¡°This group of young people had risen rapidly within Xiehe, now representing a benchmark department and becoming the envy of other young doctors.¡± ¡°When Yang Ping first arrived at Xiehe, out of the promised 45 beds, only 10 were delivered. However, with the effort from Professor Liang, the Medical Services Office, and the support of the hospital leaders, all 45 beds were soon in place.¡± ¡°For Hospital 301, the cooperation with Yang Ping followed shortly after Xiehe, but the collaboration hadn¡¯t really started due to bed allocation issues. In major hospitals, bed numbers were tight and sensitive. Without additional bed allocations, to carve out so many beds would mean taking from other doctors and departments, and that¡¯s not an easy task.¡± ¡°If it weren¡¯t for Professor Liang¡¯s prestige, his firm stance, and the strong cooperation from the Medical Services Office and hospital leadership, how could the 45 beds be secured? So many interests were involved, so many people offended.¡± ¡°The initial 10 beds were forcefully taken from other doctors and departments, while the additional 30 were obtained through the Dean¡¯s persistence at the ministry level.¡± ¡°At Hospital 301, Dean Liu filed a report, and with the support of higher-ups, an additional 45 beds were specifically allocated for Yang Ping¡ªa game-changing event for a major hospital.¡± The next case was introduced by the attending doctor in charge of the ward. ¡°This case is a 42-year-old female. Five years ago, she began to experience weakness in both lower limbs, which worsened significantly one year ago, leading to difficulty walking. The diagnosis suggested an occupying lesion in the lumbar spinal canal!¡ª-¡± ¡°This is a patient referred from a lower-level hospital. They suspected an intraspinal tumor, but were uncertain about it and feared cervical involvement, so they didn¡¯t dare perform surgery and referred the patient to us.¡± Song Yun made a point to add some medical history details for each patient. Yang Ping glanced at the information and immediately said, ¡°A tumor can be ruled out. This is an inflammatory granuloma caused by parasite infection, most likely Sparganum Mansoni. Go ahead with the surgery. Where is the head MRI?¡± Everyone looked at each other, surprised by Yang Ping¡¯s assertive diagnosis. ¡°I¡¯ll expedite the head MRI. The patient was just admitted yesterday and had no previous head MRI. It was ordered by Director Song yesterday.¡± The attending doctor looked at Song Yun. Despite his youth, Song Yun was already an associate chief physician. A doctor could be promoted to this role two years after obtaining their PhD, though that was merely the minimum requirement in terms of tenure; there were many more rules and criteria for advancement. ¡°Since the patient was suspected of having a tumor, we added a head MRI to the procedure,¡± Song Yun explained. Yang Ping had seen many cases in the System Space. The MRI images of such cases were clear at a glance¡ªdefinitely a parasite infection. Judging by the imaging, the parasites likely first settled in the brain, then migrated to the cervical spine, and finally moved to the lumbar spine to take up residence. ¡°The head is the parasite¡¯s old home; this is just their last stop. Didn¡¯t this patient have a history of epileptic seizures?¡± Yang Ping inquired further. The attending doctor shook his head: ¡°No, the patient didn¡¯t mention it.¡± ¡°She has a history of paroxysmal coughing lasting for eight years, and the cause has never been found,¡± Song Yun added. ¡°The paroxysmal coughing could be an atypical presentation of epilepsy. There¡¯s a classic saying in neurology¡ªdon¡¯t rule out epilepsy for any unexplained paroxysmal symptoms,¡± Yang Ping stated, clarifying a case everyone thought was complex with just a few words. ¡°Let¡¯s see the head MRI report when it comes out. Next!¡± Because of the need to save time, Yang Ping directed the group to move on to the next case. There were many patients with spinal deformities, accounting for nearly half of the cases. One was particularly severe, with congenital spinal dysraphism and defects in the posterior part of the vertebrae, causing the spinal cord to bulge backwards into the vertebrae. Such a condition made spinal deformity correction surgery extremely risky, with a high chance of causing paralysis. Typically, doctors would advise against surgery when faced with this situation. Chapter 1025 - 1025 847 Another Professor_2 ?Chapter 1025: Chapter 847: Another Professor?_2 Chapter 1025: Chapter 847: Another Professor?_2 It seems that many of the patients they had taken on were tough cases, and having reviewed the imaging, Yang Ping felt surgery was feasible. Since this department was independent and parallel to other departments and Xiehe Hospital¡¯s Orthopedics, all decisions had to be made by them alone, unless a consultation was requested. Other doctors were not allowed to interfere, a rule established by Professor Liang. These young doctors, who were usually subordinate doctors, were now taking on the role of decision-makers. Previously, their skills were not sufficient, but that had changed. They had received the best training, and both their theoretical knowledge and practical skills were exceptionally high. Other cases, such as cervical spondylosis, lumbar disc herniation, femoral head ischemic necrosis, and so on, were relatively routine and only needed to be discussed briefly. The discussion was not yet over when the head MRI images came out. Of course, the report wasn¡¯t out yet, just the images. Bringing the images alone to a case discussion would be seen as inappropriate in other departments. But this was the department led by Yang Ping, where reading images of the entire human body was a basic skill. Even as Orthopedic surgeons, they were expected to read MRIs or CTs of the head. ¡°Look, the bright white spot, that must be a calcified lesion, right? If this calcification is from the calcified remnants of a tapeworm, it means the tapeworm truly originated in the head before migrating to the cervical spine and finally settling in the lumbar spine,¡± Song Yun focused on the bright white spot in the image. ¡°Exactly, the shape of this calcified lesion is characteristic of a tapeworm, including the calcified lesions in the cervical spine. Look, there are similar calcifications in the lumbar spine. Other characteristic imaging features are easily recognizable by everyone, not because they are strikingly distinctive, but because they are frequently seen. Spinal parasitic diseases like this, however, are encountered less often, and are naturally less familiar,¡± he added. ¡°Let¡¯s schedule this patient for surgery. During the operation, we might be able to remove a live tapeworm. Look, this MRI of the lumbar spine shows a live worm, and if you want to compare, another MRI would definitely show changes in this image. Look, there are a lot of excretions from the worm around it,¡± he continued. Yang Ping pointed to the tapeworm image in the photos, sparking great interest among everyone. Spinal parasitic disease is indeed rare, so they had no experience and did not identify it immediately. After Yang Ping pointed it out, everyone began to dig into this area of knowledge. Pre-surgical discussions for dozens of patients were completed just after four o¡¯clock in the afternoon. Naturally, patients with less challenging issues took less time, while the focus was on more difficult and complex cases. After completing the discussion, Song Yun accompanied Yang Ping to the Cardiac Surgery Department. To save time while Yang Ping was at Xiehe performing surgeries, Director Wen adjusted the queue for hospital admissions slightly. As patients were discharged in the afternoon, beds were freed up immediately, and the nurse called the patient¡¯s family to arrange for hospital admission and surgery. Song Yun had called Director Wen ahead of time to schedule. Director Wen was still at the operating table, so he instructed a residential doctor in the ward to receive them. When the Cardiac Surgery Department heard that Yang Ping was coming, several doctors who had already performed surgeries immediately went to the ward to wait. Yang Ping¡¯s reputation at Xiehe was significant. Even though the surgeons from other specialties might not pay much attention to the Golden Knife Award for Orthopedics, everyone in Xiehe system knew about Yang Ping and his 13 CNS papers. Moreover, hearing that Yang Ping was also teaching in Orthopedics made them even keener to meet their idol up close. Dr. Chu Huairen was in charge of the reception and was waiting by the elevator doors in advance. The nurse, thinking it was a higher-up inspection, asked Dr. Chu, ¡°Who are you waiting for here?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you know? The ¡®Yang God¡¯ from Orthopedics is coming, and he¡¯ll be visiting our Cardiac Surgery Department for a consultation soon.¡± ¡°Yang Ping? The Emperor CNS?¡± The Emperor CNS was a nickname Xiehe had come up with, showcasing how well-read people could have a bit of fun. Even the nurses knew about him. The name Yang Ping was well-known throughout Xiehe; several intern doctors following Dr. Chu were also incredibly excited, as if fans waiting for their idol at the airport. ¡°Dr. Chu, is Professor Yang looking at patient 12 this afternoon?¡± ¡°Yes, Professor Yang will join the Chief Surgeon in performing the main surgery, heard from the Director that he asked him to assist with the coronary artery anastomosis.¡± ¡°Is it for the infant?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± The elevator doors opened several times but Yang Ping and Song Yun didn¡¯t appear. Dr. Chu waited by the doors, becoming somewhat impatient. Finally, when the elevator doors opened again, Yang Ping and Song Yun emerged. Dr. Chu walked up to greet them but hesitated to avoid misrecognizing them, so he waited for Song Yun to speak first. Song Yun said, ¡°Are you on duty today? This is our Professor Yang. Director Wen asked Professor Yang to come and see patient 12.¡± ¡°The patient¡¯s family is holding their loved one, waiting in the ward right now.¡± ¡°Oh, no, it¡¯s the family holding the patient.¡± Doctor Chu, both excited and slightly flustered, was meeting his idol after all¡ªa being seemingly divine with the ability to publish 13 CNS papers. The number of doctors in the ward was small, but somehow the news that Yang Ping had come to the Cardiac Surgery Department had leaked. Doctors from the Vascular Surgery Department who were on ward duty and those who had just finished surgeries in both departments came rushing,plus some visiting doctors, which actually made quite a crowd. The nurses at the nurse station, usually very busy, also took the chance to sneak a peek at what the legendary god was like. So young and already a professor, followed and preceded by admirers¡ªhow impressive that was. ¡°Let¡¯s go straight to the ward!¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to waste time. Professor Yang was always dedicated; he came in, didn¡¯t even drink a sip of water, and went straight to the ward¡ªDoctor Chu was having many thoughts upon seeing his idol. Yang Ping was quite legendary at Xiehe Hospital, his fame had built up over time until he was worshipped by everyone. The initial sensation created by the Golden Knife Award in Orthopedics was significant but confined to that field only, as people from other departments didn¡¯t concern themselves much with achievements outside their own specialties. Latter, the vigorous effort by Professor Liang to recruit Yang Ping spread throughout the hospital, followed by the incident with the 45 beds, but most importantly, the 13 CNS papers that catapulted Yang Ping to the summit. ¡°Isn¡¯t bed 12 a case of Kawasaki Disease with a coronary artery occlusion? Why call for an Orthopedics consultation?¡± Whispers circulated among the onlookers. ¡°I heard Professor Yang is going to perform the main surgery with Director Wen. The baby¡¯s coronary arteries are too thin, and no doctors in the country have attempted it before. Director Wen, wanting to increase the success rate, invited Professor Yang to assist.¡± ¡°Professor Yang knows Cardiac Surgery too?¡± ¡°Not just knows¡ªit¡¯s said that his skill level is extremely high. He recently did several coronary bypasses at 301.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t he into Orthopedics? He won the Golden Knife Award in that field.¡± ¡°Now it¡¯s said he does everything, just like Manstein¡ªan all-rounder in surgery.¡± ¡°No way! That impressive?¡± ¡°Keep it down.¡± The increasingly large group arrived at the ward, where the baby was held by his mother. The parents, looking at this group of young doctors leading the pack who looked just like university students, felt a bit uneasy. ¡°You guys?¡± ¡°This is Professor Yang, whom our Director Wen invited for a consultation; he¡¯s going to check the little one.¡± Doctor Chu introduced. No way, such a young professor? Surely he must be another fake professor here to sneak in a heart auscultation, thought the baby¡¯s parents, who were experienced by now. They knew their child¡¯s condition was unusual and that these young doctors and intern doctors often masqueraded under the professor¡¯s title to get an auscultation opportunity. ¡°A professor also came to auscultate the heart at noon,¡± said the baby¡¯s mother, surprised. Immediately, a doctor ducked to the back row, afraid of being spotted by the family¡ªit was him who had auscultated the heart at noon, a Cardiovascular intern, casually referred to as ¡®professor¡¯ by his colleagues in Cardiac Surgery, a playful title used among young doctors and intern doctors. Doctor Chu glanced at the crowd and knew what was happening¡ªit was one of those youngsters who, without his permission, had slipped in to ask about the medical history and examine the patient. ¡°We are a teaching hospital, and such situations are common here, please bear with us,¡± Doctor Chu had to explain. The couple had no choice¡ªthis was the best hospital in the country, and it was unavoidable to be treated as teaching subjects. But heart auscultations were troublesome; they had to undress the child, who sometimes was awake and would fuss and cry. This Professor Yang, he too must be here on a practicum, but he had the demeanor and presence more convincing than a real professor. PS: I was a bit busy today and posted in haste, if there are any typos please point them out, thank you! Chapter 1026 - 1026 848 This Doctor Has Magic Power ?Chapter 1026: Chapter 848: This Doctor Has Magic Power Chapter 1026: Chapter 848: This Doctor Has Magic Power The diagnosis of Kawasaki disease-related coronary artery variations relied on coronary angiography; cardiac auscultation provided very limited information, but a physical examination was essential and could not be skipped under any circumstances. Because only through taking medical histories and conducting physical examinations could doctors directly interact with and gather information from patients, commanding an irreplaceable status. Sometimes, these examinations could reveal details that various instruments and equipment checks could not. Yang Ping not only performed auscultation of the heart but also conducted other detailed examinations. During the examination process, they inevitably had to turn the baby over, positioning the infant in various postures that facilitated a thorough examination. The doctors observing maintained a respectful silence, attentively watching every detail of Yang Ping¡¯s examination. Perhaps the ¡°magic¡± of Yang God¡¯s examination was different from others¡ªthat was what everyone thought. Indeed, his examination was extraordinary. Several doctors had examined the little one before, and each time, the baby had wailed loudly and thrashed about. Once, to protest, one of the babies had filled his diaper during an examination by a doctor, sending an overpowering stench of feces throughout, causing the doctor to have to abandon the examination. However, now under Professor Yang¡¯s examination, no matter how the baby was manipulated, he lay still on the bed, fully cooperative, not crying at all, but instead smiling sweetly at Professor Yang. The baby¡¯s parents were also extremely surprised. Today had indeed presented a strange sight. Not to speak of the intern doctors, even when Professor Wen had come to listen to the heart, the little one had been fussy and uncooperative. Yet today, he was surprisingly well-behaved. What magic had this intern doctor used? The baby¡¯s parents couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit more fondness toward this ¡°pseudo-professor.¡± ¡°Thank you for cooperating!¡± Yang Ping made a funny face at the baby, who laughed gleefully. Yang Ping put away his stethoscope, swiftly dressed the little one, and then handed him back to his mother. ¡°Let¡¯s head to the doctor¡¯s office,¡± Yang Ping said to Doctor Chu. The parents of the baby were still immersed in their child¡¯s joy, and when the examination abruptly ended, they felt a bit disconcerted. All the doctors had already left the ward, and while the child lay giggling in their arms, the parents were somewhat dazed, observing the professor¡¯s realistic examination. They chuckled involuntarily, reflecting on how today¡¯s students were expert at posturing. However, they understood; doctors, after all, undergo a process of growth. If everyone were unwilling to participate in teaching activities, how would young doctors evolve from novices to experts? The baby¡¯s mother said, ¡°During the previous visits, whether it was Professor Wen or the intern doctors conducting the examination, our son would cry and fuss. But today, with this intern doctor listening to his heart, he didn¡¯t cry or make a fuss, and even smiled at the doctor.¡± ¡°This intern has an interesting act; his posturing was quite convincing. If not for his looks giving him away, I would have truly believed he was a leading professor. From his demeanor, one would think he¡¯s some world-class professor,¡± said the father of the baby, laughing. Just then, under the ¡°pseudo-professor¡¯s¡± aura, he had remained silent on the side, not daring to express any dissatisfaction, indicating he too was influenced. The baby¡¯s mother held her child and said, ¡°Look, our son is still smiling. It¡¯s interesting how he didn¡¯t mind whatever the professor did to him, even managing to laugh foolishly.¡± Back in the doctor¡¯s office, Doctor Chu pulled up the images of the child¡¯s coronary angiography. The left anterior descending branch of the coronary artery was completely blocked, with the heart¡¯s blood supply maintained by collateral vessels from the other two coronary arteries¡ªan extremely dangerous condition, susceptible to sudden cardiac arrest due to myocardial ischemia at any moment. Therefore, coronary bypass surgery was the only option. Thanks to advances in medicine; if this had occurred in the past, this case would have been hopeless, and the child would have soon died from an acute myocardial infarction. ¡°The Shanghai Children¡¯s Medical Center is relatively good at pediatric coronary bypass surgery in China, but they also only have experience with just over ten cases, the youngest on record being 14 months old. They lack experience with one-month-old patients.¡± This was Dr. Chu¡¯s patient, and naturally, Dr. Chu was familiar with the case. ¡°The biggest difference between heart bypass surgery in children and adults is the diameter of the blood vessels, which are very small, about 1 millimeter for a one-month-old infant.¡± Song Yun said on the side. Then the surrounding doctors joined in, everyone chiming in, actively engaging in the discussion. ¡°The age is too young, we should use the beating-heart technique, which makes anastomosing such fine blood vessels on a beating heart even more difficult.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why Director Wen requested Yang Ping to join the surgery, knowing that Professor Yang¡¯s expertise in microsurgery is profound.¡± ¡°What blood vessel should be used for the bypass?¡± ¡°The internal mammary artery, perhaps?¡± ¡°The heart is constantly beating; how do you anastomose the blood vessels?¡± ¡°This requires professional training, similar to shooting at moving targets. You have to move your muzzle with the target and be able to precisely anticipate and lead the aim.¡± Every surgical operation is composed of numerous basic skills; vascular anastomosis is a single technique that can be used in many surgeries, such as organ transplants, coronary bypasses, etc., all of which require vascular anastomosis skills. While everyone was still discussing the case, Director Wen hurried back from the operating room. He hadn¡¯t changed out of his scrub gown and was wearing a white coat over it and a pair of slippers. His surgery was scheduled until after ten in the evening. Hearing that Yang Ping had come to the department to see the patient in bed 12, he took the opportunity between two surgeries to come down and greet him. ¡°Professor Yang, I have several surgeries today and couldn¡¯t accompany you. I apologize,¡± Director Wen said as he shook hands with Yang Ping. Everyone being doctors, how could they mind such things? Yang Ping said, ¡°Director Wen, why did you come down yourself? Please go back to your work; don¡¯t worry about me, I just came to have a look.¡± ¡°Xiao Chu, there¡¯s tea in my office, make a cup for Professor Yang.¡± Director Wen handed the keys to Dr. Chu and then sat down, pointing at the image on the digital viewer. ¡°Look, the opening of the left anterior descending branch is completely occluded; it can only rely on the collateral vessels of the other two coronary arteries to barely maintain the blood supply to the heart. If the surgery isn¡¯t performed soon, sudden death could occur at any moment. I initially asked colleagues from Shanghai for help, but they also lacked experience in this area. The child is also premature, I don¡¯t know if the vessels are even 1 millimeter. A few days ago, I met Professor Liang, and when I discussed this case, Professor Liang said, ¡®Find our special orthopedic professor Yang Ping. His vascular anastomosis skills are top-notch, it doesn¡¯t matter what coronary artery or not, if you find him, it¡¯s right.¡¯ Director Zuo said that you and Academician Wang from Fuwai are well acquainted, and that you¡¯ve done many coronary bypasses at 301, which greatly boosted my confidence. Now that you are at Xiehe Hospital, it¡¯s destiny.¡± ¡°Professor Yang, I really believe in the magic of medical connections.¡± Director Wen was eloquent, quite a talker. ¡°Yes, the sooner the surgery is done, the better. Please arrange the surgery as soon as possible. I can lend a hand any day this week,¡± Yang Ping said. Director Wen turned to look for Doctor Chu, who had just gotten some tea leaves and was brewing tea. ¡°Xiao Chu, the pre-surgery check-ups must be completed today or tomorrow, no problem with the surgery the day after tomorrow, right?¡± While making tea, Doctor Chu said, ¡°No problem.¡± Director Wen didn¡¯t know about Yang Ping¡¯s surgical schedule for the next few days. Inviting him so suddenly could easily disrupt the schedule in his department. ¡°You don¡¯t have many surgeries scheduled for the day after tomorrow, do you?¡± Director Wen asked concernedly. Song Yun took over the conversation, ¡°About a dozen or so.¡± A dozen or so? Then how could he have time to help with our surgery? Director Wen immediately frowned, thinking this completely disrupted Professor Yang¡¯s plans, as he already had a dozen surgeries. ¡°Oh dear, what should we do? Should we move the surgery to the evening?¡± Director Wen said helplessly. Knowing Director Wen¡¯s concern, Yang Ping reassured him, ¡°No worries, your surgery won¡¯t take much of my time. Just a few grafts, a matter of minutes, no need to wait until the evening.¡± Oh come on! Talking about grafting like it¡¯s a few minutes¡¯ task, as if it¡¯s a child¡¯s play. Director Wen had just taken a sip of the tea Doctor Chu handed him when he heard Yang Ping¡¯s remark, and he almost spurted it out. ¡°Xiao Chu, why is this tea so hot? Is it boiling water?¡± Doctor Chu was confused. Didn¡¯t making tea require boiling water, not just warm water? Director Wen flicked a few tiny drops from his pants and handed the cup back to Doctor Chu. The other doctors were also shocked by Yang Ping¡¯s statement, looking at each other, hoping someone would provide an explanation, whether he was bragging or serious. Even performing multiple grafts in adult coronary bypass takes more than a few minutes, not to mention pediatric non-stop coronary bypass, and you say it¡¯s a matter of minutes? ¡°Professor Yang? You can complete such grafting in just a few minutes?¡± Director Wen asked, adhering to the principle of seeking the truth from facts. Yang Ping realistically replied, ¡°Yes, it won¡¯t take much time, just a few minutes.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s answer aimed to put Director Wen at ease, assuring that the surgery could be scheduled flexibly without time constraints. However, hearing this, Director Wen swallowed hard. How audacious could a young man be? He was actually curious to see how the surgery could be finished in minutes. A few minutes seemed far-fetched. Director Wen wanted to chat more with Yang Ping, but then the operating room called him urgently. The surgery had started and they were waiting for the chief surgeon to come in. ¡°That Xiao Chu, let¡¯s schedule this bed 12¡¯s first case the day after tomorrow and communicate with the anesthesia department beforehand. Have them come by today to review the patient if possible.¡± Director Wen hurriedly gave a few instructions, then shook hands with Yang Ping and said goodbye. A few minutes? This question buzzed in the minds of several doctors. This is Xiehe, after all. God, are these few minutes real? Do you follow the same time standards as we do? Men often exaggerate certain figures, usually reporting higher numbers, but this way of reporting clearly contradicts the mainstream. Even as the crowd dispersed, they were still pondering this simplistic yet complex issue in their minds. In the evening, to check on how well the technique of peeling lobsters with chopsticks had been learned, Song Yun took Yang Ping and the others for a lobster meal. Of course, it was Lu Xiaobao who picked up the tab because the restaurant owner had become his prospective father-in-law. Seeing the doctors from Xiehe arriving again, the restaurant owner was overjoyed, especially with Doctor Lu Xiaobao in the group, whose lobster peeling skills hadn¡¯t improved, yet he had begun dating the owner¡¯s daughter. The owner had always desired a son-in-law from Xiehe. It seemed that the matter was nearly settled as the owner¡¯s daughter was a graduate student at Capital Medical University, currently in her second year, and would often help out in the restaurant, making her familiar with the doctors from Xiehe. Lu Xiaobao had already spoken with the restaurant owner in advance, who had reserved the best table for them. ¡°Lu Xiaobao, aren¡¯t you going to help out? Your in-laws are so busy,¡± Song Yun joked as they just seated themselves. Lu Xiaobao genuinely rolled up his sleeves ready to help, but his ¡°father-in-law¡± stopped him: ¡°Just stay and enjoy the meal with your colleagues, and remember to take some goodies home before you leave.¡± The father-in-law had prepared some nutritious goods for them, understanding the hardship of being a doctor. Several waiters were serving, but the father-in-law only roamed around the place, stepping in to help when the waiters were overwhelmed. The mother-in-law oversaw the cash register. Upon hearing of the arrival of ¡°Yang God,¡± Lu Xiaobao¡¯s girlfriend, the restaurant owner¡¯s daughter, insisted on coming from school to meet the legendary Emperor CNS. Lu Xiaobao boasted, ¡°That¡¯s easy. Yang God is my bro, my close friend, and I¡¯ll bring him straight to the restaurant for some lobster.¡± His girlfriend thought Lu Xiaobao was joking, only to find out it was true. She came to help order food as a waitress while Lu Xiaobao shyly ducked his head, to which Song Yun commented, ¡°Look at you, getting all scared like this, what will you do later?¡± ¡°There, it¡¯s a family tradition to fear the wife,¡± Lu Xiaobao defended himself, prompting the young lady¡¯s face to instantly turn beet red. After she left, Kong Weiquan said, ¡°Lu Xiaobao, I suspect you¡¯re dating her just for free lobster, aren¡¯t you?¡± Chapter 1027 - 1027 849 Sloppy Today ?Chapter 1027: Chapter 849: Sloppy Today Chapter 1027: Chapter 849: Sloppy Today Eating lobster was secondary; the crux was in peeling the lobster. Except for Lu Xiaobao, everyone had mastered the technique of using chopsticks to peel lobster, only differing in proficiency. Lu Xiaobao, who ate the most lobsters, had the worst technique. When it came to beheading, tailing, and shelling, Dr. Lu always got stuck at the shelling step. It seemed that he still had to keep eating lobsters. Since they agreed beforehand that only chopsticks could be used for the entire process of peeling the lobsters, and hands were not allowed, everyone¡¯s table was piled up with shrimp shells by the end, except for the pitiful few in front of Lu Xiaobao. It was his treat, in his ¡°father-in-law¡¯s¡± restaurant, and he, who loved eating lobster the most, barely managed to eat a few lobsters because his skills were inferior. He had no one to blame but himself. At the end, Yang Ping took photos with Lu Xiaobao¡¯s girlfriend and classmates. There was no helping it; they were all brothers, and he had to give them face. Actually, girls just like to post on Moments, but of course, that wasn¡¯t the only reason. They followed along not only to see Yang Ping but also with another purpose in mind¡ªthey hoped to organize a mixer, after all, whether male or female, there were still single people studying medicine. It wasn¡¯t that these girls couldn¡¯t find boyfriends; it was just that their standards were even stricter than those for evaluating senior professional titles. For example, they required a PhD for educational qualifications, a 985 or 211 school, and even had requirements for the number and citation index of SCI papers. This wasn¡¯t looking for a boyfriend; this was evaluating professional titles. These girls, hearing that a classmate had found a boyfriend from Xiehe, immediately flocked out. Those doctors from Xiehe, who were PhDs, practically spent 24 hours a day in the hospital every day¡ªhow could they have girlfriends? They didn¡¯t care¡ªthey set up a group first and then organized some mixer events. Lu Xiaobao¡¯s girlfriend wasn¡¯t a pushover; raised on lobster, she clearly stood out and was also a leader in the Student Union of First School of Medicine, with a strong ability to organize. If they really got together in the future, Lu Xiaobao would be totally under her thumb. They didn¡¯t dare to play too late into the night, and Yang Ping stayed in the guesthouse for one night. Professor Liang went out to attend an academic conference this time and talked with Yang Ping on the phone for a long time. The next day, surgeries started as normal. Yang Ping had not only to perform his own surgeries but also to help Director Wen from Cardiac Surgery Department with vascular anastomosis. The first surgery was a nerve root decompression for a cervical spine tumor. In the critical steps, Yang Ping was the chief surgeon himself. He performed the excision of the tumors affecting the nerve roots in bilateral intervertebral foramina of cervical 3/4, 4/5, 5/6, and 6/7 to eliminate the compression on the nerve roots by the tumor, thereby alleviating or eliminating the patient¡¯s pain. This surgery was indeed very difficult. The excision of tumors in these locations was extremely challenging. During the excision process, it was very easy to damage the spinal cord and nerve roots, which could lead to paralysis. The vertebrae are irregular bones with a relatively complex anatomical structure, and the intervertebral foramina composed of the superior and inferior vertebrae are even more complex, completely qualifying as anatomical crannies. The nerve roots emerge from the spinal cord, generally travel downward for a distance, and then turn left and right to exit through the bilateral intervertebral foramina, extending to the trunk and limbs. The nerves from the cervical spine mainly extend to the upper limbs and upper part of the trunk, while the nerves from the lumbar spine generally extend to the lower half of the trunk and lower limbs, each with their fixed distributions. Once the nerve roots are damaged, they cause sensory and motor disorders in their distribution areas. If the spinal cord is damaged, it leads to paraplegia below the level of the spinal cord. Performing surgery in such anatomical crannies requires extremely meticulous operation, using either a scalpel or an even more precise laser knife. Every move is like dancing on the tip of a knife. The operating room was filled with people. Apart from the doctors participating in the surgery, the rest were there to observe. Doctors from other departments, when free, would also come to take a look, just to join in on the excitement. Yang Ping¡¯s department was considered special within Xiehe, surrounded by near-mythical stories, and they were eager to witness this mythical level of surgical skill. Some who had seen Yang Ping¡¯s surgery before would exaggerate their tales, gradually making Yang Ping a legend at Xiehe. Some had not yet seen it and longed to witness this legendary level of excellence for themselves. Moreover, with all doctors in this department being under the age of 35, doctors from other departments also wanted to know just what kind of marvels they could create. The Orthopedics¡¯ patient had already been anesthetized. Song Yun started scrubbing in with junior doctors. In the adjacent operating room, Kong Weiquan was preparing to begin a cervical spine surgery with his team. Kong Weiquan completing the procedure was not an issue; Yang Ping just needed to oversee it. Director Wen from the Cardiac Surgery Department had also started working, and the anesthesiologist had begun administering anesthesia. Yang Ping had a plan. He let Song Yun begin exposing the cervical spine tumor here, estimating that the pace of exposure and the opening of the chest in the Cardiac Surgery Department wouldn¡¯t differ much. Once the chest was opened there, the internal mammary artery would be harvested immediately. After harvesting the internal mammary artery, Yang Ping would assist in the bypass. Of course, Yang Ping would just assist; if they could manage it themselves, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t need to step in. Since he still had to go to the Cardiac Surgery Department¡¯s operating room after that, Yang Ping didn¡¯t scrub in for now. Over at the Cardiac Surgery Department, the patient was also anesthetized, positioned properly, and the junior doctor began to disinfect and lay out the drapes. Director Zhang from Shanghai Children¡¯s Medical Center, invited by Director Wen, was already seated in the operating room. This had been agreed upon in advance, so Director Wen still requested Director Zhang¡¯s assistance. A regular coronary bypass was no big deal for Director Wen; he was very proficient. However, this case was of a very young age, with very thin blood vessels. Director Wen completely lacked experience in this area, and when it came to bypassing such fine coronary arteries with relentless pulsating, he was totally uncertain about accomplishing a vascular anastomosis. Chapter 1028 - 1028 849 Rushed Today Part 2 ?Chapter 1028: Chapter 849 Rushed Today Part 2 Chapter 1028: Chapter 849 Rushed Today Part 2 Doctor Chu was responsible for exposing the heart and the coronary arteries, opening the chest, revealing the heart by opening the pericardium, and dissecting the coronary artery and its branches seamlessly. Doctor Chu¡¯s most frequent task during surgery was to open the chest to expose the heart; once the heart was exposed, he would meticulously hand over the next steps to Director Wen. ¡°Scrub in!¡± With the prelude complete, it was time for the heavyweight to enter the stage. Director Wen, accompanied by Director Zhang, scrubbed in and stepped up. They donned their surgical gowns and sterile gloves, and the patrolling nurse helped them with the head-mounted microscopes. Both directors, fully equipped, stood at the operating table. Although they knew the infant¡¯s heart would be very small, they were still a bit surprised upon seeing it at that moment. The heart was smaller than a walnut, and the coronary arteries were pitifully thin, not even as thick as a strand of hair. Director Wen turned his head, asking the patrolling nurse to flip down his head-mounted microscope, as he reexamined the coronary arteries and their branches under the microscopic view. They were so thin! How to proceed with such size? This was entirely different from adults. Director Zhang, who had come from Shanghai, had previously performed vascular anastomosis on a 14-month-old child; he had installed two bridges during that time. This was his first time seeing a one-month-old infant¡¯s vessels, which were far finer than those of the 14-month-old, and it was a true test of his microsurgical skills. ¡°The child was born prematurely, right?¡± asked Director Zhang. Director Wen replied, ¡°Yes, indeed!¡± ¡°The blood vessels are much finer than expected. Let¡¯s not rush; we¡¯ll take our time.¡± Before coming here, Director Zhang had specifically trained for 1-millimeter vascular anastomosis, but training was one thing, and real action was another. The pressure was immense for Director Zhang. ¡°Take the internal mammary artery!¡± Director Zhang began smoothly to harvest the artery, and after extracting it, passed it to Doctor Chu for processing. Doctor Chu cleaned some of the connective tissue around the internal mammary artery and then cut it into sections as instructed by Director Zhang. Once everything was ready, they began the vascular anastomosis. However, because the vessels were so fine and suspended, Director Zhang felt that his hand movements were clearly not precise enough, failing to reach the state he attained in his training days. As he was about to place a stitch, the heart would beat, moving his needle aside. He did not dare to continue suturing, possibly because he hadn¡¯t caught the rhythm of the heart¡¯s pulsation. Director Zhang regulated his breathing, trying hard to find the rhythm of the heart¡¯s beats. It took at least a dozen attempts before he managed to place a reluctant stitch, and even then, he felt the quality was poor. Seeing Director Zhang struggling, Director Wen suggested: ¡°Please call Professor Yang to come take a look and lend a hand!¡± he commanded the doctors below. A doctoral graduate immediately ran out to Professor Yang Ping¡¯s operating room, ¡°Professor Yang, Director Wen is asking for your assistance. The coronary artery has been exposed, but the vessels are very fine, and they are experiencing difficulties.¡± The cervical spine exposure was almost complete here, so Yang Ping instructed Song Yun, ¡°Set up the self-retracting hooks properly, pad with gauze, make sure there¡¯s complete hemostasis, and then wait for me. I¡¯ll go take a look and be right back.¡± As Yang Ping planned to finish the child¡¯s coronary anastomosis before starting on this side, he had not yet scrubbed in. ¡°Professor Yang?¡± Director Zhang was unaware of who Professor Yang was that Director Wen referred to. Director Wen explained, ¡°He¡¯s a distinguished professor in our orthopedics department, highly skilled in performing vascular anastomosis under the microscope. We discussed preoperatively that if we came across exceedingly fine vessels, we would ask for his assistance. We are getting older, and such delicate tasks should be tried by younger hands.¡± ¡°That could work. You even have a special professor? From which hospital?¡± Director Zhang was curious, as he wanted to take a break and catch his breath. ¡°Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital, the young man who published 13 CNS papers,¡± highlighted Director Wen. Upon hearing about the 13 papers, Director Zhang immediately understood, ¡°You mean that young man? He¡¯s in the operating room now?¡± Before Director Wen could answer, Yang Ping entered with washed hands, and the leading doctoral graduate helped him into his surgical gown and microscope. ¡°The vessels are really fine, less than 1 millimeter, and it¡¯s a bit challenging. We¡¯ve been struggling for a while and have only placed one stitch,¡± Director Wen briefed him on the progress of the surgery. ¡°Has the internal mammary artery been harvested?¡± ¡°It has been.¡± As Yang Ping was arranging his sterile gloves, he approached the operating table. Director Wen moved aside to make room, and Yang Ping looked into the thoracic cavity, then turned his head to have the doctoral graduate adjust his head-mounted microscope. The vessels were indeed very fine, challenging the directors, but if he was going to help, he might as well complete the surgery for them. ¡°How many bridges are needed? Pass the sutures over here, and place a curved plate next to me with ophthalmology scissors in it,¡± Yang Ping said as he took the needle holder from the nurse and began. ¡°Two,¡± said Director Wen. Director Wen thought Yang Ping would take some time to study before proceeding, but the young man was eager to get started right away. These types of surgeries were normally recorded, but there was no screen for observers here, so Director Wen and Director Zhang could only watch directly into the thoracic cavity. Yang Ping sutured and cut the thread himself as seamlessly as stitching leather, without any signs of trepidation. In just a few minutes, a few dozen stitches were placed, and two bridges were completed. ¡°It¡¯s done!¡± As he spoke, the vascular clamps had already been released, and the two grafted arteries began to pulse. Yang Ping gently pressed around the vessels with a piece of gauze, then released, confirming good blood flow with no signs of leakage. ¡°I have another surgery waiting. Directors, I¡¯ll head over there,¡± said Yang Ping. Without lingering, Yang Ping immediately started to remove his gown and gloves, ready to scrub in for the surgery on his side. Chapter 1029 - 1029 849 Sloppy Today Part 3 ?Chapter 1029: Chapter 849: Sloppy Today Part 3 Chapter 1029: Chapter 849: Sloppy Today Part 3 I walked away gently, taking only a sea of bewildered gazes with me! Everyone just watched as Professor Yang hurried onto the stage, and then a few minutes later, hurried off again. The two directors stood there, dumbfounded, still not quite comprehending what had just happened. They both peered inside for a few more glances, then simultaneously turned back to request the doctors below to readjust the microscope. Upon a closer look, the blood vessels had been neatly joined; they were orderly and beautiful, and the coronary artery was pulsating nicely. It¡¯s like they were playing around. The bridge is already built? Is building a bridge that easy? Is this real or fake? The directors exchanged a look, then peered inside once more, very carefully. They gently picked up the vascular clamps to inspect the joined blood vessels. The suture line was indeed neat and even, and they¡¯d never seen a more beautiful stitch. Director Wen wanted to ask a few questions, but Yang Ping had already vanished; his figure was nowhere to be seen in the operating room. They were just preparing for a big operation, and now it¡¯s just abruptly over? Director Zhang uncertainly asked, ¡°Are we done? Shall we close the chest?¡± The two directors, dressed neatly, couldn¡¯t just stand around and then do nothing, right? At the very least, it was a record-breaking surgery. Whether it was the world¡¯s youngest coronary bypass now, who could say, but it was certainly the youngest in China, and there was little doubt it was also the youngest in Asia. The doctors standing aside were also stunned, having never seen such a quick bypass, especially for an infant one month old, the most difficult kind of coronary bypass. Even Professor Xu Yongzhong from Fuwai, whose fastest record for a single bridge was 2 minutes and 30 seconds, held the top record, and that was with an adult. Now, for this one-month-old infant, the time to do two bridges was only about two to three minutes, and he did it all by himself, with no need for an assistant¡¯s help. This level of skill truly defied logic. ¡°Close the chest!¡± commanded Director Wen, and the surgery continued. Yesterday, when Professor Yang mentioned it would only take a few minutes, Director Wen didn¡¯t think much of it, dismissing it as the brash boasting of youth. But it turned out to be true. The speed had taken everyone by surprise. Director Wen stitched, Director Zhang cut the threads. They had flown all the way from Shanghai to Beijing, and today¡¯s work amounted to tying knots and cutting threads. ¡°Why don¡¯t you stitch, and I¡¯ll cut the threads?¡± Director Wen felt a bit embarrassed. After inviting Director Zhang from Shanghai, all that was left for him was to cut threads. He felt obliged to let him do some work with higher technical content. Sewing skin required more skill than cutting threads. Director Zhang replied helplessly, ¡°You keep stitching¡ª Is there really any difference between sewing skin and cutting threads? It¡¯s the same thing, isn¡¯t it? Now, Director Zhang was almost too embarrassed to accept the two thousand yuan ¡®flying knife¡¯ fee. He might as well not charge for it and consider it volunteer work; it was truly awkward. The two directors wordlessly bent their heads and seriously closed the chest. The entire operating room fell silent, save for the hissing of the anesthesia machine. ¡°Anesthesiologist, how¡¯s it going?¡± Director Wen stitched the final suture, and Director Zhang cut the last thread. The anesthesiologist was having trouble: ¡°It might take a long time to wake up.¡± The dose of the drug was a bit high; the operation was initially prepared to last for several hours. Now that it ended so quickly and without any prior notice, who would dare administer only a half-hour¡¯s dosage for surgery meant to last several hours? This was non-stop coronary bypass; if the dose during the operation was insufficient and the patient became restless, it could seriously affect the operation. ¡°Then we wait!¡± said Director Wen helplessly. What else can be done? Today was rushed! Chapter 1030 - 1030 850 Flower Knife ?Chapter 1030: 850 Chapter Flower Knife Chapter 1030: 850 Chapter Flower Knife Indeed, it was a bit awkward. If both senior directors handed over the task of closing the chest to their junior doctors, they wouldn¡¯t be doing anything themselves, which would be unacceptable. If a paper was to be written about this case, Director Wen would definitely be the first author. If he didn¡¯t do anything in the operating room, it would certainly be criticized. Therefore, Director Wen and Director Zhang honestly completed the final step of closing the chest together. The scene was somewhat comical. Several doctors stood around watching the two big shots suture the chest, while under the scrutinizing gaze of everyone, they pretended to be calm, but inside they were extremely uncomfortable. ¡°Place the drainage tube?¡± ¡°Yes, place it!¡± Normally, inserting drainage tubes, determining the length of the tubes, and trimming the side holes were tasks for junior doctors. Now suddenly having to do it themselves, there was a slight unfamiliarity. Doctor Chu stood by without making a sound, just quietly watching the two big shots operate. In the orthopedics operating room, Song Yun had already fully exposed the lateral aspects of cervical vertebrae 4, 5, and 6. The automatic retractors were also in place, and the gauze had been properly placed where needed. After dealing with the cardiac surgery issues, Yang Ping scrubbed back in. The timing was very well-managed and did not affect the progress of his own surgery at all. Seeing Yang Ping return so quickly, Song Yun said, ¡°What? They managed on their own? You¡¯re not needed, Professor?¡± ¡°Oh, I just helped them build two bridges. Let¡¯s start our surgery quickly,¡± replied Yang Ping as he positioned himself, and the preparations for this side of the surgery began. The bypass was completed? That couldn¡¯t be so quick. This wasn¡¯t some simple skin laceration on a finger or a torn tendon that could be dealt with in a few minutes. This was a coronary bypass. Song Yun wanted to ask more about the specifics, but Yang Ping had already started operating, so Song Yun had to keep up with the pace. ¡°Just two bridges, it didn¡¯t take much time. I guess they¡¯re almost finished with their surgery over there,¡± said Yang Ping as he glanced at the surgical field. Song Yun was already performing subperiosteal dissection on the vertebrae plates on both sides, but further lateral dissection was not possible because of the presence of articular processes, transverse processes, and nerve roots entering and exiting through the intervertebral foramen. If the vertebral plate is considered a plain, then these structures are mountainous areas. Subperiosteal dissection can be easily performed on the flat vertebral plate, but it is impossible within the intricate protuberances and crannies. This time, they were using a conventional high-frequency electric knife. Before using the knife, Yang Ping checked that all connections were secure, as the use of an electric knife is very particular and has certain safety protocols. The electric knife cable was fixed at sterile points on the sterile drape without using instrument wraps, which many doctors prefer to use. Due to coupling phenomena, the working cable or electric knife can transfer energy to adjacent cables or metal instruments. If the electric knife cord is wrapped around a fluorescent light tube and the knife is activated, it could light up a lamp that requires 220V. Therefore, if the electric knife cable is wound around vascular clamps or other instruments to fix it, it could cause the clamps to heat up and lead to danger. ¡°Anesthesiologist, what¡¯s the concentration of oxygen for the patient?¡± ¡°30%!¡± It seems the anesthesiologist was also cautious, well-aware that using the electric knife carries the risk of burning the patient if the oxygen concentration is higher than 40%. After everything was confirmed, the surgery began. The tip of the electric knife started extending from the vertebrae plate outward, beginning to perform subperiosteal dissection on the complex transverse processes, superior and inferior articular processes, and vertebral arch roots. This was the real subperiosteal stripping, with the knife always close to the bone, lifting the periosteum cleanly and keeping all other tissues outside it. Subperiosteal stripping with the electric knife was thorough and bloodless, which made the surgery look very smooth. Soon, the dorsal aspect of the vertebrae plates and articular processes from cervical 4 to cervical 6 were fully exposed, and the attached muscles were covered with gauze and then retracted to either side. Zhang Lin and Little Five excelled in the use of retractors; their skill was irreplaceable. Whether it was someone else or automatic retractors, neither could replicate Teacher Zhang and Teacher Wu¡¯s meticulousness with the retractors. The next step was fenestration. The vertebrae plates of three vertebrae needed windows because only through these windows could the tumor, spinal cord, and nerve roots within the vertebral canal be exposed from the dorsal side, and tumor excision around the nerve roots could be performed, as well as cleaning of the intervertebral foramen. In surgical operations, exposure is a profound art. Doctors who don¡¯t understand exposure might work hard for half a day without seeing where the surgical targets are, or even if they can see the targets, they would still feel very constrained in their operations. This is why the same surgery is easy for some and fraught with difficulties for others. Exposure can be a critical factor. Unbeknownst to them, more and more observers accumulated in the operating room, all coming from the cardiac surgery side. When they awoke from their confusion, they realized the extraordinary level of skill displayed by Yang Ping in just those few minutes. The orthopedics operating room was different; it was equipped with screens capable of live broadcasting, intended for teaching. This allowed the doctors below to see the details of the surgery at any time without crowding around the operating table, which would increase the risk of contamination, and where they could not see anything anyway. With the LCD screen connected to cameras on the surgical lights, every detail of the surgery was transmitted to the screen. On the screen at the moment, a faint wisp of smoke drifted past and was captured and carried away by the suction device. The smoke produced by the electric knife had a good name ¡ª aerosol, fumes, or thermal plume. This layer of smoke not only disrupted visibility but also posed health risks to the doctors, so it needed to be cleared immediately. This was typically done with a suction device, but a more advanced method involved a specialized smoke evacuator. Entering the vertebral canal, the electric knife was swapped for a scalpel, and the forceps in hand were exchanged for bipolar electrocoagulation. The dissection within the vertebral canal proceeded close to the nerve roots. The heat from the electric knife could easily cause thermal damage to nerve roots, but the scalpel would not. The scalpel in Yang Ping¡¯s hands took on various postures, allowing the tip to excise the tumor around the nerve root from any angle. However, the tumor had completely enveloped the nerve root, and as everyone pondered how to liberate the nerve root from the tumor¡¯s compression, a section of the nerve root had already been exposed in the surgical field. Under the malicious compression and torment of the tumor, the nerve root had lost its original luster and elasticity. What was once plump and smooth no longer existed, replaced by flattening and indentation. Song Yun, as the assistant, was dazzled by the deft movements of the scalpel in Yang Ping¡¯s hand. If it weren¡¯t for today¡¯s tumor excision surgery in the crannies, Song Yun would have never known that such an ordinary scalpel could be handled in this manner, how flexibly this instrument could be used. ¡°Professor, does this way of handling the scalpel have a name? Why have I never seen it in any textbooks?¡± Song Yun couldn¡¯t help asking. Indeed, if it weren¡¯t for this special kind of surgery, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t be forced to use this self-taught technique that was beyond the textbooks. When he initially mastered this technique, Yang Ping had not thought about naming it, so he casually named it: ¡°Flower knife! Allowing the scalpel tip to be at the best angle at any time, especially suitable for complex anatomical areas.¡± ¡°Flower knife,¡± Song Yun thought, one still hadn¡¯t mastered One-Stroke Flow, and now a new skill, Flower Knife, had emerged¡ªit was a case of lifelong learning. Song Yun remembered this name; he didn¡¯t have time to observe how the surgical knife changed hands in Yang Ping¡¯s hand as he had to concentrate fully on being a good assistant. ¡°Performing subperiosteal dissection is easy on the long bones of limbs, but it¡¯s hard on the complex vertebrae. The vertebrae plate is relatively flat, making it easy to perform subperiosteal dissection. However, the complex anatomical parts such as the intervertebral foramen are almost impossible to do, but subperiosteal dissection is the safest, so when performing orthopedic surgery, you must master subperiosteal dissection on all terrains,¡± Yang Ping commented. The scalpel continued along the nerve root, reaching the intervertebral foramen. The tip adhered to the bone, constantly lifting the complete periosteum. The so-called subperiosteal dissection effectively meant to scrape off the muscle and tendon from the bone seamlessly; achieving removal of muscle and tendon en masse without leaving any residue on the bone¡ªthat¡¯s the qualification for proper subperiosteal dissection, which means completely separating them from between the periosteum and the bone tissue. The blade tip was actually circling inside the oval hole of the intervertebral foramen, inching its way in, and then continuing the dissection on the exit side. ¡°Professor Yang is busy right now.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just taking a look.¡± The cardiac surgery had ended, and during the interval before the next surgery, Director Wen, with Director Zhang in tow, came to see Yang Ping¡ªa few minutes to complete a coronary bypass, and the same person turned out to be an orthopedic doctor. There were quite a few people in the Operating Room, and the two big names couldn¡¯t find appropriate places, so they could only observe the operation on the screen from a distance. The young doctors all concentrated on the surgery, with none noticing anyone coming in. Several intervertebral foramina were dissected in this manner, followed by the tumor excision outside the dura mater. Aside from the intraspinal tumor, Yang Ping planned to clear the tumor in the vertebral canal completely to achieve thorough decompression. There was no clear boundary between the tumor and the dura mater, but Yang Ping still found a latent invisible dividing line. The tumors inside the spinal cord remained untouched, while the tumors outside the dural sac, especially those responsible for pain in the nerve roots, had been completely peeled off, even the intervertebral foramen had been cleaned, making the entry and exit of the nerve roots appear very relaxed. In theory, the nerve roots had been liberated from the pressure of the tumor, and the pain should be relieved, but the actual results were unknown, as there¡¯s much uncertainty in medicine. If Yang Ping was willing, he could have cleanly excised the spinal cord¡¯s tumor, but doing so would be pointless and recklessly increase the potential for a high-risk paralysis. The purpose of surgery is to resolve issues; when that cannot be achieved, no matter how beautiful the surgery is, it is meaningless. Surgery is a means, never an end! ¡°You go ahead with the surgery; I¡¯ll watch here.¡± ¡°Shall I call you over when it¡¯s time to eat?¡± Director Zhang, captivated by the surgery, decided to stay and watch the surgery, as Director Wen had to return to his own Operating Room. How could the surgical knife on the screen be so agile, able to dissect from different angles, as if the surgeon¡¯s hand holding the knife could move 360 degrees, just like a robotic arm? Director Zhang couldn¡¯t help his curiosity and approached the Operating Table to see for himself how the knife was being manipulated so flexibly without understanding how it was grasped. What kind of gripping technique was this, and why had he never seen it before? As an experienced doctor, Director Zhang was proficient in all kinds of gripping positions¡ªthe pencil grip, violin bow hold, palmar grasp, and reverse pick¡ªbut he had never seen this kind of hold. It was reversible, adaptive, worked in all directions; this young man was indeed unconventional, even in his way of holding the knife. Director Zhang was attentive, watching how Yang Ping¡¯s hands moved, then he took a pen from the shelf and held it in a similar manner to test it out; indeed, it was just as he observed¡ªflexible when needed, stable when necessary. The anesthesiologist watched Director Zhang, who felt a bit embarrassed and chuckled. The anesthesiologist pointed to the pen in his hand, ¡°That¡¯s my pen; I need to record some things. Could I have it back, please?¡± PS: I¡¯m a bit busy today, so I¡¯m posting less, please excuse me! Chapter 1031 - 1031 851 A Professor Should Look the Part ?Chapter 1031: Chapter 851: A Professor Should Look the Part Chapter 1031: Chapter 851: A Professor Should Look the Part The anesthesiologist said so, and Director Zhang hurriedly returned the pen. Professor Yang really had something interesting. The way he held the knife was quite innovative and especially effective. Previously, Director Zhang had never given any thought to the posture of holding a knife; surgeons had been holding it the same way for one to two hundred years without anyone thinking it was incorrect. Indeed, in medicine, certain practices are just like that, continuing on tradition without necessarily knowing why¡ªthey were simply passed down by the older generations. Then one day, someone came up with an innovation, and everyone suddenly realized it could be done differently. The tumor within the vertebral canal and outside the dura mater had been completely resected, including the tumor in the intervertebral foramen, cleaned thoroughly. The nerve roots were no longer compressed, a string of tumor tissue was tossed into a metal basin ready to be sent to the Pathology Department for examination. Several freed nerves lay quietly in the vertebral canal, freely extending through the intervertebral foramen, and then racing toward their own world. The numerous scars on their ¡°bodies¡± were a testament to the humiliation of being oppressed, which they once resisted with pain. Now, without the oppression, resistance had disappeared as well. Perhaps the patient could now sleep peacefully for a certain period of time, living pain-free. ¡°Professor! The patient shouldn¡¯t feel pain anymore, right?¡± asked Song Yun. Yang Ping handed back the instrument to the transfer curved plate, ¡°I¡¯ll answer you after tonight.¡± Song Yun was taken aback, this reply was somewhat cunning¡ªsince when had the professor become so wryly humorous? ¡°Close the incision now, old rules, use interrupted sutures for each layer.¡± Yang Ping stepped aside from the chief surgeon¡¯s position, leaving the rest of the closure to Song Yun. As a professor, he should act the part. For most of the tissues inside the skin, surgeons prefer continuous suturing¡ªfast is the word! But if one stitch loosens in continuous suturing, the entire layer might become loose, and even the reverse barbed wire can¡¯t solve this problem. Interrupted suturing is time-consuming, but if one stitch loosens, it¡¯s just that one stitch. Each stitch is independent, not interfering with each other; its safety is better than continuous suturing. Caution ensures a safe voyage for ten thousand years¡ªthis phrase is definitely true in medicine. Song Yun, along with a Doctor, began closing the incision, observing the surgical area clean and almost bloodless. Song Yun didn¡¯t even want to place a drain, but still followed protocol and inserted one. ¡°Professor Yang, your way of holding the knife is quite special, is there a reason behind it?¡± Director Zhang was quite curious as he helped Yang Ping off with his surgical gown and inquired. ¡°Fancy knife holding! Also known as flower knife!¡± Yang Ping responded. Fancy knife holding, flower knife¡ªsuch a pretentious name, but indeed, it sounds good and has style. ¡°Can you teach me? It seems very practical?¡± Director Zhang didn¡¯t care about losing face. One can always learn from those who are capable. This young man had more than just one or two skills; it was clear he wholesale¡¯d them. If Director Zhang found it useful, so did all the other doctors. As soon as he asked, the other surgeons immediately turned their heads to listen. Since they were asking, Yang Ping was not ambiguous; the anesthesiologist next to him offered his pen: ¡°Would you demonstrate with this?¡± To demonstrate it, Yang Ping took the pen, and used it as if he was juggling¡ªallowing the tip to nearly rotate 360 degrees without any dead angle. The anesthesiologist, who was closest, was dizzy watching it. Despite being skilled at spinning pens during his high school days, he had never seen anything like this. Moreover, what Yang Ping was doing wasn¡¯t pen spinning, because the pen was firmly held in his hand, with just a few fingers cooperating, allowing the pen tip to present different angles, each one firmly controlled in his hand. Really flashy! Director Zhang finally understood why it was called the flower knife, planning to ponder over this skill once he returned. Professor Hu Guolin, Vice Director of Orthopedics at Xiehe Hospital, also took the opportunity to come and take a look: firstly, to show concern for Yang Ping, and secondly, to see if he could learn something new. He was mainly interested in observing the second surgery, which was the spinal scoliosis surgery. The patient had congenital spinal cord bulging, and the surgical risk was extremely high. Doctors would generally refuse to perform surgery on such cases. But the greatest advantage of Yang Ping¡¯s Yang-style osteotomy was reducing the risk of postoperative paralysis. Its principle was to use multiple scientific osteotomies to disperse the deformation of the spinal cord, as the cause of postoperative paralysis from spine correction surgeries is due to spinal cord deformation from compression or traction, leading to spinal cord injury. As Director Hu Guolin entered the Operating Room, he encountered Yang Ping teaching the art of the ¡°flower knife¡± technique. He thought there was a halftime break for acrobatic entertainment in the operating room. Why was Professor Yang so leisurely today? If it had been someone else, Director Hu would certainly have sternly criticized them. The Operating Room is a sacred and serious place. What¡¯s with the entertainment? The surgery isn¡¯t over yet. But it was Yang Ping, and Director Hu had no choice but to put on a smiling face. ¡°Is Professor Yang performing acrobatics?¡± he asked. ¡°It¡¯s not acrobatics, it¡¯s a new surgical knife grip position¡ªfancy knife holding! Professor Yang is actually giving a live demonstration,¡± Director Zhang explained from the side. The anesthesiologist also nodded in agreement. ¡°I¡¯m learning as well.¡± ¡°What does an anesthesiologist need to learn about holding a surgical knife for?¡± Director Hu Guolin took a closer look and saw that, indeed, it was about how to hold a surgical knife. He was intrigued to see that a knife could be held in such a way, but the teaching session ended there. The second surgery was a spinal scoliosis correction. The patient¡¯s spine was bent at a 90-degree angle. Compared to previous ¡°Folding Man¡± cases, this one seemed much milder, but due to congenital spinal cord bulging, the difficulty of the surgery was not any easier. The risk of paraplegia from the surgery was even greater than with the ¡°Folding Man.¡± However, with the aid of the Yang-style Osteotomy, the risk would be minimized, so it wasn¡¯t considered a difficult task. For the second surgery, Yang Ping only planned to oversee the operation from the Operating Table, with Song Yun acting as Chief Surgeon. Song Yun as Chief Surgeon for this surgery? Director Hu Guolin broke out in cold sweat. Even if he were the Chief Surgeon, he would be trembling and unsure. ¡°Professor Yang, aren¡¯t you going to perform the surgery yourself?¡± Director Hu Guolin asked, beating around the bush. Yang Ping answered breezily, ¡°No worries, they can handle it. I¡¯ll just be up there to supervise.¡± Shouldn¡¯t a professor act like one, and perform the surgery themselves? The surgery went very smoothly, showcasing the strengths of the Yang-style Osteotomy to the fullest. The third surgery involved a patient with parasites. Indeed, a tapeworm measuring over 30 centimetres in length was removed from the patient on the operating table, along with a lot of tapeworm secretions and segments, confirming the diagnosis of parasites. The tapeworm was sent to the Pathology Department for further examination. Yang Ping alternated between two Operating Tables, guiding surgeries. It still meant a late finish after the day¡¯s surgeries were complete. But at Xiehe Hospital, working late into the night was normal; leaving early in the afternoon would be abnormal. Yang Ping still stayed to rest in the department. After all, Song Yun and Kong Weiquan and the others were all sleeping in the department, so they could also chat. In the evening, Qiu Nuo even cooked some dumplings and brought them over for everyone to eat. Even Song Yun found it odd. Why was the beauty from the Operating Room so good to the guys from Orthopedics? There were invites to meals and she even personally brought over night snacks. Such kindness was unusual. ¡ª Pan Doudou had been living in the General Surgery Department, solely relying on parenteral nutrition for sustenance. Apart from organ transplant, there were no other options for her, and she was also willing to undergo a transplant. After suffering for so many years, she was desperate to end her suffering and fully willing to accept the transplant solution. In fact, she hadn¡¯t just looked into one hospital; other than symptomatic treatments like enemas, there were no alternatives. With the internet so advanced, she could easily research and understand her condition. After learning about her illness, she had searched for information and at this stage, there were no other solutions. Waiting for a suitable donor, she stayed hospitalized in the hopes of finding one. Director Fang had been actively searching for a suitable donor for her and, finally, good news came from the Second People¡¯s Hospital of the City. A young person had been declared brain dead after a car accident, and the family agreed to donate organs. Moreover, the data suggested a good match with Pan Doudou. But PS: I¡¯ve been so busy these past few days, and today¡¯s post is shorter than usual. The draft is still not edited well. I¡¯m posting it now and will modify it when I have time tomorrow. Thank you, everyone! Chapter 1032 - 1032 852 Which Immortal ?Chapter 1032: Chapter 852: Which Immortal? Chapter 1032: Chapter 852: Which Immortal? Late at night, Director Fang immediately called Yang Ping, who was far away in Beijing, informing him that Pan Doudou had located a suitable donor and surgery was urgently needed. Such a surgery was definitely beyond what Director Fang could handle alone; it required Yang Ping¡¯s return. However, Director Fang could start the procedure and continue while waiting for Yang Ping. Although this approach carried certain risks, it was the only available option. Yang Ping woke from his sleep and calculated the time. Although he would miss the optimal surgery window, there was still time to make it. He immediately began searching for the earliest flight back to Nandu. Just as he had secured a ticket, Director Fang called again, saying the family had changed their minds and refused organ donation, causing the surgery to be postponed. Director Fang¡¯s sudden news was alarming, but Yang Ping had grown accustomed to this. His phone¡¯s ring could wake him immediately, and he could clear his mind in an instant. After hanging up, he could quickly fall asleep again upon lying back down on the bed. Since this was the case, Yang Ping was no longer in a rush to return and continued his teaching duties at Xiehe Hospital, deciding to go back to sleep. The next day, Professor Liang¡¯s meeting was still not finished, but he returned early because he wanted to see Yang Ping. In the next day¡¯s surgery, Song Yun and Kong Weiquan were key players, but other doctors were also given a chance to perform certain tasks. Yang Ping primarily provided guidance from the sidelines. With a group of young doctors working together, everyone felt quite relaxed. Around ten in the morning, Professor Liang called to say he had arrived at the changing room. Yang Ping immediately went out to meet him. Professor Liang looked healthier and spoke with a strong voice. As they walked together, Professor Liang said, ¡°This conference I attended focused on regenerative biomedicine, which is currently a forefront and a strategic high ground in life sciences and medical research. In particular, the stem cell field is highly valued by the country. However, the technology is heavily guarded internationally, especially by the Western countries, which also block us from accessing related experimental equipment. The situation is not optimistic, as you know. Our attempts to attract leading talents have failed, so we must progress step by step on our own. How is your project progressing?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the project is going quite smoothly,¡± Yang Ping responded. Professor Liang was very pleased. ¡°That¡¯s great. We shouldn¡¯t rush. We must follow the intrinsic laws of scientific research and aim for a breakthrough within five years and substantial success within ten years. We must be patient and endure solitude.¡± ¡°Young people must take care of their health and certainly not overwork themselves. In scientific work, you need scientific rest. Any difficulties at work?¡± Professor Liang added. ¡°Nothing too challenging at the moment; everything is going well. The leadership at the hospital has been very supportive of everything I do,¡± Yang Ping continued the conversation. ¡°Xia Changjiang is a capable and decisive director, and Han Jiangong has a unique vision. I am more at ease with you being at Sanbo Hospital than anywhere else.¡± ¡°Thank you for your concern, Professor Liang.¡± ¡°Of course, we are getting old; the world belongs to your generation.¡± As they passed the pancreatic surgery operating room, a nurse hurriedly pushed a trolley with many bags of blood into the room. Looking through the small glass window in the door, Professor Liang said, ¡°Let¡¯s go in; I want to speak with Director Long.¡± At that moment, Director Long was intently performing surgery on the operating table. It seemed that a blood vessel had snapped back after being cut, making it difficult to stop the bleeding, so he was searching within the abdominal cavity for the bleeding vessel. Through a gap among the observers, Yang Ping glanced inside and saw Director Long continuously stuffing gauze into the area; the bleeding must have been significant, and the vessel looked quite large. But Director Long deserved his reputation; he remained calm and composed, diligently searching for the blood vessel while still managing to keep an eye on the happenings around the operating room. ¡°Pancreatic cancer surgery, quite troublesome. A blood vessel has snapped back, probably a tumor¡¯s aberrant vessel; the bleeding is pretty severe,¡± Director Long said to Professor Liang who had just walked in, even though he kept his head down searching, perhaps catching a glimpse from the corner of his eye or hearing Professor Liang¡¯s voice. ¡°Pack it with gauze, use the aortic clamp; if that doesn¡¯t work, temporarily block the aorta. It¡¯s turned upside down indeed, really thought you could get the better of me,¡± Director Long scolded the receding blood vessel. ¡°Xiao Lu, notify the Intervention Department, if it really doesn¡¯t work, we might need to do an angiography to see if we can embolize it,¡± Director Long was a master with many tactics, having seen all sorts of situations; he was not intimidated by a retracting blood vessel. ¡°What kind of surgery is this?¡± Yang Ping casually asked a graduate student next to him. The graduate student mentioned that it was pancreatic cancer, tricky in how it had grown. Not only was the duodenum affected, but the tumor also invaded the spleen and liver, growing around the pancreas and liver blood vessels, particularly throwing out from the hepatic portal and entangling with the vessels. The patient was young, in his thirties, and his family had sold their house to afford the surgery at Xiehe Hospital. ¡°How much blood is prepared?¡± Director Long asked. At this time, blood was the most precious resource; it could extend life and buy time, giving doctors the opportunity to perform the rescue. ¡°4 units of suspended red blood cells!¡± 4 units of suspended red blood cells, totaling 800 milliliters of blood¡ªnowhere near enough with the blood flowing like a tap; it was almost a joke. Initially, the surgery was not led by Director Long but by a young deputy chief physician, Director Liao, who had performed the surgery beautifully, especially for pancreatic cancer, which was quite an achievement. But he had one flaw: extreme self-confidence, or so-called arrogance due to his skill. Chapter 1033 - 1033 852 Which Immortal is This_2 ?Chapter 1033: Chapter 852: Which Immortal is This?_2 Chapter 1033: Chapter 852: Which Immortal is This?_2 This patient was originally advocated by Director Long for ex-vivo resection, as the tumor was too tricky to be removed by traditional methods. But Dr. Liao, wanting to show off his skills, thought the risks of ex-vivo resection were too high and that the surgery would take too long, so he considered the traditional surgical method safer and more controllable. At the time, there wasn¡¯t enough blood prepared for transfusion. Director Liao, who had been performing this surgery without issues for ten years, believed he was highly skilled. When it came to preparing blood, the Blood Transfusion Department had said that at most 4 units were available and it would take two days to provide more. Director Liao couldn¡¯t wait; if it was 4 units, then 4 units it would be. Normally, there wouldn¡¯t be any problems with this surgery. Unexpectedly, when separating the tumor on the operating table, the blood vessels were inadvertently cut, causing a gush of blood to spurt out. The urgent issue was that the blood vessel had retracted behind the pancreas, so it was impossible to locate where it had turned to. ¡°How could 4 units be enough, are you kidding me? Add 6 more units and request another 2,000 milliliters of plasma; otherwise, we won¡¯t be able to hold on. Call the blood bank, hurry up with the blood reinforcements!¡± Director Long had a temper in the operating room, but he never cursed anyone. Now that Director Liao had turned the surgery into such a mess, and Director Long had come to save the day without hesitation or reprimanding Director Liao even once since his arrival. The patrolling nurse had already urged the blood bank many times, but it was to no avail; they also couldn¡¯t procure blood. Sometimes, when resources at the blood bank were tight, nobody could do anything about it. The patrolling nurse had no choice but to call the blood bank again and put it on speakerphone: ¡°Director Mi, this is Pancreatic Surgery. Director Long will speak with you.¡± ¡°Old Mi! I need you to save a life, the bleeding is so massive; how can 4 units be enough? Add another 6 units immediately and 10 more units after that; we can¡¯t conclude the surgery with less than 20 units.¡± ¡°Oh Old Long, we¡¯re helpless, too; the people at the blood station have been prodded so much they¡¯re about to curse; O-type blood is tight as it is, and you should have anticipated a surge in demand like this¡ª¡± ¡°Bullshit is useless, do me a favor, hurry up with the reinforcements, I¡¯ll thank you later.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do my best¡ª¡± If it were permissible, the Blood Transfusion Department wouldn¡¯t make things difficult for doctors at this time; Director Long understood this principle. Although he was irritable, he remained sufficiently rational, and despite speaking loudly as if he were causing a big scene, he actually hadn¡¯t quarreled with the Blood Transfusion Department. Lacking sufficient blood, Director Long¡¯s confidence was undermined, but as an experienced general, he kept his cool and carefully searched for the blood vessels behind the liver and pancreas. Nonetheless, the situation was maddening; the tumor was situated behind, making it impossible to flip it over without removing the liver and pancreas from the body. However, this had not been discussed before the surgery, and to suddenly broach this subject now would surely not be understood by the family. Yet even if they couldn¡¯t understand, it was necessary to have that discussion. ¡°Xiao Liao, if it comes down to it, we¡¯ll have to do an ex-vivo resection and autotransplantation. Go communicate with the family and have them sign again,¡± said Director Long to Director Liao. Director Liao had never had such a mishap in surgery before and was now somewhat stunned. Director Long said to him, ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of? Go on, I¡¯ve got this covered here. You go talk; Xiao Lu, you accompany Director Liao.¡± Dr. Lv was more eloquent, and Director Liao, not being articulate, was overtly nervous at this moment, which meant he definitely wouldn¡¯t articulate well. Now was the time for someone with strong communication skills to help. ¡°Xiao Lu, you take care of the communication; just have Director Liao stand by,¡± said Director Long. Although Director Long was anxious, he was clear-headed and knew that it was completely inappropriate for Dr. Liao to handle the communication now. There was still no news from the Blood Transfusion Department, and the patient¡¯s blood pressure kept dropping. The odds looked grim, and although doctors must inevitably face patient deaths, it would still be incredibly nerve-wracking for the chief surgeon involved in such a situation. Director Liao was visibly tense and distressed now. ¡°Perk up, there¡¯s nothing to fear; go with Xiao Lu. Nurse, hand me the aortic clamp; I need to block the aorta,¡± ordered Director Long, managing tasks while continuing the surgery. A non-damaging aortic clamp was passed over, and Director Long performed a blockage on the aorta. Even with the aorta blocked, there was a limited window to locate the blood vessel, and failing to find it meant it was all in vain. ¡°I must be cursed today,¡± cursed Director Long. Just then, a deputy director from the Intervention Department arrived to assist, ¡°Director Long, do we need to perform an angiography for embolization?¡± ¡°Yes, the vessels can¡¯t be found right now,¡± said Director Long, multitasking. The doctor from the Intervention Department immediately familiarized themselves with the case details, particularly the imaging, as they needed to be prepared for the intervention shortly. ¡°This setup won¡¯t do; we need to move you. Why don¡¯t we have a hybrid operating room?¡± observed the doctor from the Intervention Department, noticing that the current location was unsuitable for intervention. Yang Ping stood before the lightbox, scrutinizing the patient¡¯s enhanced CT scans and the angiographic images of the tumor. Before the surgery, the patient had undergone interventional treatment, seemingly through embolization, to reduce the size of the tumor and block some vessels to minimize intraoperative bleeding. Professor Liang was also observing, but as an Orthopedics Professor, he was not very skilled at interpreting CT images from the General Surgery Department. Having reviewed all the images brought into the Operating Room, Yang Ping had a complete understanding of the relationship between the tumor and the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and spleen, as well as their blood vessel distribution. He already had a three-dimensional anatomy diagram in his mind. ¡°This blood vessel is prone to injury, and it¡¯s very likely that this particular vessel was damaged. If it¡¯s this one, the location is very deep, and we can¡¯t find it without lifting the liver out. We could proceed without ex-vivo, but we would have to use vascular clamps blindly,¡± Yang Ping said, pointing to the blood vessel angiography on the screen. Upon hearing this, Professor Liang had complete faith in Yang Ping¡¯s words. In such a critical moment, Professor Liang immediately spoke to Director Long, ¡°Director Long, let Professor Yang help you out; he¡¯s familiar with this.¡± Director Long was startled¡ªwho¡¯s this? Is he capable? But this was Professor Liang¡¯s suggestion, and whether he believed it or not, he was inclined to trust. Thus, after a momentary pause, he immediately said, ¡°Scrub in and step up on the stage!¡± ¡°Xiao Yang, go help,¡± Professor Liang urged without hesitation. Yang Ping immediately went to scrub in, and shortly after, he returned, dressed and gloved, ready to step up to the Operating Table. ¡°Let me do it!¡± Upon stepping up to the Operating Table, Yang Ping appeared like a general entering the battlefield, projecting a very strong presence. Director Long was startled, but since it was Professor Liang who had invited Yang Ping on stage, and Professor Liang was an Academician, it couldn¡¯t be a mistake. ¡°You do it; the bleeding point is likely to be around here,¡± Director Long said, handing over the chief surgeon position. Yang Ping took his stance, ¡°Large curve pliers! Two of them!¡± After receiving the two large curve pliers from the Nurse, he gently maneuvered them around the top and bottom of the liver, reaching behind it. With minimal movement of the vascular clamps, the two pliers gently opened and closed, then Yang Ping slowly withdrew them. ¡°Director Long, clamp the vascular clamps!¡± Yang Ping called to Director Long. Director Long, still not fully comprehending, took a closer look and saw two vascular clamps, each clamping an end of a blood vessel. In other words, both ends of the vessel were now under his control. The sight nearly brought tears of joy to Director Long¡¯s eyes. He immediately asked a Nurse for vascular clamps, then clamped down hard on both ends of the vessel and stitched them up firmly. After suturing, Yang Ping released the aortic clamp, and as the Suction Device cleared the blood accumulated inside, there was no more significant bleeding in the surgical area. Indeed, there was no more bleeding, and everyone was on tiptoes, trying to get a glimpse. After bustling for so long, Yang Ping had resolved the issue in just a few minutes. Who was this extraordinary person? Director Long asked Professor Liang, ¡°Old Liang, who¡¯s the deity you¡¯ve recommended?¡± Indeed, which deity was this? There were doctors present who did not recognize Yang Ping, as they were not from the same department. ¡°Orthopedics¡¯ independently appointed expert consultant Yang Ping!¡± Yang Ping! The renowned Yang Ping. Director Long had only heard the name but had never met the man. Now, he was shocked to see him in person in such a manner. ¡°So it¡¯s Yang God, no wonder he¡¯s so formidable. I¡¯m sincerely convinced; I¡¯ll treat you to dinner tonight,¡± Director Long said, expressing his gratitude. Doctor Lv and Director Liao returned breathlessly, ¡°The family has agreed to our plan.¡± ¡°No need for that now, the bleeding has stopped, and it shouldn¡¯t be a big problem. Hurry and have the Blood Transfusion Department bring some blood over,¡± Director Long said, after inspecting the surgical area and found no further bleeding. ¡°It was all you, Director Long!¡± Even Director Liao, who was usually reticent, couldn¡¯t help but offer his compliments. ¡°It wasn¡¯t my merit. I also struggled without success for quite some time. If we are to thank anyone, it should be Professor Yang from Orthopedics, who just came to our aid,¡± Director Long said, being a forthright person. Professor Yang, in Xiehe Hospital everybody knows who you are. Everyone has heard the name, though some may not have met you in person. Chapter 1034 - 1034 853 Why is the surgery not bleeding dont ?Chapter 1034: Chapter 853: Why is the surgery not bleeding, don¡¯t scare me! Chapter 1034: Chapter 853: Why is the surgery not bleeding, don¡¯t scare me! Unexpectedly, Professor Liang, accompanied by Yang Ping, came in to take a glance and inadvertently helped Director Long solve a major problem. There was also surgery in Orthopedics, which Professor Liang wanted to observe, so he couldn¡¯t stay long in the Pancreatic Surgery operating room. Initially, Professor Liang entered to say a few words to Director Long; after this little interlude, he actually forgot what he had wanted to say. He thought about it for a long time and couldn¡¯t remember. It wasn¡¯t anything urgent or important, anyway. ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯m treating tonight. Make sure you remember and call all your Ward Department brothers,¡± said Director Long keenly. Director Long was serious about treating. ¡°Xiao Lu, later you tally the number of people and book a nice place in advance,¡± Director Long instructed Dr. Lv. Doctor Liao watched Director Long busy and sweating profusely, feeling somewhat embarrassed. She had always felt that Director Long was overly cautious, seemingly fearful and lacking courage. In this surgery, Director Long had warned to have enough blood ready and had also suggested using Ex-Vivo Tumor Resection + Autologous Organ Transplant; otherwise, the tumor couldn¡¯t be removed and it was easy to cut the blood vessels, especially those at the posterior side of the tumor. Once cut and they retracted, it would be very difficult to stop the bleeding. Now that it actually happened, the typically self-confident Doctor Liao couldn¡¯t help but feel upset, realizing the director wasn¡¯t timid but cautious. In critical moments, the director was calm and composed, a true sign of great courage. ¡°Xiao Liao, come here, continue with the surgery. Switch to Ex-Vivo Resection, otherwise it¡¯s too forced. I¡¯ll assist you,¡± Director Long handed the surgery back to Doctor Liao. ¡°Director¡ªI¡¯m sorry!¡± Doctor Liao scrubbed up again and returned to the operating table, feeling very regretful. ¡°What are you talking about? Which doctor doesn¡¯t experience this? Without experience, how can you grow? It¡¯s fine. Come on, let¡¯s continue the surgery. Just make sure to prepare thoroughly in the future; you must never be careless in any surgery,¡± Director Long stepped aside from the Chief Surgeon¡¯s position, without any trace of blaming Doctor Liao. Intelligent people like Doctor Liao, having experienced this once, would know what it means to tread on thin ice, and that caution is the parent of safety. The original traditional Resection was now changed to Ex-Vivo Resection and autologous reconstruction. Such a significant change in surgical method needed to be reported to the Medical Services Office. Director Long made the phone call, of course, with the Patrolling Nurse dialing for him, and then spoke a few words on loudspeaker. Lu Dong said he would come to the operating room to sign the papers. Thus, the crisis in the Pancreatic Surgery was averted. In fact, such a tumor couldn¡¯t be removed with the traditional surgical technique at all; it wasn¡¯t about whether it was reluctantly done or not. It was perplexing why Director Liao had forcefully proceeded in this manner. The Pancreatic Surgery continued. The surgery was significant, raising doubts whether Director Long could make good on his dinner invitation. The Pancreatic Surgery at Xiehe Hospital ranked top nationally, so Director Long also performed Ex-Vivo Resections, but not very many. ¡°Professor Yang, did you do General Surgery before?¡± Director Long curiously asked. Yang Ping was unsure how to respond, so he said, ¡°I like to dabble in such operations in my spare time.¡± What kind of answer was that, Director Long thought, puzzled¡ªwhat does it mean, ¡®dabble in it if interested?¡¯ Upon leaving the Pancreatic Surgery operating room, Professor Liang and Yang Ping were up to date on Song Yun and Kong Weiquan¡¯s surgeries, which were going smoothly. Yang Ping had nothing particularly to do, so he sat down in a corner of the operating room to chat with Professor Liang. ¡°Do you also study Pancreatic Surgery?¡± Professor Liang asked. ¡°I¡¯ve had a little exposure,¡± Yang Ping replied. A little exposure? Today, just a few minutes on the operating table had solved a problem that even Director Long, a leading figure in national Pancreatic Surgery, couldn¡¯t solve. His real capabilities went unsaid. ¡°I¡¯m with the Surgical Research Institute at Sanbo Hospital. It¡¯s quite mixed; we do all kinds of surgeries: heart, brain, liver, gall, pancreas, everything. I¡¯ve got another Pancreas, Small Intestine, and Stomach Organ Cluster Transplant surgery when I get back,¡± Yang Ping elaborated. ¡°You do Organ Transplants?¡± Professor Liang exclaimed in disbelief. ¡°Sometimes, just for fun,¡± Yang Ping replied casually. Professor Liang¡¯s eyes widened with Yang Ping¡¯s response¡ªdoing it just for fun? Are you kidding an old man like me? The doctors nearby, overhearing the conversation between Yang Ping and Professor Liang, were also stunned. What kind of person was this, performing all kinds of surgery and treating Organ Transplant like a leisure activity? ¡°I heard from Song Yun that you¡¯re working on a new project in Spinal Surgery?¡± Professor Liang inquired. ¡°Yes, it involves using Epiphyseal Precise Stimulation and Blockade Technology to correct children¡¯s spinal curvature.¡± ¡°If your technology is successful, many children¡¯s skeletal deformities can be treated with this method.¡± Epiphyseal Blockade Technology had already been used in correcting some skeletal deformities in children, but the applications were limited and rather basic¡ªbecause the precise management of epiphyseal blocking was not mastered. At that moment, a Doctor from the Pancreatic Surgery Department rushed to Yang Ping: ¡°Director Long said to please come and check their surgery.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be right there.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll come, too.¡± And so, Yang Ping and Professor Liang returned to the Pancreatic Surgery operating room. With Director Long back at the helm, it indicated the surgery was facing difficulties, prompting him to take over again. The Blood Transfusion Department hadn¡¯t yet resolved the blood issue. Relying on just four units of Red Blood Cells, such a major surgery wasn¡¯t feasible. Although there had been no further Blood Vessel Retraction, the tumor¡¯s complex vasculature caused severe bleeding during separation. Without controlling the hemorrhage and sufficient blood available, the surgery simply couldn¡¯t proceed. Having just witnessed Yang Ping¡¯s expertise, Director Long hoped Yang Ping, with his sensitivity to vascular anatomy, could help by reviewing the images and pointing out a few critical blood vessels. ¡°There are too many blood vessels in the tumor, making it difficult to proceed; more challenging than expected,¡± Director Long admitted. Actually, the surgery suffered from inadequate preparation and a lack of sufficient blood. Doctor Liao had been a bit careless, which made the operation exceedingly difficult. If the preparation had been thorough, Director Long wouldn¡¯t have faced such difficulty. ¡®Let me see?¡¯ Yang Ping walked to the light box used for reviewing X-rays, where this time a doctoral student was specifically assigned to help change the X-rays. ¡®Indeed, three, four, five ¡ª these dozens of blood vessels, intertwining from different directions, it¡¯s tricky to make a move.¡¯ ¡®I just dealt with a few of them, there was no bleeding, I didn¡¯t dare to proceed.¡¯ Director Long was quite straightforward. ¡®Director Mi is still trying to find a solution.¡¯ The patrolling nurse reported the progress; anyway, there was definitely no bleeding at the moment. ¡®How about I scrub in and take a look?¡¯ Yang Ping volunteered. Director Long couldn¡¯t be more grateful: ¡®I really appreciate it, please come up and help us out.¡¯ With Yang Ping on the operating table, at least if a larger blood vessel were damaged, with his recent hemostasis skills, he could help to immediately locate and clamp the vessel. Yang Ping scrubbed in and stepped up to the operating table, where Professor Liang was resting in the corner. Director Long gave up his spot for Yang Ping to examine the situation. Upon inspection, true to his reputation as the head of pancreatic surgery at Xiehe, he had dealt with several blood vessels in such a short time without sufficient blood ready¡ªthis kind of surgery was something only a few hospitals in the country dared to perform, not to mention performing it to such a standard. ¡®There is an artery spurting blood here, small bend!¡¯ Yang Ping took the curved plate vascular clamps, reached in, and clamped the small artery. Director Long promptly tied it off. ¡®Bipolar electrocoagulation!¡¯ Yang wasn¡¯t very satisfied with the hemostasis in the surgical area; by his standards, it had to be spotless inside. After working magic with the bipolar electrocoagulation inside, the surgical area underwent a miraculous transformation. Compared to when he had first arrived, it seemed like there was no bleeding at all¡ªit was spotless, looking very comforting to the eye. ¡®Professor Yang, with your hemostasis skills, any surgery would be an extra layer of safety,¡¯ Director Long couldn¡¯t help but exclaim. Let me see how these blood vessels are arranged, Yang Ping thought, lifting several vascular clamps with traction threads, observing the progress of the surgery that Director Long had made and planning the next step in detail. ¡®Scalpel!¡¯ The instrumental nurse hesitated slightly, Yang Ping knew he had startled her; this was not an area where one could freely use a scalpel. ¡®I¡¯m used to dissecting with a scalpel.¡¯ Only then did the instrumental nurse pass it over. With a toothless clip in one hand and a scalpel in the other, Yang Ping began to separate the tumor, searching for its blood supply. Watching the forceps and scalpel in Yang¡¯s hands, Director Long felt a bit dizzy¡ªthe speed was too fast, the movements delicate yet bold, not at all like his own tentative approach. Yang¡¯s scalpel moved as if it were in an uninhabited area, unreservedly. Yet his incisions were precise, one blood vessel after another was dissected out, followed by clamping, tying, or suturing, as if Yang had planted the blood vessels himself and was now simply digging them back out. ¡®Place a curved plate next to me, inside put a bipolar electrocoagulator, two small curved vascular clamps.¡¯ Yang Ping¡¯s surgical habits were such that to avoid repeated handing of instruments, the commonly used ones like bipolar electrocoagulation and clamps were kept on the curved plate accessible for frequent alternation, allowing him to take them himself. So there he was, Yang Ping with forceps in his left hand and the bipolar electrocoagulator in his right, ice his left hand, quickly switching between the instruments. The scalpel and forceps worked together to dissect; whenever they came across a blood vessel, regardless of size, the scalpel made sure to separate a section of the vessel, revealing it quite clearly. Then, the instrument in the left hand would switch to the vascular clamps, clamping down on both the distal and proximal ends of the vessel, with the scalpel cutting in between. If it was a finer blood vessel, the instrument in the left hand would then be exchanged for the bipolar electrocoagulator to cauterize it; if it was a larger vessel, Yang would remind Director Long to tie it off or suture it. The curved plate was placed within easy reach of the left hand. Yang never took his eyes off the surgical area and didn¡¯t look at the plate, yet during the rapid exchange of instruments, he never grabbed the wrong one, nor did he ever need to try twice to get it right. This marvelous operation, even for the seasoned doctors from Xiehe who had seen plenty, was something they were witnessing for the first time. They all crowded around the operating table, and the crowd pushed closer to the limit as they began to jostle one another. What was even more extraordinary was Yang¡¯s ability to freely choose which instrument to use in each hand, entirely dictated by the needs of the surgery. It had just been a right-handed scalpel and left-handed other instruments, and now it immediately switched to a left-handed scalpel and right-handed other instruments. The instant he switched, Director Long was startled. Using a scalpel in this area was quite risky, and now that Yang was holding the knife in his left hand, how could one not get tense? But Yang¡¯s left hand was as agile and steady as his right. Seeing that Director Long could keep up with the pace, Yang Ping began to go all out, his speed increasing more and more. ¡®Professor Yang, slow down¡ªslow down¡ª¡® Director Long kept reminding. As the pace picked up, Director Long started to struggle a bit. Moreover, Yang¡¯s frequent instrument changes were dizzying. In fact, the first time anyone scrubbed in with Yang Ping, most had this reaction, feeling dizzy; Song Zimo was fine, having followed Yang all along, but Xu Zhiliang, Xia Shu, Song Yun, Su Nanchen, and the rest, who hadn¡¯t been made dizzy by this? These watching doctoral students were having their eyes opened¡ªwhere else had they seen surgery performed like this before? As an assistant, Director Long could see everything clearly in the surgical area. Since Professor Yang took over the table, the field had been spotless, no bleeding to be seen, not even the need for the symbolic press of gauze to soak up blood¡ªit seemed like surgery and bleeding were no longer related, as if there was no such thing as bleeding. An unsettling thought crossed Director Long¡¯s mind, the surgery felt like dissecting a cadaver, why was there so little bleeding? With this thought, Director Long had a sinking feeling in his heart, and he immediately looked up: ¡®Anesthesiologist! The patient¡¯s vital signs.¡¯ The anesthesiologist, curious and craning his neck amidst the crowd, turned his attention back to the guard screen upon Director Long¡¯s reminder. The patient¡¯s vital signs were good, and the blood pressure had stabilized, no longer dropping. Chapter 1035 - 1035 854 Incidentally Removed the Tumor as ?Chapter 1035: Chapter 854: Incidentally Removed the Tumor as Well Chapter 1035: Chapter 854: Incidentally Removed the Tumor as Well Once he received a stable vital signs report, Director Long finally relaxed, just a false alarm. He chuckled at the absurd thought that had briefly crossed his mind. However, this surgery was indeed strange, with even the smallest blood vessels pre-coagulated. There wasn¡¯t a single blood vessel that required reactive hemostasis. Although the pancreatic tumor had not caused serious invasion to the liver, the blood vessels supplying the tumor were entwined with those at the hepatic portal, and Yang Ping was now dealing with this troublesome bundle of vessels. The liver¡¯s blood and bile ducts are intricately complex. Located at the liver¡¯s transverse fissure is the first hepatic portal, home to the hepatic artery, portal vein, bile duct, as well as lymphatic and neural tissues; at the superior posterior part of the liver is the second hepatic portal, a hive of veins where the liver¡¯s blood flows out, including the left, middle, and right hepatic veins, which gradually converge into the inferior vena cava behind the liver, returning the blood to the heart; concealed between the liver and the inferior vena cava is the third hepatic portal, where small blood vessels reroute the blood back to the inferior vena cava. The liver and pancreas, compounded with the complex tumor that had large aberrant vessels numbering in the dozens and countless smaller ones, these vessels intertangled with those of the pancreas and hepatic portal, forming a hopelessly knotted mess. Originally, the patient had sought help far and wide, but other hospitals had advised against surgery. Being still young and the main support of the family, the patient had no choice but to come to Xiehe Hospital. Doctor Liao, after seeing the patient in the outpatient clinic and deliberating, decided to take the risk of tackling this highly complex surgery, offering the patient a glimmer of hope. But Doctor Liao, being young and impulsive, had not prepared adequately for the surgery, especially in terms of blood reserves. This insufficiency led to the current predicament, as the surgery turned into a quagmire, difficult at every step. Such a surgery with significant blood loss, without enough transfusions, simply could not be completed. Gazing at the chaotic, knotted mess before him, Director Long sighed incessantly. Even for someone as seasoned as him, it made his scalp tingle and sent chills down his spine. Yet in Yang Ping¡¯s hands, the scalpel and forceps danced like dragons and snakes, untangling one blood vessel after another from the twisted mess, leaving them for Director Long to clamp, tie, sever, suture, or ligate. This ability to dissect and separate, only after how many surgeries could one master such skill, and how many of those operations were for tumors, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer. The doctoral students observing the surgery, despite having been warned repeatedly by the patrolling nurse for being too close to the critical distance, still inched closer, centimeter by centimeter, jostling and bumping into one another. Truly clear visibility was reserved for the doctors on the operating table, especially the first assistant had the best viewpoint. The onlookers below would only get a general idea if they were close, the rest were just there for the commotion. Some brought step stools to stand on, leaning forward so much their eyes nearly bulged out, appearing on the brink of losing their balance at any moment. Others, unable to find a spot, paced around anxiously, frequently asking those who had secured a good vantage point which stage the surgery had reached. There was a camera on the surgical light, but the operating room lacked a connected LCD screen. The matching mobile LCD was in the teaching room, yet no one bothered with it at the moment. The patrolling nurses only minded their own area of responsibility, as long as rules of the operating room weren¡¯t disrupted, they were reluctant to sternly disperse the crowd. After all, they saw each other every day; it was better to avoid offending anyone. It was only when the head nurse came around that the patrolling nurses would dutifully enforce regulations with a stern face, but once the head nurse left, everyone would regather, simply reshuffling their positions. Professor Liang sat alone in a corner looking utterly bored. He circled the operating table, unable to see anything, but he knew the surgery was extremely difficult, and that Yang Ping was doing an impressive job. Not just a bundle of blood vessels, but the task of untangling a mess of knotted yarn was challenging in itself. Compared to Nie Feng¡¯e¡¯s surgery, this operation was just a bit less complicated. Yang Ping remained calm, continuing to separate the blood vessels. In the perilous field he operated within, his scalpel never retreated but always advanced to the frontline. It felt like there was no way out through mountains and rivers, but suddenly, a village emerged amidst the dark willows and blooming flowers. Whenever Director Long thought that the surgery had reached a dead end, the instruments in Yang Ping¡¯s hands would reveal a new breakthrough, steadily pushing the surgery forward. This patient fared better than Nie Feng¡¯e because the tumor hadn¡¯t invaded the liver as aggressively, suggesting that a conventional resection, though very tight and challenging, might be feasible. That¡¯s perhaps why Doctor Liao decided to stick with the traditional approach. If this operation succeeded using conventional resection, it would mark a pinnacle of achievement for this technique. If it proved too difficult for a clean resection, the goal could be reduced, from a radical cure to a mere extended resection. Doctor Liao¡¯s initial plan seemed thorough, but he had underestimated the severity of the tumor¡¯s bleeding. His past surgical experience was not quite applicable in this case, which led to a preoperative misjudgment. On the liver¡¯s side, the main issue was the intertwined growth of the tumor¡¯s vessels. Once these vessels were untangled, the liver¡¯s side would be done, and resection would be unnecessary. Since the tumor principally invaded the pancreas, the real focus was on this area. After detangling the tumor¡¯s vessels on the liver¡¯s side, following them would eventually lead to the pancreas. The duodenum lay next to the pancreas, so a large part of it had to be removed, as well as part of the pancreas. Even some of the stomach needed to be taken out. The surgery was indeed substantial. Chapter 1036 - 1036 854 Incidentally Removed the Tumor as ?Chapter 1036: Chapter 854: Incidentally Removed the Tumor as Well_2 Chapter 1036: Chapter 854: Incidentally Removed the Tumor as Well_2 The pancreas, duodenum, and stomach are intricately related at this location, which is why pancreoduodenectomy is considered the pinnacle of digestive tract surgery. After clearing the periphery, especially around the liver, Yang Ping began to focus on the pancreas, duodenum, and stomach, where the blood vessels were in extreme disarray. The main blood vessels of the duodenum include the superior duodenal artery of the first segment, the branches of the gastroduodenal artery, and the posterior superior pancreaticoduodenal artery branches; the gastroduodenal artery itself is a branch of the hepatic artery, and these vessels are intricately intertwined. The blood supply for the remaining three segments of the duodenum comes from the anterior and posterior arterial arches, from which branches extend to the pancreas and duodenum. The branches supplying the duodenum are known as terminal arteries, sometimes embedded within the pancreatic tissue. However, the blood supply to the pancreas itself is even more complex, with vessels originating from the celiac artery and the superior mesenteric artery. These vessels are highly atypical and frequently exhibit variations, which is the most frustrating aspect for surgeons. Blood vessels do not conform to the textbook nor to others¡¯ anatomies, which sometimes necessitates spending a considerable amount of time to locate them, akin to going to battle without a map, or having an erroneous one and having to navigate on the fly. ¡°How¡¯s it going? What stage has been reached?¡± The doctors, graduate students, and attending physicians on the periphery were restless, only able to inquire about the surgery¡¯s progress from those with a view. ¡°It seems like the pancreatic tumor blood vessels are being separated.¡± The ones with a good view, in reality, didn¡¯t see much; the surgery was too fast to follow. They only saw instruments moving in and out, constantly switching in the surgeon¡¯s hand, but even without watching the surgery, just observing the handling of the instruments was thrilling enough. In fact, many probably weren¡¯t watching the surgery itself but solely the manipulation of instruments. Vascular arches of the pancreas, dorsal pancreatic artery arches, transverse pancreatic arteries, distal pancreatic arteries, splenic artery branches, and veins of the pancreas were meticulously dissected one by one, followed by the tumor¡¯s blood vessels, which were also dissected one by one, then clamped, cut, and ligated. All the major arteries of the pancreas are located behind it, making the procedure extremely challenging, and this accounts for why some surgeries must resort to ex-vivo resection to achieve their targets. With so many blood vessels in the pancreas and around twenty or so vessels associated with the tumor, it was nearly impossible to differentiate between the pancreas¡¯s vessels and those of the tumor. It was essential to clarify the details of their origins and courses. Doctor Liao grew increasingly impressed the more he watched, feeling his own pride fading in the face of Professor Yang¡¯s expertise. His own skills were nothing in comparison¡ªit truly was a case of ¡®there¡¯s always someone better.¡¯ Director Long, for one, was thoroughly enjoying the procedure. The separation of each vessel, preserving what needed to be preserved and handling what needed to be addressed, unfolded without a single error. The most terrifying aspect was that, despite the surgery¡¯s lengthy duration, there was almost no bleeding, as if it were a simple gallbladder removal. Such a level of skill was unparalleled in the country. With the pancreas handled, the focus shifted to the adjacent stomach and duodenum. By now, everyone had lost track of time. The surgery was expected to carry on into the night; a duration of a dozen or more hours was the norm. Director Long seemed to forget how long the surgery would take, having even asked Dr. Lv to order meals. Large gauze pads were steadily laid around the surgical area, and many traction strings were tied to the tumor, each with a vascular clamp attached at the end, neatly arranged around the incision into the abdominal cavity. Dr. Lv, who hadn¡¯t joined the operation, was also on standby below. He, too, had just realized this logistical issue¡ªDirector Long was treating everyone, but the surgery could take over a dozen hours by the book; hence engaging such hospitality wasn¡¯t that straightforward. However, since Director Long was busy on the operating table, it didn¡¯t seem appropriate to ask; so, they decided to wait and see, perhaps inquiring once Director Long had the chance. Professor Liang felt out of place alone in the operating room and, with Yang Ping busy, went over to orthopedics to lend his presence. The anesthesiologist, seasoned and knowledgeable, also made his rounds by the operating table from time to time. While he couldn¡¯t see the specifics of the surgery, he paid attention to the used gauze pads. If they were soaked with blood and numerous, it would indicate significant bleeding. But, after making several rounds, he observed that aside from the previously accounted for gauze, only a few additional pads had been added to the collection basin, and those were faintly tinged with blood. Glancing at the patient¡¯s blood pressure, it had been stable since Professor Yang took over. Owing to fluid resuscitation, the blood pressure was now on an upward trend. This is a true master, the anesthesiologist concluded. The anesthesiologist was older, about fifty-something, with a wealth of experience in the operating room. Even without understanding the intricate details of the surgery, he could tell at a glance the proficiency level of the chief surgeon ¡ª this was a fundamental skill for all senior anesthesiologists. Surgery was at a critical moment, the scalpel navigating the most perilous area. Director Long, being the nearest witness, now felt as if he were not just performing surgery but participating in some sort of extreme sport, or perhaps this surgical method could be named extreme surgery. Because the surgery constantly emitted a different aura¡ªextreme, high-risk, and not allowing for mistakes¡ªDirector Long poured all his learning into the surgery and became a qualified experiencer. As the blood vessels were dissected and ligated, the surgery proceeded methodically. If this state could be maintained, even if the Blood Transfusion Department couldn¡¯t provide more blood, Director Long believed the surgery could be completed safely. He felt instantly reassured. The tumor had not only invaded the duodenum but had also reached the stomach. The Left Gastric Artery, Right Gastric Artery, Left Gastroepiploic Artery, Right Gastroepiploic Artery, Short Gastric Arteries, Post-Gastric Artery¡ªa plethora of supplying arteries, alongside the Left and Right Gastric Veins, Left and Right Gastroepiploic Veins, and Short Gastric Veins, the former two flowing directly into the Portal Vein, with the latter three indirectly joining the Portal Vein via the Superior Mesenteric Vein and Splenic Vein. Such a complex vascular network system, the scalpel was unstoppable like a force to be reckoned with. But it always moved through various interstices, and even when there weren¡¯t gaps, it would create them. Doctor Liao was the second assistant, and he had become completely engrossed. His understanding of this scalpel had evolved beyond a mere surgical knife, but rather into some kind of weapon with superpowers. How did he swiftly determine the positions of the blood vessels and differentiate normal blood vessels from those belonging to the tumor? Every time he clipped and ligated a vessel, there was no hesitation, showing his judgment was extremely confident and precise. How was this achieved? Doctor Liao couldn¡¯t help but ponder this simple question. Within those complex anatomical spaces, Yang Ping had dealt with numerous blood vessels, continuously weaving between blood vessels, the tumor, and organs. Even the nearly impossible-to-access blood vessels behind the pancreas and at the hepatic portal were completed in an incredibly cramped operating space. Director Long had seen with his own eyes how several blood vessels were picked out directly from behind the organs with curved clamps¡ªthat is, not even in direct view. That was because those few vessels were impossible to deal with under direct visualization, blocked by the liver and pancreas. Unless the liver and pancreas were cut out, cutting those vessels was simply out of the question. Surgery was thrilling, but the people involved found it extremely taxing, both Director Long and Doctor Liao. Their attention needed to be highly focused, and their brains¡¯ nerves were stretched taut. ¡°It¡¯s done!¡± Yang Ping finished dealing with the last blood vessel. As long as the blood vessels were managed properly, the remainder of the surgery should be straightforward. Director Long felt greatly relieved. At that moment, Yang Ping, holding several vascular clamps attached to the tumor traction threads, directly lifted the tumor out of the abdominal cavity. It was a whole tumor. Wasn¡¯t he just dealing with blood vessels? How was the tumor also excised? Director Long had been seeing Yang Ping separating blood vessels all along and hadn¡¯t noticed him isolating the tumor. He thought it was just a matter of handling blood vessels. But Yang Ping was making progress on both fronts; overtly, he was separating blood vessels, covertly, he was isolating the tumor. Just now, everyone hadn¡¯t paid attention, thinking he was only dealing with blood vessels. A substantial part of the tumor was hidden behind the organs, which Yang Ping had turned over while handling the vessels, but it didn¡¯t seem enough to have separated the entire tumor. ¡°Director Long, take a look, I¡¯ve also taken out the tumor for you.¡± Director Long immediately checked inside, feeling around for a full ten minutes. The entire tumor had already been removed. Was the surgery over? Was it time to close the abdomen? Did he incidentally remove the tumor for me? Chapter 1037 - 1037 855 Competing to Pay the Bill ?Chapter 1037: Chapter 855 Competing to Pay the Bill Chapter 1037: Chapter 855 Competing to Pay the Bill Just now, when focusing on Yang Ping¡¯s handling of the blood vessels, constantly isolating and ligating them, combined with the fact that Yang Ping¡¯s surgery was really too fast, Director Long was not very comfortable, his attention was highly concentrated on ligating the blood vessels, and he did not pay attention to the overall direction of the surgery at all. With more than twenty years of surgical experience, he simply did not see clearly how the tumor was ¡°incidentally¡± removed. The graduate students and visiting physicians who were gathered around the operating table still hadn¡¯t dispersed, everyone had expected the surgery to take a long time, and the sudden end left everyone momentarily unable to react. It wasn¡¯t supposed to be like this, Director Long had it all planned out very clearly in his mind. He intended to ask Yang Ping to handle these dangerous blood vessels properly, and then Director Long would perform the ex-vivo resection himself. After the tumor was completely removed ex-vivo, he would proceed with autotransplantation. Director Long had been prepared to spend over a dozen hours to complete the surgery; while the surgery would be happening on one side, on the other side he would be waiting for the Blood Transfusion Department to manage some blood. Now Yang Ping had just sloppily lifted a string of tumors out and tossed them into a sterile basin, and the tumor had been completely removed, indicating the surgery was already done. There was no need for ex-vivo resection, no need for autotransplantation, the several-hour-long surgery was compressed to just a few hours and completed. To do such a big surgery incidentally, the way it was said was quite hurtful. Doctor Liao also couldn¡¯t understand for a moment. He reached into the abdominal cavity to check the condition of the organs and the tumor. What needed to be removed was removed, and what needed to remain was still there. It seemed as if nothing had happened. The thing that he himself had not managed to do, Professor Yang had done so simply and straightforwardly. The crowd gathered around was suddenly a bit perplexed. The tumor, along with the part of the organs that needed to be removed, was cleanly cut out and now lay on the sterile table. There was no need for ex-vivo resection, nor for autotransplantation; the surgery had just ended like that. This casual help, originally just to deal with a few dangerous blood vessels, accidentally ended up cutting out the tumor, Yang Ping also felt a bit embarrassed. He had originally intended only to handle the blood vessels, but as he was doing so, he became a bit too engrossed, following his own thought process completely and using a bit too much force, inadvertently finishing the surgery for the others. ¡°Irrigate? Close the abdomen?¡± Yang Ping sought Director Long¡¯s opinion. Since the surgery was already done, there was nothing else to do but proceed. Seeing this, Doctor Lv also had a clue in his mind and began to ponder about ordering food for Director Long. If it had been before, it wouldn¡¯t be so easy to order as the surgery was expected to last over a dozen hours, maybe even until midnight, and then he would also be asked to order dinner, with obviously mismatched timing. Now that the surgery was completed, without the time conflict, things were much easier to manage. After some disorganization of thoughts, Director Long finally faced the reality; yes, the surgery was done. The surgery was completed in such a short time without blood, and looking at the clock, it had only taken a bit over 4 hours total. The telephone in the operating room rang, and the patrolling nurse answered. It was a call from the Blood Transfusion Department, which, after strenuous efforts, had obtained 6 more units of packed red blood cells and two thousand milliliters of plasma. The plasma was almost enough, but according to the original plan, the packed red blood cells were still insufficient. The Blood Transfusion Department said they would keep trying. ¡°Director Long, the Blood Transfusion Department obtained another 6 units,¡± the patrolling nurse reported the latest developments. ¡°Got it, transfuse 4 units for now, and tell the Blood Transfusion Department there¡¯s no need to scrounge for more. Tell them the surgery is finished,¡± Director Long responded. At this time, a visiting physician who was hanging around the operating room came in and saw the atmosphere of relief here: ¡°What happened? Which step has the surgery reached?¡± ¡°Professor Yang already finished the surgery; we¡¯re just waiting to close the abdomen,¡± someone replied. The visiting physician was astonished: ¡°The Professor Yang from Orthopedics?¡± This visiting physician was a slippery old hand, often roaming through various operating rooms and had been scolded by the Head Nurse several times. Again Professor Yang? Just yesterday in Cardiac Surgery, he left Director Wen and another external expert to close the abdomen; today was Director Long not going to be left to close the abdomen as well? This was simply like a slaughterer in the operating room. ¡°Okay¡ªXiao Liao¡ªlet¡¯s irrigate and close the abdomen,¡± Director Long finally started with the next step. Doctor Liao said, ¡°Director, take a rest. I can manage with them to close the abdomen. No special instructions, right?¡± Director Long thought for a moment: ¡°Professor Yang, any special instructions?¡± ¡°Place the drains as usual, no special instructions,¡± Yang Ping instructed. ¡°Director Long, any specific instructions about where to order dinner tonight?¡± Doctor Lv took the opportunity to ask, in case it was too late to make a booking and difficult to secure a private room. Director Long was stunned for a moment: ¡°Dinner? Who¡¯s hosting? You¡¯re hosting? What¡¯s the occasion?¡± Oh my, Doctor Lv was left starry-eyed by Director Long¡¯s response; he, himself offered to host dinner tonight, yet couldn¡¯t remember the matter. ¡°I have something tonight and can¡¯t make it, you guys do as you please,¡± Director Long prepared to remove his surgical gown. Doctor Lv was quick to follow, helping him out of the gown while saying, ¡°Director, didn¡¯t you say you were hosting dinner tonight? You wanted to invite Professor Yang and the brothers from Orthopedics, let me tally the number of people and contact the place.¡± As he was reminded, Director Long immediately recalled, patting his forehead lightly with the hand he had just removed his gloves from: ¡°Look at this mess, I almost forgot, alright, alright, who says I¡¯m not free tonight. I¡¯m the host tonight. You go book a place quickly, find somewhere nice nearby, everyone who¡¯s free should come, you¡¯ve worked hard.¡± ¡°Just yesterday I heard Professor Yang completed coronary bypass in a couple of minutes in Cardiac Surgery.¡± ¡°It was also coronary bypass for an infant, the youngest patient to undergo coronary bypass in the nation.¡± ¡°He seems to be able to perform any surgery.¡± ¡°What was the deal with your surgery today?¡± ¡°It was supposed to be difficult without blood and estimated to take sixteen or seventeen hours, but Professor Yang stepped in to help, and now, in four hours, the surgery is done, and we¡¯re closing the abdomen.¡± ¡°That¡¯s incredible.¡± ¡°I hear that at Sanbo Hospital he¡¯s the director of the Surgical Research Institute; he performs all kinds of surgeries, and they¡¯re all highly difficult ones.¡± ¡°Director Long is hosting dinner tonight, are you going?¡± ¡°Wasn¡¯t it Director Wen hosting tonight?¡± ¡°Strange indeed.¡± The graduate students and visiting physicians gathered together and whispered among themselves. ¡ª The orthopedics side¡¯s surgeries had been going smoothly all along, and the young doctors¡¯ skills had truly made leaps and bounds. This was thanks to Yang Ping¡¯s teaching, not only had Song Yun and Kong Weiquan and a few other key members improved quickly, all the doctors were making rapid progress. Professor Liang in the orthopedic operating room didn¡¯t have much to do either since the young doctors were doing just fine, and he didn¡¯t need to give direct guidance. So he returned to the pancreatic surgery operating room, which seemed just about to wrap up. The tumor that had been excised was already in a metal basin, and the patrolling nurse was in contact with the pathology department to arrange for its delivery, while the instrumental nurse was handing over saline solution to wash the surgical area. Director Long had already taken off his surgical gown, and Doctor Liao, accompanied by junior doctors, was in the process of closing the abdomen. Professor Liang did a quick check of the time, something felt off. Wasn¡¯t this surgery supposed to last until the dead of night? He wondered if Director Long¡¯s offer to treat them to a meal was actually serious, and yet the surgery had ended now. What? Did the patient not make it after all? Professor Liang pondered subconsciously. Yang Ping at Peking Union Medical College Hospital only had authority for orthopedic surgeries, but when it came to doctors¡¯ practice rights, the practice scope for surgeons was general surgery, which was quite broad. Strictly speaking, there was no legal issue, and whether there was a qualification issue depended on whether Peking Union Medical College Hospital would recognize it, which was also not an issue. As thoughts flashed through his head at lightning speed, Professor Liang looked at the expressions on the faces of the doctors in the operating room. They were neither grim nor somber but rather chatty and smiling. He then turned to check on the anesthesia monitoring at the patient¡¯s head side, and everything was calm and stable. Had the surgery finished? Couldn¡¯t be that exaggerated, could it? This is pancreatic surgery we¡¯re talking about, and it¡¯s a super large and difficult one at that. It¡¯s not orthopedic surgery that would be finished so quickly. Or was the surgery given up midway? ¡°Director Long, what¡¯s happening here, are you getting ready to finish up?¡± Professor Liang asked. Director Long said with a smile, ¡°Professor Yang has already completed the surgery, and we¡¯re wrapping up now. We will dine together this evening, and I insist you must be there.¡± Professor Liang was an academician, and while Peking Union Medical College had more than twenty academicians, Peking Union Medical College Hospital only had two. This made Professor Liang a highly esteemed figure at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Since it was Yang Ping who was being invited, Professor Liang had every reason to go, not only to attend but also to have a good talk. This surgery had been full of twists and turns, and now that it was suddenly over, everyone was still a bit unaccustomed to it. Previously, Yang Ping had always conducted surgeries in orthopedics, and other departments only knew of his name; they weren¡¯t very familiar with him personally. Now, all the doctors in pancreatic surgery knew about Yang Ping. However, this familiarity was limited to the operating room. It would probably still be a case of unfamiliarity outside of it. This wasn¡¯t surprising. Many doctors who had worked together for years were very familiar with operating room nurses but might not recognize each other outside of the operating room, because typically interactions were with faces masked and capped, revealing only a pair of eyes, and their in-mind image of each other was that work-mode appearance. ¡ª Director Wen of cardiac surgery took advantage of the noon break to stop by orthopedic surgery to see people. After searching for a while, he couldn¡¯t find Yang Ping, so he asked Song Yun, ¡°Xiao Song, where is Professor Yang? I¡¯m hosting dinner tonight, and you¡¯re all available, right?¡± ¡°We¡¯re available!¡± Song Yun estimated the timing of the surgery, which today wouldn¡¯t drag on too late. ¡°Good, I¡¯ll be the host tonight. Everyone in your department who¡¯s available should come. I¡¯ll arrange for someone to send you the details later. As for Professor Yang, I¡¯ll go speak with him.¡± Director Wen had yet to see Yang Ping, and his purpose in hosting was to express gratitude for Yang Ping¡¯s assistance the previous day. ¡°Song Yun!¡± At that moment, Dr. Lv from pancreatic surgery dashed in. ¡°We have a dinner hosted by Director Long tonight. How many from your department are joining? Give me a headcount.¡± Dr. Lv was well acquainted with Song Yun, so he spoke quite casually. Song Yun looked up at Director Wen, then at Dr. Lv, ¡°Why are you both hosting dinners tonight? Are they together?¡± Director Wen was confused by Dr. Lv¡¯s mention, catching Dr. Lv to ask, ¡°What¡¯s going on here? Tonight, we¡¯re treating Professor Yang and the brothers to dinner. What are you mixing in for?¡± Dr. Lv was also puzzled; why were there two separate invitations? Director Long hadn¡¯t mentioned hosting a dinner before. ¡°Our Director Long said he¡¯s hosting tonight, calling it a fellowship event between the independent orthopedic ward and pancreatic surgery. What about you?¡± Dr. Lv spoke to Director Wen with due respect. ¡°This old Long, what¡¯s he up to? I¡¯m going to find him,¡± said Director Wen, striding off toward the pancreatic surgery operating room. ¡°Old Long!¡± A voice called out; it was Director Wen from cardiac surgery. ¡°I heard you¡¯re hosting tonight. Well, I¡¯m also hosting tonight. Why are you suddenly usurping my plans?¡± Director Wen and Director Long had a solid relationship. In fact, most surgeons are known for being forthright, so the relationship between heads of surgery is generally very good, almost like that of brothers. ¡°What do you mean usurping your plans? I had made arrangements long ago,¡± Director Long retorted. ¡°I¡¯ve already reserved a private room.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve done the same.¡± ¡°Where did you book? Why not cancel, and we¡¯ll host together? Split the bill fifty-fifty?¡± ¡°Join you in hosting? No way, that won¡¯t work.¡± ¡°Then what do we do? Can I do it today and you tomorrow?¡± ¡°What about I do it today and you tomorrow, how about that?¡± After a long debate between Director Long and Director Wen, it took Professor Liang¡¯s coordination to finally decide. Director Wen would host tonight since he had already secured the private room first, and Director Long would host the following evening, as he had just started making arrangements. Chapter 1038 - 1038 856 Sleepless Night ?Chapter 1038: 856 Chapter Sleepless Night Chapter 1038: 856 Chapter Sleepless Night ¡°Old Liang, do you have the eyes of a sage to draft such an impressive figure into your Orthopedics Department?¡± Director Long admired Professor Liang. Professor Liang shook his head, ¡°Where can I draft him? Xiao Yang is currently just a guest performer, but even that is fortunate.¡± ¡°Could you possibly speak on our behalf, have him guest in our General Surgery as well?¡± Director Long said enviously. Pancreatic Surgery is a specialization under General Surgery. To put it strictly, Director Long is the chief of General Surgery. Xiehe Hospital¡¯s General Surgery is extremely formidable, undefeated nationally. ¡°Don¡¯t just go to your General Surgery, come to our Cardiac Surgery Department whenever you are free,¡± Director Wen said rather urgently. Professor Liang smiled, ¡°You say it so lightly, do you know many hospitals are scrambling to invite him for guest appearances? If he went to every one of them, even cloning wouldn¡¯t keep up with the pace. The offer from 301 for him to guest there hasn¡¯t even been finalized yet.¡± With these words, the conversation halted, and the three of them suddenly fell silent. The patient with pancreatic cancer was safely transferred to the ICU after surgery, the orthopedic surgeries went routinely, and everyone gradually finished their surgeries after nine in the evening, happily heading for the feast. In the end, although Director Wen and Director Long were hosting on separate days, the guests invited on both days included three departments: Orthopedics, Thoracic Surgery, and General Surgery, with numerous people spread across several tables. The doctors from Xiehe also rarely got a chance to relax like this: a treat from the big shots meant everyone came with empty stomachs ready for a feast. Professor Liang stayed beside Yang Ping, with the cultured yet somewhat hearty Director Wen and Director Long on either side, while others took their seats haphazardly. Apart from not drinking alcohol, everyone was free to make merry as they wished. It was to unwind, after all, so all indulged in various drinks, creating quite the buzz. Of course, they only drank non-alcoholic beverages. During the meal, Director Wen and Director Long took turns inviting Yang Ping to make guest appearances in their departments, but Yang Ping genuinely couldn¡¯t find the time and could only decline diplomatically. They weren¡¯t in a hurry over this matter, planning for the long term; both Director Long and Director Wen had their strategies. Since dinner started late, everyone ate until midnight yet still lingered, having almost finished eating, simply enjoying the company, as outings like these were rare. Just then, Dr. Lv, whether he received a call or saw a message in a WeChat group, informed Director Long, ¡°Director, the Emergency Department just admitted a patient who fell from a high place, from the eighth floor. He has multiple comminuted fractures throughout the body, cranial trauma, and additionally, he¡¯s pierced by two steel rebars. One enters through the perineum and exits through the head; the other enters through the anus and exits from the left chest, involving multiple specialties. Both our ward chief and backup are already on their way. The injuries are extremely complex.¡± Upon hearing this, Director Long acknowledged the complexity of the injuries. Xiehe has an Emergency Surgery Department with very high standards, founded under the leadership of General Surgery. The head of this Emergency Surgery, Director Xu, formerly was a group leader under General Surgery, a subordinate of Director Long. ¡°From the left chest? That involves the heart, right? We should have sent someone there too,¡± Director Wen stated. After a moment of contemplation, Director Long was worried about these severe injuries, rare even for Xiehe. Given that they were near the hospital, he decided to check it out in person and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go have a look.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go too. Xiao Chu, call the waiter over for the bill,¡± Director Wen also decided to go, considering the situation Dr. Lv had described, uncertain whether the ward chief and his backup could handle it. Professor Liang, hearing of the high fall and complex injuries, also decided to make the trip with the others. As all the directors were going, the dining doctors followed suit. They had just filled their bellies and were exactly looking for something to do; if nothing else, watching the excitement was an option. Thus, Director Wen hurriedly paid the bill, and several cars, filled with Xiehe¡¯s doctors, departed from the restaurant toward the Emergency Department. When this big group pressed into the Emergency Department, the duty nurse turned pale, thinking trouble was brewing and was about to call for help when she realized all the faces were familiar. Director Long said to the duty nurse, ¡°Where¡¯s the patient? We¡¯ve come for a consultation!¡± A consultation? What was happening today that several top figures personally came for a consultation, bringing such a large team with them. ¡°Go fetch some white gowns!¡± Director Wen instructed the nurse. The intern nurse was quick-witted and rushed to grab the white gowns, but there were clearly not enough spare gowns available. Some had to be fetched from their departments, or they would have to make do in their civilian clothes. No one was really waiting for a white coat; they immediately rushed toward the rescue room. Along the way, they encountered doctors who reported that the patient had just completed a CT scan and was now being transported to the operating room. In fact, these days many emergency patients can¡¯t afford to wait. For instance, patients with abdominal injuries were previously diagnosed by doctors performing a diagnostic abdominal puncture. If non-clotted blood was drawn, no other tests were required before confidently sending the patient directly for exploratory laparotomy; from admission to surgery took only half an hour. Now it¡¯s different. Patients with abdominal injuries must have a CT scan, which alone takes about half an hour, plus other various tests. Why? Doctors need to protect themselves. If these tests weren¡¯t done and the patient was saved, it¡¯s fine. But if the patient didn¡¯t make it, prepare for lawsuits and disturbances. Without objective evidence like CT scans or blood tests, proceeding directly to surgery usually results in lost lawsuits and monetary compensation, so nowadays no doctor dares to send a patient to surgery just based on an abdominal puncture. ¡°Now, they always conduct a set of examinations before proceeding; even if a patient dies because the examination delayed intervention, the doctor is not at fault. Everything follows the medical procedure.¡± ¡°In the past, it was about rescuing lives first, with everything else taking a back seat.¡± ¡°Now, it¡¯s about legally and compliantly rescuing lives, with legality and compliance as the premise, prioritized above all else, while everything else takes a back seat.¡± Xiehe Hospital¡¯s emergency department is extensive, with seven areas, including an emergency flow clinic, emergency resuscitation room, emergency observation room, emergency general ward, and emergency ICU, totaling over 150 beds. Of these, more than 70 are monitored beds, and now the doctors and nurses are extremely busy.¡± Word was that the patient had gone to the operating room, prompting everyone to head there en masse, almost running forward.¡± During such multi-team rescue operations, the operating room nurses don¡¯t complain about the aseptic protocol despite the crowd.¡± One might wonder if tonight was the busiest shift ever in Xiehe¡¯s operating room, with almost all doctors, graduate students, and trainee doctors from orthopedics, cardiac surgery, and general surgery showing up, apart from those on duty.¡± Even the nurses were surprised at how many people had come today.¡± Besides them, some other surgery departments had at least one doctor present, mostly senior second-tier doctors accompanied by resident chiefs, graduate students, and trainee doctors, making it a considerably large team.¡± All departments¡¯ resident chiefs, high-ranking directors, on-call graduate students, and trainees were in action¡ªpositions long since taken.¡± This patient required cooperation from multiple departments¡ªneurosurgery, cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, major vascular surgery, liver surgery, general surgery, urological surgery, orthopedics¡ªvirtually every surgical department was involved, and Director Long from the pancreatic surgery group within general surgery was the chief of general surgery.¡± Director Xu of emergency surgery was now the commander of the rescue operation, where controlling bleeding and saving lives were the top priorities, with other matters to be addressed later.¡± Even for Xiehe, such complex, sizable trauma cases were exceedingly rare.¡± ¡°Vascular surgery!¡± ¡°Here!¡± ¡°The abdominal aorta has a through-and-through injury; it must be repaired. Soon we¡¯ll open the abdomen together; you need to handle the major blood vessels first.¡± ¡°Understood, the blood vessels need to be sectioned and re-anastomosed.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll handle the liver, pancreas, and spleen; the liver, spleen, and pancreas all have through-and-through injuries.¡± ¡°Cardiac! Thoracic!¡± ¡°Here, we¡¯ve already seen the CT; the pericardium is damaged, rebar went through the pericardium and both lungs!¡± ¡°Abdominal and thoracic surgeries will proceed simultaneously; the thoracic cavity is yours to deal with.¡± ¡°Cranial surgery must also go on at the same time; no problems, right, neurosurgery?¡± ¡®The personnel for scrubbing in are ready.¡¯ ¡°Urology will join later; orthopedics needs to control the bleeding in the pelvis. There isn¡¯t room for so many people.¡± That¡¯s Xiehe for you; had it been any other hospital, the patient would have been lost long ago. In just half an hour, they completed the preoperative preparations. Director Xu, calm and experienced like a seasoned general, quickly planned the surgery, and the doctors were already scrubbing in to join.¡± Meanwhile, the young doctors were disinfecting the patient and setting up the sheets, working in perfect sync, swiftly, and seizing every second.¡± ¡°Director Long, what are you doing here?¡± Director Xu spotted Director Long among the crowd. Director Long said, ¡°I came to see if I could help. Just shout if you need something, and you can freely direct anyone here.¡± Director Xu had previously been a subordinate under Director Long. Later, when the emergency surgery department was established, Director Xu was appointed as its director, which is why he held immense respect for Director Long.¡± Lots of people in the operating room appeared chaotic, but that was just superficial; everyone was quite perceptive, not daring to delay even a second involved in the surgery, not interfering unless they could assist, quickly finding their place to join the ongoing rescue.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡± Song Yun grabbed a doctor and asked. The doctor said, ¡°I¡¯m not sure either. I heard from emergency dispatch that a man, naked and wrapped in a blanket, fell from the eighth floor and landed on a rebar-constructed shed below, which probably cushioned his fall enough for him to make it to the operating table.¡± The doctor¡¯s few words conveyed a significant amount of information. Chapter 1039 - 1039 857 Grand Battle ?Chapter 1039: Chapter 857: Grand Battle Chapter 1039: Chapter 857: Grand Battle Yang Ping looked at the patient on the operating table, counted, and noticed that there were more than two steel rods in the body, specifically two long ones, with perhaps three shorter ones. Most of these seemed to have entered through the lower back and exited through the chest and abdomen. The more, the merrier; Director Long didn¡¯t hesitate to join the queue to scrub in, swiftly followed by Director Wen. The operating room at this moment was a hub of activity, not just this emergency surgery, but other ongoing operations as well, so it was brightly lit and bustling with action. Inside and outside the emergency surgical operating room, figures flitted about, especially outside where many people stood. Everyone, in order not to hinder the rescue operations, did not crowd the entrance or near the scrub sinks. Instead, they had voluntarily dispersed in an orderly manner. The anesthesiologist had already administered general anesthesia to the patient, and the young doctors moved quickly to position the patient, complete the disinfection, and drape the sterile cloths. Director Xu donned the surgical gown and gloves, and soon several doctors had finished scrubbing in, hurriedly donning gowns and gloves themselves. This type of rescue surgery is not like a regular elective surgery; many details are not fussed over, even the scrubbing is abbreviated as much as possible, sometimes foregoing scrubbing entirely and directly donning gloves to begin. Various instruments were already laid out, and the instrumental nurse was seated at the table waiting. Director Xu stood to the right of the patient¡¯s abdomen, and the other doctors quickly took their places as the surgery rapidly commenced. ¡°Anesthesiologist, we¡¯re starting the laparotomy.¡± Even the usual pre-operative checks were skipped; in such an obvious trauma case, pre-operative checks would only waste time. There were quite a few doctors standing around the table, squeezing together from the thoracic surgery, cardiac surgery, general surgery, and orthopedics departments. Therefore, everyone tried to minimize their movements to avoid interfering with each other. At the head side, the neurosurgeon was already prepared to start the craniotomy. Surgery was underway at all sides, demanding extremely high organizational and coordination skills; otherwise, chaos would ensue on the table, leading to a ¡°battle¡± between the surgeons. ¡°Has the firefighter friend come in yet?¡± Director Xu asked as he cut open the patient¡¯s skin in the abdomen. ¡°They¡¯ve arrived, waiting outside.¡± One of the doctors replied. A doctor had specifically followed this task, accompanying the firefighter carrying tools, dressed in a visitor¡¯s gown, and wearing a mask and a cap into the operating room. While in the emergency department, the firefighters had already helped saw off the exposed parts of the steel rods as much as possible, which facilitated transport and reduced interference with the surgery. During the surgery, it wasn¡¯t possible to remove the steel rods in one piece; they needed to be adequately separated from the surrounding tissues and after ensuring proper hemostasis, they would be removed in segments. That was the safe approach. The firefighters would assist in cutting the steel rods during surgery since they had the tools and experience in cutting. Director Xu¡¯s movements were swift, holding the scalpel like a bow and making bold incisions to open the abdomen. The abdominal cavity was opened, and the suction device extracted a large amount of blood, some of it dark red, indicating it wasn¡¯t freshly bled. ¡°Increase the speed of blood transfusion!¡± The procedure was challenging, with several steel rods interweaving in the abdominal cavity, creating obstacles for many maneuvers. After probing with his hand inside, Director Xu understood the perilous situation. The injury sites were numerous, with steel rods acting as obstacles during surgery, and various factors intertwined, making it certain that the surgery would be prolonged. Only continuous blood transfusions could maintain the patient¡¯s life during surgery, buying the most time for the rescue effort. ¡°Tissue scissors!¡± Director Xu, after getting a clear understanding of the situation in the abdominal cavity, started using tissue scissors to separate and deal with the hemorrhaging blood vessels and to clear around the steel rods. ¡°Chest opener!¡± The doctors from the thoracic and cardiac surgery departments had also begun to open the chest. Securing hemostasis was a race against time, the reason everyone squeezed together to perform simultaneous operations, an act of necessity. The longest of the two steel rods currently went from the perineum, passing through the pelvic cavity, abdominal cavity, diaphragm, chest cavity, into the neck, then the head, and finally protruding from the top of the head. This rod had the longest path. The other rod¡¯s path wasn¡¯t much better; entering from the anal area with a front-to-back direction, angling upward from the lower back to the front, it passed through the pelvic and abdominal cavities, pierced the diaphragm to enter the chest cavity, and then went through the pericardium to exit from the anterior chest. The paths of the three shorter rods within the chest and abdominal cavities were equally complicated, including one that went through the liver and another through the gastrointestinal tract. None was straightforward¡ªeach situation exceedingly grave and complex. These injuries were caused by several perilous steel rods, along with the damage from a high fall that resulted in a comminuted fracture of the pelvis, a fracture of the femur shaft, central dislocation of a hip joint and acetabular fracture, a comminuted fracture of the spine, intracranial hemorrhage, multiple rib fractures, pneumothorax, and more¡ªeach one potentially fatal. In the emergency department, thoracic surgery had already applied closed chest drainage, and orthopedics installed an external fixation frame for the pelvis. These could all be done under local anesthesia, and for experienced doctors, they were simple operations that could be resolved in minutes, so they were immediately dealt with upon arrival at the emergency department. If not for some extraordinary luck, this life would surely have been claimed at the scene of injury. Director Xu had never seen such complex trauma before and felt immense pressure; he had to rely on his accumulated experience in emergency surgery to direct the operation as a whole. Although Directors Long and Wen had already scrubbed in and donned surgical gowns, they stood to the side, ready to step in if needed. Each field has its specialists, and with such trauma surgery, they might not be as adept as the doctors now standing at the table. The doctors present were experts in chest and abdominal trauma, carrying out such surgeries daily. Director Long likely hadn¡¯t dealt with this kind of abdominal trauma in years; he mostly performed pancreatic cancer surgeries, while Director Wen was more experienced with coronary bypasses. Chest trauma was not often in his purview, but the doctors at the table were doing trauma surgeries every day, rich in experience and in prime condition. They were the backbone of the emergency surgery department at Xiehe Hospital. Chapter 1040 - 1040 857 Grand Battle_2 ?Chapter 1040: Chapter 857: Grand Battle_2 Chapter 1040: Chapter 857: Grand Battle_2 Therefore, both directors were very aware of their limitations; under such circumstances, not to mention stepping up to participate, even blind direction would have caused them obstacles. Professor Liang was even more reserved by the side. Without spotting any principled mistakes or inadequacies, he would not intervene in everyone¡¯s rescue efforts. Other doctors, graduate students, and visiting physicians, apart from those involved in the rescue with substantive roles, would act according to the situation. The general principle was to help as much as possible but not to offer misguided assistance or add to the confusion. For instance, several doctors had just gone to meet the firefighters. Quite a few doctors voluntarily went out to help, carrying tools together and planning where the firefighters should stand by and where to place their equipment. They accompanied them and explained some basic rules of the operating room to prevent contamination of the surgery. Otolaryngologists, oral surgeons, and ophthalmologists also rushed over because the steel rebar protruding from the head could potentially damage the mouth, ears, nose, and eyes. They would need to assist the neurosurgeons with their respective specialty issues later on. Yang Ping, Song Yun, and Kong Weiquan were all standing by the side of the light box, viewing the film. At this time, everyone was intentionally standing to the sides, leaving the front open for the doctors on stage, as they might come over to view the film at any time to guide their next steps in the surgery. Qiu Nuo, the instrumental nurse from Orthopedics, was also sandwiched among everyone. She had been eating with them earlier, and now she had come along as well. Yang Ping quickly grasped the information on the film with just a glance. Those two long steel rebars indeed presented a challenge to deal with. The longest one had just passed beside the abdominal aorta, seemingly just skirting by it without damaging the aorta, but in reality, it had been injured. Whether during the separation process or when it was necessary to saw through the rebar, there was a potential risk of causing the aorta to rupture and bleed. The patient had been lucky to have survived and been brought to Xiehe Hospital. Professor Liang was also viewing the CT images with Yang Ping, paying more attention to the spine. The thoracolumbar segment showed a burst fracture, with the fractures extending severely up to thoracic 12 and down to lumbar 1 and 2. The most severe burst coincided with the conus medullaris, a site where damage was difficult to recover from. If it had been a single injury of this type, an emergency surgery for decompression and stabilization would definitely be necessary. However, this was not a single injury, but multiple injuries with the spinal fracture being just one part. Relative to the other injuries, it had receded into a secondary position because the spinal fracture did not pose an immediate life threat. The impact was more on future bowel and bladder function and male sexual function. With life-saving as the primary principle, these issues had to take a back seat. ¡°The weather isn¡¯t even that hot. Wrapping oneself in a blanket and enjoying the cool on the balcony in the dead of night, adults really lack a sense of safety,¡± Professor Liang lamented. ¡°The price this patient paid for enjoying the cool is too steep. Everyone, please pay attention. You must be aware of safety. Never lean against or sit on balcony railings at night; it¡¯s very dangerous!¡± Professor Liang admonished everyone as an elder. It appeared that the old professor¡¯s thoughts could not keep up with the times, a younger doctor couldn¡¯t help but think to themselves. Seeing that his admonitions fell on deaf ears, Professor Liang turned his head and asked, ¡°You don¡¯t have such habits, right? Lying on the balustrade to enjoy the cool at night?¡± Everyone quickly shook their heads, ¡°No, no, who would have such habits?¡± ¡°That¡¯s good!¡± Professor Liang was relieved. The on-duty director appeared in the crowd at some point, and even though the family hadn¡¯t arrived yet, he had already signed the surgical informed consent form. Since the patient¡¯s arrival at the emergency department, the emergency doctors had reported to him, and he had been involved in coordinating the rescue, recently handling the blood supply issue with the Blood Transfusion Department. In such rescue operations, whether it was the Blood Transfusion Department or the blood bank, they would vigorously provide blood, unlike elective surgeries where they measure carefully. These types of rescue operations were prioritized for blood supply. Moreover, these rescue operations had a green channel, even if no family members were present, the surgery would still proceed. The Surgical Informed Consent Form would be signed by hospital leadership, and at night, the highest authority present in the hospital would be the on-duty director. The on-duty director was a rotating role taken on by hospital administrative leaders to ensure normal handling of major emergencies at night. ¡°Professor Liang!¡± The on-duty director, upon seeing Professor Liang beside the light box, immediately came over. ¡°How did you also get dragged into this?¡± The on-duty director felt that the scale of the rescue today was somewhat beyond expectations, with an academician of Orthopedics out in the middle of the night, and by the looks of it, quite a number of people had turned up. ¡°I heard the spinal injury was quite severe, so I came to take a look,¡± Professor Liang said calmly. With Orthopedics boasting numerous talents, what sort of spinal injuries could bring Professor Liang to a consultation in the middle of the night? The on-duty director was puzzled by today¡¯s massive scale of the rescue. ¡°You should rest early and let these young people hustle,¡± After exchanging a few polite words with Professor Liang, the on-duty director hurriedly went about his duties. Facing such a major rescue, the on-duty director was bound to be running around all night, with the phone almost burning up. Director Long and Director Wen, wearing gloves in the operating room, found sitting on the cold bench uncomfortable, so the two simply put down their hands and came over to the light box. ¡°Has Professor Yang handled a case like this before?¡± Director Long asked. Yang Ping nodded. ¡°I have dealt with a similar case before while working at the trauma emergency center in our hospital,¡± ¡°Xiao Yang, share your thoughts,¡± Professor Liang said. ¡°This needs to be very careful, the aorta might have been grazed and then returned to its place. Be cautious during separation, otherwise, it could easily rupture and bleed,¡± Yang Ping pointed out several images of the aorta on the films. Chapter 1041 - 1041 857 Grand Battle_3 ?Chapter 1041: Chapter 857: Grand Battle_3 Chapter 1041: Chapter 857: Grand Battle_3 ¡°If you want to complete the surgery as quickly as possible, these are the critical points for bleeding, and they need to be ligated to stop the blood, and these need to be separated before they can be removed,¡± ¡°It¡¯s best to remove these shorter ones first,¡± Yang Ping¡¯s fingers swiftly pointed out dozens of well-known blood vessels on the paths of two longer steel rods, clarifying which to handle first and which to handle later. Moreover, he categorized the numerous blood vessels into different priorities, so managing them could minimize blood loss as much as possible. Director Xu was struggling to advance with the hemostasis; the main task now was to stop the bleeding, but he couldn¡¯t keep up everywhere there was blood, Director Xu tackled it calmly, ligating one blood vessel after another. The thoracic cavity wasn¡¯t doing any better, filled with bleeding points. The main issue was the overwhelming number of steel rods crisscrossing inside, making the surgical operations very inconvenient. Managing the head injury was slightly more relaxed, not as severe as in the thoracic and abdominal cavities. The neurosurgeon had already opened the skull and was clearing the subdural hematoma, but dealing with the steel rod protruding out was very tricky. It required meticulous separation along the steel rod, completely isolating it from the surrounding tissues, and every blood vessel encountered along the way had to be dealt with for hemostasis. The hemostasis inside the skull had to be very precise, requiring microscope-assisted operations; any carelessness could leave untreated bleeding points, which would result in intracranial hemorrhage post-surgery, potentially causing brain herniation. ¡°Gauze! Quick, pack it in and compress.¡± ¡°Vascular clamps!¡± ¡°Suction Device, here, look closely!¡± ¡°No good, can¡¯t stop the bleeding here. Prepare for a lobectomy.¡± ¡°Pelvis is also bleeding here, Orthopedics, can you manage it together?¡± Orthopedics had already installed an external fixator, but the hemostasis effect was still inadequate, and the measures needed to be escalated. ¡°Should we call Intervention Department to prepare for embolization?¡± one doctor suggested from below. But once Intervention Department came to embolize, all other surgeries had to pause, which was not feasible. ¡°No, use gauze stuffing for now, lots of it, quick, temporarily pack the pelvis.¡± Emergency measures for pelvic fractures and external fixators fixation were meant to control the pelvic volume, so the bleeding behind the peritoneum would naturally stop after reaching a certain level, but this tactic wasn¡¯t proving effective now. The Orthopedic doctors, following the incision made by Director Xu¡¯s abdominal surgery, extended it a bit lower, attempting to expose the pelvic cavity thoroughly, and then continuously packed large chunks of gauze into the retroperitoneal space. Packing to stop the bleeding was the quickest, safest, and most reliable method, it was also the last resort, as if there were other options, this primitive method wouldn¡¯t be used. After gauze packing, waiting many days later, the body¡¯s natural coagulation functions closed off some of the damaged blood vessels, and the gauze would then be removed during secondary surgery. At that time, with most of the injured blood vessels sealed, the injured area would be much cleaner, making hemostasis much easier, and the gauze could be removed. This gauze couldn¡¯t stay inside the body for long, as it easily led to infections and had to be removed after surgery. With a large amount of gauze packed, the bleeding from the pelvis was controlled, and the surgeries in the abdominal cavity and thoracic cavity continued. Everyone¡¯s hands moved at their limits, capturing various bleeding spots, but the bleeding was still too widespread. Supported by massive transfusions, the critically unstable blood pressure fluctuated, seemingly struggling to maintain, at any moment it might fall drastically. ¡°Proximal control! I need to temporarily block the aorta!¡± Director Xu shouted because the bleeding points were far beyond his control, and he urgently needed to temporarily block the aorta to buy some time. This was a massive battle in emergency surgery, where almost all trauma emergency surgical techniques were deployed. Chapter 1042 - 1042 858 Remote Hemostasis ?Chapter 1042: Chapter 858: Remote Hemostasis Chapter 1042: Chapter 858: Remote Hemostasis Bleeding in the retroperitoneal space of the pelvis had been temporarily stopped by stuffing it with large amounts of gauze. Even after the stuffing, it didn¡¯t cease bleeding immediately. The retroperitoneal space continued to bleed slowly until it finally stopped. The pelvic fracture was just one site of bleeding; there were many other bleeding sites on the patient¡¯s body. The situation was extremely critical, and there was nothing to be done about it. The rescue team was rapidly advancing the surgery. After some effort, Director Xu finally removed a blood-covered short rebar and continued to struggle, preparing to remove the second piece of short rebar. Only by removing all the short rebars could he conveniently separate the two long rebars. At the chest trauma area, the pericardium had not been opened yet, and the lung laceration was gushing blood. The thoracic surgeons had no choice but to prioritize handling the lung. Blood from the lung could not be stopped at all; they had to perform a lobectomy. The lung tissue was very fragile, harder to stitch than other tissues, so in this critical situation, a lobectomy was the only option. This method of stopping bleeding was widely used in surgery, such as massive uterine bleeding during childbirth. If bleeding couldn¡¯t be stopped, the only option was to remove the entire uterus to achieve hemostasis. The uterus has many branching blood vessels. When it¡¯s difficult to stop the bleeding one vessel at a time, removing the entire uterus is undoubtedly the most effective method because the blood vessels supplying and draining the uterus are fixed and few, making them easy to locate. This is like having countless pipes burst inside a house, making it impossible to plug each one individually; the best solution is to shut off the main water supply of the house. The lobectomy was similar; with the laceration unable to stop bleeding, the entire lung lobe was resected, tying off its blood supply and drainage vessels to achieve hemostasis. They also couldn¡¯t afford to wait long at the pericardium. Since the rebar had pierced the pericardium, even if the heart was not damaged, there must have been vessel trauma. Temporarily, the rebar exerted certain pressure on the surrounding tissue, which somewhat helped in compressing and sealing the vessels. However, there was bound to be some bleeding inside the pericardium. Once the accumulated volume of blood reached a critical level, it would cause cardiac tamponade, preventing the heart from beating. Back to Director Xu, he continued to separate the second piece of short rebar. If the short rebars weren¡¯t completely removed, other procedures couldn¡¯t proceed, including having the firefighters cut the two long rebars into segments. The neurosurgeon responsible for the head was still clearing intracranial hematomas. They were extremely cautious, focusing solely on their surgery, regardless of the situation in the chest and abdomen. At this moment, doctors from several teams were fully engaged in the rescue, with doctors below the platform also feeling exceptionally tense. Suddenly, a major blood vessel in the abdomen burst, causing blood to spray out violently, tracing a parabolic path over a meter long. Doctors who were observing nearby got splattered with blood, with one doctor getting a large patch of blood on them. ¡°This patient doesn¡¯t have any problems with infectious diseases, right?¡± asked the doctor, immediately tensing up. Upon receiving a response from the anesthesiologist that there were no problems, the splashed doctor finally felt relieved. Gauze! Gauze! Director Xu immediately caught the gauze from the nurse and pressed it against the bleeding site as quickly as possible. However, a few pieces of gauze were far from enough, and the presence of rebar made it difficult to act freely. Stuffing the gauze to stop the bleeding was much slower than usual. ¡°Gauze!¡± Director Xu shouted while directing the assistant to suction the blood. ¡°Here!¡± The assistant immediately placed the suction device into the blood, hoping to create a short-term clean surgical field so the chief surgeon could locate the bleeding vessel. But this was futile, as a single suction tube could not clear the large amount of blood in the surgical field. All experienced emergency surgeons, they were ready with several suction tubes. The assistant quickly removed the suction tube and directly used a larger suction head to aspirate the blood. With the help of several suction tubes, they barely managed to create an unstable, momentary clean surgical field. Director Xu relied on this transient surgical field to pinpoint the bleeding to a very small area. His hands were covered in blood, with blood running down his gloves. Director Xu, experienced as he was, couldn¡¯t worry about that now; he directly felt for the upper part of the abdominal aorta with his hands, finally managing to stop the bleeding. This skill of manual hemostasis was almost a basic skill that every emergency surgeon must master, and sometimes it could have unexpectedly effective results. Based on his experience, Director Xu judged that the speed of the bleeding was clearly from the aorta. No other vessel could bleed so fiercely. Thus, he grasped the upper part of the abdominal aorta and began to search for the bleed site. Following the aorta downward, Director Xu soon found the tear, and he was puzzled, ¡°How could there be another tear here?¡± Just as he prepared to have the vascular surgeon handle the tear, he found that due to the presence of the rebar, it was difficult to proceed. Director Long had just heard Yang Ping¡¯s early prediction and couldn¡¯t help but admire him. If Professor Yang were performing the surgery, the recent spraying of blood wouldn¡¯t have occurred. ¡°Aortic clamp!¡± Director Xu had to prematurely perform an aortic occlusion. Aortic occlusion surgery is a very good method of hemostasis, but the occlusion time is limited. Once it exceeds the limit, all organs below the occlusion plane will suffer ischemic necrosis. Thus, as a top-tier emergency surgeon, Director Xu reserved aortic occlusion for when it was absolutely necessary. He didn¡¯t expect that moment to come so quickly. Chapter 1043 - 1043 858 Remote Hemostasis_2 ?Chapter 1043: Chapter 858: Remote Hemostasis_2 Chapter 1043: Chapter 858: Remote Hemostasis_2 After clamping the aorta, Director Xu checked the blood vessel, fortunately, there was a tear that was previously overlooked, initially small, but perhaps due to the high pressure of the blood vessel, it suddenly ripped into a larger longitudinal tear. Major vascular surgeons thought it could be repaired after inspection. However, they must deal with the two short steel rods before proceeding with the repair, otherwise, it would be difficult to even stitch up, with the tear right behind one of the rods, blocked from view by it. Director Xu hadn¡¯t yet caught his breath when another major bleeding site sprang up, gushing blood like a fountain. ¡°Suction device, here, quick, give me some visibility.¡± Director Xu estimated that the bleeding blood vessel originated from the liver or pancreas, but the vessels of the liver and pancreas are somewhat posterior, and if it¡¯s one of the posterior vessels, it¡¯s very tricky. For now, Director Xu could only pinpoint the general location of the bleeding. Being an experienced emergency surgery expert, he remained calm and composed. With the assistance of the assistant¡¯s suction device, he finally identified the source as likely being the vessel at the back of the liver, near the third hepatic portal. He reached behind the liver to feel around and seemed to find something, then he pinched it, and remarkably, the bleeding decreased, which indicated his judgment was correct. A short steel rod happened to pass through the liver. Since the liver needed to be opened anyway, he decided to do it now. ¡°Vascular clamps!¡± Using vascular clamps, Director Xu achieved hemostasis with the dexterity of his hands, a skill hard-won from years of emergency surgical experience, something not easily replicated by less seasoned individuals. But after handling that vessel, the bleeding only decreased, it didn¡¯t stop. From the direction of the bleeding, the remaining source seemed to be on the side of the pancreas. Director Xu tried to feel behind the pancreas; the pancreas is often more complicated because its vessels frequently vary, making anatomy unstable. Moreover, the steel rod was pressing down firmly on the pancreas, not allowing much depth to probe, and after several attempts from above and below, Director Xu couldn¡¯t find anything. The situation was frustratingly passive, but Director Xu had no choice. This was Xiehe Hospital¡¯s emergency surgical team in action. In an ordinary hospital, a case like this would have been lost by now. Several groups of doctors worked swiftly, but futilely, as the bleeding was profuse and frequent, as were the steel rods. With so many sites needing attention, and the abdominal cavity being limited in space, they had to deal with them sequentially. Blood pressure had begun to show signs of instability, declining. While the pancreas was still being dealt with, the major vascular team was waiting to attend to the major vessels, but it was impossible to address those while bleeding was gushing from the pancreas. If two people were to work at the same time, there wouldn¡¯t be enough space. The anesthesiologist was highly attentive to the patient¡¯s blood pressure, plainly observing that it was on a downward trend. He intended to increase the transfusion pressure, but found it was already at maximum, not allowing for further increase. ¡°The blood pressure is a bit unstable!¡± The anesthesiologist immediately reported the observed vital signs to the chief surgeon. Despite the instability, there wasn¡¯t much that could be done as the bleeding was extensive, like a fire out of control, with firefighters exhausted from the chaos. The neurosurgery team was methodical, having cleared the intracranial hematoma, they were slowly starting to separate the tissue around the steel rod, creating a safe passage for its removal. Their surgery couldn¡¯t be rushed; they had to proceed with steady hands. ¡°The vessels of the pancreas are variant; look, this one is the current major bleeding vessel from the pancreas, bleeding intensely. It¡¯s a vessel that must be controlled immediately, not just these several vessels, but here too, you see, all these vessels must be quickly controlled.¡± Yang Ping pointed out several key vessels on the films, deemed imperative for immediate control, yet they were all still uncontained. Based on the severity of the injury and the rate of blood pressure decline, Yang Ping could make a rough prediction. This was part of his published trauma theory, which estimates the rate of blood loss by assessing the injured vessels and then incorporates the rate of blood transfusion, allowing for a circulatory prediction of how long the patient can hold on. With the addition of factors like age, the accuracy increases even more. According to his theory, the patient wouldn¡¯t last much longer at this rate. ¡°We need to speed up, or the patient won¡¯t last much longer,¡± Yang Ping was seriously concerned. Director Long also began to feel anxious about the situation unfolding on the operating table. ¡°The blood pressure is still dropping!¡± the anesthesiologist¡¯s concern was now more evident. ¡°Continue increasing the pressure!¡± Director Xu ordered. But they were already at the limit, with no more pressure to add. ¡°It¡¯s already at the maximum pressure.¡± The anesthesiologist said. Director Xu looked up at the several bags of blood hanging on the intravenous stand, ¡°No good, the bleeding is too rapid, the injuries too complicated. Not to mention the reinforcement bar has damaged so many blood vessels, there is also bleeding from numerous fractures¡ªa tremendous amount of blood loss.¡± It was only now that Director Xu began to feel a lack of confidence; this case truly exceeded his previous experience and was incredibly difficult to manage. Somehow, a blood vessel might have burst through the blood clot formed by the body¡¯s natural coagulation process, and blood was gushing out again. ¡°Where is this new bleeding coming from?¡± We haven¡¯t even dealt with the current enemy, and now a new one has emerged. Director Xu started to feel a bit overwhelmed, but this was just on the technical side. Emotionally, he remained as calm as ever; he was an experienced emergency surgeon, not a greenhorn holding the scalpel for the first time. Not every patient can be saved; we can only do our best. The anatomy here was complicated to begin with; otherwise, a Whipple procedure wouldn¡¯t be considered a major surgery. The short reinforcement bars hadn¡¯t been removed yet, and now they had to dissect the pancreas. They were simply too busy, and even if you had three heads and six arms it would be in vain. We can only do our best treating a dead horse as if it were alive. ¡°Director Xu! The most vigorous bleeding is behind the pancreatic head!¡± ¡°Give me a large curve, open the clamps a bit, insert them from the lower side of the pancreatic head, angle the bend towards the right, the clamps should enter straight up, extend the clamps to the pivot position to clamp.¡± ¡°Hand me the large curve, I¡¯ll demonstrate for you.¡± Yang Ping shouted loudly, and Director Xu immediately stopped, turned his head to look at Yang Ping, Qiu Nuo handed Yang Ping a clean large curved vascular clamp, and he immediately used his own hand to represent the pancreas, demonstrating to Director Xu. After the demonstration, Yang Ping approached the operating table, ready to guide Director Xu in stopping the bleeding. Director Xu hesitated briefly, then immediately followed suit, but even with the demonstration, he couldn¡¯t be as precise; he carefully inserted the vascular clamps. Everyone made space, and Yang Ping, disregarding sterility principles, leaned as close to the operating table as possible, peering inside before speaking: ¡°Slightly to the right, yes, go in a bit more, a bit more, don¡¯t be afraid.¡± ¡°The opening of the clamps is too small, make it larger.¡± ¡°Rotate the clamps clockwise a bit, yes, stop!¡± ¡°Maintain this position, move forward a bit, don¡¯t move!¡± ¡°Clamp!¡± Under Yang Ping¡¯s remote guidance, Director Xu finally completed the action. He could clearly feel that he had clamped onto some tissue. After the suction device cleared the bleeding in this area, something miraculous happened¡ªthere was truly no more bleeding. ¡°First clamp onto it with the tooth!¡± Yang Ping could only instruct Director Xu in this way because the subsequent steps of ligating the blood vessels by feel were impossible for Director Xu to do. Director Xu executed as instructed, attaching the tooth to the vascular clamps, and then releasing the clamps, his heart feeling relieved. If it were someone else, even with Yang Ping¡¯s remote guidance, they wouldn¡¯t have been able to complete the hemostasis because it required a wealth of experience. Afterwards, under Yang Ping¡¯s distant guidance, Director Xu managed to stop the bleeding in several blood vessels, and these were the ones that were just troublesome. After stopping the bleeding in several major vessels, the condition in the surgical field noticeably improved, and Director Xu breathed a sigh of relief. It¡¯s not possible to always have someone directing your surgery like this, right? Director Xu said to Yang Ping, ¡°How about you scrub in and help on the table?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t hesitate, there wasn¡¯t time for fuss when saving lives, so he immediately went to scrub in. As he left, he didn¡¯t forget to say, ¡°Qiu Nuo! Scrub in!¡± The subsequent surgery progressed very quickly. The instrumental nurse couldn¡¯t keep up. He needed a nurse who could adapt to his pace. Chapter 1044 - 1044 859 The King ?Chapter 1044: Chapter 859: The King Chapter 1044: Chapter 859: The King Professor Liang knew that Yang Ping was originally trained in trauma surgery when Sanbo Hospital established the Trauma Emergency Center, adopting a comprehensive trauma surgery approach. Yang Ping¡¯s team was the absolute main force in this endeavor. He also knew that Sanbo Hospital had organized a symposium with Tokyo University and Yang Ping had performed a unique surgery that dazzled everyone present. This case was very special; the patient had a massive vascular tumor in the abdomen, which was severely damaged due to abdominal trauma. The tumor itself was a tangled mess of blood vessels interwoven together, then connected to various blood vessels throughout the abdominal cavity. Once damaged, it was impossible to stop the bleeding and the only solution was to completely resect the vascular tumor, severing and ligating all related blood vessels. This was more difficult than any complex abdominal trauma surgery because the tumor was unique, with no similar cases existing; its anatomy was unfamiliar to any doctor. The massive tumor involved hundreds of blood vessels; it was nothing short of a hellish surgery, but Yang Ping managed to successfully perform it. Song Yun, Kong Weiquan, and other orthopedic surgeons became excited. Professor Yang was a true master of trauma surgery with unmatched surgical concepts, skills, and speed. They couldn¡¯t believe they were about to witness the professor perform such a trauma surgery today. ¡°Does Professor Yang also perform trauma surgery?¡± asked a doctor next to Song Yun. Unable to hide his admiration, Song Yun exclaimed, ¡°Just wait and you¡¯ll see what emergency trauma surgery at the master¡¯s level is like.¡± The orthopedic surgeons knew Yang Ping was the master of trauma surgery, but other doctors didn¡¯t know. Neurosurgeons, thoracic surgeons, and general surgeons only knew of Yang Ping¡¯s 13 published papers and had seen his skills in cardiac and pancreatic surgery, but were unaware of his mastery in trauma surgery. Hearing what the orthopedic surgeons said, all the doctors became excited, eager to witness the master-level skills that Song Yun had described. Soon, Yang Ping returned with Qiu Nuo after washing up for surgery, and Directors Long and Wen, without any reservations, came to help Yang Ping don his surgical gown, which made the surrounding doctors enviously watch. These doctors often faced scolding from the two directors, but now watching how well they treated Yang Ping, helping him personally with his surgical gown, spoke volumes about his status. The star of the operating room was still his own instrumental nurse; no big-shot at Xiehe would dare to do that. It wasn¡¯t that Yang Ping was trying to throw his weight around; he simply never thought along those lines. At Xiehe, the person who most often assisted Yang Ping was Qiu Nuo, which was why he brought her along to the operating table without any other intention. As Yang Ping¡¯s designated instrumental nurse at Xiehe, Qiu Nuo felt immensely proud, especially in such circumstances, to be assisting Yang Ping was an honor. After Yang Ping was dressed and gloved, Director Xu immediately gave up the chief surgeon¡¯s position. Director Xu didn¡¯t have to think twice about Yang Ping¡¯s skills. Just moments ago, through just a few remote commands, he had helped him tackle several dangerous bleeding points that Director Xu himself had been struggling with for a long time. All the doctors in the room immediately tensed, especially the orthopedic surgeons, who quickly found the best spots to observe from. Yang Ping was their king, the king ascending the stage, all eyes on him. Yang Ping held his hands in front of his chest, his gaze confident, his posture erect, the aura of a king instantly enveloping the operating room. ¡°Thank you!¡± He politely acknowledged Director Xu for yielding the chief surgeon¡¯s spot and then without hesitation took his place. ¡°Director Xu, please go to the opposite side,¡± he requested. Going to the opposite side meant acting as the first assistant. Yang Ping needed a highly skilled assistant to fully utilize his own skills. After quick adjustments, the surgery team¡¯s placements were swiftly organized¡ªa young doctor as the chief surgeon, with a host of big names as assistants, something every doctor below dreamt of but hardly believed possible. In a race against time, Yang Ping began the surgery: ¡°Remove all suction tubes from the suction devices, use the suction tip directly, prepare five vascular clamps at a time, replenish immediately once used; keep a transfer curved plate nearby¡ª¡± ¡°Anesthesiologist! How are the patient¡¯s vital signs?¡± ¡°Tissue scissors! Non-damaging sutures and needles, anastomose the aorta!¡± With a few words, he commanded both the immediate and subsequent actions, and since Qiu Nuo was familiar with Yang Ping¡¯s preferences from assisting him frequently, she was able to cooperate efficiently. Had it been another nurse from Xiehe, they would have struggled to keep up, severely affecting the speed of the surgery. Yang Ping¡¯s approach was clear and straightforward¡ªfirst, control a few major bleeding points, then as many more as possible, after that remove a few pieces of rebar, and finally deal with two longer pieces. Handling such a major surgery was akin to conducting a battle, requiring strategic and tactical expertise to command the operating table. Depending on aortic clamping was a temporary measure. If it exceeded the time limit, the organs might suffer ischemic necrosis, meaning even successful surgery might not save the patient¡¯s life. Therefore, completing the hemostasis first was crucial¡ªhemostasis is always at the core of trauma surgery skills. Yang Ping began to anastomose the aorta in the tight space between the hands, as the aorta and the inferior vena cava were currently the main sources of bleeding. Yang Ping took the tissue scissors, without hesitation, snipped through the aorta, removing the crushed middle segment, as a small part had been damaged, not easily noticeable. Such severely damaged vessels could not be left behind as they would definitely lead to the formation of new vascular tumors, essentially leaving behind a ticking time bomb. Chapter 1045 - 1045 859 The King_2 ?Chapter 1045: Chapter 859: The King_2 Chapter 1045: Chapter 859: The King_2 For Yang Ping, repairing a blood vessel and performing vascular anastomosis took about the same amount of time, so he simply cut and re-anastomosed it in one step to ensure there would be no future issues. The abrupt procedure on the leading edge of the aorta took the doctors present by surprise. To cut and then suture it, with so little remaining time for the blockage, was an extremely delicate operation¡ªespecially in such a tight space where anastomosis itself was difficult. Without any apparent contemplation, Yang Ping began the aortic anastomosis. The rebar obstructed, leaving very limited space to work, but this proved no problem¡ªhow could the level of a master be affected by a few steel bars? Yang Ping¡¯s stitching movements were minimal, the entire operation conducted through the coordination of his fingers and wrist, with the area above the wrist supremely stable, showing no compensatory movements whatsoever. Even for some of the finer actions, the wrist remained completely still, with only the fingers maneuvering the instruments. Director Xu assisted with cutting the threads, feeling awkward even just extending the scissors. Yang Ping, meanwhile, managed the suturing with ease, leading Director Xu to realize for the first time that suturing was a skilled task and could indeed be taken to such a level. What Director Xu found most difficult to accept was that he couldn¡¯t keep up with Yang Ping¡¯s suturing speed. The instruments flashed by; the specifics of the movements in his hands were indiscernible, as the suturing and knotting were already complete by the time he hurried to cut the thread. While suturing, Yang Ping occasionally looked up towards the upstream chest area. ¡°First, stop the bleeding. There¡¯s no need for a lobectomy. I¡¯ll assist you in a moment. Give me the vascular clamps,¡± he said. As he sutured the aorta, Yang Ping still found time to glance at someone else¡¯s chest procedure, which the thoracic and cardiac surgeons found meddlesome. But then, Yang Ping actually asked for the cardiac surgeon¡¯s vascular clamps. Intimidated by his presence, the cardiac surgeon handed them over. Yang Ping pushed and clamped, securing a blood vessel with precision. ¡°Get me more vascular clamps! I¡¯ll help you stop the bleeding; take a breather,¡± Yang Ping instructs the cardiac and thoracic surgeons, as he continued suturing the aorta. The cardiac and thoracic surgeons were dumbfounded by his reach¡ªconducting surgeries on both sides by himself. Yet his clamping was so effective that it had secured the most severely bleeding vessel in the ruptured lung. In less than a minute, the aortic anastomosis was complete. Yang Ping then cut and re-anastomosed the inferior vena cava, with movements as swift as before. The surgeons dealing with the chest upstream were Director Deng from cardiac surgery and Director Rong from the thoracic department. Both directors, somewhat bewildered, requested several vascular clamps from the instrumental nurse. Yang Ping, out of the corner of his eye, saw their clamps and, while Director Xu was occupied with cutting threads, quickly withdrew a clamp from Director Deng¡¯s hand and inserted it, accurately securing another blood vessel. Director Deng and Director Rong were staggered. What were they to do next? Before they could gather their thoughts, the clamps in their hands had been taken. ¡°Get a few more vascular clamps for Director Deng!¡± Yang Ping commanded the nurse. Director Deng finally reacted¡ªwhy not just tie off the vessels Yang Ping had clamped down on? So, the two stopped dallying and began ligating the vessels Yang Ping had secured. Thus a comical scene ensued: Yang Ping rhythmically, every time Director Xu cut the thread, took a vascular clamp from Director Deng¡¯s hand and guided it into the chest cavity. Directors Deng and Rong would immediately start tying off the blood vessels. And now Director Deng, very conscientiously, would ask the nurse for more clamps as soon as his were taken, holding them ready for Yang Ping to pull. The doctors by the operating table stared in amazement at this unusual collaboration¡ªwhat kind of bizarre operation was this? The inferior vena cava on this side was now successfully anastomosed. With the two major sources of bleeding addressed, Yang Ping released the aortic clamping forceps, checking the seal of the anastomosis, and found no issues. Yang Ping began tackling the bleeding points on his side, leading to even more peculiar operations. Yang Ping held a vascular clamp in his hand, placing one into the abdominal cavity, then into the thoracic cavity, repeating this tedious action while several directors desperately tied off the blood vessels. Each time a vascular clamp was introduced, it was clear to see the bleeding in that area slowing down or stopping. In this way, batch after batch of vascular clamps went in, some placed by Yang Ping, prying apart organs or tissues, and others inserted between gaps in the rebar. Even a few were placed under the pancreas and liver, and then the bleeding, which had been very tricky moments ago, was now halted. After such an exaggerated operation, the chest and abdominal surgical areas actually appeared quite clean. Director Xu, after all, was the director of Xiehe Hospital¡¯s emergency surgery department, a top-tier figure in the country, with twenty years of medical practice, had never seen surgery done like this. Upstream, Directors Deng and Rong glanced at Yang Ping from time to time. He was the one who had cut all these bleeding vessels, wasn¡¯t he? How come he was so familiar with their locations. The doctors watching around were overhauled in their understanding time and again, finally witnessing the king-level prowess spoken of by Song Yun. Now that the original bleeding points had been addressed, Yang Ping began to separate the two short pieces of rebar. Moving the surgical knife along the rebar, he sliced and separated, like peeling off wrapping paper, bit by bit, layer by layer, until the rebar was peeled away, and all blood vessels were preemptively tied off, with hardly any bleeding. With all dangers around the rebar eliminated, and key areas protected by retractors, Yang Ping smoothly extracted the rebar. Director Xu, always a refined man, at this moment wanted to utter what he considered coarse words¡ªimpressive as hell! It seemed that apart from this phrase, he temporarily could not think of any other suitable words to pay tribute to the king in front of him. The surgical knife continued to cut through whatever it encountered, unstoppable and invincible. Another piece of rebar passed through the liver¡ªwhat of it? The knife forcefully peeled the rebar out. While stripping, he not only achieved hemostasis but also completed the debridement process. The two short pieces of rebar were effortlessly removed. Director Xu considered himself fast at surgery, but in front of Yang Ping, he felt downright sluggish. How on earth was such hand speed developed? This kind of through-and-through rebar certainly could not be forcibly yanked out, for many reasons. When a rebar pierces the human body, it causes damage to organs and tissues along its path, inevitably leading to the rupture of blood vessels, but the extent of the injuries is unknown. Originally, the rebar exerted a certain pressure on the surrounding tissue, which had a hemostatic effect. Once the rebar was removed, the pressure disappeared instantly, and the previously compressed blood vessels immediately opened, causing what was initially non-bleeding to start bleeding, and what was minor bleeding to suddenly increase. At this time, all the damage and bleeding were concentrated in a long tunnel, making it impossible for doctors to stop the bleeding, only forcing them to hurriedly cut open the lengthy tunnel. There was another method of stuffing gauze into the tunnel, which seemed useful, but was in fact useless because the so-called tunnel was not continuously enclosed. The complex anatomy in between meant it was impossible to stuff the material neatly from entry to endpoint. Dirt, foreign bodies, and devitalized tissues would accumulate in the tunnel, all sources of infection. Moreover, there were certain adhesions between the rebar and surrounding tissues. Once pulled out, the tearing and friction force would increase the damage, tearing the adherent tissue, causing severe secondary injury. Therefore, the treatment of such rebar involved cutting it whenever possible and achieving hemostasis while cutting. If it could not be cut, one needed to fully understand the anatomical relationship around the rebar, the extent of damage, and try to separate the rebar from surrounding tissues as much as possible. In short, one principle: it should be clear which parts were damaged by the rebar, so that when the rebar is pulled out, there would be no sudden bleeding, nor additional injury, and it would be easy to clean foreign bodies, contaminated tissues, and devitalized tissues, to prevent infection, and it is best if the surroundings are well-protected when the rebar is extracted. After removing the two short pieces, the remaining two long pieces of rebar were the main enemies, but Yang Ping remained calm and unhurried. PS: Wishing everyone a Happy New Year, good health, joyful spirits, and all the best! Thank you for your support over the past year, bowing in gratitude! Chapter 1046 - 1046 860 First Wife ?Chapter 1046: Chapter 860: First Wife Chapter 1046: Chapter 860: First Wife The skill Yang Ping displayed just now, managing abdominal surgery while simultaneously attending to thoracic surgery, left all the doctors, both above and below the operating table, deeply impressed. This level of surgical expertise was not merely high; it had reached a more advanced realm. All the short steel rods had been removed. Now, the focus shifted to handling the two long steel rods, which had traveled a long and complex path, injuring multiple areas, making the injuries extremely complicated. One of the long steel rods entered through the anus, perforated the rectum in the lower abdomen, then damaged the small intestine and pancreas, moved upward through the diaphragm to the mediastinum in the thorax, and then entered the pericardium, exiting through the left anterior chest, just missing the heart. Thankfully, after entering the pericardium, it practically grazed past the heart, which was clearly compressed by the rod. Not only was the path long and complicated, but there was also a problem: it passed through the rectum from the anus, causing the feces from the rectum to leak into the abdominal cavity. Furthermore, after the rod passed through the feces, carrying feces through so many areas, the feces acted like a super bacterial repository. Therefore, every place it passed was likely contaminated with bacteria, greatly increasing the risk of future infections. In order to minimize the contamination range, this rod was left for last. The other steel rod was not much better. It entered through the perineum, passed through the bladder and intestines, skirted next to the spleen, avoiding the stomach, then went through the diaphragm to the thorax, penetrated the lung, and exited from the upper thoracic aperture before entering the neck and from there, the skull, finally exiting through the top of the skull. Relatively speaking, this rod was a bit cleaner, so Yang Ping decided to handle it first. The neurosurgery team was methodically exploring along the rod, separating and stemming bleeding from the injured areas. Yang Ping initially left the neurosurgeon¡¯s side and started to address this relatively cleaner rod. The entry region in the perineal area was now utterly wrecked, a complete mess. Yang Ping didn¡¯t know how the rod had been inserted; moreover, the scrotum had split open. Just then, everyone was dealing with more critical injuries and hardly paid attention to this area because the bleeding here was practically negligible compared to the others. Yang Ping examined the perineal injuries, which were very severe, from the skin to the pelvic fascia, and the pelvic floor muscles were all severely damaged, with tissues extensively crushed and layers filled with large blood clots. The testicles inside the scrotum were nearly pulverized, with no possibility of repair, necessitating a total resection. The pubic branch of the pelvis was severely comminuted due to hitting something mid-air during the fall, creating a severe straddle injury. This observation made it almost certain that the urethra was ruptured from a severe straddle trauma. Now that the bleeding was under control, they could proceed methodically, dissecting along the rod, exploring and managing the injuries, and safely extracting the rod. Certain about some things on the operating table, Yang Ping had no hesitations. Since the testicles were already pulverized, he decisively removed them, cleaned the scrotum, and then sutured it. Song Yun persuaded Professor Liang to go rest, but at that moment, Professor Liang was wide awake and intensely interested, occasionally leaning in to check the operating table. ¡°So, can¡¯t they be saved?¡± Professor Liang was asking about the pulverized testicles. Yang Ping replied, ¡°They¡¯re completely shattered. There must have been a significant impact on this area during the fall.¡± Hearing this, Professor Liang sighed deeply, ¡°The consequences of enjoying the cool on the balcony are just too severe.¡± To again caution the youth, the Old Academician pointed at the pulverized tissues Yang Ping had just removed and emphasized again, ¡°Look, you all must take this as a warning. Never lean on the balcony railing while cooling off.¡± ¡°How could the quality of this railing be so poor? Are today¡¯s developers so irresponsible? Lives are at stake; couldn¡¯t they make it sturdier?¡± The Old Academician did not forget to criticize the developer. Song Yun, following behind Professor Liang, did not dare to interject, only nodding along. Since the perineal area was crushed to this state, the wound could only temporarily be patched as possible, with secondary adjustments to be made based on the postoperative condition changes, as saving the patient¡¯s life was the current first priority. Continuing to explore and separate along the rod, Yang Ping discovered that the urethra was indeed ruptured and marked it for later suturing after the rod was completely removed. The bladder was also ruptured, but fortunately, the kidneys on both sides, although bruised, were not severely affected, likely indirect injuries from the fall. Speculating on the injury mechanism at that time, it must have been that the rod-like steel bars used for building construction scaffolding at the construction site formed a shelter on the first floor. When falling, there must have been a buffer, with the site of buffering being the top of the shelter. The posture must have been straddling the top of the shelter, with the immense energy dissipating as the steel frame spread out, allowing the body to continue impacting the scattered steel bars, and hence several rods inserted into the body from different angles. Yang Ping continued to separate the tissue while stemming bleeding, inserting saline-soaked gauze around the rod for protection, Yang Ping kept separating and stemming bleeding as he followed the rod upward, from the abdominal cavity to the thoracic cavity, with the diaphragm between them. The diaphragm did not need to be completely opened; Yang Ping merely enlarged the wound to facilitate the later removal of the rods, then would clean and suture the diaphragm after the rods were removed. Chapter 1047 - 1047 860 First Wife_2 ?Chapter 1047: Chapter 860: First Wife_2 Chapter 1047: Chapter 860: First Wife_2 Yang Ping explored the esophagus, which was also damaged. It seemed there were but a few organs left undamaged; nearly all had sustained some injury. The trauma within the chest cavity was extremely complex; one side of the lung had been punctured, and just now the two directors had been planning to perform a lobectomy of the lung, and had even started, but the procedure was shelved temporarily after Yang Ping managed to stop the bleeding. Now, Director Deng and Director Rong were waiting for Yang Ping to handle the chest injuries. They had thought they could catch a breather, but to their surprise, Yang Ping had already reached the chest in the separation of the steel rod. The exploration, separation, and hemostasis along the path of the steel rod through the abdomen had been completed; now it was handed over to Director Xu for irrigation, while Yang Ping moved on to the chest injuries. ¡°Let¡¯s repair the lung next!¡± Yang Ping decided to first make an incision in the lung for exploration and debridement; only after the extraction of the steel rod would he proceed to repair the ruptured lung. The lung tissue, being quite fragile, was difficult to suture and to achieve hemostasis, which had been why the two directors had just decided to carry out a lobectomy. With utmost care, Yang Ping made an incision into the lung, simultaneously cutting and stopping the blood flow. The vascular clamps easily closed the blood vessels within the brittle yet elastic lung tissue. After addressing the lung, Yang Ping took no rest and continued upward along the path of the steel rod, within the existing scope of the incision, proceeding with the separation up to the exit of the thoracic outlet, and from there towards the neck. Once the separation in the neck was complete, and moving upward from the submandibular region, came the base of the skull. The steel rod had entered the cranial cavity through the base of the skull. Luckily, it had not damaged any critical structures inside the skull, such as the brainstem, otherwise there would have been no chance for today¡¯s rescue surgery. Yang Ping¡¯s work was done, and he waited to connect with the neurosurgeon. Over in neurosurgery, they were still slowly exploring, separating, and achieving hemostasis. The cranial cavity was small and the anatomy complex, which made the process slow. It wasn¡¯t feasible to simply wait around doing nothing, so Yang Ping glanced at the neurosurgeon¡¯s progress and noticed that they were exploring and separating at the base of the skull, a truly complex area where the slightest misstep could lead to serious complications. But waiting indefinitely was not an option, he had to either start separating the second steel rod now or lend a hand to the neurosurgeon. He opted to lend a hand, asking the patrolling nurse, ¡°Pass me the auxiliary head-mounted microscope!¡± The neurosurgeon was startled. What was this for? Offering us a hand? We have enough people. You couldn¡¯t possibly know how to perform neurosurgery too. Our neurosurgical operations, especially those at the skull base, have a high threshold. Wearing the microscope, Yang Ping looked inside: ¡°This is difficult to maneuver, how about we remove the steel rod first, then proceed with the operation?¡± Remove it? What on earth was he proposing? The neurosurgeon instinctively rejected the idea. ¡°There¡¯s temporarily no damage here, you see, that blood vessel there has been damaged, but it¡¯s being compressed by the steel rod. Slowly remove the steel rod and then immediately stop the bleeding,¡± Yang Ping pointed out inside. The neurosurgeon looked more closely and it seemed that was indeed the case. Carrying on the way they were, there was no telling when they would be done. ¡°Remove it?¡± ¡°Yes, remove it!¡± ¡°Alright then.¡± ¡°Shall I remove it now?¡± ¡°Just remove it!¡± ¡°The steel rod can be removed now!¡± Yang Ping informed everyone to get ready. As the removal of the steel rod commenced, the neurosurgeon, basic surgeon, and the thoracic surgeon all stood guard over their respective areas of responsibility. Yang Ping gripped the lower end of the steel rod and slowly pulled it downward. As the steel rod was gradually withdrawn from the safe corridor, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But the neurosurgeon became busy. Damn, with the steel rod out, there was blood all over the base of the skull ¨C how was this supposed to help? They suddenly felt as if they had been duped. ¡°Let me see!¡± Yang Ping held the suction device in one hand and the bipolar electrocoagulation in the other, washing and coagulating at the same time. In a blink, the interior was spotlessly clean, and there was no more bleeding from the skull base. The neurosurgeons were dumbfounded. Had they been toiling in vain for so long when you finished the job in mere minutes? Upon the dissected pathway, Yang Ping flushed it out and then began dissecting the second long steel reinforcement bar. This second bar had passed through the anus and rectum and was contaminated by feces. But for now, he didn¡¯t care about that, planning a thorough wash later. Just like the first bar, Yang Ping worked rapidly, soon completing the dissection of the second reinforcement bar. After removing all the steel bars, Yang Ping re-explored those pathways and washed them out once more, and only after repeated flushing with large amounts of saline did he feel reassured. With several steel bars removed, the patient¡¯s blood pressure remained stable and didn¡¯t drop any further. Director Xu thought the surgery was almost over, but Yang Ping said, ¡°Let¡¯s take care of the major fractures. With so many fractures and continuous bleeding, it isn¡¯t good. It won¡¯t take much time.¡± And so, Yang Ping began treating the fractures. Pelvic fractures, acetabulum fractures, femoral shaft fractures, and multiple rib fractures¡ªthe orthopedic surgeons witnessed what real speed was all about. Fractures were treated with closed intramedullary nailing. Skin incised, opening made, intramedullary nail inserted¡ªeach surgery completed within minutes. With pelvic fractures, he removed the stuffed gauze while repositioning the fractured pelvis and controlling the bleeding. Once the gauze was out, several haphazardly placed steel plates fixed the fractures. As long as they held well, bleeding was reduced by half, and then Yang Ping did one more round of hemostasis on the pelvic cavity, leaving virtually no worries about pelvic bleeding. Multiple rib fractures were even faster to fix, using titanium clips to stabilize the fractures¡ªone titanium clip for each fracture site. More than twenty clips inserted, the thoracic cage stabilized firmly. In principle, such surgeries need to be staged, but that¡¯s for others. Such theory doesn¡¯t apply to Yang Ping because his speed is very fast, and his surgeries cause minimal blood loss, making the impact on the patient significantly smaller. Considering the benefits and impacts of surgery, the benefits clearly outweighed the impacts, so extending the time to complete the entire surgery wasn¡¯t much of a problem. For the burst fracture of the thoracolumbar spine, Yang Ping used an anterior approach, entering from outside the peritoneum, removing the burst vertebral body that had invaded the spinal canal, implanting an artificial vertebral body, and stabilizing it with an anterior steel plate. All surgeries were completed in one go, each one a major surgery, but in Yang Ping¡¯s hands, they seemed effortless. A person performing both general surgery and surgeries of orthopedics, thoracic, and neurosurgery, Director Xu assisting throughout the procedure at high speed, completely drenched in sweat. Not having done trauma surgeries for a while, Professor Liang couldn¡¯t understand how the surgery could be so fast. Song Yun said, ¡°Yang Ping operates even faster at Sanbo Hospital.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Professor Liang asked. Song Yun replied, ¡°The instrumental nurses at Sanbo are the regulars, but today¡¯s nurses aren¡¯t.¡± Song Yun¡¯s implication was clear; at Sanbo Hospital, Professor Yang¡¯s instrumental nurses had been working with him for a long time and were more in sync with him. To put it in layman¡¯s terms, Song Yun used the term ¡°regulars,¡± which might seem inappropriate. Today¡¯s instrumental nurse was Qiu Nuo. Although at Xiehe, she was the one who had assisted Professor Yang the most, he only spent a few days per month at Xiehe, limiting the number of times they could coordinate, which couldn¡¯t compare to his nurses at Sanbo Hospital. Professor Liang turned to look at Song Yun, then at Qiu Nuo on stage. What did that mean? He couldn¡¯t fathom the world of the young, nor did he feel it appropriate to inquire. Chapter 1048 - 1048 861 In all martial arts speed is ?Chapter 1048: Chapter 861: In all martial arts, speed is unbeatable Chapter 1048: Chapter 861: In all martial arts, speed is unbeatable Such a major surgery, Xiao Yang actually managed it effortlessly, as if he were chopping vegetables. Not only did he quickly remove the rebar, but he also completed the orthopedic surgery originally scheduled for the second phase all at once, even dealing with thoracic and lumbar spine fractures in one session. I can barely accept assisting thoracic surgeons in stopping blood loss, but you also helped neurosurgeons with the hemostasis at the base of the skull. This made Director Xu question life, wondering if this was really Xiehe Hospital, questioning whether he was still a seasoned emergency surgeon. In front of Professor Yang, he felt like a complete novice; as the first assistant, he was entirely passive throughout the entire surgical process and was constantly struggling to keep up with the pace of the surgery. Director Xu realized he had never been as expletive as he was today, because throughout the entire surgery, he was internally cursing: ¡°Damn, how can this be done; Could you possibly go slower; Damn impressive¡ª¡± Perhaps when people get anxious, they easily swear, and usually, Director Xu had to comfort himself by thinking he was quite refined. After the tense ordeal, as the surgery drew to a close, everyone felt much more relaxed, significantly less tense than before. Despite the exhaustion post-battle, there was a profound sense of satisfaction. For a doctor, nothing could be more fulfilling than saving a patient¡¯s life. ¡°Anesthesiologist, vital signs?¡± Director Xu asked in a high-pitched voice, not sounding like someone who had been up all night. The anesthesiologist responded in sync with Director Xu: ¡°Heart rate 105 beats per minute, respiration 23 breaths per minute, blood pressure 95/61 mmHg, stable!¡± The heart rate was a bit fast, but that was okay. Having lost so much blood, it was normal for the heart to compensate by beating faster. As long as it wasn¡¯t wildly off, the heart rate should naturally drop below 100 once the patient¡¯s hemoglobin levels normalized. Respiration at 23 breaths per minute reflected the frequency of the anesthesia machine, not the patient¡¯s independent breathing rate, so it held little significance. Blood pressure at 95/61 mmHg, as long as it wasn¡¯t shock-level, was already a victory considering the significant blood loss. One shouldn¡¯t expect a blood pressure like a healthy person¡¯s. ¡°Urine output?¡± The patrolling nurse had just drained over 800 milliliters of urine from the patient¡¯s urine bag under the sterile sheet: ¡°800 milliliters in 5 hours.¡± Director Xu was relieved; that was a very normal urine output. Medically, a 24-hour urine output less than 100 milliliters is called anuria, while less than 400 milliliters is called oliguria. At 800 milliliters in just 5 hours, the rate was reassuring. Oliguria or anuria could indicate that the body didn¡¯t have enough fluids, suggesting possible shock or acute renal failure, an extremely dangerous sign. Professor Liang reminded: ¡°Xiao Yang, take a rest.¡± Song Yun came over to help Yang Ping take off his surgical gown. It was indeed time for a rest. Yang Ping delegated the remaining wrap-up duties to a few directors. Now that the main steps of the surgery were completed and active bleeding was minimal¡ªmostly just capillary oozing¡ªand as long as the transfusions were timely, the patient¡¯s life was relatively secure. As for what would happen after the surgery no one could make an accurate prognostic judgment. This severely traumatized patient would face many postoperative issues, such as infections from fecal contamination of the abdomen, which highly increased the probability of infection. Once infected, due to low innate immunity, it could easily lead to uncontrollable infection. What doctors could do was only to ensure thorough debridement, with extensive rinsing being crucial. Repeated irrigation with saline could maintain cleanliness during surgery, diluting bacteria to an exceedingly low concentration, and postoperative use of antibiotics was not just preventative but therapeutic. Postoperatively, the patient also faced potentially deadly complications such as fat embolism, systemic inflammatory response syndrome, and multiple organ failure¡ªany one of which could be lethal. After the surgery, Yang Ping felt his clothes were already soaked. The extensive maneuvers performed during such a large surgery, the high focus required, and multitasking various aspects naturally consumed much physical energy. Professor Liang was standing in front of the light board and signaled for Yang Ping to come over immediately. The old academician had several areas that were unclear and needed to discuss with Yang about how to achieve such proficiency with anatomy, as it seemed he could perform dissections blindfolded. Other doctors also gathered around Yang Ping, eager to hear what he would say. The recent surgery was like a live demonstration of emergency trauma surgery, displaying real expert-level skills to all doctors. It contained superb surgical techniques that went beyond just speed. It involved rapid assessment of injuries and quick surgical planning, combining pre-operative diagnostics with injury mechanisms to assess the extent and location of injuries, and then applying his proficient anatomical knowledge to accurately determine how the rebar damaged specific blood vessels and organs. Several hours had passed after the surgery, but everyone¡¯s enthusiasm was still high, with no hint of sleepiness, completely unaware that it was almost dawn. Some doctors even ran over to ask Yang Ping about his rationale during surgery, hoping to learn more. Some doctors simply came to cozy up, get in on the action, and make their faces known, considering Yang Ping a hero in the hearts of these young doctors. Especially the resident doctors were helping each other discreetly take pictures, so when they returned to their own hospitals, they could say they had once assisted Professor Yang, and if one day Professor Yang became an academician, they could even frame these photos to display on their desks. Chapter 1049 - 1049 861 In all the martial arts speed is ?Chapter 1049: Chapter 861: In all the martial arts, speed is unmatched ¨C Part 2 Chapter 1049: Chapter 861: In all the martial arts, speed is unmatched ¨C Part 2 Director Long and Director Wen now feel that this meal was more than worth it. Yang Ping not only helped with several surgeries but also assisted with emergency surgeries in the middle of the night, crucially providing young doctors with a lot of insight. They couldn¡¯t help but sigh, how wonderful it would be to have such a doctor in their own department. Indeed, the Academician has an eye for talent, having managed to recruit such an impressive young man. Director Xu was concluding the procedure on stage. Today¡¯s surgery was a lesson for him. Whether it was the speed of the surgery or the overall planning and grasp of details, it was nearly impeccable, representing a pinnacle in emergency surgery. Of course, before this, Director Xu had not thought highly of the ceiling in emergency surgery. Often, he felt it was within reach and sometimes, in high spirits, he thought he had already touched the ceiling. But today, he realized the ceiling was higher than he had imagined. The firefighter had been waiting outside the operating room for a long time, with no movement inside, and he didn¡¯t dare to enter. The doctor who was accompanying him had already entered to observe the surgery. So, he knocked on the door and asked, ¡°Do you still need my help?¡±. Only now did Director Xu remember that a firefighter was waiting outside with cutting tools. He immediately said, ¡°Thank you, you¡¯ve worked hard,¡± and then asked a doctor to escort the firefighter out. The firefighter packed his gear and, accompanied by the doctor, left the operating room. But not a single doctor inside the operating room left. Even though the surgery was nearing its end, they remained, reluctant to depart. ¡°Just now, during the thoracolumbar burst fracture surgery, I noticed there wasn¡¯t much bleeding. Is there a special technique?¡± Song Yun had been paying special attention to orthopedic surgeries, particularly spine surgeries. He noticed that when Yang Ping was removing the vertebrae during the thoracolumbar burst fracture surgery, there was very little bleeding. Normally, removing vertebrae would result in significant blood loss, sometimes affecting blood pressure. ¡°Apart from high-level hemostasis, there is no greater skill in martial arts than speed,¡± Professor Liang answered for Yang Ping. Indeed, surgery is not about speed for the sake of speed, but under the premise of ensuring surgical quality, it¡¯s about minimizing the duration to lessen bleeding and reduce trauma to the patient. ¡°How can surgical speed be increased?¡± one of the doctors asked. Professor Liang once again answered on behalf of Yang Ping: ¡°Practice makes perfect! Anatomy knowledge must be familiar, basic surgical skills must be familiar, and surgical operations must be familiar.¡± Professor Liang felt it was better for him to answer this question in an instructive manner. He took this opportunity to underscore to the young doctors the importance of being ¡°proficient.¡± Proficiency has no limits. For instance, in anatomy, it requires continuous review, repeated study, ensuring that the entire anatomy book and diagram is imprinted in the mind. In fact, Yang Ping did exactly that. The difference was that he had ample time and opportunities to study anatomy and practice dissections in the System Space. His skilled surgical techniques were also acquired through devilishly rigorous training in the System Space. Each advancement came with great effort, in the isolated, lonely, and monotonous System Space, supported by his interest and trained over and over. ¡°Indeed, that is the case. Whether it¡¯s theory or practice, it should become second nature in your mind. When it does, it becomes a part of you, and you¡¯ll achieve the desired outcome with every move. It¡¯s like typing; when the training reaches an extreme familiarity, whether it¡¯s the brain or the muscles, memory forms. As soon as a thought occurs, the hand naturally and accurately reaches for the right key without needing to think.¡± Yang Ping shared his own insights, moved by the conversation. Although others might not have as much time and opportunity as he did, everyone could strive to be as proficient as possible within their capabilities. ¡°You see, this steel bar entered through the perineum. When we look at its path on the CT, we immediately combine it with anatomy¡ªwhere it passed, what organs are in those places, what kind of tissues they belong to, which blood vessels and nerves are affected, and what can happen if these structures are damaged.¡± ¡°Similarly, when stopping bleeding, as the suction device removes the blood and it flows out again, you need to identify where it¡¯s coming from. You should be aware of the blood vessels in that area, their usual thickness, and what happens when they are severed.¡± ¡°Master its rhythm; everything has a rhythm, surgeries and medical conditions both have rhythm.¡± In fact, Yang Ping wasn¡¯t sure if what he was saying was correct, but he was willing to share his so-called insights with everyone. He was also willing to share his new concepts and techniques. He always believed that no matter how skillful a doctor is, they only have one pair of hands. Only by spreading medical knowledge can the public truly benefit. These doctors weren¡¯t just young doctors; Director Long and Director Wen were also among them, listening intently as Yang Ping shared his experiences. ¡°Regarding anomalous blood vessels, such as those supplying the pancreas which are quite unstable, how can I quickly and safely locate them? Especially when they rupture and bleed, or during tumor removal surgery, how can I quickly distinguish whether they are tumor¡¯s blood vessels or the organ¡¯s vessels?¡± Director Long asked as if he were a student, feeling as if he had returned to his younger days when they used to discuss surgeries without any reservations. ¡°Actually, for locating and distinguishing anomalous blood vessels, the best method is the tracking method¡ªwhat we often call ¡®following the vine to get the melon.¡¯ Every blood vessel has an origin and a destination. If we grasp either end and trace it quickly, we can definitely find the other end. Once both ends are clear, the identity of the blood vessel becomes apparent.¡± ¡°As for determining the location when an anomalous vessel ruptures, the bleeding from different locations and calibers of blood vessels is not the same; there are subtle differences. Moreover, we have imaging before surgery, which is like obtaining the patient¡¯s anomalous vascular anatomy in advance, so the anomalies are no longer unfamiliar.¡± ¡°For example, the bleeding vessel behind the pancreas that we just saw; look, it¡¯s very clear on the CT scan. It¡¯s just that we¡¯ve not been so detailed in our observation of CT imagery, so we need to enhance the precision when reading images.¡± Yang Ping pointed at the vessel on the image as he spoke. While everyone was chatting here, the surgery was drawing to a close. When it finished, Song Yun checked the time and saw it was already past six in the morning. Everyone finally dispersed, eager to snatch whatever hours of sleep they could. Yang Ping, Song Yun, Kong Weiquan, and other young doctors from the ward usually stayed in the on-call room. But who could think of sleep right now? Their minds were filled with scenes of the operation¡ªthe precise control of instruments with their fingers, multitasking, and the accurate and rapid hemostatic techniques¡ªall displaying a highly sophisticated surgical artistry. Xiehe Hospital¡¯s treatment of Yang Ping was quite good. They provided him with 45 beds and all the entitlements of a directorial level, including his own private on-call room for rest. The next day, Yang Ping had another day of surgeries. Throughout the day, the operating room was packed with people who came to observe his surgeries. It was probably due to the sensational impact of the previous night¡¯s emergency rescue that doctors from almost every department of surgery came by. There were many new faces, all there to see Yang Ping operate. Kong Weiquan said that with so many people coming and going, the orderly conduct of surgeries was being seriously affected. If it got too bad, they might as well charge admission to see if people would still come. Song Yun felt it was inappropriate to stop visitors from observing, but he acknowledged that controlling the flow of people to ensure normal surgical procedures was necessary. So, he appointed two doctors to act as guards at the door, controlling the number of people entering and the duration of their stay. Only after those in front had left were others allowed to enter. Even so, the doctors were willing to queue and wait to observe Yang Ping perform surgery. That entire day, Yang Ping operated under the watchful eyes of the visiting doctors at Xiehe Hospital. That evening, Director Long hosted a dinner for everyone again, but this time the night was uneventful with no emergency surgeries. Yang Ping¡¯s teaching assignment at Xiehe Hospital was completed within a few days. Before going to the airport, he made his rounds, visiting the coronary bypass infant, the patients with pancreatic cancer, and the victims of high falls in the ICU; they were all very stable after their operations. PS: I apologize, I¡¯ve been rather busy today and have posted less content. Thank you, everyone! Chapter 1050 - 1050 862 Why Are Chili Peppers Spicy ?Chapter 1050: Chapter 862: Why Are Chili Peppers Spicy? Chapter 1050: Chapter 862: Why Are Chili Peppers Spicy? Returning from Beijing, Yang Ping brought Xiao Su some of Beijing¡¯s specialty snacks as well as some trinkets that girls like, such as hair clips and bracelets; all of them were pretty little knick-knacks that were inexpensive, but Xiao Su liked them very much. Every time Yang Ping went on a trip, as long as he left the province, he would definitely bring a small gift for Xiao Su. He could forget other things, but he would never forget this. After his return, Yang Ping would also share with Xiao Su the surgeries he had performed while away. Xiao Su would listen with great interest, her eyes filled with admiration and affection for Yang Ping. By the time he returned it was already noon, so Yang Ping went to his department after lunch. The department¡¯s current status was good; Xia Shu had completely integrated into the new team. Soon, Dr. Wen and Dr. Jin from Orthopedics would be transferred to the Surgical Research Institute, which meant the Institute would have two additional doctors, increasing the workforce compared to before. In the afternoon, Yang Ping made his rounds in the Surgery, performed a few surgeries, and after work, he went to visit Pan Doudou in the General Surgery Department. She had not yet been discharged. Luckily, she had earned some money through live streaming; otherwise, she wouldn¡¯t have had enough to stay in the hospital waiting for an organ transplant. Lying on the hospital bed, the gaunt Pan Doudou had an infusion tube connected under her left collarbone. To facilitate long-term intravenous nutrition, the nurse had performed a subclavian vein puncture placement. Now, she was completely dependent on intravenous nutrition to maintain life. Even without eating, the pressure from air buildup in her non-functioning intestinal tract was enough to cause her great pain. As her illness became more severe, Pan Doudou¡¯s body took on an even more pronounced skeletal appearance, with her forehead, cheekbones, and jawbone all protruding. The contours around the orbits of her eyes were faintly discernible, which no longer looked aesthetically pleasing, but more akin to horror. Even in such a state, Pan Doudou didn¡¯t forget to live stream. Her condition garnered her fans¡¯ sympathy, and they spontaneously donated money, cheered her on, and hoped that she would pull through. The support of fans really made a difference. After seeing Pan Doudou, Yang Ping sat for a while in the office of the General Surgery Department, discussing Pan Doudou¡¯s condition with Director Fang. ¡°A few days ago, there was a patient who died in a car accident, and the family had agreed to donate the organs, but then they changed their minds.¡± Owing to traditional beliefs, the Chinese generally have a resistant attitude towards organ donation, which is understandable. Director Fang inevitably felt some regret and also apologized for calling Yang Ping in the middle of the night. He had been overly excited that day and had not clarified the situation before calling. As a doctor, who cares about getting calls in the middle of the night? Sometimes, having a quiet phone on days off can even feel odd. Back when Yang Ping was the chief resident, the department provided him with a Nokia brick phone. Its ringtone was still etched in Yang Ping¡¯s mind, and if he heard it now, he would immediately tense up instinctively, as it meant there was an emergency. ¡°There¡¯s nothing we can do but wait, contact me if needed,¡± Yang Ping said helplessly as waiting for an organ was a matter of fate. ¡°Her CA199 is very high, nearly a tenfold increase,¡± reported Doctor Chen, who was in charge of her bed. ¡°Yes, we are looking into the causes,¡± Director Fang said, showing a hint of worry on his face. ¡°I remember that she had a normal CA199 before, didn¡¯t she?¡± Yang Ping asked. Doctor Chen nodded: ¡°Yes, she had a CA199 test before, and it¡¯s always been normal.¡± CA199 is a tumor marker; at such a high level, over ten times the norm, if you consider a tumor, then previous diagnoses could all be overturned. A problem with the diagnosis before doing an organ transplant is certainly not good. Tumor markers are just one indicator, and a rise doesn¡¯t necessarily mean a tumor; other factors also need to be considered. Pan Doudou¡¯s current diagnosis was autoimmune ischemic enteropathy, and Yang Ping had personally examined the pathology slice, so there was definitely no problem there. Could it be that there was a tumor in some other part of her body? Yang Ping began to review in his mind. ¡°Get the medical record, I¡¯ll take a look,¡± Yang Ping felt it was necessary to review the medical record again. Doctor Chen immediately brought over the medical record but the most recent test forms hadn¡¯t been added yet; they were still in the cabinet at the nurse¡¯s station, which annoyed Director Fang: ¡°What¡¯s going on? Hurry up and get them.¡± A Standardized Training Student immediately ran to get the test forms, sweating profusely from his forehead. These tests had been ordered because of the increase in CA199. ¡°Bring out all her pre-admission tests; don¡¯t make it like pulling teeth,¡± Director Fang reprimanded his graduate student and Standardized Training Student. Yang Ping flipped through the test form to find that the CA199 was actually at 255 U/ml, the normal range being 0-25 U/ml, meaning it had reached more than ten times the normal maximum. Generally, such an increase is common in pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, and colon cancer, and some benign tumors of the digestive system may also show an increase. However, this indicator lacks specificity, and there are two important parameters for evaluation in clinical tests: sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity is for detecting the presence of disease; specificity is for reducing the chances of mistakes. High sensitivity means a strong capability to detect disease; for example, to use the analogy of virus detection software, out of ten thousand files mixed with a hundred viruses, it can detect all one hundred. However, unfortunately, it recognizes several hundred files as viruses, not just the one hundred, and the one hundred viruses are included among these several hundred files. What about specificity? Specificity can only detect fifty viruses, but all fifty are indeed viruses without any other files mixed in. Chapter 1051 - 1051 862 Why Chili Peppers are Spicy_2 ?Chapter 1051: Chapter 862: Why Chili Peppers are Spicy_2 Chapter 1051: Chapter 862: Why Chili Peppers are Spicy_2 CA199 isn¡¯t highly specific, and even if it increases, it doesn¡¯t necessarily indicate something like pancreatic cancer. For example, during a woman¡¯s menstrual period, CA199 levels can rise. Yang Ping thought about this, and since there were no signs of a tumor from other tests, it was likely due to other reasons. ¡°What is the patient¡¯s menstrual cycle like? Is it her period now?¡± ¡°About that, Doctor Chen didn¡¯t pay much attention to the patient¡¯s menstrual cycle.¡± Dr. Li couldn¡¯t answer immediately and leaned over to look through the medical records, where there was a section dedicated to recording menstrual history, but many doctors might not pay much attention to it. Seeing the recorded menstrual history, Doctor Chen started to calculate the date of the next period. ¡°Why not just ask and know for sure, instead of sitting here guessing?¡± Director Fang was sharp-tongued but softhearted, and was straightforward in character, so he tended to scold people a bit. However, his doctors were used to it. He might scold them, but he didn¡¯t have any bad intentions and was actually very protective of his doctors. Doctor Chen immediately ran to the ward to ask Pan Doudou about her menstrual history. After asking, he came back and said, ¡°Indeed, it is; today is the second day, but the flow is very light.¡± ¡°Given her current nutritional status, her menstrual flow is definitely scanty. Some patients in this nutritional state might even experience amenorrhea,¡± Yang Ping deduced. If that was the case, then the increase in the CA199 index was likely a response to her menstrual period, not a rise caused by a tumor, and it wouldn¡¯t affect the upcoming surgery, thus Yang Ping was reassured. Upon leaving the surgical building, just at the entrance of the Surgical Research Institute, Yang Ping ran into Head Nurse Cai. The head nurse had twisted her ankle, even wore a cast, but being a workaholic, she refused to take a leave. Thus, she used crutches at work, which made commuting difficult. The doctors and nurses in the department were very busy; no one really wanted to help, except for Xia Shu, who was new and not as swamped. Since Head Nurse lived in a community near the hospital, Xia Shu wheeled her to and from work every day. Doctors Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had both examined Head Nurse¡¯s injury, confirming it was serious, but said the cast would only be necessary for a few days. The crucial thing was that she had to use crutches for a month, with full recovery taking about three months. If not for the head nurse¡¯s generally strong constitution, her ankle would have swollen considerably, but currently, the swelling wasn¡¯t very pronounced. Head Nurse was quite worried, wondering what to do, as the department was so busy that taking a leave was hardly an option. At that time, Yang Ping was in Beijing, and Song Zimo, who was acting as the head of the department, said it wasn¡¯t a good time for a leave and hoped the head nurse would consider the greater good and continue working through her illness. However, they must arrange for someone to specifically handle her commute. Song Zimo asked around, hoping to find a nurse to undertake this daunting task, but all shook their heads as they were too busy. These heartless people, at the crucial moment, all failed. Having no other choice, Song Zimo had to say to Xia Shu, ¡°Dr. Xia, I have to trouble you with this matter. Don¡¯t worry, the department will remember your contribution.¡± Xia Shu said that it was easy, and not to talk about contributions. It was just a simple favor. Head Nurse lived across the street, and using a car would actually be less convenient. All he needed was a wheelchair to push her to and from work each day. Song Zimo patted Xia Shu on the shoulder, ¡°Dr. Xia, it is you who are truly conscientious. I, on behalf of the department, thank you.¡± So, Xia Shu began using a wheelchair every day to commute the head nurse to and from work. The wheelchair just coming from the ward area was a bit problematic, so Xia Shu went to an outpatient nurse and got a newer wheelchair. After chatting with the head nurse for a few moments, Xia Shu had already brought out a wheelchair from the outpatient on the first floor. He immediately greeted Yang Ping when he saw him, ¡°Professor, haven¡¯t you left work yet?¡± ¡°I just went to General Surgery to see a patient. Now I¡¯m heading back to my department to pick up my clothes and leave work,¡± Yang Ping said. Xia Shu was quite attentive, carefully helping the head nurse into the wheelchair and then bidding farewell to Yang Ping. He pushed the wheelchair vigorously towards the street where the head nurse lived. Sometimes it¡¯s really strange. Usually, the Head Nurse is that kind of career woman with a commanding presence, but now, though she only twisted her ankle, she¡¯s acting delicately like a young girl. ¡ª After returning to the department¡¯s office, Yang Ping rested for a while, then he entered the System Space Laboratory to take a look. The experiments in the System Space were still ongoing; they had changed since the system rules were upgraded. According to the previous rules, when Yang Ping exited the System Space, everything inside would stop at that moment. When Yang Ping re-entered the space, the System Space would resume from the moment it stopped. Now it was different; even when Yang Ping left the System Space, the experiments continued, and the progression of time inside accelerated at a much faster rate than in the real world. Thus, the experiments in the System Space could be conducted parallel to Yang Ping¡¯s real-world activities. This had its advantages and disadvantages¡ªthe advantage being that it saved time, but the disadvantage was that if an error occurred in the experiments while Yang Ping was away, it would continue erroneously. In short, there were both pros and cons. This time, when Yang Ping entered the System Space, he found that in a cell library used for culturing tumor cells, the vast majority of the cells had already died. That cell library was painstakingly established by Yang Ping and was used to observe the behavior of tumor cells during cell division. However, unexpectedly, so many had died without his notice, and currently, the rate of cell death was still accelerating, rendering the cell library almost unusable; he would need to start anew. This situation resembled that of a breeder who, starting with just two pigs, managed to increase his herd to hundreds or thousands, but then one day, an outbreak of swine fever wiped out a large portion of his pigs. Yang Ping¡¯s mood was similar to that of such a breeder at the moment. Fortunately, as a precaution, Yang Ping had preserved some seed cells. Initially, these cells were taken from Sisi¡¯s body, and all the tumor cells used in the laboratory were sourced from Sisi¡¯s tumor cells. This was just an accident. Yang Ping gazed at the cells and fell into deep thought, when suddenly, a spark of inspiration flashed through his mind. These were all tumor cells, and the sudden death of most of them was a setback for his stem cell research, but wasn¡¯t it a good thing for tumor research? Isn¡¯t the ultimate goal of any tumor research to eradicate tumor cells? With this thought, Yang Ping immediately had a new idea. These dead tumor cells were not useless waste, but treasures. It was an opportunity to establish a new project specifically to study the causes of these cells¡¯ deaths, which might reveal new methods for treating tumors. In the field of medicine, it is extremely difficult to thoroughly understand certain mechanisms¡ªif one could genuinely make a breakthrough, it could be enough to challenge for a Nobel Prize. One of the Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine studied why chili peppers are spicy. Why chili peppers are spicy is known to all, but understanding the mechanism behind this sensation from a scientific perspective is a difficult task. Two American scientists won the Nobel Prize for discovering why consuming chili peppers produces a sensation of spiciness. Imagine the scenario where foodies, who taste various flavors every day, would crowd the Nobel Prize podium! Talking about it is easy, but doing it is not as simple. These scientists studied deep, very deep aspects, deeper than cellular level¡ªon a molecular level¡ªthey revealed why eating chili peppers affects the mouth and causes discomfort. It was not just about the spice, but also about the pain. They clearly explained the molecular mechanism of human pain sensation, thereby revealing the mechanism of pain signal transmission in humans, which earned them the Nobel Prize. The death of a cell might seem like a simple matter, but at such a serious scientific level, it is far from simple. Firstly, cell death can be divided into two categories, regulated death and accidental death, which are comparable to natural and accidental deaths in humans. Together, these two types of cell death comprise 11 different methods; some of these have Chinese translations, such as apoptosis, ferroptosis, and oxytosis, while some are only referred to by their English terms. To study the causes of death of these tumor cells, it was first necessary to clarify which type of death they underwent, then to understand the reasons and the process of their death from a molecular level, and still more, to articulate these findings in the clear language of science. Yang Ping felt that recycling waste in the System Space to set up a new project exploring the mechanisms of these cells¡¯ deaths was the way forward. Chapter 1052 - 1052 863 Eating Pig Offal ?Chapter 1052: Chapter 863: Eating Pig Offal Chapter 1052: Chapter 863: Eating Pig Offal These tumor cells were painstakingly cultivated by Yang Ping. Initially, only a small sample was taken from Sisi, and it was with that small sample that Yang Ping was able to establish this tumor cell library. At the same time, Yang Ping also established two other cell libraries¡ªa normal stem cell library and a teratoma cell library. Now, these two cell libraries are fine, but so many tumor cells have died off. These tumor cells must not die off without explanation. Yang Ping decided to find out the real reason behind it. He took half of the tumor cells and stored them in a refrigerator, hoping to slow down their deterioration temporarily, leaving them to be studied at a later time. For the remaining tumor cells, Yang Ping placed them under an electron microscope to be photographed. Cell death is a continuous process that can be divided into many detailed steps. These dying and near-death tumor cells did not die at the same time, so they were each at different stages of the cell death process. The electron microscope was used to capture images of the tumor cells in various states of death, which would then be precisely compared to hopefully discover how the death was triggered and what processes it involved. Luckily, although this step was tedious, once the procedure was planned out, the task could be assigned to the cheap labor forces of the System Space¡ªrobotic arms. After arranging the experiment, Yang Ping delegated the actual work to the robotic arms. He left the System Space and planned to go home after finishing his shift. As he passed by the outpatient department on the first floor, he heard a commotion. From afar, Yang Ping saw that it was at the door of Professor Cao¡¯s office where a middle-aged man was cursing loudly. The words were quite unpleasant, and a few security guards were pulling the man away. What¡¯s going on? Yang Ping immediately went over. The cursing man, who was either a patient or a family member, was being forcibly removed by the security guards. A woman in her thirties and a child followed next to the man, likely his wife and child. Yang Ping hurried into the office to check on Professor Cao. Professor Cao was unharmed, and he was accompanied by Professor Zhang Zongshun and several other senior professors. Actually, it was nothing serious. The child was the patient, and the man was the child¡¯s father. The boy, who is four years old, has a very clear condition¡ªa nearly 7-8 millimeter interventricular septal defect. Professor Cao suggested surgery, stating there was no other option. The child¡¯s father, who is also a doctor, brought a thick stack of internet research to argue with Professor Cao, insisting that surgery wasn¡¯t necessary and that the defect might heal on its own. Professor Cao said, ¡°I¡¯m telling you responsibly that the information you¡¯ve collected is all rubbish. Professional matters should be left to the professionals. This kind of septal defect cannot heal by itself; your thinking could harm your child. You should have the surgery done quickly.¡± The patient didn¡¯t want the surgery, while Professor Cao insisted on it. In frustration, the father began to curse, saying, ¡°You so-called expert, always quick to suggest surgery. The internet says surgery might not be necessary, but you¡¯re saying it is.¡± Professor Cao, who is patient, didn¡¯t argue back. He simply said, ¡°If you don¡¯t trust me, what can I do? The child is yours, you have the full right to choose. Believe whoever you want to believe. I¡¯m just a doctor; I can offer you advice, not force you to do anything. There¡¯s no need for this commotion; other patients are waiting. However, I sincerely advise you again: This condition requires surgery. Don¡¯t delay it for the child¡¯s sake.¡± The father ranted again, accusing, ¡°You useless expert, how can you have no sense of responsibility and tell me to trust internet sources? Why would I spend money for your expert consultation then?¡± Professor Cao retorted, ¡°Stop calling me a worthless expert. Since that¡¯s what you think I am, stay away from me. I¡¯m in a rush to get off work.¡± Professor Cao was already about to leave, but seeing there were still several patients waiting, he decided out of compassion to add a few appointments and see the remaining patients. This child was one of those extra appointments. The child¡¯s father nearly jumped up, ¡°I¡¯ve anxiously consulted several hospitals, and you tell me the same thing as previous doctors: surgery. How is that any different?¡± The child¡¯s mother said at the side, ¡°The child¡¯s current state is quite good, active and lively. He definitely doesn¡¯t need surgery. We are well aware; let¡¯s go.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go, you unscrupulous doctor, I¡¯m going to expose you,¡± said the man, picking up his phone to take pictures, and gesturing accusingly at Professor Cao as if he was about to get physical. The security guards immediately sprang into action. Some protected Professor Cao by standing in front of him, others pulled the man away. The man was reluctant to leave, muttering curses as the security guards forcefully escorted him out. The other patients whom Professor Cao had added to his list for appointments, who had waited and did not leave, actually began to curse the unreasonable man in return, blaming the so-called doctor for acting disgracefully. However, Professor Cao remained level-headed, neither angry nor upset. Since ancient times, doctors do not go knocking on doors; if someone wishes to be treated, he treats them, if not, as they please. He felt there was no need to argue with the patient. The extra patients were very grateful to Professor Cao, and they urged him not to take the incident to heart. After the man was removed by security, Professor Cao and a few senior professors went out to eat together. They would be joining Professor Zhang Zongshun later that evening for tai chi practice. A gathering of old friends was planned after the workday. Today¡¯s shift did not end smoothly, and with the unpleasant incident, Yang Ping was pondering when Song Zimo called to ask if he wanted to come and check on the experimental pigs in the animal laboratory. Since it wouldn¡¯t take long, he decided to have a look. 20 experimental pigs had muscle transplants, and after analyzing a large amount of data, it was confirmed that the muscles are genuinely functional, did not show rejection after transplantation, and that the muscle contractions were good, with significant restoration of muscle strength. This greatly bolstered Yang Ping¡¯s confidence and clarified his research direction. Since this building was remodeled into an animal experiment facility, it had never been quiet, with daily experiments taking place. These pigs had suffered too, with not a single good spot left on their bodies. Originally fine, they had their hearts cut out by these doctors and then reattached. Xia Shu was doing just that, with one pig¡¯s heart having already been transplanted back and forth three times. The experiments on these 20 pigs were nearing their end, and the entire hospital was eagerly watching them, hoping to use them for practice. Because these pigs could be reused, any part of them could be used to simulate surgery, and sometimes a single pig could be operated on by several groups of people at the same time. Sanbo Hospital might not have been the first in the country to have its own animal department, but if having 20 or so pigs was the criterion, then Sanbo Hospital was definitely number one in the nation. In support of the newly established animal department, Dean Xia, along with several leaders, would often visit the pigsty. Right now, Dean Xia, Director Han, and Director Zhao were inside, circling a pigpen and discussing. Song Zimo quietly pointed in that direction, ¡°The leaders are inspecting, shall we go over and listen for any instructions?¡± Yang Ping and Song Zimo moved closer, and the leaders did not notice anyone approaching at all. ¡°Which pig is healthier? One that hasn¡¯t been tampered with, so we can get some fresh pork delicacies and have a few drinks?¡± Director Zhao suggested. Dean Xia liked the idea, having not eaten fresh pork delicacies for a long time. He remembered there used to be a famous shop nearby that sold pork delicacies where, come midnight, many customers would sit waiting for their turn. Because the slaughterhouse only began slaughtering pigs at two or three in the morning, the shop owner would drive to the slaughterhouse at one in the morning, wait for the pigs to be slaughtered, and then fetch the fresh pork delicacies, creating an animated scene as everyone waited. Once the owner brought back the fresh pork delicacies, everyone rushed forward to place their orders, a memory still fresh in Dean Xia¡¯s mind. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be a bit too much to use a whole building for Professor Yang to raise pigs and then slaughter one just for us to dine on pork delicacies?¡± Dean Xia asked Director Han. Director Han, looking at the experimental pigs in the pen, replied to Dean Xia¡¯s comment, ¡°Even two wouldn¡¯t be too much.¡± ¡°Can we eat pigs that have been used for experiments? These guys conduct experiments on pigs all the time, who knows what kind of bacteria they¡¯ve put inside.¡± ¡°Just get one that hasn¡¯t been experimented on. These experimental pigs are carefully chosen, and they eat better feed than ordinary pigs. I¡¯ve heard they also have to listen to music to stay psychologically healthy,¡± said Dean Xia, who also held a doctorate and had conducted experiments back in his day. ¡°Are you saying the meat quality of experimental pigs is better than that of ordinary ones?¡± ¡°Definitely!¡± ¡°Get a pig then.¡± ¡°This is a private matter; it can¡¯t be charged to public funds. We should let Professor Yang pay out of his own pocket for a pig, go to Nandu Medical University and get a new pig, and choose a day to send it to the slaughterhouse.¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to send it to the slaughterhouse? Once the new pig arrives, we¡¯ll give it a physical examination¡ªcomplete blood count, biochemistry, liver and kidney functions, infectious disease tests¡ªyou name it, we check it all to confirm it¡¯s all clear before we proceed. We¡¯ll remove the innards ourselves, then have the cafeteria chef take over, and we¡¯ll all sit together for a few drinks. Wouldn¡¯t that be nice?¡± ¡°Can we kill it ourselves?¡± ¡°It¡¯s for our personal consumption, not for sale, so it wouldn¡¯t be illegal, right?¡± ¡°Look at that black pig; it looks so robust¡ªthe meat must be good.¡± Yang Ping, standing to the side, thought, Leaders, did you come here for an inspection or to find pork delicacies to eat? The leaders seemed quite interested and didn¡¯t notice Yang Ping and Song Zimo slowly approaching. ¡°Can we eat your pigs?¡± Dean Xia gestured grandly, and the resident caretaker from Nandu Medical University¡¯s Animal Department came running over. The caretaker said, ¡°Leaders, what are you talking about? Our pigs come from the Tianpeng Project. Did you know that? They live in an air-conditioned room with constant temperature and humidity. If you¡¯re talking about cleanliness, SPF pigs don¡¯t carry specific pathogens or parasites, which makes them far cleaner than ordinary pigs from the market. Their pens are even equipped with a fresh air system, and the air goes through a three-stage filter before entering the pen. External items must pass through strict disinfection and sterilization. Not only that, they also listen to music after feeding to ease their mind, prevent depression, and grow up happily.¡± It seemed this pork delicacies meal was a sure thing, as Dean Xia rubbed his hands together: ¡°Pork raised in an enclosed space can¡¯t be as tasty as free-range, right?¡± he asked. ¡°We¡¯re not eating pork meat; we¡¯re eating pork delicacies, and there¡¯s not much difference whether it¡¯s free-range or pen-raised,¡± Director Han said. Just then, Dean Xia happened to see Yang Ping and Song Zimo. He coughed a few times and said, ¡°Perfect timing, Professor Yang, we have something we want to discuss with you.¡± Chapter 1053 - 1053 864 Highlight Moment ?Chapter 1053: Chapter 864: Highlight Moment Chapter 1053: Chapter 864: Highlight Moment ¡°It¡¯s like this, you see, Director Han said he wants to eat fresh pork offal. Next time you go to Nandu Medical University to buy pigs, remember to pick up one for us as well. The bill goes on Director Han¡¯s tab. What do you think, is that okay?¡± Dean Xia shifted the responsibility onto Director Han. What¡¯s going on? Didn¡¯t everyone just say they wanted to eat pork offal? Why is it just me now? Director Han was utterly confused and didn¡¯t know what to say for a moment. ¡°That¡¯s not a problem at all. Not just one pig; I would take care of even ten pigs if necessary.¡± Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but laugh and cry at the same time. They really did want to eat pork offal; it wasn¡¯t just talk. However, to have a leader so generous as to allocate an entire building for raising pigs was probably unheard of anywhere else in the country. What¡¯s a bit of pork offal? He wouldn¡¯t mind eating it every day. ¡°No, one pig is enough. We want the SPF kind, the best there is. This can¡¯t be charged to public funds; it¡¯s a personal expense. Put it on Director Han¡¯s account for now, and we can settle up with him later. Alright, that¡¯s decided then. We¡¯ve got a meeting to attend, so we¡¯ll be off.¡± With a meaningful glance, Dean Xia led everyone out of the animal experiment building in a hurry, leaving Yang Ping and Song Zimo in disarray amidst the wind. The heads of the departments had just gathered together¡ªwere they really discussing eating pork offal all this time? Yang Ping subconsciously counted the pigs in the laboratory pens; the number was correct. Even as the figures of Dean Xia, Director Han, Dean Sun, and Director Zhao grew distant, the faint sounds of their noisy dispute traveled back. ¡°Wasn¡¯t it all of us who wanted to eat it? Why are you singling me out?¡± ¡°Well, I am the dean, after all. I¡¯ve got to maintain some dignity!¡± ¡°So I don¡¯t need to maintain dignity?¡± ¡°He¡¯s your doctoral student, what dignity are you talking about?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get one thing straight, everyone chips in for the cost. It¡¯s not all coming out of my pocket.¡± ¡°Why so stingy? Okay, okay!¡± ¡°Who¡¯s going to do the slaughtering when the time comes?¡± ¡°I come from a general surgery background; my skills should still be sharp. I¡¯ll do it.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got two bottles of fine Maotai at home. How about we bring them over and have a few good drinks?¡± ¡°Of course, we¡¯ll bring it over. Do you even need to ask?¡± ¡°Be careful, don¡¯t just carry the Maotai over openly. Pour it into clean mineral water bottles, and don¡¯t use any kind of drink bottles¡ªthey¡¯ll ruin the taste.¡± ¡°That careful?¡± ¡°Yeah! It¡¯s easy to misunderstand.¡± ¡°Make sure the mineral water bottles are dried in advance. Any residual water can also dilute the flavor.¡± Finally, Yang Ping could leave work and go home, of course, not forgetting to notify Li Guodong that the next time he went to Nandu Medical University to buy pigs, he should remember to purchase an additional SPF pig. The cost of this pig would go through private accounts, and they would settle the payment with him later. After dinner, Yang Ping took a walk in the community with Xiao Su and chatted. Yang Ping told Xiao Su about the surgery he performed that day, which Xiao Su really enjoyed hearing. Perhaps that was part of the attraction between them. Later, Yang Ping told Xiao Su about Dean Xia and the others wanting to eat pig offal. Xiao Su laughed heartily, saying her father also enjoyed eating pig offal. She heard from her father that, back when Dean Xia was still at Affiliated Hospital No. 1, which was located in the suburbs, there was a farm that specialized in raising pigs and growing vegetables. Professor Su, Dean Xia, and several other doctors who were close with each other would gather at the farm for meals, where they would kill pigs to eat fresh offal. So it turned out that eating pig offal had its history. ¡ª This day was destined not to be a calm one. After one in the morning, Yang Ping received a call from Director Fang, who said that a brain-dead patient from their hospital had consented to donate organs, and Pan Doudou¡¯s surgery could begin. This time, Director Fang had learned his lesson. Instead of immediately calling Yang Ping, he waited a moment in case there were any changes in the plan. Immediately, Yang Ping dressed and washed up hastily before rushing to the hospital. Director Fang was very anxious, as he dared not perform the surgery without Yang Ping¡¯s presence. Director Fang had been waiting at the entrance to the operating room. Only upon seeing Yang Ping arrive did the heavy stone in his heart settle. His worries weren¡¯t just for today; he had been concerned all these days, especially during the time Yang Ping was in Beijing at Xiehe Hospital. That particular night, he was so anxious he was practically steaming. Despite being the middle of the night, the operating room was bustling with activity. At 2:20 am, the brain-dead patient was brought into the operating room not far from Pan Doudou. He was set to donate his heart, lungs, liver, two kidneys, stomach, pancreas, duodenum, small intestine, and a pair of corneas. These donated organs would be transplanted into different individuals, saving a variety of lives. Not only was the General Surgery Department¡¯s operating room bustling with staff, but also the eye surgery department and the organ transplant center¡¯s operating rooms were in operation. At this very moment, patients at Nandu Medical University¡¯s Affiliated Hospital No. 1 and the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital operating rooms were all waiting for the donated organs. All the doctors lined up on either side of the operating table and bowed deeply to the donor, paying him the highest respect. He once lived in this world, loved by others and loving them in return. Despite the reluctance to leave behind worldly connections, at this moment, he was departing this life, perhaps to live on in another form, forever embracing this warm world. The solemn ceremony to bid farewell to life was a spiritual cleansing for every doctor and nurse in attendance, allowing them to feel the cycle of life and death. The organ retrieval surgery commenced, with different teams starting to remove the donor¡¯s heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, stomach, pancreas, duodenum, small intestine, and corneas. Director Fang and Yang Ping began the resection of the stomach, pancreas, duodenum, and small intestine. As the chief surgeon, Director Fang led the operation while Yang Ping assisted him. It was a similar experience to the surgeries Yang Ping had led before; he ¡°guided¡± Director Fang through the surgery, revealing each target that needed to be dealt with and then instructing him on what to do. All Director Fang had to do was follow instructions. At 2:30 am, in another operating room not far away, Pan Doudou¡¯s anesthesia began. During this period, Director Fang had studied a vast amount of literature and monographs about improved abdominal organ cluster transplant surgeries. He could almost recite the entire surgical process by heart. Opportunity comes to those who are prepared, and Director Fang finally had his chance to practice. The stomach, pancreas, duodenum, and small intestine had numerous blood vessels. Yang Ping clearly exposed each vessel one by one, then lifted them with vascular clamps into Director Fang¡¯s line of sight for him to tie off and cut. The surgery proceeded very smoothly, and after the successful resection of the organs, they were washed and preserved with a special protective solution. In the other operating room, General Surgery Department¡¯s Director Luo led the doctors to begin resecting the diseased organs of Pan Doudou. Of course, at this time, they were only separating and removing the simpler parts to lay the groundwork for the more complex resection that was to follow. After the organs were removed, they were stored in a special box. Yang Ping and Director Fang scrubbed in again, moving to Pan Doudou¡¯s operating table. Pan Doudou had been ill for a long time, and her mesentery of the duodenum had thickened with severe fibrosis, and the lymph nodes had also enlarged significantly, causing the normal anatomical structures to virtually disappear. The base of the mesentery was very close to the abdominal aorta, with many important blood vessels densely packed around it. A slight mishap during resection could lead to massive bleeding, making the separation process quite difficult. But Director Fang was not afraid, for today his assistant was Professor Yang. With Professor Yang¡¯s presence, the surgery was bound to go very smoothly. Indeed, this was the case. The steps guided by Yang Ping were crystal clear, and Director Fang clearly felt like he was performing a foolproof surgery, almost without the need to think, simply following Yang Ping¡¯s direction. Professor Yang¡¯s vascular clamps lifted and held the tissues apart to be separated, while Director Fang¡¯s surgical knife cut along on both sides of the clamps. Wherever the vascular clamps led, Director Fang followed with his cuts. Under the watchful eyes of many doctors, Director Fang was full of confidence. He was like a master at work, calm and steady, making tonight his moment to shine. Chapter 1054 - 1054 865 Dean Xias Basketball Replica ?Chapter 1054: 865 Chapter Dean Xia¡¯s Basketball Replica Chapter 1054: 865 Chapter Dean Xia¡¯s Basketball Replica Modified cluster organ transplantation within the abdominal cavity refers to transplanting a cluster of organs, including the stomach, pancreas, duodenum, and small intestine, as a whole unit, apart from the liver. This type of surgery is much more complex compared to transplantation of a single organ, and currently, few hospitals can perform it. Therefore, there is a high level of enthusiasm for observation. The entire General Surgery Department came out today, and doctors from other departments also visited. After all, such a high-technical surgery is rarely seen. ¡°Xiao Chen, the teaching room is broadcasting live, right? Is the picture clear?¡± Director Fang asked Doctor Chen below. Doctor Chen is a graduate student of Director Fang and is one of the few doctors allowed to observe in the operating room. However, he is responsible for maintaining the live broadcast in the teaching room, so he also runs back and forth. ¡°It¡¯s very clear, it¡¯s broadcasting right now. The scene is incredibly crowded; everyone is craning their necks staring at the screen, saying the chief surgeon¡¯s skill is top-notch.¡± Doctor Chen didn¡¯t forget to flatter his mentor. Director Fang said cheerfully, ¡°Oh really? Keep an eye on it. If there is any issue with the video, go straight to the computer department¡¯s on-duty staff, don¡¯t be shy. Also, get some late-night snacks for everyone. Don¡¯t just sit there, I¡¯m treating.¡± The teaching room isn¡¯t sterile, so like the resting room and dining room of the operating room, you can take off your mask and eat. Doctor Chen immediately took the order and went off to arrange it, contemplating bringing up his own difficulties later since his mentor is in a good mood today. Director Fang continued the surgery. Pan Doudou¡¯s damaged organs were indeed very difficult to resect, no wonder Director Luo struggled for a long time without cutting anything. If it wasn¡¯t for Yang Ping guiding Director Fang, Director Fang himself would not have been able to proceed, The steps of the surgery were very clear, pleasing to the eye. Neither fast nor slow, the surgery was steady. After all, Director Fang was passively following Yang Ping¡¯s lead, so a very quick speed was certainly unattainable, but the current pace was already rare and soon, the pancreas, stomach, duodenum, and small intestine were successfully resected. Now starting the transplantation of the donor¡¯s organs into Pan Doudou. The most critical step of organ transplantation is the vascular anastomosis, which restores normal blood supply, getting it to survive is the key. The blood vessels of visceral organs in the abdominal cavity are relatively thick, unlike limb reattachment and coronary bypass that require the anastomosis of finer vessels. Moreover, if it¡¯s a beating-heart coronary bypass, the heartbeat could interfere with the surgery. None of these issues arise in the current transplant of the abdominal organ cluster. For this surgery, Director Fang also made ample preparations in advance, purchasing countless boxes of cherries for the Surgical Research Institute¡¯s doctors and nurses, allowing him to practice vascular anastomosis in the training room. Later, he practiced several times with pigs in the experimental building, so he had enough experience under his belt, or else even Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t be able to guide him. The most difficult part of the abdominal organ cluster transplant is the transplantation of the small intestine because the small intestine is a highly immunogenic organ with numerous lymph nodes, which makes it very prone to rejection. Furthermore, with the intestinal tract rich in various bacteria, the risk of infection is high, which adds to the complexity of the surgery, hence attracting so many observers. The combined resection of the pancreas and duodenum is a major surgery in General Surgery, a landmark surgery of the General Surgery Department, and the resection and transplantation of the pancreas, stomach, and duodenum are even more challenging. In fact, any heterogeneous organ transplantation faces the issue of rejection and requires anti-rejection treatment. The medications for anti-rejection often cause hyperlipidemia, hypertension, hyperuricemia, and even issues like bone marrow suppression, leading to a reduction in white blood cells and platelets, suppressing the patient¡¯s immune system and leading to infections. However, these complications are trivial compared to life itself. During the vascular anastomosis, Director Fang was rather worried, as Yang Ping could only help steady the blood vessels but couldn¡¯t be of much help. Director Fang was a bit unsure about this step because he ultimately had to do the sewing himself, not like the resection just now where all he had to do was keep cutting and then continuously ligate the blood vessels. Director Fang steeled his nerves, trying to encourage himself, ¡°It¡¯s not like reattaching a severed finger or performing a coronary bypass, what¡¯s there to fear? These blood vessels are thick enough, what¡¯s the worry about?¡± Seeing that Director Fang was lacking a bit in confidence, Yang Ping delicately clamped the adventitia of the vessel¡¯s orifice with toothless clips and handed it to Director Fang for trimming. Director Fang tried it out and found this feeding method incredibly comfortable, always at the perfect angle. Director Fang could easily trim the adventitia of the vessel¡¯s orifice in the most comfortable and natural position. And as he trimmed, Yang Ping continued to lift new adventitia to his scissors, the coordination of the two toothless clips was simply superb, allowing Director Fang to smoothly even out the adventitia all the way around in one go. This operation was much easier than imagined. Now starting with the vascular anastomosis, it was the same, Yang Ping positioned the ends of the vessels at the optimal angle, so Director Fang only needed to insert and withdraw the needle at the most natural angle, with no need to worry about anything. Even if Director Fang¡¯s angle was off for one stitch, Yang Ping would adjust the blood vessel wall to accommodate Director Fang¡¯s sewing, instantaneously finishing the stitching on one side. It was like playing table tennis where every ball is delivered to your most comfortable receiving position, with the height and distance beyond reproach. You just have to stand still and lightly block with your hand, sending the ball over. Director Fang¡¯s confidence surged as he smartly caught on to Yang Ping¡¯s feeding routine. Thus, he took the initiative to suture the easier parts himself and for the more difficult parts, he simply positioned the needle and allowed Yang Ping to bring the vessel to the needle. The blood vessels supplying the pancreas, stomach, duodenum, and small intestine were quite complex, with several dozen large and small ones. Director Fang had feared he wouldn¡¯t perform well in front of so many people. The first half of the surgery had gone beautifully, but if he stumbled in the second half, it would be quite embarrassing. But now, with Professor Yang on the other side, there was no chain to drop. Director Fang decided to step to Professor Yang¡¯s rhythm and stride towards the peak of academic heights. Not just the vessels, Director Fang was also extremely confident in reconstruction of the pancreatic duct. Even the suturing of some nerves seemed very easy with Yang Ping¡¯s assistance. The surgeons from the General Surgery Department in the demonstration room, seeing the fluent movements on the screen, those with high professional titles could discern some secrets, while the younger doctors just noticed how incredible Director Fang was performing today, the heterogenous organ transplantation in the abdominal cavity proceeding so smoothly. It was like watching others play table tennis, only perceiving the indistinguishable back and forth, not noticing someone was deliberately feeding easy shots. The higher-titled General Surgery doctors could clearly see that it was quite comparable to the way Dean Xia used to play basketball. Back then, Dean Xia was impressively forceful, always scoring through crowds, frequently winning applause from the spectators, until Professor Zhang Zongshun took the role of the main referee and extinguished Dean Xia¡¯s legend. Dean Xia struggled to score throughout the game and almost got ejected from the match, while the ¡®Best Player¡¯ and ¡®Scoring Champion¡¯ awards he usually won were reluctantly passed to another. Even now, whenever Dean Xia plays basketball and sees Professor Zhang Zongshun, his legs shake and he can¡¯t even hold the ball steady. Watching Director Fang¡¯s surgery today, how similar it all feels, it¡¯s just like being spoon-fed, simply getting a spoonful right into your mouth. PS: I¡¯ve caught a cold today and don¡¯t have any backup chapters, so this is all I can publish. Thank you, everyone! Chapter 1055 - 1055 866 Winner in Life ?Chapter 1055: Chapter 866: Winner in Life Chapter 1055: Chapter 866: Winner in Life Director Fang was so immersed in the surgery that he had completely lost track of time. It was only when Doctor Chen came in to ask if he should prepare breakfast that Director Fang realized it was already daylight, and time for breakfast. By eight o¡¯clock, doctors from other departments started to arrive at the operating room. Many were curious about the overnight surgery performed by the General Surgery Department, which had lasted over six hours, so some came to inquire. However, as it was a busy time, not many gathered to join the excitement. When they learned it was an abdominal organ cluster transplant being performed, everyone couldn¡¯t help but be amazed. They expressed admiration for the General Surgery Department, wondering when they had become capable of performing such a procedure, as they had never heard of Director Fang pulling off such a feat before. Some doctors took a break from their busy schedules to peek into the demonstration room. Although they only watched briefly, they found the surgical skills to be very impressive¡ªquick and well executed, quite professional looking. Not long after breakfast was ready, another four or five hours had passed, and Doctor Chen came in again to ask whether to prepare lunch. Director Fang glanced at the digital clock on the wall, and to his surprise, it was already past noon¡ªit meant the surgery had been going on for ten hours. Time was flying indeed; ten hours had passed so quietly. Perhaps too engrossed and focused, Director Fang hadn¡¯t noticed how swiftly time had passed. It wasn¡¯t just Director Fang who didn¡¯t feel the passage of time; the doctors observing the surgery in the demonstration room didn¡¯t either. They had had a night snack, breakfast, and now it was time for lunch. The big garbage bin in the demonstration room was now full. The surgery had now reached the stage of anastomosing the blood vessels of the small intestine and simultaneously the stomach and the small intestine¡¯s vessels, along with the pancreatic duct. Like with the blood vessels, the anastomosis of the pancreatic duct was also very demanding. Poor quality in the anastomosis could lead to obstruction of the pancreatic duct, preventing pancreatic juices from flowing into the small intestine, resulting in digestive dysfunction for the patient. At this moment, Director Fang didn¡¯t feel hungry at all; he hadn¡¯t even noticed that Yang Ping, who had been operating with him for over ten hours, might be feeling hungry. Surviving an overnight stint without breakfast or lunch could only be managed by someone with a strong constitution. To the clear-eyed observer, the situation seemed dire, but to those involved, it was puzzling. The patrolling nurse, noting this, suggested that Director Fang take a brief break to eat something. Director Fang looked up at the wall clock again. The operation was at a critical stage, so he decided to keep working without stopping. Organ transplant surgeries benefit from the shortest possible organ ischemia times, and taking a break would only lengthen that time. Having already been hungry for ten hours, another three or four hours would not make a big difference. Completing the anastomosis of the small intestine¡¯s blood supply and the pancreatic duct would soon bring the operation to a conclusion. ¡°Professor Yang, are you hungry? I don¡¯t feel hungry at all. Why don¡¯t you go get some food? I¡¯ll take it slow,¡± Director Fang suggested. Had Yang Ping said he wanted to go eat, Director Fang would have had to join him. ¡°Let¡¯s just finish the surgery quickly,¡± Yang Ping replied. For such a major surgery, it was not practical to expect to eat on time. Everyone¡¯s stomach had undergone special training and could withstand a lot. At that moment, Director Fang was like a mighty ox, full of energy and vigor. He could easily continue operating for another ten hours. The main reason was that the surgery was going so smoothly; he had never performed a surgery that went this well before. Overnight, Director Fang felt he had reached the pinnacle of the General Surgery Department, an exhilarating sensation akin to being on a stimulant. When 4 p.m. finally arrived, the surgery concluded after a total of 14 hours. Despite this, Director Fang was reluctant to leave; he even decided to do all the suturing himself, although Yang Ping had no interest in staying to assist him. In the morning, because other departments were busy, only a few people stopped by. In the afternoon, when other departments were less busy, many doctors came by, including several prominent directors. They were surprised to hear that the General Surgery Department had been performing an abdominal organ cluster transplant overnight. This was not just any major surgery; nationally, only a handful of top-tier hospitals could perform such operations. Although the other department heads were not very familiar with General Surgery, they knew the basics and were puzzled how Director Fang had suddenly become so capable of performing such surgeries without any known training. It seemed as if he had reached the top overnight. Some informed sources mentioned seeing Director Fang carrying a box of cherries to the Surgical Research Institute several times, suspecting that he was secretly learning there. When everyone saw Yang Ping coming out of the operating room, their suspicions were confirmed. Director Fang must have clung to Yang Ping¡¯s expertise, following in Gao Yuan¡¯s successful footsteps. It appeared that success could indeed be replicated. Gao Yuan¡¯s achievements were well-known throughout the hospital. His Sports Medicine Center had rapidly expanded from the initial 25 beds to 100 beds. In time, Gao Yuan¡¯s Sports Medicine Center was set to rank alongside Beijing¡¯s top three hospitals and Nandu Medical University¡¯s Affiliated Hospital No. 1 as a top national department. His Sports Medicine Center had also reached the international stage, becoming a sister department with the New York Special Surgery Hospital in the United States, a unique distinction nationwide, even surpassing Beijing¡¯s top hospitals¡¯ international collaborations in Sports Medicine. Chapter 1056 - 1056 866 Winner in Life_2 ?Chapter 1056: Chapter 866: Winner in Life_2 Chapter 1056: Chapter 866: Winner in Life_2 At the General Surgery Department of Sanbo Hospital, Director Fang, who had only recently brought cherries to the Surgical Research Institute, was now able to launch an abdominal organ cluster transplant. Previously, such surgery was unthinkable at the General Surgery Department of Sanbo Hospital. These directors, like those from the Thoracic Surgery and Urology Departments, wanted to go talk to Director Fang. ¡°Old Fang, did you play all last night? What¡¯s going on? I heard you performed an abdominal organ cluster transplant?¡± Director Fang waved his hand with a master¡¯s poise, ¡°It was my first time too. This type of surgery is rarely performed in domestic hospitals. There¡¯s no prior experience to draw from. I was just winging it. The technique isn¡¯t mature; it¡¯s quite a challenge.¡± This display left the other directors dumbfounded. ¡°Old Fang! That¡¯s not right. You perform such a major surgery and you don¡¯t even tell us?¡± ¡°Well, it wasn¡¯t much really, I just wanted to try it out.¡± ¡°The surgery went smoothly, right?¡± ¡°Very smoothly, though it took a little long, almost 12 hours in total.¡± ¡°12 hours is actually quite fast. I heard some hospital took 18 hours to complete it.¡± Director Fang feigned ignorance, ¡°Oh really? I hadn¡¯t paid much attention.¡± Now, Old Fang¡¯s entire demeanor was different, walking with a notably puffed chest and a very straight spine. ¡°You should have the hospital¡¯s Publicity Department contact the media to give this surgery good coverage.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not much of an issue, keep it low-key.¡± ¡°Xiao Chen, make sure to collect and organize the data. We¡¯ll get a few papers out of this. You go talk to the Publicity Department; find a high-end media outlet to do some publicity.¡± Doctor Chen was just looking for Director Fang to ask for instructions when he slipped into the operating room. Director Fang immediately gave him directives. ¡°Old Fang, you have to treat us after such a big surgery, right?¡± ¡°Of course, of course, let¡¯s find a time to have a good drink.¡± Director Fang was particularly happy now, never having felt so comfortable before; he felt like a winner in life at that moment. Doctor Chen had been scolded by Director Fang last time regarding his straight Ph.D. program because the direct Ph.D. slots at Nandu Medical University weren¡¯t plentiful and Chen¡¯s performance wasn¡¯t particularly outstanding. So, if Chen wanted to switch to a direct Ph.D., Director Fang would still need to pull some strings at the university, a bit of a hassle he wasn¡¯t too keen on dealing with, preferring that Chen took the exams for the Ph.D. Falling in step behind Director Fang, and finding the right moment, Chen then spoke, ¡°Director Fang, I still need your help with my direct Ph.D.¡± Director Fang responded cheerfully, ¡°Xiao Chen, wanting to do a direct Ph.D. is simple. I¡¯ll help you fight for it at the university. Be mindful about the paper and getting in touch with the Publicity Department.¡± Not expecting the mentor to agree so readily, Doctor Chen promptly assured, ¡°Rest assured, Director Fang, I¡¯ve got this covered.¡± Pan Doudou, having completed the surgery, was sent to the ICU for observation for a few days. The risks of this surgery were still very high, especially the small intestine transplant. The small intestine is virtually a bacterial library of the human body. Normally, these bacteria maintain a balance that benefits the body, but once displaced or if their balance is disrupted, they can cause serious infections and threaten the patient¡¯s life. Although Pan Doudou¡¯s company was small, it had a good cultural atmosphere. The company had actually sent someone to wait outside the operating room to inquire about his condition from the doctors. To show appreciation to the visiting doctors, Director Fang even made a special trip to the viewing room to greet everyone, like a star visiting his fans. He also told everyone, ¡°Thanks for your hard work, I¡¯ll treat you to dinner too.¡± The entire viewing room erupted in enthusiastic applause¡ªwhat a winner in life! At that moment, Director Fang felt as if he were floating on air, walking a bit giddily. This surgery required reporting to the Medical Services Office. When Director Zhao from the Medical Services Office heard that the surgery had been completed, he also came to the operating room to take a look. Director Zhao thought to himself that Fang Nansheng was now making a name for himself by undertaking such a major surgery. He casually checked the data and found that few hospitals in the country could carry out this surgery. Directors Li and Liu from the Tracheal Transplant Center rushed over when they heard the news. The General Surgery Department had actually taken the lead. The Organ Transplant Center was currently only performing liver and kidney transplants, and now Director Fang had actually started multiple organ cluster transplants in the abdominal cavity. After staying up all night with Director Fang, Yang Ping didn¡¯t have much energy for surgery. He called Song Zimo to ask if there was anything special about the surgery there and whether he needed to step in. Song Zimo said, ¡°You go rest. There¡¯s nothing much here.¡± In fact, like Director Fang, who led the surgery, much could be learned. This was the fastest way to grow because, despite being led through the surgery, you were still the chief surgeon. He genuinely experienced the entire surgery process as a chief surgeon, which was completely different from being an assistant. If he could be led like this a few times, he would soon be able to master the surgery proficiently. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had also been led in a similar way, hadn¡¯t they? Otherwise, how could they have progressed so fast? Surgery is a practical science¡ªthe more you do, the more skilled you become. Yang Ping decided to still go to the operating room to take a look, just to have peace of mind. After checking in, he would go to the duty room for a nap. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were performing surgeries with their respective teams while Doctor Li Min was temporarily observing from below. Doctor Li Min was making rapid progress. He could already skillfully draw anatomical diagrams. Although the drawings were quite simple and rough, it didn¡¯t matter. Being able to draw them meant that he had mastered anatomical knowledge. Next, Yang Ping planned to take him to Nandu Medical University¡¯s anatomy department to dissect a cadaver. The number of cadavers at each medical university was limited, and it was generally impossible for students to have the opportunity to dissect a complete body. They could only watch with a teacher. Once Li Min could proficiently draw anatomical maps and then had the chance to dissect a cadaver, his anatomical knowledge would be considered adequate. Lately, Yang Ping let him draw some surgical maps, expressing each step of the surgery through drawing. In this process, Yang Ping would systematically teach him some knowledge about reading films, such as X-rays, CT, and MRI, and he would also teach him some basic techniques for taking films. Li Min¡¯s basic skills training also continued daily in the training room. Most of the time, Yang Ping personally guided his basic training, while occasionally, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang would teach him. From knotting, cutting, incision, suturing, to separation, each basic skill was rigorously trained. Li Ming took his training very seriously, meticulously attending to every detail. He greatly cherished this learning opportunity. He knew that if it wasn¡¯t for organizational efforts, as a doctor from a primary-level hospital, it would not have been possible for him to come to such a provincial hospital for further study, let alone have Professor Yang personally mentor him. Taking advantage of this opportunity, while looking at the films on the viewing light, Yang Ping taught Li Min how to read films. Yang Ping¡¯s training of Doctor Li Min was not piecemeal or casual. Instead, based on Li Min¡¯s situation, Yang Ping organized a training outline and methodology, ensuring a tailored educational approach. Having mastered systematic anatomy, regional anatomy, and sectional anatomy, Li Min found it much easier to follow when Yang Ping explained film reading; it was no longer as difficult as when he first arrived. While explaining how to read films, Yang Ping would intersperse some knowledge of physiology, pathology, and pathophysiology, helping Li Min to not only understand the how but also the why, enabling him to accumulate experience in his future work. Doctor Li Min took notes in a notebook. He marked the points he didn¡¯t understand with a red pen. Yang Ping required him to understand each point thoroughly, leaving no doubts or gaps in knowledge, as they would accumulate over time. After this period of training, Yang Ping felt it was time to let him experience being on stage, as he had practiced the basic skills of hand washing and dressing countless times. ¡±Li Min, go scrub in and follow along on the stage,¡± Yang Ping instructed Li Min, who was thrilled to finally be able to participate directly in the surgery. Having mastered three hundred Tang poems, one can chant without reciting them. Surgery is similar¡ªafter continuously mixing with these masters, naturally, one eventually learns how to perform surgeries. At the primary-level hospitals, the General Surgery and Trauma Surgery are often more frequently conducted while other surgeries are relatively rare. Thus, Yang Ping called Director Fang, telling him he had a visiting doctor from a primary level hospital, recommended by a very good friend, and hoped he could follow in some General Surgery. Then he called Director Tan to arrange for Li Min to follow the surgeries at the Trauma Emergency Center. After making these arrangements, Yang Ping went back to his department to catch up on some sleep in the duty room. Chapter 1057 - 1057 867 Penguin Disease ?Chapter 1057: Chapter 867: Penguin Disease Chapter 1057: Chapter 867: Penguin Disease Through Song Yun¡¯s regular phone updates, Yang Ping learned that his patients at Xiehe Hospital were all very stable. The patient who fell from a height and was impaled by a steel rebar did not develop the feared infection, seemingly because the extensive saline irrigation had worked, significantly reducing the rate of infection. Due to the severity of his condition, he had not yet been transferred out of the ICU, although there was a trend of improvement in his condition. However, he faced a new problem: his wife had visited the hospital once to understand his condition, and had not come again. The ICU had called his wife several times, but she had refused to take the calls and explicitly stated that she refused to pay for his medical expenses. This posed a significant dilemma for both the emergency and ICU doctors: both the rescue surgery and the post-operative ICU treatment had accumulated considerable medical bills, which would be a case without resolution. Although he had medical insurance, the coverage for such cases was very limited, which is why even people with medical insurance still cannot afford their medical bills. The baby who had undergone coronary artery bypass was recovering the fastest; he had already started giggling, and his daily milk intake had significantly increased. Postoperative angiography showed that the arteries used for the bypass were very clear, leading Director Wen to decide to start large-scale surgeries for treating coronary artery narrowings due to Kawasaki disease. The patient with pancreatic cancer in the Pancreatic Surgery ward had been transferred out of the ICU and was now able to eat smoothly at least, retaining his life for now. Nie Shun¡¯e was recovering remarkably well, which might be related to her carefree and cheerful mood. She had come to terms with her situation, living as long as she could¡ªhoping to at least see her child through high school being better than now. If she could make it until her son graduated from college, she would have no regrets, and if lucky, to see him through graduation would fulfill her entirely. During her hospital stay, Nie Shun¡¯e often visited Shuilian¡¯s Bakery to chat with Shuilian. Perhaps because they were both women who had undergone great upheaval in their lives, they had much in common and quickly became good friends. Nie Shun¡¯e and her husband walked around Sanbo Hospital quite a bit and noticed it had hefty foot traffic, making it a promising business spot, especially suitable for a mobile night snack stall. However, being outsiders, they couldn¡¯t simply conduct business around there. Nie Shun¡¯e thought about asking Professor Yang for help but quickly dismissed the idea; Professor Yang had performed her main surgery, and she didn¡¯t want to inconvenience him further, especially since it would be difficult for a doctor to manage such matters. After much thought, Nie Shun¡¯e planned to approach an old man selling sweet potatoes on the sky bridge to learn how he could legally sell there. Being shrewd, she didn¡¯t ask directly but chose to gradually get to know him by buying two sweet potatoes daily and discovering the old man enjoyed a drink occasionally. Thus, Nie Shun¡¯e bought a bottle of liquor to find the old man, who, pleased, shared his secret with her: ¡°Always carry your ID and discharge records with you, pick a good spot, and boldly start your business. But make sure not to obstruct traffic and be reasonable. Whether it¡¯s hospital security or city management, just show your ID and discharge records, explain that you were a patient at the Surgical Research Institute, your family is in dire financial straits, and you need a place to make a living. They will stop bothering you and will ignore you the next time they see you.¡± ¡°Of course, you mustn¡¯t fabricate things, as they sometimes investigate,¡± he added. ¡°So that was it,¡± Nie Shun¡¯e said, ¡°Old man, what was your situation when you were hospitalized here?¡± The old man waved his hand dismissively, ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about it; it just brings up sad memories. It was a terrible affair; it made the news. My grandson, not even a year old, was filled with dozens of needles by my son and his stepmother. It was Professor Yang who helped remove them. That useless son and his wicked wife have been jailed. My wife has to take care of our grandchild, and I have to earn some money to help out. We were laid-off workers from a company and never had stable jobs or a pension after that.¡± This old man certainly had a story. But at their age, who knew how long they had left, and what would become of his little granddaughter. ¡°Relatives aren¡¯t willing to take her in, so we might have to look for an orphanage in the future,¡± the old man said as he roasted sweet potatoes. After learning how to conduct business around the area, Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s husband, Yuan Yulin, suddenly remembered that the charity organization¡¯s representative had left a message: informing them always to update them on the treatment progress. Although they had not accepted the donation, choosing Sanbo Hospital was the good samaritan¡¯s suggestion. Responding to the good samaritan was both reasonable and polite. Becoming busy, they had actually forgotten to do so, which would disappoint the good samaritan. Without their passionate guidance, how could they have known about Sanbo Hospital¡¯s capability for such surgery, and how could they have met Professor Yang? Without Professor Yang¡¯s main surgery, the current positive outcome wouldn¡¯t have been possible. At the time, the good samaritan had left a phone number when visiting them, so he called it and communicated the positive outcome of the treatment. At this moment, Wang Ge was sitting in his office, somewhat incredulous at what he was hearing, bewildered by Yuan Yulin¡¯s call. Nie Shun¡¯e had not only had the surgery but also was recovering well and was about to be discharged. Could it be true? How could that be possible; was there some misunderstanding? The top experts from Juntendo Hospital in Japan had assessed and stated that such patients couldn¡¯t undergo surgery, as the only method was ex-vivo resection, but the risks were too high and the failure rate too substantial, with almost no doctor capable of handling it. Could the Japanese experts have misjudged? To verify this, Wang Ge, wanting to confirm, sent Wang Jian with a fruit basket and consolation money to visit Nie Shun¡¯e again, who, with her husband, accepted only the fruit basket and refused the consolation money. Though somewhat poor, they decided to rely solely on themselves, unwilling to accept donations and indebted to no one. Upon confirmation, Wang Ge was even more bewildered; he knew Yang Ping¡¯s skills were top-notch and his status at Sanbo Hospital was elevated, but he hadn¡¯t realized it was to this extent. So that meant the plan to use Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s case to undermine Yang Ping had failed. What to do? And what about the case of Teng Xinmei? Teng Xinmei¡¯s relatives had already agreed to cooperate, Wang Ge could tell immediately that Teng Xinmei¡¯s mother was greedy, and such people were the easiest to manipulate. Nie Shun¡¯e wasn¡¯t greedy and had her principles, making her hard for others to control. At that moment, Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s husband called again, stating that out of gratitude to the kind soul, they were planning to present a pennant to Wang Ge¡¯s workplace. This took Wang Ge by surprise. He dared not let them come to his office, as he was usually hiding and engaged in activities that were not to see the light of day. Wang Ge found himself in a quandary, having suddenly become a good person by a bizarre twist of fate. ¡ª Outpatient department on the first floor. Professor Deng Jianliang, an expert in neurosurgery, was busy because he was contemplating whether to admit a patient. Professor Deng was one of the senior professors recruited by Sanbo Hospital and a member of the expert group, serving as a consultant for the neurosurgery department at Sanbo Hospital. Before, these senior experts were scattered across various departments offering outpatient services. Once the Surgical Research Institute was established, Dean Xia transferred all these senior experts to the outpatient clinic of the Surgical Research Institute. Professor Deng pondered and still felt that it was necessary to call Yang Ping to discuss it. When Yang Ping arrived, the patient and her family were in Professor Deng¡¯s office. The patient was a young woman in her late twenties, sitting in a wheelchair, with presumably her husband or boyfriend by her side. ¡°Penguin disease!¡± Professor Deng said, pointing to the magnetic resonance imaging films on the light box. This disease is a genetic disorder, and until now, there is no effective treatment method. Even the United States, which boasts advanced medical research, is still in the basic research stage with this disease. ¡°This young lady came here because of our institute¡¯s reputation. She came to seek any possible solutions we might have, even experimental ones,¡± Professor Deng explained. The casual young man immediately greeted Yang Ping upon seeing him: ¡°Professor Yang, I am Old Xiao¡¯s colleague from the city fire brigade.¡± Old Xiao, mentioned by the young firefighter, was a patient whom Yang Ping had treated earlier for a re-implantation surgery in five stages. Old Xiao later fell in love with an elementary school teacher and got married. Yang Ping and his department colleagues had even attended the wedding. ¡°Really? Hello, hello! How has Old Xiao been doing recently?¡± Yang Ping shook hands with the firefighter. ¡°He¡¯s doing well. He has been reassigned to logistics. He has always wanted to return to the front line, but the organization disagrees. My name is Fang Liu, and this is my fiance?e, Lan Xueping,¡± the firefighter briefly updated Yang Ping about Old Xiao¡¯s recent situation and also introduced his fiance?e and himself. The young firefighter was strikingly tall and handsome, with very good physical features. The girl in the wheelchair seemed very ordinary, with a girl-next-door charm. Several members of Lan Xueping¡¯s family had suffered from penguin disease, and her father had died because of it. Penguin disease, scientifically known as hereditary cerebellar ataxia, has an unclear pathogenesis. It primarily affects the cerebellum, but sometimes the spinal cord and cranial nerves are also involved. Patients usually first exhibit unsteady gait, walking with a shaking motion like penguins. As the disease progresses, they experience difficulty in writing, fine motor skills, speech, and swallowing, as well as nystagmus and double vision. Typically, 10-15 years after the onset, the patients lose their ability to walk, causing long-term physical and mental torment to themselves and indescribable suffering to their families. This disease is also considered fatal, and current medical treatments and rehabilitation have limited effects; they only slow the progression of the disease. Lan Xueping had already visited many hospitals across the country. The lightbox displayed the patient¡¯s magnetic resonance images. Yang Ping carefully reviewed the images; the cerebellum and brain stem had significantly atrophied, and the subarachnoid spaces had expanded like a giant arachnoid cyst. Fang Liu had obtained a Japanese medication called Taterelin through various means, which could alleviate the symptoms. However, its effects over time were not as good as expected. ¡°Since it presents as atrophy of the cerebellum, brain stem, and spinal cord, we could attempt to relieve the compression in these structures.¡± ¡°This would involve moving a muscle flap with its vascular pedicle to enhance blood supply to these structures.¡± Yang Ping felt that this was entirely feasible theoretically. In the absence of better options, following this approach could yield some results. At least in the past, when Yang Ping had studied challenging cases in the System Space, he had used this method and it had worked well. ¡°Let¡¯s admit her and see what we can do.¡± Yang Ping said. Chapter 1058 - 1058 868 Doing Good Deeds But Still Being ?Chapter 1058: Chapter 868 Doing Good Deeds But Still Being Hated Chapter 1058: Chapter 868 Doing Good Deeds But Still Being Hated After Lan Xueping was admitted to the inpatient department, Yang Ping instructed the physician in charge to expedite the completion of the patient¡¯s examinations. Yang Ping had never attempted this new method in reality, so after the examinations were completed, he planned to invite Professor Deng to jointly develop the surgery plan. Before retirement, Professor Deng worked at the Temple of Heaven Hospital in Beijing, which has the nation¡¯s best neurosurgery department. Discussing this type of new surgery with the experienced professor was not only a form of respect but also a necessary procedure. Head Nurse Cai¡¯s ankle showed no signs of recovery, but her daily tasks couldn¡¯t be performed while merely sitting still, such as the afternoon nurse rounds, which she also needed to attend. What to do? Xia Shu had no choice but to push her in a wheelchair, so the scene during the afternoon nurse rounds was quite odd¡ªa man pushing the head nurse, followed by a dozen nurses for the rounds. Yang Ping watched Xia Shu from a distance, who seemed willing enough, and appeared quite accepting of this task. Nie Shun¡¯e was preparing for discharge and bought another basket of fruit as a gift for the doctors and nurses, even presenting one specifically to Yang Ping. The couple personally expressed their gratitude to Yang Ping, even bowing respectfully¡ªit was exceedingly polite of them. They planned to start their business on the sky bridge of Sanbo Hospital after discharge, so they decided to rent an apartment first and move in once they had settled on a place. Pan Doudou was quickly transferred out of the ICU. She was very stable post-surgery, prompting Director Fang to bring two baskets of cherries to the Surgical Research Institute. He also took a walk around the department to see if anyone needed help, clearly considering himself an adjunct member of the team. When Director Fang saw Xia Shu pushing the head nurse, he immediately volunteered, ¡°Dr. Xia, take a break, let me push.¡± At this, all the nurses¡¯ eyes were fixed on Director Fang. Those weren¡¯t just gazes; they were more like arrows, as if they were ready to devour him. What was happening? How could doing a good deed attract such hate? Could social morals have decayed this much? Director Fang instinctively stepped back, unsure of what he had done wrong, and could only stand in the corridor pondering over life. Yang Ping went back to the doctors¡¯ office to rest for a while before entering the System Space Laboratory. The efficiency of the System Space was very high; the electron microscope photography of dead tumor cells was already complete, and the billions of pictures were impossible to process by manpower. Fortunately, the system panel served as a supercomputer, and although its computing power was far less than the computer Yang Ping was promised as a future reward, it was sufficient for now. Yang Ping handed over the task of comparing and analyzing the images to the System Panel and began to focus on the newly cultivated muscle. Under the guidance of the Spatial Orientation Gene, the stem cells had formed not just a pile of scattered cells but a complete piece of muscle. Moreover, as control over other parameters became clearer, the success rate of cultivation kept increasing, with a stable rate above eighty percent. After identifying the first Spatial Orientation Gene, Yang Ping turned his attention to the next one. He was determined to find the Spatial Orientation Gene for cartilage because, compared to complex organs like the heart, Yang Ping believed that the development control of muscle and cartilage was simple and straightforward. For complex organs like the heart, there might be more than one guiding gene, and their regulatory mechanisms were undoubtedly intricate. Start with the simple things and work step by step. ¡ª A laboratory of a certain American company. As the transparent glass cover opened, Dr. Connell, wearing gloves, carefully took out the cultivator from inside, and regretfully, it had failed again, he shook his head in disappointment. He had anticipated this result because as the experiment progressed to this point, he had become very baffled, with no breakthrough in basic research, it was no longer possible to move forward. However, the company had high expectations for this technology, and as the saying goes, the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment. No matter how stem cell technology developed, in the end, it cultivated cells, not organs, a heap of scattered cells, not shaped organs. The technique Dr. Connell had created, using scaffolds to guide the crawling of cells, was not much different from biological 3D printing, both using external scaffolds to manipulate and stack cells. The scaffold crawling technique had not made a breakthrough, and biological 3D printing technology was still lingering in the same spot. The printed miniature organs could only be used for experiments such as drug research, and were not yet applicable to clinical settings, because they were not actual organs; strictly speaking, they were just ¡°organs¡± formed by stacking cells in the shape of an organ, lacking the microstructure of organs. Dr. Connell knew that although the progress of the experiments was slow, they now possessed the world¡¯s most advanced stem cell technology, at least ten years ahead of anyone else. The company had bet heavily on this, listing stem cell technology as one of the few strategic technologies for future dominance in biotechnology. An assistant at the side said, ¡°Recently, a Chinese doctor published several articles mentioning new concepts like microscopic dissection and spatial orientation genes. If we could really understand the microscopic anatomy of organs, wouldn¡¯t that be a great help to the experiments?¡± Dr. Connell shook his head; he had read those papers too: ¡°The spatial orientation gene is just a hypothesis, which so far no experiment has been able to verify. It¡¯s a hypothesis that is too advanced, offering no help to current research.¡± ¡°If we go down this path, we would face an enormous amount of data, first needing to decode the stem cells¡¯ genes, then find a way to distinguish these genes. This project would be more enormous than atomic bomb research or the moon landing, and the cost of trial and error is incalculable. And this is still just a hypothesis.¡± ¡°Do you think Boeing Company would invest in researching the so-called curvature engine?¡± The assistant understood: indeed, a hypothesis that was too advanced was hard to prove. ¡°What about microscopic dissection? I think it has a strong practicality! Coupled with the appropriate biological 3D printing technology, using biological 3D printing to replicate organs could be a very good path.¡± The assistant was clearly a fan of Yang Ping. Dr. Connell still shook his head: ¡°Similarly, while it seems possible, it¡¯s actually very difficult. The threshold is high because to truly understand microscopic dissection, we need to establish a digital human based on microscopic dissection; this would require a huge number of bodily tissue sections to collect data, then participation from supercomputers; the initial data collection is massive, and a single laboratory would hardly manage it. Abandoning a mature path to start anew on an unfamiliar and potentially impassable one, what do you think a smart person would choose?¡± The assistant had an epiphany once again. ¡°Mr. Connell, you needn¡¯t be upset. In fact, in regenerative medicine, we are already ahead. No one can catch up to us. We hold the entire core technology in our hands, we have technologically blocked the whole world, the barriers we¡¯ve built over the years are getting higher and higher, even if we gave them our laboratory data, they wouldn¡¯t understand it, let alone surpass us,¡± the assistant consoled Dr. Connell. Regenerative medicine, anti-tumor, and the technologies derived from them are the core technologies of the future biopharmaceutical industry. Whoever controls these technologies can control the future of the medical industry, so the company has invested heavily in this area. PS: I¡¯ll just post the draft today, I¡¯m still not over a cold I¡¯ve been battling for a few days. I¡¯ll revise it when I have time tomorrow, thank you all. Chapter 1059 - 1059 869 The Story Is Long ?Chapter 1059: Chapter 869: The Story Is Long Chapter 1059: Chapter 869: The Story Is Long The next morning, Fang Liu returned to the hospital. He had taken a week off, hoping to be with Lan Xueping before and after the surgery so she wouldn¡¯t feel worried or scared. Although Lan Xueping was hospitalized, she still struggled to translate articles on her Laptop while sitting in a wheelchair. Because her translation quality was good, her freelance work had been quite stable, previously bringing in no less than five thousand a month, and often surpassing ten thousand. But now, her freelance income was only three to four thousand a month, only exceeding five thousand during better times. This was because cerebellar ataxia caused her hands to tremble involuntarily, severely affecting her typing speed. Consequently, the number of translated articles she could complete each month had significantly decreased, and so had her income. Later, she tried using voice input, but now her illness had progressed to the point where it impacted her speech function, making her speech strained and unclear, which made it difficult for the system to recognize her words, resulting in completely distorted text. Having no other choice, she returned to typing with trembling hands, letter by letter. As long as there was work, she would translate as much as possible to alleviate Fang Liu¡¯s financial burden. The primary function of the human cerebellum is to maintain body balance, which is crucial for the body. Once the balance is lost, it affects not only standing and walking but many other movements as well. If the spinal cord is also affected, it will definitely impact muscle strength. Not only is balance lost, but also the strength of the trunk and body weakens, eventually leading to a loss of muscle strength. Fang Liu brought clean clothes for Lan Xueping to change into, and he also brought her favorite doll that she usually kept by her pillow. Since Lan Xueping was unable to take care of herself, Fang Liu took care of all household chores such as laundry, cooking, and cleaning. He did them very well, always managing everything in an orderly fashion. Possibly because Xiao Guoqiang had informed him in advance, soon after Fang Liu arrived at the ward, Xiao Guoqiang and his wife came to visit along with some off-duty firefighter brothers. They were moved by the loyal and romantic love story between Fang Liu and his fiance?e, and though they were reluctant about their brother¡¯s resignation, they all understood and respected his choice. Lan Xueping¡¯s breathing could stop any night, so while her condition wasn¡¯t too horrible, Fang Liu wanted to show her the outside world. If he didn¡¯t act or delayed, he might regret it for the rest of his life. Thus, everyone strongly supported Fang Liu¡¯s decision and silently blessed his fairy-tale-like love. It was already past 10 a.m.; the doctor had already made his rounds and it was now the visiting hour. Xiao Guoqiang, his wife, and a few resting firefighters gathered in the hospital ward. Xiao Guoqiang¡¯s wife was chatting with Lan Xueping, while the others were bantering with Fang Liu. After all, they were brothers who had been through life and death together, and they had grown very close over the years. Xiao Guoqiang¡¯s wife was very dutiful. After learning about Fang Liu¡¯s situation, she often came with her husband to help. When Fang Liu was on duty, sometimes it was Xiao Guoqiang¡¯s wife who would go to Fang Liu¡¯s home to care for Lan Xueping. Therefore, the relationship between Xiao Guoqiang¡¯s wife and Lan Xueping was very good; they got along very well. Regardless of what their men discussed, the women had their own conversations. Soon, it would be Lan Xueping¡¯s birthday. Fang Liu¡¯s group of brothers had secretly prepared a big gift for Xiao Guoqiang and his wife, which would serve both as a birthday gift for Lan Xueping and a farewell gift for Fang Liu. They hadn¡¯t told Fang Liu yet, hoping to surprise him. The gift was a Wuling RV, knowing that Fang Liu planned to travel the country with Lan Xueping, so they thought of giving an RV. Although the RV was second-hand, it was in good condition. The original owner was one of Xiao Guoqiang¡¯s childhood friends, who bought it for fun and then wanted to sell it. Since Fang Liu needed it, Xiao Guoqiang took it over, and the brothers eagerly contributed. They planned to hand over the keys to Fang Liu on Lan Xueping¡¯s birthday and then complete the ownership transfer after her birthday. Sisi¡¯s mother was busy organizing the gifts, fruits, and various supplements that everyone had brought for Lan Xueping. Sisi¡¯s mother worked under contract as a custodial worker in the ward. Typically, she helped nurses with bed making, tidying up, and escorting patients to examinations. She was very efficient, often completing the Head Nurse¡¯s tasks ahead of time, which left her spare moments to attend to other matters. Now, Sisi¡¯s mother took the time to care for Fang Liu¡¯s fiance?e because of their special love story and because Fang Liu was a colleague of Xiao Guoqiang, who was a special friend of the ward. Sisi¡¯s father was now the driver for Yang Ping, responsible for his Hongqi Sedan. Compared to his time at Liquan Hospital, his current work was much less demanding. Yang Ping generally didn¡¯t leave often, and even when he did, it was to perform surgeries or give lectures at other hospitals, or to travel out of the province to the airport. He didn¡¯t have the colorful lifestyle filled with diverse business dealings and a wide variety of people to meet like Boss Cheng and Dean Cai, especially since Boss Cheng was often negotiating business deals everywhere. Everyone was happily chatting when a nurse came with a stack of examination requests to find Lan Xueping, instructing Sisi¡¯s mother to escort Lan Xueping for the tests. Fang Liu said, ¡°Wait, I¡¯ll take her myself.¡± So, the nurse wrote down a note for Fang Liu on the spot, with the order arranged and each examination¡¯s specific location marked. Xiao Guoqiang and his wife and the brothers couldn¡¯t stay long, as they didn¡¯t want to delay Lan Xueping¡¯s tests and treatment, so they left. After everyone left, Fang Liu pushed Lan Xueping in a wheelchair to go for the tests. There were many tests to be done, including routine pre-admission and pre-surgery examinations. Blood samples had already been taken by a nurse in the morning; the rest were instrument-based tests. Chapter 1060 - 1060 869 The Story is Long_2 ?Chapter 1060: Chapter 869 The Story is Long_2 Chapter 1060: Chapter 869 The Story is Long_2 Chest X-ray, electrocardiogram, head and cervical spine MRI, along with electromyographs of the limbs. Guided by the nurse¡¯s note, Fang Liu pushed Lan Xueping along to find the respective departments for the tests. The hospital was large and crowded, making it time-consuming to find their way. However, Fang Liu was not in a hurry. He leisurely shared stories of famous historical sites and local customs from various parts of the country with Lan Xueping. He spoke with such relish as if he had visited all those places himself, when in fact, all his information was sourced from the internet. In preparation for taking Lan Xueping on a tour around the country, he had done his homework well in advance, striving to serve as a qualified ¡°tour guide.¡± Since Fang Liu was indeed very handsome and had the charisma of a star, standing at 185 cm tall was also quite attractive; along the way, he occasionally caught the admiring glances of young girls. But Fang Liu didn¡¯t pay much attention to all that. He was accustomed to it and focused solely on chatting with his beloved. The first stop was the chest X-ray. Fang Liu submitted the examination request at the nurse station and then waited with Lan Xueping in the waiting area for their turn. Next to the nurse¡¯s station stood a signboard, roughly informing everyone that pregnant women or those planning pregnancy should not undergo X-rays and should leave the area quickly due to radiation, although lead doors and walls provided some protection, it wasn¡¯t absolute. Lan Xueping felt bitterly sorrowful in her heart. She had no chance of bearing children for Fang Liu, not only because of her own illness but also because of the high probability that any child they had might inherit her condition. Fang Liu was truly foolish, hopelessly so¡ªthinking about this made Lan Xueping¡¯s eyes moisten. Sometimes, she genuinely wanted to leave everything behind, allowing Fang Liu to be free. Once, she had attempted just that¡ªshe hid in a corner of the park in her wheelchair. Fang Liu, however, kept calling her and searching frantically everywhere. Hidden in her corner, she saw this tall man bawling, shouting her name heartbreakingly, oblivious to the astonished stares of passersby. What was the point of all this suffering? Lan Xueping slowly emerged from the corner, her face streamed with tears, ¡°Let¡¯s go home!¡± Let¡¯s love passionately! Seeing his fiance?e¡¯s eyes, both red and wet, Fang Liu knew Lan Xueping, this kind-hearted girl, was sentimental and especially vulnerable since her illness. He saw it all and without speaking out, he tried everything possible to cheer her up and relieve her worries. Lan Xueping realized she was somewhat losing her composure and quickly adjusted her emotions. She also tried to appear optimistic and happy, as she didn¡¯t want to bring any negativity to Fang Liu. Actually, the story of Fang Liu and Lan Xueping was a long one. They were from the same village when they were children, even neighbors. Back then, Lan Xueping was not ill, nor was her father, who, due to diligent parents, made their family quite prosperous in the village standards. Fang Liu, however, was different. His father was a gambler, who had squandered the family¡¯s fortunes and remained unrepentant until he disappeared altogether¡ªrumored to have been killed by creditors, but that was merely speculation. By elementary school, Fang Liu was fatherless. Later, his mother ran away with a pig trader and never returned, leaving Fang Liu essentially an orphan, raised by his elderly grandfather. Thus, Fang Liu¡¯s childhood was painful, often barely managing a meal to eat¡ªnot because his grandfather didn¡¯t care, but because of his old age, maintaining food and clothing was already quite an accomplishment. His neighbor, Lan Xueping, was in the same class as him. She would always claim she couldn¡¯t finish her meal and hated to waste it, insisting on sharing half with him. Fang Liu, caring about his pride, would refuse, but Lan Xueping would force him to accept, chiding him for not helping her, saying it wasn¡¯t very manly of him. It wasn¡¯t just sharing meals¡ªLan Xueping often gave snacks to Fang Liu too, sometimes oranges or apples, sometimes dried sweet potatoes, and sometimes candies. By the time they reached junior high, Fang Liu¡¯s feelings for Lan Xueping had gradually deepened. He felt grateful, but later realized it wasn¡¯t just gratitude but genuine affection that he had never confessed to anyone. Because he thought it wasn¡¯t right to fall for her given how kindly she treated him, and with his family situation and his poor academic performance, while Lan Xueping excelled in her studies and would possibly attend Normal University to become a teacher, destined for a wonderful future. So, he had always silently adored Lan Xueping but had never confessed his feelings, not even hinting at them, always deeply burying his love in his own heart. During ninth grade, a school bully took a liking to Lan Xueping and wrote her love letters, which Lan Xueping ignored. Consequently, the school bully harbored a grudge, and with a few thuggish students, he ambushed Lan Xueping at the dormitory entrance. This frightened Lan Xueping for days. When Fang Liu found out, he severely beat up the school bully. Since Fang Liu was tall and struck with a desperate fierceness, his eyes bloodshot, the bully was utterly scared and never dared to harass Lan Xueping again. In high school, Fang Liu and Lan Xueping were at the same school¡ªSecondary School No. 2 in the county. However, Lan Xueping was in the honors class, and Fang Liu was in a regular class. Actually, based on Fang Liu¡¯s usual grades, he shouldn¡¯t have been able to get into Secondary School No. 2. But he exerted himself in the last year of junior high, tackling his studies with intense determination, and his grades made a remarkable turnaround, finally allowing him to enter a regular class at Secondary School No. 2. His sole purpose in doing this was to stay close to Lan Xueping, to never let her be frightened again. But throughout high school, they had little contact, each living their own lives. Fang Liu only watched over Lan Xueping from a distance, never actively disturbing her. After high school graduation, Lan Xueping got into Normal University, but Fang Liu¡¯s grandfather passed away in his senior year. With no more relatives left, and after flunking the College Entrance Examination, he went through a period of grief. However, he quickly recovered and decided to enlist in the military, joining the armed police forces that year. Later, he ended up in the firefighting brigade in Nandu Provincial City, remaining there until now. Even as Lan Xueping attended university, Fang Liu continued to pay attention to her. Through various means, Fang Liu added her on WeChat, but they never actually talked. Lan Xueping also rarely posted moments. Until later on, suffering from illness, the death of family members, the loss of jobs, a series of blows, and worsening symptoms, Lan Xueping could no longer suppress the anguish in her heart. She posted a moment, just wanting to vent her inner turmoil. Little did she know that this moment would prompt Fang Liu to cross mountains and rivers to pick her up. ¡°Did you really resign?¡± Lan Xueping had always disagreed with Fang Liu resigning. She felt that Fang Liu should not change his life for her. She knew Fang Liu wanted to show her the world outside, but that was just something said in jest, and shouldn¡¯t be taken seriously. Yet, to her surprise, Fang Liu was serious. Fang Liu nodded, ¡°I have one more month left at work. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m prepared. These past two years I¡¯ve been apprenticing and learning a craft, so wherever I go, I won¡¯t starve.¡± Lan Xueping knew the ¡°craft¡± that Fang Liu was talking about involved performing hard qigong stunts, like steel bars against the throat, wire around the neck, or driving nails with hands. In fact, these were all perilous, grueling tasks. Fang Liu was very smart and learned things quickly. Thus, he excelled at these performances. Coupled with his good looks and eloquence, he was suited for street performances. He once took Lan Xueping to the park to perform as a test and managed to earn some tips. However, seeing him perform made Lan Xueping extremely anxious, feeling deep sympathy for Fang Liu. This was Fang Liu¡¯s backup plan. Savings would run out eventually, so learning a variety of tricks allowed for earning money through performances while traveling. The called number appeared on the screen indicating it was Lan Xueping¡¯s turn, and Fang Liu immediately wheeled Lan Xueping in. Because she couldn¡¯t stand to have her chest X-rayed, she had to lie down, which posed a significant challenge in positioning her body. Even after taking medication before the exam to control her symptoms, the trembling of her body made it impossible for Lan Xueping to maintain the needed position. Fang Liu stayed by Lan Xueping¡¯s side, helping her stabilize her position. Chapter 1061 - 1061 870 How Did We Go Off Topic ?Chapter 1061: Chapter 870 How Did We Go Off Topic? Chapter 1061: Chapter 870 How Did We Go Off Topic? After Lan Xueping¡¯s preoperative examinations were complete, all the results came out quickly. The discussion of her case took place in the Meeting Room, with Professor Deng from the Outpatient services also invited to participate in the discussion. This was not an informal discussion but a highly confirmed one, with someone specially assigned to record it, and the proceedings were to be filed in the medical record in the end. Since that afternoon was the scheduled time for routine case discussions, ¡°Let¡¯s discuss this case, since we are going to use a new surgical technique that we¡¯ve never used before to relieve the patient¡¯s symptoms,¡± Yang Ping got straight to the point. Penguin disease isn¡¯t considered a rare disease. According to statistics from the United States, there are 3-5 penguin disease patients per 100,000 people. Our country does not have such statistics, so we can only refer to the data from the US to speculate that we have approximately 40,000 to 70,000 penguin disease patients. It¡¯s a terminal illness, more terrifying than amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The Physician in Charge was Dr. Zhou, a Standardized Training Student, and he reported the case. A formal case discussion is usually initiated by the younger doctors, that is, by professional titles from low to high, with the Department Director concluding at the end. ¡°Hereditary cerebellar ataxia, this disease is truly a death sentence. There are no precedents in the world for surgically treating this disease, and as for medication, the only known effective medication to date is the Japanese drug He Tianrailing. Other methods, such as acupuncture, massage, and traditional Chinese medicine, have shown no evidence of effectiveness to date.¡± Li Guodong stands out among the young people, and he is now very eager to apply for Yang Ping¡¯s doctoral program, so he studies very hard, and always takes the initiative to speak during case discussions. Indeed, to date, the only confirmed medication that can effectively alleviate the symptoms of Penguin disease is He Tianrailing, a pituitary hormone-releasing excitatory drug, the first orally administered drug approved to promote the release of thyrotropin, which has endocrine effects as well as certain effects on the central nervous system, including increasing motor activity, antagonizing the temperature decrease induced by risperidone, and antagonizing the sleep induced by pentobarbital, among others. The thyrotropin-releasing hormone located in the brain is co-localized with other neurotransmitters or neuromodulators, functioning as a neurotransmitter or neuromodulator to achieve neuroprotective effects. One of the main symptoms of hereditary cerebellar and spinal ataxia is progressive deterioration of motor coordination function. Dopamine in the brain is involved in the regulation of the motor system, and thyrotropin-releasing hormone and its analogs have been proven to change the metabolism of acetylcholinesterase and dopamine, thus activating the dopamine system, strengthening the regulation of the motor system, and improving symptoms of ataxia. He Tianrailing is a synthetic analog of thyrotropin-releasing hormone, but its excitatory effect on the central nervous system is 100 times that of the body¡¯s own thyrotropin-releasing hormone, and the duration of its effect is 8 times. It is precisely this formidable efficacy that makes it the only effective medication for Penguin disease. The Physician in Charge, Dr. Zhou, spoke up, ¡°The patient¡¯s family had someone buy it in Japan. She has taken this medication, tried three brands¡ªJg, Sawai, and Tanabe Mitsubishi, and in the end, found Tanabe Mitsubishi to be the most effective. She has been taking it since, perhaps because it¡¯s the original research pharmaceutical. But this drug can only alleviate symptoms; the patient herself said that without this drug, she probably wouldn¡¯t be able to speak or type by now. However, the heavier the illness, the worse the effect of the drug becomes, because it cannot stop the progression of the disease, only dilute some of the symptoms.¡± The Physician in Charge showed the empty medication boxes while speaking, which were provided by Fang Liu for the doctors to record the medication. ¡°Dr. Li, you just mentioned she had acupuncture and massage, and used traditional Chinese medicine? Ineffective?¡± Dr. Zhao asked. Doctor Zhao Wenbo, a rotation Graduate Student at the Surgical Research Institute, was also eager to apply for Yang Ping¡¯s Ph.D. program, and he had a strong passion for traditional culture, especially traditional Chinese medicine. The fact that Li Guodong had just boldly stated that traditional Chinese medicine was ineffective deeply bothered him. ¡°That¡¯s right, the patient¡¯s family personally said this. Dr. Zhou should be aware of it¡ªit wasn¡¯t me who said it. Indeed, acupuncture, massage, traditional Chinese medicine, and herbal treatments had no effect,¡± Li Guodong insisted on his opinion. Dr. Zhou nodded slightly, ¡°That is indeed what the patient¡¯s family said.¡± ¡°She just hasn¡¯t found a true practitioner of Chinese medicine. There are many masters among the general populace, and the academics of today merely have empty reputations,¡± Dr. Zhao defended. ¡°What masters among the populace? Martial arts have been shouting about hidden masters among the people for so many years, and in the end, we got the people¡¯s masters like Teacher Lei and Teacher Ma,¡± Li Guodong casually remarked. Unexpectedly, this comment angered Dr. Zhao, ¡°The way you put it, it¡¯s as if traditional Chinese medicine is pseudoscience, just like the naysayers of Chinese medicine out there.¡± Li Guodong was somewhat puzzled, ¡°Are you saying I can only mention that Chinese medicine is effective and not that it¡¯s ineffective? If I say it¡¯s effective, I¡¯m right, but if I say it¡¯s ineffective, I¡¯m denigrating Chinese medicine? I was simply stating the patient and family¡¯s feedback on this specific case realistically. How does that make me a denigrator of Chinese medicine?¡± ¡°Since you claim it is effective, you need to present evidence. You can¡¯t just say she found the wrong doctor, as in martial arts, where talking big is easy. Why not settle it in the ring and see who actually prevails?¡± Li Guodong never really agreed with Dr. Zhao¡¯s academic perspectives. This fellow would readily label someone for being even slightly critical of Chinese medicine. ¡°Many martial arts techniques are lethal. How can one perform with gloves on?¡± ¡°Do you think, if both Teacher Ma and Tyson removed their gloves and were not limited in techniques, who would die first?¡± What exactly were they discussing? How did the topic drift so much? Song Zimo rapped on the table, ¡°Attention! This is a case discussion. Please refrain from discussing irrelevant matters. You can talk about Chinese medicine and martial arts after the meeting.¡± Dr. Zhao was just getting riled up, but Li Guodong didn¡¯t seem as eager. He only wanted to defend his viewpoint. ¡°Professor, are you considering surgery as treatment?¡± Song Zimo asked, sensing the odd atmosphere among the interns today, wondering why they started off on such a confrontational note. Song Zimo decided to steer the discussion in the opposite direction. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°My idea is simple. Since the cerebellum is atrophying, regardless of the mechanism of onset, there is compression and blood flow is compromised. If we perform a resection of the cerebellomedullary cistern arachnoid membran*e, loosen the cerebellar and brainstem arachnoid membranes, decompress the hard meninges, and decompress the posterior cranial fossa with a bone flap, coupled with bilateral occipital artery muscle flap application on the surface of the cerebellum, we can achieve a dual effect of cerebellar decompression and increased blood supply. Theoretically, it should improve cerebellar blood flow.¡± ¡°Because whatever the cause, the cerebellar atrophy is definitely linked to reduced blood flow. Relieving compression helps to preserve existing blood flow, allowing the ones on the brink of death to recover, and vascular pedicle muscle flap transplants can increase new blood flow to the cerebellum. Over time, the blood vessels of the muscle flap would gradually integrate into the cerebellum.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know on which link our intervention falls in the physiological chain of this illness, but it¡¯s bound to be helpful.¡± Professor Deng slightly nodded, ¡°Changing our approach, what else can we do if not this method? However, the key to the application of this new method is the cooperation of the patient and their family. Otherwise, it would be hard to explain if it fails. The patient and their family in this case are very cooperative and have complete trust in us. Under such circumstances, we should take a chance.¡± Indeed, without the earnest cooperation of the patient and family, how could a doctor take a chance? Chapter 1062 - 1062 871 Confidence ?Chapter 1062: Chapter 871 Confidence Chapter 1062: Chapter 871 Confidence Xiao Guoqiang and his brothers pooled their money together to buy a second-hand RV that had now been fully renovated. His childhood friend did a solid job, making the vehicle look brand new and even replacing all four tires with new ones. The guys took turns driving the RV around in circles in the backyard, because emergency fire vehicles needed to leave from the station¡¯s front parking lot at any moment, and it was absolutely against the rules for random vehicles to park there temporarily. However, the backyard was fair game. ¡°Fang Liu just up and left like that, not cool, leaving his brothers behind without a word.¡± Squad leader Lei Bin said this while watching the brothers playing around, everyone being comrades who had been through life and death together over the years. Fang Liu¡¯s sudden departure hurt everybody. Xiao Guoqiang was also full of emotions. It was his brothers who desperately rescued him from the collapsed building on fire, among which Fang Liu had found him. He was lucky to have been saved, but sadly, one brother never had the chance to come back. ¡°You saw how during his farewell, I didn¡¯t let him get so drunk he¡¯d pass out, I couldn¡¯t believe it, Xiao.¡± ¡°Has his partner¡¯s illness found any hope?¡± the squad leader asked Xiao Guoqiang with concern. ¡°At Sanbo Hospital, Professor Yang is treating it. I heard she¡¯s going to have surgery in a few days.¡± Old Xiao briefly explained. ¡°This kid is quite the man, full of love and loyalty. I didn¡¯t expect him to shoulder everything by himself. If it were someone else, they wouldn¡¯t even have time to run, yet he took it upon himself.¡± ¡°Yeah, no wonder my wife tried to set him up with a girlfriend and he never agreed. He always had someone in his heart.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go see them tomorrow too. Are the brothers¡¯ donations ready?¡± ¡°They¡¯re ready.¡± After a few more rounds, the RV came to a stop, and the brothers gathered around the vehicle, joking and messing with each other. Xiao Guoqiang and the squad leader also went over to join in the fun. ¡°Squad leader, when can I return to the front line?¡± Xiao Guoqiang seized the opportunity to ask again. ¡°Don¡¯t ask me about this, it¡¯s not up to me. If it were, you wouldn¡¯t even think about returning to the front line. Isn¡¯t it nice to be in logistics right now?¡± The squad leader didn¡¯t want Old Xiao to return to the front line at all; he just wanted him to spend the rest of his life in logistics. A firefighter ran over: ¡°Old Xiao, shall we send the cake to the hospital? I ordered a really big cake just like you told me to.¡± ¡°Send it to the hospital ward. I¡¯ve already spoken to the head nurse, and she¡¯ll arrange a private room when the time comes. I¡¯ve calculated that it should be several days after the surgery by then. But just so we¡¯re clear, that¡¯s a hospital, we can¡¯t make a fuss.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± ¡°Old Xiao, you don¡¯t think Fang Liu would really go busking along the way, do you?¡± the firefighter asked curiously. The firefighters playing with the RV started imitating street performers jokingly: ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, hello there, if you¡¯re wealthy, support us with cash; if not, support us with your presence. I¡¯m going to perform hard Qigong for you all¡ª¡± Then, pretending to smash beer bottles on their own heads, they provoked a roar of laughter from everyone. ¡°I saw that he¡¯s already bought the equipment; he might actually play with this thing.¡± Old Xiao remarked. The squad leader was torn between laughter and tears: ¡°Is Fang Liu really going to switch to performing hard Qigong?¡± He had seen firefighters switch to all sorts of jobs, but never had he seen one turn to performing hard Qigong. That was really something else. ¡ª Hereditary cerebellar ataxia is an extremely complex disease. Diagnosing this condition first requires clinical diagnosis, followed by genetic testing. The rigorous diagnostic process is quite cumbersome. The most tragic aspect is that even with a clear diagnosis, there are no definitive treatment methods, except for riluzole from Japan, which is the only other confirmed effective method. Lan Xueping¡¯s current diagnosis is only clinical, based on her medical history, physical examination, and radiological assessment. As a hereditary disease, this is far from sufficient. Next, Yang Ping is preparing to perform genetic testing on her, which is also why he didn¡¯t immediately proceed with surgery. Fang Liu sat with Lan Xueping in the Meeting Room, facing Yang Ping across the table. ¡°Lan Xueping, you don¡¯t need to be overly pessimistic about this illness. Yes, things are bad, but they are far from as bad as you imagine!¡± Now, Yang Ping needed to have a heart-to-heart talk with Lan Xueping. ¡°First, I have to tell you that the greatest harm of this disease is that it destroys your mobility, confining you to a wheelchair or bed. It has succeeded in doing that; you are already sitting in a wheelchair, but this is not the end of the world. Compared to Hawking, you are much healthier right now.¡± ¡°Why do some people pass away prematurely? Because once a person loses their mobility, they are prone to develop other diseases. However, these complications can be avoided with proper care, and I believe the care your fiance? is providing you is the best.¡± ¡°Another very clear cause of death is the cessation of breathing during sleep. Since this cause is specific, once it affects your breathing, you can use a ventilator to assist you. Don¡¯t worry, many patients with sleep apnea syndrome need to use ventilators at night.¡± ¡°Good care and the use of a ventilator can prevent premature death.¡± ¡°So next, I need to tell you that the surgery we are preparing to perform on you has no precedent, but after repeated theoretical analysis, we believe it will be effective. It could significantly delay the progression of your illness, especially when combined with riluzole, the effects should be very good.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not the first time I have treated patients with a new surgical technique, and so far, I have not had any failures. I hope it will be the same with you.¡± ¡°Your love has deeply moved me. As a doctor, I hope that you can happily enter into marriage and then have your own healthy babies.¡± ¡°Next, I have another piece of good news for you. Genetic testing is not only helpful for genetic diagnosis but can also help you have healthy babies.¡± Lan Xueping, who had been sitting in a wheelchair, had been feeling depressed since her illness, but upon hearing Yang Ping¡¯s words, suddenly felt as if the sun had come out, and things didn¡¯t seem so bad. When she heard Yang Ping say that they could have healthy babies, Lan Xueping became completely confident and immediately asked, ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Every word I¡¯ve spoken is true. As a surgeon, I am always rational and would never lie just to spare your feelings; that would be pointless. Lies are of no help against an objective illness, but my medical skills can help you. You must understand that my surgical knife is for saving people, not for playing,¡± Yang Ping said with a smile. Lan Xueping had seen many doctors but had never met one as confident as Yang Ping. He seemed godlike, exuding the confidence to turn everything around. Whether it was true or not, Lan Xueping felt that she truly believed in Yang Ping at that moment. ¡°I also want to tell you that as long as you are alive, you are successful. You must accept this way of living. Everyone has their own unique way of living in this world; you can¡¯t compare yourself to others. You can only accept what¡¯s yours: sitting in a wheelchair, unable to control your balance, hands trembling. That is your current state. Your life may be impaired, but it¡¯s already wonderful. You have a loyal and deeply loving partner.¡± Perhaps Yang Ping¡¯s words had a profound impact on Lan Xueping, loosening some knot in her heart, as a rare smile appeared on her face. Confidence is extremely important! For patients tormented by illness, the first step Yang Ping takes is to build their confidence. And the strong confidence that Yang Ping exhibits is most likely to infect his patients. That¡¯s why he never speaks ambiguously. He is so certain that it makes people believe without a shadow of a doubt. Chapter 1063 - 1063 872 Cerebellar Artery Bypass ?Chapter 1063: Chapter 872: Cerebellar Artery Bypass? Chapter 1063: Chapter 872: Cerebellar Artery Bypass? Gene tests from Sanbo Hospital are generally sent to Nandu Medical University Genetics Laboratory, a key national lab. The director, Lin Lan, is Su Nanchen¡¯s fiance?e. Soon, Lan Xueping¡¯s gene test results were out. Lan Xueping was diagnosed with SCA3 type, the most common form of hereditary spinocerebellar ataxias in our country. Spinocerebellar ataxias, abbreviated as SCA in English, if strictly defined, should be considered a group of hereditary neurological diseases characterized by progressive motor coordination dysfunction and balance disorder due to degenerative changes in the cerebellum, brainstem, and spinal cord caused by genetic mutations. Initially, doctors believed that the disease was inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion, but as research on the disease deepened, they found that its inheritance was not limited to autosomal dominant patterns. There are also several other modes of inheritance: autosomal recessive, X-linked, and mitochondrial. Not only are there several modes of inheritance, but also many genetic subtypes. Researchers have discovered 33 types of hereditary spinocerebellar ataxias so far, most of which are caused by an abnormal repetition and expansion of trinucleotide repeats in the exons of the corresponding genes, leading to polyglutamine. The pathological changes are neuronal cell loss and glial proliferation, with mutant proteins containing polyglutamine forming intranuclear inclusions. Although the basal ganglia, optic nerves, and peripheral nerves can also be involved, the main sites of lesions are the spinal cord, brainstem, and cerebellum. Li Guodong himself reviewed a vast amount of literature and compiled a table listing various genetic types, corresponding symptoms for each subtype, and a summary of the literature on various treatment methods. Furthermore, Li Guodong also wrote a detailed review of this disease, retrospectively summarizing previous literature. He even sorted out numerous failed drugs and methods used in the past, including them in his review. After reading the review, Yang Ping was very satisfied. Such scientific thinking is very important for future work. As doctors, we need to adopt a rigorous work attitude. When they had free time, they gathered again to discuss Lan Xueping¡¯s surgical plan. ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯ve been thinking, why don¡¯t we just use arteriovenous grafting directly? I analyzed these MRI scans all of last night. The diffusion images of the blood vessels show that these areas indeed have significantly insufficient blood supply. Why don¡¯t we use arteriovenous grafting techniques like with the heart to improve blood flow here? Regardless of the cause, I think it should be effective,¡± Li Guodong had a strong desire for research, and he had truly been studying these MRI images. His question resonated with everyone, prompting Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang to also ponder this issue. If vascular bundle grafting would increase damage to the cerebellum, arteriovenous grafting would not, and it could be done on the surface of the cerebellum or within the existing vascular malformations. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve been pondering this question too, and Li Guodong has raised a good point,¡± Song Zimo responded. Xu Zhiliang followed up, ¡°I¡ªwas just about¡ªto ask the same thing.¡± ¡°It seems we¡¯re all on the same page. I am now considering whether to use cerebellar artery grafting surgery, but to do so, we doctors will have to do much more work, and the risks will be much higher. We need to study the cerebellar blood vessels, review all previous outcomes regarding the anatomy of the cerebellar blood vessels, and determine the precise subdivision of the cerebellar blood vessels. We need to clarify what vessels supply the ischemic regions you just mentioned, and then we¡¯ll be able to plan how to perform the grafting,¡± Yang Ping just happened to be researching this question and took the opportunity to discuss it in detail with everyone, indicating that everyone was indeed very dedicated. ¡°Do you remember who was the first doctor to complete a coronary bypass surgery?¡± Yang Ping asked the group. ¡°Doctor Favaloro from Argentina!¡±, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Li Guodong answered simultaneously. They had a very clear memory of these facts, and only those deeply interested in medicine would pay attention to medical history. Otherwise, with anatomy, physiology, pathology, biochemistry, and so on already making heads spin, how could they have the energy to study medical history? ¡°Doctor Favaloro, when studying at the American Cleveland Clinic, had a roommate named Sones who was the father of angiography. At that time, Sones was precisely developing the technique for coronary angiography. Doctor Favaloro had always been fond of cardiac surgery, so he was particularly fascinated by images from coronary angiography. As soon as Sones completed a coronary angiography and produced new images, Doctor Favaloro would spend hours studying these images of the coronary arteries, researching the relationship between blood vessels and the myocardium. Influenced by his good friend Sones¡¯ research on vascular angiography, Doctor Favaloro was convinced that coronary artery bypass grafting could treat stenosis or blockage of the coronary arteries.¡± ¡°Doctor Li Min, do you know what specialty Doctor Favaloro applied to specialize in at the Cleveland Clinic before his fellowship?¡± Yang Ping suddenly asked Li Min, who was listening attentively to the lecture. Li Min didn¡¯t know this story, so he shook his head. ¡°Doctor Favaloro was previously working as a rural doctor in Argentina, a general practitioner. It was at the age of 40 that he applied on his own to go to the American Cleveland Clinic for advanced studies. He received approval from Cleveland and, at the age of 45, he completed the world¡¯s first coronary artery bypass surgery there,¡± Yang Ping introduced this legendary figure briefly. What an inspiring story, Li Ming developed a keen interest in Doctor Favaloro¡¯s story. Yang Ping continued, ¡°The first patient Doctor Favaloro operated on for coronary bypass surgery had an excellent recovery, which shows that some new techniques, as long as they are thoroughly researched theoretically, can be tremendously effective even without clinical validation. The Fontan procedure in cardiac surgery is the same; the first case also had a significant effect.¡± Initially, Yang Ping¡¯s surgical plan involved the use of muscle flaps with vascular pedicles, which was more reliable, but the appearance of the surgical effect would be slower. This might be good for doctors, as being conservative implies lower surgical risks. However, for patients, seeing immediate results can establish strong confidence. To build Lan Xueping¡¯s confidence, Yang Ping decided to change the method of surgery, maintaining the same decompression technique but using a faster and more direct arterial grafting for improving blood flow. ¡°Even the specialized books and papers in neurosurgery might not be as precise about cerebellar blood supply research as they are about heart blood supply, right?¡± Song Zimo asked. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°That is one of our difficulties. Just as Doctor Favaloro studied the relationship between coronary arteries and myocardium, we need to re-examine the arterial blood supply of the cerebellum. Because all the previous related research was never intended to guide cerebellar artery grafting, it naturally wouldn¡¯t be as in-depth as heart research.¡± Chapter 1064 - 1064 873 Light in the Heart ?Chapter 1064: Chapter 873: Light in the Heart Chapter 1064: Chapter 873: Light in the Heart To perform cerebellar artery bypass surgery, one must have a thorough understanding of the cerebellar arteries that supply blood to the cerebellum. The cerebellar arteries mainly originate from the basilar artery and the vertebral artery and are divided into the superior cerebellar artery, the anterior inferior cerebellar artery, and the posterior inferior cerebellar artery. The superior cerebellar artery, a branch of the basilar artery, primarily nourishes the upper part of the cerebellum, supplying the upper surface of the cerebellar hemispheres, the upper part of the cerebellar vermis, and the anterior medullary velum. The anterior inferior cerebellar artery mainly nourishes the front part of the lower cerebellum. Ninety-nine percent arise from the basilar artery, but the specific origin might sometimes vary. The posterior inferior cerebellar artery, a branch of the vertebral artery, primarily nourishes the back part of the lower cerebellum, which includes the cerebellar vermis and the lower part of the cerebellar hemispheres. If one were simply researching the diagnosis or treatment of cerebellar infarction, mastering this knowledge of the blood vessels would be sufficient. However, the current treatment targets hereditary cerebellar ataxia, so this knowledge is far from adequate. It is necessary to follow the branching of the superior cerebellar artery, the anterior inferior cerebellar artery, and the posterior inferior cerebellar artery to identify their precise areas of influence. In order to study the cerebellar blood vessels more comprehensively, Yang Ping created tens of thousands of angiographic images of the cerebellum in System Space, then analyzed the range supplied by each blood vessel, which includes both exclusive and overlapping areas of supply. These angiography images resemble tree branches and spider webs, interconnected and forming a three-dimensional network. The human body¡¯s circulatory supply is incredibly complex and amazing. Some blood supplies form a network, so the blockage of a single blood vessel does not greatly affect the overall supply. However, some blood vessels supply blood singly, such as those to the femoral head. Once blocked or injured, blood supply to that region ceases, resulting in ischemic necrosis of the organ or tissue within the supply area. This is why femoral head fractures can easily lead to ischemic necrosis of the femoral head. In fact, any research work may seem exceedingly tedious to the average person. Without a deep interest in their research, it is difficult for researchers to continue their work. Yang Ping has a profound interest in medical research, even a sense of dedication that transcends the ordinary. He is currently engrossed in these dry images with great relish. Sometimes Yang Ping would also draw diagrams to help study the distribution of blood vessels. Once some understanding has been gained through research, he could then make use of the ¡°computer,¡± the System Panel. With the help of the panel, the analysis of tens of thousands of angiographic images of blood vessels was quickly completed, drawing a detailed map of the cerebellum¡¯s blood flow distribution. With this raw data and by comparing it to Lan Xueping¡¯s head MR diffusion images, it was very easy to clearly understand the distribution of the blood vessels. Which blood vessel was causing the poor blood flow in specific regions and how to construct the bypass became crystal clear in Yang Ping¡¯s mind. However, Lan Xueping¡¯s cerebellar atrophy involves not only issues with blood supply and pressure but also problems with the nerve cells themselves. The issues with the nerve cells themselves could not be solved for now, so the exact effect of the surgery remained an unknown. Nevertheless, it would definitely have an effect. No matter the problem with the nerve cells, by relieving pressure and improving blood circulation, at least the living environment for the remaining healthy nerve cells in the cerebellum would be improved, allowing them to function more effectively and thus alleviating symptoms. This is the theoretical basis that Yang Ping firmly believes in for the effectiveness of the surgery. His every decision was based on solid scientific evidence, not whimsy. ¡ª After gaining confidence, Lan Xueping¡¯s mental state was completely different from before. Especially after hearing that a healthy baby could be conceived using scientific methods, she felt even more that life was full of hope and wonder. They had inquired at Sanbo Hospital¡¯s reproductive center, where a combination of genetic screening and assisted reproductive technologies could ensure through rigorous selection that healthy eggs and sperm would be combined. A healthy fertilized egg could be artificially cultured into an embryo outside of the body and then implanted into Lan Xueping¡¯s uterus, which could result in a confirmed healthy fetus. Of course, this method of assisted reproduction doesn¡¯t guarantee success one hundred percent of the time; there is still the possibility of failure, such as miscarriage along the way. But to Lan Xueping, this risk was negligible; she was completely willing to accept it. So, Fang Liu and Lan Xueping decided to get married after returning from their trip, and start planning for a baby right after their wedding. Lan Xueping¡¯s faith became firmer and firmer. To live, to live well, things weren¡¯t as bad as she had imagined. One day, she could even have her own healthy baby. Fang Liu was unaware that his brothers had already bought him a second-hand RV. According to his own plan, he would drive a tricycle, taking Lan Xueping and the dog she had raised, and together they would travel all over China, exploring the outside world. Fang Liu, with an elated Lan Xueping, returned from the reproductive medicine center and visited Yang Ping¡¯s office once more, where Yang Ping was about to have another talk with them. On the whiteboard in Yang Ping¡¯s office hung a pencil-drawn cerebellar blood flow diagram. ¡°This is your cerebellar blood flow diagram! I have been studying your illness, and I now have a better method than when we started¡ªCerebellar Vascular Bypass Surgery.¡± ¡°You see, the red is the arterial supply network of the cerebellum, the black is the small arteries that are already blocked, and the green next to it is the bypass I am planning to perform. You need four bypasses.¡± ¡°As I said, things aren¡¯t as bad as you think.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve conducted a precise analysis of your current symptoms, and at least half of the normal neurons in the cerebellum are still there.¡± ¡°In this disease, the pathological changes in cerebellar neurons include neuron loss and gliosis, with mutant proteins containing polyglutamine depositing in the cell nucleus to form nuclear inclusions.¡± ¡°This means that there are still about half of the neurons without these pathological changes. Our surgery aims to improve the blood supply for this half of the neurons, relieving the pressure on them and allowing them to regain the vitality they should have, to better perform their functions.¡± Lan Xueping only knew that the diagram was exquisitely drawn; she didn¡¯t understand the other medical knowledge too well, but she could vaguely grasp the logic behind Yang Ping¡¯s words. She nodded, ¡°Professor Yang, we will follow your arrangements; whatever the result, we will accept it.¡± ¡°So, Professor Yang, definitely don¡¯t have any concerns or worries, we¡¯ve made comprehensive mental preparations,¡± Fang Liu added. Their united front alleviated any worries in Yang Ping¡¯s heart. He decided to give it his all according to his own plan, confident that the preoperative theoretical analysis was bound to be effective. Even if there were ineffective results or other issues post-surgery, Yang Ping would be able to quickly identify the cause and improve the surgery. In short, with their complete trust, Yang Ping could truly give it his all. ¡°I will give it my all; rest assured!¡± Yang Ping took Lan Xueping¡¯s hand. Chapter 1065 - 1065 874 Beyond Expectation ?Chapter 1065: Chapter 874: Beyond Expectation Chapter 1065: Chapter 874: Beyond Expectation Fang Liu had less than a month left of work before his retirement, and Captain Lei wanted to give him some time off. After so many years of living and dying together, Fang Liu indeed found it hard to leave his comrades behind. He was now taking the time to pick up some items from the fire department to avoid a rushed goodbye. He wandered around the familiar premises, the plants, bricks, and tiles all too well known to him. Realizing that he would soon leave this place, a touch of melancholy was inevitable. But all good things must come to an end, and after Lan Xueping had her ¡°surgery¡± and was discharged from the ¡°ward¡±, Fang Liu was determined to take her on a grand tour of China¡¯s magnificent landscapes, to create their own romance and happiness. Unable to afford a motorhome, Fang Liu had already prepared a tricycle and organized their luggage. He planned to take Lan Xueping¡¯s dog with them on the trip. A couple and their dog, on three wheels, would traverse far and wide ¨C to ¡°Tibet¡± in the west, ¡°Inner Mongolia¡± in the north, and ¡°Harbin¡± in the northeast, leaving their footprints all across China. Fang Liu happened to be at the station to pick up some items, and with his brothers around, Xiao Guoqiang decided to deliver everyone¡¯s gift to Fang Liu early instead of waiting for Lan Xueping¡¯s birthday. Old Xiao was worried that everyone would get too excited and noisy on Lan Xueping¡¯s birthday, which might disturb the normal order of the ¡°ward¡±; these young guys were always up to some mischief. ¡°Fang Liu, what do you think that is?¡± Xiao Guoqiang pointed to a vehicle covered with a tarp not too far away. Fang Liu took a careful look and saw a small motorhome ¨C the very thing he had dreamed of having. However, because it was too expensive, and he needed to save money, he had given up the idea of buying one and settled on a tricycle instead. ¡°You should go take a look, maybe drive it around for a few turns and then tell me how it feels.¡± Xiao Guoqiang threw the keys to Fang Liu, who glanced at everyone¡¯s curious expressions and then at Old Xiao: ¡°Is this car yours?¡± ¡°So much talk. Just go and take a look like I told you, no matter whose it is. Aren¡¯t the keys right here?¡± Old Xiao urged. Fang Liu was puzzled, but his interest in the motorhome was undeniable. Even if it wasn¡¯t Old Xiao¡¯s vehicle, it must be some brother¡¯s new purchase parked in the backyard. Taking a look wouldn¡¯t hurt. Fang Liu took the keys and strode towards the vehicle, inspecting the driver¡¯s cab and the living quarters, both inside and out, drooling over it. Which one of them had parked it here just to tempt others? A ¡°Wuling¡± motorhome ¨C something Fang Liu had always dreamt of owning but couldn¡¯t afford, which was why he had reluctantly settled for a tricycle. Fang Liu drove the motorhome around the parking lot a few times, hardly able to let go of it. He then checked the odometer, which showed just over 5,000 kilometers. Who was this extravagant, toying with such a motorhome? After several turns, Fang Liu parked and went over to ask Old Xiao, ¡°Is this car yours?¡± Old Xiao just counter-asked, ¡°Are you satisfied with it?¡± ¡°Satisfied!¡± But what use was being satisfied? It wasn¡¯t his. Fang Liu handed the keys back to Old Xiao. Old Xiao pointed to the group and said, ¡°As long as you are satisfied, the brothers say the car is yours. Take good care of the keys.¡± Mine? Fang Liu was utterly bewildered. ¡°If you¡¯re satisfied, find time to complete the transfer paperwork. You are leaving us to go on adventures with your wife. We didn¡¯t know what to give you, so we pooled our money to buy this motorhome for you¡ªdon¡¯t get excited just yet, listen to me first. The car is second-hand and didn¡¯t cost a fortune. A childhood friend of mine helped fix it up, so it cost even less.¡± Old Xiao spoke at a relaxed pace. After hearing this, Fang Liu was overwhelmed with emotion, touched by such a grand gesture of brotherhood: ¡°No, even second-hand, this must have cost at least a hundred thousand. I can¡¯t accept such a large gift.¡± ¡°Look, all the brothers are here, so I¡¯m asking you straight¡ªaren¡¯t we brothers? If we are, then don¡¯t make a fuss. Take the keys, handle the paperwork when you have time. If we¡¯re not, then hand the keys back and don¡¯t look back when you leave.¡± Old Xiao was firm. Clenching the keys tightly, Fang Liu embraced Xiao Guoqiang and then hugged each of his present brothers. ¡°Thanks, brothers. I¡¯ll take it, I¡¯ll take it!¡± ¡°Now, that¡¯s speaking sense. We¡¯ve been planning this for a long time. We originally wanted to wait for Lan Xueping¡¯s birthday to give it to you as a birthday present. But then we thought it best to tell you ahead of time. We¡¯re all men here; no need for surprises and romantic gimmicks,¡± Old Xiao said straightforwardly. A group of brothers embraced Fang Liu: ¡°When the time comes, make sure to post lots of moments, so the brothers know what you¡¯re up to.¡± ¡°If there¡¯s anything you need help with, just say the word.¡± ¡°When are you going to teach me that hard qigong of yours?¡± ¡°Take care of yourself, don¡¯t overdo it. Take your time traveling and sightseeing.¡± ¡°If you encounter any issues out there, give some ground, don¡¯t start conflicts. You¡¯re all by yourself, and the brothers aren¡¯t by your side.¡± Gradually, Fang Liu¡¯s eyes moistened, and he pocketed the car keys without saying a word. ¡ª Lan Xueping¡¯s surgery had been a long time in the making and finally began. It was the first procedure of the day, with Yang Ping performing as the chief surgeon. For Yang Ping, the difficulty of surgery itself wasn¡¯t extraordinarily high, but since it was the first time applying this surgical method to treat penguin disease, meticulous planning was required preoperatively. During the surgery, careful maneuvers were necessary, and postoperatively the changes in the illness needed observation. No matter the effect, the reasons had to be investigated. If the outcome was good, it was necessary to study why it worked; if the effect was poor or non-existent, the reasons needed to be scrutinized to pinpoint where theory and practice diverged. This was Lan Xueping¡¯s first surgery; all past treatments had been conservative, including medication, rehabilitation training, acupuncture, massage, cupping, and various traditional Chinese medicine and herbal remedies both oral and topical. Before the surgery, Lan Xueping was in the prone position, with her head already shaved bald. Yang Ping chose the posterior midline suboccipital approach to enter the skull and then proceeded through the cerebellomedullary fissure to reach the target site. The cerebellomedullary fissure extends laterally from the midline space between the cerebellar tonsils to the lateral cerebellomedullary cistern. The cerebellomedullary cistern is an arachnoid space surrounded by the lateral jugular tubercle and medulla on the inside. To decompress the cerebellum, Yang Ping operated on the arachnoid membrane of the cerebellomedullary cistern to relax the cerebellum and brainstem membranes, as well as to ease the tension on the dura mater. From here, it was easy for Yang Ping to dissect the blood vessels needed for the bypass within the safe interval and then use the great saphenous vein for the bypass. The entire surgery didn¡¯t take long, just over an hour. Afterward, Lan Xueping was sent directly back to the general ward for postoperative treatment. Perhaps due to the improvement in cerebellar blood flow, six hours after the surgery, as the effects of anesthesia mostly faded, she clearly felt a significant reduction in the tremors in both arms and found speaking much more relaxed. The next day, Lan Xueping was even able to drink water and eat on her own without the previous coughing and choking. On the third day after the surgery, Lan Xueping tried standing on her own. She successfully stood up, and her sense of balance was noticeably better than before, allowing her to stand steadily on her own, something that would have been inconceivable before the surgery. By the fourth day, Lan Xueping could independently stand up to use the restroom, and the finger-to-nose test with both hands became much more accurate. This unexpectedly successful surgical outcome bolstered Lan Xueping¡¯s confidence further. She decided to face her illness optimistically, approach the world positively, and, no matter what the future held, she wanted to live well with Fang Liu, experiencing the joy of life, the beauty of love, and the warmth of the world. Such a remarkable surgical outcome was also beyond Yang Ping¡¯s expectations. He knew the surgery would be effective, but he did not anticipate it being so profoundly successful. Apparently, the normal neurons in the cerebellum hadn¡¯t been performing much due to insufficient blood supply and compression. Moreover, the count of residual normal cells in the cerebellum was far greater than estimated before the surgery. It appeared that this surgical method had great promise. PS: I¡¯ve been busy lately, so the updates haven¡¯t been very substantial. Things should improve in a few days. Thank you all! Chapter 1066 - 1066 875 Temporary Task ?Chapter 1066: Chapter 875 Temporary Task Chapter 1066: Chapter 875 Temporary Task On the fourth day after the surgery, Lan Xueping tried again to stand up in the ward. When the nurse offered to help her, she said she wanted to try standing up on her own. She adjusted her body, took a deep breath, and with the nurse stabilizing the wheelchair, she really stood up again from the wheelchair¡ªand, astonishingly, her body¡¯s balance allowed her to remain standing without falling. In the past, even this simple movement was impossible for her to complete without relying on Fang Liu¡¯s assistance, but now she could stand independently without moving. She let her body adapt to the standing posture, the nurse brought over a walker, and although her hands still trembled, the shaking was noticeably less severe. She gripped the walker firmly, taking the first step, then the second, and the third. By the fourth step, under the protection of two nurses, she even managed to discard the walker and successfully took several steps on her own, all the way to the bathroom door. This independent walking gave Lan Xueping a tremendous boost in confidence¡ªshe had dreamed of this day, and now the dream had become a reality. The nurse checked Lan Xueping¡¯s finger-to-nose test again, and Lan Xueping was now able to touch her nose with precision several times. At the time of admission, she couldn¡¯t touch her nose at all. Not only was the surgery successful, but it was extremely successful. Neurosurgeons from Sanbo Hospital, upon hearing that the Surgical Research Institute had treated penguin gait with surgery, flocked here every day in hopes of learning from the experience¡ªas if a new path had been opened for penguin gait. For Yang Ping, it was just a minor effort, and he might not put in much energy to research penguin gait afterward. But for the neurosurgeons, it was different; taking this surgical method back for study, it could become a long-term research project. This was a success story of symptomatic surgery, also predicated on a thorough analysis of the illness. Without Yang Ping¡¯s comprehensive analysis of the disease, such a mature surgical plan wouldn¡¯t have been possible. Hereditary cerebellar ataxia is mostly caused by abnormal repetitions and expansions in the copy number of trinucleotide repeats of the corresponding gene¡¯s exons, leading to excess production of polyglutamine. Its pathological changes involve neuron cell loss and gliosis; mutant proteins with polyglutamine aggregate and deposit in the cell nucleus, forming intranuclear inclusions, mainly affecting the spinal cord, brainstem, and cerebellum. So, essentially, the nerve cells themselves are problematic, and currently, there¡¯s no way to reverse the condition of these defective nerve cells. Even tetrabenazine, the only drug capable of treating penguin gait, starts with the remaining normal nerve cells, enhancing their excitability and bolstering their regulatory ability over the motor system. The cells that do the work are still the same ones; it¡¯s just that now their combat ability is enhanced¡ªone can fight off several now¡ªso naturally, their fighting strength has increased. Yang Ping¡¯s surgical operation follows a similar principle, regardless of the pathological changes of penguin gait. Currently, the cerebellum is objectively compressed, and its poor blood supply is a fact, both of which severely impact the function of normal nerve cells. Now that the compression has been relieved and blood flow improved, the blood supply and nutrition to the normal nerve cells have been enhanced, and their combat strength has naturally shot up significantly, hence their regulatory ability over motor control is sure to strengthen, and this effect is immediate. This has provided a new avenue of thought for the surgical treatment of penguin gait, offering a glimmer of hope to countless sufferers of the disease. Yang Ping conducted a serious review of Lan Xueping¡¯s surgery, analyzing every detail, from the preoperative plan to the intraoperative maneuvers and postoperative changes, to see if there was any room for improvement. This approach of using surgery to act upon a certain pathological-physiological aspect of a disease could also be applied to other illnesses. While it might not completely cure the disease, it can provide relief at a certain stage, thus mitigating symptoms and improving the patients¡¯ quality of life. Having initiated a beginning, Yang Ping hoped that the neurosurgeons could continue the research, as his own energy was limited and there was so much that needed studying. ¡ª Lan Xueping¡¯s birthday also arrived, and the head nurse specially arranged for her to have a private room, making some simple decorations in the ward. The head nurse also bought a small cake. The fire department had ordered a big cake, and the celebration was supposed to be lively ¨C everyone who wasn¡¯t on duty would rush over. However, due to an emergency task, a factory warehouse caught fire. Fang Liu¡¯s brigade was closest to the fire, within their jurisdiction, so all the brothers were called to the mission. As part of logistics, Old Xiao also had to hold his post steadfastly, leaving only his wife to pick up the cake and come to the ward to celebrate Lan Xueping¡¯s birthday with her. Of course, Lan Xueping wasn¡¯t lonely; besides Old Xiao¡¯s wife, there were doctors and nurses who joined in celebrating her birthday, which touched her deeply. After everyone had left, Lan Xueping stood by the window. She could see the billowing black smoke in the distance ¨C that was probably where the fire was. ¡°Did Fang Liu go too?¡± Lan Xueping knew that Fang Liu was on leave. Old Xiao¡¯s wife nodded, ¡°Old Xiao said that when Fang Liu heard all the brothers were called out, he rushed to the scene as well. Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯ll be fine. They deal with fire every day. Everyone agreed they¡¯d rush back after putting out the fire to celebrate with you; they¡¯ll join you for the candle blowing and cake in the evening.¡± Old Xiao¡¯s wife comforted Lan Xueping, believing that she had grown accustomed to these situations. As the spouse of a firefighter, she almost daily faced such concerns. At that moment, the television hanging on the wall was broadcasting this news, with a reporter conducting interviews on the scene. Lan Xueping and Old Xiao¡¯s wife sat down to watch the news, as their family members were on the front line. Although Old Xiao wasn¡¯t at the fire site, he was in charge of logistics and support coordination. The scene was chaotic, with people evacuating the nearby crowds. Fire engines arrived one after another, and groups of firefighters plunged into the battlefield to fight the flames. From the TV, it seemed the fire was intense, the chances of putting it out quickly seemed slim. They could only stall its spread and evacuate the public from around the area while attempting to rescue those trapped in the burning building, all while fighting the flames. Old Xiao¡¯s wife was unaware of the specific circumstances there. Old Xiao had called when he left, but he hadn¡¯t called since; she figured he was too busy at the moment. It wasn¡¯t right for Old Xiao¡¯s wife to call and inquire during such a situation; unable to feel joyful, the two women just sat quietly in the ward, watching the news and occasionally looking out the window, judging the state of the fire based on the black smoke rising into the sky. In fact, Lan Xueping had grown accustomed; Fang Liu was a firefighter, and a firefighter¡¯s job was to put out fires, but she still worried every time. Sometimes, when she heard news of a fire somewhere or the sound of a fire engine¡¯s siren, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a twinge in her heart. Chapter 1067 - 1067 876 The sky is blue waiting for the ?Chapter 1067: Chapter 876: The sky is blue, waiting for the misty rain, and I am waiting for you. Chapter 1067: Chapter 876: The sky is blue, waiting for the misty rain, and I am waiting for you. The fire was too big, so many fire trucks were deployed that nearly all the city¡¯s firefighting resources were mobilized, making the fire a major headline. Both the medical staff and the patients who were staying in the hospital were now all focused on this fire, and Sanbo Hospital¡¯s emergency center had already been deployed to partake in the medical rescue efforts. Patients in one ward could see the billowing black smoke from the window, gathering in groups of twos and threes to discuss. It was said that a large warehouse at a factory had caught fire, and the flames were growing, showing tendencies of getting out of control. The items stored in the warehouse were not yet clear, and to prevent any explosions, public security officers were stepping up efforts to evacuate the surrounding crowd. The live broadcast of the fire scene continued on the news, but because the scene was too dangerous, even the hosts had been forced to move to a safer location and could only look at the fire scene from afar, resulting in limited information being gathered. ¡°We just connected with the frontline, and with the efforts of the firefighters, the fire has been somewhat controlled,¡± The host, with joy on his face, shared this good news with the entire city as everyone was watching closely. Lan Xueping and Old Xiao¡¯s wife, Wang Xiaojing, were standing by the window, constantly staring at the distant black smoke. Feeling anxious, they simultaneously turned to look at the television on the wall upon hearing the good news. ¡°Look, the fire is under control. I told you not to worry, they will be back soon,¡± Wang Xiaojing consoled Lan Xueping. Wang Xiaojing had just called the fire station, where the newly joined Xiao Guo was on duty. From him, she learned that all the firefighters had been dispatched, leaving him alone to guard the station. He too was unsure of the situation at the frontline and had been waiting for updates. This kind of uncertain waiting was the most torturous. Lan Xueping had just undergone surgery, and though Wang Xiaojing could not afford to seem too anxious, hearing that the fire was being controlled must have been very reassuring. Just as everyone¡¯s tense nerves were slightly relaxed, suddenly, there was a flash of fire in the distance. Followed by a huge boom, a mushroom cloud rose into the sky, and even from such a distance, people could feel the shock of the scene. Patients watching started chattering noisily, each mentioning information they had supposedly heard. The live broadcast on the television paused briefly, the host at a loss for words, unsure of what had just happened. ¡°Was that¡ªan explosion?¡ªI hope everyone is safe,¡± The host momentarily paused, adjusting her emotions as she spoke to the audience. The door of the ward was open, allowing Lan Xueping and Wang Xiaojing to hear the loud discussions outside. ¡°Wasn¡¯t it reported that the fire was under control? What was that just now?¡± ¡°I heard that there were inflammable and explosive prohibited materials stored in the warehouse, and an explosion just occurred. Many firefighters haven¡¯t made it out,¡± one of the patients said with a sorrowful tone. This news quickly spread throughout the ward, and Lan Xueping also heard it, feeling as though her heart was being pricked by needles¡ªextremely painful. Old Xiao¡¯s wife Wang Xiaojing also felt her heart tighten sharply, suddenly at a loss as if unsure of how to react. Initially, she had not wanted to call Old Xiao to avoid distracting him at work, but now she had to pick up her phone, her shaking hands dialing Old Xiao¡¯s number, which kept showing as unconnected. Xiao Guoqiang, being part of the logistics team, although not inside the fire scene, was probably still near the site helping provide support. Could it be possible that Old Xiao was right there when the explosion happened¡ª Wang Xiaojing couldn¡¯t bear to think further. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Lan Xueping, seeing the change in her companion¡¯s face, felt even more nervous. ¡°Nothing. They are busy, they have experience. I heard that the people inside have already been rescued, and that everyone has safely evacuated,¡± Wang Xiaojing lied. At this moment, it was just the two of them, with all the men on the frontline, and since Lan Xueping had just undergone surgery, Wang Xiaojing had to pretend to be calm to stabilize Lan Xueping¡¯s anxious heart. But clearly, Wang Xiaojing herself was becoming restless; she clutched her phone tightly and took a trembling breath as she called the fire department again. Xiao Guo, also anxious, said, ¡°I¡¯m still waiting for news. No one has called back yet, but don¡¯t worry sister, your husband is fine, don¡¯t worry!¡± as he tried to reassure Xiao Guoqiang¡¯s wife. At this moment, as a family member of a firefighter, who wouldn¡¯t be on tenterhooks. In the hospital corridor, many patients and family members had gathered, discussing fervently. Wang Xiaojing went to the door, hoping to overhear some news. ¡°There was contraband inside. The firefighters didn¡¯t know.¡± ¡°Was that an explosion just now?¡± ¡°Yes, didn¡¯t you hear the loud explosion?¡± ¡°I heard many firefighters were lost, such a pity.¡± ¡°Yeah, so many didn¡¯t have time to evacuate, sigh!¡± Hearing this news, Wang Xiaojing suddenly felt dizzy and struggled to steady herself against the door until her head cleared a little, and then she returned to sit down in the ward. The television was still broadcasting live, but the host¡¯s hair was disheveled, and she didn¡¯t know how to continue; the sudden explosion had disrupted her thoughts. Without more recent information, all she could do was pray together with the television audience, hoping everyone was safe. Wang Xiaojing dialed Old Xiao¡¯s number again, still unable to connect, which further intensified her nervousness. ¡°Sister, they are okay, right? They must be, right?¡± Lan Xueping struggled to contain her inner anxiety. Chapter 1068 - 1068 876 The Blue Sky Waiting for Misty Rain ?Chapter 1068: 876 Chapter: The Blue Sky Waiting for Misty Rain, and I Am Waiting for You_2 Chapter 1068: 876 Chapter: The Blue Sky Waiting for Misty Rain, and I Am Waiting for You_2 Wang Xiaojing forcefully suppressed her panic, ¡°It¡¯s okay, they have experience and must have evacuated safely.¡± The two women were already on the verge of collapse internally, but to take care of each other¡¯s emotions, they tried hard to conceal their own fearful hearts. Doctor¡¯s office. Some ran to the window to look, others made phone calls and sent WeChat messages to ask about the situation. Everyone was concerned about this fire, and the ambulances from the Trauma Emergency Center had all been dispatched, and the helicopter had also disappeared, which meant it was definitely participating in the rescue. ¡°All surgery members on standby!¡± The hospital leadership¡¯s order had already been issued to the departments. As the department director, Yang Ping had also received a call. Such a massive explosion scene was sure to have casualties, but the situation was unclear at the time. The emergency and burn units had already set out, while other departments were on full standby. ¡°I heard the scene was gruesome and that many firefighters did not evacuate.¡± A standardized training student said. ¡°Wasn¡¯t it said that they had already clearly evacuated after discovering contraband inside?¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t clear, they thought there was nothing special inside and many firefighters were inside fighting the fire.¡± ¡°Where did you get that information? Stop spreading rumors here.¡± A young graduate student couldn¡¯t stand to hear such news and was extremely dismissive of the standardized training student spreading rumors. ¡°I¡¯m not making this up, I have a relative who was among the evacuated populace. They had only been evacuated shortly before the explosion, and he saw with his own eyes that many firefighters didn¡¯t make it out.¡± ¡°Then how come I heard that a captain received a message that there was contraband inside and urgently ordered everyone to evacuate safely?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear bad news either, but that¡¯s the information I got.¡± ¡°Everyone stop arguing¡ªstay put. The ambulance will be back soon, and we all need to be ready to go to the frontline for the rescue. What are you talking about? The latest news is that the firefighters and civilians are all fine; they¡¯ve evacuated in time.¡± Zhang Lin shouted, his so-called evacuation news was made up on the spot; he didn¡¯t have any solid information now. Teacher Zhang was always known for accurate information, so when everyone heard Zhang Lin say this, they breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°Where did you get this information?¡± Song Zimo asked. Zhang Lin randomly said, ¡°Internal information!¡± ¡ª Sanbo Hospital was about to face a massive rescue operation. Head Nurse Cai threw away her crutches that she had been using for many days and immediately threw herself into the fray. The head nurse was a detail-oriented person. She immediately sent Sisi¡¯s mother and two nurses to take care of Lan Xueping and Wang Xiaojing. At this moment, the firefighters¡¯ families must be worried and scared, and with the ominous news coming through, if something were indeed to happen, these two women might not withstand the shock and therefore needed someone to accompany them full-time for psychological support. Information from all corners was uncertain now, but the situation was undeniably severe. After the explosion, nearly the entire emergency center was dispatched, which wasn¡¯t a good sign. ¡°Sister-in-law! None of them have come back; I don¡¯t know either, I can¡¯t contact anyone.¡± This was the third time Wang Xiaojing had called the fire department, hoping for some news. Xiao Guo, who answered the phone, had already started crying. He was home alone and had no news at the moment. The voice of the TV host was choked up, intermittently saying, ¡°The fire scene just experienced an explosion, and we can¡¯t get any closer. Many of our brave firefighters are currently unaccounted for; we hope they have safely escaped the explosion scene¡ª¡± ¡°The fire is too large. All our city¡¯s firefighters have been deployed; they face the danger head-on for the safety of the people¡¯s lives, some squads are at the center of the fire source¡ª¡± ¡°We¡ª¡± The host, because of his choked voice, was intermittently interrupted, and the live broadcast had to pause momentarily. At this time, the sky had begun to darken somewhat; the smoke in the distance was much thicker than before, the clouds in the sky were a pale black and began to gather together, seemingly about to rain. Lan Xueping, supporting herself on a walker, was trembling violently. She did not know whether it was due to her illness or fear. She had just called Fang Liu¡¯s phone with no response, sent a WeChat message, and there was no reply. On WeChat, there was only a message from Fang Liu that morning: ¡°Wait for me, I¡¯ll be back soon from a trip, don¡¯t worry! I¡¯m fine.¡± He must be busy, busy fighting the fire, busy saving people, not carrying his mobile phone, so he couldn¡¯t respond to her calls quickly. He wouldn¡¯t be in trouble; he definitely wouldn¡¯t be, Lan Xueping kept telling herself. At this moment, Wang Xiaojing could no longer comfort Lan Xueping, because her own heart was on the brink of collapse. She stood next to Lan Xueping, her heart clenched tightly, barely able to breathe. Sisi¡¯s mom and the two nurses stood silently beside them, not knowing what to say at the moment. The smoke in the distance grew larger, and the sky grew darker, like a heavy rain was about to start. ¡°Is it going to rain?¡± Lan Xueping asked. Wang Xiaojing nodded, ¡°Maybe.¡± ¡°They must be fine, sister-in-law!¡± ¡°Yes, they¡¯re fine; they have experience.¡± But what exactly is happening with you? Why can¡¯t any of your phones get through? A massive wave of fear enveloped the two women. The sky darkened further, and the woman standing by the window grew more anxious, her eyes fixed intently on the distance. The sky was the color of waiting for drizzle, and I was waiting for you! You must come back, you must! ¡ª ¡°The ambulance is coming back soon!¡± Someone in the doctor¡¯s office received a red phone call and immediately shouted. ¡°Everyone who¡¯s not on duty, come with me to the emergency department!¡± Yang Ping led his colleagues from the Surgical Research Institute to rush towards the emergency department, which was extremely tense at the moment, everyone was ready at all times, and Xiong Sihai anxiously awaited the ambulance. With the sound of sirens from afar, ambulances returned one after another. The Trauma Emergency Center was the main force in the rescue, and at this time, Director Chi from the burn department was especially pivotal. Quick! Get the ventilator! One stretcher after another was wheeled down. ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t know, the scene is a mess.¡± Xiong Sihai rushed to ask the ambulance doctor, who was also clueless, the site was too chaotic, they hadn¡¯t entered the scene, and the injured were all rescued by firefighters and soldiers. A tall and burly firefighter tumbled down from the stretcher, disregarding his own injuries, yelling into his walkie-talkie. ¡°Lei Bin! Fang Liu! Xiao Guoqiang!¡ª-¡± ¡°Have you all gone mute, answer me, answer me now,¡± the battalion commander shouted with a hoarse voice, his face blackened, with shards of glass on his face. ¡°Captain Lei¡¯s team was in the center of the fire source, they used water to forge a path and entered, they might still be inside the explosion center,¡± a firefighter answered with a choked voice. ¡°Damn it, weren¡¯t they supposed to be no explosives, weren¡¯t there supposed to be none? I have over a hundred brothers inside.¡± ¡°We received Captain Lei¡¯s call, telling us to evacuate urgently, the farther the better, he said there were explosives inside.¡± ¡°I also received their squad¡¯s notice.¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t they come out yet? Haven¡¯t they come out?¡± the battalion commander grabbed a colleague and yelled. ¡°Haven¡¯t seen them, no one has seen them come out.¡± ¡°Let me go back, I¡¯ll go and search!¡± Over a hundred brothers inside, over a hundred! The piercing sound of ambulances rang continuously, and several more stretchers appeared at the entrance of the emergency department hall. ¡°That¡¯s Old Xiao, that¡¯s Old Xiao!¡± A firefighter immediately recognized the person on the stretcher. ¡°Pulmonary blast injury, get on a ventilator, quick!¡± the emergency doctor shouted. Yang Ping¡¯s team immediately connected, now not distinguishing departments, those capable of connecting did so quickly to allow the injured timely rescue. ¡°That¡¯s Fang Liu, that¡¯s Fang Liu, Fang Liu¡ª¡± Fang Liu was gasping for air on the stretcher, his blackened face surrounding two exposed eyeballs. ¡°All blast injuries, get everyone on ventilators and to the ICU.¡± ¡°What about Lei Bin?¡± ¡°Captain Lei is coming up behind, we found them in the northwest corner, everybody¡¯s there, no one missing or dead,¡± It turned out that after they rescued the personnel trapped by the fire, they used water to forge a path and re-entered the center of the fire to try to control the flames, but Fang Liu noticed that something was off with both the flames and smoke and immediately realized there might be explosives inside. Thus, he quickly informed Captain Lei and other teammates, and they all scrambled to inform other squads to urgently evacuate, themselves desperately evacuating. They had just evacuated from the building towards the northwest corner when the explosion occurred. Luckily, by that time, they had already evacuated a considerable distance, but the blast wave from the explosion still knocked them over, causing them to lose consciousness, until the arriving soldiers found and rescued them. Gradually, several more stretchers were wheeled down from the ambulances. ¡°Call the Head Nurse, tell Lan Xueping and Old Xiao¡¯s wife, quick! Fang Liu and Old Xiao, they¡¯re all alive, alive!¡± Yang Ping shouted. PS: A salute to the firefighting heroes!!! Chapter 1069 - 1069 877 The Biopsychosocial Medical Model ?Chapter 1069: Chapter 877: The Biopsychosocial Medical Model Chapter 1069: Chapter 877: The Biopsychosocial Medical Model Head Nurse Cai immediately ran to the ward after receiving the call, and shared the good news with Lan Xueping and Wang Xiaojing. ¡°Fang Liu and Old Xiao are both alive with no serious issues, just some lung damage, and they have now been brought to the emergency department of our hospital, where Professor Yang is in charge of their treatment,¡± said Head Nurse Cai. If the earlier news that many firefighters had been sacrificed had hit Lan Xueping and Wang Xiaojing like a bolt from the blue, leaving them heartbroken, this news was like thunder striking again, pulling them back from despair and worry. ¡°What did you say?¡± Both Wang Xiaojing and Lan Xueping almost asked Head Nurse at the same time. The Head Nurse said with a smile, ¡°Everyone is fine. They had already evacuated to a safe zone before the explosion happened. It was the blast wave from the explosion that caused damage to their lungs, but their lives are not in danger. They should have been taken to the ICU for treatment by now, and I will send someone to take you to see them later, don¡¯t worry! Everything is fine! Professor Yang specifically had someone call back to share the good news.¡± Whooosh! The two women couldn¡¯t hold back any longer, bursting into tears with emotion, having held back for too long, they had been trying hard to stay strong and keep their emotions from collapsing. At this moment, they could no longer hold back, and their emotions were released instantly. Head Nurse Cai embraced them, ¡°It¡¯s okay now, it¡¯s okay, don¡¯t worry. Professor Yang, together with our doctors, is personally taking care of their treatment. Professor Yang asked me to tell you that he promises to return your men to you full of life and vigor, don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t be afraid!¡± ¡°Yeah! Everything¡¯s fine!¡± said Wang Xiaojing and Lan Xueping. Blast lung is a consequence of the high-pressure wave from the explosion impacting the chest, causing the chest wall to strike and contuse the lung tissue. The subsequent negative pressure following the high-pressure wave causes the lung tissue to rebound and hit the chest wall again, causing a second contusion. These twin traumas can lead to bleeding and edema in the lungs, hemorrhaging of the lung¡¯s capillaries, rupture of the small bronchus and alveoli, widespread exudation of lung tissue, and pulmonary edema, which can sometimes result in gas embolism. Combining the history of injury, physical examination, and X-rays or CT, the diagnosis is fairly straightforward, and the treatment is simple. Oxygen therapy, ensuring clear airways, removal of secretions including phlegm and blood; providing prophylactic treatment against infection to prevent the lungs from becoming infected; if lung function is impaired, causing breathing difficulties, respiratory support treatments like ventilator-assisted breathing may be given; in cases of hemothorax or pneumothorax, thoracic closed drainage is applied to reduce bleeding and pneumothorax. Currently, Fang Liu and Old Xiao are both experiencing respiratory distress, which is why Yang Ping put them on ventilators right away so as to maintain their normal breathing and at the same time allow their injured lungs to rest, which is conducive to recovery. Fang Liu, Old Xiao, and their teammates are fortunate as they only have blast injuries to their lungs, with no other fatal damage. Fang Liu might have been unconscious due to the explosion, and while being transported to the ICU, he was groping for something with his hand, wanting to speak but temporarily unable to do so. Yang Ping told him, ¡°We¡¯ve already notified your fiance?e and have informed her that you are safe.¡± Only then did Fang Liu stop groping with his hand and lay on the gurney with great relief. Old Xiao¡¯s condition was much better than Fang Liu¡¯s since he was outside the fire scene, making him more conveniently situated for evacuation, hence the minimal impact of the explosion on him. ¡°Call my wife¡ª¡± Old Xiao was able to speak and remembered his wife¡¯s phone number. ¡°We already did, don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ve informed your wife that you are safe.¡± ¡°I want to talk to her!¡± Seeing that he was in a good state, Yang Ping immediately dialed Head Nurse Cai¡¯s number to put Old Xiao¡¯s wife on the phone. Head Nurse Cai, who happened to be by Wang Xiaojing¡¯s side, handed her the phone. Old Xiao¡¯s groggy voice came through the phone: ¡°Wife, I¡¯m fine, don¡¯t worry, tell Lan Xueping that Fang Liu is also fine. It¡¯s just that his lungs are more severely affected than mine, and he can¡¯t speak temporarily, but everyone is alive and well.¡± Upon hearing Old Xiao¡¯s voice, Wang Xiaojing trembled, overcome with emotion. And once again hearing that Fang Liu was also all right, even if he couldn¡¯t speak for the time being, Lan Xueping was so excited she didn¡¯t know what to say. They felt as if they had gone through a life-and-death separation, like they were in a dream. To reassure them, Sisi¡¯s mother and the nurse took Lan Xueping and Wang Xiaojing to the ICU. Through the glass corridor, they could see Fang Liu and Old Xiao from a distance. Yang Ping also came out of the ICU personally to explain their conditions, telling Lan Xueping and Wang Xiaojing that they were not in danger for their lives, it was just the explosion that damaged their lungs, they would need some time to recover, but given their generally good physical condition, they should get back to normal soon. Seeing Fang Liu and Old Xiao in person, and having Professor Yang himself explain their conditions, the two women felt even more reassured. As long as they were alive, everything else would be fine. Besides the blast injuries to their lungs, Fang Liu and Old Xiao had other organ damages, but they were much less severe compared to the lungs and only needed time to heal. The main concern lay with the lungs, but there was no need for excessive worry. In the ICU doctors¡¯ office, Yang Ping carefully examined Fang Liu¡¯s chest CT images that hung under the lightbox. The hila shadows were enlarged, lung markings were more numerous and thicker with blurred edges, and patchy ground-glass opacities could be seen in the lungs. At the moment, apart from using the ventilator to assist breathing and IV antibiotics to prevent lung infection, they were also administering lung-protective medications, such as N-acetylcysteine, and corticosteroids like dexamethasone could be used if necessary. Yang Ping carefully estimated the area of the injured lung, which was still within the range of compensatory ability. Even in the worst-case scenario, if these damaged lungs could not recover and permanently lost function, the remaining lung tissue could still undertake the work of breathing, meaning that the lives of Fang Liu, Old Xiao, and these firefighters were not in great danger. Chapter 1070 - 1070 877 Biopsychosocial Model of Medicine_2 ?Chapter 1070: Chapter 877 Biopsychosocial Model of Medicine_2 Chapter 1070: Chapter 877 Biopsychosocial Model of Medicine_2 One by one, news had been announced on TV, thank God, the fire did not result in any loss of life. The evacuation was very timely, and all the surrounding masses were evacuated promptly. Director Fang saved the lives of all firefighters because after entering the fire scene, he was the first to discover something amiss. Judging from the flames and smoke, there were explosives inside, so he immediately reported this situation. At that point, all firefighters began an emergency evacuation. The explosion occurred only after everyone had withdrawn, by which time those trapped inside had already been rescued, and firefighters involved in extinguishing the fire had also withdrawn to a safe distance. Even the firefighters who were injured were only due to the blast wave caused by the explosion, relatively speaking, their injuries were not severe, and some were hurt by flying glass and other fragments from the explosion. Many people were injured, about a hundred, who were taken to various hospitals, but according to current news, no one had perished. Lan Xueping and Wang Xiaojing returned to the ward, and it had already started pouring heavily outside. With the help of the rain, the dense smoke in the distance was slowly diminishing. ¡°I¡¯ve got great news for everyone ¨C there were no casualties from the fire and explosion, and all our firefighters evacuated beforehand. Now, those injured by the explosion blast have all been taken to hospitals for treatment. Our people are all evacuated, and with the rain now, the fire will be controlled. I¡¯m heading to the hospital now to visit our firefighters¡ª¡± The host teared up from excitement, as she had been frightened by the explosion, and numerous rumors had circulated that many firefighters had not evacuated in time and were sacrificed, causing everyone immense grief. Now, having received reliable information that no one was sacrificed, no one was sacrificed! Citizens watching in front of the TV shared the news with each other, as happy as if it were the New Year. Yang Ping was busy with his team in the ICU; he was personally responsible for diagnosing and treating these firefighters, hoping to help them recover quickly. At that time, overwhelming news claimed that many firefighters had been sacrificed. Zhang Lin fabricated a news item saying, ¡°The firefighters are fine, all have safely evacuated,¡± which unexpectedly elevated his status within the entire hospital because his internal news was accurate and exactly what everyone wanted to hear, eventually proven to be true. Even Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, who usually disliked Zhang Lin¡¯s big mouth, greatly admired him, ¡°Your insider information is truly impressive!¡± ¡°Of course, there¡¯s nothing I, Zhang Lin, don¡¯t know about.¡± Zhang Lin was smug; he had simply made up the news on the spur of the moment because he didn¡¯t want to hear those sad reports. Zhang Lin had always had a nickname: ¡°news source¡± of Sanbo Hospital. Previously, this nickname was a derogatory term, equivalent to ¡°big mouth.¡± Now, ¡°news source¡± became a term filled with positive energy. After a busy day, Yang Ping confirmed that all firefighters¡¯ vital signs were stable and arranged for Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang to take turns watching over the ICU, allowing him to return to his department with peace of mind. Once back in the department, he and the head nurse immediately went to visit Old Xiao¡¯s wife and Lan Xueping; at the time, Sisi¡¯s mother and two nurses were keeping them company. Seeing Yang Ping on rounds, Lan Xueping and Wang Xiaojing immediately stood up, their eyes filled with gratitude. ¡°Rest assured, they are not seriously harmed and won¡¯t suffer any sequelae. The bilungs have blast injuries, but the damaged area I¡¯ve estimated doesn¡¯t pose a life-threatening risk, nor will it affect future respiratory functions. Using a ventilator is to help them recover as quickly as possible; they should be able to come off it in about three days. The other organs¡ªliver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen, and kidneys¡ªhave minor contusions caused by the blast wave, but the injuries are slight and do not require surgery. They just need absolute bed rest, which they will get anyway lying in the ICU, and they¡¯ll be treated at the same time, so you can absolutely relax. In less than two weeks, they¡¯ll be jumping around lively.¡± ¡°Lan Xueping, you need to continue with rehabilitation treatment, especially muscle strength training. Now that your cerebellar balance ability has significantly improved, what¡¯s left is to enhance your muscle strength. Fortunately, you have consistently kept up with rehabilitation training, and currently, your muscles have not shown significant atrophy. Therefore, the results of this surgery were immediately apparent. Once cerebellar balance enhanced, the lower limbs have sufficient muscle strength to support your body, so you were able to stand and walk just days after the surgery.¡± ¡°When I received Fang Liu, he was a bit dazed, kept searching for his cellphone. I told him, stop looking; we¡¯ve already informed Lan Xueping, she knows you¡¯re alright, this guy hasn¡¯t messed with his phone since.¡± ¡°Old Xiao still could talk, we had to put him on a ventilator; guess what he shouted¡ªwife, wife, wife! I told him. Stop calling out; save some energy, don¡¯t spread dog food now. In a moment, let your wife come and see you.¡± ¡°I am currently their chief doctor, personally treating them throughout the process, so you can rest assured. It would be best if Lan Xueping, you walked over to see him when Fang Liu is transferred out. It will be a nice surprise for him.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s humorous statement eased the minds of Lan Xueping and Wang Xiaojing considerably. Yang Ping was viewed as a miraculous doctor in their eyes, so naturally, they felt relieved having Fang Liu and Old Xiao in his care, and smiles blossomed on their faces. They heard that the Surgical Research Institute was busy. Director Gao of the Sports Medicine Center and Director Fang of the General Surgery Department immediately rushed over upon hearing the news. They entrusted all the department matters to their assistants and hurried over to help at the Surgical Research Institute, as they were all adjunct doctors here. Director Fang also didn¡¯t forget to bring two boxes of cherries over. He always brought two boxes: one for the doctors and one for the nurses. ¡°Head Nurse, is your leg better? It healed so quickly; I saw you in a wheelchair just yesterday. How can you walk today?¡± Director Fang looked at the Head Nurse in surprise. The young nurse glared at Director Fang and said impatiently, ¡°Better? It¡¯s not better at all! Today, because of a major rescue operation, our Head Nurse is working through the pain.¡± Director Fang was very perplexed. She looked completely fine, without a trace of pain on her face and moving briskly. These young girls were really hard to please; he brought cherries every few days, and still, they didn¡¯t give him a smile. No sooner had Director Fang finished speaking than Director Gao, looking very serious, began scolding the young nurse: ¡°Head Nurse, this won¡¯t do. It hasn¡¯t been long. How could you be walking normally so soon? Look at how swollen your ankle is. You can¡¯t get rid of the crutches for three months. I¡¯m in Sports Medicine; trust me, there¡¯s no way you should be walking normally this soon. No, no, absolutely not. How are you taking care of the Head Nurse? Weren¡¯t we supposed to protect it for three months? And now you¡¯re letting the Head Nurse walk around, look, the ankle is so swollen.¡± Wearing shoes and socks, all wrapped up tightly, can you see that the ankle is swollen? Do you have X-ray vision? Does an ankle sprain take three months? How the hell are you running the Sports Medicine department? Director Fang was utterly baffled; Gao Yuan must be talking nonsense, right? Blatantly lying. The young nurse, far from being angry at Director Gao¡¯s reprimand, was actually very compliant, immediately going to get crutches: ¡°Thank you, Director Gao, for the reminder. We will definitely be careful, definitely careful!¡± This was strange. Gao Yuan came here empty-handed, assumed an air of superiority, and began scolding the nurses, yet these young girls greeted him with smiles. Meanwhile, he brought imported cherries and got cold faces in return. Did Gao Yuan have magical powers, or had the world changed? Director Fang left the cherries at the nurses¡¯ station, totally puzzled. ¡°Old Gao? You saw the ankle was swollen?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Does an ankle sprain take three months?¡± ¡°This sprain is a bit special. It might not heal in three months.¡± ¡°Is this a new perspective in Sports Medicine? It wasn¡¯t like this when I was studying.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t we now focusing on the biopsychosocial model of medicine? Many things can¡¯t be viewed purely from a biological perspective. We need to look at problems from multiple perspectives, in a comprehensive way.¡± The more he heard Director Gao¡¯s discourse, the more confused Director Fang became. Chapter 1071 - 1071 878 Trial and Error - The Greatest Cost ?Chapter 1071: Chapter 878 Trial and Error ¨C The Greatest Cost in Scientific Research Chapter 1071: Chapter 878 Trial and Error ¨C The Greatest Cost in Scientific Research Due to a significant number of firefighters being injured, even after dispersing them to various hospitals, Sanbo Hospital still took in more than twenty firefighters, all of whom suffered blast injuries caused by the explosion¡¯s shockwave, with the majority of injuries being to the lungs. Based on the severity and urgency of their conditions, these twenty-plus firefighters were spread among the ICU, the Thoracic Surgery Department, the General Surgery Department, Orthopedics, and other surgical wards. The few firefighters who were admitted to the ICU were all from Fang Liu¡¯s squad, as they were evacuating from the center of the fire source, the farthest distance, meaning they were the closest to the explosion when it occurred, and naturally, they suffered the most damage from the blast wave. Besides the few firefighters admitted to the ICU under the responsibility of the Surgical Research Institute, the others had not been assigned to the Institute yet, so Director Fang and Director Gao had nothing much to do when they arrived, and they went to the ICU to find Yang Ping, looking to see if they could be of any help. The ICU was very busy, with everyone actively and enthusiastically engaging in the treatment of the firefighters, leaving Directors Gao and Fang with no opportunity to intervene, only to act as circumstances allowed. Indeed, just as Yang Ping predicted, three days later, Fang Liu and Old Xiao were disconnected from the ventilators, with the other firefighters gradually following suit. Because care such as suction had been performed effectively and prophylactic antibiotics had been used, there were no lung infections, and the damaged lung tissue gradually healed, with lung effusions slowly getting reabsorbed on their own. After being taken off the ventilators, their breathing was very smooth, and vital signs stable, so they were all moved to the general ward. Fang Liu and Old Xiao were transferred to the Institute¡¯s ward, where the Head Nurse led a celebration, and the happiest were Lan Xueping and Wang Xiaojing, who finally saw their vigorous and lively partners. Fang Liu was pleasantly surprised to see Lan Xueping could now stand and walk a few steps independently, a testament to the great success of the surgery. According to what Zhang Lin had found out, none of the firefighters sent to other hospitals had encountered significant problems, and all were in the process of recovering. As physicians in charge, Zhang Lin and Little Five each managed one patient, with Zhang Lin in charge of Fang Liu, and Little Five in charge of Old Xiao. Zhang Lin and Little Five were not only the treasured talents of the Surgical Research Institute but also experienced resident doctors there. Even though they had been promoted to attending physicians, they directly managed care for some key patients. Now that Fang Liu was under Zhang Lin¡¯s care, he certainly wouldn¡¯t pass up this opportunity. During each ward round, he would conduct face-to-face interviews with Fang Liu, inquiring clearly about the harrowing process at the fire scene. This was authentic firsthand material coming directly from Fang Liu¡¯s perspective. Since Fang Liu had been in the ICU before, he had not yet faced a reporter¡¯s interview. Zhang Lin could be considered the first to conduct a face-to-face interview with the key figure, Fang Liu. Once he collected and organized the information, he began broadcasting exclusively within the Hospital. Now, instead of disliking him, his colleagues were keen to get the news from him, knowing that he had a reliable source of information. Initially, the news from all quarters claimed that many firefighters had perished, but only Zhang Lin¡¯s inside information maintained that all firefighters had safely evacuated without loss of life. Later events proved Zhang Lin¡¯s insider information to be very accurate and uplifting. There he was, Zhang Lin going to consult in Pediatrics, surrounded by the department¡¯s doctors and nurses. He had no choice but to sit down and share his insights. ¡°At that moment, it was hair-raising, a matter of life and death!¡± ¡°After Fang Liu¡¯s squad had rescued the trapped civilians, the fire kept growing larger, showing signs of losing control and spreading outwards. What was around? Factories, companies, people. Our firefighters were undaunted; they put their own lives on the line, deciding to enter the center of the fire source to put it out. By doing so, they could control the blaze more quickly. Before entering the heart of the fire, team leader Lei Bin asked the factory manager, ¡®What¡¯s stored in the warehouse? Any explosives?¡¯ The manager hesitated before saying loudly, ¡®No!''¡± ¡°I¡¯ll ask you one more time, are there explosives? Seeing the manager¡¯s lack of confidence, Lei Bin pressed him again loudly, because they had to know what was inside before they could let the firefighters enter.¡± ¡°They¡¯re everyday processing materials; there are absolutely no explosives! This time the manager said, thumping his chest.¡± ¡°Thus, team leader Lei Bin advanced with the firefighters, water paving the way, step by step towards the heart of the fire source, that is, the burning warehouse, targeting the fire center to extinguish it. At that moment, the veteran firefighter Fang Liu noticed something wrong with the color of the flames. He¡¯s an experienced soldier and incredibly sharp. Fang Liu shivered and immediately called out to the team leader, ¡®Captain! I¡¯m certain there are explosives in the warehouse, an explosion is imminent!''¡± ¡°At this news, team leader Lei Bin was shaken. Over a hundred firefighters were inside, more than a hundred! The oldest was nearing retirement, the youngest only eighteen. Over a hundred of them inside!¡± ¡°Upon receiving the news, team leader Lei Bin immediately continued to report while commanding an emergency evacuation of all squads!¡± ¡°Everyone! Retreat! Retreat! Unconditional emergency retreat! An explosion is about to happen; the farther the evacuation, the better!¡± ¡°Quick! Quick! Quick!¡± Chapter 1072 - 1072 878 Trial and Error - The Greatest Cost ?Chapter 1072: Chapter 878: Trial and Error ¨C The Greatest Cost of Scientific Research_2 Chapter 1072: Chapter 878: Trial and Error ¨C The Greatest Cost of Scientific Research_2 ¡°At this point, all personnel trapped inside were safely evacuated, and our firefighters began to withdraw en masse, retreating as quickly as possible,¡± he said. The excellent discipline ensured that the order was faithfully executed by everyone, Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!¡± ¡°Team leaders Lei Bin and Fang Liu both had plenty of experience; they immediately planned the closest route and began a rapid evacuation from the center of the fire. A massive explosion was brewing at this point, one could even hear the terrifying sizzling noise.¡± ¡°They were the squad that ventured the deepest, so they took the longest to evacuate. They headed northwest until they were outside of the building and then continued retreating.¡± ¡°While they were still in the process of evacuating, boom! The explosion occurred.¡± ¡°The earth shook, and the mountains swayed!¡± ¡°Fortunately, our firefighters were all safely evacuated by then, but the blast wave from the explosion knocked them over, leaving many of them unconscious. Our people¡¯s soldiers arrived and rescued them.¡± Zhang Lin described the scene vividly, as if he had been there himself, complete with supporting gestures. Even the head of the Pediatrics Department gathered around to listen to Zhang Lin¡¯s story of the firefighting operation, completely engrossed.¡± ¡°What happened afterward?¡± Someone asked, still not having had their fill. ¡°Later, Fang Liu and Old Xiao were brought to our Hospital¡¯s Emergency Department. At that time, our department was also a key part of the rescue efforts. I was the first to rush up¡ª¡± Zhang Lin was about to continue his story. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going back to work?¡± A female doctor said to Zhang Lin, who turned to see it was his wife, and promptly excused himself to leave. ¡°Don¡¯t go, you haven¡¯t finished the story yet, there¡¯s still Fang Liu¡¯s thrilling love story¡ª¡± ¡°Next time, next time¡ª¡± Zhang Lin scurried back disappointingly. Fang Liu and Old Xiao had strong constitutions and recovered quickly. Their lung blast injuries healed fast, and since the damage to their other organs was minor, they recovered even faster. In the Ward, Fang Liu was already planning his traveling route on a map, and Lan Xueping, seeing the improvement in his condition after surgery, began to look forward to life again. Especially after experiencing a life-and-death separation with Fang Liu, she cherished her current happiness even more and decided that no matter how her Illness progressed in the future, she would live well and lead an extraordinary life. ¡ª With Fang Liu and Old Xiao recovering nicely, Yang Ping could stop worrying about their conditions and continue with his experiments. Yang Ping¡¯s new research topic¡ªfinding the cause of death in Tumor Cells¡ªwas steadily progressing. The analysis results of the electron microscope images of the dead Tumor Cells had been released. The cause of death for the Tumor Cells was some unknown factor initiating apoptosis, causing a chain reaction and leading to the Tumor Cells dying off as if stricken by a plague, one after another. And this ¡°plague¡± for the Tumor Cells was like a curse; none of the remaining Tumor Cells escaped the curse, all perishing. Cell apoptosis is a type of programmed and orderly suicide method of cell death. It is controlled by genes and differs from cell necrosis; it is not passive but instead active, often involving the activation, expression, and regulation of genes. It is a fundamental biological phenomenon that plays a very important role in multicellular organisms by eliminating unwanted or abnormal cells, and it has a very positive impact on organisms. For example, if aberrant cells, such as tumor cells, appear in the human body, the immune surveillance mechanism detects that something is wrong with the cell, it immediately initiates the apoptosis program. Through a series of gene regulations, the cell is ultimately induced to commit suicide and die to prevent further division and multiplication that could harm the body¡¯s health. The complete annihilation of the tumor cell repository was originally an accidental event, but Yang Ping keenly realized that this accident might contain some surprising secrets, so she isolated it and set up a separate subject for research. Using an electron microscope to photograph the structure of the dead cells at the organelle level and analyzing a large number of photos to trace the cause of death, the data analysis results now confirm that the cells died due to the activation of the apoptosis program, with every cell¡¯s death process completely aligning with the apoptosis sequence. The reason that cancer cells become malignant is that they escape from the body¡¯s immune surveillance and ignore the body¡¯s death orders. When the body¡¯s surveillance system discovers a cancerous cell, it commands the cancer cell to initiate apoptosis, which is essentially to execute a death program. However, under certain conditions, cancer cells ignore the body¡¯s command, forcibly block the death program issued by the body, and continue to divide and grow¡ªas a result, cancer forms. Although it is known that the cells died by apoptosis, it is not yet known at which stage the cancer cells¡¯ escape mechanism failed, and what external factors forcibly initiated the death program that led these cancer cells to carry out the suicide orders one by one. The method of death has been found, but the murderer has not. Who could possess such capability to successfully suppress the cancer cells¡¯ escape mechanism, firmly target them, and then force them to commit mass suicide? Yang Ping pondered this question in the System Space Laboratory, grabbing this clue to work backwards. If the cause of cell apoptosis could be found, it might open up a new avenue for the treatment of tumors. The trigger for apoptosis could be a certain substance, or perhaps an intangible form of energy, information, or another type of presence. Next, Yang Ping had to analyze the electron microscope photos again, but this time the analysis content and targets were different. Last time was to analyze the photos of dead cells in different states to determine the manner and cause of death. This time, she hoped to discover what story took place before the cells died, what new factors they encountered, or what gene mutations occurred, or perhaps they were influenced by some kind of signal. This analysis, compared to the previous state analysis, was even more complex. Yang Ping organized her thoughts, then decided to use the supercomputer function of the System Panel again to analyze what changes had occurred inside and outside the cell before death, during death, and after death, with a particular focus on analyzing new substances, signals, or mutant genes that appeared. Yang Ping assumed the existence of this cause as the K factor. She initiated the second step of the experiment, searching for the K factor, searching for the trigger that initiates apoptosis in tumor cells. After planning all the details of the experiment, Yang Ping entrusted the System Panel and Robotic Arm to execute the experiment. And for her main project, the search for Spatial Orientation Genes, so far, besides obtaining the muscle¡¯s Spatial Orientation Gene, she had yet to acquire other organs¡¯ Spatial Orientation Genes. Gene analysis is an exceedingly difficult task. With countless genetic sites, pinpointing the specific function of each is not achievable in a short period. It requires repeated, extensive analysis, and even after the analysis results come out, many experiments must be designed to validate whether the analysis is accurate. Such foundational scientific research is by no means easy, or otherwise, countless scientists and laboratories around the world wouldn¡¯t spend decades without achieving key breakthroughs. Basic research involves massive amounts of data processing and trial and error. Years of dedicated research might ultimately reveal that the chosen path is incorrect, necessitating the need to replan the scientific approach. This is exactly why some of the world¡¯s top laboratories and companies have established technological barriers that are difficult for newcomers to surpass. Take, for instance, the world¡¯s leading pharmaceutical giants; their laboratories¡¯ databases have accumulated vast amounts of trial and error data. One should not underestimate the value of these data¡ªthey constitute the core and most valuable resources, forming the greatest technological barriers that prevent others from surpassing them. For those who come later, the things that they invest massive numbers of talent, funds, and decades of research into might already be sitting in someone else¡¯s database, already tested and proven to be the wrong direction. What¡¯s most suffocating for the pursuers is that no matter how hard they try, their so-called ¡®latest topics¡¯ are merely repeating the errors already made by others decades ago. This is the reason why the world¡¯s leading pharmaceutical giants have never changed hands. They rely on this trial and error data to firmly occupy the top of the pyramid, rendering any attempt at overtaking by pursuers hopeless. However, Yang Ping¡¯s System Space Laboratory made the biggest cost of scientific research¡ªtrial and error¡ªvery cheap. Chapter 1073 - 1073 879 August the Poet ?Chapter 1073: Chapter 879 August the Poet Chapter 1073: Chapter 879 August the Poet Fang Liu and Old Xiao Kang were discharged from the hospital after recovery, Lan Xueping also followed Fang Liu out of the hospital, being wheeled in by Fang Liu upon arrival but leaving hand in hand, slowly walking out together. Professor Deng Jianliang was astounded, he hadn¡¯t expected Yang Ping¡¯s surgical effect to be so good¡ªit seemed that the title ¡°Institute¡± was not given in vain. After discharge, Fang Liu left the fire brigade, taking Lan Xueping with him on a romantic journey in that second-hand RV. Pan Doudou, who had been admitted to the General Surgery Department, had also recovered and was discharged. Upon leaving the hospital, she could eat normally and no longer experienced abdominal distention and pain. Director Fang looked up the literature and realized that the complex multi-organ cluster transplant that he had performed as the chief surgeon was actually the first case in Asia. He quickly stayed up all night with his graduate students to write a paper and submit it to a top international journal in gastrointestinal surgery. It turned out that the cherries sent over the past period were not for naught. With this paper alone, Director Fang¡¯s academic standing in the country was set to rise several notches, and with further effort, it wouldn¡¯t be long before he could become a national top figure. Success can be replicated! Director Fang was very pleased with his decision. Following the path Gao Yuan had paved was sure to lead to a gleaming future. In order to foster a better relationship with the nurses of the Surgical Research Institute, Director Fang planned to imitate Gao Yuan; he¡¯d find an opportunity to scold the nurses and establish his authority. Through his efforts over this period, Doctor Li Min was able to skillfully draw complete anatomy diagrams. Afterward, Yang Ping took him to the anatomy teaching and research office at Nandu Medical University to dissect a complete cadaver, meticulously dissecting every body part from head to toe, lifting Doctor Li Min¡¯s knowledge of anatomy to a new level. Yang Ping then demanded that Li Min memorize various surgical approaches and procedures and be able to sketch them out. After accomplishing this, Li Min began to participate in surgeries with Yang Ping. Of course, daily basic skills training was essential, including the five fundamental skills, microsurgery, and endoscopic operations. The training was extremely strict, with no room for sloppiness. Sometimes, Li Min could even perform surgeries using experimental pigs in the Animal Experiment Division¡ªany type of surgery, all guided by Yang Ping¡¯s hands and done strictly according to the normal surgical procedures. For example, in a coronary bypass for the heart, Li Min could experience the entire process of the surgery using an experimental pig under Yang Ping¡¯s supervision. Overall, Yang Ping¡¯s demands on Li Min in surgery were to be proficient in a batch, master a batch, and witness a batch¡ªusing these three tiers of requirements to conquer all skills at hand. Surgeries like coronary bypass, scoliosis correction, and brainstem tumor removal fell into the category of those to be witnessed¡ªhe wasn¡¯t expected to master them, but with frequent participation, Li Min naturally grasped these surgeries to varying degrees. As for surgeries in General Surgery, Urological Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Trauma Orthopedics, Li Min mastered them all proficiently. He could even perform a signature large-scale General Surgery like pancreaticoduodenectomy quite competently. Yang Ping required that Li Min not only learn to expertly read X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs, and perform surface ultrasound but also to perform these examinations by himself. With a solid grasp of anatomical knowledge, Li Min learned quickly in practice. Throughout the learning process, Yang Ping personally explained the fundamentals of medical science, including physiology, biochemistry, pathology, and pathophysiology, to help him better understand clinical knowledge. With Yang Ping, Li Min was essentially relearning basic and clinical medical sciences from scratch, and without realizing it, both his theoretical knowledge and surgical practice skyrocketed. Li Min could not only perform surgeries at the Surgical Research Institute but also at the Trauma Emergency Center and all the surgical departments, and it was always a Department Director who personally guided him. Yang Ping had spoken to each Department Director, even Director Mei from Obstetrics and Gynecology who offered her support, personally taking Li Min through a Caesarean section. It could be said that Li Min was trained by Yang Ping at Sanbo Hospital to become a versatile surgeon. ¡ª The European Spinal Surgery Academic Annual Conference was approaching, and August was brimming with confidence for this academic meeting, aiming to be re-elected as the president of the society. August was already ahead of the British in the field of spinal surgery. Not only did he master the most advanced Yang-style osteotomy in the world, but he was also proficient in treating scoliosis with new external fixation device technologies. As one of the main researchers in the cutting-edge precise epiphyseal arrest technique for treating scoliosis, he stood firmly at the pinnacle of the spinal surgery pyramid in Europe, along with his expertise in upper cervical spine surgery techniques, non-leakage resection of spinal tumors, and numerous other top-notch new technologies. A new subject in spinal surgery, the precise epiphyseal arrest technique for treating scoliosis in adolescents, had completed its animal testing phase with very promising data. This international collaborative project, involving Sanbo Hospital, Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1, Xiehe Hospital, and German hospitals, carried out animal experiments in both China and Europe. Once the animal experiments concluded, they moved on to clinical trials immediately. The main highlight of this technology is that it doesn¡¯t require surgery, nor does it need external fixation devices. No matter how severe the scoliosis and as long as the age is appropriate with sufficient growth potential, a type of epiphyseal regulator can be implanted into various points on the spine. This regulator can stimulate or inhibit the growth of the epiphyses, thus achieving the goal of manipulating the spine to correct its shape during growth. Chapter 1074 - 1074 879 August the Poet_2 ?Chapter 1074: Chapter 879 August the Poet_2 Chapter 1074: Chapter 879 August the Poet_2 For instance, the simplest treatment of a C-shaped spinal curve involves blocking growth at several points on the convex side and stimulating it on the concave side. With the combination of these two actions, the C-shaped spinal curvature is naturally corrected. This method must be based on a prerequisite, that is, it must be used in minors, and there should be significant room for growth and development since it relies on natural growth for correction. If it¡¯s an adult, without the potential for growth, this method is ineffective and one must honestly resort to traditional methods. However, if this technique matures and becomes widespread, spinal curvation could be eradicated in its bud stage; theoretically, there would hardly be any spinal curvature deformities treated in adulthood. At this moment at the British Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. Mr. Milton, as August¡¯s most formidable competitor, was completely bamboozled by August¡¯s aggressive tiger manipulation. Milton knew that August had disappeared for a while, but he hadn¡¯t paid attention to where he had gone or what he had been doing. Now, August¡¯s return and the surgeries he recently led had taken Milton by surprise. The preview materials of the academic conference clearly listed the topic of each doctor¡¯s speech, and August¡¯s keynote subject had practically blinded Milton. The technology of external spinal fixation had just been published in a paper, which Milton had also read. He had planned to go to China to learn, but he could never find the time. Moreover, when he looked into the learning requirements of Sanbo Hospital, he found that a certain level of Chinese was needed, which became an insurmountable hurdle for him. Speaking of contact with Yang Ping, it was actually at the same time for both Milton and August. They were in Malaysia for a consultation with Guo Jingyao, and both had added Yang Ping on WeChat. However, the paths they took afterward diverged sharply. After returning to the United Kingdom, Milton had been very busy. Combined with the Chinese language barrier, he never contacted Yang Ping again. He had considered learning Chinese several times, but his busy work always overwhelmed the thought. August, on the other hand, no matter how busy he was or how difficult it was, tackled the challenge of the Chinese language. He then hurriedly came to China to study spinal surgery with Yang Ping. It seems the Germans¡¯ initiative far surpassed that of the British. Thus, the subsequent development of the two formally widened the gap¡ªthey were no longer close competitors as before. While Milton was marking time, August not only mastered a wealth of new spinal surgery techniques but also participated in the research of the precise epiphyseal blockade technique to treat spinal curvature. Furthermore, he had the opportunity to get involved with Yang Ping¡¯s stem cells project in the future. The stem cells project was crucial for August¡¯s research on spinal cord injuries, which had always been a key area of research for both August and Milton. Due to their specific competitive relationship and mutual distrust, they had never cooperated, always competing in secret. At this moment, Milton was very frustrated because his assistant had just told him the unfortunate news that August¡¯s disappearance might have been due to him going to China to study with Professor Yang Ping. Now, August could speak fluent Chinese, and his team could all speak Chinese; his team and the Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute had already established a close cooperative relationship. ¡°Damn German! He actually went to China first and learned the new techniques¡ª¡± Milton slammed the academic conference¡¯s preview materials harshly onto the ground. ¡°He even learned Chinese!¡± ¡°¡®The worst part is that he did all of this so quietly.¡± Milton was extremely annoyed, but there was nothing he could do about it. ¡°Yes, sir, after his disappearance, we have been trying to track his whereabouts, but their hospital announced that August went to Australia for treatments, claiming he developed a form of depression and needed to stay somewhere sunnier for a rest cure. Now it appears that was just a ruse,¡± the assistant was also quite angry. ¡°The damn German, how did he manage to learn Chinese so quickly? Just looking at Chinese characters gives me a headache,¡± Milton was quite bewildered. The assistant said, ¡°Yeah, how did that bastard learn Chinese so fast? He recently set up a Chinese Language Learning and Exchange Association in Germany, appointing himself as the chairman to help promote Chinese in Europe. The guy even started a journal for learning Chinese, where he publishes many Chinese poems he writes himself.¡± ¡°He can write poetry in Chinese?¡± Milton felt that he was being left far behind by this man. ¡°Yes, sir, he didn¡¯t just publish one paper, I had a few translated for you to take a look,¡± the assistant said, flipping through the materials about August that he had brought. ¡°Let me see!¡± Milton was very interested. ¡°Ah! I love you, China! Ah! I love you, Chinese! Ah! Please let me speak Chinese in my dreams! For, it may well be the language of the gods, with which I converse with the divine in my dreams.¡± Milton read August¡¯s work in English, as it had been translated. ¡°What on earth is this?¡± ¡°This is a poem! And it was published in the journal¡¯s editorial,¡± the assistant explained earnestly. ¡°And this one¡ªfacing the same bent man across the strait, you sigh and say, ¡®I¡¯m powerless;¡¯ while on this side of the strait, I say, ¡®Straighten him out!''¡± ¡°And what is this supposed to be?¡± Milton felt woozy¡ªwhat kind of nonsense was this anyway? The assistant immediately explained: ¡°Look at the background of this poem, written after a surgery. It was about a British patient with severe scoliosis who had once consulted you, and you said they would definitely be paralyzed after the surgery, advising them to maintain the status quo. Later, the patient sought out August out of his renown, and August performed surgery on him. Now, the deformity has been fully corrected without any complications. I feel this poem is a direct provocation and mockery at you, so I had it specially translated for you to see.¡± The damn guy! Milton cursed, realizing that the poem combined with the background was indeed targeting him. ¡°And look at this poem as well, even more vile¡ªthis is a blatant satire, contempt, and attack on you¡ª¡± ¡°I stand atop the fortress waving the king¡¯s flag, casting my eyes askance at the charging enemy. A mere bunch of overconfident bugs, how can they shake the flag in my hand!¡± The assistant read it out in English. Actually, the original poem by August followed the format of ancient Chinese poetry, and the translation into English had lost its rhyming charm. ¡°I¡¯ve analyzed it, and the meaning of this poem is quite clear¡ªhe¡¯s the king, and we are the bugs. Aren¡¯t we trying to take back the position of Union Chairman? He says we are bugs, not worth mentioning,¡± the assistant patiently explained. ¡°The German bastard!¡± Milton pounded his fist on the desk. But anger was futile. Judging from the previews of the meeting, the surgeries that August was performing had far surpassed Milton, and this time the chance of becoming the Union Chairman was thoroughly hopeless; whereas before they had taken turns at the helm, now it was impossible. Looking at August¡¯s current level, the open surgery for scoliosis actually used an entirely new osteotomy, which although had been introduced in the journal Science, Milton had also tried, but without having studied directly under the original creator, Professor Yang Ping, he had not mastered its essence, ultimately leading to postoperative paralysis in patients, and hence Milton no longer dared to use the technique. But for August, this was child¡¯s play. From the day he reappeared in Germany, not only did he perform a large number of severe scoliosis corrections without a single complication, he also treated scoliosis with a minimally invasive external fixation technique. My God, such a technique really existed. Yet that was nowhere near enough; that guy was actually also one of the main researchers of another groundbreaking spinal surgery technique¡ªthe precise epiphyseal arrest technique for treating scoliosis. What a magical technique it was. It had achieved enormous success in animal experiments and was about to enter clinical trials. Any one of these new techniques would be enough for Milton to chase for many years, and now August had gone all-in with them. Relying on these techniques, he could easily hold the top spot in European spinal surgery until the day he met God. ¡°Should we respond to his overseas attack?¡± the assistant asked. ¡°How can we respond?¡± Milton retorted. Indeed, how could they respond? Chapter 1075 - 1075 880 We Are All Skiving ?Chapter 1075: Chapter 880 We Are All Skiving Chapter 1075: Chapter 880 We Are All Skiving The European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting, Yang Ping did not have time to attend, but he sent Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang to go and broaden their horizons, to see the world. Song Zimo was not just attending the conference; he was one of the invited key guests. The topic of their presentation was a keynote theme of the meeting, representing the world¡¯s most advanced spinal surgery technology. Xu Zhiliang¡¯s role this time was as Song Zimo¡¯s assistant because Xu Zhiliang stuttered and was not eloquent, he didn¡¯t like to be in the spotlight. Originally he didn¡¯t want to attend the conference and just wished to stay at home, but Yang Ping insisted that he should go out and see the world, so he followed Song Zimo to Europe. This was the first time Song Zimo had appeared at an international conference in an independent capacity. In the past, when he went abroad, he was always accompanying Yang Ping, serving as Yang Ping¡¯s assistant in various settings. This time, Song Zimo himself was the protagonist. August had made meticulous preparations for the arrival of the eldest senior brother. To showcase the world¡¯s most advanced spinal surgical operations at the meeting, August had prepared many surgeries for Song Zimo to demonstrate, making Song Zimo the absolute star of the meeting. Besides giving special treatment to the eldest senior brother, August also had to ensure that the reception work for Professor Su was carried out well. Now, in the office of August at Harald Orthopedics Hospital in Germany. A cup of tea sat on the desk, the steam wafting gently, as August buried his head searching through the list of attendees for the meeting, finding Professor Su¡¯s name among the densely packed names. ¡°Markus, this is Professor Su Qingyun from China. Please arrange a VIP seat for the meeting, book a VIP room at the hotel venue for accommodation, and set up a dedicated team to receive Professor Su. I will personally cover all the expenses,¡± August instructed, sighing in relief afterward. The hotel rooms for the meeting were limited, so they were generally reserved for invited guests, especially high-end rooms like suites, which were even more limited to world-leading top experts. Most doctors¡¯ accommodations were located in other hotels near the venue, and the vast majority of doctors had to take care of their own meals and lodging. The seating arrangement inside the venue was also carefully considered, with the first few rows reserved for internationally renowned experts. The very first row was for the most respected among the top experts, while ordinary doctors were free to sit anywhere in the back. Treating Song Zimo with high regard, Markus could understand, but he was baffled as to why so much attention was being given to Professor Su Qingyun, even to the point where August was personally paying for a presidential suite¡ªan accommodation standard exceeding the conference hospitality to host Professor Su, with instructions to equip Professor Su with a dedicated reception team, a luxury treatment that puzzled Markus. ¡°Why give this Chinese doctor such special treatment?¡± Markus expressed his confusion. ¡°He is Professor Yang¡¯s father-in-law,¡± August nodded slightly. ¡°Father-in-law?¡± Markus¡¯s Chinese was pretty good, but it was nowhere close to August¡¯s level. He only knew that there was a famous mountain in China called Mount Tai. ¡°Father-in-law means a wife¡¯s father. Professor Su is Professor Yang¡¯s wife¡¯s father,¡± August explained. ¡°Why is a wife¡¯s father referred to as ¡®Father-in-law¡¯?¡± Markus was a stickler for details, having been studying Chinese lately, he liked to get into specifics. ¡°This ¡ª this? Let me think. In Chinese, the commonly used term for a wife¡¯s father is ¡®yuefu,¡¯ where ¡®yue¡¯ means mountain. Hence, it can be inferred that ¡®yuefu¡¯ figuratively refers to the ¡®father of mountains.¡¯ And since Mount Tai has a prestigious status among the multitude of mountains in China, deemed as ¡®father of the mountains,¡¯ by extension, ¡®yuefu¡¯ could be equated with Mount Tai. I believe the logic should work like this: ¡®yuefu¡¯ signifies ¡®father of mountains,¡¯ so ¡®Father-in-law¡¯ probably represents the ¡®father of mountains.¡¯ Therefore, a ¡®yuefu¡¯ is also referred to as ¡®Father-in-law.¡¯ This is my personal understanding. Currently, there¡¯s no rigorous academic literature supporting this,¡± August analyzed the relationship between ¡®yuefu¡¯ and ¡®Father-in-law¡¯ from a logical perspective. Markus nodded thoughtfully as though August¡¯s Chinese had reached a certain level. On reflection, it seemed to make sense. Father-in-law = father of mountains; Mount Tai = father of mountains; hence, father-in-law = Mount Tai. ¡°But when I speculated like this on my last Chinese test, I always liked to write ¡®niece¡¯ as ¡®auntie.¡¯ The teacher said it was wrong, ¡®niece¡¯ is ¡®niece,¡¯ and ¡®auntie¡¯ is ¡®auntie.¡¯ However, I didn¡¯t agree; I thought they meant the same thing. I argued with the teacher and eventually had a dispute. I insisted on my opinion, believing the two terms meant exactly the same. In Chinese, ¡®ma¡¯ and ¡®niang¡¯ mean ¡®mother,¡¯ so ¡®ma¡¯ and ¡®niang¡¯ are interchangeable. Therefore, ¡®niece¡¯ and ¡®auntie¡¯ have the same meaning,¡± Markus proudly recounted, believing his analysis was as logical as August¡¯s. ¡°Hmm, Markus, you are very dedicated to your studies, but you overlooked a detail. In Chinese, ¡®niang¡¯ is younger than ¡®ma,¡¯ ¡®niang¡¯ refers to a young woman, a future mother; ¡®ma¡¯ refers to an older woman, one who is already a mother. So ¡®niece¡¯ is a young woman, a future mother, while ¡®auntie¡¯¡ªmy goodness, what¡¯s going on? Let me think this through.¡± August realized his logical analysis hit a snag. ¡°The teacher said that ¡®auntie¡¯ specifically refers to one¡¯s father¡¯s sister, while ¡®niece¡¯ is a general term for a young woman. It seems there¡¯s no logical connection between them,¡± Markus had been puzzled by this issue. Chapter 1076 - 1076 880 We Are All Skiving_2 ?Chapter 1076: Chapter 880 We Are All Skiving_2 Chapter 1076: Chapter 880 We Are All Skiving_2 ¡°Let me think about it, no rush, my analysis of mother and mom should be correct¡ªyou see, ¡®mother¡¯ refers to a young woman, while ¡®mom¡¯ refers to a woman who has children. Although an aunt may not necessarily have children, her brothers do, which indirectly implies she is no longer young. However, what are the differences in the term ¡®aunt¡¯? Why does it specifically refer to the sisters of one¡¯s father in one context and generally to a young woman in another? I¡¯m also puzzled. Give me some time to think this over and look up more information before I respond.¡± August rubbed his temples, Markus greatly admired August¡¯s rigorous scholarly spirit. For now, put these questions aside, Markus thought, knowing that since he was dealing with Professor Yang¡¯s father-in-law, he had to treat him very specially. Markus noticed everything. Mr. August and the British Milton previously had no good relations, but now things were completely different. August had far surpassed Milton, leaving the latter struggling to keep up. Just look at the surgeries Mr. August performed after returning from China. Not only did patients from Europe come to him, but also from the United Kingdom. Most UK patients had conditions Milton dared not or could not treat, such as extreme spinal scoliosis, vertebral tumors, or upper cervical spine diseases. Yet, in August¡¯s hands, these cases seemed remarkably easy. Past cases, which were thought to surely result in paraplegia during scoliosis correction, were now confidently and calmly handled by Mr. August, with no complications arising so far. No matter how difficult the surgery, now August would always say, ¡°Admit them, let¡¯s perform the surgery!¡± Especially those patients with scoliosis who previously had no surgical options, after Mr. August looked at their X-rays, he would always say, ¡°Let me straighten it out for them!¡± Markus was with August in Malaysia at the time, the scene still vivid in his memory. Both August and Milton had encountered Professor Yang in Malaysia and competed to befriend him. But now, in such a short time, everything had changed. Milton was still the same Milton, but August was no longer his former self. And that¡¯s not all. Mr. August also brought back a mysterious technique¡ªPrecise Epiphyseal Arrest Technique for treating scoliosis. My goodness, in Markus¡¯s eyes, it was absolutely science fiction. Yet, August¡¯s animal experiments had been successful. In Markus¡¯s eyes, August is now the god of spinal surgery in Europe! ¡ª New York Special Surgery Hospital, United States. Since returning from China, Robert had been performing numerous high-difficulty surgeries. Multiligament injuries to the shoulder and knee had always been a global challenge. Once an athlete suffered a severe multiligament rupture, it was almost certain their sports career was over. The severe and complex injuries made it impossible to restore athletic abilities through surgery, at best they could only regain normal walking abilities. Yet, Yang Ping designed a new surgical approach that ended this situation. He brought ligament reconstruction balance adjustments to a new level, which was exactly this key balance adjustment that brought multiligament rupture surgeries of the shoulder and knee to a new phase, enabling athletes to recover their sporting capabilities to the maximum extent. Robert was the first in North America to perform these surgeries, and soon he was swamped with athletes seeking treatment. Not only were surgeries at New York Special Surgery Hospital booked several years in advance, but even his Long Island Clinic¡¯s schedule was full for years to come. In all of North America, Robert became an unrivaled figure; previously he was considered to have risen to the top of North American sports medicine on his family¡¯s laurels, but now it was different, people saw Robert¡¯s strength¡ªhis academic achievements had surpassed his forebears. Upon returning to the United States, Robert started promoting China everywhere. He wanted to change Americans¡¯ stereotypical perceptions of China. Because many Americans had never visited China, their views remained based on quite stereotypical impressions, thinking of China as poor, dirty, chaotic, backward. Even a senior doctor from the pathology department once asked Robert if women in China still bound their feet or if men still wore pigtails? On weekends inside the hospital, Robert held his own class¡ª¡±The Real China,¡± which attracted many doctors and nurses. Robert said China, even in remote areas, has cell phone coverage that is very good. ¡°Aren¡¯t they running a losing business?¡± someone wondered. In the United States, let alone the remote areas, even places with fewer populations don¡¯t have mobile signals as it¡¯s unprofitable to set up signal towers there, and no communication companies are willing to incur losses. ¡°In China, this is a state-owned enterprise¡¯s undertaking. Regardless of profit, they must achieve full signal coverage because they consider it a basic service to the public,¡± he explained. Robert said Chinese subways are very clean and tidy, and there are no robberies inside them. You can boldly walk around, and not only that, in Chinese cities, it is normal to go out and drink beer and eat night snacks late into the night without worrying about robberies. Their public security is very good. I often went out to drink beer at night in China and never encountered a robbery. ¡°Is that true? Oh my, how could that be, how is that possible!¡± the audience clamored in disbelief. Robert continued, that¡¯s nothing, China¡¯s network is very well-developed. He would sit in his dormitory, wanting something to eat, just a tap on his phone and it quickly arrived at his door, still hot. Whatever he wanted to buy, just a tap on his phone, if quick, it arrived the same day, slow would take only two to three days at most, and he could return it anytime if not satisfied. The audience below, like hearing a fantasy tale, especially a doctor from the pharmacy department who had just come from Canada, absolutely didn¡¯t believe that deliveries could be made on the same day. ¡°How is that possible? Delivered the same day? Or just two to three days, are they all flying?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to carry cash, credit cards, or bank cards when going out, just bring a mobile phone. Everything including shopping, public transport, subways, taxis, and even buying movie tickets, I got used to sorting it all with one phone in China. Coming back to the United States, I found it quite hard to adapt to life here,¡± Robert only made statements without going into details, as some things are hard to explain, like how could you explain to that pathology doctor whether Chinese men still wear queues and whether women still bind their feet. So no matter how skeptical the audience below was, he simply said, ¡°I¡¯ll pay for round-trip tickets, you go take a look, and then there won¡¯t be so many questions.¡± Robert mentioned: China also has fascinating online novels to read; I used to read them every evening when I was free in China, very interesting. Chinese food is really delicious; if you¡¯re willing, you can have different meals every day. I would go from one restaurant to another near the hospital, and it was really thrilling. Hearing this, all his colleagues were itching inside, wishing they could immediately buy tickets and fly to China to experience it themselves. ¡°What about the doctors, how are their doctors? Tell us about their doctors.¡± Someone egged on. ¡°Their hospital¡¯s efficiency is very high, and the fees are exceptionally low. If it¡¯s like us where surgeries are scheduled for months or even years; when seeing a patient, they take one to two hours, then tell the patient to increase physical exercise, finally charging thousands to tens of thousands of US dollars. Such practices would get one killed by patients!¡± Robert exclaimed. This statement startled the doctors. ¡°Compared to the workload of Chinese doctors, all of us are just idling away. We do a few surgeries a day, with breaks and coffee in between, and then we take long vacations each year, such behavior is intolerable in China; like us, they would have been swept out of the hospital long ago.¡± Audience ¡°Their surgeries are extensive; they sit from morning till evening. If it were like us, leisurely and comfortably doing a few surgeries day and not even going to the clinics.¡± The doctors were startled again. Chapter 1077 - 1077 881 K-factor ?Chapter 1077: Chapter 881 K-factor Chapter 1077: Chapter 881 K-factor After several lectures at New York Special Surgery Hospital, Robert unexpectedly ignited a fad for China. This forced American doctors to rethink China. They realized their former perceptions were completely wrong and outdated. Many even wanted to visit China to see for themselves what it was truly like. Especially the older pathology doctor, who had never been to China before, his knowledge of Chinese people was still stuck on men¡¯s queues and women¡¯s bound feet, which is simply preposterous. The doctor decided to take his wife to China for a trip after he retired, to witness the beautiful country Robert spoke of. They didn¡¯t doubt the skill level of Chinese surgeons at all. It was just that they hadn¡¯t paid attention before. With over a billion people in China, there are relatively few surgeons, which means surgeons perform an astounding number of surgeries. With such extensive surgical training, it¡¯s easy to cultivate top-notch surgeons. Robert¡¯s lectures created a certain fantasy about China in many doctors, filling them with a mysterious longing for the country. This mystique surrounding China was not only due to Robert¡¯s lectures, but also because his medical skill level had improved by leaps and bounds after returning from China. Especially with surgeries for multiple ligament ruptures in shoulder and knee joints, which Robert had been powerless against before. Now, he confronted them with ease, performing many such surgeries with very good postoperative recoveries. Currently in North America, only Robert could perform these surgeries well, which was quite remarkable. Although he was highly skilled before, it was never to this extent. Ordinarily dressed in a Tang suit and always carrying a folding fan, regardless of the weather, the red-nosed man himself became a puzzle; his superb surgical skills were like magic. ¡°Mr. Robert, I¡¯m really curious, do Chinese doctors usually dress up like you do for work?¡± A doctor asked curiously. Because at that moment, Robert was wearing a Tang suit, skillfully opening and closing his folding fan, displaying a particular kind of grace and poise. ¡°No, ordinary doctors can¡¯t dress like this, nor would they. Only those with extremely high skill, known as miracle doctors, would dress up like this when they appear on TV programs. This is the attire of miracle doctors invited for TV health shows,¡± Robert explained his attire. In reality, this outfit was something Robert had imitated from TV. When he was learning at China Sanbo Hospital, he often saw ¡°miracle doctors¡± dressed like this, speaking confidently on TV. Robert thought this attire was very Chinese, so he bought over a dozen sets and took them back to the United States to wear in rotation. Especially when he was consulting in his own clinic, this attire was standard. ¡°Does a miracle doctor mean the most skilled doctor?¡± another doctor asked. Robert nodded, ¡°Yes! They have the appearance of vigor despite old age, rosy complexions, and often accept invites to educate the public about medicine on TV during prime time. Many TV stations have these types of programs.¡± So that¡¯s how it is! Several doctors, like Ron from Joint Surgery, were already feeling tempted to buy a set of these clothes and a paper fan for themselves. This was because a TV station in New York had invited him to participate in a health program to talk to elderly viewers about protecting their knees. If he could wear such magical clothes, the program would surely be more effective. He decided right there to borrow a set of ¡°Chinese miracle doctor attire¡± from Robert. ¡°Seems like there are some big characters on your fan?¡± Ron inquired. Robert said with pride, ¡°These are four Chinese characters ¡ª ¡®Da Yi Jing Cheng¡¯ (Great Doctor¡¯s Sincere Devotion).¡± So cool! The doctors felt the fan was very cool, and the characters on it even cooler, though they did not understand their meaning. ¡°Gentlemen, my lecture will continue next week. Everyone is welcome. See you next week.¡± Robert, with his elegant demeanor, flicked his fan, snapping it closed instantaneously. ¡ª Sanbo Hospital. After work, Yang Ping strolled through the hospital with Xiao Su. Together, they went to check out the club at Sanbo Hotel, a recreational spot for hospital staff. The club boasted numerous entertainment and sports facilities, such as table tennis, badminton, tennis, an indoor basketball court, billiards, a yoga studio, a gym, and more. As her pregnancy progressed, Xiao Su could only jog slowly. She no longer suited vigorous bouncing and jumping activities, like tennis, for example. Occasionally, if she got the urge, it was just Yang Ping accompanying her to play a few gentle strokes, merely to get the circulation going throughout her body. This time was the club¡¯s busiest, with the wrestling area gathering a lot of people. Yang Ping saw that they were all familiar faces, almost all the old experts from Sanbo Hospital were present. It turned out that Professor Zhang was training in Tai Chi push hands, as his century fight with Su Butong from Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 was scheduled for the end of this month. Yang Ping and Xiao Su stopped their steps and watched Professor Zhang¡¯s training, as Xiao Su couldn¡¯t help but get nervous for her grandfather. Professor Zhang¡¯s training was not just for show, but true comprehensive training. Not only had he hired a professional Tai Chi coach, but he also enlisted a fitness coach to specially train strength, endurance, and flexibility. Now he was practicing push hands with the coach on a thickened mat, quite fiercely¡ªit was definitely not just a demonstration. The mat wasn¡¯t originally this thick; it was Dean Xia who had urgently requested the club¡¯s manager to replace it. Dean Xia, fearing that Professor Zhang would suffer another fracture, tried to find a way to prevent injuries as the fight could not be stopped. Yang Ping counted these old experts. Besides members of the Sanbo Hospital expert group, there were several retired experts rehired by the hospital. They were all very excited, as if the battle was not just about Professor Zhang, but a competition between Sanbo Hospital and Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1, a duel for honor. These elders seemed to have a stronger fighting spirit than the young. Under Professor Zhang¡¯s influence, many of the old experts now engaged in Tai Chi push hands. They paired up and took turns on the mat, practicing earnestly and looking quite professional. ¡°My dad told me that grandpa is also intensifying his training with a coach at the staff home of Affiliated Hospital No. 1, and grandpa is even working on his muscles and strength in the gym. My dad couldn¡¯t persuade him to stop. I heard they¡¯re going to fight it out here at the end of the month, and after that, they¡¯re going to fight again at Affiliated Hospital No. 1.¡± ¡°It looks pretty official, dividing the venue into home and away fields.¡± ¡°Looks like you¡¯ll have to take some time off to be the on-site doctor for them.¡± ¡°I heard Professor Zhang has even prepared crutches and a wheelchair.¡± These old experts are ruthless! A few retired experts resting on the side were sitting on mats in the corner, each holding a phone, clearly playing games. Professor Zhang Zongshun used to often play games with Zhang Lin, Little Five, and Fatty, but Zhang Lin and Little Five were busy writing books, and Fatty was busy with his love life, so no one heeded Professor Zhang. Left with no choice, Professor Zhang trained this group of old friends, and now they were all seasoned players. ¡°Su Butong has a stable lower body, but his waist isn¡¯t as agile as yours. Try to wear out his waist as much as you can when you clash with him, and compare waist strength as much as possible.¡± An old expert who understood Tai Chi push hands had been watching Professor Zhang¡¯s training and advised him. Su Butong had once suffered a compression fracture of the lumbar spine but had recovered through conservative treatment. Nonetheless, having fractured before, his waist was relatively a weak point, prone to strain injuries due to excessive force or prolonged exertion. ¡°Hmm, I¡¯ve been doing targeted training for my waist these days,¡± Professor Zhang was thoroughly prepared. ¡°Let¡¯s all have barbecue and beer tonight.¡± Professor Zhang called out during the mid-training break, and those old experts immediately responded. ¡ª In the evening when he had some free time, Yang Ping entered the System Space Laboratory again. Through the second stage of the experiment, Yang Ping discovered a new substance surrounding the dead tumor cells, which he tentatively named the K factor. Yang Ping highly suspected that this K factor was the trigger for tumor cell apoptosis. Therefore, to verify this, he decided to purify the K factor, analyze its structure, and then introduce it into the internal environment of tumor cells to observe whether it could replicate the process of killing tumor cells. However, all the cells in the tumor cell bank had died, and Yang Ping had to use the reserved tumor cells, which he had extracted from Sisi, dividing them into several portions for storage. If it had not been for the backup, he would have had to extract new tumor cells, and cells extracted at different times could diminish the experiment¡¯s effectiveness. The origin of these tumor cells came from specimens extracted at the same time. As they were used as experimental samples, the deviation was very small, hence the results would likely be better. What exactly was the structure of the K factor, was it truly the initiator of cell apoptosis, and if so, how did it participate in gene regulation to initiate the apoptosis program? The process was very complex. Following this line of thought, Yang Ping continued the experiment. His intuition told him that he seemed to have found a way to kill cancer cells. PS: In the previous chapters about the ¡°penguin disease¡± surgical treatment, the surgery was real. The prototype for the surgery was the innovative procedure by Professor Chen Jianliang, Director of Neurosurgery at the Eighth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. According to the case reports at the time, the results of the surgery were very good. It¡¯s unknown whether the procedure has been validated by a large number of surgeries afterward. Chapter 1078 - 1078 882 The Lost Pathology Report ?Chapter 1078: Chapter 882: The Lost Pathology Report Chapter 1078: Chapter 882: The Lost Pathology Report Director Fang¡¯s enthusiasm is incredibly high now because he is an ambitious person, not your average man. He has set his professional target to become a world-class general surgery expert. He is still very far from this target, but Director Fang thinks¡ªwhat if he actually achieves it? So, starting from now, Director Fang demands of himself to strive toward this target. Of course, Director Fang hasn¡¯t told anyone about his dream, wanting to achieve it quietly. Every time he thinks about his ideal, Director Fang feels his blood boiling with excitement. At the moment, Director Fang encounters a patient in the outpatient department¡ªNong Tiesheng, male, fifty-seven years old, post-operative complications from thyroid cancer, including recurrent laryngeal nerve injury. The patient now presents with obvious dysphonia and easily chokes while drinking water. Ordinary eating also leads to frequent coughing and even affects his breathing. Director Fang concludes from the medical records brought by the patient that the tumor had invaded the recurrent laryngeal nerve and its surroundings, so surgery had involved a segmental resection of the nerve to completely remove the tumor. However, an injury to just one side of the recurrent laryngeal nerve should not cause such severe symptoms. The patient¡¯s feeling of breathlessness suggests that the other nerve is also damaged, just not severed, perhaps due to contusions during surgery, or post-operative scar compression. If treatment is to be sought, surgery is necessary¡ªthe damaged side of the recurrent laryngeal nerve must be repaired and the other side explored. This surgery is actually nothing special, just a routine operation. Repairing the recurrent laryngeal nerve typically involves bridging the injured nerves or taking another nerve from a different area to replace and perform the original nerve¡¯s function. The patient has already undergone several surgeries, adding a certain level of difficulty. Director Fang decides it would be better to discuss the case with Yang Ping. The current Director Fang has different expectations for himself and a completely different perspective than before; he wants to achieve a high standard in every surgery, even attempting to innovate and improve the procedures. Director Fang, with the patient in tow, comes to the Surgical Research Institute to find Yang Ping to study the illness together. Yang Ping flips through the patient¡¯s thick stack of medical records. The patient has already undergone surgery twice, and the scope of the surgeries was fairly extensive. The recurrent laryngeal nerve controls the vocal cords, with one on each side. Unilateral damage causes hoarseness and choking when drinking water, while bilateral damage can result in speech, eating difficulties, and respiratory distress. Protecting the recurrent laryngeal nerve is an important aspect of thyroid cancer surgery. The chief surgeon must be extremely careful to preserve it and avoid any injury. However, in some patients where the tumor has seriously invaded the trachea and recurrent laryngeal nerve, in order to remove the tumor completely, it becomes necessary to perform a segmental resection of the parts invaded by the tumor. This is referred to as segmental resection of the recurrent laryngeal nerve. Because of the physiological importance of the recurrent laryngeal nerve, it cannot be left unattended after resection. Otherwise, the patient may, at the very least, suffer from hoarseness and choking when drinking water, or, at worst, severe impacts on breathing, eating, and speaking. If a segmental resection of the recurrent laryngeal nerve has already been performed, post-operative nerve repair is required. Traditional repair methods come in three types: the simplest is direct end-to-end anastomosis; however, if the resected segment is too long to be directly approximated, another nerve must be taken to bridge the ends of the severed recurrent laryngeal nerve, similar to coronary artery bypass¡ªexcept here, nerves are bridged instead of blood vessels. If the bridging span is too great, it can result in poor recovery; in such cases, the phrenic nerve or the ansa hypoglossi can be cut and anastomosed with the ends of the recurrent laryngeal nerve, using another nerve to replace its function. The patient brought a lot of medical records, and Yang Ping turned the pages slowly, finding that nearly all examinations had been done, including in the records, except for the pathology report¡ªperhaps the patient had forgotten it. ¡°Why isn¡¯t there a pathology report?¡± Yang Ping handed the medical records back to Director Fang. Director Fang also flips through the records again and indeed can¡¯t find the pathology report. Initially, he had only glanced through them casually and hadn¡¯t paid much attention to this detail, focusing instead on the discharge summary. ¡°Which doctor at Affiliated Hospital No. 4 performed your surgery?¡± Director Fang asks the patient¡¯s son, Nong Zhiwen. Nandu Medical University Affiliated Fourth Hospital, among the several affiliated hospitals of Nandu Medical University, was relatively late in its establishment and not particularly well-known. In terms of strength and reputation, it didn¡¯t compare to Affiliated Hospital No. 1 or No. 2, or the Affiliated Cancer Hospital. But Affiliated Hospital No. 4 was still an affiliated hospital of Nandu Medical University, a teaching hospital, and wouldn¡¯t be poor by any means. It was still considered one of the secondary powerhouses in Nandu Province. ¡°Director Qian!¡± Nong Zhiwen replied. ¡°Qian Lisheng?¡± Director Fang was very familiar with this Director Qian. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s Director Qian Lisheng,¡± Nong Zhiwen confirmed. If he had known earlier that it was Qian Lisheng¡¯s patient, Director Fang wouldn¡¯t have touched the case. Because Director Qian has an infamous reputation in the field, known for his poor skill level. Of course, this is only known within the circle; the general public has no idea, and everyone thinks he¡¯s highly skilled because he holds many titles as a senior expert and professor. Almost none of the surgeries Director Qian performs go smoothly. As long as other doctors are aware, they dare not take on his patients. He has a notably high rate of injuring the recurrent laryngeal nerve during thyroid cancer surgeries, and not just with this surgery; he¡¯s sloppy with every operation, few of which turn out well, but this doesn¡¯t stop him from continuing to be a senior professor. Chapter 1079 - 1079 882 Lost Pathology Report_2 ?Chapter 1079: 882 Chapter Lost Pathology Report_2 Chapter 1079: 882 Chapter Lost Pathology Report_2 When Director Fang encountered a patient of Director Qian, he felt a bit panicked, and he needed to review whether it was really thyroid cancer or not. This jerk sometimes took benign tumors from the general surgery department to perform surgery on, many of which didn¡¯t meet the surgical indications at all. Patients who didn¡¯t need surgery were still treated as if they had malignant tumors, and in the end, he claimed they were cured. Patients, being unaware, were immensely grateful. Many benign thyroid tumors only required regular follow-up appointments with a thyroid surface ultrasound, but in the hands of Director Qian, they always required a big to-do. This guy also had quite a lot of patients, most of whom were acquired through shady means. There was once a patient with a small liver cyst, and he performed a Da Vinci Robot surgery on them, costing them tens of thousands, and that was a patient he was well acquainted with. Therefore, whether it comes to medical skills or morality, Director Qian really stinks to high heaven. But he is a chief physician and professor, also supervising masters and doctors, and attending academic conferences everywhere. ¡°How come there¡¯s no pathology report? You need to find the pathology report; without it, we can¡¯t develop a surgery plan,¡± Director Fang said. Director Fang flipped through the documents again and indeed, no pathology report was there. He took the opportunity to try to get rid of the patient, because he really didn¡¯t want to deal with patients from Director Qian. Yang Ping said, ¡°No matter what, the recurrent laryngeal nerve definitely needs to be repaired. Why don¡¯t you admit the patient into general surgery, let them try to retrieve the pathology report if possible?¡± The patient and family were immediately tearfully grateful upon hearing this, as they had been to many places in the provincial city. Doctors who initially intended to admit them always ended up giving up after reviewing the medical history, saying that the surgery was difficult and suggesting they return to the original surgery hospital or a higher-level hospital. Now that they had a hospital willing to admit them, they were truly appreciative. ¡°This way, you go to Affiliated Hospital No. 4 and get the pathology report. We must see the pathology report before we can develop a surgical plan, and then proceed with hospitalization and surgery,¡± Director Fang insisted. Pathology report? Nong Zhiwen flipped through the thick pile of medical records himself. He didn¡¯t even know there was such a thing as a pathology report. He just did what the doctors said, followed along with whatever diagnoses and treatments they suggested, as he didn¡¯t understand any of it and relied entirely on the doctors. ¡°What does this thing look like? Where do I get it?¡± Nong Zhiwen asked. Director Fang gestured as he explained: ¡°It¡¯s a piece of paper with colorful photos on it, with a detailed diagnosis underneath. You can get a photocopy at the records department of Affiliated Hospital No. 4 with your ID card. If you really don¡¯t know how to proceed, you can contact the surgeon who performed the operation or the physician in charge; it should definitely be in the medical records.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t you go back to Director Qian for a follow-up? It would have been so nice for him to do the recurrent laryngeal nerve repair since he is familiar with your case,¡± Director Fang couldn¡¯t help asking curiously. Since the patient had difficulty speaking, he stayed silent throughout, but his son said, ¡°Professor Qian is very busy, always either abroad or at conferences, and their beds are always in high demand. We¡¯ve waited for half a year, and we really can¡¯t afford to wait any longer, so we had to look for other options.¡± ¡°I see!¡± Director Fang guessed what might be going on, and realized that the situation was not so simple. It would be best not to get involved in such murky waters, lest he get himself into trouble. ¡°Okay, then. You go and get the pathology report, and we¡¯ll talk after you have it,¡± Director Fang didn¡¯t want to prolong the matter. Yang Ping said to Director Fang, ¡°Once he gets the pathology report and the situation is clear, you admit him for hospitalization, okay? This surgery is probably going to be quite challenging.¡± Director Fang grunted in acknowledgment. After the patient left, Director Fang immediately warned Yang Ping, ¡°This is Director Qian¡¯s patient. No doctor in the circle dares to take on patients he has operated on, especially the tumor surgeries he¡¯s done. They¡¯re a total mess, and a second surgery is practically impossible.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. We¡¯re not concerned with what his condition was before. As long as he trusts us and is willing to accept our treatment, we¡¯ll give it our all. As for Director Qian, we¡¯ll leave those matters aside,¡± Yang Ping wasn¡¯t interested in concerning himself with Director Qian. But Director Fang was worried that this patient might bring trouble to Yang Ping later, so he tried to dissuade him. Director Fang meant well, thinking that Yang Ping, who focused on his academic work, didn¡¯t understand the intricacies of the medical world and might get into trouble. However, Yang Ping wasn¡¯t worried about these issues. If the patient didn¡¯t have surgery, he would always have a hoarse voice and would choke when drinking water. Now that he was even experiencing breathing difficulties, it wasn¡¯t just a matter of quality of life ¨C it could potentially affect his life itself. If he had the capability, why shouldn¡¯t he help the patient? As for who they had seen before, it didn¡¯t matter to him; he didn¡¯t want to concern himself with such things. It was just that there were many suspicions surrounding this patient. From the various objective examinations in the medical records, it seemed unlikely to be thyroid cancer, yet the medical record explicitly said it was. The key piece missing was the pathology report, so it would be more reliable to wait for that report before taking a further look. ¡ª Nong Zhiwen had no choice but to return to Affiliated Hospital No. 4 because Director Qian wasn¡¯t doing outpatient visits, so he couldn¡¯t find Director Qian in the outpatient department and had to look for him in the ward instead. The doctors in the ward said Director Qian would be back late from surgery. Thus, Nong Zhiwen waited at the door of Director Qian¡¯s office until late in the evening, until the security guard informed him that he couldn¡¯t stay there any longer; he left without having seen Director Qian. With no other options, Nong Zhiwen went back to the hospital outpatient department to inquire about Director Qian¡¯s schedule, but everyone had already left work. So, he headed to the emergency department to ask instead. Since it wasn¡¯t the same department, the emergency doctors all said they didn¡¯t know, but finally, one emergency doctor said, ¡°I¡¯ll ask the ward for you,¡± and called the on-duty doctor in general surgery, who then found Director Qian¡¯s schedule. Chapter 1080 - 1080 882 Lost Pathology Report_3 ?Chapter 1080: 882 Chapter Lost Pathology Report_3 Chapter 1080: 882 Chapter Lost Pathology Report_3 Just in time, Director Qian was conducting outpatient consultations the next morning, and Nong Zhiwen planned to visit the outpatient clinic to see Director Qian the following day. After much difficulty, Nong Zhiwen found Director Qian in the outpatient clinic the next day. ¡°Director Qian, hello¡ª¡± Nong Zhiwen was very polite. It wasn¡¯t easy for him to seek medical treatment after coming from the countryside to the Provincial City. ¡°Who are you? How did you get in here without waiting in line?¡± Director Qian was quite impatient. ¡°My father had surgery under your leadership before. His name is Nong Tiesheng, and I am his son. Well, it¡¯s like this¡ª¡± Nong Zhiwen hurriedly explained, handing over the discharge documents. Director Qian looked through the discharge documents, ¡°Nong Tiesheng, wasn¡¯t he fine after the surgery?¡± ¡°Yes, thank you, Director Qian, but now he constantly chokes on water, has difficulty speaking and breathing is quite a struggle.¡± ¡°Oh! After such major surgery, recovery is definitely slow. Just wait and see how it gets better. I¡¯m really busy right now. Let¡¯s talk about this when I¡¯m free, okay? There are still many patients waiting behind you.¡± Director Qian waved his hand with the air of a leading Professor. ¡°Just two minutes, my dad is about to be admitted to Sanbo Hospital. The doctor there checked his medical records and said there¡¯s a missing pathology report. He asked me to come get it.¡± ¡°Pathology report? You can just go to the medical records office and make a copy. You see, I¡¯m really busy.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been to the medical records office. They said there¡¯s no pathology report in the records. I just checked the expense list, and there¡¯s a charge for a pathological examination, so it must have been done. The staff at the records office said they didn¡¯t know the situation and told me to find the physician in charge. I contacted the physician in charge at that time, but he¡¯s now studying for his doctorate in another province and no longer works at your hospital. He asked me to come to you. Sorry for bothering you.¡± ¡°Come to me? I don¡¯t directly manage patients. How would I know where the pathology report has gone? You expect me to look for the pathology report for you? I¡¯m so busy every day. Do I still have surgeries to perform or not? Surely a copy was given to you at that time; you must have lost it.¡± ¡°No, really, I¡¯ve kept the copied documents very well.¡± ¡°Well, I can¡¯t do anything about it either. How can I find the report for you? It¡¯s been so long, and I have so many patients. Shouldn¡¯t you have mentioned this earlier?¡± ¡°We didn¡¯t know about the pathology report before. Now the doctors at Sanbo Hospital are urgently asking for it, saying that it¡¯s absolutely necessary for establishing the surgery plan.¡± ¡°Sanbo Hospital? Which doctor, do they even understand? Why do they insist on having this thing? Without it, they won¡¯t treat the disease? Who are you seeing at Sanbo Hospital?¡± ¡°At first, I saw Director Fang Nansheng, and then he took me to see Professor Yang Ping.¡± Upon hearing the name Yang Ping, Director Qian¡¯s heart skipped a beat, and he felt a chill down his spine. He swallowed and his attitude made an abrupt one hundred and eighty-degree turn, becoming very gentle, ¡°Why go to Sanbo Hospital, their standards aren¡¯t up to par. Come to me, I¡¯ll solve it for you.¡± ¡°You always said there were no beds available, so we had no choice but to look for other hospitals. Look at my father now, he can¡¯t even speak, and he chokes on water when drinking. Breathing is also difficult. Continuing like this isn¡¯t working,¡± Nong Zhiwen said helplessly. ¡°The beds were really scarce before, and I was very busy. In your case, let me think... Well, it¡¯s not easy for you to come to the Provincial City. I¡¯ll think of a way for you and arrange a bed. Your father is my old patient; I am familiar with his case. Don¡¯t go to Sanbo Hospital anymore. What¡¯s that Yang Ping know? He¡¯s so young, inexperienced, hardly done any surgeries. Don¡¯t be misled by him. Hurry over; I¡¯ll take care of it. Come to me for the surgery.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard from patients at their hospital that Professor Yang is very skilled.¡± ¡°What¡¯s so great about that? It¡¯s all puffery. Look how young he is; how many surgeries could he have possibly done since graduating a few years ago? He¡¯s just written a few papers. Definitely don¡¯t have him perform surgery. Surgery is a serious business; you can¡¯t be careless. Look, the surgery I performed for you turned out fine, right? Who else looks this energetic after cancer surgery? You can¡¯t just trust anyone. I¡¯ll tell you the truth, they¡¯re all just bluffing. Does Sanbo Hospital even rank in our province? Are they stronger than our Affiliated Hospital No. 4?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand, I¡¯m just anxious and unsure what to do.¡± ¡°Here¡¯s what you do: you haven¡¯t completed the admission procedures there yet, right? I¡¯ll give you a call, secure you a bed.¡± ¡°Not yet. Okay, then thank you, Professor Qian.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯ve been too busy recently and couldn¡¯t help. If I had known about your situation, I would have definitely tried to help you. Right now, the beds are especially scarce; I¡¯ve also been overwhelmed with Academic Conferences.¡± ¡°I understand! Thank you. When should I come over?¡± ¡°Like this, call your dad over now. I¡¯ll issue you a hospital admission certificate. I have patients being discharged tomorrow. Once they¡¯re discharged, I¡¯ll immediately have the nurse notify you. You are really filial, which moves me deeply.¡± ¡°Not at all, so I shouldn¡¯t go to Sanbo Hospital now?¡± ¡°Why go to Sanbo Hospital? Don¡¯t listen to their nonsense.¡± ¡°So do we still need the pathology report?¡± ¡°No need. I performed the surgery; what situation don¡¯t I know about? What good is one piece of paper?¡± Chapter 1081 - 1081 883 Life Winner ?Chapter 1081: Chapter 883 Life Winner Chapter 1081: Chapter 883 Life Winner After looking over the records of a patient who had undergone thyroid cancer surgery, Yang Ping had been pondering the case. It was not that the case itself was particularly difficult, but the records seemed a bit odd. It might be something others could not detect, but Yang Ping could easily spot some logical issues within the patient¡¯s records. Every disease, including its medical history, examination, and various auxiliary tests, must have an internal logical connection. These relationships objectively exist and are not subject to the will of individuals. Even if no one notices, these connections run through the entire diagnosis and treatment process. Yang Ping had an excellent memory, honed by the need to frequently recall and bring out required materials from the System Space by memory, which had given him the ability to remember everything at a glance. He was very clear about this case in his mind after reviewing the records, and he mentally organized the records to identify inconsistencies: the main complaint and physical examination indicated late-stage thyroid cancer with metastasis. However, the various auxiliary test results included in the records did not provide clear evidence to support a diagnosis of thyroid cancer. Yet, the entire treatment plan was centered around thyroid cancer. The surgery performed was a radical resection, and post-surgery treatments included various therapies such as targeted therapy. It was as if every possible cancer treatment method had been utilized. What was strangest of all was that the medical records did not include a pathological report, and the discharge summary also failed to mention the results of the pathological report. Logically, every cancer patient who underwent a pathological examination should have a note of the pathology report number and diagnosis in their discharge records. This patient had undergone surgery twice, and there was no reason for a pathological examination to be omitted. Examining tissues removed during surgery is a standard medical practice and is absolutely required. Because of this anomaly, Yang Ping dedicated extra attention to the case. Upon returning to his own department, Director Fang would deeply regret his actions, feeling that his level had been too low, and he had been too worldly. He should not have made excuses to the patient. That was not the level of a world-class doctor. To become a top doctor in the world, he needed to elevate his own level. Professor Yang was different; his concern was how to solve problems for patients, not to consider the mundane matters of the world. As he thought about it, Director Fang began to study the case. He had already photographed all of the patient¡¯s records for reference, so he could pull them up on his phone at any time. Although it was hard on the eyes to look at the phone, it was manageable. He decided to be a doctor with a high level of professionalism. For every patient that trusted him, he was determined to go all out to solve their problems. Indeed, there were issues with this case: two surgeries and no pathological report. Was it missing, or did the patient leave it out? He would find out once he got it in his hands. If the situation continued and the other recurrent laryngeal nerve also suffered increasing damage, the patient would definitely face problems in the future, likely experiencing life-threatening breathing difficulties. Currently, no one in the peripheral hospitals would dare to take on the case. In such a situation, the patient could easily have delayed treatment. Thinking this, Director Fang felt a strong and sudden sympathy for the patient ¨C perhaps a sign of his elevated mindset ¨C and he aspired to be one not bound by worldly concerns, to be someone with pursuits. After all, as he saw himself as a future world-leading doctor, he also had to ensure that his thoughts and mindset were consistent with his ambitious goals. Only when thoughts are elevated can behaviors be improved, for thoughts guide a person¡¯s actions. ¡ª Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang began preparations for their trip to Europe. Originally, Xu Zhiliang had also been invited as a speaker, but it was hopeless; Old Xu¡¯s ability to express himself was severely lacking. Apart from emergency rescues, it seemed that his stutter, which had once improved slightly with practice in front of a wall, had reverted back to its original state, suggesting it was an innate issue not amenable to change despite effort. August had also given the second senior brother a chance, but for personal reasons, he had to decline August¡¯s kind offer. Without a topic for presentation, Xu Zhiliang decided to absorb the atmosphere of the conference, to broaden his horizons and see what the world is like. Of course, another important task was to carry bags for Song Zimo, to be his assistant. It was not excessive for Song Zimo, a world-class surgeon, to be accompanied by an assistant, even if this assistant was not quite up to par. With the department¡¯s two key players going abroad, there would definitely be a staff shortage. Fortunately, Wen Zhong and Old Jin had recently arrived at the Surgical Research Institute. However, as orthopedic surgeons who had not yet undergone the multidisciplinary training of the Institute, they surely could not take charge on their own. The two capable leaders who could stand on their own were now both going abroad for several days. In the days to come, Yang Ping had to take charge personally for anything that occurred. As the head of the department and the academic leader, Yang Ping usually did not touch upon the daily management of the department, which was entirely Song Zimo¡¯s responsibility. ¡°While we¡¯re away, you need to be diligent and sharp. We¡¯re entrusting the daily management of the department to you. The professor is very busy and doesn¡¯t have time for these trivial matters, so don¡¯t distract him with them,¡± Song Zimo told Zhang Lin, Little Five, and Li Guodong. Once he and Xu Zhiliang were gone, these three would be the main force of the department. It was hopeless to count on Xia Shu. Being new, he was already busy transporting the Head Nurse and had recently taken on the additional responsibility of accompanying the Head Nurse to the park for fresh air and discussing life with her. Chapter 1082 - 1082 883 Life Winner_2 ?Chapter 1082: Chapter 883 Life Winner_2 Chapter 1082: Chapter 883 Life Winner_2 Because the Head Nurse had thrown away her crutches to walk normally while preparing for the major rescue a few days ago, her ankle¡¯s condition worsened, and now she had difficulty even getting on and off a wheelchair, needing Xia Shu¡¯s support. Director Gao had helped check the Head Nurse¡¯s injury, and indeed, it had worsened significantly. He couldn¡¯t help shaking his head, as the situation wasn¡¯t looking good. Old Jin and Wen Zhongchu were new to the place and obviously couldn¡¯t handle heavy responsibilities. The rest were these three guys, who were also the old hands at the Surgical Research Institute. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. With us here, you guys can go with peace of mind, play for a few more days. That guy August, don¡¯t feel sorry for him; fleece him good. I heard that something or other is very developed in Germany. You guys are so busy with work usually, so this time you can take the chance to experience it.¡± Zhang Lin patted his chest, a subordinate doctor to Xu Zhiliang, who usually kept him on a tight leash. Daily rounds of questioning could flay a layer of skin off Zhang Lin. Now Xu Zhiliang was going out for a few days, which was just great news; it meant liberation for Zhang Lin, and he even got to become a superior doctor, how wonderful. For Zhang Lin, he felt like a tiger descending the mountain, a lion freed from its cage¡ªit was the perfect time for Teacher Zhang to show his prowess. ¡°What did you say¡ªyou want to experience¡ªwhat?¡± Xu Zhiliang didn¡¯t understand what Zhang Lin was talking about. Zhang Lin hesitated and said awkwardly, ¡°It¡¯s that, you know, the red-light district. Do we have to spell it out so clearly? I¡¯ve heard it¡¯s legal over there. Don¡¯t worry, when it¡¯s time to enjoy, enjoy to the fullest, just consider it bringing glory to the country.¡± Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang exchanged glances; this kid sure knew a lot. ¡°I¡¯m going to a pediatric consultation later; I have to praise you for being so experienced and knowledgeable, truly the pillar of the department,¡± Song Zimo said with a straight face. Now, Zhang Lin was anxious, ¡°Young Master Song, you¡¯re an educated man; in all matters, one must hold on to the bottom line.¡± ¡°You¡ªseriously¡ªknow about¡ªa bottom line?¡± Xu Zhiliang gave Zhang Lin a look. Zhang Lin looked up and scanned the doctor¡¯s office, where the Red Rose of the Surgical Research Institute, Tang Fei, was instructing an intern doctor on revising a medical record at that moment. Damn! Zhang Lin felt like giving himself a slap in the face; how could he be so lacking in principles. ¡ª These were busy times at Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Stem Cell Laboratory. Tang Shun had recruited several outstanding doctoral graduates specializing in Stem Cells, including those from within the country and those who had studied abroad. With the successful cultivation of muscle tissue from Stem Cells, enthusiasm was running high, with everyone striving for even greater success. The project on cultivating muscle from Stem Cells had met with tremendous success. As research progressed, the success rate of cultivation increased, and the quality of the muscle tissue improved as well. The Spatial Orientation Gene played a significant role in this process; its discovery was undoubtedly a revolutionary scientific breakthrough, especially with the successful cultivation of muscle tissue. The current task was to elucidate the mechanisms involved, namely how the Spatial Orientation Gene directed cellular spatial organisation, which would require extensive experimentation to reveal. Doctor Tang had a keen sense of scientific research; this result was definitely of Nobel Prize caliber. Unless unexpected issues arose, if Professor Yang presented these findings after the laboratory work was done, the chances of winning the Nobel Prize were quite high. As for himself, he would also have the opportunity to share the honor with Professor Yang in the future. This project had the potential to generate many Nobel Prizes. With the discovery of the Spatial Orientation Gene, a whole new field was set to open up. This field could produce many significant discoveries. For instance, identifying a Spatial Orientation Gene for each organ could lead to results that would shape the future of mundial medicine. A Nobel Prize winner, a dozen girlfriends¡ªtruly the epitome of a wonderful life! An absolute winner in life! Would there be eager reporters digging into these gossip news about me when the time comes? It doesn¡¯t matter, let them dig. What¡¯s there to fear? It¡¯s not like I have a dozen wives ¡ª just a dozen girlfriends, and that¡¯s not illegal. Besides, I haven¡¯t deceived anyone¡¯s feelings; everything is out in the open and my girlfriends now get along harmoniously. All these girlfriends coming to China, will they get used to it? Now each and every one of them is clamoring to come here, even the young girl who hasn¡¯t graduated from college is making a fuss about coming to China. If each girlfriend could have two children, I would have dozens of offspring. Then for sure, the house would have to be very big. With such a big family, the pressure of life would undoubtedly be huge. Would my annual income be enough to cover the expenses? No fear, they can fend for themselves. For instance, Azusa, who is now a professor at Tokyo University, if she comes to China, she could probably continue to find a decent university to be a professor, and her income would certainly be quite good. The others can all do the same, supporting themselves. ¡°Dr. Tang!¡± Someone called out to Tang Shun in his drowsy state. Opening his eyes, it turned out to be Professor Yang. Recently a bit tired, he had actually nodded off. What was I just thinking about? All my girlfriends coming to China, but what about my health? I am someone who is set to win the Nobel Prize after all, how can I allow myself to become so indulgent? Actually, it¡¯s possible. As long as time is managed well, work and life can be balanced. ¡°Professor! Look at me, I actually fell asleep while sitting here.¡± Tang Shun rubbed his eyes. The cell phone on the table had hundreds of unread WeChat messages. Yang Ping sat down: ¡°I came over to check on you. Our journal is about to be launched, and the paper on this topic will be published in our very own journal. Additionally, we are about to start the second experiment topic soon. Once I¡¯ve thought it through, I will give you the project materials. This topic involves research on tumor cell apoptosis.¡± This is another major project! Tang Shun knew that any research on specific mechanisms of tumor cells was a major project, and researching tumor cell apoptosis was currently being undertaken by many teams around the world. Everyone hasn¡¯t had any breakthroughs as of yet; indeed, such fundamental research is extremely difficult to make a breakthrough. From Tang Shun¡¯s experience so far, Professor Yang¡¯s proposed projects hardly failed. The first project had just been successful, and now a second one was to begin. It showed that Professor Yang was already confident about it. That¡¯s quite an ambitious move. Just recovering from the excitement of the first project, and now getting ready to start a second. What a pace! ¡°Tumor mechanism research? That definitely requires a separate laboratory, we can¡¯t mix it with our current experiments, to avoid contamination,¡± Tang Shun reminded himself to be clear-headed. ¡°Right, we must set up a separate tumor laboratory. You go prepare for that. You¡¯ll still be the lab director and will form the team yourself. From now on, you will manage all our laboratories and organize the projects. Tell me what support you need, such as experimental equipment, funds, etc. Start putting together a detailed plan right away and establish the laboratory as soon as possible,¡± Yang Ping instructed Tang Shun. Tang Shun knew that Yang Ping wasn¡¯t just talking idly; his expectations for efficiency were very high. To start preparations meant to begin immediately, not to wait or see. ¡°On the side of cultivating muscle with stem cells, our research continues. In addition to the spatial orientation gene, we need to investigate if there are other factors. Besides the spatial orientation gene for muscle, we need to start looking for spatial orientation genes for other organs such as cartilage, skin, liver, kidneys, heart, etc. If we are short on researchers, continue to scout and recruit talent, expanding the team...¡± Yang Ping planned to accelerate the progress of experiments in reality, to keep up with the pace of his System Space Laboratory. Any successful experiment in the System Space Laboratory needed to be replicated in the real-world lab. With rapid advancement on both fronts, if a new finding emerges from the System Space Laboratory, Yang Ping would immediately transfer it to the real-world laboratory. This way, time wouldn¡¯t be wasted, nor would the experiments seem abrupt. ¡°We also need to start preparing the paper on stem cell-cultivated muscle. There are quite a few tasks; can you handle them? Make sure to take care of your health and don¡¯t overwork yourself.¡± Yang Ping reminded Tang Shun, knowing well that the laboratory team had been working overtime and putting in tremendous effort recently. Chapter 1083 - 1083 884 Director Tangs Top Disciple ?Chapter 1083: Chapter 884: Director Tang¡¯s Top Disciple Chapter 1083: Chapter 884: Director Tang¡¯s Top Disciple Director Qian called Nong Zhiwen and said the hospital beds were extremely tight and it would still be a two or three-day wait, suggesting Nong Zhiwen bring his father¡¯s medical records to Affiliated Hospital No. 4 to see him, he wanted to go over his father¡¯s condition in detail with Nong Zhiwen and communicate some matters in advance, so that when the time came for hospitalization, surgery could proceed immediately, saving both time and expense to the greatest extent. Therefore, Nong Zhiwen immediately went to see Director Qian with the documents, after all, both surgeries had been performed by Director Qian as the chief surgeon, and he knew his father¡¯s condition best. In the office of the General Surgery Department at Affiliated Hospital No. 4, Nong Zhiwen met with Director Qian, who courteously invited him to sit down and poured him a glass of water. ¡°Little Nong, just be a bit more patient, there should be a bed available in a couple of days. The current situation with your father is like this, the results of the past two surgeries have been very good,¡± said Director Qian with deep concern. ¡°Thank you, Director Qian, follow-up exams didn¡¯t show any signs of recurrence,¡± replied Nong Zhiwen with gratitude. After a pause, Director Qian said, ¡°Hmm, as a malignant tumor, such surgical outcomes are extremely rare, we must cherish this. Therefore, this time, in addition to repairing the recurrent laryngeal nerve, what¡¯s more important is to perform additional strengthening treatments for the tumor. Actually, the nerve repair is secondary, nerve symptoms don¡¯t kill you, but strengthening the treatment for the tumor is absolutely vital, otherwise we risk losing all previous efforts.¡± ¡°Director Qian, what do you mean?¡± Nong Zhiwen was not yet clear. Director Qian paused before saying, ¡°This time we still have to do targeted therapy, and the total cost will be quite high, quite possibly over fifty thousand. I don¡¯t know how prepared you are for this?¡± Over fifty thousand, and he had only prepared twenty thousand. Moreover, Director Fang from Sanbo Hospital had said it wouldn¡¯t cost much, with the total fees only being a little over twenty thousand, and if medical insurance was taken into account, the out-of-pocket portion might not exceed ten thousand. ¡°Sanbo Hospital said around twenty thousand?¡± Nong Zhiwen said, struggling. ¡°Twenty thousand? Is that what they told you? That¡¯s utterly irresponsible, really, utterly irresponsible! No wonder, they aren¡¯t the ones doing the surgery. They¡¯re simply helping you with the nerve repair, without even considering tumor treatment. Tumor treatment is the most important thing. If we don¡¯t thoroughly and completely treat it, and it recurs, all our previous efforts would be in vain. It¡¯s just perfunctory,¡± said Director Qian angrily. ¡°How about this, considering your actual situation, we will try to find ways to save you money, and keep it around fifty thousand, how does that sound? Mainly because after the surgery, some targeted therapy medication is still needed for the best effect. You see, the effects are currently very good with no signs of recurrence, it¡¯s better to use targeted therapy medication for a while. Although it¡¯s a bit pricey, it can push the disease further out. Targeted medication is out-of-pocket and costs a good twenty to thirty thousand, which makes up the bulk of it. Your father has already spent so much, don¡¯t skimp on this little amount of money, don¡¯t be penny wise and pound foolish. Once it recurs, all our prior efforts will have been in vain. Consider this thoroughly,¡± he said. ¡°Look at these abnormal signals here, no one can guarantee they¡¯re not residual tumor, so it¡¯s best to sweep over them again with targeted medication.¡± ¡°That Sanbo Hospital, you absolutely can¡¯t go back there. Where do you find such practice? They haven¡¯t considered the patient¡¯s condition at all, and what¡¯s the use of a simple nerve repair? It¡¯s a waste of money,¡± Director Qian commented, pointing at the images on the viewing light, adopting an attitude that centered on the patient. Nong Zhiwen was indeed in a tough spot. Director Qian was right, now was not the time to save money, but where could he come up with so much money so quickly? Since the medication was so important, not using it would be letting his father down, but he simply didn¡¯t have the funds. ¡°Here¡¯s what we¡¯ll do, I have a friend in pharmaceutical sales, I¡¯ll have a word with them to see if they can sell you the medication a bit cheaper, and at least save you ten thousand. But you cannot tell anyone about this because it¡¯s irregular, I¡¯m only doing this because I have no choice, I wouldn¡¯t help just anybody like this,¡± said Director Qian, clearly feeling troubled. Nong Zhiwen felt deeply grateful at that moment, ¡°Thank you, don¡¯t worry, I definitely won¡¯t talk about it,¡± he said. ¡°Also, look here, there¡¯s a small lesion on your father¡¯s liver. Of course, it¡¯s so small right now that it¡¯s impossible to determine what it is through imaging studies. But, combining this with his medical history, I personally think we should address it. If it¡¯s something bad, waiting until it causes issues will be too late. I always advocate destroying bad elements in their incipient stage. Of course, opinions on this issue vary among doctors. Most would find it a bother and suggest monitoring it, but I think, we as doctors should always consider the patients more and not shy away from the trouble,¡± Director Qian said, pointing at the liver on the surface ultrasound report, which considered the possibility of a cyst. ¡°You see, the ultrasound considers it a cyst, but what does ¡®consider¡¯ mean? It¡¯s uncertain. What if it¡¯s not just a cyst? You can¡¯t gamble with these things. A few years ago, I had a patient with a similar situation. I suggested an early surgery to remove it, and frankly, after the surgery, there really weren¡¯t any problems. But he listened to someone else who said it was just a cyst and not to worry. He chose not to have surgery, and two years later, upon examination, liver cancer, late stage, even divine intervention couldn¡¯t have saved him,¡± Director Qian explained. After thinking it over, Nong Zhiwen realized that Director Qian might be right. No one could guarantee it was definitely a cyst. ¡°If we take an aggressive approach, it would be best to remove this lesion now to destroy it in the bud. Your father is only in his fifties, and the average life expectancy in China is nearing 77 years. Your father is just in his fifties, do you plan to give up just like that? Let¡¯s be honest, you can earn this money back quickly, but a person¡¯s health is priceless,¡± Director Qian advised. Chapter 1084 - 1084 884 Director Tangs Top Disciple_2 ?Chapter 1084: Chapter 884: Director Tang¡¯s Top Disciple_2 Chapter 1084: Chapter 884: Director Tang¡¯s Top Disciple_2 Director Qian said earnestly. After what Director Qian had said, Nong Zhiwen indeed felt very guilty. He couldn¡¯t delay his father¡¯s treatment because of financial concerns. The disease had been treated to this extent¡ªwas it really just the last bit of money holding them back? Clenching his teeth, Nong Zhiwen decided he needed to find another way. ¡°You¡¯d better think it over. If you¡¯re really strapped for cash, we could cut some corners, take a more passive approach. He¡¯s already in his fifties, right? We could just do a simple nerve repair to improve the symptoms. As for the rest, it¡¯s unfortunate, but there¡¯s no helping it; I understand. But if you can somehow come up with the money, I think you shouldn¡¯t handle it in a negligent way. You should treat it seriously. Your father is only in his fifties, and you children are so filial, right? Grit your teeth and this amount of money can be dealt with¡ªbut it¡¯s a life you are saving.¡± Director Qian guided him kindly. ¡°I¡¯ll think about it.¡± Nong Zhiwen was hesitant. ¡°Take some time to consider, and try to make a decision before getting admitted to the hospital. Your father is my regular patient, which is why I¡¯m telling you so much. It would be a shame to handle it carelessly. Other doctors wouldn¡¯t talk to you like this. They¡¯d just deal with the nerve issue simply, and you would be grateful to the doctors for saving so much money. Talking about this is a thankless task for me; those who don¡¯t understand might think the doctor is up to something.¡± Director Qian was eloquent and his tone sincere, so Nong Zhiwen remained undecided. ¡ª Director Fang found it strange; Nong Zhiwen was taking so long to get the pathology report and hadn¡¯t replied. Using the phone number he¡¯d left, Director Fang called Nong Tiesheng¡¯s son, Nong Zhiwen. From the other end of the phone, he learned that the pathology report hadn¡¯t been found, but Director Qian from Affiliated Hospital No. 4 had already agreed to admit his father to the hospital. Director Fang tried to understand the situation¡ªDirector Qian had mentioned needing to prepare over a hundred thousand yuan. Why did it take so much money? Director Fang didn¡¯t quite understand. Nong Zhiwen explained: targeted therapy drugs alone would cost tens of thousands; the liver tumor needed surgery, and it was best to have Da Vinci Robot surgery for the best effect. If it were standard surgery, the location of the tumor was too deep, making it impossible to resect cleanly, diminishing the surgery¡¯s effectiveness. After hearing this, Director Fang almost cursed out loud. Director Qian had a bad reputation in the circle, which used to be just talk. Director Fang had never dealt with him, but now, through this patient, he really saw what was meant by ¡®a fly in the ointment.¡¯ For God¡¯s sake, wasn¡¯t this patient only supposed to undergo a recurrent laryngeal nerve repair? How did a liver tumor surgery come into the picture? Wasn¡¯t it just a cyst? Regular check-ups should suffice; it wasn¡¯t a big deal at all. And now there was also targeted treatment involved. The drugs for the targeted treatment were all self-financed, costing tens of thousands in drug fees. How could a patient from a rural area afford that? This was literally going bankrupt to treat a disease. Absolutely not; he couldn¡¯t allow someone with the surname Qian to do whatever he pleased. This patient was quite pitiable and must be taken into care. If he performed the surgery himself, a few thousand yuan could cover it with rural cooperative medical care, but now it¡¯s over a hundred thousand, most of it to be paid out-of-pocket. The robot surgery was self-financed, the targeted drugs were self-financed, and there were many other miscellaneous self-financed items. Since Director Fang¡¯s thoughts had evolved after his recent advancement, his entire perspective had changed. If he was to become a world-class doctor in the future, how could he tolerate such despicable behavior? ¡°Have you completed the hospital admission process over there?¡± Director Fang asked. Nong Zhiwen replied, ¡°Not yet, but we should get a bed soon.¡± ¡°I¡¯m telling you, just spend a few thousand yuan to solve this problem, no need to spend hundreds of thousands,¡± Director Fang urged. ¡°Find some time to come see me, and we can have a good chat about it.¡± Nong Zhiwen was utterly baffled. Why were the doctors¡¯ opinions so vastly different? Who should he trust? After all, it involved a sum of over a hundred thousand yuan, so Nong Zhiwen decided to take a moment to think it over and get a clearer understanding before making a decision. He resolved to find some time to meet with Director Fang and listen to his advice. To be honest, in the matter of treating illnesses, there is an asymmetry of information between doctors and patients. Doctors have an overwhelming advantage while the patients¡¯ knowledge is almost nil, leaving them with no option but to follow the doctors¡¯ plans. In other words, the doctors are essentially in a position of absolute power, and without self-restraint or external checks, it¡¯s easy for them to engage in excessive medical treatment, especially when driven by economic interests. Director Qian¡¯s mentor was the renowned Director Tang, who had a formidable reputation within the circle. Until his retirement, he had not a single complaint, no medical disputes, and belonged to that legendary category where even if a patient died, their family would still present a pennant in thanks. After retiring, Director Tang was hired by a private hospital at a high salary to serve as its chief expert. With his personal charisma, he attracted a large number of patients, generating revenue that accounted for eighty percent of the hospital¡¯s income. Seeing this, the boss readily offered shares to bring Director Tang on board and even built a hospital specifically for him, allowing him to fully utilize his expertise. Indeed, the retired Director Tang kept up with the times, harnessing the power of the internet to turn himself into a celebrated internet-famous doctor, drawing massive traffic and making the hospital incredibly profitable. Originally, Director Tang was in general surgery, but doctors in that era were more versatile. He would do orthopedics, urological surgery¡ªreally all sorts of operations. So when he went to the private hospital, he was like a panacea, capable of performing any surgery. The owner of the private hospital has now specially established a cancer specialty hospital for him, and he has transformed into a cancer expert. It¡¯s said that the hospital¡¯s beds are now fully occupied by patients. Director Qian may not be as impressive as his master, Director Tang, but he certainly received the true teachings and had some skills. True to his name, his sole purpose was to make money. His General Surgery Department generates exceedingly high revenue each year, ranking first year after year in both sales and the number of surgeries at Affiliated Hospital No. 4 of Nandu Medical University, earning him the Award for Outstanding Department Director annually. Because the department¡¯s revenue was high, the bonuses for the doctors were also substantial. Although his reputation in the inner circle was poor, not a single doctor in the department spoke ill of him¡ªwho would want to fight with money? The income of a regular physician in their department exceeded that of senior doctors in other departments. Everyone, from the leadership to the doctors and nurses, adored Director Qian; he was a capable man. For patients like Nong Tiesheng, who would only spend twenty thousand yuan for a recurrent laryngeal nerve repair, that was something Director Qian could simply not accept. He believed that every bed should generate the maximum economic value. Moreover, Nong Tiesheng¡¯s case was somewhat unusual. The recurrent laryngeal nerve injury had occurred during surgery performed by Director Qian himself, who had accidentally cut away a rather long piece. Since it was his first time using the Da Vinci surgical robot to perform radical surgery for thyroid cancer, he was inexperienced and struggled through it, cutting the recurrent laryngeal nerve haphazardly. However, Director Qian wasn¡¯t worried. His surgical notes were very clear: ¡°The tumor had invaded the left recurrent laryngeal nerve, which was segmentally resected.¡± In such cases, if one were to perform a direct anastomosis, the two ends wouldn¡¯t come together properly, making direct anastomosis impossible. Using a nerve graft for bridging would also result in poor postoperative outcomes due to the excessive length required for bridging. As for the third method, using another nerve to connect to the damaged one, it seemed that the appropriate nerves for nerve transposition had also been severed during the initial surgery. Now, without a suitable nerve available for transposition¡ªeven if one was found¡ªsince the main nerve wouldn¡¯t originate from the parent vagus nerve of the recurrent laryngeal nerve with different brain functional areas, after anastomosis of the nerves, a series of exercises would still be necessary. Director Qian knew this case was hopeless, thus he never intended to perform any recurrent laryngeal nerve repair on Nong Tiesheng. Director Qian thought he could simply drag it out and let the matter pass, but unexpectedly, Nong Zhiwen took his father to Sanbo Hospital for treatment and even consulted Yang Ping. This was troublesome. Who was Yang Ping, and what was his caliber? Wasn¡¯t Director Qian aware? Once Yang Ping stepped in and performed surgery, nothing could be concealed from him. So Director Qian had no choice but to admit the patient into the hospital. But, of course, he couldn¡¯t just let a bed be occupied for nothing, right? Therefore, adhering to his own principles, Director Qian presented Nong Zhiwen with a hefty treatment plan bill totaling a hundred thousand yuan. Chapter 1085 - 1085 885 Between two points the line segment ?Chapter 1085: Chapter 885: Between two points, the line segment is the shortest. Chapter 1085: Chapter 885: Between two points, the line segment is the shortest. Tang Shun was highly efficient, managing to handle multiple girlfriends simultaneously as a top student from Tokyo University; Yang Ping believed his time management skills must be first-rate. Indeed, the laboratory construction plan had already been laid on Yang Ping¡¯s desk. A thick proposal, the content inside was very standardized and detailed, covering laboratory decoration, equipment setup, personnel structure, budget estimates, and the establishment of safety rules, without missing a single item; this guy was a research all-rounder. If Yang Ping had to handle these tasks himself, it would have taken a lot of time. Coming up with ideas and using talents, those who undertake significant tasks must be adept at these two things. The same goes for conducting research. By coming up with ideas, it means one can think of good research topics, and come up with specific research directions and methods; by using talents, it means having a group of high-quality professionals who are both intelligent and diligent. Only then can research topics be smoothly carried out and be successful. Yang Ping¡¯s current endeavor in research had only one purpose, and that was to tackle medical challenges, which was where his interest also lay. As for the Nobel Prize, Yang Ping actually wasn¡¯t very interested, and it wasn¡¯t just an act¡ªhe truly wasn¡¯t very interested, his interest in the Nobel Prize stemmed from the supercomputer with strong computational power promised by the system. The system had set obtaining the Nobel Prize as the third phase long-term task; although the goal might seem mundane and research is not done for the sake of winning awards, Yang Ping was still interested in the prize because of this supercomputer in the System Laboratory. You should know, even in the System Laboratory, a supercomputer with strong computational capabilities was simply a godsend for research. The discovery of the Spatial Orientation Gene, if personal subjective factors were not considered, the scientific value of this topic was completely at the Nobel Prize level. The proposal Tang Shun submitted included not only the construction plan for the Tumor Laboratory but also the next phase of experimental plans for Stem Cell Organ Cultivation, and the progress plans for the launch of the ¡°Medical¡± journal. During his Ph.D. studies, Tang Shun¡¯s mentor, Professor Fukunaga, held Japan¡¯s top medical journal in his hands and didn¡¯t have the energy to handle these matters. In fact, Tang Shun, the beloved prote?ge? of Professor Fukunaga, was the main force behind the journal¡¯s operation, and beyond that, Tang Shun had studied how several of the world¡¯s top medical journals were operated; he was an expert in how medical journals functioned. From the materials Tang Shun submitted, it was apparent that the submissions received by the journal far exceeded previous expectations. Everyone was very supportive, and figures like Robert, August, Li Zehui, John Ansen, Woodhead, Griffin, Takahashi, and others, almost each had submitted high-quality research papers. Surprisingly, Manstein from Germany had also submitted his manuscript, a paper on spinal cord injury research. The quality of these Chinese-language papers was very high; did Professor Manstein also learn Chinese and managed to write papers in Chinese so quickly? Judging from the quality of the papers, the journal was definitely top-tier, and Yang Ping was very confident because, in addition to these papers, his own groundbreaking paper¡ªon the discovery of the Spatial Orientation Gene¡ª was also going to be published in the inaugural issue of the journal, which would shock the world and open a new chapter in medicine. Yang Ping¡¯s entire focus was now on overcoming medical challenges, and each breakthrough brought him immense satisfaction and a sense of achievement, surpassing any joy from winning awards. The paper¡¯s peer review was completed, and a publisher had been found; the journal was to be printed by Nandu People¡¯s Publishing House. The launch of the ¡°Medical¡± journal would elevate Sanbo Hospital¡¯s academic status once more. To become a top world-class hospital, clinical practice was only one part, and even that was just the basic part; apart from clinical practice, research was needed as well, as research represented a hospital¡¯s academic level, evident through the quantity and quality of papers. On the other hand, a hospital leading a certain journal, if that journal is national, indicates it holds a place in the national academic community; if the journal is international, then it indicates it holds a place in the global academic community. Dean Xia also highly valued the journal, of course; he would not interfere with Yang Ping¡¯s academic activities, certainly not offering any guiding suggestions, positioning himself to provide good service for Yang Ping. For instance, coordinating relationships with the publishers, among other service tasks, to let Yang Ping and his team focus solely on developing the journal. ¡°Professor, our journal¡¯s first issue hasn¡¯t been published yet, and in the United States, Europe, and Japan, there are already academic organizations specially translating our journal.¡± Tang Shun said, smiling. It was quite strange; this had never happened before in the academic community¡ª the journal hadn¡¯t even been published yet, and various support organizations surrounding the journal had already emerged, and not just one, but many. Tang Shun already knew the backgrounds of some; they were backed by Robert, August, and Takahashi, but some academic organizations had unclear backers, and their enthusiasm was puzzling. ¡°This is a good thing; even though our journal is in Chinese, having others translate it into various languages to widen our impact, that¡¯s how a world-class journal should look,¡± Yang Ping had no time to pay attention to these matters. ¡°I just find it strange, why are these people so enthusiastic? How do they know the future impact of our journal, investing so much manpower and financial resources in advance to help us? It doesn¡¯t make sense,¡± Tang Shun mused to himself. Chapter 1086 - 1086 885 Between Two Points The Line Segment ?Chapter 1086: Chapter 885: Between Two Points, The Line Segment is the Shortest._2 Chapter 1086: Chapter 885: Between Two Points, The Line Segment is the Shortest._2 Tang Shun didn¡¯t think too much about it; Professor Yang¡¯s matters couldn¡¯t be explained logically. Speaking of research, before one project even ended, another began. If they were some trivial projects, it would be understandable, but his projects were all world-class, any one of which could compete for a Nobel Prize. Now, everything felt somewhat unreal to Tang Shun because it all happened too quickly and too smoothly. He just needed to adapt slowly; perhaps this is what true genius was. ¡ª Nong Zhiwen once again came to Director Fang with the medical records because the opinions from various doctors differed so significantly. Nong Zhiwen wanted to hear more from other doctors. Before coming to Sanbo Hospital, Nong Zhiwen had also visited several hospitals. Their estimated costs were about the same as what Director Fang mentioned. For the targeted therapy and liver cysts, no mention was made by these doctors. However, when the doctors from other hospitals flipped through the medical records, their tones would change, saying that the surgery was too difficult, suggesting either to return to the original hospital or to seek a better hospital, such as Nandu Affiliated Hospital One or Sanbo Hospital. Director Qian said Sanbo Hospital wasn¡¯t an option, as it was impossible to get an appointment in the province, but several doctors had ranked Sanbo Hospital alongside Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 as the best hospitals in the province. If it had been earlier when he was more financially fluid, Nong Zhiwen would have definitely followed Director Qian¡¯s advice because Director Qian was also right. Sometimes, one shouldn¡¯t only consider saving money; getting treatment is most crucial. However, now Nong Zhiwen couldn¡¯t possibly come up with several hundred thousand yuan. He had no choice but to consider the second option as the circumstances were beyond his control. This time, even though Nong Zhiwen didn¡¯t bring the pathological report, as instructed by Director Fang, he brought copies of the records from the two surgeries. With the surgery records, Director Fang would be able to make more accurate judgments about the illness. After carefully reviewing the records of the two surgeries, Director Fang frowned. Although this time the surgery was for repairing the recurrent laryngeal nerve, it was indeed difficult to perform. If it had been earlier, he would have just performed the traditional surgery, regardless of whether the outcome was good or not. It wasn¡¯t his concern since everyone else did it that way, and whether it turned out well was just down to luck. Now, it was clearly different. He had to give his all to every surgery, striving for the best possible outcome. From the surgery records, the segmental resection of the right recurrent laryngeal nerve reached 8 centimeters, a defect so long that approximation and suturing were impossible. If a nerve graft was done, the distance for bridging would be too great, severely impairing the recovery outcome. Using nerve transposition techniques, according to the surgery records, the phrenic nerve and the hypoglossal nerve had also been invaded by the tumor and a large segment had been resected, leaving very little leeway for selecting a suitable nerve for transposition. It was hard to find an appropriate nerve for the anastomosis. No wonder Director Qian himself was unwilling to accept his own patient for the recurrent laryngeal nerve repair; the surgery was virtually impossible to perform under these circumstances. It was indeed strange how the tumor could invade so many nerves. Having never encountered such a case before, Director Fang found it difficult to draw any conclusions. Now, Director Fang was a bit confused. Though he felt perplexed, he wasn¡¯t panicked at all; he still had a ¡°plug-in¡±, and that plug-in was Professor Yang. He could always consult with Professor Yang if there were any problems. So, Director Fang, together with Nong Zhiwen and the medical records, went to find Yang Ping again. Yang Ping had been rather busy these past few days but he always remembered this case and had intended to ask Director Fang if the patient had brought the pathological report yet. This time the patient still hadn¡¯t brought the pathological report. Well, since it wasn¡¯t brought, it wasn¡¯t brought. Regardless, the recurrent laryngeal nerve still needed to be repaired, so regardless of what the pathological report indicated? The target for this surgery was to repair the recurrent laryngeal nerve. Seeing the pathological report was essential for a definitive diagnosis. From a rigorous procedural standpoint, since the surgery was already performed, a pathological examination would inevitably be conducted post-operation to further clarify the nature, staging, and grading of the tumor. Director Fang said to Yang Ping, ¡°The defect in the recurrent laryngeal nerve is too large, a full 8 centimeters missing. Direct approximation and suturing are impossible, and even trying to sufficiently release the nerve ends for anastomosis cannot be achieved.¡± Let alone achieving it, even if approximation and suturing were possible, it would be pointless. The nerve suture must be tension-free because if the tension is too high, no matter how well the alignment is done, the nerves simply cannot recover. Hearing Director Fang say this, Yang Ping didn¡¯t immediately respond but seriously reviewed the surgical record. After reviewing, he said, ¡°Not only is approximation and suturing unfeasible, but nerve grafting and nerve transposition are also unrealistic. If nerve grafting is performed, the bridging distance is too long, definitely resulting in very poor recovery post-surgery. If nerve transposition is done, it seems there¡¯s no suitable nerve available for transposition. According to the surgery records, isn¡¯t the area invaded by the tumor at that time very extensive? More than this one nerve was resected.¡± What to do then? If all three methods are impossible, isn¡¯t that hopeless? Director Fang felt quite helpless. Yang Ping frowned and said, ¡°Give me a moment to think. This patient definitely needs surgery. The current issue is how to perform the surgery.¡± At that moment, Nong Zhiwen took the opportunity to ask, ¡°Professor Yang, is targeted therapy still necessary after the surgery?¡± Yang Ping said, ¡°Conventionally, it¡¯s unnecessary, but I must see the pathological report. With the pathological report, I¡¯ll know the specific typing and staging of the tumor, allowing us to accurately assess the illness and precisely formulate a treatment plan. Currently, without the pathological report, we simply cannot judge the condition of the illness, so it would be best if you could bring the pathological report.¡± Chapter 1087 - 1087 885 Between Two Points The Line Segment ?Chapter 1087: Chapter 885: Between Two Points, The Line Segment is the Shortest._3 Chapter 1087: Chapter 885: Between Two Points, The Line Segment is the Shortest._3 ¡°Professor Yang, could you please take another look for us and see if the cyst on the liver needs surgical treatment?¡± Nong Zhiwen seized the opportunity to ask all his questions. Liver cyst? Yang Ping had just reviewed the medical records, and indeed, there was a cyst on the liver, but such cysts generally don¡¯t pose a major issue, so he hadn¡¯t focused on it. ¡°Did you bring the imaging films?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°Yes, I brought them all!¡± Nong Zhiwen immediately took out a large, thick bag; inside were many films, all the imaging studies his father had undergone over the past few years. Nong Zhiwen didn¡¯t understand all these films; he simply put them all together, and each time they visited a doctor, he would bring them along for the doctor to review. ¡°No problem, I¡¯ll take a look through them slowly.¡± Yang Ping asked Nong Zhiwen to place the films near the light box. Then, he went through all the images one by one on the light box, sorting them according to the type and date of examination. Some of the films had dissolved and become blurry due to age. It took Yang Ping about fifteen minutes to organize these films. After he had sorted them out, he started to review them in chronological order. The liver had not only been examined with surface ultrasound but also with CT and enhanced CT, and there were also whole-body PET-CT images of this area. Starting with the first image that showed the liver, there was a mass, which at the time was noted as a space-occupying lesion, considered to be a cyst undergoing organization. A series of subsequent images of the liver showed that the mass remained unchanged. Although he couldn¡¯t be 100% certain, the imaging basically confirmed that it was a cyst, and an organized one at that, which did not require surgical treatment. It only needed a follow-up surface ultrasound every six months to a year. Yang Ping conveyed his opinion to Nong Zhiwen. ¡°No need for surgery? But what if it turns out to be a malignant tumor?¡± Nong Zhiwen was very frank. Yang Ping communicated with patients in a straightforward manner too, as this could save unnecessary time. ¡°The likelihood that it¡¯s a malignant tumor is extremely slim, virtually zero!¡± Yang Ping¡¯s answer was very confident. ¡°I understand what you¡¯re saying, Professor Yang; if we wanted to be proactive, would surgery be necessary?¡± Nong Zhiwen wanted to understand further. Yang Ping¡¯s opinion was very clear, ¡°This liver cyst has no indications for surgery. Surgery is a tool for us doctors to treat diseases; it is a double-edged sword, and we cannot use it indiscriminately. Some diseases must be operated on, some may or may not require surgery, and some do not need surgery at all. From a medical standpoint, your father¡¯s liver cyst doesn¡¯t require surgical intervention.¡± This statement vastly contradicted Director Qian¡¯s advice; not only did Director Qian recommend surgery, but he also suggested robot-assisted surgery, which he said could more accurately and completely remove the tumor, resulting in the best postoperative outcome and peace of mind. Conventional surgery could not remove the tumor as precisely and completely, potentially leaving remnants of the mass behind. As he put it, if it was something bad, any remnants would cause significant trouble; not eradicating the problem thoroughly could lead it to return with the spring breeze. Both sides made sense; what should he do? Nong Zhiwen was very confused now. The opinion from Sanbo Hospital was very clear without any ambiguity. Nong Zhiwen felt intuitively that Professor Yang was very confident, different from the average doctor. The opinion from Director Qian also seemed logical. What if it really was something bad? What then? If the illness was delayed over this hundred thousand yuan, it would be too late for regrets. As Director Qian said, his father was only in his fifties. Every patient has an instinctual desire to live, accompanied by fear, longing, and fantasy, and all sorts of swindlers thrive by preying on these patient psychologies. ¡°Why don¡¯t you think it over and avoid further hassle? You can inquire around about our hospital and Professor Yang¡¯s reputation,¡± Director Fang advised Nong Zhiwen. Nong Zhiwen also left Sanbo Hospital with a big bag of documents, full of doubts in his mind. His trip was very worthwhile, as it allowed him to hear different opinions. After Nong Zhiwen left, Director Fang turned to Yang Ping for advice, ¡°Is there any good method for this surgery?¡± In Director Fang¡¯s mind, Yang Ping could do anything. Yang Ping had been thinking about this issue just now. How could he solve the problem of recurrent laryngeal nerve repair? His recent contemplation had yielded some clues: ¡°We can directly dissect the distal end of the recurrent laryngeal nerve from below the brachiocephalic trunk and trace it back to the vagus nerve, then anastomose it with the nerve at the larynx behind the carotid artery.¡± After hearing this, Director Fang was a bit confused; he didn¡¯t quite understand what he had heard. While drawing, Yang Ping explained to him, ¡°Actually, the principle is very simple. It¡¯s about bypassing, to solve the issue of distance. The start of the nerve is A, point B is where the nerve crosses below the subclavian artery, and the endpoint of the nerve is C. Normally, the path starts at A, goes around to point B at the subclavian artery, and finally to point C at the throat. The segment between A, B, and C often needs segmental resection due to tumor invasion, which results in a defect. If the defect is too long, traditional methods involve using another nerve for bridging or nerve transposition, like bridging wires, or drawing an additional wire from another room.¡± ¡°Such methods are not feasible for this patient; the distance for bridging is too far. If we were to draw a wire from another room, the wires in other rooms are also scarce, and it¡¯s challenging to find a suitable one right now.¡± ¡°What should we do?¡± ¡°We will directly reroute the existing wire without going around point B and instead connect it directly to point C, to complete the connection between points A and C. I have measured the distance, and based on the growth and recovery rate of nerves, the patient should see significant recovery in about six months if we use this method.¡± As Yang Ping spoke, he drew a diagram on the A4 paper, illustrating the anatomy of the neck. To express anatomy and surgery, drawings are the best method; verbal descriptions can seem pale and weak. ¡°Between two points, the straight line is the shortest!¡± With the aid of Yang Ping¡¯s drawing, Director Fang instantly understood the content of Yang Ping¡¯s earlier explanation. When it had just been described verbally, Director Fang had been somewhat confused; now, he completely understood. ¡°Brilliant! To put it precisely, it¡¯s the shortest distance between two points in the form of a line segment!¡± Yang Ping complimented. Holy shit, isn¡¯t this a primary school math problem? And he¡¯s praising me for it. Does Professor Yang see me as a primary school level? However, applying this simple mathematical axiom here, it surprisingly became effective, leading to the development of a new surgical technique to solve the problem. ¡°Do you know how to draw anatomy diagrams?¡± Yang Ping asked Director Fang, who was still looking at the drawing. Director Fang shook his head. ¡°This won¡¯t do; you must learn to draw.¡± Drawing is a basic skill for doctors at the Surgical Research Institute, and Doctor Li Min, as a grassroots doctor, has already mastered medical illustration. Director Fang¡¯s face flushed with embarrassment, ¡°I can learn, I will learn right away, and I can pick it up quickly.¡± ¡°Hmm, you use three months to learn medical illustration, including system anatomy, local anatomy, cross-sectional anatomy, and surgical approach anatomy¡ªthe four main blocks. No problems with that, right?¡± Yang Ping believed if Director Fang truly wanted to improve, he must systematically learn. ¡°I guarantee I will accomplish it!¡± Director Fang was extremely excited in his heart. Was this a formal induction? PS: Regarding the new technique for recurrent laryngeal nerve repair in this chapter: The technique is the masterpiece of Professor Ji Qinghai and Professor Wang Yulong from the Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Fudan University¡¯s affiliated Cancer Hospital. The paper was published in ¡°Head & Neck,¡± and the technique is at an international leading level, improving the global academic standing of head and neck surgery in China. Respect to the two professors! Chapter 1088 - 1088 886 The Good Things That Cant Be Found ?Chapter 1088: Chapter 886: The Good Things That Can¡¯t Be Found Even with a Lantern Chapter 1088: Chapter 886: The Good Things That Can¡¯t Be Found Even with a Lantern Soon, Nong Zhiwen returned to Sanbo Hospital to see Director Fang, as he could not find enough money and had to accept the least expensive option proposed by Director Fang. According to Director Fang, the total cost would be around twenty thousand yuan, which meant that after subtracting the portion reimbursed by medical insurance, the out-of-pocket expense would be a few thousand yuan, an amount Nong Zhiwen could afford. This time, Nong Zhiwen came to see Director Fang fully prepared. He had taken his father to revisit several hospitals they had previously consulted. This time, the focus was not on treatment but on gathering opinions. He asked doctors whether, given his father¡¯s condition, they should seek surgery with Professor Yang and Director Fang at Sanbo or with Director Qian at Affiliated Hospital No. 4. Without exception, the doctors said, ¡°You should go to Sanbo Hospital, especially to Professor Yang. His medical skills and character are the most trustworthy.¡± Every doctor¡¯s appraisal of Yang Ping included the superlative ¡°most,¡± and one of them repeatedly cautioned, ¡°Go directly to Professor Yang at Sanbo Hospital! Don¡¯t go anywhere else; definitely do not go to Director Qian. Trust me.¡± The doctor who spoke these words did so with sincere intonation, which Nong Zhiwen could sense, leading him to visit Sanbo Hospital once again. Upon seeing Nong Zhiwen and his father, Nong Tiesheng, Director Fang also breathed a sigh of relief, glad to have pulled the patients out of a dire situation. However, regarding the issues with Director Qian, he only knew rumors without solid evidence, so Director Fang preferred not to speak ill behind someone¡¯s back. This time Nong Zhiwen still did not bring the pathological report, as the medical records department claimed there was no pathological report in the records, while the doctors insisted there should be one. Nong Zhiwen, not fully understanding the situation, could not afford to spend too much time just for a pathological report. There was another option: allowing Nong Zhiwen to bring the pathology slices to Sanbo, where a pathologist could examine them and provide an oral pathological report. This would at least allow a basic understanding of the type, grade, and stage of Nong Tiesheng¡¯s thyroid cancer. However, this approach was impractical; without internal hospital connections, no hospital would allow a patient to take pathology slices outside, as this was against hospital regulations. If there really was no pathological report, should they forgo the surgery? Would the disease remain untreated? Yang Ping also agreed with this sentiment. He suggested performing the surgery to repair the recurrent laryngeal nerves first. As for treating the tumor, they could conduct some basic re-examinations. During surgery, they could obtain more tissue samples for pathological examination. Combined with the latest imaging studies and the intraoperative pathology, a foundational assessment of the tumor could be made, after which they would decide whether to pursue additional treatments. According to all the current imaging data, the patient would not require further treatment for the tumor post-surgery, necessitating only lifelong thyroid hormone replacement therapy. Director Fang admitted Nong Tiesheng to the hospital, assigning him a bed in the General Surgery Department since the beds at the Surgical Research Institute were in tight supply, with many patients with conditions more complex and serious than Nong Tiesheng¡¯s awaiting beds. Nong Tiesheng, once strong in physique and an adept farmer, had grown extremely weak after suffering from the disease, undergoing two surgeries, several rounds of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and various other treatments, even finding breathing laborious and feeling uncomfortable after walking just a dozen steps. Apart from the ravages of the disease, radiotherapy was a double-edged sword; while treating the cancer, it also damaged the body¡¯s immune system. The damage to the right recurrent laryngeal nerve and potential compression of the left recurrent laryngeal nerve impaired breathing on both sides. All these factors well explained Nong Tiesheng¡¯s current state. After admission, Director Fang instructed the physician in charge to minimize costs, beyond routine admission tests, which included complete blood count, biochemistry, liver and kidney functions, four infectious diseases tests, thyroid function tests, electrocardiogram, chest X-ray, and other examinations targeting the tumor. With no pathological report available, they had no choice but to rely on the latest imaging studies to assess the status of the tumor. As for the recurrent laryngeal nerves, they would be clearly revealed during surgery, with intraoperative exploration providing more accurate and reliable information than any imaging study could. Over the past few days, Director Fang had reviewed numerous literature resources on the repair of recurrent laryngeal nerves, and Professor Yang¡¯s proposed method was indeed innovative and more effective than traditional methods. It addressed nerve defects without needing nerve grafting or transposition, which were desperate measures due to excessive nerve loss preventing direct suturing. If nerves could be directly sutured without tension, the outcome would be much better than nerve grafting or transposition. Professor Yang combined the basic principle of ¡°the shortest distance between two points is a straight line¡± with the anatomical course of the recurrent laryngeal nerves to propose this ingenious method, leaving Director Fang in awe. Having been a general surgeon for over a decade, he wondered why he had never thought of this approach, nor had any other doctors worldwide, including those specializing in general surgery, thyroid surgery, or head and neck surgery. Why had everyone continued using only three surgical techniques? If direct suturing was not possible, it was either nerve grafting or transposition. Why hadn¡¯t anyone applied this elementary mathematical knowledge to surgery? It simply hadn¡¯t occurred to anyone; there was no understanding it. If this surgical method could accumulate twenty to thirty more cases with consistently good postoperative outcomes, publishing an article on this would constitute a significant academic achievement. Director Fang felt a flutter of excitement at the thought; any insights from Professor Yang were invaluable treasures to him. Chapter 1089 - 1089 886 The Good Things That Cant Be Found ?Chapter 1089: Chapter 886: The Good Things That Can¡¯t Be Found Even with a Lantern_2 Chapter 1089: Chapter 886: The Good Things That Can¡¯t Be Found Even with a Lantern_2 Professor Yang probably wasn¡¯t that interested in this kind of Surgery, Director Fang thought. ¡ª This surgical technique was designed by Yang Ping, and it was the first time Director Fang was performing it, so Yang Ping¡¯s guidance was essential. It was the same old routine, having Yang Ping ¡°lead¡± Director Fang through the Surgery, a model that had already achieved tremendous success in the past. The Patient was under General Anesthesia, in a supine position with a pillow under the shoulders, which allowed for good stretching of the surgical area and more ample exposure of the surgical field. With Yang Ping standing opposite, Director Fang felt brave enough to perform any surgery, brimming with confidence, as if he had activated ¡°Invincible Mode¡±. Starting from the original Incision, he extended it bilaterally to the appropriate length, layer by layer, cutting through the skin, Subcutaneous Tissue, and the platysma, steadily making his way down to the surgical target¡ªthe recurrent laryngeal Nerves. Director Fang intended to impress with a ¡°One-Stroke Flow,¡± but his lack of skill meant the strokes were either too deep or too shallow, with the latter not even piercing the skin. There was no choice but to make a few additional cuts, a task that seemed easy yet proved challenging to execute. After opening the platysma, Director Fang separated the strap muscles at both sides of the white line of the neck and freed the anterior edge of the right sternocleidomastoid muscle. At this point, the Assistant used a double-hook retractor to rotate and pull the larynx. Although there was extensive adhesion inside, with Professor Yang present, no adhesion posed a problem. Under Professor Yang¡¯s assistance, Director Fang¡¯s anatomical layer was very clear. Advancing step by step, the larynx was retracted, and Director Fang severed the cricothyroid muscle attached to the left edge of the thyroid cartilage, then separated the paraglottic space, which was all adhesions¡ªwhat exactly was the situation at that time. Seeing the severe adhesions inside, Yang Ping frowned, deducing from his vast experience that these were not adhesions caused by radiation therapy but rather by harsh Surgery at the time. Once Director Fang clearly separated the paraglottic space, he noticed the significant atrophy of the left arytenoid muscle. He then began to retrograde dissect the left recurrent laryngeal Nerve from behind the left cricothyroid joint, meaning he dissected in the opposite direction of the Nerve¡¯s path. After dissecting a portion, they observed that the recurrent laryngeal Nerve was noticeably thinner, and 2.5 centimeters from the cricothyroid joint, it was severely compressed by scar tissue. No wonder the Patient¡¯s symptoms were significantly more severe than those of unilateral recurrent laryngeal Nerve damage, affecting breathing noticeably. It all made sense now. With one side of the recurrent laryngeal Nerve severed and the other compressed, it was as if both Nerves were damaged. The severe compression on the left side meant that if it wasn¡¯t dealt with promptly, the left recurrent laryngeal Nerve would become entirely nonfunctional after a while. If the damage on the right side was truly 8 centimeters, this surgery was indeed challenging. It¡¯s no wonder that the doctor surnamed Qian was reluctant to take on the case himself. ¡°Just releasing the left side should suffice, right?¡± Director Fang sought Yang Ping¡¯s opinion; at the crucial moment, consultation was key. ¡°Slice open the epineurium to check; it likely hasn¡¯t degenerated. After release, it should recover,¡± Yang Ping instructed Director Fang. Carefully cutting open the epineurium of the Nerve, Director Fang noted the endoneurium structure inside was still relatively intact and clear, indicating the Nerve had not degenerated. A simple release would do, no need to excise and then suture. With the left Nerve treated this way, it could be considered as having completed a part of the Surgery. Director Fang was learning Yang Ping¡¯s hemostasis technique, and at this moment, he remembered to use bipolar electrocoagulation precisely for hemostasis. Of course, he was very careful; bipolar electrocoagulation would never come close to the nerves. The left recurrent laryngeal nerve had already been treated, and Director Fang began to reveal the right recurrent laryngeal nerve. Since the original surgery was not led by Yang Ping or Director Fang, they did not know the exact location of the nerve¡¯s severed end. If the chief surgeon had been conscientious, they would have marked the right recurrent laryngeal nerve for easier identification during subsequent nerve repair. More troublesome adhesions! Yang Ping did not understand how the surgery had been done. In principle, the level of Affiliated Hospital No. 4 should not be bad, but judging from the current situation and deducing backward from experience, it felt like the surgery had been performed by a novice¡ªit was an absolute mess. ¡°Both surgeries were done using the Da Vinci Robot, not counting other treatment costs, just one surgery costs over a hundred thousand,¡± Director Fang explained. Yang Ping really didn¡¯t understand, ¡°Perform this kind of surgery with the Da Vinci Robot? Would it have better results than traditional surgery?¡± ¡°Who knows? You might not be aware, but when it comes to surgeries in the General Surgery Department of Affiliated Hospital No. 4, if they can use a robot, they definitely don¡¯t use traditional methods. Hence, their use rate of the Da Vinci Robot is extremely high,¡± Director Fang couldn¡¯t help but let out a hint of a sneer. Amongst the mess of adhesions, Director Fang finally uncovered the severed end of the nerve. There were no markings, and the placement of the nerve was haphazard, potentially leading to accidental severing by an inexperienced chief surgeon with one careless cut. The right recurrent laryngeal nerve was truly missing a full 8 centimeters. Director Fang thought to himself, if it weren¡¯t for Professor Yang providing a plan beforehand, what would he have done if he suddenly encountered this situation on the operating table? He would have hastily found a nerve to graft, but as for the effects, who could say? Following the procedure Yang Ping had prepared in advance, Director Fang directly dissected the severed end of the right recurrent laryngeal nerve from underneath the brachial plexus and anastomosed it to the vagus nerve behind the carotid artery and near the throat. Since they had not seen the patient¡¯s pathological report, Yang Ping, in the interest of caution, instructed Director Fang to take tissue from different parts of the operative area for pathological examination after the surgery. The PET-CT had not shown any signs of metastases throughout the body. Now, taking tissue from so many spots for pathological examination, if they still did not find tumor tissue, they could confirm that no treatment aimed at the tumor was needed after the surgery; only thyroid replacement therapy would be necessary. With Yang Ping¡¯s assistance, Director Fang earnestly completed the surgery. After the surgery, Director Fang tentatively asked Yang Ping, ¡°Professor Yang, when the time comes, you could write a paper about this case.¡± Yang Ping had no time to write such papers, as he had many other research projects to work on. Therefore, he said to Director Fang, ¡°I don¡¯t have the time. If you¡¯re interested, go ahead and write it. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t claim intellectual property rights.¡± At this moment, Director Fang was overjoyed. This was a rare opportunity that wouldn¡¯t come by even if one searched with a lantern, and for Yang Ping, it might not mean much, but for Director Fang, it was a major innovation. If this paper could be published in an international journal, then in the field of recurrent laryngeal nerve repair, Director Fang could claim to be the national leader and even the world leader. The world leader! How could that not be thrilling? After Yang Ping left, Director Fang calmed himself down in the changing room for a full half-hour before regaining his composure. He immediately called the fruit shop downstairs at the hospital and ordered two boxes of the best cherries to be sent to the Surgical Research Institute right away. No, two boxes were not enough to show his sincerity, so he rounded up four boxes of cherries and had them delivered to the Surgical Research Institute. Which journal had this paper been published in? Director Fang began to ponder this question; he was determined to publish in an international top-tier journal. Having been a doctor for twenty years, he had never felt such a sense of achievement¡ªnot only solving a problem that others couldn¡¯t but also about to publish a paper in an international journal. Among his peers, he must be at the top, right? After resolving the recurrent laryngeal nerve issue, Yang Ping started reviewing Nong Tiesheng¡¯s illness. What exactly was the classification and staging of his thyroid cancer at the time? Without a pathological report and no staging or classification on the case records, this was highly irregular. Especially after a radical surgery, how could there be no staging or grading? Moreover, from the analysis of numerous imaging pictures, this patient did not appear to have thyroid cancer, but rather looked more like a benign thyroid tumor. If that was the case, how could radical surgery have been performed? This was completely contradictory, no matter how you looked at it, it just didn¡¯t make sense. Better to wait for the pathological report to come out. No matter the previous surgeries, if the pathological report comes back clear, then the patient could be considered temporarily cured, which was also good news. As for the follow-up targeted therapy, that was completely unnecessary. Chapter 1090 - 1090 887 The Truth Revealed ?Chapter 1090: Chapter 887: The Truth Revealed Chapter 1090: Chapter 887: The Truth Revealed Doctor Wen from the Pathology Department was highly efficient, and Nong Tiesheng¡¯s postoperative pathology report was issued quickly. The surgery area on both sides of the neck had a total of twelve tissue sections examined for pathology, and none of the twelve specimens revealed any tumor tissue. This pathological examination was only intended to guide postoperative treatment and could not affect the diagnosis at the time. From this, it seemed that no treatment aimed at the tumor was required post-surgery. Throughout Nong Tiesheng¡¯s treatment process, including imaging studies such as PET-CT, there were no signs of tumor metastasis, suggesting that Nong Tiesheng¡¯s tumor had been cured. Yang Ping recalled Nong Tiesheng¡¯s medical records, which included only one surface ultrasound of the thyroid suggesting a possible thyroid carcinoma. However, surprisingly, no further ultrasound was performed at Affiliated Hospital No. 4; instead, tests like CT, enhanced CT, PET-CT were conducted, and the crucial surface ultrasound and essential pathology report were missing, which was truly odd. The surface ultrasound considering thyroid carcinoma wasn¡¯t conducted at Affiliated Hospital No. 4, but at the county hospital by Nong Tiesheng. Seeing that the result indicated cancer, he immediately went to the Provincial City for treatment. Yang Ping asked Li Guodong to retrieve all imaging studies of Nong Tiesheng from the General Surgery Department. Yang Ping then meticulously reviewed the images again in his office, one by one. Since some images were greatly blurred and deteriorated, Yang Ping instructed Nong Zhiwen to duplicate all imaging studies onto a CD at Affiliated Hospital No. 4. Although it was a bit troublesome, treating medical issues was inherently cumbersome¡ªbeing a little troubled was nothing extraordinary in ensuring a job well done. Nong Zhiwen was very proactive in complying; he immediately followed Yang Ping¡¯s instructions, copied all the imaging data onto a CD, and brought it over. Normally, a USB drive would be more convenient, but many hospital USB ports are sealed off to prevent computer viruses, as a virus infection in the hospital systems could lead to serious issues. Yang Ping knew that many patients¡¯ imaging data were on CDs, so his computer was not only connected to a specialized imaging display but also equipped with a CD drive. After repeatedly examining each image, Yang Ping took a deep breath. From the very first preoperative images to those taken after two surgeries and the most recent ones, Yang Ping judged based on the imaging that the thyroid tumor should be benign. Relying on his extensive experience in image reading, he was very confident. However, pathological diagnosis remains the gold standard for tumors. Without the original pathology report, the exact nature of the tumor would remain a mystery. Even though Yang Ping was absolutely certain, he could not assert that the tumor was definitively benign. He once again repeatedly reviewed the medical records, from the records of two admissions, discharge summaries, and surgical notes. The diagnosis had always been thyroid cancer, but critically, there was no mention of what subtype or stage¡ªonly thyroid cancer from start to finish, which was highly contradictory. In principle, as a triple-A teaching hospital, such medical records were not acceptable, especially not from a large triple-A teaching hospital like Affiliated Hospital No. 4. Could it be that the records at Affiliated Hospital No. 4 are now so sloppy? Is the management so lax? If it was a benign tumor, and they performed a radical surgery for thyroid cancer on it, followed by various rounds of radiotherapy and targeted therapy? Yang Ping dared not think so, but he couldn¡¯t help but consider such possibilities. It should be impossible; there must be some misunderstanding, Yang Ping told himself. From his graduation from university to date, through his years of work, although he had encountered a few unscrupulous doctors, such rare instances only involved them taking advantage of loopholes for profit at most. The vast majority of doctors are ethical, principled, and professional, never engaging in actions contrary to fundamental principles. At least, in his experience, no doctor would exaggeratedly treat a benign tumor as malignant, then prescribe a host of treatments. At most, for aggressive treatment, they would completely resect a benign tumor, which is entirely in line with medical principles. For instance, the treatment of lung nodules is highly debated. Some doctors believe in surgical resection to eliminate future problems, while others think such active measures are unnecessary. With ample evidence supporting benignity, they support observation and regular follow-ups since most lung nodules are benign. There are even specialized outpatient clinics for lung nodules in some hospitals, and some doctors focus their research on lung nodules. This is an academic controversy and remains unresolved¡ªdiffering opinions and treatment approaches are entirely normal. However, regarding the treatment of malignant tumors, having undergone two surgeries, regardless of the judgments at the time, conducting a pathological examination post-surgery should be a mandatory rule and a global consensus, without dispute. If it truly wasn¡¯t thyroid cancer, misdiagnosing a benign tumor as thyroid cancer would have a tremendous impact on the patient. Yang Ping¡¯s extensive experience in reading images could not replace a pathology report, so out of caution, he hoped to find the pathology report. Since Affiliated Hospital No. 4 couldn¡¯t locate it, he pondered whether the county hospital where Nong Tiesheng initially visited had conducted a biopsy. Following this thought, Yang Ping shared his ideas with Director Fang, asking her to find ways to inquire from the patient. If possible, contacting the doctors at the county hospital would be ideal to help check the records and determine if a biopsy had been performed. If so, they should obtain the pathology report and pathology slices. Additionally, Yang Ping reminded Director Fang to contact acquaintances at Affiliated Hospital No. 4 to ascertain whether the pathology examination was indeed not performed or if the report was simply lost; these were entirely different issues. Chapter 1091 - 1091 887 The Truth Revealed_2 ?Chapter 1091: Chapter 887 The Truth Revealed_2 Chapter 1091: Chapter 887 The Truth Revealed_2 This case, Yang Ping was determined to clarify. When it came to the matters Yang Ping entrusted, Director Fang acted with speed and efficiency. He called over at Affiliated Hospital No. 4 and asked a friend for help. It turned out that indeed there was no pathology report in the medical records, and the Pathology Department¡¯s computer database did not contain a pathology report for this patient. Two surgeries without a pathology report? Coupled with Director Qian¡¯s resounding reputation, Director Fang began to feel an ominous premonition. Since Affiliated Hospital No. 4 did not have a pathology report, the next step was to search the county hospital. Director Fang had good relations with peers in the province, after all, Sanbo Hospital was a provincial hospital, with many doctors coming each year for further education. He contacted Dr. Gu from the General Surgery Department of Zhongqiao County People¡¯s Hospital, where Nong Tiesheng was initially diagnosed. Dr. Gu had done his training under Director Fang, who was often invited by him to perform surgeries. Dr. Gu helped to search through the hospital¡¯s computer system, and then borrowed the electronic medical records of this patient. The patient had previously undergone a thyroid surface ultrasound and a thyroid fine-needle aspiration biopsy. Director Fang immediately asked Dr. Gu to photocopy the pathology report and to also help retrieve the pathology slices, and then find a way to send these two items to Sanbo Hospital. Dr. Gu was very efficient, not only obtaining the pathology report and the pathology slices from that time but also photocopying the entire set of medical records and immediately driving them to the provincial city to hand over to Director Fang. Having obtained the pathology slices, pathology report, and the full set of medical records, Yang Ping was delighted because there were too many contradictions in the case that led him to doubt things he shouldn¡¯t have doubted. After reviewing the full set of medical records from Zhongqiao County People¡¯s Hospital, Yang Ping roughly sorted out Nong Tiesheng¡¯s medical treatment history. The county hospital¡¯s surface ultrasound report suggested a thyroid adenocarcinoma was considered, recommending a combination of clinical and pathological evaluations. The ultrasound physician¡¯s rationale was sufficient: the height of the thyroid nodule was greater than its width, and it had characteristics of microcalcification and reduced blood supply. The Zhongqiao County People¡¯s Hospital¡¯s pathology report stated: Thyroid adenocarcinoma was considered, due to unsatisfactory biopsy sample¡ªseen with a large amount of blood and serous components, it is recommended to retake the specimen. Both of these reports were described in the medical records from Affiliated Hospital No. 4. The admission records contained detailed descriptions of the current illness and auxiliary examinations, including the timing, results, and identification numbers of the tests¡ªa very well-organized approach. So, it appeared that Affiliated Hospital No. 4¡¯s diagnosis of thyroid cancer was based on these two reports. However, as a higher-level hospital, shouldn¡¯t they have retaken the samples for review? Moreover, after two surgeries, shouldn¡¯t the resected tumors have been sent for pathological examination? Were they really diagnosing and treating for thyroid cancer based only on this report? ¡°I will personally examine the pathology slices.¡± Yang Ping said to Director Fang and immediately called Wen Ruzheng from the Pathology Department. Then, along with Director Fang, Dr. Gu, and the pathology slices, he went to the Pathology Department. Because Dr. Gu had to take the pathology slices back with him, he also accompanied them. After looking at the pathology slices through a microscope in the Pathology Department, Yang Ping pondered for a while. Indeed, the sample preparation for the pathology slices was substandard, not meeting the criteria for judgment. However, there were still a few cells that could be observed on the slices. Other doctors might find it difficult to draw conclusions, but for Yang Ping, those were enough for a decision. It was not thyroid adenocarcinoma, but rather a rare type of thyroid colloid nodule that could easily be confused with thyroid cancer. Now, without the original ultrasound images on hand, Yang Ping could have made a very definitive judgment, if only he knew whether the ultrasound physician at the county hospital had kept the images. The images printed on the current ultrasound report were extremely blurry, rendering them practically meaningless and only symbolic. ¡°Is there any way to find the original ultrasound images from Zhongqiao County?¡± Yang Ping asked Director Fang beside him. Without full confidence and solid evidence, Yang Ping was hesitant to make a statement now, for his words would overturn all the previous diagnoses and treatments¡ªa matter of utmost seriousness that required prudence. ¡°I can go ask,¡± said Dr. Gu, who had delivered the documents. However, looking at the signature on the ultrasound report, Dr. Gu noted that the ultrasound physician had already left the position and was working at a private hospital in the provincial city. Dr. Gu had no choice but to ask another physician from the ultrasound department to help look up the original ultrasound images of the patient. Fortunately, another physician quickly found Nong Tiesheng¡¯s ultrasound images and promised to find a way to transmit them over. Because the hospital didn¡¯t allow the use of USB drives, the Surface Ultrasound Doctor could only burn the data onto a CD, then find a place to process the images on the CD and upload them to a cloud drive. Director Fang wasn¡¯t performing surgery and specifically came to handle this matter, taking Dr. Gu for lunch near the hospital. They ate while waiting for the transfer of the images, the whole process being extremely troublesome, but to clarify everything, it was necessary, as it concerned the patient¡¯s entire life. If it weren¡¯t for cancer, carrying the weight of cancer for a lifetime is unimaginable. Around three in the afternoon, the Surface Ultrasound Doctor finally found a young doctor who helped with the conversion and transfer of the images, storing them in a cloud drive and giving Dr. Gu the username and password to view them himself. Just then, Yang Ping had just finished surgery. He hadn¡¯t even taken off his scrubs and just threw a white gown over them as he left the operating room. In the Surgical Research Institute, Yang Ping¡¯s office had two computers, one connected to the external network and one not. Using the computer connected to the external network, Yang Ping pulled up the hard-earned Surface Ultrasound images and carefully reviewed each frame. He breathed a sigh of relief. However, he didn¡¯t express his opinion on the spot, because Dr. Gu from Zhongqiao County was present. This matter was delicate and, no matter how skilled he was, his was still just one opinion. He didn¡¯t want his comments to spread yet, as there were many details to be cleared up, such as the initial absence of a pathological examination at Affiliated Hospital No. 4. Dr. Gu¡¯s task was completed, and he had to work the next day, so he hurried back with the pathology slices. Director Fang returned the slices to him for archiving. As he was leaving, Dr. Gu realized that the young doctor who had been showing him the Surface Ultrasound images that day was none other than the legendary Yang Ping. What an honor it was. With the aura of having published numerous papers in CNS, Yang Ping truly seemed like a god among these doctors. After Dr. Gu left, only Yang Ping and Director Fang were in the office. Yang Ping said seriously, ¡°This is not thyroid cancer. The Surface Ultrasound images show bilateral signs, meaning there¡¯s a low-echo rim surrounding the high-echo mass, which is a typical presentation of zombie nodules; combined with the descriptions from several medical records, Nong Tiesheng¡¯s entire onset of the disease involved the thyroid nodule remaining unchanged, suddenly growing, and then suddenly shrinking. These changes are often seen in thyroid nodules undergoing cystic changes or hemorrhage. The glandular tissue of the thyroid is generally quite loose. So if there is cystic change or hemorrhage inside, after some time, the cystic wall or solid tissue is likely to collapse, the internal fluid gets absorbed by the gland, and the solid tissue collapses, eventually forming an irregular, low-echo, solid nodule. Some nodules are taller than they are wide, and the concentrated colloid inside can easily be misdiagnosed as microcalcifications. Thus, after absorption, the Surface Ultrasound images can be easily confused with papillary thyroid carcinoma.¡± ¡°So the initial Surface Ultrasound considered it papillary thyroid carcinoma!¡± ¡°This type of thyroid zombie nodule is relatively rare and easily leads to misdiagnosis.¡± This is the most primitive information. Integrating all of these initial objective examination data, the truth is now clear: the patient doesn¡¯t have thyroid cancer but a zombie nodule instead. This way, linking these initial data with all the subsequent examinations conducted at Affiliated Hospital No. 4 makes sense ¨C why later all the tests there did not indicate thyroid cancer. ¡°So that¡¯s how it is!¡± Director Fang took a deep breath. But why didn¡¯t the doctors review the diagnosis at that time? Why was there no pathological report after the surgery? Or why, based on that diagnosis, diagnosed as thyroid cancer and then proceeded to perform radical surgery, followed by radiotherapy and targeted therapy? This doesn¡¯t seem like the procedural style of a higher-level hospital, unless¡ª Fuck! Director Fang cursed as he realized something. Chapter 1092 - 1092 888 Rebirth ?Chapter 1092: Chapter 888 Rebirth Chapter 1092: Chapter 888 Rebirth Director Fang felt that this matter was not simple, there must be something fishy going on. However, complaints were complaints, and rumors were just rumors. A single case was hardly enough to prove anything, there could have been some special circumstances at that time. After all, not being directly involved, one shouldn¡¯t rashly jump to conclusions. If one could obtain twenty cases that Director Qian had personally handled and diagnosed, and all twenty cases exhibited the same pattern, that would indeed be telling. For now, Director Fang¡¯s focus was on studying cases, and he didn¡¯t have time to consider this matter. He planned to find time to ask someone to go to Affiliated Hospital No. 4 to make copies of twenty cases for further examination. These thyroid ¡®zombie¡¯ tumors were indeed very rare and could easily be confused with thyroid adenocarcinoma in imaging studies. Without experience in this area, it would be difficult to make an accurate diagnosis. Today, Director Fang had learned another trick from Yang Ping; next time he encountered a similar thyroid nodule, he would definitely not make a misdiagnosis. Following Professor Yang, one truly could learn something at every turn. Medicine was indeed a profound field. Having been a doctor for over a decade, Director Fang had always considered himself skilled, but next to Professor Yang, he felt like he was just a primary school student. How could Professor Yang be so young and yet so experienced? It seemed like he had seen and done everything, as if he had activated ¡®Invincible Mode¡¯ in a game. Director Fang was quite puzzled. The closer he got to Professor Yang, the more distant Director Fang felt from him. The deeper his understanding of Professor Yang became, the more he realized how remarkable Professor Yang was and felt he was almost godlike. ¡°Let¡¯s go see Nong Tiesheng!¡± As Director Fang was seriously contemplating the imaging differentiation of thyroid ¡®zombie¡¯ nodules that Yang Ping had just mentioned, Yang Ping spoke to him. ¡°Right, let¡¯s go see Nong Tiesheng. It¡¯s about time to remove the cancer label from him.¡± Director Fang came back to his senses from his contemplation. So, the two went to the General Surgery Department for rounds. Nong Tiesheng and his son were having dinner, each with a bowl of white rice, sharing a large jar of chili sauce ¨C not store-bought, but brought from their own home. When the doctors arrived for their visit, Nong Tiesheng and Nong Zhiwen immediately put down their bowls and chopsticks, probably because they had no other dishes to eat and were squeezing together to eat rice with chili sauce, which left Nong Tiesheng feeling somewhat embarrassed. ¡°You¡¯ve just had surgery, so try to eat less of these salty dishes. You should take some nutrients, and eating a few more eggs would also do,¡± Yang Ping advised Nong Tiesheng. ¡°Yeah, I just don¡¯t have much of an appetite. I wanted to have some chili to whet it,¡± Nong Tiesheng explained, still slowly chewing his mouthful of rice. Upon hearing this, his son, Nong Zhiwen¡¯s face instantly turned red ¨C this wasn¡¯t about whetting the appetite; it was clearly about saving money, to save on their daily living expenses. In this period, their father and son¡¯s meals were nothing more than white rice with chili sauce, and sometimes they would buy a few large steamed buns from the breakfast store, eating two per meal, making it last for a day. ¡°You should include at least two eggs in your diet each day to keep up with your nutritional needs. The eggs from your own chickens are the best kind of nutrition,¡± Director Fang added. Nong Tiesheng nodded and just smiled naively. He couldn¡¯t bear to eat the eggs from their home chickens since they had to be sold for money. Treating the illness had basically drained all their resources, and the household was already running on empty, trying to save as much as possible ¨C every little bit helped. ¡°Rest assured, your surgery was very successful. From our experience, it should take about six months for your recurrent laryngeal nerve function to recover. After six months, all these symptoms should disappear ¨C your voice will no longer be hoarse, you won¡¯t choke or cough when drinking or eating, and your breathing will normalize. Your current breathing difficulty is due to one side of the recurrent laryngeal nerve being severed and the other side being compressed. Now that both issues are resolved, you can be at ease,¡± Yang Ping reassured Nong Tiesheng. Director Fang immediately shared some good news with Nong Tiesheng, ¡°The cost of this hospital stay and surgery will be very low. You won¡¯t need much medication post-surgery, and the total cost will be around twenty thousand yuan. After the Medical Insurance reimbursement, you¡¯ll probably only need to pay out of pocket five or six thousand yuan.¡± Hearing that the surgery was very successful and that he only needed to pay five or six thousand yuan, Nong Tiesheng couldn¡¯t believe it was true. At such a big hospital, after such a major surgery, how could it be possible to pay just a few thousand? It was the first time he felt that hospitalization and surgery could be so worry-free, in an economic sense. During his two operations at Affiliated Hospital No. 4, each time the cost had been over a hundred thousand yuan. The two operations took more than three hundred thousand yuan, plus multiple follow-ups and various adjuvant treatments. The treatment had already cost four to five hundred thousand yuan, and most of these expenses were not covered by insurance and had to be paid out of pocket. This simple and honest farmer in his fifties, who had been the pillar of the household and worked on construction sites when he was well, had seen his health decline day by day since becoming ill. Now, even speaking and walking were laborious for him, turning him into a severe burden for his family. Out of the corner of his eye, Yang Ping noticed a tracheostomy kit sitting on Nong Tiesheng¡¯s bedside cabinet, which was necessary to have on hand for a few days following a neck surgery, mainly in case of postoperative bleeding compressing the trachea, which could lead to asphyxiation. In such an event, an emergency tracheotomy must be performed. Because such an event was rare, doctors at most hospitals may not have this awareness and could easily overlook it. However, Director Fang still insisted on this protocol, as the kit could be life-saving if such a situation truly occurred, which is far better than frantically searching for tools when needed. It¡¯s best if these life-saving items are not needed, but one cannot be without them. Chapter 1093 - 1093 888 Rebirth_2 ?Chapter 1093: Chapter 888 Rebirth_2 Chapter 1093: Chapter 888 Rebirth_2 ¡°Does the tumor still need treatment?¡± asked Long Zhiwen worriedly. ¡°We¡¯ve looked at all your test results, and you no longer have a tumor. If your recurrent laryngeal nerves recover well, then you will only need to undergo thyroid hormone replacement therapy. With that, you¡¯ll completely be a normal person!¡± Yang Ping said patiently. A normal person? Upon hearing this, Nong Tiesheng didn¡¯t know how happy he was. Anyway, he didn¡¯t understand much, but hearing the doctor say he would be a normal person in the future, he couldn¡¯t help but shed tears. ¡°Rest assured, aside from thyroid hormone replacement therapy, you won¡¯t need any other treatment. It would be best if you add some nutrition and increase some physical exercise in the future. This way, you can fully recover to normal. Just keep taking your medicine, and you can work and live normally in the future. The reason you need medication is that your thyroid has been removed and can no longer secrete thyroid hormone; hence, your body lacks it. The purpose of the medication is nothing else but to supplement this hormone,¡± explained Yang Ping, hoping to lift the burden off Nong Tiesheng¡¯s mind. ¡°What do you mean? Is my cancer cured?¡± Nong Tiesheng still wasn¡¯t reassured and wanted to confirm again. ¡°I can say responsibly that you no longer have cancer now, and apart from lacking thyroid hormone, you are a normal person,¡± Yang Ping declared firmly. The cancer is gone! Completely cured! Nong Tiesheng didn¡¯t know how happy he was in his heart. Cancer was like a huge mountain, suffocating him and his entire family. His lips trembled, unable to speak, so excited that it was like being reborn. Yang Ping was very confident about the recovery of the recurrent laryngeal nerves. Apart from thyroid hormone replacement therapy, Nong Tiesheng would not need any other treatment in the future. This patient didn¡¯t need any treatment at first; looking at the initial test results, even the thyroid function was normal, truly a pity. Medically speaking, such thyroid nodules do not require any treatment, only routine surface ultrasound observation, but Nong Tiesheng not only underwent two surgeries but also had radiation and targeted therapy. Afterward, Yang Ping and Director Fang chatted with Nong Tiesheng and his son, trying to give them confidence and help Nong Tiesheng step out of the shadow of cancer. After finishing rounds and returning to Director Fang¡¯s office, Director Fang said to Yang Ping, ¡°There are some things I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s appropriate for me to say?¡± ¡°Go ahead!¡± Yang Ping knew what Director Fang wanted to say. Director Fang closed the door of his office and said: ¡°I¡¯ve inquired about it roughly, and this situation in General Surgery Department of Affiliated Hospital No. 4 is not an isolated case. I won¡¯t talk about other diseases for now, but regarding the treatment of thyroid nodules, once they find a thyroid nodule, no matter what the surface ultrasound results are, they order a complete set of examinations¡ªPET CT, bone scan, CT enhancement, MRI enhancement¡ªand then they recommend the patient undergo Da Vinci Robot surgery, followed by a slew of bizarre and expensive medications. I¡¯ve only heard about it but the information seems reliable.¡± ¡°Director Qian¡¯s reputation stinks. People who know him well in the circle would absolutely not recommend patients to him, let alone introduce relatives and friends to him; they avoid him completely.¡± ¡°A deputy chief physician in their department once reported him officially, and it caused a huge stir at the time, but somehow, he got off scot-free, and the person who reported him left the job mysteriously. Over the years, several people who reported him ended up the same way.¡± ¡°These are the things I¡¯ve learned. I¡¯m not sure if they are true.¡± Yang Ping just listened, not saying anything. Relying on this one case wasn¡¯t good enough to draw a conclusion. If they could gather a significant number of cases to study, they would surely get a very accurate understanding of the matter. Yang Ping didn¡¯t have much time to deal with these issues himself, but if the rumors were true, they definitely could not allow this person to continue causing harm. ¡°I¡¯ll get twenty cases out and see what¡¯s really going on. How about that?¡± Director Fang asked tentatively, as this was no longer a matter of professional knowledge, and he didn¡¯t know if Yang Ping would be interested. ¡°Okay, go ahead and do that.¡± Yang Ping felt that if it were true, it was necessary to stop such absurd activities. With Yang Ping¡¯s support, Director Fang felt much more confident, knowing that Director Qian had been thriving these years surely with some strong backing, otherwise he wouldn¡¯t remain unscathed till now. Not to mention other things, just this kind of treatment without a pathology report, an expanded radical surgery, and radiochemotherapy is rarely seen in a top-tier teaching hospital. So, if one were to venture into these muddy waters, Director Fang felt great resistance and feared it might backlash against him. Normally, who would want to involve themselves in something strenuous, thankless, and irrelevant to them? But Director Fang was different now; he was a man with ideals, a different realm, a naturally different perspective. Actually, Director Fang had also contacted a doctor who had once worked in the General Surgery Department at Affiliated Hospital No. 4 but probably didn¡¯t want to collude with the corruption, so had moved to another hospital. When Director Fang contacted him, he was still willing to disclose some information. Director Qian didn¡¯t just do this once, but regularly. He would always opt for robotic surgery instead of conventional surgery, because each robotic surgery costs hundreds of thousands, and he would prescribe expensive imported medicines whether they were suitable or not, and order a swath of comprehensive examinations. For instance, be it liver cysts, benign intestinal polyps, or thyroid nodules, he advocated for excessive treatments. For thyroid nodules, even if they were TI-RADS grade 2 or 3, Director Qian always arranged for PET-CT, bone scanning, etc., full body CTs, enhanced CTs, MRIs, enhanced MRIs were absolutely part of the package; these became his standard set of examinations for his patients. Even if the patients spent all their savings, it didn¡¯t concern him in the least. Of course, he claimed his sole purpose was the well-being of the patients, just in case they were faced with something severe. The medications for treatments were even more absurd; he frequently prescribed imported drugs costing tens of thousands, and hardly cared for drugs costing just a few thousand. He also had fixed external purchasing points which he partly owned, and reportedly, the drugstore owner was his mistress. He assigned quotas to the doctors in his department, warning those who fell below the target, and of course, he provided high returns for the doctors. Therefore, his department¡¯s doctors were also making a fortune, creating a situation of mutual benefit. Moreover, given the strong connections Director Qian had, he was virtually untouchable. There were a few times he was reported, but nothing happened to him; it was the whistleblowers who ended up in trouble, so afterward, no one dared to report him again. With such impunity, he accumulated a great amount of wealth. With money, many things become easier, so not only did Director Qian firmly hold his position in the General Surgery Department, but he also held various academic positions, serving as master¡¯s and doctoral advisor and thriving, forming a positive cycle, increasingly emboldened and greedy, and it was said he was planning to become the vice dean. Director Fang felt that if this were true, this guy was like a cancerous tumor, and he felt the need to do something about it. Initially, it was not a concern as it was not the same hospital, and such rumors were just tales of the world. Who knew if the rumors were true or false. But through the case of Nong Tiesheng, Director Fang felt the rumors might be true. After discussing it with colleagues from his former department to gather some intelligence, he found the details shocking. Since Professor Yang also didn¡¯t object, Director Fang decided to investigate thoroughly. Damn it, if it was true, this malignant tumor must be eradicated, absolutely. It was almost the end of the day, and Director Fang couldn¡¯t bother Yang Ping for too long, so he said, ¡°Professor Yang, thank you for your efforts. I¡¯ll look into this; if it¡¯s true, we need a good plan.¡± Yang Ping casually replied, ¡°Just bring out the case for me to see. If it¡¯s as you suspect, we¡¯ll discuss further.¡± Chapter 1094 - 1094 889 Retribution for Evil ?Chapter 1094: Chapter 889 Retribution for Evil Chapter 1094: Chapter 889 Retribution for Evil For Director Fang, acquiring dozens of case files from Affiliated Hospital No. 4 was not a difficult task. The medical community is quite small; everyone is either a classmate, a teacher and student, or a classmate of a classmate and so on. Even if you¡¯re not acquainted with someone, a slight detour will lead to a familiar face. Still, Director Fang sought out the doctor who had resigned from the General Surgery Department of Affiliated Hospital No. 4. This Doctor Gong was now at the Provincial City¡¯s Second People¡¯s Hospital in Nandu. As one of the nation¡¯s leading cities, there¡¯s no shortage of top-tier hospitals, but the Second People¡¯s Hospital in Nandu¡¯s Provincial City is only considered a third-tier hospital. Doctor Gong had not wanted to be part of the corruption, but he also lacked the strength to fight against it, so he chose to escape. It¡¯s likely that Doctor Gong had endured quite a bit of injustice back then, never having a chance to fight back. Now that someone was getting involved with Director Qian¡¯s affairs, Doctor Gong was eager to help. His wife¡¯s classmate worked in Affiliated Hospital No. 4¡¯s medical records room, so obtaining copies of twenty case files was not a difficult task. As soon as he got the case files, Director Fang had not even had time to look them over before he rushed off to find Yang Ping. The twenty case files were all from patients with tumors in the General Surgery Department¡ªthyroid, liver, stomach, intestines¡ªin short, they were quite representative¡ª Some had pathological reports indicating malignancy. Without question, any examination or treatment that might be related to the tumor was scheduled. It¡¯s unclear whether the friend in the records room did this intentionally, but the remaining case files were all benign and shared one feature: no pathological report. How could there be a pathological report without a pathological examination? No wonder Nong Tiesheng couldn¡¯t find the report at the time, and then the Pathology Department found no files on him¡ªthe samples had never been sent to Pathology, so there were no records. Based on imaging studies that suggested they were benign, the full spectrum of treatments under the guise of comprehensive therapy from Qian¡¯s ¡°super package¡± was arranged. The cases suspected of malignancy on imaging studies were Director Qian¡¯s primary targets. If there was suspicion, they would not perform pathological examinations from start to finish. With this suspected diagnosis, they treated it directly as a malignant tumor, taking the treatment to the extreme, including surgeries that were either Radical Surgeries or expanded Radical Surgeries. Combining these case files with Nong Tiesheng¡¯s treatment process, everything became crystal clear. It was not that Director Qian didn¡¯t know standard diagnosis and treatment protocols, but that he deliberately persisted in his errors. Had a pathological examination been performed, the result would likely have been benign, removing the justification for his exhaustive treatments. Thus, he intentionally used the initial diagnosis from the county hospital as a confirmed diagnosis, then went to great lengths to exploit it. The estimated treatment cost for these cases was not less than 100,000 yuan each, with one exceeding 300,000 yuan. Moreover, Director Fang noticed a common trait in these medical records: the cultural level of the patients and their families was relatively low. Frankly, if things were exposed, Director Qian wasn¡¯t afraid of these people; he would choose the soft persimmons to squeeze. Yang Ping and Director Fang specially set aside an entire afternoon to review the medical records several times. Yang Ping closed the copy of the medical records without saying anything after reading them. ¡°What should we do?¡± Director Fang asked. Yang Ping did not say a word, and it was not good for Director Fang to ask further. Dammit! Director Fang wanted to curse. Frustration was welling up inside him, and he just couldn¡¯t get over it. That night, Director Fang suffered from insomnia, his mind preoccupied with the matter, and he went to work the next morning with a heavy head. Right after the morning shift, Doctor Gong called Director Fang with very important information, saying Director Qian was taken from his home in the middle of the previous night by the provincial disciplinary department. Director Fang breathed a sigh of relief. This was karma in action. Dammit, this little piece of filth¡ªif he hadn¡¯t been caught by such a coincidence, Director Fang had already decided to collect evidence and expose him, using the power of public opinion to push the matter forward. Now he has been taken away, which is indeed a great relief! Having been a doctor for over a decade and, if his studies are also counted, in the medical profession for more than twenty years, this was the first time Director Fang had seen such people and such misconduct. If it weren¡¯t for these twenty case files laid out before him, he wouldn¡¯t have believed it. At that moment, Director Fang felt a chill down his spine. Affiliated Hospital No. 4! A large, top-tier, teaching hospital. Director Fang immediately ran to the Surgery Research Department to share the good news, ¡°I heard Director Qian was taken away last night, it must be related to this.¡± ¡°How could such a person not be dealt with? Was he supposed to be left for the New Year? He should have been addressed long ago. I don¡¯t understand how he managed to behave so badly for so long,¡± Yang Ping said indifferently. Truly a cause for celebration! Originally, Director Fang had been racked with insomnia, pondering how to handle the situation, how to avoid backlash while eliminating this cancerous growth. He had thought all night and felt that gathering evidence to make it public was the best approach. Now, fortunately, Director Qian had been taken away. According to the rumor, this time it was different from before; the provincial authorities had not given Affiliated Hospital No. 4 any notice. They had just taken him from his home at night, only informing the hospital the next day during work hours. This news caused an uproar in Affiliated Hospital No. 4. Inside, everyone knew about Director Qian¡¯s misdeeds, but what could they do? He was like a Weeble that wouldn¡¯t fall down. When that associate chief physician reported him, Director Qian pointed at the physician and said: ¡°Go ahead and report me. I¡¯ll tell you, you can¡¯t defeat me, but I can crush you with just my finger.¡± In the end, that associate chief physician was indeed ¡°crushed¡± by Director Qian¡¯s finger and was forced to resign. Chapter 1095 - 1095 889 Retribution for Evil_2 ?Chapter 1095: Chapter 889 Retribution for Evil_2 Chapter 1095: Chapter 889 Retribution for Evil_2 ¡°The net of heaven is vast and wide, yet misses nothing,¡± Director Qian will surely be ¡°poked to death¡± by the national law this time. Yang Ping was thinking about whether to tell Nong Tiesheng the truth. As the patient, the victim, he has the right to know what the truth is. If he is told the truth, will he lose faith in doctors? After all, Director Qian is just a scourge among them, a disgrace among the medical team. The vast majority of doctors are hardworking, obedient to the law, and devotedly saving lives and healing the wounded. This is truly a difficult decision to make. Director Qian will eventually be brought to justice, and by then the truth will naturally come out. At that point, when all is concluded, Nong Tiesheng will come to know the truth. Let¡¯s wait until that time to discuss it. A few days later, Nong Tiesheng was discharged from the hospital. His condition didn¡¯t require a prolonged hospital stay; a few days were sufficient. At the time of discharge, he was very happy, like a man reborn. ¡ª Frankfurt, Germany, Europe. The European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting will be held in this city. At this time, thousands of spinal surgery experts from over 80 countries around the world are flocking here, hoping to attend this global academic event. Generally, the academic conferences in North America and Europe are international because many of the standard practices are either European or North American standards. Each time these two regions hold their medical academic annual meetings, the experts and professors from China¡¯s top hospitals are sure to attend. The team from Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 was led by Professor Su, with Professor Zou, several other professors and doctors of spinal surgery accompanying him. The team disembarked at Frankfurt Airport, and as they just exited the gate, a conspicuous welcome sign was raised high. ¡°Welcome Professor Su Qingyun from China to guide the work in Germany.¡± My goodness! Did we board the wrong plane? Professor Zou was startled, immediately looking around. He then took out his boarding pass to confirm¡ªno, this is Frankfurt, Germany. But why does this welcome sign look so familiar, and how could such a sign appear in Germany? So, they all headed towards the welcome sign. Several blonde-haired, blue-eyed Germans had already taken the initiative to come over. Leading them was none other than Professor August, who had come to pick them up personally. ¡°Professor Su, welcome, welcome!¡± Professor August ran over, enthusiastically calling out to Professor Su. Even Professor Su himself was surprised. Why would August pick him up in person? Professor Zou¡¯s mind raced as he pondered the reason behind this. After a moment of bewilderment, Professor Zou finally understood. Hadn¡¯t August mentioned in the past that he was learning spinal surgery under Yang Ping? Then it all made sense. Professor Su was Yang Ping¡¯s father-in-law, and August being Yang Ping¡¯s student, naturally showed respect to his mentor¡¯s father-in-law. August is Yang Ping¡¯s student, but somehow this felt strange, because although August was enthusiastic, he was exuding the air of a world-class spinal surgery master from head to toe. August¡¯s handshake was extremely skilled; he was very familiar with this Chinese custom. When in China, Professor Zou saw a very different August. He was like a regular standardized training student. Professor Zou still had the scenes of August transferring patients between beds and hurrying along the corridor with a medicine cart replaying in his mind. Professor Zou even doubted if the August he saw then and the one before him now were the same person. One exudes an extraordinary demeanor, the other was obsequious. One dressed meticulously, the other was quite sloppy. One was full of confidence, the other was timid and fearful. When Professor Zou happened to encounter August at Affiliated Hospital No. 1, he remembered August was so timid that he barely managed a few words, worried about Yang Ping not finding him and getting annoyed for not having anyone to transport patients. The contrast was so stark that Professor Zou felt it all seemed unreal. ¡°Welcome to Germany!¡± Under the personal guidance of August, the Mercedes-Benz business van specifically for the pickup was already waiting in the parking lot. Riding in the business van to the hotel where the conference was being held, August had already arranged the presidential suite for Professor Su and his entourage. Professor Zou and the other doctors also benefitted from this arrangement. Passing through the lobby, Professor Su surprisingly ran into the team of Professor Fu Shancheng from Huaxi Hospital. They were attempting to book rooms in the conference hotel. The reception desk refused to agree because Professor Fu wasn¡¯t on the list. Only those on the list would have their rooms booked by the conference organizers, and those not on the list had to book their own rooms at nearby hotels. One of the professors accompanying Professor Fu was arguing with the reception desk about that. Not just in Europe and America, but also at domestic academic conferences, the treatment of guests and ordinary participating doctors is definitely different. Speaking of spinal surgery, almost every procedure either originated in Europe or in the United States. Two eminent CD doctors known for scoliosis correction surgery¡ªone a Frenchman, the other an American. The currently hot topics such as spinal minimally invasive surgery, dynamic fixation, artificial disc replacement, etc., are all techniques created in Europe and America. In terms of originality, what China can offer is rather pitiful. Therefore, in these academic areas, China¡¯s presence isn¡¯t very strong. In recent years, everyone has been trying to catch up, gradually coming up with some original work, but relatively speaking, it¡¯s still on the weaker side. This academic conference might change that situation, as Song Zimo has brought all original techniques. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Professor Su immediately went over to greet Professor Fu and then learned about the situation. Chapter 1096 - 1096 889 Retribution for Evil_3 ?Chapter 1096: Chapter 889 Retribution for Evil_3 Chapter 1096: Chapter 889 Retribution for Evil_3 Upon overhearing this, August felt a deep sense of guilt, recognizing that despite the meticulous planning, arrangements for the Chinese professors had somehow been overlooked. Since these matters were usually delegated to others, it wasn¡¯t possible for him to arrange everything personally; he had only directly handled the accommodations for Professor Su and Song Zimo. August immediately called over the manager of the conference service team: ¡°Arrange accommodations for Professor Fu¡¯s team at this hotel.¡± The manager was in a difficult position as these plans had been made at least six months in advance, and it wasn¡¯t feasible to alter them at this stage. All the rooms were already booked, and changing them now would affect numerous attendees. ¡°Mr. August, we¡¯re really powerless in this situation. If we make arrangements now, other people who were already booked won¡¯t have rooms,¡± the manager said, troubled. August immediately demanded, ¡°Let me see that!¡± The manager handed him a thick notebook, which contained the conference service team¡¯s list of names and corresponding room numbers. ¡°Give me a pen!¡± August quickly crossed out a batch of names in the notebook: ¡°The Chinese have already advanced to the forefront of the world¡¯s academia; these rooms must be vacated for them. Do as I say.¡± Having seen the notebook, and with August insisting on proceeding in this manner, the manager complied. After resolving the minor dispute, August personally led Professor Su to the hotel¡¯s presidential suite. Just before leaving, Professor Su said to Professor Fu, ¡°Once settled, let¡¯s all get together.¡± Professor Fu watched as Professor Su was escorted with such fanfare. Professor August personally accompanied him, surrounded by several Germans who were attending to them, with one even offering information about the hotel in Chinese. This didn¡¯t seem like something one would do for a conference; it seemed more like an official inspection. When had Old Su gained such a prominent position in the international community? This level of treatment wasn¡¯t something just anyone could enjoy. Even if several top world leaders attended the conference, it was doubtful August would personally accompany them or have so many people attending to them. In his field of vision, August himself ran ahead to operate the elevator, inviting Professor Su to enter with a bow. How could this scene be so surreal? Professor Fu Shancheng couldn¡¯t understand. Here he was, arguing over a room, while Old Su received personal accompaniment by the conference chair himself. What could possibly be the reason? Old Su had just mentioned they should meet up after getting settled. Yet his own room hadn¡¯t been arranged, and he was waiting for the conference service team to do so. Old Su¡¯s room must already have been set. Which room was it? Thus, Professor Fu immediately called Old Su to ask for his room number. Once he got it, he didn¡¯t know whether it would be more convenient to take the elevator from the east or the west, as he was unfamiliar with the surroundings. So, he asked a clerk at the front desk. The clerk took a look at the room number and courteously informed him, ¡°This is the presidential suite of our hotel; there¡¯s a special elevator for it.¡± Presidential suite? He had booked a regular room, and everyone was fussing, claiming there were no rooms left. How could Old Su have booked the presidential suite? What was going on? ¡°I¡¯m sorry, might I ask if you are friends of Professor Su?¡± That¡¯s when a young girl approached them, speaking in Chinese. ¡°Yes, we are!¡± answered Professor Fu Shancheng. ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry, we¡¯ve already arranged your rooms. I will take you there now. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience. Our hotel has just over six hundred rooms, but there are over five thousand attendees for the conference. If the arrangements have not been satisfactory, please forgive us.¡± The German girl spoke Chinese very fluently. Then, a few young German men who had come with her began to help with the luggage. Did Old Su have such a huge reputation in Europe? That seemed odd. How had his status risen so quickly? The most famous of Old Su¡¯s academic achievements was that biological bone cement, indeed an excellent topic. However, it didn¡¯t justify him strutting around Europe as if he owned the place, yet that seemed to be exactly the case now. Chapter 1097 - 1097 890 Who Is Swimming Naked ?Chapter 1097: Chapter 890 Who Is Swimming Naked Chapter 1097: Chapter 890 Who Is Swimming Naked The team from Huaxi Hospital led by Professor Fu Shancheng handled the check-in procedures, arranged their luggage, and Professor Su reminded them to have dinner together later. After a short rest, Professor Fu Shancheng, led by a dedicated server, visited Professor Su¡¯s room. My goodness, this is truly a presidential suite. Professor Su¡¯s room must be the best one in this hotel¡ªprobably the most luxurious accommodation among all the attending doctors. Even the world-class experts probably don¡¯t get this kind of treatment. This exceeds the standard hospitality of the conference. Professor Fu, who often attends conferences in Europe and America, is very familiar with how these things work abroad. Even for top-notch experts, he hadn¡¯t heard of organizers arranging a presidential suite for anyone. And it¡¯s not just about the presidential suite; looking at the setup, in addition to the hotel¡¯s 24-hour dedicated steward team, there are clearly a few German youngsters specifically to translate for Old Su. That¡¯s not all; throughout the conference, Old Su has special meals prepared just for him by a personal chef. The President of the United States himself wouldn¡¯t receive better treatment. Could it be that I¡¯m out of the loop and Old Su¡¯s research achievements have become world-renowned without my knowledge? Is Old Su generating buzz far and wide without us realizing? It¡¯s not unheard of in the scientific community for some researchers and their achievements to go unnoticed in their own country for a while, only to gain significant fame abroad. Take, for example, a patent for a new drug from an institute in Shanghai which went unnoticed for years, even unknown to the locals. Later, an international pharmaceutical giant bought the patent for hundreds of millions and turned the patented drug into a lucrative product sold back to us at a high price, reaping huge profits. Only then did the related departments in Shanghai learn about this amazing patent they had sold off that was now being used to make money from them. Reportedly, this ordinary researcher usually rode a bicycle to and from work in China. Whenever he attended conferences in Europe and America, the pharmaceutical company would welcome him at the airport with banners, barely stopping short of rolling out a red carpet. Could Old Su be in a similar situation? Old Su¡¯s treatment is just shy of having a red carpet laid out for him. Old Su, oh Old Su, who would have thought? But it¡¯s good for us. By following Old Su, we get to share in the spoils and enjoy fine dining and luxury accommodations. In Professor Su¡¯s suite, everyone chatted and then went to dinner together. Professor Su understood that his son-in-law was the reason behind this special treatment. Don¡¯t be fooled by August, president of the European Spinal Surgery Society, who had spent several months learning spinal surgery at Sanbo Hospital from his son-in-law. Strictly speaking, he was a student of his son-in-law. So, behind this special treatment lay his son-in-law¡¯s support, and the more Old Su thought about it, the more delighted he became. After having dinner with Professor Su, August, who was very busy, excused himself, leaving behind a team responsible for Professor Su¡¯s needs, including translating, during the conference. Professor Fu also excused himself to rest after the long, tiring flight. Back in the presidential suite, Professor Zou couldn¡¯t help but feel admiration; the boss¡¯s son-in-law was indeed influential. It was just a conference trip to Europe, yet they were enjoying such prestigious treatment. Taking a rest in his room, Professor Zou asked with concern, ¡°How come Xiao Yang didn¡¯t come to the conference this time?¡± ¡°He¡¯s a workaholic, extremely busy nowadays, and doesn¡¯t show much interest in these sorts of conferences anymore. It seems he sent an assistant instead,¡± Professor Su said, taking a sip from his teacup. This seemingly casual remark carried significant weight. To not show interest in such conferences and to only send an assistant implies how proud the young man is. Only Professor Yang could afford such an attitude with his capabilities. Professor Zou looked through the conference participant list and indeed found Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang listed. Song Zimo was somewhat of a celebrity, as many of the surgeries during the Golden Knife Award competition were performed by him. Glancing over the conference agenda, Song Zimo¡¯s presentation was scheduled quite early. Out of 80 abstracts scheduled for a standard five-minute presentation in the main hall, there were eight from China, and remarkably, three were by Song Zimo alone. Speaking at such a conference is impressive enough, but having three presentations to oneself is dazzling; such a record is probably rare in the history of these conferences. Professor Zou looked at Song Zimo¡¯s presentation topics¡ªNew Osteotomy in Correcting Spinal Deformities; Yang-style Osteotomy, the Use of External Spinal Fixators in Correcting Scoliosis, and Precise Epiphyseal Arrest Technique for Correcting Adolescent Scoliosis: An Animal Experiment Report. August¡¯s topic also revolved around these three new technologies. It seems these topics would dominate the conference. ¡ª With Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang away at the conference in Europe, the department lost two key members, and this multiplied the burden on Yang Ping¡¯s shoulders. Many tasks that didn¡¯t require his direct involvement before now needed his attention. For instance, many surgeries that didn¡¯t require Yang Ping as the chief surgeon¡ªhe only needed to supervise from the sidelines¡ªnow demanded his direct involvement. Zhang Lin and Little Five, the two brothers, now had a rare opportunity to take the lead. This time, they were very proactive, eager to test if they could handle responsibilities on their own. Both were attending physicians and also held a world-class specialty book. Usually assisting under Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, they finally had the chance to demonstrate their abilities. ¡°Professor, just leave it to us for any matters. Please rest assured, we can handle it,¡± Zhang Lin was full of confidence. Chapter 1098 - 1098 890 Who Is Swimming Naked_2 ?Chapter 1098: Chapter 890 Who Is Swimming Naked_2 Chapter 1098: Chapter 890 Who Is Swimming Naked_2 ¡°Yes, don¡¯t worry, we can handle it!¡± Little Five too refused to be left behind, deciding to join Zhang Lin and really give it their all. Even Li Guodong was itching to try, hoping to make a good impression at this critical time. With the eldest and the second senior brothers now lecturing in Europe, and so young to stand on a world-class stage in front of spinal surgeons from all over the world, Li Guodong made a firm resolution to work hard and aspire to achieve the same, learning from his two senior brothers. Yang Ping was browsing through the case files on the computer, and faced with their self-recommendation, he pointed to the computer and said: ¡°That¡¯s great; there¡¯s a patient from Southeast Asia right here¡ªa vertebral tumor. They sought us out after many hospitals dared not take the case. Arrange the surgery for them, and do a complete resection of the vertebral tumor using my no-leak resection technique. You¡¯ve followed a lot of surgeries and done quite a few animal experiments, and under the guidance of more senior doctors, you¡¯ve handled some cases too. You should be able to handle this, right?¡± Little Five and Zhang Lin were thrilled; this was an opportunity to leapfrog social classes! ¡°No problem, rest assured! Leave it to us.¡± The two slapped their chests with great confidence. ¡°Then you will perform this patient¡¯s surgery, and I will observe from below,¡± Yang Ping said earnestly. ¡°Also, this patient with scoliosis who can¡¯t tolerate long-term treatment with an external fixation frame needs traditional osteotomy for correction. Leave that to you as well. Let me see, what other surgeries are there these days? There¡¯s a coronary bypass, radical surgery for pancreatic cancer, correction of upper cervical cranial base deformity¡ªlet¡¯s leave all these to you. You need to hold up the fort,¡± Yang Ping said casually. Zhang Lin and Little Five immediately felt immense pressure, their foreheads sweating; these were top-tier surgeries. Ordinary surgeries could never showcase one¡¯s level; to shine, one must undertake such technically demanding surgeries¡ªthe heavens were about to place a great responsibility upon these men. The brothers clasped hands tightly, encouraging each other. Whether they could transcend their current status would depend on their performance in the coming days. Maybe with a strong performance, they could lead their own team in the future. When Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were leading teams, they were attending physicians, who were only promoted to deputy chief physicians later on. Now that they themselves had been promoted to attending physicians, it was the golden time to make achievements. Since ancient times, heroes emerge from the young! Suddenly, a lofty and bold spirit burst forth from the chests of Zhang Lin and Little Five. Seeing their enthusiasm, Yang Ping decided to let them experience it on their own, even if they couldn¡¯t perform the surgery when the time came. They could experience making decisions as the primary responsible persons, knowing there was a safety net with him around. ¡°Professor, are you really entrusting this to us?¡± Little Five was somewhat incredulous. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Really; you should also do some things independently. The surgeries you usually perform as chief surgeon are either relatively less difficult, or under the guidance of Dr. Song and Dr. Xu. The surgeries of these patients are indeed challenging; it¡¯s a good test of your abilities.¡± ¡°Right! When the tide goes out, you find out who¡¯s been swimming naked!¡± Zhang Lin nodded gravely. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it definitely won¡¯t be us swimming naked,¡± Little Five also nodded. Xia Shu, Dr. Jin, and Dr. Wen, standing nearby, could hardly believe their ears. Could these two dummies really perform these kinds of surgeries? Since Xia Shu wasn¡¯t originally from Sanbo Hospital, she might not have been as shocked, but Dr. Jin and Dr. Wen, who were formerly from orthopedics, didn¡¯t yet know what sort of characters Zhang Lin and Little Five were. They were just on good terms with Yang Ping and had clung to his coattails. When the department was first established, they followed Yang Ping over. Frankly, these two lads were nothing but Yang Ping¡¯s lackeys. Zhang Lin in the hospital was known for his big mouth, bragging everywhere every day; as for Little Five, well, due to his sweet talk, good looks, and nimble handling of matters, plus having married a rich and beautiful wife, was seen by everyone as a pretty boy¡ªone who managed to get a free ride because of his looks. Ignoring the shocked expressions of the others, the two got straight down to work. ¡°Guodong, bring over all these patients¡¯ films, so we can thoroughly analyze the illnesses and thoughtfully establish the surgery plans,¡± said Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin was extremely serious, not at all pretentious, and he could sense the unusual looks from the people around him; he didn¡¯t care about that at all. ¡°Bring the case records, too. Have the lab results been attached?¡± Little Five instructed Li Guodong. Usually, they were split into two groups, with Zhang Lin following Xu Zhiliang and Little Five following Song Zimo. If they were to separate now and each fight on their own, their strength would be clearly insufficient, so the two decided to join forces, twist into a single rope, discuss everything together, and conduct the surgeries together as well. Everyone was serious. The cart with the medical records was immediately wheeled over, and the X-ray films were brought over in bag after bag. Seeing the seriousness of the two, Xia Shu, Dr. Jin, and Dr. Wen could only watch idly by, unable to step in. Besides, the cases Professor Yang just mentioned were indeed very complicated, and only a few doctors would be capable of handling such surgeries. They themselves might not be up to the task. ¡°Hmm, the tumor has invaded T1¨CT4, and the blood supply in this segment is very poor. We have to be extremely careful not to damage the blood vessels supplying the spinal cord. The tumor has adhesive contact with the thoracoabdominal organs in the front, so here we need to be particularly careful, brother. During this time, you¡¯ve been focusing on the anterior approach and I¡¯ve been focusing on the posterior approach. How about we team up, give combined support, with you handling the anterior and me the posterior?¡± ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I was thinking. I¡¯ll take care of the anterior surgery.¡± The two brothers often trained together, and to avoid conflicts, like when an experimental pig was used for surgery, having both perform surgery on the same area would be problematic. So their focused surgical training was often separate, like in spinal surgery¡ªfor the time being, Zhang Lin specialized in the posterior approach and Little Five in the anterior approach. They would switch training after they each felt quite proficient. ¡°We have to plan well to achieve an entire block resection without leakage. How about starting from here? What do you think?¡± ¡°That can be done, but be very careful here. These are the blood vessels supplying the spinal cord, and we absolutely cannot damage them.¡± ¡°These vessels are in the front; you¡¯ll handle them.¡± ¡°No problem. I will take care of these few vessels, which need to be separated and protected in advance.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s take our time, no rush. We¡¯ll do it step by step, and the blood reserve needs to be sufficient.¡± ¡°Guodong, you need to communicate with the Blood Transfusion Department in advance. Make sure we have enough blood for the patient, we¡¯ll need 10 units of packed red blood cells, and prepare 2000 milliliters of plasma. This way, we¡¯ll be prepared for any eventuality. Brother Five, is that enough blood?¡± ¡°That should be about right.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll work overtime together tonight, draw the surgical diagrams. Such a comprehensive vertebral resection involves a custom-made prosthesis for dual-implantation support. Get in touch with Manager Huang to prepare in advance.¡± These two guys completely ignored everyone around them, looking every bit the serious professors. Yang Ping watched the two of them, seemingly proper in every way, but these two were indeed very diligent. They knew they were not as academically strong as Song Zimo or Xu Zhiliang, so they worked very hard, even giving up gaming. They spent their entire days together, either drawing anatomy diagrams or training in surgical fundamentals, followed by participating in surgeries with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. Originally, Xu Zhiliang wasn¡¯t too fond of Zhang Lin, so when he supervised Zhang Lin during surgeries, Zhang Lin would often be on the receiving end of scolding. Each time he was scolded, Zhang Lin would nod and bow, trying to appease with a smile. But although Old Xu was harsh in his scolding, his teaching during surgeries was very serious. He instructed step by step, rigorously, leading Zhang Lin through each surgical procedure. Compared to Zhang Lin, Little Five didn¡¯t get scolded as much by Song Zimo. Song Zimo generally didn¡¯t like to scold people. Plus, with Little Five¡¯s quick mind and his ability to speak pleasantly, he generally didn¡¯t provoke Song Zimo¡¯s temper, resulting in a much more harmonious superior-subordinate relationship between them. Moreover, Song Zimo was not as serious as Xu Zhiliang and had a more flexible and varied teaching style, valuing learning through fun, which meant Little Five¡¯s working environment was a lot more relaxed. After so much learning, whether they were ready or not, Yang Ping also wanted to see. It was like setting an examination. Of course, for the sake of safety, Yang Ping would be watching the whole process vigilantly, the so-called ¡®hands-off but eyes-on,¡¯ keeping everything within a controllable range. Chapter 1099 - 1099 891 Several Pigs Were Completely ?Chapter 1099: Chapter 891: Several Pigs Were Completely Paralyzed Chapter 1099: Chapter 891: Several Pigs Were Completely Paralyzed PS: Please make some more revisions before reviewing it again. Doctors began to arrive one after the other for the European Academic Conference, including top spine surgery experts from various countries, such as Milton from the United Kingdom, Woodhead from the United States, and Fujiwara from Japan, among others. Over six thousand doctors from all around the world flocked to Frankfurt, Germany. Besides the doctors, numerous pharmaceutical companies and medical device companies also came from around the world to exhibit their products. Whether in China or in Western countries, medical conferences often attract pharmaceutical and medical device companies. China¡¯s top hospitals¡¯ leading figures in spine surgery also arrived one after another, including representatives not only from Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 but also from Xiehe, Jishuitan, Mo Sixth, Huaxi, and others. Many doctors from various other hospitals also attended, many of whom were eager to gain new experiences. Only seven Chinese hospitals managed to secure a five-minute speaking opportunity at the conference, presenting a total of nine papers, three of which belonged to Song Zimo alone. In fact, when they received the conference schedule, doctors from many countries were very dissatisfied with the arrangements of this conference. They couldn¡¯t believe that Song Zimo from China managed to secure three papers¡¯ worth of speaking time all to himself, with each presentation allotted ten minutes instead of the usual five. Due to the large number of participants, the speaking time had to be strictly controlled, and many doctors understood the arrangements of August¡¯s conference. Milton from the United Kingdom found it most incomprehensible, because according to the conference schedule, his presentations were all after Song Zimo¡¯s, which was unacceptable to him. In previous European Spinal Surgery Annual Meetings, with August serving as the chairman, his presentations were ranked first, followed by Milton. But this time, Song Zimo was ranked first, even ahead of August, and naturally, Milton was postponed to third, with Manstein invited to give a speech at the opening ceremony this year. The best Marriott hotel in Frankfurt was now bustling with activity due to the conference. Ruixing Medical, as China¡¯s best medical device company, also sent a team to the conference and set up an exhibition booth. Of course, the meticulous August did not forget to give Ruixing Medical special consideration, assigning them the best exhibition location. Song Zimo arrived in Frankfurt in the morning, followed by Xu Zhiliang. Song Zimo, dressed in a stand-collared Zhongshan suit, looked particularly dashing, whereas Xu Zhiliang had on new clothes, pants without any holes, but his hairstyle still appeared somewhat sloppy. August welcomed them to a high-end business suite at the Marriott Hotel, accommodation reserved by the conference organizers for distinguished expert guests. As for Professor Su¡¯s presidential suite, that was something August paid for out of his own pocket. ¡ª Work at the Surgical Research Institute proceeded methodically. Zhang Lin and Lu Xiaowu, two professors, were now very serious, working overtime to research treatment plans for patients, seemingly very confident. Surgeries were scheduled as normal, and there were many of them arranged tightly. The first was a spinal scoliosis correction surgery, with the vertebral tumor surgery scheduled as the last one. Spinal scoliosis surgery is one of the most challenging and risky operations in orthopedics. Currently, few hospitals are able to perform it, and even fewer can perform it in large numbers. Those hospitals that do offer it but with a low volume usually handle cases that do not have a severe degree of deformity. Today¡¯s spinal scoliosis surgery would certainly be considered high difficulty at other hospitals, but here at the Surgical Research Institute, it could only be considered quite ordinary, since many scoliosis surgeries performed here are of a very high difficulty, often cases that other hospitals have declined. There¡¯s a reason why the Institute bears this name. Zhang Lin was the chief surgeon for this surgery. Anesthesiologist Liang Fatty was administering the anesthesia. Zhang Lin stood up straight, chest out, scrutinizing the imaging in front of the light box before the surgery commenced. ¡°Brother Five, are the osteotomy points we designed correct? Do they meet the requirements of Professor Yang¡¯s osteotomy technique?¡± asked Zhang Lin, consulting with Little Five. Little Five nodded, ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡± To confirm these osteotomy points, Zhang Lin and Little Five had drawn many surgical diagrams the day before. ¡°C-Arm machine, who¡¯s in charge of the C-Arm machine? Adjust it quickly, we¡¯ll need to use it for positioning both before and during the surgery.¡± ¡°Anesthesiologist, hurry up.¡± ¡°Where¡¯s the instrumental nurse, Zhou Can? Why hasn¡¯t she gone to scrub up yet?¡± As the chief surgeon, Zhang Lin now began to take charge. He had led some surgeries before, but strictly speaking, those weren¡¯t really in the role of chief surgeon. Today was the day he was truly taking the lead in this kind of high-difficulty surgery. Among his classmates who were involved in orthopedics, none who were able to lead a spinal scoliosis surgery as chief surgeons, with most of their department directors lacking the capability to lead such surgery as well. Just a few surgeries like this, and then maybe posting something on moments afterward, would be exhilarating! Zhang Lin was calculating in his mind. ¡°Why are you rushing? The anesthesia isn¡¯t even done yet,¡± Zhou Can said, clearly annoyed by Zhang Lin¡¯s attitude of superiority that day. ¡°Hey! Today I¡¯m the chief surgeon,¡± Zhang Lin raised his voice, ¡°are you daring to not follow the chief surgeon¡¯s instructions?¡± Zhou Can glanced at him, seeing that Zhang Lin really considered himself a professor. Fatty chimed in on Zhou Can¡¯s side, ¡°That¡¯s enough, no need for such a high and mighty attitude; even your voice is twice as loud when you¡¯re performing surgery.¡± Of course, today I am the chief surgeon, so what I say goes. At that moment, Yang Ping entered, looked around the operating room, and sat down in a corner. Zhang Lin immediately came over to bow and report the current state of the surgery preparations. Sitting down, Yang Ping addressed Zhang Lin, ¡°Just pretend I¡¯m not here and do your work. Today in this room, you¡¯re the chief surgeons. Take on the responsibility and demeanor of a chief surgeon.¡± Chapter 1100 - 1100 891 How Many Pigs Are Paralyzed_2 ?Chapter 1100: Chapter 891: How Many Pigs Are Paralyzed?_2 Chapter 1100: Chapter 891: How Many Pigs Are Paralyzed?_2 It seemed that Professor Yang was truly allowing them to take the lead as chief surgeons, not just in words, but in action, which meant he had to perform well. Thus, the fiery spirit of the lead surgeon, which had just dimmed, now reignited, ¡°Everyone, pick up the pace. Guodong, after positioning the patient, you need to quickly lead the team in washing hands, disinfecting, and laying the drapes.¡± ¡°Brother Five, should we review the images again?¡± So the two walked back to the image light to study the films carefully. Usually, before the surgery began, junior doctors were busy scrubbing and laying drapes while the chief surgeon would find some time to review the images once more. Now, Zhang Lin was the chief surgeon, a senior doctor, and he had to adopt a calm and collected demeanor while reviewing the images at the image light. ¡°How long will the surgery approximately take?¡± Liang Fatty asked, so that he could manage the anesthesia timing. Zhang Lin thought for a moment; it was hard to say, so he asked Little Five, ¡°Brother Five, how long might we need?¡± Little Five didn¡¯t know either. Usually, when they performed spinal scoliosis correction surgery as the lead surgeon, they were accompanied by a senior doctor who would step in and handle any complications, which meant the surgery time didn¡¯t reflect their true capability. Now the two were independently leading the surgery, and it was uncertain how long it would take without a comparable reference. ¡°Let¡¯s prepare for four hours initially, no, make it five hours,¡± Zhang Lin said uncertainly. Liang Fatty would have to adjust as they went, possibly adding more anesthetic mid-procedure. However, anesthesia for spinal scoliosis surgery had demanding requirements. If the timing was inaccurately estimated and the patient became agitated during the procedure, it could severely affect the surgical maneuvers, risking damage to the spinal cord. Li Guodong was also very proactive. With Zhang Lin and Little Five stepping up as chief surgeons, he was considered one of the outstanding young doctors, and he naturally moved up a level too. During the draping and disinfection process, Zhang Lin periodically imposed strict demands on the junior doctors as the chief surgeon, insisting that every detail of their work was meticulous. Everything had to meet high standards. Indeed, he exhibited the demeanor of a major professor, and if not for the familiarity among the team, if Zhang Lin were performing this surgery in an outside hospital, his demeanor would likely surpass that of any visiting professor from Beijing. The surgery officially began, with Zhang Lin as the chief surgeon and Little Five as his assistant. Zhang Lin stood in the chief surgeon¡¯s position. Now more than ever, his posture had to be exemplary. He had to set an example for the students, being Teacher Zhang after all. The incision site had been marked in advance. Zhang Lin made an incision following the markings. Although he hadn¡¯t mastered One-Stroke Flow, he still had to pretend, making a downward sweep. After several additional cuts to open the skin, Zhang Lin began using the electric knife to cut through the subcutaneous tissue and the lumbar back fascia. His movements were fairly standard as, after all, his daily basic training was not for nothing. After opening the fascia, he began separating the muscle, using the electric knife to start subperiosteal dissection from the spinous processes. Zhang Lin¡¯s movements were slow as he moved forward step by step. Muscle separation proceeded from the spinous processes to both sides, revealing the vertebral plates. Li Guodong and another young doctor were responsible for hook handling, placing the hooks into the surgical area. Zhang Lin told Li Guodong, ¡°You two need to handle the hooks well. Hook handling is very important during surgery. If hooks are not properly exposed, the chief surgeon appears passive. Good hook handling makes the chief surgeon¡¯s job much easier.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate hook handling. It¡¯s a profound craft involving extensive knowledge.¡± Li Guodong kept agreeing. As an expert in hook handling, Zhang Lin couldn¡¯t stand assistants placing hooks improperly. He immediately corrected their placement by hand before handing them back to Li Guodong. He didn¡¯t forget to instruct Li Guodong, ¡°The placement of hooks is crucial. It must not interfere with the surgery, should maximize exposure, and your hands shouldn¡¯t be so stiff. Maintain consistent, even pressure, always keeping an eye on the progress of the surgery. Hook adjustments should be timely based on the surgical progress, remember, the timing of hook adjustments is essential¡ªit¡¯s not just random play. When there¡¯s time, I¡¯ll give you a class on this.¡± Once the spinous processes, vertebral plates, and joint protrusions were exposed, Zhang Lin began implanting pedicle screws. Since it was their first time truly leading a surgery, the control of the surgery¡¯s rhythm was not very good, sometimes a bit reckless, sometimes too tentative. ¡°Don¡¯t rush. Let¡¯s do this steadily,¡± Little Five reminded Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin steadied himself, ¡°Okay, I won¡¯t rush.¡± Dr. Jin and Dr. Wen, who had been observing the surgery, initially thought that a spinal scoliosis correction surgery like this would be beyond Zhang Lin and Little Five. In their opinion, Little Five and Zhang Lin were only supposed to change medications, write medical records, and handle hooks, not associated with high-level surgeries like spinal scoliosis correction. However, seeing the surgery progress up to this point, not only had the two not panicked and called for help, but they were also proceeding steadily and cautiously. Although the surgery¡¯s pace was slow, the steps were clear and well-performed. Technically, they had deficiencies, but strangely, they were extraordinarily coordinated on the operating table. Whenever they reached steps each was proficient in, they let the other handle it, effectively having two chief surgeons who not only didn¡¯t argue but also worked in great harmony. The implantation of all pedicle screws was completed. The intraoperative C-arm machine confirmed that, though the screw positions weren¡¯t perfect, they were standard¡ªwhether it was the entry points, directions, or depths, all had reached an acceptable standard without any screws being subpar. After setting the screws, Zhang Lin began identifying the osteotomy sites, though he seemed unsure at the moment. Chapter 1101 - 1101 891 How Many Pigs Are Paralyzed_3 ?Chapter 1101: Chapter 891: How Many Pigs Are Paralyzed?_3 Chapter 1101: Chapter 891: How Many Pigs Are Paralyzed?_3 ¡°Brother Five, can you help me check if the bone sections I¡¯ve made are correct?¡± Little Five took a look, and though he was not fully confident himself, when the two combined their judgments and discussed it on the table, they would both end up brimming with confidence. It was as if fifty percent plus fifty percent equaled one hundred percent certainty. ¡°No mistake, the location is completely correct,¡± Little Five answered with certainty. ¡°Brother Five, shall I start cutting the bone then?¡± ¡°Cut away!¡± With the affirmation of his partner, Zhang Lin began to cut the spine, a critical step in the surgery. If he could complete this step independently, it would essentially mean that he had mastered this type of surgery. I¡¯m beginning to cut the bone now? Start cutting. Zhang Lin confirmed once more, then began to cut the vertebrae. His movements were slow but steady, because he knew he wasn¡¯t very skilled and thus opted for a strategy of seeking victory through stability. With every step he took, he would turn his head to check the screen of the evoked potential monitor. After each glance at the screen, he would ask Little Five, ¡°Brother Five, the waveform of the evoked potential looks alright, doesn¡¯t it?¡± Little Five also turned to look at the screen of the evoked potential monitor and replied, ¡°No problem, rest assured.¡± These two were quite interesting. It was likely that if either of them were to perform the main surgery alone, they would be lacking in confidence, but together, they were full of it. After all, they had undergone almost all their training together. They had drawn anatomy diagrams, dissected bodies, performed surgeries on stage, practiced in the training room of the Surgical Research Institute, cutting stitches, knotting, hemostasis, separation, and basic functions, and trained in endoscopic and microscopic operations. This long-term pattern of cooperation had fostered a sense of dependency between them. For example, Zhang Lin was quite sure that his positioning was correct, but he still wanted Little Five to take a look and give confirmation. Without Little Five¡¯s affirmation, he was hesitant to continue with the next step of the procedure. And so, the two of them consulted each other and proceeded step by step, slowly but steadily. Though their hands were not very fast, they avoided damaging any blood vessels that needed to be preserved, and those that had to be damaged for the surgery were properly ligated. In other words, although they were not highly skilled, the surgery they were conducting was correct and reliable. Yang Ping kept his hands folded in front of him, standing beside the operating table, watching each move diligently. If anything seemed off, he would intervene directly. To see the details of their work more clearly, Yang Ping turned on the camera above the operating lights, and the screen on the wall was live streaming the operation. Though Zhang Lin was a bit clumsy and not as fast as required, there were no fundamental errors, which could be deemed perfectly acceptable. Every bone set, the length of the cut, and the direction of the result were correct. It appeared that Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang¡¯s teaching was effective, and these two brothers were also very diligent in their studies. Not everything requires innate talent; hard work can also make one a good doctor. Having completed the osteotomy, they now began to correct the spine. This step carried the highest risk in the entire surgery; one wrong move could result in serious damage to the vertebrae, potentially leading to paralysis. Zhang Ning was performing such a surgery for the first time, and the pressure was intense. He began to sweat slightly on his forehead. ¡°Brother Five, there are no issues with the point I¡¯ve chosen to correct, right?¡± ¡°No problem, absolutely none.¡± Receiving affirmation from Little Five, he began the correction. He then turned to look at Yang Ping. ¡°May I begin the correction now?¡± ¡°Correct away.¡± Zhang Ning took a moment to adjust his breathing, then slowly began to correct the spine. His movements were steady and gentle. His eyes were fixed on his work, glancing at the screen occasionally, paying close attention to the waveform on the spinal evoked potential monitor. Actually, Zhang Lin and Little Five had practiced this step countless times. They had specifically trained on this procedure using experimental pigs. Gradually, the spine was corrected. On the screen of the evoked potential monitor, the waveform remained stable, which let them breathe a sigh of relief. ¡°Brother Five, this looks alright, doesn¡¯t it? The waveform is good, right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s good, it¡¯s good.¡± The surgery had been 80% successful to this point. Dr. Jin and Dr. Wen were quite surprised on the side. Both of them struggled with such surgery, yet Zhang Lin and Little Five managed to handle it. It seems that they were no longer the inexpert figures they were in the past. The training at the Surgical Research Institute allowed them to grow rapidly. Unbeknownst to others, these two who once did odd jobs had long surpassed Dr. Jin and Dr. Wen. It was just that the standards set by Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang at the Institute were so high that Zhang Ning and Little Five always seemed like mere aides. Now, with the dazzling Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang not around, it turns out that Zhang Lin and Little Five were shining as well, weren¡¯t they? Dr. Jin and Dr. Wen couldn¡¯t help feeling ashamed of themselves. They had been marking time while Zhang Lin and Little Five had advanced by leaps and bounds. It really proved the saying that even if one is just among the hundred thousand celestial warriors besieging the Great Saint, once isolated, they could be an invincible force. Chapter 1102 - 1102 892 Dual Chief Surgeons ?Chapter 1102: Chapter 892 Dual Chief Surgeons Chapter 1102: Chapter 892 Dual Chief Surgeons These two youngsters actually managed to successfully perform the spine curvature surgery, and both Dr. Jin and Dr. Wen checked the time. Although it had taken more than four hours, managing to securely complete it was no small feat. After straightening the spine, the next steps were to install the two rods on the pedicle screws and finally to flush and suture. ¡°Anesthesiologist! Our surgery is wrapping up. Watch the anesthesia time,¡± Zhang Lin warned Liang Fatty using a very official tone¡ªAnesthesiologist, instead of the usual Fatty, and his voice was louder, more elevated than before the surgery. Liang Fatty was stunned for a moment; he had put on an act, but there was no helping it. He had taken the main role in the surgery today, and had successfully completed it. Yang Ping, dressed in surgical gown, had not participated throughout, merely observing, without even offering guidance. Little Five and Zhang Lin were slightly less skilled compared to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, who, despite their casual demeanor, were indeed very diligent. They could almost be seen daily in the training room either practicing basic skills or drawing anatomy diagrams, and they were also frequent visitors in the Animal Experiment Building, often performing surgeries on pigs. Even on weekends, these two brothers would be in the Animal Experiment Building slaughtering pigs, catching them by themselves, with Liang Fatty assisting with the anesthesia, and performed surgeries on pigs as real practice. The most crucial part was that these two had ¡°thick skins.¡± No matter how others mocked or underestimated them, they completely ignored them and focused wholeheartedly on learning. After the first surgery was done, everyone had lunch, then moved on to the second one. The second surgery was a coronary bypass on the heart, which Little Five was to perform. Given the precedent, ¡°King of Pressure¡± Zhang Lin having managed the spinal curvature, Xia Shu, Dr. Jin, and Dr. Wen dare not question Little Five¡¯s capabilities any longer. Unlike Zhang Lin¡¯s high profile, Little Five tried to behave like a modest gentleman. He appeared composed, patient, nowhere near as conspicuous as Zhang Lin who seemed like a rooster, afraid that others might not know who the chief surgeon was today, constantly reminding everyone of his role, nor did he rush the patrolling nurse or the anesthesiologist. Coronary Bypass? Could Little Five and Zhang Lin perform it? Although this coronary bypass was of moderate difficulty, requiring only two grafts, it was still a coronary bypass, and moreover, it was a beating-heart coronary bypass. It seemed unlikely for Little Five and Zhang Lin to perform it. Xia Shu from Fuwai Hospital in Beijing could not be the chief surgeon in such surgeries; usually, these operations were also attended by supervising doctors. Even though Dr. Jin and Wen Zhong were orthopedic doctors, they were aware of the significance of coronary bypass in cardiac surgery. Was Little Five now so adept? When he first arrived, he was still carrying patients in the emergency room. And now, he was unbelievably standing at the operating table as the chief surgeon for a coronary bypass surgery¡ªpure magic. The three of them then looked at Yang Ping, who, just like during the previous surgery, had washed up, dressed, and stood by watching, without saying a word. Opening the chest, exposing the heart¡ªLittle Five was well-practiced. Heart, spine, and skull are the top three types of surgeries in the Surgical Research Institute. Usually, during surgeries involving the heart done by Song Zimo, the steps of opening the chest and exposing the heart were carried out by Little Five, who sometimes even handled exposing the coronary artery, with Song Zimo taking over only for the crucial step of anastomosing the coronary artery. So, opening the chest, exposing the heart, and isolating the coronary artery were tasks Little Five handled like an expert, with Zhang Lin also skillfully assisting. ¡°Teacher Zhang, look, this is the coronary artery we need to graft, right? Take a look, correct isn¡¯t it?¡± It seemed Little Five and Zhang Lin, these two fellows, really had only fifty percent confidence individually, and the other fifty percent was in each other¡¯s hands. Only when they worked together could they be fully sure. ¡°Let me see. Yes, you¡¯re right, go ahead!¡± Zhang Lin confirmed after checking. ¡°Good, we¡¯ll start harvesting the internal mammary artery!¡± Little Five, reassured by Zhang Lin¡¯s confirmation, then proceeded to the next step. Dr. Jin, Dr. Wen, and Xia Shu watched from the side, finding these two quite amusing. Either of them, when serving as chief surgeon, had to consult with the other. It seemed as if without this consultation, they couldn¡¯t proceed with the surgery. Would it mean that in the future, they could only perform major surgeries together, and neither could conduct one alone? Little Five carefully harvested the internal mammary artery, moving a bit slowly, but very meticulously, strictly following the usual procedure for handling blood vessels. After extracting the internal mammary artery, Little Five meticulously prepared it. Since it was a beating-heart bypass, the patient¡¯s heart was still pumping normally, allowing the patient to endure a lengthy operation and proceed slowly. Having prepared the internal mammary artery, Little Five began the anastomosis of the coronary artery by grafting it. Anastomosing blood vessels was an area in which Little Five excelled; every doctor at the Surgical Research Institute was proficient in vascular anastomosis, as it was a fundamental skill of their sect. Little Five and Zhang Lin consistently practiced surgical basics every day, with microsurgery training being a focus, and under the microscope, blood vessel anastomosis was a particular emphasis. Therefore, anastomosing blood vessels was not challenging for them. However, regular microscopic blood vessel anastomosis was static, the vessels held in place. In contrast, the coronary bypass, with the coronary artery moving along the pulsing heart, meant the vessel moved too, making anastomosis of a moving blood vessel more challenging than a static one. Chapter 1103 - 1103 892 Dual Chief Surgeon_2 ?Chapter 1103: Chapter 892: Dual Chief Surgeon_2 Chapter 1103: Chapter 892: Dual Chief Surgeon_2 To master the coronary bypass surgery, Little Five and Zhang Lin practiced on pigs in the animal experiment building, training the technique of vascular anastomosis without stopping the heart. They utilized almost every blood vessel on the pig¡¯s heart, continuously repeating the training. As the saying goes, hard work pays off. Finally, the brothers mastered the skill of performing vascular anastomosis on a beating heart, and today they finally had the chance to showcase their extraordinary skill. In the past, similar surgeries were performed under the guidance of Song Zimo, but this was the first time Little Five was performing a coronary bypass surgery independently. Currently, Little Five was still a bit nervous. At this moment, Zhang Lin encouraged Little Five, ¡°Brother Five! Don¡¯t worry, this is a piece of cake for you.¡± What was there to be nervous about! Little Five steadied his spirit and stabilized his hands. He rested after every stitch, adjusting his breathing before continuing with the next one. Yang Ping was watching the screen on the wall. Little Five¡¯s movements were slow, but the quality of each stitch was still good. There was no need for rework, so the overall speed seemed not too slow. Both Zhang Lin and Little Five shared a common characteristic in their surgeries. Their speed was slow not because of dawdling, but due to their meticulousness. They prioritized the quality of each step. Indeed, they had achieved this, each surgical step was not perfect, but it was definitely up to standard. ¡°Teacher Zhang, can you please check how the quality of these stitches is?¡± Little Five was unsure. Zhang Lin looked and said, ¡°Very good, rest assured.¡± With the affirmative response from Zhang Ning, Little Five felt more confident. Perhaps the regular training had accustomed them to each other¡¯s cooperation. For these critical steps, Little Five was unsure until he got affirmation from his partner. Hearing Zhang Lin say the quality of the vascular anastomosis was very good, Little Five continued with the anastomosis, maintaining that quality. Thus, Little Five had already sewn up the front side of the blood vessel. He now began preparing to anastomose the other side of the vessel. ¡°Wait a moment, let me help you turn the vessel over.¡± Zhang Lin carefully handled the traction thread with micro forceps, flipping the vessel over, turning the already-sewed half underneath and the unsewed half up for a swap. Xia Shu, being a cardiac surgeon himself, was very familiar with heart coronary bypass surgeries. He had also been focusing on coronary bypass surgeries for some time. Seeing Zhang Lin and Little Five¡¯s operation, Xia Shu was quite impressed. These two seemed slow in their surgical speed, but the total operation time was not too long, as each step they took was purposeful and effective. This is like typing. Some people¡¯s typing speed isn¡¯t fast, but the characters they type are accurate, with no need for selection or correction, typing one character correctly at a time. There are others who type very fast, rattling on the keyboard, but they often spend time choosing characters and have to go back to correct mistakes. Eventually, when comparing how many words are typed in a minute, it turns out that the seemingly slower typing speed is actually faster. Little Five was very patient. After anastomosing one end of the blood vessel, he then connected the other end. The bypass had four anastomosis sites, which Little Five slowly anastomosed. After completing the two blood vessels, Little Five examined the spacing and margins of his stitches, unsure if he needed extra stitches, so he asked Zhang Lin again, ¡°Teacher Zhang, can you check the stitch and edge spacing to see if it needs extra stitches?¡± Zhang Lin squinted and looked at the anastomosed vessel, ¡°No need for more! We¡¯ll see after we restore blood flow. If it leaks, then we can add stitches later.¡± The vascular clamp was released, and a slight seepage of blood appeared at the anastomosis site. Being his first surgery, Little Five was a little nervous, ¡°Why is it leaking blood?¡± Zhang Lin was very confident, ¡°Brother Five, don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s normal. There¡¯s always a bit of seepage when the blood flow is restored. I¡¯ll observe for five minutes before deciding.¡± Little Five looked at the electronic clock on the wall, noted the start time, and began to observe the seepage at the anastomosis site. Five minutes is exactly five minutes, not a second more, not a second less. Exactly after five minutes, Little Five released the gauze he was holding. Indeed, there was no leakage from the vessel. It was clean and clear, indicating that the surgery had been successful. With this step completed, the coronary artery bypass surgery could be considered successful. What remained were just the finishing touches. The three doctors present could not help but admire Little Five and Zhang Lin at this point. Little Five and Zhang Lin had been seen as mere subordinates in their eyes before, thought to only be capable of writing medical records and changing medications, playing minor roles in the operating room. However, after these two surgeries, they no longer dared underestimate Little Five and Zhang Lin. Now, they were capable of being chief surgeons for spinal deformity correction and coronary bypass surgeries. At this moment, Zhang Lin and Little Five were greatly esteemed in their hearts. These two could fit the level of department directors in secondary provincial hospitals elsewhere. Seeing that the coronary artery was pulsating well and there was no obvious bleeding, Little Five sighed in relief. ¡°Dr. Liang! Please check the patient¡¯s vital signs.¡± ¡°Patrolling beauty, can you check how much urine there is?¡± Little Five¡¯s voice was extremely gentle, very much like that of a highly qualified senior professor, This gentle and refined image, compared to Zhang Lin¡¯s previously high-and-mighty demeanor, was clearly more likable. ¡°Zhang Lin, take a look, this is the true demeanor of a senior professor. Learn something.¡± Zhou Can said while checking the patient¡¯s urine bag. Zhang Lin glared at her, ¡°As a patrolling nurse, you need to adapt to different styles.¡± Oh! Professor Yang is amazing, so is the Surgical Research Institute. Quietly and inconspicuously, the doctors from the Surgical Research Institute had grown rapidly. Dr. Jin and Dr. Wen rarely came to this operating room to observe, and they knew nothing about the situation here. Without seeing it, you wouldn¡¯t know; once you see it, it¡¯s startling. The gap is truly significant; not to mention comparing oneself with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, even compared to these two helpers, there was a definite gap. They had previously been resident doctors, and it was only recently that they had been promoted to attending doctors. How had they become so impressive? It was said that these two were trained by Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, who in turn were personally trained by Yang Ping. How impressive must they be now? Dr. Jin and Dr. Wen didn¡¯t know, but Xia Shu did. He wouldn¡¯t comment on other surgeries, but now, considering the level of coronary bypasses, especially Song Zimo¡¯s level, it surpassed that of all the doctors he had seen, except for Professor Yang. ¡°Teacher Zhang, I am ready to close the chest, is that alright?¡± Fearing he might have missed a step, Little Five sought Zhang Lin¡¯s opinion before closing the chest. Zhang Lin thought for a moment, ¡°Close the chest! Remember to place a drainage tube, Guodong, prepare the drainage tube.¡± Their surgery time was a bit lengthy; the spine correction took about four hours, and the coronary bypass took about the same amount of time. The speed of their surgeries, if compared to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, would be at a level warranting criticism. However, taken outside, this speed wasn¡¯t too low; it was considered above the middle level, and most importantly, their surgical quality was quite good, definitely excellent if taken externally. Yang Ping was very satisfied, pleased with their performance, and satisfied with the apprenticeship Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang provided. The Surgical Research Institute practiced a mentor-mentee system, Song Zimo mentored Xiao Wu, and Xu Zhiliang mentored Zhang Lin. If anyone was lackadaisical or secretive during teaching, it was absolutely not allowed. Moreover, in the Surgical Research Institute, the training of doctors had a clear plan and schedule, first learning anatomy knowledge, then drawing anatomy diagrams, followed by dissecting cadavers, and then operating on pigs. Throughout the entire process, they regularly trained in the basics of surgery, with Zhang Lin and Little Five maintaining an average of one hour of such training per day. The training for surgery was to first be an assistant, then as chief surgeon for surgeries on experimental pigs, and finally performing surgeries under the guidance of senior doctors. The practical training for surgery was also very strict. The training checklist for surgeries had quantified regulations on how many operations of each type needed to be performed. The senior doctors, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, would guide them through the surgeries listed on the checklist, hands-on, and only after qualifying in lower-level surgeries did they have the chance to advance to higher-level surgical training. Zhang Lin and Little Five were trained according to this plan and sequence; they can be said to be the Surgical Research Institute¡¯s trial batch of mass-trained surgeons, with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang being handcrafted products of Yang Ping. Thus, Zhang Lin and Little Five were the first-generation products off the production line of the Surgical Research Institute. From what could be seen now, the training scheme was a success. Chapter 1104 - 1104 893 Dawn ?Chapter 1104: Chapter 893 Dawn Chapter 1104: Chapter 893 Dawn At that time, Xia Shu, Dr. Jin, and Dr. Wen were still in disbelief as to why Yang Ping would entrust such an important surgery to the seemingly careless duo, Little Five and Zhang Lin. In fact, Yang Ping was well aware. Having followed Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang for so long, Little Five and Zhang Lin might not be top-level, but they were certainly capable of handling the common surgeries at the Surgical Research Institute. Moreover, during the entire surgery process, Yang Ping would be in surgical gown, standing on the platform. Although he remained silent, quietly watching them perform the surgery, he was ready to intervene whenever needed. It was nearly five in the afternoon when the first two surgeries were done; Zhang Lin and Little Five went on to perform the third surgery, their spirits high as they planned to continue working until eleven or twelve at night. The thrill of being chief surgeons for the first time was certainly there; among the latter two surgeries, one involved upper cervical spine surgery and the other was a thoracic spine tumor excision, both of which carried high risks, prompting Yang Ping to stay close by throughout. Xia Shu, Dr. Jin, and Dr. Wen marveled at how even the workforce at the Surgical Research Institute was impressively skilled. Like ordinary celestial soldiers in heavenly troops who might not even have names, but are still beyond the reach of even the most formidable mortals. Dr. Jin, Dr. Wen, and Xia Shu initially thought there wouldn¡¯t be much to see from their surgeries but decided to watch from start to finish, realizing that they not only could manage surgeries but also performed them well. However, these two fellows were really interesting; lacking one, they couldn¡¯t proceed with the surgery, requiring both to be present on the platform to operate. The surgery continued until midnight, and if the anesthesiologist and nurses had not objected, the duo could have continued until dawn, still exhilarated at midnight. After the surgery, Little Five and Zhang Lin slept in the department, checking on the patients¡¯ vital signs in the middle of the night. By six in the morning, they went together to check on the wards, carefully inspecting vital signs, urine output, and the results of postoperative blood tests amongst other things, and were very meticulous in checking the patients¡¯ postoperative pain management, adjusting the pain relief plans according to the patients¡¯ conditions to ensure they were as pain-free as possible. After checking the wards, they discussed the surgeries from the day before in the doctors¡¯ office, summarizing what was done well and learning from any mistakes. They also did not forget to call Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, assuring them that everything was fine at the department, encouraging them to relax and enjoy a few more days in Europe. In the early morning in China, it was deep night in Germany. At this hour, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were quite dazed, wondering why they were being called in the middle of the night to be advised to rest a few more days, touched by their thoughtfulness. ¡ª In Frankfurt, Europe. The Spinal Surgery Academic Annual Conference was in session. Perhaps to express gratitude to Chinese doctors for their contributions to spinal surgery, this year¡¯s venue was uniquely decorated with Chinese elements. Such elements included Chinese red, banners, and ceremony hostesses in cheongsams, giving the venue a refreshing look. The most amusing part was August. Seeing Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang wearing Mandarin jackets, he immediately had a similar outfit custom-made; it actually looked quite good on him. As a special guest, Manstein gave the opening speech at the conference, which was a highlight of the event. In the past, Manstein had no interest in such things, but this time was different. Due to August¡¯s close personal relationship with Professor Yang, Manstein reluctantly agreed to August¡¯s request to enhance his connection with Professor Yang and took the stage to speak. Manstein, a Nobel Prize laureate and an all-rounder in surgery, holds a god-like status in the hearts of doctors worldwide, especially those in Europe and America. The theme of his opening speech was: ¡°Dawn.¡± The gist of it was that spinal surgery had stagnated; many techniques that seemed vibrant were merely tools for those seeking quick success, such as dynamic fixation, artificial disc technologies, and minimally invasive techniques, all of which had reached a bottleneck, and no breakthrough had been achieved yet in spinal cord injury repair. However, the appearance of Professor Yang¡¯s innovative technologies broke down the high walls surrounding spinal surgery, letting everyone see the dawn of hope. During his speech, Manstein mentioned Yang Ping¡¯s name many times, repeatedly discussing Yang Ping¡¯s new technologies. Then came the speech by August, the chairman of the society. He summarized the current state and development of spinal surgery and pointed out the challenges it would face, such as the aging population, concluding that the future hope of the world lies in the East. At the end of his speech, August did not forget to recommend the new Chinese Journal ¡°Medical,¡± even showing off the latest issue he had just received from Song Zimo. The whole venue buzzed with surprise since they had never before considered reading a Chinese journal, nor did they expect the European Spine Surgery Society Chairman to recommend a Chinese-language journal at such a meeting. ¡°I¡¯m not advertising, there¡¯s absolutely no need for that, but I¡¯m helping you all because without my recommendation, you would definitely overlook this journal despite it being one of the best in the world. It will help you enter a completely new world of medicine,¡± he said. ¡°If you find Chinese difficult, don¡¯t worry; in Europe, there are several volunteer academic organizations responsible for translating it into English, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, and more.¡± ¡°I was once quite perplexed, but this journal showed me that hope is in sight, just as Mr. Manstein said¡ªI¡¯ve seen the dawn of medicine.¡±¡® Chapter 1105 - 1105 893 Dawn_2 ?Chapter 1105: Chapter 893 Dawn_2 Chapter 1105: Chapter 893 Dawn_2 August spoke openly and directly. ¡°Next, we have a doctor from China who will lead us out of confusion and show us the hope of the future, restoring our faith in what is to come,¡± he said. August applauded. The tall and handsome Song Zimo approached the podium to address over six thousand doctors from around the world, ready to report on three topics within thirty minutes. Some doctors, who had received news in advance, knew he was an assistant to Yang Ping, the legendary figure who had published thirteen CNS papers, and unfortunately, he himself did not come. An assistant, actually scheduled for the very first academic report¡ªit seemed like outright disdain. Mr. Milton sat in the front row in silence. If this were a previous conference, he would have been the one delivering the first academic report, a tacit agreement that had become a tradition. Yet this year, without prior notice, August had altered the agenda to give the first speaking slot to the young Chinese doctor. However, since the Chinese doctor was an assistant to Yang Ping, Milton accepted it; he was familiar with Yang Ping, though they had only met once. At that time in Malaysia, he and August had both eagerly sought Yang Ping¡¯s contact details, but after returning home, Milton, preoccupied with his busy affairs, gradually forgot about it. In contrast, the persistent German immediately took action and came to China to study spinal surgery under Yang Ping. Milton had also read the paper Yang Ping had published in the journal Science, but he hadn¡¯t anticipated how quickly things would evolve. The new technique in Yang Ping¡¯s paper had now become the focus of this academic conference. Spinal surgery desperately needed innovation; everyone had been going in circles without making any substantive progress, and what many considered to be dazzling minimally invasive techniques were merely the belated application of endoscopic technology to spinal surgery. As for the correction of spinal deformities, ever since the CD masters had established modern concepts for spinal correction, everyone had been confined within the framework set by these masters, unable to break free from it. Milton had already reviewed the papers Song Zimo brought along. The first was about a new osteotomy method created by Yang Ping himself, which although still within the framework of CD theory, had made improvements to the way osteotomies were performed. It linked osteotomy, shape correction, and spinal cord deformation, enabling precise prediction of spinal cord deformation, thus minimizing spinal cord damage while fully correcting deformities. For some patients with extremely severe spinal deformities, the greatest complication was paralysis. Due to the high risk of paralysis, these patients were unable to undergo surgery. However, with the advent of Yang-style Osteotomy, this issue could be resolved, allowing patients who previously couldn¡¯t be operated on to safely undergo surgery. The second paper discussed the use of external fixation frames in the treatment of spinal deformities, a technique that had completely stepped outside the framework of CD, successfully marrying Ilizarov¡¯s technique with spinal corrections. It offered a gentle and natural way to correct spinal deformities. Although the downside of this technique was the lengthy treatment duration, needing three months to a year, its significant advantages¡ªsafety and the preservation of spinal mobility¡ªmade the downsides seem trivial. The third paper detailed the precise epiphyseal blockade technology applied to correct spinal deformities, which had achieved tremendous success in animal experiments and was preparing to enter clinical trials. This groundbreaking theory completely overturned current spinal deformity treatment philosophies. If its clinical application proved successful, in ten, twenty, thirty years¡ªdoctors would no longer encounter patients needing surgery for spinal deformities as there would be no adults with spinal deformities. Because during childhood, once spinal deformities were detected, this technique could be used to intervene. Extremely minimally invasive, it required no surgery; instead, it used puncture methods to deliver epiphyseal stimulating or blocking implants to predetermined positions in the vertebrae, allowing them to serve their function. A few days post-surgery, children could resume their normal school activities and play, with the entire treatment process causing no disturbance to their regular learning and living. Before they knew it, their spines would be completely corrected. Incredible! Professor Yang Ping truly is a genius with a rich imagination. With these contributions to spinal surgery alone, Professor Yang rightfully stands as a leading luminary in the field worldwide. No wonder this year¡¯s conference is filled with Chinese elements. Milton only regretted why he had forgotten to stay in touch with Yang Ping after that single meeting, which until now remained their only encounter. Not only does Song Zimo have to give a lecture at this conference, but he is also the chief surgeon for three surgeries, one of which is the Yang-style osteotomy and another a spinal external fixation frame surgery. There was also a demonstration of precise epiphyseal blockade technology to treat spinal curvature, which was the first clinical case in Europe¡ªa step towards practical application. This surgery would be performed by Song Zimo and August together, before the watchful eyes of more than six thousand doctors from around the world, and the orthopedic correction would continue under their continued attention afterwards. On both sides of the main conference stage, there stood two large porcelain vases in imitation of the Tang Sancai style, and hostesses and waitstaff in cheongsams were stationed around the auditorium. Professor Mainshtan sat in the first row reserved for distinguished guests with a journal, ¡°Medical,¡± in front of him, one of the several journals Song Zimo had brought along. For this genius, mastering Chinese would not be difficult should he wish to, and now he could effortlessly read the journal in Chinese. He flipped through the journal lightly. The spatial orientation gene did indeed exist! It existed, and Yang Ping had already found such a gene, deciphering the method to switch it on and off. Using this spatial orientation gene, Yang Ping successfully cultivated a complete piece of muscle with stem cells. Not long ago, in a paper published in the journal ¡°Science,¡± the spatial orientation gene was still a hypothesis. At that time, medical professionals and biologists from around the world considered the truthfulness of this hypothesis to be very low. Even if it were true, proving it would be a lengthy process. Decades? A century? Yet in such a short span of time, Yang Ping had found a real spatial orientation gene, showing it is not mere speculation but a factual entity. If muscles possess spatial orientation genes, then other organs and indeed any human tissue, any type of organ, must also have spatial orientation genes. Professor Mainshtan¡¯s heart surged like towering waves. What a magnificent scientific achievement this was! He pioneered the cloning of partial organs ex vivo with stem cells, he unlocked the code for stem cells to construct organs, he was a genius among geniuses. Professor Mainshtan had always been confident in his own intellect, but compared to Yang Ping, at this moment, he felt like he was nothing. Previously, Professor Mainshtan disliked Chinese, thinking these ancient square characters should be phased out, but now, he found these square Chinese characters exceptionally beautiful; each character seemed to possess a spirit. This great nation had created a splendid civilization in ancient times and had always stood at the pinnacle of the world. It seems that now, it is poised to return to that pinnacle. Professor Mainshtan no longer cared about the conference topics; he decided to replicate Yang Ping¡¯s experiment. He determined to be the first in the world to do so and resolved to immediately set off for China. But how to contact Professor Yang if he were to depart for China? He had Professor Yang¡¯s email, but it had been used solely for correspondence related to the paper, and email contact was slow, back and forth, wasting a lot of time. Right, he could ask August for help; he was well-versed in matters related to China and had an excellent personal relationship with Professor Yang. Right, wasn¡¯t Professor Yang¡¯s assistant just standing there, giving a lecture on stage? He must find a way to go to China with them, to have a face-to-face conversation with Professor Yang. Professor Mainshtan was determined to replicate this experiment. If it could be replicated, then there would be no doubt about the spatial orientation gene mentioned in the paper. ¡°Thank you!¡± A server had just refilled Professor Mainshtan¡¯s cup with hot water, and he replied in Chinese without thinking. PS: 1. About the spatial orientation gene, this is fictional, stemming from an article about future organ cloning I once read in a journal. 2. The apoptosis of tumor cells mentioned in earlier chapters is real; the paper was published in ¡°Nature¡± by a research team from a university in the United States. 3. External fixation frame treatment for spinal curvature: Teams both domestic and international are researching it, but there has been no substantial breakthrough. 4. Epiphyseal blockade technology to treat spinal curvature has already been applied to simple cases of children¡¯s spinal curvature and is estimated to have a promising future. Chapter 1106 - 1106 894 Cant Go Back Anymore ?Chapter 1106: Chapter 894 Can¡¯t Go Back Anymore Chapter 1106: Chapter 894 Can¡¯t Go Back Anymore Doctors from the department started coming in to work one after another; by this time, Zhang Lin and Little Five had already finished their rounds, having conducted a one-hour surgery summary. At the eight o¡¯clock shift change. Yang Ping noticed that Zhang Lin and Little Five were completely different from their usual selves, especially radiating the presence of team leaders. The two of them, just like Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, would occasionally give educational or directive remarks to their junior doctors. Moreover, when Little Five spoke, he actually bore a striking resemblance to Song Zimo, while Zhang Lin had a bit of Xu Zhiliang¡¯s flavor, usually articulate, but mysteriously stuttering a few times during his speech, without even realizing it himself. During the weekly department director¡¯s rounds, Yang Ping would bring two medical teams for rounds, but if it wasn¡¯t the department director¡¯s rounds, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang¡¯s medical teams would do rounds separately. And Yang Ping would go for rounds alone every day to keep up with the patients¡¯ conditions in his department promptly. In the absence of Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, to let Little Five and Zhang Lin fully experience autonomy, Yang Ping allowed them to lead their respective medical teams during rounds. Of course, Yang Ping himself would quietly find time to do rounds alone and stay informed about the patients¡¯ conditions, to prevent any medical risks from arising. In treating patients, every case is like walking on thin ice, and Yang Ping dare not slack off; he had to keep a tight ship internally while appearing relaxed externally. After rounds, it was another day of surgeries. Zhang Lin and Little Five were as energetic as if they were on adrenaline, feeling no fatigue at all, thinking that this was indeed the life of a department¡¯s backbone. Little Five and Zhang Lin had already made a phone call early in the morning and were still not reassured; they racked their brains to collect some attractive posts about European travel on their phones and then sent them to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang through WeChat, hoping they would stay in Europe for a few more days. In the operating room¡¯s changing room, in front of Yang Ping, Zhang Lin and Little Five mentioned how Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang really worked hard usually, and that it was rare for them to go out, hoping they could relax a bit more. They also said that from the conversations with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, they could tell that both of them wanted to stay a few more days, but were worried about the department. ¡°Those two clowns,¡± Yang Ping said, ¡°if you don¡¯t find it hard, let Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang rest a few more days then.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, no problem at all, not hard in the slightest¡ª¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five said in unison. You guys aren¡¯t tired, but I, the professor, am exhausted, staying with you all for surgeries until midnight every day. After changing clothes in the changing room, Zhang Lin took the opportunity to go to the washroom while drinking water and adjusted a few photos of surgeries on his phone¡ªthe pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative X-ray images of a patient with scoliosis, with the names and other information mosaic-blurred. Then, he posted them on his moments. ¡°Grateful for the director and senior doctors¡¯ guidance, my first main surgery, barely passable, I guess¡ª¡± Of course, Zhang Lin had blocked Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and others from seeing it. ¡°The main surgery for spinal deformity correction?¡± ¡°Is it true?¡± Seeing Zhang Lin¡¯s post, his university and master¡¯s classmates were all astonished. ¡°This guy can perform main surgery for spinal deformity? Even our department heads can¡¯t perform such surgery.¡± Classmates from undergraduate studies who went into different specialties didn¡¯t react as strongly, but the master¡¯s classmates, all from orthopedics, were wide-eyed. ¡°He must be bluffing.¡± After an analysis following their astonishment, considering Zhang Lin¡¯s history of showing off during his studies, the classmates quickly came to a conclusion. The consensus was: This was just another instance of him showing off, but this time it was a bit over the top. Posting something like a pedicle screw fixation surgery for a lumbar fracture would be more believable, but posting pictures of spinal deformity correction is a clear sign of excess boasting. While Little Five clearly disliked showing off, he just waited for the right moment when his classmates¡¯ group chat was active to post a C-Arm image of postoperative vertebral tumor and added the text: ¡°Director, hello, this is the intraoperative C-Arm image from the surgery I was the chief surgeon for yesterday. Thank you for your guidance, and next time I¡¯ll make sure to position the prosthetic vertebra more accurately¡ª¡± About two minutes later, Little Five swiftly withdrew the image and text from the group chat without uttering a word. The group chat exploded immediately¡ªwhat¡¯s the situation, Little Five is now performing such surgeries? ¡°This is a vertebral tumor, a solidly level four surgery, which many hospital directors can¡¯t conduct.¡± Immediately, the classmates in the group began to inquire about what was really happening, asking about Little Five¡¯s current situation and how he could be performing such a high-level surgery. Unable to endure the relentless questioning from his classmates, Little Five could only send out an embarrassed emoji, followed by a respectful gesture: ¡°Sorry, my hand slipped, sent the wrong thing. Didn¡¯t mean to bother you all, brothers. It¡¯s just that¡ªany of you could perform the chief surgery like I did under the director¡¯s guidance.¡± ¡°So low-key, hiding it so deep, if it weren¡¯t for the slip, none of us would have known that Little Five is a hidden big-shot.¡± The classmates couldn¡¯t help but admire Little Five¡¯s humility and low profile! At the Surgical Research Institute, surgeries are rarely simple, so Little Five and Zhang Lin could only perform three to four surgeries a day. Of course, if the difficulty was extremely high, they were still a bit green, and Yang Ping would have to step in. In reality, at the Surgical Research Institute, Yang Ping tried to leave as many surgical opportunities as possible for other doctors because for Yang Ping the surgeries in the System Space were far more numerous than in reality, and he didn¡¯t need to rely on real surgeries to accumulate experience. Chapter 1107 - 1107 894 Cant Go Back Anymore_2 ?Chapter 1107: Chapter 894 Can¡¯t Go Back Anymore_2 Chapter 1107: Chapter 894 Can¡¯t Go Back Anymore_2 For Yang Ping, the operations in the System Space were for accumulation of experience, whereas surgeries in reality were all about treating and saving patients. With the experience from the first day¡¯s surgery, Zhang Lin and Little Five¡¯s confidence greatly increased, and so did their enthusiasm. The saying goes, ¡°He who stays near vermilion gets stained red, and he who stays near ink gets stained black.¡± Spending every day with these genius academic elites, Zhang Lin and Little Five did not consider themselves ordinary folks; instead, they set higher targets for themselves. Germany and China have an eight-hour time difference. When it was noon and break time at the German Academic Conference, it was nighttime in China. Song Zimo called Little Five, and Xu Zhiliang called Zhang Lin. They wanted to inquire about the situation back at the Hospital. Zhang Lin and Little Five, as if they had prearranged their response, replied, ¡°The Hospital is not busy, please rest assured. It¡¯s rare for you all to go out, so please stay in Europe a few more days. The Professor has said several times that Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang really work very hard usually. This time, he definitely wants them to relax more while they¡¯re abroad.¡± Places like Charite Medical College and Heidelberg University are definite stops for any doctor, and visiting the key medical laboratories in these schools is a must. It would be even better to be able to tour under the guidance of Old August. The top hospitals in Germany certainly can¡¯t be just glanced over; one must deeply understand them, and it would be ideal to come back and teach us, sharing their advanced experiences. Europe and America, after all, are very advanced and have much we can learn from. Spending day in and day out in the Operating Room for an entire year, now having the opportunity to get some fresh air, the visa is also a Schengen visa, so visiting several European countries won¡¯t take much time. Stopping by Stockholm, Sweden is a must, right? Taking a photo at the Nobel Prize awarding site is not too much, is it? Consider it as getting familiar with the route in advance, just in case one day, following the Professor, you casually pick up a Nobel Prize, then going to the ceremony won¡¯t involve taking a wrong turn. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang sighed. Usually, it¡¯s not apparent, but at such critical moments, one can see true intentions. Their subordinate doctors really cared about them, calling them in the middle of the night, reminding them to rest well, and definitely to stay in Europe a few more days. Now, they even gracefully handed over a detailed European travel guide for doctors. Especially Xu Zhiliang, who felt very guilty at this moment. He usually had strict demands on Zhang Lin and often scolded him. But Zhang Lin not only did not hold a grudge but also showed concern for him while he was in Europe, repeatedly admonishing him not to worry about the Hospital and to definitely stay abroad for a few more days. Such great colleagues, such excellent subordinate doctors! ¡ª European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting. Wearing Mandarin jackets became a hot topic at the annual meeting. Not only did Song Zimo, who gave the first academic presentation wear a Mandarin jacket, but the academic chair, August, also wore one, and Manstein, somehow obtaining one too, temporarily switched his suit for a Mandarin jacket, reportedly borrowed from August. However, the Mandarin jackets looked quite spirited on the two Germans. Song Zimo¡¯s three presentation topics caused a sensation at the conference, especially the last one, which was simply groundbreaking. The Precise Epiphyseal Arrest Technique succeeded in its application in Spinal Surgery. In the future, Spinal Scoliosis would no longer be a difficult problem. Previously, the vast majority of doctors attending the conference didn¡¯t understand the arrangement of the meeting, wondering why the Chinese doctor Song Zimo was placed as the first speaker, even allocating him thirty minutes, while Milton was given only ten minutes. But this, after all, was the European Academic Annual Meeting. After listening to Song Zimo¡¯s presentation, everyone finally understood why. This Chinese doctor had brought a transformative and innovative technique, whereas the other doctors merely made small tweaks and upgrades to existing techniques. Mr. Milton from the United Kingdom sat in the first row. His neighbors, August, and Manstein both wore Mandarin jackets, while he wore a suit, seemingly quite out of place next to them. No wonder August had disappeared for a while; it was now very clear he had gone to China, to learn advanced Spinal Surgery techniques. The next speaker after Song Zimo was Milton. Out of respect for this competitor, August used to place Milton¡¯s presentation first, but not anymore; now Milton could only follow behind Yang Ping. With Song Zimo¡¯s stunning presentation before him, Milton¡¯s presentation seemed very ordinary. The surgeries he brought were still revolving within the framework, with only a bit of improvement. Had it not been for Song Zimo¡¯s dazzling presentation, August¡¯s techniques would have been quite decent, able to support the reputation of the European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting. For instance, the design and improvement of artificial intervertebral discs, breakthroughs in difficult cases of spinal deformities, and a summary of upper cervical spine surgeries. But now, under Song Zimo¡¯s shining light, Milton seemed quite dim. Under the bright illumination of a thousand-watt bulb, the light of a few dozen watts simply isn¡¯t enough. Mr. Milton had a ten-minute speech, and he had been very confident, often eloquent on stage. Now, he seemed like a different person, his eyes dull and lifeless as if he were merely reading from a script. He hastily completed his speech, making the entire process appear crude, rushed, and perfunctory. The European doctors familiar with Mr. Milton were very surprised. What was going on? Was this really Mr. Milton? If it had been the previous annual meetings, the pointed questions and debates between August and Mr. Milton were the most thrilling parts of the conference, often ending with both of them red-faced and nearly coming to blows. After Mr. Milton¡¯s speech, during the five-minute question period, August didn¡¯t react at all, not posing a single question. This greatly surprised the European doctors in the audience. What had happened? How could this be? Weren¡¯t they arch-rivals? How could they possibly reconcile? It was impossible, utterly impossible. Some even suspected that August might have temporarily left the venue, but looking forward, they saw August sitting motionless in the front row, no questions asked, no debates, no arguments. Many doctors suddenly felt uncomfortable; the disputes between these two giants were the most captivating and appealing parts of the European conference. During Mr. Milton¡¯s five-minute question period, only a few other European doctors asked questions, but of course, they were nowhere near the level of August. Consequently, the questions they raised were trivial and easily dismissed by Mr. Milton. Next was August¡¯s presentation, his topic was similar to Song Zimo¡¯s, but more about integrating European cases to illustrate the excellence of new techniques. Also, as the first doctor in Europe to master these new techniques, he planned to vigorously promote them. Both giants had a five-minute question period after their presentations, while the questioning and discussion segments for the other speakers were scheduled for after the morning presentations. But strangely, now Mr. Milton also remained silent, not asking a single question during the entire five-minute period. In previous conferences, he wouldn¡¯t rest until he had August cornered with questions, sometimes wanting to pursue further even as the reminder bell rang. Now, Mr. Milton didn¡¯t move, not even attempting to open his mouth. The reason was simple really, August had lost all interest in the themes of Mr. Milton¡¯s speech. To him, those subjects were no longer worth his effort. And Mr. Milton was quite unfamiliar with the topics of August¡¯s speech, having no experience in that area, how could he pose any insightful questions? Just like two chess masters, previously evenly matched, often in fierce competition, now one has advanced far ahead in skill, the challenge dissipated, leaving both without interest and far from the intense conflicts and flushed faces of before. From a past filled with love and conflict to now being practically strangers, it was truly disheartening. Mr. Milton couldn¡¯t help but cast his gaze towards August, not far off. At that moment, August also looked at him, their eyes met for a brief moment, but then quickly parted, and thereafter, they no longer exchanged such looks. Mr. Milton longed for the days gone by, feeling a recurrent ache in his heart, regretting that those days would never return. At that moment, August too felt an emptiness, as if a great void had formed within him. In the future, in Europe, he would feel the loneliness of being at the top. The conference was still ongoing, with a doctor from France now speaking, and the doctors immersed themselves in the academic feast. Only August and Mr. Milton felt complicated emotions, unable to recapture the past feelings. Song Zimo, at this conference, not only had a speech but also a surgical performance scheduled for the third day. He would conduct three surgical demonstrations along with August. Chapter 1108 - 1108 895 Snatching the Spoils ?Chapter 1108: Chapter 895: Snatching the Spoils Chapter 1108: Chapter 895: Snatching the Spoils The European Spinal Surgery Academic Conference was already into its third day. Song Zimo and August began to perform surgery, scheduled in the operating room of Frankfurt University Hospital. The director of spinal surgery here was very familiar with August, being classmates and good friends. The first of these three surgeries was a high-difficulty spinal scoliosis surgery; if it were in the past, no doctor in all of Europe would have dared to be the chief surgeon. When the patient¡¯s full spine X-rays were enlarged on the huge electronic screen at the conference, more than six thousand doctors were extremely surprised and shivered in fear. How could such a spinal deformity be operated on? It was nearly predictable that paralysis would occur post-surgery. A few doctors at the conference had experience in this area and had once mustered the courage to tackle high-difficulty surgeries. The curvature they attempted to correct wasn¡¯t as severe as the one in the current surgery, yet the outcomes were all failures, with the patient either suffering paralysis during surgery or afterwards. Without innovation in surgical philosophy and methods, these doctors believed that some spinal scoliosis could not be treated surgically, as surgery would lead to paralysis, a loss outweighing any potential gains. Song Zimo now demonstrated the effectiveness of Yang-style osteotomy, which he had spoken about during his lecture, with the actual surgery. The surgical knife on the screen began to make the incision, its movement extremely smooth, slicing open the skin in one stroke, precisely cutting through the entire length of the epidermis and dermis of the surgical incision. This marked the signature One-Stroke Flow, now displayed in front of doctors from around the world. All the surgeons present, experienced in spinal surgery, admired such a skin-cutting technique. This seemingly simple level of incision was something not many could achieve. In the high-definition video, the doctors could even see that the edges of the incision were neat and even¡ªthat throughout the process, the surgical knife was perpendicular to the skin and very stable, without any deviation. The depth of the cut was just right, cutting through precisely but stopping at the subcutaneous fat, causing no damage whatsoever. After the skin came the fascia, and then the muscles were separated from the spinous processes to the sides. Gradually, the doctors noticed something strange¡ªthe Chinese surgeon¡¯s operation seemed bloodless. How could that be? Logically, such spine surgeries would bleed, no matter how skilled the surgery; it was only a question of how much blood. Gauze used for packing was inevitably soaked through. Yet now, this Chinese doctor, with an electric knife or bipolar electrocoagulation in hand, was flexible and precise, eliminating all bleeding points at their inception. The gauze used for packing not only didn¡¯t need changing but also appeared to have absorbed only a minimal amount of blood. Hemostasis is a problem every surgeon must face, and the skill of controlling bleeding is a fundamental aspect of surgical operations. Today, all the doctors witnessed a different kind of surgery, unlike any they had performed or known of in their experience. The muscles were pushed away from the spinous processes using subperiosteal dissection, revealing the spinous processes, vertebrae plates, and superior and inferior articular processes¡ªnow came the third surprise for the doctors of the world. Song Zimo took less than ten minutes to insert a full twenty pedicle screws, which amounted to implanting one screw in less than half a minute. His skillful technique and rapid movements astonished all the surgeons at the conference. The intraoperative G-Arm Machine imaging displayed on the screen show that the twenty pedicle screws, in terms of their position, angle, or depth, were beyond reproach. Milton watched Song Zimo perform the surgery, feeling as if a stone pressed against his chest. If he were to do it, even with advanced navigation systems, it would take at least an hour to place those twenty pedicle screws, and they would not be positioned as perfectly, since ultimately the machine relies on a person¡¯s experience for operation. After placing the screws, the next step was osteotomy. Song Zimo already had a clear understanding of the osteotomy site; following the principles of Yang-style osteotomy, he used a mathematical formula to estimate the site of the osteotomy, then confirmed the location, direction, and depth of the osteotomy. Frankfurt University Hospital is equipped with a navigation system, but in order to demonstrate that such a surgical method could also be completed under rudimentary conditions, Song Zimo did not use the navigation system. He completed all the steps manually. Yang-style osteotomy is based on extensive data research. It investigates thoroughly the relationships between spinal cord deformation and paralysis, spinal straightening and spinal cord deformation, osteotomy sites, and spinal straightening. It establishes an application formula, linking the osteotomy site with spinal paralysis. This way, the entire operation is no longer about luck. In the past, although monitoring via spinal cord-evoked potentials was used to monitor spinal cord injury, monitoring was all it did¡ªif there were waveform abnormalities, the damage had already occurred. Yang Ping¡¯s surgical method now directly linked the osteotomy site with spinal cord injury. If a doctor plans to perform surgery on a patient with spinal scoliosis, they would mark out the determined osteotomy sites in advance. How many osteotomy points are there, at what location to perform the osteotomy, how much to cut, and then applying Yang Ping¡¯s function formula, one could derive a function value, which is a score. This score is compared against reference values. Any score below a certain number is certain to lead to paralysis, any score above it is safe, clear at a glance. Moreover, if the site, number, and extent of osteotomies are determined based on calculations from this formula, paralysis will certainly not occur. Chapter 1109 - 1109 895 Snatching the Spoils_2 ?Chapter 1109: Chapter 895: Snatching the Spoils_2 Chapter 1109: Chapter 895: Snatching the Spoils_2 This still has a correction factor, for example, if the patient previously suffered from spinal tuberculosis, and the part of the spine affected by the tuberculosis, then it¡¯s necessary to correct the function value for this situation. Each scenario corresponds to a coefficient, which, when added to it, produces a corrected function value. Currently, whether in China or in Europe, this function is very accurate. On one side of the screen is an introduction to the Yang-style Osteotomy function. Milton carefully calculated on the draft paper, truly a genius doctor, to be able to come up with such a method. This must require the collection of a large amount of data to achieve, and it¡¯s another doctor with great patience and perseverance who could collect so much data and then analyze it. When Milton first saw this function in Yang Ping¡¯s paper, it was just a basic introduction about the statistical data of surgery cases in the paper. Therefore, Milton also wanted to use this method for surgery, but after trying it out, he couldn¡¯t proceed. In fact, at that time, Yang Ping had not yet simplified his surgical method. He was concerned that being too detailed might lead to many doctors overestimating their abilities and eager to try, which could easily cause some issues. Yang Ping¡¯s surgical methods generally went through two steps: the newly invented procedure and then the simplification of the procedure to lower the threshold and complexity of the operation. Now that Yang Ping had simplified his procedure, he sent Song Zimo to Europe, using this conference to teach doctors from all over the world. If the surgery is done according to the current method, it would be very easy. After thoroughly researching the method, Milton decided that he would use it for all future spine deformity corrections, especially for some high-difficulty surgeries where he would no longer have to rely solely on experience and luck. The osteotomy action was extremely rapid, quickly completing the bone cutting, followed by correction and rod insertion. The entire process was smooth and did not at all seem like a day-long spinal deformity correction surgery; it was more like a simple spinal compression fracture, completely stress-free. From skin incision to suture, the surgery was finished in one hour. The doctors at the conference were thoroughly conquered by Song Zimo¡¯s technique. Any one of them facing such a case on their own would not have dared to accept it and would have had to give up the surgery. Lowering the difficulty of the case a bit, they might perform the surgery for a patient, but the operation time could not be this fast. With twenty pedicle screws and several osteotomy sites, even at their fastest, they couldn¡¯t possibly complete the surgery in less than three or four hours. ¡ª At this time, Yang Ping was busy in the System Space Laboratory. He was currently working on not just one project but running multiple research projects concurrently; the search for other space-orientation factors was still in progress, and the study into tumor cell apoptosis was reaching a critical point. Moreover, Yang Ping was planning to set up a third project in the System Space Laboratory. The current System Points could completely support three projects running simultaneously. The third project was about skin. Yang Ping found skin to be a truly miraculous organ, quite different from the others. Yang Ping¡¯s Skin Expansion Technology did not use stem cells or space-orientation factors, for the space-orientation factors found so far were only for muscle. His Skin Expansion Technology simply utilized healthy skin from the patient¡¯s body. Remarkably, a large piece of skin could be expanded from just a small healthy patch, and that skin still belonged to the patient without any risk of rejection. In theory, the area of expansion was limitless. Why can¡¯t other organs do what skin can do? As Yang Ping delved deeper into his research, the number of questions in his mind only increased, and they became more and more chaotic. Yang Ping calculated the System Points and decided to set up the third project to specifically study the skin, and also to incidentally research the liver, as it also has certain replication capabilities, something other organs do not possess. If the liver could be expanded outside the body like skin, then in the future all patients needing a liver transplant would not have to wait for an allograft. It would only be necessary to extract healthy liver cells, expand and cultivate them outside the body to grow transplantable liver tissue, and then replant it back into the liver. The more he thought about it, the more amazed Yang Ping became at the skin as an organ. It has not only the advantages of replication but also sensitive tactile properties. Why is human intelligence far superior to other animals? It might be closely related to the sensitive tactile sensation of the skin. A person can discern the shape and material of an object, such as wood or metal, and make basic judgments, without using their eyes but only with the skin of their hands. A piece of skin removed from the body and placed outside can still change to adapt to different environments, as if it had a brain of its own. This miraculous organ must hide many secrets. Yang Ping decided to further investigate not only content with the Skin Expansion Technology. The mechanism behind why skin can expand and other organs can¡¯t was the focus of Yang Ping¡¯s interest. As for the project on tumor cell death, the trajectory was becoming clearer and clearer. After analyzing electron microscope images of tumor cells at different stages of death, it was confirmed that the mode of cell death was apoptosis. Who was responsible for initiating apoptosis was identified through analysis of various biochemical molecules in the environment surrounding the tumor cells, leading Yang Ping to discover a special protein named the K-factor. Chapter 1110 - 1110 895 Snatching the Spoils_3 ?Chapter 1110: Chapter 895: Snatching the Spoils_3 Chapter 1110: Chapter 895: Snatching the Spoils_3 The death of tumor cells is closely linked with this protein, the exact connection and the role of the K factor in this process are still unclear; these are the subjects for further experimental exploration. Through recent research, Yang Ping found that the role of the K factor in the apoptosis of tumor cells is possibly realized through the concept of Chemical Induced Proximity (CIP). CIP utilizes a core principle of cell biology, which is that cellular regulation often involves the induction mechanisms where two different proteins come close to each other. This proximity induction is the basis of many forms of biological regulation such as receptor function, post-translational modification, transcriptional regulation, and epigenetic mechanisms. In recent years, researchers have repurposed this principle as a research tool, applied in medical and biological research, whether in clinical studies or basic research. If the mechanism of tumor apoptosis is indeed related to CIP, and if the mechanism can be deciphered, then it is entirely possible to activate the apoptosis program in cancer cells using the K factor through CIP and eventually kill the cancer cells, allowing doctors to find a way to kill cancer cells and to develop new anti-tumor drugs around this method. The main reason why cancer cells can grow uncontrolled is that their internal apoptosis programs have been blocked and are in a state of disuse. It is very likely that some factor intercepts the process by binding to the promoter of the apoptosis gene, preventing the initiation factor from binding to its original targets, thus using epigenetic mechanisms to suppress their expression and effectively shielding the apoptosis mechanism. According to this core biological theory, cellular regulation often involves the induction mechanism where two different proteins come close to each other; if some factor binds with the promoter, is it possible to employ a tit-for-tat strategy, designing a protein factor that binds with this intercepting factor beforehand, to prevent it from binding with the promoter, leading to all tumor cells committing suicide. Yang Ping boldly hypothesized this, since the cost of experimenting in the System Space Laboratory is extremely low, particularly the two most important costs¡ªtrial and error cost and the time cost¡ªare very inexpensive here. Yang Ping decided to research the mechanism of tumor cell apoptosis following this line of thought, especially since his current project is at a critical juncture; whether it¡¯s the System Space Laboratory or the real laboratory, he needs to fully immerse himself in research. Therefore, Yang Ping has no interest in the European Spine Academic Conference right now; those matters are not on the same level as what he is researching. PS: Around noon yesterday, an elderly person suddenly suffered a heart attack at Wuhan Tianhe Airport in Hubei. Eduard Quintana, a cardiac surgeon from Spain, stepped in to administer emergency aid, and the senior was saved, making the news. This Spanish doctor, Eduard Quintana, has been exchanging and studying at Tongji Hospital affiliated with Huazhong University of Science and Technology for nearly a month, learning Professor Wei Xiang¡¯s new technique¡ªminimally invasive septal myectomy for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, and yesterday just happened to be the day he finished his studies and was set to return home. Minimally invasive septal myectomy for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy¡ªthis is the new technique previously written about in the text, and its originator Professor Wei Xiang has also been introduced before. Salute to Professor Wei Xiang! And salute to Doctor Eduard Quintana who saved a life! All the medical techniques mentioned in this article are not fabricated; the vast majority are entirely real, and only a very few are extensions of some scientific research results. I do not exclude the possibility of limited understanding on my part, which may lead to errors in expression, but this possibility is also very rare. When I have time, I will open a separate chapter to introduce modern medicine¡¯s ¡°black technology¡±. Because it is termed ¡°black technology¡±, it is because it is still largely unknown to many people. Chapter 1111 - 1111 896 You Are One of the Hundred Thousand ?Chapter 1111: Chapter 896: You Are One of the Hundred Thousand Heavenly Soldiers Besieging the Great Saint Chapter 1111: Chapter 896: You Are One of the Hundred Thousand Heavenly Soldiers Besieging the Great Saint The European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting is, in fact, the world¡¯s academic feast of spinal surgery, with over six thousand doctors from around the globe gathering together. Among the Japanese doctors who came to attend were Fujiwara Masao from Tokyo University Medical Department¡¯s affiliated hospital, along with Takahashi, Sasaki, and Mitsui who followed Fujiwara. Kobayashi Takeshi from Juntendo Hospital in Japan, being one of the leading figures in Japanese spinal surgery, also brought several doctors to the conference, as did the team from the spinal surgery experts at Keio University Hospital, led by Yoshiichi Yoshimura. Of course, other Japanese hospitals sent doctors to participate as well, but compared to Tokyo University Affiliated Hospital and Juntendo Hospital, their presence at this academic conference was somewhat more like that of minor characters. There were even more doctors from the United States attending, with many sent from hospitals such as the New York Special Surgery Hospital, Minnesota¡¯s Twin Cities Spine Center, among others, with Woodhead representing the Minnesota Twin Cities Spine Center at the meeting. Among the many American hospitals participating, one was particularly prominent: Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, the most authoritative academic institution for research on spinal deformities in the world, with several of its chairs coming from the International Scoliosis Research Association. Dr. Martin Jerry, the representative of this hospital, is the current president of the International Scoliosis Research Association, and his academic presentation was scheduled right after August¡¯s. The top experts seated in the first row all came from these hospitals. They were all stunned by Song Zimo¡¯s presentation, as for the past twenty years, they¡¯d been going in circles, unable to break through the iron wall of technology. Now, a Chinese doctor was leading the charge, pioneering a brand new path in spinal surgery. Not only had Chinese doctors achieved tremendous innovation in theory, but they also had vast practical experience, having demonstrated the application of three different spinal correction techniques in three surgeries. At this moment, Professor Su and Professor Liang were sitting in the first row, feeling incredibly proud. The main characters of this academic conference turned out to be Chinese doctors¡ªit was like the new waves in the Yangtze River pushing forward the old waves, and they were full of confidence in the future of Chinese medicine, believing that China¡¯s youth were destined to lead the world. In addition to China, the United States, Britain, and Germany, many doctors from countries like France and Italy were also attending. Now, Song Zimo was performing the second surgery, which had a higher technical content than the first, but the operation was even simpler. The second surgery adopted a minimally invasive approach, using only a few small incisions to complete the whole operation. All the leading figures in attendance were amazed that spinal deformity correction could be done in such a way. If the second surgery could be completed through small incisions, then the third surgery wouldn¡¯t require any incisions at all¡ªit would be done directly through a puncture, with a needle diameter even finer than that used for vertebroplasty. After Song Zimo finished demonstrating the three surgeries, the entire venue was ecstatic. The technology brought by the Chinese doctors was so magical, coveted techniques that every spinal surgeon had dreamt of. Especially for some of the world¡¯s top doctors in attendance, the impact was even greater. Chinese doctors had addressed their pain points and realized their dreams. There was a time when they feared the most serious complication in the correction of severe spinal deformities¡ªparalysis. Especially during the early stages of conducting surgeries, the rate of paralysis wasn¡¯t low. As experience accumulated, the rate of paralysis dropped significantly but still existed and was directly proportional to the severity of the spinal deformity. Even using spinal cord evoked potential monitoring was of no help because monitoring was just that¡ªmonitoring. When spinal cord injury occurred, its role was merely to give timely warning. Back then, many doctors wished there was a way to avoid this complication. Now, that technology had appeared in the form of Yang-style osteotomy, no longer groping its way across the river by feeling the stones but using scientific theory to sidestep this massive risk. When the Ilizarov technique was used for correcting limb deformities, some spinal surgeons wished it could be applied to spinal correction. That way, there would be no need to fix so many spinal segments, and there would be no fear that sudden correction would cause spinal cord injury. Because external fixators are elastically secured and not absolutely stable, the spine loses stability after osteotomy, and relying on the external fixator alone cannot achieve stable fixation. The patient¡¯s spine is very likely to shift out of place, leading to spinal cord injury. This became the impasse in applying external fixators for spinal correction. In the face of this huge challenge, few explored the application of this technique for the spine, and the research of the few teams that did halted before formidable obstacles, or they eventually gave up altogether. Epiphyseal blockade technology was to some extent used in the correction of limb deformities, but when doctors applied it to spinal correction, the complexity of spinal growth and the non-precision of the epiphyseal tissue meant the technique could only be employed for correcting simple side curvatures in children. Now, based on animal experiments, Chinese doctors have mastered the precise epiphyseal arrest technique and have gathered extensive basic data on spine growth. Supported by these technologies and data, precise epiphyseal correction technology can be applied for correcting any degree of spinal deformity in children, provided that the patients have sufficient growth and development potential, which must encompass the extent of their spinal deformities. If this precise epiphyseal blockade technique is revisited for limb correction, as long as the timing of application is appropriate, it could correct nearly all childhood skeletal deformities. Chapter 1112 - 1112 896 You Are One of the Hundred Thousand ?Chapter 1112: Chapter 896: You Are One of the Hundred Thousand Heavenly Soldiers Besieging the Great Saint_2 Chapter 1112: Chapter 896: You Are One of the Hundred Thousand Heavenly Soldiers Besieging the Great Saint_2 From the surgery demonstrated by Song Zimo, the procedure was extremely safe and minimally invasive, requiring only the implantation of a growth plate inhibitor through puncture under the monitoring of a C-arm machine or a navigation system. The entire surgery could be completed under local anesthesia, and the patient could get out of bed and move normally the next day after surgery. Within a few days, they could participate in sports activities normally. Throughout the corrective process, the patient was just like any other normal person. Under the conditions of a completely undisturbed normal life and study, the spinal deformity was quietly and safely corrected. Among the doctors sitting in the front row, there was also a top expert, whose emotions were complex, feeling both excited and disappointed. He was Dr. Volhausen, the director of the Spinal Surgery Center at the Belk Foundation Hospital in France, where Professors Cotrel and Dubousset, two masters of CD, had previously worked. In 1983, Dr. Yves Cotrel met Dr. Jean Dubousset, and the two instantly hit it off, becoming close friends. They co-created the revolutionary three-dimensional spinal scoliosis correction concept and based on this concept designed the first generation of the spinal correction system CD Spinal Internal Fixation System, making them the inventors of modern three-dimensional spinal deformity correction surgery and the forefathers of modern spinal correction. Yves Cotrel was not only the inventor of modern three-dimensional spinal scoliosis correction surgery but also the founder of the well-known spinal surgical instruments manufacturer, Sofamor S.A., which he found in 1973. In 1998, Medtronic acquired Sofamor Danek for $3.6 billion in stock to gain a leading position in the spinal products market, illustrating the global stature of the Sofamor Company in the field of spinal surgical instruments. Dr. Volhausen was a student of these two masters, and he not only listened intently to Song Zimo¡¯s presentation, but during the tea break, he also took note of a Chinese medical equipment company, Ruixing Company. This Chinese company produced almost the entire range of orthopedic instruments, including sports medicine, joints, spine, and trauma products. Among them, the spinal products not only had a variety of types but also had a high scientific and technological content, such as the new three-dimensional fixation system, external spinal fixation frames, growth plate inhibitors, etc., each one a disruptive innovative product. In this way, the innovation of Chinese doctors was not local; it was systemic innovation, from surgical concepts to surgical procedures, and to surgical instruments¡ªa complete, closed-loop system was established. Yves Cotrel and Jean Dubousset also innovated systemically in their years. Meanwhile, Dr. Woodhead from the Twin Cities Spine Center in the United States was sitting in the front row. He was one of the top American spine specialists, and he was in great anguish because his Chinese Level Four had not passed, causing him to miss out on so much. If he had already passed, he might have learned these techniques by now and would have been proficient in applying them. August had already participated in the research of precision growth plate inhibition technology, standing at the forefront of spinal surgery, while he had fallen far behind. Woodhead was determined to pass the Chinese Level Four no matter what, to seize the opportunity to further his studies at Sanbo Hospital. Fujiwara Masao was also feeling complicated at the moment. He had known Professor Yang Ping for a long time, not only had he demonstrated surgery at academic conferences with Sanbo Hospital, but he had also invited Professor Yang to perform surgeries as the chief surgeon at the Affiliated Hospital of Tokyo University. His uncle¡¯s surgery was performed by Professor Yang as the chief surgeon. He could not believe how fast Professor Yang had progressed. Back then, he had even motivated his team¡¯s younger generation to work hard and strive to surpass Professor Yang at Sanbo Hospital. But now, it seemed that the gap was growing wider and wider, and it was not just one Yang Ping; there was now a powerful team. Previously, he could still see Yang Ping¡¯s figure in the distance, but now he could not see the figure of Yang Ping running ahead anymore. Feelings of oppression, desperation, and desolation gathered in Fujiwara¡¯s heart. Fujiwara Masao now had a very worrying issue: his sister, Fujiwara Miyuki, had been fascinated by Professor Yang since going to China. Regrettably, Professor Yang was already married, so Miyuki had now decided to remain single and not marry, even dismissing a family-arranged marriage that had already been settled without hesitation. Fujiwara truly regretted sending his sister to China for the academic conference back then. Takahashi, Sasaki, and Mitsui were also seated in the second row. Sasaki and Mitsui were rare medical prodigies from Japan. As top students from Tokyo University, the previous generation of professors considered them medical geniuses rarely seen in a century. Of course, they truly were. Not only were their academic grades outstanding, but their academic achievements after joining the profession were also extremely impressive, practically the superhumans of orthopedics. Previously, when Professor Yang Ping was the chief surgeon at Tokyo University, they had always held a grudge against him. They believed that through hard work, they could one day surpass Professor Yang, who only prevailed because of the large volume of surgeries and the large base of patients in China. Originally, they too had come with their own academic accomplishments, hoping to meet Yang Ping and see his situation. Yang Ping did not attend, but his assistant did, who was the first to speak and definitely the star of this conference. Now, both Sasaki and Mitsui feel inferior to Song Zimo, as Sasaki is merely an assistant to Yang Ping. Why do they feel increasingly distant, and why is this so? ¡°Takahashi, you¡¯ve been to China. Isn¡¯t Song Zimo actually the top orthopedic doctor in China?¡± Sasaki asked his colleague Takahashi, which was the only conclusion he could draw. ¡°No, Song Zimo is just one of Yang Ping¡¯s assistants, and he has another one right over there on our left,¡± Takahashi said with a smile. Sasaki and Mitsui turned their heads to look, and indeed, there was a Chinese doctor in a Zhongshan suit not far to the left. However, this individual¡¯s hair was a bit messy, and he had a somewhat unkempt appearance, sitting there sternly without saying a word, not looking like an expert at all. ¡°I¡¯ve always said that Professor Yang is an insurmountable mountain. You guys just can¡¯t do it, honestly. It¡¯s not me wanting to strike you down, but your hope of surpassing Dr. Song is very slim. What you just saw was Dr. Xu. If you want to surpass Professor Yang, you first have to surpass him, and I see your chances as very slim. After him, you still have to surpass Dr. Song before you can even hope to climb the highest peak, but the first step is like reaching for the sky.¡± ¡°Is he really that impressive?¡± Mitsui Tasuku felt dejected. ¡°Not just impressive, very impressive. He was personally trained by Professor Yang. Don¡¯t be fooled by his ordinary look. In terms of surgery, no one here today can defeat him. The only one who could is another student trained by Professor Yang, whom you just saw as Dr. Song. In one hour, he completed a highly difficult spinal scoliosis correction. They have set records in spinal scoliosis surgery, and to this date, not one of their cases led to spinal cord damage, not even the slightest, and all the cases they operate as chief surgeons are the most challenging,¡± Takahashi felt his fellow disciples didn¡¯t understand the depth. After witnessing Yang Ping¡¯s surgery last time, they were conquered but never convinced, always hoping to surpass Yang Ping academically. Because everyone considered them prodigies, and it was hard for them to bow down to a Chinese doctor at such a young age with remarkable accomplishments. ¡°Takahashi, you have completely insulted our dignity by going to China to take him as a teacher, and Teacher Fujihara supported you as well,¡± Mitsui expressed his dissatisfaction. ¡°I understand how you feel. You are considered geniuses by everyone, having spent your lifetime training to become one of the hundred thousand celestial warriors surrounding the Great Saint,¡± Takahashi said calmly. Sasaki and Mitsui turned their heads, staring at Takahashi. It really hurt, truly hurt! These words indeed touched on the sore spot of both Sasaki and Mitsui, and at that moment, both felt extremely uncomfortable, almost suffocating. ¡°This is the level of the Great Saint!¡± Takahashi handed a Chinese journal over to Mitsui next to him. Mitsui took the journal, but she couldn¡¯t understand Chinese at all. ¡°I¡¯ll read it when the Japanese version comes out,¡± she said. Takahashi took the journal back. Takahashi handed a Chinese journal over to Mitsui next to him. Mitsui took the journal, but she couldn¡¯t understand Chinese at all. Chapter 1113 - 1113 897 Damn so familiar ?Chapter 1113: Chapter 897: Damn, so familiar Chapter 1113: Chapter 897: Damn, so familiar ¡°This conference has moved us deeply, with new technologies from China showing us the dawn of spinal surgery¡ª¡± ¡°I have another piece of good news to announce to you all. Do you remember the Chinese journal I recommended to you on the first day? Some of you already have the journal in hand.¡± ¡°This journal will once again surprise everyone.¡± The impact of the presentations and surgeries by Chinese doctors still lingered, and now August was about to announce another surprise. Why are there so many surprises coming from China? A journal? How come I don¡¯t have one, do you? The doctors in the audience looked around; nobody seemed to have the journal. Upon inquiry, it turned out that only special guests sitting at the front had received the journal. If anyone was to blame, it was for choosing a seat too far back. ¡°Don¡¯t worry if you don¡¯t have the journal in hand; it in no way affects your chance to receive the surprise. Now, I would like to introduce this journal in detail because this journal from China is published with a whole new concept, which will be a breath of fresh air for you all. Thus, I must present it thoroughly, or I would be remiss in my duties.¡± Is this journal that significant? Initially, everyone had little interest in the journal, but now, after August had spoken, they were keenly interested. ¡°I am also one of the staunchest advocates for this new journal.¡± At that moment, Manstein also stepped up to the podium. If Manstein recommends it that highly, it must be worth a closer look. ¡°This journal from China doesn¡¯t have a hard copy at all, what you have seen are merely complimentary or commemorative copies,¡± said August. No hard copy? What kind of journal is that? ¡°Its mode of dissemination is completely novel; it¡¯s a journal that utilizes the internet as its platform, meaning the journal itself is a website.¡± At that point, a www web address appeared on the big screen. ¡°This is the journal¡¯s website address. Now everyone can use the tablets and laptops at your fingertips to access the site, where you can see all the papers from the journal. Of course, subscribing to papers comes with a fee, but it is incredibly convenient, just like shopping online. You simply click on the website and can use mobile payment to get the papers. You can subscribe to all the papers of the current issue, or just choose to subscribe to one.¡± Many doctors from China listened and felt a sense of familiarity, yet couldn¡¯t quite remember why it felt so familiar. ¡°This is a journal with Chinese characteristics. In China, many aspects of life can be handled online, making things extremely convenient. This journal has also decided to embrace the internet, making it more timely, convenient, and open.¡± As August continued with the introduction, those with tablets or laptops had already begun entering the website to register and log in. The registration and login process was very user-friendly; you simply created a username and password. Of course, using a cell phone or email for the username wasn¡¯t an issue either. The website¡¯s design was very user-friendly; once logged in, you could see the first issue¡¯s colorful cover and the titles of the featured articles. Clicking further took you to introductions of the current issue¡¯s papers, which were free to access, but the actual content of the papers required a subscription fee. Traditional journals are mostly in print, some have electronic versions, but only as a secondary option, often coming with a significant delay. Some journals are purely electronic, or some have special online internet issues, but this is just traditional journal thinking in a new medium. But Medical from China is entirely different. The paper layout is extremely user-friendly, with clear fonts that can be sized to preference and various options for reading backgrounds. Most revolutionary is that after each paper, both readers and authors can freely and instantly post their comments, facilitating interaction between authors and readers, and among readers themselves. This essentially opens up the journal to readers worldwide for discussion and interaction. In traditional journals, reader interaction was virtually non-existent. On the rare occasion that readers and authors wished to discuss issues, they had to rely on letters and emails, which was extremely inconvenient, costly in terms of time and effort, and highly inefficient. The doctors noted that the journal¡¯s language was Chinese, but already, volunteer teams were translating the journal into different languages and publishing them in the corresponding language sections. The translation teams consisted of doctor volunteers, both professional and efficient. Medical translation is different from regular translation; it involves many medical terminologies that aren¡¯t within most people¡¯s grasp, so having them translated by the reader community is best. Any team, any individual could translate the papers, and after posting their translations to the site, they are open to scrutiny and discussion. Eventually, after a series of debates, each word of the translation could be highly accurate. Truly, a miraculous journal! In the past, it took days for a printed journal issue to reach doctors, sometimes weeks, and in slow cases, even over a month wasn¡¯t uncommon. By combining the internet with journal publishing, the dissemination method was completely transformed, making it efficient and convenient; after a paper was reviewed and published, it was instantly accessible to the readers. ¡°Please note that our new journal doesn¡¯t have the concept of ¡®issues.¡¯ The so-called first issue is merely the first batch of papers made available to accommodate traditional thinking. From now on, as soon as you doctors write up your papers, you can submit them online at any time. Our editorial team and review experts will review them as quickly as possible, and upon passing the review, they will be immediately published,¡± August slowly explained. Chapter 1114 - 1114 897 Damn so familiar_2 ?Chapter 1114: Chapter 897: Damn, so familiar_2 Chapter 1114: Chapter 897: Damn, so familiar_2 ¡°So after the publication of the paper, there is no concept of issues, only the timing of publication, which means many papers might be published at the same time,¡± August added. Chinese doctors, especially the slightly younger ones, how come they are so familiar with this, isn¡¯t this similar to that something or other? What is it, why can¡¯t I remember it all of a sudden? ¡°The limited print edition is just supplementary, meant only to preserve our papers in another medium, so the print edition is merely a giveaway, a memento, or a record.¡± This novel journal is strictly speaking not a journal but a platform for publishing papers; it really is mind-opening how papers can be published in this way. The doctors who had already logged in realized this in just a short moment. English, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, and other translations of articles began arriving one after another, all translated by volunteers for free. Any individual or team could translate any paper or even just a section or few sentences of an article. The doctors could nearly see the translators discussing some controversial phrases. This open form of translation made every sentence and every word of the papers exceedingly precise. Without a laptop right now, anxiety is mounting, everyone is squeezing next to doctors who have laptops. ¡°Not having a laptop is no issue, as long as you have a mobile phone you can also browse through the papers. Just download our app, and you can read papers on your phone,¡± August was an excellent explainer. Then, a huge QR code appeared on the screen, scanning which one could download the App. If you had mentioned that earlier! Doctors without laptops immediately took out their phones, started scanning the QR code to download, and then registered following the prompts on the screen. Everyone has a mobile phone, but is there such a journal in the world? This truly completely shatters the traditional thinking about journals. After logging in, they started subscribing to read papers; the interface was extremely user-friendly, providing a very comfortable browsing experience, unlike anything Western doctors had ever seen in online reading before. ¡°Everyone, pay attention! Our journal, no, to be precise, our paper platform, is different from traditional journals. Publishing papers here is completely free of charge, unlike traditional journals that require a fee for publication. We don¡¯t need that, you just have to use real-name registration to publish papers,¡± ¡°However, subscriptions do cost a fee, which is not high because we are not profit-oriented. The fees we collect are only to maintain the platform, and we also accept donations through a specific channel,¡± ¡°But to celebrate the launch of our journal, we will offer a free subscription for a period.¡± August continued with increasing excitement, as he was unaware of what the journal would look like before it debuted. Tang Shun was excellent at keeping secrets; he didn¡¯t reveal a word until the journal debuted a few days ago, which was when August found out how bizarre the journal managed by Tang Shun was. A Chinese doctor finally remembered, damn, isn¡¯t this similar to Chinese online literature? Taking the approach of online literature to manage such a serious journal is indeed quite extraordinary. Then several more Chinese doctors recalled, this is just like the approach of online literature. Xu Zhiliang looked around at the excited foreigners and couldn¡¯t help but find it amusing¡ªthey looked as if they had never seen anything like this before. Professor Yang had allocated so much funding to the Medical Journal, and that guy Tang Shun had actually turned it into an online literature platform. Moreover, this website and App were designed and built by an expensive technical team from a well-known online literature platform. So when Chinese doctors looked at it, how could they not find it familiar? Now, it seemed obvious. The doctors at the venue gradually downloaded the APP and registered accounts¡ªvery straightforward, and they could use either their phones or their own emails. If they preferred not to use either, that was okay too; they could merely register an username and then set a password. Logging in with the username and password was also possible. This novel approach made everyone find it very interesting; most of the papers they had seen before were on print journals. Even though some used electronic journals on the internet, the user experience was extremely bad, nowhere near what the Medical is offering now. When some doctors had already finished reading the papers inside, it was their turn to be surprised again. Professor Mainshtan had also published an article in it, along with many top figures they were familiar with. Professor Mainshtan obviously seemed confused; he wasn¡¯t like August who had already known about such a bizarre journal. The journal he had in hand was merely a freebie, a souvenir, the real journal was like this. Even the brains behind the Nobel thought it wasn¡¯t enough, yet papers could still be done like this. The long-anticipated journal turned out to be like this, completely different in concept from ordinary journals, utterly subverting the traditional mode of journal operation. The doctors continued reading, delving deeper into the papers, and when they came upon Yang Ping¡¯s paper, they were once again stunned. Spatial Orientation Gene? Such a sci-fi term, Spatial Orientation Gene, appearing in a serious academic journal ¨C is this journal reliable? It¡¯s not a sci-fi book, is it? But as they read further, it wasn¡¯t sci-fi at all because it had already been realized. The author of the paper had already successfully discovered the world¡¯s first Spatial Orientation Gene, and that was far from the end. The author had successfully used this gene to cultivate a complete muscle, which not only had the same muscle fiber structure as normal muscles, but also included interwoven blood vessels and nerves. This meant that humans could clone organs externally, a new technique that didn¡¯t rely on embryo culture, undoubtedly epoch-making. ¡°Did everyone see the Spatial Orientation Gene in the paper? Are you shocked? I¡¯m asking if you are shocked?¡± August asked all the doctors present. How could such a thing not be shocking? Who in the medical community wouldn¡¯t feel a surge of emotions over such a major event? The names of the paper¡¯s authors¡ªYang Ping, Tang Shun, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and others. Isn¡¯t Song Zimo that Chinese doctor who was speaking on stage? When Sasaki and Mitsui saw the Japanese version of the paper, their minds completely short-circuited, feeling like a boulder was pressing on their chests, overwhelmed by a strong sense of suffocation. External organ cloning, he had actually achieved success? How did he, a surgeon, possess such strong research capabilities, capable even of innovating from fundamental theories? At that moment, Sasaki and Mitsui understood; what Takahashi had said was not wrong. Yang Ping was an insurmountable peak, an existence even more formidable than Great Saint, yet they might not be able to ascend to immortality to join the ranks of the great multitude of heavenly soldiers. Professor Su and Professor Liang were at a loss for words. The younger generation really was different¡ªwasn¡¯t it just about running a journal? How could it be done like this? Moreover, they had previously had no knowledge of Yang Ping¡¯s research progress. Now suddenly announcing such significant achievements in this manner was hard to accept. Why hadn¡¯t this young man mentioned it earlier? Why didn¡¯t he say it earlier, this young man, so confident about the old man¡¯s heart condition? This was solidly Nobel Prize-level achievement; who else in the field of biological medicine had such results today? Professor Mainshtan stood on the podium, already planning in his mind; he would recommend this achievement for the Nobel Prize as quickly as possible. He had to act fast, or else he might be beaten to it by someone else. Based on his interactions with Professor Yang during this period, Professor Yang should agree to let him be the nominator for his scientific achievements. The only worry for Mainshtan was this point; he wasn¡¯t worried in the least, he wasn¡¯t at all concerned about whether the achievement could win the prize. If such an achievement couldn¡¯t win, then other achievements should be shy to receive it. The entire venue went wild again. Xu Zhiliang found it amusing; it was just reading a web article, no need to get so excited, right? Don¡¯t foreigners read web articles? However, the exciting points of this web article really were somewhat high. It was normal for everyone to get a bit excited. ¡°This is real, right? It isn¡¯t some trick played by the youth?¡± asked Professor Liang. Professor Su, wiping sweat from his forehead: ¡°It should be real. You can¡¯t pull a trick this big. I¡¯ll verify it when I go back.¡± Sneaky kid, not giving a heads up, it¡¯s easy to scare people like this. Chapter 1115 - 1115 898 What to Do ?Chapter 1115: Chapter 898: What to Do? Chapter 1115: Chapter 898: What to Do? After the European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting, the discovery of the Spatial Orientation Gene quickly spread across the world. This was a significant event in the medical and biological community, and as a global biopharmaceutical giant, BG Company immediately convened a senior meeting to strategize. In a skyscraper in the United States. Around an oval conference table were several dozen BG members, including company executives and scientists, all of whom appeared tense as they reviewed the documents in their hands. These documents were papers from the Medical website, naturally in the English version. They said that a medical website was more suitable than a medical journal, having never seen such a journal before. After reading the paper, their expressions varied, but there was one common feature: they could hardly conceal their surprise and incredulity. How could it be possible? Several months earlier, they had read Yang Ping¡¯s paper when the Spatial Orientation Gene was merely a hypothesis. How had it become reality so quickly? This didn¡¯t align with the rules of scientific development. A hypothesis could be true or false, but even if it were true, how could they have identified the Spatial Orientation Gene so quickly and even successfully cultivated a piece of muscle using it? Many present were top scientists in biology and medicine, and judging from their experience and knowledge, this was simply impossible; it went against the laws of science. Just like water to oil and perpetual motion machines, it was impossible. Dr. Connell pushed up his glasses. He was in charge of the company¡¯s stem cells and organ cloning projects and was also the most likely candidate for the next Nobel Prize, thus he had the most authority to speak: ¡°I think it¡¯s highly unlikely to be true. There has never been such a miracle in the history of science, where a hypothesis turned into a real scientific discovery and then an application in just a few months.¡± ¡°You need to know, this involves three phases.¡± ¡°First, proposing the hypothesis. Second, identifying the Spatial Orientation Gene mentioned in the hypothesis. Third, using the Spatial Orientation Gene to cultivate an organ. Each of these phases requires at least ten years to complete and massive investments, and even so, the chances of success are very slim.¡± ¡°Why is this the case¡ªyou don¡¯t need me to explain. Scientific research progresses through a vast amount of trial and error.¡± ¡°Ahead lie millions of paths, which might all be wrong, or there might be one correct path.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t something that one team can achieve in a few months. This is science, not science fiction. Science must adhere to its inherent laws, which are objective and cannot be altered by humans.¡± Dr. Connell¡¯s opening remarks were pessimistic, yet at the same time optimistic. Li Gaoyang from BG Company, with a hooked nose, furrowed his brows: ¡°Since Dr. Connell only suggests it might be false, there is also a possibility that it is true. Is there a chance they were incredibly lucky, and out of the millions of paths you mentioned, they found that one right path?¡± Dr. Connell said, ¡°I say ¡®maybe¡¯ because we need to respect the laws of science. No one can declare it false without ample evidence, even if it is indeed false.¡± ¡°But do you think there¡¯s someone in the world who, merely by luck, could correctly predict the outcome of every dice roll in Las Vegas over the past few months?¡± ¡°If you believe such people exist, then the possibility you mentioned is also there. I am a scientist and can only speak in the language of science.¡± Li Gaoyang nodded: ¡°I understand what you¡¯re saying, but his paper has already been published, clearly detailed. Could all of this be false?¡± Dr. Connell said, ¡°From a scientific standpoint, I can¡¯t 100% declare it to be false, but I am unable to confirm whether there is some unknown supernatural power in this world. You see where his paper has been published? It¡¯s not even a serious academic journal; it¡¯s merely a self-created online platform. How credible can that possibly be?¡± ¡°Are there not enough fake papers in the world?¡± another scientist, Haim, who worked on gene research, said. ¡°I wonder, why didn¡¯t he publish such significant scientific results in CNS? Weren¡¯t his previous papers published in CNS? This clearly doesn¡¯t make sense,¡± Haim expressed his doubts. Li Gaoyang felt they were right but also wrong: ¡°He has published 13 papers in CNS, which shows his capabilities are beyond doubt, definitely a world-class scientist. Why would someone like that need to falsify anything?¡± ¡°If it were me, I would never engage in such folly. I¡¯m already at the pinnacle of the world, with status, fame, money, and women at my beck and call. Why would I ruin myself? Am I a fool?¡± the white-haired Rolf joked. ¡°That¡¯s why you¡¯ll never be a scientist, at best, just a successful voyeur,¡± Dr. Connell replied mercilessly, looking down on those like Rolf who engaged in intelligence work. Many of the company¡¯s scientific achievements had been obtained through Rolf¡¯s peculiar methods, then refined and used openly, ultimately leading to the demise of competitors through patent litigations. Such acts were a disgrace to Dr. Connell, which was why he was reluctant to associate with people like Rolf. Dr. Connell, could you please not publicly call me a voyeur in future?¡± Rolf shrugged his shoulders; he had no recourse against such a straightforward professor. Chapter 1116 - 1116 898 What to Do_2 ?Chapter 1116: Chapter 898: What to Do?_2 Chapter 1116: Chapter 898: What to Do?_2 ¡°I will carefully consider this issue,¡± Dr. Connell said coldly, eliciting laughter. ¡°Dr. Connell, let¡¯s ignore the peepers for now and get back to the main topic. Why would he do this? Engage in forgery?¡± Li Gaoyang steered the conversation back. ¡°If you all take a serious look at science, history will tell you that the history of science is not all honorable. Forgery, plagiarism, suppression, and so on have pervaded the history of science.¡± ¡°Once scientists achieve success, they often lose their way trying to break through or prove themselves, and then make some wrong moves.¡± ¡°Scientists are human, and humans inevitably have human weaknesses. No one can escape that.¡± Dr. Connell could actually be sure that this topic would vanish like some past episodes. ¡°But, the doctors publishing in this online journal are all of significant stature. For instance, Manstein also published his latest findings on spinal cord injury research there. Would Manstein associate with a forger?¡± Rolf always tried to turn the tables. ¡°You finally said something sensible. I¡¯ve also been thinking about this. For money? Manstein doesn¡¯t care about our exorbitant salaries, so why would he care about the money?¡± Connell was full of doubts too. ¡°It¡¯s very simple. We replicate their experiments. If we reach the same conclusions, then it¡¯s true; if no one can replicate the same conclusions, then it¡¯s false. It¡¯s that simple, yet here we are arguing.¡± Professor Madelan from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Stem Cell Laboratory, collaborating with BG Company, was getting impatient. In reality, the scientists at BG Company were mostly not its employees but were professors from various universities and laboratories financially supported by it over the long term. ¡°Li Gaoyang, you tell Dr. Madelan why it might not work even so,¡± Connell deflected the issue to Li Gaoyang. ¡°For technological secrecy, many of our technologies are never published. Some are published only to claim original discovery or invention. These publications often only announce results without revealing details, or they might even deliberately provide misleading details. As for people¡¯s skepticism, it doesn¡¯t matter, as the truth of the new technology will reveal itself when it¡¯s launched,¡± Li Gaoyang explained to Madelan. These professors are generally quite naive, far less cunning and ruthless than a capital magnate like Li Gaoyang. ¡°So that¡¯s it? You mean they might deliberately mislead us, causing the experiments to be irreproducible, and ultimately no one knows why it can¡¯t be replicated?¡± Dr. Madelan felt that the matters at BG Company were too complicated. ¡°However, we must repeat the experiments, no matter the results. It¡¯s a necessary step,¡± Connell concluded. Rolf shook his head: ¡°It¡¯s not just about saying we should replicate it. The director of that laboratory is a sly guy. I¡¯ve made inquiries; if you want to replicate, you must obtain their gene activator, which is key to the experiment. But the cunning guy requires that replicators must provide technology they consider valuable in exchange for the activator.¡± ¡°Technology they consider valuable?¡± Connell felt like cursing. This was like handing over their technologies for him to cherry-pick. ¡°This guy has a unique mind. He is the most valued student of Professor Fukunaga from Japan and is also the specialist in charge of stem cells and cloning projects in Professor Yang Ping¡¯s team,¡± Rolf said. ¡°Fukunaga¡¯s student? You¡¯re talking about that Tang bastard. In three months in my lab, he got my proudest student, Meyer, pregnant and she became a single mother.¡± ¡°My student almost went to China with him, but fortunately, I discovered the conspiracy in time.¡± Dr. Madelan from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Stem Cell Laboratory said angrily, still remembering that despicable scoundrel. ¡°As far as I know, it seems your student willingly became a single mother for him, and she insisted on going with this Chinese man. But she stayed after being discouraged by the Chinese man. I think this Chinese man is decent; because of this relationship, he might allow you to send Meyer to visit. Others might not be so lucky,¡± Rolf seemed to know quite a bit. Professor Madelan¡¯s face turned instantly red. Indeed, it was true, and saying that would be very embarrassing. ¡°Gentlemen, we have no interest in the romantic history of Professor Yang¡¯s assistant. I just want to ask, what should we do?¡± Li Gaoyang tapped the table lightly. If they were to follow? That would mean completely switching tracks, and the company¡¯s vast resources invested in the previous track would be rendered useless, thousands of scientists, over twenty years, several hundred billion US dollars, all would have been for naught. They would be following the Chinese man, far, far behind. This was just an estimate of past losses. If they decide to follow, starting now, they would need to invest massive amounts of money and talent once again, enduring lengthy and endless trial and error. They might ultimately succeed, or they could completely fail. If successful, the other party had already gone far. Dr. Connell said, ¡°I think we need to do two things now, verify the authenticity and replicate the experiment.¡± Rolf continued, ¡°In my opinion, we should make Professor Yang Ping and his laboratory special focus objects, obtain all their data, assemble elites for analysis, and if it¡¯s fake, we¡¯ll drop it, and if it¡¯s real, we¡¯ll start research based on their data, which is better than starting from scratch, right?¡± Li Gaoyang looked a bit hesitant, ¡°Rolf, is that really a good idea?¡± Rolf sneered, ¡°Don¡¯t we often do this kind of thing? This is what we¡¯re best at, you don¡¯t need to pretend at a meeting like today.¡± Li Gaoyang coughed a few times, ¡°Mr. Rolf, some things need not be said so bluntly, it makes everyone uncomfortable.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s the case, then pretend I didn¡¯t say anything; go ahead and discuss,¡± Rolf was ready to back down. Li Gaoyang frowned tightly, his expression serious, his face showing no hesitation, replaced instead by a decisive look, ¡°Mr. Rolf, you¡¯re right, I think your suggestion has the strongest operability. Let¡¯s immediately begin our most powerful intelligence work, obtain all data, and spare no effort.¡± Dr. Connell sneered, ¡°You all understand nothing about science, thinking too simplistically. Let me make it clear to you, whether this matter is real or not, we are already at a disadvantage.¡± ¡°You might not know, if everything is real, how massive the data within this is!¡± ¡°Because it is far too advanced, none of us have experience in this area; even if you could acquire the data, without his participation, it would take us at least a few years to complete the data analysis to ascertain its authenticity.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just to verify whether it¡¯s real or fake. If it¡¯s fake, there¡¯s nothing more to say. If it¡¯s real, we¡¯re in trouble; to analyze, master, and assimilate this data, we need a massive team and probably five years.¡± ¡°How is that possible?¡± Rolf felt Dr. Connell was a stumbling block, always saying this won¡¯t work, that won¡¯t work; what¡¯s the point of holding a meeting then? ¡°I am very disappointed, being executives of the company, you are all such fools!¡± ¡°It¡¯s hard for me to tell you the difficulty of analyzing this data, but let me give you an example. If engineers from a university in some African country got all the data on Boeing¡¯s most advanced planes, how long do you tell me it would take them to build a Boeing plane?¡± Dr. Connell¡¯s tone was very sharp. Everyone present was stunned, they looked at each other, nobody could rebut. ¡°Because the path we are taking is completely different; nobody here has that kind of experience; we need to undergo retraining ourselves to move forward along his path, and that is a hard process.¡± What should be done? Li Gaoyang found himself in a difficult position again. He had never been so passive, never so troubled before. ¡°The best way is to directly recruit him to our company; that¡¯s the only method.¡± ¡°But he has already refused.¡± Rolf sneered again at this point, ¡°His refusal is his business; do we really have to listen to him?¡± Dr. Connell looked at Rolf with a disdainful glance, ¡°What I said earlier was predicated on everything being real; fortunately, the likelihood of this being real is nearly zero, no one can guess the outcome of a Las Vegas casino dice roll over a few months.¡± PS: I wish everyone a happy New Year¡¯s Eve! A bit early but wishing everyone a Happy New Year, good health, all the best, and happiness for the whole family! Thank you for your support throughout the year; I will keep stable updates and strive for more explosive updates! Chapter 1117 - 1117 899 A Cluster of Smoke-Like Blood ?Chapter 1117: Chapter 899: A Cluster of Smoke-Like Blood Vessels Chapter 1117: Chapter 899: A Cluster of Smoke-Like Blood Vessels The European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting concluded amidst a wave of astonishment, bringing many surprises and mysteries to all. Never before had any of the previous meetings left attendees so reluctant to leave, even after the closing, many were loath to part. Whether the first patient in Europe to be treated with the Precise Epiphyseal Arrest Technique for scoliosis could be successfully straightened aroused much speculation. Because the severity of the child¡¯s spinal deformity was simply too critical, and the surgery offered by the Precise Epiphyseal Arrest Technique was too minimally invasive, too easy, it inevitably raised doubts among the more than six thousand spinal surgeons about its efficacy. The entire surgical operation was incredibly straightforward, with the insertion of mung-bean-sized blockers at several predetermined points in the vertebrae under the surveillance of a C-Arm Machine or navigation system, and the patient was jumping around the very next day after surgery. Is this possible? All the attending doctors could see from the first demonstration surgery that Song Zimo¡¯s surgical skills were extremely advanced, almost surpassing every doctor present. This was just an assistant, so what about Professor Yang¡¯s surgical skills? This became a mystery of the conference. These doctors only knew that Yang Ping had once created a miracle: publishing 13 CNS Papers within a few months. However, none had ever seen him perform surgery, so just how high was his level of surgical proficiency? Many were eager to witness Yang Ping in main surgery. The second mystery of the conference was whether the papers Yang Ping published were genuine. In the papers Yang Ping posted on medical websites, he mentioned not only having discovered the Spatial Orientation Gene but also having cultivated a complete piece of muscle using it. If true, this would be a super significant scientific achievement, marking the first time humans have succeeded in cloning organs ex vivo without reliance on embryonic techniques. With these questions in mind, the assembly reluctantly concluded. After the closing of the European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang indeed had a mission: to explore European Medicine under the guidance of August, including hospitals, medical universities, and laboratories, which could expand their horizons and learn from others¡¯ strengths. Professor Mainshtan extended a grand invitation to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, asking them to visit his laboratory and expressing a wish to establish a close academic cooperation with Sanbo Hospital. Of course, Professor Mainshtan didn¡¯t mention that he wanted to replicate Yang Ping¡¯s experiments and aspired to be Yang Ping¡¯s Nobel Prize nominator, thinking that a genius like Yang Ping comes along once in a blue moon. Only a genius can speak the language of another genius, which is why Mainshtan wanted to befriend Yang Ping. Insularity leads to regression, while openness fosters progress ¨C a perspective deeply valued by Yang Ping, who believed that no matter how skilled, one should never become complacent or insular. Since it was a rare trip abroad, Yang Ping encouraged Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang to stay in Europe a few more days to engage with peers and broaden their perspectives. He also saw this opportunity as a way to cultivate independence and capability in Zhang Lin and Little Five; with their senior doctors Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang absent, it would foster their psychological independence. Zhang Lin and Little Five were overjoyed to hear this news, as they could continue to act as senior doctors for a few more days and perform more surgeries, relishing the feeling of being in charge. Though Zhang Lin and Little Five may have seemed casual and unserious at times, they never let anyone down when it mattered; they could only perform three or four surgeries per day but were still able to lead surgeries adeptly, albeit not perfectly, yet reassuringly competent. They couldn¡¯t perform the most challenging surgeries yet, but they could confidently handle the vast majority of them, just enough to maintain the reputation of the department. Unfortunately, Zhang Lin and Little Five could only lead surgeries when working together; if they were to operate independently, they could cover between six to eight surgeries a day, boosting efficiency significantly. Fortunately, the Surgical Research Institute didn¡¯t have many emergency surgeries, as most were elective, allowing them to take their time. Judging from Zhang Lin and Little Five¡¯s performance in leading surgeries, Yang Ping felt his method of training the team¡¯s doctors was correct, ensuring each person¡¯s sound development and attaining a certain level of proficiency. A team can¡¯t rely upon just one or two individuals; every member should be free to develop and utilize their full potential. With Dean Sun¡¯s assistance, Bao Yulou finally met with Yang Ping. He was still busy arranging surgery for his son. Yang Ping had agreed to perform Bao Junhao¡¯s surgery, but a specific time had not yet been confirmed. Bao Yulou came specifically for this matter. While he could have avoided making personal appearances each time due to the special circumstances, to express his sincerity, he visited Sanbo Hospital in person regardless of his schedule. Today, Zhang Lin and Little Five finished their surgeries a bit earlier, by just after seven o¡¯clock. Just as Yang Ping completed a surgery and walked out of the operating room, he encountered Bao Yulou, accompanied by Dean Sun. Bao Yulou had no entourage, but following him were Mrs. Bao and Bao Junhao. Seeing Yang Ping exit the operating room, Bao Yulou immediately approached to shake hands. ¡°Professor Yang, hello, I apologize for disturbing you during your busy time,¡± Bao Yulou said, exhibiting remarkable humility, not at all like a major company CEO. ¡°No problem, tell me, what is it?¡± Yang Ping was straightforward. Bao Yulou¡¯s face showed a hint of embarrassment, ¡°Professor Yang, I specifically brought my family to thank you this time, and we greatly appreciate that despite your busy schedule, you have found time to arrange to perform the main surgery on Junhao. Whenever it¡¯s convenient for you, my son and I will follow your arrangements.¡± Chapter 1118 - 1118 899 A Cluster of Smoke-Like Blood ?Chapter 1118: Chapter 899: A Cluster of Smoke-Like Blood Vessels_2 Chapter 1118: Chapter 899: A Cluster of Smoke-Like Blood Vessels_2 Oh, Yang Ping remembered, he had forgotten to follow up about the surgery he promised Bao Yulou. So after agreeing, there was no further discussion. This made August Lou very anxious, as he feared that delays would lead to more problems. With the help of Dean Sun, he came this time to inquire about the specific time for the surgery. ¡°Professor Yang has been very busy lately, but he will try to make time. Don¡¯t worry,¡± Dean Sun said on behalf of Bao Yulou. After thinking it over, Yang Ping said, ¡°How about next week? Come and be admitted on Monday, have the surgery on Tuesday. Come early on Monday, be punctual at 8:30 to the department, find the on-duty doctor to get the admission form. Remember to fast, you can¡¯t have breakfast.¡± Finally having a specific date set for his son¡¯s surgery made Bao Yulou very happy. He knew his son wasn¡¯t successful ¡ª a simple matter had been complicated by his son and that absurd wife. But a son is still a son, even if he is as stupid as a pig, he is still his son. Bao Junhao did nothing, was good for nothing, but had some interest in soccer, so Bao Yulou went to great lengths to make him a soccer player. Now with a knee injury, he could no longer play. If he wanted to return to the field, his only option was to have Professor Yang perform the main surgery. Thankfully, after a series of actions such as apologizing and making donations, Bao Yulou had finally expressed his sincerity, and Yang Ping agreed to perform the surgery for Bao Junhao. Currently in the world, there were not many doctors who could perform the surgery for Bao Junhao, and the best one was only Yang Ping. The few other doctors who could perform this kind of surgery were all Yang¡¯s students. If it wasn¡¯t for that fiasco in the United States, he still wouldn¡¯t have known about this. Mrs. Bao and Bao Junhao were extremely polite and humble, no longer arrogant as before. They leaned slightly forward, bowing, and squeezed out a smile on their faces, ¡°Thank you, Professor Yang! We¡¯re very grateful.¡± This is what Bao Yulou had repeatedly instructed in advance; this matter absolutely couldn¡¯t have any further complications. ¡ª- Bao Junhao, this kid, spent his days frolicking with a group of fair-weather friends, and sometimes it was a problem to have too much money. Bao Junhao was just like that. Having just left Sanbo Hospital, he disappeared without a trace without even saying goodbye to his father, while his friends were waiting for him at some villa for a planned party that night. ¡°Brother Hao, you seem a bit down lately,¡± said Wu Kequan, who hung around with Bao Junhao all the time. This guy was also a good-for-nothing, doing nothing worthwhile all day. ¡°Of course I¡¯m not happy, I¡¯ve been acting like a grandkid lately, having to grovel for a surgery. My old man is donating money, writing apology letters, and even forcing my mom and me to apologize to that bastard face to face. Every time I speak in front of him, I have to be utterly respectful, claiming it¡¯s to show sincerity. I want nothing more than to rush up and kick him,¡± Bao Junhao said indignantly. Bao Junhao poured himself a drink, took a fierce gulp, the pent-up anger in his heart with nowhere to vent. ¡°No wonder, I was wondering why you¡¯ve been so gloomy these days,¡± his friend said, pouring Bao Junhao another drink. ¡°What kind of big shot? To make Brother Hao serve like a grandson, let me have a word with him,¡± his friend said, also feeling angry. Bao Junhaw sighed and said, ¡°It¡¯s Yang Ping, a doctor from Sanbo Hospital. This guy is so arrogant. He just knows a few surgeries, what¡¯s so great about him?¡± Bao Junhao became more and more angry as he spoke. His friend saw this and thought it was just an ordinary doctor. ¡°Should I find some guys to teach him a lesson, to vent your anger? How dare he disrespect Brother Hao,¡± his friend said, equally indignant. On thinking it over, Bao Junhao had not been short on scoldings from his old man recently, and was forced to apologize. His resentment had built up for a long time, and upon his friend¡¯s reminder, Bao Junhao felt he must reclaim his status, otherwise how would he stand in front of his brothers in the future. However, he thought again, the surgery hadn¡¯t been done yet. He¡¯d wait until it was over. Bao Junhao didn¡¯t want to end up a cripple. He might be a bit stupid, but he wasn¡¯t so clueless about this situation. ¡°Don¡¯t rush it, wait until after the surgery. Once it¡¯s done, who cares about him? Then help me find a few people to give him a proper beating. Don¡¯t make too much of a scene, but don¡¯t go too easy on him. Just ruin one of his hands,¡± Bao Junhao said viciously. His friend immediately agreed, ¡°Leave it to me. You say how far to go, and I¡¯ll make sure it goes that far, guaranteeing he¡¯ll remember for a lifetime not to mess with Brother Hao.¡± ¡°Yeah, my old man is such a fucking wimp, acts like a damn grandson with all the money he has. What¡¯s the point of making money?¡± Bao Junhao said of his father and couldn¡¯t help but shake his head. ¡ª¡ª Professor Deng Jianliang from the outpatient clinic called Yang Ping and asked him if he had finished work for the day. Yang Ping said he had not finished yet and was still in the department ward. Professor Deng Jianliang said, ¡°There¡¯s a patient with Moyamoya disease in the emergency department, a two-year-old little girl, and I¡¯m preparing to have her admitted.¡± The patient was seen in the emergency department, which then requested a consult from the neurosurgery department. Because of the young age of the patient, the consulting neurologist was uncertain and had to ask Professor Deng Jianliang for help. Given her young age, the surgery would be particularly difficult, and since the child needed emergency surgery, Professor Deng thought it best to communicate with Yang Ping in advance. ¡°Admit her! Emergency surgery!¡± Yang Ping replied without a second thought. Emergency surgery for a two-year-old with Moyamoya disease is indeed difficult. Moyamoya disease is a rare cerebrovascular disorder, also known as Moyamoya syndrome, or spontaneous occlusion of the circle of Willis. Both children and adults can develop the disease. Children tend to exhibit ischemic symptoms, while adults tend to have hemorrhagic symptoms. Due to narrowing or occlusion of the arteries, the vessels upstream dilate because of increased resistance, which can lead to a higher risk of vessel rupture and hemorrhage. The downstream vessels tend to obstruct due to insufficient blood supply. The main symptom of the child now was a sudden weakness in the left side of her body. The family lives near the hospital, so she was rushed to Sanbo Hospital¡¯s emergency department as soon as the symptoms were discovered. Yang Ping notified Zhang Lin and Little Five to prepare for emergency surgery. Emergency surgeries are rare in the Surgical Research Institute, so everyone was very excited to hear about an emergency operation, and Zhang Lin and Little Five immediately went to the emergency department to see the patient. Yang Ping pulled up the brain angiography images for the child from the computer. The angiography images showed the typical Moyamoya ¡°puff of smoke¡± vessels. The ¡°smoky¡± vessels are a network of abnormal vessels formed due to narrowing or occlusion at the intracranial segment of the internal carotid artery, causing malformations in the vessels connected to the base of the skull. More specifically, Moyamoya disease is characterized by progressive thickening of the intima at the terminal part of the internal carotid artery and the starting segments of the anterior and middle cerebral arteries, gradually leading to narrowing and eventual occlusion, with compensatory dilatation of the lenticulostriate arteries. The imaging fully matched the characteristics of Moyamoya disease; there was no issue with the diagnosis. Treatment for Moyamoya disease can be divided into direct revascularization and indirect revascularization. For a two-year-old case, with smaller blood vessels, indirect revascularization is usually chosen, involving the separation of the superficial temporal artery to lay onto and adhere to the surface of the brain under the dura mater. This facilitates indirect restoration of blood flow, improving the ischemic state inside the skull. If one has a solid foundation in vascular anastomosis, direct revascularization is also a possibility. Yang Ping told Zhang Lin and Little Five to arrange the operation, while he quickly went to the canteen to have dinner. Zhang Lin and Little Five were clever; the first thing they did every afternoon after finishing surgery was to eat. That way, they weren¡¯t rattled if there was an operation later, and even if there wasn¡¯t one, they were able to save time for basic skills training. Trying not to be on an empty stomach when heading into surgery was Yang Ping¡¯s style and had been learned by every doctor in his ward. Even if there truly wasn¡¯t time for a meal, eating a compressed biscuit while changing clothes in the changing room was an option. Boxes of compressed biscuits were available in the changing room for anyone to eat, especially meant for those who didn¡¯t have time before an emergency surgery. Doctors maintaining good physical condition is beneficial to ensuring the quality of the surgery. Chapter 1119 - 1119 900 Fortunately Listening to the Doctor ?Chapter 1119: Chapter 900: Fortunately, Listening to the Doctor Chapter 1119: Chapter 900: Fortunately, Listening to the Doctor PS: Haven¡¯t changed; it¡¯s messy. I¡¯ll get back to it later. Thank you. The little girl Xixi now exhibits left-sided limb paralysis, which indicates a blood vessel occlusion. A blood vessel occlusion means that if it persists beyond a certain time, the brain tissue supplied by this blood vessel will undergo infarction. Emergency surgery aims to restore blood supply before the brain tissue infarcts, reversing the illness and averting lifelong disability. Thus, the left-sided limb paralysis would return to normal. Once brain tissue infarction occurs, the condition is irreversible, resulting in permanent left-sided limb paralysis. The core of surgery for Moyamoya disease is still the treatment of blood vessels, specifically intracranial vascular surgery, with vascular anastomosis being the most critical aspect. Coronary artery bypass is also a vascular anastomosis, and organ transplantation involves vascular anastomosis, showing how vital the basic skill of vascular anastomosis is, evident in many cutting-edge surgeries. Yang Ping tirelessly requires the department¡¯s doctors to repeatedly train in basic skills to perfect them. Even though Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang are very skilled, he still requests that they regularly train in basic skills to achieve endless improvement. Actually, any complex surgery is a combination of basic surgical skills. For instance, the surgery for Moyamoya disease, after understanding its pathogenetic mechanism, involves a combination of basic techniques. This little girl has ischemic symptoms due to blood vessel occlusion. To resolve the occlusion, one must either clear the vessel or create a new vessel to bypass the original occlusion, allowing blood to flow through. The former is impossible due to the congenital nature of Moyamoya vessels; hence, the latter is the only option. Patching technique and vascular bypass surgery both aim to reestablish new blood flow; they differ only in method and process. Zhang Lin and Little Five have already gone to the emergency department for a consultation, while Yang Ping is in his office contemplating the little girl¡¯s surgery on his computer. For consultations, unless they are particularly special, Zhang Lin and Little Five can handle them independently. The surgical approaches for Moyamoya disease are divided into three types: vascular bridging, also known as direct vascular reconstruction, which is technically challenging and requires robust vascular anastomosis skills. It provides immediate effect but has a limited supply range when bypassing a single blood vessel. The second method is the patching technique, where tissue with rich extracranial blood supply is applied to the brain. Over time, the blood vessels of this tissue gradually grow into the brain, establishing a rich collateral circulation over the brain surface with the necessary tissues. The effects start to show after 3-6 months as the patched tissue¡¯s vessels spontaneously connect with the brain cortex¡¯s vessels. This method is straightforward but slow to take effect, taking 3-6 months to show any result. The third method combines the previous two, performing both types of surgery to complement each other and avoid the disadvantages of each while harnessing their advantages. This two-year-old child, having particularly fine blood vessels, makes most doctors opt for the second method. However, as this little girl currently exhibits symptoms, it¡¯s clearly inappropriate to use a method that takes 3 months or half a year to show results. Yang Ping decides to use the third method, performing both vascular bypass and patching together. The difficulty is considerable, but it provides the best outcome. For Yang Ping, there is no distinction between high or low difficulty in surgeries, only between superior and inferior outcomes. This patient, for whom the bypass is not just one vessel, Yang Ping plans to bypass several vessels. Emergency Department. The emergency doctor has already performed the pre-operative checks on Xixi, ready to sign off and then send her to the operating room for emergency surgery. Xixi¡¯s father, Wang Chengpei, is extremely anxious, utterly bewildered, and it takes him a while to recover his senses. Because recently at home, Xixi did not fall or sustain any injuries, she was watching a cartoon and suddenly couldn¡¯t move her left limbs, and she burst into tears without understanding what was happening. Her grandmother quickly came to console her and noticed Xixi couldn¡¯t move one side of her body at all. Initially thinking it was a fracture from a fall, but clearly, there had been no fall, and the whole family witnessed her watching TV just fine until suddenly something was wrong, and she started crying. If it were an elderly person, they would definitely think of a stroke, but how could a child have a stroke? So, their first thought was definitely an injury. The family did not dare delay; since mom was still at work because of overtime, dad Wang Chengpei and the grandparents immediately carried Xixi to the hospital. Fortunately, their home is close to the hospital, and they arrived quickly. The emergency doctor was very experienced, asked a few questions, barely examined, and felt it was a brain vascular issue; however, to be certain, Professor Chen Jianliang from the Surgical Research Institute was called in. Professor Chen, after examination, said, ¡°This is definitely a brain vascular issue. It could be either cerebral hemorrhage or cerebral infarction. Why not perform emergency cerebral angiography?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it a fracture or dislocation? How could a two-year-old have cerebral hemorrhage or cerebral infarction? Please let the orthopedic doctor have a look before proceeding,¡± Xixi¡¯s grandmother disagreed with doing any cerebral angiography, especially upon hearing that it involves injecting a contrast agent into the body, which made her even more apprehensive. Professor Chen confidently said, ¡°This is a problem with the brain vessels, likely a cerebral infarction. Don¡¯t waste time. Go straight for the cerebral angiography. Once we confirm, treatment is a race against the clock, and any delay will result in lifelong hemiplegia.¡± Upon hearing this, Xixi¡¯s father Wang Chengpei knew he couldn¡¯t indulge the elderly¡¯s whimsy. The doctors were professionals, so he instantly made up his mind, ¡°Doctor, I¡¯m the child¡¯s father, we¡¯ll listen to you. I¡¯ll sign whatever needs to be signed, please proceed as you suggest, and let¡¯s not waste any time.¡± The grandmother still attempted to intervene: ¡°No, the child can¡¯t withstand such torment. Let¡¯s wait for Li Ni to arrive before deciding.¡± Chapter 1120 - 1120 900 Fortunately Following the Doctors ?Chapter 1120: Chapter 900: Fortunately, Following the Doctor¡¯s Advice_2 Chapter 1120: Chapter 900: Fortunately, Following the Doctor¡¯s Advice_2 Li Ni is Xixi¡¯s mother, who is on her way back. ¡°No, we can¡¯t delay this. Doctor, please arrange the surgery quickly. Listen to me, I¡¯m the good child¡¯s father, I am the child¡¯s legal guardian. Don¡¯t listen to the elders; they don¡¯t understand anything,¡± Wang ChengPei said determinedly. Usually, Wang ChengPei would be very docile in front of his in-laws, as if he didn¡¯t have any opinions on matters and would always listen to the elders, but how could he be vague on such a major issue. What is this attitude? How can anyone speak like this? The mother-in-law was angry and wanted to take charge of the matter, but the father-in-law held her back: ¡°Let the child decide, what do you know?¡± Because they both had some fertility issues, this girl was only conceived after several attempts at in vitro fertilization; moreover, they were both 51 years old, meaning they had their daughter at 49. Now that their daughter suddenly exhibited symptoms of hemiplegia, how could they not be anxious? ¡°Doctor, please help us, save Xixi,¡± Wang ChengPei pleaded desperately. His wife, Li Ni, is the headteacher of a senior high school graduating class and is extremely busy at work. She had just received the news and was rushing to the hospital. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Look, Wang Xixi has Moyamoya disease, which is a type of congenital cerebrovascular malformation. It has been present since birth, and it¡¯s only just manifesting now. Look, these are the malformed blood vessels; they look like a puff of smoke, hence the name Moyamoya disease.¡± ¡°These ¡®smokes¡¯ are malformed blood vessels. They¡¯re much thinner than normal blood vessels, which is why they look like smoke. These very thin blood vessels have difficulty passing blood through, so the downstream vessels are very prone to blockage. What we have now is a blockage, simply put, a stroke.¡± Wang ChengPei didn¡¯t understand Moyamoya disease, but he definitely understood what a stroke was. ¡°Now we must take action and perform surgery to restore blood supply to the area affected by the infarction. If blood supply is promptly restored, the limbs affected by the left-side hemiplegia may return to normal.¡± ¡°If the blood supply isn¡¯t restored in time, the area of infarction will become a permanent dead zone, and the left-side hemiplegia will become permanent.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why we need to perform emergency surgery.¡± Zhang Lin spoke with the presence of a leading professor, full of authority, at a medium pace, articulating each word clearly. Wang ChengPei now understood the gist of what Zhang Lin was saying. In fact, Wang ChengPei bought the property near the hospital because he found abnormalities in his electrocardiogram during a health examination but had never identified the cause. He was consistently worried about his own health. He had heard that owning property here was like buying a health insurance policy. He heard about a Southeast Asian businessman who purchased an entire property complex to seek medical treatment. He never expected that he wouldn¡¯t use this ¡°insurance,¡± but his two-year-old daughter would. ¡°Doctor, please do your utmost to help. We must have Professor Yang Ping perform the main surgery. We bought this property to be close to Professor Yang Ping. You know Guo Peihua, he was saved by you guys; I used to be his colleague,¡± Wang ChengPei implored. It was hearing about Guo Peihua¡¯s case that Wang ChengPei decided to buy the property here and had only moved in recently. ¡°My name is Zhang Lin; I am the attending physician in Professor Yang Ping¡¯s team.¡± Zhang Lin said confidently, then handed over a surgical informed consent form. Anesthesiologist Liang Fatty, hearing Zhang Lin¡¯s call, had already rushed back. Fatty was preparing to go out for dinner and a movie with a flight attendant when he heard about the emergency surgery and had to hurry back, with flight attendant Liao Yiyi following behind him. Fatty immediately printed out an anesthesia informed consent for Wang ChengPei to sign. Xixi¡¯s pre-surgery preparations were ready, and she was about to be taken to the operating room. Preparation was typically Little Five¡¯s job and he was ready too, able to perform the surgery at any time. Wang ChengPei didn¡¯t think too much. Before leaving, he signed the surgery consent forms. At this moment, he didn¡¯t want to waste any more time reviewing the consent for surgery. Entrusting the child to the doctors was the best option. It was just that his wife was still on her way back. Hearing that the child had misled him on his left side, she was so anxious she couldn¡¯t even speak. Fatty¡¯s movements were deft. When Xixi was in the emergency department, she wouldn¡¯t cry or fuss due to Fatty¡¯s skilled handling of the documentation necessary to transfer her to the operating room. The operating room was ready, but the surgery was quite complex. If it were just a skin graft, Zhang Lin could complete it. However, a skin graft wouldn¡¯t solve the problem; a coronary artery bypass was necessary. For a two-year-old child with a coronary artery vapour lock syndrome, if waterworks needed to be increased significantly, many bridges had to be built. It was essential not only to ensure the quality of the bridges but also to select their positions with extreme precision. This was beyond Zhang Lin and Little Five¡¯s assistance. However, under Professor Yang Ping¡¯s guidance, telling them where to construct the bypasses, they should be able to complete the surgery. In such surgery, time was of the essence. It was crucial to minimize the time spent and quickly restore the waterworks, saving the brain tissue on the verge of necrosis. Zhang Lin and Little Five could manage the surgery, but their speed wouldn¡¯t come close to matching Yang Ping¡¯s, who could complete the surgery within half an hour to an hour. Hearing that there was an emergency surgery, Dr. Jin and Dr. Wen hurriedly finished their dinner and made their way to the operating room. They were newcomers and hadn¡¯t yet found their footing or fully immersed themselves in the work. They were eager to quickly integrate into the team and find their place. Hearing that Professor Yang would be performing the surgery, they were keen to come learn. Professor Chen JianLiang, who was responsible for the consultation, also hurriedly finished dinner in the cafeteria and rushed to the operating room. He wanted to see how Professor Yang Ping conducted surgery, as in Professor Chen¡¯s understanding, Yang Ping always managed to perform surgery more skillfully than others. Even a conventional surgery could be elevated to a higher level under his hands. Fatty arranged Liao Yiyi in the ward of the Surgical Research Institute and let her rest in the doctor¡¯s office, while he went to administer the anesthesia. Fatty moved quickly, swiftly completing the tracheal intubation and general anesthesia. In the emergency department, the nurses had already shaved Xixi¡¯s head. Li Guodong, accompanied by a standardized training student, began sterilizing the patient. The first step of the surgery. Yang Ping planned to perform several arterial bypasses? Because these blood vessel bypasses could have an immediate effect. Once the bypasses succeeded, the areas lacking blood supply could immediately receive blood flow, thus maximally preventing brain tissue death. Yang Ping left this for the second step. Because this surgery didn¡¯t require racing against the clock. Its effect would manifest in three to six months. On Xixi¡¯s scalp, Yang Ping removed several blood vessels for backup. These blood vessels would later be used for bridging. Their diameter was a few tenths of a millimeter. Incision: align with the course of the superficial temporal artery (STA). Further determination of STA location and course using Doppler ultrasonography before surgery. Craniotome to create a bone flap beneath the course of the STA. Open the dura mater to find a suitable recipient vessel from the middle cerebral artery (diameter greater than 1 mm). Choose between direct and indirect bypass according to the suitability of the blood vessel diameter. With the head tilted to one side, under the microscope, separate the frontal and parietal branches of the superficial temporal artery for standby, and meticulously flush the blood vessels to prevent clots. Sometimes the success of a surgery is the accumulation of many details; one mistake in these details can lead to the failure of the entire operation. Then, open the temporalis muscle and skull to reveal a very distinct bone flap. Further opening the dura mater to find the arachnoid membrane, then suture the donor artery onto the arachnoid. With the head tilted to one side, under the microscope, separate the frontal and parietal branches of the superficial temporal artery for standby, and meticulously flush the blood vessels to prevent clots. Sometimes the success of a surgery is the accumulation of many details; one mistake in these details can lead to the failure of the entire operation. Then, open the temporalis muscle and skull to reveal a very distinct bone flap. Further opening the dura mater to find the arachnoid membrane, then suture the donor artery onto the arachnoid. With the head tilted to one side, under the microscope, separate the frontal and parietal branches of the superficial temporal artery for standby, and meticulously flush the blood vessels to prevent clots. Sometimes the success of a surgery is the accumulation of many details; one mistake in these details can lead to the failure of the entire operation. Then, open the temporalis muscle and skull to reveal a very distinct bone flap. Further opening the dura mater to find the arachnoid membrane, then suture the donor artery onto the arachnoid. Chapter 1121 - 1121 901 I Can Also Perform This Surgery ?Chapter 1121: Chapter 901: I Can Also Perform This Surgery Chapter 1121: Chapter 901: I Can Also Perform This Surgery Professor Chen Jianliang stood in front of the lightbox, discussing with Yang Ping. Although he had retired, what interested him most was still his specialty. Having been a doctor all his life, he felt a sense of existence only when treating and saving lives. Engaging in other activities always left him without that feeling of existence, and the lack of it made him feel lost and empty, uncertain of the value of life. Professor Chen now only saw outpatients and was basically not involved in surgeries. Although running an outpatient clinic meant he was still on the front line, as a surgeon, how could he endure it indefinitely? Over time, he inevitably felt lonely and isolated. It was like a sniper on the battlefield who, although still at the front, no longer engaged in shooting enemies but squatted in defensive works, watching the battle through binoculars and collecting intelligence¡ªnaturally, it was hard to adapt to this change. To regain that sense of existence, Professor Chen could only try to find opportunities to observe surgeries. Of course, he would not go up and get in the way of the young people; he simply wanted to feel the atmosphere in the operating room, participate in surgical discussions by giving a few comments, and then just watch the surgery from around the operating table. That¡¯s exactly what he was doing now, carefully choosing a spot to stand without intruding on everyone¡¯s work. ¡°The blood vessels appear very fine, making the bypass quite difficult, yet without the bypass, we can¡¯t relieve the current vascular obstruction. It¡¯s hard to ensure the quality of the anastomosis with such fine vessels. How do you plan to do it?¡± Professor Chen asked. Yang Ping nodded and said, ¡°The blood vessels are indeed very fine, but that¡¯s okay. There should be no big problem with bypassing vessels of this diameter; I often do bypasses on even finer vessels.¡± When blood vessel diameters are very fine, generally less than 1 millimeter, vascular bypass is not chosen and simpler procedures such as patch grafting are preferred because the finer the vessel, the higher the demands on vascular anastomosis skills. If the anastomosis skills are not up to par, postoperative vessel occlusion can occur, rendering the surgery futile. However, if the level of vascular anastomosis is very high and there are no problems with vessel occlusion post-anastomosis, then bypassing can still be done on vessels smaller than 1 millimeter. Professor Chen knew Yang Ping¡¯s skills inside and out. As long as it was humanly possible, Yang Ping could achieve it; at least, in Professor Chen¡¯s experience, Yang Ping was at the pinnacle of operating. ¡°After the bypass, are you planning on doing the grafting as well?¡± Professor Chen knew that Yang Ping would focus solely on the surgical outcome without regard to the difficulty. ¡°Double-barreled approach, employing both proximate and distal measures,¡± replied Yang Ping. Professor Chen stroked his chin and nodded slightly. With the surgery proceeding in this manner, it was beyond reproach, no doubt the most perfect plan. Xixi was positioned supine for the surgery, her head fixed and slightly elevated, and the anesthesiologist Liang Fatty maintained her blood pressure slightly above her normal level. Zhang Lin and Little Five completed the sterilization and draping, Yang Ping scrubbed in, and the patrolling nurse brought the microscope over in preparation; the surgery officially began. It seemed that no one was in a hurry, but the surgery was not delayed at all. In this emergency surgery, Yang Ping didn¡¯t have time to explain while operating. He was focused solely on the task at hand, racing through the procedure. If he were to explain during such an emergency surgery, his speaking couldn¡¯t keep up with his hands. The only learning opportunity for the rest was to watch the synchronized surgical video, and then ask Professor Yang about anything unclear after the surgery. Doctors Jin, Wen, and Xia Shu envied Zhang Lin and Little Five, wondering when they could handle the majority of surgeries like them and truly keep up with the pace of the Surgical Research Institute. They were merely at the tail end of the team now. They used to be the elites in their own departments, but it was not until they came to the Surgical Research Institute that they realized they were actually outperformed by Zhang Lin and Little Five, who were considered the lowliest workers. Fueled by a sense of shame and driven by determination, the three Doctors resolved to work hard to surpass Zhang Lin and Little Five. Of course, these two seemed to be the easiest to surpass; overtaking Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang would be much more challenging. Now they were watching the synchronous surgical video on the screen with utmost seriousness, not wanting to miss any detail of each surgery. They realized how formidable the Surgical Research Institute¡¯s training for doctors was. Given their foundations in such an environment, with such training, as long as they kept earnest and diligent, they were sure to achieve greatness in time. What Zhang Lin and Little Five could do, they were convinced they could do as well, and go far beyond. Previously, Doctor Jin felt he was too old at over 40 and had missed the prime time for training as a surgeon. Now, that thought had completely vanished, and he brimmed with enthusiasm and ambition. Doctor Li Min, also present, had a revelation as to why Professor Yang so adamantly insisted on him learning anatomy through various methods and practicing basic skills. Li Min previously had little awareness of neurosurgical diseases like Moyamoya disease, and even less understanding of how to perform the necessary surgeries. Now he was not only familiar with such diseases but had also grown to understand the surgical principles and methods, thanks to his extensive anatomical knowledge and improved understanding of pathology and pathophysiology. Even without Yang Ping¡¯s guidance, or with just a hint from him, Li Min could grasp the surgical rationale and approach for such diseases. In fact, if faced with such a case, he would dare to undertake the relatively simple patch graft surgery. With a solid foundation, subsequent learning became much easier. Yang Ping was silent, focused on the surgery, with Little Five and Zhang Lin assisting. First was the vascular bypass. Yang Ping planned to bridge the superficial temporal artery with the middle cerebral artery, which was the most crucial part of the bypass. Some bypasses could be done directly, while others required the use of a vascular graft. Chapter 1122 - 1122 901 I Can Also Perform This Surgery_2 ?Chapter 1122: Chapter 901 I Can Also Perform This Surgery_2 Chapter 1122: Chapter 901 I Can Also Perform This Surgery_2 The bridging blood vessels were generally harvested directly from the scalp, and Yang Ping¡¯s movements were quick as he selected several arteries of appropriate diameter and length for standby. After harvesting the bridging vessels, Yang Ping proceeded to isolate the superficial temporal artery. The superficial temporal artery is the terminal branch of the external carotid artery, emerging between the lateral face¡¯s temporomandibular joint and the ear, then ascending to the scalp. If the surgery is to be meticulous, it is best to use intraoperative surface ultrasound to locate the superficial temporal artery, seek its course, and then mark it. The superficial temporal artery is then isolated based on the marking. Yang Ping was extremely familiar with human anatomy, so he didn¡¯t need surface ultrasound for localization, thus saving more surgical time, but this was limited only to him. So as not to mislead other doctors, whenever he performed such personal shortcuts, he would remind everyone, ¡°When you perform this surgery, you must use surface ultrasound for locating the superficial temporal artery. You must not imitate my omission.¡± Xia Shu hadn¡¯t been at the hospital long and was still unfamiliar with some things, but he was very earnest and liked to get to the bottom of things he didn¡¯t understand, so he curiously asked, ¡°Why can¡¯t we do it this way? Isn¡¯t it pretty good? Skipping a step saves surgical time, especially in emergencies, it¡¯s both fast and effective.¡± ¡°Your skills aren¡¯t flawless yet. If you skip the surface ultrasound localization, it¡¯s easy to damage the vessel during the harvest, and if you want to achieve quality in surgery, you must locate the superficial temporal artery. This allows you to grasp its exact course, maximally protecting the vessel during harvest and preventing injury,¡± Professor Chen responded to Xia Shu. So, it was a matter of surgical expertise. Xia Shu finally understood. After isolating the superficial temporal artery, Yang Ping, based on his mental image of its course in the scalp and the preoperative images, along with the anatomical features of a two-year-old child¡¯s head, selected an appropriate site for the vascular anastomosis within the center of the cranial bone window that he was ready to carve out. The surgical incision was designed to be about 0.5 cm on either side of the anastomosis point, making the incision about 1 cm in total. This was using a minimally invasive approach. In adults, the anastomosis is usually only about 2-2.5 cm apart, with an incision around 5 cm, much smaller compared to traditional surgical incisions. ¡°This isn¡¯t the conventional method?¡± Professor Chen asked. ¡°Minimally invasive!¡± Yang Ping said as he worked. The primary condition for this minimally invasive method was precise judgment of the anastomosis point, which must be the closest location between the superficial temporal artery and the middle cerebral artery. To find this optimal spot, one typically relies on CTA-based navigation, but Yang Ping could locate it precisely just using the images. After making the incision, Yang Ping opened a bone window about 0.5 cm in diameter at the center of the anastomosis point, entered the skull through the bone window, and then opened the dura mater. The patrolling nurse immediately brought over the microscope, and under it, Yang Ping looked for the appropriate recipient artery to isolate. He cut through the temporal muscle and then opened a 1 cm diameter window, opened the dura mater, and freed less than 1 cm of the recipient vessel, temporarily clamping it shut with the finest microvascular clamp. ¡°Pay attention to this step, everyone. Don¡¯t allow the vessel to twist. Once it twists, it can easily lead to vessel blockage,¡± Yang Ping warned everyone. ¡°Attention everyone, critical technique!¡± Zhang Lin reminded everyone. Li Min immediately pulled out a small notebook, and almost simultaneously, several other doctors also pulled out their notebooks, indicating a similar routine among them. Carefully, Yang Ping used micro forceps to cut open the recipient artery and performed an end-to-side anastomosis between it and the superficial temporal artery. After the anastomosis, he injected indocyanine green and then confirmed under the microscope that blood flow was unobstructed. Indocyanine green is a fluorescent imaging agent, and right now, the microscope Yang Ping was using had a fluorescent imaging feature. Thus, under the microscope, the blood flow within the vessels could be observed through fluorescence. ¡°You absolutely can¡¯t skip this step, no matter how confident you are. Look, even I didn¡¯t skip it,¡± Yang Ping once again reminded everyone of the critical step. After completing the bridging of the superficial temporal artery with the middle cerebral artery through a single vessel anastomosis, Yang Ping did not feel reassured and went on to bridge anastomose two more vessels. At this point, the first step of the surgery was completed. The second step involved applying the temporal muscle and flipping the dura mater, which seemed much simpler in this part of the surgery. The blood supply of the temporal muscle and the dura mater was rich, and by attaching it to the surface of the brain tissue, which was secreting a special substance due to cortical ischemia, the stimulus from this special substance would cause the growth of new vessels from the temporal muscle or dura mater towards the cortex, improving the blood supply to the ischemic brain tissue. The once malformed blood vessels were replaced by newly formed ones. The entire surgery took only half an hour to complete and appeared to be straightforward. Watching from the sidelines, Li Min felt that he could perform the surgery too, as it seemed quite simple. In reality, that was an illusion. No matter which surgery was performed by Yang Ping, it always looked incredibly simple, so simple that even an intern would be eager to try. ¡ª¡ª Xixi¡¯s mother finally rushed to the hospital and anxiously asked Xixi¡¯s father outside the operating room, ¡°How is Xixi doing now?¡± ¡°She¡¯s undergoing emergency surgery,¡± Xixi¡¯s father replied. ¡°Does it have to be surgery? What¡¯s the matter? There isn¡¯t anything serious, is there?¡± Xixi¡¯s mother was very worried. ¡°She just went in; don¡¯t worry, Professor Yang is the chief surgeon, there will definitely be no problems,¡± Xixi¡¯s father reassured her. ¡°What about my parents? Did they not come together?¡± ¡°They came, but I guess they¡¯re downstairs arguing right now. Mom won¡¯t allow the doctors to perform any examinations on Xixi, claiming it¡¯s harmful to her health, let alone surgery. The doctors said it was urgent, so I took the decision into my own hands. While still in the emergency ward, dad pulled mom outside, and I guess they¡¯re still arguing now.¡± ¡°We definitely can¡¯t listen to them; you¡¯re right to act this way. It¡¯s okay for trivial matters, but for something this serious, we can¡¯t let them make a fuss. Don¡¯t worry about them, I know my own parents.¡± Li Ni didn¡¯t blame her husband and thought he had done the right thing. But her daughter was still in surgery, and he was indeed worried. While the couple was speaking, the operating room door opened. Had the doctor not called the family at that moment to say the surgery was over, Xixi¡¯s parents would have definitely suspected a problem with the operation. The whole process of the surgery, from beginning to end, lasted less than an hour. ¡ª¡ª After the surgery, Xixi was taken back to the ward. Back at the doctor¡¯s office, Yang Ping explained the situation of the surgery to Wang ChengPei and his wife, telling them that the surgery was very successful, that Xixi could drink water and eat six hours after surgery, and that she could be discharged in a few days. He advised them to ensure she drank more water to keep her blood from being too concentrated. Wang ChengPei thought, it was a good thing his former colleague, Guo Peihua, had advised him. Since his own mishap, Guo Peihua had had a major realization and no longer stayed up late or worked overtime. He sold his old house and bought a new one near Sanbo Hospital, and even quit his old job to find another locally. Once, while dining with Guo Peihua, Wang ChengPei mentioned an issue with his EKG from a physical exam. Speaking from experience, Guo warned him not to take it lightly, as once something went wrong, it would be serious¡ªGuo had, after all, survived a brush with death at Ghost Gate. Thinking it over, Wang ChengPei got a bit scared and immediately discussed it with his wife, who was rather supportive of whatever he did. So, they sold their house and bought a new one near Sanbo Hospital. Shortly after moving in, their daughter had this incident. The couple stayed by their daughter¡¯s bedside, and by that time, the old man and the old lady had stopped arguing and found their way to the ward. ¡°I said it was bad luck to move houses, didn¡¯t I? You didn¡¯t listen to me, and look, something happened, didn¡¯t it?¡± the mother-in-law prattled on. Being the son-in-law, he definitely wouldn¡¯t argue on matters of principle. But his daughter was a different matter; Li Ni was not afraid of her mother. ¡°The doctor said it¡¯s congenital, she was born with it, what does moving have to do with it? It just hadn¡¯t been discovered before. If we weren¡¯t now close to the hospital, who knows what would have happened.¡± ¡°If the doctor says so, then so it is? Can¡¯t you use your brains? Nowadays doctors just want to make money, they¡¯re just scaring you, haven¡¯t you seen the news?¡± her mother-in-law argued confidently. ¡°Those are rare occurrences. Every industry has its bad apples. Haven¡¯t you also seen news about bank deposits just disappearing? Have your bank deposits disappeared? Have you ever embezzled a customer¡¯s deposit?¡± Li Ni countered her mother, who had worked in a bank before retiring. Her mother, at a loss for words from Li Ni¡¯s rebuttal, knew that her son-in-law usually indulged her mother, but she did not tolerate it and always stood by her husband¡¯s side, supporting him. ¡°What are you saying?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just making a comparison. Don¡¯t treat every rare incident you hear in the news as if they¡¯re the norm.¡± Chapter 1123 - 1123 902 Mansteins Ideal ?Chapter 1123: Chapter 902: Manstein¡¯s Ideal Chapter 1123: Chapter 902: Manstein¡¯s Ideal The next morning, when Yang Ping went on rounds, little Xixi¡¯s left limbs were already able to move. She happily played with her toys on the bed, blissfully unaware that she had nearly been left with a lifelong disability. Professor Chen Jianliang came early to check on the surgery¡¯s effect as well. Seeing such excellent surgical outcomes made him very happy since it was he who had admitted the patient for a consultation. He would have felt terrible if there had been any issues. A two-year-old child¡¯s brain can quickly return to normal once the obstruction is removed and the ischemic brain tissue is relieved, naturally resulting in the swift recovery of sensation and movement in the left side of the body. Therefore, whether it¡¯s for adults or children, the effectiveness of treatment for cerebrovascular ischemic diseases depends on how quickly blood supply can be restored¡ªthe faster, the better. ¡°Xixi can be discharged a week later,¡± Yang Ping told Xixi¡¯s father. A week is enough time for vascular anastomosis to become stable in a two-year-old. ¡°Thank you, she can be discharged so soon?¡± Xixi¡¯s father couldn¡¯t believe it. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, she can be discharged in a week. Remember, let her drink plenty of water during this time and do not let her inhale any secondhand smoke,¡± Yang Ping cautioned them, as some things must be properly emphasized. Not drinking enough can lead to blood thickening while nicotine from secondhand smoke can reduce blood oxygen levels and easily cause blood vessel spasms. Both can lead to blood vessel blockage. Even though Yang Ping was confident in the quality of his vascular anastomosis, ensuring surgical success didn¡¯t just rely on the quality of the anastomosis¡ªthere were other factors to consider as well. Seeing Xixi recover so quickly filled her parents with joy, but Xixi¡¯s grandmother stood to the side looking sullen and murmuring to herself, insisting that Xixi would have recovered without surgery. Of course, she only said this quietly, never in front of the doctors. However, even if she said it in front of Yang Ping, he wouldn¡¯t pay any attention to her, since she was neither the patient nor a family member who could make decisions for the patient. Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t waste his time on irrelevant opinions. Because his daughter had Moyamoya disease, Wang ChengPei, Xixi¡¯s father, searched for information online and had a basic understanding of the condition. He understood that without the emergency surgery, his daughter could truly have been left with permanent disabilities, so he was very grateful for the move. He specially called Guo Peihua to express his wish to thank him over a meal for the advice. If it weren¡¯t for Guo¡¯s suggestion, Wang ChengPei would likely not have moved¡ªhad it not been for the proximity to Sanbo Hospital, he shudders at what might have become of his daughter¡¯s condition. ¡ª- Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang¡¯s visit to Europe was proceeding smoothly. Not only did August personally act as a guide, but Professor Mainshtan also actively provided as much help as possible. With assistance from these two, their tour of Europe was largely unhindered, and they were treated as honored guests by all the laboratories. The reason they were received with such hospitality was not just due to Professor Mainshtan and August, but also because of Yang Ping¡¯s 13 papers and the research results he presented at the academic conference. Using this time, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were able to visit virtually all of Europe¡¯s top hospitals, medical universities, and medical laboratories. They now had a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the latest trends and advanced management in Europe¡¯s medical research field, which was extremely important. For most people, they might never have a chance to visit such laboratories in their lifetime, yet Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang could visit freely, and they were accompanied by top experts in the laboratories throughout, who introduced them to the research and answered questions¡ªit was quite an eye-opening experience. Professor Mainshtan opened all of his laboratories to Song Zimo and Yang Ping. He proposed a request to Song Zimo, hoping to replicate Yang Ping¡¯s experiment. Song Zimo told him that if he wanted to replicate Professor Yang¡¯s experiment, he would have to use special protein factors from the Sanbo Laboratory. Currently, the structure and mechanism of this protein factor were confidential, but he could provide the end product for use in the replication of the experiment. Professor Mainshtan understood that whatever this protein factor was and however it worked, as long as he could use it to replicate the experiment¡¯s results, then Yang Ping¡¯s theory would undoubtedly be valid. Of course, Professor Mainshtan harbored no doubts about the authenticity of Yang Ping¡¯s experimental results, but from a scientific standpoint, the experiment needed to be repeated. Additionally, he intended to recommend Yang Ping¡¯s achievements for the Nobel Prize, which required replicating the experiment as well. The significant breakthroughs that Yang Ping had achieved in the field of organ cloning had a profound influence on Professor Mainshtan¡¯s current research topic. Professor Mainshtan¡¯s main research topic currently was studying spinal cord injury repair, which also had a close relation to stem cells, as his approach was to use stem cells for repairing damaged spinal cord. He had coined a term for his theory¡ªOriginal Cell Welding Repair. If the spatial orientation factor truly existed, Mainshtan hypothesized, then it would be possible to locate the spinal cord¡¯s spatial orientation gene, find its activator, and understand the interactions between the activator and the gene. Advancing research along this path would enable them to control the repair of original cells in damaged spinal cords, allowing nerve cells in the spinal cord to grow towards each other from both ends of the break and then connect. Original cell repair refers to using the same type of cells that are damaged for repair. Original cell repair is the best method for repairing tissue damage in the human body, but unfortunately, for most tissue damage in the human body, the primary repair method is non-original cell repair. The most common example is our skin repair. When skin is cut and a laceration occurs, scar tissue, rather than skin tissue, is the main component involved in the repair process, with only a very small amount of skin tissue participating in the repair. If the tissue involved in repairing a skin laceration were all skin tissue, then after the skin wound healed, there would be no scars at all and it would look exactly the same as before. There is one organ in our body that can perform original cell repair, and that is the skeleton. The repair after a fracture involves only bone tissue. Apart from the skeleton, no other organ tissue can achieve original cell repair after damage. In a spinal cord injury research laboratory in Berlin, Germany, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were visiting. ¡°Spinal cord injury is just one of my many research subjects. Other topics include human anti-rejection research, brain cell ischemia tolerance research, and bloodless transplantation research of the brain and spinal cord, among others. All my research revolves around one major topic, and I hope I can fulfill this ideal,¡± Manstein introduced. ¡°Professor Mainshtan¡¯s major subject is head transplantation surgery!¡± August added. Head transplantation surgery! Song Zimo was quite surprised; Manstein was indeed a scientific eccentric, daring to take on such a challenging and highly controversial subject. This type of surgery is highly controversial worldwide, mainly due to ethical issues. Technically, there is not much controversy because all the head transplants that have been performed so far are pseudo-head transplants. Without solving spinal cord repair, all head transplantation surgeries are bound to fail, without exception. Apart from the ethical controversy, the biggest technical hurdle of head transplantation surgery is spinal cord injury. If spinal cord injury can be overcome, then head transplantation surgery would really be taking its first step. ¡°We severed the experimental monkeys¡¯ spinal cords. Even if we used the thinnest and sharpest blade to sever it, all methods were unable to repair the spinal cord,¡± Manstein said with frustration. In fact, August and Milton were also researching the repair of spinal cord injuries. They too had severed the spinal cords of experimental monkeys and used polyethylene glycol as an adhesive to glue the spinal cord together, but it was in vain. No matter how they improved the connection method, it was simply impossible to achieve spinal cord repair. Later, they attempted to use stem cells as a filler, hoping that it would help with the spinal cord repair, but there were no effective results. Mainshtan¡¯s research on this subject was completely different from theirs. He first studied original cell repair, investigating how to achieve original cell repair in human tissues after injury, which required beginning from a genetic perspective. But he hadn¡¯t thought of the spatial orientation gene until Yang Ping put forward this hypothesis. He then had an epiphany. However, the realization of it was exceptionally challenging, and the more he worked towards the goal, the farther it seemed. Now, with the discovery of the spatial orientation gene in muscle tissue, Manstein¡¯s confidence had greatly increased. If one could discover the spinal cord¡¯s spatial orientation gene, it might be possible to activate this gene, allowing spinal cord cells to enter an embryonic state, and begin to divide locally and then repair the damage. This possibility was completely plausible. Manstein felt that Yang Ping¡¯s theory on the spatial orientation gene was the most likely method to achieve spinal cord injury repair. So, to realize his own ideal, he had to cooperate with Yang Ping. ¡°We were very foolish before, attempting animal head transplantation surgeries without doing any spinal cord injury research, which was meaningless. What good does attaching a head do if, after vascular anastomosis, the head survives but the experimental monkey is left in a state of high quadriplegia and soon dies?¡± ¡°Later, we realized our foolishness and stopped such head transplants, turning instead to start foundational theoretical research related to it.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s too difficult. We have yet to make a breakthrough in the core area, although we made some breakthroughs in the peripheral areas. If you are interested, we can share our scientific research achievements.¡± ¡°I¡¯m referring to research on brain cell ischemic tolerance, anti-rejection, and bloodless transplantation,¡± he added. Mainshtan was entirely open with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, sharing the results of his years of hard work. Song Zimo understood that these research topics were actually of great significance. For instance, if progress was made in brain cell ischemia research, it would be possible to better treat cerebrovascular diseases and extend the rescue window for these illnesses. Thus, any one of Mainshtan¡¯s achievements was of top world-class level. However, compared to Professor Yang¡¯s achievements, Mainshtan¡¯s achievements seemed much less significant. He estimated that even if all of Mainshtan¡¯s results were combined, they would not come close to the significance of the spatial orientation gene. Chapter 1124 - 1124 903 The Strongest Turns Out to Be ?Chapter 1124: Chapter 903: The Strongest Turns Out to Be Oneself Chapter 1124: Chapter 903: The Strongest Turns Out to Be Oneself Yang Ping received the daily inspection reports from Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang. The reports mentioned Manstein¡¯s ambitious plan for head transplantation surgery. Unlike many other doctors who have claimed to conduct head transplants, Manstein was serious. He wasn¡¯t seeking sensationalism or trying to grab people¡¯s attention. He had a detailed plan and was tackling every technical challenge in the plan. Every afternoon after work, Yang Ping would gather everyone in the demonstration classroom to study the inspection reports sent back by Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, indirectly broadening their horizons and increasing their knowledge. By studying in advance, they would not feel unfamiliar when Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang returned to teach at home, resulting in a better learning effect. Yu Shuilian¡¯s husband brought boxed meals for everyone¡¯s dinner, and they listened to the report while eating. Zhang Lin and Little Five took turns reading the report aloud. The boxed meals specially provided by the Surgical Research Institute were not only generous in portion but also delicious, much better than those available outside. Everyone enjoyed their meals thoroughly. In the Surgical Research Institute, such scenes were common. Everyone was keen to learn. The competition was intense; no one dared lag behind. Whenever there was a chance, they would gather to study, discuss, and train. In such an environment, it was hard not to make progress. Xia Shu, Dr. Jin, and Dr. Wen, as ¡°laggards,¡± gathered together while Zhang Lin and Little Five often paired up for studying and training. The three of them emulated Zhang Lin and Little Five by forming a team, which made the learning process very engaging. Having eaten work meals from the Waterlily Bread Store for a long time, Xia Shu had not once ordered through WeChat. Ever since he arrived, Head Nurse Cai had helped him with meal orders, and until now, he had not ordered on his own, including breakfast. Everything was clearly arranged by the Head Nurse. If one day she did not arrange it, Xia Shu would probably be very unaccustomed. In life, he was, after all, a person who disliked inconvenience. These inspection reports were all written by Xu Zhiliang. He included detailed introductions for every place visited, including texts, photos, and videos. The information was very rich. When they visited Manstein¡¯s laboratory, everyone suddenly realized how luxurious their own team¡¯s learning conditions were. To be able to visit such a world-class laboratory seemed like a privilege. However, when they saw videos of Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, they did not seem to be there to learn but to direct the work. Then everyone quickly recognized that their own Surgical Research Institute and its supporting laboratories were also world-class. Spinal external fixation frames, precise epiphysial arrest techniques, skin expansion technology, 13 CNS articles, the top-ranked journal Medical, the world¡¯s shocking spatial orientation gene, muscle cultured ex vivo from non-embryonic sources¡ªweren¡¯t all of these world-class academic achievements? The powerhouse was themselves? The more they counted in their minds, the stronger they felt. In the end, they realized they themselves were the strongest. Little Five took over from Zhang Lin and continued to introduce the inspection report. When the topic of Manstein¡¯s head transplantation surgery plan came up, everyone was very curious. In China, head transplantation surgery was prohibited. It violated basic ethical standards. As for head transplantation surgery, Yang Ping briefly introduced its history and current state to help everyone understand it better. In fact, the origins of head transplantation surgery were about the same as those of liver and kidney transplants. As early as the 1950s, Soviet scientists had attempted head transplantation surgery. They transplanted the head of one dog onto the back of another dog, creating a bizarre two-headed dog that only survived for three days. Even though the head was connected to the recipient dog¡¯s blood supply, the nerves of the dog¡¯s head could never connect with the recipient dog. Considering that spinal nerves were impossible to repair and connect, the Soviet Union eventually abandoned the surgery. During the 1970s, Americans, not to be outdone, also experimented with head transplantation on dogs. However, the American head-transplant dogs did not live longer than 24 hours. Subsequent trials ended similarly. Through these surgeries, Americans also accumulated some experience and learned that central nerves in the spinal cord could not regenerate. They concluded that as long as the regeneration of spinal nerves remained unconquered, head transplantation was an impossible feat. There were also isolated attempts by doctors at head transplantation surgery, especially an Italian doctor who was very keen on it. But all those attempts ended in failure. Just as Manstein said, without a breakthrough in spinal repair, head transplantation surgery was just a meaningless farce. The sensational head transplantation surgery in China was performed by that Italian doctor. However, what kind of head transplantation was that? It was merely swapping the heads of two cadavers. At most, it was a simple anatomical experiment on cadavers. With the current state of medical technology, the success of head transplantation surgery was impossible. All head transplantations were farces. Some doctors even used special glue to attempt to bind spinal nerves, which was simply ridiculous. Aside from the issue of spinal nerve regeneration and repair, there was the problem of resisting rejection responses. If you take the head as the main body, how many organs does the body contain? With current medical conditions, to combat rejection, just the anti-rejection medication alone would be enough to kill a person. The same would be true in reverse. In recent years, Manstein had invested most of his energy into research on spinal cord injury repair, initially hoping that it could lead to head transplantation procedures. It was unclear which nerve in his brain had misfired, making him so intensely interested in head transplantation experiments. ¡°Head transplantation surgery is currently zero in terms of technology and prohibited on ethical grounds in most countries. Our country explicitly bans it,¡± Yang Ping concluded after introducing the history of head transplantation surgery. Chapter 1125 - 1125 903 The Strongest Turns Out to Be ?Chapter 1125: Chapter 903: The Strongest Turns Out to Be Oneself_2 Chapter 1125: Chapter 903: The Strongest Turns Out to Be Oneself_2 Actually, whether a surgery can be performed is a technical issue, and whether it should be performed is an ethical issue. Currently, head transplant surgery has not even started; there is zero accumulation, and the so-called head transplant surgery that the world loudly debates completely lacks technical basis. ¡°If head transplant surgery could succeed, how wonderful that would be. It would truly benefit humanity. In the future, as long as the head is intact, there would still be hope of being saved. In the end, one could simply swap out the body. Why is it still ethically prohibited?¡± a standardized training student curiously asked. Yang Ping said, ¡°We humans have lived on Earth for so long, already establishing a set of profound basic ethical and moral rules. Relying on these ethical and moral guidelines, we manage relationships among people. This also reflects, in some ways, why we are human, and why we are different from animals. As for the head transplant surgery, do you say the body is the main part or the head is the main part?¡± ¡°Although the body makes up a larger proportion, the head controls the body, so naturally the head is the main part,¡± another graduate student answered from a medical common-sense perspective. ¡°Then if someone undergoes a head transplant, would the children he bears be considered the head¡¯s or the body¡¯s?¡± Yang Ping asked everyone. This question indeed was troublesome; the idea came from the head, but the actions were done by the body, whose child is it then? There was a heated debate among everyone, and for a moment, it was truly impossible to determine whose child it would be. Yang Ping continued using some historic ethical medical cases to explain the ethical issues. ¡°In our country during the 1970s, there was a case of a testicle transplant where a father¡¯s testicle was transplanted to his son, and the surgery was successful. Later, the son got married and had children. Ethically speaking, whose children are those? This sparked intense discussion at the time, and later our country prohibited testicle transplants.¡± This case made everyone think hard; yes, sperm is secreted by the testicles, and this testicle was his father¡¯s, so whose child is it, his or his father¡¯s? It really was controversial. ¡°Returning to the person who underwent the head transplant, let us assume the head transplants are to be conducted only between the same gender. If he is male, having completed the surgery, whose wife does he continue to live with, considering both the head and body had wives prior to the surgery?¡± ¡°Live with the head¡¯s wife? His wife would be facing a stranger¡¯s body; live with the body¡¯s wife? His wife would be facing a stranger¡¯s head and consciousness.¡± No sooner had Yang Ping paused than everyone immediately began discussing it. With whom does one continue life? Indeed, it involves complex ethical issues, and just feels less prominent than the ethical issues in kidney or liver transplants, which is why people are not very focused on this aspect. Everyone spent a bit too much time on the topic of head transplant surgery, but gradually gained a comprehensive understanding of it. Everyone worked hard, studied for about two hours, and finally, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang video-called everyone, saying they had to continue their inspections and that their return time was to be determined. Zhang Lin and Little Five, hearing that Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang wouldn¡¯t be returning from Europe for the time being, were really thrilled. When Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had just left, Zhang Lin and Little Five were still a bit worried, fearing they might not cope well. But after adapting over a few days, they felt completely capable of handling things, and their courage had grown considerably. The study session ended, and everyone went on with their tasks; surprisingly, many people didn¡¯t leave work. Instead, they immediately rushed into the training room to practice the basics, including Zhang Lin, Little Five, Dr. Jin, Dr. Wen, and Xia Shu. Yang Ping returned to his own office to rest, also looking at private messages from Song Zimo, containing sensitive matters which were not appropriate to discuss in the report, such as Manstein agreeing to be Yang Ping¡¯s Nobel Prize recommender. As for the Nobel Prize, Yang Ping was very interested, especially because the third phase of the System Space¡¯s long-term task was to win the Nobel Prize. If completed, System Space would provide a supercomputing computer, which was very important for Yang Ping. Yang Ping was a ¡°profit-seeking¡± person; given such a lucrative reward, why not strive for the Nobel Prize? When this long-term task was issued by the system, Yang Ping had felt that the task was too difficult and somewhat absurd, considering the low feasibility of achievement within just three years. The Nobel Prize, after all, doesn¡¯t just depend on whether your scientific achievements meet the criteria for the award; it is also influenced by many other factors, and human interference is certainly among them. Yang Ping was now completely confident in his accomplishments. If he let Manstein be the recommender for the Nobel Prize, considering Manstein¡¯s status in the medical academic community, there was an 80 percent chance of success. If his academic achievements combined with Manstein¡¯s influence couldn¡¯t win the Nobel Prize, then the Nobel Prize wasn¡¯t worth pursuing. Yang Ping believed in pursuing advantageous opportunities, both long-term and short-term. He had no interest in things without benefits; if it weren¡¯t for the rewards from System Space, he wouldn¡¯t care at all about the Nobel Prize. ¡°You love playing with it, go ahead, but I¡¯m not interested,¡± he would say. As for Manstein¡¯s request to repeat the experiment on spatial orientation genes, Yang Ping readily agreed. Yang Ping¡¯s purpose in doing research was, loftily speaking, to benefit humanity and advance medical science. He originally had no intention of using these to make money. But even if he didn¡¯t make money himself, others would use his scientific results to earn profits, So Yang Ping didn¡¯t want his scientific results to become tools in the hands of these capital moguls, nor did he want his achievements to sit idle. That¡¯s why he started a company to serve his own research. Any scientific experiment must be repeatable to gain global recognition; experiments that can¡¯t be replicated are considered invalid or fraudulent. Technology should be disseminated to benefit humanity without being strangled or exploited by big capital, so a balance between keeping technology confidential and spreading it must be found. Fortunately, for these matters, Yang Ping didn¡¯t need to worry too much; the laboratory director, Tang Shun, was a veteran in this field. He was not only a top researcher in his specialty but also adept at managing these complex relationships, maneuvering effortlessly among these entities¡ªperhaps it was a talent he possessed. Regarding these two matters, Yang Ping immediately replied to Song Zimo, ¡°Agreed! What are you waiting for to come back and discuss? Get everything done in Germany.¡± Yang Ping was always direct. Why beat around the bush and waste time? If it¡¯s a go, it¡¯s a go; if not, it¡¯s not. Everyone is still in Europe, so why wait to come back and discuss? It¡¯d be like taking off your pants to fart. Having dealt with this matter, Yang Ping saw that he had new emails in his inbox, sent by Ivan. Since Yang Ping had declined the surgery invitation from Langnaife in Canada, Ivan had no choice but to conduct the surgery on the Sicilian tycoon¡¯s daughter on his own. The email included Ivan¡¯s surgical plan, which he sent to Yang Ping for his opinion. Ivan planned to first correct the bones, then either perform an allogeneic facial transplant or reconstruct the face, and finally conduct skin grafting on scars across the body. Of course, many other soft tissues also required complex correction, such as muscles, tendons, and ligaments, among others. Facial surgery was the most difficult and meticulous; thus, Ivan prepared two plans: allogeneic facial transplantation and facial reconstruction, with facial reconstruction as the preferred method. Allogeneic facial transplantation, requiring lifelong immunosuppressive medication, could not be the first choice. Ivan was extremely meticulous in his preoperative planning. To achieve the best possible outcome, his surgical plan was very detailed, meticulously scanning and labeling the facial blood vessels and nerves before surgery, later to be potentially used as recipient vessels. Because facial transplantation aimed not only to restore the facial contours but also to recover facial sensation and movement, this was crucial to restore normal expressions. To achieve the perfect surgical results, Ivan had drawn over three thousand surgical sketches, which he now sent over. ¡°Who has time to look at all this stuff? Over three thousand drawings, it¡¯d take so much time to look at them one by one.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll look at them slowly when I have time; it¡¯s not a lifesaving surgery, just cosmetic surgery. No rush.¡± It was now time to go home. Xiao Su¡¯s belly was growing bigger as the due date approached, and Yang Ping wanted to spend more time with his wife. Their son wasn¡¯t even born yet, but everything from diapers and clothes to the baby stroller had been prepared by friends. Even the future interest classes were preemptively secured by Robert, and that wasn¡¯t even the most outrageous part; the most outrageous was that Ning Qi had already booked the role of the child¡¯s godmother, even though she was not yet married and eagerly wanting to be the child¡¯s godmother. Chapter 1126 - 1126 904 Hunt ?Chapter 1126: Chapter 904: Hunt Chapter 1126: Chapter 904: Hunt Headquarters of BG Company, United States. The more extensive and detailed the intelligence gathering on Yang Ping became, the more reports landed in Li Gaoyang¡¯s hands, leaving him now with a headache and caught between a rock and a hard place, wondering what to do. With the help of his think tank, Li Gaoyang finally managed to make sense of the tangled web of intelligence. The reason Yang Ping was so uncompromising, refusing Langnaife¡¯s invitation, and showing no interest in any of BG Company¡¯s terms, was likely due to his association with a Chinese company behind the scenes. Ruixing Medical stepped into Li Gaoyang¡¯s field of vision, and intelligence indicated a very close relationship between the company and Yang Ping. Whenever Yang Ping was in need, the company seemed to provide funding continuously. Moreover, the company¡¯s profitability was incredibly strong, having risen to prominence only recently but at a staggering pace. It virtually seized a sizable market share like lightning, and then rolled out an extensive and broad product line. Initially starting from orthopedic sports medicine products, it expanded to the entire orthopedic product line, then to the entire surgical product line, and finally, the company grew its product line to encompass various pharmaceuticals and medical instruments, showing clear potential to emerge as an international giant. That company was Yang Ping¡¯s strongest backing in scientific research because it not only provided funding for his medical research but also offered hardware support for his medical experiments. Currently, the company was working on cutting-edge biological 3D printers solely to align with Yang Ping¡¯s research plan. It appeared that this company was only a part of Yang Ping¡¯s enormous research plans, so Li Gaoyang could conclude that this company was likely the most vital link in Yang Ping¡¯s entire research initiatives. ¡°We¡¯ve underestimated this Chinese doctor. We¡¯re dealing with a system, not an individual,¡± Li Gaoyang said, narrowing his eyes. Feeling ashamed, Rolf, sitting across from him, said, ¡°This is a major oversight in my intelligence gathering. I oversimplified the situation.¡± Li Gaoyang, looking at the piles upon piles of thick intelligence materials on the desktop, fell deep into thought. It seemed impossible to bring Yang Ping on board since he had his own self-sufficient scientific research system and didn¡¯t need to seek shelter under the BG Company¡¯s banner. Moreover, his lack of interest in the United States was not just talk¡ªit was authentic. If he didn¡¯t covet anything from the United States or BG Company, why did he come to the United States? The reasoning was simple; If Li Gaoyang, like himself, were offered a high annual salary by a Chinese company to go work in China, and he had no interest in China, was unaccustomed to life there, and still held a stake in an American company where his income far exceeded the so-called annual salary, why would he go to China? If they couldn¡¯t bring Yang Ping on board, the only alternative was to steal all his research results and then ruthlessly suppress him and his team. To suppress him meant they had to vie with him, and this contest would be between one system and another¡ªnot merely personal competition. But the intelligence was too large and complex; currently, Li Gaoyang could only grasp the surface phenomena and was still unclear about the connections behind this intelligence. For instance, Yang Ping was backed by an independent research fund whose sole purpose was to provide a consistent flow of capital for his scientific research. Li Gaoyang found it odd because the fund had a very broad range of sources of capital, and there seemed to be little strong connection between these sources. According to intelligence, many companies had invested funds into this research fund. These included domestic Chinese enterprises such as Anning Group and Changxin Mining, as well as the Duke¡¯s Fund from Europe, Guo¡¯s Wealth Group from Southeast Asia, with the European Duke¡¯s Fund injecting a staggering one billion euros in stages. For a researcher, one billion euros is an enormous sum. With so many financiers behind it, who was really in charge? Li Gaoyang couldn¡¯t figure it out. Not only could Li Gaoyang not figure it out, but even Rolf, who specialized in intelligence gathering and analysis, wasn¡¯t clear about who the main orchestrator was¡ªthe real big boss. For example, BG Company owned countless pharmaceutical businesses and medical biological laboratories through various means. Had a professional intelligence agency analyzed it, they might have been able to clarify and identify BG Company as the ultimate boss behind it all. However, from the analysis of the intelligence concerning Yang Ping, it was impossible to identify the primary controller of the entire system, but it was certain that Ruixing Medical had an extremely close relationship with Yang Ping. The think tank¡¯s strategy was to target Ruixing Medical to weaken the support behind Yang Ping. However, even if they attacked Ruixing Medical, it seemed it wouldn¡¯t pose a threat to Yang Ping because many consortia were still surrounding him, and in terms of financial power, Anning Group was far stronger than Ruixing. The think tank¡¯s advice was to strike Ruixing first; only then would the hidden forces emerge. Ruixing was a key link in the chain, and as the Chinese Art of War would put it, ¡°attack where the enemy must rescue.¡± The head of Ruixing Medical was a formidable character, capable of rapidly scaling Ruixing to such a size, which was not something just anyone could achieve. According to intelligence, this individual had led Ruixing in dismantling the encirclement of giant companies, turning defeat into victory with merciless resolve, pursuing their adversaries to maximize their triumph and laying a solid foundation for Ruixing¡¯s development. Chapter 1127 - 1127 904 Hunt_2 ?Chapter 1127: Chapter 904: Hunt_2 Chapter 1127: Chapter 904: Hunt_2 ¡°No matter if Yang Ping¡¯s spatial orientation gene is real or not, we must take action. His medical and equipment field will sooner or later be our biggest threat. Have you found a suitable candidate to encircle Ruixing Medical?¡± Li Gaoyang decided to strike first, having already obtained the approval from the elders. ¡°There are a few candidates. Hans from the giant corporation is of Chinese descent. He once crossed swords with Ruixing and failed in the end, but at least he has the experience of going up against them. He¡¯s currently at the giant¡¯s headquarters in Africa. If we activate him, I believe he will be able to avenge his previous defeat,¡± Rolf suggested. Li Gaoyang flipped through the candidates¡¯ files, which he had actually reviewed many times over; the piles of documents on his desk had all been scrutinized extensively. ¡°I don¡¯t want to use a defeated general; the risk is too high. Our opponent will be unprecedentedly strong. Don¡¯t underestimate them. Hans simply can¡¯t handle an encirclement of this scale,¡± Li Gaoyang shook his head. ¡°How about Menek? He¡¯s the encirclement king at BG with an undefeated record. Many European and Japanese companies have fallen to him, and his strategic capabilities are excellent,¡± Rolf suggested. Li Gaoyang shook his head, ¡°The opponent we will be facing is unprecedented. Menek is not familiar with China, and his experiences are mostly with European companies.¡± ¡°I think this woman is good. I¡¯ve seen her file, and she is the most suitable general to lead this battle,¡± Li Gaoyang passed the file in his hand to Rolf. Gan Fengyi? Rolf didn¡¯t expect Li Gaoyang to choose Gan Fengyi; he had ranked her last on the recommendation list. ¡°This person is on the list because of her strong abilities, but she has one fatal weakness,¡± Rolf reminded. ¡°Your intelligence report noted that, and I¡¯m aware. She¡¯s had close contact with Huang Jiacai from Ruixing, and there might be a romantic relationship, but don¡¯t worry too much. In the face of great interests, such a relationship can¡¯t stand, especially since it¡¯s a possible romance. I only care whether or not this person is capable enough, and this woman is the most suitable candidate. Arrange a time; I want to meet her in person,¡± Li Gaoyang had decided. ¡°You going in person? Isn¡¯t that unnecessary? Let the CEO from the giant corporation talk to her,¡± Rolf was quite surprised. ¡°Mr. Rolf, you haven¡¯t grasped the level of this war and still think it¡¯s like before. No, I¡¯ve been analyzing these intelligence reports for a long time, and I¡¯m certain that we are about to face the most difficult enemy ever. The forces surrounding him, we¡¯re still unable to clarify their relationships after all this time¡ªwould that have happened before?¡± ¡°Why did Hans undergo a crushing defeat? Of course, his personal abilities being insufficient played a role, but more important is that he underestimated the enemy. Look at their confrontation; Ruixing was capable of getting all Chinese hospitals to delist the giant¡¯s products.¡± ¡°Ruixing is a tiger in a pig¡¯s clothing, so we¡¯ll make Ruixing the focal point of the assault.¡± ¡°Underestimating the enemy before the battle is the biggest taboo,¡± Li Gaoyang said gravely. ¡°You truly are BG¡¯s general, now I understand why the elders like you,¡± Rolf shrugged. ¡ª¡ª Zhang Lin and Little Five maintained three to four surgeries per day. Yang Ping tried letting one of them act as the chief surgeon to potentially double the surgery rate to six to eight per day. But they simply couldn¡¯t manage to be the chief surgeon alone; their performance was completely different from when they both operated together, like they had turned into different people¡ªlacking any confidence, hesitant, the more difficult surgeries were impossible for them to carry out. With no other choice, Yang Ping could only let them operate together, where they were brimming with confidence and an unstoppable aura, managing most surgeries with steady precision. Safety first¡ªit was all elective surgery, so there was no rush to increase the pace. Yang Ping decided that he would wait for the right moment to train them to operate independently. At the hospital-wide discussion on Friday, orthopedics brought up several interesting cases, one of which was cobalt poisoning after a hip replacement. This kind of cobalt poisoning has appeared in the American medical drama ¡°House M.D.¡± as well as many other medical dramas and novels, but in reality, it¡¯s quite rare. This case had already been diagnosed, but because it was quite classic, Tan Boyun brought it out for everyone to learn from. Tan Boyun diagnosed this case, and he is indeed capable, just with a difficult personality. However, as Director Han said, he is suited to be a leader. Therefore, Director Han entrusted the trauma orthopedics department to him, which he managed very successfully without any conflicts arising, either with Director Han or anyone else. He had great respect for Director Han, and their relationship was very harmonious. While in the operating room, Yang Ping took a look at the time; Zhang Lin and Little Five¡¯s surgery was progressing smoothly. So, he changed his clothes and left the operating room. On his way, he ran into Tang Shun, who said he was going to the operating room to observe the surgery, but in reality, he was there to find Liang Fatty, who had been inviting him for meals quite often recently. When Yang Ping arrived, the discussion had already started, and the meeting room was full. Yang Ping was a little late, but a seat in the front row had been reserved for him, as everyone hoped he would join the discussion, even if just to say a few words, no matter how uninformative. The atmosphere on the site was very vibrant; the discussion was not divided by professional titles, and intern doctors could participate too. You could challenge your director or other directors without fear of retribution. Not only would there be no retribution, but directors might even take extra care of you, as they feared others might accuse them of being unfair. This was due to the culture within the hospital. Dr. Zhong happened to be presenting an orthopedic case of cobalt poisoning at the time; the patient was 58 years old and had a multitude of symptoms, having seen many hospitals previously. From the medical history, the current illness history had already filled an entire page. Unexplained fever, hypothyroidism, generalized lymphadenopathy, reflux esophagitis, zero vision in both eyes, zero hearing in both ears, heart failure, etc. A multitude of symptoms was laid out, and the patient also exhibited psychiatric symptoms. The patient was admitted to the cardiology department¡¯s CCU because of severe heart failure, and after the rescue, the heart failure symptoms improved and he was transferred to the general cardiac ward. Other symptoms showed no sign of improvement, leaving the cardiologists perplexed, so they called for help from all departments, organizing a hospital-wide consultation. When the consultation invitation from the hospital-wide meeting reached the orthopedics department, Director Tan said he would go and have a look, and then diagnosed postoperative cobalt poisoning following an artificial hip replacement. Director Tan hardly expended any effort in diagnosing the disease. Faced with so many complex symptoms, he focused on one part of the patient¡¯s past medical history: a metal-on-metal left hip replacement. He immediately suggested a reevaluation of the patient¡¯s left hip X-rays and a test for heavy metal ions in the patient¡¯s blood. The test results indicated that the patient¡¯s blood cobalt ion levels were over a thousand times the normal level. X-ray images showed severe wear of the metal-on-metal artificial hip prosthesis. Metal-on-metal artificial hip replacements are now used less frequently, as the health risks from metal debris caused by wear are not yet certain. Most replacements now are ceramic-on-ceramic, or ceramic-on-polyethylene, or metal-on-polyethylene. There was a time when some doctors preferred metal-on-metal large femoral head replacements. These prostheses had certain advantages, such as generally not dislocating, allowing for a very large range of motion, and the ease of activities like squatting. This patient chose a metal prosthesis because he was young at the time, and the doctor had mentioned that metal was more wear-resistant. Moreover, he felt that his range of hip motion was quite extensive, so he used his artificial joint as if it were a normal joint, leading to overuse and excessive wear of the prosthesis. Later, Director Tang performed surgery on him, a revision surgery following the artificial hip replacement. Director Tan showed photos of the surgery; the tissue around the entire joint had turned black. After removing the blackened tissue, a ceramic-on-ceramic artificial joint was implanted. The patient¡¯s symptoms gradually vanished. This was a very classic case. When a doctor asked Director Tan how he could diagnose the case, Director Tang candidly said, ¡°Actually, I¡¯ve watched ¡®House M.D.¡¯ from the first episode to the last. I¡¯ve watched the entire series several times. Yes, I¡¯m quite familiar with many of the cases in it. When I saw the symptoms of this case, I couldn¡¯t help but think of a similar one from the show.¡± It seems that watching television can also be educational for a doctor, as there aren¡¯t many doctors here who have watched medical shows like ¡®House M.D.¡¯ from beginning to end. Director Tan said, ¡°I have no interest in other television shows, but I am very interested in medical dramas, especially American ones. They put in more effort into the production.¡± Chapter 1128 - 1128 905 Blind Spot ?Chapter 1128: Chapter 905: Blind Spot Chapter 1128: Chapter 905: Blind Spot The weekly case discussions every Friday are quite lively, and they offer an opportunity for learning and showcasing skills. As long as there are no emergencies, rescues, or ongoing surgeries, doctors from all departments return to participate. Due to the large number of people, the venue is set in the large meeting room of the administrative building. Yang Ping glanced briefly at the venue; the department directors had essentially arrived. Some doctors, delayed by other matters, were now trickling in. After all, this kind of meeting didn¡¯t require clocking in or registering names; attendance was completely voluntary, so everyone was under no pressure and felt very free. If Director Tan¡¯s cobalt poisoning case had not yet been diagnosed or spoiled in advance, bringing it up for discussion would have certainly been exciting. Unfortunately, Director Tan went straight to explaining it, forsaking the pleasure of unraveling the mystery; however, it was in line with the directness characteristic of surgeons. Had an internal doctor been explaining the case, it certainly wouldn¡¯t have been so straightforward. If some department directors were to explain it, they could turn it into the feel of a suspenseful thriller. ¡°Old Tan, I¡¯ve watched the American TV show ¡®House M.D.¡¯, and Dr. House had to exert the strength of nine oxen and two tigers to crack a case like this. Yet you came to our cardiology department for a consultation, and it seemed like you made the diagnosis in just a few minutes. You¡¯re not quite following the script, are you?¡± Director Guan from cardiology said humorously. Standing on the podium, Director Tan replied, ¡°Can¡¯t help it, the director demands that Dr. House must do so, but I don¡¯t have a director¡¯s instructions, so I can only improvise.¡± Unexpectedly humorous, both directors amused the doctors in the meeting room, making them laugh. Director Tan, holding the microphone on the podium, said: ¡°Actually, this case would be very difficult for doctors from other specialties to diagnose, but very simple for us orthopedic surgeons. It is not that our level is much higher, but that this falls into your blind spots of knowledge, whereas it is in the center of our vision. So, could we fail to diagnose?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s hear it. The next time we encounter such a case, we won¡¯t rack our brains in vain; that¡¯s why we ask for your consultations, casting a wide net, fetching whichever department is relevant to the patient¡¯s problems without missing anyone,¡± Director Guan said with interest. Director Tan was also keen on elaborating; he had thoughts about the case. Nowadays, the professional knowledge of doctors is limited to their own specialties. Once they step out of their areas of expertise, they are like blind and deaf, knowing nothing. ¡°Let me tell you about this case and why it is easy for orthopedic surgeons to diagnose but difficult for other specialists, relating to the issue of knowledge blind spots. Actually, our resident first suspected cobalt poisoning during the initial consultation, then called me hoping that I could take a look. After seeing the patient and asking about their medical history, I felt there was an eight or nine out of ten chance it was cobalt poisoning.¡± Yang Ping too felt strongly about it, as all doctors have their blind spots in knowledge. Once they enter it, they¡¯re completely helpless. For example, lower back pain, a common condition in orthopedics, is easily diagnosed and treated by orthopedic surgeons if it falls within their specialty. But if a patient with symptoms similar to those of a lumbar disc herniation from another specialty is taken into orthopedics, the surgeons, despite their probing, won¡¯t be able to figure it out if it¡¯s outside of their field. The three-year rotation after graduation can play a certain ¡°enlightening¡± role, but that¡¯s just after graduation. As the years of work go by, the knowledge gained from the rotations is almost entirely forgotten. ¡°This patient underwent a left-side metal-on-metal total hip replacement surgery ten years ago. I asked about it, and it turned out to be a metal-on-metal prosthetic hip replacement,¡± Director Tan explained from the podium. ¡°When you consult us, we, of course, focus most on this area; other aspects, less related to our specialty, don¡¯t grab our attention. Focusing on the left hip replacement surgery, we would inevitably want to see the most recent x-rays of that area, even a newly working orthopedic surgeon would do the same.¡± ¡°With one X-ray, we can identify from the image that it¡¯s a metal-on-metal hip prosthesis, and can easily recognize the wear on the prosthesis.¡± ¡°Seeing the wear on the hip prosthesis, any doctor who occasionally reads some books, flips through a few journal articles, or attends a few academic conferences would definitely think of the possibility of elevated cobalt ions in the patient¡¯s blood, based on the wear of the prosthesis.¡± ¡°Then, orthopedic surgeons would definitely request a blood test for heavy metal ions.¡± ¡°Once the heavy metal ions test results came back, everything became clear.¡± Director Tan explained in an easygoing way, making it seem quite simple, not too complicated, almost like just following a procedure and letting everything fall into place naturally. ¡°Not difficult, right? Cobalt poisoning might be rare for others, but for orthopedic surgeons, especially those who perform joint replacements, cobalt poisoning is a buzzword mentioned in monographs, papers, and academic conferences,¡± Director Tan stated. Although he did not speak with full confidence, his point was valid. ¡°So, it¡¯s very important to regularly read books and journals. It helps to update your knowledge timely and continuously expand the depth and breadth of what you know,¡± Director Zhao from the medical services office added at this point. Director Zhao acted as a coordinator in the meeting, occasionally contributing a few words. ¡°For the young doctors present, our knowledge comes from a few sources¡ªbooks, teaching from our teachers or others, and our own experience,¡± he said. ¡°This concept of books is quite broad, including monographs, journal articles, and online knowledge platforms. Any knowledge platform can be considered a book, so books are our main source of knowledge, no other source is as extensive and enduring,¡± he continued. Chapter 1129 - 1129 905 Blind Spot_2 ?Chapter 1129: Chapter 905 Blind Spot_2 Chapter 1129: Chapter 905 Blind Spot_2 ¡°Everyone should read more books. Dean Xia has proposed establishing a library for our hospital. We will create the largest on-site library in the nation and the entire world, subscribing to all medical journals and purchasing memberships to various medical electronic reading platforms to create excellent reading conditions for everyone,¡± ¡°This expense will be sponsored by societal forces and will not cost our hospital a penny.¡± ¡°This matter will soon be brought to the staff meeting for a vote, and I hope everyone will actively support it. Doctors who do not actively learn will lag behind, and hospitals that do not actively learn will also lag behind.¡± Director Zhao¡¯s words immediately sparked enthusiastic applause from all the doctors present. Everyone had already heard rumors that the hospital was going to build a large library combining traditional and online resources, and now it turned out to be true, which would make searching literature for writing papers much easier. The so-called ¡°not costing a penny¡± actually refers to funding provided by the hospital¡¯s Overseas Chinese Fund. Since Guo Jingyao underwent two surgeries, not only had he injected funds into Yang Ping¡¯s research fund, but he also paid great attention to the hospital¡¯s Overseas Chinese Fund, becoming its leading figure and revitalizing it, soon amassing a substantial amount of capital. Having money makes things easier, and Dean Xia didn¡¯t hesitate to spend. Known for his resolve, he began to boldly make improvements, enhancing the hospital¡¯s facilities, increasing welfare for the medical staff, and arranging for doctors to receive training abroad. With the help of Robert, Takahashi, and August, the hospital now has a large number of doctors undergoing formal and systematic training in Europe, America, and Japan. ¡°In any case, as long as everyone strives to learn and work hard, the hospital will create the best conditions for you,¡± Director Zhao said with an encouraging tone. ¡°Director Zhao, the hospital should also take care of our marriages and help create the best conditions for that, right?¡± Doctor Wen from the Pathology Department called out. Always stirring up trouble! Director Zhao, from several rows away at the podium, glared at Wen Ruzheng. Your damn love letter reads like a terrorist threat, and you¡¯re talking about marriage. Director Zhao recalled Wen Ruzheng¡¯s love letter, which had stirred up the hospital: ¡°I will cut your heart into pieces and study it under a microscope for a lifetime.¡± It was a downright threatening letter, enough to scare anyone off from dating you. ¡°We have considered that issue as well and have decided to change the hospital¡¯s annual external matchmaking event to biannual. Channel the courage you had for streaking into this, and I guarantee you¡¯ll be holding a son next year,¡± Director Zhao replied irritably. ¡°We¡¯ve gone off-topic, let¡¯s get back to the discussion!¡± Director Zhao redirected the topic and set down the microphone. Director Ouyang of Orthopedics stood up and straightened his salt-and-pepper center-parted hair, saying, ¡°I¡¯ve also watched ¡®House M.D.¡¯ Regarding the cobalt poisoning case in the show, I remember the patient had undergone two hip replacement surgeries. The first surgery used a ceramic-on-ceramic prosthesis, and during the second hip replacement, the doctor used a metal-on-metal prosthesis, but he failed to remove all the ceramic fragments from the joint cavity when taking out the ceramic prosthesis. Those residual ceramic fragments became a hidden danger, constantly wearing down the surface of the metal joint, eventually leading to the release of heavy metal ions from the cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy, causing cobalt poisoning.¡± ¡°In fact, there were two mistakes made by the doctor in the second surgery; he should have removed the ceramic fragments from the joint cavity, and he should not have used metal-on-metal.¡± ¡°We have an experience-based rule in hip replacement surgery¡ªonce ceramic, always ceramic, which means if a ceramic head is used in the first hip replacement surgery, then a ceramic head must also be used in the second surgery. That way, we might avoid the fine ceramic debris left over after the first surgery from wearing down a metal head in the second surgery, causing heavy metal ion poisoning. Director Tan, is that correct?¡± Director Tan took over the conversation: ¡°That¡¯s right, metal-on-metal prostheses are rarely used now. Doctors used to favor them, especially in large metal-on-metal femoral head prostheses, and Peking Union Medical College Hospital also favored them for a time.¡± ¡°If we knew there was a risk of heavy metal poisoning, why did we still use these metal-on-metal prostheses?¡± asked a Neurosurgeon. Each field has its own challenges; Director Fang of the General Surgery Department raised his hand to ask a question. ¡°This involves the pros and cons of artificial joints. The artificial hip joint prostheses we currently use include ceramic-on-ceramic, ceramic-on-polyethylene, metal-on-polyethylene, and metal-on-metal. Metal-on-metal is used the least,¡± Director Guan of the Cardiology Department said, ¡°Old Tan, we are internal doctors and don¡¯t understand your surgical aspects very well. Take this opportunity to explain to us in detail, which type of hip joint prosthesis is the best?¡± Director Tan replied, ¡°Each type of hip joint prosthesis has its advantages and disadvantages. However, considering all aspects, ceramic-on-ceramic is currently the best, and metal-on-metal is the least recommended.¡± ¡°What exactly do you mean by what you said ¡®this against that¡¯?¡± a doctor who had just started working in pediatrics asked. ¡°Oh, our artificial joints are divided into two major parts, the far and the near. For example, with the hip joint, the far end is the femoral head, and the near end is the acetabular socket. The two combine to form a joint.¡± Ceramic-on-ceramic, the ball is made of ceramic, and so is the socket; ceramic-on-polyethylene, the ball is ceramic, and the socket is polyethylene; metal-on-polyethylene, the ball is metal, and the socket is polyethylene; metal-on-metal, both the ball and the socket are metal.¡± Director Tan said this while using his hands to make shapes of the ball and the socket to help explain. ¡°Ceramic-on-ceramic, its greatest advantage is that it has a low coefficient of friction, so it¡¯s especially wear-resistant, and it can last twenty to thirty years unless it¡¯s accidentally smashed or loosens.¡± ¡°Secondly, compared to metal heads, there¡¯s no negative impact from the release of heavy metal ions.¡± ¡°Its drawback is that it¡¯s relatively brittle, and compared to metal, it¡¯s more likely to shatter when subjected to a violent impact.¡± ¡°Metal-on-metal is now rarely used; its greatest disadvantage is that the heavy metal ions released after wear are harmful to the human body. Its advantage is that it¡¯s not easily shattered. With current medical conditions, its advantages cannot cover its greatest drawbacks, so the use of metal-on-metal is becoming less and less common.¡± ¡°Metal-on-polyethylene is in between the two types of prostheses mentioned above. Compared to ceramic-on-ceramic, it is cheaper, reducing the economic burden on patients. Compared to metal-on-metal, it wears out much less and is not as likely to release a large number of metal ions.¡± Director Guan from the Cardiovascular Department said, ¡°So what you¡¯re saying is that except for the high risk of breaking, ceramic-on-ceramic artificial joints otherwise have mainly advantages.¡± ¡°You could understand it that way, but it also has another significant disadvantage; that is, it¡¯s quite expensive, the priciest among these types,¡± Director Tan laughed and said. ¡°Mainly because medical ceramic materials are expensive and not easy to process, so ceramic hip prostheses are naturally pricey.¡± Director Han also joined in to add a few words. ¡°However, our country already has companies that have developed a very good ceramic called soft ceramic, which overcomes the drawback of ceramics being prone to breaking. If used for medical purposes, it not only has a low coefficient of friction but also is not easily broken; this would be the best artificial hip joint.¡± The benefits of these hospital-wide case discussions are numerous, allowing doctors to engage in interdisciplinary learning and fill the gaps in their knowledge. Take, for instance, this patient with cobalt poisoning. If a doctor in the cardiology department had basic orthopedic knowledge, he would pay attention to the patient¡¯s past history of left hip joint replacement and would arrange for the patient to have an x-ray examination of the hip joint in both anteroposterior and lateral views. If the attending physician had a basic knowledge of reading films, he would be able to see from the x-rays that the hip prosthesis showed obvious wear. If he lacks basic film-reading knowledge, no problem¡ªhe could ask someone from orthopedics to take a look, avoiding wasting too much time on the diagnosis. Yang Ping felt that by attending such meetings, even just by listening, participants would increase their knowledge and improve their basic understanding. Chapter 1130 - 1130 906 Just Short of a Thread ?Chapter 1130: Chapter 906: Just Short of a Thread Chapter 1130: Chapter 906: Just Short of a Thread For this case of cobalt toxicity, everyone, whether director-level or standardized training students, was very interested. They were even more intrigued by the diagnostic process of this case because it offered everyone some insights. Why had the patient visited many hospitals, seen numerous doctors, and, judging from his medical experiences, these hospitals were major ones within the province, some having heavyweight experts in rheumatology, immunology, and tumor, but unfortunately, none could establish a definitive diagnosis? After receiving symptomatic treatment in the Cardiovascular Department of Sanbo Hospital for two solid weeks, there was still no diagnosis. At that time, he was admitted to the CCU due to severe heart failure, stabilized after rescue treatments, and later transferred out of the CCU. At this point, the cardiovascular doctors were at their wits¡¯ end and had no choice but to use their last resort¡ªa hospital-wide consultation. Orthopedics received the consultation request and was the most eager; the attending physician decided to get a sense of the situation in advance, and this visit directly solved the complex problem. Why did everyone rack their brains without arriving at a diagnosis, yet an orthopedic doctor easily resolved it? As Director Tan said, the problem lay in the blind spot. Whether they were experts in rheumatology and immunology or tumor specialists, they were limited to their own fields, endlessly circling within their expertise. They had performed nearly all relevant tests concerning infections, tumors, and rheumatology immunology, except for testing heavy metal ion concentrations in the blood. This was because it simply hadn¡¯t occurred to them, lacking knowledge in this area. Yang Ping sat in the front row, quietly listening to the discussion. Director Zhao had noticed Yang Ping¡¯s presence early on. Yang Ping could no longer keep a low profile as he now had an almost god-like stature at Sanbo Hospital. Director Zhao, regardless of his own intentions, would ask Yang to say a few words. Even if Director Zhao let him be, so many young doctors wouldn¡¯t possibly let him off. ¡°Our Professor Yang also started in orthopedics. Regarding this case, could Professor Yang share a few words with everyone?¡± Director Zhao walked up to Yang Ping with a microphone. The young doctors in the audience all eagerly watched Yang Ping, waiting for him to speak, because he always managed to say something akin to mathematical axioms and theorems that were very useful. If it meant saying a few words, so be it; Yang Ping walked up to the podium and Director Zhao handed him the microphone. He thought for a moment¡ªwhat to say? The case had been solved, and the diagnosis and treatment were clear. Consider speaking about how to think through complicated cases. The young doctors in the audience, especially the graduate students and standardized training students, began jotting down notes; they were keen on seizing this opportunity. Most of them would leave Sanbo Hospital after completing their studies and might not have many chances to attend Professor Yang¡¯s lectures in the future. ¡°Let me talk to the young doctors for a moment. In fact, the complex cases we encounter can generally be categorized into a few types: first, atypical symptoms; second, beyond the scope of knowledge; third, currently unrecognized by medicine. No matter which category it falls under, it¡¯s most crucial to capture the key clues of the disease. Thus, one must have comprehensive knowledge. As Director Zhao said earlier, one should read and study regularly. Once there is a knowledge gap, some clues will be missed. And these crucial clues are extremely important in diagnostics; they¡¯re like the loose thread on a garment. Once you grab this thread, the whole seam comes apart effortlessly.¡± ¡°Traditional Chinese medicine greatly values the role of clues in diagnostics. Experienced traditional Chinese medicine doctors, when faced with complicated cases, would chat with the patient about anything concerning their condition after observing and inquiring. Although it seems like small talk, this is actually them waiting for that thread to emerge. As they talk, clues naturally arise, and the experienced doctor would have an epiphany, immediately grab the clue and follow it through to achieve a final differentiated diagnosis.¡± ¡°This is the secret of traditional Chinese medicine doctors in treating diseases. I wouldn¡¯t tell this to just anyone. We, in Western medicine, should learn from this secret. When facing complex cases, we continuously review the medical records, improve them, look through the patients¡¯ past medical data, interact more with the patients, and ask about their medical history. You never know, a clue might just appear while asking. The diagnosis of complex cases hangs by such a thread.¡± ¡°Also, when diagnosing diseases, start with common diseases but don¡¯t overlook rare diseases. Each time you diagnose an illness, consider all possible diseases in your mind. How do you do that? Review them based on the classification of etiologies in our pathophysiology. This forms a rigorous and comprehensive thinking habit, less likely to miss important clues. Especially when a diagnosis has not been attained, every anomaly could be a clue. Anyway, facing so many threads, which one is the right clue? Just pull on each one to test.¡± Indeed, Professor Yang¡¯s casual remarks were solid gold rules. This thread theory was indeed full of philosophical logic, and the young doctors earnestly noted down this thread theory. Subsequently, Yang Ping lectured everyone on issues related to metal implants. Metal is widely used in medicine, especially in orthopedics where most spinal and joint implants are primarily metallic, such as spinal internal fixation, artificial intervertebral discs, artificial joints, and so forth. After being implanted in the human body, metal wear leads to metal particles and ions. These microscopic metal particles spread into the surrounding soft tissues, causing local reactions and activating macrophages and inflammatory responses. Metal ions enter the blood circulation and then travel throughout the body, depositing in terminal organs. Some metal ions are inherently toxic, such as heavy metals typified by cobalt; some metal ions cause damage to organs upon deposition; and some have the potential to be carcinogenic in the human body, such as high levels of titanium, which may pose a high cancer risk. Chapter 1131 - 1131 906 Just Short of a Thread_2 ?Chapter 1131: Chapter 906: Just Short of a Thread_2 Chapter 1131: Chapter 906: Just Short of a Thread_2 These are issues we must confront head on. Medical treatments are a double-edged sword; while we harness one edge for healing, we must also investigate the injuries caused by the other edge. Regarding the impact of metal implants on the human body, as early as 1973, Dr. Coleman reported in the ¡°British Medical Journal¡± (BMJ) elevated blood and urine levels of cobalt and chromium after total metal hip replacements, pointing out the urgent need to study the long-term effects of chromium accumulation in the body. This marked the beginning of formal medical research into the impact of metal implant particles or ion release on the human body, and since then, doctors have continuously published articles on this topic. Cobalt poisoning is not only seen in artificial joints but sometimes also occurs in patients with dental implants because some implants contain cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloys. Excessive wear can expose the cobalt metal inside, leading to cobalt toxicity. Under conditions of vitamin B12 deficiency, protein and alcohol intake, the symptoms of cobalt poisoning become more pronounced, especially in patients with alcohol dependency. Cobalt enters the bloodstream and circulates throughout the body, damaging various organ systems such as the nervous system, cardiovascular system, respiratory system, digestive system, thyroid, lymphatic system, etc., thereby causing a range of symptoms. There are so many symptoms that, without the key clue of a hip replacement, it would be difficult to suspect a disease presenting with so many symptoms. Time is limited, and Yang Ping briefly chats with everyone. Afterward, several departments presented difficult cases. With Yang Ping¡¯s ¡°lead thread theory¡± as a guide, the young doctors were much bolder and more active in facing these challenging cases, paying very serious attention to the medical records and often asking the presenter many questions. In one puzzling case from the Department of Gastroenterology, a standardized training student, relying on superficial multidisciplinary knowledge, caught onto a detail everyone else had overlooked, successfully deduced the diagnosis, to the presenter¡¯s great surprise. ¡ª After the meeting, it was already evening in China, but morning had just begun in Germany. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang briefly reported on the previous day¡¯s activities via video. Zhang Lin and Little Five¡¯s surgeries were not yet finished. Through the experiences of these past days, their surgery speed had improved; they were now capable of performing four to five surgeries a day. After accumulating some experience as chief surgeons, they had made slight improvements in expertise, and their confidence had grown significantly. Doctor Li Min was making a phone call in the changing room, looking very anxious. Yang Ping had no idea what had happened. ¡°Professor Yang, may I take a week off?¡± Li Min put down the phone and asked Yang Ping in a pleading tone. Yang Ping guessed that something might have happened to Li Min¡¯s family, ¡°Is there anything wrong? Can we help you in some way?¡± Li Min, looking very anxious, said, ¡°Last night after completing an emergency surgery, our elderly director suffered an acute herniated lumbar disc. He experienced sciatic pain on the left side all night and even a shot of pethidine didn¡¯t help. I need to rush back and check on him.¡± While Li Min was furthering his studies, the elderly director had been bearing back pain, carrying out all the surgeries in the hospital on his own. The younger doctors lacked sufficient work experience and were completely unable to perform surgeries; they struggled even with the most basic tasks. Whenever Li Min called the elderly director, he would insist he was fine, saying he felt spirited, with no back pain or numbness in his legs. However, when Li Min called the elderly director yesterday, he sensed something was off in his voice, but the elderly director still maintained that he was fine. Doubtful, Li Min called other colleagues at the hospital early in the morning. They told him the elderly director had suffered from sciatic pain for several days, writhing in bed every night. In the last few days, he had relied entirely on pethidine for pain relief. He had not slept at all last night, and despite receiving a shot of pethidine, it was ineffective, and this morning he was still performing surgeries while dragging one leg. ¡°Did he use mannitol and dexamethasone?¡± Li Min knew that whenever the elderly director had an episode, he would self-medicate with dehydrating agents and steroids to get by. ¡°He¡¯s used them, but it¡¯s still no use. I just went to see him, and he was biting on a towel in agony. We advised him to go for a check-up in the county, but he refused,¡± said the colleague, also clearly worried. Li Min was very anxious about the elderly director¡¯s health and wanted to take a few days off to go back. As Yang Ping entered, Li Min mustered the courage to ask him for leave. ¡°How long has your Elderly Director been suffering from a herniated disc? What examinations has he undergone? Has he had a CT or MRI scan?¡± Yang Ping felt the need to ask a few more questions. Li Min shook his head, ¡°Our hospital only has an X-ray machine. He¡¯s only had an X-ray, which indicated multiple vertebral hyperostosis, with narrowing at lumbar 4/5 and lumbar 5/sacral 1 spaces.¡± The situation might be more complicated than it seemed. Even if Li Min returned, given the medical conditions in the mountain area, it probably wouldn¡¯t make much difference. Yang Ping thought for a moment and said, ¡°Li Min, don¡¯t go back for now. Your Elderly Director should have a thorough examination. I¡¯ll arrange for an ambulance to pick him up from there and bring him to our hospital for treatment.¡± This was certainly the best option, but Li Min had to return¡ªthe hospital was nearly empty without the Elderly Director there, and the few young doctors were incapable of doing much. He had to go back and take charge. ¡°But I still need to go back¡ªthe hospital has only me and the Elderly Director as experienced hands; the rest are newcomers who can¡¯t consult patients yet.¡± Li Min was quite troubled. This was the awkward situation of remote rural hospitals¡ªany young doctor who acquired some skills would leave, either by pulling connections to transfer to a town or richer village, or simply quitting to work elsewhere. Yang Ping thought the matter was easy to handle, ¡°How about this? I¡¯ll send two doctors to your place to fill in for a while. You come with the ambulance to pick up the Elderly Director, and the doctors I send to cover for you will go with the ambulance too.¡± It wasn¡¯t easy for Li Min to get a learning opportunity, and Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to delay him, besides, he couldn¡¯t solve the issue by going back anyway. When Li Min heard Professor Yang¡¯s arrangement, he was very grateful. If it could be done this way, there was nothing to complain about. The Elderly Director had been sick for so many years; despite being a doctor himself, he had never been properly examined. Whenever his condition flared up, he would just endure it and rely on a few painkillers to get by. Being able to bring him here for a systematic examination and treatment was definitely a good thing. ¡°Thank you, Professor Yang!¡± Doctor Li Min was touched. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Let me think who to send,¡± said Yang Ping, considering candidates for the rural support assignment. Zhang Lin and Little Five were tied up at the moment. It wouldn¡¯t be appropriate to send only one, as it would significantly decrease their effectiveness if they were separated. Yang Ping thought about it. Xia Shushuo had studied cardiology for both his master¡¯s and doctorate, while Dr. Jin and Dr. Wen had both studied orthopedics. All three of them, not to mention gynecological surgery, might not even manage general surgery operations. The more specialized a doctorate, the more focused the technical expertise within a narrow area, so sending them to a township hospital was not feasible. Patients there might not be complex or difficult to manage, but they would be varied. It was necessary to find someone who had undergone systematic training at the Surgical Research Institute. Li Guodong was a good choice; although young and still a resident, he had at least been trained in surgical research. Yes, send Li Guodong. He had participated in almost all types of operations at the Trauma Emergency Center, and having completed preliminary training in each specialty at the Surgical Research Institute, he was fully capable of independently managing work in a township hospital or even a city-level hospital. Immediately after, Yang Ping put on his scrub suit and went with Li Min to the operating room, where Li Guodong was performing surgery on the operating table. ¡°Guodong, I have a task for you. There¡¯s an emergency¡ªthe Elderly Director at Li Min¡¯s hospital has fallen ill and can¡¯t get out of bed. We are going to bring him to our hospital for treatment. Once the Elderly Director is transferred, their hospital will lack skilled doctors to work, and Li Min cannot return at the moment. So, I plan to send you to Li Min¡¯s hospital to provide medical support. You must leave immediately, and the return time is to be determined. Any problems?¡± Yang Ping said to Li Guodong. To someone else, this assignment might be unwelcome, but Li Guodong was very willing inside. Going to the countryside for support? Wouldn¡¯t that be setting up his own practice? Like Zhang Lin and Little Five, he could handle patients independently, perform main surgeries¡ªsimple though they may be in a township hospital, it was still an opportunity to lead surgeries on his own. Besides, Li Guodong was currently single without the commitment of a girlfriend, free to go at a moment¡¯s notice. ¡°No problem!¡± Li Guodong immediately agreed. ¡°Good, I¡¯ll call the emergency department now to dispatch an ambulance. You step down from the operating table right now, let someone else take over the retraction, and set off with Li Min,¡± said Yang Ping, making the decision without hesitation. Another doctor observing in the operating room immediately began scrubbing in to replace Li Guodong. Chapter 1132 - 1132 907 Little Li Your Hands Must Be Steady ?Chapter 1132: Chapter 907: Little Li, Your Hands Must Be Steady! Chapter 1132: Chapter 907: Little Li, Your Hands Must Be Steady! Because the pain of the Elderly Director was extremely severe, and pain sometimes could be lethal, Yang Ping didn¡¯t delay and immediately sent a vehicle. Li Min and Li Guodong went together in the vehicle to Guandu Town in North Bridge County. From the Provincial City to North Bridge County, it was almost three hundred kilometers, a round trip would take over six hours. Now it was just after five o¡¯clock, and they estimated they would return to the hospital around midnight. Before departing, Yang Ping instructed Li Guodong to take some medications with him, a vial each of ropivacaine and dibazol. Upon arrival at Guandu Hospital, they were to immediately administer a sciatic nerve block to the Elderly Director so he could come to Sanbo Hospital comfortably and without pain. Local blockade is a very effective symptomatic treatment method, especially suitable for primary hospitals. If mastered well, it can alleviate various joint pains with just one injection. Yang Ping had already handed over the various local blockade techniques to Doctor Li Min, including the method for sciatic nerve pain, which Li Min had mastered proficiently. The journey was smooth, and around midnight, the Elderly Director was brought to Sanbo Hospital. Because Li Min had already administered a sciatic nerve block, the director had a safe trip without any pain and comfortably slept in the vehicle. Thus, by the time they arrived at Sanbo Hospital, the movement of the stretcher woke up the comfortably sleeping Elderly Director who, in a drowsy state, asked, ¡°Where is this?¡± ¡°This is Sanbo Hospital,¡± Li Min said. ¡°Sanbo Hospital? Why come here?¡± The Elderly Director was momentarily confused. Li Min said, ¡°Didn¡¯t we come here to treat you? Have you forgotten?¡± The Elderly Director rubbed his eyes and attempted to get up, ¡°It¡¯s not hurting anymore; I¡¯m feeling fine now, what illness is there to treat.¡± Li Min pressed him down, ¡°That¡¯s the effect of the local blockade, once the medication wears off, you¡¯ll be rolling on the ground again.¡± The Elderly Director thought about it and it seemed to make sense. On the way here, Little Li had administered a series of local blockade injections. Little Li was quite capable now, even managing to perform sciatic nerve blocks, while the Elderly Director himself could only perform simple superficial soft tissue blocks. Since he had come, he might as well honestly get treated. It was rare for Little Li to show such filial piety by bringing him all the way to Sanbo Hospital. To quickly clarify the diagnosis, with Yang Ping¡¯s help, even though it was midnight, the Elderly Director completed an MRI scan. The lumbar spine MRI showed, although the Elderly Director also had disc protrusions at lumbar 4/5 and lumbar 5/sacral 1, it wasn¡¯t severe enough to cause such intense pain. In the lumbar spine MRI image, there was an abnormal signal in the anterior branch of the right lumbar 5 nerve root. Previously, Li Min wouldn¡¯t have understood the MRI images, but now, with the hands-on training from Yang Ping over this period, Li Min had mastered the basic reading knowledge for X-rays, CT, MRI, and surface ultrasounds. Seeing this abnormal signal, he immediately made a judgment: it was a nerve sheath tumor. The severe right-side sciatic nerve pain in the lumbar spine wasn¡¯t caused by a disc protrusion but was due to a nerve sheath tumor on the left lumbar 5 nerve root. The sciatic nerve is composed of the anterior branches of the lumbar 4, lumbar 5, sacral 1, sacral 2, and sacral 3 nerve roots. It is the thickest nerve in the human body. Compression or irritation of any of these nerve roots can cause sciatic nerve pain. Of course, the pathway of the sciatic nerve is long; starting from the spinal cord in the lumbar region, passing through the lower back, buttocks, back of the thigh, outer side of the calf, and all the way to the foot, controlling the skin sensation and muscle movement along the way. Compression or irritation along its pathway can also cause pain or numbness in the extremities, such as at the exit of the piriformis muscle in the buttocks, where the sciatic nerve is easily pinched causing pain. To differentiate, the Elderly Director had also completed an MRI of the piriformis muscle exit in the buttocks, and there was no pinching of the sciatic nerve at this location. ¡®A nerve sheath tumor on the lumbar 5 nerve root?¡¯ asked Li Min. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°That¡¯s why for lumbar pain patients, X-rays are unreliable. X-rays only show bones and have almost no ability to differentiate soft tissues. The final diagnosis still needs to rely on MRI, and from the imaging, a nerve sheath tumor is most likely, a benign one at that,¡± Yang Ping pointed out on the MRI image. ¡°No wonder the pain was so pronounced; the straight leg raising test was actually negative.¡± Li Min couldn¡¯t help but feel somewhat regretful. If he had administered a detailed checkup for the Elderly Director earlier, he wouldn¡¯t have suffered for so many years, all these years treated only for a disc protrusion. ¡°You know what to do next, right? The Elderly Director¡¯s illness is handed over to you, can you handle it?¡± Yang Ping asked Li Min. Surgery was the only treatment method for this condition, and given Li Min¡¯s current expertise, performing this surgery was not an issue. This was a simple lumbar spine tumor surgery, and Li Min felt fully capable of performing it himself. Hearing Yang Ping say that he would handle this surgery made him very happy and gave him a great sense of accomplishment; he could actually be the Chief Surgeon for the Elderly Director. It was a perfect way to report his learning progress to the Elderly Director, to show that his studies had been diligent and the Director¡¯s support had not been in vain. ¡®For this surgery, you need patience. While protecting the spinal cord and nerve roots, you must completely resect the tumor,¡¯ Yang Ping instructed Li Min. ¡°Yes, I will be very careful,¡± Li Min was a little excited. Since the test results had come out, Yang Ping took Li Min to explain the illness to the Elderly Director, who was lying in bed resting. A drip was hanging next to the bed, and perhaps because he hadn¡¯t slept well for several days, the Elderly Director was sleeping soundly now. Chapter 1133 - 1133 907 Little Li Your Hands Must Be ?Chapter 1133: Chapter 907: Little Li, Your Hands Must Be Steady!_2 Chapter 1133: Chapter 907: Little Li, Your Hands Must Be Steady!_2 ¡°Maybe we should let him rest a few hours tonight and perform the surgery tomorrow morning? If the pain recurs, we can administer another epidural injection?¡± Li Min said, seeing the Elderly Director sleeping so soundly, he really didn¡¯t want to disturb him. Yang Ping agreed with Li Min¡¯s suggestion, ¡°He hasn¡¯t eaten much for several days, pay attention to the balance of fluids and electrolytes later. Rehydrate him tonight, and we¡¯ll do the surgery tomorrow morning.¡± At that moment, the Elderly Director woke up. He rubbed his eyes in a daze and saw the doctors doing their rounds in front of him, Professor Yang and Little Li. ¡°Professor Yang, look, I¡¯m causing you so much trouble. Xiao Li has already troubled you enough with his internship, and now I¡¯m troubling you even more. I¡¯m so sorry.¡± The Elderly Director got up and leaned against the head of the bed. Yang Ping and Li Min helped him sit up properly, and Yang Ping said, ¡°You should just rest well, don¡¯t get up. We¡¯ve got your test results, it¡¯s not a lumbar disc herniation, but a schwannoma at the L5 nerve root. You must have surgery, and we plan to do it tomorrow morning. Have a good sleep tonight, don¡¯t eat anything, and don¡¯t drink water. We¡¯ll perform the surgery in the morning.¡± ¡°A schwannoma? It¡¯s not lumbar disc herniation? You¡¯re saying this is like capsizing in a gutter?¡± The Elderly Director sighed, thinking how he had mistreated it as a lumbar disc herniation for so many years despite being a doctor himself. It was quite embarrassing. Li Min said to the Elderly Director, ¡°Surgery is a must for this condition, there¡¯s no other way.¡± The Elderly Director nodded, ¡°Then let¡¯s have the surgery. But this operation has to go into the vertebral canal, and involves cutting on the nerve root.¡± Yang Ping then told him, ¡°We won¡¯t disturb your rest then. We¡¯ll come to see you again tomorrow morning. Li Min will be the chief surgeon for your surgery tomorrow.¡± The Elderly Director has been doing just fine until he heard this, and suddenly his heart gave a violent leap. Could Li Ming really handle this kind of surgery? Immediately, the Elderly Director cast a doubtful glance at Li Min. In the Elderly Director¡¯s view, Li Min was only capable of performing simple surgeries, such as appendectomies, Cesarean sections, and debridement suturing. This kind of lumbar surgery that required going into the vertebral canal was not something Li Min, or even the Elderly Director himself, had ever performed. The Elderly Director knew that lumbar spine surgeries were major surgeries, and a moment of inattention could paralyze someone. ¡°Little Li?¡± The Elderly Director asked uncertainly. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll be the chief surgeon for your surgery tomorrow. Don¡¯t worry,¡± Li Min replied cheerfully, thinking the Elderly Director was pleasantly surprised that he was confident enough to perform such a high-level surgery. Surgery was not something to take lightly. Surely, Li Min hadn¡¯t volunteered himself, had he? The Elderly Director had always been good to Li Min, treating him like a son, and hadn¡¯t offended the young man. Li Min wouldn¡¯t take this opportunity to use him as a Guinea pig, would he? ¡°Little Li? Are you using me for practice?¡± The Elderly Director asked cautiously. Li Min found the Elderly Director¡¯s wary tone amusing because the Elderly Director was usually optimistic and acted like a mischievous old child, often joking around with others. Li Min took it as the Elderly Director making a joke now. ¡°Elderly Director! I¡¯ve been here for an internship for so long and haven¡¯t had the chance to operate. You have to give me this learning opportunity,¡± Li Min continued along with his words. Sure enough, the Elderly Director felt a chill in his heart. The kid really did want to use this as an opportunity to practice on him. Well, let him practice then. ¡°How about conservative treatment first? I feel quite at ease right now, and after so many years, I¡¯ve managed this far. I can hold out a little longer, can¡¯t I? We can talk if it really doesn¡¯t work out. I¡¯m afraid my body can¡¯t withstand the surgery,¡± the Elderly Director thought he still had a chance. Yang Ping said firmly, ¡°There¡¯s no way to treat this condition conservatively at this point. If you want to get better and be pain-free, surgery is necessary.¡± It seemed there was no escape; he was the pig on the chopping block. Little Li, are you really up for it? Don¡¯t paralyze me now; I¡¯d have nowhere to argue my case then. Just thinking about Little Li performing spine surgery made the Elderly Director¡¯s heart lurch. The Elderly Director was well aware of internships; he had done one at a county hospital back in the day, and it was good enough if he got the chance to assist. There was never an opportunity to be the chief surgeon. The Elderly Director had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, ¡°Alright, I will let you practice on me.¡± Li Ming was generally earnest and reliable in his work, unlike the other two fellows at Guandu Hospital who were clumsy. If it had been them, the Elderly Director would be heading home on crutches right now. ¡°Don¡¯t worry! Li Min can absolutely be the chief surgeon for this surgery, and he will certainly do a splendid job,¡± Yang Ping reassured the Elderly Director. ¡°Hmm, I¡¯m definitely at ease,¡± he said. The Elderly Director said one thing but felt another¡ªhis words were light, but inside he was in a panic. Li Min¡¯s professional skills were good, and the kid was a hard worker, but after all, a primary care doctor is a primary care doctor. How could the Elderly Director not know Li Min¡¯s capabilities? It hadn¡¯t been that long since he joined; how could he possibly be the chief surgeon in this type of surgery? Moreover, at this level of provincial hospital training, there wasn¡¯t really a chance to be a chief surgeon; it was all about assisting and stitching up. After Yang Ping and Li Min left, the Elderly Director asked for two sleeping pills; otherwise, how could he possibly sleep? This young man¡¯s appendectomy was taught by me personally. He¡¯s been here for such a short time, and now he¡¯s going to be the chief surgeon for my lumbar spine surgery¡ªthat would keep anyone awake. The next morning, the nurse tried to insert a urinary catheter into the Elderly Director, who absolutely refused. An old doctor who often performed gynecological surgeries actually rejected the nurse¡¯s attempt to insert a urinary catheter. In the end, it was Li Min who inserted it. ¡°You¡¯ve been doing gynecological surgery for decades, how could you be shy about letting a nurse insert a urinary catheter?¡± Li Min had a good relationship with the Elderly Director, so he spoke without much reservation. The Elderly Director seriously said, ¡°Is that the same thing? I was a doctor back then, and now I¡¯m a patient. Little Li, there are no outsiders now, tell me the truth, can you really be the chief surgeon for the lumbar spine surgery? Don¡¯t force yourself, okay? I know you mean well, you¡¯re doing this for my own good. My old body is still strong and I need this leg for a few more years. You have to be steady, don¡¯t let your hands shake.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? Who shakes their hands on purpose? Is shaking something one can control?¡± Li Min said while collecting the catheter bag. ¡°Little Li, your hands must be steady!¡± the Elderly Director grabbed Li Min¡¯s hands. ¡°Elderly Director, just relax, Professor Yang has already taught me a lot, this kind of surgery is a piece of cake. Not to mention my current level, when I¡¯d just arrived here, even those few experimental pigs I operated on were running around everywhere.¡± You little rascal, you¡¯re resigning yourself to your fate, you¡¯ve never performed this surgery on a human before, only practiced on pigs. ¡°Have you done this surgery?¡± ¡°Of course, I have.¡± ¡°I mean on a human, not a pig.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve done it on a human.¡± Nonsense! Asking him is useless. No doctor would honestly tell their first surgery patient, ¡°I have never done this surgery, you are my first case as a chief surgeon.¡± The patient would be scared into leaving the hospital outright. ¡°First surgery case, send in the patient!¡± The nurse¡¯s urging voice came from outside the door. The gurney was pushed toward the operating room with the Elderly Director on it, a scene he had seen for dozens of years. Now it was his turn to lie there with a rookie holding the scalpel¡ªhis heart couldn¡¯t help but flip-flop. Forget it, it¡¯s not easy for Little Li either. Doctors always have a learning curve; nobody wants to be the first, but then who will be the first? Little Li¡¯s case is understandable. It¡¯s hard to get started with strangers, but it¡¯s easier with someone you know. Thinking this way, the Elderly Director felt much more at peace, and his outlook swiftly improved. Li Min followed the nurse to accompany the Elderly Director to the operating room, with the Elderly Director talking to him non-stop. ¡°Little Li, if you see that the neurofibroma is hard to remove, just give up if it¡¯s not feasible¡ªdon¡¯t force it!¡± ¡°Little Li! You must clearly see the nerves, don¡¯t panic, keep your mind clear. I always teach you to be bold but careful, your heart must be very careful, but your courage must not be too big.¡± ¡°Elderly Director! Just relax, don¡¯t be nervous.¡± ¡°Of course, I¡¯m relaxed. When have I ever been nervous? Where do I seem tense? I¡¯m just relaxed, aren¡¯t I? I¡¯m just chatting with you, we haven¡¯t seen each other for so many days, is chatting not allowed?¡± ¡°Little Li, your hands must be steady!¡± Chapter 1134 - 1134 908 Complicated and Difficult Diseases ?Chapter 1134: Chapter 908: Complicated and Difficult Diseases Chapter 1134: Chapter 908: Complicated and Difficult Diseases The Elderly Director was wheeled into the operating room, where everyone moved him onto the operating table. Liang Fatty noticed his heart rate was a bit fast. Upon admission, his vital signs were normal, with a heart rate of only 75 beats per minute, which had now jumped to 116 beats per minute. The pre-surgery examination went really well; there were no problems with his heart and no underlying conditions like anemia. Moreover, he hadn¡¯t ingested any atropine or scopolamine before coming from the ward. Why was his heart rate so fast? Liang Fatty was concerned about the interference during the transfer, so he let the Elderly Director rest for ten minutes. After ten minutes, the heart rate still fluctuated around 115 beats per minute. Liang Fatty pulled up an ECG to check it out, sinus tachycardia with no other issues¡ªthe clearly excessive nervousness caused it. ¡°Elderly Director, relax a bit, there¡¯s no need to be nervous. The surgery will be over quickly, rest assured!¡± Liang Fatty patted the Elderly Director¡¯s shoulder. ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯m very relaxed right now, not nervous at all. Is there a problem with my heart? Should we go back, wait a few days, and then have the surgery? I¡¯m not in a hurry.¡± The Elderly Director¡¯s voice was loud, and because of his nerves, it had an uncontrollable tremble. All sorts of cardiac examinations such as surface ultrasound, electrocardiogram, myocardial enzyme spectrum, and so on¡ªelderly people¡¯s cardiac tests were all there and all normal. Liang Fatty had never seen such a pristine report for a 70-year-old. Not just the heart, but even the routine blood tests, biochemistry, liver and kidney functions, etc., the report did not show a single arrow, not a single colored letter. ¡°Dr. Li, your Elderly Director¡¯s physical condition is really good, quite remarkable,¡± Liang Fatty softly mentioned to Li Min. Not only was the Elderly Director sharp-eyed and sharp-eared, but also when Liang Fatty had checked his teeth, he found them all neatly in place, none loose or missing, and what was most difficult to believe was his gums were still in good shape. ¡°I¡¯m usually quite frail, it¡¯s all just appearances,¡± the Elderly Director immediately said loudly, almost as if he could hear the nearly whispered conversation between Liang Fatty and Li Min. ¡°Just a bit of a fast heart rate, nothing serious, it¡¯s just the nerves causing it. I¡¯ll use a sedative, and you¡¯ll be fine. Rest assured, Elderly Director, it won¡¯t affect the surgery.¡± Liang Fatty reassured the Elderly Director. Everyone followed Li Min¡¯s example in addressing him as the Elderly Director. Since all the tests showed no issues and it was determined to be nervousness-induced, Liang Fatty started preparing to administer anesthesia to the Elderly Director. He opened the stopcock on the catheter in the Elderly Director¡¯s arm, getting ready to inject the medication for induction before anesthesia when the Elderly Director said anxiously, ¡°Wait!¡± He didn¡¯t know why he wanted to wait; just the thought that he wouldn¡¯t be aware of anything after this injection scared him. The thought of Little Li making incisions on his body without his knowledge was terrifying. ¡°Begin!¡± the Elderly Director gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and resigned himself to his fate. General anesthesia with intubation, positioning, disinfection and drape¡ªsurgery began quickly. Li Min was the chief surgeon, with Zhang Lin and Little Five as his assistants; Yang Ping merely stood in surgical gown at the operating table. Li Min completed the entire procedure, meticulously following each surgical step and taking great care with the protection of the spine and nerve roots. The tumor was also removed very thoroughly. As the Elderly Director came out of anesthesia, his first groggy words were: ¡°Little Li, why can¡¯t I move my legs?¡± The first thing he wanted upon waking was to move his legs, but to his dismay, they wouldn¡¯t budge at all. What was happening¡ªhad he become paralyzed? In his hazy state, the Elderly Director was frightened into a cold sweat. ¡°Why are you anxious? You¡¯ve just woken from anesthesia; your brain still can¡¯t control your limbs. Give it some time and you¡¯ll be fine,¡± Li Min reassured him. ¡°Really?¡± The Elderly Director tried moving his limbs again, particularly his right leg. Indeed, he could now move it and finally breathed a sigh of relief. Having been a doctor for a lifetime, it was his first experience on the operating table. The Elderly Director felt it was like having a brush with death, a harrowing one at that. Just as he had relaxed, he became worried again, as even if he could move, the strength simply wasn¡¯t there. Paralysis isn¡¯t always about complete immobility¡ªparalysis could still be present if muscle strength isn¡¯t normal. Besides, the sciatic nerve is composed of several nerve roots; even cutting off one wouldn¡¯t result in complete paralysis but would cause partial impairment to sensation or muscle strength. The Elderly Director grew increasingly unsettled: ¡°Little Li, the surgery went smoothly, right?¡± This old man sure had many concerns. Li Min took his hand and said, ¡°Extremely smoothly. Your tumor was completely excised and sent to the Pathology Department for examination. The nerve roots were well preserved. You can be completely at ease.¡± ¡°Then why do my legs feel so weak?¡± the Elderly Director asked with concern. ¡°You haven¡¯t eaten properly for a few days¡ªwhere would the strength come from? Eat more after the surgery, and in a few days, you¡¯ll naturally regain strength.¡± Li Min knew the Elderly Director was worried about the success of his own surgery. ¡°Oh!¡± No sooner had the Elderly Director gotten over his fear of the surgery than he began to worry about his medical expenses. Costs at such a provincial hospital tend to be high, and he wondered how much of it his out-of-area medical insurance would reimburse. ¡°Little Li?¡± What now? Couldn¡¯t he just be still for a moment, rest properly? Why was he always so anxious about this and that? After all, he¡¯d been an old doctor for dozens of years. ¡°I guess the costs for my surgery and medicines aren¡¯t cheap, right? You used all domestic drugs, didn¡¯t you? There wasn¡¯t any use of imported medications? Expensive drugs require the patient¡¯s signature for consent¡ªyou didn¡¯t get me to sign anything. If there are any expensive drugs, I¡¯d refuse to acknowledge the charges.¡± Chapter 1135 - 1135 908 Complicated and Difficult Diseases_2 ?Chapter 1135: Chapter 908: Complicated and Difficult Diseases_2 Chapter 1135: Chapter 908: Complicated and Difficult Diseases_2 Why is the person who just woke up from anesthesia so lucid? Liang Fatty was completely bewildered. ¡°You say you won¡¯t acknowledge it just like that? Who said you must sign off on using expensive drugs? You were not of sound mind during anesthesia, lacking the capacity for civil conduct. In order to save your life, we can make decisions on your behalf,¡± Li Min said. ¡°Little Li? What do you mean?¡± Upon hearing this, the Elderly Director wondered if they indeed used any expensive drugs. ¡°Shall we talk back in the ward?¡± ¡°Explain the situation to me right now, what exactly happened?¡± ¡ª After returning to the ward, Li Min sat by the bed, keeping company with the Elderly Director. The Elderly Director¡¯s surgery was the first one, and Yang Ping also took time to come check on the Elderly Director. After confirming that everything was fine, Yang Ping returned to the operating room for another surgery. Post-surgery, the Elderly Director felt a bit tired, and having not slept well for many days, he slept through until the evening. Upon awakening, he felt no significant pain and was very comfortable, a relaxation he had never experienced before. In the past, even when there wasn¡¯t any pain, he still felt a lingering ache and numbness in some areas. In short, he was always uncomfortable and in distress, but he had built a high tolerance for pain and had grown used to it over the years. The effect of the surgery was immediate, it was truly as if the root of the problem had been removed all of a sudden. Such comfort had never been felt for so many years. In truth, many illnesses can be effectively resolved by following the proper medical procedures. However, the majority of people do not follow standardized procedures, or they wait until their condition becomes severe before being forced into standardized medical treatments. The Elderly Director was still concerned about the strength in his lower limbs and tried to move them. He could move them normally, and he asked Li Min to check the muscle strength, which was normal in the lower limbs. After this series of checks, the Elderly Director finally confirmed he was not paralyzed. It seemed Little Li indeed had skills, capable of performing such spinal surgeries. He hadn¡¯t made a mistake in sending him for further study. The only worry was, with such good skills, whether Little Li would leave for another job. With such abilities, would he stay in this remote place? After all, people aspire to reach higher places just as water flows to lower ground. Nonetheless, Li Min was the young doctor who had stayed the longest in Guandu Town. It would also be nice for him to go to a better place in the future. Even the Elderly Director felt happy for Li Min¡¯s potential opportunities. ¡°Elderly Director, let me tell you, Professor Yang is a world-class surgeon. Any doctor here, trained by Professor Yang, can stand on their own in any other hospital. The attending doctors here, if they go to other provincial hospitals, are definitely regarded as experts. Not to mention those with senior titles¡ªtheir skills are recognized anywhere in the world,¡± Li Min proudly said. ¡°That impressive? Who mentored you during your training here?¡± The Elderly Director lay in bed, resting and chatting with Li Min. ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you over the phone? I¡¯m very lucky, Professor Yang himself is my mentor. He¡¯s very strict, which is why I¡¯ve progressed so fast,¡± Li Min shared about his training experience with the Elderly Director. ¡°I thought you were bragging. How could Professor Yang, such a prominent professor, personally mentor you?¡± ¡°Professor Yang is very kind. It was his suggestion to bring you here for treatment. I had asked him for a few days¡¯ leave to go back home, and after he found out about the situation, he suggested bringing you over for treatment.¡± ¡°Can I drink some water now?¡± The Elderly Director wondered why the general anesthesia seemed so easygoing. ¡°Yes, you can. Your anesthesia was administered by Dr. Liang, who is very skilled. As long as it wasn¡¯t abdominal surgery, his patients recover quickly from general anesthesia and can eat and drink normally. We¡¯ll be able to eat lunch normally later,¡± Li Min said as he brought over a cup of warm water. The Elderly Director took a few sips without feeling nauseous. The anesthetic skill was indeed impressive. No wonder Li Min came here to learn and train. In such a short time, he was able to perform spinal surgeries, which even the head of orthopedics in a county hospital would need to deliberate over, let alone doctors from township hospitals. ¡°I¡¯m a bit hungry! Can I eat now?¡± the Elderly Director asked. ¡°Yes!¡± Just then, Yu Shuilian¡¯s husband happened to bring two boxed meals for Li Min. ¡°Little Li, I¡¯ve been in pain for so many years, how come I never realized it was this illness? I always thought it was a herniated lumbar disc. If I knew it was this condition, I wouldn¡¯t have suffered for so many years. If word gets out around the region, wouldn¡¯t it be embarrassing?¡± The boxed meals were placed on the table, and the Elderly Director¡¯s puzzled eyes stared at the wall across from him. ¡°Little Li!¡± The Elderly Director suddenly called out. Li Min responded, thinking the Elderly Director was feeling discomfort. ¡°You need to have a political understanding of this situation. When you go back, you must never say that the doctors in the provincial city diagnosed it at a glance; instead, you should say that the illness was a complicated and difficult disease. After coming to the provincial city, the doctors, through several days of research and with a lot of effort from several expert professors, finally understood the disease. Or you could simply say it was a case of lumbar disc herniation, and the surgery performed was the removal of the nucleus pulposus between the lumbar discs,¡± the Elderly Director said with a visibly worried expression. Reputation, oh, reputation¡ªit¡¯s about a lifetime¡¯s reputation. Working in Guandu Town for a lifetime, he earned the recognition and respect of the villagers. In their eyes, the Elderly Director was Hua Tuo reincarnated. This matter was of great importance. If the villagers found out that the Elderly Director had misdiagnosed his own illness, where would he put his face? Li Min watched the Elderly Director mulling over the situation and found it funny how concerned the old man was about saving face. ¡°No, when it¡¯s time to get reimbursed, others will see the diagnosis on the medical records. I can only say it was a complicated and difficult disease,¡± the Elderly Director continued to muse. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll say it as you told me, and I¡¯ll add that you personally worked with the experts from the provincial city to figure out the diagnosis. Without your direct involvement, it would have taken a lot more time to understand,¡± as Li Min began opening his boxed meal. ¡°That won¡¯t do; it¡¯s too embarrassing.¡± ¡°Okay, then I¡¯ll just say the experts took several days.¡± ¡°Actually, it¡¯s fine to add that bit. It reflects a harmonious doctor-patient relationship, right?¡± ¡°Right, I¡¯ll add that. Now you should eat your meal,¡± Li Min said. Being able to salvage the situation and save decades of reputation, the Elderly Director felt very happy and immediately began eating. The Elderly Director was originally to retire at sixty, but in a remote mountain area like Guandu Town, no one wanted to stay, so the health bureau had to rehire the Elderly Director. Consequently, he continued serving as the acting director, a role he was happy with as he had worked there for years and had grown fond of the place. In the reemployed position, he had been working for another ten years and was now over seventy years old. The Elderly Director always had a good appetite, and now that the root cause of his back pain had been removed, he was in high spirits; after finishing a boxed meal, he still felt it wasn¡¯t enough. ¡°Little Li, why is the portion size of your hospital¡¯s boxed meals so small?¡± asked the Elderly Director. Li Min looked at the empty boxed meal: ¡°What? Still not full? I thought you just had surgery and wouldn¡¯t have much of an appetite, so¡ª¡± ¡°How could I be full with such a little amount of food? City folks just can¡¯t compare; they eat so little,¡± the Elderly Director said, somewhat dissatisfied. ¡°How about another one?¡± ¡°Bring another one then.¡± Li Min immediately phoned Yu Shuilian¡¯s bakery to have another boxed meal sent over. ¡°Was the flavor of the dishes okay?¡± ¡°Indeed, the flavor was quite good.¡± After the meal, the Elderly Director began pondering the situation again. The key was how to spin the situation without any slips. He thought it best to come up with a formal draft during his hospital stay and then have Li Ming review it to make sure the young man was fully briefed. ¡°Little Li, your technique with the seal needle is really high-level. Teach me when you have time?¡± At his age, the Elderly Director had no chance to learn surgery, but learning how to administer a seal needle was feasible, especially since it was very practical in grassroots hospitals for providing immediate pain relief. ¡°I know how to do it, and that¡¯s enough. Once I finish my advanced studies and return, you just relax, drink tea, gossip, and enjoy your retirement. Why would you need to administer any seal needles? Your eyesight isn¡¯t good and your hands aren¡¯t steady. If the needle goes in askew or too deep, that could cause trouble. After all, the buttocks are full of blood vessels,¡± Li Min said casually, as this was his usual bantering tone with the Elderly Director. ¡°You¡¯re still holding back, huh?¡± the Elderly Director said, displeased. ¡°I¡¯m telling the truth. When I return, do you think you¡¯ll still be the director? I want to be the director! I¡¯ve had my eye on your position for a long time,¡± Li Min stated seriously. The Elderly Director sighed, ¡°If that¡¯s the case, I¡¯d be happy. I¡¯ve mentioned it to the organization several times, but they always turned it down due to your experience. After this training period, you should perform a few surgeries to showcase your abilities, then they will have nothing to say, and I can truly retire.¡± Since Li Min had said as much, it suggested that the young man had no immediate plans to leave. That was both good and bad: good because the mountain area would have a competent doctor, but not so good because it made him feel that he owed something to Li Ming. Chapter 1136 - 1136 909 Establishing Authority ?Chapter 1136: Chapter 909: Establishing Authority Chapter 1136: Chapter 909: Establishing Authority After his surgery, Yang Ping went to check on the Elderly Director, who was already able to walk around. Yang Ping conducted a physical examination and found that the muscle strength and sensation in both lower limbs were normal, indicating that there was no rebound edema after the nerve root was released from compression. There are many causes of sciatic nerve pain, with lumbar disc herniation being the most common. Other causes include tumors in the vertebral canal or the sciatic nerve itself, compression of the sciatic nerve at the piriformis muscle, sciatic neuritis, herpes virus infection, and so on. The Elderly Director had a neurinoma at lumbar 5 nerve root, which is mostly benign. The tumor removed during the surgery appeared to have a complete capsule, which also matched the characteristics of a benign tumor, but the final diagnosis still relied on pathology. Because lumbar disc herniation is the most common cause of sciatic nerve pain, the Elderly Director didn¡¯t pay attention and didn¡¯t go to a better hospital for examinations, leading to a misdiagnosis. ¡°Where exactly is my lumbar disc herniated?¡± With an MRI scan in his hands, the Elderly Director, unable to interpret it himself, had to ask Li Min. Li Min pointed out, ¡°You see here, there is indeed a mild herniation between lumbar 4/5 and lumbar 5/sacral 1 discs, but it¡¯s very mild and wouldn¡¯t cause symptoms. Look, now that the neurinoma has been resected, all symptoms have disappeared, so this lumbar disc herniation didn¡¯t actually cause any symptoms.¡± ¡±So does that mean I also have lumbar disc herniation, just combined with a neurinoma?¡± the Elderly Director wondered to himself. ¡°You have lumbar disc herniation, but you don¡¯t have lumbar disc herniation syndrome, those are two different things.¡± Li Min now had a very solid understanding of these common illnesses. Lumbar disc herniation and lumbar disc herniation syndrome are two different concepts. Lumbar disc herniation is merely a radiological finding, not a disease. Patients can see the herniation in an MRI or CT scan, but without associated symptoms. If there is disc herniation in radiology and the patient also has symptoms of back pain or leg pain, it is then called lumbar disc herniation syndrome, and it is considered a disease. Lumbar disc herniation doesn¡¯t need treatment, but lumbar disc herniation syndrome does. The symptoms of this condition can include back pain or leg pain, where leg pain usually manifests as radiating pain from the buttocks down the limbs, the extent of which depends on the severity of the condition. Back pain is caused by the disc itself, triggered when the sinuvertebral nerve inside the lumbar disc gets irritated. After the lumbar disc herniates, the annulus fibrosus ruptures and the nucleus pulposus protrudes, leading to local stress changes and an inflammatory response. Both mechanical pressure and inflammatory mediators stimulate the sinuvertebral nerves causing back pain. Leg pain occurs when the spinal nerve root is compressed or stimulated, causing pain and numbness in the nerves that continue down the leg. The common mention of lower back and leg pain refers to these symptoms. There have been a few reports worldwide that the protruded nucleus pulposus of a herniated disc can be naturally absorbed by the body. This is medically feasible because once the nucleus pulposus strays from its normal location, the body treats it as a foreign substance to be cleared by immune cells. However, these are just isolated reports and cannot be considered routine. Therefore, if lumbar disc herniation syndrome is diagnosed, it definitely requires treatment. Conservative treatment should be tried first, as in most cases it occurs in episodes of attack and remission. It is not continuously problematic, especially in the early stages of the illness, where remission periods could be very long, even several years between episodes. In such cases, no surgery is necessary. During episodes, oral non-steroid anti-inflammatory and neurotrophic drugs for symptomatic treatment along with strength training of the back muscles during remission can stabilize the lumbar spine. It should be clear that the target of treatment is the symptoms, not the protruded disc. The disc remains herniated even after symptoms disappear; it stays the way it is, and that¡¯s fine. It is impossible to expect the disc to return to its original state. If the symptoms are severe and persistent, and conservative treatment has been ineffective for over three months, impacting life and work, surgery may be considered. Surgeons should perform the smallest possible procedure, and if instability of the spinal segments is not an issue, they should ideally only remove the herniated nucleus pulposus and avoid segmental fixation with screws. Young adults and middle-aged people, without any congenital instability of the spine, generally do not have spinal instability. Therefore, they only need a simple removal of the nucleus pulposus without screws or fixation. Surgery should be as minimally invasive as possible; if not feasible, an open surgery is also fine. If the condition allows for minimally invasive surgery, the choice between open surgery and minimally invasive surgery depends on the surgeon¡¯s skill level, with a skilled open surgery often being much better than a suboptimal minimally invasive one. Back pain, if not caused by common diseases, is easily misdiagnosed, because it¡¯s usually confined to either orthopedic spinal clinics or urological surgery, and the doctors there, whether specialists or general practitioners, are surgeons skilled in performing surgeries, with very little knowledge beyond surgery, especially when facing complex diseases, and lack the capability of internal doctors who methodically make diagnoses. Listening to Li Min explain so logically, the Elderly Director felt very pleased, realizing the young man had indeed learned a lot. Seeing how well he had recovered after the surgery, the Elderly Director began to arrange his discharge. Yang Ping advised him to wait until his stitches were removed, assuring him there was no rush since the hospital was well-staffed to cover for them. Chapter 1137 - 1137 909 Establishing Authority_2 ?Chapter 1137: Chapter 909: Establishing Authority_2 Chapter 1137: Chapter 909: Establishing Authority_2 Li Guodong was currently enjoying his time at Guandu Hospital, where, at his current level, he could easily handle the operations of Guandu Hospital. Not just Guandu Hospital, even at Beiqiao County People¡¯s Hospital, he would feel no pressure being a Department Director. Guandu Hospital had only a dozen doctors, and its various conditions were rather poor. However, during several poverty alleviation processes, it obtained some old equipment, such as high-end X-ray machines, surface ultrasound machines, and so on. There was even an old C-Arm machine. It was equipment phased out by a superior hospital during poverty alleviation years ago. The machine was still 80% new and didn¡¯t require repairs before use. It was only during fracture manipulation that the doctors at Guandu Hospital would need to use this machine. In fact, what Guandu Town currently lacked wasn¡¯t basic equipment but talent. Without good talent, these pieces of equipment couldn¡¯t be fully utilized. Some remote mountain area hospitals received a lot of decent equipment during poverty alleviation efforts, but many were left unused in storage because they lacked relevant talent, rendering the machinery nothing but scrap metal without skilled users. Li Min learned a comprehensive range of skills here, including routine surgeries from various departments as well as reading X-rays, MRI, and CT images, analyzing various examination results, manual reduction of fractures, local block, various hemostasis techniques, and so on. These skills were very beneficial for him to carry out work in grassroots hospitals. The Elderly Director, upon listening to Li Min¡¯s introduction, was astounded by how quickly the younger doctor¡¯s skills had improved. If he wasn¡¯t exaggerating, his capabilities had certainly surpassed the standard of a Department Director at the county hospital, in fact, they might even be higher. Hearing that Li Min¡¯s Elderly Director was hospitalized for surgery at Sanbo Hospital, Dean Xia made time to visit the Elderly Director bringing a fruit basket as a token of respect for his senior. The Elderly Director was all smiles; he knew that he was basking in the reflected glory of Little Li, who was recognized as the best village doctor nationwide and a good physician of China, which was why everyone paid extra attention to him. When deans met each other, it was especially cordial. Toward the elder, Dean Xia expressed great care and concern, while the Elderly Director faced everyone with calm and composure. Dean Xia said, ¡°Elderly Director, you¡¯re really in robust health. We should learn from you.¡± The Elderly Director was unimpressed, ¡°With fifty years of daily weight-bearing cross-country marathons, how could I not be in good health?¡± Everyone thought about it and seemed to agree. Village doctors often had to carry medicine boxes over mountains and through valleys. Once they understood this, they couldn¡¯t help but burst into laughter. In the course of one conversation, the Elderly Director kept delivering witty remarks. The key was that no matter what the Elderly Director said, others would laugh until their bellies hurt, yet he himself would not even crack a smile, and remained utterly serious. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang¡¯s inspection tour in Europe was drawing to a close. Europe was very fragmented with many large and small countries, and traveling overseas in Europe was similar to leaving the county or province for us. Moreover, their aviation transportation was quite developed, so in half a month, they managed to visit many countries. They almost swept through all of the famous medical universities, hospitals, and laboratories on the European continent, and the inspection reports they recorded were enough to fill a thick book. After completing the continental European inspection, accompanied by August and Manstein, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang began crossing the English Channel to inspect the United Kingdom. Huang Jiacai and Gan Fengyi each led their teams to participate in the European Spinal Surgery Conference. Upon its conclusion, Huang Jiacai stayed in Europe to inspect several renowned European pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies, while Gan Fengyi was notified to return to China due to significant personnel changes in the company. ¡ª Yang Ping¡¯s clinical research and daily duties were not impacted at all. Besides the normal surgery hours, he made use of whatever spare time he had to conduct experiments in the System Space Laboratory. In the System Space Laboratory, Yang Ping had three experiments running concurrently. Research on tumor cell apoptosis, study on the mechanism of skin expansion, and further research on spatial orientation genes of organs¡ªno topic was left untouched. New progress was made in the study of tumor cell apoptosis with the unexpected discovery of the protein molecule K factor. After conducting a structural analysis, Yang Ping found that this molecule was actually a small dimeric molecule. From studies on the apoptosis mechanism of Sisi¡¯s osteosarcoma tumor cells, it could be seen that dimeric small molecules could activate silent gene expression inside tumor cells. In function, these molecules could be considered reverse-transcriptase-like epigenetic proximity inducers. When initiating apoptosis, it could mobilize the expression of hundreds of genes and first unlock the original tumor cells¡¯ inhibition of apoptosis before starting the apoptotic program. As a result, the tumor cells were once again exposed to the shadow of ¡°apoptosis,¡± leading to a massive die-off. The process of tumor cell apoptosis seemed to be extremely complex, and Yang Ping needed to conduct further research. If it were possible to replicate this dimeric small molecule, then the process of ¡°killing¡± tumor cells could be repeated. With current biotechnology, replicating a dimeric molecule was entirely feasible. The convenience of the System Laboratory was unmatched by that of real-world laboratories. Yang Ping immediately began purchasing various equipment on the System Panel using points. He planned to artificially manufacture the K factor to continue the subsequent research. The upcoming research required even more micro-level image collection. Not only photographs were needed, but also video footage at the molecular level. Only then could the entire mechanism of action of the K factor be thoroughly understood. Chapter 1138 - 1138 909 Establishing Authority_3 ?Chapter 1138: Chapter 909: Establishing Authority_3 Chapter 1138: Chapter 909: Establishing Authority_3 In order to assist with the experiment, Yang Ping began to upgrade the laboratory¡¯s electron microscope, adding a new 4D camera that could capture atomic-level videos. The electron microscope is a major advancement in the field of human research. Utilizing electrons as imaging tools, it breaks through the limitations of optical microscopes and provides a new visual perspective into the nanoworld. Without electron microscopes, humans¡¯ observation of the microscopic world would be hindered at 200 nanometers, unable to advance further. The electron microscope in the System Space Laboratory of Yang Ping is top-of-the-line, equipped with a special electron detector. Traditional electron microscopes only capture part of the information when electrons interact with targets, but this microscope, equipped with a special electron detector, captures all the information during the interaction, obtaining more comprehensive data. If the process of the K-factor initiating the apoptosis of tumor cells was captured and then analyzed by Yang Ping, he would certainly be able to thoroughly understand the mechanism¡ªhow it releases the apoptosis program and how it initiates the apoptosis program. Whether purchasing experimental equipment or upgrading existing devices, the actions are completed in an instant, merely deducting some points. Director Fang from the General Surgery Department hurried to the Surgical Research Institute with two bags of cherries. He was there to see Yang Ping. That morning, during his outpatient session, he treated a case of liver hydatid disease that required an ex-vivo liver resection and autologous liver transplant. This surgery was originally extremely difficult. But Director Fang had already experienced an abdominal organ cluster ex-vivo resection and autotransplantation, and he had been the chief surgeon under the guidance of Yang Ping, so he was not afraid of such surgeries. However, he knew his skills were not yet perfect, so he must have Yang Ping to safeguard the operation. Last time, the abdominal organ cluster transplant he conducted was presented at an academic conference, drawing admiring looks. An abdominal cluster organ transplant is much more difficult than a standalone autologous liver transplant. Director Fang left one box of cherries at the nurse station and was about to take the other box to the doctor¡¯s office when the office nurse took out her cellphone to answer a call, apparently from her family. Director Fang finally caught the opportunity to establish authority. He would always bring at least two boxes of cherries, while Gao Yuan often came empty-handed yet was still more popular with the nurses. Old Fang had finally seen through the reason a while ago. Gao Yuan knew how to assert authority. He caught an opportunity to scold a nurse, and now Fang finally had his chance. ¡°What¡¯s this? It¡¯s working hours. What are you doing taking calls? Can¡¯t you see it¡¯s busy now? Can¡¯t it wait until after work? Let the head nurse give her a proper lesson.¡± Director Fang, using the authority he held in his own department, sternly reprimanded the nurse. The nurse put down her phone, completely baffled, as if to say internally, ¡°Are you talking to me?¡± ¡°What are you staring at? I¡¯m talking about you.¡± Director Fang gave no quarter, acting just as Gao Yuan had when establishing authority before. He knew how to handle these young ladies at the Surgical Research Institute. ¡°Who are you looking for? Did you register at the door?¡± the office nurse asked Director Fang. ¡±I¡¯m looking for Professor Yang.¡± ¡±Did you make an appointment in advance?¡± ¡°Yes, I made an appointment in advance!¡± ¡°You need to register with the security at the entrance. I¡¯ll check with Professor Yang. Only after Professor Yang confirms can you go in; those are the rules of our department.¡± ¡°You have such rules?¡± Director Fang walked back to the entrance to register with the security there. The security guard confirmed, ¡°Indeed, that¡¯s the rule.¡± Just then, Director Gao entered, striding boldly into the ward area. He doesn¡¯t sign in, but I have to? These young girls, they¡¯re turning things upside down. I haven¡¯t established authority yet. Chapter 1139 - 1139 910 Recurrence ?Chapter 1139: Chapter 910 Recurrence Chapter 1139: Chapter 910 Recurrence The office nurse had just been scolded inexplicably by Director Fang, but seeing the disheveled look of Director Fang now, her anger had subsided by half. If it weren¡¯t for the sake of that box of cherries, she wouldn¡¯t have let him into the Surgical Research Institute today. Director Fang took out his ID card for the security to register, and the nurse actually confirmed with Professor Yang before letting Director Fang in to see him, treating him completely like a stranger. Old Fang was anxious to consult with Yang Ping and didn¡¯t bother to argue with the young girls, but these girls were really too bullying. In the office of the director, Yang Ping, Director Fang couldn¡¯t wait to take out the CT scans from the paper bag he was carrying, and inserted them into the lightbox, ¡°Severe liver hydatid disease, it¡¯s quite rare nowadays, transferred from a county hospital below, the condition isn¡¯t good, I estimate it has already turned into septicemia.¡± Yang Ping approached the lightbox and carefully examined the CT scans brought by Director Fang. The range of echinococcosis was very extensive, affecting both the thoracic and abdominal cavities. This case must undergo an ex-vivo liver resection and autologous liver transplant, there¡¯s no other way. Ever since that abdominal organ cluster transplant surgery, Director Fang had been highly praised in the latest academic conferences, although it was also the first organ cluster transplant surgery in Asia used to treat autoimmune intestinal leiomyitis. The most top-level surgery in the General Surgery Department, the first one in Asia, this prestigious reputation quickly spread Director Fang¡¯s fame within the circle. This liver hydatid disease patient was originally from the province¡¯s People¡¯s Hospital. Initially, the county hospital below contacted the General Surgery department¡¯s Director Qin Zeqing at the provincial hospital. Upon seeing the CT scans, Director Qin found the case complex, requiring ex-vivo liver resection and autologous liver transplant, tasks he could not handle himself. Not long ago, Director Qin attended a small academic conference within the province and heard an academic report presented by Director Fang. He thought immediately that since Director Fang at Sanbo Hospital could perform the abdominal organ cluster transplant, this kind of ex-vivo liver resection and autologous liver transplant should be easy for him. Thus, he called Director Fang and referred the patient to Sanbo Hospital. Director Qin made it clear, ¡°The patient¡¯s mental state is very poor, he could go into septic shock-induced coma anytime and be admitted to the ICU, making the surgery extremely difficult and highly risky.¡± Old Fang immediately said, ¡°Send him over! No need to hesitate.¡± Assertive, Sanbo Hospital was truly living up to its name, Director Qin had heard that Sanbo Hospital was developing rapidly, but he did not expect the General Surgery Department to be developing so fast that it could confidently tackle such complex and high-risk cases. Yang Ping still had many things to do, so for now, he could only briefly look at the CT scans. The CT scans displayed a large number of round and near-round cystic shadows covering a wide area, showing the characteristic images of the mother-child cyst, with echinococcosis not only invading most of the liver but also getting into the abdominal cavity, breaking through diaphragm into the thoracic cavity, with some of the cysts having ruptured and already caused an infection. ¡°Keep in mind the possibility of septicemia anytime; arrange the surgery as soon as possible, and let me know once the surgery time is set.¡± Yang Ping asked Director Fang to put away the X-rays. Since Yang Ping was very busy, it was inconvenient for Director Fang to stay long, so he left carrying a bag of CT scans. Director Gao had come because he received important news that Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were returning tonight, accompanied by August and Manstein. Zhang Lin and Little Five were on the operating table, and Professor Yang was not good at dealing with these trivial matters, nor was it convenient for him to leave the department, so Director Gao had specially come to handle these trivial tasks, like sending a car to the airport to pick them up, arranging hotels, organizing night snacks, and later Director Gao would personally follow the car to the airport to pick them up. August and Robert were once roommates, and Director Gao and Robert were close friends, often going out together for kebabs and beer, inevitably inviting August along, so Director Gao was also well acquainted with August. Moreover, Manstein was a globally renowned Nobel laureate, and it wouldn¡¯t be bad to make a friend during this opportunity. ¡°Professor, Zhang Lin and Little Five¡¯s surgery isn¡¯t over yet, you focus on your work, leave the rest to me. I¡¯ve already arranged a special car to go to the airport, I¡¯m heading there now, and I¡¯ve also arranged their accommodation and place for night snacks tonight. The accommodation is at the best suite in the Sanbo Hotel, and the place for night snacks is in a private room at Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish.¡± Director Gao fully considered himself a part of Yang Ping¡¯s team, treating nothing as off-limits. Yang Ping had just been thinking about these matters. When Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were in Europe, August and Manstein had been well taken care of in a clear and polite manner. Since they were coming to China, they should be well entertained. He hadn¡¯t expected that Old Gao had already arranged everything perfectly, leaving him with nothing to worry about. ¡°Then I appreciate your hard work, I need to go to the operating room to check on things,¡± Yang Ping felt very reassured by Director Gao. Director Gao pretended to be slightly annoyed, ¡°Professor, what are you saying? It¡¯s no trouble for me at all; these things are exactly what I should be doing. Go ahead with your work, I¡¯m heading to the airport now.¡± With that, Old Gao immediately called the hospital¡¯s business car driver, ready to leave. The purpose of Manstein¡¯s visit was to further understand Yang Ping¡¯s experiments, and he wanted to personally come over and obtain the initiator factor of the Spatial Orientation Gene to replicate Yang Ping¡¯s experiment. Without this protein factor, the Spatial Orientation Gene could not be activated, and even knowing which segment is the Spatial Orientation Gene would be useless. If they could find the spinal cord¡¯s Spatial Orientation Factor and slightly modify it through research, it could become a powerful tool for spinal cord injury repair, achieving his long-sought ¡°original cell repair.¡± Chapter 1140 - 1140 910 Recurrence_2 ?Chapter 1140: Chapter 910 Recurrence_2 Chapter 1140: Chapter 910 Recurrence_2 The visit of a Nobel Prize laureate would usually be a grand occasion in any hospital, with a significant welcome ceremony and the hospital¡¯s Dean providing personal accompaniment. However, this time it was different; things were kept simple, as Professor Manstein was visiting privately as a friend of Professor Yang Ping. Professor Manstein also saw himself merely as a pen pal and admirer of Professor Yang, never flaunting his status as a Nobel Prize winner. For August, it was simply a return visit to his alma mater, so everyone behaved very casually. When they returned to the hospital, it was already past ten at night. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had been worried about their department running smoothly. But, on enquiring in the ward, they were surprised to find that Teacher Zhang and Teacher Xiao Wu were still performing surgery; these two fellows were really making something of themselves, being so diligent and still working at this hour. It seemed that all the scolding they had endured was not in vain. At night, after Zhang Lin and Little Five¡¯s surgery was finished, Professor Yang enjoyed some late-night snacks with everyone. Professor Manstein was especially happy to see Professor Yang, not expecting him to be so young, younger even than himself at the height of his worldwide fame. ¡ª The following morning, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang started work and officially returned to the team. Professor Manstein and August also attended the morning shift change. During the morning handover, Little Five and Zhang Lin were accustomed to taking the seats of Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, but realizing their superiors were back, they quickly vacated their spots and respectfully returned to their own, allowing their senior doctors to sit. After the handover was complete, everyone split into groups to make the rounds. Professor Yang saw Sisi at the nurse¡¯s station. Song Zimo reminded Professor Yang, ¡°Sisi is here for a follow-up today.¡± Almost forgetting about it, Professor Yang greeted Sisi with the team. Sisi was very well-behaved, refraining from calling him ¡°Big Brother¡± in public and instead saying, ¡°Good morning, Professor Yang!¡± The little girl had grown significantly taller, her hair tied into a ponytail behind her head, appearing denser and darker, with more luster than before. Her jet-black eyes also sparkled brightly, and since she hadn¡¯t undergone radiation or chemotherapy, her complexion had greatly improved, showing the distinctive rosy cheeks of a young teenage girl. The bone elongation device on her leg had been removed. After a period of walking with the help of crutches, Sisi could now walk normally. Since she needed several tests done, Sisi would be staying in the hospital for a few days. Her father had already moved some luggage to the ward, and her mother was waiting for a nurse to take her temperature and weight. Sisi was now attending a public elementary school near the hospital and was in the fifth grade. ¡°We¡¯re going to see patients now but will come to see you afterward.¡± Professor Yang went to make his rounds. ¡°Sisi, you haven¡¯t had breakfast yet, have you? I¡¯ll issue your medical orders now, and you can go get the tests done.¡± Tang Fei personally took on the role of Sisi¡¯s physician in charge. ¡°The tests will be quick. I¡¯ve already arranged for you to use the fast track,¡± Song Zimo said to Sisi. Once the nurse finished measuring vital signs and weight, Sisi¡¯s mother took her to the ward. Sisi, carrying the cactus pot, followed behind, smiling and saying goodbye to everyone. Entering the ward, she still placed the cactus on the windowsill. The cactus looked plump and fresh green, evidently well-cared for by her. Sisi was particularly fond of the cactus because of its hardiness, its ability to survive in harsh desert environments. The little girl was particularly self-reliant, not needing her mother¡¯s involvement; she neatly arranged her belongings on her own. Soon, her things were all in perfect order. Books and homework she brought were neatly placed in the bedside table, slippers were neatly arranged by the bed, and folded clothes had been neatly stored in her cabinet. Toothbrush and toothpaste were placed in the washroom, again all neatly arranged, which was very pleasing to the eye. The Head Nurse had given Sisi¡¯s mother a few days off, and the Director of the Security Room at the Surgical Research Institute, Dashun, had also given her father a few days off so that the couple could stay with their child with peace of mind. Sisi needed regular follow-ups because her osteosarcoma had metastasized, and it was only a matter of time before a recheck was needed. Regular follow-ups were dynamic monitoring for the recurrence of the tumor, with measures taken as soon as a recurrence began. The family was now very happy. Both parents worked at Sanbo Hospital, their daughter¡¯s condition was under control, and she was attending a nearby elementary school ¨C all thanks to Yang Ping and the doctors at the Surgical Research Institute. Yang Ping had helped arrange their jobs, and Song Zimo had handled the matter of Sisi¡¯s schooling. Therefore, Sisi¡¯s parents were extremely grateful to Yang Ping, the Surgical Research Institute, and Sanbo Hospital, working diligently as if they were serving their own family. Sisi¡¯s examination included many tests: there were blood tests, surface ultrasound, and MRI examinations. To minimize Sisi¡¯s ionizing radiation, Yang Ping postponed X-ray and similar tests, opting for surface ultrasound and MRI results first. If these tests indicated a problem requiring further investigation, then Yang Ping would resort to CT, bone scans, and even PET-CT. There was no other choice. After undergoing extensive radiation and chemotherapy, Sisi¡¯s immune system had been severely compromised, and it was only now beginning to recover somewhat. Yang Ping could only do so much to preserve what little immunity she had left. When the test results came out, Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, August, and Professor Manstein gathered around the light box. The tumor had recurred! Abnormal signals were detected in the liver and lung, signs of tumor recurrence. The faces of Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were solemn. Yang Ping narrowed his eyes and said nothing; August knew that this patient was Professor Yang¡¯s number one patient, and even Professor Manstein could do nothing. This was a malignant tumor, one of the unsolved challenges of human medicine, and it had already metastasized. In this situation, chemotherapy and various radiation therapies were out of the question for Yang Ping. Osteosarcoma had no suitable targeted drugs; so targeted therapy was not an option ¨C a conclusion that had already been reached after much consideration. The only viable option left was the Gamma Knife, which utilizes ultrasound. Its biggest advantage was the absence of ionizing radiation. However, the Gamma Knife was not a cure-all; not only was it challenging to focus accurately, but the heat generated during focusing would, more or less, cause collateral damage to normal cells. Whether tumor cells or normal cells, those treated by the Gamma Knife would be killed by the heat and gradually absorbed, leaving cavities mostly filled by scar tissue. If done repeatedly, over time, scarring would lead to organ scarring, followed by organ failure. Of course, this wouldn¡¯t happen immediately; it would take a very long time, especially in children who are still growing and have strong regenerative abilities, the process would be slower. But it was ultimately palliative care, unable to cure the disease. Professor Manstein flipped through the medical records in his hands and was no longer baffled by the Chinese documentation ¨C a genius with high intelligence could easily grasp the language if they wished to learn. He had begun to appreciate August¡¯s understanding of Chinese, which was difficult initially but easier later on. Manstein had already mastered over four thousand Chinese characters in reading, writing, meaning, and word formation. He could almost read most Chinese books without any barriers and was actively working towards six thousand to eight thousand characters. Once you master over four thousand Chinese characters, it¡¯s almost a permanent achievement. There are always those same characters over and over again. As for the meanings of new words, as long as you read and learn them once, they are hard to forget, unlike in English, where expanding vocabulary is a lifetime endeavor. Professor Manstein was surprised after reviewing the medical records. The little girl¡¯s condition used to be much worse than now, with metastasis to the liver and lungs. Not only had Professor Yang performed bone elongation to restore normal limb function, but the primary tumor and the tumors in the liver and lungs were also eradicated, with no signs of tumors in the post-operative checkup at the time. The device used employed energy focused through ultrasound, not X-rays or any kind of particle beams. Professor Manstein had some understanding of this treatment technique as he read a wide range of medical journals, despite not having an in-depth knowledge. Chapter 1141 - 1141 911 Thanks Big Brother for Lending a ?Chapter 1141: Chapter 911 Thanks Big Brother for Lending a Hand Chapter 1141: Chapter 911 Thanks Big Brother for Lending a Hand The doctors gathered around the lightbox analyzing Sisi¡¯s condition are all world-class physicians. However, at this moment, the resurgence and metastasis of Sisi¡¯s tumor had plunged everyone into silence, for tumors are the formidable enemy of human medicine. Song Zimo took a deep breath and said, ¡°It seems we need to carry out a full body examination to see whether there is metastasis in the head or other parts. If there is metastasis in the head, that would be troublesome.¡± The head is different from the abdomen, which lacks a bony ¡®shield¡¯ and can be treated with Gamma Knife¡¯s focused ultrasound. The head is protected by the skull, and ultrasound cannot penetrate the bone, let alone the head. Even treating lung tumors in the chest with the Gamma Knife, as Yang Ping did for Sisi, is a clever workaround, allowing the ultrasound to enter the thoracic cavity through the intercostal spaces. ¡°Let¡¯s proceed with the examination, and once it is complete, we¡¯ll determine the treatment plan,¡± Yang Ping said, refraining from making any treatment suggestions for the time being. Osteosarcoma has no effective targeted drugs, and although many are in use, none are showing good results. Such as epidermal growth factor receptor blockers, specific cell marker monoclonal antibodies, certain small molecule compounds, anti-tumor angiogenesis inhibitors, and so on¡ªthere are drugs used for osteosarcoma, but none shows significant effects. The use of the Gamma Knife is also not unlimited. Its focused ultrasound essentially uses thermal energy to kill tumor cells, which can easily cause burns to normal tissue and is not good at targeting the specific lesion. Previously, when Director Duan Xiaoming used the Gamma Knife for uterine fibroids, the results were not good, with complications occurring frequently, either incomplete treatment of the fibroids or thermal injury to adjacent tissues. Director Duan gradually became an expert in using the Gamma Knife, especially for treating uterine fibroids, only after learning some clever techniques from Yang Ping. ¡°I am researching a new type of targeted drug; its mechanism is completely different from previous targeted drugs, but it only has some effect on liver cancer and unfortunately does not work on osteosarcoma,¡± Professor Manstein lamented over this conundrum. He was indeed studying a brand-new targeted drug, and although it was also called a targeted drug, its mechanism completely differed from current ones. Inspired by the hepatitis B virus¡¯s preference for stem cells, Professor Manstein modified the virus to specifically target liver cancer cells and be harmless to liver cells. By using this modified virus as a carrier to deliver cancer-killing drugs directly to liver cancer cells, he managed to achieve good results in animal experiments. Yang Ping was considering whether it was time to move his K factor into clinical trials ahead of schedule. Since these trials would be initially based on Sisi¡¯s tumor cells, starting with her for human trials seemed logical. However, all current experiments have been in vitro. Yang Ping planned to simplify the experimental procedure by directly conducting human trials in the System Space Laboratory to see if the K factor was effective and to assess any potential harm to the human body. Science is rigorous, from the discovery of new medical mechanisms to the design of drugs utilizing these mechanisms; it is a long process that can take decades and might fail at any point. Why are the new drugs from international pharmaceutical giants so expensive? Because developing a new drug requires huge investments of human, financial, and temporal resources, and it could all end up being for nothing. Considering the current success rates of drug development, thousands or even tens of thousands of experimental drugs might yield only one that successfully enters clinical use. Whether acknowledged or not, people inevitably seek profit. Without the incentive of substantial profits, no pharmaceutical company would conduct new drug research. If everyone were to duplicate existing formulas, who would be the innovator? Eventually, there would be no one. Tang Shun¡¯s laboratory has already started researching tumor apoptosis and is making rapid progress, mainly because the experimental plan was a successful version that Yang Ping had refined through extensive trial and error. It would be hard not to succeed. The trial and error was left to the System Space Laboratory, so the protocol brought to the tangible laboratory was already error-free, which is why Tang Shun always considered Yang Ping a genius. In scientific research, avoiding detours is something only Professor Yang can achieve worldwide. After reviewing Sisi¡¯s examination results, Song Zimo took Professor Manstein and August for a tour of the laboratory. Director Zhou of the Department of Science and Education was so excited to learn that Nobel Prize laureate Professor Manstein had arrived at Sanbo Hospital that he trembled with the teacup in his hand. It wasn¡¯t just Sanbo Hospital; few top hospitals across the country could boast a visit from a Nobel Prize laureate. Eager to confirm this, Director Zhou went alone to gather intel. At the moment, Professor Manstein was touring the Stem Cell Laboratory, with Director Zhou discreetly tailing the group. Since all foreigners looked more or less the same to him, and he didn¡¯t recognize Professor Manstein, he could only rely on online photos to make a rough identification, but even that didn¡¯t help much. He pulled Song Zimo aside, to Song Zimo¡¯s surprise, as he hadn¡¯t even realized when Director Zhou had joined their group. ¡°I heard that Nobel Prize winner Professor Manstein has come to our hospital?¡± Song Zimo covertly pointed and said, ¡°That¡¯s him, what about it?¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell us in advance? We could have arranged the reception work ahead of time,¡± Director Zhou said somewhat irritated. Song Zimo replied, ¡°He¡¯s just our friend, visiting us in a private capacity for fun. We can handle it privately.¡± Chapter 1142 - 1142 911 Thanks Big Brother for Lending a ?Chapter 1142: Chapter 911 Thanks Big Brother for Lending a Hand_2 Chapter 1142: Chapter 911 Thanks Big Brother for Lending a Hand_2 What do you mean it¡¯s fine if you handle it privately? Is this a matter concerning only you? Director Zhou rushed out of the Stem Cell Laboratory and immediately called Dean Xia to report. Dean Xia responded indifferently, ¡°He¡¯s Professor Yang¡¯s personal friend. Professor Yang hasn¡¯t suggested that the hospital should officially receive him, so what are you anxious about?¡± ¡°Of course I¡¯m anxious, Professor Yang¡¯s achievement with the spatial orientation gene is Nobel Prize level. The Nobel Prize needs heavy-weight recommenders, and right now, Manstein is visiting our hospital. If we take the opportunity to approach him and ask him to be Professor Yang¡¯s recommender, wouldn¡¯t that be great?¡± It turned out that Director Zhou had this in mind. The Nobel Prize? Dean Xia immediately became invigorated. Had it not been for Director Zhou¡¯s reminder, he wouldn¡¯t have thought of this. Director Zhou, who managed scientific research, was more knowledgeable about these things. To have the chance to be associated with the Nobel Prize during his tenure as the dean? It seemed his own career ceiling was getting higher and higher, all thanks to that youngster, Yang Ping. ¡°Hold on, I¡¯ll communicate with Professor Yang first before we proceed. Don¡¯t act rashly.¡± Dean Xia gave his instructions on the spot. About fifteen minutes later, Dean Xia called back Director Zhou, ¡°Go back to your office and have some tea; don¡¯t get involved in this matter. Do you know why Manstein came to our hospital?¡± ¡°Why?¡± How would Director Zhou know? Who should he ask? ¡°The purpose of Manstein¡¯s visit is to discuss with Professor Yang about recommending him for the Nobel Prize. He¡¯s even worried that Professor Yang won¡¯t agree, so he came personally to talk to Professor Yang face-to-face. Professor Yang is currently considering whether or not to participate in the Nobel Prize selection process,¡± said Dean Xia slowly. Is that something someone would say? Consider whether or not to participate in the Nobel Prize selection process? After listening to Dean Xia¡¯s phone call, Director Zhou was completely thunderstruck. So it turned out that there was such good fortune. A heavyweight like Manstein was reversing roles, asking to be a recommender for Yang Ping¡¯s Nobel Prize, and Yang Ping was still considering it? Why don¡¯t such things happen to me? When I was young, my goal was to become an Academician. By high school, I lowered my sights to just getting into a top university. At university, I just hoped not to fail and to get into graduate school. After graduation, well, a job with a stable and decent income would do. As for now, I occasionally think that if I could serve a few years as a dean, my life would be complete. Unfortunately, even being dean is out of reach, and being the Head of the Department of Science and Education is as far as I¡¯ll get in this life. If I could be involved in the recommendation of Professor Yang¡¯s scientific achievements for the Nobel Prize, then my life might have a bit more luster. So, Professor Yang¡¯s Nobel Prize has nothing to do with me? No, how can that be okay? After all, Professor Yang is a doctor at Sanbo Hospital, and I¡¯m the Head of the Department of Science and Education at Sanbo Hospital. How can it be okay if I¡¯m not involved in this matter at all? It seems I still need to seize the opportunity, volunteer proactively, and try to be involved in Professor Yang¡¯s participation in the Nobel Prize. If one day Professor Yang really wins the prize, at least I would be a participant, and I could brag to my grandson about it after retirement. ¡°I think¡ª¡± Director Zhou prepared to move Dean Xia with emotion and reason. ¡°Let¡¯s wait and see. In any case, we are the servants,¡± replied Dean Xia before hanging up the phone. Having contemplated, Director Zhou had no choice but to go and talk to Director Han. Director Han was living like an immortal these days. He carried the title of senior director in orthopedics without having to manage anything, leaving it all to Tan Boyun. In the Overseas Chinese Building¡¯s Orthopedics Department, there was Tian Yuan, and even the Surgical Research Institute was just a title for him, initially setup to facilitate Yang Ping¡¯s Ph.D. studies. Because of having a Ph.D. student like Yang Ping, Director Han, whom even Dean Xia would stop to greet when seeing him, was revered at any academic conference and seated in the front row like a lord. For the recent Spinal Surgery conference in Europe, he didn¡¯t even want to go, complaining about the hassle of receiving prominent receptions. It was just Director Zhou who lacked significance; he had no major accomplishments. When Director Zhou arrived, Director Han was in his office, sipping tea and listening to Peking opera, and so the two of them started to chat over tea. Back when Sanbo Hospital was founded, the three Ph.Ds.¡ªXia Changjiang is now the dean, having received an award at the People¡¯s Hall. Sanbo Hospital is thriving more than ever, with a genius like Yang Ping emerging and producing CNS papers, and possibly even winning the Nobel Prize¡ªthe dean surely made a name for himself. Now, Han Jiangong was not any less accomplished than Dean Xia. Up to now, he has only mentored one and a half Ph.D. students ¨C one is Yang Ping, and the other half is Song Zimo. With this one and a half Ph.D. students, he can walk arrogantly across the world. Alas! Me! Director Zhou couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit melancholic. ¡°What¡¯s with the sighs all of a sudden?¡± Director Han, noticing his demeanor, asked. ¡°Fate, oh fate!¡± Director Zhou almost squeezed out a few tears. Director Han took a sip of tea, ¡°Old Zhou, you made a special trip to see me for tea today, sniffling and tearful. Surely, you didn¡¯t come just to have tea? Did you encounter some difficulty?¡± ¡°Indeed!¡± ¡°I knew it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s like this, Yang Ping¡¯s research on the spatial orientation gene has the potential to win the Nobel Prize.¡± ¡°I know. If he really wins, it would only be natural.¡± ¡°Are you aware that Professor Mainshtan is visiting our hospital?¡± ¡°Yes, Xiao Yang even asked me if I wanted to have a couple of drinks with the Germans, but I didn¡¯t go.¡± ¡°Professor Mainshtan¡¯s visit is specifically to endorse Yang Ping for the Nobel Prize.¡± ¡°I¡¯m aware of that. We shouldn¡¯t get involved in the young people¡¯s affairs, what are you trying to say?¡± ¡°What I mean is¡ª¡± ¡°Are you thinking about having the hospital also participate in Xiao Yang¡¯s Nobel Prize nomination?¡± ¡°That¡¯s exactly my intention.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll see if I can say something about it.¡± ¡°Big brother, thank you for giving me a lift.¡± Professor Mainshtan, accompanied by Song Zimo, August, and Tang Shun, visited the Stem Cell Laboratory. It was hard for him to imagine, a lab like this, where one could casually enter in slippers, with just a few dozen researchers, all fresh doctoral graduates, with even the director Tang Shun being a recent Ph.D. graduate, this small group of people had managed to produce some of the world¡¯s most valuable scientific results. However, the quality of the researchers in the laboratory was indeed very high. These doctors came from top stem cell laboratories around the world, with graduates from China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, France, and so on. The laboratory¡¯s equipment was also world-class, on par with his own lab, it was just that the research team was really small, and the team members seemed quite casual. ¡°We currently have three laboratories: this is the Stem Cell Laboratory, and there are also the Oncology Research Laboratory and the Skin Expansion Laboratory. We run three experiments simultaneously,¡± Tang Shun introduced the situation of his laboratory. Because Professor Yang had instructed, they could fully open up to Professor Mainshtan for his visit. ¡°From what I understood just now, you have a very flat management structure?¡± asked Professor Mainshtan. Tang Shun nodded, ¡°Yes, we only have two levels, myself and these researchers. We believe that such a small team is more conducive to innovation. Having too many team members and more complex hierarchies only reduces efficiency and inevitably leads to rigidity. That¡¯s Professor Yang¡¯s philosophy.¡± ¡°It seems we should learn from you and consider some reforms,¡± mused Professor Mainshtan. Yang Ping came alone to see Sisi; her parents had always thought that their daughter knew nothing about her illness, but in fact, Sisi was well aware of it and simply pretended not to know. Yang Ping found an excuse to send Sisi¡¯s parents away, so he could visit Sisi¡¯s ward. To avoid disrupting Sisi¡¯s studies, the head nurse always arranged a private room for her. ¡°May I talk with you?¡± Yang Ping looked at Sisi, who was fiddling with a cactus. Sisi immediately stopped what she was doing, ¡°Is it a recurrence?¡± ¡°How do you always manage to predict it so accurately? My expression is very relaxed now. You could say my eyes gave me away last time, but this time I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything off about them,¡± Yang Ping was quite surprised. ¡°After my tests, you¡¯ve waited this long to tell me, if it was nothing, you¡¯d have told me right away. You must be thinking about what to do next,¡± Sisi said with a smile. ¡°That¡¯s exactly it. It¡¯s a recurrence, and the hospital stay will be longer this time. We need further tests.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. I¡¯ve already gone through fifth and sixth grade materials, and now I¡¯m learning middle school courses, so it¡¯s fine if I don¡¯t go to school.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry. I¡¯ll find a way for you, and I¡¯ve already got a new idea in mind.¡± ¡°I know you¡¯ll have a solution, so I¡¯m not worried at all.¡± Chapter 1143 - 1143 912 Remember Your Promise ?Chapter 1143: Chapter 912 Remember Your Promise! Chapter 1143: Chapter 912 Remember Your Promise! Looking into the little girl¡¯s eyes brimming with confidence, Yang Ping felt much comforted. Regarding Sisi¡¯s tumor, in the past, Yang Ping had only the Gamma Knife as a treatment tool, but now the K-factor he was researching might play a significant role. It could initiate the apoptosis program of Sisi¡¯s tumor cells. However, the journey from this kind of in vitro experiment to genuine clinical application was a long one, and success was uncertain. But no matter how difficult it was, or what the chances of success were, Yang Ping was determined to strive for it. If the K-factor could initiate the apoptosis program of Sisi¡¯s tumor cells in vitro, then at least it demonstrated that these tumor cells could be artificially induced to undergo apoptosis and ultimately die off on their own. The general direction was clear; what remained was to carve out a successful path. ¡°I¡¯ve found a new method, but it¡¯s never been tried on a patient before. So, I was hoping you could be my first human experiment volunteer. Would that be possible?¡± Yang Ping always communicated with Sisi as a friend, never treating her as a child who didn¡¯t understand anything because this little girl was incredibly smart. Sisi was now quite optimistic, almost transcendental, as if she had seen through life and death. ¡°Of course, I¡¯m willing. Big brother, you are the best doctor in the world. I¡¯ve said before, even if we fail, I can still be your error book.¡± Sitting on the bed, Sisi appeared very obedient. Yang Ping gave a simple explanation: ¡°Remember the tumor cells we took from you? My new method is based on those cells; our laboratory is conducting relevant experiments. If all goes well, we should be able to use this for human trials soon.¡± ¡°It seems I¡¯m still quite valuable as your research subject. Can you tell me what the new method is?¡± Sisi asked with interest. Yang Ping teased her with a smile, ¡°You wouldn¡¯t understand, it¡¯s all medical knowledge.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate me!¡± Sisi immediately stood up, pulled open the bedside drawer, where books were neatly stacked. Utilizing the light coming in from the window, she pulled out a few. ¡°Anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, pathophysiology! I¡¯ve read all of these at least once, not skimming, but reading word by word,¡± Sisi declared, laying the books out on the bed with a proud expression. These were genuine Medical University textbooks, not simple educational materials like ¡°The Amazing Human Body¡± for elementary students. ¡°Where did you get all these books from?¡± Yang Ping was curious. Sisi mysteriously replied, ¡°Some intern doctors at the hospital throw away a lot of books after their internships end. These were all picked up by my mom.¡± Yang Ping picked up a book and flipped through it; it had many notes, indeed looking like it was found. ¡°You can¡¯t recognize all the characters here, right?¡± he provoked her on purpose. Sisi, not willing to be outdone, said, ¡°I¡¯ve read the ¡®New Chinese Dictionary¡¯ many times over. You think I don¡¯t recognize these words?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve read all these books? You understand them?¡± Yang Ping was half amused, half amazed; a fifth-grade student understanding these texts. ¡°A little bit! I¡¯ve even taken notes.¡± Sisi took a big notebook out of the drawer. When Yang Ping looked at it, he saw a Human Anatomy Diagram, drawn in a childishly cartoonish manner, yet accurate and structured. A true prodigy! In this moment, Yang Ping felt a strong desire to take her on as his student. ¡°You like these, they don¡¯t bore you? Not too tough?¡± Yang Ping was very curious. Sisi nodded, ¡°I don¡¯t know, but while others like to read comics, I enjoy these books. They¡¯re fascinating, and I want to be a doctor when I grow up, just like you, big brother.¡± Hearing the words ¡°grow up,¡± Yang Ping felt a twinge of sadness but didn¡¯t show it on his face. For other children, growing up was a given, but for Sisi, it might be a luxury. ¡°Yeah, grow up and become a doctor, then be my student, and I¡¯ll teach you the craft,¡± Yang Ping struggled to keep his emotions in check. Sisi extended a finger, ¡°You said it, no backing out, pinky promise!¡± ¡°Pinky promise! What I said, I won¡¯t back out,¡± Yang Ping replied, extending his finger to make a pinky promise with Sisi. It was the same pinky promise that made them friends initially; Sisi insisted that Yang Ping maintain confidentiality and tell no one that she knew about her illness. Yes, I will make sure you grow up, ensure that you can become my student, and you will undoubtedly be an outstanding one. Putting aside any pity for the little girl, her IQ and EQ were both exceptionally high, undeniably a genius. ¡°Now you believe me, right, knowing that I might understand? So don¡¯t underestimate me,¡± Sisi put away her books. Composing himself, Yang Ping said, ¡°My new method involves utilizing tumor cell apoptosis; apoptosis is a form of cellular death, an active form of dying. In other words, I¡¯ve thought of a way to make the tumor cells in your body commit suicide. Normally, from the day they arise, your body¡¯s tumor cells shouldn¡¯t exist¡ªthey should self-destruct. But they¡¯re strong; they can evade the body¡¯s surveillance and survive. Now, my method will prevent them from escaping this surveillance, drawing them back to their intended end¡ªapoptosis.¡± ¡°I know about apoptosis; those books talk about it. I roughly get what you mean. Tumor cells are like defective products in a factory, and when workers discover them, they¡¯re destroyed. Apoptosis is a way to eradicate these defects, making the defective products self-destruct, right?¡± Sisi¡¯s bright eyes looked at Yang Ping. Chapter 1144 - 1144 912 Remember Your Promise_2 ?Chapter 1144: Chapter 912 Remember Your Promise!_2 Chapter 1144: Chapter 912 Remember Your Promise!_2 What a clever guy! Yang Ping smiled and said, ¡°That¡¯s exactly it, my new method involves triggering the self-destruction program of the tumor cells in your body, making them self-destruct.¡± ¡°I find it very interesting.¡± Sisi was very interested in this method. Yang Ping checked the time, ¡°Your parents will be back soon, I have to go.¡± ¡°I knew it, you must have sent them away, the uncle in the Security Room called dad saying he needed him for something, and the Head Nurse called mom to take a patient for a test,¡± Sisi said mischievously. ¡°You¡¯ve got a sharp mind, I have to go now!¡± Yang Ping said goodbye to Sisi. Sisi clenched her fist, ¡°Go for it!¡± Yang Ping bumped fists with her, ¡°Go for it.¡± ¡°Remember your promise, let me be your student.¡± ¡°Definitely!¡± ¡ª Director Han was well aware of the situation regarding Yang Ping¡¯s application for the Nobel Prize. A Nobel Prize application must have high-profile endorsers, but it was also essential that someone from Sanbo Hospital liaised with these endorsers to help collect some materials and such. This wasn¡¯t something Yang Ping could handle on his own, so Director Zhou was the best fit for this task. He was adept at scientific research; although he had never been involved in a Nobel Prize application, he was quite familiar with these matters, thus making him the ideal person to handle it. However, it also depended on whether Yang Ping was interested in the Nobel Prize. If he wasn¡¯t interested, there was no way to force him to apply. Director Han was free anyway and hadn¡¯t talked to Yang Ping for a while, so he went to the Surgical Research Institute to chat with Yang Ping and bring up the matter. ¡°Xiao Yang, your research results on spatial orientation factors are of Nobel Prize caliber, as I¡¯ve mentioned before. Winning isn¡¯t our goal, but winning would help more people recognize and trust you, allowing your medical skills to benefit more people around the world, so winning is also about saving lives, you know?¡± Director Han said earnestly. ¡°Mm, I quite like this Nobel Prize, so I¡¯ve already agreed to have Manstein from Germany as my recommender,¡± Yang Ping replied simply. ¡°That¡¯s right, I thought you weren¡¯t interested in the Nobel Prize,¡± Director Han laughed. Yang Ping said seriously, ¡°Who would refuse such a nice office decoration? And it comes with a big red packet too.¡± Director Han almost spat out his tea. Who says Professor Yang doesn¡¯t like to show off, I¡¯d hammer him to death. That was a seamless show-off, and this kind of reason for participating is also human talk. ¡°If we decide to participate, our hospital should also put forward someone who is relatively familiar with the scientific research routine to liaise with Manstein,¡± Director Han said slowly. ¡°Director Zhou! Sounds good!¡± Yang Ping readily agreed. ¡°How did you know I was going to recommend him?¡± Director Han felt quite surprised. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say someone relatively familiar with the research routine? Isn¡¯t he the most familiar? He talks about it at every meeting. He even knows the tricks of how to participate in the Nobel Prize. If someone brings out Nobel Prize-level research, it¡¯s all up to him,¡± Yang Ping replied nonchalantly. It really was so. Old Zhou usually boasted about his level of Expertise in Scientific Research. Unexpectedly, this was his chance to shine. ¡°If needed, Director Zhou can always ask Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang for materials.¡± ¡°That¡¯s settled then.¡± ¡°This time you didn¡¯t attend the European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting. It would have been a good vacation.¡± ¡±Don¡¯t talk about the European Spinal Surgery Annual Meeting, nowadays I have to think twice about any academic conference I attend. The moment I go, they treat me like a big deal, which is annoying for someone low-profile like me.¡± This time it was Yang Ping¡¯s turn to be amazed. Holy smokes, is that even something people say? Complaining about being treated like royalty? After chatting for a while, Director Han walked out of Yang Ping¡¯s office with a can of fine tea, now always making sure to take some good tea every visit, never leaving empty-handed. Previously, it was Yang Ping who often ¡°borrowed¡± tea leaves from Director Han¡¯s office, and now it was Director Han¡¯s turn to do the same from Yang Ping. ¡°Director, I only have one can of this tea. Can we split it between us?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t understand, young people are not suited to drink this kind of tea.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± ¡°Have I not told you before?¡± ¡ª- Yang Ping had already agreed to have Manstein act as his Nobel Prize nominator, and Director Zhou was preparing to contact Manstein. In order not to disgrace his mission, Director Zhou made thorough preparations, selecting the best English translator from the hospital. His own English skills, honed over many years, would finally come into play. In a meeting room in the administrative building of Sanbo Hospital, Director Zhou led his team to formally meet with Manstein. Director Zhou, dressed in a sharp suit and tie, looked particularly spirited, but Manstein and August wore a mandarin jacket to the negotiation. ¡°Mr. Manstein, hello, it¡¯s an honor to meet you!¡± Director Zhou spoke in fluent English. Manstein spoke in fluent Chinese, ¡°Mr. Zhou, hello, it¡¯s an honor to meet you!¡± This surprised Director Zhou greatly. Was Chinese so popular now that even a European Nobel laureate spoke it fluently? Since Manstein could speak Chinese, communication would be completely unobstructed. The translator prepared by Director Zhou was redundant and could only serve as a backup, while his own practice of English was temporarily set aside. ¡°Mr. Manstein!¡± ¡°Mr. Zhou!¡± Upon seeing Manstein, Director Zhou was very excited and immediately went forward to shake hands. Manstein was also somewhat excited, for now he was officially confirmed as Yang Ping¡¯s Nobel Prize nominator. Director Zhou represented Yang Ping and would be responsible for compiling Yang Ping¡¯s materials. Director Zhou bowed slightly forward, and Manstein also bowed slightly forward. Manstein was a world-renowned scientist, and Director Zhou naturally held him in high regard, feeling somewhat intimidated. Director Zhou was the proxy for Professor Yang¡¯s application, and Manstein also felt a bit intimidated. ¡°Please take a seat!¡± ¡°You take a seat, please!¡± ¡°You take a seat, please!¡± ¡°You take a seat, please!¡± Finally, both sat down together and began formally discussing the nomination for the Nobel Prize. Director Zhou realized that his Mandarin, though slightly accented, was not as standard as Manstein¡¯s, not to mention compared to August. The level of Mandarin spoken by these two Germans was broadcast-worthy. Foreigners generally struggle with the four tones when speaking Chinese, resulting in occasionally odd intonations, but these two Germans had no such issue. They not only pronounced the words precisely but also mastered the tones, just like announcers on television. The negotiation process was very pleasant, and they even took photos for memorabilia. However, Director Zhou felt something was amiss. Manstein wore a mandarin jacket and he wore a suit; it looked mismatched no matter how one looked at it. ¡ª- That evening, the colleagues from the department dined together with August and Manstein, all now good brothers. August and Manstein¡¯s meals were all arranged at Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish these days. Although the signature dish was grilled fish, Uncle Er¡¯s culinary skills were exceptional, and he changed the menu every meal, offering a variety of dishes in turn. Uncle Er was a capable man, personally taking charge of the cooking at critical times. In his younger years, he had studied under many chefs and had considerable skill. For August and Manstein, dining in the best hotel in Nandu Province could not compare to eating here. This was Professor Yang¡¯s private room. Staying at the best hotel in Nandu could not compare to staying at Sanbo Hotel, for Sanbo Hospital was a temple in their hearts. Uncle Er himself took charge of the cooking, his son and daughter-in-law personally acting as waiters. Uncle Er¡¯s son had struggled academically, having attended only vocational school and later vocational college, studying culinary arts. Now he was learning from Uncle Er how to run a restaurant, starting from washing dishes and buying groceries to serving as a waiter. So the couple were very professional as waiters, Uncle Er having repeatedly emphasized that Professor Yang was an important benefactor and they must provide excellent service. Yang Ping was accustomed to dining here, and Uncle Er was meticulous in his conduct and cooking, selecting only the finest ingredients. Hence, whenever hosting friends, Yang Ping always chose this place. Chapter 1145 - 1145 913 Once Off-Outline CPU Is Prone to ?Chapter 1145: Chapter 913: Once Off-Outline, CPU Is Prone to Overload Chapter 1145: Chapter 913: Once Off-Outline, CPU Is Prone to Overload The dishes were all good, Uncle had put in a lot of effort. Toward the end of the meal, Uncle came up to toast, ¡°Two guests, August is an old acquaintance, Mainshtan is someone I¡¯ve just met.¡± However, there had been an introduction the first night they came for a late-night snack, so he knew this gentleman was Mr. Man from Germany. ¡°My cooking skill is humble, please forgive any shortcomings,¡± he said. ¡°It was Professor Yang who performed the minimally invasive surgery on my back, and I have been exercising my back muscles ever since. There hasn¡¯t been any pain after the surgery.¡± Uncle had an old problem with a herniated lumbar disc that had tormented him for over a decade. After becoming friends with Yang Ping and the doctors of the Surgical Research Institute, Yang Ping himself performed minimally invasive surgery on him, which had an excellent outcome. He hadn¡¯t felt any pain since. ¡°The right index finger of my significant other has been in pain. We always thought it was the cold water and didn¡¯t pay much attention, but after a long rest, it¡¯s getting worse and we just don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on.¡± Seeing that Yang Ping had finished eating and was resting at home, Uncle took the opportunity to speak up. ¡°Bring your auntie here, I¡¯ll take a look,¡± said Yang Ping, who was drinking tea. ¡°Call your mother over, quick!¡± Uncle immediately asked his son to call her, but his daughter-in-law was even quicker and had already gone to fetch her. The truth is, Uncle¡¯s family is quite hardworking. Their three-storey shop is now booming with business, and their branches are thriving as well. They have earned quite a bit of money but can¡¯t sit still. The lady of the house, already in her fifties, still helps out in the kitchen, dealing mostly with lighter tasks due to her finger pain, avoiding washing dishes and contact with water. Auntie hurried over, following her daughter-in-law. Yang Ping asked her to extend the finger that was in pain. ¡°It hurts with cold water, it hurts with hot water, and using a little force when touching anything causes pain. Even a light touch at the tip is a stabbing pain.¡± Auntie stretched out her right index finger and spoke seriously. The problem had existed for many years; at first, she didn¡¯t pay much attention, thinking it was just a result of aging and frequent contact with cold water, and she hadn¡¯t mentioned it to Yang Ping and the others. But lately, it had become increasingly painful. Yang Ping examined her finger and asked for a toothpick. He gently pressed on her right index fingernail, then said, ¡°This is a glomus tumor, the tumor is under the fingernail. It is hard to detect because the nail covers it up. Find some free time to visit our department, and we¡¯ll do a small surgery to remove it, you¡¯ll be fine after that.¡± When hearing the word tumor, Auntie was a bit scared. ¡°It¡¯s benign, don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll be fine once it¡¯s removed, and it generally doesn¡¯t recur. If you¡¯re anxious, we can do a biopsy afterwards,¡± Yang Ping said. Yang Ping diagnosed a problem that had puzzled Auntie for many years in just a few sentences. She had long known she should have spoken to Yang Ping sooner. Auntie had wanted to bring it up, but Uncle told her not to bother Professor Yang with everything. ¡°Thank you!¡± Uncle quickly poured tea for everyone. ¡°We¡¯re all so familiar with each other; there¡¯s no need for formalities, Uncle. We can pour our own, please don¡¯t stand on ceremony,¡± Yang Ping said as he took the cup to catch Uncle¡¯s tea. Uncle insisted on pouring tea for all the doctors at the table. Everyone was used to his enthusiasm and let him have his way. Uncle¡¯s place had all but become the canteen for the Surgical Research Institute, so everyone was very familiar with each other. If there were any slight issues in Uncle¡¯s household, just a word to any doctor from the Institute would settle the matter instantly, no need to go through the hassle of making appointments and queuing up. Looking back, Uncle himself felt that he had a bit of fate with Yang Ping. One day, he was out driving to run some errands and encountered a traffic jam. An ambulance was stuck in the flow, and the doctors seemed anxious, shouting that someone inside was awaiting a lifesaving operation. At that moment, all the drivers got out to help. With everyone¡¯s assistance, they carried the patient out of the traffic and found a truck in front to transport the person to the hospital. Later on, he heard that the patient¡¯s life was saved. In order to let the stretcher pass quickly, Uncle let them carry it over his car¡¯s bonnet, leaving a long scratch on his new car. But compared to a human life, what¡¯s a car worth? Uncle understood this principle clearly. Among those carrying the stretcher, there seemed to be Professor Yang, but Uncle never had the courage to ask about it and wasn¡¯t sure either. Later, Yang Ping came to eat at the restaurant with his girlfriend. A signature trait of surgeons was left behind: a fish with its skeleton completely intact, stripped of all flesh. Uncle took a photo of the fish bones and turned it into a signboard. Now that picture is displayed at the entrance. Over time, Uncle came to know that Yang Ping was the most incredible doctor at Sanbo Hospital, the best in the country, and the best in the world. As they interacted more, they naturally became friends. ¡ª Professor Mainshtan¡¯s visit to Sanbo Hospital was extremely successful. He not only obtained the initiator for the Spatial Orientation Gene in muscles, but also secured the status of a Nobel Prize nominator from Yang Ping, so it was a trip that yielded great rewards. Furthermore, in regards to the spinal cord injury repair project, he entered into in-depth and comprehensive communication with Yang Ping and received plenty of beneficial suggestions. From his face-to-face exchanges with Yang Ping, Professor Mainshtan was astonished by Yang Ping¡¯s rich imagination, strong logical reasoning abilities, and extraordinary memory. Professor Mainshtan conjectured that it was these three abilities that allowed Yang Ping to conduct ¡°brain experiments¡±, where he could meticulously deduce any experiment in his mind, thus easily bypassing the wrong paths and swiftly moving towards the right direction. If they had not met in person, Professor Mainshtan would have continued doubting why Yang Ping¡¯s experiments went so smoothly, but after meeting him, he finally understood the reason. To express his respect for Professor Yang¡¯s father-in-law, Professor Su, Professor Mainshtan and August made a friendly visit to Affiliated Hospital No. 1 of Nandu Medical University and established a cooperative relationship with it. Chapter 1146 - 1146 913 Once Exceeding the Outline Its Easy ?Chapter 1146: Chapter 913 Once Exceeding the Outline, It¡¯s Easy to Blow the CPU_2 Chapter 1146: Chapter 913 Once Exceeding the Outline, It¡¯s Easy to Blow the CPU_2 The Deans of the other affiliated hospitals of Nandu Medical University were taken aback. What was this situation? No matter which international top figure came to China, if they did not visit Affiliated Hospital No. 1 to make a round, it seemed as though they had made the trip to China in vain. After some thought, they realized there was no way around it. It was an era of competing for sons-in-law, and the prestige of the son-in-law was indeed too great. It was said that when Dean Su went to Europe for conferences this time, he was treated more like a celebrity than the actual guests. This unique advantage allowed Affiliated Hospital No. 1 to embark on another major development. Be it Mayo, Charite Hospital, the British Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, or the University of Tokyo Affiliated Hospital, cooperation with them was incredibly easy. As soon as Professor Su expressed interest, hospitals would immediately send people to discuss the partnership. This kind of international cooperation was actually very important for enhancing the strength of the hospital, enabling doctors to broaden their horizons, increase their knowledge, and make progress through exchanges. Dean Su was also adept at management. With such excellent resources, under his stewardship, Affiliated Hospital No. 1 also rode this tailwind, sending young doctors to the world¡¯s top hospitals for further training. Nanchen didn¡¯t need any mention; using the Licheng Hospital platform, he was almost personally trained by Yang Ping and now is a top world expert in sports medicine. Whenever Robert had any sports superstars in the United States, he would occasionally recommend one to come to China to see Nanchen. This facilitated the rapid development of the sports medicine department in Affiliated Hospital No. 1, which was already very strong. With such aggressive and effective management, other hospitals could not keep up. Even Professor Ye from the Sanbo Hospital in Beijing often made trips to Affiliated Hospital No. 1 in Nandu to learn, as their sports medicine, though top-notch in the country, still wasn¡¯t up to world standards. Now, Affiliated Hospital No. 1 in Nandu was moving towards a global presence. As for spinal surgery, there was no need to say much. Affiliated Hospital No. 1 and Sanbo Hospital kept in perfect synchrony; whenever there was a new technique, Professor Su¡¯s team had already mastered it before the paper was even written. This year¡¯s two Outstanding Young Talent slots from the Nandu system would probably have nothing to do with Guan Ruyan. Nanchen, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Tang Shun, each of whom now met the criteria and were all powerful contenders. It was uncertain when it would be Guan Ruyan¡¯s turn. Nanchen was working on a project¡ª¡±3D Printed Cartilage Treatment for Osteoarthritis,¡± and the progress was very smooth. Once the project concluded, becoming an Outstanding Young Talent afterwards and then an Academician was almost a certainty. By then, both he and his son-in-law would be Academicians, making it three Academicians in the family. Dean Su felt extremely content. His daughter really had vision. At the time, Xiao Yang wasn¡¯t very prominent. How had his high-minded and proud daughter taken an interest in him at first sight, especially when she had turned down so many outstanding suitors? When his daughter was studying for her nursing undergraduate degree, Old Su was not satisfied. With her excellent grades, why study nursing? If it were up to him, she should have gone for dentistry at Huaxi Hospital and then continued with a Master¡¯s and a Ph.D. Unfortunately, his daughter didn¡¯t want to, only wishing to be an ordinary nurse. But at that time, both parents doted on their daughter very much, not only the Sus, but also her grandparents, and her uncles too. Old Su could only respect her wishes. After her undergraduate studies, the girl showed no intention of pursuing further education. She spent her time playing tennis, swimming, and working out. Her tennis skills reached a professional level, even winning medals in university sports events. Old Su would say, ¡°Missy, you can play, but you should at least get a Master¡¯s, and it would be even better to earn a Ph.D. You could end up heading the nursing department like your mother.¡± Su Yixuan said, ¡°Everyone has their own way of living. She didn¡¯t want to pursue a graduate degree, being an ordinary nurse with just an undergraduate degree was enough. She liked a simple and unassuming life.¡± Well, the Su couple was quite open-minded. The daughter was a bit unconventional in her thinking, and Old Su was at a loss. Now that his daughter had found her place and with Yang Ping being an exceptional talent and a good person, Old Su was finally reassured. This daughter was the one that had caused Old Su the most worry. Now, with Xiao Su pregnant, Mrs. Su was taking care of her at her daughter¡¯s house and Professor Su would also rush to his daughter¡¯s home on weekends to help with buying groceries. Initially, Professor Su¡¯s family had a villa on Shuangsha Island, which was even more convenient for taking care of their daughter. However, because it was relatively far from the hospital and the surrounding hospitals weren¡¯t very strong, it wasn¡¯t very convenient in case of his daughter giving birth. Therefore, Professor Su and Mrs. Su decided to wait until after the birth to move her to the villa for her confinement, allowing their son-in-law to work without worries. It wasn¡¯t more than a few months until Mrs. Su was due to retire at fifty-five. She was on personal leave for a few months, and as soon as the time came, she would immediately process her retirement. Although Old Su still had grand ambitions, with such a strong younger generation, it made him want to retire too. Unfortunately, he still had many years to go and could only wait. However, it was all right; these few years would be spent pushing Affiliated Hospital No. 1 onto a higher level. Every time he thought about these things, Professor Su felt very happy. The Su family had done well up to their generation. His older brother made a significant impact in the Capital, his younger brother¡¯s company was developing very well, and his youngest brother had also achieved success in the military. His generation hadn¡¯t let down their ancestral glory. Looking at how things were going, Nanchen would certainly surpass him, especially with his son-in-law¡¯s help. Their future was bound to be limitless. Among the younger generation of the Su family, only Su Yixuan was a girl. The other brothers all had sons, and each one was an academic prodigy, graduating from distinguished universities¡ªall with Ph.D.s. The oldest brother¡¯s child graduated from Tsinghua, the third brother¡¯s from Peking University, and the youngest brother¡¯s from the National Defense Science and Technology University. Chapter 1147 - 1147 913 Once it Goes Beyond the Scope its ?Chapter 1147: Chapter 913: Once it Goes Beyond the Scope, it¡¯s Easy to Blow the CPU_3 Chapter 1147: Chapter 913: Once it Goes Beyond the Scope, it¡¯s Easy to Blow the CPU_3 The Su Family, a family steeped in scholarly tradition, continues its lineage successfully. The old patriarch stated that to answer the call of the nation, each grandchild must have three children, thereby expanding the family¡¯s connections further. ¡ª In the System Space Laboratory, there was another small advance in the research on tumor cell apoptosis. To rapidly translate the experimental results from the System Space to the actual laboratory, Yang Ping carried a vast amount of data out with impeccable accuracy using his brain¡¯s memory. Through this long-term practice of memorizing data, Yang Ping developed an extraordinary memory ability. It seems that memory, like muscles, abides by the principle of ¡°use it or lose it¡±. Yang Ping immediately recorded the data he brought out onto A4 paper. This time there was quite a lot to write down¡ªover a hundred densely packed sheets. Once he finished, he went straight up to the Tumor Laboratory, where Tang Shun and his team were hard at work. Tang Shun really was an energetic fellow, now undertaking two major topics at once, his schedule perfectly organized without any sense of rush or disorder. A master of time management! Indeed, as acclaimed. ¡°Professor!¡± Tang Shun immediately ran over. ¡°The laboratory has succeeded, your hypothesis was correct. Indeed, this dimeric small molecule can initiate the apoptosis program in Sisi¡¯s tumor cells. We manufactured this dimeric molecule artificially according to your design, and in the ex vivo experimental environment, it can block the anti-apoptosis ability of the tumor cells while initiating their apoptosis program. Many tumor cells have already died,¡± Tang Shun said excitedly. ¡°If this molecule can really initiate the apoptosis of tumor cells, then we need to start moving into in vivo experiments on animals, transferring the experimental environment from ex vivo to within mammals. Go and think about how to safely deliver the dimer molecules into the animal¡¯s blood vessels so they can be efficiently transported to the tumor cells through the blood circulation with minimal loss. I have some rough ideas here; see if you can use them.¡± Yang Ping tossed a bag of A4 papers to Tang Shun. He didn¡¯t want to waste time; his sole wish was to convert all scientific results into practical applications as quickly as possible, especially since this particular accomplishment was regarding Sisi. Usually, it was only a few sheets, or at most a dozen or so. This time, it was over a hundred sheets at once, a heavy bag that Tang Shun was holding. After Yang Ping gave some instructions, he left the laboratory. Tang Shun pulled out a few sheets and saw that the A4 papers delineated the evolution trajectory of future experiments. If any obstacles were encountered, the trajectory would branch out with several possibilities noted down. In this way, from one to many, and from many to many more, the exponentially increasing evolution trajectories underwent scientific reasoning and selection, compressed onto a little over a hundred sheets of A4 paper¡ªsuch exceptional selective capability. Tang Shun had an idea that the Professor possessed some kind of superior scientific research trajectory selection method, but he had not yet revealed it. Tang Shun¡¯s mentor had also used such evolutionary trajectories to write experimental plans, and due to exchanges, he had been to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Stem Cell Laboratory. Director Madelan was also adept at writing such experimental plans. Most people¡¯s experimental plans are linear and don¡¯t take into account the many possible difficulties encountered during experiments, or how to adjust strategies accordingly. Master scientists think more comprehensively and deeply. They consider potential difficulties as much as possible, so when they face challenges, they map out potential evolutions. This way, as the experiment progresses, the number of trajectories increases. In the end, often because of the exponential increase of trajectories, one cannot continue to write, so even talents like Fukunaga and Madelan can only outline a few steps at a time. They need to re-derive based on experimental results, as writing out more than a dozen steps renders the later trajectories largely meaningless. Now, Professor Yang had detailed all these steps completely, and it was evident the exponential trajectories were selectively refined by him. How he made those selections, which must involve vast and profound mathematical knowledge, seemed more complex the more Tang Shun thought about it. Ah well, better to think within the bounds of my own intelligence; exceeding limits can lead to a CPU overload. Tang Shun considered his intelligence to be top-tier, yet when it came to optimizing experimental trajectories, he couldn¡¯t fathom it at all¡ªeven powerful computer models couldn¡¯t achieve this feat. No, I must stop thinking about it, Tang Shun thought, touching his head which was starting to feel warm. It¡¯s a joke to try and speculate on Professor Yang¡¯s mindset. If your intelligence isn¡¯t on his level, there¡¯s only one outcome¡ªtime for a stay in a mental hospital. It¡¯s like a computer¡¯s CPU trying to perform calculations beyond its capacity¡ªthe only outcome is burning out! With more than ten girlfriends waiting for me, is it worth burning out my own CPU over this? Chapter 1148 - 1148 914 Double Barrel Approach ?Chapter 1148: Chapter 914: Double Barrel Approach Chapter 1148: Chapter 914: Double Barrel Approach The next afternoon, the surgery in the general department was finished after five o¡¯clock because Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang¡¯s surgery was especially fast. During their time abroad, the number of surgeries that had piled up in the department was overwhelming, necessitating that Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang hurry to catch up. Once Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang officially returned, Zhang Lin and Little Five were demoted back to more junior positions¡ªa change they found highly uncomfortable. But, they were self-aware enough to realize that compared to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, they truly were just junior doctors. The gap was significant; their surgical skills were all taught by Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang by hand. In these special days, Yang Ping had trusted them to independently perform main surgeries, which they were especially grateful for. However, these two brothers were now planning to venture out and assist in surgeries at other locations, such as at Liquan Hospital. Yang Ping hardly had time to go there, only managing to visit once a week to supervise a surgery. The main responsibility fell on Su Nanchen, who also had to commute back and forth, which was very tiring. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang used to go often, but as the number of surgeries in the department increased, their visits had significantly decreased. The brothers pondered whether they could ask Yang Ping if they could help share some of the surgical load at Liquan Hospital. This would not only accumulate experience as chief surgeons but also increase their extra income. Little Five and Zhang Lin were aware of the inside story¡ªgoing there, a single surgery could earn at least ten thousand. Liang Fatty often went there to supervise anesthesia, and he was now making a fortune, enough to afford a flight attendant as a girlfriend. Xu Zhiliang¡¯s prior vehicle was an electric car; recently, he bought a Land Rover, while Zhang Lin and Little Five were anxious and wanted to try their abilities there as well. ¡°Come in, what¡¯s up? Always lurking outside my door?¡± Every time he opened the door, Little Five and Zhang Lin were pacing back and forth outside his office. Little Five said with a red face, ¡°That¡ªthat¡ªProfessor, we need your help with something.¡± Zhang Lin stood behind and did not speak. ¡°Come in and talk!¡± Yang Ping invited them into his office. Sneaking around wasn¡¯t their style; had these brothers gotten into some trouble? Caught by the Medical Services Office playing video games? No, they had quit gaming long ago¡ªProfessor Zhang Zongshun had complained several times about not being able to find partners for his team. Now he could only train those old doctors at the outpatient clinic, but unfortunately, their skills were poor as they were new to the field. ¡°What¡¯s the matter, sneaking around like this?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°You tell him!¡± ¡°No, you tell him!¡± Neither Zhang Lin nor Little Five dared to speak, pushing it off on each other. In the end, Little Five spoke: ¡°Professor, the thing is¡ªyou see¡ªas far as we know, Liquan Hospital is currently very busy, Dr. Su is overwhelmed, Dr. Song and Dr. Xu are spread too thin, and their own people are not yet trained. We were wondering if we could make use of our spare time to help out, easing some of the pressure, making things a bit easier for Dr. Su, who, we hear, also has research projects weighing on him.¡± ¡°Professor, we assure you, it won¡¯t delay the regular work of our department. We can help there anytime, available 24 hours a day,¡± Zhang Lin said immediately. So this was the mysterious business the brothers were about, though Yang Ping had also been contemplating this. After observing the surgeries of Little Five and Zhang Lin during this period, although they were slower, the quality of their work was reliable; it was time for them to help share the surgical load at Liquan Hospital, which would provide them with more practice opportunities and financial benefits. Little Five was somewhat better off; his wife was wealthy. Zhang Lin and his wife faced significant economic strain, mortgaging their home and car, and they had just had two children. They indeed needed money. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t speaking, so Little Five and Zhang Lin thought he disagreed, disliking their inadequate skills. Little Five said with a red face:¡±Professor, we will continue to strive, and once our skills meet the standard, please do remember to let us also share some surgeries.¡± ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll keep pushing ourselves,¡± Zhang Lin also said, somewhat annoyed at himself for lacking skills. ¡°You two would go together each time, wouldn¡¯t you?¡± Yang Ping finally spoke. Little Five and Zhang Lin, who were prepared to leave, nodded immediately upon hearing this. Definitely, without going together, they would only have fifty percent of the chief surgeon¡¯s skills, which wouldn¡¯t suffice for performing surgeries. ¡°You can go, but each time you both operate, let me clarify¡ªOld Cheng can only pay one commission per surgery. You two will have to split it in half, how about that?¡± Yang Ping said. Little Five and Zhang Lin left agreeing, their hearts throbbing with excitement. Splitting between the two, each operation would earn them at least five thousand. On Saturdays and Sundays, by pushing hard, they could perform twelve surgeries, which meant at least sixty thousand each. ¡°Aren¡¯t you two supposed to be taking care of your kids on weekends? Do you have time to go?¡± Yang Ping was curious, especially about Zhang Lin¡¯s two children. ¡°No problem; my wife will take care of that. Don¡¯t worry, Professor, it won¡¯t be a problem at all,¡± Zhang Lin hastily said. ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll talk to Boss Cheng later. You two start this Saturday. Make some time earlier to meet with Old Cheng and coordinate. Nothing else, right?¡± Yang Ping was busy with his experiments. ¡°No, Professor, we¡¯ll go over tonight to coordinate,¡± Little Five and Zhang Lin said excitedly, somewhat incoherently. As Little Five and Zhang Lin left Yang Ping¡¯s office, they immediately embraced, celebrating the new journey that lay ahead in their lives. The nurse who saw the two embrace found it odd: ¡°Hey, your uncle has been looking for you.¡± It was only then that they had a moment to spare. Their uncle, along with their aunt, had come to the Surgical Research Institute for surgery. Little Five walked her through the outpatient surgery process, signed the informed consent form, and wrote up a simple outpatient medical record. Though she was a close friend, the basic procedures still had to be followed. Chapter 1149 - 1149 914 Double Barrel Approach Part 2 ?Chapter 1149: Chapter 914: Double Barrel Approach Part 2 Chapter 1149: Chapter 914: Double Barrel Approach Part 2 Then, a simple pre-surgery examination was conducted, and a dose of lidocaine was obtained from the pharmacy. The surgery was completed in the treatment room of the Surgical Research Institute. It was just a local anesthesia surgery. Little Five and Zhang Lin finished the procedure in a few minutes and found a rice-sized red bead under the nail bed of Second Aunt¡¯s right index finger. It was sent to the Pathology Department for Wen Ruzheng, who had not yet finished work, to examine. Indeed, it was a benign hemangioma. The total cost was just a few hundred yuan, and Second Aunt resolved an old issue that had troubled her for years. She had always thought it was due to her old age and frequent contact with cold water, so she never imagined it was a treatable condition. Dean Sun called Yang Ping again to ask about Bao Junhao¡¯s surgery. It was initially set up for admission and surgery, as they had appointed a time, but it got postponed due to Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang being overseas, and Yang Ping being too busy to perform Bao Junhao¡¯s surgery. Now that Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had returned, Yang Ping had much more time, and Bao Junhao could be admitted for surgery. Yang Ping agreed with Dean Sun, ¡°Admit now, operate the following day.¡± Thus, even after working hours, the Bao Yulou family rushed with their son to the emergency for immediate hospitalization for the surgery, fearing that Yang Ping might refuse the surgery again the next day. There was no choice; Yang Ping had invented this surgical method. Their son was still young, and even without mentioning playing football, normal life required two healthy legs. Young Master Bao, staying at the Overseas Chinese Building¡¯s orthopedics department headed by Tian Yuan, would have his surgery led by Yang Ping, but the routine perioperative management was the responsibility of the doctors at the Overseas Chinese Building. According to Bao Yulou¡¯s opinion, they should not have stayed in the Overseas Chinese Building at all. They should have stayed in the ward of the Surgical Research Institute to make a low-profile good impression on Professor Yang, but there was only one suite there, which was already occupied. The remaining were double rooms or triple rooms, and Young Master Bao was unwilling to stay in such rooms. Bao Yulou tried hard to persuade him, ¡°This is not a hotel stay but a hospital treatment. It¡¯s only for a week, just bear with it.¡± Young Master Bao retorted his father, ¡°For your trivialities, you always get a VIP ward. When it comes to me, why are we pinching pennies? Am I even your biological child?¡± Bao Yulou wanted to smack him right then. If it hadn¡¯t been for the resemblance to himself, he really might have doubted if this jerk was his own son. Left with no choice, Bao Yulou had to arrange for him to be accommodated in the orthopedics department of the Overseas Chinese Building. After completing the hospitalization procedures, Bao Yulou personally went to the Surgical Research Institute to explain to Yang Ping, ¡°My family¡¯s little rascal lacks upbringing. Staying here might disturb other patients, so I¡¯ve placed him in the Overseas Chinese Building. I¡¯d appreciate Professor Yang taking care of the surgery.¡± Bao Yulou, a man experienced in the business world for many years, had met all kinds of people. If he previously played submissive for his son¡¯s surgery, now he genuinely respected Yang Ping, and he was also grateful that his unimpressive son had not provoked an irreconcilable conflict with Yang Ping; otherwise, he would have been in big trouble. Elderly Director Li Min had his stitches removed and was discharged; he walked much straighter. Yang Ping specifically arranged a car to take him home, and to let the elderly director rest a few more days, Yang Ping asked Li Guodong to stay at Guandu Hospital for two more weeks. Now that Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had returned, there was sufficient staff, and the delay of two weeks for Li Guodong was not impactful. August and Manstein ended their visit to Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 and immediately returned to their country. Manstein rejected all other invitations from other medical universities and hospitals, visiting only Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1. After returning home, Manstein hurried to replicate Yang Ping¡¯s experiment and then prepare to nominate Yang Ping¡¯s scientific research for the Nobel Prize. As Manstein planned for Yang Ping¡¯s Nobel Prize nomination, Principal Ruo of Nandu Medical University started arranging for Yang Ping¡¯s nomination as an academician. For this purpose, Principal Ruo of Nandu Medical University personally visited Sanbo Hospital, and upon meeting Dean Xia, the two shook hands immediately. ¡°Elder Xia, when we partnered, many said that your Sanbo Hospital was reaching above its station to connect with our Nandu Medical University. Now it seems it is us who are reaching up to you,¡± Principal Ruo said happily. Sanbo Hospital has so many world-class research achievements that it¡¯s at least known as an affiliated hospital of Nandu Medical University. Now, when you mention Sanbo Hospital, you have to include the name of Nandu Medical University. With this merger, Nandu Medical University really hit the jackpot. Principal Ruo came this time for the matter of Yang Ping¡¯s academician nomination. Not long ago, they were discussing the matter of Yang Ping being an Outstanding Young Talent, and now the academician nomination has already been scheduled. There¡¯s no helping it, who could have expected the young man¡¯s research achievements to surge like this? Academician and Nobel Prize nominations are being processed simultaneously, since they are unconnected, a two-pronged approach. ¡°Elder Xiang proposed nominating Yang Ping for academician. Some in the university strongly disagreed, arguing that Yang Ping is too young, graduated only a few years ago, clearly lacking seniority, how could he possibly be nominated for academician? Elder Xiang slammed the table and lost his temper right there, ¡®Seniority, seniority, is academician based on academic achievements, or on seniority?¡¯ I support Elder Xiang. Yang Ping fully meets the criteria for an academician now. I am not sure about your hospital¡¯s view, because the selection of an academician is a systematic project, and it can only succeed if we work together closely.¡± Principal Ruo knew Dean Xia was a straightforward person, so he did not beat around the bush. He came today wanting to discuss with Dean Xia. Currently at Nandu Medical University, Vice Principal Ding Decheng disagreed with the university endorsing Yang Ping for academician. Vice Principal Ding is the first vice principal and has a certain standing at the university; his job hasn¡¯t been done well, making this matter quite challenging. Actually, Principal Ruo was very clear in his mind that Ding Decheng was just seizing this opportunity to play games with Principal Ruo; he actually wanted to exchange support for Yang Ping¡¯s academician nomination for his son-in-law¡¯s Outstanding Young Talent issue. Ding Decheng was a cunning man, skilled in manipulation and knew how to exploit opportunities. He didn¡¯t dare to confront people like Su Qingyun head-on, but he had ways to benefit himself indirectly. Since Yang Ping had occupied the slot for the Outstanding Young Talent, Vice Principal Ding thought it wasn¡¯t a big deal, at most a year¡¯s wait, but now he found that there were several others quickly closing in to snatch the Outstanding Young Talent slot¡ªSu Nanchen, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Tang Shun. So many suddenly appeared, and his son-in-law had no chance; if they waited a few more years, the variables would be too great. By then, he might have already retired and would not be able to influence matters. ¡°We¡¯ll support you fully! However you need us to cooperate, we¡¯ll do it. All actions will be as per the principal¡¯s guidance.¡± Why wouldn¡¯t Dean Xia support such a beneficial proposition? ¡°With that said, it¡¯s good. If our leadership can¡¯t unify their views, many tasks will be hard to carry out. To unify the university¡¯s opinion, I need to make one thing clear, Sanbo Hospital absolutely must not compete for the next round of Outstanding Young Talent slots, is that possible?¡± Principal Ruo was also balancing many relationships, paving the way for Yang Ping¡¯s academician nomination. If he could bring Principal Ding over, the whole of Nandu Medical University would be unified. Actually, in Ding Decheng¡¯s view, his demands were not excessive; it would be unfair if all the good opportunities were taken by others without leaving something for his side. Though Principal Ruo despised Ding Decheng¡¯s maneuvers, as the principal, he had to balance these forces and achieve the best possible solution. As long as they promised the next Outstanding Young Talent slot to Guan Ruyan, Principal Ding would immediately support Yang Ping¡¯s academician nomination, that was definite, so Principal Ruo also wanted to smoothly settle this matter. Being a principal was not easy; he had to maintain his principles while balancing all the different relationships. It was not simply a matter of saying how things should be done; achieving a goal required certain methods. ¡°Why? Do these two matters relate to each other?¡± Dean Xia asked. ¡°They definitely relate, but the specific reasons, I can¡¯t really say, just trust me on this,¡± Principal Ruo couldn¡¯t make these under-the-table dealings clear.¡± ¡°Could it be that someone is making a transaction using Professor Yang¡¯s academician nomination and these issues?¡± Dean Xia was no fool, understanding the situation as clearly as a mirror, though he didn¡¯t mention Ding Decheng by name. Principal Ruo felt awkward, ¡°Yangtze River, you know everything, so since you know, don¡¯t make it difficult for me. Follow my plan; there will be plenty of opportunities for your hospital¡¯s young people in the future, missing out this year won¡¯t matter.¡± Dean Xia remained silent, calculating in his heart how to handle this matter. Chapter 1150 - 1150 915 A Harmonious Family Leads to ?Chapter 1150: Chapter 915: A Harmonious Family Leads to Prosperity in Everything Chapter 1150: Chapter 915: A Harmonious Family Leads to Prosperity in Everything After reflecting for a moment, Dean Xia agreed with Principal Ruo¡¯s opinion that some matters required a smoother touch, or else they would be troublesome to handle. It was rare for Principal Ruo to be so concerned about this matter. Once Nandu Medical University could unite and nominate Yang Ping for the Academician position, then the entire province would support it. The election for an Academician wasn¡¯t an individual¡¯s matter, but required the collective effort of the larger group, and the whole process was a systematic project that needed unity and collaboration, not a one-man effort. ¡°We will follow Principal Ruo¡¯s commands in all actions, but since this matter involves the future of several young people, I need to talk it over with them. I also want to hear their opinions, and Principal Ruo should understand this, right?¡± Although Dean Xia had extraordinary resolution, he wasn¡¯t a person of brash dominance. On the contrary, he was quite democratic and good at pooling wisdom for the greater benefit. Moreover, he knew how to adapt. If one didn¡¯t know how to be flexible and instead rigidly adhered to rules, nothing could be accomplished. This logic was something Dean Xia understood better than anyone else. These worldly matters and relationships must not be faced by Yang Ping; they had to be resolved here with them, meaning at their level only. ¡°Understood! I¡¯m waiting for your good news.¡± Principal Ruo knew that Dean Xia had more or less agreed in his heart but still needed to work on the young people¡¯s mindset to avoid misunderstandings and dampening their enthusiasm. With Dean Xia¡¯s understanding, Principal Ruo found it much easier to proceed with his tasks. Wherever there are people, there is a ¡®World,¡¯ and with so many at Nandu Medical University, Principal Ruo had to navigate the complex relationships to ensure things were accomplished smoothly. Once they reached an agreement, Principal Ruo didn¡¯t linger. After touring Sanbo Hospital, he returned to Nandu Medical University to continue his strategic planning. The situation was clearly different now¡ªwith Sanbo Hospital¡¯s involvement, Yang Ping¡¯s academic achievements surged, alongside the rapid advancement of Nandu¡¯s Digital Medical Laboratory and Genetics Laboratory. These two laboratories were major participants in Yang Ping¡¯s research projects. For example, the Digital Medical Laboratory was involved in establishing microscopic dissection and used it to create the new generation of Digital Humans that would lead internationally. Therefore, Professor He was another candidate for Academician. The Genetics Laboratory was also a significant member of Yang Ping¡¯s Spatial Orientation Gene research, and its achievements in gene function analysis were substantial. By such reasoning, the laboratory director Lin Lan was a solid candidate for Academician. It seemed Principal Ruo had a few more significant tasks to accomplish before retirement. He had an even bolder idea that Yang Ping¡¯s Spatial Orientation Gene theory was entirely qualified to compete for the Nobel Prize. If Nandu Medical University could produce a Nobel Prize winner, Principal Ruo couldn¡¯t help but feel towering ambition at the thought. ¡ª Whether it be Academicians or the Nobel Prize, since it didn¡¯t require Yang Ping¡¯s personal worry and he was willing, it was good news. Not only could it earn him a large number of points, but it would also allow his medical skills to benefit more people. As Director Han said, ¡°Our goal is to heal the wounded and rescue the dying, not to chase after awards. But these prizes can make more people aware of us, trust us, so our medical skills can benefit more people. Winning awards is akin to indirectly expanding the audience for our lifesaving efforts.¡± Yang Ping agreed with this logic, just as his father always told him, ¡°Money is not excrement; its power is extensive, but one must love money in an honorable way, through proper means. With a lot of money, one can help more people.¡± Yang Ping also considered his current research achievements and papers. Whether it was for competing for the Nobel Prize or for the Academician selection, his qualifications were more than sufficient. However, Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to waste time on these matters. Now, he didn¡¯t need to spend his time on them at all; at most, he would just sign some paperwork. Yang Ping was a very practical person. What could be more practical than this? Just signing a few names could earn him a large number of points and potentially expand the audience for his lifesaving efforts. There was something more important than competing for the Nobel Prize and Academician status that Yang Ping needed to do now: accompanying his wife to her prenatal check-ups. Regular prenatal check-ups were essential for the health of mother and child. Following the appointment booked in advance, Yang Ping accompanied Xiao Su to her obstetrics check-up. The deputy chief physician responsible for Xiao Su¡¯s prenatal check-up was Chen Xiaoqiao. Chen Xiaoqiao was a young elite of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s gynecology and obstetrics department, and she was on the next list to go to the United States for further studies, at Brigham Women¡¯s Hospital, which ranked first in obstetrics and gynecology in America. With the help of Yang Ping¡¯s social connections, Dean Xia set up a Sanbo Elite Plan, which was divided into three parts. They would send some of the more exceptional young talents from the hospital to the Surgical Research Institute to study under Yang Ping; send young doctors under 35 to top world hospitals for specialist training, lasting three to five years; and send technical backbone personnel aged between 35 and 50 to top world hospitals for one-year advanced studies. The plan was already in motion and progressing well. After all the basic examinations, such as blood tests and surface ultrasound, were completed and all indicators for mother and child were very healthy, Yang Ping and Chen Xiaoqiao scheduled the next prenatal check-up. After the check-up, Yang Ping walked a few laps around the hospital with Xiao Su to chat and get some fresh air. Hearing that Yang Ping was now competing for the Nobel Prize and Academician status, Xiao Su felt very happy. She knew her husband was a genius among geniuses, and it was only a matter of time before he became an Academician, while winning the Nobel was also a possibility. However, she didn¡¯t expect that success would come so fast and that he would now be competing for the Nobel Prize and Academician status. Chapter 1151 - 1151 915 When the Family is Harmonious All ?Chapter 1151: Chapter 915: When the Family is Harmonious, All Goes Well_Part 2 Chapter 1151: Chapter 915: When the Family is Harmonious, All Goes Well_Part 2 This wasn¡¯t about vying for a professional title or becoming an Outstanding Young Talent, but rather contending for the position of an Academician and the Nobel Prize. Xiao Su was wholeheartedly supportive of Yang Ping¡¯s work, telling him to focus on his job without worrying about her and the baby. Having just finished a round, Director Fang called Yang Ping to invite him to the ICU to visit a patient with liver hydatid disease, who had already been admitted to the ICU due to falling into a coma from septic shock. Xiao Su also needed to rest, she instructed Yang Ping to head home early for dinner. Yang Ping accompanied Xiao Su across the sky bridge to the entrance of the community and then headed straight for the ICU. ¡ª The patient with liver hydatid disease was a first-year female student named Jiang Li, only twenty years old. She hadn¡¯t had the chance to undergo surgery when her sepsis suddenly worsened, causing her to fall into a coma. If they forced surgery, she would likely remain on the operating table, Director Fang definitely wouldn¡¯t let that happen. So, the patient was transferred to the ICU, and then consulted with Yang Ping. Yang Ping arrived at the ICU where Director Fang had already been waiting. The patient¡¯s condition was indeed poor, her blood pressure was continuously unstable; it had just risen slightly after anti-shock treatment and then dropped again. ¡°The rupture of the hydatid cysts has caused a severe infection, and the infection hasn¡¯t been brought under control yet,¡± introduced the attending ICU doctor. Yang Ping looked at the CT scan, and acknowledged that it would be very difficult to suppress the sepsis by medical means. A surgical operation was necessary to perform a liver resection, removing all the echinococcus and the infected liver tissue, including the ruptured cysts, and then performing an autotransplant of the healthy liver tissue. ¡°If we operate, the chances of her getting off the table are at best twenty percent,¡± Director Fang was aware of the stakes involved. ¡°The family is very proactive; their financial means are average, but she has many brothers and sisters, and they are quite united. Her older brother came yesterday, saying they would do their utmost. They together raised six hundred thousand yesterday and said the money would be delivered soon,¡± the ICU doctor reported. Director Fang nodded, ¡°That¡¯s workable.¡± Sometimes money can indeed buy life. Not long ago, the ICU treated an elderly man with severe lung infection. Faced with a tough choice, the man¡¯s son had to decide if they would opt for treatment that required the use of ECMO and costly imported medications, with an expense of over two million yuan, mostly out-of-pocket. And even after spending that amount, the outcome was still uncertain. The old man¡¯s son, after sleepless nights, was forced to give up. Coming from an ordinary family, getting two million yuan would mean selling their house. But without the house, his family would face immense financial pressures. After weighing the options multiple times, the son had to give up on his father. Situations like this are common in the ICU, and the doctors were no longer surprised. ¡°Do the family members understand the patient¡¯s condition?¡± Director Fang asked again. If they encountered unreasonable family members, and after exhausting efforts no one was saved, and then the relatives caused trouble, it would be a thankless job. Director Fang had to face these realities. ¡°It¡¯s her older brother and sister-in-law who often come. They seem quite reasonable, especially the sister-in-law who seems a bit extraordinary,¡± replied the ICU doctor, who had many interactions with them and understood them better. ¡°Let¡¯s set a time. I¡¯ll talk to their family personally. Right now, without surgery, there¡¯s no hope. With surgery, there¡¯s still a glimmer of life,¡± Director Fang said. ¡°Professor Yang, what do you think?¡± Director Fang turned to Yang Ping. Yang Ping was still analyzing the CT images. Hearing Director Fang¡¯s question, he said, ¡°Arrange the surgery as soon as possible. We don¡¯t have any other chance.¡± This young girl was lucky to have such a supportive family; the entire extended family was raising money to save her. ¡°There¡¯s no chance without going to the table; on the table, there¡¯s still a thread of hope,¡± said Yang Ping, pointing to the CT images. The physician in charge at the ICU immediately phoned the patient¡¯s older brother, who, fortunately, was already on the hospital premises with his wife, wanting to learn about the patient¡¯s latest condition. After about fifteen minutes, the patient¡¯s brother and sister-in-law appeared in the ICU¡¯s meeting room. Director Fang personally discussed with them the surgery¡¯s details. Director Fang was the one communicating with the patient¡¯s brother and sister-in-law, Yang Ping and the ICU doctor listened, adding content only when necessary. Director Fang went over the general condition of the illness. Liver hydatid disease is a type of parasitic disease, a zoonotic parasite ailment. It is caused by the liver tapeworm larvae residing in the liver and is also known as liver echinococcosis. The parasites have now corroded most of the liver tissue, including surrounding tissues, having advanced upwards into the chest cavity and downwards, attacking the intestinal tract and others, and the blood vessels at the hepatic portal are also severely affected. The cysts are now ruptured, leading to severe infections resulting in septic shock. ¡°Right now, surgery is the only chance to save her, but the probability of success isn¡¯t very high, about twenty percent. To put it plainly, without surgery, there¡¯s no hope, with surgery, there¡¯s only a twenty percent chance. It¡¯s possible to lose everything. I estimate the costs before and after to definitely be over one million, so we want to hear the family¡¯s thoughts,¡± Director Fang, adept in negotiations, knew that nowadays, doctors needed to have some negotiation skills to survive in their field. The patient¡¯s brother hesitated, unable to make a quick decision. It was his wife who was resolute, ¡°Doctor, even if there¡¯s only the slightest chance, please do your utmost. Don¡¯t worry about the money; I¡¯ve already raised sixty thousand, and I¡¯ll make the payment shortly. We¡¯ll keep raising funds. I can assure you that raising two million won¡¯t be an issue.¡± This woman was quite determined; Director Fang was curious about what she did for a living, but it wasn¡¯t the right moment to ask. Chapter 1152 - 1152 915 Family Harmony Brings Prosperity_3 ?Chapter 1152: Chapter 915 Family Harmony Brings Prosperity_3 Chapter 1152: Chapter 915 Family Harmony Brings Prosperity_3 ¡°Well then, given the seriousness and complexity of the illness, I must reiterate that even with so much money invested, it¡¯s very possible to end up with nothing to show for it, both financially and personally. The success rate of the surgery is at most 20%, and even after the surgery there are numerous risks,¡± Director Fang emphasized this point strongly. Clear communication in advance was crucial; otherwise, if problems arose after the surgery and the family didn¡¯t understand, there would likely be disputes. ¡°We understand, Doctor, don¡¯t worry. We can set a time to call all the siblings over and sign the power of attorney on the spot, entrusting us to represent all family members in discussions with you, Director Fang. Plus, you can record the conversation on audio and video. In short, our attitude is very clear and firm¡ªwe must fight for every glimmer of hope,¡± said the sister-in-law with great clarity. ¡°Right!¡± the brother affirmed at her side. It seemed that although the brother was the nominal head of the large family, the actual decision-maker was likely the sister-in-law. She appeared quite ordinary, but she was decisive in speech and action. Since the family was so determined and spoke so well, Director Fang decided to go for it. He glanced at Yang Ping, who had been silent next to him. Yang Ping was still reviewing the patient¡¯s medical records: ¡°Arrange emergency surgery as soon as possible; the patient can¡¯t hold on much longer.¡± ¡°Right now?¡± ¡°Of course right now, otherwise what¡¯s the point of calling it emergency surgery.¡± ¡°Including Jiang Li, my husband has seven siblings, all of whom are in this city. I¡¯ll get them to come over now. Husband, call them quickly,¡± said the sister-in-law without a moment¡¯s hesitation, and the brother immediately made calls to summon them. ¡°You sign the papers first, and when they arrive, they can add their signatures. Saving a life is a race against time,¡± said Yang Ping. The ICU attending doctor immediately brought out a stack of consent forms that needed signing. After reviewing them, the patient¡¯s brother passed them to his wife, and after she read them, the brother signed his name without hesitation. ¡°We should make the payment then¡ªcan we pay tonight?¡± ¡°Yes, there is an emergency service window on duty.¡± Yang Ping had a feeling that this family¡¯s sister-in-law was rather visionary and would later learn that the family was not wealthy. The elder brother and sister-in-law made a living selling tofu, supplying the market stalls with various soy products. In reality, they were earning a modest living through hard work. The siblings had all gone out to work after middle or high school until the elder brother and his wife started the tofu business and gradually prospered. The sister-in-law was visionary, taking good care of the other siblings along with her husband. They embraced a philosophy of prospering together, bringing all their siblings into the business. Not only did they help with renting residences and sharing business expertise, but they also loaned money to their siblings for start-up capital. Some of the siblings sold fruit, some pork, others vegetables, and some dry goods. Although they were not rich, they were all doing well, each having settled in the Provincial City with houses and cars. Jiang Li, the younger sister-in-law, also went to university with financial help gathered by her elder sister-in-law. Now, faced with this situation, as soon as the elder brother and sister-in-law gave the word, the siblings didn¡¯t hesitate to contribute money. The first installment of six hundred thousand had already been collected, with more than a million expected to be gathered in the next few days. It was said that the elder sister-in-law didn¡¯t stop there. She looked after the children of her siblings, spending money to hire good teachers to give private lessons secretly in a house she had set aside. As someone who hadn¡¯t received much formal education herself, she hoped that the next generation would all attend university. The siblings were happy to follow the lead of their elder brother and sister-in-law, uniting the family as one. The saying ¡°A harmonious family leads to prosperity¡± was indeed true and this close-knit group of siblings was a rare sight. Gradually, the siblings all arrived at the ICU. They had initially planned to visit their younger sister together, but worried about crowding, they let the elder brother and sister-in-law represent them. During the signing process, not a single sibling showed reluctance or opposition; all of them signed the document without hesitation. Chapter 1153 - 1153 916 Director Im not feeling well ?Chapter 1153: Chapter 916: Director, I¡¯m not feeling well Chapter 1153: Chapter 916: Director, I¡¯m not feeling well Since the family members had all arrived, Director Fang, being cautious, took the opportunity of the ongoing video recording to speak with the family members again. He explained every detail of the surgical informed consent thoroughly, making sure that they understood before allowing Jiang Li¡¯s family representative¡ªher elder brother¡ªto sign and leave a fingerprint. Furthermore, he asked the other siblings to supplement the signing with a formal letter of authorization, indicating that all the brothers and sisters entrusted all decision-making authority regarding Jiang Li¡¯s medical treatment at the hospital to her eldest brother. This legal precaution ensured they were fully equipped to handle any situation, even if the relatives changed their story post-op. Doctors now have to be extra careful; it¡¯s easy to fall into a trap in today¡¯s society, which has been complicated by a few rotten elements. With the preoperative signing complete, Director Fang mentally checked for any oversights. An extra level of caution can make a lifetime of difference, being relevant both to the meticulousness of the surgery and to the surgical process itself. Once confident there were no loopholes, Director Fang instructed the ICU¡¯s chief physician to arrange the surgery. The chief physician started contacting the operating room¡¯s duty nurse to notify them of the surgery, while the ICU ward¡¯s nurses began the preoperative preparations to transfer the patient to the operating room. Parasites are generally divided into helminths and protozoa, with liver hydatids belonging to the former category. Liver hydatid disease is relatively rare in the southern regions; it is more prevalent in the northwestern provinces of China, such as Xinjiang, Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet. Among these, Naqu in Tibet has the highest incidence rate. The process of treating the disease generally goes like this: As helminths, canine tapeworms reside within the intestines of dogs. The eggs they release in feces often stick to the fur of animals like dogs and sheep. Humans may become infected if they consume food contaminated with these eggs. Once ingested, the eggs enter the gastrointestinal tract where, under the influence of digestive fluids, the larvae hatch, penetrate the intestinal mucosa, and enter the portal vein system. They travel through the portal vein into the liver, where most of the larvae remain. Within three weeks inside the body, the larvae develop into hydatid cysts. These growing cysts in the liver gradually enlarge, causing compression symptoms in neighboring organs, which can lead to obstruction, infection, and even rupture and dissemination of the cysts. From her medical history, it appears Jiang Li had traveled to the pastoral region of Naqu, Tibet, where she may have contracted liver hydatid disease. However, as her visit was a year ago, and assuming this timeline, the disease has developed in only one year. Yet it has already eroded most of her liver and invaded the abdominal and thoracic cavities, suggesting an unusually rapid progression of the disease. This is merely a conjecture based on epidemiology. Nowadays, with greater animal mobility and an increase in urban stray animals, sporadic cases can also emerge in non-endemic areas. Cyst rupture into the abdominal cavity is a rare complication of liver hydatid disease. Once the cyst bursts into the cavity, the cystic fluid, which contains a large amount of foreign protein, can cause a severe allergic reaction, leading to peritonitis and anaphylactic shock. CT imaging is the common method for diagnosing this condition, and the CT signs indicative of an acute abdominal emergency due to a ruptured liver cyst are the ¡°serpent sign¡± and ¡°water lily sign.¡± These characteristic imaging descriptions were first detailed by European doctors in 1990 and 1991. Jiang Li is currently in shock, and there are two potential causes: infectious shock and anaphylactic shock, which are intertwined, making treatment very difficult. Relying solely on medication is almost impossible; emergency surgery is imperative to remove the liver hydatids, the sections of liver tissue eroded by the parasite, the ruptured cysts, and the disseminated cystic fluid. Only by thoroughly eliminating the pathogen, and with adjunctive anti-shock therapy during and after the surgery, is there hope to save Jiang Li¡¯s life. Getting home in time for dinner was not an option. Yang Ping called Xiao Su to explain the situation, asking his family not to wait for him. With everything in place, Yang Ping and Director Fang hurried to the operating room. Director Fang had brought some dry food, which they ate quickly in the changing room before immediately changing into their surgical gowns. Since the Surgical Research Institute had its own operating room, Yang Ping rarely conducted surgeries on this side. Upon hearing that Yang Ping was coming to operate here, everyone was very excited¡ªlegendary figures are worshipped anywhere they go. Besides, whether it¡¯s the anesthesiologists or the operating room nurses, everyone aspires to work at the Institute, as not only is the pay better, but the experience gained there is extremely valuable. One could easily choose their next job. Now, the Institute is not only a national leader but a world leader in the field. Take for instance Anesthesiologist Liang Fatty, who had recently started dating a flight attendant¡ªcommon knowledge at Sanbo Hospital. The anesthesiologist circle was abuzz with talks about how Liang Fatty had struck it rich by working with Yang Ping, not just earning money but also gaining access to vast resources, and he had a boundless future ahead. Without a decent amount of money, engaging in a romance with a flight attendant wouldn¡¯t have been possible. As for Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, and Little Five, they were the envy of the entire hospital. It was public knowledge that Yang Ping was preparing to be nominated for Academician and the Nobel Prize. Following this trend, it was only a matter of time before Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang became Academicians, and the newcomer Tang Shun was also destined to become one. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± The anesthesiologists and operating room nurses politely greeted Yang Ping as he arrived, with more people gradually gathering in the operating room. Most of the doctors from the General Surgery Department were there to observe Yang Ping¡¯s surgery, as opportunities to closely watch him operate were rare. The patrolling nurse, out of respect for Yang Ping, didn¡¯t feel it was proper to send people away, so she tacitly allowed them to gather in the operating room. Fortunately, the doctors were quite understanding and conscious of sterile practices, doing their best not to cause any trouble for the operating room. Chapter 1154 - 1154 916 Director Im Feeling a Bit Unwell_2 ?Chapter 1154: Chapter 916: Director, I¡¯m Feeling a Bit Unwell_2 Chapter 1154: Chapter 916: Director, I¡¯m Feeling a Bit Unwell_2 As soon as Yang Ping arrived, everyone prepared to move a stool for him to sit, but a sharp-eyed patrolling nurse hurriedly delivered a stool. ¡°Blood pressure is not very stable and keeps failing to rise,¡± the anesthesiologist said with concern. At this point, it was a case of trying to save a dying animal; with severe shock, if surgery wasn¡¯t performed to remove the lesion, the blood pressure would never rise. ¡°With unstable blood pressure, we need to speed up the surgery as much as possible,¡± Yang Ping nodded. Director Fang was well aware of his limitations; the difficulty of such surgery was immense, and if he were to be the chief surgeon with Yang Ping¡¯s guidance, he would certainly not be as quick as Yang Ping. Now was not the time for study when a life was at stake, and Director Fang had the sense to recognize that. ¡°Professor, you take the lead!¡± Director Fang was not afraid of taking responsibility; he truly feared that his own speed would delay the treatment. Elective surgeries could be performed slowly, as long as the duration was not too excessive and the quality assured, which generally would not affect the surgical results. But in emergency surgeries, every second counted, and how could he afford to be slow? A minute faster or slower could mean the difference between life and death. ¡°I¡¯ll do it! The patient¡¯s blood pressure keeps failing to rise; this low perfusion state, if maintained, will soon lead to multiple organ failures.¡± Yang Ping decided to be the chief surgeon himself, aiming for a swift and decisive operation. Graduate student Xiao Chen, mentored by Director Fang, along with another young doctor, had already scrubbed their hands, and they began to disinfect and spread the drapes. Yang Ping had consistently maintained regular surgical training in the System Operating Room, so his research hadn¡¯t detracted from his surgical practice; his surgical skills continued to improve. Moreover, the cases used for System Operating Room training were becoming increasingly difficult. For a complex and challenging surgery like Jiang Li¡¯s, Yang Ping previously needed the simulation capabilities of the System Space, but now he no longer needed the simulation feature. What were considered complex cases in reality were, for Yang Ping, merely simple surgeries. The preparations for the surgery were nearly complete, and Yang Ping and Director Fang went to scrub in and dress for surgery. ¡°Dr. Luo, please keep a close watch on the blood pressure,¡± Yang Ping requested of the anesthesiologist, Dr. Luo. ¡°Don¡¯t worry!¡± Anesthesiologist Dr. Luo may have said not to worry, but he felt uneasy inside. Dr. Luo was about the same age as Liang Fatty; he was under tremendous pressure, initially hoping to impress in front of Yang Ping and perhaps be handpicked by Professor Yang for the Surgical Research Institute, a move that would propel his career to new heights. However, the very first surgery he was assisting Professor Yang with was under these circumstances, not conducive to showcasing his skills. What if a life-threatening situation arose during the procedure? Yang Ping used a right upper abdominal rectus incision, cutting through layer by layer until he reached the abdominal cavity. ¡°I heard she¡¯s been to Nagchu in Tibet? That¡¯s the place with the highest incidence of liver hydatid disease in the world.¡± ¡°There¡¯s an anesthesiologist from our department who just went on a mission to Tibet, particularly to Nagchu.¡± ¡°Actually, some parasitic diseases are not just contracted from high-risk areas but also from eating raw animal meats.¡± ¡°After administering anesthesia to a patient with cerebral cysticercosis once, I¡¯ve never dared to eat raw fish slices again.¡± ¡°And yet many people still eat them.¡± The anesthesiologist and the patrolling nurse were chatting. Professor Yang¡¯s surgery was swift and steady, inspiring confidence in those who watched. The liver was exposed, a massive and misshapen organ filling the entire surgical field, pushing the surrounding organs to one side. Yang Ping used a suction tube to remove cystic fluids that had leaked into the abdominal cavity, which had triggered peritonitis and consequently an allergic shock. The ruptured cyst was only a portion of the problem, there were also remaining unruptured cysts. Yang Ping continued the separation; these white cysts of various sizes were crammed together, bulging and densely packed, a sight that made one¡¯s scalp tingle ¡ª although Yang Ping himself was unfazed. This was not a liver; it was a veritable nest of parasites. As an experienced hand, Director Fang served as an assistant, but the two younger doctors assisting him were witnessing such a scene for the first time, feeling an extreme discomfort inside. The young Doctor serving as the assistant, Xiao Zhou, was already feeling his stomach churn as if acid was constantly welling up. Sweat began to seep from his forehead, though he was embarrassed to mention it. Finally, Xiao Zhou could no longer bear it, ¡°Director, I¡¯m feeling a bit unwell!¡± Seeing the slight sweat on his forehead, Director Fang knew that this was nausea from the disturbing images of the surgical field, ¡°How embarrassing is that? You¡¯re still involved in surgery and you have no immunity like this! Go and rest aside, and don¡¯t come back until you¡¯ve got a grip.¡± Director Fang spoke impatiently; he was most annoyed with such squeamish students who couldn¡¯t hold their ground even in the face of a slightly disgusting scene. With no other option and incapable of holding it any longer¡ªwhich would not have been good if he were to vomit on the Operating Table¡ªXiao Zhou hurriedly stepped down, and another Graduate Student immediately went to scrub in and fill the gap. Liver hydatid disease was not as horrific as cysticercosis. Anyone with a phobia of clusters would faint upon seeing the X-rays of cysticercosis because the X-rays showed dense, fibrous masses of white cysticerci calcifications in the patient¡¯s muscles of the limbs. Such X-rays, once seen, are never forgotten. As the dissection progressed, the liver and surrounding tissues eroded by the hydatids were quickly exposed. Inside were all white follicle-like hydatid cysts, pressing against each other, looking extremely horrifying. This was no longer a liver, but a mass of worms and cysts: countless white objects, indistinguishable as worms or cysts, were crowded and piled together. ¡°When I was a child in the countryside and went to the toilet, I saw heaps of maggots rolling over each other. That¡¯s the same feeling I¡¯m getting now. I think some people actually eat maggots for food.¡± Director Fang¡¯s Graduate Student, Xiao Chen, calmly stated. Hearing Dr. Chen speak like this, Xiao Zhou, whose stomach had only just settled, now felt it churn again. He simply could not help but start to retch in a corner, prompting Director Fang to look up and say, ¡°Who will accompany him outside for a break? As a Surgeon, one must be immune to these things. You should be indifferent to the sight and ideally be able to eat a bowl of pig liver after the Surgery¡ªthat¡¯s the mark of qualification.¡± Turning his head, Director Fang also scolded Dr. Chen, ¡°Could you please talk less and not only choose the most disgusting things to say? The maggot you¡¯re talking about is meat maggot, which is cultivated under sanitary conditions. Is that the same as the maggots in your toilet with the feces? Your brain seems to be infested with maggots.¡± ¡°Director, I was just speaking my mind,¡± Xiao Chen hurriedly explained. ¡°I¡¯m begging both of you, could you please not talk about this? I¡¯m feeling like vomiting right now.¡± The Patrolling Nurse immediately stopped Director Fang from continuing this nauseating topic. The liver has many blood vessels, and due to the extensive hydatid erosion, it is easy to accidentally damage a vessel and cause significant bleeding. The three hepatic portal veins and nerves are complex and interwoven. Yet, Yang Ping¡¯s dissection was exceedingly skillful. He had encountered all sorts of pathological dissections, so this Surgery appeared quite effortless to him. In pursuit of speed, Yang Ping¡¯s actions were rapid. When Director Fang could not keep up with the rhythm, Yang Ping had no choice but to proceed on his own. Suddenly, before Director Fang could react, Yang Ping had already dissected the entire liver. With the removal of the liver, his view became much clearer, making it easier to remove the surrounding hydatid-affected tissues. Yang Ping directed Director Fang to another Sterile table to process the excised liver, trimming off the affected lobes and preserving the healthy ones for autotransplantation. Meanwhile, he and Dr. Chen dealt with the hydatid-infested tissue in the abdominal and thoracic cavities. To avoid contaminating the normal organs and tissue, Yang Ping carefully isolated the surgical field from the surroundings with gauze. How could this girl be so severely ill? What number of years had it developed to reach this stage? It had only been a year since his trip to Tibet; how could the illness have progressed so rapidly? Yang Ping opened the diaphragm upward, entering the chest cavity, allowing for an easy cleanup of all the hydatids, cysts, and invaded tissues in front, behind, left, right, above, and below the liver. He then thoroughly rinsed the area with saline solution. Afterward, Yang Ping and Director Fang worked together on the liver. Director Fang was already familiar with autotransplantation of the liver, which included clustering organ transplantation from within the abdominal cavity. If not for the time constraints, Director Fang would have really liked to be the Chief Surgeon on this case. However, by working with Yang Ping, Director Fang was also able to learn a great deal. Autotransplantation of the liver was considered an extremely difficult Surgery for others, but it was quite simple for Yang Ping. It was merely a matter of anastomosing a few ducts, including several blood vessels and a bile duct. Regardless of whether it¡¯s an allogenic or autologous liver transplant, to minimize the risk of bile stasis, Yang Ping not only anastomosed the bile duct but also meticulously anastomosed the tiny bile ducts. This ensured the most unobstructed bile duct system possible, reducing the chance of complications associated with bile stasis to a minimum. As for the anastomosis of the hepatic veins, Yang Ping was also very meticulous. He considered not only the number of vein connections but also strived to maintain the pressure of the original hepatic vein circulation. At the Sterile table, Yang Ping and Director Fang swiftly completed the liver lobectomy. Out of the liver¡¯s five lobes, only two healthy ones remained. Now, these two lobes were about to be replanted in the patient to continue functioning. Chapter 1155 - 1155 917 Ambushed ?Chapter 1155: Chapter 917: Ambushed Chapter 1155: Chapter 917: Ambushed Director Fang could no longer find the words to describe Professor Yang¡¯s surgical skills. If there ever were a divine doctor in this world, Professor Yang would surely be one. If such speed and quality of surgery cannot save Jiang Li, then it can only be said that it was her fate to not escape this calamity. The liver tissue that had been eroded by the liver hydatid was removed, and the remaining healthy liver tissue was only about 25%, which was exactly at the critical threshold. Unlike other organs, the liver has a vigorous regenerative capacity. Generally, a healthy person can maintain a normal life if only 25% of their liver volume is retained. Relying on this remaining 25%, with its powerful regenerative ability, it can recover to the preoperative level within 2-3 weeks, growing back to its normal size, and both volume and weight can return to normal levels. This is why it¡¯s possible to perform live-donor liver transplants, because the person providing the liver experiences almost no effects after a part of their liver is removed. The reason kidneys can be also donated while alive is that people have two of them, and a healthy person can live normally with just one kidney, allowing them to donate the other and still lead a normal life. Hearts cannot be donated while the donor is alive, as a person only has one heart, and one would have no heart left to give. When Yang Ping operated at his extreme speed, Director Fang was definitely unable to keep pace, hardly able to do more than help trim threads, so the surgery was almost entirely performed by Yang Ping himself. Two hours later, the surgery was finished. All liver tissue and other tissues affected by the liver hydatid, as well as the cyst fluid that had leaked out, were thoroughly cleaned, leaving not a trace behind. Yang Ping handed over the finishing tasks to Director Fang. Although the patient¡¯s blood pressure hadn¡¯t risen, it had not fallen either, so at least leaving the operating table alive wasn¡¯t a problem. Dr. Luo, the anesthesiologist, let out a sigh of relief. Throughout the surgery, he had been terrified of complications because any problems might mean he¡¯d never have the opportunity to work at the Surgical Research Institute again. Thankfully, the patient¡¯s blood pressure didn¡¯t drop, but Dr. Luo was still worried about the difficult case. He wondered about his own performance in Professor Yang¡¯s eyes and whether he had left a good impression. Graduate student Zhou, who had been taken outside by his classmates, vomited profusely in the restroom and finally regained his composure. Now weak and listless, he returned to the operating room. ¡°This won¡¯t do. You lack the basic qualifications for surgery.¡± Director Fang had just finished up, and while taking off his surgical gown, he saw the delicate graduate student enter and scolded him again. Director Fang was known for his fondness for scolding at Sanbo Hospital. All graduate students and standardized training students who had been to the General Surgery Department knew it. But Director Fang was also known for his generosity. He would always give some pocket money to the hardworking graduate students and standardized training students in private. In short, apart from his sharp tongue, he was generally rather considerate towards young doctors. ¡°It¡¯s okay, you¡¯ll become desensitized after watching a few more times,¡± said Yang Ping, who had already removed his surgical gown. Back in the day, Song Zimo had had a severe fear of blood, yet now he had become an excellent surgeon. These things just required one to be tough on oneself, to actively expose oneself to these ¡®allergens.¡¯ With time and repeated exposure, one naturally becomes desensitized. Zhou walked over to the sterile table holding the excised liver to take a closer look, but the sight of that mass was even more disgusting than what he¡¯d seen on the operating table, causing another wave of nausea as his stomach churned uncomfortably. His face turned ashen, and he nearly ran out, probably unable to hold back from vomiting again. ¡°Xiao Chen!¡± Director Fang called his graduate student. Dr. Chen, who was taking off his surgical gown, looked up, uncertain of what his mentor might require. After thinking, Director Fang said, ¡°Tomorrow, pull some X-rays of hydatid disease of the lower limbs for him to see, preferably of the thigh. Let him have a good look, to desensitize him a bit. How can someone work in general surgery like this? How will he ever be able to hold a scalpel?¡± Dr. Chen took the instruction from his mentor seriously. He immediately ran to the computer in the operating room, logged in with his work ID, and pulled up an X-ray of the bilateral thigh in anteroposterior and lateral views, a clear image of hydatid disease. The entire thigh was filled with dense, small white spots, extremely crowded, a series of lines and dots, enough to make anyone¡¯s skin crawl. ¡°Director! Is it this sort?¡± Dr. Chen had pulled up the X-rays only to confirm with his mentor to avoid any mistakes. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s the kind.¡± Director Fang glanced at the X-ray and nodded with satisfaction. ¡°What are you doing!¡± The patrolling nurse, seeing the image, couldn¡¯t help but feel a tingling scalp. It seemed to her like these people were intentionally tormenting someone, first maggots and now hydatids, as if they wouldn¡¯t rest until they made others vomit. But the patrolling nurse wasn¡¯t going to be defeated so easily, or else she¡¯d become the butt of jokes. To prove her tolerance to disgusting sights, she deliberately walked up to the computer screen and stared at the X-ray, as if to say she wasn¡¯t afraid of their X-ray. However, this X-ray was indeed disturbing, causing goosebumps and making hairs stand on end. A brief glance was enough; she couldn¡¯t look too long. The patrolling nurse symbolically peered at it for a few moments then quickly moved away, feeling a bit queasy from the sight. The surgery for Jiang Li was complete, and her treatment was now in the hands of ICU. Whether she could eventually pull through remained uncertain. Surgery was just one part of it. She had many more hurdles to pass through ¨C whether the shock could be reversed, whether multiple organ failure would occur, and so on; all of it was still unknown. But as for the surgery itself, Yang Ping had done everything to the utmost extent. When Jiang Li was wheeled out of ICU, it was already past nine o¡¯clock at night. All six of her siblings were waiting for her at the operating room doors. Her eldest brother and sister-in-law quickly approached, carrying a bag, and eagerly asked about the surgery. Hearing that it had gone very successfully, they were all relieved and happy. Chapter 1156 - 1156 917 Attacked_2 ?Chapter 1156: Chapter 917: Attacked_2 Chapter 1156: Chapter 917: Attacked_2 Jiang Li¡¯s liver and other affected areas, before being sent to the Pathology Department, were shown to Jiang Li¡¯s family by Doctor Chen. They all covered their mouths in distress, though Doctor Chen only briefly showed them as a symbolic gesture before letting the nurse send them to the Pathology Department. Jiang Li¡¯s family could hardly believe that so many parasites had been hiding in their sister¡¯s body, each of them turning pale and feeling nauseous. Yang Ping also needed to rest, as there was another day of surgeries tomorrow, including Bao Junhao¡¯s surgery. ¡ª The next day, three surgeries were carried out simultaneously at the Surgical Research Institute. Due to a shortage of anesthesiologists, one was called in from the main operating room¡¯s anesthesia department to assist. Last night¡¯s anesthesiologist, Dr. Luo, who graduated with Liang Fatty from Huaxi as doctors, was preferred by Yang Ping, who specifically requested Dr. Luo¡¯s assistance. However, since Dr. Luo was off after a night shift, Yang Ping had to let the head of the anesthesia department arrange for another doctor. For Yang Ping, Bao Junhao¡¯s surgery was not difficult. These surgeries had become routine; he had already accumulated hundreds of cases to date, with significant examples like the football star Luo Jin who, after the surgery, was playing well in Europe. If not for Yang Ping, Luo Jin would have retired from the field long ago. Consequently, now Luo Jin often called Yang Ping during holidays, having become good friends. Bao Yulou was immensely worried for his son. When the doors of the Operating Room opened and Bao Junhao was wheeled out, Old Bao felt as if a massive weight had been lifted off his chest. Finally, his son¡¯s surgery was completed¡ªa major event for the Bao Family. The doctor in charge briefly explained the situation of the surgery to Mr. and Mrs. Bao¡ªoverall, the surgery was very successful. Mr. and Mrs. Bao followed their son¡¯s stretcher back to his ward in the Overseas Chinese Building. Once their son was settled in bed, Bao Yulou sat beside him, looking at his son lying in the hospital bed and he sighed with relief. No matter how much of a troublemaker he was, this was his own son. Even though his son often made him angry, seeing his son now with oxygen tubes in his nostrils, he felt a pang of guilt. ¡°The fault of the son is the fault of the father,¡± he thought, blaming himself for being too busy with business to spend time raising his son properly, leading to his son¡¯s arrogant and domineering character. Since an epidural anesthesia was used, Bao Junhao was very alert post-surgery, only needing to lie flat for 6 hours post-operation. Lying in bed, he began to chat with his friends, feeling that today marked his liberation; no longer would he need to bow and scrape. Bao Junhao thought of this period as the most stifling time of his life, and now it was finally over. With Bao Junhao¡¯s temperament, he couldn¡¯t endure such treatment, this grievance must be avenged. Thus, right after the surgery, Bao Junhao started chatting on WeChat with a few close buddies. ¡°Brother Hao, the brothers are all bottling up their anger. When can we make a move?¡± ¡°From now on, any time.¡± ¡°Received, we have his daily routine down clearly, just waiting for your word.¡± ¡°Remember, don¡¯t kill him. Just cripple an arm, and make sure no one knows it was us.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the people I¡¯ve arranged are reliable, but if we don¡¯t claim it, how will others fear us?¡± ¡°If they find out it was my doing, my Old Dou will skin me alive.¡± ¡°What are you scared of, your Old Dou only has you as a son, what can he do to you? Look at me, last time I messed up, my Old Dou still covered for me. Brother Hao, you¡¯re worried about a doctor of all people, that¡¯s not like you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right, let¡¯s claim it. The worst he can do is scold us, what else?¡± ¡°Brother Hao is mighty, that¡¯s the way to be. In this territory, if anyone wants Brother Hao to bow, they must be wishing for death.¡± ¡°I want his right hand; the old man wants him to never pick up a knife in his life.¡± This group of thrill-seeking friends had longed for such exciting work, how could they not be excited, having waited for this day for so long? Mr. and Mrs. Bao wanted to express their gratitude by inviting Yang Ping and the medical staff of the department to a meal, but Yang Ping would certainly decline. Thus, Mrs. Bao was arranging to buy fruit baskets for the doctors and nurses to express their gratitude. Meanwhile, Bao Yulou thought of making another donation to Yang Ping¡¯s Research Fund. Building a connection with a doctor like Yang Ping was all advantage and no harm; life and death are natural laws, and having a ¡°miracle doctor¡± as a friend was a blessing, as evidenced by the example of Guo Jingyao. Heard that his father still behaved subserviently, Bao Junhao was displeased, but he kept his feelings to himself to avoid raising his father¡¯s suspicions and jeopardizing his plans. ¡ª After work in the afternoon, Yang Ping hurried to Liquan Hospital where Su Nanchen needed guidance on a surgery. Normally, it was Su Nanchen who performed surgeries at Liquan Hospital, taking advantage of his free time after work or during weekends. Today, he probably faced an exceptionally challenging surgery that required Yang Ping¡¯s guidance. Boss Cheng¡¯s new hospital area was under renovation. Once completed, they would move there, but currently, the over 100 beds here were completely overwhelmed, always fully occupied, with patients from Southeast Asia and Europe and America lining up for months. Especially numerous were patients with cervical disorders, lumbar disc herniation, and shoulder and knee joint pain. Among the wealthy groups in Southeast Asia and Europe and America, Guo Jingyao was a walking advertisement; influenced by this advertisement, a large number of wealthy individuals purchased Anning¡¯s insurance and then came to Liquan Hospital for surgeries. As a public hospital, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s wards and services certainly couldn¡¯t meet the expectations of these wealthy patients, and Liquan Hospital just filled this gap perfectly. Although the surgery costs here could easily reach millions or tens of millions, for the tycoons, it was merely a trifle. As long as your medical skills are outstanding, these tycoons really don¡¯t care about the money. Boss Cheng had the right idea, using the high medical fees to earn money from wealthy people around the world, and then taking a portion of that money to perform charity work, providing free surgeries for some impoverished patients. Obtaining economic benefits from the rich and social benefits from the poor was Boss Cheng¡¯s strategy. After completing the surgery, Yang Ping declined Boss Chen¡¯s dinner invitation, hastily returning to have dinner with Xiao Su. His current mode of transport was that Hongqi Sedan; each time he went out, Sisi¡¯s father would act as his chauffeur, accompanied by the brothers Dashun and Ershun. The Hongqi Sedan had not yet left the parking lot of Liquan Hospital when it was intercepted at the gate by another vehicle. From inside the car, Dashun said, ¡°Go and check, be careful.¡± With their vast experience, Dashun and Ershun immediately knew it was a deliberate attempt to stop the car; Ershun got out. From all directions, more than a dozen people emerged, carrying steel pipes and long knives, and started surrounding them. ¡°Get Yang Ping out of the car!¡± The leader was a young man with a horse-like face, apparently a ruthless character. After so many years of crackdowns on gangsters, such characters still existed; Ershun, smiling, said, ¡°Who are you? Professor Yang is resting, please let us through.¡± ¡°Let us through? Dare to offend our Brother Hao, are you out of your mind? Guys, smash the car, and chop off the right hand of that guy named Yang. Whoever does it gets rewarded one million.¡± Following the leader¡¯s command, more than a dozen men recklessly charged forward. They weren¡¯t just frightening them; they really charged forward to chop and kill. The situation was critical, they outnumbered and were armed, Ershun did not dare to be negligent, and quickly overpowered the horse-faced leader with lightning speed. Almost simultaneously, a dull gunshot sounded; this was Ershun¡¯s warning shot. ¡°Take one more step forward, and I¡¯ll shoot you on the spot!¡± Ershun¡¯s pistol was now pressed against the temple of the horse-faced leader. The thugs initially paused, all stopped, and the horse-faced leader controlled by Ershun shouted with a stifled voice, ¡°Who are you trying to scare, with a toy gun, go ahead and shoot if you dare, don¡¯t be afraid, get them!¡± They really were thugs, empowered by this bold cry, everyone started charging again. ¡°Bang!¡± Almost without hesitation, Ershun shot the thigh of the burly man in front who was swinging a knife, and blood immediately gushed out profusely. Real bullets? The crowd, clearly frightened, immediately retreated a few steps, the encirclement widening, and the man who was shot in the blood pool clutched his wound, his facial muscles painfully contorting. Chapter 1157 - 1157 918 Messed Up Big Time ?Chapter 1157: Chapter 918: Messed Up Big Time Chapter 1157: Chapter 918: Messed Up Big Time At this moment, the car Dashun had arranged to hide in the parking lot suddenly burst out, slamming into the car blocking the way behind and pushing it to the side. Then, swiftly reversing to the side, it cleared a path. Dashun, with Yang Ping in tow, took advantage of this road to instantly reverse and maneuver their car. The driver¡¯s skills were exceptional. Speeding in reverse along the channel, he found a suitable position to stop, then immediately hit the brakes, turned the wheel, and sped out of the parking lot in another direction. By now, the car that had just opened the path for Yang Ping had finished adjusting. Ershun, controlling the horse-faced man with one hand and holding a pistol in the other, took him onto the backup car and drove away from the scene. As long as they had the leader, the rest of the dozen or so thugs didn¡¯t need immediate attention. The entire process took just a few seconds, rapid and fluently coordinated. The besieging thugs didn¡¯t even have time to react before the two cars had vanished without a trace. Several well-trained guards who had come through gunfire and bullets found the situation quite easy to handle. About a dozen thugs stood motionless, looking in the direction of the cars, unsure of what to do next. ¡°Chase them!¡± ¡°Head to Sanbo Hospital to block them!¡± ¡°Quick!¡± Everyone yelled, money was on the line¡ªtwo hundred thousand for showing up, and a million for success. It was like picking up money off the street. ¡°Chase what? They have guns. Run before the police get here.¡± Finally, someone had a clear head. And with that, everyone quickly got into their cars and fled. ¡ª By this time, it was the middle of the night. Bao Junhao was already in a deep sleep in the VIP ward, while Bao Yulou and Mrs. Bao, exhausted, had returned to their villa. Having dealt with their son¡¯s major issue, the couple were naturally happy. They were now pondering how to use money to boost their son¡¯s career. Over the years, to support Bao Junhao¡¯s soccer, Bao Yulou had spent a lot of money. He knew full well the level of his son¡¯s skills; the soccer star status was all bought with money. ¡°These days have been hard on you, get some good rest,¡± Mrs. Bao said, showing concern for her husband. ¡°In the future, when I discipline Junhao, don¡¯t always protect him. That¡¯s not love; it¡¯s spoiling, understand?¡± Bao Yulou sat down while Mrs. Bao brought him a cup of hot water. Hearing this, Mrs. Bao was displeased, placing the cup heavily on the coffee table, ¡°He¡¯s still a child, who doesn¡¯t love their own child? What¡¯s wrong with him? Did he commit murder or arson? What boy isn¡¯t mischievous?¡± ¡°In his twenties, and still a child? Do you know he takes drugs?¡± Bao Yulou was furious, as the couple often argued over their child¡¯s issues. Mrs. Bao replied aggrievedly, ¡°But that¡¯s legal in the United States, isn¡¯t it? It¡¯s like smoking. Junhao is hooked now. He tried to quit before, but it was too painful, and I couldn¡¯t bear it. You might as well think of it as smoking.¡± ¡°This way, you really will harm our child. Not to mention his drug use, his arrogant and domineering attitude, doesn¡¯t he need to change?¡± ¡°Arrogant and domineering? Don¡¯t always judge others by your own standards. It¡¯s called being assertive. Does a boy get by without being a bit assertive?¡± Bao Yulou felt like he might spit blood with frustration. Every time he tried to discipline their child, his wife was always defensive, and now things had come to this. If Bao Junhao had a calm and modest demeanor, would the surgery have been so complicated? It would have been done much sooner, and he would already be playing soccer. How many incidents there had been over the years, one after another, that had caused Old Bao¡¯s blood to boil. Driving a sports car, he had hit a taxi. Apologizing and going through insurance would have been enough, but he slapped a stack of cash in the other party¡¯s face. The other party, feeling insulted and refusing the money, called the police. Bao Junhao beat the man, and when the police arrived, he kicked him a few more times in their presence. Was this proper behavior? He was only nineteen then, just out of high school. From a young age, there had been countless incidents involving the police, always resolved through Mrs. Bao¡¯s tears and threats, forcing Bao Yulou to intervene and mend the situation. ¡°We¡¯re both doing this for our child. Try to understand me a little, and don¡¯t assume you¡¯re always right,¡± Mrs. Bao said softly. No more talking now; it would only lead to another quarrel. Bao Yulou leaned back on the couch, closing his eyes. After a while, still unable to calm down, Bao Yulou felt restless, ¡°Why do I feel so irritable today, as if something¡¯s hanging over me?¡± ¡°It¡¯s all from being tired. You ran around for our son¡¯s surgery, which was unnecessary. You could have let them handle it,¡± Mrs. Bao sat close to Bao Yulou and began to massage his shoulders. Soon, Bao Yulou¡¯s phone rang. After he answered the call, he couldn¡¯t seem to find his words. ¡°Old Bao? Are you alright?¡± Mrs. Bao was shocked at her husband¡¯s expression. After a while, Old Bao finally regained his composure, ¡°Junhao has been arrested by the police. Because he¡¯s just had surgery, they¡¯re considering humanitarian grounds. The police haven¡¯t taken him away, but several officers have been stationed in his ward.¡± ¡°How could this happen? We just left the hospital and everything was fine. What could he possibly have done wrong right after his surgery?¡± Mrs. Bao became anxious upon hearing about Bao Junhao¡¯s trouble. ¡°Do you know what happened?¡± ¡°Not yet, this is just the police¡¯s routine notification to the family. I¡¯ll make a call to inquire,¡± Bao Yulou said. After many years in both political and commercial circles, Bao Yulou had deep connections. And this wasn¡¯t the first such incident, so he calmed his breathing and called a leader from the Provincial Hall in a normal tone, but the leader¡¯s cell phone was engaged. A long time passed before the leader called back Bao Yulou using another phone. Chapter 1158 - 1158 918 Messed Up Big Time_2 ?Chapter 1158: Chapter 918: Messed Up Big Time_2 Chapter 1158: Chapter 918: Messed Up Big Time_2 ¡°Old Bao, your son has really messed up.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s have tea and talk about it.¡± ¡°Forget about meeting up. It¡¯s inconvenient for me to say more now. In the middle of the night, all the leaders at the provincial hall are in an emergency meeting, and the matter has already been urgently reported to the capital. A commissioner from the capital will travel overnight to Nandu just to oversee your son¡¯s case. That¡¯s all I can mention, let¡¯s leave it at that.¡± ¡°Which one? What exactly happened?¡± Drug use wouldn¡¯t be so serious, but if it involves drug trafficking, Old Bao knew his son wouldn¡¯t be foolish to that extent, nor was it necessary. What exactly was it that alarmed the capital? Was it because of his shady friends? Old Bao tried to extract some information from an old friend. ¡°You will naturally find out what it is in due course.¡± ¡°This matter needs your help. This kid is always mischievous.¡± ¡°Old Bao, you might not yet comprehend the current situation. We¡¯ve been friends for many years, so I¡¯ll say a little more. It¡¯s useless trying to get anyone involved; the blunder this time is too severe. If you still regard me as a friend, you¡¯d better not contact me again in the future, as it could lead to misunderstandings.¡± After saying this, the person on the other line immediately hung up. Bao Yulou tried calling back, but the other party¡¯s phone was already turned off. What exactly was going on? Bao Yulou immediately called his assistant, Old Ou, asking him to come over urgently so they could go to Sanbo Hospital together. His son was still at Sanbo Hospital, not yet taken away, considering it was a humanitarian act; he had just had surgery the day before, and there was fear for his life if moved too soon. After 24 hours, once the doctors confirmed there were no problems and he could be discharged, the police would handcuff Bao Junhao and take him away with a hood over his head. ¡°Old Bao? Son¡¯s okay, right? He¡¯s just lying there in the hospital, why would they arrest him?¡± Mrs. Bao said furiously, and immediately burst into tears after speaking. ¡°Old Bao, he¡¯s our only son. You can¡¯t let anything happen to him. If anything goes wrong, I won¡¯t let you off.¡± ¡°Fine, you stay at home. I¡¯ll go to the hospital with Old Ou and first check what¡¯s going on,¡± Old Bao said, looking at the time and preparing to leave. Mrs. Bao wiped her tears, ¡°I want to go too.¡± ¡°If you go, then I won¡¯t,¡± he replied. ¡ª Dean Xia was just about to go to bed when he received the phone call about Yang Ping being attacked, which startled him into a cold sweat. He forgot to change his shoes and rushed to Sanbo Hospital in his house slippers. The first thing he did upon arrival was to check on Yang Ping, and seeing that he was alright finally put his mind at ease. How could such a thing happen when there had been no medical disputes since the establishment of the Surgical Research Institute? It was only when he met with the colleagues from the Provincial Hall¡¯s special task force that he understood the full circumstances. It was a close call; he was relieved there were guards, or else a talented surgeon would have been ruined by having his hand chopped off. Following Dashun¡¯s alert, the Provincial Hall immediately set up a fast-acting special task force. The police were highly efficient, urgently interrogating the captured gang leader caught by Ershun, tracing down the other dozen or so thugs in a city-wide coordinated police action. No one escaped, all were quickly arrested, and the injured thug was sent to the hospital for treatment. The mastermind behind the plot, Bao Junhao¡¯s close friend, was cuffed and taken away from his home villa, while the principal mastermind, Bao Junhao, was detained in the Overseas Chinese Building at Sanbo Hospital. The other people at the hospital were kept in the dark; they only knew something had happened at the Overseas Chinese Building, as many police cars and police officers had arrived. They didn¡¯t think too much about it since it wasn¡¯t the first time the police had come there ¡ª there had been an instance in the past when a bureau chief, while hospitalized, was taken away. Bao Yulou and his secretary arrived at Sanbo Hospital hoping to see his son, but they were not even allowed through the entrance of the Overseas Chinese Building. The police said that relatives could not see the suspect, and that the detention notice could be picked up at the local police station or be mailed directly to their home. Unable to see his son, Bao Yulou wanted to see Yang Ping, but Yang Ping declined. Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to let these matters waste his time or affect his mood; he had many surgeries scheduled for the next day and several important experiments in progress. After much deliberation, Bao Yulou wanted to meet with Dean Xia but was directly denied. Having no other choice, Bao Yulou returned to his car and began calling his political contacts, leaders inside the police community. None answered. Those friends outside the circle, unaware of the details, said they would inquire but after finding out, ceased contact. Still without the detention notice, Bao Yulou remained uninformed of the full situation. Through various efforts, he finally learned the truth: it turned out his son had incited thugs to attack Yang Ping. It was heard that Yang Ping had bodyguards with him, and during the incident, a bodyguard shot and wounded a thug, capturing the gang leader. Having gathered various pieces of information and considering the attitudes of his friends, Old Bao acutely realized that this time was different from before. Not only did the Provincial Hall directly handle the case, but the Capital also supervised it. This time, he had really stirred up a huge mess! Bao Yulou rubbed his brow. His son was truly a source of constant worry. He had just undergone surgery, and despite being repeatedly warned not to cause trouble¡ªnot to cause trouble, not to cause trouble¡ªnow he had caused such a big problem. What to do now? What exactly was Professor Yang¡¯s background? Bao Yulou had known before that Yang Ping was no ordinary man, a top-tier global doctor with extensive connections. Hence, after his son had a conflict with him, Bao Yulou was extremely cautious in handling the matter and took many remedial actions. But now it seemed that Professor Yang¡¯s status far exceeded his own imagination. He had bodyguards, and they were armed. These were no ordinary bodyguards but police guards. Bao Yulou, a man who conducted such extensive business, definitely understood what that meant. At Bao Yulou¡¯s level, his ability to collect intelligence was incomparable to ordinary people. He had multiple channels for gathering information. After another round of intelligence gathering, the information that Yang Ping was Su Qingyun¡¯s son-in-law caught his attention. If the Su Family were in ancient times, they would definitely be considered a noble family. Su Qingyun was just a Dean, but his elder brother, Su Qingshan, was now a major official in the Capital and had previously served in Nandu Province. Could it be¡ª No, that¡¯s not right. Even with that connection, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t be eligible to have police guards with arms. The Su Family was known for their scholarly background, famous for self-discipline, and had an excellent public image. Officially speaking, this family truly was a model of serving the country and the people, without a single flaw to pick on. When Su Qingshan was serving in Nandu Province, he was dedicated to serving the people, sincerely working for the welfare of the people, and locals still mention him today. The more he thought about it, the more complex the issue became. In just this short moment, Bao Yulou¡¯s hair seemed to have whitened further, his head was burning hot; he had never been as worried in business as he was about his son. Now he could only watch how things unfolded. Bao Yulou organized the entire situation in his mind. The background of Yang Ping was undeniable; how could an ordinary person stir up such a commotion? To untie the bell, the person who tied it must be involved. It seemed that to resolve the issue, effort must be focused on Yang Ping, fortunately, neither Yang Ping nor the guards were injured; otherwise, the situation would have become even more complicated. ¡°Old Ou, prepare five billion in funds; I might need it anytime.¡± Bao Yulou instructed his subordinate, Old Ou, to begin making some arrangements for the situation. ¡°Invite authoritative figures from the judiciary to secretly discuss Junhao¡¯s case.¡± The so-called authorities in the judiciary included well-known senior lawyers, retired police bigwigs, and professors of law, among others. Bao Yulou¡¯s purpose in inviting these individuals was very clear: firstly, as a think tank to strategize and secondly, to leverage their connections to exert influence, like the elderly professors in the legal field, many of whose students held significant positions. ¡°At that time, donate ten billion to Professor Yang¡¯s Research Fund at Sanbo Hospital; contact Nandu Medical University, Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1, and Sanbo Hospital to each donate three billion. This matter must be expedited and not delayed, and public relations with these institutions must be well managed.¡± ¡°Also, prepare one billion for charity in Junhao¡¯s name. It is crucial to pay attention to the direction of public opinion and to intervene proactively as much as possible, packaging Junhao into a constantly charitable and diligently striving positive image.¡± ¡°Boss, this is difficult to manage. Junhao¡¯s image has never been that good; he has hurt people on the sports field before.¡± Old Ou felt that this last item was simply unmanageable. Bao Junhao¡¯s public image couldn¡¯t be cleaned no matter how much it was whitewashed, especially now under such urgent conditions. ¡°Try your best!¡± Bao Yulou himself had some self-awareness; washing it a bit was still better than not washing at all. Chapter 1159 - 1159 919 Please Call Me Professor Yang ?Chapter 1159: Chapter 919 Please Call Me Professor Yang Chapter 1159: Chapter 919 Please Call Me Professor Yang All through the night, Bao Yulou didn¡¯t sleep, constantly contemplating what to do about the situation. Usually, a trivial matter might lead to a few words of argument with his wife, but now, facing such a serious matter, he had no desire to argue, and instead was exceptionally quiet. The couple sat in the sitting room of their villa all night, not saying a word to each other. It wasn¡¯t until morning that they spoke. ¡°Old Bao, is the trouble our son has caused this time really that serious?¡± ¡°Very serious, so serious that there¡¯s no easy way out. The Provincial Hall is handling it specifically, and Capital is supervising it. Our son is the mastermind. Fortunately, Professor Yang is alright, or else our son would really be in hot water.¡± Upon hearing of the severe nature of the situation, Mrs. Bao shivered with fear. ¡°How could this be? Old Bao, you must think of something¡ªwe only have one son.¡± ¡°I know that; he¡¯s my son too. Even though he¡¯s been such a scoundrel in various ways, he¡¯s still my son at the end of the day. How could I not try to find a solution? If there¡¯s a way out there, even if it means kneeling, I¡¯d be down on my knees in an instant.¡± ¡°Old Bao¡ªit¡¯s all my fault.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not just your fault, I¡¯m also responsible. Now is not the time to talk about this. Let me think properly about what to do. You don¡¯t need to panic, just take care of yourself, understand? I¡¯ll handle our son¡¯s issues.¡± The breakfast prepared by the housekeeper wasn¡¯t appealing to Bao Yulou and his wife, but running around on an empty stomach was no good either, so Old Bao still ate somewhat mechanically. ¡ª In fact, the incident had not greatly affected Yang Ping¡¯s work and life; he carried on with his duties and surgeries as usual. Dashun and his team deeply reflected on the unexpected incident, summarizing the lessons learned. For a national treasure of Yang Ping¡¯s caliber, security measures could not afford any oversights. Instructions from the higher-ups indicated that Professor Yang¡¯s research results had caused an international sensation. His capabilities in research were epoch-making; he was the world¡¯s leading medical expert. Many international powers were planning to acquire someone of his talent, and to guard against these capital forces from taking bold risks, the security measures must be strengthened. One should not underestimate the desire for control and the dangerous nature of transnational capital. In essence, the guidance was to shed any illusions and prepare for struggle. With this approach in mind, Dashun completely reevaluated the security protocol, arranging undercover posts not only in the hospital but also near Yang Ping¡¯s residence and along his commute routes. The next morning, after checking the ward, Yang Ping decided to visit Bao Junhao at the Overseas Chinese Building. Since the surgery had been under his direction, he intended to personally assess whether Bao Junhao was fit for discharge. If he met the conditions for leaving, it would be better to hand him over to the police sooner to save the hospital bed. When it was heard that Yang Ping would be visiting Bao Junhao, Dashun immediately called on Ershun, ¡°You accompany Professor Yang.¡± Ershun casually picked up a white gown from the security room. After the incident, the security situation had visibly changed. Dashun reported to the higher-ups overnight and brought in twenty-one plainclothes guards, who were stationed at the Surgical Research Institute under the guise of Sanbo Hospital security personnel. These twenty-one individuals were divided into three groups with different responsibilities: some stationed on the first floor, some at key traffic points, and others in the ward area, all forming a rigorously layered defense system. At this moment, the doctors and nurses at the Overseas Chinese Building were also stunned; they did not know exactly what was going on, but they had received an emergency notice from the police stating that Bao Junhao was suspected of criminal activities and had been formally detained. Since his health status post-surgery was not yet clear, out of humanitarian spirit, he was being allowed to remain hospitalized for treatment until he met the conditions for discharge, after which he would be formally arrested and detained. During his stay at the hospital, Bao Junhao would be guarded by the police. The whole incident regarding Yang Ping¡¯s assault was kept confidential because, in fact, the security work primarily targeted hidden enemies and was meant to be as discreet as possible, without attracting too much attention. When Yang Ping arrived at the ward, Bao Junhao, lying in bed, didn¡¯t appear to be in a hurry; he firmly believed this was a minor issue and that his Old Dou would have it well taken care of. From his youth, the occasions that had involved the police weren¡¯t just one or two, and in the end, didn¡¯t they all amount to nothing? ¡°Professor Yang is here for the rounds, please cooperate!¡± The young and efficient police squad leader in charge of surveillance reminded Bao Junhao. ¡°Yang, I¡¯ll see just how long you can be arrogant. Did you call the police, huh? You think calling them will do anything to me? You must not understand the situation,¡± Bao Junhao taunted, gesturing with his fingers from the bed. The policeman standing by his bed immediately restrained Bao Junhao¡¯s hands and put him in handcuffs to prevent any harm to Professor Yang. ¡°Watch your attitude. The doctor is here to make his rounds, and I expect you to cooperate properly.¡± The officer reminded him sternly. Yang Ping waved his hand, signaling to the officer that there was no need for a reminder; he could do as he pleased. ¡°Yang¡ª¡± ¡°Please address me as Professor Yang! Now, I need to check your knee joint mobility. Please move your knee joint.¡± ¡°You think I¡¯m scared of you, huh? Just wait and see; I¡¯ll have you regret this.¡± ¡°Could you please move your knee joint?¡± Yang Ping spoke calmly, never uttering a word unrelated to the medical examination throughout the encounter, refraining from insults or engaging in a verbal one-upmanship¡ªsimply remaining cool and rational, fulfilling his doctor¡¯s responsibilities. Of course, Bao Junhao was uncooperative. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t going to physically examine him but merely observed his involuntary leg movements to roughly gauge that the knee joint mobility was very good and the lower limb muscle strength normal. The electrocardiogram monitoring from after the surgery had not yet ceased. Yang Ping glanced at the monitor screen beside the bed, and his heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration all appeared normal. ¡°The ear temperature this morning was 37 degrees,¡± the nurse reported. Chapter 1160 - 1160 919 Please Call Me Professor Yang_2 ?Chapter 1160: Chapter 919 Please Call Me Professor Yang_2 Chapter 1160: Chapter 919 Please Call Me Professor Yang_2 ¡°How is he doing, can he be discharged from the hospital now? Is there any danger to his life?¡± The officer in charge of the arrest asked. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°After assessing various indicators, Bao Junhao meets the discharge criteria and there is no current danger to his life.¡± ¡°Good!¡± With a look from the officer, the policemen nearby immediately restrained Bao Junhao, put leg cuffs on him, and covered his head with a hood to protect his identity. Organizing a dozen thugs to attack Professor Yang, the thugs carried controlled knives and other lethal weapons, and homemade firearms were found in the crime vehicle. The nature of the case is very heinous; typically, suspects are not required to wear leg cuffs, but this clearly treated Bao Junhao as a highly dangerous suspect. ¡°Drive the car to the entrance downstairs, take the private elevator, get in the car right outside, and try to minimize public impact,¡± the leading officer said decisively. After Bao Junhao was taken away, the remaining police began to search this VIP ward. After checking the ward, Yang Ping returned to the Surgical Research Institute accompanied by Ershun. He noticed that the security of the entire institute had been significantly increased. Every passageway, every node, was guarded by these security in disguise, merely wearing hospital security uniforms. The original few guards in the outpatient lobby had already been replaced with new faces, these were people brought in by Dashun, a different breed entirely. Soon after, the leadership from the Provincial Hall came to Sanbo Hospital personally to visit Yang Ping and apologized for their shortcomings in duty, assuring that such an incident would not happen again. Dashun felt that he had indeed been somewhat negligent. In peaceful times, it¡¯s easy for people to become lax about security, but this wasn¡¯t the case now. Although the violence was sparked by personal grievances, it served as a warning to everyone. Upon investigation, these dozen individuals were desperados, not mere ruffians. The ringleader with a horseface was a habitual criminal with a murder charge from another region. A homemade handgun found in their vehicle at the time of the crime belonged to him. If it hadn¡¯t been for Ershun¡¯s swift judgment of the situation and decisive shooting, relying on hand-to-hand combat against so many armed thugs would have been challenging. Fortunately, Dashun and Ershun were experienced, capable of quickly assessing the situation and controlling the scene, which prevented Yang Ping from being attacked. If Yang Ping had been alone without guards, the consequences would have been unimaginable. During interrogation, it was revealed that these individuals had planned to sever one of Yang Ping¡¯s hands and claim a reward for it; they weren¡¯t just causing a disturbance for fun. A doctor like Yang Ping, whose hands could save countless lives and whose research could benefit many more. A mishap would have been a huge loss for the nation and the world. Bao Junhao actually had the audacity to attempt to chop off Yang Ping¡¯s right hand. This wasn¡¯t just about cutting off a hand; it was about cutting off many people¡¯s lives; it was an outrage. ¡ª Following standard procedures, Bao Yulou met with the police officer handling the case, who briefed him on the basic details of Bao Junhao¡¯s case, involving several charges. Through various efforts and using the Bao Family¡¯s financial resources, a team of legal elites was assembled, including top lawyers, university law professors, and retired police chiefs, who met at a luxury hotel owned by the Bao Family at the agreed time. The gathered individuals were chosen not only for their expertise but also for their connections. For instance, one of the university law professors, Professor He, had many students in key positions within the judiciary. Professor He arrived at the Bao Family¡¯s meeting but refused to go inside the venue, instead speaking to Bao Yulou just outside: ¡°I¡¯m here today without charging you a fee. I didn¡¯t want to come, but since you¡¯ve supported some of my students, I owe you this favor. I¡¯ve looked into your son¡¯s case; it¡¯s not simple. The Capital has already sent people to supervise the case. Any maneuvering by you will only complicate matters further. My advice is to let things take their natural course, as it might be the best outcome. The biggest stroke of luck is that the victim wasn¡¯t hurt, and your son didn¡¯t have a motive for murder, relatively speaking, which is advantageous for him.¡± ¡°Rest assured, the law is fair. From what I understand of the case, saving his life shouldn¡¯t be a problem, but he¡¯s definitely facing prison time. Everyone is equal before the law; consider this a lesson for him. Hopefully, he can learn from this and start anew. I won¡¯t stay for the meal. Attending this meeting doesn¡¯t look good; it might lead to suspicions. But to repay a favor to my students, I decided to come.¡± ¡°I suggest you don¡¯t make pointless efforts; it¡¯s useless. If your son can realize his mistakes and genuinely reform, that would actually be beneficial. I know a bit about your son; consider this a profound real-life lesson. Otherwise, sooner or later, he¡¯ll face even bigger problems.¡± After saying this, Professor He was about to leave, accompanied by his students. ¡°Elder He! Stay for a simple meal.¡± ¡°No need for the meal, Bao Yulou, you¡¯re really not bad. You really need to rein in your son! If not, it might not just be a prison sentence next time.¡± Because this wasn¡¯t the first time Young Master Bao had been in trouble, Elder He was well aware. This time, facing a few years in prison was certain, leaving Bao Yulou feeling cold and frozen inside, almost like he was in shock. As he was leaving, Professor He added, ¡°After the sentence, don¡¯t think about pulling strings for early release or parole, as that will only make things worse. Sincerely repenting and confessing his guilt is the only way out.¡± Chapter 1161 - 1161 919 Please Call Me Professor Yang_3 ?Chapter 1161: Chapter 919 Please Call Me Professor Yang_3 Chapter 1161: Chapter 919 Please Call Me Professor Yang_3 Other legal professionals, less informed about the matter, were still gathered together discussing the best approach. Elder He¡¯s implications were clear to Bao Yulou, there was no room for redemption in the matter. Soon, a response came from Old Ou¡¯s side; they said they weren¡¯t interested even in a billion, let alone a hundred billion now, and they no longer wanted any association with the Bao family¡¯s company. The Overseas Chinese Fund explicitly refused to accept any donations from the Bao family. ¡ª Yang Ping visited the ICU to check on Jiang Li, whose vital signs were normal, with her blood pressure, which had not been rising, now at 98/65mmHg. Her high fever had also subsided somewhat, a sign of improvement. Jiang Li, who had been in a coma for several days, had woken up, but her consciousness was not very clear. In fact, during the entire treatment process, she had been unconscious, oblivious to everything, and even upon waking, she was confused and unaware of where she was. They had barely managed to save her life, because post-surgery, whether she could survive or not was uncertain for Yang Ping; surgery was just a part of the whole treatment. Patients on the brink of death were influenced by many factors, and there were many variables that were difficult for doctors to control. Now, looking at it, Jiang Li had been pulled back a bit from the brink of death. Sometimes, rescue felt like a tug-of-war between the doctor and the Grim Reaper, struggling over the line between life and death, with the outcome uncertain to anyone. ¡°Professor Yang, it was your skilled surgery that made the difference. We had everything ready last night, see, ECMO, bedside blood filtration machines, artificial liver, everything was prepared, but now it seems unnecessary.¡± The ICU doctor said excitedly. Honestly, he had lost all hope for this patient and was preparing for a last-resort attempt. Unexpectedly, after a night post-surgery, the patient¡¯s indicators had started to improve. ¡°Your post-operative treatment is equally important, and indispensable,¡± said Yang Ping humbly. The ICU doctor felt very happy upon hearing this, as it was a recognition and respect for his post-operative treatment. ¡°The family has been very supportive too, not just lip service. Just today, they paid an additional two million in, now it looks like we might not need that much money,¡± he said. The ICU doctor now felt fully confident in treating this patient. Such supportive families are rare, and these demanding requirements are very strict. One must have the financial capability and the heart, both indispensable. Those with the heart might not necessarily have the money, and those with the money might not necessarily have the heart. ¡°How is the liver function?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°Very good!¡± The ICU doctor handed over the medical file to Yang Ping with both hands. As Yang Ping flipped through the medical file, he asked, ¡°Are all these test results the latest?¡± ¡°All the latest results are printed out and attached on the front.¡± The ICU doctor rubbed his eyes, having not closed them since he came on duty. ¡°Hmm, the liver function is very good; she¡¯s young, and still has 25% of her liver, enough to withstand.¡± ¡°Other organ functions are also quite good, with no signs of renal failure.¡± Typically, the liver should be able to withstand such conditions, but this is not absolute. Before surgery exploration, no one can guarantee how much healthy liver tissue remains, so before the surgery, they had discussed the possibility of a liver transplant from a different person with Jiang Li¡¯s family. At that time, Jiang Li¡¯s elder brother and sister-in-law had already rallied their siblings, in case it was needed, all would go for typing to see whose liver matched best, and they were all willing to donate. Now, with 25% of her liver remaining, her needs can be met without considering a liver transplant from another person. Chapter 1162 - 1162 920 Whos Afraid of Whom ?Chapter 1162: Chapter 920 Who¡¯s Afraid of Whom! Chapter 1162: Chapter 920 Who¡¯s Afraid of Whom! Professor Yang¡¯s mysterious identity instilled a profound sense of fear in Bao Yulou. Despite having battled through the business world for many years, his ability to judge the climate of the times was rather ordinary. After synthesising all the available information, he followed the advice of the legal titan, Professor He, and abandoned any notion of a ¡°rescue.¡± Instead, he faced the matter with a sincere attitude¡ªor at least, he had to appear sincere to gain society¡¯s forgiveness. Bao Junhao had been unable to see his father, but he met the lawyer his father had hired for him. The lawyer conveyed Bao Yulou¡¯s message to his son. Upon hearing it, Bao Junhao roared at the lawyer, demanding that his father get him out no matter the cost. The lawyer calmly replied, ¡°Impossible!¡± After his outburst, Bao Junhao realized that this time was different. He collapsed onto a chair, his complexion ashen. It was not Professor Yang who had failed to grasp the situation; it was he himself. The next few years would be spent behind bars. There is no pill for regret in this world. At this moment, Bao Junhao was filled with remorse. The saying goes, ¡°You don¡¯t realize your mistakes until it¡¯s too late.¡± Now that the coffin was laid out before him, Young Master Bao couldn¡¯t help but weep. Bao Junhao¡¯s good friend, also a son of a wealthy businessman and one of the masterminds, would face severe legal punishment, as would the other dozen or so thugs. Bao Yulou sat in his villa, his mind a jumbled mess, utterly exhausted physically and mentally. He hoped that his son would take this lesson to heart, reform, and start anew; this could be a good thing. If his son continued as before, his life would be utterly ruined. ¡°Is there really no way out?¡± Mrs. Bao also finally softened. The recent flurry of activity had informed her about the situation. Bao Yulou sighed, ¡°There¡¯s really no way. The sentence is certain; it¡¯s just a matter of how many years now.¡± ¡°Old Bao, after the sentencing, can¡¯t we think of something then? Our son can¡¯t bear such hardship,¡± Mrs. Bao said as she wiped away tears. Bao Yulou reminded his wife, ¡°Don¡¯t even entertain that thought. It would not only fail to help him but would harm him instead.¡± ¡°Are we just going to watch him suffer then?¡± ¡°It¡¯s too late for regrets now. You¡¯re still deluding yourself.¡± ¡ª Boss Cheng, wearing a safety helmet, had just finished inspecting the new hospital¡¯s renovation. Looking at the brand-new hospital building, he was quite satisfied. Liquan Hospital had developed from a small hospital to its present size at a rate far beyond Boss Cheng¡¯s expectations. Once the hospital moved to the new campus, Boss Cheng planned to visit the old master at the dojo. If it weren¡¯t for the old master¡¯s guidance years ago, Boss Cheng would not have followed Yang Ping so resolutely. Back then, upon pointing towards the cottonwood forests, Old Cheng knew that it meant prosperity with Yang. But the meaning of ¡°Yang¡± puzzled Old Cheng, and he even went as far as to replace all the trees at his home and at the hospital with cottonwoods, yet saw no results. Later, when he encountered Yang Ping, Boss Cheng keenly realized that Yang Ping was a genius. Associating this with prosperity with Yang, Boss Cheng knew that from then on, he needed only follow Doctor Yang. Indeed, with every bet he placed, he leaped forward. For instance, to establish a high-end private hospital, Boss Cheng had borrowed tens of millions from his family, at an interest that needed to be paid. With this sum, Boss Cheng leased buildings, refurbished wards, and barely supported 120 beds. Many friends said Old Cheng was taking a huge risk and was bound to incur heavy losses. Lose what? Subsequent developments proved that the decision was correct. Not only did many wealthy domestic individuals favor Liquan Hospital, but a large number of patients from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia also came for surgery. Later on, the rich from Europe, America, and Japan flocked to Liquan Hospital for surgeries, prompting Old Cheng to rapidly expand the ward capacity. However, renting the building meant there was only so much he could expand, so he decided to simply buy land and build his own. Previously, surgical fees that reached tens or hundreds of thousands were considered significant, but now it was common to charge millions or even tens of millions, and patients didn¡¯t even blink an eye. Surgeries were priced higher than Mayo¡¯s, but both peers and patients were convinced and willing to pay. With world-class technology came world-class prices, and the affluent understood you get what you pay for. ¡°Boss, this new hospital is really big. I¡¯m worried I might not be capable enough to manage it,¡± said Dean Cai, looking at the new building. In truth, he was just sounding things out, fearing Boss Cheng might replace him in the midst of such a promising opportunity. ¡°You¡¯ve been to Mayo, Hopkins, Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as Tokyo University Affiliated Hospital, Charite Hospital, and the British Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. Shouldn¡¯t you be fine? If you really feel the pressure, I¡¯ll see if I can bring in another dean,¡± said Boss Cheng, arms akimbo. ¡°No pressure at all, absolutely none. You can rest assured, Boss. With the careful training you¡¯ve given me over this time, when it comes to managing a high-end hospital, I am indeed skilled. If I claim second place, no one would dare claim first,¡± declared Dean Cai, thumping his chest. Given the current trend, there was no doubt that the year-end bonus would easily exceed tens of millions. Boss Cheng had even sent him to learn management at major hospitals around the world, what a thrill! There was no way he¡¯d let someone else take the position of dean. Boss Cheng turned to look at the beaming Dean Cai, ¡°See, just a little bit of sunshine and you shine bright. Manage the hospital diligently in the future. We are a world-class hospital; remember to maintain perspective, respect the technology, and always be aware of your own status. A dean is not a bureaucrat but a servant. The day you transition from servant to bureaucrat, I¡¯ll replace you,¡± said Boss Cheng as he removed his safety helmet. Chapter 1163 - 1163 920 Whos Afraid of Who _2 ?Chapter 1163: Chapter 920 Who¡¯s Afraid of Who! _2 Chapter 1163: Chapter 920 Who¡¯s Afraid of Who! _2 ¡®Rest assured, Boss, the respect for technology is deeply ingrained in my marrow. Following you, Boss, I¡¯ve learned that this is the core concept. Isn¡¯t our hospital¡¯s development to this point reliant on technology?¡¯ Dean Cai immediately took Boss Cheng¡¯s safety helmet. ¡®Understanding this principle is good. Without it, even if you build a hundred floors and have a hundred thousand beds, it¡¯s pointless. You won¡¯t modernize, let alone go global. If you can¡¯t keep up with the philosophy, you can¡¯t keep up with management, and naturally, you can¡¯t keep up with technology. Without solid technology, how do you plan to earn the money of the rich around the world? Moreover, take care of the employees¡¯ welfare. Dr. Cai, you¡¯re one of us. I¡¯m straightforward when I speak. If you feel that the money you¡¯re getting isn¡¯t enough, just tell me, and I¡¯ll give you a raise,¡¯ Boss Cheng guided Dean Cai patiently. ¡®That¡¯s enough, Boss, it¡¯s more than enough. Last year, I got a bonus of more than nine million. We¡¯ve only just begun,¡¯ Dean Cai hastily replied. ¡®What I mean is, don¡¯t ever get involved in corruption. Do you understand? Corruption is a malignant tumor. If you engage in it, not only will I replace you, but I¡¯ll also send you to the public security authorities. I absolutely won¡¯t spare you. Don¡¯t say later that Old Cheng had no brotherly affection.¡¯ ¡®Boss, rest assured, I understand this principle.¡¯ ¡®Keep raising the doctors¡¯ and nurses¡¯ salaries. They¡¯re all human and need to support their families. You have to foster the spirit of ownership among the staff. You know the specifics of management, so I don¡¯t need to say more.¡¯ ¡®Boss, rest assured, I understand it all and guarantee to manage the hospital well.¡¯ Now, the doctors at the hospital headquarters have also gradually developed under the training of Professor Yang Ping and Su Nanchen. Each one now has a very high level of skill, and a few are currently sent abroad to gain experience. Liquan Hospital is currently a specialized orthopedics hospital, and for the new hospital, Boss Cheng intends to make it a comprehensive hospital, with tumor, heart, and neurosurgery as the core departments. These are also what Boss Cheng calls the ¡®Three Carriages¡¯ theory. The pinnacle of surgical technology is mostly concentrated in these areas. These diseases are what make the rich cross oceans to come to Liquan Hospital at any cost. ¡ª In the BG Company skyscraper in the United States, only Li Gaoyang and Rolf were in the office. ¡°Whether it¡¯s an invitation from an academic conference in the United States or Europe, he simply doesn¡¯t take any interest. As an orthopedics specialist, he didn¡¯t even attend the European Spinal Surgery Annual Conference. It seems we have no opportunity to approach him. Even if our Chinese-American biologists succeeded in making contact, he explicitly refused our goodwill. We are at a loss with Professor Yang Ping,¡± Rolf said, clearly troubled because he had never encountered someone who was completely immune to various temptations. Li Gaoyang rubbed his forehead: ¡°I¡¯ve seen your latest intelligence. The actual owner of Ruixing Medical is likely to be Yang Ping himself, with Huang Jiacai simply playing the role of a professional manager. Therefore, it makes sense that Yang Ping would have no interest in our financial offensive, and he is genuinely not interested in our immigration offer. Now, we have few options left. It looks like we only have the beauty card to play. When does the person you arranged plan to approach Professor Yang?¡± Rolf smiled and pulled a photo from his bag, handing it to Li Gaoyang, ¡°She has already arrived in China and will soon begin her operation.¡± ¡°A truly beautiful Eastern woman. Why choose her? The candidates you previously gave me were not her,¡± Li Gaoyang scrutinized the photo. Rolf stroked his graying hair: ¡°Indeed, the ones I gave you before were beauties from the entertainment industry in the United States, Russia, and South Korea. After a lot of thought, I realized these people were all sizzle and no steak, not enough to capture Professor Yang¡¯s interest. Professor Yang is a highly intelligent scientist, and the woman we choose must not only be young and beautiful but also share common ground with him.¡± ¡°You are a master, Rolf!¡± Li Gaoyang had to admire. Rolf spoke mysteriously: ¡°This Eastern woman is from China. She completed her undergraduate studies at Peking University and her master¡¯s and doctorate degrees at Harvard University, with a background in medical science. She has a wide range of interests, exercises regularly, possesses a perfect figure and stunning beauty. Most importantly, she has completed our specialized training, so she will definitely fulfill the mission.¡± ¡°How do you plan to approach him?¡± ¡°Simple. They are expanding their laboratory research team and are recruiting globally. We¡¯ll use this as an opportunity to infiltrate. Even if we can¡¯t successfully captivate him, we can take the chance to steal their research achievements.¡± ¡°What if we fail this time too?¡± ¡°Then, we have no choice. If we can¡¯t use him, we must destroy him. We must always control this world. Anyone who impedes our path, we will have to crush. Our BG Company¡¯s hundred-year dominion as the world¡¯s ruler must not be shaken. Although our business has diversified, biomedicine is our foundation, our last line of defense. Just like chemical industry is to Dupont, finance is to Morgan, and oil is to Rockefeller, our foundation must not be disturbed; we have to lead, and we cannot let others get ahead of us. Start your plan at once, and at the same time, destroy Ruixing Medical as soon as possible, while it¡¯s still in its infancy. Regarding Yang Ping, until the end, we still want him to work for us. He is one of the world¡¯s finest doctors, medical scientists. However, if all measures have been taken and we can¡¯t achieve our goal, we have to take the last step. We don¡¯t want to, but BG Company has come this far; which of our deeds have been of our own volition?¡± Chapter 1164 - 1164 920 Whos Afraid of Who _3 ?Chapter 1164: Chapter 920 Who¡¯s Afraid of Who! _3 Chapter 1164: Chapter 920 Who¡¯s Afraid of Who! _3 ¡°Understood, so we¡¯ll attack from both sides, and if we truly can¡¯t succeed this time, we need to ensure we seize his achievements when we crush him.¡± ¡°I attended a private meeting with the elders yesterday, they have issued a clear command, this war has no upper or lower limit, only a purpose¡ªwe must win.¡± ¡°We will definitely win, BG has never failed in its history.¡± ¡ª Ruixing Medical at Nandu headquarters. Huang Jiacai was reviewing the reports submitted by his subordinates, looking serious. ¡°President Huang! All European and American companies have terminated their cooperation with us, they¡¯ve torn up the contracts, and refused to provide top-tier Biological 3D Printers, including essential components.¡± ¡°They are also no longer providing some high-end medical biological experimental equipment. The equipment that Professor Yang¡¯s laboratory was using, most of which was imported from them, is now all locked down.¡± ¡°Our laboratory¡¯s Biological 3D Printer is also locked down, it won¡¯t start up, it¡¯s just a pile of scrap metal now.¡± ¡°These bandits! They have no spirit of contract at all.¡± The subordinates cursed in the office. Huang Jiacai slowly looked up: ¡°Do you still believe in their so-called ¡®spirit of contract¡¯? That¡¯s nothing more than a suit worn for decoration. Normally, it looks very gentlemanly, but once it interferes with their actions, they¡¯ll not hesitate to strip off the suit and go bare-chested against you. Remember, they talk about contracts because it is beneficial for them. They can gain satisfactory benefits from it, otherwise, to them, the contract is just a piece of scrap paper. If they can play the rogue, why can¡¯t I? If they can lock it, why can¡¯t I unlock it? The things I bought, why should they lock it just because they say so?¡± The subordinate shook his head: ¡°Unlock? Easier said than done, especially now that we must respond on short notice.¡± Huang Jiacai held an unlit cigar in his hand: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we have already developed our own software, which can be successfully implanted into the machine, call Dr. Chen.¡± Dr. Chen is Chen Zhi, he is not only the chief engineer of Ruixing Medical but also a doctoral student at Nandu Institute of Technology. ¡°President Huang, will they sue us for infringement?¡± the subordinate asked. Huang Jiacai feigned surprise: ¡°Infringe whose rights? Haven¡¯t they already breached the contract? The table has already been overturned, do we still play by the rules? After overturning isn¡¯t it about grabbing chairs and fighting?¡± The subordinates were speechlessly baffled. Chen Zhi arrived at Huang Jiacai¡¯s office; President Huang said, ¡°Can you brief everyone on the current situation and our response methods?¡± Chen Zhi opened a document in his hand: ¡°Currently, we are in a very difficult situation, all European and American manufacturers have terminated their cooperation with us, all high-end machines, including Biological 3D Printers and high-end experimental instruments, cannot start up, it¡¯s clear they have either locked the machines or destroyed the machine software. We¡¯ve paid for these devices, we cannot just sit and wait for death, our lawyers have already sued them for breach of contract. Of course, to ensure the machines aren¡¯t wasted, we¡¯re planning to reflash all the machines with our own software. Our software is entering practical use for the first time, it might not be perfect, but it will ensure basic operation of the machines, and rest assured, we have a dedicated team continuously upgrading the software.¡± ¡°We not only master software technology but also hardware technology. Our own Biological 3D Printers and experimental instruments have also started official commercial use.¡± ¡°I forgot to tell everyone that the institutes we¡¯ve recently established have been researching this; we must control our own destiny, depending on others is useless.¡± ¡°Now you know where all the money we¡¯ve earned went, right? It¡¯s for dealing with today¡¯s situation.¡± Huang Jiacai took over the conversation: ¡°Let me put it more plainly. It¡¯s like when others flip the table, we can say: Damn it! Hit them! Who¡¯s afraid!¡± Chapter 1165 - 1165 921 Relearning Mathematics Physics and ?Chapter 1165: Chapter 921: Relearning Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry Chapter 1165: Chapter 921: Relearning Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry PS: The draft is still not revised! Later¡ª- Over ninety percent of the high-end equipment in laboratories is imported, which is not only the case for Sanbo Hospital¡¯s labs but for the entire domestic scene. High-end laboratory instruments are firmly controlled by Europe and America, and it is difficult to even find domestic manufacturers for compatible components, let alone whole machines. To develop scientific and technological advancements, experimental instruments and equipment are tools. Without these experimental devices, advancing science remains merely a fantasy. Currently, the majority of the research achievements by Nobel Prize winners rely on these cutting-edge tools. Thus, cutting-edge laboratory instruments and equipment are a critically important link in the development of science and technology; if this link is disrupted, it is akin to choking the neck of scientific research. At this moment, all the high-end machines in Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Stem Cell Laboratory, Tumor Laboratory, and Skin Expansion Research Laboratory had turned into piles of scrap metal, forcing experiments to halt immediately. The situation caught Tang Shun entirely off guard, initially assuming that his experimental equipment had malfunctioned. However, when he realized that it wasn¡¯t just one device that had gone off, but all of them, he recognized the severity of the situation. All three laboratories were in the midst of conducting experiments. If the systems crashed, not only would the experiments be unable to proceed, but the cells involved in ongoing experiments could die or become uncontrollable due to the loss of various set experimental conditions. As Tang Shun was about to report to Yang Ping, Huang Jiacai from Ruixing Medical called to explain the situation: it was the experimental equipment supplier remotely destroying the system, advising them not to panic, to immediately take measures to protect the experimental cells. Ruixing¡¯s engineering team would enter the laboratory to reflash the software, which would take about a week. After the reflash, all machines could work again. However, the in-house developed software might have some minor issues and might not be as user-friendly as the previous software, but the engineering team would remain on-site 24 hours to promptly address any minor issues and fix any bugs that arose in the software. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t very surprised by this news. He knew this day would eventually come. When competition reached a certain level, and someone¡¯s monopoly was threatened, these tactics were expected. Using imported instruments was a temporary solution. Developing such high-end devices took time, and in the absence of domestic alternatives, using imported equipment for normal operations was the only option. But Yang Ping knew that depending on others for such fundamental resources was like building skyscrapers on sand ¡ª they could be destroyed at any moment. Now that day had arrived. Fortunately, at this time, Ruixing Medical already had their own alternative products ready for use. Although not perfect, they were sufficient to ensure that experiments could proceed normally. In 2018, a Bruker nuclear magnetic resonance instrument at Peking University Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Center malfunctioned. Peking University¡¯s management issued a service request to the instrument¡¯s foreign manufacturer. However, the manufacturer was extremely arrogant; they demanded a payment of 230,000 yuan for labor costs to begin repair preparations, and this fee was just for making a service call, excluding the actual repair costs. Whether or not the instrument could be repaired, the 230,000 yuan would not be refunded, and additional repair fees would be charged depending on the difficulty of the repair. Faced with such unreasonable demands, Peking University promptly announced the termination of their cooperation with Bruker. However, the instrument still needed repairs. Subsequently, Peking University gathered top domestic experts in the field to study it, and after a long time, they ultimately failed to fix it. They discovered that not only were there no domestic manufacturers for the whole machine, but there were also no component manufacturers. Eventually, the instrument had to be set aside. Without any prior contingency planning, Yang Ping might have found himself in an awkward situation, with no experiment instruments to carry out his experiments. Fortunately, Huang Jiacai was a visionary. The funds accumulated during this period were not squandered; every penny was invested in this basic R&D. Supported by substantial funding from brother enterprises like Anning Group, Guo¡¯s Wealth Group, and Changxin Mining, President Huang gathered top talents from both domestically and internationally, and established five research institutes in Beijing, Shanghai, Nandu, Wuhan, and Chongqing. Their research projects were all fundamental ¡°neck-stuck¡± technologies, such as laboratory instruments and equipment. Perseverance pays off. After various efforts, Ruixing had systematically mastered the hardware and software technologies of these basic devices. Although the mastery was only preliminary, it was better than none, certainly better than having nothing. Technologically leapfrogging ahead was impossible; the only way forward was one step at a time, resolving one issue after another. The technology threshold for high-end experimental instruments is very high, and the research on software systems for experimental equipment is particular. Huang Jiacai gathered more than six thousand excellent software engineers who spent countless days and nights tackling the difficult problems. Their in-house developed software was not yet as convenient as the imported machines; after all, it was still in the initial phase and had not undergone long-term market testing¡ªhaving many small issues was inevitable. The same goes for hardware. It involved numerous precise components and cutting-edge technologies. These technologies could not afford any falsity, and they had to be mastered little by little. A tower made of sand; all technological obstacles had to be resolved before they could be pieced together to form a complete machine. Machines newly produced certainly weren¡¯t as reliable as mature imported products, but at least they filled a gap. Transitioning from nothing to something, from crude to refined, is a process. Chapter 1166 - 1166 921 Re-learning Mathematics Physics and ?Chapter 1166: Chapter 921: Re-learning Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry_2 Chapter 1166: Chapter 921: Re-learning Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry_2 The engineering team at Ruixing took turns in shifts around the clock, tirelessly updating the firmware. Each piece of equipment had to be updated individually, and after the updates, they had to check for compatibility issues and perform various adjustments. If things went smoothly it was fine, but if they ran into trouble, they had to identify the reasons and then solve the problems. The engineers worked without sleep or rest, forgoing food and rest, and it took five days to update all the machines involved in the three experiments. Looking at the heaps of equipment in the lab, worth hundreds of millions, now ready to operate again. Seeing each engineer with bloodshot eyes, Yang Ping was reminded of Professor Zhang Zongshun¡¯s words, ¡°Science has its boundaries.¡± At the time, some countered with examples to the contrary. Professor Zhang Zongshun said that even in the brutal Second World War, there were instances that gleamed with the light of humanity, but do those few examples prove that the war wasn¡¯t cruel? Finding a ring in a trash heap does not mean the ring originates from the garbage, it represents an anomaly, not the norm. After updating the equipment in this laboratory, the engineers had to rush to the Digital Medical Laboratory and the Genetics Laboratory at Nandu Medical University, as all their machines had crashed as well, rendering them unusable. These two labs were partners in Yang Ping¡¯s research project. It was only when Tang Shun saw all the equipment rebooted that he could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Otherwise, without these machines, all experiments would be forced to a halt. Trying out the domestic software, Tang Shun found it was not so inferior after all; it was quite convenient and suited to local habits. Updating the crashed laboratory equipment was just the first step, followed by the gradual replacement of imported equipment with autonomous ones. But as these were first-generation products and not very stable, they couldn¡¯t completely replace the original equipment, and would only be able to after the new machines improved through use. Then they could fully replace the old ones. This sudden machine lock from the adversary certainly caused losses to the lab; the ongoing experiments had to restart since unexpected factors now made many originally controlled or constant factors uncontrollable or variable, leading to significant deviations in the experimental data. Experiments require precision, and any deviation could lead to failure in the final outcomes. For Yang Ping, these temporary difficulties were trivial. Although they caused a slight impact, it was negligible. To think that such measures could stall his research was a fool¡¯s dream. Although Yang Ping had been solely focused on medical research without much attention to the research tools, ¡®A workman must first sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well.¡¯ He now found himself forced to divert some energy to study these tools used in biological and medical research. Yang Ping¡¯s knowledge was primarily in the field of medicine, but to overcome the current difficulties, he began reading extensively on subjects like mathematics, physics, and chemistry. He decided to accumulate some know-how in experimental equipment, thinking that developing new hardware and software might boost his research capabilities significantly. Expanding his breadth of knowledge would naturally broaden his scientific horizon, enhancing his understanding of scientific research. He had never considered these issues before, but now he had no choice but to face them. In the System Space, these experimental equipment faced no restrictions; as long as it existed on Earth, it could all be purchased with points, unlike in reality where he was suppressed by these corporate giants. Yang Ping entered the System Space, where he spent numerous points to acquire a lot of equipment. Then, one by one, he began to dismantle them in the System Space, measuring and inspecting each component, essentially gauging the dimensions of parts and testing their materials. As he examined the software of the experimental equipment line by line, Yang Ping felt that the training in the System Space had significantly improved his learning abilities. Do it yourself, and you¡¯ll have plenty to eat and wear! If it weren¡¯t for the international giants stirring things up, would Yang Ping have ever spent energy relearning mathematics, physics, and chemistry or dedicated time to research experimental equipment? This was essentially forcing him to upgrade his knowledge, wasn¡¯t it? ¡ª In the morning, after finishing surgery, Yang Ping hurriedly had his lunch at noon. In the afternoon, there was an academic conference at Nandu Medical University about the future prospects of stem cell research, targeted at young Doctors. Yang Ping was scheduled to give a half-hour presentation on spatial orientation gene theory. At two o¡¯clock in the afternoon, Yang Ping arrived at Nandu Medical University on time. His presentation was at two-thirty, and to avoid any traffic congestion, he arrived half an hour early. Principal Ruo personally came to receive him, accompanied by Professor He and Academician Xiang. Professor He walked with Yang Ping into the venue. When it was Yang Ping¡¯s turn to speak, he explained the spatial orientation gene theory in depth yet in an accessible manner. Understanding spatial orientation genes is like grasping the relativity theory in physics¡ªthere are not many who can truly comprehend it. ¡°The development process of our human body from the factory of wonders starts from just a fertilized egg. This egg develops into a complex human body in the womb over the course of ten months. We take this natural process for granted, but have anyone ever considered the essential task the fertilized egg performs is cell division? It¡¯s just division over and over, countless cells developing in different directions. We¡¯ve begun to uncover the mystery, for example, we can now cultivate various types of cells using stem cells, but we¡¯ve overlooked something. Why do countless cells autonomously construct a three-dimensional structure and eventually form the complex human body during the developmental process from a fertilized egg to an adult? Why can it complete such complex and immense work? It¡¯s all hidden in our genes. The gene responsible for the spatial construction of cells is the spatial orientation gene, without which the cells wouldn¡¯t know their rightful places or how to ¡®join hands¡¯ with their neighbors.¡± ¡°Professor Yang, I am Dr. Li Yingtong from Harvard University, specializing in stem cell research. I¡¯ve been pondering how exactly the spatial orientation gene instructs cells in spatial configuration¡ªwhat tools does it use? Your paper mentioned it has a complex positioning system; for instance, the exchange of information between lead cells, something akin to a magnetic pole within a cell that another cell senses and uses the sensed direction to find its position and establish a corresponding connection. My question is, in such a grand construction project, how do cells manage not to make mistakes? This type of neighbor-to-neighbor positioning forms a chain; if a mistake occurs, it would propagate, and while deformities may appear in our fetuses, it¡¯s exceedingly rare for a fertilized egg to develop into something other than a fetus.¡± This Doctor from Harvard had an Asian face and, judging by her extremely fluent Chinese, she was likely Chinese. She was slightly over 1.7 meters tall, dressed in a light yellow T-shirt and blue and white jeans, with fair and rosy skin¡ªshe was stunningly attractive both in appearance and figure and had a very pleasant voice. The question she raised was anything but superficial¡ªquite profound indeed. It was a question that could only have been posed by one of the few people capable of understanding the theory of spatial orientation genes. If it were someone else, they would no doubt be astounded. However, Yang Ping had spent countless years in the System Space, akin to the immortals in ¡°The Man from Earth¡±. The numerous experiments had shaped a mindset beyond that of ordinary people. ¡°That¡¯s due to the body¡¯s powerful error-correcting mechanism, of course. Even this mechanism can fail sometimes, which is why fetal deformities occur.¡± Dr. Li, holding the microphone for questions, had a hint of a woman¡¯s admiration for a man in her eyes, thinly veiled¡ªit was clear she was adept at communicating with her gaze. If it were someone else, they would no doubt be astounded. However, Yang Ping had spent countless years in the System Space, akin to the immortals in ¡°The Man from Earth¡±. The numerous experiments had shaped a mindset beyond that of ordinary people. ¡°That¡¯s due to the body¡¯s powerful error-correcting mechanism, of course. Even this mechanism can fail sometimes, which is why fetal deformities occur.¡± Dr. Li, holding the microphone for questions, had a hint of a woman¡¯s admiration for a man in her eyes, thinly veiled¡ªit was clear she was adept at communicating with her gaze. Chapter 1167 - 1167 922 Flying in Rainstorm ?Chapter 1167: Chapter 922 Flying in Rainstorm Chapter 1167: Chapter 922 Flying in Rainstorm ¡°Thank you, Professor Yang. I understand now, that¡¯s why others can¡¯t achieve partial cloning of organs¡ªtheir entire focus is on the embryonic aspect, and they¡¯ve never considered cloning outside the traditional embryonic framework. Only you, Professor Yang, stepped outside of that framework and described from a higher perspective how cells construct the human body. If previously technology was two-dimensional thinking for three-dimensional tasks, now it is truly three-dimensional thinking for three-dimensional tasks.¡± Dr. Li¡¯s point struck home, leaving many in the audience, all holding doctorates, feeling somewhat unable to grasp the depth of the discussion. ¡°The embryo is a black box that we must open to understand what parts are inside and how these parts operate. Only then can we truly master the technique of partial cloning. So, while the embryo is the basis for partial cloning, successful partial cloning must be achieved independently of the embryo. Any technology reliant on the embryo will never be able to clone specific organs.¡± Professor Yang appreciated this young doctor¡¯s thorough understanding of the Spatial Orientation Gene concept. ¡°I was really at a loss before, unsure of where stem cell research was heading. Biological 3D Printing Technology grasped the core concept of cellular 3D construction but ignored all else, whereas stem cell cultivation techniques seemed to capture everything but lost the core essence. Today, I¡¯ve finally seen the direction forward in the field of stem cells.¡± Dr. Li said with no small measure of feeling. ¡°I¡¯m very grateful to Professor Yang, and I have one more question, just one,¡± Li Yingtong said with a sweet smile on her face. ¡°Ask your question,¡± said Yang Ping, feeling there was still time. Theoretically, this was the question-and-answer segment following the lecture, but none of the other doctors present appeared able to pose any profound questions. This active female doctor seemed to have a strong grasp of the theory of Spatial Orientation Genes, so letting her ask a few more questions wouldn¡¯t hurt. ¡°I was wondering if Professor Yang¡¯s laboratory offers postdoctoral research positions?¡± Dr. Li asked a question unrelated to the Spatial Orientation Gene. After thinking for a moment, Yang Ping answered, ¡°Our Stem Cell Laboratory has already opened postdoctoral research positions.¡± ¡°I wonder if there¡¯s a chance for me to become one of your postdoctoral researchers, Professor Yang.¡± Dr. Li looked at Yang Ping with her expressive eyes full of appeal. ¡°I welcome everyone here to apply for a postdoctoral research position in our laboratory,¡± said Yang Ping, extending an invitation to all present. After Dr. Li¡¯s question, a few other doctors asked questions in a scattergun approach, but their inquiries were relatively superficial, clearly showing a lack of understanding of the theory of Spatial Orientation. Yet, Yang Ping answered each with patience. The doctors in the audience were either recent graduates or within a year of graduating. They hailed from top-ranked universities around the world, and Nandu Medical University, seeking expansion and eager to recruit young global talent, had gathered them. These doctors were interested in returning to their homeland to contribute to their country, which is why they had specially flown back to attend this conference. To showcase the strength of Nandu Medical University, Principal Ruo had specifically arranged for Yang Ping to speak at the conference, as Yang Ping was a beacon of academic excellence for the university. The crowd of attending doctors began to buzz with discussion, most expressing their admiration for Professor Yang¡¯s academic capabilities and treating him as an idol. Principal Ruo sat to the side, very pleased with the scene, recognizing that his objective had been achieved; this was precisely the effect he had wanted. He hoped to attract a group of top-level young talents through the academic charisma of Yang Ping. Nandu Medical University urgently needed fresh blood to create a vibrant and diverse academic environment. ¡ª After the conference, Yang Ping left the venue. Accompanied by Professor He, Yang Ping still had to find time to visit the Digital Medical Laboratory, as several key pieces of laboratory equipment had suffered system crashes. Engineers from Ruixing Medical had just successfully rebooted them, and Yang Ping wished to check the operational status of the laboratory equipment. He also wanted to encourage and motivate the researchers, hoping that by standing united, they would maintain their passion for work and navigate through this challenging time together. As Yang Ping headed for the elevator, a voice called out from behind him. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± Turning around, Yang Ping saw the same female doctor sprinting towards him. Her fair, jade-like face was slightly flushed, conveying an impression of vitality and exuberant health. Her graceful figure was exceptionally attractive, and even her voice had a captivating quality. Professor He, the epitome of a gentleman, couldn¡¯t help but cast an appreciative glance her way. Her figure and appearance, unenhanced by makeup, were enough to draw the attention of many men. Several men cast fervent glances at her; she exuded both the natural freshness and etherealness of a ¡°fairy sister¡± and the sensual, bewitching charm of Scarlett Johansson. The two distinct types of beauty harmonized in her uniquely. As Dr. Li approached Yang Ping, a distinctive fragrance wafted through the air, though his thoughts seemed to be far from such distractions. ¡°Dr. Li? What can I do for you?¡± Li Yingtong¡¯s cheeks turned slightly red, and she said with a hint of shyness, ¡°Professor Yang, I really like your Spatial Orientation theory, but there are many things I don¡¯t quite understand. Could you perhaps provide me with your contact details so I can ask for your advice? Rest assured, I won¡¯t disturb you unnecessarily.¡± ¡°And¡ªI hope to become your first postdoctoral researcher. I¡¯ve applied to your laboratory for a postdoctoral position, and I will give it my all.¡± In their first meeting, Yang Ping formed a favorable impression of the female doctor, not because of her looks or figure, but because she was one of the few who could deeply understand his theories. Chapter 1168 - 1168 922 Flying in Rainstorm_2 ?Chapter 1168: Chapter 922 Flying in Rainstorm_2 Chapter 1168: Chapter 922 Flying in Rainstorm_2 Sanbo Laboratory is also currently expanding its recruitment. Tang Shun is searching everywhere for qualified and interested talent. Now that she¡¯s showing interest, Yang Ping should encourage her too, inspiring her to return to China and develop her career. ¡°I¡¯ll leave my email address with you,¡± he said. Li Yingtong nodded and promptly took out a notebook to jot it down, ¡°Thank you, Professor Yang. I definitely won¡¯t disturb Professor Yang.¡± This gifted student from Harvard completed her undergraduate studies at the Medical Department of Peking University. She was initially in the field of clinical medicine, before continuing her studies at Harvard Medical School in the United States where she focused on basic medicine, mainly in the field of stem cells. After recording Yang Ping¡¯s email address, Li Yingtong left, ¡°Thank you, Professor Yang. I¡¯ll work hard to become your first post-doctoral scholar.¡± Accompanied by Professor He, Yang Ping inspected the Digital Medical Laboratory, where a few pieces of ¡°scrap iron,¡± thanks to the efforts of Ruixing engineers, had been brought back to normal operation. However, the systems implanted in the machines were still somewhat unstable, as they had just malfunctioned. The engineers were addressing the issue. After resolving the problem, the machines resumed operation. Although these newly implanted systems had undergone countless simulation experiments, they had not yet been tested with real experiments, so some issues were inevitable. But that was okay; everyone was patient. Some things couldn¡¯t be saved on, and this process must be followed. If not now, it would happen later. More than half of the new type of Digital Human had been completed, with the entire mobility system already constructed and the hearts, lungs, and livers/kidneys built. Equipment issues may cause some hindrances, but their impact would not be decisive. Once the new type of Digital Human was successfully established, it would be a major event in the medical community. Combining anatomy and function based on Digital Cells, the application of Digital Humans would be extremely broad. By merging with associated Biological 3D Printing Technology, many organs could be printed. Currrently, the Digital Human¡¯s cartilages had been completed. Using the Digital Human as a base and combining it with 3D printing technology, one could manufacture high-quality transparent cartilages. Using these cartilages for replacements in degenerated or damaged ones could lead to a complete cure for osteoarthritis. Even an eighty-year-old person could enjoy the knee joints of a twenty-year-old, truly rejuvenating the joints. Su Nanchen and Robert are now conducting research in this area, making smooth progress and expected to achieve results soon. After visiting the Digital Medical Laboratory, he continued to tour the Genetics Laboratory. The laboratory director, Lin Lan, who is Su Nanchen¡¯s fiance?e, is also a legendary figure at Nandu Medical University as a 28-year-old doctoral supervisor. In Yang Ping¡¯s Spatial Orientation Gene experiment, she was responsible for the structural analysis and functional study of the genes, assisting Yang Ping in completing the research. ¡ª Tang Shun was checking the lab equipment; the Ruixing engineers are indeed incredible, having miraculously revived these machines, and they¡¯re working quite well too, at least their basic functions are being fulfilled. Even if they are a bit rough around the edges and have minor issues, it¡¯s not a big deal, as the engineers are always on standby to handle them. Yang Ping returned to Sanbo Hospital and entered the Stem Cell Laboratory, which was playing some music. It was an English song. Yang Ping stopped in his tracks to listen for a while. The power of the music was profound; the song was incredibly moving. ¡°What song is this?¡± Yang asked. ¡°Flying in Rainstorm.¡± Tang Shun introduced the song, ¡°It¡¯s the most touching English song of the year, because the background of the song comes from the singer¡¯s own story. The story¡¯s backdrop is this: Her parents left the world early, and the little girl lived with her grandmother, who was a retired teacher. This grandmother raised her painstakingly on her own and personally tutored her from primary school through high school. However, on the eve of the College Entrance Examination, the grandmother fell ill and was admitted to the hospital. Due to the local Hospital¡¯s inability to treat her, she was taken to Beijing by her students for treatment. In Beijing, the grandmother personally called her, telling her to be strong, to study well, and to do well in the exams, promising she would recover. Afterwards, the grandmother¡¯s students told the little girl that because of the severity of her illness, she couldn¡¯t call anymore, so they could only send videos to her. The girl didn¡¯t have a cell phone at the time because she was preparing for exams, so once a week the head teacher would send her the grandmother¡¯s videos¡ªafter she had finished her exams and couldn¡¯t wait to go to Beijing to see her grandmother, the grandmother¡¯s students told her that, in fact, the grandmother had passed away before the College Entrance Examination¡ª¡± Yang fell into silence, ¡°What¡¯s the name of this singer?¡± ¡°Her real name is Li Yingtong, a Harvard Doctor, and she¡¯s applied for our postdoctoral position.¡± Yang Ping took a deep breath, so it was her, ¡°Isn¡¯t she a Doctor from Harvard Medical School? How does she also have a record?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, she has multiple identities. She¡¯s an extraordinary student. During her time at Harvard University, she received scholarships every year, and she won the championship in the American College Tennis League. Her swimming is at a professional level, and she¡¯s also a master in judo and Go, holds a level ten in Chinese dance, recorded albums while studying at Harvard, and her songs are quite popular among North American college students, especially the song ¡®Flying in Rainstorm.¡¯ Currently, she has two articles in the journal Cell. She just completed her Doctorate this year and is interested in returning to China to develop her career. After hearing about Nandu Medical University¡¯s global recruitment, she specifically came back to China to attend this academic conference, to get to know the laboratories and research status at Nandu Medical University.¡± Tang Shun handed Yang Ping a list for review¡ªa plan for recent recruitment expansions of the research team. Tang Shun had reviewed the resumes of the applicants and left a portion of the excellent ones for Yang Ping to make the final decision. Among the list of postdoctoral applicants, Yang Ping saw Li Yingtong¡¯s name. ¡°This Dr. Li is very hardworking, truly outstanding, a student of a top Harvard stem cell professor. She declined an offer to remain at Harvard and proposed to do her postdoctoral research here with you, attracted by you and the theory of spatial orientation. She has also submitted an article to our electronic journal which is outstanding and has been accepted.¡± Tang Shun emphasized this introduction of Dr. Li. ¡°These are exactly the kind of talents we need; I have to take a good look at this.¡± Yang Ping put away the list. Indeed, the back story of the song was moving. A computer was playing the music video for the song, and the footage on the video triggered Yang Ping¡¯s memories¡ªthose evocative images were slices of life from his own elementary, middle, and university days¡ªstudying diligently for the college entrance examination. ¡°Many people like this song; it¡¯s our laboratory¡¯s favorite because it speaks to everyone¡¯s experiences of arduous study. It resonates with us; we used to play it often. This time, after seeing Li Yingtong¡¯s name, everyone looked her up and found out it was the same Li Yingtong, so we brought it out to play again,¡± explained Tang Shun. ¡°Are these experimental instruments still usable?¡± ¡°It¡¯s unbelievable; they must think we would never be able to develop our own experimental software.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not just the software; our own hardware devices will soon appear in the laboratory. In the end, we have to use our own. We can¡¯t leave our fate in others¡¯ hands. Our predecessors made atomic bombs with abacuses; with our conditions being so favorable now, are we afraid of their little tricks? The experiments continue as planned, though the transition period will be a bit uncomfortable. We need to work on our mindset, and, in addition, we need to increase the subsidies.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± ¡°Do these personnel need to go through a security check?¡± ¡°Just the routine checks.¡± Tang Shun said worriedly, ¡°The recent lab equipment crash is not an accident but a prelude to a conspiracy. Professor Yang, your research achievements can change the world and could potentially topple today¡¯s pharmaceutical giants. The capital giants won¡¯t let us go; they¡¯ll either try to recruit us or eliminate us. That¡¯s their binary thinking, and they are likely to resort to any means to get their hands on our core technologies.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, when the gap is too great, tricks become meaningless. In front of absolute power, all tricks are entertainment! What we need to do now is to push forward rapidly and steadily with the experiment, to build up our absolute power. Absolute power is our moat. Of course, we need basic security awareness, but being overly conservative will only turn excellent talents away. As for Dr. Li, when you have a moment, print out her paper for me to read.¡± It seemed that Yang Ping was not afraid of the imminent battle. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll print it out now, and once it¡¯s ready, I¡¯ll have someone deliver it to your desk.¡± ¡°No need for that; I will take it back myself to read.¡± Chapter 1169 - 1169 923 I Want to Keep Her ?Chapter 1169: Chapter 923: I Want to Keep Her Chapter 1169: Chapter 923: I Want to Keep Her In the spacious office of the United States BG Company¡¯s skyscraper, floor-to-ceiling windows offered a panoramic view of New York City¡¯s landscape. Li Gaoyang¡¯s expression had softened slightly compared to before. Since becoming the head of BG Company, few matters or people had warranted his personal attention. Previously, those who could converse with him were either executives of the entire consortium or prominent scientists. Recently, documents related to Yang Ping and his research achievements had continuously appeared on his desk, presenting the most challenging situation BG Company had ever faced. Li Gaoyang was an exceptional member of the younger generation in his family, not only an outstanding biologist but also an excellent entrepreneur with extraordinary insights into the industry, which is why the elders had chosen him to lead BG Company into a new era. Yang Ping and his research findings terrified Li Gaoyang, as they could potentially overthrow the technological barriers painstakingly established by BG Company over more than a century. It was a perilous matter, tied to the survival of the entire family, and Li Gaoyang dared not slacken his efforts. However, he found himself in a dilemma, hoping to acquire a genius scientist like Yang Ping but also fearing Yang Ping could become a competitor to BG Company. If not for Yang Ping¡¯s emergence, whether it was the assembly of top-tier medical and biological scientists or the control over technology in the medical biology field, BG Company¡¯s position was unattainable by any other company. ¡®Mr. Rolf, how is the progress?¡¯ Li Gaoyang, with his hooked nose, asked during a small-scale roundtable meeting with only a few core members of the BG Consortium. ¡®The agent I dispatched has successfully made contact with Professor Yang Ping. If all goes well, she should be able to infiltrate Yang Ping¡¯s team smoothly and commence operations.¡¯ Rolf stated proudly, personally overseeing this task. ¡®You must be careful and prudent, do not underestimate the capabilities of our adversaries. Strategic talents like Professor Yang Ping certainly have covert teams protecting his personal and research safety. Therefore, Mr. Rolf, you must be careful and prudent. Complacency marks the beginning of defeat. If things seem too smooth, you must sit down and calmly reflect¡ªis it really going that smoothly?¡¯ Li Gaoyang cautioned. ¡®Thank you for the reminder. In our line of work, we must be extremely cautious. The agent I sent this time was personally trained by Audicia, and moreover, we have never activated this agent before. Her background will bear no traces, so no one will find any suspicious details about her, and she is almost flawless. I believe that any man from China would surely be enthralled by her, and someday, she will help us take down Yang Ping,¡¯ Rolf said with great confidence. ¡®Isn¡¯t Professor Yang Ping known for not being interested in women?¡¯ one of the chubby gentlemen asked. Rolf smiled, ¡®He and his wife are very affectionate. How could he not be interested in women? Have you ever heard of the love story between Einstein and Margarita? If not, I¡¯ll take on the role of a director and personally direct a similar story for you.¡¯ The chubby gentleman shrugged, indicating his approval of Rolf¡¯s plan. ¡®You really are a formidable fellow. Well, that¡¯s only part of our plan. To ensure success, our plan is multifaceted. Why don¡¯t you share the other parts of the plan?¡¯ Li Gaoyang expressed his deep trust in Rolf¡¯s abilities. ¡®Absolutely, my approach is a combination of punches, only part of the plan. Next, we will employ various tactics including a propaganda war, to defame him, sow discord among his ranks, and attack him, chilling his heart and making it impossible for him to stand anywhere in society, leading him to lose faith in everything.¡¯ ¡®You are quite ruthless,¡¯ Li Gaoyang noted. ¡®Haven¡¯t we always been like this? I am only responsible for part of the plan, while Mr. Li Gaoyang, you are the mastermind of the entire plan,¡¯ Rolf countered. ¡®Alright, let me share my situation. Rolf seems very optimistic, but I am quite pessimistic over here. Ruixing Medical is stronger than we anticipated.¡¯ Marshall, the BG Company¡¯s hunter specially dealing with other companies, furrowed his brow. ¡®You rarely look discouraged,¡¯ Li Gaoyang remarked. The chubby gentleman indeed looked very disheartened: ¡®Ruixing Medical¡¯s response was somewhat unexpected. Regarding our major offensive, they showed no fear and even counterattacked. They formed a legal team to sue us for breach of contract, demanding astronomical compensation, and even turned the tables by demanding patent fees from us, claiming we had infringed upon them.¡¯ ¡®?¡¯ This was the first time Li Gaoyang had heard of such a brazen company. Competitors of BG Company always bowed down to them, once targeted by BG Company, the outcomes were only two¡ªbeing acquired or going bankrupt; there was no third outcome. A new company daring to act like this was indeed shocking to the big shots. ¡®What¡¯s more infuriating is, they said since we don¡¯t follow the rules of the game, they will ignore any rules regarding us from now on.¡¯ Once Marshall started talking, he couldn¡¯t stop, as he had accumulated a lot of grievances during this period. ¡®We suspect they have reinstalled their own system onto the machines. We requested to dispatch engineers to confirm whether such actions have taken place, which would be very egregious behavior. However, they denied our request. When we asked why, they said¡ª¡¯It¡¯s my own machine, I¡¯ll let you see it if I want, and if I don¡¯t, then you won¡¯t see it. Is there a problem?¡¯ We said, the agreement allows us to know the operative status of the machines, they retorted¡ª¡¯The agreement has been torn up by you, it no longer exists. Since there¡¯s no agreement, why comply with it? Later they even said¡ª¡¯Who do you think you are? Expecting others to follow the agreement while you act wilfully.¡¯ Chapter 1170 - 1170 923 I Want to Keep Her_2 ?Chapter 1170: Chapter 923: I Want to Keep Her_2 Chapter 1170: Chapter 923: I Want to Keep Her_2 ¡°He said something at the end that I didn¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°What did he say?¡± ¡°He said¡ª¡®You might as well piss and take a look at yourself.¡¯ ¡°He¡¯s a thug!¡± Everyone looked at each other in disbelief, this time unexpectedly encountering such a rude guy who dared to equate BG Company to a puddle of piss. ¡°They¡¯ve just released a batch of new equipment, including Biological 3D Printers and laboratory instruments. I suspect that these devices are imitations of ours, definitely using many of our patented technologies, but they refuse to accept our inspection. We warned¡ª¡®You¡¯re violating business practices,¡¯ and they responded, ¡®If there are still business practices, then first compensate for all the losses due to equipment malfunctions, and then we can have a good talk.¡¯ ¡°How much compensation did they demand?¡± ¡°The audacious bastards actually sued us first. The day we locked down their laboratory instruments, the next day they filed lawsuits in both China and the United States¡ªit was clearly premeditated. They¡¯re demanding an astronomical sum¡ªone trillion US dollars. And they¡¯re not just suing our main company; they¡¯re also taking countless subsidiary companies to court simultaneously. We never anticipated such an extensive lawsuit. Our lawyers were ill-prepared.¡± One trillion? How dare they even ask for that. ¡°They claim the damage caused by the lab equipment crashing can be calculated by the second.¡± ¡°They¡¯re not afraid of our warnings at all. We had to escalate the punishment, but it seems to have no effect.¡± ¡°Are you sure they installed their own software in the laboratory¡¯s equipment?¡± Li Gaoyang asked. Marshall nodded: ¡°Confirmed! We asked them to disclose their code to let us check if they copied ours, and they had the nerve to say¡ª¡®You give us the code. We need to inspect it line by line. We suspect that you might have copied ours.''¡± ¡°My God, did they really say that?¡± Someone couldn¡¯t believe it. Marshall continued: ¡°Yes, that¡¯s what they said. We countered¡ª¡®According to the timeline, we were first; you came after us, so it could only be that you copied from us.¡¯ But they claimed¡ª¡®We suspect that you copied our current software in the past.¡¯ ¡°What kind of logic is that, absurd! How could we have copied the present from the past? How is that possible? How could we copy? Time travel? No, my mind is a bit of a mess right now.¡± Li Gaoyang rubbed his temples, bewildered by all the nonsensical issues. At this point, the leading attorney, Gademan, highlighted the documents in his hands: ¡°Regarding this time-travel argument, Ruixing Medical has brought forth its own evidence. In a previous patent dispute, our lawyers had made such a claim in court, alleging that the opponent had copied our current technology ten years ago.¡± The leading attorney said, embarrassed. ¡°Such a thing happened?¡± Michelle exclaimed in surprise. ¡°Yes, they have solid evidence, so they highly suspect that we copied their current technology in the past.¡± The leading attorney found the situation both laughable and serious because BG Company¡¯s defense at the time was just that, and due to this classic defense, the judge ruled the other company guilty of plagiarism, ordering them to pay a huge compensation. ¡°My God, let me think this through.¡± Marshall bowed his head. ¡°Mr. Marshall, their evidence includes not only that defense argument but also a video clip of you, years ago at a press conference, telling the entire world¡ª¡®They copied the technology we¡¯ve only mastered today ten years ago, and they¡¯re suspected of serious infringement.¡± ¡°Enough!¡± Marshall roared. Without regard, the leading attorney played the video clip, and there indeed was a well-dressed Mr. Marshall solemnly answering reporters¡¯ questions at the press conference: ¡°We suspect that they copied the new technology we¡¯ve only just mastered ten years ago. That¡¯s why they now have such advanced technology, surpassing ours. We condemn this behavior.¡± ¡°Turn it off!¡± Marshall roared again. ¡°Control yourself, Mr. Marshall!¡± Li Gaoyang reminded. ¡°Erase that company from Earth, it must be erased!¡± Marshall gritted his teeth. ¡°I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s not as simple as you saying it should be erased. They have tens of thousands of top-notch scientific researchers, and their funding is more robust than we imagined, seemingly with an endless supply of capital.¡± Rolf was obviously calmer than Marshall. When had BG Company ever taken anyone seriously? But this time, they had met their match. Unable to win the battle, outclassed in the argument, they even felt powerless to play the ruffian. ¡ª The crash incident didn¡¯t have much impact on Yang Ping, as the planned expansion of the research team proceeded on schedule. Yang Ping now has the qualifications for supervising Master¡¯s, Doctoral, and postdoctoral students. The laboratory had recently launched a postdoctoral research station and needed to recruit one postdoctoral researcher, in addition to many other researchers. Yang Ping personally led the interviews for these new hires. The responsible professorial team all came from Nandu Medical University, including Principal Ruo, Academician Xiang, Professor He, Lin Lan, and others. The PhD candidates participating in the interviews came from top universities around the world, all of them highly talented, among whom Li Yingtong stood out the most with her exceptional performance. Her educational background, academic abilities, and interview performance all indicated she was an extraordinary talent. After the interviews, Yang Ping secluded himself in his office where he pondered the final decisions about these doctoral candidates¡¯ positions. Chapter 1171 - 1171 923 I Want to Keep Her_3 ?Chapter 1171: Chapter 923: I Want to Keep Her_3 Chapter 1171: Chapter 923: I Want to Keep Her_3 There was a list of interview candidates on the office desk, other confirmed names were already checked off, only Li Yingtong¡¯s name remained unchecked by Yang Ping. He looked at this name as if pondering something next to a thick file about her personal details, which Yang Ping picked up and slowly flipped through. Indeed, she was an exceptional talent, rare to come by; having her return would be a good thing. Yang Ping closed his eyes, leaned back in the chair to rest, and considered the issue over and over. After a long while, he finally checked off Li Yingtong¡¯s name. Someone knocked on the door, ¡°Is Professor Yang in?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± As soon as Yang Ping hastily tucked the file about Li Yingtong into a drawer of the office desk, he opened the door to see Tang Shun had been waiting outside for a long time. ¡°Come in!¡± Tang Shun entered the office and locked the door behind him. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Yang Ping asked, sensing that Tang Shun¡¯s actions meant he had something significant to report. ¡°Professor, how do you think Li Yingtong¡¯s interview went today?¡± Tang Shun sat down and inquired. ¡°Quite good, what about it?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t know what Tang Shun was getting at; Li Yingtong¡¯s performance was remarkable, even dazzling. Tang Shun hesitated a bit, ¡°It¡¯s just intuition, Professor, just my personal intuition, but I feel there¡¯s something off about the way she looks at you. I can¡¯t pinpoint what it is, but my intuition about women is very sensitive, and there must be something there.¡± ¡°She¡¯s just a recent doctorate graduate eager to join our team. Can you actually discern an issue from her eyes?¡± Yang Ping was quite curious. Tang Shun nodded, ¡°The eyes are the windows to the soul! A person can disguise their speech, demeanour, and actions, but it¡¯s much harder to disguise one¡¯s gaze. Professor, you can doubt my professional skills, but you absolutely cannot doubt my ability to interact with women. Her look at you was complex, filled with contradiction, showing admiration for you, and even that kind of romantic affection, yet mixed with something contradictory. In short, her gaze was very conflicted. Logically, if she hadn¡¯t had any interaction with you before, why would she look at you like that?¡± Yang Ping laughed, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be a Doctor of Medicine, but a Doctor of Psychology.¡± ¡°Professor, don¡¯t mock me, I¡¯m serious. My intuition tells me that there¡¯s something off about this person. You haven¡¯t had any dealings with her before, have you?¡± Tang Shun said earnestly. ¡°No, not any at all. The first time I met her was a few days ago at the Nandu Medical University Academic Conference, and today¡¯s interview was the second time we met,¡± Yang Ping explained. Tang Shun didn¡¯t believe it, ¡°Really?¡± ¡°What are you implying?¡± Yang Ping felt there was something odd about Tang Shun¡¯s gaze. Tang Shun glared at Yang Ping then shook his head, ¡°Impossible¡ª I trust you!¡± ¡°That¡¯s strange,¡± Tang Shun muttered to himself. Yang Ping thought for a moment and said, ¡°Regardless of there being an issue or not, her professional capabilities are absolutely exceptional. In this group of candidates, no one can surpass her. Doctor Tang, if I tell you seriously, no matter what, I want to keep her here! To stay and work earnestly, can you handle that?¡± ¡°Professor, I don¡¯t understand what you mean?¡± ¡°You should be able to understand.¡± ¡°All right, let¡¯s not discuss this. I¡¯m very busy, you can go back now.¡± ¡°Professor?¡± ¡°Remember what I said, this is a mission!¡± The door to Yang Ping¡¯s office closed, leaving Tang Shun outside. Chapter 1172 - 1172 924 1.2 Million for a Needle ?Chapter 1172: Chapter 924: 1.2 Million for a Needle Chapter 1172: Chapter 924: 1.2 Million for a Needle Li Yingtong could never have imagined that Yang Ping, the illustrious creator of the spatial orientation gene theory, was actually a surgeon whose primary work was performing surgeries, and that his experiments were only done in his spare time. After the interview, when Yang Ping wanted to have a private chat with her, Li Yingtong arrived early at the Surgical Research Institute¡¯s ward, where Yang Ping was conducting medical rounds with a team of doctors. He asked Li Yingtong to wait a little longer in the teaching classroom. After finishing the rounds and checking on each patient, it was determined that the condition of Jiang Li had stabilized. She had just been transferred back from the ICU to the General Surgery Department ward. Her vital signs were stable, there was no fever, and her blood pressure was completely normal. She had already accumulated medical expenses of over 800,000 yuan in the ICU, but by transferring back to the general ward, her family could stay with her. Her three older sisters and two sisters-in-law took turns caring for Jiang Li. She had a brother who wasn¡¯t married yet, exempt from the duty of standing vigil; it wasn¡¯t about saving money on hiring a caregiver, it was about the siblings expressing their care. The surface ultrasound examination beside the bed showed that the volume of Jiang Li¡¯s liver had increased significantly compared to the first day after surgery, and it was expected to reach normal size within about two weeks. After transferring Jiang Li back to the General Surgery ward, the ICU doctors made a detour to report on Jiang Li¡¯s treatment situation. Being busy with other matters, Yang Ping had Song Zimo receive the report. After the briefing, he chatted with Zhang Lin about the patient who had previously fallen from a height. Although the patient had been saved and transferred back to the trauma orthopedics ward, he remained paralyzed in bed. Because his wife neither paid the medical bills nor came to arrange discharge, the police had been asked several times to notify his family, but his wife never showed up. Director Zhao said if she didn¡¯t come to pick him up soon, they would send the patient directly to his home, but the police informed Director Zhao that the patient¡¯s home was always locked, and they didn¡¯t know of the wife¡¯s whereabouts. This issue was tough to handle. If the man had been healthy, he could have made a living after discharge and would not have gone hungry, but now he was a paralyzed patient. Without someone to take over his care, how could they send him out? The hospital sought help from the Civil Affairs Bureau, only for them to say that they could take care of a ¡°three-noes¡± person, but as he had a wife and a home, this was the result of a family dispute, and not within their scope of assistance. What to do? The patient could do nothing but lie there. His workplace initially sent someone and provided a donation on behalf of the company, but afterward, no one came to visit. Once Yang Ping finished his other duties and saw it was the appointed time, he immediately went to the teaching classroom. The teaching classroom had only Yang Ping and Li Yingtong. This was a private job discussion with her. ¡°Today is not a professional interview; it is just an informal chat. Your singing is beautiful! I¡¯m truly impressed that you are also an outstanding singer,¡± Yang Ping said with a smile. Li Yingtong politely responded, ¡°Thank you!¡± ¡°Is the backstory of your song true?¡± Yang Ping gently inquired. Li Yingtong nodded. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, have I dredged up sad memories for you?¡± Yang Ping apologized. Li Yingtong shook her head, ¡°It¡¯s alright.¡± Yang Ping spoke with deep meaning, ¡°If your grandmother knew you had completed your studies and returned to the country to contribute, she would be very comforted in another world, proud of you.¡± Li Yingtong¡¯s eyes were somewhat moist as she looked at him with a complex expression. ¡°Yes, I will make her proud,¡± she said. ¡°Have you visited our laboratory? Has Doctor Tang personally taken you to see it?¡± Yang Ping asked with concern. ¡°I have seen it. Doctor Tang personally guided us, and he explained everything in detail,¡± Li Yingtong composed herself from her brief sadness. ¡°Comparing the laboratories in the United States with ours, what are your thoughts?¡± Yang Ping inquired. Li Yingtong thought for a moment, ¡°I am puzzled as to why such an important lab is not secured, with no levels of access set for the research staff?¡± ¡°It¡¯s simple: my research is not military or commercial technology, but medical science for treating and saving lives. When any of my research results are mature, they will be announced to the world for free so that people everywhere can benefit. Why then should I secure it? I am eager for everyone to quickly master new research findings and spread them around the world,¡± he explained. In fact, this was Yang Ping¡¯s genuine thought. Part of his work remained undisclosed only because he was waiting for his next batch of research results, keeping him in a position of control. Only by being independent could people truly benefit. Doing good also requires methods. ¡°Have you ever thought that your achievements could make you the richest person in the world?¡± Li Yingtong asked inquisitively. ¡°I have never thought of it; money is meaningless to me. If research required no money, I¡¯d have no interest in it,¡± Yang Ping slowly shook his head. ¡°Is your ideal to seek eternal life for humankind?¡± Li Yingtong posed this philosophical question. ¡°No! Eternal life? That¡¯s too selfish! Everything goes through the process of arising, developing, and perishing, and no one can escape this law. The cycle of old and new in humanity is a natural law. Using Chinese philosophy, this is the way of heaven. If everyone lived forever, how could new life emerge? How would civilization evolve? I simply hope that everyone can walk through their lives in good health, free from the torment of illness, nothing more. I have never considered the question of eternal life,¡± Yang Ping said in a rational and thought-provoking tone. ¡°Professor Yang, I think the vast majority of people can¡¯t just openly share their research achievements without compensation. People are generally selfish,¡± Li Yingtong said. Yang Ping responded with a smile, ¡°What is the meaning of my research achievements if they don¡¯t serve people well? The world needs some exceptions, right?¡± Chapter 1173 - 1173 924 1.2 Million for a Needle_2 ?Chapter 1173: Chapter 924: 1.2 Million for a Needle_2 Chapter 1173: Chapter 924: 1.2 Million for a Needle_2 ¡°You are great!¡± Li Yingtong looked at Yang Ping with deep affection. Yang Ping responded with equal affection, ¡°Actually, everyone can be great, and so can you.¡± ¡ª Surgical Research Institute Outpatient. Professor Zhang Zongshun was waiting for the test results of his patient Li Ruizhong, a 38-year-old male who had been experiencing low-grade fevers and migratory joint pain in his limbs for the past four months. He had seen many doctors at other hospitals and undergone numerous tests for rheumatoid arthritis, but the results were either negative or showed no significant characteristic changes. A few days ago, Professor Zhang performed a bone marrow biopsy on the patient in the outpatient clinic, and today was the day to retrieve the pathology report. The patient had also scheduled a follow-up appointment with Professor Zhang. Before long, Li Ruizhong arrived, holding a pathology report that he couldn¡¯t understand himself because it was filled with English abbreviations and words. After waiting so many days, he finally received the pathology report. Li Ruizhong was quite happy, and a smile appeared on his face. ¡°Professor Zhang, the report is out, can you help me take a look?¡± he asked. Li Ruizhong handed the pathology report to Professor Zhang a little out of breath. Professor Zhang took the report and saw what he had suspected¡ªdiffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and it had progressed quickly of late. ¡°Professor Zhang, what is this illness?¡± Li Ruizhong asked worriedly. Professor Zhang put down the report, looked at Li Ruizhong, and pondered for a moment. ¡°Did you come alone? Where is your wife, didn¡¯t she come with you?¡± ¡°No, she¡¯s at home with the kids.¡± Li Ruizhong didn¡¯t understand what Professor Zhang meant. Thinking it over, Professor Zhang knew that the disease was treatable, so he said to Li Ruizhong, ¡°Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma?¡± ¡°Cancer?¡± Li Ruizhong¡¯s heart leaped to his throat. ¡°Cancer is cancer, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma¡ªthey are different diseases. Don¡¯t be nervous. Hematology or oncology will handle this condition. Go to hematology tomorrow and get an appointment; I¡¯ll write you a note.¡± Li Ruizhong searched on his phone and found that this disease was a malignant tumor, also known as cancer. It was like a bolt from the blue. Li Ruizhong felt dizzy and collapsed to the floor. Professor Zhang, who regularly exercised and had quick reflexes, immediately stood up to support him. With the help of his assistant graduate student Xiao Lin, who also reacted quickly, they together helped Li Ruizhong and let him lie down on the examination bed. ¡°Nurse, quick, a patient has fainted, give him some oxygen,¡± Xiao Lin called out. The nurse immediately came over, connected Li Ruizhong to an oxygen supply, and after about ten minutes, Li Ruizhong came to. Struggling to get up, he stabilized himself for a few minutes and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, doctor, I couldn¡¯t handle the shock. Was the disease you mentioned just now cancer?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to be nervous. Although it¡¯s a tumor and malignant, it¡¯s not the cancer you¡¯re thinking of. It is treatable, understand?¡± Professor Zhang said as gently as possible. He had to be clear about it; the patient would have to face it sooner or later, but it was also important not to scare the patient. ¡°Isn¡¯t malignant tumor just another word for cancer?¡± Li Ruizhong¡¯s eyes were listless. Professor Zhang comforted him, ¡°There are many types of malignant tumors, some of which are curable. Your type is one of the malignant tumors that can be cured.¡± ¡°Let me see that report¡ª¡± Li Ruizhong took the pathology report handed to him by Xiao Lin, staring at it as if in a dream, wishing it wasn¡¯t true, that it was just a nightmare. But reality was reality. After a long while, he spoke, ¡°Can it really be cured?¡± With his smartphone, the modern man¡¯s greatest tool, Li Ruizhong started to search the diagnosis from the pathology report. His hands trembled so much that it took him a long time to complete the search, and he did not forget to add the words ¡°can be cured¡± at the end. ¡°1.2 million!?¡± Li Ruizhong read through a few news articles that came up from his search about the disease, stating that there was a kind of miracle drug that could treat it, but the cost was 1.2 million. For someone who found it difficult to make 12,000, 1.2 million was an astronomical figure, completely out of reach. ¡°1.2 million?¡± Li Ruizhong¡¯s face turned ashen. If not for the oxygen tube in his nostrils, he might have fainted again. Professor Zhang patiently explained, ¡°If it¡¯s treated with this method, it might cost even more than 1.2 million. That¡¯s just the drug cost. However, this disease has other relatively less expensive treatment options, most of which can achieve the purpose of curing, but the premise is that you must not be scared, stabilize your emotions, and undergo formal treatment.¡± The medication priced at 1.2 million per dose is called Axicabtagene Ciloleucel Injection, a product of the American company Kite Pharma, and it¡¯s the first drug in the world with such effective treatment results for malignant tumors. It is used to treat non-Hodgkin lymphoma and has a particularly high cure rate, capable of eradicating tumor cells in the patient¡¯s body, at least temporarily. However, it is not covered by medical insurance and must be paid for entirely out-of-pocket. Li Ruizhong held the report in his hand, murmuring to himself, and then nodded mechanically, ¡°Thank you, Professor Zhang, I¡¯ll go back and discuss this.¡± No matter what Professor Zhang said, Li Ruizhong found it hard to take in; he was convinced it was an incurable disease. ¡°Are you all right?¡± Professor Zhang asked with concern. Li Ruizhong shook his head numbly, then staggered out of the office, clutching the pathology report tightly in his hand. ¡°Follow him to make sure he doesn¡¯t fall and keep him company for a bit.¡± This kind of situation is a blow to anyone, and as a doctor, Professor Zhang has seen too much of this. After seeing a few more patients, it was almost time to close, Li Ruizhong still hadn¡¯t left and was sitting outside the office on a bench, expressionless and with a vacant gaze. The Surgical Research Institute doesn¡¯t have an emergency service, so the outpatient clinic closes at six in the evening. However, the lobby remains open because it has many benches that can accommodate family members of patients from out of town who may not have the means to afford a hotel stay, allowing them to sleep in the lobby overnight. The security guards not only don¡¯t chase them away but also provide cups for them to use and the water dispenser in the lobby is available for them to drink from with disposable cups readily available. This was all a rule established by Yang Ping. ¡°Why haven¡¯t you gone back yet? Don¡¯t worry, tomorrow you can go to the hematology or oncology department for this condition, or you can continue to come see me.¡± Professor Zhang patted Li Ruizhong on the shoulder. ¡°I just want to sit quietly here. My home is over two hundred kilometers away from here, I¡¯ll not go back for now,¡± Li Ruizhong sighed. ¡°Help him book a budget room at the Nandu Hotel, then get a boxed meal for him and take him to rest for a while. I¡¯ll pay for it, I¡¯ll transfer five hundred to you as a start,¡± Professor Zhang instructed Xiao Lin, the graduate student who was shadowing him. Li Ruizhong, an out-of-towner seeking medical treatment, had been waiting for the pathology report since his visit, spending each night sleeping in the lobby. ¡°Thank you, Professor Zhang, how could I let you spend the money. I can just sleep here,¡± Li Ruizhong said while holding Professor Zhang¡¯s hand and felt a touch of warmth, comforting him a bit. ¡°It¡¯s no trouble; I can get reimbursed. I can get reimbursed. You go with Xiao Lin, get a good night¡¯s sleep, and tomorrow come find me. We¡¯ll discuss the treatment together, alright?¡± Professor Zhang spoke as if they were just having a casual family chat, making Li Ruizhong feel like he was speaking to a relative. Li Ruizhong¡¯s mind was initially blank, unsure where to go or what to do, numbly sitting outside the office lost in thought. Now that Professor Zhang had made arrangements, he felt like he had some direction. ¡°Um, thank you, Professor Zhang,¡± ¡°Come with me!¡± Xiao Lin wasn¡¯t sure how to talk to him and could only first take him to the hotel to rest. The man bid farewell to Professor Zhang and followed Xiao Lin to the Sanbo Hotel. ¡°I¡¯ll come to see you tomorrow to discuss!¡± Li Ruizhong called back loudly to Professor Zhang. Professor Zhang waved his hand, ¡°Right, come find me at eight o¡¯clock, and we¡¯ll sort things out together. What¡¯s there to worry about?¡± Yang Ping encountered Professor Zhang at the entrance of the Surgical Research Institute. Professor Zhang was on the phone instructing Xiao Lin and immediately came over to chat upon seeing Yang Ping. ¡°Hey, I just saw a patient from the countryside with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, it¡¯s pretty sad. If the patient doesn¡¯t want to go to the oncology or hematology department, our department can admit him, right?¡± Professor Zhang said sympathetically. ¡°Yes, we admit all kinds of patients.¡± Yang Ping knew Professor Zhang had a soft heart. ¡°The cure rate for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is quite high nowadays.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s why I suggested he immediately begin standard treatment.¡± ¡°And the best option would be Axicabtagene Ciloleucel Injection.¡± ¡°That¡¯s 1.2 million per dose!¡± Chapter 1174 - 1174 925 Brainwashing ?Chapter 1174: Chapter 925 Brainwashing Chapter 1174: Chapter 925 Brainwashing New drugs, especially those that are particularly effective in treating tumors, tend to be extremely expensive, and there¡¯s no way around it because the research and development costs for new drugs are exceedingly high. Pharmaceutical companies invest vast sums in the R&D of new drugs, and the risks are also extremely high. In the pharmaceutical industry, there¡¯s a ¡°rule of thirty¡± regarding the R&D of new drugs: on average, it takes 10 years, costs 1 billion US dollars, and the success rate is less than 10%. Take, for instance, the investments in the development of the latest cancer and immune drugs. Someone has calculated that, among 20 new drug samples, the average investment amounts to a staggering 4.46 billion US dollars. Given such large investments, such high risks, and such long development cycles, no one would be willing to take on such a task without sufficient profit incentives. Once a new drug hits the market, its price is inevitably extremely high, as pharmaceutical companies need to recoup their costs as quickly as possible, rather than earning money slowly over time. For example, when new cancer drugs hit the market, pharmaceutical companies never initially considered the poor as their customers. They only wanted to recoup and earn money quickly from the rich. Despite being vilified by the entire world, it¡¯s undeniable that without these Western pharmaceutical giants leading the way, other companies would not even have a product to copy. Without the original research drugs, there wouldn¡¯t be any cheap generics. The current market competition mechanism for new drugs and medical devices, despite its many flaws, is also relatively reasonable. Currently, there is no alternative mechanism in place. At 1.2 million yuan per injection, Axicabtagene Ciloleucel Injection belongs to CAR-T cell therapy. It is a cell therapy product that Fosun Kite Company has brought into China by introducing American technology, and thus it is relatively cheap. It is also the first cell therapy product in China. Currently, there are 5 CAR-T cell therapy products on the market worldwide, namely Kymriah, Yescarta, Tecartus, Breyanzi, and Abecma. Among these drugs, Kymriah is the most expensive, priced at 4.75 million US dollars in the United States and 31.3 million yen in Japan. CAR-T is not produced in a standardized assembly line but is a personalized cell therapy method that requires the production of CAR-T cells for each individual patient. The preparation process is demanding, with strict quality control and testing required throughout. The entire preparation process takes about one month. Ordinary immune T cells are extracted from the patient¡¯s body and shipped to the Laboratory using a cold chain transport system. In the Laboratory, the patient¡¯s T cells are modified using genetic engineering technology to form CAR-T cells. These CAR-T cells are then massively expanded, and after strict quality control and testing, they are returned to the hospital via cold chain and injected into the patient. Once inside the patient¡¯s body, when CAR-T cells encounter tumor cells expressing the corresponding antigen, the CAR-T cells get activated and expanded, exerting their powerful specific killing power to eliminate the tumor cells. The training cost of the workers who manufacture CAR-T cells is also expensive, averaging 300,000 yuan per worker, which highlights the high cost. Yang Ping has his own ideas. His personal research and development capabilities are strong, and he can, on his own strength, push the entire medical industry forward. However, he absolutely cannot destroy the industry¡¯s healthy competitive mechanism. Once this mechanism is ruined, by the time he is old, the entire pharmaceutical market will be chaotic and dysfunctional. Rebuilding such a dynamic mechanism would take a long time. ¡ª In the System Space Laboratory, Yang Ping had three experiments running simultaneously, thanks to the rewards of 13 CNS papers and the establishment of the Journal ¡°Medical¡± system, where the massive points allowed Yang Ping to conduct three surgeries at the same time. In the large Laboratory space, Yang Ping divided it into three sections. The research on the K factor in the Tumor Laboratory was going smoothly. According to Yang Ping¡¯s experimental steps: find the K factor¡ªanalyze the K factor¡ªsynthesize the K factor¡ªuse the K factor. Now that the third step has been completed, entering the fourth step, the K factor can be synthesized artificially. The experiment had reached the final and most difficult step, and only by completing this step, there was a possibility for the K factor to enter clinical trials. Yang Ping named this method of killing tumors K Therapy, also known as Cell Apoptosis Therapy. CAR-T Therapy is a cellular therapy that uses the principles of immunity, modifying the body¡¯s own T cells. Yang Ping¡¯s K Therapy, however, uses the cell¡¯s own apoptosis mechanism. By controlling the apoptosis mechanism in tumor cells, it initiates the apoptosis program in tumor cells, thereby killing them. If previous tumor-targeted therapies began externally, precisely identifying tumor cells and then employing various methods to kill them, Yang Ping¡¯s K Therapy starts from inside the tumor cells. It makes tumor cells realize on their own to initiate the self-destruct program and collectively commit suicide, a natural way for the body to eliminate ¡°rebellious¡± cells. Yang Ping modified the K factor in various ways, allowing it to safely navigate the blood circulation and eventually combine with the tumor cells, triggering the apoptosis program in the tumor cells. The cost of trial and error is colossal. Yang Ping made a modification and then ran a test. Repeating this process over and over, no matter how much time was consumed in System Space, the time converted to reality was negligible. If this trial and error process were to occur in a real Laboratory, it would be incredibly time and labor-consuming. For instance, the initial discovery of monoclonal antibody drugs required searching for one antibody out of a library of 10 billion, or even 100 billion antibodies, through a process of sequential screening, and eventually producing a monoclonal antibody. This process involves at least 1000 steps, and not a single step can afford to go wrong. Chapter 1175 - 1175 925 Brainwashing_2 ?Chapter 1175: Chapter 925 Brainwashing_2 Chapter 1175: Chapter 925 Brainwashing_2 A pharmaceutical company in our country developed a monoclonal antibody drug, spending 7 years, over 3000 days and nights to finally succeed, many times encountering difficulties that required starting over. Unlike real laboratories, in the System Space Laboratory, Yang Ping¡¯s trial-and-error costs are extremely low, because the System Space has a huge time advantage and has countless robotic arms to assist with work. Therefore, all Yang Ping needs to do is set the experiment program correctly, leave everything to the System Panel, and just check in regularly. If a problem is discovered, he can simply readjust, and if it¡¯s merely trial and error, Yang Ping doesn¡¯t even need to look. If one path is not viable, the System Panel will direct the robotic arms to automatically move on to the next pathway. For instance, screening antibodies from an antibody library is done by setting the experimental steps properly, after which the System Panel commands the robotic arms to screen continuously, allowing Yang Ping to rest in the laboratory. The enormous System Laboratory has expanded to the size of several football fields. With various types of equipment spread out on the floor and a high dome overhead, Yang Ping felt for the first time that his space laboratory was so majestic. The dexterous and precise ¡°octopus arms¡± worked tirelessly, undertaking all the physical labor in the laboratory. The machinery here never malfunctions and never needs rest, it can work steadily and continuously. The System Panel, like a faithful servant, manages the massive laboratory, processing immense amounts of data at every moment, with each instrument¡¯s data in the laboratory being transmitted back to the panel for various calculations. The walls of the laboratory are made of transparent glass, surrounded by magnificent natural landscapes, including high mountain waterfalls, massive ocean waves, boundless plains, and mysterious forests. Now, Yang Ping is growing increasingly fond of this laboratory. Yang Ping¡¯s Medical journal is actually an online paper publication platform. It doesn¡¯t have a concept of time, allowing one to upload their papers at any time, day or night. Once reviewed by an editor, the paper can be published. The editorial department compiles the weekly papers into print copies, which are just for archiving and not for distribution. Ever since publishing 13 papers in CNS, Yang Ping didn¡¯t submit his work to any other journals. All subsequent papers, such as those on tumor apoptosis research and skin expansion research, were published in Medical. This way, he could disclose his scientific achievements at the fastest speed, assert intellectual property rights, and spread his work to the whole world. ¡ª Li Ruizhong appeared punctually at Professor Zhang¡¯s door at eight o¡¯clock the next morning, trusting only Professor Zhang and unwilling to continue treatment in any other department. After all, the Surgical Research Institute could take in any patient; it is a clinical department with a research nature and a entity combining research and clinical practice. Li Ruizhong is the mainstay of his family, and definitely can¡¯t withstand the shock of discovering he has such an illness. Professor Zhang patiently and plainly explained the detailed situation of his illness to him, telling him not to worry or be afraid, and that his illness had not reached the most serious stage. For this purpose, Professor Zhang also contacted the Hematology and Oncology departments, helping to get in touch with several patients who had been cured, hoping that talking with these patients would bolster Li Ruizhong¡¯s determination to conquer his illness. After this ¡°brainwashing,¡± Li Ruizhong felt much more open-minded and established his confidence, feeling very grateful to Professor Zhang. ¡°Professor Zhang, I¡¯m really thankful to you. The way you explained it, this illness doesn¡¯t seem like a big deal.¡± ¡°Take good care of yourself, you are the mainstay of your family. How can you faint just like that? You need to stand strong, do you understand?¡± ¡°I just couldn¡¯t accept it all at once. Oh, I need to pay you back for last night¡¯s hotel and boxed meal expenses.¡± ¡°No need, no need, we are friends now. Consider it my treat. Besides, Sanbo Hotel belongs to our hospital, and the boxed meals are from the hospital cafeteria. I¡¯m an expert, and I can get reimbursed for these, it doesn¡¯t cost me anything, don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Really.¡± ¡°Professor Zhang, I want to stay in your building, help me issue a hospital admission certificate, and treat me.¡± ¡°Of course, we will try our best to save on costs, but you¡¯ll still need to spend what is necessary. Money is earned by people, and once we cure your illness, you can go back to making money. As the saying goes, ¡®Where there¡¯s life, there¡¯s hope.''¡± Once a person¡¯s mindset changes, their spirit follows. Yesterday, Li Ruizhong had a listless expression, but today he is full of confidence. ¡°Xiao Li, let me tell you, what keeps a person going is their will. You can¡¯t lose that, with it, everything can be managed. Have you figured out what to do about the expenses?¡± ¡°Professor Zhang, I called the factory manager and asked to prepay part of my salary. The manager said he would help collect some donations from the factory and, together with my medical insurance, I should be able to make it through, right?¡± ¡°You still hold some status in the factory.¡± ¡°I¡¯m a welder. I¡¯ve been doing this since I was sixteen, for over twenty years now. My skills are there, truly, the boss hasn¡¯t found anyone better than me.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a skilled worker!¡± ¡°Just a welder, not some skilled worker.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t say that. You¡¯re now a skilled worker, a talent in short supply by the country. Did you finish high school?¡± ¡°Junior high. I started doing this right after finishing junior high.¡± ¡°Xiao Li, I¡¯m quite straightforward, so don¡¯t mind me, but you are now an experienced skilled worker. However, your theoretical knowledge is lacking. You should enhance your education in this area, look for opportunities for on-the-job learning, improve your academic qualifications. For someone like you, if your theoretical knowledge improved, your salary could multiply. Major enterprises like shipyards are all over the place looking for good welders. If you raise your theoretical knowledge, your understanding of welding technology will change, and your skills will also improve, otherwise, you will always be at a standstill.¡± Chapter 1176 - 1176 925 Brainwashing_3 ?Chapter 1176: Chapter 925 Brainwashing_3 Chapter 1176: Chapter 925 Brainwashing_3 ¡°Professor Zhang, now that you¡¯ve mentioned it, I do feel that¡¯s how it is. I remember when I first started out, a coworker and I were both welders, and he took up part-time studies while working. Now he works as a welder in a shipyard, and I heard he earns tens of thousands a month.¡± ¡°That¡¯s exactly the point, to advance, you need to learn to improve yourself, plan things out properly. I mean, the money you spend on smoking and drinking is spent anyway, enrolling in an evening college wouldn¡¯t cost much more.¡± ¡°I¡¯m already 38, is it too late for me?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not too late at all. If you start now, won¡¯t you still be in your forties three years from now? You can still work for another twenty years until retirement, and if you¡¯re in good health after that, you can continue to work. Look at me, I¡¯m eighty and I¡¯m still working and earning money. With skills, there is nothing to fear.¡± ¡°Once I¡¯m cured, I¡¯ll save up for learning. Professor Zhang, I¡¯ll also work until I¡¯m well into my eighties.¡± In Professor Zhang¡¯s consultation room, through such conversations, Li Ruizhong not only gained confidence in overcoming his illness but also formed a completely different perspective on his life. He felt as if he¡¯d been injected with an invigorating serum; full of energy all over, he decided that after he got better he would work and study at the same time, dedicating himself to researching his welding techniques. He felt that for the past twenty years he had drifted through life, going wherever the current took him. If he had someone like Professor Zhang to guide him when he was younger, he wouldn¡¯t have been stuck in the same place all this time. ¡°Thank you, Professor Zhang!¡± Once the hospital admission paperwork was done, Li Ruizhong was all bows and hand-over-fist gestures, packing up and getting ready for his stay in the hospital. ¡°Come down for a chat whenever you have time.¡± ¡°I sure will!¡± The graduate student Xiao Lin, who had been sitting by and participating in the consultation, was amazed; just yesterday Li Ruizhong seemed as still as a wooden chicken, even harboring suicidal thoughts, and today he was bustling with life. It was indeed Professor Zhang¡¯s influence, capable of changing a patient¡¯s mindset ¨C this is what makes a formidable doctor. After Li Ruizhong had left, Professor Zhang said to Xiao Lin, ¡°Our job as doctors is not only to treat illnesses but also to help patients gain confidence. That means not only curing their physical diseases but also helping to change their mindset. Take this patient, for example, if he can¡¯t build up the confidence to get treated, not to mention abandoning treatment, he might even come to embrace suicidal thoughts.¡± Xiao Lin greatly admired Professor Zhang¡¯s ¡°mind-shaping¡± technique. Without Professor Zhang¡¯s influence, Li Ruizhong wouldn¡¯t have headed to the hospital for treatment with such a cheerful disposition. ¡ª Li Ruizhong checked into the Surgical Research Institute ward with great enthusiasm. Sometimes people need their minds ¡°shaped¡± to have faith, goals, and motivation. The patients in the Surgical Research Institute are typically there for surgery, and it is quite rare for anyone to be admitted for internal medicine treatments alone. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is a subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and is also the most common. It is one of the few tumors that can be completely cured. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is the most common malignant tumor of the lymphatic and hematopoietic tissues and can be triggered by infection, genetics, immune system issues, and environmental factors. Its primary symptoms include significant swelling of the body¡¯s lymph nodes, and while the main treatment is chemotherapy, the most effective method is CAR-T cell therapy, which costs 1.2 million per dose. The typical symptoms of the disease are painless progressive lymphadenopathy and local lumps, but some patients present atypically. Li Ruizhong¡¯s symptoms were atypical; his lymph nodes were not noticeably swollen, and his most prominent symptom was migratory joint pain in his limbs. Typically, during a physical examination, doctors do not perform a comprehensive systemic examination, such as palpating all the lymph nodes, and with such obvious migratory polyarthralgia, doctors will certainly focus on that prominent symptom for their examination. When Li Ruizhong came to Professor Zhang, his consultation was very thorough, and during the physical examination, he conducted a near-complete systemic palpation, finding that the lymph nodes in the groin were indeed swollen. Since these slightly swollen nodes were not painful, Li Ruizhong didn¡¯t pay much attention to them, but Professor Zhang¡¯s ultrasound showed that the lymph nodes were in fact enlarged. Thus, Professor Zhang performed a lymph node biopsy. The results of the biopsy revealed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. After contrasting the pathological diagnosis with all the symptoms, it matched up¨Cthis was the disease. The physician in charge of Li Ruizhong was Doctor Zhao Wenbo, a rotating master¡¯s graduate student with exceptional academic achievements and job performance. He and Li Guodong often debated academic issues, but personally, they were still on good terms and their professional debates didn¡¯t affect their friendship as colleagues. Under Professor Zhang¡¯s guidance, Li Ruizhong didn¡¯t eat breakfast on the day of his admission to facilitate completion of the routine blood tests for hospitalization as quickly as possible. After finishing surgeries in the afternoon, Yang Ping made a dedicated round of visits to the newly admitted patients and those with complex conditions, paying special attention to Li Ruizhong, who required internal medicine treatment. The standard treatment for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is chemotherapy. The expensive CAR-T cell therapy is generally reserved for cases of relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Indeed, there are diseases which, in the eyes of ordinary people, seem incurable, yet can be cured. It¡¯s just that the methods of cure are so costly that they have not become widespread, and ordinary people don¡¯t have access to them. When heart transplants first came along, there was no therapy available for end-stage heart diseases for the ordinary populace. But American tycoon David Rockefeller had already begun using heart transplants to save his life, receiving six heart transplants throughout his life and living to the age of 101. At that time, since the technology for heart transplants was new and the costs were very high, this cutting-edge treatment didn¡¯t trickle down to general hospitals. Yang Ping¡¯s dream was¡ªutilizing his system to reduce research and development costs, allowing ordinary people access to the latest and most advanced medical treatments, and trying to spare them as much as possible from the agony of illness. He decided to administer cell therapy to this particular patient, using his own cost-effective method. Chapter 1177 - 1177 926 Do You Dare to Try Charging Up ?Chapter 1177: Chapter 926: Do You Dare to Try Charging Up? Chapter 1177: Chapter 926: Do You Dare to Try Charging Up? Li Ruizhong called his wife at home to ask about the kids¡¯ studies and lied that it was nothing serious, just ordinary arthritis, requiring a few days of hospital treatment. His wife instructed him to make sure he got well and not to worry about the family. Li Ruizhong worked in a science and technology park that hosted many enterprises, and he had been working for over ten years in one of the factories there. He was a longstanding employee, and his two children went to private schools nearby¡ªone in elementary and the other in kindergarten. To supplement the family income, he rented a small shop next to the park where his wife usually tended the store, selling mineral water, ice cream, milk, drinks, snacks, etc., and also using the shop as a parcel collection point. Even though the income wasn¡¯t high, it helped cover some living expenses. After all, working away from home, finding ways to increase income was essential, as the whole family relied on the money. Facing such circumstances, Li Ruizhong had to silently bear the burden alone¡ªwhat else could he do, being the pillar of the family? Thankfully, he came across a good doctor; Professor Zhang became his faithful support in treatment. After reviewing Li Ruizhong¡¯s medical records, Yang Ping saw that Li Ruizhong¡¯s condition was very serious. The effect of chemotherapy was uncertain, and cellular therapy would have been the best option. Unfortunately, for an ordinary worker, coming up with 1.2 million was simply out of the question. ¡°What can we do?¡± asked Song Zimo. For surgeons accustomed to performing operations every day, dealing with a patient who needed medical treatment was somewhat out of their element. Indeed, whether it¡¯s internal medicine or surgery, both are means to the same end: to alleviate the sufferings caused by diseases and restore the patients¡¯ health. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma had limited treatment choices: either chemotherapy and radiotherapy or CAR-T cells. Other treatments were not very useful. ¡°If only¡ªif his financial situation¡ªwere better, we could give him¡ªCAR-T cell therapy, which I think would solve the problem with one shot,¡± Xu Zhiliang couldn¡¯t help feeling a bit regretful. Song Zimo thought that the CAR-T cells Xu Zhiliang mentioned were utterly impractical: ¡°Let¡¯s go with chemotherapy, rituximab plus CHOP protocol.¡± The group discussed back and forth, finally turning their eyes to Yang Ping. After a moment of reflection, Yang Ping said, ¡°Let¡¯s do the cell therapy.¡± The Surgical Research Institute had to have its unique features, striving to leverage its research strengths rather than simply providing patients with routine treatments. ¡°120,000 yuan, plus other various costs, amounts to almost 2 million,¡± Song Zimo reminded Yang Ping that this was an ordinary worker, wondering how he could afford such an expensive treatment. Yang Ping nodded, acknowledging he was aware of the situation, then said, ¡°We can do it in-house at our Stem Cell Laboratory, produce the cell therapy ourselves, and we don¡¯t need to use the existing patented technology. Collection, purification, and expansion of T lymphocytes can be done in our own lab, and for the modification of cells, we can have Nandu Medical University¡¯s Genetics Laboratory help with that, which won¡¯t cost much.¡± ¡°No patented technology? Bypassing them?¡± Song Zimo was puzzled, knowing that circumventing someone else¡¯s patents was virtually impossible. ¡°Yes, bypass it!¡± Yang Ping affirmed confidently. Everyone was extremely surprised. This signified that Professor Yang had his own methods, distinct from the current mainstream cell therapies. Professor Yang always had an element of surprise. In reality, all these cell therapies were by-products from Yang Ping¡¯s experiments in the System Space. With a plethora of experiments and trial-and-error, some failed experiments didn¡¯t meet the experimental goals but resulted in unexpected new discoveries. New cellular therapies were such by-products. Presently, Yang Ping was also exploring tumor cell apoptosis, another result of trial-and-error that was not suitable for non-Hodgkin lymphoma but fit osteosarcomas. ¡°Can we really do it?¡± Professor Zhang had remained silent until now. Listening to the young colleagues¡¯ conversation made him feel left behind by the times; the place where he worked every day was capable of such advanced procedures. ¡°Our Stem Cell Laboratory can even discover spatial orientation genes, so for us, this task is simple. Moreover, my method is quick and straightforward, and it doesn¡¯t have high requirements. As long as we maintain sterile conditions well, our laboratory¡¯s sterile hardware fully meets the standards,¡± Yang Ping stated confidently. ¡°This technique is nothing more than re-engineering the patients¡¯ T lymphocytes, then expanding these modified cells before reintroducing them into the body. Once the modified T lymphocytes encounter specific antigens on tumor cells, they continue to expand inside the body and precisely kill the tumor cells. And since we have the credentials in this field, as long as patients are willing to participate in the experiment, we can use cell therapy. My method is simpler and more cost-effective.¡± No sooner said than done, Yang Ping led everyone to the Stem Cell Laboratory to explore how to use the lab¡¯s hardware to modify T lymphocytes. Li Yingtong didn¡¯t leave; she spent these few days familiarizing herself with the laboratory environment and workflow, and she would be leaving for the United States after that. She had to settle some matters there before returning to China to start her formal job. When she saw Yang Ping and his group coming to the lab in full force, hearing that they were there to perform cell therapy for a patient, she was astonished. As a skilled doctoral graduate in the field of stem cells, Li Yingtong knew about the complexities of CAR-T cell therapy. This wasn¡¯t something one lab could accomplish alone, so she was quite curious about how Yang Ping was going to manage this project. As the experiments progressed, to Tang Shun, Yang Ping was no longer human but a god, so whatever Yang Ping said, Tang Shun would believe. Influenced by Yang Ping, he, too, developed an unmatched confidence, becoming more imaginative in scientific thought than before, and more daring in his approaches. Chapter 1178 - 1178 926 Do You Dare to Try Charging Up_2 ?Chapter 1178: Chapter 926: Do You Dare to Try Charging Up?_2 Chapter 1178: Chapter 926: Do You Dare to Try Charging Up?_2 ¡°Extract T lymphocytes from the patient¡¯s body, then modify them, and finally transfuse them back into the patient¡¯s body,¡± Yang Ping said to Tang Shun. Tang Shun said worriedly, ¡°There¡¯s no problem with the technology, but it involves intellectual property, and also our CAR-T cell production requires a specialized laboratory, Professor?¡± Yang Ping said affirmatively, ¡°To show respect for intellectual property, we¡¯ll circumvent their patent by using the method I provide. It¡¯s very simple, requires fewer steps, and doesn¡¯t demand high conditions.¡± At this point, A4 paper should be presented. Knowing the Professor¡¯s habits, Tang Shun had already passed the pencil and A4 paper to Yang Ping before he even reached out for it. Yang Ping only thought briefly before he wrote down a completely new CAR-T cell production method on the A4 paper. Tang Shun looked at it and couldn¡¯t help but admire the divine thinking¡ªthe steps were fewer, and it could be completed with existing equipment. As for the sterile requirements, the stem cell laboratory¡¯s sterile conditions were entirely up to the task. ¡°Professor Yang, if you release this method, the current mainstream methods in the world will bleed losses,¡± Tang Shun exclaimed in amazement. Li Yingtong was also astonished that Professor Yang could, with just a few strokes on a piece of A4 paper, present the world¡¯s most cutting-edge technology. If this method were to be widely adopted, gold would be turned to stone. ¡°Indeed, my method will turn gold into stone, but out of respect for the market, I won¡¯t introduce it just yet.¡± There are some things that most people only see on the surface, but Yang Ping was considering deeper issues. Song Zimo, looking at the method on the A4 paper, joked, ¡°Professor, this is dangerous. With such casually conceived methods, you could overturn the entire market, disturb other people¡¯s cheese, and those pharmaceutical giants would see you as a thorn in their side. I¡¯m really concerned about your safety.¡± ¡°Rest assured, if anyone dares target me, they will be the first to destroy themselves because I hold a vast reserve of technologies in my hand. Out of respect for the existing market structure, I¡¯m just quietly holding on to them. However, if they come after me, these technologies will automatically spread unrestricted online, allowing any company in the world to produce them cheaply, instantly leveling the field between the giants and the ordinary companies, and destroying the foundations of the giant companies. It¡¯s only because I respect the current ecosystem that I haven¡¯t done this. If someone forces me to, as you suggest, then I can only snap my fingers reluctantly,¡± Yang Ping also said, jokingly. In fact, these technologies¡¯ safety had yet to be verified, so Yang Ping could not possibly spread them on a large scale for the time being. If there were any safety issues, it would be difficult to contain them later. Therefore, Yang Ping was very cautious; once the technologies were mature and safe, they would slowly spread through the internet. It required a perfect rhythm, to serve as a catalyst in the industry, without destroying the current industry¡¯s motivation and innovation mechanisms. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ve given out the draft. Let¡¯s discuss how to proceed and establish a strict and standardized process,¡± Yang Ping put down his pencil. A world-class cell therapy, which would typically require countless researchers working together, was here settled by just a few people, a pencil, and a piece of A4 paper. What a magical place this was. Li Yingtong found it hard to believe that this was true. Had she not experienced it firsthand, she would never have believed it. ¡ª Li Ruizhong hesitated when Doctor Zhao suggested he could volunteer for the experiment. After thinking it over, he said, ¡°I¡¯ll ask Professor Zhang before I decide.¡± Clearly, Li Ruizhong trusted only Professor Zhang, and he went back to the outpatient clinic to find him. After Professor Zhang finished seeing his patients and took a short break, he chatted with Li Ruizhong. Upon hearing Li Ruizhong¡¯s concerns about participating in the experiment, Professor Zhang said amiably, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s very safe. This is our own technology, and we¡¯re offering it to you for free. If you used an external one, it would cost you 1.2 million for a single shot. Currently, this type of cell therapy could cure your tumor. Considering your financial situation, we thought you could go the volunteer route and receive it for free.¡± Li Ruizhong trusted Professor Zhang completely. Moved by what Zhang said, he grasped Professor Zhang¡¯s hand excitedly, saying, ¡°A great kindness, thank you! Professor Zhang, you are a living bodhisattva.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say that. As long as you trust us and cooperate with us, we will definitely find a way for you,¡± Professor Zhang said kindly. Li Ruizhong didn¡¯t dare to take up too much of Professor Zhang¡¯s time, knowing that other patients were waiting outside. He immediately said, ¡°I¡¯ll go back to the ward and sign up right now.¡± Once back in the ward, Li Ruizhong found Doctor Zhao, who was in charge, to sign up. He agreed to volunteer and take part in the clinical trial. He didn¡¯t understand the details but trusted whatever Professor Zhang said. If Professor Zhang said it was possible, then it was. After signing up and preparing everything, Song Zimo personally took Li Ruizhong¡¯s blood sample and carried the blood to the stem cell laboratory for cell separation. After separating the T lymphocytes from the blood, they were purified and then placed in a thermostatic refrigerator and taken to the genetics laboratory at Nandu Medical University for genetic modification. Once modified, the cells were sent to Sanbo Stem Cell Laboratory for amplification. After sufficient growth, the cells were placed into sterile vials. The entire process ensured sterile operations, but this was not a challenge for a laboratory engaged in stem cell research. The mainstream technology for the process required about a month. Yang Ping¡¯s method only needed about seven days to obtain qualified modified T lymphocytes. Chapter 1179 - 1179 926 Do You Dare to Try Charging Up_3 ?Chapter 1179: Chapter 926: Do You Dare to Try Charging Up_3 Chapter 1179: Chapter 926: Do You Dare to Try Charging Up_3 These past few days, Li Yingtong had also been staying at Sanbo Hospital, involved in the entire process of Li Ruizhong¡¯s treatment. She now understood Professor Yang Ping¡¯s method like the back of her hand. This method was indeed superior to the current mainstream methods and would also be less costly. Li Yingtong did some research and found out that this method had been patented by Professor Yang Ping in multiple countries a long time ago. However, the patent did not reveal the technical details, but instead cleverly used a few key pieces of information to protect his intellectual property, meaning the patent could safeguard the intellectual property without disclosing technical specifics. But she was curious why nobody had bought or investigated this patent? It turned out that the patent only revealed a few technical control points, which alone couldn¡¯t possibly realize the technology, and the majority might dismiss it as a patent without practical technical value due to the lack of experimentation. ¡ª Li Gaoyang¡¯s brow, which had just relaxed, furrowed deeply once again, and more so than anyone else¡¯s, the latest intelligence sending shivers down his spine. ¡°Yes, our people were personally involved in the cell therapy. If this method becomes widespread, cell therapy will become as cheap as a pack of tissues. But he did not do so, merely because he expressed respect for the current ecosystem,¡± Rolf said despondently. ¡°We have to admit, he is a noble man,¡± Li Gaoyang didn¡¯t know what to say. ¡°He also said that he has a large amount of similar technology in hand, and under certain conditions, these technologies would proliferate online and become inexpensive tools available for anyone to use,¡± Rolf believed that what Professor Yang Ping said was true. Because the new CAR-T cell method had already shown its potential. ¡°That means, the technology Professor Yang holds in his hands is like a nuclear weapon; once deployed, it would destroy the entire medical industry, and we wouldn¡¯t be spared either.¡± Li Gaoyang understood the gravity of the situation. ¡°We¡¯re not facing an ordinary person; we¡¯re dealing with a godlike figure. We might not even be operating in the same dimension,¡± Rolf had not foreseen such a scenario. ¡°If that¡¯s truly the case, we might only be able to confine the war to the business realm, and absolutely cannot threaten his personal safety; otherwise, we could truly be annihilated.¡± Li Gaoyang couldn¡¯t be sure because nobody had seen the technologies that Professor Yang claimed to hold, and while the latter did have a substantial number of patents, whether those patents were viable remained unknown. But Li Gaoyang couldn¡¯t deny it either, for the new CAR-T cell therapy had unmistakably been realized. So with the information being opaque, Li Gaoyang didn¡¯t dare make any rash moves. Should he miscalculate and provoke this genius by mistake, he could destroy the century-long foundation of BG Company. Li Gaoyang took a deep breath; he had to reconsider his strategies and limitations for this war, as the opponent held a ¡°nuclear weapon¡± in his hands, and BG Company certainly couldn¡¯t afford to take that risk. No matter how strong BG Company was, there was now a balance between it and Professor Yang Ping. This balance prevented BG Company from overstepping boundaries, forcing them to reassess certain disgraceful and despicable tactics that were previously without limitation. ¡°The situation is more complicated than we imagined; it seems we must tread cautiously in this war,¡± Rolf said. Li Gaoyang nodded, ¡°I¡¯ll discuss it with the elders. Why do I feel BG¡¯s strength can¡¯t be fully brought to bear at this moment? Where exactly is the problem?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know either!¡± Rolf sighed. ¡°In front of Professor Yang Ping, why do all those usually clever scientists suddenly become foolish, constantly making misjudgments?¡± Li Gaoyang was quite troubled. ¡°I feel foolish now too. Is he really that formidable? Holding technology that could destroy us?¡± Rolf asked. ¡°If the patent information is all true, he could do it.¡± ¡°But many patents are just ideas that came into someone¡¯s brain and were applied for without any experimental verification, so they are ineffective.¡± ¡°But what if it¡¯s true?¡± ¡°He said his gun has ten bullets, and now that he¡¯s genuinely shot one at you, would you still dare to rush forward and try?¡± ¡°I also feel foolish right now.¡± Chapter 1180 - 1180 927 Why Arent You Eating ?Chapter 1180: Chapter 927: Why Aren¡¯t You Eating? Chapter 1180: Chapter 927: Why Aren¡¯t You Eating? Aside from CAR-T cell therapy and chemotherapy, there is a new method to treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: Switzerland¡¯s Roche Pharmaceuticals¡¯ Gazyva monoclonal antibody. The total cost of this treatment is about half of that of CAR-T cell therapy, roughly between 600,000 to 1,000,000 RMB, and the treatment effect is also very good. It is evident that currently, the pharmaceutical industry is still dominated by Western countries. The technological barriers established by these pharmaceutical giants over a century are difficult to overcome. In fact, their greatest technological barrier is their research databases which store data from all scientific experiments over the past hundred years. A small portion of this data comes from successful experiments, but the majority comes from failed experiments, and it is the data from these failed experiments that constitute the companies¡¯ real trade secrets and hold greater long-term value than successful experiments. Why? Because these data represent dead ends that pharmaceutical giants have already determined through trial and error to be the wrong directions to take. These are the most valuable because, with this data, they won¡¯t repeat the same mistakes. Other companies that come later lack massive volumes of trial-and-error data. The experimental routes they painstakingly devise often turn out to be those already proven wrong, but these companies usually don¡¯t know this. Thus, they invest money, manpower, and time in vain, only to realize a decade later that they were wrong, effectively retracing the mistakes of the bigger companies. As a result, newcomers can never catch up with these pharmaceutical giants. Therefore, in the pharmaceutical industry, most companies are very stable and firmly hold the industry¡¯s top positions. Unless a company suddenly makes a breakthrough supported by a new theory, which is very rare. Moreover, even if such companies exist, most of them are controlled through investments by the pharmaceutical giants because they know better than anyone else what is right and wrong. Thus, they cast a wide net with their substantial funds. Yang Ping¡¯s new method is very simple and only requires one week. Qualified T lymphocytes are placed in sterile bottles and delivered to the ward at Sanbo Hospital. These T lymphocytes, tasked with destroying tumor cells, are infused into Li Ruizhong¡¯s bloodstream through his blood vessels. For safety, all kinds of rescue equipment are placed in Li Ruizhong¡¯s ward, and Yang Ping, along with the doctor, personally stays in the ward. Although this technology is part of Yang Ping¡¯s reserve techniques, this is the first time it is being used on a patient in reality. Human life is paramount, so utmost caution is essential. After all the modified T lymphocytes were infused into Li Ruizhong¡¯s body, Li Ruizhong, trusting in Professor Zhang, wasn¡¯t nervous at all. He treated it as if he were receiving an infusion of saline solution, chatting with the doctors while the infusion took place. After a whole bottle of T lymphocytes was infused, Li Ruizhong experienced no adverse reactions. It was just like a regular infusion. Li Ruizhong found it hard to believe that such a small bottle, costing 1.2 million RMB on the market, would take him so many years of welding to afford. Even if he earned 10,000 RMB a month, he¡¯d have to work ten years without eating or sleeping, continuously welding every day to afford just this one bottle. This was the economic value of knowledge. Back when he was a student, he didn¡¯t take his studies seriously and didn¡¯t care about his academic performance. Now, looking back, he realized how ignorant he was. Given another chance, he would definitely study hard. ¡°Is it all done?¡± As the nurse prepared to remove the IV, Li Ruizhong stared at the bottle, as if a tiny bit hadn¡¯t been infused yet. ¡°It¡¯s all done!¡± The nurse said. Li Ruizhong looked at the bottle and then at the tubing, it indeed was done. With something worth 1.2 million, even leaving a little bit might mean thousands or tens of thousands, it couldn¡¯t be wasted. ¡°How do you dispose of this bottle?¡± ¡°Recyclable medical waste.¡± ¡°Can I keep the bottle?¡± Li Ruizhong asked the nurse for the bottle that contained the T lymphocytes. The nurse asked confusingly, ¡°What do you want the bottle for? We have to dispose of it properly; we can¡¯t give it to you.¡± ¡°If you can¡¯t give me the bottle, can you let me put some water in it to rinse it out?¡± ¡°The rinse water can stay with me, right?¡± Li Ruizhong pleaded, thinking there must still be some residue of the drug inside. Rinsing it with water, there would surely be some of the drug in the rinse water, which he could drink without wasting it. ¡°You want the rinse water?¡± The nurse didn¡¯t understand what he meant. Li Ruizhong honestly said, ¡°A bottle costs 1.2 million RMB, it would be a pity to waste even a drop. If I rinse it out, can you save the rinse water for me to drink?¡± The nurse almost burst out laughing, ¡°Drinking it won¡¯t be of any use, don¡¯t worry, it has all been infused into your body.¡± The nurse took the bottle and left, leaving behind Li Ruizhong¡¯s regretful gaze. Seeing that Li Ruizhong had no reactions, everyone felt relieved. Other doctors weren¡¯t sure, but Yang Ping was confident; this technology had been validated by a large number of experimental subjects in the System Laboratory. Although the system rules state that the experimental subjects are no different from real humans, Yang Ping was still very cautious, and all the necessary real-world procedures had to be followed. Next, daily monitoring of the decrease in tumor cells in Li Ruizhong¡¯s body would commence. Not only was Li Ruizhong undergoing treatment, but he was also the first experimental volunteer. For safety, Li Ruizhong would continue to stay in the hospital, so if there happened to be any special incidents during the proliferation and tumor-killing process of the T lymphocytes in his body, immediate action could be taken to deal with it. If he were at home and an emergency occurred, it wouldn¡¯t be discovered in time, let alone promptly dealt with. As long as it could cure his illness, Li Ruizhong was willing to stay in the hospital as long as necessary. He cooperated fully with the doctors. Since things had come to this point, the small amount of money he¡¯d lose from not working didn¡¯t seem so important. Health was more important than money, Li Ruizhong understood that. Besides, there was a small store at home, the income of which could maintain the basic living expenses. Chapter 1181 - 1181 927 Why Dont You Eat_2 ?Chapter 1181: Chapter 927 Why Don¡¯t You Eat_2 Chapter 1181: Chapter 927 Why Don¡¯t You Eat_2 If it hadn¡¯t been for Professor Zhang¡¯s ¡°brainwashing,¡± Li Ruizhong¡¯s head would certainly have been empty, filled with immense despair, feeling his life was nothing but grey. After the ¡°brainwashing,¡± Li Ruizhong now sees life as bright. He even plans to enroll in a professional degree program and learn the latest welding techniques, aiming to weld large ships if he gets the chance. The factory manager brought people to visit Li Ruizhong and even delivered thirty thousand yuan, collected through donations from the factory workers, representing everyone¡¯s heartfelt contribution. Taking advantage of the times when the kids were at school, Li Ruizhong¡¯s wife also came to visit him, taking care of him as well. Seeing Li Ruizhong at ease, she felt relieved. There was a store at home that needed attention; they couldn¡¯t keep it closed forever, as closing meant cutting off their income. Therefore, unable to visit frequently, his wife came every other day. Once a person has convictions, dreams, and goals, everything changes. After interacting with Professor Zhang several times and being ¡°brainwashed¡± by him, Li Ruizhong seemed like a changed person. He endlessly searched on Taobao for books about welding, and having studied until junior high, he managed to grasp a bit of each book¡¯s content despite the struggle. Welding Technology, Mechanical Drawing, Metalworking Heat Treatment, Electrical Engineering¡ªLi Ruizhong impulsively bought four books which were delivered right down to the Hospital ward where he read daily, filling his life during the hospital stay. Sometimes he would stroll down to the Outpatient clinic on the first floor, taking the chance to sneak into the consultation room to chat with Professor Zhang now and then. Professor Zhang was always warm, never minding the interruption, and always had time for a chat. Jiang Li returned from the brink of death and recovered remarkably well, now able to walk around the Hospital, preparing for discharge. She was quite thoughtful and grateful, buying a large bouquet for the doctors and nurses and personally writing a card, hiding many pens within the flowers. She truly understood what the doctors and nurses needed¡ªand the staff at the Surgical Research Institute, finding pens in the flowers, jostled to grab them. There have been cases of receiving flowers, fruit baskets, and pennants, but hiding dozens of pens inside the flowers was a real understanding of the voices of doctors and nurses. Hermes Wang Changxin¡¯s business in Africa was growing larger, and he frequently called Yang Ping, asking when the full-month party for his ¡°golden baby crib¡± would be held, as it was already prepared. This guy was indeed sending a golden baby crib. Rich people are really something else, but is this thing even usable? Meanwhile, Hermes continued to inquire about Sisi¡¯s condition; during his hospital stay, Sisi was his fellow patient. Hermes felt this little friend was particularly resilient, providing him with much emotional support during his own low period, which is why he always thought of officially acknowledging Sisi as his goddaughter. Hearing about Sisi¡¯s tumor being reexamined, Hermes was quite upset. He decided to return with his wife to visit this little one, as his wife also adored the young girl very much. ¡ª In the System Space Laboratory. The K Therapy for tumors was being conducted. The original K factor could only function in an external laboratory environment and not inside the body. Yang Ping had modified the K factor countless times, finally enabling the new K factor to adapt to the human body¡¯s environment and function inside it. Now, the modified K factor remained a dimer, with both ends being special protein molecules. Once this dimer entered the body, it would bind to the tumor cell¡¯s characteristic protein binding sites, blocking the tumor cells¡¯ anti-apoptotic capabilities and initiating their apoptosis program. Normally, when abnormal cells like tumor cells are detected by the body¡¯s surveillance systems, the expected outcome is to initiate the apoptosis program, effectively executing them. However, tumors have anti-detection capabilities, allowing them to evade this surveillance and multiply with impunity. The K factors in the current K Therapy could disable the tumor cells¡¯ anti-detection mechanisms and trigger their apoptosis program. The experiment had reached this stage, completing only one phase. Next, Yang Ping planned to conduct clinical trials with experimental subjects in the System Laboratory. Of course, Yang Ping would also translate the findings from the System Laboratory to the actual Laboratory, ensuring the actual Laboratory was not too far behind the System Laboratory, thus enhancing the efficiency of translating his research into practical outcomes. Yang Ping was now not constantly intervening in the actual experiments; he let Tang Shun and his team explore on their own for a while, and after encountering some difficulties and errors, he would intervene just in time, which seemed more reasonable and was less abrupt. Since the cell material for the actual Laboratory was sourced from Sisi, to accelerate the research progress, cells were frequently extracted from Sisi¡¯s body. Hence, Sisi could not attend school and had to stay in the ward. Fortunately, Sisi had already completed her elementary school curriculum and had started self-studying middle school courses, so being hospitalized wouldn¡¯t delay her studies. This young girl had self-discipline beyond her years. During her hospital stay, her life was very regular: she would go to bed at exactly ten o¡¯clock each evening, wake up at seven in the morning to wash up, run on the hospital¡¯s track, then have breakfast. After breakfast, she would go to the demonstration room to study, reading books on her own. If she didn¡¯t understand something, she would take her textbooks and ask the doctors in the department for help. She didn¡¯t find this life dull at all. A corner of the demonstration room became Sisi¡¯s study area. The older brothers and sisters in the department particularly liked this little girl and would help find various study materials for her. The doctors at the Surgical Research Institute were academic experts who could serve as Sisi¡¯s free tutors. Sometimes, the whiteboard in the demonstration room came in handy; whenever a doctor was free, they would use it to help Sisi with her homework. After completing his aid mission, Li Guodong returned from Guandu Hospital. The elderly director of Guandu Hospital, no longer troubled by back pain, was now full of energy. The elderly director called Li Min, asking him to pursue further studies at Sanbo Hospital for at least a year, assuring him to focus on his studies without worrying about his job. The director said not to mention covering for a year¡ªhe could handle another ten years of front-line clinical work with no problem. According to what Li Guodong reported, the elderly director, having once been bitten by a snake, was now extremely cautious with patients suffering from herniated lumbar discs. For anyone with recurrent, long-term back pain, he would invariably advise them to get an MRI at the county level, no exceptions. With the elderly director in good health, Li Min felt relieved, no longer constantly preoccupied with work back home. Here, Li Min had fully entered into his studies, advancing methodically according to the plan laid out by Yang Ping, step by step. Sisi, the young girl, was eating her meal while Zhang Lin, who had eaten his fill, teased her, ¡°Sisi, don¡¯t you want to be a doctor? How about I give you a quiz?¡± ¡°Sure, quiz me!¡± Sisi said without looking up from scooping rice into her mouth. Zhang Lin smirked mischievously, pulled out his phone, and showed Sisi some disgusting surgical pictures of Jiang Li¡¯s liver hydatid disease, trying to gross her out. ¡°Sisi, if you can keep eating your meal calmly as you swipe through these pictures one by one, then you are definitely cut out to be a doctor,¡± Zhang Lin said, placing the phone on the dining table and sliding it across to Sisi. Sisi was quite curious; she looked down at the photos, slowly appreciating each one. After viewing dozens of pictures, she continued to scoop rice into her mouth, unfazed and enjoying her meal. ¡°Any more? I¡¯m done looking,¡± Sisi asked. Zhang Lin was puzzled by her lack of reaction; even he felt queasy, and Little Five was also curious. They continued! Little Five pulled up a surgical video on his phone, showing vivid shots of intestines and a liver severely infected by hydatids, with sticky cystic fluid flowing everywhere. Sisi watched the video intently while continuing to chew her food. After the video ended, Sisi asked, ¡°Any more?¡± ¡°No more!¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five said at the same time, unable to gross out Sisi; the brothers themselves couldn¡¯t even pick up their chopsticks. As Sisi casually continued eating, she asked, ¡°Why aren¡¯t you eating?¡± ¡°Oh, we¡¯re full, we¡¯re full. You go ahead and eat at your own pace!¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five packed up their unfinished boxed meals and walked away dejectedly. Chapter 1182 - 1182 928 To extend our view to the utmost ?Chapter 1182: Chapter 928: To extend our view to the utmost, ascend one more story Chapter 1182: Chapter 928: To extend our view to the utmost, ascend one more story Germany, Berlin, Charite Medical College Laboratory. Professor Mainshtan was extremely excited. After bringing back from China the protein factors that could activate muscle spatial orientation genes, he couldn¡¯t wait to start experimenting in the laboratory. Now, through the transparent outer shell, one could see pea-sized muscles inside the cultivator. What cute little fellows, Professor Mainshtan thought as he looked at the ¡°little peas¡± in several cultivators, almost going so far as to kiss them. He could no longer wait for the muscles to grow a bit bigger. He wanted to thoroughly study these little things to find out exactly what they were. With the help of his assistant, he carefully used special tweezers to extract a tiny ¡°pea¡± from inside, and then prepared an ultra-thin tissue section to observe under the microscope, to see what structure these things really had. Judging from both the longitudinal and transverse tissue sections, this was a complete muscle, not merely orderly arranged muscle fibers, but also including interspersed blood vessels, lymph ducts, and nerves. It was so perfect. The connections between cells and the microstructure of the muscle in the human body showed no abnormalities. It did not rely on any foreign artificial substances as adhesives or shaping agents. This was genuine muscle artificially cultured, whereas currently, muscles manufactured using biological 3D printing technology could only mimic the appearance, failing to replicate or come close to the inner structure. According to Yang Ping¡¯s theory, cultivating a piece of muscle was just the beginning. If the activation factors were modified to control the spatial genes more precisely, it would be possible to artificially cultivate specific muscles such as the biceps brachii, triceps brachii, quadriceps femoris, gastrocnemius, etc., achieving a similarity in shape, structure, and volume with the actual muscles. What a miraculous theory, what a miraculous cultivation technology¡ªit was akin to cultivating a real apple in a box, detached from the apple tree. ¡°Professor Mainshtan, is this real muscle? Did we manufacture a real piece of human muscle inside this box?¡± The assistant asked eagerly. Professor Mainshtan said excitedly, ¡°Take a look for yourself, share my joy with me!¡± ¡ª Currently, the passage of time in the System Space happened concurrently with real-time, only that time in the System Space moved much faster. As Yang Ping lived and worked in the real world, experiments in the System Space Laboratory proceeded without any delay. Yang Ping calculated the time; the System Space Laboratory should almost have results by now. He entered the System Space. Regrettably, the results were unsatisfactory. Although the modified K factors could adapt to the human body, when introduced into the test subject¡¯s body, they did not produce the anticipated effect. In this experiment, Yang Ping had introduced over four hundred modified K factors at once, but all of these proved to be failures, unable to function within the test subject¡¯s body. If this had occurred in reality, it would mean that a team of thousands of people had invested tens of billions of US dollars and more than a decade, all for naught. But this took place in Yang Ping¡¯s System Space Laboratory. What he lost was only points and a very small amount of time. If the time spent in System Space was converted into real-time, he¡¯d lost just a few days. Moreover, this time progressed parallel to his real life, so there was no waste of Yang Ping¡¯s actual time. If a few days didn¡¯t suffice, then try a few more days; and if that still failed, try yet another few days! Yang Ping carefully reviewed the paths he had already taken and stored all the incorrect routes in the System Panel. The System Panel acted like a computer and became a powerful assistant for Yang Ping. After all, how could one possibly conduct any experiments these days without the help of a computer? Avoiding the paths already taken, Yang Ping began anew, modifying the K factors and picking new structures. There was no other way; this kind of experiment was a process of trying out every imaginable possibility one by one until a successful protein factor was identified. Of course, there was also the possibility that it would all be in vain, unable to find a suitable K factor that could be used in the human body. This wouldn¡¯t be surprising, as many new drug research projects end up like this, with the success rate being far below ten percent; all the effort culminating in only a few percentage points of success. The System Space Laboratory possessed extremely low time and resource costs, but there was no advantage in terms of luck. Failing and trying again was not a big deal. Yang Ping carefully analyzed all the data and then mentally replayed the entire experimental process. Drawing on these failures, he began selecting new experimental paths to restart the experiment. Trial and error, relentless trial and error. That¡¯s the most painful aspect of scientific research, which is why those who cannot endure solitude can¡¯t engage in research. ¡ª All of Sisi¡¯s test results had come in, including the PEC-CT. Yang Ping sat in his office, with the professional electronic imaging screen placed on his desk. The PEC-CT image appeared on the screen. The office had very good lighting. It was unclear whether it was a coincidence or Director Han¡¯s deliberate choice, but when viewing imaging in the office with the electronic screen positioned this way, one could clearly see every detail in natural light without any glare. After all the hardships, both surgery and the Gamma Knife, still, those detestable tumor cells weren¡¯t eradicated. Their seeds spread everywhere along with the blood circulation. Now, the shadow of tumors could be seen in the head, lungs, liver, kidneys¡ªthey were omnipresent, growing wildly. Chapter 1183 - 1183 928 To extend our view to the utmost ?Chapter 1183: Chapter 928: To extend our view to the utmost, ascend one more story (Part 2) Chapter 1183: Chapter 928: To extend our view to the utmost, ascend one more story (Part 2) Especially when it comes to tumors in the head, the location is in the brainstem, and it¡¯s right in the center of a nerve nucleus, exhibiting diffuse growth. Thus, surgery is almost impossible; if we do operate, we must remove a portion of the normal brainstem tissue along with it. However, the nerve nucleus in the brainstem is critically important, being the central hub of life, and any damage to it would terminate life. The site and manner of this tumor¡¯s invasiveness render even the most skillful surgery powerless, as it has exceeded the scope of surgical intervention. It¡¯s like pouring a cup of water into soil; they have become one and the same. Trying to separate the water from the soil using manual methods for picking beans is simply not possible. Yang Ping had pinned his hopes on K Therapy, but now the experiment is encountering difficulties. The K factor works very well in experimental settings, killing all tumor cells, but in the human body, its function is compromised by various factors. Yang Ping has already modified the K gene over four hundred times, and although he finally obtained a qualified K factor that can be safely introduced into the human body, various side effects have arisen during its functional operation, some even resulting in complete failure. Other tumors might afford the luxury of waiting, but those in the cranial brainstem cannot wait at all, as continued spreading and proliferation could quickly lead to a life-threatening situation once a certain threshold is breached. Sisi is currently in a very dangerous condition, her life at risk at any moment. Yang Ping is exceedingly experienced with brainstem tumors, having dealt with the cases of Professor Feng, Ning Jue, and Fujiwara Tani in the past. Their tumors were not centered in a nerve nucleus with diffuse growth, so surgery was a feasible solution. If we liken the brainstem tumors of Professor Feng, Ning Jue, and Fujiwara Tani to a mixture of fine sand and soil, they at least retained their own shapes, making it possible to distinguish between them using various technologies and to pick out the sand from the soil. However, Sisi¡¯s tumor is like a mix of water and soil, where picking the water out of the soil is not an option; other methods must be employed. As for cell therapy, it is currently only effective for non-Hodgkin lymphoma and has poor or no effect on other types of tumors. Other methods of tumor treatment, like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and various particle knives, are virtually ineffective at this stage for Sisi¡¯s condition, and their use might likely disrupt the delicate balance she is maintaining. Even if Yang Ping could mobilize the world¡¯s medical resources, it would be of no help now. Sometimes, humanity seems pale and powerless in the face of disease. The black-and-white image remained on the electronic screen as Yang Ping squinted at it, pondering what to do next. The little girl was in grave danger, and time was not on Yang Ping¡¯s side. ¡°Professor!¡± It was the voice of Song Zimo outside the door. The office door was not locked, merely closed, and Yang Ping woke from his reflections, ¡°Come in.¡± Song Zimo pushed the door open, and noting the image on the electronic screen on the desk, recognized it as Sisi¡¯s, ¡°You¡¯re looking at it too, it has spread throughout the body, even within the cranial brainstem.¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m studying it.¡± Yang Ping nodded calmly. Sometimes that¡¯s how medicine is; although we always emphasize the human touch, reality can be so cruel, demanding a cool head and rationality. If the experiment can¡¯t make progress, the reality will be very harsh¡ªSisi won¡¯t escape her final destiny. ¡°Surgery is nearly impossible,¡± said Song Zimo as he pulled up a chair to sit down next to Yang Ping and examine the PEC-CT images together. ¡°Not nearly impossible, but absolutely impossible,¡± responded Yang Ping in a composed tone. Then Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, and Little Five also entered. They were all very familiar with Sisi¡¯s condition. They gathered around the desk, staring at the images on the electronic screen in silence, waiting for the professor to have an idea. ¡°What shall we do? This part is the nerve nucleus, not the space between them. Her life is in danger at any moment. What do we do?¡± Song Zimo¡¯s question was everyone¡¯s question. Yang Ping¡¯s cup of tea sat full on the desk, not a wisp of steam rising from it, for from the time it was brewed, he hadn¡¯t taken a single sip. ¡°Is the Ion Knife an option? Griffin could provide help, we could reach out to Anderson¡¯s machines.¡± Song Zimo knew that the Gamma Knife was no longer effective at this stage. Ultrasound couldn¡¯t penetrate the sturdy skull, so he placed hope on other types of advanced ion knives. Yang Ping shook his head. ¡°To lift a bone flap of the skull so that the ultrasound would have no cranial obstruction, only needing to pass through the dura and arachnoid mater to reach the brain tissue?¡± Song Zimo envisioned a rather creative method; the Gamma Knife concentrates ultrasound waves and cannot be used intracranially due to the obstruction by the skull. If the skull could be opened like a lid to create a window, the ultrasound could enter through this window. ¡°Your idea is imaginative, but it¡¯s unfeasible. The Gamma Knife also has its flaws; its energy focus isn¡¯t very precise. Thermal damage could harm the surrounding normal brainstem cells. In the liver, such harm would be negligible, not worth considering, but in the brainstem, especially within a neural nexus, this kind of thermal damage could be fatal.¡± Yang Ping still shook his head, his eyes fixed on the imaging screen. ¡ª The Gemini Building is the iconic structure of Sanbo Hospital, its surgical and medical towers both topped with helicopter pads. The surgical building¡¯s pad, where helicopters frequently took off and landed, was more often used than that of the medical building. At the rooftop of the thirty-plus-story building, which also serves as an excellent vantage point for cityscape observation, doctors from Sanbo Hospital would sometimes climb up to enjoy the scenery, gaining a sense of exhilaration. Doctors work under high pressure, especially the younger ones who have just started in the field, burdened with immense stress. It¡¯s common for some to come up here for a breather, using the high vantage point to take in the urban landscape, which could make their worries evaporate. However, once a patient from the oncology department sneaked up there and then jumped off. Since then, the rooftop has either been locked or constantly guarded by security, and ordinary people haven¡¯t been allowed access. Sisi nagged Yang Ping, insisting that he take her up to the rooftop to experience the feeling of surveying from a high vantage point. Left with no choice, Yang Ping finally managed to find time to take her up. Yang Ping and Sisi stood at the rooftop, leaning against the railing, gazing at the cityscape. The originally solid reinforced concrete parapet was 1.2 meters high. For safety, Sanbo Hospital later added a 30 cm railing. Therefore, Sisi, just over 1.5 meters tall, could only look out through the gaps in the railing, and Yang Ping was not worried about her jumping off. Sisi was thrilled; she had never been to the top of a tall building before. She spread her arms wide, facing the wind, like a bird spreading its wings to fly. ¡°Be careful not to catch a cold. I shouldn¡¯t have brought you here; the wind is a bit strong.¡± Yang Ping knew this young girl was full of ideas, but he didn¡¯t understand why she would choose such a place to play. Sisi was not afraid of the wind at all: ¡°This is called fresh air, not a strong wind. You never learned your literature properly. Don¡¯t you want to take deep breaths of fresh air after staying in the ward all day?¡± If she weren¡¯t so clever, perhaps she would be happier. She¡¯s just a fifth-grader; he didn¡¯t know if she truly faced life and death with equanimity or if it was just a fac?ade. Either way, it was not appropriate for her age; she was still in bud, too young to bear such weight of life. ¡°I heard a cleaner auntie say that a tumor patient jumped from here, is that true?¡± Sisi leaned forward to look down, but the parapet and railing were too high for her to see over. Yang Ping was startled and immediately grabbed her hand, pulling her back from the edge and ensuring a safe distance before answering her question: ¡°Yes, she couldn¡¯t face her difficulties and had already reached a dead end in her mind.¡± Yang Ping feared that Sisi would end up the same, unable to escape the mental dead end. The young girl¡¯s face lit up with a sweet smile, the pure and innocent kind only children and adolescents possess: ¡°If she had the courage to jump, why didn¡¯t she have the courage to live on? I think when everyone is born, death is certain. It¡¯s like a line segment with a starting and an ending point¡ªit¡¯s inevitable. What differs is just the length of the line.¡± Such thoughts were neither typical of a fifth grader nor topics that should occupy their minds. ¡°I just feel that there¡¯s not enough time, and there are so many things I haven¡¯t had the chance to do.¡± The smile slowly faded from Sisi¡¯s face as she looked into the distance. ¡°You should believe in me; I will do my utmost. I¡¯ve thought of a very good method; I¡¯m just a little bit away from success. I told you, I¡¯d accept you as a student one day. We made a pinky promise.¡± Yang Ping encouraged her. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not that silly to jump down. I came here just to experience the feeling of ¡®ascending to a higher level after a long journey,¡¯ as the ancient poem says. It¡¯s true; I now feel like I can see farther.¡± Sisi stood in the wind, her hair billowing. Chapter 1184 - 1184 929 Optimal Selection Method ?Chapter 1184: Chapter 929 Optimal Selection Method Chapter 1184: Chapter 929 Optimal Selection Method To exhaust the views of a thousand miles, climb yet another floor. A fifth-grade student being able to appreciate the essence of a poem, truly deserving of those composition awards. Had it not been for the terminal illness, this child would surely be a top contender in the college entrance examination. Indeed, only by standing taller can one see farther. In modern parlance, that¡¯s vision. This is a child with vision. ¡°You didn¡¯t bring me up to the rooftop just to recite this line of poetry, did you?¡± Yang Ping said, speechless as he looked at the primary school student facing the wind. Sisi, dissatisfied, said, ¡°Of course it¡¯s not just to recite this line. There are many other poems. I can¡¯t possibly recite them in the ward, can I? After a lot of thought, this is the best place for it.¡± I¡¯m dizzy, she¡¯s come here to do homework. The wind on the rooftop was really too strong. If you stayed too long, you might catch a cold. The little girl was unwell; one had to be careful and couldn¡¯t let her really finish her recitation homework here. ¡°The wind is too strong, let¡¯s go back, Sisi!¡± Yang Ping called out to the little girl intoxicated by the wind. Ever since they made a pinky promise and became friends, Yang Ping truly regarded her as a friend, not just some kid who didn¡¯t understand anything. The girl was too clever; treating her as an ignorant child was a serious misdiagnosis of her intelligence. Forget it, Sisi obediently nodded her head and followed Yang Ping down from the rooftop. The little girl had just mentioned a patient from the oncology department who jumped off a building, and standing on the rooftop just now had indeed given Yang Ping a fright. But the little girl was stronger than he had imagined. All Yang Ping could hope for was that his experiments would progress quickly and that nothing untoward would happen before his success. After escorting Sisi back to the ward, Yang Ping noted there was still time and decided to check on the progress in the laboratory, as the reality was lagging significantly behind the advancements in the System Space Laboratory. The ward was busy, probably with new patients being admitted. Several standardized training students and graduate students were bustling about, while Zhang Lin and Little Five, who had just finished surgery, were taking a short rest. Zhang Lin was broadcasting some internal news, and several young doctors who had found a moment¡¯s reprieve gathered around him. One, wearing gloves and holding a disposable dressing bowl, was also listening in. He was probably about to change a dressing, but now was not the right time; something had come up with a patient, and he had to wait. Zhang Lin¡¯s internal news was quite attractive, and, one after another, several people temporarily stopped their work to listen intently to his broadcast. Yang Ping had no time to listen to Zhang Lin¡¯s internal news; he wanted to visit the Tumor Laboratory upstairs. The eight-story Surgical Research Institute was still sufficient for the time being, as the laboratories only occupied three floors, leaving plenty of space for expansion. Tang Shun was busy. As a master of time management, he had no stress managing three laboratories and three teams; in fact, he appeared quite at ease. Honestly, a laboratory director with such strong academic ability, managerial skills, and exceptional social communication was hard to find, even with a lantern. Though he had some flaws in his personal life, his merits far outweighed the minor blemishes. ¡°Professor!¡± Yang Ping walked from the office area into the changing room, donned his sterile clothes, put on a cap and mask, and entered the laboratory, where Tang Shun immediately greeted him. These laboratories were very strict about sterile procedures, even more so than the operating room. Any virus, bacteria, or other microorganisms inadvertently mixed into the cells could seriously interfere with the outcome of an experiment, which needed stability and precision. Any extraneous factor could cause the entire result to vary. ¡°I¡¯ve come to see how the recent progress of the experiments is going.¡± Yang Ping sat down in the laboratory. Tang Shun¡¯s eyebrows were furrowed: ¡°We¡¯re still modifying the K factor. All the K factors we¡¯ve tested so far have proven ineffective in the human body, and this screening process is quite troublesome. It¡¯ll probably take years.¡± Years? Yang Ping was startled but then remembered that this was a real-world laboratory, and Tang Shun was just making an estimate based on real-world experience. Saying it would take years was already something only top-tier talent would dare to predict. It was commendable not to say decades or even longer, certainly living up to that million-dollar salary. ¡°Years are too long. Time is of the essence! Let me take a look.¡± The Professor speaks like a poet, even his words are different. A glint appeared in Tang Shun¡¯s eyes. Had the Professor found a new approach that could reduce the time for the experiment? The laboratory had a large, high-definition LCD screen, which was used for discussing experiments. Data stored on the computers could be displayed on this large screen at any time. ¡°No choice, at this stage of the experiment, it¡¯s about trial and error. If we¡¯re on the right track, all that¡¯s left is to keep trying,¡± Tang Shun tried to persuade Yang Ping not to be too anxious. Yang Ping, with half-closed eyes, looked away from the screen: ¡°Are you familiar with the Optimal Selection Method?¡± ¡°Familiar.¡± Tang Shun asked, puzzled. Hadn¡¯t the Professor mentioned the Optimal Selection Method several times? Yang Ping nodded: ¡°The Optimal Selection Method can reduce the number of experiments and shorten the time needed.¡± Tang Shun, who had studied statistics, naturally knew of the mathematical master Hua Luogeng¡¯s Optimal Selection Method. The method was indeed useful. In the System Space Laboratory, Yang Ping had accumulated a wealth of experience and had improved on the Optimal Selection Method, creating a new method. Of course, this was all inferred retrospectively from the errors made. Could it be that the Professor¡¯s ability to achieve success with the least number of trials and in the shortest amount of time lied in the advanced Optimal Selection Method? Was this the secret behind the Professor¡¯s success? Chapter 1185 - 1185 929 Optimal Selection Method_2 ?Chapter 1185: Chapter 929 Optimal Selection Method_2 Chapter 1185: Chapter 929 Optimal Selection Method_2 ¡°You continue with the experiments, just keep heading in this direction,¡± Yang Ping instructed Tang Shun. ¡°There¡¯s definitely nothing wrong with it, I will plan the experimental route thoroughly using the Optimal Selection Method.¡± The professor was gearing up to make a move. Whenever he began to frequently inspect the lab, it indicated his dissatisfaction with the progress of the experiments and his intention to intervene powerfully. Every time he mentioned Optimal Selection Method, it implied that he would soon present a better plan. And whenever the professor asked for A4 paper, it meant that the experimental plan was crystal clear, and success was just around the corner. The magic behind the professor was the Optimal Selection Method, which might be too profound and complex to be revealed just yet, so Tang Shun didn¡¯t inquire further. Yang Ping moved from the Tumor Laboratory to the Stem Cell Laboratory, where research on the spatial orientation gene of muscles was still underway, aiming for more precise activation and control. Currently, the lab could only clone a piece of muscle that, despite having a complete structure, consisted merely of a single muscle belly and two tendons at each end, clearly the simplest form of human muscle. The next goal of the laboratory was to cultivate specific muscles, such as the biceps brachii, triceps brachii, quadriceps femoris, popliteus, etc., and even control the volume and shape of the muscles. Of course, the lab was also actively searching for other spatial orientation genes. Eventually, Yang Ping arrived at the Skin Expansion Laboratory. Although the skin augmentation experiments had been hugely successful, why skin could expand in such a way, while other organs could not, remained a mystery. To lift the veil on this mystery would require scientific experimentation. Skin is one of the most miraculous organs of the human body, hiding many secrets; the study of which might reveal much. Yang Ping was very satisfied with the laboratory director, Tang Shun, who managed the lab immaculately, implementing his experimental plans effectively, and sometimes, even offering valuable suggestions. If they could also retain Li Yingtong, the strength of the laboratory would increase significantly. ¡ª Principal Ruo was very committed to Yang Ping¡¯s nomination for Academician. The number of academicians represented the scientific research strength of a university and also meant more research resources. Yang Ping must become an Academician, at least during his own term. Now, in terms of research achievements, Yang Ping fully met the standards. His biggest shortcoming was seniority, a nebulous concept which sometimes seemed very rigid, while other times very flexible. After Principal Ruo¡¯s mediation, the whole Nandu Medical University had united, working harmoniously without a trace of dissonance. Vice Principal Ding, who originally held opposing views, immediately switched to the supporting side after being promised a slot as an Outstanding Young Talent for his son-in-law, naturally causing the opposition to crumble. Adults always talk about interests, and Vice Principal Ding was a master at grasping opportunities for his own benefit, timing his moves perfectly, and riding the momentum to secure the Outstanding Young Talent slot for his son-in-law once again. When everyone¡¯s qualifications matched, who got the slot came down to a collective decision. Principal Ruo had not anticipated how smoothly things would go when he approached Dean Xia about the matter. Dean Xia said that he wanted to talk to young people. Giving up the competition for the next Outstanding Young Talent affected the interests of the young scientists, and Dean Xia couldn¡¯t decide alone; he had to consult with them and gain their understanding and forgiveness. Dean Xia initially felt guilty about discussing this with the young scientists, but they simply did not care about the title of Outstanding Young Talent and unanimously agreed to give up the competition for it¡ªan exemplary and broad-minded group of youth. In fact, for Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, becoming an Outstanding Young Talent was only a matter of time. Their focus was on scientific research, not on such titles. Principal Ruo reflected that the new generation push the old; the future of Nandu Medical University seemed bright indeed. This generation of young people at Nandu Medical University was brimming with talent; not to mention a rare genius like Yang Ping, but also Guan Ruyan, Lin Lan, and others from the main campus, Su Nanchen, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Tang Shun, and more from the affiliated hospitals¡ªtoo many to count on one¡¯s fingers. Principal Ruo had an idea to hold a seminar for young people, bringing them together for exchanges, which would be conducive to future cooperation. Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Guan Ruyan are considered to have had conflicts in the past. Yang Ping ¡°stole¡± Guan Ruyan¡¯s Outstanding Young Talent, and now Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang are making way for Guan Ruyan¡¯s Outstanding Young Talent. Sometimes competition is not unusual, but it is very necessary for everyone to become friends, show mutual understanding, and create a positive work environment at Nandu Medical University. It¡¯s beneficial to hold such a salon to allow the young people to interact and communicate more. ¡°How about this, let everyone share their latest projects for discussion, so they know what each other is working on, sound good?¡± Principal Ruo suggested. The vice principals thought it was a good idea. Vice Principal Ding was very pleased, knowing that his son-in-law often interacted with these young people; it would definitely be a good thing if they could become friends in the future. In fact, Principal Ding was not keen on antagonizing Su Qingyun, and now that Principal Ruo proposed such a salon, he understood the implication: it was an opportunity for the young people to resolve their conflicts. Besides, with Yang Ping¡¯s pending academician nomination, as long as his son-in-law could secure the Outstanding Young Talent position, Principal Ding felt he should be even more supportive than others, thus perfectly resolving the prior conflict with Su Qingyun. ¡°I¡¯ll organize this event. The location will be at our Nandu Medical University, and the participants will be as the principal mentioned, mainly young talents from the entire Nandu system. They should indeed exchange and debate with each other to foster a good academic atmosphere.¡± Principal Ding was now very enthusiastic. ¡°Young people are not like us, always harmonious; their debates can be fierce. Should we have several senior professors to keep things in order?¡± one vice principal worried about whether the young ones would be amiable. Principal Ruo waved his hand: ¡°We want debate. What¡¯s an academic conference without debate? Truth becomes clearer through argument. We old folks have already lost our edge and our questioning spirit; we¡¯re actually no longer suitable for scientific research. I hope they can always maintain a young, curious, and skeptical heart.¡± The others thought that Principal Ruo also made a good point. Back when they were young, they were full of passion, daring to question everything and curious about new things. Now¡ªthose days were long gone. ¡ª Yang Ping knew that Nandu Medical University nominated him for an academician, and Manstein recommended him for the Nobel Prize, but it didn¡¯t really stir him much inside. He didn¡¯t have much interest in these things anymore, and what currently caught his greatest interest was the system¡¯s points. If these accomplishments didn¡¯t bring points, he might genuinely have no interest in pursuing them. For Yang Ping, everything seemed to fall into place naturally. He had already been promoted to chief physician and professor, and Song Zimo had also been promoted with him to associate chief physician and associate professor, while Zhang Lin and Little Five had managed to secure a position as attending physician. The accompanying qualifications for guiding masters and doctoral students were all already in place, including postdoctoral teaching eligibility, with Li Yingtong set to be the first postdoc mentored by Yang Ping. Soon, when it came time for the admission of graduate students and doctoral candidates, Yang Ping would have his very first master¡¯s and doctoral students. When news got out that Yang Ping had become a doctoral supervisor, several classmates began pulling strings, hoping to pursue their Ph.D. under his guidance. Ou Lichun, among the graduate students at Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1, was the first to learn that Yang Ping had become a doctoral supervisor. He immediately contacted Yang Ping, hoping to read for his doctorate under him. Li Guodong and Doctor Zhao Wenbo from the Surgical Research Institute were also keen to apply for Yang Ping¡¯s doctoral program, and both were already preparing for the entrance exams. It didn¡¯t matter who they were; as long as they won through fair competition, Yang Ping would welcome them to study for their doctorate with him. However, cheating, favoritism, or backdoor dealings were absolutely out of the question. Yang Ping detested these things the most. Back when Yang Ping had graduated with his master¡¯s degree, ranking at the top, he could have stayed at the university-affiliated hospital. But in the end, his position was swapped out by someone else, and he had to go far away to the Nandu Provincial City to sit for contract worker exams at various hospitals, eventually securing a job at the City People¡¯s Hospital. Although Dean Xie and Wu Siwen were not decent people at the time, using the recruitment merely to fill labor gaps from a mass departure of doctors, Yang Ping still had affection for the City People¡¯s Hospital because, after all, it was the first job he earned through an exam. Chapter 1186 - 1186 930 Hands-off Boss ?Chapter 1186: Chapter 930 Hands-off Boss Chapter 1186: Chapter 930 Hands-off Boss ¡°Too profound to be exhibited!¡± Every time Professor Yu¡¯s Optimal Selection Method was mentioned, this was always his response. Full of curiosity, Tang Shun admired the effectiveness of the Optimal Selection Method. It always managed to pick the most accurate path through the complex experimental routes, leading effortlessly to the shores of success. Even Tang Shun believed that compared to Professor Yu¡¯s Spatial Orientation Gene theory, the Optimal Selection Method was the truly unparalleled super-scientific achievement. If the Spatial Orientation Gene theory was the ¡°fish,¡± then the Optimal Selection Method was the ¡°fishing.¡± Upon reflection, Tang Shun recognized that the Optimal Selection Method could indeed be too profound. Currently, there were only a few people in the world who truly understood Professor Yu¡¯s Spatial Orientation Gene theory, so the even more complex Optimal Selection Method surely could be comprehended by no one but the professor himself. Mathematics is more abstract than medicine, a certainty, so it made sense that the professor was unwilling to discuss it now. After all, explaining it would be a fruitless effort, better left unsaid. This was like when Tang Shun was in middle school and his deskmate always liked to ask about the toughest questions from the Olympiad chemistry exams. Tang Shun would explain for half an hour and still his deskmate would have no clue. In such a scenario, why bother explaining at all? It was a sheer waste of youth. If the intellect isn¡¯t there, further explanation is futile. To understand the Optimal Selection Method, a mathematical foundation is imperative, not just an ordinary level of mathematics but at least at a professional doctoral level to comprehend Professor Yu¡¯s method. Thus, Tang Shun decided to start delving into mathematics. In truth, Yang Ping was actually researching the Optimal Selection Method, just without success so far. The System Space currently held a vast amount of trial-and-error experience. Apart from serving as a basis for judging experimental routes in the future, it should be fully utilized to establish a systematic theory of optimal selection. Now that he was endowed with the system, if the system were ever gone and he had to trial and error each step in reality, it might beat him back to square one. Yang Ping understood clearly that the system was just a tool¡ªhe was the master of the system, not its slave. Hence, he intended to use the vast amount of trial-and-error data from the system to conduct research on truly optimizing the massive number of experimental routes, to reduce the number of experiments and shorten the experimental duration. Since the great mathematician Hua Luogeng had already proposed the Optimal Selection Method, this mathematical approach was viable. The question was whether he could further improve on this theory, to create an even better Optimal Selection Method. If successful, even if one day he no longer had the system, the impact would not be too great. At the very least, he would still have the powerful tool of the Optimal Selection Method in hand. If the mother machine is the basis of industry, the machine that makes other machines, then Yang Ping¡¯s research on the Optimal Selection Method is the ¡°mother machine¡± of scientific research¡ª a method that generates research methodologies, the foundation of science. It was not just the Optimal Selection Method that Yang Ping wanted to research; he also aimed to delve into many fundamental theories of scientific research, the ¡°mother machines¡± of research. Of course, he hadn¡¯t derived these methods yet. Currently, he was still relying on the system¡¯s advantage to keep trialing and erring. While pondering these issues, Director Zhou from the Department of Science and Education sent a WeChat message. Nandu Medical University was hosting an academic exchange for young people, an internal Academic Conference aimed at fostering exchanges among the young talents. Principal Ruo hoped that everyone would sign up enthusiastically. He specifically mentioned Yang Ping, hoping he would participate and boost the morale of Nandu¡¯s young talents. Openness leads to progress, seclusion to regression; it was a good thing. Yang Ping felt he should participate and immediately replied to Director Zhou with his agreement. In fact, apart from performing surgeries, there were many other tasks daily, such as keeping up with the laboratory¡¯s progress and acquainting himself with new lab members. Each task required his attention. On Yang Ping¡¯s desk lay the personal file of Li Yingtong, now the third and thickest batch. Yang Ping picked it up and started browsing through it slowly. The information was detailed, covering where she went to kindergarten, who her elementary school teachers were, the content of her award-winning essays in high school, whether she had a boyfriend in university, why she chose to go abroad after university graduation, and even the fact that certain funds supported her education in the United States, among countless other clear details. A person¡¯s change is never abrupt; there¡¯s always a journey of the heart. This file thoroughly dissected Li Yingtong¡¯s mental journey. Setting other factors aside for now, it was undeniable that she was a rare talent. Yang Ping was eager to have her truly return and contribute to the country. He would see how she performed. It was always worth trying, after all, there was nothing to lose. While busy, Yang Ping received another call from Dean Xia. Bao Yulou expressed his wish to meet Yang Ping in person to apologize. His son had done such a deed and would await the strict punishment of the law. As Bao Junhao¡¯s father, he bore responsibility and felt he must bow and apologize to Professor Yang to find some peace of mind. Well, if a meeting was what it took to save Dean Xia the hassle of constantly receiving calls trying to arrange one, it was worth it. Otherwise, Dean Xia would be pestered by endless phone calls facilitating the connection. Although Bao Yulou¡¯s son was deplorable, Bao Yulou himself was not too bad, at least he was humble. He had always been looking for ways to do charity. Whether he was genuine or just posing as a good person, the fact that he was putting actual money into good deeds was more than an act. As soon as Yang Ping confirmed, Bao Yulou burst into tears, overjoyed. As long as Yang Ping accepted his apology, it meant this incident would end with Bao Junhao¡¯s imprisonment, with no further escalation. Chapter 1187 - 1187 930 Hands-Off Boss_2 ?Chapter 1187: Chapter 930: Hands-Off Boss_2 Chapter 1187: Chapter 930: Hands-Off Boss_2 Bao Yulou had to thank Professor He, as it was Professor He¡¯s suggestion that helped him come to his senses, and he had completely given up on the idea of ¡°rescuing.¡± It was only his wife who was still not giving up, always wanting to take some measures, but faced with right and wrong, Bao Yulou did not indulge her this time, and so his wife also had to give up in the end. Bao Yulou funded a charity specifically for the education of young people who had made mistakes, as an act of contrition for his own failings in his son¡¯s education, hoping to reduce the number of lost youths in society. Although Bao Junhao was no longer a youth, Bao Yulou believed the root of the problem was that Bao Junhao had strayed during his adolescent years and he, as a father, had not fulfilled his duty to guide him back to the right path in time. After doing all these, Bao Yulou made an effort to apologize to Yang Ping, bowing deeply before him and saying he was sorry. ¡ª The Science and Technology Department of Nandu Medical University was highly efficient; rather than choosing a date, why not just go with what was available? The academic conference was held on Saturday. The academic exchange meeting for young people was still quite interesting. Yang Ping, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Tang Shun all came to participate in the academic conference at Nandu Medical University, with Xia Shu, Wen Zhong, and Dr. Jin also coming along to experience it. Although Dr. Jin was already in his forties, he felt he was still young and had many opportunities, so he joined everyone. After all, the conference did not require an ID card; no one knew he was already over forty. It was called an academic conference, but perhaps it should have been called a networking event, as young talents have a strong sense of timing and are very punctual; by the scheduled Saturday at nine o¡¯clock, everyone had arrived before nine. There were dozens of people, including several young professors from the main campus, as well as some people from affiliated hospitals. Yang Ping knew several of them, including the married couple, Su Nanchen and Lin Lan, Yang Ping¡¯s brother-in-law and sister-in-law, naturally needing no introduction. Guan Ruyan he had met once before, and he had dined with several doctors from Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1, but he was not very familiar with the others. ¡°Brother Yang!¡± Su Nanchen and Yang Ping shook hands. Brother Yang? Yang Ping was taken aback, this form of address seemed to disorder the generations. Su Nanchen also immediately realized his mistake. Before he knew of the relationship between Yang Ping and his sister, Su Nanchen often called him Brother Yang as a mark of respect, probably because it was so smooth to say at the time. Although he had already stopped, occasionally he would still slip up unintentionally. ¡°Professor Yang! Long time no see, I¡¯ve heard so much about you!¡± Su Nanchen immediately corrected himself, and the brothers shook hands. It¡¯s not like it had been a long time; they had just eaten at the same table at your house last weekend. ¡°Long time no see!¡± Yang Ping also joined in with the polite words. Several young doctors from the Affiliated Hospital No. 1 immediately came over to shake hands with ¡°Brother Yang,¡± all of whom Yang Ping had met before. On his first consulting visit to Affiliated Hospital No. 1, he was warmly treated by Su Nanchen, who had invited Yang Ping for a meal, and all these individuals were present then. Among them was Lin Hao, who had previously pursued Su Yixuan. During the competition for the Golden Knife Award, he had inadvertently stolen Yang Ping¡¯s technique and even claimed it as his own, but Yang Ping did not hold him too accountable and even spoke on his behalf, thus preventing his future from being jeopardized. Now Lin Hao truly admired Yang Ping; he acknowledged that Yang Ping¡¯s talent was incomparable to his. He silently felt happy for Su Yixuan for having found such a fine husband. In matters of the heart, when something is unattainable, giving up is often the best option. Now, Lin Hao and a female doctor from Nandu Medical University had already reached the stage of discussing marriage. Taking a step back really broadened his horizons. There are many affiliated hospitals under Nandu Medical University, including a Cancer Hospital, etc. A few people came from each hospital, and when adding them up, the number of participants was substantial. Most of the other hospitals¡¯ doctors rarely had the chance to meet Yang Ping, and most had only heard of his reputation. Outstanding Young Talent, evaluation for Academician, 13 CNS publications, and Nobel Prize-level research achievements¡ªsuch a super-genius was revered no matter where he went. Actually, the reason so many attendees had gathered was because they had heard that Yang Ping would be there, and everyone wanted to see him. Guan Ruyan was a social butterfly. When he met Yang Ping, he proactively reached out for a handshake, displaying great humility. If you can¡¯t beat them, avoid them, and learn to achieve your goals through indirect routes¡ªthese were the words his father-in-law had imparted to him. Wasn¡¯t this conference the curve he was using to reach his own Outstanding Young Talent goal? It was only delayed by a year. The entire conference style was also very youthful, without the usual roundabout courtesies. Under the host¡¯s arrangement, they delved directly into the major topics, with everyone introducing their recent research activities to facilitate mutual understanding of what everyone was involved in. Initially, Yang Ping was supposed to speak first, but the host decided to have him present last as a highlight, which would add depth to the conference, so Yang Ping was scheduled for the final slot. Research topics aren¡¯t something you switch every few days as if it¡¯s child¡¯s play. A project could take years or even decades, and some research spans an entire lifetime, often without yielding significant results. Therefore, one must be capable of settling down for scientific research. If it¡¯s for fame and profit, better to give up early¡ªthe risks are too great to bear. Except for scientific fraud. The cost and risks involved in scientific fraud, compared to genuine scientific endeavors, are as insignificant as a feather by contrast to a heavyweight. Abroad, there was a Doctor who faked over two hundred papers¡ªit¡¯s written so convincingly that with those two hundred papers, the Doctor had a flourishing career and became a top figure in the field. Perhaps thinking fraudulent practices were too easy, he eventually relaxed his nerves and compromised the quality of his fakes, getting caught red-handed. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang discussed and decided only one of them should go up, and only one could. Xu Zhiliang¡¯s stuttering had persisted till now; except for periods of remission during emergencies, he was always symptomatic. If he went on stage, nobody else would get a chance to present from morning till night¡ªit would turn into a one-man show. Xu Zhiliang didn¡¯t want to come at all, but Song Zimo forcefully dragged him along. It would be fine to just listen from below the stage; no need to speak up there, so there was nothing to fear. He had attended the European Spine Academic Conference; what was there to fear in this small-scale conference? In truth, Xu Zhiliang didn¡¯t have social anxiety; he merely stuttered, which made speaking inconvenient. Song Zimo¡¯s topic was precision epiphyseal tissue techniques for treating spinal scoliosis. This topic had almost been talked to death, but there was no other choice¡ªas a topic could span several years, like professors who are bug-like geniuses conducting three topics at once, and still having time to drink tea in the office daily. Sometimes, Song Zimo really wanted to examine the tea to see if it contained any stimulants conducive to thinking. He was managing three projects at once, with teams as busy as fans, yet he remained calm and relaxed, sitting in his office drinking tea. Shouldn¡¯t he be searching for information online or watching data in the laboratory at that time? Whenever Song Zimo asked Yang Ping why his research always proceeded so smoothly Optimal Selection Method! Could you teach the Optimal Selection Method? Too profound to display! Damn, how hurtful to say that, implying ¡°Your intelligence isn¡¯t up to it, explaining it would be wasted.¡± After everyone had introduced their topics, the free discussion session started. Young people will be young, full of vigor, and without the mature middle-aged to keep things steady, their free debates were quite intense. This group initially only intended to debate, but the debate grew increasingly heated. Of course, since they were all scholars, at most they spoke faster and louder, without resorting to cursing or banging on the table. Guan Ruyan brought an Assistant, supposed to join him to gain some experience. Perhaps the Assistant encountered too many talents that day, ending up quite active and completely forgetting his spectator role, acting as if he were a main character too. After a round of free discussion, Yang Ping noticed that Guan Ruyan¡¯s Assistant was more familiar with their topics than Guan Ruyan himself. Faced with several sharp questions from Yang Ping that hit the core, Guan Ruyan seemed at a loss, but the Assistant stepped forward and answered with ease. Damn, this Assistant was really diligent, and Guan Ruyan truly was a ¡°bureaucrat,¡± rarely visiting the laboratory? Hardly managing the experimental plans himself. Yang Ping himself was also a hands-off boss, but never to this extent. That said, could Tang Shun possibly understand more about his Spatial Orientation Gene theory than he did himself? No, something felt off. Chapter 1188 - 1188 931 My Own Life ?Chapter 1188: Chapter 931: My Own Life Chapter 1188: Chapter 931: My Own Life Why couldn¡¯t the university have organized this kind of academic conference earlier, which allowed someone as divine as Professor Yang to appear only now? Lu Xiaolu was glad he came to this academic conference. Initially, he was unwilling, but Guan Ruyan insisted on dragging him along. This experience changed Lu Xiaolu¡¯s outlook on life. A conversation with Professor Yang was more enlightening than ten years of study. Professor Yang¡¯s passionate ideals and his persistent pursuit of science represented the life he wanted to lead. In contrast, he himself was adrift, unsure of what he was doing. Moreover, many questions that Lu Xiaolu had never understood were finally answered today by Professor Yang. Guan Ruyan was not pleased with his assistant¡¯s eagerness to constantly engage in discussions with Professor Yang, but being a highly emotionally intelligent young talent, his success owed more to emotional intelligence than to intelligence. Thus, Guan Ruyan discretely pulled Lu Xiaolu away, and then he himself cozied up to Yang Ping. Although he had once been defeated by Yang Ping, in a society where power rules, Guan Ruyan was willing to accept his loss and not, like some fools, overestimate himself and attempt the impossible. Now, Guan Ruyan instead sought to seize the opportunity to forge a friendship with Yang Ping. Yang Ping also found this academic conference extremely valuable. He was networking everywhere, and wasn¡¯t Lu Xiaolu talented? Logically speaking, someone like him should have had a distinguished reputation at Nandu Medical University. How could he be so obscure, with no significant academic achievements to his name? If it weren¡¯t for today¡¯s networking-oriented conference, he would have remained unaware of Lu Xiaolu¡¯s existence. However, having just talked with him and discussed research topics, Lu Xiaolu¡¯s insights were remarkable, showing that he truly had substance. Feeling rebuffed by Guan Ruyan, Lu Xiaolu was quite disheartened. He still wanted to talk to Professor Yang. Had this been in ancient times, they would have surely talked all night, lamenting how late they had met. In fact, Lu Xiaolu had led a troubled life these years. He wanted to repay a debt of gratitude but also felt guilty, so he was profoundly conflicted about helping Guan Ruyan. Over the years, he had never had a sense of self; he was like Guan Ruyan¡¯s crutch, a tool, a stepping stone. Academics are generally naive. Dozens of people freely mingling and discussing, sipping drinks, eating snacks and fruits. Although noisy and fast-paced, the atmosphere was overall very pleasant. Xu Zhiliang was the exception. He sat alone, not speaking, and ate all the venue¡¯s pastries, fruits, and snacks, then walked around the gaps in the crowds with hands behind his back. When someone greeted him, he would just smile and nod, never speaking, appearing extremely aloof. There were also many people around Song Zimo. A fellow renowned member of the Nandu Medical University system, he was handsome, articulate, and single. Several female doctors chatted with him, their eyes practically oozing with pheromones. If you just looked at Song Zimo¡¯s area, it didn¡¯t seem like an academic conference but rather like a matchmaking event. Song Zimo, in a predicament, immediately waved to Tang Shun, who blatantly ignored him. Why was this guy so unhelpful at a critical moment? Song Zimo made eye signals, but Tang Shun pretended not to see them. Don¡¯t eat the grass next to your burrow, Tang Shun scoffed at this. He had principles; even a womanizer has a fervent patriotic heart. The host of the conference was a young female doctor who had just graduated from Nandu Medical University¡¯s Department of Science and Technology, named Qi Guangling. This Doctor had now forgotten her role and was also asking for Song Zimo¡¯s WeChat. The marital prospects for female doctors were not very promising. While it was possible to achieve both love and academic success, it was rare. Many female doctors were reluctant to settle for men with lower educational achievements than themselves, whereas men of equal academic qualifications had broader choices by then. Male doctors from Nandu Medical University system were highly sought after, whether they were university professors or hospital doctors. Once their single status was revealed, they were blatantly poached. Take someone like Xu Zhiliang, who could barely utter a word. How could he know about dating? Others introduced him to a girlfriend with a Master¡¯s degree, a civil servant in the educational system, from a very well-off family. She did not mind his stuttering at all and treated him extremely well, leading Xu Zhiliang directly into marriage without a detour through romance. Thus, female doctors seeking male doctors faced competitors from multiple levels and directions. Song Zimo kept looking for help. ¡°Old Xu!¡ª¡± Old Xu was too busy to bother with you, now surrounded by all kinds of drinks adding up to at least five cups, and several pieces of pastry on his plate. He tasted them bit by bit, a picture of enjoyment. Was he planning to consume all the refreshments at the event? ¡°Professor!¡ª¡± The Professor wasn¡¯t inclined to meddle in such matters; his mind was focused on academics, utterly undistracted. These ruthless people, not one of them cared about him, Song Zimo was sitting on pins and needles. ¡°Where is the bathroom? Sorry, I need to use the restroom!¡± Song Zimo was gasping for air. ¡°I¡¯ll take you there.¡± ¡°This way!¡± ¡°There¡¯s one over there too.¡± The female doctors were very enthusiastic. Dream on about escaping. ¡ª An entire morning spent in meetings, but fortunately, Nandu Medical University truly had an abundance of talent. With hidden dragons and crouching tigers everywhere, that Lu Xiaolu really wasn¡¯t bad. Yang Ping decided to get to know him better, now thinking about networking everywhere. Chapter 1189 - 1189 931 Own Life_2 ?Chapter 1189: Chapter 931: Own Life_2 Chapter 1189: Chapter 931: Own Life_2 The academic salon concluded, and the woman hosting the meeting, Doctor Qi Guangling, proposed a group visit to Sanbo Hospital¡¯s laboratory, which was unanimously approved with a show of hands, as many people were keen on the idea but too shy to suggest it themselves. Given that everyone belonged to the same system, Professor Yang readily agreed to Qi Guangling¡¯s suggestion and arranged to visit Sanbo Hospital on Sunday the following day. On Saturday afternoon, Professor Yang had some free time and decided to check on Liquan Hospital. The pressure at Liquan Hospital was immense at the moment, with an overwhelming number of patients, and the issue was they were only admitting orthopedic patients. If they moved to the new campus and opened up admissions to more patients, it would be chaotic. Boss Cheng was in high spirits and had been waiting for Professor Yang at the hospital¡¯s main entrance since early in the day. Across from the main entrance was a parking space reserved for Professor Yang. Ever since the violent attack incident occurred on his territory, Boss Cheng had hired dozens more security guards, who started their days early with boxing and running. As soon as the Hongqi Sedan arrived, Boss Cheng immediately ran over to greet him, but the car door opened early, and out stepped Ershun. Boss Cheng despised this guy, who followed him around like a shadow and couldn¡¯t be shaken off. Boss Cheng then led Professor Yang into the hospital. ¡°Hello, Professor!¡± The reception nurse at the front desk, attractive and tall, greeted with a sweet voice. ¡°Hello, everyone.¡± Professor Yang returned the greeting with a smile to the reception nurse. Boss Cheng¡¯s office was not particularly spacious, but it was bright and clean, with very good quality tea leaves. They all sat down for tea and chatted. Dean Cai hurried over when he heard the professor had come to join for tea, and Doctor Wan came along as well. Doctor Wan was Professor Yang¡¯s colleague at the City People¡¯s Hospital. After Professor Yang left City People¡¯s Hospital, Doctor Wan fell out of favor with Wu Siwen and was let go under a fabricated excuse. Later, Professor Yang arranged for him to work at Liquan Hospital. In fact, Doctor Wan had not made any serious mistakes; he was just slightly impolite¡ªwalking into the director¡¯s office without knocking, only to find Director Wu intimately engaged with a female medical representative on the couch, very much engrossed in their deep ¡®research.¡¯ Simply because Doctor Wan lacked the common courtesy to knock first, he found himself swept out the door. However, fate can sometimes be strange. After Doctor Wan joined Liquan Hospital, Boss Cheng valued him highly, almost treating him as a prized candidate for cultivation. Under Su Nanchen¡¯s direct mentorship, Doctor Wan¡¯s surgical skills had greatly improved, making him a key player at Liquan Hospital. Boss Cheng would even occasionally send him for short two-week training gold-plating trips overseas, visiting Europe, America, and Japan. As for his income¡ªwell, that goes without saying. Though not excessive, it had reached around the average level for the platform. Doctor Wan also sat down to join Professor Yang for tea. As all were old friends, the conversation flowed easily and casually for a while. Liquan Hospital pursues a high-end approach, so it would never compromise the quality of medical services for short-term benefits. No matter how long the patient queue, the surgery schedule here was set in stone. Professor Yang asked Boss Cheng if Zhang Lin and Little Five would be suitable for performing surgeries here, to which Boss Cheng responded that there was no question about the quality of the surgeries; they just had to be performed in tandem, and furthermore, they were too meticulous, particularly very exacting on their assistants. That was only to be expected, as those two brothers were masters of their craft, with the world¡¯s first authoritative work on their technique. After chatting for a while, Professor Yang took everyone on a round of room inspections. Since they were here, it was only fitting to offer some technical guidance. Before leaving, Boss Cheng insisted on a meal: ¡°The owner of a fine restaurant always asks when Professor Yang will visit next; he¡¯s developed several new dishes recently. Would you like to give them a try, Professor?¡± ¡°Yes, yes, after the meal, how about going to the club to play some ball? To relax a bit,¡± added Dean Cai, also trying to persuade him to stay. Professor Yang declined, explaining he needed to accompany his wife, resisting Boss Cheng¡¯s invitation. After seeing off Professor Yang, Boss Cheng¡¯s face darkened: ¡°Clubs, that¡¯s all you know. Don¡¯t you understand who he is, what the context is? The professor isn¡¯t into that sort of thing.¡± Dean Cai felt wronged and his face flushed with anger, ¡°Boss, I¡¯m serious about playing ball. I¡¯ve invited some highly skilled partners, not what you¡¯re thinking.¡± Looking around, Boss Cheng glared at Dean Cai: ¡°What sort of ball do you think I¡¯m imagining?¡± ¡°You¡¯re thinking of basketball, but I was referring to tennis,¡± replied Dean Cai, helpless. Um! Boss Cheng seemed satisfied with the answer. ¡ª Sunday morning, the visiting group from Nandu Medical University arrived on time, but the team was larger than the one at yesterday¡¯s academic conference, with several women added to the mix. Lu Xiaolu was also part of the crowd visiting, attentively observing every laboratory. Upon hearing that Professor Yang¡¯s laboratory was conducting a study on tumor cell apoptosis, he was very curious. In the Oncology Research Laboratory, Lu Xiaolu¡¯s understanding was refreshed. He had not expected Professor Yang¡¯s team to have made such rapid progress. Meanwhile, he was just drifting through life. Back in Germany, he had dreams and ambitions, but now he could only live in the shadow of Guan Ruyan. Was he doomed to go on like this forever? Already in his thirties, time was slipping away like water, and his dreams, once like boulders, had now been worn down to pebbles. Lu Xiaolu often pondered when he would have his own life. After the visit, everyone stayed for lunch. Several female doctors felt they had uncovered a treasure trove; not only was Song Zimo at Sanbo Hospital single, but many of the researchers in the three laboratories were also bachelors. Chapter 1190 - 1190 931 Own Life_3 ?Chapter 1190: Chapter 931: Own Life_3 Chapter 1190: Chapter 931: Own Life_3 At the social dinner table, everyone added each other on WeChat and formed a group, agreeing to visit Nandu Medical University again next week. After seeing off the visiting team, Yang Ping discussed Lu Xiaolu¡¯s situation with Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Tang Shun. Not just Yang Ping, both Tang Shun and Song Zimo felt that Lu Xiaolu was talented, but they wondered why he was so obscure that he didn¡¯t even have a single first-author paper worth mentioning. ¡°He was disciplined by Nandu Medical University a few years ago.¡± Song Zimo was more familiar with the affairs of Nandu Medical University than Yang Ping, and in fact, it was some female doctors who had told him. ¡°What for?¡± Yang Ping thought this person had a story. Because when experts got together, as long as they communicated deeply, they could mostly get a very clear picture of someone¡¯s capabilities, if not spot-on then very close to it. Song Zimo said, ¡°Without Guan Ruyan¡¯s consent, he published a paper with Guan Ruyan as the first author. The quality of the paper was very poor, and the data were even fabricated. It caused an uproar at Nandu Medical University at the time. People wondered why Guan Ruyan would write such a paper that didn¡¯t match his scholarly abilities. Later, the school investigated and found out that the article wasn¡¯t written by Guan Ruyan but by his assistant, Lu Xiaolu. Lu Xiaolu also stepped forward and admitted his mistake, for which the school disciplined him. Luckily, Guan Ruyan is a good person. He forgave Lu Xiaolu¡¯s mistake and kept him in the laboratory as an assistant.¡± ¡°Yesterday and today I talked to Lu Xiaolu, and why do I feel like he is more capable than Guan Ruyan? On many core issues of Guan Ruyan¡¯s current projects, he can explain them clearly, while Guan Ruyan can¡¯t. I find that strange.¡± Yang Ping had been thinking about this. ¡°Maybe he does the specific experimental work, and Guan Ruyan is quite busy, so he¡¯s more familiar than Guan Ruyan.¡± Song Zimo guessed that at Nandu Medical University, Guan Ruyan was recognized as a young talent, and apart from Lu Xiaolu¡¯s dark history, almost nobody knew him. If he truly were more skilled than Guan Ruyan, the likelihood of being overlooked under Principal Ruo¡¯s tenure at Nandu Medical University would be small. Principal Ruo loved talents greatly, and there was also Academician Xiang at Nandu Medical University, who was famously fond of talents and had unearthed several young talents himself. ¡°Some people might be eloquent yet have no real talent, while others may not be articulate but have real substance. Old Xu is not good with words; Old Tang, on the other hand, has a silver tongue.¡± Song Zimo interpreted it according to his own understanding. Tang Shun was clearly displeased when he heard this: ¡°Dr. Song, what do you mean by that? Are you saying that I have no real talent and just get by on talk?¡± Song Zimo realized he had made an inappropriate analogy: ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong, my comparison is limited to eloquence, not talent.¡± Tang Shun adjusted his hair: ¡°That¡¯s better, be clear when you speak, or it¡¯s very easy to be misunderstood. I might not be exceedingly talented, but I¡¯m at least at six or seven dou, right?¡± ¡°Not just six or seven dou, you¡¯re at least at eight point five dou,¡± Song Zimo said with a smile. In fact, the group was just joking around earnestly. ¡°I think it¡¯s not so simple. I¡¯m just judging from what I¡¯ve observed, not delving into their talents. Guan Ruyan obviously seems a bit hollow; he lacks confidence when he talks to us. Lu Xiaolu, on the other hand, is very confident, but he also acts very restrained, as if he¡¯s worried about stepping out of an invisible boundary, afraid to go beyond it. Anyway, that¡¯s the impression he gives me,¡± Tang Shun voiced his thoughts. ¡°As for the paper that got him in trouble before, print it out for me to see when you have time. Dr. Song, when you have a moment, get in touch with him more, try to understand his situation better. This person is talented but seems to be in a state of despair. Find out the side reasons, whether his family is facing any difficulties.¡± Yang Ping instructed Song Zimo. Chapter 1191 - 1191 932 Pearl Intestines ?Chapter 1191: Chapter 932: Pearl Intestines Chapter 1191: Chapter 932: Pearl Intestines The weather on Monday was nice, and summer days dawn early; the sky was already bright around six in the morning. Passing by the sky bridge, an old man selling sweet potatoes had already started vending breakfast from his cart, which was also sweet potatoes, and there were quite a few buyers coming and going. Beyond the sky bridge was a small square in front of the emergency department. The neon cross of the emergency was quite conspicuous. An ambulance was parked at the entrance, and a patient was being brought out from the back. It didn¡¯t look like a trauma case; the emergency doctor kept performing heart compressions as the stretcher was converted into a flat trolley and pushed toward the emergency hall. The doctor accompanying the ambulance jumped onto the trolley and knelt in a straddling position to continue the compressions; it seemed to be an acute heart condition, and now the heartbeat had already stopped. Following the trolley were the wailing and sobbing family members, one woman wearing pajamas and slippers, holding a coat in her hand. No sooner had this ambulance left than another ambulance stopped at the entrance of the emergency department, its rear doors swung open, and out came a stretcher carrying a patient covered in blood. ¡°Directly to the operating room!¡± The doctor receiving the ambulance shouted loudly then came the rumbling sound of the trolley¡¯s wheels. Circling past the emergency department, Yang Ping headed straight for the Surgical Research Institute, encountering many colleagues carrying breakfast along the way and some still asleep on the outdoor benches. The week had been fulfilling and tense. In the System Space, three experiments were conducted simultaneously. calculating the consumption of credits, Yang Ping figured that they would last for a while, but without new income, relying solely on existing credit reserves, the credits would soon run out. With the current credits, it was impossible to support a fourth experiment, but fortunately, Yang Ping had no plans to start a fourth experiment yet. Even the system, it seems, isn¡¯t omnipotent and limitless; it too is constrained by credit limits. And substantial credits have to be earned through real-world efforts. Scientific research requires too many credits, and accumulating them solely through surgeries is but a drop in the bucket; scientific research has to rely on scientific achievements to accumulate credits. Yang Ping was currently studying mathematics diligently, discovering that the greatest resource of the system was actually time, and as long as he put in the effort, there was almost nothing he couldn¡¯t learn. The purpose of studying mathematics was to research the Optimal Selection Method; he wanted to establish a complete theory for optimizing the trajectory of scientific research. After his shift ended, Dean Chen from the City People¡¯s Hospital came to discuss matters with Yang Ping. Since taking over the City People¡¯s Hospital, it had gradually regained its vitality. The previous dean had nearly drained the hospital and also left it with significant debt. There was also a severe drain of talent. After assuming the role, Dean Chen began wide-reaching reforms, and now, the City People¡¯s Hospital was flourishing. Regarding enhancing the hospital¡¯s operational level, Dean Chen hoped Yang Ping could help; the City People¡¯s Hospital had formed a support relationship with Sanbo Hospital to help improve the medical level of the City People¡¯s Hospital¡¯s doctors through Yang Ping leading a team. Although Yang Ping had been hurt in the past at the City People¡¯s Hospital, that chapter was now closed, and besides, Wu Siwen was still stuck at his sewing machine job. When he first arrived in Nandu Provincial City, his first place of employment was the City People¡¯s Hospital, to which Yang Ping was still emotionally attached. Dean Chen had also prepared for this matter for a long time. For a long time before, Dean Chen had been focusing on sorting out the hospital¡¯s internal relations and then hiring some new people. He also visited former employees who had left the City People¡¯s Hospital, welcoming back any colleagues who were interested in returning. Dean Chen had proposed cooperation with Sanbo Hospital and Yang Ping a while ago, but previously, it was sporadic and unsystematic. At that time, the hospital was not in a condition to conduct mature operations. After this period of internal arrangement, the City People¡¯s Hospital had finally stabilized, so Dean Chen felt that the cooperation should be comprehensive and systematic. Dean Chen had helped Yang Ping in the past, and Yang Ping was aware of it. Originally, Wu Siwen did not only want to dismiss Yang Ping but also to take advantage of the situation to discipline him and then apply for the suspension of Yang Ping¡¯s medical license. At that time, Dean Chen was the director of the Medical Services Office and adamantly opposed such treatment towards Yang Ping; he even argued with the hospital leadership about it, eventually ensuring that Yang Ping retained his medical license, with the nature of the case being just a dismissal, not a termination. For the cooperation with the City People¡¯s Hospital, Yang Ping was also very dedicated. Although the full cooperation hadn¡¯t started yet, Yang Ping was already providing technical support and often took time to perform surgeries. Dean Chen informed Yang Ping that Director Zhuo Defeng of Orthopedics had returned to the City People¡¯s Hospital. Previously, Director Zhuo had graduated from Beijing Medical University and joined the City People¡¯s Hospital, where he was highly skilled and quick to progress but was forcefully ousted by Wu Siwen. Now, Dean Chen visited Director Zhuo in person, apologized on behalf of the hospital, and invited Zhuo back to the City People¡¯s Hospital as head of Orthopedics and vice dean. After several visits, he finally moved Director Zhuo, who agreed to return to the City People¡¯s Hospital and revitalize it together with Dean Chen. After bidding farewell to Dean Chen, Yang Ping headed to the operating room where two surgeries in the operating rooms had simultaneously begun, creating quite a bustling scene. The team at the Surgical Research Institute was now sufficient, with the new arrivals, Doctors Xia Shu, Dr. Wen, and Dr. Jin, slowly adapting. There were also two anesthesiologists now, with the newly arrived Doctor Wei working diligently and seriously, never engaging in idle chatter, resembling a diligently working ox. A few nurses had been added as well, all elites from Sanbo Hospital¡¯s central operating room. With Xiao Su on leave, Zhou Can took over the responsibility of head nurse of the operating room at the Surgical Research Institute, managing the tasks orderly. Chapter 1192 - 1192 932 Pearl Intestines_2 ?Chapter 1192: Chapter 932: Pearl Intestines_2 Chapter 1192: Chapter 932: Pearl Intestines_2 Yang Ping greeted Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, telling them he was going to rest in the resting room for a while, and if needed, they should come and call him. There was no one in the resting room at the moment. Yang Ping found a spot to sit down and then entered the System Space. The second batch of modified K factors had again ended in failure. Yang Ping continued the modifications, starting the third batch of K factor modifications, allowing the experiment to continue. After adjusting the experiment in the System Space, Yang Ping came out of the system and drank a glass of water. Director Fang from the General Surgery Department called to say that a patient on the operating table had their abdominal cavity opened and, upon examination, their intestines were covered with ¡°pearls.¡± Why did all these bizarre cases always happen to him, intestines covered with pearls? Yang Ping decided to go and take a look. He then went back to the operating room to inform Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang of his whereabouts before heading towards the surgery building without taking off his scrub gown and just throwing a white gown over it. In fact, it wasn¡¯t that Director Fang was lucky; since he had been the chief surgeon on an abdominal cluster organ transplant, he had been lecturing about this case everywhere, boasting about it being the first case in Asia. This made many hospitals in the province send their troublesome cases to him, and he accepted all that came his way, hence all the cases were concentrated with him. However, this approach really worked wonders; the cases that others couldn¡¯t or dared not tackle all ended up at Sanbo Hospital, and Director Fang quickly built up his reputation because of this. On his way to the main operating room, Yang Ping ran into Sisi. She was sprinting with a few neatly folded white gowns in her hands, heading towards the Surgical Research Institute. Yang Ping stopped her and asked what was going on. She explained that she was helping her mother, who was too busy, so she went to logistics to get a few new white gowns. At the entrance of the operating room, two groups of family members were crying fiercely, and security was maintaining order. Yang Ping had forgotten his access card and rang the doorbell, waiting for a nurse inside to open the door. From bits and pieces overheard from the spectators, the reasons for the two groups of relatives¡¯ distress became clear; one was about a daughter undergoing surgery who had just had her frozen section returned showing triple-negative breast cancer. The patient was quite young, just started working, and was unmarried. The other patient was likely the one with bloody injuries Yang Ping had seen in the morning, a traffic accident casualty who reportedly had not survived the rescue efforts and had been declared dead. When the door opened, Yang Ping entered the operating room and came across Head Nurse Jiang and colleagues of Xiao Su, all asking when Xiao Su was due and discussing the ultrasound estimates of the baby¡¯s weight. Yang Ping obliged with answers to each query, while Head Nurse Jiang reproached him for stealing her best nurse, Xiao Su, which had greatly weakened her team. Head Nurse Jiang had a sharp tongue but a soft heart. Just recently, when the Surgical Research Institute requested personnel from her, she provided a list. When Yang Ping saw it, it was clear she was cutting her own flesh, as the list consisted of all her elite staff. There was no choice, the Surgical Research Institute was Sanbo Hospital¡¯s elite department. If not for its role as the locomotive of the hospital, Sanbo would not have developed so swiftly. Head Nurse Jiang had this big-picture mindset, so when Yang Ping wanted someone, despite it being difficult, she still complied with the list, balancing pain with necessity. ¡°Use those girls carefully, don¡¯t wear them out too much,¡± Head Nurse Jiang advised. Yang Ping assured, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll treat them like treasures.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t do either; when necessary, they should be scolded, you can¡¯t spoil them,¡± the Head Nurse quickly retorted. Jokingly, Yang Ping said, ¡°Come on, none of the people from under the Head Nurse¡¯s wing ever need scolding.¡± There were many operating rooms all lit with ¡°In Surgery¡± lights. Yang Ping found Director Fang¡¯s operating room, where the intestines were covered with pearls. What¡¯s going on here? Did drinking pearl milk tea cause the pearls to not digest and remain in the intestinal tract? Director Fang was struggling on the table as the patient was an emergency surgery case, admitted due to intestinal obstruction and undergoing exploratory laparotomy because the patient was in a state of shock, and other doctors dared not operate. Director Fang personally took to the operating table. Upon opening the abdominal cavity and conducting an exploration, the surfaces of the intestines and their mesentery were covered with numerous millet-sized nodules that, due to their texture and the mucus on their surface, shone brilliantly, making them look like tiny, sprinkled pearls. ¡°Professor!¡± Now, even the doctors from the Surgical Research Institute, followed by addressing Yang without his first name in front of Professor. In the Surgical Research Institute, only Yang Ping was referred to as Professor, while others could merely be called Doctor So-and-so or something similar. To some extent, whether one addressed Yang Ping as Professor or Professor Yang indicated whether or not they were a part of the Surgical Research Institute. ¡°The frozen pathology samples during the surgery have been sent off, and we are waiting for the results,¡± said Director Fang as he humbly reported the current progress of the surgery to his teacher, even slowing down his speaking rate. Yang Ping moved closer to the operating table, taking advantage of his height to look over it. Director Fang quickly grabbed an S-hook to open up the surgical area and used his other hand to lift out a piece of intestine covered in miliary nodules, with both the mesentery and the surface of the intestines completely studded with such nodules. Under the operating room lights, it really had the look of ¡°pearls.¡± Miliary, this formation is typically characteristic, often associated with tuberculosis, Yang Ping thought preliminarily. ¡°Patrolling, turn on the camera. Why isn¡¯t it more responsive? Do I have to remind you?¡± Director Fang¡¯s voice was harsh and impatient. The patrolling nurse, who knew Director Fang¡¯s temper and was used to it, didn¡¯t say anything and immediately went to turn on the camera silently. All the operating rooms in Sanbo Hospital have cameras on the shadowless lamp, and the walls of the operating room are equipped with high-definition screens, which can display the surgical area through the cameras at any time, sometimes offering clearer views than the naked eye. ¡°Move quickly, stop dawdling,¡± Director Fang urged impatiently. Whether it was a loose plug or a disconnected wire, turning on the switch didn¡¯t show any reaction on the screen. The patrolling nurse was checking the connections and various ports, and seeing that the screen still had no image, Director Fang was very discontented, shouting: ¡°What¡¯s going on? Aren¡¯t the equipments checked? Who¡¯s responsible for this? What if this was rescue equipment?¡± The patrolling nurse took the scolding, kept her head down and worked, and half-jokingly tried to comfort Director Fang, ¡°Director, did you have goji berries for breakfast? Why are you so fired up?¡± Hearing the nurse¡¯s playful comment, Director Fang¡¯s irritability eased a bit, ¡°I haven¡¯t even had breakfast, hurry up and fix it, the professor is still busy with things.¡± It took several minutes, but they finally found the problem. It was the video cable plugged into the wrong port on the back of the video system¡¯s host. These foolproof ports are designed to match one-to-one and surely won¡¯t fit if plugged incorrectly. Trying to force it almost damaged the plug. While the nurse was re-plugging the cable, she said to a few young doctors, ¡°Fess up, who did this clever job last night? Couldn¡¯t find the right port, just plugged it anywhere.¡± These young doctors had been with the emergency surgeries from last night until now. ¡°Alright, don¡¯t blame them, they¡¯re just not familiar with the anatomy,¡± said the deputy chief doctor who was assisting. On the video below, the miliary ¡°pearls¡± glistened, enlarged and brought close. Yang Ping was fairly certain this was tuberculosis. ¡°It might be tuberculosis, have the pathological results not come back yet?¡± Yang Ping stated his conclusion, cautiously prefacing it with ¡®might,¡¯ as medicine is about being calm, rational, and objective. A graduate student brought Yang Ping the patient¡¯s medical record file, which Yang Ping reviewed. Admitted due to abdominal pain, abdominal distension, and cessation of passing gas for 5 days; examination: somnolent, bloated abdomen, tense abdominal muscles, significant tenderness and rebound pain, absent bowel sounds. Supplementary examination: abdominal CT shows fluid in abdominal and pelvic cavities, complete obstruction in the small intestine section. Blood test: procalcitonin 62.32 ug/l. Admission diagnosis: 1) small intestine obstruction, 2) peritonitis, 3) sepsis; indications for emergency surgery which Director Fang performed on the patient. Previous history included pulmonary tuberculosis, resolved after standardized antituberculous therapy, and that¡¯s roughly the medical history. From the appearance of these miliary nodules, the possibility of tuberculous peritonitis is very high. In recent years, tuberculosis has shown a resurgence, especially with the emergence of some drug-resistant strains, indicating a possible comeback. ¡°Who is looking at the frozen section, what¡¯s taking so long, still no results?¡± Director Fang was irritable and ¡°dawdling¡± is a frequent word in his vocabulary. ¡°Director, it just got sent down, they probably just received it,¡± a doctor replied. ¡°This slow? You could¡¯ve gone to Beijing and back!¡± Director Fang cursed. Chapter 1193 - 1193 933 The Misguided Stomach Tube ?Chapter 1193: Chapter 933: The Misguided Stomach Tube Chapter 1193: Chapter 933: The Misguided Stomach Tube About fifteen minutes into the surgery, the intraoperative frozen section reported: Consider tubercular granulomatous inflammation. The intestines, scattered like a handful of pearl rice, indeed indicated tuberculosis! But what now? The surgery could only address the intestinal obstruction. From the exploration, it appeared that parts of the small intestine had already become necrotic. Director Fang prepared to perform a partial resection of the small intestine and an intestinal anastomosis. As for the millet-like nodules, there was no need and no way to treat them surgically; they would only be washed and then treated with anti-tuberculosis drugs after surgery. The anti-tuberculosis treatment is long-duration, the shortest being six months, with different plans of one or two years depending on the illness severity. The patient can get anti-tuberculosis drugs for free at tuberculosis prevention centers after discharge, but other tests, such as liver and kidney functions, are charged. With the diagnosis confirmed, Director Fang thanked Yang Ping and urgently required surgery. Nowadays, tuberculosis is not commonly seen in big city hospitals, although it still exists. It is more prevalent in some remote areas, making big city hospitals somewhat unfamiliar with treating this disease. When it comes to treating diseases, whether a hospital¡¯s experience is rich actually depends on the hospital¡¯s case resources. In the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, hospitals specializing in surgery proliferate; the field is highly developed, and a young surgeon from here could easily outperform doctors from inland hospitals, simply because there are more factories and thus more trauma cases. Liuyang Hospital has extensive experience in treating burns, benefiting from being located in the hometown of fireworks. Many hospitals in Yunnan are adept at treating mushroom poisoning, and it¡¯s all because the locals favor wild mushrooms. However, while these hospitals have abundant experience, they have made little academic contribution, mired in simple accumulation of experiences and unable to elevate it to a scholarly level; they merely replicate without innovation. The academic advancements still depend on professors and doctors from top national hospitals, who can transform experience into academic knowledge and drive medical progress. Therefore, it was understandable that Director Fang lacked extensive experience with intestinal tuberculosis; encountering only a few cases of it a year left little room for experience. Seeing this ¡°pearly intestine¡± naturally made him unsure, so he had Yang Ping come over to oversee. Since he was already here, Yang Ping decided to take a walk around the central operating room to see what kind of surgeries the various departments were capable of performing now. In the operating room of the Sports Medicine Center, Director Gao was busy. Now that Director Gao¡¯s skills had matured, all his surgeries were top-notch. Moreover, he was continuously receiving foreign athletes for surgeries, an impressive move towards international acclaim. Currently, Director Gao was completing a surgery for a Bundesliga player, reportedly referred by August¡¯s friend. Old Gao¡¯s connections were ever-expanding. ¡°Professor!¡± Director Gao was quite surprised; why had Yang Ping suddenly come to see the surgery? Could it be that August thought his own skills were lacking and had asked for the professor to oversee? ¡°Just had to check on a surgery in General Surgery, so I thought I¡¯d stop by. What are you working on?¡± Yang Ping walked past the operating table, standing in front of the arthroscope screen, and a doctor immediately offered him a stool. ¡°Thanks, but no need. I¡¯ll stand and watch for a bit and then leave,¡± Yang Ping declined the doctor¡¯s kind gesture. Director Gao promptly introduced, ¡°The patient is from Europe, a Bundesliga player undergoing multi-ligament reconstruction in his left knee.¡± That¡¯s it, Sports Medicine is already at a peak, and Trauma Orthopedics nearly so; other departments need to keep up. Director Gao expected Yang Ping to provide guidance, but Yang Ping said little, not even mentioning August and the patient. Director Fang sensed his judgment was off; the professor was genuinely out of the loop. Based on the professor¡¯s straightforward nature, he would have directly addressed any issues. ¡°Want to come up and give some guidance?¡± Director Gao invited Yang Ping to indulge in the surgery. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°Keep going; I¡¯ll just watch for a bit and then go for a walk.¡± Director Gao¡¯s skills in this type of surgery are now among the top four globally, which is truly a world-class standard. Old Gao still maintains the habit of visiting the Surgical Research Institute whenever he has time, helping out, attending lectures, and consulting with Yang Ping on some issues. Sometimes he even rolls up his sleeves to assist with wound dressings. Yang Ping was observing the surgery on the arthroscopy screen, where various positioning and openings were being made expertly by Director Gao, who had mastered the essence of Yang Ping¡¯s surgical techniques. A graduate student entered the operating room, looking secretive and whispering a few words, immediately drawing several young doctors around him. It seemed to be about a surgery ongoing in Neurosurgery, mentioning something about a stomach tube inserted into the cranial cavity and vertebral canal. Yang Ping thought he had heard wrong. When the anesthesiologist asked the graduate student spreading the news, ¡°A stomach tube inserted into the cranial cavity and vertebral canal? How did it get there?¡± The anesthesiologist was hearing such a bizarre incident for the first time. If not for his duties that prevented him from leaving the operating room at will, he would have run to the Neurosurgery operating room to see this strange development for himself. The graduate student boldly claimed, ¡°Really, I just saw the head CT scan. It truly shows a stomach tube inserted into the cranial cavity and even curved into the cervical spinal canal. I don¡¯t know how it got there.¡± ¡°Was it one of our hospital¡¯s nurses who did it?¡± the anesthesiologist inquired, the middle-aged man also possessing a curious heart. The graduate student replied, ¡°I don¡¯t know, I didn¡¯t ask. I just stood there for a bit and was chased out by the patrolling nurse.¡± ¡°You should have taken a picture to show us.¡± The anesthesiologist complained, as having no picture meant no proof, which was simply tantalizing. Chapter 1194 - 1194 933 The Misguided Stomach Tube_2 ?Chapter 1194: Chapter 933: The Misguided Stomach Tube_2 Chapter 1194: Chapter 933: The Misguided Stomach Tube_2 Yang Ping felt it was nothing unusual; not only could a nasogastric tube accidentally be inserted into the skull, but it could also end up in the heart¡ªit¡¯s rare, but not impossible. To educate the nurses to strictly follow procedural protocols, Head Nurse Cai once taught a class about ¡°The Misplaced Gastric and Urinary Catheters.¡± Since there was nothing much to see in the ongoing surgery, as Director Gao was very familiar with the procedure, Yang Ping decided to check out the Neurosurgery department. Silently, Yang Ping stood in front of the light box displaying the CT images. There, a strikingly obvious tubular foreign body entered through the nasal cavity, crossed the sella of the skull base directly into the cranial cavity, took a bend passing through the brain and brainstem regions, and entered the vertebral canal via the foramen magnum of the occipital bone. Moreover, there was a large amount of heterogeneous-density liquid-solid mixture within the cervical vertebral canal, compressing the spinal cord to some extent. The CT scan was chilling to look at; such a mistake could be lethal at any moment. The nasogastric tube passed through the brainstem, which is central to life functions. Given the problem, the nurse who had inserted the nasogastric tube at the time was very likely an old hand, overconfident in their intubation skills and had even skipped the step of aspirating gastric content for verification. Rubbing his chin, Yang Ping concluded from the CT images that there was a bone defect in the sellar region at the base of the skull. There were radiopaque metal artifacts within the skull, ventricular enlargement, and accumulation of blood/fluid/gas. It looked as though there had been a recent tumor excision surgery in the sellar region of the skull, which explained the bone defect. Otherwise, how could there be a bone defect in that area? It¡¯s unrealistic to think that a nasogastric tube could penetrate a normally sturdy sellar region of the skull base on its own. Many tumors in the sellar region are resected via a transnasal-transsphenoidal approach to avoid craniotomy. This relatively minimally invasive surgery removes the tumor through a small hole created by removing the thin bone between the nasal cavity and the cranial vault. It¡¯s possible the nurse wasn¡¯t aware of the patient¡¯s recent history of sellar region tumor surgery and inserted the nasogastric tube as usual. Consequently, the tube entered the cranial cavity through the bony defect, and the nurse continued to insert it to the usual depth until satisfied, inadvertently threading the tube into the cervical vertebral canal. A nasogastric tube isn¡¯t meant to go into the brain casually; if there were no bone defect between the nasal cavity and the cranial cavity, it¡¯s impossible for the tube to penetrate into the cranial cavity. Thus, the prerequisite for a nasogastric tube entering the cranial cavity is the absence of bone at the skull base, allowing the tube an opportunity to slip through. In fact, this wasn¡¯t the first case Yang Ping had heard of where a nasogastric tube entered the intracranial space. There had been another case with a recent medical history of sellar region tumor resection, but in that case, the tube didn¡¯t continue into the vertebral canal, but rather looped inside the skull. One relative contraindication for nasogastric intubation is: skull base fracture. If there is a fracture at the skull base, inserting a nasogastric tube can lead to inadvertent entry into the brain, hence every clinical procedure manual is written in blood and tears. After inserting the nasogastric tube, it¡¯s critical to check if the tube is actually in the stomach. There are a few methods: withdraw stomach content through the tube using a syringe¡ªif gastric fluid or content is extracted, it proves the tube has entered the stomach as such fluids can¡¯t be aspirated from other locations. An auscultoscope is placed below the xiphoid process, and if air is injected into the nasogastric tube (10-30ml) and a gurgling sound is heard, it indicates the tube has reached the stomach. If the end of the nasogastric tube is placed in water and bubbles are seen coming out in large amounts, it means the tube has mistakenly entered the airway and should be immediately removed and reinserted. Of these, the first method is the most reliable. While everyone was busy with the surgery, no one noticed Yang Ping¡¯s arrival. The surgery wasn¡¯t simple, as the tube had passed through the brainstem, and any surgery involving the brainstem is complex. The surgery involved not only removing the nasogastric tube but also clearing the liquid content from both the cervical vertebral canal and the cranial cavity, with a greater amount in the vertebral canal. Director Shi of Neurosurgery was chatting with an assistant, ¡°How come it¡¯s Affiliated Hospital No. 4 again? Wasn¡¯t Director Qian from there arrested?¡± ¡°Finding one cockroach usually means there¡¯s a nest hidden. Do you think Director Qian could act so brazenly for so many years just by luck?¡± remarked a Doctor, whose identity wasn¡¯t clear. Director Shi responded, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t talk recklessly. Young man, you must take responsibility for your words.¡± ¡°Not like I¡¯m at Affiliated Hospital No. 4, are they going to discipline me across hospitals?¡± ¡°That won¡¯t happen.¡± It turned out this patient had been transferred from Affiliated Hospital No. 4. After the insertion of the nasogastric tube, the patient unexpectedly developed high-level paraplegia. Since the patient had undergone sellar region tumor excision surgery in the skull, the head of the medical team immediately ordered a repeat CT scan to check for any issues related to the original surgery. The result was striking¡ªthe nasogastric tube had entered the brain and even curved into the cervical vertebral canal, with the cervical spine and cranial cavity containing an unclear mixture of heterogeneous liquid-solid density. The team leader pulled the nurse aside to ask her about the situation. The nurse was very pretty, but she had a big attitude, pouting and clearly unhappy, ¡°I¡¯ve always inserted it this way, and nothing has gone wrong before. How could it possibly be related to the feeding tube?¡± The team leader put up the CT scan, ¡°The feeding tube was inserted into the brain, the patient is now paralyzed, and you¡¯re still acting all high and mighty. Where does this confidence come from?¡± The nurse immediately became frightened, and the team leader asked, ¡°After inserting the feeding tube, did you inject anything into it?¡± The nurse hesitated, not daring to conceal the truth, ¡°I didn¡¯t know it was inserted incorrectly, I thought it was in the stomach, so I injected nutrient solution.¡± The big brother in charge felt his legs go weak, and he was completely stunned, ¡°Didn¡¯t you withdraw any fluid to check after inserting the feeding tube?¡± ¡°I did withdraw some fluid; it was clear with a slight reddish tint. I thought it was gastric juice. You know, the patient hasn¡¯t been eating much,¡± the nurse recalled the incident. The team leader understood all too well, they were doomed. The fluid that was withdrawn was bloodstained cerebrospinal fluid¡ªhow could they not see this as a disaster? How would they resolve this? ¡°Affiliated Hospital No. 4 needs a shake-up. Look at City People¡¯s Hospital, they¡¯re managing things well now, but they used to be a mess too. Remember that ¡®Smile Service¡¯ nonsense they tried before? It killed me,¡± Director Shi continued the topic, to prevent the young crowd from complaining. The first assistant, a deputy chief physician, was also familiar with the once-notorious ¡®Smile Service,¡¯ ¡°I heard they set up a special inspection team, full of idle folk who didn¡¯t do any real work. They would make undercover visits daily, and if they saw any doctors not smiling at patients or their families, they would immediately note it down and deduct money. They were pretty ruthless. I had a classmate who worked at City People¡¯s Hospital, and I heard it was a 500-yuan fine each time. Those in the inspection team got a commission out of it.¡± ¡°Bloody idiots, I had a master¡¯s classmate there at the time too. His mentor had just finished trying to rescue a patient with liver cancer who didn¡¯t make it. After announcing the death to the family, the inspection team accused him of not smiling and noted him down for a 500-yuan deduction. When he complained, the inspection team didn¡¯t give a damn, saying it was the rule. My classmate slammed the table and cursed.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t just the Smile Service, back then they also had this stupid ¡®One-Stick Convenience Initiative¡¯!¡± ¡°What is the One-Stick Convenience Initiative?¡± ¡°Nurses had to succeed with an injection or IV on the first try, if they needed a second attempt, the nurse giving the injection would be fined thirty yuan. For a third try, more money was deducted, and so on. They even put up a sign welcoming complaints in the ward and the IV room. It was a bit better in other departments, but the pediatric nurses especially were having a hard time, getting fined who knows how many times a day.¡± ¡°Even if you walked away, it¡¯s not like it¡¯s the only hospital around.¡± The conversation started with Affiliated Hospital No. 4 and then switched to City People¡¯s Hospital. Yang Ping was quietly looking at the CT images with his back to everyone, and nobody had noticed until now. Just as Yang Ping was about to leave, a young doctor saw him, ¡°Professor Yang!¡± All the doctors and nurses looked over, even the chief surgeon, Director Shi, lifted his head and looked around for Professor Yang. In Sanbo Hospital, usually people address each other as Director so-and-so, Doctor so-and-so, or Old so-and-so, Young so-and-so. They don¡¯t usually use the title Professor, as they are clinical doctors, so when they heard the name Professor Yang, they knew who it was. Director Shi saw Yang Ping at the entrance, ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t see you just now.¡± ¡°I was checking on the Sports Medicine side and thought I¡¯d stop by to see your surgery,¡± Yang Ping paused in his tracks to speak a few words. Director Shi said, ¡°It¡¯s a peculiar case, a feeding tube inserted into the cranial cavity and the vertebral canal. Quite strange indeed.¡± ¡°I just saw that.¡± ¡°The nurse didn¡¯t know, she even injected a tube of nutrient solution inside.¡± Chapter 1195 - 1195 934 The Righteous Editor-in-Chief ?Chapter 1195: Chapter 934: The Righteous Editor-in-Chief Chapter 1195: Chapter 934: The Righteous Editor-in-Chief Yang Ping stayed behind to chat with Director Shi for a while, flipping through the medical records placed on the shelf as they talked. This patient was also quite young, only in his thirties, male, married¡ªprobably the main breadwinner of his family. Before the stomach tube was inserted, he was in good health, able to move all his limbs freely, and now, he¡¯s paralyzed from a high-level spinal injury, a truly heartbreaking situation. This was definitely a medical malpractice incident. Clinical medical work is akin to walking on thin ice, extreme caution is a must, a necessity imposed by the nature of medical work. In the words of Professor Zhang Zongshun, no amount of strictness is excessive. The mistake was caused by a complete breakdown in multiple processes. If the attending physician was more vigilant, communicated more with the nurses about the patient¡¯s particular medical condition, reminding them that the patient had recently undergone pituitary tumor surgery in the cranial saddle area and that the insertion of a stomach tube should be avoided if possible, or if absolutely necessary, performed under endoscopic guidance, this tragedy could have been completely avoided. The doctors missed this crucial point, and it slipped through to the nurses. If the nurses had a basic grasp of the patient¡¯s medical history and the various contraindications and precautions for inserting a stomach tube by heart, they too could have prevented this tragedy. Had the nurses also missed it, if the chief physician and the head nurse had been a little more attentive during their rounds, they could have noticed the patient¡¯s special condition and provided guiding reminders. In the end, after all steps had failed, during the procedure, the feel of a stomach tube curving into the skull and then bending into the cervical spine would surely have been different from a tube that enters the stomach smoothly. If one were more careful and more alert to such irregularities, asking a few more questions, the damage could have been reduced at that moment. When the stomach tube was inserted and withdrawn for verification, the gastric juice would certainly differ from the liquid drawn from the skull and vertebral canal in terms of volume, color, and texture. Had they taken this matter seriously, they would not have rashly injected nutrient solution, and the patient¡¯s chances of becoming paralyzed would have been significantly lowered. The occurrence of every accident is often not due to one single failure but a series of issues. In the end, it¡¯s the cumulative neglect that precipitates a catastrophe. It is unknown whether this patient will recover from the high-level paralysis; if not, it would be such a regrettable matter. In fact, the patient¡¯s pituitary tumor surgery was highly successful and virtually problem-free. The occurrence of such an incident was unexpected. Even before the strict pre-surgery checks, there were medical malpractice incidents involving prominent hospitals cutting wrong, which were used nationwide as negative examples during lectures. Two children, identical in gender, age, and name, one to undergo tonsillectomy, the other heart surgery. The surgeries were scheduled at the same time, and coincidentally, the two operating rooms were not far apart. As a result, during the transfer to the operating rooms, the patients were mixed up, and the surgeries were switched. The one scheduled for heart surgery had the tonsils removed; the one for tonsillectomy had their heart opened up. Such a grave mistake occurred because of ignored steps at so many levels, a situation that could¡¯ve been avoided with just a bit more attention at any stage. Sometimes people wonder how such coincidences can even happen, yet the world somehow manages these exact coincidences. Yang Ping reflected on this accident repeatedly, hoping to learn vital lessons from it, and then apply those lessons in his own department to increase everyone¡¯s vigilance. ¡ª Yang Ping returned to his department where everyone was in surgery and only the on-duty doctor was busy in the ward. Since they hadn¡¯t called for him, Yang Ping decided to make rounds alone. Before his rounds, he sat down in front of the computer and reviewed every medical record to check for any medical oversights¡ªa relief to find none for now. Beyond the weekly chief rounds, Yang Ping insisted on making a quick solo round every day, no matter how busy. Even during the busiest times, he maintained daily rounds for critical patients, which increased contact with them and allowed him to stay on top of their changing conditions. Being dynamic, illness can change in an instant; more contact never hurts. After finishing his rounds, Yang Ping passed by the teaching room, where Sisi was reading a book. He chose not to disturb her. The door to the dining area was open, and the head nurse was on the phone, apparently greeting the Head Nurse from the Department of Gastroenterology. She was asking for a favor to arrange a bed for her friend¡¯s father who was coming to be hospitalized¡ªto take good care of him. A few days earlier, Xia Shu had mentioned his father¡¯s persistent stomach pains, so intense they kept him awake at night. Deciding the old man should get it checked out, Xia Shu suggested coming to this hospital by high-speed train, which didn¡¯t take long. So Xia Shu¡¯s parents planned to take the high-speed train for medical consultation. Unlike the scholarly Xia Shu, Nurse Cai was far more shrewd and efficient, arranging everything for the visit clearly, even taking care of picking them up from the high-speed train station, freeing Xia Shu from worrying about it while he was occupied with surgery on the operating table. The CAR-T cell therapy performed on Li Ruizhong showed remarkable results, a preliminary examination revealed a rapid decrease in tumor cells throughout his body. Although it would take some time to completely clear the tumor cells, cell therapy could indeed achieve a total elimination of the tumor cells in Li Ruizhong. Future checks would be carried out once a month. It wasn¡¯t feasible for Li Ruizhong to stay in the hospital indefinitely, so he decided to be discharged. His wife came to pick him up, and before leaving, Li Ruizhong visited Professor Zhang¡¯s outpatient clinic to express his gratitude. Hermes Wang Changxin was returning to the country today and planned to visit Yang Ping at Sanbo Hospital. This guy was a piece of work; Yang Ping thought he was boasting, but Wang Changxin truly had made a gold and diamond-studded baby carriage. He even wrapped the gold and diamonds in real wood¡ªa gift so valuable Yang Ping could never accept. Chapter 1196 - 1196 934 The Righteousness of the ?Chapter 1196: Chapter 934: The Righteousness of the Editor-in-Chief_2 Chapter 1196: Chapter 934: The Righteousness of the Editor-in-Chief_2 Wang Changxin had returned this time for a health checkup with his wife. He made it a point to visit Sanbo Hospital for a checkup once a year and had booked a suite at the Overseas Chinese Building in advance. Old Wang brought his wife to the Surgical Research Institute to see Sisi. They had repeatedly suggested to Sisi¡¯s parents that they wanted to adopt her as their goddaughter, but Sisi¡¯s parents previously had not agreed, tactfully rejecting Wang Changxin. Wang and his wife genuinely liked Sisi, so they persisted and maintained contact with Sisi and her parents, always paying close attention to her illness. Old Wang had put on a lot of weight. His wife told Yang Ping that nowadays, Old Wang ran daily in Africa. Over time, not only had he become more robust, but his skin had also darkened, and his appetite had increased significantly. Old Wang and his wife asked the Head Nurse for help in hopes she could mediate and facilitate their wish to adopt Sisi as their goddaughter. Old Wang¡¯s business in Africa was growing larger; he had even established a private militia to protect his gold mines, and recently he acquired an iron mine reputed to have exceptionally high-quality ore. This guy was truly enjoying a streak of financial success. After chatting with Yang Ping for a bit, Old Wang and his wife were set to check into the Overseas Chinese Building, and he planned to arrange a meal with the doctors and nurses of the Surgical Research Institute. In the afternoon, when Yang Ping got off work, he noticed that Nie Shun¡¯e and her husband had already pushed their Night Snack Cart onto the Sky Bridge, an area bustling with foot traffic due to the crossing. The bridge was wide, with a continuous flow of people. The couple had already started hawking their wares. They could sell from six in the evening until midnight without any dip in the crowds. Nie Shun¡¯e and her husband simply sold things like beef brisket and fish balls. As they were just setting up their stall, several customers had already begun to gather and make purchases. The old man selling sweet potatoes was still at it¡ªhe typically started early in the morning and continued until eleven or twelve at night, eager to sell even just one more potato. As they saw Yang Ping passing by, they immediately greeted him, thinking that Professor Yang probably wouldn¡¯t eat street food, so they felt awkward offering him a bowl of beef tripe or anything else to join them. Apart from the missing band, the Sky Bridge atmosphere was much the same as before. The antique seller, an old academic, hadn¡¯t been around for months, and no one knew what had happened to him. Alongside them were the screen protectors, scalpers for specialist consultations, medical scalpers, fortune tellers¡ªall were present, making for a lively scene. ¡ª Wang Ge¡¯s material was ready, and he planned to start with Teng Xinmei¡¯s case, accusing Yang Ping of using patients for experiments, then revealing a shocking inside story. He would claim Yang Ping not only experimented on patients but also harvested their organs. A living example would be Nie Shun¡¯e who had two kidneys before the surgery but only one afterward; a kidney had simply vanished. Originally, Wang Ge had wanted to collaborate with Nie Shun¡¯e and her husband, but they showed no interest whatsoever. Impervious to persuasion, Wang Ge had no choice but to proceed without them. Whether Nie Shun¡¯e cooperated or not didn¡¯t really make a difference. Creating confusion and inverting right and wrong was Wang Ge¡¯s forte. The gist of the article about Nie Shun¡¯e was that Yang Ping had operated on her, and afterward, Nie Shun¡¯e discovered she was missing a kidney. Then, step by step, the article would unveil the scandal of Yang Ping stealing Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s kidney¡ªan eye-catching story indeed. Indeed, this was Wang Ge¡¯s specialty; all that mattered to him was the sensational impact, with no concern for truthfulness. If there was no real story, he¡¯d fabricate one¡ªwhat was so hard about that? He had done it before, not just once. Each time increased his fame, and with it, his professional titles. There hadn¡¯t been any repercussions. If it weren¡¯t for Zhu Cheng, that stubborn mule, fixating on him, Wang Ge felt he would have been in the clear, probably sitting in a spacious office with air conditioning, sipping coffee, and wielding his pen. He showed the article to Ikuta Takashi, who was effusive in praising Wang Ge¡¯s writing. As long as Yang Ping was brought down, Director Zhu would be easy to handle. One by one, none would escape, Wang Ge was confident of this. Wang Ge took the article to an editor-in-chief of a well-known newspaper, an old friend with whom he often collaborated. But when the editor received the article, his face darkened, his expression grim, ¡°You wrote this about Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital?¡± ¡°Yes, the director of Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute, Yang Ping,¡± Wang Ge confirmed confidently¡ªdefinitely him. Without responding, the editor quickly stuffed the manuscript back into Wang Ge¡¯s hands, saying, ¡°You better leave. This piece cannot be published, definitely not.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t be published? But before¡ª¡± Wang Ge expressed surprise, taken aback by the sudden change, his friend seemed like a different person, so timorous all of a sudden. The editor spoke with moral conviction, ¡°Wang Ge, the first principle of journalism is truthfulness. Your article is completely fabricated, without any factual basis. No matter how good our relationship is, we cannot publish this.¡± Yeah, yeah, yeah! Wang Ge didn¡¯t understand, why was it made to look so real? In the past, wasn¡¯t it all about turning a blind eye, no questions asked, as long as the news made an impact, regardless of what the articles were about? It was just about a doctor, not some powerful figure. Maybe it was because he was no longer at the newspaper, something wasn¡¯t right. Wang Ge smiled at the corner of his mouth, ¡°Send out this article for me, one million, and you can pay half upfront as a deposit.¡± Wang Ge couldn¡¯t be bothered with secrecy, straightforwardly throwing out a million. The chief editor sneered, ¡°Do you think you can buy my principles with money? Let me tell you, Wang Ge, you better leave now. We¡¯re still colleagues from the past, and I have always strictly adhered to journalistic ethics. If your article is true, truly speaks for the people, I don¡¯t want a penny, and I¡¯ll recommend it for immediate, urgent publication. But now you disregard the journalist¡¯s fundamental principle of truth and fabricate stories here; I will never allow that to happen.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not¡ªlike before¡ª¡± Wang Ge thought to himself, what an act. The chief editor cut him off, ¡°Like before what? I have always stuck to the professional principles of a journalist, whether in the past or now, and I absolutely forbid anything against the conscience of a journalist. As long as I hold the position of chief editor, your kind of article will definitely not be published.¡± Wang Ge was completely dumbfounded. Was this really Editor Qin? How come he was so filled with righteousness? He used to not be like this, used to be such a smooth operator. ¡°Do you think it¡¯s not enough?¡± Wang Ge asked directly. The chief editor was furious, ¡°This is not about the money, it¡¯s about conscience, professional ethics, social responsibility. Is it about money? You better leave now, or I¡¯ll call security.¡± Call security? No, what is actually going on? A few days ago we were still talking on the phone, mentioning that the newspaper¡¯s sales were down, asking if there was any sensational news to help out, and now I bring the news, but what¡¯s with this attitude? Did whiskey ruin his brain? The chief editor made a show of standing up, ¡°Gentlemen, I have an important meeting to attend to shortly, Xiao Wang, please show them out.¡± Wang Jian had no choice but to push a very confused Wang Ge towards the door. All the while, Wang Ge couldn¡¯t fathom what was going on with the chief editor today. He picked up his phone to send a WeChat message, damn, even WeChat was blocked, that harsh? Where could he have offended him, was it the way he entered the door? Wasn¡¯t that phone call a few days ago quite warm, asking him to help make a sensational article? If you don¡¯t want to publish it, then don¡¯t. It¡¯s the era of the internet now, there are so many websites and self-media platforms. With a little money for traffic, why worry about not becoming popular? Wang Ge left in a huff. ¡ª To deal with Wang Ge, Director Zhu personally took charge, getting Huang Jiacai to help would be an underutilization of resources, and President Huang had bigger fish to fry now. Huang Jiacai instructed Director Zhu: to deal with this kind of person, never be soft-hearted, and go all out to take him down. Director Zhu also felt that it was time to settle scores with him. When he donated blood to save Wang Ge, his thoughts were simple¡ªif he could turn over a new leaf and start anew, then he should be saved. But if he continued to make mistakes, consistently doing things that were morally bankrupt and unconscionable, he should also be allowed to live, to live and face the punishment he deserved. And now, it was time for him to receive his punishment. The Zhu Cheng of today was no longer the Zhu Cheng of the past. He had used various means over this period of time to collect a large amount of intelligence, especially the intelligence on Wang Ge¡¯s dealings with the Japanese, which he had firmly in his grasp. Chapter 1197 - 1197 935 Trouble Caused by a Fish Bone ?Chapter 1197: Chapter 935: Trouble Caused by a Fish Bone Chapter 1197: Chapter 935: Trouble Caused by a Fish Bone This week, Yang Ping was quite busy. He made a trip to Xiehe Hospital, then was called to 301 to participate in a grand consul. 301 Hospital had already fulfilled its promise of 10 designated beds to Yang Ping, and he began conducting clinical and teaching activities there. Yang Ping reviewed his innovations in surgical operations, especially in spinal deformities, which had already significantly reduced the difficulty of surgeries, improved the effects, and increased safety. Particularly, if the Precise Epiphyseal Arrest Technique was successful, scoliosis surgeries could be safely conducted in city-level hospitals as simply as performing vertebral plasty. In the field of trauma orthopedics, Yang Ping integrated engineering theories into emergency trauma treatment, establishing a systematic theory of trauma emergency rescue that greatly increased the success rate of treatment for patients with severe and complex trauma. This led to a substantial improvement in the trauma emergency rescue success rate at Sanbo Hospital, and once this scientific rescue system and technology were promoted, it would greatly enhance the success rate for emergency treatment of severe and complex trauma injuries. The establishment of the joint balance theory in sports medicine allowed many patients with multiple ligament injuries to achieve good outcomes through surgery, maximizing the restoration of their motor functions. In joint surgery, the project entrusted to Su Nanchen and Robert was progressing smoothly. If successful, it would mark a significant breakthrough in treating cartilage damage and degenerative osteoarthritis. Currently, the K treatment experiment for bone tumors was still at a standstill. Even though it was not progressing, it had opened the door to using the mechanism of cell apoptosis to treat malignant tumors. Once successful, it could treat not only osteosarcoma but potentially revolutionize the entire field of cancer treatment. In the field of neurosurgery, Yang Ping was researching the clinical anatomy of the brainstem to provide an anatomical basis for brainstem surgery. Yang Ping felt that if he only performed surgeries beautifully, he could at most save a few more patients. That was a negligible contribution to medicine. If he could improve surgical techniques, enhance the outcomes, and reduce the difficulty and risks of surgeries, it would make a certain contribution to medicine, but it was still quite limited. Researching the mechanisms of certain diseases and revolutionizing treatment concepts, such as for scoliosis, could make a considerable contribution. However, creating a fundamental breakthrough in medicine and fostering progress in the entire field would be a truly immense contribution. Yang Ping¡¯s Spatial Orientation Gene theory represented such a foundational theoretical innovation, and it was the greatest contribution to medicine. Building on this theory, doctors in the future could use it to clone hearts, livers, kidneys, and more, allowing the era of cloning autologous organ transplants to become a reality, solving many end-stage organ failure diseases. This would be akin to the invention of the steam engine, electricity, and the internet, leading humanity into a new era. Yang Ping wished the system were infinite, but unfortunately, that was just a hope. The system was limited by credits, requiring him to accumulate points bit by bit and then use those points to obtain various learning, surgical, and research conditions. Because of the cooperation with the City People¡¯s Hospital, Yang Ping personally came to guide a surgery and met the legendary Director Zhuo Defeng. When Yang Ping had gone to the City People¡¯s Hospital before, Director Zhuo had already left the city hospital, so they had never intersected. He had only heard stories about Director Zhuo through colleagues. When Director Zhuo was young, in his thirties, he was sharp and highly skilled, the best in orthopedics at the City People¡¯s Hospital. But after Dean Xie initiated the competition for department director positions, Wu Siwen replaced the original director. After ascending to the role, Wu Siwen ousted several doctors one by one. Of course, he didn¡¯t expel them openly but deliberately made their lives miserable so that they would resign of their own accord. That was the case with Director Zhuo. Wu Siwen canceled all his fourth-level surgeries and some of his third-level surgeries. Although Director Zhuo was an associate chief physician, Wu Siwen relegated him to a position even lower than that of an attending physician. Then, every day, he assigned Director Zhuo to assist him in surgery, scolding him during procedures: ¡°You doctoral graduate wasted your education. You can¡¯t even hold a retractor properly. We don¡¯t carry dead weight in our department. If you can¡¯t do that, what else are you good for?¡± Director Zhuo, despite having a strong sense of professional ethics, didn¡¯t lose his temper on the operating table, as surgery was serious and sacred. After the surgery, he remained silent. The next morning during the ward handover, in front of all the doctors and nurses of the department, Ph.D. Director Zhuo from Beijing Medical University slapped his work badge on Wu Siwen¡¯s face, ¡°Today I¡¯m telling you, I quit. The whole world knows you bought your position as director, only you think otherwise. What else can you do besides kissing up? Your surgery skills are as bad as dog shit. You¡¯re not even fast enough to carry my shoes.¡± ¡°You¡ª you¡ª you¡ª¡± Wu Siwen, not expecting Director Zhuo to dare to do such a thing and hitting a sore spot, was furiously embarrassed and so agitated he could barely speak, nearly bursting a brain blood vessel on the spot. ¡°I graduated with a Ph.D., am an associate chief physician, and I¡¯m full of skills, yet I suffocate under the control of you bastards. If you don¡¯t appreciate me, I¡¯ll find a place that will.¡± Director Zhuo, having slapped his badge away, took off his white gown, folded it carefully, and handed it to the Head Nurse, ¡°The white gown is sacred. I don¡¯t want to throw it away, please help me return it to the hospital. I am thankful for my colleagues¡¯ years of care.¡± It was said that after that, the hospitals lined up to recruit Director Zhuo, as many top-tier hospitals extended olive branches. But Director Zhuo didn¡¯t go to any of them, choosing instead a second-tier hospital that wasn¡¯t even considered seventh or eighth-tier on the street a few kilometers away from the City People¡¯s Hospital. Chapter 1198 - 1198 935 Trouble Caused by a Fishbone_2 ?Chapter 1198: Chapter 935: Trouble Caused by a Fishbone_2 Chapter 1198: Chapter 935: Trouble Caused by a Fishbone_2 In this second-tier hospital, which is not very prominent, the dean picked up a treasure, immediately entrusting Director Zhuo with establishing an independent Orthopedics department, with all resources being diverted to Director Zhuo¡¯s direction. Originally, the hospital did not have an Orthopedics department, only a general surgery department and another surgical department, and there were only a few orthopedic patients. Starting from nothing, Director Zhuo built the hospital¡¯s Orthopedics department up to 120 beds, while Wu Siwen of the City People¡¯s Hospital didn¡¯t idle either, he successfully downsized the Orthopedics department from 120 beds to 60, and even then, those 60 beds were often not full, with the actual number of patients usually only being thirty-four. The doctors at the City People¡¯s Hospital with high professional titles did not include a single doctoral degree holder, and the few masters degrees they had were also part-time. In contrast, Director Zhuo¡¯s Orthopedics department brought in several doctors with doctoral and master¡¯s degrees, greatly exceeding the medical team level of the City People¡¯s Hospital. The two hospitals were on the same street, and it was quite unusual in the industry for the City People¡¯s Hospital, a top-tier hospital, to be firmly outperformed by a second-tier hospital. Eventually, Wu Siwen and Dean Xie were both gone, and with Dean Chen taking office, he invited Director Zhuo to join the City People¡¯s Hospital, considering that a second-tier hospital had limited scope after all. The terms offered to Director Zhuo by Dean Chen were to be the head of Orthopedics and deputy dean, but Director Zhuo¡¯s condition was that there would be no problem with him joining, as long as the City People¡¯s Hospital formed a medical alliance with his second-tier hospital. For the sake of Director Zhuo, Dean Chen agreed to the requirement, establishing a medical alliance between the City People¡¯s Hospital and this second-tier hospital, with Director Zhuo serving as the Department Director for both. Director Zhuo had a great respect for Yang Ping; he was just forty years old, in the prime of life, and he was very willing to cooperate with Yang Ping¡¯s partnership. He knew how skilled Yang Ping was and was eager to learn from him; with such an opportunity now at hand, how could he not be pleased? With Director Zhuo¡¯s introduction, Yang Ping got a detailed understanding of the current situation of the Orthopedics department at the City People¡¯s Hospital. Yang Ping and Director Zhuo performed a spinal scoliosis surgery using the Yang-style osteotomy; Director Zhuo himself had also performed spinal scoliosis surgeries, so learning it was quite easy. After assisting in several surgeries and having some explanations, he should be able to master the technique fairly well. In addition to teaching scoliosis surgery, Yang Ping personally showed him how to perform vertebral tumor surgeries and cervical surgeries, which are relatively difficult in Orthopedics. Especially Yang Ping¡¯s new surgical techniques, if not taught in person by Yang Ping, Director Zhuo would take much longer to figure them out on his own. Director Zhuo was very grateful for Yang Ping¡¯s selfless assistance. Right after finishing a surgery, Yang Ping was in the changing room preparing to change clothes and leave, when he received a call from Dean Chen, mentioning that there was a difficulty in a surgery in the Thoracic Surgery Department Operating Room, and hoping Yang Ping could take a look. Dean Chen knew that Yang Ping at Sanbo Hospital now had the authority to perform any type of surgery and was considered an all-around surgical expert. A Thoracic Surgery procedure? It must be a heart surgery. If there were real problems on the operating table, it would be a matter of life and death. Yang Ping dared not delay and went to check it out with Director Zhuo accompanying him. Yang Ping was quite familiar with the Operating Rooms of the City People¡¯s Hospital, and quickly, they arrived at the Thoracic Surgery Department Operating Room. The Department Director was Director Zhou Zhao, who was also a new appointment by Dean Chen; after taking office, Chen replaced all previous department directors with young and promising doctors holding doctoral and master¡¯s degrees. Director Zhou Zhao, roughly the same age as Director Zhuo, had not performed any significant surgeries over the years due to staying in the hospital, but being the only doctor with a doctoral degree in thoracic surgery, he was promoted by Dean Chen as the best of the short bunch. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Director Zhou¡¯s forehead was sweaty, clearly from perspiration. ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡± Yang Ping and Director Zhuo moved in to take a look. Director Zhou stopped the surgery to personally explain the patient¡¯s condition to Yang Ping, ¡°A fish bone at the sternum location has penetrated the esophagus into the aorta, creating an aortoesophageal fistula; it¡¯s clear on the CT scan, but after opening the chest, we can¡¯t find the fish bone; it¡¯s gone.¡± Director Zhou summarized the medical history, presenting the most crucial information. Yang Ping had thought it was some kind of heart surgery, but it turned out to be a procedure to remove a fish bone; he immediately went to the light box to review the CT scan while Director Zhuo brought him the medical files. A fish bone entering the aorta is extremely dangerous and can easily lead to major bleeding. But now, not finding the fish bone after opening the chest means that despite such a major surgery, the problem wasn¡¯t completely resolved, and the patient and family members were surely not understanding, making the situation quite troublesome. Sometimes a small fish bone can be quite difficult to handle. ¡°Can you see the fistula on the aorta and esophagus?¡± Yang Ping asked. Director Zhou replied, ¡°The fistula is visible. Should I first repair the fistula on the esophagus and aorta and leave the fish bone aside for now?¡± Since they couldn¡¯t find it, there was nothing they could do; they couldn¡¯t let the patient lie on the operating table indefinitely. Yang Ping could indeed see a fish bone from the CT images, about two centimeters long, slantingly embedded in the esophagus and aorta. The position was clear on the CT scan images, located right behind the sternum. The fistula was found, but the fish bone had disappeared, indicating that it had moved. Displacement of fish bones and foreign bodies is very common. After a CT scan, movements such as handling and breathing can all cause the fish bone to shift. If the fish bone moved within a local area, it wouldn¡¯t be too difficult, but what they feared was the fish bone entering the aorta and then moving with the blood circulation. Such movement over a long distance was incredibly difficult to pinpoint. In the operating room, there was an X-ray C-arm machine, typically used by orthopedics. Other departments like urological surgery also frequently use it for procedures such as removing urinary stones. The Thoracic Surgery Department rarely used the X-ray C-arm machine; it was probably brought in temporarily from the Orthopedics Operating Room for assistance, yet even with the C-arm machine, they couldn¡¯t locate the fish bone. At this time, it was difficult to proceed without getting on the operating table. Yang Ping reviewed the medical record: the patient, 52 years old, had accidentally swallowed a fish bone at a dinner party 10 days prior. By swallowing rice balls, he had managed to push down the fish bone. As he felt no foreign object sensation afterwards, he thought he was fine. However, five days later, he began to experience vague pain behind his chest. He went to the City People¡¯s Hospital thinking it was angina and underwent several cardiovascular tests, but there was no evidence of myocardial ischemia or infarction. When the patient mentioned to the doctors about swallowing a fish bone a few days earlier, the doctors immediately considered the possibility that the fish bone might be stuck in the esophagus. An emergency chest CT scan was done and indeed revealed a thin fish bone; it wasn¡¯t just stuck in the esophagus, but had penetrated it and entered the aorta behind, meaning it had skewered from the esophagus into the aorta¡ªa very dangerous situation. If the aorta had torn, there would have been severe bleeding, threatening the patient¡¯s life. The doctors suggested that the patient undergo an emergency thoracotomy to remove the fish bone. This procedure had to be done through an open chest surgery; using an esophagoscope was not advisable as it could worsen the damage to the esophagus and aorta. Moreover, if pulling out the fish bone caused a massive hemorrhage in the aorta, there wouldn¡¯t be enough time to open the chest, and repairs to the esophagus and aorta couldn¡¯t be done under esophagoscopy. For a single fish bone, a major surgery like a thoracotomy was required; the patient and the family didn¡¯t quite understand but reluctantly agreed after listening to the doctors¡¯ analysis. Now the patient was lying on the operating table with his chest opened, but the fish bone couldn¡¯t be found. What were they to do? As Director Zhou was anxiously contemplating, Yang Ping had already decided to step in, ¡°How about I get on the operating table and help you take a look?¡± ¡°Then I shall have to trouble Professor Yang!¡± Director Zhou was profoundly grateful. Professor Yang was the VIP Dean Chen had invited to help enhance the medical standards at the People¡¯s Hospital. Improving medical standards encompassed many aspects, including training talents, leading surgeries, and handling some tough challenges. A doctor immediately took Yang Ping to wash his hands, and he scrubbed in for surgery. He carefully examined the esophagus and aorta¡¯s fistula, and in combination with the CT images of the fish bone, it was very likely that the bone had entered the aorta and moved away with the blood circulation. Yet Yang Ping still conducted a meticulous search around the center of the fistulas and did not find the fish bone. ¡°I¡¯m afraid it has entered the aorta and moved away with the blood flow; we need to track it step by step along the direction of the blood circulation,¡± Yang Ping deduced. Director Zhou immediately felt overwhelmed. If this were the case, where could they possibly look? The aorta had numerous branches, and the fish bone could have gone to any organ. Even with a great effort to locate it, it could have moved again by then, and in the process of cutting up the blood vessels, they might end up finding nothing at all. This one fish bone was causing such an ordeal, something Director Zhou was encountering for the very first time. The other doctors and nurses, thinking of all the fish they had eaten over the years, felt an almost miraculous sense of relief from disaster. Chapter 1199 - 1199 936 Where is he hiding ?Chapter 1199: Chapter 936: Where is he hiding? Chapter 1199: Chapter 936: Where is he hiding? This patient is an acquaintance of Director Zhou, and City People¡¯s Hospital is currently in the process of reestablishing its brand. If they can¡¯t even resolve a fishbone issue, it will severely affect the establishment of the brand. Although the fishbone is indeed troublesome, the patient doesn¡¯t think so; having a chest opened and still not finding a fishbone, what kind of level is that? These are still minor issues. If the fishbone stays in the blood vessels and isn¡¯t removed, it¡¯s a hazard no matter where it locates, extremely dangerous, causing unpredictable and uncontrollable bleeding, infection, embolism, and more. If it enters the brain, then craniotomy would be needed, which could even lead to intracranial infection. ¡°Should we use the C-Arm machine again?¡± Director Zhou whispered a reminder. They had already used the C-Arm, but hadn¡¯t found anything. Perhaps Professor Yang would discover something new. ¡°Bring all the X-rays you¡¯ve taken just now for me to see.¡± After all, using X-rays with a C-Arm involves ionizing radiation, and too much exposure isn¡¯t good. Yang Ping decided to first review the X-rays they had taken before. If necessary to check for any missing details, additional imaging could be taken later. The doctors observing below immediately adjusted the screen of the C-Arm for Yang Ping to see and pulled up the recently taken images. There was no need for additional images, as they had X-rays from head to toe, both anterior and lateral views. Yang Ping leaned in closely and inspected them, but didn¡¯t find any traces of the fishbone. Fishbones are bony, with a density similar to human bone tissue, so they appear as thin, needle-like structures on X-rays, which are relatively conspicuous except for areas obscured by bone. The areas obscured by bone are not many, such as inside the skull, vertebral canal, or the rib areas of the thorax, and so on. Hence, the usefulness of the C-Arm is limited due to its blind spots. At this point, it became necessary to use surface ultrasound to compensate for the limitations of the C-Arm. The combination of both machines basically allows for no hiding place for the fishbone, as they can cover each other¡¯s blind spots. ¡°Let¡¯s first repair the damage to the esophagus and aorta, then scan with the ultrasound,¡± decided Yang Ping, opting to try the surface ultrasound. The only available methods currently are the X-ray C-Arm and surface ultrasound. As for a CT scan, it would require ending the surgery, transporting the patient to the CT room, and returning for a second surgery to remove the fishbone. During this transporting and waiting time, the fishbone could likely shift again. They aimed to resolve the issue in one surgery if possible, and if not, it would be left to a subsequent operation. Director Zhou and his assistant were repairing the injuries to the aorta and esophagus. The puncture caused by the fishbone was very small, currently manifesting as a hematoma under the outer membrane of the aorta. They needed to open the membrane and clear the hematoma to see the tiny puncture. The esophagus was similar, though the hematoma wasn¡¯t as clear. The puncture in the aorta was right at the aortic arch, where blood pressure is extremely high. At any moment, blood could squirt out of the small hole, then tear the blood vessel, causing massive hemorrhage and death. Even without massive bleeding, it could still easily lead to aortic dissection, which is also extremely dangerous, with the patient at constant risk of death. Moreover, blood could enter the esophagus through the aortic-esophageal fistula, causing the patient to vomit blood. Inhaled vomited blood could lead to suffocation death. In any case, this hole must be repaired, else it¡¯s a lethal ticking time bomb. As Director Zhou and his assistant repaired the openings in the aorta and esophagus, the patrolling nurse prepared the ultrasound machine and a sterile ultrasound probe. After Director Zhou finished the repairs to the aorta and esophagus, Yang Ping decided to scan the surgical area and its surrounding sterile zone with the sterile ultrasound probe, mainly focusing on the aorta and esophagus in this region. It¡¯s quite unlikely that the fishbone is hiding in other nearby parts. If it¡¯s just nearby, then the C-Arm X-ray should have easily detected it since the surgical area is now open, without significant obstruction by the sternum. Even if the posterior ribs were obstructing, Director Zhou had used many oblique angles earlier to minimize obstruction by the ribs during his imaging of this region. Following the physiological rules of the human body, the fishbone would definitely be carried farther along the blood flow direction and must be lodged somewhere, unable to turn back. Hence, conducting a carpet-like search along the direction of blood flow, theoretically, it¡¯s certain to be found. It just depends on whether the doctor¡¯s ultrasound recognition skills are up to the task. If it¡¯s not found in the surgical area or the nearby sterile zone, then they should close the chest. They can¡¯t keep the chest cavity open indefinitely. After closing the chest, they would then explore other areas. Yang Ping instructed Director Zhou, ¡°Let¡¯s close the chest. After closing, we will explore other areas.¡± The fishbone wasn¡¯t found in the surgical area, adding to Director Zhou¡¯s anxiety. The patient had only reluctantly agreed to the surgery, and now they couldn¡¯t find the fishbone after opening the chest ¨C this was not easy to explain. If they find it later, well and good, but if they don¡¯t find the fishbone, they would have to explain a lot to the patient¡¯s family after the surgery. And this issue would still not be resolved; the search for the fishbone would definitely continue, and after the patient rests for a few days, a second surgery would be inevitable. With anxiety, Director Zhou mechanically proceeded with his assistant to close the chest, given that he wasn¡¯t experienced in handling major surgeries. In recent years, the Thoracic Surgery Department of the City People¡¯s Hospital hadn¡¯t conducted any significant surgeries, and he hadn¡¯t had opportunities to go out and learn more, so how could he improve. At this moment, the more Director Zhou thought, the more restless and upset he became. In this state, he and his assistant completed the chest closure, waiting for Yang Ping¡¯s next instructions. Chapter 1200 - 1200 936 Where are You Hiding_2 ?Chapter 1200: Chapter 936: Where are You Hiding?_2 Chapter 1200: Chapter 936: Where are You Hiding?_2 Soon, the surface ultrasound was ready, and Yang Ping started to explore along the path of the aorta and its branches, sector by sector, searching for the ultrasonic image of the fish bone amidst the blood flow. Yang Ping first examined the main trunk of the aorta, because the intraoperative surface ultrasound had to respect sterile principles, only examining the area not covered by the sterile drape, leaving other areas such as the abdomen unchecked. After the examination, no fish bone was found in the thoracic aorta or the abdominal aorta¡¯s main trunk. The aorta branches off in many directions after leaving the heart, and these branches give rise to more branches. Having checked the main trunk, Yang Ping could only follow these branches to examine each supplied area one by one. He had to look upward at the neck, the armpits, both upper limbs, and downward at abdominal cavity organs such as the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen, and then the pelvic cavity, both lower limbs. In short, every area had to be investigated without omission, as the fish bone could end up in any potential location. Fish bones perforating the esophagus and aorta are somewhat common, but traveling with the blood flow is very rare. Yang Ping clearly remembered that the vascular surgery department at West China Hospital once published an SCI paper reporting a case where a fish bone entered the aorta and then fled along the direction of the blood flow. At that time, the doctors could not find the fish bone after opening the chest and ultimately had to give up the surgery, letting the patient return to the ward for a new CT scan, which revealed the fish bone in the hepatic artery. After the patient had recovered and could withstand a second surgery, the doctors operated again, entering the abdominal cavity through the right costal margin, locating the hepatic artery by touch to find the fish bone¡¯s position, and then cutting open the vessels to retrieve the fish bone. However, it was obvious that this patient¡¯s fish bone was not in the hepatic artery, as its shadow was nowhere to be seen throughout the entire abdominal cavity. Is it really necessary to give up on surgery and plan for a second one after a new CT? Yang Ping was quite confident in his own skill with surface ultrasound, ruling out the possibility of a missed diagnosis on his part. After completing the examination of the thoracic and abdominal cavities without finding the fish bone, Director Zhou grew even more anxious: ¡°Should we do a full body CT scan to have a look?¡± A CT scan would certainly be good, but if the fish bone could be detected with surface ultrasound, there wouldn¡¯t be a need for such trouble, resolving the issue directly in the operating room would be much better than another surgery, at least reducing the patient¡¯s surgical trauma. ¡°No need for such trouble!¡± Yang Ping spoke with determination as he began to examine the neck and both upper limbs with the ultrasound probe. If the fish bone was lodged in a blood vessel, it would definitely affect the local state of blood flow, and this effect would be reflected on the ultrasound image. With nothing found in both upper limbs, Director Zhou could no longer contain his impatience, but he hesitated to speak, fearing he might affect Yang Ping¡¯s operation. Since it wasn¡¯t in the upper limbs, it was time to check inside the skull. The probability of it getting there was extremely slim, but not non-existent. Yang Ping started a meticulous search through the vertebral arteries and the common carotid arteries upwards towards the cranial arteries. Yang Ping¡¯s eyes were fixed on the screen, ready to capture any minute changes on the ripple-like ultrasonic image, but unfortunately, the surface ultrasound of the cranium revealed no sign of the fish bone. Yang Ping then completed the ultrasound of the lower limbs, which also showed no trace of the fish bone. Although combining surface ultrasound with the C-Arm machine wasn¡¯t a hundred percent reliable in detection, it was close to that percentage, and with Yang Ping¡¯s level of expertise, it shouldn¡¯t be inferior to a full-body CT scan. So where exactly had the fish bone gone? Had it simply not been found yet, or had it truly disappeared? A two-centimeter fish bone couldn¡¯t have just vanished; it had to be somewhere, just not discovered yet. At this point, Director Zhou was clearly unable to keep his composure, appearing agitated and restless, while Yang Ping remained very calm. After such a long period of tempering, Yang Ping had become very calm, rational, and objective, with no significant emotional fluctuations during surgery. ¡°Should we push for a full-body CT scan?¡± Once again, Director Zhou suggested, the seemingly only option left. It had to be done this way, otherwise what was to be done? The patient couldn¡¯t just keep lying on the operating table indefinitely. Yang Ping felt there was something peculiar about the situation. The fact that both the C-Arm machine and the surface ultrasound couldn¡¯t track the trajectory of this fish bone was astounding. The fish bone was remarkable in its ability to hide, it seemed improbable that it could conceal itself from him, raising the question of which part of the process had gone awry. Yang Ping thought about every step of the surgery, then deliberated all of the possibilities. If the fish bone wasn¡¯t in its original position, then it had to be in a nearby tissue, or inside the aorta or esophagus. If it had moved into the esophagus, it would have shifted to the stomach or intestines, but recent examinations with both surface ultrasound and the X-ray machine had found nothing. If it came down to it, the only resort was to conduct a full-body CT scan, yet Yang Ping still meticulously followed each step of the process in his search. Thinking to himself, Yang Ping glanced at the basin on the floor where the gauze was being collected: ¡°Patrolling, check all the gauze, one piece at a time, to see if the fish bone has been caught on any of them.¡± Could it be that while searching for the fishbone, it inadvertently came out and was then taken away by the gauze, so now it¡¯s not inside the patient? Yang Ping decided to first look around; if it truly wasn¡¯t there, he¡¯d then end the surgery, redo the CT-Scan, and schedule a second surgery for later. The patrolling nurse and the intern began inspecting the gauze. The intern shone a flashlight while the patrolling nurse spread out each piece of gauze to carefully examine both sides. The two nurses worked together, ensuring no trace on the gauze, and then checked the gauze collecting basin¡ªit was also empty. ¡°Has the liquid in the suction device been changed yet?¡± Yang Ping turned his attention to the inside of the suction device. The nurse replied, ¡°Not yet.¡± ¡°Filter all the liquid in the suction device through the gauze to see if it¡¯s in there,¡± Yang Ping did not overlook the suction device either. This gap, where the fishbone could be carried out of the body, represented a potential oversight. Without considering this, everyone¡¯s thinking would be confined to the idea that the fishbone was still within the patient. Although the fishbone was two centimeters long, it was very fine, unbranched, and its arc wasn¡¯t significant; it could have been entirely sucked up by the suction device. If it entered the suction device lengthwise, it would fit down the tube and into the suction bottle. If the fishbone wasn¡¯t in the suction bottle, then it definitely remained inside the patient. The only option would be to wrap up and deal with it later, with a new CT-Scan and a second surgery planned to retrieve the fishbone. To be thorough, Yang Ping checked the suction heads and also had the nurse change and inspect the tubing. He instructed Director Zhou to check his gloves, the cloth removed earlier, and even the floor. Now, with the fishbone missing, it was either inside or already out¡ªa serious issue. The nurses dared not be negligent. Thus, the two nurses began working in collaboration again. One held up a large piece of gauze as a filter while the other nurse slowly poured the liquid from the suction bottle onto the gauze for filtration, with the filtered liquid flowing into a collection bottle. Director Zhou and the other doctors were already on edge, struggling to accept Yang Ping¡¯s seemingly excessive behavior. But they dared not voice their concerns aloud and could only follow his orders. It already seemed excessive to inspect the gauze so meticulously, and now, not even sparing the filtered liquid in the suction bottle, he proceeded with filtration and examination¡ªwas it possible for the fishbone to be inadvertently sucked up? Yang Ping remained composed. He executed his plan, determined to see it through whether or not the fishbone was found, as calling it quits now would complicate matters later. If the fishbone was still inside, locating it with a CT-Scan would allow for its removal in a second surgery. But what if, by then, a full-body CT-Scan revealed no fishbone? Leave it at that? Failure to detect it on the CT didn¡¯t mean the fishbone wasn¡¯t inside. Would the patient have to live with a ticking time bomb? There was quite a lot of liquid in the suction bottle, nearly three thousand milliliters, and filtering it through gauze took some time. The nurse, squatting on the ground, was very meticulous. ¡°The fishbone!¡± A nurse exclaimed excitedly. The instrumental nurse instantly tossed some vascular clamps to that nurse, who then used them to pick up the fishbone and brought it over for Yang Ping and Director Zhou to see. Indeed, it was a fine, two-centimeter-long fishbone, unbranched and intact. No wonder it hadn¡¯t been found; the suction device had suctioned it out. ¡°You can publish a paper on this case in SIC,¡± Yang Ping said with a smile. There had already been a serious SCI article about a fishbone case at West China Hospital, and since finding this fishbone also required some effort, it was enough for writing an article. Director Zhou couldn¡¯t help feeling a chill of hindsight. If the fishbone hadn¡¯t been found by Yang Ping, and the patient had been hastily concluded, was the fishbone removed or not? What if it truly remained inside and the CT hadn¡¯t found it? What then? Chapter 1201 - 1201 937 Balloon Man ?Chapter 1201: Chapter 937: Balloon Man Chapter 1201: Chapter 937: Balloon Man When they saw the fish bone filtered out from the liquid in the suction bottle, adoration filled the eyes of every doctor and nurse in the operating room. Godlike is truly godlike. How did he know the fish bone was not in the body but in the suction bottle? In fact, Yang Ping didn¡¯t know whether the fish bone was still inside the body or had already left the patient¡¯s body, but he decided to handle the matter with rigorous attention to detail. This was no longer a question of skill level, but of whether the approach was meticulous enough. Director Zhuo and Director Zhou felt like they were learning an invaluable lesson. If they hadn¡¯t found that fish bone, Director Zhou would have assumed it was still inside the body, and the surgery could have only been hastily concluded. The subsequent arrangements would have proceeded as if the fish bone was still in the body, such as having difficult conversations with the patient and their family, and even dealing with their misunderstandings. In order to find that fish bone, the patient would have inevitably endured a lot, and undergoing a full-body CT scan would have been unavoidable. If the full-body CT scan had failed to reveal the fish bone, everyone would have racked their brains about what to do next. After conducting numerous tests and still not finding the fish bone, it would remain an unresolved case, weighing heavily on both the doctors and the patient. The doctors would worry about where exactly the fish bone was hiding, and whether it might cause severe bleeding, infections, or embolism in the future. Meanwhile, the patient would constantly worry, having undergone thoracic surgery without the fish bone being found, and with it still inside their body, living every day with a ticking time bomb. It seemed Professor Yang was not only highly competent but also possessed a seriousness that was rare, showing meticulous analysis even towards a single fish bone. With the fish bone found, the surgery could finally be deemed a complete success, and Director Zhou also breathed a sigh of relief. Technically, the task was not difficult, but it required an absolutely thorough mentality. Yang Ping also didn¡¯t know whether the fish bone was still inside the patient or had been removed, but if one was to thoroughly analyze and manage the situation, such action was necessary, as it represented a possibility that could not be overlooked. Ignoring a possibility could lead to a downfall if a low-probability event actually occurred. Director Zhou couldn¡¯t help but recall an incident involving a classmate who showed swollen lymph nodes in his neck. The first doctor he consulted diagnosed it as inflammation, prescribing anti-inflammatory drugs that temporarily reduced the swelling, though it would return when the medication was stopped. The patient, who studied medicine, then went to a reputable hospital and requested further examination, where a lymph node biopsy suggested inflammation. The doctor assured that the pathological examination was the gold standard. Still uneasy, the classmate used his connections to consult a very meticulous old professor, who suggested that a biopsy might sometimes fail to reach the lesion, recommending multiple biopsies at several points for a higher chance of reaching the lesion. After five such biopsies, the last test revealed malignant lymphoma, but fortunately, it was in its early stages. The patient immediately underwent surgery to have it removed, and further checks showed no issues afterward. Therefore, whether one has a meticulous approach can completely change the outcome of a situation. Yang Ping was planning to go back for lunch, but now with an added surgery, it delayed his lunchtime and he was getting hungry. Dean Chen was hosting, and he insisted on having Yang Ping stay at City People¡¯s Hospital for lunch, which was arranged at a nearby restaurant with Director Zhou, Director Zhuo, and a few other department directors in attendance. During his time at City People¡¯s Hospital, Yang Ping was just a junior resident, and had left soon after being promoted to attending physician, apart from the orthopedic doctors and nurses, not many other department directors actually knew him. Even when the news of Yang Ping being fired spread through the hospital, doctors with high professional titles from other departments only heard his name. Not long since he left City People¡¯s Hospital, Yang Ping returned as a specially appointed expert to guide surgery, and now as an Outstanding Young Talent, preparing for academician evaluation, and having published 13 CNS papers and founded the ¡°Medical¡± journal, his every undertaking was earth-shattering, prompting many department heads at City People¡¯s Hospital to wonder just how extraordinary Yang Ping was. These newly appointed department heads had been ¡°good coins¡± previously, always marginalized by the ¡°bad coins,¡± but now that they finally saw the light of day, they inevitably vented about their past during the meal. As a listener, Yang Ping thought it was good to hear these complaints. In the middle of the meal, Director Zhuo received a phone call notifying him that the emergency department had received several patients from a car accident, including one with multiple severe fractures, the swelling was significant. The call, from the chief resident of orthopedics, even came with a photo sent via WeChat. Director Zhuo took one look at the photo, where the entire person, especially the head, looked like a balloon, something he had never seen before. He immediately showed the photo to Yang Ping, who decided they should head over immediately. They were in the middle of their meal, and Dean Chen felt somewhat embarrassed, but everyone was a doctor, and understanding was implicit. ¡°Let¡¯s go, let¡¯s have a look!¡± Yang Ping immediately stood up. Saving lives was a matter of racing against the clock. Who cared about finishing a meal at a time like this? Yang Ping and the rest hurried to the emergency department of City People¡¯s Hospital, which was conveniently close to the restaurant. Chapter 1202 - 1202 937 Balloon Man_2 ?Chapter 1202: Chapter 937: Balloon Man_2 Chapter 1202: Chapter 937: Balloon Man_2 Emergency departments in hospitals are all pretty similar, chaotic and noisy. The emergency department at City People¡¯s Hospital isn¡¯t as spacious as Sanbo Hospital, and the director isn¡¯t as tall and imposing as Xiong Sihai, which makes it seem a bit less commanding. With his towering and robust stature, just by standing in the emergency hall and with his formidable demeanor, Xiong Sihai would impose order in the department, and troublemakers would think twice before causing a scene. Yang Ping was very familiar with the emergency department of City People¡¯s Hospital. Back when he was the attending in residency, he often visited the emergency department. The doctors there were also well-acquainted, and everyone proceeded to the rescue room. The patient¡¯s swelling was worse than it appeared in the photos¡ªhis chest, neck, and head were as inflated as balloons, especially the head, which was grotesquely swollen. The attending orthopedic surgeon stood there, not knowing what to do, having never encountered such swelling, so he simply stood by and called Director Zhuo. Yang Ping asked for a pair of gloves and pressed on the swollen areas, which felt like air sacs. Director Zhuo, too, put on gloves and felt the areas. ¡°Subcutaneous emphysema?¡± Director Zhuo realized immediately. Yang Ping nodded. Director Zhuo had experience with this; subcutaneous emphysema was manageable. He feared it might be swelling due to other reasons, something Director Zhuo had never seen. ¡°Scalpel blade, quick!¡± Director Zhuo shouted. The emergency department nurse swiftly opened a wound cleaning kit. The orthopedic attending quickly attached the blade to the handle and handed it to Director Zhuo, who then punctured over a dozen holes in the chest, neck, and head to release the trapped air. The gas hissed out of the puncture holes just like air escaping from a balloon. Director Zhuo pressed down on the bloated skin that resembled an inflated ball, gently squeezing the gas out, and the orthopedic attending hurried to imitate, forcefully pressing. ¡°Go easy!¡± Director Zhuo grabbed the hand of the orthopedic attending. Pressing had to be gentle; otherwise, it could cause an air embolism, which could be fatal. ¡°Call the Thoracic Surgery Department for a thoracic cavity closed drainage¡ªit¡¯s safer. What¡¯s going on with Thoracic Surgery? Why hasn¡¯t someone come yet?¡± Director Zhuo complained while ordering the emergency physician. The head of the Thoracic Surgery Department, Director Zhou, was standing right there, watching, ¡°Oh! I¡¯m here.¡± ¡°Prepare a thoracic cavity drainage set. I¡¯ll perform a closed drainage,¡± Director Zhou said, immediately putting on gloves. The patient¡¯s swelling was just like a balloon¡ªthe result of an extensive amount of gas entering beneath the skin. The more the gas accumulated, the larger it grew, just like inflating a balloon. The patient had inflated himself into a balloon. It seemed the patient had rib fractures, with the ribs piercing both the lung and the chest wall, continuing through to beneath the skin, which remained intact. An open valve formed on the chest wall, and during exhalation, lung gas blew through the rupture, into the break in the chest wall, and then under the skin. Since the chest wall acted as a one-way valve, allowing air in but not out, the gas accumulated, stretching the skin, eventually inflating it like a balloon and causing the exaggerated swelling seen from the outside. If this situation wasn¡¯t promptly addressed by venting the trapped air, the patient¡¯s entire body could swell like a balloon, endangering their life. The patient later underwent an emergency CT-Scan which revealed multiple fractures throughout the body¡ªseveral rib fractures, pelvic fractures, lumbar vertebrae fractures, and multiple fractures in the limbs. There was also a subdural hematoma in the brain, though the bleeding wasn¡¯t very heavy. Handling these issues was not a problem for Director Zhuo. Yang Ping felt there was no need for him to stay any longer, so he said his goodbyes and returned to Sanbo Hospital. By the time he got back, it was past two in the morning. Song Zimo was leading a surgery session while Xia Shu wasn¡¯t participating. His father was hospitalized in the Department of Gastroenterology and had undergone a gastroscopy which found a significant bleeding ulcer in the stomach. The gastroenterology physician managed the bleeding endoscopically and took a sample for pathology. Wen Ruzheng was assisting in examining the pathology slice which turned out to be gastric cancer. The patient now needed to undergo a full-body examination to check for metastases. Xia Shu was quite devastated upon hearing the news that his father had been diagnosed with stomach cancer just after he¡¯d graduated with his doctorate and hadn¡¯t yet had the chance to bring joy to his parents, so he naturally felt very upset, and his thoughts inevitably became somewhat chaotic. Head Nurse Cai had just delivered meals to the Department of Gastroenterology for Xia Shu and his parents and then took the opportunity to ask the nurses there to take extra care of Xia Shu¡¯s father. Since the full body examination was not yet complete, Yang Ping was not in a position to draw any conclusions, so he planned to take a look at what the situation was and how to deal with it once the results were available. As for Xia Shu, Yang Ping was very comfortable knowing that he was under the care of Head Nurse Cai, who was exceptionally wise and capable. She knew how to comfort Xia Shu. Dashun reported to Yang Ping that they had discovered numerous computer Trojans recently, even within computers used by several laboratories. This was found during Dashun¡¯s routine security checks of the department and the laboratories. In the department, it was common for computers to be infected with viruses due to people frequently plugging in and unplugging USB drives, but the computers in the laboratory were isolated from the outside world¡ªnot connected to the internet or capable of plugging in USB drives or anything of the sort, without even having ports, making them unlikely to get infected. Although the computers were isolated, the laboratories were open to personnel and there were never any restrictions on people moving in and out. Furthermore, these Trojans were very sophisticated. The person in charge of this computer equipment inspection was a top expert from a large security company, who was very adept at various forms of cyber operations. According to the experts, these Trojans had been hiding in the computers and had already transmitted many files. For safety¡¯s sake, one of the experts stayed behind, specifically to take charge of the network security here. However, Yang Ping said there were no particularly confidential files on the laboratory computers; all that information was public in their papers. He told Dashun not to worry because he would never casually store core files on these computers, so Yang Ping was not very concerned. In the afternoon, Yang Ping took a stroll through the System Space. Although the system could provide a powerful platform for scientific research with a vast array of resources, it could not offer the richness of imagination. Yang Ping felt that imagination, curiosity, and the desire to explore were all extremely valuable. The latest batch of modified K-factors still did not satisfy Yang Ping, who analyzed the reasons for failure and continued with the experiments in the laboratory, hoping to quickly modify a suitable K-factor. Under Yang Ping¡¯s guidance, Su Nanchen and Robert made breakthrough progress in their project on 3D-printed cartilage. By combining stem cell cultivation techniques with biological 3D printing technology, they printed out clear cartilage for articular structures that were indistinguishable from human articular cartilage and could be transplanted. But this was only the first step of the experiment. Next, they would need to conduct animal experiments, and then clinical trials. It seemed that everyone had learned how to use WeChat¡ªcompared to email, WeChat, as an instant messaging tool, was very convenient. The international WeChat group on transplantation was bustling. Yang Ping glanced at the content of the conversations within the group, which, in addition to some academic discussions, often touched upon everyday life matters. Robert was boasting about his proficiency in Chinese, having memorized Tang poetry, Song lyrics, and Yuan dynasty drama. He had also finished reading dictionaries of idioms, proverbs, and slang, and now he was starting to read classic Chinese novels. He had already finished reading The Three-Body Problem and was attempting to read Journey to the West. This guy really put in the effort to learn Chinese, no wonder his proficiency was so high. Following closely behind was August, who had recently been studying the Shuowen Jiezi, researching the principles of Chinese character formation and word composition. Woodhead was still struggling with the HSK level four, always falling just short. Every time he seemed to be on the threshold of passing, but after each test, he would miss by just a point or two. It seemed that applying for advanced studies in the short term was out of the question, but he could consider a short academic exchange, such as a two-week program. Woodhead thought it was impossible to learn much by just skimming the surface for two weeks and hoped to secure at least a three-month fellowship. This reminded Yang Ping of his own university days when some of his classmates were troubled by the English CET-4, a similar situation. Manstein was originally a Nobel laureate and a selector for the Nobel Prize, so he was well-versed in recommending candidates for the Nobel Prize. He had already prepared his recommendation materials thoroughly. Chapter 1203 - 1203 938 The World is Truly Complicated ?Chapter 1203: Chapter 938: The World is Truly Complicated Chapter 1203: Chapter 938: The World is Truly Complicated Today the weather was very good, and the sunlight was bright; Yang Ping came to work early in the morning. A doctor¡¯s work is almost the same every day, handing over shifts, making rounds, performing surgeries; these are the fixed daily tasks. Before the morning handover meeting adjourned, Xu Zhiliang, stuttering, announced he was getting married, and asked everyone to join the celebration before distributing the invitations. The bride-to-be was a female graduate student introduced by others; after dating for a while, both were very satisfied with each other. The girl was a civil servant, from a well-off family, her parents were also retired civil servants. After meeting Xu Zhiliang, she felt very good about him and didn¡¯t mind his stutter or unkempt appearance at all. Not only was the girl satisfied, but her parents were also very pleased with Xu Zhiliang. Xu Zhiliang was getting married, while Liang Fatty was still dating. It was said that he had another argument with the flight attendant, and they were now in a cold war because he didn¡¯t have much time to accompany the flight attendant on shopping trips or vacations, which she was unhappy about. An anesthesiologist is also a doctor, always staying in the operating room caring for patients on the operating table, indeed having little time to spend with their girlfriend shopping or traveling. The higher the level of the hospital a doctor worked in, the more it seemed they had no time of their own; most of the year was spent working, as if there were endless patients to see. Sometimes, Liang Fatty barely managed to get a weekend off, yet he still had to attend various educational conferences; he had no time for traveling or shopping. The effect of a hero saving a beauty doesn¡¯t last very long. It¡¯s not possible for the flight attendant to fall ill and need surgeries frequently enough for Liang Fatty to play the hero. Ultimately, their relationship needed to revolve around leisure activities like shopping, traveling, eating, and drinking. If one cannot understand the nature of the medical profession, true love is hard to maintain. Xu Zhiliang¡¯s girlfriend could connect well with him possibly because she understood him. This girlfriend was very amiable and never complained about Xu Zhiliang being busy at work. When Xu Zhiliang had to teach interns during the weekend, his girlfriend would join him at the department, and she was quite happy about it. After handing over their shifts, everyone rushed to the operating room, with a schedule packed full of surgeries for the day, and Liang Fatty did not have time to linger with his flight attendant girlfriend, as many patients were still waiting for his anesthesia. Tang Shun came to report to Yang Ping about the current situation with the ¡°Medical¡± journal. Tang Shun was worth several people, and Yang Ping had assigned him all the work outside clinical duties, including three research projects and the ¡°Medical¡± journal among other chaotic tasks. The ¡°Medical¡± editorial department in the Surgical Research Institute building had a fixed office location taking up one floor, and up until now, the eight stories had not been fully occupied, leaving room for expansion. Of course, a signboard was also going to be added at the main entrance on the first floor, and the editorial team led by Tang Shun was well-organized. Tang Shun hired an experienced chief editor who had worked at several top international journals and was also a Ph.D. graduate from a renowned medical school. From the recent data on ¡°Medical,¡± the editorial policy of focusing primarily on digital journal formats with print journals as a supplement was completely correct. The print journal was merely for providing a stable medium for preservation. According to the publishing policy, papers published online did not conform to the concept of a journal, as they could be submitted for publishing at any time. The ¡°Medical¡± editorial department would regularly collect the week¡¯s papers into a printed journal form to mail to readers in need of a print edition. With the review team including top medical figures like Manstein, and the main authors being top doctors worldwide, supported by endorsements from the chief editors of top journals like ¡°Science,¡± ¡°Nature,¡± and ¡°Cell,¡± and with Yang Ping¡¯s 13 CNS papers that had made waves in the medical field, the spatial orientation gene theory being published in ¡°Medical¡± led to its instant peak status as a top journal upon its launch. The ¡°Medical¡± journal, unbound by scheduling and pagination, could incorporate unlimited content, ensuring prompt publication of papers. The weekly printed journals varied in thickness based on the number of papers each week. Though ¡°Medical¡± was a Chinese journal, numerous non-governmental academic organizations in Europe, the United States, and Japan spontaneously translated its papers, making ¡°Medical¡± a journal with versions in over a dozen languages¡ªan authentic international journal. Commercial affairs were handled by Huang Jiacai, hospital management by Boss Cheng, laboratory work by Tang Shun, and clinical practice by Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang; each major sector had a suitable leader, and the entire large team¡¯s structure was well-established. Now Yang Ping just needed to focus on research and performing surgeries, with his main energy increasingly leaning towards scientific research, as the contribution of scientific achievements to the world was greatest. For example, concerning the treatment of stomach ulcers, various surgical methods had been used in the past, but even if the surgery was performed well, the effect was just so-so. Later, when Helicobacter pylori was discovered, the entire mechanism of stomach ulcer development was revised, naturally changing the treatment approach. Previously, even major surgeries had limited effectiveness, but now it could be completely cured with just a few courses of medication, highlighting the significance of theoretical innovation in saving stomach ulcer patients worldwide. Similarly, the invention of the hepatitis B vaccine prevented the rampant spread of this infectious disease, protecting the health of people worldwide. Thus, Yang Ping was handling both clinical practice and research, but his focus was gradually shifting towards research. Of course, ultimately, clinical practice and research had to be integrated; research topics came from clinical practice, and research findings were to be applied in clinical settings. Chapter 1204 - 1204 938 The World Is Really Complicated_2 ?Chapter 1204: Chapter 938 The World Is Really Complicated_2 Chapter 1204: Chapter 938 The World Is Really Complicated_2 After Tang Shun left, Head Nurse Cai rushed over urgently. She had intended to call Professor Yang Ping, but upon seeing that the door to his office was open and knowing that he had not yet gone to the operating room, she immediately came looking for him. The full medical examination results of Xia Shu¡¯s father had come out. As Xia Shu was not very familiar with Sanbo Hospital yet, Head Nurse Cai had been running around assisting with the matter, facilitating communication with various departments. This ensured that the results would be processed faster, and even personally wheeled Xia Shu¡¯s father to the examinations. Xia Shu¡¯s grief had not yet subsided when Head Nurse Cai brought him his father¡¯s examination results, hoping Professor Yang could take a look and advise on how to proceed. From all the examination results, it appeared to be early-stage stomach cancer without any metastasis. A direct surgery to remove it followed by a lymph node clearance should yield no postoperative problems. ¡°Transfer him to our department. I¡¯ll perform the surgery,¡± Professor Yang said after reviewing the results. Head Nurse Cai immediately went to discuss this with Xia Shu, while Yang Ping watched her briskly walk away, ¡°Is your ankle joint better?¡± Head Nurse Cai paused before responding, ¡°Yes, it¡¯s better!¡± Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Good to hear it¡¯s better. No issues, I was just asking.¡± ¡ª In an estate in the United States, the elders of the BG Consortium were gathered around an antique round table, with thick files laid out in front of each of them; some of these files were recent acquisitions. As more information was gathered, and the more recent it was, the clearer Professor Yang Ping¡¯s image became. Professor Yang Ping¡¯s medical expertise was known to be enigmatic, his fame spreading even among the noble ducal families of Europe, whose financial and influential power was no less than that of the BG Consortium. Their influence spanned Europe and North America, and even their North American branch was not outmatched by the BG Consortium. The very same ducal Gothenburg, who suffered from a terminal illness and for whom the whole world¡¯s medical resources gathered by his family proved futile, eventually invited Professor Yang as the chief surgeon. Following the surgery, the young duke recovered and is currently thriving, achieving remarkable scholarly success. Since then, this powerful family has formed a profound friendship with Professor Yang, becoming one of the sources of funding for his research. A wealthy Sicilian from Italy, an influential figure in the underworld of Europe and North America, reportedly solicited one of the world¡¯s top plastic surgeons as the chief surgeon for his daughter¡¯s operation. It was said that the top-notch professional claimed that the surgery would be carried out under the remote direction of Professor Yang. In a critical incident on NASA¡¯s space station, when the medical elites of the whole United States were at their wits¡¯ end and genius Massimo had no solution, it was Professor Yang who, with his God-like skill, resolved the crisis and saved the astronaut¡¯s life. Fujiwara Tani of the Japanese Fujiwara Family, who had given up on treatment, was brought back from the brink of death by Professor Yang¡¯s surgery and currently lives well. Professor Yang proposed the Spatial Orientation Gene theory, which, as of now, is understood by only a handful of scientists. This theory stands as the closest technology to cloning organs. If it is successful, it will be possible in the future to clone hearts, livers, kidneys, and humans could swap organs as easily as cars swap parts. Imagine an eighty-year-old person receiving a twenty-year-old heart without any need for rejection treatment¡ªhow wonderful that would be. Moreover, from the latest intelligence, it can be seen that this individual is extremely sensitive to the direction of scientific research. If anyone else were to lead the organ-cloning research, even with an established theory, they might not achieve any significant results after decades, whereas he might reach the goal within the foreseeable future. Li Gaoyang was urgently summoned here, yet the elders gathered around the round table remained silent, meditating with their eyes closed, and it had already been half an hour, not one of them showed any intention of speaking. What to do? Some guidance was needed. There were some matters Li Gaoyang dared not decide on his own, after all, there were risks involved. ¡°What should we do, do we need to completely eliminate this hidden threat?¡± Unable to endure any longer, Li Gaoyang asked softly. If extreme measures were to be taken, Rolf had a thousand ways to do it. Moreover, Rolf¡¯s men were already close to Professor Yang. Before being detected, this was the best opportunity. The elderly chief, who appeared to be in his seventies and had undergone a heart transplant the previous year, thus was not in great spirits, was expecting to live another thirty years himself. David Rockefeller had sustained his life for an additional thirty years with six hearts until he reached 101 years old; he should be able to do the same. The elderly chief had been sitting quietly with his eyes closed, but now slowly opened them, ¡°Limit ourselves to business conflicts only, and permanently cancel all plans that target personal safety.¡± To ensure Li Gaoyang heard clearly, the old man reiterated the statement more loudly. He couldn¡¯t have misheard; these were the words of an elder, weren¡¯t they? Still in a daze, Li Gaoyang observed that the other elders who were the youngest were in their sixties. As they heard the chief¡¯s statement, they all opened their eyes, seemingly relieved. ¡°He is the treasure of all mankind, we should not be so selfish,¡± said one of the elders slowly. Li Gaoyang was astounded by the unexpected decision made by the true controllers of the BG Consortium, these family elders, who had not been known to act this way before. Yet, at this very moment, they unexpectedly showed benevolence. How could they just abandon the situation so easily? Under the current circumstances, only extreme measures seemed capable of resolving the issue. ¡°I believe¡ª¡± Li Gaoyang was about to express his opinion, determined to fully tackle the matter even at the risk of missing the opportunity by wavering. The elderly chief raised his voice, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me what you think; I¡¯ll say it again, Professor Yang is an outstanding scientist of humanity. We ought to protect him, let him make greater contributions, and we will not tolerate any harm to him. Business is business, but the common good of humanity is the supreme interest.¡± Chapter 1205 - 1205 938 The World is Truly Complex_3 ?Chapter 1205: Chapter 938 The World is Truly Complex_3 Chapter 1205: Chapter 938 The World is Truly Complex_3 Li Gaoyang couldn¡¯t help but laugh and cry, ¡°You¡¯re saying these things as if they were meant for someone else, why tell me? What¡¯s gotten into these old men? Each one acting like they¡¯re the epitome of honorable gentlemen.¡± ¡°His scientific research results are all public, accessible to people all over the world, and pose no threat whatsoever. Moreover, he has great respect for the existing market mechanisms and has never been a disruptor,¡± the youngest elder said. ¡°Hmm, I think so too!¡± Someone immediately agreed, Why had the elders¡¯ attitude changed so swiftly? Li Gaoyang had thought that the latest intelligence would firm the elders¡¯ resolve to achieve their goals at any cost. Yet now, they had done an about-face. Was this the reason for the urgent summons, to permanently cancel the plan? This meeting room, Li Gaoyang felt, hosted the most boring and bizarre meeting he had ever attended, completely out of character for them. And so, Li Gaoyang returned to his office in New York in a foul mood, where Rolf was already waiting for him. Lately, everyone had been busy, constantly on the move because of Yang Ping¡¯s case; after all, BG Company faced its greatest opponent ever. ¡°Rolf, what¡¯s up with these old men? Why do they all suddenly act like paragons of virtue?¡± Li Gaoyang recounted the meeting to Rolf, hoping he could help analyze the situation. Li Gaoyang truly couldn¡¯t comprehend why these guys had become so benevolent all of a sudden, completely abandoning extreme measures and confining all efforts to the realm of business competition. Rolf pondered for a few minutes, then laughed cryptically, ¡°When you reach their age, you¡¯d probably make the same decision. Why did David Rockefeller undergo six heart transplants? It¡¯s not just him¡ªwhy do the world¡¯s wealthy families generously donate in the field of biomedicine? Think about it, and you¡¯ll know the answer.¡± Li Gaoyang thought for a moment and then had an epiphany, ¡°Does everyone harbor a desire for immortality?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say everyone does, but at least ninety-nine percent of those elders above us are longing for longevity, longing to live a little longer. You are now actively recommending extreme measures, aren¡¯t you cutting short their dreams? As an old friend, I advise you to watch yourself, or they¡¯ll throw you out without a second thought.¡± Rolf, the intelligence expert, clearly had a deeper understanding of human nature than Li Gaoyang. ¡°Besides, as long as we don¡¯t provoke conflict, his threat to BG Company is nowhere near life-threatening. His laboratory is unguarded, his scientific research results are all freely made public¡ªeven if we use those results, do you think BG Company would fare worse than other companies? However, if you touch Professor Yang, for them, it becomes a matter of life and death. Now, in their eyes, Professor Yang is a deity, not a mere mortal,¡± Rolf said piercingly. Li Gaoyang still didn¡¯t understand, ¡°Why change their minds now?¡± Rolf straightened his white hair, ¡°Because only now the intelligence is clear: the theory of the Spatial Orientation Gene can only be realized by Professor Yang in the shortest time. Even if BG Company had all the data, it¡¯s uncertain whether it could be achieved in decades¡ªnobody wants to wait on that uncertainty. In the eyes of all such people, Professor Yang is already a god. Believe it or not, not to mention extreme measures, if you were to pluck a single hair from Professor Yang¡¯s head, countless hidden forces around the world would ensure your absolute destruction. I guarantee it.¡± Li Gaoyang took a deep breath. The world was indeed complex, and so was human nature. With Rolf¡¯s guidance, Li Gaoyang finally understood the underlying principles. Chapter 1206 - 1206 939 Hurry Up and Go to China ?Chapter 1206: Chapter 939: Hurry Up and Go to China Chapter 1206: Chapter 939: Hurry Up and Go to China Xia Shu¡¯s father was transferred to the Surgical Research Institute, and Head Nurse Cai made a special effort to reserve the sole suite in the Ward for Xia Shu¡¯s father. She secretly paid out of her own pocket to have the bed fees listed separately in the Outpatient department for payment, bypassing the total inpatient costs. Malignant Tumors call for early treatment, early detection, early diagnosis, and early treatment. Xia Shu¡¯s father¡¯s stomach cancer is currently at an early stage and has not yet spread, so the effect of the surgery is very good. This way, Xia Shu felt a bit better, but his heart was still heavy. He had been the pride of his parents when he went off to study, having been admitted to Xiehe Hospital. After graduating, he remained in Beijing to work, but now he was without money or a wife, causing his parents worry. ¡°I will take the films to Professor Yang for a look,¡± Xia Shu¡¯s mood stabilized. Head Nurse Cai said, ¡°I have already shown them to the Professor. The Professor said it¡¯s early stage, and the effect of the surgery will be very good. You don¡¯t have to worry, and it¡¯s minimally invasive, done under a laparoscope.¡± The competent Head Nurse had everything well arranged, and Xia Shu was very grateful to her. At that moment, he truly felt somewhat chaotic and distressed, further compounded by his unfamiliarity with the hospital, which made handling matters inefficiently. Fortunately, he had the help of Head Nurse Cai. Whenever Professor Yang had free time, he would share cases he encountered at the City People¡¯s Hospital with everyone, because they had strong cautionary value. The case with the fish bone made everyone understand that their daily work required a rigorous attitude, and they absolutely could not neglect certain details, especially when they felt complacent about routine safety being uneventful, thus not adhering strictly to protocols and regulations. The case of the ¡°Balloon Man¡± was actually similar to tension pneumothorax; the formation of tension pneumothorax means that the entire chest, including the skin, is already perforated, equating the chest cavity with the outside. At the communicating wound, a flap valve forms that opens during inhalation, allowing air from the outside to enter the chest cavity, while during exhalation, the valve is closed, preventing the air just inhaled into the chest cavity from escaping. Consequently, the air can only go in and not out, building up increasingly in the chest cavity and ultimately severely affecting breathing and leading to death. Tension pneumothorax is an absolute medical emergency. During on-scene emergency treatment, a large-bore needle is often inserted into the chest cavity to release air, and if possible, immediately followed by a closed chest drainage. The ¡°Balloon Man¡± encountered at the City People¡¯s Hospital suffered from subcutaneous emphysema caused by chest trauma, similar in mechanism to tension pneumothorax, but different in process. The formation of this subcutaneous emphysema meant that the chest wall wound had penetrated from the inside out, just stopping under the skin, which remained unbroken, leaving the chest cavity unconnected to the exterior but communicating with the potential space beneath the skin. At the same time, the Lung was ruptured, allowing air from inside the Lung to leak out. The chest wound also had a flap valve that opened during exhalation. The air leaked from the Lungs during exhalation would enter beneath the skin through the open valve wound. During inhalation, the valve closes, preventing the air just under the skin from being drawn back into the chest cavity. As a result, the air beneath the skin accumulated more and more, eventually spreading to all sides. As the spreading air continued to inflate the skin, the entirety of the body¡¯s skin, being an interconnected whole, could be puffed out, turning the entire person into what resembled a balloon. Because of the Lung perforation, some of the leaking air accumulated in the chest cavity, also forming a pneumothorax. The primary danger of a pneumothorax is that it eliminates the negative pressure in the chest cavity and the accumulating air compresses the Lung, making it unable to expand, leading to eventual suffocation and death. Patients at the Surgical Research Institute were increasing in number, all with surgeries that could not or would not be undertaken elsewhere. Because there were so many patients, and they were all high-risk, surgeries had to be scheduled a year in advance. With so many patients, and all at high risk, without strict work protocols and a rigorous work ethic, medical accidents could easily occur. So, emphasizing medical safety can never be overdone. ¡ª At this time in the United States. Li Gaoyang was very dissatisfied with the decision that seemed inconceivable to the elders, and it was not just Li Gaoyang, but the entire company¡¯s younger faction that was discontent. Perhaps these old men had grown old and lost their fighting spirit. Li Gaoyang and the younger faction secretly convened a meeting and then drafted a petition that everyone signed, hoping to use it to persuade the elders to make a swift and decisive cut. Recently, the company had been too busy. With so many companies under the BG Group, Li Gaoyang, who already worked at a very fast pace, now faced unprecedented challenges. As the family¡¯s public helmsman, the pressure on him was already great. After delivering the petition to the elders, Li Gaoyang hurriedly boarded his private jet to Rochester, Minnesota. The annual comprehensive health check-up had just been completed, and the Mayo Clinic¡¯s medical team had scheduled a phone appointment for Gaoyang to meet in Rochester. This was a routine procedure for the medical team. As the leader of BG Company, he wouldn¡¯t normally need to make such a trip since, following previous years¡¯ custom, after the check-up, the medical team would come to his office in New York to communicate face-to-face, informing him of his current health status and providing medical advice. But this time was different; the Mayo Clinic wanted Li Gaoyang to personally travel to Rochester to facilitate communication with the medical team. In the spacious office, Li Gaoyang met the medical team, who explained and advised on the results of each organ examined. The last person to stay was Doctor John Ansen from Neurosurgery¡ªa familiar face to Li as they saw each other at every annual check-up. Li Gaoyang¡¯s routine check-up results from the Mayo Clinic had come out, and an MRI of the head revealed a Tumor in a very troublesome location. Chapter 1207 - 1207 939 Hurry to China_2 ?Chapter 1207: Chapter 939 Hurry to China_2 Chapter 1207: Chapter 939 Hurry to China_2 Now sitting across from me is the director of the Mayo Clinic Department of Neurosurgery, John Ansen, one of the top neurosurgeons in the United States. The black and white MRI images on the electronic screen looked as terrifying as the devil to Li Gaoyang; he dared not look directly at them. Right now, his head was buzzing with noise. His wife was waiting outside, still unaware of what had happened during the physical exam. ¡°Dr. John Ansen, I¡¯m ready, go ahead,¡± John Ansen, holding an electronic pen, thought for a moment and then said, ¡°Mr. Li Gaoyang, I¡¯m sorry, but as a doctor, I must remain objective. If you have any adverse reactions during this explanation of your illness, please signal me immediately to stop, even if it¡¯s just a gesture.¡± ¡°Thank you! Go ahead, I can take it,¡± Li Gaoyang said with a determined expression. ¡°Sir, in your skull, right here, we have found a tumor, which is approximately 0.1 x 0.2 x 0.1 centimeters,¡± John Ansen slowly said, making sure that Li Gaoyang could hear him clearly. Li Gaoyang tried to appear relaxed as he said, ¡°Just a slightly larger sesame seed. Do I need to have my skull opened to remove it? No problem, arrange the surgery as soon as possible. I will sort out my work.¡± He was not an ordinary person but the head of BG Consortium, a super-rich and significant figure in the United States, not someone who could be frightened by a tiny tumor. John Ansen was not in a hurry, ¡°Mr. If it were an ordinary tumor, we wouldn¡¯t need to go through all this trouble to have you take time out of your busy schedule to sit here and chat. This tumor is not located just anywhere, but in the brainstem¡¯s medulla oblongata, and specifically within the nerve cell bundles of the medulla. This location is very special, it used to be a no-go zone for us neurosurgeons. With medical advances, we can now operate here, but only in some so-called relatively safe areas, and practically, this area is still very dangerous for us.¡± ¡°Is it very dangerous? How dangerous?¡± Li Gaoyang¡¯s heart had begun to pound, but he was still barely maintaining his composure. ¡°At present, we cannot determine the nature of the tumor, but the imaging suggests it¡¯s a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, which is the most dangerous and terrifying type of brainstem tumor. There were no signs of it in your last medical exam, and the fact that it has grown so large now indicates it¡¯s growing quickly. Without surgery, your breathing and heartbeat will stop, and if you undergo surgery, they might stop on the operating table.¡± John Ansen finally pointed out the severity of the brainstem tumor. ¡°Are there any other methods, like cellular therapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy?¡± Li Gaoyang asked, a bit anxiously. Within BG Company, whether it¡¯s marketed products or the laboratory, there is no such treatment available. Li Gaoyang wondered if John Ansen knew of any other methods since John Ansen was the best neurosurgeon after all. John Ansen shook his head, ¡°No, either no treatment or surgery. Even the most advanced ion knife is powerless as it inevitably causes damage along the path while penetrating the brainstem.¡± ¡°Can surgery be done?¡± ¡°Currently, the success rate for surgery on such tumors is extremely low worldwide; very few doctors are able to perform it. My animal experiments have a success rate of less than 5%.¡± This success rate was tantamount to suicide, and it was still in animal experiments, which left Li Gaoyang with a chilling feeling. ¡°There¡¯s only one doctor in the world currently who can lead such a surgery, and his success rate is eighty percent. Almost all the successful cases are his. He is my mentor,¡± John Ansen said step by step. Li Gaoyang¡¯s eyes filled with despair, then a hint of anger emerged, ¡°Dr. John Ansen, your joke is a bit too much. Dr. Meister passed away three years ago. Do you think this kind of joke is funny?¡± John Ansen shook his head, ¡°No, no, no, I¡¯m serious, not joking at all. This moment is very serious. I have more than one mentor. Dr. Meister was my teacher during my specialized medical training, but this doctor is my current mentor.¡± ¡°Then please arrange the surgery quickly. Where does your respected teacher work? Johns Hopkins? Or Massachusetts General Hospital? Anyway, Mayo certainly doesn¡¯t have such a person.¡± John Ansen said, ¡°My mentor is in China; he won¡¯t come to the United States now. We¡¯ve invited him several times to lead surgeries, and he has refused each time; the patient must be sent to China.¡± ¡°China?¡± Li Gaoyang was quite surprised; somehow, everything these days seemed to connect to China. ¡°Yes, he is Professor Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital, the only one who can save you, so you must go to China for the surgery,¡± John Ansen stated word by word. ¡°Professor Yang Ping of Sanbo Hospital!¡± Li Gaoyang felt as if the world was spinning. Could it really be him? How could it be him? ¡°Mr. Li Gaoyang, do you know this Chinese doctor?¡± John Ansen saw Li Gaoyang¡¯s face change immediately upon hearing the name of Yang Ping, turning sullen and extremely unpleasant. Finally, Li Gaoyang could not maintain his composure and shook his head frantically, ¡°No, I don¡¯t know him. I just find it difficult to understand why the best doctor for treating this disease is in China.¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing strange about it. That¡¯s just the way it is. He¡¯s the only one who can treat this disease, the only one. No other doctors dare to take a scalpel to this area and ensure you come out alive,¡± John Ansen explained clearly. Li Gaoyang said weakly, ¡°What should I do now?¡± ¡°Go to China to find him!¡± ¡°Can you help make the arrangements?¡± Chapter 1208 - 1208 939 Hurry to China_3 ?Chapter 1208: Chapter 939 Hurry to China_3 Chapter 1208: Chapter 939 Hurry to China_3 ¡°No, you can only contact them yourself, because just recently, the hospital where Professor Yang works has terminated its business relations with all hospitals in the United States. There used to be an insurance company that cooperated with them, allowing treatment in China through the insurance company, but I heard that this company has withdrawn from the US market not long ago, so you can only go to China as a private individual and try your luck.¡± John Ansen was powerless. ¡°Try your luck? What does that mean?¡± Li Gaoyang didn¡¯t understand, needing to rely on luck to receive medical treatment. John Ansen gave a bitter smile, ¡°That¡¯s the only way I can describe it. Going to China through private channels, I don¡¯t know if you can secure an appointment for him to see you and perform surgery. After all, he has a huge number of patients. Even if you can make an appointment, I don¡¯t know if you can wait that long.¡± ¡°Please think again, Doctor John Ansen, is he the only option?¡± Li Gaoyang had never felt so passive and helpless. John Ansen thought for a moment, ¡°There is a German doctor who has also made significant achievements in this field and is among the world¡¯s top. In this world, apart from Professor Yang, he probably ranks second, and there¡¯s another Australian doctor ranked third.¡± ¡°Great, let¡¯s invite the German doctor.¡± Li Gaoyang finally saw hope. ¡°However, I must tell you clearly that this German doctor¡¯s surgery success rate is about eight percent, and he has limited successful cases¡ªeither post-operative low intelligence or the need for a ventilator to sustain life. In short, patients cannot take care of themselves after surgery,¡± John Ansen stated truthfully. If the second best is only eight percent, there¡¯s no need to talk about the third. ¡°Actually, eight percent is already a very high level. Would you like to invite this German doctor?¡± John Ansen asked very seriously. ¡°No, no, no!¡± Li Gaoyang did not want to end up with low intelligence or lying in bed dependent on a ventilator, especially not to bet on an eight percent chance. That¡¯s too absurd. However, the person sitting in front of him was not just anyone¡ªit was John Ansen, the director of the Mayo Clinic Department of Neurosurgery, the most excellent neurosurgeon in the United States. His words could not be mistaken. ¡°So is going to China and trying my luck the only option?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the only way! Previously, we could have invited him to perform surgery, or I could have helped you with the booking through our hospital. But now, that¡¯s not possible, he has cut off all contact with us.¡± ¡°Has anyone ever successfully made a private appointment?¡± ¡°Yes!¡ªLast month I recommended a patient to go, let me check the scheduled date.¡± John Ansen flipped through his notebook: ¡°He was scheduled for August next year.¡± ¡°Unfortunately, he has too many patients. Those from the United States alone are substantial in number, all with life-threatening diseases. There has to be a sequence, so that¡¯s the only way to schedule an appointment. That patient passed away last week, not having lived to receive the surgery,¡± John Ansen said, nearly in tears. When you¡¯re at their age, you¡¯ll understand the reasons! This was what Rolf said when he was dissatisfied with the veterans back then. There was no need to wait until old age, as he fully understood the veterans¡¯ decisions right now. In the face of life, everything else seems trivial. ¡°You¡¯d better go to China quickly. You don¡¯t have much time left. I don¡¯t know if my personal relations can help you, but I will do my best.¡± ¡°Thank you. Do your best. I hope it helps.¡± ¡°Sorry, may I make a phone call?¡± Li Gaoyang trembled all over. ¡°No problem, you can go to the room over there to make the call, or I can leave for a while.¡± John Ansen respected his privacy. Li Gaoyang could no longer care about that and dialed his secretary with trembling hands: ¡°Urgently withdraw our application, urgently withdraw!!!¡± Veterans, I¡¯m willing to join you in being a good person. Chapter 1209 - 1209 940 Concern from All Over the World ?Chapter 1209: Chapter 940: Concern from All Over the World Chapter 1209: Chapter 940: Concern from All Over the World Xia Shu¡¯s father¡¯s surgery was completed. The surgery was performed personally by Yang Ping as the chief surgeon, involving a mostly stomach resection and regional lymph node dissection by laparoscope. The entire surgery had almost no bleeding, so the postoperative recovery was expected to be very fast. Surgery itself can cause trauma and disrupt a person¡¯s internal environment. The advantage of minimally invasive surgery is that it causes less trauma to the human body and less disruption to the internal environment, leading to faster recovery after the operation. Although early-stage stomach cancer may just be a tiny ¡°ulcer,¡± cancer cells inevitably spread to surrounding areas or lymph nodes. To eliminate these small, yet unorganized ¡°evil seeds,¡± the surgery involved not only removing the tiny ¡°ulcer¡± but also resecting a large part of the stomach including the ulcer and the surrounding lymph nodes. To be cautious, during the operation, Yang Ping had the resected lymph nodes sent to the Pathology Department for frozen tissue section analysis, with Wen Ruzheng looking for cancer cells. Fortunately, no cancer cells were found in the surrounding lymph nodes. During Xia Shu¡¯s father¡¯s surgery, the head nurse made time to stay with Xia Shu¡¯s mother in the family waiting area, chatting with the elderly lady to relieve her worries. After completing Xia Shu¡¯s father¡¯s surgery, Yang Ping still had many more surgeries to perform, the subsequent patients all required brainstem tumor surgeries. Many of these patients were referred by neurosurgery experts from Beijing and Shanghai, as well as many from abroad. Brainstem surgery is truly the pinnacle of neurosurgery, with few hospitals capable of performing such surgeries, and even fewer able to offer various types of surgeries due to the nature of the surgery, as many brainstem tumors are inoperable with current surgical technology. The thumb-sized brainstem is the life center of the body, controlling critical functions such as heartbeat, breathing, and movement. If the brain is the CPU, then the brainstem is the core area of the CPU. The medulla oblongata of the brainstem is an area highly concentrated with nerve cells, containing the fundamental life centers for heartbeat, breathing, and digestion. The anatomy of the medulla oblongata is complex and deep-seated. If removing a tumor from the medulla, the surgical approach involves passing through the skull, then avoiding the basal arteries, venous sinuses, cranial nerves, and entering the brainstem through safe gaps within neural cell clusters without damaging the nerve cells, making the surgery extremely difficult. Any slight mistake during surgery could lead to abnormal heartbeat and breathing, resulting in intraoperative cardiopulmonary arrest or postoperative inability to breathe independently, prolonged coma, or a vegetative state. If the tumor is located inside the nerve nucleus of the medulla oblongata, the surgical risks are even higher, and almost no doctors dare to perform the surgery. Opening the nerve nucleus would definitely damage nerve cells, plus some tumors grow invasively without clear boundaries, making these medulla oblongata tumors untouchable. If the brainstem was once a surgical no-go zone, then the medulla oblongata is the strictest no-go area within that. In recent years, with deeper anatomical studies of the brainstem, advances in microsurgery, and the development of neuroelectrophysiological techniques and neuro-navigational technologies, surgery on the medulla oblongata has become possible, but only possibly for a subset of medulla oblongata tumors. Yang Ping has also been researching brainstem surgeries, accumulating a lot of research on brainstem anatomy, function, surgical approaches, and methods. He plans to publish some papers or compile a specialized book, but currently, he feels that the amount of cases he has accumulated is still insufficient, and his research is not yet mature, so he has held off on publishing. However, since Yang Ping performed the surgery on Professor Feng Tiancheng, many insiders know Yang Ping is skilled in brainstem surgery. Whenever they encounter a dire case, many experts would suggest to patients: ¡°You should visit the Sanbo Surgical Research Institute to see if they have better methods. They are researching this.¡± Under Yang Ping¡¯s guidance, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang have also begun to independently perform brainstem surgeries. Some ultra-high-difficulty surgeries are still only manageable by Yang Ping, such as diffuse gliomas in the medulla oblongata involving nerve nucleus. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang are not yet able to be the chief surgeons for these, but even so, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang are among the world¡¯s top brainstem surgeons. Yang Ping continued as the chief surgeon for several other patients, while Xia Shu and other doctors brought his father back to the ward; his father was under general anesthesia and had already woken up. After bringing him to the ward and after the other doctors left, Xia Shu and his mother stayed by his father¡¯s bedside. The head nurse, worried Xia Shu might forget to stay calm, relayed some instructions and then comforted the elderly lady before going about her own duties. ¡°Ah Shu, who is this girl? I think she¡¯s quite wonderful, pretty, tall, gentle, and sensible. It would be great if she could be my daughter-in-law.¡± Xia Shu¡¯s mother was particularly pleased with the head nurse. Her son was thirty and still without a wife, and getting a wife like her would be a blessing earned over many lifetimes. Xia Shu blushed and said, ¡°Don¡¯t talk nonsense, she¡¯s our head nurse.¡± ¡°Who says a head nurse can¡¯t become a wife? Is this girl married?¡± Xia Shu¡¯s mother was also a capable elderly woman. Xia Shu was amazed by his mother, shamelessly keen on securing a beautiful woman as his daughter-in-law whenever he saw one. ¡°Keep your voice down, it¡¯s embarrassing to let others hear this.¡± Xia Shu immediately cautioned his mother. Xia Shu¡¯s mother said, ¡°You¡¯re just too timid. Fortune favors the bold; hunger strikes the meek. It¡¯s clear this girl isn¡¯t married, and she is nice and beautiful, and you work together. Why don¡¯t you be a little braver?¡± Chapter 1210 - 1210 940 Concern from All Over the World_2 ?Chapter 1210: Chapter 940: Concern from All Over the World_2 Chapter 1210: Chapter 940: Concern from All Over the World_2 His mother¡¯s words left Xia Shu speechless. It was bad enough that she constantly pressured him to marry; now she didn¡¯t even forget to urge him during this time. He was terrified that the Head Nurse might overhear them. How embarrassing that would be. However, the Head Nurse really was a great person. He owed her a lot for her help this time around, and recently, as the Head Nurse¡¯s leg was injured, Xia Shu had been taking her to and from work every day. He began to develop an indescribable feeling for her. How to put it? It seemed like there was a void in his heart on the days he didn¡¯t see her, always wanting to see her and talk to her. ¡°What would you like for lunch? I¡¯ll order something,¡± Xia Shu asked his mother. Xia Shu¡¯s mother chuckled, ¡°The young Head Nurse has already ordered food, and now you¡¯re asking me what I want to eat.¡± ¡ª There had been many surgeries, and they weren¡¯t finished until evening. Upon returning to his department, Yang Ping saw a big Fatty talking with Little Five. When Fatty saw Yang Ping, he immediately greeted him cordially, ¡°Doctor Yang, hello! I¡¯m Wei Danian!¡± Wei Danian? Yang Ping thought for a moment. The name sounded very familiar. Oh! Wei Danian, the two-hundred-kilogram giant who, despite being in his twenties, cried like a child during his surgery, and then had his parents and grandparents pampering him like a child. Yang Ping remembered him now; that was the one. This guy had a mutation in his ATP5F1D gene, leading to recurrent episodes of lactic acidosis, but he was rather lucky, as every time it happened, he was near the hospital and could be quickly rescued. Latter, Yang Ping had done a genetic test on him and even made him an episode calendar, advising him to live according to the calendar, staying indoors during the dangerous periods, especially since his home was near the hospital. Wei Danian gave Yang Ping a simple handshake, ¡°Doctor Yang, no, Professor Yang, I brought some fruit for everyone. Please have some.¡± ¡°Thank you! Are you here for a follow-up? How¡¯s the follow-up going? The bone¡¯s healing alright?¡± Yang Ping remembered that Wei Danian had a femoral shaft fracture. That surgery really made Director Ouyang sweat profusely, forcing him to call on Yang Ping for help. The kid¡¯s weight was so much that they had had to join two operating tables for him to fit. During the surgery, they used a percutaneously inserted steel plate. A regular steel plate wouldn¡¯t do, and eventually they got a specially made one from Huang Jiacai to complete the surgery. ¡°The fracture¡¯s healed nicely. Director Ouyang said it¡¯s not yet time to remove the steel plate. I¡¯ve come to inquire about weight loss surgery. There¡¯s talk of a stomach reduction surgery. I wanted to find out if it¡¯s really available and how effective it is.¡± Wei Danian was like a big child, simple and naive. ¡°Doctor Lu is very familiar with it. You can consult with him. We do that surgery in the General Surgery Department,¡± Yang Ping told him, then returned to his office. Although barely reaching one meter seventy in height, Wei Danian weighed four hundred pounds. China¡¯s number one Fatty weighed 480 pounds and managed to lose 278 pounds in two years through weight loss surgery. Wei Danian once said that he had an insatiable appetite, almost like an addiction to food, constantly wanting to eat. While others satisfied with a bowl, he needed a big basin. When people saw him eat, they were scared. During his university days, the owner of the neighboring buffet trembled upon seeing him and directly handed him a Red Packet, pleading with him not to come anymore. Previously, Wei Danian hadn¡¯t taken his weight seriously, but he gradually realized that he could not go on like this. He started to lose weight and tried various methods, spending an unknown amount of money without much effect. He had learned about the weight loss surgery from a TV program and, eager to know if it was true, he hurried to inquire. This type of surgery is not performed by the Surgical Research Institute, but it is being developed by Director Fang of the General Surgery Department, and it¡¯s going rather well at the moment. Actually, there are several types of bariatric surgery, among which gastric sleeve resection is commonly used. It belongs to metabolic surgery, weight loss surgery, or metabolic weight loss surgery, and is generally performed in a minimally invasive manner by making a few small incisions in the abdomen and completing the surgery with a laparoscope. The principle is not very complicated; the human stomach is like a sack-shaped bag. By surgically removing part of the stomach, the volume of this bag is reduced. Since the volume is smaller, it can¡¯t hold as much food as before. Eating much less than before would fill the stomach, giving a sense of fullness and preventing overeating like in the past. By reducing the stomach¡¯s capacity, food intake is lessened, and ultimately, the goal of weight loss is achieved. Not only does it aid in weight loss, but it can also treat Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. In fact, this surgery is relatively effective and safe but has been demonized by some ignorant articles on the internet, so Wei Danian was very scared. After just learning about it from Little Five, he felt relieved and planned to find some time to visit the General Surgery Department and schedule the surgery. ¡ª Yang Ping took a rest in the office, then opened his email after Ivan said via WeChat that he had sent an email, asking Yang Ping to take a look. The email content was still about the surgery of the Italian tycoon¡¯s daughter, involving the reconstruction of some facial muscles. Ivan decided on an allograft for the facial reconstruction, with a donor already secured, a brain-dead individual, whose age was close to that of the patient, but with a significant difference in face shape, which meant that the surgery required much attention to detail. If facial transplantation only involved the skin, subcutaneous layer, and blood vessels, the surgery would be relatively much simpler. But now it involves skin, facial muscles, sensory and motor nerves, etc., making the surgery extremely complicated. The operation needs to ensure that the donor¡¯s face matches the recipient¡¯s as closely as possible, aiming for a natural appearance postoperatively and restoring a degree of facial expression to avoid a stiff appearance. Ivan is not an ordinary plastic surgeon but among the world¡¯s best. The goals he pursues are definitely beyond what average surgeons can achieve. From the email, Yang Ping learned that Ivan had completed computer modeling of the facial surgery. He has a dedicated computer technology processing team, and even his own specialized plastic surgery software for simulating surgery modeling. However, Ivan¡¯s software certainly can¡¯t compare with the modeling capabilities of Nandu Medical University Digital Medical Laboratory¡¯s software, which is the world¡¯s strongest in digital medical technology. Yang Ping forwarded Ivan¡¯s materials to Professor He to help create a specialized model, intending to offer Ivan some suggestions once the model was complete. The surgery was difficult, mainly due to the perfect matching of facial features and restoration of expression functionality. In his email, Ivan also told Yang Ping that the patient¡¯s father, a tycoon from Sicily, Italy, and a powerful Italian family, was very grateful to Yang Ping. Although Yang Ping had declined to be the chief surgeon, he had been providing remote technical guidance for the surgery. The Italian tycoon inquired through Ivan whether Professor Yang was currently facing any difficulties and offered help if needed. Moreover, the Italian indicated that they had received some inside information that Professor Yang might have offended some individuals who were plotting actions against him. The Italian conveyed that to show their gratitude towards Professor Yang, they had sent a strong signal to the opposition, making it clear that anyone attempting to harm Professor Yang was a prime enemy of their entire family and would be opposed fiercely and relentlessly. About this matter, Yang Ping replied to Ivan, expressing gratitude for everyone¡¯s concern and assuring that all was well with him, thanking everyone for their kindness. August from Germany also sent an email, reporting on recent work dynamics and mentioning that the young Duke was in good health. The old Duke apparently knew about some issues between Yang Ping and BG Company, and the European nobles had already exerted pressure on the relevant families, making it clear that to go against Yang Ping was to go against the entire Duke¡¯s family. The old Duke¡¯s family not only has immense influence in Europe, but its branches that immigrated to the United States early on hold pivotal positions in several industries there, eclipsing the power of the families behind BG Group. Yang Ping hadn¡¯t expected such widespread concern for him¡ªthis was interest from all over the world, and he could only express his thanks to each one. However, from another perspective, it was clear that these noble families have their own potent intelligence networks, capable of acquiring some information that others may find difficult to obtain. Chapter 1211 - 1211 941 You Must Have Learned Geography from ?Chapter 1211: Chapter 941: You Must Have Learned Geography from an Anatomy Teacher Chapter 1211: Chapter 941: You Must Have Learned Geography from an Anatomy Teacher With WeChat as a communication tool, Yang Ping¡¯s email inbox had fewer messages than before, unless it was for very formal communication, other exchanges could be completed on WeChat. These foreigners used to prefer emails and never used WeChat, but now they all have gotten used to it. Takahashi mailed over the latest batch of manga from Japan, and these manga are now popular not only among medical students but also among the entire young population of Japan. Hearing that the new manga had arrived, doctors and nurses from the Surgical Research Institute scrambled to read them, and several sets of the manga were snapped up in no time. Zhang Lin and Little Five were the most eager, always hoping to see if their own roles in the manga had been increased, but they were always disappointed. As minor characters like Golden Hook and Silver Hook, they couldn¡¯t expect too much screen time. As for who drew the manga, Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to delve into it. After all, it wasn¡¯t defaming him, and using manga to promote doctors and medical knowledge was a good method. When he got back home, his mother-in-law was cooking in the kitchen, and Xiao Su was seriously making a fruit platter in the living room, her belly getting bigger and bigger. Every time he thought about the due date, Yang Ping felt a headache coming on. The Hermes golden diamond baby bed was ready, and they kept asking when they should deliver it. Yang Ping had always thought they were just joking, but to his surprise, they were serious. Who dared to accept such a luxurious gift? Robert said he had contacted several American sports stars, and they all promised to be interest-class teachers for the child, including NBA basketball stars, Brazilian football stars, and American boxing champions. Robert assured that flying in once a month to teach in China would be no problem with his clout in the sports world. The child wasn¡¯t even born yet, and Robert was already talking about providing a schedule so he could arrange it. Ivan had purchased a milk powder company and a dairy farm in New Zealand, to take care of the milk powder supply. Initially, the milk powder business was to be August¡¯s, but Ivan¡¯s big spending silenced even August, who had secretly gained strength by acquiring milk powder companies and ranches in the Netherlands with the help of the old duke. So in the end, the supply of milk powder was split between Ivan and August. Takahashi got hold of the diaper supply, but he hadn¡¯t mentioned diapers in the group chat lately. Previously, he would spam the group daily, telling others not to snatch away the diapers, but now he had become inexplicably low-key. Yang Ping shared his current troubles with Xiao Su, who, after thinking it over, also found it headache-inducing. Let¡¯s start by cutting the fruit, and put the troubling thoughts aside for now. ¡ª The next morning, during the shift change, everything was normal, just like any other day. Halfway through the shift change, a patient¡¯s family member¡¯s scream shattered the quiet of the ward, ¡°Doctor, come quickly, he¡¯s not going to make it¡ª¡± Upon hearing this, everyone¡¯s brains instinctively reacted: rescue! Yang Ping and the doctors rushed out of the office, followed by several nurses, while the terrified family member screamed at the door, nearly in tears. The patient¡¯s face was pale, his breathing extremely difficult, his airway was clearly obstructed, and the oxygen saturation shown on the still-connected electrocardiogram monitor was dropping continuously, now at only 60%. This was a patient who had just undergone brainstem surgery the day before, and the family had just suddenly discovered him like this, scared out of their wits. The patient and family members in the bed next to him might have been frightened as well, looking uneasy with a shell-shocked expression. Yang Ping immediately shut off the IV, stopped the fluids that were being administered, and then asked for a flashlight and tongue depressor to pry open the patient¡¯s mouth. The uvula was hanging there, and the throat was clearly swollen, especially the area around the larynx, which was almost blocking the airway due to swelling. ¡°Throat edema, anaphylactic shock, were fluids just administered?¡± As Yang Ping spoke, he had already pulled out the IV needle. ¡°It happened right after this bottle was hooked up!¡± the family member¡¯s trembling voice responded. Anaphylactic shock! ¡°Bedside tracheotomy, inject 0.5mg of epinephrine IM.¡± As Yang Ping gave the verbal medical order, he was already auscultating the heart and lungs. The doctors and nurses from the Surgical Research Institute were well-trained; the emergency cart had already been pushed over, and the nurses immediately administered an intramuscular injection of epinephrine to the patient. Song Zimo had already opened the tracheotomy kit, and Yang Ping swiftly put on gloves. With Song Zimo¡¯s assistance, he performed a lightning-fast tracheotomy, inserted the tracheal tube, opened the airway, and connected the oxygen hose. The patient¡¯s barely noticeable chest heaving became extremely pronounced as oxygen entered the lungs through the tracheal tube. ¡°The blood pressure¡¯s no good, still dropping, start an epinephrine drip! Seal and keep the recently administered fluids and the IV set.¡± ¡°Follow up with dexamethasone,¡± Yang Ping directed the attending doctor. Thanks to the emergency tracheotomy and the intramuscular injection of epinephrine, the patient¡¯s complexion slowly returned to rosy. The frightened family member finally relaxed a bit upon seeing this turn of events, having been too shocked before, as it truly resembled the brink of death. The patient was only 17 years old, having just undergone brainstem surgery yesterday. It was a sudden change this morning that nearly cost him his life. Anaphylactic shock is a dangerous emergency. Whether a patient can be saved depends on the correctness and speed of the rescue. Lives hang in the balance, measured by the second. Yang Ping looked at the fluids that were being infused into the patient, just routine medicine, no need for a skin test, and no previous allergic reactions ever encountered. But allergies are unpredictable. In theory, any medication can potentially cause an allergic reaction, and it¡¯s nearly impossible to guard against it. Handling such rescues tests a doctor¡¯s emergency skills and the team¡¯s collaborative abilities within the department. The most accurate treatments must be applied to the patient in the shortest possible time; there is no room for delay. Chapter 1212 - 1212 941 Were You Taught Geography by an ?Chapter 1212: Chapter 941: Were You Taught Geography by an Anatomy Teacher?_2 Chapter 1212: Chapter 941: Were You Taught Geography by an Anatomy Teacher?_2 So for this type of rescue, whether in terms of recognizing the illness or treatment methods, one must be extremely proficient, proficient enough to know what to do without thinking, as many times life slips away amidst hesitation, doubt, and unfamiliarity. Yang Ping and everyone stood by the bed, continuously observing the patient¡¯s illness changes. They subsequently administered an intravenous drip of epinephrine and used corticosteroids. The blood oxygen slowly rose, eventually reaching 100%, and the blood pressure also gradually returned to normal¡ªit all happened so quickly. The infusion bags, infusion tubes, and needles were all sealed and saved for post-event testing and analysis, in case there were any disputes; these were also original evidence. ¡°Anaphylactic shock, closely monitor for 24 hours, there should be no big problem now,¡± Yang Ping said as he removed his gloves. The interns, standardized training students, and graduate students surrounding them were still in shock; this rescue had given them a very real lesson. Theoretically speaking, any drug can cause an allergic reaction, which relates to an individual¡¯s constitution. An allergy refers to a hypersensitivity reaction produced by the human immune system, typically categorized into four types¡ªI, II, III, IV. Type I allergic reactions: also known as immediate-type hypersensitivity; Type II allergic reactions: also known as cytotoxic reactions; Type III allergic reactions: immune complex reactions; Type IV allergic reactions: delayed-type hypersensitivity. The patient¡¯s allergic reaction was a Type I allergic reaction, so the onset was very rapid, typically occurring seconds or minutes after the body encounters an antigen. It commonly manifests as urticaria, vascular neurogenic edema, allergic rhinitis, and bronchial asthma, among others. In this case, the patient¡¯s throat pain and edema belonged to vascular neurogenic edema. Throat edema can block the airway, leading to suffocation. Coupled with shock caused by the allergy, if not promptly and correctly addressed, the patient could sustain irreversible damage within a few minutes and die. There must be an allergen, which is the substance that causes the allergy. Consider the previously common penicillin allergy, for instance. Penicillin itself is not an allergen and rarely causes allergies, but it is the impurities in penicillin that trigger allergic reactions. The impurities and proteins form large molecular chains, namely penicilloate proteins, which are the actual allergens. As the drug manufacturing process has improved, the purity of penicillin has increased, thereby reducing allergic reactions. Nowadays, many developed countries no longer require skin testing for penicillin because of its high purity, whereas our penicillin has not yet reached that purity, so skin testing remains necessary. Skin testing mainly leverages the reaction between antigens and antibodies on or within the skin as an immunological test. This means using a localized allergic reaction to test whether the body is allergic to a drug. A local allergic response won¡¯t cause significant harm to the body, yet it reveals whether there is an allergy. Skin testing is akin to a small-scale, exploratory attack to assess the body¡¯s response. Song Zimo invited the patient¡¯s family to the meeting room and explained the illness. The family was very understanding, as patients and their families who come to the Surgical Research Institute place immense trust in it. Without this trust, doctors would not dare to take risks with high-risk operations like brain stem surgery. After this dramatic yet safe rescue, all patients in the ward grew even more trustful of the Surgical Research Institute; the recent scene was truly snatching someone from the jaws of death. After completing the day¡¯s surgeries, in the afternoon, Ning Qi was supposed to come over. She was bringing a patient¡¯s medical records for Yang Ping to review to determine if surgery was possible. This patient was a top-tier Swedish magnate with a pivotal role in the global materials industry. Ning Qi and his company were in the process of negotiating cooperation. This Swedish magnate had a problem with his heart, having undergone two surgeries already; the second operation failed, and European doctors said the third surgery was too risky, not daring to proceed. The Swede somehow learned about Yang Ping and wanted to consult with him. Finding out that purchasing a medical insurance policy from a Chinese insurance company could secure an appointment with Yang Ping, the Swede realized he lacked such insurance and could not use this channel. Upon further research, he discovered that the insurance company was a subsidiary of Anning Group. Wasn¡¯t he negotiating cooperation with Anning Group recently? The Swede immediately contacted Ning Qi, taking the right approach, and she promptly agreed to help. The patient was lying in a Swedish hospital, and Ning Qi came bearing his medical records for Yang Ping. After reviewing them, if surgery was viable, he decided to send him to China for surgery using a private medical jet. The records were copied onto a disc, which Yang Ping inserted into his computer. He read the patient¡¯s records carefully while Ning Qi, who wasn¡¯t a medical professional, quietly sat by his side, resting her chin in her hands. After reviewing the patient¡¯s medical data, Yang Ping said, ¡°Refer him here! We can redo the Commando surgery, though indeed this surgery is quite challenging. He has already undergone two surgeries. The first surgery was a routine replacement of the aortic and mitral valves, but then post-operative infection led to endocarditis, destroying the entire aortic and mitral valves. The chief surgeon for the second surgery was very skilled¡ªindeed, among the top in the world¡ªand performed the Commando surgery. Unfortunately, it failed completely due to endocarditis, and presently, to treat him, a third surgery is necessary, which involves dismantling the previous surgeries and redoing the Commando surgery. Redoing it is much more complex than the first Commando surgery¡ªIt¡¯s not on the same level at all.¡± As he was speaking, Yang Ping realized that Ning Qi wasn¡¯t a medical student, and continuing to explain was pointless as she wouldn¡¯t understand. He promptly stopped. ¡°Why did you stop talking?¡± Ning Qi sat upright next to Yang Ping, her beautiful eyes fixated on the electronic screen, listening intently. Just as she was getting into it, Yang Ping suddenly stopped. She couldn¡¯t stand it. ¡°You¡¯re not a medical student. I talk so much, and you don¡¯t understand. It¡¯s a waste of my ATP.¡± Yang Ping said as he was about to turn off the electronic screen. Ning Qi slightly indignantly said, ¡°You¡¯re underestimating people, aren¡¯t you? The full name of the Commando surgery is Mitral Valve and Aortic Valve Double Annuloplasty Enlargement Reconstruction + Mitral Valve Replacement + Aortic Valve Replacement Surgery. I got it right, didn¡¯t I?¡± Yang Ping deliberately scoffed, ¡°You must have spent a long time memorizing that string of medical terms.¡± ¡°The aortic valve is the door between the left ventricle and the aorta, and the mitral valve is the door between the left ventricle and the left atrium,¡± said Ning Qi with a proud look. ¡°Continue¡ª, you¡¯re reciting well.¡± ¡°Hmm¡ª¡± Ning Qi actually recited a long passage, and Yang Ping was truly impressed. She recited it fluently; it was a pity she wasn¡¯t studying medicine. ¡°Alright, alright! I¡¯ll explain a bit more.¡± Yang Ping asked her to stop. Yang Ping had little impression of Sweden. He once had a Volvo XC90, which was a gift from Boss Cheng. Volvo seemed to be a Swedish brand. He didn¡¯t have much of an impression of anything else. The country seemed somewhat inconspicuous. Oh, the Nobel Prize was also from Sweden. It seemed his impression of Sweden was limited to just these two things; he couldn¡¯t think of a third that was associated with it. ¡°Let me check Sweden!¡± Yang Ping picked up the globe on his desk and searched for Sweden on it. ¡°I suspect your geography teacher was an anatomy professor. Sweden is a Nordic country, right here.¡± Ning Qi pointed out Sweden on the globe with her slender, fair fingers. ¡°This area is quite large.¡± ¡°Its area is larger than Germany and Japan, but it has a small population, only about ten million. However, its industrial strength is quite strong. It can build airplanes and submarines, various weapons, and its steel-making technology is top-notch, especially in special steel materials; it¡¯s the best in the world. Our cooperation talks are in the field of materials science, but the negotiations are progressing slowly, as high-precision technology is involved and they¡¯re reluctant to cooperate,¡± said Ning Qi, a bit disappointed. Yang Ping used his finger to trace from Sweden to China on the globe: ¡°Have him fly over. I¡¯ll think of some precautions for the plane later and send them to you. It would be best to have his doctor contact us so that we can communicate better.¡± ¡°Hmm, thank you.¡± Ning Qi knew Yang Ping was busy, so she stood up to take her leave. ¡°Let me know when my goddaughter is born.¡± As Ning Qi was leaving, she made a point of this arrangement, making sure she would indeed be the godmother. Chapter 1213 - 1213 942 Are You Embarrassed ?Chapter 1213: Chapter 942 Are You Embarrassed? Chapter 1213: Chapter 942 Are You Embarrassed? This patient comes from the Karen family in Sweden, which is also a traditional and prominent European family. Sweden did not participate in either World War One or World War Two, so it did not suffer the devastation of war, amassing a great deal of wealth. It is the first country in the world to establish a modern welfare system, which speaks volumes about the country¡¯s surplus. The Karen family is one of the tycoons in Sweden, with business interests spread across Europe and North America. Mr. Karen¡¯s case is very classic. This is not an ordinary Commando surgery. He had undergone surgery twice, with the second one being the Commando surgery. After the operation, a more severe endocarditis occurred, with bacteria destroying the entire surgical outcome, resulting in more extensive damage to the heart than before. The third surgery must remove the previously replaced aortic valve and mitral valve, and perform a replacement again, which is equivalent to a renovation or ¡°left chamber regression,¡± followed by mitral and aortic double valve ring expansion reconstruction + mitral valve replacement + aortic valve replacement surgery. If we liken the aortic and mitral valves to two doors, their attachment sites inside the heart chamber are the doorframes. The first ordinary valve replacement surgery dealt with a damaged door, while the doorframe was intact, so it only involved replacing the door. But the second Commando surgery involved both the door and the doorframe being damaged, and the surgery replaced both. The third surgery faced even more serious problems. Not only were the door and doorframe damaged, but the wall the doorframe was attached to was also damaged, making the surgery much more difficult. No doctors in Europe dared to perform this type of surgery, which involved fixing the wall and replacing both the doorframe and the door, and in such cases, the only option would be to replace the house. Therefore, the European doctors recommended waiting for a heart transplant, which is the last resort in cardiac surgery. Mr. Karen¡¯s doctors soon made contact with the Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute in China and discussed Mr. Karen¡¯s condition in detail. After assessment, Mr. Karen could be transferred by medical aircraft. Professor Yang Ping instructed them on what to pay attention to during the flight. After handling Mr. Karen¡¯s visa in Sweden, he was transferred to China by medical aircraft. To ensure the success of Mr. Karen¡¯s treatment in China, Ning Qi sent a specialized support team to assist with the communication and coordination for Mr. Karen in China. After a flight of more than ten hours, Mr. Karen finally met the legendary Professor Yang, a demigod in the eyes of some European tycoons, the last line of defense for life. When the tycoon heard that the Surgical Research Institute did not have private wards and that he would need to stay in the Overseas Chinese Building far from the institute, he preferred to stay in a regular ward, feeling a greater sense of security. However, Professor Yang Ping felt that he would be better off staying in the CCU, given the severity of his condition, which made him unsuitable for a standard ward. Good news tends to spread by word of mouth within circles, and Mr. Karen heard from a friend in Germany that China¡¯s Professor Yang Ping was the best doctor in the world, surpassing all doctors from Europe and America, many of whom were his students. This reignited Mr. Karen¡¯s desire for life. At just that time, a Chinese corporation was discussing cooperation with his family business, so seizing this opportunity, his son sought help from their Chinese friends, who readily agreed and quickly arranged everything with enthusiasm. A few days earlier he was still worrying about the situation, but now Mr. Karen was already lying in a Chinese hospital receiving the best treatment in the world. At present, the Surgical Research Institute still does not have its own ICU. Some critically ill patients, if trauma patients, are placed in the Trauma ICU; if cardiovascular patients, in the CCU; others are placed in the general ICU. Professor Yang Ping plans to set up his own ICU, which doesn¡¯t need to be large, just a few beds, with key equipment up to par, and enough competent doctors and nurses to provide a safer guarantee for major surgeries for critically ill patients. Mr. Karen isn¡¯t exactly old at just sixty years of age, and he is still in a leading position within his family business. At Karolinska University Hospital, doctors said the only option was to wait for a heart transplant, as there was no alternative and, currently, they couldn¡¯t risk the transplant¡ªit had to wait until the infection was under control. A heart transplant is a last resort, and if there was a better option, who would want to take that final step? Commando surgery is a world-class cardiac valve operation, first reported by Doctor David TE in 1997 and originally used for infective endocarditis. The surgery involves opening the entire root of the aorta and the top of the left atrium to perform a double valve replacement after reconstructing the curtain of the aorta. The difficulty of the surgery lies in using only a single layer of bovine pericardium to reconstruct the root of the aorta, the curtain of the aorta, and the top of the left atrium. During surgery, matching valve sizes meticulously to prevent uncontrollable bleeding is essential, and postoperative complications are common. Thus, the Commando surgery is one of the world¡¯s most difficult valve operations, and very few centers in the country have carried out similar surgeries. To date, there are few reports in the Chinese literature. Now, Mr. Wanlun¡¯s Commando surgery has failed, and he needs to undergo left chamber regression and another Commando surgery. Subspecialties in cardiac surgery typically include congenital heart disease, heart valve disease, major vascular disease, coronary heart disease, etc., with Commando surgery falling under heart valve surgery. The heart, brainstem, cervical spine, and pancreas are some of the main focus areas of the Surgical Research Institute, which are some of the most technically complex and difficult fields in surgery. ¡ª Xiao Su¡¯s due date is getting closer, and Mrs. Su has already taken early retirement so that she can take care of Xiao Su and the child, allowing Professor Yang to concentrate on his work. Qiu Nuo, a close university friend of Xiao Su, has been sent by Peking Union Medical College Hospital to the Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute for advanced studies, specifically in the operating room. Chapter 1214 - 1214 942 Are You Embarrassed_2 ?Chapter 1214: 942 Chapter Are You Embarrassed?_2 Chapter 1214: 942 Chapter Are You Embarrassed?_2 Qiu Nuo hadn¡¯t seen Xiao Su for a long time, so when she saw her with a big belly, she was quite surprised. She hadn¡¯t expected that Xiao Su was about to become a mother and that her best friend¡¯s husband must be quite a remarkable man, capable of winning over a princess like Xiao Su. But no matter who he was, he could definitely not compare to Yang Ping. Qiu Nuo inquired about Xiao Su¡¯s husband, and Xiao Su merely said he was just an ordinary surgeon at Sanbo Hospital. An ordinary surgeon¡ª that simply could not compare to Yang Ping. Qiu Nuo felt that, at the end of the day, Xiao Su lacked initiative, unlike herself, who would actively pursue suitable targets. Confident in her beauty and intelligence, Qiu Nuo was determined to win over Yang Ping, a man specializing in the art of medicine. Before coming, Qiu Nuo had insisted on sharing a bed with Xiao Su. Having not seen her university best friend for so long, she was naturally very enthusiastic. But seeing Xiao Su¡¯s pregnant belly, Xiao Su was right; she was already married. How could she share a bed with her? It was also inconvenient to stay at her best friend¡¯s house, so Qiu Nuo had to book a room at the Sanbo Hotel. Her advanced training was for three months, and she decided to make the best out of these months to get closer to Yang Ping. Frankly, her main target for this training was Yang Ping; the training itself was secondary. ¡°I have to meet your husband, to see who he is. You wouldn¡¯t just pick someone randomly for marriage, would you? You always said to prefer lack over mismatch,¡± Qiu Nuo was very curious. Xiao Su smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s not exactly picking at random, but he indeed is just an ordinary person. He¡¯s still performing surgery today. I¡¯ve already told him my best friend is coming today. We can have dinner together tonight, and then you can meet him.¡± ¡°You promised me, did you invite Yang Ping as well? You wouldn¡¯t lie to me, would you?¡± Qiu Nuo always remembered what Xiao Su said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I also invited Yang Ping. He will definitely come, as long as you don¡¯t mind it being a bit awkward,¡± Xiao Su said lightly. ¡°Awkward? What¡¯s there to be awkward about? A bachelor meets a bachelorette. You know, I just visited the Surgical Research Institute; he was still at the operating table.¡± Qiu Nuo had been thinking about Yang Ping the whole time. When she went to the Surgical Research Institute to report, the first thing she did was seek to meet Yang Ping. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll meet him tonight,¡± Xiao Su said with a mysterious smile. Qiu Nuo said contentedly, ¡°That¡¯s what true best friends do. You always tried to stop me before, so I was really angry, thinking you were just jealous of me.¡± ¡°So every time I started to speak, you told me to shut up, regardless of the situation, I can only support you?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± ¡ª After work in the afternoon, to host her love-struck best friend, Xiao Su set up a dinner at Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish. Of course, besides the two of them, there was also Yang Ping, who hadn¡¯t yet arrived. Xiao Su ordered the dishes, and she waited with Qiu Nuo in the private room for Yang Ping, who had just finished surgery. He went to check on a patient who had just undergone surgery and a Swedish patient in the CCU before he would come over. Xiao Su was already accustomed to this kind of life. If someday it wasn¡¯t like this, she probably wouldn¡¯t be used to it. While Yang Ping was not there, Xiao Su and Qiu Nuo could chat. There were endless topics between good friends, and Qiu Nuo was very grateful for her best friend¡¯s considerate arrangement, even managing to invite Professor Yang to join them for dinner. During the conversation, Qiu Nuo was a bit distracted, her excitement probably spurred by thoughts of Yang Ping. ¡°Are Professor Yang and your husband coming together? Xiao Su, you have to help me, we¡¯re good friends.¡± Qiu Nuo occasionally looked towards the door, hoping someone would knock and enter. ¡°Right, they¡¯ll come together,¡± Xiao Su reassured her. The two then chatted about fun times from their university days, and then about where each dormitory sister went and their current status after graduation. About marriage, Qiu Nuo felt Xiao Su was somewhat unfortunate for not taking advantage of her proximity to secure a more coveted catch, settling for just any ordinary doctor. Although Xiao Su stepped into marriage first, Qiu Nuo felt she had the advantage of acting second, thinking about it made her exceptionally sweet inside, unexpectedly giving her a sense of superiority. Why hasn¡¯t he arrived yet? Just as Qiu Nuo was anxiously waiting, the slightly ajar door was pushed open, and in came Yang Ping; Qiu Nuo immediately became a bit nervous, hastily getting up: ¡°Professor Yang!¡± ¡°Qiu Nuo?¡± Yang Ping was quite surprised. Yang Ping looked confusedly at Xiao Su. Wasn¡¯t it supposed to be Xiao Su¡¯s best friend? Why was it Qiu Nuo? After Qiu Nuo sat down, Xiao Su put her arm around Qiu Nuo¡¯s shoulder and said, ¡°Let me introduce, this is my dormitory best friend from university. She¡¯s here for advanced training at our hospital, and she¡¯s also in our department. She absolutely wanted to meet you.¡± ¡°I see, no wonder it¡¯s such a coincidence,¡± Yang Ping said as he finally sat down. The table was quite large, the three of them sitting equidistant on one side, Yang Ping sitting next to Xiao Su. Qiu Nuo thought Yang Ping would sit next to her, now that Yang Ping was sitting next to Xiao Su, she inevitably felt a bit displeased. ¡°Have the dishes been ordered? Did you tell Uncle Er to bring out their signature dishes?¡± Yang Ping asked while looking at the menu. ¡°I¡¯ve already ordered the dishes, just waiting for you to get off work,¡± Xiao Su began helping unwrap the chopsticks and bowls. Yang Ping quickly stopped her, afraid she¡¯d overexert herself: ¡°Let me do that, you just sit.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing, not much of a physical task.¡± Xiao Su efficiently unpacked the dishes and began to wash them with boiling water for Qiu Nuo. ¡°This custom isn¡¯t practiced in the north, but it¡¯s common in the south when eating, so when in Rome, do as the Romans do,¡± Xiao Su explained to Qiu Nuo about the dishwashing custom. Yang Ping immediately took over the washing from Xiao Su, ¡°Slow down, I told you to sit, you never listen, let me do it.¡± Hey, hey, hey! What do you mean? Even if you know her, you can¡¯t be this intimate, can you? She¡¯s married, does she need you to look after her like this? Watching Yang Ping doing this confused Qiu Nuo and made him very uncomfortable. ¡°Waiter, bring the dishes!¡± Yang Ping immediately ordered the waiter standing at the door. ¡°Your husband hasn¡¯t arrived yet, has he? Why don¡¯t we wait a bit?¡± Qiu Nuo whispered to Xiao Su. Xiao Su smiled and said, ¡°He¡¯s already here.¡± Where? Qiu Nuo scanned the entire room. Weren¡¯t there just three people here, and that one outside is the restaurant¡¯s waiter. ¡°Let me formally introduce you. This gentleman by my side¡ªProfessor Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital, is also my husband! And this is my best friend from university, the elite nurse in the operating room at Xiehe Hospital, Qiu Nuo,¡± Xiao Su reintroduced earnestly. ¡°Your husband?¡± Really? Qiu Nuo¡¯s face showed disbelief. ¡°Yes, my husband, Professor Yang Ping, is there a problem?¡± Xiao Su said seriously. Qiu Nuo now really wished he could disappear into a crack in the ground, he was so embarrassed he could dig a mansion out with his toes. He had been loudly telling Xiao Su not to stop him from pursuing Yang Ping, and here he was, the husband, his face lost to the Antarctic. Such a social death! Qiu Nuo tried to control his emotions and said through gritted teeth, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve told you many times, you either don¡¯t believe me or you didn¡¯t listen when I said¡ª,¡± Xiao Su also spoke softly. The two leaned close together, keeping their voices to a minimum. ¡°I want to hide in a hole now!¡± ¡°I told you you¡¯d socially die if you didn¡¯t listen to me, but it¡¯s alright, it¡¯s just us here, no one else.¡± ¡°Sis, can I find an excuse to leave now?¡± ¡°No!¡± ¡°I¡¯m begging you, I even called you ¡®sis¡¯, and you¡¯re younger than me.¡± ¡°You guys didn¡¯t do anything wrong, what are you afraid of, you didn¡¯t tell me you had something, did you?¡± ¡°No, nothing, nothing!¡± Yang Ping had no idea what they were murmuring about, why they were whispering, avoiding him. ¡°I¡¯m going to the restroom.¡± Yang Ping thought they must be discussing some topics inappropriate for men, so he made an excuse to step out to give them some space to chat before he returned. Once Yang Ping left, Qiu Nuo raised his voice slightly, but still didn¡¯t dare to speak too loudly: ¡°Xiao Su¡ªI¡¯m going to kill you¡ª¡± ¡°Are you embarrassed now?¡± ¡°I¡ªam¡ªgoing¡ªto¡ªkill¡ªyou¡ª¡± ¡°Awake now, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I¡ªam¡ªgoing¡ªto¡ªkill¡ªyou¡ª¡± ¡°Blame me? I told you Yang Ping is my husband, I almost showed you the marriage certificate. You still said not to stop you using this method, nothing could stop you, even said if I tried to stop you, it would be because I was jealous. Your lovestruck brain wouldn¡¯t wake up without a bucket of cold water, it¡¯s fine, it¡¯s not anyone else.¡± Yes, it¡¯s not anyone else. After all, she is her best friend, but¡ª Her own crush turning out to be Xiao Su¡¯s husband, who had beaten her to the punch, feeling awful indeed. Chapter 1215 - 1215 943 I Will Keep Up ?Chapter 1215: Chapter 943: I Will Keep Up Chapter 1215: Chapter 943: I Will Keep Up I never expected the Yang Ping I had been longing for to actually be Xiao Su¡¯s husband; the shock was considerable. Before this, Qiu Nuo had many aspirations, many fantasies; she was confident that Yang Ping couldn¡¯t resist her tender advances. But now¡ª At this moment, Qiu Nuo felt empty inside, like a walking zombie, in a daze as if her life had lost its direction in an instant. Although she¡¯d never been in a real relationship, this intense one-sided crush probably wasn¡¯t too different from actual love, with the secretion curve of biochemical substances like dopamine likely being similar. So, now that the imaginary stimulus of the one-sided crush was removed, the secretion levels of these biochemical substances would plummet dramatically, and the lack of dopamine could lead to a severe drop in her mood. In fact, Xiao Su had explicitly told Qiu Nuo that Yang Ping was her husband, but Qiu Nuo thought her best friend was just joking, using that as a way to stop her from pursuing Yang Ping. I hadn¡¯t expected it to be true! Another thing that made Qiu Nuo very sad was how it was always her best friend who got there first. Xiao Su seemed a bit of an airhead, not at all shrewd, so how did she manage to succeed? Why did she get to have all the good things for herself? That dinner felt like eating dirt to Qiu Nuo. After the meal, Yang Ping and Xiao Su escorted Qiu Nuo back to her dormitory. However, Xiao Su was worried about her being alone in an unfamiliar place and proposed, ¡°Why don¡¯t you come to my place tonight? We¡¯ll sleep in the same room and have a good chat; it¡¯s been a long time since we last talked together.¡± Qiu Nuo nodded woodenly. A good sister is indeed a good sister, more considerate than oneself. With her current state, being alone tonight, certainly, she¡¯d feel terrible. When they arrived at Xiao Su¡¯s place, Mrs. Su prepared a room for Xiao Su and Qiu Nuo to sleep together. Xiao Su planned to chat with her and help reshape her views on love. Back when they were at university, Qiu Nuo had visited Xiao Su¡¯s home many times and was very familiar with Mother Su. All night, the two best friends chatted until they naturally fell asleep. [I¡¯ve been heartbroken!] [You really have a thick face. You¡¯ve never been in love, so how can you be heartbroken?] [Then why do I feel so empty and downhearted, even to the point of having thoughts of suicide? Isn¡¯t that what heartbreak is?] [Sort out your feelings and go back to Xiehe to continue your studies. Finding a good Xiehe man is the right way. Stop thinking about my Yang Ping all the time.] [Aren¡¯t you afraid I¡¯ll sweep in and steal him away?] [There are countless girls who think about him, you wouldn¡¯t make a difference either way.] [You¡¯re looking down on me?] [Come on, wake up your love-struck brain. You¡¯ve been coming to my place to eat these past few days; I¡¯ll pick you up. Don¡¯t go running around in your current state.] [Are you trying to provoke me again?] [He doesn¡¯t even know you like him. You¡¯re wishfully thinking all by yourself. What are you afraid of? It¡¯s just coming over for a meal.] [I won¡¯t come!] [Every day it¡¯s my mom¡¯s cooking. Are you coming or not?] [I¡¯ll come, I¡¯ll come!] Qiu Nuo had visited Xiao Su¡¯s home many times before and particularly loved the dishes made by Mother Su. Upon hearing it was her mother¡¯s cooking, her mouth was practically watering. [Why didn¡¯t you tell me he was your husband?] [I was clear enough, short of showing you our marriage certificate.] [Seems like you did mention it, but I thought you were trying to play tricks to stop me.] [Who has the time to play tricks with you?] [Did I embarrass myself today?] [Please, he doesn¡¯t even know. To him, you¡¯re just a regular instrumental nurse, you¡¯re not at the point of being embarrassed yet.] [Can you not speak so bluntly? It¡¯s hurtful.] Though those words were hurtful, Qiu Nuo felt a bit more comfortable knowing that, at least, she had embarrassed herself in front of Xiao Su, which didn¡¯t count for much. [If I didn¡¯t sting you a little, you wouldn¡¯t turn back.] [Seems like it, but you¡¯re quite ruthless, that really hit home.] [You brought it on yourself.] [Since we¡¯re such good friends, let me ask, does your husband take in concubines? Maybe I could¡ª] [Get lost!] What fierce words. [Fine, I¡¯ll get lost. I¡¯ll move to another room in your house right now.] [Don¡¯t come for dinner tomorrow; I don¡¯t know you.] Getting fiercer by the moment. ¡ª The patient who was rescued from anaphylactic shock due to a drug allergy has now had the organ intubation removed. It was later confirmed that the patient¡¯s condition was caused by a drug allergy, and the attending doctor had already reported the adverse drug reaction according to the drug management procedures. At that time, to secure an airway, Yang Ping had intubated the patient, but now the edema in the larynx had subsided, and it was possible to remove the tracheal tube and close the incision from the procedure. Apart from an additional scar on the neck, the patient had been left with no other lingering effects. The patient, a 17-year-old high school senior, had a brainstem glioma. Because it was a diffuse glioma, the family had taken the patient around for consultation, even visiting the Temple of Heaven, where doctors said only those in Germany and Australia could perform the surgery. Later, they met a doctor who said that Professor Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital in China could also perform the surgery and even better than the Germans and Australians. With mixed feelings of skepticism and hope, the family sought out Sanbo Hospital out of desperation, partly because the notion that Chinese doctors could perform better than European and American ones was a long-standing preconception that was hard to shake off at once. Later, after inquiring further, they learned indeed that Professor Yang¡¯s surgeries at Sanbo Hospital were among the best in the world, with many foreigners even flying in to have surgeries done there. So, the family decided to take the child for an outpatient visit, followed by scheduling surgery. Finally, the surgery was done without leaving any side effects, although the episode of anaphylactic shock occurred, for which the family was very understanding. Chapter 1216 - 1216 943 I Will Keep Up_2 ?Chapter 1216: Chapter 943: I Will Keep Up_2 Chapter 1216: Chapter 943: I Will Keep Up_2 The scalp has a rich blood supply and heals quickly. Generally, stitches can be removed in 3-5 days. The high school student¡¯s surgical incision on the head was ready to have stitches removed, and once completed, he could be discharged and return to school. Mr. Karen from Sweden is still residing in the CCU. Without surgery, he cannot leave the CCU¡¯s monitoring and treatment, and may even require ECMO support if necessary. This type of valve replacement surgery followed by endocarditis is hard to eliminate the infection of the endocardium with solely medical treatment. It necessitates the surgical removal of the original valve, eradication of all infectious lesions, and subsequent reconstruction surgery. Yang Ping planned to proceed with the surgery only after all preoperative examinations were completed and all indicators met the requirements. Mr. Karen¡¯s chief physician in Sweden ¡ª Dr. Davenport from Karolinska University Hospital ¡ª had accompanied the medical flight to China. He is an outstanding cardiac surgeon at Karolinska University Hospital, renowned throughout Europe. Mr. Karen¡¯s first two surgeries were performed by him, and it was he who proposed the heart transplant plan. Now, he wanted to stay and see how Yang Ping was going to perform this surgery. Although Sweden is not a large country, Karolinska University Hospital is one of the best hospitals in Europe. In the Western tradition, respect is granted based on competence, thus Dr. Davenport¡¯s arrival at Sanbo Hospital felt like entering a medical temple, much like the feeling Chinese doctors have when they go abroad to top hospitals for training. Unfortunately, he does not speak Chinese and can only use a translation device for daily communication. If he were officially here to train, he would not have had the chance, but as Mr. Karen¡¯s doctor, he could provide Mr. Karen¡¯s medical history anytime, which allowed him to stay at the Surgical Research Institute using this special status, and incidentally complete a learning opportunity. The Swedish doctor was very diligent; he followed Yang Ping everywhere and somehow managed to get a little translation box, which he hung around his neck all day, watching intently. Yang Ping glanced at the device; it appeared to be a Chinese iflytek translator, likely set up by Ning Qi¡¯s team, as Mr. Karen¡¯s accompanying staff arrangements were managed by people from her company. Yang Ping, along with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, went to the CCU to make rounds. Dr. Davenport truly followed closely behind Yang Ping, afraid of losing him in an unfamiliar place. If he fell even slightly behind, he immediately caught up and stood behind Yang, and then naively smiled at the people he pushed past, repeatedly saying, ¡°Sorry.¡± It seemed this was the only Chinese phrase he knew. Mr. Karen lay in the bed, connected to various tubes, and all necessary measures had been taken, short of ECMO, which was already prepared. At Karolinska University Hospital, if it weren¡¯t for the fear of severe bacterial endocarditis that had spread throughout his body, Dr. Davenport would have already performed a heart replacement for Mr. Karen. But bacterial endocarditis was like a roadblock; in such a case, forcing a heart replacement could lead to disastrous consequences if the infection became uncontrollable. At the bedside, Yang Ping personally conducted a surface ultrasound on Mr. Karen: large growths attached to the aortic and mitral valves, with abscess formation around the valve, severely damaging the normal structure of the heart. This damage led to a significant decline in cardiac function, causing severe heart failure. ¡°Can we perform a Commando operation?¡± The Swedish doctor asked cautiously, then handed the translator to Yang Ping. ¡°Yes, we can!¡± Yang Ping spoke into the translator. Professor Yang had no time to speak to the machine, so a graduate student immediately came forward to help translate. Fortunately, the Swede spoke both Swedish and very good English. Seeing the Swede¡¯s eagerness to learn, the graduate student reluctantly decided to promote internationalism by acting as his translator. ¡°The heart structure is already damaged; door, door frame, and walls are all destructible. Can we perform a Commando operation?¡± the Swedish doctor asked incredulously. Yang Ping handed the ultrasound probe to a doctor beside him: ¡°Reconstruct, we¡¯ll rebuild the already damaged structures.¡± In the three surgical stages of resection, repair, and reconstruction, reconstructive surgery demands the highest skill, and cardiac reconstruction is exceptionally challenging. It requires rebuilding damaged structures under extreme conditions. In Dr. Davenport¡¯s knowledge, this type of valve surgery reconstruction was only limited to the door and frame, and the walls were beyond current medical capabilities. ¡°May I observe the surgery?¡± Dr. Davenport mustered the courage to ask. Yang Ping thought for a moment: ¡°According to our protocol, you cannot, but if you can answer our questions at any time and provide past medical history during the surgery, then it is possible.¡± ¡°I can do that; Mr. Karen has always been under my care, and I conducted both of his surgeries. The information on written medical records is limited, but I have much more stored in my brain that you can inquire about anytime,¡± Dr. Davenport said excitedly. ¡°Alright then, keep up with us.¡± Yang Ping removed his gloves and began to review Mr. Karen¡¯s various test data once again. Surgery is a sacred and meticulous practice; every step must be taken with utmost caution. ¡°I will keep up,¡± the Swede immediately took a few steps forward to be closer to Yang Ping, then naively smiled at the person next to him, muttering apologies. The implication was that this position was his, and he must keep up with Professor Yang. ¡ª The next day, Mr. Karen from Sweden was scheduled for surgery, but he hadn¡¯t been brought to the operating room yet. In the changing room, Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang were resting, while Zhang Lin, Little Five, and Liang Fatty were plotting to sneak off for a smoke. Fatty had been in a bad mood lately, having disagreements with his girlfriend. His good buddies, Zhang Lin and Little Five, accompanied him for a smoke to cheer him up and incidentally gave him some psychological counseling. This was something they hadn¡¯t quite mastered yet, unlike Tang Shun who, no matter how busy he was, his girlfriend didn¡¯t mind at all. As it turned out, none of them had a lighter. Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang didn¡¯t smoke and didn¡¯t carry lighters either. Lighters, among other things, were not allowed in the operating room because of the oxygen present. Zhang Lin and Little Five¡¯s lighters were usually locked in a cabinet; whenever they smoked in the operating room¡¯s restroom, they borrowed Liang Fatty¡¯s lighter, which he always kept in the resting room. ¡°Where¡¯s your lighter?¡± Zhang Lin asked discontentedly. Liang Fatty thought for a moment, ¡°Zhou Can confiscated it.¡± ¡°She confiscated it?¡± Little Five was quite surprised. Fatty sighed and said, ¡°She saw me feeling down these past few days and always heading to the restroom, knowing I was sneaking off to smoke. Worried I was smoking too much, she confiscated the lighter.¡± ¡°She really oversteps her bounds, doesn¡¯t she? Want me to confront her later?¡± Zhang Lin said, his face filled with anger. With a cigarette dangling in their mouths and no fire to light it, who could stand it? ¡°That Swede keeps carrying a notebook around, taking pictures with his phone, constantly asking, ¡®Can I take pictures here? Can I take pictures there?¡¯ He¡¯s quite earnest about it?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t he always following the professor? Why didn¡¯t he come to the changing room just now?¡± ¡°He didn¡¯t follow because he was bent over taking pictures of the gauze in the washbasin on the floor, and when he looked up, the professor was gone.¡± Without cigarettes, everyone needed to find some topic to discuss. ¡°You know, that little island in the United Kingdom, that shattered place in Europe, how did the Industrial Revolution start there?¡± ¡°There was once a saying, during the axial age of world civilization, the Chinese focused more on human relationships, the Westerners on human-object relationships, and the Indians on human-divine relationships. This view seems somewhat accurate. Europeans tend to focus more on tasks, whereas we emphasize being human. Could this be related?¡± ¡°Does this mean we are more suited to lead the world¡¯s populations forward, coordinating human relationships, while Westerners are suited to be workers, burying their heads in tasks, and Indians are suited to be counselors?¡± ¡°That seems reasonable. We had Daoism, Confucianism, and Legalism in ancient times, all rather humanities-oriented.¡± ¡°Wasn¡¯t there also the scientifically inclined Mohism?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t Mohism die out?¡± ¡°Later craftsmen were all Mohists, just under a different name.¡± ¡°Our elementary school texts talked about Li Chun from Zhaozhou Bridge during the Tang dynasty. Wasn¡¯t he an engineer?¡± ¡°It was the Song dynasty! Zhaozhou Bridge during the Tang dynasty? Get some culture, will you?¡± ¡°It was the Song dynasty? I remembered it wrong.¡± ¡°Today, you guys are not smoking but sitting here discussing history. The sun must be rising from the west.¡± Yang Ping went to the restroom to wash his face while these guys hid in the restroom, seriously discussing history. ¡°Professor Yang! Professor Yang! Professor Yang!¡± It was clearly the flat-tone Chinese of the Swedish doctor just learning the language. Yang Ping responded. Only then did the Swede tentatively knock and slowly walked in. Chapter 1217 - 1217 944 The Stalled Engine ?Chapter 1217: Chapter 944: The Stalled Engine Chapter 1217: Chapter 944: The Stalled Engine Davenport heard Yang Ping¡¯s voice and immediately ran into the changing room to stand beside him. At that moment, everyone was chatting. Although Davenport couldn¡¯t understand what everyone was talking about, he showed with his attentive gaze that he was actively participating. This Swede clung to Yang Ping like a shadow, not leaving his side for a moment. When told to follow, it wasn¡¯t just about shadowing him but keeping up with the work pace. Language and cultural differences seemed to be a big issue. Yang Ping waved at Song Zimo, and when Song Zimo came over, Yang Ping said, ¡°Could you explain to him what it means to keep up with us?¡± Understanding the request, Song Zimo immediately stood up, patted Doctor Davenport, and gestured for him to come along. Davenport looked at Yang Ping, obviously reluctant to follow Song Zimo. Only after Yang Ping nodded did Davenport agree to leave the changing room with Song Zimo. Liang Fatty was chatting with his brothers. Little Five and Zhang Lin, as experienced people, were imparting philosophy on love and relationships. The two of them went back and forth, leaving Liang Fatty baffled. ¡°Let the women revolve around you; you should not revolve around them. Do you understand this principle?¡± ¡°Bootlickers come right after dogs. With your options, are you afraid you won¡¯t have a girlfriend? If you want to date, date; if not, just let it be.¡± ¡°Damn, there are so many holidays each year; you have to buy gifts, you have to make time to accompany them. Do you still want to be a doctor? You are not even married yet, imagine what it will be like after you¡¯re married.¡± ¡°How should I put it, both of you are not wrong, but it¡¯s not suitable.¡± ¡°Sometimes, women inherently need to be coaxed and accompanied; there¡¯s no helping it, it¡¯s just the nature of this creature. Take my wife, for example, sometimes when she works the night shift, isn¡¯t it still me who has to accompany her?¡± The guys were still chatting when Tang Shun walked in with a set of scrub clothes. He was not a doctor, but being in the hospital, he sometimes wanted to come to the operating room to observe surgeries and broaden his horizons. At this moment, the chatting suddenly stopped, and then silence ensued. With the expert present, who could still express opinions on love? It was a clear case of ¡®playing the lute to a cow¡¯ or ¡®using a cleaver to kill a chicken in front of Guan Yu.¡¯ Fatty had initially wanted to ask his mentor how to deal with this tricky problem, but the nurses on the other side were already urging, ¡°The patient for the next operation has been brought in; we can start the anesthesia.¡± However, having this chat with his brothers, Fatty felt much more relieved, no longer as depressed as before. Although he had not smoked a soft Zhonghua, just sniffing it under his nose counted as satisfying his craving to some extent. Fatty, Zhang Lin, and Little Five left the changing room with arms over each other¡¯s shoulders. Yang Ping continued to lean on the bench to rest, seizing the time to conduct experiments. It was truly a case of not missing out on anything, performing surgeries in reality and rushing scientific research in the system space. Carrying a laboratory with him was cool; he could conduct experiments anywhere and anytime, and the progress of the experiments was countless times faster than in reality. In the operating room at that moment, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s extracorporeal circulation team was also in place. The perfusionist was busy adjusting their machine, setting up and connecting various tubes and systems, venting and pre-charging, ready to provide support for the surgery at any moment. Originally, Sanbo Hospital had only a few heart surgeries and mostly performed general thoracic surgeries. Many said maintaining an extracorporeal circulation team was purely a waste. Dean Xia said that to elevate a hospital¡¯s status, it was essential to perform heart surgeries. Thus, even with few heart surgeries, Dean Xia insisted on equipping an extracorporeal circulation team. Things always develop from nothing to something, from weak to strong. Now, the extracorporeal circulation team finally proved its significant value. Ever since Yang Ping established the Surgical Research Institute, top-notch heart surgeries followed one after another. Some things elevate as the water rises. Initially, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s extracorporeal circulation team consisted of several inexperienced young doctors. But as Yang Ping got the cardiac surgeries up and running, the team also accumulated a wealth of experience. These people were not lacking in theory; what they lacked was experience. Once they accrued enough experience, they would be able to take off. Director He Xiangjun of the Thoracic Surgery Department also came early to help. Director He had never performed the Commando surgery. Now, following Yang Ping, he could experience the MAX version of the Commando surgery, naturally looking forward to it with great anticipation. Yet, Professor Yang¡¯s pace was too fast, and He Xiangjun felt he couldn¡¯t keep up. These heart surgeries often jumped straight to the pinnacle; at times, Director He felt powerless. ¡ª Having rested sufficiently, Yang Ping entered the operating room where Liang Fatty had already administered anesthesia to Karen, and the doctors and nurses were cooperating to position the patient. The position for surgery is crucial. A good surgical position can yield better exposure during the procedure. An improper position not only affects the surgical field¡¯s visibility but can also cause harm to the patient. With the Head Nurse helping to take care of his father, Xia Shu was also able to make time to participate in the surgery. As a doctoral candidate specializing in cardiac surgery, he naturally paid more attention to such surgeries than others. Qiu Nuo had somewhat recovered from her ¡°heartbreak¡± and was already involved in the work of the Surgical Research Institute¡¯s operating room. Seeing Yang Ping walk in, Qiu Nuo glanced at Yang Ping, who showed no reaction at all, greeting her as usual. Qiu Nuo realized her infatuation was one-sided. After all, Professor Yang had a loving wife and had always treated her as a regular colleague from Xiehe. Since it was merely her unrequited love, there was nothing embarrassing about it; it was just a daydream in her mind ¡ª no need to feel embarrassed over a dream. However, she could no longer hold her head up in front of Xiao Su, being irrevocably grasped by that person, unable to raise her head for a lifetime. Zhou Can was the instrumental nurse for this surgery. Qiu Nuo began to carefully observe how Zhou Can worked. Chapter 1218 - 1218 944 The Engine that Stopped_2 ?Chapter 1218: Chapter 944: The Engine that Stopped_2 Chapter 1218: Chapter 944: The Engine that Stopped_2 Liang Fatty couldn¡¯t help but sigh; girls really are difficult to please. Ever since his school days, every girl he pursued ended in failure. The reasons they couldn¡¯t be together were all different. Some thought he wasn¡¯t handsome enough, others that he didn¡¯t have money. Now that he had money, his girlfriend complained that he didn¡¯t have time. Does making money not take time? If he were tall, rich, and handsome with plenty of free time, would he even need a steady girlfriend? Men, oh! It¡¯s tough! ¡°Don¡¯t space out, focus up.¡± In the midst of busyness, Zhou Can took a moment to remind the distracted Liang Fatty. Liang Fatty nodded; Zhou Can was rather understanding. Knowing that Liang Fatty had been troubled these days, she not only comforted him but also took him to the movies to relax and advised him on how to be tolerant and cheer up a girl. After all, every girl hopes to spend more time with their loved one. One must be serious at work and not let their mind wander; even Liang Fatty understood this simple truth. He had just been accurately calculating the patient¡¯s anesthesia dosage in his head. Zhou Can went up to the operating table to arrange the instruments, a skill she had learned from Xiao Su. Following Xiao Su every day and with extensive surgical practice, Zhou Can naturally mastered the preparation for many of the leading-edge operations, executing the duties of an instrumental nurse to perfection. Per Xiao Su¡¯s requirements, Zhou Can not only learned how to use the instruments but also mastered their design principles and the history of their invention as well. She also grasped the entire history of surgery, the whole surgical process, every detail, understanding why and how to use each instrument at every step of the operation. Qiu Nuo joined Zhou Can on the operating table, observing her organizing the instruments and silently memorizing the order in which they were laid out. The division of instruments on this operating table was noticeably different from the traditional arrangement. Each instrument had been meticulously organized through practical experience, and even Qiu Nuo, who worked at Xiehe Hospital, had never seen such a scientifically arranged setup of surgical instruments. As Zhou Can deftly arranged the instruments, she explained to Qiu Nuo why they were set up in that way and topped it off with, ¡°This is all taught to me by Sister Xiao Su.¡± It was Xiao Su again; alright, she would call her ¡°sister¡± from now on, even though Qiu Nuo was a few months older than Xiao Su. The patient from Sweden was already positioned correctly; Xia Shu, with a graduate student, began disinfecting and laying the drapes, and Yang Ping decided to have Xia Shu act as the first assistant. A heart surgery team often consists of surgeons, anesthesiologists, extracorporeal circulation perfusionists, and nurses. No role is dispensable; everyone must assist each other to complete such sophisticated operations. Some hospitals that want to poach top cardiac surgeons often need to take the whole set, poaching the entire support team, as just taking the chief surgeon often fails to form a combat-effective force. Doctor Yu, the extracorporeal circulation perfusionist from Sanbo Hospital, was busily preparing. He had not gone elsewhere for further training and had grown entirely through the heart surgeries at Sanbo. Previously unnoticed, he was gradually coming into prominence. The extracorporeal circulation team is an indispensable auxiliary team for heart operations because the human heart beats continuously, and the presence of blood and the pumping heart can affect the surgeon¡¯s field of vision and precision during surgery. The goal of extracorporeal circulation is to maintain the blood supply to the body¡¯s peripheral organs while the heart is stopped during the operation, with a machine oxygenating the blood to maintain the supply to all tissue organs. It¡¯s just like repairing a car¡¯s engine; it must first be turned off and stopped. The logic is the same. With the advancement of surgical technology, techniques for performing surgery on a beating heart have also been developed, like coronary bypass surgery without stopping the heart. All beating-heart surgeries have a premise¡ªthey do not require opening the heart. For example, coronary bypass surgery doesn¡¯t require completely opening the heart; it¡¯s merely a matter of working on the surface or within the myocardium, similar to running indoor piping without having to break through an entire wall. Some operations mandate fully opening the heart, and during those times, beating-heart techniques cannot be used; the heart must be stopped. It¡¯s quite simple, if the heart doesn¡¯t stop functioning, once it¡¯s opened, the blood inside the heart will gush out. This not only makes the surgery unoperable, but for the human body, it¡¯s the ultimate hemorrhage; the body will quickly die from blood loss. The specific operation of extracorporeal circulation involves drawing blood outside of the body, processing it through a specialized machine where the blood undergoes oxygenation, gas exchange, and filtration before being reinfused into the body. The purpose of this is to interrupt the heart¡¯s blood flow, making it easier for the surgeons to perform direct vision operations within the heart, ensuring a clear surgical field while still maintaining blood perfusion throughout the body to preserve entire organism survival. In fact, the extracorporeal circulation machine serves as a temporary substitute for a person¡¯s heart and lungs, sharing the same principle as ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). ECMO, fully named extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, is actually a longer-duration technique of extracorporeal circulation. As the technology of extracorporeal circulation can only substitute temporarily for a few hours during surgery, ECMO can be used for longer periods, generally from 7 to 30 days. Currently, the world record for the longest use of ECMO is 605 days. The principle of ECMO is to use a blood pump to replace the heart and a membrane lung to replace the lungs, continuously transporting blood to the body to maintain blood supply to all organs and sustain life, thereby achieving long-term substitution of heart and lung functions. The extracorporeal circulation system used in heart surgery is also called an artificial heart-lung machine. It is a system that can temporarily substitute the functions of the heart and lungs, and its structure includes an artificial heart, artificial lung, temperature regulator, blood reservoir, ultrafilter, and so on. The artificial heart consists of several pumps that replace the heart in pumping blood; the artificial lung¡¯s function is to add oxygen to the blood. Oxygenated blood flows through the body and returns to the artificial lung, where carbon dioxide is expelled. The temperature regulator adjusts the temperature of the blood to make it suitable for the body and the needs of the surgery. The blood reservoir contains filters and defoaming devices, used for storing preload fluids, intracardiac return blood, etc. The filter removes air bubbles, platelet clots, fibrin, fat droplets, silicone emboli, and minute tissue fragments that have shed, so they don¡¯t enter the blood circulation. Monitoring devices primarily observe changes in vital indicators, such as arterial blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, coronary artery perfusion pressure, and blood gas electrolytes, etc. These structures work together precisely to form an artificial heart-lung machine that temporarily substitutes the heart and the lungs during surgery, allowing all the body¡¯s blood to bypass the heart, leaving the heart free for the surgeons to operate on. After sterilization and pre-surgery verification, Yang Ping began the surgery. Incising the skin, opening the chest, exposing the pericardium, revealing the heart, aorta, and the superior and inferior vena cava. Yang Ping inserted cannulae into the aorta and the superior and inferior vena cava and had the perfusionist connect the cannulas to the extracorporeal circulation machine. By doing this, the entire body¡¯s blood circulation bypassed the heart and lungs, with the machine replacing the function of the heart and lungs. Extracorporeal circulation officially began, and Dr. Yu closely monitored every piece of data on the monitoring devices, constantly communicating with the anesthesiologist, Liang Fatty. The two coordinated with each other to adjust the patient¡¯s vital signs to the safest and most suitable state for surgery. Dr. Zhao adjusted the machine¡¯s temperature regulator to lower the temperature of the blood to achieve the goal of lowering the patient¡¯s overall body temperature. Artificial circulation had been established; the heart could now be stopped. Starting from the root of the aorta, Yang Ping injected arresting solution into the heart through the left and right coronary artery openings, causing the heart to gradually cease beating under the influence of this special solution. After the heart had completely stopped beating, Yang Ping then cut open the heart. The hood was open, the engine was off; now they could open the engine to see what was actually going on inside. Inside, it was indeed a mess, with an abundance of overgrowths attached to the previously replaced aortic and mitral valves. Bacteria had severely eroded these valves and their attachments, devastating the previous surgery to a point beyond recognition. This not only nullified the original surgery¡¯s effect but also destroyed the foundation for any remedial work, and the infection was the source of the systemic spread. Although the patient¡¯s heart was in cardiac arrest and the lungs had also stopped functioning, life was still vibrant. At this moment, life was entirely sustained by the perfusionist sitting there and the machine beside him. If the machine stops, the patient¡¯s life stops; if the machine runs, the patient¡¯s life persists. At this moment, Liang Fatty had no distractions in his mind; all his thoughts were focused on the patient undergoing surgery. He constantly watched the data on the monitoring devices and communicated with the perfusionist to analyze any fluctuations in the data and eliminate potential hidden dangers. Chapter 1219 - 1219 945 Patching Up ?Chapter 1219: Chapter 945: Patching Up Chapter 1219: Chapter 945: Patching Up Facing a heart that had already stopped beating, Yang Ping carefully cut it open. The ¡°engine¡± of the human body was opened, and its internal structure starkly revealed to the surgeon. The structures surrounding the aortic and mitral valves were in complete disarray¡ªindistinct and unrecognizable. The destroyed valves, growths, and abscesses were all mixed together. Without the aid of ECMO, this Swedish man¡¯s life would have likely already ended. Swedish doctor Davenport stood in front of the screen, where the details of the entire surgical field were clearly visible. What now lay before him was a ruined heart, his brow deeply furrowed. He couldn¡¯t fathom how Yang Ping would complete such a surgery. The suturing technique alone was beyond most, himself included, as well as any other doctor he had known or heard of. This was the second Commando surgery, and the foundation for reconstructing the door frame was already in terrible shape. On such a compromised foundation, it was impossible to achieve every suture with high quality since the existing thickness of the myocardial wall was fixed. Additionally, many parts were swollen from infection, making the swollen tissues fragile and suturing extremely difficult and risky, easily leading to myocardial tissue getting cut. Thus, with thousands of stitches, not a single error was permissible. One mistake could not only cause the already fragile tissue to be cut, loosening that stitch, but also make it impossible to place subsequent stitches. Moreover, the distribution of the stitches required vast experience. The entry and exit points of the needle had to be incredibly precise, to ensure the entire suture could withstand certain stresses without weak spots. All stitches needed to be fully considered, so that each stitch, especially those in fragile areas, could reasonably disperse stress, forming a zipper-like effect of evenly distributed stress. This was extremely difficult to achieve; theoretically possible, but impractical for anyone to accomplish. A zipper is straight, but now the heart¡¯s stitches were irregular in various shapes. On such a complicated, irregular suturing path, relying on human experience to distribute each stitch¡¯s stress optimally, how could it possibly be done? A single stitch with excessively concentrated stress could tear into a notch due to the heart¡¯s beating and the immense internal blood pressure. Such a notch, once formed, would be catastrophic. The high-pressure blood would mercilessly expand the notch, causing blood within the heart to spurt out, and the entire body would die from massive bleeding. This kind of bleeding was even more dangerous and fierce than a tearing aortic dissection. Xia Shu came from Fuwai Hospital and had seen countless complex and difficult cases. The number of cases he saw in a day at Fuwai could exceed what most hospitals see in decades. From an assistant¡¯s perspective, seeing this type of Commando surgery that needed renovation was utterly perplexing, and a tremendous sense of pressure overwhelmed him. The director of Sanbo Hospital Department of Thoracic Surgery, He Xiangjun, along with several other thoracic surgeons, stood around the screen, not even daring to breathe heavily. The outpatient Professor Cao Zhenshan, also a retired professor from Fuwai, had arranged his clinical work before rushing to the operating room in haste. Seeing the situation on the screen, he couldn¡¯t help but worry for Yang Ping. How could this surgery be done without a heart transplant as a backup? If they couldn¡¯t proceed, how would they manage the situation? Would they use ECMO to sustain life while waiting for a heart transplant? Yang Ping was calm and collected; he removed all the previously replaced valves, stitch by stitch, meticulously cleaning up the original valves, growths, and abscesses, as well as the surrounding tissues that had been eroded by bacteria. He then repeatedly washed the area with saline, leaving the left chamber of the heart immaculately clean. The focal point of the Commando surgery involved the closely connected aortic and mitral valves, requiring reconstruction of the entire cardiac fibrous skeleton. That meant replacing the small doors in two different ¡°chambers¡± of the heart that shared a load-bearing wall with a large door frame and installing two new large doors, a task with an unimaginable scope. Moreover, the suturing during the surgery had to be extremely meticulous to prevent uncontrollable bleeding. Any poor-quality suture that failed could make postoperative bleeding extremely difficult to control, a catastrophic scenario for both patient and doctor. Therefore, Commando surgery demanded the highest suture technique, directly linked to life and death. Suturing was one aspect; correctly sizing the valve was another crucial factor. It required proficient cardiac anatomical skills and precise judgment of valvular dimensions. Any misjudgment in valve size, making it too small or too large, could lead to valvular dysfunction and subsequently cardiac dysfunction. If it were the first surgery, sometimes it could be assisted by CT-scan imaging measurements. However, for the second surgery, it was impossible to know beforehand what the remaining structure was like after removing the original surgery, leaving no choice but to rely on experience during the procedure. The second Commando surgery, compared to the first, had exponentially increased difficulty and factors to consider. Upon removing the original surgery and clearing the infected lesion, everyone looked at the remnants of the heart with despair. Rebuilding and suturing on such a base, and judging valve dimensions accurately, were all extremely challenging tasks. No wonder Europeans dared not undertake such surgeries; they were simply impossible. Chapter 1220 - 1220 945 Mending and Patching_2 ?Chapter 1220: 945 Chapter Mending and Patching_2 Chapter 1220: 945 Chapter Mending and Patching_2 Yang Ping¡¯s gaze remained completely untroubled as he performed the surgery with an air of routineness, steadily advancing step by step. Reconstructing the aortic root, aortic annulus, aortic curtain, and left atrial roof, mitral valve annulus, Xia Shu assisted as the first assistant. At first, when he saw such a damaged heart, his mind was completely muddled, but now his thoughts had cleared, and he meticulously followed Yang Ping in perfecting every detail. The Swedish doctor sat in front of the electronic screen, focusing intently. He felt fortunate to have followed Mr. Karen to China for the opportunity to witness such an unbelievable surgery up close, redefining his perception of Chinese doctors, Chinese medicine, and the Commando surgery. Stitch by stitch, Yang Ping perfected each stitch; the artistry of surgical suturing was displayed sublimely in this surgery. It was true skill, not just simple suturing. Several hours later, the heart that initially appeared terribly damaged had restored its normal structure and function under Yang Ping¡¯s hands. When the heart was closed and beating resumed, not only Xia Shu but also the Swedish doctor and everyone else found it incredible that such a heart could be repaired. The Swedish doctor was astounded; as one of Europe¡¯s top cardiac surgeons, he had to deeply respect Yang Ping¡¯s level of suturing skill. To achieve such perfection in suturing was something perhaps only this man could do in the whole world, at least he had never seen another. No wonder he dared to be the chief surgeon on such a surgery, his unmatched suturing skill combined with his exceptional spatial imagination ensured the successful completion of this almost impossible surgery, avoiding the need for heart transplantation. After all, it was his own heart, and it still had good vitality. A bit of patching up made it much better than someone else¡¯s heart. If transplanting someone else¡¯s heart, one would inevitably undergo anti-rejection treatments, whereas his own heart required no such treatment. Yang Ping felt that, with some patching, this heart could last another decade or two without issue, and possibly much longer if no other diseases arose. The Swedish doctor had once heard a popular saying that Chinese people have very flexible hands due to long-term use of chopsticks. Now, it seemed that the rumor was true. Professor Yang¡¯s suturing skill, exhibited by his hands, was unmatched by anyone in the world. Thousands of stitches, each one perfect, were indeed what composed the perfection of the entire surgery. After surgery, Karen was transferred to the CCU for postoperative monitoring. By convention, for such severe patients, even when placed in the CCU, the Surgical Research Institute would assign a doctor to monitor him, and this time Xia Shu was most suitable as he was the first assistant, acquainted with every detail of the surgery. However, since Xia Shu¡¯s father was still not discharged from the ward, he hesitated until the head nurse called him, reassuring him to focus on his work. She would take care of his father¡¯s matters, encouraging Xia Shu not to worry. This case was rare and he must attend to it diligently. With the head nurse¡¯s help, Xia Shu felt much more at ease. Knowing her style of thorough and attentive work, he was confident his father would be well cared for. Thus, Xia Shu could go to the CCU without any worries to participate in Karen¡¯s postoperative monitoring and treatment. The greatest risk after Karen¡¯s surgery was severe bleeding, as thousands of stitches could lead to massive hemorrhage if even one was loose. Next was the risk of aggravated or uncontrolled postoperative infections, with bacteria potentially re-infecting the implanted valves and their attachments or even spreading throughout the body. The CCU doctors, all trained in internal medicine, lacked surgical thinking. Having a cardiac surgeon from the Surgical Research Institute involved in treatment could compensate for the deficiencies of the CCU doctors, thus leveraging strengths and avoiding medical errors due to blind spots in thinking. The Swedish doctor applied to care for Karen together, but due to his insufficient language proficiency, he did not meet Sanbo Hospital¡¯s protocols. Eventually, because he was familiar with Karen¡¯s medical history, which was very significant for perioperative monitoring, the Medical Services Office agreed to let him participate in Karen¡¯s perioperative care in an observational capacity only, with no actual authority, a status even lower than that of an intern, serving merely as an accompanist. Even so, the Swedish doctor was pleased. He wanted to personally participate in Karen¡¯s treatment to see the final outcome of the surgery and whether this heart could truly turn decay into wonder and if Karen could recover fully. The Swedish doctor kept a journal, meticulously recording the entire treatment process. If successful, this would be a classic case. The surgery was over, and as a qualified instrumental nurse, cleaning the instruments was the last and most strenuous step. Qiu Nuo followed Zhou Can in cleaning today¡¯s surgical instruments. Zhou Can¡¯s professional demeanor made Qiu Nuo marvel, as she always cherished the surgical instruments, loving them from the heart, and infused this philosophy into every detail of her work¡ªqualities that a great Instrumental Nurse should possess. ¡°Sister Xiao Su taught me this!¡± Zhou Can said with pride on her face. Again Xiao Su, Qiu Nuo couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit melancholic, but it was a good opportunity for her to learn about Xiao Su and Yang Ping¡¯s love story. It was no secret, so since Qiu Nuo wanted to know, Zhou Can shared everything she knew; what she didn¡¯t know, she couldn¡¯t share. With Zhou Can¡¯s introduction, Qiu Nuo had a rough understanding of the love story; when Yang Ping first came to Sanbo Hospital, he was also single and not yet famous, just an ordinary doctor. It was then that Xiao Su started dating Yang Ping slowly, until now when they were married with children. That was the gist of it. The shadow of Yang Ping lingered in Qiu Nuo¡¯s mind, unreachable; his superb surgical skills, focused personality, and his tall, handsome stature¡ªwhy was Yang Ping so outstanding, and why was he already married? Qiu Nuo felt it was an unfortunate matter. In future relationships, she would never find someone satisfactory, because whoever it might be, Qiu Nuo would end up comparing him with Yang Ping. Why wasn¡¯t it herself who met Yang Ping first, but Xiao Su? Why was Xiao Su always so lucky, always taking the best for herself? Qiu Nuo calmed herself and wondered, if she had met Yang Ping back then, would she have liked him? Probably not; she was only interested in Yang Ping as he was now. That¡¯s why she lost to Xiao Su, it was like buying stocks; she could only see the peak stocks, at which point it wasn¡¯t the time for her to make a move, while Xiao Su accurately pinpointed the future high-potential stock. Qiu Nuo now felt very conflicted; the more she thought, the more confused she became, feeling extremely desolate. In the end, she just consoled herself¡ªwell, he was her best friend¡¯s husband. Only when she thought of this did she feel slightly better. If he weren¡¯t her best friend¡¯s husband, Qiu Nuo really had thoughts of seizing him. Sometimes when people lose their heads, they easily ignore all sorts of restrictive codes and conventions. ¡°Sister Xiao Su is truly fortunate. Our Professor Yang loves only her and doesn¡¯t even glance at other girls,¡± Zhou Can said enviously, wishing she too could have such a husband, capable and loving only her. ¡°Are there others who like Professor Yang?¡± Qiu Nuo was very curious. Zhou Can thought for a moment then said, ¡°Of course! I know a few, among them some really outstanding girls; whether in looks, figure, or scholarship, they are the very best. Their affection for Professor Yang is deep, but Professor Yang, not to mention being moved, doesn¡¯t even entertain the idea. His thoughts are all on Xiao Su. Sister Xiao Su is truly blessed. I really envy their focused love.¡± No wonder Xiao Su was not at all worried about someone loving Professor Yang; her love had been tested many times and was extremely stable. After the instruments were cleaned, Qiu Nuo had to proceed to the second surgery, again Yang Ping¡¯s surgery. Working with Yang Ping on a surgery was a kind of bliss too. Qiu Nuo even thought about joining Sanbo Hospital. Chapter 1221 - 1221 946 Upgrade On The Spot ?Chapter 1221: Chapter 946: Upgrade On The Spot Chapter 1221: Chapter 946: Upgrade On The Spot The next day, Yang Ping went to the CCU to check on Mr. Karen¡¯s postoperative condition. Professor Yang¡¯s rounds were destined to draw a crowd, so as soon as Yang Ping stood by the bedside, the room was already packed three layers deep inside and out with doctors, from the senior attending and associate chief physicians to the young Doctors, Masters, standardized training students, and interns, all crowding around Yang Ping. Xia Shu reported Mr. Karen¡¯s postoperative condition in the CCU. Currently, his vital signs were stable without the need for ECMO support. The stability of his vital signs was maintained by his own heart, which was remarkable for Mr. Karen. Prior to this, to decrease the load on the heart and preserve the scant heart function, Mr. Karen had been relying on ECMO to sustain his life. Even when he was transported to China on a medical plane, he was still on ECMO support. Now, having undergone surgery, his decrepit heart had been repaired and rebuilt, allowing it to function normally and fully support Mr. Karen¡¯s life. After listening to Xia Shu¡¯s report, Yang Ping took the tablet handed over by Xia Shu and began to review Mr. Karen¡¯s latest test results. Patient electronic medical record updates are always faster than paperwork, and all test results are first uploaded to the internal network¡¯s electronic platform, as the paper reports would require a cumbersome process to reach the doctors: issuing the report, personal delivery to the department, and the physician in charge or intern doctor placing the report in the patient file. This process could sometimes take several days, so doctors prefer to check the information on the computer for timeliness. In a critical care unit like the CCU, there are a lot of tests every day, and often the number of tests in one day can exceed those during the entire hospital stay in a regular ward. Yang Ping checked the results meticulously, focusing on the various blood tests. Complete blood count, biochemistry, liver and kidney function, myocardial enzyme spectrum, procalcitonin, and others ¨C all had been retested postoperatively. Judging from the test results, the infection was completely under control. Infections with local lesions, like the one Mr. Karen had, respond dramatically to surgical intervention. Once the source of the infection is cleared, the infection is usually quickly controlled, with any remaining infection rapidly eliminated by antibiotics and the body¡¯s own immune response. Common examples of localized infection include various abscesses, which, when drained or cleared by surgery, are rapidly brought under control. Without surgical intervention, relying solely on internal medical treatment, even the most advanced antibiotics would struggle to be effective. Mr. Karen suffered from bacterial endocarditis, with the infected heart valves, abscesses, and vegetations constituting the source of infection. Without clearing these lesions, the infection simply could not be controlled. Now that the surgery had thoroughly cleared these lesions and replaced them with new valves, the infection was contained. As long as his heart function returned to normal, Mr. Karen¡¯s condition would quickly improve. The physician from Sweden who was following the rounds kept diligently taking notes, meticulously recording both in diagrams and text. He even sketched Mr. Karen¡¯s bed in the CCU, the arrangement of various equipment in the room, and the monitoring data from the machines, and so on. Song Zimo glanced and noticed that the Swedish doctor¡¯s notes were as detailed as a comic book. To achieve speed in recording, his figures looked like the trendy stick figure drawings, incredibly succinct. Having reviewed the electronic medical records, Yang Ping prepared to conduct a bedside echocardiography, a test that needed to be repeated postoperatively. Xia Shu brought over the ultrasound machine to perform the echocardiography on the patient. Echocardiography can provide qualitative diagnosis for some heart diseases and quantitative analysis of heart structure, valve morphology, wall movement, and hemodynamic state. It assesses the heart¡¯s morphology, structure, including chamber size, wall thickness, valve opening and closing, and myocardial movement, etc. Therefore, echocardiography is one of the most commonly used tests in cardiac surgery. During the perioperative period, which includes preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative periods, echocardiography is an indispensable diagnostic and evaluation tool. In China, echocardiography is generally performed by sonographers, with few cardiologists or cardiac surgeons capable of understanding the principles and operation of echocardiography; most doctors are outsiders to this practice. Unlike in China, in Europe and the United States, both cardiologists and cardiac surgeons must perform echocardiography themselves. They start receiving comprehensive training and practice in this area during their residency, so echocardiography is an essential skill that every specialist must master proficiently. The founder of echocardiography in the United States, Dr. Feigenbaum, is not a sonography doctor but a cardiologist. Cardiac surgeons or cardiologists, with their clinical experience, know how to master the principles and use of echocardiography, perfectly combining clinical work with imaging. Whereas a sonography doctor will never lead a heart surgery in their lifetime, lacking clinical experience in heart diseases, they only have knowledge in imaging. Therefore, combining clinical and imaging knowledge is more advantageous for the advancement of echocardiography. The father of echocardiography in China is Professor Wang Xinfang from the Ultrasound Department of Wuhan Union Hospital, who has made significant contributions to the field of ultrasound and is internationally recognized as the pioneer in fetal heart monitoring. In the 1960s, obstetricians in China could only rely on listening and touching to understand the fetal conditions in the womb, unable to hear the fetal heartbeat. In 1963, during an ultrasound examination on a pregnant woman, Professor Wang noticed an extra blip on the ultrasound machine, which he speculated was the result of fetal limb activity. Immediately, he wondered whether it was possible to monitor the fetal heartbeat using this method. Professor Wang began his trials, using two ultrasound probes¡ªone connected to the mother¡¯s heart and the other to the fetus¡¯s heart, producing two waveforms of different speeds. After numerous observations, he discovered the fetal heartbeat reflections. That year, Professor Wang published an article in a domestic medical journal, presenting the world¡¯s first fetal heartbeat wave frequency curve. In 2002, based on this article, the world ultrasound community finally affirmed that China was the first to discover fetal heart ultrasound reflection. Chapter 1222 - 1222 946 In-place Upgrade_2 ?Chapter 1222: Chapter 946: In-place Upgrade_2 Chapter 1222: Chapter 946: In-place Upgrade_2 Actually, when Xia Shu was at Fuwai Hospital, he wasn¡¯t familiar with echocardiography either, in terms of both theory and practical operation. He rarely engaged with it, and usually relied on the assistance of ultrasound doctors to complete echocardiography examinations. After coming to the Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute, Xia Shu began to learn how to perform echocardiography and make diagnoses himself. Now, Xia Shu had mastered the principles and operations of ultrasound, and he was very proficient in them. Yang Ping watched as Xia Shu operated; the ultrasound transducer began to examine Mr. Karen¡¯s heart, comprehensively evaluating the size of the heart chambers, the thickness of the ventricular walls, the opening and closing of the valves, and the movement of the myocardium, not missing any detail, especially the condition of the valves, which needed to be carefully assessed to detect any subtle potential risks. The surrounding doctors watched quietly as Yang Ping and Xia Shu performed the cardiac ultrasound. No one made a sound; they were all highly focused. The Swedish doctor watched and continued to draw his ¡°stick figures¡± because he wanted to recreate the positions and postures of the doctor and patient during the examination, so he could slowly analyze any unclear aspects later. Many things cannot be depicted in detail and accurately through text alone. The ultrasound examination revealed no issues, indicating that Mr. Karen¡¯s surgery was highly successful. The cardiac ultrasound showed that all cardiac parameters, whether static or dynamic, were normal, the implanted valves were the proper size, and their opening and closing functions were normal, without any incomplete closure or opening. Mr. Karen¡¯s heart surgery involved thousands of stitches; as long as these stitches could hold through the healing period, there would be no problem. The sutures¡¯ fixation was only temporary; ultimately, healing of the heart tissues was necessary. The healing time for the incisions on the heart was very short because the heart¡¯s blood supply is very rich. The richer the blood supply, the stronger the healing ability, and vice versa. For example, diabetic patients have longer wound healing times, or their wounds may even fail to heal because diabetes causes changes in peripheral blood flow, leading to poor circulation, and hence, slower or non-healing wounds. ¡°Today we¡¯ll remove his tube!¡± Yang Ping felt that Mr. Karen¡¯s condition was good, and he could definitely have his tube removed. Xia Shu noted down Yang Ping¡¯s words, and later during the ward rounds, he planned to remove the tracheal tube, which Mr. Karen had had inserted before the surgery, to allow for normal breathing. The Swedish doctor was amazed by Mr. Karen¡¯s recovery. He had been involved in Mr. Karen¡¯s entire perioperative treatment, closely observing the whole surgery, which allowed him to witness what top-notch cardiac surgery was really like. He had recorded Mr. Karen¡¯s entire treatment process in his notebook, and with permission, he had copied Mr. Karen¡¯s surgical records, which were undoubtedly valuable to the Swedish doctor. After checking the ward, Yang Ping had to rush back to the Surgical Research Institute, as many surgeries were waiting for him. Outside the CCU, Ning Qi and Mr. Karen¡¯s family had already been waiting a while. Mr. Karen was introduced by Ning Qi, and she had arranged all his accommodations and daily life in China, so she frequently visited Yang Ping to inquire about the patient¡¯s condition. Most of Mr. Karen¡¯s family spoke Swedish. With the help of an interpreter brought by Ning Qi, Yang Ping briefly discussed Mr. Karen¡¯s condition. Hearing that the postoperative period had been very stable, and that the tube could now be removed, and in a few days, he could be transferred back to a regular ward and slowly start mobilizing, Mr. Karen¡¯s family was overjoyed; his wife and several children kept saying thank you. ¡°Thank you!¡± Ning Qi also looked at Yang Ping with gratitude. Yang Ping smiled and said, ¡°I am a doctor. It¡¯s merely my duty.¡± ¡°When you¡¯re free, I¡¯ll treat you to a meal. Don¡¯t just say you¡¯re busy¡ªit¡¯s not just for you. I¡¯ll also invite Xiao Su and my godson. You pick the time. We¡¯ll go to my place. I¡¯ll cook myself,¡± Ning Qi said tenderly. ¡°You cook yourself?¡± How could this busy lady possibly cook herself? Ning Qi playfully retorted, ¡°I¡¯ve been cooking since I was ten years old. My cooking is actually quite good. Don¡¯t underestimate me; those cookies were just my first attempt.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have Xiao Su schedule the time with you,¡± Yang Ping replied. Ning Qi tidied her hair on her forehead and nodded, ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll schedule a time with Xiao Su.¡± Yang Ping was quite busy with many surgeries and could not chat with Ning Qi for too long, so he took his leave immediately and rushed to the Operating Room. On the way, Song Zimo mentioned that Bao Junhao had been sentenced, and his father, Bao Yulou, had discreetly set up a charity fund specifically for youth education. If not for Song Zimo bringing it up, Yang Ping would have almost forgotten about it. If it weren¡¯t for Dashun and Ershun protecting him, he might have been injured by those thugs, even risking his life. Such people deserved legal punishment. This incident served as a wake-up call for Yang Ping to take his own safety seriously. Dean Xia called, wanting to speak with Yang Ping for a moment. Yang Ping said, ¡°I¡¯ll come to your office.¡± Dean Xia quickly said, ¡°No need, no need, I¡¯ll come to your Operating Room¡¯s Changing Room. We can talk there without wasting your time. I¡¯m already in the Changing Room; how come I haven¡¯t seen you yet?¡± Yang Ping immediately explained, ¡°I just went to check on the CCU. I¡¯m heading back now, wait for me a moment.¡± In the Changing Room of the Surgical Research Institute¡¯s Operating Room, Yang Ping met with Dean Xia, who had been waiting for a while. His towering stature made the bench in the Changing Room look very small and insubstantial. Upon seeing Yang Ping enter, Dean Xia stood up and said, ¡°Let¡¯s talk here for a few minutes, it won¡¯t take up much of your time. You¡¯re busy and about to go into surgery.¡± ¡°I had thought you were already in the Operating Room, so I put on a visitor¡¯s gown.¡± Dean Xia, now not needing to go into the Operating Room, took off the visitor¡¯s gown, which was far too small for him, resembling an adult trying to wear a child¡¯s clothing and about to burst out of it. The two sat on the bench in the Changing Room and talked. Dean Xia said, ¡°Our hospital will soon undergo restructuring. It will no longer be managed by the Provincial Hall but will instead be directly managed by Beijing. However, the entire management and staff of the hospital will remain unchanged; no reduction or addition of staff, no replacements. Everything will continue as usual. We initially thought it would be acquired by Beijing 301, but now it seems, the stakes are even higher. You see how much our country values talent. This is all for you; you like the southern city and enjoy working at Sanbo Hospital, so Sanbo Hospital will be upgraded right where it is. I, too, benefit from this, upgrading along with it. With this upgrade, my administrative rank as Dean has also been raised several levels, which means my retirement pension will definitely be higher.¡± Yang Ping had heard about the acquisition by 301 early on, transforming Sanbo Hospital into 301¡¯s southern clinical center. That was the initial plan, now it seems that plan has been scrapped in favor of upgrading Sanbo Hospital in its current location. ¡°This is all for you, to maintain the hospital environment and vitality unaffected, thus the on-site upgrade. This is what we talked about today. After this, aside from your higher status and more resources, nothing changes. Your research funding will be more abundant, not only allowing you to raise funds personally but also receiving strong national support. So, rest assured about your research; money is not a problem. Upper management has said that in principle, there is no upper limit. Upper management also said not to feel any pressure; there will be no performance indicators or anything like that. Everything, you plan yourself, develop freely.¡± Dean Xia knew that the senior leadership had fully respected Yang Ping¡¯s choice, taking great care to provide him with a good platform. ¡°There¡¯s nothing else, just this matter. If you have any other ideas or requests, feel free to bring them up.¡± Dean Xia worried that Yang Ping might have other requests. ¡°I don¡¯t have any requests; everything remains the same as usual.¡± Yang Ping and Dean Xia chatted for a while longer. Dean Xia had many other matters to attend to, and Yang Ping had many surgeries as well. As Dean Xia was leaving, he said, ¡°I think this place is quite nice. If I need to talk to you about anything in the future, we¡¯ll meet here. It won¡¯t take up your time, even better than the office.¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t, definitely don¡¯t come here often. If you start showing up here frequently, we doctors won¡¯t dare to change clothes here.¡± Yang Ping reminded Dean Xia. Dean Xia thought about it and realized, ¡°This is the doctors¡¯ Changing Room. It shouldn¡¯t be used for work discussions.¡± He looked around the Changing Room and said, ¡°Why haven¡¯t I seen anyone come in to change?¡± ¡°Seeing you here, everyone is changing in the duty room.¡± Yang Ping honestly said. Dean Xia appeared quite troubled, ¡°Am I really that unpopular? So out of touch with the staff?¡± Chapter 1223 - 1223 947 Advancing by Retreating ?Chapter 1223: Chapter 947: Advancing by Retreating Chapter 1223: Chapter 947: Advancing by Retreating Brilliant surgeons always manage to turn peril into safety, and even more adept surgeons never place themselves in perilous situations to begin with. Mr. Karen¡¯s surgery seemed uneventful, devoid of any thrilling, life-saving rescues. The entire surgery was methodically completed, stitch by stitch. Soon after, he was quickly transferred from the CCU back to a regular ward. He was initially supposed to stay in the VIP ward of the Overseas Chinese Building, but Mr. Karen and his family disagreed and insisted on moving back to the Surgical Research Institute. This decision was made in pursuit of higher safety since there was a certain distance between the Overseas Chinese Building and the Surgical Research Institute where Professor Yang worked¡ªan essential factor when seconds count in emergencies. It seemed inevitable that the expansion of the Surgical Research Institute was necessary. Relying on this building¡¯s regular wards clearly could not meet the patients¡¯ needs. VIP wards and ICUs should be added, and fortunately, there was still room to expand in this building. Previously, this building was a reserve, never utilized because day surgeries did not take off as planned and remained idle. Now, Yang Ping had repurposed it for the Surgical Research Institute, occupying several floors with outpatient services, wards, and laboratories, with several more floors available for use. Yang Ping planned to utilize the remaining floors to expand the wards, add VIP rooms, and establish an ICU to create a complete treatment unit. VIP rooms could serve as a major source of revenue for the department. Regrettably, at present, the only feasible approach in healthcare is ¡°robbing the rich to help the poor,¡± a practice adopted worldwide. The wealthy possess significant capital and premium insurance¡ªmoney is no pressure to them. However, for the impoverished, falling ill might lead to bankruptcy. Earning from the wealthy and performing charity for the poor might sound unfair to the rich, but in reality, it represents the greatest form of equity. Upon acquiring wealth, the affluent should bear the responsibility of caring for the world¡¯s impoverished. Family values among Europeans and Americans are more profound than in our country, particularly among the major families, which are well-organized. In addition to those who remained in Sweden, several other family members accompanied Mr. Karen to China. After returning to the regular ward, Mr. Karen gradually began to move out of bed, a feat that was nothing short of a rebirth for someone who had once depended on ECMO to sustain his life. With his heart now robust and repaired, Mr. Karen¡¯s spirit and complexion had greatly improved. Barring any complications, living for many more decades should not pose a problem. The first thing he did upon recovery was instruct his eldest son, who had come to visit him, to find Chairman Ning Qi of China. The Karen Group was very eager to collaborate with this Chinese partner, intending to engage in extensive cooperation in steelmaking and other basic materials. Without the aid of this Chinese friend, Mr. Karen said he wouldn¡¯t know where he¡¯d be today. The Swedish doctor, acting as Mr. Karen¡¯s personal physician, continued to stay at the Surgical Research Institute. He recorded every detail of Mr. Karen¡¯s medical activities, exploring all the educational value of this surgery. No matter how much the director of his hospital urged him, he remained indifferent, intending to stay as long as possible¡ªthis was the most valuable asset in his medical career. The blood flow in the heart was very good, and the wounds on the heart could heal within a few days. Hence, Mr. Karen¡¯s heart, stitched with thousands of stitches, had passed the critical period and no longer faced the risk of bleeding from a potential rupture of any stitch. Yet, he still could not engage in physical activities or become overly excited. Although the stitched areas of the heart had healed, their strength was much poorer compared to the normal areas. Any exercise or excitement could easily lead to high blood pressure, resulting in the rupture of the weaker stitched areas. Next to Mr. Karen¡¯s bed was a stack of printed English news articles, which he read daily. Being bedridden in the ICU during his illness had made it impossible for him to read, and now he was keen to catch up, fearing he might not keep up with the changes in the world. Indeed, his willingness to collaborate with Ning Qi was not purely emotional but because he had long seen China as a land of great potential¡ªthe world¡¯s most stable region, the largest market, and one of the top three largest economic entities. It was also the most dynamic economy in the world. Whoever gives up on China, gives up on the future of the world. The Karen Family¡¯s businesses spanned the globe; lacking China in their global presence was inconceivable. Thus, Mr. Karen had always intended to collaborate with China, hoping to expand his market there. Meanwhile, Ning Qi was interested in entering some basic industries, such as specialty steel, various new materials, CNC machine tools, and various advanced equipment, so the partnership benefited both parties. However, Mr. Karen¡¯s potential collaborators in China were not limited to just Ning Qi; there were many companies with strong foundations in materials science, so Mr. Karen had been selecting his partners carefully. In Mr. Karen¡¯s treatment, Ning Qi stepped forward to assist, which made Mr. Karen hesitate no longer; he no longer wanted to select partners and decided to collaborate directly with Ning Qi as a form of reciprocation for the assistance. Xia Shu once again performed a bedside heart surface ultrasound for Mr. Karen. The images indicated that the current structure and contractile function of the heart were good, and the valve functions were excellent. If a few days earlier there was uncertainty about the success of the surgery, now it was almost certain that Mr. Karen¡¯s surgery had been a tremendous success. Mr. Karen¡¯s family transmitted the news of his recovery to Sweden, and the entire family was incredibly shocked. A disease that was deemed incurable in Europe had been cured in China, sparking intense interest in a country previously unknown to them¡ªit was truly miraculous. The Swedish doctor sent the surgical data he had collected about Mr. Karen to his peers back in his home department, where they began to analyze and learn from Mr. Karen¡¯s surgery to enhance their own treatment standards in the field. Chapter 1224 - 1224 947 Advance by Retreat_2 ?Chapter 1224: Chapter 947: Advance by Retreat_2 Chapter 1224: Chapter 947: Advance by Retreat_2 Ning Qi now has a very good relationship with Xiao Su, having become good friends. To express her gratitude to Yang Ping, she had already made arrangements with Xiao Su to invite Yang Ping and Xiao Su to her home for a meal, which she would cook herself. At this moment, Li Gaoyang in the United States was in great pain. Faced with a sudden blow, he felt somewhat resentful. There were still many things he needed to do; as the elite of the younger generation in his family, he was now expected to lead his family forward. Yet, at this precise moment, a health check revealed a problem. Fate can be so cruelly ironic, playing such a huge joke on him. Despite his immense wealth and control over resources beyond the reach of ordinary people, the United States, with its advanced medical technology, still had no cure for his illness, and the only Chinese doctor who could potentially cure him was currently unable to come to the United States. Ironically, the reason he couldn¡¯t come could ultimately be traced back to Li Gaoyang himself; he had effectively set up obstacles to his own treatment, a cruel twist of fate indeed. Li Gaoyang had already signed up for the waiting list at Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute. Following the normal process, his surgery was scheduled for a year later, a time far too long for Li Gaoyang to wait. If he didn¡¯t undergo surgery, his life was already on a countdown. How could he possibly hold on for that long? He could undergo surgery immediately in the United States, but it was very clear that no American doctor could perform the surgery, and Professor Yang could not possibly come to the United States. Sanbo Hospital, due to the BG Group¡¯s breach of contract, had suffered huge losses with dozens of machines locked, which resulted in the hospital, in a fit of anger, revoking VIP medical access for Americans. However, for humanitarian reasons, they still kept the standard medical services open. American patients, no matter who they were, could only join the queue in an orderly manner, unable to obtain VIP privileges that would allow for earlier surgery, by any means whatsoever. John Ansen, Director of Neurosurgery at Mayo, expressed his regret and said he was unable to help; Sanbo Hospital had ended VIP access for Americans, and his personal connections were of no use. If VIP access had not been closed, he could have used his personal relationship with Professor Yang to help secure the VIP channel and arrange an earlier surgery. ¡°Isn¡¯t there any other way to consider?¡± Li Gaoyang now deeply understood the cautious thoughts of the older generation, each claiming that Professor Yang belonged to the whole world, making it seem like they were all philanthropists, hence safeguarding their personal backup plans. Who wouldn¡¯t want to live a little longer? It turned out that the older ones were shrewder. Li Gaoyang should have understood this earlier, but he simply could not believe that these people would ultimately succumb to natural decay and disease. ¡°Is it possible to change my identity and name?¡± Li Gaoyang never imagined he would be reduced to such a pathetic state, the chairman of the BG Consortium actually considering such a tactic. John Ansen shook his head, ¡°No, Professor Yang has a very good memory, especially for case data, which he remembers in extreme detail. I¡¯ve shown him your images, and he¡¯ll recognize them even if you change your identity. No matter what you change, the tumor in your brain remains the same. He¡¯ll know it¡¯s you the moment he sees it. If he finds out there¡¯s been any deception, both you and I won¡¯t be able to bear the consequences. You might end up having your surgery further delayed, or even lose the chance to seek medical treatment in China entirely, and I would never again have the opportunity to learn the world¡¯s most advanced medical techniques.¡± To think that what should have been a straightforward matter had become so complicated, Li Gaoyang tried to stay calm, but found it impossible. This was a matter of life or death. ¡°Is there really no other way at all? Like, I could donate money to their hospital, or even give a huge fortune to Professor Yang personally.¡± Li Gaoyang felt a touch of despair, hoping to grasp at the last straw, which, in this case, was not just a straw but a solid lifeline. John Ansen shook his head again, with a smile, ¡°Do you think someone like Professor Yang can be bought with money?¡± Li Gaoyang fell silent; previously, to win him over, no offer was enticing enough to move him, and now, talking about money seemed impulsive. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll think it over.¡± Li Gaoyang felt that there was no way forward through Doctor John Ansen. With no other options, Li Gaoyang could only turn to Rolf, a man accustomed to doing things that couldn¡¯t see the light of day, often mixing with those who do the dirty work. After all, in the interest of profit, over the years Rolf had not refrained from engaging in unscrupulous activities. But now, Yang Ping would go nowhere, and even if Li Gaoyang forcibly brought him to perform surgery, it wouldn¡¯t work. Rolf shook his head helplessly, ¡°With further investigation from our intelligence, we¡¯ve found Professor Yang¡¯s security measures to be much stronger than we imagined. It might appear that he has just a few security personnel, but in fact, there is a powerful security system protecting him out of sight. To put it another way, while we watch others, they also watch us. Our actions are not entirely secret, and I¡¯m sorry to say, the people I¡¯ve dispatched may have already been exposed.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t there another way? Like targeting people close to him?¡± Li Gaoyang could no longer hold back and voiced his thoughts. He had to survive; whatever method was the fastest and best, he had to use it. Rolf shook his head, ¡°If powers are unequal, such methods work. However, when the powers are equal or the adversary¡¯s powers are stronger, such methods will only backfire. Our opponent could also attack us this way, leading to a loss of all restraint. The line we don¡¯t cross isn¡¯t shaped by moral factors, but by the balance of power, sometimes wars are controlled within bounds acceptable to both sides, such as not using nuclear weapons, let alone the fact that this isn¡¯t a war.¡± After a moment of thought, Rolf said, ¡°There is an old saying you might not have heard: the most effective response to assassination is assassination, either equal or one level higher.¡± Li Gaoyang calmed down and pondered over the statement, realizing that Rolf was right. He too had family, he too had weaknesses, and acting recklessly could lead to mutual destruction in the end. ¡°What do you suggest?¡± Li Gaoyang asked sincerely. He and Rolf had been good friends for many years, their close cooperation had propelled BG Group forward vigorously. When it came to corporate management, he was an expert, but Rolf was the real master in navigating these complex social relationships. He had provided support beyond business for BG Group¡¯s acquisitions or eliminations of other companies, known as sociological support. ¡°How about changing nationality? That should be a piece of cake for you,¡± Rolf suggested. Li Gaoyang said with some uncertainty, ¡°I¡¯ve heard Professor Yang has an incredible memory. Changing nationality doesn¡¯t change the tumor in his brain. Could it be considered cheating, causing disruption in the medical order?¡± As he spoke, Li Gaoyang felt a deep sadness. Seeking medical treatment had to be so carefully considered, afraid of offending anyone. He even doubted if he was still Li Gaoyang. ¡°Then there¡¯s only one path left, to find Ruixing¡¯s Huang and have a good talk, sincerely show weakness and apologize; maybe there¡¯s a glimmer of hope.¡± Rolf stated calmly and objectively. ¡°Impossible!¡± Li Gaoyang blurted out. ¡°Then you can only do this, to gradually waste away your life while waiting.¡± Rolf, not holding back, was someone who understood the importance of advance and retreat in sociological work. ¡°Let me think¡ªwill talking to Huang work?¡± Li Gaoyang let out a sigh. ¡°It will work, he¡¯s Professor Yang¡¯s agent,¡± Rolf asserted. ¡°Retreating is truly difficult for us.¡± Li Gaoyang found it very tough. With a cunning smile, Rolf said, ¡°Actually, you don¡¯t really have to retreat. Pretend to do so, and after the surgery, once you¡¯ve achieved your goal, immediately revert back to normal. This way, you can kill two birds with one stone. Not only can you complete the surgery, but you can also confuse the other party. Then, when they truly believe we¡¯ve retreated, you can strike unexpectedly, and they¡¯ll never foresee it.¡± Li Gaoyang¡¯s eyes immediately gleamed, ¡°Why didn¡¯t I think of that? Yes, show weakness now and once recovered after surgery and we no longer depend on him, we can turn our backs on him. Isn¡¯t any contract just a piece of paper?¡± ¡°You¡¯re a clever guy,¡± Li Gaoyang latched onto the idea. ¡°Haven¡¯t we often used and never failed with this method?¡± ¡°Cheers, we¡¯ve truly mastered the essence, which is why we¡¯re so prosperous. I wish you a speedy recovery.¡± ¡°Cheers, let¡¯s initiate the plan immediately: retreat and then advance, later to turn our backs.¡± Chapter 1225 - 1225 948 Midnight Pig Crying ?Chapter 1225: Chapter 948 Midnight Pig Crying Chapter 1225: Chapter 948 Midnight Pig Crying Mr. Karen recovered quickly and now he can walk in the hospital garden. Due to a high demand for wards in the Surgical Research Institute, he decided to move to the Overseas Chinese Building to continue his stay for a while. Manstein had almost finished organizing Yang Ping¡¯s research materials and would soon submit them to the Swedish Nobel Committee. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is assessed by the Karolinska Institute, whose many professors are good friends with Manstein. Nobel Prize evaluations are based on principles of fairness and transparency, but wherever there are people, there are human factors ¡ª it¡¯s just a question of degree. It¡¯s unavoidable. The medical achievements of Ilizarov from the Soviet Union were entirely worthy of a Nobel Prize, but he was denied the award due to other factors. In Manstein¡¯s view, the committee members were worldly and might be surprised by Manstein¡¯s recommendation this time. The spatial orientation gene was indeed stunning, and the deeper the research, the more apparent the theory¡¯s advance. Manstein just worried whether those big shots could understand the sophistication of this achievement. But no matter, with Manstein¡¯s recommendation, even if those big shots couldn¡¯t grasp it right away, they would still nod and agree. To Yang Ping, the Nobel Prize represented a huge amount of points. Points are the most important resource in the System Space, so Yang Ping was full of anticipation for the Nobel Prize. With Manstein¡¯s strong endorsement and barring personal biases from the judges, securing the Nobel Prize shouldn¡¯t be a problem. Manstein would regularly update Yang Ping on the progress via WeChat, so Yang Ping didn¡¯t have to worry too much. It is always more effective to let professionals handle their domain of expertise. While the spatial orientation gene¡¯s research achievement was being submitted for Nobel Prize consideration, Yang Ping continued his other research. Basic scientific research is an extremely arduous task, so researchers must be capable of enduring solitude. The recent incident with the laboratory equipment lock had a significant impact on research progress, but difficulties are temporary and must be faced sooner or later. The domestic software in the laboratory is running more and more smoothly now, with fewer bugs. The engineers have been very diligent, truly focused on their work. In terms of usability, these domestic software solutions are actually more convenient than imported ones, although they need more time to build up stability and foundational elements. In his free moments, Yang Ping would visit the three laboratories, which were just up and down the floors. Whenever he had time, he would take a few walks around. Everything was running well with no major issues, and the difficulties caused by the lock have been overcome. There¡¯s no need to worry about lock issues anymore. After inspecting the laboratories, Yang Ping went to the operating room. Not seeing Song Zimo, he asked Little Five, ¡°Where¡¯s Song Zimo?¡± Little Five was sewing up skin with a graduate student, ¡°He just stepped out for something, and I¡¯ll be chief surgeon for the next surgery.¡± ¡°He left in quite a hurry,¡± a Standardized Training Student added. ¡°I heard Tang Fei was feeling a bit dizzy,¡± said another voice. It was Zhang Lin, the chief of the intelligence unit, who provided specific information. It turned out that Tang Fei was having severe dizziness and might have called Song Zimo, so he rushed over to check on her. Tang Fei, a doctoral student in sports medicine, was often seconded to the Sports Medicine Center. She had been recently borrowed again and felt dizzy during surgery. Two female interns helped her to the resting room to take a break, and the Head Nurse, worried about low blood sugar, made her a sugar drink. But before she could take a sip of the sugar water, Tang Fei had already returned to normal. She called Song Zimo to explain the situation, and he immediately hurried over. After confirming Tang Fei was alright, Song Zimo returned to the Surgical Research Institute. This was not the first time Tang Fei had experienced dizziness, so Song Zimo considered taking her for a check-up. The following surgery was for the correction of scoliosis. The technique was the latest minimally invasive surgery¡ªimplanting a precise ossicle organizer, using precision ossification technology to correct the spine. Recent animal experiment data for precise ossification technology were excellent. This experiment was based on Yang Ping¡¯s extensive basic data on accurate disturbance of ossification. With these data, Song Zimo and August were able to develop miniature inhibitors for controlled bone growth. Given the positive effects in animal experiments, clinical trials could progress in stages. With Sanbo Hospital and Harald Hospital as clinical centers in China and Germany, phase I clinical trials had begun. Drug and medical device development is a process approached with caution, but medical devices generally progress faster than drugs due to less stringency. During the European Spine Academic Conference, Song Zimo conducted several surgeries using this technology, which were among the first in the world. Currently, the postoperative correction effects look very promising. Lining up the X-rays for regular checkups, one could almost see the progress in real time. The correction was rapid and the margin of error was completely within the doctors¡¯ control. The main concern with this technology was the possibility of uncontrolled correction leading to new deformities, which would be counterproductive. However, no such problems had arisen yet. As for any adverse effects of the device material on the human body, that wasn¡¯t a concern. The material used for the miniature ossicle organizers was a well-established medical material, very safe. If it were a new material, the safety tests for its implantation could be more problematic than the device itself because of the uncertainties regarding the material¡¯s side effects on the human body. The first batch of clinical trial patients had arrived at Sanbo Hospital. These children ranged from as young as three years old to twelve, and for this method of treating scoliosis, the older the age, the less growth potential, hence poorer results. Pre-adolescence or early adolescence is best. Mid-adolescence is also manageable, but for severe cases in late adolescence, the effects are surely lesser because the technique itself relies on growth for correction, and without growth potential, the extent of correction will be limited. Chapter 1226 - 1226 948 Pig Cries in the Middle of the ?Chapter 1226: 948 Chapter Pig Cries in the Middle of the Night_2 Chapter 1226: 948 Chapter Pig Cries in the Middle of the Night_2 The first batch of children numbered five, and they had already moved into the hospital to complete various examinations. Their parents had signed various informed consent forms. Clinical trials, whether drug-related or device-related, all have certain risks, and this is certain. The medical expenses for all volunteers in clinical trials are free, and they can also receive a sum of experimental subsidy, so many parents of children from poor areas are willing to let their children participate in this clinical trial, seizing the opportunity for free treatment. Song Zimo returned to the Operating Room of the Surgical Research Institute, where Little Five was performing spine surgery, implanting a growth plate inhibitor in an 8-year-old patient. The operation was fairly simple, safer and simpler than vertebroplasty. Yang Ping returned to his office, where Doctor Li Min was looking for Song Zimo with a form to sign. But since Song Zimo was at the operating table, Yang Ping personally signed for him. Actually, these signatures were supposed to be signed by Department Director Yang Ping, but it was usually Song Zimo who took care of it. Li Min was now rotating through various departments at Sanbo Hospital, undergoing training for all of the basic surgical procedures. There weren¡¯t many opportunities to encounter these basic operations at the Surgical Research Institute, such as appendectomies, cholecystectomies, and so on, which are surgeries you would never see at the institute. Patients at the Surgical Research Institute were all difficult, complex, highly challenging diseases and surgeries. With the foundation laid by Yang Ping, Li Min had mastered extremely proficient anatomical knowledge, basic surgical skills, and theoretical knowledge of various operations, which allowed him to progress very quickly in practice. Yang Ping had him rotate through each department and had informed the heads of those departments to take special care of Li Min, as no one could disregard the face of Yang Ping. It might be useful at some point in the future, at least when encountering difficulties during surgery, one would not be so nervous, and in critical moments, they could call on Yang Ping to save the operation. As the saying goes, ¡°You can¡¯t expect not to get your feet wet if you always walk by the river.¡± In the medical field, no one dares to boast. Until the day of retirement arrives, anything can happen. Yang Ping checked his WeChat, and Luo Jin had sent him many messages. This guy was now playing football in Europe, and during a routine checkup, a brain tumor was detected. Ever since he was young, Luo Jin had faced one hardship after another, battling nasopharyngeal carcinoma, car accidents, and severe damage to his knee joint, yet each time, he managed to pull through with his resilience, now thriving on the green fields of Europe. But this time, the situation might not be so hopeful. Yang Ping looked at the image he sent, another tumor in the brainstem, and in an even more difficult location than Karen¡¯s, more dangerous and severe due to its widespread diffusion. Medicine is not omnipotent, and doctors are not gods. All medicines and surgeries are bounded by objective limits. The surgery for Luo Jin will be challenging. Without it, he could only wait for death, but undergoing surgery will inevitably lead to disability, leaving behind severe motor function impairments, because the tumor¡¯s invasion into the central system is already quite evident. No matter what method is used, surgery or various ion knives, it is impossible to avoid disability. He could survive, but he would not be able to return to the field again. [Surgery is recommended, the goal is to survive, but motor functions will be severely impaired, and you will not be able to play football again.] Yang Ping sent his opinion. After a period of silence, a message came through from the other end. [Thank you, I understand.] [Prepare mentally for retirement, arrange your schedule, and have the surgery as soon as possible. Of course, nothing is absolute, maybe a miracle will happen, and you can return to the field again.] Yang Ping encouraged and comforted Luo Jin. [What¡¯s the probability of impairment in motor functions after the surgery?] [Ninety-nine percent!] As a science, medicine is objective, and Yang Ping must remain objective. [I¡¯ll think about it, thank you, Professor Yang.] Luo Jin is currently in his golden years as a sports athlete, performing brilliantly while playing football in Europe. Such an event occurring now must be extremely distressing, but Luo Jin, having endured many setbacks, has a resilience stronger than most. Yang Ping only needed to give him an objective forecast, and Luo Jin would make the best decision for himself. Luo Jin has always been the honorary spokesperson for the Sports Medicine Center at Sanbo Hospital, and he recently delivered numerous photos to the Publicity Department of the hospital for use in promotional materials. The Sports Medicine Center was already developing rapidly, and with Luo Jin¡¯s support, its influence had become even more extensive. After work in the afternoon, Yang Ping called together the doctors from his department to discuss Luo Jin¡¯s illness, and incidentally asked Song Zimo about Tang Fei. Song Zimo said it was just a transient dizziness and there should be no problem. But for safety¡¯s sake, he would arrange for Tang Fei to undergo some examinations. After discussing Luo Jin¡¯s condition, everyone was sighing deeply. Luo Jin had faced one trouble after another since childhood, and it was uncertain if he would be able to pull through this time. Actually, if he decided to give up football, with the success rate of Professor Yang¡¯s surgery, Luo Jin could definitely survive. After the meeting adjourned, everyone in the department had fast food, because after dinner they¡¯d all go to the Animal Experiment building for simulation surgeries. The demand for pigs in the Animal Experiment building was increasing, and the Animal Department of Nandu Medical University, relying on this big customer, was thriving. In order to take good care of this large client, they had set up an office specifically at Sanbo Hospital and expanded the team¡¯s staffing. Doing just these things was still not enough; they also had to be able to create models of various diseases for animals, such as for the Commando surgery, where they needed to be capable of manufacturing models of simulated diseases. This represented the highest technical difficulty, and the Animal Department of Nandu Medical University kept up with the direction of market development, actively improving and innovating ways to manufacture animal models. Chapter 1227 - 1227 948 Midnight Pig Cries_3 ?Chapter 1227: Chapter 948 Midnight Pig Cries_3 Chapter 1227: Chapter 948 Midnight Pig Cries_3 Using animal models for surgical training was actually the most effective method, but it just costs money. Dean Xia was willing to spend the money, so at Sanbo Hospital, practicing surgeries on pigs had become the norm. The Animal Experiment building was originally only for the use of doctors from the Surgical Research Institute, but now another floor had been allocated for the use of surgeons from the entire Sanbo Hospital. Such investment was not just about a few pigs, associated measures were the major expense: things like daily management and maintenance of the building, supervision of pig breeding, and various specialized equipment used for surgical training, all requiring significant financial commitment. But Dean Xia was a generous person, willing to invest in order to enhance everyone¡¯s surgical skills; this amount of investment was nothing to him. Dean Xia even decided to establish a ward and an ICU for pigs in this building, allowing for convenient observation of the pigs¡¯ post-surgical condition, rather than just completing the surgery and being done with it. After learning the Commando surgery from Yang Ping, Director He of the Thoracic Surgery Department was eager to try it out. Sometimes, the general environment has a large impact on people; Director He, with a group of doctors, was busy practicing Commando surgeries on pigs. In the past, some departments were not very active, but with the development of the Sports Medicine Center, the General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery departments followed suit, and most of the hospital departments, except for a few old sticklers, had decided to join the tide of departmental development in this competitive environment. The Gamma Knife department, initially a fringe department on the brink of being cut, had been turned into a bustling hub by Duan Xiaoming, who polished his skills under Yang Ping¡¯s mentorship. Now, Duan Xiaoming was not only busy with departmental work but also frequented other locations, even using his technical expertise as a shareholder in several Gamma Knife centers, which were mostly on the verge of closing. With Duan Xiaoming¡¯s intervention, they immediately started making profits. Duan Bald had one move: treating uterine fibroids. The saying ¡°one trick to rule them all¡± was a living example in him. There used to be many complications in treating uterine fibroids with the Gamma Knife, but now under Director Duan¡¯s hands, these complications were virtually nonexistent. He had mastered the essence of the technique, his surgerical outcomes were good, and complications were rare, earning him the well-deserved reputation as the ¡°Friend of Gynecology.¡± Yang Ping and Song Zimo had walked several rounds in the Animal Experiment building and Yang himself hadn¡¯t realized at first just how significant this laboratory, designed for simulating surgeries, was in driving the entire hospital to pursue technical passion. Yang saw the directors of the Organ Transplant Center, Director Liu and Director Li, sweating profusely as they selected pigs to reduce the number housed in the laboratory; now staff had to book pigs in advance. Otherwise, with so many pigs housed there, the entire building would become a real pig farm, where no odor-elimination system could cope during hot weather. Both directors of the Organ Transplant Center were now aiming to tackle heart and lung transplants; they wanted to practice on pigs first. Though many hospitals had developed liver and kidney transplants, very few had introduced heart and lung transplants. It seemed, the two directors were also beginning to make their move. The Neurosurgery department was also advancing towards brainstem tumors, and they too began sending people to the Surgical Research Institute to learn from time to time. It looked like the strategy of using key points to drive broader effects was beginning to show results. The most active were the hospital¡¯s many doctors in their thirties who had both substantial experience and a strong desire, as well as passion, for technological advancements. These individuals sometimes used their free time to practice surgeries on pigs until late at night. If not for Dean Xia¡¯s foresight in soundproofing the area, the hospital would be filled with the sounds of pigs squealing in the middle of the night, a frightening thought indeed. Chapter 1228 - 1228 949 Cruel Diagnostic Methods ?Chapter 1228: Chapter 949: Cruel Diagnostic Methods Chapter 1228: Chapter 949: Cruel Diagnostic Methods The bustling animal experiment building had nurtured a group of young people with excellent surgical skills, including training doctor Li Min, who benefited greatly. He practiced all the fundamental surgeries on experimental pigs, which allowed him to perform real surgeries much faster. The idea of transforming the entire Sanbo Hospital¡¯s surgical standards using a ¡°pig farm¡± was something neither Yang Ping nor Dean Xia had anticipated. Dean Xia started to reminisce about the farm at Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 from the past, wishing there was a similar farm in the suburbs for Sanbo Hospital. If they could raise these pigs on a farm and build a hospital for them there, all the doctors at Sanbo Hospital could freely practice surgeries on the pigs. Creating an animal laboratory within the hospital premises meant that no matter how well the soundproofing and air filtration were handled, the scale had to be controlled cautiously. A hospital is a hospital, and it must not turn into a pig farm. Now, times are different, land is incredibly valuable, and securing a farm is virtually fantasy. The real estate prices around the hospital are climbing every month, showing how unrealistic owning a plot of land is. The hospital¡¯s affiliation change was already on the agenda, being upgraded from a provincial hospital to one directly under Beijing¡¯s administration. The change in affiliation signifies not only a rise in status and resources but also an increase in influence. Furthermore, the hospital¡¯s focus would shift from provincial to national and international levels. However, this was already a fact. Looking at the source of patients in the Surgical Research Institute and the Overseas Chinese Building, sixty percent were domestic and forty percent were international. This diversity showcased the quiet enhancement of the hospital¡¯s capabilities. These past years, Dean Xia had dedicated himself wholeheartedly to revolutionizing the talent structure of the entire hospital, building a sound basis for its development. He even surrendered his welfare housing for a young doctor, who is now Director Gao. Director Gao has now propelled the Sports Medicine Center to the forefront in the country. To advance orthopedics, Dean Xia, together with Director Han, brought in Tan Boyun from Affiliated Hospital No. 2. Despite Tan Boyun¡¯s domineering and ambitious nature, which led some orthopedic directors to oppose him, Dean Xia and Director Han strong-armed his transfer. His ambition and energetic support from Yang Ping behind the scenes envisioned the Trauma Emergency Center becoming one of the top two nationwide, looking shoulder to shoulder with Mo Sixth Hospital and closely following the trauma orthopedics of Jishuitan. The other sub-specialty directors in orthopedics now felt immense pressure from Tan Boyun, who had declared, ¡°Change the mindset or change the people.¡± A department director without top-tier hospital ambition cannot lead the department to excellence. From recent experiences, structured animal experiments had a significant impact on improving surgical skills compared to sporadic and unsystematic training. Dean Xia started to expand this training approach from the Surgical Research Institute to the entire hospital. Yang Ping was reviewing the condition of Luo Jin in his office. Luo Jin was currently playing in the Premier League in Europe and performing well. Luo Jin is a rare domestic talent. Yang Ping had numerous interactions with him due to performing the main surgery and perceived him as a bright, positive, and aspiring young man, who had been resolute and dedicated to his dreams since childhood. Images of Luo Jin¡¯s condition displayed on the electronic screen showed that the tumor was likely a glioma, deeply embedded within the brainstem and encroaching upon the motor center. The human motor center is divided into higher and lower centers, with the higher centers located in Brodmann areas 4 and 6 of the cerebral cortex, and the lower centers within the brainstem and spinal cord. The current tumor was attacking the lower motor center. The higher centers rely on the lower centers to function, and if the lower centers were problematic, motor function would be severely impaired. Based on the current extent of the tumor¡¯s invasion, if he proceeded with surgery, damage to the lower centers was inevitable. Damage to these nerve centers would bring disastrous consequences. If left untreated, as the tumor grew, it would inevitably cause significant damage to other nerve clusters, such as the respiratory and cardiac centers. At this point, the strategy was to remove the tumor, halting or delaying its invasion of vital centers. Although damaging the motor centers was a secondary concern, it was a worthy trade-off for extending life. The brainstem had long been considered a ¡°no-go zone¡± for surgery and remains one of the most challenging surgeries in neurosurgery, requiring meticulous preoperative assessment, a sound surgical plan, a highly skilled chief surgeon, and a perfectly coordinated team. Yang Ping checked his WeChat on his phone, noticing that Luo Jin had yet to reply. Was he considering giving up on the surgery, or perhaps his match schedule was too busy to allow time for surgery? Yang Ping sent another message to remind him. Since Luo Jin had not responded, Yang Ping temporarily set this matter aside and began addressing other issues. His current research project was progressing slowly, encountering a bottleneck. He pondered whether there was a flaw in his approach, reassessing his strategy internally and feeling the overall direction was sound. Chapter 1229 - 1229 949 Cruel Diagnostic Methods_2 ?Chapter 1229: Chapter 949: Cruel Diagnostic Methods_2 Chapter 1229: Chapter 949: Cruel Diagnostic Methods_2 The situation with Sisi was also not optimistic; she had reached a point where surgery was no longer an option, and even Gamma Knife or various other particle blade treatments were not applicable. The only choice left was to wait for a breakthrough in medication. But a breakthrough in experiments is not easy to come by. Though Yang Ping had a system that could significantly compress experiment time, if it were to follow the actual timeline, it would be a matter of decades, and even then, success was not guaranteed. In the history of science, every scientist who has made significant contributions has been extraordinary. Science research requires pure passion to persevere; any ulterior motives can easily lead researchers to waver in the face of setbacks, to give up or collapse. Only pure passion for science can last, can enable one to focus without distraction, can allow one to walk alone, and to advance bravely. At this time, the outpatient clinic at the Surgical Research Institute was still bustling, with patients sitting in the waiting area patiently awaiting their numbers to be called. Professor Cao from the Cardiac Surgery Department was busy; there were simply too many patients in the outpatient clinic, and he had barely had a few sips of water all afternoon. During a brief lull, he took a sip to moisten his parched throat and gestured to the graduate student beside him to continue calling the next patient. The patient was a man in his thirties, quite thin and with a complexion that didn¡¯t look good; he would occasionally cough a few times and seemed a bit short of breath. He carried a bag full of thick medical records in a snake-skin bag, and upon entering, he bowed to Professor Cao, then sat down, took the medical records out of the snake-skin bag, and laid them stack by stack on Professor Cao¡¯s desk ¨C there were X-rays, CT scans, and various other test results, including those for tuberculosis, infections, tumors, and the like. Professor Cao¡¯s assistant graduate student hung the X-rays and CT scans on the light box, and Professor Cao, unruffled, adjusted his glasses, propped up his chin with one hand, and meticulously analyzed these images. The X-rays showed: large numbers of round and irregular shadows in both lungs, essentially symmetrical on both sides, more prominent on the exterior, with the lung apices not being involved. Some had already coalesced into large patches of shadow. The CT scans revealed nodules of varying sizes and ground-glass opacities, interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, and thickening of the bronchovascular bundles, among other things. This was a clear radiographic representation of pneumoconiosis. After reviewing the images and the rest of the test results, Professor Cao asked the patient, ¡°How many years have you worked in a dusty environment?¡± ¡°Five years,¡± the patient replied. Professor Cao stood up and the graduate student helped the patient to lie down on the examination bed. Professor Cao began to perform auscultation on the patient¡¯s lungs and heart, followed by some other necessary physical examinations. ¡°You have pneumoconiosis. It looks like you¡¯ve had all the necessary tests done, so there¡¯s no need for more. Your pneumoconiosis is quite severe, and at present, there¡¯s no good way to treat such advanced pneumoconiosis except for a lung transplant, in other words, a lung replacement.¡± Professor Cao quickly gave a clear diagnosis; the illness was quite obvious, leaving no room for doubt. ¡°What are your thoughts? If you want to go further into diagnosis, it¡¯s already unnecessary. I see you¡¯ve been to many hospitals, all well-known ones, and I suspect the doctors at these hospitals have already mentioned the treatment method to you¡ªlung replacement,¡± Professor Cao said as he washed his hands and continued to talk. ¡°Professor, is there any way you could help with a diagnostic certificate saying this is pneumoconiosis?¡± The patient offered up a smile, tentative and cautious, as if fearing to offend Professor Cao. It was clearly a forced smile. Professor Cao waved his hand, ¡°No, that¡¯s not possible. This disease falls under occupational illness, and only a qualified occupational disease hospital can issue a diagnostic certificate. We are not authorized to do that. You should go to your local occupational disease prevention institute to get this certification.¡± At this point, the forced smile on the patient¡¯s face faded, and he let out a hopeless sigh, ¡°I¡¯ve been to our local occupational disease prevention institute, but they refuse to provide the certification. They say that to diagnose pneumoconiosis, the company I worked for has to provide documentation proving that my working environment had lots of dust, meeting the conditions to cause pneumoconiosis, and that my lung disease is directly related to my working environment.¡± ¡°I went to the factory where I used to work to obtain these documents, but the factory refused, claiming that the environment there was good, without the dust exposure you mentioned. Without proof from the factory, the hospital won¡¯t give me a diagnosis, but the factory refuses to provide proof; I¡¯m completely out of options. I¡¯ve been running around for this for many years, and now I can barely walk without gasping for air, and I can¡¯t work at all, unable to support my family. If I had the certificate, I could at least get some compensation to make the financial situation slightly better.¡± The patient¡¯s voice was hoarse and his demeanor extremely weary; Professor Cao noticed tears in his eyes, and his old shoes were so worn that they were falling apart. ¡°It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to help you; we genuinely don¡¯t have the authority to issue a certificate for occupational diseases. Even if we did, it wouldn¡¯t be recognized, and moreover, we can¡¯t issue one¡ªit would be against regulations,¡± Professor Cao said, clearly troubled. The patient¡¯s tired eyes had lost all brightness, and he felt deeply disappointed, ¡°What should I do then? I¡¯ve been to so many hospitals for this over the years, and when I heard that Sanbo Hospital was renowned, I came to ask if a certificate could be issued here.¡± ¡°We are known for our medical knowledge, but your case isn¡¯t about medical expertise, it¡¯s about legal regulations. I¡¯m just wondering, why does your local occupational disease prevention institute require proof from the factory? Do factories admit their problems to pay compensation to you?¡± Professor Cao was suspicious about the situation. ¡°If confirmed to be pneumoconiosis, it would probably be stage three by now; they would definitely have to compensate, at least by several hundred thousand, so how could they possibly provide the documents needed to pay you?¡± Xiao Wu, the graduate student, explained. Chapter 1230 - 1230 949 Cruel Diagnostic Methods_3 ?Chapter 1230: Chapter 949: Cruel Diagnostic Methods_3 Chapter 1230: Chapter 949: Cruel Diagnostic Methods_3 Professor Cao thought for a moment, ¡°Isn¡¯t this a dead end? How could this happen? These images are so clear, can¡¯t they be taken as evidence?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that it¡¯s not possible, but only occupational disease prevention institutes can issue such diagnosis. Other hospitals aren¡¯t qualified,¡± Xiao Wu knew more about this area. Professor Cao said angrily, ¡°How can such obvious matters be so complicated? The hospitals that can diagnose don¡¯t have the qualification, and those with the qualification aren¡¯t willing to diagnose, is that what you mean?¡± Xiao Wu nodded, ¡°That¡¯s what I think. It involves interests, it¡¯s very complex, it¡¯s no longer about medicine.¡± Xiao Wu felt sympathy for the patient. Now only in his thirties and already in this condition, looking at him, it seems he won¡¯t live much longer if he doesn¡¯t get a lung transplant. What could be done? You can¡¯t just watch a patient helplessly struggle like this. Professor Cao couldn¡¯t dwell on this issue for too long, so he said: ¡°Do this, wait outside for a bit, take a rest. I¡¯ll see the other patients waiting in line. Indeed, our hospital is not qualified to diagnose occupational diseases. No matter how big the hospital is, it¡¯s not related to the size. Even hospitals bigger than ours don¡¯t have the qualification. Usually, only local occupational disease prevention institutes are qualified. You wait outside, and I¡¯ll see if I can think of a solution later.¡± ¡°Thank you, thank you so much. I am very grateful for your help,¡± the patient said cautiously, as if timid, afraid that offending someone might bring his affairs to naught. He politely got up to collect his medical documents. Graduate student Xiao Wu immediately helped him gather his materials, and the patient walked out with his bag. ¡°This X-ray is so obviously pneumoconiosis, why won¡¯t they diagnose it? They insist the factory provides the documents?¡± Professor Cao took a sip of water and rested for a moment. Xiao Wu said, ¡°It¡¯s like asking the suspect to provide evidence of their own crime. Without the evidence of the crime, they can¡¯t be convicted, which suspect would actively provide evidence against themselves?¡± ¡°So, are the doctors here just for show? With such clear indications, whether symptoms, medical history, or X-rays, CT scans laid out here, why can¡¯t they make a diagnosis?¡± Professor Cao was so angry he wanted to curse. ¡°My uncle is a doctor at our local occupational disease prevention institute, and I¡¯ve heard some information. It¡¯s complicated, and how should I put it, it ultimately comes down to interests. As a manufacturer, they definitely don¡¯t want to compensate. Each compensation could be hundreds of thousands, and certainly not just one patient is affected. In small places where factories can operate, all sorts of connections are well established. You know what¡¯s going on, everyone understands. Professor Cao, I think this patient is really pitiable. Can we think of a way to help him?¡± Xiao Wu was very sympathetic. Professor Cao paused and then said, ¡°Let¡¯s see the patients behind first, and we¡¯ll discuss how to deal with this later. Go out and tell him not to leave.¡± Xiao Wu, hearing that Professor Cao was willing to help, immediately went out to greet the patient, making sure he wouldn¡¯t wander off. When he returned, Professor Cao said with a furrowed brow, ¡°I just asked Director Wan of the respiratory department. Aside from hospitals qualified in occupational disease making a diagnosis based on images and medical history, regular hospitals can only perform a pathological examination after pulmonary lobectomy, meaning a pathological diagnosis can only be made under two circumstances¡ªpostmortem autopsy or after resection of a lung lobe in surgery.¡± ¡°So if the factory won¡¯t provide proof and the occupational disease prevention institute won¡¯t make the diagnosis, he would have to get a diagnosis by either killing himself or going under the knife on the operating table?¡± Xiao Wu¡¯s eyes widened in shock. ¡°That¡¯s the way it is.¡± Xiao Wu shivered at the thought. This¡ªit was quite cruel. Chapter 1231 - 1231 950 Let Go and Do It ?Chapter 1231: Chapter 950 Let Go and Do It Chapter 1231: Chapter 950 Let Go and Do It To discuss what to do about this matter, Professor Cao had no choice but to call Yang Ping. If they really needed to admit the patient for open chest lung surgery, that kind of pressure was not something an ordinary person could withstand. After receiving the call, Yang Ping happened to be free, so he immediately made a trip to the outpatient clinic. The dust lung disease patient, named Ou Lianfeng, had been sitting in the main hall of the outpatient clinic waiting for Professor Cao to finish work. He had been to many hospitals, traveling everywhere for several years. Now he considered Sanbo Hospital as his last hope. He had literally gambled everything, selling everything possible at home to gather some money to come to Sanbo Hospital just to get a diagnosis. This diagnosis was not only about getting compensation but also about proving a point; he clearly had dust lung disease, so why wouldn¡¯t they diagnose it. ¡°Look, I¡¯ve been to Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 and No. 2, the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital within the province, and several nationally known hospitals outside the province. Doctors have considered dust lung disease and suggested going to relevant occupational disease prevention institutes for diagnosis, yet those local occupational disease prevention institutes refuse to diagnose, demanding the patient provide proof of working conditions with dust exposure, conditions that lead to dust lung disease, proving a direct causal relationship between current lung conditions and the work environment. Isn¡¯t this ridiculous?¡± Professor Cao briefed Yang Ping on the patient¡¯s situation and cursed while discussing it. Yang Ping carefully analyzed the X-rays and CT images. These diagnostic materials wouldn¡¯t lie, speaking strictly on the facts, these X-rays and CT scans showed clear signs of stage three dust lung disease, with both lungs showing large shadows, the major axis exceeding 2 cm, and the minor axis also exceeding 1 cm. Unless these imaging films weren¡¯t from the patient himself, this diagnosis of stage three dust lung disease was a certainty. Yang Ping felt that the patient¡¯s situation was special, so he asked Xiao Wu to call the patient in to further understand the situation. ¡°Have you shown these opinions from the experts and professors at these major hospitals to the doctors at the occupational disease prevention institute?¡± Yang Ping asked Ou Lianfeng. Ou Lianfeng¡¯s face still showed an extremely helpless and tired expression: ¡°I showed them, but they said no matter what hospital it is, even Xiehe doesn¡¯t have the diagnostic authority. My condition can only be diagnosed by them, and whatever any other hospital says doesn¡¯t count. I asked why, when all doctors say I have dust lung disease, only you refuse to diagnose. You ask me to get a proof from the unit, but my purpose in getting a dust lung disease diagnosis is to get some compensation from the unit. Would the unit issue such proof willingly? Aren¡¯t you making this difficult for me?¡± ¡°Then the doctor over there just sneered.¡± ¡°This is the regulation; without sufficient proof from your original unit, or if the materials are insufficient or not satisfactory, we can¡¯t provide a diagnosis. It doesn¡¯t matter where you complain.¡± The more Ou Lianfeng spoke, the more angry he became. He became agitated, his facial muscles twitching continuously, his lips trembling, and he kept gasping for air. Graduate student Xiao Wu immediately brought a cup of water for Ou Lianfeng. Ou Lianfeng took a small sip to calm his breathing, then suddenly fell to his knees and pleaded, ¡°Please help me, I have no options left now. I can¡¯t work because of this illness, and I can¡¯t find a job. My family is barely getting by, I have older family members and a child still in school. This situation is so obvious, yet they refuse to give me a diagnosis. What am I supposed to do now?¡± Yang Ping and Professor Cao immediately helped Ou Lianfeng up, ¡°Please don¡¯t do this. We can talk this through and think of a solution together.¡± Ou Lianfeng stood up, his face a mess of tears and snot, so desperate that he had reached this point. The patient was indeed pitiable. Graduate student Xiao Wu listened with tears in his eyes, a flame of anger filling his chest. Professor Cao, too, felt a strong sense of compassion, thinking about how to help, while Yang Ping continuously flipped through the data. The objective facts were clear, so why did the occupational disease prevention institute insist on refusing to diagnose, making it difficult for the patient. ¡°Professor Cao, how about this, I¡¯ll make a call to arrange a free chest DR for him. Xiao Wu, you take him now, and I¡¯ll call the radiology department right away.¡± Ou Lianfeng had already had so many scans; Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to impose further financial burdens on him or increase his radiation exposure, but Yang Ping had to confirm that these images were indeed of him personally, setting aside any complex entanglement he might have with his original unit and the occupational disease prevention institute. Yang Ping was just dealing with the matter based on the facts. If these imaging films really were of him, then the diagnosis of dust lung disease was a certainty. Some things have no solution. If you come across patients playing tricks, it¡¯s asking for trouble. The world is too complicated, and one must be cautious in life. Some things need to be verified clearly; there are many cases where negligence in medical situations has led to trouble, and Yang Ping is aware of many such cases. Not to mention the distant ones, at Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Orthopedics outpatient clinic, a doctor, introduced by a known person, examined a patient holding X-rays from another hospital. The patient had a history of a left ankle external injury, and obvious swelling in the left ankle joint. The X-ray showed a comminuted fracture of the lower end of the left tibia. Believing in the sincerity of the patient and family due to the recommendation of an acquaintance, the doctor made a diagnosis of a comminuted fracture at the lower end of the left tibia based on the external hospital¡¯s X-rays, wrote a medical record, and a diagnosis certificate, signing his own name. Soon after, the court contacted the doctor, accusing him of providing false evidence. The doctor was baffled; how could that be possible when the fracture was clear from the start? After a long hassle, it turned out that the X-rays brought by the patient were not of the patient himself, sourced from who knows where. Chapter 1232 - 1232 950 Let Go and Do It_2 ?Chapter 1232: Chapter 950 Let Go and Do It_2 Chapter 1232: Chapter 950 Let Go and Do It_2 Even the person who had introduced him didn¡¯t know; they just thought this was a routine visit to the doctor. Little did they know, the patient had carefully orchestrated a trap to ensnare the unsuspecting doctor. There was no fracture. In order to win a lawsuit and secure a larger compensation, he meticulously concocted a fraud, exploiting the doctor¡¯s unguarded moment to lure them into making a diagnosis. If it weren¡¯t for the hospital¡¯s utmost efforts to protect itself, to help investigate and clarify the matter, the doctor would have found it very difficult to extricate themselves from this pit. This act of making a false diagnosis to swindle money was, after all, a criminal offense. There were many other patients who hadn¡¯t come themselves, sending acquaintances to the hospital to get a medical leave certificate on their behalf. They only mentioned asking a friend to help with a leave certificate, but in truth there were ulterior motives, dragging the doctor into the mess. What was even more terrifying was that the baby was already dead; the family members brought the infant¡¯s corpse to the emergency room at the hospital, then claimed the child had died and caused trouble for the hospital. There was also an elderly person with a fracture, whom the family sent to the hospital for treatment. They deliberately made the elderly person walk with the support of two crutches and then intentionally caused a fall, exclaiming, ¡°Oh no, we just came here because of a sprained leg, but now they¡¯ve fallen in your hospital, the responsibility is yours,¡± creating a scene and demanding free treatment. Just encountering one of these black sheep could cast a lifelong shadow over a doctor¡¯s heart. Therefore, sometimes after seeing and hearing too much, one becomes hardened. Regardless of how tearfully the patient pleaded, Yang Ping insisted on a re-examination, and even had a graduate student accompany them throughout the process, ensuring unequivocally that these x-ray films belonged to the patient themselves before proceeding with any further action. Otherwise, it was simply a monumental trap. Some scenarios were so ambiguous that no one could tell truth from falsehood or know where the pitfalls lay. One should have a conscience in their dealings, but this conscience shouldn¡¯t be misused or taken advantage of by others for their foolish games. Doing good deeds also requires the right approach; one can¡¯t afford to entrap themselves. ¡°He has already undergone many tests¡ª¡± Professor Cao was sympathetic toward the patient, but Yang Ping waved his hand, ¡°Do another one, see the latest manifestation of the lung images. Only with the latest image manifestations can we make an accurate judgment.¡± At the same time, Yang Ping wrote a few words on a piece of paper, then gestured for graduate student Xiao Wu to come over, pointing at the words on the paper and said, ¡°You go find this doctor, tell them Professor Yang asked for a check-up, he doesn¡¯t charge, I¡¯ve already made the call.¡± In reality, the paper read: ¡°You must accompany them throughout the entire process, ensure he completes the examination himself.¡± Understanding, Xiao Wu nodded, ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll go now.¡± In less than half an hour, Xiao Wu returned with Ou Lianfeng after completing the check-up. Before they got back to the clinic, Yang Ping and Professor Cao had already reviewed the images on the computer in advance. Stage three pneumoconiosis, there was no doubt about it, those x-ray films were indeed his own. This diagnosis was definitely accurate. Therefore, setting aside all unrelated matters, the patient indeed had stage three pneumoconiosis and could be conclusively diagnosed as such. However, the issue they were facing was real and objective: aside from the local occupational disease prevention and treatment center, other hospitals, including Sanbo Hospital, did not have the qualifications to make such a diagnosis. Even if it was one hundred percent pneumoconiosis, you couldn¡¯t make a diagnosis. To do so would be a violation and illegal. What to do? ¡°I¡¯ve been running around for years, now utterly exhausted, without a single solution, and no hospital is willing to diagnose me,¡± Ou Lianfeng said with a tone of despair. Professor Cao explained, ¡°It¡¯s not that they are unwilling to diagnose you; it¡¯s that they lack the qualification. If they made a diagnosis, it would be a violation, even illegal.¡± ¡°But those with qualifications aren¡¯t making the diagnosis either; it really feels hopeless,¡± Ou Lianfeng replied with extreme helplessness. ¡°If we were to make a diagnosis, the only option would be a thoracotomy for lung examination!¡± Xiao Wu was quite familiar with the situation and sympathized with the patient, hoping he could somehow be of help. Yang Ping was pondering when Xiao Wu added, ¡°We can only perform surgery, a thoracotomy, resect a lobe of the lung for pathological examination. A pathological diagnosis is the gold standard; there shouldn¡¯t be any problem with that, and if we make a pathological diagnosis, they couldn¡¯t possibly deny it.¡± ¡°If it¡¯s really too troublesome for you, I¡¯ll just go back, I know it¡¯s difficult for you too,¡± Ou Lianfeng began packing up, ready to leave. Yang Ping said, ¡°Wait a minute, don¡¯t rush, you stay. If a diagnosis is to be made, we can only perform a thoracotomy for lung examination. Will you go through with that?¡± Ou Lianfeng was overjoyed and immediately nodded, ¡°Yes! I¡¯ve heard doctors talk about this method before, but no doctor has dared to do it.¡± ¡°Xiao Wu, admit him to the hospital, perform a thoracotomy and resect a lobe of the lung for post-operative pathological examination.¡± Yang Ping was decisive, setting aside all other considerations; there was absolutely no problem with this diagnosis, so why not make it? ¡°Before the surgery, I reported to Dean Xia and hoped for his support,¡± Yang Ping knew that this surgery carried significant risks, risks that were greater than any he had encountered before, not due to the technical difficulty but other aspects. ¡°Great!¡± Xiao Wu immediately made arrangements for the patient¡¯s hospital admission certificate. With Professor Yang¡¯s help, things would be much easier. Ou Lianfeng couldn¡¯t believe it: ¡°You¡¯re willing to open my chest and examine my lung? You¡¯re willing to provide a diagnosis?¡± ¡°Yes! But our final diagnosis can only be based on objective facts. Whatever the pathology report says, that¡¯s the diagnosis!¡± Yang Ping said clearly. Ou Lianfeng nodded, ¡°I know, I am willing to take all the risks. Apart from this, I have nowhere else to turn.¡± After informing him of some details regarding hospital admission, Ou Lianfeng immediately went to handle the admission procedures. Another hospital had previously suggested this method but had been afraid to proceed with the surgery. Now that Sanbo Hospital was willing, Ou Lianfeng truly felt grateful, as it meant that his years of struggle might finally be resolved. After Ou Lianfeng had left, Professor Cao asked Yang Ping, ¡°What do you think about this matter?¡± ¡°If we don¡¯t take on this surgery, who else would dare to? Where can this patient go to get a diagnosis? Letting him leave wouldn¡¯t sit well with my conscience,¡± Yang Ping said, moved. Professor Cao nodded, ¡°Yes, that¡¯s true.¡± ¡°I will report to Dean Xia, we must inform him. Otherwise, if serious consequences arise, the hospital will be caught off guard in dealing with them,¡± Yang Ping declared. At that moment, Dean Sun happened to come to the outpatient department for something and stopped by Professor Cao¡¯s office. Professor Cao briefed Dean Sun about the situation, and Dean Sun¡¯s face changed color: ¡°We absolutely cannot do this. If we do, the hospital will be penalized, Dean Xia will lose his job, and Professor Yang might also get into serious trouble. The local patient¡¯s people will come after you.¡± Dean Sun understood the difficult politics involved. How could such troublesome matters be handled? ¡°Is it that serious?¡± Professor Cao was greatly surprised. Dean Sun said, ¡°You don¡¯t understand the complex issues involved. Anyway, trust me, don¡¯t bring trouble upon yourself. Better to have less trouble than more. This is not within our responsibilities.¡± ¡°What should we do then?¡± Professor Cao seemed at a loss. ¡°The surgery hasn¡¯t been done yet, right? Quickly have the patient discharged, quickly! We mustn¡¯t poke this hornet¡¯s nest, absolutely not! There are so many things in this world that can cause distress, and we¡¯re not supposed to intervene in all of them. We just need to do our job well; why bother attracting such troubles,¡± Dean Sun said and then left quickly after taking a phone call. ¡°Remember, you absolutely must not proceed with this. It¡¯s tough to explain now that you¡¯ve already admitted the patient, but if needed, I can have the Medical Services Office send someone to explain. Quickly have him leave; this is big trouble, trust me,¡± Dean Sun cautioned Yang Ping and Professor Cao before leaving. ¡°Is this matter really so serious? It¡¯s just one surgery, one diagnosis,¡± Xiao Wu was very surprised. Professor Cao nodded, ¡°Indeed, it is a serious matter, so serious that it¡¯s questionable whether our hospital can withstand it. How did Dean Xia respond?¡± ¡°The Dean said¡ª¡¯You go ahead and do it. If the sky falls, he¡¯ll bear it. He doesn¡¯t believe in this superstition.''¡± ¡°That makes things easier. Xia Changjiang really has some guts. This could be a historic moment for Sanbo Hospital. I wonder if Dean Xia can withstand it,¡± Old Cao said, worried. Yang Ping said firmly, ¡°We¡¯ll withstand it together, there¡¯s nothing to fear, let¡¯s prepare for the surgery.¡± Chapter 1233 - 1233 951 Shameless Scoundrel ?Chapter 1233: Chapter 951: Shameless Scoundrel Chapter 1233: Chapter 951: Shameless Scoundrel Pneumoconiosis is actually the most common occupational disease in our country at the moment. Occupational diseases are diseases that workers contract from being exposed to dust, radioactive materials, or other toxic and harmful substances or harmful mental factors during their regular work. In other words, there is a direct causal relationship between the onset of the disease and occupational exposure, with dust exposure leading to pneumoconiosis being the most common. As the name suggests, it seems, on the surface, that pneumoconiosis means there is a lot of dust in the lungs. The true meaning isn¡¯t too far from this. Pneumoconiosis is a disease where the lung tissue becomes fibrotic due to long-term inhalation of inorganic dust particles in the work environment, consequently impairing lung function. The cause is long-term exposure to dust at work, and the result is fibrosis of lung tissue and impaired lung function. It is not only lung tissue; fibrosis in any organ tissue, once it exceeds a certain proportion, is frightening. Fibrosis means that the original functional cells of the lungs are replaced by connective tissue cells. The original cells have specific functions, but connective tissue cells do not have such specific functions¡ªthey are essentially superfluous. Therefore, the ultimate result is damage to the organ¡¯s function, leading to eventual failure. Ou Lianfeng was admitted to the hospital to prepare for a thoracotomy to examine his lungs¡ªa last resort. It was clearly pneumoconiosis, but the local occupational disease prevention institute simply refused to diagnose it. It couldn¡¯t just end like that. Given the current condition of the lungs, Ou Lianfeng probably wouldn¡¯t live for more than a few years if he did not undergo a lung transplant. Every time he thought about this, Ou Lianfeng couldn¡¯t help but feel extremely distressed. He had been running around for years, accumulating debt, and still had not received a diagnosis of pneumoconiosis. Without a diagnosis of pneumoconiosis, Ou Lianfeng couldn¡¯t get compensation; without compensation, he couldn¡¯t get treatment, let alone continue living. Now, whether Ou Lianfeng goes to his original workplace or the occupational disease prevention institute, they both treat him as a troublemaker. He¡¯s not even allowed through the door. The security guards recognize him and directly turn him away. Some things can¡¯t be clearly explained over the phone, so Dean Xia specifically took time out to visit the Surgical Research Institute and discuss the matter with Yang Ping. ¡°This is pneumoconiosis, no doubt about it, but the patient has been running around for years without a diagnosis. He¡¯s visited many major hospitals, including in Beijing, Shanghai, and our area. All specialists consider pneumoconiosis, but their local occupational disease prevention institute has consistently refused to make a direct diagnosis. They demand that the patient provide an occupational history, dust exposure history, environmental monitoring reports over the years, and the patient¡¯s health examination reports from over the years.¡± Yang Ping gave Dean Xia a brief overview of the situation, and then took him to see Ou Lianfeng. Back in the doctor¡¯s office, Dean Xia stared at the X-rays on the electronic screen. Although he had not been involved in clinical work for many years, he still had basic clinical knowledge, and if Yang Ping said it was pneumoconiosis, there were no doubts. ¡°Pneumoconiosis is an occupational disease, and the diagnosis of occupational diseases has always been based on the principle of jurisdiction¡ªthat is, it must be diagnosed by a qualified occupational disease prevention institute in the location of the worker¡¯s employment. Hospitals without qualification, as well as qualified hospitals outside the area of jurisdiction, cannot make the diagnosis. According to this principle, the only legitimate diagnosis for him can come from their local occupational disease prevention institute. But think about it, why has this patient been without a solution for so long? The enterprise in their area must have intricate local ties. How can an ordinary worker possibly fight against a corporation?¡± Dean Xia was clear about these matters. Having heard the basics from Yang Ping, he already had a good understanding, and it wasn¡¯t the first time he had heard of such cases. ¡°What do you plan to do about it?¡± Dean Xia asked. After thinking for a moment, Yang Ping said, ¡°We plan to perform surgery on the patient, taking lung tissue with thoracoscopy for pathological examination. If that doesn¡¯t work, then we¡¯ll have to open the chest to examine the lungs.¡± ¡°Good! Since you¡¯ve got this sort of integrity as doctors, I can¡¯t be left behind. Go ahead and do what you need to do; I¡¯ll take responsibility for any consequences. I refuse to believe in this evil. If it can¡¯t be solved in so many years, today it will be resolved in our Sanbo Hospital. Technically, do whatever you need to do; I¡¯ll shoulder the rest. However, you must communicate well with the patient, for such a thoracotomy has probably no precedent in the country.¡± Dean Xia¡¯s voice was particularly loud¡ªwhen he spoke at meetings, the whole room could hear him even without a microphone. With Dean Xia¡¯s support, everyone felt much more reassured. After all, the hospital would be involved in the end; it wasn¡¯t just Yang Ping¡¯s matter alone. ¡°The patient currently has very poor respiratory function and definitely needs a lung transplant. Before that, it would be best to perform a lung lavage, but the patient¡¯s financial situation is very dire. This hospitalization was funded by selling all his family possessions to collect ten thousand yuan. There¡¯s no money for the following lavage or anything, let alone a lung transplant.¡± Graduate student Xiao Wu also chimed in. He had just graduated recently, and with his naive thinking, he was highly empathetic, always wanting to provide some help to Ou Lianfeng. ¡°I¡¯ll think of a way. I¡¯ll have someone from the hospital¡¯s relief fund investigate his situation. If he truly qualifies for aid, then our relief fund will pay for his continued treatment.¡± Dean Xia could only say this for the time being, as the relief fund was not meant to be used casually. It must meet certain criteria, and a strict investigation of the patient¡¯s situation was required. At that moment, Dean Sun also arrived at the Surgical Research Institute. He found Dean Xia there, so they could discuss the pneumoconiosis patient¡¯s case together. Dean Sun¡¯s brows were tightly furrowed as he sat down, ¡°How is it going? Has the patient been discharged?¡± Chapter 1234 - 1234 951 Shameless Wretch_2 ?Chapter 1234: Chapter 951 Shameless Wretch_2 Chapter 1234: Chapter 951 Shameless Wretch_2 ¡°I want Professor Yang to perform a chest surgery to open up and check the patient¡¯s lung, then make a pathological diagnosis,¡± Dean Xia said. Dean Sun immediately waved his hands, ¡°Absolutely not, get that patient discharged as soon as possible.¡± When saying this, Dean Sun also glanced at the open door of the doctors¡¯ office, and a graduate student immediately went to close it. Dean Sun continued speaking, his voice also very low, ¡°I happen to have a classmate working in the health department of this patient¡¯s local area, I just contacted him to understand the situation. Their health department is well aware of this matter, we must not touch it.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Is there a problem with this patient?¡± Dean Xia asked, puzzled. ¡°It¡¯s not that the patient has a problem, but the enterprise he works for is not an easy one to provoke, deeply rooted locally. You think if they are so tough they must have their reasons, which we all know without saying. The patient has already made complaints everywhere to no avail.¡± Dean Sun had already acquired a basic understanding of Ou Lianfeng¡¯s situation. Dean Xia said, ¡°So we just give up? Just like that? Letting the patient continue to struggle?¡± ¡°We better not mess with this trouble. It¡¯s originally none of our business, we are a general hospital, we don¡¯t have the qualification for occupational disease diagnosis. Not giving him the diagnosis is right, reasonable, and legal.¡± Dean Sun hoped to persuade Dean Xia and Yang Ping, why stir up trouble for oneself? ¡°Old Sun, your intentions are for the good of everyone, but if we also turn him away, what will the patient do? Just let it be? We don¡¯t want to be heroes, we just want to do our job well. I think it¡¯s our responsibility.¡± ¡°I understand, but from what I learned from my classmate, between the lines he indicated this matter is complicated and could lead to trouble; it¡¯s better not to take it on. Besides, pneumoconiosis is not our responsibility.¡± Dean Sun has always been more cautious and conservative, and he strongly opposed Yang Ping taking on this trouble, whether for the hospital or for Yang Ping himself. Dean Xia usually had a dominating temper, but he never ran a one-man show. Instead, he was very democratic, so not only Dean Sun but also other leaders of the hospital dared to speak out and express dissenting opinions. ¡°I know, this will definitely cause trouble, but trouble be damned, let me take it on.¡± Dean Xia was resolute. Dean Sun said helplessly, ¡°Alright, we must be scrupulous about the procedures. There will be accountability later on. We should hold a hospital committee meeting. If there is accountability later, we should all take responsibility together. How can we let one person bear it alone?¡± ¡°That¡¯s good, we¡¯ll have a hospital committee meeting tomorrow morning to discuss this; push the surgery back by one day.¡± Dean Xia decided on the spot. With that, the matter was settled. Yang Ping saw off the two deans, and the attending physician Xiao Wu rushed in to report: ¡°Ou Lianfeng just had severe difficulty breathing, his bedside chest X-ray showed a pneumothorax, and I¡¯ve just performed closed thoracic drainage on him.¡± This was a pneumothorax caused by a local tear and air leak in the lung. When Ou Lianfeng was in the outpatient clinic, Yang Ping had noticed that his condition was not looking good and a pneumothorax was likely. Unexpectedly, it occurred right after his admission. Since closed thoracic drainage had been performed, there was momentarily no danger, and Yang Ping decided to repair the torn area of his lung during the surgery. Yang Ping checked the X-rays on the computer, and then looked over at Ou Lianfeng by the bed. His condition was stable, not affecting the surgical plan. Xiao Wu, while dealing with Ou Lianfeng¡¯s pneumothorax, started to conduct preoperative examinations. The preferred surgical method was thoracoscopy, with thoracotomy if necessary, so this was indeed a major surgery. If there were any other means, neither the doctors nor patients would choose such an extreme method. But it seemed that there was no other way to prove that the patient had pneumoconiosis. The local occupational disease prevention center required a factory certificate for diagnosis, and the factory¡¯s stance was also clear: without a diagnosis from the occupational disease prevention center, they would not provide compensation, leaving the patient in a deadlock. Professor Cao also took time to come and see Ou Lianfeng, to understand his condition and find out when Yang Ping was planning to perform surgery. When he knew that Dean Xia had firmly expressed support, Professor Cao was very moved. The patient had struggled for so long and could finally get an objective diagnosis. For Ou Lianfeng, he was also out of options. This was his only hope. He had visited many hospitals, including the most authoritative ones. The experts all considered pneumoconiosis, but the occupational disease prevention center just would not give a diagnosis. Now with no way out, he came to Sanbo Hospital willing to take a chance. He had not expected Sanbo Hospital to immediately agree to admit him for surgery to examine his lung, giving him a glimmer of hope. Without examining the lungs, without obtaining a diagnosis of pneumoconiosis, he would not receive a penny in compensation. Without compensation, how would his family survive? He used to be the pillar of the home, and now, due to the illness, how long he could live was an unknown. As for a lung transplant, he didn¡¯t even dare to think about it. Because Ou Lianfeng had a chest tube connected for closed drainage, he wasn¡¯t very mobile and couldn¡¯t take care of himself. Considering his special circumstances, the head nurse arranged for a caregiver to help him. When it was time for dinner, graduate student Xiao Wu, knowing Ou Lianfeng was financially strained, paid for a boxed meal and brought it to him. Ou Lianfeng was very grateful. There were still many good people in the world, like the experts who told him he had pneumoconiosis. They simply didn¡¯t have the authority to make a diagnosis but never hid anything from him. Some even gave him advice and helped him find a way. Chapter 1235 - 1235 951 Shameless Wretch_3 ?Chapter 1235: Chapter 951 Shameless Wretch_3 Chapter 1235: Chapter 951 Shameless Wretch_3 Not long after Dean Xia had discussed Ou Lianfeng¡¯s matter with Yang Ping, he called Yang Ping again to share some good news. The provincial authorities were ready to allocate a piece of land in the suburbs to Sanbo Hospital for an animal laboratory. This was in Nandu Provincial City, where land was incredibly valuable, yet the province had agreed to provide the land. In fact, Dean Xia hadn¡¯t formally applied because he knew it was impossible, so he simply did not want to complicate matters for the provincial leaders. He only mentioned it casually during a conversation with the leaders, and unexpectedly, the leaders remembered and asked Dean Xia to submit a formal report and go through the standard approval process. As for whether the approval would be granted, the leaders could not guarantee it, but they said that in principle, they strongly supported the innovative development of Sanbo Hospital. An animal laboratory would be very helpful for doctors, especially young doctors, to enhance their practical skills and greatly aid scientific research. In line with the strategy of revitalizing the country through science and education, the province should provide support. Dean Xia felt that he didn¡¯t know when it started, but things at Sanbo Hospital had been going smoothly, almost as if his wishes were being fulfilled. In the past, such a project would have been impossible. Under the current development conditions, it was unthinkable to get such a large piece of land for Sanbo Hospital. Ou Lianfeng called his wife to reassure her, and she told him that several of his coworkers had been fired from the factory for helping him. Ou Lianfeng felt guilty for causing trouble for so many people. These colleagues had done nothing but stand up for Ou Lianfeng; they had gone to the factory manager¡¯s office to demand justice, asking why they wouldn¡¯t provide Ou Lianfeng with the proof he needed. In a fit of anger, the factory manager fired all those who had spoken out. In fact, these coworkers were more or less suffering from pneumoconiosis themselves, as the factory¡¯s safety measures were completely inadequate¡ªit could be said there were none at all. The work environment was always filled with large amounts of dust, yet the only protective gear provided to the workers was a thin, basic face mask, not even an N95, because this saved money, cutting costs. After receiving the medical diagnosis, Ou Lianfeng felt he should turn to the media, hoping to get their help to seek justice. Relying on his own strength was too insufficient. The last time he went to the factory where he used to work, security didn¡¯t let him in, claiming they didn¡¯t recognize him and even saying he never worked at the factory, accusing him of trying to extort money. It was rumored that all his employment records at the factory had been destroyed. After years of hard work at the factory, to end up with pneumoconiosis and then be dismissed by the factory as not their employee, but rather a scammer and a hooligan, was something Ou Lianfeng could not swallow. Graduate Student Xiao Wu came to check whether Ou Lianfeng¡¯s chest drainage tube was functioning normally, then stayed to chat for a while. These young doctors almost spent the entire year, 24 hours a day, at the hospital. Xiao Wu was Ou Lianfeng¡¯s primary doctor. Young doctors at the Surgical Research Institute took turns to accompany senior experts in the outpatient clinic. This allowed them to learn from the seniors, as well as assist them in seeing patients, such as by typing on computers or doing data entry. Not every senior expert was like Professor Zhang Zongshun, who could type Wubi very smoothly, hitting 70 to 80 characters a minute with no problem, playing games like ¡°King of Glory¡± and ¡°PUBG¡± just as well as young people. Some senior experts typed ¡°one-finger Zen,¡± and if left on their own, they could not see many patients in a day. With young doctors assisting, they could focus exclusively on consulting without the frustrations of dealing with computers, which could improve work efficiency. So Xiao Wu also rotated once a week to assist senior experts in the outpatient clinics. The rest of his time was spent working in the wards of the Surgical Research Institute. Ou Lianfeng was admitted under his care during one of these shifts, so he was in charge of him. Newly graduated doctors were full of fervor and overflowing with empathy, deeply moved by everything they encountered¡ªa common trait among the young. Xiao Wu was very sympathetic about Ou Lianfeng¡¯s situation and was furious about how his previous workplace and the local occupational disease prevention office had handled the matter. How could there still be such shameless scoundrels in this world, capable of committing such acts, without their conscience aching? ¡°Are you writing a medical record?¡± Zhang Lin looked across at the series of ¡°shameless scoundrels¡± Xiao Wu had typed on the computer and asked. Xiao Wu immediately snapped back to reality, deleting the incorrectly typed words. His wandering thoughts had momentarily taken control of his hands. A conscience? Some people simply didn¡¯t have one. Chapter 1236 - 1236 952 Elementary Students Assignment ?Chapter 1236: Chapter 952: Elementary Student¡¯s Assignment Chapter 1236: Chapter 952: Elementary Student¡¯s Assignment Xiao Wu continued to write medical records. For young doctors, there was always an endless stream of records to write and medications to replace, but no matter what, Xiao Wu always felt a tightness in his chest. Gradually, the office became more crowded with doctors. In their rare breaks, they started to talk about Ou Lianfeng, chatting while writing medical records without delaying work. For Ou Lianfeng¡¯s plight, the doctors and nurses were very sympathetic. Several young doctors suggested raising funds to hire lawyers and the media to help Ou fight for compensation and reclaim his justice. Ou¡¯s situation logically was a dead knot, an unsolvable deadlock. If Sanbo Hospital had not agreed to perform an open chest lung biopsy for him, Ou would not have had the chance to be diagnosed with pneumoconiosis, and without that diagnosis, there would be no compensation to fight for. Now that Sanbo Hospital was willing to perform the lung biopsy, this would enable him to get a pathological diagnosis based on the removed lung tissue. Perhaps this was the turning point in the case. Thinking of this, Xiao Wu felt a bit relieved. While everyone was heatedly discussing, Zhang Lin suddenly entered and said, ¡°Has everyone finished their medical records? Tomorrow, Medical Insurance is conducting a random check.¡± Medical records inspection? Conversations stopped abruptly, and the sound of typing on keyboards became louder and more frequent as everyone started furiously rushing to complete their records, fearing that non-compliance would lead to financial penalties. ¡°Later, colleagues from the Medical Insurance office will come over. Let¡¯s have a small meeting together to discuss and learn about the DRG/DIP payment system,¡± Zhang Lin added. The DRG/DIP payment policy has been in effect for a long time. Still, people were not fully competent in their clinical work, lacked a deep understanding of the policies, and often chose the wrong diagnostic and score points. This led to cases where although the patient was treated successfully, the hospital still lost money. Therefore, colleagues from the Medical Insurance office were very anxious, starting to teach in various departments and explaining the DRG/DIP payment system to ensure the deserved money was not lost due to incorrect selections. Yang Ping went alone to check on the wards in the Overseas Chinese Building. Mr. Karen from Sweden was now staying there. He was technically ready to be discharged, but he decided to stay at Sanbo Hospital for safety reasons, considering that the surgery he had was a complex and high-risk heart surgery. The Overseas Chinese Building currently housed three wards: internal medicine, surgery, and orthopedics. Director Tian of the orthopedics department was thriving there, integrating well into every circle and making a name for himself. Following the example of two other big names in the Overseas Chinese Building, Director Tian was excelling even beyond them, using the platform to network with many high-profile individuals. This outstanding doctor from Huaxi Hospital was thriving in both scholarly pursuits and social circles, becoming a master of academia and practical wisdom. Previously, Director Tian¡¯s brother worked in the provincial city. Now, following Director Tian, he had become a prosperous contractor who drove a Range Rover. Director Tian, who still held strong hometown values, not only saw his brother prosper first, but his brother also brought the village¡¯s young people with him, forming an engineering team. They all made a good living, with Director Tian improving the wealth of his entire village single-handedly. In a place like the Overseas Chinese Building, it wasn¡¯t academic ability that was important, but rather the ability to handle human relationships well. Director Tian was not only keeping up with his academics but also used his research skills to learn various interpersonal intricacies, successfully transitioning and becoming an expert in this area. Mr. Karen was recovering very well. Because of this surgery, he had developed a special affection for China and his son had used this time to survey many places in China, which greatly altered the Karen family¡¯s view of the country. They had previously received biased information about China. The real China was so vibrant and full of hope that he decided to increase his investments in China and expand his cooperation with the Anning Group, pouring a significant amount of capital into the world¡¯s largest and most dynamic market. After checking on Mr. Karen and feeling reassured about his condition, Yang Ping thought there was no need for daily visits. He could send Song Zimo or Xu Zhiliang instead. Taking this opportunity, Yang Ping decided to visit his former superior, Director Tian, in the orthopedics department. When Yang Ping first arrived at Sanbo Hospital, he received a lot of help from Director Tian. He remembered also going to Shipo Hospital with Song Zimo for a ¡°flying knife¡± technical support mission under Director Tian¡¯s guidance, where they ended up saving that bastard Wang Ge. Just thinking of Wang Ge made Yang Ping want to curse. Thinking of Wang Ge reminded Yang Ping of Director Zhu, who was now living well. As a senior executive in the insurance company under the Anning Group, Director Zhu was earning an annual salary of over ten million and lived in Singapore with his family. Although he had left the path of medicine, the alternative path he chose was also resplendent with success. People like Director Zhu, who was smart, knowledgeable, goal-oriented, determined, hardworking, and highly adaptable, were bound to succeed in whatever they did. Director Tian¡¯s office was luxurious, fitting the prestige of the Overseas Chinese Building. The teaware displayed was of the finest quality. Allegedly, the purple clay teapot was a top-notch item from Yixing in Jiangsu, and every piece of teaware, every leaf of tea was supreme quality, some of which were not available on the market. ¡°Not only our Orthopedics Department, but the entire Overseas Chinese Building owes a lot to Professor Yang. Without Professor Yang¡¯s support, the Overseas Chinese Building would not be as bustling as it is today. Look, people are literally lining up here to receive treatment, all rushing for the prestigious brand of the Surgical Research Institute,¡± Director Tian said. Chapter 1237 - 1237 952 Elementary Students Project_2 ?Chapter 1237: Chapter 952 Elementary Student¡¯s Project_2 Chapter 1237: Chapter 952 Elementary Student¡¯s Project_2 Director Tian poured tea as he smiled and talked. The rapid development of the Overseas Chinese Building was something Yang Ping had not anticipated. Yang Ping was only focused on the research of medical techniques and had never thought about these issues. The improvement of medical techniques and the increase in patients at the hospital¡ªthat was just the natural course of things. ¡°This is the result of everyone¡¯s efforts, not just my achievement.¡± Yang Ping said modestly. While catching up with Director Tian at the Overseas Chinese Building, the two of them talked mostly about medical topics. Director Tian had not changed, still the scholarly figure, elegant as a jade tree in the wind, only now he had learned to dance in long sleeves. It was getting late. Yang Ping said goodbye to Director Tian. He took out his phone and saw a new friend request on WeChat. The person claimed to be Lu Xiaolu from Nandu Medical University. There was a WeChat group for young talents of Nandu Medical University, and both Yang Ping and Lu Xiaolu were members. Lu Xiaolu must have added Yang Ping through this group. Yang Ping had had in-depth interactions with Lu Xiaolu. This person must indeed be a rare talent. However, Yang Ping was puzzled why, at Nandu Medical University, Lu Xiaolu had always been just an unnoticed assistant. It was not fitting. Principal Ruo loved talent, how could he overlook someone as talented as Lu Xiaolu. Yang Ping thought carefully. Lu Xiaolu had yet to publish a significant paper since all major papers listed him only as the second author, some not even that. No wonder Principal Ruo hadn¡¯t noticed him. But from Yang Ping¡¯s judgment, Lu Xiaolu shouldn¡¯t lack significant papers. Could it be that he had misjudged, and he was just a braggart? It was nearly impossible to just talk big in science because it involved real, solid knowledge; right is right, wrong is wrong, without any bluff. Regardless, Yang Ping still added the new friend. ¡ª Meanwhile, at Nandu Medical University. While busy in the laboratory, Lu Xiaolu was called to the office by Guan Ruyan. Their relationship was as close as brothers, having studied abroad and worked together. They had never had any conflicts over the years. ¡°Xiao Lu, there¡¯s something else I need to trouble you with.¡± Guan Ruyan handed a document to Lu Xiaolu who, after reading it through, thought it was another new research topic. However, this document had nothing to do with their research, but rather, it was about enrollment in a national youth science competition, which completely puzzled Lu Xiaolu. He couldn¡¯t understand why Guan Ruyan would give him such a document. Perhaps he had grabbed the wrong one. ¡°Guan brother, did you grab the wrong one?¡± Lu Xiaolu handed the document back. Guan Ruyan smiled and said, ¡°No mistake, this is the registration information for Guan Zhenming to join the National Youth Science Competition. This award is very important, so I must trouble you to take some time, establish a research topic, and write a paper for the competition. Stem cells are quite popular now, can you set up a research topic in that area?¡± Guan Zhenming was Guan Ruyan¡¯s son, Principal Ding¡¯s grandson, currently a fourth-grade student in elementary school. ¡°Stem cells? A primary school student? It¡¯s not quite ethical to do this, meddling in kids¡¯ affairs like this¡ª¡± Lu Xiaolu felt it was absurd, a young student using a stem cell research topic for a competition; the kid probably didn¡¯t even know what stem cells were. This obvious fakery, especially using it on a young child, was not acceptable. ¡°This is Teacher Ding¡¯s idea, Xiao Lu, actually, you don¡¯t know, these science competitions are all about the support behind the child. Most aren¡¯t done by the kids themselves but by the parents. It¡¯s not just us; anyone who wants to win acts this way. Look at the champion of the last competition ¨C the project was about tumor genetics. You tell me if it wasn¡¯t the parents who did it. There¡¯s nothing wrong with following my approach. Bring out an internationally competitive level of research in a stem cell topic, and I guarantee we can win the championship.¡± Guan Ruyan earnestly advised Lu Xiaolu. ¡°We also want to pave the way for Zhenming early. There¡¯s no choice; the rat race is so intense now. We must start from elementary school, accumulate some capital for him, so he has a competitive edge later in education and doesn¡¯t lose at the start line.¡± Guan Ruyan added. Hearing it was Principal Ding¡¯s idea, Lu Xiaolu felt uncomfortable objecting since Principal Ding was deeply indebted to him, an obligation that weighed like a mountain. Actually, all these years helping Guan Ruyan was merely repaying that debt. However, this matter, being so blatantly fake, was really too outrageous. Lu Xiaolu was still unwilling to engage in such activity. Having written papers and prepared research topics for Guan Ruyan for many years already felt against his will, for which he had always suffered internally. But the thought of repaying Principal Ding¡¯s kindness made him bear it. Now, to prepare a research topic and write a paper for a fourth-grader to compete for a national award seemed utterly ridiculous, and there was no way he could bring himself to do it. ¡°Guan brother, you see, our current projects are quite busy, I really can¡¯t spare the time. Can you find someone else to handle it?¡± Lu Xiaolu tactfully refused. Guan Ruyan shook his head, ¡°I can¡¯t trust anyone else with this. As far as I know, several contenders with hopes of winning have very strong teams behind them. We must bring an internationally competitive level to have any chance of winning. The big framework for the lab¡¯s topics is already set up, let others handle some detailed matters and focus on this task during this period.¡± But Lu Xiaolu really didn¡¯t want to engage in this kind of activity; it had already crossed his ethical baseline. Chapter 1238 - 1238 952 Elementary Students Project_3 ?Chapter 1238: Chapter 952 Elementary Student¡¯s Project_3 Chapter 1238: Chapter 952 Elementary Student¡¯s Project_3 ¡°But¡ªa fourth grader conducting stem cell research? Forgive me for being blunt, but he doesn¡¯t even understand what ¡®stem cells¡¯ means, let alone the profound medical knowledge and complex experimental processes. It¡¯s obviously unreasonable, and anyone would immediately recognize it as a fraud.¡± Lu Xiaolu felt that this situation was absolutely ludicrous. However, Guan Ruyan was very determined, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, there won¡¯t be any problems. Don¡¯t mind how others see it; winning the prize is all that matters. This award is crucial, especially for future academic advancements.¡± But, a primary student conducting stem cell research? Absurd! ¡°Brother Guan, there¡¯s no rush on this. I¡¯ve been really busy lately. Let me think it over. I¡¯m feeling a bit unwell and need to step out for a moment.¡± Lu Xiaolu lowered his head, pulled open the door, and left Guan Ruyan¡¯s office, leaving behind a disheveled Guan Ruyan. What was wrong with this kid? Usually, when it came to scientific research, he wouldn¡¯t even blink an eye at the hardest topics. Today¡¯s task wasn¡¯t that heavy, yet he seemed to be avoiding it. ¡ª The next day, Ou Lianfeng quickly completed his surgery, and the post-surgery lung tissue pathology report confirmed it: stage three pneumoconiosis. Therefore, Xiao Wu, the supervising doctor, diagnosed Ou Lianfeng with ¡°stage three pneumoconiosis.¡± Yang Ping signed his name in the Department Director¡¯s spot and then stamped it with the seal of the Sanbo Hospital Surgical Research Institute. Ou Lianfeng, upon receiving this diagnosis, was profoundly moved. Over the years, he had wandered from place to place with a diseased body, repeatedly expelled by factories and refused by occupational disease prevention doctors, visiting numerous hospitals just for this diagnosis. Looking at the words ¡°pneumoconiosis,¡± his emotions were extremely heavy. His hands holding the diagnosis shook. This was not just a diagnosis¡ªit was also validation, a family¡¯s hope, a delayed justice. In the following days, Ou Lianfeng spent his time excitedly because his surgery had been a minimally invasive thoracoscopy. He recovered quickly and was eager to be discharged a few days later. Dean Xia arranged for a media outlet to accompany him home, hoping this diagnosis could help him secure compensation from the factory and restore his dignity. Afterward, Ou Lianfeng had many tasks to complete. He needed to undergo a lung washing surgery and then wait for a lung transplant. Investigative personnel from the Sanbo Hospital relief fund also initiated an investigation into Ou Lianfeng¡¯s real circumstances to determine his eligibility for aid. While Ou Lianfeng was hospitalized, investigation staff delved deep into his hometown to assess his situation. Indeed, he met the aid conditions; truly, his home was in complete poverty, his wife also not in good health, and his family included elderly and children. Due to pneumoconiosis, Ou Lianfeng was completely unable to work outside the home. The investigative team¡¯s staff also examined the circumstances surrounding Ou Lianfeng¡¯s case, visiting numerous former coworkers and checking with factories and occupational disease prevention centers. The whole event matched Ou Lianfeng¡¯s own descriptions exactly; there was no deceit on his part. The occupational disease prevention center¡¯s staff wholly avoided the investigative team, refusing to disclose details, even claiming ignorance, while the factory claimed they had never employed Ou Lianfeng, outright denying his period of employment there. However, by visiting Ou Lianfeng¡¯s coworkers, it was confirmed that Ou Lianfeng had worked at the factory for five years, though the factory had unilaterally erased all his records, including past medical examinations. Using a connection from Dean Sun, the investigative staff contacted the hospital where Ou Lianfeng had his medical examinations and pulled up his past medical reports, discovering that Ou Lianfeng¡¯s pneumoconiosis had been identified earlier, albeit less severe than now. However, the factory had verbally informed Ou Lianfeng that there was nothing wrong, never providing the medical reports. Later, as Ou Lianfeng¡¯s pneumoconiosis worsened, realizing something was amiss, he went to the hospital for an examination and learned of his condition. The investigative personnel reported these findings to Dean Xia. Dean Xia slammed his hand on the office desk, causing the tea cup to jump several times: ¡°Outrageous!¡± Chapter 1239 - 1239 953 The Disappearing Femur ?Chapter 1239: Chapter 953: The Disappearing Femur Chapter 1239: Chapter 953: The Disappearing Femur As for Ou Lianfeng¡¯s case, Dean Xia had thoroughly understood it by now, and this honest man¡¯s personal account contained no lies. Truth be told, before the investigation results had come out, Dean Xia still harbored some doubts. How could such an absurd thing happen? It seemed a bit unbelievable. But now, with the investigation team he had dispatched placing a thick stack of reports on his desk, he couldn¡¯t hold back, so he cursed out loud. Ou Lianfeng¡¯s financial situation indeed met the criteria for Sanbo Hospital¡¯s aid fund. Dean Xia decided to initiate the aid process to fund Ou Lianfeng¡¯s subsequent lung washing and lung transplant surgeries, which were certainly not a small amount of money; they could easily amount to hundreds of thousands. While considering Ou Lianfeng¡¯s case, his own phone rang; it was from a senior leader at the Provincial Hall, who was only a few months away from retirement. ¡°Xia Changjiang, aren¡¯t you letting me have peace of mind? Has your hospital recently diagnosed a patient with pneumoconiosis?¡± asked the senior leader. Upon hearing this, Dean Xia knew there was trouble, ¡°Yes, the patient¡¯s name is Ou Lianfeng.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s this patient. You¡¯re aware of this, then. I thought you didn¡¯t know. This must have been a decision made privately by your doctors, right?¡± the voice of the senior leader was a bit hoarse due to him having been cold for many days. Dean Xia showed no intention to evade responsibility, ¡°This was entirely my idea; it had nothing to do with the doctors. They were only following my instructions.¡± ¡°Your idea? You really protect your people well. You must know the principles of diagnosing occupational diseases, don¡¯t you?¡± said the senior leader angrily. Dean Xia reported truthfully, ¡°I¡¯m aware this is against the rules, but this case is a bit special. The patient sought treatment at the local occupational disease prevention center. The doctors there demanded employment proof from his previous employer to diagnose pneumoconiosis, but the employer refused to provide these documents. Thus, the patient was caught in a vicious cycle, running around everywhere. Other hospitals didn¡¯t have the right to diagnose, and the qualified local occupational disease center was unwilling to make the diagnosis. It was clear he had pneumoconiosis, but they just wouldn¡¯t diagnose it. What could the patient do? He had no choice but to undergo surgery and have his chest opened up for a lung biopsy. No one would resort to such extreme measures if they weren¡¯t desperate.¡± ¡°Xia Changjiang, just you acting the saint? Is this something within your authority? You are violating the rules, and you¡¯re going to be penalized. The other party¡¯s Provincial Hall has already sent an official document demanding an explanation from us and sanctions against the offending hospital!¡± The senior leader¡¯s tone was very stern. Dean Xia thought for a moment and said, ¡°Xia Changjiang alone will bear all the consequences, unrelated to anyone else. Whatever the penalty, impose it. Even if I¡¯m dismissed, I will accept it without any complaints. I know I have overstepped my authority, but I could not ignore my conscience. Honestly, if we don¡¯t take this on, this patient would never have a chance to get a diagnosis of pneumoconiosis in his lifetime.¡± ¡°Dean Xia, what are you implying? You think I wouldn¡¯t dare to penalize you?¡± the leader said furiously. Dean Xia quickly said, ¡°Senior leader, I¡¯m just telling the truth, honestly. I¡¯m willing to accept any punishment.¡± A severe cough came through the phone, and Dean Xia said with concern, ¡°Senior leader, hasn¡¯t your cold improved? It¡¯s been lingering so long, maybe you should come here for a check-up.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing, just a mild cold. My health has been declining each year. Enough, stop showing off your heroics. The punishment will certainly be imposed; it¡¯s a violation. The notification of the penalty will be sent to your hospital, but it won¡¯t be publicly announced. Since the diagnosis has been made, just let it be. Whoever made the diagnosis, don¡¯t bother them about it. Since you¡¯re taking the responsibility alone, I¡¯ll just rebuke you. That¡¯s inappropriate.¡± the senior leader said, coughing, and then hung up. ¡°Willing to accept the punishment!¡± Dean Xia sighed in relief. Soon, the senior leader¡¯s call came again, ¡°How¡¯s the patient now? Can the situation be resolved? Do you need my help to coordinate? I really don¡¯t want to be bothered by this matter anymore.¡± ¡°Thank you, senior leader, we can handle it ourselves,¡± said Xia Changjiang gratefully. ¡°Alright then, make sure to handle things appropriately and legally, complying with regulations, and of course, without betraying the conscience of being a doctor.¡± The senior leader spoke a few words more and then hung up amidst coughs. Dean Xia called over Dean Sun and relayed the recent events to him. ¡°What should we do?¡± Dean Sun said anxiously. ¡°Whatever the penalty, I¡¯ll bear it. It absolutely must not affect the doctors. They did nothing wrong; they merely fulfilled their duties as doctors.¡± Dean Xia said firmly. Over the years as dean, he had neither taken bribes nor engaged in corruption. Having no desires made him fearless; he walked the straight path, standing upright, unafraid of any storm. ¡°We agreed to bear this responsibility together; how could I possibly let you bear it alone? This is the responsibility of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s leadership team, not related to the clinical doctors. Their actions were made with our knowledge and consent.¡± With the situation being this dire, Dean Sun could only stand and fight alongside Dean Xia. ¡°Old Xia, this matter is grave and likely to impact you significantly. I¡¯ve been thinking, Sanbo Hospital can¡¯t do without you, especially now during such a critical time of development. I will bear this; say it had nothing to do with you, that it was done without your knowledge, and I solely spearheaded it?¡± Dean Sun said helplessly. Dean Xia waved his hand, ¡°No way, how could I let you bear it alone? I¡¯ve already reported everything to the Provincial Hall leaders, and from their tone, it seems the matter won¡¯t escalate much, just at most a penalty.¡± Chapter 1240 - 1240 953 The Disappearing Femur_2 ?Chapter 1240: Chapter 953: The Disappearing Femur_2 Chapter 1240: Chapter 953: The Disappearing Femur_2 ¡°That¡¯s good!¡± Dean Sun was relieved. ¡ª At that time, Yang Ping was in the Doctor¡¯s office at the Surgical Research Institute participating in a routine case discussion, where a unique case caught everyone¡¯s attention. This X-ray was very unusual; the entire right femur had only the proximal and distal ends remaining, with the middle shaft of the femur completely missing, leaving a lone metal plate spanning from the proximal to distal end, forming a powerless bridge over the empty middle. ¡°What in the world was the purpose of this surgery, ignoring the bone deficit in the middle? What good is a metal plate bridge?¡± Zhang Lin now had the demeanor of a great professor, and his occasional use of coarse language was not a display of vulgarity but highlighted the fiery spirit of a cultured person. ¡°A simple bone graft probably wouldn¡¯t work in this case, we would need a whole segment of allogenic femoral shaft to replace the deficit. Even if we went to Shanxi¡¯s bone bank personally to choose, it would be hard to find such a good complete femoral shaft, not to mention, even if there is such good allogenic bone that long, how can it be traversed? The best method would probably be the Ilizarov¡¯s bone elongation technique, which theoretically, doesn¡¯t involve the nerve vessels extending together, can work no matter the length.¡± Little Five pointed to the bizarre X-ray, sharing his views during the department-wide case discussion, with so many interns, standardized training students, and graduate students watching; he had to show something impressive. At this moment, Professor Zhang and Professor Lu of the Surgical Research Institute were calmly discussing the case, expansive in their detailed conversation. ¡°Have you two reviewed the medical history? Take a good look at the medical history before you speak,¡± Song Zimo said, his tone suggesting a reminder. The two professors lowered their heads, scrolling on the tablets in their hands. They were hasty, as this patient initially just had a simple right femoral shaft fracture, for which percutaneous techniques were used to install a locking metal plate fixation. There were no abnormalities on the first X-ray during the hospital stay, but after being discharged, the patient never followed up as advised and continued using a wheelchair. A year later, the X-ray showed that the femur had surprisingly disappeared. After reviewing the medical history, the two professors looked up, their faces filled with confusion. What was going on? How could a perfectly good femur just disappear, leaving only the pitiful ends? At this time, the gazes of many students converged on Zhang Lin and Little Five, waiting for their impressive performances, ideally a comprehensive and continuous discourse, covering etiology, pathophysiology, pathology, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis all in one go. However, the two of them now looked as if they were choked, they looked at each other and couldn¡¯t say a word, having never encountered this illness and not knowing what was going on. If it were anything else, they could have bluffed their way through, but this was medicine, a legitimate case discussion. Wildly guessing could not only earn a scolding from the professor but could also ruin their reputations for life. ¡°Was there any¡ªother¡ªillness in the past?¡± Xu Zhiliang asked. ¡°Previously healthy with no other diseases, this time it was a car accident that caused a fracture of the right femur. Both preoperative and postoperative X-rays were normal. After being discharged, the patient did not follow the doctor¡¯s orders to return for a check-up. Six months later, he attempted to walk with the aid of crutches, but the pain made him abandon the effort. He never attempted to walk again, as even slight weight bearing would cause severe pain. After a year, the patient wondered why he still couldn¡¯t walk and went to get an X-ray locally, and that¡¯s the image here¡ªhis femur had mysteriously disappeared,¡± Song Zimo continued updating the medical history. Everyone looked at this mysterious X-ray, having never seen anything like it before. How could the femur just disappear? Even if it did not heal after surgery, and the fracture ends were absorbed, it would not simply vanish¡ªthe gap created by the fracture might have just gotten a little wider at most. ¡°This is a patient from City People¡¯s Hospital. Now the patient and the hospital are at odds. They are claiming that the doctors stole the bones to sell for money. Coincidentally, the patient was also found to have only one kidney during a separate examination. The patient¡¯s family is now convinced that the doctors stole the kidney as well and are causing a commotion at the hospital. Dean Chen is in a headache, hence he asked us for help. Not only the bones being missing, but now even a kidney is gone. The media followed suit and even made a documentary claiming someone stole the patient¡¯s kidney and bones, and now City People¡¯s Hospital is being roasted over the fire,¡± Song Zimo said, turning to Yang Ping. Yang Ping looked at him and said, ¡°Print out the urinary system¡¯s imaging.¡± Song Zimo printed out the images of the patient¡¯s kidneys, ureter, and bladder, which included both surface ultrasound and CT. The surface ultrasound images didn¡¯t show much on the report, so Song Zimo printed out the CT images. Yang Ping looked at them and said, ¡°This isn¡¯t about a missing kidney. This is a solitary kidney, meaning the patient was born with only one kidney.¡± Then he asked, ¡°Has he ever had an ultrasound or CT of the urinary system before?¡± ¡°City People¡¯s Hospital hasn¡¯t found any previous imaging of the patient, so they are on the defensive in the media. A media outlet is making a prolonged fuss about this, accusing a heartless hospital of stealing kidneys and bones, talking about the miraculous disappearance of the patient¡¯s kidney and femur. These writers, why don¡¯t they clarify the basic facts? It¡¯s not the first or second time this has happened. And even after it¡¯s found that these reports are false, those who fabricated them don¡¯t have to take responsibility at all. How could this be?¡± Song Zimo was puzzled, having encountered many similar reports that wildly deviated from the truth. For instance, there was a case where the patient¡¯s second toe was used to create a new thumb after losing the original thumb to injury, a classic surgery, yet the media claimed the patient merely injured his finger and the unscrupulous doctors mistakenly attached a toe to his hand. The patient faced the media unflinchingly, claiming he knew nothing until he woke to find his toe attached to his hand, realizing the doctors had operated incorrectly. It baffled Song Zimo how such blatant smear tactics could be openly broadcasted in the media. ¡°It¡¯s not that they don¡¯t know, but rather they pretend not to know. You can¡¯t awaken someone who¡¯s pretending to sleep. To put it in today¡¯s terms, they¡¯ll say anything for clicks, ignoring the truth just to capture people¡¯s attention. Most of the underlying logic for these things is economic reasons. Like you mentioned about these fake news, it¡¯s all for traffic, all for money. Why would the patient claim ignorance regarding his surgery? To feign ignorance to collaborate with the media, knowing ultimately, he might get some money out of it. Many things, if considered from an economic foundational logic, aren¡¯t that complicated, actually quite simple. But let¡¯s not talk about these, let¡¯s focus back on the medical condition,¡± Yang Ping said, his tone very calm, steering the topic back on track. ¡°There¡¯s no doubt about this kidney, this case is definitely a solitary kidney, and the effects of a solitary kidney are distinctly different from a removed kidney. You all can read more about this whenever you have the time. Now about this missing femur, let¡¯s think about what could possibly be happening. Knowing the diagnosis of common and frequent diseases is basic, but we must also learn the diagnosis of rare diseases. Diagnosing rare diseases tests a doctor¡¯s knowledge extensively. Some diseases we don¡¯t necessarily have to see firsthand to diagnose; having read about them in books, journals can also serve as a basis for diagnosis. The process of diagnosing the first AIDS case in our country is a classic example of diagnosing rare and unknown diseases. You might want to read up on this story,¡± Indeed, when Peking Union Medical College Hospital was diagnosing the first case of AIDS, the doctors lacked clinical experience with the disease, all their knowledge coming from international journal articles. At that time, they didn¡¯t even have the methods and reagents for the diagnosis. The doctors used the available experimental equipment and conditions to design a diagnostic method, ultimately achieving the diagnosis of the first case of AIDS. Now, this mysterious case of the missing femur is viewed as either a rare or unknown disease for everyone here, requiring strong clinical thinking to diagnose. ¡°This patient has visited many hospitals but has yet to find the cause of the disappearing bone. Some hospitals suggested amputation might be necessary, which terrified both the patient and his family. Dean Chen referred the patient to us to see if there is a chance we might determine the cause.¡± Song Zimo reprojected the patient¡¯s X-rays. Chapter 1241 - 1241 954 Eradicating Illiteracy ?Chapter 1241: Chapter 954: Eradicating Illiteracy Chapter 1241: Chapter 954: Eradicating Illiteracy Thinking required knowledge as content, and without relevant knowledge in the brain, it was naturally impossible to deliberate. Zhang Lin and Little Five felt much more at ease now that nobody could identify the disease despite their earlier recklessness that had almost cost them their reputation. At least their image among the students wasn¡¯t too severely damaged. ¡°Could this be a special type of tumor that has eroded all the bone tissue?¡± speculated Li Guodong. The reason Li Guodong prefixed the word ¡®special¡¯ was that in his mind, no such bone tumor existed that presented in this way, whether primary or metastatic. The learning and research atmosphere at the Surgical Research Institute was very positive. In discussions like these, everyone would speak freely regardless of right or wrong, and even somewhat ridiculous ideas wouldn¡¯t be met with ridicule or criticism. Generally, the order of speaking in case discussions progressed from doctors with less seniority to those with more, because more experienced doctors had richer knowledge and experience. If the senior doctors spoke first, they might preclude the juniors from contributing. As a leader in his department, Yang Ping would naturally be the last to speak and summarize, which allowed for free discussion; otherwise, answering straightaway would immediately end the conversation. ¡°Hmm, I also think this could be a special tumor, but none of the bone tumors we know of have such manifestations,¡± Doctor Zhao Wenbo agreed somewhat with Li Guodong. Li Guodong and Zhao Wenbo were archenemies; it was rare for them to agree, as they usually debated heatedly, making the younger doctors doubt life itself. Especially when it came to traditional Chinese medicine, Li Guodong and Zhao Wenbo would start bickering immediately upon speaking because their views were completely opposed, with Zhao Wenbo passionately defending traditional Chinese medicine and Li Guodong consistently dousing cold water on his arguments, leading to frequent arguments over the topic. Regarding this case, they couldn¡¯t bicker as they both lacked knowledge of the disease, which left them without a foundation for debate, and thus they stood on the same side. ¡°It might also be a special infection, maybe a bacterial or viral one, or some other microorganism causing osteomyelitis, leading to extensive bone absorption,¡± a graduate student boldly proposed. ¡°What kind of virus or bacteria behaves like this? I haven¡¯t read about it in any papers,¡± another graduate student expressed skepticism. ¡°Could it be an extreme manifestation of bone necrosis following occlusion of stress or disruption of bone blood supply? Is that possible?¡± This idea was quite novel. ¡°Impossible. Occlusion of stress causes only bone porosity, and disruption of the blood supply, even if it leads to extensive bone necrosis, wouldn¡¯t cause such massive absorption, especially not within a year,¡± ¡°Is there something wrong with the X-rays? Could it be a distortion in the image caused by the projection?¡± A graduate student stood up, moving closer to the projected X-rays, trying to get a clearer view. Although the question might seem naive, it was still a valid concern. The essence of scientific spirit is doubt and exploration; without the spirit of questioning, achieving success in science is impossible. ¡°The X-rays we rechecked several times were the same,¡± Song Zimo brought up another X-ray, similar to the previous one. Experienced doctors like Zhang Lin and Little Five were puzzled, not to mention the graduate students, standardized training students, and interns. The graduate students were somewhat better off, as their specialty was orthopedics, but the others were rotating through various specialties and lacked the depth and breadth of knowledge in any specific field. Any specialized knowledge required a long accumulation of experience. Without it, merely relying on the basic information from textbooks achieved nothing; textbooks only served as a professional introduction. ¡°This is strange. Could it possibly be related to a metallic substance? Could the patient have a unique reaction to the metal, leading to bone absorption?¡± Xia Shu offered his view; he was a doctoral student specializing in cardiac surgery, and his knowledge of orthopedics was minimal, hence he was just an observer. Sitting beside Xia Shu, Dr. Jin, who had been studying the patient¡¯s medical records, now raised his head and said, ¡°Let me add something. I consider the patient¡¯s femoral shaft absorption could be idiopathic bone resorption, a rare disease with not more than two hundred reported cases worldwide. From all the literature I¡¯ve reviewed, aside from bone resorption, I can¡¯t think of any other disease that would cause the femur to vanish in such large sections.¡± Idiopathic bone resorption? The diagnosis was simple, just a few words, but nobody had heard of the disease or seen it in literature; they knew nothing about it. Both Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had already considered bone resorption, as they had studied rare diseases. However, Zhang Lin and Little Five had not yet reached this stage of learning and had not encountered this knowledge, so they naturally hadn¡¯t thought of it. The two had planned to speak later, but Old Jin had unraveled the mystery earlier, marking him as well-read; Old Jin, already in his forties and still a primary care doctor, contrasted with Director Ouyang of the Major Orthopedic Department, who led his own team. All along, Old Jin was perceived as calm and diligent, consistently focused on clinical practice. Aside from reading and studying, his only other activity was performing surgeries, without indulgences such as drinking or social entertainment. Chapter 1242 - 1242 954 Eradicating Ignorance_2 ?Chapter 1242: Chapter 954: Eradicating Ignorance_2 Chapter 1242: Chapter 954: Eradicating Ignorance_2 Old Jin had once experienced difficulties in a surgery involving the removal of foreign bodies, and later spent a lot of time researching the extraction of foreign objects. He brought out all the imaging related to foreign bodies since the establishment of Sanbo Hospital to study. He also reviewed all learning materials related to foreign bodies, and then designed various diagnostic and localization methods for foreign bodies, as well as various surgical techniques. Later, many hospitals facing difficult cases of foreign body extraction sent their patients to Sanbo Hospital. At that time, Song Zimo was learning from Old Jin about foreign body extraction, and he also became an expert in it. ¡°It¡¯s also called Gorham-Stout syndrome, the most distinct manifestation being spontaneous destruction and absorption of one or several bones. The cause of bone dissolution is not clear yet, and among known diseases, besides bone dissolution disease, no other diseases exhibit such imaging manifestations,¡± Old Jin added explanation. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang nodded in agreement. Song Zimo said, ¡°Indeed, among known diseases, only bone dissolution disease matches this imaging presentation. However, bone absorption in bone dissolution disease is generally slow; this one absorbed entirely within a year, which is quite fast.¡± ¡°This is the first time I¡¯ve encountered such a case!¡± Even though Old Jin had already given the diagnosis, everyone still had a blank mind, understanding the diagnosis in literal terms, but having no concept of the disease¡ªcauses, pathology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis¡ªall entirely lacking knowledge. ¡°This is also my first encounter. I had read related papers before, and I specifically delved into rare diseases in orthopedics, which is why I know about this disease,¡± said Old Jin modestly. ¡°Old Jin is truly Old Jin, bone dissolution disease is a real rare disease. There was a case that took eight years to obtain an accurate diagnosis, finally diagnosed at Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1,¡± Song Zimo still greatly admired Old Jin; his steady spirit of study had never changed. That Old Jin knew about this disease meant he had put in a lot of effort. Previously, he had thoroughly reviewed all rare diseases published by the World Health Organization, poring over a wealth of documents and books, making him very familiar with these rare diseases. Otherwise, how could he recognize such a disease? Medicine is an empirical science; if you don¡¯t know, you simply cannot fabricate it. ¡°Old Jin¡ªyou¡ªthis is impressive¡ª¡± Xu Zhiliang also admired Old Jin. In medicine, any diagnosis prefixed with ¡°idiopathic¡± indicates that the cause is still unclear. Many things about bone dissolution disease in medicine remain unknown, including immature treatment methods, dwelling in uncertainty. ¡°How can such a large chunk of bone just dissolve? It¡¯s hard to grasp,¡± said Li Guodong, quite troubled. ¡°There are many incomprehensible things in medicine; otherwise, why would we say that medicine is still in its infancy? Has the mechanism of the common cold been clarified clearly? Apparently not,¡± Zhao Wenbo¡¯s argumentative gene was awakened once more. For such rare diseases, without systematic training in this area, facing such a disease makes obtaining the correct diagnosis virtually impossible. That is also why a case took eight years to receive a diagnosis; most doctors have information on common and prevalent diseases stored in their minds. As for rare diseases, even if there is knowledge, it is sporadic and extremely limited. Thus, once a truly rare disease is encountered, in most cases, doctors circle around common and prevalent diseases. If they fail to break out of this cycle, it just ends there. Since 2008, the World Health Organization has designated the last day of February each year as International Rare Disease Day to draw public attention to rare diseases. Currently, there are over seven thousand rare diseases, with approximately twenty million people suffering from rare diseases in China, showing that the absolute number is still significant. We are more familiar with rare diseases such as phenylketonuria, thalassemia, and osteogenesis imperfecta, etc. Osteogenesis imperfecta is commonly known as ¡°Glass Doll.¡± Most rare diseases are related to genetics, as each individual carries about 5-10 defective genes. If both parents have a similar defect, there is a possibility of giving birth to a child with these genetic rare diseases. ¡°Bone dissolution disease is just a descriptive diagnosis; as for the cause, it is currently impossible to determine.¡± Song Zimo said. Dr. Jin said, ¡°Right, actually, I arrived at this diagnosis using the process of elimination. After ruling out inflammation, infection, tumor, and osteoporosis among other causes, only bone dissolution disease could explain it. Besides bone dissolution disease, from the cases I¡¯ve seen and the literature I¡¯ve read, no other cases exhibit such extensive bone absorption. Professor Huang Zhong at Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 diagnosed a case of bone dissolution disease. At that time, the patient had undergone femoral surgery and the fracture never healed, with the gap between the fractures growing wider. The patient had bounced around many hospitals without receiving a diagnosis, underwent multiple failed bone graft surgeries, and it was only after eight years did Professor Huang Zhong finally make the diagnosis; he even wrote a paper and made a case report about it.¡± ¡°So, how is it treated?¡± Zhang Lin asked. Dr. Jin said, ¡°First we use zoledronic acid or denosumab for medicinal treatment to stop further bone absorption and increase bone density. Then consider implanting a femoral prosthesis to replace the absorbed bone. However, I have been thinking whether an Ilizarov Limb Lengthening could be attempted for treatment?¡± ¡°This disease¡¯s¡ªmajor characteristic¡ªis bone absorption, a vast area¡ªof absorption. Normally, bone¡ªabsorption and formation are balanced. Once¡ªthe balance is disrupted, the scales will tip to one side. Now this disease¡ªis heavily inclined towards bone absorption, so¡ªusing¡ªbone lengthening technique¡ªmight not work, as bone formation is a prerequisite for bone lengthening, which Ilizarov also utilizes¡ªthe principle of distraction to stimulate bone formation,¡± Xu Zhiliang stammered as he spoke. Chapter 1243 - 1243 954 Eradicating Ignorance_3 ?Chapter 1243: Chapter 954: Eradicating Ignorance_3 Chapter 1243: Chapter 954: Eradicating Ignorance_3 Although listening to Xu Zhiliang speak was difficult, everyone had gotten used to his stuttering, so it wasn¡¯t a big deal. Especially for Zhang Lin, who initially almost had a myocardial infarction listening to Xu Zhiliang speak but gradually adapted to it. In fact, he would feel a bit awkward if Xu Zhiliang suddenly stopped stuttering one day. ¡°So we must first use drugs like zoledronic acid or denosumab that prevent bone resorption to increase bone density before we can proceed with further treatment,¡± Dr. Jin said, focusing on the X-rays projected. ¡°Ilizarov¡¯s theory of bone traction is itself a stimulus for bone growth. Can it stimulate bone growth in patients with this bone dissolution syndrome? If it can, it would act to inhibit bone resorption and prolong the life of the bone,¡± said. Song Zimo¡¯s thoughts broadened further; in fact, questioning, criticism, and debate are the spirit of academia. Without these, there would be no academic progress; the essence of truth becomes clearer through debate. ¡°Everyone always struggles to find suitable topics, but isn¡¯t the topic right in front of us now? If Ilizarov¡¯s technique can successfully treat bone dissolution syndrome, we have found a new method for treating it,¡± Yang Ping loved such debates among everyone. If everyone remained silent and lifeless, it would be quite dull. ¡°Does the professor mean bone dissolution syndrome?¡± After all, Old Jin¡¯s diagnosis was arrived at through exclusion, not direct diagnosis, and it was a descriptive diagnosis, not an etiological one, so he couldn¡¯t be completely certain. ¡°Among the known diseases, only this one can explain it. We can perform bone biopsy on the patient to take bone tissue for pathological examination, where we can see a rich growth of blood sinusoidal capillary fibrous tissue and also observe lymphocyte infiltration or osteoclasts, which have certain characteristic features,¡± said. Song Zimo immediately added, ¡°The increase of vascular endothelial factor in the blood may also be indicative, but the current supporting evidence is still insufficient; however, we can test it nonetheless.¡± That is the difference. Zhang Lin and Little Five had a hard time keeping up with their pace, lacking relevant knowledge in their minds. Their education hadn¡¯t reached this stage, and they hadn¡¯t systematically studied or researched rare diseases. Currently, their approach to diagnosing rare diseases was akin to a blind cat stumbling upon a mouse, vaguely sensing a similarity, then hastily checking the literature. If their guess was correct, they made the diagnosis. If they were right, they were thrilled; if not, it was no big deal, as it was normal not to diagnose a rare disease. Looking at how the top experts diagnosed rare diseases showed a stark contrast: others had a systematic understanding of rare diseases and were familiar with a few clinical cases, along with some analyses and insights, far from their own luck-based approach. ¡°We should organize a few training sessions on these rare diseases when we have some time so everyone won¡¯t be so in the dark,¡± Yang Ping turned to Song Zimo and suggested. Song Zimo nodded: ¡°I¡¯ll organize the information first and print out some materials for everyone to self-study. Then, I¡¯ll include this knowledge in our regular weekly lectures to thoroughly clarify everyone¡¯s understanding of rare diseases. Zhang Lin, organize this.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Teacher Zhang responded, needing to quickly clarify things, so next time he encountered such a rare disease, he too could show off in front of the students. PS: I¡¯ve been too busy to update regularly, sorry! It¡¯s a bit less busy now, and I will definitely strive to maintain regular updates. Thank you, everyone! Chapter 1244 - 1244 955 Dont Ask Me for Medical Expenses ?Chapter 1244: Chapter 955: Don¡¯t Ask Me for Medical Expenses Chapter 1244: Chapter 955: Don¡¯t Ask Me for Medical Expenses The cause of the femur¡¯s disappearance has now been revealed, and what remains for everyone is to learn about this area through discussion. By examining this case, everyone has gained an initial understanding of idiopathic osteolysis. When encountering such a case again in the future, you will at least have a basic concept in mind. However, this type of case is so rare that a physician may go through an entire career without seeing one. More often, it is understood through reading literature, which encourages everyone to study regularly and read papers, as this is the essential way for a doctor to break through the limitations of experience. Song Zimo used imaging tools on the tablet to measure the distance of the femoral defect. Since the efficacy of the Ilizarov technique is uncertain for this disease, the only alternative is a method with assured effectiveness¡ªcustom prosthetic implantation, using a custom metal to replace the missing femur. Replacing the missing femur with a metal femur is also conditional. The remaining proximal and distal femur must provide good fixation for the implant, which includes not only temporary mechanical fixation but also long-term, reliable biological fixation. To achieve this, a certain length of both the proximal and distal ends must remain. Song Zimo measured the remaining lengths and found they just met the requirements, making the method of implanting a femoral prosthesis viable. Another method¡ªusing the Ilizarov technique¡ªis theoretically possible and should be the best option, but it requires a lengthy treatment time. The trouble is that the patient¡¯s family is currently in a dispute with City People¡¯s Hospital, and under these circumstances, no doctor would dare to use a new method, even if it might be highly effective. At this time, doctors would definitely use conservative treatment methods so as not to get themselves into trouble. The implementation of new methods requires the active cooperation of the patient. ¡°Can muscle attachment be solved with the femoral prosthesis? If the muscles don¡¯t attach, won¡¯t it still affect the leg¡¯s movement on that side? Just having a scaffold won¡¯t provide the power, right?¡± Li Guodong¡¯s thinking was still very active, capable of pinpointing the issue. Song Zimo¡¯s gaze lingered on the tablet he held: ¡°I¡¯ve just measured, and there are enough muscle attachment points on the remaining proximal and distal femur. As for the attachment points along the femoral shaft, current biologic custom femoral prostheses can provide attachment, though it takes some time to form.¡± A standardized training student worried about another issue: ¡°The patient already has severe muscle atrophy, and there¡¯s a very apparent thickness difference between the two thighs. The affected thigh is as thin as an arm. Will it be able to recover in the future?¡± This graduate student was part of Zhao Wenbo¡¯s group, who immediately explained: ¡°Muscles are plastic and follow the principle of ¡®use it or lose it.¡¯ He hasn¡¯t walked normally for a year, leading to muscle atrophy for sure. As long as there¡¯s no muscle fiber fibrosis, recovery is possible. With proper standardized rehabilitation training, the muscle volume and strength can both be restored.¡± ¡°Right, based on the timing, there¡¯s no fibrosis in the thigh muscles yet, and they can still recover in the future. Don¡¯t forget, the fact that bodybuilders can train their muscles so strong is the best proof of muscle plasticity,¡± Li Guodong chimed in. The current topic didn¡¯t involve traditional Chinese medicine, so Li Guodong and Zhao Wenbo were getting along harmoniously, able to discuss calmly. But if it had involved traditional Chinese medicine, the two of them would be at loggerheads, not resting until a victor emerged. ¡°Is fibrosis irreversible?¡± Someone asked. ¡°Irreversible; pathologically, it is the replacement of muscle tissue with fibrous connective tissue.¡± Old Jin answered. A graduate student had a moment of realization: ¡°Does this mean that some patients with high-level peripheral nerve injuries who undergo nerve anastomosis often have poor functional recovery? And that patients with low-level nerve injuries recover better after surgery? Is this because the higher the nerve injury, the farther it is from its target, and the daily nerve growth of less than a millimeter is too slow, so by the time the nerve reaches its destination, the muscles have fibrosed beyond repair?¡± ¡°You¡¯re talking about motor nerves; don¡¯t sensory nerves have targets for their terminal organs too, like sensory corpuscles, and could they also fibrose?¡± another graduate student said. Song Zimo immediately dispelled their confusions: ¡°Exactly, the terminal structures innervated by sensory nerves can also degenerate after a long period of lost neural support, and it¡¯s irreversible degeneration. However, compared to muscle fibrosis, this happens much slower, which is why for the same injury site, sensory nerve recovery is generally better than motor nerve recovery. Besides the degeneration of the terminal structures, another factor affecting nerve recovery is mismatch and attrition during growth¡ªthe farther from the end point, the greater the attrition.¡± ¡°I get it now; I¡¯ve been thinking about this issue for a while, but it¡¯s been quite vague. Now I finally understand,¡± the graduate student who asked the question earlier said, feeling relieved. Through this open discussion, everyone also understood the treatment method for this disease: first, treat bone resorption with anti-osteoporosis drugs to inhibit bone absorption and improve bone density; then, use surgery to implant a femoral prosthesis, restoring the normal function of the femur. ¡°Does anyone else have thoughts about idiopathic osteolysis to bring up? Dr. Song! Let¡¯s start this weekend¡¯s rare disease awareness session with idiopathic osteolysis.¡± Yang Ping felt that the discussion was sufficient and it was time to move on to the next topic. ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll add the topic of idiopathic osteolysis to this weekend¡¯s lecture list. If nobody has objections, let¡¯s discuss the solitary kidney we just mentioned,¡± Dr. Song instructed the graduate student operating the projector to switch the image. Chapter 1245 - 1245 955 Dont Ask Me for Medical Expenses_2 ?Chapter 1245: Chapter 955: Don¡¯t Ask Me for Medical Expenses_2 Chapter 1245: Chapter 955: Don¡¯t Ask Me for Medical Expenses_2 A solitary kidney is considered an anatomical variation in clinical practice. Anatomical variation means that the anatomy of certain body parts in some individuals differs from the norm, yet does not affect their function; on the other hand, an anatomical malformation is also a difference in anatomy that adversely affects normal function. If the only kidney is healthy, even with just one kidney, a person can still perform the work of two kidneys, meaning that only one healthy kidney is needed to live healthily. This is the medical basis for living-donor kidney transplants: a healthy person can donate one kidney to someone else and maintain a healthy life with the remaining kidney. Only having one kidney, although it does not affect healthy living, still has its drawbacks, as there is no ¡°spare¡±; if the only kidney has problems, there is no other kidney to take over. Now the patient¡¯s urinary system CT images appeared on the screen. Yang Ping stood up and walked closer: ¡°Look, there is a clear difference between a solitary kidney and a kidney resection. The basis of any imaging is anatomy. The biggest distinction is that a solitary kidney is naturally single, the side without a kidney never had one, so naturally, there are no accompanying blood vessels and nerves; whereas with kidney resection, regardless of the surgical technique that was used, there will definitely be remnants of the original blood vessels and nerves. Can you see any parts of the residual renal artery and vein on the side without a kidney?¡± Yang Ping liked to see the essence through the phenomena, which is why he always tried to grasp the most fundamental aspects during discussions, believing that thorough research of a subject would allow one to grasp its essence. Everyone immediately looked at the tablets in their hands, and since they all had proficient anatomical knowledge and were extremely skilled in reading images, it was not difficult to discern. Indeed, there were no traces of renal arteries and veins on that side. The differences between natural blood vessels and the remnants of cut blood vessels were substantial, not the same at all. ¡°Zhang Lin, talk to the Urology Department and ask them to help pull up some imaging of post-kidney resection, including images from within one week after surgery, after three months, six months, one year, and three years, to have a representative sample. Let everyone see what the imaging looks like after kidney resection. It would be even better if we can also get some images of solitary kidneys for comparison,¡± Yang Ping instructed Zhang Lin to do this. The principle of science is to seek truth, to be factual and realistic. Medical records are the best basis for explanation. The HIS system is networked within the hospital, so Zhang Lin made a phone call right there. With the influence of Teacher Zhang from the Surgical Research Institute, a graduate student on duty in Urology immediately retrieved and sent some imaging over to Zhang Lin. After diligently reviewing these images, there was indeed such a fundamental difference. Solitary kidneys lacked accompanying blood vessels and nerves, while the side that had undergone kidney resection still had remnants of the original blood vessels and nerves. This difference was like that between men and women; even if a man has gender reassignment surgery, his chromosomes are still XY, which is the most fundamental aspect that cannot be changed. A truly wise statement! The doctors present immediately committed to memory what Yang Ping just said. ¡°City People¡¯s Hospital is now in a dialogue with the patient¡¯s family. The hospital requests a medical evaluation to determine whether the bone defect is related to the kidney, whether solitary or surgery-related. After the medical evaluation, we will proceed, but the family refuses to go through the medical evaluation process and rejects the legal route,¡± Song Zimo explained. ¡°They know what¡¯s what, realizing that this has nothing to do with the hospital, so they pretend to be confused. Once it goes into the evaluation process, everything gets exposed. Similarly, once it enters the legal process, everything comes to light, and they won¡¯t be able to continue pressuring the hospital for money,¡± Zhang Lin said angrily. ¡°Don¡¯t think of people as so bad! Human nature at birth is inherently good!¡± Little Five said like a philosopher. Zhang Lin immediately retorted, ¡°Human nature is evil, it¡¯s not me thinking badly of them, it¡¯s just really that bad.¡± Yang Ping was not interested in these side conversations: ¡°We only study the illness. We should leave things outside of the illness to City People¡¯s Hospital. My responsibility is to thoroughly research the illness and then try my best to cure it. As for other matters, they are not our job. This is a case discussion, so we only talk about the illness! However, during the diagnostic and treatment process, everyone must strictly follow the procedures, and we cannot skip any steps. It¡¯s okay to be slow, but steps cannot be omitted. The attending doctor should schedule a meeting with the patient¡¯s family, and I will talk to them face to face about the patient¡¯s condition. The subsequent treatment costs will be higher and take longer, and there is also a certain risk of failure, so it must be clearly communicated in advance.¡± While such cases may be rare diseases, the greatest difficulty in their treatment isn¡¯t necessarily medical but sociological. Yang Ping classified these patients as sociologically high-risk because it¡¯s possible that after significant effort by the doctors, they may end up with unreasonable entanglement and complaints. After the case discussion ended, Yang Ping met the patient and his family in the Meeting Room. The patient was a twelve-year-old boy, and the family member was the boy¡¯s father. Upon seeing Yang Ping, the boy¡¯s father began to incessantly complain about the various shortcomings of the City People¡¯s Hospital, cursing the doctors there as incompetent quacks. ¡°This hospital is managed so chaotically, I heard that the previous director was even arrested. My child¡¯s kidney must have been stolen by them, I won¡¯t let this go,¡± the boy¡¯s father said with fervor, grinding his teeth. When speaking these words, the father looked fierce and vindictive. ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about these things for now; let¡¯s discuss the little friend¡¯s illness,¡± Yang Ping reminded the boy¡¯s father to get back on topic. ¡°We need to learn some information from you now, has the little friend ever had a CT scan or ultrasound of the kidney?¡± Yang Ping asked. The child licked his dry lips, wanting to speak, but his father immediately glared at him, ¡°He has been! The ultrasound before showed two kidneys, I remember clearly, there¡¯s no mistake. It¡¯s just after the surgery that one kidney disappeared, look, even this bone is gone.¡± ¡°Where was the ultrasound done before, and do you still have the report?¡± Yang Ping asked further. ¡°It was done a long time ago, the report has been lost, but I clearly remember there were two kidneys,¡± the boy¡¯s father asserted confidently. ¡°Do you remember which hospital it was done at?¡± Yang Ping continued to ask. ¡°I don¡¯t remember! Who would remember something so long ago, but I am certain that there were two kidneys at that time,¡± the boy¡¯s father insisted. Such an important matter, logically the child¡¯s father should not have forgotten it, because having an ultrasound is not something that happens casually or frequently. This experience should have been very clear. Now that the child¡¯s father claimed not to remember, Yang Ping suspected the father was lying. In fact, from the imaging, it had been confirmed that the child was definitely a solitary kidney, but the child¡¯s father adamantly insisted that there used to be two kidneys and that one was lost after the surgery. If the previous examination results could be found, the matter would be much easier to handle. ¡°Let¡¯s not discuss this matter for now. Regarding the issue of missing right femur in the child, we are planning to do a biopsy to take a bit of bone for examination. Only after the examination can we definitively determine what the disease is.¡± Yang Ping just wanted to clear up the situation about the solitary kidney. ¡°What¡¯s the purpose of this examination?¡± the boy¡¯s father asked warily. ¡°To help find the reason for the child¡¯s missing femur,¡± Yang Ping explained. ¡°Isn¡¯t the bone stolen by the doctors? Is there still a need for diagnosis? We are not here for any diagnosis, we¡¯re here to treat the illness. As long as you cure the child¡¯s illness, we don¡¯t need you to trouble yourselves about how it happened, we have our own ideas,¡± the boy¡¯s father said impatiently. ¡°Look, this is an X-ray of the child right after the surgery. The femur was fine then. It was never re-examined after that, and the X-rays a year later show that most of the femur is missing. We suspect that the child has a rare disease called idiopathic osteolysis, so we need a biopsy of the bone to confirm, and currently, based on the medical history and symptoms, it¡¯s very likely this disease,¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°Well, you can say the femur has been absorbed, but surely the kidney hasn¡¯t been absorbed too,¡± the boy¡¯s father said, looking at the X-rays. ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about the kidney right now, as you said, it¡¯s not within the scope of this diagnosis and treatment. We¡¯re only discussing the issue of the missing femur,¡± Yang Ping temporarily did not press the issue further. Next, Yang Ping outlined the subsequent treatment plan, and after some thought, the boy¡¯s father said, ¡°How much will this cost? A lot, I suppose! I¡¯m telling you, don¡¯t look to me for the medical expenses, go ask the City People¡¯s Hospital for it, I won¡¯t pay a dime.¡± Chapter 1246 - 1246 956 The Honest Little Boy ?Chapter 1246: Chapter 956: The Honest Little Boy Chapter 1246: Chapter 956: The Honest Little Boy When the boy¡¯s father uttered these words, his tone was commanding, as though his words were not to be questioned. About the boy¡¯s illness and treatment plan, Yang Ping had just explained very clearly, and as an adult, the boy¡¯s father should have understood perfectly well. As for the medical expenses, how could such preposterous and irrational words be spoken? Yang Ping did not want to dwell on this topic. If the patient met the eligibility criteria for assistance, they could go through the procedures of the relief foundation; but if not, Yang Ping was helpless. It surely could not be expected that patients who own houses, cars, and have savings should also be supported by the relief fund. That would be extremely unfair to those patients who truly need help, and a complete exploitation and desecration of kindness. This sort of incident had happened before. A patient in Sanbo Hospital¡¯s General Surgery Department, who owned five houses and had more than a million in savings, actually launched a donation campaign on various platforms. Those in the know condemned the patient for exploiting kind-hearted people, but the patient had a ready excuse¡ªthat his five houses were investment properties, not to be used for medical treatment, and his savings ensured his own and his family¡¯s quality of life and could not be touched. In the end, everyone was at a loss whether to laugh or cry at this so-called ¡°wealthy¡± charity case. Yang Ping reviewed the medical records once again. The boy¡¯s name was Dong Zhikai, only twelve years old. It was clear from the signature of the family members that the boy¡¯s father was named Dong Guanghan. Observing the boy¡¯s father before him, in his early forties, a bit overweight, with somewhat wide gaps between his teeth that tended to foam at the corners of his mouth when speaking, and using the latest iPhone, his wristwatch likely worth no less than ten thousand. He certainly didn¡¯t look like someone short of money. Regarding the kidney issue, Yang Ping did not want to provide further explanations, as he could tell from Dong Guanghan¡¯s words that he was not interested in listening to explanations. He was adamant that the doctors from City People¡¯s Hospital stole his child¡¯s kidney during surgery and insisted on compensation. Regarding the issue of stolen bones, due to the evidence of the post-operative X-rays showing everything was normal, Dong Guanghan did not stick to his original stance. Still, he remained stubborn in his belief that it wasn¡¯t an illness but a problem with the surgery¡ªa medical accident. City People¡¯s Hospital was under a lot of pressure facing such a relentlessly difficult person and hoped Yang Ping could help out by providing explanations from their side, hoping the patient¡¯s family would be receptive. Now it was apparent that explaining was entirely unnecessary, as it wasn¡¯t a matter of communication¡ªit was a pure waste of time and effort. ¡°I¡¯ll leave the rest for you to discuss with him.¡± Yang Ping was busy and had no time to argue about these pointless matters with Dong Guanghan, so he left him to Little Five and Zhang Lin and took his leave. ¡°Mr. Dong, Professor Yang has just explained your child¡¯s medical treatment plan in detail. Is there anything else you don¡¯t understand?¡± Zhang Lin took over in communicating with the boy¡¯s father, with Little Five assisting. Dong Guanghan stared at his phone, sitting across the negotiating table, legs spread open and constantly shaking: ¡°I understand it all. Just arrange the surgery as soon as possible, use the best medicine, the best equipment, the best doctors, and yes, I want your chief surgeon to take the lead on the surgery, no interns, understand?¡± ¡°The surgery can¡¯t be scheduled that soon; there are other examinations and treatments to be done preoperatively. Now, let me discuss the medical expenses with you. The total cost of treatment is quite high, and the treatment period is also expected to be long. Just the femoral prosthesis alone will cost tens of thousands, and the total expenses may very well reach two or three hundred thousand. You need to prepare financially,¡± Zhang Lin said, trying to keep his emotions under control and speaking gently. Dong Guanghan looked up: ¡°My son¡¯s leg bone is in this condition, not because of some disease, but because of the surgery conducted by the doctors at City People¡¯s Hospital. They are responsible for it, so regardless of how much the medical costs are, you don¡¯t need to talk to me about it. You should go to City People¡¯s Hospital for the money, do you understand this principle?¡± ¡°That¡¯s just your opinion. Any dispute you have with City People¡¯s Hospital has nothing to do with me. If you think they owe you money, you go ask for it yourself. Now your son is being treated here; if you¡¯re not paying the medical bills, who will? Do you understand this principle?¡± Zhang Lin was unyielding and spoke firmly. Dong Guanghan hesitated, never having encountered a doctor who spoke like this. He immediately perked up. ¡°What do you mean? Are you saying that I should pay for these medical expenses?¡± Dong Guanghan straightened up, placing his phone on the table. ¡°Please turn off your phone¡¯s recording and video functions. If you don¡¯t trust us, seek treatment at a hospital you do trust. Our conversation is over.¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five promptly prepared to leave. Zhang Lin knew right away that Dong Guanghan had turned on his phone¡¯s recording function. With absolutely no trust from the start, recording audio and video, there was no point in continuing the conversation. No cure for the untrusting! That¡¯s a fundamental principle. Dong Guanghan was faced with a hard nut to crack and had to turn off his phone¡¯s recording and video, nervously saying, ¡°It wasn¡¯t on.¡± ¡°Turn it off!¡± Zhang Lin wasn¡¯t being polite. Dong Guanghan had no choice but to power off his phone, only then could the conversation continue, as this was the only hospital that could definitively treat his son¡¯s condition. ¡°Can¡¯t medical insurance cover the costs? Why do I still have to prepare money?¡± Dong Guanghan said discontentedly. Looking at the information in the medical records, Zhang Lin said, ¡°I¡¯ve told you several times to bring your son¡¯s medical insurance card for registration. Why haven¡¯t you brought it over?¡± Chapter 1247 - 1247 956 Honest Little Boy_2 ?Chapter 1247: 956 Chapter Honest Little Boy_2 Chapter 1247: 956 Chapter Honest Little Boy_2 ¡°Medical Insurance card? I don¡¯t know about that; isn¡¯t the government handling this stuff? Why do I, a common person, have to worry about it?¡± Dong Guanghan said with a look of grievance. Zhang Lin said irritably, ¡°Do you need the government to feed you when you eat?¡± ¡°You have to pay for resident medical insurance every year. Have you paid? If you have, your child would have a card,¡± Zhang Lin had no choice but to tell him. ¡°We definitely have medical insurance, but no card. You should ask the Medical Insurance Office about this; how should I know? That¡¯s their business.¡± Dong Guanghan got a bit impatient. Zhang Lin remained calm, ¡°Do you expect the Environmental Protection Agency to handle your constipation? This is your own issue, get it? You want me to ask? You haven¡¯t brought the medical insurance card yet, and without registration, it is treated as self-paid. With medical insurance, a large part could be reimbursed. Without it, it¡¯s all out-of-pocket.¡± ¡°What kind of attitude is this from a doctor? You have no sense of service for the people. What do common folks like us know?¡± Dong Guanghan said angrily. The little boy, Dong Zhikai, tugged at his father¡¯s sleeve and said timidly, ¡°You didn¡¯t buy me medical insurance. When the teacher said it was time to pay, you said medical insurance was a scam and didn¡¯t pay. I was the only one in the class that didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°What do you know, talking nonsense here.¡± Dong Guanghan slapped his son across the face with a slap, making the child¡¯s face immediately show five finger marks, and he dared not speak anymore. This really irritated Zhang Lin, ¡°Why do you hit the child at every turn? Do you often do this at home? We need to call the police and report you for child abuse.¡± Little Five immediately went over and tried to pull the child to protect him, but the child, clearly frightened, did not dare to come over to Little Five¡¯s side; Little Five had no choice but to sit beside him. ¡°He¡¯s my son; I¡¯ll smack him if I want, what¡¯s it to you? Call the police, go ahead, I¡¯ll sit right here and wait.¡± Dong Guanghan was not scared at all, looking as though a dead pig does not fear boiling water. What a piece of work! Zhang Lin did not want to anger him further; otherwise, the child would suffer the consequences. Hitting the child like this, if not too severe, would at most make the police educate him a bit but accomplish nothing much. ¡°You better prepare the money; your child can¡¯t have surgery right now. We need to first use medication to suppress bone resorption and increase bone density; otherwise, surgery can¡¯t be performed,¡± Zhang Lin explained. Dong Guanghan dismissively said, ¡°If he can¡¯t have surgery now, why did the City People¡¯s Hospital refer us here? You just saw that I didn¡¯t pay, right? If there¡¯s no payment, there¡¯s no treatment?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve said what needs to be said; go and prepare, okay?¡± ¡°Do you even have medical ethics? Do you understand that it¡¯s just about money? If there¡¯s no money, there¡¯s no treatment? The child is in this condition, and you don¡¯t care? You can go ask the City People¡¯s Hospital for money; they caused this. A minor fracture turned into this, this is a medical malpractice, and during surgery, a kidney was stolen too; is there no law anymore?¡± Upon hearing that Zhang Lin said that surgery wasn¡¯t necessary for now and could happen later, Dong Guanghan seemed to have caught Zhang Lin¡¯s weak spot and immediately stood on a moral high ground. ¡°This is something you need to discuss with the City People¡¯s Hospital; arguing here is pointless. Go back and get ready,¡± Zhang Lin said calmly, not wanting to argue. Dong Guanghan, furious, said, ¡°You are all about greed, delaying the surgery because of no payment. I¡¯ll sue you and expose you online; heartless, driven by greed, every third word about money, no pay, no treatment.¡± Dong Guanghan, pulling his son along and cursing, stormed off. If it weren¡¯t for the child, Zhang Lin really would have liked to scold him. ¡ª ¡°What should we do? This guy is impossible to communicate with!¡± Little Five asked Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin disdainfully said, ¡°Find a way to get rid of him, dealing with this kind of patient literally shaves years off your life.¡± This kind of doctor-patient communication is obviously horrendous and ineffective, it¡¯s like playing the lute to a cow. Yet, Zhang Lin and Little Five were not psychologically burdened; their first thought with uncommunicative, distrustful, unreasonable patients was not to argue or painstakingly explain, but simply to find a way to get rid of them, to let them create trouble wherever else they wanted, they wouldn¡¯t entertain them. Most doctors obviously are not as ¡°bad¡± as Zhang Lin and Little Five; most doctors carry the moral burden, always trying to explain patiently, appeal to emotions, and reason with logic, given that the typical image of a doctor is one of selfless dedication. Most hospitals too, aim to uphold this noble image, advocating for doctors to refrain from complaining, suffer in silence, definitely not acting like Zhang Lin and Little Five who were more ¡®gangster¡¯ in their approach. At that moment, Yang Ping was in the doctor¡¯s office with Song Zimo, reviewing the patients¡¯ imaging, when Zhang Lin and Little Five came in. Yang Ping asked, ¡°How did it go?¡± Zhang Lin shook his head, ¡°He doesn¡¯t trust us at all, nor does he have any respect; he is very reluctant to be treated here.¡± ¡°Dean Chen still wants us to help with the explanation; maybe we should let the Medical Services Office handle it. Communication is their forte,¡± Song Zimo suggested. Zhang Lin nodded, ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡± From the corner of his eye, Yang Ping saw a small head peeking in and out of the office door¡ªit was the same little boy from before. The boy immediately recognized Yang Ping and seemed to want to say something but felt hesitant to enter. Yang Ping smiled and gestured, ¡°Hey kid, is there something you need? Come in.¡± With Yang Ping¡¯s permission, the little boy timidly entered, constantly looking back as if afraid someone might be following him, tiptoeing as he walked. ¡°Is there something you need from me?¡± Yang Ping asked him gently. The little boy, head down and face flushed red, occasionally glanced at the door, seeming to hesitate to speak. ¡°It¡¯s okay; if you have something to say, go ahead,¡± Little Five said, moving a chair for him. The boy stared at the door and said, ¡°Keep a lookout for me, don¡¯t let my dad come in and see me.¡± Everyone was stunned for a moment, but Zhang Lin immediately patted the little boy¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Speak up, don¡¯t be afraid. I¡¯ll go to the door and keep watch for you now.¡± Assured that someone was keeping watch, the little boy gathered his courage and said, ¡°My dad lied. I¡¯ve had an ultrasound before, two times, actually. The doctor told me I only have one kidney and that I was born with just one. My dad forbade me from telling anyone, saying he would beat me to death if I dared tell anyone. I think I still need to tell you; I don¡¯t want to deceive people.¡± Everyone was taken aback again, looking at each other in dismay. The boy was anxious, ¡°Really, I don¡¯t remember which hospital it was, but I remember the first two characters were ¡®first.''¡± ¡°First?¡± Song Zimo asked immediately, ¡°Did you go home right after the examination that day?¡± ¡°Yes, I went home right after the examination, and the hospital¡¯s name definitely had ¡®first¡¯ in it,¡± the boy confirmed he was not mistaken. Nandu Medical University Affiliated First Hospital! ¡°Thank you, little friend. Why did you tell me?¡± Yang Ping held the boy¡¯s hand. ¡°I don¡¯t want to deceive people. Moreover, at the last hospital, the doctors and nurses were very kind to me. They even donated money for my treatment and bought me tasty food. I don¡¯t want to cheat them out of their money. They didn¡¯t steal my kidney; I was born with only one,¡± the boy whispered, his head low. ¡°Really, I greatly appreciate your honesty,¡± Yang Ping patted the boy¡¯s shoulder. ¡°My dad has gone downstairs to buy cigarettes and will be back soon. Please don¡¯t tell him that I told you this; he will beat me. If my dad doesn¡¯t pay, will you still treat me?¡± the boy asked, his eyes as clear as water. Yang Ping touched his head, noting the child¡¯s upright moral values, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll figure something out for you, and we will definitely treat you.¡± Honest people should be treated kindly, not taken advantage of; otherwise, there would be no honesty in society. In fact, Yang Ping had known all along that the boy had previously undergone ultrasounds¡ªhow could such a significant matter be forgotten by his father? He just didn¡¯t want to admit it, intending to feign ignorance to extort some money from the hospital. ¡°I¡¯m going back now,¡± the boy said, visibly relieved, and immediately ran back. Once the little boy left, Song Zimo said, ¡°Dean Chen mentioned this patient is an engineering contractor, owns several houses, and drives a Mercedes-Benz. He¡¯s not short on money, but the cost of the boy¡¯s last fracture treatment was raised through online donations. Allegedly, the leftover money wasn¡¯t returned but kept by them. The hospital thought they were really poor and even donated nearly twenty thousand yuan to them. This family is utterly disgusting.¡± ¡°Dong Guanghan himself owns several houses, drives a Mercedes-Benz but owes a lot of money to migrant workers,¡± Zhang Lin said mysteriously. ¡°How do you know more about this than I do? Did Dean Chen tell you?¡± Song Zimo was quite surprised. Zhang Lin said dismissively, ¡°Does Dean Chen need to tell me? Who do you think I am?¡± ¡°Director of the Sanbo Hospital Intelligence Bureau!¡± Little Five chimed in. Chapter 1248 - 1248 957 Only Plucking Others Feathers ?Chapter 1248: Chapter 957: Only Plucking Others¡¯ Feathers Chapter 1248: Chapter 957: Only Plucking Others¡¯ Feathers ¡°This little boy is quite honest, huh.¡± Song Zimo didn¡¯t expect that he would come to tell the doctor some truths on his own. ¡°Is it possible to go straight to surgery without a period of preoperative treatment to suppress bone resorption?¡± Little Five asked. ¡°No, normal bone resorption and bone formation is a dynamic balance. Right now bone resorption is greater than bone formation, which is why there is such a significant loss of bone mass. If preoperative suppression of bone resorption isn¡¯t carried out to restore balance, or to overcorrect in the short-term, then even if a femoral prosthesis is implanted, it will be useless. Soon, due to bone resorption and osteoporosis, the prosthesis will become loose and dislocate,¡± Yang Ping explained. Scientific laws are objective and do not change according to human will. ¡°But this patient doesn¡¯t want to be discharged and hopes to have surgery as soon as possible,¡± Zhao Wenbo just learned the details of the conversation between Zhang Lin and the patient¡¯s family. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°We must make medical plans independently, without being influenced by external factors. We shouldn¡¯t be led by the nose by the patient¡¯s relatives. We can explain, but we must not compromise, nor should we violate medical principles due to any subjective interference.¡± Zhang Lin was confident about this matter. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I will communicate with them again. We¡¯ll let the patient be discharged first. Once bone resorption is suppressed and bone density meets the surgical standards, then we will operate. I know why Dong Guanghan is in a hurry for his son¡¯s surgery; he¡¯s trying to make money from it again since a fundraiser from a platform has already contacted him.¡± ¡°Right! I¡¯ve seen a salesperson in constant contact with him,¡± a standardized training student provided the information. Zhang Lin said with disdain, ¡°Yesterday, he came to me for a diagnostic certificate, urging me to state clearly that immediate surgery was needed. I didn¡¯t want to write it; he probably used the diagnosis certificate to raise funds. He owns a house and a car. I really can¡¯t understand how he could do such things¡ªlike not wanting to pay for his child¡¯s medical insurance, calling it a scam. How can such a person afford a house and a car? It¡¯s incomprehensible.¡± Song Zimo sighed. ¡°According to the news from City People¡¯s Hospital, this family member is not only stingy but also shameless. It¡¯s said that when his in-laws came over to stay for a few days, he asked to split the water, electricity, and living expenses. His wife couldn¡¯t bear it and divorced him. The child is now with him, and the wife still gives him a monthly allowance for the child. You have to be careful when dealing with him. He loves to pick on people. His son once fractured his bone, clearly falling while playing in the community by himself. A child nearby was at least more than ten meters away, and he even admitted that he fell on his own. But when checking the surveillance footage, he insisted it was that other child¡¯s fault. Calling the police didn¡¯t help; he harassed them continuously until they decided to just give him the money to get rid of him. That¡¯s not all; he also made a fuss with the property management, even threatening suicide, claiming they were responsible. In the end, he got some money out of that too. He¡¯s a professional troublemaker.¡± ¡°With the last fracture surgery for his son, excluding medical expenses, he made tens of thousands,¡± Song Zimo added. ¡°Damn, why did Dean Chen refer such a patient to us? Isn¡¯t this asking for trouble?¡± Zhang Lin cursed. Yang Ping was not angry, though. ¡°Dean Chen meant well. We can¡¯t just not treat a sick child. And you¡¯ve seen, the child himself is quite honest.¡± As a doctor, Yang Ping had seen all sorts of things; he held to a basic principle¡ªdo your own job well. That¡¯s what his father always told him¡ªto be responsible in life. Being responsible has two meanings: first, do what one ought to do well, and second, don¡¯t overstep and do what one shouldn¡¯t do. For example, as a doctor, it¡¯s your responsibility to try to cure a patient¡¯s illness as much as possible. As for economic issues of the patient, Yang Ping could only rely on the established relief fund. If the conditions for aid are met, provide assistance; if not, there¡¯s nothing he could do. There used to be many model stories propagated in the medical industry. For instance, there was a doctor who often secretly paid for hospitalization fees for patients without money, which led his family into financial difficulty. He even used tens of thousands of yuan allocated for his own child¡¯s treatment to pay for a patient¡¯s hospitalization, resulting in his child not getting timely treatment due to a lack of funds. Another doctor was on outpatient duty while his father was being resuscitated in a nearby emergency room, life hanging by a thread. Despite being notified several times by nurses and doctors to attend to his father, he insisted that his patients were the priority and continued to see all of them before attending to his father in critical condition. Yang Ping felt that he was just an ordinary person who couldn¡¯t be so noble. He wouldn¡¯t use money he urgently needed for others, and if his relatives were in danger, he would definitely prioritize emergency care over ordinary outpatient work. Similarly, as Dong Guanghan owned a house, a car, and had money, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t donate to or treat him gratuitously. Of course, the child was innocent and without fault, so even if Dong Guanghan refused to pay, Yang Ping would still treat the child. However, he was determined to reclaim the medical fees through legal means afterward. That money should be paid by Dong Guanghan, not the hospital nor the sympathizing netizens. Why should his misconduct be condoned? At this time, Dong Guanghan was in the ward planning the details of raising funds with a fundraiser from the platform. This was their second cooperation, so they worked together very harmoniously. They would exaggerate the severity of the illness and depict the patient¡¯s family as pitiful, essentially selling sympathy. ¡°You cannot use just the photo of the diagnostic report. You need to take a new one, and remove the watch from your wrist. Your expression isn¡¯t sad enough. It would be best to stay up tonight and take the photo tomorrow, so you look more haggard. Your current photo is full of vitality; it won¡¯t evoke sympathy in others.¡± Chapter 1249 - 1249 957 Only Plucking Others Feathers_2 ?Chapter 1249: Chapter 957: Only Plucking Others¡¯ Feathers_2 Chapter 1249: Chapter 957: Only Plucking Others¡¯ Feathers_2 The salesman and Dong Guanghan were fine-tuning the details. Next to them, Dong Zhikai had a look of disgust on his face, and so did the nurse changing the IV bag in the next bed, but they didn¡¯t care at all. ¡°How about this, I¡¯ll stay up late tonight and retake the photos tomorrow.¡± Dong Guanghan decided to play mahjong all night long. After visiting several hospitals, only Sanbo Hospital could cure his son¡¯s illness. Dong Guanghan couldn¡¯t possibly refuse treatment for his son, but he intended to fully exploit the economic value of this hospital stay and take the opportunity to make some money. He had already thought it through: crowd-funding online was one avenue, and he should also get some compensation from the City People¡¯s Hospital. No point in opening his shop if not to make a profit; if he did, he¡¯d make enough to last three years. After all, he had started his fortune by exploiting migrant workers, dabbling in all kinds of extortion and bad debts. It was his fundamental skill for making a living and getting rich. Who was he, Dong Guanghan? Not a hair would he give, but he would pluck others¡¯ hairs. When Zhang Lin saw the ¡°unpaid¡± section on the computer screen, he was astonished. Dong Guanghan had claimed he needed to raise money, so he had only paid two thousand yuan to be admitted and hadn¡¯t paid a penny more since then. His intentions were clear: once admitted, the hospital had to carry out the necessary exams and treatments. Otherwise, he would accuse them of refusing to treat someone without money and hold tight to the moral high ground. Sometimes medical expenses are indeed a difficult issue: for life-saving treatments, the hospital will go all out regardless of the costs, as humanitarianism dictates. But what about non-life-saving treatments when the payment is uncertain? If they treat, and the cost can¡¯t be recouped, it eventually falls on the doctor because the hospital only covers life-saving expenses for humanitarian reasons. The hospital won¡¯t cover other costs, so the doctors and departments bear the burden themselves. Ultimately, it¡¯s the doctors who bear the brunt of the cost, with some hospitals even leaving doctors to foot the entire bill. If they don¡¯t treat, they risk moral condemnation, accused of lacking medical ethics by refusing treatment to those without money, betraying the core of being a doctor. Once patients and their families twist the story online, doctors can become seen as negative figures only out for profit. Some say to treat first and settle the expenses later; it seems simple. But reality is harsh: many people might not dodge the bill, yet there are those who still do. Some genuinely can¡¯t pay and lack both medical and commercial insurance. Then there are those who have the means but still evade payment because, after all, money is harder to part with once it¡¯s in their pocket. There have been regions that tried a policy of treating first and charging later, but they had to declare policy bankruptcy when it became unsustainable because many patients simply would not come to pay after receiving treatment, burdening hospitals with unsustainable debt. Aren¡¯t hospitals funded by government allocations? In reality, the funding is so paltry it¡¯s akin to a drop in the bucket. Hospitals essentially have to be financially self-sufficient; doctors¡¯ salaries are earned, not given by the government, a significant departure from civil servants and other public institution employees. This also explains why hospitals are increasingly profit-driven. Without solving this problem, the phenomenon of medical behavior driven by financial interest can¡¯t be eradicated. ¡°Teacher Zhang, what should we do?¡± The Standardized Training Student following Zhang Lin also had a headache. The thing he least wanted to do was to press for payment¡ªit made a decent doctor feel like some sort of loan shark. ¡°Those who meet the requirements for assistance follow those guidelines, and what else can be done for those who don¡¯t?¡± Zhang Lin was also at a loss. If someone could guarantee the costs, he wouldn¡¯t say a word if the patient couldn¡¯t pay. But if he had to pay out of his own pocket, he had a family to support too. Dong Zhikai¡¯s biopsy report on the harvested bone tissue had come back. Under the microscope, there was an abundance of blood sinus-like capillaries and fibrous tissue proliferation as well as lymphocyte infiltration or osteoclasts. These findings matched the pathological signs of idiopathic osteolysis, where such proliferating capillaries and fibrous tissue led to the absorption and dissolution of bone tissue. Zhang Lin, holding the report, went to the ward to discuss Dong Guanghan¡¯s condition and stumbled upon the discussion between the salesman and Dong Guanghan about raising donations. They made no effort to hide it. ¡°Donations, my ass! Just try asking for donations, and I¡¯ll expose you.¡± Zhang Lin was gruff. Both of them were taken aback, as they had never encountered a doctor who spoke like this before. ¡°How can you doctors have no compassion at all? You don¡¯t donate yourself, and you don¡¯t let others donate either?¡± Dong Guanghan said angrily, but didn¡¯t dare to do anything to Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin was not going to pamper him, ¡°Wearing a watch worth over ten thousand, a private car that must be hundreds of thousands, and a house too. You¡¯re in this financial situation and still go around collecting donations online, deceiving the goodwill of kind-hearted people? You¡¯ve incurred a debit; pay up the fees quickly, handle the discharge tomorrow. The pre-surgery medication does not require hospitalization and can be completed as an outpatient. Wait until the bone condition is suitable before undergoing surgery.¡± ¡°What do you mean by this, pushing people out? We were just about to start fundraising online, and now you¡¯re telling me to be discharged? If we can¡¯t collect the donations, how can we afford the treatment? Let us stay another week, wait until the money is raised before being discharged. You¡¯ve got to hang some IVs at least, it doesn¡¯t look much like hospital treatment this way.¡± Dong Guanghan immediately put on a smiling face again. ¡°You¡¯ve done this before, haven¡¯t you? I heard that your last surgery was also funded by online donations. You¡¯re not without money, so why are you always like this?¡± Zhang Lin did not mince words. Dong Guanghan insisted with self-righteous anger, ¡°My money, I don¡¯t use it for stocks or investments; do I have to give it to the hospital? It¡¯s not like I¡¯m asking you to pay, so what are you fussing about, you¡¯re sticking your nose where it doesn¡¯t belong, like a dog chasing mice.¡± ¡°Raising donations with your kind of financial situation is swindling people,¡± Zhang Lin was unapologetic. ¡°Swindling? You¡¯re being so unpleasant; it¡¯s neither theft nor robbery, nor illegal. I earn money through my skills, why don¡¯t you call the police and see if they arrest me?¡± Dong Guanghan showed no shame. ¡°Dr. Zhang, please, could you hang a few IV bags for Xiao Kai? That way, we can take photos, making it seem like his condition is more severe, which helps with fundraising,¡± said the salesman very expertly, always able to focus on the main point. Zhang Lin was speechless. ¡°He doesn¡¯t need to be on an IV right now. Our medication is based on the illness, not what you want,¡± Zhang Lin replied. The salesman¡¯s face was plastered with a smile, ¡°Come on, help us out. If they can¡¯t raise the funds and end up owing the hospital money, isn¡¯t it eventually deducted from you? It¡¯s not your money after all. It¡¯s not illegal if you help, and hanging a saline glucose drip isn¡¯t too much to ask, right?¡± The salesman was quite astute, a seasoned operator judging by his talk and actions, and Zhang Lin gave him a penetrating look. ¡°Have some morals, stop deceiving other people¡¯s sympathy. I¡¯m not joking; don¡¯t continue with these shameless acts, I really will expose you,¡± Zhang Lin said and walked away, too lazy to deal with these people. ¡°Doctor¡ªDoctor¡ªIt¡¯s not like we¡¯re asking you to pay, what¡¯s with the drama?¡± the salesman muttered. These times were really troubled; Yang Ping had just finished discussing Dong Zhikai¡¯s case when he heard Professor Cao downstairs on the phone saying that Ou Lianfeng had come again. Ou Lianfeng was delighted to take the diagnostic report back to the factory to ask for compensation, but the factory flatly denied the report, insisting that Sanbo Hospital had no qualification to diagnose occupational diseases and that this diagnosis didn¡¯t count. This made Ou Lianfeng anxious, having undergone surgery and opened his chest to check his lungs, it was all for naught. Moreover, the factory threatened to hold both Sanbo Hospital and its doctors legally responsible. With nowhere left to turn, Ou Lianfeng returned to Sanbo Hospital. He went to the Surgical Research Institute to explain the situation to Yang Ping. This time, he was in complete despair, lifeless like a piece of wood, his eyes vacant. He really felt trapped. Yang Ping immediately reported the situation to Dean Xia, who responded, ¡°Professor Yang, you don¡¯t need to worry about this. Let Ou Lianfeng come to me; I will help him solve it.¡± Dean Xia¡¯s reporter friends had already briefed him on the situation. The reporter followed Ou Lianfeng to the factory, where he almost got beaten up, as the factory flatly denied ever employing Ou Lianfeng. Chapter 1250 - 1250 958 Simulation Surgery ?Chapter 1250: Chapter 958: Simulation Surgery Chapter 1250: Chapter 958: Simulation Surgery One issue had not yet been resolved when another cropped up. Although these incidents were unrelated to medical skills, they still consumed the time and energy of the department¡¯s doctors. Dean Xia was most concerned about these trivial matters wasting the time of Yang Ping and the Surgical Research Institute, so he passed Ou Lianfeng¡¯s message to Yang Ping straightaway, telling him not to worry about the matter because he would take care of it. Since he had taken an interest in the situation, he was determined to see it through to the end. Not even recognizing the pathology results, these people seemed to think they could bully Ou Lianfeng, and even had the audacity to pressurize Sanbo Hospital by leveraging their connections. Dean Xia decided he would handle the situation himself and see exactly what these scoundrels were up to. The reporter friends arranged by Dean Xia returned in a fury, having never before felt such a defeat in their long careers. The Doctors from the occupational disease prevention institute paid no attention to them. Not only did they refuse to be interviewed, they even called security to escort him out for disrupting their work. The situation at the factory was even more outrageous. Upon hearing that he was a reporter brought by Ou Lianfeng, the security guards immediately reported to their superiors. Several people charged out of the factory and beat him up, leaving the reporter with multiple soft tissue injuries and a swollen eye. His video camera was left in tatters by their assault. How arrogant and presumptuous! How utterly preposterous! After the reporter returned, he immediately organized the information and that same evening, the provincial television station aired an emergency broadcast concerning the incident. The tone and language used were very serious and aggressive, and the station decided to conduct a follow-up report, updating the progress of the incident during the prime time news program every day. The day after the news broadcast, just as the special follow-up coverage was starting, the company in question quickly reached out to the reporter, issuing a ¡°sincere¡± apology and claiming the incident was a significant misunderstanding. The factory guards thought he was a troublemaker causing disorder, and since they were all temporary workers, they had been fired. Regarding Ou Lianfeng¡¯s issue, the factory claimed ignorance but was willing to compensate him after verification. The turn of events was so rapid, Dean Xia had expected a fierce battle, but the other side surrendered outright, which was completely unexpected. How had their attitude made such an about-face? The factory did not only apologize and agree to compensation, but the factory boss, accompanied by many reporters and a truck full of consolation gifts, personally visited Ou Lianfeng¡¯s home. The boss hugged Ou Lianfeng tightly, tears streaming down his face, ¡°Old Ou, I just learned about this. It¡¯s all due to the misdeeds of those below me, and I¡¯ve addressed it seriously¡ªthose who should be fired, fired, those who should be suspended, suspended. I¡¯m offering you my sincere apology; such an incident in our factory truly pains me, my heart aches as though cut by a knife. In the future, if you have any problems, come directly to me.¡± As he spoke, the boss¡¯s tears flowed freely, with his assistant constantly handing over tissues. The boss, with a choked voice, addressed the reporters¡¯ cameras, ¡°I thank our media friends, I thank the television station, without you unveiling the truth, I would still be in the dark.¡± The neighbors, witnessing this scene, were deeply moved, all saying that such a conscientious boss was hard to find, even with a lantern¡ªa true role model for entrepreneurs. The director of the occupational disease prevention institute, along with an impressive entourage, brought consolation money and gifts of fruit and milk, earnestly assuring Ou Lianfeng while patting his chest, that they would eradicate corruption within the institute and improve the professional skills of the staff. He expressed how seriously the institute took this matter and had hastily formed a group for self-inspection and correction specifically to handle it. After investigation, it was discovered that the doctor involved was a temporary worker, who had now been fired. The director declared that after self-reflection and correction, they would return to the occupational disease prevention work with a renewed commitment, aspiring to be the loyal guardians of the workers¡¯ health. Even the leadership of the local Health Department acted swiftly, visiting Ou Lianfeng and holding his hand with concern, unable to let go for a long time, warmly inquiring about his well-being, and vowing to secure justice for Ou Lianfeng. With the help of so many kind-hearted people, Ou Lianfeng smoothly obtained a diagnosis for pneumoconiosis and secured over a million in compensation. After years of struggle, he finally reclaimed the justice he deserved. Next, he needed to undergo lung washing and a lung transplant. His lung function was extremely poor, and ultimately he would have to rely on a lung transplant to prolong his life. Dong Guanghan had wanted to stay a few more days in the hospital, waiting to raise more funds before being discharged, but Dr. Zhang would not agree. He arranged for his discharge immediately and even threatened to expose Dong Guanghan and the salesman. Although Dong Guanghan claimed not to be afraid, he was worried because Dr. Zhang was clearly no mere ¡°villain¡±; his threats to expose them were not empty words. Dong Guanghan had no choice but to leave the hospital dejectedly with his son, waiting for a second admission for surgery. At the time of discharge, he took with him some medications intended to inhibit bone resorption and increase bone density. He needed to undergo treatment for a period until his bone density met the requirements before he could be admitted for surgery again. ¡ª Sanbo Hospital had been upgraded to a Beijing-managed hospital and was no longer under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Health Department. Initially, the senior leadership planned for Hospital 301 to acquire Sanbo Hospital as its clinical medical center in the south. However, after considering the need to maintain Sanbo Hospital¡¯s unique character, they abandoned this idea and simply promoted Sanbo Hospital to be directly managed by Beijing. The hospital¡¯s original team was kept intact, but the financial and other forms of support for Sanbo Hospital were increased by much more than before. Yang Ping¡¯s experiments continued to make progress, although he was encountering some bottlenecks and was striving for a breakthrough. The laboratory was slowly gathering some talent. Lu Xiaolu from Nandu Medical University had already visited several times. He didn¡¯t say it outright, but Yang Ping could tell that he wanted to join, though he had concerns. Not sure what he was worried about, Yang Ping planned to have Song Zimo talk to him. Chapter 1251 - 1251 958 Simulated Surgery_2 ?Chapter 1251: 958 Chapter Simulated Surgery_2 Chapter 1251: 958 Chapter Simulated Surgery_2 Lu Xiaolu was someone who impressed Yang Ping more and more as he got to know him, and if he really wanted to join the laboratory at Sanbo Hospital, Yang Ping was willing to communicate with Nandu Medical University. Li Yingtong had already taken care of her affairs in the United States and was now officially starting work at the laboratory of Sanbo Hospital. To show her importance, the laboratory director Tang Shun personally went to welcome this beautiful doctor. Yang Ping had already ordered Tang Shun to retain this talented woman at all costs, and Tang Shun, after much thought, had no choice but to pull out all the stops. The Digital Human project at Nandu Medical University had been completed, and what remained was the refining of some details and the repair of some software bugs. Professor He invited Yang Ping to see the achievements of the new generation of Digital Humans. Academician Xiang was overwhelmed with excitement¡ªhe had never thought he¡¯d see the success of physiological digital humans in his lifetime. To support the Digital Human program, Nandu Medical University established its own supercomputer server room. Based on the supercomputer, the physiological digital human created was leading internationally. On the massive screen, a three-dimensional human body hovered in mid-air, composed entirely of digital cells; it nearly simulated all of a human¡¯s physiological functions. The previous few times Yang Ping had visited, he only saw parts of the digital human. Now, not only could he see the entire digital human, he could also use virtual reality technology to recreate the digital human and perform simulated surgeries using it. Yang Ping put on the corresponding glasses and reached for the ¡°surgical instruments.¡± The combination of virtual reality technology and the digital human produced a magical effect; the digital human was lying in front of Yang Ping, very lifelike. Yang Ping picked up the ¡°surgical knife¡± and began to operate on the digital human. He cut through the virtual skin of the digital human¡¯s chest. The tactile simulation was extremely delicate; the touch of the knife and the sensation of cutting through the skin felt incredibly real, much like an actual surgery. As the knife cut down, just like in a real surgery, severed blood vessels of various sizes began to bleed, and the speed of bleeding, whether it could coagulate on its own, and the time taken for coagulation¡ªin all aspects¡ªconformed to that of a real human body. Yang Ping wiped the blood with a virtual gauze, then used a ¡°Virtual Electrosurgical Unit¡± to stop the bleeding. Then he cut layer by layer until the chest cavity was opened to reveal the heart. The digital human¡¯s heart was throbbing vividly before him. He attempted to make a small incision in the heart with the knife, and blood spurted from the heart, immediately causing the patient¡¯s blood pressure to drop. ¡°Its physiological state simulates a real person; if it isn¡¯t rescued in time, it will die from blood loss,¡± reminded Director He, who was standing beside him. Yang Ping did not intervene for the rescue; he let the blood from the digital human continue to spray, wanting to see how far Professor He¡¯s digital human could mimic a person¡¯s physiological functions. As the hemorrhage continued, the blood pressure kept dropping until the heart eventually stopped beating due to blood loss. Only when the digital human¡¯s heart had completely stopped beating did Yang Ping remove his glasses and put down the ¡°instruments¡± in his hand. Excited, Professor He asked, ¡°How is it?¡± Yang Ping gave a thumbs up. Professor He said, ¡°The department wants to nominate this project for an Academician title, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s fitting because I believe your contribution to this project is the greatest.¡± Professor He was now completely satisfied. Whether he was nominated for Academician didn¡¯t actually matter to him. His wish was to research physiological digital humans. He originally thought that achieving some foundational work would be successful; he hadn¡¯t expected to reach success so directly. Yang Ping¡¯s help had been the greatest, as the most critical foundational concepts and data were provided by him. ¡°I just gave an idea and some data, all the work was done by you. It¡¯s like building a house; I just told you roughly how to build it and provided some engineering data, but the entire process of drawing and construction was all done by you. You deserve to apply for the Academician title; it¡¯s an acknowledgment and reward for your work. You must not shy away from applying. Once successful, you¡¯ll have more resources, which will benefit further research on the digital human,¡± Yang Ping encouraged Professor He to apply for the Academician title. Academician Xiang immediately said, ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m saying, don¡¯t be like Kong Yiji who can¡¯t get rid of his scholar¡¯s robe. What¡¯s wrong with striving for the Academician title with dignity? If you¡¯re an Academician, people will take you more seriously when you speak; it¡¯s beneficial for scientific research and for training talent.¡± Professor He felt that both Yang Ping and Academician Xiang were right; he shouldn¡¯t see these honors as just fame and gain. These honors were recognition of his achievements, and the purpose of seeking them was to bring greater benefits to the country and to science. ¡°I¡¯ll have the major paper on my project published in your ¡®Medicine¡¯ journal!¡± Professor He declared. Yang Ping waved his hand: ¡°Our journal isn¡¯t quite prestigious enough yet. You would be better off publishing your conclusive paper in a top international journal, which will benefit your application for Academician.¡± ¡°Professor Yang, it¡¯s rare for you to visit, so I have a suggestion for your journal,¡± said Academician Xiang, urging Yang Ping to sit down. Yang Ping immediately replied respectfully, ¡°Please take your time; I¡¯ll write it down.¡± ¡°The way your ¡®Medicine¡¯ journal operates is very innovative, using the internet as a primary medium and paper as a secondary one, which is convenient for publication and dissemination. However, I suggest you run the internet and paper versions concurrently. After all, the internet is not very mature and data is prone to damage. For now, the traditional paper journals are more reliable and appear more authoritative. You must issue a large volume of your print journal. Still, your current practice of compiling weekly issues is excellent; gathering a week¡¯s worth of papers into a weekly journal,¡± Academician Xiang shared his thoughts. Chapter 1252 - 1252 958 Simulated Surgery_3 ?Chapter 1252: Chapter 958 Simulated Surgery_3 Chapter 1252: Chapter 958 Simulated Surgery_3 Yang Ping thought carefully and realized it was indeed the case. ¡°Medical¡± journals primarily using digital and secondarily print was indeed too radical. Print journals far surpassed electronic ones in terms of authority and storage reliability. Perhaps one day print journals would disappear, but that day was not today; print journals were still needed. ¡°Elder Xiang, your suggestion is excellent. I¡¯ve thought it over, and just as you said, we should follow a path where digital and print go hand in hand. We absolutely cannot disregard print. Our choice of media was too radical, compromising the authoritative nature of academic journals and posing risks in information storage,¡± Yang Ping humbly said, not to flatter the Old Academician, but because such defects truly existed. Scientists¡¯ main trait was being pragmatic, not denying their shortcomings when mentioned. Academician Xiang said with a smile, ¡°Young people¡¯s pragmatic style is rare!¡± Yang Ping said with a smile, ¡°This is our first time publishing a journal, and we always wanted to forge a unique path, so we were a bit radical.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good. Young people should dare to question, dare to innovate, dare to surpass their predecessors, dare to critique tradition, dare to tread an unconventional path. Otherwise, how would science progress? Nowadays, our students, no matter what they study, just parrot what they¡¯re taught. Every question has a standard answer, which isn¡¯t good. It stifles the students¡¯ creativity,¡± Academician Xiang remarked passionately. ¡°There¡¯s another significant issue. I¡¯ll elaborate. I have visited your laboratory several times. Its openness is too great. You must be aware of confidentiality. Scientists have national borders, so does science. When we used to visit the United States, they designated tour levels for us¡ªsome labs involving confidential technologies were off-limits. Certain equipment and experimental processes in some labs were also forbidden. It said so clearly in the tour manual. Your experimental projects are now achieving great results, and many companies and laboratories around the world are watching you. You must ensure the confidentiality of your technology. When we just began opening up, we lacked this awareness, which led to the leakage and loss of many valuable things,¡± The Academician had observed several times and discovered huge security lapses in Yang Ping¡¯s laboratory, which made it easy for others to steal technological achievements. ¡°We are currently drafting a security management system and will implement it soon,¡± Yang Ping told Academician Xiang. The Academician nodded reassuringly. He couldn¡¯t offer much scholarly advice to the younger generation anymore, but he could still offer some help and ideas in this area. PS: Using digital humans to simulate surgery isn¡¯t pure fantasy. The technique that uses digital human technology + virtual reality technology + tactile feedback simulation technology to establish simulated surgery technologies has been realized at Indiana University School of Medicine in the United States. They have already applied this technology in neurosurgery, building virtual operating rooms that allow neurosurgeons to replicate a patient¡¯s cranial anatomy and functions using digital technology before performing complex surgeries on parts of the brain stem. Neurosurgeons can then perform training surgeries in a realistic immersive environment to rehearse the forthcoming procedures. However, this technology currently can only build parts of the human body, like the head, and cannot yet create an entire digital physiological human. The heads constructed with this technology not only simulate anatomy but can also simulate various physiological functions such as bleeding. Chapter 1253 - 1253 959 Version 3.0 Digital Human ?Chapter 1253: Chapter 959 Version 3.0 Digital Human Chapter 1253: Chapter 959 Version 3.0 Digital Human Academician Xiang¡¯s suggestions were very good, and Yang Ping took them to heart. He even took out the notebook he carried with him to take notes. These suggestions were not offhand remarks, but the result of careful observation and thoughtful consideration. ¡°I was just speaking off the cuff, and you¡¯re actually writing it down?¡± Academician Xiang hadn¡¯t expected Yang Ping to be so diligent. Yang Ping closed his notebook, ¡°Professor Xiang¡¯s advice has really opened my eyes, especially regarding ¡®medicine.¡¯ I¡¯ve always felt something was not quite right, but I couldn¡¯t pinpoint what it was. Today, with what Professor Xiang said, I finally understand. I was indeed too radical before. At present, abandoning print journals in favor of online ones is premature; we must give equal emphasis to both. Yes, the seriousness of journals is reflected not only in the credibility of scholarship but also in the transmission of civilization on a longer scale. For now, the stability of paper storage is higher than that of networks.¡± The Old Academician had wanted to chat more with Yang Ping, but knowing that Yang Ping was busy and short on time, he didn¡¯t dare to keep him. Usually, Academician Xiang would prefer not to speak in formal settings, feeling that his ideas were outdated and a casual remark could easily mislead the young, so now he simply chose not to attend any academic conferences. Even when visiting Professor He¡¯s laboratory, he came simply to encourage and provide whatever help he could, never offering professional advice. But with Yang Ping, the Old Academician couldn¡¯t help discussing professional matters. He knew that Yang Ping¡¯s expertise was definitely not to be swayed by his own, so he seized this chance to indulge himself in a professional discussion. ¡°How about staying for dinner before you go?¡± the Old Academician suggested. Professor He quickly agreed, ¡°Let¡¯s have dinner together tonight as a way of thanking you. You¡¯ve given us a lot of help with our project, much of it crucial.¡± Yang Ping glanced at the time. He had come over just as work was winding down, and it was now dinnertime. Getting a free meal wasn¡¯t a bad idea, and it had been a long time since he got together with Academician Xiang and Professor He. It was just that everything was not as convenient for him as before. Ershun¡¯s team kept a close but inconspicuous guard, which made him feel slightly guilty, but he had grown accustomed to it over time. Professor He began to organize the dinner. Including all the laboratory staff, setting up several tables was no problem. Hearing that they would be having a meal together with Professor Yang, the researchers, doctors, and masters were as excited as fans given the chance to dine with their idol, some nearly jumping for joy. Academician Xiang is the founder of Digital Human Technology in China, and the country¡¯s first Digital Human was his masterpiece. At that time, Digital Humans were only visible digital humans, a three-dimensional Anatomy Diagram indistinguishable from the real thing, which is considered the 1.0 version of Digital Humans. Research on visible Digital Humans is a meticulous and arduous task. It requires slicing the volunteer¡¯s body into countless thin sections, photographing, analyzing, and recording each Tissue Section with digital cameras and scanners to obtain human cross-sectional data. This data is then used to construct a three-dimensional Human Anatomy Diagram, which is the 1.0 version of the Digital Human. At this point, a Digital Human was just a more advanced and lifelike three-dimensional Anatomy Diagram. It was essentially no different from other diagrams and lacked any functionality, leading to limited applications in medicine and other fields; it was just an advanced Anatomy Diagram. If the visible Digital Human is considered the 1.0 version, there are subsequent technological iterations like the 2.0 ¡°Digital Physical Human,¡± the 3.0 ¡°Digital Physiological Human,¡± and the 4.0 ¡°Digital Intelligent Human.¡± The 2.0 Digital Physical Human is far more advanced than the 1.0 version; it can react to virtual physical stimuli from the external world. For example, the skeleton would fracture under violent impact, blood vessels would bleed if ruptured, and skin and soft tissues would swell when contused. However, the Physical Digital Human only simulates the body¡¯s responses to physical stimuli, which is not enough. The 3.0 Digital Physiological Human requires extremely complex digital technology because it needs to replicate all or most of the human body¡¯s physiological functions, not just simple responses to physical stimuli like fractures, bleeding, and swelling. It must simulate the body¡¯s more complex life phenomena. For example, in a state of blood loss, it would, like a real person, slowly go through a series of physiological and pathological processes, enter hemorrhagic shock, and eventually die from blood loss. Even after death, it could simulate the post-mortem changes in the human body, such as cellular disintegration, etc. If ¡°rescue¡± measures such as hemostasis and blood transfusion are applied to the Digital Human, it can also simulate the dynamic changes of recovery or further collapse in an actual human under rescue conditions. The technology involved is extremely complex, necessitating the use of a Supercomputer to simulate because it involves a variety of complex models and the interconnections between them, requiring significant computational power. Presently, the United States has not researched a complete 3.0 Digital Physiological Human, only able to replicate parts of the human body, such as the head, Heart, or Liver, etc. Meanwhile, Professor He has already created a complete 3.0 Digital Human, and the concept of Digital Cells he applied is a whole generation ahead of other international teams. If the world¡¯s Digital Human Technology were ranked, Professor He would stand alone at the very top tier, with other technologies counting from the second tier downward. Chapter 1254 - 1254 959 3.0 Version Digital Human_2 ?Chapter 1254: 959 Chapter 3.0 Version Digital Human_2 Chapter 1254: 959 Chapter 3.0 Version Digital Human_2 Professor He¡¯s Digital Human construction was extremely complex. First, he established a complete set of digital physiological cells, simulating the functions of cells, then used these digital cells to construct digital tissues, which in turn were used to create digital organs. From these organs, he built systems, and finally, from these systems, he assembled an entire human body. The highest stage of a Digital Human is the 4.0 ¡°Digital Intelligent Human,¡± which not only possesses a virtual human form, anatomical structure, and physiological biochemical functions, but also possesses independent consciousness and human intelligence. It is a complete virtual person, a person living in the digital world, much like the people in the movie ¡°Transdimensional Hacker.¡± Physiological Digital Humans like Director He will have a wide range of future applications, as they can be used in various virtual experiments involving human participation, as long as they don¡¯t involve the autonomous consciousness and intellect of virtual humans. For example, in current car safety crash tests, dummies are used in conjunction with cars to complete experiments. Data is collected using cameras, sensors, and other technologies. In the future, by integrating Virtual Digital Human technology with Virtual Digital Car technology, car crash experiments could be simulated in computers, providing direct data acquisition. With further development, physiological Digital Human technology could also be used for drug and medical device development, completely unrestrained by ethical limitations. It could be used arbitrarily and could achieve conclusions in virtual environments that might take years in real-life human trials. By using computer acceleration technology, it could take just minutes to obtain results. This could greatly save time, reduce risks, and improve the safety of experiments while shortening experiment timeframes. Therefore, Professor He¡¯s achievements in Digital Human technology could certainly qualify for Academician status, and might even be a contender for the Nobel Prize. How could everyone not be excited? No wonder Elder Xiang was so thrilled. With this Digital Human technology, the training mode for doctors will also have to change. Utilizing Digital Human technology, virtual reality technology, and haptic simulation technology, virtual operating rooms could be set up. This would allow young doctors to practice surgery in a virtual operating room, as if playing a game, and swiftly improve their operational skills. In Director He¡¯s laboratory, Yang Ping talked with Elder Xiang and Professor He for a long time. The conversation could have gone on for days and nights, and it still wouldn¡¯t have been enough. Elder Xiang suggested that they go for a meal and continue their conversation while eating. Since he was already at Nandu Medical University, Yang Ping planned to stop by to see Lu Xiaolu. He had met this young man before and found him to be quite impressive, a rare talent, although his current position did not reflect his abilities. Seeing him as a talent, Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but think about poaching him. It would be a waste for such an outstanding talent to simply work as an assistant here. If he were to go to Sanbo¡¯s laboratory, Yang Ping would definitely provide him with a laboratory, where he could play around as he wished. Talent! Talent was exactly what Yang Ping needed the most. Only with a large pool of talent could research results explode forth. Research isn¡¯t just about sinking money into it; it¡¯s also about investing in talent. Even with someone as dangerous as Li Yingtong, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t let them go. How could he possibly pass up Lu Xiaolu? Ever since he met with Lu Xiaolu, Yang Ping felt more and more that the heavyweight achievements of Guan Ruyan might actually have been Lu Xiaolu¡¯s work. He occasionally had this feeling and decided to visit Lu Xiaolu¡¯s laboratory, which was also Guan Ruyan¡¯s laboratory, to see for himself. After sharing his thoughts, Elder Xiang and Professor He decided to accompany Yang Ping to see it for themselves. When Lu Xiaolu heard that Yang Ping was going to visit his lab, he was overjoyed. Yang Ping had become his idol. After several visits to Sanbo Hospital, Lu Xiaolu could barely contain his excitement. He longed to return to his true self, as he had been suffering for quite some time. Guan Ruyan was not in the laboratory, as he was out of the country attending an academic conference and had not returned. Lu Xiaolu was in charge of the laboratory¡¯s research work. In reality, even when Guan was present, it was Lu Xiaolu who led the lab¡¯s work. Guan Ruyan was more like a mascot, a fact well known internally, though it was an unspoken agreement among the staff. There had been someone who gossiped about this, claiming Guan Ruyan was not up to the task and that it was all supported by Lu Xiaolu. Needless to say, the outcome was predictable. This gossiper almost didn¡¯t graduate in the end. Standing at the entrance to the laboratory, Lu Xiaolu, wearing a short-sleeve T-shirt and a pair of faded jeans, welcomed his idol. Though summer had passed, the concept of seasons seemed foreign to the south, where the weather remained hot. ¡°Professor Xiang, Professor Yang, Professor He¡ª¡± Lu Xiaolu felt a flutter of flattered surprise, not expecting so many to come all at once. Yang Ping said, ¡°I came to have a look at Professor He¡¯s Digital Human and to see how you¡¯re doing. Last time we talked about immunology, your ideas were very good, and I found them quite inspiring. Immunotherapy has great potential in the treatment of tumors. Your approach is very innovative, and if it could be explored as a major research topic, it¡¯s certain to produce impressive results. Would it be alright for us to visit your laboratory?¡± ¡°Of course, it¡¯s alright!¡± Lu Xiaolu led the way, taking everyone on a tour of his lab. Hearing Yang Ping¡¯s praise made Lu Xiaolu feel a bit melancholic because the current projects he was working on were all in service of Guan Ruyan; he was nothing more than a tool man. At the moment, it was impossible to have resources for his own research projects. He wouldn¡¯t get past Principal Ding unless this project was handed to Guan Ruyan. The researchers, doctors, and masters in the lab were thrilled to hear that Yang Ping had arrived. They spontaneously lined up to greet him, and Yang Ping himself hadn¡¯t expected to be so popular. Chapter 1255 - 1255 959 3.0 Version Digital Human_3 ?Chapter 1255: 959 Chapter 3.0 Version Digital Human_3 Chapter 1255: 959 Chapter 3.0 Version Digital Human_3 After all, being so young and achieving so much, Yang Ping was naturally regarded as a god by these young people. The visit to the laboratory was secondary; the focus was on chatting and exchanging academic opinions. Every time he met Yang Ping, Lu Xiaolu had an indescribable feeling, a passion for freely exploring science swelling in his heart. Because of the issue with Guan Ruyan¡¯s son¡¯s project, Lu Xiaolu was quite upset and had stormed out at the time, but Guan Ruyan was a person with high emotional intelligence. He didn¡¯t blame Lu Xiaolu and still respected his choice. After all, it wasn¡¯t a good situation, and since both Principal Ding and Guan Ruyan usually showed respect to Lu Xiaolu, he always felt guilty when he thought about going it alone, feeling he owed a great debt of gratitude to Principal Ding. While Yang Ping, Old Academician Xiang, Professor He, and Lu Xiaolu were visiting the laboratory, a doctor came in and whispered a few words in Lu Xiaolu¡¯s ear. Principal Ruo, upon learning of Yang Ping¡¯s visit to Sanbo Hospital, also took time out to meet him, waiting in the laboratory office. Principal Ruo was also exceptionally happy during this period; the success of the Functional Digital Human had propelled Nandu Medical University¡¯s digital medicine to a leading position internationally. Our country has always been weak in original and fundamental technologies, and Professor He¡¯s version 3.0 Digital Human was an original foundational technology. This significant academic breakthrough naturally brought joy to an academic-born principal. The good news was not just that one; Lin Lan¡¯s Genetics Laboratory also had joyous news. They had made a significant breakthrough in gene technology, and their paper was already on its way to being published. Goodness, after visiting the laboratory, just as Yang Ping came out, Principal Ruo and several vice principals were already waiting in the office. Upon seeing Yang Ping, Principal Ruo immediately approached him, ¡°Professor Yang, you came over without giving a heads up. We were just in a meeting when Professor He mentioned you were coming over to guide the work.¡± ¡°I just came to take a casual look, how could I disturb you all, don¡¯t worry about me, you are all very busy.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to draw too much attention, but he couldn¡¯t help it; wherever he went, he was the center of attention. Principal Ruo, despite the presence of so many people, had a lot he wanted to say to Yang Ping. Ever since Professor He¡¯s Digital Human project succeeded, Principal Ruo had many ideas. Unfortunately, being close to retirement age, he wanted to establish a solid foundation for Nandu Medical University before he retired and to reform Nandu Medical University to propel it towards world-class status. Previously, he thought this goal was far-fetched, but now it seemed attainable. Wouldn¡¯t Professor He¡¯s Digital Human already be world-class? Lin Lan¡¯s results were about to surface too, also world-class. With the school suddenly producing so many world-class results, Principal Ruo still felt somewhat dazed. Everyone took a walk around the campus of Nandu Medical University. Actually, Yang Ping was already very familiar with it. They walked several laps around campus and showed no signs of stopping. Hearing that Yang Ping was at Nandu Medical University, the students, pretending to take walks, all went to see Yang Ping. As they walked, the crowd following grew larger, comprised entirely of students. Seeing that it was getting late, Professor He was very anxious and couldn¡¯t directly say, ¡°Professor Yang, our dinner is ready, let¡¯s eat.¡± ¡°Stay for dinner tonight,¡± Principal Ruo said as he instructed someone beside him to make arrangements. Professor He immediately interrupted, ¡°No need, no need, Professor Yang has other things to do.¡± ¡°It¡¯s about time for dinner,¡± Principal Ruo insisted. Academician Xiang said, ¡°We have already arranged a dinner with Professor Yang. The Digital Human team wants to thank Professor Yang for his guidance; he has given us all a lot of help.¡± ¡°Oh¡ª¡± Principal Ruo uttered a rising tone oh, hearing Academician Xiang¡¯s tone, there was no intent of inviting him. Who would call you? With a leader there, can dinner still just be dinner? Professor He muttered in his mind. Principal Ruo turned to look at Professor He, who also remained silent, it seemed they really didn¡¯t plan to invite him. I¡¯m someone who doesn¡¯t give speeches or require toasts at meals, yet I¡¯m still so unwelcome. Let it be, then, better to leave voluntarily. ¡°That¡¯s fine, you guys have a good chat with Professor Yang, we still have some things to attend to,¡± Principal Ruo didn¡¯t want to delay Yang Ping¡¯s mealtime. Chapter 1256 - 1256 960 Thorny Rose ?Chapter 1256: Chapter 960: Thorny Rose Chapter 1256: Chapter 960: Thorny Rose The success of Digital Human at Nandu Medical University was inseparable from the critical data provided by Yang Ping, data that he had acquired from the System Space. System Space was merely a tool, and Yang Ping was constantly striving to maximize its value. In Yang Ping¡¯s mind, since the system could appear and disappear inexplicably, even if it existed, one should adhere to the principles of independence and constantly renew oneself, transforming everything provided by the system into one¡¯s own knowledge and capabilities. Apart from reading and researching all the books, papers, and medical records in the system as much as possible, Yang Ping also devised ways to replicate a similar platform in reality. Although this platform was not as good as the system for now, it could at least function similarly. Creating a virtual world using computers was undoubtedly the best method to replicate the system, and digitalization was the core technology of this platform. With Digital Humans, future iterations, combined with artificial intelligence, could establish virtual operating rooms, simulate medical experiments, and perform AI-based diagnoses of various diseases. Yang Ping believed that the highest realm of utilizing the system would be the day when the system seemed less significant. The Digital Human at Nandu Medical University was just a starting point; in the future, depending on Digital Humans, supercomputers, and artificial intelligence, a super platform similar to his own system could be established for use by all doctors. The success of Digital Human was merely a representative of accumulated efforts about to burst forth, soon to be followed by an eruption of more heavyweight scientific successes. Over the years, Principal Ruo had poured his heart and soul into a series of reforms at Nandu Medical University, creating a conducive academic environment, attracting a large number of outstanding young talents, allowing the entire school to return to the essence of education and scholarship. At this time, encountering a genius like Yang Ping played a locomotive role, naturally activating the academic capabilities of the entire school. In his years as principal, Principal Ruo had never considered himself an administrative officer but saw himself as a professor standing at a managerial post, believing he was an equal to other professors, with only a different division of work. This positioning eradicated the administrative atmosphere throughout the school, forcing any bureaucratic leadership styles to hide their tails and retreat. In the morning, Yang Ping, still wearing his short-sleeve white gown, stood by the office window for some fresh air. It is said that in the south, there are only summer and winter¡ªtrue summer indeed, but winter is not really winter. Other cities are already getting cooler, with people donning thick coats and long johns, but that is not the case here. People still walk around in short sleeves, clearly a disrespect to deep autumn. From the window, one could see the hospital garden, bustling with people. Patients in hospital attire were doing morning exercises, and some family members rested nearby. Xiao Su was nearing her due date. A bed had already been reserved for her at the Overseas Chinese Building. For safety, the obstetrician recommended moving into the hospital a few days early. In an era dominated by caesarean sections, Xiao Su decided to deliver naturally, which, whether for the mother or the child, was a trial to be deeply remembered. Manstein had good news from his side; he had recommended Yang Ping¡¯s theory of Spatial Orientation Gene to the Nobel Prize Committee. Some big shots were not very impressed with Yang Ping¡¯s academic achievements, which annoyed Manstein so much that he unabashedly criticized these unappreciative experts and professors. When Yang Ping saw Manstein using the word ¡°criticize,¡± he knew Manstein had grown¡ªspecifically, in his command of Chinese. Meanwhile, Woodhead was still battling for Level Four. Fate always seemed to toy with him; each exam missed by just a point or two, missing out on the chance for further studies. Frustrated with the wait, Woodhead planned a short-term academic visit to China¡ªhe had to see for himself what state spinal surgery had achieved here. From the group chat, he learned that from Yang-style Osteotomy to spinal external fixation frames, and now to the Precise Epiphyseal Arrest Technique, what used to be high-risk surgeries had become safe and simple. Merely implanting soybean-sized growth plate inhibitors in children¡¯s or teenagers¡¯ spine bones, during the growth, the spine could correct itself. However, the details of this inhibitor technology, due to its advanced nature, were inconvenient to display; until now, Woodhead had not understood its principle, how it managed to inhibit growth precisely. Treating scoliosis with Epiphyseal Blockade Technology, Woodhead was also using it, but only for simple, not very severe cases of scoliosis, unable to apply it to complex or severe cases because controlling the growth plate inhibition was not possible, let alone precisely so. Robert¡¯s clinic in the United States was seeing a surge in business volume, especially since renaming it to Big Brother Robert¡¯s Clinic. The strong brand identity and some signature surgeries that only he could perform proficiently in the United States had significantly enhanced Robert¡¯s standing in North American sports medicine. If previously some criticized him as merely living off his parents¡¯ fame, a second-generation medical practitioner, now no one dared to say that. His expertise in sports medicine had far surpassed his competitors. Ou Lianfeng visited Sanbo Hospital again, this time for a physical examination. He had undergone a pulmonary lavage in the respiratory department. The effects of the surgery were not very good, only a temporary makeshift solution; a lung transplant would be needed eventually. Chapter 1257 - 1257 960 Thorny Rose_2 ?Chapter 1257: Chapter 960: Thorny Rose_2 Chapter 1257: Chapter 960: Thorny Rose_2 Ou Lianfeng brought some local specialties to show gratitude to the doctors and nurses. He told Yang Ping that not only did he receive compensation, but also a group of people in his locality had been severely punished by the law for the matter, not just one, but a batch of people. He had not expected the issue to be dealt with so swiftly and to the satisfaction of the public. Many of his fellow workers, like him, had become beneficiaries. Previously, they struggled with poverty and life-threatening illnesses; this time, they all received compensation. He thanked Yang Ping and Sanbo Hospital for their help. In fact, Yang Ping also felt that he hadn¡¯t done much, merely a small thing that a doctor should do. Objectively and truthfully giving a diagnosis was all he did, and he never imagined that it could bring about so many positive benefits, saving so many lives. It seems that with great power comes great responsibility; this isn¡¯t just an empty phrase. When someone¡¯s abilities and position reach a certain level, their every move can make an impact, which can be positive or negative. Lung transplants are currently best performed in Zhejiang, especially at Zhejiang University First Affiliated Hospital. Sanbo Hospital is still in its early stages, and the Organ Transplant Center intends to develop lung transplants, but they still need technical support from the Surgical Research Institute. The Surgical Research Institute, as the technical cradle for Sanbo Hospital, means many technologies quickly spread to other departments. Sanbo Hospital has a strong foundation; most of its clinical doctors are Ph.D. graduates from prestigious universities. This group of young talents is the foundation for Sanbo¡¯s leap forward; without them, it would be very difficult for Yang Ping to drive the entire hospital¡¯s development forward. Everyday work continues, yet research projects still see no progress, and the credits have almost run out. If no new credits come in, it would be difficult to continue the experiments. Yang Ping began to adjust his approach during this time, seriously reviewing whether his methodology might be flawed. The K-factor protein has a significant tumor-killing effect in vitro. However, when used in experimental subjects, this effect is quite minimal. This is because the internal environment of the human body differs from the experimental environment, a problem similar to that encountered by many drugs. They perform well in the laboratory, but it is a different story inside the human body. Some drugs can be improved through various means to achieve effects within the human body, but for others, no matter how much they are improved, they remain ineffective and consequently have to be abandoned. The factors affecting the K-factor protein in the human body include both dynamic and static elements. These various factors interact with each other in a complex manner. The dynamism and complexity of the human body are why the field of medicine develops slower than other disciplines; the human body is just too complicated. Sometimes, when one takes a moment to study the history of medicine, every step forward was taken with great difficulty and caution, and some advancements were made amidst skepticism, persecution, and suppression. Yang Ping continued to modify the isomers of the K-factor protein or paired it with other molecules, striving for improvements in every aspect, hoping it would perform at its best within the human body. Pioneering innovations aren¡¯t easy to come by; most are achieved bit by bit through the efforts of several generations¡ªa slow, spiraling process. System Space provides abundant resources and time but no decision-making. The decisions still rely on Yang Ping¡¯s brain; the system is merely a powerful physical tool. After meticulous analysis, Yang Ping finally realized that the K-factor protein, a potent small molecular protein that can induce apoptosis in tumor cells, does not exist naturally in the human body. When it acts within the body, it inevitably draws the attention of the body¡¯s protective mechanisms, which are both intelligent and unintelligent. Upon detecting the foreign K-factor protein, capable of causing cell death, the body¡¯s defenses immediately become alert. However, they fail to recognize that the K-factor¡¯s mission is to eradicate tumor cells, not normal cells. Believing that the K-factor would also destroy the body¡¯s normal cells, the body tries everything to eliminate, hinder, and interfere with the K-factor¡¯s function. This not only reduces the K-factor¡¯s operational ability but also causes significant side effects to the human body. To deal with such a formidable enemy, the body must mobilize more defense resources, which, if prolonged, can cause imbalances, resulting in noticeable side effects. This is why the K-factor works so well in vitro but is significantly less effective, even minimal, within the human body¡ªthe two environments are completely different. It¡¯s like a boxer who is formidable against a punch bag but can¡¯t perform to the same level in a real boxing ring because the opponent is no longer a static target but a thinking, evasive, and attacking boxer. Why can the K-factor not evade the human body¡¯s defense mechanisms, whereas tumor cells can? The K-factor is merely a small protein molecule, not an entity capable of life-like behavior. To avoid the human body¡¯s protective mechanisms, it requires the experimenter to manually modify it, lacking self-modifying capabilities, while tumor cells, being cells, the basic units of life, modify themselves through self-evasive behaviors. Regarding the fundamental reason for the K-factor¡¯s failure, Yang Ping had a very clear theoretical understanding. Next, he had to think about how to make the K-factor genuinely evade the human body¡¯s protective mechanisms and function within it. Viruses and bacteria possess the intelligence to survive, modifying themselves to adapt to harsh environments. Yang Ping wondered if it was possible to combine the K-factor with viruses and bacteria, creating a composite entity bold enough to imagine. Chapter 1258 - 1258 960 Thorny Rose_3 ?Chapter 1258: Chapter 960: Thorny Rose_3 Chapter 1258: Chapter 960: Thorny Rose_3 Sometimes the wisdom of viruses and bacteria in certain aspects surpasses that of humans; humans struggle to do what bacteria and viruses can easily accomplish. Compared to the iteration speed of bacteria and viruses, the speed of artificial modification is truly sluggish. Following this line of thought, Yang Ping continued to advance his research. After Li Yingtong reported to Sanbo Hospital and then wanted to go back to visit her hometown, which she hadn¡¯t visited for many years. Since her grandmother passed away, the old house had changed hands several times, she didn¡¯t know to whom it had sold, whether the house had been demolished, or if the old street was still there. But when Li Yingtong returned, the old street in the urban village was still there, and so was her grandmother¡¯s house. The house wasn¡¯t rundown at all; clearly someone had taken care of it, and even the old chair at the doorstep was clean and tidy. In the past, her grandmother always sat in that chair. recalling her kind grandmother made Li Yingtong want to cry. The house had been bought by Tang Shun, who wanted Li Yingtong to retrieve her childhood memories. After much effort, Tang Shun managed to find the new owner of the house and bought it back, then hired a professional maintenance team to meticulously repair the house. The new owner of the house wasn¡¯t a single person, but several people scattered around the world. Therefore, to purchase the house, Tang Shun put a lot of thought into it, contacted all the owners through intermediaries, and worked with them one by one. Finally, they sent a representative to negotiate and sign the contract. ¡°Welcome home!¡± Li Yingtong received a WeChat message. It was sent by Tang Shun, and Li Yingtong couldn¡¯t help but cry again. Indeed, an expert strikes at the most vulnerable part of the heart, and this first move had grasped the softest part of Li Yingtong¡¯s heart. At this time, in the office of the director of Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute. ¡°Professor, knowing that she has an issue, you still let her enter the laboratory. Isn¡¯t this too dangerous?¡± Song Zimo was very concerned. Because Manager Qiu had received a message from the higher authorities early on that Li Yingtong¡¯s purpose for this trip was not pure, and she was very likely to steal Professor Yang¡¯s scientific research results. Additionally, Manager Qiu had received a thick dossier on Li Yingtong, which was now placed on Yang Ping¡¯s desk. ¡°She is too talented; we need people like her. Since others have brought her to us, why not accept her?¡± In fact, Yang Ping believed that no matter what she did, she couldn¡¯t take away the core technology, for the core technology resided in Yang Ping¡¯s brain. ¡°But in the end, she is a rose with thorns!¡± Song Zimo was still worried. ¡°But still a rose. What I want is a rose. Tang Shun will remove all the thorns, you have to believe in Tang Shun¡¯s abilities. You can doubt everything about him, but never doubt his ability.¡± Yang Ping remained firm. ¡°I heard you gave Tang Shun an ultimatum.¡± ¡°Yes, I told Tang Shun¡ªif he can¡¯t handle Li Yingtong, he should pack up and go back to Japan.¡± ¡°This seems a bit unethical.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a necessity, don¡¯t you think she¡¯s a good match for Tang Shun? They¡¯re both exceptional in their fields, both among the world¡¯s elite, and have a wide range of hobbies. I believe they have much in common. If¡ªI¡¯m just saying if¡ªthey are of one mind, they could cut through metal.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid that she¡¯ll end up getting Tang Shun wrapped around her finger?¡± ¡°Joke, have you ever heard of a monster capturing Sun Wukong?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t this move too detrimental?¡± ¡°It is a bit detrimental, but we¡¯re not just any kind of detrimental, we¡¯re detrimental with noble ideals, all for the advancement of human medicine.¡± ¡°Professor! I can¡¯t help but feel that this isn¡¯t noble at this moment, but scheming.¡± ¡°Cough cough cough¡ªsometimes, it¡¯s hard to distinguish between nobility and scheming.¡± Chapter 1259 - 1259 961 Just Posting a Moment ?Chapter 1259: Chapter 961: Just Posting a Moment Chapter 1259: Chapter 961: Just Posting a Moment The laboratory is now very busy, with everyone engrossed in improving the experimental plans; whenever Yang Ping has free time, he makes sure to head to the laboratory. At a certain point in their careers, doctors must engage in research, regardless of whether it¡¯s domestically or abroad. Top doctors must focus on both clinical practice and research; medicine needs advancement, and existing technologies need modification or even the creation of entirely new techniques. These tasks must be accomplished through research since relying solely on the accumulation of clinical experience won¡¯t propel the advancement of medicine. Department Director Tang Shun now has an additional secret assignment. If this task were on anyone else, they would be overwhelmed. With the laboratory¡¯s research work already so hectic, how could someone handle many things at once? But he is Tang Shun; he can cope with it all. Being a master of time management is not for nothing; he really has the talent and skill. Fatty Liang is aware of this and is said to have seen Tang Shun simultaneously chatting with 16 WeChat friends without missing a beat, while also managing to read some papers¡ªextracting knowledge from the ocean of information without neglecting anything. These days, having such a number of girlfriends at once is common, but publicly dating 16 girlfriends with full knowledge and consent of each other and maintaining a harmonious and willing relationship is nearly impossible to find a second example. Fatty Liang was very curious to see the Mentor¡¯s practical operation when he heard Tang Shun would demonstrate his unique skill. He had only heard about the theory before and now wanted to witness a classic case demonstration from start to finish by his Mentor. Unfortunately, the operating room was too busy to spare time, regrettably missing out on this rare learning opportunity. Fatty Liang never understood why Tang Shun, despite being so busy and having little time for his girlfriends, never received complaints or trouble from those women. They were each afraid of being dumped, trying their best to keep him happy. The Flight Attendant would now always complain that Fatty Liang had no time to take her shopping for purses. Comparing people can be frustrating; some are fated to enjoy a life of ease. If Tang Shun hadn¡¯t pursued a doctorate and research and instead frequented social clubs, he¡¯d undoubtedly be the heartthrob of many, and not because of his looks but due to some other inherent charm. When Fatty Liang heard that Yang Ping was going to the laboratory just for a change of scene, he seized the opportunity to follow behind him. However, soon after arriving at the laboratory, a call came from the operating room requesting him for a task. Although currently only having two doctors under him, he was after all the Anesthesia Department Director. Sigh, nowadays there¡¯s just no more time to stick by the Mentor¡¯s side for guidance. The talent pool in the laboratory grew stronger and stronger, with several dozen researchers and doctoral and master students combined. The full-time researchers are all graduated doctors, handpicked by Tang Shun as the top talents. The current doctoral and master students are also a crucial force in the laboratory. Their lives are rather tough, living on a meager stipend that could be delayed at any time and enduring the 996 lifestyle. Luckily, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s laboratory is not short of funds. With the support of big shot Yang Ping, various social aids keep flowing in continuously. The stipends for these doctoral and master students are the highest in the country, generous without needing to adhere to the 996 routine, allowing these young people to have relationships based on their stipends. Formal researchers have it even better; their salary is not determined by school or hospital standards. They receive a double income, enjoying both the institutional salary from the hospital and school, as well as a high salary from the Research Fund. An average researcher¡¯s annual income is over four hundred thousand, not to mention top researchers, who earn several million a year. Therefore, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s laboratory and Surgical Research Institute are dream destinations for medical students¡ªall but hoping to work there. Many top talents studying or working abroad considered returning upon hearing about the conditions here. It¡¯s not just about the money; the working atmosphere is excellent, without a need for complicated social obligations such as wining, dining, flattery, and sycophancy. Honestly, the real top talents despise and avoid such things, wishing to conduct their research in peace and earnestness. Arriving at the laboratory¡¯s office area which is separate from the experimental area, separated by a glass wall, the office area has no special requirements, very casual. But the experimental area, due to the particular nature of medical-biological experiments, has strict requirements for both the hardware environment and administration. In the corner of the office area, someone is intensely absorbed in a computer game, which Yang Ping is accustomed to and doesn¡¯t care about in the slightest. Tang Shun says this person may seem idle all day, but all the laboratory¡¯s software was developed by him. Not only is he proficient in medicine and biology, but also in computer programming, making him exceptionally suitable for developing various medical laboratory software. In some large laboratories, work software is developed in-house because general programmers or software development companies lack a deep grasp of medical and biological knowledge. Even if clients inform developers of the software requirements, the developers cannot produce the necessary software. This person has been focused on this software since Tang Shun recruited him. He now leads an online team. Despite seeming to work alone, he actually has a team working for him. The first software he wrote is already in use and works extremely well¡ªsuperior to the expensive software previously purchased, in terms of both functionality and stability. Chapter 1260 - 1260 961 Just Posting a Moment_2 ?Chapter 1260: Chapter 961: Just Posting a Moment_2 Chapter 1260: Chapter 961: Just Posting a Moment_2 Highly specialized large-scale software from various industries is actually a weak link for us. Despite the internet industry booming and big companies easily reaching market values in the hundreds of billions, fundamental software such as various industrial applications are all controlled by the West. This is because the development of such software is extremely difficult, requiring significant investment of manpower, financial resources, and time. Few companies are willing to make such long-term foundational investments. This guy who plays games is quite an oddball. He lacks a regular work routine, only working when he feels like it and resting otherwise. Sometimes he plays games, but he doesn¡¯t disturb others, as he keeps to himself in a corner with the sound turned off, immersed in his own world. It¡¯s not surprising that some geniuses have their own quirks, so managing such a team actually requires a relaxed and free environment. ¡°Any difficulties? If there are any, just mention them.¡± Yang Ping walked around the laboratory before sitting down in the office. ¡°We want to establish a research software development team. This team needs to be independent and provide application software support for our experiments,¡± Tang Shun voiced his difficulty, aware that the guy who played games had an online team, but additional funding was needed. ¡°Just write a report and apply to the foundation,¡± Yang Ping nodded. ¡°Sure thing!¡± Tang Shun had the authority to do so, as Yang Ping had given him enough leeway. However, out of respect, Tang Shun still made sure to report important matters in a timely fashion. ¡°Any other difficulties?¡± Yang Ping asked. Tang Shun shook his head. Actually, Yang Ping was inquiring about Li Yingtong, who had already returned to the country and would soon start her job. Yang Ping needed Li Yingtong to work diligently, with both her presence and her heart committed to the job. ¡°Li Yingtong doesn¡¯t have any issues with work or life, does she?¡± ¡°No!¡± Yang Ping spoke softly, ¡°Good, I need her to be fully committed here; she is an irreplaceable talent.¡± ¡°Understood, Professor!¡± Tang Shun was very confident. ¡°No difficulties at all?¡± ¡°No!¡± What a joke, admitting to any difficulties would be to belittle his own expertise, wouldn¡¯t it? To confess to difficulties would be the biggest joke of all. Having toured the laboratory to understand the recent progress, although the experiments are hitting bottlenecks and moving forward with difficulty, it is only in comparison to his previous smoothest times. In comparison to other laboratories, the progress is still outstandingly fast. From the research on Skin Expansion Technology, a wealth of information on skin cell replication and division has been obtained. These findings have been applied to liver expansion, and there has been some minor progress. Like skin, the liver has a strong regenerative capacity. If a small part of the liver could be removed from the body and expanded in the laboratory like skin, and then transplanted back into the patient once sufficiently expanded. This way, as long as patients still have a few normal liver cells, they could use this technology for an autologous transplant. If the patient no longer has any normal liver cells, an allogenic liver transplant is necessary, which is also very beneficial for the donor. Only a small piece of liver tissue needs to be taken, which could make allogenic liver transplant possible. For liver donors, they might not even need to undergo surgery, only a liver biopsy to extract some liver tissue for laboratory expansion and cultivation. As for the research on using cellular apoptosis to treat tumors, it¡¯s currently struggling with the in vivo effects of the K factor. The K factor has been modified many times but still cannot play a significant role in the body. Almost every similar structural protein that could be thought of has been tested, but none are satisfactory. To achieve a breakthrough, it¡¯s necessary to take an unconventional approach, such as disguising the K factor to avoid attacks from the body, or finding a suitable delivery vehicle to protect it and deliver it to the target location. The experiment on the Spatial Orientation Gene has made some new breakthroughs. A few suspected gene fragments are currently being functionally validated. This process is cumbersome, but that¡¯s how research goes; the deeper you go, the harder it becomes. The overall progress of the experiment is stable. Encountering difficulties is normal, especially since these experiments have already achieved significant results. Advancing further is not easy. Yang Ping spent a long time talking to Tang Shun in the laboratory, offering some suggestions, and then going to check on Xiao Su at the Overseas Chinese Building. Xiao Su is nearing her due date, and staying in the Overseas Chinese Building for her delivery is a special treatment from Sanbo Hospital. Just on his way to the Overseas Chinese Building, Manstein sent several messages on WeChat. Manstein now speaks Chinese quite well. In fact, such talents learn quickly in any field, it¡¯s just a matter of whether they wish to pursue it. For instance, in high school, some students excel at gaming and tend to think that top students only know how to bury themselves in books and can¡¯t even play games well. They don¡¯t understand one thing: these top students are not incapable of playing well; they simply choose not to play. Their target is the College Entrance Examination. If one day playing games became a subject in the exam, believe that those who were known for being good at games would be utterly thrashed by the top students. Except for special fields like athletics that require innate physical qualities, top students¡¯ learning abilities, habits, and desires could lead to success in virtually any field. Manstein¡¯s WeChat messages actually concerned a request for cooperation with Yang Ping. This wasn¡¯t the first time; he had proposed establishing a research collaboration with Yang Ping several times before. His research on nerve damage repair had encountered insurmountable obstacles. To succeed in his grand project of head transplant surgery, the challenges of spinal and peripheral nerve injury had to be overcome. The proposal for Original Cell Repair was a grand topic, yet he was nowhere near a breakthrough. The work on the Spatial Orientation Gene by Yang Ping revealed to him where the ¡°door¡± was¡ªthe door was with Yang Ping. Perhaps by applying the Spatial Orientation Gene to spinal and peripheral nerve injury repair, it might be possible to achieve Original Cell Repair of the spinal cord and nerves. Chapter 1261 - 1261 961 Just Posting a Moment_3 ?Chapter 1261: Chapter 961: Just Posting a Moment_3 Chapter 1261: Chapter 961: Just Posting a Moment_3 Regarding the cooperation with Manstein, Professor Yang Ping had not agreed yet. Before the Nobel Prize situation was settled, he wouldn¡¯t agree to the German¡¯s cooperation; after all, there had to be some sincerity in the offer. Of course, Manstein¡¯s sincerity was considerable¡ªhelping Professor Yang Ping apply for the Nobel Prize was his commitment. In terms of achievements, Professor Yang Ping¡¯s results were indeed of Nobel Prize caliber. The remainder was about gaining the jury¡¯s approval, which required influential people to lobby for him because the most advanced things often are challenging to showcase, and not everyone understands them. Professor Yang Ping, while walking, chatted with Manstein on WeChat, encountering many colleagues along the way who respectfully addressed him as Professor Yang. In their minds, Professor Yang Ping was like a deity. Midway, he also ran into Dean Xia, who informed him that the matter involving Ou Lianfeng was far from over. This incident had triggered a major upheaval locally, leading to a series of severe punishments for many people, with some illegal activities being sanctioned by law. The factory involved had been ordered to cease production, and many workers had received compensation. Professor Yang Ping gave a thumbs-up: ¡°With Dean Xia stepping in, all lawbreakers were netted in one sweep.¡± Dean Xia was startled, ¡°This isn¡¯t my credit. The team I sent was beaten out with clubs. This is your achievement!¡± ¡°Mine?¡± Professor Yang Ping felt he hadn¡¯t contributed much to this matter. Dean Xia said, ¡°You might not realize it, but you posted a moment expressing your dissatisfaction with the event and your sympathy for Ou Lianfeng.¡± Moment? Professor Yang Ping remembered that he indeed had posted a moment casually. ¡°A post with such great impact? The internet these days is really something,¡± Professor Yang Ping exclaimed. Dean Xia glared at him and hastily said before leaving, ¡°You should see who your WeChat friends are!¡± Professor Yang Ping stood there pondering. Could his moment really have that much influence? He never thought it over before. ¡ª At this time in the United States, Li Gaoyang had become gaunt. The head of this North American powerful family had recently been very unfortunate. His illness was worsening, and the surgery issue was still unresolved. He was racking his brains on how to manage this problem as a new, urgent issue had arrived. Rolf, who was responsible for the family¡¯s intelligence, laid an extremely important and urgent piece of intelligence in front of Li Gaoyang. All the intelligence summarized to one thing: someone wanted to secretly eliminate Li Gaoyang for a simple reason¡ªhe had become a serious personal threat to Professor Yang Ping, indirectly threatening the lives and health of many magnates. Multiple families, including some major European families and North American local families, wished to kill him. ¡°These bastards¡ª¡± Li Gaoyang cursed, his ire evident as he felt like a falcon clawed by its own kind. ¡°You must not go out unless absolutely necessary. We are trying to eliminate this threat. This isn¡¯t a joke; it¡¯s about dealing with you for real,¡± Rolf warned seriously. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because Professor Yang Ping is their security. No old master would overlook such a godlike doctor. You¡¯ve incurred public wrath. Frankly, if I were them, I¡¯d probably target you too. Do you know what these people fear the most? They fear what you are most afraid of now. Why are you desperately seeking him to perform the surgery? Think about it, if Professor Yang Ping could operate on you now, and someone targets him, what would you do? You¡¯d eliminate the obstacle because you need to survive, and only he can make you survive. It¡¯s that simple. If the conflicts in this world, mostly fought for profit or fame, will become much more decisive and fierce when fought for life.¡± Li Gaoyang sighed deeply, ¡°But I¡¯ve already given up on the original plan.¡± ¡°But they don¡¯t think so. First off, they aren¡¯t sure if you¡¯ve genuinely given up. Even if you have, the safest option for them, considering your past thoughts might be reactivated at any time, is to make you disappear. Destroying the physical body is the simplest and most brutal method, and it¡¯s the most reliable,¡± Rolf explained calmly to Li Gaoyang. ¡°!¡± Li Gaoyang cursed vulgarly. ¡°Aren¡¯t they afraid of my revenge?¡± ¡°Joke, you¡¯ve offended not just one person, not just one family, but many families. How can you take revenge? Can you take on the world alone? Moreover, our elders have also always opposed your plan; you just wanted to carry it out stealthily,¡± Rolf had to explain the situation to his old friend. Li Gaoyang fell silent; he never thought that he would be suppressed by a doctor, and this doctor didn¡¯t even know about it. Others stepped up for him and suppressed him; after all, he too was a powerhouse in North America, used to being domineering, now how to adapt to this kind of thing? ¡°Anyway, even if they don¡¯t take action, I won¡¯t live long under the current circumstances. My neurosurgeon, John Ansen, said that the illness is getting more severe and I must have surgery quickly. So be it,¡± Li Gaoyang said helplessly. ¡°There¡¯s still a glimmer of hope; go to Ruixing Medical¡¯s Huang Jiacai, reach a settlement with them, and this situation could turn around. We¡¯ve tested the waters; they¡¯re asking for a high price.¡± ¡°Agree to it then.¡± PS: I¡¯ve been too busy lately, always unable to keep up with updates. Please forgive me, I will try to stabilize the updates. Thank you all. Chapter 1262 - 1262 962 The Medical Examination Report of a ?Chapter 1262: Chapter 962: The Medical Examination Report of a Middle-aged Man Chapter 1262: Chapter 962: The Medical Examination Report of a Middle-aged Man The Overseas Chinese Building is in a completely different league when compared to normal wards; all of the rooms are suites with meticulous decoration, taking into account both environmental considerations and a touch of luxury. The meals provided are a blend of nutrition and taste, meticulously crafted through the collaboration of professional chefs and dieticians. The patients here, whether in treatment or examination, are always given priority. Even for a simple test, there will be one-on-one nurse accompaniment. The treatment plans are devised by the hospital¡¯s finest medical teams and sometimes even utilize external medical resources from across the country for consultations. But the most, most, most important thing is to have Yang Ping as the chief surgeon here as soon as possible. Rome wasn¡¯t built in a day, and neither was the Overseas Chinese Building. Its scale today is the result of continuous expansions led by Dean Xia. There was no avoiding it; as the popularity of Sanbo Hospital increased, the number of patients grew, and naturally, the number of those staying in the Overseas Chinese Building increased as well. The Overseas Chinese Building¡¯s departments, including internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and orthopedics, are all fully occupied, with many patients coming from abroad. Of course, patients able to stay here, whether from abroad or domestic, are certainly either wealthy or prestigious; unlike the average person, they never consider the cost of treatment. Dean Xia has a keen sense for management. He actively expanded the Overseas Chinese Building, especially increasing the ratio of international patients, and then used its income to subsidize departments that weren¡¯t profitable. This strategy is what allowed the hospital to maintain balanced development. Take the pediatric department, for instance; it¡¯s a department with heavy workload but very low income. Many pediatricians from other hospitals were forced to resign and change careers, some preferring to sell insurance rather than continue in pediatrics. It¡¯s a lot of work, often thankless, and can even involve being scolded or assaulted. To counteract the talent drain in pediatrics, Dean Xia had instituted a subsidy policy early on, reallocating funds from other departments to support pediatrics. Now, with the revenue from the Overseas Chinese Building, they could directly subsidize pediatrics, immediately making the incomes of the pediatric doctors and nurses much more appealing. This fundamentally stabilized the retention of staff in pediatrics, and then further policies were implemented to promote fair dealings between medical staff and patients, ensuring that in any dispute, the medical staff would not be blamed by default. The private wards in the Overseas Chinese Building have a premium price, extravagantly so. At the time of pricing, a single surgery could cost millions, and overall treatment could range from millions to tens of millions. Many thought these prices were absurd, believing no one would seek treatment here. Dean Xia implemented this ¡°ridiculous¡± pricing despite considerable pressure. It turned out that Dean Xia was right; his pricing wasn¡¯t ridiculous at all. It simply aligned medical costs with international standards. Even with these high prices, wealthy individuals from both home and abroad didn¡¯t mind. They eagerly paid the hefty fees for surgeries at Sanbo Hospital, even for minor procedures. Now that the Overseas Chinese Building was once again reaching capacity, Dean Xia began to consider another expansion. In his eyes, the Overseas Chinese Building had become the primary economic source for Sanbo Hospital¡ªthe principle of increasing revenue and decreasing expenses, this facility being the major source. When Yang Ping arrived at the Overseas Chinese Building, Xiao Su was jogging slowly on the treadmill in the maternity ward¡¯s exercise room, surrounded by a crowd that included doctors, nurses, and maternity exercise instructors. Some monitored her heart rate and other vital signs, some evaluated the exercise intensity and duration, and others were ready for any emergencies that could arise. After ten months of pregnancy comes delivery. These days were the predicted due date, and Xiao Su had started to feel pain in her belly, yet there was no sign of labor. The doctors suggested she should move around more, as it would help with the delivery. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Human Resources Office not only arranged for Xiao Su to stay in the Overseas Chinese Building for the delivery but also carefully selected a team of maternity caregivers to assist her. Yang Ping didn¡¯t reject such high-standard treatment; if he could provide good conditions for his wife and child, and it was all legal and fair, he gladly accepted it. The number in the accompanying birth team wasn¡¯t just limited to that. Throughout the maternity period, head nurses from various departments took turns visiting Xiao Su, encouraging her and sharing their experiences to ease her mind. Although she was initially not nervous, the attention from so many people made her somewhat anxious. Head Nurse Cai simply handed over her duties to a capable assistant in her department and joined Xiao Su¡¯s mother in accompanying Xiao Su until the delivery¡ªa notion suggested by the Human Resources Office, hoping that Head Nurse Cai would stay with her throughout the process. Ning Qi, the chairperson of Anning Group, was very familiar with Xiao Su, as she often visited the Surgical Research Institute, and they had become good friends. She also took time out to join the birth support team full-time. Participating in the team were also Huang Jiacai¡¯s sister Huang Jiahui, Xiao Su¡¯s best friend Qiu Nuo, Tang Fei, Zhang Lin, and Little Five¡¯s wife also insisted on coming. However, the ward could not accommodate so many people at once; besides, having such a large group gather for childbirth made Xiao Su feel somewhat embarrassed. At that moment, Mrs. Su was also by her side. Having been a nurse herself, Yang Ping felt reassured with her presence. Xiao Su knew Yang Ping was busy, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me; just go and do what you need to do, and then come and accompany me after work.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t do; whenever I have time, I¡¯ll come and be with you. I even want to take paternity leave. Nowadays, men have paternity leave too, right? Having a child is a big deal,¡± Yang Ping said with a smile. Xiao Su dismissed the concern, ¡°Most women have to give birth. It¡¯s a common thing. Treat it as normal. Don¡¯t make it into a grand affair. There¡¯s no activity yet, so go do what you need to do.¡± Chapter 1263 - 1263 962 The Middle-Aged Mans Physical Exam ?Chapter 1263: Chapter 962: The Middle-Aged Man¡¯s Physical Exam Report_2 Chapter 1263: Chapter 962: The Middle-Aged Man¡¯s Physical Exam Report_2 Yang Ping asked for Xiao Su¡¯s medical record and read every word, whether it was the disease progress notes, nursing records, or various test results, he studied them carefully and only felt at ease after he had finished. Director Chen Xiaoqiao, who was in charge of Xiao Su¡¯s maternity care, felt tremendous pressure beside him. It wasn¡¯t just her; the entire team felt the weight, as Xiao Su was Yang Ping¡¯s wife, and everyone was afraid of making any mistakes, feeling like every step was under a magnifying glass. ¡°Professor Yang, Nurse Su has been in pain for two days, if she doesn¡¯t give birth by tomorrow, can we consider artificially rupturing the membranes?¡± Director Chen inquired, feeling quite troubled inside. Who could blame her when Yang Ping was a top all-rounder? At Sanbo Hospital, apart from the obstetrics and gynecology department where Yang Ping had not overseen surgery, he had experience in every other department. Director Chen wasn¡¯t sure if this demigod was proficient in obstetrics and gynecology, so it seemed more appropriate to ask, to avoid teaching her grandmother to suck eggs. The midwife stood next to Director Chen, her face filled with tension and urgency, as if it were her responsibility that Xiao Su¡¯s baby hadn¡¯t come out yet. ¡±Yes, if she doesn¡¯t come out by tomorrow, can we consider artificially rupturing the membranes?¡± the midwife echoed in a low voice. As an all-knowing deity, how could he not be proficient in the obstetrics? Even if he wasn¡¯t, during the time Xiao Su was pregnant, Yang Ping would have worked hard to study and make himself an expert in obstetrics. ¡°Let me talk to my son and ask him to stop troubling his mom and come out earlier.¡± Yang Ping said earnestly, then gestured for Xiao Su to bring her stomach closer so he could have a talk with his son. The people around him wore puzzled expressions. Could this be real? Yang Ping pressed his ear against Xiao Su¡¯s belly: ¡°Son, you¡¯re making your mom suffer a lot. Can you come out earlier?¡± ¡°Tomorrow at nine o¡¯clock? Nine o¡¯clock won¡¯t work; you have to be reasonable. Let¡¯s both take a step back, how about six o¡¯clock, is six okay? Okay, then six it is.¡± Yang Ping turned to Director Chen and said, ¡°He said he¡¯ll come out at six. Knowing my son¡¯s character, he shouldn¡¯t lie, so he¡¯ll definitely come out at six.¡± Yang Ping wasn¡¯t just talking through his hat; he based his prediction on the uterine contraction situation record in the medical history, and his deduction was very likely accurate. ¡°Six o¡¯clock? I doubt it.¡± Director Chen felt without inducing labor, the baby might not arrive by that time. Not to mention six in the morning; she¡¯d consider it quick if the baby came out by six in the afternoon given the current circumstances. Yang Ping chuckled: ¡°I¡¯m his dad; he has to listen to me. We agreed on six o¡¯clock, so he definitely won¡¯t go back on his word.¡± Director Chen was confused¡ªis Professor Yang serious or not? He seemed earnest in communicating with the fetus, even specifying the exact time of six o¡¯clock. After leaving the obstetrics ward, Yang Ping remembered he had a consultation in the surgery department. The patient was a provincial-level official named Liao Hongsheng, who had found a nodule in his chest during a physical examination. This official was very anxious, although Yang Ping had already seen his CT scan and thought it was likely benign, with very little chance of malignancy, almost negligible. According to medical principles, such nodules could just be monitored regularly without any need for concern. But as a leader in his prime at just fifty and in the midst of his career ascent, he wanted to be clear about his condition. If he insisted on knowing exactly what was going on, his options were surgery or biopsy. Surgery would be a big undertaking, which the leader was unwilling to undergo, so he preferred a biopsy. However, the nodule was too small, and without a very high level of skill, a biopsy would be impossible, with location being the problem. Thus, they had to seek out Yang Ping. Arriving at the surgery department, Yang Ping exchanged pleasantries with the head of the department, had a couple of sips of tea, and then met with the leader in the Meeting Room. ¡±Professor Yang, hello, sorry to trouble you.¡± Director Liao was very polite and humble as he shook Yang Ping¡¯s hand. Yang Ping shook his hand in a perfunctory manner: ¡°No need for formalities; it¡¯s part of my job.¡± Director Liao sat down, ¡°Professor Yang, in your opinion, is there a high likelihood that this nodule is malignant?¡± Director Liao had already asked this question countless times to other doctors, but this was the first time he posed it face to face with Yang Ping. Before this, Yang Ping had not met him, and he had communicated his assessment of the scans through the Director of Surgery at the Overseas Chinese Building, and through his proxy, Song Zimo. Today he was just stopping by to see his wife, so he took the opportunity to speak with him. Usually, there was no time for such a personal visit, so Director Liao was quite fortunate. Director Liao cherished this chance and tried to appear humble and modest while grasping the opportunity, showing the quality that he ought to possess. Yang Ping thought for a moment and responded very decisively, with no equivocation, ¡°The likelihood of it being malignant is minuscule. Based on the imaging, all signs point to benign.¡± ¡°In that case, I have decided to go ahead with a biopsy to obtain a pathological diagnosis, what do you think?¡± the leader always had a modest demeanor. Yang Ping was taken aback. If he believed the nodule was benign, shouldn¡¯t all invasive tests be abandoned? A routine follow-up would suffice, and a reevaluation would only be needed if there was noticeable growth; if not, continued observation would be adequate. But the leader¡¯s thought process was different; it was crystal clear. If Yang Ping was uncertain about the nature of the nodule, the leader wouldn¡¯t dare go for the biopsy and would have to temporize. Now that Yang Ping was very confident in the nature of the nodule, the fact that it couldn¡¯t be confirmed with 100% certainty was merely a theoretical or procedural matter, and the leader could accurately grasp the meaning from Yang Ping¡¯s tone. Since Yang Ping was confident, the leader wanted to secure a final diagnosis of benign, which was extremely important as it could impact his career prospects. An equivocal finding versus one that has been confirmed not to affect health carries different implications. ¡°The nodule is very small, only 5 millimeters in diameter; theoretically, the biopsy would be quite challenging,¡± Yang Ping informed the leader. The leader smiled and said, ¡°That¡¯s why I need to trouble Professor Yang with this matter.¡± ¡°It¡¯s hardly any trouble; it¡¯s just unnecessary. If you insist on a biopsy, I can try, but I can¡¯t guarantee with 100% certainty that it will hit the mark. I have about an 80% success rate, with a 20% chance of failure,¡± Yang Ping couldn¡¯t make absolute promises¡ªclinical matters were never certain. ¡°Then I¡¯ll trouble Professor Yang,¡± the leader was very happy inside, feeling a weight lift off his heart. Because he had also inquired, in Professor Yang¡¯s view, even the most assured surgeries had only an 80% guarantee. In reality, 80% was virtually the same as 100%. With Professor Yang¡¯s 80% assurance, the leader had a good sense of security, allowing him some peace of mind. ¡°Actually, there is nothing to worry about; at this age, it¡¯s common for health screenings to reveal some dissatisfaction,¡± Yang Ping reassured the leader. Health exams for middle-aged people are indeed tricky. Without screening, some issues may not be discovered early. With it, given the current lifestyle, it¡¯s easy for a middle-aged person¡¯s health report to flag a host of abnormalities, such as liver function abnormalities, elevated blood lipids, high uric acid, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, thyroid nodules, lung nodules, intestinal polyps, etc.¡ªit¡¯s easy for the report to hit on one or more of these. Those who are hit with such abnormal indicators and have a good mentality manage well but those who don¡¯t can easily become anxious, experiencing days of poor eating and sleeping. After all, when young, everything was fine, but now seeing so many arrows on the health report can cause some concern, especially the dreaded nodules which can be quite frightening. Director Liao¡¯s situation was not easy; after years of hard work and finally being on the brink of promotion, such a nodule appeared on his health report, and its nature was not clear. This not only troubled him personally but could also potentially impact his career. Health is highly valued within the system, as a healthy body is considered essential for revolution. A person in poor health is naturally unlikely to serve the people in a significant position, so a health screening report sometimes can influence one¡¯s future. Now, with the lung nodule not yet classified, it¡¯s easy for others to speculate, which could somewhat affect career prospects. However, if this nodule could ultimately be confirmed as benign, then the matter would be clear and not really count for much. Chapter 1264 - 1264 963 The Pediatrician Who Went to Sea ?Chapter 1264: Chapter 963: The Pediatrician Who Went to Sea Chapter 1264: Chapter 963: The Pediatrician Who Went to Sea After chatting with Director Liao and setting the puncture plan, Yang Ping had a short conversation with the head of the Surgery department and the doctors of the Overseas Chinese Building. He didn¡¯t come here often, and now the consultations here were handled by Song Zimo. He was just passing by today. So Yang Ping was quite a rare visitor, and how could the head of the Surgery department and the doctors let go of such a precious opportunity to chat? They insisted on keeping Yang Ping around, using the discussion of cases as a pretext to strengthen the camaraderie among colleagues. After chatting with everyone for about fifteen minutes and saying goodbye to the head of the department and the doctors of the Overseas Chinese Building, Yang Ping left the office, took out his cell phone, and saw many unread WeChat messages, among which was one from Luo Jin. The guy had finally replied, probably having decided to undergo the surgery. Upon reading the WeChat message, Yang Ping saw that Luo Jin had considered it over and over again. If the surgery only allowed him to live seated in a wheelchair, he would rather wait as he could still play soccer for now. The text message from Luo Jin was lengthy and well-structured, obviously drafted after much careful thought. If he could survive the surgery but would have to sit in a wheelchair forever, or if he didn¡¯t undergo surgery, it would definitely endanger his life. However, the uncertainty of when the problems would arise ranged from a few months to several years, depending on the rate at which the illness progressed. Faced with the choice between life and soccer, Luo Jin astonishingly chose soccer. Yang Ping knew he couldn¡¯t persuade him but still replied earnestly, ¡°I hope you reconsider. The success rate of the surgery is very high. Compared to life, postoperative complications are negligible. Living in a wheelchair is also a way of life.¡± But Luo Jin replied that it was a well-considered choice and that he would not regret it. From a medical perspective, it was indeed a pity, as his life could still be saved through surgery now. In a little while, there would no longer be a chance for surgery, and his life would inevitably be beyond saving. Among Yang Ping¡¯s friends, there were many inspirational people, but Luo Jin was perhaps the most motivating. His life had been full of hardships, with each step taken amid great difficulty. Luo Jin had nasal pharyngeal cancer as a child but later recovered. It was during his golden period of soccer skill improvement that he had a car accident that resulted in multiple fractures throughout his body. Fans once thought he would never return to the green fields, but he stood up once again. Through arduous rehabilitation training, he fought his way back onto the soccer field. Later, when his knee joint was seriously damaged and retirement was imminent, Yang Ping helped him with surgery that restored function, allowing him to return to the field. He fulfilled his dream by joining a club in Europe and played well, becoming a first-line player. The journey had been hard and full of obstacles. Currently, a huge poster of Luo Jin still hangs in the Sanbo Sports Medicine Center. When the center was founded, Luo Jin acted as a spokesperson for free, promoting the Sports Medicine Center and building its brand image. Today¡¯s Sports Medicine is now ranked top three in the nation, and Luo Jin faces another life-threatening challenge. If he doesn¡¯t have the surgery, Luo Jin will likely not escape this peril, at least that¡¯s Yang Ping¡¯s current judgment. Ivan, from New Zealand, messaged saying he wanted to come to China to use Professor He¡¯s Digital Human simulation for surgery because his Italian patient¡¯s operation was too complicated. The heterotopic facial transplant donor was from a brain-dead patient, and Ivan had already obtained facial data of the donor. He needed to simulate the reconstruction of the donor¡¯s face and then rebuild the patient¡¯s face, simulating a match between the two to ensure that the nerve vessels could be more accurately and precisely connected. The Laboratory at Sanbo Hospital and Professor He¡¯s Laboratory at Nandu Medical University form one part of Yang Ping¡¯s iron triangle of research topics, so they often gather to communicate. Professor He has also learned some methods from Tang Shun to establish a mechanism for making money with Digital Human technology. For instances like Ivan¡¯s, where Digital Human technology is needed to assist surgery, a certain fee is charged based on the time and extent of use. This fee is generally quite substantial, amounting to several million US dollars. This approach can provide enough self-fundraising for Digital Human, allowing it to make money and identify potential shortcomings during use. You must learn how to make money, pursue profit, and express the value of technology, Tang Shun told Professor He. Professor He calculated that if Digital Human technology were fully opened up, it could be widely applied, and could earn a significant amount of funds each year. These funds could not only be invested into research but also be used to improve the researchers¡¯ compensation. With Digital Human technology as a foundation, Ruixing Medical¡¯s future research and development of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment will also accelerate. Therefore, breakthroughs in basic research can drive progress in many fields ¨C that¡¯s the importance of foundational research. Basic research is like the foundation of a building; if the foundation is solid, there is great potential for the building to reach higher heights. If the foundation is weak, it severely limits the design and construction of the building, forcing it to be kept to a certain height. Just as Yang Ping finished replying to these friends¡¯ messages, he heard a series of shouts behind him. ¡°Yang Ping! Yang Ping! Yang Ping!¡± Yang Ping felt the voice was familiar, so he stopped and looked back. A man dressed in VIP patient attire was waving. Yang Ping recognized the familiar face. ¡°I¡¯m Niu Zhixuan!¡± Niu Zhixuan? Yang Ping remembered him; he was a colleague from his time at the People¡¯s Hospital. They had lived in the same dormitory and often played basketball together, sharing a close relationship. At that time, Niu Zhixuan worked in pediatrics at the City People¡¯s Hospital. Chapter 1265 - 1265 963 The Pediatrician Who Went into ?Chapter 1265: Chapter 963: The Pediatrician Who Went into Business_2 Chapter 1265: Chapter 963: The Pediatrician Who Went into Business_2 ¡°Why are you here?¡± Yang Ping was quite curious. As a pediatrician, it seemed unlikely he could afford such a VIP ward. Could it be another case like Little Five, whose in-laws were local landlords? Niu Zhixuan said with a smile, ¡°I indulged a bit too much a few days ago and ended up with acute pancreatitis. I came here for treatment because I heard the medical technology is top-notch and the hospital environment is great.¡± ¡°Are you okay now?¡± Yang Ping asked with concern, remembering his good old friend. ¡°No serious harm, it was edematous type. I¡¯ve been under conservative treatment for several days, and now the doctors say I can drink rice porridge,¡± Niu Zhixuan touched his belly. Yang Ping said, ¡°Do you want me to say hello to the head of the department here for you, to take special care of you?¡± Niu Zhixuan was overjoyed, ¡°That would be the best. They¡¯re letting me out due to the ward being in high demand, but if you could say a word for me to stay a few more days, that would be great, Old Yang. I¡¯ve heard that you¡¯re now a big-shot professor here, a chief expert? It hasn¡¯t been long since we last met, and you¡¯ve already been promoted to professor. I heard you¡¯re even eligible to be evaluated as an Academician, impressive!¡± Niu Zhixuan was full of admiration. ¡°You¡¯re doing pretty well yourself, where did you make your fortune? Acute pancreatitis and you¡¯re staying in VIP?¡± Yang Ping was a bit curious. ¡°Shall we chat for a while?¡± Niu Zhixuan suggested. Yang Ping immediately agreed, and the two went to a meeting room in the VIP Surgery Department. The meeting room here was nice and had good privacy, which made it ideal for undisturbed chats. It had been a long time since they had last seen each other. Niu Zhixuan began to recount his story. Not long after Yang Ping left his job, he too resigned from the hospital to start his own business, starting with live streaming and now having established a company mainly selling children¡¯s health products like ¡°Smart Drugs,¡± ¡°Height Boost Fun,¡± ¡°Scholar¡¯s Formula Milk Powder,¡± and ¡°Vision Capsules,¡± among others. Yang Ping already knew about this guy¡¯s situation from what Little Five had told him. It seems he made a fortune livestreaming sales, and now he¡¯s already worth over a hundred million. It hadn¡¯t taken long for his net worth to exceed a hundred million through business. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t interested in how much money he made, but he was very curious about his bizarre array of products. ¡°What¡¯s the mechanism behind your ¡®Smart Drugs¡¯ and other so-called high-tech products? Why haven¡¯t I seen any related research results in papers?¡± he asked. Every high-tech product should have a theoretical basis for support. Niu Zhixuan had mentioned ¡°Black Technology,¡± which Yang Ping, who regularly reads countless papers, had never heard of. Niu Zhixuan was quite frank: ¡°We¡¯re all old colleagues here, we know each other¡¯s backgrounds, and I¡¯ve never hidden the nature of my business. This stuff is just about harvesting the ¡®stupidity tax.¡¯ One is willing to hit, another willing to be hit. In the end, there¡¯s market demand. Anyway, overdosing on these products won¡¯t do any harm¡ªthey¡¯re just ordinary nutritional supplements. Then we wrap them up in a bundle of mysterious theories and push them with overwhelming marketing strategies. We sell a wave and make a wave of money.¡± ¡°That works?¡± Yang Ping was quite surprised. Niu Zhixuan was momentarily stunned, then calmly smiled: ¡°Why not? Isn¡¯t that what everyone does? We¡¯re still one of the more conscientious businesses. Conglomerates like ours with a conscience are hard to find these days. Although our products are useless, they¡¯re completely harmless. To achieve this, we established a professional R&D team, all members are Master Researchers, with their main task being to ensure our products are harmless to the human body. Do other companies do that? To give you an example, the main ingredient in our height boost product is actually starch, but our starch is different; we strictly select the highest quality suppliers. Plus, we have our own testing institutions to ensure raw materials are safe and pollution-free. Tell me, aren¡¯t we conscientious? We sell at such high prices; we have to do something substantial to feel good about it.¡± ¡°But isn¡¯t this basically a fake product?¡± Yang Ping asked. Niu Zhixuan chuckled: ¡°What¡¯s the difference between true and false with this stuff? There were never any real ones to begin with, so where does the distinction between true and false come in? Believe it and it¡¯s real, doubt it and it¡¯s false. In medicine, isn¡¯t there a concept of a placebo? Our products are like placebos. Although they don¡¯t have an actual effect, they build false confidence and hope, relieve customers¡¯ anxiety, and serve as placebos. Don¡¯t laugh, but we¡¯ve conducted extensive statistics according to principles of statistics. Families who use our products have a significantly higher happiness index and lower anxiety index than those who don¡¯t. Think about it: Both kids are short, but one believes they can still grow to be one meter ninety, that being short is just temporary, while the other thinks that¡¯s as tall as they¡¯ll ever be. Who lives happier?¡± Mr. Niu¡¯s theories were one after another; it seemed he might actually be a conscientious businessman. It seemed to make sense. Yang Ping thought it over carefully, and it seemed logically sound. ¡°You¡¯ve got quite a broad operation going on. How many employees do you have now?¡± ¡°Not many, just over two hundred on social insurance, with our own factory and warehouses. The main R&D team is huge, employees with Doctorates account for 40%, Masters and Bachelors 60%.¡± ¡°Such a large R&D team?¡± ¡°Yes, the market competition is fierce. We must utilize our strengths and avoid price wars with others. We need to create new theories, develop new products, and bring out the new to replace the old. For example, we recently launched a health product that can block spinal curvature. The response has been very good; it¡¯s now in high demand. A treatment course costs over thirty thousand, and after several courses, it¡¯s only a little over a hundred thousand, which is still cheaper than surgery.¡± Damn, my research is currently on minimally invasive surgery, and you¡¯ve already moved ahead, controlling spinal curvature with just medication. ¡°This medicine of yours?¡± Yang Ping was very skeptical. ¡°I won¡¯t lie in front of an expert. This product is useless. You know about spinal curvature; once found, some cases might become very severe, while others remain mild. Our product is based on the principle of probability. We only give it to those who have just been diagnosed. Naturally, those whose condition would have developed mildly will think it¡¯s thanks to our health products. As for those who end up with a severe condition, they would still need surgery. There will always be some fish that slip through the net, isn¡¯t that so?¡± Niu Zhixuan said proudly, very frankly without a hint of deceit. ¡°What other products do you have?¡± ¡°We¡¯re planning to extend our product line to pre-birth, like the red and blue milk powder we¡¯re about to launch with great momentum.¡± ¡°What¡¯s this red and blue milk powder?¡± ¡°Ah, it¡¯s just two types of milk powder, one in blue packaging, the other in pink. Let me tell you, by consuming the blue-packaged milk powder before pregnancy, you can have a son, and the pink-packaged one for a daughter.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a bit much for pregnant women.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just ordinary milk powder, rest assured. Moreover, the quality is definitely much better than the ordinary milk powder on the market. We¡¯ve put a lot of thought into product quality. The raw material costs are very high. The milk powder is all imported from New Zealand and packaged for sale domestically. We absolutely do not add anything inappropriate. We have a conscience. To ensure absolute safety and avoid unnecessary disputes, the milk powder is not for women to consume, but for the men. I¡¯ll send you a few cans to try; rest assured, the quality is definitely better than ordinary milk powder. Think about it, how much does a can of ordinary milk powder cost? Ours has to sell for thousands, maybe tens of thousands. It¡¯s a huge profit, but our costs are also high. The product is really sent from the conscience. Moreover, our own testing team strictly guards the quality. My family members are all consuming it now,¡± Niu Zhixuan said with full confidence. ¡°Our products can withstand any inspection, any agency can come to check at any time,¡± Niu Zhixuan insisted, thumping his chest. ¡°We also have the Scholar¡¯s Gold Premium Milk Powder, a can for over six thousand. The factory is set up overseas, and the brand is registered abroad too. Basically, I run a factory abroad, producing products for export to China.¡± ¡°Do people buy it?¡± ¡°There¡¯s more demand than we can supply upon its release. Currently, the overseas factory¡¯s production capacity and milk source can¡¯t keep up. We don¡¯t want to substitute lower quality for higher, so we haven¡¯t expanded production capacity.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s eyes widened. As a top figure in the healthcare industry, he truly learned a solid lesson from this old friend today and saw something eye-opening. ¡°I¡¯ve got more to do, let¡¯s get together sometime when I¡¯m free, and I¡¯ll treat you to a meal,¡± Yang Ping said as he stood up to leave. ¡°Let¡¯s find a time, and I¡¯ll treat you and Little Five to a meal! With your status and class now, how could I let you treat,¡± Niu Zhixuan said politely. When Yang Ping left, he made sure to greet the head of the surgery department, letting his old friend stay as long as he liked and arranging for a south-facing suite in the ward. Chapter 1266 - 1266 964 20 Bones Fractured Simultaneously ?Chapter 1266: Chapter 964: 20 Bones Fractured Simultaneously Chapter 1266: Chapter 964: 20 Bones Fractured Simultaneously By the evening, Xiao Su¡¯s abdominal pain slowly intensified. Yang Ping stayed by her side, suggesting a cesarean section to reduce her suffering. He felt a deep ache for Xiao Su inside, predicting that the pain would continue until dawn before the baby would be born. A trace of a smile appeared on Xiao Su¡¯s face, ¡°It¡¯s okay, childbirth is a necessary experience for a woman. If I can have a natural birth, I want to try, you don¡¯t have to worry about me.¡± ¡°How about using painless childbirth?¡± Yang Ping still couldn¡¯t bear seeing her in pain. Xiao Su shook her head, ¡°No need, natural is best. Although theoretically, painless childbirth doesn¡¯t have any side effects, it is still anesthesia after all. There will be some drugs that enter the child¡¯s body through the mother-infant circulation. Some things are hard to draw correct conclusions about in the short term.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about me. Didn¡¯t you say the baby could come out by six in the morning? Let¡¯s just hold on a little longer,¡± Xiao Su tried to keep her expression light. All night, Xiao Su endured wrenching pain, with Yang Ping by her side, clutching her hand tightly to give her a sense of security. Yang Ping¡¯s prediction was accurate; a few minutes after six the next morning, Xiao Su gave birth to a baby boy, weighing more than eight pounds, with both mother and child safe and sound. Yang Ping had offered to accompany her in the delivery room, but Xiao Su wouldn¡¯t let him, telling him not to worry and to wait outside. So all Yang Ping could do was wait anxiously outside the delivery room. As a doctor, Yang Ping knew Xiao Su was healthy and the risk of complications during childbirth was extremely low under modern medical conditions. However, even as one of the world¡¯s best surgeons, who could remain exceptionally calm and rational in front of any high-risk, high-difficulty surgery, he felt uneasy and anxious standing outside the delivery room. It was as if everything he was facing was beyond his control, filling him with fear. It wasn¡¯t until he heard the baby¡¯s cries and the midwife came out with the child, announcing that mother and child were safe, that Yang Ping¡¯s suspended heart was finally put at ease. Director Chen Xiaoqiao and the midwife simply couldn¡¯t understand how Yang Ping knew the child would be born around six o¡¯clock. Even with their extensive experience, they couldn¡¯t achieve such accuracy. Could Yang Ping really communicate with the fetus, and could the fetus really understand him? Was it truly miraculous? In truth, what lies behind mysticism is also science, simply the science that has yet to be grasped. To Director Chen Xiaoqiao and the midwife, it was the ungrasped science, but to Yang Ping, it was already masterable science. Through the records of the contractions in the medical history, he could accurately predict the time of the child¡¯s birth. This kind of deduction is also common in obstetrics, but traditional methods are often imprecise. Hence, Yang Ping improved the method, deciding that when he had the time, he would teach it to Director Chen and the midwife as thanks for their help. The baby brought out by the midwife was Yang Ping¡¯s son. Now that he had a son, he was unavoidably excited. After the excitement passed, Yang Ping sent out the happy news to friends and family. Outside the delivery room, in addition to Yang Ping, were the members of the support team¡ªTang Fei, Zhou Can, Qiu Nuo, Ning Qi, Wang Jiahui, Head Nurse Cai, and others. Yang Ping intended to bond with his son, but the crowd surged forward and jostled him out of the way. Next, Xiao Su was wheeled out, and with everyone crowding around her, she was taken to the VIP ward. The VIP obstetric delivery room and ward were on the same floor, very convenient. Having just given birth to a son and possibly lost a lot of blood, Xiao Su¡¯s complexion wasn¡¯t very good. Typically rosy, her face now was noticeably pale. Seeing Xiao Su like this tugged at Yang Ping¡¯s heartstrings. Yang Ping firmly grasped Xiao Su¡¯s hand, stroking her forehead with his hand. Both her hand and forehead were a bit cold and covered with sweat, signs that her body temperature had dropped due to blood loss. Through Yang Ping¡¯s worried gaze, Xiao Su seemed to read his concern and reassured him, ¡°It¡¯s alright, it¡¯s just some blood loss. You¡¯re a professor and understand better than me that the human body has the ability to form blood. This is just an opportunity to exercise my blood-forming abilities; I¡¯ll recover in a few days.¡± Even at this moment, Xiao Su was still smiling, her dimples ever so charming. Modern medicine has advanced, but in ancient times, childbirth was like passing through the gates of death, with a very high risk of complications. A mother¡¯s greatness is beyond imagination; for the birth of new life, they not only endure the hardships of pregnancy and the intense pain of delivery but also risk their lives to greet the arrival of a new life. ¡°Rest well, you¡¯ve worked hard,¡± Yang Ping said, moved. Xiao Su clutched Yang Ping¡¯s hand, ¡°It¡¯s okay, don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°Did it hurt a lot?¡± Yang Ping looked at Xiao Su at that moment and, somehow, felt she was more beautiful and gentle than ever. ¡°The pain is just for a moment. Besides, we¡¯ll have to go through this a few more times, what¡¯s there to worry about?¡± Xiao Su said casually. ¡°Professor, you keep holding your wife¡¯s hand, not even helping to push the cart,¡± Tang Fei reminded from the side. It turned out that while holding Xiao Su¡¯s hand in conversation, Yang Ping¡¯s other hand on the cart was forgotten, inadvertently making him an impeding force instead of helping to push. Tang Fei had to give him a nudge. ¡°Let him take care of his wife,¡± Zhou Can suddenly put more effort into pushing the cart, making it rattle along. She regarded Xiao Su as a sister and didn¡¯t want anyone to disturb the sisterly chat with her brother-in-law. ¡°Was it really painful?¡± Zhou Can asked curiously. Before Xiao Su could answer, Tang Fei responded, ¡°Level ten pain, equivalent to the pain of 20 bones fracturing simultaneously.¡± ¡°That intense, 20 bones fracturing at once? There¡¯s the option of painless childbirth, and even Cesarean section. When I have children, I won¡¯t go for natural birth, it¡¯s too painful. Look at Sister Xiao Su, her face is all sweat. A Cesarean section is so comfortable; you¡¯re fully anesthetized, lying on the operating table without feeling anything. You don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening, then suddenly the baby is lying next to you, crying. I¡¯m definitely choosing a Cesarean section,¡± Zhou Can shivered involuntarily upon hearing about the pain. Chapter 1267 - 1267 964 20 Bones Fractured Simultaneously_2 ?Chapter 1267: Chapter 964: 20 Bones Fractured Simultaneously_2 Chapter 1267: Chapter 964: 20 Bones Fractured Simultaneously_2 ¡°Cesarean sections leave scars on the stomach, right?¡± Tang Fei said worriedly. Zhou Can replied, ¡°Just pair it with cosmetic suturing and scar removal treatment. As long as you¡¯re not prone to keloids, there shouldn¡¯t be any problem.¡± ¡°Sister Xiao Su, it¡¯s so painful, and the pain lasts for so many days, how did you endure it? You still seem so relaxed,¡± Zhou Can¡¯s mouth ran non-stop. As Xiao Su lay on the gurney, she smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s all about experiencing the entire raw journey of motherhood, isn¡¯t it? The pain is temporary. After it passes and you hear your child¡¯s first cries, all you feel is happiness.¡± ¡°Carrying a stomach for ten months must be uncomfortable, right?¡± Zhou Can asked again. Tang Fei sternly said to Zhou Can, ¡°Let Xiao Su rest, don¡¯t keep talking non-stop. Don¡¯t you see how pale she is and sweating? Don¡¯t bother her with chitchat, giving birth takes a huge toll on her strength.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Xiao Su laughed. Zhou Can¡¯s face turned red with embarrassment and immediately shut up. The best ward in the Overseas Chinese Building Obstetrics Department was already prepared; early this very morning, the Head Nurse personally led a few nurses to greet them and then escorted Xiao Su into the ward, with two maternity nannies also following in the procession, taking over the nurses¡¯ baby stroller. During the bed transfer, Yang Ping wanted to do it himself. Everyone sprang into action, all hands on deck, but Xiao Su stopped everyone, ¡°I¡¯ll do it myself, I¡¯ll just take it slowly.¡± With Yang Ping¡¯s assistance, Xiao Su slowly moved from the gurney to the bed and then lay down to rest. After childbirth, it¡¯s important to rest well, so everyone tactfully left the ward, leaving only Yang Ping in the room. Of course, the baby was also lying in the crib beside the bed. This was a suite-type ward with rooms for the nurses and for the maternity nannies. They all returned to their own rooms, reminding Yang Ping to call them if he needed anything. The milk powder from New Zealand had been delivered on time, but it was estimated to be unnecessary as Xiao Su intended to breastfeed, and under the current circumstances, the supply of breast milk was more than adequate. The baby stroller gifted by the Hermes couple had also been delivered ahead of time, crafted from African blackwood, using pure natural resin instead of paint for the most environmentally friendly baby carriage. Reportedly, Hermes had bought an entire tree which was then shipped back to the country, where a top carpenter was commissioned to sculpt it, with the remaining blackwood being discarded and not used. The gold and diamond-encrusted baby carriage had been crafted earlier, but since Yang Ping refused to accept it, the gift seemed somewhat vulgar: a pure gold frame even down to the golden wheels, decorated with various engravings and many large diamonds inset. Having no choice but to respect Yang Ping¡¯s reluctance to accept such overly gaudy gifts, Hermes had no option but to recreate the baby carriage using solid wood, which Yang Ping then accepted from the generous couple. As for the gold baby carriage, it was left for their own child to use. The diapers custom-made by Takahashi had also arrived; Robert constantly asked, ¡°The child is going to swim after birth, right? Should we arrange for a champion swimmer to come and teach?¡± Damn, the kid has just been born, and you¡¯re already lining up tutors for my son; Yang Ping did not agree with this kind of rigidity, better wait until he¡¯s grown up. August was defeated in competing with Ivan¡¯s milk powder suppliers, so August found a baby stroller company to design and customize a model. The entire frame was made of medical-grade titanium alloy as August claimed it was to reduce irritation from materials to the baby. Titanium alloy could be implanted in the body, offering the best biocompatibility and hence most suitable for baby strollers. Beyond the baby carriage, a toy car from Mercedes-Benz was also gifted¡ªa scaled-down version of the Maybach. But to Yang Ping, it looked like a real car because it indeed had an engine; whether this toy required a driving license was another headache. The baby carriage was equipped with a top-notch shock absorption system to minimize vibrations during movement, and also featured a rollover prevention system to avoid any dangerous actions causing it to tip over. Damn, the child isn¡¯t even born yet, and my house is already filled with all sorts of baby products. It¡¯s a total headache for Yang Ping who finds it difficult to turn down their gifts as they would all unanimously say, ¡°Are you looking down on me? It¡¯s not something valuable, just a little trinket.¡± ¡ª After spending an entire day with Xiao Su in the Overseas Chinese Building, she told Yang Ping to go check on his department and not neglect his work. Even though he was staying beside her, he should also take the time to drop by his office, especially since his leave was still within the hospital. Actually, with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang holding down the fort, everything in the department was well-ordered, and Yang Ping didn¡¯t really need to worry. Nevertheless, he still made time to go and take a look. As he left the Overseas Chinese Building, Yang Ping ran into Tang Shun. Tang Shun spoke mysteriously, ¡°I was just looking for you. Seeing as you were busy, I didn¡¯t dare disturb you. Shall we find a room in the outpatient clinic and sit down for a chat?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t we talk here?¡± Yang Ping felt he was being sneaky. Tang Shun looked very serious, ¡°We can¡¯t talk here. This is of great importance, highly confidential.¡± Having no choice, Yang Ping accompanied him to the first floor of the Surgical Research Institute¡¯s outpatient clinic. They randomly picked an empty consultation room, sat down, and chatted for a bit to see what this big secret of his was all about. ¡°Professor, if you¡¯re giving me such a big task, you have to give me some support, right? You wouldn¡¯t want to see me unemployed, would you?¡± Tang Shun asked with an air of mystery. ¡°Support? Tell me what you need, people, money, equipment; whatever it is, just fill out the form yourself,¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t know what he was talking about. Tang Shun shook his head, ¡°I don¡¯t need any of that. I need you to write down some ideas for the next experimental steps on an A4 Paper, and then I¡¯ll temporarily borrow the copyright from you.¡± ¡°What kind of game are you playing here?¡± Yang Ping thought about it. He had some ideas bubbling in his head recently, so he took an A4 Paper from the printer, jotted down some experimental thoughts, and handed it over to Tang Shun. Tang Shun, scrutinizing the A4, revealed a satisfied smile: ¡°Professor, let¡¯s be clear first. The intellectual property on this paper is temporarily mine. You must not talk about it to anyone, you must keep it strictly confidential. No matter the situation, the place, the time, you have to keep it a secret for me.¡± Is that all? This type of support was simple, but what was this guy up to? Yang Ping couldn¡¯t guess his ulterior motives for the moment. ¡°You don¡¯t need to ask why, you wouldn¡¯t understand even if you did. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t do anything bad with your intellectual property, and the experimental method listed will still be used for our experiments,¡± Tang Shun refused to disclose any details. Yang Ping was completely bewildered, mystified by his manoeuvers. ¡ª No sooner had Yang Ping returned to the department than Little Five immediately told him, ¡°Niu Zhixuan is looking for you¡ªthe Niu Zhixuan who was in our dorm.¡± ¡°I just saw him yesterday, what does he want from me?¡± Yang Ping was puzzled. Yang Ping headed to the Meeting Room, where Niu Zhixuan was waiting. ¡°Professor Yang, sorry to disturb you again,¡± Niu Zhixuan immediately stood up. ¡°It¡¯s ok, no problem. Don¡¯t just wander about; take care of yourself. I¡¯ve already spoken to the directors about extending your hospital stay,¡± Yang Ping assumed it was about the same issue. Niu Zhixuan sat down: ¡°The director on their side told me, I can be discharged whenever I want. Also, they moved my ward to a suite with better natural lighting and more space. The Head Nurse came personally to change my IV. I heard you had a son, and look, I didn¡¯t bring any gifts being in the hospital and all, but here¡¯s a red packet for the little nephew.¡± As he spoke, Niu Zhixuan pulled out a big, thick Red Packet from his bag and tried to hand it to Yang Ping, who immediately blocked it: ¡°How can this be right? I appreciate the thought, alright, we are all good friends, the sentiment is appreciated.¡± After some back and forth, Yang Ping definitely wouldn¡¯t accept it, and Niu Zhixuan put the Red Packet back into his bag: ¡°You see, we used to share a dorm, and when I think back on it, those were such good times. Now you have such a joyful event, and you don¡¯t even let me show my happiness for you. All those high-tech things I have, to be honest, they sound impressive, but they¡¯re not suitable to give as gifts to you.¡± Chapter 1268 - 1268 965 Are you alright Professor Yang ?Chapter 1268: Chapter 965: Are you alright, Professor Yang? Chapter 1268: Chapter 965: Are you alright, Professor Yang? During Xiao Su¡¯s hospitalization in the Overseas Chinese Building, the big sister of Human Resources Office at Sanbo Hospital planned to contact a high-end postpartum care center for her to spend her confinement period. Postpartum care centers are generally privately funded and provide a good environment for confinement care to those new mothers with better financial conditions. They¡¯re highly valued in China¡¯s traditional culture. Later, the big sister from Human Resources decided to let Xiao Su spend her confinement in the ward of the Overseas Chinese Building instead, where the current medical care team was fully equipped and even better than the private care centers outside. However, Xiao Su did not want to spend her confinement in the hospital, let alone any care center. She wanted to go home for her confinement, preferring to keep things simple. She felt she would be more comfortable and at ease in the familiar environment of her own home. After accompanying Xiao Su for a few days, she insisted that Yang Ping resume his normal work schedule and only spend time with her after getting off work, so as not to hold up his work. Otherwise, it would be a waste of his time. Yang Ping could not argue with her and had to end his holiday early and return to work at the hospital. Under the leadership of Song Zimo and with the support of Xu Zhiliang, the Surgical Research Institute had been operating well, allowing Yang Ping to be relaxed as boss hands-off. In fact, an individual¡¯s power is limited, and the best way to amplify one¡¯s power is by cultivating an excellent team and then using that team to nurture more talent. ¡°Professor, isn¡¯t your paternity leave still ongoing? Why are you coming to work?¡± Song Zimo knew that Yang Ping couldn¡¯t take much time off for paternity leave. Yang Ping replied, ¡°I felt a bit empty not working these days, so I wanted to come and have a look. It¡¯s not far anyway. Is there anything special going on in the department?¡± ¡°Nothing to worry about, we¡¯ve got it covered. The Organ Transplant Center is preparing for a lung transplant for Ou Lianfeng. They¡¯ve found a suitable donor who has been on ECMO in the ICU for over twenty days and it¡¯s unlikely they¡¯ll make it. If they don¡¯t, their lungs will be just right for Ou Lianfeng. The patient had signed an organ donation agreement before, volunteering to donate all usable organs¡ªtheir heart, liver, kidneys, corneas, everything¡ªpotentially saving many lives. The Organ Transplant Center is asking when you will finish your leave. They haven¡¯t done many lung transplants, so they really hope you can help out,¡± Song Zimo reported the important matters of the department. ¡°I¡¯ll be here during the rest of my leave as well, kind of a semi-leave, ready to help them at any time.¡± Yang Ping took a sip of water. ¡°How is the little professor doing? Crying or fussing?¡± ¡°The little guy is okay, he cries when he¡¯s hungry, thirsty, or needs to poop, and when his diaper needs changing. Once it¡¯s changed, he goes back to sleep. These past few days, I haven¡¯t had much to do besides helping change diapers.¡± ¡°Professor, do you know how to change them?¡± ¡°I heard from Tang Fei that you¡¯re quick and gentle at changing diapers? Rapid-fire change?¡± ¡°Please, I¡¯ve practiced a lot, professional level.¡± ¡°Niu Zhixuan came looking for you a few times, said he wanted to treat us to a meal. I told him you were recently on leave and didn¡¯t have time.¡± Little Five saw Yang Ping come back to work early and told him about Niu Zhixuan¡¯s visit. Niu Zhixuan had a great relationship with Yang Ping and Little Five back then, so their collegial bonding was deep. When Niu Zhixuan was hospitalized in the Overseas Chinese Building, Little Five even bought a fruit basket and sent it in both their names. ¡°Let¡¯s set a time with Old Niu. I¡¯ll treat, and we¡¯ll have a meal together to catch up. How is Old Niu¡¯s health? I heard he was about to be discharged a few days ago. He wanted to recuperate for a few more days,¡± Yang Ping asked with concern. Little Five said, ¡°It seems like there was some fluctuation in his condition yesterday. I¡¯ve been quite busy and haven¡¯t asked for details yet.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go see him together later. Last time I only bumped into him and haven¡¯t formally visited yet,¡± Yang Ping proposed. No time like the present, and with time on their hands, Yang Ping and Little Five went together to visit their old colleague in the Overseas Chinese Building. Yang Ping didn¡¯t put on any airs, even though he was a big-shot professor, he still considered himself just an ordinary doctor. When the on-duty nurse at the nurse station of the Overseas Chinese Building¡¯s surgery section saw Yang Ping coming, she immediately approached to ask what he needed. Learning that it was to visit Niu Zhixuan, she quickly notified the head nurse and Director Zhuang. The young lady was quite astute and knew how to act on opportunity. But in a place like the Overseas Chinese Building, it¡¯s expected that nurses on duty at the station are adept at handling situations. Otherwise, if a leader were to sit there half a day without moving or attention, or if they were unpleasant when speaking, it definitely would not work out since different standards apply here. Originally, Yang Ping had intended to visit privately, but it turned into something resembling a teaching round, with Director Zhuang, the Head Nurse, the physician in charge, the supervising nurse, the duty doctor, and a whole group of people following, and the physician in charge even presented the medical history seriously, with all the graduate students and standardized training students trailing behind. ¡°Mr. Niu¡¯s condition had been very stable, meeting the discharge criteria,¡± Director Zhuang immediately reported, quite nervously, as he believed Yang Ping came for this reason, ¡°but around eight o¡¯clock yesterday morning he began experiencing upper abdominal pain. We conducted an emergency surface ultrasound bedside and drew blood to check for pancreatitis markers. We didn¡¯t find anything unusual, everything seemed fine. The ultrasound also showed a significant reduction in the edema of the pancreas. Director Fang from the General Surgery Department came over several times to check, and it was the ultrasound department director who performed the ultrasound himself.¡± Niu Zhixuan is a friend of Yang Ping; Yang Ping personally greeted him and took special care of him, and Little Five even sent over a fruit basket, indicating that the relationship between Niu Zhixuan and Yang Ping was extraordinary. What was Director Zhuang? One of the big shots at the Overseas Chinese Building, who was adept at handling things. ¡°Seeing that you¡¯re on a break, I didn¡¯t dare to bother you with this matter,¡± Director Zhuang said, with a hint of an apology. Yang Ping replied, ¡°It¡¯s fine, I just happened to have time to come over and have a look today.¡± Upon arrival at Niu Zhixuan¡¯s ward, Niu Zhixuan was reclining on the bed, his expression not seeming very well. Seeing Yang Ping coming, he immediately tried to get up, but Yang Ping quickly pressed him back down, ¡°Are you okay? I heard there was a recurrence of your illness?¡± Given the situation, Niu Zhixuan said, ¡°No problem, no problem. I might have eaten something with too much fat, leading to increased pancreatic secretions. I just need some rest and pay attention to my diet; I¡¯m sorry for troubling everyone.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t usually have any upper abdomen issues, right?¡± Yang Ping asked seriously. ¡°No problem, I¡¯m fine usually.¡± Even though Niu Zhixuan was a friend and blamed his condition on consuming high-fat foods, Yang Ping still took the medical history seriously and then proceeded to examine his abdomen. ¡°Let¡¯s do an abdominal CT with thin slicing,¡± Yang Ping decided on the spot. Niu Zhixuan immediately became anxious, ¡°Professor Yang, there¡¯s no problem, is there?¡± ¡°No problem, just being cautious,¡± explained Yang Ping. ¡°You know, the pancreas is surrounded by the duodenum, which C-wraps around the pancreas. Plus, there can be gas accumulation in the intestinal tract. Gas under ultrasonography shows up as a mixed echogenic response, which means ultrasound¡¯s ability to investigate the pancreas can be compromised.¡± ¡°Immediately contact the Imaging Department¡¯s CT room, send him right away, don¡¯t hesitate,¡± Director Zhuang ordered the physician in charge and had already begun calling Director Meng of the Imaging Department. In the VIP ward, various tests usually don¡¯t require queuing and have priority. Now, with Niu Zhixuan being a friend of Yang Ping, he had the VIP among VIPs treatment. Everyone promptly took their places, with nurses going to fetch wheelchairs and doctors going to write medical orders. After everyone had dispersed, Niu Zhixuan was left startled in the ward: ¡°Professor Yang, this... there¡¯s no problem, right?¡± The atmosphere felt off. The department director and head nurse had both come, and now a CT scan was needed. It couldn¡¯t be anything serious, could it? I¡¯ve just deviated from drinking plain porridge for a few days and ate a meat bun yesterday¡ªI haven¡¯t caused any serious issue, have I? ¡°No problem, I just examined you. There¡¯s a lot of gas in your intestines, and I want to find out why. Too much gas can¡¯t be detected by ultrasound,¡± Yang Ping explained to him. ¡°Professor Yang, don¡¯t hide it from me, I¡¯m also a doctor. Is it really nothing? You¡¯re here during your vacation for nothing? The whole department didn¡¯t come out for a teaching round for nothing? An emergency CT for nothing? Don¡¯t conceal it from me; tell me the truth. Is there a problem with the latest tests? The CEA, it¡¯s not high, is it?¡± Niu Zhixuan remembered that this morning he had fasted for a blood test including CEA and a set of tumor markers. He had purchased high-end medical insurance, and staying in this VIP ward was fully covered, so since he had been hospitalized, why not add a few more tests as part of a comprehensive checkup? Besides, he had been treated for acute pancreatitis for several days, so he asked the doctor to add some extra tests. ¡°Professor Yang! Tell me the truth, I can handle it.¡± Niu Zhixuan grabbed the hand of his old colleague, feeling more and more uneasy. Chapter 1269 - 1269 966 Its Just Intussusception ?Chapter 1269: Chapter 966: It¡¯s Just Intussusception Chapter 1269: Chapter 966: It¡¯s Just Intussusception Yang Ping was quite busy, he returned to his department immediately after seeing Niu Zhixuan¡ªthe doctors in the Overseas Chinese Building were arranging a CT scan for Niu Zhixuan. Niu Zhixuan didn¡¯t expect that eating just one meat bun after his blood test in the morning would cause such a hassle; it definitely wasn¡¯t the bun¡¯s fault. As soon as Yang Ping left, Niu Zhixuan immediately sought out his attending physician, Dr. Feng, to request the results of the blood tests conducted that morning, especially the results for the tumor markers. That stuff was frightening. Dr. Feng had just finished a busy spell that morning and hadn¡¯t yet had time to refresh the test results, so he immediately pulled up the results on the computer. There were many tests from the blood draw that morning; other results had come in, but the tumor marker results had not. Based on experience, these results usually weren¡¯t available until the following day. Dr. Feng frowned, ¡°Mr. Niu, the results we have show no problems, but the tumor marker results are not out yet.¡± ¡°All the other results are out, but not the tumor markers?¡± Niu Zhixuan felt a chill in his heart¡ªwhat if it really was as he had feared? As someone with a medical background, he understood all too well that typically, when faced with major unusual test outcomes that were still inconclusive, doctors generally choose not to make any announcement until the official printout of the report is out, after discussion, or when they believe the patient is ready to hear it. For someone like Niu Zhixuan, who was hospitalized alone, the doctors would beat around the bush to get a family member to come over before breaking the news. If they informed the patient rashly, some patients with poor mental resilience could easily cause significant safety incidents. Niu Zhixuan was familiar with hospital protocols¡ªthe more he knew, the more anxious he became. Could it be that there was something wrong with the tumor markers? The more he thought about it, the more frightened Niu Zhixuan became; his throat felt dry, and his chest felt blocked, causing him great discomfort. ¡°Dr. Feng, there¡¯s nothing wrong with the tumor markers, right?¡± Niu Zhixuan asked tentatively. Dr. Feng shook his head, ¡°Don¡¯t be anxious. Let¡¯s wait for the results. It¡¯s usually nothing. Go back and rest well. Has the abdominal pain lessened? Have you passed gas at all? Don¡¯t eat anything for now, we are going to take you down for the CT soon.¡± ¡°Mm¡ªin¡¯t passed gas, I haven¡¯t eaten anything since then.¡± Niu Zhixuan shivered uncontrollably. Yang Ping had returned to the Surgical Research Institute. He had just examined Niu Zhixuan¡ªthe patient¡¯s abdomen was overly distended, and intestinal sounds were hyperactive, leading Yang Ping to suspect an intestinal obstruction, likely due to intussusception, hence the desire for a CT scan to ascertain the situation. Soon, Niu Zhixuan¡¯s CT was complete, and it indeed showed an intestinal intussusception. However, conservative treatment could be tried first, with surgery considered only if that failed. According to the current CT, the success rate for conservative treatment was high. Intestinal intussusception is when the intestines slide into each other like a retracting telescope¡ªcommonly seen in children but rare in adults. In adults, it¡¯s typically secondary, for example, to intestinal tumors and other diseases. However, after reviewing Niu Zhixuan¡¯s CT, Yang Ping found no such issues; it was merely a simple case of intestinal intussusception. Since Niu Zhixuan was a friend, Yang Ping naturally provided extra attention. He went to the Overseas Chinese Building to see Niu Zhixuan again and took the opportunity to instruct the doctors there on his treatment. By this time, Niu Zhixuan had lost all color in his face and was lying in bed waiting for the doctors to discuss his results. The moment he saw Yang Ping, Niu Zhixuan immediately grabbed Yang Ping¡¯s hand, ¡°Old Yang, is there a problem with the blood test for tumor markers?¡± ¡°Tumor markers? The results of your tests weren¡¯t out when I checked this morning.¡± Yang Ping was unaware of why he was so anxious. Niu Zhixuan continued, ¡°You brought so many people for rounds this morning, performed physical examinations, and even had an emergency CT scan. How did the CT results turn out? It¡¯s not a tumor, is it?¡± Yang Ping suddenly realized what was concerning him, so he replied, ¡°The CT results are out, and there¡¯s no tumor. I had you undergo a CT scan because I suspected you had an intestinal intussusception. Based on the CT scan we just did, it is indeed an intussusception, but it¡¯s not severe. Let¡¯s start with conservative treatment and see how it goes. We can try an enema with contrast under X-ray guidance at the Intervention Department. If the intussusception can be reduced, we may avoid surgery. But if it cannot be reduced, we will have to consider surgery.¡± ¡°Intussusception?¡± Niu Zhixuan grew even more anxious. Intussusception in adults is very rare and usually secondary to pathological changes in the intestinal tract, such as tumors, polyps, diverticula, or developmental abnormalities. Last year¡¯s colonoscopy didn¡¯t reveal any polyps or diverticula¡ªcould it be a tumor? ¡°Given your current condition, let¡¯s not worry about having meals together for now; we can do that later. I¡¯ll have them help you contact the Intervention Department to try expansion,¡± Yang Ping persuaded him. ¡°Old Yang, there¡¯s no one else here. I¡¯m an open-minded person. Tell me honestly, the CT scan is alright, isn¡¯t it? You didn¡¯t find any space-occupying lesions?¡± Niu Zhixuan needed to be sure. Yang Ping explained, ¡°Rest assured, it¡¯s nothing serious. I just reviewed the CT scan. It¡¯s purely an intussusception. Don¡¯t you trust me? Shall I show you the CT scan?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t understand it; I¡¯ve only read CT reports before. If you say it¡¯s nothing, then it¡¯s nothing.¡± Niu Zhixuan was somewhat relieved. Everyone here was a doctor, and Yang Ping had no need to hide anything from him. Besides, the doctor hadn¡¯t asked him to inform any family members. Niu Zhixuan had actually been wanting to talk to Yang Ping for a while, so he took this opportunity to stay in the Overseas Chinese Building, knowing he would definitely encounter Yang Ping because Boss Yunjian had helped him when Niu Zhixuan first resigned from his job. Boss Yunjian invested in a company that sold children¡¯s health products, and at the time, the company was recruiting experienced pediatricians. After inquiring, Niu Zhixuan found the salary was very good, several times more than what he earned working at the hospital. Therefore, he decisively resigned and joined the company. After working there for a while and acquiring new skills, Niu Zhixuan wanted to start his own business. Boss Yunjian fully supported the idea, providing Niu Zhixuan with a sum of money. Boss He only took a 10% stake, letting Niu Zhixuan venture forth. As it turned out, Niu Zhixuan had a talent for this, and he made the company very successful. Boss Yunjian was a sharp-sighted individual. His top talent, Director Tang, was aging, and Elder He was on the lookout for a successor. He took notice of Niu Zhixuan and after some time, concluded that Niu Zhixuan was a capable person, suitable for the new era. He assigned Director Tang to mentor Niu Zhixuan, providing careful guidance. After a period of nurturing, Niu Zhixuan grew rapidly and became the backbone of the children¡¯s health product company. Later, when Niu Zhixuan wanted to venture on his own, Elder He didn¡¯t hinder him but instead supported him. Boss Yunjian had a broad vision. He had long been interested in establishing a connection with Yang Ping, but given their respective positions, cooperation seemed unlikely. Therefore, Elder He planned to use his funds to invest in building a large-scale, top-tier hospital, planning to invest tens of billions. This hospital would be completely separated from previous messy businesses and be a legitimate, upscale facility. However, such a hospital would require talented individuals and a strong, influential leader. Boss Yunjian thought Yang Ping was the most suitable candidate. He never considered poaching Yang Ping, as it was impossible. Instead, he wanted Yang Ping to join as a name partner through a shareholding arrangement. He tried to establish cooperation with Cheng Liquan, who did not entertain the idea one bit. Out of options, Elder He resorted to leveraging the private relationship between Niu Zhixuan and Yang Ping to see if he could establish a connection. Of course, for Niu Zhixuan to seek out Yang Ping and then bring up the matter would seem abrupt, so he needed to create a chance encounter, catch up on old times, maintain contact, and then solidify their relationship. Once that was done, there would be plenty of opportunities to bring up the subject. It just so happened that Niu Zhixuan had indulged excessively a few days ago and developed acute pancreatitis. He promptly stayed in the Overseas Chinese Building and then looked for an opportunity to connect with Yang Ping, hoping to establish a link. He had thought that given Yang Ping¡¯s current status, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t even give him the time of day, but to his surprise, Yang Ping didn¡¯t put on airs and still treated him as a good friend. Niu Zhixuan knew the ins and outs of Boss Yunjian¡ªthough not a bad person, his methods of capital accumulation were questionable. But now, he genuinely wanted to invest in building a genuine, large hospital. Whether it was to launder his image or to transition to a legitimate enterprise, helping to bridge this connection wouldn¡¯t bring any harm to Yang Ping. Hence, he was willing to do it. Of course, Yang Ping had no idea about Niu Zhixuan¡¯s underlying intention; he simply thought of the meeting as a chance encounter and didn¡¯t expect to see Niu Zhixuan, whom he hadn¡¯t seen in two years. Little did Niu Zhixuan know that an unexpected turn of events would occur during the treatment of his illness. Chapter 1270 - 1270 967 The Worlds First Is That Easy ?Chapter 1270: Chapter 967: The World¡¯s First Is That Easy? Chapter 1270: Chapter 967: The World¡¯s First Is That Easy? Intestinal intussusception is also quite urgent, and shouldn¡¯t be delayed too long, as prolonged issues can easily lead to complications like intestinal necrosis. Therefore, Yang Ping asked the Overseas Chinese Building to arrange an emergency surgery for him. The surgery was led by Director Ji from the Intervention Department, whose capabilities were quite strong, especially with both Director Guan and Director Ji, the two major directors at the helm. Director Guan specialized in cardiovascular interventional treatments, whereas Director Ji was an all-around expert, very skilled in performing interventional surgeries on the cardiovascular and brain blood vessels, tumors, and more. Although enema treatment for intussusception is not an interventional surgery, it required the Intervention Department¡¯s X-ray machine, which was better than the gastro-intestinal X-ray machine, providing clearer monitoring. As for performing enemas under X-ray supervision, it was quite simple for Director Ji, who, as a generalist in the Intervention Department, had also helped the Department of Gastroenterology with many such cases. ¡°It was just acute pancreatitis initially, but then intussusception unexpectedly emerged.¡± Niu Zhixuan sighed. Dr. Feng, who was managing his care, comforted him, ¡°You¡¯re quite lucky. Acute pancreatitis can be fatal in severe cases, but you just had the mildest form with edema. As for the intussusception, if Professor Yang hadn¡¯t seen you that day, who knows how soon it would have been discovered. If it had been found any later, you might have ended up undergoing surgery.¡± Being a doctor, Niu Zhixuan was very aware that adult intussusception was quite rare. Given his abdominal pain at the time, if not for Yang Ping¡¯s extensive experience, most doctors would have assumed it was a recurrence of the pancreatitis. Delaying a few days to perform a CT scan could easily miss the optimal treatment window. ¡°How are the tumor marker results? Have they not come out yet?¡± Niu Zhixuan was still anxious, unable to be fully at ease without seeing the final results. Previously, when he worked as a pediatrician, he earned little money despite the endless night shifts that severely impacted his health. In the past two years, he had made a lot of money selling health products and had planned to enjoy life. Now, with this complication, Niu Zhixuan prayed that there wouldn¡¯t be issues with his health. Dr. Feng refreshed the tablet in his hand; the results of Niu Zhixuan¡¯s tumor markers were out. ¡°CEA elevated! 190¦Ìg/L!¡± Dr. Feng swiped his finger, revealing the latest results. This news struck Niu Zhixuan like a thunderbolt, as elevated CEA indicated a possible tumor, and it was alarmingly high. ¡°After the enema, go back to the ward, and we¡¯ll do further checks; don¡¯t worry too much,¡± Dr. Feng reassured Niu Zhixuan. At that moment, Niu Zhixuan¡¯s mind was blank, and he was anxious, but he knew the priorities. The immediate concern was to address the intussusception, as intestinal necrosis would complicate matters. After resolving the intussusception, they could slowly investigate the cause of the elevated CEA. If only he hadn¡¯t had that night snack, he wouldn¡¯t have developed acute pancreatitis, wouldn¡¯t have come to the hospital, wouldn¡¯t have been checked, and wouldn¡¯t have had all this trouble. ¡°Old Niu, why are you trembling all over during an enema? You¡¯re a pediatrician after all.¡± Little Five noticed that Niu Zhixuan¡¯s entire body was stiff and he was constantly trembling. As Yang Ping was busy, Little Five, being a friend, took some time to join Niu Zhixuan¡¯s side, just after passing by with the nurse and noticing that Niu Zhixuan was in a rigid state and shaking. ¡°Where am I trembling? Your air conditioning is just too cold.¡± Niu Zhixuan retorted. Little Five glanced at the wall¡¯s control panel, which showed the air conditioning was set at a comfortable 25 degrees. ¡°Let him rest for a bit, or give him something to calm him down,¡± Director Ji said, noting not only Niu Zhixuan¡¯s trembling but also his rapid heart rate, obviously caused by nervousness. ¡°Don¡¯t be scared, it¡¯s just an enema, just under X-ray supervision,¡± the nurse bolstered Niu Zhixuan¡¯s courage. I¡¯m not scared of the enema; it¡¯s the elevated CEA that¡¯s terrifying. The principle of using contrast media for treating intussusception is actually quite simple: if you consider the intestinal tract as a long balloon, because a balloon can be twisted and nested when deflated, now by injecting water or air into the balloon, it immediately expands, eliminating any twists and nests. Expanding a balloon is simple, but expanding the intestines isn¡¯t so straightforward, and there¡¯s a certain failure rate. If the enema fails to resolve the intussusception, surgery is the only solution, opening the abdomen, manually rearranging the intestines, then sewing the abdomen back up. ¡ª Because Yang Ping was on leave a few days ago, Director Liao had been waiting for Yang Ping to perform a lung nodule biopsy. The nodule¡¯s diameter was less than 0.5 cm, quite small, making the biopsy extremely difficult. While theoretically feasible, in practice, it was virtually impossible, but this matter was crucial for Director Liao, being a key factor in his promotion. He couldn¡¯t let this affect his advancement. While it might seem minor, this nodule could be significant. If not taken seriously, it might be nothing, but it could also be significant. An undetermined nodule could be benign or malignant, fifty-fifty, and that makes it a risky matter. Although Director Liao was already fifty, he was considered young in his circle. His future was not limitless, but it was still promising. He lay on the operating table, feeling uneasy. Although Yang Ping had told him the likelihood of malignancy was minuscule, to a patient, it¡¯s the difference between zero and a hundred. Chapter 1271 - 1271 967 Is Being the Worlds First That ?Chapter 1271: Chapter 967: Is Being the World¡¯s First That Easy?_2 Chapter 1271: Chapter 967: Is Being the World¡¯s First That Easy?_2 Actually, Director Liao paid extra attention to his health, never skimping on various health products. Cordyceps were a year-round staple, whether stewed in soups or soaked in water. However, social obligations were unavoidable. He wouldn¡¯t be able to quit drinking until retirement; otherwise, the stock price of Maotai wouldn¡¯t be so fierce¡ªDirector Liao had also contributed to that. ¡°Professor Yang, what if the pathological examination reveals something bad?¡± Director Liao asked cautiously. Yang Ping could only reassure him, ¡°It¡¯s fine, don¡¯t be nervous. Whatever the examination reveals, we will handle it. If it¡¯s benign, we will observe; if it¡¯s malignant, we will proceed with surgery. Early surgery generally has very good effects.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that the chances of it being malignant are slim?¡± Hearing Yang Ping¡¯s fifty-fifty statement, Director Liao grew anxious again. Local anesthesia is usually used for lung nodule biopsies, so the patient remains conscious. The chief surgeon can chat with the patient while performing the surgery. Song Zimo assisted Yang Ping, beginning with disinfection and draping. With such a small lung nodule, no doctor would choose to biopsy, but Yang Ping was not a normal person. Song Zimo had become accustomed to this; things others couldn¡¯t do, Yang Ping could. It wasn¡¯t the first time such a thing happened; it happened every day. The alcohol-infused disinfectant smeared on Director Liao¡¯s skin evaporated, causing a chilling sensation on his chest: ¡°Professor Yang, please make sure the biopsy reveals a benign result.¡± ¡°If I were able to decide on my own and make it benign for you, then right now, I wouldn¡¯t be applying for the Nobel Prize for a complex ¡®Spatial Orientation Gene Theory¡¯ but rather for the mechanism of ¡®Making tumors turn benign with a biopsy¡¯.¡± ¡°Try your best!¡± Yang Ping replied. Biopsy requires image equipment monitoring, and such a nodule biopsy must use navigational equipment. Navigation equipment is essentially a CT scanner with special functions. After Song Zimo finished his preparatory work, he said, ¡°Professor, go put on the lead apron.¡± Yang Ping glanced at Director Liao¡¯s CT images. ¡°No need, just a quick exposure, I don¡¯t need constant monitoring.¡± Thus, everyone left the room. The navigation operator remotely controlled the machine to scan the lung. After the scan was complete, everyone re-entered the operating room, thereby avoiding prolonged exposure to X-rays. Yang Ping donned his gown and gloves, and after one look at the CT images on the navigation screen, he raised the biopsy needle, slowly inserted it between the ribs, then instructed everyone to leave for another scan. As expected, the needle had reached the center of the nodule. He withdrew the biopsy needle and sent the extracted tissue as a specimen to the Pathology Department for examination. Although Song Zimo had been shocked by Yang Ping countless times, he was still astonished now. As for Yang Ping¡¯s astonishing actions, Song Zimo felt that he would never become immune to them in his lifetime. A lung nodule less than 0.5 centimeters, pierced to its center in just a few minutes¡ªthe needle going in and out once, and the job was done! What level of skill was this. A tiny nodule of less than 0.5 centimeters, just like that, it was taken care of. While cleaning up, Song Zimo asked, ¡°How did you do it?¡± ¡°Pure proficiency!¡± Yang Ping replied. ¡°Professor Yang, is it benign?¡± Lying under the sterile drape, Director Liao asked worriedly. ¡°I hope it¡¯s benign!¡± Yang Ping replied. ¡°How could it be so soon? The specimen hasn¡¯t even been sent yet. Pathological examination results take 3 to 5 working days¡ªdon¡¯t rush, don¡¯t talk. Talking can cause a pneumothorax.¡± Song Zimo cautioned the anxious director. ¡ª Ou Lianfeng was wandering around Sanbo Hospital, hoping to find a part-time job. Although he had received some compensation, after calculating, he realized that if he used the compensation for his lungs, there wouldn¡¯t be much left. Later, he also received a subsidy from the Sanbo Hospital fund, so he now had a considerable amount of money in hand. But this money was earned through life-risking means. Ou Lianfeng dared not relax even a bit. He knew that after a lung transplant, doing physical labor was impossible; he basically couldn¡¯t generate income on his own. Continuous use of immunosuppressive drugs, as well as all sorts of follow-up checks, would cost money. If any complications arose, his million-plus savings would not last long. In the ICU, a patient who relied on ECMO for survival had family members hesitating outside, debating whether to give up treatment or to continue fighting. A heated argument erupted among the family. The patient¡¯s parents insisted on a rescue attempt, but they had no money. The siblings also wanted to rescue but couldn¡¯t afford it. His wife wanted to continue treatment, yet again, there was no money. The next step would be to sell their house, but then, with nothing left, what would they do if they ended up broke in the end? Moreover, the doctors had said that even if they poured in the money, the chances were slim. Ou Lianfeng was always waiting for his lung transplant, and whenever he thought about it, he felt extremely unethical for coveting someone else¡¯s lungs, even though he didn¡¯t know who they were. Whenever this thought crossed his mind, he was overcome with a strong sense of guilt. After several days of searching and not finding a suitable job, he was a man with no diploma, no skills, and no longer had the physical strength to earn money. Where could he find work? Sweeping floors, washing dishes, or working as a security guard¡ªthere was no place for him. He wanted to work as a security guard, the kind that watches the factory gate. So, he asked an old man at a factory, but the security guard, who seemed to be in his fifties, was the factory manager¡¯s relative. Not just anyone could sit there and operate the remote controller for opening and closing the gate¡ªyou needed to be related to the factory manager. Some suggested he drive for Didi, but without a car, how could he? Would he use an electric scooter? Delivering food, but now, he was a man who became short of breath just by walking. Even if he didn¡¯t collapse on the street, he would still be late and fined for every delivery. Chapter 1272 - 1272 967 Is It Really That Easy to Be World ?Chapter 1272: Chapter 967: Is It Really That Easy to Be World Number One?_3 Chapter 1272: Chapter 967: Is It Really That Easy to Be World Number One?_3 Ou Lianfeng swiped through his phone, wanting to hear what the experts had to say, considering they were well-cultured, knowledgeable, and had vast experiences. He stumbled upon advice from one professor for those in economic hardship. The professor said that the situation for those experiencing economic difficulties, like Ou Lianfeng, was quite simple. Why not rent out a house you¡¯re not living in, and rely on the rent to completely ensure a basic living through the tough times? Damn it, if it weren¡¯t for the phone screen between them, Ou Lianfeng felt like spitting in his face¡ªsuch thoughtless remarks. Actually, to Ou Lianfeng, life and death had become secondary concerns. He had some money in hand, and if it weren¡¯t for Sanbo Hospital offering to do the lung transplant for free, he wouldn¡¯t even consider spending the money on treatment. He thought about leaving the money to his wife to raise their child until adulthood while he went somewhere to work. He¡¯d earn whatever he could, and if worse came to worst, dying in a foreign place would at least leave his family with over a million in cash. If he spent that money on a lung transplant, even if it were successful, it would still be hard for someone like him, who earned a living through physical labor, to make money afterwards. And if the surgery failed, he¡¯d lose everything¡ªleaving with nothing in the end. Currently, Zhejiang University Second Hospital performed the best in lung transplants. In the field of organ transplantation, the highest standards are represented by heart and lung transplants. If these two could be done well, it would signify that the hospital¡¯s organ transplantation level had reached its peak. After years of development, liver and kidney transplants had already been mastered by many hospitals and were considered basic procedures for organ transplants. The development of a specialty must be characterized by having what others don¡¯t, specializing in what others have, and excelling in one¡¯s specialty. Otherwise, it¡¯s difficult to stand out among the many hospitals. The Sports Medicine Center has taken this path, focusing on the most challenging surgeries in the field of sports medicine, gradually becoming a leader nationally and internationally. The Organ Transplant Center now intends to follow the same path; they plan to excel in heart and lung transplants. Director He Xiangjun is quite ambitious, mainly because he has solid backing, so he¡¯s not afraid that taking big steps might lead to severe growing pains. The Organ Transplant Center is actually a patchwork department, composed of staff pulled together from various departments. For instance, liver transplants are performed by the General Surgery or Hepatobiliary Surgery, while the kidney transplants are performed by Urological Surgeons. Directors Li and Liu, who perform liver and kidney transplants respectively, were both transferred from their original departments. At the moment, Director He Xiangjun from the Thoracic Surgery Department has started venturing into heart and lung transplants. With Yang Ping¡¯s help, they have already accumulated a certain number of cases, and the postoperative follow-up currently shows very good effects. In the Surgical Research Institute¡¯s doctors¡¯ office at this time, Yang Ping, Director He from the Thoracic Surgery Department, and a group of doctors were gathered around the light box. ¡°Let¡¯s do it with thoracoscopy. Perform the entire thoracoscopic homologous bilateral lung sequential transplant surgery. It minimizes trauma and allows for a faster recovery,¡± Yang Ping told Director He. As a thoracic surgery expert, Director He kept up with a wide range of reading. Entire thoracoscopic homologous bilateral lung sequential transplant surgery¡ªit sounded familiar, but where had he heard of such a surgery? He hadn¡¯t come across it in any medical journal. ¡°Professor, how come I¡¯ve never heard of this surgery?¡± Director He asked incredulously, with an attitude of seeking the truth. Yang Ping focused on the CT images and said, ¡°It¡¯s a surgery name I just came up with¡ªyou obviously haven¡¯t seen it.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Director He Xiangjun exclaimed. Just thought up on the spot, so nobody in the world had done it yet, right? If he could really do it, wouldn¡¯t that be the first case in the world? ¡°I¡¯m afraid it might not be feasible?¡± Director He knew that performing a lung transplant using thoracoscopy was extremely difficult without any prior examples to reference; everything from the approach to the procedure would need to be redesigned from scratch. ¡°What¡¯s so difficult? It¡¯s just about converting open surgery into a thoracoscopic minimally invasive surgery, right? Let¡¯s take advantage of the fact that we haven¡¯t secured the donor lung yet. We can practice a few times on experimental pigs to gain experience. I¡¯ll guide you,¡± thought Yang Ping, finding the task not difficult at all. Upon hearing that Yang Ping would personally guide him, Director He immediately nodded: ¡°Alright, alright, alright!¡± The classic incision for lung transplant surgery typically requires cutting across the sternum. After dividing the sternum, the process of opening the chest cavity is akin to prying open the two shells of clams, hence the nickname ¡°Clam-Shell.¡± This incision inflicts significant damage on the patient¡¯s chest wall, and the recovery period afterward is quite lengthy. If thoracoscopy were used for the procedure, perhaps only a few ports would suffice to complete the job, with slightly larger incisions only to insert the lungs and the rest of the incisions being very small. Most importantly, it would eliminate the need to cut across the sternum, with all the incisions made through the intercostal spaces. Was getting the world¡¯s first so easy? Director He Xiangjun was quite excited. Director Gao brought cherries, Director Fang from General Surgery followed suit with cherries, but Director He took the road less traveled and brought durian instead. A durian for the world¡¯s first¡ªdamn good trade. ¡°Director He!¡± Head Nurse Cai approached. ¡°No need to thank me, it¡¯s just a few durians,¡± said Director He, waving his hand generously. Head Nurse Cai said, ¡°Director He, could you perhaps bring something else next time? The smell of durians is too strong and is not suitable for the ward.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Director He exclaimed again. Chapter 1273 - 1273 968 The Local Tycoon ?Chapter 1273: Chapter 968: The Local Tycoon! Chapter 1273: Chapter 968: The Local Tycoon! Full thoracoscopic homologous sequential bilateral lung transplant surgery! What a resounding name, yet the professional term may seem obscure and cumbersome to understand. Translated into layman¡¯s language, it¡¯s quite easy to comprehend: full thoracoscopic means that the entire operation is performed under a thoracoscope, with the thoracoscope not just partially aiding but playing a major role throughout the surgery. Homologous heterograft indicates that the organ donor belongs to the human species and that the organ isn¡¯t from the patient¡¯s own body but provided by someone else. If a pig¡¯s organ is transplanted into a human, it¡¯s called xenotransplantation, while transplanting a patient¡¯s own organ back into them is known as autotransplantation. ¡°Sequential¡± signifies that the two lungs are not transplanted at the same time but in a determined order. Director He Xiangjun pondered over the surgical procedure name left by Yang Ping, then scoured through vast amounts of literature, finally confirming that this might indeed be the first case in the world¡ªan entirely new procedure¡ªsince no hospital or doctor around the globe had performed lung transplant using a thoracoscope. Even Zhejiang University Second Hospital, boasted as the country¡¯s top for lung transplants, hasn¡¯t done this, nor have any of the major organ transplant centers in Europe and America. Come on, the first in the world! Director He clenched his fists. Could this step be too big, reaching for world number one, might it result in failure? No, with Professor Yang¡¯s support, they won¡¯t slip up. Could there be other doctors around the world attempting this procedure as well? Hurry up, don¡¯t let anyone get ahead. At these thoughts, Director He couldn¡¯t help feeling a bit excited. ¡°Director, shall we go to the animal experimental laboratory to get a few pigs for this new surgery in a few days?¡± asked Xiao Yu, Director He¡¯s graduate student. Director He resolutely declared, ¡°What do you mean ¡®in a few days¡¯? Contact them right now, immediately, and start the animal surgery experiments as soon as possible. Time waits for no one; every second counts.¡± No time to waste¡ªacting immediately, Director He, accompanied by Xiao Yu, hurried to the animal surgical lab. The Department of Animal Surgery had expanded in scale, and the newly renovated soundproof and noise-canceling labs were now in operation. Furthermore, because many doctors throughout the hospital were eager for this kind of surgical training, the animal surgery labs were now well-organized and divided into different areas by department, to prevent squabbles over a single pig. Strict protocols governed the use of pigs to prevent waste. Using animal models for surgery simulation is indeed effective, yet requires substantial investment for equipment and animals. Nevertheless, Dean Xia is unfazed by these costs; his aim is a world-class hospital, and a few pigs are a small price to pay. The golden training period for surgeons is right after graduation when theoretical knowledge is solid and adaptability is high. It¡¯s like playing basketball¡ªat forty, it¡¯s impossible to reach high levels, so the earlier surgery training starts, the better. For a doctor, right after graduation is the early period. Many hospitals in China, however, have outdated training systems. Young graduates lack mentors, must figure things out on their own, and if they encounter Department Directors who monopolize surgeries, young doctors can have a difficult time flourishing. These surgery hogs, who cling to any operation with a modicum of technical skill and don¡¯t let others get involved or teach the younger ones, use one ample excuse: it¡¯s for medical safety. It sounds legitimate, but in reality, it¡¯s all about protecting their interests, afraid that others might grab a slice of their pie. Back when Yang Ping was at City People¡¯s Hospital, he knew the General Surgery Department Director was notorious for hogging surgeries. Any laparoscopic surgery had to go through him¡ªdominating the practice, and anyone who dared operate would be furiously berated. Of course, his scolding seemed righteous, criticizing doctors for not being safety-conscious and irresponsible towards patients. This approach leads to a dead-end where if senior doctors don¡¯t teach or allow young doctors to practice, they¡¯ll never learn and will always be kept outside. Without learning, they remain perpetually barred. Dean Chen, now at City People¡¯s Hospital and formerly the head of the medical department, aimed to break the stagnation in General Surgery. Facing opposition, he arranged for a young doctor to receive advanced training. After a year of training and returning, the Department Director let the doctor try performing laparoscopies. Delighted, the doctor showcased the skills acquired during training, outperforming the Director in a few surgeries. Consequently, the Department Director revoked his surgery privileges claiming he was not yet qualified to lead surgeries and needed to mature for medical safety. Thereafter, the doctor couldn¡¯t even touch a laparoscope, and after a few years, the skills learned were wasted. Dean Xia dreads such scenarios, so he borrowed the mentorship system from Affiliated Hospital No. 1. If a mentee can¡¯t graduate within the stipulated time, it indicates the mentor¡¯s incompetence, resulting in investigation and potential revocation of the mentor¡¯s surgery privileges. The investigation is grueling, conducted by the hospital¡¯s panel of experts. These prestigious members follow a procedure where they secretly interview anesthesia providers, nurses, and departmental doctors, quickly bringing the truth to light. Should any Department Director be found hoarding surgeries, it¡¯s impossible to conceal; with authority in their hands, no doctor would tolerate such a person, assuredly taking him down. Director He circled the animal laboratory, with the most activity at the Sports Medicine Center. Even though it was past working hours, nearly all doctors were practicing surgery. At the current Sports Medicine Center, randomly pick a doctor, and they¡¯re all experienced in surgery, capable of being department directors nationwide. While other institutions¡¯ doctors are still making pledges or writing papers for their directors, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s doctors have already performed hundreds or even thousands of surgeries as chief surgeons. When doctors from other institutions have just received their directors¡¯ approval and are timidly holding the knife handle with secret delight, those from Sanbo Hospital are already contemplating surgery improvements and elevating their extensive surgical experience. ¡°There¡¯s a shortage of experimental pigs now; many departments are waiting for new stock.¡± Graduate student Xiao Yu immediately came back to report after inquiry. ¡°Shortage?¡± Director He was stunned. Are pigs in short supply now? Despite having ample funds from Yang Ping¡¯s foundation and huge allocations from the government, Sanbo Hospital is now a financial powerhouse. Although Sanbo Hospital is wealthy, unfortunately, the Animal Department of Nandu Medical University can¡¯t keep up with the supply of experimental pigs. It¡¯s not that the Animal Department of Nandu Medical University can¡¯t supply enough pigs; it¡¯s the production capacity of the pig farms behind it that¡¯s lacking. They had never anticipated such demand for pigs from hospitals. Piglets need time to grow, leading to a temporary supply shortfall. Director He moved to the area of the Surgical Research Institute, which was also buzzing with activity. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were guiding everyone through various surgeries. Who wouldn¡¯t want to practice more and refine their skills? As soon as their professional titles were promoted, they¡¯d lead a team¡ªwhat prestige and, more importantly, an increased income. A pig can undergo many surgeries, and if utilized properly, a single pig can be operated on hundreds of times. Of course, this is rather cruel to the pig, but there is no alternative. To ensure human health, pigs have to make certain sacrifices. Determined to obtain a pig, Director He went to check each section. He targeted the Urological Surgery area where a few young doctors were fumbling with surgery, with no senior directors present. He immediately reprimanded these young doctors. A bunch of young doctors were occupying a large pig for something as simple as circumcision practices, which he deemed a terrible waste. They could easily perform these procedures on each other in the outpatient operating room to both deal with personal hygiene issues like smegma and prevent penile cancer, as well as to hone their skills. Furthermore, with the abundance of circumcision surgeries every day in outpatient services, there was no need to waste pigs on such experiments. Finally, having secured an experimental pig, Director He was ready to work overtime to perform surgery. Lung transplants require ECMO support, but such expensive equipment couldn¡¯t possibly be used for animal experiments¡ªit¡¯d be effort in vain. Just then, Yang Ping arrived. Director He sighed, ¡°Without ECMO, can the surgery even be performed? If the experimental pig dies before we finish, we can¡¯t assess the postoperative effects.¡± Yang Ping glanced at Director He, ¡°It looks like you come here often. There¡¯s already an ECMO here, but you have to wait in line to use it. How about this, I¡¯ll arrange for another one to be brought over.¡± So Yang Ping started calling the Department Head of the Equipment Section, asking him to transfer an ECMO to the animal surgery laboratory. Director He was well aware of how much an ECMO costs, and once it was brought to the animal laboratory, it wouldn¡¯t be possible to return it to the patient wards for use, meaning it would be dedicated for use here. After making the call, Yang Ping said, ¡°Wait a bit, the Equipment Section will transfer it shortly.¡± Extravagant! That was the only word Director He could think of. Chapter 1274 - 1274 969 Im Definitely the Chief Surgeon ?Chapter 1274: Chapter 969: I¡¯m Definitely the Chief Surgeon Chapter 1274: Chapter 969: I¡¯m Definitely the Chief Surgeon Ou Lianfeng¡¯s lungs are now almost like a stone. The long-term irritation of the accumulated dust on the lung tissues has led to diffuse fibrosis of the lung tissue, with most of the normal lung tissue turning into fibrous connective tissue. This type of ineffective replacement is very common in medicine, where non-functional cells replace normal cells. Once a certain number is exceeded, the organ¡¯s function will become impaired, eventually leading to failure. The mechanism of this ineffective replacement is also an important reason why tumors are fatal. Non-functional tumor cells massively replace the organ¡¯s normal cells. The function of an organ depends on the work of normal cells. Once the number of functioning cells is reduced to a certain quantity or is completely gone, the organ will lose the basis for function and can no longer perform, severely threatening the patient¡¯s life. The CT images of Ou Lianfeng¡¯s lungs are hung on the light box in the office of the doctors at the Surgical Research Institute. Yang Ping sits in front of the light box, carefully reading the films, surrounded by the doctors of the entire department. Every surgical planning is an opportunity for learning. An excellent surgeon is not merely a cutter. In addition to possessing superb surgical skills, he must also have an excellent thinking ability to make the best choices for patients. It is the patient¡¯s greatest fortune that their CT images can be hung on the light box of the Surgical Research Institute, and no one who has worked at the Surgical Research Institute would disagree with this perspective. ¡°It can be done with thoracoscopy!¡± Yang Ping suggested the plan. ¡°If you use thoracoscopy for lung transplantation, from where will the donor¡¯s lung be inserted?¡± Song Zimo asked. Yang Ping crossed his arms in front of his chest, his left thumb and index finger supporting his chin in a ¡®V¡¯ shape: ¡°Make an incision of about 8 centimeters through the intercostal space, without prying it open, deliver the lung through this incision into the thoracic cavity. Under full thoracoscopy, anastomose the bronchi, the pulmonary artery, and the left atrium. The operation is somewhat difficult, but it can still be completed smoothly.¡± ¡°The surgery might take a bit long,¡± Song Zimo analyzed. Yang Ping isn¡¯t particularly concerned about surgery time: ¡°With the support of ECMO, time is not an issue. If you do it, it is estimated that the surgery can be completed in about 6 hours. If I do it¡ª¡± ¡°Would the placement of the endoscope and instrument ports be distributed like this?¡± Song Zimo interrupted Yang Ping and immediately threw out a new topic, pointing at the CT images to draw Yang Ping¡¯s attention. Song Zimo knew that there was a significant gap between his and Yang Ping¡¯s surgery times, the kind that couldn¡¯t be bridged, so he tried not to let him mention the surgery duration. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Right, distributed like that. In the middle of the operation, we will also need to use a fiberoptic bronchoscope to check if the bronchial anastomosis is clear and intact, and assess through transesophageal echocardiography whether the anastomosis of the pulmonary artery and left atrium is satisfactory.¡± Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang began to construct the scene of the surgery in their minds according to what Yang Ping said, trying to simulate the surgical process. Minimally invasive isn¡¯t just about small incisions; small incisions do not make a surgery truly minimally invasive. Minimally invasive surgery means less interference with the body¡¯s internal environment, for example, less bleeding, less damage to normal tissues, etc. As such, the body receives less surgical impact and can recover from the surgery more quickly. Many years ago, when laparoscopy had just emerged, there were very few types of surgeries it could perform, and many doctors mocked it as having no future, equivalent to ¡®taking off your pants to fart,¡¯ and that it would never replace open surgery. With the advancement of medicine, laparoscopy has now become the mainstream in General Surgery, and almost all general surgeries can be completed under laparoscopy. If thoracoscopy is used to complete a double lung transplant, as far as Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang know, it would be the first case in the world. The professor is indeed a professor, never playing by the rules, walking the road no one else has traveled. Yang Ping begins to think in front of the CT images, while Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang discuss the details of the surgery, because this entirely new surgical technique is still a bit challenging for them, and they must perfect every single detail. After resolving the issue of approach, there were still the steps of the surgery, how to deal with unexpected situations during the operation, etc. The experience from open surgery could not completely cover thoracoscopic lung transplantation, so it was essential to combine the characteristics of thoracoscopy to construct the details of the entire lung transplant in order to make the surgical plan as foolproof as possible. Just as Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were enthusiastically studying the details of the surgery, Yang Ping suddenly blurted out: ¡°Let¡¯s use the Da Vinci Robot for this surgery. Since it¡¯s free of charge, we don¡¯t have to worry about increasing the patient¡¯s financial burden.¡± Da Vinci Robot for lung transplantation? Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were stunned. They had not yet fully solved the issues with thoracoscopic lung transplantation, and now they were making a leap forward by using the Da Vinci surgical robot for lung transplantation? Minimally invasive surgery was becoming the direction of surgical development. Surgical techniques were evolving rapidly. Following endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery, robotic surgery emerged, becoming an even more advanced method. Robotic surgery took the concept of minimally invasive surgery to a new level. The future of surgery belonged to robotic surgery, which was not an exaggeration. Just like the initial emergence of laparoscopic surgery, robotic surgery now faced controversy, and its development path would be winding, but the direction forward remained unchanged. ¡°Not going to use thoracoscopy?¡± Song Zimo felt that Yang Ping¡¯s train of thought was jumping too quickly, and he couldn¡¯t keep up with the pace. They hadn¡¯t even figured out thoracoscopic surgery yet, and now the track had changed. Yang Ping maintained the same posture of propping up his chin: ¡°When did I say we¡¯d use thoracoscopy?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you just say we¡¯d use thoracoscopy?¡± Song Zimo turned to look at the doctors standing behind him, hoping others could testify; it had certainly been mentioned. A graduate student said, ¡°Professor said that thoracoscopy could be used, not that this surgery would be done with thoracoscopy.¡± Song Zimo glanced at the graduate student¡ªwho was he from his own medical team? A double-dealer! ¡°Did you hear that? I only said it could be used, not that it would be.¡± Yang Ping felt that the precision of thoracoscopic surgery was not as good as robotic surgery. The Da Vinci surgical robot was excellent for thoracic and abdominal surgery, so why not use the Da Vinci Robot for this surgery and establish a landmark for the Thoracic Surgery Department? Since they were to establish a landmark, it might as well be the biggest and tallest. ¡°Robotic surgery represents the future direction of surgery, and the Thoracic Surgery Department wants to set up a landmark. We¡¯ll use the Da Vinci Robot to set up this landmark, making it a bit more challenging for others to surpass.¡± Yang Ping made the final confirmation of Ou Lianfeng¡¯s surgical plan. At this moment, Director He Xiangjun was bustling with his team, starting to arrange for surgical training in the animal surgery laboratory. He was very familiar with thoracoscopy, but performing such a major surgery as lung transplantation was still new to him; he had to practice properly. The thought of being the world¡¯s first motivated Director He to work tirelessly. Minimally invasive was the future direction of surgery, and Director He intended to firmly grasp this direction. ¡°Director, isn¡¯t Professor Yang going to be the chief surgeon for this surgery?¡± a Thoracic Surgery Department doctor asked. Director He confidently said, ¡°If I can perform the surgery to Professor Yang¡¯s satisfaction, he will definitely let me be the chief surgeon. He will just be guiding from the side, so everyone, let¡¯s work hard. Do your utmost to secure a pig, and if we master the surgery by then, you¡¯ll be the first assistant, you the second¡ª.¡± Director He was now assigning the positions for the assistants. Chapter 1275 - 1275 970 I Cant Do It ?Chapter 1275: Chapter 970: I Can¡¯t Do It Chapter 1275: Chapter 970: I Can¡¯t Do It Director Liao¡¯s lung nodule pathological examination results had come out¡ªit was benign, an inflammatory nodule. The moment he received the exact pathological diagnosis, Director Liao felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders. He was revitalized and radiant, a stark contrast to his prior despondency, sighs of despair from a few days earlier. Now, he looked every bit the leader. Director Liao, who had earlier kept his hospitalization a secret, now promptly reported his status to his leaders, not forgetting to criticize the hospital doctors for complicating a simple nodule that was essentially no issue at all. When he was discharged, Director Liao was surrounded by his entourage, still grumbling to his subordinates about the hospital¡¯s examination process, bemoaning that the hospital had made a big fuss over a mere nodule, which was quite normal for someone of his age. He felt that the hospital¡¯s insistence on performing a biopsy was pointless and purely an example of overtreatment, having stressed over it only to find out it was just an inflammatory nodule. A simple inflammatory nodule had caused such an unnecessary complexity, wasting several days of his time. Finally, Director Liao invited a few colleagues who enjoyed playing badminton to play the following weekend, expressing how bored he had been staying inactive in the hospital and eager to sweat it out properly. All his colleagues agreed, remarking that Director Liao didn¡¯t look sick at all and seemed healthier than many younger men. One of them stated that he hated playing badminton with Director Liao, immediately drawing the attention of everyone else. The colleague continued calmly, ¡°Director Liao! If you weren¡¯t the boss, I wouldn¡¯t want to play at all. After playing with you, you look fine and full of energy, but I can¡¯t move my legs for three days. It¡¯s more tiring than playing with the young professionals in the provincial team. I can¡¯t keep up with your stamina.¡± Director Liao didn¡¯t mind this batch of remarks at all and laughed it off, ¡°You must come this weekend! If you try to skip out, just see how I¡¯ll deal with you.¡± Niu Zhixuan¡¯s CEA levels had not been resolved yet. After reviewing all his test results, Yang Ping believed it was just a rare case of intussusception and intestinal inflammation. However, Niu Zhixuan was scared, and he insisted on having a PET-CT; otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t be able to relax in the future. ¡°It¡¯s completely unnecessary; this rise in CEA has nothing to do with cancer. It¡¯s caused by the intestinal inflammation, and it will gradually return to normal once the inflammation is under control. Let¡¯s monitor it for now.¡± Yang Ping advised his old classmate that there was no need for such a drastic measure as a PET-CT. Niu Zhixuan didn¡¯t see it that way. He felt that when he was moneyless, he feared changing jobs risking sudden death, but when he had money, he believed health was more important than wealth. As long as money could solve the problem, it was not a problem. ¡°Then let¡¯s do the PET-CT, spend the money for peace of mind.¡± Understanding Niu Zhixuan¡¯s thoughts, Yang Ping agreed to proceed with further checks; sometimes, it really was about buying peace of mind. While elevated tumor markers indicate cancer, they do not confirm its presence, just as seeing a tattooed muscly man can suggest that he might be a lawbreaker, many tattooed strong men are law-abiding, and many lawbreakers don¡¯t have tattoos. Therefore, tumor markers are just an indicator, unable to diagnose definitively; a further examination is needed indeed for diagnosis. Director He was relentlessly determined; he and his colleagues managed to acquire several pigs, all used for practicing thoracoscopic lung transplants. This type of surgery was time-consuming, especially for a novice. To date, every doctor performing lung transplants through thoracoscopy was a novice. Hence, each of Director He¡¯s simulation surgeries took roughly ten hours, the quickest still requiring over eight hours. The difficulty of the surgery was immense, and earning the accolade of being the first in the world was not so easy. Director He¡¯s thoracoscopic fundamentals were quite good, so his progress in practice was relatively swift, complemented by his full dedication, which made his daily improvements visible. After several days of day and night training, Director He believed his surgical skills had become very proficient, capable of smoothly completing surgeries on pigs for 9-10 hours at least. The Thoracic Surgery Department¡¯s continuous procurement of pigs also sparked some anger. The victims were usually young doctors, who dared to be angry but did not dare to speak out. However, they would report to their Department Directors afterward, and many directors began to question He Xiangjun about what exactly was going on. Since everyone was a Department Director and relations were generally good, it was unlikely anyone would truly fall out over a few pigs. He Xiangjun admitted his mistake and then claimed that his department¡¯s situation was special, as lung transplants needed to be performed as soon as they were scheduled, which made his actions somewhat inappropriate. He hoped for everyone¡¯s understanding and promised to treat everyone to drinks later. With that, the other directors no longer pursued the matter and at most would explain and appease the doctors below them. He Xiangjun sent fruit to each department as a token of apology, providing a way for the victimized doctors to save face. With two pigs each day and about seventeen or eighteen hours of intense training, the experiences accumulated over these days made Director He feel quite good about himself. He felt he could be the chief surgeon for this surgery. News came from the ICU that the patient, who had been relying on ECMO to sustain life, had finally been declared brain dead. The function of the heart and lungs was completely passively maintained by the ECMO machine, and continuing this way was pointless. The patient¡¯s wife, holding back her sorrow, finally mustered the courage to make the agonizing decision: to remove the ECMO and let the patient leave this world naturally. In reality, the patient had already left this world, but the machine was still maintaining his heart and lung activity. However, when she made this painful decision, all the relatives surrounded the patient¡¯s wife and berated her, calling her selfish, cold-hearted, and for abandoning her husband. But what could she do? The self-funded costs had already amounted to about 1.2 million yuan, a huge sum for her ordinary family. Even selling their only house would only maintain the status quo for a little while longer, and she and the child still needed to continue living. Thus, she had to face reality, this was a bottomless pit with no hope. At a little past midnight, the doctors were prepared to remove the ECMO. According to the patient¡¯s prior wishes, his corneas, heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys were all to be donated to different individuals. The relatives disagreed with donating the organs and also berated the patient¡¯s wife. However, she withstood the pressure as these were her husband¡¯s last wishes, and she wanted to fulfill them. At a little past midnight, the patient¡¯s wife, alone, wearing an isolation suit, entered the ICU and tenderly kissed her husband to bid him farewell. Then, this woman left the ICU alone, sitting in the empty Family Waiting Area, facing the rest of her life by herself. Ou Lianfeng¡¯s lung transplant surgery also started as an emergency at this time. Organ transplant surgeries could commence at any time, as suitable donors could appear unpredictably, and the timing of the surgeries was greatly uncertain. The operating room was brightly lit late into the night. Director He hastily dialed Song Zimo¡¯s phone: ¡°Dr. Song, the lung transplant for Ou Lianfeng can begin now, I¡¯ve just received the notification to retrieve the lungs.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll notify the professor immediately, you need to prepare the Da Vinci Robot right away, this surgery will be performed using the Da Vinci Robot.¡± Song Zimo quickly instructed. Director He was a bit baffled: ¡°The Da Vinci Robot for a lung transplant? I don¡¯t know how to do that!¡± ¡°Neither do I!¡± Song Zimo said. ¡°Then what should we do?¡± Professor He didn¡¯t understand. Song Zimo said, ¡°The Professor knows how!¡± Chapter 1276 - 1276 971 So Much Killing Intent in the Moment ?Chapter 1276: Chapter 971: So Much Killing Intent in the Moment Chapter 1276: Chapter 971: So Much Killing Intent in the Moment Will the professor be the chief surgeon of this surgery, or will it be a robot-assisted surgery? This is an ascension to the pinnacle in one step, Director He hasn¡¯t fully grasped thoracoscopic surgery yet, and now Ou Lianfeng¡¯s surgical method is directly switched to robotic surgery. Originally, Director He wanted to strive for being the chief surgeon, but now he can¡¯t even mix in as an assistant. At most, he can stand by closely to observe. The Da Vinci surgical robot has four robotic arms, one of which is equipped with a camera, and the other three can operate. These robotic arms can rotate 540 degrees and have 7 degrees of freedom. Their flexibility and precision are incomparable to the human hand. It is estimated that Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang will be responsible for mounting and dismounting the robotic arms on the operating table. In fact, a real surgical assistant is not needed at all, as Yang Ping can complete the entire operation on his own, relying on the robot¡¯s four arms. It can be said that the robot-assisted surgery is truly a solo performance by the chief surgeon. ¡°You lead the team to harvest the organs; I¡¯ll go to the operating room to prepare. I¡¯ve already notified the professor, who is on the way to the hospital, and the surgery will begin immediately. Hurry up with the preparation.¡± Song Zimo assigned the tasks, leaving Director He to have the attending doctor communicate with the patient and sign some informed consents. He himself immediately led the rest of his team to harvest the donor¡¯s organs. This kind of operation must be a race against time, and since the professor had arranged it so, he would comply. Even in harvesting organs, he had to be earnest and serious, absolutely not allowing any issues during the surgery. All the talk about being world-class and the chase for fame had, by this time, been swept clean from Director He¡¯s mind. He was now immediately leading his team into battle, to be a screw that firmly holds its place. In fact, robotic surgery was nothing new to Yang Ping, as he performed such surgeries almost every day. The Surgical Research Institute now specifically had a Da Vinci surgical robot equipped, and for surgeries in the Overseas Chinese Building, if the robotic surgery could achieve better results, Yang Ping would definitely use the robot because those patients simply did not care about money, they only cared about having the best possible method. Concerning this surgery, Yang Ping had given some thought. Truth be told, Director He¡¯s skill had indeed improved rapidly and he was very diligent lately. Now, it was necessary to help him establish a reputation, just like Director Fang from the General Surgery Department. Ever since accompanying Yang Ping in a pancreatic cancer resection and autologous cluster organ transplantation in the abdominal cavity, he has been flourishing in reputation by presenting this surgery at various academic conferences. Once fame rises, the number of patients increases, and as long as a doctor is willing to learn and knows how to learn, they can immediately embark on a path of positive cyclical upgrading. This move is tantamount to opening up the meridians for a department. As long as the department director is willing to learn, there will be success; it¡¯s only a matter of time. If Director He¡¯s Thoracic Surgery Department is to reach the pinnacle of technology, it must master cutting-edge heart and lung surgeries. Even if common thoracic surgeries were done extremely well, to be honest, with the technical content being what it is, no one would take you seriously. However, if you talk about using a robot for a lung transplant, that would be enough for Director He to speak at academic conferences for three years, and for three years, no one would tire of hearing him. Other hospitals that want to catch up have a long way to go. First, they must do well in lung transplants. Afterward, they must conquer video-assisted thoracoscopic lung transplants, and only then consider performing Da Vinci robot-assisted lung transplants. What is a technological barrier? This is a barrier. Ou Lianfeng was pushed into the operating room, as everything proceeded in an orderly manner. On this side, they hurriedly administered anesthesia to the patient, disinfected, and laid out the drapes. The Da Vinci surgical robot immediately entered a state of preparation. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang installed the sterile, disposable robotic arms. On the other side, Director He was nervously harvesting organs, a step that is also crucial and leaves no room for negligence. The harvested left and right lungs, along with the blood vessels, nerves, and bronchi, were to be carefully stored in a specialized box and escorted to the operating room. The chief surgeon of a robot-assisted surgery does not need to scrub in, so Yang Ping leisurely sat in front of the surgeon¡¯s console. The surgical robot consists of three parts: the surgeon¡¯s console, the patient¡¯s operating table, and the video imaging system. Yang Ping was now sitting at the surgeon¡¯s console, which is next to the operating room, separated by a glass wall. The feeling at this moment was very much like Yang Ping playing computer games at the internet cafe? during his university days. The news that Yang Ping was going to perform Da Vinci robot-assisted surgery spread rapidly. Apart from the old directors who were lying flat waiting for retirement, almost every young surgeon rushed over. Surgeons interested in the Da Vinci robotic system definitely wanted to see how this surgery was performed, and those with no interest also came over, purely to watch it as if it were a blockbuster movie. The teaching room in the operating room now really isn¡¯t much different from a movie theater, because there are actually people holding popcorn and occupying the better seats, waiting for the big show to start. Back when Yang Ping first used the Da Vinci robotic surgery system to perform an impressive dance, he dazzled everyone. To this day, Director Fang still keeps that video on his phone, watching it whenever he can, pondering how to achieve that level of skill. In the meantime, that video has widely spread online and has become a classic demonstration of robotic surgery operations. It¡¯s said that the original company is willing to pay Yang Ping for advertising rights, wanting to use that video for commercials. The teaching room is completely separate from the operating room and is considered a non-restricted area, so there¡¯s no need to adhere to aseptic protocols. At this moment, the teaching room is packed with people. Director Fang arrived early and took a seat in the first row. In Sanbo Hospital, before Yang Ping made his move, Director Fang was ranked first in proficiency with the Da Vinci robot. After Yang Ping performed his impressive dance, Director Fang naturally fell to second place. ¡°I hear it¡¯s a lung transplant?¡± Director Fang asked. A director from the Thoracic Surgery Department answered, ¡°Yes, it¡¯s the pneumoconiosis patient Ou Lianfeng, who¡¯s been in the news recently. He received a donated lung today, so we¡¯re doing an emergency surgery.¡± ¡°Oh, I know, I heard that all the local government officials related to his case got wiped out?¡± Director Fang indeed knew about this news. ¡°Yeah, I heard it was because the case was mentioned in Professor Yang¡¯s moment, so then¡ª¡± The director from the Thoracic Surgery Department started chatting with Director Fang. ¡°Affiliated Hospital No. 4¡¯s Director Qian, I heard he also appeared in Professor Yang¡¯s moment. He was taken from his home overnight and is still ¡®sewing¡¯ in detention.¡± Another director from the Urology Department commented. ¡°It¡¯s really strange, isn¡¯t it? How can it be so powerful? It sounds quite frightening.¡± ¡°If you¡¯re not involved in illegal and undisciplined actions, what are you afraid of?¡± ¡°I mean, how come Professor Yang¡¯s moment seems so deadly? Once you get on his moment, then¡ªah!¡± ¡°The almighty moment, damn, really the almighty moment.¡± ¡°Exactly, take Ou Lianfeng¡¯s case for example. I also saw the moment he posted that day. It didn¡¯t say much, just showed an X-ray, and then included the words¡ªHeartbreaking! Rule of law society!!! I think it was nothing much, just venting some frustration. Who hasn¡¯t vented in their moment?¡± Another director from the General Surgery Department couldn¡¯t quite understand. Chapter 1277 - 1277 972 This is the Benefit of Kidney ?Chapter 1277: Chapter 972: This is the Benefit of Kidney Protection Chapter 1277: Chapter 972: This is the Benefit of Kidney Protection About the magic power of Yang Ping¡¯s moments, everyone talked more and more vigorously, veering off topic until the image inside the chest appeared on the high-definition screen, prompting everyone to stop chatting. The feature film began formally without any preview. Just a few seconds after the image inside the chest cavity appeared, three robotic arms emerged into view. They were highly flexible, coordinating with each other with great tacit understanding, without any interference, not to mention friction or collision. If the surgical technique is proficient, robotic surgery is indeed much more convenient than traditional surgery. The current weakness of robotic surgery is the lack of tactile feedback that is good. Another minor issue, which is not exactly a weakness, is that changing surgical instruments is not as fast and timely as manually doing it. In the future, if surgical robots could have many robotic arms, equipping all the instruments needed for the surgery at once, it would eliminate the time needed to switch instruments. Whenever a specific instrument is required, the robotic arm fitted with that instrument could directly replace the one that temporarily has to withdraw. The most successful surgical robot at present is Da Vinci. In the field of surgical robots, it stands out alone. The gap between it and the various other surgical robots is still significant. This is why Da Vinci is the most widely equipped brand of surgical robots worldwide¡ªbecause, besides it, there are no other options. The three robotic arms worked extremely proficiently together, continuously separating and stemming bleeding from the lungs and their blood vessels and bronchi. Director He personally rushed forward carrying the box containing the organs, delivering them to the operating room at top speed to minimize the time the organs were without blood supply. By the time he arrived at the operating room, Yang Ping had already completed nearly all of the total resection of both lungs, with only the final bronchus left to be separated and cut. Director He set the box down; however, he still stood by it, personally guarding the organs, always ready to hand them over to the doctors on the operating table. Since Professor Yang had assigned him this task, he must execute it flawlessly. There could be no mishaps. Yang Ping¡¯s control panel and the operating room were separated by a glass wall. Wearing the surgical robot¡¯s goggles, he could only see the surgical field through the camera, so he didn¡¯t know whether Director He had arrived in the operating room. ¡°Director He? Director He? Has he arrived?¡± Yang Ping asked while operating from the control panel. ¡°Just arrived!¡± Another doctor replied. ¡°Let him in!¡± Yang Ping ordered. The doctor immediately went out to call Director He inside. The surgery paused for a moment, Director He was taking the donor organs out of the protective box and placing them on the operating table, while Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang examined the organs and trimmed the blood vessels and bronchi to meet the surgical requirements. After finishing his duties, Director He then entered the control room. At this moment, Yang Ping stopped the surgery, removed his glasses, and also took his hands off the controls. ¡°Old He, come here, you take over the surgery,¡± Yang Ping instructed Director He, then offered him the chief surgeon¡¯s seat at the control panel. Director He seemed bewildered, his face showing confusion: ¡°I can¡¯t do it? I¡¯ve only performed some simple surgeries with the Da Vinci robotic system; I don¡¯t know how to do this surgery.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay if you don¡¯t know now, you¡¯ll slowly learn. Just sit here, see how to separate and cut the remaining bronchus, but don¡¯t mess with anything else. That shouldn¡¯t be a problem, right?¡± Yang Ping told Director He. Director He thought for a moment, feeling confident about this task, so he immediately perked up: ¡°Then no problem.¡± Even though it was just performing some simple tasks, it was surely better than just watching from the sidelines; at least he was participating in the surgery. Although Director He was not very skilled with the Da Vinci robotic system, he had experience in over a hundred surgeries and was no novice; he simply lacked experience in lung transplants. ¡°We¡¯ll finish this surgery together today, and how about you write the paper?¡± Yang Ping mentioned casually. Director He was startled at hearing this, was such a good thing possible? This was like a pie falling from the sky! If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that he and Professor Yang were well-acquainted colleagues, Director He would have clutched his waist in disbelief at such unbelievable good fortune. The world¡¯s first case, and also with the Da Vinci surgical robot¡ªsetting aside the significant implication of the paper, just taking this surgery to an academic conference would garner admiring glances from their peers. It was evident what level and significance this represented. Still somewhat skeptical, Director He wanted to ask something, like if there were any preconditions when Yang Ping pointed at the control panel: ¡°Go get used to it, take it slow, no rush.¡± Director He quickly sat at the control panel. The control panel was separate from the operating room, positioned outside the sterile area of the operating room. The doctor used both hands to operate two primary controllers and used foot pedals to control the movements of the instruments at the end of the robotic arms. Additionally, wearing a pair of special glasses, the doctor could see a clear three-dimensional image of the surgical field, with the tips of the surgical instruments moving in sync with the surgeon¡¯s hands throughout the entire process. This design maximally replicated the synchronized rhythm of the surgeon¡¯s eyes, instruments, and hands during open surgeries, meaning that when performing surgeries with the Da Vinci surgical robot, the surgeons could be even more agile than in open surgeries. The control system¡¯s motion scaling function helped minimize the surgeon¡¯s natural hand tremors or inadvertent movements, thus further enhancing the surgical operation¡¯s precision and stability. Director Fang carefully manipulated the controls with his hands and feet to slowly separate an unseparated bronchus in the lung, then cut it off at the spot Yang Ping had just indicated, marking the completion of the first part of the surgery: the resection of the patient¡¯s lungs. The next step was to clean the chest cavity to prepare for the transplant of the donor lungs. Knowing he was not capable of the next step, Director Fang conscientiously stopped his activities: ¡°Professor Yang, you take over.¡± ¡°Sit beside me, be ready to replace me at any time. This surgery¡¯s chief surgeons are both of us. I¡¯ve already informed the patrolling nurse to list both our names,¡± Yang Ping returned to his seat at the control panel and continued with the surgery. At this moment in the operating room, the high-definition large screen was live-streaming Yang Ping¡¯s surgery, with the cooperation between the several robotic arms amounting to an art form. The entire scene exuded a kind of mechanized aesthetic, with the robotic arms being flexible, stable, precise, and harmonious; every move, every operation, was simply magical. ¡°When will we be able to train to this level,¡± Chapter 1278 - 1278 973 Multi-Arm Thinking ?Chapter 1278: Chapter 973: Multi-Arm Thinking Chapter 1278: Chapter 973: Multi-Arm Thinking Talent truly exists, and it can¡¯t be compensated for with just hard work, Director Fang was very clear about this principle. Therefore, if a person wants to succeed, and their efforts align well with their natural talents, the probability of success is much greater. However, if the direction of their efforts does not align with their talents, they might end up working harder for less return, or even achieving nothing for all their hard work. ¡°You¡¯re not bad either, the volume of general surgery performed with the Da Vinci surgical robot is among the top few in the country, isn¡¯t it?¡± The chief physician of the Thoracic Surgery Department felt that the remark he just blurted out might have hurt his colleague¡¯s pride, so he quickly added another sentence to offer some consolation to his colleague. ¡°Forget it, in front of others I might claim to be pretty good, but how would I dare say that in front of Professor Yang?¡± Director Fang said self-deprecatingly and fell silent. On the high-definition screen, several robotic arms were performing actions like cutting, separating, suturing, and tying knots at an incredibly fast pace. Logically, with only these few robotic arms as the main performers and a monotonous plot, this should be dull, but the doctors in the teaching room were as engrossed as if they were watching blockbuster movies, their eyes riveted to the screen with rapt attention, and the whole venue was so quiet that even occasional conversations were whispered. One of the doctors even took a video of the scene and posted it on his moment, commenting on how so many people gathered in the dead of night to quietly watch an action movie performed by a few robotic arms. This scene seemed peculiar and interesting, and it was a kind of romance that only doctors could understand. Some colleagues who arrived late were extremely anxious and whispered to their companions, ¡°The Da Vinci lung transplant? What step are they at now?¡± Upon learning the progress of the surgery, their hearts were filled with regret for coming too late and missing the complete surgical procedure. On the operating table, assistants Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had completed the trimming of the donor lung hilum, making the edges of the blood vessels and bronchi neat and of appropriate length, so they could smoothly anastomose with the patient¡¯s bronchi and blood vessels. After preparing the donor lung, Song Zimo made an incision of about 8 centimeters in Ou Lianfeng¡¯s right intercostal space. Through this incision, the donor lung was inserted into Ou Lianfeng¡¯s chest cavity. Even though the lung appeared large, that was because it was inflated like a balloon. Once the air inside was completely evacuated, the deflated lung, just like a deflated balloon, could be easily inserted through the 8-centimeter incision into the chest cavity. In any organ transplant, the most important step is the vascular anastomosis. Only with reliable anastomosis can the transplanted organ maintain a good blood supply and remain viable. In addition to the vascular anastomosis, a lung transplant also requires the suturing of the trachea to ensure that the donor lung¡¯s bronchi are joined with the bronchi left in the patient, so that the lungs can take over the breathing function after surgery. For Yang Ping, when performing traditional surgeries, he only had two hands, but when using the Da Vinci Robot, he now had four. Disregarding the robotic arm responsible for holding the camera, there were three other robotic arms capable of working at any time, all completely controlled by his will. Thus, the surgery efficiency was significantly higher. Yang Ping performed interrupted sutures on the cartilaginous part of the bronchi, each stitch even and precise. For suturing the ducts, he always insisted on using interrupted sutures rather than the time-saving continuous sutures. Each stitch of an interrupted suture is independent, offering the greatest reliability, and reliability is the most important thing in medical work. Not a single robotic arm rested, not even for a brief moment; they were constantly at work throughout the procedure. Yang Ping¡¯s handling of the robotic arms had completely abandoned the conventional two-handed approach. When other doctors operated the Da Vinci Robot, they still did not break away from the inherent two-handed concept, thereby unable to fully utilize the maximum capability of all the robotic arms. When Yang Ping performed robotic surgery, he entirely set aside the human dual-arm mode of thinking, genuinely achieving multi-arm operation. The Da Vinci Robot has four robotic arms, one of which is equipped with a camera to provide a field of vision for the surgery. Therefore, it is almost stationary during each step of the surgery, moving only after one step is completed to switch the view. The remaining three arms can all act as operative robotic arms, and the efficiency of three arms versus two is far from a mere 1.5 times greater; it¡¯s manyfold. The high-definition screen is now showing the anastomosis of the donor and recipient bronchi, where three robotic arms work in unison. One arm passes the suture needle in and out, while another immediately catches the suture as soon as the needle emerges. The third arm instantly ties a knot; the first arm, now freed, moves in to cut the thread. The coordination of each movement is nearly zero-delay; these three arms seem like an extension of Yang Ping¡¯s consciousness. ¡°This surgery looks a bit odd. Why are the three robotic arms in constant high-speed motion? Shouldn¡¯t one of them be at rest, or at least pausing during certain operations? You say the Da Vinci Robot only has two main controllers and two foot pedals; how did Professor Yang get all three arms moving at the same time?¡± Director Lu from the Urology Department is also sitting next to Director Fang. Although his level of Da Vinci Robot surgery is high, he does not understand how these three arms can be maneuvered so smoothly. Even though Director Lu¡¯s proficiency in robot-assisted surgery is high, he cannot compare to Director Fang. The latter can be considered the person second only to Yang Ping at Sanbo Hospital in terms of dexterity and understanding of the Da Vinci Robot. He exclaimed, ¡°His thinking is completely on a different level from ours. No matter how skillfully we use the surgical robot, we are always constrained by dual-arm thinking, whereas he operates with multi-arm thinking.¡± ¡°What do you mean? Can you be more precise and less mystical?¡± asked Director Lu, someone who had performed several hundred surgeries with the Da Vinci Robot, but had never heard of the concepts of dual-arm and multi-arm thinking before. Director Fang gave a slight smile; it seemed he retained his second-place spot on Sanbo Hospital¡¯s robotic surgery skill rankings. Director Lu did not understand the concepts of dual-arm thinking and multi-arm thinking. However, that was understandable; Director Lu did not visit the Surgical Research Institute as often as Director Fang, and had less interaction with Yang Ping. Since these concepts were Yang Ping¡¯s ideas, it was natural for Director Lu to be unaware of them. Today, Director Fang decided to educate Director Lu, ¡°Dual-arm thinking is an innate human mode of thinking and the basis of human labor, as human hands are designed for work, and any manual operation relies on the coordination of the left and right hands. Therefore, since the invention of machines, most machine controls have also been designed based on the coordination of both hands.¡± ¡°Although the Da Vinci Robot has four robotic arms, in general, only two arms are actively involved in a surgery when operated by most people¡ªcoordinating like a left and right hand. Professor Yang is different; he utilizes all the main controllers, foot pedals, and manages to maneuver all four arms. The coordination between the three arms involved in the surgical operation completely breaks away from the paired-hand mode and instead operates in a tri-hand mode.¡± ¡°Take a closer look. Every single surgical maneuver of Professor Yang, such as suturing, knotting, and cutting, is entirely different from ours because our methods are entirely based on dual-arm mode, whereas his methods are built upon a triple-arm mode.¡± Director Lu had an epiphany, ¡°That explains it. I was wondering why the knotting and cutting seemed unfamiliar and incomprehensible. All three robotic arms are working rapidly, with none at rest. The three arms are continuously active at high speed, and I couldn¡¯t tell what exactly they were doing. Anyway, the anastomosis of the bronchus is just like using a sewing machine, stitching it up swiftly and efficiently.¡± Chapter 1279 - 1279 974 Can You Speak More Pleasantly ?Chapter 1279: Chapter 974: Can You Speak More Pleasantly? Chapter 1279: Chapter 974: Can You Speak More Pleasantly? Organ transplant required extremely strict suturing requirements, and Yang Ping had completed the suturing of the bronchi and blood vessels, leaving only a few traction threads for Director He to cut. ¡°Director He! Please, come over here,¡± Yang Ping said as he removed his glasses again. ¡°There are a few threads left, can you help me cut them?¡± Yang Ping asked. It was not just thread cutting, even if he did nothing but sit there and maneuver the robotic arm, Director He was completely satisfied. In reality, there were not many traction threads left, just four, but Director He took his time to ensure they were cut neatly and beautifully, spending a long time positioning the scissors before finally cutting the threads to his satisfaction. The remaining work involved using a fiber optic bronchoscope to check the quality of the bronchial anastomosis and a transesophageal echocardiography to inspect the quality of the lung blood vessels and heart anastomoses. If there were no issues, the final steps would be placing a drainage tube and suturing the surgical incision. ¡°Professor Yang, why don¡¯t you take a break?¡± Director He volunteered. In fact, Yang Ping had nothing else to do, so he moved to the operating room to check the results of the transesophageal echocardiography and the fiber optic bronchoscopy. At that moment, Song Zimo was performing a transesophageal echocardiography with the ultrasound machine. There was no doubt about it. Whether it was the bronchus or blood vessels, the anastomosis quality was very high, and the passageway was very clear. The surgery could be concluded, and the entire procedure had taken just two hours to complete, with bleeding even less than that from a toenail removal. ECMO could generally be discontinued 24 hours after surgery, which was a very conservative approach for Yang Ping. Since this was the first case involving a surgical robot performing a lung transplant, a cautious and sure approach was necessary. However, with more data accumulated, it would be possible to progressively shorten the postoperative ECMO support time, ideally disconnecting from ECMO immediately after surgery to allow the implanted lungs to begin functioning as soon as possible. ¡°Professor, when will you also teach me how to use the multi-arm operation? I always struggle with the cognitive shift during multi-arm operations. I still feel like I only have two hands, and I can really only use two robotic arms effectively at any moment, leaving the third arm as a backup. It feels like two are in use and one is waiting in line; essentially, during the operations, it seems like only two robotic arms are primarily used,¡± Song Zimo expressed his frustration, as his future in surgery was heading toward robotic operations, and he hoped to master the cutting-edge skills as soon as possible. The future of robotic surgery will certainly not remain as it is now. The surgical robots of the future will be able to perform many operations simultaneously with multiple arms, enhancing the efficiency and quality of surgeries. Just like how machines replaced hand looms, the methodology of robotic surgery will definitely differ from simply mimicking hand surgery¡ªmore than just a simple copy. Currently, robotic surgery merely replicates the actions of surgeons, serving only as an auxiliary tool, similar to a laparoscope. It is merely an advanced tool, albeit a little more sophisticated than others, but calling it a robot is somewhat of a misnomer. ¡°Multi-arm operations are not mandatory and actually go against the initial design intent of these surgical robots, which is to mimic the operation of two hands. You do not need to learn multi-arm operations,¡± Yang Ping advised Song Zimo. But Song Zimo was very determined, ¡°Professor, please tell me how to train. I also want to surpass the machine¡¯s design limitations and unlock new skills.¡± This put Yang Ping in a difficult position, as he really hadn¡¯t thought of a good training method yet, apart from using the actual surgical robot. There seemed to be no other way to train for the multi-arm operation on the robotic surgeon, which initially cost 75 million US dollars each and now reduced to 1.5 million US dollars. The equivalent price in RMB was also about ten million per unit, and a single robotic arm, now discounted in price, still cost thirty thousand each and could only be used ten times. Once it reached ten uses, the built-in chip would lock, preventing the arm from being used. ¡°We can only use the robot for training, there¡¯s simply no other way,¡± Yang Ping said helplessly. Song Zimo felt this was too wasteful. Using a robot for practice, he calculated that one robotic arm had about 40 hours of use. Fully fitted with four arms, the total cost was 120,000. At two hours a day, it would only last about 20 days, or 10 days at four hours a day. Not considering the wear and tear on the robot itself, just the cost of the robotic arms added up to an average daily expense of 12,000, a training cost that was hard for anyone to accept. ¡°Professor, you didn¡¯t train this way, did you?¡± Song Zimo was arranging the Surface Ultrasound and Fiber Optic Bronchoscope, while speaking. Xu Zhiliang was alone suturing the surgery incision, and the several doctors observing did not leave. They listened to their conversation intently, even a casual chat with an expert has substance. Yang Ping sneered, ¡°How could someone frugal like me be so extravagant and wasteful? I am naturally talented. When I perform robotic surgeries, I just make breakthroughs instinctively, not even knowing when or how they happen.¡± ¡°What should we do then?¡± Song Zimo, having just calculated, felt there was no hope of getting a training opportunity. After thinking for a moment, Yang Ping said, ¡°If you really want to train in robotic surgery, I¡¯ll buy another one specifically for training, or maybe I¡¯ll let the manufacturer send one over for you guys to tinker with.¡± ¡°Send one over? Based on¡ªwhat?¡± Xu Zhiliang was puzzled. ¡°Not sending it, huh? Next time, I¡¯ll use a different brand of surgical robot.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s tone was cold. ¡°Is that useful?¡± Xu Zhiliang still did not understand. Song Zimo immediately grasped the reasoning, ¡°Professor, are you serious? Should we let Tang Shun contact the manufacturer?¡± ¡°Let him contact the manufacturer, as soon as possible. See which floor we can arrange a room on to put the robot and use it specifically as a training room.¡± Actually, buying another surgical robot was easy for Yang Ping given the foundation¡¯s resources, but he felt it was a waste of money. ¡°I¡ªstill don¡¯t really¡ªget it.¡± Xu Zhiliang had not caught on yet. Song Zimo had no choice but to explain for his somewhat slow junior, ¡°The brand that the Professor uses reflects his endorsement of it, understand? The performance of the machines shown in his surgeries is unmatched worldwide. Let¡¯s put it this way, if Brand A¡¯s robotic performance has a limit of 100 points, Brand B¡¯s limit is 80 points, the Professor can enhance Brand B¡¯s performance to 120 points or even higher, while others, no matter how skilled, could only bring Brand A¡¯s performance to between 60 and 70 points.¡± ¡°I still don¡¯t understand¡ªit¡¯s like¡ªelementary school math,¡± Xu Zhiliang frowned. Song Zimo had to continue explaining, ¡°Even though Brand A is better than Brand B, if the lung transplant was done with Brand B¡¯s machine, next a heart bypass with Brand B, and then a damn brain tumor also with Brand B, which brand do you think the world will favor? After a few such surgeries, who will remember Brand A?¡± ¡°Then why¡ªhave Tang Shun¡ªcontact the manufacturer?¡± Xu Zhiliang had another question. Song Zimo felt like smacking him; his mind seemed to only think of treating patients and performing surgeries, ¡°Not send Tang Shun, then who? You? Me? Ivan takes a walk in the laboratory, and now almost every couple of days he is sending money over, not just money, but also continuously thanking Tang Shun.¡± ¡°Selling someone out¡ªand others¡ªhelping to count the money?¡± Xu Zhiliang seemed to get it. Song Zimo said impatiently, ¡°Can you phrase it more nicely? It makes us sound so unethical. We are helping international friends to enhance their skills, merely collecting a symbolic, minimal fee.¡± Chapter 1280 - 1280 075 Tetris ?Chapter 1280: Chapter 075: Tetris Chapter 1280: Chapter 075: Tetris In the demo room of the operating room in the dead of night, doctors filled the seats. The surgery had finally come to an end, leaving everyone a bit reluctant to part. When it came to other people¡¯s robot-assisted surgeries, what you saw were two robotic arms working like human hands, coordinating left and right to perform the surgery. Essentially, it still followed the human operational model. It was obviously human-controlled, with the two arms manipulated from behind the scenes. However, Professor Yang¡¯s robot surgery today gave a strong impression that it wasn¡¯t a person performing the surgery, but rather an actual intelligent robot. The coordination between multiple arms was beyond what one would associate with human control. The various maneuvers of the three robotic arms showcased a strong sense of mechanical aesthetics. Of course, the term ¡°multi-arm thinking¡± was deeply ingrained in everyone¡¯s minds because Director Fang, while explaining the surgery in the demo room, kept referring to the concept of multi-arm thinking. Being the core technology behind Yang Ping¡¯s robot-assisted surgeries, this term naturally spread quickly. After observing the surgery that night, Director Fang continuously pondered over ¡°multi-arm thinking,¡± as if he had grasped some profound concept. Multi-arm thinking, damn it! I¡¯ve only got two hands. How can I possibly attain multi-arm thinking? Director Fang spread out his hands, and for a moment his mind became muddled. Aren¡¯t all human operations based on the use of two hands? How can one train for multi-arm operations? That¡¯s simply untrainable. Ou Lianfeng, having completed his surgery and equipped with an ECMO, was transferred to the ICU ward. Post-operative care in the ICU was much more convenient¡ªa regular ward could not manage his post-operative supervision. After the surgery, Yang Ping slept for a while in the department as dawn was fast approaching. He didn¡¯t want to return home and disturb his family at this hour. Xiao Su was in her postpartum confinement, which was tough on her, so it was crucial to ensure she had good sleep. Lying in the on-call room¡¯s bed, Yang Ping entered the System Space to reflect on issues regarding the surgical robots. The current Da Vinci surgical robot could be considered the most advanced and mature robot in the world, yet it was still only capable of mimicking human dual-arm operations, a system that was severely outdated and inefficient. Robots should have their own unique mode of operation. Conversely, some highly demanding computer and mobile games had already broken away from the dual-arm model, replaced by a new operational mode based on keyboards and touchscreens. One could think, if these games still used the simplistic dual-arm operation mode, the richness, diversity, precision, and immediacy of gaming controls would be greatly limited. Ruixing Medical had also invested massive funds into the development of surgical robots. Yang Ping had many ideas in his mind; the new generation of surgical robots would have to abandon the dual-arm operation mode. Instead, they would adopt a novel mode that would replace the obsolete method, showcasing a range of operations that were rich, diverse, delicate, and immediate. A single control panel could operate multiple robotic arms, breaking down actions into basic moves, which could then combine into countless advanced maneuvers. Only in this way could ordinary doctors truly control several robotic arms simultaneously to complete a surgical step. As opposed to the traditional dual-arm operation, this would not only boost efficiency but also improve the quality of operations and lower the barrier of entry. Actions that were previously difficult or impossible to perform would become extremely easy. After contemplating the control methods for the surgical robots, some concepts in Yang Ping¡¯s mind became clearer, and he finally settled down to sleep. However, he didn¡¯t sleep for long before he had to wake up again in the morning. The next morning, Yang Ping went to check on the ICU. Director He of the Thoracic Surgery Department and Director Fang of the General Surgery Department were already there early, waiting. Director He didn¡¯t want to call Yang Ping too early, hoping he could sleep a bit longer. But at the same time, he didn¡¯t want to miss the first post-operative check-up, so he arrived at the ICU early to wait. Director Fang from General Surgery simply slept in the on-call room of the ICU, instructing the duty doctor to notify him once Yang Ping came for the round. Now that Yang Ping was coming for the round, Director He went to the entrance to wait, while Director Fang was having breakfast. He placed three chopsticks in front of him, pondering how to use them to eat his breakfast. After some thought, he realized he only had two hands, not three, and that having three chopsticks was superfluous since he could effectively use only two of them. By the same logic, with the Da Vinci surgical robot¡¯s four robotic arms¡ªapart from one acting as a camera¡ª the other three, like the chopsticks before him, were controlled by a person with only two hands, or a machine with just two main controllers. Therefore, only two robotic arms could be operated at any time, while a third would be idling unless control was switched. But no matter how it was switched, it was still a case of three bottles with only two caps; there was always one robotic arm on standby. The ICU doctor saw Director Fang staring blankly at the three chopsticks and reminded him, ¡°Professor Yang is here for the round.¡± Director Fang nodded but did not show much reaction. ¡°Professor Yang is here for the round!¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Director Fang immediately woke up, not even bothering with breakfast, and quickly donned an isolation gown to go to the ward, following Yang Ping to make rounds. Ou Lianfeng¡¯s vital signs were very stable after surgery, and Yang Ping decided to remove the ECMO 24 hours after surgery, letting the transplanted lungs start working. The sooner they began to function, the quicker the recovery would be. After making rounds, Director Fang secretly asked Yang Ping, ¡°Professor Yang, you¡¯ve mentioned the concept of multi-arm operation several times, and I¡¯ve been pondering over it. How can two hands manipulate three chopsticks? I always feel that two chopsticks are the optimal solution, and three chopsticks seem purely superfluous, not only useless but also a burden, at most just a substitute.¡± ¡°Do you play computer games?¡± Yang Ping thought for a moment and said. Director Fang touched the back of his head and said with confusion, ¡°I don¡¯t play games. I¡¯ve never played with those things.¡± Professor Yang suddenly brought up computer games¡ªcould surgery be related to computer games? ¡°If you don¡¯t play computer games, this is indeed a bit difficult to explain,¡± Yang Ping said with some difficulty. The reason being that whenever there is a person operating, there will certainly only be two hands, but the Da Vinci Robot contrasted with computer games in terms of control. The intermediary to final action in operating the Da Vinci surgical robot still simulates the operation of human arms. Whereas, in computer games, the operating intermediaries are the keyboard and mouse. Although also operated by two hands, the keyboard and mouse lead to final actions that have departed from the human dual-arm mode, adopting entirely the computer¡¯s mode instead. Yang Ping¡¯s multi-arm mode refers to the transmission from controlling intermediary to the final action; this control transmission chain must have its own mode for the surgical robot, not the dual-arm mode. ¡°However, I can play Tetris,¡± Director Fang quickly added. Tetris is also a game, isn¡¯t it? It¡¯s both a computer game and a mobile game; can¡¯t it be played on computers and also on mobile phones? ¡°How well do you play?¡± asked Yang Ping further. ¡°Just at an able-to-play level,¡± Director Fang replied honestly. Yang Ping immediately said, ¡°Alright, you set aside an hour each day this week to play Tetris. After a week, come and find me, and I will tell you what multi-arm mode is. In fact, multi-arm mode shouldn¡¯t be called multi-arm mode, it should be called machine mode. The term multi-arm mode is only used to distinguish it from dual-arm mode because a machine never transfers action in the pattern of two hands.¡± ¡°Play Tetris for a week?¡± Director Fang questioned whether he had heard wrong. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Right, is that a problem for you?¡± ¡°No¡ªno¡ªproblem, alright, I¡¯ll play diligently for a week.¡± ¡°Professor Yang, I can play two hours of ¡®King of Glory¡¯ every day!¡± Director He Xiangjun said proudly. ¡°You play ¡®King of Glory¡¯? Then come find me in a bit, I¡¯ll explain multi-arm mode to you,¡± Yang Ping said to Director He. Director Fang¡¯s face was a picture of bewilderment; damn it, He Xiangjun¡¯s ability to play a bit of ¡®King of Glory¡¯ turned into an advantage, allowing him to receive the lecture immediately, while he himself had to play Tetris for a week first. Chapter 1281 - 1281 976 Toys Worth Over Ten Million ?Chapter 1281: Chapter 976: Toys Worth Over Ten Million Chapter 1281: Chapter 976: Toys Worth Over Ten Million Surgery was somehow linked to gaming, something neither Director Fang nor Director He had anticipated, especially since Director Fang didn¡¯t play games. He now felt at a distinct disadvantage and couldn¡¯t help feeling panicked, regretting why he hadn¡¯t played games during his school years. Indeed, one only misses the game when the time comes to need it. Director Fang carefully pondered the conversation he had just had with Yang Ping, feeling as if Professor Yang was hinting that playing ¡°King¡± was the only way forward, the only way to lay a solid foundation for robotic surgery, whereas playing Tetris was a dead-end, merely a temporary solution when there was no other choice. He wasn¡¯t inferior to He Xiangjun. If he could play ¡°King,¡± why couldn¡¯t Director Fang? After debating back and forth in his office at the General Surgery Department, Director Fang suddenly remembered that his son liked to play ¡°King.¡± Not long ago, he had severely scolded him for playing games too much. It seemed that it was time to change his perspective. Tonight, Director Fang decided to have a serious talk with his son and let his son guide him in playing ¡°King.¡± Meanwhile, Director He immediately phoned his graduate student, Xiao Yu, ¡°Tonight, I¡¯m treating you to dinner after work, and then we¡¯ll play ¡®King¡¯ to rank up.¡± Having received the call, Xiao Yu was utterly baffled. What was happening? His mentor wanted him to help him rank up? Could this be true? Yet, gaming was only something he did occasionally to destress. Now, what was his mentor¡¯s intention? Xiao Yu couldn¡¯t decipher his mentor¡¯s thoughts, finding him more eccentric by the day. After completing the surgery on Ou Lianfeng, Yang Ping had also reflected on surgical robots. He gathered his thoughts from the perspective of a chief surgeon and came up with many innovative ideas concerning surgical robots. He then organized these ideas into an article and handed it over to Chen Zhi, an engineer at Ruixing Medical. As of now, Ruixing¡¯s surgical robots hadn¡¯t hit the market, still under development, so Yang Ping had no choice but to use other brands of surgical robots. Among these, Da Vinci was the most mature, holding the largest market share. Other brands, whether international or domestic, were still in their infancy, lagging far behind Da Vinci in both technology and market share. Robotic surgery was acknowledged as the future direction of surgery, a consensus within the surgical community, so mastery of robotic surgery was essential. As a more advanced surgical tool, many operations that were challenging or impossible under traditional methods became much easier with surgical robots. If traditional surgery could be likened to manual labor, robotic surgery was about to usher in the industrial age of surgery. The news that Professor Yang¡¯s Surgical Research Institute needed a surgical robot leaked somehow, prompting various surgical robot manufacturers immediately to take action and eagerly contact the Surgical Research Institute at the Sanbo Hospital. They strongly requested to donate a surgical robot to the Institute to support its training program for surgical robots. It wasn¡¯t that they were especially generous. These companies understood that donating a surgical robot to the Surgical Research Institute meant their surgical robot could possibly become the de facto global standard for new surgeries. This position could consolidate and expand their market share for already dominant brands or allow emerging brands to rise and overtake leading brands. So, whether a leading or a new brand, they received the news without a moment¡¯s delay, quickly making their way to the Surgical Research Institute, presenting their sincerity. Thus, only a day after Ou Lianfeng¡¯s surgery, several business managers from robot manufacturers had rushed to the Institute. Everyone was afraid of missing out on this opportunity. The managers were not ordinary ones; they were regional managers who had personally come to show their serious commitment. Returning from checking the ICU, Yang Ping saw Tang Shun in the doctors¡¯ office surrounded by several men and women discussing something important. Normally, Tang Shun spent most of his time in the laboratory. What was he doing in the doctors¡¯ office today, and why was he surrounded by a crowd? While Yang Ping was pondering this, Tang Shun saw him and immediately greeted, ¡°Professor, all these people are business managers from surgical robot manufacturers¡ª¡± The group around Tang Shun immediately stood up straight and respectfully bowed slightly, saying, ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Yang Ping nodded in response and said to Tang Shun with a brief sentence, ¡°You take full charge of this; we have surgeries to attend to.¡± When it came to business talks, Tang Shun was adept; Song Zimo couldn¡¯t hold a candle to him, so having a capable individual like Tang Shun saved Yang Ping a lot of hassle. The business managers were very proactive. They asked Tang Shun to show them the room where the surgical robot would be set up so they could quickly come up with installation plans. Each company was determined to secure this opportunity. ¡°Where is the installation room? Let¡¯s see the room first; the machines will be delivered at the fastest speed.¡± Manager Wang from Da Vinci¡¯s surgical robots was in a hurry because such large items weren¡¯t readily available off-the-shelf but required pre-ordering. Depending on the nature of the order, it could take several months to over a year to receive the goods. However, Manager Wang had a significant advantage in that he could set up immediately. He had contacted the headquarters, and coincidentally, a hospital in the area had ordered a machine that was due to arrive in a few days. He requested the headquarters to reroute this machine to him to give to Professor Yang at Sanbo Hospital. The headquarters approved immediately and expressed their full cooperation. ¡°Doctor Tang, it¡¯s for training purposes, right?¡± another manager, Manager Cao, asked. ¡°Yes, Professor Yang said to use it as a teaching tool for the department¡¯s doctors,¡± Tang Shun explained. Manager Cao immediately nodded, ¡°We are a domestic brand and currently the best domestic surgical robot. It¡¯s not inferior to major international brands. Supporting domestic products, we not only provide the surgical robot but also offer long-term, unlimited free supply of supporting robotic arm equipment, ensuring that your training can proceed smoothly.¡± Hearing Manager Cao play the patriotism card, another female manager said, ¡°Although they are a domestic brand, actually, their core parts are all imported, just assembled machines with no real advantage. Although we are a newer brand, our innovative design approaches make our performance superior to Da Vinci¡¯s. Moreover, we handle your renovation by helping you set up a world-class training center based on our company¡¯s standards. Rest assured, we impose no additional conditions, and of course, we also provide training with robotic arms and other associated equipment.¡± This manager, Mo, was a beautiful woman, delicately beautiful with an elegant demeanor and a tall, graceful figure, well-defined. The perfume she wore was also very tasteful; she tried to stay close to Tang Shun. Seeing this, the other male managers internally groaned. They had rushed out too hastily and clearly miscalculated, so they immediately sent secretive WeChat messages to urgently call the top beauties from their company. They absolutely could not lose here. ¡°One unit is not enough; there are so many people in your department, at least two, and if there¡¯s space, several wouldn¡¯t be a problem,¡± Manager Cao of the domestic brand immediately threw out a bigger commitment. Offering multiple units made the other brands hesitant and a bit panicked; they had not planned for this as they had only prepared for a single-unit plan. Tang Shun led everyone upstairs to see the room prepared for the surgical robots, finally reaching the destination surrounded by the crowd. ¡°We can dispatch engineers to stay onsite 24 hours, offering round-the-clock technical support to assist with the training. Any problems with the machines can be urgently fixed. After all, it¡¯s for training. Everyone is unfamiliar with the machines and might not handle them with care, so minor issues are likely,¡± a manager from another brand immediately said. ¡°Do you still have a shortfall of robots in clinical applications? We can include them in this shipment. Doctor Tang, name a number, I can make that decision,¡± Manager Cao said, having arrived with high-level authorization from the domestic brand. ¡°I think this entire floor can be transformed into a surgical robot training center. Installing several is no problem,¡± Manager Cao casually remarked upon scanning the floor. ¡°If it¡¯s for training, our robots are the best. They are very user-friendly by design, perfect for training purposes. If you need other services, we fully support you, all free of charge,¡± Manager Mo trying to stay close to Tang Shun, spoke while edging closer to him, presenting her advantages in full display. ¡°Doctor Tang, give a junior a chance. I¡¯ve just joined the job and have no performance metrics yet. Although this machine is provided for free, it counts as my performance. If I don¡¯t have any performance, I might lose my job,¡± Manager Mo said, looking pitifully vulnerable. My goodness, a miscalculation. The other male managers were clearly distanced by Tang Shun, and they continuously urged the beauties they had brought in to speed up, not to wait until everything was settled before they arrived. ¡°Let me see your documents, let¡¯s all sit down.¡± Tang Shun led everyone around, then found a room to sit down. Manager Mo immediately offered the documents, not forgetting to stroke her hair and leaned over with her delicate fingers to help Tang Shun flip through the documents. At this moment, the other male managers were completely unable to approach, letting this female manager take full advantage. Actually, Tang Shun wanted to see their documents as well, but since Manager Mo was closest to him, he naturally got to see her documents first. Chapter 1282 - 1282 977 The Essence of Surgery is in the ?Chapter 1282: Chapter 977 The Essence of Surgery is in the Game Chapter 1282: Chapter 977 The Essence of Surgery is in the Game Manager Mo was a master in this regard, sitting next to Tang Shun and occasionally reaching out to help him flip through the materials, inevitably resulting in some physical contact. The subtle reveal of her bosom¡¯s cleavage, her enticing breath that carried the fragrance of orchids, the gentle and charming soft voice, and the occasional touches, all these charms she released through visual, olfactory, auditory, and tactile means were something the male managers simply couldn¡¯t replicate, so all they could do was to grumble to themselves. It all seemed unintentional, but Manager Mo had actually obtained this expressive capability through strict and professional training. To most people, Manager Mo could easily win them over, but Tang Shun had a strong immunity to this. He had long been surrounded by women who were not only beautiful but also very insightful, such as the young female professors from Tokyo University. Therefore, for Tang Shun, Manager Mo¡¯s tactics had little attraction. However, the other male managers witnessing the scene believed that the opportunity to supply the machinery would most likely go to the charming Manager Mo. As men, they understood just how lethal a weapon Sanbo Corporation had deployed in Manager Mo. Tang Shun was in a bit of a dilemma. Now, his department only needed one surgical robot, and with so many manufacturers offering gifts, he wasn¡¯t sure which one to choose. He wasn¡¯t very knowledgeable about the technology of surgical robots, but Song Zimo had already told him which brands to consider. Initially, Tang Shun wanted to support domestic production, but the domestic robot didn¡¯t have any clinical installation records yet, so it was temporarily hard to back, easily leading to a disconnect between training and clinical use. The training robot and the clinically used robot should be of the same brand or at least very similar in operation. The market for surgical robots was also quite chaotic at the moment, with many seemingly impressive machines being assembled from external core components, either to swindle government funds or to raise money for an IPO. These products could disappear at any time, as those who plotted them might stop the project as soon as they got the money, having achieved their purpose. After Tang Shun finished reviewing Manager Mo¡¯s materials, the other managers seized the opportunity to hand over their own documents. Yang Ping examined them one by one, with the female manager remaining seated next to Tang Shun. The core technology of a surgical robot is actually the robotic arm, which encompasses a range of highly technical content, including structural materials, touch perception, vibration frequency, movement trajectory, precision of motion, stability, and filtering out ineffective actions. Domestic manufacturers are relatively weak in these core technologies. They are all eager to engage in capital operations and hype, with few really devoting themselves to researching these technologies, let alone innovating. That¡¯s why many domestic robots bypass Da Vinci¡¯s laparoscopic field and choose to focus on orthopedics, where the technical requirements for the robotic arm are much lower, presenting hardly any technical threshold and making it easy to produce a tangible product. After reviewing everything, Tang Shun still felt Da Vinci was the better brand, especially since the operating room was already using that brand and the integration of training with clinical practice was going smoothly. Plus, their technology was the most mature, so he decided on that brand. ¡°Manager Wang, does your company include the training of the robotic arm in the package?¡± Initially, Manager Wang hadn¡¯t planned to do so, as the robotic arm was consumable, and consumables had no budget¡ªa veritable bottomless pit. But now, the value of this opportunity was huge, and the competition was fierce. While Manager Wang hesitated, the other managers immediately vied to say, ¡°We include everything, all the way to the end!¡± So Manager Wang promptly said, ¡°We include everything, all the way to the end.¡± Tang Shun thought about it; installation was a given with the manufacturer obviously taking responsibility for that. The more significant concern was future maintenance, as it would be troublesome if the service for such large machinery couldn¡¯t keep up. ¡°And the maintenance?¡± Tang Shun asked again. ¡°We include everything, all the way to the end!¡± Tang Shun brought it up because just now, when discussing additional conditions, Manager Wang from Da Vinci hadn¡¯t mentioned these, whereas the other brands had. With that settled, it would be Da Vinci. ¡°I ask for everyone¡¯s understanding, we only need one machine. Considering the integration with clinical practice, we will accept a machine from the original brand.¡± The manager from Da Vinci breathed a sigh of relief; fortunately, his quick thinking allowed him to make a precise judgment, bringing in the company¡¯s number one beauty in sales to the rescue. Otherwise, the consequences could have been unimaginable. To give away the machine, even while subsidizing its cost, was still a grueling effort, but only Sanbo Hospital could enjoy such treatment. No other hospital in the world had this privilege¡ªa machine worth over ten million, yet it still required a tremendous effort to give it away. Manager Wang felt distressed even thinking about it. And the giveaway didn¡¯t end with just handing over the machine; there was also a need to sign a gift agreement with the relevant departments of the hospital, following a set of standard procedures. Once confirmed here, Manager Wang immediately reported the good news to the company headquarters and then rushed to sign the contract without delay. Seeing this, the other managers realized there was no changing it and had no choice but to leave, but Manager Mo still hadn¡¯t given up. Such a wasted opportunity was something she was reluctant to just walk away from. Therefore, she stayed at Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute, watching to see if there might be any change in events. After all, the surgical robot wasn¡¯t installed yet, and there was still a chance until it was. Even if it was already installed, she could still persuade them to accept two, especially since they were free. She observed that the Surgical Research Institute had plenty of empty spaces, enough to accommodate two robots, and with the number of doctors there, one machine wouldn¡¯t be enough for training. Chapter 1283 - 1283 977 The Essence of Surgery is in the ?Chapter 1283: Chapter 977 The Essence of Surgery is in the Game_2 Chapter 1283: Chapter 977 The Essence of Surgery is in the Game_2 Manager Mo felt that, according to marketing theory, there was still potential for market development, and if there was no market, one could be cultivated. So he decided to come over these past few days to lobby for it. Manager Wang of Da Vinci was also all in. The fastest delivery from their company would still take a month, but in order to expedite the installation at the Surgical Research Institute, Manager Wang coordinated with the company¡¯s China headquarters to dismantle a training machine in Shanghai and air freight it over, allowing the robot to be installed at the Institute the next day. Yang Ping hadn¡¯t expected that the surgical robot would be installed so quickly. As soon as doctors from the Surgical Research Institute such as Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Zhang Lin, and Little Five finished work, they immediately came here to play ¡°games¡± with it; it was probably the most expensive toy. In the new training room for the surgical robot, everyone gathered around the machine, unable to keep their hands off it. Some circled around it, some touched it with their hands, and others checked the nameplate to make sure the robot was real. Because he was so busy, Manager Wang checked that there were no issues once the robot was installed, left an engineer there, and then went back himself. Although Manager Mo¡¯s product was not selected, she did not give up and continued to come to the Surgical Research Institute every day to develop the market. She knew a basic marketing principle: to capture a market, keep in touch with it, and find a proper reason to make continuous contact. ¡°Brother, it wouldn¡¯t be up to us to compensate if this thing broke, would it?¡± ¡°The Manufacturer has warranties, why be afraid?¡± ¡°Is this the real deal or a replica model?¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you go play with it for a bit and see if it¡¯s a model?¡± ¡°My goodness, this is a real surgical robot.¡± ¡°It would be nice if they installed one of these in the animal surgery laboratory as well, using experimental pigs to practice surgeries.¡± As everyone discussed around the new surgical robot, an ever-vigilant Manager Mo immediately seized on this very valuable piece of information she just heard, that another robot could be installed in the animal laboratory. She quickly approached Yang Ping and said, ¡°Professor Yang, you could install a surgical robot in the animal laboratory to use experimental pigs for surgical training. This would not only improve training levels but also allow for the distribution of trainees, preventing everyone from queuing up around one machine. Shall we help you install another one in the animal laboratory?¡± It seemed to make sense. Having a robot here only for dry runs, but being able to have another in the animal lab, would establish a three-tier training model: dry run¡ªanimal simulation¡ªclinical practice, which is the best training model for surgical robots, safe and efficient. It would allow young doctors to proficiently master the sophisticated robotic surgeries by the time they are senior doctors. ¡°Then please do!¡± Yang Ping agreed immediately. The tall and beautiful manager felt as if she had hit the jackpot, utterly thrilled, nearly throwing herself to give Yang Ping a kiss. However, knowing that Yang wouldn¡¯t appreciate that, she restrained from any impulsive action, and immediately called her company to prepare the machine and set up the installation time. Manager Mo was glad she hadn¡¯t left immediately but had instead stuck around at the Surgical Research Institute. How else would she have gained such an unexpected opportunity? Sometimes, a few words from an influential figure could change an ordinary person¡¯s life; Manager Mo understood the truth in this saying. Sending out the surgical robot was only the first step. With this step, Manager Mo could establish a solid connection with Sanbo Hospital and the Surgical Research Institute, which ensured that many follow-up tasks could be accomplished. Given the current development speed of Sanbo Hospital, the future demand for surgical robots would definitely be massive. Now that the Surgical Research Institute had established a training center for surgical robots, the doctors trained here would become key figures in a few years, and they would be highly proficient in robotic surgery technologies, both domestically and internationally. These people trained based on their own brand of robots, which would definitely make them favor their own brand in the future. Moreover, their brand was not significantly inferior to the leading brands¡ªthe difference was merely in market share. As a new brand, if their robots did not sell, it would be better to distribute a few more now to create a gap in the market. Manager Mo was indeed far-sighted. She immediately reported to her superiors, hoping they could provide more robots as gifts and thereby establish a benchmark at Sanbo Hospital and raise their flag. ¡°Professor Yang, the animal experiment laboratory on your side has ample space, and the doctors at Sanbo Hospital are very eager to learn. If you don¡¯t mind, we could send a few more, install them together so everyone can have enough time to train and improve their skills as quickly as possible,¡± Manager Mo suggested to Yang Ping. ¡°Do your robots have tactile feedback?¡± Yang Ping was quite familiar with the technical features of various surgical robots. Manager Mo immediately said, ¡°Yes, yes, yes, that¡¯s an advantage many other brands don¡¯t have right now.¡± ¡°Then you go over there with Dr. Song and see how many you can install,¡± Yang Ping said casually. A casual remark became a turning point in Manager Mo¡¯s life. In her company, she was merely a salesperson, known only for her charm, which was why she was sent to handle this business. Manager Mo¡¯s company was a new brand, currently having only a few installed units, but thanks to its latecomer advantage, it was technologically on par with established brands. While Da Vinci surgical robots lacked pressure-sensitive tactile feedback, this brand had it, giving it a technical edge, yet it was well behind the Da Vinci surgical robots in the market. Professor Yang¡¯s remark meant that if conditions at the animal experimentation lab allowed, they could install more than one. In Manager Mo¡¯s mind, the more robots she could provide to Sanbo Hospital, the better. While other companies might just donate robots as a token gesture, her approach was to go all out and donate as many as possible. However, Manager Mo¡¯s superiors didn¡¯t think the same way. Robots were items costing tens of millions; dispatching so many at once was not something a regional general manager in South China could decide, so they only agreed to donate one. Manager Mo planned to install one first, then go back and persuade her superiors to install as many as possible, as this was a rare opportunity to penetrate the market. If she missed this chance, there would be no other. Not wanting to miss this rare opportunity, Manager Mo also adopted a method of transferring goods to quickly deliver the robots, to avoid any prolonged delays. The current hardware configuration of the animal surgery laboratory was higher than that of the average major hospital, not to mention all the standard equipment and instruments they had. They also had various kinds of minimally invasive surgery equipment, ECMO, and the soon-to-be-installed surgical robots, probably making it second to none worldwide. Yang Ping asked Director He and Director Fang to play video games, which was for mastering advanced surgical techniques, especially since computer games were more effective than mobile games. Thus, the adage ¡°The essence of surgery lies in gaming¡± became widely spread, and Sanbo Hospital quickly spawned a trend of playing computer games. Naturally, doctors didn¡¯t have time to play games, but when gaming was regarded as a serious matter, one could naturally make time. Ruixing Medical¡¯s Chen Zhi planned to closely cooperate with Nandu University Digital Medical Laboratory and Sanbo Hospital to develop a virtual reality surgical training system. This system, based on virtual reality games, would be widely welcomed by doctors if the development succeeded, as they could learn surgery through this extensive game, blending learning with fun. After a day of exhausting work, not only could one relieve fatigue and stress through gaming, but they could also improve their surgical skills, so why not? Yang Ping had high hopes for Chen Zhi¡¯s system, believing that once it was available, each doctor would have their own surgical training system, enabling them to repeatedly practice surgeries in a virtual reality setting. This would shorten the training period and rapidly enhance the doctors¡¯ surgical skills. Upon hearing about the sudden surge in gaming at the hospital, Dean Xia immediately went to Yang Ping for confirmation. Getting Yang Ping¡¯s confirmation that gaming indeed helped with certain types of surgical training, such as endoscopic and robotic surgery, Dean Xia pondered for a moment and said, ¡°Professor Yang, do you think it would be necessary to establish a computer gaming center in the hospital for everyone to play games?¡± Yang Ping knew Dean Xia was innovative, but he didn¡¯t expect him to be so daring and pioneering. Chapter 1284 - 1284 978 Happiness ?Chapter 1284: Chapter 978 Happiness Chapter 1284: Chapter 978 Happiness ¡°We don¡¯t really need a game center!¡± Yang Ping rejected Dean Xia¡¯s idea. Dean Xia said firmly, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say playing games could improve surgical skills? To enhance everyone¡¯s surgical techniques, we could establish a high-standard computer game center at the hospital, equipped with high-end gaming computers, and provide excellent services. It could be a place for rest as well as for playing games to enhance surgery skills. Isn¡¯t that great?¡± After Dean Xia explained, an image of the internet cafe next to his school during his university days popped into Yang Ping¡¯s mind. It sounded quite similar to what Dean Xia was describing. ¡°A computer game center sounds a bit LOW. We should create an even more advanced gaming center,¡± Yang Ping mysteriously told Dean Xia. Dean Xia¡¯s eyes immediately lit up, his curiosity piqued by anything new, ¡°An advanced game center? Tell me more.¡± Yang Ping shared with Dean Xia the plan for Ruixing Medical to develop a virtual reality surgical training system. Dean Xia couldn¡¯t help but sigh that he was unable to keep up with the times and had been left far behind in ideas by the younger generation. It seemed that his retirement was not far away. He hoped that in the years he had left, he wouldn¡¯t become an obstacle for the young people and that he could still do something meaningful. ¡°Good, we¡¯ll deploy this system first in our hospital. Your ideas are indeed innovative,¡± had to admire Dean Xia. If a virtual reality surgical training system were truly established in the hospital, doctors could train in surgery anytime from home, as long as they were connected to the internet. Practicing surgery would be just like playing a game, and without any risks¡ªsomething Dean Xia had never dared to imagine before. Yang Ping was extremely confident in Ruixing Medical¡¯s development of this technology. The model for the ¡®Digital Human¡¯ was already available and could be borrowed at any time, while virtual reality technology was already a realized technology. The challenge lay in simulating touch, but he believed that, with enough money, they could hire a group of top talents in the field to develop it. He couldn¡¯t recall which movie it was from, but Yang Ping always remembered one line: To do great things, first you need money, second you need money, and third you still need money. Back when he saw the movie, Yang Ping forgot all about it, but that line stayed with him. Money isn¡¯t dung; it can be used to do many good things. Having money might not guarantee success, but without it, some things are definitely impossible to achieve. Virtual reality training¡ªanimal training¡ªclinical training, this three-tiered stair-step model of surgical doctor training, is probably the most advanced and quickest in the world. It could foster a large number of excellent young surgeons in the future. Every development is a gradual process; one must design a reasonable pathway for progress. Yang Ping didn¡¯t establish this path overnight; it evolved through constant revision and practice, improving step by step. Under the guidance of the Surgical Research Institute, the training system for doctors in Sanbo Hospital was gradually taking shape. Many departments started adopting this scientific and standardized training approach, allowing young doctors to grow rapidly. Because the previous training methods were pretty much wild and free-range, without any training standards or systems. Even the implemented residency training programs and specialty physician training programs were chaotic and, in essence, non-existent. They never focused on developing the doctors¡¯ actual abilities, treating standardized training students purely as cheap labor. The so-called training plans and goals were nothing but waste paper. However, the training system established by Yang Ping was completely different. After completing residency training at the hospital, doctors would continue to specialty physician training at the Surgical Research Institute. In 5-8 years, they could truly hold their own in any hospital around the world. For regular specialties, five years was enough, while Neurosurgery and Cardiac Surgery might need more time, up to eight years¡ªthis was truly planned and purposeful training. Everyone at the Surgical Research Institute was envious because the doctors there had surgical robots specifically designed for training. In other departments, doctors rarely even got to touch surgical robots, but the Institute¡¯s doctors could treat them like toys. After chatting with Dean Xia, Yang Ping got off work, went home, played with his son, and changed diapers. Yang Ping was now so skilled at changing diapers¡ªquick and neat¡ªthat even Xiao Su was surprised. She asked how he could be so efficient, wondering if he was treating the task like surgery. Xiao Su, usually in good physical health and fond of sports, had a quick postpartum recovery. Her complexion was gradually regaining its rosy glow. At home, she started doing some postpartum fitness exercises, including pelvic floor muscle training. With the birth of their grandson, Yang Ping¡¯s parents happily came over to see the newborn and their daughter-in-law. Professor Su also came over to help on weekends so Yang Ping¡¯s house was bustling with visitors. Professor Su and Mrs. Su, his own parents, and Xiao Su¡¯s good girlfriends who often came to keep her company, also joining for meals. Fortunately, their house was big enough to accommodate everyone; otherwise, it would have been hard to move around with so many people. Yang Ping was planning to buy a villa a bit further from the hospital because there were no villas for sale near it. Their current home was the largest in the vicinity, so it would have to do for now. Money was meant to be spent, and hoarding it had little point. Professor Su and Mrs. Su got along very well with Yang Ping¡¯s parents. They cooperated in their tasks and maintained a harmonious, happy home filled with laughter and joy, as they were all knowledgeable and reasonable people. Professor Su and Father Yang found great company in each other. Professor Su was deeply concerned about the state of primary medical care, and Father Yang always provided insightful and valuable intelligence. The two older gentlemen, one an academician and the other a rural doctor, would often share hearty laughter, becoming excited when the conversation hit a key point. Eventually, Father Yang invited Professor Su to visit the countryside, and Professor Su invited Father Yang to tour Affiliated Hospital No. 1. Mrs. Su and Mother Yang were both good cooks, each with her specialty. Mrs. Su excelled in delicate dishes, and Mother Yang made delicious, hearty rural dishes. Xiao Su would freely pick favorites from both sides and sometimes even praised her mother-in-law¡¯s rustic dishes as better than her own mother¡¯s refined ones. Mrs. Su would merely smile and ask Mother Yang to teach her on the spot. Now that the child was born, Professor Su started planning the wedding for Yang Ping and Xiao Su. It would be a post facto celebration since the couple had been too busy previously, and pregnancy had come quickly leaving no time to sort things out. With the fast pace of modern life and getting married in haste, it seemed reasonable to issue tickets after boarding the ship. Professor Su thought the wedding couldn¡¯t be simple. It would surely be a grand gathering in the medical community. With his standing as an academician and Yang Ping already an Outstanding Young Talent who had far surpassed the status of an academician in the medical field despite his youth, and with the Nobel Prize within reach, the wedding needed to reflect their status. Professor Su had been reluctant to hold Xiao Su¡¯s wedding before his son¡¯s, thinking it might go against tradition. But now, with his daughter having a child and possibly more in the future, there was no time to delay such an important event. Organizing such a major event required careful consideration, so Professor Su needed to consult thoroughly with Yang Ping¡¯s parents. Traditionally, the groom¡¯s family would lead wedding plans, but considering they lived in the countryside, Professor Su, after much thought, decided it would be best if the ceremony in the city was led by him, inviting Yang Ping¡¯s parents to attend, followed by another wedding in Yang Ping¡¯s hometown, led by his parents, with Professor Su¡¯s family attending. This would ensure equality in the ceremony¡¯s etiquette. Although Professor Su wasn¡¯t fond of these complex formalities, social expectations made them obligatory. A simple affair wouldn¡¯t do; his siblings would not agree. Being the only girl in Su family¡¯s generation, everyone treasured her, and such a significant milestone in life couldn¡¯t be treated lightly. It wouldn¡¯t get past her elder brother and sister-in-law. Professor Su mused that since they were going to do it properly, medical bigwigs from all over the country needed an invitation. His circle of academician friends would definitely need to be there to liven things up. In the orthopedics field, he had to invite every notable figure, and he figured that the attendance would rival that of a national academic conference. Father Yang thought Professor Su¡¯s suggestions were very reasonable and considerate. Despite being from a prestigious family, the Sus were not arrogant or condescending, always considerate of others. And his daughter-in-law, devoid of any pampered air, was intelligent, well-mannered, and gracious¡ªa source of great happiness for his son. Professor Su regarded Yang Ping¡¯s parents as humble, understanding, and emanating a quiet confidence. Their speech and actions displayed dignity and self-respect. His daughter marrying such a talented young man and having in-laws that were so easy to get along with was a tremendous source of happiness. Chapter 1285 - 1285 979 Surprises Galore ?Chapter 1285: Chapter 979: Surprises Galore Chapter 1285: Chapter 979: Surprises Galore About the wedding, Professor Su and Yang Ping¡¯s father soon reached an agreement, and the entire negotiation process was very pleasant. In their spare time, the two old men started playing chess. The next day, Yang Ping walked to work at the hospital. From the community to the hospital was just across the street; he just needed to cross the sky bridge to the small square in front of the Emergency Department, which took much less time than driving. Yang Ping remembered the time when Little Five had just gotten a car and insisted on Yang Ping riding with him. There were many people and cars during work hours. Although the hospital was just across the street, the car couldn¡¯t find its way through, so it took half an hour to get to work. Yang Ping crossed the sky bridge, passed the small square of the Emergency Department, and then walked along the central axis of Sanbo Hospital straight to the Surgical Research Institute. The security guard saw him coming from afar and had already pressed the elevator button for him. Yang Ping really liked his current routine life¡ªfrom home to the hospital and back, working steadfastly at his job during the day healing and saving lives, and enjoying simple, pure moments with his family after work, allowing him to focus on his medical skills. It was still early, just past six o¡¯clock, yet the doctors in the department were already busy. The young frontline doctors had a huge workload every day, and writing medical records alone was a tedious task that resulted in quite a few cases of tenosynovitis among the physicians in charge. Some doctors were already eating breakfast while typing. Time indeed was scarce. As soon as they finished their current tasks, they had to hand over shifts, then do rounds, and after rounds, there were a multitude of surgeries waiting. After the surgeries in the afternoon, they had to handle discharges, and at night, they had to sort out the medical records¡ªa pair of hands simply couldn¡¯t cope with everything. If these tasks paused even slightly to take shortcuts, the work immediately piled up. The more it accumulated, the more impossible it became to complete it all. The quality control department would promptly start pressuring, so these doctors tried their best not to procrastinate. They aimed to finish that day¡¯s work on the same day, even if it meant working overtime into the night. Yang Ping turned on his computer and browsed his emails. The work progress of Professor Mainshtan from Germany was fairly smooth. Most of the jury members were very patient. Every time they listened to Professor Mainshtan talk about the Spatial Orientation Gene theory, they would look bewildered and ask, ¡°Could you say that again?¡± This question was the one Professor Mainshtan had heard most frequently lately. ¡°Can you repeat that?¡± It echoed in his ears as he frequently traveled to Sweden, tirelessly lecturing the experts to help them understand Professor Yang¡¯s theory, hoping that Yang Ping¡¯s research achievements would soon grace the Nobel Prize ceremony stage. This was not only for the sake of science but also for Mainshtan¡¯s own career. His research on nerve damage repair had not made significant breakthroughs, and he was eager to establish a cooperation with Yang Ping. Supporting Yang Ping¡¯s Nobel Prize effort could clearly facilitate achieving this partnership. After the morning shift change and rounds, Yang Ping went to the Thoracic Surgery Department to check on Ou Lianfeng, who was recovering very well from his surgery and was about to be discharged. Ou Lianfeng had been receiving one piece of good news after another recently. What surprised him the most was that village, township, county, and city leaders from his hometown all came in person to visit him. This deeply touched Ou Lianfeng. He realized the world could be so beautiful and loving towards him, a feeling he had never experienced before. It made him feel overwhelmed and occasionally doubt if it was all real. By now, Ou Lianfeng¡¯s ward was filled with various consolation gifts, and the consolation money was so substantial that he could barely hold it all. He had never imagined visiting Sanbo Hospital would become a turning point in his life. Before, every task was an uphill battle, but now everything progressed smoothly. The county leaders felt that Ou Lianfeng¡¯s house was too old and the living conditions too poor, so they immediately ordered the relevant departments to improve Ou Lianfeng¡¯s living conditions quickly, which essentially meant the government was paying to build him a house. Later, they heard that Ou Lianfeng¡¯s wife was unemployed, so the county leaders promptly found a nearby job for her. Considering that Ou Lianfeng¡¯s child was in school, they also wanted to do something for the child. They immediately visited the school to understand the situation and sent warmth in a timely manner. But that wasn¡¯t the biggest surprise. During his hospital stay, he actually met his former boss from the construction site, who had owed him over eight thousand yuan in wages years ago. After so many years, the boss now doubled the money and brought it along with many nutritional supplements, apologizing to Ou Lianfeng in person and explaining the forced circumstances back then. He had been looking for Ou Lianfeng for years but had been unable to find him until today, finally reconnecting with his former good workmate. Ou Lianfeng couldn¡¯t help but marvel at the changes in life. The various hardships he had encountered were all resolved recently. It seemed like good things were happening every day. Previously, when he tried to get diagnosed for pneumoconiosis, he had been given the cold shoulder everywhere he went, sometimes even being chased away by security guards. As for meeting any busy leaders, that was impossible for Ou Lianfeng. Now, everyone spoke to him kindly and with smiles. Whether it was their words or actions, they all radiated infinite warmth. Life turned out to be this beautiful. Ou Lianfeng had already been transferred to the general ward of the Thoracic Surgery Department. Professor Yang still came by regularly to check on him because he had undergone a highly minimally invasive surgery performed by a surgical robot, which allowed for a particularly fast recovery that met the discharge criteria. Ou Lianfeng¡¯s discharge was a big event locally. The county leaders had someone dispatched specifically with a vehicle for him, and departments like civil affairs and social insurance sent representatives to see if he needed financial assistance. As for after the discharge, from the city to the county, the leaders had already planned it all out for him. He didn¡¯t need to worry about these minor things. The civil affairs department had already arranged a job for him as a security guard in the reception room of a county agency. Although it was a contract position, it was a long-term contract with full social and medical insurance and a decent salary. More importantly, the job was easy, mainly involving receiving and sending newspapers and watching the door, without any heavy physical work. Compared to before, it was practically a dream job. In fact, because the medical expenses were covered for free, Ou Lianfeng hadn¡¯t spent any money this time. He still had the compensation money in hand. Having lived for decades, Ou Lianfeng had never felt as secure as he did now. Even now, he still thought he was dreaming, everything having come too rapidly, almost like having whatever he wished for. On the day of his discharge, the county had someone specially come to pick him up, the city called to inquire about him, and the township and village chiefs helped carry the luggage. Each person was so kind and empathetic, showing Ou Lianfeng the beauty of the world. On the day of his discharge, the county had someone specially come to pick him up, the city called to inquire about him, and the township and village chiefs helped carry the luggage. Each person was so kind and empathetic, showing Ou Lianfeng the beauty of the world. Chapter 1286 - 1286 980 The Latest Entertainment Project ?Chapter 1286: Chapter 980: The Latest Entertainment Project Chapter 1286: Chapter 980: The Latest Entertainment Project Ou Lianfeng left the hospital in high spirits. The local county had sent a business car to pick him up, and accompanying him were local publicity staff, who continued to follow and promote his story positively. Before his discharge, Ou Lianfeng repeatedly thanked Yang Ping and Sanbo Hospital for their help. He presented a pennant and a lot of fruits, and wrote a heartfelt letter of thanks. He wasn¡¯t well-educated and didn¡¯t know how to express himself eloquently, but he understood in his heart that without Professor Yang and Sanbo Hospital, he wouldn¡¯t have had a new lease on life today, not only receiving new lungs but also compensation and various kinds of care. Although Ou Lianfeng had received new lungs and regained healthy lung function, rejection was always a possibility since the lungs came from another person. Therefore, he would need to take immunosuppressants for the rest of his life to avoid post-operative rejection. Immunosuppressants suppress the immune system to combat rejection. But as a result, patients¡¯ resistance to various pathogens is weakened, and they are much more likely to develop infections, tumors, and other diseases compared to healthy people. It¡¯s an inevitable trade-off in medicine, where many decisions are made by weighing the pros and cons. Effort pays off for those who persevere. With Yang Ping¡¯s consent, Manager Mo persuaded her company¡¯s executives to install three surgical robots in Sanbo Hospital¡ªat once, one in the animal laboratory for training, two in the Surgical Research Institute, one for training and the other for surgery. When other companies heard about this, they were impressed by her audacity, simultaneously regretting their own hasty departures. They felt they should have stayed a few more days like Manager Mo, recognizing that not only was this woman beautiful, but she also had a knack for business. Manager Mo¡¯s strategy was rather straightforward. Since the company¡¯s surgical robots were not selling and would just gather dust in the warehouse, it made sense to put them to some use. Sometimes women make more ruthless decisions than men; after installing three robots, Manager Mo asked if they would like a few more installed, practically planning to fulfill the entire year¡¯s market targets for Sanbo Hospital free of charge. If it weren¡¯t for the reluctance of Manager Mo¡¯s superior, the regional manager of South China, who felt it was too painful a sacrifice and urgently hit the brakes, followed by headquarters scrapping Manager Mo¡¯s bold plan, she would have been prepared to send even more units. Whether a few more or fewer¡ªthey were all meant to be gifted. Why not be generous and make an impact on a larger scale? After all, the company was in this state; while the machines were good, and the technology had advantages¡ªespecially the tactile feedback technology which was unmatched¡ªthe market often doesn¡¯t recognize the best technology. So far, the company hadn¡¯t sold a single robot. Now Manager Mo simply stayed put, making herself a familiar face at Sanbo Hospital every day. As doctors trained to operate the surgical robots, she would be on hand to serve, ready to communicate at any moment. This not only helped her build rapport with the doctors at Sanbo Hospital but also allowed her to gather feedback on the robots during their use. Without any achievements in the company for so long, Manager Mo decided to bet it all on Sanbo Hospital, thinking that once the doctors were trained, they might all favor robot-assisted surgeries and potentially place an order for several more robots. There was an even more important point: considering Professor Yang¡¯s high status in the medical community, if he found the robot to his liking and praised it publicly, her company¡¯s surgical robot would instantly be in the limelight. Moreover, with the robots in Professor Yang¡¯s hands, if he ended up performing any world-first surgeries with them, the robot brand would gain recognition too. At least the company could publicize that certain world-first surgeries were completed by their brand of surgical robot, accumulating a record of surgeries. Everyone in the medical business circle knew the story of President Huang of Ruixing. The legend goes that Huang Jiacai clung to Sanbo Hospital and leveraged his association with Professor Yang to rise from a simple salesperson to the head of his company. Now, as Mo Yeqing stood by Sanbo Hospital and the Surgical Research Institute, gripping onto the other leg of Professor Yang, she hoped to achieve some business milestones as well. As the old saying goes, no one strikes a smiling face that reaches out. She didn¡¯t come every day to cause trouble, but to provide good service for the surgical robots; surely, no one would turn her away. After Manager Mo decided to go for broke, she simply rented an apartment near the hospital to keep an eye on those few robots. Her supervisor agreed to her plan since the company was already burning through cash without having sold a single robot. Without causing some commotion, it was estimated no one would be willing to invest. Robotic surgery might be a hot topic, but it¡¯s perceived as a passing trend; once the wind blows over, there¡¯s nothing left but feathers on the ground. The market for surgical robots is only so big, and because of their size, market growth is quite slow. The top brands have a significant first-mover advantage, and everyone prefers to buy from established brands rather than taking risks with new ones as guinea pigs. Thus, adopting a free strategy to open up the market and accumulate successful cases is essential for market development. Without sales and successful cases, the company is trapped in a vicious cycle. The only way to break this vicious cycle was just like now: to give away a few robots, let these robots make a difference, accumulate cases, and showcase the technological superiority. After the machines were installed, Yang Ping wanted to see how enthusiastic everyone was about the training. It turned out that right after finishing surgeries, many doctors rushed over without even having eaten, eager to secure a slot to train with the surgical robots. All the robots were occupied, with doctors who were training seriously and those eating their boxed meals while waiting in line, each taking their turn for a half-hour training session. The surgical robots really became toys for the doctors at the Surgical Research Institute. Whenever there was time, they would come and play. By doing so, their surgical skills were inadvertently improving. Since Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang already knew how to perform robot-assisted surgeries, they became instructors for everyone else, teaching them some basic operational skills. Xia Shu increasingly felt that his initial decision was the right one. Deciding firmly to resign from Beijing and join Sanbo Hospital, though his time here wasn¡¯t long, he was already able to be the chief surgeon in coronary bypass surgeries. The training model here was conducive to growth: start by getting familiar with the theory, then train extensively with experimental pigs, follow Professor Yang in surgeries, and finally, get to be the chief surgeon. Moreover, once able to lead surgeries, the number of cases accrued and the surgical experience both grew exponentially. Now, to be able to train with surgical robots as if playing a game was something Xia Shu had never dared to imagine before. In the past, the most he could do was to help with loading and unloading surgical instruments; operating the robots was out of the question. Such expensive equipment was only for a select few chiefs to handle. Doctor Li Min was a visiting scholar who had never seen such a gadget in the town hospitals he used to work at. When it was his turn, his hands trembled, and he hesitated for a long time before daring to operate the machine. After all, playing with equipment worth millions was not easy, and he couldn¡¯t get over the invisible threshold in his mind. Many other young doctors repeatedly confirmed that they wouldn¡¯t have to compensate for damages before daring to operate the robots. Without clear responsibility, these young doctors were truly afraid to start, as messing up and needing a repair might bankrupt them financially. To improve the training effect, everyone put their heads together and developed various training methods. Peeling grapes, suturing grape skins¡ªthese were just the basics. They came up with a variety of training projects such as folding paper airplanes, drawing cartoon characters, writing Chinese characters, threading beads, and embroidering. Chapter 1287 - 1287 981 The Beauty of Machines ?Chapter 1287: Chapter 981: The Beauty of Machines Chapter 1287: Chapter 981: The Beauty of Machines Song Zimo gently nudged Yang Ping with his elbow, his eyes full of anticipation, ¡°Professor, could you demonstrate how to peel a grape?¡± Yang Ping smiled slightly and nodded. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll show everyone how it¡¯s done.¡± As soon as he finished speaking, the surrounding doctors immediately became excited. In the medical field, whether it is traditional surgery, laparoscopic surgery, or the current robotic surgery, grape peeling is a common training exercise for surgical skills. Yang Ping stood up and walked to the operating table. Unlike the Da Vinci surgical robot, this robot was equipped with tactile feedback capabilities, which made it technologically more advanced, so Yang Ping was eager to try out how this surgical robot actually worked. The training room of the Surgical Research Institute was arranged differently from a real operating room. The surgical robot and operating table were placed in a spacious room, and the doctors immediately formed a circle around it, watching the operating table intently. Yang Ping sat in front of the operating console, skillfully adjusted the machine, and quickly began the operation. The highly precise surgical robot operated as an extension of Yang Ping¡¯s arms, with the robotic arms moving swiftly and steadily through the air, as if endowed with life itself. The first robotic arm delicately grasped a lustrous purple grape, the second arm lightly pressed the epidermis of the grape to create tension on a local area of the skin, and the third arm, equipped with scissors, gently cut a small opening on the grape skin. As soon this was done, the second robotic arm immediately gripped the edge of the freshly cut skin and gently lifted it, allowing the third arm to begin precisely separating it with the sharp scissors. Without any hesitation, the three robotic arms operated with exquisite coordination, utilizing minute force and precise control. Their speed was so rapid it was almost alarming, leaving the onlookers fearful that at such a pace, the grape skin might tear. However, no such mishap occurred. In less than ten seconds, the thin skin was seamlessly peeled off, forming two hemispherical shapes. The whole process was so smooth it was astonishing, leaving the observing doctors holding their breath, watching every detail as if afraid to miss anything. Yet, the surprise was not over. Yang Ping controlled the robotic arms to carefully ¡°stitch¡± the peeled grape skin back together. The fine stitches were almost invisible, and the skin wrapped around the pulp as if it had never been peeled. ¡°It¡¯s magical!¡± a doctor couldn¡¯t help but exclaim in a low voice, and others nodded in agreement. After completing this series of delicate operations, everyone seemed still engrossed. Song Zimo suddenly had an idea, took out a piece of paper, and placed it on the operating table, ¡°Professor, why not fold a paper airplane for fun?¡± As soon as he finished speaking and his fingers had just begun to release the paper, the robotic arm quickly and precisely snatched the paper from Song Zimo¡¯s hand, its movements crisp and decisive. The paper was laid out on the operating table, and the three robotic arms began to cooperate in folding the paper airplane. Each fold was perfectly timed, and the entire process was distinctly different from how humans would fold with two hands. Soon, the paper airplane was formed, finalizing with smooth lines and even wings, reminiscent of the most perfect childhood craft. ¡°Draw!¡± Song Zimo was still not satisfied and was about to get another piece of paper. But the robotic arm had already unfolded the paper airplane and smoothed out the creases. Song Zimo quickly handed over his ballpoint pen; the robotic arm¡¯s pliers clamped it, adjusted the angle of the pen, and turned towards artistic creation. Smoothly outlining the contours of a cartoon character on the paper, the lines were dynamic and full of three-dimensionality. A vivid cartoon character emerged on the paper, drawing praise from the doctors watching nearby. Not only that, the robotic arm also showcased its ability to write Chinese characters. Amidst the turns of the brush strokes, Yang Ping¡¯s signature flowed like clouds and water on the bottom right corner of the screen, embodying both the charm of traditional calligraphy and the precision of modern technology. Song Zimo silently placed beads, needles, and thread on the operating table. Yang Ping began threading beads, while the robotic arm picked up the thread, shaped the end, and then threaded the beads directly with the thread end. Usually, everyone used a needle with the thread for training, but now Yang Ping did not need a needle, using only the flexible thread to thread the beads, which was extremely difficult. The robotic arm held the thread and exposed a short segment. It accurately and seamlessly weaved through the colorful beads, creating a string of exquisite bead chains. At this moment, the applause that could no longer be held back erupted like thunder. However, Song Zimo always felt puzzled. He had been working very hard, arriving early at the laboratory and leaving late, dedicating almost all his time to learning and training. But why did Yang Ping always seem lethargic, without any signs of diligent training, yet his surgical skill always far exceeded his own? This forced him to lament that the gap in talent really could not be bridged by effort alone. Yang Ping was always on the summit, while Song Zimo felt that no matter how hard he tried, he could only look up. ¡°Want to give it a try?¡± Yang Ping stood up from his seat and stretched a bit. Song Zimo appeared slightly nervous, overwhelmed by the oppressive aura of the lead professor. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. ¡°Why are you nervous? I¡¯m not staring at you,¡± Yang Ping said. Song Zimo turned to look at Yang Ping beside him, ¡°Can you move a bit further away? Your presence is a bit intimidating.¡± Yang Ping had no choice but to move next to the operating table to watch Song Zimo¡¯s performance. Song Zimo clenched his teeth and concentrated, the robotic arm began to move, and although it could complete the whole process, the movements were neither smooth nor precise. For example, the grape skin slipped several times during suturing, the paper airplane was not neatly folded, and the drawing and writing were merely passable. Finally, threading the beads without the needle¡¯s aid was impossible. In short, the entire process could be completed smoothly, but there was no beauty to speak of. Yang Ping¡¯s performance, on the other hand, constantly exuded an essence of mechanical beauty. ¡°Continue training, I¡¯ve got some things to handle.¡± After teaching everyone some training methods and techniques, Yang Ping left the department to go change his son¡¯s diaper. One by one, everyone in the Surgical Research Institute¡¯s robotic surgery training room went to rest, except for Song Zimo, who was the last to leave. He continued training until midnight, striving to understand how the three robotic arms could coordinate perfectly, how to overcome the limitations of dual-arm operation dependent on the human brain, and to maximize the utility of the three robotic arms. He copied Yang Ping¡¯s surgical videos from the robot¡¯s host computer and transferred them to his phone. Song Zimo planned to study them in his free time, determined to break through his conventional thinking and grasp the true essence of multi-arm operation. Chapter 1288 - 1288 982 Star ?Chapter 1288: Chapter 982: Star Chapter 1288: Chapter 982: Star The greatest strengths of surgical robots compared to a doctor¡¯s hands are their precision, stability, and flexibility. The greatest drawback is the lack of tactile feedback. Manager Mo¡¯s company¡¯s surgical robots have filled a technological void with tactile feedback technology, solving a major problem for surgical robots. Technologically, this robot is already among the leaders, but it clearly hasn¡¯t succeeded in the market; they haven¡¯t sold a single unit. Having technology doesn¡¯t necessarily mean having a market. Praise doesn¡¯t always translate into success, which is true in many industries. After graduating from university, Manager Mo spent a few years as a pharmaceutical representative, dealing with medical equipment but missed the prime years of that profession. By the time she entered the field, the industry had begun its rapid decline. She didn¡¯t make much money in those few years but gained some experience in sales. Currently, surgical robots are a hot investment trend. In recent years, companies specializing in surgical robots have sprung up like mushrooms after the rain. Therefore, Manager Mo ventured into this emerging industry. The truth is, selling such large items is far more troublesome than dealing with trifles, and selling a single robot requires a lot of work. Manager Mo is beautiful, well-shaped, and young, still a university student¡ªa perfect seedling for a sales representative in the medical industry. To be blunt, if a company in the medical industry can¡¯t flaunt a few beautiful women, it¡¯s a complacent and stagnating operation with little hope for success. After continual training with the surgical robots, everyone¡¯s operating skills had improved significantly. At the end of the day, these are just machines, not unlike driving a car. Practice makes perfect; with enough practice, anyone can become proficient. However, in clinical practice, for various reasons, doctors usually don¡¯t have the opportunity to interact with surgical robots, hence no chance to practice or improve. For the doctors at the Surgical Research Institute, the surgical robot is like a toy; they play with it whenever they can, naturally becoming proficient over time. Just after four in the afternoon, when everyone had completed the day¡¯s surgeries and was ready to train on the surgical robots, the hospital administration notified: all doctors were to go to the large meeting room in the administration building for a meeting. The meeting had been notified well in advance; it was an industry-wide rectification and warning conference, held annually. Yang Ping had once participated and coincidentally met his former leaders, Dean Xie and Director Wu. However, he heard that both would be speaking again this time, along with Director Qian. He felt it was necessary to attend, also as a show of support for the hospital¡¯s work. The meeting had a large turnout; the hospital mandated the attendance of all doctors not on duty or out of the hospital. Attendance was compulsory, with name registration through the scanning of a QR code. A young lady from the administration sat at the entrance, holding up a QR code sign for everyone to scan and check in. Sanbo Hospital was more lenient; such events were usually just for show. People would attend if they had time, but it was fine if they didn¡¯t. Someone could help send a QR code image to check in for them, and no one would follow up afterward. The stage was nicely set up, indicating a very formal event. The speakers, all with shaven heads, sat in a row, appearing solemn and dignified. Perhaps the lights were too dazzling or maybe because Yang Ping was too far from the podium, he didn¡¯t recognize Director Wu or Dean Xie. The doctor sitting beside him, holding a pair of binoculars, noticed Professor Yang seemed to want a clearer view, so he respectfully offered his binoculars. Yang Ping, without any hesitation, took the binoculars and finally recognized the two former leaders. They had aged too quickly, looking nothing like they used to, but both seemed to have gained a significant amount of weight. It seemed that their inner circles provided well for them. Apart from the two leaders, Yang Ping did not recognize the other speakers. However, they seemed significant, reputedly all at the dean level. ¡°Why would you bring binoculars to a meeting?¡± Yang Ping returned the binoculars to the doctor beside him. The doctor replied, ¡°I did my Master¡¯s at Affiliated Hospital No. 4, and my mentor once complained about someone surnamed Qian. Later on, for reasons unknown, Qian had no issues, but my mentor was inexplicably pushed out.¡± ¡°Then you should bring binoculars. Those have a pretty good magnification,¡± Yang Ping nodded in agreement. The doctor proudly said, ¡°I ordered them online right after I got the message, military-grade.¡± This was Yang Ping¡¯s second time seeing his former leaders at such a grand event. The previous time, he had made a special effort to greet them, but this time he decided not to disturb their work, quietly watching their performance from the back row. Dean Xia, Dean Sun, Director Zhao, Director Zhou, and other heavyweights of the hospital were all present, indicating the hospital¡¯s special emphasis on this meeting. Yang Ping pondered that Director Wu used to be a scholar, a professor, a chief physician, who could fetch a handsome fee for lecturing elsewhere; the fee for one lecture might even exceed the salary of a standardized training student. He wondered if such lectures nowadays would also come with a fee. Dean Xia gave a speech, and after him came the presentations by various actors. Honestly, Director Wu¡¯s lecture was quite dull, a disservice to the numerous audience. But Dean Xie was different; he really knew how to engage the crowd. During his speech, he cried his heart out, sobbing uncontrollably, as he confessed with the most heartfelt words how he had let down the organization and the people; he had failed the trust they had placed in him. Pouring his guilt and sins as if in deep penance, he said that now every morning and evening, he would recite the oath of medical students to engrave it into his soul. Some doctors in the audience were probably moved to tears¡ªDean Xie should have entered show business. The City People¡¯s Hospital was now drowning in debt, skinned by him in ways no one knew how many times, sparing not even the little night shift pay of the doctors. In Yang Ping¡¯s memory, the hospital was always under construction: if not building new, then renovating; or digging up the ground to plant trees and landscape the garden; the doctors¡¯ white gowns and patients¡¯ hospital clothes changed several times a year; the canteen forced consumption despite food that even dogs wouldn¡¯t touch¡ªformerly, Yang Ping had thought well of Dean Xie, because he often got the staff new clothes. Now he realized that Old Xie had a girlfriend in the garment business; those white gowns and patient outfits cost hundreds each, later even two thousand a set, though they only cost tens to make. Just on these outfits alone, the expenses were over ten million a year, not to mention the endless building and renovations, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. Old Xie was quite something; it was said he kept dozens of young, beautiful girls, each receiving houses and luxury cars, living like an emperor. After Old Xie got into trouble, Yang Ping finally understood why he had worked so hard for such meager wages all those years¡ªthe money had all gone to Old Xie¡¯s mistresses! There was an old professor at the City People¡¯s Hospital who had been determined to expose Dean Xie but never succeeded. At meetings, Old Xie openly declared the professor schizophrenic, fantasizing things to smear him, but Dean Xie, being magnanimous, did not stoop to argue with such people. What goes around comes around; Dean Xie¡¯s misdeeds were eventually exposed, and only then did all the nonsensical absurdities of City People¡¯s Hospital begin to make sense. ¡°These people have become stars now, touring the whole province for lectures, known far and wide. That QR Code led to a slew of issues in Affiliated Hospital No. 4, and it¡¯s said that the hospital will soon face upheaval,¡± said a doctor, putting down the binoculars. ¡°To take down my mentor, that scoundrel forced me to sign a false accusation against my mentor, threatening to withhold my degree unless I complied; if I signed, I would stay at Affiliated Hospital No. 4. I gritted my teeth and refused to sign, refused to do anything that would betray my conscience. That bastard almost cost me my graduation. It was Principal Ruo who personally intervened that I could graduate smoothly.¡± ¡°Principal Ruo really is a good principal. Luckily, these scumbags are just a few, but a few can spoil the broth,¡± said the doctor with disdain. The doctors nearby continued discussing, calling someone a scumbag repeatedly. Yang Ping glanced at the doctor nearby: ¡°Who are you referring to as ¡®that scumbag¡¯?¡± The doctor picked up the binoculars and looked: ¡°On the stage, all the bald ones are scumbags!¡± Several doctors immediately turned their attention to the speaker who had been referring to someone as a scumbag. On the stage, Dean Sun too was losing hair, with barely a few strands on his balding head. The guy was quick to react and immediately added, ¡°Oh, I meant those with shaved heads; Dean Sun doesn¡¯t count. Dean Sun still has some hair on his head.¡± Chapter 1289 - 1289 983 Kind-hearted Couple ?Chapter 1289: 983 Chapter Kind-hearted Couple Chapter 1289: 983 Chapter Kind-hearted Couple These guys¡¯ so-called confessions were really just performances; in Yang Ping¡¯s eyes, it was almost like watching a comedy sketch. These people had always been actors, in the past and still now. Dean Xie used to come to work on his old bicycle, wearing a worn shirt, seemingly overwhelmed with worry and toiling for the hospital. But it turned out¡ªit was all an act. Yang Ping didn¡¯t wait for the meeting to end before leaving early. By the time he left, the lights were beginning to twinkle, illuminating the whole hospital. At this moment, many doctors were still battling at their posts. In fact, most doctors are earnest and diligent, fighting on the frontline of clinical work every day, but these rotten parasites have tarnished the entire medical industry¡¯s image. Yang Ping walked home, and when he passed by the Sky Bridge, he encountered an elderly gentleman selling roasted sweet potatoes and Nie Shun¡¯e with her spouse, selling Night Snack, so he greeted them and stopped for a chat. The elderly couple still had to provide for their granddaughter. Despite being over seventy, they were still out working for money. Every time Yang Ping saw him, his heart felt sour, but seeing the resolute expression on the old man¡¯s face, Yang Ping felt much more at ease. Yang Ping wanted to buy a sweet potato. The old man turned around, picked a roasted sweet potato from the small basket, wrapped it up, and handed it to Yang Ping, refusing to take any money from him. His granddaughter Minmin had 34 steel needles removed by Yang Ping, and it was also thanks to Yang Ping that he could sell sweet potatoes at the bustling Sky Bridge location; otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have been allowed to set up shop there. ¡°How is Minmin?¡± Yang Ping asked as he cooled the sweet potato, showing his concern. The old man replied with delight, ¡°Ever since the steel needles were removed, her appetite has grown a lot, and she¡¯s been shooting up in height and weight.¡± ¡°Is life manageable?¡± Yang Ping asked. The old man said with satisfaction, ¡°We have a little pension, and the sweet potato business is booming. The income is quite good. I really have to thank you, Professor Yang. Now, I earn as much as I can each day because I might collapse any day, so I have to leave some money for the child. I just don¡¯t know what would happen to her if¡ªif¡ª-¡± As he spoke, the old man¡¯s eyes filled with tears. Yang Ping wanted to offer a few words of comfort, but before he could speak up, Nie Shun¡¯e beside him began to speak. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, when the time comes, you can leave your granddaughter to us. Although we¡¯re also from a poor family, you can rest assured that as long as we have something to eat, we will never let her go hungry. And we¡¯ll definitely send her to university. I mean it. I¡¯m not just saying it. We really like your granddaughter,¡± Nie Shun¡¯e said, handing a bowl of beef offal to Yang Ping as she spoke. He took it and had a taste; it was delicious. ¡°How could we possibly burden you?¡± The old man was embarrassed. Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s husband said, ¡°What burden? It¡¯s just an extra pair of chopsticks. You can discuss it with your spouse. If you truly agree to give her to us, rest assured, we will be good to her. You¡¯ve seen for yourself how we treat our own kids.¡± Recently, the old man¡¯s stall was next to Nie Shun¡¯e and her husband¡¯s, so as they talked, they became friends. Nie Shun¡¯e and her husband, being kind-hearted, felt a lot of sympathy for Minmin and the elderly couple and intended to adopt her. ¡°We just don¡¯t understand the law and don¡¯t know how to go through the process legally,¡± Nie Shun¡¯e said earnestly, truly wanting to adopt, not just making idle conversation. ¡°Not to speak of ill omens, but you both are over seventy. If you were to pass away, what would happen to Minmin? Relying on your no-good son and daughter-in-law could mean more needles in her body,¡± Nie Shun¡¯e said bluntly, yet every word rang true. The old man thought for a while and realized Nie Shun¡¯e made a lot of sense. He couldn¡¯t count on his son, and without restraint, the child would suffer even more. As for other relatives, currently no one was willing to adopt her. ¡°Old man, it¡¯s also fate. Don¡¯t overthink it and hesitate. I will inquire about the legal procedures with a lawyer,¡± Nie Shun¡¯e continued. ¡°You know us well enough. Some day when you have time, bring the child to our home. I¡¯ll look after her for a while, and if you think it¡¯s appropriate, you can let her stay. If not, you can take her back. Okay? She was so happy when we took her out last time.¡± Nie Shun¡¯e was quick in speech and action. Although there were quite a few customers at their stand, she and her husband were deft and efficient, managing to chat without it impacting their business at all. In the midst of conversation, they had already sold over a dozen bowls of beef offal. ¡°Okay! I just feel bad for no reason, adding to your burden out of the blue.¡± The old man felt terribly guilty and upset. Nie Shun¡¯e said light-heartedly, ¡°What burden? If we weren¡¯t getting on in years, we¡¯d want to have a daughter ourselves. Now it¡¯s perfect, we can just adopt one, which fulfills my wish for a daughter. Your Minmin is well-behaved and smart; she¡¯s got a connection with me. From the first time I saw her, I took a special liking to her. Although we don¡¯t have formal jobs, we¡¯ve saved a little money over the years running the Night Snack business, and now we have a small nest in the city and our own business. We may not be rich, but keeping warm and fed is not an issue. The child won¡¯t be allowed to face the wind, get rained on, or go hungry. We will treat her as our own daughter and will never let her be wronged.¡± ¡°I really can¡¯t thank you enough. This is a great kindness. You¡¯re right, at my age, I could fall over any time, and keeping her with me would be harming her. I¡¯ll pick a day to come with my wife and bring the child to you to look after.¡± The old man was definitely willing, but he felt conflicted, as it meant sending his own granddaughter to strangers, and he felt embarrassed adding to their burden without being related. But given his current circumstances, he had no choice. This couple was truly kind-hearted, and handing his granddaughter to them felt reassuring. Perhaps it was really meant to be. Yang Ping was eating as he listened to their conversation. Both the sweet potatoes and the beef offal were good; in fact, whether it was the sweet potatoes or the beef offal, they were carefully prepared by the couple. The old man kept aside a few of the best sweet potatoes every day. Yang Ping passed by their spot daily, and although he did not eat every time, the sweet potatoes were always ready for when he felt like having one. As for Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s beef offal, it was the same. They always had fresh beef offal on hand, stewed individually in a small pot, ready to serve to Yang Ping whenever he wanted to buy some. If Yang Ping didn¡¯t eat, the couple would just eat it themselves. Having finished the sweet potatoes and beef offal, it was time for Yang Ping to head home, but Xiao Su said she wanted a sweet potato, so Yang Ping took one the old man had wrapped for him. Yang Ping wanted to pay, but they definitely wouldn¡¯t accept it, so he simply didn¡¯t offer the money, avoiding any pushing and pulling that might affect their business. Sometimes he would bring something from home for them because he often ate their sweet potatoes and beef offal, and as a result, these two stalls were especially popular. Known not only within Sanbo Hospital but throughout the city¡¯s medical community, many doctors would come to check in, probably due to the celebrity effect. Consequently, the business at their stalls was almost too much to handle and their income was naturally not low. At that moment, a few city inspectors walked over and greeted the old man and Nie Shun¡¯e warmly before buying a few sweet potatoes and several bowls of beef offal. These inspectors typically looked out for them, so they were reluctant to take their money, but the inspectors insisted on stuffing the cash into the hands of the old man and Nie Shun¡¯e. ¡°How could we do that!¡± Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s husband chased after them to return the money to the inspectors. The inspectors immediately blocked Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s husband¡¯s hand from returning the money, ¡°Don¡¯t mess around! If you don¡¯t take the money, we won¡¯t buy anything. Keep the money, keep it!¡± ¡°How could we accept that?¡± Nie Shun¡¯e¡¯s husband had no choice but to keep the money. ¡°What¡¯s there to feel awkward about? It¡¯s a normal transaction,¡± the inspectors said, laughing. ¡°You¡¯ve always taken good care of us, and it doesn¡¯t feel right taking money for a meal from you¡ª¡± ¡°That¡¯s our job. There¡¯s an inspection the day after tomorrow. At that time, make sure to collect the trash into bags. During peak commuting hours, try to stay as close to the edge as possible and leave the middle wider. If you¡¯re too busy, we will send someone over to help guide you and bring you some extra trash bags.¡± ¡°Thank you, we can manage on our own, no need to trouble yourselves.¡± Chapter 1290 - 1290 984 Low Back Pain Specialist ?Chapter 1290: Chapter 984: Low Back Pain Specialist Chapter 1290: Chapter 984: Low Back Pain Specialist The weather in the south was still so hot, yet coastal cities seemed to always have a breeze and rarely experienced the dry heat found inland. Though the days were hot, the mornings and evenings were cool and breezy, which was far more pleasant than the dry heat. Yang Ping walked to Sanbo Hospital in the cool air. It was just past six o¡¯clock when he passed the small square in front of the emergency department and ran into Liang Fatty, who had been persistently jogging in the mornings and evenings, supposedly to lose weight. However, the results didn¡¯t seem too noticeable; Yang Ping thought he looked about the same as before. Fatty, upon seeing Yang Ping, waved his hand in greeting. This time, Fatty was different from before. Whereas previously he looked pained and was huffing and puffing while running, now he breathed evenly and looked relaxed, suggesting great improvement. There was another argument at the entrance of the emergency department. Anyway, quarrels at the emergency department had become a common sight. A luxury car was parked in front of the emergency department entrance, blocking it. The security guard asked the woman driver to move it, telling her that it was an emergency lane. The woman driver was unhappy, saying she would just wait a little longer, her friend would come out soon. The security guard said even a short wait wasn¡¯t okay and that she must move immediately. At that point, the woman driver flew into a rage, yelling at the security guard, ¡°Who do you think you are, a mere security guard, to be pointing fingers at me? Don¡¯t believe me? I can have you thrown out of this city!¡± She then made a phone call, coquettishly complaining to the person on the other end that she was being bullied at Sanbo Hospital and asked them to call the director of Sanbo Hospital to come and apologize personally. Yang Ping looked at the woman; she was young and attractive, with a good face and figure to boot. How could her manners be so poor? This was an emergency lane for saving lives; how could it be used so casually? However, this wasn¡¯t the first time Yang Ping had seen such a scene. He had witnessed it several times before, so often that he couldn¡¯t clearly recall how many times; anyway, it was more than once. The scenarios were all similar, having one thing in common: these people believed the world should revolve around them and clear paths for them. The security guards at Sanbo Hospital wouldn¡¯t just let her act up. They immediately made a phone call, too. The security department¡¯s tow truck appeared quickly, and without further ado, they towed away her car, intent on taking it to the traffic police, asserting she had violated traffic laws by illegally obstructing the emergency lane. Seeing this, the woman driver was so furious she lay down on the ground, blocking the tow truck¡¯s path. The security didn¡¯t indulge her; the special patrol team appeared promptly, and everyone lifted the woman like a dead dog and carried her away, all while being recorded by someone following along. There was also an eloquent security guard providing continuous commentary, explaining the ins and outs of the situation clearly and logically. The entire process was reasonable and legal, with no inappropriateness; the security of Sanbo Hospital feared neither evil nor ghosts, mainly because the director backing them feared neither evil nor ghosts. Yang Ping had no time to be an onlooker to these bad affairs. He circumvented the area, directly walking to his department from another side, leaving the woman¡¯s screams behind him. However, he did take the opportunity to record a short video on his phone, capturing both the person and the car. The department was also very busy; everyone was hard at work on their own tasks. In the doctors¡¯ office, Yang Ping saw a Doctor from the Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory who worked under Professor He. What was he doing here? Yang Ping was just about to find out when the Doctor proactively reported to Yang Ping. It turned out that Ruixing Medical had initiated a project in collaboration with Nandu Medical University on a virtual reality surgery training system. Professor He had assigned his team to take turns coming over to experience real surgical operations to better develop the surgery training system, as working in isolation from practical application wouldn¡¯t yield results. Both Ruixing and Professor He were quick to act; not long ago, they were still planning the project, and now it was already underway. The virtual surgery training system developed in cooperation with Ruixing Medical became the next focal point of Professor He¡¯s work. The greatest challenge of the project lay in tactile simulation. Humans directly perceive the world using five senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. In the virtual reality surgery training system, only vision and touch need to be simulated. Hearing and smell could also be simulated, but they are not essential. The simulation of vision is completely based on the Digital Human technology, so it¡¯s essentially ready-to-use technology. Tactile simulation, on the other hand, needs to be built from scratch. There is currently no domestic accumulation of technology in this area; it¡¯s essentially a blank slate. However, Professor He¡¯s team, armed with their experience developing the Digital Human, had full confidence in tackling tactile simulation technology and planned to spend years slowly chewing through this tough nut. Yang Ping also placed great importance on this project. If the project succeeded, it meant simplifying the simulation of surgery training within their own system, which was equivalent to providing each doctor with a simple system. How many surgeries can one perform with their own hands anyway? Innovating a theory or establishing a system that can be continuously improved is the best way to benefit the public, rather than struggling alone. Doctor Li Min approached Yang Ping to discuss the upcoming National Day and expressed his wish to visit the Elderly Director. Doctors actually do not have the concept of holidays and rest days are usually taken in rotation. It had been a long time since Doctor Li had visited home, so Yang Ping approved his leave. Although Li Min only had an associate degree, under Yang Ping¡¯s direct mentorship, he had made rapid progress in both theoretical knowledge and surgical skills. He could now proficiently perform basic surgeries from various departments, carry out some difficult surgeries with a fair degree of competence, and had witnessed plenty of top-level surgeries, meeting Yang Ping¡¯s requirements for him: to be skilled in a batch, to master a batch, and to witness a batch. Overall, Yang Ping was satisfied with Doctor Li. Li was smart, hardworking, and willing to proactively study. When a person has these qualities, their learning outcomes in any field are unlikely to be poor. Work requires a balance between tension and relaxation. Being in a state of high tension for a long time isn¡¯t good for either mental or physical well-being. Li Min had been under a lot of pressure recently, as he had to fill in his knowledge gaps due to his mere associate degree. Yang Ping took this opportunity to let him unwind a bit, so he could return to the next phase of learning in a better state. Over the phone, the Elderly Director told Li Min that he had prepared a lot of surgeries for the National Day holiday. They had invited Director Zhang Anyun, the Chief of Surgery at the County People¡¯s Hospital, to be the Chief Surgeon. It was a perfect chance for Li Min to assist in surgeries and gain practical learning experience. Director Zhang was renowned in Nanqiao County; in the small town, he was a well-known figure, with various township hospitals queueing up for his services. Li Min didn¡¯t know his own level; he spent all day running with a group of top-notch experts, and in their presence, his skills were definitely the weakest. He had no idea of his standing outside of that environment, as he hadn¡¯t made any comparisons. The Elderly Director also mentioned that since the last surgery on his spine, he hadn¡¯t suffered from back pain again, calling it a solution to decades of chronic problems. However, discussing his back pain was a sore point for the Elderly Director. Being a doctor himself and misdiagnosing his own back pain for so long was embarrassing. Now, he had a different story for his patients. He claimed that after going to the Provincial Hospital, experts had consulted on his case several times without diagnosing the problem correctly. Ultimately, it was he who made the correct diagnosis and informed the experts, who then realized their oversight and immediately arranged the surgery, leading to the successful outcome he now enjoyed. This incident not only saved the Elderly Director face but also enhanced his reputation, suggesting he was exceptionally skilled at diagnosing back pain, even when experts from the provincial city couldn¡¯t identify the issue. His fame grew with the tale, and many patients with back pain from out of town came to see him specifically for his story. Over time, more and more patients sought the Elderly Director for back pain, compelling him to establish a specialized back pain clinic, which he branded as an expert clinic, naturally, considering himself an expert in his own hospital. After receiving approval for his leave from Yang Ping, Li Min immediately called the Elderly Director, who coughed a few times from afar before speaking, ¡°Little Li, there¡¯s something I have to discuss with you in advance, about the time I was treated at Sanbo Hospital¨C¨C¡± Chapter 1291 - 1291 985 Doctor Tangs Theory ?Chapter 1291: Chapter 985 Doctor Tang¡¯s Theory Chapter 1291: Chapter 985 Doctor Tang¡¯s Theory Li Min had always been puzzled why the Elderly Director frequently sent cases his way lately, asking him to consult the professors at Sanbo Hospital. Now, at last, he understood the reason, it turned out that the Elderly Director was now running a specialist outpatient clinic for back pain. The matters that the Elderly Director hesitatingly wanted to tell him had already been repeatedly articulated before, that was, he must not reveal the truth of his receiving treatment at Sanbo Hospital, as failing to recognize an old ailment that had plagued him for over a decade would tarnish his decades-long medical reputation if word got out. Apart from Li Min taking leave, there were other doctors taking off as well. Xia Shu said he needed to visit his hometown, the Head Nurse was arranging the department¡¯s nursing work, as she too planned to go out for a few days, supposedly to a resort within the province for leisure. Xu Zhiliang also requested leave; he and his wife were going on a trip for their honeymoon. This left Liang Fatty rather gloomy, considering in the department Xu Zhiliang was unanimously thought to be the last one likely to fall in love and get married, yet now he was on his honeymoon, while Fatty himself was still having conflicts with the Flight Attendant. None of the other doctors in the department had taken leave, but during the holiday period, everyone would be more relaxed since elective surgeries were halted, and only emergency surgeries were performed. There weren¡¯t many emergency surgeries in the Surgical Research Institute, so many doctors decided to make good use of this week to do other things. Normally, they were so busy all day that they had no time for anything else. Some doctors decided to practice the fundamentals of surgery, especially with the surgical robots; others had accumulated too many unfinished cases and had been warned by the medical records department several times, so they chose to take these few days to catch up on their backlog; there were also doctors who decided to gather some data for their papers. Liang Fatty felt rather forlorn, his relationship with the Flight Attendant had been tense. He decided to spend these days studying further with Tang Shun. The short study stint he had previously returned from had an immediate effect, and he managed to substantially win over the Flight Attendant. However, due to being busy, he hadn¡¯t visited the laboratory in a while, so his skills hadn¡¯t improved, and now with conflicts with the Flight Attendant unresolved, Fatty felt his knowledge was inadequate and needed further education. The laboratory was closed during the National Day holiday, and unlike clinical work, it adhered to a standard work schedule. Doctor Tang would be very busy during the National Day as several of her Japanese girlfriends had planned to visit her, and rumor has it that her American girlfriend was bringing her child to China, saying she wanted the kid to meet his distinguished father. Americans are very casual; after getting pregnant by Doctor Tang, she didn¡¯t hassle him but chose to give birth and be a single mother on her own, not even asking Doctor Tang for living expenses. Tang Shun was also a bit baffled, suddenly becoming a father to a mixed-race child. In summary, all this seemed chaotic to others, but to Doctor Tang, managing these affairs was a breeze. The methods of a time management master and a relationship management master could probably be turned into a paper and published in a top-tier international journal. Doctor Tang spread out an A4 paper on the desk and began to draw his plan for the National Day holiday with a pencil. This planning chart featured numerous people and time points; to the left, it resembled a table, to the right, a mind map. In any case, it was complex, not something an ordinary person could understand. Liang Fatty sat across from Tang Shun¡¯s desk, stood up, and closely examined Tang Shun¡¯s planning chart. As he looked at these incredibly complicated things, his head buzzed, and he felt quite uncomfortable. ¡°Handling all these women can¡¯t be a good thing, can it? Why don¡¯t you settle down and get married? To pick someone suitable and have a stable home, living a simple life, would be nice,¡± Liang Fatty felt that Tang Shun had had enough fun and it was time to rein it in. Tang Shun didn¡¯t even look up and dismissed Liang Fatty with a sniff, ¡°Get married? I will never get married in this lifetime. What¡¯s the purpose of marriage? Emotional needs? Physical needs? Continuing the family line? Financial complementarity? I can achieve all these targets without getting married. Why would I get married?¡± Liang Fatty was momentarily speechless, unable to rebut. Indeed, what was the purpose of marriage? It seemed he was better off not married, didn¡¯t he have everything already? ¡°But by stringing along so many girls, you could be delaying them, isn¡¯t that quite selfish?¡± Having lost the argument from a utilitarian perspective, Liang Fatty switched to moral preaching. ¡°We are all adults here, each with their own right to make choices. I haven¡¯t forced anyone to make decisions against their will. How can you call me selfish?¡± Tang Shun paid no attention to Fatty, continuing to draw his planning chart. If Fatty weren¡¯t a brother, Tang Shun would have sent him packing for talking to him like this, what, now he was teaching him how to live his life? Fatty wanted to say something more but found himself at a loss for words. At this moment, Tang Shun looked up at Liang Fatty: ¡°Brother Fat, when you reach my level, you won¡¯t even mention the word ¡®marriage.¡¯ For you, marriage will be a shackle, not stability.¡± Fatty thought about it and felt there was some truth in that. Clearly, he was not at the level to understand what Tang Shun was thinking internally. He couldn¡¯t even manage one woman, while Tang Shun had a dozen women as docile as cats. ¡°Have things been very tense with the Flight Attendant recently?¡± Tang Shun knew why Fatty was sitting there. Fatty nodded but didn¡¯t speak. ¡°Actually, there are only two words a woman really responds to ¡ª ¡®flatter¡¯ and ¡®deceive¡¯!¡± Tang Shun made a startling statement. Fatty widened his eyes: ¡°I think sincerity is the most important thing in love. Flattering is fine, but how can you deceive someone?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not contradictory!¡± Tang Shun said. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Fatty didn¡¯t understand. Tang Shun asked, ¡°When your girlfriend asks if she looks pretty in this dress today, what do you say?¡± Chapter 1292 - 1292 985 Doctor Tangs Theory_2 ?Chapter 1292: Chapter 985 Doctor Tang¡¯s Theory_2 Chapter 1292: Chapter 985 Doctor Tang¡¯s Theory_2 Fatty thought for a moment, ¡°Of course, you say she¡¯s beautiful. If you don¡¯t, it¡¯s going to be total chaos.¡± ¡°Does that conflict with truly loving someone?¡± Tang Shun asked again. It seemed like there really wasn¡¯t a conflict! Fatty was confused. According to Doctor Tang, if you go coaxing and deceiving, doesn¡¯t that make you a liar? ¡°I think coaxing is definitely right, but deceiving is not.¡± Fatty expressed his doubts. Doctor Tang had never been so blunt with Fatty before, perhaps out of pity for him, or maybe because he was afraid Fatty would bother him during the holiday, so he decided to get straight to the point. ¡°Without deception, how can you coax effectively? Deception is the means, coaxing is the goal. The principle is that simple. Mull it over yourself. I¡¯m busy over the holiday and don¡¯t have time to chat with you about nonsense,¡± Tang Shun told Fatty directly. ¡°Deception is the means, coaxing is the goal?¡± ¡°Right, but while coaxing, always remember one principle, when dealing with women, you must be confident, even blindly confident will do. Psychologically and behaviorally, you must see yourself as equal to the other person. Never put yourself beneath them, which is to say, bootlickers will undoubtedly fail.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t quite understand,¡± Fatty admitted. ¡°Just remember this. You¡¯ll figure it out eventually. When interacting with women, you have to learn to practice ¡®catch and release.¡¯ For example, in the current period of conflict, don¡¯t call every day to apologize. Just let it be. There are plenty of other women in the world, why fixate on this one? You need to have this kind of attitude. Do what you need to do. Coaxing is not the same as indulging; it¡¯s about timing and method. The release is the means, the catch is the goal. Releasing doesn¡¯t mean leaving it at that; you recapture when the time is right.¡± ¡°For example?¡± Fatty quickly served up tea. Tang Shun took a sip and said, ¡°Now, don¡¯t engage her, don¡¯t send WeChat messages, don¡¯t call, but you can post on your moment. Share a few photos of yourself enjoying your work and life, ideally with some beauties in them. There¡¯s a skill to it, figure it out for yourself. These posts aren¡¯t random; they¡¯re for your Flight Attendant to see, but it should look casual, as if it has nothing to do with her. It¡¯s about doing things without leaving traces. You know, the Standardized Training Student you¡¯re guiding is tall and pretty, right? Go play badminton with her, then post a few pictures, including some with both of you in the frame, and write something subtle. Let it prompt her imagination, you get it? Lead her thoughts.¡± ¡°But I don¡¯t understand, Mentor!¡± Fatty looked earnest, trying to follow Tang Shun¡¯s logic. After thinking a bit, Tang Shun said, ¡°Ah, it¡¯s hard to make up for a lack of natural ability with hard work. Here¡¯s what you do: post a few pictures of playing badminton, make sure the girl is featured, and add the caption: ¡®A fulfilling and beautiful day!¡¯ Make this moment viewable only to your Flight Attendant, her close friends, essentially anyone who might have the Flight Attendant¡¯s WeChat, and hide it from anyone else.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Just do it, and think about it later.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± Fatty took good notes. ¡°Got any more killer moves?¡± Fatty leaned halfway across the desk. Looking intently at his planning chart, Tang Shun said, ¡°A woman¡¯s needs fall into three categories: emotional, material, and physical. If a couple breaks up, it¡¯s certain that one or all of these areas were problematic. Similarly, a couple in a good relationship satisfies all three. Missing even one, they can¡¯t be truly happy. Analyze which area you¡¯re lacking with your Flight Attendant.¡± ¡°Definitely not the last one,¡± Fatty interjected immediately. Tang Shun chuckled, ¡°You don¡¯t need to explain anything to me. Judge your situation against this theory and make up for what¡¯s lacking. These three areas are like planks of wood; satisfying only one can win short-lived love, but it can¡¯t last long, even if that one aspect is particularly strong. It¡¯s an imbalanced relationship. To last, all three must meet the woman¡¯s expectations.¡± ¡°Now that you put it like that, I think I understand a bit,¡± Fatty said, as if he had an epiphany. ¡°This theory also applies to choosing your lifelong partner, so forgive my bluntness, but that flight attendant is not suitable for you. Just treat it as an experience. I think once the experience is enough, you both should go your separate ways and leave each other with some fond memories. You should go find someone suitable to marry,¡± Doctor Tang advised Liang Fatty on marriage. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Fatty pressed, eager to take advantage of the rare mood of his mentor to get a clear explanation. Doctor Tang shook his head, ¡°Think about it yourself. Don¡¯t sit in front of me and affect my work.¡± Having no other choice, Fatty had to leave the laboratory and return to the operating room. He felt a bit lonely and forlorn. Zhou Can, who ran into a dejected Liang Fatty, said, ¡°Lately, there are a few movies worth watching over the National Day holiday. How about we group together for a movie to lighten the mood?¡± ¡°Group together? With you?¡± Fatty said impatiently, not wanting to go. Zhou Can slapped the movie tickets into Fatty¡¯s hand: Are you going or not? Fatty immediately agreed, ¡°Let¡¯s go, let¡¯s go!¡± The girl¡¯s overbearing presence was unmistakable; Liang Fatty felt perfectly fine even after being slapped with the movie tickets. ¡°Get it together, will you? Just because she ignores you, you walk around all day as if you¡¯ve lost your spirit. You¡¯re a doctor, an expert, the best anesthesiologist. Remember your identity. There are so many things to do. You can¡¯t spend all day revolving around her like a doting fool,¡± Zhou Can sharply criticized Fatty. Fatty shook his head, thinking, ¡®Yeah, why should I be downbeat? I am the best specialist in anesthesia, saving lives every day,¡¯ and instantly his confidence soared. Just as Fatty was thinking about calling the flight attendant Xu Zhiliang went out on his honeymoon, Song Zimo held consultations at home, and the work at the Surgical Research Institute was not affected in the slightest. Yang Ping didn¡¯t go out anyway; he spent time at home with his wife and kids and showed up for work every day as usual. Sisi took advantage of the holiday to come to the hospital for a follow-up. The young girl had grown a lot taller. Due to changes in her illness, the frequency of her check-ups had increased considerably because the tumor seeds were spreading and growing wildly at all times. Surgical operations have a limited effect on tumors; they only work in the early stages of a tumor when surgery can completely remove it, achieving the goal of eliminating it entirely. But once past the early stage, when the tumor has spread, the scattered seeds in the body can revive at any time. Sisi was in good spirits, a benefit of having abandoned chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In cases where some tumors are not sensitive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, using these treatments recklessly can lead to more harm than good. However, there is a bit of an overuse of these treatments in the country at present. Regardless of whether the facts are acknowledged, it all comes down to economic benefits at the end of the day. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Sisi called out to Yang Ping immediately upon seeing him. Perhaps because she had grown up, she felt embarrassed to use the childish nickname of ¡®big brother¡¯ and, emulating adults, began addressing Yang Ping as Professor Yang. Yang Ping nodded with a smile, ¡°Are you on a holiday too?¡± ¡°Hmm, the holiday starts the day after tomorrow. We came today to complete the admission procedures so that we can be hospitalized starting from the holiday,¡± Sisi¡¯s mother explained. Sisi¡¯s minor check-ups could be done in the outpatient department, but the current round of examinations was costly, easily exceeding ten thousand yuan. There is hardly any reimbursement for outpatient services, but staying in the hospital for these examinations could lead to substantial reimbursement. The patient Dong Zhikai, who had the miraculous disappearance of his right femur, underwent a period of drug therapy and now it was time for a follow-up. Taking advantage of the holiday, his father, Dong Guanghan, brought him in for a checkup. Dong Guanghan had been disputing with the City People¡¯s Hospital, adamantly accusing them of stealing his son¡¯s kidney. Despite the dispute, he knew he had to get his child¡¯s treatment and still came to the Surgical Research Institute for treatment, fully aware of its necessity. After a period of treatment with zoledronic acid or denosumab, the follow-up results showed that the bone density had improved significantly, indicating effective drug therapy. The next step was to consider implanting a prosthesis. If the drug therapy hadn¡¯t worked, surgery would have been a frightening proposition as the porous bone quality wouldn¡¯t have been able to anchor the ends of the prosthesis, similar to how a mud wall cannot hold a nail. In Sanbo Hospital, Dong Guanghan had no chance of making extra money ¨C he was starting to understand that. But he was not going to let go of the City People¡¯s Hospital. With such an opportunity, how could he not try to profit from it? Dong Guanghan was known for exploiting others for financial gain, taking whatever he could, whenever he could. The Surgical Research Institute usually didn¡¯t carry out elective surgeries, but considering that nobody had plans to go out, some surgeries were scheduled. It was just that the number of operations was half the usual, with surgeries only arranged in the morning to give everyone the afternoon off. Chapter 1293 - 1293 986 Butterfly Effect ?Chapter 1293: Chapter 986: Butterfly Effect Chapter 1293: Chapter 986: Butterfly Effect The holiday arrived as scheduled, and for most people, it was an excellent opportunity to relax and spend quality time with family and friends. However, in the unique environment of a hospital, the arrival of the holiday didn¡¯t bring much change. Administrative staff could perhaps enjoy this rare break; they just needed to leave one person on general duty over the holiday while the rest could rest. But clinical doctors remained at their posts, with the majority still moving through the wards, ensuring the health and safety of their patients. The hospitalized patients wouldn¡¯t choose to be discharged just because of the holiday; their illnesses required continuous attention and treatment. Likewise, emergency cases wouldn¡¯t delay their onset just because of the holiday¡ªemergency visits might even surge due to unforeseen incidents. So apart from departments like psychology, dermatology, and dentistry that were relatively relaxed, other departments remained busy with emergencies, and doctors had to maintain normal medical operations while being ready for various sudden situations. The number of administrative staff at Sanbo Hospital was far less than the number of doctors, and their salaries were not as high as those of clinical doctors, which was unusual in the medical field. In most hospitals, there were typically more administrative staff than clinical doctors, with higher salaries since they dealt with the more technically demanding management work. During holidays, the vast administrative workload fell on one person, but experience showed that not only did this not affect the normal operation of a hospital, sometimes it even made things run more smoothly. This indicated the high quality of these administrative staff, where one person at a crucial time could do the work of hundreds or even thousands. But clinical doctors had not yet reached this level. If one backbone doctor from a department took a vacation, the department¡¯s workload would increase significantly. If several key doctors were off simultaneously, the department could almost collapse. And if it was the younger, lower-paid doctors taking leave, I¡¯m sorry, but there would be no one to attend to the beds, write medical records, or change medications, and work could not proceed. Dean Xia, as the head of the hospital, also did not choose to take a break. He intended to use the holiday to accomplish many things. Some doctors from Affiliated Hospital No. 4 wanted to switch jobs, and many had already begun to contact Sanbo Hospital; Dean Xia would take time during the holiday to have a good talk with them. This matter left Dean Xia feeling conflicted; he wanted to recruit these doctors who were decently skilled, yet he didn¡¯t want to be seen as poaching staff from a brother unit. So, for now, he only planned to initiate contact and would need to carefully plan for what came after. Speaking of Affiliated Hospital No. 4, Dean Xia felt helpless and angry. Over the years, the hospital¡¯s development had gotten progressively worse. Despite bearing the prestigious name tag of Nandu Medical University¡¯s Affiliated Hospital No. 4, it engaged in various shady practices, which would only lead to ruining its reputation if it continued. Among the several affiliated hospitals of Nandu Medical University, Affiliated Hospital No. 4 was considered the worst. For decades, it had been plagued by nepotism, rampant connections, and corruption, similar to the old City People¡¯s Hospital, and could be regarded as one of the two failures in Nandu Province¡¯s medical circle. If not for the monopolistic benefits brought by its prestigious name, such a hospital would have collapsed long ago. Yang Ping went to the administrative building to join Director Han for tea. Although Director Han was now only a nominal head of Major Orthopedic, he received a director-level treatment and had a private office in the administrative building. This was the so-called ¡°honored by association.¡± Pushing open the door of the administrative building, the receptionist immediately greeted him. The electronic screen on the wall behind the reception displayed that they would be working as usual during the National Day holiday, puzzling Yang Ping as he had never heard of administrative staff not taking official holidays. Could there be an inspection again? Better ask Director Han. Yang Ping continued forward, smoothly passing through the corridor to Director Han¡¯s office and gently pushing open the door, greeted by the faint aroma of tea¡ªthe familiar Longjing Tea that Director Han loved most. ¡°Director Han, were you waiting for me? The tea is already brewed,¡± Yang Ping said with a smile as he entered the office, his tone relaxed and friendly. Director Han sat beside the tea table, carefully arranging the tea set. He looked up, saw Yang Ping come in, and his face immediately brightened with a smile, ¡°You whippersnapper, you¡¯ve got quite the nose. Come, sit down. Let¡¯s have some tea and a chat. It¡¯s been a long time since you¡¯ve come to see this old man.¡± ¡°Age-wise, you can barely be considered old, but in terms of medical physiology, your vitality firmly places you as a young adult.¡± Yang Ping sat down opposite Director Han, received the cup of tea he was handed, and lightly sipped it. The fragrance of the tea instantly spread in his mouth, carrying a hint of sweetness and freshness as if it could wash away all fatigue. ¡°You slick young man, how is it? The tea¡¯s good, right? It¡¯s this year¡¯s new tea,¡± said Director Han, taking a sip himself. ¡°It tastes good, but why use such tiny cups for tea? It would be much better to have a big cup,¡± Yang Ping commented as he looked at the little teacup. ¡°You don¡¯t just drink tea, you taste it; and when you taste tea, you don¡¯t use a big cup. That would be the height of overindulgence,¡± laughed Director Han, his eyes filled with affection, ¡°You¡¯ve been so busy recently, haven¡¯t taken a break? The kid is easy to take care of, right? Your ¡®Shimu¡¯ wanted to come and help, but I told her you going would only add chaos. After all, they have an Academician¡¯s wife, a nursing director, and an authority in the nursing field of Nandu Province to help take care of the child.¡± Chapter 1294 - 1294 986 Butterfly Effect_2 ?Chapter 1294: 986 Chapter Butterfly Effect_2 Chapter 1294: 986 Chapter Butterfly Effect_2 ¡°Kids are easy to take care of, but the moment I stop operating, I feel a void in my heart,¡± said Yang Ping with a sigh. Director Han nodded in agreement, ¡°When I was younger, I felt just like you. Whenever I was busy, I would think how nice it would be to have a holiday, but after just one day of resting, I felt empty inside. It was only when I put on my surgical gown and held my surgical knife, standing at the operating table, that I felt a sense of solidity in my heart, as if life had value.¡± The two of them chatted like this while sipping tea. Director Han asked about Yang Ping¡¯s recent work situation, whether he had encountered any difficulties. Yang Ping answered each question in turn, occasionally cracking jokes that made Director Han laugh heartily. ¡°Director Han, I really have to thank you for where I am today. If it hadn¡¯t been for you¡ª¡± Yang Ping suddenly said, moved. Director Han shook his head upon hearing this, ¡°The one you should thank is yourself. You earned all this through your own efforts. Gold always shines. I merely spotted this piece of gold. If it weren¡¯t for me, someone else would have found you, this shining piece of gold.¡± The two continued their conversation as the tea aroma filled the air. Yang Ping remembered the notice he had seen at the front desk and asked, ¡°Why is the administration department planning to work without holidays now?¡± Director Han said, ¡°We¡¯ve received urgent notice¡ªthat there will be a special rectification work period, mainly for rectifying the emergency lanes in hospitals and the fire lanes in various units. This rectification is timely. I heard that just a few days ago, there was an incident in our emergency department where a luxury car was blocking the emergency lane. The owner was not only uncooperative in moving the car but also caused trouble and insulted the security guard. Such incidents are rare, but their nature is abhorrent and their impact very negative. We really need to rectify it. Do you know about the incident in the emergency department? I heard the woman involved had powerful connections, and calls were even made to Dean Xia.¡± So that¡¯s what happened, Yang Ping thought of the incident that morning, ¡°I know, I passed by the emergency department that morning.¡± ¡°Hmm, this isn¡¯t the only time it has happened; it¡¯s happened several times, and other hospitals have had similar incidents,¡± said Director Han angrily. Yang Ping asked, ¡°Was this rectification initiated by Dean Xia?¡± Director Han put down his teacup, ¡°No, this is a nationwide action.¡± Nationwide? Such a large scale? It seems that it¡¯s not an isolated case but a common phenomenon. Indeed, according to Yang Ping¡¯s observations, hospital emergency lanes being blocked, community fire lanes being occupied, highway vehicles crashing into emergency lanes¡ªthese lanes are lifesaving in critical moments, but people simply don¡¯t have this awareness. They occupy them whenever they want and even behave unreasonably, disregarding the rules. ¡°The woman who caused trouble in the emergency department was arrested and given administrative detention!¡± Director Han continued, ¡°The investigative department followed the clues, and like pulling a radish out of the soil, the bigwig who made that call was also disciplined. At the same time, our hospital¡¯s security staff have been commended for being brave enough to stand up to improper practices. This is exhilarating! Righteousness prevails over evil!¡± ¡°Such a big move this time? A national action?¡± Yang Ping asked again for confirmation. ¡°Yes!¡± confirmed Director Han, ¡°The police¡¯s public security and traffic officers, health departments, and urban management are all working together on this rectification. It starts from the National Day and will last for a month! Let¡¯s see who dares to occupy emergency lanes again. When I heard about it, I was furious. If you¡¯re unaware of the rules and occupy a spot, just move when security asks you to. Why throw a temper, why show off your power? These people need to be dealt with seriously; otherwise, they¡¯ll never learn their place.¡± Hearing this, Yang Ping thought back to his moment post that day, which just happened to mention such reprehensible behavior, using the occupation of emergency lanes as a springboard to talk about the issues with fire lanes and emergency vehicle lanes. Yang Ping subconsciously took out his phone to check his moment. It couldn¡¯t be because of his reflective post on life that this rectification storm was triggered, could it? It shouldn¡¯t be, his moment doesn¡¯t have that much influence. But it was so coincidental. Just a few days ago, he was complaining, and now they¡¯re saying there¡¯s a major rectification. Really too coincidental. Could this be the legendary butterfly effect? Is he the butterfly that triggered the storm? This is too coincidental! It seems that one must be careful with what is posted in moments from now on. But it¡¯s good that he always bases his posts on facts and posts them after careful thought, never sharing anything groundless. Yang Ping then thought about the jokes his colleagues would make at times, saying his moment had a strong killing intent, whenever he posted about Director Qian, Director Qian was immediately taken away, when he posted about Ou Lianfeng, Ou Lianfeng¡¯s issue was immediately resolved, and those involved and the responsible personnel were all dealt with according to the law. Thinking of this, Yang Ping clutched his phone and felt its heaviness¡ªcould his moments really hold so much power? Regardless, he resolved to be more cautious when posting moments in the future. It was a rare visit for Yang Ping, and he continued to chat with Director Han. They discussed various trivial matters of the hospital and also talked about the development and future of medicine. Director Han, an experienced doctor, had a profound understanding and passion for medicine. He told Yang Ping that medicine is not only a skill but also a responsibility and mission, asserting that doctors must possess a certain divinity. If a political teacher had spoken of such grand principles in his school days, Yang Ping would have dozed off on his desk, but hearing them from Director Han struck a completely different chord. Having worked at Sanbo Hospital for a while, whether it was Professor Zhang Zongshun, Director Han, or even Dean Xia, he had come to view them as very positive figures. While listening to Director Han¡¯s lofty ideas and sipping his tea, time slipped by unnoticed, and before they knew it, it was time to finish work. ¡°Won¡¯t these tea leaves get moldy if you don¡¯t drink them soon?¡± Yang Ping eyed Director Han¡¯s tea leaves. Director Han immediately packed up the tea leaves, ¡°It¡¯s not the rainy season; how could they get moldy? Don¡¯t worry, it won¡¯t happen.¡± ¡°Although it¡¯s not the rainy season, the coastal city still has moist sea breezes. You can¡¯t keep the tea leaves for too long or it¡¯d be a shame if they got moldy.¡± Yang Ping was concerned about the tea leaves and couldn¡¯t help thinking about taking some with him. Director Han warily placed the tea leaves in the cabinet, ¡°Rest assured, they absolutely will not get moldy.¡± Stingy. The tea had already been locked in the cabinet, but then Director Han thought better of it and opened the cabinet to take out a small box, ¡°This is all I have left, and you can¡¯t tell anyone. Old Zhao has been here several times, and I haven¡¯t offered any to him.¡± ¡®Hmm, thanks. It seems like there¡¯s still a lot more inside, right?¡± Yang Ping glanced at the cabinet¡¯s contents. Director Han¡¯s face fell, ¡°No, those are the moldy ones.¡± ¡°The moldy ones? Do you want me to help you throw them out too?¡± Yang Ping wasn¡¯t ready to give up. Director Han closed the cabinet, ¡°No need, I¡¯ll handle it. Dean Xia is looking for me for something, so let¡¯s leave it here for now. Come by more often when you¡¯re free.¡± ¡°Sure!¡± Yang Ping put away the box of tea. ¡°When you see Dean Xia and Old Zhao, don¡¯t mention I have new tea. They¡¯ve asked me several times, and I¡¯ve told them I didn¡¯t get any top-quality new tea this year, that it¡¯s been really hard to find.¡± Yang Ping was resolute in his response, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± After saying goodbye to Director Han and leaving his office, Yang Ping was spotted by Dean Xia before he could get out of the administrative building. The Dean pulled him into his office for more tea and chat. Dean Xia briefed Yang Ping on the recent restructuring efforts and inquired with concern about any difficulties Yang Ping faced at work. When the conversation turned to tea, Dean Xia complained about how Director Han had not managed to get any top-quality new tea this year. Yang Ping could only murmur in agreement to appease him, realizing Old Han was indeed good to him. There genuinely wasn¡¯t much of that top-quality new tea; he even kept it a secret from Dean Xia. Back in his department, Yang Ping remembered that he hadn¡¯t finished his afternoon rounds yet. So he went alone to check on the entire ward, paying special attention to the critical patients. He personally examined them and reviewed each patient¡¯s latest test results. He asked questions to the on-call doctor, only then did he feel at ease. No matter to what extent a doctor reaches, engaging with patients remains an unchanging principle. Chapter 1295 - 1295 987 Walking on Thin Ice ?Chapter 1295: Chapter 987: Walking on Thin Ice Chapter 1295: Chapter 987: Walking on Thin Ice Doctor Li Min took a break and returned to his original unit. Although his advanced training was not yet complete, he considered himself to return with a full load. At this moment, he felt both the excitement of his accomplished return and a deep attachment to this land. He stepped into the township hospital where he had worked for many years. Although small, the hospital bore the hopes of tens of thousands of local residents. There were only a few dozen doctors and nurses combined, two security guards, and along with administrative, logistics, and other staff, the total number barely exceeded thirty. Most doctors at the hospital held general practitioner licenses, dealing with cases ranging from internal medicine to surgery, from pediatrics to obstetrics and gynecology. Some held assistant doctor licenses, and there were even some without formal medical practice licenses. Although their presence perhaps did not fully comply with regulations, in practice, they were an indispensable part. The conditions of township hospitals were limited, especially in economically underdeveloped areas. To operate completely according to the medical standards and procedures of big cities was an almost impossible task. If they strictly adhered to those ¡°rules and regulations,¡± they would likely not even have enough staff to operate. Thus, doctors here were more like jacks-of-all-trades, trying to meet patients¡¯ needs and alleviate their diseases with limited resources. ¡°The expert from the Provincial City is back!¡± the Elderly Director, full of vigor and joy, burst out of his office. Taking three steps at a time, he nearly ran up to Li Min. The Elderly Director¡¯s face was flushed with health, and he looked spirited. He used to be unable to straighten his back and would walk dragging a leg, which made moving about particularly arduous. Now, that was all in the past; though not as quick as a young man, he moved with ease at least. Seeing this, Li Min also felt gratified. He smiled at the Elderly Director and said, ¡°Your back really has improved, hasn¡¯t it? You walk with such briskness, you look at least twenty years younger!¡± The Elderly Director laughed heartily, clapping Li Min on the shoulder and said, ¡°Just twenty years younger? That¡¯s conservative. Everyone says I have the back of a twenty-year-old now. But to tell the truth, ever since you treated my back last time, it has indeed gotten better day by day. Are you getting accustomed to your studies in the Provincial City?¡± His words brimmed with concern for Li Min. Li Min nodded and responded with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s been good, and I¡¯ve learned quite a lot. I¡¯ve brought some knowledge back to share, hoping it will help with our hospital¡¯s work.¡± The Elderly Director pulled Li Min into his office while several doctors came up to take Li Min¡¯s luggage. Li Min had also brought some specialty snacks from the Provincial City for everyone to taste, and he asked the doctors who were handling the luggage to distribute them. He also brought two bottles of fine wine for the Elderly Director. This wine was gifted by the magnate Wang Changxin during a dinner where everyone had to drink and take a bottle home. Li Min didn¡¯t even know what kind of wine it was. To bring this bottle back, he had to carpool in a private vehicle. The Elderly Director cradled the bottle of wine in his hands, examining it from all angles, ¡°Little Li, it seems my affection for you hasn¡¯t been in vain.¡± A few patients waiting for consultation also recognized Li Min and gathered enthusiastically at the door, greeting him warmly. This was the nature of township hospitals: the patients were all local villagers and, after working there a while, one would get to know all of them. One elder held Li Min¡¯s hand in gratitude and said, ¡°Doctor Li, you have finally come back. The medication you prescribed last time was very effective. This time, you must take another look for me.¡± Another mother, with her child in tow, also came up, ¡°Doctor Li, look at my child¡¯s deformed foot. Can you help? ¡± ¡°Doctor Li just got back and hasn¡¯t even settled in; let him rest,¡± one patient said aloud, and everyone immediately felt apologetic, holding their tongues and leaving the office with an understanding of the situation. ¡°There¡¯s no need to rush, everyone. I¡¯ll take a short rest and then start the outpatient clinic,¡± said Li Min, not planning to rest long and eager to get back to work. The Elderly Director said, ¡°Is there such a hurry? Start work tomorrow.¡± ¡°I¡¯m idle anyway, and I slept a few hours on the trip back,¡± said Li Min, wanting to make the most of every minute of his vacation. Facing the warmth and expectations of the villagers, Li Min felt the responsibility and mission of being a doctor. He knew that even though he had learned many advanced skills and knowledge in the Provincial City, what was more important here was how to translate that knowledge into practical, local solutions that would truly benefit those in need. In the township hospital, unlike big city hospitals, the principle of treating patients was to resolve issues as quickly and affordably as possible. A cure was ideal, symptomatic treatment was necessary when a cure wasn¡¯t viable, and if neither was achieved, it was essential to offer patients direction on where to seek treatment. In a grassroots hospital, the legendary ¡°miracle cures¡± often referred to the ¡°three medicinals and one IV,¡± steroids, antibiotics, vitamins, and an intravenous drip. These techniques were indeed very effective, and many doctors who spent too much time in big hospitals struggled in grassroots facilities because they did not grasp the needs of local patients, who desired quick and straightforward treatment plans. So, Li Min continually pondered how to adapt the knowledge he acquired in the Provincial City into treatment plans with local flavor, meaning township characteristics. For example, when strengthening nutrition, one could not ask patients to buy certain nutrients; instead, it was more practical to suggest something like eating a few eggs a day. ¡ª On the first day of the holiday, the news and moments from their phones all shared one feature¡ªtourist spots were crowded, and highways were jammed. Yang Ping was quite puzzled; how come Xia Shu going back to her hometown and the Head Nurse going on vacation were on the same highway? Even the scenic views on their moments were identical. Chapter 1296 - 1296 987 Walking on Thin Ice_2 ?Chapter 1296: Chapter 987: Walking on Thin Ice_2 Chapter 1296: Chapter 987: Walking on Thin Ice_2 Compared to the bustling crowd outside, the hospital ward was much quieter. When Yang Ping arrived at the ward, an elderly patient in her eighties was sitting at the nurse¡¯s station, insisting on being discharged. She had been trying to call her children without success and was sulking about it. A nurse beside her was gently persuading her, and after considerable effort, finally coaxed the patient back to her room. ¡°Wasn¡¯t this patient scheduled to be discharged before the holiday?¡± Yang Ping asked. The nurse shook her head and sighed, ¡°Their family originally said so, but on the 30th they called us and changed their mind, saying they would come to pick up the elderly after the holiday. When I pressed for a reason, they said they were traveling outside. In fact, the family had planned to leave the elderly in the hospital and go on their own trip before the holiday.¡± That explained it. Yang Ping understood the situation and instructed the nurse, ¡°Keep a closer eye on elderly, high-risk patients. Identify and handle any issues early.¡± In the doctor¡¯s office, aside from a few doctors on leave, everyone was present, remarkably with no one late. The sound of typing filled the air early in the morning. ¡°The Professor has arrived, get ready for the National Day grand rounds!¡± Song Zimo alerted everyone as soon as he saw Yang Ping. Yang Ping straightened his white gown, ¡°Let¡¯s go on rounds.¡± Immediately, the doctors in the office stood up in unison, following behind Yang Ping. His pace was steady, each step exuding a calm and poise that seemed beyond his years, his eyes radiating the sort of wisdom and serenity that comes with the years. Behind him followed a group of young doctors and interns, their expressions solemn as if partaking in a sacred ritual. Their eyes brimmed with a thirst for knowledge and a passion for medicine. ¡°No matter the time, engaging with patients is the most fundamental principle. Only by engaging with patients can you truly grasp firsthand information,¡± Yang Ping declared in a voice that was soft, yet powerful. In an era of rapidly advancing medical equipment, this fundamental principle of patient engagement had been scattered. Many doctors had either overlooked this or were unwilling to do it, especially surgeons, who often relied solely on an image to make decisions: surgery! The procession slowly entered the ward. The patient was a young man in his twenties, looking haggard but with a desire for life shining in his eyes. Seeing Yang Ping and the group of doctors coming in, he mustered a smile, reflecting deep trust and gratitude for his caregivers. The patient, who had a brainstem tumor, had come to Sanbo Hospital seeking Yang Ping for surgery. It was now a week post-operation, and his recovery was going well. Approaching the bedside, Yang Ping began a thorough inquiry into the patient¡¯s condition, leaving no detail unexamined. His words were gentle, kind, and clear, as if conversing with an old friend. At the same time, his experienced hands were conducting various neurological examinations, engaging in a silent conversation with the patient¡¯s body. ¡°Hmm, judging from your current condition, your recovery from surgery is going very well. I believe that in the near future, you will be able to return to work,¡± Yang Ping remarked as he continued his examination, then turned to the doctors behind him, ¡°Come and do a physical examination.¡± The young doctors stepped forward one after another, taking turns examining the patient. After completing the examinations, some furrowed their brows in thought, while others discussed quietly, each trying to capture any subtle signs of disease. The last to examine was Li Guodong. Not only did he check the patient¡¯s nervous system, but he also conducted a simple examination of other aspects. Holding his stethoscope, he listened intently to the patient¡¯s heartbeat, his gaze focused and serious, as if resonating with the patient¡¯s heartbeat. ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯ve noticed that the patient¡¯s heartbeat is irregular, sometimes fast, sometimes slow,¡± Doctor Li Guodong hesitated, then mustered his courage to say, because no one had ever mentioned such an anomaly before. Upon hearing this, Yang Ping¡¯s brows slightly furrowed, but then he displayed an encouraging smile, ¡°That¡¯s very good, your observation is meticulous, hence paying comprehensive attention to patients should become a habit. Focusing on key points is just basic; comprehensive attention is a higher form. Why did everyone just focus on the nervous system during the examination just now? The electrocardiogram monitor at the bedside hasn¡¯t been removed, has anyone paid attention to the electrocardiogram displayed on it, or do you think young people don¡¯t need to pay attention to these things?¡± Following that, Yang Ping explained in simple and understandable terms how to think comprehensively and in-depth in clinical practice. This included the latest medical research findings as well as his own clinical experience. The young doctors listened with keen interest, nodding in agreement or taking serious notes. Their eyes were filled with a thirst for knowledge and passion for medicine. ¡°Proceed with further cardiac examinations, complete them as soon as possible today,¡± Yang Ping gave his verbal instruction, and the attending doctor immediately took notes. ¡°Professor Yang, it really is strenuous for you to personally make ward rounds even during holidays,¡± a patient gratefully said, eyes filled with respect and gratitude for Yang Ping. Yang Ping smiled faintly, ¡°Diseases don¡¯t take holidays, so doctors can¡¯t have holidays either. It¡¯s determined by the nature of our work. We are just doing our job, rest assured. The surgery was very successful, after discharge you can work and live just like a normal person, make sure to have regular check-ups.¡± The patient nodded vigorously, ¡°Thank you, Professor Yang, thank you to all the doctors.¡± Originally, this patient had been deemed inoperable by many other hospitals. In desperation, while on a train, they overheard someone speaking about Sanbo Hospital, mentioning Professor Yang and his near-miraculous surgical abilities. The patient took note, and although it was a desperate shot in the dark, they came to the Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute, where surgery was not only possible but also successful. As the ward rounds continued, Yang Ping frequently stopped to explain the patient¡¯s condition and treatment plan to both the patient and their family in great detail. His tone was gentle yet confident, conveying medical precision while providing ample confidence and comfort to the patient and their family. The young doctors following Yang Ping also gained much, learning valuable medical knowledge and deeply comprehending the sense of responsibility and mission that comes with being a doctor. ¡°As doctors, we must constantly maintain a cautious attitude, just like walking on thin ice. That patient with the irregular heartbeat¡ªif we had not caught it, it¡¯s very likely they could have suffered a sudden death, so quickly complete the cardiac examination. If after the review there are no major issues, then all the better, but what if there are? It¡¯s a human life at stake, life is paramount! We must reverence life; although objectivity mistakes are inevitable, subjectively, we cannot afford to make mistakes. Others may err, but we cannot,¡± he stressed. Today¡¯s ward round lodged the phrase ¡°walking on thin ice¡± firmly in everyone¡¯s mind. After completing the ward rounds, Yang Ping didn¡¯t immediately leave the hospital. He returned to his office and began reviewing all the cases he had seen that day to check if there was anything he had missed. After several rounds of review confirming that he had considered everything that needed to be thought of, Yang Ping was reassured. Being a doctor is like this, always having the spirit of walking on thin ice. Meanwhile, the ward remained busy and orderly; other doctors and nurses also stood their ground at their respective posts, safeguarding patients¡¯ health and lives. Whether they rushed by or spoke softly, they all appeared focused and earnest. As night fell, the hospital gradually quieted down, but within this brightly lit building, there were still countless busy figures. They might have missed out on time with their families, but in Yang Ping¡¯s view, this was simply fulfilling their duties. There was no need to define these actions as noble or as sacrifices. It was just a job, and like any job, it has its principles, bottom line, and honors. If everyone could fulfill their duties, it would constitute the greatest progress of society. Chapter 1297 - 1297 988 Zhang Yidao ?Chapter 1297: Chapter 988 Zhang Yidao Chapter 1297: Chapter 988 Zhang Yidao When Yang Ping passed by the emergency department, he noticed a police car parked not far from the entrance. No more reckless drivers dared to park temporarily in the emergency lane¡ªtowing, points deduction, fines, plus a training test; a full package had ensured everyone stayed in line. After all, human nature is the same; it¡¯s the power of enforceable rules that matters. Drunk driving is a perfect example. When rules are strictly enforced, everyone suddenly becomes much more civilized. Compared to the past, although drunk driving still occurs, there¡¯s a general consensus that it¡¯s unacceptable and comes with a cost. On his way from the emergency department to his office, Yang Ping saw a bus parked in the hospital¡¯s large parking lot. Tang Shun was standing by the bus door, seemingly waiting for someone. Then, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman with a mixed-race boy about three or four years old approached. Tang Shun picked up the little boy, and the foreign woman hugged and kissed Tang Shun before they both boarded the bus. Back in the office, Zhang Lin was broadcasting the news about Tang Shun. According to Zhang Lin, Tang Shun had rented a bus from a travel agency, hired a driver and a tour guide, and brought his girlfriend and her group for a seven-day tour within the province. Zhang Lin mentioned that he had seen Tang Shun¡¯s American girlfriend, who was quite attractive and apparently a young professor in the Stem Cell Field in the United States. The child, though mixed-race, really resembled Tang Shun; there was no need for a paternity test¡ªundoubtedly Tang Shun¡¯s biological child. Zhang Lin let his words fly about wildly in the office, describing the appearance of Tang Shun¡¯s dozen girlfriends in great detail. He claimed their styles varied greatly, including mature women, young cute girls, innocent types, and American sporty sexiness¡ªTang Shun¡¯s numerous girlfriends were like a harmonious touring group, all sitting in one bus. All the girlfriends of Tang Shun were in the bus he had just seen? Yang Ping was once again flabbergasted by Tang Shun¡ªif Tang Shun weren¡¯t Yang Ping¡¯s friend, he would never believe such a thing could exist in this world. Indeed, the world is full of wonders. ¡°Did you see that?¡± Song Zimo suspected Zhang Lin might be spreading rumors. Although Tang Shun was a womanizer and had many girlfriends, it was impossible for them all to be traveling together in one vehicle. Zhang Lin took out his phone, ¡°Pictures are proof. I never spread false information. Look!¡± Immediately, everyone gathered around. Director Zhang indeed had proof, and not just one photo but many. ¡°The Americans are staying at Sanbo Hotel. I saw their family of three eating breakfast. Everyone else is staying in a different hotel. I saw it clearly when the car was waiting in the parking lot this morning,¡± Zhang Lin said, not conceding. ¡°You know it¡¯s a family of three?¡± Li Guodong also questioned. Zhang Lin pointed at the photo: ¡°Look at these features. Although mixed, the resemblance is still there, isn¡¯t he very similar to Tang Shun?¡± ¡°Did you sneak a photo?¡± Song Zimo was very displeased with Zhang Lin¡¯s actions. Zhang Lin was indifferent, ¡°It¡¯s just caring about a colleague, not sneak photography. Out of professional ethics, I felt responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the information.¡± ¡°What a waste not working in intelligence,¡± Song Zimo remarked as he moved aside and began browsing a journal. ¡°Keep going, keep going!¡± Someone egged on, ready for more gossip since it was a lighter workload during the holiday season. Director Zhang was rarely this enthusiastic. Encouraged by everyone¡¯s attention, Zhang Lin was invigorated. He glanced at Song Zimo, and seeing no strong objection, continued, ¡°According to my scientific and rigorous analysis, Dr. Xia is on a trip with the Head Nurse!¡± This news piqued everyone¡¯s interest, and they perked up their ears. Zhang Lin took out his mobile phone and opened his moment: ¡°Guys! Look, what¡¯s common in the photos in their moments? Many of the photos have the same background, just different angles. Look, this one was taken from a car window, obviously from adjacent seats. Coincidence, what do you think?¡± ¡°Wasn¡¯t Dr. Xia supposed to have gone back to his hometown? And the Head Nurse went on vacation!¡± A nurse chimed in. Zhang Lin responded, ¡°Contradictory? First a vacation, then go back to the hometown together, is there a contradiction?¡± ¡°No way, are you saying Dr. Xia and the Head Nurse have already¡ª?¡± The nurse gestured thumbs touching. Zhang Lin nodded mysteriously, making a calculating gesture, ¡°According to my scientific and rigorous analysis, it¡¯s just analysis for now, but we might be celebrating their wedding around New Year¡¯s.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t spread rumors,¡± Song Zimo cautioned again. Zhang Lin was still quite fearful of Song Zimo, ¡°Dr. Song, don¡¯t worry, I never spread baseless rumors. I have plenty of information to support my conclusions.¡± ¡°Look at this! They appear in the tea shop an average of 3.2 times a week, that¡¯s quite high, isn¡¯t it? The probability of identical moments is 60.4%, and this photo from the cinema, isn¡¯t the perspective almost the same? The number of times the Head Nurse helps Dr. Xia clean up after meals almost covers their work meals, and the ringtone for the Head Nurse in Dr. Xia¡¯s phone is unique¡ª,¡± Zhang Lin elaborated. Hearing Zhang Lin¡¯s analysis, Song Zimo was momentarily stunned. Not using him for intelligence was truly a waste of talent; the analysis was indeed well-founded. Noticing Yang Ping entering, Zhang Lin immediately stopped talking, and everyone else discreetly dispersed. Yang Ping didn¡¯t say much, as chatting a bit without affecting work was normal. He was eager to check on a patient with idiopathic resorption of the femur, Dong Zhikai, who hadn¡¯t undergone surgery yet, so he asked, ¡°Who¡¯s the attending doctor for Dong Zhikai?¡± ¡°Gone to the ward,¡± someone answered. Chapter 1299 - 1299 988 Zhang Yidao_3 ?Chapter 1299: 988 Chapter Zhang Yidao_3 Chapter 1299: 988 Chapter Zhang Yidao_3 However, Director Zhang¡¯s rough image did not affect his status in Nanqiao County; he was the first-rate surgeon in Nanqiao County¡¯s surgery field, known as Zhang Yidao. He had a generous nature, enjoyed making friends, so his social circle in Nanqiao was vast, familiar with people from all walks of life. The patient¡¯s family was in a dire economic situation. Director Zhang normally charged one thousand yuan for a surgery outside, so the patient¡¯s family scraped together just over nine hundred yuan, some even in pure currency, wrapped in newspaper and handed over to Director Zhang. Director Zhang took the money and then gave it back to the patient, ¡°I¡¯ve heard about your situation, let¡¯s forget about the surgery fee. I¡¯d just be wasting time during my holidays, so I might as well come over and perform the surgery for free. You keep the money, I¡¯ll operate on the patient free of charge.¡± The patient felt embarrassed and tried to insist, but Director Zhang got angry, ¡°You think money is abundant or what? Can¡¯t you understand human speech? I¡¯m offering to do the surgery for free, saving you a thousand yuan, how can you not understand that?¡± The Elderly Director was familiar with Director Zhang¡¯s temperament and immediately signaled the patient, who quickly put away the money without another word. A CT hung above the light box, and as Director Zhang picked his nose, he stared at the blurry CT film and said, ¡°This tumor isn¡¯t too difficult to handle, it¡¯s pretty clear on the film, just cut it out directly, see, all this mess needs to be cut out, and this part can¡¯t be saved, gotta cut it out¡ª¡± The doctors and patient¡¯s relatives by the side nodded continuously because they knew of Director Zhang¡¯s fame in Nanqiao, and whenever he spoke decisively about cutting, it meant the surgery would be manageable. ¡°You need to find me a good assistant, it¡¯s the holiday season now, and it¡¯s not easy for me to pull in people on my own, besides, nobody wants to work for free. You just need to provide someone who can cut and tie knots,¡± Director Zhang decided on the spot. The Elderly Director immediately recommended Li Min, ¡°Our Dr. Li is quite good, freshly returned from advanced training in the Provincial City.¡± Li Min! Director Zhang promptly turned to look at Li Min. He had been to this place before and was familiar with Li Min, ¡°Advanced training in the Provincial City? Which hospital?¡± ¡°Sanbo Hospital!¡± ¡°Oh, Sanbo has quite a booming development recently, but the old and established Affiliated Hospital No. 1 and No. 2 are still the best. Why didn¡¯t you go there? Just let me know, and I could have pulled some strings for you.¡± Director Zhang was someone who enjoyed helping others and was very enthusiastic. The Elderly Director explained for Li Min, ¡°It was specially arranged by the Provincial Hall. Our Dr. Li is a nationally recognized good doctor, and this was a reward from higher up, with all training expenses reimbursed.¡± ¡°Oh¡ª¡± In fact, Director Zhang rarely attended meetings or got involved with circles outside of the county town anymore, so he had heard about changes in the Provincial City from others, but his understanding was not thorough. The patient¡¯s CT scan was clearly taken with a secondhand CT scanner, which affected image quality. However, the general outline could still be made out ¨C a characteristic of grassroots hospitals where having the latest CT scanner models like big hospitals was unrealistic, and one couldn¡¯t simply retake an image if it was of poor quality. Li Min leaned in closer and saw that the tumor¡¯s blood vessels were very rich and numerous, also forming extensive adhesions with the surrounding area; the surgery was going to be very challenging, certainly not as simple as Director Zhang claimed. ¡°Director Zhang, this surgery might be difficult, look at all these blood vessels,¡± Li Min pointed at the images on the CT scan, his skill in reading films was now quite impressive. Director Zhang squinted at the CT images, unable to discern which parts were blood vessels after a long look; he only recognized a few major, named blood vessels from anatomy, but the ones Li Min was talking about were beyond his scope. ¡°No worries, just ligate all the small blood vessels when the time comes. I¡¯ve done many surgeries like this, rest assured, just be a good assistant to me.¡± Director Zhang had never really seen the details on a CT scan; at most, he could make out a large tumor in the abdomen next to major vessels, as for the supplying blood vessels of the tumor, unless it was an angiogram, they were not easily recognized, and if it wasn¡¯t for angiography, it really couldn¡¯t be made out at all. During the surgery, they¡¯d rely on experience to find each vessel and ligate them, this wouldn¡¯t be his first time performing such a surgery. What would a young person, just back from a short stint of advanced training, understand? Director Zhang had undergone advanced training himself, but to be clear, it was merely acting as an assistant in the operating room, observing surgeries without any hands-on opportunity. In Director Zhang¡¯s time, if one had a good relationship with the teaching mentor, one might get involved with some simple surgeries, but in the current medical environment, trainee doctors hardly ever had the chance to operate. Chapter 1300 - 1300 989 Major Bleeding ?Chapter 1300: Chapter 989: Major Bleeding Chapter 1300: Chapter 989: Major Bleeding Director Zhang¡¯s skills were indeed commendable, especially considering the conditions of a grassroots hospital. His ability to independently carry out major surgeries, such as radical surgery for liver cancer and other digestive tract tumors, was of great significance in remote county cities like Nanqiao. The inconvenient transportation in the mountain areas meant that transferring patients to a tier-three hospital in the city took at least two to three hours, so solving problems locally could alleviate a lot of the economic pressure for patients. This was also why the Shipo County People¡¯s Hospital managed to develop. The patient was a 50-year-old male with late-stage colon cancer, who had developed an obvious intestinal obstruction and thus required surgery. Due to economic conditions and the high reimbursement rate for the new rural cooperative medical care in township-level hospitals, the family decided to ask the elderly director for help in having the surgery at Guandu Hospital. Once the abdominal cavity was opened, Director Zhang¡¯s hands were swift, exhibiting the skill level one would expect from Zhang Yidao. He quickly located the tumor, using his fingers as a miraculous separator to begin blunt separation. Amid the commotion in the abdominal cavity and after several separations, Director Zhang quickly found the breakthrough for separating the tumor. ¡°Surgery is all about practice makes perfect, the more you do, the more skillful you become. There aren¡¯t any special tricks. How old were we when we graduated from secondary specialized school, 18! Started holding a scalpel at 18, imagine that. Nowadays, doctors are in their thirties before they start operating, how can their experience compare to ours?¡± As Director Zhang performed the surgery, he also taught Li Min. Old Zhang was very confident in his surgical skills and he deeply trusted experience. In his view, all the talk about papers, new techniques, and evidence-based medicine was bullshit. The real essence of surgery lay in hands-on skills, and traditional methods were the most reliable. Decades of clinical experience were worth more than anything. ¡°I¡¯ve also been to the provincial city for advanced training before and seen young doctors perform surgeries. Their hands holding the scalpel were like chicken claws, it was agonizing to watch.¡± ¡°Starting practice in their thirties, how could they ever get good?¡± Director Zhang continued lecturing regardless of whether Li Min responded or not. ¡°Director Zhang! Let¡¯s have dinner here today, how about a local chicken fried with tea oil?¡± The elderly director suggested, seeing Director Zhang¡¯s relaxed demeanor. Director Zhang directly refused, ¡°After I finish this surgery, I have a thyroid surgery to attend to at Crossroads Hospital. It¡¯s a relative of our hospital¡¯s logistics staff, so we¡¯ll have dinner another time.¡± Director Zhang was easy-going and straightforward, so when he declined like this, the elderly director didn¡¯t bring it up again. As the first assistant, Li Min appeared quite relaxed, tying knots and cutting sutures with ease. Such a surgery would have been beyond Li Min¡¯s capability as an assistant in the past, as he had never even seen it, let alone assisted. But now, Li Min had grown beyond recognition; such surgeries were nothing more than routine for him, considered within the batch of surgeries that Professor Yang had classified him as proficient. The proficiency demanded by Professor Yang was not ordinary. Although the training time was short, Li Min was, after all, a direct disciple of Professor Yang. About ten to fifteen minutes into the surgery, Director Zhang¡¯s hands began to slow down. He touched the pulsating aorta in the abdomen, then felt the tumor, ¡°My goodness, the tumor is adhered to the aorta. Let¡¯s see how the inferior vena cava is.¡± The inferior vena cava in the abdomen was also adhered to the tumor. Now what? The walls of the inferior vena cava were thin, and if the separation was careless, it could cause massive bleeding with no rescue measures available. Director Zhang might have looked rough on the outside, but he was meticulous at heart. He stopped the separation and began looking for a new breakthrough. His hands were still very agile, and he quickly found a thick, cord-like structure and gave it a squeeze. ¡°This can¡¯t be a blood vessel, right? Why is there such a thick blood vessel!¡± Director Zhang muttered to himself. Li Min looked at the location of Director Zhang¡¯s hands, which was right where a bundle of blood vessels supplying the tumor were located. They were adherent to each other and to the surrounding areas. From the tactile feedback, it was undoubtedly a bundle of blood vessels. If faced with this difficulty and retreating, it would clearly not fit Zhang Yidao¡¯s style. The reputation of Zhang Yidao was built surgery by surgery, not out of random claims. Since this was the pedicle of the blood vessels, Director Zhang decided to breakthrough from here; otherwise, they couldn¡¯t proceed with the surgery. He also had his own methods, which involved trusting his own tactile sense. Using fingers in coordination with tissue scissors, he touched repeatedly and then cut with the scissors. Bit by bit, he advanced, forging a path through mountains and building bridges over water ¨C this was Director Zhang¡¯s strategy. ¡°How much blood do we have on reserve?¡± asked Director Zhang. The elderly director brought a stool over to sit in a corner, ¡°Six units; it¡¯s inconvenient to get blood in a grassroots hospital, so we could only prepare this much.¡± Six units might suffice for an ordinary surgery, which very likely wouldn¡¯t require blood at all, but for this sort of surgery involving major blood vessels, six units might be inadequate in case of hemorrhage. Director Zhang paused briefly to think about the next step; with complex surgeries, he always took it one step at a time. He had gone through other dangerous surgeries before but had always managed to turn peril into safety. If the tumor was to be completely removed at present, it was necessary to separate the adhesions with the aorta and the inferior vena cava. Such a risk was too great, so it was better to step back. The parts of the tumor close to the blood vessels would be left in place, removing most of the other parts to resolve the symptoms of compression, thereby achieving the goal. ¡°Let¡¯s do it this way,¡± Director Zhang continued the separation, fingers working in concert with the tissue scissors, skilled and experienced. After great effort, Director Zhang managed to separate the cord-like structure entirely, by then already beginning to sweat from the forehead, ¡°Damn, it¡¯s quite tricky, but let¡¯s reduce the resection range. We¡¯ll remove most of the tumor to alleviate the compression symptoms and leave the rest for now, how does that sound?¡± Chapter 1301 - 1301 989 Major Bleeding_2 ?Chapter 1301: Chapter 989 Major Bleeding_2 Chapter 1301: Chapter 989 Major Bleeding_2 Director Zhang asked Li Min, as well as the Elderly Director. It was the Chief Surgeon¡¯s consistent practice to consult with everyone when encountering difficulties. Li Min felt that due to the tumor¡¯s abundant blood vessels, performing a complete resection would be safer. If they proceeded with partial resection as per Director Zhang¡¯s suggestion, it would inevitably involve the tumor¡¯s interior. With so many altered blood vessels inside, hemostasis would be a significant problem. The township hospital lacked various emergency equipment and couldn¡¯t handle unexpected outcomes. Therefore, they had to either give up the surgery now or perform a complete resection of the tumor; that was Li Min¡¯s judgment. The idea of doing a partial resection to alleviate the symptoms of intestinal obstruction was good, but it would be falling into a trap, as it would be very difficult to stop the bleeding during the operation, and a massive hemorrhage could endanger the patient¡¯s life. ¡°A complete resection is still safer. If we opt for partial resection, we can¡¯t control the bleeding from the tumor¡¯s cut surface. If we¡¯re not planning a complete resection, we might as well give up the surgery now,¡± Li Min offered his advice. Medicine is a science of facts, and human life is paramount; there¡¯s no room for any pretense. Thus, Li Min didn¡¯t agree with Director Zhang¡¯s viewpoint just to please him; he had to speak his own mind. Director Zhang consulted with everyone, hoping to find a way to step down. He raised the issue, and if everyone agreed, then that was the plan. But now Li Min disagreed. Director Zhang looked up, pausing his work: ¡°The adhesions inside are too severe, involving major vascular structures. I¡¯m afraid if we accidentally tear a blood vessel, we won¡¯t be able to control the situation. The patient is just over fifty, not too old. Better safe than sorry, let¡¯s be conservative.¡± ¡°I estimate we can¡¯t be conservative now, unless we stop the surgery and close the abdomen now.¡± Li Min was straightforward; his nature was candid, and the education he received at Sanbo Hospital was just the same. There¡¯s no time for pleasantries at critical moments on the operating table. Director Zhang hesitated for a moment. Closing up now felt like admitting defeat. Based on his experience, he judged that a partial resection would likely be fine, but still, he decided to be cautious: ¡°Turn on my phone, the unlock code is¡ª, find Director Peng¡¯s number, I¡¯ll talk to him about the situation.¡± Director Peng was the Head of General Surgery at the regional Sanbo Hospital. His hometown was Nanqiao County, and he was visiting there. Last night, Director Zhang and Director Peng had dinner together. Generally, as a department head, who doesn¡¯t have their own ¡°backing¡±? County hospitals usually connect with regional hospital experts through further training or pulling in a ¡°big shot¡± to maintain a steady relationship, in case there¡¯s a need for rescue or clean-up on any issue. And the ¡°backing¡± for regional hospitals usually comes from provincial hospitals, and for provincial hospitals, it¡¯s the top national hospitals. Many doctors at provincial hospitals graduated with a master¡¯s or doctorate from these top institutions, where their mentors are their ¡°backing¡±. The Patrolling Nurse helped to dial Director Peng¡¯s number. Director Zhang briefly explained the patient¡¯s situation over the phone and then instructed the doctors below to take photos of the CT images and medical records and send them to Director Peng¡¯s email. This practice of seeking guidance from one¡¯s ¡°backing¡± when encountering difficulties on the operating table and getting advice is quite common, especially in grassroots hospitals. Preoperative diagnosis is one thing; intraoperative conditions can be quite another. Some surgeries cannot be completed due to difficulties, leading to the abdomen being closed up directly. This so-called ¡°switch surgery¡± is when nothing is actually done, which is regrettably unavoidable. Of course, doctors try their best to prevent such ¡°switch surgeries.¡± Director Peng responded quickly, calling back in less than fifteen minutes: Avoid partial resection as much as possible. Although there were no angiographic CT images, the tumor¡¯s blood supply seemed abundant, which could cause unstoppable bleeding from the cut surface if resected. The rationale was simple, like a massive hemorrhage from the uterus during childbirth; if there¡¯s no other option, the only choice might be to perform a total hysterectomy. Director Zhang thought it over, calculating the next steps in his mind. Nobody took action; everyone¡¯s hands were outside the surgical area. Suddenly, a large amount of blood gushed out from the patient¡¯s abdominal cavity. Director Zhang, with his experience, also known as Zhang Yidao, wasn¡¯t called that for nothing; he quickly grabbed the upper segment of the aorta, while Li Min immediately used the suction device to remove the blood, cleaning the area thoroughly after some time. ¡°What are you doing? If you don¡¯t understand, don¡¯t mess around.¡± Director Zhang scolded, as everything had been going well, and he had stopped operating. The sudden occurrence made him think Li Min had fiddled with something on his own. Li Min immediately explained: ¡°I didn¡¯t touch anything just now.¡± The other assistants and the doctors below had all seen it; everyone stopped working, and Li Min¡¯s hands were resting inside the protective pouch on his chest, not involved in any action. Director Zhang, still holding the blood vessel, didn¡¯t pursue the matter further. ¡°Major vascular clamps.¡± Although Director Zhang lacked the theoretical knowledge to block the abdominal aorta, his experience was his trump card. In case of bleeding of unknown origin, he would first turn off the main switch and then look for the cause slowly, rather than foolishly searching everywhere for the bleeding point and wasting time. Experience is experience, but when experience is combined with theory, it becomes something different. For example, blockade of major vascular structures has its intricacies; where to block, for how long, and how to block are all things that need to be considered. However, Director Zhang didn¡¯t know these details; he only knew that doing so could stop the bleeding. ¡°Let me see, where is the bleeding? The blood is so bright red, it must be the aorta; no other blood vessels would be this dangerous. But where is the tear?¡± Director Zhang freed his hand to search for the blood vessels. By this time, Li Min had already deduced the location of the bleeding based on the signs that had just appeared. He offered his opinion: ¡°The tear is on the posterior side of the spot you just touched, where the cord connects to the aorta. The cord was the blood vessel supplying blood to the tumor directly from the aorta, possibly affected during the separation, and has now partially torn. The bleeding is merely high blood pressure forcing its way through a weak spot.¡± Director Zhang was somewhat irritated by the young Li Min offering guidance so freely, ¡°Theory is theory, and there¡¯s a big gap between theory and practice.¡± In such a bloody mess, you can still accurately pinpoint the bleeding site, talking as if it¡¯s the truth. However, Director Zhang still reached out to feel the location indicated by Li Min, but didn¡¯t find anything. Now dealing with a tear in a major vessel, the situation might be beyond his capabilities. He could have directly handled it before, but now there was no choice but to deal with it head-on. At the very least, he needed to stop the bleeding, otherwise the patient could die from blood loss. Director Peng called again: ¡°How is it now?¡± ¡°There¡¯s major bleeding, and I don¡¯t know the exact location of the bleed, but I¡¯m sure it¡¯s on the aorta. I¡¯m compressing the upper segment of the abdominal aorta to stop the bleeding, trying to locate the site of hemorrhage to repair it.¡± Director Zhang, who usually dreaded the heat, now had sweat continuously forming on his forehead and his back was drenched, with the patrolling nurse constantly wiping his sweat. ¡°A tear in the aorta?¡± Director Peng was surprised on the other end, ¡°Old Zhang, I¡¯m still in Nanqiao, not too far from you. Do you need a hand?¡± Director Peng was the head of a third-grade provincial hospital in the region, and a good brother to Director Zhang for more than a decade. At this time, he didn¡¯t beat around the bush. If the aorta was injured, it was unclear to what extent. If it were a simple matter of sewing a few stitches, perhaps Director Zhang could manage it somehow. However, if the tear was severe, Director Zhang¡¯s skills were simply insufficient. Handling major vascular surgery wasn¡¯t something just any hospital doctor could do, and even if Director Peng came, if the situation was really severe, he probably couldn¡¯t handle it either. Director Zhang couldn¡¯t ask for more: ¡°That would be ideal. The patient¡¯s vital signs are still stable; I will wait for you to arrive.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t panic, young man, a surgeon must have good mental composure,¡± Director Zhang gave Li Min an on-the-spot lesson, although Li Min wasn¡¯t panicking at all; it was Director Zhang himself whose forehead was covered with sweat. This time it had been an unexpected problem; they thought it was just a common abdominal cavity tumor, remove the tumor, clear the lymph nodes, and call it a day. They hadn¡¯t anticipated such complexity, nor did Director Zhang understand how the aorta could have torn. ¡°Director Peng from Sanbo Central Hospital is visiting relatives in Nanqiao. Let¡¯s wait for him to take a look, it¡¯s safer. How¡¯s the patient¡¯s blood pressure?¡± Director Zhang turned his head and spoke as he gestured to the patrolling nurse to wipe his sweat. The anesthesiologist immediately reported on the blood pressure, which had recently dropped a bit but was still considered normal. Fortunately, Director Zhang had timely blocked the aorta. ¡°You¡¯ve learned a new trick today, haven¡¯t you? Many people don¡¯t know how to manage this situation. Cutting off the aorta can stop the bleeding¡ªit¡¯s a tried-and-true method.¡± Director Zhang took a break while waiting for reinforcements to arrive. As long as the bleeding didn¡¯t continue, the patient¡¯s vital signs could be maintained at normal levels. ¡°We can¡¯t exceed half an hour of blocking at this site. If we move the clamping sign down by 5 centimeters, we can extend the blocking time to 45 minutes. We should aim to finish the fight within 45 minutes, otherwise let me have a look,¡± Li Min volunteered proactively. Director Zhang found his attitude of thinking himself an expert after just a few days of advanced training quite annoying: ¡°You¡¯re going to do this? There¡¯s a human life at stake on this table.¡± If it weren¡¯t for knowing Dr. Li¡¯s ¡°good doctor¡± status, Director Zhang would certainly have cursed him out, just trained for a short period, less than a year, and here he was, acting like an expert¡ªutterly ignorant of the broad picture, as if the decades I¡¯ve held a surgical knife were for nothing. Chapter 1302 - 1302 990 medical god possessed ?Chapter 1302: 990 medical god possessed Chapter 1302: 990 medical god possessed ¡°Time waits for no one. Should I take a look first? I received training in this area during my advanced studies, and I¡¯m confident,¡± Li Min suggested again. Director Zhang gave him a cold look, ¡°Stand down. Keep your cool, young man. Director Peng is fishing at a nearby reservoir. It¡¯s only a twenty-minute drive from here. Wait a bit longer.¡± The elderly director didn¡¯t dare say anything. Director Zhang was renowned in the county as a supremely skilled surgeon, boasting over thirty years of surgical experience, while Li Min had only just been sent for advanced training, which he hadn¡¯t even completed. It was obvious whom to trust, and this was no longer about sentiment. ¡°We could start by¡ª¡± Li Min eagerly persisted. Director Zhang cut him off, ¡°Why are you fussing so much? It¡¯s good for young people to have ideas, but surgery requires experience. There¡¯s a big gap between theory and practice, and being arrogant can be fatal.¡± Director Zhang had seen many examples of arrogance. A doctor in his department in his thirties went out for training and returned, ready to perform major surgeries broadly. However, after only conducting three surgeries, two needed to be salvaged by Director Zhang, and one was still entangled in legal proceedings. Other things could be left for young people to attempt, but not surgeries. ¡°Can the major vascular clamps be moved 5 centimeters downward?¡± Li Min still insisted. Seeing his persistence, Director Zhang, considering this was his territory, agreed to move the clamps. There would be no issue in shifting them down by 5 centimeters from the original position for an effective blockage before removing the initial vascular clamps. Checking the abdominal cavity and seeing no significant bleeding confirmed that this new position was also viable. A bit up or down, what difference does it make? Director Zhang thought. Since the effect was the same, he decided to listen to him, just to avoid any further nagging. Li Min checked the new blockage position, which could hold for 45 minutes and could be extended to 60 minutes if pushed to its limit. This reassured Li Min somewhat. If Director Peng truly could arrive within twenty minutes, the current situation wouldn¡¯t pose too much risk to the patient; otherwise, it could lead to ischemic necrosis of some organs. Just now, Li Min¡¯s requests to lead the surgery were frowned upon not only by Director Zhang but also by several other doctors from the hospital, who felt Li Min was overdoing it. This was completely at odds with his usually modest and cautious demeanor. Perhaps he was a bit carried away after his advanced training. Was this even a surgery he should be involved in? Both his level and rank were not sufficient, and if Director Zhang was apprehensive about the surgery, not to mention Li Min. At last, voices were heard outside, and the door to the operating room opened. Director Peng had arrived in his surgical gown. Director Zhang immediately said, ¡°Old Peng, scrub in!¡± Director Peng just glanced at the patient¡¯s surgical area and, after a brief update on the situation, followed the lead doctor to scrub in. The whole process appeared relaxed, a true mark of an expert. ¡°The fish in this reservoir are quite big,¡± Director Peng chatted while putting on his surgical gown. With Director Peng¡¯s support, Director Zhang naturally relaxed quite a bit, ¡°How did the battle go?¡± ¡°Three big fellows. Later, grilling them will definitely be delicious,¡± Director Peng replied. Director Peng put on his surgical gown and gloves. Director Zhang stepped back from the chief surgeon¡¯s position, and Li Min moved to the second assistant¡¯s position. Director Peng reached inside to feel around and clarified the situation: ¡°Still, you, Old Zhang, have the experience¡ªtimely blocking the aorta, or the consequences would have been unthinkable.¡± A few minutes later, Director Peng finally located the tear: ¡°The tear is not large, at the root of a branch of the aorta. Just a little repair will do.¡± At this moment, Director Peng breathed a sigh of relief. Despite his casual appearance upon arrival, he was somewhat nervous inside. If the tear in the aorta was small, a simple repair would suffice, which he could handle. But if the tear was substantial, a simple repair wouldn¡¯t solve the problem, and it would turn into a real major vascular surgery. At that point, even he would be out of his depth. Surgery was a very concrete matter. If it works, it works; if not, blustering through wouldn¡¯t help, unlike administrative duties where one could perhaps get away with being less precise. ¡°Do you have nylon thread? Nylon would be better, but silk thread will do too,¡± Director Peng wasn¡¯t demanding; his easy-going nature only made him seem more skilled. If the tear in the aorta was to be sutured, the blood vessels supplying the tumor emerging from the aorta had to be severed first, otherwise, they would obstruct the repair work. Therefore, Director Peng began separating these blood vessels. Due to severe adhesion, the separation was not an easy task. Director Peng¡¯s style differed from Director Zhang. While Director Zhang was completely self-taught, Director Peng was textbook-trained with meticulous techniques. He held forceps in one hand and tissue scissors in the other, carefully separating the area. Such adhesion zones are fraught with risks as carelessly injuring blood vessels could cause bleeding. ¡°Anesthesiologist, report the vital signs!¡± Director Peng asked. The anesthesiologist immediately reported the current vital signs, and the blood pressure was slightly below normal. After all, so much arterial blood had just been lost, definitely impacting blood pressure, but because of the timely hemostasis, no fatal damage occurred. ¡°How is the patient¡¯s heart function? All good?¡± Director Peng inquired. The attending doctor observing immediately responded, ¡°All good, normal.¡± ¡°Increase the fluid replacement. Use 0.9% saline, and quickly replenish the volume. How much blood is prepared?¡± ¡°Six units!¡± Six units? But it seemed sufficient for now. Director Peng commanded, ¡°Begin with two units of blood.¡± Director Peng, composed and expertly adept, was truly admirable. A triple-A hospital really is different. ¡°Elderly Director, I heard your back got better? Where did you have the surgery?¡± Director Peng had learned about the elderly director¡¯s situation from Director Zhang. Chapter 1303 - 1303 990 medical god possessed_2 ?Chapter 1303: 990 medical god possessed_2 Chapter 1303: 990 medical god possessed_2 The elderly director chuckled, ¡°Provincial City!¡± ¡°Which hospital?¡± ¡°Sanbo Hospital!¡± ¡°Sanbo Hospital? That¡¯s the Overseas Chinese Hospital, right?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s the Overseas Chinese Hospital.¡± ¡°Xiao Li is currently doing his advanced studies at Sanbo Hospital,¡± Director Zhang added. ¡°Oh¡ª, studying at Sanbo. You Sanbo Hospital is quite popular now. There¡¯s a young Professor Yang Ping, I heard he has won the Golden Knife Award and was recently named an Outstanding Young Talent? This Professor Yang is not even thirty yet, is he competent, can he really perform surgeries? I heard he is Academician Su¡¯s son-in-law through a swift marriage, is that true?¡± Director Peng asked while continuing the surgery. Li Min immediately responded, ¡°Professor Yang is my mentor, his surgical skills are extremely high, arguably world-class.¡± No one speaks ill of their own mentor; Director Peng remained noncommittal, giving only a faint smile. Not everyone believes the legends about Yang Ping, some still express doubts. Director Peng is one of them. After all, too much fame can attract controversy, especially after his marrying into the Su Family was publicized, it accentuated these suspicions. Whether it is envy or otherwise, there are always a few who will think this way. Particularly since Yang Ping had won the Golden Knife Award in orthopedics, orthopedics doctors generally do not question this, but those from other specialties might. Despite the availability of surgical videos, many couldn¡¯t be bothered to watch, the skepticism remained. ¡°Your mentor, huh,¡± Director Peng murmured, realizing he needed to be cautious with his words. In Director Peng¡¯s view, there was an element of exaggeration about Yang Ping: the Su son-in-law, the Su family being a renowned clan in Nandu. To elevate their son-in-law, what couldn¡¯t be orchestrated? ¡°Have you performed surgeries with him?¡± Director Peng asked curiously. ¡°Often. He directly mentors me, but nowadays most of the surgeries are done by other professors under him; he rarely does ordinary surgeries. He usually handles only the more complex, high-risk surgeries,¡± Li Min answered Director Peng¡¯s question truthfully. He¡¯s young but puts on quite the air, Director Peng thought to himself, though some thoughts remained unspoken. If Li Min weren¡¯t present, they could discuss more openly. With Li Min there, he still had reservations and didn¡¯t dare to fully express his opinions. ¡°They mentioned setting up an institute; what are they researching?¡± Before Director Peng could finish speaking, suddenly, a large amount of blood burst forth from the clean abdominal cavity. What was going on? Wasn¡¯t there an aortic clamp in place? Even an aortic blockage wasn¡¯t sufficient? Remaining calm, Director Peng, judging by the color of the blood, speculated it might be a tear in the inferior vena cava: ¡°Major vascular clamp!¡± However, taking the major vascular clamp from the instrumental nurse, Director Peng didn¡¯t know where to start. It was all adhesions, where was the rupture, where to block it? Even if blocking it higher up, where was the inferior vena cava now? Director Peng was utterly stumped. But an expert is an expert, remaining brave in an emergency: ¡°Lots of gauze! Lots of gauze!¡± Stuffing in gauze, lots of gauze, using packing and compression to stop the bleeding, it¡¯s a proven method in dealing with emergency bleeding in the abdominal and pelvic cavity, generally the last resort. From the color of the blood and the manner of bleeding, Li Min judged that there was both arterial and venous blood, likely the aorta had continued to tear along the original tear up and down, and the inferior vena cava had also torn. The tears in the blood vessels were likely to be exactly at the back, hard to detect, both tears likely actively expanding. This had truly become a major vascular surgery, something Director Peng was completely unable to manage. Only a few hospitals could perform such major vascular surgeries. With the abdomen filled with gauze, the blood pressure was still plummeting, showing that the packing was futile as copious amounts of blood visibly surged from every gap. ¡°Transfuse blood! Quick! Transfuse blood!¡± Seeing that packing was ineffective, Director Peng panicked, his usual composed expert demeanor gone. It was too sudden, too dangerous. ¡°Director Peng, may I take a look? We can¡¯t keep going like this, it will cost a life,¡± Li Min said without any reservation. For Li Min, major vascular surgery was among the ¡°set of surgeries¡± that Yang Ping required him to master, because encountering such surgeries was rare in township hospitals. However, such surgeries were of a lifesaving nature; if there were such patients nearby and he could perform the surgery, he could save a life. Hence, learning this was part of Yang Ping¡¯s plan for Li Min. ¡°You want to take a look?¡± Director Peng did not refuse since he was out of options and utterly bewildered, passively accepting Li Min¡¯s suggestion. Taking over, Li Min took a couple of seconds to roughly assess the bleeding situation, immediately requesting another clamp from the instrumental nurse, clamping at the uppermost segment of the abdominal aorta, then turning on several suction devices to remove the blood, examining and separating along the aorta downward. His surgical thought process was clear, and his movements extremely skillful. He quickly clarified the extent of the aorta¡¯s tear and also isolated the inferior vena cava, placing a major vascular clamp. Precise judgment, rapid actions, he quickly managed to stop the bleeding, pulling the patient from danger. Otherwise, with the bleeding like before, the patient was undoubtedly doomed. ¡°Can we find an artificial blood vessel for major vascular surgery? It¡¯d be even better if we could implant an artificial blood vessel.¡± Li Min asked Director Peng and Director Zhang. The two directors thought for a moment. Not to mention a county hospital, even the central hospitals in the city didn¡¯t perform major vascular surgeries; patients had to be sent to the provincial city. How could there be an artificial blood vessel? If they asked suppliers to help procure it, it would take at least several hours to arrive. Chapter 1304 - 1304 990 Medical God Possession_3 ?Chapter 1304: 990 Medical God Possession_3 Chapter 1304: 990 Medical God Possession_3 ¡°Nope, it would take hours to get the supplies,¡± Director Zhang felt apprehensive. Li Min realized that without extracorporeal circulation support, the patient couldn¡¯t possibly wait hours on the table. His mentor had taught him to consider how to rescue the patient¡¯s life in such special circumstances. ¡°Then I have to repair it!¡± Li Min declared. Through Li Min¡¯s examination, the tear in the blood vessels was extensive, but most of the vessel wall was still healthy, with only a small part invaded by the tumor. Most of the tear was neat, providing a fundamental basis for repair. Learning from Yang Ping, Li Min had transformed from a rookie into someone capable of handling complex issues effectively. ¡°Do we have nylon sutures? For suturing blood vessels?¡± Li Min asked. The elderly director, who was just frightened enough for his heart to race as he tiptoed to see the surgery, replied, ¡°We have nylon sutures, but I¡¯m not sure if they suit this vessel.¡± ¡°Bring all of them for me to see,¡± said Li Min, his expression clear and resolute, exhibiting the unmistakable presence of a chief surgeon. The patrolling nurse immediately took action, bringing all of the hospital¡¯s existing nylon sutures for Li Min to examine. Li Min chose a few packs that were passably suitable, for there was no room to be picky at that moment; one cannot expect everything to be standardized and handy like in big hospitals. Regarding the knowledge of various sutures, from the material and specifications to the techniques, Li Min was well trained by Yang Ping, so he was very familiar with how to cross-use some sutures and how to use them in scenarios they weren¡¯t normally meant for. Li Min began suturing the blood vessels with nylon threads, focusing first on the longitudinal tears, which were the primary concern. The transverse and irregular tears were concentrated around the tumor-infiltrated vessels at the junction of the aorta. The suturing technique was a bit flashy, quick, excellent, and steady. Director Zhang, assisting on the opposite side, watched Li Min¡¯s sleek suturing in awe¡ªthis probably represented his most direct realization of the skill level at Sanbo Hospital. Compared to Li Min¡¯s suturing skills, Director Zhang felt as though his decades of surgical experience were worthless. His past surgeries seemed as lousy as dog feces. A young doctor who had not even completed a year of advanced training could perform major vascular surgery¡ªLi Min¡¯s current level was unrivaled in the region. Even Director Peng couldn¡¯t match his skills. Was this young man really Li Min from Guandu Hospital? Directors Peng and Zhang had to look up and reassess Dr. Li in front of them, even suspecting a divine possession. ¡°Director Peng¡ªtrim the thread!¡± Li Min reminded the distracted Director Peng, who immediately snapped back to focus and continued to trim. In Li Min¡¯s eyes, Director Peng¡¯s thread trimming actions and results were substandard. Some were too long, some too short. Longer threads left more foreign material, and too short ones were likely to loosen. Proper standards weren¡¯t just for appearances; large sample statistics had shown that this method ensured the best results until new methods and standards emerged. Compared to Li Min¡¯s neat sutures, Director Peng¡¯s uneven threads were very noticeable. Director Peng felt deeply ashamed, his decades of surgical experience bested by less than a year of advanced training. Now in his fifties, he even contemplated further training since technology is limitless. The process flowed very smoothly. Li Min finished suturing the long longitudinal tear and now moved on to address the irregular tears. He furrowed his brows slightly¡ªthough he had already planned in his mind. Proactiveness and planning are essential qualities for a surgeon; they must not let emergencies lead them by the nose, staying ahead of the illness wherever possible to maintain control. He aimed to cut away the tumor-invaded part of the vessel and discard it, then perform end-to-end suturing. That was Li Min¡¯s plan, ensuring postoperative safety and detaching the tumor vessel from the aorta. After cutting away part of it, the aorta could still be sutured without tension¡ªa calculation Li Min had mastered. A person¡¯s abdominal aorta¡¯s length correlates with their height. From the height, one could calculate the length of the abdominal aorta, then remove a portion of the vessel and still suture it without tension. These data were not only committed to memory but also practiced repeatedly, so Li Min was confident. The surgery¡¯s level completely bewildered Director Zhang, who couldn¡¯t believe this was Li Min from Guandu Hospital; it was as if a divine force had taken over. Chapter 1305 - 1305 991 Li Yidao of Nanqiao ?Chapter 1305: Chapter 991: Li Yidao of Nanqiao Chapter 1305: Chapter 991: Li Yidao of Nanqiao Quickly, Li Min repaired the aorta and the inferior vena cava, both quickly and well. In fact, if ranked by the standards of the Surgical Research Institute, Li Min would be the lowest; his speed was also the slowest, trailing behind in the training of doctors, but a fish from the Pacific Ocean could easily be much larger than the biggest fish in a pond. After repairing the blood vessels, he released the clamps on the major vascular, and the aorta began to pulsate. Li Min carefully checked every suture to see if there were any weak links. Such stitches cannot have weak links, as they are prone to gather the force of the blood pressure, eventually tearing again and causing life-threatening risks. After a careful inspection, Li Min found no weak links, but for safety¡¯s sake, he decided to wait another ten minutes before continuing the work. Throughout the surgery, Li Min was very steady. After all, he was an apprentice taught by a world-class doctor. He omitted none of the surgical steps, advancing step by step. Although he was somewhat nervous at heart, by the end, he felt no trace of nervousness at all. The level Li Min demonstrated completely overshadowed Director Peng and Director Zhang, who watched, stunned and almost unable to believe their eyes. This was a doctor from a township hospital. The local doctors from Guandu Town were utterly baffled. Since when had Li Min become so formidable? In the past, his diligence and eagerness to learn placed him above everyone else, but even so, he had never exceeded the scope of a township hospital doctor¡¯s level. Now, Li Min¡¯s every move was that of an expert, smoothly handling surgeries that even Director Peng and Director Zhang couldn¡¯t manage. ¡°Artificial blood vessels would have been more reliable, but given our constraints, this repair should also hold well. Keep the blood pressure well-controlled over the next few days; it cannot go too high. After two weeks, there shouldn¡¯t be any major issues,¡± Li Min instructed the physician in charge. The physician in charge kept nodding, but the Elderly Director, dissatisfied with the physician in charge, said, ¡°Don¡¯t just listen, write it down. The memory is less reliable than a bad pen. What if you forget?¡± The physician in charge immediately scrambled to find a notebook, and the patrolling nurse handed over a piece of paper and a pen. The physician in charge hastily recorded what Li Min had just said onto the paper. ¡°Vital signs?¡± Li Min asked while his eyes darted to the monitor to check the data. The blood pressure was a bit low, 90/54mmHg, and the heart rate was also high at 108 beats per minute, but the rest were within normal ranges. This indicated that the patient, due to blood loss, had a significant deficiency in both blood volume and hemoglobin. However, the timely control of the situation had prevented further deterioration. ¡°Infuse the rest of the blood; Elderly Director, is there any way we can get more blood?¡± Li Min could only make the best choice given the objective conditions. Director Zhang immediately said, ¡°Take my phone, look for Director He in the contacts, that¡¯s the Director He from the blood bank. Let me talk to him and get him to send blood over urgently.¡± In the medical community of the county, not to mention other sectors, Director Zhang was well-connected. Every head of department was a friend of Director Zhang, and the Director of the blood bank was an even closer brother. Asking for his urgent help in sending blood was just a phone call away. As expected, Director He on the phone didn¡¯t hesitate and immediately promised to send blood in a special vehicle to Guandu Hospital, offering twelve units of packed red cells and twelve units of plasma, asking if it was enough. Director Zhang turned to ask Li Min if it was enough, and Li Min nodded. It was sufficient. This time, Director Zhang regained the confidence and poise of Nanqiao¡¯s Zhang Yidao from the act of acquiring blood. Indeed, being a Department Director in the medical industry wasn¡¯t just about technical skills; it involved a wealth of interpersonal relationships. Even if you were highly skilled, without good interpersonal relationships, at this moment, a blood bank head could delay, send less, or even refuse your request according to the rules. With the limited blood supply in the county, why should it be sent to your side? Interpersonal relationships are even more critical in small towns. For example, if Director Zhang encountered difficulties during surgery and needed to be saved from embarrassment, he had to find someone willing and able to assist. Or if a surgery had minor issues and the patient¡¯s family caused a disturbance, he needed to find someone to speak up for him. And if there were any inspections from above, he had to find someone to provide guidance and cover. Without interpersonal skills and relying only on technical ability was far from enough to be a Department Director. Some directors were not very skilled in performing surgeries, with some not conducting surgeries at all, mainly dealing with interpersonal matters and ensuring the smooth operation of the department. Those capable of providing blood, having already performed crossmatching and other tests, simply needed to send blood according to the original tests. Township hospitals were far from the county seat, which was inconvenient if a large amount of blood was needed for a rescue. However, given the patient¡¯s current situation, they could afford to wait. Li Min then instructed the anesthesiologist to supplement the patient with colloids, which would maintain volume over a longer period. Fluid replenishment was, indeed, a delicate matter. ¡°Let¡¯s continue with the tumor resection!¡± Li Min didn¡¯t plan on stopping. With four units of blood left to transfuse, it was enough to complete the tumor resection. If they gave up on the tumor resection and closed the abdomen now, it would be disadvantageous for the patient. Because Director Zhang had already made the first cut, and the tumor was still bleeding¡ªnot as vigorously as a major vascular rupture, but sustained bleeding over time could accumulate and lead to hemorrhagic shock. Chapter 1306 - 1306 991 Li Yidao of Nanqiao_2 ?Chapter 1306: Chapter 991: Li Yidao of Nanqiao_2 Chapter 1306: Chapter 991: Li Yidao of Nanqiao_2 The bleeding from the tumor was very difficult to control, so it was better to remove the tumor completely in order to achieve thorough hemostasis, thereby preventing future complications. Otherwise, it was quite possible for the patient to return to the ward and require a second emergency laparotomy to stop the bleeding in the middle of the night. ¡°Remove the tumor?¡± Not only Director Zhang but also Director Peng were trembling with fear, as they had just decided to give up on the tumor excision. Li Min explained the reason for the excision and also clarified that with the patient¡¯s current condition and the support of blood from four units, it was feasible to remove the tumor. The elderly director was also extremely surprised, suddenly feeling that Li Min was a stranger to him. Was this the level of a big city expert? How could he have improved so quickly, fast to a point that was a bit terrifying. What nobody knew was that during his time at the Surgical Research Institute, Li Min had been personally mentored by Yang Ping, and with the resources of the institute, one month of advanced training for Li Min was equivalent to several years of experience for an ordinary doctor. The accumulation of experience over time ultimately comes down to the number of cases handled, for example, in a county hospital, some cases may not be seen for several years, but at the Temple of Heaven Hospital, one day¡¯s cases could exceed over a decade¡¯s worth at a county hospital. During his time at the Surgical Research Institute, the variety of surgeries that Li Min performed far surpassed the types of surgeries Director Zhang had done in his decades of practice. Director Zhang often repeated the same cases over the years, while Li Min had exposure to a wide variety of cases. Yang Ping¡¯s training for Li Min had been the most scientific, starting with solid and proficient theoretical knowledge, then progressing to a lot of practice on experimental pigs, and finally taking the stage alongside Yang Ping and other professors. At last, under Yang Ping¡¯s guidance, Li Min took the lead in some surgeries; the entire process was very rigorous and advanced step by step. ¡°Have you worked on major vascular surgery during your training?¡± Director Peng asked in astonishment. Their hospital had not yet initiated major vascular surgery. Just now, during the case of major vascular tear, Director Peng could only help with an emergency blockage of the blood vessels, then send the patient to the provincial city in an ambulance, continuously administering blood transfusions en route. Whether the patient could be rescued was entirely up to luck. Just last year, they lost a patient with an Aortic Dissection in the emergency department. Li Min¡¯s hands didn¡¯t stop moving as he spoke, ¡°Many patients with Marfan syndrome have their surgeries done at Sanbo Hospital. Current major vascular surgeries are generally not performed by Professor Yang; they¡¯re done by the doctors below. For cases that are not extremely difficult, even the group leaders don¡¯t perform them much; it¡¯s usually the attending doctors. Professor Yang looks after me quite well, so I¡¯ve had many opportunities to practice hands-on. I¡¯ve probably done around fifty to sixty surgeries independently during this period.¡± Both directors were aghast; they had never touched major vascular surgery despite decades of practising, yet he had already been the chief surgeon in fifty to sixty cases. ¡°Are there a lot of surgeries over there?¡± ¡°Never-ending, absolutely non-stop. As long as you want to and are able to do them, you could go 24 hours a day without a break. I would start from eight in the morning and go until past eleven at night, day in and day out. If it weren¡¯t for taking a few days off, I would definitely be in the operating room every day.¡± ¡°If he¡¯s not doing major vascular surgeries, what kind of surgeries does Professor Yang perform?¡± ¡°Brainstem tumors, coronary artery bypasses, heart-lung transplants, extremely severe cases of scoliosis, upper cervical spine surgeries, and so on. Sometimes, he also does complex tumors involving the liver and pancreas, like the ex-vivo resection of a tumor involving the liver, pancreas, and duodenum followed by autotransplantation.¡± These were surgeries that the two directors had hardly encountered, as they specialized in general surgery. They were quite familiar with ex-vivo tumor resections and autologous organ transplantation of the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas, but such procedures were so specialized that there were only two or three institutions capable of performing them nationwide. ¡°Have you seen this type of surgery?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve served as the first assistant many times.¡± Both Director Zhang and Director Peng felt dizzy. Damn it, they had never even seen such a surgery; Director Peng had only read about it in academic journals, while Director Zhang, who typically ignored professional journals, had never even heard of it. ¡°How do you perform an ex-vivo resection?¡± Director Zhang was quite curious. ¡°You take out the liver, pancreas, duodenum along with the tumor, sometimes involving other organs as well, all in one go. You clean the tumor on the table, then transplant the organs back in.¡± Director Peng explained the procedure to Director Zhang, also showing off his own knowledge. Otherwise, it would be quite embarrassing if he couldn¡¯t explain a surgery that Li Min had assisted in multiple times. ¡°¡±¡± ¡°!!!¡± Director Zhang clicked his tongue, this surgery removed the liver, pancreas, and duodenum together, which is bigger and more difficult than a combined pancreas and duodenum resection, not to mention the subsequent autologous organ transplant. Just the thought of it was frightening. At this moment, Director Zhang felt like a fish king from a pond that had ventured into the ocean and encountered a small shark. For high-difficulty surgeries, Yang Ping required Li Min to be proficient only in the emergency type; non-emergency ones that could be transferred were completely transferable to higher-level hospitals. The training Yang Ping provided for Li Min was tailor-made based on his current grassroots nature, hence for emergency situations, such as even with major vascular surgery, Li Min must complete them proficiently on his own. Once such patients were encountered, there was hardly any chance for transfer. How quickly times have changed, Director Zhang remembered that during his advanced training, being able to manage an appendicitis was enough to make him secretly exuberant, and he would show off among his classmates for a while. Now, advanced trainees are even performing major vascular surgeries, truly a different era. Wasn¡¯t it said that the medical environment is poor now, and trainees are just doing miscellaneous tasks with hardly any opportunity to get hands-on experience? It seems rumors are rumors, not to be taken seriously. Li Min handled the tumor separation calmly and methodically, following the knowledge and skills learned during his regular training. Perhaps many things had already become habit for him. With both theory and practice at hand, Li Min was very confident. ¡°This kind of tumor is rich in blood vessels, and the vessels connected to it must be cut and ligated one by one to completely remove the tumor. Due to the invasive adhesion, this surgery is no easy task. Preoperative planning based on CT images is essential, otherwise it can be very passive,¡± Li Min explained as he operated. Director Peng and Director Zhang nodded continuously. When it came to reading CT and MRI images, they had only some basic skills and usually relied on reports; they found it very difficult to make comprehensive and accurate judgments independently without the reports. ¡°Tumor chief surgeon too?¡± Director Zhang was extremely curious. Li Min frankly said, ¡°The Oncology Surgical Research Institute rarely encounters such uncomplicated tumors, but the General Surgery Department does see a lot, and they look after me well, willing to give me the opportunity to train and learn whenever there¡¯s surgery.¡± Having just finished speaking, Li Min felt his words were inappropriate, possibly a bit hurtful, but he definitely didn¡¯t mean to harm anyone¡¯s dignity. He was simply answering the question truthfully while performing surgery, so his replies were natural without overthinking, a true expression of his thoughts. ¡°How¡¯s your level at Sanbo Hospital? I guess you¡¯re even better than those doctors with doctorate degrees?¡± Director Zhang, who had always looked down upon those highly educated young doctors with doctorates, thought they started practical work too late and were only theoretically strong. Li Min shook his head, ¡°The doctors at the Surgical Research Institute are all doctors with doctorates, I¡¯m nowhere near their level, and I don¡¯t know how many grades behind them I am. If they hadn¡¯t been patient in teaching me, where would I have learned these surgeries?¡± Those doctors are so formidable, and Li Min¡¯s current level is already impressive. If those doctors are better than Li Min, and Professor Yang is even more adept than those doctors and their teacher, what level is Professor Yang at, an immortal level? Had it not been for witnessing Li Min¡¯s surgery with their own eyes, both directors would have believed Li Min was boasting. Now that Li Min¡¯s skill was right in front of them, they had to believe even if they didn¡¯t want to. ¡°What other surgeries can you do?¡± Director Zhang continued to ask. Li Min thought briefly, ¡°I can perform all the basic surgeries of the General Surgery Department. I¡¯m not yet up to pancreaticoduodenectomy or organ transplant and the like, but other than that, there are no big issues.¡± The Elderly Director was delighted to see Li Min¡¯s current level of skill. Ah, this advanced training really paid off; no wonder Little Li insisted on going to Sanbo Hospital for further training. That hospital is a low-profile treasure trove. ¡°Dr. Li, Elderly Director! Let¡¯s go eat fish together later. I caught some grass-eating fish from the reservoir, very fresh. The chef at the farmhouse by the reservoir is particularly skilled at cooking fish,¡± Director Peng invited Li Min. Director Zhang also joined in, ¡°Yes, let¡¯s all go eat fish together. After that, we can have a good chat, Dr. Li. Once you return from your training, you¡¯ll be Nanqiao¡¯s Li Yidao.¡± It seems that the title of Zhang Yidao might not last. The waves of the Yangtze River push forward the new waves. The territory of Nanqiao is bound to be Li Yidao¡¯s world from now on, and Director Zhang couldn¡¯t help but feel a sense of melancholy as the late hero and the ruler changed hands. ¡°¡±¡± Chapter 1307 - 1307 992 The Most Modern Township Hospital ?Chapter 1307: Chapter 992: The Most Modern Township Hospital Chapter 1307: Chapter 992: The Most Modern Township Hospital The surgery was completed smoothly, and the patient¡¯s blood pressure was stable after surgery. If it weren¡¯t for Li Min¡¯s presence today, Director Zhang and Director Peng would definitely have taken a fall. There¡¯s an old saying, ¡°Stand beside the river long enough and you will eventually get your feet wet.¡± Now both directors profoundly understood the meaning of these words. Even though the surgery was finished, they were both still a bit shaken. During the patient¡¯s recovery from anesthesia, Director Zhang pulled Li Min over to the light box and asked him with frankness, ¡°Tell me how to read this CT scan. Normally, all I can see clearly are tumors and a couple of adjacent major organs; I can¡¯t make out any details.¡± The light box was somewhat old, and several of the bulbs inside were out, so the light wasn¡¯t very bright. Moreover, the CT images were taken with a second-hand, decommissioned machine, and they hadn¡¯t been well-preserved by the patient¡¯s family, so the image quality really was quite poor and difficult to interpret. However, this didn¡¯t pose a problem for Li Min. After all, he had gone through countless training sessions and was extremely adept at interpreting images, even deducing the unclear parts from what was visible. In clinical practice, how could every imaging picture be the best quality image taken by the latest machines and the most skilled technicians? It is necessary to make the best possible use of the materials at hand. ¡°These are adhesions. Look, their density is different from that of normal organs and the tumor. These are the tumor¡¯s blood supply vessels. Continuous cross-sections must be viewed in conjunction, with a complete anatomical structure in mind¡ª¡± Director Peng was able to understand quite a lot and could raise some credible questions, but Director Zhang was a little lost and could only nod along in agreement. Director Zhang¡¯s foundations weren¡¯t solid, so he didn¡¯t grasp the concept right away. He now rarely reads books and papers, seldom attends conferences, and his clinical knowledge and skills were all gained from practical experience. ¡°Look at this area, if you take a careful look, an inconspicuous aneurysm has formed. This is due to the tumor¡¯s invasion, which could potentially cause major blood vessels to tear during dissection, in a mechanism similar to aortic dissection tears¡ª¡± Li Min continued his explanation. Director Peng and Director Zhang listened attentively, one truly trying to take it to heart, while the other wanted to but just couldn¡¯t understand, not knowing what to look for. In fact, Old Zhang could make out something when looking at a CT scan, but when it came to MRI images, he was completely in the dark. In front of patients, he would just pretend to understand, fully relying on the written reports and diagnoses to make judgments. Once, Old Zhang¡¯s friend came to him with a knee MRI, asking what the problem was, without bringing the report. Old Zhang was clueless. He was a general surgeon and didn¡¯t know much about orthopedics. Now, without the report, what was he to do? So as he looked at the MRI images, he asked, ¡°You do have an injury here, what did the doctor tell you at the time?¡± ¡°The doctor said it¡¯s a cruciate ligament injury!¡± his friend replied. Old Zhang wondered, is it the anterior or the posterior cruciate? He didn¡¯t know how to read it at all. So he told his friend, ¡°Well, since it¡¯s a cruciate ligament injury, which is highly specialized, I¡¯ll ask an orthopedic doctor to take a look for you.¡± But when the orthopedic colleague came over, the first question was: where¡¯s the MRI report? Without the report, the orthopedic colleague was also at a loss. In fact, many orthopedic doctors don¡¯t know how to interpret MRIs; that¡¯s just the reality of things. However, the orthopedic doctor was quite shrewd. He immediately conducted a physical examination of the patient, which was very effective. With experience, the brother from orthopedics could tell what was wrong based on the examination, declaring confidently, ¡°You have an obvious anterior cruciate ligament injury. The posterior isn¡¯t as evident, but there¡¯s damage too.¡± This gave a more satisfactory, flaw-free conclusion. The patient continued to ask, ¡°What about the meniscus, collateral ligaments, and patellofemoral joint?¡± The orthopedic brother was completely confused, but he remained sincere: ¡°You should go back to the city and talk to the doctor who originally saw you; they¡¯ll know more about your condition. We don¡¯t see a lot of MRIs and lack experience with them.¡± After discussing it before the light box and then diverging to chat about other surgeries, both Director Zhang and Director Peng regarded Li Min as a true expert both in theory and in surgery; his position as Li Yidao of Nanqiao was now secured. Li Min¡¯s surgery at Guandu Hospital marked an important turning point in his career. This surgery not only tested his skills but also won him valuable reputation. The name Li Yidao, like a rising star, was set to ascend in the medical community of Nanqiao. Director Peng and Director Zhang invited Li Min and the Elderly Director to enjoy fish at a farm restaurant near the reservoir. Director Peng and Director Zhang conversed with Li Min in a most congenial manner, calling each other brothers. Although Li Min was a bit younger, the directors didn¡¯t mind at all. They were impressed by Li Min¡¯s skills and believed that the three brothers could work together to advance the medical field in the entire region. During the following vacations, Li Min performed many surgeries, each time exhibiting astounding skills and composure. His performance sent shockwaves throughout the entire hospital, and the doctors began to see Doctor Li Min in a new light. Of course, the Elderly Director was the happiest of all. He could now retire with peace of mind, knowing that with a doctor like Li Min, the future of Guandu Hospital was bound to be bright. Moreover, unlike other doctors, Li Min would not leave after acquiring skills. He was committed to serving the people in the mountain area, staying at Guandu Hospital. With Li Min at the helm, the hospital was destined to develop beyond everyone¡¯s imagination. With Li Min¡¯s skills, supplemented with adequate facilities, Guandu Hospital might even become a medical center for the surrounding mountainous area. Chapter 1308 - 1308 992 The Most Modern Township Hospital_2 ?Chapter 1308: Chapter 992 The Most Modern Township Hospital_2 Chapter 1308: Chapter 992 The Most Modern Township Hospital_2 The Elderly Director was pondering over how to establish a firm supportive relationship with Sanbo Hospital, but when the Elderly Director was hospitalized at Sanbo Hospital, Dean Xia had discussed this matter with him. However, many details had not been finalized since it was just a few days of hospitalization. This time, the Elderly Director earnestly wrote a letter of authorization, fully authorizing Li Min to go to Sanbo Hospital and negotiate the support issues, hoping Li Min would strive to secure more high-quality resources. Yang Ping was very satisfied with Li Min¡¯s learning outcomes during this period. Although Li Min had a weak foundation and was considered a latecomer in the Surgical Research Institute, his efforts and improvements were visible to all. As for Yang Ping¡¯s training requirements, Li Min generally managed to meet the standards through hard work. Yang Ping knew that effort could compensate for many things, and Li Min had proven that through his hard work. The training period was not long, only a year, but Yang Ping had dedicated much effort to develop Li Min. He had crafted a customized training plan for Li Min and personally oversaw the entire process. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang also provided auxiliary instruction, and their experience and guidance played a crucial role in Li Min¡¯s growth. The educational resources at Sanbo Hospital were arguably the best nationwide, with a specialized animal surgery laboratory used for training doctors¡¯ surgical skills. Numerous experimental pigs provided surgeons with precious hands-on opportunities, allowing them to improve their skills in a real surgical environment. If the virtual surgery training system was successfully developed, then Sanbo Hospital¡¯s three-level rocket training program would be officially established, and at that time, the doctors¡¯ growth rate would be much faster. A week-long holiday is neither too long nor too short. After a week, everyone resumed their normal work, but their hearts were still immersed in the joy and gains of the holiday, and they couldn¡¯t immediately refocus. Xu Zhiliang¡¯s honeymoon journey had also come to an end. Their wedding style was simple and contemporary, avoiding elaborate betrothal gifts or large banquets. Instead, they had a simple meal with both families, then embarked on a sweet honeymoon trip without any cumbersome burdens. Interestingly, it was said to be the bride¡¯s idea, making Xu Zhiliang¡¯s prepared betrothal money redundant. Tang Shun¡¯s family vacation had also concluded. His son from the United States was to return, and although they had spent only a week together, his son was reluctant to part ways with Tang Shun. Tang Shun¡¯s American girlfriend was also affectionate at their parting, embracing and kissing him, and several of his Japanese girlfriends were tearfully despondent. Fukunaga Yasuko told Tang Shun that she was pregnant and had decided to keep the child. It seems Tang Shun would soon have a Japanese son. After returning to Sanbo Hospital from Guandu Hospital, Li Min discussed the Elderly Director¡¯s ideas with Yang Ping, who had already been paying attention to the targeted assistance issues. Even without the targeted assistance, Guandu Hospital would receive significant aid. Yang Ping¡¯s regard for Li Min had also drawn the attention of Yang Ping¡¯s circle of friends, who began planning to donate equipment to Guandu Hospital, including CT scanners, MRIs, Surface Ultrasounds, and the like being on the list of donations. Other friends were starting to plan to donate funds, with some even expressing willingness to build a new hospital wing for Guandu Hospital ¨C not just in words but already beginning to act on it. If these friends¡¯ spontaneous contributions were to be combined into a plan, the entire support plan would not only include talent development and providing financial and hardware support; it would also include the construction of a new hospital area. They planned to turn Guandu Hospital into a small modern hospital, ¡°small but complete in every detail,¡± with all sorts of diagnostic equipment to be included in the support list. Nowadays, it is popular in the medical field to form medical groups, which typically means a large hospital leading and incorporating some primary care hospitals into its management scope to establish a medical group. In a sense, doing so could help enhance the medical technology at grassroots hospitals and promote their development and growth. However, in reality, things often changed during the execution process. The initial intention was good, but as time went on and various issues arose during the execution process, the medical conglomerates often turned into a channel for large hospitals to draw patients from smaller hospitals; meanwhile, the grassroots hospitals lost their own technical systems and became completely dependent on the support and help from the larger hospitals. Consequently, the grassroots hospitals did not truly develop or improve; instead, they lost their original positioning. Prior to joining the conglomerate, the small hospitals might have had their own technical systems, but after joining, they completely lost their own systems and became entirely dependent on the aid from the large hospitals. The directors and department heads were all assigned from the larger hospitals, and these positions were temporary, not meant for long-term tenure in one place. Some were even sent purely for training purposes. The intended opportunities for the grassroots hospitals were entirely captured by these doctors parachuted from the large hospitals, with the local doctors merely managing the patients and performing ancillary tasks. In reality, this expansion by larger hospitals didn¡¯t add anything new; it merely took away the resources originally owned by the grassroots hospitals, effectively using their already monopolistic position to expand their monopoly further. The goals of large hospitals and grassroots hospitals were not aligned; the large hospitals sought more patients while the small hospitals hoped for a helping hand from the larger hospitals. However, in practice, the dominant large hospitals often achieved their goals, while the small hospitals struggled to truly achieve theirs. However, Yang Ping did not want to proceed this way; he sincerely intended to help Guandu Hospital, and supporting Guandu Hospital financially was not an issue. Likewise, given Sanbo Hospital¡¯s technical capabilities, technical support also wasn¡¯t a problem. Therefore, none of these aspects were problematic, making the collaboration resemble a smoothly running machine. They were confident and capable of transforming Guandu Hospital into a modern, efficient, and distinctive grassroots medical institution, providing better healthcare services to the local residents. Li Min relayed this news to the Elderly Director, who couldn¡¯t stop smiling even in his sleep, imagining the scenery after the new hospital district was established: despite the hospital being small, it would possess all the essential equipment, and it would be a new district. What a joyous thing! How wonderful it would be to have an ambulance as well! Thus, the future Guandu Hospital will be the most modern township hospital. Li Min organized and brought the records of his surgeries at Guandu Hospital to Yang Ping, especially the detailed documents about the abdominal tumor surgery that he had performed for Director Zhang and Director Peng. He hoped to identify his shortcomings through Yang Ping¡¯s guidance and make improvements. As there was no intraoperative video available for reference, Li Min could only rely on his detailed written records and imaging from before and after the surgery to show Yang Ping the process and seek guidance. After carefully studying the materials provided by Li Min, Yang Ping offered some pointers. He thought that Li Min had handled the fundamentals well, not missing any critical steps, but suggested that he still needed to further improve and refine some details. Seeing that Li Min now had a decent grasp of the basics of surgery, Yang Ping felt it was time for him to be exposed to robotic surgeries. Even though grassroots hospitals currently lacked robotic surgery equipment, Yang Ping still hoped that Li Min could master this cutting-edge technology. Yang Ping believed that surgical robots were tools, just like laparoscopes. Regardless of whether they were used in actual work, it was essential to know how to operate them. Therefore, in the training program devised for Li Min, instruction on operating surgical robots was also included. Although the requirements weren¡¯t high¡ªjust that he proficiently master the operation of surgical robots and be able to be the chief surgeon for some typical, simple general surgeries¡ªit undoubtedly represented another advancement and challenge in Li Min¡¯s technical capabilities. Chapter 1309 - 1309 993 Tumor Department Consultation ?Chapter 1309: Chapter 993: Tumor Department Consultation Chapter 1309: Chapter 993: Tumor Department Consultation After the holiday, Xu Zhiliang was noticeably different than before. Instead of a bird¡¯s nest, his hair was now neatly combed, and he no longer wore the same old, worn jeans and T-shirt. This time, he was dressed very meticulously, although it was uncertain how long this improved image would last. Since returning, Tang Shun clearly looked haggard, constantly tapping rapidly on his cellphone. Sometimes, unable to keep up with the speed, he would sneak away to use voice input instead of typing. After all, it was difficult for the lab researchers to concentrate on their work, seeing him occasionally pull out his phone, especially since the family had just recently parted, which inevitably made it hard to let go. Li Min said he was on vacation, but in reality, he had been performing surgeries at Guandu Hospital for an entire week. He was also invited by Director Zhang to help with a few complicated cases at the county hospital. Of course, Li Min provided clear diagnoses and treatment plans for these complex cases on the spot. The Orthopedics Department at the county hospital, having heard that Director Zhang had invited an expert, brought several bags full of bulging CT and MRI scans to Yang Ping for review. The Radiology Department was not to be outdone, taking advantage of the high-level resource that Director Zhang had invited. They also sent over a stack of complex cases to the General Surgery Department. Li Min, an honest man without any trickery, did not refuse any visitors, methodically reading each scan and offering straightforward explanations, which actually solved many unresolved problems for other doctors. After speaking with Li Min, Song Zimo came in and said, ¡°There¡¯s a consultation in the Tumor Department, and they specifically asked for you to attend.¡± Song Zimo then added, ¡°It¡¯s a real consultation request personally issued by Director Jiang; he just called me.¡± There was a time when, at the slightest hint of a difficult case, the responsible doctor from any department would send out a consultation request to the Surgical Research Institute, clearly writing Yang Ping¡¯s name on it. This is what¡¯s known as a targeted consultation. Yang Ping would crisscross the hospital with a stack of consultation requests and realized that some cases were not actually complicated. These requests were sent out by the department doctors without the Department Director¡¯s review. To avoid wasting Yang Ping¡¯s energy, the Medical Services Office instituted a rule: consultation requests targeting Yang Ping must be personally issued by the Department Director. This was the only way to stop the indiscriminate issuance of targeted consultation requests, otherwise, the beloved Professor Yang would end up with only one thing to do at work¡ªconsultations, which would never end. Therefore, Song Zimo¡¯s additional comment was necessary. Since the Medical Services Office issued the directive, there were still bold individuals who faked the director¡¯s signature and issued targeted consultation requests for Professor Yang on their own. Generally, these were cases where the patient¡¯s condition was not serious or complex, but the doctor issuing the request had a special relationship with the patient. In such instances, doctors would dare to take the risk. If successful, the reward was great; if they failed, at most they would face criticism, so every so often, such daredevils would appear. Song Zimo handed the consultation request to Yang Ping, who briefly reviewed the summary of the illness on it. The symptoms were a jumbled mess, and the diagnoses listed were all uncertain. It seemed he might indeed be facing a troublesome case, so Yang Ping decided to set aside some time to see what it was all about. A consult in the Tumor Surgery Department, and they specifically requested Yang Ping¡¯s presence¡ªit looked like this case was not simple. Although he was very busy, considering that no illness is trivial, Yang Ping decided to personally check it out. Before setting off, he pulled up the patient¡¯s medical records on the computer for review, an essential step in the consult process. The Surgical Research Institute was housed in its own building, so there was some distance to the Internal Medicine building. Yang Ping picked up the consultation request and touched the Montblanc pen clipped to his white gown¡¯s left breast pocket before getting up and heading to the Internal Medicine building, followed by two young graduate students. Whenever Yang Ping went out for consultations, any doctors who were free and could go out would follow along. The young doctors followed with the pure aim to learn. Even if they couldn¡¯t understand or decipher some advanced concepts right now, prolonged exposure would naturally lead to comprehension. Yang Ping moved quickly, and the following doctors also hurried along. Among the two students, the taller one appeared relaxed, while the shorter one seemed visibly anxious and strained, for even with a fast, short-step jog, he struggled to keep up with Professor Yang¡¯s pace. Surgeons are like that¡ªa whirlwind in motion. There¡¯s no time for leisurely paces. In fact, in the hospital, one could recognize surgeons from internal doctors at a glance, without the need to see the badges on their chests. If they moved quickly with an air of urgency, as if racing against time, they were definitely surgeons. If they walked steadily, with a thoughtful expression, they were surely internal doctors¡ªalmost without exception. In the office of the Tumor Internal Department, Director Jiang was frowning; surrounded by several doctors, it seemed they were discussing a case. Clearly, Director Jiang¡¯s recent state of mind was not very good. The circle of sparse hair around his head was evidently thinner than before, and he looked as if he was suffering from a lack of sleep, under a lot of pressure as well. Upon seeing Yang Ping arrive, Director Jiang immediately stood up to greet him: ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Although Yang Ping was young, his status now made it perfectly appropriate for the director to stand up and address him as Professor Yang. ¡°Quick, go get the medical records!¡± Director Jiang ordered the doctors and then warmly invited Yang Ping to sit down. An agile young doctor had already brought a glass of water. Several doctors rushed out to fetch the medical records, as if bringing them to Professor Yang was a matter of great honor. Soon enough, the medical records were brought over to Yang Ping. He had already previewed the information on the computer, so having the physical records was merely a formality. For the consulting party, it conveyed meticulousness, while for the inviting party, it showed respect for the consulting doctor. Chapter 1310 - 1310 993 Tumor Department Consultation_2 ?Chapter 1310: Chapter 993: Tumor Department Consultation_2 Chapter 1310: Chapter 993: Tumor Department Consultation_2 It¡¯s inappropriate to have a cup of water next to you while reviewing a medical case; it¡¯s against the rules. So, without needing Yang Ping to say anything, someone had already helped to move the cup of water away. Yang Ping was examining the case, and indeed, this patient was a difficult one. The patient¡¯s name was Fu Xiaotao, quite young at just twenty-four years old. He was a student at Jiaotong University in Shanghai and had recently been admitted as a graduate student in his school. Unexpectedly, he was found to have this illness. He had been suffering from recurrent abdominal pain and had noticeably lost weight; he had general edema and lymph node enlargement for 8 months when he was admitted to the hospital. Initially, upon admission, he was alternating between comatose and lucid states. After treatment, he regained consciousness and had been in the hospital for two weeks, four of which were spent in the ICU. During his hospitalization, he had undergone repeated abdominal paracentesis and approximately 40 kilograms of ascites had been removed. From the test reports, at the time of admission, his liver, kidneys, and so on had already encountered severe dysfunction, and his immune function was severely disturbed. CT scans showed enlarged lymph nodes throughout his body, but no obvious primary tumor lesions were found in the liver or lungs. After a considerable amount of hormone therapy, his condition had started to improve, and there was a positive trend in his liver and kidney function indicators. Fu Xiaotao was from Nandu Province. Since he was studying in Shanghai, he had consulted in various hospitals across the city. Different hospitals had different considerations for his diagnosis: some thought of lymphoma, others systemic lupus erythematosus, some considered monocyte hyperactivity disorder, others suspected metastasis from an undetected malignant tumor to the lymph nodes, and some believed it to be a rare, unnamed autoimmune rheumatic disease. Those making these diagnoses were experts, and each of them had their reasons, yet the reasons were not sufficient, so none of these diagnoses became conclusive. In terms of treatment, there was no effective method. Every time he fell ill, he was treated with large doses of corticosteroids. Given Fu Xiaotao¡¯s current state, continuing his studies was out of the question. His family, unable to clarify his condition in Shanghai, felt compelled and helpless to bring the patient back home and look for other solutions. When Fu Xiaotao went off to study, he was in good health and was a sports champion at school, a main player on the school¡¯s soccer team, and even won the 5000-meter race at the school sports meeting. Now, his limbs had become as thin as twigs, and his feet were swollen like steamed buns, showing no trace of a sports champion. After bringing Fu Xiaotao home, his parents didn¡¯t know what to do. They could only let him rest at home and send him to the hospital for hormone treatment whenever his condition worsened. Beyond that, there was nothing they could do. But Fu Xiaotao himself was not disheartened. He searched for information online, not just casually browsing, but accessing some professional journal websites with his academic knowledge to look up treatments for his disease. Although he came up with nothing, he did learn some information: Sanbo Hospital was quite prominent, especially for difficult cases like his, so he came to Sanbo Hospital for treatment. ¡°Let¡¯s see the patient!¡± Yang Ping suggested, which is a basic step in the consultation process. Of course, there are those doctors who are in a hurry and don¡¯t see the patient during the consultation, writing the consultation form based solely on the patient¡¯s records. However, most doctors wouldn¡¯t do such a foolish thing, as the basic principle of clinical physicians is to interact with patients. The atmosphere in the oncology ward is generally quite somber. You can see patients everywhere wearing hats or wrapped up tightly, as chemotherapy and radiation have taken their hair. Some beauty-conscious patients, especially women, like to cover up their lost hair with hats. The treatments also damage their immune systems, so they are even more afraid of catching some bacterial viruses or being affected by cold. All the windows and balconies in the oncology ward are locked, making the entire space enclosed and adding to the oppressive atmosphere. The reason the doors and windows are locked isn¡¯t that the hospital doesn¡¯t want to give patients the freedom to go out and breathe fresh air. Oncology is special in that patients might suddenly decide to jump from a window, so to avoid trouble, many hospitals simply lock the doors and windows or open them regularly under supervision. Yang Ping arrived at the ward, where Fu Xiaotao lay curled up on the bed, his limbs as dry as kindling and his abdomen bulging, resembling a six-month pregnant woman. It was said that when he first arrived, he looked like he was eight months into pregnancy. His feet were swollen like steamed buns, and his thin skin now showed wrinkles, indicating that the swelling had been even worse before and that he was currently in a phase of subsiding. Sitting beside him were the worried parents of Fu Xiaotao, who had struggled to send their child to a 985 university, and he had even been admitted as a graduate student¡ªa classic success story of an overachieving family. But now, faced with their son¡¯s condition, they felt both heartache and discomfort, as if their dreams had shattered. They might have grown accustomed to the comings and goings of medical consultations at many hospitals, and thus, when Yang Ping and the doctor entered, Fu Xiaotao¡¯s parents showed no particular reaction. ¡°This is our Professor Yang!¡± Director Jiang introduced him personally, as if having another doctor do so would seem insufficient or impolite. Upon hearing the name Professor Yang, the patient¡¯s parents immediately stood up, squeezing a smile onto their worried faces, ¡°Professor Yang, hello.¡± They finally met the legendary Professor Yang. The spread of a doctor¡¯s reputation depends on two things¡ªword of mouth and academic papers. Among the general public, reputation spreads through word of mouth, but in the medical field, it spreads through academic papers. Of course, making appearances at academic conferences and giving lectures is also a way to become famous in the medical world. The more one appears, and the earlier in the sequence, the more likely they are to be remembered by peers. But, at the end of the day, it¡¯s still about the papers, because without excellent papers, doctors wouldn¡¯t get the chance to teach on stage; they could only be there as a faithful listener. Hearing the name Professor Yang, Fu Xiaotao, as if stimulated, immediately turned over and sat up, presenting his true face to Professor Yang. Before Professor Yang was introduced, the patient had been lying on his side, curled up with his back to them, silent; he too had become accustomed to the constant flow of doctors, and each visit ended with the same conclusion, ¡°Unable to diagnose, can only treat symptomatically with corticosteroids.¡± It seemed that this time would yield the same result, but upon hearing the name Professor Yang, Fu Xiaotao¡¯s hopes appeared to reignite. He respectfully greeted Yang Ping, ¡°Professor Yang!¡± This time was no different, and the patient¡¯s intermittent comas were terminated by a large dosage of corticosteroids, which allowed him to regain consciousness. Corticosteroids are a powerful all-purpose weapon in medicine, a final move by doctors when all else fails. Although the medical history was very detailed in the case file, Yang Ping preferred to ask about the medical history himself. Despite the consistency of the reports, the history elicited by different doctors varied, and that was certain. Yang Ping also was accustomed to conducting his own physical examination. While the patient¡¯s signs and symptoms remained the same, the ability to discern and quantify them was directly related to the physician¡¯s expertise. ¡°Frequent nocturnal awakenings from sleep, waking up drenched in sweat, clothes completely soaked, repetitive abdominal pain, fatigue, all the lymph nodes in the body inexplicably swelling, strange red swellings appearing on the skin¡ª¡± The patient was very familiar with his condition, able to list a multitude of symptoms without a second thought. It had been a full eight months since Fu Xiaotao first fell ill. When he initially complained to his parents about feeling unwell, they thought it was due to the stress of his graduate entrance exams and did not take it seriously, insisting on motivating him instead. It wasn¡¯t until the symptoms progressively worsened and became unbearable that Fu Xiaotao sought medical help on his own. Over these eight months, he had been intermittently seeking medical care, but each time, he couldn¡¯t find a definitive answer, relying instead on high doses of steroids to alleviate the symptoms. After such repeated experiences, Fu Xiaotao slowly lost faith in hospitals and doctors. Each visit would only provide temporary relief. He never expected to get a clear diagnosis, let alone a cure. Many diseases are incurable; such is reality. Chapter 1311 - 1311 994 Chance of Revenge ?Chapter 1311: Chapter 994 Chance of Revenge Chapter 1311: Chapter 994 Chance of Revenge But when he heard the name Yang Ping, Fu Xiaotao immediately perked up. And when the attending doctor told Fu Xiaotao that they were going to consult Professor Yang Ping, a nursing aide who was tidying up the bed of a discharged patient nearby casually commented, ¡°If Professor Yang takes a look, I reckon your illness won¡¯t be far from being cured.¡± Fu Xiaotao¡¯s parents, upon hearing what the aide said, began to inquire about Professor Yang. The aide, brimming with an ¡®ask-the-right-person¡¯ attitude, continued tidying the bed while spilling details like someone narrating legendary tales from the world of martial arts, with vivid and mysterious descriptions. True or false, the aide¡¯s words gave Fu Xiaotao and his parents a strong sense of anticipation. With a complex medical history that seemed to lack a main thread and various atypical symptoms pieced together, indeed, it looked like a rheumatologic immune disease. But ¡°looking like¡± was not enough to make a diagnosis, ¡°looking like¡± could only serve as a clue. Yang Ping now had no idea what the disease actually was. For an excellent doctor, when faced with a disease that is difficult to determine, there is still a heavy weapon to use: pathological diagnosis. Even an unnamed disease can reveal its pathological changes through pathology, thereby revealing the pathological mechanism and uncovering what disease it might be. Many new diseases were discovered through this method. So, Yang Ping decided to take a sample of the patient¡¯s enlarged lymph node for pathological examination, hoping to explore what exactly had happened through the pathological changes in the lymph node tissue. This was the most reliable and effective method. With the medical history taken, the physical examination, and the review of imaging completed, Yang Ping and the team returned to the doctors¡¯ office, he mulled over the situation as they walked. The diagnoses listed by the experts were not without basis; they represented the most logical judgment from their respective fields of specialization. In diagnostic medicine, there is a principle called monism, which is to try to explain all of a patient¡¯s symptoms with a single disease, because the likelihood of a patient suffering from one disease is much greater than multiple diseases. ¡°I suggest we perform a minor surgery to take a pathology slice from the enlarged lymph node and see what¡¯s really going on from a pathological perspective,¡± Yang Ping offered his opinion. Given the medical history, physical examination, and ancillary tests, it was not yet possible to determine what the disease was. Removing a lymph node for pathological examination might not solve the puzzle, but it was necessary at this point. A biopsy could be done instead, but biopsies sometimes fail to retrieve the actual pathological tissue and are not as reliable as directly surgically removing the lymph node. A single lymph node won¡¯t have entirely pathological tissue, so biopsy poses a big problem¡ªsuch a small biopsy needle makes it difficult to ensure that the tissue extracted is indeed pathological. Even multiple biopsies could miss the diagnosis, which is why some patients with lymphatic tumors have normal diagnoses after several biopsies. However, surgically removing the entire lymph node could completely prevent misdiagnosis. If many slices are made from the lymph node, there must be one that contains pathological tissue. If an enlarged and abnormal lymph node is taken and made entirely into pathology slices, theoretically, there¡¯s no chance of missing a diagnosis. ¡°Let¡¯s go with Professor Yang¡¯s suggestion.¡± Director Jiang expressed agreement. In fact, he had no other options. This was Director Jiang¡¯s last hope. Of course, if they still couldn¡¯t find out what the disease was, Director Jiang wouldn¡¯t feel any psychological burden since it¡¯s not unusual to be discharged without a clear diagnosis in internal medicine. Yang Ping pulled out his Montblanc pen from the upper left pocket of his white gown and smoothly wrote his consultation opinion on the form. His handwriting was not sloppy¡ªcompared to the flamboyant writing of other doctors, Yang Ping¡¯s writing was almost regular script, legible, with clear structure, which was very rare among doctors with many years of experience. The Montblanc pen was a small gift from August. Every doctor at the Surgical Research Institute had one. It was the symbol of the Institute, except Yang Ping¡¯s pen was a limited edition with his exclusive emblem: Docter Yang. ¡°Shall we do the procedure in the operating room, or what time would be convenient for you?¡± Director Jiang, an internal doctor, was not very clear on some of the specific procedures of surgery. Yang Ping replied, ¡°No need for the operating room. It can be done right here in your ward¡¯s treatment room under local anesthesia. You need to sign an informed consent form first, and then proceed with the operation. Do you have a dressing kit? We¡¯ll also need a syringe of 2% lidocaine and one of saline.¡± Many lymph nodes in the body are superficial and easily felt by most people. To find an obviously significant superficial lymph node, make a small incision, and within minutes, the entire lymph node can be cleanly removed, even if there¡¯s adhesion, which won¡¯t affect the speed of the surgery. Yang Ping looked at the student who had come with him. If there were someone experienced, he could let the student complete the task. But while two students had originally come with him, now there was only one. Where had the other gone? It turned out that one student walked too slowly and missed the elevator, then got pulled aside halfway by a doctor from another department to push patients. Now his whereabouts were unknown. The remaining student was a newcomer just starting a rotation at the Surgical Research Institute and was not yet skilled enough for this minor surgery. Yang Ping decided to do it himself. ¡°Let¡¯s get the stuff ready right away. I will remove the lymph node now,¡± urged Yang Ping to Director Jiang. Director Jiang was momentarily stunned. It was clear he had not anticipated a big shot like Yang Ping to personally perform such a minor procedure. Director Jiang was not slow to react; he was waiting for Yang Ping to delegate the task to another doctor, like the student with him or someone else. He had not expected Yang Ping to plan on doing it himself. Chapter 1312 - 1312 994 Chance for Revenge_2 ?Chapter 1312: Chapter 994: Chance for Revenge_2 Chapter 1312: Chapter 994: Chance for Revenge_2 The debridement pack, lidocaine, saline solution, and of course, sterile gloves, and sterile specimen bags, scalpel blades, these were all materials lacking in the internal medicine ward. Other than gloves, the rest needed to be temporarily allocated. Director Jiang issued the orders, and Fu Xiaotao¡¯s attending doctor and head nurse began to arrange for various dispatches. It was impossible to fetch materials from the warehouse on short notice; it¡¯s usually borrowed from surgery. In the borrowing process, due to the huge gap between internal medicine and surgery, people would occasionally come over to inquire what size of gloves were needed, powdered or powder-free, as well as the specifications of the blades ¨C whether scalpel blades, round knives, or bent knives were needed. Had it not been for Director Jiang already making the arrangements for the supplies, Professor Yang Ping would have simply made a call to have his own department¡¯s doctors or nurses bring over a complete set, which would have been faster. After many back-and-forth communications, the oncology team finally gathered the materials needed for the minor surgery. Of course, while they were arranging the materials, Professor Yang Ping was not idle. Drafting the surgery informed consent form and conducting the signature talks was personally undertaken, with Director Jiang standing by, unable to offer much help. The minor surgery was conducted in the ward¡¯s treatment room. The attending doctor wheeled in Fu Xiaotao, then helped him onto the treatment bed. ¡°You¡¯ll be my assistant!¡± Professor Yang Ping ordered the student who came along. The student, flattered by the request, immediately began to help. Probably due to nervousness, it took several minutes just to put on the gloves, and by the time the student was ready to assist, both gloves were crumpled. Professor Yang Ping¡¯s movements were extremely swift. After the local anesthesia, the knife was raised and immediately a lymph node was separated without any bleeding and dropped into the sterile specimen bag. Director Jiang watched the scene feeling something oddly familiar, as if having seen a similar scenario in childhood, yet couldn¡¯t recall it at the moment. Throughout the process, Fu Xiaotao felt no pain, feeling as if after lying down, everything was over. It was too quick; he even felt he hadn¡¯t found a comfortable position yet. The graduate student helped deliver the specimen directly to the Pathology Department. Doctor Wen Ruzheng was not in the department; Director Guan was there instead. Director Guan asked the graduate student which department was in such a hurry to send the specimen, to which the student replied that Professor Yang Ping had ordered it. Director Guan immediately had the pathology slice taken in and didn¡¯t forget to order, ¡°Let Wen Ruzheng handle this specimen, call him.¡± A specimen sent personally by Professor Yang Ping must certainly be another challenging case. Director Guan knew well that he wasn¡¯t up to dealing with these kinds of specimens, it was only Wen Ruzheng who could tackle them. Wen Ru might be a little odd in temperament, but he definitely had real talent. Director Guan had always cherished Wen Ruzheng and even intended to have him succeed as the department director. After arranging for the specimen, Director Guan had the graduate student convey a message to Professor Yang Ping: Wen Ruzheng would personally prepare and observe the pathology slides. After the consultation was over, Professor Yang Ping returned to his department. It would take some time for the pathology diagnosis to come out, even with Wen Ruzheng handling it exclusively, the results would be forthcoming after 24 hours. The next day, after 6 p.m., as Professor Yang Ping had just finished a surgery and was in the doctor¡¯s office discussing a case with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, he received a call from Wen Ruzheng: ¡°I¡¯ve figured it out, I¡¯ve seen it!¡± ¡°What have you figured out?¡± Professor Yang Ping asked him, but Wen Ruzheng on the other end of the phone was silent, acting mysteriously. Ever since the last time Wen Ruzheng lost a bet to Professor Yang Ping and subsequently had to run three laps around the hospital naked, he had been stoking his resolve for revenge. Apart from the time spent on daily necessities, he had devoted nearly all of his time to studying pathology. Today, he finally saw his opportunity for revenge. ¡°Video call! Bring Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang; are they there?¡± Wen Ruzheng said, if those two weren¡¯t there, they would have to reschedule the video call. Mysterious indeed! Professor Yang Ping called Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang: ¡°Let¡¯s head to the Pathology Department and see what Wen Ruzheng is up to.¡± So, the three of them arrived at the Pathology Department. Wen Ruzheng was lounging by a microscope, seemingly waiting for Professor Yang Ping¡¯s arrival: ¡°Professor Yang, please have a seat.¡± ¡°So, what¡¯s the situation with Fu Xiaotao¡¯s pathology slice? What did you find out?¡± Professor Yang Ping asked directly, not wanting to play any mysterious games with him. Wen Ruzheng wasn¡¯t in a hurry to answer, he just smiled enigmatically: ¡°No rush, no rush, Professor Yang, how about we make another bet this time? The same kind of bet as last time.¡± ¡°A bet? What bet?¡± Professor Yang Ping had already forgotten Wen Ruzheng¡¯s last streaking bet. With full confidence, Wen Ruzheng said: ¡°This patient¡¯s pathology slice, I have successfully deciphered. I am one hundred percent confident in my findings. If you can figure it out too, I lose. I¡¯ll run three laps naked around the hospital. If you can¡¯t, I¡¯m sorry; you¡¯ll run three laps naked. How about it?¡± Damn, this is about revenge. Professor Yang Ping finally understood why Wen Ruzheng was acting so secretive and had insisted on bringing Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang along ¨C he just wanted to recreate the previous scene. The thought of Professor Yang Ping running naked! Just the thought was thrilling. Ha-ha, Wen Ruzheng was already laughing heartily inside. ¡°What, you don¡¯t dare?¡± Wen Ruzheng unveiled his act of provocation at just the right moment, afraid that Yang Ping would back out at the last second and cause him to lose this perfect opportunity for revenge. He wanted to rise from where he had fallen¡ªthis time, Wen Ruzheng was determined to stand up with dignity. Wen Ruzheng thought to himself, if I may say so, there are very few hospitals in the world that could make out this pathology slice, and even in the United States, only institutions of the caliber of Mayo and Hopkins could possibly recognize it. My skills are not for show¡ªI¡¯m world-class now. In China, probably only two or three people could make it out. As a surgeon, Yang Ping does have impressive pathological knowledge, but it¡¯s hardly possible for it to reach this level. Professional barriers do exist; I¡¯m one hundred percent sure to win this bet. If Wen Ruzheng hadn¡¯t devoted himself to intense study recently, he might not have been able to make the right call. Opportunity, oh opportunity, it comes to those who are prepared. ¡°Let me take a look¡ª¡± Yang Ping thought to go over for a glance. Wen Ruzheng immediately stretched out his hand to stop Yang Ping, blocking him with his body in front of the microscope: ¡°Let¡¯s get this straight, are you betting or not? If you don¡¯t bet, it¡¯s the same as admitting defeat.¡± ¡°Wen Ruzheng, what are you playing at? Everyone is busy; we don¡¯t have time to fool around with you. Just tell us what the illness is,¡± Song Zimo said impatiently. Wen Ruzheng immediately responded unhappily, ¡°Young Master Song, what¡¯s the matter? Are all of you afraid? Did I, Wen Ruzheng, show fear last time? Even after losing, didn¡¯t I run around naked for three laps?¡± ¡°Well¡ªus¡ªbeing¡ªafraid¡ªis¡ªjust¡ªwe¡ªdon¡¯t want¡ª you¡ªto¡ªlose face again. we¡¯re all brothers, there¡¯s no need to be so¡ªcruel,¡± Xu Zhiliang said seriously to Wen Ruzheng. Song Zimo also persuaded him, ¡°Yeah, once is enough. Why go for it a second time? Unless you¡¯re telling us your muscle mass has improved recently and you want to show off.¡± On hearing this, Wen Ruzheng felt even more displeased: ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about me. I¡¯m willing to accept the consequences of the bet, what¡¯s the problem, do you dare to bet or not?¡± Song Zimo shook his head, having seen those who aren¡¯t afraid to die, but never one quite this unafraid: ¡°This time, no underwear allowed!¡± ¡°Done!¡± Wen Ruzheng agreed without a second thought. Sighing, Yang Ping said, ¡°Doctor Wen, given our relationship, must we really do this? Is there no room for compromise?¡± ¡°No! But rest assured, if I, Wen Ruzheng, lose again, I absolutely won¡¯t run away. I will run three laps around Sanbo Hospital without wearing underwear,¡± Wen Ruzheng declared emphatically. Yang Ping had no choice but to say, ¡°Okay, let¡¯s bet!¡± Only then did Wen Ruzheng step aside and let Yang Ping go to the microscope. Yang Ping sat down, glanced through it, and within less than a minute, said, ¡°Kasabach-Merritt syndrome!¡± Hearing the diagnosis from Yang Ping, Wen Ruzheng felt as if struck by lightning, petrified on the spot, hardly believing his ears. ¡°Buddy, pick your time, but remember, no underwear!¡± Song Zimo patted the petrified Wen Ruzheng on the shoulder, and the three, pressed for time and having obtained the result, left the Pathology Department straight away. ¡°Little Wen! Are you okay?¡± Director Guan came out of his office to find Wen Ruzheng sitting on the chair, motionless, his expression blank. ¡°Little Wen! Little Wen! Little Wen!¡± Director Guan called out three times, but Wen Ruzheng showed no reaction, which gave Director Guan a start. He immediately rushed over, fearing something might have happened since he was so still. ¡°Oh¡ªnothing!¡± Wen Ruzheng finally made a sound. ¡°You gave me a scare. I thought you had a stroke,¡± Director Guan took a deep breath. Chapter 1313 - 1313 995 The Doctor Does Things in A Very ?Chapter 1313: Chapter 995: The Doctor Does Things in A Very Doctorly Way Chapter 1313: Chapter 995: The Doctor Does Things in A Very Doctorly Way The typical pathological manifestation is the main basis for diagnosing Castleman¡¯s disease, and now the diagnostic criteria have become very clear, so the diagnosis has been naturally confirmed. Castleman¡¯s disease, discovered by Doctor Castleman in 1956 and named after him, is also known as giant lymph node hyperplasia, lying between benign and malignant tumors. It¡¯s a rare disease characterized by different clinical presentations and histopathological features of reactive lymphoid hyperplasia, with the most prominent feature being large abdominal and thoracic lymph node masses. The cause is still unknown, but current research suggests that the development of Castleman¡¯s disease is related to infection with human herpesvirus 8 and human immunodeficiency virus, immune system dysfunction, and excessive secretion of interleukin 6, among other factors. Its pathogenesis is not yet clear; it mainly presents as lymphoid tissue involvement, with the primary pathological change being chronic inflammatory cell stimulation causing reactive lymph node hyperplasia, leading to localized or systemic lymph node enlargement in patients. It is classified into unicentric and multicentric types based on the number of affected lymph nodes; unicentric type is limited to a single lymph node or a single region of enlarged lymph nodes. As the name suggests, multicentric type involves more than one lymph node and extends beyond a single region. The unicentric type is more common among individuals in their thirties and forties, often occurring in the head and neck area with fewer systemic symptoms. This type can be treated surgically, and the prognosis is relatively good. The multicentric type often occurs in people in their fifties and sixties, presenting with multiple enlarged lymph nodes and multiple organ involvement, accompanied by long-term fever, weight loss, night sweats, and general metabolic symptoms such as fatigue, anemia, and hypergammaglobulinemia. This type often has complex conditions and a poor prognosis. Diagnosis of this disease relies on pathological biopsy. If surgical resection is possible, it should be done; if complete resection is not possible by surgery, chemotherapy is the preferred treatment method. Director Jiang personally brought the pathology report to the ward. When Fu Xiaotao heard the name of the disease he had contracted, he felt a sense of relief. Regardless of whether the disease could be cured, at least now he knew what was wrong, which was certainly better than being in the dark. Fu Xiaotao¡¯s parents also felt hopeful at this time. They had been distressed and regretful because their son was sick, but now that they finally understood the illness, might there be a chance for recovery? At least now they could hold onto a thought, unlike before when they didn¡¯t even know the nature of the disease. However, things were not as good as imagined. Fu Xiaotao had the multicentric type of Castleman¡¯s disease, which has a very poor prognosis¡ªreportedly, very few people live over two years. Therefore, the news Director Jiang brought was mixed. Once the diagnosis was clear, the next step was treatment. The difficulty in internal medicine lies not in treatment, but in diagnosis, while in surgery, the diagnosis is easy but performing the surgery is challenging. For surgeons, diagnosis is usually easy to clarify, but the same disease can have vastly varying outcomes depending on the surgeon. Internal doctors are different; they spend great energy on diagnosis, and once that is clear, there are guidelines available for treatment, so there isn¡¯t much difference among them. Even for rare diseases, there are treatment guidelines, but these are generally outdated. However, for safety reasons, most doctors prefer to follow guidelines, regardless of their effect, because by doing so, there is no fault in the outcome. Should they use a novel method not included in the guidelines, there is a risk of complications. ¡°Let¡¯s try Rituximab first to see the effect, and if that doesn¡¯t work, we¡¯ll move on to chemotherapy,¡± Director Jiang told Fu Xiaotao. ¡°Chemotherapy? Is this a tumor?¡± Fu Xiaotao¡¯s parents immediately became alert. Director Jiang explained, ¡°This disease is in between benign and malignant tumors. At least we now know what it is and how to treat it, but as for the treatment outcome, no one can draw any conclusions now.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s give it a try,¡± said Fu Xiaotao¡¯s mother, taking it in stride. Compared to the past confusion, this was a significant improvement. But Fu Xiaotao¡¯s father wasn¡¯t as optimistic. He felt the situation was worse now. Previously, not knowing the disease meant only that it was worrisome, not yet despairing. Now, knowing what it was, with a very slim chance of recovery, the feeling was one of despair. Fu Xiaotao was different from both his parents. While undergoing tests, he saw Luo Jin¡¯s posters in the hallway. Fu Xiaotao knew Luo Jin¡¯s inspiring story; a role model¡¯s spirit is infinitely powerful. Fu Xiaotao was determined to fight like Luo Jin, to strive with 200 percent effort for even the slightest hope. ¡°Let¡¯s go with your treatment plan. Can I see Professor Yang again?¡± Fu Xiaotao asked. Director Jiang responded, ¡°I¡¯ll contact him for you; he¡¯s very busy, so the time is not certain yet.¡± ¡ª Wen Ruzheng¡¯s confidence in handling Castleman¡¯s disease is justifiable because, to date, there have only been a handful of cases reported. Although the reported cases are in single digits, the actual incidence in the population is far greater because the majority of doctors do not recognize the disease, meaning these patients have never been diagnosed correctly. Doctor Wen, diligent in his pathological studies, would read a vast amount of literature daily and knew the histopathological features of various rare diseases, whether in text or image, like the back of his hand. Unexpectedly, Wen Ruzheng encountered such a rare disease, which was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. However, it was all shattered in less than a minute by Yang Ping. Chapter 1314 - 1314 995 The Doctor Does Things in a Very ?Chapter 1314: Chapter 995: The Doctor Does Things in a Very Doctor-like Manner_2 Chapter 1314: Chapter 995: The Doctor Does Things in a Very Doctor-like Manner_2 Wen Ruzheng estimated that when Yang Ping looked at the pathology slice, it really hadn¡¯t taken more than a minute, and God knows, guessing shouldn¡¯t be that fast either. The next morning, during the early shift change at the Pathology Department, Wen Ruzheng reported to everyone about this immensely valuable classic pathology slice. He was supposed to be incredibly proud, but he was listless instead, making the entire reporting process seem dull and uninteresting. This was definitely not Doctor Wen¡¯s usual demeanor, because when Doctor Wen discussed pathology slices, especially those of great value, he was animated, eloquent, and could talk for three days and nights without repeating himself. Today, Doctor Wen, holding such a rare pathology slice, had wrapped it up in a boring talk of just ten minutes or so, what was going on. Everyone speculated that Doctor Wen must have been hit by something, but what could it be that would get to a man who once dared to streak? Heartbreak, it must be heartbreak. It was very likely that Doctor Wen had faced an unprecedented failure in pursuing the female doctor from the Tumor Department. Heartbreak is a painful thing, especially in the short term. His colleagues all guessed this because they couldn¡¯t imagine anything else that would make him so downcast. After the early shift change, Director Guan subtly inquired about Wen Ruzheng¡¯s situation from colleagues, wondering why the healthy young chap had become as lifeless as wood. Everyone agreed that the problem lay with personal emotions. To unravel the knot in Doctor Wen¡¯s heart, Director Guan called Wen Ruzheng into his office, closed the door, poured him a glass of water, and Wen Ruzheng mechanically took the cup and placed it on the table, not uttering a word. ¡°Young Wen, you¡¯re still young, don¡¯t let one tree block your view of the forest, it¡¯s no fun to lock yourself in a small space. Current young people aren¡¯t they all dating around? Wasn¡¯t I the same back in my day, after dating a few, I made it.¡± Director Guan used himself as the protagonist of the story, inventing some so-called experiences to guide Doctor Wen, primarily because he felt it would easily resonate with Doctor Wen and have an immediate effect. ¡°A real man can both take and let go. Back then I had it worse than you, chasing a girl for several years, only to have her marry someone else. Don¡¯t I still live well now? Have you ever seen me down?¡± Wen Ruzheng looked up at Director Guan: ¡°That happened decades ago for you, of course you¡¯re fine now.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s a recent event!¡± blurted out Director Guan. Wen Ruzheng immediately perked up and stared at Director Guan, which gave the director a frisson of concern, but at least the young man now had a spark in his eyes. ¡°All good now? Come to your senses.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve always been clear headed; I wasn¡¯t afraid to streak last time, so why would I be afraid now? I just can¡¯t understand, Professor Yang doesn¡¯t hang around the Pathology Department normally, how could he be so talented? How could he figure it out?¡± Wen Ruzheng took a sip of water as he spoke. Director Guan was completely baffled: ¡°Weren¡¯t you heartbroken? Streaking? What streaking?¡± ¡°I lost a bet with Professor Yang yesterday and it¡¯s streaking again, but this time it must be stark naked, truly stark naked.¡± Wen Ruzheng confessed his problem. ¡°You weren¡¯t heartbroken?¡± Director Guan was particularly embarrassed. ¡°No! I¡¯m going to get back to work now.¡± Wen Ruzheng got up to leave. ¡°Young Wen, everything I just said was made up, just to give you guidance.¡± ¡°I know!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t take it to heart, it was all fiction.¡± ¡°I know!¡± ¡ª For this disease, Yang Ping had also encountered it for the first time in reality, although he had come across the disease in the System Space when reading literature and had seen experimental subjects with the condition, making it not so unfamiliar to him. System Space provided him with ample time, which Yang Ping spent entirely on studying. If there was one thing that System Space granted Yang Ping that was the greatest support, it was definitely ample time. A brief nap could equate to several days of studying. Yang Ping consulted all available information on Kasermann¡¯s disease in the System Space. One must give their all for every case. Given that he encountered such an illness, Yang Ping began contemplating treatment plans. Fu Xiaotao¡¯s condition was severe, and the forecast for all chemotherapy plans was not promising. Moreover, the side effects of chemotherapy drugs themselves were significant, some of which were carcinogenic. In medicine, many treatment plans advance slowly because breakthroughs are difficult to achieve. Moreover, each medical specialty has an extremely high degree of specificity. It is very difficult for one person to master their specialty in a lifetime, let alone to transcend specialties and disciplines. However, it is precisely this confinement to a narrow specialty that makes innovation difficult. Breaking out of these limitations could make innovation much easier. Yang Ping revisited the treatments for this disease. An American expert had created the cocktail therapy, using seven chemotherapy drugs, said to be the most advanced in the world. In fact, the innovative spirit of Americans is commendable, worthy of our learning. They are capable of proposing bold ideas and bringing them to fruition. In his summary of numerous documents on the pathogenesis of Kasermann¡¯s disease, it was generally recognized that the immune system¡¯s messenger, interleukin-6, was the most critical link in the development of the disease. When lymph nodes secrete an excess of interleukin-6, the immune system becomes abnormally hyperactive, causing intense local or systemic inflammatory responses. Therefore, from the essence of pathology, this is an inflammatory response, for which using corticosteroids is effective, but corticosteroids merely suppress the inflammation. They do not address the root cause, which means they can only deal with the pollution, but not the source of the pollution. Song Zimo knew that Wen Ruzheng was single-minded and feared he would genuinely go through with the naked run without his underwear on, so he specifically called Wen Ruzheng, ¡°We were just joking, don¡¯t take it seriously.¡± But Wen Ruzheng didn¡¯t see it that way, the more it was treated as a joke, the more he felt it was an underestimate of himself, ¡°I, Wen Ruzheng, am stalwart and true to my word. How could it possibly be a joke? Rest assured, I will pick a time to fulfill my promise, and I will not cut corners.¡± This Wen Ruzheng really was stubborn. According to what he said, his naked run would certainly be fulfilled, thoroughly and without discounts¡ªin that truly naked, not a single thread on kind of way. When Yang Ping got off work, it was already very late. He ran into Wen Ruzheng at the entrance of the hospital, holding a stopwatch in his hand, eyes fixated on the road at the hospital entrance, as if he was conducting some sort of test. The next morning, he saw Wen Ruzheng testing again. What was this guy up to, looking so anxious, with a stopwatch in hand both evening and morning? Yang Ping didn¡¯t bother to care about these things. In the doctors¡¯ office, doctors started their work early, chatting among themselves. Zhang Lin always had the most timely news; he shared with everyone that Wen Ruzheng had been testing the people traffic on all four roads¡ªeast, south, west, and north¡ªaround the hospital throughout the night. This was how he decided when to run naked, as the bet stipulated he cannot wear underwear, but the time was for him to choose. Therefore, he was using a scientifically rigorous statistical method to precisely measure the flow of people around the hospital. Apparently, measuring for one day wasn¡¯t enough to solve the problem; he would measure again every few days, conducting many low measurements until he obtained stable and accurate data. Only after securing the optimal time would he start his naked run. True to his title as Doctor Wen, he was doing things in a very doctoral way. The next morning, he saw Wen Ruzheng testing again. What was this guy up to, looking so anxious, with a stopwatch in hand both evening and morning? Yang Ping didn¡¯t bother to care about these things. In the doctors¡¯ office, doctors started their work early, chatting among themselves. Zhang Lin always had the most timely news; he shared with everyone that Wen Ruzheng had been testing the people traffic on all four roads¡ªeast, south, west, and north¡ªaround the hospital throughout the night. This was how he decided when to run naked, as the bet stipulated he cannot wear underwear, but the time was for him to choose. Therefore, he was using a scientifically rigorous statistical method to precisely measure the flow of people around the hospital. Apparently, measuring for one day wasn¡¯t enough to solve the problem; he would measure again every few days, conducting many low measurements until he obtained stable and accurate data. Only after securing the optimal time would he start his naked run. True to his title as Doctor Wen, he was doing things in a very doctoral way. Chapter 1315 - 1315 996 Confidence Is Strength ?Chapter 1315: Chapter 996: Confidence Is Strength Chapter 1315: Chapter 996: Confidence Is Strength ¡°Professor, Doctor Wen was really hit hard this time. Should we go see him and offer some humanitarian comfort?¡± Song Zimo had seen Wen Ruzheng several times, and his expression was very wooden, which seemed to indicate a significant shock. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, a person who dares to streak wouldn¡¯t be defeated so easily. Each setback only makes him stronger. In a few days, he¡¯ll be jumping around again.¡± Yang Ping knew Wen Ruzheng¡¯s personality; he was very strong in his professional knowledge and possessed a rare kind of arrogance, which is not necessarily a bad thing in academia. Arrogance is about having supreme self-respect and confidence in one¡¯s academic level. Wen Ruzheng was like a cockroach that couldn¡¯t be squashed. After this incident, he would likely work even harder. With Yang Ping as his sparring partner, and his indomitable spirit, he was bound to become a world-leading pathologist. It¡¯s just like playing chess; the sparring partner is a top-level rider, persistent and unwavering, and through persistent training, one naturally reaches a world-class level. ¡°Let¡¯s not worry about Wen Ruzheng. Bring up the medical case of the Kastleman disease patient from the oncology department. This case is rare and would be educational for everyone.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t plan to waste too much time on Wen Ruzheng, confident that someone capable of streaking would certainly not jump off a building. Song Zimo pulled up Fu Xiaotao¡¯s medical history, and everyone gathered around the computer to start learning. The casual, mini-lectures that utilized bits of spare time were very effective. Little by little, they actually learned more than they would during the fixed weekly lectures. To make these casual mini-lectures convenient, the doctors¡¯ office was equipped with a large, high-definition computer screen so that everyone didn¡¯t have to strain their eyes looking at smaller screens. Once the medical records were pulled up, everyone started looking at them around the screen. Some, in an attempt to be lazy, even brought out the iFlytek tool specifically for recording meetings, so they could avoid the arduous task of taking notes by hand. Fu Xiaotao started receiving treatment with tocilizumab. The mechanism of this drug is based on the interleukin-6 disease model. Yang Ping had never treated patients with this before and the literature on this disease was scarce, making it hard to predict the treatment effect of the drug. If the interleukin-6 disease model is correct, then tocilizumab should be effective. Whether it works, time will tell. ¡°He¡¯s been relying on large doses of corticosteroids to relieve symptoms several times. When there are no other options, we turn to steroids. Steroids really are our magic cure,¡± remarked a Standardized Training Student. Throughout the entire medical history, what caught his eye was the repeated effective use of high doses of steroids. The casual mini-lectures aren¡¯t like formal lectures; everyone can engage in discussions very relaxingly in any manner, with Yang Ping or Song Zimo summarizing at the end. During the summary, they systematically explain the medical case. ¡°You don¡¯t know this, but many doctors in clinics become miracle workers with steroids. If you can use steroids flexibly, you can treat many diseases,¡± another Standardized Training Student also showed great interest in steroids. ¡°My nephew had a fever due to an acute upper respiratory infection. At the provincial children¡¯s hospital, I managed to get a specialist appointment through connections. The specialist said there was no need for antipyretics and told us to just drink more water and wait for it to improve naturally. My aunt called it nonsense from a ¡®quack doctor;¡¯ if antipyretics were not necessary, he wouldn¡¯t say they weren¡¯t. She took the kid to a very famous clinic where the doctor administered an IV and the fever subsided immediately, and the child slept through the night without any fuss. My aunt said that the doctor was truly skilled. Later, I went to that clinic to learn their methods, thinking I might meet some folk sage, but when I secretly visited the pharmacy room, I found they were just administering the cheapest dexamethasone phosphate. The clinic had people queued up for infusions,¡± another Graduate Student joined in the discussion on steroids. The discussion on Kastleman disease started with steroids, which seemed to particularly intrigue everyone. Each person had their own insights on Second Ball. ¡°My grandmother has rheumatoid arthritis and strictly avoids Western medicine. Someone referred her to a hereditary master who treats rheumatoid arthritis. He uses a type of herbal powder which, to keep the recipe secret, he grinds into powder. After using it for a while, all the typical signs of steroids consumption like weight gain and ¡®moon face¡¯ appeared. My uncles praised the treatment saying not only did her pain ease, but her complexion became rosy and she recently gained quite a bit of weight. I found it strange, so I took some of the powder for a chemical analysis and it contained a lot of corticosteroids. The doctor advertises this two thousand yuan treatment course as pure herbal medicine,¡± disclosed a Doctor sharing his experience with low-quality steroids. Doctor Zhao Wenbo angrily said, ¡°Traditional Chinese medicine is getting a bad reputation because of these charlatans. They¡¯re literally conducting a bait-and-switch operation.¡± ¡°Exactly!¡± Li Guodong agreed, the two rarely united on the issue of Traditional Chinese medicine. ¡°True practitioners of Traditional Chinese medicine are low-key and never engage in scams. They quietly guard the bastion of our national traditional medicine. However, these charlatans misuse the name of Traditional Chinese medicine to deceive others. Several old Professors at Nandu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine are very skilled. One of them is particularly adept at treating children¡¯s coughs. My daughter had been coughing for over a year, and we saw many Western doctors to no avail. Finally, under this professor¡¯s care and two weeks of Traditional Chinese medicine, she recovered completely and has not had a relapse. So, the efficacy of Traditional Chinese medicine really depends on the practitioner. True masters of this medicine exist, but they are few,¡± another Graduate Student shared his personal experience. Chapter 1316 - 1316 996 Confidence Is Strength_2 ?Chapter 1316: Chapter 996: Confidence Is Strength_2 Chapter 1316: Chapter 996: Confidence Is Strength_2 ¡°Your daughter?¡± Everyone turned to look at him, wasn¡¯t he a third-year graduate student? ¡°Oh, I got married during my first year of graduate school, and my daughter is now three years old. Now as long as you meet the age requirement, you can get married during your undergraduate studies.¡± The graduate student had to explain to the curious gazes of everyone, as he had never revealed that he was married with a child before. Actually, during these minor classes, it¡¯s common for conversations to veer off-topic, but that¡¯s okay, because they always naturally come back on track. Therefore, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t stop them, to ensure a relaxed and free learning environment for everyone. ¡°If it¡¯s unicentric Castleman¡¯s disease, can it be treated with surgery, and the effects are very good?¡± ¡°Right, its main clinical manifestation is significant lymphadenopathy. If it¡¯s the unicentric type, affecting a single lymph node or a regional cluster of lymph nodes, just surgically remove those lymph nodes.¡± ¡°But it doesn¡¯t just affect the lymph nodes, it also impairs the function of internal organs like the liver and kidneys. Look, this patient¡¯s liver and kidneys are already showing dysfunction. Even if you remove the lymph nodes, it won¡¯t solve the other problems.¡± ¡°The unicentric type mostly doesn¡¯t cause liver and kidney dysfunction; it¡¯s the multicentric type that often leads to impairment of liver and kidney functions, even causing liver and kidney failure. That¡¯s why surgery is a good option for unicentric type.¡± ¡°Multicentric types can¡¯t undergo surgery, you can only start with rituximab treatment, and if that doesn¡¯t work, then move on to chemotherapy. There are many combinations you can use with chemotherapy.¡± Everyone¡¯s exchange was very free and easygoing, without pressure, and it didn¡¯t matter whether you said something wrong or right, nobody would laugh at you. So, even the usually timid doctors could speak up freely at this time. ¡ª The incident of Wen Ruzheng running naked was now a sure thing, because he had no intention of giving it up. After the news spread throughout the hospital, everyone couldn¡¯t wait to see Doctor Wen¡¯s streaking. Director Zhao from the Medical Services Office, upon hearing the news, nearly cursed out loud, he was extremely anxious. Last time, Wen Ruzheng did run naked but wore briefs, and it led to a complaint to the health authorities. Director Zhao managed to suppress the incident with great effort. Now here it was again, and this time it was an ¡®upgraded¡¯, stark-naked version. Doctors and Doctors from Sanbo Hospital running naked around the building¡ªnow with the spread of the internet, once it went viral, such indecent acts would undoubtedly have a negative social impact. Director Zhao thought he must speak with Wen Ruzheng and definitely get him to cancel the naked run. Of all the things to do, why indulge in such a messy act? Finding it hard to get Wen Ruzheng to come to the office of the Medical Services Office, Director Zhao was prepared to give him a proper talking-to. He assessed Wen Ruzheng: ¡°Wen Ru, there are rumors in the hospital that you¡¯re going to streak, real bona fide streaking. I think it¡¯s just a rumor, so I wanted to check with you. Once I confirm it¡¯s a rumor, I¡¯ll severely punish whoever¡¯s spreading it. Doctor Wen is a well-educated person. How could you do such a shameless thing? Rest assured, I will not tolerate such malicious behavior of spreading rumors in the hospital.¡± ¡°Director Zhao, it¡¯s not a rumor; it¡¯s true. I¡¯m the one who spread the news,¡± Wen Ruzheng said very honestly, with no attempt to dodge the issue. Director Zhao stared at Wen Ruzheng: ¡°It¡¯s not a rumor? Really? I know you have a good heart and want to protect the person spreading rumors. Look, the person spreading rumors probably just wanted some fun, nothing malicious. So I won¡¯t pursue it. I absolutely don¡¯t believe you would go and do something indecent like streaking.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I run last time? It wasn¡¯t a big deal. There are even nude beaches abroad where men and women mingle together,¡± Wen Ruzheng dismissed. Director Zhao became infuriated: ¡°Last time, didn¡¯t you wear a pair of briefs? This time you say it¡¯s real no discounts¡ªtell me honestly, are you really going to run stark naked?¡± Wen Ruzheng nodded: ¡°The bet specifically said no underwear; I can¡¯t go back on my word. A person¡¯s reputation is¡ª¡± ¡°Stop your nonsense¡ªA bet? Who did you bet with? It couldn¡¯t be Professor Yang again, could it?¡± Director Zhao remembered it was because of Yang Ping last time. Wen Ruzheng nodded helplessly: ¡°Who else but him?¡± ¡°This is what we¡¯ll do, I¡¯ll speak to Professor Yang personally, and cancel this bet. We¡¯re all colleagues, and I don¡¯t think they¡¯d really take it seriously; it could just be a joke.¡± Director Zhao felt he had found the key to persuading. Wen Ruzheng immediately said, ¡°Don¡¯t mention it, I still need to save face.¡± ¡°You still need to save face?¡± Director Zhao was utterly confused by Wen Ruzheng¡¯s response. Wen Ruzheng sighed again, ¡°Yes, you see, if we cancel the bet, it would certainly put me in a position of breaking my word. Where would that leave my face?¡± Director Zhao was completely baffled, as if running naked wasn¡¯t embarrassing at all. ¡°Let me tell you, Wen Ruzheng, if you actually go through with running naked, I¡¯ll definitely discipline you, I might even fire you,¡± Director Zhao said, clearly livid. Wen Ruzheng seemed not the slightest bit scared, ¡°It¡¯s not that serious, it¡¯s just running, albeit with a more aggressive choice of attire.¡± ¡ª Yang Ping took some time to visit Fu Xiaotao in the oncology department. If a case was special, Yang usually would follow up after a consultation, and moreover, Director Jiang had specifically called Yang Ping because Fu Xiaotao wanted to see him. The treatment with cetuximab had only been going on for a few days, and it was too early to judge the effectiveness. Actually, Fu Xiaotao¡¯s reason for wanting to see Yang Ping was quite straightforward; after Yang¡¯s consultation, Fu had looked up Yang¡¯s profile and also asked the doctors in oncology. Not knowing would have been better, but after finding out, Fu¡¯s confidence greatly increased, and he felt hopeful that his illness could be cured. ¡°These past few days, his appetite has improved a lot, Professor Yang, we¡¯re very grateful to you,¡± Fu Xiaotao¡¯s mother said. The patient¡¯s mental state is indeed very important, a good mental state can significantly aid in treating the illness. Before, Fu Xiaotao had been in the depths of despair, ready to give up, but now he was completely different, believing firmly that he could get better, and this hope became a powerful force. In the past, he would lie in the ward afraid to do anything, with an attitude of waiting for death, but now he goes down to the hospital building every day for a few laps of jogging, which made him feel much better. ¡°Professor Yang, do you think cetuximab won¡¯t work after using it for a while?¡± Fu Xiaotao asked excitedly. Yang Ping¡¯s answer was quite objective, ¡°It¡¯s hard to say, but even if the effects aren¡¯t good, we can still think of other options, like chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is developing rapidly nowadays, and there are many regimens available.¡± Yang Ping took some time to visit Fu Xiaotao in the oncology department. If a case was special, Yang usually would follow up after a consultation, and moreover, Director Jiang had specifically called Yang Ping because Fu Xiaotao wanted to see him. The treatment with cetuximab had only been going on for a few days, and it was too early to judge the effectiveness. Actually, Fu Xiaotao¡¯s reason for wanting to see Yang Ping was quite straightforward; after Yang¡¯s consultation, Fu had looked up Yang¡¯s profile and also asked the doctors in oncology. Not knowing would have been better, but after finding out, Fu¡¯s confidence greatly increased, and he felt hopeful that his illness could be cured. ¡°These past few days, his appetite has improved a lot, Professor Yang, we¡¯re very grateful to you,¡± Fu Xiaotao¡¯s mother said. The patient¡¯s mental state is indeed very important, a good mental state can significantly aid in treating the illness. Before, Fu Xiaotao had been in the depths of despair, ready to give up, but now he was completely different, believing firmly that he could get better, and this hope became a powerful force. In the past, he would lie in the ward afraid to do anything, with an attitude of waiting for death, but now he goes down to the hospital building every day for a few laps of jogging, which made him feel much better. ¡°Professor Yang, do you think cetuximab won¡¯t work after using it for a while?¡± In the past, he would lie in the ward afraid to do anything, with an attitude of waiting for death, but now he goes down to the hospital building every day for a few laps of jogging, which made him feel much better. ¡°Professor Yang, do you think cetuximab won¡¯t work after using it for a while?¡± Chapter 1317 - 1317 997 ?Chapter 1317: Chapter 997 Chapter 1317: Chapter 997 Wen Ru posted a notice about streaking in the large WeChat group of the hospital, officially scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at three. At that time, he would run naked around the hospital three times to fulfill his bet. This streaking session was indeed genuine. The entire hospital was abuzz with excitement. Everyone thought Doctor Wen was a true man of his word, someone who honors his commitments. If everyone acted like Doctor Wen, the world would be full of trustworthiness. In the hospital¡¯s large WeChat group, discussions exploded immediately. Regardless of gender, everyone was eager to witness Doctor Wen¡¯s true streaking, admiring his courage and his open and honest character. The group was a flurry of fireworks. If Director Zhao had not intervened in time to curb the discussions, the whole group chat would have focused only on the streaking. Yang Ping was completely disinterested in the streaking news. He found the whole affair eccentric. Let him do as he pleases¡ªit¡¯s not going to cause any harm, and forcefully stopping him might actually lead to problems. Yang Ping was busy. He needed to rush to Nandu Medical University to review Guan Ruyan¡¯s research project, which was funded with fifty million¡ªa significant sum for a single project in academic institutions. For key projects, Nandu Medical University always maintained strict scrutiny. Therefore, they invited a group of top scholars from both inside and outside the school for a serious review. Yang Ping was invited as he was currently an Outstanding Young Talent and a candidate for Academician, and he was also preparing for the Nobel Prize. Guan Ruyan had recently faced a bit of trouble. His son had won the national youth science and technology competition, which was originally good news. However, an indiscreet reporter stirred up trouble during a school visit. In this incident, the school¡¯s Principal and teachers did not notify Guan Ruyan, possibly due to the rush or because the reporter did not mention interviewing the child himself, so Guan Ruyan was not informed about the matter. After the reporter arrived at the school, the Principal and teachers were very pleased and valued this interview for its potential promotional benefit for the school. After interviewing the Principal and teachers, the reporter spontaneously asked if he could meet the outstanding child. The teachers agreed, seeing no issue with meeting the child since it was part of the interview. Arranged by the Principal, the reporter met the child and was surprised to discover that he had a background in biology, making him somewhat of an expert on the subject. After chatting casually with the child, the reporter was amazed that the child could recite his paper flawlessly and understood the concepts within, but it was clear he had memorized them because he knew nothing when asked in detail. The child honestly confessed that his father had written the paper and instructed him to memorize it. He had not been involved in the experiments but had visited the laboratory several times for photographs. The reporter wrote an article about this and published it online, which caused an uproar. What was supposed to be a youth science competition turned into a competition of which parents could best support their children. How could that still be meaningful? Of course, it had meaning¡ªthis was capital for future education. The competition was no longer a simple contest. This event had a massive impact because the identities of the child¡¯s parents were revealed, both being university professors and the child a primary school student competing with a medical paper. It was obvious what was going on. Although there had been doubts initially, the organizers announced after an investigation that the query was a rumor and the contestant had completed the experiments and paper independently without any deception, and the controversy subsided. Everyone couldn¡¯t help but marvel at how intelligent someone else¡¯s child was, being able to publish papers in prestigious medical journals and conduct advanced experiments, while their own children struggled even with simple homework. Ah, the gap was immense. Yang Ping arrived at the meeting room of Nandu Medical University. The meeting was about to start in a few minutes, and most of the expert Professors invited had already arrived. Guan Ruyan had arrived early, with his Assistant Xiao Lu sitting next to him. Guan Ruyan appeared haggard, obviously troubled by his child¡¯s situation recently. There was a strong online call for investigating the matter and demands to revoke the child¡¯s championship title. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Guan Ruyan greeted Yang Ping. Upon hearing of Yang Ping¡¯s arrival, many Professors stood up to welcome him. Yang Ping smiled, greeted everyone with a bow, and then took his seat. The remaining few Professors trickled in late, and shortly after, Principal Ruo and Academician Xiang entered the meeting room together, and everyone stood up to welcome them as well. Guan Ruyan¡¯s project focused on CAR T-cell therapy, an area in which the United States was leading. Guan Ruyan hoped to use this project to catch up with the American cell therapy technology. Yang Ping had glanced through the project brief and indeed, the approach was innovative. Should it succeed, it could significantly narrow their gap with the leaders in the field. Not long ago, Yang Ping had used cell therapy to treat a tumor patient and achieved great success. However, Yang Ping¡¯s primary focus was elsewhere, and he could not delve into everything. Thus, he shared some of his findings on cell therapy with Xiao Lu during their discussions. Xiao Lu was sharp, not only grasping the essence of the topic but also capable of advancing the research along those lines. In previous discussions with Xiao Lu, Yang Ping had felt that he had comprehensive research in this area. Almost all the new ideas proposed by Xiao Lu at that time appeared in this project. So, were these ideas Xiao Lu¡¯s or Guan Ruyan¡¯s? This made Yang Ping a bit puzzled. Chapter 1318 - 1318 997_2 ?Chapter 1318: Chapter 997_2 Chapter 1318: Chapter 997_2 The conference started on time, and those seated were all influencers, some invited from partner universities, others from our own, and included two international attendees, making the session quite formal. Although there were elements of personal relationships, they were minimal. ¡°Let me first introduce the basics of this topic¡ª¡± Guan Ruyan knew the importance of this conference, and having an assistant present it would clearly show a lack of respect, so he took charge personally, with Lu Xiaolu prepared to assist if necessary. Since the topic was entirely designed by Lu Xiaolu, including the ideas and details, and he even wrote the final project proposal, Guan Ruyan had been very busy recently, attending numerous academic conferences and dealing with his son¡¯s matters, so he had only become familiar with the topic recently. Given that the experts present might become critically scrutinizing, Lu Xiaolu could step in to assist during crucial moments. ¡°T cells, isolated from white blood cells and incorporated with a specific chimeric antigen receptor gene, are modified into the desired CAR T cells. These are then cultivated and multiplied in the laboratory, waiting to be transformed into warriors that can identify and kill cancer cells. At this point, we reintroduce them into the human bloodstream to reach the target tumor through blood circulation, where these special warrior cells recognize and kill tumor cells. This is the common practice of CAR T cell therapy for tumors worldwide.¡± ¡°CAR-T therapy, as a revolutionary tumor treatment method using genetic engineering to alter the body¡¯s own immune cells, has brought new hope to numerous patients with hematological cancers. However, there are still unavoidable issues¡ªCAR-T cells cannot treat solid tumors, as solid tumors lack the binding antigens found in blood tumors, preventing CAR-T cells from recognizing and targeting solid tumor cells.¡± ¡°Our topic addresses this issue¡ªusing a special kind of CAR-T cells to treat solid tumors, which, if successful, would be a significant breakthrough.¡± After Guan Ruyan briefly introduced the topic, the room erupted in enthusiastic applause. It had to be acknowledged; this topic pinpointed the pain points of CAR-T therapy. Many pharmaceutical companies implementing CAR-T therapy were investing heavily in research, but no significant breakthroughs had been made yet. Guan Ruyan¡¯s topic approached the pain points of CAR-T therapy from a novel angle, which, if successful, could expand the indications for CAR-T therapy treatments, benefitting both patients and pharmaceutical companies. ¡°Professor Guan, in your use of CAR-T therapy to treat solid tumors, could you reveal the specific methods of implementation? We know that currently, CAR-T cells are limited to the treatment of blood-related tumors because, as a cell type, they can only be transported via the bloodstream. This is mainly because most solid tumors lack antigens that bind with CAR-T cells, thus they cannot be recognized and eliminated.¡± ¡°Although neoantigens, a class of HLA-binding peptides produced by tumor-specific mutations, exhibit high immunogenicity because they are not found in normal tissues, thus avoiding central thymic tolerance, they are not suitable for a large number of patients. ¡°Moreover, even after selecting the best antigen targets, the functionality of CAR-T depends on factors such as its ability to prevent tumor immune escape of antigenic sites, meaning there is still a possibility of tumor escape. These factors are the reasons why this therapy performs poorly in treating solid tumors.¡± ¡°Do you think when CAR-T cells are combined with targeted drugs, CAR-T cells targeted towards persistent cells expressing specific surface proteins can more effectively delay the emergence of complete resistance¡± The series of questions were from Professor Shen Xuebin from Beijing, a professor who returned from studying abroad and was part of the Thousand Talents Plan. He was very optimistic about this project and had long admired Guan Ruyan¡¯s talents. This was a perfect opportunity for him to communicate directly with Guan Ruyan. ¡°Our approach is to modify the neoantigens to be recognizable by most patients with a certain type of solid tumor, thus broadening the application scope.¡± Guan Ruyan answered with a smile before taking a sip of water. ¡°What I mean is how you achieve this modification, what tools you use for antigen modification, as I believe there are no tools currently capable of this. What unique insights do you have regarding the application of modification tools? Secondly, how do you avoid the controllability of new tools in modification, to prevent some adverse reactions from becoming uncontrolled?¡± Indeed, Guan Ruyan had not researched the modification tools carefully; this had always been Lu Xiaolu¡¯s responsibility. He took another sip of water and cleared his throat, ¡°I apologize, I¡¯ve been a bit under the weather these past few days, my throat isn¡¯t very good. Xiao Lu, could you please introduce the details of the modification tools to everyone?¡± In fact, at such conferences, few people really get serious about grabbing onto these details and insisting on questioning everything. Everyone is from the same circle, where it is better to forgive where forgiveness is due. What if, next time, someone else raised equally sharp questions when it was their turn? However, Professor Shen was upright, he had a significant interest in this topic, and he held many doubts. Today¡¯s rare opportunity for direct communication naturally made him want to clarify things, and he had no intention of embarrassing Guan Ruyan. Lu Xiaolu immediately took over the conversation, ¡°Professor Shen asked a great question. Our modification tool is a brand-new type of tool, tailor-made for this project,¡± Professor Shen nodded in satisfaction. He had not guessed wrong; the other party had indeed adopted a brand-new modification tool. However, the concept behind the tool surprised him; he wondered why he had never thought of it before. ¡°A professor from Heidelberg University in Germany had proposed this idea before, but it was never realized, right?¡± Professor Shen had extensive knowledge. Lu Xiaolu quickly replied, ¡°That was my doctoral mentor. I continued researching along his lines of thinking, oh, Professor Guan guided me to continue along his lines, and we finally succeeded this year, hence launching the current project.¡± Lu Xiaolu realized he was about to overstep, so he handed the initiative back to Guan Ruyan, ¡°If Professor Guan were not feeling under the weather today, his explanation of the modification tool would be far more profound. My understanding of the tool is far inferior to Professor Guan¡¯s.¡± Guan Ruyan was very satisfied with Lu Xiaolu¡¯s performance; this guy was smart and always managed to assist him beautifully. Afterwards, Guan Ruyan added some flowery language, essentially summarizing Lu Xiaolu¡¯s speech. ¡°Professor Guan, I feel a bit uncomfortable in my stomach. I need to step out for a bit, no more than ten minutes,¡± Lu Xiaolu suddenly felt unwell and took a temporary ¡°leave¡± from Guan Ruyan. Guan Ruyan immediately nodded his approval. Such requests had to be granted. It was not possible to make him hold it in at such a moment. ¡°Your new modification tool is very ingenious. I am curious, how does the modified antigen achieve lasting effectiveness at the binding site? It is known that your type of new antigens share a common characteristic: they lack binding duration. How did Professor Guan resolve this?¡± An English-speaking professor from the United States, who was curious about another issue, raised the question in English. ¡°In our previous research, we discovered a new type of expression protein that aids in the durability of binding. Thus, in this experiment, we simulated the mechanism of tumor cells releasing this expression protein. When new CAR-T cells and new antigens bind, it releases this kind of expression protein, thus ensuring the durability of the binding,¡± ¡°We have also researched this expression protein, but it lacks universality; it often fails to express in many scenarios. How did you address the issue of expression failure? I mean, how do you precisely and sensitively determine the scenarios and timing of expression recognition, and once expression is initiated, how do you ensure the expression is fully realized?¡± This question was probably complex to answer; Guan Ruyan had had no time to thoroughly explore it, as it wasn¡¯t a superficial issue and involved the application of many cutting-edge technologies currently at the forefront. ¡°This issue is very complex, involving the application of many leading-edge technologies. If we are to discuss it in detail, it would require a lot of time. Could we do this? I¡¯ll explain it to you in detail after the session.¡± Guan Ruyan glanced around, wondering why Lu Xiaolu hadn¡¯t returned yet. Chapter 1319 - 1319 998 Collapse ?Chapter 1319: Chapter 998 Collapse Chapter 1319: Chapter 998 Collapse ¡°I remember Professor Guan had a paper before that dealt with the study of tumor cell expressed proteins, where it mentioned the modification of these expressed proteins. I¡¯ve read this paper published in the journal ¡®Science¡¯, and I want to ask what specific methods were used to achieve the modification, labeling, and other techniques at that time?¡± The enthusiasm for the discussion was very high, as after all, everyone here is a top expert in the industry. Such a defense meeting is inherently a process of questioning and clarification, and after fierce debate, the true value of your subject is ultimately determined. That previous paper? Guan Ruyan only knew roughly, after all, the experiment was not designed by him, nor was it personally completed by him, and he did not write the paper, so he certainly would not be very clear about some of the deeper aspects. Lu Xiaolu had not yet arrived, and quite some time had passed. There had never been such an occurrence before. Every time there was an academic conference, Lu Xiaolu was always by Guan Ruyan¡¯s side, never leaving him. Yet now, at such an important meeting, Lu Xiaolu had actually deserted at the last moment, but one couldn¡¯t blame him. Other things can be tolerated, but not diarrhea. Guan Ruyan wanted to make a phone call, but because Principal Ruo and Academician Xiang were sitting beside him, he was unable to do so. At this moment, Guan Ruyan was on pins and needles. Not answering the question was certainly not an option, but if he attempted to answer, it was very likely that his response would give him away. After all, the experts present were all truly top-notch and wouldn¡¯t be easily fooled. Great Professor Guan was truly suffering as if he were on a frying pan. ¡°We used a method cross-disciplinary with click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry. Since Sharpless first introduced the concept of click chemistry in 1998 and subsequently refined it, the core idea of click chemistry has been: synthetic chemistry should be oriented around molecular function, constructing a variety of molecular assemblies quickly and reliably through the simple joining of small units. This theory has given us the possibility to conjugate protein molecules. Bioorthogonal chemistry, on the other hand, has provided us with another tool. The early bioorthogonal reactions were mainly couplings intended for labeling, tracking, enriching, or modifying target biomolecules in complex biological settings. After more than a decade of development, over a dozen bioorthogonal reactions suitable for living cells have been discovered or developed, playing an important role in live-cell imaging and proteomics, showing great potential. We combined these to achieve assembly, labeling, tracking, enrichment, and so on.¡± Although Guan Ruyan was not as capable as Lu Xiaolu, as a graduate who studied in Germany, his foundation was certainly not weak. He was not only knowledgeable about these cutting-edge technologies but also very familiar with them and could recite information readily. However, he did not address the crux of the question. The focal point of the question could only be answered by the person who had truly spearheaded the project. Clearly, the American experts were somewhat confused, therefore, they were very dissatisfied with Guan Ruyan¡¯s answer, ¡°Professor Guan, you actually did not directly answer my question. I¡¯m not asking you to respond to the history and application of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry theories. I know you combined the two theories, but I want to know how you merged them, what exactly was integrated, and how they organically combine. I need more detailed information. For instance, telling me that you solved the problem using a quadratic function is far from enough. You should present the complete process of solving it.¡± As for the specific details, Guan Ruyan really couldn¡¯t think of them at the moment. It¡¯s like a garment having a very beautiful pattern, and when someone asks how this pattern was created, what artistic inspiration was borrowed for the design, the techniques used in drawing the pattern, the formula for the dye colors, and so on¡ªall these specifics would definitely be known only to the person who went through the entire process. So to answer these details, Guan Ruyan was unable to provide an answer; he could only wait for Lu Xiaolu to return. But, this fellow was still nowhere to be seen, possibly collapsed in the restroom. ¡°Sorry, my throat is a little uncomfortable; give me a moment,¡± Guan Ruyan said, taking another sip of water to buy himself some time. Guan Ruyan motioned with his hand, and a student at the door immediately came in. Guan Ruyan whispered, ¡°Professor Lu is unwell and just went to the restroom. I¡¯m worried he may have fainted there. Go take a look.¡± After arranging for the student to search for Lu Xiaolu, Guan Ruyan began to address the American professor¡¯s question again, coughing a few times: ¡°My throat is truly uncomfortable right now, it feels like there¡¯s a flame burning. When my assistant returns, I¡¯ll have him answer your question in detail.¡± It was not polite to continue to press someone who was physically unwell and unable to speak, so the American professor temporarily stopped asking questions. Yang Ping found it very strange. Guan Ruyan had just spoken so many irrelevant words, so why didn¡¯t he directly answer the question? Need for secrecy? That shouldn¡¯t be the case, as there was no need for it. He had already published everything in the ¡®Science¡¯ journal, and the methods used were developed on the basis of technology that was internationally shared. Not only should he, but he also had an obligation to inform his peers. Vaguely, Yang Ping felt that there must be some special secret behind this, rather than a matter of secrecy. Could it be that Lu Xiaolu completed all these projects, and Guan Ruyan did not know the details? Impossible, Yang Ping thought. Such an idea was preposterous and disrespectful. Guan Ruyan was a young talent at Nandu Medical University, a candidate for the upcoming Outstanding Young Talent award, with outstanding current scientific output. How could he possibly be unclear about his own project? Impossible; there must be some other reason, but Yang Ping couldn¡¯t think of it at the moment. Chapter 1320 - 1320 998 Collapse_2 ?Chapter 1320: Chapter 998 Collapse_2 Chapter 1320: Chapter 998 Collapse_2 Academician Xiang frowned, clearly unhappy. This kind of meeting was supposed to be a defense session, where one should directly answer questions from others. Always beating around the bush¡ªdoesn¡¯t that tire your throat? After all the circling, you finally tell people your throat hurts. It¡¯s obviously disrespectful and doesn¡¯t align with the purpose of the meeting. At this moment, the atmosphere of the meeting fell into a brief awkwardness, as no one dared to ask any questions. It seemed as if asking would just be tormenting Guan Ruyan, who had already mentioned his sore throat. To ask further would surely seem inhumane. What to do? Several professors from Nandu Medical University looked to Principal Ruo, hoping for a response. Principal Ruo said, ¡°Wait a bit; let¡¯s talk when Lu Xiaolu comes back. Do you have any other assistants to help answer for Professor Guan since he¡¯s feeling unwell?¡± An assistant was outside the door but clearly couldn¡¯t substitute for him in providing answers. Even Guan Ruyan couldn¡¯t respond; how could this young assistant, who was just an unfinished doctorate, possibly provide clear answers? ¡°It¡¯s fine; I¡¯ll answer!¡± Guan Ruyan coughed a few times, then took a sip of water, his expression one of extreme pain. ¡°It¡¯s like this¡ª¡± No sooner had he begun, then a violent coughing fit ensued. ¡°Sorry, very sorry¡ª¡± Guan Ruyan appeared genuinely unable to continue. Soon after, the student who had gone to look for Lu Xiaolu returned. Principal Ruo anxiously asked, ¡°How is it, how is Professor Lu?¡± ¡°The security guard said Professor Lu nearly fainted in the restroom. Just now, the guard helped call a car to take Professor Lu to Affiliated Hospital No. 1 for rehydration.¡± Principal Ruo was completely flabbergasted, quite angry on the inside. What¡¯s the deal here? You two, before such an important meeting, didn¡¯t give any heads-up, and now one has a throat sore, the other diarrhea, and has directly headed to Affiliated Hospital No. 1. Guan Ruyan was now utterly bewildered. Damn it, during such an important project, Lu Xiaolu just walked out. Given how busy he¡¯d been, he hadn¡¯t paid much attention to this project. It was always Lu Xiaolu who took the lead, and he was too occupied to familiarize himself with the project beforehand or to communicate much with Lu Xiaolu. Rushing into the field unprepared, how could he possibly speak of the details? This really was a dilemma he¡¯d never faced before. Now that the assistant had gone to the hospital, you couldn¡¯t say that without the assistant, you¡¯d fail to complete this defense session. That would be like children playing house, wouldn¡¯t it? A sore throat, a cough ¨C it¡¯s not that serious. You could endure and say a few words. ¡°Call the school doctor to bring some throat spray and two tablets of Asthma over,¡± said Principal Ruo, who understood medicine and had encountered such situations when teaching students. It¡¯s an easy solution: acute upper respiratory tract issue ¨C a sore throat needs just a spray of throat steroid to definitely relieve it instantly. The cough, Asthma tablets also work well. This meeting was too important to cancel over such a minor issue. It¡¯s important to know that some of these experts came from Beijing, some from Shanghai, and others flew back from the United States. Who doesn¡¯t have a minor cold now and then? Guan Ruyan, finding himself in a spot where he couldn¡¯t intervene nor refrain, was utterly at a loss. With Lu Xiaolu gone, no plan would work unless he fainted on the spot. But staging a fainting episode? If not for a somewhat sturdy mindset, Guan Ruyan¡¯s forehead would have surely been covered in sweat by now. ¡°Is Professor Lu okay?¡± Guan Ruyan asked with concern to buy time, and then to think of a strategy. ¡°Don¡¯t know yet; probably dehydration. I¡¯ll call Affiliated Hospital No. 1 and check,¡± said the student, who promptly left the meeting room. The throat spray and Asthma tablets were delivered, along with some warm water brought right to his hand. With no other choice, Guan Ruyan took the two Asthma tablets and then used the spray on his throat. Principal Ruo inquired, ¡°How is it? Feeling better, right? This is what I do whenever I have a cough or sore throat during lectures; it never fails.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s continue the meeting, everyone. Professor Guan is a bit under the weather, please be understanding. We¡¯ve delayed your time, and I apologize,¡± Principal Ruo personally apologized to everyone. The quality of these professors was indeed high, meeting such an unforeseen event, they refrained from whispering among themselves or showing impatience. They were very accommodating to Professor Guan, and thus the meeting went on as usual. Other experts were quite considerate, knowing that Guan Ruyan was feeling unwell; they only asked symbolic questions, implying that the conference was going to be a mere formality from then on. But the American wasn¡¯t courteous at all. ¡°Professor Guan, I¡¯m not sure if you didn¡¯t hear my question clearly? My question was how you implemented the theory of two advanced technologies to achieve your targets, such as the details mentioned in your paper: building a compound library based on a dual-click chemistry strategy, which is necessary preparatory work for your subsequent research, isn¡¯t it?¡± Guan Ruyan tried his best to answer, ¡°My paper mentioned the reactive fluorosulfonyl isocyanate, which, acting as an amphiphilic electrochemical reagent, realizes the amide formation of carboxylic acids and amine blocks through SuFEx sequential linking. Both of these reactions can be carried out under simple conditions, and most substrates can convert nearly quantitatively, enabling us to achieve excellent yields of N-sulfonyl fluorides and N-sulfonyl amides respectively, serving as the base of our follow-up research on protein modification and labeling.¡± ¡°All these details are in the paper; I want to know the specifics beyond the paper, such as how many microwell plates your initial experiments were conducted on, what the conversion rate was, and so on.¡± The American posed very detailed questions and liked to ask them in a tracking manner; you answer one, and he would continue to pursue based on your answer. This type of tracking questioning left Guan Ruyan bewildered. Since he hadn¡¯t designed the experiments, how would he know the underlying ideas and details. Guan Ruyan got stuck, and the American was not ready to let it go, waiting for his response. ¡°Just tell him directly; there¡¯s nothing that needs to be kept secret here,¡± Academician Xiang was quite dissatisfied with Guan Ruyan¡¯s performance. First, claiming a sore throat to avoid answering questions directly, and now, you¡¯re stumped by someone else¡¯s question. How could you not know about your own project? Even if as a hands-off boss, you delegated specific tasks to the graduate students, you were the one who did the basic design of the experiment, at least the concept was yours, right? So, you should definitely be able to answer this question. Yang Ping thought Guan Ruyan¡¯s hearing might have been impaired due to his cold, not having heard the American¡¯s question clearly, so he helped translate, ¡°He wants to know how you completed your preliminary research. Just tell him the details of implementation, like how many microwell plates were used, what the conversion rate of your target compounds was, and so on.¡± Guan Ruyan quickly flipped through data on his computer. The computer was connected to the projector, so the screen showed the chaotic switching of slides due to his frantic searching. Where was it? To be honest, today¡¯s slides were all prepared by Lu Xiaolu; he was not familiar with them at all. He had only briefly reviewed them before coming here. How could he possibly know the details? ¡°Sorry, I really don¡¯t remember these specific figures; I need to look up the data.¡± Guan Ruyan had no choice but to say so. Lu Xiaolu, oh Lu Xiaolu, you have really put me in a hole today. Why did you have to get diarrhea now of all times, and at Affiliated Hospital No. 1, no less. At this moment, Principal Ruo, Academician Xiang, Yang Ping, and several others all turned their eyes toward him. You don¡¯t know? How is that possible? How could you not know such important data? Even if you didn¡¯t, you could at least provide an estimate, and if you still didn¡¯t know, you could deduce it from the predicted data in the project proposal, which were derived from these figures using a formula, right? This was beyond the pale! ¡°Just give a rough estimate, that¡¯s all he wants to know. It¡¯s because if some indices don¡¯t meet the standard, they can¡¯t be applied to your project,¡± Academician Xiang reminded him kindly. But he didn¡¯t know even an approximate figure, and he was completely unaware of the details inside. It was like a director who had just received a script, briefly glanced over it, and then went up to speak. Then someone seriously asked about specific details of the script¡ªhow could he possibly answer? It was an unfair challenge. It wasn¡¯t too bad until everyone started pressing; now, Guan Ruyan was even more anxious. The key point was that he knew nothing, absolutely nothing; it was all outside the scope of the project¡ªnot included in the project plan. He couldn¡¯t afford a breakdown today; Guan Ruyan forced himself to stabilize his emotions. Chapter 1321 - 1321 999 Secret Investigation ?Chapter 1321: Chapter 999: Secret Investigation Chapter 1321: Chapter 999: Secret Investigation Even Principal Ruo now feels surprised by Guan Ruyan¡¯s performance at this defense meeting. What exactly is going on with him? As a young talent of Nandu Medical University, his performance today is clearly unsatisfactory. Even if he is unwell, that should not render him unable to answer the opponent¡¯s questions, especially since all the questions pertain to the content of his research. ¡°Xiao Guan, nothing serious, right?¡± Principal Ruo couldn¡¯t help but ask with concern. Guan Ruyan was indeed anxious, but he tried his best not to show it. Grasping at straws, he found an excuse, ¡°The computer probably has a virus. A lot of data was mysteriously deleted. Sorry, today is really a bit chaotic. My assistant had a health incident, I myself am not feeling well, and now the computer has a virus. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on.¡± He was clever, deliberately articulating a few sentences that hinted at an underlying implication, as if someone was intentionally sabotaging him, landing him and his assistant in today¡¯s predicament. In doing so, he subtly shifted everyone¡¯s attention. People couldn¡¯t help but shift from academic problems to a new issue: What exactly happened that caused Professor Guan to end up in such a disheveled state today. ¡°No need to look for the data, it¡¯s alright. The ones present today are all senior scholars in the field. You just need to simply answer their questions based on your thought process,¡± Principal Ruo reminded Guan Ruyan, urging him not to linger in difficulty, but to get out of it promptly. What Principal Ruo said was true; those present were indeed senior experts in the field, otherwise they wouldn¡¯t be able to raise such sharp and profound questions. That¡¯s why Guan Ruyan dared not speak rashly. If he spoke too much, it would be easy to reveal flaws. If he truly had deep knowledge of the research, even forgetting exact data, others would know that he was mostly on target, considering him to have touched upon the core points. If he were a sham, speaking would reveal his level to others. Scholars from the United States were now wondering, what¡¯s going on? It was just a question about details, and deeper issues had yet to be raised. Americans may not recognize Professor Guan¡¯s current predicament due to cultural differences; they remained relentless and were too direct in their speech. ¡°Professor Guan, I really want to know, did you write the paper I mentioned? Did you lead the design of this project?¡± Because of Professor Guan¡¯s current performance, the American professor couldn¡¯t help but harbor doubts. If the paper is yours and the project is your design, how could you not know such critical details? Guan Ruyan hesitated slightly before replying, ¡°Of course, I led the entire project, but my assistant drafted the paper and I was responsible for making the final modifications. There are so many projects and so many papers, and with the passage of time, some data is now hard to recall. I did not deal with many details personally; my role was to macroscopically oversee the design of the project, while we have a large team for the specific experimental operations.¡± This official and vague answer clearly couldn¡¯t convince the scholars present. Since Professor Guan wasn¡¯t directly answering, the American scholars had no choice. To press on any further would be pointless. The American professor said, ¡°Alright, but I find it hard to believe that this project was personally designed by you.¡± Once these words were spoken, all the scholars in the room looked at the American professor, then at Professor Guan. This immature statement stirred huge waves in the experts¡¯ hearts. Indeed, how could he not know? Unless the project wasn¡¯t led by him, otherwise, how could he be ignorant of it? If no one speaks of certain things directly, everyone might deal with them vaguely, but once someone brings it up, everyone reevaluates carefully, and the conclusion might be different. At this moment, Yang Ping too harbored many doubts, but he kept them to himself for the time being, as they were only suspicions. He decided to find time to talk to Xiao Lu to understand the true situation and to ask what exactly was going on. Guan Ruyan was the designer of the project, while Lu Xiaolu was just an assistant. Why couldn¡¯t Guan Ruyan answer crucial technical questions, yet Lu Xiaolu could do so with ease? In previous interactions with Lu Xiaolu, he discussed with Yang Ping the very questions that Guan Ruyan couldn¡¯t answer today. Lu Xiaolu had a very profound and unique understanding of these issues. As the meeting proceeded, although there were some doubts in people¡¯s minds, they did not grill Professor Guan mercilessly. After all, Professor Guan was unwell, and just now his assistant had collapsed in the washroom, not to mention the computer hacking incident; things were already bad enough without adding fuel to the fire. The subsequent part of the meeting still had to continue, but it was merely perfunctory. Even questions asked were superficial, making the meeting end hastily. Principal Ruo wasn¡¯t pleased but managed to conceal his dissatisfaction. However, Academician Xiang¡¯s displeasure was visibly etched on his face. Guan Ruyan¡¯s performance today was extremely unacceptable. From an academic¡¯s perspective, it was simply terrible and should not have happened, a stark contrast to the image of a promising young talent he usually presented. Nevertheless, out of a desire to protect young talents, Elder Academician Xiang said nothing. As everyone left the venue in succession, Principal Ruo kindly instructed Guan Ruyan, ¡°Xiao Guan, pay attention to your health, alright? You can¡¯t work while ill like this next time. Look at today, you and Xiao Lu were both sick and yet held this meeting. If you¡¯re ill, let us know in advance; it¡¯s possible to postpone.¡± ¡°Thank you, Principal Ruo. I¡¯m really sorry about today, it has caused trouble for everyone. Should we find another time to hold a defense for this project again?¡± Guan Ruyan still had high emotional intelligence, and even in this situation, he seemed calm and unruffled. Chapter 1322 - 1322 999 Secret Investigation_2 ?Chapter 1322: Chapter 999: Secret Investigation_2 Chapter 1322: Chapter 999: Secret Investigation_2 Principal Ruo thought for a moment and said, ¡°It¡¯s okay, you¡¯ve done so many projects, everyone knows what level you¡¯re at. Today both you and Xiao Lu are sick, and the computer data has been lost, plus you¡¯ve been working too hard because of your family¡¯s troubles, things might be a bit chaotic. However, you need to adjust your mood quickly, and it¡¯s perfectly fine to rest for a few days.¡± Although Principal Ruo was not satisfied with Guan Ruyan¡¯s performance today, he couldn¡¯t deny him as a person or his academic achievements because of one mistake. More than ever, as the principal, he needed to encourage and support Guan Ruyan, even if there were any doubts they had to be quietly clarified behind the scenes. This kind of thing, if not handled with care, could easily hurt young talent and dishearten them. ¡°Thank you, Principal Ruo,¡± said Guan Ruyan, quite moved. After the meeting, Principal Ruo asked Academician Xiang and Yang Ping to sit in his office for a while and wait for him; he wanted to see a few experts off. Yang Ping rarely visited Nandu Medical University, and they wanted to have a good chat with him. Although Sanbo Hospital was no longer directly affiliated with Nandu Medical University, the cooperative relationship still remained. When Principal Ruo finished his duties, it was already a little after seven o¡¯clock. By then, there weren¡¯t many people in the office building. The three of them sat down in Principal Ruo¡¯s office to have a good chat. Academician Xiang said, seeing that there were no outsiders, ¡°Let me say a couple of words. I feel like Guan Ruyan¡¯s behavior has been abnormal not just once, but many times. A few times when I¡¯ve talked to him about his projects, something always felt off, but I couldn¡¯t pinpoint what it was. Today¡¯s events made me realize, but first, let me be clear: I only have a feeling, no evidence, so what I say today stays between the three of us.¡± ¡°Go ahead!¡± Principal Ruo said, looking deeply concerned. Academician Xiang pondered for a moment: ¡°I¡¯ve interacted with Guan Ruyan and Lu Xiaolu not just once or twice, and I can¡¯t help feeling that Lu Xiaolu¡¯s academic foundation far exceeds Guan Ruyan¡¯s. I am more inclined to believe that many of the papers and projects belong to Lu Xiaolu because every time I chat with Lu Xiaolu about a project, his understanding is very profound, whereas Guan Ruyan always seems to skim the surface.¡± Principal Ruo did not speak; he paced back and forth in his office as if contemplating something. ¡°Professor Yang, what do you think?¡± This matter was of great importance; any misunderstanding could not only hurt an outstanding talent but also cause a chain reaction, potentially causing irreparable psychological trauma to the entire talent pool. ¡°I haven¡¯t had much contact with Guan Ruyan, I¡¯ve interacted more with Lu Xiaolu, who is indeed an exceptional talent. He has a keen sense for the direction of development within his field, and moreover, the questions that Professor Guan failed to clarify at today¡¯s meeting, Lu Xiaolu had already explained them clearly to me in an informal conversation. Additionally, I feel that as the leader of a project, even if one is only responsible for the design and leaves the hands-on work to others, one should still be able to answer questions without the materials.¡± Yang Ping could only offer his objective opinion and stick to the facts without making any managerial judgments, to avoid misleading others. Principal Ruo resumed his pacing and then sat down on the sofa. It was already the end of the workday, and since it was Friday, the entire floor was now very quiet, with no one likely to visit Principal Ruo¡¯s office. ¡°This is a serious matter, and we must not act rashly, but we cannot ignore it. How about this: I will arrange for Guan Ruyan to hold an academic summary in the form of a defense, where he presents all his major academic achievements for review. As for the reason, it¡¯s a new procedure before applying for the Outstanding Young Talent award. Moreover, I will pick all the new candidates for the Outstanding Young Talent award to undergo this kind of defense so that there will be no suspicion of targeting him personally. For the defense experts, we need to carefully consider our choices. Elder Xiang, I will trouble you to personally oversee this, and Professor Yang, please make time to attend as well. As for the other defense experts, I will invite several top young talents from this field, especially those who are bold enough to speak their minds. Obviously, sycophants and yes-men won¡¯t do.¡± Principal Ruo was still cautious in dealing with the matter, for now, it was all based on feeling, and he couldn¡¯t let that jeopardize the future of a young outstanding talent. ¡°That would be best, as it would not be obvious and would clear up the situation,¡± Academician Xiang agreed, evidently considering Principal Ruo¡¯s approach effective. Yang Ping also agreed with the plan, which would not only serve investigative purposes but also, in case it was all a misunderstanding, wouldn¡¯t cause any negative impact, as it would be a normal defense procedure that all the Outstanding Young Talent candidates go through. ¡°However, we must keep this matter contained to just the three of us for now,¡± Principal Ruo proposed. The issue was significant and any carelessness could easily lead to misunderstandings. Everyone understood the gravity of the situation, which is why they had gathered in the office for a private discussion long after the meeting had ended. ¡ª At three o¡¯clock the next afternoon, every available staff member at Sanbo Hospital sprang into action, some dashed out while others crowded by the windows overlooking the hospital¡¯s surrounding roads, all eagerly anticipating Doctor Wen¡¯s nude run which had generated great excitement. The surgeons who were operating in the Operating Room kept inquiring to the medical staff below whether Doctor Wen¡¯s streak had started yet. Many people rushed to the first floor of the hospital, so how come nobody spotted Doctor Wen? Wasn¡¯t he supposed to streak right at three o¡¯clock? From which door did he start? The problem is, no sign of him was found at any of the four exits¡ªeast, south, west, or north. Director Zhao walked along the hospital¡¯s main corridor with a stern face, followed by four or five security guards holding anti-riot forks. Muttering under his breath, Director Zhao said, ¡°You all recognize Wen Ruzheng, right? If you see him, don¡¯t hesitate¡ªfork him in place, then wrap him in a blanket and drag him to the administrative building. Truly lawless, as if we really have no way to control him.¡± ¡°Be careful not to hurt him. The forks are protective, right? They won¡¯t injure him, will they?¡± Director Zhao stopped and turned back to check the forks. The security guard said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, they¡¯re all covered with thick cotton padding, won¡¯t hurt anyone.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good. Be very careful! We mustn¡¯t let him fall over. If he gets away without being forked, don¡¯t chase after him; there are too many cars outside, and we don¡¯t want him running into traffic to avoid us.¡± The security guard replied, ¡°Understood. Our coordination is excellent; there won¡¯t be any accidental injuries.¡± Director Zhao thought for a moment and then said, ¡°Actually, let¡¯s not use the forks. When we see him, we¡¯ll surround him from all sides and just grab him, then wrap him in a blanket and carry him to the administrative building.¡± All the preparation with the forks and now they¡¯re not going to use them? The security guards were quite reluctant to let go. ¡°Throw the forks away for now, catch him with bare hands.¡± Director Zhao personally took the forks from the guards and tossed them on the side of the road. ¡°Let¡¯s go, catch the man. How come there aren¡¯t many people around?¡± Director Zhao was puzzled. Last time there was a streaking event, the target was easily spotted. How come he couldn¡¯t see the man today? The few security guards sent out to look for Doctor Wen all came back with no sightings to report. Strange, this was completely out of character for Doctor Wen; he would never flee from the scene. It wasn¡¯t just the security guards searching; many bystanders, especially students, were looking for Wen Ruzheng. Why was there no sign of him? On such a lively occasion, how could the main character be absent? It seemed impossible for him to have chickened out. In the hospital¡¯s group chat, a message from Wen Ruzheng popped up: ¡°I have fulfilled my bet at three o¡¯clock this morning, by running three laps around the hospital completely naked!¡± The three o¡¯clock he posted about wasn¡¯t in the afternoon, it was in the early hours of the morning, shockingly at three in the morning. Was there anyone who could vouch for him? No one had seen it, he couldn¡¯t just say he did it and that be that. Immediately, the group chat erupted in outrage. Everyone was extremely angry; it was clear deception. ¡°I never lie. The fact that you didn¡¯t see it doesn¡¯t prove I didn¡¯t run it. You can¡¯t just¡ª¡± Wen Ruzheng tried to defend himself. The three o¡¯clock he posted about wasn¡¯t in the afternoon, it was in the early hours of the morning, shockingly at three in the morning. Was there anyone who could vouch for him? No one had seen it, he couldn¡¯t just say he did it and that be that. Immediately, the group chat erupted in outrage. Everyone was extremely angry; it was clear deception. ¡°I never lie. The fact that you didn¡¯t see it doesn¡¯t prove I didn¡¯t run it. You can¡¯t just¡ª¡± Wen Ruzheng tried to defend himself. Chapter 1323 - 1323 The Secret Love of 1000 ?Chapter 1323: The Secret Love of Chapter 1000 Chapter 1323: The Secret Love of Chapter 1000 The lengthy exposition that Wen Ru posted in the hospital¡¯s WeChat mega-group was like an epic thesis, arguing from multiple angles¡ªpsychology, sociology, biology¡ªwhy streaking at 3 a.m. made sense. He provided plenty of indisputable proof that he completed the run without revealing any privacy, and the entire argument was impervious. The whole group had to admit, a Doctor¡¯s way of doing things was indeed scholarly, and the ¡°thesis¡± had everyone convinced, leaving no room for refutation. What the hell, a feint! The official notice had said 3 o¡¯clock, but there was some initial uncertainty whether this meant 3 a.m. or 3 p.m. Then a rumor started from nowhere saying it was 3 p.m., so naturally, everyone assumed the announced 3 o¡¯clock referred to the afternoon. But there he was completing the streak at 3 a.m. for real. ¡°I heard Wen Ruzheng has already completed the streak.¡± A young staff member at the Medical Services Office told Director Zhao. ¡°Done? Wen Ruzheng, you little rascal, actually pulling a diversion on me.¡± Director Zhao stood dumbfounded, while a few security guards also stopped, unsure of what to do. After a brief silence, the group started to criticize the timing of the notice: ¡°Wen Ruzheng, you¡¯re not a real man, but a hypocrite. You talk about standing tall and keeping your word, but didn¡¯t you say 3 o¡¯clock in the group? Why didn¡¯t you specify whether it was 3 a.m. or 3 p.m.?¡± ¡°Brother, please watch your language and stick to the facts. No personal attacks. The notice clearly stated 3 o¡¯clock. If it¡¯s in the 24-hour format, 3 o¡¯clock is definitely in the wee hours. If it¡¯s in the 12-hour format, then without the qualifiers ¡®in the morning¡¯ or ¡®in the afternoon,¡¯ it could mean either 3 a.m. or 3 p.m., meaning I could choose either time to keep my word. Hence, my streak at 3 a.m. was certainly in strict compliance with my promise. There was an official notice before my streak specifying the time, location, and method in detail, and I had witnesses following me the entire way. How can you talk about me being a hypocrite?¡± Wen Ruzheng replied calmly. ¡°But why does everyone in the hospital say it was 3 p.m.?¡± ¡°Why believe rumors over an official notice? That¡¯s your problem.¡± ¡°Who knows if your witnesses, Zhang Lin and Liang Fatty, are in cahoots with you? Why didn¡¯t you video it as evidence?¡± ¡°Keep a video of such a thing on my phone? If it gets leaked and spread, I could be charged with producing and distributing indecent material. That¡¯s illegal, understand?¡± ¡°Any other witnesses besides Zhang Lin and Liang Fatty?¡± ¡°If more witnesses are needed, you could ask Xu Lingmin, the nurse from the emergency department who was called for urgent support this very morning. I even greeted her while running.¡± ¡°It looked like you were wearing tight sports clothing top and bottom at the time. That¡¯s streaking?¡± an astonished nurse from the midnight shift asked. ¡°My clothing and trousers were painted on, which doesn¡¯t violate the principles of streaking.¡± ¡°Oh my god! Painted on?¡± ¡°Those interested can come to the Pathology Department to inspect in person, the paint hasn¡¯t been removed yet.¡± ¡°Everyone, let it go. I can personally guarantee that Doctor Wen did indeed strictly carry out the streak. To ensure the painting was complete, he even shaved off all his hair. This spirit is worth our study,¡± said Zhang Lin and Liang Fatty, who did indeed see that he had nothing on his body besides the paint, under full supervision the entire time. ¡°¡ª¡± In the Pathology Department¡¯s Resting Room, Wen Ruzheng relaxed in his chair, basking in the scent of coffee, feeling utterly content. He decided once again to endure hardship to gain strength, recognizing his own abilities were still lacking. Only through shame could he spur himself to further courage and eventually defeat Professor Yang. This streaking episode was indeed completed, and in fact, even if he had to run naked around Sanbo Hospital at noon for three circuits, it wouldn¡¯t have pressured Wen Ruzheng at all. Running at noon could have been a chance for a sunbath, toasting his back, but Old Zhao was too feudal, too conservative, too pedantic¡ªwhy was he so sensitive about a streak? Well, give him some face, don¡¯t run at noon. Wen Ruzheng reminisced about the early morning streak; it was exhilarating, the most relaxed he had ever felt¡ªcomplete mental and physical relaxation, a harmonious unity with nature. Actually, there were still people on the streets at 3 a.m. He encountered an emergency nurse on her way to the hospital, to whom he cheerfully waved, she hurriedly responded and dashed off to the hospital. There was also a couple tightly embracing under a tree, too occupied to notice Wen Ruzheng jogging. A cargo truck was parked on the side, presumably for a delivery; the driver was busy moving things around, not bothering about a runner. And a drunk was muttering to himself by the roadside, not even sure of his own identity, let alone noticing someone streaking. In summary, he crossed paths with just a few people throughout the process, none of whom cared whether he was clothed. Even if they did pay attention, they must have thought he was just wearing a tight suit. Perfect! ¡°Wen Ruzheng!¡± Director Zhao¡¯s voice thundered. Wen Ruzheng instantly dropped his feet from the table: ¡°You scared me, nearly choked on my coffee.¡± ¡°You¡¯re quite something, playing a game of cat and mouse with me. Did you really streak this morning?¡± Director Zhao burst in, visibly agitated. Wen Ruzheng nodded: ¡°Streaking is indeed a very effective way to relax, Director Zhao. I suggest you try it too; it¡¯s very healthy.¡± ¡°You weren¡¯t filmed, were you?¡± ¡°Not openly, as for secretly, no idea. But even if I were, I¡¯m not worried. With the ambience at 3 a.m., the poor lighting, plus my body paint, I¡¯m not afraid of being filmed; you can¡¯t make out anything.¡± Chapter 1324 - 1324 The Secret Love of 1000_2 ?Chapter 1324: The Secret Love of Chapter 1000_2 Chapter 1324: The Secret Love of Chapter 1000_2 ¡°Wen Ruzheng, I¡¯m telling you, if this matter brings adverse effects to the hospital, you won¡¯t be able to walk away from it,¡± Since no video had leaked out, there was no handle for anyone to grab, Director Zhao temporarily set his mind at ease and did not give Wen Ruzheng too much trouble. ¡ª Lu Xiaolu had several bottles of fluid infused at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One yesterday, just saline to replenish liquids, really. Lu Xiaolu didn¡¯t have diarrhea at all; it was all intentional. Yang Ping sent a WeChat message to Lu Xiaolu, hoping to see him and have a serious conversation. Lu Xiaolu agreed to the appointment and came to Yang Ping¡¯s office. Now, with only the two of them there, Lu Xiaolu, a smart man, already knew what Yang Ping wanted to know, so he said directly, ¡°Professor Yang, just ask.¡± ¡°Are Guan Ruyan¡¯s papers and academic achievements yours? Or are they his? I want the truth,¡± Yang Ping got straight to the point, realizing there was no need to beat around the bush with someone as smart as Lu Xiaolu. Lu Xiaolu didn¡¯t answer. He remained silent, and Yang Ping did not speak either, waiting for his response. The two of them sat opposite each other in silence. After a long while, Lu Xiaolu finally said, ¡°You have to promise me, to keep this a secret for me.¡± ¡°Alright,¡± Yang Ping agreed. Lu Xiaolu sighed and said, ¡°The papers he published in CNS are all written by me, and I designed and completed all those subjects as well. I hope this matter remains between you and me. I don¡¯t want to deceive you, but I really don¡¯t want others to know. Principal Ding has been incredibly kind to me; I can¡¯t destroy Guan Ruyan. But now I must leave him and start my life. I have thought about this, and I plan to go abroad.¡± ¡°This is academic fraud, and you¡¯re helping him commit it. I also know about your dealings with Principal Ding. He financed your studies, and out of gratitude, you followed his arrangements. But¡ª but this is different. You could repay him in other ways. Why did you have to help them commit academic fraud? Is that fair to those who earnestly pursue scientific research? What is the fundamental spirit of academia? It is to seek truth!¡± Yang Ping clearly disapproved of his actions. Lu Xiaolu remained calm: ¡°Do you know how heavy the debt of gratitude I owe is? Without Principal Ding¡¯s help, I wouldn¡¯t have had the money to complete my Master¡¯s studies, let alone go abroad for a Ph.D. Without Principal Ding, I would have been job hunting after my bachelor¡¯s degree, perhaps desperately drinking at dinner tables to make ends meet. Principal Ding¡¯s help allowed me to live the life I have now¡ªI enjoy the life of being able to focus on research, it¡¯s what I want, no one has forced me, just like my decision to leave now and go abroad, made independently without any influence from others.¡± ¡°Fair?¡± ¡°Very fair! If I couldn¡¯t study for a Master¡¯s, that would have been unfair. Why shouldn¡¯t I use my abilities to seek the future I want?¡± ¡°What about fairness to others?¡± ¡°Very fair!¡± ¡°Did you know? Principal Ruo has already suspected this matter, he just hasn¡¯t taken action yet to avoid causing collateral damage. But you can¡¯t hide fire with paper.¡± ¡°Paper can hide fire, depending on the paper¡¯s capacity. There are many fires you don¡¯t see because you¡¯re too naive. You are a genius, so much so that everyone looks up to you, a genius who doesn¡¯t have to deal with the mundane affairs of life, but I¡¯m not. So you can¡¯t understand my thoughts and feelings.¡± ¡°What do you plan to do?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already made arrangements for where to go. Of course, when I leave, I¡¯ll have a talk with Principal Ruo. I have a way to dispel his suspicions about Guan Ruyan, then I¡¯ll become the person who is perceived as ruthlessly trying to climb the ladder by framing my bosses in everyone¡¯s eyes.¡± ¡°You¡¯re deluding yourself.¡± ¡°No, I am clear-headed. I¡¯ve said I won¡¯t ruin Guan Ruyan, I can¡¯t bring myself to destroy him.¡± ¡°What a joke, why tell me then? You know I could take him down. Why divulge this to me, when you could have left quietly? Why leave this ambiguous clue at the conference? Do you think I believe you? You just wanted to plant a seed with the conference, knowing that Principal Ruo, Elder Xiang, and I would doubt it, knowing I¡¯d have to talk to you to understand what was going on, right? You planned all this, setting the blaze at my feet, with your cleverness, you must have known that if the fire started with me, I would not let Guan Ruyan go, because I don¡¯t deal in worldly affairs.¡± Lu Xiaolu gave a bitter smile, leaning wearily against the back of the chair, then slowly sipped his tea. ¡°In the presence of genius, nothing can be concealed from you.¡± ¡°You are undoubtedly a person of deep sentiment, but it¡¯s also clear you intend to use someone else¡¯s hand to destroy Guan Ruyan. Since you believe Principal Ding¡¯s kindness to you is as heavy as a mountain, then to also destroy Guan Ruyan is contradictory. There is only one explanation¡ªdestroying Guan Ruyan is a form of repaying Principal Ding,¡± said Yang Ping in an even tone, articulating each word crisply. Lu Xiaolu was taken aback, his gaze clearly drifting off for a moment before he replied, ¡°Your deductive skills are strong, frighteningly so.¡± ¡°I dare not say that everything in this world must conform to logic, but based on my experience thus far, it certainly seems so. If you come across something that defies logic, then you simply haven¡¯t found the true logic. If I push my reasoning one step further: It¡¯s very likely that Guan Ruyan caused harm to either Principal Ding or his daughter, and that¡¯s why you¡ª¡± ¡°Enough!¡± Lu Xiaolu slumped on the couch, his hands running through his hair before he looked up and said, ¡°I might as well tell you, Guan Ruyan is truly unworthy of Ding Xinyu. Everything he has was given to him by Ding Xinyu, but he still betrayed her¡ªdon¡¯t get me wrong, I have no romantic entanglement with Ding Xinyu. Because she is Principal Ding¡¯s daughter, and Principal Ding is my benefactor, his only daughter is also my benefactor. You know, Principal Ding was diagnosed with late-stage brain cancer a few months ago. He doesn¡¯t have many days left to live.¡± ¡°Wasn¡¯t Principal Ding in the United States a few months ago attending an academic conference? He seemed just fine then.¡± ¡°Actually, he was using that opportunity to get a check-up in the United States. Knowing he didn¡¯t have much longer to live, he was very anxious to pave the way for Guan Ruyan one last time by pushing him to become Outstanding Young Talent. At least that would have been half a success, but unfortunately, he didn¡¯t anticipate that Guan Ruyan was also secretly planning, ready to divorce Ding Xinyu at any moment. Guan Ruyan has long had someone else on the side, and this person is going to be Guan Ruyan¡¯s new support. He plans to follow the path of ¡®study leads to civil service¡¯¡ªso I must destroy him.¡± ¡°I really didn¡¯t guess wrong!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I have a backup plan for myself. Professor Zhang Chunquan, a Chinese-American at the Whithead Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has contacted me several times. I have accepted his invitation and am planning to work in his lab.¡± ¡°Not staying here?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t stay. I¡¯ve always regarded Principal Ding as a father. With his departure, I will lose my spiritual support. Staying in this city will only bring sadness. It was better back when I was studying, when Guan Ruyan, Ding Xinyu, and I were in Germany together. I saw them as siblings. Principal Ding always asked me whether I had enough money and if I was under too much pressure with my studies. In the blink of an eye, more than a decade has passed, and everything has changed.¡± ¡°Why not expose Guan Ruyan to Principal Ding!¡± ¡°It¡¯s too cruel, even now he believes Guan Ruyan is a trustworthy person. I just want him to leave with a smile and satisfaction.¡± ¡°But now we¡¯re investigating Guan Ruyan, isn¡¯t he suffering just the same? Watching Guan Ruyan fall.¡± ¡°No, without my stepping forward as a witness, at most you have suspicions, you can¡¯t confirm anything about his actions. The direction and speed at which this matter develops are under my control, and I won¡¯t act on it now. I planted the seeds of doubt, but when to let it ignite depends on me. I will deal with this matter after Principal Ding has passed away. In any case, when Principal Ding leaves this world, Guan Ruyan will still be a good son-in-law, his daughter¡¯s family will be happy, and he will have lived without regrets,¡± Lu Xiaolu¡¯s emotions visibly stabilized again. ¡°It¡¯s more complicated than I thought!¡± Yang Ping took a deep breath, never expecting the world to be so complex, where what people see is always just the surface, and no one can guess the stories behind it. ¡°This world is like our research topics; what we see is always just the simple exterior, but the intricate complexity behind it far exceeds our initial understanding,¡± Lu Xiaolu said with a touch of sorrow. ¡°If you can, stay. We need you here too,¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to delve into the complexities behind it all; he simply felt it would be a pity if Lu Xiaolu left. Lu Xiaolu shook his head: ¡°I would also like to stay, but after this affair blows up, how can I stay?¡± Chapter 1325 - 1325 1001 Blind Men Touching an Elephant ?Chapter 1325: Chapter 1001: Blind Men Touching an Elephant Chapter 1325: Chapter 1001: Blind Men Touching an Elephant Yang Ping had mostly grasped the process of the entire affair, but from a rational and objective perspective, this was still far from enough to make a definitive judgment about Guan Ruyan. Up next, they had to await the defense session arranged by Principal Ruo, where Guan Ruyan would have to defend several key subjects and papers face-to-face by himself. At that time, Guan Ruyan¡¯s true level would become glaringly obvious, because at a real defense session, no one could fake their abilities, unless the experts conducting the defense were lenient or incompetent themselves. Lu Xiaolu was indeed an exceptionally rare talent; it would be a pity to let him slip away. Yang Ping decided he still wanted to find a way to retain him since he was also a victim. The defense session proposed by Principal Ruo would soon begin. All candidates for the Outstanding Young Talent within the Nandu Medical University system had to attend, and all questions had to be answered by the person responsible for the project themselves, not by an assistant, not even with hints. Principal Ruo stated that this regulation aimed to let the defense experts truly understand the content of the project, as assistants often lacked the leader¡¯s deep understanding, thus eliminating the lazy practice of having assistants answer in their stead. This notification made Guan Ruyan anxious. Lu Xiaolu¡¯s health hadn¡¯t yet recovered, and he had explained that after several days of diarrhea and dehydration, his body simply couldn¡¯t cope and needed proper rest. Guan Ruyan was now like an ant on a hot pan. If the defense session indeed went as Principal Ruo demanded, the assistant couldn¡¯t help at all. Even if he brought Lu Xiaolu to the defense, Lu Xiaolu couldn¡¯t answer for him; at most, he could pass notes, but in such a situation, he couldn¡¯t receive notes while standing on stage. Wearing an earpiece seemed like a good idea so that Lu Xiaolu could help with reminders, but then Lu Xiaolu would probably only be able to sit below the stage, surrounded by people, which equally made it impossible to relay answers to his ear. So, Guan Ruyan now found himself completely out of options and didn¡¯t understand the intention behind Principal Ruo¡¯s actions. All Outstanding Young Talent candidates had to participate and defend their significant past research achievements. It seemed that the move wasn¡¯t targeted solely at Guan Ruyan. It was heard that this was initiated by Academician Xiang, having been suggested several times, and Principal Ruo had not agreed until now. After talking with Lu Xiaolu, Yang Ping decided to talk with Guan Ruyan as well. So he arranged a visit to Guan Ruyan¡¯s laboratory through Principal Ruo, with Principal Ruo himself instructing Guan Ruyan to host Yang Ping personally. Guan Ruyan was now at his wit¡¯s end. He called Lu Xiaolu, asking him to come quickly to handle Professor Yang¡¯s visit, but Lu Xiaolu replied that he was so unsteady he couldn¡¯t even stand up, let alone handle a tour; he simply had the will, but not the strength. After visiting Guan Ruyan¡¯s laboratory, Yang Ping could almost certainly conclude that those famous research achievements couldn¡¯t possibly have been orchestrated by Guan Ruyan himself. Actually, reaching the pinnacle of academic research requires a very narrow yet profound focus in the field, not something achievable merely by reading a few books and researching a few papers; it demands a profoundly deep understanding of the specialty. So, by taking the opportunity of the visit, Yang Ping discussed the research field with Guan Ruyan. Guan Ruyan was indeed decent, but only slightly better than an average professor, hardly matching his current research outcomes. On the other hand, Lu Xiaolu was the exact opposite. He had a very deep understanding of the specialty; Lu Xiaolu was the true young talent. Yang Ping was now in a difficult position. If he took action against Guan Ruyan now, it would hurt Lu Xiaolu¡¯s feelings. Yang Ping still wanted to retain Lu Xiaolu, and without Lu Xiaolu¡¯s help, it would indeed be very difficult to definitively resolve Guan Ruyan¡¯s situation. At the home of Elder Academician Xiang, Principal Ruo, Yang Ping, and Academician Xiang met again to exchange intelligence about the situation and to discuss the next steps. Regardless of anything, until a definitive determination was made, the matter absolutely could not be made public and had to be kept within the three of them. Yang Ping expressed to Principal Ruo his intention to retain Lu Xiaolu. Principal Ruo instructed Yang Ping not to waste time on this matter, leaving it to himself to handle. He knew how to proceed and would ensure that Lu Xiaolu was retained. Since Principal Ruo promised, it meant he definitely had a plan. Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to waste any more time on this, as his own project was at a critical stage, which couldn¡¯t afford distractions or require them. ¡ª Fu Xiaotao¡¯s Castleman¡¯s disease was being treated, and the follow-up results after he was treated with rituximab had come out. Yang Ping had been paying attention to this case. Based on the follow-up indicators, the medication had no effect at all. After treatment with glucocorticoids, the disease had originally entered a remission phase, but now all indicators had begun to worsen again. It seemed that a large amount of steroids were still needed to control the symptoms. ¡°Rituximab didn¡¯t work?¡± Song Zimo was quite puzzled. ¡°This time, even using steroids again in oncology didn¡¯t work; only chemotherapy managed to stabilize the condition,¡± Yang Ping said, staring at the medical records on the computer. ¡°Looking at the disease mechanism, isn¡¯t interleukin-6 the main culprit? If that¡¯s the case, theoretically, rituximab should be able to control the condition. Why does it have no effect at all?¡± Song Zimo also felt puzzled and suddenly became interested in this case. Leaning back in his chair, Yang Ping thought for a moment and said, ¡°Either there¡¯s a problem with the drug, or there¡¯s an issue with the disease model. One of them has to be problematic because theory is useless in the face of real cases, which means there is definitely something wrong with the theory.¡± Questioning is the basis of progress, and nothing is beyond questioning. Therefore, even things that are recognized need to be questioned. The bare fact is laid out here: the medication just didn¡¯t work. ¡°But rituximab works well in other diseases based on interleukin-6, with plenty of reliable literature to prove it,¡± Song Zimo continued to inquire. Yang Ping had just reviewed many articles and said, ¡°So, I am considering that the mechanism of Castleman¡¯s disease must be wrong. The root cause is not interleukin-6. I have looked at all the papers on Castleman¡¯s disease, and they almost resemble blind men feeling an elephant. Everyone only sees one aspect of the disease and has never seen the whole picture. Moreover, each believes they are correct.¡± ¡°Find a student to go to oncology and get all of Fu Xiaotao¡¯s medical records, including those from other hospitals,¡± Yang Ping felt it was necessary to spend some effort on this disease since he had noticed the doubts, and it clearly didn¡¯t match his personality not to clarify them. Song Zimo sent a student to oncology to get all of Fu Xiaotao¡¯s medical records. Fortunately, all of Fu Xiaotao¡¯s medical records were well preserved; he had made copies of all the medical records each time he was hospitalized. Yang Ping looked at these records one by one, then tried to connect all the information from a holistic viewpoint, abandoning the original fixed mindset. In fact, from the onset of the disease, almost every doctor was serious and tried their best to improve the diagnostics to unveil the truth of the illness. Biopsies of the lymph nodes had been done several times, and there were ample blood tests conducted. To better review the medical records, Yang Ping took everyone to the Meeting Room, laying out the tests one by one on the large conference table, because it was the only place that could accommodate so many test results. ¡°But I just saw the changes in various indicators; they really seem to fit with the interleukin-6 disease model?¡± Song Zimo thought the disease model was not problematic. Yang Ping, head down, kept adjusting the arranged tests, ¡°That¡¯s because you are only seeing the results of each outbreak episode. You¡¯ve touched just part of the elephant. If you pull your perspective higher, seeing from his first test result to the last, and don¡¯t miss any, you will discover something different. Look, six months before the symptoms appeared the second time, his body¡¯s T cells had already started abnormally activating. Three months before the second relapse, the level of vascular endothelial growth factor in his body had already increased, a signal of the immune system speeding up. Could this mean that the entire chain of the disease differs completely from the accepted model based on interleukin-6?¡± Chapter 1326 - 1326 1002 Checklist Jigsaw ?Chapter 1326: Chapter 1002: Checklist Jigsaw Chapter 1326: Chapter 1002: Checklist Jigsaw The large conference table was covered with medical examination reports, spread out one after the other. To prevent the wind from blowing the papers away, Yang Ping had the students close all the doors and windows of the meeting room tightly. Yang Ping kept adjusting the position of the reports like a child playing with a puzzle. After several adjustments, not only were the reports arranged chronologically, but they were also classified by type. Then, the different examinations were organized based on their internal logical relationships. ¡°Don¡¯t touch them, is there any more material?¡± Yang Ping was now completely immersed in the analysis of this puzzle made of medical reports. The doctor who had just gone to retrieve the reports said, ¡°Everything is here. He stores all his medical reports in a box each time he visits the doctor, and he has photographed every single one to keep a record.¡± This was a person meticulous and diligent; this diligence might save his life. If no better method was found, according to current literature statistics, it would be difficult for Fu Xiaotao to live more than two years. Song Zimo was a bit nervous at the side, ¡°Have you found anything?¡± ¡°These reports present the entire objective overview of the disease. Take a look, everyone. If we consider each episode of the disease as an individual event, then analyzing each part, indeed its pathogenesis is based on interleukin-6. But now, if you combine all the individual episodes, looking at the entire course of the disease, is the interleukin-6 model still correct?¡± Yang Ping already had some new connections in mind. When you analyze something in-depth and comprehensively with dedication, the result can be quite different, possibly because no one has ever analyzed it with such seriousness before you. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and every doctor gathered around leaned in to take a look, but they all maintained a slight distance, for fear that a careless exhale might blow away some of the reports. ¡°Thank you, every doctor, for your utmost effort in completing the examinations and gathering information. Many times, vascular endothelial growth factor has been checked, and although there were a few occasions it wasn¡¯t checked, we can still roughly see the trend,¡± Yang Ping moved around the conference table. Hearing Yang Ping talking to himself, Song Zimo began looking through the reports on vascular endothelial growth factor one by one in chronological order. Looking at its development trend from the perspective of the entire disease process and considering each episode of the disease, indeed, it wasn¡¯t interleukin-6 that permeated the whole process but vascular endothelial growth factor. ¡°Are you saying that vascular endothelial growth factor could be the possible foundation of the disease¡¯s onset? Or that the interleukin-6 model is wrong, and it should be revised to a vascular endothelial growth factor model?¡± Song Zimo found Yang Ping¡¯s statement incredible. The interleukin-6 model was the accepted mechanism of Castelman¡¯s disease in the academic world. Now, based on just one case and a pile of medical reports, to refute a globally recognized model seemed rather frivolous. But this was Professor Yang, and Song Zimo couldn¡¯t help but believe. In fact, Yang Ping had already spent a considerable amount of time studying this case in System Space. He was not simply pointing out a question on a whim. Yang Ping walked around the desk once and then stopped, leaning on the conference table with both hands. Staring at the lab reports for a full five minutes before speaking up, ¡°We could try to block the pathway that induces the production and activates T cells of VEGF, thereby inhibiting the occurrence of the disease! If the patient is willing, we can use the laboratory¡¯s advantage to reanalyze his illness.¡± ¡°Shall I go talk to him?¡± ¡°No, I will go myself.¡± Yang Ping felt that he might have grasped the real pathogenesis of Castelman¡¯s disease. After overturning the existing theory, he believed his theory was better able to explain Fu Xiaotao¡¯s condition. If diagnosed using monism, his theory could explain more clinical symptoms than the interleukin-6 model. After clarifying the ideas in his mind, Yang Ping had the students photograph all the medical reports as he had arranged them, and then take photos of each report individually. He was hoping to draw a trend chart of these test indicators¡¯ changes, a task that was quite tedious but was eagerly undertaken by all the doctoral and master¡¯s students. Without wasting a moment, Yang Ping and Song Zimo arrived at the Department of Oncology. Director Jiang had gone out to participate in a case discussion, and under the guidance of the physician in charge, Yang Ping and Song Zimo went to find Fu Xiaotao. Fu Xiaotao wasn¡¯t in great spirits, as he had narrowly escaped death not long ago through the use of high doses of chemotherapy. This time, when the illness struck, he was first hospitalized and given high doses of steroids to control the condition, followed by treatment with rituximab. In the past, after stopping the steroids, there wasn¡¯t such a quick relapse. Perhaps this time, it wasn¡¯t a relapse at all but rather that the illness had never been under control. The high doses of steroids could only temporarily manage the symptoms¡ªonce the steroids stopped, the disease continued to progress until this critical, life-threatening outbreak. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Fu Xiaotao struggled to sit up in bed. Yang Ping and Song Zimo helped him to sit up against the pillows. Fu Xiaotao¡¯s parents had been steadfastly by his side, their faces clearly unhappy because not only had the condition not improved after Yang Ping¡¯s last consultation, but it had also gotten worse. But Fu Xiaotao still trusted Yang Ping. He had researched extensively and understood the complexity of his condition. Yang Ping didn¡¯t care much about their displeasure and said to Fu Xiaotao, ¡°We have given deeper thought to your illness and realized that the existing treatments simply cannot cure you. We now want to try a new method on you, but this method is experimental and has never been used on anyone else. It carries certain risks, so we need your consent.¡± ¡°How can that be allowed!¡± Fu Xiaotao¡¯s mother rejected the idea outright. Fu Xiaotao¡¯s father, in a gentle manner, said, ¡°Let the professor finish speaking. The new method is definitely experimental. Don¡¯t be put off just by hearing it¡¯s an experiment. Let¡¯s step outside, and let the child talk to the professor.¡± Fu Xiaotao¡¯s father led his wife out to avoid interfering with the conversation between his son and the doctor, and Fu Xiaotao¡¯s mother followed, clearly displeased. ¡°Professor Yang, don¡¯t mind them, they don¡¯t understand. I¡¯m willing to sign up for the experimental method you just mentioned,¡± Fu Xiaotao agreed completely. Yang Ping told him, ¡°Since it¡¯s experimental, there are certain risks. Can you accept that? And it may very well fail again.¡± Fu Xiaotao said with a bitter smile, ¡°I¡¯m clear about my illness; there¡¯s really no good way to cure it. Since there is no cure, why not try a potentially effective new method?¡± ¡°Moreover, if we use the new method, we¡¯ll need to take your blood for many tests, as we need to clarify some biochemical indicators¡¯ changes in your body,¡± Song Zimo added from the side. Fu Xiaotao was resolute, ¡°That¡¯s fine, just arrange it.¡± As a graduate student, Fu Xiaotao had looked up Yang Ping¡¯s papers. Without searching, he wouldn¡¯t have known and was startled to find that Yang Ping was a top scholar. How could such a prominent figure have time to chat idly with a common patient? He must be confident to have personally sought him out to suggest this experimental approach. The will to live made Fu Xiaotao firmly grasp this lifeline. Under ordinary circumstances, he might not have even been able to request the attention of such a distinguished individual, but now that the opportunity had presented itself to him, it would be a missed chance of a lifetime if he didn¡¯t agree. And Fu Xiaotao always believed: Doctors and patients are comrades-in-arms, with the common enemy being the illness. ¡°Do you really agree? Don¡¯t you want to discuss it with your parents?¡± Song Zimo reminded. Fu Xiaotao shook his head, ¡°No need, I¡¯m an adult and can decide for myself. If I discuss this with them, it certainly won¡¯t happen. My dad might be okay, but my mom definitely won¡¯t agree.¡± ¡°Alright, if you agree, I will talk to the doctors here and have you transferred to our department for treatment. All costs of treatment that are part of the research will be covered, and you will also receive a certain stipend,¡± Yang Ping decided on the spot. ¡°Thank you! That settles it then, you can get in touch any time for me to sign,¡± Fu Xiaotao was very resolute. Chapter 1327 - 1327 1003 The Life-Saving Medicine is Right ?Chapter 1327: Chapter 1003: The Life-Saving Medicine is Right Beside You Chapter 1327: Chapter 1003: The Life-Saving Medicine is Right Beside You Although Fu Xiaotao¡¯s mother maintained an unfriendly expression on her face, Yang Ping did not care about such matters and did not expend any extra energy to focus on this issue. If it were another doctor, they would definitely pay close attention to the family¡¯s attitude; if family members were opposed or distrustful, treatment would be put on hold, unless it was an emergency life-saving treatment. Not long after Yang Ping left the oncology department, a doctoral student brought an informed consent document for the research treatment for Fu Xiaotao to sign. Of course, when it came time to sign, Fu Xiaotao couldn¡¯t avoid a dispute with his mother, because she believed that experimental treatment was tantamount to using her son as a lab rat. In her opinion, signing the document would be like selling her son¡¯s health to the hospital, to Professor Yang, an absolutely unacceptable act. Conversely, the father¡¯s opinion was exactly the opposite. He believed that since traditional treatments were confirmed to be ineffective, why not try a new method, at least there would still be a glimmer of hope. Fu Xiaotao¡¯s illness hadn¡¯t been correctly diagnosed in so many hospitals, but here, a diagnosis was quickly obtained through a pathological examination, providing every reason to trust in the doctor¡¯s expertise. A three-to-two majority decision allowed Fu Xiaotao to smoothly complete the signing. In truth, Fu Xiaotao wasn¡¯t dismissing his mother¡¯s views, but her opinions were often based on prejudiced subjective judgments, completely unworthy of consideration. She even demanded to take Fu Xiaotao to see a master, which he didn¡¯t attend, leaving his mother to go alone. She spent sixty thousand yuan on a pillow that was supposed to cure diseases. Money was spent and the pillow bought, yet it did not have the expected therapeutic effect and in the end, they were still rushing to the hospital to save a life. Even at this moment of life and death, Fu Xiaotao held strongly to his convictions; he signed the informed consent to participate in the experiment and was smoothly transferred to the Surgical Research Institute. At the institute, Fu Xiaotao had many vials of blood drawn for tests he had never undergone before. Many of the tests were not standard hospital assays but rather biochemical exams looking into various pathways of the human immune system. Such tests could not be completed in other hospitals, and those hospitals wouldn¡¯t even think to conduct them, because Sanbo Hospital boasts several strong foundational medical laboratories, thus possessing the capability to conduct such examinations. A few days later, all of Fu Xiaotao¡¯s test results were in, and Yang Ping personally went to the laboratory to see them. Tang Shun pulled up the research findings on the computer, ¡°From these biochemical analyses, it seems that the key to the disease should be the mTOR signaling pathway.¡± Tang Shun wasn¡¯t a clinical doctor; his expertise lay in foundational medical research. For a doctorate well-versed in basic medicine, utilizing these tests to identify which signaling pathway was involved was quite straightforward, as such tasks were routine for them. Meanwhile, for clinical doctors, research into signaling pathways was seldom touched upon, a highly sophisticated area of technology. Even some clinicians skilled in research severely lacked comprehensive biochemical knowledge, highlighting the chasm between specialties. Yang Ping carefully analyzed each test result, everything was so clear, indeed, the crux of the problem had been identified as the mTOR signaling pathway. If the mTOR pathway could be blocked, then could the disease be cured? Theoretically, it must be so. This bold idea thrilled Yang Ping. He had found a new approach for treating Castleman¡¯s disease. Whether it would work or not still needed to be tested in practice. Tang Shun was now somewhat troubled, ¡°But what drug should be used to block the mTOR signaling pathway?¡± ¡°Sirolimus, used for anti-rejection therapy after kidney transplantation!¡± Song Zimo blurted out, as this was a drug very familiar to clinicians. Utilizing Sirolimus to block the mTOR signaling pathway for treating Castleman¡¯s disease would not require any approval processes, as Sirolimus was not a new drug. It had been used clinically for a long time, specifically to block the mTOR signaling pathway in anti-rejection therapy for kidney transplants. ¡°Should we stop the chemotherapy and administer Sirolimus to him?¡± Song Zimo also became excited. No doctor could contain their excitement at such a moment. Yang Ping decisively said, ¡°Stop all chemotherapy, stop hormone treatments, only use Sirolimus for treatment, and start immediately.¡± Without a rich combination of basic medical knowledge and clinical medical expertise, it would have been impossible to overturn the accepted model of interleukin-6 pathogenesis. This shows the importance of having a comprehensive grasp of relevant knowledge in the field of medicine; without it, doctors would forever be trapped within the cocoon of their specialized knowledge. The chasm between basic medical science and clinical medicine is vast, and the tools at the disposal of clinicians when facing problems in clinical settings are extremely limited¡ªnot to mention the more advanced techniques. Meanwhile, basic medical science is often unaware of what specific issues are being faced in clinical medicine. A very small number of doctors who are able to bridge both fields often make remarkable academic achievements, such as a professor from the anesthesiology department at Huaxi Hospital, who combined his pharmacology knowledge with clinical insights to develop a whole new local anesthetic. Returning to the ward, Yang Ping sought out Fu Xiaotao for another discussion, which was held in the meeting room instead of the ward to avoid unnecessary distractions. ¡°We¡¯ve found a new mechanism for Castleman disease and a new treatment drug. Fortunately, the new drug is actually a well-established medication that has been used for years, but it was never used to treat Castleman disease. Instead, it was used to prevent organ rejection after kidney transplants. Based on its performance in preventing rejection after kidney transplants, it should be effective for your condition, because it targets the same mechanism,¡± Yang Ping explained his discovery to Fu Xiaotao. Song Zimo also stepped in to add some details, ¡°We plan to start the new treatment for you as soon as possible, stopping all the previous chemotherapy and hormone treatments.¡± Although Fu Xiaotao had read a lot of material on Castleman disease, he was, after all, a layman compared to a doctor, so he replied without hesitation, ¡°I will comply with your treatment plan. If I need to sign anything, I can do it anytime.¡± ¡°Sirolimus!¡± something suddenly came to Fu Xiaotao¡¯s mind. ¡°Yes, Sirolimus!¡± Yang Ping confirmed with certainty. Fu Xiaotao remembered, ¡°Once when I was hospitalized, the patient in the bed next to mine was a post-kidney transplant patient, and he was constantly taking Sirolimus. No wonder it sounded so familiar.¡± The life-saving drug had been so close by all along, once within such close reach. Since Fu Xiaotao was so cooperative, the following treatment would go smoothly. Everything proceeded according to the new plan. On the same day, Fu Xiaotao¡¯s chemotherapy medication was discontinued, and he started taking Sirolimus. Time waits for no one, and Fu Xiaotao¡¯s condition didn¡¯t have much time left. Over at Nandu Medical University, news spread that Principal Ding had fallen ill and been admitted to the ICU at Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1. Some cases of brain cancer are just like that¡ªno symptoms at all like a normal person, but once symptoms appear, they¡¯re usually life-threatening or dire. Principal Ding¡¯s situation came as a bit of a shock. Lu Xiaolu truly regarded Principal Ding as a father and, upon hearing that Principal Ding had suddenly fallen ill and was in the ICU, stayed vigilant outside the ICU and kept in touch with Yang Ping, hoping Yang Ping could help determine if there was any hope for Principal Ding. Another brainstem tumor! Yang Ping didn¡¯t know how many brainstem tumors he had encountered, but perhaps it was precisely because the surgery was too difficult and risky, and because there were so few doctors and hospitals patients could turn to, that such a concentration effect occurred. For such a brainstem tumor, Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 definitely had no solution. Apart from Sanbo Hospital, only Temple of Heaven Hospital had the capability to perform the surgery. Not long after receiving Principal Ding¡¯s CT scans from Lu Xiaolu, Yang Ping got a call from his father-in-law, Professor Su, inviting him for an urgent consultation on Principal Ding. As soon as he hung up the phone, he received another call from Principal Ruo to discuss Principal Ding¡¯s condition. Principal Ding had actually made many contributions to the school, and his own academic achievements were quite substantial. Regrettably, his excessive indulgence towards his daughter had led to overly generous support for his son-in-law. Even after learning about his condition, he was still rapidly paving the way for his daughter and son-in-law¡¯s future. PS: This case is based on a true story. In the United States, a medical student diagnosed with Castleman disease was considered incurable and given less than two years to live. However, this medical student refused to accept his fate and decided to save himself. Amidst his debilitating illness and near-death experiences, he dedicated tremendous effort to studying the disease. By conducting extensive research, he overturned the disease mechanism of ¡°Interleukin-6¡± and identified the real mechanism to be the ¡°mTOR signaling pathway.¡± Convinced of his findings, he stopped chemotherapy and began taking Sirolimus. After six months, one year, and then two years, his Castleman disease was cured and never relapsed. From a dying patient with a gaunt appearance, he became a vibrant and healthy Castleman disease expert¡ªa world-leading authority. This is a story of resilience, of challenging authority, and of inspirational self-help. Chapter 1328 - 1328 1004 A Simple and Crude Style ?Chapter 1328: Chapter 1004: A Simple and Crude Style Chapter 1328: Chapter 1004: A Simple and Crude Style Lives were at stake. Yang Ping wasted not a minute and immediately phoned his driver to rush him to Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1. Since Principal Ding was the vice-principal of Nandu Medical University, both the school and the hospital took his medical care very seriously. Professor Su had already personally joined the rescue efforts. The entire elite team from Nandu Affiliated No. 1¡¯s Neurosurgery, ICU, and the Neurology Department had already gathered in the ICU to assist. By the time Yang Ping arrived, Professor Su, Principal Ruo, Director Lu from the Affiliated No. 1 Neurosurgery, Director Wen from the ICU, and others were already in the ICU office discussing Principal Ding¡¯s condition. Also present were Guan Ruyan, Ding Xinyu, and Lu Xiaolu. It was Yang Ping¡¯s first encounter with Ding Xinyu, who was Ding¡¯s daughter and a professor of immunology at Nandu Medical University. Upon seeing Yang Ping, Professor Su felt immediately reassured. He was very familiar with Yang Ping¡¯s research focus. Brainstem tumors were also one of Yang Ping¡¯s primary research targets. Yang Ping had conducted surgery on a large number of brainstem tumors and had published many related papers. Yang Ping looked at the CT scans on the lightbox for a while. Lu Xiaolu had already sent them to him, so now there wasn¡¯t a need to waste much time on reviewing them. ¡°What do you think, can we proceed with emergency surgery?¡± Professor Su asked. By now, Principal Ding had fallen into a coma, completely reliant on a ventilator for breathing. If surgery was not an option, conservative treatment would be useless. Surgery to remove the tumor and alleviate the pressure from hemorrhaging was the only option. Nandu Medical University was strong overall, but its Neurosurgery, compared nationally, was not outstanding, especially not compared to Beijing¡¯s Temple of Heaven Hospital and Shanghai¡¯s Huashan Hospital. Director Lu of the Affiliated No. 1 Neurosurgery knew very well that surgery for this type of brainstem tumor was among the most challenging. To his knowledge, aside from Yang Ping, there was only one doctor in Australia daring enough to attempt such surgeries; other doctors would not dare to undertake them. ¡°We can proceed with emergency surgery! There¡¯s still a great chance, but the risk is also very high. Should it fail, death on the operating table is highly possible,¡± Yang Ping replied objectively. Since there was a chance, they should opt for surgery, Professor Su nodded. However, ultimately it was up to the patient¡¯s family to make the final decision. ¡°Let¡¯s opt for conservative treatment instead. Surgery on this kind of brainstem tumor will only make things worse; it would only expedite death,¡± Guan Ruyan spoke as a family member of the patient. He had little interest in staying here. From his student days until now, at every instance when his support crumbled, he had unhesitatingly sought a new backbone, and he needed to find one quickly to avoid a void. Life was precious, and time wasn¡¯t to be wasted. Seeing that Guan Ruyan did not agree with Yang Ping about the surgery, Principal Ruo then asked Principal Ding¡¯s daughter, ¡°Xinyu, what do you think? We must act quickly as the opportunity for surgery will pass in a flash.¡± At that moment, Xinyu had hardly any opinion at all. Tears were streaking her face, her mind was in utter disarray. Her father had always doted on her, giving her only the best. Suddenly faced with this situation, she was overwhelmed with confusion. Thus, when Principal Ruo asked her, she truly did not know how to respond. ¡°We should really act quickly and perform the surgery. Once the opportunity is missed, we will have deep regrets.¡± Lu Xiaolu couldn¡¯t help but voice his opinion. His thoughts were simple: save Principal Ding at all costs. Without Principal Ding, he wouldn¡¯t be where he was today. ¡°Yang Ping, we¡¯re entrusting Principal Ding¡¯s matter to you,¡± Professor Su disclosed his stance, which was also the stance of Affiliated Hospital No. 1. In the past, Professor Su would have undoubtedly called Temple of Heaven Hospital for emergency support. That was no longer necessary. With Yang Ping here, if even Yang Ping was unable to help, then Temple of Heaven Hospital would be unable to help either. ¡°Prepare for surgery immediately¡ªthe later it gets, the more bleak the hope becomes.¡± Rescue operations must be timely, as prolonged compression soon leads to ischemic edema of brain tissue. This results in a vicious cycle, and since the brain stem acts as the center of life, the patient may stop breathing or their heartbeat may cease at any moment. In fact, autonomous breathing has already become extremely weak, entirely relying on artificial respiratory support to sustain life.¡± ¡°But¡ªProfessor Yang, the prospects of this surgery are very slim. It¡¯s a brain stem surgery, and it¡¯s the most difficult of its kind. Shouldn¡¯t we discuss this a bit? It might be best if we wait for the experts from Temple of Heaven Hospital to come and consult as I¡¯ve already contacted them.¡± On the surface, Guan Ruyan¡¯s idea seemed reasonable; a surgery as dangerous as this surely warranted a consultation with Temple of Heaven Hospital¡¯s experts from Beijing. However, even if these experts were to fly here quickly, it would still take several hours, thereby easily resulting in a fatal delay.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no time to wait, we can¡¯t delay!¡± Lu Xiaolu was steadfast. At this moment, he might be considered an outsider, but driven by a desperate urge to save a life, he fully assumed the role of Principal Ding¡¯s kin.¡± The actual decision-makers were Ding Xinyu and her husband, Guan Ruyan. Currently, Ding Xinyu was completely distraught. Being an only child without siblings, she now had to depend solely on Guan Ruyan.¡± ¡°Xiao Lu, this is brain stem surgery, and this type of operation is very rare worldwide. So, the decision must be considered carefully. If we don¡¯t operate, there might still be a chance to endure a bit longer, maybe even pull through. But if we do the surgery, we might not make it through the day. I¡¯ve already contacted the experts from Temple of Heaven, they are on their way. Let¡¯s be cautious and wait a bit longer, Xinyu, don¡¯t you agree?¡± Being Principal Ding¡¯s son-in-law, when Guan Ruyan spoke, no one else could overrule him as he was legally a family member.¡± Ding Xinyu nodded in panic as well, adopting Guan Ruyan¡¯s opinion as her own.¡± ¡°You shouldn¡¯t hold out false hope. Without surgery, there¡¯s definitely no chance at all, whereas with surgery, there is still a sliver of hope. We must act quickly, without delay, or there won¡¯t be any hope left. I advise not to wait any longer; urgent surgery is imperative!¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to beat around the bush or mince his words¡ªevery extra word wasted precious time.¡± ¡°If you want to save him! Decide now, take the risk with surgery. If we wait for the experts from Temple of Heaven, the optimal time for surgery will certainly be missed, and by then it will be too late to do anything. Moreover, no one in the world has done more of these surgeries than I have, nor does anyone have a higher success rate than mine, so you don¡¯t need to wait for others.¡± Yang Ping added sternly.¡± ¡°Professor Yang is also a top expert in this field, and his surgical experience is no less than that of the experts from Temple of Heaven. We should seize the time,¡± urged Principal Ruo, leaning towards Yang Ping¡¯s suggestion to risk immediate surgery. Ding Xinshu wiped her tears away and looked at Guan Ruyan. Though her mind was clouded with grief, having just heard Yang Ping¡¯s words, she was beginning to lean towards surgery.¡± ¡°Should we go ahead with the surgery for dad?¡± Ding Xinyu asked Guan Ruyan.¡± ¡°Xinyu, we must be clear about this. At the brink of life and death, Academician Feng Tiancheng of Shanghai would be the chief surgeon, even though the surgery could likely fail. But without surgery, there¡¯s simply no other way. Such compression, if not relieved, merely amounts to waiting for death. It would take hours for experts from Beijing to arrive, which is too long to sustain. We can¡¯t just keep dragging this out, make up your mind quickly,¡± Principal Ruo urged.¡± Guan Ruyan seemed hesitant, as if the decision was too hard to make. ¡°Why dawdle, I¡¯m asking you two¡ªdo you still want to save him or not? If yes, get him on the operating table immediately. If you have decided not to, then just leave him in the ICU for conservative treatment to wait for death, or wait for whoever you want. It shouldn¡¯t be this difficult to decide.¡± Yang Ping felt that politeness was futile at this moment, and a blunt approach was most effective.¡± Chapter 1329 - 1329 1005 Performing Brainstem Surgery Every ?Chapter 1329: Chapter 1005: Performing Brainstem Surgery Every Couple of Days Chapter 1329: Chapter 1005: Performing Brainstem Surgery Every Couple of Days Guan Ruyan had not expected Yang Ping to present her with such a choice, compelling her to opt for emergency surgery. ¡°Let¡¯s go for the surgery then,¡± Guan Ruyan felt that whether to have the surgery now was meaningless, she said, ¡°Okay, I agree. Let¡¯s proceed with the emergency surgery immediately. Please take care of it, Professor Yang.¡± Since Guan Ruyan had agreed, Ding Xinyu would definitely nod in agreement. This type of emergency surgery could be performed at any time, having priority access throughout the process. Soon, Principal Ding was wheeled into the operating room, with Lu Xiaolu following closely behind Yang Ping: ¡°Professor Yang, please take good care of him.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll give it my all,¡± Yang Ping reassured him, hoping he could stabilize his emotions. Yang Ping immediately called Song Zimo, asking him and Xu Zhiliang to assist with the surgery as quickly as possible, but they were both still on the operating table, so they couldn¡¯t come until they finished their surgeries. Yang Ping had no choice but to first conduct the surgery with the Director of Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 Neurosurgery, Director Lu. The operating rooms at Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 were very well equipped, possessing top-grade neurosurgery microscopes. Yang Ping was the chief surgeon and Director Lu served as the first assistant. The surgery was incredibly difficult, and they were ready to halt the operation at any moment. Professor Su, Principal Ruo, Guan Ruyan, Ding Xinyu, Lu Xiaolu, and others were waiting outside in the Family Waiting Area. Guan Ruyan stepped aside several times to make calls, as the other party kept pressuring him about when he would divorce. He could only say it would be as soon as possible. Ding Xinyu was in the dark about this, and only Lu Xiaolu knew. At this moment, Lu Xiaolu didn¡¯t want to expose him, nor was there any intention to do so. The difficulty of the surgery was suffocating. Under the shadowless lamp, Director Lu felt as if he couldn¡¯t catch his breath. The surgery seemed impossible to complete. But Yang Ping, sitting in the chief surgeon¡¯s seat, coolly and calmly handled the instruments, meticulously separating tissues and stopping bleeding, steadily progressing towards the depths of the brain stem. Director Lu lacked experience in this type of surgery and thus didn¡¯t dare to act recklessly. As an assistant, many of his movements were also hesitant. Sitting in the Family Waiting Area outside the operating room, Principal Ruo reminisced about the days of working with Principal Ding. Actually, Principal Ding had no significant flaws in principle, besides some partiality regarding his daughter and son-in-law, he was generally not bad; he was dedicated, not greedy for money, not one to follow the crowd mindlessly, and had an unblemished personal life. Upon hearing the news, Academician Xiang also made a call to inquire about Principal Ding¡¯s condition with Principal Ruo. Principal Ruo briefly explained the illness and told Academician Xiang that Professor Yang was currently leading Principal Ding¡¯s surgery, offering a glimmer of hope. Inside the operating room, Yang Ping was battling the surgery intensely, while outside, everyone except Guan Ruyan was as agitated as ants on a hot pan. Noticing Guan Ruyan frequently step out to make calls, Principal Ruo asked out of concern, ¡°Is there a problem in the laboratory? Do you need me to coordinate anything?¡± ¡°No, no, it¡¯s a former student who is studying in the United States. He¡¯s under a lot of pressure and contemplated some despairing thoughts. He keeps calling me, and I try to advise him, encourage him to withstand the pressure until things clear up. I don¡¯t want to answer the phone, but I¡¯m worried about ignoring it and possibly causing trouble,¡± Guan Ruyan explained to Principal Ruo. Considering the circumstances, Principal Ruo could understand. After all, Principal Ding was undergoing surgery inside, and there was nothing much they could do while waiting outside; taking a phone call was not much of an issue. However, if someone kept calling for matters of lesser importance, it would be somewhat unacceptable, showing a lack of judgment. One hour into the surgery, the tumor was still being separated delicately; every step was cautious. As the assistant, Director Lu reached the point where he dared not take any action, and almost the entire surgery was being carried out solely by Yang Ping. ¡°Urine output is still very low, and the latest blood test results show a very high creatinine level. After returning to the ward, we need to prepare a bedside hemofiltration machine,¡± the anesthesiologist reported to Yang Ping. ¡°Acute kidney failure! It¡¯s very difficult to recover from this acute kidney failure after the surgery,¡± Yang Ping was aware of Principal Ding¡¯s situation. He had studied his illness thoroughly before the surgery. Principal Ding had already shown signs of acute kidney failure before the operation, and had used a bedside hemofiltration machine, but compared to the brain stem tumor, everything else was secondary for the moment. ¡°How¡¯s the heart rhythm?¡± Yang Ping was most concerned about the heartbeat and breathing. The anesthesiologist, holding the printout of the ECG, said, ¡°The sinus rhythm has been restored and is much better than before. Breathing, we don¡¯t know yet, as it is currently supported by a mechanical ventilator.¡± As long as the heart rhythm and breathing could return to normal, their life could be saved. Regarding the kidney function, there probably wasn¡¯t a good solution, they could only rely temporarily on dialysis after surgery, and if that failed, consider a kidney transplant later. Xiao Su, because Yang Ping had rushed to Affiliated Hospital No. 1, didn¡¯t know the situation there, when they could come back, so she called Professor Su to ask about the situation. It was evening now, and Professor Su told his daughter that Yang Ping was performing an emergency surgery over there and was expected to return very late, reassuring them not to worry. Upon hearing that Yang Ping had come over, Su Nanchen brought several close buddies who had just finished surgery to Yang Ping¡¯s operating room. However, to avoid disturbing his surgery, they all stood quietly to one side, silently accompanying him. Following closely after Yang Ping, Su Nanchen was also a candidate for the Outstanding Young Talent this time, and he had great prospects of becoming an Academician in the future. The surgery was indeed very difficult, and adding to that, Director Lu, the assistant without experience in this area, made Yang Ping dare not to increase the speed; he could only maintain a steady pace. About two hours in, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang appeared in the operating room, having already scrubbed up and begun to put on surgical gowns. ¡°Professor, what¡¯s the situation now?¡± Song Zimo asked. While operating, Yang Ping said, ¡°Hurry up on stage¡ª Director Lu, why don¡¯t you take a break? This surgery is really quite strenuous, let the younger ones take over.¡± Director Lu, looking slightly embarrassed, said, ¡°My eyesight is indeed not up to the task, the young people have stronger capabilities in operating under the microscope.¡± He gracefully yielded the position of first assistant. In front of Yang Ping, he knew his level very well. Yang Ping, the Professor, was being considerate, patiently leading the main surgery. If it had been a chief surgeon with a bad temper, he probably would have been berated by now. Yang Ping, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang, having worked together for a long time on surgeries, cooperated very seamlessly, especially in these high-difficulty surgeries that truly test the strength of the team. To achieve the best outcome of a surgery, his original team was the most reliable. ¡°I was still on the operating table when I received your call, so I was a bit late. This brainstem is quite complex, completely different from the ones we did today,¡± said Song Zimo as he began to adjust the microscope at the position of first assistant. Yang Ping paused the surgery, waiting for everyone to take their places. ¡°How were those brainstem surgeries today? Everything went well, right?¡± ¡°Today¡¯s brainstem surgeries went quite well; the vital signs are stable, and the patients are in the ICU.¡± As Director Lu listened on the side, he couldn¡¯t help but feel ashamed. These two assistants were treating brainstem surgeries like they were nothing, and the gap seemed so big. Wasn¡¯t he supposed to be the Director of Neurosurgery in one of the top hospitals in the country? Yet, he fell so far behind these young people. They performed brainstem surgeries every few days, while Director Lu would agonizingly select a mere dozen or so brainstem surgeries to perform throughout the year. Chapter 1330 - 1330 1006 The Bustling ICU ?Chapter 1330: Chapter 1006: The Bustling ICU Chapter 1330: Chapter 1006: The Bustling ICU Three hours later, the surgery was over, and the tumor was completely removed. Hemostasis was nearly perfect, and from every angle, this was a flawless operation. Director Lu stayed by the side the whole time. Although he had moved away from the microscope, and his naked eye could not see the details of some operations inside the skull, when the tumor was extracted, he still leaned over to take a glance inside the operative field. There was no bleeding, and the tumor was intact¡ªthese two points alone were enough to demonstrate the extraordinary skill of the surgery. ¡°Anesthesiologist, vital signs?¡± Director Lu couldn¡¯t wait to ask on behalf of the chief surgeon, as he was so eager to know the outcome of such a perfect operation. ¡°Heart rate is 78 beats per minute, blood pressure is 104/81mmHg, respiratory rate is 20 breaths per minute, which is the ventilator¡¯s rate. Vital signs are normal,¡± the anesthesiologist replied, more relaxed than at any point during the operation, because all previous vital signs were temporary and could collapse at any moment, whereas this time, they were firmer than ever before. ¡°Is the rhythm regular?¡± Director Lu was actually more concerned about the rhythm, rather than the rate. The anesthesiologist still answered in a relaxed tone, ¡°The rhythm is regular.¡± Perfect! Director Lu sighed with relief. It was a suffocating operation that Professor Yang finally aced. It was a good thing that he had left partway; otherwise, if he had witnessed the entire process, he would have felt very strained. ¡°Pupil checks every 15 minutes for the first 24 hours postoperatively, and notify me immediately if there¡¯s any issue. Follow the standard post-brainstem surgery protocol for the rest,¡± Yang Ping handed over the finishing tasks to Song Zimo and told Director Lu the postoperative precautions. ¡°Standard post-brainstem surgery protocol?¡± Director Lu couldn¡¯t help but ask again, as a surgeon who operated on the brainstem only a dozen times a year would have a completely different understanding of ¡°standard protocol¡± from one who operated on it every few days. ¡°Oh¡ªDr. Song will explain in detail shortly and provide doctors and nurses with a sheet outlining the care instructions.¡± Yang Ping realized that he had misspoken; in his own department, the word ¡°standard¡± could replace a whole lot of superfluous talk, but not here. However, after the surgery, either he or Song Zimo would go over it in detail again. There would be another explanation in the ICU, followed by a sheet, and finally, a digital spreadsheet would be sent via WeChat until the other party had completely mastered it. ¡°Okay,¡± Director Lu nodded, relieved that he had asked. Otherwise, he might have made a huge mistake due to not understanding what ¡°standard¡± meant. When practicing medicine, one must adhere strictly to the facts; otherwise, it¡¯s very easy to make mistakes, some of which could be fatal. ¡°You¡¯ve worked hard!¡± Su Nanchen finally had the opportunity to greet Yang Ping, and they shook hands with the warmth of brothers reunited. Several young doctors from the Orthopedics Department of Affiliated Hospital No. 1 also gathered around. They used to meet Yang Ping quite often, but now it was difficult to see him, and they had even fewer chances to chat together. Principal Ding¡¯s vital signs were stable after the operation, which meant the first hurdle had been passed. There was still the possibility of brain tissue edema postoperatively. If he could get through the brain tissue edema period, the success of the surgery could be considered complete. ¡°How is the situation?¡± Yang Ping had already changed his clothes. He came out ahead of the cart that was transporting Principal Ding. Su Nanchen and the other doctors also came out, while Director Lu, Song Zimo, and Xu Zhiliang stayed in the operating room, waiting to personally accompany the patient. ¡°The surgery was very successful. If he can get through the postoperative edema period, there shouldn¡¯t be a problem. However, the acute renal failure that developed preoperatively is likely not going to recover after the operation. He will probably need dialysis or a kidney transplant,¡± Yang Ping briefly explained Principal Ding¡¯s condition. Compared to surviving, these were minor details. Yang Ping noticed that apart from Professor Su, Principal Ruo, Lu Xiaolu, and Ding Xinyu were also around, eager to learn about the patient¡¯s condition. Only Guan Ruyan was absent; he didn¡¯t know where she had gone to make a phone call and hadn¡¯t returned yet. Before long, Principal Ding was wheeled out of the operating room. Director Lu, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and the anesthesiologist were in charge of escorting him. Everyone gathered to visit Principal Ding, and seeing the normal ECG waves on the portable electrocardiogram monitor, they all breathed a sigh of relief. Professor Su patted Yang Ping on the shoulder, ¡°Let¡¯s have a meal together later; I came here on an empty stomach.¡± Yang Ping was indeed feeling hungry now. He hadn¡¯t noticed his hunger while immersed in the operation, but after Professor Su¡¯s reminder, his stomach felt as though it had stuck to his spine. ¡°Indeed, I¡¯m starving.¡± Yang Ping touched his belly subconsciously. He was so hungry he felt numb. After settling Principal Ding in the ICU, Yang Ping went to the doctors¡¯ office for a sip of water to moisten his dry throat. Lu Xiaolu had been following him and came out as well: ¡°Professor Yang, how did the surgery go?¡± Yang Ping knew Lu Xiaolu was anxious. Even though he had already publicly declared the surgery a success, Lu Xiaolu worried Yang Ping might have been merely saying comforting words for the sake of morale, as the significance of such surgeries was often in doubt. ¡°Really, the surgery went very well, but the acute renal failure that occurred before the operation likely won¡¯t recover afterward. From now on, he would need dialysis or a kidney transplant,¡± Yang Ping reiterated. This time, Lu Xiaolu felt somewhat relieved, assured that Yang Ping wasn¡¯t just being polite. ¡°What should we pay attention to after the surgery?¡± Though Lu Xiaolu wasn¡¯t a doctor, he still wanted to know some details, convinced that no doctor or nurse could care more than him. Yang Ping thought for a moment: ¡°The most critical postoperative measure is pupil monitoring. I have already instructed them to check every fifteen minutes for the first 24 hours post-operation. If any pupil dilation occurs, they must notify me immediately.¡± ¡°Could you¡ªstay here tonight? That way, it will be more convenient if anything happens.¡± Lu Xiaolu mustered the courage to make his request. Indeed, going back now would be inappropriate. It was nearly an hour¡¯s drive from here to Sanbo Hospital. In case of any emergency, by the time Yang Ping arrived, it would be too late. Therefore, Yang Ping decided to stay, at least for the next 24 hours. ¡°I¡¯ll stay here. I¡¯ll sleep in the duty room of the ICU tonight,¡± Yang Ping told Lu Xiaolu. Lu Xiaolu¡¯s eyes clearly showed gratitude: ¡°Thank you!¡± He also decided to stay. Though he wasn¡¯t a doctor, he believed he could still be of some help. He knew Ding Xinyu was indecisive at this moment, and Ding Ruyan¡¯s mind was elsewhere. ¡°Professor Yang¡ª¡± Guan Ruyan¡¯s voice came from outside the office and soon appeared in front of Yang Ping. He politely shook hands with Yang Ping, thanking him profusely. ¡°I¡¯ve been looking for you. I had no idea you were here. Thank you so much. Had you not performed emergency surgery on my father, I don¡¯t know what would have happened to him. Dinner is all set up; let¡¯s go have a quick meal together,¡± said Guan Ruyan, always so cultured and refined. He had a way of speaking and acting that was genuinely pleasing. ¡°Xiao Lu, go rest. I¡¯ll sleep here tonight. You take care of things over at the laboratory tomorrow,¡± Guan Ruyan kindly told Lu Xiaolu. Lu Xiaolu insisted on staying: ¡°I¡¯ll stay here too. It¡¯s more convenient to have an extra person around.¡± When Director Wen of the ICU heard that Yang Ping would be resting there, he immediately cleared his duty room, changed the sheets and blankets, and then hurriedly arranged for someone to prepare toiletries. Su Nanchen and a group of young doctors from Affiliated Hospital No. 1 heard that Yang Ping was staying overnight in the ICU duty room and made arrangements for all of them to stay in the ICU as well, which made the entire ICU quite crowded. Some people even started setting up makeshift beds out of chairs in the office to get through the night. ¡°Why is the ICU so lively today?¡± As Director Wen came out of the storeroom with cups, he found the situation quite odd, not only because the duty room was packed, but also because every chair and desk in the office had been commandeered as makeshift beds. Even the floor of the changing room had people lying on it¡ªall young doctors from orthopedics and neurosurgery, with Professor Su Nanchen from orthopedics squeezing into the stuffy duty room. He hadn¡¯t expected the ICU to be so lively tonight. ¡°There are more in the family waiting area outside! I wanted to stay here tonight but absolutely couldn¡¯t find a spot,¡± said Director Lu of neurosurgery, sounding resigned. ¡°You might as well forget it. Go back to your department to sleep. Don¡¯t join the pandemonium here,¡± Director Wen complained, having just narrowly avoided stepping on someone on his way from the changing room. Chapter 1331 - 1331 1007 Precautionary Kidney Typing ?Chapter 1331: Chapter 1007: Precautionary Kidney Typing Chapter 1331: Chapter 1007: Precautionary Kidney Typing The whole night was relatively calm, though a few times the nurses suspected that Principal Ding¡¯s pupils were dilating. Yang Ping personally got up to check on his pupils, which were completely normal. Pupils were being checked every fifteen minutes, and under the illumination of flashlight beams, it¡¯s easy for people to experience slight optical illusions. Such illusions, coupled with the nurses¡¯ excessive anxiety, could mislead them into taking normal pupils as high-risk signs. Within the first 24 hours after surgery, incomplete hemostasis is a major concern. It now appeared that the hemostasis during the surgery was perfect. In this kind of operation, even the slightest bleeding can be fatal. The next challenge is the potential swelling of brain tissue, which is less likely to occur after gentle surgery that meticulously preserves the brain tissue. Many precise operations must obsess over the details, with every step being executed perfectly to achieve a good outcome. Any lapse in any part of the process can destroy the effects of the entire surgery. The next morning, Yang Ping had to return to Sanbo Hospital for other matters, so he took Xu Zhiliang back with him and left Song Zimo at Affiliated Hospital No. 1 to continue overseeing Principal Ding¡¯s post-surgery treatment until the high-risk period for brain tissue swelling had passed. Xu Zhiliang had almost no communication skills, making him unreliable to be left behind, so only Song Zimo could stay. A week later, Principal Ding showed no signs of brain tissue swelling and he woke up from his coma. The surgery could now be declared successful, but a significant problem arose: his kidney functions had failed, reaching the final stage of renal dysfunction¡ªuremia. Hemodialysis was not effective, leaving organ transplant as the only option. In such urgent cases for kidney transplant matching, the search is limited to relatives. After a successful match with a relative, ethical reviews must be passed before the transplant surgery can proceed. For this reason, Yang Ping had to make another trip to Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1. Principal Ding had awakened, but he was in poor mental condition, still lying in the ICU. During a discussion about his condition, Yao, the director of the Organ Transplant Center at Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1, Director Wen of ICU, and Director Lu of Neurosurgery gathered together. ¡°The bedside hemodialysis machine for uremia isn¡¯t functioning well; we¡¯re not sure why. We¡¯ve encountered such patients before, where hemodialysis inexplicably isn¡¯t effective, so we can only hope for an organ transplant,¡± said Director Wang of Nephrology, who was the main figure in this consultation. ¡°If we really are planning for a transplant, it¡¯s best to start matching in advance, and it would be ideal to find a successful match from a family volunteer,¡± Director Yao of the Organ Transplant Center said with concern. Because of the patient¡¯s special circumstances, they can¡¯t just undergo dialysis while waiting for a kidney source like typical uremia patients. Once dialysis becomes completely ineffective, it¡¯s crucial to find a kidney source quickly amidst the current severe shortage. Guan Ruyan, Ding Xinyu, and Lu Xiaolu, as family members, listened on the sidelines during Principal Ding¡¯s consultation. Professor Su turned to Ding Xinyu and asked, ¡°What¡¯s your opinion? If there is an appropriate volunteer among the family members, it would make sourcing an organ easier. If we wait for a donor, it could take a long time.¡± ¡°I agree to family donation. I can participate in the matching, I¡¯m his daughter, I should be able to match successfully,¡± Ding Xinyu hastily agreed, anxious about her father¡¯s illness. Director Yao said, ¡°It¡¯s not certain. In theory, the probability of a successful family match is highest, but there are no guarantees.¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to sign up too. Although I¡¯m not a family member, I¡¯m willing to donate a kidney to Principal Ding,¡± Lu Xiaolu raised her hand. Director Yao remarked, ¡°You¡¯re not a relative, so the ethical review will be much stricter.¡± ¡°Xiao Lu, the success rate of matching without blood relations is not high, and it will complicate matters. I can understand how you feel. I also want to donate a kidney to Teacher Ding, but without blood relations, ethical reviews are very tricky and could easily create problems. We need to be rational. I¡¯m more anxious than anyone else, but we can¡¯t let our anxiety disrupt our strategy,¡± Guan Ruyan dissuaded Lu Xiaolu, also considering his own position¡ªif Lu Xiaolu participated in the matching, how could he, as the son-in-law, back down? However, Guan Ruyan truly didn¡¯t want to participate in the matching. What if he matched successfully? He definitely wouldn¡¯t want to donate his kidney. It wouldn¡¯t matter if it were Principal Ding or even his own parents; he wouldn¡¯t want to. Why should he have to donate a kidney when he was perfectly healthy? But he couldn¡¯t say this out loud. ¡°Right, Professor Lu, you don¡¯t have a blood relation with Principal Ding. This matter requires careful consideration. We advocate for voluntary donation by blood-related family members without any moral coercion. It has to be completely voluntary, without any moral pressure,¡± Director Yao reminded Lu Xiaolu. Lu Xiaolu couldn¡¯t care less at that moment, ¡°I¡¯m volunteering, with no one forcing me and no reluctance. There¡¯s absolutely no moral pressure involved.¡± ¡°In that case, we should still be cautious. Let¡¯s consider other options. Organ transplant is a major surgery and there¡¯s also the risk of rejection afterward. With Teacher Ding¡¯s current physical condition, having just woken up from surgery, he can¡¯t take such a hit. It¡¯s not just an issue of finding a kidney source. With Professor Yang¡¯s help, Principal Ding barely survived the surgery and achieved success. We need to cherish this outcome. I believe there are other alternatives we should consider before jumping into such a major operation,¡± Guan Ruyan spoke convincingly. Director Wang of Nephrology added, ¡°That¡¯s true. We¡¯ll try to solve the problem in other ways, and certainly won¡¯t resort to a transplant unless it¡¯s the last step. I just think we should be prepared for the worst-case scenario. If it ever comes to it, where would we rush to find a kidney source? We¡¯ve learned from such experiences before.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s the case, I¡¯ll participate in the matching too. With one more person, the chances of a successful match increase. As a son-in-law without blood relations, I¡¯m still family, which is reasonable in terms of ethics,¡± he said. Now that Director Wang had clarified, any further objections would be inappropriate. Guan Ruyan thought it was just a matter of matching for now. If he didn¡¯t match, nothing would result from it. If he did, he could figure out what to do later; ultimately, whether to donate the kidney was his own decision, and no one else could dictate that. ¡°I¡¯ll participate in the matching, you don¡¯t have to,¡± Ding Xinyu held Guan Ruyan¡¯s hand, deeply touched. ¡°It¡¯s okay. A healthy person can survive with just one kidney. With dad in his current condition, if he really needs a kidney source and we have to rush to find one, it wouldn¡¯t be right to stop me now, since dad has always treated me like a son,¡± Guan Ruyan said softly. Although Guan Ruyan spoke quietly, some people overheard. Everyone was moved by his words, feeling that Principal Ding¡¯s effort in nurturing such a relationship had not been in vain; the son-in-law was indeed loyal and dutiful. Chapter 1332 - 1332 1008 Fate ?Chapter 1332: Chapter 1008: Fate! Chapter 1332: Chapter 1008: Fate! Principal Ding¡¯s brain tumor problem had been resolved, but now acute renal failure was the major issue, with each hemodialysis session less effective than the last. It seemed that Director Wang of the Department of Nephrology¡¯s prediction was correct. As a nationally renowned expert in nephrology, she had a wealth of experience and was extremely accurate in judging the progression of disease. Following this trend, if Principal Ding was to be saved, a kidney transplant was the only option. Therefore, kidney matching was imperative, with both relative matching and the search for suitable volunteers being pursued simultaneously. Ding Xinyu, Guan Ruyan and Lu Xiaolu all had the necessary physical examinations and kidney matching tests at Affiliated Hospital No. 1, but the results would not be available immediately and they had to wait. The speech by Guan Ruyan at the case discussion meeting had widely circulated within the Nandu Medical University system, and many students at the school were also aware of it. Already an idol-like figure to many, his image as a good son-in-law who was grateful and sought to reciprocate was cemented unknowingly, and he became a young moral exemplar in everyone¡¯s eyes. Reporters from the Nandu Provincial TV Station, having heard the news, were very interested in the story and sent a team to interview Guan Ruyan. When talking about Principal Ding, Guan Ruyan was choked with sobs, unable to speak. He attributed his modest achievements today entirely to Professor Ding¡¯s generous support and mentoring. Without Professor Ding, there would be no him today. Now that Professor Ding was in peril, he felt obliged to step forward¡ªit was the least he could do and nothing noble. Because of this, Guan Ruyan¡¯s image as a good son-in-law was solidified in the public¡¯s mind. Unlike Guan Ruyan, Lu Xiaolu was the one who was truly active in the matching process, but he was far less articulate than Guan Ruyan and had no intention of establishing a public image, so people didn¡¯t remember him, and had no idea that there was another Lu Xiaolu involved in the matching. Many teachers at the school said that Principal Ding had a good son-in-law who bravely stepped forward to donate a kidney at a critical time; it would be difficult to find another son-in-law who would do the same. Principal Ding was undoubtedly fortunate, and the affection and energy he had invested in his son-in-law over the years were not in vain. Because of Guan Ruyan¡¯s son¡¯s matter, people at the school had held some negative views of him. However, his participation in the kidney matching process completely reversed public opinion, and Guan Ruyan enjoyed that feeling. In fact, Guan Ruyan was very clever. Before the final matching results were announced, he used his connections to inquire privately about the possibilities of a match. The person he entrusted was his most trusted doctorate, who had a classmate from his undergraduate days in the Organ Transplant Center of Affiliated Hospital No. 1. Naturally, he told the doctorate he desperately hoped to be a match so that he could save Principal Ding¡¯s life. The doctorate¡¯s classmate discreetly gathered information and reported back that it was impossible for Guan Ruyan to be a match¡ªthe difference was too great, there was no hope at all. When the doctorate conveyed this news to Guan Ruyan, his face was filled with sorrow and he sighed deeply, distressed that he couldn¡¯t show his filial piety to Principal Ding. The doctorate at his side was also moved, witnessing such profound emotion. ¡ª The third consultation began. Although it was about acute renal failure, Chief Surgeon Yang Ping was still invited as the person who performed the surgery. Principal Ding¡¯s life was temporarily saved, but to continue living, a kidney transplant was necessary. It was inevitable; it was just a matter of choosing the best time for it. The situation was increasingly bleak, with each dialysis session less effective than the previous one. The results of the matching were also out. In fact, after the results came out, the doctors at the Organ Transplant Center had intended to call the three family volunteers involved in the matching. But considering the upcoming meeting, they decided not to call and would personally deliver the matching notifications to them instead. There was no dispute in the third consultation meeting¡¯s conclusion¡ªkidney transplantation should be scheduled. After the meeting, Director Yao held the organ matching documents, three sets of documents each sealed in their own envelope, and said, ¡°As for the matching results, I can speak to each of you privately afterwards, okay?¡± Guan Ruyan was quite open about it, feeling confident: ¡°Director Yao, there are no outsiders here, and since it¡¯s all family matching, you might as well announce it during the meeting. Teacher Ding¡¯s condition is critical, and we might need to proceed with the kidney transplant at any moment, so let¡¯s not beat around the bush and waste time, as every minute of waiting is agonizing.¡± Director Yao thought Professor Guan¡¯s suggestion made sense. Principal Ding was a leader within the Nandu Medical University system, and the matter of family matching had been discussed in the previous meeting. Announcing it now would spare the need for individual discussions afterward, as long as the concerned parties agreed. ¡°Professor Ding? Professor Lu? Is that alright?¡± Director Yao sought the opinions of Lu Xiaolu and Ding Xinyu. Ding Xinyu replied, ¡°Of course, let¡¯s announce it here in the meeting; there¡¯s no need to waste any more time.¡± Lu Xiaolu concurred, adding that everyone had already expressed willingness to donate their kidneys at the previous meeting, so there wasn¡¯t any need to keep it secret now, as there was nothing to hide. ¡°How is it? Is there a compatible match?¡± Ding Xinyu was very worried. If the matching failed, her father would have to wait a long time for a kidney source. With a relaxed smile, Director Yao said, ¡°Principal Ding is very lucky. There¡¯s a very suitable one. It seems your family really has strong blood ties.¡± Guan Ruyan¡¯s heart settled completely now for sure; the suitable one couldn¡¯t be him, since he knew his own match had failed. It was most likely Ding Xinyu, since the probability of success is highest with close relatives. As for Lu Xiaolu, while there was a possibility, it wasn¡¯t likely, and for himself, it was already known to be completely impossible. ¡°I¡¯ve been worried about what to do if the match wasn¡¯t successful, but now I can finally relax. When is the surgery? What¡¯s the process that follows?¡± Guan Ruyan behaved with ease and composure. Director Yao replied, ¡°I¡¯ve already submitted the paperwork for ethical approval. There shouldn¡¯t be any issues, as the entire process is completely voluntary among relatives, with no financial interests involved. Once the ethical review is approved, we will arrange the surgery as soon as possible.¡± ¡°Thank you all for your hard work. Let¡¯s hurry, as Teacher Ding¡¯s condition is deteriorating day by day. I hope he can recover his health as soon as possible,¡± said Guan Ruyan, with each word filled with emotion. No one would doubt his sincerity, for at times like these, involving organ donations, feigning emotions is impossible. Director Yao couldn¡¯t help but think, Principal Ding is really lucky to have a match among the three relatives, and it¡¯s his son-in-law¡¯s kidney, no less. From a comprehensive examination, Guan Ruyan¡¯s physical condition is very good; both of his kidneys function normally. On the other hand, Ding Xinyu was not a match, and even if she had been, the risks for her would be great, not suitable for donating a kidney to her father. Her other kidney was already as thin as paper due to a urinary system stone obstructing her urinary tract, which she wouldn¡¯t have known about if not for this checkup, possibly feeling nothing at all. Lu Xiaolu was also a match but was still inferior compared to Guan Ruyan. Lu Xiaolu could only be said to be adequate, whereas Guan Ruyan¡¯s kidney match was excellent. In this critical moment, Principal Ding still relied on his son-in-law to save his life, which could also be considered fate. Director Yao tore open the seals on three sealed envelopes and then carefully checked again, saying, ¡°Professor Guan Ruyan¡¯s kidney is the most compatible.¡± Upon the announcement of this news, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. This way, Principal Ding wouldn¡¯t have to spend a long time waiting for a kidney source and could undergo the kidney transplant surgery at any time, as long as his body could withstand the surgery and anesthesia. Guan Ruyan was petrified upon hearing this news. Indeed, it was completely unexpected, and at this moment, he didn¡¯t even know what to say, completely beyond his expectations. Ding Xinyu, thinking he was too excited and thrilled, leaned in and gently embraced him, expressing her gratitude, ¡°Thank you, thank you. I love you, and Dad will be proud of you.¡± Didn¡¯t they say my match failed? What¡¯s going on? Could there be a mistake? If it were not for Guan Ruyan retaining some clarity at the moment, he might have nearly rushed forward to check the matching results himself. Donating a kidney, how could it be possible? With two perfectly good kidneys, donating one would mean being left with just one. Impossible, it had to be impossible. ¡°Professor Guan, you and Principal Ding really have a destiny,¡± said Director Yao. ¡°Let¡¯s hurry the process and proceed with the surgery as soon as possible to prevent Principal Ding¡¯s illness from worsening.¡± At this moment, Guan Ruyan¡¯s emotions were indescribable. Forcing himself to appear relaxed, he said, ¡°As soon as possible¡ªright¡ªquickly, but we must first ensure Teacher Ding¡¯s body is well prepared to strive for the greatest success in surgery.¡± Chapter 1333 - 1333 1009 Oscar Man ?Chapter 1333: Chapter 1009 ¡°Oscar¡± Man Chapter 1333: Chapter 1009 ¡°Oscar¡± Man What should we do? At this moment, running away will turn into a joke, and it will collapse my entire persona, causing even my new girlfriend to look down on me. Guan Ruyan had always presented himself as diligent and loyal in front of his new girlfriend. His persona absolutely needed to remain intact; he could definitely not donate his kidney. Yet the always clever Guan Ruyan found himself without an idea at that moment. But he was still clever, with one strategy¡ªdelay! ¡°Teacher Ding, can his health currently withstand such a major surgery? If he can endure it, I hope it can be done as soon as possible. If not, let me know when it could be performed. I need to rearrange my work. I have several academic conferences lined up that I need to notify beforehand,¡± Guan Ruyan quickly recovered from his petrifaction. ¡°Principal Ding¡¯s condition is worsening day by day. If there is an ideal time, it is as soon as possible, because now it¡¯s getting worse day by day. Now is the best time,¡± Director Yao said very objectively. ¡°Yes! Now is the best time, it will only get worse later,¡± agreed Director Wang of the nephrology department. After a bout of severe coughing and catching his breath, Guan Ruyan said, ¡°Then as soon as possible, as quick as possible!¡± ¡°Professor Guan, have you felt unwell recently? Your cough just now was quite severe. Do you have a cold?¡± Director Yao was very sensitive to acute upper respiratory infections because kidney transplants are very susceptible to infections, and neither donor nor recipient should have any active infections. Guan Ruyan waved his hand, appearing as if nothing was amiss, ¡°It¡¯s nothing; it won¡¯t affect anything. Just a minor cold¡ªhad a bit of a fever yesterday, but it seems I don¡¯t have one today.¡± ¡°Are you alright? Don¡¯t overdo it. This kind of surgery is also very risky. Why didn¡¯t you mention it yesterday?¡± Ding Xinyu said with concern. Guan Ruyan said resolutely, ¡°Dad can¡¯t wait too long. This little cold is nothing to worry about; it¡¯s not risky. Rest assured, I know what I¡¯m doing.¡± ¡°As a donor, definitely no way with an active infection, as this surgery carries extremely high risk. You absolutely cannot undertake surgery with this kind of risk. Let¡¯s get a blood test to check the white cells and other infection markers. This is no joke,¡± the doctor stated. Hearing that Guan Ruyan had a fever yesterday, there might be an active infection. If so, the surgery definitely needed to be postponed; it couldn¡¯t be forced, Director Yao was very sensitive to this, having had some grim lessons in the past. ¡°No need for tests, just go ahead and arrange Teacher Ding¡¯s kidney transplant,¡± Guan Ruyan insisted very firmly. Director Yao urged, ¡°Professor Ding, we can understand your feelings, but we have to act according to scientific principles. First, let¡¯s do a test to see what the situation is like. If there is an infection, it must be completely controlled first. Otherwise, if the surgery fails, the consequences are unimaginable, extremely dangerous for both Teacher Ding and you.¡± ¡°Ruyan, I understand how eager you are to save Dad, but I can¡¯t let you take such a big risk,¡± Ding Xinyu also persuaded. Guan Ruyan had no choice but to feign a regretful demeanor, ¡°Please hurry, Teacher Ding really can¡¯t wait too long.¡± As Lu Xiaolu watched Guan Ruyan¡¯s performance, he really wanted to rush up and slap him a few times. Guan was always acting, his whole life was a performance. Though he was extremely unwilling to donate a kidney, he now put on a righteous demeanor. He clearly wasn¡¯t sick, yet he coughed as if it were real. Lu Xiaolu found Guan Ruyan¡¯s ¡°acting¡± extremely disgusting. But he couldn¡¯t expose him now. If he did, others would surely think Lu Xiaolu had ulterior motives, and it would also affect Teacher Ding¡¯s treatment. If Guan Ruyan had openly refused to donate the kidney, Lu Xiaolu wouldn¡¯t have despised him so much. After all, kidney donation involves health risks¡ªit¡¯s fine to donate, and it¡¯s equally justifiable not to. But now, Guan was acting like a saint while maintaining a facade, which was utterly nauseating. ¡°How about this¡ªwe¡¯ll let Professor Guan check his temperature later to see if he still has a fever, get a blood test to check his white blood cell count and classification, and also check other infection indicators. Professor Guan has a reason to be anxious; Teacher Ding¡¯s illness can¡¯t wait, we can¡¯t delay any further, we need to act quickly,¡± Lu Xiaolu suggested. Because Lu Xiaolu knew Guan Ruyan too well. He was a complete hypocrite, everything depended on his acting skills. It was a pity he hadn¡¯t gone to the Oscars to grab an award for his acting. ¡°Director Yao, let¡¯s not waste any more time. While we are all here, let¡¯s quickly sign the informed consent form for the kidney donation. Professor Guan is right, we need to act quickly. These matters have been thoroughly discussed many times face-to-face; there¡¯s no need for more private conversations, right, Professor Guan?¡± Lu Xiaolu blurted out. ¡°Yes, yes, yes!¡± Guan Ruyan could only agree, unable to let his fac?ade crumble. If it did, even his current new girlfriend would leave him immediately. She was devoted to him because she believed he was a talented, morally superior young scholar, especially compassionate as he volunteered to donate a kidney to his father-in-law, which impressed her greatly. Guan Ruyan told his new younger girlfriend that Principal Ding¡¯s kindness towards him was just superficial. In reality, both Principal Ding and Xinyu¡¯s academic achievements were his; Principal Ding accepted him as a son-in-law just to exploit him, making him tirelessly serve their family. Previously oblivious, he had now realized this and didn¡¯t want to slave away anymore. He wanted to pursue his own life, thus his girlfriend loved and pitied him even more. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s not drag this out. Principal Ding¡¯s illness doesn¡¯t allow for delays either. Professor Guan has already passed the ethical review. Among the three potential donors, Professor Guan is the best match. It¡¯s fate. Xinyu¡¯s matching failed, and Lu Xiaolu¡¯s matching barely passed, but didn¡¯t get through the ethical review,¡± she said. Director Yao personally took out a series of prepared informed consents from a folder, began to explain each point, and then handed it to Guan Ruyan, since he was the most successful match. Lu Xiaolu was barely passable, and since he wasn¡¯t a relative, it wasn¡¯t quite appropriate for him to donate the kidney. With the informed consent form in hand, Guan Ruyan was trembling inside. However, he knew that even after signing, he wouldn¡¯t have to fear as long as he didn¡¯t get on the operating table¡ªno one could forcefully take his kidney. Thus, he might as well sign swiftly and make a good show of it. Guan Ruyan briefly glanced at the informed consent form and instantly signed his name without any hesitation. If it were not for Lu Xiaolu¡¯s thorough understanding of him, even he might have believed Guan and doubted his own judgment. Guan Ruyan had already made a plan during this time¡ªusing his new girlfriend to prevent the kidney donation. His new girlfriend didn¡¯t study medicine and didn¡¯t know anything. He would plan a breakup with her, and if she asked why, Guan would say that a man loses his ability to perform sexually after losing a kidney, and he couldn¡¯t provide her with happiness in the future. If she went to check the information or seek consultation, Guan would tell her that such truth wouldn¡¯t be mentioned in documents, and no one else would tell her these truths. After all, especially women in love, were easy to manipulate. Indeed, there¡¯s no direct link between kidneys and sexual capability; traditional Chinese medicine¡¯s kidney is different from that in Western medicine. By saying this, his little girlfriend would undoubtedly use all her power to stop the donation, and she would also care for his reputation. Because he had already planted the seed in her mind that he was an extremely oppressed and unhappy man, who was considering divorce but didn¡¯t want to leave during his father-in-law¡¯s severe illness. Her father was an even more influential person than Principal Ding, and as long as his girlfriend was willing to intervene, she could easily stop the donation without harming his reputation. When it came to manipulating women, Guan Ruyan did have his tricks. Of course, compared to Tang Shun, he was just amateur-level, while Tang Shun was truly a master of the craft. Chapter 1334 - 1334 1010 The Anxious Professor Guan ?Chapter 1334: Chapter 1010: The Anxious Professor Guan Chapter 1334: Chapter 1010: The Anxious Professor Guan To prevent Guan Ruyan¡¯s sudden departure from affecting Principal Ding¡¯s surgery, after the meeting, Yang Ping had to discuss the matter privately with Lu Xiaolu and Director Yao. After the discussion, Director Yao initially couldn¡¯t believe this was the case, but since Yang Ping also suspected that Guan Ruyan might flee the scene, Director Yao had to accept the reality. He had to replan the surgery and ensure Lu Xiaolu was prepared. However, Lu Xiaolu¡¯s ethical approval had not been passed since Guan Ruyan was a close relative of Principal Ding, with a strong willingness to donate and a very high compatibility for the transplantation. The Ethics Committee would definitely approve Guan Ruyan¡¯s offer while denying Lu Xiaolu¡¯s ethical approval. To expedite Lu Xiaolu¡¯s ethical approval, they had to wait for Guan Ruyan to refuse first. Director Yao thought that if Guan Ruyan truly intended to flee, arranging the surgery immediately would cause Guan Ruyan to find an opportunity to leave or make excuses. This would allow them to resubmit Lu Xiaolu¡¯s information the next day, saving time rather than delaying the process which could ultimately jeopardize the surgery. Guan Ruyan now found himself in a dilemma, neither able to leave nor stay comfortably. He was forced to stay and tried to find an excuse to leave, but no opportunity seemed to arise. Following Yang Ping¡¯s instructions, Director Yao immediately had Guan Ruyan hospitalized and arranged for a blood test upon admission to check for any active infections. Principal Ding¡¯s condition was deteriorating, unable to endure any further delay in the kidney transplant; a delay could mean little to no hope for him. The results of the blood tests came out swiftly, everything was normal with no signs of infection. The head of the respiratory department personally came to examine his throat, finding no inflammation. The chest X-ray showed completely normal results with no infections in the lungs or bronchi. Everything was normal, making it perfectly feasible to proceed with the surgery, and Principal Ding¡¯s condition worsened by the day. Director Yao decisively decided: surgery in eight hours. In fact, many organ transplants are emergency surgeries, as the exact time when an organ is obtained is uncertain. Once a donor is found, there is a critical need to perform the surgery swiftly, otherwise, the organ could succumb to ischemic necrosis. Hearing that the surgery was in eight hours, Guan Ruyan felt as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, immediately using his clever brain to think of a way to discreetly make his escape within those eight hours. Ding Xinyu stayed close to Guan Ruyan, not leaving his side, because he was very grateful to Guan Ruyan, and decided to take good care of him throughout the hospital stay, never leaving him for a moment. ¡°From now on, do not eat or drink anything; in eight hours, we¡¯ll start the surgery. If Principal Ding¡¯s condition changes, we might start earlier. Everyone, be ready for surgery at any moment. We will get the consent form for the surgery signed later,¡± Director Yao personally explained the pre-surgery precautions to Guan Ruyan. Guan Ruyan nodded, ¡°Okay, okay.¡± Seeing something off in Guan Ruyan¡¯s expression, Director Yao said, ¡°Professor Guan might be feeling quite anxious. Let¡¯s give Professor Guan a sedative so he can rest well for a few hours, making him better prepared for the anesthesia and the surgery.¡± Hearing this, Guan Ruyan inwardly panicked. If a sedative was administered, he would be oblivious to everything, falling into a deep sleep, and remaining unaware even after the surgery was completed. ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯m not nervous at all, no need for sedatives.¡± Director Yao picked up a stethoscope and performed an auscultation on Guan Ruyan¡¯s heart, then said, ¡°Your heart rate is quite high right now, 110 per minute, indicating you are highly anxious. This won¡¯t do. We should administer a sedative, anyway, the anesthesiologist will suggest using one after signing the paperwork.¡± ¡°No need, no need¨C¨C ¡± ¡°Trust me, it will help you fall asleep immediately, making the upcoming surgery a much smoother experience.¡± Guan Ruyan adamantly refused the sedative. If sedated, how could he make his escape? Escaping now was definite; it was merely a matter of how to escape while preserving his dignity and reputation. At that moment, a nurse came in to establish an intravenous line for Guan Ruyan and was about to hang a bag of an energy supplement to replace the nutrients and fluids during the period of fasting. ¡°What is that?¡± Guan Ruyan instinctively withdrew his hand, sidestepping to avoid it. ¡°It¡¯s not a sedative,¡± Guan Ruyan immediately said. Director Yao explained, ¡°This is an energy supplement mixed with saline.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Guan Ruyan stood up to inspect the bottle and the infusion order hanging from it, ensuring it wasn¡¯t a sedative before extending his arm for the nurse to insert the IV. After giving some instructions, Director Yao left. Now with Ding Xinyu constantly by his side, Guan Ruyan found it troublesome to even send a message, let alone make a phone call. Plus, with the recent mention of injecting a sedative, Guan Ruyan couldn¡¯t keep calm anymore. ¡°Xinyu, I need to go to the laboratory; there¡¯s something urgent that needs my attention there,¡± Guan Ruyan could only use the laboratory as an excuse. Guan Ruyan said, ¡°You¡¯re on a drip, let Xiao Lu handle it. Hasn¡¯t he always managed the laboratory for you? Why go now? You need to rest properly. Surgery is only a few hours away. Director Yao has ordered that you absolutely must not go out. Don¡¯t worry about anything now, don¡¯t handle anything.¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid Xiao Lu can¡¯t handle it!¡± ¡°What is there in the laboratory that Xiao Lu can¡¯t handle?¡± ¡°Ah, my student in the United States has been very down these days, constantly threatening suicide. I¡¯ll give him a call.¡± ¡°Go ahead, but don¡¯t talk too long.¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid of disturbing everyone.¡± ¡°This is a private room, just us, it¡¯s fine. I won¡¯t speak. You make your call, and once you¡¯re done, rest immediately.¡± From time to time, Guan Ruyan checked the time on his phone. Soon, a nurse came in to change the IV fluid for Guan Ruyan, who asked warily, ¡°What is this fluid now?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Professor Guan. This is an order directly from Doctor Yao, it¡¯s a sedative. This medication will help you sleep well, allowing you to rest for a few hours. Director Yao said you are too tense, with such a fast heart rate. This could cause problems; you must be sedated. Actually, there¡¯s no need to be nervous, the surgery will be safe and quick,¡± the nurse said with a smile. Upon hearing it was a sedative, Guan Ruyan immediately looked upset and angrily tried to remove the needle: ¡°Quick, take it out! Who told you to give me a sedative? Stop it now, I¡¯m allergic.¡± The nurse immediately turned off the IV, puzzled that there were no reported drug allergies. ¡°Are you feeling alright?¡± the nurse asked anxiously. ¡°Chest tightness! It feels extremely uncomfortable!¡± Guan Ruyan gasped. The nurse was confused, for Director Yao had instructed a switch to a saline solution but told Professor Guan it was a sedative, to provide a placebo effect and help relieve tension. How could a saline solution cause an allergic reaction? The previous fluid had also used saline as a solvent without issue. However, the nurse did not dare delay, knowing this situation shouldn¡¯t be overlooked, and immediately pressed the call button for assistance: ¡°Bed 36, drug allergy, need urgent rescue.¡± Suddenly, doctors and nurses with a crash cart and defibrillator rushed in, and the on-duty doctor immediately assessed Guan Ruyan asking, ¡°Where does it hurt?¡± ¡°Chest tightness, can¡¯t breathe!¡± Guan Ruyan gasped in response. No other issues were noted, and since symptoms began right after the fluid change, it was definitely an allergic response. The doctor urgently said, ¡°1 milligram of adrenaline, intramuscular! Quick! Prepare for a tracheotomy.¡± Scared to death, Guan Ruyan quickly said, ¡°It¡¯s okay now, it¡¯s okay, my allergic reactions are usually very mild, very mild, and I¡¯m completely fine now.¡± The doctor grabbed Guan Ruyan¡¯s arm, checking for hives: ¡°Really okay now?¡± ¡°Trust me, it¡¯s really fine now.¡± ¡°Put him on electrocardiogram monitoring, give oxygen for two hours.¡± Guan Ruyan waved his hands: ¡°No need, no need, I am quite fine now, just don¡¯t use the medication again, and remove the IV.¡± Just then, two doctors came in, one was an assistant to Director Yao, and the other was an anesthesiologist. They came to have Guan Ruyan sign the informed consent forms for the surgery and anesthesia. After signing, he would be finally ready to be moved to the operating table. Chapter 1335 - 1335 1011 A Desperate Dog Will Jump Over a ?Chapter 1335: Chapter 1011: A Desperate Dog Will Jump Over a Wall Chapter 1335: Chapter 1011: A Desperate Dog Will Jump Over a Wall ¡°Professor Guan, please come over, let¡¯s discuss the details of the surgery and then sign the surgery and anesthesia informed consent forms.¡± Signing the surgery and anesthesia consent forms means the actual surgery is up next, and the signature signifies that Guan Ruyan had legally agreed to the surgery. No, he absolutely could not sign, he couldn¡¯t go to the operating room, either. At this critical juncture, it was crucial to prioritize; Guan Ruyan could no longer stabilize his emotions. He stared at the informed consent form in front of him, feeling an uncontrollable irritability within him. Guan Ruyan and Ding Xinyu followed the doctor to the meeting room, where Yang Ping, Director Yao, and Lu Xiaolu had been waiting. Yang Ping, Director Yao, the doctor, and the anesthesiologist sat on one side, while Guan Ruyan, Ding Xinyu, and Lu Xiaolu took their seats across the meeting table. Lu Xiaolu stood up, ¡°I¡¯ll step out for a while, you talk.¡± As he was not directly involved, it was necessary for him to leave to protect the privacy of those concerned. Guan Ruyan caught him, ¡°Xiao Lu, it¡¯s okay, stay here and listen.¡± The doctor spread out the surgery informed consent form in front of Guan Ruyan, and Director Yao began expounding on the surgery¡¯s risks and precautions one by one. At that moment, Guan Ruyan couldn¡¯t take in any of it; his head was buzzing, and he was on the verge of exploding. After Director Yao finished, the doctor placed the informed consent form in front of Guan Ruyan waiting for his signature. In fact, Director Yao had already communicated with Guan Ruyan multiple times prior, and the current signing was merely a procedural matter. ¡°After signing the surgery informed consent form, our anesthesiologist will talk to you next. We need you to sign an anesthesia informed consent form,¡± said Director Yao. Guan Ruyan stared blankly at the surgery informed consent form. Time was pressing, and he had to start everything he had prepared in advance. He had intended to use his new girlfriend to prevent this, but up till then, he hadn¡¯t even made a phone call, let alone met up. Well, Guan Ruyan fumbled for his phone, grabbed it, and pretended to receive a critical call, muttering anxiously to the phone, ¡°What, okay, I¡¯ll come right over, right away¡ª¡± He walked out while on the phone, completely ignoring the people around him, because there was simply no time to explain. Ding Xinyu followed behind, unsure of what had happened, just worriedly calling out, ¡°Ruyan! Ruyan!¡ª¡± Guan Ruyan just kept talking to himself on the phone, then turned back to make a gesture to Ding Xinyu and everyone else, signaling them not to worry, that he¡¯d be right back after handling his stuff. He acted as if he was caught up in some major, urgent matter, leaving everyone puzzled by his sudden behavior. He continued talking as he headed outside the ward, practically running, then disappeared into the elevator. Ding Xinyu was unable to catch up, so she tried calling Guan Ruyan but only found his phone engaged. Ding Xinyu planned to take the elevator down, but Lu Xiaolu said calmly, ¡°Don¡¯t chase after him, let¡¯s talk. There are some things that must be addressed now.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go to my office and talk,¡± Director Yao sighed lightly. Still confused, Ding Xinyu followed Lu Xiaolu to Director Yao¡¯s office, ¡°Stop chasing him. He never really considered donating his kidney. Don¡¯t make it hard for him. He thought he couldn¡¯t possibly be a match, so that¡¯s why he was so eager, but now that it turns out he is a match, and the surgery is almost here, he can¡¯t continue with his act, and he won¡¯t return. Director Yao has already started resubmitting my documents, don¡¯t worry, it won¡¯t delay the surgery, it should happen within three days,¡± Lu Xiaolu told her calmly. Ding Xinyu didn¡¯t understand what had happened, she hadn¡¯t quite regained her composure, and couldn¡¯t grasp what Lu Xiaolu was saying. Lu Xiaolu continued, ¡°Let¡¯s talk. There are some things you should know now. Whether or not you believe them, if you don¡¯t know these things at this time, it¡¯s easy for the situation to become chaotic, and Teacher Ding¡¯s illness could be affected.¡± Ding Xinyu nodded vaguely. ¡°Guan Ruyan has always been acting. His life is just an act. He never really loved you, you were merely a stepping stone to him, and with Teacher Ding unwell, he¡¯s found a new girlfriend and will soon divorce you to be with his new girlfriend. Teacher Ding was just a big tree to him, and now he¡¯s holding on to another big tree. With this new tree¡¯s help, he will continue to run on his path of glory,¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not making this up. There¡¯s no suicidal student from the United States, it was just him being intimate with his new girlfriend.¡± ¡°¡ª¡± Lu Xiaolu took out his phone and played a recording of a conversation between Guan Ruyan and a woman. As Ding Xinyu listened, her face turned pale because from the dialogue, it was clear that Guan Ruyan portrayed himself as a villainous woman exploiting him, a son-in-law who was bullied and oppressed at the Ding Family, and he had had enough and now must break free to pursue his own happiness. ¡°There are also photos and videos, but you shouldn¡¯t see them. Believe me. Don¡¯t indulge in illusion, all this is too sudden and too cruel. It¡¯s not appropriate to tell you this now, but I had no choice, I was compelled.¡± ¡°You knew all along?¡± ¡°Yes, I didn¡¯t want to disappoint Teacher Ding, so I kept quiet. But now that he¡¯s deceiving everyone, using Teacher Ding¡¯s life as part of his act, it¡¯s absolutely unacceptable. The act must end, and you also need to wake up from his play.¡± Chapter 1336 - 1336 1011 Desperate Dog Jumps Over the Wall_2 ?Chapter 1336: Chapter 1011: Desperate Dog Jumps Over the Wall_2 Chapter 1336: Chapter 1011: Desperate Dog Jumps Over the Wall_2 ¡°You lied to me, why did you lie to me?¡± ¡°Once the ethical review is approved, I¡¯m supposed to be on the operating table, then hand over a kidney to Teacher Ding, and I¡¯m the one lying? Guan Ruyan now runs away at the last minute, can¡¯t even get through to his phone, and you believe him? You¡¯re an adult, Professor Ding, you should have some brain of your own. All his coughing, his colds, are all feigned, he just doesn¡¯t want to donate a kidney. Yet, he wants to maintain his good reputation, so he drags things out. Until in the end, when Teacher Ding is gone, he won¡¯t have to donate his kidney. It¡¯s not possible for him to really donate, you don¡¯t understand him at all. I understand him the best. If I¡¯m not mistaken, there will soon be posts online, definitely portraying you as a domineering evil woman, verbally shaming him, pushing him to the point where he can¡¯t take it anymore and must flee the ward. Eventually, everything will go as he has planned¡ªhim being shamed by you, his dignity ignored, until he can no longer stand it and leaves the ward. In the end, you¡¯ll be swamped by the internet, and he will divorce you and find true love, receiving everyone¡¯s blessings.¡± ¡°Impossible!¡± ¡°Impossible? Call him now.¡± The number you dialed is currently in use! ¡°He has already blocked you, blocked all of us. Now he¡¯s with his new girlfriend. In this regard, he is an expert; this is his very foundation for survival.¡± Before long, Ding Xinyu received a call from her doctoral student: ¡°Teacher Ding, what exactly is going on? Quickly check the screenshots I sent you. Professor Guan has mysteriously posted a moment, and there are inexplicable articles appearing online, take a look.¡± Ding Xinyu immediately checked the WeChat message her student sent, which contained some screenshots. ¡°For so many years, I¡¯ve given my all. When your father was critically ill, I donated a kidney without complaint because I know, despite everything, you had indeed helped me a lot over the years. I am grateful to you. But why do you humiliate me like this? Do you think this kidney is something you¡¯re entitled to, that I¡¯m just a slave to the Ding family¡ª¡± Ding Xinyu immediately checked Guan Ruyan¡¯s moments, that particular post wasn¡¯t there; she had been blocked. ¡°He has blocked me too!¡± Lu Xiaolu said with a bitter smile. ¡°You¡¯ve underestimated his cunning and ability. Of course, his skill lies in acting, not in academia. If Principal Ding¡¯s health hadn¡¯t deteriorated, perhaps your love could have lasted a bit longer, but reality is reality¡ªhe¡¯s suave and dashing, knows how to capture a woman¡¯s heart. Each of his girlfriends is a stepping stone for him, and when he finds a better one or realizes the current one has no value to him, he will not hesitate to abandon her. Do you know? His first girlfriend worked to put him through school and got pregnant with his child, and he abandoned her coldly to get with a hospital director¡¯s daughter. His direct admission to a master¡¯s program was orchestrated by that director, who later went to prison for financial issues. He left his girlfriend, who fell into a depression and committed suicide, without hesitation and then started pursuing you. When Principal Ding was diagnosed with brain cancer, he was the first to know. Principal Ding didn¡¯t tell you because he didn¡¯t want to worry you, do you know what he did? He got involved with a younger sister who studied in Germany, the daughter of another medical university¡¯s president. Soon, he will be quickly recruited by another school and will swiftly become an Outstanding Young Talent, then vice president, then an academician. You¡¯re just a wiping cloth in front of him, he doesn¡¯t even want his son, he only has himself.¡± ¡°Enough, why does it have to be like this, why does it have to be like this, why does it have to be like this! This is all fake, tell me, this is all made up by you.¡± Ding Xinyu didn¡¯t know what to do, repeating those words over and over, clutching Lu Xiaolu¡¯s shoulders and shaking him violently. Lu Xiaolu struggled to stabilize Ding Xinyu¡¯s emotions, calling two female doctors, ¡°Come and keep Teacher Ding company.¡± ¡°All of this is true. I will not let him off, I have already prepared all the evidence of his academic fraud and sent it to the relevant authorities. Moreover, the news of his academic misconduct will soon spread online. What I¡¯ve done, I will bear myself. He must face punishment. I will not allow anyone to hurt Teacher Ding or you, no one can, no matter who he is.¡± ¡°This will also ruin you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of anything, even if it costs me my life, why should I fear for my own reputation?¡± Ding Xinyu began reading the new article her student sent, which was now spreading online. It depicted her as a wicked woman who trampled on a man¡¯s dignity, pegging Guan Ruyan as someone who, in order to repay his mentor¡¯s kindness, endured a painful marriage. It vividly described the reason Guan Ruyan left the ward: after a dispute, Ding Xinyu insulted him by saying he was nothing more than a dog for the Ding family, that without them, Guan Ruyan would have nothing. Coming from a poor rural background, unable to bear it anymore, Guan Ruyan left the ward angrily. The internet was full of one-sided comments sympathizing with and supporting Guan Ruyan, while insulting Ding Xinyu. ¡°All this was well-prepared by him, now he won¡¯t have any contact with you, probably blocked you on WeChat as well.¡± Ding Xinyu tried to send a WeChat message to Guan Ruyan, indeed she had been blocked. Lu Xiaolu scoffed, ¡°Face reality; the road ahead is long. I know you¡¯re deeply affected, but you must confront the reality no matter what. Leave these matters to me. I¡¯m already prepared for how to deal with them. Let the bullets fly for a while. Right now, our top priority is Teacher Ding¡¯s treatment. Don¡¯t respond to any of the public opinion for now. Go back and take good care of the child, ease the child¡¯s worries. After the surgery is completed, I will take care of everything and won¡¯t let anyone bully you.¡± By this time, the students arranged by Lu Xiaolu had also come over, and Lu Xiaolu commanded, ¡°Teacher Ding¡¯s condition is currently unstable. Take good care of Teacher Ding and Teacher Ding¡¯s child. It¡¯s going to be chaotic for a while with various opinions flying around. Everyone should stay unchanged in response to the myriad changes. We¡¯ll talk about everything else later. If something unexpected happens during my surgery, remember, someone will take care of him.¡± ¡°Professor Lu, we believe in you, we believe in Teacher Ding, and we will take good care of Teacher Ding.¡± ¡°Xiaolu¡ª¡± Ding Xinyu never expected that Lu Xiaolu would be the one to save her father in the end. Although she hadn¡¯t come to terms with the situation yet, the fact that Guan Ruyan blocked her was true, the moment was true, and the short essay was true. Everything was a mess, as if she were in a dream. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, when have I ever let everyone down?¡± Lu Xiaolu said with a smile; Ding Xinyu¡¯s head was blank, her mind in disarray. ¡ª Yang Ping was invited by Lu Xiaolu to perform the main surgery at Affiliated Hospital No. 1 once again. ¡°I have a request¡± ¡°What¡¯s the request?¡± ¡°Stay afterwards; we need you.¡± Lu Xiaolu was silent for a long time, ¡°Can I even stay?¡± ¡°Why couldn¡¯t you? As for Guan Ruyan, naturally, someone will deal with him.¡± ¡°I want to stay too¡ªbut¡ªsigh¡ª¡± ¡°Don¡¯t overthink it. As long as you want to stay, you will definitely be able to stay. Follow your own heart. If you really want to go to the United States, to each their own; I won¡¯t stop you. If you don¡¯t want to go to the United States, then, our doors will always be open to you. I only promise two things: First, you will independently run your own laboratory, form your own team, and establish your own projects without interference. Second, your compensation and research funding will be more, not less, than in the United States.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not forcing you. The same old saying: follow your heart.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already told Director Yao; I will personally be the chief surgeon for your surgery.¡± ¡°You know about the stuff online, right?¡± ¡°I know, it¡¯s just idle noise; no need to focus on it. We¡¯ll talk after the surgery. I¡¯m just thinking, how can a person like that occupy an academic position for so long. It seems we still have many flaws; some things can¡¯t be changed in one day. Progress takes time. We need to have confidence, not be pessimistic escapees but optimistic realists and builders. If each of us only points fingers and flees, we¡¯ll never change anything. Only if each of us participates in change and construction can the world become what we want it to be. Compared to our forebears, our conditions are already good enough.¡± ¡°Follow your own heart, don¡¯t run away, face it bravely.¡± ¡°I understand! Professor Yang.¡± ¡°Director Yao says the ethical review has been submitted and should have a response by tomorrow. The surgery could be performed as early as tomorrow.¡± Chapter 1337 - 1337 1012 Principal Ruos Resignation ?Chapter 1337: Chapter 1012: Principal Ruo¡¯s Resignation Chapter 1337: Chapter 1012: Principal Ruo¡¯s Resignation After Guan Ruyan left the ward, she had been out of contact, and the incident was highly discussed online. Ding Xinyu also had to accept the harsh reality laid out before her, but as a woman with deep feelings, she couldn¡¯t accept such an outcome. No one could. A man who professed his love for her had been deceiving her all along, simply using her as a tool to leap forward in life. A tool¡ªmerely something that could be discarded at any time, and now it had already been cast aside. That a man could be so heartless was something Ding Xinyu refused to believe when Lu Xiaolu first recounted Guan Ruyan¡¯s past ruthlessness. But now she had no choice but to believe it. He could block Ding Xinyu on his phone and WeChat, not even bothering to ask about his child, let alone his father lying in the hospital at that moment. Several doctors stayed at Ding Xinyu¡¯s home, working together. Some kept her company, while others took care of her child, preventing the family from falling apart. Lu Xiaolu, the one supporting the family at this time, was about to be on the operating table. The investigative team from above was to arrive at Nandu Medical University soon. Principal Ruo and Academician Xiang had been left bewildered by Guan Ruyan¡¯s sudden flight. They had thought that under no circumstance would Guan Ruyan do something so immature and dirty. They hoped to delay dealing with it until Principal Ding¡¯s treatment was arranged, but didn¡¯t anticipate this sudden eruption. What troubled them was that Guan Ruyan had been able to hold a high position in the school for so many years, and as principal, Ruo hadn¡¯t noticed. It was a cruel joke, and Principal Ruo began reflecting on where the problem lay. For the moment, he couldn¡¯t sort it out, wondering if there were still such people in the school, and the thought made him anxious. Concerning the handling of Guan Ruyan, Principal Ruo already had a plan in mind. If Lu Xiaolu¡¯s evidence proved factual, he would immediately dismiss Guan Ruyan, revoke all of his academic positions, and announce it to the world. As for Principal Ding, he definitely needed to be dealt with, but considering humanitarianism, the investigation would be postponed until after his discharge from the hospital, but he would still be disciplined regardless. Lu Xiaolu, with his mixed merits and demerits, had been involved in helping Guan Ruyan with academic fraud for many years, but now, standing up to expose Guan Ruyan, he too had shown merit. He would be dismissed, and then recommended for a position in the laboratory at Sanbo Hospital, allowing him to put his skills to good use. ¡°This event will cause incalculable damage to the reputation of Nandu Medical University! I bear an inescapable responsibility,¡± Principal Ruo said with much self-reproach. Academician Xiang sighed and said, ¡°If there are problems, we must address them. That is how we can preserve the reputation. If we cover up the issues and lack a correct attitude in dealing with things, that¡¯s what will do the most harm to the school¡¯s reputation. Therefore, at this time, we must be clear-headed. No matter how many people are involved or how great the impact, we must deal with it thoroughly.¡± ¡°I understand. After this matter is settled, I will resign myself. It¡¯s indefensible to say I¡¯m not responsible,¡± Principal Ruo said. Academician Xiang fell silent and, after a long pause, said, ¡°I agree with your approach.¡± ¡°As for my successor, I think Su Qingyun is a good choice for the next principal, also serving as the dean of Affiliated Hospital No. 1,¡± Principal Ruo recommended, but this was merely a private conversation between them, without any administrative binding force. With such a significant incident at the school, how could the principal not bear responsibility? If he only dealt with others and remained fine himself, it would clearly be difficult to establish integrity. Only by dealing with himself as well could it be recorded in the school¡¯s history, so that every person at Nandu Medical University remembering this incident would learn from the lesson. The years passed too swiftly, people¡¯s hearts grew too restless, and many lost themselves in material desires. Principal Ruo grew more and more despondent the more he thought about it. If Yang Ping hadn¡¯t taken the Outstanding Young Talent spot, Guan Ruyan would be in that position now. Daring to think further, if Yang Ping had not come into the picture, if Principal Ding¡¯s health had not failed, if Guan Ruyan¡¯s deceit had not been uncovered, she might have become the youngest vice-principal by now. Principal Ruo was fearful at the thought, imagining he might still be discussing the school¡¯s development plans with Guan Ruyan. The next day, Lu Xiaolu¡¯s kidney donation passed the ethical review, and then Director Yao arranged Principal Ding¡¯s kidney transplant surgery. The surgery was very successful, one of Lu Xiaolu¡¯s kidneys was successfully transplanted to Principal Ding, who was then sent to the ICU ward for postoperative monitoring. Lu Xiaolu also needed to stay in the hospital for about a week. The investigation team arrived at Sanbo Hospital promptly because the evidence provided by Lu Xiaolu was sufficient. They quickly clarified the whole situation without much effort. In the end, Principal Ruo swiftly dismissed Guan Ruyan, canceling all his professional titles and academic honors, and the hospital made a worldwide announcement about the entire affair. Guan Ruyan¡¯s new girlfriend¡¯s father, upon seeing this, immediately ordered his daughter to cut ties with the man. Of course, by the time Guan¡¯s true nature was revealed, the girl no longer harbored much affection for him. After all, she had been enchanted by an ambitious, talented Guan Ruyan, not a forger who climbed up the ranks by relying on women, and a speculative academic opportunist. The whole affair was rather absurd. Not long ago, Guan Ruyan was an outstanding young talent with a wealth of academic achievements; now, he had become a pariah, a rat at a festival everyone wanted to hit. But when all was said and done, the most significant contrast laid within himself. Principal Ding¡¯s condition improved, and Lu Xiaolu was very grateful to Yang Ping, who visited Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 several times to join in the consultations for Principal Ding and even performed the main surgery himself. Lu Xiaolu decided to stay. In fact, he did not want to go to the United States. He only felt that if Principal Ding were to leave, eliminating Guan Ruyan on his own would leave him with a profound sense of loss. Staying here would seem pointless. But now his thoughts were different; only by achieving something significant, making substantial contributions to the country and society, could he live up to Principal Ding¡¯s kindness. Moreover, Principal Ding was still in good health. The words of Yang Ping awakened him, ¡°Don¡¯t be a pessimistic escapist; instead, be an optimistic and realistic changer and builder.¡± Principal Ruo also punished Lu Xiaolu for his actions by firing him from his original position. However, considering that he had voluntarily exposed Guan Ruyan, they took no further action. After dismissing Lu Xiaolu, Sanbo Hospital immediately invited him to join their laboratory team. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s newly established Tumor Laboratory had been lacking a suitable director. After Lu Xiaolu joined Sanbo Hospital, Yang Ping gave him the position of laboratory director. Lu Xiaolu was independent in his professional duties, enjoying a great deal of autonomy. After getting through this busy period, Yang Ping plunged back into his research, which was progressing slowly at the moment. Fu Xiaotao¡¯s first re-evaluation results came out after switching to a new treatment plan. Since he started taking Sirolimus, his symptoms had noticeably diminished, and he was improving day by day. This was all without the use of steroids and chemotherapy drugs, relying solely on Sirolimus. It seemed that the new approach was correct, and the effect was immediate. Sometimes, when you¡¯re at an impasse, taking a moment to rethink things might yield greater rewards. Inspired by Fu Xiaotao¡¯s case, Yang Ping began to reexamine his previous experiments using cell apoptosis to treat tumors. The experiment had been impeded because the initiating factor obtained in vitro could not perform as expected in vivo. Even when it occasionally worked the first time, the second and third attempts would be thwarted by the tumor cells recognizing it, leading to failure. Yang Ping thought maybe the strategy he had been following was wrong¡ªthe strategy of altering protein molecules so they would remain unchanged while entering target cells. Perhaps there was a more correct approach. For instance, this initiating factor might never work as expected in the body and should be abandoned for a new one. There was certainly not just one factor that could induce apoptosis in tumor cells, but countless ones. Focusing on how K factor was cultivated and the mechanisms by which the initiating factors themselves arose could be key. After dealing with these issues, Principal Ruo planned to proactively resign and apologize. Someone had to take responsibility, and before resigning, Principal Ruo felt he needed to do something. Chapter 1338 - 1338 1013 The Dog of the Bereaved Family ?Chapter 1338: Chapter 1013: The Dog of the Bereaved Family Chapter 1338: Chapter 1013: The Dog of the Bereaved Family Principal Ruo felt that if he resigned just like that, Nandu Medical University would definitely descend into chaos. Over the years, the university had been able to develop rapidly solely because he had unified everyone around him; once he resigned, Nandu Medical University would undoubtedly fall into turmoil. Therefore, before resigning, he had to arrange the succession properly. Su Qingyun was currently the most suitable candidate; as an academician of the Nandu system, it was only appropriate for him to assume the role of principal, and this person possessed not only outstanding academic abilities but also top-notch management skills. After making up his mind, Principal Ruo consulted with Old Academician Xiang, hoping Elder Xiang would join him in strongly recommending Su Qingyun. This was also his last act of seeking welfare for Nandu Medical University. Guan Ruyan had now become a destitute stray. His marriage had completely collapsed, and he had lost his job, reputation, research achievements, and academic status. From his former glory to his current state of being despised by everyone, the immense disparity was hard for him to accept. Every time he changed stepping stones, it had been very smooth. Guan Ruyan had thought this time would be no different, but he hadn¡¯t expected to be defeated so disastrously. He hadn¡¯t reacted in time, and within a few days, he had completely lost control until everything collapsed. Even now, he hadn¡¯t figured out what had happened. He went to find a new girlfriend, but she had completely blacklisted him, not wanting to see him again¡ªwho would want to be the stepping stone of such a malicious man? He had no choice but to go to Ding Xinyu. Ding Xinyu had completely given up on him, locking her house and living somewhere else with the children. He thought of running to the hospital to find Principal Ding, but Principal Ding had just been moved out of the ICU, and the doctors and nurses absolutely wouldn¡¯t let him see Principal Ding. He went to find Principal Ruo, and Principal Ruo said, ¡°Do it then, reform, and start anew. There¡¯s no need to meet anymore.¡± With no other options, he went to the school to find his children, hoping to see Ding Xinyu through the children and then persuade Ding Xinyu to change her mind. After seeing the children, Ding Xinyu told Guan Ruyan that to minimize the damage to the children, they should divorce amicably and try to protect their young minds as much as possible. Everything was irretrievable. Guan Ruyan walked on the streets alone, reminiscing about his past glorious days and comparing them with his current destitution¡ªand realizing that an upturn was no longer possible. He walked towards the river and then lingered by its edge. The more he thought, the angrier he became. If it hadn¡¯t been for Lu Xiaolu providing a plethora of evidence to testify against him, he would still be fine. His divorce and abandoning of his wife and children wouldn¡¯t have shaken his foundations¡ªpeople would have just condemned him for a while. So, he picked up his phone and called Lu Xiaolu, ¡°Lu Xiaolu, do you know where I am right now?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to care about that,¡± Lu Xiaolu responded coldly. Guan Ruyan ground his teeth and said, ¡°I¡¯m at the riverbank now. Aren¡¯t you afraid I¡¯ll jump in with you pushing me to the limit like this?¡± ¡°You won¡¯t! You cherish yourself too much; how could you do something that would harm yourself?¡± Lu Xiaolu was not at all anxious. Guan Ruyan looked at the river surface. Indeed, he wasn¡¯t confused to that extent yet. Even if he had lost everything, he could still live a decent life in the future based on his savings. He was still young; how could he do something so foolish? Lu Xiaolu really knew him well. ¡°Lu Xiaolu, let¡¯s meet,¡± Guan Ruyan suggested. Without hesitation, Lu Xiaolu agreed, ¡°You name the place and time.¡± ¡°By the river. Do you remember how we used to walk and chat here when we were studying for our master¡¯s?¡± Guan Ruyan sat on the riverside grass. ¡°Okay, I¡¯m coming now,¡± Lu Xiaolu consented without a hint of hesitation. Half an hour later, Lu Xiaolu found Guan Ruyan at the riverbank; he was sitting on the grass looking at the glittering waves. Lu Xiaolu sat down next to him. Guan Ruyan explosively questioned, ¡°Lu Xiaolu, why? I¡¯ve given you so much, and yet you seek to ruin me. Look, Teacher Ding has also been destroyed by you, you¡¯ve destroyed everything. What did you gain? If you wanted to break away and establish yourself independently, you could have told me. I never said you had to follow me your whole life, and with every step I took, I brought you along.¡± ¡°I warned you not to hurt Teacher Ding and Xinyu. You didn¡¯t listen,¡± Lu Xiaolu answered icily. ¡°You dare to meet me still. Aren¡¯t you afraid I¡¯ll kill you?¡± Guan Ruyan¡¯s tone was extremely threatening. Lu Xiaolu was very calm, not scared at all. ¡°Not at all. You are the most selfish, and someone that selfish would never allow themselves to self-destruct.¡± ¡°What did you gain by doing this?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need to gain anything. If you hadn¡¯t hurt Teacher Ding and Xinyu, I might have been willing to be your stepping stone forever. But you crossed my bottom line. You hurt Teacher Ding and hurt Xinyu.¡± ¡°Why should I donate my kidney to him, why? The kidney is mine, I donate if I want, and don¡¯t if I don¡¯t.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to donate, no one is forcing you. But you clearly didn¡¯t want to, so why put on an act? Do you know that you ended up killing Teacher Ding by doing so?¡± ¡°At Nandu Medical University, if a ¡®Outstanding Young Talent¡¯ couldn¡¯t help me get settled, and going to a better school where not only could someone help me secure an ¡®Outstanding Young Talent¡¯ but also become a deputy principal, why wouldn¡¯t I go? There¡¯s no reason not to.¡± ¡°You say such things without even a hint of guilt. You left the ward to smear Teacher Ding and Xinyu. He devoted everything to you, but because he was of no use to you, you turned against him immediately. Even if you had placated him a little, waited until his condition stabilized before doing this, I still wouldn¡¯t have done this to you, but you¡¯re too disappointing. You completely lack humanity. In your eyes, it¡¯s only yourself. Everyone else is just your stepping stone.¡± Chapter 1339 - 1339 1013 The Scourge of the Family_2 ?Chapter 1339: Chapter 1013: The Scourge of the Family_2 Chapter 1339: Chapter 1013: The Scourge of the Family_2 ¡°This society is just that cruel. Am I inhumane? I am already very humane.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t believe how shameless you are,¡± Lu Xiaolu sneered. Guan Ruyan was clearly provoked, he bellowed, ¡°You call me shameless? Inhumane? At most, my actions are too direct and too overt, Lu Xiaolu! Over the years, have I ever harmed a single female student? No! Before this, I was completely loyal in my marriage. I never even entertained such thoughts. The projects were done by your help, the papers were written by you, but at least they are genuine academic achievements, right? Look at some people, using the nation¡¯s funding for fraud, both projects and papers are fake. I, at least, am a completely legitimate doctoral graduate from abroad. Look how many uneducated failures can reach high positions. Am I shameless? Am I inhumane?¡± ¡°Enough! So, other people making mistakes is an excuse for you to do the same?¡± Lu Xiaolu didn¡¯t expect Guan Ruyan to be so shameless, not only unrepentant at this moment but also feeling like a victim himself. ¡°Enough? It¡¯s far from enough. I, too, want to rely on my own efforts, I too want to be a respectable man, but reality is just that cruel. I came from the countryside, with no backing. If I hadn¡¯t acted this way, would I have reached my position today? And you, if it weren¡¯t for Teacher Ding¡¯s help, where would you be now? Could you have pursued a graduate degree? A doctorate? Studied abroad? Could you be a professor at Nandu Medical University? Could you conduct research? Publish papers? Ridiculous! You, too, owe your success to Teacher Ding, only your approach differs. Yet you belittle me so, Lu Xiaolu, you are just jealous of me.¡± ¡°Stop talking! Completely twisted morals.¡± ¡°I will talk! You still think you¡¯re a hero, you¡¯re no hero at all, I admit your talent surpasses mine, without you, I wouldn¡¯t have reached this height. If you left, I wouldn¡¯t complain, after all these years using too much of your outcomes, it was your projects and papers that pushed me up step by step. But for you to destroy me this way, I can¡¯t accept it. I don¡¯t love Xinyu, but did I ever betray her before? I have always been acting, but am I the only one acting? I am heartless, but if I weren¡¯t heartless, I would be hindered by my ex-girlfriend. To move forward, I must be heartless. My first girlfriend only had a high school education, a worker, while I was a university student. I needed to pursue higher studies; could her love feed me? Later, when I had money, I repaid her double, so I owe her nothing. My second girlfriend, her father went to jail. If I didn¡¯t leave her then, when would I have? I was attracted to her because her father was the dean, and she fancied me for being good-looking and sweet-talking, it was a transaction, no debt on either side. When her father lost his position, our relationship was no longer equal, why couldn¡¯t I leave her? Speaking of Xinyu, yes, she was good to me, and Teacher Ding too, but I also treated them very well over the years, was totally devoted to the Ding Family, never said ¡®no.¡¯ The first child took Ding¡¯s surname, the second child took the surname Guan, I had been considerate enough. Now in this situation, can I rely on him in the future? With better opportunities elsewhere, why shouldn¡¯t I go?¡± ¡°Absurd! Unreasonable!¡± ¡°You¡¯re the absurd one! You are the unreasonable one! I remember the year I graduated from university, I went back to the county hospital in my hometown to look for job, they wanted 100,000 right off the bat, a county hospital, hardly any genuine undergraduates, mostly junior or community college graduates. I thought as a legitimate undergraduate, I¡¯d definitely get in. I was willing to work hard at the grassroots, but without 100,000, you couldn¡¯t even get through the door. Do you know how I felt standing outside the hospital clutching my resume? Those vocational school graduates walked out happily because they had connections. Connections, do you understand? Later, with the help of my second girlfriend¡¯s father, I got an opportunity to keep studying. In this life, I¡¯ve learned one truth: to climb up, you need someone to pull you up.¡± ¡°Your heart itself is dark, and you see everything else as dark.¡± ¡°My heart is dark? I am quite the opposite; consider this fairly, have any of the masters or doctors I recruited ever come through the back door? I know their hardships, so I am willing to open doors for them. Consider this fairly, which lab subsidizes as much as ours? I never skimp on the students¡¯ money. Consider this fairly, how have I treated you all and those students? I never treated any of you like machines.¡± ¡°That is not a reason for your mistakes, this is expected of you. Do you understand? You can¡¯t treat what you should do as a merit.¡± ¡°Lu Xiaolu, don¡¯t think you are anything special, you¡¯re just a bookworm. If it wasn¡¯t for Professor Yang¡¯s appreciation, you would be nothing. You are just using his connections to get safely out of this situation, getting demoted on the surface but promoted secretly.¡± ¡°Is it the same? You are really unrepentant, stubborn. Our values are incompatible, there¡¯s nothing to discuss.¡± ¡°Discuss? With you? You¡¯re not worth it. Talking to you is like playing the lute to a cow; I just came here today to give you a lesson.¡± ¡°Ignorance!¡± ¡°You laugh at me, but I laugh at you too. I¡¯m a joke, but you¡¯re a bigger joke.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care about others, I just do my own work, fulfill my own responsibilities.¡± ¡°What is responsibility, if not for me, if not for Principal Ding, would you have had the chance to obtain these research opportunities? You were able to publish the results of the project in a top world journal, at least you were the second author, at least your results were made public. How many like you don¡¯t even have the chance to pursue a Doctorate, let alone receive project funding? You don¡¯t thank me, but instead you turn against me. Are you out of your mind? Without you stirring things up, I could have moved to another school easily. I had everything planned, to break up with Xinyu amicably, one child each, leaving the Dings with them, and taking the Guans with me, which would be better for the kids. After switching to another school, I would have taken you with me. By then, I¡¯d be an Outstanding Young Talent, an Academician, a Principal. You could have followed me step by step; Outstanding Young Talent, Academician, Principal. Now you¡¯ve ruined it all yourself, still thinking you¡¯re some kind of hero.¡± ¡°Outstanding Young Talent, Academician, you think you¡¯re worthy?¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I be worthy? Why wouldn¡¯t I be worthy? I earnestly research the world¡¯s top medical biotechnologies, why wouldn¡¯t I be worthy?¡± Lu Xiaolu could only shake his head. This person¡¯s values could crumble to such an extent, to describe degeneration so self-righteously. ¡°You mean, at that time, you lacked nothing? Money, power, academic status, women¡ªyou¡¯re just a fool. What good is it following Yang Ping, just to be a lab director under him, hopping around obediently? Weren¡¯t you essentially the director under me? Who managed the lab affairs? Wasn¡¯t I the one who completely handed it over to you, you big fool, big blockhead.¡± ¡°Guan Ruyan, it¡¯s just because there are so few fools like me that people like you can swagger through the streets, make grand appearances. If I had acted the fool, the blockhead earlier, would you still have chances for glory later? I don¡¯t need to rely on you or anyone else. A person, if only they have the ability and put in the effort, will find plenty of opportunities. It¡¯s just you who can¡¯t make it, always blaming this or that, acting as though the whole world owes you. Even if I had no chance to attend graduate school, I would have worked, even if it was delivering food, I would have saved money to attend graduate school, to pursue a PhD. I don¡¯t rely on anyone, I tell you, even now I¡¯m not relying on Professor Yang, because I have real talent, it¡¯s because of that people appreciate me, unlike what you suggest. The world has its dark sides everywhere. I don¡¯t care how others are, I won¡¯t indulge in the dark side, I aim to be the light, even if it¡¯s only as faint as a firefly, that¡¯s what sets me apart from you.¡± ¡°Giving me a lesson?¡± Guan Ruyan said angrily. Lu Xiaolu shook his head, ¡°You¡¯re beyond redemption, there¡¯s no need to lecture you. I¡¯m just telling you my thoughts, the world isn¡¯t what you think it is. I believe that as long as you put in the effort, you can definitely realize your value. You came from the countryside, so many people from rural areas make it step by step on their own efforts, some work delivering food, some in factories, some become bosses, some enter top companies after studying, earning millions a year, some become scholars, examples abound. They all contribute their power in their respective roles, not complaining about everyone else like you, always thinking the fault lies with the entire world, never searching for the reason within themselves.¡± ¡°You¡¯re teaching me? What benefit is there for you in this state? Following that crazy person always busy with surgeries and research, what kind of good life is that?¡± ¡°This is exactly the life I want, a life grounded and focused on my own research, being my true self, even if I earn just a few thousand yuan a month, I¡¯m willing to take it. Not everyone is like you, unscrupulously striving for fame and fortune. You better be yourself, live a down-to-earth life, maybe you could even start a new chapter in life.¡± ¡°You big fool.¡± ¡°Unreasonable. Before we met, I genuinely felt guilty inside, seeing you reduced to a stray dog, it was tough. But after meeting, I have no guilt at all because till now, you show not a hint of remorse.¡± Chapter 1340 - 1340 1014 International Guest Committee ?Chapter 1340: Chapter 1014: International Guest Committee Chapter 1340: Chapter 1014: International Guest Committee Lu Xiaolu began his tenure as the head of the Sanbo Hospital Tumor Laboratory. Guan Ruyan left the city, and nobody knew where he had gone. It was said that when he and Ding Xinyu divorced, he didn¡¯t ask for custody of the children; all were given to Ding Xinyu. Principal Ding recovered very well from his surgery and was also dismissed from his position. The matter of Principal Ruo¡¯s resignation was also settled. Although nobody thought it was his fault, and the investigation team didn¡¯t hint at it either, he himself felt that he bore the greatest responsibility and must resign. However, before resigning, he hoped to push Su Qingyun to the position of principal and do his last bit for Nandu Medical University. October was already autumn, but the weather in the south was still very hot. There were no scenes of the autumn wind sweeping fallen leaves, and the trees beside the roads were still lush and green. Professor Su began to prepare for his daughter and son-in-law¡¯s wedding. They set the wedding date for New Year¡¯s Day. To prevent interference with Yang Ping¡¯s work, Professor Su and Mrs. Su personally took charge of the arrangements, not wanting their daughter and son-in-law to waste time on it. The Su Family had only one daughter, so she was treated like a treasure in their palm. Though not seeking extravagance or grandeur, their wedding should at least be fitting for their status. After all, the Su Family was considered prominent, and Professor Su contemplated for a long time and decided to give the wedding an academic flair, inviting all the big names from the academic community to gather. Once the news got out, many of these prominent figures said they would definitely make time to attend. Professor Liang of Xiehe was the first to step forward, stating that no matter how busy, he would definitely attend Yang Ping¡¯s wedding. Dean Liu from 301, Commissioner Qiao, and Director Qin also expressed their intent: They must attend. Yang Ping was a rising star in the medical community, and Professor Su himself was an academician with excellent relationships in the medical circle, so it was only logical for the wedding to become a grand event in the medical community. In reality, although the wedding was being orchestrated by Professor Su and Mrs. Su, they were only in charge of the strategic planning. In the end, Huang Jiacai and Cheng Liquan were the ones running around and doing the legwork. In the spirit of organizing Yang Ping¡¯s wedding, President Huang and Boss Cheng took action. They formed a committee for Professor Yang¡¯s wedding and specifically acquired a hotel for the event. There was no other purpose: the hotel, a holiday resort, was purchased solely to host Professor Yang Ping¡¯s wedding, making it the most fitting venue. The international friends in the WeChat group weren¡¯t idle either. They began to discuss in the group how to attend Professor Yang¡¯s wedding, as it was a significant event. [Should we invite some stars from the entertainment and sports industries to liven things up, like getting a hot American singer to perform, and then inviting the former president and his wife to be the masters of ceremonies? Let¡¯s ramp up the atmosphere.] Mr. Robert wasn¡¯t just bragging¡ªhe had both the capability and financial resources to do so. The former president had just had knee surgery performed by him, after all, so that bit of face could indeed be given. [Superficial! Don¡¯t invite these unrelated people; we are scholars, and besides, I¡¯ve heard that the committee has already determined the wedding to be a medical community feast. Inviting such people would clearly ruin the atmosphere, for we do not seek common ground with those of different paths.] Professor Manstein had already joined the international chat group, and he strongly disapproved of Robert¡¯s suggestion. [We should still bring some programs to spice things up. We can¡¯t just be there to eat and drink; we are not just anybody, but friends of Professor Yang, and we should contribute something to the wedding.] Robert¡¯s use of idioms was skilled, and his Chinese skills were top-notch in the group. [We didn¡¯t say we wouldn¡¯t bring programs. I suggest we all go to the wedding in the name of academic organizations. Each team must bring its own performance. For example, I will personally present a tenor solo] Professor Mainshtan was already prepared. [Professor Mainshtan? Are you serious? A tenor solo?] [Yes, to be honest, I have already begun secret preparations. The song I will perform is¡ªTibetan Plateau!] [!!!] As expected from a Nobel Prize laureate, he hadn¡¯t been studying Chinese for long and could be said to have spent the least amount of time learning it in the group, yet Chinese songs were a piece of cake for him. This left the group members who were still struggling with their Chinese Level Four exams feeling truly disheartened. [Agreed! I will lead the Cleveland Medical Center¡¯s team in presenting a program, specifics to be decided.] Professor Li Zehui was eager to try. This was fantastic, a perfect opportunity to introduce his entire team to Professor Yang Ping. Many of his colleagues had been pestering him to introduce them to Professor Yang Ping, so this was an excellent opportunity. They would be willing to prepare ten programs if necessary. [The Anderson Cancer Center signs up, I will lead my team to present a program.] Griffin, usually quiet, was very proactive this time. [Mayo team is in.] John Ansen couldn¡¯t fall behind, considering they were from the top-ranked hospital in the United States. [At least one program from Johns Hopkins. Do-it-yourself sustenance is key; why hire anyone¡ªsuperficial!] [Alright, New York Special Surgery Hospital agrees. We¡¯ll bring a dynamic street dance performance. The bastards here have long wanted to meet Professor Yang, and now they finally get the chance to see him and make friends with him, even if their Chinese is not up to scratch. It¡¯s an opportunity of a lifetime; they wouldn¡¯t let it slip away, especially that kid Rongge, who keeps threatening me that if I don¡¯t bring him to meet Professor Yang, he¡¯ll expose my embarrassing moments from my Harvard days.] [German orthopedics must have a seat at this venue.] August stated immediately. [One more thing, that damned Brit Milton says he wants to join as well, representing the United Kingdom. In consideration of our many years of friendship, could we agree to let him hitch a ride?] ¡°We are friends of Professor Yang and can be more lenient, but others who want to hitch a ride must undergo strict scrutiny. Those outside the top three in their respective fields should consciously step aside¡ªthere aren¡¯t that many seats available for everyone, as if this were a regular academic conference open to all,¡± Professor Mainshtan issued a stern warning. ¡°That¡¯s right, we must ensure the quality of the attendees,¡± someone agreed. ¡°Spinal Surgery from Woodhead in Twin Cities has applied.¡± ¡°I now announce that the International Guest Committee for Professor Yang¡¯s wedding has been officially established. I will serve as the Secretary-General. Those who wish to attend must get certified by the committee. I agree with Mr. Mainshtan¡¯s opinion that those ranked outside of the top three should not hold us back,¡± Lobite declared in a timely manner. Mainshtan immediately retorted, ¡°I am the Secretary-General, and you are the Deputy Secretary-General!¡± There was no arguing with that¡ªhis academic status was higher, and in the group, Lobite was only intimidated by Mainshtan and didn¡¯t dare to confront him. ¡°Milton can barely make it into the top three¡ªjust by a large margin behind me,¡± August boasted. ¡°Team leader Takahashi Fumiya from the Affiliated Hospital of the University of Tokyo has signed up. Those guys from Juntendo probably want to come too, but being within the top three in the world is too tough¡ªhow about the top five?¡± ¡°What rank is Juntendo? Is this some kind of joke?¡± ¡°I hear that the hotel is quite spacious, so how about this: if you¡¯re outside of the top three and still want to come, you can, but you¡¯ll have to sit outside for the meal and not enter the main hall. How¡¯s that? Otherwise, the Chinese will say we lack manners.¡± ¡°Brother, that¡¯s a hurtful way to put it.¡± ¡°How could the main hall have space for everyone? No matter how big the hotel is, it can¡¯t fit that many people. Order must be established to avoid chaos. We should submit the list in advance to Professor Yang¡¯s wedding planning committee, including a seating arrangement proposal. Otherwise, the committee will surely have a tough time figuring out the seating. We should be self-aware¡ªwe are the ones who understand etiquette.¡± ¡°That makes sense!¡± ¡°Boss, are you bringing the team from Charite? Hospital?¡± someone asked Mainshtan. ¡°No, I¡¯m leading the Nobel Prize Group. Several of my old friends have expressed the desire to accompany me. Remember, everyone, we¡¯re not attending the wedding on a personal basis, nor on behalf of a hospital, but in the name of an academic society,¡± Mainshtan reminded everyone again. ¡°Right, I represent the European Spine Society.¡± ¡°I represent the North American Sports Medicine Society.¡± ¡°I represent the North American Cancer Association.¡± ¡°North American Neurosurgical Society.¡± ¡°What about gifts, brothers?¡± ¡°Yes, this is a serious matter. We need to discuss carefully what gift should we bring.¡± ¡°As for my gift, it¡¯s already prepared. You guys can figure out your own,¡± Mainshtan was always so arrogant. Chapter 1341 - 1341 1015 Who Truly Understands Romance ?Chapter 1341: Chapter 1015: Who Truly Understands Romance Chapter 1341: Chapter 1015: Who Truly Understands Romance Yang Ping felt it was utterly wasteful that Huang Jiacai actually bought a hotel to hold his own wedding. Huang Jiacai explained that the hotel was in a great location and not only could it earn money regularly after its use for the wedding, but it could also be suitable for hosting academic conferences. Moreover, the hotel had received a safety certification from Manager Qiu. Manager Qiu said that the wedding would have a large number of guests, including many international friends. For safety reasons, enhancing security measures was essential. Acquiring the hotel was beneficial since owning the entire hotel would make arranging security measures more convenient. For the wedding, a large number of armed police would be deployed to ensure safety, though they would be hidden and try to minimize any disturbance to the wedding. Manager Qiu mentioned that the senior leaders repeatedly emphasized that the wedding should be lively and joyous within the premise of ensuring safety. Hence, there shouldn¡¯t be any talk of inconvenience. Huang Jiacai and Boss Cheng were very serious about planning the wedding and set up an official wedding planning committee. Huang Jiacai served as the chief organizer, with Boss Cheng as the deputy. Huang Jiacai gathered everyone to brainstorm and make decisions on how to make the wedding successful. The nouveau riche Wang Changxin proposed to invite top hosts from the central media and celebrities to emcee, sing, and dance at the wedding, as it was customary for coal bosses in his hometown to hire many stars to create a lively atmosphere for their children¡¯s weddings. Huang Jiacai adamantly rejected Wang Changxin, pointing out that Professor Yang loathed such ostentatious displays. The wedding was agreed to be an academic banquet, and it couldn¡¯t possibly be executed in the manner of the nouveau riche. Huang Jiacai thought that people like Old Wang had nothing but vulgar things on their minds. ¡°Why don¡¯t I organize a free wedding for ten thousand people? Couples from across the country can sign up for this event, and on the day of Professor Yang¡¯s wedding, all come to G City to have their weddings, with all expenses paid by me. Consider it livening up the atmosphere for Professor Yang.¡± ¡°What are these absurd ideas you have? Professor Yang¡¯s wedding isn¡¯t about how much money is spent. That¡¯s not important, get it?¡± Huang Jiacai looked down on Old Wang¡¯s nouveau riche-style thoughts. Old Wang, feeling indignant that his ideas were rejected by Huang Jiacai, suggested, ¡°How about having a truckload of gold bricks and setting up a gold wall in the hotel? Guests at the wedding could compete in drinking games to win the gold bricks, with large cups¡ªone drink, one gold brick. The catch is you have to be sober enough to take your winnings home. It¡¯d certainly be fresh and thrilling.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you have a single romantic bone in your body? Who has a wedding like that? So tacky.¡± Old Wang got scolded again, so he cautiously proposed another idea: What about using helicopters to drop hundred-dollar bills from the sky on the wedding day? Like heavenly maidens scattering flowers, how romantic. Could you not be so tacky and always think about money, money, money! Huang Jiacai really didn¡¯t want to hear any more of Old Wang¡¯s lousy ideas. ¡°I¡¯m a miner, if I don¡¯t talk about money, what should I talk about?¡± Old Wang felt quite wronged. The meeting adopted many good ideas, but not a single one of Old Wang¡¯s was accepted. He left the meeting fuming, and his wife, clueless about what had happened, only realized their long-thought-out ideas were not taken by President Huang upon asking. ¡°I¡¯ll start my own venture; I refuse to believe I¡¯m less intelligent than Huang Jiacai.¡± Old Wang took the tea his wife brought over and sipped it to cool his temper. ¡°I¡¯m going to hire the best scriptwriter, the best director, the best singer, and the best actors to shoot a romantic love MV to bless Professor Yang¡¯s marriage. Then on the wedding day, I¡¯ll rent every single advertising screen in G City of Nandu. I want the whole city¡¯s advertising screens to play this MV on the wedding day as a blessing for Professor Yang. How¡¯s that for romantic? Can Huang Jiacai come up with this kind of idea?¡± Old Wang discussed with his wife. ¡°You should discuss this with Huang Jiacai, shouldn¡¯t you? After all, he is the head of the wedding planning committee,¡± suggested Old Wang¡¯s wife. Old Wang waved off the suggestion: ¡°No need to discuss with him. Discussing with him gets nothing done. This won¡¯t do, that won¡¯t do, it¡¯s clearly about sidelining me, doing it on purpose. I won¡¯t have it. We¡¯ll do this on the sly, it has nothing to do with them. I¡¯ll set up my own committee. He¡¯s responsible for the main venue of the wedding, I won¡¯t argue with him over that, I¡¯ll take care of the peripheral. I want to rent out the entire city¡¯s advertising screens, and I¡¯m also going to buy the best advertisement slots on Baidu, Taobao, WeChat, TikTok, CCTV, etc. On Professor Yang¡¯s wedding day, I want all these to push out the blessings for Professor Yang, playing the romantic MV.¡± ¡°How much is that going to cost?¡± Old Wang¡¯s wife tentatively asked. ¡°Why are you so vulgar? Always money, money, money, can we not mention money? Just hearing about money makes me feel disgusted and sick to my stomach. Huang Jiacai thinks he is so grand. I can¡¯t believe I can¡¯t outdo him, as someone who has mines. It¡¯s a joke.¡± Thinking about this, Old Wang felt much more at ease. He decided to compete with Huang Jiacai once and for all, to see who is Professor Yang¡¯s better friend and who is more romantic. Wang Changxin is now wealthy and bullish. In these years, mining has earned him more money than a printing press, and since making a fortune with gold mines in Africa, he has acquired several large mines, including iron and lithium mines. His luck has been so good that every acquisition has been very smooth, so he has made a fortune. His annual profits have already exceeded a hundred billion, and now he¡¯s determined to make a significant investment, to show the confidence of a man who owns mines. ¡°Is this really okay? Inform Professor Yang at least, don¡¯t create chaos,¡± Old Wang¡¯s wife reminded him. Old Wang was unhappy: ¡°What chaos? I¡¯m not breaking the law, not violating morality or conscience, not affecting ordinary citizens¡¯ lives. Huang Jiacai does his thing, I do mine, we don¡¯t interfere with each other¡¯s waters. Let¡¯s see who makes it more lively. He¡¯s responsible for the inside of the wedding venue, why can¡¯t I manage the outside?¡± ¡°Think about it, any other good ideas? This time I¡¯ll show Huang Jiacai who really understands romance.¡± ¡°You keep thinking over and over about the same things. Why not hire some top wedding planners to help you?¡± suggested Old Wang¡¯s wife. Old Wang was stunned: ¡°Are you saying that I don¡¯t understand romance?¡± Old Wang¡¯s wife immediately said, ¡°How could that be? If you don¡¯t know romance, then who does?¡± Old Wang nodded slightly, confidently saying, ¡°I¡¯ve decided to plan it myself. These wedding professionals, do they have my boldness? When have they ever managed something this grand? They might at best hire some first-rate hosts, stars to sing and dance. How vulgar, without any substance. I want to create something with substance, create a romantic atmosphere. The idea I just mentioned, shooting a romantic MV, pushing it through the entire city and all media, let¡¯s settle on that first. I¡¯ll think about other creative ideas.¡± ¡°You¡¯re sure there¡¯s no problem with you acting on your own?¡± Old Wang¡¯s wife was worried. Old Wang replied, ¡°I have it figured out, there¡¯s no problem.¡± Chapter 1342 - 1342 1016 Outsiders ?Chapter 1342: Chapter 1016: Outsiders Chapter 1342: Chapter 1016: Outsiders As for the wedding, Yang Ping and Xiao Su hardly worried about it. They continued with their normal work and child-rearing schedules, and their lives weren¡¯t affected at all. Originally, the couple wanted to have a simple wedding, and they did not want it to be complex, but things did not go as planned. Regardless of the aspect, no one agreed with their idea of a simple wedding. Nevertheless, they resigned to let things happen without their interference. Aside from spending some time on a wedding photoshoot, Yang Ping and Xiao Su did not concern themselves with the preparation progress of the wedding and were completely unaware of which stage it had reached. Yang Ping went about his work as usual, performing surgeries all day, and then sitting down to rest in the doctor¡¯s office. Song Zimo reported that the second follow-up results of the patient Fu Xiaotao with Kaposi¡¯s disease had come out. This case was always on Yang Ping¡¯s mind because a question he raised overturned a long-standing medical theory, which made him realize that nothing should be beyond questioning or attempting. Song Zimo opened the outpatient system on the computer and pulled up Fu Xiaotao¡¯s medical records. Yang Ping reviewed each item one by one and compared them to the previous results. After taking Sirolimus alone, Fu Xiaotao¡¯s second follow-up results were significantly better than the first. Following this trend, his Kaposi¡¯s disease could be cured in about a year or two. The treatment results proved that blocking the mTOR signaling pathway to treat Kaposi¡¯s disease was very correct, while the previously accepted mechanism of Interleukin 6 turned out to be wrong. This led Yang Ping to adjust the approach in his tumor laboratory. It wasn¡¯t that his methods were incorrect, but more likely that the entire direction from the start was wrong. An incorrect direction means even perfect execution can yield unexpected results. This confirmed the phrase: First get the right thing done, then get it done right. During this period, Yang Ping reflected on his tumor experiments. Relying solely on the system was no longer possible for success. Now, he had to rely on his imagination to tackle the issues¡ªimagination that the system could not provide, as it only offered time and resources. In the evolutionary history of mankind, the process in which certain microbes coevolved with humans took a long time and is not something achievable in a short period. The protein structure K-factor, when introduced into the human body, is attacked by the immune system as a foreign body. K-factor does not have the potential for self-amplification, and under the assault of the immune system, its fate is inevitably doomed. Using an increased investment approach, an excessive amount of K-factor could overly activate the human immune system, posing a life risk. However, some viruses, such as Hepatitis B and HIV, can exist in the human body for a long time without being destroyed by the immune system because they possess the ability to self-replicate and have learned to evade the immune system, passing on this evasion capability through generations. Considering this, a thought suddenly struck Yang Ping. What if he obtained a virus, modified it to be harmless, and then integrated the K-factor with the virus to inject this new ¡°virus¡± into the human body? This new virus would possess the ability to combat the human immune system while also being capable of killing tumor cells, living harmlessly in the body for a period and being ready to kill any recurring tumor cells at any moment. After this bold idea emerged in his mind, Yang Ping immediately planned to redesign his experiments to pursue this new line of research. Having had experience treating Kaposi¡¯s disease, he felt more confident about his bold ideas. Conducting experiments in the system space meant not worrying about consequences¡ªthe worst outcome would just be a waste of points, which wasn¡¯t a big deal. ¡°Continue with Sirolimus?¡± Song Zimo asked. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Continue it, and check liver and kidney functions every month. As long as liver and kidney functions are normal, keep administering it until cured.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± Song Zimo noted. With nothing special happening, Yang Ping returned to his office, opened his computer, and checked for new emails. Professor Mainshtan had sent a new email. ¡°Respected Professor Yang Ping, hello, your research on spatial orientation genes is very popular, and it is considered an epoch-making achievement that will change medicine and change the world. It is the first successful localized cloning of human organs outside the body. It is no exaggeration to say that it heralds the era of independent organ cloning. In the future, the treatment of human organ failure will become cheap and easy, replacing organs as routinely as replacing machine components, and there will be no rejection issues. Once at a private salon of mine, several Nobel laureates in Medicine and Biology expressed a wish to accompany me to China for your wedding; they would like to meet and befriend such a great doctor as you. Moreover, we have a challenging case here¡ªan ectocranial patient. She is the granddaughter of Mr. Brian, a Nobel laureate in Medicine. The poor little girl has not yet found a suitable chief surgeon because no one dares to undertake such surgery. Without your permission, I took the liberty of recommending you, please forgive me. The attached documents contain the information about this case.¡± Professor Manstein¡¯s friend, a Nobel laureate in Medicine and Biology, has a six-year-old granddaughter who suffers from ectocranial anomaly. Her cardiac malformation surgery is extremely complex which is why, to date, he has not found a suitable doctor for his granddaughter. He has even sought doctors in the United States, where surgeons have performed many similar surgeries, but upon seeing his granddaughter, they could only shake their heads, the difficulty being greater than imagined. Normally, the heart is located inside the thoracic cavity and is protected by the rib cage structuring the chest, but the heart of an ectocranial patient lies outside the thoracic cavity, the whole heart only separated from the outside world by a thin layer of skin, virtually equivalent to being exposed, and from the outside, the contour of the heart and even the contours of the blood vessels on the heart¡¯s surface are clearly visible. This exposed heart, if subjected to any accidental impact, could be fatal. Mr. Brian has been tirelessly searching for a doctor who can conduct the main surgery for his granddaughter but has not found anyone until Professor Manstein recommended Professor Yang from China. The attachment includes a video sent by Professor Manstein, featuring the ectocranial child Chelsea. She wears a carbon fiber rigid chest protector to prevent everyday life incidents to the externally located heart. When the protector is removed and the clothes lifted, one can clearly see the prominently pulsing heart, the video reveals that the heart is only separated from the outside by a thin layer of skin. From his office, Yang Ping stands at the door of the doctors¡¯ office: ¡°Everyone who hasn¡¯t left work, come over here.¡± Not knowing what it is about, everyone gathers in the director¡¯s office, and Yang Ping¡¯s computer screen plays the video repeatedly, everyone staring at the screen hoping to catch every detail. Xia Shu, a doctoral student specializing in cardiology, finds this case particularly intriguing. ¡°This is a European case and it is very rare, the surgery is very challenging, and the postoperative maintenance requires high technical skills. Everyone, get familiar with this type of case, look up some information when you have time, and we can discuss it further.¡± Yang Ping said to everyone. ¡°This is a type of cardiac malformation, medically known as Cantrell¡¯s Pentalogy, which consists of five concurrent malformations¡ªsternal cleft, lower sternal defect, anterior diaphragmatic hernia, pericardial wall defects communicating with the abdominal cavity, and umbilical hernia over the abdominal wall defect. It¡¯s this combination of anomalies that results in the heart being exposed outside the skin, making the surgery highly complicated. The surgery aims not only to correct the malformations but also to relocate the heart back into the chest, which involves addressing issues like the suspension of the heart and the alignment of the connected major vessels, and solving it all in one surgery is even more difficult.¡± ¡°What type of Cantrell¡¯s Pentalogy is it?¡± ¡°Type I! All five malformations are present.¡± ¡°Besides, there are accompanying anomalies including dextrocardia, double outlet right ventricle, interventricular septum defect, interatrial septum defect, and pulmonary artery stenosis. The difficulty in treatment lies in how to correct these cardiac malformations and reposition the heart.¡± ¡°We have no prior experience with this case, and it is such a complex case for an ectocranial.¡± ¡°Do you know why our department is called the Surgical Research Institute? Because part of what we do is research-oriented; we are the first to try out new methods, our department combines research with clinical practice.¡± ¡°There are not many cases like this carried out domestically; previously, combined cases from Fuwai and Anzhen might total over ten, but I have never seen such a complex one, and globally there are only about two hundred cases.¡± Everyone immediately began discussing the case. Chapter 1343 - 1343 1017 Using Viruses as Tools ?Chapter 1343: Chapter 1017: Using Viruses as Tools Chapter 1343: Chapter 1017: Using Viruses as Tools ¡°Will this case undergo surgery here?¡± Xia Shu was very interested, and he asked again. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Of course, we need to prepare in advance and come up with the best plan. Let¡¯s find a time to discuss it formally. In the next few days, everyone should research, and gain a comprehensive understanding of this type of case.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t plan to discuss it now because many people hadn¡¯t done the research and lacked knowledge in this area. Discussions would seem weak and wouldn¡¯t be very valuable. So, Yang Ping had Song Zimo distribute the case information, asking everyone to take the time to carefully review it, and then select a time to gather in the meeting room for a serious discussion. After dealing with these matters, Yang Ping decided to visit Lu Xiaolu in the laboratory. With so much happening recently, Yang Ping was worried that Lu Xiaolu¡¯s emotions might be unstable, so he instructed Tang Shun to take good care of him, and he also tried to visit when he could, to let him feel the warmth of the team. Guan Ruyan no longer appeared, and his social media accounts were also completely emptied, leaving no signs of activity. Some people said he went to the United States, as alumni from Nandu Medical University who are in the States saw him. It¡¯s said they saw him delivering food. One time, his delivery was stolen on the street, and he sat down and wept. An alumnus, recognizing that he was Chinese, approached to ask if he needed help. To their surprise, the person turned out to be the once encountered Professor Guan. But the gentleman refused to admit he was Guan Ruyan, kept saying they had mistaken him for someone else, then stumbled away. Regardless, Guan Ruyan had received the punishment he deserved. Principal Ruo took the initiative to resign to take responsibility for this matter, and Professor Su Qingyun was appointed as the president of Nandu Medical University and also held the position of the director of Nandu First Affiliated Hospital. This incident not only impacted Nandu Medical University but also had a profound effect on the entire educational sector, sparking an academic integrity movement throughout the national universities. Some things take time and can¡¯t be accomplished overnight. After chatting with Lu Xiaolu for a while and asking about the current status of the experiments, Lu Xiaolu¡¯s emotions were very stable. He was now almost entirely devoted to scientific research. Ding Xinyu resigned from Nandu Medical University, taking up a position as a teacher at a vocational high school, a choice she made for herself. Lu Xiaolu respected her decision, and he often took the time to visit her and the child, occasionally helping with the child¡¯s homework. In research on tumor cell apoptosis, Yang Ping began to consider a new approach. He wanted to find a suitable virus to hybridize with the K factor, and then inject them into human blood. The blood would carry this special virus throughout the body to seek out tumor cells and kill them. Using viruses as a tool, it has been tried, according to the literature¡ªthe oncolytic viruses are special viruses that operate on this principle, possessing the ability to replicate and a certain ability to kill tumors. The discovery of oncolytic viruses was accidental. At the time, a cervical cancer patient was vaccinated with a rabies vaccine after being bitten by a dog. This vaccine is essentially a modified virus which unexpectedly killed the cervical cancer tumor cells upon entering her body, miraculously curing the patient¡¯s cervical cancer. However, this was a chance event, and afterwards, no one could unravel this mystery, nor unearth anything of value for the treatment of cervical cancer. Nevertheless, this event marked the beginning of the chapter on using viruses to treat tumors. In 1991, Martuza and others published an article in ¡°Science¡± magazine, indicating that genetically modified HSV has a certain effect in the treatment of malignant glioma. Since then, oncolytic virus therapy using HSV has increasingly attracted attention in the medical community. The principle is to genetically modify some naturally occurring viruses with relatively weak pathogenicity, turning them into special oncolytic viruses. They target tumor cells selectively, taking advantage of the inactivation or defect of tumor suppressor genes inside the target cells. Oncolytic viruses infect and replicate massively within tumor cells and eventually destroy them, while also stimulating an immune response to attract more immune cells to help continue killing residual cancer cells. In recent years, research on oncolytic viruses has become increasingly extensive. The most in-depth studied oncolytic viruses include adenoviruses and Type I herpes simplex viruses, which have already entered the clinical trial phase. But so far, there is still no research in the world that combines oncolytic virus with protein factors that initiate apoptosis of tumor cells. Yang Ping plans to start his experiments from this angle. His idea is now very clear: to transform viruses into tools, combine them with K-factor, and then let viruses carrying K-factor infect the targeted tumor cells, replicate and infect continuously, ultimately killing all the tumor cells. However, what kind of virus is suitable for his modification objectives? This virus must have been in existence for a long time so that the human body can adapt to it without causing unexpected reactions. Moreover, the virus must be weak in its therapeutic capacity or, better yet, non-lethal, so as not to harm the human body. M13 bacteriophage! After screening various viruses in his mind, Yang Ping finally determined that the M13 bacteriophage is most appropriate for the K-factor tool. This virus often parasitizes bacteria or exists within the human body without harming it. The M13 bacteriophage has an extremely slender shape, which is a single-stranded DNA packaged inside a cylindrical protein coat with a few different types of proteins at both ends. The whole M13 bacteriophage resembles a miniature, precision machine composed of protein and DNA. The cylindrical bacteriophage¡¯s sides and protein at both ends can adsorb different molecular substances, and different bacteriophages adsorb different molecules. Thus, it¡¯s possible through experimentation to find the most suitable bacteriophage for combining with a particular molecule¡ªfor instance, finding a bacteriophage that can adsorb K-factor. How to find such a specific bacteriophage? The simplest method is to immerse bacteriophages in a beaker containing K-factor, then increase the solution¡¯s acidity to wash away bacteriophages that cannot bind with K-factor. By repeating this process multiple times, the remaining bacteriophages are those that can adsorb K-factor. Of course, this method is the most clumsy, primitive, and simplistic. If one employs cutting-edge genetic engineering techniques and uses genetic engineering to alter the proteins at both ends of the bacteriophage, it is possible to create bacteriophages that can bind different molecules. Moreover, the proteins on the sides of bacteriophages also have adsorption capabilities, which means that using different combinations can create many bacteriophages. The K-factor can be attached to either the ends or the sides, significantly increasing the likelihood of experimental success. Yang Ping wrote down his thoughts on an A4 paper and handed it to Lu Xiaolu. After reading it, Lu Xiaolu was astonished. Professor Yang¡¯s breadth and depth of knowledge were astounding¡ªwho else would break through the barriers between different fields and come up with such a fanciful idea? ¡°Let¡¯s start over with this approach!¡± Yang Ping instructed Lu Xiaolu. Lu Xiaolu felt it was a pity to discard the previous research results: ¡°This means we have to start from scratch. Isn¡¯t this approach too radical?¡± Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°No, realizing a wrong path has been taken and changing direction in time might be a good thing.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll give it a try. In this case, your experiment is precisely in my field of expertise. Back in Germany, I did research on bacteriophages and oncolytic viruses. I remember that a team at Heidelberg University was working on the apoptosis mechanisms of tumor cells, but I don¡¯t know why after so many years, they have not come together to research?¡± Lu Xiaolu was very puzzled. ¡°Some thinking habits are hard to overcome, due to both subjective and objective reasons. The barriers between professions enhance these thinking habits. For instance, the pathogenesis of Castleman¡¯s disease has always been thought to be based on interleukin-6. Much research has been conducted around it, each from different perspectives, and the troubling thing is that everyone seems to see a glimmer of hope, which results in going further and further down the wrong path. No one ever considers that the mTOR signaling pathway might be more correct. It¡¯s like with cars: when everyone¡¯s energy and financial resources are focused on improving engines, very few are researching electric motors, whether subjectively or objectively, it is impossible to change direction,¡± Yang Ping explained to Lu Xiaolu. ¡°That¡¯s why I think it takes a lot of courage for you to change directions now,¡± Lu Xiaolu said. What Lu Xiaolu didn¡¯t know was why Yang Ping could easily start over; it¡¯s because he had an advantage others did not: the experimentation cost in the System Space Laboratory was extremely low. This allowed Yang Ping not to worry about other factors and to proceed as he wished. Chapter 1344 - 1344 1018 Misunderstanding Wife ?Chapter 1344: Chapter 1018: Misunderstanding, Wife! Chapter 1344: Chapter 1018: Misunderstanding, Wife! The Tumor Laboratory is managed by Lu Xiaolu, which gives Yang Ping great peace of mind. Lu Xiaolu¡¯s research field is fundamentally in tumor studies, and indeed, he is a rare talent. The achievements he obtained before were under suppressive conditions, yet now, with his body and mind completely liberated, he is more likely to achieve scientific breakthroughs. After getting off work and returning home, Yang Ping played with his son for a while, changed his diaper, and held him in his arms, talking about the various surgeries performed at the hospital. Surprisingly, the little guy didn¡¯t cry or fuss, instead, he listened with a smile and excitedly kicked around. Xiao Su was working out in the home gym, her postnatal recovery going exceptionally well. Yang Ping¡¯s mother and Mrs. Su were working together in the kitchen cooking, while Professor Su and Yang Ping¡¯s father were having a chat in the living room, seemingly critiquing a war movie. The family got along very harmoniously. One advantage of having the system was the ability to engage in work at any time. After finishing the story for his son and placing him in the crib, the little one blinked sleepily, evidently tired, and soon fell asleep. At that moment, Xiao Su finished her workout. ¡°I¡¯ll watch over him, you take a break,¡± said Xiao Su. ¡°I¡¯ll just take a quick nap right here,¡± Yang Ping replied. Xiao Su knew Yang Ping¡¯s habits well; he liked to use fragmented time for rest, which is why he¡¯s always bursting with energy like an ox. Yang Ping took a quick nap in the bedroom chair, and without hesitation, used the free time to enter the System Space Laboratory. In accordance with the experimental needs, he purchased various equipment from the System Mall, and quickly the hardwares necessary for the experiment were all set up. To employ the M13 Bacteriophage in carrying the K factor, one must first study the structure and function of the M13 Bacteriophage. Only by thoroughly understanding it, can one better modify it, and make it work for oneself. Through the special imaging system of the electron microscope, the M13 Bacteriophage appeared on the electron screen, exhibiting a unique and fascinating form. In terms of morphology, the M13 Bacteriophage appears long and uniform, like a delicate line. The ratio of its length to diameter makes it remarkably conspicuous under the microscope. The shell is composed mainly of the coat protein p8, which is tightly arranged to form the protective layer of the bacteriophage. Under the microscope, one can clearly see these layers of protein structures, orderly arranged, safeguarding the internal genetic materials of the bacteriophage. For the first time, Yang Ping felt that the protein structure of such a microbial assembly was so beautiful, he couldn¡¯t help but marvel at the precision and aesthetic of biology, even more harmonious and beautiful than any man-made machinery. The activity of M13 Bacteriophage is also very characteristic; when they encounter appropriate host cells¡ªsuch as Escherichia coli containing the F plasmid, they display their infective power. Under the microscope, one can observe the M13 Bacteriophage attaching itself to the F pili of Escherichia coli through its minor coat protein p3, marking the first step of infection. Once attached successfully, the M13 Bacteriophage begins to inject its DNA into the host cell. After injecting DNA, the M13 Bacteriophage uses the host cell¡¯s resources to replicate. Under the microscope, one can see changes taking place inside the infected cell, with new bacteriophage particles gradually assembling within the cell. This process is crucial to the lifecycle of the bacteriophage and key to their propagation in nature. It is noteworthy that after infecting the host cell, the M13 Bacteriophage doesn¡¯t cause the host cell to lyse like some bacteriophages would. Instead, they secrete new bacteriophage particles from the infected cells while the host cells continue to grow and divide. This characteristic gives the M13 Bacteriophage a unique value in biological research. However, for Yang Ping, this is not an advantage, but a disadvantage. The electronic screen continues to broadcast the observations of the morphology and activity of the M13 Bacteriophage under the microscope, like an enchanting journey of exploration. Their intricate structure, unique mode of infection, and distinct lifecycle all showcase the marvels of nature and the charm of biodiversity. Just such a simple virus is so exquisite; one can only imagine how incomparably intricate and sophisticated the human body is. Watching the bacteriophages on the screen, Yang Ping was lost in thought, eager to quickly finish the whole experiment. Little did he expect that starting over would open up a whole new world. If they are modified to become killers that can infect tumor cells, they would no longer infect Escherichia coli, but precisely attach to the membranes of tumor cells. Then, through their long filamentous tails, what they inject wouldn¡¯t be just DNA, but DNA and the K factor. Once inside the cell, the K factor initiates apoptosis in the tumor cells while the DNA allows the bacteriophage to replicate and strengthen. If the M13 bacteriophage can be modified according to the targets, it will reveal unique traits. They will no longer be mere parasites, but become ¡°intelligent warriors¡± that actively attack tumors. This process involves precision genetic engineering, enabling these tiny creatures to play a crucial role in the battle against cancer. However, the modification process is bound to be difficult and complex. Modifying the M13 bacteriophage is intricate and precise. First, it¡¯s necessary to determine which genes or proteins need to be modified or added to achieve the anti-tumor effect, which usually involves precise editing of the bacteriophage genome, including the insertion, deletion, or replacement of specific gene segments. But for Yang Ping, it is obviously not that complicated because he has mastered the K factor, which can initiate apoptosis in tumor cells. He just needs to combine the K factor with the adhesion proteins on the surface of the M13 bacteriophage and then make the bacteriophage capable of recognizing and contacting tumor cells. The rest of the work is as easy as following a water channel. For a more sophisticated approach, mix the K factor with the DNA inside the bacteriophage, so that after the bacteriophage infects a tumor cell, it injects the DNA mixed with the K factor into the cell. The K factor can initiate apoptosis in the tumor cell, ultimately killing it. During this process, the DNA can also recycle the cell¡¯s internal material to support the bacteriophage¡¯s own replication and growth. After planning the experiment, Yang Ping left the remaining work to the mechanical arms in the laboratory, letting them continuously modify the bacteriophage, then pair it with the K factor for testing. According to estimates, the M13 bacteriophage could be modified to obtain hundreds of millions of different bacteriophages¡ªto find out which one can bind to the K factor and which one can recognize tumor cells is a huge trial-and-error project. The System Space Laboratory excels in trial and error, and Yang Ping has left this to automated equipment to complete. Stepping out from the System Space, Yang Ping yawned. Dinner was probably not ready. Xiao Su curiously asked, ¡°You only slept for a moment, why do you seem energized like you¡¯ve had a shot of adrenaline?¡± ¡°I was pondering a question,¡± said Yang Ping. ¡°What question?¡± Xiao Su asked curiously. ¡°I was wondering how bacteriophages inject DNA into cells. Their long tails are like thick tubes. When they find a cell they like, they immediately lock on to it, then insert their tail into the cell and powerfully inject the DNA. I¡¯ve been thinking about this the whole time, so the more I think about it, the more excited I get.¡± Yang Ping was indeed contemplating this issue just now. Listening to him, Xiao Su felt something was off in the description. Then, as if realizing something, she balled her fists and punched Yang Ping¡¯s chest. ¡°You really have a lot of energy! After performing surgery all day, you¡¯re still thinking about injecting DNA?¡± ¡°Darling, I really was just thinking about injecting DNA into your body¡ªoh, that came out wrong. I mean, I was thinking about how bacteriophages inject DNA into cells,¡± Yang Ping blurted it out excitedly, mixing his words up. Misunderstanding, darling! My thoughts are pure; I was really thinking about scientific research just now. Chapter 1345 - 1345 1019 Far Ahead ?Chapter 1345: Chapter 1019: Far Ahead Chapter 1345: Chapter 1019: Far Ahead The next day, the topic of conversation at work became extracardiac man, as everyone had gone home and looked up a lot of information, gaining a certain understanding of this disease and its surgery, so the conversation was lively. This learning atmosphere was exactly what Yang Ping wanted, as everyone always maintained a strong curiosity and thirst for knowledge. Yang Ping contacted Professor He at Nandu Medical University and learned that their virtual reality operating room had taken its first step. They used digital human technology to establish a model related to heart surgery. Although the virtual surgery model is still being perfected, it is currently usable, which is perfect for finding and solving issues during use to help perfect the model. Hearing this news, Yang Ping was undoubtedly very happy. Although it was just a step forward, it brought him one step closer to his goal of transferring his System Space Laboratory into the real world. In order to get everyone in touch with the operating room established with virtual reality technology sooner, Yang Ping decided to take the department¡¯s doctors to visit Nandu Medical University and use this extracardiac man case as a test. They would build a virtual body for everyone to practice on. There was no time during the day due to surgeries, but after work in the afternoon, Yang Ping took everyone to the Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory. This laboratory had expanded many times over its original size, thanks to Yang Ping¡¯s strong financial support. Principal Ruo of Nandu Medical University had recently resigned, which Yang Ping felt was a pity. Principal Ruo, in both character and scholarship, was definitely a good leader, but unfortunately had to resign and apologize due to being implicated in the Guan Ruyan incident. The virtual reality operating room was very spacious, equipped with various top-notch global equipment. Establishing a model for a case required cooperation between the doctors and the laboratory researchers, with both parties needing to understand each other¡¯s technical points. Professor He personally explained the relevant knowledge about the VR operating room: ¡°The key to the VR operating room is to construct a highly realistic VR surgery simulation system. Our VR model, though created relatively late, is definitely one of the most advanced in the world, because at the core of the VR operating room is actually the digital human technology, and our digital humans are the world¡¯s most advanced.¡± ¡°Having a universal base model is far from enough. We also need to build specific personalized models, which requires the use of high-resolution 3D modeling technology. For example, like the extracardiac man case you sent over, it requires precise reconstruction of the patient¡¯s heart, sternum, diaphragm, etc. Additionally, the application of a physics engine makes the behavior of objects in the virtual environment highly consistent with that of objects in the real world, including the feel of operating surgical instruments, the elastic feedback of tissues, synchronization with the virtual digital human, and more.¡± ¡°Before the simulation surgery begins, doctors need to input the patient¡¯s CT or MRI data. These data will be used to construct the patient¡¯s specific personalized virtual model. Through data processing and three-dimensional reconstruction, the system can generate a highly precise virtual body of the patient, including all key structures such as the heart, blood vessels, sternum, and diaphragm.¡± Professor Mainshtan had already sent these data to Yang Ping, who had forwarded them to Professor He, and they were actively constructing the model. ¡°After the virtual body is established, doctors also need to set surgical targets and simulation parameters, such as the surgical approach, instrument selection, expected complications, etc. The system will dynamically adjust the simulation environment based on these parameters to ensure the authenticity and specificity of the simulated surgery. Therefore, we must maintain close interaction and cooperation to establish a qualified model.¡± ¡°The simulated surgery begins with the choice of surgical approach!¡± The following work was detailed in documents with Professor He, but as he was not a doctor, he definitely couldn¡¯t explain it professionally, so it had to be left to the doctors to elaborate, which was perfect for researchers to further understand the surgical process. Song Zimo took on the task of explaining the surgical procedure without hesitation, picking up the documents in his hand: ¡°Extracardiac man is a colloquial term; its scientific name is Cantrell¡¯s Pentalogy. The surgery usually requires a combined thoracoabdominal incision to fully expose the heart and surrounding structures.¡± Professor He immediately supplemented with relevant VR knowledge: ¡°In the VR environment, doctors can visually see the field of vision at different incision locations, choose the best surgical approach, and simulate cutting the skin, subcutaneous tissue, and muscle layers with glove-type controllers, exposing the sternal cleft and diaphragm defects. Once the model is built, everyone can try it out, it¡¯s very lifelike, and I¡¯m not bragging.¡± ¡°This is the glove-type controller!¡± A researcher lifted a pair of glove-type controllers to show everyone in sync with Professor He¡¯s explanation. Song Zimo continued: ¡°Next, doctors need to simulate repairing the sternal cleft and diaphragm defects.¡± Professor He took over the conversation in a timely manner, and the two alternated explanations in a smooth collaboration: ¡°In the VR environment, doctors can use virtual sutures and needle holders to stitch according to the predetermined surgical plan. The system will provide real-time feedback on the tightness of suturing and the tension in the tissues based on the doctor¡¯s actions. If the suturing is improper, the system will also issue a warning, prompting doctors to adjust.¡± ¡°Cantrell¡¯s Pentalogy patients often have a variety of cardiac malformations, such as double outlet right ventricle, interatrial septal defect, and interventricular septal defect.¡± ¡°In VR simulation, doctors can deal with these malformations one by one. For example, for double outlet right ventricle, doctors can use virtual scissors and forceps to simulate resection of part of the conal septum and use sutures or patches for repair. The system will show real-time changes in cardiac structure and the impact on hemodynamics based on the doctors¡¯ operations.¡± ¡°After repairing the cardiac malformation, the doctor needs to restore the displaced heart into the thoracic cavity and secure it.¡± ¡°In a VR environment, doctors can simulate the process of moving the heart and simultaneously observe the response of surrounding tissues. Our Digital Human model is capable of simulating almost all physiological processes to date. By adjusting the heart¡¯s position and angle, doctors can ensure that the heart is stably situated within the chest cavity while avoiding compression of surrounding blood vessels and nerves. Finally, doctors need to use virtual sternum plates or sutures to fix the sternum and ribs together, completing the reconstruction of the thorax.¡± ¡°Cantrell¡¯s pentad patients often have associated defects in the midline of the abdominal wall and umbilical hernias.¡± ¡°In VR simulations, doctors can simulate the repair of these defects. First, the doctor needs to resect the hernial sac and excessive abdominal tissues; then, using virtual sutures or patches, the abdominal wall reconstruction is performed. The system provides real-time displays of the repair effects of the abdominal wall defects and the tension state of the abdominal wall based on the surgeon¡¯s maneuvers.¡± ¡°Throughout the entire simulation surgery, the system provides real-time feedback and assessment.¡± ¡°Therefore, the surgical modeling greatly tests the doctor¡¯s understanding of the surgery. Without it, one cannot precisely simulate the real surgical process, especially the accidents and complications that may occur during the surgery. The more thorough and meticulous the consideration, the greater the value of the surgical simulation.¡± ¡°For example, when a doctor simulates suturing, the system will display in real time the tightness of the stitches and the tissue tension; When treating cardiac malformations, the system will show in real time the changes in heart structure and the impact on hemodynamics. This feedback and evaluation help doctors to identify and correct errors in their maneuvers promptly, improving surgical skills.¡± Directors He and Song Zimo, one is responsible for explaining the process of the real surgery, and the other for explaining how the corresponding VR operating room replicates the surgical process. Director He confidently said, ¡°Once our system is fully established, I¡¯m telling you, the training period for surgeons will be reduced to one-tenth of the original. What used to take ten years to achieve, now can be done in one year. The VR surgery simulation system also supports personalized training and data analysis functions. Doctors can choose different difficulty levels of simulated surgeries for practice based on their experience and skill level. The system will automatically adjust the difficulty and complexity of the simulated surgeries according to the doctor¡¯s performance, ensuring the maximization of training effectiveness. By then, practicing surgeries will be like playing a game, a game with much higher technical content than all your Kings and PUBGs.¡± Usually serious Professor He is now talking about Kings and PUBGs, causing all the doctors and researchers in the laboratory to laugh. ¡°I¡¯m not boasting, our system is far ahead. While simulating surgeries, the system will also collect and analyze doctors¡¯ operational data in simulated surgeries, such as surgery time, suture quality, frequency of instrument usage, etc. This data can be used to assess a doctor¡¯s skill level and develop personalized training plans for them. Additionally, these data can also be used to train artificial intelligence algorithms to provide real-time assistance and decision support for doctors in complex surgeries. Isn¡¯t artificial intelligence popular now? Let me give you a top-secret tip¡ªjust keep it to yourselves and don¡¯t spread it around¡ªwe are currently researching artificial intelligence in digital medicine.¡± ¡°We are far ahead in this respect.¡± Professor He was animated and excited. Yang Ping was so persistent in pursuing the establishment of a VR operating room because he knew himself that practicing surgeries in the System Space Laboratory advanced one¡¯s skills exponentially, something that ordinary people simply cannot reach. To replicate the operating room of the System Space in reality, only VR technology can be used, which has significant advantages in simulating surgeries. First, it provides a safe, risk-free practice environment, allowing surgeons to perform surgery practices multiple times without harming patients; second, it improves the precision and success rate of surgeries, helping doctors to identify and correct errors during operations promptly through real-time feedback and assessment; lastly, it fosters the development of personalized training and data-driven medical education. However, VR surgery simulation is not entirely without drawbacks¡ªthe realism of the simulated environment is still limited, unable to replicate all the details and variables of a real surgery completely; the high cost of equipment and the complexity of operation limit its widespread application in primary medical institutions; data security and privacy issues also need to be sufficiently addressed. Yang Ping believes that with continuous technological progress and expanding application fields, VR surgery simulation technology will play an increasingly important role in the field of medicine. In the future, we will be able to use higher-resolution VR devices, more complex surgical simulation software, and intelligent virtual systems. The development of these technologies will further improve the realism and interactivity of VR surgery simulations, providing doctors with a more lifelike and efficient practice environment. ¡°Let me tell you, in the future, VR surgery simulation technology can be combined with other advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. For example, by collecting and analyzing the operational data from simulated surgeries, more intelligent decision-support systems can be trained; through the combination with 3D printing technology, more precise surgical guides and implants can be customized. These combined applications will further promote the development and innovation of surgical technology. These are what we are currently researching¡ªfar ahead!¡± Lastly, Director He said: ¡°Everyone, get familiar with these helmets and gloves. Although our model is not yet completed, even a half-finished model is far ahead of our peers. Next, you can have an early try and experience it. In the system, you will wear VR helmets and glove-style controllers. Through head tracking and gesture recognition technology, real-time interaction with the virtual environment is achieved. The helmet provides an immersive stereo visual experience, making you feel as though you are in a real operating room, and the glove-style controller can precisely capture hand movements, enabling accurate manipulation of surgical instruments.¡± ¡°I can assure you, our technology is far ahead!¡± Director He said excitedly. The doctoral students nearby felt that their mentor was a bit too excited today, using certain phrases a bit too frequently, so they nudged their mentor with their elbow and whispered a reminder, ¡°Stay modest; there¡¯s no need to keep saying we¡¯re far ahead.¡± Although it¡¯s true, the Chinese prefer modesty and a lower profile, not this kind of confident and high-tone. ¡°Oh! Actually, we¡¯re just a little bit ahead, just a little bit.¡± Director He explained, putting on a modest front. Chapter 1346 - 1346 1020 Everyone Gets a System ?Chapter 1346: Chapter 1020: Everyone Gets a ¡°System Chapter 1346: Chapter 1020: Everyone Gets a ¡°System ¡°I¡¯m sure everyone now has a preliminary understanding of the VR operating room, right? Any questions? If not, let¡¯s start experiencing our prototype VR operating room.¡± Director He saw that everyone was eager to try, as it was inevitable for them to be filled with curiosity about their first encounter with this type of VR operating room. This is currently the world¡¯s second real VR operating room, with the first one being in the United States. However, Director He¡¯s VR operating room has now taken the lead, surpassing that of the United States, which is why he sometimes excitedly claims to be far ahead. ¡°No more questions, let¡¯s just experience it.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s talk about any issues after the experience.¡± Everyone urged Director He to cut the chatter and dive straight into the VR experience, with some already communicating with researchers nearby, inquiring about the helmets, glasses, and gloves. ¡°Alright, alright, let¡¯s all start the experience. Everyone find your assigned station, one VR operating room per person.¡± ¡°Our technology can handle multi-tasking mode, currently able to accommodate 45 people undergoing VR surgical training at the same time. Since we don¡¯t have many people here today, everyone can have a go.¡± Director He originally wanted to add the phrase ¡°far ahead¡± to describe the multi-tasking mode, but he swallowed the words before speaking them out loud. He was not like this before, but recently he found himself prone to speaking with a sense of pride. ¡°One-on-one, help our fellow doctors gear up.¡± No sooner had Director He finished speaking than all the doctors, guided by the researchers, found their spots and, with the researchers¡¯ assistance, donned their helmets, glasses, and gloves. Yang Ping also started experiencing the VR operating room along with them. Before the system was activated, the surrounding world was pitch black, and there was beautiful music to be heard in the ears. As the system booted up, gradually, a complete operating room came into view, very clear, and oneself was in the operating room, with the virtual body already lying on the operating table, and beside it was an instrument table. Yang Ping was all too familiar with such a scene, practically spending long hours in it every day. Usually, surgeries were a team effort, with clear roles divided between the chief surgeon and the assistant. But since today was just for experience, everyone was operating solo. Yang Ping reached out for a surgical knife from the instrument table. This knife, in fact, did not exist and was completely virtual. But when Yang Ping picked up the surgical knife, it felt incredibly realistic. This was thanks to the gloves¡¯ powerful sensing and simulation capabilities, which actually simulated all the instruments. Yang Ping held a pair of tweezers in his left hand and the surgical knife in his right, and he gently made a cut on the chest of the virtual body. The skin split open, blood spurting out, the quality of the simulation was very high. He cut through the heart¡¯s surface skin that was exposed, gently used the tweezers to clamp the skin and pull it outwards, revealing part of the heart which throbbed in his field of vision, making a thumping sound. Yang Ping tried making a small incision on the heart with the tip of the knife, and blood immediately jetted out. The blood spurted high and far, designed entirely according to physical parameters of the real world. At this moment, the VR system immediately warned: ¡°Emergency hemostasis!¡± Then it started to report a string of decreasing blood pressure numbers. Yang Ping immediately sutured the small incision he had just made; only after achieving hemostasis did the virtual body¡¯s blood pressure stabilize. However, the operating table was already awash with blood, so much so that even the simulation of the sterile drape was stunningly realistic. Yang Ping continued his experience; whether it was incising or suturing, the simulation was already quite successful, especially the delicate tactile feedback which was almost indistinguishable from reality. Director He¡¯s repeated remarks about being far ahead were not boastful; it was indeed a true lead. Although this was just the beginning, one could foresee that with the continuous refinement of technology, it was certain that an extremely realistic VR operating room could be constructed. Yang Ping had only experienced it for ten minutes. After taking off the glasses and headgear, as well as removing his gloves, he saw that the other doctors were still immersed in the VR surgery, standing there and continuously making movements as if they were seriously performing an actual operation. Technology is truly magical, capable of transferring one¡¯s own operating room in the system space into reality, even though it¡¯s just a rough and simplified version, but this version is already very powerful. Seeing that Yang Ping had stopped operating, Director He immediately approached and asked, ¡°How does it feel?¡± Yang Ping gave him a thumbs up: ¡°Far ahead!¡± Director He blushed with pride: ¡°After the model is perfected, I will help you build a VR operating room like this at Sanbo Hospital, which can accommodate 45 people at the same time. Later, if we improve the computing power of the computers, it will be able to accommodate even more people.¡± Yang Ping lowered his voice, saying: ¡°You should boldly apply for funding. The Research Fund has too much money that is not being fully utilized; we need to use it generously and boldly for research. The mainframe can use a supercomputer, so the next step is to establish a larger supercomputer room to ensure sufficient computing power; without it, it¡¯s not feasible.¡± Director He, seeing that Yang Ping was speaking in a hushed tone, told him, ¡°They can¡¯t hear us talking, we can speak normally. We are also expanding our R&D team, recruiting a large number of talents urgently needed in advanced mathematics, software, hardware, medicine, and other fields. Our team of talents is far from sufficient.¡± ¡°Right, boldly invest money, invest in top-notch talents to achieve breakthroughs,¡± Yang Ping encouraged Director He. In fact, Yang Ping¡¯s Research Fund has a comprehensive oversight system; every penny is transparent and traceable, ensuring that as long as the funds are legitimately used for research, spending one billion or several billion is not a problem. In addition to their salaries, Director He and his team members also received subsidies from the Research Fund, which meant their compensation was very generous. Each person needed not worry about money and could concentrate fully on research. These highly skilled talents received high remuneration and thus had no need to resort to dishonest practices. Moreover, even if they wanted to, they couldn¡¯t, as the supervisory system had no blind spots and independent tripartite supervision, which was thorough. If any misconduct was discovered, they would be banned for life from applying for research funds, with strict penalties enforced. As a result, these researchers had no interest, nor dared, nor were able to engage in any crooked ways, guaranteeing that research funds were fully utilized in meaningful work. Without this strict and transparent monitoring system, no matter how much money the fund had, it would be of no use; it would quickly be squandered. ¡°I am now recruiting talents from all over the world, just like Director Tang,¡± said Director He, whose vision and scope had broadened. Yang Ping advised everyone not to pursue short-termism but to commit to long-termism, starting from the very basics and gradually ascending to the forefront, avoiding the hustle and bustle and avoiding superficial matters. In the initial stages of the Digital Human research, Director He¡¯s team started from the very basics of digital cells, and through continuous accumulation and step-by-step progress, they achieved today¡¯s world-leading Digital Human. Everyone else was still focused on the surgery, and Director He pulled up data on the main screen, clearly displaying everyone¡¯s surgery progress, surgical videos, data monitoring, and a comprehensive analysis of the operation. Yang Ping glanced over to see that Zhang Lin had already restarted the operation five times. The first time, it was game over in less than ten minutes because he accidentally severed the aorta without timely hemostasis, resulting in the virtual body dying from hemorrhagic shock. Xia Shu also restarted three times and is currently on his third surgery. Song Zimo restarted twice, and Xu Zhiliang three times. Watching everyone, each with a ¡°system,¡± gave a great sense of achievement. Chapter 1347 - 1347 1021 VR New Technology ?Chapter 1347: Chapter 1021 VR New Technology Chapter 1347: Chapter 1021 VR New Technology Time slowly passed, and everyone gradually stopped their activities, probably taking a break and getting ready to restart their virtual bodies. Although it was still a semi-finished product, everyone was so engrossed that two hours had passed without anyone thinking of taking off their equipment. Even the usually restless ones were now full of patience. Director He, seeing this scene, felt a great sense of achievement and didn¡¯t mind at all that everyone was spending too much time in the experience. Yang Ping said to Director He, ¡°Should we ask them to stop? I¡¯m afraid it might take too much of your time.¡± Director He happily replied, ¡°It¡¯s fine, let them enjoy themselves. This is how we can improve through practice. It¡¯s only been two hours; such a surgery would normally take at least four to five hours. They haven¡¯t gotten very far, let them complete the surgery.¡± Yang Ping turned to look at the doctors; they were motionless, probably still focused on their surgeries. Yang Ping and Director He continued chatting, and time stretched to a full four hours, yet no one had left the surgery. It seemed that the attraction of this VR operating room was greater than that of video games. ¡°Should we stop them?¡± Director He asked Yang Ping for advice. This time, it was Yang Ping who shook his head, ¡°No need, let them continue.¡± Director He immediately asked a Doctor to contact the cafeteria to bring over some boxed meals so that everyone wouldn¡¯t be hungry after finishing, implying they could play as long as they wanted today without concern of being negligent. Yang Ping and Director He continued their conversation, having endless discussions about digital humans and the VR operating room. ¡°Our team leader for VR technology, earning a yearly salary of twenty million, was recruited from Stanford, USA. This guy is a genius, always quiet and doesn¡¯t talk much, just focuses on his research,¡± Director He explained. The construction of the entire VR operating room was a huge project requiring cooperation across multiple specialties. Therefore, Director He¡¯s laboratory now included many teams, managed in grouped modes, involving specialties like digital humans, VR technology, basic systems, etc. Among them, the VR technology was brought by a Chinese Doctor who was persuaded by Director He multiple times to return from the United States. Initially, this Doctor was reluctant to return to China, but after trying it for a month, he decided to pursue his career back home. Because the research environment here, both software and hardware, was better than in the United States, especially with ample research funding, the strength of the entire team was extremely formidable, particularly as the digital human technology was a global leader in medical VR technology. Initially, the Chinese Doctor was wary of the complex interpersonal relationships in the domestic scientific research community, but after working in Director He¡¯s laboratory, he found that he didn¡¯t need to handle any interpersonal issues, just focus on his research, which suited him very well. ¡°Dr. Yin, what new technology are you researching lately? Could you introduce it to us?¡± Director He asked Dr. Yin, the team leader for VR technology, who was engrossed in programming. Dr. Yin turned his head and smiled naively, ¡°It¡¯s not easy to explain. We are developing an upgraded version of VR technology, just perfected, both software and hardware have been upgraded. Come and see for yourselves.¡± Director He and Yang Ping exchanged glances and then walked over. Dr. Yin handed two sets of VR equipment to Yang Ping and Director He, ¡°Sit down and experience it, and please give us some feedback.¡± Both sat down, donned helmets, glasses, and gloves. System activation! Damn, two scantily clad hot beauties were dancing energetically, and the beauties kept getting closer, the realism was almost terrifying. Close up, one could even see the pores on the girls¡¯ skin. Oh no, the beauties, while dancing, directly sat on the laps of Yang Ping and Director He, one hand reaching out to caress the backs of their hands, the touch feeling very real. The beauties threw a seductive glance, then pulled one strap of their tops aside, preparing to take off their clothes. Yang Ping, frightened, hurriedly removed his glasses, helmet, and gloves. Director He next to him hadn¡¯t budged¡ªcould it be that his version was different? ¡°Professor Yang, how was it? This prototype has never been released before, today was the first time.¡± Dr. Yin asked seriously. This guy, could this be the new technology he mentioned? The content was somewhat not kid-friendly, but the technological content was indeed high; the realism just now was extraordinary, the simulation technology was truly world-leading. ¡°Because the driving CPU was a regular computer, the content was relatively simple. If a supercomputer drives it later on, I can design it very complexly. Professor Yang, I will design all the surgery virtual bodies like this in the future, and then have a dance as a warm-up before and after every surgery. What do you think, will everyone practice tirelessly?¡± Dr. Yin¡¯s expression was serious, there was no trace of joking. ¡°The technology is feasible, but you¡¯ll need to consult with legal experts to see if it¡¯s allowed legally?¡± That was the only way Yang Ping could respond. Dr. Yin pondered and said, ¡°I¡¯ve checked the relevant legal knowledge, and there¡¯s no problem. At least currently, there is no legislation specifically related to VR technology.¡± Why hasn¡¯t Director He shown any signs of removing his helmet yet? Yang Ping glanced at Director He; Dr. Yin said, ¡°This VR session lasts for six hours without repetition, featuring certain story-driven dance sequences, including American bikini series, Japanese uniform series, Chinese series¡ªfor now, only the participants¡¯ hands can interact, because currently, only tactile feedback gloves are available.¡± Dr. Yin, your annual salary of twenty million is indeed well earned. Is Director He planning to appreciate every series before calling it quits? Such dedication? If Yang Ping doesn¡¯t wake Director He soon, something might happen. He immediately patted Director He on the shoulder, but there was no response. ¡°Pause it!¡± Yang Ping immediately ordered Dr. Yin. Dr. Yin immediately shut down Director He¡¯s VR. It took several minutes before Director He finally removed his helmet, glasses, and gloves, his face visibly flushed: ¡°This new technology is not bad; I just took a closer look, and there are some shortcomings¡ª¡± Director He coughed twice, as if formally delivering a report. Yang Ping then looked over at the doctors on the other side. The dozen or so doctors brought today were all males, standing there motionless; they entirely lacked the sense of stopping the experience, an ominous feeling forming in Yang Ping¡¯s mind¡ªwere they really conducting surgery? ¡°Dr. Yin, how¡¯s their progress with the surgery?¡± Yang Ping asked tentatively. Dr. Yin¡¯s computer could also control these training stations. He checked the control software on his computer screen, then slapped his thigh, ¡°Crap, I accidentally clicked the wrong thing, switched their surgery VR to my new technology demo VR?¡± ¡°Your new technology demo VR?¡± ¡°Yes, the dance VR you just experienced.¡± Yang Ping was dumbfounded; no wonder these guys were quiet, not a single one stopped. They had been enjoying the dance the whole time. I wondered why there was no movement for so long. Dr. Yin realized he mixed up the versions, immediately stopped the VR, and one by one they gradually started removing their helmets. Still, no one came out immediately; it took about fifteen minutes before people slowly started coming out, looking exhilarated as if they had been injected with an adrenaline boost, faces flushed. Chapter 1348 - 1348 1022 The Largest Medical Institute in ?Chapter 1348: Chapter 1022: The Largest Medical Institute in the World Chapter 1348: Chapter 1022: The Largest Medical Institute in the World After returning from Nandu Medical University, everyone couldn¡¯t stop thinking about their VR technology, especially after hearing that the hot dance models released later might be the official version of the virtual bodies, the virtual patients for training surgery. These young doctors were so eager that they couldn¡¯t wait to set up the VR operating room. It¡¯s unclear who leaked the news about Nandu Medical University VR operating room¡¯s black technology, but the whole university was buzzing with excitement. Everyone wanted to experience the amazing VR technology and hoped to become beta testers, contributing to the perfection of the VR operating room. The phone at Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory was almost ringing off the hook. Every day, there were numerous calls inquiring about the possibility of becoming beta testers. Money didn¡¯t matter; the key was to contribute to the school¡¯s scientific research, making the researchers leave their phones on their desks for a bit of peace. Professor Yang Ping now thoroughly understands the external heart patient¡¯s case and is very confident about the surgery. He has replied to Mainshtan¡¯s email, telling him to bring the patients to China for the surgery. Mainshtan decided to personally bring his old friend and his granddaughter to China and was eager to meet with Yang Ping. Thus, he began collecting tips for visiting the China Sanybo Hospital in a chat group. [Guys, I¡¯m planning to go to China, any tips?] [There¡¯s an Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish near the hospital, which you must check out. Don¡¯t forget to take a photo with the owner, he will personally pick a fresh good fish for you.] [I heard there¡¯s an old man selling baked sweet potatoes on Sky Bridge, and a couple selling radish and beef offal that is very delicious, also a must-visit spot. But I haven¡¯t been there yet; they weren¡¯t there during my time.] [If you go to the Department of Science and Education, Director Zhou¡¯s English is incomprehensible to all of us, but he indeed speaks English. You can politely remind him to please use Chinese.] [There¡¯s a bulky guy in the emergency department, don¡¯t argue or compete in drinking with him.] [The Waterlily Bread Store¡¯s pastries are super delicious, it¡¯s worth frequent visits. The owner is a patient of the professor, a super classic case, surviving is entirely a medical miracle. Also, due to this classic case, Waterlily Bread Store now sells a human anatomy puzzle set. Just buy one to see the specific puzzle requirements and methods, and after completing the puzzle, you will realize how miraculous and mind-boggling the sequence of the world¡¯s most difficult emergency trauma surgeries can be.] [There¡¯s an old man on the first floor of the Surgical Research Institute, easy to recognize with tape on his glasses. Take a detour when you see him; he often catches people to scold, no matter who you are, as long as you walk past him in a white gown.] [If you smoke, try the classic Chinese brand, Zhonghua cigarettes. Don¡¯t buy them outside; Dr. Liang from the anesthesia department has a lot of them. You can buy from him, it¡¯s cheaper and authentic.] [There¡¯s a hotpot restaurant nearby, the young owner is a blonde. Mention that you¡¯re from Sanbo Hospital, and he will give you the best discount.] [The director of the Sports Medicine Department is my good brother. You can look him up if you need anything, just say you are Robert¡¯s good brother, and he will take care of you.] In the group, Robert, August, Takahashi, Ivan all chimed in, giving plenty of advice to Mainshtan. [If you¡¯re going there to study, remember to buy some milk tea for the nurses, otherwise their Chinese might be difficult to understand.] [Thank you all, I have noted everything. Are there any cultural or social taboos that are easy to overlook and should be paid attention to?] Mainshtan asked. [When you see a young lady, don¡¯t call her ¡°Miss¡± in Chinese, you can call her ¡°Beauty.¡±] [In WeChat, there is DiDi taxi-hailing; you can use it to take a taxi directly to Sanbo Hospital after getting off the plane.] [If you are taking photos, the place you absolutely shouldn¡¯t miss is the entrance to the Surgical Research Institute. Standing there, you will feel a sense of awe, as it is the largest medical research institute in the world, without equal. The sign hanging at the entrance will give you an unprecedented sense of pressure, even if you are a Nobel Prize winner.] Manstein meticulously collected information from the group chat, processed it, and summarized everything in his notebook. Based on the intel provided by other group members, Manstein also created an extremely accurate map of Sanbo Hospital and its surroundings, down to a single tree and where the office of Professor Yang Ping in the Surgical Research Institute and the possible name of the receptionist nurse might be. With comprehensive preparations, after obtaining the visa, Manstein and Brian brought six-year-old Aisha on a flight to China. Professor Yang Ping sent Zimo to pick them up, and after settling them at Sanbo Hotel, Zimo took them to the Surgical Research Institute. Upon arriving at the entrance of the Surgical Research Institute, Manstein stopped in his tracks. He saw dozens of signs hanging on either side of the gate and felt an overwhelming sense of oppression: Surgical Research Institute, Oncology Research Institute, Stem Cells Research Institute, Neurosurgery Research Institute, Cardiac Surgery Research Institute¡ª A dozen signs hung side by side. This was undoubtedly the world¡¯s premier medical research institute, and Manstein, filled with reverence, stared at the dozen signs, deep in thought. This unassuming eight-floor building housed dozens of the world¡¯s top laboratories, where the world¡¯s top doctors were currently working. A mountain does not need to be high; it is spiritual with immortals. A water does not need to be deep; it is spiritual with dragons! Manstein recited this famous saying to himself; of course, it was Robert who had taught him this culturally rich Chinese sentence. The sunlight enveloped the eight-floor building as if gilding the Surgical Research Institute in gold. The Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute ¨C this was the sacred medical site Manstein had longed for day and night, the birthplace of the Spatial Orientation Gene theory, the place where the future of medical history would be rewritten. Manstein entered the lobby with a devout heart, communicating with the reception in fluent Chinese that he had an appointment with Professor Yang Ping. ¡°Professor Manstein?¡± Zimo reminded him. He snapped out of his reverie, thinking, from these signs, one can see how great the gap between him and Professor Yang was. ¡°Can you take a photo for me?¡± Manstein gestured, ¡°Don¡¯t miss any signs in the background, capture them all completely.¡± He solemnly stood at the entrance and took a photo of the sign, then said, ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± The guidance nurse at the reception led them to the elevator. Manstein had memorized the map of the Surgical Research Institute so well that even without Zimo leading the way, he could lead his friends and the little girl all the way to the ward of the Surgical Research Institute. As they passed the nurses¡¯ station, Manstein greeted them boldly with ¡°Hello, beauties!¡± Everything was under his control. Chapter 1349 - 1349 1023 Explaining the Illness with VR ?Chapter 1349: Chapter 1023: Explaining the Illness with VR Chapter 1349: Chapter 1023: Explaining the Illness with VR When Professor Mainshtan first stepped onto Chinese soil, he adopted the posture of a seasoned traveler, trying hard to pose as a regular familiar with the place. His eyes twinkled with curiosity and anticipation, as if with every breath he was attempting to imbibe the novel essence of the land. Upon arriving at the doctor¡¯s office, Professor Mainshtan stood before Professor Yang Ping without knowing who he was since he had never met Yang Ping before. It wasn¡¯t until Song Zimo introduced them that he went up to give Yang Ping a big hug. ¡°I¡¯ve missed you so much!¡± Professor Mainshtan hugged Yang Ping tightly, with his somewhat exaggerated tone of voice. Despite having established a deep friendship through frequent WeChat and email exchanges, this face-to-face meeting was still their first. Yang Ping was taken aback by this sudden display of enthusiasm, being hugged so tightly by Professor Mainshtan that he could hardly breathe, he could only pat him on the shoulder, while Song Zimo hurriedly said, ¡°Alright, introduce your friend.¡± ¡°This is Mr. Brian, my good friend.¡± Professor Mainshtan released Yang Ping and turned to introduce an elderly German man and a little girl who were following along behind him. The little girl¡¯s attire was particularly eye-catching; she was wearing a specially made vest, not ordinary clothing but a protective cover designed to shield her exposed heart. This scene couldn¡¯t help but evoke a surge of sorrow and pity in Professor Yang Ping upon this first encounter. ¡°Hello!¡± Mr. Brian shook hands with Professor Yang Ping politely, his eyes filled with gratitude and expectation. Professor Brian¡¯s research field was in basic medical science, but for his granddaughter¡¯s treatment, he taught himself a great deal of knowledge in cardiac surgery, becoming somewhat of a theoretical cardiac surgeon. Professor Yang Ping escorted Aisha, Professor Mainshtan, and Mr. Brian to a ward¡¯s examination room, where he inquired in detail about the medical history and conducted a thorough examination of Aisha, including a detailed cardiac auscultation, to acquire firsthand clinical data. After these tasks were completed, Professor Yang Ping quickly arranged for the on-duty doctor to process the hospital admission procedures for the little girl, Aisha. In the doctor¡¯s office, Professor Yang Ping explained Aisha¡¯s condition in detail to Mr. Brian. Over the years, Mr. Brian had visited renowned doctors to find a glimmer of hope for Aisha¡¯s rebirth. He had taken her to the United States to consult an experienced surgeon in this type of surgery. Yet, after a thorough examination, the American doctor regretfully shook his head, indicating that the surgery had virtually no chance of success and he could not take on such a risk. This setback had once again plunged Mr. Brian¡¯s heart into the abyss. It wasn¡¯t until Professor Mainshtan told him that China¡¯s Professor Yang Ping might have the capability to operate on Aisha, that a spark of hope was once again ignited in his heart. ¡°Professor Yang, can Aisha undergo surgery?¡± Mr. Brian asked worriedly. He asked the same question of many doctors before and the answer he received was always, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, the surgery cannot be performed.¡± Therefore, this time, Mr. Brian was very afraid of getting the same response. After contemplating Aisha¡¯s imaging, Professor Yang Ping¡¯s earnest expression eased, ¡°No problem, surgery is viable.¡± Mr. Brian sighed in relief, while Professor Mainshtan¡¯s face showed a proud expression, as if saying to Brian: See, I¡¯ve done you a great favor. Didn¡¯t I tell you Professor Yang could be the chief surgeon for Aisha¡¯s operation? Brian turned his head gratefully towards Mainshtan, then said to Yang Ping, ¡°Thank you!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s complete the pre-surgical checks and arrange the surgery as soon as possible. The process is very complex and the surgical risks are substantial. Mr. Brian, if you are interested, we can use VR technology to simulate the entire procedure, showing you exactly how the surgery will be done and the risks it involves. The VR operating room is our powerful assistant,¡± Yang Ping said to Brian and Mainshtan. To demonstrate the surgical plan more vividly and boost Brian¡¯s confidence, Yang Ping decided to invite Mainshtan and Brian to the Digital Medical Laboratory at Nandu Medical University. He planned to use the VR operating room to explain the details of Aisha¡¯s surgery. Brian¡¯s eyebrows lifted immediately, ¡°I would very much like that. Last April, when I went to lecture at Cleveland State University, the researchers told me that they were going to scrap the traditional anatomy labs. Medical students will no longer learn anatomy around cadavers; instead, they will be replaced by VR technology-based anatomy laboratories. In October, I visited Fundamental VR in the United Kingdom. With advanced VR technology, they established an anesthesia simulation system. Young doctors no longer need to nervously demonstrate their still immature skills on real people. Instead, they connect the specially developed software to a stylus. Under the VR view, this stylus becomes a syringe; click one button and the syringe empties, another, and it will refill with the injectate. As the operator moves the stylus in the real world, the virtual syringe replicates the motions. When the virtual needle pierces into the virtual body, different tactile responses are fed back to the operator through the stylus, making them feel the reactions of a real body, as if truly performing an anesthesia puncture. Their tactile feedback system can accurately simulate the sensation of the needle passing through skin, fascia, bones, and other different tissues.¡± Mr. Brian couldn¡¯t stop talking about the VR operating room once it was mentioned. He was eager to see what Yang Ping¡¯s VR operating room was like and, more so, to see what Aisha¡¯s surgery would be like and what unexpected situations might arise under VR. At this moment, the office of the Surgical Research Institute had already gathered many people. Mainshtan and Brian were both Nobel Prize laureates; everyone wanted to come see the world-famous medical figures, especially as Mainshtan was a versatile player in the field of medicine who achieved significant research results in multiple areas of clinical and basic medicine. However, the doctors and nurses at the Surgical Research Institute seemed not quite as enthusiastic. From the moment Mainshtan and Brian entered the department, there was no noticeable gathering of people¡ªthe staff continued with their own work, appearing much more generous. The purpose of using VR technology to explain the illness was not only to communicate the condition better but also to showcase the digital medical techniques of Nandu Medical University to the two international guests, to attract them to participate in the usage of Nandu Medical University¡¯s digital technology and to push new technology globally, gaining sufficient influence. In the academic field, being powerful means not only leading in technology but also actively integrating into the world, maintaining close communication and cooperation with it, and ultimately becoming a rulemaker. Strength behind closed doors is hard to sustain and will eventually be phased out. When Professor Mainshtan heard that Professor Yang owned his own VR virtual operating room, his interest was instantly stoked. He couldn¡¯t wait to witness for himself what unique features this VR operating room, viewed by Yang Ping as a powerful assistant, truly possessed. PS: There is no abandonment, it¡¯s just that I¡¯ve been really busy recently and have had no time to update. Thank you, everyone. Chapter 1350 - 1350 1024 The Most Intuitive Surgery ?Chapter 1350: Chapter 1024 The Most Intuitive Surgery Explanation Chapter 1350: Chapter 1024 The Most Intuitive Surgery Explanation Soon, two Nobel Prize winners came to Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory with the mindset of seeing the world. The presence of two Nobel Prize recipients in the laboratory, who were not there to give lectures but to experience the VR Operating Room, made not only the whole laboratory but also the entire Nandu Medical University boil with excitement. What power attracted these laureates, one of whom was the renowned Manstein? Manstein has a very significant reputation in the field of medicine; in people¡¯s minds, he is practically a godlike figure. Once the news spread, a lot of people gathered at the Digital Medical Laboratory, hoping to catch a glimpse of such a godlike person. As soon as Yang Ping and his guests alighted from their vehicle, they headed directly to the laboratory. Professor He, with several doctors, was already waiting at the entrance. The academic respect for academics is very pure. Director He also understood Yang Ping¡¯s intention: to use this opportunity to promote Nandu Medical University¡¯s digital medical technology to the world and hope to lead the standards in this field, as commanding the international norms is the ultimate authority in any sphere. Upon reaching the VR Operating Room, there was no idle chit-chat. Everyone went straight to the point, taking their places, donning VR helmets, glasses, and gloves. Director He initiated the VR Operating Room system. The Virtual Body lay on the Operating Table, with its heart¡¯s surface blood vessels bulging, and the heart throbbed vigorously in front of them. ¡°This is the Virtual Aisha created using VR technology. Look, this is modeled using her original diagnostic data. The level of realism achieved is very high; currently, no other team in the world can achieve this level of realism,¡± Yang Ping explained as he began to prepare. Manstein and Brian looked down at the Virtual Body, which appeared even clearer than in reality because in the VR world, it seemed like the observer¡¯s vision was greatly enhanced, being able to see the skin¡¯s textures and pores clearly. ¡°You can try touching it,¡± suggested Yang Ping to Brian. Brian cautiously extended a finger and gently pressed it against the exposed surface of the heart, finding the tactile sensation very lifelike, which surprised him. Brian had a considerable understanding of VR technology, having deeply visited laboratories in the United States and United Kingdom. He had been profoundly shocked by the technology of those laboratories, especially the tactile feedback technology, and thought that they represented the pinnacle of the world¡¯s VR technology. However, the Virtual Body in front of him now was even more realistic; the touch he just felt with his finger was incredibly delicate, almost deceivingly real. ¡°You can try cutting into it,¡± Yang Ping handed a Surgical Knife to Brian. Holding the Virtual Surgical Knife, Brian hesitated due to its lifelikeness, unable to discern real from fake, he was afraid to proceed. ¡°She is a Virtual Body, don¡¯t be afraid, boldly cut into it and see what the heart looks like beneath the skin,¡± encouraged Yang Ping. Alright, I¡¯ll try. With guidance from Yang Ping, Brian began to gently slice the skin, which split under the knife; small blood vessels and capillaries were severed, blood oozed out, with some small arteries starting to spurt blood. ¡°The establishment of the Virtual Body relies on advanced Digital Human Technology, and our Digital Human simulation has reached the cellular level. The VR experience you are having now is the world¡¯s top-notch Digital Human Technology, unrivaled,¡± said Yang Ping as he used gauze to press down on the edges of the incision, then used the Virtual Electrosurgical Unit to stop the bleeding. Everything is just like the real thing, with the electric knife coagulating the blood vessels, accompanied by sizzling sounds and faint smoke rising, then the blood vessels are blocked, stopping the bleeding. ¡°Our modeling is very complex, considering millions of parameters, this is a simulation of Aisha¡¯s anatomy, I can demonstrate the entire surgery process to you, you can understand how this surgery is performed, the risks we face, and how we should resolve problems once they arise.¡± Yang Ping took the surgical knife from Brian¡¯s hand and continued the surgery. ¡°Is the bleeding from the blood vessels completely based on the caliber and pressure of the blood vessels in this part of the human body? Including the coagulation time, is it also designed according to the physiological standards of the human body?¡± Brian curiously said, not knowing if this simulation was an actual simulation or merely represented an existence without considering the details. Yang Ping began dissecting the pericardium, exposing the heart: ¡°These are just our most basic technologies for Digital Humans; almost all human physiological functions can be realized here. In the future, any human experiment can be done in the virtual laboratory. With the computing power of supercomputers, we can simulate certain changes in the human body on a scaled basis in a virtual environment, turning what would have previously taken ten years into just a few moments.¡± My goodness, what a concept, this is the virtualization, high-speed, and simulation of human experiments. Once realized, this will be groundbreaking, such as in the field of pharmaceutical research, it would be revolutionary. What now takes laborious decades of data collection could be completed in minutes using Digital Human technology, collecting data directly. ¡°A top-notch VR simulated human body needs three aspects: advanced digital human technology, advanced imaging technology, and the analysis and reconstruction of imaging. None of these can be missing. Our digital human technology is the world¡¯s first to achieve functional human construction, and our imaging analysis and construction model are also the world¡¯s most advanced. Look, this is Aisha¡¯s heart, the anatomical structures between the pericardium and myocardium, our simulation is spot on because our model considers more parameters, other VR simulated human models compared to ours can only be described as toys.¡± Yang Ping had already cut open the pericardium, revealing the heart to Brian for him to see what his granddaughter¡¯s heart was really like. This VR simulated scene has an immersive effect, absolutely incomparable to mere imaging. ¡°Look, this is Aisha¡¯s heart, it must be moved inside the thoracic cavity, and along with all the associated malformations, which we must correct too.¡± Yang Ping pointed out the heart to Brian. Brian gently touched the beating heart, retracting his hand immediately because it felt too real under his fingertips, almost like it was really real. ¡°Patients with Cantrell¡¯s pentalogy usually have multiple cardiac malformations, such as double outlet right ventricle, interatrial septal defects, interventricular septal defects, midline abdominal defects, umbilical hernias, etc., all of these malformations must be corrected, just as you see now, this heart not only has positional anomalies but structural malformations as well, and we must make it completely normal.¡± Yang Ping continued the surgery while explaining to Brian, with Manstein acting as a temporary assistant. Using VR technology, demonstrating Aisha¡¯s heart surgery once, without much talking, just explaining a few key steps, Brian understood everything. He had taken Aisha to almost every possible hospital in the world, including the best in the United States, but no doctor had ever explained the illness to him like this. He now understood that the hospitals he had been to were not the best in the world, but the hospital in China he had come to now is the best. Yang Ping¡¯s hands were very agile, the surgical movements were stable, accurate, and swift, letting Brian experience the unique surgical style of Eastern people for the first time. ¡°Now we need to implement cardiac arrest, the method is to inject a virtual arresting solution, and then use a virtual extracorporeal circulation in the virtual environment.¡± Yang Ping paused his surgical knife. Manstein asked: ¡°Do you also have virtual cardiac arrest technology? Virtual cardiac arrest fluid.¡± ¡°Yes, its essence is a program module.¡± Yang Ping began injecting the arresting solution. Chapter 1351 - 1351 1025 Did the Thanks Get Reversed ?Chapter 1351: Chapter 1025: Did the Thanks Get Reversed? Chapter 1351: Chapter 1025: Did the Thanks Get Reversed? In the VR virtual world, every virtual object is a program module. This program module utilizes human senses such as vision, touch, and hearing to shape the physical object in the real world. This is the underlying principle of all virtual reality technology. The construction of the program¡¯s foundation and its connection with the senses, each step carries a high technical content. The first step is fundamental and determines the top level of the second step. Nandu Medical University¡¯s Digital Human Technology is the foundation of the first step, and relying on this strong foundation, it is possible to develop the advanced VR Operating Room we have now. Professor Yang Ping, assisted by Manstein, completed the entire VR Surgery. After the surgery was smoothly done, Professor Brian also breathed a sigh of relief. He personally witnessed the whole process of his granddaughter¡¯s surgery and was very shocked ¨C both at the high difficulty of the surgery and the superb VR technology. After immersively observing the entire surgery process, Professor Brian also established his confidence; he had found the right Chief Surgeon this time. Taking off his helmet and glasses, Brian hugged Yang Ping tightly: ¡°Professor Yang, it was astonishing. Aisha has hope now, thank you, thank you.¡± Turning his head, Brian also embraced Manstein, shaking his shoulders: ¡°I¡¯m so grateful to you. Without you, Aisha would have never had the chance to be saved. My good friend, I am so thankful.¡± The complexity of the human body is beyond imagination. Although no Digital Human Technology can fully simulate the human body, it can continue to come closer. On this trip to China, Brian had no choice but to refresh his understanding of China. He had always thought of China as a dirty, chaotic, and poor country, and the newspapers, television, and internet were full of various negative propaganda. This deep-rooted notion easily formed a biased impression. So when Manstein recommended Yang Ping¡¯s research achievements to him, Brian was even unwilling to take a serious look and jumped to the conclusion that it was fake. Later, when Manstein recommended Yang Ping to perform the surgery on Aisha, he was also unwilling to believe. If doctors in Europe and the United States could not do it, how could a Chinese doctor possibly succeed? However, because it was Manstein¡¯s recommendation, Professor Brian decided to give it a try. Now, having personally experienced this VR Surgery, Brian can assert that this is the world¡¯s most advanced digital medical technology. At this moment, Brian felt regret and a trace of jealousy. He realized how great the damage of misunderstanding could be ¨C he almost delayed his granddaughter¡¯s treatment and nearly missed a groundbreaking scientific research achievement. Subsequently, Manstein and Brian visited the laboratory, gaining a deeper understanding of the laboratory¡¯s technical points and the team. Moreover, through this understanding, Brian gained more knowledge about China and the Chinese. If he knew that Mr. Karen¡¯s surgery was also led by Yang Ping, Brian would certainly have been even more shocked. The Karen Family is the largest in Sweden, with Sweden as their base of operations and influence extending across the globe, regarded as one of the greatest families in Europe. The supporters behind Yang Ping¡¯s research fund include the Karen Family, as they and the Duke Family of Germany are the main European supporters of the foundation. Manstein¡¯s companion with Brian on this trip to China was not only for little Aisha¡¯s surgery ¨C he didn¡¯t need to personally accompany Brian as a phone call would have sufficed. Manstein had another important purpose: to bring Brian to China to broaden his horizons, to remove the rust from his rigid mind, and to understand the greatness of China. He is an influential figure in the Nobel Prize Committee. ¡°Professor Yang, can we learn about the funding support for this laboratory? I think Mr. Brian would be very interested,¡± Manstein immediately suggested. Professor Yang Ping did not decline, as classified information remained confidential while the rest was open. The foundation¡¯s information was public and transparent, so he immediately asked Director He to arrange the visit. Director He had a doctoral student retrieve the funding documents, and once everyone sat down, he introduced them, saying, ¡°Besides state support, our experimental funding mainly comes from Professor Yang¡¯s Research Fund. For this project, the foundation has already contributed hundreds of millions of dollars. As you see, this is the main funder, Professor Yang Ping¡¯s foundation, which, to be frank, accepts investments from all over the world, such as from the Karen Family of Sweden.¡± ¡°The Karen Family?¡± Brian was very surprised. ¡°That¡¯s right. The Karen Family is a long-term and fixed funding provider for our foundation, and their sponsorship is completely unconditional and voluntary,¡± Song Zimo, who had been standing nearby, immediately explained. It was incredible that the Karen Family would provide funds for them, given their high status in the hearts of Swedes. ¡°We have a collection of acknowledgments from the foundation here. Have a look.¡± Director He instructed the doctoral student to bring the acknowledgment collection since every research group funded by the Yang Ping Foundation kept a copy to recognize their benefactors. The doctoral student brought over the collection, and as Director He flipped through it, Brian took a look and saw Mr. Karen¡¯s bilingual signature in English and Swedish: ¡°We are extremely grateful to the Yang Ping Foundation for the precious opportunity and express our sincere appreciation.¡± The acknowledgment seemed reversed; such thanks were typically from the funding recipients to the donors. Now it was the donors who seemed grateful to the recipients, as if pleading for the chance to donate money. Clear and unambiguous, the acknowledgments were written in both English and Swedish, leaving no room for misunderstanding or ambiguity. ¡°Professor Yang¡¯s foundation has very strict requirements for donors. Although many people line up to donate, few get the chance. So, of course, the donors are thankful to our Professor Yang for such a valuable opportunity,¡± Manstein added, noticing Brian¡¯s confusion and providing an explanation. The fact that the Karen Family had to queue up for the opportunity to donate indicated that the world had indeed changed. ¡°That¡¯s not really it; we just don¡¯t need that much money right now, so there has to be some order among all these donors. Otherwise, if everyone were to donate at once, it could lead to significant waste,¡± Professor Yang Ping modestly informed Mr. Brian. Mr. Brian nodded his head. He also noticed donations from the German Duke¡¯s fund, which belonged to a powerful and ancient family from Germany, almost a dominant presence in Europe and America, with many core industrial enterprises in the United States under the Duke Family¡¯s control. It appeared that this young doctor was indeed remarkable; otherwise, the usually proud Manstein wouldn¡¯t have been so humble. After the visit, Director He played host and invited everyone to dine at Nandu Medical University. Manstein immediately expressed his desire to collaborate with Director He, requesting the use of Director He¡¯s Digital Human Technology for some research, and Brian also followed suit, hoping to cooperate with Director He¡¯s laboratory to conduct research utilizing Digital Human Technology. PS: I¡¯ve been too busy lately and not updating well, but I should be able to stabilize the updates soon. Thank you, everyone. Chapter 1352 - 1352 1026 0 and 100 ?Chapter 1352: Chapter 1026: 0 and 100% Chapter 1352: Chapter 1026: 0 and 100% During the meal, Yang Ping also invited Su Nanchen and his spouse over, since wherever in the world, networking is extremely important. Yang Ping must expand the network for his elder cousin. As a scholar, having top-level professional contacts allows for timely information exchange and avoiding detours; this is crucial in the field of scientific research. Not only did he invite Su Nanchen and his spouse, but Yang Ping also invited all the young talents from Nandu Medical University to join them for dinner, providing them the opportunity to maintain close contact with world-class scholars and expand their horizons. Relying on reading papers to grasp the forefront of professional development has a severe lag. If a piece of research has already been published, it indicates at least an interim achievement, not that it has just begun or is ongoing. Scientific and technological exchanges are necessary to keep ahead. Similarly, for Professor Brian and Manstein, they too wish to maintain close contacts with these Chinese scholars, to ensure communication in the academic field. Even as Nobel Prize winners, they cannot guarantee that they are always at the forefront of global academic research; achievements only represent the past, not the present. Professor Brian¡¯s visit to Nandu Medical University not only increased his confidence in his granddaughter¡¯s surgery but also led him to reevaluate and respect the current level of scientific research in China, changing his previously outdated impressions. Thorough communication can eradicate prejudices. Next, Yang Ping began preparing for Aisha¡¯s surgery. Because the surgery is highly difficult and risky, all pre-surgery checks must be meticulous and thorough to prevent any mission-critical information from being overlooked, which could lead to disastrous consequences. While waiting for the surgery, Professor Brian often wandered around the hospital, while Manstein did not have time to join him; he was too busy. He was actively involved in preparing for Aisha¡¯s surgery and also took this opportunity to have a confidential talk with President Huang, the chairperson of the Yang Ping wedding committee, in addition to contributing a solo performance; he had prepared a secret, major program as a gift for Yang Ping. This was also a significant reason for Manstein¡¯s visit to China. Unlike Manstein, who was familiar with China, Professor Brian was completely new to the country. Although not a doctor, he was also a graduate from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, focusing primarily on basic medical research in human immunology after graduation. Thus, Professor Brian was very interested in the development of medicine in China and naturally would not pass up the opportunity to observe and study various aspects of Chinese hospitals. Since Manstein had no time to accompany him, he wandered alone across Sanbo Hospital, whether it was the outpatient lobby, the surgery building, or the internal medicine building, everywhere was bustling with people, which he found unusual. Such sights were impossible in Sweden. Sweden, with its territory of over 400,000 square kilometers and a population of just over ten million, rarely experiences such crowded scenes, which is not surprising. Moreover, Sweden¡¯s tiered medical system prevents ordinary patients from seeing specialists directly. The first contact for ordinary patients is with the family doctor, the clinic¡¯s general doctor. Specialty hospitals do not have a general outpatient service; all patients must be referred by family doctors in a tiered process. Top specialists also do not run general outpatient services, so ordinary patients cannot just visit specialty hospitals or see doctors anytime. The only way for patients to see a specialist is through appointments made by their family doctor; this process is lengthy, averaging over seventy days. Ordinary patients visit the specialty hospital as per their appointment without the rights to choose their doctor; the hospital arranges it. Of course, it is different for the wealthy; they can enjoy services far beyond basic medical care, such as private hospitals and private wards. They have enough money to facilitate their process without waiting and even choose their doctors. Initially, Professor Brian was very repelled by the noisy and chaotic scenes, feeling that the medical experience was poor. However, gradually, he realized that such scenes represented the greatest freedom and equality in medical services. Although not perfect, they ensured the maximum equitable usage of medical resources. Of course, compared to Sweden¡¯s tiered appointment system, the experience here was not great, but patients did not have to endure long waiting times like in Sweden; they could quickly see doctors, get diagnosed, and complete treatments. The more he learned, the more interested Professor Brian became in China¡¯s hospitals. He wandered around, trying to talk to people to gather some valuable information. He went to the outpatient department of the Surgical Research Institute. Knowing he was a Nobel Prize winner, everyone treated him with great respect, and he was very polite in return, greeting everyone he met. Although Professor Brian¡¯s mother tongue was Swedish, his usual working language was English, so his proficiency in English was almost as good as his native language. At the outpatient department, Professor Brian met Zhang Lin, who greeted him in English. Delighted to encounter someone who spoke English, Professor Brian immediately started chatting with Zhang Lin, keen to learn about the outpatient service here since he was curious about everything. Zhang Lin was escorting a few students and felt it was time to show off his English skills. He confidently said a lot in English, which sounded fluent and correct, but Professor Brian did not understand a single word. Chapter 1353 - 1353 1026 0 and 100_2 ?Chapter 1353: Chapter 1026: 0 and 100%_2 Chapter 1353: Chapter 1026: 0 and 100%_2 The utterly confused Brian could only tell Zhang Lin, ¡°Can you communicate with me in English?¡± I was speaking English, damn it, he didn¡¯t understand a word, such an embarrassment. Zhang Lin stood awkwardly in front of the students while the students around him stared at him in unison, wondering why the foreigners couldn¡¯t understand Teacher Zhang¡¯s English. ¡°He¡¯s speaking Swedish,¡± Zhang Lin explained to the students before finding an excuse to make a crestfallen retreat with them. Zhang Lin himself couldn¡¯t figure it out. He had passed the College English Test-6, meticulously studied according to textbooks, so why was it that when he faced a real foreigner, his English didn¡¯t cut it? Before, he never realized this because he had always communicated with Robert in Chinese. On the contrary, Professor Zhang Zongshun¡¯s Chinglish could actually be understood by Brian without any barrier. Brian simply moved a chair and sat in Professor Zhang¡¯s consulting room, listening in as he saw patients. When Brian learned that Professor Zhang, at the venerable age of eighty, could see over forty patients in one morning, he was astounded. In Sweden, not to mention such a senior expert, even an ordinary clinic doctor sees at most 10-15 patients per day, while senior specialists at top specialist hospitals might only see four or five booked patients per day, two or three in a morning at the most. This includes the doctors¡¯ break times; after seeing each patient, they need to drink coffee, listen to music, get some relaxation, before they continue seeing the next patient. This doctor, over eighty, seeing more than forty patients in one morning¡ªif Brian hadn¡¯t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn¡¯t have believed it was true, for it was simply beyond his comprehension. How terrifying a lack of understanding can be. Brian once mentored a Chinese doctor who was also a doctoral student. Brian often asked him about medical affairs in China. When the doctor said that Chinese doctors often see over a hundred patients a day, Brian no longer wanted to communicate with him, even harboring a strong dislike, because he thought the Chinese doctor was dishonest and deceitful. Now, he felt he owed that doctor an apology. Full of vitality, filled with infinite possibilities. That was Brian¡¯s assessment of China after observing it for a few days. Aisha¡¯s surgery was finally ready, and Brian concluded several days of overt and covert investigation. Now, he needed to focus on his granddaughter¡¯s surgery. Mr. Brian was arranged to be in the demonstration room where Manstein accompanied him using video to observe the surgery, so he could grasp the entire process. This was to prevent Brian from pacing anxiously outside the operating room, which Manstein hated the most when people paced back and forth in front of him. Aisha¡¯s surgery was ready, and due to the high difficulty of the operation, any slightest carelessness could have severe consequences; therefore, Yang Ping was the chief surgeon. The incision was the signature One-Stroke Flow technique¡ªthe surgeon¡¯s knife gently slid across, like a breeze over the leaves, from the center of the chest down to the upper abdomen. The surgery required opening up the entire chest and upper abdomen to complete the entire operation. The skin over the exposed heart was cut open with a single stroke, revealing the heart inside like ripe fruit, though it was still wrapped in the pericardium. Yang Ping then carefully opened the pericardium, exposing the entire heart¡ªthe human body¡¯s engine¡ªin front of everyone, with Yang Ping needing to service and possibly relocate this engine. The bare heart, beating on the screen, delivered an extremely strong visual impact, creating a sensation for those who had never seen a real surgical operation, far exceeding the visual effect crafted in blockbuster movies. Brian stood up involuntarily when he saw the beating heart on the screen. Manstein, holding a remote control that could switch and zoom the screen image, immediately magnified the picture of the heart to fill the entire screen for a close-up. So shocking! It was Brian¡¯s first time witnessing a heart throbbing right before his eyes. At this moment, he felt the impact of life itself. ¡°This is the human body¡¯s life force¡ªthe heart. First time seeing this kind of image, right? If the heart stops beating, it means the end of life.¡± ¡°In a while, we will make the heart undergo Cardiac Arrest, then after completing the surgery, we will make it beat again. The operation is quite thrilling.¡± ¡°Did you bring blood pressure medication and angina relief medicine?¡± Manstein, next to him, served as the commentator for his old friend, and the shocking images complemented by professional commentary accelerated Brian¡¯s heartbeat. When Brian previously practiced VR-simulated surgery in the Nandu Medical University Digital Medical Laboratory, it was just a game without any real consequences; Brian not only had no psychological burdens but was actually brimming with the joy of experiencing VR technology. But now, the surgery on the screen is not a game, it¡¯s his granddaughter¡¯s actual surgery. Should any accident occur, it¡¯s not a matter of simply ¡°Game over¡±; it would mean the loss of a vibrant life. The lively heart throbs rhythmically, its vigorous pulsations a sign of life. Brian slowly sits back in his seat, calming his tense nerves. Manstein restores the video to its default size to view the full course of the operation. After exposing the heart, Yang Ping protects it with moist saline solution, then begins to open the sternum from the center of the chest. Using the incision in the sternum as the entrance, he employs a retractor to spread the entire thoracic cavity open. In the space of the left thoracic cavity that should enclose the heart, there is only a lobe of lung; the original location for the heart is eerily empty, nothing there. ¡°That¡¯s where the heart belongs, but it has been wandering outside, roaming for six years. Now, it can finally return home, but the journey is fraught with unknown dangers. Let¡¯s wait and see,¡± Manstein narrates each frame slowly. ¡°Thank you, but your commentary style is making me even more anxious,¡± Brian says, taking a breath. Beneath the left lung, the space is empty, of course, filled with some loose connective tissue. Yang Ping cleans out these useless tissues and proceeds to trace the main blood vessels from the base of the heart. He searches for the course of the aorta and the vena cava. This is not difficult, and Yang Ping quickly isolates the aorta and the vena cava, following them down below the diaphragm. The clinical name for ectopia cordis is Cantrell Pentalogy. The surgical correction of such deformity is something several hospitals in China can accomplish well, but in cases of severe Cantrell Pentalogy like Aisha¡¯s, almost no surgeon dares to be the chief operator unless they are prepared for the patient¡¯s certain demise. The seemingly simple task of ¡°returning the heart¡± home requires extremely high technical skills. Soon, all the surgical targets are fully exposed, clear to everyone. The chief surgeon, like an organizing expert, neatly lays out various disordered items for everyone present to see. The next part of the surgery is a major undertaking: to correct the deformities of the heart, then to cut the major blood vessels and move the free heart back into the thoracic cavity¡ªits original home. With the injection of the arresting solution, Aisha¡¯s heart ceases beating, and her brain and body rely on extracorporeal circulation for maintenance. Brian is shocked, unavoidably breaking into a sweat because the cessation of the heartbeat, even temporarily, signifies a reversible ¡°death¡± state from a physiological standpoint. ¡°What would happen if the surgery fails or the heart cannot be restarted?¡± Brian can¡¯t help but ask. ¡°Death,¡± Manstein replies calmly. ¡°How likely is that?¡± ¡°Although it¡¯s an event with an extremely low probability, when applied to Aisha, it¡¯s a matter of existence or nonexistence, a difference between 0 and 100%, with no in-between,¡± Manstein explains. Hearing Manstein¡¯s commentary, Brian is now extremely tense. ¡°Buddy, could you switch to a more optimistic style of commentary?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m a scientist. I must respect the objective facts,¡± Manstein answers. The heart¡¯s major blood vessels have been severed, effectively making the heart a detached organ. Now it¡¯s time to place the heart back into the thoracic cavity and reattach it. PS: Sorry, I have been studying abroad in Robert¡¯s hospital. I have now returned and can update regularly. Thank you, everyone! Chapter 1354 - 1354 1027 Popcorn ?Chapter 1354: Chapter 1027: Popcorn Chapter 1354: Chapter 1027: Popcorn Aisha¡¯s heart has been completely mobilized and is now held in Yang Ping¡¯s hands, as Yang Ping prepares to incise the heart to reshape its interior structure, which is akin to repairing the internal structure of an engine. At this moment, Manstein seizes the opportunity to zoom in on this scene, and Brian is so frightened that sweat breaks out on his forehead. He has never witnessed such a scene before, holding a living person¡¯s heart in the palm of his hand, and moreover, this heart belongs to his beloved granddaughter. ¡°How about it, can you see clearly?¡± Manstein asks beside him. Still reeling with shock, Brian feels that there must be some unresolved animosity between him and Manstein, otherwise why would Manstein seem to take pleasure in startling him now and then. ¡°Why isn¡¯t the heart beating?¡± Brian wipes the sweat from his forehead. Manstein speaks slowly, ¡°This is an ex vivo heart, and it has been injected with a cardioplegic solution before mobilization. Professor Yang has artificially stopped the heartbeat, and now Aisha¡¯s body relies on extracorporeal circulation for blood supply. Soon, Professor Yang will open the heart and perform surgery inside to correct congenital abnormalities, returning it to normal.¡± Holding the heart in hand like this is quite a frightening sight for Brian, who is not a doctor. ¡°Is everything under control?¡± Brian asks anxiously. Manstein replies uncertainly, ¡°It¡¯s hard to say. Regardless of whether we can control it or not, the surgery must proceed this way.¡± Brian turns his head to look at Manstein, who is intently focused on the surgical procedure on the screen. The tasks that follow all require meticulous technical skills, such as repairing defects in the interventricular septum and interatrial septum, correcting anomalies at various exits, and correcting deformities in the major vasculature. Brian, lacking the experience of a surgeon, of course, cannot comprehend, but he understands the danger and difficulty of this stage, so he watches the entire procedure without letting his vigilance wane for a moment. Perhaps Brian has never been as tense in his entire life as he is now, his nerves are taut, as if about to snap at any moment, while his heart pounds wildly inside his chest, striking his ribs forcefully. Manstein notices out of the corner of his eye that Brian is restless. He knows he can¡¯t keep going like this; if this continues, Brian might not make it through. His fingers manipulate the remote control, shifting the view from the close-up back to a normal perspective, as a normal view doesn¡¯t have the same strong visual impact as a close-up. The young doctors observing the surgery from the back see the eminent figure manipulating the remote control now and then to adjust the view and don¡¯t dare say anything, after all, the figure is a Nobel Prize laureate and a good friend of Professor Yang. If it were anyone else fidgeting with the view during surgery observation, the rest might rise in protest and wouldn¡¯t hesitate to curse. Zhang Lin, who usually likes to confront others and never hesitates to challenge any foreigner coming for further education, doesn¡¯t dare confront Manstein; he truly doesn¡¯t dare, because Manstein is even more skilled at confrontation, often challenging those academic giants from Europe and America. Those who have been on the receiving end of his criticism never have the gall to retort. Old Man is just that formidable, and Zhang Lin acknowledges that he has met a world-class master of confrontation. Even Teacher Zhang doesn¡¯t dare to utter a word, and naturally, no one else dares either, leaving the notable figure to control the view as he pleases. Now the view is back to the default size, and the full scope of the surgical field is displayed on the screen again, allowing everyone to breathe a sigh of relief and return to observing the procedure normally, without having to constantly watch intense close-ups of the heart. The demonstration room is located on the periphery of the operating room, within the non-sterile zone, so there¡¯s no need to follow sterile protocols, and management is more relaxed. Doctors often cannot eat at regular times due to surgeries, so it¡¯s perfectly alright for them to have some drinks and snacks while observing surgeries, as long as they don¡¯t make too much of a mess in the demo room. The head nurse doesn¡¯t have the time to oversee this area. Zhang Lin and Little Five bring a glass of juice to both the distinguished guests, along with a plate of cookies and pastries, allowing them to comfortably observe the surgery. Of course, both teachers also have their own little schemes in mind. Their ¡°Surgical Hook-up Science¡± is about to be published, and if they can invite Manstein to write a foreword, the book will have a truly international flair. ¡°Teacher Zhang, thank you, you¡¯re so enthusiastic,¡± Manstein comments with a good impression of Zhang Lin. Zhang Lin and Little Five sit down beside him, with Zhang Lin pointing at the image on the screen and saying, ¡°You¡¯re welcome. Look, the retractor we¡¯re using for this surgery was designed by us.¡± Manstein takes a look: ¡°Oh¡ª¡± He had only been paying attention to the surgery itself, not noticing the retractor being used for assistance. This retractor is indeed something he has never seen before, with a particularly innovative design. ¡°This retractor is quite good,¡± Manstein compliments. Zhang Lin, with his rather thick skin, boasts, ¡°This is a world original, the best heart surgery retractor in the world, outclassing all existing retractors. What we have is not just a retractor, but an internationally leading systematic set of surgical retractor technologies.¡± Manstein nods continually, then his gaze remains on the high-definition screen. His interest in the retractor is fleeting, but out of gratitude for the juice and pastries, he still nods in approval. This heart surgery is indeed challenging, requiring extensive exploration and reshaping, as Yang Ping proceeds step by step, unhurriedly, with Song Zimo providing intuitive assistance as the assistant. The task of heart relocation in this operation is equivalent to a heart transplant surgery. Heart transplant surgery mainly involves suturing the blood vessels. But in addition to heart relocation, this surgery requires precise anatomical correction, so each step of this operation is a highly difficult heart surgery on its own. Chapter 1355 - 1355 1027 Popcorn_2 ?Chapter 1355: Chapter 1027: Popcorn_2 Chapter 1355: Chapter 1027: Popcorn_2 The goal of corrective surgery is functionality; deformities in certain areas of the heart create functional obstacles, and through corrective measures, the normal function of the heart is achieved. Therefore, not only must the correction be accurate, but all aspects must be taken into consideration without compromise. After all surgical targets are fully exposed, Professor Yang Ping carefully examines the sternum, diaphragm, abdominal wall muscles, and pericardial defects. These align very closely with the preoperative assessments, revealing severe defects. Without the preoperative assessment technology of Digital Human VR, relying solely on CT and MRI imaging, accurate preoperative evaluations would be difficult to achieve, thus increasing the complexity of the surgery. Moreover, the patient is already six years old, missing the optimal age for surgery. If the preoperative evaluation is insufficient, surgery can easily descend into chaos, proceeding tentatively, which makes the entire surgical process very passive, prone to accidents during surgery or severe complications postoperatively. All surgical steps are like a precise clockwork; gears interlock and influence each other, and failing in one step inevitably affects the outcomes of others. Major steps of the surgery include ¡ª double outlet right ventricle correction + reconstruction of the left lower pulmonary artery + interatrial septum defect repair + interventricular septum defect repair + lower sternum fracture repair + diaphragm defect repair + umbilical hernia surgery, etc. Each step must be perfectly executed. After evaluating the defects, Professor Yang Ping begins assessing the deformities of the heart itself, including the heart¡¯s internal structure and major vascular deformities. Preoperative assessments have revealed defects in both the interventricular septum and interatrial septum. Now, it is necessary to directly open up the heart and reassess the deformities from the inside before correcting them one by one. Professor Yang Ping performs the surgery very smoothly, with no fluctuations, sometimes making the assistants feel utterly bored, but they realize the boredom is highly valuable. No matter what surgery, even if others perform it amidst turmoil and life-threatening challenges, it remains steady and uneventful with Professor Yang Ping, as if it were not a highly difficult and risky surgery but a simple minor procedure. Thus, for observers, particularly new ones, it can be misleading and easily instill blind confidence in them, making them believe the surgery is simplistic. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang have both made this mistake early on, unconsciously developing a light, blind confidence. Therefore, with experience, they approach each of Professor Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries with caution. They have a mental formula: the perceived difficulty of observed surgeries multiplied by a correction factor, to truly gauge the surgery¡¯s difficulty. In the observation room, as the surgery progresses methodically, originally anxious Brian now feels much calmer, because after observing for a while, even without surgical experience, he can intuitively feel the surgery¡¯s stability, which is reassuring. The remote control in Manstein¡¯s hand gradually loses its initial effect. Regardless of how they zoom in on the screen or bring the camera closer, even showing Brian the heart with repaired defects in the interatrial and interventricular septa, Brian doesn¡¯t experience the roller-coaster-like emotions he felt before. If a person has strong confidence and a composed aura, they can reassure those around who are panicking; similarly, surgery can emanate an aura that reassures those observing it. After correcting internal heart deformities, Professor Yang Ping sutures the heart, relocates the ectopic heart back into the thoracic cavity, and proceeds to correct and anastomose major vascular deformities. Merely correcting the heart and major vascular deformities and repositioning the heart is not sufficient. It is necessary to repair the entire bony and soft tissue ¡°armor¡± protecting the heart, otherwise, there¡¯s a risk that the heart might displace again. The sternum is part of the thoracic cage, which is the bony armor protecting the heart and lungs. Now with defects present in the sternum, its repair requires titanium plates, produced using 3D modeling and printing technologies, substituting the defective sternum to form a solid shield in front of the heart, preventing the heart from herniating through weak spots again. Unlike titanium plates for adults, children are in the phase of growth and development; their bodies, thoracic cages, sternums, and hearts are expanding continually, which is not an issue in adults. Therefore, adults¡¯ titanium plates do not need adjustments for growth. However, titanium plates for children must consider this factor. As children grow, the titanium plates relatively diminish in size, failing to offer the initial protection, thus they must be designed to automatically extend with growth, providing reliable protection throughout their developmental process. The diaphragm and the muscle defects along the median line of the abdomen are repaired using a special biological patch, also to prevent the heart from herniating from these weak spots. Among the crowd watching the surgery, there was a female intern who somehow got a bucket of popcorn, eating and watching as if she were watching a movie. In fact, at Sanbo Hospital, watching Professor Yang Ping¡¯s live surgery was more thrilling and popular than blockbuster movies. Doctors who understood were there to learn, while those who didn¡¯t were just joining in the fun to soak up the atmosphere. Later, outside the doors of Sanbo Hospital, they could say they often watched the live broadcasts of Professor Yang Ping¡¯s surgeries. Some could even say they were half-students of Professor Yang Ping, because they frequently observed his surgeries. So, it wasn¡¯t just about understanding the surgeries, what was more important was making sure to be there. If Director Zhao of the Medical Services Office hadn¡¯t banned it, Zhang Lin and Little Five could have saved enough from selling tickets to buy a house. Brian had never experienced such a scene; watching surgery while eating popcorn was unimaginable in quiet Sweden. Brian tugged on Manstein¡¯s clothes, pointing at the girl enjoying her popcorn, indicating that he wanted to do the same. Manstein waved his hand, and Zhang Lin immediately came over. Manstein said, ¡°Could you help get one of those things over here?¡± What thing? Zhang Lin looked up, oh, popcorn. That¡¯s easy. Zhang Lin called the girl¡¯s boyfriend over: ¡°Help out, please. Could you get some popcorn for Mr. Brian to experience a bit of Chinese life?¡± Brian stared at the girl¡¯s popcorn, practically drooling. China is truly a miraculous country. Top experts have their offices on the first floor of the hospital, where anyone can buy tickets to see a doctor, and the ticket prices are very cheap. No need for long appointments and no exorbitant fees. A specialist could see over a hundred patients in a day. This kind of world-class surgery, if it were in Europe or the United States, could never be so casual. Everything would be made very formal and tense, and it¡¯s impossible to let these interns gather around casually, some even holding popcorn, much like watching a movie. This tramples on the dignity of such a high-difficulty surgery. The girl turned around and saw Mr. Brian greedily looking at her, then back at her own popcorn. This scene felt familiar, like when she was a child and sometimes eating snacks, the other kids without snacks would stare at her just like this. You can¡¯t allow a Nobel Prize winner to be like this. The poor old man, it¡¯s just a bucket of popcorn. Are living conditions abroad so monotonous that a bucket of popcorn is a rare item? Chinese people are really kind-hearted. The girl timidly stood up and handed over the popcorn. Brian was immediately overjoyed, taking the popcorn, ¡°Thank you, thank you. How much do I owe you?¡± ¡°No need, it¡¯s on me,¡± said the girl, surprised. She thought Mr. Brian would insist on paying. Brian thanked her, took some popcorn, and Manstein also took the opportunity to grab a handful before leaning back in his chair to continue observing the surgery. It was really relaxing, really comfortable. This is the correct way to watch a surgery, Brian got really into it. Chapter 1356 - 1356 1028 Only the professor of tomorrow can ?Chapter 1356: Chapter 1028: Only the professor of tomorrow can be dominant in front of the professor. Chapter 1356: Chapter 1028: Only the professor of tomorrow can be dominant in front of the professor. ¡°Professor, this surgery is a bit tricky, a whole bunch of abnormalities¡ªcardiac diverticulum, tricuspid atresia, interventricular septal defect, interatrial septal defect, pulmonary artery stenosis, and so on. Moreover, these abnormalities are not simple; each one is particularly severe, and the patient is already of such advanced age. Brian is in medicine, why wasn¡¯t the surgery performed earlier? It¡¯s a miracle that the child has lived to be six years old.¡± Song Zimo looked at this whole set of heart abnormalities and couldn¡¯t help but grumble to himself. ¡°Perform the surgery earlier? Who would do it? You?¡± Yang Ping blurted out unexpectedly. Although these words were spoken lightly from Yang Ping¡¯s mouth, they hit Song Zimo hard; he found himself momentarily at a loss for words. Right, with such complicated Cantrell pentology, who would perform the surgery? According to the medical history, Brian had tried everything he could think of. Apart from Professor Yang, it¡¯s likely that anyone who could be asked had already been approached, and seeing so many abnormalities, especially with adhesions everywhere, nobody dared to take on the case. ¡°If Brian had come to me, I would have done the child¡¯s surgery a long time ago; there¡¯d be no need to wait until now,¡± Song Zimo finally thought of a rebuttal. Xu Zhiliang looked up at Song Zimo. Dr. Song is so domineering today, and even in front of the professor¡ªhas the sun risen from the west? Seeing the look Xu Zhiliang gave him, Song Zimo continued: ¡°If he¡¯d come to me, I would have surely shown the case history to the professor, then the child would have been saved.¡± ¡°You¡ªyou¡ªspeak your full sentence.¡± Xu Zhiliang¡¯s admiration for Song Zimo was instantly shattered; he had thought him so domineering. Alas, it seems that the only one who can afford to be domineering in front of the professor is the professor of tomorrow. ¡°Aren¡¯t Americans full of arrogance every day? How come they can¡¯t perform this surgery?¡± Song Zimo asked again. Yang Ping said dismissively, ¡°At the time, there indeed was an American doctor who dared to take it on, thumping his chest and assuring Brian that the surgery would be no problem.¡± ¡°Is it that so-called bravest doctor in the world who dares to perform any surgery? How come he didn¡¯t show up later?¡± Song Zimo found the topic interesting as they discussed. ¡°While he was thumping his chest with Brian, his surgical license was directly revoked shortly after. Haven¡¯t you heard? Most of his surgeries only have imaging pictures from before and during the surgery, but no post-operative images,¡± Yang Ping continued to say as he performed the surgery. ¡°How could that be? That¡¯s utterly unprofessional.¡± Xia Shu said. ¡°Few patients ever survive to be taken off the operating table. How could there be post-operative images?¡± Song Zimo understood what Yang Ping meant. Xia Shu said curiously, ¡°So that¡¯s the case.¡± ¡°This person is the number one hotshot in the American medical world, dominating the scene for ten years. Few patients whom he operated on lived to be taken off the operating table, yet for so long, he managed to come through utterly unscathed, even winning awards hand over fist. There was a time when one of his assistants had nightmares every day after watching his surgeries. The assistant thought what he was conducting was not surgery but terrible human anatomy. Believing that the doctor was messing around, daring to perform surgeries without understanding the basics, he went to file a complaint. The medical association¡¯s investigation, however, found no issues with the hotshot; he graduated from a prestigious school, so his educational qualifications were unquestionable. Having completed formal residency and specialty physician training, he was certified, thus no problem with his medical qualifications either. Upon reviewing his case surgery records, everything met the required standards and procedures. So, there were no issues at all. The most astonishing part was that many assistants, anesthetists, and nurses who worked with him had complained about him, but that didn¡¯t stop him from being an eminent doctor wearing a halo,¡± Yang Ping explained leisurely to everyone. ¡°No way, really?¡± Xia Shu was utterly dumbfounded; this case shattered his perceptions. ¡°The professor never speaks deceitfully,¡± Song Zimo took over the conversation. It was somewhat frightening to chat about such topics on the operating table. Xia Shu felt a chill down his spine, actually encountering such a doctor; he thought Professor Yang was just joking, but it turned out to be true. Yang Ping and everyone casually chatted while performing the surgery, methodically, step by step, and soon, all the heart malformations were corrected. ¡ª With this tub of popcorn, Brian no longer felt anxious at all; it was pretty much like watching a movie. No wonder the little girl held on to this thing¡ªit really could soothe one¡¯s emotions. In such a relaxed state of mind, as he watched, the movie came to an end. Yang Ping corrected the heart¡¯s internal malformations and adjusted the major vascular structures to align properly, repairing all defects. Finally, the heart was restarted with blood flowing through it once more. Seeing his granddaughter¡¯s heart pounding strongly on the screen, Brian finally realized that the movie had reached its closing scenes. After a tub of popcorn, Brian fulfilled a wish in his life that he thought was impossible. Sitting in front of the crowd, his mood was now very complex. The world was different from what he had imagined, as if this place was another world entirely. Things that seemed impossible to achieve elsewhere could be easily accomplished here. The heart was beating well, the sewn major vascular structures showed no signs of leakage, and the intraoperative surface ultrasound monitoring found that the blood flow within the heart through all the chambers and passages was unproblematic¡ªall malformations were corrected. Professor Yang¡¯s skills in patching and repairing were indeed brilliant¡ªthe previously chaotic heart now appeared to have returned to normal through his hands. With the empty popcorn tub in hand, Brian intended to take it back as a souvenir; this tub of popcorn held strong symbolic meaning. The surgery was over, and the audience dispersed to their respective places; there was still much work waiting for everyone. These people had stolen a moment from their busy schedules to watch a major film. The doctors discussed the surgery while departing in groups of threes and fives. The images on the screen were finally turned off. Manstein said, ¡°Shall we wait at the entrance of the operating room?¡± Only then did Brian come to a sudden realization in his trance¡ªthe surgery he had just watched was his granddaughter¡¯s. He now felt a sense of fear after the fact. Had there been even a slight problem during the surgery, the consequences would have been unthinkable. Manstein led Brian to the Family Waiting Area just outside the operating room. There were also relatives of other patients undergoing surgery. Judging by their attire and demeanor, these people were not the wealthy or privileged class but ordinary citizens. Brian remembered the chaotic and lively scene he had seen in the outpatient department. At that moment, he felt that the Chinese people were indeed fortunate. Unlike in Sweden, ordinary citizens would never get the chance to meet such top-tier experts, let alone freely choose them to be the chief surgeons for their operations. Patients do not have the power to choose any doctor for any surgery; whoever the chief surgeon may be, the patient must passively accept it. ¡°What should I say afterwards when Aisha comes out? To express my deepest gratitude,¡± Brian asked Manstein, who was knowledgeable about China. ¡°Do you mean using the most formal Chinese etiquette to express your deepest gratitude?¡± Manstein asked. Brian nodded. Manstein thought for a moment, This is tricky, what kind of etiquette should be used at this moment? PS: The mention of a formidable figure in the American medical community during the idle chat in this chapter is not fictional; there¡¯s a real-life model, a cervical spine surgeon, whose patients either died or were paralyzed because he was a well-known expert who graduated from a prestigious school, yet understood nothing of the basic knowledge of surgery. He operated haphazardly, and for many years strangely enough, nothing happened, despite multiple complaints and investigations. It¡¯s really inexplicable; perhaps he was ¡°legally compliant¡±! Chapter 1357 - 1357 1029 Racial Discrimination ?Chapter 1357: Chapter 1029: Racial Discrimination Chapter 1357: Chapter 1029: Racial Discrimination In the Family Waiting Area of the Operating Room, Manstein and Brian sat on blue chairs chatting while some of the other families glanced at the two foreigners muttering in an incomprehensible language. Two aunties began to gossip as they knew these two foreigners couldn¡¯t understand Chinese, so they spoke without any restraint. ¡°Look at that foreigner¡¯s hair, it¡¯s golden and curly, just like the Golden Lion King.¡± ¡°His arms are covered in gold hair too, so long and dense, it makes my skin crawl just looking at it.¡± ¡°They also like to spray perfume. I got a whiff of a strong scent when I passed by them. Why would a grown man spray so much perfume?¡± ¡°To mask their body odor, probably. They say foreigners tend to smell stronger.¡± The two gossiping aunties kept an eye on the TV screen, pretending not to be paying attention to the foreigners, but their conversation kept revolving around Manstein and Brian, critiquing them from head to toe, occasionally throwing glances their way ¨C after all, they wouldn¡¯t understand. ¡°Do you think they can understand what we¡¯re saying?¡± ¡°Relax, they don¡¯t understand a word. With that stupid look of his, how could he understand?¡± ¡°I feel like that Golden Lion King understood though. When you called him stupid just now, he glanced over here.¡± ¡°Pretending to understand, that¡¯s all.¡± Brian couldn¡¯t understand Chinese, but Manstein could. When he heard the aunties chatting, he just glanced at them out of the corner of his eye. He had no time to argue with them now. The most formal Chinese etiquette? At this moment, Manstein thought of his good brother August, who was the person most knowledgeable about Chinese culture, and he would definitely be able to give good advice at this time. Therefore, without considering the seven-hour time difference between China and Germany, Manstein immediately called August. It was morning in China, but Germans were still asleep. Manstein called until the other party picked up, hearing a drowsy and cursing voice: ¡°What¡¯s up, in the middle of the night, can¡¯t you let people live?¡± Manstein, enduring his brother¡¯s curses, got straight to the point, and told August about the situation here. August from the other end said: ¡°Make a pennant for Professor Yang!¡± ¡°A pennant? How do I do that? Where do I go to make it?¡± Manstein was clearly clueless. ¡°Making a pennant is easy. There are shops specializing in pennants next to the hospital. Just find any shop to make one. If you really don¡¯t know what to do, go straight to the Waterlily Bread Store and ask the owner and his wife. They can sort it out with a phone call. Anything minor at the hospital can be handled by this bakery. The pennant is just a carrier; the writing on it is what¡¯s important, as it expresses your gratitude. Have Brian think carefully about what to write, and the attitude when presenting the pennant is crucial. When giving the pennant, you should hold it respectfully with both hands lifted in front, bending your body slightly forward as if to bow, and you must maintain this posture until Professor Yang reaches out to take the pennant.¡± ¡°Thanks, go back to sleep.¡± Manstein hung up, knowing that August was a true China Expert. ¡°How do I express my deepest gratitude? Should I kneel?¡± Brian said anxiously. Aisha¡¯s matter had always been Brian¡¯s unresolved issue, weighing on his heart for many years, and now that it had finally been resolved, Brian was overwhelmed with excitement. Manstein didn¡¯t understand why Brian had this idea and immediately said, ¡°No need, we should present a special and splendid banner. Let¡¯s deal with this after Aisha returns to the ward. It¡¯s not urgent for now.¡± Actually, Manstein didn¡¯t know how to go about it either, but August had pointed him in the direction of the Waterlily Bread Store¡¯s owner, who could take care of everything, making the task seem much simpler. Perhaps due to being in a Chinese-speaking environment, Manstein naturally got used to speaking Chinese, so when he called August just now he didn¡¯t think twice and spoke in Chinese. August, always striving to improve his Chinese, responded in Chinese subconsciously when he heard it on the phone, and so the two Germans ended up communicating in Chinese. The aunties who were critiquing Manstein and Brian were dumbfounded; not only did this guy understand Chinese, but he spoke it even more standardly than they did. Thinking back on their unrestrained comments about them made them involuntarily cast guilty looks their way, believing their use of Mandarin was encrypted. ¡°This is racial discrimination, I¡¯m going to report you.¡± Manstein glared at the two aunties, finding time to retaliate against them, and they were startled by his sudden counterattack. The aunties felt particularly embarrassed after hearing Manstein speaking on the phone in Chinese, and they had been planning to sneak away without bringing attention to themselves, but before they could rise, the foreigner caught them and gave them a scolding. ¡ª After Aisha¡¯s surgery was completed, Yang Ping breathed a sigh of relief. The difficulty of this surgery lay in the numerous malformed parts of the heart, all interrelated. Correcting the malformations required considering the whole picture; surgeries that require such comprehensive consideration must employ an engineering mindset, thinking from a systems perspective, otherwise the surgery is hard to succeed. Even if done by force, the patient¡¯s post-surgery effect might be poor, and if the effect is not good, it directly affects the child¡¯s lifespan, making it difficult for them to grow into adulthood. Chapter 1358 - 1358 1029 Racial Discrimination_2 ?Chapter 1358: Chapter 1029: Racial Discrimination_2 Chapter 1358: Chapter 1029: Racial Discrimination_2 Professor Yang Ping had just seen that after the reformation during surgery, the esophagus surface ultrasound showed that all valves, septums, and inlets and outlets of the heart were neither insufficiently closed nor deficient, and all kinds of blood flow indices had fully met normal requirements. He couldn¡¯t help but feel a sense of achievement swelling within him. Each time he completed a surgery, Professor Yang would naturally feel this sense of accomplishment. The sense of achievement is one of the inner spiritual pillars of a doctor and also one of the motivations propelling doctors forward. Professor Yang was no exception; it was this sense of achievement that supported him in going through devilish training in the System Space. ¡°What happened to that aggressive guy afterward?¡± Xia Shu was still inquiring about the American brawny doctor that Professor Yang mentioned during the surgery. ¡°Civil law was useless against him, simply could not handle him. Later on, a friend of one of the victims who was a judge decided to intervene, and after discussing the case with colleagues, they decided to resort to criminal law to deal with him. It seems in the end, they indicted him using a clause of criminal law, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment,¡± Professor Yang recalled and said, surprised that everyone was so interested in this story. Everyone was so interested in this case because it shattered some previous superstitions. ¡°If it wasn¡¯t for the victim having a judge as a friend, could he still have gotten away with it?¡± Liang Fatty lamented. Professor Yang nodded, ¡°If not for the intervention of the victim¡¯s judge friend, he would have continued to act as an expert, even sitting on the dock in the courtroom untouched.¡± ¡°And after that?¡± Xia Shu pressed on. ¡°Haven¡¯t I already said that the guy was sentenced to life imprisonment?¡± Liang Fatty complained about Xia Shu always digging for more details. Professor Yang smiled faintly: ¡°Whether the entire medical community in the United States deeply reflected on this, and then pondered how to avoid such absurd incidents, making reforms to the doctors¡¯ evaluation system, I really couldn¡¯t say.¡± Perhaps the final outcome was what Xia Shu was looking for; he really wanted to know whether they patched the loopholes and whether such an absurd type of doctor would appear again. While Liang Fatty was administrating anesthesia recovery for Aisha, everyone sat down to rest, waiting for Aisha to wake up, and then once again joined in on this topic. Song Zimo said, ¡°Isn¡¯t this just the kind of ¡®rabbit doctor¡¯ we talk about?¡± ¡°Yes, he¡¯s the ¡®rabbit doctor¡¯ we talk about. This doctor was well-presented, confident, affable, highly charismatic, possessing an almost perfect re?sume?. It was the perfect re?sume? that fooled everyone, allowing him to be a doctor of death for so many years. This doctor had strong research capabilities, was very good at conducting research, writing papers, and securing research funding, but as for surgery, he was completely out of touch,¡± Professor Yang said with a sigh. In fact, such doctors also exist in our own medical community; it¡¯s just that no one has uncovered them yet. ¡°Rabbit doctor?¡± Old Jin had been quiet all along and now hearing these words, could not help but be filled with emotion. ¡°What does ¡®rabbit doctor¡¯ mean?¡± Old Jin was emotional, whereas Xia Shu really didn¡¯t know the implication of a ¡®rabbit doctor¡¯. Song Zimo got impatient: ¡°How do you not know anything? You seem to be isolated from the world. A ¡®rabbit doctor¡¯ is someone with high degrees, prestigious educational background, really good at writing papers and doing research, but a total mess in surgery. You know, doing research requires lab rabbits, right? It means those doctors spend most of their time dealing with rabbits, hence the name ¡®rabbit doctor¡¯.¡± Rabbit doctor, Xia Shu couldn¡¯t help feeling ashamed upon hearing this; it seems like our doctor evaluation system is aiming towards rabbit doctors, emphasizing research over clinical practice. No matter whether they can perform surgery or not, as long as there are papers and projects, they can rocket up the professional titles. Without papers and projects, even if the surgery is well-performed, it¡¯s useless; one would only be stuck as a permanent attending. This creates a group of specialists and directors who can¡¯t perform surgery or perform it very poorly. Old Jin was lost in myriad thoughts. ¡°Old Jin, how¡¯s the situation with your professional title?¡± Song Zimo asked Old Jin. Old Jin shook his head, ¡°I have abandoned that thought, planning to be an attending physician for life,¡± Old Jin said in a forlorn tone. ¡°Don¡¯t you already have papers and projects?¡± Song Zimo asked. Old Jin said, ¡°To be evaluated for a professional title, you need three things: papers, projects, and connections. I lack the most important one¡ªconnections.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I introduce you to a friend last time? Why hasn¡¯t there been any movement?¡± Song Zimo has always been very concerned about Old Jin¡¯s professional title. He feels that Old Jin is talented, and compared to those group leaders in the Orthopedics Department, Old Jin¡¯s surgical skills are far superior. Yet now, at his age, he¡¯s still a attending physician, and he used to have to pull night shifts in Orthopedics. ¡°Ah, let¡¯s forget it. I can¡¯t get over that hurdle in my heart. Don¡¯t bother setting things up for me in the future. I¡¯m content being an attending physician,¡± Old Jin said somewhat sentimentally. Song Zimo thinks he¡¯s really too old-fashioned: ¡°What hurdle? It¡¯s not that big a deal. If it really doesn¡¯t work out, let Professor Yang say a word for you.¡± ¡°Stop it. If Professor Yang speaks up for me on this matter, I¡¯ll feel even worse.¡± Old Jin quickly interjected, sincerely not wanting to trouble Yang Ping over this. ¡°Alright then, remain an attending physician for eternity.¡± Song Zimo felt helpless. Why was this person so stubborn and old-fashioned? ¡°I¡¯m quite happy with it,¡± Old Jin said as he crossed his legs. While everyone was chatting, Little Aisha had already woken up. Liang Fatty¡¯s anesthesia skills were getting better and better. The dosage of the anesthetic and the depth of anesthesia were perfectly administered. The chat ceased as everyone went to make their rounds. Song Zimo patted Old Jin on the shoulder: ¡°You should be more flexible. Even if you¡¯re an attending physician at a place like the Surgical Research Institute, it doesn¡¯t stop you from progressing. Just let me know when you don¡¯t feel that hurdle in your heart anymore, and I¡¯ll give you a hand.¡± The children¡¯s patient rounds went very smoothly. Xia Shu did the rounds by himself, with everyone else standing by as audience. When Aisha was wheeled out of the Operating Room, Brian was extremely excited. Over the years, Aisha¡¯s heart condition had been a sore spot for Brian. He had thought that his granddaughter¡¯s life was already on countdown, so every time he saw his granddaughter playing happily, he couldn¡¯t help feeling a tinge of sorrow. As a medical scientist, he couldn¡¯t offer any valuable help to his lovely granddaughter, and could only watch her life ticking down. The feeling was extremely agonizing, like being pricked in the heart with a needle every day. So now seeing his granddaughter being wheeled out of the Operating Room, with the doctor announcing that the surgery went smoothly, Brian touched his granddaughter¡¯s warm cheek and couldn¡¯t help but break down in tears, overwhelmed with emotion. Soon after, Aisha was taken to the Cardiovascular ICU, where she would need to be monitored for about 3 days before being transferred back to the regular ward. After communicating with the ICU attending doctor, Brian went with Manstein to the Bakery to arrange for a pennant. It was still August who knew the ropes well. Guided by him, Manstein arrived at the Waterlily Bread Store and explained his intentions to the lady boss¡ªthey needed a pennant for Professor Yang Ping at the Surgical Research Institute. Yu Shuilian immediately understood and informed them it would cost 200 RMB. If it was urgent, for an additional 40 RMB, they could get it within an hour, otherwise, it would be ready for pickup after 24 hours in this shop. Of course, Brian didn¡¯t mind the extra 40 RMB and immediately placed a rush order for the pennant, his thoughts for the content already prepared with a draft in hand. He wrote a letter of thanks, requesting the words to be transcribed onto the pennant. Yu Shuilian informed the banner shop owner of the situation. The banner shop owner had never encountered a pennant with so many words before. The price needed to be doubled, not because of exploitation, but rather the cost was indeed based on size and the number of words on the flag¡ªsurely a few words versus more than a hundred words would not cost the same. With too many pennants received, the Surgical Research Institute now had to use a special room just to hang them, and there were still many that couldn¡¯t be mounted on the walls because there were simply too many. Having arranged for the pennant, Brian and Manstein decided to grab something to eat at the Waterlily Bread Store, which is said to be a must-visit for anyone from Sanbo Hospital. Chapter 1359 - 1359 1030 Take the Opportunity to Perform a ?Chapter 1359: Chapter 1030: Take the Opportunity to Perform a Minor Surgery Chapter 1359: Chapter 1030: Take the Opportunity to Perform a Minor Surgery In the afternoon, Professor Yang conducted his routine rounds in the main ward area, and then he went to visit Aisha in the ICU. The little girl¡¯s vital signs were stable post-surgery. Brian was also granted permission to visit the ICU for the first time after the surgery. Seeing Aisha awake and her vital signs normal, he was once again overwhelmed with emotion, and he admired Professor Yang¡¯s medical skills immensely. Moreover, Brian had an idea; he wanted to donate his Nobel Prize money to Sanbo Hospital. The money had been sitting in the bank unused, initially intended for his granddaughter¡¯s treatment, which never occurred. Now, Brian intended to use this money for a special research project at Sanbo Hospital aimed at helping more extracardial children, hoping that children with extracardial conditions from all over the world could come to China for surgery. Although it wasn¡¯t a lot of money, it was still a heartfelt gesture. After visiting his granddaughter, Brian and Manstein brought a pennant to the doctors¡¯ office. At that moment, Professor Yang was conducting a post-surgery review of Aisha¡¯s surgery with other doctors, an activity meant to accumulate experience, learn lessons, and enhance everyone¡¯s surgical skills. Brian entered the doctors¡¯ office with the pennant. Since it was his first time presenting a pennant, he was very stiff, and before he got a chance to greet Professor Yang, he stood in front of him holding the scroll of the pennant and bowed at a ninety-degree angle, like a statue frozen before Professor Yang. Professor Yang was startled by this sudden action; the posture seemed more like submitting a surrender than presenting a pennant and looked quite peculiar. ¡°Professor Yang, Mr. Brian would like to express his gratitude by presenting this pennant as a token of his appreciation. Please accept it,¡± Manstein, relying on the best of his Chinese skills and a draft prepared by August that he had memorized in advance, articulated. Only then did the surrounding doctors understand that Brian was indeed there to present the pennant. His sudden entrance and stance had confused everyone initially, and Professor Yang quickly stood up to accept the scroll of the pennant. However, Brian continued to maintain his posture unmoved, leading Manstein to think he was too absorbed in acting and tapped him, ¡°That¡¯s enough, you can stand up straight now.¡± Suddenly, pain was evident on Brian¡¯s face, ¡°I¡ªI can¡¯t move now, I can¡¯t straighten my waist at all right now.¡± Manstein immediately went to assist him, and several other doctors quickly came to help. They supported Mr. Brian as he sat, but he couldn¡¯t move his waist at all. He maintained his strange posture as he requested to be helped to the side, where he continued to lean on the edge of the desk with both hands, his complexion deathly pale. ¡°Lumbar disc herniation or spondylolisthesis?¡± Professor Yang instantly made a diagnosis from the symptoms. It was likely a lumbar disc herniation or spondylolisthesis causing segmental instability. Either the disc protruded suddenly compressing the nerve root, or the lumbar segments shifted excessively with soft tissue entrapment, preventing repositioning, leaving him only able to maintain this posture. In layman¡¯s terms, his lumbar was stuck. ¡°I usually don¡¯t dare to bend like this, I forgot about it today, and now I can¡¯t get up. There¡¯s also severe swelling pain in the back of my left leg,¡± Brian grimaced as he spoke, his expression extremely pained. At that moment, all the doctors present realized this, as all were well-trained and highly professional. ¡°Support him to the ward, let Dr. Liang come down to implant a pain pump for him, and then take him for an MRI to see what¡¯s actually going on.¡± Yang Ping instructed the doctor beside him, and everyone immediately sprang into action. Manstein saw his old friend being embarrassed by presenting the pennant, even though a comprehensive plan had been prepared. They were supposed to open the pennant, read the thank-you letter, and then take a group photo, but now there was no spare time for those activities as everyone was focused on his condition. Hearing Yang Ping¡¯s instructions, Manstein agreed with this preliminary diagnosis; it seemed that if this was indeed the case, his old friend couldn¡¯t avoid having surgery in China. ¡°It¡¯s been many years, so every time I don¡¯t dare to bend over. Sometimes when I bend down to pick up paper scraps from the ground, I can¡¯t stand up straight. I always thought I had a strained back, but today the symptoms are especially severe, it feels like my waist is broken,¡± Brian said, sweat drenching his forehead. A wheelchair was brought over, but Brian couldn¡¯t sit in it; he decided to walk to the ward himself. With everyone¡¯s help, he awkwardly made his way step by step to the ward. Everyone then helped him to lie on his side in the hospital bed, still maintaining that position, unable to move his spine, with any slight movement causing bone-deep pain. After he rested a bit, Liang Fatty hurried over with equipment, and with the help of a Standardized Training Student, he quickly implanted a pain pump for pain relief. Considering Brian¡¯s condition, ordinary pain relief methods wouldn¡¯t suffice, prompting Yang Ping to go directly for a pain pump. After the pain alleviated, two young doctors took him to the radiology department for an MRI. Manstein followed behind, not expecting his old friend¡¯s back to give in like this. The results of the lumbar spine MRI showed prolapse and slipping of the L4/L5 intervertebral disc, with a large prolapsed nucleus pulposus pressing tightly on the left nerve root, which was significantly swollen. The slipping of the vertebrae had already reached grade II; this condition necessitated surgery, not only to remove the prolapsed disc but also to perform a reduction and fusion on L4/L5. ¡°Old buddy, you¡¯re really fortunate this happened at Sanbo Hospital,¡± Manstein congratulated Brian. Brian thought Manstein was mocking him at a time like this, but on consideration, he realized it was true. This condition had been developing for years and was bound to happen sooner or later. Having the onset at Sanbo Hospital and getting the surgery from Professor Yang, wasn¡¯t that lucky indeed? ¡°I agree with you; this is indeed a stroke of luck,¡± Brian took it in stride, only concerned that his granddaughter was safe, as nothing else mattered much to him. Manstein added, ¡°Consider it a minor surgery done while visiting China.¡± ¡°Just heard the doctors describe it, the surgery doesn¡¯t sound minor at all. They need to remove the prolapsed disc, take out the remaining disc tissue between the two vertebrae, then implant bone tissue between them, and finally insert special screws to firmly fix the two vertebrae together, ensuring they are permanently joined,¡± Brian said, curled up in bed in a side-lying position, having gathered quite a bit about his surgery during the trips back and forth for tests. Under these circumstances, it wasn¡¯t about whether he wanted surgery or not; it was mandatory. Otherwise, he would have to return to Sweden and let the Swedish doctors handle it. Swedish doctors perform only a few lumbar surgeries per year, each with impeccable educational backgrounds and flawless theoretical knowledge, but with such low surgical volume, their practical skills couldn¡¯t match those here. In the past, even if in excruciating pain, Brian would never have stayed in China for surgery; he would rather crawl back to Europe. But now his perception had completely changed, as he no longer trusted the capabilities of those high-and-mighty lords. Chapter 1360 - 1360 1031 Medicine Student Companion Care ?Chapter 1360: Chapter 1031: Medicine Student Companion Care Chapter 1360: Chapter 1031: Medicine Student Companion Care ¡°Old pal, why are you making such a fuss about receiving a pennant?¡± Manstein sat beside the bed, inspecting the MRI films in the sunlight coming through the window. Such a large herniation of the lumbar disc is extremely rare, and there is also a second-degree spondylolisthesis. ¡°Getting old, all the parts are severely worn, what can be done? Aisha will have to trouble you these days,¡± Brian sighed. Manstein comforted him not to worry: ¡°There are doctors and nurses, rest assured.¡± ¡°You need to think it over, if you really don¡¯t want to have surgery here, don¡¯t force yourself, I can send you back to Sweden.¡± Manstein needed to make things clear to prevent his old pal from feeling distressed and regretting later. Brian immediately said, ¡°I¡¯ve thought it through, I will definitely have surgery here. Where else could the medical skills be better than here? I¡¯ve seen the capabilities of those old chaps in Sweden.¡± ¡°Alright, your surgery is arranged for tomorrow morning. You¡¯ll have this pain pump, so you will be able to sleep well tonight.¡± Manstein stayed by Brian¡¯s side after arranging a caretaker for him who is a medical student at Nandu Medical University, currently in his senior year of undergraduate studies. The young man speaks excellent English, so he applied for this hourly caretaker job. This kind of caretaker service is not cheap; the minimum price per hour is 20 US Dollars. For a bedridden patient requiring 24-hour caretaking, it amounts to 480 US Dollars per day, which when converted to RMB, amounts to several thousand a day. Many students from economically weaker backgrounds rush to do these kinds of high-end temporary caretaking jobs, as it just means taking a few days off without affecting their studies. Thus, the Surgical Research Institute not only drives the academic development of the entire Nandu Medical University but also stimulates the economic growth of the entire system, allowing some financially struggling students to find many part-time jobs. For example, at the Stem Cell Laboratory, just the fees paid by Ivan¡¯s side amount to over ten million US Dollars per year. The Digital Medical Laboratory is learning about stem cell procedures and also plans to use its own technology for profit generation, subsequently supporting research and creating a virtuous cycle. Brian¡¯s surgery was not a major one; it was quickly completed the next day. This gentleman did not expect to go through a complete medical process in China. The experience was great, although the process was a bit too fast for his comfort. After all, in Sweden, even for a professor like him, it would be impossible to get a surgery scheduled so quickly; their surgeons might only perform one operation in a morning, maybe only two or three surgeries a day, nowhere near the dozens of surgeries performed a day here. To fully experience the medical process in China, Brian requested a shared ward with three patients, where bed curtains separated each bed, a bit crowded and noisy, but that was okay. After all, it¡¯s a hospital stay, not a hotel stay. The most important aspects are the quality of medical skills and the effectiveness of the surgery, otherwise, what would be the point of a five-star hotel? The Nandu Medical University student caretaker is already on duty. Actually, this kind of patient caretaking is not hard, mainly involving turning the patient, feeding, sometimes bathing, and as for the bowel movement, generally none on the surgery day, even if there is any the next day, they are allowed to use the bathroom with the caretaker¡¯s help. For urination, a urine bag is used, simply helping the nurse keep track of the urine output if needed. The remaining time is just sitting by the bed; if the IV infusion finishes, close the IV machine¡¯s upper switch and call the nurse by ringing the bell. The student caretakers can use this method to get an early entry into the ward, engaging with patients, understanding their many difficulties, and getting familiar with the many hardships of medical staff, amounting to an alternative form of internship. Manstein bought two baskets of fruit, one for the nurses and one for the doctors. He knows the ropes well with August¡¯s guidance, although these few days August was utterly sleep deprived by him, often woken up at all hours of the night. Yang Ping felt somewhat guilty holding the pennant from Brian, as making a surgery happen over a pennant presentation in China was awkward, but it was probably inevitable sooner or later, and if handled by someone else, the surgical outcomes might not have been as good. Being a Nobel Prize laureate, Yang Ping won¡¯t let Brian stay here without extracting value from him. He is a world-leading professor in immunology, which is very much involved in the research work of Lu Xiaolu¡¯s Tumor Laboratory. This is a perfect opportunity for Lu Xiaolu and other students to communicate with him and broaden their horizons. Academic progress requires extensive communication to broaden one¡¯s perspectives. Why was scholarship so flourishing during the ancient times of Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods? It was because everyone was constantly moving around and engaging in discussions, which essentially were exchanges and debates. As discussions went on, new ideas would emerge. Sometimes what others excel in might be exactly where one has been struggling to make a breakthrough, and what one has painstakingly researched might have already been proven a dead end by others. In fact, the value of publishing papers today, besides documenting scientific research, is primarily to showcase the results to the entire world, which is another form of exchange. Yang Ping vigorously creates an environment for communication, always keeping his team at the forefront of the world. Although Yang Ping has access to systems, systems can¡¯t provide imagination; they are merely tools. To maintain curiosity and imagination, it is essential to continuously interact with the outside world and encounter new things. When Yang Ping came for the first postoperative ward round, the young companion at the side was extremely excited, as his idol was now standing right before him. ¡°How is the postoperative drainage?¡± Yang Ping initially wanted to ask the attending doctor, but since the doctor was busy and the data at hand was from two hours ago, he had to check the drainage bulb hung beside the bed and then check the records on the nursing sheet attached to the bed. The young companion spontaneously reported the latest drainage amount: ¡°There has only been 10 milliliters since the surgery, with no reversal.¡± ¡°Do you still feel pain postoperative? How are the sensation and muscle strength in your limbs?¡± Yang Ping asked while examining. ¡°I just checked, and the muscle strength and sensation in the lower limbs are normal,¡± replied the medical student, perhaps too eagerly. Li Guodong gave him a look, feeling that the boy was a tad overzealous, but quite good nevertheless; being this eager to learn as a senior undergrad, he had already mastered how to examine the nervous system. After conducting the examination himself, Yang Ping confirmed that the sensation and muscle strength in the lower limbs were normal, indicating that the effects of the anesthesia had worn off, and there was no postoperative nerve damage. This young companion actually had his own little schemes; he was not just there to earn money but was using this opportunity to integrate into the Surgical Research Institute and connect with these professors. By frequently performing the role of a companion, he naturally became acquainted with various professors. Over time, they all became his network, which would make it much easier for him to apply for a graduate student position here. If he managed to give a good impression of being reliable and diligent during this period, as long as he met the qualifying criteria, the professors would definitely want him. This young guy was crafty, setting his plans early. ¡°Do you know how to perform examinations?¡± Yang Ping was unaware that he was a senior student from Nandu Medical University. ¡°He is a senior student of clinical medicine from Nandu Medical University. The work-study office there sent him here to assist,¡± Li Guodong quickly explained. ¡°Being a companion requires endurance, not being afraid of getting dirty, especially for orthopedic patients. You have to deal with turning them over, helping with urination and defecation, which are quite strenuous,¡± Yang Ping said casually. Yang Ping wanted to check the urine output; the student accurately reported the urine volume, but Yang Ping still proceeded to check and calculate it himself. Chapter 1361 - 1361 1032 Will It Rust ?Chapter 1361: Chapter 1032: Will It Rust? Chapter 1361: Chapter 1032: Will It Rust? On the second day after surgery, Brian had his drainage tube and catheter removed, and started walking around with a waist brace. He was very satisfied with the results of the surgery. Some researchers from the laboratory would often come by to chat with Brian when they had free time. Of course, their conversations were still primarily academic, as they could easily delve into scholarly topics after just a few casual remarks. In particular, Lu Xiaolu was a rare genius whose comprehension far surpassed that of ordinary people. After many communications with a scholar at the forefront of academia like Brian, he benefited greatly and found solutions to many problems that he previously faced. In terms of cancer research, Yang Ping¡¯s current approach is to use M13 bacteriophages as carriers to deliver the tumor-killing K factor into the human body, subsequently selectively targeting and killing tumor cells. This is an excellent approach, but the actual operation faces many difficulties. One challenge is embedding the K factor into M13 bacteriophages; another is making this composite entity selectively target tumor cells. System Space can only provide time, space, and materials, and cannot offer solutions to problems. Therefore, Yang Ping must think for himself about how to solve these issues. Though Yang Ping has proposed a direction, realizing this idea now requires many specific technical implementations. In the field of immunology, particularly tumor immunology, Brian is said to be one of the most advanced researchers in the world, and some of his specific experimental methods can serve as valuable references. Embracing all rivers is the mark of greatness; this is the true academic attitude. On the electronic image reading screen hangs Brian¡¯s post-surgery MRI image. Even though the metallic implants interfere somewhat with the imaging, one can still clearly see the details of the operated area. The protruding massive nucleus pulposus of the disc has been removed, naturally relieving the pressure on the nerves. The slipped lumbar vertebra has been repositioned, and lumbar vertebrae 4 and 5 have been firmly fixed with pedicle screws. Over time, lumbar vertebrae 4 and 5 will fuse together, turning two separate bones into one and thereby achieving lasting stability in this segment. Of course, this means losing mobility in this section, but there are five segments in the lumbar spine, and losing mobility in one has a minimal impact on the overall mobility of the lumbar spine. For older individuals, the impact is almost negligible, but for young people, the effect is more significant, as they have higher demands for lumbar mobility. ¡°Professor, if there is no instability in the lumbar spine, and it¡¯s just a simple lumbar disc protrusion, would you also opt for a combination surgery of disc removal, vertebral bone grafting, fusion, and internal fixation with pedicle screws?¡± ¡°Yeah, nowadays many middle-aged and young people have only lumbar disc protrusions. Is it possible to perform only the disc removal?¡± Students surrounding them voiced their doubts. ¡°If the patients are middle-aged or younger and there is no instability in the lumbar segments, then we should not opt for this combination surgery. Instead, we should only perform the lumbar disc removal, as a large number of cases have shown that the outcome of just the disc removal is very good,¡± Yang Ping explained to everyone. Brian was wearing a waist brace and had a walker beside him. In fact, he could walk entirely on his own, but had the caregiver carry the walker just in case he needed to rest for a while. Brian didn¡¯t know how to read MRI images, but Manstein had gesticulated and explained to him several times, and he had come to understand a little. Although he couldn¡¯t make out everything, at least two points were clear to him. One, the huge nucleus pulposus looked like a dark mass on the MRI image, which was now gone. Two, the anterior and posterior edges of the two vertebrate which were originally misaligned are now aligned, clearly indicating that they have returned to their correct positions. Curiosity led Brian to wonder. In fact, the separation between professions is even more pronounced in English-speaking countries than in China. In the Chinese world, as long as you recognize the characters, you can understand at least a bit of the literature from other fields, with perhaps the meaning of some specialized terminology being unclear, but the basic content remains comprehensible. However, in the English-speaking world, if one delves into an entirely new field, even someone like Brian, a great professor, could not understand a thing. This level of unfamiliarity means a total lack of comprehension, an absolute zero, just a jumble of letters. This is just like beef, dog meat, and pork; in Chinese, even if you recognize the words, you at least know it¡¯s meat, the meat from an animal. But in the English-speaking world, your mind goes blank about what these things are. Therefore, it¡¯s not surprising that many high-level intellectuals in the English-speaking world don¡¯t know how to say cuboid, or what it is when they see the word. ¡°I wonder, if I bend over, could these metal screws break inside my body?¡± Brian worries about this. Yang Ping tells him, ¡°There¡¯s a possibility, but it¡¯s extremely small.¡± ¡°What happens if they break inside?¡± Those who engage in academics like to exhaust all possibilities. ¡°The duty of these metal fixatives is to temporarily stabilize, which means to share the stress through metal internal fixation before the two vertebrae have fused together. Once the vertebrae have grown together, the fixative¡¯s duty is complete. Therefore, we need to consider two scenarios. If the screw breaks after the vertebrae have fused, it can be removed. If the vertebrae have not fused, then another surgery is required to replace the broken internal fixtures with new ones and re-stabilize,¡± Yang Ping satisfies his curiosity. ¡°What if the screw breaks inside the vertebrae, as if buried inside, how do we remove it?¡± It seems that Brian has started treating this question as a serious academic issue. This is a good chance to show everyone how a Nobel Prize laureate thinks, and to let everyone know that no professor is an authority¡ªthey are all human, with their own cognitive limitations. True scientific researchers have no authorities in their eyes; they must have the spirit and ability to question. Yang Ping points at the internal fixation on the screen with the eraser end of a pencil: ¡°If it breaks inside the vertebrae, there¡¯s no need to remove it; just leave it there. But if one really wants to remove it, it¡¯s not that there is no way, just that it is a bit troublesome, and there is no need for it.¡± ¡°Metal staying in the body long-term, releasing metal ions into the blood, then spreading throughout the body, won¡¯t that affect health?¡± Brian¡¯s questions grow more curious as he delves into this line of thinking. Yang Ping slowly tells him, ¡°The question you¡¯ve asked is very meaningful, and it is also the biggest potential risk for metal-on-metal artificial hip joints currently¡ªthe prospect of a large amount of metal ions entering the bloodstream bearing unknown potential risks, for instance, causing cancer. However, this risk exists in metal-on-metal artificial hip joints because the friction between metals can cause a large number of metal particles to detach, leading to numerous metal ions entering the bloodstream. But for the broken screw inside the vertebrae you¡¯re worried about, that situation does not exist, because the metal placed in the vertebrae doesn¡¯t experience friction and is surrounded by bone mass. We can consider it a static piece of metal; there is no issue of a large number of metal ions entering the bloodstream, and thus it can remain in the body for life.¡± Brian appears thoughtful, half understanding. These are all common knowledge for a spinal surgery surgeon, but for Brian, he feels as though it¡¯s a significant discovery. It¡¯s not surprising, since this knowledge is within his blind spot; no matter how he ponders, he lacks the relevant content for thinking, and without strong support, his thoughts will seem pale and weak. ¡°Will it rust? Or will it cause a chemical reaction with the ions in the surrounding bone tissue? If there is a chemical reaction, is it controllable?¡± Brian strokes his chin and seriously raises this question. Chapter 1362 - 1362 1033 The Final Battle at Sanbo Hotel ?Chapter 1362: Chapter 1033: The Final Battle at Sanbo Hotel Chapter 1362: Chapter 1033: The Final Battle at Sanbo Hotel ¡°If these internal fixations have no effect inside the body, why do they need to be removed after surgery? Isn¡¯t this an unnecessary action? From an economic perspective, isn¡¯t this a huge waste?¡± Brian was already immersed in his own thoughts. Yang Ping adjusted his posture, since he had asked so many questions, he decided to engage in the discussion, lest Brian would toss and turn at night over these issues: ¡°From the perspective of Orthopedics, generally internal fixations in the upper limbs can be left in place, whereas internal fixations in the lower limbs usually need to be removed. This is because there¡¯s an issue of stress shielding involved; the internal fixation in the lower limbs is meant to bear some weight, which would normally be supported by the bones of the lower limbs. With part of the load carried away by the internal fixation, the bones might experience relative bone demineralization due to reduced stress, leading to lowered strength, which makes them more prone to fractures. Therefore, the effects of leaving the internal fixation in the body are far more extensive than I just mentioned, and must be considered from physical, chemical, biological, economic, psychological, and other aspects.¡± ¡°For example, your spinal internal fixation, if everything goes normally, we would definitely advise its removal post-operatively. Aside from sharing the load, it also restricts the movement of the lumbar spine, and there¡¯s a risk of screw displacement. However, if a screw breaks inside a vertebra, and the remaining part is in a safe location, leaving it in place won¡¯t have an impact because it¡¯s no longer bearing weight, and the risk of displacement is low. If the removal would be very troublesome and the risk-benefit ratio is too low, we won¡¯t remove it. But if it¡¯s easy to remove, of course it should be taken out. So there exists a risk-benefit ratio, like for example with a posterior humeral plate. When placing the plate, the anatomical structures are clear, but when removing the plate, scarring can make the anatomy unclear, which increases the risk of damaging the radial nerve. There¡¯s a consensus among orthopedic doctors that such plates should not be removed post-operatively; otherwise, in case the radial nerve is damaged, the loss would outweigh the gain, and not removing it would pose no problems. Once damaged during removal, the regret would be inescapable.¡± ¡°If there were no factors like the risk-benefit ratio, of course it would be best to remove all internal fixations.¡± Yang Ping said a lot, unsure whether Brian had understood. ¡°I got a little bit of it,¡± Brian nodded. Next, Brian wanted to ask some questions about medical implant materials, but Manstein immediately stopped him. It was not possible to let him waste Professor Yang¡¯s time like that; Professor Yang was very busy, and continuing this clueless conversation would seem impolite, and making a good impression on Professor Yang was still important. ¡°Good that you understand, let¡¯s go, go back to rest,¡± Manstein signalled the attendant with a glance. The attendant boy was quite alert and quickly helped Brian up, Zimo also immediately reminded Yang Ping that they needed to hurry up and review the other surgeries. Brian originally wanted to ask more questions, but seeing that everyone was busy, he didn¡¯t have the heart to continue and hesitantly returned to the ward with the help of the attendant. After all, Brian was a patient, so he certainly had some psychological traits common to patients, wanting to ask clearly about everything in one go when seeing the doctor. But doctors don¡¯t just have one patient; how could they keep talking to him non-stop. However, in Sweden, it would be completely fine, since a doctor might see only three to five patients in an entire morning, having ample time to communicate with patients. Of course, this requires either paying high fees or the patient having spent six months or even a year or two waiting for the opportunity. After Brian left, Yang Ping and the team reviewed the rest of the day¡¯s surgeries, in fact, reviewing the surgery did not take much time. No matter how late it was after the day¡¯s surgeries, everyone would gather to review, which was mainly to clear up confusion for expert-level doctors like Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Xia Shu, and Dr. Jin. As for some basic problems, they would leave those to be explained to their team¡¯s younger doctors when they had free time, otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t have enough time to review a single surgery all afternoon. After reviewing the surgeries, Yang Ping glanced at the time and rushed to the ICU to see Aisha. Apart from electrocardiogram monitoring, all sorts of tubes and wires on Aisha had already been removed, and she was now very awake. According to the ICU doctors¡¯ report, Aisha¡¯s vital signs had been stable after surgery, and at the time of changing the dressing, Aisha¡¯s incision was found to be very clean, without any signs of redness, exudation, or infection. The ICU doctors asked Yang Ping if she could be transferred back to the regular ward, and seeing that Aisha¡¯s indices were good, he agreed to the transfer as ICU beds were also in high demand. After finishing these tasks, Yang Ping went to the ¡°staff home¡± in the Sanbo Hotel to check things out, as a major event was to be held there three days later: the century battle between Su Butong and Zhang Zongshun, two senior Professors, and Yang Ping was appointed as the chief medical officer. The two eighty-year-old old men were to have a true showdown, and the audience would be retired bigwigs from the medical community. It was heard that in addition to the bigwigs from the Nandu Medical University system, many bigwigs from other provinces also rushed over after hearing the news. One was a neurosurgery tycoon and the other an orthopedics tycoon; the faceoff related to the reputation of the two specialties, so both had prepared extensively and can be said to have made all-round preparations. The ¡°staff home¡± in the Sanbo Hotel is actually a recreational place set up for Sanbo Hospital staff. Inside, there are indoor basketball courts, badminton courts, tennis courts, table tennis rooms, chess and card rooms, gyms, and so on. Now, the inside basketball court had been transformed into a combat arena, adding a temporary boxing ring in the middle of the original basketball court just for the showdown in three days. Chapter 1363 - 1363 1033 Final Battle at Sanbo Hotel_2 ?Chapter 1363: Chapter 1033: Final Battle at Sanbo Hotel_2 Chapter 1363: Chapter 1033: Final Battle at Sanbo Hotel_2 A bunch of enthusiastic old men were gathered, and Professor Zhang Zongshun was now warming up shirtless under the coach¡¯s guidance. There were quite a few onlookers; Yang Ping stood by watching¡ªOld Zhang still had a good physique, his muscles were no less than those of the younger folks. Before, Yang Ping and Xiao Su always thought about stopping them, but after several attempts, they gave up on the idea. After all, they were elderly people. Since they enjoyed it and it was a healthy activity, why stop them? Indeed, there was a risk of falls and fractures, but you can¡¯t just forbid them from participating because of that. It¡¯s like when he was a child, if adults said playing football or basketball could lead to injuries and prevented children from playing, the children would definitely think the adults were being unreasonable and overprotective. Yang Ping glanced at the hospital¡¯s group chat, which had already sent out a notice for the match¡ªa beautifully designed poster that seemed to mimic those of the Kunlun Decisions. It featured photos of the duel between Zhang Zongshun and Su Butong, the developed muscles, intense glares, and some special effects making it look like a top-tier fighting competition poster. Yang Ping had heard from Zhang Lin that the promotional work was handled by a dermatology graduate student, who had been the publicity director of the student union while in school. The chief medical officer for the match was listed as Yang Ping, followed by a long list of sponsors. Many shops inside and around Sanbo Hospital came to join the fun. A closer look showed that the couple selling beef offal on Sky Bridge and the old man selling baked sweet potatoes were also sponsors; the couple sponsored beef offal and the old man sponsored sweet potatoes. A nearby supermarket sponsored mineral water, Shuilian Bakery sponsored milk tea and bread, as milk tea was also their main product, not only them but other nearby places like Heytea and Happy Ice City were sponsors too. Yang Ping followed the list of sponsors and there were even fruit shops sponsoring fruits. The biggest sponsor was Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish; quite a generous sum of money was gathered, and after the match, the whole shop would provide free grilled fish, quite impressive! The event even had male and female commentators arranged, and it would be broadcast live on the big screen of Sanbo Hotel and in the hospital¡¯s group chat, with the hospital¡¯s security department in charge of maintaining order. This setup was quite something; Yang Ping had been busy with surgery and hadn¡¯t paid much attention, not realizing this had turned into such a big event. The scale was quite large and looked very professional; anyone unaware might think it was some kind of official top-level fighting competition, which was quite interesting. Zhang Zongshun saw Yang Ping standing nearby; Yang didn¡¯t try to stop him but instead cheered him on: ¡°Go Professor Zhang!¡± ¡°Be careful not to let Su Butong hear that, or he might criticize you,¡± said Zhang Zongshun as he warmed up. Yang Ping laughed: ¡°I¡¯ll cheer for both of you. However many cheers I shout here, I¡¯ll do the same there, just keeping things fair.¡± ¡°In three days, we¡¯ll have our official match. I¡¯ve told you the date a long time ago, you absolutely must not go out that day, you have to serve as our on-site health doctor, remember!¡± Zhang Zongshun reiterated. Seeing his seriousness, it didn¡¯t seem like a show; it really looked like a life-and-death struggle, making Yang Ping somewhat nervous for them. Yang Ping stood by a while longer, just as he thought about going back for a meal, Dean Xia, Dean Sun, Director Han, and Director Zhao, a group of hospital leaders, approached. Yang Ping was getting ready to greet them when the towering Dean Xia spoke first. ¡°Professor Yang, Professor Yang is here too!¡± Dean Xia¡¯s large hand grabbed Yang Ping¡¯s hand warmly and pulled him to the side. ¡°Professor Yang! You¡¯ll be having a tough job that day. I¡¯m quite nervous; you¡¯re the chief medical officer. I¡¯ll assign all main department heads of the entire hospital to follow your orders, with Xiong Sihai from emergency leading the medical response team himself,¡± said Dean Xia, sharing similar concerns as Yang Ping about the two elderly professors possibly facing issues. Such intense competition could easily lead to accidents like falls and fractures, or even heart overload. What to do if suddenly caught off guard? Both of them are prominent elderly experts, so Dean Xia felt a lot of pressure, thus personally taking the time to inspect the venue and inquire about every detail of the event to see if there were any oversights. Yet both elderly men were fearless, insisting they were over eighty, what¡¯s there to fear, as if not doing this would make them immortal? They actually left Dean Xia speechless. After all, the match was only three days away, now was the prime time for warming up, so here the crowd grew larger day by day; students who had finished their meals and had nothing to do crammed in here to see what was happening. Some doctors¡¯ families even brought along their elderly and children to enjoy the spectacle. ¡°Mr. Su Butong has come to familiarize himself with the venue,¡± someone in the crowd mentioned. Yang Ping quickly turned around; there was Grandfather Su, striding confidently surrounded by a bunch of people, and Yang Ping ran up to greet him: ¡°Grandfather!¡± Su Butong nodded slightly and gently patted Yang Ping on the shoulder: ¡°That day you¡¯ll be the chief medical officer, you know?¡± ¡°Got it, guaranteed to be on the spot every second.¡± Yang Ping patted his chest. Su Butong glanced at Zhang Zongshun, who was training: ¡°That day, if either of us falls and needs surgery, don¡¯t hesitate, just take him straight to the operating room. We¡¯ve already discussed this and will sign the documents before the competition.¡± This is serious! ¡°You see, his weakness is in his lower body, he¡¯s not as good as you are there, but your core strength isn¡¯t as good as his, so focus on attacking his lower body that day, make him struggle, and try not to use your core strength for heavy confrontations.¡± A coach, also an elderly man in his sixties or seventies, reminded Grandpa Su. Looking at Old Zhang¡¯s side, the coaches there were also elderly in their sixties or seventies, a real senior team. From their appearance, none of them seemed to be fooling around; they looked very serious. ¡°You do your thing, don¡¯t worry about me, I¡¯m going to train and get used to the field, after all, it¡¯s an away game.¡± Su Butong walked briskly into the adjacent field. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± Yang Ping turned around, it was the owner of Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish. ¡°Uncle Er!¡± Uncle Er, with his big belly, wearing a vest and big shorts and stepping in flip-flops, Yang Ping had always wondered. Uncle Er is a southerner, and grilled fish is a Sichuan dish, he puzzled over why Uncle Er didn¡¯t run a southern cuisine restaurant but a grilled fish one. ¡°How about coming over for a meal together, stir up some excitement, set up a table in the private room?¡± Uncle Er said enthusiastically. ¡°Of course, I heard you¡¯re the biggest sponsor?¡± Yang Ping asked. Uncle Er smiled, ¡°Originally there was not this part of sponsorship. When I heard about this, I thought about it, and it¡¯d be a waste not to participate. Later on, I found out that every business that got the message thought the same, but didn¡¯t know how to get into this network, so they came to ask me. I made the decision, based on the principle of voluntary participation, no limits on how much, forming a sponsor alliance, and that¡¯s how this came about. The person who led this is a doctor from your hospital, very clever at organizing, made it quite impressive, even included commentators.¡± Uncle Er accidentally forgot to speak Mandarin and slipped into Southern dialect. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have known how lively it was if I didn¡¯t come today.¡± Yang Ping looked around and said. He wanted to chat more, but Xiao Su called him to come home for dinner, Yang Ping had to say goodbye to everyone and rushed home for dinner. When crossing the Sky Bridge, Yang Ping passed by the vendors selling offal and roasted sweet potatoes and casually inquired about the sponsorship; they were all very happy to tell Yang Ping, as if being part of the sponsor alliance was a very honorable thing. They also told Yang Ping that the environmentally friendly meal boxes provided by the sponsors had been delivered, and they showed them to Yang Ping. The meal boxes were very refined, and the outer packaging had the event¡¯s promotional poster and slogan on it. ¡°I heard there¡¯s also a gym nearby that wants to join, but they registered too late, we already have enough sponsors, we won¡¯t accept them,¡± the owner of the offal shop proudly said. Chapter 1364 - 1364 1034 Not Forgetting Martial Arts Even ?Chapter 1364: Chapter 1034: Not Forgetting Martial Arts Even After Retirement Chapter 1364: Chapter 1034: Not Forgetting Martial Arts Even After Retirement The Tai Chi Pushing Hands match between the two elderly experts had the organizing committee of doctors and masters hyping it up for three days straight, whipping the entire hospital into a frenzy and whetting everyone¡¯s appetite to witness this battle of the century. Three days later, the match commenced on time at 7 p.m. The venue was packed with an audience of all ages, and both sides¡¯ coaching teams looked pumped up and ready to go. The commentators were two graduate students, and they had already started their enthusiastic commentary. ¡°Let¡¯s introduce the two masters competing today¡ªone is Master Zhang Zongshun from Sanbo Hospital, whose hands are incredibly powerful. Many martial arts experts have fallen to his formidable strength, and once an opponent gets caught in his grip, they are swept away like a hurricane. The other martial arts expert is Master Su Butong from Nandu Medical University Affiliated First Hospital. Master Su has spent years mastering Tai Chi Pushing Hands, and his combat strength is terrifying, particularly the impressive techniques of his legs, often catching his opponents off guard. Both masters are known as the Nandu Double Heroes, reigning over the martial arts world for eighty years without meeting their match¡ª¡± Yang Ping and Xiao Su had taken their seats in the front row early to watch the competition, leaving the kids at home for the elderly to take care of. Watching the two spirited graduate students on the commentators¡¯ platform, these two would be wasting their talents in medicine¡ªthey could earn more as game streamers. Gradually, more and more people arrived, including Dean Xia, Director Han, Dean Sun, Director Zhao, and several other hospital leaders, all of whom took their seats in the front row to observe the match. Medical support teams composed of department directors started to arrive as well, checking in with Chief Medical Officer Yang Ping before finding their seats in the front. Xiong Sihai from the emergency department had a few people and two stretchers on standby, while many graduate students brought in boxes of mineral water, someone in the crowd started handing out popcorn, and security was maintaining order between the rows. Manstein, supporting Brian, also appeared in the crowd. Yang Ping had a doctor guide them to sit next to him to watch the match. Regardless of how exciting the match itself was, the atmosphere was certainly built up successfully. Beside Yang Ping, Dean Xia asked Director Han, ¡°Can you use fists in Tai Chi Pushing Hands?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s allowed, is it?¡± Director Han turned to Dean Sun. ¡°Is it?¡± Dean Sun asked Director Zhao. Director Zhao, clueless, said, ¡°Isn¡¯t it Tai Chi Fist? Surely you can use fists, otherwise why call it Tai Chi Fist.¡± As the gong sounded, the match began. The referee gestured for the two to bow to each other, then another gesture, and at the sound of the whistle, Zhang Zongshun and Su Butong immediately charged forward. It was indeed a Tai Chi Pushing Hands match. Initially, both maintained a distance, eyeing each other warily, performing a few graceful Cloud Hands movements, before they moved in to engage each other¡¯s hands. Pushing back and forth, they didn¡¯t give an inch, pushing dozens of times as they each sought to figure out the other¡¯s strength. ¡°Now, both sides are listening, searching for where the other¡¯s strength is, how much there is, and what direction it¡¯s going, meanwhile gathering their Inner Strength. It¡¯s now a contest of Inner Strength. Although it may look calm on the surface, both sides¡¯ Inner Strength is surging like raging waves, ready to burst forth at any moment. Those too close to the competition area should be cautious to avoid being injured by the Inner Strength, as such internal injuries are difficult to treat.¡± ¡°However, true masters possess martial virtue and usually do not release their Inner Strength indiscriminately. Everyone tacitly adheres to the rule of not employing high-level techniques unnecessarily.¡± ¡°Alright, now the contest of Inner Strength continues, with neither side yielding and the strength accumulating to a terrifying level.¡± ¡°They¡¯re attacking!¡± ¡°The other side defended.¡± Suddenly, Zhang Zongshun pulled hard, expecting to use the momentum to throw Su Butong, but Su Butong, quite experienced, detected the opponent¡¯s intent and immediately stabilized his stance. Withdrawing his arm and then drawing a circle to pull it back, he defused the opponent¡¯s force, revealing a bit of true Tai Chi essence. The audience erupted into loud applause, and the commentators were once again carried away. ¡°It¡¯s said that both masters have entered the realm of Sparrow Doesn¡¯t Fly. That move just now, using an opponent¡¯s force against them, could not be executed without eighty years of practice. Any ordinary person would have been thrown ten meters away.¡± ¡°Do Old Zhang and Professor Su seriously know Tai Chi? Their sparring looks quite professional, almost like what you see on TV,¡± Dean Xia asked Yang Ping, astonished. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t sure how to explain, as he wasn¡¯t well-acquainted with the two elders, but as for Inner Strength, that probably didn¡¯t exist. ¡°Watch out!¡± the commentators shouted, startling several people in the front row into reflexively leaning back, as if some Inner Strength was actually assaulting them. Manstein and Brian followed, backing away as if there was a real force, with Yang Ping worrying about Brian¡¯s back after his recent surgery. It turned out that Su Butong had made a strong push, nearly causing Zhang Zongshun to fall. Fortunately, he managed to neutralize the opposing force in time, and the two resumed their back-and-forth pushing dozens of times. Neither of them would give in, and the competition became increasingly fierce. At the beginning, there was a bit of the Tai Chi Pushing Hands essence, with both parties moving in circles, continuously making Cloud Hands motions. Once they made contact, they would push and neutralize each other two or three times, sometimes managing to push dozens of times. For a long while, neither scored a point, and they both became more ferocious, grappling, wrestling, and disrupting each other¡¯s center of gravity upon contact. The movements grew more aggressive, and the desire to battle intensified. Professor Zhang seized an opportunity to trip Professor Su, who then pulled Professor Zhang down with him, resulting in both of them going down together. This completely changed the style of combat; the pair got up, and as the referee¡¯s whistle blew, but as the match went on, the Tai Chi moves disappeared, turning entirely into wrestling. Yang Ping was startled, realizing things were getting serious. Whenever either side fell, Yang Ping would tense up with worry. Soon, Professor Zhang scored by pulling Professor Su to the ground, and not long after, Professor Su immediately regained ground by tripping Professor Zhang and scoring a point. Their scoring was straightforward; if your opponent fell and you didn¡¯t, you scored a point, otherwise not. As the fight intensified, Yang Ping felt increasingly anxious. It was like watching two kids wrestling back and forth. The commentator, in sync with the actions on stage, let loose, turning the match into a battle straight out of a Jin Yong martial arts novel. The audience, too, was thrilled, as invested as if watching a real combat sport. The sponsor¡¯s distributed goods continued to be given out, including mineral water, milk tea, fruits, bread, roasted sweet potatoes, and beef offal, all freely accessible, making everyone at the event very happy. The match became fiercer, and any Tai Chi movements were now missing, leaving only the tactics of child-like wrestling¡ªno more listening, no more pushing hands, just simple motions like pushing, pulling, and tripping to bring the opponent down without regard for Tai Chi movements. After four rounds, the score was tied. In the last few seconds of the fourth round, both competitors were fiercely determined, and if not for the referee¡¯s whistle signaling the end of time, they would have continued clutching onto each other relentlessly. ¡°Watch your back!¡± ¡°Be careful with your hip joint!¡± Coaches from both sides shouted anxiously, fearing serious injuries as the intensity exceeded the referee¡¯s expectations. ¡°Old Zhang and Old Su have got some moves, huh?¡± Dean Xia was a bit surprised by their stamina, especially for eighty-year-olds. The fifth round was the last, and it ended without either scoring a point, still a tie. The referee wanted to declare a draw, but neither agreed, insisting on a decisive outcome. The referee had no choice but to extend the match, and after half an hour of added time, neither had the strength to throw the other down. They could only push hands against each other, their movements no longer standard due to fatigue. The referee was forced to declare a draw. The match began with pushing hands, turned into fierce primitive wrestling, and ended with pushing hands. As a doctor, Yang Ping hurried over to check on the two elderly masters. ¡°If the referee hadn¡¯t called a halt, you would have been down already.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a joke; I had already caught your leg, and it would definitely have been you falling if the referee hadn¡¯t stopped it.¡± The head of the cardiology department quickly performed auscultation on the two masters¡¯ hearts; thankfully, there were no problems. ¡°Come back next year!¡± ¡°Next year indeed!¡± Neither master would concede to the other, just like two stubborn kids. The audience was satisfied, thanks to the ample provisions from the sponsors. They made sure everyone was well-fed, especially with the post-match roasted fish, which was available for everyone. The tables weren¡¯t enough, so they added more outside. ¡°Professor, Chinese people really do value martial arts. Almost everyone practices martial arts, and many don¡¯t stop even after retirement. I¡¯ve seen a lot of elderly people practicing martial arts in the parks, some with boxing, some with swordplay, and others with strange skills I can¡¯t identify. Like some people vigorously slapping themselves, are they training their ability to withstand blows?¡± Manstein asked Yang Ping. Yang Ping couldn¡¯t say for sure, as he hadn¡¯t paid attention before. While Tai Chi and sword practice were easy to explain, he truly didn¡¯t know about those slapping themselves. Chapter 1365 - 1365 1035 Serious Complications ?Chapter 1365: Chapter 1035: Serious Complications Chapter 1365: Chapter 1035: Serious Complications The next day, as Yang Ping passed by the outpatient hall on his way to work in the morning, nurses were opening doors to various clinic rooms and promptly approached Yang Ping to report. Professor Zhang took a sick leave today; he cannot get out of bed. Yang Ping thought Professor Zhang might have injured himself during yesterday¡¯s competition, so he immediately called to inquire. It turned out that Professor Zhang had overexerted himself during the match, resulting in full-body muscle soreness, making it hard even to get out of bed, let alone walk. Just getting up to wash was a struggle, assisted by his spouse. Yang Ping planned to visit Professor Zhang¡¯s house, but the professor insisted it was unnecessary and a few days of rest would suffice. As long as everything was fine, Yang Ping felt relieved. Grandfather Su was almost in the same condition, experiencing full-body muscle soreness, making walking extremely difficult; he was also resting at home. Both elderly were indeed very dedicated, especially during the final match yesterday, pushing themselves to the brink of exhaustion, unable to even lift their hands or move their legs before they stopped. Yang Ping had been worried about this for a long time, but now that both elderly were fine, everyone was happy. The most benefited were those sponsors; since sponsoring their competition, their businesses have flourished incredibly, with people queuing for beef offals and baked sweet potatoes on the Sky Bridge. This seems to be the current trend of drawing in customers; the exposure these shops got from the competition increased their traffic significantly compared to before. This was entirely unexpected to Yang Ping, a simple pushing hands contest between two veteran experts gained so many unexpected benefits, inadvertently solving many problems for everyone, especially for the two stalls on the Sky Bridge. Their business nearly doubled, frequented not only by doctors and nurses but also residents from the surrounding communities, who upon learning the stories of these two stalls, became even more sympathetic and increasingly spent their money there. Now, in the communities and parks surrounding the hospital, there are many elderly practicing Tai Chi Pushing Hands, and many people in the hospital¡¯s garden casually pushing hands with each other. However, they all exercise for fitness, so there¡¯s no significant risk of falling. There are even rumors that Tai Chi Pushing Hands is a fitness program recommended by top orthopedic experts for the middle-aged and elderly. While Yang Ping was making rounds, Brian was exercising his lower back muscles; exercising the lower back muscles after lumbar surgery is crucial for quickly regaining spinal stability. In fact, whether it¡¯s lumbar surgery or lower limb surgery, especially major surgeries like hip or knee replacements, the primary requirement is to get out of bed and move around as soon as possible post-surgery. The expectation for such surgeries is to be able to get out of bed the following day. If not, still lying in bed the day after would greatly diminish the surgery¡¯s effectiveness and increase risks, even rendering the surgery meaningless. Elderly are most afraid of bedrest, which can easily lead to complications like deep vein thrombosis, lung infections, and bedsores, particularly deep vein thrombosis which is very dangerous. A young companion stood beside, counting for Brian, cleverly managing his relationship with him. The young man¡¯s girlfriend holds a Master¡¯s degree in Immunology. Recently, the young man brought his girlfriend¡¯s thesis to Brian, asking for editing help, which Brian was pleased to provide, and even agreed to help recommend journals for publication. ¡°Mr. Brian¡¯s lower back muscle exercises are quite standard, just need to increase the number each time,¡± Yang Ping said as he began making his rounds with the doctors. Brian quickly stopped exercising, smiling and said, ¡°The professor has come for rounds.¡± Yang Ping asked a few questions about the illness, then examined Brian, whose post-surgery recovery was progressing very well. ¡°How do you feel about our three-person ward?¡± Yang Ping inquired. Initially, to experience China¡¯s most authentic medical treatment, Brian requested to stay in a three-person ward. He was a bit uncomfortable at first, but gradually he adapted, feeling that living conditions were not a problem. Moreover, during his hospital stay, to give him a more authentic experience, all medical activities did not prioritize Brian, treating him entirely as a regular person, such as queuing for tests when required. Despite that, compared to the medical efficiency in Sweden, he would be willing to stay in a room for ten people. As for queueing, Brian could only laugh; in China, this is not even considered queueing, at most it¡¯s just a short wait. ¡°I feel very good, but now there¡¯s a new problem, I think I have developed a serious complication.¡± Brian looked gloomy, with a vacant expression in his eyes, and a distressed demeanor. A serious complication? The doctors following the rounds were all surprised, wasn¡¯t he doing well after the surgery? How could there be a serious complication? Everyone started speculating in their minds using their professional knowledge: Could it be sensory impairment in the perineal skin? Loss of anal sphincter contraction function? Or damage to sexual function? No way, Professor Yang¡¯s surgery is as steady as an old cow, how could it be? ¡°I have developed a serious complication and it¡¯s probably hard to cure. It will severely affect my life in the future,¡± Brian said worriedly. Yang Ping waited for him to continue, but Zimo was a bit anxious and immediately asked: ¡°Where do you feel uncomfortable?¡± ¡°Ah! After seeing a doctor in China and then going back to Sweden, every time I see a doctor in the future, I will go crazy because of their procrastination. I absolutely can¡¯t adapt to that slow pace, what should I do in the future, it will be a mental torture,¡± Brian let out a long sigh. Just this? Manstein beside him was also confused by this old guy for a moment, seeing his hollow eyes, he really thought he had developed some serious complication. But on second thoughts, this complication is indeed serious, sometimes it might cause harm for a lifetime. Everyone also suddenly realized, it seems that Europeans also like to joke, and they do it with a deadpan expression. After finishing the rounds, Yang Ping returned to his office and saw Huang Jiacai already waiting at the door, he was there to report on the wedding preparations. Yang Ping¡¯s wedding was almost ready, and many details had been settled by the organizing committee. However, Wang Changxin started his own thing, doing his own, he established a knockoff organizing committee. He ran to several major websites to buy projection advertising, purchased all the advertising slots of the big screens in the Provincial City, and also contacted the most impressive drone performance team in the country, planning to use over ten thousand drones for a splendid performance. He planned to project the images of Professor Yang and Nurse Su in the sky, displaying many dynamic scenes, including the scene of Professor Yang and Nurse Su performing surgery, and Nurse Su handing over instruments, essentially using drones to enact their love story once more. Manstein has been in close contact with Huang Jiacai because he prepared a secret mega gift package, which will shock the world and dazzle everyone, being unprecedented in world history. Chapter 1366 - 1366 1036 System on Vacation ?Chapter 1366: Chapter 1036: System on Vacation Chapter 1366: Chapter 1036: System on Vacation Huang Jiacai reported a whole lot, but actually, Yang Ping hardly listened, as his mind wasn¡¯t really on these matters, but rather pondering over his own research topic. Anyway, Huang Jiacai is reliable in handling tasks, and after his report, Yang Ping merely nodded symbolically. After Huang Jiacai left, Yang Ping resumed thinking about his research subject. Brian is extraordinarily accomplished in immunology, with some laboratory methodologies that are currently the most advanced in the world in the field of immunology. During this period, through intentional and casual interactions with him, Yang Ping learned a great deal about immunology. This knowledge is significantly meaningful for his scientific research, with some knowledge even directly substituting the original laboratory methods, enhancing the experimental efficiency. Yang Ping¡¯s current tumor-related research project will definitely apply knowledge from immunology, as the modified M13 bacteriophage must not provoke the immune system, or all previous efforts would be wasted. Moreover, when marking tumor cells, a vast amount of knowledge in immunology is involved, such as understanding antigens. Research on tumor treatment inevitably cannot bypass immunology, and now with a top expert like Brian here, Yang Ping is determined to extract his knowledge to the fullest. The modification of the M13 bacteriophage includes several major parts: transplanting the K factor onto the M13 bacteriophage, then finding a molecule that can pair with some characteristic substance on the surface of the tumor cell, using this pair of molecules for localization, recognition, and conjugation. Much like missile navigation, the modified M13 bacteriophage also needs its own navigation system, capable of recognizing and connecting with the tumor system. The whole process is extremely complex and also involves knowledge of targeted therapy, but these difficulties cannot deter Yang Ping. Not to mention having the system, even without it, he would still face challenges head-on. Yang Ping took this opportunity to enter the System Space to prepare for the experiment, but upon entering, he found the System Space had everything ¨C utterly empty. What¡¯s going on? Why is there only a pure space? The previous System Panel, equipment, and experimental subjects have all disappeared. As Yang Ping was perplexed, a string of text appeared in the space: The system has entered a dormancy period, the duration of dormancy is indefinite, to test the host¡¯s mastery of true knowledge and skills. What is this situation? Yang Ping had read many online novels before, not to say that he¡¯s seen it all, but he had a bit of knowledge. He had never heard of a system going on strike, let alone having the pretty name of testing whether the host had truly learned knowledge and skills from the system. Is this a test since he had implanted the system? To see if he had made good use of the system? ¡°System Space contraction countdown begins, 10-9-8-¡± Before Yang Ping could react, the System Space began to shrink, becoming smaller and smaller, until it completely contracted to a point, forcing Yang Ping to exit the System Space. Damn, the system is pulling this move, meaning that he now no longer has the system to use, and the duration of this period is unknown. Fortunately, he had been diligent, immersing himself in the system almost day and night since acquiring it, having read up everything inside many times, and made full use of all the functionalities of the system, exploiting the system¡¯s value every moment. Perhaps it¡¯s because of overdevelopment, the system is overwhelmed and now needs a rest. The system¡¯s unexpected dormancy was a bit of a surprise, but Yang Ping was not too saddened by it, because since the day he received the system he had been prepared for its departure. So now, the system¡¯s temporary leave did not impact him much, at least not psychologically, as he always considered the system as a tool and was not absolutely dependent on it. Although he temporarily had no system to use, Yang Ping¡¯s work still proceeded as normal. First, he began to research the modification plan for the M13 bacteriophage in his office using paper and pen. He drew an image of the M13 bacteriophage and clearly expressed its structure, marking all the parts that could be biologically disassembled and assembled. Then, looking at this picture, Yang Ping pondered where to mount the K factor and the Navigation factor. Yang Ping found that the training in the system over this period had strengthened his thinking, memory, and concentration capabilities immensely. The System Space not only allowed him to learn knowledge but also honed his abilities. He tried several schemes to mount the K factor and navigational factor onto the M13 bacteriophage. This step was not difficult for Yang Ping; the K factor, or kill tumor factor, was already available and had shown excellent effects in vitro. However, there was currently no suitable material for the navigation factor, which was the tricky part. How to allow this missile to precisely attack tumor cells, Yang Ping needed to acquire extensive information about the targets of the tumor cells. Lu Xiaolu had already been working on this topic in the laboratory, and had even collected some information in this regard. After clarifying the targets of the tumor cells, the next step would be to link these targets to the study of the navigation factor, as they must correspond with each other¡ªthe navigation factor needed to rely on these targets to identify tumor cells. Once recognition was completed, the M13 bacteriophage would bind with the tumor cells and inject the K factor into them, initiating the apoptosis of the tumor cells and completing the hunt of the tumor cells. Without the trial-and-error opportunities in the System Space, Yang Ping could only start conducting in-depth research on the targets himself, hoping to summarize a set of theories to screen the targets, which would save a lot of time and reduce the number of trials and errors. Yang Ping was accustomed to resting with his eyes closed. He leaned back in his chair with his eyes shut, immersed in his own thoughts, allowing his imagination to roam freely. How to make the modified M13 bacteriophage locate the tumor cells was a challenge since different tumor cells both share similarities and exhibit clear differences. Therefore, future modifications of the M13 bacteriophage would need to be personalized for different tumor cells, making it affinity specific for a type or a group of tumor cells. Just like the hepatitis B virus has a strong selectivity for stem cells, how could the modified M13 bacteriophage recognize the current experimental tumor cells¡ªSisi¡¯s tumor cells. Someone knocked on the door, and Yang Ping came back to reality from his thoughts: ¡°Come in!¡± It was Song Zimo who came in: ¡°I heard that Old Zhang is suffering from severe body aches. Should we go see him?¡± ¡°Is it serious?¡± Yang Ping was quite worried. Song Zimo said, ¡°It should be quite serious. I heard he couldn¡¯t bear it any longer. Just now, Liang Fatty, Zhang Lin, Little Five, and several others rushed to Old Zhang¡¯s house.¡± ¡°Why did those guys go see Old Zhang on their own without saying anything to us?¡± Song Zimo found it strange. ¡°Yeah, how come I didn¡¯t get any news?¡± Yang Ping checked his phone, which still had battery. Outside, a graduate student hurried by with a backpack. Song Zimo stopped him: ¡°Where are you going?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to Old Zhang¡¯s house,¡± said the graduate student. ¡°What happened to Old Zhang? What¡¯s this about not being able to bear it that Zhang Lin mentioned on the phone?¡± Song Zimo inquired. The graduate student immediately replied, ¡°Oh, he hasn¡¯t played the ¡®PUBG¡¯ game for several days now. He said he couldn¡¯t bear it any longer and asked a few guys to go over to his place today for a big session¡ª¡± Yang Ping and Song Zimo were immediately stunned. Chapter 1367 - 1367 1037 Chinese-style Thinking ?Chapter 1367: Chapter 1037: Chinese-style Thinking Chapter 1367: Chapter 1037: Chinese-style Thinking Without the support of the system, Yang Ping actually didn¡¯t feel too much discomfort. In the early days, Yang Ping would use the system¡¯s cloning ability to replicate cases for high difficulty, high-risk surgeries multiple times for training to ensure the success of the surgery. But later, the cost of cloning became too high, consuming a lot of points, so Yang Ping rarely used this function. Another reason was that Yang Ping had become very familiar with both normal and pathological anatomy, so he no longer needed to use the system¡¯s cloning ability. Temporarily without the system¡¯s help, Yang Ping lost a lot of opportunities to trial and error. However, he decided to strengthen innovation and improve methods to reduce some workload. Li Gaoyang at the American BG Company really couldn¡¯t hold on any longer, and Rolf suggested that he humble himself before Huang Jiacai to establish business cooperation and then use Huang Jiacai to pave the way for seeking medical treatment in China. At first, when Li Gaoyang asked Huang Jiacai for help, he put on airs like a haughty boss, but Huang Jiacai couldn¡¯t be bothered to deal with him. Later, as Li Gaoyang¡¯s illness became more and more severe and he could no longer afford to wait, he had to bow his head and negotiate with Huang Jiacai, hoping the two companies could reconcile. Li Gaoyang promised that as long as Huang Jiacai helped pave the way to Sanbo Hospital Surgery Research Institute for treatment, he would not only lift the sanctions against Ruixing Medical but would also share some advanced technologies with them. However, while Li Gaoyang said this aloud, he was already prepared in his heart; once the surgery was done and he recovered successfully, he could immediately breach the agreement¡ªcontinue with the sanctions, and the talk of technology sharing was just a pipe dream to fool a child. But Li Gaoyang was wrong. Others might foolishly fall for his trick, but who was Huang Jiacai? He didn¡¯t fall for Li Gaoyang¡¯s tactics at all. Huang Jiacai told Li Gaoyang that promises and agreements were useless. Instead, Huang Jiacai directly provided two lists to Li Gaoyang, demanding that he sign over the patent technologies on the provided patent list for Ruixing Medical¡¯s permanent free use and that he must deliver the entire set of technical information on the technology list to Ruixing. This made Li Gaoyang¡¯s teeth itch with hatred, as he had never encountered such a thug who wouldn¡¯t take the slightest loss. Eventually, Li Gaoyang had no choice but to convince the board of directors, finally agreeing to all of Huang Jiacai¡¯s demands. However, Huang Jiacai was still not at ease and required engineers to work overtime to verify the authenticity of these materials. Upon discovering that some fake materials were mixed in, this was unacceptable, and Huang Jiacai immediately closed the door to negotiation. Li Gaoyang was stunned. He thought he could fool Huang Jiacai, but instead, he shot himself in the foot. After much wrangling, he finally knocked on the door of negotiation with Huang Jiacai again, but now Huang Jiacai had doubled the original terms, causing Li Gaoyang to break into a sweat, never expecting to outsmart himself. After immense effort, they finally reached an agreement, and Huang Jiacai warned that if there was falsification again, the door to negotiation would be closed permanently, and Li Gaoyang should never expect his help again. Li Gaoyang got to witness Huang Jiacai¡¯s prowess¡ªsomeone who would do exactly as he said, someone who could do anything, his skin even thicker than Li Gaoyang¡¯s, his heart even darker. So for the provided information, Li Gaoyang didn¡¯t dare change a single word, and thus the negotiation was considered a success. Finally, the medical channel was opened. Accompanied by Rolf, Li Gaoyang came to China Sanbo Hospital to see Yang Ping for treatment. After staying in a hotel for a week, he finally met the legendary Yang Ping. In the consultation room of the International Medical Department of Sanbo Hospital. ¡°Professor Yang, what do you think, is the surgery a safe bet?¡± Li Gaoyang asked respectfully. Yang Ping sat upright in the chair, squinting his eyes at the films on the light box, not answering his question, while Rolf tugged at Li Gaoyang¡¯s sleeve, signaling him not to disturb Professor Yang¡¯s contemplation. Li Gaoyang was now well-disciplined by Huang Jiacai and saw all Chinese people as Huang Jiacai, so he had already developed a psychological barrier. But the more Yang Ping kept silent, the more anxious Li Gaoyang became. Could it be that he had arrived too late, and even Professor Yang was out of options? Oh, how good it would have been if he hadn¡¯t played tricks with Huang Jiacai at the beginning and had simply agreed to his terms. Now the price has been paid, but it¡¯s not guaranteed that his life will be saved. ¡°How is it?¡± Li Gaoyang saw Yang Ping take his eyes off the images and drink some tea, but still, he did not respond to him. Yang Ping continued to study the CT images; this intracranial tumor was indeed dangerous, but such surgeries were all too common for him to perform, and it wasn¡¯t something very difficult. To him, it was just a routine case, but Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t speak carelessly before he had thoroughly researched it, no matter how insistent Li Gaoyang was, so for the time being, he maintained his silence. ¡°?¡± This time, Li Gaoyang didn¡¯t dare to ask again and could only stare at Yang Ping, hoping for an answer. After all, it was crucial to know whether it was a matter of life or death. ¡°There¡¯s nothing special, admit for a normal surgery.¡± This was the conclusion Yang Ping reached after examining the images. An assistant beside him immediately began the process for Li Gaoyang¡¯s hospital admission. Li Gaoyang felt indignant inside; he was a VIP of the International Medical Department, after all. According to American practice, shouldn¡¯t you spend an hour chatting with me to justify the expensive registration fee I paid? The registration fee was twenty thousand US dollars, twenty thousand real US dollars. Next patient, please. Yang Ping didn¡¯t seem to plan to talk more with him. Actually, it was quite normal. Yang Ping was very busy these days, and he did not have time to spend over an hour on a not particularly complicated case when he had many other things to do. The VIP commissioner accompanying Li Gaoyang was a young graduate student, who led Li Gaoyang and Rolf out of the consultation room. Li Gaoyang, furious but not daring to speak out, could only ask the doctor in secret. After all, this doctor had accompanied them throughout the whole consultation. ¡°What¡¯s the situation? Why didn¡¯t Professor Yang say anything and just mentioned hospital admission?¡± Li Gaoyang was quite puzzled. The doctor straightforwardly said, ¡°Yours is a common case. Professor Yang has to perform many such surgeries each month. He doesn¡¯t need to give too many explanations. If he spends too much time on your case, the patients following you won¡¯t get their turn, and they¡¯d have to wait a long time. Similarly, if he spends a lot of time on the patients before you, you would have to wait indefinitely.¡± Li Gaoyang finally understood the principle. That is, if Professor Yang changed his style to what he believed to be the American doctors¡¯ style, he wouldn¡¯t even have had the chance to see Professor Yang. ¡°Thank you!¡± Li Gaoyang was grateful that Professor Yang was an efficient doctor. If he spent one or two hours offering each patient enough humane care, Li Gaoyang would still be waiting in America for news. ¡°You just said that my condition is not special, a common case, does that mean the surgery has a high success rate?¡± Li Gaoyang asked again. The graduate student replied, ¡°Yes, let me tell you the truth, if Professor Yang had to talk to you more, it would mean your surgery has less certainty.¡± ¡°I understand completely now, thank you.¡± Li Gaoyang was very happy inside; he had finally grasped the Chinese way of seeing a doctor. Chapter 1368 - 1368 1038 International Medical Department ?Chapter 1368: Chapter 1038 International Medical Department Chapter 1368: Chapter 1038 International Medical Department Throughout the entire morning in the International Medical Department, Yang Ping saw twenty patients, each getting an average of about ten minutes of his time. In the VIP clinics of any other hospital, such a brief consultation time would be unacceptable, but Yang Ping¡¯s patients are different; they are totally satisfied as long as they can secure an appointment with him, even if it¡¯s just for a minute, and would never complain about the lack of time. Now, Yang Ping runs outpatient clinics two mornings a week, on Monday morning and Friday morning. On Mondays, he attends to general outpatient cases at the Surgical Research Institute, and on Fridays, he sees VIP patients in the International Medical Department. Anyway, each month¡¯s release of his expert consultation slots is snatched up within seconds. To eliminate the disruption caused by scalpers, Sanbo Hospital requires real-name registration for expert consultation appointments online through the Official Website. After securing an appointment, patients print out a certificate, and they must bring their ID cards when they visit the hospital, where the guiding nurses carefully verify the identity against the ID card. Of course, there are some expert appointment slots reserved on site as well, but these are specifically for the elderly, especially for those who do not know how to use the internet. Although this system is not entirely foolproof, it basically eliminates the nuisance caused by scalpers. In reality, scalpers would find it difficult to succeed without inside help. Dean Xia despises scalpers the most, so he manages this area with a firm hand, tackling the issue both internally and externally, eradicating scalpers from their roots. With a large hospital like Sanbo Hospital, there are always a lot of patients every day, and many undesirables such as scalpers, con artists, medical scalpers, and thieves proliferate around them. The area used to be quite chaotic, but after several crackdowns by the security department, their presence has now virtually vanished. Scalpers, con artists, thieves, and medical scalpers are considered four plagues of large hospitals, which are generally difficult to eradicate because they often have collusions with certain miscreants within the hospital, making complete eradication impossible. Most hospital directors come from a background of doctors and professors, lacking experience in dealing with such criminals. There have even been occurrences of renowned professors publicly denouncing scalpers for reselling their expert appointments, only to end up getting stabbed by the scalpers. To root out these four nuisances, Dean Xia has put a lot of thought into it. He not only established a system that is strict and transparent but also utilized network technology to create a stable and efficient Official Website, along with integration using the Official Account, achieving a networked operation of the entire hospital. The networked system of Sanbo Hospital didn¡¯t cost much¡ªa mere one million-plus RMB for the Official Website, the Official Account, medical service robots, and so forth. In contrast, Affiliated Hospital No. 4 reportedly spent thirty million RMB to network, which ended up being terribly inefficient and prone to crashes and sluggish performance, rendering the system practically unusable, with many machines serving merely as decorations. Many people wondered why Affiliated Hospital No. 4¡¯s networking project, which cost so much, turned out to be such a disaster. It was later revealed that the issues involving Director Qian were extensive, and when he was uprooted, a slew of debris surfaced, leading to the removal of over a dozen leaders¡ªessentially a clean sweep¡ªwhich also clarified the overpriced networking fiasco. It was said that the actual contractor who did the work only received three hundred thousand RMB. Doing a thirty million RMB job for just three hundred thousand, the contractor was actually quite conscientious. Hence, having money doesn¡¯t necessarily ensure success; it also requires a director like Dean Xia. To eliminate the ¡°four pests,¡± Sanbo Hospital introduced a surveillance system with facial recognition. Now, those who make a living off such schemes are immediately apprehended by security as soon as they enter the hospital, where the guards handle them roughly. Therefore, after a few incidents, the habitual offenders dare not come here to operate anymore. In fact, scalpers, con artists, thieves, and medical scalpers are typically repeat offenders; there are rarely any newcomers, and those who are new quickly become regulars and are directly added to Sanbo Hospital¡¯s blacklist. Obtaining an appointment with Yang Ping is actually not difficult. It¡¯s not that there are few people seeking his treatment; rather, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s outpatient system utilizes a two-tier screening process. Not everyone can casually book an appointment with a specialist like Yang Ping. If every minor injury, like a twisted waist, were to book his slot, then those patients who urgently need to be saved would be displaced. Outstanding specialists need to be reserved for where they are most needed. Thus, Sanbo Hospital introduced an exclusive nationwide system: the two-tier outpatient referral mechanism. Patients coming to Sanbo Hospital can¡¯t directly book an appointment with an expert. They must first consult with a general doctor. Cases that the general doctors feel unsure about or consider challenging are entered into the hospital¡¯s system. Then, patients go to the Sanbo Hospital Official Website to snatch up expert appointments. Without their name and ID number entered into the system, they can not access the appointment-snatching portal. If a patient urgently needs to see an expert, general doctors can directly opt for the green channel, which does not require appointment-snatching and gets them fast-tracked to the specialist. To prevent general doctors from making arbitrary referrals, experts monitor them in reverse. If an expert finds that a certain doctor frequently refers patients who do not meet the criteria for an expert appointment, they can pull up all of their referred patients from the computer and assess the proportion of unqualified referrals. If the standard is consistently not met, that general doctor¡¯s right to refer to experts may be revoked and they will need to pass an assessment to regain the privilege. This system is designed so that patients in need can see experts, improving the efficiency of consultations. Thus, patients with minor ailments like twisted waists, slightly sore necks, or cysts on the back of the hand do not get the chance to consult experts like Yang Ping. Otherwise, even an ingrown toenail would occupy an expert slot, leading to the squeezing of medical resources. In this way, not only does it avoid the inefficient medical weaknesses that can be fatal in Western countries, but it also curbs the tendency to crowd out experts for minor and major illnesses alike. This achieves a balance by integrating strengths, prioritizing both efficiency and quality. Therefore, it¡¯s not at all an exaggeration to say that Dean Xia is a master in administration. He spends every day thinking about how to better manage the hospital, especially after Sanbo Hospital¡¯s emergence of a genius like Yang Ping. Dean Xia¡¯s ambitions are soaring; he aims to transform the hospital into a world-class institution. Currently, the hospital¡¯s International Medical Department has been in operation for a while and has performed very well. Several world tycoons and national dignitaries have started to make appointments for the medical services of the Surgical Research Institute. The fee for an appointment is twenty thousand US Dollars, higher even than Mayo, which had met with opposition initially. Dean Xia argued, why can¡¯t it be higher than Mayo? If they can earn money from the Chinese, why can¡¯t we earn from them? Our pricing is based on our medical skills, not on others¡¯ prices, which are only a reference. Now, it seems that a fee amounting to several hundred thousand RMB or twenty thousand US Dollars for an appointment is not an issue at all. Those interested do not see it as a significant sum. After seeing patients all morning and drinking a pot of tea, Yang Ping¡¯s patients were all in need of surgery. In fact, getting an appointment with Yang Ping isn¡¯t as simple as just wanting one. To consult with Yang Ping, one must first be seen by Zimo or Xu Zhiliang, who will decide if there¡¯s a need for Yang Ping to personally see the patient. Otherwise, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t have enough hours in a day, let alone a year, to see all the patients. ¡°Professor Yang, are you satisfied with the clinic environment?¡± inquired the director of the International Medical Department with concern. The Surgical Research Institute led by Yang Ping is the core medical force of their department, with the majority of patients coming specifically for their service. It¡¯s essential to provide them with exemplary care. Yang Ping glanced around the clinic: ¡°Very good.¡± Chapter 1369 - 1369 1039 Building Our Own System ?Chapter 1369: Chapter 1039: Building Our Own ¡°System Chapter 1369: Chapter 1039: Building Our Own ¡°System The issue of translation has always given Director Lian headaches, not to mention the minor languages, even finding a translator with some medical knowledge in English is extremely difficult. Medical specialties carry a high degree of specificity, and if a translator comes from an English background, no matter how many medical terms they learn, they can¡¯t understand the medical knowledge and can only translate rigidly, which sometimes leads to misunderstandings when the translation is not good. Therefore, translation at medical academic conferences has always been a big challenge and can only be managed as it comes. Many conferences end up being translated by the doctors themselves, not only the conferences, but in fact, most medical textbooks are translated by the doctors too. Generally, the top talents in the medical industry have a high level of English proficiency, which is considered standard. After running for some time, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s International Medical Department has gained some experience. After all, domestically there is no hospital that currently owns a true International Medical Department, even if there are International Medical Departments, they cannot be considered as genuinely facing the world. It can be said that the establishment of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s International Medical Department is without precedent in China. For instance, the likelihood of European and American tycoons and politicians seeking medical treatment at Sanbo Hospital is extremely slim in other hospitals. Currently, except for the issue of translating minor languages, Yang Ping is quite satisfied with other aspects. The International Medical Department as a whole feels very professional, and everyone has devoted a lot of effort to it. After finishing his outpatient rounds and lunch, Yang Ping rested in the department at noon, and started his surgery in the afternoon. In any case, every day was fully scheduled, with work revolving around seeing patients and performing surgeries. After completing the day¡¯s surgeries in the afternoon, Yang Ping found time to bring the doctors from the Surgical Research Institute to visit these international friends, including Li Gaoyang. Yang Ping had seen Li Gaoyang¡¯s head CT images before. At that time, it was John Ansen from the Mayo Clinic who sent the CT images to Yang Ping for consultation on the diagnosis and treatment suggestions. Yang Ping¡¯s memory of case data far surpassed others, almost reaching a level of photographic memory, a skill formed from dealing with a large volume of medical records in the System Space. Accompanied by Director Lian and the supervising doctor of the International Medical Center, Yang Ping arrived at the ward, and when he saw Li Gaoyang, he was using a laptop to look up some information. By his side was his companion Rolf and a blonde woman; his visit to China was very low-key, bringing only these two people. Rolf is Li Gaoyang¡¯s good friend and childhood companion, a member of the family, and the blonde woman is his personal secretary. Although he is in the hospital, there are still many affairs that need to be handled. Seeing Yang Ping coming to check the ward, Li Gaoyang couldn¡¯t help feeling a bit nervous. Not long ago, he had acquired the thinking pattern of seeking medical care in the Chinese style, according to which receiving special attention from the doctor indicated that one¡¯s illness was more complicated and serious compared to others. Now seeing Yang Ping coming to the ward to visit him in the afternoon, he was very worried. ¡°Is there anything wrong with my illness?¡± Li Gaoyang asked worriedly. Yang Ping said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t be nervous, we¡¯re just making our routine rounds.¡± Li Gaoyang, who manages such a large family business and has seen countless people and himself is a high-ranking figure with a strong imposing presence, felt that the aura of Yang Ping, in front of him, was much stronger than his, with a confidence and composure on his face that he had never seen before. Yang Ping asked a few simple questions related to the illness and then said: ¡°I have seen your head CT images before?¡± Although the CT images from that time and the current CT images of Li Gaoyang show that the tumor in the skull has grown a bit, Yang Ping could still tell that the two sets of CT images were of the same person, but the illness had progressed. Upon hearing this question, Li Gaoyang¡¯s face turned pale with fright. He thought that Yang Ping was bringing up past issues, and given his previous egregious behavior, Yang Ping was likely to refuse performing the main surgery on him. But then, Li Gaoyang thought that his current surgical appointment was arranged by Huang Jiacai, so everything should have been smoothed out already. Uncertain and perplexed, Li Gaoyang had no idea how to answer, fearing that a wrong response might result in inconceivable consequences. ¡°This¡ªthis¡ª¡± Li Gaoyang stammered. Yang Ping was very confident in his judgement. Other judgements might be mistaken, but this kind was absolutely correct. So, without waiting for a definite answer, he said: ¡°Compared to the CT images I¡¯ve seen before, the volume of the tumor on your current CT images has enlarged, so it¡¯s good that you¡¯ve come in time. However, it is now very dangerous, and surgery is needed as soon as possible.¡± Li Gaoyang, gauging Yang Ping¡¯s reactions and responding said: ¡°Yes, yes, thank you, Professor Yang.¡± Seeing that Yang Ping was only talking about the illness without caring about anything else, he quickly added: ¡°Previously, Dr. John Ansen from Mayo was my primary doctor, and he sent my CT images to you to consult your opinion.¡± After speaking, Li Gaoyang nervously observed Yang Ping¡¯s reaction. Yang Ping nodded slightly: ¡°I thought so. I¡¯ve seen your CT images before, and I wouldn¡¯t forget them.¡± Li Gaoyang breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself: John Ansen was right, Professor Yang has a photographic memory for these case files, and he surely remembers the images he has seen. It¡¯s good that I listened to John Ansen¡¯s advice and didn¡¯t try to deceive Professor Yang, but resolved the issue through honest negotiations. Apart from Li Gaoyang, Yang Ping also made his rounds to see each international patient staying in the hospital. The Surgical Research Institute is the core technical force of the International Medical Department, and naturally, Yang Ping would come to make rounds himself. Director Lian also followed Yang Ping, collecting information along the way to see if there were still areas for improvement. After completing the rounds in the International Medical Department, Yang Ping returned to his office and sent an email to Professor He at Nandu Medical University about the scheme for modifying M13 bacteriophage. The work of trial and error for the modification of M13 bacteriophage is gigantic; it was previously the responsibility of the System Space Laboratory to complete, but now, without the help of the System Space, Yang Ping decided to delegate the task to the computer. Using his knowledge in mathematics and biochemistry, Yang Ping proposed a method of using the computer for screening. For this method, Professor He¡¯s team would need to establish a model and use it for screening, which could significantly speed up the process and avoid wasting a large amount of manpower and time. After recently obtaining funding, Professor He began recruiting a lot of talents. In addition to the original team, he hired experts in mathematics, artificial intelligence, and other areas, intending to upgrade Digital Human Technology and establish a Digital Human platform relying on artificial intelligence. The plan for the supercomputer server at Nandu Medical University has also been put on the agenda. The discussion is now focused on where to build the machine room. Once the location is determined, Nandu Medical University will establish a supercomputing center, which will be mainly used by the Digital Medical Laboratory. Although temporarily without the System¡¯s assistance, Yang Ping did not slow down his research efforts. He decided to fully utilize computers, especially supercomputers, to assist him in his scientific research. Having read a vast number of books in various disciplines in the System Space library, he had amassed extensive knowledge, and now was the time to make use of it. In the past, with the help of the System Space, the desire to develop various computer-assisted platforms might not have been so strong. Now, without the System, this need is very urgent. Moreover, Yang Ping believes he has the capability since he had conducted extensive research on the ¡°optimal choice¡± problem in the past and possesses systematic knowledge in this area, a capability lacking in other medical researchers. Since there is no System for the time being, Yang Ping now plans to build his own ¡°system¡± in reality, a ¡°system¡± that can not only help himself but also many others. Chapter 1370 - 1370 1040 Artificial Intelligence ?Chapter 1370: Chapter 1040 Artificial Intelligence Chapter 1370: Chapter 1040 Artificial Intelligence Using computer-assisted scientific research, artificial intelligence is at the forefront. For example, in the field of protein structural biology, scientists have been using artificial intelligence to predict the complex structures of proteins. There is a company under Google called ¡°DeepMind,¡± which uses artificial intelligence for biological research and has achieved remarkable accomplishments in this area. The company developed the artificial intelligence model ¡°Alpha Fold 2.¡± This model successfully solved a problem that baffled scientists for decades¨C¨Cpredicting protein structures from amino acid sequences. Since its inception, ¡°Alpha Fold 2¡± has been used in numerous scientific applications, with over two million people from about 190 countries utilizing the ¡°Alpha Fold 2¡± model. For instance, pharmacologists have used it in applications such as antibiotic resistance, finding new treatments for diseases like malaria, developing new targeted drugs, protein research, etc., studies that will help people better understand diseases and develop new drugs faster. In the realm of protein research, ¡°Alpha Fold 2¡± greatly shortens the time it takes to manually determine protein structures, showcasing the powerful supportive role of artificial intelligence in scientific research. Previously, a top scientific research team could only resolve around a dozen protein structures per year, but Alpha Fold 2 can resolve hundreds of millions of proteins at a time, an efficiency that showcases a time advantage on an incomparable scale. Artificial intelligence not only has a tremendous advantage in predicting protein structures but also in designing protein structures. There are a limited number of protein types in nature. To achieve certain specific purposes, researchers hope to create new protein types, such as applying new proteins to achieve the goal of curing diseases. Similarly, artificial intelligence models also have significant advantages in this aspect. They can design entirely new protein structures that do not exist naturally in a very short time. If this task were to be carried out by humans, it would require a great deal of manpower and time. Currently, a university research team in the United States has already taken a leading role in this area. Yang Ping thought that if scientists¡¯ ideas and methods could be expressed through an artificial intelligence model, its power would be astonishing. This is akin to having a powerful ¡°system¡± assisting researchers in conducting their scientific research. Thinking of this, Yang Ping¡¯s plan in his mind is already very clear; he wants to use the knowledge he has mastered to build an artificial intelligence model to assist scientific research. For example, a certain harmless bacterium currently carrying the K-factor, if done manually, it¡¯s uncertain whether the results will be in ten years or twenty years, but with the help of artificial intelligence, the optimal structure might be obtained in a few minutes. If modeling is required, it must rely on a combination of knowledge in mathematics, computational science, and biology. In this regard, Yang Ping, whose native language is Chinese, has a natural advantage. He has read a large number of monographs and papers in the System Space, all of which were translated by the system at that time, equivalent to Yang Ping reading almost all the world¡¯s excellent works and papers in Chinese. And the interdisciplinary advantage of Chinese is unmatched by any other language in the world. Yang Ping handed this project over to Director He because this artificial intelligence model must be based on Director He¡¯s Digital Human to achieve many targets in medical research. When Director He received this project from Yang Ping, he thought it would be difficult to complete by himself alone, so he teamed up with Nandu University and Nandu University of Technology to establish the artificial intelligence model. Nandu University has strong mathematics, while Nandu University of Technology has accumulated expertise in artificial intelligence. The three universities joined forces to take advantage of each other¡¯s strengths to build this artificial intelligence model. As for the matter of funding, with Yang Ping¡¯s support, that was not an issue at all. Yang Ping¡¯s thoughts are now very clear; use artificial intelligence to establish a ¡°system¡± in reality, enhance the efficiency of scientific research, reduce detours, and decrease the number of trials and errors. Yang Ping checked the time; he was not in a hurry to go home from work yet, he could still go to the Stem Cell Laboratory to see and chat with Tang Shun about the recent progress in scientific research. Lately, Tang Shun had recruited some new people; it was unknown how well the team was gelling. Li Yingtong, a leading stem cell talent imported from the United States, had been quiet, and it was unclear what she was thinking or whether she could be retained. Yang Ping had pondered whether or not to keep Li Yingtong and eventually believed that Tang Shun had the capability to retain her. If it were someone else, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t dare take the risk, but for Tang Shun, not to say 100% confidence, there was at least 80% confidence that Li Yingtong could be retained. Upon arriving at the Stem Cell Laboratory, Tang Shun was in a meeting, and Yang Ping did not wish to disturb them; he chose an office to rest and wait until the meeting dispersed. Since Tang Shun took charge of the laboratory, he had managed it impeccably, not only recruiting a large number of top talents but also allowing these talents to unite and work together closely, and furthermore, he carved out many avenues for the laboratory to generate income continuously. Yang Ping was very satisfied with Tang Shun¡¯s work; he is a high-end talent with intelligence, emotional intelligence, and financial acumen. About fifteen minutes later, Tang Shun finished the meeting and came to the office to see Yang Ping: ¡°Professor Yang, I apologize for keeping you waiting.¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing urgent, I just came to take a casual look and chat with you. Are you busy?¡± said Yang Ping. Chapter 1371 - 1371 1040 Artificial Intelligence_2 ?Chapter 1371: Chapter 1040: Artificial Intelligence_2 Chapter 1371: Chapter 1040: Artificial Intelligence_2 Tang Shun knew that whenever Professor Yang had time, he would come over to take a casual look, so he said: ¡°I was just about to go and find you, I have important matters to report to you.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± Seeing Tang Shun¡¯s excited look, Yang Ping guessed that this matter was not trivial. Tang Shun immediately opened the folder he was holding: ¡°Here¡¯s the situation, Professor. Our Stem Cell Laboratory is preparing to launch a brand new service globally. We¡¯ve tentatively named this service the ¡®Rejuvenation Project.¡¯ Here¡¯s what it entails: we plan to offer anti-aging and vitality-boosting treatments to the world¡¯s wealthy using stem cell technology to combat aging and extend life spans. Currently, many stem cell teams around the world are working on this, but their technology is far behind ours. Especially regarding stem cell culture technology, we are at the very top globally. With our new technology, we can quickly and safely cultivate a large number of high-quality stem cells. These stem cells, aside from their use in scientific research, are also left surplus. Therefore, I plan to launch a stem cell anti-aging treatment project with a starting price of ten million US dollars per treatment. Conservatively estimated, this project could bring us tens of billions of US dollars in revenue every year. This way, our laboratory won¡¯t have to rely on donations and can have a continuous supply of funds.¡± A project that can bring in tens of billions of US dollars in revenue is definitely a big deal. With money, things are easy to do, and Yang Ping has always believed in this. Scientific research yielding results is actually about piling up funds and talent, so Yang Ping immediately became interested. After giving it some thought, Yang Ping found Tang Shun¡¯s ¡®Rejuvenation¡¯ project to be reasonable and legitimate. Using stem cells to delay aging and improve health is a good cause. This young man¡¯s brain is quite useful; not only does he conduct scientific research that stands out, and manages his team in an orderly manner, but he¡¯s also able to make big bucks. The decision to snap up a rare talent like Tang Shun from Japan with a flying knife was indeed lucky. ¡°Making money is good, but don¡¯t forget our original intention. My original intention is for scientific research, not making money. Making money is just a means, not an end,¡± Yang Ping gently tapped the desk. Tang Shun confidently said, ¡°Professor, please rest assured, we won¡¯t forget our original intention. Scientific research is our main pursuit; making money is just a side business. Without our lead in research, how could we have side businesses that earn money? Letting these side businesses fund our main pursuit creates a positive cycle. The wealthy have money, and we have technology; it¡¯s a mutually beneficial arrangement. They can continuously provide us with funds for scientific research so that we can go further.¡± Yang Ping did not speak, pondering something. Tang Shun, thinking that Yang Ping disagreed, asked: ¡°Professor? Is there a problem?¡± After thinking for a while, Yang Ping said, ¡°Hmm, this idea is very good, I support you, go ahead boldly. However, your pricing is too conservative. In the future, as our reputation grows, the prices should go higher, or offer different levels of service at varying prices. High-end projects should be priced at hundreds of millions of US dollars each. That way, we can quickly introduce wealth and direct the flow of funds into our scientific research. I recently asked Director He to begin developing artificial intelligence for medical biology with ¡®Digital Humans,¡¯ which requires a significant amount of funding. So, get this project up and running as soon as possible, and keep the funds flowing into our research funding pool.¡± Tang Shun breathed a sigh of relief; the Professor was even bolder than himself, talking about such large numbers right off the bat. A professor is indeed a professor, with a high stance, a far-sighted view, and a decisive approach. ¡°Tell me in detail about your ¡®Rejuvenation Project,''¡± Yang Ping was very interested in hearing the details of the plan, deciding to listen carefully to the project¡¯s specifics. Tang Shun immediately gestured towards the door: ¡°Yingtong, come in!¡± Li Yingtong quickly walked in from the outside office, carrying a document. Tang Shun explained to Yang Ping: ¡°Li Yingtong is now my secretary. Let her give you a detailed introduction to the project. We¡¯ve discussed it several times in meetings, and everyone unanimously agrees. Now we¡¯re just waiting for your approval.¡± ¡°You all have autonomy; you don¡¯t need my approval. However, I can still offer my opinion,¡± Yang Ping corrected Tang Shun¡¯s misconception about needing his final decision. ¡°Go ahead!¡± Yang Ping gestured with his hand, signaling Li Yingtong to start her presentation. Li Yingtong¡¯s face blushed slightly as she began to introduce the project in detail to Yang Ping. In fact, during this time, Li Yingtong had gained a deep understanding of Yang Ping, the big boss ¨C a rare genius figure, whom she couldn¡¯t help but admire. Working under someone like him was a fortunate thing. Looking at Li Yingtong¡¯s current good condition, it seemed that Tang Shun had already tamed her, Yang Ping considered to himself. He couldn¡¯t help feeling pleased; Li Yingtong was a top talent in the stem cell field. If she could be retained to join the Sanbo team, her close collaboration with Tang Shun would certainly become a golden partnership in the world of stem cell research. Li Yingtong started to explain the detailed content of the ¡°Rejuvenation Project¡±. Her thoughts were clear, presenting the entire plan with concise language. During this, Yang Ping raised several core questions, to which she responded very thoroughly. After the introduction, Yang Ping had gained a basic understanding of the project. In fact, the use of stem cell technology to delay aging has already become popular worldwide, and many wealthy individuals don¡¯t care about money; they¡¯re willing to spend lavishly for a single stem cell anti-aging treatment. Because this project is very profitable, the field of stem cell therapy is currently a mixed bag, full of impostors using the label of stem cells to deceive, making it difficult for those with genuine needs to discern the true from the false. If top-notch stem cell technology can be applied to the healthcare of the wealthy, it might well serve as a great method of wealth redistribution. Yang Ping nodded after hearing this: ¡°Very good! I don¡¯t have any other suggestions, just one thing, you must create a set of rigorous application procedures to ensure the safety of stem cell application, such as avoiding contamination, avoiding low quality.¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to develop a complete set of operating procedures next, and we also plan to inspect some of the more successful laboratories internationally to learn from their experiences,¡± Tang Shun said with full confidence. After reporting to Yang Ping and leaving his office, Li Yingtong departed. Once she was gone, Yang Ping gestured for Tang Shun to close the door to the office. ¡°Doctor Tang, what¡¯s the situation with Li Yingtong?¡± Yang Ping asked. Tang Shun used to call her Dr. Li, then Li Yingtong, and now Yingtong. There must be something going on. At that time, Yang Ping had given Tang Shun a strict order to keep Li Yingtong¡¯s heart and person by any means necessary. He had been too busy lately to check on the progress of this secret mission, and now was a good opportunity to find out. When asked by Yang Ping, Tang Shun¡¯s face turned slightly red. Yang Ping was quite surprised¡ªthis guy usually navigated among a dozen girlfriends with ease, and now he¡¯s blushing? What¡¯s going on? ¡°Yingtong is pregnant now, and we are planning to get married, I haven¡¯t had the chance to report this to you yet,¡± Tang Shun said with a flushed face. That fast? Tang Shun is getting married? Would his dozen girlfriends agree to this? Especially those Japanese women, wouldn¡¯t they cause a fuss? Could this lead to an international incident? Would a group of women besiege the Sanbo Stem Cell Laboratory? A string of questions ran through Yang Ping¡¯s mind, but after a little thought, he imagined a different scene: at Tang Shun¡¯s wedding, his dozen girlfriends gathered around one table, happily congratulating Li Yingtong: ¡°We¡¯re really sorry for the trouble! Please take good care of Mr. Tang Shun for us.¡± ¡°You¡¯re getting married?¡± Yang Ping asked curiously. ¡°Yes, Yingtong agreed to stay. If I ask, she¡¯s even willing to resign and become a full-time wife, to have lots of children for me,¡± Tang Shun said somewhat shyly. ¡°Really?¡± Yang Ping could hardly believe his ears, ¡°A full-time wife is not ideal, it would be best for you to work together as a couple to achieve earth-shattering results in the stem cell field.¡± Tang Shun shared his own thoughts: ¡°That¡¯s what I think too.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have to pack up and leave now, do I?¡± Tang Shun joked with a smile. Yang Ping gave Tang Shun a thumbs up: ¡°You¡¯ve made a great contribution to our team, but you have to manage the relationships in your extended family well, don¡¯t let it affect the work, and definitely don¡¯t cause a major international incident.¡± Tang Shun said with a smile: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Professor, I promise I won¡¯t cause you any trouble.¡± Chapter 1372 - 1372 1041 The Beacon Fire Reignites ?Chapter 1372: Chapter 1041: The Beacon Fire Reignites Chapter 1372: Chapter 1041: The Beacon Fire Reignites Li Gaoyang¡¯s surgery was extremely successful; it was purely a lifesaving surgery. Without Yang Ping as the chief surgeon, Li Gaoyang wouldn¡¯t have survived for more months, but now the ticking time bomb inside his skull has been removed by Yang Ping. A few days later, the post-operative pathological examination results came out: the tumor was benign. It was only its perilous location that had endangered his life. Given that the tumor was benign, this surgery was a permanent fix because the chance of such tumors recurring is very low. This made Li Gaoyang feel incredibly reassured. He decided that as soon as he was discharged, he would immediately launch a retaliatory strike against Ruixing Medical. Huang Jiacai had demanded too much in the negotiations; now, he must crush Huang Jiacai¡¯s Ruixing to quench his anger and to prevent it from becoming his strongest competitor in the medical field. If he had been wary of Yang Ping before due to needing surgery, Li Gaoyang now had no reservations whatsoever; no longer needing to rely on Yang Ping, he could act freely in executing his revenge. Indeed, he had already begun strategizing from his hospital ward, laying plans to press Ruixing Medical down until it collapses, to strike down the enemy before it could grow strong. When Li Gaoyang made such a decision, even Rolf felt it was inappropriate, but Li Gaoyang had no sense of guilt. Instead, he felt that Yang Ping performing the surgery for him was a given, a necessary humanitarian act, a duty doctors are obligated to fulfill. Since this was Yang Ping¡¯s duty, why should he feel grateful? Therefore, he shouldn¡¯t harbor any gratitude due to the surgery; such feelings shouldn¡¯t serve as moral shackles in his business decisions. Listening to Li Gaoyang¡¯s explanation, Rolf found it very reasonable, thus supporting Li Gaoyang to start the plan now, launching a surprise attack on Ruixing Medical. This news reached Huang Jiacai¡¯s ears, and everyone felt that Li Gaoyang was inhumane, ungrateful, immediately turning around to target Ruixing right after his surgery. Huang Jiacai had long seen through these people. In dealing with them, one must possess no kindness; any trace of kindness is cruelty towards oneself. Thus President Huang never harbored any illusions about Li Gaoyang at that time. The benefits that should have been gained had already been secured. In dealings with these people, interests come first and morals are worthless; any moral demands are but ropes binding oneself. ¡°How did you know Li Gaoyang would betray us?¡± Huang Jiahui was extremely impressed by her brother¡¯s precise judgment. Huang Jiacai pulled out a copy of ¡°The Thick Black Theory¡± from the bookshelf and handed it to his sister: ¡°I suggest you read this book more.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve read it many times already; I simply can¡¯t accept its ideology. How can one behave like that, thick-faced and black-hearted?¡± She had read the book many times because her brother had recommended it. ¡°How about this one?¡± Huang Jiacai then handed another book, ¡°The Analects,¡± to Huang Jiahui. ¡°How many times have I read it? It¡¯s too pedantic,¡± Huang Jiahui said. ¡°You haven¡¯t understood my intentions. You¡¯ve only learned half from either of these books, possessing only half a character. Use ¡®The Analects¡¯ with your own people, and ¡®The Thick Black Theory¡¯ with enemies. However, people often fall into a misconception. Using ¡®The Analects¡¯ with enemies is like a sheep walking into the tiger¡¯s mouth, and using ¡®The Thick Black Theory¡¯ with your own people is utterly inhumane. Only when these two books are combined does it constitute a complete study on how to live. Look at the three books I frequently read on my desk¡ª¡®Tao Te Ching¡¯, ¡®The Analects¡¯, ¡®The Thick Black Theory.¡¯ ¡®Tao Te Ching¡¯ is philosophy, telling us how the world operates, ¡®The Analects¡¯ tells us how to interact with family and friends, ¡®The Thick Black Theory¡¯ teaches us how to deal with enemies and the wicked,¡± Huang Jiacai, sitting in his executive chair, earnestly lectured his sister. ¡°I understand now!¡± Huang Jiahui seemed to have an epiphany. ¡°Regarding people like Li Gaoyang, I will be worse than him, darker hearted, and more thick-skinned... otherwise, how could I possibly win? He has no bottom line, and if you have one, you¡¯re bound to lose. If he has no bottom line, neither should you, so we could compete on the same level,¡± Huang Jiacai stated. Huang Jiahui worriedly said, ¡°What shall we do?¡± ¡°No need to worry, I¡¯ve already prepared everything. Regardless of what plan Li Gaoyang adopts, we will absolutely not compromise. Please remember a grand quote¡ª¡®Seek peace through struggle, peace shall live; seek peace through compromise, peace shall die.¡¯ We fear no struggle, no matter how long it lasts; who¡¯s afraid?¡± The company most needed by Li Gaoyang in his efforts to suppress Ruixing is Giant Medical. This company has deep operational roots in China and possesses sufficient strength to suppress Ruixing Medical. Gan Fengyi, the new CEO of Giant Medical Asia, will serve as the vanguard in this battle against Ruixing. Compared to Han, who was parachuted in previously, the locally promoted Gan Fengyi is more familiar with the domestic market conditions in China and is always known for being sagacious and vigorous in execution. She is an exceptional talent within the Giant, and after being recommended by the Giant¡¯s senior management, Li Gaoyang has decided to entrust Gan Fengyi with this critical task. ¡ª At a high-end restaurant, one could see the river view of Nandu outside the window; Huang Jiacai and Gan Fengyi were sitting face-to-face dining. ¡°Storm clouds are gathering, and a great battle is about to begin. Are you ready?¡± Gan Fengyi asked with concern. Huang Jiacai spoke with ease: ¡°Right now, I¡¯m worried about nothing except whether your words hold true.¡± ¡°What words?¡± Gan Fengyi asked. ¡°You said that if Ruixing isn¡¯t defeated and wins this war, you¡¯ll marry me,¡± Huang Jiacai said, looking intently at Gan Fengyi. Gan Fengyi blushed: ¡°Of course, my word is my bond. It all depends on whether you have the capability.¡± ¡°Agreed.¡± ¡°Agreed.¡± ¡°If you lose, you can no longer cling to me afterward.¡± ¡°The consequences of losing this battle seem quite severe, but rest assured, I will win! After all, this victory is related to my future happiness.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate me; I know you best and know where your weaknesses lie, so whose prey will fall is not yet known,¡± Gan Fengyi reminded Huang Jiacai not to be careless; she wouldn¡¯t go easy this time, but would go all out. ¡°They say spouses are the closest competitors; this saying isn¡¯t false for us,¡± Huang Jiacai sighed. ¡°Stop, we are not spouses yet.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a matter of time.¡± ¡°Depends if you have the capability.¡± ¡°If I win, you¡¯ll have to bring some dowry if you marry me, right?¡± ¡°Dowry?¡± ¡°The dowry is you bringing your entire team to join us at Ruixing, becoming my capable assistant, helping us to expand our market.¡± ¡°What about your bridal gift?¡± ¡°Shares in Ruixing and my bank cards¡ª.¡± PS: I¡¯m really sorry; I¡¯ve been away for some time again, and I haven¡¯t been able to update. Please forgive me, thank you. Chapter 1373 - 1373 1042 Lifelong Follow-up ?Chapter 1373: Chapter 1042: Lifelong Follow-up Chapter 1373: Chapter 1042: Lifelong Follow-up The scalp heals very quickly due to the rich blood vessels, and general facial wounds can be sutured within 3-5 days. Li Gaoyang had his stitches removed on the fifth day after the surgery, and after observing him for another day or two without any issues, he was ready to be discharged and return to his country. Li Gaoyang was very satisfied with his medical trip to China, the pain was forgotten once the wound healed, and now Li Gaoyang has completely forgotten the suffocating sensation of death threats brought on by his illness before. Now, Li Gaoyang¡¯s mind is full of plans for revenge. He hates Huang Jiacai so much that he could crush his teeth. Huang Jiacai took advantage of the opportunity to help him with medical treatment and seized a lot of benefits from him. It has always been Li Gaoyang making others suffer losses, but now it is Li Gaoyang who has suffered a huge loss at the hands of others. Professor Yang Ping made his last rounds for Li Gaoyang, and during the rounds, Li Gaoyang¡¯s previous humble attitude of seeking help had completely disappeared, replaced by the arrogant demeanor of an American tycoon. Professor Yang Ping found it ridiculous, wondering how his attitude could take a 180-degree turn before and after the surgery. Although he had encountered such patients before, whose attitudes completely changed, even the fastest face-changing patient he had seen before was not comparable to Li Gaoyang now; it was truly an eye-opener for Professor Yang Ping. However, Professor Yang Ping had many other patients, and Li Gaoyang was just one of many in his eyes, merely a patient, so Professor Yang Ping was completely unaffected by his attitude. After making his rounds, a graduate student came to verify Li Gaoyang¡¯s phone number, address, email, and other communication tool accounts. The student was to enter all this information into the follow-up system to ensure all data was accurate and reliable, as Li Gaoyang¡¯s condition required follow-up for at least ten years, or if possible, for life. After verifying the follow-up details, the graduate student handed him a follow-up instruction sheet, which Li Gaoyang read word by word. ¡°Follow-up? Didn¡¯t you say the recurrence rate of this tumor is very low?¡± Li Gaoyang couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit scared and asked. The graduate student replied in a very official tone, unalarmed: ¡°All our cases require follow-up. Although the recurrence rate in your case is low, it is not non-existent. Additionally, the timing of your surgery was slightly delayed, so the chance of recurrence is relatively higher. If the tumor recurs, the surgical difficulty will be even greater than now, and only Professor Yang Ping will be able to perform the main surgery for you. Therefore, it is imperative that the contact information you provide is accurate and not changed casually. If there are any changes, please inform us immediately. Here are our follow-up team¡¯s contact phone numbers, email, and WeChat ID, etc., which will not change. With your conditions, lifelong follow-up is entirely achievable.¡± After listening, Li Gaoyang felt a chilling sensation: ¡°Lifelong follow-up? You mean there¡¯s a possibility that Professor Yang Ping will have to perform surgery on me again?¡± ¡°Yes! We will give you a form for regular checks. Each time, send the results to our email. We have specialists to handle it. These types of tumors are very atypical in the early stages of recurrence, and the vast majority of doctors around the world do not have the experience in reading such images. So, you must send the MRI images to us for review to avoid misdiagnoses,¡± explained the graduate student meticulously. The more detailed the explanation, the more uneasy Li Gaoyang felt, meaning he was bound to Professor Yang Ping for life. ¡°Do you mean I have to keep in touch with Professor Yang Ping for the rest of my life?¡± Li Gaoyang asked, swallowing a bitter saliva, not knowing whether the bitterness in his mouth was caused by fear or the medicine he had taken not long before. The graduate student said: ¡°That¡¯s not necessary.¡± This made Li Gaoyang feel much relieved, he let out a breath. ¡°As medicine develops, someday many neurosurgeons will be able to perform this type of surgery, and at that time, you can complete the follow-up locally,¡± the graduate student added. Li Gaoyang had just breathed a sigh of relief, only to shudder again at the graduate student¡¯s words. Someday medicine will develop! When is that? Ten years, twenty years, fifty years? There is great uncertainty, just like someday mankind might eliminate wars, and then the Earth will be one family, living in harmony, close as brothers. Do such words have any reality? Not at all. To put it precisely, such words are merely comforting, possessing only emotional value, not practical value. In essence, this still meant being tied to Professor Yang Ping for a lifetime. ¡°You currently follow up with any cases that have relapsed?¡± Li Gaoyang furrowed his brow. ¡°Of course, there are!¡± the graduate student did not hide. ¡°The probability?¡± ¡°Current data hasn¡¯t been sorted yet, so it can¡¯t be disclosed as it might mislead patients and add unnecessary stress. However, I can tell you that the probability of recurrence for these cases is much higher than the statistics in textbooks and previous literature, because many doctors had insufficient understanding of the disease and lacking follow-up data, making the statistical numbers hardly a reference,¡± the graduate student explained, very cautiously and professionally. Li Gaoyang¡¯s forehead broke into sweat, he felt that this young doctor was unreliable, with potential risks of misleading and frightening patients, so he decided to personally ask Professor Yang Ping. ¡ª In Professor Yang Ping¡¯s office. Li Gaoyang sat opposite Yang Ping, whose bald head had now sprouted some hair, no longer shiny as before. ¡°Professor Yang, will my condition relapse? Do I absolutely need lifetime check-ups?¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t even think before replying in English: ¡°Theoretically, any tumor could recur. If conditions allow, I strongly recommend lifetime check-ups.¡± ¡°How big is the probability of recurrence?¡± Li Gaoyang felt that the words from Professor Yang carried much more weight than those from the graduate student. ¡°For you, it¡¯s either zero or one hundred percent. To us doctors, you are just one of many statistical cases, so statistical probability means little to you; you just need to commit to regular check-ups, haven¡¯t our follow-up team doctors given you the discharge educational session?¡± Yang Ping was curious how he knew nothing and still came asking him. ¡°Yes, there was education, there was. If it recurs, what should be done?¡± Li Gaoyang continued to ask. ¡°Maintain close contact with us, and if signs of recurrence appear, undergo surgery early to nip the disease in the bud. This is our principle of ¡®three earlies¡¯: early detection, early diagnosis, early treatment. So follow-up is crucial, as long as conditions allow, try to have lifetime follow-up to ensure subsequent health. Any other questions?¡± Yang Ping noticed that Li Gaoyang looked pale. ¡°No more questions, can I get a check-up at Mayo in the United States? I am quite busy,¡± Li Gaoyang was a bit troubled now. Yang Ping said, ¡°Of course, but you must feed the results back to us. For cases like yours, Mayo currently does not have the capability to diagnose recurrences early.¡± ¡°Alright, Professor Yang, thank you. Can you call a nurse to wheel me back?¡± Li Gaoyang¡¯s legs felt weak, unable to stand. Yang Ping was surprised; wasn¡¯t he fine when he came in? He walked in by himself and besides, his post-surgery recovery was very good, with his mobility not impaired at all. ¡°Do you¡ªfeel unwell?¡± Yang Ping asked. Li Gaoyang shook his head: ¡°Just a bit tired.¡± Chapter 1374 - 1374 1043 You Should Consider Me a Peer ?Chapter 1374: Chapter 1043 You Should Consider Me a Peer Chapter 1374: Chapter 1043 You Should Consider Me a Peer Brian and his granddaughter Aisha had a very good recovery after surgery without any complications, especially his granddaughter, who no longer has to live in constant fear and has completely returned to normal. During this time, Brian deepened his understanding of China and had profound experiences with the medical skills and efficiency of Chinese doctors. In a country with a population of over a billion, each doctor faces a huge number of patients. Some rare cases that a Chinese doctor encounters in a day might be more than what a doctor in Sweden encounters in several years. Clinical medicine is an experiential science, and the development of superb medical skills requires a large number of cases. It was time for discharge, and Brain thought he should give something back. As a leading professor in immunology, he proposed a formal collaboration with the laboratory at Sanbo Hospital. He had also researched the scientific research strength of Sanbo Hospital¡¯s laboratory these days, and indeed, their strength was formidable and worthy of collaboration. Yang Ping happily agreed to collaborate with Brian because the topic Yang Ping was currently researching needed top-tier immunological knowledge, and this cooperation could allow learning from others¡¯ strengths to compensate for their own shortcomings. During his stay in China, Manstein also finalized a major project ¨C a deep collaboration with the Nandu University Medical Digital Medical Laboratory for his research on neural damage repair using advanced digital medical technology. Of course, he has a secret mission to connect with Yang Ping¡¯s wedding preparation committee, as he wants to bring a grand gift at Yang Ping¡¯s wedding. This gift is not just from Manstein alone, but from the international academic community, to honor the young Professor Yang Ping. Manstein and Brian left China with Aisha, satisfied. In memory of Aisha¡¯s renewed life, Brian wanted to give her a Chinese name. Not knowing Chinese, he entrusted this task to Manstein. ¡ª Gaoyang was also being discharged, and he and his friend Rolf were about to leave China. Before leaving, Rolf wanted to meet the person he had placed close to Professor Yang, which was Li Yingtong. Li Yingtong had been funded by Rolf and BG Company to study in the United States earlier, and she returned with an important mission this time¡ªto steal scientific research results from Yang Ping¡¯s laboratory and carry out other special tasks if necessary. Rolf was waiting for Li Yingtong in the city¡¯s best Western restaurant, but Li Yingtong, after much consideration, decided not to meet him. She only sent Rolf a text message: she thanked Rolf and BG Company for their funding over the years, she would repay the money twofold, and she now wanted to sever her ties with BG Company because she had found her love in China, was pregnant, and wanted to stay in China to serve her homeland and never return to the United States again. Over the years, she has also made great contributions to BG Company, so if they want to settle accounts, she doesn¡¯t owe BG Company anything. If BG Company harms her and her family, she will expose some of BG¡¯s inside secrets, even at the risk of her life. Rolf, staring at the empty seat across, took a deep breath and couldn¡¯t help but smile bitterly. Li Yingtong was an extremely talented individual. Originally, her assignment back to China was meant to help her steal scientific intelligence from Sanbo Hospital, but now, not only had she failed to achieve this goal, but she had also been swayed by the other party, marking the biggest failure, embarrassment, and joke in Rolf¡¯s career in intelligence work for BG Company. He now had the desire to kill Li Yingtong. This incident was not only very damaging but also very insulting. However, Li Yingtong was no simple character. She was very intelligent and had prepared well in advance, using the special skills Rolf taught her against Rolf himself. She had indeed been stealing BG Company¡¯s secrets over the years, and Rolf believed that she was not bluffing but truly capable. As a company primarily in pharmaceutical biotechnology, BG Company had many secrets that couldn¡¯t be exposed. If these secrets became public, it would lead to a massive public relations crisis and cause BG Company immeasurable losses, both reputationally and economically. Moreover, now Rolf didn¡¯t know how much Li Yingtong actually knew, but one thing was certain¡ªshe definitely had some secrets, and she had the capability, which was very clear to Rolf. ¡°Sir, can we serve the food now?¡± The waiter asked politely. Rolf shook his head: ¡°No need, my friend won¡¯t be coming, thank you.¡± ¡°Can serve the food!¡± A voice called out from the opposite side. Rolf looked up to see a Chinese man holding a black briefcase standing across from himself, who sat down without his consent. ¡°Who are you?¡± Rolf was very displeased with the rudeness of the other person, wondering how there could be such impolite people. ¡°I am Li Yingtong¡¯s husband, you can call me Tang Shun, Doctor Tang, or Mr. Tang, and calling me Professor Tang is also acceptable.¡± Tang Shun extended his hand, looking rather casual. Rolf, already angry about the situation with Li Yingtong, now had this man, who claimed to be her husband, bumping right into him. He felt an intense urge to kill the man sitting across from him. From the text message from Li Yingtong, it was this man who disrupted his plans, making Li Yingtong pregnant, then fall in love with her, decide to leave BG Company, give up the American greencard, and decide to stay in China and never return to the United States. Chapter 1375 - 1375 1043 You Should Consider Me a Peer_2 ?Chapter 1375: Chapter 1043 You Should Consider Me a Peer_2 Chapter 1375: Chapter 1043 You Should Consider Me a Peer_2 Tang Shun? Rolf suddenly remembered something; he finally recalled that during a high-tech meeting at BG Company, he had heard someone mention this name. Yes! That¡¯s him! Dr. Madelan from the Stem Cell Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology once said angrily: He always remembered this despicable wretch. This despicable wretch is Tang Shun; Rolf could not be mistaken. At that high-level meeting, the usually gentle and gentlemanly Professor Madelan spoke through gritted teeth. It was Tang Shun, who in just three months at Professor Madelan¡¯s laboratory, had impregnated his most promising student Meyer and made her a single mother. ¡°Dr. Tang Shun! Before coming to China, I¡¯d already heard of your great fame; I never expected to fall into your hands.¡± Rolf¡¯s face was burning; he never thought he would be trapped by this young man and become a joke. ¡°It¡¯s not about stumbling ¡ª as we Chinese say, a thousand miles of smoke and clouds are connected by a single thread. In reality, you are doing a good deed. Before meeting Li Yingtong, I never planned to start a family; I always thought I would stick to my bachelorhood. But after meeting Li Yingtong, I gave up on bachelorhood, and I¡¯ve decided to become a traditional man returning to the family. So, actually, you¡¯ve unintentionally planted willows that have brought shade; I should thank you.¡± Tang Shun raised his glass. Rolf suppressed his anger, tried to maintain his gentlemanly demeanor, and raised his glass to clink with Tang Shun, but he no longer knew what to say. ¡°I¡¯m here to express gratitude on behalf of my wife, for you and BG Company funding her studies in the United States all these years, and also for sponsoring her scientific research projects. To show our appreciation, we¡¯ve brought you some gifts.¡± ¡°Here is a check! We¡¯ve calculated it to be three times the amount of support you¡¯ve provided over the years. Even considering inflation, I think this amount exhibits sincerity. If you think it¡¯s not enough, I can add more; that is not an issue.¡± ¡°This is a continued plan for the scientific research project she¡¯s currently working on in your laboratory. With this detailed plan, her project will not fall by the wayside. You can find a few doctors to complete the project; she¡¯s a person who sees things through from beginning to end and wouldn¡¯t just abandon her work abruptly. Furthermore, if her successor encounters any difficulties in the research, you can reach out to us at any time; we are willing to help until the project is finished.¡± ¡°Also, here is a resignation letter; she wants to leave BG Company and make it official.¡± Tang Shun took out document after document from his briefcase and handed them to Rolf, who looked over each one. ¡°Finally, I have a word of caution for Mr. Rolf: I know what you are skilled at. Please don¡¯t use those tactics on us. If you must do so, we¡¯re not afraid of a fight to the death. To us, as long as we¡¯ve had a beautiful love story, nothing else matters.¡± Rolf clapped softly: ¡°What a beautiful love story.¡± ¡°Just so-so, look at you, making it sound grand. When all is said and done, I still have to thank you.¡± Tang Shun lifted his red wine to clink glasses with Rolf again. ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid I¡¯ve poisoned your wine?¡± Rolf said with a smile. ¡°I know you¡¯ve poisoned it, that¡¯s why I already put poison in your wine as well. We¡¯ll both be done for; it¡¯s not certain you have more lives than I do.¡± Tang Shun looked at the glass in front of Rolf with a sly smile. ¡°You?¡± Rolf¡¯s face changed: ¡°I was just scaring you; I haven¡¯t put any poison in it at all. You?¡± ¡°I was also joking with you. The atmosphere is so unfriendly; a joke here and there to relax everybody, why so serious? This is China, not the United States; there aren¡¯t that many dangerous things going on, drink up without worries.¡± Tang Shun smiled with worldly nonchalance. ¡°Are you really not afraid of the consequences? Don¡¯t underestimate our power and resolve, young man.¡± Rolf said with a cold laugh. Tang Shun said, ¡°What consequences could there be? Once we¡¯re in any danger, the secrets about BG Company will spread worldwide. And you, as an involved party, will definitely be held accountable by those big shots behind you. To quell this global PR disaster and plug any potential leaks, they would actually find it very easy to sacrifice you. Just like you said, they could poison your drink and then pin the blame on you, claiming you committed suicide out of guilt. Li Yingtong has always had the most contact with you. Without your help, how could she have accessed some of BG Company¡¯s secrets? Could it be that, in fact, you are BG Company¡¯s biggest traitor, and she was just acting according to your wishes?¡± ¡°You!¡± ¡°We¡¯re not as complicated as you guys. We just want to work simply and do scientific research.¡± Rolf was so angry he almost spat blood. This time, his trip to China was not only to accompany Li Gaoyang in seeking medical treatment but also to personally inspect the laboratory at Sanbo Hospital. Now, things had turned into a complete mess. ¡°Mr. Tang, if you were in our field, you would definitely be a top expert,¡± Rolf had to admire the man in front of him. Tang Shun smiled, ¡°Then you can consider me a peer.¡± ¡°Thank you for the dinner, I¡¯ll treat you.¡± Tang Shun gestured, and the waiter hurried over. ¡°The bill!¡± ¡ª At Yang Ping¡¯s level, a single scientific achievement could potentially destroy others¡¯ foundations for making money, so it was inevitable that some forces would target him. That¡¯s why his superiors highly valued his security and provided him with a security team. This security team operated like shadows, constantly working behind the scenes. They were not a simple team; they were backed by a powerful security system. The security office of the Surgical Research Institute was Manager Qiu¡¯s workplace. The moment Li Gaoyang and Rolf set foot in China, Manager Qiu kept a close eye on them. However, as patients seeking medical care, Manager Qiu wouldn¡¯t bother them. Not disturbing them didn¡¯t mean ignoring them. Brian, Manstein, Li Gaoyang, and Rolf all left China with different emotions and insights. But coming and going, at the Surgical Research Institute, they shared a common identity: patients or relatives of patients. On the way back, Li Gaoyang kept thinking about one issue: whether to cancel the grand battle that was prepared or to proceed with the plan as scheduled. The decision was difficult, yet in a way, it was not. BG Company, with its major corporate forces as the vanguard, was set to engage in a major battle with Ruixing Company. The entire medical device market was on the verge of being whipped into a storm by two competing powers. One side represented by Huang Jiacai¡¯s Ruixing as the Chinese local company, and the other side represented by the foreign enterprise under Gan Fengyi. This commercial war was unlike any other before. Under the leadership of Huang Jiacai, Chinese local pharmaceutical and medical device companies formed a large alliance. They were united, determined to fight a desperate battle. In the past, Chinese pharmaceutical and medical device companies had also faced numerous sieges by foreign enterprises, each time ending in failure due to insufficient strength and lack of unity, ultimately resulting in bankruptcy, acquisitions, and market restructuring. Back then, Huang Jiacai was just a pharmaceutical representative running sales. He had personally experienced such commercial battles several times since his start and throughout his growth. Times had changed. This time, Huang Jiacai, as the leader of the alliance in this commercial battle, was personally leading the command. The ¡°General¡± on the opposing side was the person he was most familiar with and admired the most¡ªthe Iron Lady of the pharmaceutical industry, Gan Fengyi. This time, President Huang was determined to draw upon all his knowledge and experience to triumph over Gan Fengyi. The Intellectual Property Department worked day and night analyzing their own and the opponent¡¯s IP portfolios to prevent the other side from launching an attack using intellectual property, and to create conditions for striking back with intellectual property. In commercial warfare, intellectual property is an extremely powerful weapon, sometimes fatal and devastating, and Western companies are particularly adept at using these tactics. Since Huang Jiacai took over Ruixing, he relied heavily on Chen Zhi to build a vast and strong scientific research team, set up many research institutes, and engaged in extensive cooperation with universities, accumulating a great deal of intellectual property rights, empowered for battle. Chapter 1376 - 1376 1044 A Super Gold Mine ?Chapter 1376: Chapter 1044: A Super Gold Mine Chapter 1376: Chapter 1044: A Super Gold Mine Yang Ping¡¯s tumor treatment project is underway, and his current goal is to create an oncolytic virus using certain viruses or bacteria combined with the K-factor. This approach is known as oncolytic virus therapy, abbreviated as OVT in medicine. The current mechanism of oncolytic virus therapy is to stimulate the immune system to attack both the virus and the tumor cells, increasing the number of B cells, T cells, macrophages, and other immune cells, and letting these immune cells fight the battle. However, Yang Ping¡¯s approach is different; his virus serves as a carrier, with the K-factor being the entity that attacks the cells. The mechanism relies on the principle of cell apoptosis. Therefore, strictly speaking, it should be given a new name, not referred to as oncolytic virus therapy. It should be called virus-mediated K-factor-targeted non-tolerance therapy, or K-factor virus therapy. Beata Halasi, who initially succeeded in using oncolytic virus therapy to treat triple-negative breast cancer, employed measles virus and herpangina virus. These viruses could infect cell types originating from breast cancer and had already been used in clinical trials. The experience of predecessors has strengthened Yang Ping¡¯s confidence. At the very least, he could choose from a wider variety of viruses than his predecessors because many viruses had already been tested by them. Even if some showed poor effects, they were at least harmless to the human body or had side effects within an acceptable range. For example, the measles vaccine strain is widely used in children¡¯s measles vaccines, and the worst herpangina virus can induce is mild flu symptoms. Therefore, they are very safe for the human body. This is the most basic condition for using viruses as carriers. When Beata Halasi used these two viruses, she didn¡¯t employ them merely as carriers. Instead, she allowed them to infect the tumor cells and then activated the body¡¯s immune system to attack the virus because the virus and tumor cells were together, so the immune cells also attacked the tumor cells while fighting the virus. Now, Yang Ping is using the virus solely as a carrier, entrusting the task of killing tumor cells to the K-factor, much like how a missile carries a nuclear warhead. The missile is only the carrier, while the nuclear warhead is the weapon that unleashes the ultimate destructive power. Although this method also uses viruses against tumors, it is completely different from oncolytic virus therapy and is instead a novel tumor treatment method. When choosing such a virus, it is necessary to consider whether the virus can infect the progenitor cells of the tumor. For instance, Sisi¡¯s primary tumor was osteosarcoma, whose source cells are osteoblasts. Hence, the virus used to treat this tumor must be able to infect osteoblasts. In oncolytic virus therapy, one approach is to inject the virus directly into the tumor, increase the number of immune cells, and use these cells to attack the tumor. This was Beata Halasi¡¯s method; she had triple-negative breast cancer and relapsed after traditional surgery and chemotherapy. Unable to undergo further chemotherapy after her relapse, she, a virology expert, cultivated the virus herself for self-treatment and achieved favorable results. She also published a paper in a renowned medical journal. Of course, her paper was rejected by more than a dozen journals due to ethical issues at the time, as experimenting on oneself is ethically controversial. Yang Ping reviewed his project again, clarifying his thoughts and strengthening his confidence. The pressing matter was to select the right virus, then modify it to carry the K-factor; theoretically, with this done, the project would already be halfway to success. The major laboratories are located just above the ward area of the Surgical Research Institute, which allows Yang Ping to communicate with laboratory researchers quite effectively; he could visit the laboratory at any time to get the latest updates on the experiments. Yang Ping glanced at the time; it was still early. The surgeries earlier in the day were led by Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Xia Shu. This was a good opportunity for him to visit the laboratory and inquire about their current progress. The Surgical Research Institute¡¯s building has eight floors, which is currently sufficient and offers ample space. The Stem Cell Laboratory and Tumor Laboratory each occupy an entire floor, providing world-class hardware conditions in all respects. There are three essential elements to scientific research: talent, equipment, and environment ¡ª the latter primarily being a cultural environment. The cultural atmosphere of scientific research must have a scientific and technological temperament: simple, relaxed, free, and equal. If laboratory researchers have to flatter each other, engage in dinner table politics, or form cliques every day, then even the best hardware in the universe is of no use. Those who are genuinely dedicated to scientific research have neither interest nor the inclination to engage in social drinking; they just want to create something significant in their own little bit of space. Therefore, Yang Ping places great importance on the cultural development of the laboratory. Establishing cultural traditions is especially important for the future survival and development of the laboratory. By the time he visited the laboratory, everyone had started their work, busying themselves with their tasks. Despite Yang Ping¡¯s arrival, these people didn¡¯t stop their work to gather around or line up to welcome him. Rather than feeling neglected, Yang Ping was reassured by the formation of the laboratory¡¯s culture. ¡°How is the work on virus screening doing?¡± Yang Ping sat in the Oncology Research Laboratory. Lu Xiaolu stood up and walked over to a whiteboard, which hung with many small cards, each card depicting a virus. There were over a dozen such cards on the whiteboard. Chapter 1377 - 1377 1044 A Super Gold Mine_2 ?Chapter 1377: Chapter 1044: A Super Gold Mine_2 Chapter 1377: Chapter 1044: A Super Gold Mine_2 ¡°Currently, these are the ones we have left after screening; with a bit more time, we can find the most suitable virus to start the modification. We¡¯ve already come up with several bacteriophage modification plans, but manual modifications are too inefficient. Our entire team could probably only produce a few dozen a year. Professor He is working on a model; they said they¡¯d provide us with a simple model for now, and later on, we¡¯ll use a big AI model once it¡¯s available. Professor He said that using his temporary small model, we could get tens of thousands of plans in an hour. In the future, using his big model, we could get tens or hundreds of millions of plans in one second. All these virus models can be run through his virtual model for selection and elimination,¡± Lu Xiaolu replied. Yang Ping nodded, realizing that today¡¯s scientific research is no longer the same as it was a century or two ago. The era of achieving results with simple experimental conditions has passed; current scientific research must rely on advanced tools, and the application of artificial intelligence in scientific research can save a great deal of time, freeing researchers from tedious work. ¡°I think so too. In the future, we need to incorporate artificial intelligence into our research, using AI to replace repetitive, mundane, and unimaginative tasks as much as possible. This way, everyone can focus their time on high-value work.¡± ¡°Are you getting used to the work here lately? Let me know if you need anything. How is Principal Ding doing?¡± Yang Ping asked with concern. Mentioning Principal Ding, Lu Xiaolu¡¯s expression became solemn: ¡°I visited him last week. I see him once a month, bringing him some things. His mindset is good in there, but he¡¯s still worried about Ding Xinyu.¡± The heart of a parent is truly heartbreaking; even incarcerated, Principal Ding still worries about his own daughter. ¡°Ding Xinyu is also doing well now. She¡¯s teaching at a vocational and technical school, and the school values her a lot. I also visit her and her child every weekend. The kid is still young and has also suffered a lot of trauma. Teacher Ding always reminds me to take good care of Xinyu, as that¡¯s his biggest concern.¡± ¡°There¡¯s been no news about Guan Ruyan. Someone saw him wandering in Los Angeles, United States, but we can¡¯t confirm if it¡¯s true. He¡¯s reaping what he sowed, I guess. Throughout his life, he¡¯s always been using others, everyone was a tool for him, and he abandoned one person after another who deeply loved him. Now he¡¯s getting a taste of being abandoned by others.¡± Talking about these things, Lu Xiaolu couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit sad. After all, he and Guan Ruyan had studied and worked together for so many years, and there was some affection between them. It¡¯s not realistic to try to erase it from his heart all at once. Lu Xiaolu has an introverted personality and has had no friends from childhood to adulthood. If anyone could be called a friend, it would only be Guan Ruyan and Ding Xinyu. After all, they had studied together at Nandu Medical University and then went on to study in Germany. Those student days were beautiful, some things can only be cherished in memory, never to be returned to. ¡°I¡¯m planning to marry Ding Xinyu,¡± Lu Xiaolu suddenly said. This took Yang Ping by surprise. Lu Xiaolu said, ¡°I don¡¯t have many friends, so I can only talk to you about this. Ding Xinyu is now considered a joke in everyone¡¯s eyes, and in her family¡¯s eyes, she¡¯s foolish and has brought it upon herself. But in my eyes, she is Teacher Ding¡¯s daughter, my junior, the woman who needs the most protection. I don¡¯t care how others see it; I¡¯m determined to marry her, as long as she agrees. I don¡¯t know if this will affect the reputation of our laboratory.¡± It turned out that this was what Lu Xiaolu was concerned about. Yang Ping stated on the spot, ¡°This is your personal matter, and it has nothing to do with work. So do what you believe is right. As for how others see it, as long as you can bear it, that¡¯s all that matters.¡± Lu Xiaolu sighed with relief: ¡°I understand. She now needs love and protection the most, and her child needs a complete family. Teacher Ding doesn¡¯t have many days left, and I hope he can pass away peacefully.¡± ¡°Do what you believe is right, as long as it¡¯s not illegal, not against conscience, and doesn¡¯t affect others.¡± Lu Xiaolu smiled: ¡°Actually, that¡¯s what I think too. I don¡¯t care about the gossip. I¡¯ll just be the best I can be.¡± ¡°You see, I¡¯m taking up your time with things unrelated to work during working hours,¡± Lu Xiaolu steered the conversation back from the digression. Yang Ping laughed: ¡°I actually came over just to have a casual chat with you. We can talk about whatever; there¡¯s no rule that says we must only talk about work.¡± ¡°With the cooperation with Brian, we can benefit a lot. He is now world-class in the field of immunology research, and he said he will introduce a professor of virology to cooperate with us, which will fill all our current gaps.¡± Lu Xiaolu admired Yang Ping¡¯s open academic spirit. Yang Ping is also at a world-class level now, but he has never become complacent. He still actively seeks exchanges and cooperation, pursuing broad interactions and collaborations on the basis of independence and initiative, without being insular or blindly following others. He constantly draws on the strengths of others to keep himself at the forefront of world academia. That is the true spirit of rational academia. The world¡¯s technological development is advancing so quickly and covers such a broad range, and many fields require decades or even centuries of accumulation. If one were to develop every piece of technology from scratch independently, it would be difficult to keep pace with the top levels of the field. Hence, learning is so important now. Through exchanges and cooperation, we learn from others, standing on the shoulders of giants, to avoid unnecessary wastage. Chapter 1378 - 1378 1044 A Super Gold Mine_3 ?Chapter 1378: Chapter 1044: A Super Gold Mine_3 Chapter 1378: Chapter 1044: A Super Gold Mine_3 Leaving the oncology laboratory, Yang Ping then visited the Stem Cell Laboratory, where they can now successfully cultivate complete muscle and tendon units. These muscles have been used in clinical settings to a limited extent, such as for muscle grafting in patients with muscle loss due to trauma or providing transplant materials for patients undergoing reconstruction of the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments of the knee. However, Skin Expansion Technology is now being promoted; it provides an almost inexhaustible high-quality source of skin for surgeries that require extensive skin grafting in burn units. Even if there is only a small part of healthy skin, the expansion technology can generate enough skin material to cover the entire body. The Stem Cell Laboratory is currently bustling with the development of stem cell injection treatments for anti-aging therapy; some qualifications and licenses are in the application process. Currently, Sanbo Hospital is directly managed by Beijing, which makes the application of these licenses very easy, unlike ordinary hospitals. Time management master Tang Shun used to always have a cell phone on his desk, his fingers flying as he switched rapidly between WeChat avatars; a top playboy must indeed be a person with extraordinary skills. In the words of Liang Fatty, Tang Shun is a world-class playboy, be it the variety, quality, or distribution of the fish he raises, he is truly top-notch. But today, Tang Shun surprisingly didn¡¯t place a mobile phone on his desk nor were his fingers flying swiftly. Sitting quietly behind his desk, he was holding a stack of documents, checking some data, Seeing Yang Ping coming in, he immediately stopped his work: ¡°Professor!¡± ¡°I just came to take a look, wanted to chat with you.¡± ¡°Professor, look at this, this is the latest situation of our anti-aging project. We haven¡¯t started directly yet, but now many laboratories and companies around the world that make money from this are hoping to pre-order our products. I just checked, we can get over four billion US dollars in prepaid fees, these people really have money. We are sitting on a gold mine. And this is just after we released the news. Our Surgical Research Institute now has a strong reputation in the global medical community.¡± It turns out Tang Shun was doing some accounting. What can I say about this guy? He¡¯s simply incredible¡ªa true all-rounder with high professional level, organizational ability, and importantly, he knows how to make money. Ever since he took charge of the laboratory, it has become a gold mine, an inexhaustible gold mine. From time to time, he¡¯d come up with tricks to make money, and the money he makes is legitimate; you couldn¡¯t find a single fault with it. ¡°Look, this is a tech giant from the United States, this is a Russian oligarch, this is a traditional British financial magnate; all of them are inquiring about our Stem Cell Laboratory. If we can extend their lives, to them money is nothing but numbers, but I haven¡¯t accepted their official consults yet. Once we open this door, money will flow at us like water being released from the Three Gorges Dam.¡± ¡°However, Professor, we must upgrade our security measures. These foreigners are each more cunning than the last; they come from a background of piracy, and stealing is in their bones¡ªthey will surely send many spies to infiltrate us. Who wouldn¡¯t want to control this gold mine of the pharmaceutical industry?¡± Tang Shun was somewhat excited; the new project was so hot, but that was expected. ¡°Our lab¡¯s computers are currently being replaced, from systems to various kinds of software, and we¡¯re working towards complete national production and control. These foundational items don¡¯t seem essential normally, but at critical times, they are vital. We can¡¯t put our lifeline in others¡¯ hands. I¡¯ve already spoken with President Huang; they will handle these matters.¡± Tang Shun shook a list in his hand and passed it to Yang Ping to see. Chapter 1379 - 1379 1045 Cactus ?Chapter 1379: Chapter 1045 Cactus Chapter 1379: Chapter 1045 Cactus As time went by, Yang Ping¡¯s wedding was drawing nearer day by day. Huang Jiacai had everything well arranged, while Huang Changxin, who had started from scratch, was also ready for everything. He was secretly competing with Huang Jiacai, determined to create a sensational effect on that day. When Huang Changxin proposed his planning scheme, Huang Jiacai even deemed it vulgar. This time, Huang Changxin wanted to prove himself, to see who was the vulgar one, and to see who understood romance. Europeans and Americans like to book in advance, so the international friends attending the wedding had arranged their schedules well ahead of time. Huang Jiacai also arranged hotel rooms for friends from all over the world. The wedding planning team selected by Huang Jiacai for Yang Ping and Xiao Su was the top in the nation. After getting the contract, the team pulled out all the stops¡ªnot for anything else but because the client was simply too generous. Completing this one job, the team estimated they wouldn¡¯t have to worry about income for the next decade. Truly, this job would feed them for ten years. Xiao Su also started making time to try on wedding dresses. As the most important moment in a girl¡¯s life, she also hoped to present her most beautiful side at that moment. Professor Su was also very concerned about his daughter¡¯s wedding, taking time now and then to visit the Manor Hotel to see for himself, sometimes offering his own suggestions. This time, coming to the hotel for an inspection, he happened to meet Huang Jiacai, who would regularly report the progress of the wedding preparations to Professor Su. The two sat down in the hotel, and when Huang Jiacai handed the guest list to Professor Su, he scanned it and couldn¡¯t help but be shocked. The list included explanations for some of the guests¡¯ identities, with many being top medical scholars in the world, and a good number also Nobel Prize winners. To confirm that the people on the list were indeed the medical elites he knew of, he checked with Huang Jiacai one by one. Yes, these were the well-known medical elites often heard of. The editors-in-chief of the world¡¯s three top journals would also be present, and many top tycoons from Europe and the United States were included in the list. Huang Jiacai explained: ¡°These people were not invited by us. They contacted us on their own, requesting to attend the wedding. The more people, the merrier. I screened these people and then accepted some requests before sending out the invitations.¡± Professor Su nodded. How did his son-in-law know so many people? Or rather, how did so many people know him? It turned out this young man did have some status internationally. Then, looking at the list of performances for the wedding, Professor Su was more sensitive to this program list. As a family with a scholarly tradition, they had only one girl among several brothers this generation. There was once a suggestion to Professor Su hoping to invite some popular stars and hosts to the wedding scene for assistance, making it a wedding performance comparable to the Spring Festival gala. Professor Su outright rejected this practice. It was too vulgar, and the eldest of the Su Family firmly disagreed with such a scheme too. It was too high-profile and did not align with the Su Family¡¯s consistent low-profile style. As a Beijing official, the eldest of the Su Family naturally couldn¡¯t accept this high-profile vulgar display of wealth. Professor Su intended to turn his daughter¡¯s wedding into a gathering for peers in the domestic medical community, to invite colleagues from the medical field to join in the fun. Now, the theme of the wedding matched Professor Su¡¯s original intention, but the scale had obviously far surpassed his expectations because many of these people were ones he could never have managed to invite. One by one, the prestigious names that would appear at his daughter¡¯s wedding would give even the most modest person a sense of pride; it was just that people expressed it differently. Moreover, this was his precious daughter. So now that Huang Jiacai handed over the program list, Professor Su had to scrutinize it carefully. There must be no re-invitation of stars from the entertainment industry. Professor Su examined the program list line by line, growing more and more perplexed, nearly losing his glasses. The renowned Professor Manstein, Nobel laureate and the world¡¯s recognized most arrogant genius, was actually going to perform at the wedding¡ªsinging ¡°Tibetan Plateau¡± solo. The spine surgery top expert August would perform a piano recital himself, Robert¡¯s martial arts, August and Robert¡¯s comic dialogue performance, the cardiac surgery expert Li Zehui¡¯s solo of a Fei Yuqing song... All the performers were top doctors and medical scholars from around the world, usually high above and serious at academic conferences, famous scholars, and now they were actually going to perform shows for everyone to see. Professor Su shook the program list in his hands: ¡°Xiao Huang, you¡¯re saying these performers in the program, they¡¯re taking the stage themselves?¡± ¡°Yes, all of them will perform in person, they are all in practice now, they...¡± The last program was a mystery program, which did not reveal any content. Professor Su asked, ¡°What is this program?¡± Huang Jiacai shook his head: ¡°I can¡¯t say what the program is. It is arranged by the European side. Professor Manstein, the representative from Europe, has stayed in China for two weeks and has been in secret contact with me. Moreover, he signed a confidentiality agreement, so I absolutely cannot reveal it. But I can guarantee it is a healthy, positive, and energizing program.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t even tell me?¡± Professor Su was very curious. Huang Jiacai smiled, shook his head, and said firmly: ¡°Cannot say, we must have a spirit of contract.¡± Professor Su didn¡¯t press the issue, his mind just pondering: what exactly is this grand gift? Or is it a representative from Europe like Professor Manstein who has come to discuss in person? Professor Manstein is actually taking Yang Ping¡¯s wedding so seriously, both performing and preparing a mysterious grand gift. Chapter 1380 - 1380 1045 Cactus_2 ?Chapter 1380: Chapter 1045 Cactus_2 Chapter 1380: Chapter 1045 Cactus_2 But no matter how hard Professor Su pondered, he couldn¡¯t figure out what the grand gift was. The more he thought about it, the stronger his curiosity grew. ¡°Can¡¯t you at least give a hint?¡± Huang Jiacai still shook his head: ¡°If I give a hint, it would be equivalent to telling Professor Su directly.¡± Since that was the case, Professor Su couldn¡¯t press the matter further. He knew he would find out at the wedding anyway, but not knowing now made him itch with curiosity. People are curious creatures after all. After wandering around the manor-style hotel purchased by Ruixing Group for half a day, Professor Su went back to look after his grandson. ¡ª The time for Sisi¡¯s follow-up had come again. Due to recent changes in her condition, the frequency of her check-ups had increased. Whenever possible, Yang Ping used MRI instead of CT to avoid the ionizing radiation of CT scans, which could have negative effects on the body after extensive use. MRIs, on the other hand, did not involve ionizing radiation and had virtually no side effects. The results of the follow-up were very pessimistic. Compared to before, the metastatic tumors had spread further, and the intracranial tumors were diffusely expanding, now invading the brainstem area. However, it had not yet reached a critical unknown point, so there were no severe symptoms at the moment. However, Sisi was now experiencing noticeable dizziness and occasionally unexplained palpitations. These were actually symptoms caused by the tumor, just not obviously so yet. MRI images of Sisi¡¯s various parts were displayed on the electronic screen, everyone gathered around the screen, frowning deeply. Because everyone treated Sisi like a little sister, all fond of this clever little girl, everyone was in a heavy mood. Because even Yang Ping, who possessed world-class surgical skills, seemed helpless now. Surgery is not omnipotent; it can only solve issues within its applicable scope, and Sisi¡¯s problems were now beyond the scope of surgical solutions. Radiation therapy? No way, it had already been confirmed that radiation therapy was ineffective for this type of tumor. Using it again would be akin to suicide. Chemotherapy? That would be rehashing the old methods. Yang Ping vividly remembered the first serious assessment of Sisi: her face was sallow, her body thin, her hair sparse, even with strands of gray and blond, and her appetite was extremely poor. Had it not been for Yang Ping¡¯s careful thought, decisively ending the radiation and chemotherapy, and boldly using the Gamma Knife based on ultrasound to treat Sisi, she probably wouldn¡¯t have survived till now, let alone be in such good health. If radiation and chemotherapy were used again, going back to the old ways, once they destroyed the painstakingly rebuilt immune status, there might be no more time to wait for new treatments. But discarding these traditional treatment methods, Sisi had no other treatment options left, like targeted therapy or cell therapy, which are cutting-edge yet ineffective against this type of tumor. The K-factor that he had researched was initially a promising find, but while it performed well against tumor cells outside the body, it failed to function inside and was mostly cleared out by the body¡¯s immune system before it even reached the tumor cells. Yang Ping was in a real dilemma, but he still maintained his composure. Having been trained in System Space for a long time, he was able to maintain enough willpower to remain calm in the face of any highly challenging medical case. ¡°Professor? I¡¯m afraid surgery isn¡¯t an option. This is diffuse growth.¡± Song Zimo broke the silence. Yang Ping hummed in response, uncharacteristically silent. If it had been before, he definitely would have said not to worry, or to get hospitalised for surgery first. But this time he just hummed. Song Zimo already understood; there was absolutely no hope for surgery. Even if there was a shred of hope, Yang Ping would not have just hummed. Diffuse growth made it impossible to separate the tumor from normal tissue, like water poured into soil, dye seeping into flour, or sugar dissolving in water ¨C it¡¯s impossible to separate them mechanically. If surgery was truly necessary, it could only involve removing the tumor together with the intermingled normal tissue, the consequence of which would be the immediate death of the patient. Because the tumor was invading the most vital part of the brain, which controls a person¡¯s life. Besides the tumor in her brain, Sisi also has several scattered metastatic spots in her lungs, liver, and abdominal cavity. Despite all of Yang Ping¡¯s efforts, he couldn¡¯t prevent this outcome, and inevitably felt very sad inside. However, his long-term professional training taught him not to empathize. Once one empathizes, it¡¯s easy to lose rationality and become agitated. The initial plan was to discuss Sisi¡¯s condition, but now there isn¡¯t much value in discussing it. The situation is there: malignant, late-stage, spreading. The previously available Gamma Knife isn¡¯t applicable, and conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy are meaningless. They would only accelerate the deterioration of her condition, leaving no necessity for discussion. After reviewing Sisi¡¯s medical images, Wang Changxin and his wife visited Yang Ping¡¯s office. They had returned early from abroad to prepare for Yang Ping¡¯s wedding. They had recognized Sisi as their god-daughter, so they were particularly concerned about her illness. ¡°How is the child¡¯s condition?¡± Wang Changxin asked anxiously. Yang Ping responded vaguely, ¡°It¡¯s currently under analysis.¡± ¡°Ah, Professor Yang, use the best methods, the best medicine. Don¡¯t worry about the cost, I will cover whatever her medical expenses entail,¡± said Wang Changxin. He is a straightforward person, so he spoke directly. ¡°I know, some things can¡¯t be solved with money. The situation is complex now, I need to think carefully,¡± Yang Ping advised them not to worry. Wang Changxin nodded, ¡°Then I won¡¯t disturb you. We¡¯ll head back first, let me know if there¡¯s any update. We really entrust this child to you.¡± After saying this, Wang Changxin bowed and left Yang Ping¡¯s office with his wife. Yang Ping rested for a while in his office and then went to Sisi¡¯s ward. Her cactus had grown quite large; when he first saw it, it was only slightly bigger than a thumb, but now it was at least the size of two or three palms. ¡°Your pet has grown so vigorously; it¡¯s gotten so big.¡± Yang Ping noticed the cactus in the corner; the ward had good lighting, allowing the cactus to receive some daily sunlight. ¡°Its life force is extraordinarily tenacious.¡± Sisi was sitting by the window reading a book. The ward door was open. Seeing Yang Ping enter, she immediately closed her book. The children are in their peak growth phase, so every time Yang Ping saw Sisi, she seemed much taller, inheriting potentially good height from either her mom or dad in the future. The young girl, with her hair tied back in a ponytail, appeared very spirited. Having prepared herself psychologically for the worst regarding her condition, she always seemed very calm. Previously, Yang Ping would talk to her about her condition and explain her re-examination results, but this time Yang Ping didn¡¯t mention her condition. Instead, he chatted with her about her studies and didn¡¯t touch upon any topics related to her illness. Sisi didn¡¯t ask either; she seemed indifferent about her condition, not appearing like a patient undergoing re-examination. While chatting, Yang Ping and Sisi started talking about how to take care of cacti and other desert plants. As they talked, they squatted next to the pot of cacti, chatting with the real thing at hand, while Sisi shared her knowledge of cacti with Yang Ping. Seeing this, Yang Ping reflected that the child was in good spirits and had a positive mental state, which was enough. He decided not to talk further about her condition. Just as she had once said, every flower has its own blooming season. No matter the duration, as long as it can bloom its own beauty, that¡¯s enough. He remembered how the child once mentioned that her only regret was that her parents had not yet had a second child. Oh! For some reason, the normally non-empathetic Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit heartbroken. Actually, a child¡¯s understanding often exceeds what adults anticipate; it¡¯s just that adults don¡¯t realize it, always assuming that children understand nothing. Chapter 1381 - 1381 1046 Treating a Dead Horse as if It Were ?Chapter 1381: Chapter 1046: Treating a Dead Horse as if It Were Alive Chapter 1381: Chapter 1046: Treating a Dead Horse as if It Were Alive According to Sisi¡¯s current illness, it is no longer feasible for her to attend school normally. Yang Ping had a long talk with Sisi¡¯s parents, hoping that Sisi could take a break from school to undergo hospital treatment. Although no suitable treatment plan has been found yet, hospitalization allows for symptomatic treatment and monitoring of the illness progression, and timely rescue is possible in case of life-threatening situations. In medical treatment plans, there can be etiological treatment and symptomatic treatment; etiological treatment targets the cause of the disease, while symptomatic treatment targets the symptoms¡ªa simple understanding of the difference between treating the root and treating the symptoms. Unfortunately, most of our current treatment plans for diseases are symptomatic treatments, with only a very few diseases being treated etiologically. That means most diseases cannot be cured completely; only a very few can be completely cured, and those that seem curable are actually recovering through the body¡¯s own immune system, with medicine just playing a supportive role. The most successful etiological treatment is for bacterial infections. Before the advent of penicillin, the mortality rate from bacterial infections was astonishing, and any infectious disease could be fatal. Since the emergence of antibiotics like penicillin, bacterial infections can be said to have been conquered by humans. Antibiotics target the disease-causing bacteria for treatment, eliminating the bacteria, so once the bacteria are eradicated, the disease naturally recovers. Thus, diseases that can be completely cured are few and far between, while diseases that are merely symptomatically treated abound. The most common diseases humans encounter are acute upper respiratory infections, commonly known as ¡°colds,¡± with most colds being viral infections. Currently, except for very few viruses for which effective antiviral drugs exist, most viruses have no effective antiviral drugs. In fact, all the medicines and methods modern medicine uses to treat colds are only to alleviate the symptoms brought by the illness and cannot alter the course of the disease itself; they merely make the patient feel more comfortable during the illness. The recovery from a cold entirely depends on the body¡¯s own immune capacity, having nothing to do with the cold medicine. Even many medications only serve a placebo effect, having no substantial effect. For example, high blood pressure and diabetes, etc., are treated symptomatically, using medications to control blood pressure and blood sugar, but they cannot eliminate the causes leading to abnormal blood pressure and blood sugar. Even why blood pressure and blood sugar become abnormal, the mechanisms are not very clear. The first time Sisi was hospitalized, it was Professor Zhang Zongshun who admitted her, so Professor Zhang has always been concerned about her condition, coming over to chat with Yang Ping from time to time to learn about her situation. Professor Zhang heard that Sisi¡¯s condition had worsened, with the tumor having metastasized throughout the body, and metastatic tumors had also been found in the brainstem, showing diffuse growth, so Old Zhang was very worried about Sisi. Professor Zhang is already over eighty years old, and one might say he has seen through many things, having long passed the age of being emotionally affected by material things. In Yang Ping¡¯s office, he stared at the MRI images of Sisi for a long time, and after a long period of thought, he said, ¡°It can¡¯t be cut now, right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not feasible. Tumors in the lungs, liver, and peritoneum can be excised, but excising just these tumors is meaningless, purely surgery for the sake of surgery. The key issue is the metastatic tumor in the brain. If we can¡¯t deal with the brain, treating other parts is pointless and just inflicts unnecessary cuts, which is counterproductive,¡± Yang Ping spoke straightforwardly to Professor Zhang. ¡°This tumor location is troublesome. What will happen if it continues to develop?¡± Although Professor Zhang knew the consequences, he still asked. Pointing to the brain tumor on the image using a pencil, Yang Ping said, ¡°Whether it¡¯s the tumor rupturing and bleeding, the impending compression, or the damage to brain cells, once it passes the critical point, the consequences will be cessation of breathing and heartbeat, with no chance for rescue.¡± ¡°It¡¯s tough!¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I have her hospitalized now. If this child wasn¡¯t in the hospital, who knows, she might not make it one day.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve gone in circles and eventually haven¡¯t bypassed it.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Is there no new drug in the field of targeted therapy for this kind of tumor? Internationally?¡± Professor Zhang, being an old expert in orthopedics, also has a certain reserve of knowledge about tumors, and he still keeps up with reading the latest literature daily, but his grasp of the latest knowledge definitely cannot compare to younger people. Actually, targeted therapy drugs are now developing well; some tumors can be controlled just through targeted therapy, and a few can be cured entirely through it. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°For this tumor, there aren¡¯t any effective targeted therapy drugs yet; currently, several clinical targeted therapy drugs are not effective, just slightly better than nothing.¡± ¡°What about CAR-T cell therapy? Any progress in that area?¡± Professor Zhang, relentless, insisted on asking thoroughly. CAR-T cell therapy, costing one million two hundred thousand per injection, can cure non-Hodgkin¡¯s lymphoma, achieving the objective of completely eradicating tumor cells.room. This effect in tumor treatment could be described as stunning. ¡°The excellent effects of CAR-T cell therapy remain only in the treatment of non-Hodgkin¡¯s lymphoma; there are no effective plans yet for treating other tumors,¡± Yang Ping denied again. ¡°Immunotherapy? Biological therapy? Isn¡¯t there a viable option?¡± Professor Zhang raised his voice. Yang Ping still shook his head, indicating that if there were a way, they wouldn¡¯t be sitting here talking for so long; they would get straight to the point. Chapter 1382 - 1382 1046 Treating a Dead Horse as if Alive_2 ?Chapter 1382: Chapter 1046: Treating a Dead Horse as if Alive_2 Chapter 1382: Chapter 1046: Treating a Dead Horse as if Alive_2 Professor Zhang didn¡¯t speak again. He just quietly stared at the MRI image on the electronic screen, squinting his eyes. In his decades of practicing medicine, he had encountered this kind of helpless situation countless times. This was neither the first nor would it be the last. ¡°Do your best, try to improve the quality of life as much as possible, let the child suffer less. This can be done, right?¡± Professor Zhang stood up, stretched his back, and then, hands clasped behind him, walked out of the doctor¡¯s office. Yang Ping watched his retreating figure, feeling somewhat heavy-hearted. Actually, every doctor wishes to cure their patients, but often, they just can¡¯t. After walking a few steps, Professor Zhang turned his head to glance back at the doctor¡¯s office and saw Zhang Lin instructing intern doctors on how to properly write medical records. ¡°Xiao Zhang, gather everyone, to the duty room for overtime!¡± Professor Zhang called out. Zhang Lin was currently busy, his explanation to the interns on medical records unfinished, so he responded, ¡°I¡¯m quite busy today, how about tomorrow?¡± ¡°What are you busying yourself with? Hurry up, get the team over here, let¡¯s have an intense session today,¡± Professor Zhang said with an irrefutable tone. Zhang Lin immediately put down what he was doing and began summoning people with his phone. What¡¯s with the old man today, why does he seem so irritable, something was off about the way he spoke. Sisi was very relaxed. She no longer cared what her illness would turn into, so this time Yang Ping didn¡¯t explain her condition to her, nor did she ask, nor did she inquire about it from her parents. Perhaps she had gotten used to these matters over time and again. At this moment, Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help but think of Luo Jin, who was playing football in Europe. He heard that after surgery, Luo Jin could only save his life but would not be able to play football again. He forwent the surgery, preferring to spend his remaining time galloping across the green fields rather than undergoing surgery. Having experienced many hardships from a young age, perhaps Luo Jin had glimpsed the true essence of life. His thoughts were unlike those of ordinary people. From the medical images sent back by Luo Jin, it seemed he didn¡¯t have much time left, but he didn¡¯t care at all. Now, Sisi¡¯s mood was similar; she was unexpectedly tranquil, without any anxiety or impatience, as if nothing had happened. ¡ª While Yang Ping was worried, good news came from Professor He. The preliminary simple model of artificial intelligence designed by their team could now be used. This model was just a small, lightweight one, and they planned to develop a larger artificial intelligence model. Before the large model was developed, Sanbo Hospital¡¯s laboratory could temporarily use this small one for transitioning. This was good news. Yang Ping decided to immediately use this artificial intelligence model for virus screening and modification. If they relied on manual labor for this process, finding a suitable virus carrier would take years. Now, with artificial intelligence assistance, this time could be greatly reduced. Even though the model introduced by Professor He was a rough and simple one, it was still a thousand times stronger than manual effort. Previously, with the System Space to assist, Yang Ping could conduct the entire screening process within the System Space, which saved a lot of time. Now that the System Space was temporarily out of order, Yang Ping had to find a way himself. The best method was to use a computer, especially artificial intelligence. But artificial intelligence models cannot be developed overnight; they require a period of technological accumulation. However, money talks, and to develop this artificial intelligence model, Ruixing Group had already invested a lot to acquire several outstanding startups worldwide. This could save time, much better than starting from scratch. As Yang Ping¡¯s partner, Professor He could share the technology acquired by Ruixing Group. Professor He¡¯s team used the acquired technology to reorganize and improve, quickly producing an immediately usable artificial intelligence model. For the next steps, they planned to take the best aspects of these models, combine them, and then build their brand new large model. Upon hearing the news, Lu Xiaolu immediately led a team to Professor He¡¯s Digital Medical Laboratory at Nandu Medical University, utilizing their model for virus screening and modification. About two hours later, it proposed hundreds of thousands of plans for virus screening and modification, then sorted these proposals and ultimately selected a dozen of the most optimal schemes. Yang Ping decided to immediately proceed with laboratory cultivation after completing the virus screening and modification. He planned to apply these specially cultivated viruses directly to Sisi. Taking such an action was indeed too risky and violates ethical norms, but he had no better solution and time was of the essence. When virologist Beata Halasi used oncolytic virus therapy to treat her own triple-negative breast cancer, she experimented on her own body. Historically, many scientists conducted experiments on themselves to save time. But the situation with Sisi was different. If she were to be directly subjected to clinical experiments, she and her family would surely agree and fully cooperate. However, society would certainly not consent. Yang Ping would later face ethical scrutiny, social doubt, and a storm of public opinion. Should it fail and result in Sisi¡¯s death, he could become entrapped in societal ethical condemnation, ultimately becoming discredited; societal condemnation often lacks rationality and fails to reflect deeply. Screw it, what is the value of reputation? When compared to a human life, reputation is worthless! Yang Ping sat in his office thinking about this. When he himself was just an ordinary young doctor, despite his hard work, it would have been impossible to achieve today¡¯s success without the help of the system. Didn¡¯t he undergo so much learning and training just to heal and save lives? If he were to be hesitant because of his reputation, then he wouldn¡¯t deserve to own this system. He could no longer afford to care so much. What he needed was speed; Sisi did not have the time to wait. When Yang Ping proposed to use the special virus directly on Sisi, Dean Xia, Director Han, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and others all looked at him in astonishment. ¡°This is a completely new and special virus. Using it directly on a human without any ethical review could lead to Sisi¡¯s death with severe consequences in public opinion. You need to think this through!¡± Dean Xia said. ¡°I have thought it through, I must do this,¡± Yang Ping said firmly. Dean Xia paced back and forth in the office. If something were to go wrong with this, public opinion would be overwhelming, and if exploited by certain forces, it would turn into an overwhelming deluge. By then, Yang Ping would be inevitably discredited! ¡°Do you want to reconsider? Are there any other options?¡± ¡°I have considered it thoroughly, there are no other options.¡± ¡°Must you do this?¡± ¡°Definitely!¡± ¡°Well then, I¡¯ll be the first to support you. If you are not afraid, why should I be! I¡¯ve been a dean for many years and haven¡¯t done anything crazy. Now I¡¯ll join you in this madness. I¡¯ll call a meeting, and if things go south, Xia Changjiang will take the fall.¡± To this end, Yang Ping gathered everyone to initiate his plan. A 3D animated model of the modified virus floated on the electronic screen, with K factor embedded in the virus, forming a complex protein structure¡ªit was a brand-new virus. This miraculous virus had already undergone virtual experiments in Professor He¡¯s digital medical laboratory virtual environment. It can carry the K factor, travel through the blood circulation to reach the tumor, infect the tumor cells, and then trigger the apoptosis program of the tumor cells, leading to death of the tumor cells without affecting the normal cells at all. According to standard procedures, the ethical approval for such experiments is extremely strict. After sample fabrication, the next step would be animal experiments, and, after passing those, a variety of approvals are required to enter clinical trials. Yang Ping estimated, the whole process would take about 5-10 years. How could Sisi possibly wait ten years? Even surviving tomorrow is a question. Right now, regardless of whether the plan would work, it was the only possible effective method; it was a case of trying to bring a dying horse back to life. Chapter 1383 - 1383 1047 Enemies Meet ?Chapter 1383: Chapter 1047: Enemies Meet Chapter 1383: Chapter 1047: Enemies Meet With the wedding approaching, Yang Ping took a day to go take wedding photos with Xiao Su, as a sense of ceremony is still necessary. After taking the wedding photos, Yang Ping was brought by Huang Jiacai to Manor Hotel to familiarize himself with the surroundings. This was Yang Ping¡¯s first time at this hotel. As the protagonist of that day, it was necessary for him to get familiar with the environment, so amidst his busy schedule, Yang Ping would take time to visit, as this would be one of the most important moments in his life. After touring the Manor Hotel a few times, Huang Jiacai handed over the guest list and the program list to Yang Ping. Yang Ping glanced at it, noticing that no one was missing who should be invited, it seemed to be fine. However, there were many guests Yang Ping had not invited; they had all requested to attend his wedding. Yang Ping regarded the list, seeing various friends in the industry. Although not acquainted with these people nor having interacted face-to-face, some had already engaged in email discussions about academic issues, such as some major editors, while some haven¡¯t even exchanged emails, just being fellow scholars in the field of medicine. Yang Ping thought about it; everyone meant well and also wanted to use this opportunity to gather and communicate face-to-face. Having friends come from far places isn¡¯t a bad thing. Only, this program list was rather eccentric, all the performances included his own friends. Professor Manstein¡¯s solo of ¡°Tibetan Plateau,¡± it¡¯s uncertain if he could hit those high notes when the time came. August and Robert¡¯s comic dialogues would be spot on; those two teamed up could really pull off comic dialogues, let alone just Robert who could manage a monologue himself. Robert, apart from comic dialogues, is even planning a martial arts performance ¡ª unsure whether he¡¯d present Monkey Fist or Broadsword Play. Woodhead¡¯s act is a stand-up comedy. Wu Zi¡¯s boldness, who has never even passed the Chinese level four exam, is commendable. Is he planning to challenge the field he¡¯s least talented in? Xiehe¡¯s brothers are even putting on a dance. My goodness, Song Yun and the brothers are really talented. Normally, I only see them performing surgeries, never knew they could dance. Miyuki, this girl plans to deliver a song by Dao Lang, ¡°Love Song of the West Sea.¡± Is this appropriate for a wedding? Well, it doesn¡¯t matter; it¡¯s lively anyway. Huang Jiacai and Gan Fengyi, two absolute magnates in the medical business industry, one representing domestic capital, the other representing foreign capital, are preparing to perform a love song duet, ¡°Myth.¡± Old Huang, can you really pull it off without bringing down the quality of the whole show? When Yang Ping¡¯s gaze fell on a program listed by Huang Jiacai himself, Huang Jiacai chuckled awkwardly: ¡°Heh heh, I¡¯m just filling in numbers; Gan Fengyi insisted on pulling me to sing a duet with her.¡± ¡°Alright, just don¡¯t go off-key,¡± Yang Ping wasn¡¯t demanding much. The subsequent long list of programs dazzled Yang Ping, each person surprisingly multifaceted. Yang Ping skimmed through the papers handed over by Huang Jiacai. Yang Ping noticed that Wang Changxin was oddly missing from the preparation committee¡¯s list, which was illogical. Hermes had been back for so long, caring so much about his wedding; how could he be left out, maybe there was some oversight or misunderstanding. ¡°Why isn¡¯t Hermes included in the planning committee?¡± Yang Ping still habitually called him Hermes, even though Old Wang had already cast aside that belt. Huang Jiacai said, ¡°He was initially in, but he keeps coming up with those vulgar ideas all day long, like inviting celebrities to boost the event, using cash to entice guests, or bringing in South Korean girl groups to perform. Basically, he¡¯s all about the tycoon mindset; I criticized him a bit, and he got really offended, saying he can¡¯t be affiliated with me, arguing that I¡¯m uncultured, lacking imagination.¡± Hermes seemed to be acting like a child, picking a bone with Huang Jiacai. ¡°It¡¯s fine, Professor, don¡¯t worry. You know what kind of person he is; very broad-minded, straightforward, he wouldn¡¯t hold a grudge over such trivial stuff, but he indeed thinks about money a lot; he can¡¯t get away from talking about money in every three sentences.¡± ¡°Long live understanding. The man¡¯s a gold digger; talking money with you, not feelings? Then fine, let¡¯s avoid any misunderstanding, and if any arise, clear them up immediately, we¡¯re all friends.¡± Yang Ping advised a few words. ¡ª Yang Ping¡¯s time was mostly spent on surgeries and scientific research, and he didn¡¯t play much with his phone, so he wasn¡¯t too familiar with current affairs news. However, that didn¡¯t affect Yang Ping from receiving some external social information, because there was a walking radio in the department, and that was Zhang Lin. Not just hot news, even insider news, he could broadcast them all vividly and clearly to everyone daily, and this broadcast was very humane, not taking up much of everyone¡¯s time. For instance, during surgeries, everyone could perform surgeries while listening to Zhang Lin¡¯s broadcasts, not only soothing the mood but also keeping up to date with external social news. In the past few days, a significant event occurred outside, but Yang Ping was unaware. When Yang Ping returned to the office, Zhang Lin immediately came over to broadcast: ¡°Professor, something big has happened.¡± Yang Ping, startled by his comment: ¡°Has Wen Ruzheng in the Pathology Department written another creepy love letter? Or is he planning to streak again? Or did he pound the table with Director Zhao from Medical Services Office again? It seems like the major events at Sanbo Hospital often involve this guy.¡± Zhang Lin shook his head: ¡°No, it¡¯s Wang Ge, the reporter who slandered Director Zhu in the past, he has been arrested and charged by the Public Security Organs, probably facing several years.¡± Chapter 1384 - 1384 1047 Enemies Meet_2 ?Chapter 1384: Chapter 1047: Enemies Meet_2 Chapter 1384: Chapter 1047: Enemies Meet_2 He is said to have colluded with the Japanese, working from inside out against Director Zhu and Yang Ping, and spreading rumors and slanders about Anning Insurance and Sanbo Hospital. This is not just a mere slander; it¡¯s a premeditated criminal act with direct economic targets. The whistleblower provided very detailed evidence stretching over several years, including a vast amount of physical evidence and many witness testimonials. Among these evidences are recordings of conversations between Wang Ge and the Japanese Ikuta Takashi and evidence of the Japanese providing financial support to him through third-party accounts. Numerous manuscripts for defamation and rumors were also found at Wang Ge¡¯s residence. Some of these manuscripts had already made it to some disreputable media outlets, preparing to be published, but the Public Security Organs acted promptly to prevent a major defamation case. Back in the day, Wang Ge and Director Zhu¡¯s mutual grievances within the medical community were well-known. Wang Ge, young and dismissive, fabricated facts to slander Director Zhu, not out of ignorance of making up fake news, but as a deliberate pretense. To make his news sensational, he didn¡¯t hesitate to fabricate facts and maliciously slander, ultimately destroying a dedicated and excellent doctor. Having done such things, Wang Ge emerged unscathed, even gaining fame through this article, not only securing a promotion but also earning a substantial financial income. Since then, he tasted success and began to engage in various defamatory acts, specifically targeting hot social issues and concerns of the public, concocting fake news designed to capture the public¡¯s psyche ¨C the more exaggerated and sensational, the better. If it could cause a public uproar, all the better. Many doctors knew Wang Ge, and when they learned of the fake news he concocted, they might hate him bitterly, but they were helpless against him. Speaking of Wang Ge, Yang Ping once saved his life. At that time, Yang Ping was on a business trip to Shipo, and Wang Ge was in a life-threatening car accident. Yang Ping and Director Tian conducted main surgery together on Wang Ge, snatching him from the clutches of death. Director Zhu even donated his blood to him, without which Wang Ge probably would not have survived. But instead of being grateful or thankful, Wang Ge schemed against Director Zhu behind his back and even illegitimately used fake news to slander Yang Ping. Fortunately, many media outlets dared not accept his pieces at that time, so his articles slandering Yang Ping were delayed in publication, and even if published on some obscure media, they failed to stir up interest. Heaven¡¯s net is vast, loose but misses nothing; yet, he had slipped through for a long time. Justice is never absent, only delayed, but can a delayed justice still punish the wicked and promote the good? If Director Zhu hadn¡¯t strived to improve himself, he might have been ruined forever by this scum, perhaps even facing a broken family. Back then, his news piece caused a massive sensation, pushing Director Zhu into the storm¡¯s peak, and he was cyber-abused like a scourged street rat, completely tarnishing Director Zhu¡¯s reputation forever. And yet, Wang Ge flourished, parading around with fame, enjoying the finest delicacies. There is always a way out; Director Zhu was forced to switch careers and enter the insurance industry, where he worked hard and eventually became an actuary, then prospering in the insurance field, ultimately leading Anning Insurance¡¯s overseas company. Now that Wang Ge has been officially arrested by the Public Security Organs, all doctors feel a sigh of relief, even though that relief had been awaited for many years. Director Tian specifically came to the Surgical Research Institute to share the good news with Yang Ping. Back then, despite knowing he was scum, they still had to perform surgery on him. ¡ª At this moment, Director Zhu and Wang Ge, the sworn enemies, sat down for the first time face-to-face, but they were separated by an iron window; Wang Ge sat inside, Director Zhu as the visitor, sat on the outside. Police wheeled Wang Ge out, he looked haggard and spiritless, as thin as someone chronically abusing drugs. When he saw Director Zhu, his eyes immediately blazed with fury, attempting to rise from his wheelchair, but hopelessly not only did he not manage to stand, but he also fell to the ground. The prison guard helped him up, asking if he still wanted to meet this person, to which he gritted his teeth and said: ¡°Meet!¡± Enemies meet, particularly jealous, but in contrast to Wang Ge¡¯s violent emotional fluctuations, Director Zhu appeared serene as water. ¡°Long time no see, seems the food in there doesn¡¯t suit your stomach; you¡¯ve lost a lot of weight,¡± Director Zhu said slowly, appearing very calm and composed. The enemy is now a prisoner, while I am now the CEO of the overseas branch of Anning Insurance, with an annual salary of millions. ¡°You, Zhu Cheng, I¡¯m asking you, are you the one scheming behind my back? Don¡¯t be smug, wait till I get out, and see if I don¡¯t kill you.¡± Wang Ge wanted to ask him just this. ¡°Better worry about whether your own body can last until the day you get out,¡± Director Zhu sneered. ¡°You still haven¡¯t answered me, are you the one scheming behind me?¡± Wang Ge questioned again. Director Zhu nodded. ¡°Did you submit the whistleblower material? Have you been tracking me all this time? Collecting so much evidence? Well, you are quite patient, collecting evidence for years.¡± ¡°Yes, didn¡¯t the police tell you? I reported it under my real name, took my ID and personally went to the Public Security Organs to deliver the evidence, and even signed it. As for collecting the evidence, from the day I resigned, I have been collecting your evidence. When I had no money, I ran around the streets myself, visiting one witness after another, researching bit by bit. Heaven has eyes, I successfully switched careers, became the CEO of a big company with millions in salary. After I had money, I supported a professional private detective team, monitoring you 24 hours a day, investigating you, tracking you, gathering your criminal evidence. Over the years, I¡¯ve collected enough evidence to fill several rooms.¡± ¡°It really was you.¡± Wang Ge¡¯s eyes were bloodshot, as if the blood vessels in his eyes might burst at any moment. ¡°Back in Nanqiao, when you had that car accident, do you know why I saved you? Because I said if you could reform, I should save you. If you continued to commit crimes, then I saved you so that you could live to face trial and punishment. Do you think I have achieved that?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t gloat too soon.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not someone who is arrogant or smug, don¡¯t worry. When you¡¯re about to be released, I will submit new evidence, you will face another trial, increasing your sentence. I will let you see a glimmer of hope, then extinguish it, letting you cycle through despair until you grow old and die in despair.¡± ¡°You?¡± ¡°I can imagine a movie scene, someone falls into a dark abyss, he climbs up, reaches a glimpse of light, then falls down again, happening over and over. You are that person, you will never climb out of this abyss, only waiting to die.¡± ¡°You???¡± ¡°Ha ha, Do you know? Someone once comforted me and said, the best way to avenge is to live a better life than your enemy. Look, haven¡¯t I achieved that? You know? I argued with the police for a long time just to see you, to see this frustrated look on your face.¡± ¡°You bastard, you¡¯re despicable, shameless, you have no bottom line...¡± ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right. Dealing with you, I am a bastard, I am shameless, and I have no bottom line. What can you do about it? Seeing you helpless, I feel very happy. The more you are like this, the happier I am. I guess I will laugh so much tonight that I won¡¯t be able to sleep. You know? You are now abandoned by everyone, even your own younger brother refuses to help you and will testify against you in court. What a failure you are.¡± At this moment, Wang Ge was so enraged he spat blood; he was breathing rapidly, his face fierce, wildly furious, yet powerless. The prison guard immediately came over to support him, ending the meeting promptly. ¡°Goodbye, Reporter Wang Ge, I have someone to meet over tea. If possible, I will come to see you again. Remember to confess, reform, and strive to become a person beneficial to society.¡± Director Zhu stood up, smiling as he waved goodbye to Wang Ge. Chapter 1385 - 1385 1048 Live Like Summer Flowers ?Chapter 1385: Chapter 1048: Live Like Summer Flowers Chapter 1385: Chapter 1048: Live Like Summer Flowers The time it takes for a virus to replicate through division is 6-8 hours, which is an astonishing speed. About one billion viruses piled together are approximately the size of a grain of rice. Starting with one virus as a seed and undergoing exponential division, it takes about 30 replications to reach approximately one billion viruses, and these 30 divisions take about 150 hours, which is around 6 days. The speed of viral division is so fast, as such, it also poses a high risk. If all the divided viruses do not mutate, or if mutations are minimal and do not deviate from our expectations, generally speaking, there is no problem. That¡¯s because the consequences caused by these viruses are already anticipated and controlled by the experimenters, and the viruses used are carefully selected, posing no significant harm to the human body. Viruses like the Measles virus and Herpangina Virus have minimal and transient negative effects on the human body. The most terrifying situation is when the virus mutates unexpectedly and uncontrollably during replication. Once such mutations occur, the harm caused by the virus will exceed our predictions and control, and these mutated viruses can still divide exponentially, increasing in numbers. If these new viruses possess some pathogenic properties, once they enter the human body, without effective drugs to eliminate them, or if the human immune system is unable to eliminate them, it is equivalent to the patient contracting a new viral disease. Of course, the probability of this risk occurring is very low. Viral cultivation experiments must be conducted in a biosafety level three laboratory, hence Lu Xiaolu needs to carry out the viral experiment in the high-safety biological laboratory at Nandu Medical University. At present, the Stem Cell Laboratory and the Tumor Laboratory at the Surgical Research Institute do not possess such conditions; these laboratories are not prepared for viral experiments. During Lu Xiaolu¡¯s studies in Germany, he was extensively exposed to these interdisciplinary fields, so he is quite familiar with tumor immunotherapy, biological therapy, targeted therapy, and oncolytic virus therapy. He is most suitable for conducting this experiment. The professors at the virus laboratory at Nandu Medical University are very willing to cooperate with Sanbo Hospital, so they quickly reached a cooperation intent, and Professor Brian introduced a Nobel Prize-winning virologist who will soon start cooperation and exchanges with Lu Xiaolu. Yang Ping and Lu Xiaolu went to Nandu Medical University to inspect the virus laboratory, and after a long discussion with Zhang Zhiwei, the director of the virus laboratory, Yang Ping and Lu Xiaolu decided to take a stroll around the campus of Nandu Medical University. Whenever they get the chance to visit, they make time to take a walk around. On a tree-lined avenue, from a distance, Yang Ping saw Principal Ruo, who was at the school to handle the procedures for his early retirement. Principal Ruo had resigned because of the issues related to Guan Ruyan and Principal Ding. Professor Su Qingyun succeeded Principal Ruo as the new principal of Nandu Medical University and also took over as dean of Nandu First Affiliated Hospital. Indeed, Principal Ruo was a good principal, upright and daring, with a strong scholarly demeanor. He made significant contributions to the development of Nandu Medical University during his tenure, implementing many meaningful reforms, and also provided considerable assistance to Yang Ping during that time. When Principal Ruo resigned, Dean Xia, Professor Su, Yang Ping, and others had dinner with him and organized a farewell ceremony. From a distance, Yang Ping saw Professor Su and several vice-principals talking with Principal Ruo, surrounded by a large group of students. These students didn¡¯t want to part with Principal Ruo; upon hearing that he had returned to handle procedures, they spontaneously gathered to shake hands with him. Principal Ruo also saw Yang Ping, and they waved at each other from afar before coming together for a handshake. ¡°Professor Yang, how have you been? I heard you¡¯ve recently been working on experiments involving virus therapy for tumors. Our school¡¯s Zhang Zhiwei is quite excellent. He has previously worked in top virus laboratories in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany, with outstanding academic achievements,¡± Principal Ruo remarked, looking very energetic and clearly not suffering from any retirement syndrome. ¡°Yes, we came here specifically to discuss a collaborative project with Professor Zhang. How about you, how have you been?¡± Yang Ping also showed concern for Principal Ruo¡¯s recent situation. ¡°Well, I am returning to my roots, having recently visited my hometown for ancestral rites. The local government heard of my retirement and wanted me to come back as a governmental advisor for education. To this end, the mayor of our hometown visited here three times; I couldn¡¯t refuse and agreed to help with education, which gives me something to do in retirement,¡± Principal Ruo said with emotion. It seems that Principal Ruo is also someone who can¡¯t stay idle. ¡°Professor Yang, have you met with Professor Zhang Zhiwei?¡± At home, Professor Su would generally address Yang Ping as Xiao Yang, but here, she formally referred to him as Professor Yang. ¡°We¡¯ve met, had a long chat, and we just visited the laboratory. I told Professor Lu that it¡¯s rare for us to come here, so we planned to take a walk around the campus,¡± Yang Ping quickly explained. The crowd of students around them grew larger, with many teachers also joining. The entire road was packed, more bustling than a celebrity appearance, Yang Ping noted, observing that there were thousands of people, and their numbers were still increasing; they spontaneously lined up along the road, leaving the middle open. ¡°Principal Ruo, we miss you so much!¡± Chapter 1386 - 1386 1048 Life Like Summer Flowers_2 ?Chapter 1386: Chapter 1048: Life Like Summer Flowers_2 Chapter 1386: Chapter 1048: Life Like Summer Flowers_2 I don¡¯t know who started it, but someone shouted. ¡°Principal Ruo, we miss you so much!¡± The cries of the entire crowd rose like waves, one after another, finally becoming a uniform shout. Since resigning due to responsibility, Principal Ruo had been on leave. Today, he officially came to complete the early retirement procedures. Unexpectedly, appearing in the Nandu Medical University campus for less than two hours caused so many people to gather. Principal Ruo was initially disoriented, then with eyes turning red, he immediately took out a tissue and gently pressed it to his eyes, then waved to everyone. ¡°I miss you guys too!¡± Principal Ruo kept waving his hand. The road here was already too crowded with people, the trees on both sides were also full of people. They had all gathered spontaneously upon hearing the news, without any organization, no banners, no flowers, just sincere shouts. Principal Ruo shook hands with the students and teachers who reached out, but he couldn¡¯t manage to shake everyone¡¯s hands. A black sedan drove in, Professor Su said, ¡°The car is here.¡± ¡°Professor Su, look how much trouble I¡¯m causing you, why arrange a car? I can just take a taxi myself.¡± Principal Ruo said while waving to the crowd. Professor Su opened the car door: ¡°It¡¯s no trouble, let the Nandu Medical University car drive you one last time.¡± ¡°Goodbye, Principal Ruo, you must come back to visit.¡± Principal Ruo turned back to see the waving crowd, reluctantly getting into the sedan. ¡ª Sisi¡¯s frequent dizzy spells were becoming more frequent and more pronounced, sometimes severe dizziness would cause a brief disturbance of consciousness, although these temporary disruptions usually lasted only a few seconds. Yang Ping knew her dizziness was caused by her brain tumor, which had now affected the central part of her heartbeat, resulting in temporary suppression of her heartbeat. This suppression after affecting the heart can lead to reduced or stopped blood output, resulting in insufficient blood supply to the brain, and dizziness is a response of insufficient blood supply to the brain. If this suppression of heartbeats continues to intensify, eventually, the brain will die from prolonged insufficient blood supply. Even though Yang Ping had not disclosed her condition to Sisi, the clever girl already knew it was her final moments because Yang Ping had never told her about her condition or the next treatment plans, indicating that there were no plans left, and she was mentally prepared to face it all calmly. These days, whenever Yang Ping did rounds, they would talk about the cactus, discussing experiences in cultivating desert succulent plants. Yang Ping never brought up her illness, and Sisi never asked. Their chats revolving around the cactus were very pleasant. In the morning, doctors, nurses, and students with him on rounds couldn¡¯t understand why Professor Yang discussed cacti instead of the patient¡¯s condition during his rounds. Every time he came for rounds, Sisi was reading under the window, the ward was well-lit. At that time the morning sunlight shone into the ward, casting light on Sisi, making her appear so serene and composed. Yang Ping was very curious about what was going on in this young girl¡¯s inner world, how she could face death with such tranquility, something most adults couldn¡¯t achieve. In the afternoon, Yang Ping came alone to Sisi¡¯s ward for rounds, Sisi was again sitting under the window reading, the golden sunset was not yet gone, casting its light on her, making her look like a beautiful flower. Yang Ping walked over slowly, Sisi closed her book. Yang Ping glanced at it, a collection of Tagore¡¯s poems, the page she was just reading was ¡°Life is as beautiful as summer flowers.¡± ¡°Are you afraid? Sisi.¡± Now in the ward, it was only Yang Ping and Sisi, he decided to talk to her, Yang Ping standing beside the cactus. Sisi smiled, her face flushing with the unique blush of youth: ¡°I used to be scared, but not anymore. After getting sick, I read a lot of books. My math teacher once told us that in high school we would learn about something called axioms, axioms are undeniable because they are inherently correct. I found there are also two self-evident axioms in medicine, or rather, axioms that need no proof, I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m correct or if other books already have such axioms.¡± She actually summarized axioms, and they are about medicine, Yang Ping was very curious about what this quirky sprite was really thinking. ¡°Tell me, let¡¯s see whether this axiom is your original creation, or coincidentally aligns with previous findings.¡± Yang Ping smiled. Sisi thought for a moment and said, ¡°If I tell you, you can¡¯t laugh at me, you can¡¯t dismiss it as a child¡¯s talk.¡± Yang Ping quickly said, ¡°I promise, I won¡¯t laugh, nor will I treat it as a child¡¯s talk.¡± Sisi lowered her head, pondering for a moment before raising her head and saying, ¡°Everyone gets sick, and everyone will die from illness.¡± Yang Ping silently repeated these words in his heart, surprised by the depth of philosophical interpretation this intelligent little girl brought to the disease. Everyone gets sick, and everyone will die from illness, that¡¯s absolutely right. Using a common concept in oncology: the 5-year survival rate, in a sense, the difference between healthy people and patients, even between healthy people and cancer patients, is just a difference in five-year survival rates, and all are less than 100%. In plain terms, birth, age, illness, and death are inevitable for everyone, and everyone will eventually die; it¡¯s just that this end comes at different ages. At this moment, Yang Ping didn¡¯t know what to say, he could only offer a bit of hope with the efforts he was currently making, even though she might not need it now, but Yang Ping felt as a doctor, it was his responsibility and duty to give a ray of hope to terminally ill patients, even if it was just comfort, even if it was just care. ¡°I am trying a new treatment method, using a virus carrying factors that can kill tumor cells to treat you, injecting these viruses into your body, they are carried by the blood throughout the body, can penetrate the blood-brain barrier, infect those tumor cells, then use the carried lethal factor to kill the tumor cells. Our virus has been successfully modified, and these viruses have been cultured in the laboratory, and soon can be introduced into your body.¡± Sisi always maintained a radiant smile, like an angel: ¡°I have said, the eyes are the windows to the soul, I can see from your eyes, you are comforting me. From design to clinical application, this treatment plan in medicine takes over ten years, and the success rate is miserably low, often less than one percent, but I am willing to be your experimental subject; I¡¯ve once said, I¡¯m willing to be your error workbook.¡± ¡°Have you read books or papers on this?¡± Yang Ping was very surprised. Sisi nodded, ¡°Didn¡¯t you get me a hospital library card? I often go there to read books and magazines, so I know a little.¡± ¡°You would definitely become a good doctor if you studied medicine in the future.¡± Yang Ping encouraged her, although it was just deceiving her. Sisi pursed her lips, ¡°I have a favor to ask you, have you asked for me? I don¡¯t know if a tumor patient¡¯s body can be donated to the medical school, if possible, I want to donate my body to Nandu Medical University as a specimen for medical students. I used to say I wanted to study medicine with you, but now it seems impossible. If I could donate my body to Nandu Medical University as a ¡®big-body professor¡¯, wouldn¡¯t it be another way to enter the medical field, fulfilling my own ideals?¡± Do not empathize! Yang Ping reminded himself inwardly, but he could not help it; his eyes were already moist. ¡°Can you promise this? It is my last request.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Yang Ping turned his head and looked at the cactus in the corner of the room; he didn¡¯t want Sisi to see him tear up, he always appeared as a confident, all-capable older brother in front of her. ¡°Are you a professor at Nandu Medical University?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Yang Ping purposely lowered his head to fiddle with the cactus. ¡°Then you must be lecturing,¡± Sisi seemed pleased. Yang Ping¡¯s voice was a bit hoarse: ¡°I have one class every week.¡± ¡°Is it an anatomy class?¡± ¡°No, it is ¡®Surgical Science,¡¯ taught to upper-class medical students.¡± ¡°I see...¡± Sisi sounded a bit disappointed. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°If you were teaching the anatomy class, then I could see you once a week...¡± Yang Ping took a deep breath and could not say another word. Chapter 1387 - 1387 1049 The Castrated Virus ?Chapter 1387: Chapter 1049: The Castrated Virus Chapter 1387: Chapter 1049: The Castrated Virus Nandu Medical University Virus Laboratory, this is a Level 3 Biological Safety Laboratory, also known as a P3 laboratory. Based on the infectivity and harmfulness of pathogenic microorganisms, biological safety laboratories are internationally classified into four biosafety levels: P1, P2, P3, and P4. The so-called P4 laboratory is the highest level of biological safety laboratory currently available to mankind, hailed as the ¡°aircraft carrier¡± of the field of virology research. Nandu Medical University¡¯s P4 laboratory is under construction, and once completed, it will be the second P4 laboratory in China. A week later, visible turbidity appeared in the sterile transparent culture medium of the laboratory. When the researchers, clad in protective suits, saw this turbidity, they were immensely excited. This turbidity was none other than the cultivated K virus complex; Yang Ping tentatively referred to this combination of virus and K factor as the K virus complex. The researchers cautiously took out a portion of the liquid containing the virus with specialized tools. Even though these viruses are non-infectious and have been rendered replication-deficient, the researchers still rigorously followed the standard experimental procedure, daring not to be negligent in the slightest. These samples will undergo the most stringent tests to verify their purity, check for any mutations, or detect the presence of any other harmful microorganisms. Viruses are a type of microorganism capable of self-replication, so they must be handled with caution. Of course, as long as no rare mutations occur, these viruses are still safe and will not cause any danger to the human body. At most, they might induce transient and mild flu symptoms, which are self-resolving and leave no after-effects once healed. This is one reason why some viruses can be used to treat tumors. Some samples, after special processing, were sent for observation under an electron microscope to analyze their structure. The basic unit of structure and function in life is the cell, but viruses are an exception. They are non-cellular life forms and do not have a cellular structure. They are merely a simple protein structure, where ¡®simple¡¯ is relative compared to the complexity of cellular organisms. Because viruses lack a cellular structure, they must parasitize within living cells to survive and reproduce. They cannot live independently and must rely on host cells to provide the necessary conditions for life activity. They reproduce within host cells through processes such as adsorption, injection, replication, assembly, and release. Humanity, from its inception, has had to deal with countless viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms. Through a long process of evolution and change, some microorganisms have become an integral part of our bodies. For example, the organelles in human cells ¨C mitochondria. Mitochondria are organelles found in almost all eukaryotic cells. In ancient times, they were free-living viruses capable of generating energy in the presence of oxygen. They were then engulfed by ancestral eukaryotic cells. Over time, as these viruses parasitized the ancestral eukaryotic cells for too long, they gradually forgot their original identity and became an indispensable energy generator within the cell¡ªmitochondria, the site of cellular respiration and many important metabolic processes. Professor Zhang Zhiwei is an outstanding virologist that Principal Ruo had invited back from the United States. At that time, as part of the Thousand Talents Plan, Professor Zhang returned to China to lead virology research at Nandu Medical University, instantly catapulting China¡¯s virology research to a top-tier status in the world. He is a pure virologist with little knowledge about using viruses to treat tumors. However, hearing that Yang Ping intended to use the newly-cultivated virus directly in human trials, he couldn¡¯t help feeling anxious, as this was a violation of scientific ethical principles. If something were to go wrong, the consequences would be unimaginable, implicating everyone involved. When Professor Zhang heard that Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital wanted to cooperate with him, he was initially eager for the opportunity. Upon learning more about the situation, however, his heart wavered. It would be best to avoid such matters if possible. Some ethical rules should not be challenged lightly, as it is easy to put oneself in an unrecoverable situation; there was no need to take such risks. Yet, after speaking face-to-face with Yang Ping, Professor Zhang changed his mind and developed a sense of admiration and respect for him. Yang Ping¡¯s selfless courage for the sake of science made him feel ashamed, so in the end, he agreed to cooperate. However, for safety¡¯s sake, Professor Zhang placed stringent requirements on the research team¡¯s scientific personnel regarding the experimental details, prohibiting anyone with less than three years of virus research experience from participating in this experiment. Although these viruses are relatively safe, they have been modified by Yang Ping, who combined the virus with the K factor to create a novel virus. While structurally, this new virus still maintains the original virus¡¯s structure and functions, the function of the embedded K factor is very specific, targeting only one type of tumor cell. Professor Zhang Zhiwei is not worried that the virus will do harm; he is concerned about the K factor, a protein structure that did not previously exist in the world and was cultivated out of nothing by Yang Ping in the laboratory. It is not a virus, just a protein molecule without the ability to replicate itself, and alone it is unlikely to cause any significant trouble. But once this K factor is combined with the virus, it becomes a different matter. Although it is not a virus, it has now become part of the virus, meaning it can now divide along with the virus, which is quite terrifying. Chapter 1388 - 1388 1049 The Castrated Virus_2 ?Chapter 1388: Chapter 1049: The Castrated Virus_2 Chapter 1388: Chapter 1049: The Castrated Virus_2 K factor can initiate the apoptosis program of tumor cells, causing their death. In the event it goes out of control, it could initiate the apoptosis program of normal cells. Once injected into the human body, it would indiscriminately attack human cells, including cells of vital organs, such as the brain, heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys causing widespread cell death, which could rapidly lead to organ failure and result in the patient¡¯s death. Therefore, during the design of the experimental plan, Yang Ping also considered this issue. To prevent the experiment from going out of control, he castrated the viruses, which means stripping them of their replication capabilities. Thus, no matter how destructive they are, they are not to be feared as they cannot divide, so they remain limited in quantity and combat effectiveness. Moreover, even if these viruses are highly destructive, they are bound to be eradicated. In the laboratory, a small amount can first be injected into the human body. If unforeseen destruction occurs, the injection is stopped immediately, and symptomatic treatment is administered. The viruses will slowly die within the human body, making it much safer. The technique of castrating the virus¡¯s replication capability is very mature, such as when manufacturing vaccines, like viral vector vaccines. It involves using a virus (such as adenovirus) as a vector to prepare the vaccine. These vector viruses are stripped of the genes needed for replication beforehand, enabling them to infect human cells but unable to replicate. The genes corresponding to the specific proteins of the target pathogen are inserted into the vector virus genome. When the prepared vaccine is injected into the human body, it infects the body cells and expresses the specific proteins inside the cells, triggering both humoral and cellular immunity, thereby providing high immunogenicity. This process is quite similar to what Yang Ping is experimenting with now, so sometimes interdisciplinary integration can create something new. Things normally used in one field, when applied in a new field, might have significant new effects. The first batch of experimental viruses, through genetic recombination technology, has had the necessary genes for replication knocked out and has undergone a ¡°sterilization surgery.¡± Thus, even if extremely rare mutations occur, they cannot pass on this mutation, and mutated individuals will die quickly. Professor Zhang Zhiwei personally participated in the experiment. He observed sampled viral specimens under an electron microscope and has not found any mutations so far, indicating that their purity meets the experimental requirements. Regarding viral mutations, not all mutations are detrimental to us. Very rare mutations might be fatal, but they might also be beneficial. Most mutations have neither adverse nor favorable effects, with some mutations causing no changes at all¡ªthese are called ¡°silent mutations.¡± There are many causes of viral mutations, such as replication errors, interactions with the host, and external conditions, like ultraviolet rays. In the current laboratory experiments, the primary cause of mutations is replication errors. After being injected into the human body, mutations may also occur based on interactions with the human body, but since these viruses are castrated versions, even if mutations occur, the impact is minimal. Professor Zhang Zhiwei successfully obtained a certain amount of samples that temporarily meet the experimental standards. He eagerly shared this good news with Yang Ping. Upon receiving the news, Yang Ping rushed to the laboratory at Nandu Medical University at the highest speed to personally see these K virus complexes and what exactly they are. For their sake, Yang Ping has made great efforts. If everything goes well, he will proceed to manufacture the virus into an injectable solution, then use a vaccine-like cold chain transport to deliver them to the Surgical Research Institute. In the ward, Yang Ping plans to inject these brand-new viruses into Sisi¡¯s body. After the injection, a close observation will be conducted. ¡°I¡¯ve been working with viruses for so many years, knowing that vaccines often use viruses as transportation means, but I never thought they could also treat tumors?¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit regretful. Yang Ping told him, ¡°I first discovered the K factor before choosing to use viruses as a transport tool. Without the K factor, having the virus as a transport tool alone is meaningless.¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei thought for a moment. Yang Ping¡¯s words made sense. Actually, his project¡¯s focus wasn¡¯t the virus as a transport tool, an old method already applied in many fields; it was on the K factor, whose most technically substantive aspect is its ability to initiate tumor cell apoptosis and kill tumor cells. This is arguably a revolutionary discovery in the field of oncology. ¡°Make these viruses into injectable biological agents as soon as possible, and then send them to our department. I want to start human trials as soon as possible.¡± Yang Ping confirmed that these viruses meet the experimental requirements. ¡°Do we really have to rush this?¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei was constantly feeling uneasy, always feeling that things were being rushed and fearing that there was a problem somewhere, but he couldn¡¯t pinpoint what it might be. ¡°Yes, my patient doesn¡¯t have the time to wait too long, I must race against the clock,¡± Yang Ping honestly told him. Professor Zhang Zhiwei said with confusion, ¡°I really want to know what kind of patient is worth you taking such risks, personally I think you could proceed step-by-step, not hurrying or worrying. Even if you miss this patient, there are many similar cases; one less won¡¯t make a difference.¡± Yang Ping did not offer any further explanations, and Professor Zhang Zhiwei did not ask again. ¡ª Director Zhu had completed his revenge; he did not immediately leave China for Singapore but stayed to attend Yang Ping¡¯s wedding. Anning Group¡¯s overseas headquarters is located in Singapore, and since being dispatched there, he has been living in Singapore with his family, with his children also schooling there; his family had settled in Singapore. His rivalry with the Japanese insurance company had finally drawn to a close. He defeated the Japanese, firmly securing the Southeast Asia market, and was now preparing to expand into Europe and America, truly going global. From the company¡¯s development perspective, this competition with the Japanese was a matter of survival. He did not let everyone down, successfully defeated the Japanese, and won this fierce business battle. As for personal vengeance, he also successfully completed his splendid revenge. After all these years, he finally regained justice for himself. Recollecting these years¡¯ experiences, he felt a multitude of emotions and a bit of discomfort, but he was very satisfied with his current life. Back then, the handling of his situation by the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital was entirely wrong. They did not withstand the pressure of public opinion and, despite clearly knowing that Director Zhu was framed and wronged, still bluntly dismissed him. Those hospital leaders did so just to muddy the waters, aiming to preserve their own positions. Being medically trained, how could they not know that it was a surgery to create an artificial opening in the intestine? How could they not know that the reporter was deliberately slandering Director Zhu? But at that time, they feigned ignorance, rudely dismissed Director Zhu to quickly put out fires, which utterly disheartened Director Zhu. Thus, since his dismissal, Director Zhu had never set foot in the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital again. However, he was now going back once; representing Anning Insurance Company, he donated two hundred million RMB to the hospital for the development of key disciplines. The Anning Group was very generous, having donated money to several top hospitals in Nandu Province. Currently, Director Zhu¡¯s annual salary is not only several tens of millions of RMB, but he also holds company shares. With salary and dividends combined, his annual income has reached over a hundred million, making him one of the key figures in China¡¯s insurance sector, and the pioneer truly pushing Chinese insurance overseas. Now, Director Zhu¡¯s return to the Provincial People¡¯s Hospital can be seen as a triumphant homecoming. He originally wanted to meet the dean who had dismissed him, but, unfortunately, did not get a chance because the dean had been imprisoned two years ago due to financial issues. He couldn¡¯t believe how much had changed over the years; suddenly, he felt the transience of life. He returned to his original department. The old department director had retired, and the current Department Director was a contemporary of his. He looked around the hospital ward, doctor¡¯s office, and duty room, which remained unchanged, even the beds weren¡¯t replaced, making him inevitably feel a flood of emotions. Chapter 1389 - 1389 1050 High Fever ?Chapter 1389: Chapter 1050: High Fever Chapter 1389: Chapter 1050: High Fever At the Nandu Medical University Virus Laboratory, the K virus had been cultured, and subsequent work proceeded tensely but in an orderly fashion. For this experiment, researchers worked overtime to meet deadlines. They greatly valued the cooperation with Professor Yang Ping, as he had long been considered a godlike figure in everyone¡¯s hearts. At this moment, joy and excitement were written on the researchers¡¯ faces, yet their actions were extremely careful and cautious. They knew that this time was different from the past; although the source virus was a harmless, safe virus, this time it would be used directly in human trials, and the slightest carelessness could endanger the safety of the experiment¡¯s participants. Therefore, they maintained a high level of vigilance and focus at all times to ensure that each step was correct and to avoid any possible mistakes. The K virus samples would undergo a series of tests, during which researchers needed to continuously observe and record data, analyze the results, with their gaze firm and focused, and every slight change in the data touched their hearts. After standardized testing, the K virus met the laboratory conditions, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone was aware of Professor Yang¡¯s urgency for the experiment due to time constraints, so they all tried to cooperate in the hope of not delaying Professor Yang¡¯s experiment. The virus that passed inspection would enter the packaging process, which was extremely strict. They would seal a specific quantity of the virus in specially made biological reagent bottles in a sterile environment, make them bottle by bottle, then label and store them in the refrigerator, like vaccines. Their storage and transportation process was a traceable cold chain. The moment those K virus biological reagents, ready for clinical trials at any time, were manufactured, the atmosphere in the laboratory reached a climax. Researchers cheered and celebrated with each other. Regardless of whether this clinical trial would succeed or fail, they had taken a brand new step with Professor Yang Ping. They would be the first in the world to fuse a protein subunit that can initiate tumor cell apoptosis with a carrier virus, artificially creating a new type of virus, the first in the world capable of killing tumors; this virus would also create a new category in classification. Regardless of success or failure, their current work is to open a new field, and as participants, they were, of course, incredibly excited. Through the protective goggles of his hazmat suit, Professor Zhang Zhiwei personally packed these preparations into the portable storage cooler. In recent days, Professor Zhang had been pondering Professor Yang Ping¡¯s rushed, time-pressed laboratory method, which actually had certain advantages if other factors were disregarded. According to the standard procedure, it begins with computer simulations, followed by animal experiments, then phase one, phase two, phase three clinical trials, and finally, clinical application. Now, by applying the virus directly to patients, Professor Yang Ping is not merely taking blind risks, but has conducted a very comprehensive assessment of this virus, making the probability of a risk incident extremely low. Meanwhile, the condition of the patients receiving treatment is very urgent, and there is no time to wait; this is also their only potentially effective method. Considering both factors, comparing risk and benefit, Professor Yang Ping¡¯s choice is undoubtedly brilliant. The immune systems of animals and humans are different, and so are the immune mechanisms, so there is still a very high risk when data from animal experiments are applied to humans. Even following the normal procedure, the phase one through three clinical trials still face risks, but they are compliant risks, whereas the risks Professor Yang Ping currently faces are non-compliant. If one maintains absolute rationality, even if the patient doesn¡¯t participate in the K virus experiment now, she doesn¡¯t have much time left anyway. If the K virus experiment fails, it can still provide the most authentic and valuable data, which can be immediately revised, so the chances of success are still great. After some thought over the past few days, Professor Zhang Zhiwei felt that cooperating with Professor Yang Ping in this experiment was like a pie falling from the sky. If Sanbo Hospital did not lack a P3 biosafety laboratory, such good fortune might not have been his. His team simply helped cultivate the virus and became a major participant in the experiment; such an experiment, regardless of success or failure, could occupy a top-tier position academically. Thinking of this, Professor Zhang couldn¡¯t help but feel a little shame for receiving undeserved rewards, as he shared Professor Yang Ping¡¯s academic achievements by merely lending a hand; this reflects how Professor Yang is a scholar who cares little for such vanity, always considering experiments objectively without the slightest regard for such things. Professor Zhang held Professor Yang in the utmost respect. Meanwhile, these young Doctors were very happy about this, as participating in this experiment meant they could potentially have a CNS paper upon graduation, implying that in just a few weeks, they might accomplish academic achievements that would take others decades to accumulate. After the K virus reagent was boxed up, Professor Zhang Zhiwei led two Doctors to personally escort it to Sanbo Hospital. ¡ª Early in the morning, just after the shift handover, a car from Nandu Medical University had already arrived at Sanbo Hospital. Professor Zhang Zhiwei carried the box containing the K virus biological agent himself, accompanied by two Doctors, to the independent ward of the Surgical Research Institute. This ward was specially set up for Sisi to facilitate her clinical trial. Professor Yang Ping spared no expense for this experiment. Chapter 1390 - 1390 1050 High Fever_2 ?Chapter 1390: Chapter 1050 High Fever_2 Chapter 1390: Chapter 1050 High Fever_2 Yang Ping took the box and carried it to the treatment room in the isolation ward. Here, Sisi and the medical staff, including doctors and nurses, had been waiting for some time. Sisi was fully prepared. In the treatment room, Sisi lay quietly on the hospital bed, her eyes tightly closed, breathing evenly. Her left arm was ready for the IV catheter, and wires from various monitoring devices were connected to her body. All sorts of rescue equipment were neatly placed around, ready to be used at any moment. She waited quietly for the start of this new treatment. Although the outcome was unknown, she was mentally prepared for the worst, which made everything appear so calm. ¡°It¡¯s just like getting a shot, don¡¯t be nervous,¡± Yang Ping comforted her. Sisi¡¯s calm response: ¡°I¡¯m not afraid.¡± The electrocardiogram monitor showed that she indeed wasn¡¯t afraid, as her heartrate remained within normal range and was very stable, without any obvious fluctuations. ¡°Shall we start?¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei asked. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Begin.¡± The portable cooler was opened, and Professor Zhang Zhiwei personally took out the K virus bio-agent. This preparation had been designed as a disposable syringe device that could be directly connected to the IV catheter in Sisi¡¯s arm. Once attached, it could directly inject the K virus liquid into her vein. The K virus would circulate with the blood into the heart, then through arteries spread throughout the body, selectively infecting tumor cells and then parasitizing within them. Once successful infection occurred, the virus would trigger the apoptosis program of the tumor cells, causing them to die off quietly. Theoretically, the entire process seemed perfect. But theory is just theory, and practice is practice. Countless medications and treatment methods look flawless theoretically, but prove to be worthless after clinical trials, and are cruelly discarded. No matter how comprehensively a treatment method is considered during the theoretical phase, it can scarcely match the complexity of the human body in reality. A nurse assisted at the side, straightening out the IV catheter on Sisi¡¯s arm. Yang Ping connected the preparation device to the catheter and was about to push when he hesitated, looked at Sisi and didn¡¯t immediately proceed. Sisi sensed something, opened her eyes slightly, lifted her head and saw Yang Ping who hadn¡¯t started yet: ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not afraid.¡± After speaking, she even made a playful grimace at everyone, instantly relieving the tension in the treatment room. Originally, beside her, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang and many doctors all had serious expressions, but they couldn¡¯t help but laugh at Sisi¡¯s silliness. Such a young girl, yet so relaxed. This K virus bio-agent was developed after countless efforts by Yang Ping and his team members; it carried the expectations of everyone. Yang Ping knew that this was Sisi¡¯s only lifeline, so he had to ensure that the injection process went without any errors. Yang Ping double-checked everything again to ensure there were no issues. Then, he gently pushed the plunger of the syringe. At this moment, everyone¡¯s hearts were in their throats. The injection began. Yang Ping carefully advanced the syringe plunger, fearing any misstep. The virus bio-agent slowly flowed into Sisi¡¯s body, as if a warm stream of life was surging through her blood vessels. Everyone held their breath and watched anxiously for any changes in Sisi. As the virus was administered, Sisi¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change; everything seemed so ordinary. It was as if Sisi had merely received a normal pain-relief injection, without any discomfort. Yang Ping constantly monitored Sisi¡¯s vital signs. The electrocardiogram monitor¡¯s numbers jumped continuously, showing her heartrate, blood pressure and blood oxygen saturation and other important indicators. He knew that this battle had just begun and that he had to remain vigilant at every moment, ready to respond to any unforeseen circumstances. After the injection was complete, everyone¡¯s tense nerves slightly relaxed, but they dared not let their guard down. Sisi¡¯s illness could change at any time, so they had to stay alert and prepared. ¡°Get up, let¡¯s go back to the ward to rest.¡± Yang Ping let out a breath of relief¡ªat least there were no accidents right after the injection. Professor Zhang was packing up the portable cooler when he said, ¡°We¡¯ll head back first, contact us anytime if there¡¯s an issue.¡± Yang Ping thanked Professor Zhang¡¯s team, helped Sisi get up, and watched her bounce off the hospital bed energetically. The interns thought that the sense of urgency just now, as if facing a great enemy, was truly unnecessary¡ªeverything seems fine now, nothing has happened. But Yang Ping knew clearly that the truly dangerous moment hadn¡¯t arrived yet. There is a process between the virus entering the body and when a reaction occurs, not an immediate response. Just like catching a cold, symptoms often appear several days after the viral infection. Yang Ping decided to stay overnight in the department to closely monitor Sisi¡¯s condition. He knew that the upcoming time would be the most critical test for them. Sisi¡¯s illness might change rapidly in a short period, and they had to be fully prepared. The duty nurses took turns, guarding her non-stop for 24 hours. They constantly monitored Sisi¡¯s vital signs, recording every slight change. In the wee hours around 1 a.m., Sisi¡¯s mother discovered that her daughter¡¯s body was burning hot, as if surrounded by a fierce fire, and she called out frantically for the nurse. The nurse on 24-hour watch in the ward immediately took Sisi¡¯s temperature. The reading showed that Sisi¡¯s temperature had reached 42 degrees Celsius, a questionably high temperature that was at the limit of what the human body can endure. Hearing the news, Yang Ping hurried over and immediately gave verbal orders to administer an antipyretic to Sisi. At the same time, he ordered the use of ice caps and cooling blankets, employing these physical cooling methods to protect her brain and other vital organs. He knew that high fever could cause irreversible damage to the brain, and even endanger life. Therefore, the temperature had to be brought down as quickly as possible. Soon, Sisi experienced seizures due to the high fever and fell into a state of altered consciousness, her body twitching non-stop while she began to talk nonsense. Yang Ping stood by the bed, closely monitoring Sisi¡¯s vital signs, ready to deal with any possible emergencies that might arise. All the antipyretic drugs were of no use; even the tried method of nasally administered traditional Chinese medicine, Angong Bezoar Pills, was ineffective. The only effective measure was the use of ice caps and cooling blankets. The high fever continued all night long, and if it were not for the physical cooling effects of the ice caps and cooling blankets, Sisi would not have lasted. Yang Ping and the nurses also kept watch all night. Their eyes red from fatigue, they were exhausted, but they never left their posts. They knew there could not be the slightest slackening. The high fever in Sisi was clearly an immunological response triggered by the viral inoculation. To Sisi¡¯s immune system, this novel virus was like an alien invader, and in panic, it activated a broad defense mechanism, causing her temperature-regulation center to lose control and leading to high fever. During a high fever, the oxygen consumption in brain tissue spikes dramatically, blood flow accelerates, leaving the brain facing the threat of relative hypoxia. To protect this most vital organ, the use of the ice cap became crucial. It lowered the head¡¯s temperature through physical means, thus slowing down brain tissue metabolism, reducing oxygen consumption, and ensuring adequate blood supply to the brain. This process, analogous to animal hibernation, is a self-protective mechanism. During the food-scarce winter, animals lower their metabolic rate and body temperature to reduce the need for food, thus surviving the difficult time. Similarly, using an ice cap employs a like strategy to cope with this sudden shortage of oxygen. Yang Ping was acutely aware that this struggle was not only a battle against the virus but also a race against time. He maintained high alertness, carefully observing every subtle change in Sisi. Her breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure, and even every facial expression were pulling at his heartstrings. Any oversight could be fatal. However, the high fever persisted, and continuing like this, even with ice caps and cooling blankets, would be futile because they merely provide passive cooling. Sisi¡¯s body would inevitably collapse under the onslaught of the virus and the immune system¡¯s battle. Chapter 1391 - 1391 1051 ?Chapter 1391: Chapter 1051 Chapter 1391: Chapter 1051 Sisi¡¯s high fever persisted, and Yang Ping could only temporarily use ice caps and ice blankets for physical cooling. By the next morning, there was still no sign of Sisi¡¯s fever subsiding. To maintain the patency of the airway, the nurse had already intubated Sisi, and a ventilator, ECMO, and other life support equipment were prepared next to her, ready to be used at any moment. Yang Ping observed the changes in Sisi¡¯s condition while contemplating the countermeasures. What reactions this virus could cause in the human body were without precedent to refer. The impact of the original virus on the human body had ceased to have any reference value because, after the implantation of the K-factor, the symptoms caused by the new virus were entirely absent in the original virus, which at most caused mild flu symptoms. The current K-virus had even caused a persistent high fever of 42 degrees Celsius. Yang Ping¡¯s approach was clear now: to use physical cooling to lower the body temperature as much as possible, reduce the metabolism of the brain tissues, and protect the brain and other vital organs from damage. Maintain Sisi¡¯s body fluid and electrolyte balance and ensure her normal nutrition and energy supply. As for reducing the fever, it was up to the body¡¯s immune system. These viruses had been neutered of their replicative capabilities, so as long as Sisi could withstand the virus¡¯s own lifespan, the virus would gradually die off naturally, and the number of viruses would decrease, naturally resolving the high fever. This actually aligns with the treatment approach for the majority of diseases: symptomatic treatment to alleviate symptoms, ensure safety of life, and leave etiological treatment to the body¡¯s immune system. Yang Ping and Song Zimo had stayed up all night. Xu Zhiliang, Xia Shu, and Dr. Jin came in to work in the morning and offered to take over their shift. Now, during the high fever phase, Yang Ping dared not slack off. He asked Dr. Jin to stay by the bed, while Xu Zhiliang and Xia Shu went to handle work in the department. He and Song Zimo took turns resting and sleeping on the accompany bed in the ward. After all, they didn¡¯t know how the condition would progress later. They tried to catch some sleep whenever possible to maintain enough strength to cope with possible changes in the condition. Three nurses, several doctors, and masters who participated in the Sisi experiment were also allowed to rotate shifts. New personnel took over their work so they could go back to rest. Sisi¡¯s parents were allowed to visit briefly but could not stay long in the ward. After all, this kind of critical care and treatment was no trivial matter; any additional persons could interfere with medical activities. Watching their daughter lying unconsciously on the bed, both parents shed tears, feeling extremely painful inside, but they couldn¡¯t voice it out to avoid disturbing Professor Yang¡¯s treatment. After just a few minutes of visitation, Sisi¡¯s father took her mother and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go, we should leave.¡± On the nearby electrocardiogram monitor, the heart rate numbers continued to rise, already exceeding normal by a lot. For every one-degree Celsius increase in body temperature, the heart rate would increase by 12-18 beats. Now, Sisi¡¯s heart rate had reached 150 beats per minute. If such a high heart rate is maintained for too long, the heart could fail. Just like the engine of a car, maintaining the limit speed for a long time could easily cause the cylinder to burst. Similarly, the heart, constantly maintained at a heart rate much higher than normal, could easily induce arrhythmia and heart failure, eventually leading to cardiac arrest. Yang Ping and Song Zimo were resting and sleeping on the accompany bed nearby, and the on-duty Dr. Jin, seeing the heart rate gradually rising and now possibly exceeding 160 beats per minute, was uncertain if an intervention was required but dared not decide on his own, so he had to wake up Yang Ping. After Yang Ping woke up, he checked the numbers on the monitor, then used a stethoscope to listen to Sisi¡¯s heart, staring at the electrocardiographic waveform on the monitor without any expression. ¡°What do we do? Should we use medication to lower the heart rate?¡± Dr. Jin asked worriedly, and Song Zimo also stood up and came over. In fact, facing such life-and-death challenges severely tests the attending physician¡¯s capabilities. They need to combine their knowledge, experience, and the patient¡¯s clinical manifestations to make precise judgments, which relate to the life or death of the patient. Yang Ping observed the electrocardiogram for a full five minutes without speaking. Dr. Jin and Song Zimo were also apprehensive as the heart rate on the monitor was now fluctuating around 160 beats per minute, and they couldn¡¯t be sure if it would continue to rise. Under such circumstances, the heart could collapse at any moment, making it difficult to make a decision. Yang Ping finally spoke, shaking his head: ¡°No need! Continue observing! If we reduce the heart rate, the medication used will inhibit the myocardial contractility, lowering blood pressure. If used, the heart rate would indeed drop, but the brain would suffer from insufficient blood supply due to weak perfusion, leading to irreversible damage to the brain tissue. It¡¯s very likely that the brain tissue will suffer large-scale death before the heart collapses.¡± Dr. Jin and Song Zimo thought it over and agreed, seeing Yang Ping¡¯s considerations were more comprehensive and profound. ¡°So, what do we do now?¡± Dr. Jin couldn¡¯t help asking. ¡°Now, we can only let her hold on, let her own immune system deal with all this. We can only handle and rescue in case of sudden danger, provide life support. We can¡¯t help with other matters. Everyone must stay calm and rational. A slight mishandling of details could lead to irreversible consequences.¡± At this moment, Sisi occasionally convulsed. Yang Ping instructed the nurse to intensify respiratory care to prevent choking during convulsions. For now, they focused on monitoring the heart and lungs, two vital organs, ready to intervene immediately if any abnormalities arose. Chapter 1392 - 1392 1051_2 ?Chapter 1392: Chapter 1051_2 Chapter 1392: Chapter 1051_2 The independent ward was fully equipped with various high-end rescue devices. Originally, it was meant to serve as a dedicated ICU for the Surgical Research Institute. The renovation and equipment were all set, but the staff had not yet been put in place, so it remained vacant for the time being. Now, it came in handy as an experimental ward for Sisi, to avoid placing extra pressure on the ICU doctors and nurses by having Sisi there. ¡°Is it okay for her to have such convulsions?¡± Dr. Jin asked again. After all, having been an orthopedics doctor for so many years, he had little experience with children¡¯s high fever seizures and was somewhat worried. Yang Ping reassured confidently, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, let her convulse with all this equipment here. We just need to strengthen the heart and lung monitoring, pay attention to replenishing fluids and energy, and we will help her pull through.¡± After saying this, Yang Ping lay down on the accompanying bed to sleep. Dr. Jin was very astute and reliable in his actions, so Yang Ping felt quite at ease with him. If it were some other young doctor, Yang Ping would certainly not rest assured. Lack of experience could easily lead to misjudgments and insufficient recognition and warning of potential risks. Around four o¡¯clock in the afternoon, Sisi¡¯s temperature began to drop, indicating that the virus had gradually started to die in her body. The tug-of-war between the immune system and the virus had begun to tilt in favor of the immune system, with the virus showing signs of defeat. This was good news. Not only was Sisi likely to survive from the brink of death, but there was also another very important point: the virus showed significant differences in its effects on the human body compared with the original virus. It was likely no longer the same type of virus, meaning that the addition of the K factor had completely altered the virus¡¯s behavior. It is now tentatively estimated that the K virus is a completely new virus to the human body, incapable of producing antibodies against it. The body can only rely on an excessive and broad immune response to fight it. This kind of resistance carries a high risk. If it¡¯s not successful, the body could collapse. Fortunately, these viruses lack the ability to replicate. As each one dies, there are fewer left, so their combat power is very limited. From the injection of the K virus to now, when there is a downward trend in temperature, nurses have drawn many blood samples from Sisi. These are to be used for various tests to dynamically monitor the changes in the body¡¯s indicators under the influence of the virus. In fact, some of the reagents used for examining these blood samples are also brand new, manufactured specifically for this particular experiment. Because existing diagnostic reagents could not detect many novel indicators, such as marker substances for these viruses. It was uncertain whether the blood drawn contained any of the viruses that could be used for research, especially the investigation of whether there were mutations in the virus within the body. Since these viruses had no replicative ability, mutations would not be passed down and were difficult to capture. After the decrease in body temperature, Sisi sweated profusely, soaking the entire bedsheets. The nurse changed the sheets and dressed Sisi in dry clothes, while also increasing the fluid replenishment to maintain a balance of fluids. On the electrocardiogram monitor, the heart rate also began to decline slowly with the body temperature, allowing Yang Ping to temporarily breathe a sigh of relief. ¡ª At Nandu Medical University, the virology laboratory and the digital medical laboratory were working intensely. They received the data from this experiment and immediately began to correct the K virus and the experiment itself. Originally, the digital medical laboratory¡¯s intelligent model had simulated the outcomes hundreds of thousands of times. The likelihood of such a high fever was extremely low, less than one in a hundred thousand. That such a low probability event had actually occurred with Sisi meant either she was unlucky to encounter this one-in-a-hundred-thousand chance, or the model¡¯s prediction was erroneous and the actual probability of such a high-risk outcome was far greater than predicted by the model. Of course, science cannot be left to chance, so Professor He and his team assumed the latter to be the case and began to check and improve their model. The data from this experiment were extremely valuable; it was not from animal tests but direct clinical experiment data, which was hugely significant for the correction of the models. Professor He¡¯s team worked to improve their model, while Professor Zhang Zhiwei¡¯s team was also busy. They began to further analyze the structure of the virus to determine the ideal location for implanting the K factor and what other changes might still be needed in the original virus¡¯s genome. These were issues that needed to be reconsidered. They had to re-analyze and summarize the structure of the virus, ideally using the data from this experiment to theoretically revise the implantation at each site. Moreover, Professor Zhang¡¯s team also sought out the K virus in the blood samples sent to them. Although this task was extremely challenging, as it was very difficult to find the virus in the blood by now, they still wanted to try. Because if they could find the virus, they could observe whether it mutated after entering the human body, whether there were any changes, and whether the implanted K factor was still functionally active. ¡ª Sisi was in a state of cloudy consciousness, but with stable vital signs, giving Yang Ping great confidence. He began to biopsy the liver and lung tumors in her body, precisely targeting with the guidance of navigational instruments to extract some tumor cells. These tumor cells were then taken for analysis under an electron microscope in the laboratory. This would confirm whether the K virus had successfully infected the tumor cells, and if infection had occurred, whether they had successfully initiated the apoptosis program in the tumor cells. If the apoptosis program had begun, they needed to understand the process. Such analysis had to be targeted specifically at tumor cells; there was no other way. Yang Ping knew that although Sisi had just narrowly escaped death, whether she could truly be saved was still uncertain. Carrying out various biopsies now would undoubtedly exacerbate her injury, but if he didn¡¯t seize the opportunity now for a biopsy, once the moment was missed, even if the virus infected the tumor cells, there would be no way to capture the authentic initial, mid, and terminal states of these tumor cells after infection. To save her, they could not afford to be soft-hearted at this time; everything had to follow the principle of rationality. Yang Ping biopsied every metastatic tumor that could be punctured, taking many samples back to the electron microscopy laboratory at Nandu Medical University. He wanted to observe them personally. Under the electron microscope, Yang Ping searched through each sample one by one, which required immense patience. Due to the assault of the human immune system during the virus¡¯s transport through the body, the number of viruses that successfully infected tumor cells was unknown. The samples Yang Ping now had might be normal cells, or tumor cells that had not been infected because the infected cells might not even be sampled. Yang Ping could only search manually sample by sample; this job could not be substituted by software models or artificial intelligence, as both software models and AI would have to be based on a doctor¡¯s data. With these brand new experiments lacking any historical data to feed such models, they were useless. After scanning through hundreds of microscope images, Yang Ping finally found an abnormal tumor cell and immediately took a separate picture of this cell. Chapter 1393 - 1393 1052 The Real Tycoon ?Chapter 1393: Chapter 1052: The Real Tycoon Chapter 1393: Chapter 1052: The Real Tycoon Graduate students from the Surgical Research Institute and researchers from the Digital Medical Laboratory, everyone helped review the images. Unfortunately, after looking through thousands of images, only one image showed structures of a virus within the cells, and no traces of tumor cell apoptosis were observed. In other images, whether they were of tumor cells or normal cells, no structures of the K virus were found. These are all within Yang Ping¡¯s expectations because experiments cannot always go smoothly; there are bound to be various problems during the process. The success of an experiment is a continual effort of solving problems and adjusting strategies until final success. Many experiments, despite immense efforts and countless tasks, still end in failure which is common. Moreover, now that one image has shown the structure of the K virus within a tumor cell, this is already a huge success, indicating that the K virus can successfully reach and infect tumor cells. There are several possibilities for the current situation; first, most viruses might be eliminated by the immune system during their transport in the blood to the tumor. Second, a lot of viruses could reach the tumor, but the success rate of infecting tumor cells is extremely low. Third, the viruses that infect tumor cells may initiate the apoptosis program, but the cells that start the apoptosis program were not captured. Fourth, it¡¯s possible the viruses can¡¯t initiate cell apoptosis. No matter how many possibilities, one thing is certain: the K virus can infect tumor cells, it¡¯s just a matter of how strong or likely it is, and this image right now is the strongest evidence. Tens of thousands of images were captured by the camera, and reviewing them manually is too inefficient and also unhealthy for the eyes. As the saying goes, ¡°Sharpening your axe will not delay your job of cutting wood,¡± Yang Ping decided to use computer assistance, and he suggested that Director He¡¯s team develop an artificial intelligence model to help differentiate these images. In fact, for Director He¡¯s team, developing such a model is not difficult because they already have an AI model for image recognition, mainly used for pathology slices and image photo reading, and this model is very mature in recognizing pathology slices and images, already surpassing the majority of doctors. Doctors might find it exhausting to view hundreds of pathology slices a day, but AI could possibly read tens or hundreds of thousands of images in just a few seconds. Such efficiency is already being utilized in medicine, and many hospitals can fully automate the viewing of pathology slices in the future, without needing pathologists to review them. If the production of pathology slices could also be automated, pathologists would only need to handle pathology specimens simply. Any artificial intelligence needs a large amount of data to feed, otherwise, the AI is just an ¡°idiot.¡± In this experiment, there are no precedents to reference for recognizing the images of cells from electron microscopes, so there is no data to feed the AI. Although Professor He¡¯s team using Digital Human Technology has developed an imaging AI model specifically for intelligent film reading, such as X-ray, MRI, and CT scans, this model has been fed a large amount of data and has evolved nicely. However, for images of tumor cells under an electron microscope, these are entirely new images, lacking extensive data to feed, so the artificial model cannot evolve and is not very useful. Professor He could only develop an image analysis engine based on Yang Ping¡¯s summarized experiences, which doesn¡¯t need large data to feed; it could analyze images. If the analyzed structure matches that of tumor cells without any additional structures, the image is marked as uninfected. If extra structures are found inside the cell, they are immediately extracted into the next analysis program. If the analysis matches the shape and structure of a virus partially or fully, it is marked as infected. If uncertain, the images are marked as unclear and will be left for manual analysis. Afterwards, based on the results of manual analysis, experience is summarized and applied to refine the model, thus making its engine more advanced and increasing its recognition capability. This is somewhat similar to how antivirus software analyzes computer viruses; the difference is that antivirus software analyzes the code of computer viruses, whereas this software analyzes electron microscope images, but the underlying principles are similar. In short, Yang Ping now needs to closely cooperate with Professor He¡¯s team to develop various specialized models to assist with the experiments. When the full-scale AI model is ready, it will use the large model to aid research, greatly enhancing research efficiency. Developing a model by Professor He is not a task that can be done in a day or two, although he already has a base model acquired that his team has managed to digest and absorb. Modifying these models also takes time. When Ruixing Medical acquired the model, it included models specialized in lab biological image recognition; Professor He¡¯s team could improve this model, thereby saving a lot of time. Actually, acquisition is not a bad thing; if post-acquisition absorption and digestion of technology are achievable, it would greatly shorten the research and development time, maintaining synchrony with international standards. Yang Ping decided to temporarily stop viewing the images until Professor He¡¯s image recognition engine is developed and then continue with the remaining images. He wanted to focus his main energy on modifying the virus¡¯s structure. Chapter 1394 - 1394 1052 The Real Tycoon_2 ?Chapter 1394: Chapter 1052: The Real Tycoon_2 Chapter 1394: Chapter 1052: The Real Tycoon_2 ¡°From the data collected in the first experiment, it is clear that the K virus definitely triggered a strong response from Sisi¡¯s immune system, which is very dangerous and can sometimes be fatal.¡± ¡°Therefore, Yang Ping¡¯s primary task now is to change the implantation site of the K virus, which is very important, directly affecting the interaction between the K virus and the human immune system. It is necessary to reduce its stimulation to the immune system, ideally like some viruses that do not cause adverse symptoms, or only cause mild transient flu symptoms.¡± ¡ª ¡°After the first injection of the K virus which caused a high fever, Sisi¡¯s entire body was hugely impacted, requiring time for recovery. Fortunately, the functions of the vital organs have not shown any significant damage to date.¡± ¡°Post-surgery, Yang Ping continuously conducted MRI image collections of Sisi¡¯s various metastatic tumors, choosing MRI as the imaging examination as its biggest advantage lies in no ionizing radiation, unlike CT, PET-CT, and others that always involve ionizing radiation, which repeatedly applied can cause negative effects on the body.¡± ¡°Tumor marker monitoring has also officially begun, with blood being drawn almost daily for these tests, dynamically monitoring the changes in tumor markers.¡± ¡°After the high fever, Sisi¡¯s appetite was not very good, but the young girl was sensible, knowing that not eating would slow her recovery, so she forced herself to eat more in hopes of speeding up her recovery. Her mother also varied the recipes to make delicious food for her, but regrettably, because her taste buds had not yet recovered, even the tastiest food felt like chewing wax in Sisi¡¯s mouth.¡± ¡°In fact, that situation was akin to having walked through Ghost Gate. A new virus is disastrous for the human immune system, but fortunately, it was not outrageously new. It seems that it still shares similarities with the original virus, and the human body still has the killing ability and experience to deal with it.¡± ¡°Like in some northern regions, many viruses are frozen in ice layers. If one day these ice layers melt, and the viruses revive, they would pose a great threat to mankind because human immunity has never dealt with them before and lacks combat experience.¡± ¡°Normally, the viruses human come into contact with, such as those causing colds, have frequented interactions with humans or their ancestors throughout the long evolutionary process. Our immune system has sufficient experience to deal with them, so in most cases, we can overcome them, only occasionally slipping up.¡± ¡°Yang Ping conducted the first discussion with Sisi¡¯s parents after the first experiment, where he reported the results of the experiment to them. They expressed that no matter the outcome, they would fully cooperate with Yang Ping, asking him not to feel any pressure, assuring him that they could bear any consequences and were very grateful for Yang Ping¡¯s determined efforts in treating Sisi.¡± ¡°Hermes and his wife have always been concerned about Sisi¡¯s illness. After this experiment, they also came to Yang Ping to inquire about the situation since Sisi is now their god-daughter.¡± ¡°After explaining the results of the experiment, Hermes sighed:¡± ¡°I really feel a connection with this child, and it hurts to see her suffer as if she were my own daughter. Professor Yang, if there¡¯s a need for money, just let me know. I may not be able to assist in other matters, but I can help with financial needs. Whether it¡¯s purchasing equipment, just say the word. I heard that these experimental treatments are quite expensive, and the equipment in the laboratories is particularly costly. If you need any type of equipment, do not hesitate to tell me. It¡¯s been fortunate financially lately; besides owning gold, diamond, and now lithium and iron mines in Africa, these mines not only have high content and quality but are also very easy to mine, making them very profitable. I won¡¯t say too much, but it¡¯s easy to allocate billions of funds, hundreds of billions aren¡¯t impossible either. I have plenty of money; wherever money is required, just command me. Old Huang is in medical technology, which makes money more slowly and has more financial needs, unlike me who is like a money printing machine. So, please do not hesitate; money is meant to be spent, and as long as it¡¯s spent right, I won¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°Although Hermes is extravagant, his emotions are very genuine, something Yang Ping understands.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t about money. We are facing some issues now, and we need to resolve them one by one. Although the first experimental treatment didn¡¯t yield great results, it wasn¡¯t the worst either. This is normal; many things in the world are like this, neither good nor bad, and this is already quite good. Just be patient.¡± Yang Ping knew she was anxious, so he consoled her. ¡°Professor Yang, about Sisi, this little girl, how should I put it? I just said I felt a connection with her. To be honest, and don¡¯t laugh at me, I was actually planning to jump off the Surgery building after I went bankrupt. Really, I was utterly hopeless and found life meaningless. But after meeting Sisi, my whole mindset changed. A little girl, only eight or nine years old, facing a terminal illness yet still so optimistic, so positive, and so clear about life and death. And here I am, nearly forty, in good health, and you even cured my leg. I have every reason to treasure life and cherish the opportunity to live in this world.¡± As he spoke, Hermes actually began to tear up. His wife handed him a tissue, and he wiped his eyes and continued: ¡°It might sound funny, but this little girl has opened up another world for me, a world filled with sunlight and beauty. So now I see it clearly. I have so much money; if I don¡¯t use it to do something meaningful, it¡¯s just a waste. People, whether they live a long or short life, should do something meaningful to not have lived in vain. That¡¯s why I¡¯m telling you, Professor Yang, you are a medical genius. If I give all this money to you to tinker around, it would be better than giving it to anyone else. You could definitely concoct something that could save many lives, making my money meaningful.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t Ruixing Medical working with Nandu University on artificial intelligence now? I heard that this has greatly helped Sisi¡¯s experiment. Ruixing established a dedicated company to research this, which I hear is very expensive. How about this, should I first transfer tens of billions to Old Huang? Let them tinker with artificial intelligence?¡± Hermes asked. ¡°The risk is very high, and it is currently at a money-losing stage,¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°Oh, treat it as a donation then; let¡¯s not talk about risks. I¡¯ve said it before, this money isn¡¯t for making more money but to create some meaning. I¡¯m an uneducated man who can¡¯t speak well. I used to mine coal, now mine gold, only capable of making money through unskilled work. Don¡¯t look down on me.¡± Hermes was determined to give away his money today, otherwise he would feel uneasy. ¡°If you are really determined, I¡¯ll talk to them. Consider it an investment; the risk is on you.¡± ¡°No problem, what risk should a gold miner fear? As long as there¡¯s still gold in the ground, I¡¯m not afraid of risks. Besides, what if the money is gone? At worst, I¡¯ll just go sing on the Sky Bridge.¡± Now that Hermes has money and nowhere to spend it, he didn¡¯t care about future returns on investment; he was ready to pour money in. Some messy investment experts advised him to invest in this or that, but he refused all, finding those suggestions useless. ¡°Does Professor He at Nandu University need money for some research? I¡¯ll donate a couple of billion there? I¡¯ll pump another ten billion or so into a few laboratories here, and also, the Nandu Medical University Genetics Laboratory, I heard it¡¯s managed by your uncle¡¯s wife. I¡¯ll donate a few billion to her project too. Who else is there? Oh, Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1, I¡¯ll make a donation there too.¡± Hermes was counting on his fingers, planning how to spend the money. This? Really a tycoon! ¡°And!¡± Hermes remembered: ¡°What about Old Huang, didn¡¯t he recently get into a fight with someone? I¡¯ll use a few mines as his backing.¡± Chapter 1395 - 1395 1053 Long Time No See ?Chapter 1395: Chapter 1053: Long Time No See Chapter 1395: Chapter 1053: Long Time No See Hermes is not just for show, he took a round and did several things, investing tens of billions in Ruixing Group, and making donations to Sanbo Hospital, Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1, and Nandu Medical University. Though the amounts varied, each was over a billion. His lavish money-giving has even made Huang Jiacai, who always saw him as just a nouveau riche, take a fresh look. Who would resist money? Now, with Ruixing about to battle with the giant conglomerates, having financial backing is crucial. In the business world, capital is the top power. Now having such a wealthy patron, not only rich but also willing to give, asking nothing in return, no assessment or conditions, offering any amount of shares at will, such a patron is impossible to find anywhere in the world. ¡°Old Wang, I used to disdain you for being a nouveau riche; now, I love that you¡¯re one. ¡®Nouveau riche¡¯ isn¡¯t a derogatory term anymore, it¡¯s a term of praise, symbolizing financial power, simple values, and formidable strategic force. But don¡¯t blame me for that time; your suggestions for the professor¡¯s wedding were indeed a bit tacky. Tacky and ¡®nouveau riche¡¯ are different; ¡®nouveau riche¡¯ is loftier than just tacky.¡± Huang Jiacai told Old Wang during a meal. Old Wang waved his hands: ¡°I¡¯m not well-educated, don¡¯t bother me with the intricacies. I like the term ¡®nouveau riche.¡¯ What¡¯s wrong with that? I, Wang Changxin, am a nouveau riche, even my name sounds it. Old Huang, to be honest, I invest not because I believe in you or your high-tech ventures. I don¡¯t understand any of that. I did it for Professor Yang. I don¡¯t care if it makes money; it¡¯s out of respect for Professor Yang.¡± ¡°Nothing more to say, Brother Wang, here¡¯s a toast to you.¡± What more could Huang Jiacai say with such a patron? Just keep calling him ¡®brother¡¯ and keep toasting. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s drink. You¡¯re Professor Yang¡¯s brother, so we¡¯re brothers too. Since we¡¯re brothers, no need for courtesy. I know you¡¯re preparing to battle the Americans, it¡¯s going to burn money, but don¡¯t panic. Go at them full force, and I¡¯ll support you. I can¡¯t help much, but when it comes to money, I swear I¡¯ll give you whatever you need. If I hesitate, you can write my name backward. Go at them hard until they are utterly defeated. Fuck! They have provoked us, we must show them our strength.¡± Old Wang belched after drinking. ¡°Little brother thanks Big Brother Wang. Wang is mighty, his generosity pierces the clouds, he¡¯s a true hero, serving the nation...¡± Now Huang Jiacai genuinely admired Wang Changxin. ¡ª At Professor Liang¡¯s home in Beijing. Zhang Chunquan came to visit his mentor. Zhang Chunquan had never returned since leaving years ago, despite Professor Liang sending multiple letters urging him to return and serve the country, but Zhang Chunquan refused, and eventually stopped replying. Professor Liang hoped Zhang Chunquan could help Peking Union Medical College establish a stem cell laboratory and cultivate talent, but Zhang Chunquan still refused, even denying any exchange visits to his laboratory. Zhang Chunquan has been outstanding in stem cell research in the United States, contributing significantly to US medical biotech strategies and offering tactics to curb Chinese biomedical technology developments because he¡¯s very familiar with the current situation in Chinese biomedical research. His advice has been very valuable to Americans, who hold him in high regard. This time he returned from the United States, claiming to visit Peking Union as an exchange, requesting to see his mentor Professor Liang. Professor Liang, upon hearing this, was delighted, having personally nurtured Zhang Chunquan, a rare genius, hoping maybe he had misunderstood him and that Zhang Chunquan could still serve his country. Zhang Chunquan arrived at Professor Liang¡¯s home. During his studies at Peking Union, he was often helped by Professor Liang, having had many meals at his home, with Professor Liang genuinely investing in him. Professor Liang funded his tuition and living expenses, even once paying for his father¡¯s medical treatment when his father was seriously ill and couldn¡¯t afford the medical expenses, allowing him to focus on his studies. More than a decade ago, Zhang Chunquan went to study in the United States, working at the Whitehead Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their stem cell project is formidable, ranked highly internationally, with the lab currently handling ten inducing factors, two of which were discovered by Zhang Chunquan. These factors are for inducing cartilage, true mature inducing factors. Due to his outstanding achievements, Zhang Chunquan received the prestigious Lasker Award in the field of biomedical science, a prestigious award only second to the Nobel Prize. ¡°Mr. Liang!¡± Zhang Chunquan, having spoken English for a long time, now spoke Chinese somewhat hesitantly. ¡°Chunquan!¡± Professor Liang, reuniting with his beloved student after a long time, was deeply moved. They clasped hands warmly, then sat down in the living room for a long talk. ¡°I had my difficulties back then and didn¡¯t return to the country as you requested, please forgive me. I have come back to contribute to the country as best as I can. Mentor, I have always remembered your kindness and beg to bow in respect.¡± Zhang Chunquan stood up, stood in front of Professor Liang and bowed deeply. Chapter 1396 - 1396 1053 Reunion After a Long Separation_2 ?Chapter 1396: Chapter 1053 Reunion After a Long Separation_2 Chapter 1396: Chapter 1053 Reunion After a Long Separation_2 Sure enough, he had been misunderstood by me. He stayed in the United States to make the most of their scientific research conditions for better achievements, to learn more advanced knowledge, and to contribute to the country at the right time. ¡°Chunquan! It seems I have wrongly blamed you. I shouldn¡¯t have always pressured you to return to the country, making things difficult for you.¡± Professor Liang helped up the bowing Zhang Chunquan, and then the master and student embraced each other tightly. ¡°Mr. Liang, I just wanted to in America¡ª¡± ¡°Say no more, Chunquan, I understand now.¡± Professor Liang had also heard about Zhang Chunquan¡¯s return to the country several months ago. He had done a lot of work and initiated multiple collaborations, all aimed at improving the level of domestic scientific research. After a while, Professor Liang finally let go of Zhang Chunquan. The knot in his heart has finally untangled. For this matter, Professor Liang had once fallen seriously ill, lying in bed for days unable to get up. His own student, on whom he had poured so much effort, left and never returned, and worse still, left coldly without any reasonable explanation¡ªwhat a heart-breaking matter. Professor Hu Guolin, Professor Song Yun, and several professors from Peking Union Medical College who were present were all moved by this scene of teacher-student affection. ¡°I¡¯ve come back this time to collaborate with Xiehe. Not only with Xiehe, but I also want to work with some top domestic laboratories to bring the most advanced technologies from the United States to China. For some of these matters, I¡¯ll need your help, Mr. Liang, to facilitate the cooperation,¡± Zhang Chunquan said, pausing briefly. Professor Liang was very pleased and he enthusiastically said, ¡°Whenever you need me, just say so. Sometimes this old face of mine still gets some respect from others.¡± ¡°With those words from you, Mr. Liang, I feel assured. I plan to establish a cooperative stem cell laboratory with Xiehe. Every year, we can exchange graduate students, which will help us train a large number of stem cell researchers. Michigan¡¯s Whitehead Laboratory is also considered one of the top laboratories in the world, and I can secure many spots to come over,¡± Zhang Chunquan shared his plan. Professor Liang nodded. This was good news. For many years, he had hoped to collaborate with the Whitehead Laboratory, but at the time, Zhang Chunquan had refused, even denying a visit under the pretense of confidentiality. It seemed back then Zhang Chunquan might have had a lowly position in the laboratory and wasn¡¯t able to offer any help. Now he is a Lasker Award recipient, an important member of the laboratory, and capable of extending assistance, so he has returned to discuss matters of cooperation. ¡°Let¡¯s have dinner at my house today. It¡¯s been a long time since I last tasted Teacher Luo¡¯s signature dishes,¡± Professor Liang suggested. Teacher Luo is Professor Liang¡¯s wife. Back then, Zhang Chunquan, due to his poor family background, had also relied on his teacher for living expenses, often mooching off meals at the teacher¡¯s house on weekends. When he left after a meal, Professor Liang never failed to slip him some spending money. At that time, Professor Liang really treated him like his own child. ¡°Alright.¡± ¡°We plan not only to collaborate with Xiehe, but I am also looking to cooperate with Huaxi.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great; it can enhance our level in the field of stem cell research.¡± ¡°We also want to cooperate with Professor Yang Ping from Sanbo Hospital. I have never been close with Professor Yang, and he may also have some misunderstandings about me, thus having a resistant attitude towards the cooperation, so... I hope you could help talk to him, Mr. Liang. Such cooperation, involving the exchange of research students, allows us to learn from each other¡¯s strengths and push our country¡¯s stem cell field to a world-class level.¡± Hearing this, Professor Liang hesitated for a moment, and then it felt as if a cold ice pick had pierced his heart, so cold, so painful. His mouth twitched, trying to say something but could not utter it. Professors Hu Guolin and Song Yun observed the change in Professor Liang¡¯s expression, his facial muscles contorting spasmodically, and they immediately understood what was going on. They stood up, but Professor Liang gestured for them to sit down with a wave of his hand. ¡°Chunquan, tell me the truth, is your main purpose for coming back this time to ask for my help in persuading Professor Yang, to reach a cooperation with him in the field of stem cells?¡± Zhang Chunquan¡¯s facial expression seemed a bit unnatural. A hint of panic flashed across his face, but he quickly composed himself and said, ¡°We want to engage in extensive collaboration with domestic laboratories. Professor Yang Ping¡¯s work on stem cells is currently top-notch in China, but there¡¯s still a certain distance from the international top level. We want to help him reach the international pinnacle.¡± Professor Liang took a deep breath and said to Song Yun, ¡°What is Teacher Luo busy with?¡± ¡°Seems like he went to the kitchen; aren¡¯t we having a meal at home today?¡± Professor Liang picked up his teacup and took a sip: ¡°No need to trouble yourself, Guolin, please see the guest out, I¡¯m feeling a bit unwell and need to rest.¡± Hu Guolin also understood what Professor Liang meant, and immediately said to Zhang Chunquan, ¡°Chunquan, the teacher¡¯s old ailment is acting up. Let¡¯s head back to the school and let the teacher rest.¡± Zhang Chunquan did not expect the teacher¡¯s attitude to change so quickly. He still wanted to explain something, but Professor Liang waved his hand, ¡°Chunquan, let it be, no need to say anything more. People have their own ambitions, let it be this way, and I also wish you all the best in the United States.¡± Professor Liang got up, his gait unsteady as he walked towards his study. His heart ached at that moment, and his eyes were filled with tears. ¡°Song Yun, keep the teacher company. I¡¯ll see Chunquan out.¡± ¡ª Three months earlier. Professor Madelan from the Whitehead Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was very angry. Their laboratory was at a world-leading level in the stem cell field, but Yang Ping had easily surpassed them. Yang Ping¡¯s theory on spatial orientation genes was far ahead of all their stem cell research results. In the biomedical field, stem cells are the high ground of the future. They must occupy this high ground; once it¡¯s lost, the future of the entire biomedical field will lag behind China, and it will directly impact the entire pharmaceutical industry. Centuries of accumulated technological barriers will be toppled because Yang Ping has essentially switched tracks. ¡°Whatever it takes, you must secure a collaboration with Professor Yang Ping. Based solely on his papers, we cannot master the core of these technologies. If we can reach a collaboration, share data, and then have an in-depth exchange, only then can we obtain their core technology. You must use all your possible resources in China to achieve this collaboration. I¡¯m old now, and you will be the leading figure at MIT in this field, but you must show us your contribution.¡± ¡°I understand. Actually, things haven¡¯t gone this far, I still have an emotional card to play,¡± Zhang Chunquan wasn¡¯t as anxious as Madelan. Madelan¡¯s eyes gleamed with excitement, ¡°No matter what, you must secure the collaboration. Without it, even if we get the data, it¡¯s useless. This is an entirely new theory; it will take us a long time to learn and digest this data. It¡¯s like giving you a Boeing airplane; you won¡¯t be able to make one yourself.¡± ¡°My former teacher at Xiehe, Professor Liang, and I have a very deep relationship, almost like father and son. I can try to use this to my advantage. Chinese people generally cherish old memories, value emotions. If I can find a way to persuade him to convince Yang Ping, the resistance to collaboration will be much less.¡± ¡°Are you sure they will still remember their bond with you?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll think it through and plan it out. Chinese people value emotions deeply; it¡¯s their weakness. If we can use this effectively, it might indeed be a breakthrough.¡± ¡°Alright, apart from this deceptive approach, I can¡¯t think of any other better way. BG Company has even resorted to sending spies, but to no effect. Every time I ask their top management, they always make excuses, saying that their people haven¡¯t penetrated the core of the research. The people they send must be top experts in the field like us and need to penetrate the core research to possibly obtain valuable intelligence, otherwise even with the intelligence, it¡¯s useless. We cannot rely on those people, we must take action ourselves, otherwise, if this continues, our research funding will be cut, and this will cause catastrophic consequences.¡± ¡°I know, I¡¯m confident of securing the collaboration, and I¡¯ve already been laying the groundwork quietly. I won¡¯t directly propose a collaboration, but first will do some other things to gain their trust, and then broach collaboration. That will be much better.¡± Chapter 1397 - 1397 1054 Tenacious Life Force ?Chapter 1397: Chapter 1054: Tenacious Life Force Chapter 1397: Chapter 1054: Tenacious Life Force Before visiting Peking Union Medical College, Zhang Chunquan from the American Whitehead Laboratory had already been to Nandu Medical University. He asked to meet with Yang Ping, but Yang Ping outright rejected him. From both an emotional and a utilitarian standpoint, Yang Ping saw no need to meet with him; doing so would be a sheer waste of time. To be honest, the purpose of cooperation is to leverage each other¡¯s strengths toward mutual benefits¡ªcrudely put, to exploit one another for mutual needs. Currently, in the field of stem cell research, Yang Ping could be termed the world leader. He is ahead of other research teams by an entire dimension. So now, he sees no need to cooperate with other laboratories. Such so-called collaborative sharing would only serve to cheapen his work to others¡¯ benefit. When Yang Ping¡¯s stem cell research was yet to take off, Zhang Chunquan¡¯s laboratory would even refuse Chinese visitors, citing the prevention of high-end technology leaks. Now, absurdly enough, they¡¯ve come with talk of ¡®science without borders¡¯ and ¡®cooperating for human medical advancement,¡¯ all while masquerading as a noble cause, when in reality, it¡¯s all for profit. When they held the upper hand, they stood firm on intellectual property and confidentiality; now at a disadvantage, they speak of ¡®science without borders¡¯ and ¡®cooperation.¡¯ Yang Ping won¡¯t be fooled by this¡ªcooperation, in his eyes, is nothing more than a stark exchange. Without something of equal value to trade, there¡¯s nothing to discuss. ¡°Xiao Yang!¡± Yang Ping had just returned from Nandu Medical University and received a call from Professor Liang. ¡°Professor Liang!¡± It had been some time since Yang Ping had last been in touch with Professor Liang. Professor Liang had been in good spirits these past few days. Yang Ping knew this; Song Yun had told him. Professor Liang had initially given up on Zhang Chunquan, having resolved any personal resentment long ago. Nonetheless, Zhang Chunquan¡¯s cooperation with some laboratories during his trip back to China did lend them some support. This comforted Professor Liang, making him think he might have misunderstood Zhang Chunquan. Professor Liang had initially refused to meet with Chunquan but ended up agreeing to do so. The reunion of mentor and prote?ge? was profoundly moving for him. But when Zhang Chunquan requested Professor Liang¡¯s help to broker a collaboration with Yang Ping, Professor Liang finally understood. All of Zhang Chunquan¡¯s prior university collaborations had just been a prelude; his ultimate motive was still to work with Yang Ping. After being refused by Yang Ping, thus facing an impasse, Zhang Chunquan sought to leverage his relationship with Professor Liang to achieve a breakthrough. His supposed mentor visit was driven by the utility value of his mentor, not genuine sentiment. After more than a decade¡ªnot even a letter to his mentor, let alone a visit¡ªZhang Chunquan¡¯s sudden, ostentatious return to his mentor was a painful irony for Professor Liang. Yang Ping was well aware of Zhang Chunquan¡¯s return to China; Chunquan had even sent people to contact Yang Ping previously, but Yang Ping had rejected them. On his own initiatives, Chunquan had attempted to meet with Yang Ping, to no avail. Later, as Yang Ping became preoccupied with other matters, he paid little attention to Chunquan, not expecting him to approach Professor Liang. Professor Liang fell silent over the phone for a moment, ¡°Xiao Yang, Zhang Chunquan hasn¡¯t tried to contact you, has he? At this time, you must stay clear-headed. Whether it¡¯s him or anyone else, there will be many temptations thrown your way. You must stand firm.¡± ¡°I understand, thank you for the reminder, Professor Liang. He has looked for me, but we¡¯ve never met. I do not wish to meet him...¡± Yang Ping clearly laid out his reasons for not wanting to meet Zhang Chunquan over the phone, to spare the elder any worry. After hearing this, Professor Liang was relieved. He no longer worried that Yang Ping would be tempted into some foolish decision. Yang Ping¡¯s maturity and understanding in this area had surpassed Professor Liang¡¯s expectations. Yang Ping reported his latest research findings to Professor Liang, who was astonished. It had been some time since they last spoke, yet Yang Ping had made incredible strides. He had achieved monumental progress in treating osteosarcoma, using a completely novel approach that Professor Liang had never heard of. Factors like the K factor, virus carriers, initiating tumor cell apoptosis¡ªeach was at the pinnacle of the world¡¯s research. This was not something Zhang Chunquan could compare with. It seems that our true top talents are still serving the country and have not been lost. ¡ª As for Zhang Chunquan¡¯s visit, if not for Professor Liang¡¯s mention, Yang Ping would have neither the time nor the inclination to bother with it. Yang Ping was not concerned that Professor Liang would feel saddened by this matter, as the professor had already suffered once because of Zhang Chunquan and should now have seen through everything, immune to emotional turmoil. These days, Yang Ping was frequently shuttling back and forth between Ruixing Company and Nandu Medical University. Professor He¡¯s team had developed a biomedical imaging recognition engine. This engine required no feeding of big data; it operated based on the Digital Human, using the Digital Human¡¯s normal cells for reference. It comprised many modules. The currently developed module was for electron microscopic cell image recognition. It could automatically match each image against normal cells of the same type, setting aside any image that differed to undergo further analysis. This process could ultimately meet the experimental imaging requirements. Yang Ping let this intelligent engine examine the remaining electron microscope images he hadn¡¯t yet reviewed. It quickly sifted through all the images in mere minutes and successfully identified three images. These three cell images showed the structure of the K virus, indicating they had successfully infected the tumor cells. The experimental team continued to monitor Sisi¡¯s dynamics, puncturing her metastatic tumor for live cells every few days. Finally, in the second batch of punctured living cells¡¯ electron microscope images, they discovered a single image of a tumor cell in the process of apoptosis. Although it was only one, it represented the difference between nothing and something¡ªthe leap from 0 to 1. Now they could be certain; the K virus could not only infect Sisi¡¯s tumor cells but also initiate their apoptosis program. Chapter 1398 - 1398 1054 Tenacious Life Force_2 ?Chapter 1398: Chapter 1054: Tenacious Life Force_2 Chapter 1398: Chapter 1054: Tenacious Life Force_2 Having confirmed these two points, Yang Ping felt exceedingly confident about the experiment. It proved that the overarching direction of this experiment was correct. Following Yang Ping¡¯s philosophy: first get things right, then get things done right. It seems that things have been done right so far; the next step is to do them well. Based on the results, Yang Ping speculated: After the K virus went through the human immune system, the number of viruses that reached the tumor was very few. The primary task now was to improve the virus structure, enabling it to successfully pass through the immune system while maintaining the ability to infect tumor cells and triggering apoptosis in them. The latter is most crucial; without it, even if the virus can largely evade the human immune system, it will be futile. There¡¯s still plenty of work to do, such as improving detection methods. Currently, we rely on biopsies to put tumor cells under an electron microscope for observation, but such a method is unfeasible for actual treatment. This approach is only suitable for initial experiments, so we need to develop corresponding detection methods that can use blood tests to measure the amount of virus infection in the tumor and the number of dead tumor cells. This is a challenging task, but we will tackle it gradually in the future. Yang Ping¡¯s current approach to scientific research is also on point¡ªmaking full use of computers. It¡¯s not about simply aiding research with computers but leveraging artificial intelligence technology to develop various support tools and maximize the role of computer assistance. This not only liberates manpower from tedious tasks but also enhances the efficiency of work by thousands of times. For instance, recognizing images from an electron microscope could take a lot of time if done manually, even with everyone working day and night. But with the help of computers, all the images can be processed in minutes. Although the accuracy might not be ideal at first, by gradually improving the model, it¡¯s going to become more and more accurate. Actually, Yang Ping now feels that the system crash is not a bad thing, but a good one. Previously with the system¡¯s help, Yang Ping certainly would not be in a hurry to develop these computer-assisted tools, things such as artificial intelligence, image recognition engines, etc. After all, the need wasn¡¯t significant, and the urgency wasn¡¯t strong. But now, without the system, Yang Ping urgently wants to create another ¡°system,¡± which is the computer tools. These tools may look crude now, but given time, they will become very useful smart tools. Not only can Yang Ping use them, but others can too, and they can contribute to the entire scientific community. Now, Yang Ping wants to move scientific research from the ¡°era of manual labor¡± to the ¡°industrial era,¡± and the value of these computer tools is undoubtedly akin to the ¡°steam engine.¡± To support Yang Ping¡¯s experiments, Director He¡¯s team has to develop various computer tools. In fact, laboratory researchers have excellent minds. They¡¯re passionate and curious about new things, so they enjoy studying these novelties. Corporate researchers, on the other hand, due to their commercial tasks, rarely develop new things unrelated to their business objectives. Classic programming language C and UNIX operating systems were developed from Bell Labs and are still widely used today. Ruixing Group has also established an artificial intelligence institute and a specialized AI technology company. This company and the institute are cooperating with Professor He¡¯s team, which strengthens the capabilities of the entire large team, making the development of these tools seem effortless. Huang Jiacai has recruited top talent in artificial intelligence with substantial investment, integrating the acquired technologies with Professor He¡¯s Digital Human to develop AI models. ¡ª Sisi gradually recovered from the first experiment. In fact, the situation was quite perilous back then¡ªsustaining a high fever of 42 degrees Celsius for so long with no antipyretic effective, and a rapid heart rate, her body could have collapsed at any moment due to the fever. Everyone was anxious at that time. Yang Ping kept telling himself to stay calm and rational, so he showed unusual composure throughout the process to ensure he didn¡¯t make any mistakes. In such circumstances, a small error in judgment could result in irreversible serious consequences. In the ward, Yang Ping saw Sisi playing with her cactus again. She looked a lot better than a few days ago, but the remnants of the high fever caused by the virus were still visible on her¡ªthe cracked lips and pallor made it clear she was still weak. ¡°Professor Yang, don¡¯t you think this cactus is amazing? There was a time when it looked almost dead, the exposed parts were all eaten by bugs. I thought it was going to die, but later I changed the soil and took care to exterminate the pests, and it slowly came back to life. Now it¡¯s growing well. I admire it a lot, that¡¯s why I always keep it in my room. I feel like I can pull through just like it did,¡± Sisi said to the cactus. No wonder the young girl always brought her cactus with her every time she was hospitalized. There was such a story here, and it was a very positive one. ¡°You think so, don¡¯t you?¡± Sisi asked Yang Ping. Yang Ping looked at the cactus, which now bore no signs of its past misery. Indeed, cacti have a strong life force¡ªone of the most resilient among plants. They fear neither extreme cold nor drought; just cut a piece off and plant it, and it will live, thriving even in the desert, giving off its vibrant green color. ¡°Of course, so there¡¯s absolutely no need to worry. The journey may be tortuous, but the future is surely bright.¡± Yang Ping opened the drawing he was holding to show Sisi: ¡°The data collected from the first experiment is very optimistic. Although we only found a few meaningful images, these images confirm that our dispatched assassin K virus can successfully approach the enemy, and even eliminate it. This time, however, most of our assassins were destroyed by the guards in your body, with only a very few managing to infiltrate.¡± ¡°What should we do?¡± Sisi¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°We have to modify the K virus again. The previous K virus was too different in its effect on the immune system compared to the original virus¡ªit was like a brand new virus. Now we need to modify it to be as close as possible to the original virus, in terms of how it reacts with your immune system.¡± Pointing to his own drawings, Yang Ping engaged in a discussion with Sisi, treating her like a student. Although some of Sisi¡¯s ideas sometimes seemed naive, Yang Ping would discuss them seriously, as if he were talking with a top scholar in the world. ¡°Wait a moment, I need to wash my hands,¡± Sisi said earnestly, deciding to discuss further with Yang Ping after washing her hands. After washing her hands, Sisi spread the drawing on the table by her bed: ¡°So, the previous batch of assassins didn¡¯t have a good disguise and were found by the guard troops, and now we have to redo their camouflage so they can deceive the guards in my body?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. We not only have to disguise the assassins well, but we also can¡¯t weaken their ability to assassinate. We have to take care of both and can¡¯t afford to compromise,¡± Yang Ping explained in a language she could understand. ¡°I see, so when is the next experiment?¡± Sisi was looking forward to it, not seeming scared at all. Yang Ping was taken aback: ¡°We can¡¯t rush this. You¡¯ve just finished the first experiment, and we need to let you recover or else it will be hard to withstand the second experiment. We must prepare for the worst each time and cannot take it lightly.¡± ¡°Actually, it wasn¡¯t much¡ªit was just a high fever. I was so confused at the time that I didn¡¯t know anything. When I woke up, I saw lots of faces around me,¡± Sisi reminisced about the high fever from her first experiment, but she wasn¡¯t afraid. Chapter 1399 - 1399 1055 International Top Hospital ?Chapter 1399: Chapter 1055: International Top Hospital Chapter 1399: Chapter 1055: International Top Hospital Professor He¡¯s Digital Medical Laboratory has expanded several times and now has a staff of two thousand, with further expansion ongoing. There are nearly six hundred doctors and over twelve hundred masters, integrating basic research, technical studies, and management to stand out at Nandu Medical University and become a paradigm for laboratories. Relying on Digital Human Technology, they developed a series of software tools to assist in Yang Ping¡¯s experiments, allowing for a rapid progression. The modification work on the K virus is complete. This time, Yang Ping has changed the implantation site of the K factor and rechecked the genetic sequence of the K virus, trying to keep it as consistent with the original virus as possible. This way, it won¡¯t provoke the human immune system, as the original virus is an old friend of humanity and hardly causes any adverse reactions. A structural model of the new virus is presented on the screen. Lu Xiaolu gave a brief report, and now the experimental team members are discussing together to see if there are any areas that need improvement. If not, the new virus will undergo seed synthesis in the laboratory, which is integrating the original virus with the K factor through gene recombination techniques, then cultivating the seed virus to replicate the process of the first experiment. Every modification faces new variables; it might be safer than the first time or more dangerous¡ªsuch things are unpredictable. The introduction of the K factor itself is a new element. ¡°I hypothesize that the implantation site of the K factor greatly influences the entire virus. It determines how much the modified virus will deviate from the original virus after the K factor is implanted. However, how exactly the site influences remains unclear; we lack sufficient data. We only have one experiment and one subject so far. I believe implanting the K factor at different positions in the virus ¨C at its ends or midpoint ¨C makes a difference,¡± said Lu Xiaolu, expressing his opinion. He has been pondering these issues for days, aware that he is involved in a project that could take the world by storm. If successful, it would pave an entirely new path for tumor treatment, more sensational than targeted therapy, cell treatment, or other methods. Tang Shun and Li Yingtong are experts in stem cell research. Although they are not very knowledgeable in virology, they are very familiar with cellular structure and the basic structure of viruses. This basic literacy as biomedical scholars allows them to offer insights from another perspective. Doctors from wards, scientists from laboratories, and doctors from Nandu Medical University Virus Research Institute and Digital Medical Research Institute all participated in this discussion, each expressing their own opinions, very actively. In fact, free discussion and debate are very important in scientific research. Not only do they help clarify issues through debate, but they can also inspire new ideas amongst the participants. Therefore, a free and relaxed environment is essential for innovation. Right now, Yang Ping is very clear that they must and can only proceed by tweaking the position of the K factor, because its structure is not subject to change. If its structure is modified, the K virus will lose its significance. ¡ª It takes about a week to culture the virus, so Yang Ping can only wait for the virus to be ready before proceeding with the second experiment. With experience from the first trial, his confidence in the second experiment is even stronger. He has been worried about Sisi¡¯s illness recently and devoted most of his energy to the project of using the K virus to treat tumors. He hasn¡¯t been paying much attention to department matters, but he¡¯s confident, with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, two generals who are world-class surgeons. He doesn¡¯t need to worry. Xia Shu and Dr. Jin, who later joined the Surgical Research Institute, are also making rapid progress. The current doctoral and master students are also impressive. Hence, the Surgical Research Institute can operate independently of him. He visits Liquan Hospital every week, and if Su Nanchen is available, he will perform surgeries there, so Yang Ping doesn¡¯t need to worry too much. When it¡¯s time to visit Liquan Hospital again, Boss Cheng is already waiting at the hospital entrance. Liquan Hospital is no longer what it used to be. After acquiring land in the suburbs, the era of renting is over for Liquan Hospital, which has established its own campus, designed by taking the best of both Western and Eastern hospital construction. Currently, the first phase of the new campus has opened with six hundred beds and quickly reached capacity. The second phase with another six hundred beds is soon to become operational. The hospital follows a high-end route, with costly fees. Not only are the technology and management world-class, but the hardware is also top-notch. Boss Cheng has always been grateful for the guidance that led to his impressive achievements. Once, the master predicted success with a simple gesture towards the dense cottonwood forest outside the door. Cheng understood: success follows where cottonwood thrives. Later, when Cheng met Yang Ping and realized after several encounters that he was a genius, he was convinced that following him would lead to prosperity. He recalled the master¡¯s prophecy and firmly stuck with Yang Ping, which indeed fulfilled the prediction. Now, Old Cheng has transitioned from a small hospital renting space to a top-tier hospital in the world, with the business controlled entirely by him. Boss Cheng has hired many renowned eight-year program doctors and, with Yang Ping as the technical support, has established extensive connections with top medical institutions worldwide, such as the Cleveland Heart Center, Anderson Cancer Center, Mayo, Hopkins, and others, attracting top experts to exchange knowledge and learn here. Chapter 1400 - 1400 1055 International Top Hospital_2 ?Chapter 1400: Chapter 1055: International Top Hospital_2 Chapter 1400: Chapter 1055: International Top Hospital_2 Young doctors here grow up fast in this environment; each one is an expert, with several trained under Professor Yang Ping or Su Nanchen ¨C their skills are truly top-notch. ¡°Professor, you always come and go in such a hurry. This time, I¡¯ll give you a proper tour.¡± Replacing bird guns with cannons, Boss Cheng smiles every day. Looking at private hospitals nationwide, which can match this level, this class? An international appointment costs sixty thousand US dollars, just like the highly sought-after train tickets during Chinese New Year on the 12306 website ¨C snatched up the moment they become available. A casual surgery and the hospital stays cost millions of US dollars. World tycoons don¡¯t hesitate before proceeding. Old Cheng could never have dreamed that owning a hospital would bring him to this level. Walking through the corridors, most people you meet are foreign friends. Eighty percent of the hospital¡¯s patients are from abroad, and the fee structure differs between foreign and domestic patients ¨C it¡¯s much cheaper for the latter, with the cost for foreigners several times higher. This hospital has driven up the business of surrounding restaurants and hotels, creating a vast commercial area. Boss Cheng leads the way, taking Professor Yang Ping through the hospital to see the surgical building, the medical building, the medical technology building, the administrative building, and more ¨C each one a sight to behold. This hospital is Old Cheng¡¯s pet project, and with Professor Yang Ping as its honorary godfather, it is thriving. There¡¯s even a medical helicopter on the rooftop for airport pickups, as there are often medical flights from abroad. Arrangements are made to directly bring in patients through a designated green channel. The Surgical Research Institute, restrained by public hospital policies, can¡¯t spread its wings like this place, so patients that the institute cannot accommodate are all diverted here. Over time, high-end patients from around the world come to know about this Chinese hospital. You could say that although this hospital is newly built with no long history or legacy, it has surpassed any other hospital in fame among the world¡¯s top wealth circles. Walking toward us is a British patient who was diagnosed with brain cancer. Neither the UK nor the US doctors could do anything; they advised him to give up treatment. But then, a friend recommended he see Professor Yang in China. After finding out that he¡¯d have to wait years for an appointment at the Surgical Research Institute, he heard about a new hospital, where Professor Yang was the main surgeon. He flew to China immediately, regardless of the high cost, for a hospital stay and surgery. After the surgery, he¡¯s walking around in the hospital and was so moved, he nearly knelt in gratitude to thank the Chinese team who saved his life. Now, even if he has a cold, he¡¯d fly tens of hours to China just for a checkup. As we walk, a Japanese patient greets us from a distance, bowing long before we arrive. Professor Yang Ping always feels a headache coming on when he sees Japanese patients ¨C they bow so much he¡¯s concerned they might hurt their spines. This Japanese man is a big shot from some consortium, in need of a heart bypass. Juntendo¡¯s top surgeon in cardiac surgery told him directly to go to China, to Professor Yang Ping. He was flown to Liquan Hospital by a medical plane. The Surgical Research Institute does not cater to such high-profile individuals unless they are friends of Yang Ping ¨C there, they serve the general populace. They certainly can¡¯t allow the rich to monopolize medical resources, so the wealthy all come here, ensuring regular folks can also benefit from surgeries led by Yang Ping. No sooner had we left the Japanese patient behind when suddenly, a foreigner in a wheelchair comes rushing towards us. Holy shit! Ershun and a few guards immediately form a defensive ring, their hands ready in their pockets. Turns out, he¡¯s a patient with scoliosis from Germany who had surgery days ago. He scoots around in his wheelchair daily, just for the fun of it, though he could walk with a brace. He¡¯s so excited simply to shake hands with Yang Ping. All patients of Yang Ping¡¯s major surgeries have met him before because he has a habit of never viewing himself as a big shot. Before and after surgeries, he insists on meeting his patients to chat, inquire about their medical history, and perform a check-up. The young man was once twisted up like a knot, and here, he was straightened out hard. These patients all require very special surgeries, which is why Professor Yang Ping performs the main surgery; other patients are now operated on by our hospital¡¯s own doctors, with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang stepping in to tackle the more difficult cases. There really aren¡¯t many instances that require Professor Yang himself. Upon arrival at the stem cell treatment ward, which is a newly opened ward, Yang Ping was stunned ¨C the entire ward¡¯s decoration had a sci-fi vibe, deeply impressing him. This ward is a collaboration with the Stem Cell Laboratory, and it is also the place where Tang Shun¡¯s so-called rejuvenation project is being implemented. ¡°Professor, this place isn¡¯t officially operational yet, but we¡¯ve already received several billion US dollars in reservation fees. It seems there are many wealthy people in this world who all yearn for eternal youth. Doctor Tang is really talented; with his management, we¡¯ve reached the pinnacle of clinical stem cell treatment in one step,¡± Boss Cheng proudly explained at his side. Yang Ping is immersed in surgery and scientific research every day, with little time to pay attention to these matters. He didn¡¯t expect, while wandering around today, that the hospital had developed to this extent. ¡°Doctor Tang said to get ready ¨C following the stem cell treatment ward, there will be a unique tumor treatment ward. This new ward will use a unique method to treat tumors, charging ten million US dollars per injection. Is there some kind of black technology being introduced?¡± Old Cheng wasn¡¯t quite clear on the specific details from the Institute. ¡°Tumor treatment that starts at ten million US dollars per injection? How come I wasn¡¯t informed?¡± Yang Ping was taken aback by the question. This confused Old Cheng: ¡°How can it be, Professor? It¡¯s impossible. Doctor Tang isn¡¯t joking around; he¡¯s very serious. I¡¯ve got the ward ready, just waiting for this project to kick off.¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on? I really don¡¯t know about this,¡± said Yang Ping, who wasn¡¯t involved in these matters. Boss Cheng thought for a moment and said, ¡°He mentioned using a special virus to treat tumors, a completely new and unique tumor treatment method in the world.¡± So that¡¯s the situation. These preparations were made without even a concrete plan in place. ¡°He said that this special treatment method is currently in experimental stages. But it¡¯s not wrong to be prepared; maybe it will be successful tomorrow or someday soon, and we can launch it,¡± Yang Ping told Boss Cheng. ¡°Someday soon?¡± said Boss Cheng. ¡°Yes, maybe tomorrow, or ten years from now,¡± Yang Ping replied. Boss Cheng looked baffled; the time frame was too broad. But no matter, it¡¯s best to be ready just in case it¡¯s launched at any time. Walking with Boss Cheng, Yang Ping encountered several patients and met many doctors when visiting the operating room ¨C some of whom were his former colleagues from City People¡¯s Hospital. They had now been trained as key backbone doctors; under Yang¡¯s guidance, they had made rapid progress. After being sent to rotate through several top hospitals and returning, each one had become a key talent heavily relied upon by Boss Cheng. Especially Doctor Wan, the first to join, who is now considered a key young talent. ¡°Professor, I¡¯ve been taking special care of these brothers of yours. They¡¯re doing well and haven¡¯t let you down, each making swift progress,¡± Boss Cheng introduced the current situation of these doctors. ¡°It seems that this hospital really is a top international hospital, worthy of the ¡®top¡¯ descriptor in both technology and fees,¡± Yang Ping remarked. Boss Cheng wasn¡¯t sure if the comment was a compliment or a slight, so he said, ¡°Professor, we don¡¯t just have high fees ¨C we also offer charity work. Every year, we provide charity quotas for free, to ordinary people who couldn¡¯t be treated at other hospitals and can¡¯t afford medical expenses here. So, in terms of charity, we¡¯re also at the top. We¡¯re top in four things: technology, operations, fees, charity.¡± Chapter 1401 - 1401 1056 Taking the Field Personally ?Chapter 1401: Chapter 1056: Taking the Field Personally Chapter 1401: Chapter 1056: Taking the Field Personally After visiting Liquan Hospital, Yang Ping returned to Sanbo Hospital, of course, accompanied by many guards. Since the last attack on Yang Ping, security has been significantly heightened. Whether inside the Hospital or when going out, he is accompanied by guards, although they are well hidden, making it seem as if he isn¡¯t accompanied by anyone. For a genius like him, the higher-ups have placed great importance on him. While granting him ample freedom, they also go out of their way to protect him. He may look just like a doctor, but the power he holds can shake the interests of major capitalists at any time. Some people want to win him over, but if they fail, they may harbor thoughts of destruction. Hence, the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility is true, but so is the increased risk. Ruixing Company, Liquan Hospital, and Tang Shun-managed Laboratories can be said to be models of technological commercialization. With their help, Yang Ping has achieved financial freedom and can do as he pleases, like his current research on treating tumors with the K virus. If he needs money, he gets money; if he needs software assistance tools, someone will immediately develop it; if he needs equipment, he can buy it at any time. If it¡¯s not available on the market, it has to be developed. And then there¡¯s the Research Fund in place, so now, Yang Ping hardly has any worries about research funding. A few days later, the second experiment on Sisi could begin. There was no high fever after the second viral injection, as if she¡¯d been injected with saline, very stable, with no excessive reaction. Even Yang Ping doubted whether the virus had all died before injection. The stability is there, but after various examinations, no tumor cells were found to be successfully infected by the virus, let alone triggering the apoptosis program. This experiment failed uneventfully. This time, the K factor was planted in the middle of the virus instead of one end like the first time. It seems that in any scientific research, trial and error is inevitable. Some things cannot be predicted by existing theories and can only be found through trial and error, constantly summarizing within those errors and forming new theories or revising old ones spiraling upwards ¨C that is the normal trajectory of scientific development. At that time, the biggest help the system actually gave to himself was the countless opportunities to trial and error and the huge time advantage. Previously, all trials and errors were placed in the System Space, but now without the system¡¯s help, all trials and errors are experienced in reality. Although computers can take over some of the trial and error, models can reduce detours, but even the most mature simulation models have gaps with reality and cannot be wholly substituted. Models are just simplified simulations of the real thing. Without the system, Yang Ping did not give up. He continues his research and implanted the K factor into another end of the virus, but this time a high fever occurred, and the reaction was even more severe than the first time. During the high fever, Sisi experienced sudden cardiac arrest, but was timely rescued. However, after being rescued, she could only rely on ECMO for life support and is unable to come off the machine. However, the third time revealed tumor cells infected by the virus and cells undergoing apoptosis. From the three trials and errors, Yang Ping found that to be effective, the K factor needs to be placed at both ends, but this inevitably causes severe immune opposition. To avoid the severe immune reaction, the K factor must be placed in the middle, but then the K virus loses its ability to attack tumor cells. It is a contradiction. Yang Ping decided to try different positions of the K factor on both ends, but Sisi is currently still on ECMO and obviously cannot continue participating in the experiments. ¡°Should we recruit some volunteers for the experiment?¡± Song Zimo reminded Yang Ping. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°I¡¯ve considered it. Using it on Sisi is a last resort for us, an act of desperation. Recruiting volunteers is different; it¡¯s illegal and against the principles of scientific research ethics. If the experiment succeeds, it¡¯s fine, but if it fails, we would be in great trouble.¡± In fact, Yang Ping is clearly aware that his direction is correct; the remaining issue is finding a balance between efficacy and safety. The question is which configuration is effective and the safest. Looking at Sisi lying in the isolation area, depending on ECMO for life support, Yang Ping felt very guilty. However, he knew that feeling guilty was useless; only by finding a way to make the experiment successful could Sisi have hope of being saved. He must race against Death, as Sisi¡¯s condition, if she can¡¯t come off the machine for a long time, will inevitably lead to a tragic ending. ¡ª Director¡¯s Office. Yang Ping was pondering what to do next. To find a healthy person to experiment with, after testing the virus on a healthy person and ensuring its safety before using it on Sisi, the final result, effective or not, would at least not harm Sisi again. But where to find a healthy person? As long as money is offered, there will definitely be people willing to participate in the experiment. However, this is clearly unethical, and Yang Ping doesn¡¯t want to proceed in this manner. As for experimenting on Sisi, the situation is different; for Sisi, this is the only chance of survival. While pondering, Yang Ping tried to enter the System Space, but was unable to do so. The gray panel signaled: ¡°The system is in a dormant state.¡± Yang Ping couldn¡¯t help feeling disappointed. How great it would be if the system could be used now; Sisi would definitely have a chance. But unfortunately, at this crucial moment, the system has gone on strike. Chapter 1402 - 1402 1056 Taking to the Field Personally_2 ?Chapter 1402: Chapter 1056: Taking to the Field Personally_2 Chapter 1402: Chapter 1056: Taking to the Field Personally_2 If Sisi can withstand the virus experiment, there¡¯s no reason I can¡¯t. Besides, Yang Ping has full confidence in his own judgment. As long as the positions of the K factor at both ends of the virus are tried out, the optimal implantation site can surely be found. In the history of medical development, there have been many medical scientists who conducted experiments on themselves, many vaccine researchers included. When Yang Ping shared this idea with Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, they firmly opposed him doing so. ¡°Professor, if there¡¯s a need for a healthy person for the experiment, I¡¯m willing.¡± ¡°I¡¯m willing too.¡± ¡°Under no circumstances should you be the one to go to the front line. It¡¯s too dangerous. And your wife, Dean Xia, Director Han, as well as the higher-ups, none of them would agree. I believe no one would agree to let you take such a risk,¡± Song Zimo said, getting worked up. ¡°Let me do it, my physique isn¡¯t bad, trust me. Besides, I can gather firsthand data from the perspective of an experiencer.¡± ¡°No, this is something I¡¯ve already decided on. You haven¡¯t gotten married yet, and you, you haven¡¯t had children yet. The experiment carries a high risk. Even if it doesn¡¯t pose a risk to life, it could affect sperm and future generations, so you absolutely cannot take the risk.¡± ¡°No matter what, we can¡¯t let you take this risk.¡± Yang Ping waved his hands: ¡°Sisi is now lying in the ward, relying on ECMO to sustain her life. If we can¡¯t find an effective method, she won¡¯t last long. We have to race against time. I am confident now, success is not far from us. Currently, we haven¡¯t found the appropriate site for K factor implantation. Once we find it, the K virus will be able to control Sisi¡¯s illness. The rest can be slowly researched and revised.¡± ¡°No way!¡± Song Zimo was clearly angered. Xu Zhiliang also spoke without stuttering: ¡°This is absolutely not allowed. There¡¯s no room for negotiation.¡± ¡°I know your intentions, but this isn¡¯t an ordinary experiment. It involves injecting a virus into the body, which may have lifelong effects, especially on reproduction. So you must listen to me. If we don¡¯t consider this point, I wouldn¡¯t object to your participation. Right now, among us, I am the most suitable,¡± Yang Ping explained to them reasonably. ¡°Look, we just need to try the K factor at these points one by one. I can¡¯t guarantee to find the best configuration, but I can ensure that we find a configuration that can kill tumor cells while avoiding a severe immune response. It should meet our requirements.¡± Yang Ping pointed to the K virus structural diagram hanging on the whiteboard in his office. ¡°Don¡¯t talk so much, this matter is not up for discussion. We definitely won¡¯t let you do it,¡± said Song Zimo. An idea suddenly struck Xu Zhiliang: ¡°Professor, if we already had children, then it wouldn¡¯t be an issue. I¡¯ll get my wife pregnant as fast as I can, so I can participate in the experiment.¡± ¡°Come on, do you think getting pregnant is as easy as just saying so?¡± Yang Ping shot down Xu Zhiliang¡¯s idea. ¡°Professor, are you doubting my ability?¡± Xu Zhiliang was displeased. ¡°Yeah, I can do it too,¡± Song Zimo also fought for the chance. ¡°Give me a break, you and Tang Fei have been together so long, I heard you haven¡¯t even made it to bed. Is that true? Is it really that difficult?¡± Xu Zhiliang teased Song Zimo. Song Zimo defensively said, ¡°Who did you hear that from? How would you know whether we¡¯ve been to bed? Besides, with my popularity, Song Zimo, if I put out the call, women would line up to have my babies. Having ten or eight wouldn¡¯t be an issue at all. Leave this task to me. It¡¯s just about having kids, you make it seem like you¡¯re so capable.¡± Unexpectedly, two brothers who usually got along well were now quarreling over this, and their argument intensified heatedly. ¡°Xu Zhiliang, let me tell you, you can¡¯t compete with me over this matter, Professor. Leave it to me, give me two weeks, no, one week, and I¡¯ll fulfill the task you asked for ¨C to have a child. I¡¯ll exceed the requirement.¡± ¡°I¡¯m telling you, you can¡¯t violate ethical principles just to meet my requirement. None of you can fight or snatch this from me. Take care of your own business. I¡¯ve made my decision, I will take this on myself, and none of you can tell anyone, understand? If everyone knows, it will become a complete mess. You can¡¯t even tell Xiao Su, I¡¯m worried she would be too frightened.¡± Yang Ping slapped the table. ¡°You can¡¯t do this, isn¡¯t this autocratic? Didn¡¯t you always talk about democracy? How come it¡¯s autocracy when it comes to this matter? At least the three of us should discuss and vote on it. You have to give us the right to speak, you can¡¯t just make decisions on your own.¡± Xu Zhiliang, who usually stutters intermittently, was speaking quite fluently now. ¡°Right, you can¡¯t be authoritarian like this.¡± Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were now united in opposition. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the virus isn¡¯t that formidable. Moreover, they are viruses with their replication genes knocked out. Look at Sisi, she has already withstood three rounds. If it weren¡¯t for the illness she has, she would definitely have withstood the third round. Apart from already having kids, there¡¯s another important reason ¨C I want fame. I want to leave behind a renowned name in the history of medicine. You guys wouldn¡¯t compete with me even for this little opportunity, would you?¡± Really? Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang both glared at Yang Ping; the Professor always seemed indifferent to fame and fortune. ¡°Why are you looking at me like that? Now that we¡¯re behind closed doors, we¡¯re all brothers here, there¡¯s nothing to hide. I¡¯m very worldly, as you¡¯ve seen. I love money, whether it¡¯s stem cell experiments, Liquan Hospital, or Ruixing Company, isn¡¯t everything about making money? I value profits highly. Look at the cooperations I¡¯ve had, if there¡¯s profit to be made, I¡¯m willing to cooperate, and if not, I refuse. Every cooperation is about taking something from the other party.¡± After hearing this, Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang felt there might be some truth to it. Professor seemed to be quite profit-driven indeed; he seemed to accept donations to his research fund without blushing or batting an eyelid. As for international collaborations, it seemed to be the same. If there were no profits, he wouldn¡¯t even take a look. Recently, the Whitehead Laboratory from the United States has been trying to make contact with the Professor for collaboration. Didn¡¯t the Professor say: Their stuff is no longer of interest to us, there¡¯s nothing to exchange, so why bother cooperating? ¡°So, actually, I do value leaving my name in history. If I could leave a mark on medical history, having bravely experimented on my own body for the advancement of human medicine, wouldn¡¯t I get written into the textbooks? You guys still want to fight me for this opportunity? Are we brothers or not? There will be other chances in the future for you guys; this one, let me take it. I¡¯ve calculated it, there won¡¯t be any major problems, at most a few days of high fever, by then you just give me ice caps and ice blankets, actively hydrate and replenish energy. If Sisi can withstand it, how can I not? I know what I¡¯m doing. Who dares to do things blindfolded? I¡¯m a very cautious person, very precious about my own body, and won¡¯t take risks with my life.¡± Really? It sounded quite logical, quite consistent with the Professor¡¯s character, but something didn¡¯t seem right. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang felt that the Professor was misleading them but couldn¡¯t find evidence to prove it. ¡°Are you sure this is what you think?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no one else here, I¡¯m speaking the honest truth. I¡¯m really quite worldly as a person. Look, I married a beauty, drive a big Hongqi car, live in a sky villa; which part of this looks like the image of someone living a frugal life dedicated to medicine? You know this, just don¡¯t tell anyone, understand?¡± Yang Ping was eloquent at this moment. ¡°If you guys also want a good reputation, I¡¯ll leave opportunities for you in the future.¡± But obviously, this good reputation comes with risking one¡¯s life, doesn¡¯t it? He spoke so reasonably, making us embarrassed to compete with him, but? Something wasn¡¯t right. ¡°So, don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be fine. I won¡¯t put myself in danger.¡± Song Zimo thought: In the past, whether it was surgery or research, he always seemed to be sure-footed. This time should be no exception; if he says it¡¯s fine, then it should be fine. When has he ever lied or bragged? Never! Everything he bragged about, he made happen, many seemingly impossible things were done by him. Xu Zhiliang scratched his head: The Professor has never failed, and he certainly wouldn¡¯t this time. After exchanging glances, they decided to tentatively agree with Yang Ping¡¯s decision, because the Professor¡¯s mind was deeper than the Mariana Trench and completely inscrutable. Whatever he decided must be right. Chapter 1403 - 1403 1075 Accident ?Chapter 1403: Chapter 1075 Accident Chapter 1403: Chapter 1075 Accident The independent ward is a new area opened by the Surgical Research Institute, originally intended to serve as the dedicated ICU for the Institute, with all sorts of world-class medical equipment fully equipped. However, staff are not yet in place, so this ICU has not been put into use yet. Now, because of Sisi¡¯s experiment, Yang Ping has chosen doctors and nurses to participate in the experiment and be stationed in this ward. This place is equivalent to an ICU with elite medical staff, and the only patient here is Sisi, with her primary doctor being Yang Ping. Sisi was lying in the ward, her heart stopped abruptly during the third experiment, and after being rescued, her heart became extremely weak. The tumor in her skull seemed to have vaguely broken through the critical line, causing her heartbeat to be weak. Both conditions intertwined together currently contribute to a very weak heart, which now relies solely on ECMO to sustain her life, and she can¡¯t be taken off the machine yet. With the support of ECMO, Sisi remains somewhat conscious. Yang Ping asked a nurse to place her cactus at the corner of her bed to accompany her. Her parents look at their daughter through the glass every day, and even though they were mentally prepared, it still feels like a knife cutting through their hearts. Yang Ping stands by Sisi¡¯s bed, smiling at her, ¡°Can you hold on? We will win this battle soon.¡± Sisi stretches out a hand to make a fist, touching Yang Ping¡¯s fist, her pale and dry lips forming a slight smile, ¡°Have you taken care of the thing I asked for?¡± That matter? It¡¯s about donating her body after death. Yang Ping did not answer directly: ¡°First, you have to ask me. I haven¡¯t agreed, so it can¡¯t be done.¡± ¡°How?¡± Sisi is weak, with the sound of machines operating beside her bed. ¡°I haven¡¯t agreed, so how could you possibly have a chance. Don¡¯t worry, what I haven¡¯t agreed to will not happen.¡± Yang Ping grabs Sisi¡¯s hand, his tone firm and undeniable, the girl¡¯s hand very cold. He turns his head to glance at her blood pressure, which is within the normal range. ¡°I believe you, I see the strong confidence in your eyes, just like when I first met you. This feeling can make everyone believe in you. This kind of gaze can cure everything.¡± Sisi speaks calmly. Yang Ping smooths the hair off her forehead, ¡°That¡¯s right, you need to trust your teacher. I told you to follow me in learning medicine, I can definitely do it, so.¡± Sisi nods her head. Song Zimo asks, ¡°Should we use a sedative?¡± Considering the use of ECMO, even though the patient can remain conscious, they usually inject some sedatives into the patient to keep them in a sleep state for easier nursing, reduce the patient¡¯s energy consumption, and also lessen their irritability and fear. Yang Ping nods, better to let the little girl sleep, it will reduce a lot of psychological pain. Leaving the ward, in the doctor¡¯s office Yang Ping sees Dean Xia and Director Han, they are also very concerned about Sisi¡¯s condition. ¡°Is everything okay?¡± Dean Xia, who was waiting for Yang Ping, stands up from his chair, shakes Yang Ping¡¯s hand, and pats his shoulder. Yang Ping looks slightly haggard: ¡°It¡¯s okay for now, with the ECMO sustaining her, but getting her off it is difficult.¡± ¡°We won¡¯t go see Sisi, afraid to disturb her rest. Just tell us if you need any assistance or manpower from other departments.¡± Director Han said. Yang Ping nods, ¡°I will let you know if needed.¡± Dean Xia and Director Han just came to express their concern for this experiment, they did not dare stay long, afraid of affecting everyone¡¯s normal work. After understanding Sisi¡¯s condition for a few minutes, they quickly left. ¡ª The fourth experiment is about to start, Yang Ping personally participates, he wants to experience firsthand the effects of injecting the K virus into a human body, apart from Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and the doctors and nurses involved in the experiment, others don¡¯t know about it, Yang Ping doesn¡¯t want others to worry. If word gets out, Dean Xia definitely would not agree. With his style, even if Yang Ping tore down Sanbo Hospital, Dean Xia wouldn¡¯t consider it an issue. But if Yang Ping himself risks injecting the virus, Dean Xia would definitely not agree, probably having security tie Yang Ping up. Yang Ping also notified his family that he would be staying in the independent ward for the week to conduct the experiment and might not be reachable by phone. After the fourth modification, Yang Ping believes this version of the K virus is the best configuration, likely having reached a balance between safety and efficacy. Professor Zhang Zhiwei, who delivered the virus preparation, was stopped at the entrance by security, not allowed into the ward area. He is puzzled as he was allowed entry before, but the security did not know the reason themselves; they were just following orders. Professor Zhang heard the experiment might put the young girl¡¯s life in danger, and relying on ECMO was the only way to sustain her life. Possibly, the fourth experiment might cause life-threatening conditions, so they did not let other personnel enter the ward to witness the tragic scene. After delivering the virus preparation, Professor Zhang left. Yang Ping lies on the hospital bed, with Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Xia Shu, and a nurse by his side. The nurse¡¯s hand, holding the syringe, trembles a bit, not sure whether to inject or not. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid. Go ahead and inject!¡± Yang Ping encourages the nurse. The nurse, uneasy, gathers courage and slowly pushes the virus into Yang Ping¡¯s bloodstream. Everything is calm, nothing happens. Yang Ping, while verbal, describes his feelings, and Song Zimo records on the side. He doesn¡¯t feel any discomfort at the moment. Chapter 1404 - 1404 1057 Accident_2 ?Chapter 1404: Chapter 1057 Accident_2 Chapter 1404: Chapter 1057 Accident_2 Half an hour later, Yang Ping began to feel his body heating up, and the nurse hurriedly took his temperature, finding that he was starting to have a low fever. The nurse measured his temperature every half hour, and in addition to using an ear thermometer, she also used a traditional mercury thermometer to measure the armpit temperature for accuracy. Yang Ping¡¯s temperature gradually rose, about one degree every two hours, and by the evening, it had reached 42 degrees, sometimes even exceeding 42 degrees. Under the high fever, Yang Ping¡¯s body would intermittently shiver violently, feeling extremely uncomfortable, almost like his body was tearing and recomposing. In his semi-conscious state, he felt his body suddenly become very large, then very small, like a balloon scaling up and down. Now he understood how strong Sisi¡¯s will was. Although confused, Yang Ping was still able to maintain a slight sense of awareness and did not completely lose consciousness. Under the high fever, his heart rate also began to accelerate, which was actually the most dangerous part, as the heart could easily collapse under the high load. Various equipment, including ECMO, were already prepared, ready to rescue him at any moment. Zimo Song, Zhiliang Xu, and Xia Shu were all by his side, taking turns to watch over him, guarding him 24 hours a day. After 3 days, Yang Ping¡¯s high fever began to slowly subside. Throughout the process, he hadn¡¯t completely lost consciousness, even at the most severe times, he maintained a blurred awareness. Three times a day, his blood was drawn and sent to the Nandu Medical University Virus Laboratory for examination, but they called to ask: Was there an issue with the experiment, was there a mistake in the process? Why hadn¡¯t the virus titers gradually decreased, instead, they increased before decreasing again, finally stabilizing at a baseline. This was completely illogical. The injected virus was supposed to be unable to replicate; with each virus dead, the amount should reduce. This had been the case in the first three experiments. Why did the virus titer curve this time look like it was of a live virus capable of replication? To confirm, the nurse drew several more vials of blood from Yang Ping, and to avoid any issues during transport, Lu Xiaolu accompanied by two doctors, transported these blood samples together to the lab. The test results surprised Yang Ping and everyone involved in the experiment. The virus had not been cleared by the immune system; instead, its numbers had increased. Could it be that they had successfully replicated in the body? How was that possible, as the replication gene in the virus had been knocked out. Professor Zhang Zhiwei, trying to solve this puzzle, immediately sent the virus to the Genetics Laboratory for gene sequencing. Indeed, the viral gene sequence turned out to be complete, meaning that the knocked-out replication gene had been fully restored, which was impossible, defying current biological laws. This puzzled Yang Ping greatly. There were two possibilities: one, the virus might have indeed self-repaired itself in the body, restoring the replication gene; the other possibility is that during culture, virus samples without knocked-out genes could have been mixed in, these viruses having replication capabilities, while other neutered viruses would have died under the assault of the immune system, but these viruses not only survived through replication but also proliferated massively. The experiment had unexpectedly turned problematic; the cause could not be determined immediately. The current priority was to clear the virus from Yang Ping¡¯s body, as it would definitely be a big issue otherwise. The experimental team was anxious now. Yang Ping carrying the virus equated to him infecting a completely new viral disease. If the immune system couldn¡¯t eradicate these viruses, they would remain in his body for life. However, Yang Ping found it strange that these viruses showed no reaction in his body at present. Did it coexist with his immune system somehow? With this question in mind, Yang Ping had the nurse draw blood from him again, then sent the samples to the Nandu Medical University Virus Laboratory for observation, while he himself dared not leave the isolated ward in the independent hospital area. With the virus¡¯s infectiousness still undetermined and unsure through what route it could be transmitted, without conclusive evidence from the virus laboratory, Yang Ping could only remain in isolation. Soon, the analysis conclusion from the virus laboratory came out: the virus was not infectious because they were very fragile, dying within seconds outside human blood and bodily fluids, unable to survive in an external environment, including air. This at least put Yang Ping¡¯s mind at ease a lot. If it wasn¡¯t contagious, then it wouldn¡¯t pose a danger to others, and any danger would only be to himself. There¡¯s another very special phenomenon; the virus, extracted from Yang Ping¡¯s body and cultured externally, showed a shedding of the K factor by the second generation, meaning it would turn into a normal virus, devoid of the K virus¡¯s capabilities. Professor Zhang Zhiwei believes that the K virus inside Yang Ping has now mutated, and it has become an independent variety that can only survive long-term within Yang Ping¡¯s body. To verify this conclusion, Professor Zhang Zhiwei decided to use experimental monkeys for some tests, injecting them with blood from Yang Ping that carried the virus. Miraculously, these viruses lost their ability to replicate inside the monkeys and were gradually killed by the immune system. These viruses, it seems, could only survive inside Yang Ping¡¯s body. Could they have reached some sort of tacit understanding with Yang Ping¡¯s immune system? This phenomenon born out of the experiment not only piqued the interest of Yang Ping himself but also that of Professor Zhang Zhiwei. To examine if this surprise finding was reproducible, he experimented with monkeys, but without exception, none of the viruses elicited any reaction inside the monkeys ¨C they all perished, even those that hadn¡¯t had their replication genes knocked out. It appears that Yang Ping proceeding to clinical trials directly was correct because the monkey¡¯s immune system is entirely different from the human immune system. Especially through the evolutionary process, the viruses humans encounter are utterly distinct from those the monkeys encounter in the jungle, resulting in completely different responses to some new viruses. The virus inside Yang Ping¡¯s body was likely caused by a mutation of extremely low probability. If it¡¯s a mutation, then replicating this low-probability event is impossible. Professor Zhang Zhiwei also developed a strong interest in the virus inside Yang Ping, as many significant scientific research breakthroughs historically occurred from accidents, such as the serendipitous discovery of penicillin. Since the virus inside him wasn¡¯t contagious and temporarily didn¡¯t cause any negative effects on himself, Yang Ping wasn¡¯t too worried and decided to research how to eliminate it when he had more time later on. He hadn¡¯t gone back these past few days and called Xiao Su to reassure her. Yang Ping now was curious about what would happen if the virus inside him were injected into another human. From conjecture, it seemed it would no longer provoke a fierce immune response and could coexist with the human immune system. But there are risks involved; the viruses would remain inside the body, and the negative impacts that might arise from this are currently unknown. ¡°How about I give it a try?¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei was eager to test it because theoretically and clinically, the virus could cause a high fever but wouldn¡¯t be life-threatening. The two volunteers who participated in the experiment were safe and sound, and Yang Ping even looked pretty spirited now. ¡°Trying it out is also fine.¡± Having experienced it firsthand, Yang Ping was now very confident about the virus¡¯s nature; it wouldn¡¯t cause any serious trouble. The famous old traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, Mr. Li Ke, was extraordinarily adept at using the toxic Chinese herb, aconite, to treat complex and severe cases. Most doctors wouldn¡¯t dare use it casually or in large quantities, but Mr. Li did, and he successfully treated many difficult diseases with aconite. Why did he dare? Because he had tested the poison on himself, personally taking aconite to see what reactions it could cause based on how much was ingested. In doing so, he had thoroughly grasped the characteristics of aconite, making it a tool easy for him to use. Under the premise of ensuring certain safety measures, Yang Ping agreed to let Professor Zhang Zhiwei try it too. PS: Indeed, the previous chapter was a bit chaotic, and this one isn¡¯t great either; things will gradually improve later on, thank you! It¡¯s not ending soon, there are still a few major events left to unfold. Chapter 1405 - 1405 1058 Bearing the Blame ?Chapter 1405: Chapter 1058: Bearing the Blame Chapter 1405: Chapter 1058: Bearing the Blame The virus used in Professor Zhang Zhiwei¡¯s experiment was extracted from Yang Ping¡¯s body. After being injected into Professor Zhang Zhiwei, it did not cause a high fever but maintained a continuous low-grade fever of around 38.2 degrees Celsius. The fever subsided in less than three days, and the body temperature returned to normal. This reaction, at most, is akin to a minor cold. It seems that this new K virus is a compromise product after an encounter with Yang Ping¡¯s immune system and has already developed good adaptability. However, it is strange that these viruses showed very weak performance inside Professor Zhang¡¯s body, completely lacking the ability to replicate on a significant scale, and were basically cleared out by the immune system in three to four days. Genetic sequencing carried out on the viruses found in the blood drawn from Professor Zhang Zhiwei showed no structural differences from the viruses extracted from Yang Ping, but why is there such a big difference in behavior? It is not unheard of for a virus to elicit one kind of reaction in most people but a different response in certain individuals, although the probability is extremely low. For example, the HIV virus is incurable and cannot be eradicated in the vast majority of people, yet there have been individual cases where some could self-heal, but such instances are so rare that among the many HIV patients in the world, only a very few such extraordinary cases have emerged. The virus inside Yang Ping¡¯s body has always maintained a low-level presence, persisting and never being completely cleared, and so far, there have been no adverse reactions. In the long run, however, it is impossible to predict if there will be any negative impacts, because there is no historical data for reference. Professor Zhang decided to keep the virus from Yang Ping as a research subject for continuous study, which might help open up a new field of research. After several experiments, Yang Ping and Professor Zhang quickly mastered the characteristics of the virus. The fourth iteration of the virus did not pose much harm to the human body, its danger level even lower than the common cold virus, and it did not have contagious properties, making it in general, safe for therapeutic use. To acquire more data, several researchers from the laboratory with children volunteered for the experiment. In every instance, the castrated viruses showed no replicative ability inside their bodies, and the immune system could clear the uncastrated viruses as well. The viruses extracted from Yang Ping did not have the ability to persist in other people¡ªthey either could not replicate or were easily cleared by the immune system. Besides continuing experiments, the next step was to completely clear the virus from Yang Ping¡¯s body. Even though there were no clinical symptoms at the moment, the potential harm to the body in the future was unknown. Many viruses gradually cause harm to the human body. For instance, the hepatitis B virus does not produce obvious symptoms when it first infects the body, but it slowly damages the liver. As the liver damage worsens, symptoms start to appear step by step. ¡ª At Nandu Medical University Virus Laboratory, researchers from Sanbo Hospital and Nandu Medical University involved in the experiment gathered to discuss the next Experimental Plan. The next step must be conducted on an Osteosarcoma patient. It is meaningless to continue testing on healthy individuals, but given Sisi¡¯s current condition, she is no longer eligible to participate in the experiment, so another Patient must be found. Seeking another Patient introduces an ethical dilemma, posing a significant challenge for everyone. They gathered to discuss strategies to continue the experiments while avoiding ethical problems. The structural diagram of the virus extracted from Yang Ping was displayed on the electronic screen. This virus had clearly mutated from the previous K virus, with changes in its genetic sequence. The marvels of life are truly amazing. A simple protein-structured virus could change on its own. What drives it, and why does it possess such survival intelligence? As a virology expert, Professor Zhang Zhiwei couldn¡¯t find the answer. It seemed, human biological knowledge is still quite naive in the face of life¡¯s true mysteries. Now, the entire laboratory¡¯s manpower and time are devoted to the research of the K virus, with all other subjects put on hold to make way for this research. Through extensive research and multiple experiments, a consensus has been reached: The virus mutated within Yang Ping¡¯s body can coexist harmoniously with the human immune system. This virus is extremely fragile outside the body and just as fragile within other human bodies, only capable of surviving at a low concentration within Yang Ping. This characteristic is in line with its ability to kill Tumor Cells. Should an error occur, it might also kill normal cells; therefore, its high level of fragility makes it very safe. If the virus were highly viable and killed normal cells due to some mistake, the consequences would be unimaginable. Therefore, after battling with the human immune system, the virus must change itself in order to survive, making it as minimally harmful to the human body as possible, and becoming increasingly fragile. ¡°We should proceed with our next research step by finding a Tumor patient to experiment on, injecting the virus from Professor Yang¡¯s body into the patient, and observing the reaction. Is it still this mild? Can it kill Tumor Cells?¡± Lu Xiaolu suggested. ¡°I agree with Professor Lu¡¯s proposal. We must strike while the iron is hot.¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei agreed. The current experimental topic had been advanced to this stage by Yang Ping, and it was just one step away from success. If they were to be hindered by constraints and follow standard procedures, the breakthrough may never occur. These scholars are almost obsessed with making advancements in their research. Some may never achieve a breakthrough in their lifetime. Alongside diligence and effort, a stroke of luck is also involved, and Yang Ping had taken the risk with his own body to seize that sliver of chance. Chapter 1406 - 1406 1058 Taking the Blame_2 ?Chapter 1406: Chapter 1058: Taking the Blame_2 Chapter 1406: Chapter 1058: Taking the Blame_2 ¡°Now that the safety of the K virus has been proven, I can openly recruit experimental volunteers. I think many osteosarcoma patients and their families would be willing to give it a try. Everyone is willing to try those unreliable and completely deceptive treatments for tumors, so why can¡¯t our completely legitimate laboratory method directly recruit volunteers?¡± someone said. ¡°In psychology, that¡¯s true. Patients in desperate situations all long to cling to a lifeline, even if they know it¡¯s unreliable. They are willing to believe because of the human instinct to survive, which is why so-called medical quacks are everywhere. But from a scientific and ethical standpoint, this is definitely not acceptable. Skipping the proper procedures and directly recruiting volunteers for clinical trials is a huge taboo. Our laboratory must establish a gold-standard reputation in the world and cannot commit such a low-level mistake. We are not swindlers; we are researchers in a world-class laboratory,¡± Tang Shun reminded everyone. ¡°If healthy volunteers are still needed, we could all sign up right now. But what we need are tumor patients, specifically osteosarcoma patients, which are not easy to find. Improper recruitment can easily lead to ethical disputes. If the treatment turns out to be effective, then there¡¯s no issue. But if it¡¯s ineffective and accidents, such as deaths, occur, it¡¯s very likely to lead to disputes. If someone exploited these disputes, our laboratory might have to close down.¡± ¡°Actually, this is nothing. Oncolytic virus therapy also uses viruses to treat tumors. Didn¡¯t the founder of this method perform experiments on himself without any procedure?¡± ¡°That¡¯s different. Experimenting on oneself is a personal act, but experimenting on others is a social act. Masturbating by yourself is one thing, but involving others is a crime.¡± ¡°What if they agree?¡± ¡°Even if they agree and they are under 14 years old, it¡¯s not okay. Regardless of consent, it¡¯s rape.¡± Everyone is talking excitedly, one after another. ¡°How did a proper experiment turn into rape? We are curing the sick and saving lives, how can that compare to rape? Even when making analogies, there¡¯s a need for appropriateness. What nonsense,¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei immediately criticized the two doctors under him who had just used the analogy of rape. However, the analogy is quite fitting. Currently, recruiting tumor patients for clinical trials, regardless of their consent, is not in compliance with the rules. ¡°So, what should we do?¡± ¡°What should we do? Everyone, think of a solution.¡± Everyone is very anxious. The experiment has reached its most critical moment, and it feels like success is just around the corner. These are all risks that Professor Yang has taken. ¡°I have a good idea!¡± Zhang Lin coughed and said after pondering. Everyone¡¯s attention is focused on him, wondering what good plan this man has, especially those from Nandu Medical University who are not familiar with Zhang Lin. Seeing his mysterious appearance, they think he might have some exceptional solution. ¡°One of us should find a few reliable volunteers in our name. It would be best to use the old patients in our hospital because we know their background well. For the patients we recruit as volunteers, each person could be offered millions, free treatment, and money to take home. Anyway, late-stage patients can¡¯t be cured, so who wouldn¡¯t want to do it? If we run into someone petty causing disputes, the person we selected must take responsibility. Frankly, they¡¯d be the scapegoat; but if the experiment is successful, that person must be guaranteed a top three authorship in the main publication.¡± ¡°For the advancement of human science, I am willing to be that selected person. I, Zhang Lin, will take on everything if there are any issues and will not implicate everyone else. If there are no problems, my only request is a top three authorship in the publication.¡± Zhang Lin said slowly, fiddling with his thermos cup. Damn, who wouldn¡¯t want to take on this responsibility? Struggling in research for a lifetime might not land you a top three authorship in such high-level scientific research papers. ¡°I will, I will, I will,¡± a bunch of young masters and doctors raised their hands high, afraid that others would snatch away this great opportunity. This plan seemed tailor-made for them; for these youngsters, what is reputation? None have any to speak of. ¡°What are you thinking, as if it¡¯s your turn to take on this task? Can you handle it if something really happens? Always thinking of taking shortcuts. If we are to pick someone, it would be from among the directors. Only at the director level do you have the credentials to take the blame. Not everyone is qualified to shoulder this responsibility.¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei slowly raised his hand with a heroic look, ¡°You young people have unlimited potential. It¡¯s not appropriate for you to take the blame. Let me do it. I am the most suitable. If something goes wrong, I¡¯ll admit it¡¯s my fault and take all the responsibility.¡± Of course, if the laboratory is successful, you¡¯d have to reserve a top three spot for me, Zhang Zhiwei left unsaid. There¡¯s no dispute about Professor Yang taking the first spot, but there were two more slots in the top three. Several people were qualified, including Tang Shun, the head of Nandu Medical University¡¯s Surgical Research Institute, Lu Xiaolu, the head of the Oncology Research Laboratory, and both Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang who were his right-hand men and involved in the entire experiment. To be honest, if we were to evaluate individual contributions, Zhang Zhiwei wouldn¡¯t make the top three; making the top five would already be considered quite good. Doesn¡¯t everyone have their own agenda? Throughout history, some renowned scientists in textbooks have fought over academic results so fiercely that it¡¯s astonishing. Considering I¡¯m staking my reputation on this gamble, it¡¯s already incredibly commendable. Lu Xiaolu is a straightforward person: ¡°This is not just any hot potato; it might even mean backing a Nobel Prize candidate. We¡¯re not necessarily after any award, I¡¯m just talking about the significance of this project. This project could arguably yield several Nobel Prizes.¡± Implicit is that everyone would be willing to take on this hot potato, as the proposal is ludicrous. Tang Shun couldn¡¯t stand it anymore, this discussion was getting out of hand: ¡°These matters are beyond our technical expertise. How can we discuss them clearly? Let¡¯s stick to the technical details. Let¡¯s leave these issues to Dean Xia to handle. That old fox¡ªoh, I mean, with Dean Xia¡¯s rich experience in administrative circles, it¡¯s better for him to take the lead in such matters.¡± ¡°Tang Shun is right. Let¡¯s focus on the technical details instead of wasting time on this,¡± agreed Yang Ping. ¡ª In Dean Xia¡¯s office. After Yang Ping laid out his thoughts, Dean Xia considered them and said, ¡°So what you mean is you want me to take the heat for your project, is that it?¡± ¡°You can see it that way,¡± Yang Ping nodded. Dean Xia¡¯s eyes shifted, ¡°I can take the heat, but I have a condition.¡± Who would have thought Dean Xia also had a bit of a craving for fame and fortune? Understandable, human nature after all. Dean Xia took a sip of tea: ¡°I¡¯ll take the heat for you, but it won¡¯t come cheap. I have a condition: the tea you recently received as a gift in your cupboard, send half of it to me, and we have a deal.¡± Damn, that¡¯s harsh! ¡°What? Don¡¯t agree? Then there¡¯s nothing to discuss. I¡¯ve been Dean for many years, my good reputation is known far and wide. If the experiment fails and faces ethical controversy, I¡¯d have to step in with my reputation on the line. How could I not ask for a high price?¡± ¡°But your condition is indeed a bit steep, half is a lot. Couldn¡¯t it be less?¡± ¡°Less? The door is right there, please turn to your right.¡± Dean Xia immediately stood up to show Yang Ping out. ¡°Alright,¡± Yang Ping relented. ¡°That¡¯s more like it. Rest assured, as long as the tea is delivered, I will arrange everything clearly, no matter the outcome of the experiment, I guarantee it won¡¯t affect any of the research team members.¡± Ah, Old Xia, I never thought you couldn¡¯t escape corruption. ¡°Is one enough, or should we find a few more? Now that you¡¯ve even tested that K virus yourself and the safety is so high, it¡¯s no problem for me to arrange a few more, same price.¡± ¡°It would definitely be better to get a few more.¡± ¡°In the future, don¡¯t just lock yourself up trying to figure things out. What could you scholars come up with? Matters like this are no longer just technical issues. From now on, for anything beyond technology, come to me, I guarantee everything will be arranged crystal clear.¡± With the matter settled, Yang Ping took his leave, but just as he reached the door, he heard Dean Xia¡¯s voice again. ¡°Hey, Professor, I must remind you, doing experiments on yourself, you absolutely, absolutely must not do that! Do you know how terrified we were when we found out about it, we¡¯ve been chilled to the core and still haven¡¯t recovered. This isn¡¯t just about you, your body now belongs to the nation, understand? If anything goes wrong, that¡¯s a hot potato I cannot take on. Everything else is negotiable, but please!¡± Chapter 1407 - 1407 1059 Things Arent as Simple as Imagined ?Chapter 1407: Chapter 1059: Things Aren¡¯t as Simple as Imagined Chapter 1407: Chapter 1059: Things Aren¡¯t as Simple as Imagined Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Orthopedics and Oncology departments, specializing in tumor cases, do have a certain number of osteosarcoma patients, although the number is not very large. Some are undergoing conservative treatment, but most undergo surgery in Orthopedics. These patients need to be carefully selected to meet certain criteria, and both the patients and their families must agree before they can participate in the experiment. The patients can neither be too old nor too young, ideally aged between 6 to 25 years, must be in the late stage and have metastasized, but their overall physical condition cannot be too poor; they must be able to withstand the experimentation. After careful selection by the departments of Orthopedics and Oncology, it was found that there were no patients suitable for the experiment, either due to not meeting the conditions or the patients and their families not consenting. After all, it is an experiment, and it involves a new type of virus therapy, which makes many families hesitant. To ensure that those participating in the experiment are not attracted by financial incentives, they are not informed beforehand about the significant compensation available, to prevent some families, especially those of minors, from signing up for the experiment purely for monetary reasons. During communication with them, the compensation mentioned is very minimal, which is the norm for some clinical trials in China. In actuality, Yang Ping has prepared a compensation standard of one million RMB for each volunteer, and in case of other unforeseen circumstances, the compensation will be doubled. However, this actual compensation standard cannot be disclosed to families at the moment, which is also why it lacks sufficient allure. To assemble the required number of patients for the experiment, Dean Xia contacted Nandu Medical University Cancer Hospital, a specialized cancer hospital with a dedicated bone and soft tissue tumor ward. Hence, the patient volume is quite large, and its bone and soft tissue tumor ward is the second-largest osteotumor medical center in China and ranks high in Asia. Since this experiment is ethically questionable, Dean Xia kept a low profile and did not alert President Su but chose to directly discuss with the counterpart¡¯s dean, requesting confidentiality from both sides. Nandu Medical University Cancer Hospital, upon hearing it was Yang Ping¡¯s experiment, cooperated very actively. Due to their abundant patient source, they promptly selected ten eligible cases to send over. Upon reviewing the data of these patients, Yang Ping noted they were mostly minors in their teens. The incidence of osteosarcoma is very low, with around 4-5 cases per million people each year, most commonly occurring between ages 10 and 20, hence it was not surprising that these cases were minors. After reviewing the information, Yang Ping felt a tremendous responsibility. Although the experiment poses many uncontrollable risks, within his control, Yang Ping tries to ensure that there are no mishaps. Before admission, Yang Ping personally spoke with each of their families. Most families of these volunteer participants had already exhausted their finances running everywhere possible and had no other options. They were very receptive when they heard about the opportunity to participate in an experiment for free treatment, irrespective of the outcome; it provided them with a new option. The families of these patients came from various professions and social classes, including lawyers, private business owners, peasants, company employees, etc., but they all shared one thing in common: significant financial pressure. One private business owner was overwhelmed as he had tried many methods, having traveled everywhere including the United States and Europe, already spending nearly a billion. In his efforts to treat his child, he also lost a lot of time managing his company, resulting in consecutive years of losses, heavily indebting him now. One child¡¯s family member, a lawyer, originally had a decent economic income, considered middle class. Over the years, though burdened, he underwent several surgeries and tried various treatments. Now out of options, when he heard about the need for experiment volunteers who could receive free treatment, he signed up without hesitation, fortunate that his child met the experimental criteria. ¡°Mr. Wang, please review these informed consent forms. If you have no objections, you can sign them, and then you can bring your child for admission and examination while waiting for the experiment.¡± Among these families, Mr. Wang, a lawyer, was the most understanding throughout the process, grateful for the opportunity Yang Ping provided for his child. ¡°No need to read them, we are fully aware and agree. I¡¯ll sign,¡± said Mr. Wang, looking exhausted. ¡°You should still read through them, make sure you understand everything before you sign,¡± responded Yang Pin, noticing his reluctance. Encouraged by Yang Ping¡¯s words, Mr. Wang started to go through the informed consent forms one by one. As a lawyer, he did not scrutinize more than anyone else but instead skimmed through the contents. When he saw as a volunteer, there was a compensation of a full million in research funding, he thought he misread it. No, it indeed was a million. Of course, everyone participating in the experiment was not there for the money, but genuinely fighting for a glimmer of hope for their children. ¡°Professor Yang, is the research compensation really over a million? If there¡¯s any mishap, it will be doubled? Isn¡¯t this a bit too much? Honestly, you don¡¯t have to do this, you are conducting research to treat and save people, and we should cooperate without feeling obligated to take so much money. To be honest, we¡¯re not here for the cash, but to give our children a chance,¡± Mr. Wang spoke sincerely. Yang Ping reassured him, ¡°The experiment has certain risks, and your awareness greatly helps our work. We should rightfully offer adequate compensation.¡± ¡°Alright,¡± Mr. Wang signed his name without hesitation. The rest of the families, after discussions, encountered no major obstacles and signed as well. Only one family member requested to consider more carefully, expressing, ¡°My child is already this far along, I need to think whether it¡¯s still worth putting them through this.¡± This parent, Mr. Zhao, a small subcontractor, also had struggled financially for many years. Chapter 1408 - 1408 1059 Things Arent as Simple as ?Chapter 1408: Chapter 1059: Things Aren¡¯t as Simple as Imagined_2 Chapter 1408: Chapter 1059: Things Aren¡¯t as Simple as Imagined_2 ¡°To say the experiment is torture may not sound nice, but Yang Ping doesn¡¯t really care. These parents have all been through long-term mental suffering and are truly afraid of further trouble; they fear their children will suffer again. But this one parent, after much hesitation and five lengthy conversations with Yang Ping, finally signed the consent. He also took the most time and required the most meetings. The participants for the experiment gradually moved into the independent wards set up at the Surgical Research Institute¡ªa temporarily established research ward to start various check-ups and further prepare for the experiment. These family members, bound by a common fate, have also formed a group, supporting and encouraging each other, and exchanging information in a timely manner. They would occasionally gather to chat as well, and their most common topic of conversation was this experimental treatment. ¡ª In a private room of a tea restaurant next to the hospital, these family members gathered for a meeting called by Lawyer Wang. Lawyer Wang is quite active and well-connected, which makes him quite respected among the parents. ¡°I¡¯ve found out clearly, the Sanbo Hospital Research Fund is sitting on tens of billions, and they only give me a meager one million. Are they treating us like beggars? We are using our children¡¯s lives for the experiment; these people are really too ruthless.¡± Lawyer Wang pushed up his glasses. He worked in the legal department of a major company, so his connections were fairly good and he could dig up some real information. Actually, while Lawyer Wang was signing up for the experiment, he was observing and on the surface seemed very cooperative, but behind the scenes, he used all his relationships to investigate the details of the experiment. ¡°They have so much money? And they only give us one million? Really treating our kids like lab monkeys,¡± a bald-headed family member exclaimed indignantly. Already depressed about his child¡¯s condition in recent years, the stark contrast between tens of billions and one million as mentioned by Lawyer Wang made him feel extremely unfairly treated and convinced that the hospital was scamming them. Another chubby civil servant family member said, ¡°According to my friend in the health industry, such experiments should first conduct animal experiments, then proceed to phased clinical trials. My friend checked and they did not register this experiment, which means it¡¯s highly likely they skipped animal experiments and directly went to clinical trials. This means their experiment does not comply with ethical procedures, definitely has something fishy going on¡ªwhy else would they pay so much money? Maybe they got a lot of funds elsewhere and only gave us a little.¡± ¡°That¡¯s outrageous! Isn¡¯t this bullying? No wonder everything¡¯s so secretive, offering free experiments and some compensation. I thought to myself, there¡¯s no such good deals in the world; turns out this is the deal, treating our kids like monkeys,¡± a family member with a face full of freckles was on the verge of slamming the table. Among these people, Lawyer Wang clearly had the highest educational level; he held a Doctor of Law degree. He contemplated for a moment in his heart: ¡°Fellow parents, the reason I called everyone here today is to say that we must be united. We can participate in the experiment, but the money cannot be this little. They sit on tens of billions, why give us so little? Why? We shouldn¡¯t be asking for much, at least ten or twenty million per person isn¡¯t too much, right? One million? That¡¯s like giving alms.¡± ¡°Yeah, right, absolutely!¡± Everyone agreed immediately. A silent parent, construction contractor Boss Zhao, finally spoke: ¡°Let me say a few words. In fact, I feel this way about it: all these kids are in the late stages of osteosarcoma, and everyone here is financially and emotionally drained from treating the disease. Now there¡¯s this experimental treatment available, might work, might not, but in the end, it¡¯s a hope, right? And it¡¯s free. I think whether we get paid or not, it¡¯s a good thing. We¡¯re here to get treatment, not to sell our children, so let¡¯s not fuss over money. So, I think the tens of billions in research funds is someone else¡¯s business, not ours; to get such compensation is already pretty good, many experiments only offer a few thousand, maybe more like tens of thousands, but Professor Yang is already offering a million, honestly, that¡¯s already a lot, and I feel a bit embarrassed in my heart.¡± ¡°What do you mean by that, making it sound like we are selling our kids? President Wang is fighting to maximize benefits for everyone. You also said, everyone is drained of their wealth and energy, and you don¡¯t want to ask for more compensation? It¡¯s not your money, why feel sorry for them? Right now, they urgently need patients for clinical trials; this is our opportunity, asking for the money is sensible, reasonable, and legal,¡± one of the parents was unsatisfied with the other parent¡¯s remarks. ¡°I mean¡ª¡± Boss Zhao wanted to say more. ¡°You mean not to fight for the money, right?¡± the bald parent interrupted Boss Zhao¡¯s words. ¡°Everyone, don¡¯t rush, let Old Zhao finish speaking.¡± Lawyer Wang tapped the coffee table, speaking gently and politely. ¡°Fine, go ahead.¡± The bald-headed parent felt annoyed and scoffed at the pretense of integrity. ¡°I¡¯m well aware of this hospital. Professor Yang, who is in charge of this project, has an outstanding academic record and is very famous internationally. It¡¯s a stroke of luck to be able to participate in this clinical trial. We shouldn¡¯t make a fuss and complicate things unnecessarily. With so many patients around the world, why did they choose us? It¡¯s only because of a fortuitous coincidence. Proximity brings opportunity, and receiving a compensation of one million is quite good. Many such experiments just offer a few thousand, or at most tens of thousands. I¡¯ve never heard of one giving a million. When doing things, we must have a conscience. If it¡¯s something unethical, the money won¡¯t feel good in our hands, right?¡± ¡°What do you mean by making a fuss? We¡¯re fighting for our interests. If their experiment had no hidden issues, would they be giving us money? For what reason? Isn¡¯t it because they feel guilty? Since they¡¯re paying, why not pay more? They¡¯re sitting on tens of billions on the books and only offering us this pittance?¡± The bald-headed parent retorted angrily. ¡°In fact, Old Zhao, you do have a point, and I understand your perspective, but think about it ¡ª if their experiment is free of problems, why would they give you money? What¡¯s the rationale behind that?¡± Lawyer Wang latched onto this point as well. The overweight parent immediately added: ¡°Exactly, we are indeed fighting for opportunities for our children. But since there¡¯s money to be taken, why shouldn¡¯t we take it? If we have money, even if this experiment is ineffective, we can still look for other options without as much financial pressure. As previously mentioned, if there were no issues with the experiment, why would they offer money? It doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to be part of this, whoever wants to can join in. I can¡¯t do this sort of thing.¡± Old Zhao got up, ready to leave. The bald-headed parent was not having it: ¡°You can be a coward if you want, but don¡¯t drag us down. We¡¯re in the front, taking the lead for you, and if you hinder us from behind, it¡¯ll chill everyone¡¯s heart.¡± After exchanging glances with everyone, Lawyer Wang said: ¡°Yes, Old Zhao, we understand you, but please also understand our difficulties.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t participate, but I won¡¯t betray you all either. Be assured.¡± Old Zhao shook his head and stood up to leave. The remaining parents had their hesitations, but most were eager to try, having heard that their Research Fund had tens of billions. They truly felt shortchanged and were not content, wondering why they were only given so little. If only those in charge were more generous and let even just a few tens of millions slip through their fingers, each person could at least get ten million. There¡¯s a tenfold difference between ten million and one million. ¡°President Wang, you guide us then. Let¡¯s all stick together.¡± ¡°My thinking is this: let¡¯s not make a fuss just yet, but participate in the experiment as they request. Afterward, we can seek media assistance for advocacy. If we start to advocate now, they might cancel our eligibility to participate, and we could end up with nothing. Only after participating in the trial and then advocating for ourselves can we be seen as actual victims. Don¡¯t you agree?¡± President Wang was capable of analyzing the situation clearly. ¡°This Yang Ping seems to have a high status in the academic community, soon to become an Academician. Won¡¯t this stir up trouble?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t understand, the higher a person¡¯s status, the more they value their reputation. Especially at a critical juncture like being evaluated for an Academician, they¡¯d certainly fear us causing a fuss. In the end, they¡¯d definitely pay to quell the issue. A few tens of millions are nothing with his tens of billions in research funds; paying more is not a problem. After increasing the compensation to twenty million per person, it only adds up to a little over a billion. As long as we stay united and firm, we will definitely get the money. We must not back down at the last minute.¡± ¡°President Wang, I feel a bit unscrupulous about this. They¡¯re providing treatment for free and offering so much compensation. Are we...?¡± ¡°Think about it carefully ¡ª if there were no issues, would they be giving you money? Since there are problems, isn¡¯t it normal for us to fight for a bit more benefit?¡± Chapter 1409 - 1409 1060 ?Chapter 1409: Chapter 1060 Chapter 1409: Chapter 1060 Not yet fully corrected: please wait! The results of various tests for the ten children have come out, as all of them are in the late stages of the tumor and have metastasized, so it¡¯s impossible for all indicators to be normal. Thus, there are numerous abnormal indicators, but they still meet the requirements of the experiment. When Lawyer Wang saw so many red and blue marks on his child¡¯s test results, he felt a bit uneasy, afraid that his child would not be able to participate in this experiment and miss out on such an opportunity for social mobility. In a panic, he found Yang Ping: ¡°Professor Yang, do you think my child qualifies?¡± Yang Ping pulled up the test results on the computer and said, ¡°We are not sure yet because we need to evaluate everything comprehensively before deciding.¡± Because it¡¯s not the final stage yet, Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t easily tell them whether they qualified, in case the conditions for the experiment change at the last moment, making it difficult to explain. This made Lawyer Wang anxious, and he earnestly said, ¡°Professor Yang, we are not afraid. It¡¯s rare to have the opportunity to contribute to scientific research and to fight for our child¡¯s chance, even with higher risks. We are willing to take this risk.¡± ¡°I can understand your feelings, but we cannot be completely sure yet. We will inform you when we are,¡± Yang Ping consoled him. Lawyer Wang said, ¡°Regardless of the circumstances, we are willing to participate in the experiment. Please give my child a chance; we are ready to take the risks and sign whatever is needed, rest assured.¡± Although Lawyer Wang spoke nicely, Yang Ping did not agree on the spot because he had developed a habit of maintaining sufficient rationality and not being swayed by pleasing words alone. As a doctor, letting emotions dictate decisions could easily lead to misunderstandings and entrapment. Seeing that Yang Ping hadn¡¯t agreed yet, Lawyer Wang murmured in his heart, worried that the experiment might not happen at all. He was about to kneel in front of Yang Ping when Yang Ping quickly helped him up. Wiping away a tear, Lawyer Wang exclaimed: ¡°Professor Yang, you don¡¯t know how hard it is for us parents.¡± ¡ª Zhao Guohong, a small-time contractor, also had a tough time in these years. The engineering industry sometimes faces so hopeless payment delays. Despite ostensibly earning millions, Zhao Guohong hardly saw the money come in. Now, as shareholders together with Lawyer Wang, they sought to collect the money. If successful, not only could they clear all debts, but also keep a considerable surplus, achieving complete turnaround. However, Zhao Guohong felt that pursuing more compensation would be unconscionable. He couldn¡¯t reconcile with exploiting opportunities for money, already considering himself undeserving of the unexpected bonus. Money that belongs to others should stay with them, and the ample funds for scientific research should not lead to dissatisfaction or suspicion of ulterior motives. If everyone thought like that, who would dare to perform good deeds? In experiments like these, even unpaid participation or nominal compensation would be typical. Professor Yang offering a million in compensation was already exceptionally conscientious. Lawyer Wang suspecting foul play¡ªwhat secrets could there be? Isn¡¯t it just about giving the children an alternative for treatment? Are normal treatments without risks? Radiotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery¡ªeach carries risks. So, Zhao Guohong firmly decided not to collude with them and contemplated whether to warn Professor Yang to avoid their trap. Human nature is indeed hard to discern. Yang Ping just happened to come by for a ward round, showing great care and concern for the child. ¡°Professor Yang, I heard that you are using your own body for experiments? Is it true?¡± Zhao Guohong asked, having heard such rumors since his admission¡ªthat Professor Yang was advancing the experiments using his own body, and that the therapeutic virus used on the children had passed through him. Yang Ping smiled and said, ¡°There¡¯s no choice, we need to push the experiment forward. Under normal processes, it would take at least five years to achieve results, and that¡¯s assuming everything goes smoothly.¡± Zhao Guohong felt deeply moved and even more resolved not to trouble Professor Yang. There¡¯s a saying¡ªthose who gather firewood to shield others should not be left to freeze in the wind and snow. Despite needing money, exploiting Professor Yang¡¯s funds is out of the question. Holding that million made him feel guilty already. ¡°I heard you had a high fever for a few days, and your heart rhythm almost destabilized.¡± ¡°The virus was indeed powerful at that time, but now it has become much milder. It¡¯s hardly more harmful than the common cold virus, otherwise, I wouldn¡¯t dare to have you participate in clinical experiments. If you have any questions, you can ask me anytime. I will tell you everything without holding back anything. The final decision is in your hands. Even if you have signed the informed consent for the experiment, you can withdraw at any time,¡± Yang Ping told him honestly. Blushing, Zhao Guohong replied, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean anything else; I just wanted to understand a bit more. Don¡¯t take it the wrong way.¡± ¡°Rest assured, I won¡¯t. Feel free to ask,¡± Yang Ping encouraged him to ask boldly. Zhao Guohong thought for a moment and asked, ¡°I heard that conducting this experiment this way violates ethical principles, and it¡¯s not registered with the relevant authorities. Is it illegal?¡± ¡°That¡¯s correct, it conflicts with current management procedures, but it isn¡¯t illegal. If it had to be defined, it would be considered a breach of ethical standards because we skipped animal experiments and went directly to clinical trials. This carries uncontrollable risks. However, the experiment has been conducted three times on a patient and once on me. Some members of my research team have also experimented on their bodies. So, I personally believe that ethically, there is absolutely no problem.¡± Chapter 1410 - 1410 1060_2 ?Chapter 1410: Chapter 1060_2 Chapter 1410: Chapter 1060_2 ¡°Was it a little girl, an eleven-year-old girl, for the first three times? Is she now lying in the ICU right across from this ward?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, she suffered a cardiac arrest due to the high fever from the third experiment, and we managed to rescue her. However, after the rescue, her heart is very weak, not solely because of the high fever. Her metastatic tumor has already spread to her cranium, located at the brainstem, which has begun to affect her heart rhythm. Therefore, I had no choice but to place her in the ICU. If she could still participate in the experiment, we wouldn¡¯t be recruiting volunteer subjects from outside.¡± Professor Yang himself has become the subject of the experiment, so should he really suspect others of impure motives or hidden agendas? After pondering for a moment, Zhao Guohong finds the logic similar to ¡°If you didn¡¯t hit her, why did you help her up?¡± It¡¯s like because Professor Yang provided such substantial experiment compensation, it must mean there¡¯s something shady; otherwise, why would so much money be offered? ¡°I¡¯d like to ask another question, which may not be appropriate to ask, but please don¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°Go ahead and ask it.¡± ¡°Why is the compensation for this experiment so high? It¡¯s one million; as far as I know, other experiments usually only offer a few thousand or tens of thousand in compensation.¡± Yang Ping said with a smile, ¡°My research funding is quite adequate, and considering that most of you are financially struggling, having almost sold everything you own to treat this disease, I have decided to offer more compensation.¡± ¡°I understand, Professor Yang. If it¡¯s convenient for you, could we set a time and place to talk privately?¡± Zhao Guohong decided to come clean with Professor Yang about the parents secretly coordinating against him. Yang Ping found his request rather strange: ¡°It¡¯s okay, you can talk here.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not convenient here. How about this, Professor Yang, if you find a suitable time, I can come to your office.¡± He pulled Yang Ping aside and whispered in his ear: ¡°You must find some time. I have something to tell you, but it must not be known by the other parents that I have sought you out.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t know what Zhao Guohong was up to, but he still decided to give him a time to talk. How about this, come to my office at 7 a.m. tomorrow. ¡°Okay!¡± ¡ª The next morning at 7 a.m., Yang Ping was already in the director¡¯s office. Zhao Guohong, making sure no other parents saw him, sneaked into Yang Ping¡¯s office and immediately locked the door behind him. Seeing his sneaky appearance, Yang Ping was quite surprised, ¡°Just speak, it¡¯s safe here, this is a hospital.¡± ¡°Professor Yang, ah, human hearts can be treacherous. You¡¯re completely in the dark right now. The other parents have heard that there are several billion sitting in your research fund account, and think that your million compensation for the trial is too little. They¡¯ve already secretly banded together to seek more compensation from you after the experiment through the media. Hearing about so much money, they feel like you¡¯re treating them like beggars with that million; they want at least ten million. Why should they settle for a million when there are billions at stake? I didn¡¯t want to get involved in this mess initially, but when I heard you were using your own body for the experiment, I couldn¡¯t hold my peace. Everything I¡¯ve said is true; I have a recording of it.¡± Afraid Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t believe him, Zhao Guohong took out his phone to find the recording; he had been cautious and secretly recorded everyone¡¯s conversation. How could that be? Yang Ping was very surprised, skeptical yet partly believing. Initially, there was no need to give so much money; even Dean Xia disagreed, saying that doubling the customary amount was already quite generous, and there was no need to give so much money. Sometimes kindness can lead to trouble. At the time, Yang Ping didn¡¯t quite believe it; how could offering more money cause issues? Others would be too grateful for it. Just as he was thinking, Zhao Guohong placed his cellphone on the desk and played his recording. The more Yang Ping listened, the tighter his brows furrowed. What was going on? To think he was being misunderstood for offering more money out of guilt, guilt over some hidden wrongdoing. In reality, he didn¡¯t need to give that much money at all; it could be justified to give not a penny since many such clinical trials did not pay participants anything at all¡ªmerely offering free treatment. ¡°Can you send me this recording?¡± Yang Ping asked after listening. Zhao Guohong nodded, ¡°I¡¯ll add you on WeChat and send you a copy. Please keep it a secret for me. I¡¯m cutting off their financial avenue and ruining their plans; they¡¯ll definitely come after me. Especially that lawyer surnamed Wang, he¡¯s full of malice, appearing all polite and ethical on the surface but his mind is brimming with scheming¡ªit was all his idea.¡± Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Thank you for the warning, I will handle this matter properly. Rest assured, I¡¯ll keep our conversation confidential and won¡¯t disclose it.¡± ¡ª Dean Xia¡¯s office. Yang Ping placed his cell phone on the desktop, and after Dean Xia finished listening, he was so furious that he slapped his palm down forcefully, causing Yang Ping¡¯s cell phone to leap up, and because it was placed at the edge of the desk, the phone actually dropped to the floor. Dean Xia hurriedly picked it up and checked, relieved that it was not damaged. ¡°These damn fools, so greedy they could swallow an entire elephant. What does the billions in research funds have to do with them? To think they find a million too little. If I were the one deciding the compensation for this experiment, I¡¯d say no more than ten thousand, take it or leave it. There are so many patients; it¡¯s not like we must have them participate in the experiment.¡± Dean Xia took a sip of tea, it took him a long time to calm down. Director Han tapped on the desktop, ¡°Xiao Yang, let¡¯s handle it this way, let¡¯s not make a fuss about it. Weren¡¯t their check-up results just released not long ago? We can use the excuse that the results are not qualified, and return this entire batch without providing any compensation. Have Nandu Medical University Cancer Hospital send another batch over, and for this bunch, only give a nutrition fee of ten thousand. Not a penny more.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t go soft again. I know what you¡¯re thinking¡ªto give more money, but things are often not that simple. Give them a million, and they think of ten million; offer ten million, they dream of a hundred million. Just go with the market price.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll still give that one million to Gao Mi¡¯s family, and I also want him to continue participating in the experiment.¡± ¡°Mhm, send them all back together at first, then privately contact this parent and bring them back for the second batch. This way, we avoid making him a target for other parents.¡± PS: This example is not just made up; there are real-life cases that serve as references, which I¡¯ll avoid going into details about. In fact, many social examples in this novel aren¡¯t just written on a whim... Those who haven¡¯t seen it would never believe it. Let¡¯s just regard them all as products of the imagination, and hope these are isolated cases. ¡°These damn fools, so greedy they could swallow an entire elephant. What does the billions in research funds have to do with them? To think they find a million too little. If I were the one deciding the compensation for this experiment, I¡¯d say no more than ten thousand, take it or leave it. There are so many patients; it¡¯s not like we must have them participate in the experiment.¡± Dean Xia took a sip of tea, it took him a long time to calm down. Director Han tapped on the desktop, ¡°Xiao Yang, let¡¯s handle it this way, let¡¯s not make a fuss about it. Weren¡¯t their check-up results just released not long ago? We can use the excuse that the results are not qualified, and return this entire batch without providing any compensation. Have Nandu Medical University Cancer Hospital send another batch over, and for this bunch, only give a nutrition fee of ten thousand. Not a penny more.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t go soft again. I know what you¡¯re thinking¡ªto give more money, but things are often not that simple. Give them a million, and they think of ten million; offer ten million, they dream of a hundred million. Just go with the market price.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll still give that one million to Gao Mi¡¯s family, and I also want him to continue participating in the experiment.¡± ¡°Mhm, send them all back together at first, then privately contact this parent and bring them back for the second batch. This way, we avoid making him a target for other parents.¡± PS: This example is not just made up; there are real-life cases that serve as references, which I¡¯ll avoid going into details about. In fact, many social examples in this novel aren¡¯t just written on a whim... Those who haven¡¯t seen it would never believe it. Let¡¯s just regard them all as products of the imagination, and hope these are isolated cases. Chapter 1411 - 1411 1061 Solve it Before Posting Moments ?Chapter 1411: Chapter 1061: Solve it Before Posting Moments Chapter 1411: Chapter 1061: Solve it Before Posting Moments A successful experiment, Yang Ping did not expect his good intentions to actually bring trouble. Although some trouble would occur, someone would handle it, but it would still have some negative impact on himself and the hospital. The next day, Yang Ping asked Song Zimo to announce that, except for Lawyer Wang¡¯s child, all other children¡¯s test results were not eligible and did not meet the experimental requirements, thus they must withdraw from the experiment. Zhao Guohong knew exactly what was happening; the others were unaware that Yang Ping was already aware of their hidden scheming and thought it was really a matter of ineligibility. However, Zhao Guohong was puzzled; he understood his own child being declared ineligible because the doctor had informed him beforehand and would secretly bring his child back afterwards. But why was it that Lawyer Wang¡¯s child was declared eligible, and his was the only child eligible? ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s ineligible, we are willing to take the risk ourselves.¡± ¡°Yes, we voluntarily take the risk.¡± ¡°No matter what happens, it has nothing to do with you, give our child a chance, we are grateful and will accept any accidents.¡± ¡°Please reconsider, relax the experimental conditions, it¡¯s really not easy for us.¡± Some parents even cried on the spot, saying that the hard-won experimental opportunity had slipped away, and what would happen to their child in the future. These parents were very proactive; if it weren¡¯t for Song Zimo already knowing their intentions, he would really have thought they were cooperative with the experiment, keen to participate, and very kind and honest. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, family members, we must strictly adhere to the experimental requirements for volunteers. This is a clinical experiment, not child¡¯s play. Human life is at stake. If the inspection is not qualified, there is nothing we can do, and you wouldn¡¯t want something to happen to the children, right? So, it¡¯s better to proceed with the discharge procedures as soon as possible. We really are powerless, we have also provided clear explanations to everyone beforehand, you must pass the inspection to participate in the experiment.¡± After Song Zimo finished speaking, he couldn¡¯t imagine that these seemingly pitiful family members were actually so greedy behind the scenes. ¡°How can this be? Before coming here from Nandu Medical University Cancer Hospital, we also had examinations which they said were qualified, so they referred us here. Now you say it¡¯s not qualified, what do you mean, are you playing games? Do you think we have nothing else to do? You ask us to come and then to leave?¡± ¡°The condition of the children¡¯s examination may vary from day to day, their illness and various bodily indicators can change at any time, it¡¯s normal in the morning, abnormal in the afternoon isn¡¯t strange, especially after so many days. If we force the experiment under unqualified conditions, the risk of accidents is very high, we are also considering for you, so everyone, please don¡¯t be agitated. The expenses including meals for these few days in the hospital are free of charge, we won¡¯t collect a penny.¡± Song Zimo patiently explained. Seeing the opportunity to make money slipping away, the bald parent couldn¡¯t possibly feel good, so he said angrily: ¡°Do we not need to go to work every day? Does transportation back and forth not cost money? As if free treatment means we have no losses.¡± Song Zimo gestured to everyone to be calm: ¡°Let¡¯s not rush, we will provide a daily allowance of two thousand for communication fees, transportation costs, and wage subsidies. If anyone thinks it¡¯s too low, please bring your bills for reimbursement, for example, wages, you can refer to your average monthly salary from last year or last month¡¯s salary, divided by 30, this is the standard daily subsidy, and then multiply by the number of days you miss work, this should roughly cover it. As for transportation and phone costs, these are easy to verify and reimburse based on actual records, can we do this?¡± ¡°You are being somewhat irresponsible now, we came here with difficulty, now you¡¯re dropping the responsibility, just saying it¡¯s not qualified?¡± one parent, who was a civil servant, said with a steady tone. ¡°Nandu Medical University Cancer Hospital and the informed consent we signed with you are clearly written, you must be qualified to participate in the experiment, and the doctor can terminate the experiment at any time during the process, this is all for your children¡¯s safety.¡± Song Zimo was now following the procedure and did not want to talk too much. ¡°That¡¯s unacceptable, we have done the admission with so much effort, now you say we cannot participate in the experiment, this is deceiving, I want to expose you.¡± ¡°Where did all those vials of blood drawn from our children go? You tell me clearly.¡± ¡°Right, you make it sound so trivial, just sending us away with one sentence.¡± The parents were very assertive, their voices getting louder, completely irrational, really whoever made more noise seemed right, the entire meeting room was noisy and chaotic, which caused the security several times to come to the door to check what was going on, Song Zimo signaled to the security that it was nothing, all was normal. Song Zimo did not have time to entangle with them, so he made a phone call to summon Zhang Lin and Little Five, then told the parents: ¡°I have another matter, I¡¯ll have the doctors from our experimental team, who are specially responsible for communication, talk to you.¡± After Zhang Lin and Little Five arrived, Song Zimo immediately left for the operating room to perform surgery, leaving the mess for Zhang Lin and Little Five, this pair of brothers liked this kind of situation, it allowed them to demonstrate their value. Zhang Lin was not as scholarly as Song Zimo; after sitting down, he glanced at everyone, spoke officially: ¡°Everyone, don¡¯t be agitated, reason doesn¡¯t depend on who¡¯s louder, everyone sit down and let¡¯s talk slowly, I am Teacher Zhang from the experimental team, everything can be discussed, we are also considering the safety of the children, so please don¡¯t make a fuss, now I just ask you one thing: is your child your own biological child?¡± Chapter 1412 - 1412 1061 Resolve it before posting to ?Chapter 1412: Chapter 1061: Resolve it before posting to moments_2 Chapter 1412: Chapter 1061: Resolve it before posting to moments_2 The bald parent closest to Zhang Lin was caught off guard by the questioning: ¡°What do you mean? Of course, he¡¯s my own child.¡± ¡°Are you sure? He doesn¡¯t look like your own to me,¡± said Zhang Lin in a mocking tone. The bald parent was confused for a moment: ¡°Don¡¯t talk nonsense.¡± ¡°Fine, I believe that your child is your own. Since that¡¯s the case, let me ask you, why do you insist on letting your child participate in the experiment despite knowing clearly that it¡¯s life-threatening to take part in the laboratory experiment right now? Why are you sending your child to his death? Give me a good reason. Don¡¯t tell me about the hassle of getting a hospital admission and then discharge, wasting time. Does the past few days¡¯ time outweigh your child¡¯s life? I find it hard to believe a child¡¯s biological father would be in such a rush to let his child face life-threatening risks,¡± said Zhang Lin in an unhurried manner. As a representative of the Surgical Research Institute, he had no qualms about being blunt. He was quite enjoying it actually, because if not for such a messy situation, he wouldn¡¯t have the chance to represent the Surgical Research Institute. And why would Zhang Lin be afraid? The professors couldn¡¯t care less about dealing with these remorseless people. If they truly angered the professors, a single social media post could utterly devastate them, leaving them unable to even cry. The bald parent found himself at a loss for words, unable to retort. What kind of real parent would disregard their child¡¯s safety like that, especially when the doctor had clearly stated the life-threatening risks of forcibly participating in the experiment? Yet he was still causing a scene, pressuring the doctors to let his child take part. ¡°So yeah, I seriously doubt whether you are the child¡¯s real father. Let the kid¡¯s mother talk to me,¡± Zhang Lin said impatiently. The bald parent exclaimed angrily, ¡°What does she need to come here for?¡± Little Five explained calmly from the side: ¡°At least it ensures the child is indeed her own.¡± The bald parent didn¡¯t catch on right away: ¡°It¡¯s enough that I am here; there¡¯s no need for her to come.¡± ¡°It was you who said the experiment could be done, and now it¡¯s you who say it can¡¯t. What, are you playing us for fools?¡± Another parent tried to intervene, attempting to diverge the topic and avoid Zhang Lin¡¯s questions. ¡°Forget arguing with him, let¡¯s just sue them for deceiving patients and their families.¡± Someone in the crowd stirred things up. They had no logic in debate, they merely relied on making a fuss to exert pressure, knowing that causing a scene could bring benefits. ¡°What have we deceived you about? Everything is free, and we even provide you with stipends. Are there such generous con artists in this world? Now you come and try to deceive me. Give me money, two thousand a day, and I¡¯ll get food too?¡± Zhang Lin remained cool and composed. The whole place suddenly fell silent. Everyone was at a loss for words, looking at each other, and then turned their gazes to Lawyer Wang. Although Lawyer Wang had been silent, he had been mulling over the situation. Since his kid was the only one who qualified, the chances of success had increased several-fold. Compensating one person with twenty million was much easier than compensating ten. So Lawyer Wang planned to go at it alone, to avoid any complications from being associated with the others. Professor Song had also spoken to him yesterday, informing him of the situation and saying that now his child was the only one who qualified. The number of trials his child might have to endure would increase, as would the pressure. He was asked whether he was still willing to participate in the experiment. How could he let go of such an opportunity? Lawyer Wang agreed right away, stating he was ready to do his best for the experiment to show his gratitude for the precious opportunity offered by Sanbo Hospital. He shed a few tears on the spot, talking about his hardships over the years and that he finally saw a glimmer of hope. Regardless of the outcome, he would have no regrets, as he had done all he could for his child. If not for Zimo knowing the inside story in advance, he really would have been moved by Lawyer Wang¡¯s display. ¡°Let¡¯s do this. We hope you understand everyone¡¯s feelings. Everyone was already in despair, and finally getting this opportunity was not easy. But now you¡¯re saying it¡¯s not possible, and no one can take that instantly. So, how about this¡ªa suggestion. Let the kids recuperate here until their health indicators are suitable. That way, you also save the trouble of looking for qualified volunteers, and they won¡¯t have to run around.¡± Lawyer Wang made a reasonable suggestion, fitting of his profession as a lawyer. Faking concern for everyone and trying to secure more chances, in reality, he didn¡¯t want to have anything to do with the rest now. He was far better off on his own. ¡°You have to make it clear where the blood drawn from this experiment went. Don¡¯t always talk about it being free. There¡¯s no such thing as a free lunch. If you don¡¯t explain this matter clearly, we definitely won¡¯t proceed with the discharge,¡± the bald parent finally came to a realization and seized upon a point. Zhang Lin spoke calmly, ¡°Parent, the blood we draw from the children is for various tests before the experiment. Since you have doubts, alright, we will set up an investigation team specifically to look into the blood drawing of these ten children and invite you parents to investigate together. I¡¯m sorry, parent, but your child can¡¯t participate in the experiment now either, because everyone has doubts about the blood drawing. Until these doubts are cleared up, we dare not let anyone participate in the experiment. We can only start looking for new volunteer participants.¡± As Zhang Lin spoke, he turned his head to talk to Lawyer Wang. Now it was Lawyer Wang¡¯s turn to be confused. What¡¯s going on? My child is eligible. These bastards really don¡¯t know how to do things. How could I just let them spoil such a good opportunity? They are they, and I am me. ¡°What¡¯s the problem with drawing blood? Stop making a fuss about it. Who doesn¡¯t draw blood when they go to a hospital, let alone a clinical experiment? The doctors mean well. You¡¯re here suspecting this and that,¡± said Lawyer Wang. The bald parent turned his head in confusion. What does Lawyer Wang mean by this, distancing himself from everyone so quickly? True, his child is eligible, while the other children aren¡¯t. At this moment, other parents felt cheated and suspected he had manipulated something behind the scenes. Lawyer Wang immediately gave the bald parent a look, implying that they should find time to discuss the matter in private if there was something to talk about. ¡ª Who would have thought that a small matter would end up being so complicated? But thankfully, these messy issues don¡¯t need to be dealt with by Yang Ping. To speed up the process, Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to look for volunteers anymore and decided to directly use Zhao Guohong¡¯s child for the experiment. Hence, the experiment was no longer public. Just like Sisi¡¯s experiment, it was carried out in secret, known only within a small circle to avoid trouble. After talking to Zhao Guohong, he was very grateful. He offered on the spot not to take the one million yuan compensation for the experiment. He did not want to make money off his child. But Yang Ping comforted him, ¡°This is what you deserve. Honest people shouldn¡¯t suffer losses. The agreed compensation before the experiment was indeed this amount.¡± After Zhao Guohong completed the discharge procedures, he pretentiously bought a ticket back to his hometown. However, he made a round trip and checked back into the hospital at night, but this time staying in a different department. Once Professor Zhang and the others had dealt with those bastards, Zhao Guohong and his child would return to the Surgical Research Institute. The medical records of the experimental subjects are confidential, known only to the participants of the experiment. This way he wouldn¡¯t be discovered by those ruthless relatives. It¡¯s not that he¡¯s afraid, but rather he doesn¡¯t want to attract any trouble; he wants to focus solely on treating his child. After being disqualified from the experiment, the patient¡¯s relatives threatened to go to the Ministry of Health to cause a scene, claiming they had been deceived and that some shady experiment had been conducted using their children¡¯s blood for unknown purposes. Lawyer Wang, afraid that the uproar might ruin his hard-earned opportunity, racked his brains to coax those parents not to make a scene, but he had opened a can of worms himself and couldn¡¯t control it. Such matters were nothing for someone like Dean Xia, an experienced bureaucrat. He had already communicated with the Ministry of Health, explained in advance what was going on, and the Ministry would not indulge these people. Everyone knew it was about Yang Ping, so they took it very seriously. If there were any oversights that led to Yang Ping posting about it on his moment, it would be serious trouble. So Professor Yang¡¯s matter had to be dealt with before he posted anything on his moment; otherwise, it would be a big issue. Actually, Yang Ping didn¡¯t like to resort to using moments to solve problems, especially minor ones, but sometimes when it¡¯s unbearable, it¡¯s hard to say whether or not he will post on his moment. Chapter 1413 - 1413 1062 A Glimmer of Dawn ?Chapter 1413: Chapter 1062: A Glimmer of Dawn Chapter 1413: Chapter 1062: A Glimmer of Dawn Alliances formed over self-interest crumble once the mutual benefits are gone. President Wang and those eight parents no longer share a common interest, so their hastily formed alliance has already dissolved. With his own child now having an opportunity and the others not, how could President Wang possibly keep mixing with them? If he continued to do so, he might lose his own precious opportunity. To maintain this hard-won opportunity, President Wang had to change tactics. Now, he started convincing those parents: ¡°The doctor is right; we should prioritize our children¡¯s lives. What was the purpose of participating in this experiment if not to provide our children a chance for a cure? Now that their pre-experiment tests are not qualified, not only will it not cure them, but it could also pose a life-threatening risk. Under such circumstances, why should we still insist on participating in the experiment?¡± ¡°President Wang, you weren¡¯t saying this a few days ago. Didn¡¯t you tell everyone to stick together...¡± The bald parent¡¯s gold chain around his neck said it all ¨C he was headstrong and not easily controlled. President Wang hastily tried to signal to him, but the bald family member was not as reasonable as a civil servant¡¯s family member. Even with the signal, he still said: ¡°A few days ago, you wanted us all to stand united, to make a fuss with the Hospital after the experiment was done, to demand more compensation. You said at least ten million and even mentioned that there must be a scandal with the experiment, otherwise why would they offer so much compensation? Now why did you change your tune? Is it because we no longer have the opportunity and you do, you want to hog it all to yourself? Fine, if none of us can get that ten million, don¡¯t you think you will either. Putting on an act and advising us? What a joke.¡± President Wang¡¯s face turned as ugly as a pig¡¯s liver, he was most afraid of this man, whose words and actions were always excessive, like an immature child, speaking without thinking. ¡°Don¡¯t slander me.¡± President Wang was totally unprepared for this, as he could not foresee this turn of events. His child was qualified, while all the other children were not. Had he known this would happen, President Wang would never have discussed an alliance with these pigheads, he would have been better off acting alone. Now his plan was completely disrupted. ¡°I¡¯m telling you, Mr. Wang, if we can¡¯t get that ten million, neither can you. Do you think we¡¯re disposable rags?¡± As the bald parent spoke, everyone immediately sympathized, feeling used by Mr. Wang. President Wang became flustered and incoherent: ¡°Slander, this¡ª this¡ª¡± ¡°Why are you acting like this? Mr. Wang is right; we¡¯re all here for our children. Now it¡¯s Mr. Wang¡¯s child who is qualified and yours are not. If Mr. Wang¡¯s child was unqualified, he would definitely have listened to us and not let his child be put in danger. That¡¯s the least bit of conscience a father should have.¡± Zhang Lin supported President Wang. Seeing the doctor defending him, President Wang immediately said: ¡°Exactly, if my child was unqualified, I would never put him in danger. Knowing there are life-threatening risks, how could I allow him to participate in the experiment? What kind of parent would I be?¡± ¡°Yes, Mr. Wang is absolutely correct.¡± Zhang Lin applauded. At this point, a Doctor walked in with a stack of test results: ¡°Teacher Zhang, here are the latest test results, take a look.¡± ¡°Our experiment involves dynamic testing, which is also stated in the informed consent form. Although Wang Junhao¡¯s test results were normal earlier, we suspect there was an issue with one of the indicators in the sample. Therefore, we have retaken blood for testing, and the latest results are not qualified. Luckily, our procedures are very strict; otherwise, this issue could have been missed. If a child that is not qualified were to enter the experiment, it would be extremely dangerous. Our strict process ensures the safety of the children. Mr. Wang, unfortunately, your child, Wang Junhao, also cannot participate in the experiment now.¡± ¡°I believe you can understand. Having just heard what you said, I know you are the most reasonable of the relatives.¡± Zhang Lin grasped President Wang¡¯s hand. What is this? What happened? Seeing that President Wang¡¯s child was also unable to participate in the experiment, the other parents figured he wouldn¡¯t get that ten million either. People resent unfairness more than poverty. Their temper just moments ago was due to the unfairness of President Wang¡¯s child being qualified while theirs were not, wondering why President Wang could get the ten million, and they couldn¡¯t. Now that no one was getting that ten million, everything was reset to zero, and everyone felt a sense of relief, the tension eased, and nobody made a fuss anymore. President Wang was bewildered, puzzled as to how his child who was just declared fit could now be unfit? ¡°Are you playing games with us? One moment qualified, the next not?¡± President Wang was furious. Without Teacher Zhang or Little Five saying a word, one of the parents, with a tone of mockery, said: ¡°The experiment involves dynamic testing; you should be grateful. If it wasn¡¯t for the doctor¡¯s rigorous testing process, once your child entered the experiment, there would be a life-threatening danger. Now the doctor has prevented such a dangerous occurrence, you should thank the doctor. Your child is out of danger, what parent could still be angry at that? Isn¡¯t he your flesh and blood?¡± ¡°Yeah, you should be thankful for the doctor, how can you call the doctor¡¯s actions a child¡¯s play? The doctor is very serious, that¡¯s exactly why the problem was discovered.¡± ¡°The doctor is right; we should prioritize our children¡¯s lives. What was the purpose of participating in this experiment if not to provide our children a chance for a cure? Now that their pre-experiment tests are not qualified, not only will it not cure them, but it could also pose a life-threatening risk. Under such circumstances, why should we still insist on participating in the experiment?¡± Chapter 1414 - 1414 1062 A Glimmer of Dawn_2 ?Chapter 1414: Chapter 1062: A Glimmer of Dawn_2 Chapter 1414: Chapter 1062: A Glimmer of Dawn_2 Everyone repeated what Lawyer Wang had just said, leaving Lawyer Wang speechless and at a loss. He felt he had been set up, but had no evidence. ¡ª These incidents involving Lawyer Wang and his associates were merely minor interruptions to the experiment and could not have any impact on it. Since everyone was suspicious, Yang Ping decided not to look for new volunteers and directly used Zhao Guohong¡¯s son, Zhao Yufan, as the subject of the experiment. The child¡¯s current indicators were still acceptable, and he could easily withstand the impact of the experiment. After the other nine children were discharged, Zhao Guohong¡¯s son Zhao Yufan was secretly readmitted to the isolated ward of the Surgical Research Institute. This ward was closed off and guarded by security, so outsiders could not enter. Time was of the essence, and Yang Ping didn¡¯t want to waste any more time, so he conducted the experiment solely on Zhao Yufan. Yang Ping was quite confident about this experiment; after all, the virus had been tested on his own body and later on Professor Zhang. In terms of safety, there really were no problems, but the efficacy was still unknown. Because this virus had only been tested on healthy individuals and had not yet been tested on osteosarcoma patients. The next day, Zhao Yufan underwent the first experiment; nothing unexpected occurred. After the K virus was injected into Zhao Yufan¡¯s body, it only caused some mild flu-like symptoms. There wasn¡¯t even a need for medication; drinking more water solved the mild flu-like symptoms. This outcome of the experiment indicated that the virus was completely safe. The initial tumor and metastatic tumor tissues extracted from Zhao Yufan were sent to Nandu Medical University for virus testing with electronic microscopy. This time, many tumor cells infected by the virus were found, and within these cells, hundreds of apoptotic tumor cells at various stages of apoptosis were identified. The electron microscope captured the whole process of cell death, clearly showing that the apoptosis was triggered by the K factor carried by the K virus. Although only a few hundred cells were found among billions of tumor cells, this was undoubtedly a glimmer of light in the darkness, no matter how faint. This greatly bolstered Yang Ping¡¯s confidence in the experiment, indicating that the K virus being used was safe and effective, even though the effects were not very pronounced. Further experiments would focus on efficacy. Upon hearing Yang Ping¡¯s introduction to the first experiment, Zhao Guohong excitedly said, ¡°Professor Yang, are you saying the experiment is effective? The injected virus killed some tumor cells?¡± ¡°Yes! The results of the experiment have shown us a glimmer of hope. Thank you for your participation. It may be taxing for young Yufan as he is currently our only experimental volunteer, so we will increase the frequency and number of experiments within his tolerance. Of course, we will prioritize safety,¡± said Yang Ping, who was in a very good mood. He believed that continued experiments would eventually be successful. Now it is necessary to determine why they did not cause a massive death of tumor cells. Is it because the amount of the virus is not enough, or are there other reasons? To achieve massive tumor cell death, exactly how much of a dosage is needed, how many injections are necessary, what should be the interval between two injections, how long should a treatment cycle be, and how many treatment cycles are required? The upcoming experiments will involve a lot of trial and error. Zhao Guohong never dreamed that his son would have a chance to be saved. He thought: a person must have a conscience; only those with a conscience are fortunate. One should never resort to devious means. If it weren¡¯t for his conscience and timely informing Professor Yang of those people¡¯s schemes, his child may not have had the chance to participate in the experiment. ¡°Professor Yang, thank you for giving us this opportunity. We will fully cooperate. I don¡¯t understand much, so you decide what should be done. I also don¡¯t want the one million compensation anymore; I just want to participate in the experiment,¡± Zhao Guohong was a content man. Yang Ping seriously said, ¡°Let¡¯s do everything by the rules, okay? This money is yours; just take it and don¡¯t bring this up again.¡± ¡°Alright, I won¡¯t bring it up again.¡± Zhao Guohong was not being hypocritical or staging a scene; he was terrified of losing the opportunity for the experiment, which was far more precious than a million, something money could not measure. Zhao Guohong did not think too much at the time, he just felt guilty and bravely revealed their scheming to Professor Yang, unexpectedly this might indeed save his son¡¯s life. Lawyer Wang suffered a loss in silence; he tried several times to meet with Yang Ping, but Yang Ping did not want to see him, unwilling to waste time on him. Lawyer Wang tried a few times to block Yang Ping at the building entrance but was stopped by plainclothes guards. Then, he tried to contact other families, but they no longer trusted him; having been used once, they could not be exploited a second time. Actually, most parents weren¡¯t ill-intentioned, they consented to join him in turmoil only seeing there was a profit to be made. If they knew that because of Lawyer Wang an invaluable opportunity was wasted, those parents would probably turn against him. This didn¡¯t work, that didn¡¯t work, Lawyer Wang alone couldn¡¯t stir up any commotion; he went to complain to the authorities, and they asked what he was complaining about. They stated there was no conspiracy; there was no bribery, compensation was provided, and not allowing participation in the experiment was because his child didn¡¯t meet the conditions, forcing participation would risk life¡ªa scenario unheard of. It¡¯s like accusing someone of fraud, but they didn¡¯t cheat your money, instead, they gave you money and advised you not to make the transfer; how would you accuse someone of fraud? They refuse your transfer, so they are defrauding you? Logically it makes no sense. If there were more people, perhaps some uproar could be caused, but now he alone could not cause any disturbance, so Lawyer Wang had no choice but to give up. ¡ª Yang Ping visited Sisi every day; although Sisi relied on ECMO to sustain her life, she was extremely strong, always wearing a smile of hope, and the cactus in the corner looked greener and had grown a bit since her admission. Lying in the hospital bed relying on a machine to stay alive must be very painful, yet from Sisi¡¯s eyes, Yang Ping saw that relentless perseverance of life. ¡°Just wait a bit longer, we are about to succeed. Recently, our experiment made another advancement, getting us closer to success. Now we just need to determine the right dosage and treatment duration, then we can restart the experiment on you. You must hold on. Do you see the cactus in the corner? It¡¯s becoming greener and more vibrant; it¡¯s also cheering for you.¡± Yang Ping stood by her bed. Sisi was connected to various tubes, her heart and lungs now required ECMO to function. Initially, she could talk upon admission, but now she couldn¡¯t speak and only responded to Yang Ping with her eyes, squeezing out a faint smile with her lips. Apart from Yang Ping¡¯s ward rounds, Sisi spent most of the time under the influence of sedatives in a sleeping state, and her brief periods of wakefulness became somewhat blurred, but her strong will kept reminding her¡ªshe must stay alive. ¡°The longest duration someone has used ECMO in the world is now 111 days, and that was a 62-year-old elder. After 111 days, he successfully recovered and was discharged from the hospital, it¡¯s only been a few days for you, so there¡¯s no need to worry.¡± Yang Ping encouraged Sisi. Her eyes spiritedly moved, Yang Ping knew she had something to say, noticing her right hand forming a fist, he immediately understood. Consequently, he also made his right hand into a fist and bumped fists with her. ¡°Keep it up!¡± Sisi¡¯s face revealed a smile. ¡°Professor Yang, the vital signs are relatively stable now, and in another ten minutes, we will administer the sedative again. Do you have any special medical orders?¡± Currently, Sisi¡¯s main issue is with her heart, so Xia Shu is the head of the medical team here, the head nurse personally came to lead the nursing team, and the Surgical Research Institute could be said to have drawn elites to be in charge of Sisi¡¯s treatment. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Use the sedative as planned, no special medical orders for now.¡± Chapter 1415 - 1415 1063 Earthquakes and Mountains Shaking ?Chapter 1415: Chapter 1063: Earthquakes and Mountains Shaking Chapter 1415: Chapter 1063: Earthquakes and Mountains Shaking Yang Ping¡¯s wedding was drawing near, but his energy was fully consumed by his experiments, and he had forgotten about the wedding. Xiao Su¡¯s holiday had come to an end, and she was about to go back to work. However, to let Yang Ping focus more on his work, she decided to temporarily quit her job to stay home and take care of the children. Although both of their mothers were willing to help take care of the children, Xiao Su decided to take care of the children herself, because accompanying the children is very important for their growth. If both of them were busy with work, the children naturally would not receive enough attention and lack companionship. Therefore, Xiao Su could only temporarily quit her job. The couple divided their responsibilities, one focusing on work and the other on the family, as this was the best arrangement. Their home was close to the Hospital, making commuting very convenient. Yang Ping would return home every day to spend time with the children. During this period, since the experiments involved a virus, he remained cautious before the experiments concluded. After all, the K virus was a new virus. Although it had been confirmed that its impact on the human body was similar to that of a common cold virus and it was non-contagious, Yang Ping still dared not return home temporarily. Zhao Yufan subsequently conducted three experiments. As the experiments had a minimal impact on him, the short-term frequent experiments did not significantly affect his health. It was like having continuous light colds, which he could recover from quickly. Gradually, Yang Ping figured out the single dose of K virus, the intervals between each treatment, and the duration of each treatment course. Currently, when K virus enters the human body, it primarily loses a significant amount of viruses in the battle against the human immune system. Increasing the quantity of the virus could be a solution. However, enhancing the number of viruses also intensifies the immune response, raising the treatment risk. Like antibiotics killing bacteria, theoretically, as long as the antibiotics are sensitive to bacteria, the remaining challenge is to increase the quantity of antibiotics. If the dosage of antibiotics can be unlimitedly increased, the bacteria will surely be killed. However, in practice, this cannot be done. Once it exceeds a safe amount, the human body cannot tolerate it. It could harm the liver and kidneys, cause poisoning, and thus endanger life. The situation with the K virus was the same; balance must be found between dosage and effect. Regarding the improvement of virus configuration, although it is not the best now, as long as it is effective, it will be used temporarily. It is the optimal solution currently available, and better configurations can be explored gradually. Regarding the method of experimentation, Yang Ping had basically found a pattern. In fact, for such clinical trials, there is no need for many volunteers. Having one volunteer is sufficient, as increasing the number of experiments can also satisfy the data acquisition requirements. If Sisi¡¯s experiment was considered as the first phase, then Zhao Yufan¡¯s experiment is the second phase. The K virus therapy for tumors has now progressed to the second phase. Although it appears to be a minor progress, it has achieved enormous success. This is a breakthrough from zero to one, which made Professor Zhang Zhiwei extremely excited. All this was beyond his plan, and he didn¡¯t expect to achieve such a breakthrough by unexpectedly participating in this experiment. Professor Zhang Zhiwei was very aware of the value of this topic, which could potentially change his academic fate. However, he felt somewhat guilty about his participation, which seemed too opportunistic. This could be a Nobel Prize-level success, and in the field of tumor therapy, where new treatments have not emerged for a long time, the inception of K virus therapy could potentially overturn the current status of chemotherapy. It would completely replace traditional therapies like chemotherapy with new treatments such as targeted therapy and cell therapy, ushering tumor therapy into a new era. For this, Professor Zhang Zhiwei had sleepless nights for several days, overwhelmed with excitement. The second phase of the experiment continued, and the number of experiments on volunteer Zhao Yufan kept increasing. The experiments had no detrimental effects on his body, unlike chemotherapy, which harms the patient as much as the disease. After several treatments, Zhao Yufan¡¯s health actually improved because the tumor was somewhat suppressed, some tumor cells were killed, and the normal cells were unharmed. The entire treatment process targeted tumor cells with precision, even more accurate than targeted therapy and without the resistance seen in targeted therapy. Targeted therapy drugs allow tumor cells to adjust themselves, changing targets or the docking of targeted drugs with targets, eventually leading to resistance. K virus therapy does not have this issue; it does not target specific markers but recognizes the entire tumor cells, just like Hepatitis B virus infecting liver cells, which cannot evade the virus. Yang Ping decided to initiate the third phase of experiments using the latest K virus to treat Sisi. The longer they waited, the slimmer Sisi¡¯s chances of survival became. Taking advantage of the current support from ECMO, which still maintained good liver and kidney functions, it was critical to act swiftly. If they waited until the liver and kidney functions deteriorated, Sisi wouldn¡¯t be able to withstand it. Sisi¡¯s parents were thrilled to hear that Sisi could continue with the experiments, and after several experiments, the new treatment method was already satisfying in terms of safety and effectiveness. They felt that although their daughter was unfortunate, she was also lucky to have encountered a good doctor like Professor Yang. They were so moved that they cried on the spot. Men do not easily shed tears, but Sisi¡¯s father also teared up. Yang Ping not only helped Sisi but also assisted her entire family. Now, he himself had become Professor Yang¡¯s driver, while his spouse worked as a nurse at the Surgical Research Institute. Not only had the couple secured stable jobs, but Sisi also received free treatment, truly encountering a life-changing benefactor. Chapter 1416 - 1416 1063 Earthquake and Mountains Shaking_2 ?Chapter 1416: Chapter 1063: Earthquake and Mountains Shaking_2 Chapter 1416: Chapter 1063: Earthquake and Mountains Shaking_2 ¡°Professor Yang, we don¡¯t know how to repay your tremendous kindness...¡± Sisi¡¯s mother said, deeply moved. Professor Yang Ping comforted them: ¡°No need to be so formal, you¡¯re making it sound too serious. Sisi is a very smart and adorable child, and we all like her. Currently, our tumor therapy experiment just happens to need volunteers, and she is the most suitable one. So, it is mutual assistance.¡± Although Professor Yang said this, Sisi¡¯s parents knew that all of this was Professor Yang helping them out; there was hardly any mutual assistance involved. Without Professor Yang¡¯s help, let alone mobilizing so many resources for her treatment, even ordinary treatment would have been hard to afford. After leaving Professor Yang¡¯s office, Sisi¡¯s mother told her husband to go back to work as soon as possible, and she would look after Sisi. Now, since Professor Yang temporarily changing drivers might be unsafe, Sisi¡¯s father agreed, thinking it made sense. With no way to repay Professor Yang¡¯s great kindness, he could only devote himself to his work and serve diligently as Professor Yang¡¯s driver in the future. Manager Qiu had told him that Professor Yang¡¯s safety was of utmost importance; everyone must not have any lax mentality, and if necessary, every person must be willing to sacrifice their own life to protect Professor Yang. Xia Shu led a medical team, comprising several doctors and masters, which was specially responsible for Sisi¡¯s diagnostic and treatment work in the ICU. Head Nurse Cai led several nurses to undertake the nursing work. The entire medical team served solely for Sisi, and the main treating doctor was Yang Ping. The treatment approach was the K virus therapy that Yang Ping was researching ¨C a level of medical care that even the world¡¯s wealthiest could not enjoy. Heaven also gave such precious opportunity to a few other patients once, yet their families did not cherish it, and ultimately squandered the chance that was within their grasp. In the same building, the Tumor Laboratory was focusing its efforts on research, while the research results were directly applied to the patients in this building. This model of direct integration between scientific research and clinical application is also extremely rare in the world. Lu Xiaolu was responsible for studying the changes of tumor cells during the treatment, while Professor Zhang Zhiwei was responsible for the research on the K virus. They both made steady progress, maintaining constant information exchange and communication. Soon, clear data on the dosage of K virus, the course of treatment, and the half-life in the body were established. Because he was wholly absorbed in research, Lu Xiaolu had been in the laboratory for many days without break. He and his team lived in the laboratory, almost completely cut off from the outside world. Ding Xinyu, worried he was not eating well, would occasionally bring over soup, as well as clean clothes, and take the dirty laundry back with her. Those enthusiastic graduate students were as zealous as college students obsessed with computer games, solely focused on internet cafe?s. The virology experiments at Nandu Medical University are also nearing completion. Professor Zhang Zhiwei has not bathed or changed his clothes for many days; his hair is greasy, but he couldn¡¯t care less. He cherishes this unexpectedly gained opportunity. Now, he has a faint feeling that the experiment has entered a critical period, and once this period is over, the path ahead will certainly become much clearer. Yang Ping sat in his office summarizing the process of this experiment. Only through continuous summarization and review can there be improvement. This experiment has been relatively smooth, even more so than the experiments he conducted in System Space. The advantage of experimenting in System Space is that no matter how many times the experiments are run, no matter how much time is spent, in reality this time is inconsequential. However, in System Space, experiments still consume a lot of time, and involve many trials and errors and setbacks. Although this experiment has also faced many setbacks, and some of the plans were somewhat rough in detail, overall, the number of trial and error instances in the experiment is very low. It can be said that so far, this is the experiment with the fewest number of errors made. After summarizing his experiences, he believes this is because he followed the principle of ¡°doing things right first, then doing them well.¡± As long as the overall direction is correct, one need not sweat the small stuff, or wait for a perfect plan before starting, or aim for perfection right off the bat. Even if the initially proposed plan is rough, it¡¯s okay as long as the overall direction is correct ¨C it can be slowly corrected in practice. After many iterations, it will naturally become more perfect. Whereas when thinking in one¡¯s mind, even if the details considered are perfect, it¡¯s impossible to achieve true perfection. What feels perfect at the moment might just be an illusion, merely what one subjectively perceives as perfect. In fact, it might all be wrong. Find the right direction and take action, promptly correct errors upon discovery¡ªthat is the biggest takeaway from the smooth progress of this experiment. In other words, make bold assumptions, act quickly, verify cautiously, and continuously rectify errors. It seems that the philosophy of life and work is extremely important. Professor Yang picks up a whiteboard marker and writes on his office whiteboard: Get things right first, then strive for excellence. Therefore, some of the research projects at Ruixing Company don¡¯t need to be perfectly developed before kickoff; start first, then perfect them. Take artificial intelligence for example¡ªit¡¯s undoubtedly a key technology for the future. Just get things rolling, and even if only a few qualified individuals can be gathered initially, start the project. As it progresses, the way forward will naturally become clear. Immediately, Professor Yang summons Huang Jiacai to his office and gives him an order: Ruixing¡¯s biotech subsidiary should commence preparations for the commercialization of the K-virus therapy right away, without waiting for the experiments to conclude completely; proceed on both fronts simultaneously. After receiving the order, Huang Jiacai acutely realizes the extraordinary significance of this task and that he must prepare thoroughly, especially with regards to maintaining confidentiality. Because once the K-virus is entirely successful in experiments and ready for commercial promotion, it will revolutionize the current pharmaceutical market for traditional tumor treatments. This will be like pulling the rug out from under the backing capital, whose power and ruthlessness far exceed the ordinary person¡¯s imagination. Huang Jiacai understands this in his heart, so he must face all of this properly. Once commercialization commences, it will be a groundbreaking battle, with all sorts of extreme measures possibly employed. After receiving the professor¡¯s command, Huang Jiacai meets with Manager Qiu, who is in charge of Professor Yang¡¯s security, for a private conversation. He needs Manager Qiu to take Professor Yang¡¯s security work more seriously, and their security forces to penetrate Ruixing Company. Ruixing is no longer a regular company; it will be undertaking the nation¡¯s strategic layout in biomedical technology, engaging in a life-and-death struggle with international giants. These international behemoths are not merely individual companies; they are supported by a systematic and organizational capital power¡ªthese companies are never fighting alone. After the confidential discussion with Manager Qiu, Huang Jiacai finds Dean Xia and secretly converses with him as well. Nobody has Huang Jiacai¡¯s keen sense of smell; the moment something sprouts, he can foresee its future development. If we don¡¯t prepare in advance for the commercialization of Professor Yang¡¯s proposed K-virus therapy, and are caught off-guard, the consequences could be unimaginable should any mishap occur. After Sanbo Hospital came under direct Beijing jurisdiction, Dean Xia could continue his role as dean because his management skills and political awareness are not something ordinary deans can match. His retention as dean was not solely based on his personal relationship with Professor Yang, but because the higher authorities had thoroughly vetted him and recognized his capabilities. The higher-ups had pondered for a long time how to handle the situation regarding Sanbo Hospital before deciding to place it under Beijing¡¯s direct control, allowing it to exist as a very special hospital. During the selection of the dean, the authorities had actually conducted extensive covert investigations and evaluations, ultimately confirming that Dean Xia was the right choice to continue. After the private talk with Huang Jiacai, Dean Xia immediately flies to Beijing at top speed to report to the higher authorities. This matter is of the utmost importance, and he believes Huang Jiacai is a rare talent, so he takes Huang Jiacai with him to Beijing. Chapter 1417 - 1417 1064 Digital Camera ?Chapter 1417: Chapter 1064: Digital Camera Chapter 1417: Chapter 1064: Digital Camera The Phase III experiment, which is Sisi¡¯s repeated trial, officially began. Everyone gathered around the bed, fully focused and quiet, afraid to make a sound that might affect the course of the experiment. Sisi lay on the hospital bed, her eyes constantly moving. In the ward, besides the sound of machinery operating, there were the breathing sounds of doctors and nurses, and the clinking of medical instruments. The nurse opened the sterile sealed packaging of the K virus preparation and handed it over to Yang Ping. After so many experiments, everyone had developed a silent understanding. Yang Ping connected it to the indwelling needle¡¯s tube and slowly pushed the syringe, injecting the virus gradually into Sisi¡¯s arm vein. Everyone was on tenterhooks because during the last experiment Sisi had suddenly suffered a cardiac arrest amidst high fever, and it was only through a harrowing rescue that Sisi was saved. Since then, Sisi¡¯s heart has been weak, relying on ECMO to sustain life. If another dangerous rescue were needed this time, it¡¯s dubious that Sisi could make it through. In everyone¡¯s minds, this experiment was extremely crucial. Success or failure hinged on this moment; if she could withstand it, the path would be clear, but if not, the outlook would likely be grim. After the virus was injected, Sisi showed no initial reaction. No one dared to relax their tense nerves, as reactions to the experiment wouldn¡¯t appear immediately but sometimes hours later, even the next or third day, so there was a gap between the virus injection and any response. Yang Ping remained in the ICU ward to monitor Sisi¡¯s condition, hoping she could make it through. Even if the result wasn¡¯t great, the experiment could continue without major issues. However, if she couldn¡¯t bear it, it might be the end for Sisi. Through the entire night, Yang Ping and the other doctors and nurses remained anxious, ready to deal with any emergencies. Yang Ping decided to stay up all night, seated beside Sisi, prepared to watch over her. Under sedatives, Sisi slept while various figures on the monitor screen changed from time to time within normal ranges, and occasional machine alarms were transient, fluctuating near the critical line. Until dawn, Sisi did not develop feverish symptoms, just a mild temperature around 38 degrees Celsius, which did not require special treatment, just observation. Previous experiments saw Sisi develop high fevers by night, with temperatures soaring to 42 degrees Celsius that were vastly distressing. Now, the temperature lingered around 38 degrees throughout the night. Yang Ping even suspected the nurse¡¯s temperature measurements were faulty, but after checking several times and feeling Sisi¡¯s forehead himself, there was indeed no high fever. Blood tests showed no significant fluctuations in indicators; an increase in white blood cells and lymphocytes was a normal immune response to the virus entering the body. Surprisingly, Sisi¡¯s response to the new K virus was so mild, indicating the K virus had indeed become very safe now. Everyone¡¯s anxiety eased slightly as the blood samples were sent to the virology laboratory at Nandu Medical University for microscopic observation. The current software models for image analysis under the microscope were mature, quickly collecting photos that were then processed by recognition software on the computer. A fully automated, hands-off observation procedure operated at high speed. All researchers sat in front of their computers, waiting for the software¡¯s final conclusions of the image recognition. Previously, some software aided in research, but those were minor compared to the systematic assistance provided by this current software. The recently developed image recognition models, initially inadequate, had become stable, efficient, and accurate after several revisions. About half an hour later, the computer finished reviewing the images. In these images, 9.48% of tumor cells were infected by the virus, and roughly 30.25% of these infected tumor cells were forcefully induced into apoptosis and died. Rough calculations showed that about 3% of tumor cells were killed by the K virus in this experiment, with no infection or destruction detected in normal cells. 3%, a figure that may seem small, but for this experiment, it signaled significant success. ¡°Success!¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei slammed his fist onto the table. Everyone paused for a moment, then quickly understood the good news. ¡°Success!!!¡± They all began shouting, and soon, researchers, whether seasoned or young, erupted into celebration. An elated frenzy broke out in the laboratory as people hugged each other, danced, and rolled on the floor in joy. Their days and nights of tireless research finally bore fruit. 3% of tumor cells eliminated was a dazzling achievement, and with room for improvement, it was almost time to declare the treatment a massive clinical trial success. At the Tumor Laboratory of Sanbo Hospital, Lu Xiaolu and his team of graduate students who were stationed at Nandu Medical University joined in the jubilation with research institutes from both sides mixing together in the revelry. The greatest desire of true scholars is to achieve academic breakthroughs. Now, they had one; even though Professor Zhang Zhiwei¡¯s team joined midway through the project, they were significant participants and contributors. Just like an institute involved in a moon landing project and contributing to a part of the task, when the mission succeeds, the researchers naturally celebrate. Chapter 1418 - 1418 1064 Digital Camera ?Chapter 1418: Chapter 1064: Digital Camera Chapter 1418: Chapter 1064: Digital Camera They were not only excited to participate in this research, but also thrilled by the massive medical breakthrough it represented. In the field of tumor treatment, since targeted therapy and cell therapy, it had been a long time since a new, exciting treatment method appeared. Zhang Zhiwei and Lu Xiaolu hugged each other, too moved to speak. It wasn¡¯t just Professor Zhang Zhiwei and Lu Xiaolu who were excited; all the graduate students were thrilled, participating in such significant scientific research during their graduate studies would be a glorious page in their research careers. Moreover, during this participation, they learned some of the world¡¯s top scientific research thinking and methods, which meant they acquired top-level thinking and methods during their student years, greatly impacting their future academic path. On the other hand, Sisi did not have a high fever throughout, just mild to moderate fever for two days, with no antipyretic treatment used, after which she returned to normal by herself. Her levels, except for an increase in white blood cells and lymphocytes, showed no significant changes. A weight was lifted off Yang Ping¡¯s shoulders, giving him more confidence in the experiment. This experiment was accomplished without the aid of the system, suggesting the trials given by the system had fostered an ability in him, including the grasping of research directions in scientific research. Previously with the system¡¯s help, Yang Ping may not have unleashed his potential, but now without the system¡¯s help, his potential was released. Perhaps it is the incessant, dedicated research in the System Space that has cultivated this extraordinary capability. Based on current calculations, Sisi¡¯s tumor would shrink by about 3%, a measurable outcome. After a few days, when the dead tumor cells are broken down and absorbed, Yang Ping could perform imaging examinations on Sisi, but she cannot undergo an MR examination as she must remain on ECMO, and by the principle of comparison, only similar examinations can be compared. Yang Ping had to postpone the imaging examinations, and began checking the tumor growth rates calculated by the graduate students. Eventually, the volume difference between the two inspections would relate to the differences between growth rates and shrinkage rates. If the difference is positive, the tumor will still grow, albeit at a slower rate; if negative, the tumor will shrink, calculations that are easy to do and for which standard methods exist. Whether this difference is positive or negative is crucial. A negative value implies that the tumor might be curable while a positive value indicates that the tumor can only be temporarily controlled, which still represents significant progress. ¡ª Yang Ping compiled data from the third phase of the experiment and published it in ¡°Medicine,¡± a journal he runs, which, due to its online and print dual options, has rapidly gained international fame despite having only a Chinese version. To accelerate translating its articles into English, spontaneous translation groups composed of working professionals or researchers from medical colleges in the United States, Europe, and Japan have emerged, distributing the translated papers online. The ¡°Medicine¡± journal, utilizing the speed of internet dissemination, has gained significant prominence in the medical community, with many international scholars, including Manstein, strongly supporting ¡°Medicine,¡± contributing to its high-quality papers and nearly vertical rise in all indicators, and it is believed it could soon become one of the world¡¯s leading journals. Now Yang Ping has published an article on the K virus as a tumor treatment in this journal, immediately sparking vigorous discussions, where despite questions about the ethicality of the experiment, the audacity and imagination of the researchers are admired. Utilizing existing safe viruses to design an artificial virus capable of killing certain types of tumor cells represents an entirely novel treatment concept. ¡ª In the skyscraper of BG Company. Li Gaoyang was now extremely stressed, with the English translation of Yang Ping¡¯s public paper displayed on his desktop. Ruixing Company¡¯s suppression was still brewing, and now startling news emerged: Sanbo Hospital¡¯s experiments were studying a new tumor treatment method. After analyzing the paper, experts in the United States, through intense debates, believe this revolutionary method will eventually demolish traditional tumor treatment methods. Having dominated in the traditional treatment field for decades and established a factual monopoly, BG Company¡¯s revenue is mostly generated from tumor treatment, making this new method a potential threat to their foundation. Typically, they handle emerging challenges through acquisitions, a tried and true method, but for Yang Ping, obviously, this approach proves ineffective. They had once extended an olive branch to him due to his proposal of the Spatial Orientation Gene theory, offering unimaginable conditions such as a nine-figure salary, a luxury villa, women, and setting up an experimental lab per his desires, yet Yang Ping showed no interest, firmly and clearly refusing their invitation. ¡°If initially the proposition of the Spatial Orientation Gene made the bigwigs at BG Company believe that Yang Ping was a rare genius and that recruiting him would give their biomedical technology an absolute advantage, securing a wealth of technologies for the future, bringing immense profit to the company. However, this news now suggests that if this new technology is not theirs, and not under their control, it will destroy the foundation of the company¡¯s tumor treatment, rendering all accrued technologies and reserves to nothing, as it directly establishes a new pathway, in which BG Company has zero accumulation. Technological reserves are the moats formed by the long-term accumulation of a high-tech company, and such fortifications are difficult to cross because newcomers, even if they develop a bit of new tech, are always playing catch-up as BG Company can counter with its reserves. But if a competitor opens up a brand new track, that changes everything, making all reserves worthless overnight. Just like digital cameras made film cameras obsolete. Developing superior film cameras would hardly dethrone the existing industry giants, but the advent of digital cameras made film cameras worthless, relegated to historical museums. Now, Yang Ping¡¯s Virus Therapy is like the digital camera, while BG Company has hoarded a large amount of technology in the film camera sector, far ahead of any competitors, fantasizing about relying on these accumulations to continue reaping huge profits. The emergence of a completely new digital camera is absolutely intolerable¡ªeither own it or destroy it. BG Company is now divided into two factions, the elder statesmen believe in cooperating with Yang Ping, finding no need for conflict, while the younger faction advocates for fatally suppressing Ruixing Group and Yang Ping, resorting to extreme measures when necessary, and eradicating the enemy at its inception. Representative of the younger faction is Li Gaoyang, who, even if he might need surgery from Yang Ping in the future, would spare no effort, as personal matters should not affect the future of the entire BG Company. To eliminate internal resistance, Li Gaoyang and the younger generation like Rolf decided to undermine the decision-making power of these elders, aiming to expel them, freeing themselves from their behind-the-scene controls. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, what do you think of this matter?¡± Li Gaoyang slammed the document on the conference table. ¡°It either becomes ours, or we destroy it, there is no third option,¡± a senior executive said sternly. Today¡¯s meeting was attended only by members of the younger faction, with no elder statesmen. ¡°I agree!¡± Another executive raised his hand. ¡°Tumor treatment is one of our main pillars of revenue. If left unchecked, this pillar will be continuously eroded until we lose it completely, so I suggest we launch a destructive attack while it¡¯s still nascent, of course, acquiring it is also an option.¡± ¡°How do we explain to those old fogeys? They¡¯re always a hindrance.¡± ¡°Of course, they are afraid of death, they have already lost their fighting spirit, and to think they would kowtow to the enemy just to cling to life for a few more years.¡± ¡°Today¡¯s meeting content is strictly confidential, we must not report to those old fogeys, any intelligence regarding this matter should first come to me, we must take action, the future of BG Company must be in our hands, not in the hands of those decrepit old men, who only know how to look out for themselves.¡± Chapter 1419 - 1419 1065 The Beauty Trap ?Chapter 1419: Chapter 1065: The Beauty Trap Chapter 1419: Chapter 1065: The Beauty Trap After the virus from the most recent experiment injected into Sisi¡¯s body had all died, Yang Ping conducted a new experiment on her, once again injecting the K virus into her body. If a ratio of three percent in eradicating tumor cells can be maintained each time, then there is great hope for Sisi to control her illness and even be cured. Following the second and third trials, Sisi¡¯s heart function miraculously showed some recovery. Yang Ping decided to try weaning her off the ECMO gradually, and after attempting to do so step by step, Sisi eventually succeeded in getting off the ECMO. After the ECMO was removed, Sisi was able to get an MR scan. Xia Shu sent Sisi to the imaging department for an MR. After the MR images were obtained, Yang Ping measured each tumor on the MR images. Once the measurements were made, an exciting result emerged; some tumors had indeed shrunk by about 1%, such as the tumors in the skull, which had now decreased by one percent. This figure was particularly encouraging, indicating that Yang Ping¡¯s method was correct. Continuing down this path, Sisi would definitely be saved. Let¡¯s not just talk about 1%, even 0.1% or 0.001% is hope; as long as there is hope, there is nothing to fear. Not to mention now that it is possible to shrink the tumors, even stopping their growth or slowing down their growth is a success. By this point in the experiment, Yang Ping knew that half the battle was already won, the most dangerous hurdle was overcome, and what remained was to optimize the K virus. The System Space had previously given Yang Ping numerous opportunities to test and err, enabling him to bring any imagination into practice, resulting in such innovative capabilities. It is precisely because of this innovative ability that the current experiment could proceed so smoothly. Because from the beginning of the experiment to now, Yang Ping had used innovative methods at almost every step, not following the old paths, which allowed the entire experiment to progress by leaps and bounds, ultimately reaching this current stage. The virus is prone to mutations during the iterative process, and the mutated virus might be more satisfactory than the current one, or it might become worse. Therefore, classifying and preserving the pure viral strains is a pressing matter that must be taken seriously. Because if the post-iteration virus loses its current ability and the original strain cannot be found immediately, that would be troublesome. Therefore, it is crucial to preserve the ¡°seeds¡± of the current viral strains, and this task naturally falls to Professor Zhang Zhiwei, as their laboratory has this capability. After completing three experiments on Sisi, little Zhao Yufan had enough rest. Yang Ping didn¡¯t dare waste any time, arranging the experiments very tightly, without wasting a single minute or second. Previous experiments could be done in the System Space without wasting real-world time, so there was plenty of time to spare. Now, however, every step must be completed in reality, and every minute and second must be cherished. After Sisi was weaned off the ECMO, her heart was able to support her body¡¯s circulation, and her heart function was evidently better than before, as could be seen from various hemodynamic indicators monitored. Yang Ping analyzed that this relatively good outcome was related to the K virus killing tumor cells. Because of a 1% shrinkage of the metastatic tumors in the skull brainstem, don¡¯t underestimate this 1%. If it happens to be at a critical point, not to mention 1%, even a smaller change could save a life. It¡¯s like a precisely balanced scale that could tip to one side if even a small piece of paper is added on one side. After summarizing this experiment, Yang Ping began analyzing the structure of the K virus, trying to grasp the core of the problem fundamentally. Structure determines function, hence the current substantial differences between the current K virus and the previous one. Some are easily killed by the immune system, some can coexist peacefully with the immune system, some can cause persistent high fever reaching 42 degrees, while others only cause mild fever not exceeding 38.2 degrees. What kind of structure will have what kind of function, and if one can find patterns in the viral configurations already involved in the experiments, then predictions can be made about the virus. It¡¯s like the rules of the periodic table of elements, based on which one can infer the chemical properties of the elements, and predict elements that were not discovered at the time. Now Yang Ping wants to sort out a ¡°periodic table¡± for the K virus. He turned the virus structural diagrams and corresponding characteristics into cards, then pinned them on the whiteboard in his office, pondering their internal connections. After gradually recovering, Sisi was finally able to come out for some sunshine a few days later. Due to her weak physique, she could only sit in a wheelchair for the time being. To get on her feet as soon as possible, she trained to walk back and forth in the hospital garden with the help of crutches, assisted by her mother. As her illness required her to take a break from school, to avoid falling behind in her studies, she decided to start self-study. She had a dream of getting into medical school and becoming a Doctor in the future. However, while hospitalized at the Surgical Research Institute, Sisi wouldn¡¯t lack teachers. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, Xia Shu, Tang Fei, each of them top students, were ready to tutor her anytime. Hermes, the magnate, declared that he would bring all those famous teachers to the resting room of the ward to teach Sisi, as well as hire interest class teachers to give her lessons at home. Whatever other children could have, Sisi absolutely must not lack. ¡ª The paper about the K Virus Therapy by Yang Ping was published in the Medical Journal, which, like a bombshell in the medical field, sparked widespread discussion throughout the medical community worldwide. The paper version of the Medical Journal lags behind the online version. While the paper version had not yet come off the press, the online version of the paper had already circulated around the world. Chapter 1420 - 1420 1065 The Beauty Trap_2 ?Chapter 1420: Chapter 1065: The Beauty Trap_2 Chapter 1420: Chapter 1065: The Beauty Trap_2 It has been translated into various languages including English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, and more, with very high translation quality. Since the papers in medical journals are openly disseminated, the translators are top doctors in the field, and any inaccuracies in the translation are quickly identified and corrected by peers, making the translation increasingly precise as it circulates. At this time in the United States, in a manor owned by Li Gaoyang, many top tumor experts are gathered to discuss strategies, including Professor Griffin from the Anderson Cancer Center. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, in the field of tumor treatment, we have witnessed a significant breakthrough: a new treatment method known as K Virus Therapy. You might have read the paper on it. Although it also involves the term ¡®virus¡¯, K Virus Therapy is entirely different from oncolytic virus therapy; the similarity lies only in the name. K Virus is a unique and safe combination of a virus and a ¡®K factor¡¯. This virus can infect tumor cells, and the K factor can initiate the apoptosis of these tumor cells. It¡¯s quite miraculous. They can precisely recognize undifferentiated cells and, once recognized, immediately initiate the apoptosis, leading to the death of tumor cells.¡± ¡°This method has already shown promising results in clinical trials with patients suffering from osteosarcoma.¡± ¡°It can be predicted that in the near future, this method could completely replace traditional treatment methods, becoming a revolutionary new treatment for tumors.¡± Professor Griffin, a world-renowned clinical oncologist in tumors, shared his views with a delighted heart. Professor Burns, the chief scientist in tumor drug development at BG Company, furrowed his brows after hearing Griffin¡¯s speech: ¡°Professor Griffin, please remember the theme of today¡¯s meeting. We need to discuss strategies around this theme.¡± Griffin was obviously too pleased; today¡¯s meeting was hosted by BG Company, and all the attending experts had either directly received research funding from BG Company or their institutes, universities, or hospitals had received substantial donations. The theme of this meeting was¡ªHow to deal with the end of traditional treatment¡ªthe K Virus Therapy. ¡°This is not the happy news you described; it is something terrifying. The emergence of the K Virus means that traditional therapies are destined to decline and perish, just like film cameras before digital cameras. Our situation now is just like that of the film cameras back then. You know, we have accumulated countless technologies in the field of traditional treatments, whether drugs, equipment, or various diagnostic technologies, these technologies have helped us build high barriers in the field of tumor diagnosis and treatment. We once thought that by relying on these high barriers, we could maintain our absolute advantage, but now, all our beautiful creations will be brutally shattered, all our efforts, all our accumulations might one day turn to nothing, what does this mean? It means we will no longer have sufficient funds to research new topics, to solve the many problems in human health,¡± Professor Burns said with an excited and loud voice. Griffin was very depressed now, as what was clearly a good thing was being portrayed as something demonic. ¡°Today, we gather here with two purposes: to discuss strategies and to unite in condemning this Chinese professor, demanding that he fully hand over his research data because this new method is a wealth of all humanity, it should be shared, not monopolized by some individual or company.¡± Such hypocrisy, such double standards! BG Company itself holds a large amount of technology, which they consider top secret because it can bring them immeasurable wealth. Yet now they claim that K Virus Therapy should be shared, which is laughable. Unexpectedly, Professor Burns¡¯ speech received a wave of approval; they were all highly agitated, eager to criticize Professor Yang Ping for his selfishness for not disclosing the details of his experiments in his paper. ¡ª In Tokyo, Japan, at the headquarters of Fujiwara Corporation. Fujiwara Wakan is sitting on a sofa, across from him stands his assistant, Sha Gui. ¡°This is a document sent from Mr. Gaoyang in the United States, please review it personally.¡± ¡°Sit down, we¡¯ve talked about not being so formal; we¡¯ve known each other since we were seven, we were classmates in elementary, middle, to university, I wouldn¡¯t be where I am today without your assistance, I¡¯ve told you many times, sit down and let¡¯s talk,¡± Fujiwara Wakan said gently. After several family rivalries, he now firmly holds the supreme power of the entire Fujiwara conglomerate, while the previous head, Fujiwara Tani, has completely retired from the foreground. Fujiwara Wakan browses through the materials sent by the Americans Li Gaoyang: ¡°They want us to make a move, then they sit back and reap the benefits; if successful, they take the fruits, if it fails, the consequences are on us, they have really thought this through.¡± ¡°But can we refuse?¡± Sha Gui sits opposite, well aware that the Americans are not to be trifled with. ¡°Actually, we can follow their suggestions, but once we achieve the results, we must not just hand them over; we need to keep a firm grip on them,¡± Fujiwara Wakan said with a smile. ¡°Is that possible?¡± ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°The president is right; we can feign compliance. Those Americans are straightforward and lack strategies; we can take advantage of them.¡± ¡°If I¡¯m not mistaken, the task of commercializing this technology will be undertaken by a Chinese company called Ruixing, which will grow into a behemoth in the world of biomedicine.¡± ¡°Here¡¯s the intel on Ruixing, President!¡± ¡°Huang Jiacai? I didn¡¯t expect it to be him.¡± ¡°Do you know this Chinese man, President?¡± Fujiwara Wakan paused briefly, as if recalling something: ¡°Do you remember when the old president was sick, and my older brother brought a doctor from China to perform the main surgery?¡± ¡°I remember, how could I forget? Those few nights were a storm of blood and fury for the Fujiwara family, and it was then that we defeated our enemies and seized control of the Fujiwara family.¡± ¡°Yes, Li Gaoyang said that his research results could destroy our foundation in tumor drugs and shake our position in the medical field. The inventor is this doctor, Professor Yang Ping, and Huang Jiacai from Ruixing Medical had been to Japan at that time. I met him once.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°That was in the lobby of the ward section at the Affiliated Hospital of the University of Tokyo. I had just visited my uncle and was going home when I ran into him. We only glanced at each other, but I saw a different aura about him, feeling like he was one of my kind. Turns out my intuition was right; he¡¯s now the head of Ruixing. Though currently just a leader of a Chinese medical company, in the future, he will be the leader of a global giant.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, President, you have a good eye for people. Huang Jiacai once had a business conflict with a subsidiary of BG Company, and he almost won perfectly. Now BG Company is preparing to unleash the power of the entire consortium to crush Ruixing, and again, it¡¯s Huang Jiacai who stands on the opposite side.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not just the subsidiaries of BG Company; even Li Gaoyang is no match for him. BG Company has already declined.¡± ¡°What should we do?¡± ¡°Follow the original plan, with Miss Miyuki taking the lead.¡± ¡°Using beauty as a strategy?¡± ¡°If we can make Yang Ping one of us, it would be the plan with the smallest investment and the largest benefit.¡± ¡°But that would sacrifice Miss Miyuki¡¯s happiness.¡± ¡°No, you don¡¯t know. Professor Yang Ping is Little Sister Miyuki¡¯s dream lover. If we can succeed, it will be a win-win situation. Even if Miyuki doesn¡¯t like Yang Ping, for the future of the Fujiwara family, she should make this sacrifice. Great men often falter before beautiful women. Didn¡¯t Einstein also fall for a beautiful Soviet spy? Miyuki is beautiful and smart, a top graduate from the Medicinal College of Tokyo University, and has studied under Yang Ping. They have a solid emotional foundation, and a beautiful love story is bound to happen between them.¡± ¡°Would Miss Miyuki agree?¡± ¡°She certainly will, whether it¡¯s for personal feelings or considering the family¡¯s interest. She¡¯s already declined a marriage arranged by the family. Why? Because she only has Yang Ping in her heart.¡± Chapter 1421 - 1421 1066 Undercurrents Stirring ?Chapter 1421: Chapter 1066: Undercurrents Stirring Chapter 1421: Chapter 1066: Undercurrents Stirring Sisi¡¯s recovery is swift, as long as the metastatic tumor inside her skull can be reduced below the critical threshold, without causing significant suppression of myocardial pulsation, there won¡¯t be any immediate threat to her life. Of course, there are other dangers, like tumor hemorrhaging, but should these arise, they can at least be addressed with surgery, such as emergency operations to remove hematomas if intracranial hemorrhage causes compression. Surgery is Yang Ping¡¯s forte; in his hands, any problem that can be solved with surgery isn¡¯t considered a problem. Therefore, Yang Ping is not immediately worried about Sisi; rather, he himself is somewhat concerned as the virus still hasn¡¯t been cleared from his body. Although there are no special adverse reactions, it remains a latent threat. He has his own blood drawn for viral titer monitoring. The report from Nandu Medical University¡¯s virus laboratory shows that the K virus is still present but at a lower titer than before, indicating that the viral load is still decreasing. As there are currently no adverse reactions and the viral numbers are falling, he decides to have regular check-ups. Yang Ping is not anxious about this for now. Truly clearing the virus from the body would require the development of a drug targeting the K virus, a formidable task that he doesn¡¯t have the luxury to focus on at the moment. The virus Yang Ping injects into Shishi has been modified to knock out the replication gene. Once these viruses are introduced into the body, they are incapable of replication, effectively fighting a two-front war against tumor cells and the immune system¡ªthey die off one by one. The replenishment of their fighting force relies on subsequent injections of the K virus. However, there remains an issue with reinjections of the K virus¡ªit has to travel from the injection site to the tumor, and during this process, it undergoes attacks from the immune system. Yang Ping wonders, could he not knock out the replication gene of these viruses? Allowing them to replicate within the body could mean that after braving the immune system on their way to the tumors, even if only a few viruses survive, they could parasitize inside the tumors and, relying on the tumor cells for replication, quickly build up numbers sufficient for widespread infection and eradication of the tumors. Of course, this approach carries a huge risk; if the viral replication becomes uncontrolled, could it lead to uncontrollable severe consequences? Could it potentially cause a new disease? After analysis, Yang Ping concludes that this possibility is very low, and so far, the virus staying within his body has not caused any other diseases. No matter how the K virus mutates, it cannot escape the constraints of the source virus. Like the influenza virus, even if they mutate, they only cause influenza with varying symptoms. The source virus used for the K virus is quite safe, so no matter how it mutates, it cannot change its basic structure. Structure dictates properties, so its fundamental characteristics will not change much. This is the theoretical basis for Yang Ping daring to experiment with live viruses. In fact, although the K virus is derived from another virus, it can no longer be categorized as a virus. Yang Ping believes it should be called an activatable tumor cell apoptosis protein complex. This is a bold notion; when Yang Ping shared this daring idea with Lu Xiaolu and Professor Zhang Zhiwei, they were both very surprised and thought it was a bold concept. Were they to conduct this experiment themselves, they would certainly not dare to contemplate such a thought. Because all current medical applications that employ viruses for prevention or treatment require that the viruses be castrated, knocking out the replication gene to prevent a self-replicating virus from going rogue and causing serious consequences. For example, oncolytic virus therapy follows this rationale, as do certain vaccines, and all other medical measures involving viruses do not deviate from this approach. Professor Zhang Zhiwei simply cannot agree with this bold idea, while Lu Xiaolu believes it¡¯s possible to try within a limited scope; he supports Yang Ping in realizing this new concept. ¡ª When Fujiwara Miyuki received the task from her brother, Fujiwara Wakan, she emphatically refused; she would not do anything to harm Yang Ping. When Fujiwara Wakan assured her that there would be no harm done to Yang Ping, merely an invitation to recruit him, and that if he could become part of the Fujiwara Family, it would be a blessing for the entire clan. Furthermore, Fujiwara Wakan told Miyuki that if she liked Yang Ping, why not pursue him, why not strive for her own happiness. This statement touched Miyuki¡¯s heart. Indeed, why shouldn¡¯t she pursue this? If she tried and still failed, she would have no regrets in her life. The few months she spent as a visiting doctor at Sanbo Hospital left her with many beautiful memories. That experience is unforgettable for her and comprises some of her life¡¯s most cherished recollections. Now that Yang Ping is a husband and father, but Miyuki still can¡¯t forget him, she feels she never will in this lifetime. Apart from this man who stands at the mountain¡¯s peak, there is no room for any other man in her heart. After some deliberation, Miyuki decides to accept the task, whether for herself or for the family, she is willing to try. Most of Japan¡¯s major trading companies have their own intelligence networks, such as the renowned Mitsubishi Corporation, which has its network spread across the world¡ªa Japanese business tradition. As a vast family enterprise like the Fujiwara Family, they certainly also have their intelligence network distributed globally. They collect various pieces of intelligence to support their strategic decisions. Chapter 1422 - 1422 1066 Undercurrents Surge_2 ?Chapter 1422: Chapter 1066: Undercurrents Surge_2 Chapter 1422: Chapter 1066: Undercurrents Surge_2 Fujiwara Family¡¯s intelligence network in China includes Yangzi as one of the key handlers. This capable woman had lived in China for many years and is an expert on China. She is now secretly called back to Tokyo to discuss significant matters. ¡°What approach should we take?¡± asked Yangzi to introduce us to the options during this critical secret meeting. Yangzi stood up, gave a bow, and calmly began to express her views: ¡°It would be difficult to complete the mission relying solely on Miss Miyuki. I suggest we set up multiple lines of action to proceed simultaneously. Besides Miss Miyuki, at least three other lines are necessary, including one from the virology laboratory of Nandu Medical University; another from the laboratory at Sanbo Hospital; and a third one from the perspective of a patient involved in the experiment. Operating these inside lines simultaneously and infiltrating from different angles makes them hard to guard against.¡± ¡°Firstly, we strive to obtain a sample of the K biologics. Once we have the sample, our researchers can replicate it and then upgrade it.¡± ¡°Secondly, we step by step obtain their entire experiment data. This is challenging, but with thorough preparation and meticulous operation, it can be achieved.¡± ¡°Thirdly, we spot and recruit talent in these laboratories. If we cannot recruit Professor Yang Ping, we could consider others such as Professor Zhang Zhiwei, Professor Lu Xiaolu, and their doctoral graduate students. In any case, we should explore all possibilities to dig out technology and talent.¡± ¡°After receiving your assignment, I made very detailed observations and studies on them; their management is lax and completely lacking in guard, making them not equipped with systematic defensive capabilities. But we should not take it lightly. However, one thing I must emphasize is that recruiting Professor Yang Ping is enormously challenging. BG Company has made numerous attempts in the past. They have approached Professor Yang Ping through various means and offered very generous terms ¨C anything he wanted, BG Company could provide, yet Professor Yang Ping still refused them. If he could refuse BG Company, there¡¯s no reason he wouldn¡¯t refuse us, who could not offer more than BG Company.¡± A middle-aged woman named Kikuta Sakura at the meeting said, ¡°That¡¯s not necessarily true, this time Miss Miyuki is personally taking action. Miss Miyuki and Professor Yang have had a past connection, which provides a sentimental foundation. If we can utilize this well, I believe we can succeed in recruiting him. Plus, we will provide professional training for Miss Miyuki, including psychological manipulation, seduction, and other aspects. It¡¯s hard for a man without counter-training against such to resist a trained woman.¡± Yangzi insisted on her opinion: ¡°No! I must seriously and solemnly tell you that Professor Yang Ping is an odd person. Apart from his passion for medicine, all other temptations, which seem irresistible to ordinary people, might be utterly disregarded by him¡ªmoney, power, fame, beauties, etc., he would choose to ignore.¡± ¡°Really? But he¡¯s also married, isn¡¯t he? There¡¯s a saying, if the temptation didn¡¯t move him, it¡¯s because the force of the temptation wasn¡¯t strong enough,¡± Kikuta Sakura scoffed. Miss Yangzi shook her head, ¡°Ever since the president gave me the orders, I have observed and studied him for a long time. Regrettably, I must tell you he is such an abnormality. Probably only medical challenges and his wife can stimulate dopamine secretion in his brain. Apart from that, I doubt anything else can.¡± Upon hearing this, Fujiwara Miyuki became somewhat despondent, realizing Yangzi was right, he often chose to ignore many temptations. ¡°You really don¡¯t understand the lethal power a woman can have over a man; the so-called female stars you mention are merely fleshly, such an intellectual man wouldn¡¯t take interest in those. His needs are more psychological, higher-level needs¡ªthey need mental solace and resonance. Didn¡¯t Einstein also fall under a Soviet woman¡¯s skirt? I can tell you confidently that I have never failed,¡± Kikuta Sakura said confidently. ¡°What shall we do then?¡± someone worriedly asked. ¡°That¡¯s why we need multiple approaches and several preparations. While striving to achieve the highest goal, we also need to prepare for other objectives, like recruiting other talents, obtaining the K biologic samples, and acquiring their complete experimental data,¡± said Yangzi. ¡°Yes, after our evaluations, his current K biologics treatment for tumors can be completely replicated if we obtain sufficient samples and data. Unlike his previous Spatial Orientation Gene, even having samples and data is useless. The Spatial Orientation Gene theory is a completely foreign theory, just like Einstein¡¯s Theory of Relativity when first proposed, only three and a half people in the world could understand it. Now, the Spatial Orientation Gene theory proposed by Professor Yang Ping is similar; likely no more than three people in the world understand it. Not just us, but BG Company as well; even if they obtained all experimental data concerning the Spatial Orientation Gene theory, they too would struggle to apply the theory to practical use because understanding the theory would take a long time, and there¡¯s a deep chasm between theory and application. But the K biologics are different,¡± another meeting participant said. ¡ª Zhao Guohong was incredibly fortunate this time. Originally in a state of desperation, he now found that not only was there hope for his child¡¯s recovery, but everything was also free. It was something he couldn¡¯t have even dared to dream about before, and it felt like living a dream. Upon learning that Zhao Guohong had greatly facilitated the experiment this time, Wang Changxin, aware that he was a contractor, wanted to express his gratitude for Zhao¡¯s child¡¯s participation in the experiment. With a grand gesture, Old Wang clapped Old Zhao on the shoulder and said, ¡°I¡¯ll make a call to a friend and refer some engineering business to you, guaranteeing there will be no delays in payment.¡± This proposition terrified the long-time contractor, Zhao. The engineering industry had been sluggish in recent years, and it had been a long time since he received a decent project. Now someone was offering him a project with guaranteed timely payments, and he was thrilled. Old Zhao thought about taking gifts to visit the contact introduced by Boss Wang. But before he knew it, the big-time contractor had already come to the hospital entrance to pick him up and took him directly to the construction site. The big boss showed him around the construction site, which was a huge commercial complex, reportedly involving investments of several billions. ¡°Boss Zhao, what do you think? Which part of the business are you interested in? We can sign the contract right away,¡± the big boss said politely. Zhao still wanted to do what he was best at¡ªlandscape gardening. For such a large complex, the landscape gardening project was also substantial, worth several billion. He cautiously asked, ¡°Boss, can I take care of the swimming pool and the adjacent green areas?¡± After saying this, he immediately regretted his bold request, worrying it might reflect poorly and tarnish Boss Wang¡¯s reputation. The other party was stunned for a moment, looking at Old Zhao. Zhao internally lamented; people shouldn¡¯t be greedy. Now having asked for such a big project, others would definitely have negative thoughts, probably thinking he was too greedy. ¡°Boss¡ªyou see¡ª¡± Old Zhao stammered. The boss said, ¡°Is that all you want? I mean, if you¡¯re interested in greenery, how about you take on all the landscaping for this entire project?¡± Good heavens, Old Zhao was so shocked that he almost collapsed on the spot. The landscaping for this project was massive, a project worth several billions, how could he possibly handle it. ¡°Rest assured, we¡¯ll transfer the initial payment to you first, and we¡¯ll absolutely not delay any subsequent progress payments. We won¡¯t delay payments to you at all,¡± the boss promised. Now it was Zhao¡¯s turn to be stunned: ¡°Uh, no, I mean, I¡ªI¡ª¡± I can¡¯t handle something so huge. I¡¯ve only ever managed small jobs, just overseeing a dozen workers as a small contractor. There must be some misunderstanding. Chapter 1423 - 1423 1067 Of the Weak Water Three Thousand I ?Chapter 1423: Chapter 1067: Of the Weak Water Three Thousand, I Scoop Only One Ladleful Chapter 1423: Chapter 1067: Of the Weak Water Three Thousand, I Scoop Only One Ladleful Sisi¡¯s recovery was going well, and after evaluation, Yang Ping felt it was possible to experiment with the non-castrated virus. Although there were certain risks, he decided to give it a try. If one always hesitates to take risks, it is difficult to achieve breakthroughs. It is feasible to take risks after thorough assessment and preparation. Even if it doesn¡¯t succeed, just consider it a severe cold. Yang Ping was actively preparing for the next experiment. The virus laboratory at Nandu Medical University began a new round of various tests on the K virus. After several rigorous tests, the new K virus was considered to have not lost the basic characteristics of the original virus, ensuring the safety of experiments using replicable viruses. The Tumor Laboratory at Sanbo Hospital also concluded after a series of checks that the K virus mainly infects tumor cells and a smaller portion of normal cells. However, observations from several experiments show that it only causes apoptosis in tumor cells, not in normal cells. Its impact on normal cells is lower than that of its source virus¡ªthe adenovirus¡ªon human cells. The vector source virus used by the K virus is a type of adenovirus¡ªbut not just any adenovirus, rather a recombinant adenovirus. Recombinant adenovirus, a viral vector system with replication defects, is widely used in fields such as gene therapy and basic life science research. Recombinant adenovirus has several notable advantages: broad infection range, capable of infecting all cell lines, primary cells, and some tissues; infection efficiency up to 100%, surpassing all other viral vector tools and liposome transfection; large external gene capacity, capable of carrying up to 8Kb; does not integrate into the genome; high titer, easy to handle. Therefore, recombinant adenovirus has always been regarded as one of the most promising gene delivery tools. Of course, Yang Ping borrowed it not to deliver genes, but to deliver the K factor. Before using it, Yang Ping further refined it. He then embedded the K factor into its protein structure to form a protein complex. The commonly used adenovirus vector is based on human adenovirus type 5, whose genome is a 36Kb long linear double-stranded DNA. This type of adenovirus enters the cell by binding its own fibers to cellular surface receptors (such as CAR), then is endocytosed from the endosome to the cytosol and nucleus, initiating viral replication and assembly with the help of cellular transcription and translation machinery; a complete viral life cycle leads to cell death and the release of viral particles. The ordinary adenovirus is also not to be taken lightly. Once infected, it can easily cause diseases in the respiratory, digestive, and urinary tracts, such as pharyngitis, pneumonia, conjunctivitis, etc., resulting in symptoms like fever, cough, sputum, throat redness, swelling, congestion, diarrhea, vomiting, etc., and in severe cases, can cause breathing difficulties leading to suffocation death. However, recombinant adenovirus is completely different from the ordinary adenovirus, with differences similar to those between dogs and wolves. Recombinant adenovirus has been completely domesticated by researchers; not only have its replication genes been knocked out, but some of its pathogenic genes have also been eliminated on the basis of understanding its genes and characteristics. Hence, this recombinant virus no longer has strong pathogenicity, but retains other useful characteristics for experiments, such as: a broad infection range, high infection efficiency, and following Yang Ping¡¯s modification, a very high infection rate for undifferentiated tumor cells compared to normal cells. Therefore, the adenovirus recombinantly modified by Yang Ping has tremendous potential. It is a significant innovation in itself, not only for use in K virus therapy but also for many other tumor treatments in the future. It adds a highly energetic and precise weapon to the arsenal for treating tumors. Even so, Yang Ping does not dare to take this lightly. He meticulously reexamined the genes of these viruses to confirm that their genomes were correct. This specially recombinant adenovirus has one more significant advantage over the original ordinary adenovirus. The original ordinary adenovirus possesses strong infectivity, as it can survive for 30 minutes in an environment at 56¡ãC and two minutes at 100¡ãC, which facilitates its transmissibility. However, the adenovirus recombinantly modified by Yang Ping¡¯s team can survive for no more than one minute in dry conditions, with an average life span of only about twenty seconds. Even in moist environments, it does not survive more than one minute at 56¡ãC. Thus, this virus is extremely fragile. It cannot survive outside the body and can only exist inside the human body. Additionally, the human immune system maintains sufficient lethality against it, which makes it far less threatening to humans than the ordinary adenovirus. So no matter how you look at it, this recombinantly modified adenovirus is very safe. Therefore, Yang Ping¡¯s risk-taking is not reckless; he has enough confidence to undertake this. ¡ª The K virus cultured in the virology laboratory of Nandu Medical University had completed packaging and was transported cold-chain to Sanbo Hospital. Yang Ping injected these viruses into Sisi¡¯s body. Clearly, the live virus had a much greater impact on the human body than the castrated virus. On the third day after the virus was injected, Sisi developed a high fever again, but this time the temperature was not so exaggerated, only 39 degrees. For Sisi, who had already gone through several high fever tests of 42 degrees, she could completely withstand a fever of 39 degrees. Chapter 1424 - 1424 1067 Of the Weak Water Three Thousand I ?Chapter 1424: Chapter 1067: Of the Weak Water Three Thousand, I Scoop Only One Ladleful_2 Chapter 1424: Chapter 1067: Of the Weak Water Three Thousand, I Scoop Only One Ladleful_2 The fever lasted longer this time than before, but fortunately, it fluctuated around 39.0 degrees and never exceeded 40 degrees, with the lowest being about 38.5 degrees. Its fever pattern was wave-like, which is consistent with the K virus¡¯s struggle with the immune system inside the body, because the current K virus is completely different from the previous one. The previous K virus had its replication gene knocked out; it was a castrated virus that would continuously decrease in number under the attack of the immune system, so once the high fever passed its peak, it could only decline thereafter. The current K virus has the ability to replicate. When the human immune system kills part of the virus, it can recover its numbers through replication, presenting a tug-of-war with the human immune system. This tug-of-war is reflected in the wave-like pattern of the fever. The biopsy samples of the living tumor tissue sent for examination indeed confirmed Professor Yang¡¯s prediction. Unlike the previous trials, this time, a very large proportion of tumor cells were infected by the experimental virus. Observations from the biopsied tumor cell samples showed that over 10% of the tumor cells were infected, and this ratio is still increasing as the virus replicates. Samples taken from different areas showed great uniformity. Due to the dangerous nature of intracranial tumors, they could not be biopsied for samples. However, from the infection rate in tissue samples taken from other tumor sites, it¡¯s almost certain that the intracranial tumors are likely infected with the virus, as the modified virus is able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier. This result made Liang Ping extremely excited. After surviving the attack from the body¡¯s immune system, a portion of the K virus successfully reached the tumor cells, where it began to use the tumor¡¯s nutrients to replicate. It was unexpected that such a cautious risk would bring such a great reward. It seems that playing it safe is not always the best option. Innovation requires a spirit of risk-taking. As observations continued, the infected tumor cells began to undergo apoptosis en masse. Calculations showed that nearly 3% of the tumor was dying off. The infection and apoptosis ratios maintained a three-to-one ratio as before. Due to the increased infection rate, the apoptosis rate also increased correspondingly. A 3% apoptosis rate ¨C what does that mean? It certainly exceeds the growth rate of the tumor. If treatments continue in this way, there is hope for curing the tumor. It was unexpected that switching from a strict virus to a live virus treatment would bring such good effects. At this stage of the experiment, Professor Yang began to think about naming this K virus. After numerous modifications, it couldn¡¯t be called a virus anymore. It needed a brand new name ¨C Undifferentiated Cell-Targeted Apoptotic Protein Complex Factor. Professor Yang wrote this well-thought-out name on the whiteboard in his office. Looking at this impressive name, Professor Yang leaned back in his chair in his office to rest. He hadn¡¯t returned home these days; it was time to go back and hug his son. Of course, he also needed to hug his wife. ¡ª Every examination of Sisi¡¯s heart showed improvement over the previous one, indicating that the tumor was continuing to shrink. The improvement in cardiac function suggested that the impact of the intracranial tumor on the brain stem was decreasing. Such visible changes were more reliable than experimental data. After all, in clinical medicine, any data must be translated into clinical changes to have practical significance. After the virus injection, apart from a few days of fever, no other adverse symptoms appeared, boosting the confidence of the experimental team once again. Recalling the beginning of the experiment, the team had stumbled through, and now everything was under control, there was an undeniable sense of amazement in everyone¡¯s hearts. Professor Yang was remarkable; his brain was like that of an alien. The K factor, the recombinant adenovirus, the combination of the two, going directly to clinical trials, using a replicable virus for experimentation, and classifying this virus as a replicable protein complex capable of initiating the apoptosis program in tumor cells without the K factor ¨C each of these was an astonishing and incredible innovation. His experiment seemed rough at the start, entirely like a fantasy, feeling too whimsical. At that time, even the researchers at Nandu Medical University Virus Laboratory privately discussed that such an idea was impossible to realize, way too fanciful. But as the experiment progressed, it became increasingly clearer and more likely to succeed, ultimately achieving success. The entire process seemed a bit incredible. Moreover, Yang Ping¡¯s calm and rational response to failure also surprised them, because most people would be somewhat affected by failure, but he was not fazed at all. Even after a setback, he remained filled with passion, as if he had already determined that he would be successful. Yang Ping himself did not know why he had such a talent to always maintain a strong passion and curiosity. He had an accurate grasp of the research direction by relying on intuition combined with logic, which might be the result of his previous devil-style training in the System Space. When Sisi¡¯s next MRI images came out, Yang Ping measured the tumor volume, especially the intracranial tumors. They had not only stopped growing, but also shrank compared to before, albeit very slightly. Yet, the extent of reduction had increased significantly compared to the previous measurements. The data matched the clinical symptoms, and now the subsequent experiments could be carried out unimpeded. As for ethical issues, there¡¯s also the logic of ¡°victorious kings and defeated bandits.¡± When you fail, you invite countless accusations. When you succeed, others only see your results and forget the process. During his rounds, Yang Ping paid special attention to the cactus in the corner. It was getting greener and more robust, and Sisi¡¯s spirits had improved as well. ¡ª Fujiwara Masao had some previous acquaintance with Director Han. He wrote a letter to Director Han hoping to help arrange for Fujiwara Miyuki to come to China for an extended period of training, about three years. Miyuki had a good impression from her previous short-term training here, so now she wanted a longer period of training, hoping to learn from Professor Yang¡¯s superb medical skills, and later contribute to the health of Japanese people. After reading the letter, Director Han pondered. Whether it was Chinese proficiency or other aspects, Fujiwara Miyuki met the criteria, and international exchanges for training are normal. But now, Director Han was not very familiar with Yang Ping¡¯s situation. Yang Ping was already an independent leader of an institute¡¯s discipline. His current work was just to provide logistics support. Director Han informed Yang Ping about the matter to let him decide. Yang Ping thought about it. At this time, whether it was domestic or international, those who came for training had to be treated with caution. He passed the matter to Manager Qiu. Manager Qiu is currently responsible for all the security work surrounding Yang Ping. He was highly vigilant about Fujiwara Miyuki¡¯s visit, feeling it might be related to Yang Ping¡¯s latest research findings. Huang Jiachai had already informed him of the importance of Professor Yang¡¯s research findings, which could potentially shake the foundations of many pharmaceutical giants. These people would either try to attract Yang Ping or exhaust all means to steal the research findings. If neither of the first two was possible, they might take risks and resort to extreme measures to stop Yang Ping¡¯s research progress. When capital gets bloodthirsty, anything is possible. Manager Qiu immediately reported the matter to his superiors, and the superiors replied: She can come, but we must make good use of her to get a hold of the opponent¡¯s arrangements quickly. Before coming, Fujiwara Miyuki contacted Xiao Su and Tang Fei. When she was training in China, the three of them had a good relationship, considered sisters, and had traveled together to Hangzhou. This return was to give her sisters a heads-up. As for Miyuki¡¯s return, Yang Ping had no ripples in his heart. His thoughts on matters of men and women were simple¡ªhe would only take a single ladle from the ¡°endless waters.¡± He now had a wife and children; he could not afford to make a mistake in this regard. So whether she came or not, Yang Ping didn¡¯t have many thoughts. Whether to agree to her coming or not, he left the decision to Manager Qiu. Chapter 1425 - 1425 1068 A Disease with a 100 Mortality Rate ?Chapter 1425: Chapter 1068: A Disease with a 100% Mortality Rate Chapter 1425: Chapter 1068: A Disease with a 100% Mortality Rate Germany Berlin. Professor Mainshtan still hasn¡¯t come to his senses. He sits in his office, daydreaming, with a German-translated paper weighed down by a teacup on his desk¡ªthe paper is none other than Yang Ping¡¯s on K-virus therapy. As the head of the German translation team for the ¡°Medicine¡± journal, Professor Mainshtan had translated Yang Ping¡¯s paper into German on the very day it was published. Such is the immediacy of online paper dissemination; print publications simply cannot compete with this speed. On that day, the translated paper spread wildly within the German medical community. The paper spread not only within the medical community but also, somehow, reached the ears of some tumor patients. Some of them called Professor Mainshtan¡¯s laboratory to inquire about the details of K-virus therapy and hoped to schedule treatment. The laboratory¡¯s phone lines were nearly overwhelmed, which left Professor Mainshtan at a loss for words. He knew he should have translated it anonymously, without leaving his own name and the laboratory¡¯s. Now he dare not set the lab phone down properly, instead leaving it aside. Professor Mainshtan hadn¡¯t yet digested the theory of spatial orientation genes, and now Professor Yang had come up with a K-virus therapy targeting tumors, which was a bit too much for him to handle. What exactly is this? Professor Mainshtan pondered, amazed by its incredible capabilities. This miraculous K-virus uses a recombinant adenovirus to implant a structure called the K-factor, with the adenovirus acting as a missile and the K-factor as its warhead. This ¡°missile¡± carries the K-factor via blood circulation directly into the tumor. Once inside, the newly recombinant virus widely infects tumor cells, releasing the K-factor within the cells just as common viruses release viral particles. Once the K-factor is released, it can initiate the apoptotic program in tumor cells. Using this principle, it can kill tumor cells with immense precision, truly living up to the ideal of targeted therapy. Marvelous! Professor Mainshtan exclaimed. Each step is ingeniously conceived, such as Professor Yang¡¯s technique of recombinant adenovirus, which is unparalleled. He has genetically re-engineered the existing adenovirus, almost entirely avoiding its disadvantages while bringing its advantages to full fruition, setting a paradigm for the use of carrier viruses. Adenovirus, as it originally was, has an extremely high infection rate for all cells within the body, almost 100%, which is the virus¡¯s greatest strength. Yang Ping capitalized on this fact. If other viruses were used as carriers, they¡¯d be unable to infect various cells and thus could not infect tumor cells. Without achieving infection, the subsequent step of killing tumor cells cannot even be contemplated. Yang Ping has modified the recombinant virus to maintain a 100% infection rate in tumor cells, but the infection rate in other normal cells has been reduced. That is, it differentiates between tumor cells and normal cells, prioritizing tumor cells for infection. The K-factor, which acts as the warhead, is a weapon that many tumor experts have longed for; countless teams worldwide are working on tumor therapy, hoping to obtain such factors. Yet, Yang Ping seems to have effortlessly resolved this. If the concept of spatial orientation genes seem esoteric to most people, then the current K-virus therapy is very down-to-earth. Almost every oncology physician with professional training can understand it. Professor Mainshtan rejuvenated, immediately called his assistant: ¡°Book me a ticket to China!¡± He was initially going to attend Yang Ping¡¯s wedding, but now he decided to go earlier. He wanted to see for himself the actual state of this experiment¡ªit¡¯s incredibly exciting. ¡ª While the current adenovirus-based K-virus construction may not be the best configuration, it is definitely the optimal choice under current conditions. Other prototypes will be searched for later. With these few experiments, the K-virus therapy has basically taken shape. Although there are still many imperfections, it¡¯s okay¡ªthey will be gradually perfected while simultaneously continuing treatment. Seeing hope in this, Sisi is now reassured by Yang Ping¡¯s treatment plan, unlike before when she felt utterly helpless amid traditional therapies. Continuation of chemotherapy and radiotherapy without finding a solution would not only fail to cure but would accelerate the deterioration of her condition. Yang Ping has prepared a treatment plan for Sisi, involving regular injections of the K-virus. Even if the virus successfully infects tumor cells after being injected into Sisi, it will still face attacks from the immune system. The virus can only replicate and resist these attacks for a longer time, but as time goes on, these viruses will ultimately be eliminated by the human immune system. If there is no immunity against a virus, that is the most dangerous situation. Once it begins to cause destruction, the human body has no defense against it. Humans aren¡¯t afraid of viruses that they¡¯ve continuously dealt with, rather new ones are the concern. For instance, viruses from permafrost or extraterrestrial viruses could be extremely dangerous once humans are infected since we have no immunity against these new threats. Without the experience to combat them, infection would mean death. Yang Ping¡¯s own blood test results, taken again, have come out¡ªthe virus has been completely eliminated, with no further detection of the virus. It seems that no matter how much the virus changes, it still primarily relies on the adenovirus gene, which determines its nature. Due to the mutation that appeared in Yang Ping, his immune system needed some time to adjust its battle plan and gradually eliminate them. Chapter 1426 - 1426 1068 A Disease with a 100 Mortality ?Chapter 1426: Chapter 1068: A Disease with a 100% Mortality Rate_2 Chapter 1426: Chapter 1068: A Disease with a 100% Mortality Rate_2 Since the virus had been eliminated, Yang Ping felt relieved and so did everyone else. Zhao Yufan, a child, also received the same treatment as Sisi because the K virus therapy was equally successful on him. Now, the safety and effectiveness of the K virus therapy are still satisfactory. Yang Ping plans to recruit another group of volunteers for treatment, which can also gather more data and expedite the benefits to patients by giving some people early treatment. If waiting for the official launch of the K virus therapy, a formal procedure is probably inevitable, and even with expedited approval, it would take two to three years. However, remembering the previous turmoil, Yang Ping abandoned the idea as he did not want similar disturbances to interfere with his research. Seeing the lively Sisi and recalling the day and night efforts, Yang Ping felt it was very worthwhile, especially since this experiment had built up his confidence that he could solve problems on his own without the system. ¡ª Yang Ping was just about to rest and go home for dinner when he received a call from Professor Su. Nandu Affiliated Hospital One invited Yang Ping for an emergency consultation on a young scientist who suddenly fell ill with a strange disease while visiting family on vacation and was urgently sent for treatment at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Due to the severity of the illness, he had been admitted to the ICU, with a preliminary diagnosis of rabies. Rabies, with a 100% mortality rate, perhaps due to the patient¡¯s special identity, Professor Su had to invite Yang Ping to attend. Emergency consultations cannot be delayed, Yang Ping immediately set off, making phone calls in the car to inform Xiao Su about the situation and that he wouldn¡¯t be able to come home for dinner. When he arrived at the ICU of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, all the experts had already gathered in the Meeting Room waiting for Yang Ping, looking very serious. Director Luo of Nandu Affiliated Hospital One ICU immediately briefed Yang Ping on the patient¡¯s condition. Extreme fear, hydrophobia, fear of wind, drooling, breathing difficulties, spastic pharyngeal muscle convulsions, difficulty urinating and defecating, and excessive sweating, etc. 20 years ago, he had been bitten by a stray dog and did not receive a rabies vaccine at the time. While listening to Director Luo summarizing the illness, Yang Ping flipped through the medical history. Lastly, the diagnosis given by Nandu Affiliated Hospital One was: rabies. Whether it is based on medical history, physical examination, or various auxiliary tests, all support the diagnosis of rabies. There is no doubt about the diagnosis. However, with rabies having a 100% mortality rate, there are no options under current medical conditions. Yang Ping decided to first examine the patient; he put on an isolation gown, wore gloves, and conducted a physical examination. After examining the patient and washing his hands, he took off the isolation gown and returned to the doctors¡¯ office to carefully review the patient¡¯s medical history again. Rabies! There was no issue with the diagnosis. Professor Su said: ¡°This patient is a bit special, he is in charge of a very important scientific research task in our country, the project is only halfway through. Without his involvement, the project would be delayed by at least 5-10 years before it can succeed, but now this project is extremely crucial for our nation, therefore the higher-ups have instructed us to go all-out in the rescue efforts and must find any possible way to save him, specifically requesting you to join the emergency consultation.¡± Originally Yang Ping was a surgeon and should not have participated in consultations for infectious diseases, but since the superiors specifically requested, Professor Su had no choice but to comply; Professor Su is under great pressure now. The intention from Beijing was to transfer the patient to Beijing for treatment as soon as Professor Su slowly said: ¡°Everyone, do not rush. The higher-ups will respect the objective facts and understand us, but even with a 100% death rate, we must make 200% effort.¡± Yang Ping nodded and said, ¡°Let me think about it.¡± If it were in the past, he might not have said this, but after treating Sisi, he wanted to try any unresolved issue, regardless of success or failure. His passion and curiosity were always stirring in his mind. Rabies, with a 100% death rate, what else to think about? Are there any new ideas? Everyone was somewhat puzzled about what new ideas Yang Ping had; he is a genius, but geniuses are after all human. Thanks to the ample time the system had given him, Yang Ping used the System Space to read a significant number of books and papers, utilizing the System Space to its full potential. He spent long periods alone in the System Space, accumulating a vast amount of medical knowledge, arguably reading more books and papers than anyone else. Yang Ping lightly tapped the desktop with his fingertips, which didn¡¯t produce any sound, but was merely to maintain a rhythm. He pondered in his mind, rabies usually kills through nerve damage leading to organ failure. First, the nerves are affected, then the organs fail. Yang Ping struggled to recall the information he had read about rabies and synthesized it. Fortunately, at that time he was engrossed in all the medical literature, regardless of the specialty. He never thought a Surgeon would attend a rabies consultation. The current pathological research on rabies indicates that the brain damage in rabies patients is not caused by a direct attack of the rabies virus on the brain, but rather by complications of the disease. Yang Ping thought, if there was a switch to pause the brain¡¯s functions, it could protect the brain from complications while keeping the immune system functioning. Although the brain would be in a dormant state, the immune system could continue to fight the virus. If so, during the battle between the virus and the immune system, complications would be unable to affect the dormant brain. If the virus is eradicated, wouldn¡¯t the brain avoid disaster? If the brain dodges this bullet, it wouldn¡¯t lead to subsequent organ failure. Thus, could the patient be saved? In the past, Yang Ping might have laughed at himself for having such fanciful whims, but not now. Didn¡¯t Sisi get saved because of his fanciful whims? After all, with a 100% death rate from rabies, what¡¯s the point of traditional treatment methods? Might as well try something new. The root cause of death from rabies is not fully understood yet, and one extremely important hypothesis is the ¡°neurotransmitter disorder¡± hypothesis. The core view of this hypothesis is that an imbalance of biomolecules in the patient¡¯s brain leads to death. Animal experiments have shown that ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, appears to serve as a bridge in balancing neurotransmitters in rabies patients. At this thought, Yang Ping felt a flash of inspiration in his mind, forming some ideas, although they were not fully shaped yet. ¡°There¡¯s not entirely no way out, I need to think it through clearly, I¡¯ll talk about it later,¡± Yang Ping finally blurted out after a long thought. Yang Ping finally understood why he could come up with those new ideas in treating Sisi: by reading extensively in the System Space, he had mastered a vast amount of knowledge. Sometimes, linking and combining this knowledge could spark imaginative ideas. ¡°Isn¡¯t there really no way, big boss? This is rabies with a 100% death rate, do you have a way?¡± Everyone looked at each other. If it were someone else, they would have laughed already, but they dared not mock Yang Ping, as this young man was indeed a genius, and he was also Dean Su¡¯s son-in-law. ¡°Just give him symptomatic treatment for now, try to help him buy some time, let me think it over, and I¡¯ll come over later.¡± That concluded Yang Ping¡¯s consultation, leaving even Professor Su a bit baffled. On the way back from Nandu Medical University, Yang Ping sat in the car, also pondering this issue. With a 100% death rate, could he change his thinking, try a new approach, as there were no other options, why not try the new idea, as there¡¯s nothing to lose if it doesn¡¯t work. Chapter 1427 - 1427 1069 No Compulsion ?Chapter 1427: Chapter 1069: No Compulsion Chapter 1427: Chapter 1069: No Compulsion After having spent a long time at Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1, it was very late when he returned home, almost past one in the morning. When Yang Ping came back, Xiao Su had been waiting for him. As she dozed off on the couch, she heard the door open and immediately sat up, rubbing her eyes: ¡°Have you had dinner?¡± ¡°Not yet, how¡¯s the child?¡± Yang Ping was changing his shoes. ¡°She¡¯s with her grandmother in her room, being looked after. The food is all kept warm; I¡¯ll bring it over.¡± Xiao Su brought a cup of warm water to Yang Ping, who sat down to rest. ¡°My dad is so stingy, inviting you for a consultation without even providing some snacks. I¡¯ll give him a piece of my mind next time. If my hubby starves because of him, I won¡¯t let it go,¡± Xiao Su said angrily. Yang Ping knew that his wife was worried about him and quickly replied: ¡°Dad did offer me a meal, but I didn¡¯t want to eat at Affiliated Hospital No. 1; the food there isn¡¯t as good as home.¡± ¡°What was the case about today?¡± ¡°Rabies!¡± ¡°Why would they ask you for a consultation on rabies? My dad must think you¡¯re idling about, rabies treatment keeping you up until midnight.¡± ¡°Because the patient has a special status, he¡¯s a national talent, and the higher-ups are taking it very seriously. They¡¯ve ordered a full-force rescue, and Dad is also under a lot of pressure. Whether it¡¯s feasible or not, he would certainly call me in first. Besides, I was specifically requested for the consultation.¡± As they chatted quietly, Xiao Su had already brought the steaming hot food to the table, and Yang Ping began to eat heartily. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about things at home; I¡¯m here. Go ahead and focus on your work. I¡¯m planning to take a break from my job for a while,¡± Xiao Su chatted with Yang Ping. Yang Ping wasn¡¯t short on money now. Although the house was big and the family got along very well, living altogether wasn¡¯t convenient, so he bought two more apartments in this community¡ªone for his parents and one for his in-laws. This way, they live separately on regular days and come together when needed, each having their own personal space, which is quite nice. Moreover, he also bought a villa in the suburbs and on weekends, the whole family could go there for a vacation. Yang Ping is someone who doesn¡¯t short-change himself. Now that he has money, enhancing his quality of life is a must. The money was all fairly earned. He can spend it any way he wants, making sure his family lives a bit better is only natural. ¡°Rabies can only be treated symptomatically, what¡¯s the point of asking you for a consultation?¡± Xiao Su was not the slightest bit sleepy now. She was very curious. Yang Ping always shared with her the surgeries he performed and the cases he encountered each day, which was probably related to Xiao Su coming from a medical family. Others might not be interested in medical topics, but she had the greatest interest. ¡°You think little of your husband, huh? Let me tell you, I¡¯ve been thinking, if we treat rabies with the traditional approach, the outcome will undoubtedly be death. A 100% fatality rate isn¡¯t just a saying; no one has broken through it yet, and there has been no exception so far. But if we could find a new method, perhaps there could be a glimmer of hope. Look at Sisi, she was without hope before, but now isn¡¯t there hope?¡± After dinner, Yang Ping and Xiao Su cleaned up the dining table together; he wiped the table while Xiao Su took care of washing the dishes. ¡°Go take a shower and rest early.¡± After they tidied up the living room, Xiao Su glanced at the time and saw it was getting late. ¡ª That night, Yang Ping dreamed all night long, his brain full of knowledge about rabies, from pathology, physiology, anatomy, microbiology, etc., a myriad of information flashed through his mind. The next morning, when he woke up, a bold idea emerged in his mind: Hibernation therapy! Using hibernation therapy to put the patient¡¯s brain in a ¡°pseudo-death¡± state, making the virus believe that the patient¡¯s brain has died, and its symptoms would not manifest, like in martial arts novels where people use music to kill, but if one doesn¡¯t understand music, this method is ineffective. The brain¡¯s pseudo-death would deceive the virus, while the immune system remains active, continuing the fight. The next morning, he didn¡¯t go to work but directly called his driver to pick him up from downstairs at 5 a.m. and took him to Nandu Medical University Affiliated First Hospital. Professor Su was also hastily awoken by his phone call, hurrying to Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1. The experts from Affiliated Hospital No. 1 were almost all woken up from their beds by Professor Su, some perhaps without even the chance to wash up, disheveled. Everyone arrived at the ICU meeting room by 6:30 a.m. ¡°Hibernation therapy?¡± Director Luo widened his bleary eyes. He was an expert level professional and had never heard of this method from any paper. ¡°Yeah, why have we never heard of it?¡± Director Yuan from the Infectious Disease department also spoke. Everyone was very surprised, having never heard of it. Even Professor Su, after a thorough search in his mind, felt he had never encountered this strange treatment approach. Yang Ping spoke slowly, ¡°This is a method I thought of last night; it¡¯s normal that none of you have heard about it.¡± ¡°You thought of it last night?¡± Even Professor Su was astonished; his son-in-law was known for creating miracles, which was true, but now the patient¡¯s identity was a bit special. Although the fatality rate was 100%, as long as everything was by the book, there would be no issues. But now this guy was proposing a new method, one that he had just thought of last night, even so, it couldn¡¯t be publicly stated it was only thought of last night. While everyone was stunned, Yang Ping said: ¡°The patient has been confirmed to have rabies, there¡¯s no doubt about the diagnosis. Since the diagnosis is certain, everyone knows, rabies has a 100% fatality rate. This disease can only be prevented, not treated. All symptomatic treatments are merely procedures with no real effect on the outcome. So why not try my new method?¡± Chapter 1428 - 1428 1069 No Pressure_2 ?Chapter 1428: Chapter 1069: No Pressure_2 Chapter 1428: Chapter 1069: No Pressure_2 It seems to make sense, since there¡¯s no method available, why not try his method? After all, he is a man who has created one miracle after another, who knows if he might create another miracle. As for this son-in-law, Professor Su now also finds him quite unfathomable. Everyone was looking at Professor Su, as he is the dean, the chancellor, and an academician, with very high prestige in the entire Nandu Medical University, everyone was waiting for him to make a decision. Only he could make this decision in such matters. At that moment, Professor Su looked at Yang Ping, and Yang Ping nodded. After exchanging glances with his son-in-law, Professor Su said, ¡°Professor Yang is right, since there¡¯s no method available in current medicine, why not try a new method? Even if the new method fails, it would simply yield the same result as the traditional methods, meaning, using the new method on this case carries no risk at all.¡± Everyone actually understood that a disease with a 100% mortality rate would end the same regardless of the method used, the risk is not in the medicine, but outside of it. ¡°I agree.¡± ¡°I also agree.¡± ¡°I agree.¡± Since Professor Su had made the decision, everyone felt that they should support it together, thus everyone expressed their agreement. ¡°What medication should be used for the hibernation?¡± Director Luo from ICU asked. ¡°Midazolam and Ketamine!¡± ¡°When shall we start?¡± ¡°Immediately after the meeting is adjourned.¡± Since it has been decided, what else are we waiting for, saving lives is a race against time. ¡°Very well!¡± Currently, ICU is in charge of the primary treatment of the patient, so Director Luo interacts more with Yang Ping. Director Yuan from the Infectious Disease Department, actually doesn¡¯t have much to say and doesn¡¯t know what to say either, as many treatments for rabies involve symptomatic treatment, mostly methods used in the ICU. ¡°Does anyone else have different opinions? You may voice them now. If not, we will adjourn the meeting and immediately implement Professor Yang¡¯s new plan.¡± ¡°How about the meeting secretary over there, how are the records? Any doubts?¡± Professor Su also asked the secretary. He needed to protect his son-in-law; in case anything happens, this was a decision discussed by everyone, not him acting recklessly alone. After adjourning the meeting, no one chatted; they immediately went to the ICU. The doctors in the ICU weren¡¯t as adept in using Midazolam and Ketamine as the anesthesiologists, so they invited a senior anesthesiology expert to participate in the treatment. Soon, under the effects of Midazolam and Ketamine, the patient entered a comatose state. Initially, when using the medication, the doctors were not very confident in dosing. If the dose is too high, it could lead to deep coma; if the dose is insufficient, the depth of the coma might not be enough, the hibernation would not be sufficient, and the protection of the brain might not be thorough. This anesthesiology expert was also using this method for treating rabies for the first time, and he was not very precise in administering the drug, causing the dosage to be too high, resulting in the patient¡¯s coma being too deep. Blood tests showed that the patient developed metabolic acidosis and hemolysis, accompanied by autonomic nervous disorder. Yang Ping had to call forÒ»¸ö¸ß¶È skilled anesthesiologist¡ªLiang Fatty, who had grown up under his supervision and had become expert in the use of anesthetic medications. Liang Fatty couldn¡¯t delay, even though he had finally smoothed things over with the Flight Attendant a bit, and had planned to watch a concert with her tonight, he didn¡¯t hesitate to drive to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. For a doctor, the patient¡¯s condition is the supreme commander, and at this time he was irreplaceable. When he informed the Flight Attendant that he was going to participate in a rescue operation, she lost her tempter on the other end, telling him never to look for her again. If not searching then be it; both of them were from different worlds anyway. Even if forcibly tied together, someday the string would not hold and would break, ending in a split anyway. Fatty¡¯s car was on its way to Nandu Medical University Affiliated First Hospital when suddenly his mother called; his father was experiencing severe pain on the left side of his chest, had difficulty breathing, and despite calling 120 the ambulance had yet to arrive. Why did all the trouble come at once? Just after hanging up, the Flight Attendant called again, asking him if he was going to the concert or not. He didn¡¯t respond; there was no time to entangle with her, so he hung up directly and immediately called Zhou Can in the operating room, telling her that he was going to Nandu Affiliated One for a rescue operation, his father might be having a myocardial infarction, and was currently at home, asking if she could help bring his father to the hospital. Zhou Can immediately said, ¡°Leave this matter to me, go to Affiliated One, human life is of utmost concern.¡± ¡°Leave this matter to me,¡± Liang Fatty was so moved he nearly shed tears. He wished that the Flight Attendant could have said the same, unfortunately, that was impossible. Zhou Can still didn¡¯t know his parents¡¯ phone number or the location of his house, so he immediately called Zhou Can again, hearing the familiar voice: ¡°I found your home address at the Head Nurse¡¯s place, and I contacted your mother as well, the ambulance has already been dispatched, I¡¯m on the way.¡± ¡°If any signatures are needed, I fully authorize you, my mother is probably in a state of panic already.¡± ¡°Are you sure? Those are your parents.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure, have it on record, I, Liang Jing, identity card number, hereby authorize¡ª.¡± After settling this matter, Liang Fatty wiped away a tear and pressed his foot deeper on the accelerator. He could now head to Nandu Affiliated One at ease. By the time he arrived there, Professor Yang was analyzing the EEG from the monitor. ¡°The dose of the medication is too high, it¡¯s very risky; one careless moment could lead to a vegetative state.¡± Liang Fatty pulled up a stool and sat by the bed, due to habit, he always liked to sit by the patient¡¯s bed, and at the head side, feeling more in a working state. Chapter 1429 - 1429 1069 No Pressure_3 ?Chapter 1429: Chapter 1069: No Pressure_3 Chapter 1429: Chapter 1069: No Pressure_3 Everyone was standing, including Professor Yang, and yet he was sitting. Wasn¡¯t that quite rude? The surrounding doctors were clearly dissatisfied. Liang Fatty noticed the look in everyone¡¯s eyes and understood a bit, but he had no time for idle chatter. He asked the anesthesiologist about the various medication dosages, looking very serious. ¡°I need to keep his brain in a hibernation-induced state to prevent complications from the rabies virus affecting brain function, but not too deeply to avoid severe sequelae after the treatment,¡± Yang Ping explained his goal to Fatty. ¡°I understand, the depth must be sufficient, yet reversible.¡± Liang Fatty began to work intently, having entrusted the care of his father to Zhou Can. Although she was usually a bit sharp-tongued towards him, she was smart and capable, and he trusted her to handle everything well. The current patient was like a small boat in turbulent waves, at any moment could be capsized by a giant wave. ¡°The brain waves show too much suppression, it¡¯s not good, use some diuretics to promote the excretion of the medication, or else he might never wake up,¡± Liang Fatty didn¡¯t notice the anesthesiologist¡¯s expression. ¡°Are you okay?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine, just learning from you.¡± Well, since you¡¯re Professor Yang¡¯s preferred anesthesiologist, I can only admire you, there¡¯s nothing else to say. Fatty personally administered the medication, and finally, the vital signs visibly returned to normal, metabolic acidosis was corrected, and the hemolysis began to ease, with the autonomic nervous system also recovering. One important skill of a medication expert is precision, but achieving this precision is not simply a matter of calculating formulas based on body weight. It involves considering many factors, such as the patient¡¯s weight, metabolic level, the interaction of multiple drugs, the purpose of medication, etc. It¡¯s like a chef cooking, to get the taste right, how much of each condiment to use is not something you can achieve by just having a scale in the kitchen. Liang Fatty, having been long under Yang Ping¡¯s mentorship, excelled to a level unattainable by other experts, akin to ¡®a rising tide lifting all boats.¡¯ The expert from Affiliated Hospital No. 1 was thoroughly convinced, acknowledging that this young man¡¯s skills were probably ten years ahead of his own. After the patient¡¯s condition stabilized a bit, Liang Fatty sneaked into the doctor¡¯s office. He wanted to call Zhou Can to ask about the situation but found a series of voice messages on WeChat clearly reporting the developments. Zhou Can had found Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, and together with Director Guan from the Intervention Department, a scaffold had already been installed for his father, who was now under CCU observation with stable vital signs. Tonight, Zhou Can would stay with his mother at Sanbo Hotel. His mother had also eaten something, and Zhou Can was with her, chatting and comforting her. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Zhou Can, thanks for the trouble. I can¡¯t leave at the moment; the patient here is very critical, and Professor Yang is also here, I must stay on guard,¡± Liang Fatty felt quite guilty, as he usually bickered with her, and now at a critical time, she was giving her utmost support. On the other end was Zhou Can¡¯s signature hearty laughter: ¡°Just take it easy, I¡¯ve got this here. I just went to see him again, Uncle¡¯s vital signs are stable, Director Guan said it was timely, no major issues, he¡¯ll be moved to a regular ward after a few days of monitoring and then discharged with medication.¡± ¡°How about I treat you to dinner in a few days, you pick the place?¡± ¡°Really, I can choose anywhere?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ve chosen.¡± ¡°Choose freely, don¡¯t worry about me.¡± ¡°I want to go to your house.¡± ¡°My house? No, Zhou Can, what do you mean?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you say I could choose freely? I choose your house, if you disagree, forget it, who cares, you focus there, here is under my care, just treat me to a pearl milk tea.¡± ¡°Zhou Can, who said I disagreed? Come to my house for dinner, you can taste my mom¡¯s cooking.¡± ¡°Really, you agreed? Don¡¯t force yourself, a pearl milk tea is also fine.¡± ¡°No force, I¡¯m willing, you must come home.¡± PS: This chapter mentioned the treatment of rabies is called ¡°Milwaukee Therapy¡±, created by Dr. Willoughby of Wisconsin Children¡¯s Hospital in 2011. This method broke the iron rule of a 100% mortality rate in rabies, with the patient he saved becoming the first ever to survive rabies. This method, after further summaries by them, had a success rate of 7/48, calculating 48 people treated from 2011 to 2015, with 7 successfully saved. Although the success rate is low, compared to a 100% mortality rate, this is a significant progress. Medicine advances due to these seemingly unconventional and imaginative individuals who turn the impossible into possible. If not for these few, medicine would remain stagnant. Our country¡¯s hospital also used this method once for a rabies patient, but after persisting in the ICU for a month, the family chose to give up. Thus, this method involves high costs due to prolonged ICU stay and requires a strong ICU medical team and a robust reserve of medications. The huge investment and low success rate have sparked controversy. In reality, many things are constrained when implemented. Chapter 1430 - 1430 1070 Ill Tell You a Secret ?Chapter 1430: Chapter 1070: I¡¯ll Tell You a Secret Chapter 1430: Chapter 1070: I¡¯ll Tell You a Secret Whether this method will work or not, no one is confident, not even Yang Ping. He is only convinced by his meticulous thought that theoretically it is feasible, but since there is no precedent to refer to, it is unclear whether it will actually work. This is the first time this new method is being used, otherwise it wouldn¡¯t be called a new method. Might as well be trying to bring a dead horse back to life, as other methods have failed anyway. However, the method sounds reasonable. Previously, nobody thought to apply any new methods, sticking strictly to conventional treatment guidelines. The inevitable poor outcomes never led to any reflection. With other diseases, it¡¯s the same. People just follow the prescribed treatments without questioning why they are doing so or whether they can make changes. In medicine, the cost of even a small change can be much greater than in other professions. The patient¡¯s wife is also a professor. She cooperated fully, very willing to try this treatment in her sorrow since it represents the only glimmer of hope. She understands the disease¡¯s hundred percent fatality rate. Additionally, Yang Ping is a doctor specially appointed by Beijing for the consultation, and Professor Su is an academician. With such credentials backing the new method, she is willing to try it. Especially after hearing all kinds of tales about Yang Ping. The key to this treatment is to manage the depth of the induced hibernation well. It can¡¯t cause problems because of the hibernation. Every day, doctors draw blood from the patient to check the titers of rabies antibodies, but currently, the titers have not increased. This treatment approach severely tests the capabilities of the ICU medical team, not just in medical proficiency but also in terms of medical equipment and various rescue medications. Given that the patient might face life-threatening issues at any stage of the hibernation, without strong medical technological support, the chance of death is high. That is why hospitals with weaker ICUs struggle to achieve success rates, and this also accounts for the high costs and low success rates of this method. Over at the Surgical Research Institute, they have Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang, so Yang Ping doesn¡¯t need to worry. He decides to spend most of his time here, but he will still go back once a day to shower, change clothes, have a meal, play with his son, and chat with his wife. A leader from Beijing personally visited Nandu Affiliated Hospital One to see the patient. Accompanied by Professor Su, the leader also understood after the visit that this situation was unavoidable. The scientist is currently leading a national project of great importance, playing an extremely vital role in it. Without his participation, the project might be delayed by 5 to 10 years, and it is of great significance to the nation. But to demand the medical staff to definitely save him is to disregard reality completely, a violation of the spirit of seeking truth from facts. ¡°We have worked hard, everyone has done their best, and I will reflect the situation to the higher-ups,¡± said the leader, also helpless in the face of such a disease. ¡°Just how could rabies have such a long incubation period, manifesting ten years later?¡± The leader was not medically trained, simply curious. Professor Su explained, ¡°In very rare cases, the incubation period of rabies can be very long, but these cases are quite unusual. The general incubation period is 1-3 months.¡± The leader nodded, gave Professor Su some instructions, and then hastily returned to Beijing with his delegation. Around three in the afternoon, several experts who had flown in from other regions gradually arrived at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. They were all consultation experts dispatched by Beijing, mostly top specialists in infectious diseases and ICU experts from Beijing¡¯s and Shanghai¡¯s premier hospitals. After reviewing the case, they all shook their heads. There was no doubt about the rabies diagnosis, and the 100% fatality rate was also without question. This disease remains an unsolved medical challenge; no consult will change the final outcome. However, hearing about Nandu Affiliated Hospital One¡¯s use of some hibernation therapy, which these experts had never heard of, they thought to criticize it, as it seemed like reckless experimentation. But out of respect for Professor Su and hearing that it was led by Yang Ping, they held their tongues, instead praising the younger generation for being innovative. In the evening, everyone enjoyed a harmonious dinner, and Professor Su urged Yang Ping to stay. Normally, Yang Ping does not like socializing, and he was reluctant to participate, but his father-in-law forcefully dragged him along. Yang Ping could not refuse his father-in-law¡¯s face, so he stayed to dine with the consultation experts too. But Yang Ping found it strange, as his father-in-law usually does not insist so strongly on him staying for meals; knowing that he does not like eating out, the usual invitation was more a formality, leaving the decision to him. This time, the insistence was conspicuous. The experts were also busy. They planned to visit the ICU together the next morning and then rush back to their respective hospitals. For such a critical condition, the consultation signifies attention to the matter and a certain attitude, but offers no substantial help. ¡ª The life signs of the rabies patient are stable, so Yang Ping doesn¡¯t have to worry too much for now. As long as he manages the hibernation well, maintaining the stable vital signs is something ICU doctors excel at. Their daily work is tantamount to stealing lives back from King Yan. Yang Ping returned home in the evening. The journey of roughly an hour is not really far, and now it¡¯s more convenient for him with a driver and Ershun¡¯s assistance. Wherever he goes, his car is ready and waiting at the nearest possible location, with Ershun helping him into the vehicle. When he used to have access to the System Space, he could pretend to doze off in the car and then either perform surgeries or conduct experiments in the System Space. Chapter 1431 - 1431 1070 Ill Tell You a Secret_2 ?Chapter 1431: Chapter 1070: I¡¯ll Tell You a Secret_2 Chapter 1431: Chapter 1070: I¡¯ll Tell You a Secret_2 So if we were to calculate the real time spent practicing medicine, Yang Ping might already be considered a thousand-year-old monster. He¡¯s resting with his eyes closed now, truly taking a rest. He really misses the time when he had the system, as working within the system was even more refreshing than actual sleep. Unfortunately, now the system is on strike, and he doesn¡¯t know what offended it to strike at such a time. To be honest, if the system were still here, he might have become somewhat reliant on it, unable to come up with these new ideas. Because the system is gone, he has no retreat, fewer chances to try and err, and less time to squander, so he must innovate and use new ideas to solve problems. Returning home, Yang Ping¡¯s gentle wife was, as always, waiting for him. As soon as he entered the house, Xiao Su asked, ¡°Are you starving? Did Dad not keep you for dinner again today?¡± ¡°He did keep me, not only that, but he insisted on me staying with great sincerity, grabbing my arm and not letting me go. Ah, why was Dad so strange today? He¡¯s usually so refined, but today, when I said I was going home for dinner, he became anxious and grabbed my arm tightly, as if he feared I would slip away.¡± Yang Ping still didn¡¯t understand why his father-in-law was acting out of character. Xiao Su brought the food to the table: ¡°Eat a bit more regardless, that day you came home hungry, I didn¡¯t hold back, I called and gave him a piece of my mind. How could he not provide a meal after such a long consultation.¡± ¡°No, wife¡ª¡± Yang Ping was stunned. No wonder his father-in-law was so insistent today; it turns out he had been criticized by his precious daughter. Luckily, he had given his father-in-law face today by having a meal at Affiliated Hospital No. 1. If he hadn¡¯t eaten there today, he didn¡¯t know how much criticism his father-in-law would have faced. Yang Ping took a few bites and said, ¡°I had plenty to eat at Affiliated Hospital No. 1, I¡¯m a bit too full now.¡± Regardless of whether he had eaten enough or not, Yang Ping didn¡¯t dare to eat freely. What if Xiao Su mentioned how her dad had arranged dinner, saying he looked as if he hadn¡¯t eaten at all? ¡ª The next morning, Yang Ping returned to Sanbo Hospital. He went to the ward to see Sisi and helped her arrange the cactus. There are always more solutions than problems, which is correct. It¡¯s just that people often can¡¯t find the solution temporarily. Take the cactus, for example. Considering the environment of the desert, if not for the existence of such a plant, no one would believe that there could be a plant thriving in such harsh conditions, yet they do, and very well. After several experiments, Sisi, who had a narrow escape from death, had a bright smile on her face. In her eyes, Yang Ping was like an elder brother, and she dreamed of wearing the white gown like him in the future, saving lives and aiding the injured. Now she saw hope. She had thought there was no way to get through this time, but now she had crossed that hurdle. The new method Professor Yang talked about was true, not just comfort words. Sisi was doing her homework, sprawled on the table. She was very disciplined, planning clearly what to do at what time each day. Every morning she also jogged around the hospital to exercise. Such self-discipline in a primary school student is indeed rare. If Sisi can get through this, she will certainly be a good doctor in her medical studies in the future. Yang Ping really wants to take her on as his student now. Sisi is in the sixth grade of primary school, and in another six years, she will be taking the College Entrance Examination. Actually, time flies pretty fast. Seeing Yang Ping coming over, Sisi immediately packed up her homework, ¡°Professor Yang, Brother Tang Shun said I could participate in the K Virus Therapy research project.¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t you already participated?¡± Yang Ping asked, puzzled. Sisi said, ¡°Right now, I¡¯m participating as a volunteer patient. He said I could join as a researcher. What books should I read to learn about this field if I participate?¡± That Tang Shun, playing jokes with someone else¡¯s child. ¡°That¡¯s true, Uncle Lu Xiaolu came over to see me, asked me a lot of questions. He said he was the head of the project, and he was interviewing me,¡± Sisi said earnestly. ¡°I pleased him with my answers, and he said he could accept me. I need to prepare now, what books should I read, I am so nervous,¡± Sisi said excitedly. These guys, playing jokes on our little sister Sisi, cheering her up. Yang Ping thought about it and said, ¡°How about this, I¡¯ll write some articles that you can understand to give you a foundation, how about that?¡± ¡°That would be great, that¡¯s exactly what I meant, I didn¡¯t want to say it because you seemed so busy,¡± Sisi said with a smile. The quirky little one, too shy to say it. Sisi has been through several experiments now, and the tumor has shrunk. After all, the injection was a live virus, and although the symptoms were not severe, each experiment was akin to causing a cold. Too many repetitions could potentially disturb the immune system, so there needs to be a break between treatment courses. With a heavy stone lifted from his heart, Yang Ping felt much lighter. Regardless of what uncertainties might follow, at least for now, the illness is temporarily under control. This buys time for the next steps and allows for a breather. To be honest, on a personal level, Sisi is different from other patients for Yang Ping. Although they share no blood relation, from the very first time he saw her, he thought of her as his own little sister, making an inner vow to save her, no matter what. Yang Ping thought that it might be because the child was smart, sensible, or perhaps destined to cross paths with him. After chatting with Sisi for a while, she said mysteriously, ¡°I¡¯ll tell you a secret, but you can¡¯t tell anyone else.¡± ¡°Tell me, what¡¯s the secret?¡± Yang Ping was all ears. Sisi said, ¡°Do you want to know who drew the manga you¡¯ve been reading? Why does the author understand you so well and know your every move?¡± Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°That¡¯s all from Tokyo, Japan. How would I know?¡± ¡°It¡¯s Fujiwara Miyuki, she told me not to tell you,¡± Sisi said. Fujiwara Miyuki? Yang Ping was a bit surprised, ¡°Then why are you telling me now?¡± ¡°Because she¡¯s coming back, and please don¡¯t be mad if I¡¯m wrong, but I always feel like she looks at you differently. I can¡¯t quite put my finger on it, but it¡¯s a kind of look that I only see in Sister Xiao Su¡¯s eyes,¡± said Sisi earnestly. ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but I just feel like I should tell you this secret. I wouldn¡¯t keep any secrets about you from anyone,¡± Sisi seemed quite understanding. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°You should be wary of her.¡± That quirky kid, what do I have to be wary of her for? Yang Ping laughed to himself. Yang Ping returned to the doctors¡¯ office. Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang had also completed their surgeries for the day. They gave Yang Ping a brief report on the new patients they had received in recent days and the surgeries they had performed. There was nothing special; they were all manageable. Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, along with the later arrivals Xia Shu and Old Jin, each had their strengths. Song Zimo was very comprehensive and could be said to be Yang Ping¡¯s proudest student. Xu Zhiliang excelled in cranial and spinal surgeries, Xia Shu in heart surgeries, and Old Jin¡¯s orthopedics skills were extremely high. In the melting pot of the Surgical Research Institute, with continuous training, they had unconsciously become top in the world. The Institute now had a renowned reputation in the international medical community. The manga series that spread from Japan had now appeared in medical circles in the United States and Europe, particularly popular among medical students and young doctors. ¡ª The international medical group was always active, and Yang Ping would browse whenever he had a chance. This group gathered some of the world¡¯s top doctors, who would occasionally discuss cases and sometimes gossip about the latest news. [Wu Zi, how did your Level Four go?] That is a sad story. [Why is Level Four so heart-wrenching? Why? Can someone tell me the answer? I¡¯ve mastered the reading and writing of over four thousand Chinese characters, read Chinese novels every day, listen to Chinese broadcasts, and even hired a private tutor. Why can¡¯t I ever pass Level Four?] Mr. Woodhead bellowed. Without passing the Chinese Level Four, he couldn¡¯t come to China for more than three months of advanced training. He was a persistent person, someone who refused to admit defeat, and he was determined to achieve his goal. [Takahashi, where¡¯s that Chinese teacher you mentioned? No matter the cost, I¡¯m willing to pay.] [Bro, he¡¯s already hung up his boots.] [Hanging up his boots means he can take them down again.] [He¡¯s no longer interested in his old profession.] [Why not?] [He¡¯s now the lead experimenter for Professor Yang, his name is Tang Shun, one of the main members of the Spatial Orientation Gene Theory team.] Woodhead fell silent at once. That indeed sounded like a job from which one would not return to the old ways. Chapter 1432 - 1432 1071 Fourth Uncle ?Chapter 1432: Chapter 1071: Fourth Uncle Chapter 1432: Chapter 1071: Fourth Uncle Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 rabies virus patient is still in a coma, though it is an induced and controlled coma, also known as hibernation therapy, which allows the brain to stop functioning and avoid the impact of hypoxia on brain cells caused by complications. It¡¯s like actively placing a piece of fresh meat in the refrigerator to freeze, to escape the damage brought by hot weather. After several days of treatment, there is no significant change in rabies virus antibody titers, but Yang Ping is not in a hurry now, he can only wait patiently for a turning point in the illness. His new plan can only protect the brain from harm, combating the rabies virus still depends on the human body¡¯s own immune system. For this patient, leaders of the National Health and Wellness Commission have been calling Professor Su almost daily to understand changes in the patient¡¯s condition, fully aware that the ultimate outcome won¡¯t change, but still hoping for some miracle. If an accident happens to this young scientist, a critical national defense project would be delayed, making the leaders worry about the incurable disease. Without vaccination, once rabies develops, the fatality rate is one hundred percent. The leaders, who are also medical experts, understand this very well. However, upon hearing that Yang Ping is using a new method of treatment, the eyes of the leaders from the Health Commission light up again. This young man is considered a promising candidate in everyone¡¯s mind; he has a new method which means there is a glimmer of hope for the patient. Immediately, the leaders from the Health Commission cheered up: ¡°Old Su, if you manage to save him, I¡¯ll grant you a major commendation. From then on, when you deal with matters here, it will be smooth sailing, as long as it¡¯s within my power and not against the principles.¡± Old Su also seized this rare opportunity: ¡°You said it, don¡¯t go back on your word.¡± These leaders and Professor Su are good friends and have a very good relationship, so their conversation is relatively relaxed. In fact, Professor Su is very clear that there is no risk in using new methods for such a case from any angle, so he strongly encourages Yang Ping to use them. With a 100% mortality rate, there is nothing to lose by giving a chance to a faint hope. Plainly speaking ¨C if it works, you get the credit; if it doesn¡¯t, there¡¯s no harm, because without the new method the outcome would be the same. Right after the leadership of the Health Commission finished their call, a call from Dean Liu of hospital 301 followed immediately. Dean Liu knows Yang Ping is leading the treatment now, so there¡¯s nothing to be said; if he can¡¯t handle it, then no one can. Dean Liu also sent experts, but it¡¯s more of a formality, showing a kind of attitude. With Yang Ping there, who dares to direct. Right after the leaders finished their calls, Professor Su¡¯s phone was heated up with calls from the General Affairs, the Ministry of Science and Technology, among them one leader was his own family member, Old Su the fourth. Because this young scientist is so important, Old Su the fourth decided to personally go take a look, and also to see his nephew-in-law, whom he had heard many great things about but had never met. Regarding this nephew-in-law, Su Qinghe had heard a lot about him but had never met him, this time was a good opportunity to meet. ¡ª Yang Ping participates in the daily treatment summary meeting, not only do experts from Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 attend, but other external experts from hospitals like Xiehe, 301, Huaxi, etc., also join via video. Now summing up, there are no problems in diagnosis, and the illness was detected very early. Recalling this patient, the patient¡¯s name is Chang Qirui, a 39-year-old male. The second day after he returned home to visit relatives, his right hand occasionally experienced bursts of tingling numbness, which he did not take seriously at the time, thinking it was just cervical spondylosis acting up, and took a diclofenac sodium to relieve the pain. On the third day, double vision occurred, and on the fourth day, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting set in. At this time, the patient realized something was wrong and immediately told his peers about his discomfort. There was a general practitioner among the peers, who immediately arranged for Professor Chang to come to the emergency department of Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1. The whole diagnostic process was personally arranged by Professor Su; the ER immediately conducted an MRI scan, which found no anomalies. On the same day, the patient¡¯s condition worsened: suddenly, he had a high fever, and the right side of his body couldn¡¯t move. This was a serious matter, thus the patient was immediately arranged to be admitted to the hospital. Where to stay? For convenient treatment, he was directly placed into the ICU. The first consult was by a neurologist, Director Qi from the Neurology Department consulted and found the patient¡¯s right side trembling and paralysis, immediately conducted a routine and biochemical cerebrospinal fluid test, showing viral infection, but all viral test results reported were actually negative. This made Director Qi a bit embarrassed. In order to leverage the strength of Affiliated Hospital No. 1, Professor Su immediately arranged for Director Yuan from the infection department for an urgent consult. When Director Yuan arrived, the patient was already bubbling at the mouth. Due to the prevalence of rabies vaccines, rabies actually has very few cases each year, now only a bit more than a hundred cases a year, spread over all of China, that¡¯s only a few cases per province, which is extremely rare. But as is Affiliated Hospital No. 1, after pondering a while, Director Yuan immediately realized something was amiss: highly atypical neural symptoms, drooling, fever, viral infection. Then a thought jumped into his head ¨C rabies. He immediately contacted the patient¡¯s family to ask if the patient had ever been bitten by animals such as dogs or cats. The family was also clueless at that moment; however, his wife mentioned that she had heard the patient talk about, right after graduating with his doctorate, he went hiking with his roommate and was bitten by a wild dog. At that time, the injury was not serious, just a bit of broken skin with tooth marks, so they didn¡¯t pay much attention to it and did not get vaccinated. Chapter 1433 - 1433 1071 Fourth Uncle_2 ?Chapter 1433: Chapter 1071: Fourth Uncle_2 Chapter 1433: Chapter 1071: Fourth Uncle_2 Director Yuan, upon hearing this medical history, was almost certain: the patient was suffering from rabies. Soon, the laboratory department in Affiliated Hospital No. 1 found rabies virus antibodies in the patient¡¯s cerebrospinal fluid and blood, thus confirming the diagnosis of rabies. In fact, looking along this line, the diagnosis was very timely, without any delay, and the treatment was also timely. Upon arrival at Affiliated Hospital No. 1, the patient was admitted to the ICU for symptomatic treatment. Rabies, with a mortality rate of one hundred percent, scares doctors, and its incubation period can be as short as one week or as long as ten years. Once symptoms manifest, the patient becomes extremely agitated, may sometimes exhibit violent tendencies, and also develops a characteristic hydrophobia. Director Yuan from the Department of Infectious Diseases reviewed the patient¡¯s diagnostic and treatment process; there were no issues. The question now was how to treat the illness. How the treatment should be carried out was now up to Yang Ping to introduce. Everyone is quite familiar with Yang Ping, who is now a legendary demigod figure in the medical field ¨C at least, the tales of his exploits grow ever more divine, especially amongst the young doctors, akin to talking about anime characters. Facing the experts of Affiliated Hospital No. 1, Yang Ping spoke frankly: ¡°The method I propose isn¡¯t idle speculation, nor is it for the sake of being flashy, but rather has a solid theoretical foundation. If rabies kills because of damage to the nervous system, why can¡¯t we focus on that and protect the nervous system? By using medication to induce a low-energy state in the brain, we can effectively reduce the occurrence of rabies complications in the brain and lower the damage to the nervous system. Meanwhile, the patient¡¯s immune system continues to function. If during this time, the immune system can produce enough antibodies against the rabies virus, it can destroy the virus. In other words, let the patient undergo a sort of ¡®suspended animation¡¯ to outpace the virus in this immune race.¡± ¡°The rabies virus targets the brain, usually, that¡¯s how it goes. Once the rabies virus enters the human body, the immune system bravely combats it. But as the battle goes on, the virus decapitates the brain, the General, and the war is naturally lost. In fact, if the General isn¡¯t decapitated so quickly, the immune system might actually stand a chance to eliminate the virus. Hence we¡¯ve devised a strategy: as soon as the battle begins, we hide the General and declare that he has fallen in battle. This way, the virus, adept at decapitation, is stumped and can do nothing but continue to battle the immune system. Given enough time, the immune system may eliminate the rabies virus. Previously, the immune system failed to destroy the rabies virus mainly due to insufficient time, or even if it was winning, the General was ultimately decapitated, leading to inevitable defeat.¡± Putting it this way makes it easy to understand, so the meeting doesn¡¯t feel so rigid. Since it¡¯s a new proposal, everyone discusses it in a relaxed manner. Director Yuan had been pondering this method for days, and while it¡¯s indeed a wildly innovative idea, it hadn¡¯t gone through any animal or clinical trials; the theory was being applied directly. But this was an exceptional circumstance ¨C with a mortality rate of one hundred percent, using a new method is an attempt at a breakthrough. At worst, the situation remains the same ¨C one hundred percent mortality rate. If support for Yang Ping was earlier due to respect for Professor Su and in awe of Yang Ping¡¯s reputation, after mulling over it for days, there was genuine conviction. Whether or not the method is effective, at least it¡¯s a theoretical breakthrough that doesn¡¯t just run in circles. The old methods were certainly ineffective; without new solutions, one could only stick with the old ways ¨C and if they really worked, there wouldn¡¯t be a one hundred percent mortality rate. In truth, the old methods were equivalent to having no methods at all. ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯ve been thinking for days, and what you¡¯ve said makes sense. To use the young people¡¯s phrase, it¡¯s truly a wide-open brain hole. Although there have been no experiments, I feel there really is a chance of success,¡± Director Yuan was not just flattering, he was speaking the truth. Director Luo from the ICU said: ¡°Here¡¯s what I think. Some things can be somewhat predicted theoretically, even without experiments, we can have a measure of confidence. Having just listened to Professor Yang¡¯s explanation, I was initially perplexed ¨C what kind of new method could there be for such a disease, and one that¡¯s thought up on the spot? But after hearing about it, I felt quite enlightened. Some things indeed can be understood without experiments. This new method has really been eye-opening for me. In fact, many things we¡¯ve always done this way, without reflecting on whether they¡¯re effective or even considering ways to improve the outcome.¡± What everyone said was the truth; normally, the majority of their work is repetitive, with few opportunities for innovative thinking. After all, innovation comes at a cost, and without a certain level of curiosity, it¡¯s hard to find the motivation for innovation. While discussing, a Doctoral Student came in and reported that the latest virus antibody titers had increased. Increased? That meant there was a turning point in the illness, which signified a great chance for the immune system to eliminate the rabies virus. Yang Ping felt more confident in his heart. This meeting not only involved the participation of seasoned experts in the discussion but also provided an opportunity for young doctoral candidates to engage. Seeing Yang Ping, they felt a sense of familiarity and spoke more boldly; after all, they were all young people, and these doctoral students considered him one of their own. After the meeting, Yang Ping prepared to go home, when Professor Su immediately called and instructed him to quickly come to his office. What for? Surely his father-in-law wasn¡¯t too busy today and had prepared a Boxed Meal for him, nor would he expect Yang Ping to join him for meals every time. Yang Ping muttered to himself as he headed towards Professor Su¡¯s office. Seeing a few guards in naval uniforms in the corridor, he reported his own name, and the guards immediately took him to Professor Su¡¯s office. Xiao Yang was puzzled, why there were guards stationed outside Professor Su¡¯s office. He knocked and entered, inside sat a majestic man in military attire who, surprisingly, looked quite similar to his own father-in-law, with the rank of a general on his shoulders. ¡°Come in quickly, call him Uncle Four!¡± ¡°Uncle Four!¡± Xiao Yang hurriedly called out. The General stood up and patted Xiao Yang¡¯s shoulder: ¡°So you are Xiao Yang, I¡¯ve heard of you before meeting you, and your reputation is quite significant.¡± This left Xiao Yang at a loss for words. ¡°Just a silly boy, who knows only to smile foolishly, sit down and keep Uncle Four company for a chat,¡± Professor Su said affectionately. Uncle Four? Which Uncle Four? Oh, Xiao Yang remembered, Professor Su had four brothers, and he had met the other three at Su Nanchen¡¯s birthday banquet, but he had only heard from Xiao Su that this uncle was in the military. ¡°Several of my former superiors had their surgeries performed by him, and his fame is indeed significant,¡± Su Qinghe said with a hearty laugh. Xiao Yang blushed, and Professor Su said: ¡°Young people only know how to perform surgeries, not how to talk, Old Four, don¡¯t take it to heart.¡± ¡°Elder brother, you have a keen eye, this young man is no ordinary person, the youngest expert in the health care team, and several of my former superiors can¡¯t stop praising him; today, I finally meet him in person.¡± ¡°Professor Yang!¡± ¡°Call me Xiao Yang!¡± ¡°You see, so modest, my old superiors all address you as Professor Yang, if I call you Xiao Yang, they would certainly criticize me when I see them,¡± Su Qinghe joked. ¡°He¡¯s our own family, you can just call him Xiao Yang,¡± Professor Su said with a smile. After thinking it over, Su Qinghe said: ¡°Alright then, Xiao Yang, Professor Chang Qirui is currently in charge of a very important project; should anything happen to him, the project could be delayed by 5-10 years until its success, we didn¡¯t anticipate such an emergency. I¡¯ve also just heard from your father that rabies has a 100% mortality rate, which is an unchangeable fact. However, I heard you¡¯re using a new method of treatment, can you give me a brief on it, how confident are you? Just speak frankly, I just want to understand the situation.¡± ¡°There is still hope, it¡¯s not necessarily 100% fatal,¡± Xiao Yang replied. The very latest test report shows that the rabies virus antibody titers have risen. The very latest test report shows that the rabies virus antibody titers have risen. Chapter 1434 - 1434 1072 Success ?Chapter 1434: Chapter 1072: Success! Chapter 1434: Chapter 1072: Success! Su Qinghe, busy with official duties, could not stay long. He hurried home to see his elderly father, a visit that usually only happened once every few years. The Su Family, as a family of tradition, had younger generations who each excelled in their own right. Starting from the Ming dynasty and persisting until now, the family¡¯s tradition of scholarly excellence was passed down without a single prodigal son, a testament to successful family education. In Su Qingyun¡¯s generation, all four brothers were exceptionally outstanding. Su Qingyun himself is now an Academician, while the eldest brother, Su Qingshan, has been promoted from Nandu Province to Beijing. The third, Su Qingyu, is the owner of a large domestic pharmaceutical company, and the youngest, Su Qinghe, has been developing his career in the military and now holds the rank of General. Among the younger generation, Su Nanchen topped the Nandu Province¡¯s science College Entrance Examination. He graduated from the eight-year program at Xiehe Hospital and, looking at his current trajectory, will not lag behind his father academically. His daughter-in-law, Lin Lan, was only 28 when she became a doctoral supervisor at Nandu Medical University. Their daughter just completed an ordinary bachelor¡¯s degree in nursing, which seemed a far cry from what Professor Su had hoped for her as a child. Su Qingyun and his wife also hoped that Su Yixuan could be admitted to a top-tier Medical University, such as Xiehe, Imperial Medical University, Huaxi, Nandu Medical University, Fudan, etc. However, much to their surprise, she chose nursing and was not interested in pursuing further studies, opting to work right after her undergraduate degree. Everyone has their own aspirations and can¡¯t be forced. The family¡¯s only cherished daughter, Su Qingyun and his wife eventually let go, letting her be, for her happiness and joy mean more than anything else. Now, it seems the daughter has chosen a path that indirectly elevates the family status, marrying a husband that is so dazzling. Su Qingyun is aware that with Yang Ping¡¯s ability, becoming an Academician and a Nobel laureate is only a matter of time. His current academic achievements are more than sufficient, not just for the future. ¡°The wedding is almost upon us, and I won¡¯t be able to make it then, but your aunt will definitely be there. On behalf of both of us, I apologize here.¡± Over the years, Su Qinghe was devoted to his work, rarely visiting home, and only video-calling his father during festivals. It had been many years since he had returned, and sometimes he would just have his wife and children make the visit. Su Yixuan immediately said, ¡°Uncle, please don¡¯t say that. Work is important.¡± These uncles truly adored her, for she was the only girl amongst the four families. Su Qingyun added, ¡°Fourth brother, it¡¯s out of place to say that.¡± Su Qinghe expressed, ¡°We have only one treasured daughter in our family; naturally, I must attend. But, second brother, as you know my work situation, I won¡¯t explain further. If not for Professor Chang¡¯s situation, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to make it back today.¡± All was understood without further words. Professor Su immediately called for everyone to start the meal. Professor Chang Qirui was in charge of an important national defense project. He was the absolute key figure in the project, and without him, the project would never have progressed so smoothly. Now that the project is more than halfway done, this accident is a source of both sorrow for the loss of such a talent and concern for the project¡¯s delay. Countless scientific and technical workers labor around the clock, contributing to the nation¡¯s collection of scientific achievements. Now such an important talent is lying in the Hospital Ward facing a hundred percent mortality rate, which pains Su Qinghe greatly and is hard for him to accept. This son-in-law claimed there was a glimmer of hope, but whether it was true or merely comforting words was uncertain. Nevertheless, this son-in-law¡¯s reputation was already very prominent in Beijing, and his several former leaders often mentioned his name. ¡°Xiao Yang, is there really any hope for Professor Chang?¡± At the dining table, Su Qinghe couldn¡¯t help asking again. Yang Ping honestly replied, ¡°I can¡¯t guarantee the success rate for the new method, but there is great hope.¡± Since there was a ray of hope, Su Qinghe insisted, ¡°Whatever support you need, just ask. We will support you fully.¡± ¡ª Before leaving Nandu, Su Qinghe visited Professor Chang in the ICU once more. It was night, but the Hospital was still brightly lit. The ICU was like daylight, with no distinction between day and night. Doctors and Nurses bustled around all night, and the monitoring screens showed real-time video of a Patient in the Ward. After all, as a leader, Su Qinghe was inevitably followed by many people, secretaries, guards, etc. He asked them all to wait outside to avoid disturbing the medical staff and entered the ICU Ward with Professor Su and Yang Ping. Professor Chang was now connected to many wires and various tubes, relying on a tracheal ventilator for breathing due to his coma. But the good news was that his vital signs remained stable. The country values talent highly, especially for someone like Professor Chang. Any slight anomaly in his annual check-up would lead to expert discussions. But still, there was a chance of something being missed. ¡°I really hope there¡¯s a possibility of rescue. Professor Yang, I¡¯m counting on you.¡± Su Qinghe could not stay long; he had a special flight back that night. After the visit, he had to hurry back to Beijing. ¡°I will do my utmost,¡± Yang Ping reassured his fourth uncle as they parted. After seeing off his fourth uncle, Yang Ping returned to the ICU Ward. The on-duty Doctor reported to him that the latest check showed another increase in virus antibody titers. The Patient¡¯s rabies virus antibody titers were continuously rising, which was exciting for everyone; it suggested that the human immune system might have the chance to eliminate the rabies virus ¨C a glimpse of hope for success. In fact, Yang Ping¡¯s treatment approach was very scientific. It focused on protecting the brain as its core. Previously, rabies fatalities were inevitable not due to the inability to eliminate the virus, but because the brain was damaged in the process. Now, by protecting the brain and allowing the immune system to confidently combat the virus, the fight could continue until victory. Chapter 1435 - 1435 1072 Success_2 ?Chapter 1435: Chapter 1072: Success!_2 Chapter 1435: Chapter 1072: Success!_2 ¡°As long as the patient¡¯s rabies virus antibodies continue to increase, the viral content in the blood will gradually decrease. Now, the battle between the virus and the human immune system is starting to reverse, and the human immune system is gaining the upper hand, initiating a major counterattack. The treatment details vary at different stages, and now that the human immune system is counterattacking, the treatment plan must also change. Yang Ping switched from short-acting Midazolam to long-acting Diazepam. The use of short-acting Midazolam was initially to facilitate dose adjustments at any time; its effects are brief, so changes in dosage quickly produce effects. Long-acting medications are different; even if the dosage is changed, it takes a longer time, sometimes even many days, to alter the effects. ¡ª Over at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, these past few days Yang Ping has been visiting daily, and the patient¡¯s condition is quite optimistic. As the virus antibody titers rise, the virus concentration is also getting lower and lower. Gradually, Yang Ping also started to reduce the doses of Diazepam and Ketamine, allowing the patient to slowly wake from the coma. With the gradual reduction of the drugs, the depth of the patient¡¯s coma also lightened. One morning, the patient opened his eyes, moved them around a bit, and then blinked. The nurse was so excited she jumped up and immediately reported to the doctor, the on-duty doctor reported to Director Luo, and Director Luo immediately called Yang Ping. Yang Ping, upon hearing the patient had awakened, rushed to the ICU, where Professor Su was already present. ¡°He¡¯s awake, his eyes are moving.¡± Director Luo, excited like a child, pulled Yang Ping towards the ICU, Yang Ping hurriedly put on isolation clothes. ¡°Call his name!¡± They called his name next to his ear to see whether there was conscious eye movement or unconscious, such as if the brain nerves had been affected leading to unconscious twitching of the eye muscles. Director Luo called out to the patient, ¡®Chang Qirui!¡¯ As he called, the patient actually blinked, and obviously, he understood his name. We¡¯ve done it! They successfully challenged the 100% mortality rate; at least now his virus is reducing, his brain nerve seems fine, the idea of using a hibernation method to protect the nervous system during the fierce battle between the virus and the immune system was correct, and now the virus is nearly eradicated while the brain is still good. ¡°Xiao Yang, doesn¡¯t this mean our method is effective?¡± Professor Su was also a bit excited. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Yes, we did it!¡± ¡®someone, record a video on your phone, quick! Call Director Yuan, let him come see too.¡± Director Luo was very excited but still remembered the colleagues who fought alongside him. ¡°Bring his family in!¡± Yang Ping instructed a doctor nearby. The doctor thought he had misheard, ¡°Professor Yang, do you mean to bring this patient¡¯s family here?¡± ¡°Yes, go and come back quickly.¡± Yang Ping patted his shoulder. Soon, the patient¡¯s wife was brought in because seeing his most familiar family member could potentially elicit a reaction in his gaze if the treatment was successful. His wife was also excited, ¡°Professor, doctor, what should I do?¡± When she saw her husband open his eyes healthy: ¡°Is this an improvement? Is it really?¡± ¡°Yes, it is, take off your mask, get close to him, and call him as you usually do to each other.¡± The patient¡¯s wife approached the bedside, trembling hands removing her mask, then getting close to him. ¡°Husband, husband, it¡¯s me!¡± With each call from his wife, his eyes blinked faster, and his lips moved a bit as if he wanted to speak but couldn¡¯t. ¡°It¡¯s a success! A 100% success!¡± I succeeded! Yang Ping continuously told himself inside, this was an idea he came up with on the spot during a consultation, and although it seemed theoretically feasible at the time, he didn¡¯t expect it to succeed on its first clinical application. ¡°Take a photo!¡± ¡°Record a video!¡± ¡°The family can leave now, we will talk to you later, your husband is savable, my new method has succeeded.¡± The patient¡¯s wife wanted to stay longer, but she was already led out by a female doctor. Regardless of whether there will be any sequelae, for now, saving the patient shouldn¡¯t be a problem. ¡°What, it succeeded!¡± At this moment, Director Yuan from the Department of Infectious Diseases rushed over, fastening his mask as he strode into the room. Seeing the patient awake, it really was a success. ¡°This must be the world¡¯s first case of a person being saved from rabies without having been vaccinated? A breakthrough indeed, everyone, don¡¯t forget the paper,¡± Professor Su reminded everyone. ¡°The first one, it is the first!¡± Director Luo replied. Yang Ping stood beside the bed, staring at the numbers on the monitor, everything was stable, it was unexpected that it actually succeeded. ¡°Does my nursing team also get a first?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°It was me who used the anesthesia.¡± ¡°The first medication was administered by me.¡± ¡°I made the diagnosis.¡± ¡°I was the first to start the treatment.¡± Everyone was happy, half-joking, their hearts filled with immense pride. The world¡¯s first rabies patient to be saved, how could they not be overjoyed? ¡°Xiao Yang, look, should we wait until things stabilize before I report to the higher-ups?¡± Professor Su was more composed, not as overly excited as others. Yang Ping nodded, ¡°Yes, let¡¯s wait.¡± Professor Su thought the same, better to be prudent, wait and observe for a while without issues before reporting. ¡°Everyone pay attention to discipline, Professor Chang¡¯s identity is rather unique, and we must keep it confidential, don¡¯t let it leak,¡± Director Luo reminded everyone. So, those who are tempted to share on social moments refrained from doing so, keeping serious, as such a leak could cost jobs and might even be criminally liable. ¡°What do we do next?¡± Director Luo asked Yang Ping, who now seemed like a giant in his eyes, as if his stature had grown immensely. A case with a 100% mortality rate, and he managed to save it, isn¡¯t that miraculous, impressive, and formidable? ¡°Next, we need to continuously monitor the viral load inside the body to see if it keeps decreasing until it disappears entirely, or if there¡¯s a rebound; that¡¯s most critical,¡± Yang Ping explained, as long as there¡¯s no rebound now, the prognosis should be good. ¡°We can¡¯t be negligent; we must also pay attention to other issues such as fluid and electrolyte balance, acid-base balance, and the function of crucial organs like the liver and kidneys. These fundamental issues must be given importance to avoid failure at the last step.¡± Director Luo noted it down, reminding other doctors and nurses, ¡°Did everyone hear that? Note it down, and be alert during this period, absolutely do not relax, we must strive for the final victory.¡± ¡°Yes, strive for the final victory,¡± everyone responded. The semi-divine Professor Yang¡¯s image in everyone¡¯s heart now became more real because previously it was all hearsay, but now they witnessed with their own eyes how a patient doomed to 100% mortality was pulled back from the brink. Legend has it that Yang Ping competes with King Yan for people, and it seems true, this patient was indeed snatched from King Yan. These doctors and nurses recalled every time Yang Ping stood by the bed, squinting his eyes, either focusing on the numbers on the monitor or staring at the patient, now it seems, it was like he was negotiating with King Yan on how to pull the person back. ¡°Professor Yang, when you¡¯re free later, could you help me check on a few other patients?¡± Director Luo immediately grabbed Yang Ping. Those were also basically hopeless, with various diseases but similar critical conditions, every possible treatment had nearly been tried. One was estimated to have brain death, just not formally assessed yet. Now, Director Luo believed that Yang Ping seemed capable of saving anyone, saving one is saving, casually trying a few more is also saving, anyway since he¡¯s here, just take him to see. Chapter 1436 - 1436 1073 Unexpected Impressive ?Chapter 1436: Chapter 1073: Unexpected, Impressive! Chapter 1436: Chapter 1073: Unexpected, Impressive! Since Director Luo had invited him for a consultation, and Yang Ping had some time to spare without the need to rush back, he followed Director Luo to see which patient was being consulted on, and whether he could be of any help. Professor Su, Director Yuan, and several other directors also moved along, and other doctors and nurses, especially the young doctoral and master graduate students, watched Yang Ping being invited by Director Luo to another ward, and they immediately followed. Although Yang Ping would come to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One for consultations or lectures, that would only be once or twice a month. Now, because of Professor Chang¡¯s treatment, Yang Ping was running over here every day, which was an excellent learning opportunity for these graduate students. Their enthusiasm for learning was still very high; they wished they could stick close to Yang Ping without leaving his side, so they could learn something new that wasn¡¯t found in textbooks. Even if there was nothing new, listening to Professor Yang¡¯s few words could broaden their horizons. For instance, Professor Yang¡¯s novel approach to rabies treatment, which is a technique not found in any textbook and represents the most advanced technology in the world. They had never heard of any hibernation therapy for rabies before this. Director Luo led Yang Ping and everyone else to another ward, where an elderly patient, who looked to be in his seventies or eighties, lay in a deep coma. He was connected to various tubes and wires, the distribution of which was exceedingly dense, dense enough that the wires and tubes had to be bundled together with cable ties for ease of identification and management. The space in this ward was actually quite ample, but because the patient was using so many machines, most likely every piece of equipment that could be used was already in use. The multitude of machines crowded the room, occupying most of the space, making the ward seem very cramped. Because space was so limited, only Director Luo, Yang Ping, Professor Su, and a few other important individuals could stand inside. These individuals also had to stand close to each other, while the rest could only squeeze at the doorway. Although Yang Ping had seen all sorts of patients, he had never seen a patient like this, probably completely dependent on machines to maintain life; the removal of any tube could bring his life to an abrupt end. ¡°Patient, male, 82 years old...¡± Director Luo personally reported the medical history to Yang Ping, while a doctoral student secretly passed over a medical chart. Yang Ping glanced at the chart and thought this might be the thickest medical history he had ever seen. It was incredibly thick, with the thickness of the paper medical records already pushing the limits of the chart folder, making the plastic covers of the file folder open exaggeratedly wide. Director Luo declined the clever doctorate¡¯s kind gesture with a wave of his hand: ¡°No need to look at the medical history, this patient has been with us for three years, I can recite his condition backwards.¡± When Director Luo saw Yang Ping staring at the medical history, he immediately understood that the exaggerated thickness might be surprising, and explained: ¡°Actually, the medical records, if stacked, would probably be taller than a person. What you are seeing is just a reorganized portion of the records.¡± ¡°You put it on the chart cart,¡± Director Luo instructed the doctoral student who brought the records and continued to report the medical history. Indeed, as he said, he didn¡¯t need the junior doctors to report, nor did he need to open the file folder; he could speak it from memory, indeed, he had memorized the patient¡¯s history. Yang Ping listened carefully to the medical history report, frowning slightly, thinking that without a few hours, it would be impossible to finish the report of the history. Director Luo also immediately realized the problem, and thus said, ¡°Let me report the medical history concisely and to the point.¡± Even though he summarized the medical history succinctly, it still took Director Luo a full fifteen minutes to report it. Yang Ping organized the patient¡¯s condition in his mind and had a rough understanding of the situation. He thought to himself: Director Luo, you are really treating me as a god, a patient who is almost brain-dead, has been in the ICU for three years, and is now entirely reliant on machines to sustain organ function. If any machine is removed, the patient¡¯s heart would immediately stop. Such patients have no clinical treatment meaning. Now you¡¯ve invited me for a consultation; what is the purpose and significance of it? As the head of the ICU, you couldn¡¯t possibly not know that this is a waste of time. But Yang Ping still patiently listened to Director Luo continue. ¡°Professor Yang, this patient is over eighty years old, nearing brain death, but the family refuses to give up. Please help us see if there is any hope for this patient. We¡¯ve repeatedly suggested the family let go, but every time they¡¯ve refused, and they¡¯ve cursed us out very badly. Our beds here are extremely scarce; one bed can save many lives in a year. Now this patient has been in our ICU for more than three years; we have to invest a lot of medical resources every day to keep him alive. It would be great if there was hope for his recovery and discharge from the hospital,¡± Director Luo said with a sigh. What situation? Asking Professor Yang for a consultation on a patient close to brain death? Isn¡¯t this a waste of Professor Yang¡¯s time? The graduate students gathered at the door listened intently to the conversation inside, afraid of missing any important words. Professor Su had also been listening carefully to Director Luo¡¯s medical history report, but the more he listened, the more something seemed off. Director Luo omitted the patient¡¯s name in the report, but why did this patient¡¯s condition sound so familiar? So, he gestured, ¡°Let me see the medical records.¡± The doctoral student behind him respectfully passed the medical chart with both hands, but found it to be weighty, so the doctor and another student jointly held it up for Professor Su to peruse. Chapter 1437 - 1437 1073 Not Obvious But Excellent_2 ?Chapter 1437: Chapter 1073: Not Obvious, But Excellent!_2 Chapter 1437: Chapter 1073: Not Obvious, But Excellent!_2 Professor Su briefly flipped through the names on the medical record and immediately understood. This was a patient covered by public medical funds, who had undergone dozens of hospital-wide and external consultations. He had personally participated in several of them, which is why the name sounded so familiar. A patient nearing brain death and kept alive only by machines that maintain organ vitality ¨C what was he consulting Yang Ping for? What was Director Luo up to? This wasn¡¯t calling Yang Ping for a consultation; he was effectively asking for me. Professor Su immediately understood what was going on. Director Luo wanted to use this valuable opportunity to share his troubles with Professor Su. Although the patient was covered by public medical funds and not short on money, he had been staying there for over three years, consuming a vast amount of medical resources. At present, ICU beds and equipment were already in short supply, and this patient alone took up several life-saving machines, which needed to be constantly available. These were life-saving machines that, if used here, would be in short supply elsewhere. But this was also a difficult matter for Professor Su to handle. As the dean, one needed not only strong academic abilities but also management skills, and perhaps more importantly, the handling of various relationships and the ability to navigate them gracefully. Professor Su was exactly that kind of person, a pluri-potential talent, one could say. ¡°Old Luo, let me consult on this patient for you. Professor Yang is very busy; you don¡¯t have to trouble him,¡± Professor Su said, now understanding the implications behind the request. Now, with the development of the ICU, Director Luo was short on staff and equipment and hoped the dean could intervene, allocate a few staff members, and purchase some new equipment. ¡°Thank you, Dean Su,¡± Director Luo immediately said, his face breaking into a smile. Dean Su¡¯s word was always his bond. If he said he would help with the consultation, things would be much more manageable. The new equipment he requested and the few doctors he needed would soon be in place. As for the patient, to be honest, Director Luo knew in his heart that Professor Su couldn¡¯t possibly intervene forcefully. The world was not about fights and killings but about managing human emotions and social etiquette, which Director Luo still understood. ¡°Then, thank you, Dean Su,¡± Director Luo immediately said. Now that the matter had settled, Director Luo did not need to have so many people wasting time around here, so the consultation ended. The consultation ended just like that. What had happened? Professor Yang hadn¡¯t even spoken yet. Professor Su specializes in Orthopedics; why had he let Director Luo consult with him? Those masters and doctoral students gathered around were at a loss as to what had happened, having never encountered such a consultation before. Some even wondered if they had missed some important information while being distracted. ¡°Did you just hear Professor Yang speaking? How should this patient be treated?¡± ¡°No, I didn¡¯t hear anything.¡± ¡°What exactly happened?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± These young masters and doctoral students were still too naive, their minds filled only with medical knowledge, but no matter how hard they thought, they couldn¡¯t understand what happened in today¡¯s patient consultation. How was it resolved in just a few words? ¡ª Professor Chang¡¯s condition improved day by day, and Yang Ping¡¯s work focus also shifted back to his own department. He also took the opportunity to summarize his innovation in treating rabies. In fact, he hadn¡¯t done too much work this time, merely thoroughly understanding all existing rabies research theories, integrating them, and then reconnecting the theories with clinical practice. The theory was ready-made, and the drugs were also ready-made. Hibernation therapy was a common method in the field of Neurology. If they were all dissected separately, there was no innovation, but when combined together, they formed a whole new theory. This also gave Yang Ping some inspiration. Back in his department, Yang Ping wanted to find some time to visit Sisi, but no one was in her ward. The nurse said that Sisi had gone to the psychological department, where Director Bai of the psychological department was chatting with her. Because Sisi was still quite young and had suffered from the disease for a long time, despite being a smart and strong little girl, she was likely to be negatively impacted psychologically, so Yang Ping made it a point to have Director Bai, the head of the psychology department, talk to her and provide proper psychological counseling regularly. Providing psychological help to some patients, especially those with tumors, is utterly necessary. Not only patients but also medical staff working under high pressure need psychological counseling. However, psychological counseling is not given much attention domestically, and sometimes even viewed with embarrassment. Sisi would be able to return to school in a few days. Being intelligent and having completed her elementary school curriculum ahead of time, the delay had no impact on her studies. The subsequent Virus Therapy only required her to be hospitalized for a few days each time, which was very convenient. Yang Ping also went to see Zhao Yufan, the little boy. After undergoing Virus Therapy, his tumor had also noticeably shrunk. The evident effectiveness of the treatment had excited Old Zhao so much that he hadn¡¯t slept for several days and nights; the feeling of escaping from the jaws of death truly made an impact on Old Zhao. Old Zhao, his son, and a patient in the next bed were playing the card game ¡®fight the landlord¡¯ in the ward, thoroughly enjoying themselves. During this period, Xia Shu and Head Nurse Cai had also worked very hard. They were the main members of the experimental team. Now that Sisi¡¯s experiment had succeeded, they had returned to their regular duties in the department. Yang Ping had himself checked several times afterwards, and the K virus was no longer found in his body, indicating that it had been completely cleared. Hence, he was now completely free from worries. Hermes had returned from Africa and hadn¡¯t left since. He kept running to Sanbo Hospital every other day, virtually making the hospital his second home. The doctors and nurses in the Surgical Research Institute were very familiar with him; he was either bringing fruits or pastries, always arranging to bring treats for the doctors and nurses. Chapter 1438 - 1438 1073 Unexpected That Works_3 ?Chapter 1438: Chapter 1073: Unexpected, That Works!_3 Chapter 1438: Chapter 1073: Unexpected, That Works!_3 He didn¡¯t really have anything to do at the Surgical Research Institute, just sitting in the doctors¡¯ office playing around. If a doctor had free time, he would chat with them; if not, he didn¡¯t mind. He¡¯d just take a chair and sit in a corner, or stand in front of the human skeleton model lost in thought. He never stayed too long, around half an hour, so he wouldn¡¯t cause any trouble for everyone. This time, Hermes was holding a tape measure, sizing up the human skeleton model in the doctors¡¯ office, observing it from various angles, sometimes frowning, sometimes nodding, sometimes stroking his chin. He was also taking photos with his phone from different angles and jotting down notes every now and then. The doctors had no idea what he was up to. Yang Ping came out of the ward and saw Hermes staring at the human skeleton model while holding a tape measure and couldn¡¯t help asking, ¡°Old Wang, are you planning to switch careers and study medicine?¡± ¡°Oh, Professor Yang, you¡¯re back,¡± Hermes smiled. ¡°I was thinking, can we make a 1.8-meter tall golden skeleton? It would look majestic in your doctors¡¯ office. The Surgical Research Institute is a world-class medical research base after all, and it should have a few things that show off its grandeur, right? I figured, making a golden skeleton wouldn¡¯t use too much gold. The only thing I was pondering was, pure gold is a bit soft, but anything else just wouldn¡¯t look classy. Oh, and replace all those bronze plaques at your front entrance with gold ones, that would be really majestic.¡± Hermes said with such seriousness it didn¡¯t sound like he was joking at all. In fact, when Hermes talked about gold, you really shouldn¡¯t think he was joking or boasting¡ªhe was absolutely serious about gold. ¡°You were standing there earlier just mulling over this?¡± Yang Ping was rather stunned. Truly professional, carrying the thought of gold wherever he went. Hermes stroked his chin, ¡°Professor, just give me the nod, and I¡¯ll get to work on it. I¡¯ll make the skeleton 1.8 meters tall, and I¡¯ll enlarge the entrance plaques a bit over their original size too.¡± ¡°Are you sure if we hang up pure gold plaques at our entrance, they¡¯ll still be there the next day?¡± Yang Ping asked a serious question. ¡°That¡¯s true, if we hang up dozens of pure gold plaques at the entrance, it will be a problem if people get wind of it. Thieves might steal them overnight; this indeed poses a challenge.¡± Hermes reflected for a moment. ¡°If you erect a golden skeleton here, would we have to assign a few security guards to take turns watching over it?¡± Yang Ping posed another serious question. Hermes touched his chin again, ¡°Right, we could also put together a security team to take turns guarding the entrance plaques. Doesn¡¯t that solve the problem?¡± Yang Ping was speechless at this point. Just then, a urology doctor came in for a consultation and immediately recognized Hermes: ¡°President Wang?¡± ¡°Yes, you are?¡± Hermes couldn¡¯t remember at the moment. ¡°You remember me, I¡¯m from urology. I was with Director Lu during your equipment upgrade, remember?¡± the urology doctor said. Hermes immediately remembered, ¡°President Liao?¡± ¡°Ah, I¡¯ve been promoted to attending physician now, not a president anymore,¡± the urologist laughed. ¡°Are you satisfied with your upgraded equipment? Is it still functioning well?¡± ¡°Thank you all so much, really, I greatly appreciate it. It¡¯s extremely useful,¡± Hermes expressed his satisfaction. Since they were in the doctors¡¯ office, the urologist momentarily forgot to be discreet and blurted out, ¡°I seem to recall that your upgrade surgery was very successful, adding 6 centimeters. You originally had normal equipment, and with such a strong enhancement, it really became an enhanced version. When I tested it last time, it seemed to be reaching 18 centimeters in working condition, I even have photos saved here for writing a paper.¡± The doctors in the office immediately turned around, and one of them, a doctor familiar with Hermes, said: ¡°Old Wang, not bad at all, impressive!¡± Chapter 1439 - 1439 1074 Green Lights All the Way ?Chapter 1439: Chapter 1074: Green Lights All the Way Chapter 1439: Chapter 1074: Green Lights All the Way The Head of the Urology Department at Sanbo Hospital, President Liao, announced free surgery opportunities, which indeed tempted some people, yet aside from excitement, there were concerns. As medical students, everyone knew the pros and cons of the surgery. If it was a simple suspensory ligament disconnection and elongation procedure, little did people know that the results often weren¡¯t good post-operation, and it required many additional surgical methods tailored to the individual. Thus, besides being ineffective, the simple suspensory ligament disconnection and elongation procedure also caused issues like a decrease in the erection angle and a feeling of discomfort post-surgery, due to the loss of support from the suspensory ligaments. It is unknown what the specific techniques used by Director Lu and President Liao are, and what the post-surgery experience with Hermes is like; the intrigued graduate students hesitate to ask such details. One graduate student came up with an idea: ¡°Mr. Liao, actually when we were rotating in the urology department, we didn¡¯t quite learn this surgical technique. Could you explain the details of these techniques to us? For instance, we know that the simple suspensory ligament disconnection and elongation procedure isn¡¯t effective. How do you achieve such good results? I¡¯d like to write a comprehensive review, but I¡¯m struggling due to a lack of information.¡± President Liao cares deeply about this surgery, being one of the doctors who most frequently perform this kind of surgery alongside Director Lu within the department. President Liao had heard that a top surgeon from a leading domestic hospital innovated a new elongation technique, perfecting it to the point where this became his exclusive practice. Supposedly, this top surgeon is now so successful that he flies to Japan every month, where he is revered as a master and earns enormous amounts, owning countless large properties in Beijing and Shanghai. Therefore, President Liao harbors an aspiration to perfect this technique like this top expert, then go to Japan to make a fortune; at that point, he would count money until his hands grew tired. President Liao glanced at the wall clock, noted there was still time, and gestured, ¡°You guys, not attentive during your rotation, now realize this surgery is complex too, right? Today I¡¯ll explain it to you, make sure to take notes, and don¡¯t say you don¡¯t know next time.¡± Heading to the whiteboard, President Liao began drawing as the graduate students respectfully closed the door and simultaneously took out their notebooks, well-practiced in medical illustration which Sanbo Hospital emphasized as basic training for young doctors. ¡°For individuals with larger corpora cavernosa when flaccid, a simple suspensory ligament disconnection and elongation have a certain elongating effect, because the larger, heavier corpora cavernosa get pulled out somewhat by gravity. But, for those with smaller corpora cavernosa when flaccid, this surgery doesn¡¯t work well. Why? Because the weight of the external corpora cavernosa isn¡¯t enough for gravity to pull the retracted portions out, and even if pulled out during surgery, they will retract back eventually. So, what should we do? We need to be smart in performing surgeries, extensively consult literature and continuously learn and summarize instead of blindly following conventional methods.¡± President Liao, referring to his own basic sketch, elaborated enthusiastically, ¡°Pay attention, look closely, this here is the suspensory ligament, now we cut the ligament here, but it¡¯s not just a simple disconnection. Many domestic doctors just do this, and when the results aren¡¯t good, they don¡¯t reflect on it. See, what is this?¡± President Liao added a wedge-shaped figure to the sketch and colored it black to stand out. Everyone looked puzzled, not realizing what it represented. ¡°This wedge-shaped thing is a filler material, which we insert during the surgery. It¡¯s placed in the subpubic space. What¡¯s the use? The descent of the pubis allows more of the corpora cavernosa to extend outwards, exposing more. This filler is crucial, with this, the corpora cavernosa can be more exposed. Ask Old Wang, how is the effect post-surgery? 6 centimeters, what does that tell you? Think about it, right Old Wang?¡± ¡°Ah? Asking me? Yes, yes.¡± Old Wang, also present, nodded continuously. ¡°So, besides cutting the suspensory ligament, we also need to fill the subpubic space. It¡¯s astonishing that many domestic doctors are unaware of this method. In fact, a professor from Beijing University People¡¯s Hospital wrote a paper on this in 2019, yet many people do not study, nor review literature and remain ignorant.¡± President Liao now felt like a true professor, as this surgery boosts his confidence, being a domain where he sees his future dreams coming true. ¡°What filler material do we use? Autologous or artificial?¡± asked a graduate student. President Liao replied, ¡°Abroad, silicone blocks are generally used, but we use acellular dermal matrix as folded. Because silicone blocks are quite hard and there is not much space within the Asian subpubic gap, placing silicone blocks could cause them to protrude through the skin surface and the patients might feel pain during erection. We use folded acellular dermal matrix which is smaller and more flexible, fitting the characteristics of a smaller Asian subpubic gap, and it doesn¡¯t cause discomfort during erection.¡± ¡°Everyone, remember, surgical elongation must be tailored, so this method isn¡¯t omnipotent and has its shortcomings; not every male is suitable for this procedure. Clinically, there are many patients with notably small or severely retracted penises, who, even after subpubic space padding, don¡¯t achieve significant elongation results. Thus, a key conflict is the retraction and the small size of the penis when flaccid, making it difficult to significantly improve through this method.¡± Chapter 1440 - 1440 1074 Green Lights All the Way_2 ?Chapter 1440: Chapter 1074: Green Lights All the Way_2 Chapter 1440: Chapter 1074: Green Lights All the Way_2 ¡°So what should we do for patients with a smaller YJ body and severe YJ retraction? Using botulinum toxin in conjunction with traction can more simply address the issue of penile retraction, which is more in line with the characteristics of minimally invasive procedures.¡± ¡°There is a minor drawback to this method as it requires an incision at the base of the penis, which is an area with numerous hair follicles, potentially leading to poor wound healing or scar formation.¡± ¡°How do we thicken it?¡± asked a graduate student. ¡°What have you all been doing during your rotations? Thickening is simple. Inject hyaluronic acid between tissues to increase the weight and diameter of the penile body. It¡¯s completely fine to increase the diameter by 0.5 to 1 centimeter. Old Wang went for both length and girth enhancement, and I estimate his diameter increased by well over 1 centimeter. Right, President Wang?¡± ¡°Yes, yes, yes!¡± Hermes nodded. President Liao was speaking fluently, and it wasn¡¯t until this point that he realized discussing someone¡¯s private matters in such a public setting was extremely unethical. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I just...¡± Doctor Liao said a bit awkwardly, then apologized to Hermes. Hermes waved his hand: ¡°It¡¯s okay, we all know each other here.¡± Anyway, everyone present is an acquaintance, and all the doctors and nurses in the department knew he had undergone the surgery; it wasn¡¯t a secret here. Moreover, the successful transformation is something to be proud of, not a source of shame. As Doctor Liao was speaking, he received a call from Director Luo: ¡°Why is the consultation taking so long? The International Medical Department called to say that a Japanese person has come to see urological cosmetic outpatient services, you should go take a look.¡± Doctor Liao quickly ended the conversation: ¡°Director Luo is urging me. We¡¯re swamped in the department. Look, there¡¯s another case coming in. We¡¯ll talk more when I¡¯m free.¡± But he is currently doing a follow-up on previous surgery cases, and the number of collected cases is not sufficient. Now encountering Hermes, he definitely couldn¡¯t miss the opportunity. So he said to Hermes: ¡°I¡¯ll contact you later. I need to carry out post-operative follow-up and evaluation on patients who have had this surgery. When you¡¯re free, I¡¯ll give you a form to fill out, please help me out, because a lot of patients have lost contact, and I don¡¯t have enough cases for follow-up. Do you have my WeChat? I think we added each other last time. My WeChat name is ¡®Committed to the Lower Half.''¡± ¡°Committed to the Lower Half?¡± Hermes picked up his phone to search in WeChat contacts and found him indeed: ¡°Send me that follow-up form, I¡¯ll give you full marks.¡± Having confirmed President Wang had his WeChat, President Liao, who was very busy with urology, hastily walked out only to remember that he had not yet gone to the consultation, so he returned and hurried to the ward for the consultation. A patient at the Surgical Research Institute was preparing for heart bypass surgery. During pre-operative exams, an enlarged prostate was discovered. The patient, having been severely affected by the enlarged prostate in urination, wanted to inquire whether it would be possible to perform a transurethral resection of the prostate at the same time as the heart bypass. President Liao needed to go and make an assessment. After Doctor Liao¡¯s lecture, everyone gained a bit of understanding about the surgery. Work was busy, so everyone dispersed to their respective duties. Hermes looked at the measuring tape in his hand, recalling why he came today, but he realized Yang Ping was gone: ¡°Where¡¯s the professor?¡± ¡°The professor went to Affiliated Hospital No. 1,¡± said Little Five. Hermes responded: ¡°It¡¯s okay; I can talk to you, too. It¡¯s about the golden skeleton and the sign that I mentioned earlier.¡± ¡°Old Wang, I know you mean well, but let me put it this way, gold is not suitable to be placed inside a hospital,¡± said Little Five, not wanting to outright crush his luxurious ideas. Hermes became anxious: ¡°Why can¡¯t it be placed in a hospital? It would look so beautiful, shining here.¡± Little Five put his arm around Hermes and whispered in his ear: ¡°Metal, wood, water, fire, earth, the Five Elements produce and restrain each other. Metal restrains wood, and what is a hospital for? It is a place to save lives and offer aid, which requires life force. What is life force? In Five Elements theory, life force belongs to wood. How can you place gold¡ªthe most metal of all¡ªinside a hospital? Think about it, isn¡¯t that so?¡± Hermes thought it over and agreed. Being a businessman, he firmly believed in such metaphysical theories, so he immediately stopped insisting. Hermes was worried about disrupting everyone¡¯s work after spending a long time here, so he quickly left. After he left, a doctor asked Little Five, ¡°Teacher Wu, aren¡¯t the surgical instruments we usually use made of metal? Does that mean we will have to switch to non-metallic surgery instruments in the future?¡± Little Five responded, ¡°There¡¯s an issue with your worldview.¡± The graduate student muttered, wasn¡¯t that what you just said? ¡ª Yang Ping arrived at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. Professor Chang had awakened, his mind was very clear, and it was confirmed through a series of checks that Professor Chang¡¯s brain had not been damaged. These days, the rabies virus in Professor Chang¡¯s body had been decreasing, and this morning¡¯s virus test came back negative, indicating that the immune system had eradicated the rabies virus completely, making this a final victory in his treatment. Due to the excellent control over the depth and duration of his hibernation, Professor Chang¡¯s brain was not harmed. Although he was left with bilateral leg spasticity, considering that he had narrowly escaped death and his brain was totally intact, the leg spasticity was insignificant. Even if he couldn¡¯t fully recover, he could still live in a wheelchair, and besides, there was still potential hope with rehabilitation therapy. Now that Professor Chang was awake, Yang Ping asked him about his medical history. He confirmed that ten years ago, while climbing a mountain, he was indeed bitten by a wild dog through his thick trousers just enough to break the skin. At that time, lacking the medical knowledge on the subject, he did not pay much attention to it as there was no significant wound, and he didn¡¯t get the preventive vaccine. He never imagined the disease would manifest ten years later. Professor Chang also learned about his rescue process from doctors and nurses and was full of gratitude towards Yang Ping, who had pulled him back from the brink of death, from a disease with an almost 100% fatality rate. Hearing that the country had spared no expense in his rescue, his heart was deeply touched, further solidifying his determination to contribute to the nation. ¡°When can I be discharged? Right now, it¡¯s just my legs that are not working, as if they¡¯ve rusted, completely immobile. Otherwise, I feel okay.¡± Professor Chang leaned on the bed headboard, patting his lower limbs. ¡°Don¡¯t rush, you should recover fully before being discharged. Your leg issue is caused by muscle spasticity, and you will need rehabilitation therapy in the future. It¡¯s still too early to conclude whether you can fully recover,¡± Yang Ping advised him not to be hasty about leaving the hospital. Professor Chang asked with some concern, ¡°This sequelae won¡¯t affect my brain, will it?¡± ¡°No, it only affects walking, and at worst, you¡¯d need to use a wheelchair,¡± Yang Ping honestly replied. Professor Chang laughed, ¡°That¡¯s not a problem. I¡¯ll use a wheelchair if I need to. As long as it doesn¡¯t affect my brain, doesn¡¯t stop me from continuing my work, it¡¯s fine. Anyway, I spend all day in the laboratory at the Institute, being in a wheelchair won¡¯t make much of a difference.¡± The senior leadership was thrilled to know that Professor Chang had been saved; it was truly a miracle. Yang Ping, that name alone suggested a figure who created medical miracles in the minds of the leaders. Leaders from the Health Commission and the military were extremely excited upon hearing the news. Director Chen from the Health Commission had promised Professor Su that all his requests would be granted without obstacles. As Nandu Affiliated Hospital One was under the direct leadership of the Health Commission, and the approval power for major equipment was also in their hands, Professor Su took this opportunity to list a significant amount of equipment to Director Chen, as many departments were in desperate need of it. For example, the ICU¡¯s ECMO, which Director Luo had been seeking solutions for recently, and he had promised to solve this issue for Director Luo. Now was the perfect time to address it. The list was submitted, and Director Chen from the Health Commission didn¡¯t show any temper. He absolutely had to sign off; Nandu Affiliated Hospital One had made such a significant contribution. He had also made a promise that as long as principles were not violated, all requests would be given the green light, and this request did not violate any principles; hence, the green light was assured. Professor Su was overjoyed. After this event, his future dealings with the Health Commission would indeed be smooth sailing. PS: Wishing everyone a Happy New Year, good health, family happiness, and all the best! Chapter 1441 - 1441 1075 Stomach Cutting for Weight Loss ?Chapter 1441: Chapter 1075: Stomach Cutting for Weight Loss Chapter 1441: Chapter 1075: Stomach Cutting for Weight Loss Reminder: Do not read now, it¡¯s being edited!!!!!!!!!!!! These days, Yang Ping has been busy with the treatment of Professor Chang at Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, so he has been somewhat neglectful of his own hospital. Director Fang of the General Surgery Department had informed Yang Ping many days earlier that there would be a major surgery involving ex-vivo resection of liver cancer and autologous liver transplantation. Although Director Fang had performed several dozen such surgeries, given the complexity and difficulty of the surgery, Director Fang felt more reassured with Yang Ping present. However, as Yang Ping had been busy previously, Director Fang had been waiting, and now that Yang Ping was finally available, he seized the opportunity to arrange the surgery. After finishing his duties, Yang Ping went to check on the General Surgery Department to support Director Fang. On his way to the surgery building, several patient families were waiting at the main entrance. Upon seeing Yang Ping come out, they immediately blocked his way but were stopped by Ershun and a few plainclothes guards who were following nearby. Upon asking what the issue was, it turned out that the patients, unable to get an appointment with Yang Ping, resorted to this drastic measure. They ambushed him at the entrance of the Surgical Research Institute, hoping that upon spotting Yang Ping, they could rush up to him, have him view their CT scans, and possibly get a treatment plan or even have him oversee their operations. Such situations pose a dilemma for doctors, especially for someone with Yang Ping¡¯s status and position. Agreeing to help might set a precedent not just for one patient but could lead to thousands of patients blocking his way. It might even give rise to an organ market chain where organized groups may specifically target him, charging thousands for a blockade. Refusing to help, on the other hand, would lead the patients and their families to accuse the doctor of lacking medical ethics, arguing that treating them would only take a few minutes and that failing to help even when approached directly is akin to neglecting life-saving responsibilities. In reality, general doctors would not agree to such requests, as setting such a precedent would lead to numerous follow-up cases. This isn¡¯t merely a question of ethics. If this were permissible, then everyone might forego appointments or queuing in Outpatient services, and the whole medical order would be thrown into chaos. This wasn¡¯t the first occurrence, as people used to block Yang Ping at the entrance every week. However, security has since implemented specific measures, greatly reducing these incidents. The guards at the entrance immediately stepped in to help, and Ershun handed over the matter to them while continuing to follow Yang Ping. The guards, handling such matters more frequently, would gradually reduce the occurrence of such incidents. Yang Ping could only refuse such requests; otherwise, it would lead to complete disorder in the medical system. Yang Ping first went to the General Surgery Ward, then the Operating Room. Since Director Fang had previously performed several tumor ex-vivo resections and autologous organ transplants under the guidance of Yang Ping, Yang Ping needed to check on the post-operative results of these patients. Upon seeing Yang Ping arrive, the on-duty doctor in the General Surgery Department immediately accompanied him, helping to turn on the computer to report the latest test results of the patients. As Yang Ping was reviewing the lab reports, a hefty Fatty peeked around the doorway of the doctor¡¯s office. Isn¡¯t that Danian Wei? Weighing 200 kilograms, he¡¯s the heaviest patient Yang Ping has ever seen; Yang Ping could recognize him anywhere. ¡°Professor Yang?¡± Danian Wei also recognized Yang Ping and immediately came over to greet him, Danian Wei being a friendly person. ¡°Danian Wei, what are you doing here? What¡¯s the situation?¡± Yang Ping asked him. Grinning, Danian Wei replied, ¡°I had a stomach-reduction surgery for weight loss here, and I¡¯ve been here for several days after the surgery, now just waiting to have the stitches removed and be discharged.¡± ¡°Stomach-reduction for weight loss?¡± Yang Ping remembered he had consulted about this surgery before but didn¡¯t expect it to already be carried out. At this weight, indeed, he must lose weight; 200 kilograms, obesity severely threatened his health. The issue of obesity is definitely not just about appearance but more significantly about health. For someone obese like Danian Wei, the future surely held high blood pressure and blood sugar levels, very likely already elevated. ¡°How did you decide to undergo surgery for weight loss? Weren¡¯t you scared before? You said before you¡¯d try dieting and more physical activity first, and then see how it goes,¡± Yang Ping asked him. Danian Wei spoke earnestly, ¡°Professor Yang, with my condition, I really had to lose weight. I lost faith in other methods, so I had no choice but to opt for surgical weight loss after a long consideration. Look at me, riddled with diseases, my blood sugar and blood pressure are abnormal, and I also have sleep apnea syndrome. I¡¯ve seen a specialist in respiratory medicine, and they said surgery isn¡¯t needed for now, just reducing weight will definitely help.¡± ¡°How do you feel after the surgery?¡± Yang Ping believed he had finally pinpointed the key issue; he should have opted for weight loss sooner. 200 kilograms, plus high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar ¨C only in his twenties, if he were a bit older, a plethora of problems would surely emerge successively. Losing weight seems simple: control your diet and exercise more. But it¡¯s easier said than done. For most obese people, they have an exceptionally good appetite, and asking them not to eat is even harder than killing them. Increase exercise, it seems good, but in reality, when obesity reaches a certain level, they simply can¡¯t move. Take someone like Wei Danian, he runs for a few minutes, and his heart rate is almost racing to 150 beats per minute. If he keeps running like this, it¡¯s unbelievable that he wouldn¡¯t collapse. Try swimming, he couldn¡¯t last even one or two thousand meters before feeling like his chest was stuck to his back. Climbing stairs to the third floor leaves him gasping for breath. If it¡¯s hot, just walking a few steps makes his whole body sweat. And you want this kind of person to do exercise. How would you suggest they do it? The truth of the matter is also straightforward. Some things seem easy but are hard in practice. It¡¯s like the college entrance examination. The attendance method seems so simple, right? Is it really that hard? Just get 150 on each subject, and that¡¯s 750 points, a perfect score, isn¡¯t it? Then you¡¯d be able to get into Tsinghua or Peking University just like that. Wei Danian¡¯s parents said exactly that to him. They told him, ¡°If you can¡¯t get 150 points on the test, you should at least get 145 points, right? That¡¯s easy enough. If not 145, then 140 points should be doable.¡± But what they don¡¯t realize is, scoring 140 on each subject and reaching 700 points would only give a few top scores nationally. ¡°So, looking at situations like Wei Danian¡¯s, controlling diet and exercise is simply impossible.¡± And those diet pills, utterly useless. The principle of all diet pills is roughly the same, they increase the feeling of fullness in the stomach. That is, even before you eat, you feel full. This might stop you from eating better or less, and in reality, it just reduces food intake, moreover, almost all diet pills require a reduced diet and exercise to be effective. For food lovers, they eat not because they¡¯re trying to solve hunger, but purely because the food tastes good. It¡¯s about liking the food, not because of hunger. For someone like Danian, diet pills that increase the feeling of fullness in the stomach are meaningless. So, what could be done? He then thought of stomach surgery for weight loss. He thought about it for a long time. His parents told him, ¡°Why lose weight? Being able to eat is good. Being fat looks good.¡± ¡°As for those who I¡¯ve inquired about, who have had the surgery, indeed, the effects are very good. Some have reduced by nearly 150 pounds. They don¡¯t expect to lose much more. They said if you lose down to 330 pounds, that would be enough.¡± 330 pounds, what are they even talking about? When the atmosphere gets measured, they used to have a social circle, and a group, all filled with obese people. Several of them have had the surgery. But these guys, they secretly underwent the surgery, and they never told anyone. When I asked them how they managed to lose weight so successfully, they claimed it was through diet pills, and then tried to sell those diet pills to me. Later, I came to know that they secretly had weight loss surgeries. Wei Dalian often talked a lot. Once he starts talking, there¡¯s no stopping him. If you were to continue talking with him, he could probably go on for three days and three nights without repeating a sentence. Yang Ping walked around the ward, then headed to the operating room. At that time, Director Fang was walking in, towards a patient with liver hydatid disease, undergoing autologous liver transplantation. Since following Yang Ping in performing the duodenal and pancreatic resection and reconstruction, Director Fang repeatedly opened the door to treatment and reconstruction. He decided to make some achievements in his own reconstructions. Professor Yang, Director Fang felt much reassured when he saw Yang Ping arriving. I just met Wei Dalian at your place, he was talking about the partial stomach resection, the weight loss surgery he had undergone. Director Fang confirmed, ¡°Correct. What he underwent was sleeve gastrectomy, a kind of weight reduction surgery. His weight was just too extreme.¡± This surgery involves removing a large part of the greater curvature of the stomach, preserving the normal physiological structure and function of the pylorus and antrum, compressing the stomach¡¯s capacity to about 80 milliliters. I see you opted for minimally invasive techniques. Yes, it was done with a laparoscope. Three small incisions, one incision was out of jealousy. Chapter 1442 - 1442 1076 A Difficult Decision ?Chapter 1442: Chapter 1076: A Difficult Decision Chapter 1442: Chapter 1076: A Difficult Decision Director Fang made rapid progress with the help of Yang Ping. After performing an abdominal organ cluster transplantation surgery under Yang¡¯s guidance, he felt as if he had acquired incredible abilities, seeing a significant boost in his skills. That abdominal organ cluster transplantation surgery was the first of its kind in Asia. At that time, Yang Ping was the chief surgeon, and he was the first assistant. After the successful completion of the surgery, Director Fang took the data from that operation and lectured about it extensively, establishing a preliminary reputation in the academic world. Later, he followed Yang to complete many tumor ex-vivo resections and autotransplant surgeries, amassing dozens of cases. There weren¡¯t many hospitals in the country that could perform such surgeries, and in terms of both surgical difficulty and volume, Director Fang completely outperformed the rest. Consequently, owing to these complex surgeries, Director Fang quickly became renowned in the circles of hepatobiliary surgery, pancreatic surgery, and gastrointestinal surgery. With Yang¡¯s assistance, Director Fang was like someone with a game cheat enabled; he dared to perform any surgery. If a doctor has a highly skilled and willing mentor during their development, progress is sure to be rapid. Otherwise, one remains stagnant. ¡°Be careful, take it slow, no rush, I¡¯ll handle it gently.¡± Director Fang reminded the assistants not to make rash moves, as it was a critical moment in separating the tissues, and any carelessness could lead to a bloody mess on the operating table. ¡°Professor! Can you take a look?¡± When faced with difficulties, Director Fang could only seek help from Yang Ping. Yang Ping did not scrub in or dress for surgery; he merely sat below the operation platform. Hearing the plea, he stood about a meter away and looked into the surgical field. The patrolling nurse, quick-witted, immediately brought over a step stool. Yang Ping stood on the stool, which allowed him a better and broader view from above. Director Fang and his assistants immediately cleared a path for observation and used retractors to make the surgical field even more visible. With just a glance, Yang Ping casually said, ¡°The order of dealing with several blood vessels at the hepatic portal is reversed. Such surgery needs to be personalized; you can¡¯t always follow the textbook. Try reversing the order of handling the blood vessels now.¡± Reverse it? Director Fang didn¡¯t fully understand the rationale, but faithfully followed Yang¡¯s advice. He immediately changed his strategy and inverted the sequence of dealing with blood vessels. As he proceeded, he found that Yang was indeed correct; after reversing the order, the difficulty surprisingly decreased substantially. It wasn¡¯t as challenging as it had initially seemed, and now he felt the procedures were getting easier. The assistants on the operating table were also amazed. Professor Yang had solved the surgical problem with just one sentence. Although Director Fang was the chief surgeon, he had been walking a tightrope moments ago, but now he moved comfortably, seemingly walking on solid ground, and the speed of the surgery significantly increased. Where were we just now? Right, we were discussing the weight-loss stomach surgery. Director Fang needed to find a topic that would interest Yang Ping. Yang had initiated the topic himself, so he must be interested. This would prevent Yang from feeling bored and leaving the operating room prematurely. After all, Yang was very busy and short on time, so to keep him around longer, Director Fang needed to come up with something. ¡°There are many articles online that completely denigrate weight-loss stomach surgery, making it sound utterly terrifying,¡± one doctoral assistant expressed. ¡°Actually, the surgery isn¡¯t that horrifying. A lot of exaggerated online essays demonize the surgery for sensationalism. When other weight-loss methods are ineffective and obesity poses a serious health threat, this surgery can certainly be used for weight-loss. In most cases, it¡¯s not that the surgery is ineffective, but rather the hospitals and doctors performing it are not competent,¡± said Director Fang, while operating and conversing, fully exuding confidence in his high level of weight-loss stomach surgery expertise. When a nurse heard that Yang Ping had come, she immediately ran over with CT scans in tow¡ªthose of her mother¡¯s lungs, a thick stack. She maintained a safe distance from the operating table and circled around to Yang¡¯s side. ¡°Professor Yang, are you busy right now?¡± the nurse asked somewhat embarrassedly. Busy but not busy¡ªsitting below with nothing to do; not busy but busy¡ªinvolved in overseeing the operation with Director Fang. Yang Ping said, ¡°Go ahead!¡± ¡°This is my mother¡¯s lung CT scan, could you please take a look?¡± she made her request, knowing how difficult it usually is to ask for Yang¡¯s help, as he primarily works at the Surgical Research Institute and seldom visits the surgery building. Having learned from Director Fang that Yang would be there today, she brought the CT scans first thing in the morning, ready to seize this precious opportunity. ¡°Let me have a look!¡± Yang Ping stood up and moved to the light box. The nurse took out the CT scans. Unfamiliar with them, she didn¡¯t know where to start. Yang Ping took it upon himself to quickly inspect the CT scans by the light box to understand the chronological order before sequentially hanging them for review. ¡°We went to the Provincial Hospital in our hometown, and the doctors there said it¡¯s lung cancer and suggested a resection,¡± the nurse explained the patient¡¯s medical history to provide background for Yang. Yang did not respond; he continued examining the scans while listening and finally said, ¡°Postpone the surgery; this is likely an inflammatory nodule. Start with an anti-infection treatment for a month, then have a follow-up. If the nodule shrinks, it¡¯s likely an inflammatory nodule.¡± ¡°Inflammatory nodule? Not a tumor?¡± the nurse was pleasantly surprised. Yang nodded, ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem like a tumor, likely an inflammatory nodule.¡± No one can be a hundred percent certain in such matters. Even pathological examinations can make mistakes, let alone imaging diagnosis. Therefore, Yang Ping spoke cautiously, a typical doctor¡¯s prudence. Chapter 1443 - 1443 1076 A Difficult Decision_2 ?Chapter 1443: Chapter 1076: A Difficult Decision_2 Chapter 1443: Chapter 1076: A Difficult Decision_2 The nurse, reassured by Yang Ping¡¯s words, felt much more at ease. She hadn¡¯t expected a turnaround and prepared to immediately call her family to explain the situation and stop the surgery, as her family was gathering money for the procedure, and her brother and sister-in-law had already made arrangements for their mother¡¯s hospital bed. The nurse nodded gratefully as she gathered the CT scans, happily leaving the operating room. The doctors and nurses in the operating rooms, whether they were on the table or off, were once again amazed. In a moment, their sense of accomplishment as medical staff skyrocketed, for top-tier doctors like Yang Ping could save lives with just a few words. After the change in strategy, Director Fang¡¯s surgery went incredibly smoothly. As he proceeded, the surgery became easier, and soon he completed the most hazardous step of isolating delicate blood vessels. Although the remaining steps were challenging, they were manageable compared to the dense network of blood vessels Director Fang had encountered, which he could now handle with ease. With the critical part of Director Fang¡¯s surgery completed, Yang Ping was able to withdraw. Exiting the operating room, he bumped into Head Nurse Jiang, who eagerly inquired about Xiao Su¡¯s postpartum recovery and how the baby was to take care of, and also asked when the full-month celebration would be held. Because Yang Ping had been busy, the full-month celebration had not taken place yet, and Xiao Su thought to combine it with their grand wedding ceremony, not to be bound by formality. Yang Ping toured several orthopedic operating rooms, especially Tan Boyun¡¯s, observing for over a dozen minutes. Tan Boyun was indeed capable. Director Han¡¯s judgment was sharp and discerning; during Tan¡¯s time at the second affiliate hospital, he and his department director had fierce disagreements, clashing intensely every day. When Director Han recruited him, many advised against it, warning Director Han that Tan Boyun¡¯s temper would bring nothing but problems, constantly fighting and coveting the position of head of Major Orthopedics. Director Zhao of the Medical Services Office and Dean Sun were also hesitant, casting dissenting votes, saying bringing him in was like introducing a troublemaker, disturbing the harmonious and united culture of Sanbo Hospital, an institution with an excellent tradition. Director Han said: ¡°Tan Boyun is a rare talent; he¡¯s only fit to be a leader, not a subordinate. If he comes to Sanbo Hospital and proves his ability, I¡¯ll hand over the position of head of Major Orthopedics to him. What¡¯s the big deal?¡± Director Han spoke similarly to Tan Boyun: ¡°You look down on the head of orthopedics at your old hospital every day. Come to Sanbo Hospital. I¡¯ll give you a ward first. If you handle it well and excel, you can have my position anytime. But if you fail, don¡¯t spew nonsense at me. If you can¡¯t even manage one ward properly, what makes you think you can oversee several wards as head of Major Orthopedics?¡± Tan Boyun thought it made sense, so he agreed: ¡°Fine, if I do well, you hold to your word. If I don¡¯t, from now on, I¡¯ll stand at attention and stay silent when I see you. I won¡¯t bother you with my complaints.¡± Thus, Director Han brought Tan Boyun into Sanbo Hospital, handing over the leadership of the Trauma Orthopedics and Trauma Emergency Center to him, letting him take charge and see what he could achieve. Unexpectedly, he truly was a talent, not only adept at management but also skilled in surgery and first-rate in scientific research. Free of ostentation, he didn¡¯t boast; silently, amidst doubts and discussions of the other heads of orthopedic wards, he elevated the Trauma Orthopedics to national prominence and shaped the Trauma Emergency Center into a force to be reckoned with alongside Shanghai¡¯s center, making them twin giants in the country. He was one of the few department directors who could keep pace with Yang Ping. Unlike Director Gao and Director Fang, who frequented the Surgical Research Institute, he secretly kept in touch with Yang Ping via WeChat, often seeking advice. Because of Tan Boyun¡¯s outstanding achievements, Director Han happily passed the position of head of Major Orthopedics to him. Tan was ecstatic and had immense respect for Director Han. Without Director Han¡¯s trust and platform, Tan wouldn¡¯t have achieved what he had today. At his former hospital, he would still be a perennial associate director, constantly clashing with the department director and disdained by the dean, met with disdain by others. Now, the orthopedics department of Sanbo Hospital had far surpassed his former affiliate, with the Trauma Orthopedics boasting 150 beds, the Trauma Emergency Center having 50 beds, and the Trauma ICU holding 15 beds, forming a large comprehensive trauma center. Returning to the Surgical Research Institute, Yang Ping checked the operating rooms, where Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were performing surgeries. After making his rounds, he went back to the changing room. Yang Ping leaned back in the resting chair as usual, his eyes closed as he tried to enter the System Space, but all around him was still darkness, indicating that the System Space remained inactive. ¡ª Dean Xia sat in his office chair, with a steaming cup of tea on his desk. He leaned back in his chair for a rare moment of rest, pondering the hospital¡¯s development plan. The recent pace of development at the hospital had been nothing short of leapfrogging. Yang Ping had not only established the Surgical Research Institute and laboratories but also founded a ¡°Medical¡± journal, elevating Sanbo Hospital¡¯s clinical and academic levels to world-class in a short time. He felt that the hospital¡¯s talent pool was struggling to keep pace with its development. The young doctors who had been sent out for further training were still not sufficiently seasoned, and the elite core trained by the Surgical Research Institute couldn¡¯t yet be reassigned to head their own departments. However, due to the rapid development, the existing talent support was obviously lagging. For example, many department directors were struggling to keep up with the development. Dean Xia knew clearly that although these department directors were appointed after a wave of reforms, the situation then was different from now. Back then, the goal was just to secure a place among the provincial hospitals in Nandu Province, but now it has changed; Sanbo Hospital has ascended to both national and international prominence. During this period of rapid development at Sanbo Hospital, a group of outstanding young talents has emerged, like Wen Ruzheng from the Pathology Department, a young man just over thirty, most of whom had already been promoted to associate senior positions. Director Guan sought out Dean Xia several times, expressing his wish to relinquish his position and nominate Wen Ruzheng, a capable and young successor, as the head of the Pathology Department. But not every department head is like Director Guan; most of them would not willingly step down and would think of every possible way to hold onto their positions. Thus, Dean Xia was in a difficult position. A reform was necessary to align the hospital staff with the current developmental trajectory, which meant replacing a number of people¡ªan unavoidable action. But whether to do it gradually, allowing for natural replacement, or to make a clean sweep with reform for quick succession was a challenging decision for him. The dilemma weighed heavily on Dean Xia, as enforcing a strong substitution and advancing a more excellent younger generation meant dealing with the old directors, who had fought alongside him. And if no replacement was made, what about these emerging young talents? They are capable, and their thinking and skills can keep up with the hospital¡¯s development. Take Wen Ruzheng from the Pathology Department; motivated by Yang Ping, he immersed himself in the study of pathology, with high proficiency in English, published numerous papers, and had high clinical standards¡ªtop-notch at a global level, merely lacking fame because of his youth, just in his thirties. If the interests of the hospital were priority, those directors who didn¡¯t align with the development would certainly be replaced, but these were old comrades. Replacing them would cast one in a heartless and ungrateful position. Sanbo Hospital was not just rapidly developing; its status was also very peculiar, being jointly managed by the Health Commission and General Affairs¡ªa unique case nationwide and akin to a synthesis of Hospital 301 and Xiehe Hospital. It enjoyed resources from both sides, and both higher-ups granted it the greatest degree of independence in management. Their main task was to provide resources and not oversee management, allowing Sanbo Hospital much freedom. This uniqueness was specifically designed by the upper echelons for Sanbo Hospital, to neither constrain Yang Ping¡¯s creativity through rigid management nor deprive it of resources due to low hospital ranking, thus ensuring strong support, hence this particular management structure. At that time, both General Affairs and the Health Commission vied to attract Sanbo Hospital, and this proposal also balanced the relationship between the two sides. Hence, Sanbo Hospital had two ¡®matrons,¡¯ neither of whom exercised much control; but if any issue arose, both would support you. If you needed funds, both would provide. If you faced bullying, both would protect you. With such a powerful existence, Dean Xia could well be regarded as the most influential hospital director nationwide. Due to such exceptional circumstances, Dean Xia gave much thought to handling large-scale personnel changes, resolute in preventing turmoil within Sanbo Hospital, yet unwilling to hinder its development. Chapter 1444 - 1444 1077 Turning Point ?Chapter 1444: Chapter 1077: Turning Point Chapter 1444: Chapter 1077: Turning Point After Professor Chang¡¯s rabies virus was completely eliminated, he was transferred from the ICU to the general ward for recovery treatment. Other than bilateral lower limb spasticity, he has no other sequelae; the treatment was very successful. Yang Ping didn¡¯t have time to summarize the rabies treatment, so he handed over the summarization of this new method to the Infectious Diseases Department and ICU of Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1, as a small gift to his father-in-law. The Infectious Diseases Department and ICU of Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 can certainly establish a project based on this new method and then conduct further research. So far, this method only has successful individual cases, but regardless of the success rate in larger samples, it has achieved a breakthrough from zero. Not long after Sisi was discharged, she returned to Sanbo Hospital for K-virus treatment, which now requires a treatment every four weeks, that is, treatment once, with a three-week interval, and each treatment necessitates a one-week hospital stay. For Sisi, she has gotten used to switching between the hospital and school, and compared to before, this transition is now relaxed and regular; moreover, each treatment brings more hope. The K-virus treatment has already formed a set of standard procedures, and this time it was completely carried out according to the standard process: injection of K-virus treatment, then immediately after the injection, 6 hours later, 12 hours later, 24 hours later, 48 hours later, 72 hours later... blood samples were taken for viral concentration tests, and on the third and seventh days, tumor biopsies were performed twice to obtain live tissue for cytological examination. The experiments were not as tense and worrisome as before. Now, after several mutations, the impact of the K-virus on the human body is negligible, except for low-grade fever for three to five days, and there are no other more severe adverse reactions. Other than drinking more water and monitoring the temperature, no medical intervention is needed. More than twelve hours after the blood draw, Yang Ping had not received a call from Professor Zhang Zhiwei; usually, he would receive the first data report from Professor Zhang about three hours after the blood draw. Why is there no response for so long this time? Yang Ping checked his mobile phone, which wasn¡¯t out of credit, and the network was normal. Perhaps there was a difficulty in the experiment, such as a bug in the image recognition software. As recently released software, it needs continuous upgrades and improvements, and it¡¯s not surprising to encounter a bug from time to time. Yang Ping continued to wait patiently for the data. During the waiting period, he continued to ponder the next steps, and he analyzed the many directions of tumor treatment development worldwide, trying to find some valuable new clues. Professor Zhang Zhiwei¡¯s call came, and his tone was anxious, ¡°Professor Yang, is there any problem with this sample? Why can¡¯t a single tumor cell infected by the K virus be found?¡± ¡°Not a single one?¡± Yang Ping wanted to confirm again. For a rigorous researcher, any question must not be dismissed lightly. Any anomaly that occurs must first be considered as existing, followed by serious contemplation. A gastroenterology specialist from a domestic university missed the chance to win the Nobel Prize during his doctoral study because he rashly negated an anomaly in the experiment. While researching the pathogenesis of gastric cancer during his doctorate, he found an unfamiliar bacterium in the stomach contents of a patient, so he told his mentor, who laughed and said, ¡°Are you silly? The human digestive system is an open pipe structure that takes in food and water from the outside world daily. There are plenty of bacteria in food and water, so isn¡¯t it very normal to have bacteria in the stomach? The intestinal tract is also a bacterial hub of the human body, with countless bacteria gathered there.¡± Ashamed, the doctoral student bowed his head, agreeing with the mentor, thinking how naive he was to believe he had discovered significant new information. Later, a doctor from Australia also discovered this bacterium in the stomach. He did not easily negate this anomaly and continued to study and analyze the isolated bacterium, eventually finding it to be Helicobacter pylori, which is closely related to gastric cancer. For this achievement, the doctor and another colleague who researched together later received the Nobel Prize. This phenomenon is very strange. It was all good before, with the experiment succeeding more with each attempt. How could something like this happen all of a sudden? ¡°At first, I thought there was a problem with the image recognition software, but all our researchers manually checked many images, and the result was the same; no tumor cells were infected, let alone having the K virus trigger the apoptosis program,¡± said Professor Zhang Zhiwei, increasingly agitated. Yang Ping immediately said, ¡°We need to do a two-sided analysis, considering this as a fact and potentially a mistake. We can¡¯t just do one-sided analysis, as it¡¯s easy to overlook real issues. I will come over immediately to analyze the anomalies with you.¡± If this is fact, it indicates the experiment encountered a completely unexpected new problem. Yang Ping rushed to the Virology Laboratory at Nandu Medical University; he needed to see what was happening firsthand. How could this happen? It was too unexpected, and a thorough and careful analysis was necessary to determine the cause. Upon arrival at Nandu Medical University, Professor Zhang and the laboratory researchers were discussing the unexpected situation of this trial. Seeing Yang Ping walk in, everyone stopped their discussion. Yang Ping sat down, ¡°Continue the discussion, I¡¯m also here to join, to analyze the underlying reasons with everyone.¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei said, ¡°Professor Yang, why don¡¯t you take a look at some cellular images under the electron microscope yourself before we discuss?¡± Chapter 1445 - 1445 1077 Turning Point_2 ?Chapter 1445: Chapter 1077: Turning Point_2 Chapter 1445: Chapter 1077: Turning Point_2 This is good, at least Yang Ping personally verified whether the problem exists. He immediately took some samples and looked at the images for an hour himself, indeed not finding a single infected cell. Based on the experience from the last experiment, the distribution of this infection is very even, there should be no biased concentration, so if one can¡¯t find an infected image by manually looking for an hour, there definitely won¡¯t be any later. But Yang Ping was still not at ease, what if the infection did concentrate in a biased manner, with all the images in the front part showing a zero infection rate, and all the infections concentrated in the latter images. It¡¯s like fishing, fish are not necessarily evenly distributed in the river, if the fisherman happens to be in a fish-free zone, of course, they can¡¯t catch fish, but at this time it can¡¯t be said that there are no fish in the river. The likelihood of this is very small, but it¡¯s not nonexistent. This creates an illusion¡ªthat all specimens are uninfected. Science is rigorous, and problem-solving must be as airtight as possible, any loopholes can disturb the thought process, leading to the entire experiment¡¯s failure. ¡°What should we do?¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei felt the seriousness of the situation, if it was the case, then the experiment might face failure because the infection rate was relatively low at that point, but if it could maintain the infection rate, using multiple treatments could achieve excellent effects. Now suddenly a zero infection rate appears, and no matter what, there won¡¯t be any treatment effect. ¡°Let¡¯s first rule out if there is a malfunction with the image analysis software, reshuffle the order of all images, and run them through the image analysis software again. Pull out all the electron microscope images from the previous experiments, and run them through the image analysis software again. Have the software developers join in the analysis during the detection, so we can check if there¡¯s a problem with the software. If the software isn¡¯t the issue, we¡¯ll randomly select a portion from the reshuffled images for manual image analysis, and extend the time for manual identification, let¡¯s all work hard today.¡± Yang Ping, after some thought, put forward his own solution, the experiment had come this far, and it must not fail due to any oversight. Professor Zhang Zhiwei immediately arranged the work, and to shorten the time of the experiment, Yang Ping called over all Sanbo Hospital Laboratory staff to help with image reading, they all had the necessary skills for image reading, and the manual process was very slow, going through each image, having more people would mean more images reviewed, a larger sample volume, and much greater reliability of the conclusions. All computers in the laboratory were utilized, everyone took turns starting to read the images conscientiously and meticulously, when machines are not functional or trustworthy, human effort is the only and last resort. The most reliable thing is man, and the least reliable also is man, this saying is equally applicable to machines. Computers formed a large circle with Yang Ping and Professor Zhang Zhiwei sitting in the middle. Yang Ping closed his eyes to rest his mind, pondering what other loopholes in the experiment he hadn¡¯t considered. Professor Zhang Zhiwei also didn¡¯t speak, when an experiment encounters such a sudden change, if the change is a fact, and not a machine-generated error, it means all the previous efforts might have been in vain, which made Professor Zhang Zhiwei feel very uncomfortable inside. Manual image identification is very straining on the eyes, and to review a few more images, several bags of eye drops were temporarily brought in, but there was no choice, if the sample size is too small it wouldn¡¯t prove anything, so everyone tried to review as many images as possible. Around ten o¡¯clock at night, Yang Ping looked at the time: ¡°Everyone stop working, have a good rest tonight, and we will continue tomorrow. The follow-up puncture and blood draw samples will also come tomorrow, and we will add another experimenter tomorrow, this way the data will be even more reliable.¡± Originally, the experiment schedules for Zhao Yufan and Sisi were staggered, but now it was necessary to conduct them together, so the data from both could be compared, preventing any discrepancies. Yang Ping didn¡¯t want everyone to stay up late. This work is important, but it is not so urgent, it¡¯s not necessary to sacrifice health to shorten these ten plus hours. Staying up not only harms one¡¯s health but can also lead to mistakes in this meticulous work. When one is exhausted, attention will definitely decrease, and it¡¯s very easy to miss details in the images. The next day, the work continued, lasting until the evening, a total of 12,000 images were manually reviewed, and 27 were deemed to be infected by the virus, but after a review by Yang Ping and Professor Zhang Zhiwei, these 27 were considered false positives, the tumor cells in these images were not infected by the virus. The result of the artificial image recognition was that out of 12,000 images, not a single Tumor Cell was infected. Could there be an issue with the image recognition software? After testing the software with the original images, it was confirmed that the software had no issues, which means the abnormal data observed in this experiment were factual. Combining manual and software-based image analysis, not a single cell in this experiment¡¯s Tumor Cells was infected, indicating either a zero infection rate or an extremely low one, making it impossible to collect any positive samples. Why did this happen? Why could this be? Yang Ping called for a meeting with all the experimental team members to discuss. ¡°Regarding the K virus we used, it is the same as in previous experiments. With the current situation, there are several possibilities: First, the K virus was eliminated by the human Immune system before reaching its targets; second, the K virus has lost its ability to infect Tumor Cells,¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei analyzed. Lu Xiaolu agreed with this view. After some thought, he said, ¡°Regardless of which situation it is, either the K virus has mutated, leading to a decreased or lost capability to counter the Immune system or to infect Tumor Cells, or the human body has developed some form of defense over the course of several experiments, like enhanced immune cytotoxicity against it, or the Tumor Cells have changed to reject the virus. After all, the K virus has been genetically modified, so its stability isn¡¯t necessarily reliable.¡± Yang Ping nodded; everyone¡¯s analysis was correct. It boiled down to the same question, which is how to identify the actual situation and solve the problem. ¡°Based on the issues we¡¯ve just discussed, we need to develop a detailed plan to analyze and solve the problem, such as: virus structure analysis to see if it has mutated; antibody checks in the experimenters to see if they have produced any specific antibodies against this virus; Tumor Cell structure analysis to see if there is some kind of escape or protective mechanism against it?¡± Yang Ping said. Addressing these issues requires a lot of painstaking work; thus, scientific research is arduous. When you think you¡¯re close to success, it turns out to be an illusion; it¡¯s possible that the whole experiment is wrong. When you think there¡¯s light at the end of the tunnel, it turns out to be a dead end. If a highly effective antibody has already developed in the experimenters¡¯ bodies, these antibodies, after recognizing the K virus, would surround it and block it from the human cells. The virus would be unable to invade the cells, reproduce, and would gradually disintegrate. This is a common tactic of the human Immune system against viruses. To clarify the antibody issue, it¡¯s necessary to extract Sisi¡¯s Blood for antibody checks against the K virus. To test for antibodies, a method for detection and corresponding diagnostic reagents must be developed. This requires Cooperation with Ruixing Company, which currently has a subdivision specialized in producing diagnostic reagents and other products, with a team dedicated to the research and development of diagnostic products. To facilitate successful reagent development, Yang Ping involved the clinical pathology department of Sanbo Hospital as well, bringing together pathogen research, diagnostic reagent research, and clinical diagnostics. This was only one aspect of the research. There were also Tumor Cell structure analysis, K virus structure analysis, and so on. The upcoming work was going to be very troublesome, and impossible to carry on without extreme passion. As for where this experimental turnaround will lead, Yang Ping couldn¡¯t say for sure right now. Chapter 1446 - 1446 1078 Cast a Wide Net Catch More Fish ?Chapter 1446: Chapter 1078: Cast a Wide Net, Catch More Fish Chapter 1446: Chapter 1078: Cast a Wide Net, Catch More Fish Sanbo Hospital, the Laboratory and Ruixing Company together form a complete chain. With a complete chain, developing a set of reagents targeting K Virus antibodies is not difficult, for the methods of detecting antibodies are all quite similar, and can be realized with minor modifications. Indeed, K Virus antibodies were detected in Sisi¡¯s body. After multiple injections of the K Virus in Sisi¡¯s body, it engaged in numerous confrontations with the human immune system, which enabled the immune system to find a method to counter it, activating certain immunocytes and producing corresponding antibodies. The activation of immunocytes and the generation of antibodies resulted in the K Virus being killed shortly after it was injected into the body. Increasing the injection dosage is one method, but there is a limit to this. Indiscriminately increasing the virus injection amount can easily over-activate the immune system, causing the body to collapse due to an excessive immune response. The failure of this experiment forced Yang Ping to review his experiment once again. Scientific research is just like this, constantly advancing through trial and error, and trial and error itself is an accumulation. The data from trial and error is a great wealth for scientific research. For example, researching airplanes requires a wind tunnel, and using a wind tunnel to blow on airplanes is a process of trial and error. It simulates the high-speed flight state of the airplane again and again, then collects the data, improves the airplane based on the feedback data, and gradually perfects the plane to satisfaction. Nowadays, many scientific research trials and errors are completed with computer simulations, but computers will never be able to perfectly simulate real scenarios. The K factor is the core of this experiment, and everything revolved around the K factor, while the adenovirus is merely a carrier. The combination of the K factor with the virus has a significant flaw, which is that the virus will always be a foreign pathogen. The struggle between it and the human body cannot cease. In the process of this struggle, both the immune system and the virus will constantly change; such changes are destined to make it unstable. Even if an original virus which had already achieved certain success is used, the outcome is the same, because they belong to the same lineage with identical fundamental structures; essentially, they are still the same virus. Oncolytic virus therapy, though also using viruses, does not use them as carriers but as markers. The virus can mark tumor cells, then cause the immune system to launch an attack. CAR-T cell therapy uses immunocytes to directly attack tumor cells. Can the method of CAR-T cells be employed? Yang Ping pondered. CAR-T cell therapy involves modifying the body¡¯s own T lymphocytes and then using them as weapons to attack tumor cells. They are part of the body¡¯s immunocytes and when introduced into the body, they are unlikely to be attacked by the immune system. Whatever amount is injected will be effective. However, currently CAR-T has a very good effect on blood tumors, even achieving curative effects for certain tumors, but is less effective for solid tumors due to the barrier function of solid tumors, which prevents CAR-T from penetrating inside them. Later, based on CAR-T cell therapy, CAR-NK cell therapy was developed. These cells can break through the barrier of solid tumors, enter inside the tumors, and hunt down tumor cells. CAR-T cells are T cells that have been engineered with an antigen receptor, this receptor acts like a navigation device specifically recognizing tumor cells within the body and by immunological action, releases a host of effector factors. They can efficiently kill tumor cells, thereby achieving the treatment of malignant tumors. Now, Yang Ping has discovered that the K factor is extremely special as it possesses both navigation and attack capabilities. It is only that it cannot reach the target tumor on its own, so both its recognition and attack on tumors rely on a carrier. What would happen if NK cells were used as the carrier? Yang Ping was becoming increasingly excited, as vast knowledge about NK cells popped into his mind. NK cells, also known as Natural Killer Cells, are important immunocytes in the human body with formidable combat power. According to current research, a single NK cell can kill 27 tumor cells. They are the strongest, most effective immunocytes against cancer cells and viruses. NK cells constantly battle at the forefront of the body¡¯s defense, acting without needing activation to attack enemies directly and due to their alert response and broad-spectrum efficacy, are often called the ¡°special forces¡± of the immune army, the ace of the immune system. The combat process of NK cells is very clear. When they encounter abnormal cells, they will adhere closely to these cells and release a special protein named Perforin, along with some other toxins. Perforin and toxins cooperate, so the toxins can penetrate into the abnormal cells, causing their death. In addition, NK cells will release various cytokines, which are like signals, calling more immunocytes to join the battle. Usually, NK cells construct a solid wall for the body, swiftly detecting and killing abnormal cells, thus effectively preventing the occurrence of cancer. However, for various reasons, they too have moments of failure. The K factor not only has the function to kill tumor cells but also can identify them. It possesses both navigation and combat capabilities. If the K factor is integrated into NK cells, then the NK cells would gain an additional weapon. Since the human body is always wary of K Factors combined with viruses, putting all efforts to combat it, what if the K factor is integrated into NK cells? Just like incorporating antigen receptors into immunocytes, forming an artificially modified NK cell. Chapter 1447 - 1447 1078 Cast a Wide Net Catch More Fish_2 ?Chapter 1447: Chapter 1078: Cast a Wide Net, Catch More Fish_2 Chapter 1447: Chapter 1078: Cast a Wide Net, Catch More Fish_2 Yang Ping organized his thoughts, summarized them, and formed a complete proposal, then convened a meeting for discussion. ¡°We need to adjust our approach and evolve along two paths, continue the research on K virus therapy, and open a new line, embedding the K factor into NK cells. Virus therapy and cell therapy should advance side by side. Professor Zhang, you will continue with K virus therapy in cooperation with Lu Xiaolu; Tang Shun¡¯s Stem Cell Laboratory will work with Lu Xiaolu¡¯s Tumor Laboratory to initiate NK cell research. Professor Lu has a heavy task, as you will be responsible for both sides.¡± Yang Ping assigned tasks on the spot at the meeting. ¡°Is this project now handed over to me?¡± Professor Zhang was somewhat incredulous, as this was akin to moving from a supporting role to a leading position. How could such good fortune be true? The K virus therapy has reached its current phase; even if it ultimately fails, it¡¯s still a world-class topic. Moreover, the chances for success are very high¡ªthe ¡®success¡¯ mentioned here does not necessarily mean curing tumors. As long as it is effective, it represents the creation of a new path, and in reality, it has already achieved success. It is now merely striving for greater success. ¡°Yes, you and Professor Lu will take it on.¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t waste words; he had too many projects and could only create strategic plans for some, leaving the implementation to them. ¡°Professor, I have always had great faith in cell therapy. I believe that in the future, 90% of diseases could be treated through cell therapy, while other treatment methods will only account for 10%. The largest department in all hospitals will be cell therapy, all others will be minor. Stem Cells are only a part of cell therapy. I¡¯ve also been thinking recently that we should expand our research scope and rebrand the Stem Cell Laboratory as the Cell Therapy Laboratory. I didn¡¯t expect you to assign me a task directly. Great! We will start our research tomorrow. Professor Lu and I are neighbors, just one floor away, so cooperation will be very easy.¡± Tang Shun was very enthusiastic about the task Yang Ping assigned him. ¡°In fact, the most valuable aspect of our tumor treatment research is the K factor; we should build a system around it, figuring out how to maximize its effects, rather than letting it be overshadowed by its carrier virus. So, we center on it to develop multiple research paths and decide to try all potential combination methods we consider.¡± ¡°The treatment with K virus should not be limited to the current type of tumor; research on K virus therapy for other tumors should also be started, such as modifying hepatitis virus and combining it with the K factor, to see if it can treat liver cancer, given the high selectivity of the hepatitis virus for liver cells.¡± Yang Ping believed it was necessary to fully utilize the advantages of the K factor, which had a very promising outlook. He thought it prudent to cast a wide net and capture more fish, selecting the best amongst them. It might even be possible to dissect the K factor, that is, to separate the combat component from the navigation component, and conduct individual embedding. Different combinations might yield NK cells with varying levels of combat power. ¡°Doctor Tang and Professor Lu should be very familiar with NK cells; you have both conducted research in this area. Share with us,¡± Yang Ping named them to give an introduction. ¡°I¡¯ll do it, I¡¯ve researched this before.¡± Tang Shun immediately took on the task. ¡°CAR-NK therapy could be seen as the subsequent development of CAR-T cells. The source of NK cells used for CAR-NK cell engineering includes peripheral blood, umbilical cord blood, established NK cell lines, especially the NK-92 cell line, and human pluripotent stem cells. Compared with T cells, this more diverse potential source makes it easier to obtain NK cells, which is very straightforward for us who started with stem cells.¡± ¡°What exactly can activated NK cells do? Methods for eliminating target cells are various. For instance: they release perforin and granzyme leading to lysis or apoptosis of target cells; they promote FasL expression to induce apoptosis; they release tumor necrosis factor-¦Á, interferon-¦Ã, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and chemokines, recruiting and activating other effector immunocytes; antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity, and more, with numerous and quite aggressive tactics.¡± ¡°Because of these means to attack abnormal cells, CAR-NK has been one of the cutting-edge fields in applied research and clinical medical practice in recent years, demonstrating immense potential in the clinical application of tumor immunotherapy.¡± ¡°But CAR-NK cell therapy also has its own drawbacks, such as: NK cells have a short lifespan in the absence of cytokine support, resulting in limited persistence in the body. However, there are now some methods to overcome this disadvantage: such as cytokine armoring; optimization of CAR structure; other genetic modifications and so on.¡± ¡°If the K factor is embedded into NK cells, many disadvantages of NK cells can be very well avoided.¡± Most of the researchers present are doctors with not broad but very deep knowledge in certain areas, depth not accessible to the average person. The masters and undergraduates who are attending and auditing the discussion are now completely confused; they can understand every word, but have no idea what it means when connected together. ¡°Theoretically, embedding the K factor into NK cells can endow NK cells with an unprecedented level of strong armor, improving their survival rate and allowing them to identify tumor cells with precision. However, once the K factor is integrated into the NK cells, it fundamentally cannot be released,¡± Lu Xiaolu shared his view. Yang Ping understood his concern. The K factor has two trump cards: first, it can precisely identify abnormal cells, and second, it can initiate the apoptotic process of these cells. When the K factor is integrated with viruses, the virus can carry it into tumor cells, where it can function and initiate cell apoptosis within. Now, integrating it with NK cells, which cannot enter tumor cells, means the ability of the K factor to function is an unknown. The isolated K factor can function, but it¡¯s not certain it will when integrated with NK cells and whether it can kill tumor cells. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, even if it cannot kill, just the identification alone makes this integration of great value. Moreover, it can provide armor to NK cells, extending their lifespan. These two points alone are sufficient; NK cells can release some of their factors to initiate apoptosis in tumor cells, so we don¡¯t need to be trapped in traditional thinking,¡± Yang Ping assured Lu Xiaolu. After thinking for a bit, Lu Xiaolu agreed¡ªthe very thought he had was still on the experiments of combining K factors with adenovirus, which lacked the ability to initiate apoptosis in tumor cells but could infect them, and thus required the K factor to kill tumor cells. Now the combination of K factors with NK cells was completely different. ¡°Since this experiment failed, let¡¯s pause Sisi¡¯s experiment for now,¡± suggested Song Zimo. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Pause.¡± This high-end discussion was only understood by a few individuals, with the rest shrouded in fog, regretting their own lack of education for not understanding even a few sentences. After the meeting, Yang Ping began to draw diagrams on a blank piece of paper in his office, trying out various combinations between the K factor and NK cells. Sometimes, ideas need to be expressed through drawings; words simply cannot express them. For instance, the way the K factor is combined with NK cells, exactly where and how they combine, requires a simple gene map¡ªa situation that can¡¯t be expressed with words. For scientific research, visual thinking is very important. The sea of knowledge is boundless, and truly understanding the knowledge in a narrow professional scope enables one to achieve outstanding results. If someone can make a little innovation on the basis of understanding, that person is at Nobel Prize level. Yang Ping almost completely understood all these medical knowledge, so it was relatively easier for him to innovate using this knowledge. Like the combination of the K factor with NK cells, it requires bridging several specialties, all of which must be understood. Chapter 1448 - 1448 1079 Funding is Not an Issue ?Chapter 1448: Chapter 1079: Funding is Not an Issue Chapter 1448: Chapter 1079: Funding is Not an Issue After the new plan was determined, everyone started to get busy again. The treatment of the tumor now has two paths, and in the future, a third or even more paths may be opened up. With human and financial resources able to support, it¡¯s most reliable to explore all possible aspects of the technology tree and make choices based on the situation afterward. The integration of scientific research and clinical practice is becoming wider. Yang Ping is very satisfied with his initial decision; without strong scientific research capabilities, Sisi¡¯s treatment would have been stuck in old methods like being in a dead end with no hope at all. With strong scientific research as support, Yang Ping can explore new methods to solve problems and thus promote some medical technological innovations. Yang Ping agrees with Tang Shun that cell therapy has a boundless future; it will develop into a vast system. Stem cells are just a branch of cell therapy, so Yang Ping decides to expand the stem cell experiments and upgrade it to a cell therapy room, temporarily just changing a sign, later requiring an expansion of the talent team and lab space. The Sanbo Laboratory will need an entire building or even several in the future, instead of shrinking in these few floors. Yang Ping assesses the space still available at the Surgical Research Institute; this development will soon fully utilize the space available. The cell therapy laboratory is about to establish a patient ward to apply research findings clinically, such as launching the 1.2 million per dose CAR-T cell therapy, and later, CAR-NK cell therapy, as well as K-NK cell therapy, which is currently being experimented. Once a clinical ward for cell therapy is established, at least one floor will be needed for the stem cell therapy area since only the rich or noble can afford stem cell treatments, and the ward conditions cannot be too modest; at a minimum, private rooms are required. Other cell therapies will also need a floor each. By this account, three floors are required for cell therapies, and even this will be tight. One floor for the Tumor Laboratory, one for the surgical ward, one soon-to-be-established independent ICU, one for the operating room, and one for outpatient services. Calculating this way, all eight floors are already fully utilized, and it still appears very tight. Since one floor for the surgical ward is definitely not enough, it is already very congested. An additional floor will be needed for teaching areas as the number of resident doctors, doctoral students, and master students increases, otherwise, everyone will be crammed into the wards with very limited space. This is only the beginning of the development; this building is definitely not sufficient. Yang Ping immediately reports his needs to Dean Xia, hoping to find a piece of land in the hospital to create a new area specifically for laboratories. Separating the Surgical Research Institute and the laboratory would provide much more space. These matters were already in Dean Xia¡¯s plans; Sanbo Hospital has a lot of developable land available, and Dean Xia has already planned an area specifically for laboratories. Even if the hospital currently has no land, he only needs to report upwards, and a piece of land will soon be granted to him. Regarding financial matters, with Sanbo Hospital¡¯s current status, no amount of money is a problem. Having been dean for so many years, this is the first time Dean Xia is not anxious about money; previously, he frequently traveled outside to raise funds to the point of getting a bleeding stomach for a small amount of money, but now, simply filing a report immediately brings the funds into account. In his years as dean, Dean Xia has done many things but never sought personal gains; being desireless makes him resolute, so he fears nothing and dares to act. Since he has no vulnerabilities, he does things without hesitation. He bravely speaks up about unfair matters both upwards and downwards, defending his position with reason. Dean Xia is also considering the expansion of the hospital; once cell therapy develops, the department of tumor medicine will definitely expand, followed by an expansion of tumor surgery. The Surgical Research Institute is only not expanding now due to staffing issues, but if it did, it would probably have expanded several times by now. Currently, Sanbo Hospital is controlling its growth slowly, ensuring quality while expanding. The hospital¡¯s size is not simply about being bigger; at a certain point in its development, the hospital needs to focus on cutting-edge technologies rather than competing over the basic services that lower-tier hospitals provide. Otherwise, even if it¡¯s bigger, it¡¯s meaningless; it just means squeezing out small clinics, shifting their patient base to oneself, everyday¡ªit¡¯s utterly meaningless. Originally it was a dense forest, now one tree is drawing all the nutrients to grow bigger, but eventually, the whole forest dies, leaving one lonely tree, which is meaningless. Therefore, Sanbo Hospital is very cautious about expanding in scale; it won¡¯t expand thoughtlessly without significance, but rather, it aims to grow strong before it grows larger, not just big without strength. ¡ª After adding the plan, theoretically, researchers in the laboratory would be discouraged, indicating that previous experiments had encountered difficulties, necessitating a change in direction and increased workload, and the prospects for the new plan remain unclear. But instead, the researchers in several laboratories are not only not discouraged but are excited as if they had been injected with an elixir. The research on K-virus treatment has already achieved a significant breakthrough from 0 to 1. This success is pioneering; no matter if the tumor eradication rate was once as high as before or even lower, as long as it¡¯s not zero, it¡¯s a success. The viral laboratory at Nandu Medical University, previously a mere supporting role, has now become a leader because Yang Ping has delegated this project to them; it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if they weren¡¯t excited. Chapter 1449 - 1449 1079 Funding is Not an Issue_2 ?Chapter 1449: Chapter 1079: Funding is Not an Issue_2 Chapter 1449: Chapter 1079: Funding is Not an Issue_2 And Lu Xiaolu¡¯s Tumor Laboratory, which originally only undertook the K virus treatment project, is now leading both K virus and NK cell therapies. One team simultaneously straddles two top world-class subjects; what are they excited about if not this. The Stem Cell Laboratory is now not only undertaking the NK cell therapy project but has also been upgraded to a Cell Therapy Laboratory, with its research scope expanding by several folds. Following that, staff, funding, and laboratory space will also increase multiple times over. It is estimated that Tang Shun¡¯s team will wake up laughing from their dreams day and night. The researchers in several laboratories, following a major boss like Yang Ping, have projects, funding, and equipment all in abundance¡ªand not just that, but in large, satisfying quantities. Which one of them isn¡¯t happy, which one isn¡¯t excited? In the past, applying for a project would leave one nearly hairless with stress, and even then, the funding would be tight, with no guarantee of achieving results. Now, top world-class projects come as though picking them out of one¡¯s pocket, announcing results yields success, and they even have their own journals for publications. Such research conditions are unfindable anywhere else in the world, even with a lantern. The path of this project is getting wider as they go. Yang Ping now has a clear idea of the project strategy, aiming to build a project system centered on the K factor, which as a cytokine is very special and was previously undiscovered in the human body. It was only found during the culture of Sisi¡¯s tumor cells. This discovery process itself is also worth reflecting upon; perhaps it could be used to research a method for creating or discovering new cytokines. The mysteries of the human body are infinite, and true understanding in current biomedical science remains but a small portion, with much of the unknown territory still vast; this arouses great curiosity in Yang Ping. The K factor was an accidental discovery by Yang Ping, an unintended yield. At the time, while analyzing the composition of the culture medium for Sisi¡¯s tumor cells in vitro, results revealed some protein molecules not present in the original medium. This large protein molecule is the K factor, which later caused many tumor cells to die on their own. Upon analysis, it was found that it was this K factor that initiated the apoptotic program in tumor cells, a discovery perfectly in line with the wisdom that ¡°within five steps lies the cure.¡± Yang Ping decided to take the discovery process of the K factor as a project focus, questioning why this kind of K factor appears when tumor cells are cultured in vitro. If the mystery can be unraveled, it will open a new gateway to a whole new world. ¡ª Integrating the K factor into NK cells falls under the realm of genetic engineering, and so Yang Ping passed this task to the Genetics Laboratory at Nandu Medical University; they possess a high level of gene recombinant technology. Yang Ping¡¯s projects have propelled the entire Nandu Medical University laboratories to enter the sphere of top international academic standards. The structure of the K factor is very unusual. Genetic sequence analysis shows that it is a complex, containing antigen receptor structures, cytokine structures, and protein molecular structures suitable for ¡®Cell Armor¡¯. The antigen receptors are responsible for recognizing tumor cells, and the special cytokines are in charge of initiating tumor cell apoptosis. They contain molecules similar to Perforin and granzyme, but the efficacy is many times that of Perforin and granzyme, so it can function both outside and inside the cells. Yang Ping wondered if, during the culturing of tumor cells, immune cells and various immune factors were mixed into the samples, and if they underwent some kind of combination in the special culture environment to form the current K factor. If so, Yang Ping developed a new train of thought: could the K factor be broken down? The antigen receptor could be embedded into the NK cells¡¯ surface responsible for recognizing tumor cells. The factors capable of killing tumor cells could be embedded into granzyme and Perforin so they could be released and penetrate tumor cells. Protein molecules with the effects of ¡®Cell Armor¡¯ could also be embedded on the cell surface. Yang Ping felt that this would only be effective, otherwise if everything were embedded on the cell surface, it would be ineffective ¡ª the factors capable of killing tumor cells wouldn¡¯t be released, and NK cells with just ¡®Cell Armor¡¯ and antigen receptors would be significantly weakened in combat ability. Such NK cells are theoretically perfect. Guided by the antigen receptors, the factors able to kill tumor cells would penetrate and enter the interior of the tumor cells, accomplishing the mission of hunting down tumor cells. Yang Ping encountered a very interesting phenomenon: the combination of K factor with NK cells was so perfect that they easily overcame many of the difficulties currently faced by NK cell therapy. The K factor seemed tailor-made to match NK cells. Wang Ping nearly used over 100 drawings, imagining more than 100 possible combinations, then employed his Optimal Selection Method to categorize these combinations into different levels. In the afternoon, Yang Ping came personally to the Genetics Laboratory with these images to discuss with Lin Lan, who is Su Nanchen¡¯s wife and also Yang Ping¡¯s sister-in-law, an excellent genetics scholar who once studied in the United States. Nandu Medical University recruited her with an annual salary of two million, and at 28, she was already a Doctoral Student Mentor, an extremely capable genetics scientist. Yang Ping conveyed his ideas to Lin Lan, then handed over the experimental plan to her. Lin Lan was very surprised after reading it; this experiment was a huge project involving gene recombination, cell culture, structural verification, and so forth. The entire research process would incur astronomical costs¡ªestimating to consume Nandu Medical University¡¯s whole-year research budget. Chapter 1450 - 1450 1079 Funding Is Not a Problem_3 ?Chapter 1450: Chapter 1079 Funding Is Not a Problem_3 Chapter 1450: Chapter 1079 Funding Is Not a Problem_3 Lin Lan said with difficulty: ¡°The goal of the experiment can be achieved, but it involves over a hundred different recombination schemes, and this recombination is very complex, not a simple one. Research funding is too high; it¡¯s unbearable. Our entire school¡¯s annual budget is only so much; if I undertake this project entirely, it would almost necessitate building a new laboratory, and without several hundred million yuan in various expenses, we simply cannot carry it out.¡± ¡°Fund is not a problem; our foundation will cover all the costs. You provide a detailed budget, and I¡¯ll present it to the Sanbo Research Fund, they will be responsible for the finances of the entire experiment,¡± said Yang Ping nonchalantly. Lin Lan forgot that Yang Ping had a research fund, a transparent one with billions of funds lying in its account, and the capital pool was ever-growing. ¡°You mean we don¡¯t need to spend a dime if we participate in this project?¡± Lin Lan was quite surprised. We are all family, no need for pretense, Yang Ping nodded: ¡°You provide the personnel and the technology; we provide the money. This project requires extensive application of gene recombination technique, and we are about to establish a cell therapy laboratory, where the demand for gene recombination technology will be even higher.¡± Lin Lan was very aware that cell therapy has a substantial demand for gene recombination, the first step being to recombine various immunocytes to meet the requirements. Initially, Lin Lan¡¯s participation in the K virus treatment task was relatively simple, involving the recombination of the K-factor with the adenovirus, which was considered peripheral supportive work. Now joining the NK cell treatment new project, she instantly received several hundred million yuan in research funding, and this was just the beginning; this brother-in-law was truly generous. ¡°In that case, what are we worried about? As long as it¡¯s related to gene recombination, leave all the work to me. If manpower is lacking, I will immediately recruit people. How about it? For the cell therapy laboratory to be established this year, leave all genetic research to us.¡± What else can it be, we are one family. ¡°Of course.¡± Yang Ping agreed on the spot. Lin Lan was a bit stunned; she had never seen such a generous research fund in the United States, where billions could be facilitated in a single discussion, and it was estimated that a successive ten billion could be secured. With this, her genetics laboratory could leap to the top of the world riding this east wind. Lin Lan continued to peruse Yang Ping¡¯s scientific research plan, growing more astonished as she read. This project was no simple task; it simply surpassed other existing NK cell therapy research in the world. ¡°We will handle the gene recombination work to your satisfaction, just as per your suggestion. We will split the K-factor, rest assured, after splitting we will enhance the functions of Perforin and lysosome making it effortless for them to enter the cell and then release a more powerful lysosome,¡± Lin Lan said excitedly. Yang Ping said: ¡°That¡¯s exactly the effect we want.¡± ¡°Nanchen is on his way; let¡¯s have dinner together,¡± Lin Lan put away the research plan. Yang Ping hadn¡¯t expected them to be so polite: ¡°Don¡¯t be so courteous, you¡¯re also busy, and I need to hurry back.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t do, it¡¯s time for dinner now, you can¡¯t leave, we must have a meal together, it¡¯s rare for you to come here,¡± Lin Lan said with a laugh. Isn¡¯t he here often? Why say it¡¯s rare? ¡°Really, don¡¯t be so polite, I¡¯m in a rush.¡± Yang Ping felt he should return. Lin Lan smiled: ¡°Nanchen is almost here, and last time you returned from Nandu Affiliated Hospital No. 1 on an empty stomach, dad got a scolding from Su Sister. You should listen to us, stay for the meal, if you go back on an empty stomach again, my elder brother and I will get a scolding from Su Sister too.¡± ¡°Yes, nobody can afford to offend the princess of the Su Family, how could we let her husband go back on an empty stomach?¡± Su Nanchen had already arrived. PS: In 2018, Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine, James P. Allison frequently mentioned in interviews and articles: Stem cell therapy and immune therapy have the potential to become the core tools of future medicine. In an interview with the journal ¡®Nature¡¯, he said: ¡°We are at the beginning of a new treatment modality that allows us deeper manipulation of the immune system and true control of cancer and other diseases.¡± The way to conquer cancer in the future might be cell therapy, indeed, CAR-T cell therapy has already conquered some blood tumors. CAR-NK cell therapy is the newer generation of immune cell therapy. Chapter 1451 - 1451 1080 ?Chapter 1451: Chapter 1080 Chapter 1451: Chapter 1080 After discussing tumor treatment methods, a decision was made to embark on a new path, allowing the research on NK cell therapy and K virus therapy to proceed simultaneously. Both of these topics are quite costly; for others, even gathering funds for a single project can be difficult, but for Yang Ping, money is not an issue. Not to mention two approaches¡ªeven eight or ten would be easy for him; having money means being able to act boldly. The recombination and cultivation of NK cells also require a certain amount of time; it can¡¯t just be achieved on demand. However, with the cooperation of several major laboratories to complete this project, the process will not take any detours. Sisi¡¯s illness can also be temporarily controlled. After the last treatment with the K virus therapy, the tumor shrank to some extent, thus buying some critical time. Yang Ping calculated the time and believed that NK cells could be cultivated within the buffer time obtained. As for whether NK cell therapy will be effective afterward, that is uncertain; one can only take one step at a time and feel the stones when crossing the river, since all the current treatments are innovative with no precedents to refer to. Under Manstein¡¯s facilitation, Yang Ping made contact with a Nobel Prize winner who specializes in cell therapy. Through numerous email communications, Yang Ping gained a wealth of new knowledge from this scholar, and essentially mastered the current direction and level of cell therapy development in the world. Papers generally have a certain delay; they are only published when the results are mature. To get the latest research progress, real-time communication is still required. Yang Ping has so many friends in the academic circle, ensuring the timeliness of his access to scientific research information. In the afternoon, after finishing his work, Yang Ping opened his computer to check his emails, many of which were sent by doctors he had once taught, mostly containing materials on difficult cases. Sometimes they would also report to Yang Ping about their recent work progress. Ivan¡¯s surgery on the Italian girl has also been completed. His success this time was inseparably linked to Yang Ping¡¯s full support; Ivan used Yang Ping¡¯s skin expansion technology to obtain large areas of high-quality skin grafts, which would have been difficult to perform so perfectly for a severely burned patient without these high-quality grafts. Moreover, Ivan meticulously planned the surgery using the Digital Human model from Nandu Medical University before the operation, which made his pre-surgical planning very detailed and precise. Ivan sent Yang Ping many photos from before, during, and after the surgery; the patient has now had their stitches removed, and the postoperative edema has completely subsided. Yang Ping enlarged these photos to compare, and the results of plastic surgery were excellent, one could hardly tell this was a man-made beauty. It goes to show that Ivan, being the world¡¯s number one ranked plastic surgeon, has turned this plastic surgery into a model in the field of aesthetic plastic surgery. Yang Ping believes the only aspect that did not score full marks was bone shaping, which should originally be the job of orthopedic surgeons, but Ivan also performed this task to a top standard, only lacking in Yang Ping¡¯s eyes by a slight degree. If Yang Ping were to perform this surgery, he believes he definitely couldn¡¯t achieve the same level of perfection as Ivan, because Yang Ping lacks certain accumulation in aesthetics, and an aesthetic cultivation is an essential quality for a top-tier plastic surgeon. Yang Ping is skilled in all kinds of surgeries except plastic surgery, as in his view, the purpose of performing surgery is to treat and save people. Plastic surgery does not align with his ideology, and he also lacks profound aesthetic education, which means he can perform rational surgeries perfectly but cannot achieve the artistic part that relies on feel. A plastic surgery lacking that artistic touch, no matter how well performed, would lack spirit and come across as mechanical and rigid. Aside from discussing medical issues, Ivan also recommended his own baby formula, hoping that Yang Ping¡¯s son could try it when he grows a bit older. When Yang Ping¡¯s son was not yet born, Ivan had snatched the baby formula supply rights from August¡¯s waters, for which he purchased a baby formula factory, dairy farms, and so on, in New Zealand. However, after Yang Ping¡¯s son was born, Xiao Su planned to breastfeed, and she had ample milk supply, so they did not consider baby formula, making Ivan¡¯s unnecessary. August wrote saying he was making rapid progress in spinal surgery, especially in the surgical correction of scoliosis. In Europe, August is unchallenged; he is not only proficient in Yang¡¯s osteotomy but also carried out a large number of external fixation treatments for scoliosis. Recently, he has accumulated numerous experimental cases of precise epiphyseal blocking for treating scoliosis, ranking his level in spinal surgery only second to that of the Surgical Research Institute at Sanbo Hospital in the entire world. In the European academic community, August now firmly surpasses Milton from the United Kingdom, finally ending their historically equal and competitive standing. Ever since his training at Sanbo Hospital, both his ideology and techniques have leaped, and he is no longer in the same league as Milton. Now Milton frequently comes to Germany to observe August¡¯s surgeries, which signifies Milton¡¯s submission to him. Jonathan from Mayo has been making rapid progress in brainstem tumor surgeries. After learning some of Yang Ping¡¯s methods on brainstem tumors, he took Yang Ping¡¯s anatomy diagrams of the brainstem and studied them extensively. Utilizing Yang Ping¡¯s surgical approaches and methods, he performed numerous successful surgeries, achieving an unmatched status in North America. In fact, for Jonathan, his main pursuit is a personal breakthrough, considering he was already an authority in North America¡¯s neurosurgery field. Chapter 1452 - 1452 1080 ?Chapter 1452: Chapter 1080 Chapter 1452: Chapter 1080 Robert¡¯s older brother¡¯s clinic is now incredibly popular, with countless pennants received. Every doctor and nurse in Robert¡¯s Clinic is now proficient in Chinese. Robert is most satisfied with the name he chose for the clinic, saying it has a great charm and is truly a stroke of genius. Takahashi is now preparing to succeed Fujiwara Masao as the head of Tokyo University Orthopedics, having previously been the least favored candidate by Fujiwara, whose choice was Sasaki. However, recently Takahashi¡¯s outstanding performance has made Fujiwara see him in a new light. Li Min¡¯s one-year advanced training is not yet complete, but through hard work, he has mastered many basic surgeries, personally taught by Yang Ping. Now, he takes two days off each week, Saturday and Sunday, and often rushes back to his original unit, Guandu Hospital, to perform surgeries during his days off. This way, he can both delay the advanced training and fulfill certain surgical requirements for his original unit. After checking his emails and taking a short break, Yang Ping left the director¡¯s office and went to the doctors¡¯ office, where everyone was gathered eating fruit. ¡°Professor Yang, come here, I couldn¡¯t find you just now. I came over especially to thank everyone, please enjoy some fruit,¡± Wei Danian said, standing up immediately and pointing to the freshly washed variety of fruits. Wei Danian has already been discharged from the General Surgery Department. He is quite enthusiastic, not only buying fruit baskets for the General Surgery Department but also putting together a huge fruit basket to bring over to the Surgical Research Institute to thank Yang Ping. ¡°Wei Danian, you¡¯ve been discharged, haven¡¯t you? And still being so polite, inviting us for fruit? I¡¯ve had a toothache these past few days; I can¡¯t eat it, but thank you very much,¡± Yang Ping said while shaking his hand. Since Yang Ping had a toothache, Wei Danian didn¡¯t insist. In fact, Yang wasn¡¯t really suffering from a toothache; Manager Qiu recently upgraded his security measures, and the security team expanded significantly, though it wasn¡¯t apparent on the surface. Now, Yang couldn¡¯t just eat anything from outside; all his food had to be tested first. Even when he goes to Nandu Affiliated Hospital No.1, he can¡¯t dine out when his father-in-law treats. As his status rises, so do his problems, and his freedom of movement is completely gone. However, it¡¯s also good because Yang Ping prefers a simple life and can spend all his time on treating and saving patients. ¡°Professor Yang, you are amazing. I heard the doctors and nurses in the General Surgery Department will soon nominate you for academician. You¡¯re so young and already an academician. It seems I¡¯m only short of a spinal cord compared to you; now I don¡¯t even know where I work,¡± Wei Danian said, nai?ve and childlike, speaking without any guile. Song Zimo, having just finished an apple and wiping his hands, smiled and said, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have to worry about work, right? I remember you seem to be a landlord¡¯s son¡ªthe kind who goes around with a set of keys and a satchel to collect rent.¡± ¡°My dad takes me to collect rent every month, it¡¯s exhausting with so many properties to remember, I don¡¯t want to take after him in such a boring and brain-wracking job. I want to be a chef, wearing the chef¡¯s clothes, donning a chef¡¯s hat, tossing pans with one hand and wielding a spatula with the other, how cool is that!¡± Wei Danian said, full of aspiration, as if he were actually cooking at that moment. Being a chef? Then your weight loss surgery would be pointless, Xu Zhiliang thought as he looked at Wei Danian¡¯s excited face about the topic of chefs, feeling concerned for him. ¡°Wei Danian, you¡¯re not going for the best job in the world¡ªthe landlord¡ªbut you want to be a chef?¡± Zhang Lin looked at him in surprise, picking some fruit to send to pediatrics for his wife by an intern. ¡°You don¡¯t understand, I¡¯m a person with ideals too, I¡¯ve decided, I can¡¯t be so degenerate, I must have a proper job,¡± Wei Danian said excitedly. After Wei Danian said this, those eating fruit nearly spit it out in laughter. Was that even a human speech? ¡°Did you study culinary arts?¡± Little Five asked him. ¡°I¡¯ve loved watching people cook since I was young. After graduating high school, I went to a vocational school to study culinary arts, and now I plan to apprentice with a master chef who is getting old and whose children don¡¯t want to learn his craft; he wants to take on an apprentice,¡± Wei Danian said proudly. ¡°Then when you open your restaurant, just open it next to our hospital. Look how good business is for the restaurants here,¡± Li Guodong suggested Wei Danian shook his head, ¡°I¡¯m not opening a restaurant, I like cooking, I don¡¯t like running a restaurant, it¡¯s too troublesome and carries financial risks. I¡¯d rather work for someone else.¡± Fatty really has some thoughts; he might look like a big kid, but inside he really has his own opinions, which made everyone have to change their view of Wei Danian. Liang Fatty came down from the ward to discuss anesthesia and sign consent forms for the patients scheduled for surgery tomorrow. Hearing that Wei Danian had stomach surgery, he asked, ¡°How do you feel? No discomfort, right?¡± ¡°The first day after surgery, my stomach was a bit bloated, but it went away the next day, and now there¡¯s no discomfort even after removing the stitches,¡± Wei Danian replied. ¡°Did you ever try weight loss drugs before the surgery?¡± Liang Fatty sat down to talk with Wei Danian, as he was also on a diet; the two could exchange experiences. ¡°I tried them, Simeglutide and Terpolptide, but because my obesity was too severe, these didn¡¯t work. Yet I wanted to lose weight quickly, so I felt surgery was more effective,¡± Wei Danian shared his challenging journey of losing weight. Liang Fatty¡¯s dieting approach now involves diet and exercise, starting to show results with a loss of over twenty pounds. He runs daily and strictly controls his diet, continuing at this pace, there¡¯s a good chance he will achieve a normal physique. ¡°So, should I also go for a stomach surgery one day?¡± Liang Fatty casually mentioned. Zhou Can, who came down to eat fruits too, immediately responded: ¡°You¡¯re not severely obese like that guy, and other methods haven¡¯t failed you yet. Why the rush? Surgeries always come with risks.¡± ¡°I was just saying. I¡¯ll stick to dieting and exercising,¡± Liang Fatty quickly retorted. ¡°Fatty, wanna go for barbecue tonight, maybe grab some beers?¡± Zhang Lin draped an arm around Liang Fatty. Zhang Lin, Little Five, and Liang Fatty were close buddies and often hung out together. Fatty glanced at Zhou Can: ¡°Don¡¯t tempt me. I got gout and I¡¯m on a diet, how can I go eat late-night snacks?¡± ¡°Fatty, what¡¯s with you? For real, being this disciplined?¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five couldn¡¯t believe it. Before, if they invited Fatty for barbecue, he would half-heartedly refuse, but after a little nudge, he¡¯d be eager to join. Now it seems he¡¯s serious. ¡°Really not going? You sure?¡± Little Five asked again. ¡°Nope!¡± Right then, an intern brought in some medical records, and Liang Fatty bent his head pretending to read them. ¡°Hello, Grandma!¡± Wei Danian answered his grandma¡¯s call and switched on speakerphone. ¡°Why haven¡¯t you returned yet? Weren¡¯t you discharged earlier? Hurry up and come back.¡± ¡°I¡¯m on my way now.¡± ¡°Danian, don¡¯t sneak any food on your way, you just had surgery and need to watch your diet. Also, stay safe and don¡¯t talk to strangers, there are human traffickers everywhere these days.¡± ¡°I know, Grandma.¡± Wei Danian realized he was on speakerphone and immediately turned it off. Wei Danian is already in his mid-twenties, why would he still fear human traffickers? Everyone was surprised once again. ¡°Fatty, what¡¯s with you? For real, being this disciplined?¡± Zhang Lin and Little Five couldn¡¯t believe it. Before, if they invited Fatty for barbecue, he would half-heartedly refuse, but after a little nudge, he¡¯d be eager to join. Now it seems he¡¯s serious. ¡°Really not going? You sure?¡± Little Five asked again. ¡°Nope!¡± Right then, an intern brought in some medical records, and Liang Fatty bent his head pretending to read them. ¡°Hello, Grandma!¡± Wei Danian answered his grandma¡¯s call and switched on speakerphone. ¡°Why haven¡¯t you returned yet? Weren¡¯t you discharged earlier? Hurry up and come back.¡± ¡°I¡¯m on my way now.¡± ¡°Danian, don¡¯t sneak any food on your way, you just had surgery and need to watch your diet. Also, stay safe and don¡¯t talk to strangers, there are human traffickers everywhere these days.¡± ¡°I know, Grandma.¡± Wei Danian realized he was on speakerphone and immediately turned it off. Wei Danian is already in his mid-twenties, why would he still fear human traffickers? Everyone was surprised once again. Chapter 1453 - 1453 1081 How Big of a Place is Needed for ?Chapter 1453: Chapter 1081: How Big of a Place is Needed for the Office Chapter 1453: Chapter 1081: How Big of a Place is Needed for the Office NK cells¡¯ recombinant construction has been completed. Yang Ping provided over a hundred recombinant schedules for NK cells, it¡¯s not possible to recompose all of them at once, Lin Lan only recomposed the highest priority NK cells, the rest will be completed in batches. The recomposed NK cells¡¯ seed cells are sent to the cell therapy laboratory to begin cultivation. Compared to viruses, cells have much higher safety, especially since NK cells are naturally immunocytes of the human body. Human immunocytes include lymphocytes and other phagocytes, where lymphocytes consist of T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, K lymphocytes, and NK lymphocytes; among them, NK lymphocytes are relatively few. The primary targets of NK cells¡¯ lethal attacks are tumor cells, virus-infected cells, larger pathogens like fungi, and parasites, also capable of killing cells of same-species allogenic transplanted organs or tissues. Their surface receptors can recognize polysaccharide molecules expressed on the surface of virus-infected cells, then release toxic molecules mediated after activation, such as perforin, granzymes, and tumor necrosis factor, etc. Yang Ping is currently embedding the K factor into NK cells after dismantling it, naming these cells K-NK cells, which means NK cells embedded with the K factor. These cells have prolonged survival and very precise recognition of tumor cells, with significantly enhanced lethality to tumor cells because the dismantled K factor has become an antibody acting as a navigator and a factor initiating tumor cell apoptosis. The entire process of the K-NK cell therapy is quite costly, as all the steps are brand new, making the costs higher than those for CAR-T cell therapy. Cell therapy is expensive because the technology is highly complex, like CAR-T cell therapy. Current market-approved CAR-Ts are autologous CAR-Ts, which reengineer a tumor patient¡¯s own T cells to specifically kill cancer cells within the patient¡¯s body. It is a cellular therapy, differing from small molecule drugs, and traditional macromolecular drugs; it utilizes genetic engineering to alter cells, hence it¡¯s also gene therapy; it produces using the patient¡¯s own cells, regarded as custom-made drugs, which cannot be mass-produced. These factors contribute to the extremely high technical demand of CAR-T cell therapy, and subsequently, high costs. NK cell therapy is even more complex technologically. Simply put, the first step requires separating a large amount of NK cells from the patient¡¯s body using leukocyte separation technology; the second step involves genetically modifying the separated K cells to express chimeric antigen receptors or receptors derived from the K factor, enabling NK cells to specifically kill certain tumor cells. This step uses specific viral vectors to transfer the embedded genes, and since the engineering scale of NK cell production is vast, the cost of viral vectors is extremely high. The third step lets these NK cells proliferate to a sufficient number, that is, undergoing laboratory cultivation. Only completing all these steps can produce NK cells ready to be transfused back into patients for treatment. Each step requires specific laboratories to complete, demanding high technical and equipment standards, and the entire production process follows very high safety standards, which also increases the cost. Overall, this type of experiment burns through a lot of money and is typically unsustainable for most people. Currently, three top-tier laboratories are cooperating to complete this experiment, the scale of which is rare worldwide. Yang Ping is like a marshal commanding a large troop in battle, while Tang Shun, Lu Xiaolu, Lin Lan are the generals under his command. Yang Ping needs to coordinate everything, ensuring not a single detail is missed, so that the experimental goals can be reached as quickly as possible. Now, due to the need to expand the cell therapy laboratory, the demand for a building suddenly increased. After Yang Ping reported this to Dean Xia, Dean Xia immediately treated it as a top priority. Sanbo Hospital Meeting Room. Dean Xia and other leaders are discussing the hospital¡¯s expansion. There is still an eight-story building at Sanbo Hospital that is currently being used as the animal lab. Dean Xia is considering moving that building for Yang Ping to use as a laboratory, converting all eight floors into labs to help relieve the current space shortage. But after emptying that building, where to relocate the animal lab? It¡¯s impossible to mix the animal lab with the scientific research labs; those pigs make such a stench daily, while the labs require strict cleanliness and sterility. ¡°We still have a lot of empty land, right? We could build a few more buildings. Before the new buildings are constructed, we could temporarily set up a light steel building or a prefabricated house in a corner for the animal lab. The animal lab doesn¡¯t require high standards; it¡¯s basically just a slightly better pig farm,¡± Dean Sun, who is currently in charge of logistics, suggested. ¡°All eight floors kept for labs leaves no room for other departments to expand, like the Sports Medicine Center, Trauma Orthopedics, Trauma Emergency Center, Oncology, Plastic Surgery, General Surgery Department, and so on. We are already lacking in beds. Can¡¯t we allocate half for clinical departments?¡± another vice dean frowned. ¡°No, cell labs require extremely high standards of cleanliness and sterility. They absolutely cannot be mixed with clinical departments. It¡¯s also inconvenient for management,¡± Dean Xia rejected the suggestion. ¡°What should we do then? Building a new structure isn¡¯t a matter of one or two days. We never expected the hospital to develop so quickly. For example, the growth of General Surgery and Plastic Surgery was completely unexpected. Director Fang and Director Lan have mentioned this to me several times, and I¡¯ve been holding back because the only vacant building we have, we want to reserve for Yang Ping,¡± Dean Sun said worriedly. ¡°For now, one eight-story building should temporarily suffice for Yang Ping, but it definitely won¡¯t be enough later. Cell therapy labs need several floors, stem cell experiments and other cell labs must be separate, and there¡¯s also clinical wards for cell therapy, an international clinic for cell therapy, a separate administrative area, etc. Tang Shun¡¯s lab alone would need at least five or six floors, and Lu Xiaolu would need two floors, so that¡¯s seven floors gone. We can¡¯t allocate any floors from here to other departments,¡± Director Han, the deputy dean currently in charge of operations, actually did not want to be any dean, but reluctantly took on the role to help Yang Ping. ¡°Let those clinical departments hold off for now,¡± another vice dean said. ¡°If all else fails, we can clear out the entire administrative building and set up a temporary office in a light steel or simple prefab house on an empty plot. The administrative building, as long as it keeps out the wind and rain, is fine. It doesn¡¯t need any tough conditions. Once the new building is ready, we can move in,¡± Dean Xia thought of a good solution after pondering for a long time. Dean Sun said, ¡°If so, we can temporarily manage.¡± Dean Xia waved his hand decisively, ¡°Then let¡¯s do that, quickly build the prefab, get a three-story prefab done, and we¡¯ll have our offices. We can allocate this entire administrative building to those clinical departments. Let¡¯s all just endure a bit longer. What do offices need? Just a room with a desk, phone, computer is enough. The requirements aren¡¯t high.¡± Chapter 1454 - 1454 1082 Going to Raise Pigs with an ?Chapter 1454: Chapter 1082: Going to Raise Pigs with an Organizational Quota Chapter 1454: Chapter 1082: Going to Raise Pigs with an Organizational Quota Cultivating cells was Tang Shun¡¯s forte. He and Li Yingtong were among the world¡¯s top young talents in stem cells, and cultivating NK cells was a piece of cake for them. The experiment was a sequence of interconnected steps. Recombining genes in K cells was a task for the Nandu Medical University Genetics Laboratory. Once they had completed their part, they sent the NK seed cells over to Sanbo Hospital. Using these seed cells, Tang Shun would carry out cultivation, which is to say, expansion, causing these cells to divide exponentially, splitting from one into two, two into four, four into eight... and so on, until the desired quantity was reached. With his persuasive eloquence and international experience from his travels abroad, Tang Shun was able to recruit a group of the top talents who had studied overseas. Now nearly every researcher in his laboratory holds a Doctorate from a top European or American university. It¡¯s not to say that domestic universities are inferior, but they started out later. In terms of foundation research, especially in the field of basic medical biological research, they lag far behind Europe and America. For instance, in pharmaceuticals, we have few original drugs of our own; artemisinin stands out as an exceptional representative. But the vast majority of drugs we encounter are originated in Europe and America, and we are merely replicating followers, sometimes without a full understanding of the drugs we are copying. Some pharmaceutical giants in Europe and America have produced several Nobel Prize winners, which reveals their formidable R&D capabilities. Compared to the R&D power of these pharmaceutical titans, the R&D of our domestic pharmaceutical companies seems rather elementary. Both the willingness and the capability for R&D are incredibly feeble, so in this regard, we have a long way to go. We must recognize the gaps and strive to catch up. R&D is a systemic engineering feat requiring a solid foundation: talent, capital, management, and culture¡ªall are indispensable. With only talent and capital and no scientific management, funds get wasted and talents cannot perform effectively. Without a culture of innovation, even huge investments in funds and manpower will be mere flashes in the pan, lacking sustainable R&D capabilities. Money will be spent in vain, and eventually, the team will have to be disbanded. Therefore, building a complete R&D system is of paramount importance. Even with various resources now at Yang Ping¡¯s disposal, establishing a world-class laboratory requires taking one step at a time; success will not come overnight. It takes about 12 days to expand NK cells. After 12 days, the seed cells can proliferate into millions of NK cells, reaching the quantities required for therapeutic use, ready to be injected into the human body for treatment. Over at Nandu Medical University¡¯s Virology Laboratory, Professor Zhang Zhiwei has also been busy. They are continuing their research on K virus treatments because Professor Zhang believes that using a virus as a carrier for anti-tumor therapy has greater prospects than cellular treatments, especially for solid tumors. Viruses can infiltrate tumor cells and any potential embedding factor can be introduced into the tumor cells due to this advantage. Zhang Zhiwei and Tang Shun are each focusing on different tech trees. It¡¯s too soon to tell which one will shape the future. With ample resources, Yang Ping does not want to choose; he wants to pursue both pathways. ¡ª The committee at Sanbo Hospital decided through a vote to relocate the office buildings. They planned to construct temporary structures in two corners of the hospital grounds¡ªone to accommodate the administrative staff offices and another for the animal laboratory. This would free up two buildings: one for expanding clinical wards and the other for Yang Ping¡¯s laboratory. This decision, once announced, left many administrative staff members deeply dissatisfied. They were management; why should they be housed in temporary structures? And with the animal lab also being in a similar structure, were they being equated to pigs? As dignified hospital managers, surely some members of the leadership, they thought there must be a better way to handle this. The younger staff were somewhat more accepting of the decision, but the older employees, especially the women over forty, who had some connections when they had joined and held permanent positions, strongly resisted. To persuade these administrative staff members, Dean Xia held a mobilization meeting to explain the need to vacate the office buildings and why everyone should relocate to temporary structures. After a long discussion, many administrative staff members still failed to understand and were resistant, privately criticizing the decision. Dean Xia slammed his hand on the table during the meeting. ¡°Do you really see yourselves as masters? Even a reasonable explanation doesn¡¯t get through to you, and I have to resort to harsh words. What exactly do you manage? Let me tell you, if we fired all our administrative staff, including myself, hospital operations wouldn¡¯t be affected in the slightest. Appointments would run as scheduled, surgeries would still be performed, and perhaps things would even run more smoothly at a lower operational cost. But if you fire even one doctor, especially an experienced one, that department¡¯s work would suffer. And if you fired a heavyweight expert, the department would collapse immediately. If we fired a super-expert like Yang Ping, Sanbo Hospital would revert overnight to what it was before. Is it you or the clinical doctors who built Sanbo Hospital? You need to have the right attitude. We are service workers, not officials, not leaders, not high-and-mighty so-called managers. Anyone with such delusions should get out early. Go manage somewhere else, where you might be paid more than a clinical doctor. But at Sanbo Hospital, that attitude is unacceptable.¡± That was Dean Xia¡¯s temper¡ªcourteous one moment, forceful the next, frustrated with these idle freeloaders who really thought they were the lords of the manor. ¡°Let¡¯s do this: Since everyone is resistant to relocation, we also have an alternative plan,¡± Dean Xia added, softening his tone after his outburst. Upon hearing there was an alternate plan, everyone immediately felt there might be a turn for the better. Usually, they all sat in the office with air conditioning, playing with their phones, and now moving to prefab houses would be a suffering¡ªannouncing that would be laughable. Administrative staff from other hospitals all lived comfortably; even when doctors had no money for salaries, administrative staff would still get theirs, many of whom earned more than clinical doctors. ¡°Let¡¯s welcome Dean Sun to discuss the alternate plan,¡± Dean Xia invited Dean Sun to the podium. Dean Sun strode to the podium, cleared his throat, and said, ¡°Actually, you all don¡¯t necessarily have to move. You can still stay in the administrative building...¡± A round of applause erupted from everyone! ¡°However, we need to downsize the office space, by at least two-thirds, keeping only one-third. Correspondingly, we have to downsize the staff as well, reducing to one-third of the current number,¡± Dean Sun declared. An upset middle-aged woman in the audience immediately retorted, ¡°I have a permanent position, dare you lay me off?¡± Dean Sun replied leisurely, ¡°Of course, there won¡¯t be any layoffs. You¡¯re a long-term employee with a permanent position, how could we lay you off? There¡¯s no such thing. We¡¯ve discussed it and decided to offer everyone an easier job. Our hospital plans to run a large-scale pig farm which would provide pigs for animal experiments as well as generate income through breeding. Two-thirds of the administrative staff will be reassigned to the pig farm, receiving only their basic salary, with bonuses coming from the annual income of selling pigs. Rest assured, everyone has a permanent position; we wouldn¡¯t dare, nor have the authority, to touch that.¡± Is this for real? Everyone was baffled. This wasn¡¯t the kind of occasion for jokes¡ªafter all, the ones on the stage were deans and vice-deans. ¡°In the future, we will establish a three-dimensional, modernized pig farm, take a look¡ªthis is the projected effect...¡± A 3D rendering of the pig farm was projected on the white wall of the meeting room. ¡°Dean Sun, are we just relocating temporarily, only to move back in after new buildings are erected?¡± The same middle-aged woman grew a bit fearful, knowing well that if there really was a transfer, she might be the first to go to the pig farm. ¡°We value democracy; everyone should make a careful choice, not rush into any decisions,¡± Dean Sun said seriously and sternly. ¡°Let¡¯s move! For the hospital¡¯s development, staying in prefab houses for a while is nothing.¡± ¡°If the deans are staying in prefab houses, we¡¯ve got nothing else to say.¡± ¡°Yes, agreed!¡± ¡°Agreed!¡± Typically, older employees were more eager than anyone, afraid that their voices wouldn¡¯t be loud enough for the deans to hear. Chapter 1455 - 1455 1083 To Follow or Not to Follow ?Chapter 1455: Chapter 1083: To Follow or Not to Follow Chapter 1455: Chapter 1083: To Follow or Not to Follow Dean Xia said what they were going to do and did it: construction teams began moving into the hospital to build temporary offices, and the administrative building started preparing for relocation with various office supplies being inventoried. Notices about the relocation of the administrative building had been sent out, stirring Sanbo Hospital into a frenzy. Is it true that all the administrative staff are moving to temporary offices? Dean Xia is indeed Dean Xia, impetuous and awe-inspiring. In other hospitals, even if clinical departments or operating rooms were moved into temporary offices, it would never involve the administrative offices, let alone the dean¡¯s office itself. But this indeed happened at Sanbo Hospital. To minimize the construction noise impacting the hospital, Dean Xia decided to combine the animal laboratory and the temporary administrative building into one area, arranging both buildings adjacent to each other. This made construction easier and avoided the mess of having two separate construction sites. Temporary signs were even set up in the construction area; one sign indicated the administrative building and right next door, the animal laboratory sign was posted¡ªboth signs very close to one another, creating a peculiar feeling. Dean Sun approached Dean Xia, clearly troubled, and said, ¡°Some senior staff from our administration have raised a suggestion to me. I think there might be a point to it, but I¡¯m unsure, so I wanted to report it to you.¡± ¡°What is it? What¡¯s the suggestion? Why all this hesitation?¡± Dean Xia saw the troubled look on Dean Sun¡¯s face. Dean Sun mentioned, ¡°They suggest maybe we don¡¯t put up a sign for the animal laboratory temporarily or even permanently, or maybe just a small, inconspicuous one.¡± ¡°Why? What a bizarre and senseless suggestion. How could a simple sign be a problem? Who is it bothering?¡± Dean Xia didn¡¯t understand what Dean Sun was trying to convey. Hesitantly, Dean Sun said, ¡°They say putting the administrative offices next to the animal laboratory, especially placing both signs together, feels ironic and can lead to unwanted associations, as if it¡¯s insulting someone.¡± Dean Xia almost laughed out loud: ¡°Who came up with this suggestion? I don¡¯t find it ironic at all. How is it ironic? Who is it mocking? Do you think it¡¯s ironic?¡± Dean Sun quickly shook his head: ¡°No, I don¡¯t feel that way at all. How could it be ironic?¡± ¡°Right, feeling ironic about it indicates a guilty conscience. Instead of worrying about two signs causing associations, they should focus on working positively and doing meaningful work instead of just waiting to retire without doing their job, inevitably leading others to have thoughts. You say if they already have ideas, wouldn¡¯t others have them too?¡± Dean Xia found the thoughts of these people absurd¡ªthey spent their time focusing on the wrong things and causing more trouble than they solved. If not for their complicated relationships, Dean Xia would have fired them long ago for their idle muckraking. ¡°What about the sign issue?¡± Dean Sun carefully asked, compelled to report it as several senior staff had approached him with the issue. Dean Xia thought for a moment: ¡°Don¡¯t change it, just keep it as it is, to serve as a warning to those people. Tomorrow, hang a poster next to the animal laboratory sign featuring several conspicuous pigs.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t seem appropriate?¡± Knowing now that he shouldn¡¯t have brought it up to Dean Xia, Dean Sun felt even more conflicted. Dean Xia firmly responded, ¡°What¡¯s inappropriate about it? If someone thinks they are a pig, then they are a pig.¡± ¡°Alright!¡± Dean Sun had no choice but to drop the issue. ¡°Here¡¯s the document on the increase in the number of beds for each department, take a look?¡± Dean Sun quickly changed the topic, placing a document on Dean Xia¡¯s desk. Dean Xia glanced at it: ¡°Leave it here, I will take a good look when I have time.¡± Now, the bed allocations at Sanbo Hospital were very flexible. To increase the number, simply report it and approval would follow swiftly. Previously, adding just a few beds was as hard as reaching the heavens, because increasing the allocated beds meant an increase in government subsidies to the hospital. Although the subsidies weren¡¯t much, it was still money. This money wasn¡¯t spent on millions for visible giant sculptures, but rather silently invested in the hospital, something many people were reluctant to do. Now everything is set, any application from Sanbo Hospital goes directly to Beijing, and it¡¯s estimated that the approval for bed allocation will be done within three days. ¡ª The cultivation of NK cells is underway, and Tang Shun¡¯s laboratory talent expansion plan is now very clear. Yang Ping looked it over and found it very reasonable. There¡¯s a pyramid distribution of talent in low, middle, and high tiers; the top scholars are offered very high salaries, while mid-level and entry-level researchers also receive very good compensation. Entry-level young doctoral researchers earn an annual salary of about 500,000, mid-level salaries exceed 1 million, and top scholars break the 10 million mark. They receive full social benefits along with top-tier social security contributions, and also have commercial insurance for the entire family. Besides statutory holidays, there is also one month of paid leave. The key point here is that these researchers are all on the official payroll, which in China, is the ultimate goal, thus fulfilling nearly every scientist¡¯s dream: high salaries, an official position, vacations, no need for excessive overtime, and more than sufficient research funding. This is indeed an early arrival of a communistic model of scientific research. Now, graduates from renowned medical universities across the country are inquiring about job openings at Sanbo Laboratory, looking for ways to work there. Some well-known scholars from abroad are also seeking contacts, hoping to return to China and serve Sanbo. After comparing, they all agree that foreign laboratories are no place for people compared to Sanbo Laboratory. Previously, China had to make every effort to poach talent from abroad, negotiating for a long time to manage the introduction of top talents. Now, top talents are actively making efforts to join Sanbo Hospital, fearing they might not meet the criteria and be turned away. This trend has alarmed Dean Xia enough to quickly report to the higher authorities that Sanbo Hospital will soon run out of space, urging to allocate some land soon. Next to Sanbo Hospital is a government office building, which isn¡¯t very large but occupies a significant area due to a large parking lot. The government has decided to allocate that land to Sanbo Hospital, requiring the government office to relocate. Dean Xia calculated that if they could secure that piece of land, Sanbo Hospital would have ample space, and he would not have to worry about space during his tenure. Now as Sanbo Hospital is gradually moving towards internationalization, both Chinese and English signs are being implemented within the hospital. This policy has met some resistance internally, with criticisms that it is an act of admiring and pandering to foreign standards, questioning how can proud Chinese adopt English. This angered Dean Xia, who criticized these naysayers for being narrow-minded. Currently, English is the de facto global language, which is an undeniable fact. Over 90% of scientific literature is written in English. To claim that learning English is admiring foreign cultures reflects a closed mindset. Sacrificing the ability to communicate and interact with the world for so-called cultural confidence is definitely a loss. Therefore, cultural confidence should not come from rejecting interaction but from taking the initiative in communications. And having a strong stance is the way to take control. ¡ª BG Company headquarters. On Li Gaoyang¡¯s desk lays a very urgent document, indicating that Sanbo Laboratory is now engaging in NK cell therapy and upgrading the original stem cell experiments to a cell therapy laboratory, with an accompanying commercial cell therapy factory being established by Ruixing Company. Following up on Virus Therapy hasn¡¯t caught up, and now there¡¯s something called K-NK cell therapy, causing Li Gaoyang immense pressure. This kind of follow-up isn¡¯t simple, requiring significant investment in human, financial, and material resources, along with considerable time due to the massive scale of investment, which prohibits casting a wide net. BG Company, in order to maintain its dominant position in the traditional pharmaceutical field, invests heavily in R&D every year and also allocates significant resources to what it considers new competitive arenas. If now, to follow Yang Ping¡¯s track, similar investments are made; it will inevitably weaken the share of already committed areas. If Yang Ping¡¯s track is promising and can be matched, that¡¯s manageable. However, if Yang Ping¡¯s new track is uncertain and hard to follow, such aggressive investment might likely result in failure, wasting the enormous investment and weakening established positions, leading to suboptimal outcomes on both fronts. Now, to keep up with Virus Therapy, BG Company is investing heavily in establishing laboratories, recruiting talent, launching new research projects, etc., but now it seems that this Virus Therapy approach is somewhat incorrect, contemplating on K-NK cell therapy. If following this requires reinvestment, even the financially strong BG Company might find it daunting. Because there¡¯s an imbalance in costs, Yang Ping¡¯s side costs much less than this side. Dragging this out would exhaust one¡¯s resources, and not pursuing it risks lagging behind if their new ventures succeed, making it a difficult decision. To follow or not? Follow! It costs a lot, requiring cuts elsewhere, and if it fails, previous advantages are also lost. Not follow! If they succeed, BG Company will definitely fall behind. Now Li Gaoyang¡¯s head is aching, having recently had brain surgery, and this mental strain is hardly surprising. Chapter 1456 - 1456 1084 A Sudden Clarity ?Chapter 1456: Chapter 1084: A Sudden Clarity Chapter 1456: Chapter 1084: A Sudden Clarity Yang Ping¡¯s office was filled with bizarre diagrams on the whiteboard, including structural drawings of NK cells and adenoviruses. He stared blankly at these drawings, completely lost in thought, to the extent that even if the sky were falling, he likely wouldn¡¯t react at all. He had grown accustomed to pondering problems in his office, where the lighting and air quality were quite good, and the soundproofing was excellent. Closing the door provided a quiet space, and generally, no one would come to disturb him. People from his own department would contact him via WeChat before coming to his office, only knocking on the door to enter after receiving confirmation, preventing any sudden, loud interruptions. Everyone knew that when Professor Yang holed up in his office, he was contemplating issues and wasn¡¯t involved in other matters. When thinking, he loathed interruptions, as breaking his train of thought was infuriating; hence, everyone conscientiously refrained from intruding upon Professor Yang unless an emergency like a fire required urgent evacuation. There are so many types of immunocytes in the human body. NK cells and T lymphocytes are only some of them. Yang Ping wondered if it wouldn¡¯t be better to include other types of immunocytes in his research scope. In time, it would be clear which cells were more efficient and more amenable to transformation. Continuing this line of research could accumulate a vast amount of basic data on immunocyte therapy. Regardless of whether he achieved a groundbreaking success, it would lay a solid foundation for the future. Viral therapy held much promise because viruses could invade the interior of human cells, an advantage immunocytes couldn¡¯t match. After all, immunocytes are cells, and on a biological structural hierarchy, they are on the same level as tumor cells. Viruses, however, are a step below cells in the biological structural hierarchy, corresponding to the same level as organelles within cells. Their greatest advantage lies in their relatively small size compared to cells, allowing them to penetrate the cell membrane and enter the cell¡¯s interior. Theoretically, this makes viruses better equipped than cells to tackle tumor cells. Between viruses and cells, the biggest advantage of cells is that they are the body¡¯s own immunocytes, which won¡¯t be attacked by the body itself, and they come with their own navigation devices and various weapons. Their biggest drawback is that they are on the same biological structural level as tumor cells. On the other hand, viruses¡¯ main advantage is that they are on a lower biological structural level than cells, but their significant drawback is that they are always foreign entities, which must confront the immune system and lack innate weaponry, having to rely on genetic engineering to embed weapons. Can these vector viruses be combined with immunocytes, transplanting fragments like the antigen receptors and tumor necrosis factors found on immunocytes onto viruses, and creating a new virus? This way, the virus could identify tumor cells just as immunocytes do, then penetrate and enter the tumor cells, and finally release substances like the tumor necrosis factor. As he pondered this, Yang Ping had a sudden epiphany! How had he not thought of this before? If such a combination were possible, who would need the K factor? Why should the research revolve around the K factor? It was unnecessary; the entire area of research would be broadened. ¡°At first, the path is narrow, barely fitting one person. Walk a few dozen steps more, and it opens up wide.¡± Suddenly, it all made sense! With this thought, Yang Ping felt as though he had passed through a narrow passage and entered into an expansive, open field. The K factor¡ªwhy did it appear when cultivating Sisi¡¯s tumor cells in the laboratory? It was no coincidence; there had to be a reason. Previously, Yang Ping had contemplated focusing on how to use the K factor to treat tumors and intended to explore why it appeared in the culture medium when he had the time. Now, Yang Ping had found the reason; he had touched upon the essence of things. Immune cells must have been mixed in while extracting Sisi¡¯s tumor cells because the in vitro culture environment in the laboratory was custom-made for tumor cells. The immunocytes could not survive normally in the laboratory¡¯s culture medium, and in the unique environmental conditions, they underwent changes. Cells died and disintegrated, but during this process, some fragments floated in the culture medium and combined to form the K factor. Yang Ping¡¯s thoughts turned to some hypotheses about the earliest life on Earth. Some scientists believe that the earliest organic molecules were related to lightning, with countless trillions of lightning strikes causing the release of phosphorous compounds. The time should be about 3.5 to 4.5 billion years ago, when some simple but necessary compounds for life were released on Earth, laying the foundation for the subsequent birth of life. In short, all life on Earth is likely to have originated from lightning, since the olivine formed when lightning struck volcanic rocks contains phosphorus. Subsequently, large amounts of phosphorus accumulated in volcanic ponds and other bodies of water, where phosphorus could accelerate the formation of biological molecules. The early Earth¡¯s chemical substances mainly included water, ammonia, methane, etc., according to this hypothesis, and it was lightning that sparked these substances to react. To test this conjecture, in the early 1950s, Tanli Miller and Harold Urey from the University of Chicago conducted an experiment where they filled a sealed chamber with water and injected ammonia, hydrogen, and methane, then repeatedly used electric sparks to stimulate it, and after a week, they detected 20 different amino acids in the chamber¡¯s contents. Some scientists suggest that solar particles may be the cause of the early Earth¡¯s life substances. However, whether it is lightning or solar particles, it is merely a difference in the triggering energy; what follows is the promotion of forming simple organic materials. Isn¡¯t the formation of the K factor similar to the formation of early Earth life? Although the formation of the K factor is much easier compared to the formation of early Earth organic matter, they are both a coincidental recombination. Yes, this is the essence of the K factor. Yang Ping thought more and more clearly, like running along a dark tunnel continuously, until he saw a glimmer of light, and then he ran towards the direction of the light, which became brighter and brighter. Finally, a vast world of light appeared before him. If that is so, then the K factor must be a combination of fragments from the human body¡¯s immunocyte genes. If they are broken down by function, the same fragments can surely be found in the genomes of various types of immunocytes in the human body, Yang Ping proposed his hypothesis. But is that really the case? This would require the K factor to be broken down into gene fragments based on function and then to be rigorously compared with the genomes of various immunocytes. This is another big research topic! The thought process quickly cleared, improved, and matured. Contact Lin Lan immediately, contact the heads of all the laboratories, and gather them together. Yang Ping wanted to launch a new study; the K factor is just a trinket, and the reason for its formation is the most worthy of study, the essence of all current research. ¡°Song Zimo, come to my office, immediately, right now!¡± Yang Ping immediately called Song Zimo. As soon as Song Zimo heard the phone, he dared not delay, and immediately came to the director¡¯s office. Yang Ping was leaning back in his chair, staring blankly at a diagram hung on the whiteboard; Song Zimo went over and asked, ¡°Professor?¡± Yang Ping did not speak, and a sense of unease began to beat in Song Zimo¡¯s heart. The professor had called him over in such a hurry, and now he kept silent, had he made some mistake? His mind raced, all the recent surgeries had gone smoothly, with no complications, and there had been no errors in recent work. ¡°Professor!¡± Yang Ping still did not speak. Song Zimo¡¯s heartbeats grew more and more rapid. Chapter 1457: 1085: The Super Big Issue Chapter 1457: Chapter 1085: The Super Big Issue ¡°Notify Tang Shun, Lu Xiaolu, Zhang Zhiwei, and you, follow me to the Nandu Medical University Genetics Laboratory for a meeting, an urgent and important meeting. I¡¯ll contact Lin Lan now. Lin Lan was also unclear what urgent matter Yang Ping had for calling such an urgent meeting, but she immediately gathered important members of the laboratory to wait in the lab. The reason the meeting was held in Lin Lan¡¯s lab is because the main task of genetically recombining NK cells with the adenovirus needed to be completed by Lin Lan¡¯s team, whose primary focus is in the field of genetic engineering. Soon, everyone gathered in the Meeting Room of the Nandu Medical University Genetics Laboratory, wondering what important matter had prompted Professor Yang to call such an urgent meeting. After everyone took their seats, Yang Ping didn¡¯t beat around the bush; as scholars, they didn¡¯t have time for roundabout ways. ¡°Today, I¡¯ve gathered you all for this meeting because our research project has made a significant breakthrough,¡± said Yang Ping. A significant breakthrough? The new research phase had not even started yet, the NK cells were still being cultured in the lab, and hadn¡¯t been used in any patient¡¯s body yet, so what breakthrough was he talking about? Yang Ping continued, ¡°The K factor was a serendipitous discovery while culturing tumor cells in the lab, found in the culture medium. We had tried tracing its origins, discovering that there¡¯s no such substance as the K factor in the human body. We searched for the cause but could never find the real reason. I¡¯ve been pondering this issue, and now I have a new discovery, a rather mature hypothesis in my mind. As it¡¯s still a hypothesis, it needs to be verified in the lab.¡± Had they found the source of the K factor? Everyone had analyzed it for a long time, failed to find its source, and had to abandon the search, leaving the problem to be slowly dissected later, focusing the majority of their energy on the study of tumor treatment methods surrounding the K factor. ¡°At the time we were culturing tumor cells, it¡¯s possible that small amounts of immunocytes got mixed into the samples of tumor cells. These immunocytes could not survive in the culture medium of the lab or they died without replenishment. After they died and disintegrated, some fragments were left in the culture medium, and under some unknown conditions, these fragments recombined and formed what we now see as the K factor. This is a hypothesis, to test which, we need to establish a new subject of research, perform genetic analysis of the K factor, then segment them by function and match these segments against fragments from immunocytes to see if there¡¯s an overlap. If there¡¯s a complete match, then it means the hypothesis is valid. Once the hypothesis is proved, we won¡¯t need to focus on the K factor anymore in cancer treatment. Instead, we may recombine certain segments at will, such as recombining them with adenoviruses, creating a brand-new weapon to kill tumor cells.¡± Yang Ping roughly introduced his hypothesis, ready to write a paper and publish it in the Medical Journal. Lin Lan immediately became excited. The work of comparing genetic fragments was her specialty. If the project were set up, it would be large in scale, equivalent to conducting a complete and precise analysis of the human body¡¯s immunocytes. ¡°Technically there¡¯s no issue, this task can be left to us, as long as funding is not a problem,¡± Lin Lan immediately took on the task. The technical part wasn¡¯t too complex, it was just a big engineering task to map out the gene chart, then segment these genes by their functions, and finally, compare the two to find identical structural fragments. ¡°Set it up quickly, no need for approval, just initiate the project. The funds will be allocated from our Research Fund. Make a budget and we¡¯ll immediately allocate it to you,¡± Yang Ping instructed Lin Lan. ¡°Tang Shun, Lu Xiaolu, Zhang Zhiwei, Lin Lan, the four Professors, four laboratories working together on a mega project, and that is to combine factors from immunocytes that target tumors, such as tumor necrosis factors with adenoviruses, composing a treatment virus carrying immunocyte weaponry.¡± The main purpose of this meeting called by Yang Ping was to establish this project, the gene group project was just the beginning of this major project. At first, the listeners didn¡¯t think much of it, but as they mulled over it more thoroughly, their interest grew. Professor Yang truly had innovative and imaginative ideas. Previously, all attention was fixated on the K factor, now with the hypothesis unveiling the reason behind the formation of the K factor, many types of K factors could potentially be combined. Thinking of this, everyone became excited; all recent tumor-related subjects were now interconnected, and Professor Yang had grasped the underlying logic of these studies. If the hypothesis held, the entire research would enter a new phase with a much broader scope of thought. ¡°What can we do with this?¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei asked excitedly. Yang Ping thought for a moment: ¡°Once the hypothesis is confirmed, the mega project will need a lot of adenoviruses. In this project, your main task is to provide adenoviruses, to systematically and in-depth study adenoviruses, building a system for them, so that when we need them, we can select viruses that meet our requirements.¡± ¡°Understood, I¡¯ll start right away,¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei was unequivocal. ¡°Also, make a budget on your part, I want to allocate funds to you. Budget boldly, don¡¯t be tentative. This project is very large, it¡¯s a massive system engineering task.¡± Yang Ping cautioned him. ¡°Should I be responsible for further studying the mechanism of immunocytes in killing tumors? And the interactions between tumors and immunocytes?¡± Lu Xiaolu proactively asked. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s the work for your side,¡± confirmed Yang Ping. Tang Shun was getting anxious: ¡°And what about me?¡± ¡°Your task is to delve deeper into the structure and function of immunocytes,¡± Yang Ping gave Tang Shun the last task. ¡°There are many tasks and certainly not enough hands. Everyone go and find some young doctors, those with active minds and plenty of energy, especially those with outstanding College Entrance Examination scores. Recruit as many as you can, we¡¯ll need them later. No matter how many qualified ones there are, we¡¯ll take them all,¡± Yang Ping ordered Tang Shun. ¡°Understood, I¡¯ll handle it,¡± Tang Shun accepted the command. ¡°Let¡¯s take it step by step, roll up our sleeves and get to work, don¡¯t be afraid to spend money, what research doesn¡¯t cost money? Such a large project will certainly burn through funds, don¡¯t be afraid, our research funding is sufficient,¡± Yang Ping warned everyone to abandon their previous mentality of working on a small scale. A mega project like this couldn¡¯t be achieved with a small-time mentality. ¡°We also need to hire people, we definitely don¡¯t have enough hands.¡± Lin Lan, Zhang Zhiwei also brought up their difficulties, taking the opportunity to voice them all. PS: I¡¯ve been busy these days, for now, I will post smaller chapters of over 2000 words each day. Once I¡¯m less busy, I¡¯ll resume with full chapters of 4000 words or more. Thank you!¡± Chapter 1458: 1086: Inexperienced Chapter 1458: Chapter 1086: Inexperienced Recently, Professor Yang has launched several significant projects in a very short time, which inevitably makes everyone feel astonished. Is Professor Yang an alien? His imagination is simply off the charts. In just a short period of time, he has proposed several extremely creative research directions, each one substantial, pushing forward the exploration of medical challenges. In fact, besides solid knowledge, conducting scientific research also requires a rich imagination and a strong curiosity about the unknown world. This is necessary to turn what might be tedious research into interesting work, to tread an unconventional path in research, and to achieve some breakthrough results. Even without discussing whether these research topics proposed by Yang Ping will be successful, these ideas are extremely revolutionary themselves and can provide rich inspiration for future researchers, opening a door to a new world for them. The discussion continues, and everyone¡¯s topics are becoming more refined and mature through repeated discussions and adjustments. ¡°You mean after the immunocytes collapse, some of the fragments under certain specific conditions might reassemble freely to form new, larger fragments? Like the K-factor being formed this way.¡± Lu Xiaolu asked, feeling that the idea was somewhat fanciful, something that had never been thought of before, and even more surprising happening in laboratory-grown cell culture. Yang Ping nodded and replied: ¡°In Earth¡¯s ancient times, lightning or solar particles could stimulate some chemicals to form organic compounds. In the laboratory culture fluid, those gene fragments could completely undergo random recombination. However, this is just a hypothesis that needs rigorous experiments to confirm.¡± Indeed, many scientific advancements start with a genius hypothesis, such as the double helix structure of DNA and the mosaic structure of cell membranes. These started with a genius hypothesis and were later proven correct by experiments. ¡°If this hypothesis holds, we will be able to establish a theory that unveils some of the offensive and defensive principles behind the immune system. Then, our entire research approach would be expanded, and the treatment of tumors would enter a freer realm,¡± Yang Ping added. Yang Ping¡¯s words significantly boosted everyone¡¯s confidence, and they all secretly decided to give it their all. Lu Xiaolu continued, ¡°It¡¯s necessary to work on multiple topics at the same time. The current shortcoming in immunocyte therapy is inadequate ability against solid tumors, like T-cell therapy. It works well against blood tumors, but not against solid tumors, because blood tumor cells float in the blood, and so do immunocytes. It¡¯s like a naval battle where cells are like warships, clashing on the ocean platform. But in the case of solid tumors, immune cells facing tumors is like urban street battle, where warships cannot be effective.¡± Lu Xiaolu was already well-versed in tumor immunotherapy, so he was very familiar with these topics. ¡°Right, but oncolytic viruses don¡¯t have these disadvantages, they can penetrate any solid tumor, and reach inside tumor cells. Thus, whether it¡¯s blood tumors or solid tumors, oncolytic viruses face no barriers,¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei shared his opinion. ¡°We should thoroughly research the internal and external conditions when K-factor was formed. After understanding these conditions well, we can unravel the process of K-factor creation,¡± Tang Shun said, as K-factor was discovered while cultivating tumor cells in the laboratory. ¡°Yes, if we can clearly study the formation mechanism of K-factor, we could later recombine similar biological factors in the laboratory,¡± Yang Ping affirmed everyone¡¯s opinions, ¡°Concerning virus therapy and cell therapy, let¡¯s discuss the current international research progress.¡± Lu Xiaolu, who specialized in tumor therapy, volunteered for the task of presentation: ¡°Cell therapy currently sees significant success in T-cell therapy, and I won¡¯t delve much into its history. A team in the United States conducted clinical trials on patients with residual or recurrent brain malignant tumors, glioblastoma. Out of 19 patients who received oncolytic virus therapy, 16 survived more than a year, among them, 3 survived over five years, with their tumors shrinking and no recurrence. Whereas under traditional treatment methods, 80% of recurrent glioblastoma patients would die within a year. This clearly shows the great prospects of virus therapy, which has been proven.¡± ¡°As for the progress in virus therapy, the most advanced research by the Japanese involves a Type 1 herpes simplex virus recombined oncolytic therapy product. Type 1 herpes simplex virus has 3 key genes: ¦Á34.5 gene¡ªa human self-protection mechanism where cells infected by the virus self-destruct to prevent the virus from spreading, however, ¦Á34.5 gene tries to prevent this situation, allowing the host cells to continue surviving. They used genetic technology to disable ¦Á34.5, allowing the virus to proliferate inside cancer cells. ICP6 gene¡ªit produces enzymes that synthesize the virus¡¯s DNA; if disabled, the virus cannot proliferate in normal cells, thus proliferating only in tumor cells. ¦Á47 gene¡ªit has capabilities that make it hard for the immune system to detect the virus; if we delete this gene group, the virus loses its invisibility. Usually, cancer cells being part of the patient¡¯s body, the immune system doesn¡¯t see them as the enemy. However, once infected by a virus that lost its invisibility, the cancer cells carry ¡®markers¡¯, making them easily detectable by the immune system, making them a target of the immune system¡¯s attack.¡± Chapter 1459: 1086: Unworldly_2 Chapter 1459: Chapter 1086: Unworldly_2 ¡°Currently, Japan is at the forefront of Virus Therapy, but it took them a full twenty years to go from research to application, and the results are not ideal. Their product can only be used as an adjunct, such as to shrink the tumor before surgery to facilitate the procedure. Moreover, our approach is completely different from theirs. They only use viruses as markers to attract the immune system to attack the tumor. Essentially, this is still considered immunotherapy.¡± ¡°Our virus therapy truly exploits the virus for penetration, marking, and hunting, relying on the virus to perform all these functions. Thus, some steps have to be approached in reverse; for instance, the invisibility cloak feature of the ¦Á47 gene¡ªwe are not eliminating this feature, but enhancing it.¡± ¡°At present, the United States is leading in cell therapy, with CAR-T cell therapy being the most mature in application and best in commercial operation. Compared to virus therapy, cell therapy has already achieved curative effects on certain tumors, so it¡¯s not an unfamiliar concept. Our laboratory is also working on CAR-T cell therapy, so I won¡¯t elaborate on cell therapy.¡± ¡°Before long, we will surpass them. Our current foundational research is already ahead of them. These new projects that we have started are sure to be at the forefront.¡± Yang Ping said without modesty, for there is no need for him to be modest in this regard. ¡°There is a fundamental problem with my approach to virus therapy. No matter how it¡¯s improved, it cannot eliminate its inherent drawback: as a foreign entity, it is subject to attack by the immune system. On the other hand, cell therapy does not have this flaw. If we use the oncolytic approach, in fact, it lacks potency; Japanese researchers have worked on it for twenty years with limited success.¡± Tang Shun still believes that cell therapy has more potential. Professor Zhang Zhiwei disagreed: ¡°Cell therapy also has a significant weakness regarding its effects on solid tumors. It¡¯s difficult for cells to penetrate from the blood vessels through the vascular walls and then through one barrier after another to reach the interior of the tumor. Viruses can easily enter solid tumors. Regarding the immune system¡¯s attack on viruses, it¡¯s possible to perform evasion tactics. Didn¡¯t Professor Lu just mention that the ¦Á47 gene carried by Type 1 herpes simplex virus is an invisibility gene? I think adenovirus or other viruses may also possess such genes. We can enhance this function using recombinant technology. Even if other viruses do not have such genes, we can implant them. It¡¯s not a difficult task.¡± Discussions at the academic meetings of Yang Ping¡¯s team are always straightforward, with no need for pleasantries, increasing communication efficiency and avoiding ineffective loss. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter; we don¡¯t need to argue about who has a better future. Let the future judge that. We need to research all possible paths. In the process of research, we may learn from each other, making up for each other¡¯s deficiencies. Also, we should embark on a third path, implanting some of the genes from immune cells into carrier viruses like adenovirus, potentially combining advantages. Of course, this is just an idea of mine, but don¡¯t worry. Everyone, don¡¯t feel stressed. Research does not guarantee success or results. Relax and explore. If a path doesn¡¯t work, we adjust. If it does, we continue.¡± Yang Ping made his views clear, assuring everyone not to worry as the availability of research funds is plentiful with no favoritism. ¡°Each of our projects is independent but also part of a larger project. So, during the research process, we should share data, enlighten each other, and learn from each other. More communication is needed between different fields¡ª breakthroughs might occur during these interactions, and no one can predict the future, so we can only ¡®cross the river by feeling the stones.''¡± With ample research funds, Yang Ping wants to create a relaxed and free research environment for everyone, not burdened by utilitarian motives. ¡°Professor Yang, I¡¯d like to know how much funding you plan to allocate for our research project. It would help me have a clear idea because the team needs to expand, new equipment needs to be added, and the scale of the laboratory has to grow,¡± Lin Lan asked directly about the funding because the current team and laboratory conditions are insufficient for these research projects. Moreover, if expansion is required, it¡¯s not a small sum of money. The research fund for the next ten years would not suffice for this single project. ¡°Yes, I would also like to know so I can plan my next steps,¡± said Professor Zhang Zhiwei, who was very interested in the matter. Lin Lan and Professor Zhang Zhiwei are professors from Nandu Medical University. Although familiar with Yang Ping, they were not very clear about the details of his research fund, only knowing of its existence, but not its actual capability. Now that Yang Ping has laid out such a large framework, both professors are eager to join his big team. However, they¡¯ve assessed that the required investment would not be small. Tang Shun and Lu Xiaolu are insiders at Sanbo Hospital, with a clear understanding of Yang Ping¡¯s research fund¡¯s capabilities, especially Tang Shun, who is a top ¡°salesman¡± for the research fund, having raised a lot of money for it. For example, the stem cell therapy project has already gathered several hundred million US dollars in funding, and the amount is still increasing. Yang Ping looked around and paused¡ªnormally, he wasn¡¯t too concerned about money and couldn¡¯t state a specific number. All he could say was, ¡°There¡¯s enough!¡± Enough, that answer is rather vague, it¡¯s practically no answer at all. At this moment, Tang Shun picked up the conversation: ¡°Professor Yang usually doesn¡¯t pay attention to the money in the research fund account, so he¡¯s not sensitive about money. He definitely can¡¯t give an exact figure. Once you¡¯ve completed the budget, he can ensure that signatures and payments will be done. If we must talk about a planned funding amount, let me disclose the bottom line to everyone: for this major project, our current initial investment of 1 billion is no problem.¡± 1 billion? Indeed, this is a rich and powerful move. I¡¯ve heard that Professor Yang¡¯s side is not short on money; the legend is true. Usually, he¡¯s so low-key, but he can actually pull out ten billion for research funding at once. Lin Lan, Professor Zhang Zhiwei, and a few of their assistants were stunned when they heard this number. They had never heard of such a large amount of funding given at once. 10 billion; a few research groups, each could get two to three billion without a problem. This was already a hugely significant figure. ¡°I have an idea now, let¡¯s start the work and draw up the budget as soon as possible,¡± Lin Lan said with unusual excitement. Finally, there was no need to pinch pennies. Now, Professor Zhang Zhiwei¡¯s hands were trembling with excitement. By this token, his research group could secure two to three billion; and that too in the initial phase. Two to three billion in funds. ¡°Only 1 billion? With so many research groups, why so little? Wasn¡¯t it 50 billion?¡± Yang Ping was somewhat dissatisfied with the number and immediately asked Tang Shun why the funds had shrunk. Usually, he was very generous, so why be stingy now? There was no need to hide wealth in such an occasion. Tang Shun realized he had made a mistake after being grilled by Yang Ping. He used to study abroad and was accustomed to talking about US dollars. ¡°Professor, it¡¯s US dollars. I meant 1 billion US dollars, not RMB,¡± Tang Shun quickly clarified. US dollars? 1 billion? Lin Lan¡¯s eyes, already big, now widened even further as she looked at Yang Ping, waiting for his confirmation. This couldn¡¯t be a joke. Professor Zhang Zhiwei¡¯s hand, holding a teacup, trembled, spilling tea all over the desktop. My goodness, what kind of tycoon is this? This isn¡¯t just taking off; any equipment desired can be obtained, any talent wanted can be straightforwardly recruited. ¡°Professor Yang? Don¡¯t scare me, are you serious?¡± Professor Zhang Zhiwei hurriedly pulled out a pack of napkins, threw them onto the spilled tea on the desktop, and spoke while dabbing it up. ¡°That¡¯s right, our research funds often come in batches, and sometimes the cash available in the account isn¡¯t that much, so this is what we have for the first phase. More funds will be allocated later based on progress and needs,¡± Yang Ping confirmed the figure reported by Tang Shun. Professor Zhang Zhiwei now felt like one who has never seen the world. Chapter 1460: 1087: Open Stratagem Chapter 1460: Chapter 1087: Open Stratagem Actually, Tang Shun isn¡¯t boasting. The money in Professor Yang¡¯s Research Fund is enough to cover such a significant amount of research expenses. The old Duke from Germany donated one billion Euro, and the value of this gentleman¡¯s billion Euro is infinite because Professor Yang saved his youngest son¡¯s life, breaking the curse set by doctors back then who claimed his son wouldn¡¯t live past thirty. Moreover, due to this one billion Euro donation, the Duke Family has obtained the priority right to seek medical treatment at either Sanbo Hospital or Liquan Hospital. For instance, with the stem cell treatment recently launched by the laboratory, the old Duke now has the opportunity to be the first to enjoy it; while other wealthy individuals are still queuing, the old Duke has already secured a spot and will soon come to China for the stem cell treatment. At the same time, he will also attend Professor Yang¡¯s wedding, bringing with him a generous gift. Sanbo Stem Cell Laboratory¡¯s stem cell cultivation technology is far ahead of other laboratories; its unique amplification technique can rapidly and stably increase the number of stem cells while maintaining their characteristic properties throughout the growth process. Other laboratories, because of their outdated stem cell cultivation technic, are forced to constantly search for sources of stem cells. However, Sanbo Laboratory doesn¡¯t need to; it now no longer requires any external sources of stem cells, as it can rely on its own cultivated stem cells to serve as a recursive source. It¡¯s as if you had a potato as a seed, cultivated dozens of potatoes from it, then planted those dozens of potatoes as seeds in the soil, and harvested hundreds or thousands of potatoes. After repeating this process a few times, the number of potatoes is astonishing. Some of the cultivated potatoes are then kept aside as seeds so that there is no need to look for other seeds. This technology seems easy, but it is actually very difficult to execute, and currently, only Sanbo Stem Cell Laboratory has the capability to do this. That¡¯s why Tang Shun has the confidence to open up this project for treatment to the whole world. Mr. Guo Jingyao from Southeast Asia has also injected funds into the Research Fund several times. He is well aware that such donations not only help people around the world but also help himself. Only if Professor Yang continues to develop new technologies can his health be maximally secured; the biggest concern of the wealthy is their health. Plus, with strong support from the likes of Ning Qi from Anning Group, the tycoon Wang Changxin, etc., in the background, the Research Fund is basically never short of money; whenever needed, someone immediately pumps funds into it. Behind Professor Yang, there is already a stable alliance supporting his research financially. In addition to these donations, behind Professor Yang is also Ruixing Company, which currently has very strong cash flow and will spare no effort in supporting Professor Yang¡¯s research. Besides, Professor Yang also has the biggest backer ¨C the country. If research funds are truly needed and he applies for them, the country will also give its full support. Therefore, as long as you join Professor Yang¡¯s research chain, there is no need to worry about funds. You just need to be down-to-earth and wholeheartedly engaged in research. The meeting continued to this point, and the remaining task is simply to roll up the sleeves and get to work; nothing more needs to be said. ¡ª Li Gaoyang from BG Company is now on the verge of a breakdown, with new intelligence reports laid out on his desk daily. He had just made up his mind to grit his teeth and follow up on Sanbo Laboratory¡¯s K-NK cell project, but now the latest intelligence has changed. Treatment of the K virus is already so confusing, they decided to grit their teeth and follow the K-NK cells first. Now the latest theory from Yang Ping¡¯s side is that neither of these pathways is workable, they both have flaws and no future; now they want to embark on a third route, something about recombining the K virus with some factors of immunocytes. And they say the K factor isn¡¯t something good. Now it might be abandoned, and they are considering starting a ¡°trace back research¡± on where the K factor came from. BG Company has been expending enormous human, material, and social resources to figure out exactly what the K factor is. At this critical juncture, you¡¯re claiming that it amounts to nothing. Not just Li Gaoyang, but all scientists at BG Company are in a total flurry, struggling to keep up with the cutting-edge research led by Yang Ping. They hardly have any energy left for their own studies, and if this continues, everyone will be exhausted to death eventually. Keeping up with these projects isn¡¯t just a matter of money; even with unlimited investment, there is still a need for talent in this field. Most importantly, there needs to be a core figure who can grasp the direction of the research, someone with scientific prowess like Yang Ping. Where can we find such a person? Are all these directions truly valid, or are some true and some false, or are they all false? Yang Ping hasn¡¯t concealed any of it, directly publishing in the Medical journal. This behavior indicates he has no intention of keeping secrets; all information is public. However, it is precisely because all information is public that people feel despair. It¡¯s an unsolvable existence. If you manage to catch up, what about the fourth or fifth method... What if one day Yang Ping suddenly claims these don¡¯t work and starts all over again? Being led by the nose is too risky, almost certainly leading to destruction in the end. But what can you do if you don¡¯t follow his lead? In the face of such an unresolvable and open stratagem, Li Gaoyang is utterly powerless. All the covert schemes and tricks he had prepared before are nothing but a joke, utterly useless. For example, sending various scientific spies to steal his results isn¡¯t necessary; he publishes every step in papers and makes them available to the world, but you just can¡¯t keep up, and even understanding it all would take a very long time. The most extreme measure would be to physically eliminate him, but that won¡¯t work either. Yang Ping has started publishing some papers in his Medical journal that introduce new methods. These methods are announced to the world with no patent applications, and anyone and any company can use them for free. Some of these methods could even replace certain patent schemes of BG Company. This is quite terrifying as it would allow companies around the world to be on an equal footing with BG Company. Yang Ping once semi-publicly stated that he currently holds a lot of such information that is not yet mature, hence hasn¡¯t released it all. It can only be published piece by piece. If something unexpected happens to him one day, all of this information will be made public for medical researchers around the world to study. This openly implies: whoever dares to destroy him, he will destroy in return. It¡¯s another open stratagem, effectively deterring Li Gaoyang, for now, from considering any extreme measures against him. Because if what he says is true, BG Company could face calamity. Other companies could use these patent-free technologies to undercut BG Company. It wouldn¡¯t take long for BG Company to collapse, as no company can withstand the assault of peers from around the world. Moreover, based on Yang Ping¡¯s papers, it seems that he does indeed have a wealth of such information in hand. The Medical journal is Yang Ping¡¯s voice, and now Li Gaoyang finally understands why Yang Ping abandoned leading international journals to establish his own. It was to hold the power to speak to the academic world. In fact, Li Gaoyang¡¯s suspicion is correct. Yang Ping truly does have a wealth of such information, which are byproducts of his experiments in System Space. The System Space Laboratory generates a massive amount of trial-and-error data, which is the moat of pharma giants. Once Yang Ping shares these data openly, BG Company¡¯s moat would be filled in an instant. In the face of this overt plan, Li Gaoyang has no countermeasures. Now, he really has a headache. Chapter 1461: 1088: Sanbo Medical Research Cooperation Association Chapter 1461: Chapter 1088: Sanbo Medical Research Cooperation Association The four major laboratories began launching new experiments with great enthusiasm, fully endorsing Yang Ping¡¯s philosophy: First, do things right, then do things well. Therefore, after establishing new topics, everyone did not wait until personnel and equipment were completely ready to start, as that would waste a lot of time. Instead, they first set up research topics, and gradually supplemented personnel and equipment later on. After all, it¡¯s like feeling the stones to cross the river, so they adjusted while conducting experiments; without starting, one would never know what is right, what is wrong, where adjustments are needed. However, with so many new topics recently initiated, the major laboratories indeed do not have enough manpower. But that¡¯s okay, they will proceed slowly, according to their own pace, expanding their talent pool while conducting experiments. Yang Ping formed an official alliance between two laboratories of Sanbo Hospital and three experimental groups of Nandu Medical University, facilitating cooperation, and allowing this alliance to include other laboratories in the future. Yang Ping named this alliance ¡°Sanbo Medical Research Cooperation Association¡±; any laboratory that formally joins this association will receive funding provided by the Sanbo Research Fund. Of course, not any laboratory can join; the team and academic capabilities must meet specific requirements. Yang Ping aims to build a massive scientific research alliance to enhance the national level of medical research. Sanbo Cell Therapy Laboratory, Oncology Research Laboratory, Digital Medical Laboratory, Genetics Laboratory, and Virus Research Laboratory of Nandu Medical University are currently the founding members of this association. Yang Ping plans to adopt an ¡°expert governance¡± model for the management of the association, meaning core leadership must be accomplished scholars rather than lay bureaucrats, to prevent bureaucratization, a severe issue that could result in the loss of the institution¡¯s due scientific capabilities, ultimately transforming it into a venue for fame and profit. Non-core management personnel will be professional staff such as routine administrators, recruited from across society. Through establishing the ¡°Medical¡± Journal, Yang Ping tasted success, gaining substantial influence in the global academic community. Previously, publishing articles required approval from others, but now, he can publish anytime on his journal¡ªa significant facet of authority representing the voice of a nation in this field. Now, by establishing a research alliance, Yang Ping aims to build a united, effective research chain, similar to how industries need to establish supply chains; research also needs to create its own chain to avoid dependency on foreign entities in the future. The cell therapy laboratory has successfully cultured NK cells, and this time, instead of conducting experiments directly on Sisi, they are carrying out animal experiments. The direct progression of K-virus treatment into clinical trials previously was due to necessity, as Sisi had no time to wait for life-saving K-virus treatment; it was a gamble. Now the circumstances are entirely different; after several K-virus treatments, Sisi¡¯s tumor is somewhat controlled, giving her more time to wait for the next treatment step. Thus, there is no longer such an urgency, and Yang Ping does not need to risk using NK cells directly on Sisi. Although NK cell therapy is relatively safer, there are still certain risks involved such as fever, embolism, cytokine storms, etc. Sanbo Hospital has its animal experiment laboratory, an advantage that is now immediately utilized. Yang Ping can use experimental pigs to simulate the tumor patient model; the laboratory has rich experience in making these models and conducting animal experiments. The temporary prefab house is not yet completed, and the animal laboratory has not been relocated. On the day of the experiment, the animal laboratory gathered many people. In fact, the staff and students of Sanbo Hospital are accustomed to these experiments; despite this being a world-class experiment, they are here purely for learning. In addition to the researchers involved in the experiment, many students gathered, and the students¡¯ enthusiasm for learning is the highest. It is necessary to anesthetize the pig for the experiment to prevent disturbance which would affect the progress of the experiment and could easily spread noise. After anesthesia, the laboratory quietly lies on the experiment table, and the recombined NK cells are injected into its body followed by a series of observations and data collection. NK cells, also known as Natural Killer cells, compared to other innate immune cells like neutrophils and macrophages, have a broader range of clearing bacteria, resisting viruses, eliminating tumor cells, and combating aging cells¡ªthey are versatile. Moreover, unlike T cells, they do not require antigen presentation, making them quicker and more sensitive to detecting ¡°enemy¡± invasions. Additionally, they generally have fewer side effects. Therefore, NK cells are considered to combine efficacy, safety, and relative ease of use, making them highly suitable for cell therapy. There are already some products related to NK cells on the market, but their effectiveness is not ideal and cannot stand alone yet. The injected NK cells in the experimental pig are specially marked, as are the tumor cells in its body. After injection, the pig should periodically be taken to the imaging department for PET-CT scans, which allow the tracking of the injected NK cells¡¯ trajectory and whether the number of tumor cells has decreased or not. In future plans for the animal laboratory, there will be various scanning devices, including PET-CT, but currently, there is no PET-CT here, so the experimental pig must be restrained and taken to the imaging department for scans. During the process of transporting to the imaging department, it is essential to disguise the experimental pig well. Otherwise, many patients seeing a pig being taken for scans would definitely complain, wondering how pigs can be mixed with human testing. Ideally, this shouldn¡¯t be necessary, but there¡¯s no choice now as the animal experiment department lacks a PET-CT; the experiment cannot be halted because of this. Initially, the animal laboratory was prepared to install a PET-CT, but the installation had to meet various radiation safety standards, which complicated matters. Now, as the animal laboratory is about to move to the temporary prefab house, which lacks the conditions to install such equipment, they have temporarily ceased this plan. They will wait for the new experimental building to be constructed with everything required inside, so there¡¯s no need for the surreptitious moving of experimental pigs for scanning. The experimental pig is secured on a specially designed flatbed cart; then, everyone pushes it towards the imaging department. Because it is covered with a cloth, nobody can see exactly what is underneath, and the uninformed might think they are pushing a cart of medicine. Chapter 1462: 1089: You Can Get Eggs Chapter 1462: Chapter 1089: You Can Get Eggs Yang Ping usually deals with strategic planning for these research projects, leaving the specific tasks to the laboratory director and the researchers. Since the risks of animal experiments aren¡¯t too great, Yang Ping did not personally participate. After completing the injection of NK cells, Tang Shun and Lu Xiaolu immediately returned to their own laboratories, waiting by their computers to process the experimental data collected in real-time, such as the PET-CT images that were about to be produced. A few young doctoral graduate students were hurrying the experimental pig to the PET-CT room in the radiology department. On the way there, the experimental pig was quiet and didn¡¯t make any unusual noises. Since Liang Fatty was too busy, the anesthesia for today¡¯s experimental pig was administered by a doctoral student instructed by Liang Fatty. His anesthesia skills were evidently not as proficient as Liang Fatty¡¯s, making him uncertain about the dosage, which caused him some worry. It¡¯s challenging to determine the correct depth of anesthesia for these experimental pigs ¨C it needs to be just right. After anesthesia, the experimental pig should not make trouble; it must remain silent, not even grunt, and definitely not squeal. However, the anesthesia depth should not be so much that it affects breathing, as this would necessitate intubation and ventilator support, preventing the simulation of a tumor patient¡¯s physiological state. The doctoral student responsible for anesthesia followed the cart transporting the pig anxiously, fearing the pig might make some noise on the way, especially upon reaching the radiology department, where a few squeals amidst the gazes of many patients would be very embarrassing and might cause commotion. Dr. Zhu from PET-CT had been waiting for a while and immediately came out to greet the experimental team upon seeing the cart approaching. She then organized the technicians and nurses to start preparations. Of course, to ensure the smooth progress of the experiment, this ¡°special patient¡± had to be allowed to jump the queue. The doors to the examination room opened, and everyone worked together to push the special patient inside. A patient with sharp eyes in the waiting area saw the mysterious cart being pushed directly inside and realized it was blatant queue-jumping. ¡°What are you doing?¡± The woman rushed up and grabbed the cart handle, ¡°I¡¯ve been waiting for a full three hours, and now you want to cut in line?¡± They had been discovered! What they feared had come to pass. Dr. Zhu, who had just come out to greet them, immediately explained, ¡°This is a special emergency patient whose condition is critical. Please, everyone, understand, understand.¡± After speaking, she signaled to everyone with her eyes, and they pushed harder together to move inside. But the woman was physically robust and held tightly on to the cart handle, ¡°Who isn¡¯t in a rush here? Who isn¡¯t pressed for time? He¡¯s the only one in a hurry? What special person? What emergency? To blatantly cut in line? Must be favoritism, eh?¡± Following the woman¡¯s righteous cry, dozens of people in the waiting area immediately surrounded them, joining the chorus of accusers. However, there were also reasonable patients who intervened to stop the woman, ¡°The other party has an emergency; saving lives is crucial. Waiting a bit more won¡¯t hurt us.¡± ¡°If you want to wait, then wait, but I won¡¯t allow queue jumping. I should be examined first before him. What emergency, what¡¯s not ¨C I¡¯ve waited three hours, and now you say cut in line.¡± The woman¡¯s voice was loud and clear. Any further delay would miss the first optimal time for the examination, resulting in incomplete data collection, which could hinder the entire experiment¡¯s schedule. Today they had encountered this stubborn woman and Dr. Zhu was in a dilemma. Forcing their way through could lead to physical conflict, and not doing so would delay the procedure. Several researchers who had brought the experimental pig were also helpless, and everyone was caught in a standoff. ¡°Let me see what kind of special patient this is,¡± said the woman boldly, reaching out to remove the cloth covering the cart. In fact, this lab cart was not a gurney but more like a wheeled iron cage. The experimental pig inside was breathing through an oxygen mask, covered entirely by the cloth to ensure breathing while preventing issues during transport. ¡°No, you can¡¯t look at this,¡± Dr. Zhu took hold of the woman¡¯s hand. ¡°Why can¡¯t I look, not allowed to see when cutting in line? Let me see what kind of emergency, to justify queue jumping.¡± The woman was relentless, never having been bested in quarrels, and she was not about to let these ¡°youngsters¡± win today. Wanting to cut in line? No way! This is just the first move and you guys can¡¯t hold up; if the next two moves come at you, you¡¯ll be even more overwhelmed. The auntie is brimming with confidence. Dr. Zhu thinks, should he just tell her clearly and lift up the cloth to show her? But then he thinks again, she can even block an emergency patient, so if it is a pig, wouldn¡¯t that cause an uproar? Today¡¯s test should probably not be done. Right at that moment, Director Zhao happens to walk by and sees the situation. He knows about today¡¯s animal experiments at the Surgical Research Institute and with a glance, he recognizes that the experimental pig being sent to the PET-CT room has been stopped by someone. Thus, Director Zhao steps forward with his staff. ¡°Ma¡¯am, what¡¯s going on? I¡¯m the director of the Medical Services Office at this hospital. If something¡¯s the matter, you can talk to me,¡± says Director Zhao kindly to the auntie. After the auntie rattles on, Director Zhao immediately replies: ¡°Ma¡¯am, just by looking at your face I can tell you¡¯re a kind-hearted person. What you just said makes a lot of sense. How can we allow queue jumping? You young people didn¡¯t explain things clearly to her.¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am, come over here, let¡¯s talk a few steps away. Don¡¯t worry, they won¡¯t dare to jump the queue, and we¡¯ll arrange for your test right away,¡± Director Zhao says to the auntie. But the auntie still won¡¯t listen; no one¡¯s words are effective. So Director Zhao walks up close and whispers to the auntie: ¡°Ma¡¯am, there¡¯s a media kindness test going on. The cameras are filming to see if everyone shows kindness by prioritizing emergency patients. Those who pass the test can receive eggs.¡± Receive eggs! The auntie¡¯s eyes light up. Director Zhao immediately gives her a meaningful look, whispering mysteriously: ¡°Don¡¯t let everyone else know.¡± The auntie nods her head right away. Director Zhao coughs a few times, then calls out loudly: ¡°Ma¡¯am, this is an emergency patient, please be understanding. Every second counts in saving an emergency patient¡¯s life; they must be prioritized.¡± The auntie glances out of the corner of her eye at the hallway cameras, clears her throat, and says, ¡°Hurry, let the emergency patient go first. We can wait. Get in there, push it through, don¡¯t delay the rescue.¡± Director Zhao then turns to everyone and says, ¡°Thanks, everyone, for your understanding. Please return to the waiting area and wait patiently; it¡¯ll be quick.¡± The young doctors look confused. What has Director Zhao said to the auntie? Suddenly she¡¯s so compliant, and as if under a spell, her attitude does a complete 180-degree turn, and she even helps push the experimental pig. Once done, the auntie comes out to comfort the other patients, telling everyone to be kind and not so selfish. These patients all wear a confused expression as well. ¡°Go register her name. Have her come to the Medical Services Office to receive eggs after her test is done,¡± Director Zhao instructs his staff. The staff member looks utterly bewildered: ¡°? Where would we get eggs in our office?¡± ¡°Go to the supermarket at Sanbo Hotel and buy a basket of eggs, the kind that comes with ten in a basket. Look for me to get reimbursed later,¡± says Director Zhao nonchalantly. Chapter 1463: 1090: Both Enemy and Friend Chapter 1463: Chapter 1090: Both Enemy and Friend Director Zhao calmed the affair with a basket of eggs. As the head of the Medical Services Office, he faced various complaints, disturbances, and disputes almost daily. He was battle-hardened and experienced, knowing exactly how to handle each situation. If a situation could be resolved with a basket of eggs, he couldn¡¯t be bothered to explain and persuade, deeming it a waste of time. He also didn¡¯t bother to call security for a forceful resolution¡ªit wasn¡¯t worth it. The young staff learned from Director Zhao, watching a seemingly difficult disturbance being effortlessly resolved. The first PET-CT scan of the experimental pig was complete. Due to networking, the images quickly appeared on the laboratory¡¯s digital viewer, displaying the specially marked NK cells scattered throughout the image. Of course, Tang Shun and Lu Xiaolu couldn¡¯t read the images; they could only listen to Yang Ping¡¯s explanations. Hearing the images were available, Yang Ping came to the laboratory. Indeed, compared to the K virus, which suffers substantial losses through the immune system, NK cells, being native cells, moved unhindered within the experimental pig, quickly spreading throughout the blood and gradually congregating at the tumor. However, a problem arose. The distribution of NK cells was consistent with the distribution of the pig¡¯s blood vessels¡ªeven within the tumor images. They matched the layout of the tiny blood vessels and capillaries, making it difficult for them to break through the blood vessel walls and into the fluid between the tumor cells. ¡°You see, are these images formed by the accumulation of NK cells? Seems like the tumor is covered?¡± Tang Shun could discern some details through direct observation. Lu Xiaolu also came over, and it appeared so¡ªthe images of the NK cells accumulated covered the tumor. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°Many NK cells are in the blood vessels, and some have penetrated the walls of the capillaries to reach the gaps between tumor cells. However, whether they can be effective remains unknown.¡± Some cells, such as white blood cells, can indeed pass through capillary walls as they can perform deformation movements. When bacteria infect a part of the body, white blood cells pass through the walls of the capillaries to engulf the bacteria. Similarly, NK cells¡ªbeing a type of white blood cell¡ªcan also penetrate capillary walls and move through the gaps between tumor cells. But NK cell penetration does not necessarily mean they can approach tumor cells, as the tumor has its own barriers that prevent NK cells from contacting the tumor cells¡ªone reason why cell therapy is less effective against solid tumors. However, this was just the first imaging test; many more imaging tests, along with other examinations, were yet to come. ¡ª Another project by several collaborating laboratories¡ªinvolves embedding certain gene segments of immunocytes into adenoviruses. Although it¡¯s not yet clear if the K factor is genuinely recomposed from immortalized segments of immunocytes, for the sake of advancing research rapidly, they presumed this hypothesis to be true and proceeded with their genetic recombination. If this research direction is pursued, compared to the original combination of K factors and adenoviruses, there¡¯s significantly more room for maneuverability. Not only can certain gene segments on immunocytes be used to arm the virus, but also to camouflage it. This camouflage is lasting and can help the virus evade attacks from the immune system, reducing the system¡¯s attack capacity and naturally weakening the virus¡¯s adaptability to the immune system. Theoretically, this new type of virus could escape the immune system¡¯s onslaught. Viruses are both humanity¡¯s archenemy and old friend, maintaining a special foe-and-friend relationship. A virus is a non-cellular organism that must parasitize living cells and reproduce by replication. Extremely tiny and existing between life and non-life, viruses lack their own metabolic structures. Simple in structure¡ªnucleic acids wrapped in protein¡ªthey can rapidly reproduce within host cells, essentially relying on host cells for survival. The term ¡°virus¡± originates from Latin, meaning the venom of a snake or the semen of a human, thus it is imbued with the dual meanings of ¡°destruction¡± and ¡°creation.¡± People usually consider it harmful, with a certain destructive nature. Once it breaches the human immune system causing infection, it can lead to illness and death, whether it¡¯s the flu virus that causes headaches and runny noses or other more serious contagious viruses. Once they infect the human body, they bring disease or even death; that is its destructive nature. As for its creative aspect, it indeed exists but is lesser known. The suitability of Earth for habitation also owes to viruses. Oceanic coccolithophores contribute a quarter of Earth¡¯s oxygen through photosynthesis, and the DNA that truly activates coccolithophores comes from viral genes. Scientists estimate that 10% of the photosynthesis on Earth can be attributed to viral genes, which not only contribute the oxygen we breathe but also regulate the temperature for Earth. The relationship between viruses and our bodies is very close; there are 8% of DNA fragments in the human body that come from viruses, which can potentially be reactivated under certain conditions. On the other hand, when our cells manufacture new viruses, they may also insert their own DNA, transmitting genes within other hosts. From the perspective of viruses reflecting upon ourselves, life fundamentally is just a collection of continually mixing and transferring DNA. According to the plan provided by Yang Ping, three tasks are needed: to dissect and study functional gene segments of immunocytes, to study the most suitable viral vector, and to examine the structure of viruses that have coexisted peacefully with humans. After clarifying these three issues, this subject could then begin to see the light. The breadth and depth of these research topics are unprecedented. In the face of such monumental tasks, Zhang Zhiwei felt that his previous research seemed like child¡¯s play. Previously, Professor Zhang Zhiwei would not even dare to contemplate undertaking such grand research. Not to mention his own imagination and strategic judgment falling short, even if a research proposal was laid in front of him, he would decidedly not dare accept such a task. The funding required for such a project is immense, and pooling all his research funds would still be a drop in the bucket. The timeline is also alarmingly broad, and it¡¯s highly likely to end in failure. Even though Professor Zhang does not worry about professional titles, the researchers under him wouldn¡¯t follow him on such a project because it wouldn¡¯t yield immediate results, no results mean no papers, and without papers, it¡¯s difficult to get professional titles and stand in the academic community. Moreover, if it weren¡¯t for Yang Ping¡¯s own funding, if it was Professor Zhang Zhiwei applying for the project, it would likely not pass expert review because the reviewing experts simply wouldn¡¯t understand such a project, ultimately dismissing it as fanciful and exaggerated talk. But now it¡¯s different, with Yang Ping¡¯s substantial financing backing him, Professor Zhang Zhiwei does not need to worry too much. He only needs to research slowly according to the rhythm, without worrying about whether it can ultimately succeed, because exploration of the unknown mostly ends in failure. Reviewing medical history, many innovations that initially seemed absurd and incomprehensible were later proven wrong, but being incorrect does not mean they were meaningless. Correctness stems from the accumulation of these mistakes. Not just in medicine, but the development of any science is like this. Aristotle once believed force was the cause of maintaining motion¡ªa judgment that persisted for two thousand years and was later corrected by Galileo and Descartes. They believed that force was not the cause of maintaining motion; an object could maintain its movement without any force acting on it. This was only a rough hypothesis at the time, reached through ideal experiments, later providing the basis for Newton to propose Newton¡¯s First Law. Therefore, in science, any new theory is initially imperfect; it is rough, may contain errors, or even be completely wrong. But even if completely erroneous, it possesses immeasurable value, providing experience for successors and a foundation for further research. Lin Lan¡¯s Genetics Laboratory began mapping the gene spectrum of the K factor and also started mapping the gene spectrum of various human immunocytes. Once both gene mappings are completed, comparisons will be made to see if there are overlapping segments, and if so, what those segments are. If overlapping segments of the K factor are found within immunocytes and immune factors, then Professor Yang¡¯s hypothesis would be verified as true. For a genetics scholar, completing this project would be enough to reach the pinnacle of the global academic community. On Lin Lan¡¯s end, whether researchers or equipment, it is clearly not sufficient for such a massive project. The day after the meeting ended, before her budget was even proposed, Yang Ping¡¯s Research Fund,]=] Chapter 1464: 1091: Freeing the Mind Chapter 1464: Chapter 1091: Freeing the Mind The experimental pig had to undergo PET-CT scans and various blood tests, all of which were dynamically monitored at different intervals; nevertheless, each had to be checked periodically. Collecting experimental data is a tedious task, requiring researchers to endure and seek valuable clues within the dull numbers. From the results of the subsequent checks, the experiment didn¡¯t look promising. NK cells still couldn¡¯t overcome the fatal weakness inherent in cell therapy ¨C even after embedding the K factor, their nature as immunocytes remained unchanged, and they still couldn¡¯t infiltrate solid tumors in large numbers. Faced with these disheartening intermediate results, everyone gathered to discuss and learn from the experience, making adjustments for the next experiment. The correct path for the experiment was slowly found through these modifications. Far from being discouraged, everyone was filled with passion. This is the basic quality of a researcher. True scientific workers must be prepared to immerse themselves in the laboratory for decades or even a lifetime, sometimes achieving nothing significant, or at best publishing a few meaningless papers. ¡°Our NK cells are facing the same limitations as CAR-T cells. Although they can express receptors for identifying specific tumor markers, which helps in treating blood cancers, they find it difficult to penetrate tumor tissues through the bloodstream. Furthermore, due to a lack of chemokine expression that aids in T cells infiltrating tumor tissues, and the presence of dense fibrotic matrix within solid tumors, their migration into and invasion of tumor cells is greatly hindered, which means the therapeutic effect is bound to be limited,¡± began Tang Shun, leaning forward to kick off the discussion, admitting that this experiment had seen no breakthroughs. Lu Xiaolu held the experimental data in his hands, the papers wrinkled from being frequently reviewed: ¡°Yes, it¡¯s a challenge that we must overcome to move forward. There are international methods involving direct local injection of CAR-T cells into tumors, but I feel this approach is pointless. Local cell injections may also reduce the risk of off-target effects. However, many solid tumors are metastatic, and local injections face the same dilemma as surgical operations ¨C they cannot completely and precisely eradicate the tumor. In other words, it¡¯s not realistic to expect immune cells to act as a surgical knife ¨C such an approach is destined to fail. There are also methods that use chemokines to mediate the transport of CAR-T cells to enhance their targeting of tumors. For instance, the expression of CSF-1R in CAR-T cells triggers a response to CSF-1, which while enhancing signaling for cell proliferation, does not impact their cytotoxicity. However, in experiments, even this approach has been rather arbitrary.¡± Yang Ping thought he made a lot of sense, and pondering his own thoughts said, ¡°The microenvironment of solid tumors, while promoting tumor growth and proliferation, also suppresses the immune cells, including immunosuppressive cells like regulatory T cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, and tumor-related macrophages. Growth factors, local cytokines, and immunological checkpoint molecules like CTLA-4 and PD-1 in this composite environment greatly limit the effectiveness of immune cells. Both genetically engineered T cells and NK cells face this issue. To address it, there are two approaches: either step outside the cellular framework, using oncolytic viruses, or improve the immune cells so they can break through the blockade of the tumor microenvironment. This brings us back to our starting point ¨C the fatal flaws of both oncolytic viruses and immune cells.¡± ¡°In the United States, researchers have created Gr-1 antibodies through genetic engineering. These antibodies deplete myeloid-derived suppressor cells, thus enhancing the tumor-killing effect. Others have engineered enzymes that degrade ECM, which can dissolve barriers and help immune cells break through the physical constraints within solid tumors. But these technologies have been around for years, and I haven¡¯t seen any substantive breakthroughs,¡± said Li Yingtong, who had worked at the Whitehead Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was very knowledgeable about these cutting-edge American technologies. It certainly is a challenge; if it weren¡¯t, there would be no need for so many laboratories and top talents working together to solve it, nor would Yang Ping have spent so much money. He never thought of solving this issue easily; that would be unrealistic. The first experiment didn¡¯t produce promising results, but it was just the beginning. Through this experiment, the team mastered the complete set of NK cell therapy techniques and knew how to improve them subsequently. Everyone didn¡¯t have high expectations for the first trial; it was expected to be rough, flawed, even entirely wrong at times, but this never deterred everyone from continuing their exploration. ¡°Actually, we should be more open-minded and not confine ourselves within the limits of the existing technologies. If we restrict ourselves to what¡¯s considered cutting-edge in Europe and America, it will be very difficult for us to make a breakthrough. If NK cells don¡¯t work, we can use macrophages; they have good penetration. If that doesn¡¯t work, we can use them for cell recombination, creating a new type of cell. Remember, we are now truly entering an uncharted territory, with no references, so all our problems depend on our own methods,¡± said Yang Ping after listening to their discussion. It was clear that everyone was still constrained by Western cutting-edge technology. ¡°Macrophages?¡± Tang Shun asked, as there was very little research in this area. Yang Ping nodded: ¡°Yes, macrophages have their inherent disadvantages, but we can genetically recombine them with NK cells.¡± Professor Yang¡¯s ideas are always so imaginative, always capable of leaping out of habitual thinking. Tang Shun, Lu Xiaolu, and Li Yingtong pondered for a long time and indeed, found the idea quite novel. ¡°Shall we proceed along this train of thought next?¡± Tang Shun could no longer grasp the strategic direction of the experiment. Yang Ping confidently stated: ¡°Try more and do not fear failure. We are essentially blazing a trail in a wasteland; we must step forward and then change course if necessary. We learn advanced techniques from Europe and America to surpass them, not to remain in perpetual admiration and follow. Therefore, we must have confidence. At this stage, we are at the forefront, and we can only rely on ourselves to solve all problems.¡± Yang Ping¡¯s words liberated everyone¡¯s minds from constraints, breaking away from the intangible authority of Europe and America and establishing strong self-confidence, an indispensable element in independent scientific research. ¡ª Lin Lan of Nandu Medical University¡¯s genetics laboratory is also now swamped. She needs to conduct genetic sequencing on immunocytes and related cytokines, and to complete the sequencing work, Lin Lan must utilize single-cell sequencing technology. Single-cell sequencing, a breakthrough biotechnology, has been gaining favor in the medical field in recent years. With this technology, researchers can conduct life science research on the single-cell level, performing high-throughput sequencing analysis of genomes, transcriptomes, and epigenomes, and categorizing and annotating cell populations based on cellular characteristics to create a cell atlas. The Human Cell Atlas project, launched in 2016 by Aviv, Sarah, and others, is a major international collaborative project on a par with the ¡°Human Genome Project.¡± The goal is to classify and define all human cell types based on unique molecular-level information, interrelate this information with traditional cellular characterization, and identify unique gene expression patterns, physiological states, developmental trajectories, and location information in each and every cell type within an individual. This will provide deeper and more complex cellular genetic level information for the overall health of humanity. For Lin Lan, this task is not difficult, especially as it is in her area of expertise. With the support of Digital Human Technology, Lin Lan¡¯s genetic sequencing work is much simplified, because Professor He, in the process of creating a Digital Human, has already accumulated a wealth of data on cells in this regard. With these data, he was able to construct digital cells and then use them to build a digital human body, pushing Digital Human to the level of a Functional Digital Human. Lin Lan can utilize these readily available data, reducing the amount of work she needs to do by almost half. Furthermore, with the close cooperation established between Nandu Medical University and the supercomputing center of Nandu Province, Lin Lan¡¯s sequencing work is going very smoothly with the help of the supercomputer. Her first comparative sequencing experiment shows: indeed, there is an overlap between the K factor and various immune cell gene segments. This result is greatly encouraging to everyone; it seems that Professor Yang¡¯s hypothesis might be correct. Of course, whether it is truly correct still requires the completion of all sequencing and comparison work. Professor Zhang Zhiwei from the virology department at Nandu Medical University is also in a not-so-optimistic situation, as he has now reached a wilderness area with no references, completely dependent on forging ahead on his own. All existing viral vectors, no matter how advanced, are hard to escape from being attacked by the immune system. How to select a safe virus carrier that can both infect all cell types and evade the immune system is an extremely difficult task. Moreover, it¡¯s necessary to recompose this viral vector anew, integrating some functional segments of immunocytes¡ªhow to recompose and how to control the characteristics of the virus post-recombination are both challenges. Professor Zhang has scoured related papers worldwide, and no one has reached this step, not even the most advanced research teams which are still focused on the treatment approach using oncolytic viruses. Now their topic is entirely different from oncolytic virus therapy. Chapter 1465: 1092: Sunrise Industry Chapter 1465: Chapter 1092: Sunrise Industry Several laboratories¡¯ research advanced simultaneously, and now Yang Ping was in no hurry, having grown accustomed to days without systematic work. He also felt that his scientific inspirations were increasingly abundant, perhaps due to the period he had spent deeply engrossed in reading various books and papers, accumulating rich knowledge which led to a surge of new ideas. At Yang Ping¡¯s level as a Doctor, one has not only to perform surgeries but also engage in scientific research. This is a mandatory rule in all major teaching hospitals like Sanbo Hospital, required for advancement in professional titles. Of course, Yang Ping is not worried about his professional titles; his research aims solely to solve medical difficulties. After completing a surgery, Yang Ping remembered that it had been a long time since he visited the Journal office, although he frequently visited the laboratory but seldom the Journal office, despite both being in the same building. After the establishment of the Medical Journal, it was handed over to Tang Shun for management. But now, a professional chief editor runs it, selected by Tang Shun. This chief editor, named Mao Mingli, formerly a deputy chief editor at one of Beijing¡¯s top domestic journals, is proficient in languages like English, Spanish, and French. A PhD graduate from Capital Medical University with international study experience, he is extremely suitable for the role of chief editor of the Medical Journal. Initially, Tang Shun thought to visit him thrice as per an old saying, but just after one visit the deal was struck, and the next day Mao resigned from his previous job and started working here, seeming eager not to miss the opportunity. Chief Editor Mao is very career-oriented. After joining Sanbo Hospital, he managed the Medical Journal strictly according to international top-tier journal standards. Tang Shun accompanied Yang Ping to the Journal office, where Chief Editor Mao was pleasantly surprised by the honor of their visit, feeling as though a spring breeze couldn¡¯t enter the Yumen Pass. Professor Yang rarely visited, and hence, everyone was excited today. Yang Ping was familiar with every face in the laboratory, but quite unfamiliar with the Journal staff. Though he had talked with Chief Editor Mao a few times, he didn¡¯t recognize the other editors. These individuals were young yet experienced, having worked for several years in relevant medical journals post-graduation, all recruited by Mao Mingli. Although Tang Shun was initially in charge when the Medical Journal was established, it was a temporary arrangement. Now, the Journal office is entirely run by Chief Editor Mao, who, like the laboratory, has considerable autonomy. This autonomy likely contributed to his enthusiasm. Yang Ping¡¯s visit was just symbolic and he did not intervene substantially, adhering to the principle that professional matters should be handled by professionals to avoid upsetting the balance. ¡ª After completing surgery, Song Zimo returned to the Doctor¡¯s office where an old classmate had been waiting for him early. This was Xiang Xiaofeng, his roommate during his study at Fudan Medical College. Post-graduation, Xiang didn¡¯t become a doctor; instead, he started a medical paper intermediary company, now generating tens of millions annually, much more than what doctors make. ¡°It¡¯s been a while, brother.¡± It indeed had been a long time since Song Zimo had last seen this roommate. The old classmate visited Song Zimo to catch up on old times; however, he was actually hoping to connect with the Medical Journal. This young entrepreneur had collaborations with major medical journals nationwide and only lacked a partnership with the Medical Journal, hence he hoped this visit could break the ice. The Medical Journal, though newly created, was highly popular and had many interested regular clients. If he could open this door, the company¡¯s revenue would find a new growth point, and the growth could be quite rapid. In a private room at a Grilled Fish Restaurant near the Hospital, the two sat down to eat and chat. ¡°Brother, we used to share a dorm room; you surely must help me,¡± Xiang Xiaofeng began directly, as they had already discussed this on the phone. Song Zimo shook his head: ¡°It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to help you, brother, but this matter is not up for discussion. Our Medical Journal¡¯s reviewers are top professors from around the world, and we uphold the principle of independent reviewing. Thus, I can¡¯t interfere.¡± Xiang Xiaofeng grinned, ¡°Young Master Song, don¡¯t joke with me. I know you are the second-in-command at the Surgical Research Institute at Sanbo Hospital, and I¡¯ve heard that Professor Yang usually doesn¡¯t get involved, leaving you in charge of daily management. This should just be a word from you. If you¡¯re willing, how could they conduct independent reviewing?¡± ¡°Really, I can¡¯t, old classmate, I¡¯m willing but unable,¡± replied Song. ¡°Don¡¯t rush to agree to help me just yet. If you sort this out for me, half the profit from each deal our journal closes in the future will be yours, I mean it for every single deal. Brother, you know the market situation in this industry. This income will be much higher than what you earn at work. I know Young Master Song is not short on money, but this is my heartfelt offer, what do you think?¡± Xiang Xiaofeng, a businessman, knew that the best way to persuade someone was by presenting benefits that align interests, making things easier when benefits were aligned. ¡°It¡¯s not about the money, if I could sort this out, I wouldn¡¯t need your money to do so. Currently, I really can¡¯t do this.¡± Being formerly roommates made it easier for Song Zimo to be direct. ¡°Really not possible?¡± Xiang Xiaofeng was puzzled. He had managed countless journals before; why was the Journal from Sanbo Hospital being so rigid? It seemed improbable; were they being serious? ¡°Really not possible, so please don¡¯t make it difficult for me.¡± Song Zimo still saying the same thing. ¡°Alright, I just don¡¯t get it, can¡¯t you guys play it for real? There isn¡¯t any manipulation involved?¡± ¡°Really, there¡¯s no manipulation, we truly handle independent reviews, and the list of reviewers is strictly confidential, employing a rigorous double-blind system.¡± ¡°You run a Chinese journal, and the reviewers are all in the country, right? So, how about this, bro, you give me the name of a reviewer, just the name is enough, I¡¯ll handle the rest, one name, bro, for this amount.¡± Xiang Xiaofeng stretched out three fingers, then dipped his finger in water and wrote down three hundred thousand on the table. Song Zimo smiled: ¡°You really shouldn¡¯t be looking to manipulate our journal, we don¡¯t engage in those shenanigans. Professor Yang hates such foul play the most, you wouldn¡¯t want to get me in trouble.¡± Since it¡¯s come to this point, it would be tactless for Xiang Xiaofeng to bring it up again. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s drink!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s drink!¡± The two caught up on old times, with Xiang Xiaofeng having seized the opportunities of the era, pinpointing the market¡¯s pain points, and thriving in business. His company dealt with a variety of services but mainly focused on helping doctors acquire professional titles through research papers, offering a one-stop service that¡¯s very professional, making over ten million in pure profit annually, indicative of a booming market. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say last time that a brother of yours was desperately needing a project and papers to get promoted to associate professor? How come you never mentioned it again, did you manage to sort it out? If not, leave it to me, I¡¯ll make sure everything is sorted.¡± ¡°Stop it, that brother of mine has totally given up, he¡¯s resigned himself to being a senior doctor forever, there¡¯s no helping him.¡± ¡°People are still so stubborn these days?¡± ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s just inflexible.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll help him for free.¡± ¡°He wouldn¡¯t do it even for free, can you imagine how frustrating that is?¡± ¡°Back in our dorm days, the few of us brothers each went our separate ways, Ren Mingyi went to the United States, Shao Gaohun stayed in Shanghai to work in chest surgery, still striving for associate professor, and you¡¯ve made a name for yourself now.¡± ¡°Not bad!¡± ¡°Heard you¡¯ve bought a place in Shanghai?¡± ¡°Yes, got a 300-square-meter duplex, the market¡¯s been really hot these past few years, made a bit of money, but still, being a professor like you guys is better.¡± ¡°That¡¯s amazing! A 300-square-meter place in Shanghai?¡± ¡°Had no choice, I¡¯m not like you, you come from a wealthy family, this bit of money doesn¡¯t matter to you, I couldn¡¯t afford to wait, had to take a chance with a small business, I started with just a computer and a phone, gradually expanded to this scale. Initially, the plan was simple, the medical path was too slow, I couldn¡¯t wait, was eager to make money, so had to turn to business. If it had failed, worst case, I¡¯d sell medicine, with so many classmates in the medical field, I figured I could at least make a living selling medicine.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve always been quite insightful, you probably would have made a fortune selling medicine too.¡± ¡°Selling medicine these past few years hasn¡¯t been great, the market¡¯s too weak, a lot of familiar faces dealing in medicines and medical equipment have switched to my field, my industry is still considered a promising one, as long as it can stay hot for another ten years there¡¯ll be no problem.¡± Chapter 1466: 1093: Impossible Betrayal Chapter 1466: Chapter 1093: Impossible Betrayal Xiang Xiaofeng did not accomplish a breakthrough visit at Song Zimo¡¯s place. As a leader in the industry, it was undoubtedly regrettable. However, for Xiang Xiaofeng, who came from a medical background, he was somehow happy inside, not knowing why he felt glad even though he didn¡¯t manage to secure the Medical Journal. This happiness was a bit inexplicable, a bit without reason, and after a satisfying meal, he unexpectedly reminisced about his student days when he was passionately writing and giving directions. Xiang Xiaofeng stayed here for one night. The next day, Song Zimo took him to visit the headquarters of the Medical Journal, where he encountered an old acquaintance, Mao Mingli. However, their meeting was somewhat awkward, as there had been some issues between them in the past. Back then, when Mao Mingli was a newly appointed Vice Chief Editor of a top domestic medical journal in Beijing, Xiang Xiaofeng invited him for a meal and gave him gifts as usual, hoping they would become good friends and strategic partners in the future. However, Mao Mingli did not accept, refusing both the meal and the gifts. Several of Xiang Xiaofeng¡¯s client¡¯s papers were rejected by him. Ultimately, the Chief Editor scolded Mao severely, and those papers were published as usual. Mao was demoted to an ordinary editor after just a few months as Vice Chief Editor. Meeting him again here was still somewhat embarrassing. ¡°This is the Chief Editor of our Medical Journal,¡± introduced Song Zimo. This time, Chief Editor Mao stood up straight and stated proudly, ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you; we are old friends.¡± ¡°Yes, old friends,¡± replied Xiang Xiaofeng awkwardly. Chief Editor Mao had absolute autonomy over the Medical Journal, which was agreed upon with Professor Yang when he first came. Hence, it didn¡¯t matter whether Song Zimo or even Professor Yang himself brought him here; don¡¯t think about bringing that kind of setup here. This place was where he realized his ideals. ¡°He¡¯s just here to visit. Mr. Xiang is an old classmate of mine, and he was hoping I could help facilitate cooperation with Chief Editor Mao, but I have made it clear to him that we don¡¯t need any strategic partners here, only high-quality papers,¡± Song Zimo spoke candidly, without mincing words. Chief Editor Mao nodded approvingly, proudly proclaiming, ¡°Absolutely right, our Medical Journal is currently a true top international journal and the only Chinese journal in the top circle. As a journal, what we need are excellent authors and excellent papers, not any strategic partners.¡± A blushing Xiang Xiaofeng said, ¡°Of course, of course! Rest assured, Chief Editor Mao, I am here just as a friend of Professor Song to visit, and it¡¯s truly an eye-opener!¡± Xiang Xiaofeng somehow felt envious of Mao Mingli. Despite earning a lot of money, at that moment, he felt a sense of emptiness inside, as if lacking something precious, which seemed tangible in this place. ¡ª Two weeks before the wedding, everything was prepared, and many prominent wedding guests began arriving in China early, hoping to have ample time for a journey at Sanbo. Huang Jiacai¡¯s newly acquired Haiyun Hotel started accommodating guests. During this period, the hotel served only wedding guests and was not open to the general public. Haiyun Manor, with its stunning mountainside and seaside location, looked even more beautiful after Huang Jiacai¡¯s renovations. The first batch of guests to check in included Manstein, August, Robert, and Rongge¡ªRongge being the chief of Joint Surgery at the New York Special Surgery Hospital and a university classmate of Robert. Robert had insisted on bringing him to China to attend Professor Yang¡¯s wedding, and given Robert¡¯s significant influence, Huang Jiacai agreed to his recommendation of Rongge. Soon after, many international guests also started checking in, while the Chinese guests were not in a rush¡ªthey wouldn¡¯t come this early due to the proximity, usually arriving just a day beforehand. Unlike the frequent visitors Manstein, August, and Robert, it was Rongge¡¯s first visit to Sanbo Hospital and to China. He was curious about everything and followed Robert exploring everywhere. On the Sky Bridge, the elderly man selling baked sweet potatoes and the couple selling beef offal were patients whom Professor Yang had operated on. All these visiting doctors and professors knew this story, so this place was a must-visit for them. Robert, leading a few people, bought some sweet potatoes and beef offal, giving a hundred US dollars each without asking for change. Even though the vendors chased after them to return the change, they refused, saying the remaining money was for the photo-taking fee. At Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish next to the hospital, waves of foreigners keep coming. Fujiwara Miyuki also came to China, where she finally met her dream lover¡ªYang Ping, the man she yearned for in her thoughts and dreams. When Yang Ping went to Tokyo University, she personally knitted a scarf for him but never delivered it. Now in China, she hoped for a chance to give it to him. However, perhaps there would never be a chance to do so. She truly loved Yang Ping, but she knew that Yang Ping was happy with Xiao Su. Loving someone should not involve disrupting their happiness. Before coming to China, her elder brother Fujiwara Wakan encouraged her to pursue her happiness and to sacrifice for the sake of the family business. She initially thought she should pursue her happiness at all costs. After painful reflection, she realized how selfish and wrong those thoughts were. If she truly loved Yang Ping, she should quietly protect his happiness. Loving someone means wanting them to be happy, forever. Of course, Miyuki did not share these thoughts with her brother. Once she told him, she would not be able to protect the happiness of the man she loved most. ¡ª Fujiwara Wakan and Li Gaoyang had a confidential meeting at a hotel in Hawaii. ¡°The future of the medical field will definitely belong to biotechnology, and currently, Yang Ping nearly has mastery of the future biotechnologies we need. We must take actions; we cannot just wait to die.¡± ¡°My plan is already in progress, if he cannot be utilized for our purposes, then we must...¡± ¡°No, his capabilities exceed our expectations. According to our intelligence, he has specifically studied some of our core technologies and has developed alternatives. Should anything happen to him, these alternatives could spread online, and our moat would be destroyed.¡± ¡°He is not a god, just a person. There can¡¯t possibly be such a genius in the world. You should understand¡ªboth for us and for you¡ªthe accumulation of various patent technologies and reserve technologies cannot be achieved in a short time; it requires decades, even centuries. How could such a young man develop so many alternative technologies? It¡¯s just a bluff.¡± ¡°I think you might be misunderstanding him. He is like a demi-god. I believe he can do it, so we absolutely must not resort to extreme measures. We can¡¯t risk destruction, at least until the situation is clearer¡ª we must adopt a conservative strategy.¡± ¡°Alright, I accept your suggestion.¡± ¡°Are you sure your plan can proceed? I must remind you, I¡¯ve also used this method before, but it failed. The person I sent out can¡¯t return; he¡¯s probably off helping someone give birth now.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because you chose the wrong person, the wrong target. Rest assured, my people will definitely take down Yang Ping; no man can reject the person I send.¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s wait for your good news; that would be best. Cheers!¡± ¡°Cheers!¡± Whether it¡¯s Li Gaoyang from BG Company or Fujiwara Wakan from Fujihara Corporation, they both have great foresight. They recognize the future trend where biomedicine will be a pillar industry, permeating all aspects of life. As a pillar industry, they have no reason not to prioritize it, especially since they are already dominators in the field with strong technical capabilities in drugs, vaccines, and health products. All they are doing now is protecting their dominant position. ¡°I¡¯m somewhat worried; the person we sent last time betrayed us; this time the person you send might betray us too.¡± ¡°You¡¯re worrying too much; our people won¡¯t betray.¡± Chapter 1467: 1094: Choice Chapter 1467: Chapter 1094: Choice August and Manstein¡¯s arrival in China spread like wildfire, and all the brothers in the international group could not hold back. They packed their bags and flocked to China, including John Ansen, Griffin, Woodhead, and Li Zehui, long-standing members of the group, as well as new members who joined the chat, such as Massimo, all checking into Haiyun Hotel. Several Nobel Prize in Medicine and Biology laureates also rushed to China because they knew Professor Yang¡¯s wedding was not just a simple ceremony but an academic feast. They held Professor Yang in high esteem, having read his papers, especially his Spatial Orientation Gene Theory, and admired his talent greatly. This time, they came to discuss the Spatial Orientation Gene Theory with Professor Yang in-depth. From the United States, Europe, Japan¡ªmany medical heavyweights arrived, especially the younger ones, who showed up in greater numbers. Some were acquaintances of Yang Ping, while others were complete strangers to him. Of course, not everyone could attend; Huang Jiacai and Manager Qiu strictly vetted the guest list, and the security for the entire wedding was extremely tight. Although it appeared relaxed on the surface, the security detail was meticulously arranged. For instance, half of the cleaners, waitstaff, and security personnel at the wedding site were actually security staff, creating a comprehensive, security network with no blind spots. After checking into the Haiyun Hotel, these guests also wanted to take the opportunity to enjoy themselves, planning trips around the area. However, things didn¡¯t go as they expected. As the president of Nandu Medical University, Professor Su would never waste the academic resources presented by his daughter¡¯s wedding. He invited each of the distinguished guests from abroad to give lectures at Nandu Medical University. These were heavyweight figures, ordinarily hard to invite, but Professor Su wouldn¡¯t let such an opportunity slip by with so many of them present at once. Manstein and August knew Professor Su and also knew he was Yang Ping¡¯s father-in-law. Therefore, out of respect for him, these big shots readily accepted his invitation and raced to volunteer their service, all free of charge. The students at Nandu Medical University were indeed fortunate to listen to so many world-renowned experts, and even if they couldn¡¯t grasp the knowledge shared, at the very least, their horizons were greatly expanded. Once the news spread that so many world-class experts were giving lectures and classes at Nandu Medical University, professors, doctors, Ph.D. and master¡¯s students from other provinces also made their way there, eager to attend the classes taught by these global authorities. Nandu Medical University¡¯s largest meeting room was packed to capacity. Professor Su came up with a solution, arranging for these experts to teach in different classrooms and drafting a class schedule for them, with several classes set each day, spreading over an entire week. This way, not everyone had to squeeze into the meeting room. These distinguished guests willingly complied. They were all here on account of Yang Ping¡¯s goodwill, without any objections. Manstein even took the lead. Originally, they had planned to tour the local area during their visit, but now all their time was taken up by Nandu Medical University, leaving no room for travel. However, everyone was uncomplaining, and they lectured with great dedication, fearing their time slots would be filled and they¡¯d miss their chance to teach. Meanwhile, Wang Changxin, who had been secretly managing the perimeter security, was fully engaged with wedding preparations. He purchased the top advertising position on major websites for the day, as well as ads on TV, newspapers, buses, and subways. On that day, he planned to envelop Yang Ping¡¯s wedding in a blanket of romance. Wang Changxin¡¯s wife was quite nervous because the scale at which things were being conducted was not discussed with Yang Ping, who was unaware of the plans. She wasn¡¯t sure if it was appropriate to proceed without his knowledge. However, Wang insisted that letting Professor Yang in on the plan would spoil the surprise, that the point was to keep him in the dark and give him a grand shock. Still, Old Wang¡¯s wife was somewhat concerned, feeling uneasy about the ostentatious nature of his plan. Some top professors from first-rate, large hospitals in China would attend the wedding, all personally invited by Professor Su, such as Professor Liang of Xiehe. Many outstanding young doctors would also come since many of them were friends of Yang Ping, like Song Yun from Xiehe. The wedding had become a grand medical gathering, more extensive than any previous medical academic conference, with a multitude of attendees. Several Nobel laureates in Medicine and Biology arrived, along with batches and batches of the world¡¯s top doctors and professors. Moreover, these people had requested to attend the wedding spontaneously, not being paid to do so. ¡ª Yang Ping, however, was not too focused on his own wedding, as he was quite busy. Now that the hypothesis was confirmed, the subsequent experiments became much easier. Yang Ping planned to dissect the various functional segments of immunocytes, isolating the fragments that combat tumors to then integrate them into the genetic makeup of adenoviruses. Until a better vector was found, adenoviruses would still be used for the time being. Through such recombination, the newly recombinant virus could theoretically combine the advantages of both cell therapy and viral therapy while avoiding their respective weaknesses. Although cell therapy is very promising, it¡¯s not a cure-all. Its inherent weaknesses are still hard to overcome. However, the key is to play to its strengths and avoid its weaknesses as much as possible. As for which functional segments to integrate and where to place them, there was substantial knowledge involved, and this was the crux of the technology related to the research topic. Yang Ping intended to delve deeply into this matter. How wonderful it would be if he still had the system, which could save a vast amount of time. Now, with a plethora of ideas in his head, Yang Ping felt overwhelmed and always short on time. Despite his wedding being around the corner, his mind was wholly concentrated on his work, completely ignoring the wedding preparations. He now understood why historical scientists were so engrossed in exploring the unknown; the strong curiosity for the unknown drove him to want to understand the how and why of things. In pursuit of clarity, one can forget everything else and immerse oneself completely. That was precisely the state Yang Ping was in, constantly pondering these issues whether he was eating, sleeping, walking, or even in the restroom, finding himself more and more engrossed. Xiao Su knew that Yang Ping needed to devote himself entirely to his work, so she almost played the role of his personal secretary for daily life, ensuring he didn¡¯t get distracted by household matters and could concentrate fully on his work. Whenever Yang Ping couldn¡¯t come home for meals, she made sure to deliver food to the hospital on time. She took care of other aspects of daily life too, ensuring he didn¡¯t have to worry about any domestic trivialities. Xiao Su had planned only to take a break for a while, but now she decided to resign and become a full-time wife to take care of Yang Ping¡¯s life. Although reluctant to leave her job, sometimes certain sacrifices had to be made. Chapter 1468: 1095: Lively Manor Chapter 1468: Chapter 1095: Lively Manor After the second experimental pig was completed, the data wasn¡¯t very encouraging; after all, there was no substantial improvement in the NK cells¡¯ ability to penetrate barriers, which is a difficult point in research. To treat tumors with NK cells, efforts must be concentrated in this area. Scientific research is like this; when you encounter a problem, you analyze and solve it. To enhance the NK cells¡¯ ability to break through barriers, Professor Yang asked his team to start researching the tumor¡¯s barriers and which cells in the human body have the strongest ability to breach them. After obtaining complete data in this regard, the difficulty of NK cells penetrating barriers might be resolved. Such matters can¡¯t be rushed. They can only be addressed gradually, advancing bit by bit, constantly adjusting the approach. As for success, that¡¯s currently not within the scope of consideration. With the wedding drawing near, more and more guests began arriving at Haiyun Manor. In addition to the international guests arriving in succession, some top-level domestic professors were also coming. These esteemed professors planned to arrive on the day or a day before the wedding, but hearing that many world-class scholars had already arrived, some took time out of their busy schedules to come earlier, thus gaining more time to interact with world-class scholars. Haiyun Hotel has many large and small meeting rooms. Without any formal organization, these scholars gathered together and began holding various academic salons in the meeting rooms to discuss the cutting-edge developments of their respective fields. The scene was very lively and enthusiastic. In addition to discussing the current state and development of their fields, another important topic was the Spatial Orientation Gene Theory. For many scholars, their understanding of this theory was vague, with truly comprehensive understanding being rare. Therefore, they took advantage of this occasion for a major exchange. The reason why everyone valued this theory so highly is that it would affect many research fields; it could be considered the leading theory of future biology, similar in importance to cell theory for biology over a hundred years ago. A wedding was smoothly turning into a grand unification event for world medical scholars. In fact, this was what Professor Yang wanted, what Xiao Su wanted, and even what Professor Su thought. For an academic family, there¡¯s nothing more meaningful and in line with the family¡¯s heritage principles than such a distinctive wedding. With so many guests coming, Professor Yang took time to greet them, showing at least basic courtesy as they were all guests attending his wedding. A Hongqi Sedan was parked at the entrance of Haiyun Manor. At this moment, hundreds of scholars stood on the lawn at the hotel entrance to welcome Professor Yang. Although young, Professor Yang¡¯s proposal of the Spatial Orientation Gene Theory had shocked the world, opening a door to a new world for medicine. Regardless of age, only looking at their contributions, Professor Yang deserved the respect and high regards of all scholars. ¡°Professor Yang!¡± When the door of the Hongqi Sedan opened, everyone cheered. This was the reason they came to China¡ªto chat face-to-face with Professor Yang, to engage in intellectual clashes, academic debates, and learn new theories. ¡°Professor Yang is so young?¡± Many had never seen Professor Yang before, and this was their first meeting. They didn¡¯t expect Professor Yang to be so young. For colleagues who work with Professor Yang every day, there wasn¡¯t any sense of mystery; for scholars from around the world, distance and unfamiliarity engendered a sense of mystique. ¡°The Spatial Orientation Gene Theory has already obtained practical success in their laboratory. They have cultivated complete muscles, which not only have intact muscle fibers but also come with blood vessels and nerves. It is said that they have also mastered the editing techniques of Spatial Orientation Genes, capable of growing muscles according to custom requirements, such as cultivating a certain number of blood vessels and nerves and their directions.¡± ¡°The Spatial Orientation Gene Theory was only his initial achievement. Have you seen the Medical Journal? Later on, he and his team published many papers, like on K factor, K virus treatment of tumors, K-NK cell treatment of tumors, recombination of immunocyte functional fragments, formation of K factor, etc. Each theory is pioneering.¡± ¡°I read the English version, translated, so it might not be completely accurate. If I understood Chinese, I could read the original.¡± ¡°I¡¯m learning Chinese; I hope to be able to understand the Medical Journal in the future.¡± ¡°Professor Manstein made certain breakthroughs under the guidance of his Spatial Orientation Gene Theory.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t Professor Manstein always researching peripheral nerve damage repair? I heard he wants to break through on head transplants?¡± ¡°Yeah, he has now made a breakthrough. I have read his paper; his primary cell fusion repair has achieved preliminary success. Without the Spatial Orientation Gene as a foundation, it would¡¯ve been impossible to make a breakthrough.¡± The crowd buzzed with discussions. Professor Manstein had already stepped forward to shake hands with Professor Yang, and everyone else also squeezed in to shake hands with Professor Yang. It was almost like fans chasing stars; in the hearts of these scholars, Professor Yang was their star. Looking at these few hundred people, all from different parts of the world, and knowing there were still scholars on their way, Professor Yang was also surprised by how many people there were. When Huang Jiacai showed him the list, he didn¡¯t pay much attention¡ªit was just a list. Now standing before him, he felt the buzz of the wedding; these were doctors and professors who had traveled from all over the world, each of them a leading figure in their field. For example, Li Zehui, a world-renowned expert in cardiac surgery, and several of his colleagues who are top cardiac surgeons from the Cleveland Heart Center; August brought along top spinal surgeons from Europe; Professor Manstein¡¯s friends are Nobel Prize winners, including several Nobel Prize judges from Sweden and many top-tier professors from Charite Medical College. There was no need to mention the United Kingdom; because Professor Yang¡¯s groundbreaking paper was published in Nature, it caused a sensation in the UK. Even the conservative British expressed hope for the future of biomedical sciences, and several Cambridge and Oxford medical professors discreetly came to China. This fits the British style, always calm and rational, adherents of conservatism. A neurosurgical maverick from Australia, heralded as a pioneer in brainstem tumors, came to China specifically to visit Professor Yang and discuss the development of brainstem tumors. Almost all first-class professors and doctors from Tokyo University, Juntendo University, and their affiliated hospitals had turned out in full force. Regardless of the West or Japan, strength is respected in these cultures. If you are stronger than them, they will respect you greatly and be willing to learn from you. Now, any one of these people crowding around the Hongqi Sedan could be considered a person of significant stature. Chapter 1469: 1096: Global Research Program Chapter 1469: Chapter 1096: Global Research Program Yang Ping also came to Haiyun Manor not merely to visit scholars; he was here to give a lecture, the topic of which was the Spatial Orientation Gene Theory. Truly understanding this theory could resolve many specialized difficulties. For instance, research on peripheral nerve repair around the world has entered a plateau, with no globally significant and inspirational progress¡ªthis is because the foundational theory had not achieved a breakthrough. After the Spatial Orientation Gene Theory was proposed, Professor Mainshtan made certain breakthroughs in this area. Although it seems like only a slight breakthrough for now, it has not been easy to achieve. Surrounded by a spontaneous crowd, Yang Ping entered the Meeting Room; his presentation was to be held here, attended by hundreds of heavyweights accompanied by their top Students, adding up to over two thousand people at the venue now. In front of over two thousand people, Yang Ping appeared exceedingly composed and experienced. Spatial Orientation Gene Theory is very abstract¡ªa brand new theory¡ªso Yang Ping tried his best to explain it in straightforward language, allowing for easier comprehension. After a wonderful lecture, the room burst into thunderous applause, several Nobel Prize recipients started asking questions on the spot, and other scholars were eager to join in. Prior to this, these scholars didn¡¯t know much about Yang Ping, but after arriving in China, everyone learned that Yang Ping was a Surgeon, a Surgeon excelling in using the Surgical Knife, yet with such strong research capabilities. Not only did he introduce many Clinical research findings, but he also made significant contributions in basic Medicine. He is an interdisciplinary genius even more magical than Professor Mainshtan, spanning from Orthopedics to the entire field of Surgery, then to research areas like Stem Cells and Tumors. His scholarly achievements have been rich and plentiful, leaving everyone at the venue in awe. The once renowned Professor Mainshtan was admired by the world¡¯s Doctors and Professors for his involvement in multiple disciplines and outstanding achievements in several fields and even casually winning a Nobel Prize. Now, Yang Ping¡¯s genius exceeded even that of Professor Mainshtan. ¡°Professor Yang, aside from your research, you also perform Surgeries every day, is that true?¡± A Nobel Prize recipient from the United States in Medicine and Biology asked this off-topic question. Facing the microphone, Yang Ping replied, ¡°Yes, this is true. My daily work is just like that. Many Doctors in multiple Hospitals across China do the same¡ªengaging in Clinical work while also conducting research. Because in our view, a good Doctor must possess both Clinical and research capabilities in order to advance the progress of Medicine.¡± ¡°It¡¯s hard to imagine how you manage your time. I have read all your papers thoroughly, each piece of research alone could take a decade or two, some might even consume a lifetime of effort. However, you have managed to achieve all this in such a short time; it¡¯s truly unbelievable.¡± The gentleman expressed his amazement, knowing the value of Yang Ping¡¯s research and how long it would take him if he were to conduct it himself. ¡°I have an excellent team; an excellent team allows me to increase efficiency,¡± Yang Ping told him. ¡°May we visit your Laboratory?¡± a Professor asked. Yang Ping cheerfully responded, ¡°Certainly, but an appointment will need to be made. I hope for your understanding.¡± The Professor looked around at the crowd, knowing that the Laboratory¡¯s aseptic requirements were very strict. If they were to visit, only a few people could enter at a time. With so many people, how long would he have to wait for his turn? Surely he couldn¡¯t wait here that long. ¡°Professor Yang, you believe that within the vast wealth of human genetic information lies the gene necessary for constructing three-dimensional cellular structures, and you have already discovered the Spatial Orientation Gene for Muscle, successfully cultivating a complete Muscle in the Laboratory. Really marvellous. Are these types of genes scattered or systematic, in your view?¡± the Nobel laureate who had asked a question earlier continued. ¡°They are systematic, but the system is likely scattered throughout the gene pool, making them difficult to find. At the moment, we¡¯ve only identified one type. If others are Interested, you are welcome to search for them. I believe human genes are of two types: one is the cell orientation gene, which includes the genes we are currently familiar with that guide the body to Manufacture various cells; and the Spatial Orientation Gene, which guides the use of these cells to build three-dimensional substantive structures. It¡¯s akin to having two sets of instructions for a building: one showing how to create components like bricks, steel bars, and concrete, and the other, architectural blueprints guiding how to build a three-dimensional structure with these materials. With building construction, blueprints are known to us, but it is quite the reverse with the human body¡ªwe are familiar with the material manufacturing plans but know very little about the architectural design plans. The Spatial Orientation Gene Theory represents this blueprint.¡± Yang Ping used simple language to explain. ¡°It¡¯s incredible. With 25,000 genes and 3 billion base pairs in the human body, who knows how much information is hidden there. It seems our understanding of genes is still at a very superficial stage.¡± ¡°That¡¯s correct. The complexity of the human body exceeds our imagination. With current technology, separate from the body¡¯s own cell division mechanism, we can¡¯t even manually create a real piece of skin. But the body¡¯s cells can start from a fertilized egg and develop into a complex human body. Look at the countless cells, tissues, organs, and systems, masterfully combined. Any man-made machinery, no matter how precise or complex, seems crude in comparison to the human body,¡± Yang Ping stood at the podium, microphone in hand, voice resonant. With so many of the world¡¯s top scientists in the audience, if possible, he hoped they could establish a tremendous Genetic project¡ªthe Human Spatial Orientation Gene Research Program, a program that would be even more complex and massive than the Human Genome Project. The Human Genome Project¡¯s goal was to determine the sequence of the 3 billion base pairs that make up human chromosomes, mapping the human genome and identifying its genes and sequences to ultimately decode human genetic information. The sequencing part of this project has been completed, but we are still far from the ultimate goal. It¡¯s like taking apart an alien spaceship; we have only disassembled the spaceship and drawn detailed Component diagrams. To fully understand the principles and mysteries of the ship requires more than just this. ¡°Professor Yang, is it possible to establish a global research initiative for the Spatial Orientation Gene, allowing everyone to participate and combine the world¡¯s resources to tackle this immensely valuable challenge for humanity?¡± another Nobel laureate asked. Yang Ping nodded confidently: ¡°Of course. If everyone is Interested, we can discuss how to set up this initiative at a time that suits us all.¡± Chapter 1470: 1097: Sharing Chapter 1470: Chapter 1097: Sharing Mentioning the establishment of a global research program on Spatial Orientation Genes, the scholars present were extremely excited, everyone wanted to join as the exploration of human spatial orientation genes was just beginning, with much research work yet to be done; this was a grand plan, a future-oriented plan. If all spatial orientation genes could be conquered, then in the future, by merely extracting anyone¡¯s stem cells, various organs could be cultivated in the laboratory for organ transplants, making changing organs for humans as convenient as changing components in cars, most importantly, there would be no immune rejection reaction from heterogeneous organ transplants, a significance tantamount to ushering in a brand new era of medicine, everyone wanted to contribute something to the arrival of this new era. ¡°If this global plan is established, we will sign up to join!¡± ¡°We will join too.¡± ¡°And us as well.¡± Scholars engaged in this area of research raised their hands one after another, none of whom wanted to fall behind or be left by the new age. Due to the large number of scholars signing up, Yang Ping had the graduate students brought along register the names, and scholars willing to participate in this plan were moved to a smaller meeting room to discuss the strategies together. These scholars never expected that attending a wedding alone, they could not only listen to Professor Yang speaking personally but also engage in discussions about the establishment of a global Spatial Orientation Gene plan on the spot, possibly even becoming a part of this plan¡ªwhat a meaningful thing. It was like a company owner attending a wedding, not only did he meet the world¡¯s top bosses, but he also signed hundreds of billions worth of contracts on the spot. However, not everyone could participate in this global plan. Scholars and laboratories participating in this plan had to possess specific qualifications, as mere enthusiasm was not enough. The strength of the applicants¡¯ teams and the laboratory facilities were all subject to very high thresholds, and whether one could participate was something the scholars knew very well, so they would not sign up indiscriminately. After the speech, Yang Ping came to the small meeting room, where all the registered scholars gathered, sitting down together to discuss the establishment of the global plan, with about several dozen scholars registering, all of whom came from the world¡¯s top laboratories related to genetic research. Yang Ping sat down, and everyone began a free discussion around the rectangular meeting table. ¡°The search for spatial orientation genes relies on the power of our team alone is limited; we must gather the power of the whole world. Once this plan is successful, it has significant implications for human health. If you all wish to join this plan, you may provide detailed information about your teams and laboratories according to our requirements. After we verify and approve, we will officially incorporate you into our global plan.¡± Yang Ping got straight to the point. Is it that simple? A collaboration this big, just settled in this small meeting room? For Yang Ping, the laboratories capable of participating in this plan could almost be counted on fingers, so just submitting their information for Tang Shun¡¯s team to review, and if there was no problem, they could join, without needing any complex procedures. ¡°Professor Yang, are you saying we can provide the information now, and once approved, we officially join your global plan?¡± one scholar couldn¡¯t believe it was that simple. ¡°Yes, it is that simple.¡± Yang Ping alleviated his concerns. ¡°What about the funding? Do we need to share the costs?¡± Mr. Levis, a scholar from the United Kingdom asked. Mr. Levis has previously achieved remarkable accomplishments in the field of genetics and won a Nobel Prize. Such scholars, such teams, such research experience, and their laboratories would definitely be among the top in the world and would not fall short. ¡°The funding will be entirely provided by us, no worries for everyone.¡± Actually, Yang Ping had already thought through that once this global plan was established, he would raise funds from all over the world in the name of the global plan. Eventually, people worldwide with money would line up to donate. If this plan succeeded, it would mean being able to replace their organs at any time without rejection reaction ¡ª a technology these people dreamt of having. No need to raise money by oneself, only to contribute effort; these scholars now had no worries at all, immediately contacting their assistants to prepare the necessary materials, worried that being even slightly slow might make them miss this global program. ¡°After all, we haven¡¯t mastered the spatial orientation gene technology yet; if we participate, will you provide technical guidance?¡± asked Professor Madelan from American MIT. Generously, Yang Ping said, ¡°For any laboratory that participates in the program, we will provide a complete set of technical training, and all our research data will be shared.¡± Actually, Yang Ping simply wanted to hold absolute discourse power and the power to set rules in the future field; this was truly the highest level of leadership in any field. ¡°This precious technology, are you willing to share it with us?¡± Professor Madelan was somewhat incredulous, as at a recent BG Company scientists meeting, news came that BG Company was trying its utmost to obtain various research data from Sanbo Laboratory; now that Professor Yang was willing to share all the data, where was the necessity for theft? BG Company became a joke. ¡°Why are you so generous?¡± Professor Madelan puzzled. Yang Ping smiled easily: ¡°This is key technology for human health; it should belong to all mankind, not to any individual or company. All our technologies researched are serving the entire humanity, not just a few.¡± Professor Madelan couldn¡¯t help but flush with embarrassment. Compared to Professor Yang, BG company seemed too narrow-minded, concerned only with using the technology to make money. Making money wasn¡¯t wrong, but if making money was the sole purpose, if one was willing to sacrifice everything for profit, then it contradicted the true meaning of technology. ¡°Professor Yang being so generous, I wonder if you have any additional conditions?¡± Professor Madelan asked. Professor Mainshtan immediately took over: ¡°There¡¯s only one additional condition, and that is all researchers participating in this plan must understand Chinese. Future paper publications and academic exchanges will use Chinese since the foundational knowledge of this technology is all recorded in Chinese.¡± This additional condition was neither too difficult nor too easy; it all depended on whether the participants were genuinely willing to undertake this task. Professor Madelan felt that this hardly counted as a condition, although learning Chinese was somewhat difficult, it wasn¡¯t unachievable. He immediately agreed and instructed his assistant to quickly prepare the documentation. ¡°After our global plan is established, Professor Yang will be the chairman of this plan, and I am the secretary. I hope everyone supports my work more in the future.¡± Professor Mainshtan proudly said. Being the secretary was already the second-in-command of the entire organization, and the profound significance of this global plan was clearer to Professor Mainshtan than anyone else. Holding the second-highest rank in this academic organization was an honor for Professor Mainshtan. In this small meeting room, in less than an hour, amid laughter and lighthearted conversations, a massive global research plan was just like that promoted. Chapter 1471: 1098: Visit Chapter 1471: Chapter 1098: Visit Many scholars hadn¡¯t even come to their senses when a huge world-class cooperation plan was preliminarily agreed upon in this small meeting room. What followed was merely the submission and review of documents. Scholars hopeful to be part of this plan were brimming with joy, for this project represented the future of technology¡ªit was the world¡¯s most cutting-edge genetic technology. ¡°Professor Yang! When can we visit your laboratory?¡± Professor Levis from the United Kingdom asked eagerly, afraid that Yang Ping might change his mind and so he wanted to set things in stone right away. Yang Ping looked at the scholars, of whom there weren¡¯t many: ¡°If you¡¯re willing, I can take you to visit now. But if others want to visit, they can only do so by appointment, batch by batch, as too many people will disturb our normal work.¡± ¡°Now?¡± The dozens of scholars in the small meeting room could hardly believe their ears; Professor Yang was indeed very straightforward. ¡°Record the number of people in the visiting group and arrange for transportation; we¡¯ll head back to the Sanbo Laboratory now,¡± Yang Ping said to Xiao Li, a graduate student by his side, who immediately went to do so. At the same time, Yang Ping called Tang Shun to arrange the reception of the visiting group. It was just a visit and not so complicated. Even if there were people who wanted to steal some technology, it didn¡¯t matter. Yang Ping¡¯s achievements were public; he was not afraid of theft because even if they stole, it was meaningless¡ªthey couldn¡¯t catch up with him. He was not only unafraid of theft but also wanted to share his technology with the world, allowing everyone to research these topics with him. A tourist bus arranged by the hotel transported the visiting group to Sanbo Hospital. As soon as they got off, everyone became excited; for them, no scenic spot could compare to the Sanbo Laboratory. They looked around curiously, wondering what kind of place Sanbo Hospital was to be able to cultivate such super geniuses. It was like Chinese students visiting Cambridge, surely carrying a sense of reverence in their hearts: this was the place that produced Newton. Led by graduate student Xiao Li, they crossed the hospital to reach the Surgical Research Institute. Along the way, they observed the grass, gardens, and pavilions on both sides with a reverent gaze. When they passed by the under-construction prefab houses, Xiao Li explained the history of these two buildings, which deeply moved them. Here, administrative officials could actually live in prefab houses, giving up the office building for laboratory space. When they heard that Sanbo Hospital also had its own animal laboratory, they were moved once again by the excellent conditions here, where laboratories could coexist harmoniously with clinical departments. People are often result-oriented. When Yang Ping¡¯s scientific achievements drew worldwide attention, naturally, they thought highly of Sanbo Hospital and reflected on themselves¡ªwhy couldn¡¯t they achieve such results, or why couldn¡¯t their own countries produce such talent, and so on. Even these world-top scholars, including Nobel Prize winners, stood in front of the gate of the Surgical Research Institute, looking at the dozen or so Chinese-style signs. They thought even these signs looked better than those of their laboratories¡ªculturally vibrant, artistically inspiring, and motivating them to strive upward. After all, these were just some signs, without all that complication. Yang Ping¡¯s Stem Cell Laboratory was the world¡¯s top-notch laboratory, unmatched in team talent, hardware equipment, and, more importantly, scientific results. In the future, it would be impossible to achieve anything significant in the fields of stem cells, genetics, and heredity without considering the Spatial Orientation Gene, much like how in the past, no achievement in biology could bypass cell theory, which is the foundation of modern biology. Similarly, Spatial Orientation Gene Theory is the foundational theory of future biology. This was why so many top scholars respected Yang Ping so deeply; they understood the value of his scientific achievements, and this is why they rushed to attend the wedding. Rather than simply attending the wedding, it would be more accurate to say they were seizing the opportunity to meet Yang Ping and seek his advice on issues related to Spatial Orientation Gene Theory. Under Xiao Li¡¯s lead, members of the visiting group, filled with shock and reflection, finally arrived at the laboratory. Of course, they also wondered why their countries couldn¡¯t combine laboratories with clinical departments in the same building. In fact, Yang Ping¡¯s scientific results had nothing to do with whether the laboratory and clinical departments were in the same building. Currently, space at Sanbo Hospital was just a bit tight, so they had to be squeezed together. Once the new building was up, the laboratory would naturally be housed separately. However, these visiting scholars thought differently. They believed that having the laboratory and clinical departments together would enhance communication between the two, which was another reason for Yang Ping¡¯s success. Various muscles cultured in the laboratory were displayed in transparent enclosures, and the visitors¡¯ eyes were almost glued to the glass, hoping to get a clear view of the muscle details inside. They couldn¡¯t believe these muscles were artificially cultivated, not just biceps and quadriceps, but also a variety of other muscles, almost everything one could think of. Sanbo Laboratory¡¯s research on the spatial orientation genes of muscles was very thorough; cultivating muscle was as simple as baking bread, albeit at a very high cost. These muscles, displayed like bread on the shelf, made the scholars click their tongues in wonder. Wasn¡¯t this everyone¡¯s dream? To cultivate the desired organs using a single stem cell. Although now it was just one step taken, it was a significant step for humanity in medicine. If people had doubted the validity of this theory before, no one doubted it now. The practical application results were laid out right before everyone¡¯s eyes for inspection. To give the scholars an even more authentic experience, Tang Shun allowed them to put on gloves and reach in to pick out the muscle for close observation and touch. Everyone carefully donned gloves, carefully lifted the muscle out, and held it in their hands for close examination, their noses almost touching the muscle. This was genuine muscle, identical to the muscle on the human body, incomparable to those ¡®muscles¡¯ created by 3D printing technology which merely looked the part without the essence. All the researchers in the laboratory were young, with an average age of just over thirty. Mr. Levis looked at these vibrant young people and couldn¡¯t help but feel that he was indeed old. The future scientific strength of China was incalculable; they represented the future. Moreover, from the moment Mr. Levis stepped off the plane to his arrival here, what he saw was a vibrant China. Compared to the old and stagnant air of his own country, China was clearly bursting with life. Now, the young team in the laboratory underscored that gap once again, and he couldn¡¯t help but feel a newfound respect for this country from deep within¡ªa respect he had not had before. Chapter 1472: 1099 The Worlds Largest Medical Conference Chapter 1472: Chapter 1099 The World¡¯s Largest Medical Conference After visiting the Sanbo Stem Cell Laboratory, members of the delegation each had their own different impressions. Manstein was an old hand; this was not his first visit, and he was already very familiar with the Sanbo Stem Cell Laboratory. He could see different things every time he came here, and the research was visibly advancing at a steady pace, a feeling that every researcher loves. Professor Madelan came to China on a secret mission, and before his visit, he had thought of ten thousand ways to enter the Sanbo Laboratory. Now he could effortlessly get in, and he was somewhat at a loss. The temporary training he had received before the visit was completely useless, as the laboratory was now fully accessible to him. He could see everything, touch anything, ask any question ¨C all except for carrying a hard drive and copying the data. Of course, it was impossible to let him use a hard drive to copy data. The entire laboratory¡¯s system, software, and security protection software were domestically made, virtually devoid of vulnerabilities that could be exploited. Moreover, to prevent infections via USB drives, the laboratory prohibited any unauthorized copying, eliminating the interface for data transfer. In fact, as for obtaining data, one could share all the data by joining the global Spatial Orientation Gene project; this would remove any need to steal data. In the midst of the visiting group, Professor Madelan felt somewhat dazed; everything seemed unreal and beyond his expectations. He even considered joining Yang Ping¡¯s global project, and Yang Ping did not refuse nor take any preventative measures. Professor Levis was feeling the vitality from start to finish, and the laboratory¡¯s continuous introduction of new scientific research achievements made him feel as if his own world was uncomfortably static. Sometimes it¡¯s good to get out. It was his first visit to China; his previous impressions of China came from the media, so he always thought that China was backward, with very weak scientific research, crude laboratories, and a populace that still struggled with hunger and lacked clothes to wear. What he saw and learned on this visit shattered his preconceptions completely. This was not backward at all; it was even more advanced than his own country. The laboratory¡¯s research personnel and hardware facilities were no less than theirs. And the spirit of the laboratory¡¯s researchers was much better, each one of them brimming with passion. Other professors, like Professor Fukunaga from Japan, kept silent and just followed the group around quietly. Tang Shun was once his most proud student, and no matter how he tried to retain him, Tang Shun was determined to return to his home country. Now he finally understood why. Apart from Tang Shun¡¯s patriotism, for Tang Shun, the stage in Japan was simply too small, incomparable to the grand stage of China. When Professor Fukunaga heard that Tang Shun had already married, he couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit melancholic. He had always wanted Tang Shun to be his son-in-law, but it seemed like a foolish dream in retrospect. After visiting the Stem Cell Laboratory, everyone proceeded to the Surgical Research Institute¡¯s clinical area to observe. Except for Manstein, most of these scholars were not clinical doctors but university professors, so they were very curious about how Yang Ping managed to bridge clinical work and scientific research, and they wanted to see for themselves what his clinical area was like. Learning that many of the laboratory¡¯s techniques were developed to serve the clinical area, they envied the combination of scientific research and clinical practice, where research could solve clinical problems, and clinical experience could guide research direction. After visiting the clinical area, these scholars expressed a desire to see the animal experiment laboratory. They were curious about the animal laboratory; Yang Ping agreed to their request, satisfying their curiosity. It was only a few pigs, after all; if they wanted to see, then they could. Yang Ping immediately had Tang Shun take them for a visit. When they saw many young doctors performing surgery on the experimental pigs, they were very curious and watched for a long time. It wasn¡¯t that they had never seen pig experiments before; they themselves often conducted animal experiments, but they had never seen such a large-scale operation. Two whole floors were full of experimental pigs, with more than a dozen teams conducting animal surgeries. In their home countries, such a large-scale scene was impossible to witness. Vibrancy! This was the intuitive impression of almost all visitors, whether in the laboratory or anywhere else, they could feel the vibrancy here. As for Sanbo Hospital, the visitors did not want to miss any place; they earnestly requested to see the prefabricated houses. Of course, as the prefabricated houses were under construction, it was impossible for them to enter with hard hats on; they could only look from the outside. They were simply curious about the culture of Sanbo Hospital. Administrative staff could live in prefabricated houses, leaving administrative buildings to be used for patient wards and laboratories. They took photos next to the portable cabins, then concocted stories ¨C nothing more than using this experience as an example in future lectures to explain the cultural advancement of Sanbo Hospital and their deep respect for doctors. ¡ª Rich businessman Wang Changxin had also made his preparations, some of the country¡¯s top unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) display teams had quietly entered Nandu Provincial City to prepare for the performance. By the time the wedding day arrived, the congratulatory messages prepared to appear on the internet, newspapers, television, and billboards were all set. The moment the clock struck midnight, whether one was using a phone, computer, TV, or walking on the street, taking the subway, everywhere there would be blessings for Yang Ping¡¯s wedding. Because Wang Changxin was so generous, giving so much, the collaborating businesses were overjoyed. They had never met such a generous customer who didn¡¯t haggle and was only concerned about the effect, not the price. Wang Changxin¡¯s wife was nervous all along, worried that Old Wang had secretly arranged such a grand affair. If Professor Yang did not like it, it could be troublesome and hard to explain at that point. The organizing committee on Huang Jiacai¡¯s end was fully prepared, guests continued to arrive, especially international guests. Most of them came early, drawn by Yang Ping¡¯s reputation in the medical community and with reverence, eager to see what made this talented individual so extraordinary. Many of Professor Su¡¯s friends, including Professor Liang, Professor Fu, and other heavy-hitters from top hospitals, arrived one after another. Professor Su was beaming; whether he was hosting an academic conference or attending one abroad, he had never seen such a grand gathering. Friends from the global medical community, both from clinical and basic medical fields, from various specialties, even top figures like Manstein, were present. It could be said to be the largest medical gathering in the world. He never expected his son-in-law to have such strong appeal. On a daily basis, it didn¡¯t seem like much as he was just focused on going to work, performing surgeries, and conducting research. Chapter 1473: 1100: Please Accept This Juniors Bow Chapter 1473: Chapter 1100: Please Accept This Junior¡¯s Bow Haiyun Manor is now bustling with excitement, every meeting room packed to the brim, with various academic conferences happening every day. Unexpectedly, the wedding has become the world¡¯s largest and most comprehensive medical academic conference. Not only are the conference rooms large and small bustling, but in every corner of the manor, scholars may gather for impromptu academic salons, enveloping the entire hotel with a strong academic ambiance. Even some top-level figures are baffled upon hearing news of this academic conference in China, unable to understand how such a grand conference could take place without their invitation. Upon inquiry, they find that the host of this academic conference is unknown, and the academic institutions capable of organizing such an event are few. The bigwigs attempt to investigate but can¡¯t find information; however, when asking other influential figures, they discover some have already received news and are on their way. Could it be that they are so insignificant as not to receive an invitation to such a grand academic gathering? Further inquiries reveal this to be Professor Yang Ping¡¯s wedding. Professor Yang? With a resounding reputation internationally, it all makes sense now. The bigwigs feel a sense of loss inside but are also itching to join in the fun. Without an invitation, an unannounced arrival would surely mean being turned away, so they reluctantly give up the idea. Missing such a significant academic event is a true regret. Professor Liang from Xiehe Hospital has already arrived at Haiyun Villa, and Yang Ping makes time to meet him. Professor Liang is in high spirits and immediately grasps Yang Ping¡¯s hand firmly upon seeing him: ¡°I must attend your wedding. It is quite unique, upon entering, I thought I was at an academic conference. The large and small conference rooms are full of presentations, with the main and breakout sessions forming spontaneously. I have never experienced an academic conference of such scale and vibrancy. Several Nobel Prize laureates are here, and I¡¯ve heard more are on their way.¡± ¡°I truly didn¡¯t expect so many people and such a scale, it¡¯s quite unexpected, so please forgive the chaos,¡± Professor Su says politely by his side. Professor Liang waves a hand, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about us; focus on your tasks. We¡¯ll just wander around by ourselves. I haven¡¯t felt this happy in a long time.¡± Professor Liang was always worried that Yang Ping would go abroad, but after learning that high-value offers from overseas to attract Yang Ping were all declined, the weight in his heart lifted. As for the matter with Zhang Chunquan, Professor Liang has long forgotten and is no longer affected in the slightest. ¡°Professor Yang, I know you are busy; don¡¯t mind us. We old fellows will just stroll about and pop into any conference room that suits us,¡± Professor Liang gestures to Academician Xiang approaching. Yang Ping had met Academician Xiang the day before yesterday. As someone who conducts anatomical research, he has very close ties with the clinical medicine community and has been good friends with Professor Liang for decades. ¡°I will arrange a student to accompany you,¡± Yang Ping says respectfully. ¡°No need, with all the waitstaff and security around, are you afraid we¡¯ll get lost?¡± Professor Liang declines. ¡°Alright then, Professor Liang, Professor Xiang, we¡¯ll meet again at dinner,¡± Professor Su greets and is about to rush off elsewhere. He¡¯s heard that Professor Lin from the National University Hospital of Singapore has arrived. Yang Ping isn¡¯t as busy as Professor Su. He just makes a point of meeting a few well-acquainted seniors and friends. For those he¡¯s not familiar with, he doesn¡¯t bother, so after meeting Professor Liang, he rushes off to tour the conference areas. Professors Manstein and August happen to be looking for Yang Ping and bump into Professor Liang, immediately bowing, acknowledging the seniority of Yang¡¯s predecessor, and thus their own. ¡°These two?¡± Professor Liang has seen them before at academic conferences in Europe and America, as they often play prominent roles there. But to Chinese eyes, all foreigners look somewhat similar, and it can be hard to remember faces. ¡°Professors Manstein and August from Charite? Medical College!¡± Yang Ping introduces immediately. So it¡¯s these two top scholars! Professor Liang looks at them with curiosity. In Yang¡¯s presence, they are extremely respectful, and many professors around, upon hearing it¡¯s Manstein and August, can¡¯t help but feel respect as well. Seeing them defer to Yang, it¡¯s clear just how prestigious Professor Yang¡¯s status is. Dean Xia and Director Han also find time to come and take a look, coincidentally encountering Yang Ping and Professor Liang chatting. Dean Xia greets with his booming voice, ¡°Professor Liang!¡± ¡°Hello, Dean Xia, you seem to have grown even more imposing!¡± Professor Liang jokes as they shake hands. Dean Xia puffed out his chest: ¡°Most certainly, thanks to Professor Yang, I now feel like I¡¯m growing taller every day, striding along briskly and vigorously.¡± Professor Yang Ping had just taken August and Manstein for a tour of the venue and left. ¡°Professor Robert?¡± A tall, red-nosed foreigner in a long gown, who, despite the approach of winter, was still fanning himself with a folding fan. ¡°Senior, please accept my respectful salutation!¡± Robert bowed deeply in front of Director Han, with utmost courtesy. Director Han was already used to this fellow. What¡¯s with this foreigner? Why is he acting so peculiar, Professor Liang wondered. ¡°Delighted to meet you, I¡¯ve long admired you!¡± After paying his respects to Director Han, Professor Robert went on to shake hands with the others gracefully. Professor Liang was quite surprised; he spoke so fluently that one couldn¡¯t tell a foreigner was speaking Chinese. It was just that his language was a bit archaic, so it sounded a bit unusual. ¡°Professor Robert!¡± Professor Ye from the Imperial Capital Third Hospital immediately came up to shake his hand. Robert smiled and said, ¡°My family name is Luo, actually you may better address me as Professor Luo.¡± Professor Ye was taken aback, and immediately corrected himself: ¡°Professor Luo!¡± Professor Ye is a top domestic expert in sports medicine and has met Robert at academic conferences in Europe and America. These professors are all actually very busy, usually swamped with work. The fact that they all could come early this time was because they wanted to participate in academic exchanges, which is why the prelude to the wedding is so lively. ¡°Big brother Luo!¡± A call from behind, followed by Woodhead, Griffin, and John Ansen, the three musketeers, approaching from a distance. The three originally met at Professor Feng Tiancheng¡¯s consultation meeting in Shanghai and were the founders of the international group, claiming the title of the founding three musketeers in the group. ¡°Brother Wood, Brother Griffin, Brother John! Why have the three gentlemen arrived just now?¡± Robert greeted with a bow, his posture flawless. ¡°Busy to the point of being head over heels,¡± Woodhead took over the conversation. Hearing this, Robert thought the Chinese proficiency was not bad, so why couldn¡¯t he ever pass level four. Professor Liang¡¯s eyes widened; these foreigners were speaking Chinese so fluently, if not for hearing it with his own ears, he would never believe the conversation was between foreigners. Except for Professor Robert¡¯s archaic way of speaking, the other foreigners¡¯ Chinese was indistinguishable from that of the Chinese. ¡°Who are these gentlemen?¡± Woodhead inquired. Professor Robert immediately proceeded with the introductions. Chapter 1474: 1101 Bustling Sanbo Hospital Chapter 1474: Chapter 1101 Bustling Sanbo Hospital The group of international guests became a distinguished scene unto themselves, as they all hailed from top hospitals in Europe and America, and were leading figures in their respective specialties. Speaking fluent Chinese, especially the leader of the international group, Mr. Robert, who was dressed in a traditional long gown with a folding fan in hand, presenting a dashing and elegant figure that drew the attention of many. Orthopedic scholars came forward to greet Robert one after another, and Professor Luo always responded with a polite bow, appearing incredibly refined and graceful. Following behind were John Ansen, Griffin, Woodhead, Massimo, Li Zehui, Rongge, Brin, and many others, who conversed confidently in extremely proficient Chinese as they walked through the corridors of the large meeting room. ¡°Weren¡¯t we all supposed to wear long gowns and carry folding fans?¡± Robert asked his group mates. Everyone had packed their clothes in their suitcases and hadn¡¯t had the chance to change yet; they hadn¡¯t expected Robert to be so pro-active, changing into his outfit as soon as he arrived at the hotel. ¡°Shall we change now?¡± John Ansen reminded quietly. ¡°Let¡¯s hurry and change now. Look how many people are staring at us. We represent the face of Professor Yang. We agreed to dress uniformly and to make a powerful impression,¡± Robert instructed everyone. The friends from the international group immediately returned to their rooms in the hotel, changed into their clothes, and picked up their folding fans. When they reappeared in the large meeting room of the hotel, they caused a sensation, drawing the eyes of everyone in the room. More than a dozen Europeans and Americans dressed in traditional Chinese long gowns, wielding folding fans, and speaking fluent Chinese were bound to draw second looks from anyone. Cool! They were not simply outfitted with these items; they also had a set of formal Zhongshan suits and ancient Hanfu, with various outfits well-prepared to be worn and displayed in turns. ¡°Who are those people? Why are they wearing such odd clothes?¡± Someone inevitably asked out of curiosity. ¡°I heard that those are all students of Professor Yang Ping?¡± someone with a bit of insider knowledge immediately responded. ¡°Students? That can¡¯t be, the one leading the way is Professor Robert, the chairman of the American College of Sports Medicine,¡± a scholar who recognized Robert remarked. Someone immediately replied, ¡°That¡¯s right, it¡¯s him. He is indeed a student of Professor Yang. He told me himself. And that person behind him is the head of neurosurgery at Mayo, also a student of Professor Yang, learning brainstem tumor surgery from him.¡± The questioner immediately understood, realizing just how impressive Professor Yang was for these prominent figures to be his students. However, judging by their ages, it didn¡¯t quite make sense; Professor Yang was much younger, and it was clear that this group was made up entirely of middle-aged men. As some people were still puzzled, they saw Robert conversing with several top scholars in orthopedics. It seemed as if he was inquiring in his capacity as an organizer if they needed help, then made it clear that he was a student of Professor Yang, a volunteer for the wedding, and that anyone could approach him with any issues. Moreover, several young Chinese students gathered around to greet Robert, calling him ¡°Senior Brother Luo,¡± and a large group of students appeared to be quite familiar with him, as those puzzled inquired from the others who understood the term ¡°Senior Brother.¡± Once explained by someone nearby, the puzzled individuals grasped that they indeed were students of Professor Yang, recognizing the considerable age gap. ¡ª Yang Ping returned from the Sanbo Hotel to Sanbo Hospital, where it was evident that many foreigners were visiting the hospital. These guests were all interested in touring Sanbo Hospital. While not everyone could visit the laboratory, they could wander around the hospital. The hotel¡¯s travel bus brought them in waves. Some students had the chance to practice their English by serving as guides, taking them around the hospital. In fact, not all the officially invited guests were this numerous; some who were not invited also came, not necessarily to attend the wedding but to join the fun around the hospital. The sky bridge was packed with foreigners queuing up for grilled sweet potatoes and beef offal. They followed the local lore that says to have truly visited Sanbo Hospital, one must taste a grilled sweet potato and a bowl of beef offal, eat at Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish Restaurant, drink a cup of milk tea, and if one doesn¡¯t try the bread at the Waterlily Bread Store, the visit doesn¡¯t count. The owner of the bread store, Yu Shuilian, is considered a medical miracle, personally saved by Professor Yang. The elderly sweet potato vendor and the beef offal-selling couple didn¡¯t overcharge despite the crowds. Due to the increased workload, they only slightly raised their prices, without taking advantage of the situation. Uncle Er¡¯s Grilled Fish Restaurant was fully booked these days, with long queues waiting for tables, compelling Uncle Er to cook personally and to add additional tables outdoors. Waterlily Bread Store didn¡¯t need any mentions; there were always long queues these days. The store has significant symbolic importance because Yu Shuilian represents the pinnacle of trauma surgery, an actual case study. Many trauma surgeons traveled to China specifically to see her and witness the miracle of life. The Sanbo Hotel was fully booked as well, with many people wanting to experience it. It wasn¡¯t just these establishments; all the shops around Sanbo Hospital were bustling. The business at the milk tea stores exploded, and even the vendor applying screen protectors on phones was swamped with work. The guests¡¯ spending power was phenomenal; in European and American countries, doctors and professors have very high incomes, so they spend without blinking an eye. Further, they like to tip, which resulted in the local servers near the hospital earning extra from the plentiful tips. When Yang Ping briefly published several top-tier papers, especially presenting the Spatial Orientation Gene Theory, his international academic reputation soared, making him a near-mythic figure. Thus, Sanbo Hospital, where he worked, naturally became a desired place to visit for these people. When he returned to the Surgical Research Institute, many foreigners were gathered at the entrance taking photographs, obviously intrigued by the numerous signs. It¡¯s said that abroad, people believe the Surgical Research Institute is the largest medical research facility in the world because it houses more than a dozen research institutions within one building, a number that seems to be dynamically increasing. Someone with sharp eyes recognized Yang Ping and immediately pulled him over for a photo. Yang Ping had no choice but to oblige and take pictures with everyone to avoid disappointing his ¡°fans.¡± The area near the temporary office structures also drew a crowd, as their fame had spread in the medical circles of Europe and America. Everyone agreed that this was the office of the greatest dean in the world. The wedding inadvertently boosted the tourism and service industries around Sanbo Hospital. Chapter 1475: 1102: The Gift Chapter 1475: Chapter 1102: The Gift The hotel was gathering more and more guests, and even more so around the perimeter, as a world-class academic feast quietly commenced. So many guests, especially the international ones, was beyond Yang Ping¡¯s expectations, as it was for everyone. Although Professor Su initially intended for the wedding to be an academic gathering within the medical community domestically, nobody anticipated that it would inadvertently turn into a world-class academic event. The city was abuzz due to this spontaneous academic conference; never before has anyone had such a pulling power to rally scholars from the medical community like this. The list of performance programs for the wedding day has leaked, including Professor Mainshtan¡¯s tenor opera ¡°Tibetan Plateau¡±, Robert¡¯s martial arts performance, August¡¯s piano solo, and comedic dialogue between Robert and August, among others. Each performer was not some star from the entertainment industry, but the finest doctors and scholars from around the world, voluntarily putting on shows for Professor Yang¡¯s wedding, which shows the high regard they have for him. That Professor Mainshtan, as one of the world¡¯s top medical experts, would serenade at Yang Ping¡¯s wedding speaks volumes about his status in the medical community. Not just in China, but the entire world, only Yang Ping could have achieved this. Huang Jiacai, the chair of Yang Ping¡¯s wedding committee, was very pleased with his own planning; of course, if not for Professor Yang¡¯s face value, he could not have invited these people despite how much money he might spend. Using this gathering as an opportunity, the Ruixing Company¡¯s various institutes achieved various intimate collaborations with some of the world¡¯s top scholars. This type of open cooperation was very meaningful, symbolizing Ruixing¡¯s start to attract global talent and stepping onto the path of internationalization. Eventually, Ruixing will sell its products to the entire world. At this moment, the upstart mining tycoon Wang Changxin sat in his office drinking tea with an air of self-satisfaction. There was one more day until Professor Yang¡¯s wedding, and his secret plan would promptly begin at seven o¡¯clock tonight, lasting 29 hours, continuing until twelve o¡¯clock on the wedding night, when he would give Professor Yang a tremendous surprise. President Wang really couldn¡¯t over-thank Professor Yang. Thanks to his connection with Professor Yang, he naturally obtained cooperation opportunities with Anning Group and Guo¡¯s Group. Both the domestic Anning Group and Guo¡¯s Group in Southeast Asia were financially very robust¡ªthese two strong backers would make Old Wang, a recently emerged mining boss, feel solid and unflustered when facing several international giants. Actually, Old Wang was somewhat ambitious; don¡¯t assume he idle-diately thought of advancement despite sitting on a gold mine. He envisioned turning his company into a mining juggernaut. He is currently steadily acquiring other mines, but learning from past experiences, he now remains cautious, never blindly expanding. He moves carefully with each expansion, only investing a small portion of his funds and always ensuring the mine has high-quality reserves before making a move. However, when it came to planning for Yang Ping¡¯s wedding, he was very aggressive. He didn¡¯t communicate with Yang Ping in advance, nor did he inform Huang Jiacai, who was in charge of wedding planning, instead secretly planning according to his own ideas. He fully displayed his tycoon traits and aimed to create a sensational impact. He knew that doing so would be against Yang Ping¡¯s principle of keeping the wedding low-key and would be considered tacky. Low-key! With the nature of an academic gathering, this was the purpose set by Yang Ping¡¯s family for the wedding. If President Wang rashly took such a high-profile approach, it would be an effort that was both strenuous and unappreciated, possibly even causing trouble for Professor Yang. Therefore, President Wang had given this matter deep thought. While paying tribute to Yang Ping in this high-profile way, he had already prepared one billion for donation, to set up a fund with a charity organization, specifically aimed at assisting poor patients. In addition, he had prepared another ten billion to train doctors and to sponsor impoverished students from medical universities and those in regulated training after graduation. To the current Old Wang, twenty billion is not much, but it is of extraordinary significance to those poor patients and medical students; the money was well spent. These twenty billion legitimized his flashy behavior. With these donations, no one would think he¡¯s showing off wealth, being ostentatious, or causing a disturbance. Instead, people would think we should have more philanthropists like him by the dozen. While Wang Changxin was set on making a grand gesture, Ning Qi from Anning Group was also not idle. She too had established a massive sponsorship plan, which was to fund doctors from grassroots hospitals to study and train in top-tier hospitals, while also donating advanced medical equipment and important medications particularly to grassroots hospitals in remote areas. Old Cheng from Liquan Hospital and Huang Jiacai from Ruixing had similar plans and were all thinking about setting up donation funds. Huang Jiacai and Old Cheng teamed up to offer one hundred free surgery slots from the hospital, all of which were high-difficulty and high-risk. These one hundred surgery slots could save a hundred families, the surgeries being completely free of charge¡ªcovering everything from hospitalization to full recovery including surgery fees, accommodation, and caretaker costs¡ªmeaning patients wouldn¡¯t spend a dime, with all expenses covered by the hospital. Mr. Guo Jingyao from Southeast Asia also threw in a big gift package, establishing a scholarship for doctors to advance their studies abroad, helping Chinese doctors to go to developed countries in Europe and America for exchanges and thus improve their medical skills. He also set up a research fund for young doctors, providing funds for young physicians with ideas to engage in scientific research. But that¡¯s not all. At the time of the wedding, the Duke Family from Europe will also deliver a significant gift. To be honest, ordinary gifts wouldn¡¯t suffice; it¡¯s these charitable donations that could catch Professor Yang¡¯s eye. Otherwise, everyone wouldn¡¯t be brainstorming these charity-driven gifts. From this perspective, the wedding is not only an academic gathering but has also become a conference for charity donations, with each of these magnates donating significant amounts, definitely not being stingy. The gifts from those top doctors are also very distinctive, such as the cosmetic surgery maestro Ivan, who will provide free cosmetic surgeries as the chief surgeon for twenty-nine severely burned patients, and all the costs will be funded by him. Many of these burn victims are firefighting heroes who saved others in fires and had their appearances ravaged by the ruthless flames. Some haven¡¯t had surgery for various reasons, and although others have had surgery, there is a significant difference between the results and a normal appearance. Ivan intends to apply his lifelong skills to perform comprehensive cosmetic surgeries for these twenty-nine burn patients, to restore them to an appearance as close to normal as possible. Their ideas are coincidentally aligned, every gift comes with a charitable nature. PS: I had mentioned that I would update the next day, but I failed to do so. These days have indeed been very busy, each day working until eleven or twelve at night, for many consecutive days, and later it became impossible to set an exact date for updates. I would like to express my deepest apologies to everyone here. Chapter 1476: 1103 Kind-hearted Chapter 1476: 1103 Kind-hearted There¡¯s only one day left until Yang Ping¡¯s wedding, so this night was destined to be extraordinary, as the lavish plan by tycoon Wang Changxin was set in motion at 7 p.m. sharp, lasting until midnight the next day. His grand plan included: drone shows, fireworks displays, airship performances, homepage ads on top apps, and poster placements in subway and bus stations, all these big moves starting simultaneously. To pay tribute to Professor Yang, he also chose this moment to announce a donation of one billion to a charity organization to establish a fund specifically for the rescue of impoverished patients. Additionally, he prepared another billion for training doctors, providing financial aid to impoverished medical university students and doctors in their standardized training periods after graduation. Of course, he would declare that these extravagant operations had nothing to do with Professor Yang, who was unaware of them, and hope for his forgiveness; he just wanted to express his deep respect for Professor Yang in this manner. Currently, Yang Ping was still at the operating table, not because he was too absorbed in his work, but because there were simply too many surgeries, performing surgeries being his primary duty. As there were numerous surgeries, and with the surgeries of Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang encountering some difficulties, Yang Ping had to step in himself, not finishing until nine in the evening. After the surgery, everyone gathered in the resting room to drink water, discussing the details of attending Professor Yang¡¯s wedding the next day. ¡°Look, there¡¯s a drone show over there!¡± Someone with sharp eyes saw through the window of the resting room the dense lights of drones in the sky and exclaimed aloud. Yang Ping holding a cup of water stood by the window, looking up, indeed, his field of vision filled with the spectacular drone lights forming huge, clear patterns. ¡°Let me see!¡± Zhang Lin and several other doctors and nurses who were not by the window squeezed over to look. ¡°It¡¯s to celebrate Professor Yang¡¯s wedding! Yes, look!¡± Everyone clearly saw the congratulatory words formed by the drone lights, the messages lingering for a while before immediately changing into human images, seemingly depicting a love story. The drone show wasn¡¯t just in one location; Wang Changxin arranged for performances at several places, each location had been carefully chosen as most suitable for Professor Yang and the medical staff of Sanbo Hospital to watch. Several drone performances began simultaneously at various locations, lighting up the sky of Nandu Provincial City with countless drones that formed various vivid images, narrating the story of love beneath the surgical lights. Yang Ping hadn¡¯t quite reacted yet, when suddenly another exclamation came from people, as the top apps on their phones had changed their background images, just like how these top apps would switch to festive designs during the Spring Festival, now they had transformed into unique designs and text congratulating Yang Ping¡¯s wedding. Yang Ping looked at his phone, utterly dumbfounded, wondering how Huang Jiacai could have not mentioned such a high-profile event beforehand, wondering if it was meant to be a surprise for him; impossible, Huang Jiacai is a person of caution, definitely wouldn¡¯t do something so reckless. Who was that? Yang Ping immediately called Huang Jiacai, and Huang Jiacai said it was not him, having heard that it was a mysterious person who admired Professor Yang but did not want to reveal their name. While orchestrating these events, this person announced a donation of two billion to establish two funds, one to subsidize standardized training students and young doctors, and the other to help financially struggling patients, especially those in remote areas. Two billion, not a small sum, and the first person Huang Jiacai thought of was the local tycoon Wang Changxin, as recently Wang Changxin had broken off contact with him following a quarrel, which made Huang Jiacai puzzled, feeling that the unusually quiet Wang Changxin must be brewing something big. But Huang Jiacai was too busy planning Professor Yang¡¯s wedding to think more about it. Now suddenly with the drone performance, fireworks show, and exclusive purchase of prime advertising slots on the app, and all these ostentatious rich-man moves, who else could it be, if not him? Still, he had to verify it, so Huang Jiacai immediately called Wang Changxin, and Old Wang did not deny it at all, instead he was quite proud: ¡°President Huang, how about that, pretty grand, right? Creative, isn¡¯t it?¡± Just as expected, it was that guy, Huang Jiacai initially wanted to criticize him for being so high-profile, but to his surprise, all online comments about President Wang, this mysterious troublemaker, were positive, stating that the appearance of such a flamboyant tycoon was welcome, as thought by the doctors and the common folks alike, because despite being flamboyantly vulgar, he was also remarkably charitable. He had thrown two billion into charity, how could anyone complain? He deserved to be flamboyant, he deserved to go big. Wang Changxin¡¯s bold moves, though high-profile, did not bring any negative public opinion for Professor Yang, rather they elicited a lot of positive feedback, because the mysterious person represented the countless patients saved by Professor Yang, and now with the financial ability, aimed to give back to the community by using this money to help the doctors and patients who needed it. Yang Ping had to admit that the tycoon had tackled two major pain points: the long training period for doctors, most of whom earned very little during their standardized training period post-graduation, hardly enough to sustain themselves. Wang Changxin¡¯s fund addressed this issue perfectly by giving young doctors monthly subsidies, alleviating their financial difficulties. The other fund addressed the patients¡¯ concerns; although medical insurance coverage was extensive now, many without it, often those who were extremely poor, overlapped. Once they fell seriously ill, they typically had no capacity to afford medical bills, and this is where the tycoon¡¯s fund came into play. Although Hermes had handled this a bit high-profile without consulting him, he had done so in an effort to create a surprise, and he had publicly performed a charitable act, full of positive energy, leaving Yang Ping with nothing to complain about. Whether high-profile or low-profile, as long as the deeds were good, that was enough. The drone performance was still ongoing here, while there, the fireworks show had already begun. The large fireworks were stunning and beautiful, forming several characters in the sky, likewise expressing various congratulations for Yang Ping¡¯s wedding. The fireworks that lasted nearly an hour had just finished when a huge fleet of helium airships with brilliant lights flew by overhead, resembling a giant dragon cruising through the sky ¨C a lights show that had never been seen before. The various lights and shadows cast from the helium airships formed huge patterns in the air. All the major advertising spots in the city, such as bus stations, subways, and squares now displayed congratulatory images and videos about the wedding, all of which were switched over simultaneously. The lyrics and music of the congratulatory wedding MVs were specially written by musicians, and the MVs were recorded by appropriate singers. Upon learning of this, Professor Su was inevitably a bit nervous. What was going on? Why such high-profile? He wasn¡¯t aware of it, and he called Huang Jiacai to verify, who had to reassure Professor Su not to worry, everything was legal and approved by relevant departments, there would be no issues. Even though the actions were somewhat extravagant, somewhat flamboyant, and somewhat high-profile, what could be done? They were for a good cause, and if it had been anyone else being so high-profile, it would have definitely elicited general displeasure. But in the case of Professor Yang, not only was there no displeasure but people also felt that it was appropriate to be so high-profile. Huang Jiacai actually wanted to go high-profile himself, but he refrained due to his fear of Professor Su. Now, Wang Changxin had done everything he didn¡¯t dare to do, and he was pleased about it. Hearing that Wang Changxin had secretly orchestrated this, Professor Su breathed a sigh of relief. At least he was not aware of it, and now it was too late to stop it, turning into a situation where trying to hide something makes it even more suspicious, so he decided to let it evolve without interference, as after all, it was Wang Changxin¡¯s personal action, and he wasn¡¯t representing just one person, but a whole group. However, Professor Su had to admit, Boss Wang was truly considerate, putting a lot of thought and preparation into this wedding, and occupying several top-tier app prime advertisement slots with wedding greetings, which is not something just anyone could accomplish. Because of the charity fund initiated by Wang Changxin, many wealthy individuals actively responded and donated to the fund, so Wang Changxin¡¯s high-profile approach became a form of charity promotion, leading to further large sums of money being raised for the foundation. Huang Jiacai saw Wang Changxin in a new light after this episode. His actions seemed flamboyant and somewhat foolish, but they were filled with wisdom. It looked as though he was foolish, but in reality, he was quite clever, knowing how to avoid any conflicts of interest for Professor Yang and how to turn an originally disdainful showy behavior into something appealing. Chapter 1477: 1104: The Opening Chapter 1477: Chapter 1104: The Opening The next day, the wedding started as scheduled, and so did a grand academic conference, which was a gathering of top doctors and scholars from the medical field around the world. Some of the cutting-edge medical research technologies spread rapidly and widely across the globe through this exchange. In fact, Yang Ping and Xiao Su themselves didn¡¯t want to spend this time on a wedding, nor did they wish for it to be so grand, but their parents disagreed, asserting that there must be a proper ceremony. Being the only girl in the Su family¡¯s generation, she naturally was treated as the apple of their eye. For a large family, this precious gem could not simply be married off quietly. Initially, it was just a request for a decent ceremony, but it turned into such a magnificent event. Medical moguls from around the world convened in Nandu Provincial City for one singular purpose: to attend Professor Yang¡¯s wedding, hardly anyone else in the world could have such an appeal. There were fireworks shows, drone performances, airships traversing the night sky, and prime advertising spots on mobile phones and top online apps. All the large advertising spaces in Nandu¡¯s public transportation, subways, and public squares were blessings for their marriage. Of course, the planners were very thoughtful and did not flaunt their photos. There were also continuous and substantial charitable donations, dazzling everyone with their significant impact and immediate transactions upon announcement. The entire Haiyun Manor Hotel was bustling with activity, with the wedding arranged in traditional Chinese style. Yang Ping and Xiao Su entered the hall dressed in Hanfu attire, and as they walked down the red carpet into the hotel¡¯s lobby, they too were quite moved. Sometimes life is like a dream; you never know who or what you will encounter. Therefore, you should cherish the people and things around you and always strive to make each today count, so as not to let time slip by wasted. Ever since Yang Ping made strides in the field of medicine, Xiao Su has supported him silently from behind. Yang Ping spends almost all his time on medical research, leaving little time to accompany Xiao Su shopping or to entertain her. He focuses daily on how to improve his surgical skills, how to innovate surgical methods, and how to create new surgical and treatment techniques. These topics might sound tedious to other girls, but Xiao Su actually finds them very interesting. Her interest is genuine and she enjoys discussing surgeries with Yang Ping. For Xiao Su, the latest surgical news that Yang Ping brings home is more attractive than any expensive handbag. If it were any other girl, she might think that someone like Yang Ping is a block of wood, completely unromantic, and not knowing how to pamper a girl. It would seem impossible for them to come together, let alone have such a harmonious and loving relationship. Having a wife like Xiao Su, who not only keeps the home in perfect order but also discusses medical issues with Yang Ping when he comes home, is priceless. The key is that he doesn¡¯t need to spend time coaxing or pleasing her. Their time together is naturally happy, pleasant, and harmonious. From a scientific standpoint, they are a perfect physiological and psychological match. Yang Ping and Xiao Su, dressed in Hanfu, stepped into the hotel¡¯s hall to a thunderous applause. Everyone was curious to see what kind of extraordinary woman the genius¡¯s wife would be. Professor Su was overjoyed in his heart. He had once fantasized about what an excellent son-in-law he might have, but no matter how much he imagined, he never expected his son-in-law to be as outstanding as Yang Ping, whose excellence far surpassed his imagination. Not only might Yang Ping become the youngest academician in the future, but he was also completely capable of striving for the Nobel Prize. Of course, the prize wasn¡¯t the most important aspect; what mattered most was his capability. Not only had he achieved a lot academically himself, but he was also able to help Su Nanchen climb higher and faster. Over a hundred members from the extensive Su Family attended the wedding, with countless descendants scattered around the world. Since the late Qing dynasty, they had fled to North America, Europe, Australia, and Southeast Asia to avoid the chaos of wars. They took root, branched out, and spread across the globe. By now, most of the Su family descendants are scholars, with the majority in the medical field, and there are many who are professors at renowned universities, leading scientists, and entrepreneurs. Some family members who moved abroad even returned to invest in the country after the reform and opening up, making substantial contributions to national construction. The Su family marveled at the scale of the wedding¡¯s guests and attendance, amazed by the influence of Su Qingyun within the country as almost all of the world¡¯s top medical and biological scholars gathered here to celebrate the wedding. To the Su family, a person¡¯s wealth is inconsequential, but substantial academic achievements are deeply respected. Now, they not only regard Yang Ping highly but look up to him admiringly. Anyone would hold such a young genius in awe for his incredible academic accomplishments achieved before the age of thirty. Yang Ping¡¯s parents also became a focal point. No matter how prestigious the professor, they would come respectfully to bow to Yang Ping¡¯s father, who had raised such a prodigious talent for the world. Facing these giants of academia, his parents remained as calm and steady as a mountain, neither servile nor overbearing. No matter their status, everyone here was a guest. In the hall filled with countless guests, there were a few who felt a sense of loss, such as Professor Qin, who couldn¡¯t help feeling despondent as his daughter had once been keen on Yang Ping. Unfortunately, Professor Su¡¯s daughter beat her to it. Such a fine young man had become the Su family¡¯s son-in-law. If it weren¡¯t for this delay, those smiling contentedly would have been Old Qin instead of Old Su. The wedding scene wasn¡¯t short of heartaches, with Japan¡¯s top medical beauty, Fujiwara Miyuki, yearning for Yang Ping, who was the man of her dreams. Now, watching the man she dreamed of walk down the red carpet hand in hand with another woman, she couldn¡¯t help feeling a bit of sorrow. Despite her heartache, she silently blessed her beloved and her best friend deep within her heart. Ning Qi was also quite distressed. She had harbored a secret crush on Yang Ping for a long time, but in the end, this man was not hers. Some things cannot be forced, so she kept her love hidden in her heart, resolving to simply be friends and support Yang Ping silently in the future. ¡°Professor Su, look how much face you have, how lively this event is, all the heavyweights are here...¡± Professor Liang from Xiehe couldn¡¯t hide his amazement. Professor Su responded with a slight smile: ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, I don¡¯t have such clout. It¡¯s all because of my son-in-law¡¯s modest contribution. They were just too eager, and due to security reasons, many guests who came spontaneously are staying at peripheral hotels, but they¡¯ve all been well arranged.¡± ¡°Old Han, I¡¯ve heard that you took Yang Ping under your wing unorthodoxly at the time, and you also focused on nurturing him. How is it that you have such a keen eye?¡± Professor Fu from Huaxi fixed his eyes on the distinguished Yang Ping. ¡°There¡¯s nothing keen about it. Anyone would recognize a good seedling like him. I¡¯m just a bit luckier, that¡¯s all,¡± Director Han said politely. Professor Fu did not share the same view: ¡°It¡¯s not like that at all. Old Han, you only take on two doctoral students now, I know both were picked up where others had overlooked them. That Xiao Song is also very promising. You poached him from Shanghai Sixth, didn¡¯t you? I heard he fainted at the sight of blood, everyone agreed he wasn¡¯t cut out to be a surgeon. You took him under your wing, and now look at the results, he has great potential to become an academician.¡± As he spoke, Professor Fu turned his head to look around, making sure Professor Hong Zhigang from Mo Sixth wasn¡¯t nearby. The words he had just spoken could offend, but he was merely stating the truth. ¡°Now talking about Professor Yang, the legend was that he was kicked out by your City People¡¯s Hospital, right? When you were recruiting, there was only a position for a doctorate holder, and he only had a master¡¯s. Supposedly he should have gone to emergency medicine. But during the interview, you recruited him on the spot and focused on mentoring him right under your wing, is that right?¡± Professor Fu seemed very interested in these matters and took the opportunity to chat, also wishing to learn Director Han¡¯s genuine talent for recognizing potential. Director Han only accepted two doctoral candidates and planned not to mentor any more after them. Just with these two, they¡¯ve surpassed the academic achievements of the dozens of doctoral students under Fu Shancheng¡¯s guidance, commanding respect for Old Han. Director Han, Professor Liang, Professor Fu, and others were gathered together; on another side, Dean Xia was chatting with a group of health system magnates. Big shots from the health systems of the province, Beijing, had all personally come to attend the wedding. Dean Xia was mainly responsible for accompanying this group, while academic guests were naturally hosted by Director Han. Scholars from the United States had Robert to accompany them, and August was there for those from Europe. There were also some top-notch leaders from the Nobel Prize circle, naturally accompanied by Manstein, ensuring that everything was organized smoothly. There were also many former comrades who came to attend the wedding, with an average age of eighty. Many of them had undergone surgery with Yang Ping as the chief surgeon when they were in Beijing. They were indeed staunch fans of Yang Ping, and had decided together to come and liven up the atmosphere. These old comrades, escorted by Xiao Su¡¯s uncle, were highly prestigious, and many of the heavyweight leaders attending the wedding greeted them with utmost respect. Huang Jiacai, as chairperson of the wedding committee, considered every detail thoroughly. The only thing he hadn¡¯t anticipated was Wang Tuhao making such a high-profile scene externally. Fortunately, it was just a false alarm that didn¡¯t cause any trouble for Professor Yang. Chapter 1478: 1105: The Mysterious Gift Chapter 1478: Chapter 1105: The Mysterious Gift The daytime event was a reception, and the evening brought a banquet with a rich program of performances. What surprised the guests were the performers of these programs. Every one of them was a top-tier scholar, well-known far and wide. Usually, even inviting them to an academic event was difficult, but now they were willingly offering their artistic talents for entertainment at Yang Ping¡¯s wedding, and every performance was done in Chinese, which shocked and intrigued everyone. Professor Manstein, the world-renowned medical expert, dressed in a Zhongshan suit, opened the banquet with a skilled tenor rendition of ¡°Tibetan Plateau.¡± Every syllable was pronounced with precision, and his magnetic, penetrating voice resonated through the hall to thunderous applause. Hearing any superstar sing is not unusual, but hearing Professor Manstein take the stage to sing is indeed the rarest thing in the world. A universally recognized medical genius and Nobel Prize laureate, he actually stood there singing, and the audience probably had this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. There was never such an occasion in the past, nor is there likely to be another in the future. Following the solo by Professor Manstein was Robert¡¯s martial arts performance. Set to a powerful and vigorous song, his series of punches whipped up a storm, and a few genuine flips left no one in doubt of his skill¡ªif not for the difference in appearance, you would never have guessed he was a foreigner. August¡¯s piano solo resonated melodically, his golden curly hair billowing with the rhythm of the music. It must be said, the German¡¯s musical talent is unquestionable. If people didn¡¯t know him, they would have surely mistook him for a world-class pianist. Comic dialogues, sketches, songs, dances, and magic shows¡ªthe entire evening¡¯s performance quality was extremely high, akin to a global ¡°Spring Festival Gala¡± celebrating unity. During the intermission of the performances, Professor Manstein, holding a microphone and with sprightly steps, announced in a loud voice to everyone that he was now going to present a mysterious and significant gift to Professor Yang. As he stood there with empty hands, scanning the surroundings, everyone was puzzled about the mysterious gift he referred to. While the guests wondered, several friends from Sweden lined up in a row. Professor Manstein handed the microphone to one of the Swedish friends in the middle. He carefully took out a piece of paper, cleared his throat, and with a somewhat stilted Chinese pronunciation, announced: Professor Yang Ping is awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Biology. The Nobel Prize? The audience was initially stunned, with no immediate reaction. However, soon after, the once quiet hall started buzzing, then became lively, and finally escalated to a boiling point. Indeed, Professor Yang Ping had won the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Biology, the announcer reasserted. In the history of the Nobel Prize, there has never been a precedent for personally visiting the laureate and making the announcement. However, considering the historical significance of this research achievement, which has opened a new era in medicine and biology with the in vitro cloning of organs in a laboratory environment, they decided to break from tradition and announce it in an entirely new and solemn manner. Following Professor Manstein¡¯s suggestion, they quietly came to China and then unexpectedly made the announcement at the wedding. They hoped the impact of this news would be as sensational as the impact of Yang Ping¡¯s research achievements. As the Swedish friend made the announcement, the Nobel Prize had simultaneously been announced online, revealing the winner of this year¡¯s Nobel Prize in Medicine and Biology to be Yang Ping. Upon hearing the news, all the scholars present were astounded, especially Professor Su. Once he confirmed that it wasn¡¯t just for show but was indeed real, he was so moved that he was nearly brought to tears. This news was the most thrilling ¡°performance¡± of the wedding. The entire Su Family was also extremely excited; this young man had actually won the Nobel Prize. Dean Xia and Director Han, despite knowing the potential Yang Ping had for such an achievement, never thought he¡¯d win the Nobel Prize so soon. After all, winning a Nobel isn¡¯t only about outstanding work; it sometimes comes with a touch of luck and unpredictable subjective factors. The reality turned out to be even more extraordinary than fiction; Yang Ping had quickly won the Nobel Prize. But for Yang Ping, winning the Nobel Prize was no longer important. He didn¡¯t even know how he won it, nor had he ever thought about applying for it. He hadn¡¯t participated in the application process or submitted any documentation. The entire process had been orchestrated by Professor Manstein without Yang¡¯s knowledge. For a true scholar devoted to scientific research, awards are of no concern, as they are insubstantial. This is especially true for Yang Ping. There have been instances in history where Nobel Prize winners were eventually proven wrong, so for them, what truly matters is that their scientific achievements bring value to humanity. An award cannot evaluate the worth and significance of scientific accomplishments. Therefore, he accepts it as a mere gift, although awards can indeed have significant benefits. They aid in the dissemination and popularization of scientific findings, serving a tremendous promotional role, particularly in Europe and America. This helps his own research gain worldwide attention and significant say. Indeed, no one had received any prior notice, so the good news was a complete surprise. Professor Liang was so excited that he could not utter a word. In medicine, generations have been chasing after Europe and America, where genuine originality is exceedingly rare, almost nonexistent. Professor Liang and his peers are well aware of this fact; they are not deluded by arrogance. They maintain ample self-confidence without succumbing to unrealistic pride; a spirit of seeking truth from facts has become their academic soul. In the field of medicine, the gap with developed European and American countries still exists and is significant. Almost every new medical technology originates from Europe and America; we are mere learners who then take advantage of the scale of our patient population to refine these technologies through practice by physicians. Therefore, our strength lies in clinical experience, the accumulation of expertise in existing medical technologies. However, when it comes to advancing medical innovation, we have little to celebrate. The same situation applies to pharmaceuticals and medical devices; everyone wants to make quick and easy money, but few are willing to commit to the long-term, arduous dedication required. Among the global pharmaceutical giants, our country doesn¡¯t have a single one. The combined strength of countless pharmaceutical companies in our country does not match any of these giants, with the gap being quite substantial. Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Merck, Pfizer, AbbVie, Astra Zeneca, Novartis, Glaxo Smith Kline, etc., we aspire to catch up to any of these companies. Nearly all the drugs we use now come from these pharmaceutical companies or their generics. It¡¯s impossible to catch up with the technological advantages these companies have accumulated over the past one to two hundred years overnight; we must close the gap step by step. In terms of medical devices, high-end laboratory and medical equipment are still predominantly dominated by these countries, and it is difficult for us to enter the market for the time being. Similarly, it¡¯s challenging to catch up to the technological advantages of these companies. Now that Yang Ping has achieved such an epoch-making breakthrough in medicine, how can one not be excited? It¡¯s not just about an award; whether he receives it or not is beside the point. What¡¯s important is that we have genuinely made an original breakthrough. True scholars always seek the truth, recognize reality, and steadily pursue excellence, step by step. ¡°The Nobel Prize? Really? Did Professor Yang win the Nobel Prize?¡± When the news reached Sanbo Hospital, the entire hospital erupted with excitement. The night-shift doctors were as energized as if they had been injected with adrenaline, all fatigue instantly dispelled. A doctor performing emergency surgery was so thrilled that his hands trembled, requiring him to pause for a moment before he could continue with the surgery. Graduate students at Nandu Medical University, upon hearing the news, felt the Nobel Prize was suddenly within close reach, and maybe they too would have the chance to make such significant scientific contributions in the future. Yang Ping, who is not yet thirty years old, has received the award, making him the youngest winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Biology. Even including the Physics and Chemistry categories, he is the youngest at this age. ¡°My hearing isn¡¯t what it used to be, did they just announce that Professor Yang has won the award?¡± Professor Zhang Zongshun couldn¡¯t help but seek confirmation. Professor Su adjusted his hair, trying to clear his head: ¡°Yes, it seems so.¡± Yang Ping walked towards the stage hand in hand with Xiao Su, greeted with good news from several Swedish friends. Standing on the stage, Xiao Su felt a deep sense of joy¡ªthis was her husband, after all. She knew that one day Yang Ping was bound to win an award, but she hadn¡¯t expected it to happen so quickly, so suddenly. ¡°Congratulations, Professor Su!¡± Professor Su was still immersed in excitement; his son-in-law had won the Nobel Prize. As part of an academic family, this was the best news possible, more valuable than any wealth. Professor Su grasped the hands of Yang Ping¡¯s parents tightly. Mrs. Su and Yang Ping¡¯s mother embraced each other, everyone overjoyed. Chapter 1479: 1106 Smart and Hardworking Chapter 1479: Chapter 1106 Smart and Hardworking Yang Ping was unfazed by winning the Nobel Prize; he actually had little passion for the prize itself, but he was quite looking forward to the revival of the system. After all, as long as the system existed, he could do many things and save a lot of time. Even if the system did not grant him various functions and only allowed the book reading feature, he could read all sorts of books anytime and anywhere without time limit, which made learning extremely convenient for him. The announcement of the Nobel Prize triggered Yang Ping¡¯s memory. Originally, the system had given him a long-term task in the third phase, which was to win the Nobel Prize within three years. If he completed the task, the system would reward him with a supercomputer. Of course, this supercomputer was the one in the system space. Yang Ping didn¡¯t hold much expectation for such timed tasks initially, but now that he had won the prize, he was unsure if the system¡¯s word still counted. Now, let alone a reward, the whole system was down, completely unresponsive. It was unknown whether the system could be used again in the future, let alone fulfilling the third phase task reward. While Yang Ping was pondering this issue, a light suddenly shone in his mind as if a beam appeared in the darkness. This beam started as a thin line, then gradually thickened, stretching into a slightly wider band, growing broader until it fully expanded, revealing the long-missing panel in his vision. Had the system been revived? Could it be that completing the long-term task triggered the system¡¯s revival mechanism? That somewhat sexy female voice appeared: ¡°The system has also completed its evolution and has entered phase 3.0.¡± Phase 3.0? What does that mean? Using the panel before him, Yang Ping accessed the system, and the library function was still preserved. However, it was no longer limited to medical books but included all books. Any existing book or journal in the world, whether paper or electronic, was available. Books could be searched through the panel, and upon successful search, they would materialize as physical books on the desk. Yang Ping could once again read incessantly. Since he became unable to read books in the system, he found it very inconvenient as reading in reality was troublesome and many books weren¡¯t readily accessible. In contrast, in the system space library, any book he wanted could appear before him in the blink of an eye. The functionalities of the operating room, laboratory, and market were still retained, and a supercomputer was added. This supercomputer was the system panel. The previous panel was at most considered a home desktop, only capable of some basic management. Now, the panel¡¯s computational power was equivalent to that of a supercomputer, meaning he could carry a computer with him without occupying space. For instance, during meetings, he didn¡¯t need to bring paper and pen or any sort of recording devices; he could directly use the system panel for recording audio and video among other recording tasks. Data inside could also be transferred to real-world computers, not needing to rely solely on memory to bring information out as before. Experimental subjects, various medications, medical instruments, medical equipment, experimental apparatus, and more could all be purchased in the market using points, and like before, these points had to be earned through real-world achievements. The time ratio was still maintained as before. Having regained the system, Yang Ping¡¯s work would be much easier from now on. He stepped out from the system space with a satisfied smile on his face. Professor Manstein and his friends from Sweden probably thought he was so happy because of the award. ¡°Professor Yang, congratulations,¡± they said. It seemed Professor Yang was quite satisfied with the award as well, making Professor Manstein feel relieved that his efforts were not in vain. As for receiving the award, Yang Ping certainly wouldn¡¯t go to Sweden himself; at most, he would send someone else to accept the award on his behalf. He was very clear about his current situation; he could no longer freely travel anywhere as he used to. Safety first, he still understood this principle. ¡°Congratulations!¡± Yang Ping didn¡¯t quite react initially, having just been immersed in the joy of the system¡¯s revival, so he casually replied. Responding to others¡¯ congratulations with a ¡®congratulations¡¯¡ªChinese really is profound and nuanced, Professor Manstein reflected. The announcement of this blockbuster news sent the entire hall into a frenzy, halting the subsequent program to let everyone celebrate for a while before it could continue. Many people rushed over to congratulate Yang Ping; Yang Ping was least fond of such scenes, being surrounded by everyone. Many relatives from the Su Family also hurried over, all of them scholars who naturally held great respect for Yang Ping, seeing it as a scholar¡¯s reverence for another scholar, unrelated to age or seniority. Mr. Lehman from Sweden, an old friend of Professor Manstein, came representing the Nobel Prize Committee this time. He insisted on meeting Yang Ping in person and wanted to have a good talk with him. They came down from the stage and sat around a table. ¡°Professor Yang, Professor Manstein has always said you are the most miraculous genius in the world. He also said that compared with you, he is just a very ordinary person, so I have always wanted to meet you. Today, finally meeting you, I did not expect you to be so young. I am pleased to see a shining new star rising in the medical field.¡± Professor Lehman shook Yang Ping¡¯s hand. Yang Ping shook his head: ¡°Everyone has their own talents; I just found the field I excel in and then devoted time, energy, and attention to it.¡± Mr. Lehman slowly said, ¡°Actually, I have been studying the history of modern science in recent years and during my research, I made an astonishing discovery. Chinese scientists play a pivotal role in this world, making tremendous contributions to modern technology. Ms. Chien-Shiung Wu made a huge contribution to the American atomic bomb, arguably surpassing anyone else, and she could rightly be called the mother of the American atomic bomb. Yet her contributions are so significant and yet barely known; people only know about Oppenheimer, not the more contributive Ms. Wu. The main inventor of the computer should be a Chinese named Zhu Chuanju, but his achievements are also somehow obscured. In fact, the designer of the B2 bomber was Chinese. The main force behind the first generation of aircraft designers at Boeing Company was also Chinese; right after its establishment in 1916, Boeing made its first big earnings from the U.S. Navy with a Model C seaplane designed by a Chinese engineer named Wang Zhu, but his photo was only reluctantly placed in their museum in 2001. The great Mr. Qian Xuesen was a principal founder of America¡¯s aerospace industry, but Americans deliberately downplay this. So, I had to come to China to see, to see this intelligent and diligent nation, your contributions to modern technology are so great, I do not know why these truths are always hidden, whether inadvertently or deliberately, I am not clear, but I think studying the history of science must seek the truth, otherwise, it is meaningless.¡± Intelligent and diligent, Yang Ping greatly agreed with this evaluation, and believed it should also include brave and kind. The Chinese nation is indeed intelligent, with high IQs, having stood up again after experiencing humiliations in modern history. The feudal society in history lasted for many years, and it also had a lot of dross, but the benefits outweigh the defects. When Professor Lehman mentioned the great Mr. Qian, Yang Ping could not help but feel profound respect; Mr. Qian was the backbone of the nation, an idol in Yang Ping¡¯s heart, representing the spirit of a scientist serving the country and the people. Yang Ping was not sure why Mr. Lehman brought these up, pausing, he continued, ¡°Actually, your award this time also faced some twists, as many people couldn¡¯t accept this reality. But the wheels of history roll on, whether you accept it or not, the fact exists in this world. I thought about it for a long time, if such scientific achievements like yours were rejected because of bias, then the Nobel would lose its rightful aura.¡± Actually, whether or not to win an award wasn¡¯t that important, although Yang Ping was thinking about the system¡¯s reward at that time, but the system had crashed then, who would be bothered about rewards? So, he didn¡¯t really take it to heart; why should his research achievements require others¡¯ recognition? If not recognized by others, are they not achievements? Worthless? ¡°I sincerely express my respect to Chinese scientists; in ancient times, whether in humanities or science and technology, you were far ahead of the world, benefiting us Europeans immensely. In the future, you will definitely make great contributions to human science and technology.¡± The performance on stage had already resumed; since the advent of the internet, Earth is really like a village. Now that Yang Ping won the Nobel Prize, news immediately spread across the world. His scientific achievements, initially only known within a small academic circle, are now known by people all around the world. China¡¯s Professor Yang has successfully cloned partial organs in the laboratory, a sensation even more significant than America¡¯s moon landing back in the day. This technology means that in the future, any patient around the world in need of an organ transplant can obtain healthy organs at any time, and there will be no matching or rejection issues, as these are not allogeneic organs, but identical to the patient¡¯s own organs. In the future, organ transplants will be as easy and affordable as changing parts on a machine. ¡°Professor Yang, I also have a small gift for you.¡± Professor Mainshtan took out a book. Yang Ping glanced at it; it was a popular science book, titled ¡°Unlimited Replacement¡±. This book, written in simple and interesting language, explained Yang Ping¡¯s Spatial Orientation Gene Theory, making it understandable and clear to the general public. ¡°This is the Chinese version; there are also English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, and Arabic versions. I want to promote this theory to the whole world scientifically, letting the general public understand the mystery of life,¡± Mainshtan proudly said. As soon as Professor Mainshtan finished speaking, people around him began asking for the book. Professor Mainshtan immediately instructed his assistant to bring out boxes of books, distributing them to everyone as a small wedding gift. Very few people could truly understand Yang Ping¡¯s paper, and only a handful could grasp it fully. Therefore, Professor Mainshtan¡¯s action was exceptionally significant. Chapter 1480: 1107: Wont Get Drunk, Right? Chapter 1480: Chapter 1107: Won¡¯t Get Drunk, Right? ¡°Professor Yang, your Spatial Orientation Gene Theory has opened the doors to a new world. Its significance lies not merely in the localized cloning of organs in the laboratory, but it also provides a theoretical basis for the original cell repair of the human body. Based on this, the field of trauma surgery is set to undergo revolutionary changes,¡± said Professor Lehman excitedly. Professor Mainshtan nodded, ¡°For example, the repair of spinal and peripheral nerve damage has always been a daunting challenge in medical science. Despite persistent research by numerous doctors and scientists, there has been no substantial breakthrough due to the lack of foundational theories. Now, supported by your theory, I have embarked on the research of peripheral nerve damage repair through original cell repair and have achieved certain breakthroughs. I have used mice as experimental subjects, and the repair of their spinal nerve damage has already realized partial original cell repair.¡± The so-called original cell repair means that the ¡°material¡± used for repair after tissue damage in the human body is still the original ¡°material.¡± Microscopically, it involves repair by the cells of the tissue itself. It sounds simple, but it is very challenging to achieve. Apart from skeletal damage, other organs and tissues in the human body cannot be repaired through original cell repair. Instead, they are repaired through a mix of original cells and connective tissue, which is why skin damage often leaves scars. If, in the future, all human body damage could be healed through original cell repair, then skin injuries would leave no scars at all, and there would be no concerns over the recovery of nerve damage, as it would heal back to its original state within weeks or months. ¡°Yes, not only in the field of original cell repair, but the content of human genetics has also been expanded and entered a new development platform. Previously, if the highest dimension of genetics was two-dimensional, now your theory has brought human genetics into the study of three-dimensional space. All previous studies on biological genetics never realized that the three-dimensional structure could be directed by genes. Now, when carefully considered, if not directed by genes, then who? Why don¡¯t the multitude of cells in the human body form a two-dimensional flat plane, but instead construct a complex three-dimensional shape? Of course, it¡¯s not random; nor is it naturally occurring. That¡¯s just an inept excuse,¡± said Mr. Lehman profoundly. ¡°After reading your theory, sometimes I look at myself in the mirror. Countless cells make up me, but why do they form a three-dimensional structure like me? Who is controlling all of this behind the scenes? Now you have given me the answer.¡± ¡°It¡¯s like a building made of simple steel and concrete. No matter if it¡¯s the steel bars or the piled-up concrete, they don¡¯t have intricate shapes. Who then constructs these simple materials into a grand, beautiful, and functionally complex building? Previous biology limited us to studying the steel and concrete themselves, their structure and function of the building, but never researched how the steel and concrete were used to construct this complex building. Behind them, there are blueprints, designers, workers, etc., who build precisely according to the blueprints, resulting in tall and complex buildings. Your theory truly connects cells with the human body, which in fact, has always been disjointed. Everyone presumes to know the process: cells form tissues, tissues form organs, organs form systems, systems form a complete human body, but in reality, they know nothing, merely staying at ¡®sugar tastes sweet, so it is sweet¡¯.¡± ¡°For the cloning of localized organs, researchers attempt to use modern Biological 3D Printing Technology to achieve this. It seems correct, but of course, I don¡¯t know if it truly is. Only the future can make a real judgment. However, I personally believe that to truly use 3D printing technology to replicate human organs, we must understand how cells construct organs. If this aspect is unclear, similar to not understanding what the genuine product looks like, how can we possibly use the genuine to replicate the counterfeit? Thus, your theory also guides the future development direction of Biological 3D Printing Technology¡ªone day in the future, 3D printing technology might be able to print out qualified, customized human organs in factories.¡± ¡°Thus, your theory is incredibly important; for this reason, in this year¡¯s Nobel Prize in Medicine and Biology, we haven¡¯t planned to let you share it with anyone else, but to let you alone enjoy it, as that suits your research achievements,¡± Yang Ping, Professor Mainshtan, Professor Lehman, and others, originally, everyone was just sitting down for a casual chat, and unexpectedly, a small academic salon quietly began. ¡°Before your theory emerged, I was very confused, truly, very depressed and confused. I believed that medicine was dead, or at least had entered a dormant period. I saw no dawn, and the future looked bleak. However, after your theory was introduced, I felt that the future of medicine is bright and that, in front of us, there is a whole new world,¡± Professor Mainshtan spoke with the passion of a poet. ¡°Tumors, infectious diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, countless diseases plague humanity. Humanity barely controls some diseases, then other diseases emerge. They are like moles, one goes down, another pops up.¡± ¡°If we calm down and inspect, you will find that we have not advanced in treatment methods. What looks like minor progress is not due to real progress in medicine and biology itself, but due to advancements in physical technologies such as optics, electronics, electromagnetism, or chemical technologies. These advancements are highly tool-oriented improvements, not true medical progress. For example, treatments like endoscopic and laparoscopic appendectomy, where the underlying theory remains the resection of the inflamed appendix, differed from the past methods where direct visual resection was used. Now aided by optical and electronic technology, a few small holes are made to perform the appendix resection. Thus, there¡¯s no substantial theoretical progress; it¡¯s merely changing from a wooden sword to an iron sword, yet people often proudly boast about such minor advances, mistaking them for a true run.¡± ¡°Major manufacturers have discovered this secret; they gather talent and capital in these fields because true medical progress is arduous and strenuous, while these advancements are relatively easy, obvious, and more importantly, can generate enormous profits.¡± Discussions on medical technology gradually include a hint of humanitarian discussion. ¡°Of course, any advancement is worth encouraging, but it also deserves our vigilance. These tool-oriented innovations have led to excessive use. For instance, robotic surgeries, their excessive use has imposed hefty economic burdens on patients. Yet, this also presents a dilemma, if we don¡¯t proceed in this manner, no one will actively push forward these tools¡¯ advancements. Tool advancements are a form of progress as well.¡± Professor Mainshtan¡¯s assistant has already sent out several boxes of books; this popular science book can be said to be the best public interpretation of Yang Ping¡¯s theory, and everyone wants to gain an understanding of this set of theories. Many top world scholars, in order to maintain long-term stable communication with Yang Ping, have all learned to use WeChat. Each one of them downloaded WeChat on their phones, added Yang Ping¡¯s WeChat, and then formed various academic groups. They suddenly discovered that this instant online communication method is very useful, much better than previous email communications. They communicate when they want to and ignore it when they don¡¯t, without the issue of invading personal space. Previously, they refused to use these instant communication tools under the pretext of maintaining personal space, but it was just an excuse for their outdated communication methods. They realized how outdated they were, still accustomed to email communications. Days ago, the scholars also visited Yang Ping¡¯s laboratory in groups, which changed their misconceptions about China¡¯s scientific research environment. Many Chinese scientists, after visiting the laboratory, harbored thoughts of returning to their home country. Indeed, the domestic research environment, both in terms of software and hardware, is already very good. Although there are still many dissatisfactions, it will gradually get better and better because the world itself is not perfect. ¡°Xiao Yang, a few seniors over there want to have a chat with you,¡± Professor Su came over and whispered to Yang Ping. Not far away, Professor Liang, Professor Xiang, and a few other senior professors were greeting him. Engrossed in his conversation with Professor Mainshtan and Professor Lehman, Yang Ping had neglected the others. He immediately greeted Professor Mainshtan and Professor Lehman, explained the situation, and then went to meet Professor Liang. After chatting with Professor Liang for a while, Yang Ping hurriedly went to look for Director Han and Dean Xia, who were the ones who supported him the most. But he couldn¡¯t find them after searching for a long time. At that moment, Director Han and Dean Xia were hiding in a secluded smoking room smoking. Dean Xia peered outside: ¡°It¡¯s about time, let¡¯s go shake hands with Xiao Yang, and congratulate him.¡± ¡°He¡¯s busy right now; us going there would just add to the chaos. Not saying a few words might make you feel neglected, but saying too much, with so many people here today, would leave everyone hoarse. We don¡¯t have that much energy. Let¡¯s just hide here, we¡¯ll have plenty of time to chat later,¡± Director Han pushed back Dean Xia as he was peering out. Dean Xia thought about it and felt it made sense: ¡°You¡¯re right. It¡¯s not like Xiao Yang doesn¡¯t know any better. When he gets excited, he¡¯ll drink a sip whenever someone toasts with red wine. With so many people today, everyone taking a sip would be overwhelming, and it¡¯s worrying if he gets drunk.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already instructed a few young graduate students to follow him with wine. The bottle they¡¯re carrying is filled with a red-colored health drink. I¡¯ve told those youngsters to keep a tight watch on Xiao Yang¡¯s wine glass, making sure no one pours real alcohol in it.¡± ¡°This is like a wedding, it¡¯s easy to get drunk when you¡¯re happy.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Xiong Sihai and a few from the institute who can really hold their liquor are following behind too. Director Qiu has also specifically arranged a few young guys with high alcohol tolerance to follow him. If anyone tries to make him drink excessively, they¡¯ll handle it.¡± ¡°That sounds about right.¡± Chapter 1481: 1108: Shocking Program Chapter 1481: Chapter 1108: Shocking Program Director Han and Dean Xia stayed in the restroom, finished smoking, and felt it was about time. The sensation caused by the announcement of Yang Ping¡¯s award had probably cooled down a bit, so they thought it was a good time to go out for some fresh air. As they sneaked out of the smoking room, they bumped into Yang Ping, who was looking for them. ¡±Professor Yang?¡± Dean Xia and Director Han felt like thieves caught red-handed. ¡°Call me Xiao Yang, I¡¯ve told you many times. I just like it when you call me Xiao Yang,¡± Yang Ping corrected their way of addressing him. ¡±Ah, Xiao Yang, we were just hiding here to smoke a cigarette. How are things outside now? You haven¡¯t been drinking a lot, have you?¡± Director Han asked worriedly. Yang Ping whispered, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s all just soft drinks. It all gets filtered out by the kidneys.¡± ¡°I¡¯m drinking soft drinks with them, but I¡¯m going to have a real drink with you. Let¡¯s go, let¡¯s go!¡± Yang Ping pulled Director Han and Dean Xia along. ¡°Please don¡¯t, drinking is easy for us and we can do it anytime, but today we really need to take it easy,¡± both Director Han and Dean Xia declined at the same time. ¡°No, today I must toast to you. Without you, I wouldn¡¯t have achieved what I have now,¡± Yang Ping insisted on dragging Director Han and Dean Xia for a drink. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s just keep it symbolic, please don¡¯t take it too seriously. Come on, let¡¯s just make a gesture,¡± seeing that he couldn¡¯t dissuade Yang Ping, Director Han had no choice but to agree. Yang Ping pulled Director Han and Dean Xia to the spacious lobby of the hotel, toasted a glass of red wine with each of them, and both Dean Xia and Director Han were all smiles. The young man was still grateful, having achieved such a status but still hadn¡¯t forgotten the two elders. At this moment, the lobby was bustling with activity. Professor Su and Mrs. Su were accompanying Yang Ping¡¯s parents, having a joyful conversation. With such a son and such a son-in-law, they naturally felt overjoyed. Mrs. Su stayed with Yang Ping¡¯s parents the whole time, and Professor Su, despite being very busy, would go around greeting the guests occasionally. But even so, he would always come back and chat with Yang Ping¡¯s parents for a while. Song Zimo, Zhang Lin, and Little Five accompanied the younger guests, such as Song Yun from Beijing, Wen Rentao from Shanghai, as well as many assistants and students of European and American professors. Nanchen was with the younger generation of their family, and Nanchen¡¯s uncle, a business mogul in the pharmaceutical industry, was accompanying the elders of the Su Family. The Su Family¡¯s fourth sibling even made a special trip back to attend Xiao Su¡¯s wedding. Although most of the guests were from the academic circles, there were also a few friends from the political and business sectors. Business friends were accompanied by Huang Jiacai and Old Cheng, while Ning Qi also helped entertain. A political heavyweight, Xiao Su¡¯s uncle, was enough to represent the political side. The outer periphery of all sorts of activities was solely managed by Wang Changxin. The entire wedding was well-organized, spontaneously hosting countless small and large academic conferences, exchanging various cutting-edge medical research findings, providing a rare opportunity for scholars who usually cannot gather together to communicate. Most of the young people were talented youths, and nobody engaged in rowdy behaviors like forcing drinks. They behaved very civilly. Gathering together, they also exchanged their recent learning and research insights. At the same time, they communicated face-to-face with the big shots at the wedding scene, broadening their horizons. Professor Liang, Professor Zhang Zongshun, Professor Feng Tiancheng, and Elder Su gathered together with a group of old professors. Usually very disciplined, they now completely indulged themselves, drinking enthusiastically as the new generation, represented by Xiao Yang winning the Nobel Prize, pushed forward, much to their joy. The foreigners had never experienced the atmosphere of a Chinese banquet before and got excited as well, the performance on stage continued. Robert and August performed a comedic dialogue, which requires a high level of proficiency in Chinese, but their mastery over the language had everyone in stitches. As many foreign friends did not understand Chinese, Robert and August respectively pulled in their assistants Barrett and Markus to translate, effectively performing the comedy routine again in English, bending international guests with laughter as they experienced the charm of English comedic dialogues for the first time. Wang Changxin was competing in drinking with Huang Jiacai and felt extremely pleased with the arrangements he made for the off-stage celebration and, as one of the wedding organizers, he felt tremendously honored¡ªa chance that many tycoons dream of. Scholars are indeed multi-talented; Professor He from Nandu Medical University presented a magic trick¡ªsawing a person alive. He would perform a thrilling magic show on stage using the simplest of props. The dual identity of a magician and a professor made the magic trick more thrilling, his model being Elder Academician Xiang. Elder Xiang first ran a lap around the audience, shaking hands with everyone, then rushed to the stage, greeted the audience to demonstrate he was a real living person, then carefully lied down on the operating table. This was a simple metal operating table, not a large box typically hidden in magic tricks. Academician Xiang lay on the operating table without any protection, covered only with a sterile blue sheet. Professor He held an orthopedic high-speed saw and steadily approached Academician Xiang, then pressed the saw towards his body. Oh my god, the audience all gasped out loud, because Professor He truly sawed Academician Xiang into two halves with the saw. And that was not all; he then split Academician Xiang into left and right halves. To use anatomical terminology, he performed a dissection in both the transverse and sagittal planes, with blood spurting out randomly, covering the sterile sheet and floor with blood, even deliberately separating the chunks of body to enhance the cutting effect. The audience trembled with fear, wondering what on earth had happened. Right before their eyes, without any cover or deceptive tricks, he had cut a person into pieces. Just as everyone was in horror, another sterile sheet was placed over, then lifted, and Academician Xiang stood up from the operating table unhurt, greeting everyone. The whole venue cheered, the magic trick was too thrilling. Then, Professor He told everyone that the ¡°living person¡± they just saw being cut by the saw was a hologram made using the Digital Human Technology from Nandu Medical University, only the world¡¯s most advanced Digital Human technology could achieve such a lifelike projection. A single magic trick had made all the scholars present remember the Digital Human Technology of Nandu Medical University. The program from Jonathan of Mayo was a stand-up comedy mixed with Chinese and English, taking care of guests who spoke both languages, he drew on the medical contrasts between China and United States to create a hilarious show. For example, how a patient in the United States saw a family doctor for three months without receiving a diagnosis, then waited another three months to finally see a specialist, whom after meeting the patient advises: ¡°Go home and rest for three more months to see.¡± From the various performances last night to today¡¯s reception, dinner, and show, everyone had been excited all day long, and when it ended, they were reluctant to leave, fearing that such a grand gathering of medical scholars might never happen again. The entire wedding was indescribable, bringing shock after shock to everyone. Chapter 1482: 1109: The Unbearable Past Chapter 1482: Chapter 1109: The Unbearable Past Yang Ping¡¯s wedding stirred up the entire global medical community for many days, and a romantic love story spread throughout the provincial city of Nandu. The wedding, attended by numerous medical bigwigs from around the world, highlighted by a high-spirited song from Manstein, beautiful fireworks and drone performances, and overwhelming congratulations, left a deep impression on all. Now, the excitement has subsided, and the doctors and scholars from around the world have returned to their respective countries, bringing rich exchange results back to their posts and starting their own work. Yang Ping has resumed a normal life. In fact, it is normal life that he and Xiao Su prefer¡ªquiet, allowing them to freely do what they love, uninterrupted. True happiness is the peacefulness of everyday life, not the brilliance of fireworks. With their child still young, Xiao Su decided to take some time off to care for the child full-time. She also uses her spare time to work out. Xiao Su has always had a fitness habit, which is how she maintains her perfect figure. Yang Ping used to love running and has maintained this habit. However, now he also joins Xiao Su in working out. No matter how busy he gets, he takes time to work out because health is the foundation of everything. With a good body, he can better do what he loves and enjoy life. When he first arrived at the department in the morning, he bumped into Little Five, who had just returned from the ophthalmology department. A special patient in the ophthalmology department was undergoing emergency surgery in the operating room, and they requested assistance from Little Five for technical guidance. Yang Ping asked, ¡°What kind of patient would the ophthalmology department need our consultation for?¡± Usually, the ophthalmology department rarely requests consultations from the Surgical Research Institute. It¡¯s hardly ever more than a few times a year, so what kind of case is this? Little Five said: The patient had glass fibers pierced into their eye, which needs to be removed under a microscope. The ophthalmologists admitted the patient for emergency surgery. When they looked at the operating table, oh my god, there were dozens of short and long ¡°fine needles¡± stuck into the eyeball. These ¡°fine needles¡± are almost invisible to the naked eye because the diameter of a single glass fiber is about 1/20-1/5 of a hair¡¯s width. The ophthalmology department knew our department¡¯s microscope skills are extremely high, so they requested one of our doctors to help remove these ¡°fine needles¡± that can only be seen under a microscope. I happened to arrive early; the resident on duty had gone to the emergency department and hadn¡¯t returned, so I had time to take a look. That¡¯s quite a story. Yang Ping was familiar with glass fibers as they are encountered frequently in daily life, in items like umbrella handles, mosquito net rods, fishing rods, and so on. But how did this patient get so many glass fibers stuck in their eye? Glass fiber can be scary but is certainly better than asbestos. Both have similar microstructures like ¡°fine needles¡± or ¡°fine threads.¡± If inhaled into the lungs, small amounts of glass fiber can often dissolve and disappear over several months. However, asbestos can stay in the body for up to 15 years, especially if inhaled into the lungs, where it lingers for long periods, continuously irritating and damaging lung tissue. This chronic damage can lead to cellular mutations in the lungs and eventually lung cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists asbestos as a Group 1 carcinogen. It¡¯s banned in many countries worldwide, including China, although it¡¯s still used in some rural areas of the country. Glass fibers are somewhat better, with E-glass and ¡°475¡± glass fibers listed as Group 2B carcinogens, while continuous glass fibers are listed as Group 3 carcinogens. Thus, their relative harm is less severe compared to asbestos. ¡°How did it go, did you handle it for them?¡± Yang Ping asked. Little Five replied confidently, ¡°It was a piece of cake. I removed all the fine needles, not leaving a single one behind. Now the entire hospital knows our institute¡¯s laparoscopic and microscopic skills surpass other departments. So, whenever there¡¯s a challenging case in this field, they consult us. Last time, gynecology had an emergency case where a female patient had live loaches in her uterus from wild swimming. Zhang Lin was called in to remove them, and he did so with ease, extracting several of them.¡± In fact, surgery is something that¡¯s easier to learn when you¡¯re young. Both Nandu Affiliated Hospital One and Sanbo Hospital now use a mentor-apprentice system. The hospitals have clear regulations: if a mentor¡¯s apprentice doesn¡¯t meet the technical standards for surgery within the specified period, the mentor loses their qualification to perform surgeries and the apprentice is reassigned to a new mentor until they meet the standards. The previous mentor can only regain their qualification after the apprentice meets the standards. This system prevents mentors from being unwilling to pass on their skills. In hospitals, many senior doctors worry about teaching their apprentices too well, fearing they¡¯ll be outperformed. This leads to an unwillingness to genuinely teach younger doctors. Of course, you can¡¯t blame senior doctors entirely. Most hospitals lack a systematic, standardized training system for young doctors. Even if such a system exists, it¡¯s often outdated and essentially non-existent. Many department directors have absolute power and often monopolize surgical skills under the pretext of ¡°patient safety,¡± dominating the operating table for decades, leaving many department doctors capable only of holding retractors. In essence, this is because department directors fear being surpassed by other doctors and use their administrative power to monopolize surgical techniques. This situation isn¡¯t uncommon. For example, in some departments, only the department director knows how to perform a particular surgery, not because they¡¯re superior, but because they never taught other doctors and didn¡¯t send them for external training. As long as they¡¯re in charge, they¡¯re the only one who knows how to perform the surgery. Sanbo Hospital¡¯s Surgical Research Institute is different. Training for doctors starts from the standardized training student level. At least in terms of hands-on skills, they receive long-term, systematic training at an optimal age, mastering many surgical techniques. This puts them ahead of most hospitals. In most hospitals, standardized training students and graduates lack any systematic training. Instead, they¡¯re seen purely as a source of exploitation. They aren¡¯t viewed as objects of cultivation but rather as workhorses who aren¡¯t even afforded the respite that actual horses can get. Even catching a breath is considered a crime for standardized training students. One standardized training student accompanied Zhang Lin for a consultation and got to show his skills on the operating table, feeling particularly accomplished. He secretly shared his proud moment with other standardized training students, who were envious and all eager for an opportunity to display their skills. After all, they¡¯ve been training for a long time and are quite skilled. Seeing all the standardized training students gathered around, Zhang Lin pulled out a piece of paper for everyone to sign. This was because the first month¡¯s subsidy from the fund established by Wang Changxin to support medical students and standardized training students was about to be distributed. They needed to sign and verify their personal information and bank accounts. If everything was correct, they would submit it and soon receive their first subsidy. Although the subsidy was not much, only 6,000 yuan for now, it could solve their living problems, at least alleviating worries about daily subsistence. Discussing this, everyone was both grateful to President Wang and filled with resentment. Life for standardized training students at Sanbo Hospital was relatively better, whereas elsewhere, they lived in ¡°dire straits,¡± with extremely low income and overwhelming workloads. The fund established by Wang Changxin to support impoverished standardized training students was a fantastic initiative. Many survivors lack basic living security and rely on family support. Those with better family conditions manage while those without continue to rely on family support even after graduating from university or obtaining a graduate degree. This is absurd, but common in the medical field: no money, extreme workloads, and immense physical and mental pressures, which have led to standardized training students committing suicide from the stress in recent years. Hearing the students talk about this, Yang Ping was reminded of his own difficult days as a graduate student and standardized training student. His mentor never provided guidance, treating him like a workhorse. On top of heavy clinical duties, he had to assist his mentor with research projects, write papers, compile books, conduct postoperative follow-ups, and more. The mentor assigned him everything without any concern for his capacity to bear it, including child pickups, homework tutoring, dog-walking, and taking the dog to the vet. Staying up until one or two in the morning was routine, and pulling all-nighters was commonplace. Looking back, he felt it was a miracle he hadn¡¯t died of sudden cardiac death during those years. Once, he was so exhausted that he experienced chest pain, fearing a heart attack from overwork. He took some time to do an EKG, which delayed taking the mentor¡¯s dog to the groomers, and he was scolded harshly by his mentor. He could only endure this because he came from a rural area and worked hard to get into graduate school. He didn¡¯t want to worry his parents by stirring up trouble. Finally, one day, he exploded. He had stayed up three consecutive nights revising a research proposal for his mentor, but it never met the mentor¡¯s satisfaction. The mentor threw the proposal in his face and scolded him bitterly. If it weren¡¯t for the presence of doctors, the mentor would have almost slapped him. He couldn¡¯t hold back anymore and yelled at the mentor, ¡°What the hell! I¡¯m quitting. Anyone who wants to do this can do it. You think you¡¯re so great just because you flaunt the title of mentor? You¡¯re nothing but a complete idiot!¡± ¡°You can forget about graduating!¡± the mentor retorted viciously, it was the last semester of his graduate studies. After his outburst, he walked away coolly and then cried in his dorm. He knew that, having clashed with his mentor, graduating was now impossible. A senior had had a similar fallout and ultimately did not graduate. Taking up the phone, Yang Ping told his father everything in full detail, expressing his desire to leave graduate school. Surprisingly, he felt relieved afterward, expecting rebuke for being unambitious. But his father did not scold him. Instead, he calmly said, ¡°It¡¯s just a graduate degree. If you don¡¯t want to continue, so be it. You won¡¯t starve without it. At worst, come back and work as a barefoot doctor. But you can¡¯t let yourself be bullied without putting up a fight. Go to the school dean and talk it over. If they refuse, we¡¯ll escalate. It¡¯s not our fault, so why shouldn¡¯t you graduate? What right does he have? Can you handle this? If not, your dad will come and talk to the dean. If that doesn¡¯t work, we¡¯ll go higher up. We¡¯ll find someone to resolve this.¡± This was Yang Ping¡¯s first time experiencing his father¡¯s assertiveness. With his father¡¯s support, he felt much more confident. Knowing the worst outcome was manageable, no graduation seemed not so daunting. So, he told his father, ¡°I can handle it.¡± Thus, he went to the dean to lodge a complaint with determination. Intervened by the dean, he successfully graduated. Moreover, his mentor¡¯s attitude softened significantly and no longer assigned him excessive tasks. To this day, Yang Ping harbors little affection for his graduate mentor. Instead, he sees Director Han as his true medical mentor. Moreover, Director Han happens to be Yang Ping¡¯s doctoral mentor as well. Chapter 1483: 1110: Thats all Im going to say Chapter 1483: Chapter 1110: That¡¯s all I¡¯m going to say During the standardized training, the doctors signed their names, feeling extremely happy inside. With an additional monthly subsidy of six thousand yuan, even the standardized training students at Sanbo Hospital were so delighted. One can imagine how thrilled the trainees at other hospitals must be. Looking at these trainees, Yang Ping felt a deep sympathy for the students, recalling his own experiences in graduate school. He was quite surprised that Wang Changxin¡¯s foundation was able to take care of these trainees. It seemed Old Wang was quite reliable and not just flaunting wealth without a purpose. Professors Lu Xiaolu and Zhang Zhiwei brought good news. Their recombined virus had achieved certain success by integrating some important gene fragments of the K-factor with the adenovirus, creating a new virus. This virus was nearly non-toxic and very safe for the human body. On Tang Shun¡¯s side, the progress of cell therapy was relatively slow. After all, the congenital defects of cells limited their application in solid tumors, making the path quite challenging. However, Tang Shun did not get discouraged. He believed the route was not incorrect, but they just had not found a way to allow the cells to freely penetrate various barriers. Viruses, on the other hand, were different with their small size and strong penetration ability, giving them an inherent advantage for solid tumors. Sisi¡¯s condition began to fluctuate again. However, Yang Ping was not as worried as before, because whether it was viral therapy or cell therapy, they had now found the right approach. This progress could be used on Sisi at any time. Regardless of the effectiveness, it would certainly have some effect. As long as there was an effect, it could slow down the illness and buy some buffer time. The original experimental animal building had now been vacated and renovated. The laboratory of the Surgical Research Institute would soon move there. The original administrative building had been repurposed for some clinical departments to use as wards. Clinical departments like the Sports Medicine Center, Hepatobiliary Surgery, Plastic Surgery, and others had seen steady growth in both inpatient numbers and surgeries, and the original wards could no longer meet their demand. In the office upstairs, Yang Ping, Tang Shun, Lu Xiaolu, and some researchers gathered to hold a research discussion meeting. These meetings were not regularly scheduled, but whenever there were issues, they would gather together. The meetings were very flexible and relaxed, allowing them to address experimental problems promptly. The newly modified adenovirus could broadly infect Sisi¡¯s tumor cells, then enter the tumor cells and ultimately trigger their apoptosis, leading to the death of the tumor cells. Its ability to evade the immune system and its precision in recognizing and killing tumor cells were much stronger than the previous virus models. This was the victory of modularly combining K-factors with the adenovirus. For the sustainability of future research, the labs at Sanbo Hospital and Nandu Medical University began establishing their own error-correction databases. For the biotechnology and pharmaceutical field, such a database was crucial as it represented the highest technical barrier. This barrier could not be circumvented and required vast investment in talent, funding, and time. The databases of the world¡¯s major pharmaceutical giants were more confidential than some core pharmaceutical formulas and processes. Professors Lu Xiaolu and Zhang Zhiwei modularly deconstructed the K-factor and adenovirus, tagging these functional modules, allowing for their free combination. This way, they could create new therapeutic viruses, discovering patterns during the combination, which enabled the new viruses to be nearly non-toxic to the human body but extremely lethal to tumors. These modules would be a high technological barrier. Fujiwara Miyuki was waiting for Yang Ping at the entrance of his office after returning from the laboratory. Her tall figure looked enchanting against the backdrop of her white gown, but Yang Ping had little interest in that. ¡°I want to talk to you,¡± Fujiwara Miyuki said with her hands in the pockets of her white gown. ¡°Let¡¯s talk then,¡± Yang Ping pushed open the door to his office, signaling for her to follow him in. Fujiwara Miyuki closed the door behind her and locked it, then sat down on the sofa. ¡°Can we leave the door open?¡± Yang Ping asked calmly. Miyuki shook her head, ¡°Are you afraid others might misunderstand what we are doing inside? What I want to talk about is very confidential, and I don¡¯t want anything to leak out.¡± ¡°Go ahead, what is it?¡± Yang Ping said, not insisting on opening the door. ¡°I like you!¡± Fujiwara Miyuki said bluntly. Yang Ping responded nonchalantly, ¡°I know, but I don¡¯t like you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re so direct. That can hurt a girl¡¯s feelings, but I like you that way.¡± ¡°Being less direct is what truly hurts a girl¡¯s feelings. In this world, besides Xiao Su, I won¡¯t fall in love with anyone else.¡± ¡°Your dedication to love is the same as your dedication to medicine. Xiao Su is truly lucky.¡± ¡°Alright, if that¡¯s all you wanted to say, I don¡¯t have time to entertain you,¡± Yang Ping said impatiently. ¡°Of course not. I know you only have Xiao Su in your heart, so I will keep this love to myself. I came to China with a mission, not for further studies. They want me to win you over, or at least steal your research results. Though your results are public, they believe you have some core technology hidden. If necessary, they will find ways to make you disappear. You are touching their core interests and pose a great threat to them. Your existence nullifies some big players¡¯ technological advantages, so you must be careful,¡± Fujiwara Miyuki said slowly. ¡°Thank you for telling me this,¡± Yang Ping said. ¡°I know you won¡¯t fully trust me, and I don¡¯t need you to. I just hope to do something for you so that you can remember me. That¡¯s enough for me. As long as you and Xiao Su are happy, I will be content. She is my best friend, and you are the man I love the most, that¡¯s all. I am willing to give everything for you, even my life. That¡¯s all I want to say,¡± Fujiwara Miyuki said, blushing, as she got up to leave. ¡°Thank you,¡± Yang Ping said calmly. After Miyuki left and closed the door behind her, Yang Ping sat in his chair, shaking his head. When it came to emotions, he was very clear and firm: Though there may be many choices, he would only drink from one cup, and that cup was Xiao Su. Besides her, Yang Ping had no interest in anyone else, including Fujiwara Miyuki. A moment later, without much thought, Yang Ping leaned back in his chair, entered the system space, and picked up a pencil to start drawing on his sketchpad, fully concentrated, outlining some peculiar patterns stroke by stroke. Chapter 1484: 1111 Allergies Chapter 1484: Chapter 1111 Allergies Since Sanbo Hospital established its own animal laboratory, conducting experiments has become very convenient. The newly engineered virus for gene therapy targeting tumors was immediately put into animal experiments. This virus was very effective on experimental pigs, which excited everyone greatly. It indicated that this research path was correct, and it was becoming increasingly clear, advancing at a visible speed. It ventured far in overthrowing existing tumor treatment methods. Once successful, many tumor drugs currently on the market would face the risk of being replaced. Ever since the system recovered, Yang Ping would read books in the system whenever he had time. However, due to the current low system points, large-scale experiments could not be conducted, and he could only continue to slowly accumulate points. Because of Yang Ping¡¯s outstanding academic performance, the higher-ups intended for him to succeed Dean Xia as the dean of Sanbo Hospital in the future. Eventually, Dean Xia would retire. However, Yang Ping refused this goodwill from the higher-ups. Yang Ping had no interest in ¡°Excelling in academia leads to an official position.¡± He only wanted to be a good doctor and do good research. Dean Xia, only a few years away from retirement age, had to prepare in advance to find a qualified successor. Dean Xia was well aware that Sanbo Hospital¡¯s management achievements and its inclusive and free academic environment were largely due to his contribution. Replacing him with another dean, such as bringing in the former dean of the City People¡¯s Hospital, could turn Sanbo Hospital into a chaotic place like the City People¡¯s Hospital. Therefore, he had to prepare in advance and ensure that Sanbo Hospital, which was difficult to establish, would not be destroyed by others after his retirement. The higher-ups also placed great importance on Yang Ping, hence the idea of letting him take over the dean¡¯s position in the future. However, Dean Xia knew Yang Ping had no interest in the dean position, so he had to find someone else. After looking around and finding no candidate, Dean Xia decided to establish a good system at Sanbo Hospital. With a good system, the staff could always push the right person to the dean¡¯s position. But how should this system be designed, and would the higher-ups agree? Dean Xia had to think carefully about this, deciding to accomplish this task before retiring. ¡°Xiao Yang, I respect your choice. Excelling in academia doesn¡¯t necessarily lead to an official position; you can continue to excel further,¡± said Dean Xia thoughtfully. Yang Ping was very grateful that Dean Xia could understand him: ¡°Thank you for understanding.¡± After seeing off Dean Xia, the chief resident came to report that a patient in the International Medical Center was urgently sent to the ICU, requiring Professor Yang to have a look. ¡°Which patient?¡± Yang Ping asked. Having some information in advance was better than rushing in blindly, even if it was very limited information. ¡°Lucas, it¡¯s been five days since the surgery last night. He was doing well postoperatively, then suddenly they called saying he was urgently sent to the ICU.¡± Song Zimo and Xu Zhiliang were still in surgery, so Yang Ping, with a graduate student, rushed to the ICU of the International Medical Center to see what was going on with this patient. Upon entering the ICU, Director Wang immediately approached, ¡°Professor Yang, the situation is a bit complex. Please come in and take a look first.¡± This ICU was special for the International Medical Department, and the costs were staggering. However, international friends who came here for treatment usually weren¡¯t short on money, so they didn¡¯t care about such expenses. Director Wang was hemming and hawing, unable to clearly explain the situation for a long time. Yang Ping had already arrived at Lucas¡¯s ward. This patient had both eyes swirling. All data on the bedside guard screen was completely normal; this guy seemed fine. ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡± Yang Ping asked while examining the patient. ¡°Yesterday, he accidentally ate peanut butter. He used to have peanut allergies in the United States, experiencing three anaphylactic shocks, nearly taking his life. So, after knowing he ate peanut butter this time, he became very nervous and immediately told our on-duty doctor he needed rescue. After checking, the on-duty doctor found nothing abnormal but, considering his past medical history, dared not take it lightly and immediately transferred him to the ICU for observation, just in case anaphylaxis occurred, it could be promptly rescued,¡± the physician in charge immediately introduced the illness. Yang Ping, while reviewing the medical records and listening to the attending physician¡¯s introduction, noted that the patient currently had no allergic symptoms. This allergy was typically immediate, rarely delayed. The symptoms would normally appear quickly, but he seemed fine. Yang Ping, in fact, understood well that Europeans and Americans were more prone to allergies than Chinese people. Some things that seemed ordinary to us might be deadly to them, such as peanut butter. There were actually two reasons for this: One was that Europeans and Americans were indeed more likely to be allergic to certain substances. Compared to Chinese, they had a higher sensitivity constitution and weren¡¯t as tolerant to external substances. Another reason was that many things in Europe, especially the United States, had significant issues themselves. For example, their peanut butter was roasted, while most of ours was boiled or fried. Roasted peanuts were much more allergenic than boiled or fried ones, and the pesticide residues on American peanuts were generally higher. For Europeans and Americans, a constitution prone to allergies combined with allergenic peanut butter exponentially increased the risk of allergies. Of course, it was mainly due to the high-sensitivity constitution. ¡°Have you used peanut butter for an allergen test?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°Yes! Negative!¡± Then, transfer him back to the general ward. Even if delayed allergy occurs, the general ward can handle it in time. It is not feasible to keep him in the ICU, wasting medical resources as the ICU beds are limited. ¡°Doctor, I won¡¯t die, right?¡± Lucas asked nervously. Yang Ping shook his head, ¡°It¡¯s not that serious. Based on the current situation, you haven¡¯t developed any allergic symptoms.¡± ¡°But ¡ª but in the United States, eating peanut butter gives me a severe rash and requires rescue on three occasions, nearly taking my life.¡± ¡°Possibly, Chinese peanut butter is different from American peanut butter.¡± ¡°So what should I do?¡± ¡°You can be transferred back to a general ward. Even if a delayed allergic reaction occurs later, the doctors and nurses in the general ward are fully capable of handling it.¡± ¡°Okay, this is the first time I¡¯ve accidentally eaten peanut butter without having allergic symptoms. It¡¯s truly amazing; could it be that I no longer need to fear peanut butter?¡± ¡°No, you only temporarily don¡¯t need to fear Chinese peanut butter while in China. It doesn¡¯t mean you no longer fear peanut butter. If you return to America, peanut butter will still be a potential danger and could threaten your life.¡± ¡°Why is it like this, why is it like this?¡± Lucas kept repeating. ¡°Transfer him back,¡± Yang Ping instructed the attending physician. A graduate student in the ICU was very curious, ¡°Professor Yang, can I do a study on the differences and principles of peanut butter allergy between Chinese and American people?¡± ¡°Of course, you can. This way, won¡¯t you have your graduation thesis? However, writing this thesis might be a bit troublesome. You need to go to the United States to investigate and study Americans and American peanut butter. The cost of this topic is a bit high,¡± Director Wang told the graduate student. The graduate student smiled awkwardly. Chapter 1485: 1112: Really Allergic Chapter 1485: Chapter 1112: Really Allergic After Lucas was transferred back to the regular ward, there were no more allergy incidents. He secretly rejoiced, thinking he had finally conquered peanut butter in this lifetime. In recent days, Yang Ping had been busy researching tumor treatments and completely forgot about Lucas. A few days later, another call came from the International Medical Center to the doctor¡¯s office at the Foreign Research Institute. They said Lucas had been sent to the ICU and was currently under emergency rescue, requesting an urgent consultation with Professor Yang Ping. At this time, Yang Ping was on the operating table. The call was answered by the graduate student Xiao Luo, who had previously accompanied Yang Ping for consultations. After hanging up, Xiao Luo complained, ¡°Another urgent consultation. Last time, we went for nothing; there was nothing wrong. He just lay there, batting those big eyes, waiting for an allergy to happen. I guess it¡¯s the same this time.¡± Xiao Luo, a newly arrived standardized training student rotating through the department, checked the time. Professor Yang was currently in surgery, and he felt embarrassed to call the operating room at this moment. Thinking there wasn¡¯t any big deal, and having experience from last time, Xiao Luo felt assured. He decided to wait until Professor Yang finished the surgery before informing him. Just then, Zhang Lin came in and overheard Xiao Luo¡¯s muttering and asked, ¡°Where¡¯s the consultation request from? Urgent consultation?¡± ¡°The International Medical Center is requesting an urgent consultation. It mustn¡¯t be urgent. It¡¯s that same Lucas; we were tricked last time.¡± Xiao Luo explained. ¡°Do you not know that an urgent consultation requires you to arrive on-site within 10 minutes? Do you know the eighteen core protocols? Can you judge how critical the situation is from here?¡± Zhang Lin¡¯s anger flared up when he heard this, and he scolded the graduate student. The graduate student was resentful but didn¡¯t dare to say anything, only keeping his dissatisfaction to himself. After scolding, Zhang Lin snapped, ¡°Follow me for the consultation, and move quickly.¡± Since they were requesting Professor Yang, Zhang Lin, on his way to the International Medical Center, immediately called Yang Ping to report, then hurried to the ICU at the International Medical Center. Upon entering the ICU, the doctors involved in the rescue had already performed a tracheostomy on Lucas because severe laryngeal edema had led to breathing difficulties, necessitating a tracheostomy to open the airway. ¡°Teacher Zhang, Lucas suddenly went into anaphylactic shock. His family said he just ate peanut butter,¡± the ICU doctor immediately reported. Adrenaline and other rescue medications, airway opening, infusion, and volume expansion treatments were all arranged promptly. It was even set up in the regular ward, making the rescue very timely. Following Zhang Lin, the graduate student Xiao Luo broke out in a cold sweat. The wolf had come¡ªthe wolf really had come this time. Luckily, Teacher Zhang asked a few questions and came by in time, or else there would have been a real mishap. If they really had to take charge of the rescue, something would definitely have gone wrong. Zhang Lin turned around and gave Xiao Luo a stern look, giving Xiao Luo a chill. He would surely be harshly criticized after returning. Not long after, Yang Ping arrived: ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡± ¡°While in the regular ward, the nurse immediately initiated a rescue as soon as it was noticed. The response was very timely. Now the blood pressure is stable, and breathing is unobstructed.¡± The doctor from the regular ward who brought the patient hadn¡¯t left and participated in the rescue with the ICU doctors. ¡°This time, it really was a peanut butter allergy,¡± the ICU doctor said with a sigh of relief. The attending physician also understood the course of events. After Lucas was transferred from the ICU back to the regular ward, he found it very strange that peanut butter nearly killed him in the United States, yet eating peanut butter in China was fine. After eating, he was perfectly well, so he consulted his private doctor in the United States. The American doctor heard the Chinese doctor¡¯s explanation that American peanut butter was inadequate and told Lucas that it had nothing to do with peanut butter. The real reason was that Lucas had actually become desensitized to peanut butter, unrelated to Chinese peanut butter. The claim that Chinese peanuts wouldn¡¯t cause allergies was nothing but nonsense from Chinese doctors, without any scientific basis. He was supposedly desensitized to peanut butter, so to confirm this, Lucas somehow got a jar of pure American peanut butter and wanted to see if he had truly become desensitized. So he ate peanut butter again, this time genuinely American peanut butter. However, he was still somewhat sensible and didn¡¯t eat it secretly alone; instead, he had a family member nearby to call a nurse immediately if anything went wrong. ¡°Isn¡¯t this just asking for trouble?¡± Director Wang of the ICU remarked, pushing himself into danger for no reason when everything was fine. ¡°The patient isn¡¯t conscious, right?¡± Director Wang added. ¡°He was given a sedative,¡± a nurse beside him said. ¡°Oh.¡± Director Wang relaxed; it was okay to spout off a bit. ¡°Did you do an allergen test?¡± Yang Ping asked. The doctor replied, ¡°Yes, positive!¡± ¡°Last time, the Chinese peanut butter was negative, this time the American peanut butter is positive? Truly miraculous!¡± the graduate student Xiao Luo, who was with Yang Ping, finally squeezed out a sentence, but was glared at again by Zhang Lin. ¡°What about his peanut butter? Is it still around?¡± Yang Ping asked. ¡°The nurses in the ward sealed it.¡± the ward doctor answered. This Lucas is quite something ¨C knowing he¡¯s allergic to peanut butter and still has to try it out. Now that Lucas¡¯s vital signs were stable, there wasn¡¯t much left for Yang Ping to do, so after checking on Lucas, he still had to rush back to the operating room. Coming out of the ICU, Director Wang escorted Yang Ping to the door since Yang Ping was the chief surgeon for this patient¡¯s surgery, so he often came to check in. At the door, Lucas¡¯s family wanted to chat with Yang Ping to learn about the condition. But Yang Ping didn¡¯t have time to discuss the condition with them now, plus in this situation, the ICU doctors were the primary caregivers in charge. However, to show the surgery team¡¯s concern for the patient, Yang Ping left Zhang Lin to communicate with the family. ¡°There¡¯s a new member in Lucas¡¯s family, his brother, who¡¯s quite aggressive and says unpleasant things. You should be cautious,¡± the ICU doctor warned Zhang Lin. ¡°How could such a situation occur, such a basic error in your hospital? I am very disappointed in you.¡± In the meeting room, before the ICU doctor could speak, the patient¡¯s family arrogantly spoke first. This family member was Lucas¡¯s brother, who had just arrived recently and was said to be some state senator in the United States. Zhang Lin raised his glasses and said, ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be you who¡¯s disappointed in us, but we who are disappointed in you. Clearly knowing you¡¯re allergic to peanut butter, why go try it? Isn¡¯t this playing with your own life? Why would a grown adult make such a basic error? Unbelievable.¡± The senator, after being rebuked, was momentarily at a loss, perhaps not expecting the doctor to retort. ¡°The doctor said he was already desensitized to peanut butter, that¡¯s why he ate it,¡± the senator said angrily. ¡°Which doctor said that?¡± Zhang Lin questioned. ¡°Our American doctor,¡± the senator replied. ¡°Then you should tell your American doctor you¡¯re disappointed, not us. Understand? If it weren¡¯t for our timely intervention, he¡¯d be dead. Don¡¯t make such basic mistakes again in the future; not every time will you be so lucky.¡± ¡°But last time he was able to eat peanut butter.¡± ¡°Last time he ate Chinese peanut butter, this time it¡¯s American peanut butter; it¡¯s different.¡± The senator and other family members looked perplexed. ¡°Looking all uninformed, who are you giving that face to, who do you look down upon? Dammit, putting yourself in harm¡¯s way, then turning around and being disappointed in us doctors, well, I¡¯m disappointed in you!¡± Zhang Lin muttered to himself, cursing. ¡°Also, a reminder, be more courteous when speaking to our doctors in the future; learn to respect people,¡± Zhang Lin said. The senator¡¯s face turned red: ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± It felt quite satisfying to rebuke someone in English, even though Zhang Lin¡¯s English wasn¡¯t very good. Chapter 1486: 1113: Unique Pride Chapter 1486: Chapter 1113: Unique Pride Xiao Luo, the graduate student, nearly messed up due to his negligence during an emergency meeting, receiving severe criticism from Yang Ping, and his case was used as a negative example to educate everyone during the morning meeting. Of course, this was about the issue and not the person. In clinical work, medical staff are always walking on thin ice, because they¡¯re dealing with life, and there¡¯s no room for any sloppiness. In hospital diagnosis and treatment work, there are indeed some emergency consultations that aren¡¯t truly urgent; some are due to doctors¡¯ misjudgment of the illness, others for different reasons, which indeed waste medical resources. However, one cannot be negligent in emergency consultations due to such situations. Thus, Xiao Luo was ordered to write a thorough self-review. As Professor Zhang Zongshun says, in our line of work, you can never be too careful. Allergies can actually come on quickly and fade quickly; if rescue is timely, the symptoms disappear very fast, but conversely, if rescue is not timely, life can be lost quickly too. Lucas stayed in ICU for three days before being transferred to a normal ward. The incision from the neck tracheotomy surgery was already sutured. Having survived this near-death experience, he probably would never dare touch American peanut butter again. Upon returning to the ward, Lucas¡¯s first question was asking his family if the peanut butter had been taken away and discarded. Once he was told that the peanut butter had been taken away by the nurse, he was finally relieved. Just the day after Lucas was transferred back to the regular ward, Yang Ping went to the International Treatment Center for the morning rounds. The ward here was a suite with a ward, living room, bathroom, etc. Upon knocking and entering, he saw an incredible scene in the living room. Lucas¡¯s brother, the senator, was eating peanut butter in the ward¡¯s living room. Seeing the doctor come in, he didn¡¯t have time to wipe the peanut butter off his mouth and immediately explained: ¡°This is Chinese peanut butter, not American peanut butter. I just wanted to try it, and it tastes good.¡± He explained further by picking up the bottle of peanut butter to show everyone, confirming it was Chinese peanut butter, not American peanut butter, leaving Yang Ping amused. Are Americans so adventurous? Yang Ping watched him with a mouthful of peanut butter, and Lucas¡¯s life-and-death case hadn¡¯t instilled any fear in him. The incident had occurred only a few days before, and he still dared to challenge peanut butter. Was he risking his life to prove how Chinese products were superior to American ones? If so, what kind of internationalist spirit is this? ¡°I have allergies to American peanut butter, but not to this one. I knew you would be doing rounds now, so I wanted to try it at this time. In case of emergency, you can rescue me quickly.¡± Lucas¡¯s brother confidently spoke while quickly pulling a napkin to clean his mouth. You really have nothing better to do, thinking we doctors and nurses are idle all day. Yang Ping shook his hand: ¡°I admire your courage and thank you for your significant contribution in distinguishing between Chinese and American peanut butter, but we do not advocate such rash risks; after all, life is once, please respect life.¡± ¡°Look, I¡¯m really fine, perfectly okay.¡± Lucas¡¯s brother twirled around, then bared his arms for everyone to see, implying that there wasn¡¯t even a single rash. Perhaps he had never successfully eaten peanut butter in his life before, but in China, he did it this time. If a person successfully challenges something they¡¯ve never accomplished, the dopamine secreted by the brain rewards them sufficiently. Since he had already eaten, and it was Chinese peanut butter, and nothing had happened, there was no need for special treatment. Yang Ping instructed Lucas¡¯s brother not to wander around and to stay for observation, unwilling to waste time with him, and proceeded to visit Lucas¡¯s ward. Lucas was in good condition and could be discharged in a few days. Actually, if it weren¡¯t for the peanut butter episode, he might have been discharged already. It seems some troublesome patients don¡¯t differentiate by nationality; they exist all over the world. ¡°You can be discharged once the incision at the front of your neck is removed.¡± Yang Ping gave him an examination. ¡°Discharged? So soon?¡± Lucas was quite surprised. ¡°Can I stay a bit longer?¡± Lucas pleaded. Other patients wished they could be discharged a day after surgery. Why did he want to stay longer? Yang Ping was puzzled. Lucas¡¯s explanation immediately cleared up Yang Ping¡¯s confusion, because his home state of Florida had a snowstorm this morning. People were reportedly in shorts on the beach sunbathing yesterday, and when they woke this morning, there was snow over ten centimeters deep, massive icicles under the eaves, and the entire city was in a semi-paralyzed state due to an unexpected northern cold wave. Lucas was afraid Yang Ping wouldn¡¯t believe him, so he showed photos and videos taken by family members in the US to Yang Ping, who confirmed that was indeed the case. Having grown up in the south, Yang Ping had never seen such heavy snow, nor had he experienced the rapid climate change of fire and ice within 24 hours. In Nandu Province, Yang Ping had never seen snow, with the climate there being very stable. Isn¡¯t Florida in the southern part of the United States? It should be scorching hot at this time; how could it suddenly snow? Yang Ping was pondering, and a globe appeared in his mind as he hoped to use his geographical knowledge to find the answer. ¡°Aren¡¯t you in the southern United States? Why is it snowing? We are in southern China, and we¡¯ve never seen snow in winter.¡± A local graduate student chimed in. Seeing that everyone was interested in this question, Lucas immediately took out a globe and said: ¡°China has many horizontal mountain ranges, such as the Qinling Mountains, which act as natural barriers preventing cold waves from the north. Thanks to these horizontal mountains¡¯ protection, the cold waves can¡¯t move southward, and even if a little sneaks through, it doesn¡¯t cause much impact. But the United States is different; the whole of the U.S. lacks large horizontal ranges. The Cordillera and Rocky Mountains on the west coast and the Appalachian Mountains on the east coast are vertical. Hence, cold waves from the north pass unimpeded, crossing the entire country from north to south without obstruction. That¡¯s why cities in the southern U.S., including Florida, can experience snow. Today might be a sweltering scorcher; wake up tomorrow morning, wear a down coat and shiver. We¡¯re slightly better off there, but New York now has snow waist-deep, and the whole city looks like a post-apocalyptic world.¡± Chapter 1487: 1113: Unique Pride_2 Chapter 1487: Chapter 1113: Unique Pride_2 This is how it is, Yang Ping roughly understood why with the geography knowledge he acquired during middle school. ¡°This is also the reason why advanced civilization did not develop in ancient North America, because ancient times were an agrarian society. People didn¡¯t have the capability to resist cold waves; hard-grown crops could be completely destroyed by a sudden cold wave, making food production unstable. Naturally, they could not nurture an advanced civilization. But an industrial society is different; various technologies can be used to compensate for natural climate deficiencies.¡± Lucas excitedly held the globe and explained to Yang Ping, ¡°I didn¡¯t have any geography knowledge before. During this period of illness, with this globe, I¡¯ve only grasped a bit of geography knowledge. It¡¯s not my fault; schools from childhood to university don¡¯t teach much geography. Actually, I am relatively better; many Americans don¡¯t know that Ukraine is in Europe. Many people think Ukraine is in South America, and others believe the United States is in Europe. More interestingly, many fans who went to watch the World Cup once bought the wrong tickets and went to the wrong country.¡± ¡°No way, this should be a made-up joke, right?¡± Yang Ping couldn¡¯t believe it. ¡°It¡¯s true; before attending university, I thought Australia was in Europe, New Zealand was with Ireland. Actually, even after going to university, I still couldn¡¯t completely distinguish them,¡± Lucas said anxiously. Yang Ping had not studied abroad before. In the past, he only went abroad to lecture on flying knife surgery, and his interactions were all with doctors. Since doctors are an elite class in the United States, Yang Ping never interacted with ordinary American citizens and really didn¡¯t know about these things. He had never heard that Americans¡¯ geography knowledge was so lacking. Without Lucas saying it herself, he certainly wouldn¡¯t believe it. ¡°After being discharged, I still want to stay in the rehabilitation department for a while and undergo some rehabilitation therapy. I don¡¯t want to return home for the time being. If it doesn¡¯t work out, I¡¯ll stay at the Sanbo Hotel; I¡¯ve already booked a room.¡± Lucas had already planned for himself, as he temporarily wouldn¡¯t return to his country. Yang Ping advised Lucas not to try eating American peanut butter again; no matter how much he tries, he will still be allergic. Allergies can be fatal, and Lucas remembered Yang Ping¡¯s words. ¡°In the future, it¡¯s crucial to ask foreign individuals, especially those from Europe and America, in great detail and repeatedly about their allergy history.¡± After checking the room, Yang Ping warned all the doctors that Lucas¡¯s lesson was a bloody one. Taking that jar of American peanut butter, Graduate Student Xiao Luo, along with several other graduate students, used rigorous scientific attitudes and methods to study the difference between the two types of peanut butter and plan to write a paper for publication. The raw materials for American peanut butter are roasted peanuts made into butter. During the roasting process, amino acids in peanuts react with sugar, resulting in the American taste for peanuts. However, at the same time, the peanut protein carrying allergenic structures also reacts with sugar, leading to a significant increase in allergenic points. The more allergenic points, the more prone to allergic reactions they are. Compared to raw peanuts, these roasted peanuts have 90 times more allergenic capacity. In contrast, Chinese peanuts are cooked and fried, which not only doesn¡¯t increase allergenic points but rather reduces them, lowering the allergenic protein content from 71% to 29%. This clearly shows the significant difference between these two processing methods, with the former producing many allergens and the latter reducing them, essentially one producing toxins and the other eliminating them. To say American individuals are generally more prone to allergies than Chinese people is an understatement. Relative to Chinese individuals, it¡¯s safe to say they¡¯re absolutely an allergic constitution. They easily develop allergies from substances that Chinese people have no issues with. The final conclusion was similar to the assumptions: peanut butter with many allergenic points, combined with highly sensitive physiques, makes it difficult not to have allergic reactions. It seems that sometimes five thousand years of civilization have their advantages. Over a long history, many things have already been optimally selected and eliminated by our ancestors, leaving us always with the best. Sometimes, when you think about it, this pride is unique to us globally. The experimental data Lu Xiaolu sent a few days ago was on the desk, and Yang Ping was browsing through it. The latest phase of animal experiment results was excellent, and Yang Ping had been contemplating that the name ¡°K Virus Therapy¡± was indeed inappropriate, as it easily led to misunderstandings. Just like ¡°magnetic resonance¡± was previously called ¡°nuclear magnetic resonance,¡± having ¡°nuclear¡± in the name easily caused misunderstandings, making people think that undergoing magnetic resonance would expose them to nuclear radiation. In reality, magnetic resonance has no nuclear radiation at all, so the ¡°nuclear¡± was later removed, and it was called magnetic resonance directly. Tumor cell-targeted apoptotic protein complex, that¡¯s the new name Yang Ping gave it. He had considered it for a long time before but had not officially applied it. Now it starts to be officially applied, giving K Virus a new identity, and this treatment method is now called tumor cell-targeted apoptosis therapy. Sometimes, a high-sounding name is quite important; it can show off a certain elegance. And sometimes, elegance does serve a purpose. Lu Xiaolu also agreed with Yang Ping¡¯s renaming suggestion. From now on, whether in internal communication or in public papers, the novel K Virus Therapy would be called the tumor cell-targeted apoptotic protein complex. While browsing the experimental data, Lu Xiaolu called, saying that Principal Ding had suddenly fallen ill in prison and died despite rescue efforts; a tumor-caused pulmonary embolism was initially considered. Principal Ding had only one daughter, Ding Xinyu, so Lu Xiaolu took time off to handle Principal Ding¡¯s funeral affairs. ¡°Condolences! Go, and let us know if you need help at any time.¡± Yang Ping set down the phone and immediately notified Little Five, arranging for some flexible female students to go to Ding Xinyu¡¯s home. With such an incident, Lu Xiaolu would be busy with Principal Ding¡¯s funeral affairs, and Ding Xinyu would undoubtedly be deeply immersed in sorrow, needing someone to take care of her and the child. Yang Ping had previously heard from Lu Xiaolu that Principal Ding¡¯s illness had worsened, and he refused any treatment. He had once said his only worry was his silly daughter, but after seeing Lu Xiaolu and Ding Xinyu get married, Principal Ding said he had no more worries. He hoped that Lu Xiaolu and Ding Xinyu would live a straightforward and honest life in the future, never following in his footsteps, scheming for so-called wealth and status through unscrupulous means. What people often desire, the so-called wealth and rank, is nothing but fleeting smoke. Living happily according to one¡¯s own way and doing what one can contribute to society makes for a happy life. Principal Ding was a guilty person, from whom others kept their distance, but Lu Xiaolu had never left him. He would regularly bring Ding Xinyu to prison to visit Principal Ding, even though Principal Ding warned him not to come and to avoid suspicion. He understood the sentiment, knowing such actions might affect Lu Xiaolu¡¯s future. Friends once advised Lu Xiaolu he was on the brink of a promising future and should clearly distance himself from Principal Ding, and especially not marry Ding Xinyu, who had a child. But Lu Xiaolu refused all advice, firmly acting according to his own wishes. Lu Xiaolu said, ¡°In others¡¯ eyes, Principal Ding might be a sinner, but in my heart, no matter what he has done, he is my benefactor.¡± Lu Xiaolu also values sentiment and loyalty, leaving Yang Ping sighing. Guan Ruyan later went to the United States, and it was unknown what he encountered there. A fellow alumnus from Nandu Medical University saw him wandering, with serious mental disorders, no longer recognizing his former classmates. Sometimes, there¡¯s really no need; plotting meticulously and being too clever can lead to such an end. People, after all, should walk the righteous path. Chapter 1488: 1114: Humanoid Position Fixator Chapter 1488: Chapter 1114: Humanoid Position Fixator The emergence of the tumor cell-targeted apoptotic protein complex marked a new step forward in tumor treatment at Sanbo Hospital. Phase I animal experiments achieved success, and Phase II and Phase III animal experiments are scheduled. After animal trials, clinical trials will follow. If the treatment effect of this new protein complex can be stabilized, its application in the clinic is very probable, which is an exciting piece of news. With Sanbo Hospital currently developing at a high speed, Dean Xia felt a bit anxious. What he sees is not the present, but ten or twenty years later, and where the path of Sanbo Hospital should lead. He wants to lay a solid foundation for Sanbo Hospital now, allowing it to continue stable development and not be just a fleeting success. Recently, Dean Xia has been pondering how to establish a practical and effective system for Sanbo Hospital. After careful consideration, the upper-level leaders realized that Dean Xia¡¯s suggestion was very correct. A management system built solely on Dean Xia¡¯s personal ability is unstable, rising and falling with one individual, so to achieve stable development, a scientific management system must be established. Over the years, Dean Xia has focused on hospital management, summarizing his experiences. Then, due to Yang Ping¡¯s good personal relations with many top hospitals, he has inspected many top hospitals abroad, designing a system that fits China¡¯s national conditions. Although this system is a bit immature, Dean Xia feels relatively satisfied, believing that only a well-designed system can allow the hospital to develop stably. Dean Xia put this system into written form and submitted it to the responsible leaders of the Ministry of Health. After reviewing, the leaders frowned and said they would consider it carefully. This was not a small reform but a substantial overhaul of the hospital¡¯s management system, so caution is necessary. Hospital reform is good, but it must proceed step by step to avoid chaos. Sanbo Hospital had worked hard to become a world-class hospital and must not fall into disorder. As Yang Ping¡¯s academic status in the international arena continues to rise, his influence in many areas has also been continuously increasing. For example, in the field of tumor treatment, his current research might overturn the existing structure, dealing a devastating blow to the decades-long planning of some giants, so his personal security level has been continuously strengthened. The community where Yang Ping currently resides is an ordinary commercial housing community, and his and his family¡¯s security work has given the security department enormous pressure. Manager Qiu has been constantly reporting this issue to the upper levels. To strengthen security and not add trouble to Yang Ping¡¯s work, the upper levels ordered Sanbo Hospital to establish a small, specialized, enclosed staff community near the hospital in a suitable manner for easy management. Mr. Guo Jingyao¡¯s property next to the hospital had just opened for sale. Dean Xia thought about buying several of the adjacent commercial houses and forming a separate community for hospital staff. Mr. Guo, after hearing this, waved it off and said, ¡°Why buy? Donate! Donating money or donating a few buildings are both donations.¡± It happened that there were a few buildings next door that could form a separate community. They were somewhat distant from most of the property¡¯s other buildings, separated by a community park and an internal community road. According to Sanbo Hospital¡¯s requirements, Mr. Guo renovated these buildings, enclosing them into a closed community and donating them to Sanbo Hospital. After obtaining the buildings, the upper-level security department modified this community to meet security requirements and planned to move Yang Ping¡¯s entire family into this community. The property management company of this community is not an ordinary company but people from the security department. Those responsible for security are not ordinary security personnel but plainclothes armed police. Only then did the upper-level leaders feel at ease. Otherwise, Yang Ping residing in an ordinary community with mixed personnel, no matter how detailed the security work, inevitably had loopholes. Yang Ping was very grateful in his heart for these arrangements from the upper levels. While Yang Ping was performing surgery in the operating room, an urgent call came. The patrolling nurse answered the phone and immediately informed Yang Ping, ¡°Professor Yang, it¡¯s a call from Director He Xiangjun of the Thoracic Surgery Department, extremely urgent, rescue required.¡± This surgery was already at the closing stage, so Yang Ping stepped down from his position as chief surgeon, leaving Song Zimo and the graduate students to complete the closing work. The patrolling nurse pressed the wall phone¡¯s loudspeaker, and Yang Ping leaned closer, hearing Director He Xiangjun¡¯s voice inside. ¡°Professor Yang, it¡¯s the patient I previously mentioned, a patient with a massive mediastinal tumor. We were preparing to operate on him today, but as the patient was just brought to the operating room, even before anesthesia started, he suddenly experienced cardiac and respiratory arrest. We¡¯re now in the process of resuscitating him. The patient¡¯s condition is very special; could I trouble you to come over and take a look?¡± Director He Xiangjun succinctly reported the key points. Yang Ping glanced at the patient on the table and said, ¡°I¡¯ll be right over.¡± Upon hearing this line from the other end, the suspended heart finally settled, ¡°Okay, we¡¯re in the middle of resuscitation.¡± Yang Ping took off his surgical gown and hurriedly made his way to the surgical center. At this moment, a heart-stopping major rescue was underway in the thoracic surgery operating room, with Director He, the anesthesiologist, and other medical staff performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the patient. Moreover, the patient was not lying flat but in a special seated, lateral position. This posture is very rare and is not adopted unless absolutely necessary. Chapter 1489: 1114: Humanoid Position Fixator_2 Chapter 1489: Chapter 1114: Humanoid Position Fixator_2 The anesthesiologist just finished tracheal intubation, establishing mechanical ventilation. Director He personally participates in CPR, nurses are administering rescue medication, and two graduate students are jointly maintaining the patient¡¯s position. Other doctors and nurses are also busy, working in perfect coordination. Everyone is occupied, so they don¡¯t have time to report the case to Yang Ping; Yang Ping has to check it himself. The patient¡¯s chest CT is hanging on the viewing lamp. A huge mediastinal tumor, clearly malignant, has already eroded numerous surrounding organs. Director He has a decent skill level now and dares to be the chief surgeon for such surgery. ¡°The massive tumor is pressing against the heart; even before we started anesthesia, the heartbeat and respiration suddenly stopped.¡± Director He is sweating profusely, finally finding a small moment to speak to Yang Ping. ¡°Indeed rare, such a large mediastinal tumor.¡± Yang Ping squints slightly. After a tense round of CPR, the patient finally exhibits heartbeat and respiration. Director He breathes a sigh of relief: ¡°There we go! There we go!¡± ¡°Professor Yang, should we proceed with the surgery or not? Although CPR was successful, the vital signs are unstable and may arrest again at any time.¡± Director He approaches. Yang Ping crosses his arms over his chest, carefully examining the film: ¡°Case report!¡± Director He then remembers he was too busy earlier to report the case, swiftly extending his right hand: ¡°Case report!¡± Instantly, the case report is handed to Director He, who personally passes it to Yang Ping. Yang Ping flips through it page by page: ¡°Is everything here? Are there any test results not yet attached?¡± ¡°No, everything is here, fully synchronized with the electronic medical record,¡± the physician in charge answers for Director He. ¡°Such a gigantic mediastinal tumor, it¡¯s likely they¡¯ve tried many hospitals without anyone daring to operate?¡± Yang Ping asks while flipping through the case report. Director He nods: ¡°Yes, they¡¯ve toured the country, and no one dared perform surgery. Someone recommended the patient come here, and I said, let them come; I¡¯ll be the chief surgeon.¡± ¡°Courageous!¡± Yang Ping gives a thumbs up. Director He says embarrassedly, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have dared to step on stage if I hadn¡¯t confirmed you were at the hospital today. Initially, I thought I¡¯d go solo and bother you only if there were issues. I didn¡¯t expect to run into this mess before even starting.¡± ¡°How are the vital signs?¡± Director He chats with Yang Ping while keeping an eye on the patient¡¯s situation. The anesthesiologist answers: ¡°Old He, the vital signs are unstable, heart rate is irregular, blood pressure fluctuates, breathing is also erratic. The current condition can¡¯t withstand this surgery; should we transfer to ICU?¡± ¡°Is there a heartbeat and respiration?¡± Yang Ping casually turns around, staring at the monitor beside the operating table. ¡°Yes!¡± Professor Yang¡¯s aura is impressive; he remains calm in such a perilous situation, not even blinking. After observing the screen of the monitor showing changing numbers, Yang Ping turns around again, focusing on the CT films on the viewing lamp. ¡°If we don¡¯t operate, this massive tumor pressing on the heart can¡¯t be alleviated by even a 90-degree seated position; if sent back under these conditions, can there be any hope? Taking the risk of surgery offers a slim chance; sending back now means dragging them for three or four days, which won¡¯t work.¡± Director He immediately grasped Yang Ping¡¯s logic: ¡°There¡¯s hope with surgery, no hope at all sending them back to the ward without surgery?¡± ¡°Exactly!¡± Yang Ping affirms. A young doctor nearby tugs on Professor He¡¯s clothes, seemingly wanting to discreetly speak. The doctor is Doctor Xiao Wu from the department, well-regarded by Director He for his solid theory and practical level, also as an excellent writer, considered a valued talent. Director He wasn¡¯t sure about the urgency, stepping away a few steps, and the doctor signals for a chat outside the operating room. Director He follows him outside. ¡°Could it not be said here? Why the secrecy?¡± The two move outside the operating room. Doctor Xiao Wu says, ¡°Boss, this kind of patient might die on the operating table, and if that happens, others might think you¡¯re responsible. Now directly transferring to the ICU, dragging a few days then dying, wouldn¡¯t cause us trouble. You¡¯re at a peak upward path right now; why raise a fuss?¡± Director He is startled by calm-spoken Doctor Xiao Wu speaking so worldly today. ¡°So young and already so sophisticated? It¡¯s about human life now; is this the time to play mind games?¡± Director He softly scolds Xiao Wu. Xiao Wu¡¯s face flushes: ¡°Boss, I¡¯m thinking of your good; there¡¯s no need to take this risk right now. This troublesome patient and such issues before surgery, forcibly proceeding on stage, if anything occurs, would damage your reputation. If stepping away now, no one would say your skills are lacking, given no one nationwide dared to be the chief surgeon.¡± ¡°Xiao Wu, the patient trusts me this much, should I just give up?¡± Director He is clearly against this. Seeing Director He¡¯s insistence, Xiao Wu suggests: ¡°Why not bring Professor Yang on stage together? Success claims you, failure claims him; with his reputation, he covers you.¡± ¡°What are you thinking? Making Professor Yang what? Making me what? Next time don¡¯t say such words, Xiao Wu; as doctors, we should be straightforward. Just doing procedures correctly, fearing nothing else; if worried about this, worried about that, stop being a doctor, go sell pork instead.¡± Director He is angry. Damn it! Director He curses internally. If not for Xiao Wu¡¯s good intentions, he would¡¯ve kicked him; how could he be so calculative? After returning, Director He says, ¡°If there¡¯s a shred of hope, I believe we should risk surgery. Not doing so means missing the only life-saving opportunity for the patient, which I¡¯m unwilling to let go for personal self-interest.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± Yang Ping responds. Director He circles the operating table: ¡°This patient can¡¯t lay down; how do we operate?¡± ¡°Adapt to the situation; there are no set patterns for special cases. As long as it benefits the surgery, any position works; isn¡¯t the current one good?¡± Yang Ping believes special cases require special treatment methods. ¡°It¡¯s not well-fixed!¡± Following this thought process, Director He plans a positioning strategy and calls out: ¡°Bring a student with some strength and stamina, sit beside the operating table, push against the patient¡¯s back, fixing them so I can operate at the front. During surgery, the assistant uses wire to lift the tumor, preventing it from sinking and pressing on the heart.¡± Director He develops a clearer idea around this positioning. With Professor Yang nearby, he becomes bolder; what¡¯s there to fear? ¡°Xiao Zhang, come over; aren¡¯t you into weightlifting usually? Now¡¯s the time to put it to use.¡± The called Xiao Zhang, a graduate student, immediately feels timid; this isn¡¯t child¡¯s play. Very exhausting, pushing continuously for several surgery hours, without necessary swapping, in a stifling heat beneath a sterilized sheet. ¡°I can¡¯t...¡± Xiao Zhang blurts out. ¡°Young and already can¡¯t? Usually lifting so much it¡¯s useless; key moment just can¡¯t, lift and play ball, who can step forward.¡± Director He is impatient. A young, lean fellow volunteers: ¡°Director, I¡¯ll do it.¡± The young fellow looks vigorous despite his thin appearance, not at all frail: ¡°You sure?¡± ¡°What man isn¡¯t sure? At key moments, absolutely sure.¡± The young man asserts confidently. ¡°You¡¯re up! If unable, say so. Give him a nose oxygen tube, under sterile sheets it¡¯s easy to lack oxygen later. Patrolling nurse, keep remembering he¡¯s inside, ask periodically.¡± Director He immediately arranges. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± Director He inquires. The graduate student immediately says, ¡°I¡¯m Zuo Yaomen, newly rotating in the department.¡± As the graduate student speaks, he moves beside the patient. The patrolling nurse prepares a stool for him, where he sits and pushes against the patient¡¯s back with his palms, acting as a human position fixture for the surgery. Chapter 1490: 1115: The Importance of the Garrison Station Chapter 1490: Chapter 1115: The Importance of the Garrison Station The surgery commenced under this peculiar positioning. With Yang Ping overseeing, Director He felt very assured and decided to take on this world-class operation. The graduate student held up the patient¡¯s body, but the head couldn¡¯t be stabilized. The student couldn¡¯t free up their hands to secure the head, so another graduate student was brought in specifically to stabilize it. This way, the patient could maintain a 90-degree left leaning position to minimize the tumor¡¯s compression on the heart as much as possible. The student responsible for securing the head was the one who hesitated earlier, yet was brought in by Director He with eyes closed for the task. Had they known there was no escape, why hesitate to make excuses? With the help of the two graduate students, the patient¡¯s position was finally secured. ¡°Ice cap, bring an ice cap for the patient,¡± Director He called out standing straight. Now he felt a surge of confidence and bravery. ¡°For patients that others dare not admit, I, He Xiangjun, will admit; for surgeries others dare not conduct, I, He Xiangjun, will perform.¡± The team didn¡¯t understand why Director He required an ice cap, but they complied. Seeing their confusion, Director He explained his expertise, ¡°During the surgery, there might be insufficient blood supply to the brain. Using an ice cap to lower the temperature of the head reduces the brain¡¯s metabolism, thus lowering its oxygen demand to protect the brain and prevent hypoxic damage. Otherwise, even if the surgery succeeds, the patient may suffer severe brain damage, rendering the operation pointless.¡± ¡°Why exactly does the brain¡¯s blood supply become insufficient during the operation? Consider this your post-op assignment to analyze. Learning requires thinking, and patient conditions demand in-depth research.¡± Director He took the opportunity to present a task to the graduate students. How could one silently complete such a world-class operation without posing some profound questions, especially with so many graduate students gathered ¨C what kind of Department Director would that be? With the patient¡¯s positioning problem resolved, the nurse began to open infusion lines for the patient. After observation, the infusion line could only be inserted through a femoral vein puncture. The anesthesiologist used this line to administer blood pressure boosters and cardiac resuscitation medications, striving to maintain stable vital signs during the operation and help the patient survive the surgical period. However, whether this would work, even the anesthesiologist wasn¡¯t certain. Since the doctors decided to proceed as planned, he could only comply and offer his lifetime of learning. ¡°Can we call Dr. Liang over for technical support?¡± the anesthesiologist suddenly suggested to Yang Ping. Yang Ping calmly replied, ¡°Dr. Liang is currently busy and can¡¯t step away. This patient¡¯s airway is already secured, and the vital signs are stable for now. Don¡¯t be overly anxious; once the tumor is excised, the pressure will be relieved, and the risk will significantly decrease.¡± For Yang Ping, who had encountered numerous significant surgeries, this was nothing. He had previously performed a brainstem tumor excision on his mentor, Academician Feng Tiancheng. During the operation, the old academician experienced heart arrest several times, yet Yang Ping managed to pull him back from death¡¯s door. Compared to that operation, this one seemed like minor turbulence. However, for Director He and the anesthesiologist, this was a tidal wave capable of capsizing the ship at any moment. Director He now had Professor Yang in consultation, while the anesthesiologist was alone, causing his anxious heart to beat frantically. Though Director He appeared cheerful on the surface, he felt a bit nervous internally as the operating table began to get sterilized and prepared. Yang Ping was still at the view box examining the patient¡¯s CT scans. A nearby graduate student mimicked his stance, crossing his arms and standing by the view box, concentrating intently and slightly squinting as if studying the complex CT images. For the first time, this graduate student experienced how cool and impressive it felt to stare at CT images in this manner. The patient, Xu Songde, male, 30 years old, had been suffering for a year. His tumor had rapidly grown from a small pea-sized mass to a size of 60.1 cm x 54.6 cm x 48.2 cm within a year, an exceedingly rare and rapidly expanding mediastinal giant tumor. How large was it exactly? A nearby graduate student measured it with their arms, almost matching the size of a large washbasin, indeed comparable to those in use. The chest cavity¡¯s volume was still small ¨C no wonder so many organs were compressed by it. The current illness history documented in the medical record showed this patient had undergone three chemotherapy sessions at other hospitals, none of which were effective. Instead, the tumor grew rapidly after the chemotherapies. The enormous tumor exerted significant pressure on the nearby trachea, bronchi, heart, and major vessels. Compression of the trachea resulted in breathing difficulties, and pressure on the heart restricted its beating ¨C both were life-threatening. Since the onset of the disease, the patient had to maintain a nearly 90-degree leaning position to barely sustain their heartbeat and breathing. For 24 hours a day, every second had to be spent in this position, leaning the left side against the chair back or bed with piled blankets. Lying down was impossible ¨C once flat, the trachea and bronchi would be compressed, inhibiting oxygen intake and carbon dioxide expulsion. As the pressure limits heart expansion, it risks heart arrest at any time. Given this dire situation, surgery was the only treatment option. Surgery was required to relieve or eliminate the tumor¡¯s pressure on the surrounding organs, thereby alleviating or eradicating the present symptoms. Yet, the patient had visited various hospitals, where all doctors told him, ¡°If you undergo surgery, you surely won¡¯t leave the operating table; it means certain death. The colossal tumor lies at the center of the mediastinum in the chest. It has widely invaded and compressed the heart, major blood vessels, trachea, both lungs, left and right main bronchus, and other vital organs. Resection is impossible, and during the operation, these organs could easily be injured, impairing respiratory and cardiac functions, inducing cardiac and respiratory arrest. Even if you risk certain death to have surgery, there¡¯s no suitable position to complete the operation.¡± Chapter 1491 - 1115: The Importance of the Garrison Station - Part 2 Chapter 1491: Chapter 1115: The Importance of the Garrison Station - Part 2 When the patient was in despair, a doctor recommended Xu Songde to go to Sanbo Hospital, saying that Sanbo Hospital has been very famous in recent years and frequently performed top global surgical cases across various departments, so the thoracic surgery department definitely won¡¯t lag behind. Hearing this, the patient immediately decided to go to Sanbo Hospital. Indeed, as the patient was brought into the operating room, immediately after being transferred to the bed, they experienced a sudden cardiac and respiratory arrest. If it weren¡¯t for timely and effective rescue, there would be no chance for surgery now, so the doctors who were previously afraid to operate on the patient were correct in their judgment. Actually, the patient¡¯s situation is very straightforward. Even if the patient is immediately sent to the ICU now, relying on medication and various equipment can indeed sustain them for a few days, but unless the tumor ceasing to press on surrounding organs, no medication can solve the problem of mechanical pressure, therefore the patient won¡¯t survive a few days later. If the doctors take the risk and complete the surgery now, and if the patient can endure the surgery, their probability of survival will be significant. Pressure is the fundamental problem, and removing the tumor is the only way to solve the fundamental issue. The surgery began, Director He used the handle of the surgical knife to map out the exact center position of the sternum. This surgery must be performed using a fully opened median sternotomy approach, as only this approach can reveal such a massive tumor. "Anesthesiologist, I¡¯m starting the surgery!" On the surface, Director He was reminding the anesthesiologist to report the patient¡¯s current vital signs, but in fact, he was informing Professor Yang that he was really about to start, asking for assistance in keeping an eye on things. After the anesthesiologist reported the vital signs, they cautiously gazed at the monitor¡¯s screen. "I¡¯m officially starting the incision!" Director He repeated once. "Hmm! Go ahead!" Yang Ping responded. Upon hearing the response, Director He finally began to make the incision along the center of the chest, which he had measured dozens of times, making a long vertical cut at the sternum. After the skin was cut, the surgical knife was replaced with an electric knife. With the zizzling sound of the electric knife and the smell of burning human tissue spreading, the skin was already cut. "Electric saw! Open the chest!" For each step Director He called out the name, his voice loud and clear. Yang Ping was still analyzing the CT scan, facing the viewing lamp, with his back to the operating table. "Anesthesiologist, patient¡¯s vital signs?" The anesthesiologist immediately reported, "Stable." Yang Ping then turned around, facing the operating table, looking at the surgical area from a safe distance, signaling to proceed boldly with opening the chest: "Hurry up with the thoracotomy, finish quickly but stay calm, don¡¯t rush or panic." Director He immediately picked up the electric saw, and with a spray of blood mist, the sternum was sawed open from the midline into two halves. A deputy chief physician assisting nearby had tiny blood droplets all over his glasses, and he quickly turned away, and the patrolling nurse took off his glasses, wiped them clean, and put them back on. ¡¯Why not wear goggles?¡¯ Director He mumbled. "Chest opener!" Director He shouted. With the expansion of this chest opener, the split sternum was stretched apart, the chest cavity opened, revealing a massive tumor wrapped around the pericardium inside, covered with dense, winding blood vessels, blue veins bulging, red arteries pulsating, and because of the heartbeat, the huge tumor was also pulsating. The situation was more complicated than expected, and Director He¡¯s back was slightly damp. After entering the chest cavity, Director He immediately stitched several No.10 silk threads around the dense connective tissue areas surrounding the tumor. The ends of these threads were clamped with vascular clamps, and their function was to traction and suspend the tumor. The vascular clamps on the ends of the threads were handed to the assistant who used them to suspend the tumor. The traction force of the threads balanced with the tumor¡¯s gravity, preventing the tumor from continuing to press on the heart, organs, and left and right bronchi, thus avoiding severe threats to the patient¡¯s cardiopulmonary function posed by such pressure. Previously, Director He had performed many heart, lung and major vascular surgeries with Yang Ping, accumulating rich experience, and now these valuable experiences began to play a role. Despite facing such a complex tumor, Director He was understandably nervous and lacked confidence, but the surgical steps were clearly mapped out in his mind, knowing each advance, purpose, and precautions. After completing the suspension of the tumor, Director He started to insert a catheter into the internal jugular vein, connecting it to the femoral vein sheath, performing blood circulation in the superior and inferior vena cava systems to ensure normal blood return to the head, preventing insufficient or ischemic head blood vessels during surgery. This step is crucial, as without it, the patient could easily suffer brain ischemia during surgery, even if the operation is eventually successful, the brain could be damaged due to lack of blood and oxygen, potentially resulting in a vegetative state. The start was smooth, Director He turned to glance at Yang Ping next to him, receiving encouragement: "Just do it this way, stay steady, take it one step at a time." The entire surgery included two parts, resection and reconstruction, to excise the tumor and the invaded parts of the organs, then reconstruct the excised organs, all processes being extremely complex with significant scale, without sufficient surgical experience, it would be difficult to manage this complex high-risk surgery. For convenience of operation, Director He sat while performing the surgery, several assistants positioned on both sides to help, and due to the constraints of position and space, Director He¡¯s movements were very awkward, but there was no alternative, this type of surgery could only adjust to the position, and not the other way around. Next, Director He proceeded with exploration, after understanding the situation, he briefly stated the approximate surgical process, asking Yang Ping to verify if there were mistakes or omissions. Tumor excision, majority of the pericardial excision, ascending aorta sheath excision, aortic arch sheath resection, right innominate artery resection, right subclavian artery sheath excision, right common carotid artery sheath excision, left common carotid artery sheath excision, left subclavian artery sheath excision, superior vena cava resection, left and right innominate vein resections, left and right internal jugular vein cancer thrombus resection, blood clot removal, left upper lung anterior section resection, right upper anterior segment resection. The excision for this surgery included fifteen specific procedures, the sheer thought of which would make the average person¡¯s scalp tingle; in the past, Director He might have had trembling hands from nervousness, but now, he was no longer the same, tempered by various bloody battles alongside Professor Yang. After mentioning the fifteen excision procedures, Director He swallowed a mouthful of saliva and continued. Innominate vein to right atrium artificial blood vessel replacement reconstruction, right innominate vein to right atrium artificial blood vessel replacement surgery + artificial material pericardium reconstruction surgery... Finally after reporting the expected surgical names, Director He was constantly sweating on his forehead, occasionally turning to the nurse next to him for help to wipe it, fearing that Yang Ping wasn¡¯t paying attention to the surgery, constantly glancing at Yang Ping, feeling much more relieved seeing Yang Ping standing there all along. Initially, seeing such a complicated tumor, moreover in such an uncomfortable position, Director He¡¯s hand movements were very stiff, but as he continued, he became more accustomed, although still not daring to move too quickly, at least no longer stiff and trembling. "Why not, Professor Yang, wash up, gown up and sit here to rest, I¡¯ll feel more at ease." Director He squeezed out a smile as he said. Yang Ping thought it¡¯s reasonable too, in case anything goes wrong, he could immediately step onto the stage to save the situation. Standing below the stage wastes time in urgent situations since he would need to wash and gown up. Having a technically superb and experienced mentor to support the operation, doctors¡¯ surgical skills progress rapidly, whereas without such a guardian, their progress is much slower; this underscores the importance of such support.